WrestleMania 25 This Sunday, Raw, Smackdown Thoughts, WWE 24/7, & More

Welcome to the “Super Bowl is approaching, WrestleMania 25 is this Sunday night” edition of The Wrestling List. I’ll send out a special edition List later in the week which will be my annual favorites of WrestleMania List where I rank my WrestleMania moments.

Vince McMahon spoke to The Hollywood Reporter last week and his comments stirred up a lot of people. His comments about TNA and the limits they push is just laughable compared to the stuff he has done in the recent past. TNA has also responded to some of his comments. He was asked if he sees TNA as competition and said: "My concern with TNA is not in terms of competition. My concern with TNA is that they are TV-14, and we are PG. They have to change with the times. I think some of the things they do on television are reprehensible, but it is a TV-14 rating. That's the only bone I have to pick with them. Their TV ratings are a fraction of ours." The reporter followed up by asking him about the Triple H/Orton segment where he broke into Orton’s house with a sledgehammer and asked why that was ok? “Right. What we try to do in situations like that is use things that you can't find around the house. You will never see us use a baseball bat. You don't find folding metal chairs around the house. We are very selective. You can go up to the line. It's storytelling; that's how our business thrives. If you have well-defined characters and put them in the right story line against other characters, people care about their welfare.” Vince was also asked if UFC and MMA had an effect on WWE’s business and he responded with: "Most people thought at one point that we would be competitors. But it turns out they are not competition to us at all, or hardly at all. They are sport, we are entertainment; it's a huge difference. The revenue they have cut into is that of boxing."
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/features/interviews_profiles/e3i4f087b1aeac6f008ce7e043061b71c40

TNA’s Dixie Carter has fired back at Vince’s comments about the company to SunSport in the UK and I LOVE her comeback. “I think it’s wonderful that Vince watches TNA iMPACT. And I agree with him that things such as the brutal beating of a sixty-year-old man, a vicious home invasion and gratuitous man-on-woman violence can be seen as reprehensible – and that’s just the last three Monday nights.”

On to Friday Night Smackdown. Great segment to close the show. Druids made their way to the ring followed by someone dressed in all white. He did the whole Undertaker entrance even bringing up the lights and then walked in the ring. He took his hat off and it was Shawn Michaels with a big smile on his face. It reminded me of the Raw from their 1997-1998 feud when he was dressed as The Undertaker and then took his stuff off to reveal himself as the DX music played. Anyway, back to Smackdown, tons of fog going in the ring as the druids stood around it. He quoted scripture with how different that they were with him being light and Undertaker being the dark. He said that they had been criticized and praised in their careers but that was their only simliarities. He called Undertaker the greatest form of evil walking in the shadows while Shawn walks in the spotlight. Shawn pointed out how Undertaker strikes fear in opponents but yet he was standing right there. Music and fog start up again but then Shawn’s music starts to play as he starts dancing. Undertaker then comes up through the ring trying to grab a hold of Shawn as he tries to get away. Undertaker gets the choke on Shawn and raises him for the slam but Shawn gets near the ropes. He is able to escape over it to the floor. Shawn dances and laughs all the way to the back as Undertaker looks annoyed in the ring. Other action on the show had Matt Hardy defeating R Truth with the twist of fate. There were a couple promos that aired of Jeff and Matt where they talked about each other and their match. Well done segments. The Colons and Brie Bella were able to defeat Miz, Morrison, and Nikki Bella. Brie took Nikki out of the action and then Carlito pinned Morrison with the backstabber. Maryse defended the Divas title against Michelle McCool. The match was stopped later on into it when Gail Kim made her TV return taking out both women and making her claim to wanting the gold. Rey Mysterio defeated Chavo with the 619 and splash. JBL attacked Rey after the match with a big foot to the face. Kane, Christian, Shelton, and Finlay defeated the team of Punk, MVP, Kofi, and Henry when Kane pinned Punk with the chokeslam. Big Show won a squash match on Jesse and Festus. John Cena did a promo in the ring hyping his match at WrestleMania and why he did what he did to get it.

Tonight’s Raw was a very enjoyable show. The last segment was really good. Randy Orton walked to the ring for his WrestleMania statement. He played clips of his history with Triple H and gave his explanations on why things had happened. He talked of the big moment of winning his first WWE title and how his mentor turned on him in a jealous rage. Orton talked of how he waited to form his group and watched Triple H grow more powerful. He wanted to find something that meant so much to Triple H and that was his family talking about the McMahons. One thing that he mentioned that I loved was that he said he knew what he was doing all along and said it had nothing to do with the IED. That makes it much better as a heel with him saying that he was in control the whole time. Orton talked of how he had went to Vickie and eliminated the sledgehammer from WrestleMania. If Triple H gets DQ’d or even counted out, he loses the title. Triple H isn’t even allowed to bring the sledgehammer or he is DQ’d. A limo then arrived and the camera later showed all doors of it open with the limo empty. Orton yelled for Cody and Dibiase along with all the extra security. Vince McMahon’s music hit and he walked out on the stage. The same for Shane McMahon. Then, Triple H walked out. All three of them stood on the ramp in a major face off with Legacy. It was quite the visual. The three of them went to the ring and took out security along the way. Legacy jumped out of the ring and the fight was on. Triple H and Orton were going at it as the show went off the air. Another great segment on the show was the Shawn Michaels/Undertaker segment. Shawn had a funeral set up in the ring. Shawn put over how Undertaker had never beaten him and how he took it as a personal insult that Undertaker didn’t think he could beat him. Shawn said he would end the streak on Sunday and the lights went out with the bell tolling. You could hear the lid shut in the casket when the lights went out. The lights came back on and Undertaker was standing in the ring. No Shawn to be found. Undertaker destroyed the set and then paused looking back at the casket. He opened it but there was no Shawn. As Undertaker turned frustrated, Shawn slid out from underneath it and superkicked Undertaker when he turned around. Shawn then talked all kinds of trash and walked out of there. Great stuff. The Big Show got a win on John Cena when Cena hurt his back trying to lift Show. Show then landed the chokeslam for the win. Edge made his way out and slid in the ring. Show turned to see him and then Edge went and attacked Cena. Chris Jericho defeated Jerry Lawler. After the match, Jericho mocked Lawler and picked him up. Lawler punched him and Jericho bailed out. He got on the mic making promises of what he was going to do on Sunday. Rey Mysterio got a clean win on JBL with a 619 and splash. There was an 18 diva tag team match and the faces won over the heels when Tiffany got a quick surprising win. Afterwards, Santino came to the ring and revealed his mankini. He was continuing to try and get in the divas battle royal. The divas then dumped him out of the ring. It was funny. Kane won a battle royal which featured all of the MITB participants. Punk landed on the apron and was able to hang on. Kane then threw Christian at him and eliminated both of them for the win.
Other notes from Raw. Curious as to what happened after the show went off the air? Orton and Dibiase got out of there. Cody ended up getting beaten down by Triple H, Vince, and Shane with Triple H finishing him off with the sledgehammer. They then posed for the crowd. It really is like 1997 again with Shawn continuing to outsmart The Undertaker. I liked the touch of the pics of their 1997 feud in the ring. One was the pic of when Shawn BLASTED Undertaker with a chair. I still remember how nasty that chairshot was!! The other was Shawn pinning Undertaker in the first ever Cell match. How about the blast from the past with Santino saying that he went to WWE president Jack Tunney??!! Santino was definitely hilarious tonight with his mankini dancing. I definitely don’t need the reminder of WrestleMania 11. My least favorite WrestleMania ever. Nice to see the Austin music video again. It is really well produced. I’m liking that new Legacy t-shirt.

WWE has set up a survey asking wrestling fans why they didn’t go see 12 Rounds. The movie made only $5.3 million in its opening weekend opening near the bottom of the top 10. They have a list of questions on the survey and one of them gives a list of reasons of why they didn’t see the movie. They don’t have my reason listed so I’ll just go ahead and give my point of view. WWE overpromotes these movies insanely. There have been several of their movies where I think that I wouldn’t mind seeing it. When you get beaten over the head about the WWE movies with the same promos for the movie on EVERY WWE show, it gets old fast. I’m so sick of the movies by the time it is released just based on the way too many promos for it.

WWE 24/7 has a new logo to go with the new name, WWE Classics On Demand, which I’m not really crazy about upon first impressions. Yeah, I’m still calling it WWE 24/7. The only way that I’ve seen the new logo is on the promo for next month’s programming. I have yet to see it in the corner of the screen on regular programming on the service. I am wondering if it is going to be really huge and distracting up there. Another major change on WWE 24/7 that I do not like and has gotten many subscribers fired up. You may remember that on some of the syndicated WWE programming over the years that the show would go to black and white if there was blood being shown. Well, it appears that WWE is now doing that with WWE 24/7. I have seen them do that with some programs that I have watched. I have not seen this particular change but there is talk that parts of WrestleMania X-7 which is airing on WWE 24/7 has some black and white edits due to blood. Ok, that is going to get old really fast!!!! I get that they are trying to go more PG rated but, for goodness sakes, just put a disclaimer on the beginning of it if you are that concerned about it. WWE is going to have to be careful on this editing of the shows cause I’ve seen many subscribers getting annoyed over it and they may lose some subscribers over it. No chance that they’re losing me though!!!!! Ha ha. It’s the best $7.99 that I spend on entertainment every month!!

WWE Axxess will no doubt be a major attraction on WrestleMania weekend. I would love to go to that!! Lots of autograph signings going on so you can meet your favorite superstars. Interesting that a lot of superstars are scheduled for autograph signings during the Hall Of Fame ceremony. I’m sure that isn’t going well with those stars that are going to miss the ceremony.

The WWE Hall Of Fame will take place this Saturday night. I expect that part of it will air on WWE.com as it has in years past. They only air a little of it there though. The USA special will come on at 9pm central time. It will be a VERY condensed version of a few of the inductions. Expect Austin’s induction to be cut down big time. If you want to see the major portion of the show, you’re going to have to buy the DVD. Going into this year’s Hall Of Fame will be Stone Cold Steve Austin (no word on induction but I’ve heard rumblings of someone so I’ll leave the surprise), Ricky Steamboat (inducted by Ric Flair), Terry and Dory Funk Jr. (inducted by Dusty Rhodes), Cowboy Bill Watts (inducted by Jim Ross), The Von Erichs (inducted by Michael Hayes), Koko B. Ware (inducted by The Honky Tonk Man), and Howard Finkel (inducted by Mean Gene Okerlund).

Here is the lineup for WrestleMania 25 which will air this Sunday night from 6-10pm central time from Reliant Stadium in Houston, TX. WWE Champion Triple H defends against Randy Orton. World Champion Edge defends against John Cena and The Big Show. Jeff Hardy vs. Matt Hardy in an extreme rules match. Shawn Michaels vs. The Undertaker. Tag Team title unification match with WWE Tag Team Champions, The Colons vs. World Tag Team Champions, Miz and Morrison. Money In The Bank Ladder Match: CM Punk vs. Christian vs. Finlay vs. Mark Henry vs. Kane vs. Kofi Kingston vs. MVP vs. Shelton Benjamin. Intercontinental Champion JBL defends against Rey Mysterio. Chris Jericho vs. Ricky Steamboat, Rowdy Roddy Piper, and Jimmy Snuka with Ric Flair in their corner. 25 Diva Battle Royal which will crown the first ever Miss WrestleMania which will include Mickie James, Melina, Maria, Kelly Kelly, Alicia Fox, The Bella Twins, Maryse, Michelle McCool, Gail Kim, Katie Lea Burchill, Layla, Eve, Beth Phoenix, Natalya, Tiffany, Jillian Hall, Rosa Mendes, and legends from the past. Kid Rock will be performing as well. Have I mentioned that Michael is going??!!! Yep, we’ll have to work on him to do a live report of his experience. Have fun and take it in for all of us who are very jealous!!!

I’ll be back later in the week with my WrestleMania moments special edition List. Talk to you then!! Take care and God bless!!