Sunday 7 April 2013

WWE Wrestlemania 29 Preview

The 29th Wrestlemania will be taking place this evening at the MetLife Stadium in New Jersey. I found the last two Wrestlemanias to be slightly disappointing. However, with the way WWE have been with their PPVs so far this year, I am cautiously optimistic. Let's look at the card.

The Pre-Show match will be for The Intercontinental Championship as The Miz challenges Wade Barrett. This should be a good match if they get enough time and don't turn it into a clusterfuck. I would like Miz to win it but I think they will stay with Barrett for now.
Predicted Winner: Wade Barrett

We will see a inter-gender tag match as the team of Tons of Funk and The Funkadactyls take on Team Rhodes Scholars and the Bella Twins. This has the ability to be a decent match and I can see Tons of Funk winning. However, I really don't want that to happen so I'm going to for Rhodes Scholars/Bella Twins to win.
Predicted Winners: Rhodes Scholars and the Bella Twins

The Tag Team Championships will be defended as Team Hell No are challenged by the team of Dolph Ziggler and Big E Langston. I'm quite looking forward to this match as I quite excited to see Langston's WWE debut. I have a feeling that Team Rhodes Scholars will be the next Tag Team Champions so I think that Team Hell No will win.
Predicted Winners: Team Hell No

Ryback takes on Mark Henry in a modern version of a pissing contest. This could be a very interesting contest. It would be nice if Henry wins the match but Ryback seems to be Super Cena protection at the minute so I think he'll win.
Predicted Winner: Ryback

Chris Jericho  will take on Fandango  in what could be a good match. As long as Justin Roberts remembers to pronounce his name correctly, I think we will see Fandango be victorious in his Wrestlemania debut.
Predicted Winner: Fandango

The Shield will take on the WWE version of the Avengers: Randy Orton, Sheamus and The Big Show. While I have enjoying the Shield's success since they debuted, I can't see them winning. So, I'm going for Sheamus, Orton and Show to win.
Predicted Winners: Sheamus, Randy Orton and The Big Show

Brock Lesnar will face Triple H in a No Holds Barred match with the added stipulation that if Triple H loses, he must retire. This will be an extremely brutal contest but Triple H has to win this. He has to.
Predicted Winner: Triple H

The World Heavyweight Championship is on the line as Alberto Del Rio is challenged by Jack Swagger. I have been impressed with Swagger and Zeb Colter over the last few weeks but I can't see him being Champion although I think it could be done very well. I expect Del Rio to win but don't be surprised if you hear "I'm Here to Show the World" after the match.
Predicted Winner: Alberto Del Rio

CM Punk will be the 18th person to end The Streak with The Undertaker goes for 21-0. Even though I didn't like the match was set up, I think this has the possibility to be the match of the night and a contender of match of the year. CM Punk has come on so much since Money in the Bank 2011 and it would be great to see him end the streak. However, even though there will be times where you think Punk is going to win, he won't. Therefore, I'm going for The Undertaker to extend his streak.
Predicted Winner: The Undertaker

The main event will be Once Twice in a Lifetime as  John Cena challenges The Rock for the WWE Championship. This should be a good match as The Rock has improved over the last few months. I would love to see The Rock. However, it looks like that the WWE want to make 2013 The Year of Cena (yay) so I'm picking Cena to win.
Predicted Winner: John Cena

Due to work, I won't get to see the event for at least a week. I hope to publish an article on The Hall of Fame during the week along with my Lockdown review. Otherwise, I hope you enjoy the show.

WWE Elimination Chamber 2013 Review (2 down, 1 to go)

WWE Elimination Chamber took place on Sunday 17th February in New Orleans. Will the last PPV before Wrestlemania set the direction that it will be going? Let's take a (very belated) look.

The Pre-Show match is between Team Rhodes Scholars and Brodus Clay and Tensai. Rhodes Scholars work together to take down Tensai. However, a couple of minutes later Tensai manages to tag in Brodus. After a double headbutt then a double splash on Sandow, Brodus and Tensai win the match. The match was no more then four minutes long and it seemed fine.
Winners: Brodus Clay and Tensai
Predictions: 1for 1

The event starts with the World Heavyweight Championship match with Big Show challenging Alberto Del Rio. Show at the start of the match is very aggressive before Del Rio focuses his attack on Show's left knee. Other highlights of the match include Show hitting a Vader Bomb; Del Rio applying the Cross Armbreaker; 

and Show hitting a chokeslam for a 2 count. The end comes when Del Rio attempted to kick a bucket that Show had grabbed from Rodriguez into the side of his head with a running enziguiri. However, Del Rio slipped on the ropes and missed. So, they tried it again and it worked. Del Rio then applied the Cross Armbreaker and Show taps out. Except for the botched ending, it was an enjoyable match and I'm ok with Del Rio heading into Wrestlemania as Champion.
Winner: Alberto Del Rio
Predictions: 2 for 2

The next match is The Miz challenging Antonio Cesaro for the United States Championship. Cesaro focuses on the taped up shoulder of the Miz during the match and he gets to apply a submission on the arm. Miz fights out of it and hits a back body drop. Miz focuses his attack on Cesaro's knee and tries to apply the Figure Four when Cesaro kicks him in the leg. This results in Miz kneeing Cesaro in the groin and Cesaro acts like he's been shot and points to his groin. The referee then disqualifies The Miz. Wait, what? That's your ending? Really? Anyway, Miz decides to purposely kicks Cesaro in the groin. I'm a big fan of both Miz and Cesaro so I was looking forward to this match. I thought it was ok although I didn't like the ending and I've seen better matches between the two
Winner: Antonio Cesaro
Predictions: 3 for 3
The next match is the only Elimination Chamber match which is between Jack Swagger, Kane, Mark Henry, Randy Orton, Daniel Bryan and Chris Jericho. Bryan and Jericho start the match and they exchange submission holds. Jack Swagger is the first one out of the pods and goes after Jericho. Kane is the next man to come out and he and Bryan work together. However, that doesn't last long when Bryan rolls up Kane for a 2 count. Bryan attempts to hug it out but Kane isn't interested so they get into it. A few minutes later, Orton comes out and then Mark Henry. Henry hits a World's Strongest Slam to Bryan to eliminate him then eliminates Kane when he attempted a top rope clothesline. Henry caught him and hit him with the World's Strongest Slam.

Jericho and Swagger work together on Henry and hit him with a double suplex onto the steel grating outside the ring. Henry is eventually eliminated after a codebreaker from Jericho followed by a RKO by Orton. Understandably, Henry doesn't take that well and hit the remaining wrestlers with World's Strongest Slams. Booker T, Theodore Long and a bunch of referees manage to get him out of there. After 30 minutes, Orton countered a Lionsault by Jericho then hit him with a RKO to eliminate him. Immediately afterwards, Swagger rolls up Orton to win the match.

I thought this was a good match and I was surprised that Swagger won the match. It looks like he could be a good opponent for Del Rio heading into Wrestlemania.
Winner: Jack Swagger
Predictions: 3 for 4

Next is The Shield taking on the team of John Cena, Ryback and Sheamus. During the match, Cena applies the STF on Reigns, but it was broke up by Ambrose. The Shield focuses on Cena with a lot of quick tags. Cena eventually gets the hot tag to Ryback who hit a backdrop on Reigns and Ambrose and a powerbomb on Rollins. Some of the action goes to the outside and Reigns hits Sheamus with a spear which sent him through the security barrier. The Shield start to focus their attack on Ryback but Cena arrives to prevent it and hits Ambrose with an Attitude Adjustment. Ryback is about to hit Rollins with the Shellshocked when he gets hit by a spear. Rollins lands on top of Ryback to pin him and get the victory. This was another good match with an amazing ending. I was surprised that The Shield won but I'm glad they did.
Winners: The Shield
Predictions: 3 for 5

Dolph Ziggler comes out with AJ Lee and Big E Langston and complains that he is not on the show. Booker T comes out and decides that because Ziggler is wasting time, he will have a match after all as he is facing Kofi Kingston.

Dolph Ziggler takes on Kofi Kingston for what seems like the billionth time in the last year is next. Some of the highlights of the match were Kingston hitting the Trouble in Paradise; and Kingston doing a dive to the outside taking out Langston. Ziggler eventually gets the win with a Zig Zag. Even though it was short, it was a good match. Ziggler and Kingston always seem to work well but it would be nice to not see them wrestle each other for a few months.
Winner: Dolph Ziggler
Predictions: N/A
The penultimate match is for the Divas Championship as Kaitlyn is challenged by Tamina. Kaitlyn gets a couple of pin attempts with a roll up and a backslide. The action goes to the outside when Tamina throws Kaitlyn into the ring post. The end comes when Tamina takes decades going for the Superfly Splash and Kaitlyn moved out of the way. Kaitlyn then spears Tamina to get the win. The match was ok but they are never to get anymore than five minutes, which is a shame because, with a bit more time it could have been a good match.
Winner: Kaitlyn
Predictions: 4 for 6
The main event is for the WWE Championship as CM Punk gets his rematch against The Rock with the added stipulation that Punk will win the title if Rock is counted out or disqualified. Punk tries to get Rock disqualified early on by doing things like spitting in Rock's face. Punk starts to wear down Rock after he raked his eyes. After about ten minutes, the action goes to the outside and Punk bangs Rock's head into the English announce table. The action goes back into the ring and Punk countered a Rock Bottom into a roundhouse kick and then later on, Punk hit a Rock Bottom to Rock landing him on top of the Spanish announce table. Rock manages to get back in before the ten count. After a ref bump, Punk hit the GTS but there is no one to make the pin count. The doctor checks on Mike Choida and referee John Cone takes over. Rock hits a spinebuster then the People's Elbow but Punk kicks out at 2. Cone then twists his ankle and rolls out to the floor. Heyman holds Rock against the ropes and Punk attempts to hit him with the belt. Unfortunately, Rock moves and Punk hits Heyman. Rock then hits the Rock Bottom to get the win. I enjoyed this match but both of their matches had ended with way too many factors involved. It would have been nice to see a nice clean ending. Anyway, it looks like we are going to get Once Twice in a Lifetime with Cena and The Rock at Wrestlemania.
Winner: The Rock
Predictions: 5 for 7

I enjoyed the event. There were a lot of good matches such as the Chamber match. WWE have started 2013 with 2 good PPVs. The question is, can they continue that trend at Wrestlemania, especially as I found the last two Wrestlemanias quite disappointing.

Tuesday 2 April 2013

WWE Royal Rumble 2013 Review (1 down, 2 to go)

The Road to Wrestlemania began with the Royal Rumble which took place on Sunday 27th January in Phoenix, Arizona. Sorry that I have taking an age to do my reviews. I started a full time job which can involve me being away for aorund 16 hours a day. So here we go with the first of three reviews that I have to do before Wrestlemania XXXIX (no pressure then)

The Pre-Show match was between Antonio Cesaro and The Miz for the United States Championship.
Cesaro hit a nice tilt-a-whirl backbreaker after catching Miz in the air and then Cesaro hit a sit out slam for a two count. Cesaro hit more power moves like a gutwrench suplex and backbreaker for two counts. Miz made his comeback with the neckbreaker/backbreaker combo and Miz jumped off the top rope with a double axehandle, but he caught his knee on the mat. He was favoring his knee. Miz was able to keep the match going and he hit Cesaro in the face with a kick. Cesaro goes to the floor, Miz went after him and Cesaro threw him head first into the side of the ring where there was steel which the referee didn't see. Cesaro then rolled Miz into the ring and got the win. I thought it was a decent match to get people into buying the PPV.
Winner: Antonio Cesaro
Predictions: 1 for 1

The first match in the event is for the World Heavyweight Championship as The Big Show challenges Alberto Del Rio in a Last Man Standing match. Highlights of the match include Del Rio countering a powerbomb into a hurricanrana; Del Rio getting thrown through a table which resulted in a 9 count; Show crashing through the security wall; and Del Rio hitting Show repeatedly with a chair. The end came Del Rio doused Show with a fire extinguisher and then applied the cross armbreaker to him. While that was happening, Ricardo "Virgil" Rodriguez used duct tape (I'm fucking serious!) to tape up Show's legs to the bottom rope. The referee counted to ten and Del Rio wins the match. I enjoyed the match but I really didn't like the ending. Whilst it means another match between the two, I feel that it makes Del Rio look weak.
Winner: Alberto Del Rio
Predictions: 2 for 2

Next we get Matt Striker interview Dolph Ziggler in which he announces that he will be going in as number 1 in the Royal Rumble and then cash in his briefcase to win the World Heavyweight Championship as part of a plan to unify the World Championships at Wrestlemania. Yeah, good luck with that although I would seriously mark out if he does pull it off.


Next was the Tag Team Championships match with Team Rhodes Scholars challenging Team Hell No. The match begins with Bryan and Sandow with Bryan applying a surfboard submission in the corner. After a while, Rhodes Scholars started to isolate Bryan with Rhodes applying a half Boston crab and Sandow hit the Elbow of Disdain. Bryan eventually hit the hot tag to Kane after hitting a spike DDT to Rhodes. The end comes when Kane is hit with a double suplex. Bryan got in a blind tag and Kane hit a Chokeslam and afterwards Bryan applied the LeBell "Yes" "No" Lock to Sandow to get the win and retain the belts. I enjoyed the match and I was surprised that Team Hell No won as I thought they would go with the break up of the team. It looks like they are going in a different direction for now.
Winners: Team Hell No
Predictions: 2 for 3

Due to the fact that we're ending with the WWE Championship match, the Royal Rumble match is next. The number 1 entrant is Dolph Ziggler and number 2 is, shockingly, Chris Jericho. Cody Rhodes comes in at number 4, Kofi Kingston number 4 and Santino Marella is number 5. Santino doesn't last too long as Rhodes makes him the first to be eliminated. We get another surprise entrant as Goldust comes in at number 8 and goes after his brother and Sheamus, last year's winner, comes in at number 11. 

We now go to number 15 and Darren Young comes in. Kofi Kingston uses a head scissors to send Tensai out of the ring. Ziggler kicks Kofi and he lands on Tensai's back. Tensai throws Kofi onto the Spanish announcer's table, stranding him. Kofi saves himself from elimination by using JBL's chair to hop himself from the announcer's table to the the ring apron. Kofi eliminates Young however, Rhodes rewards Kofi's efforts by hitting him with the Disaster Kick to send Kofi to the floor, eliminating him.

We fast forward briefly to number 19 when my prediction John Cena comes out and quickly eliminates Slater and Rhodes and then Kane comes in at number 24, who is making a record 14th Rumble appearance and 
he eliminates Khali. Bryan (who came in at number 21) then eliminates Kane. Cesaro sends Bryan over the top rope and he is caught by Kane. Bryan pleads with him to put him back in the ring but Kane doesn't do that and Bryan is therefore, eliminated. 

The final two to come in are Sin Cara and Ryback and after Ziggler eliminates Jericho with a superkick, we are left with the final five of Ziggler, Cena, Orton, Sheamus and Ryback. Ryback eliminates Orton with a clothesline and Sheamus eliminates Ziggler after he had been in for over 50 minutes. Later on, Sheamus hit the White Noise on Ryback however, Sheamus went for the Brogue kick and Ryback ducked and eliminated Sheamus. We now are down to Cena and Ryback. Cena knocks out Ryback with a STF and tries to put him over the top rope. Ryback, however, fights back with a Thesz press and he then tries to powerslam Cena out of the ring. Cena manages to avoid elimination and he dumps Ryback out to win the Royal Rumble for the first time since 2008. 


I enjoyed this Rumble and, even though a lot of people are angry that Cena won and I'm a Cena hater, I'm actually ok with it. It would be nice to see the WWE Championship defended at the main event of Wrestlemania and with Cena, we will get to see that.

Winner: John Cena
Predictions: 3 for 4

The main event is for the WWE Championship as CM Punk defends it against The Rock. The match starts with them brawling right away and after a little bit when they were outside the ring, Punk starts to wear down The Rock by focusing on his ribs. Rock sees an opportunity after Punk injures his knee after a springboard dropkick.
Later on, Rock goes for the Rock Bottom but Punk elbows out of it and goes for the GTS and then he applies the Anaconda Vice, which is countered into a pin for 2. Rock applies his really bad version of the Sharpshooter and Punk gets out of it by getting to the ropes. The action goes to the outside and Rock tries for the Rock Bottom on to of the Spanish announcer's table but it collapses before he could do so so he did it to the floor instead. The action goes back to the ring and Punk hits Rock with a roundhouse kick to the head. Rock hits a leaping clothesline then a spinebuster and is about to go for the People's Elbow when the lights suddenly go out. When the lights go back on, the referee is down and The Rock is on top of a collasped announce table. Punk looks shocked about what has happened and he rolls Rock back into the ring and pins him to retain the WWE Championship...

...Or so Punk thinks because Vince McMahon comes out and declares that because The Shield attacked The Rock (which you didn't see so I'm guessing Vince saw something that we didn't) the title would be stripped away from Punk. However, Rock goes on the mic and says that he doesn't want it to end that way and convinces Vince to restart the match. Rock goes back into the ring where Punk hits the bulldog in the corner followed by a clothesline then a Macho Man elbow drop for a 2 count. Punk goes for the GTS but Rock gets out of it and hits the spinebuster followed by the People's Elbow to get the win and become WWE Champion for the first time in over ten and a half years. 


I really thought this was an good, exciting match and the chemistry between the two was very good. It was good the way they used the disqualification stipulation as you didn't see The Shield attack The Rock. I thought that The Rock was really good and it looked at times like he had never been away. As for Punk, I'm sad that his reign had ended but it was the first time that a Championship reign lasted over a year since the 380-day reign of John Cena in 2006-2007. Punk is a bigger star now and although I would love to see him with the WWE Championship again, he doesn't really need it.

Winner: The Rock
Predictions: 4 for 5

I thought this was a really good show. All the matches seem to work well, although I didn't like the way the World Heavyweight Championship ended. The Road to Wrestlemania is up and running and it should be a good ride.