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2.26.2008

Fantasy Booking WrestleMania Style

This time last year, WrestleMania was completely booked with the exception of the Money in the Bank Ladder match.

So far there are four complete matches (ed: assuming you qualify the Big Show / Mayweather and the diva clusterfuck as "matches") and a partial fifth on a four hour show.

The following matches are posted on wwe.com.
  • WWE Championship: Cena vs. Triple H vs. Randy Orton
  • World Heavyweight Championship (streak vs. streak) Undertaker vs. Edge
  • Floyd "Money" Mayweather vs. Big Show
  • Money in the Bank ladder match: Jeff Hardy, Shelton Benjamin, Ken Kennedy (more entrants to come)
And The Playboy match will also take place in some form making it the fifth.

So I’m going to take the card and dump it and give you my own. We’ll start at the bottom of the card. Jerking the curtain would be a match for the unification of the tag titles. All the marketed and proven tag teams would be in the match so make it a tag team battle royal. V and Henry would come out with the gold because the monster tag teams are a good way to get a team over in the future.

Following the attention grabber and opening match and whatever between match fluffs we’ll get would be a match to decide an Intercontinental Champion. I know it won’t happen, but it should. In a match that would be decided by a tournament Santino Marella would make his Mania debut and wrestle Paul Burchill. What better way to get two guys over, and further both characters? Plus I want to see Gold on Santino again.

Continuing with the pace of the card we’d get the match we’ve been waiting for. We’ve been waiting for a long, long time and we should get it at Mania. MVP defending his US Championship against Matt Hardy, and seeing Hardy go over would be the best way to continue the feud and pull at least one more match out of it.

This would be the point where championships would be put on the back burner and we could get the Floyd Mayweather against Big Show. Show would go over in a boxing match because he’d hit a few shots to the top of the head, and then a choke slam. Whatever the E did after that would be bonus, or not, depends on what you think of the angle.

The next match would somewhat follow the Vince McMahon yearly match but not quite. JBL would take on Finlay in a No-DQ match. It would be a good match because it’s two old school solid workers. You add Vince, you get entertainment. You add a midget you get entertainment. Vince is a must have and the Hornswaggle angle isn’t going anywhere, so might as well interject that too. JBL would go over.

Following that match it’s time once again for a championship to be on the line. Chavo Guerrero would defend the ECW Championship against CM Punk and Shelton Benjamin with Benjamin getting the pin on Chavo. That way Punk can transition to “SmackDown!” in the Draft, and Shelton Benjamin could get a championship that he deserves.

I’m sorry, but no women’s match on my card. It’s WrestleMania and dammit I think it should revolve around wrestling. One night of the year should be tit-free, no, no it shouldn’t. Just don’t give them a match, give them a pre-show spot or a Mae Young-less promo.

Ric Flair would then put his career on the line. He wouldn’t do it against Shawn Michaels. He wouldn’t do it against Triple H. He wouldn’t do it against Hulk Hogan. He wouldn’t do it against anyone who had ever been a World Champion, or gotten a spot at the top of a “Raw” or “SmackDown!” card. He’d wrestle, and put over Elijah Burke, in what would probably be a classic.

Onto the next match, it’s now time for Money in the Bank. My money in the bank is a little different. It shouldn’t have 8, so I’ll keep it with the original 6 man format. Carlito vs. Tommy Dreamer vs. Kennedy vs. Umaga vs. Chris Jericho vs. Kane with Kennedy going over, just this time not getting injured and giving up the case. My next choice would be Umaga, but I don’t see that happening.

So it’s time for the World Championship main events. First would be the WWE Championship. Orton would be defending against Cena and Triple H of course, but it’d be a four corners match with Jeff Hardy. Nothing wrong with it in this scenario, it gives Hardy a rub of being a WrestleMania main. Orton would retain his title by pinning Triple H, but starting a feud between Cena and H and continuing a feud between Hardy and Orton.

In the final match and the true main event, Edge would defend his World Championship and his streak against The Undertaker and Undertaker’s streak. The match would be yet another great match because both guys know exactly what to do and when to do it. Taker’s streak would come to an end. Taker transcends streaks, and championships and lived through a bad biker gimmick, a loss here wouldn’t him.

Taker wouldn’t look weak, because my ideal finish would be Edge countering out of a last ride and hitting his Edge-cution DDT and getting the win. Edge is 5-0 in pinfall matches at WrestleMania and with at least ten years left in the Rated R Superstar’s tank now’s the time to give him the ball completely and make him the man.

My card is questionable because there is no title change in the main events, but at this point, there is no need for them. If there was to be a title change it would have to be in the WWE Championship match, but I don’t want Cena or H as champ, and I don’t see Hardy getting a win in WrestleMania main at this point.

Tha Results…
Tag Team Unification match-Big Daddy V and Mark Henry
Santino Marella def. Paul Burchill to win the IC title
Matt Hardy def. MVP to become the US Champ
JBL def. Finlay
Shelton Benjamin def. CM Punk and Chavo Guerrero to become ECW Champ
Elijah Burke def. Ric Flair
Kennedy wins Money in the Bank
Randy Orton def. John Cena, Triple H, and Jeff Hardy to retain the WWE title
Edge def. Undertaker to retain the World Heavyweight Championship


6 comments: on "Fantasy Booking WrestleMania Style"

D.J.B. said...

After finding out for sure tonight that The Rock was going to be at WrestleMania weekend inducting his dad and grandpa into the HoF, I want to add this match to my Mania booking.

Shawn Michaels vs. The Rock

I dont give a damn who goes over, I just want to see it.

Anonymous said...

Smark booking at its finest. Lol, I like the random spot of Jeff Hardy in the main. But love for the hometown boy is fine. I disagree on the choices, but I respect the reasoning behind them.

The tag team unification thing is a good idea. But I wouldn't unify them. I'd keep the SmackDown titles off ECW and as long as they're booked right, they're fine. There are too many tag teams getting over right now that they can't possibly make them all work. They start booking one team strong, then find another and forget about the last one. (See Cryme Tyme and The Highlanders.) Have 4 or 5 teams on each brand, book a heel team and a face team strong against jabronis, the other two strong-ish against jabronis, the first 2 a little stronger than the others, have them feud a while and have the others battle for the next title shot and have very short 2 month programs that change and intertwine frequently.(A little confusing to read but it makes sense.) But for your tag battle royal, use it to move Henry and Big Daddy V to Raw to beef up the tag division as the number one contenders and get the hodge podge teams the fuck out.

IC title? What's that? But seriously, you can't just strip Hardy. Unfortunately, it has to stay on him through 'Mania. However, I'd have him drafted to Smackdown and have him forfeit the title to the RAW brand. This keeps him over, away from the two huge babyfaces that will no doubt old him down and gets the belt off him without taking away any of his steam. Plus, "The non-Lita" Hardy Vs. Edge is just as money as Matt Hardy Vs. Edge. Just move Matt to ECW to keep Jeff as the only Hardy on the show.

Hardy/MVP is done in my eyes. Hardy would be better suited to just come back fresh to ECW for reasons mentioned above. I'd have MVP retain over Batista. There's really no room in the Main for him yet. Edge/Taker will take some time. After Edge/Taker is over, keep the belt on Edge. Have the Edge/Jeff Hardy program and then MVP can slide in there late this year.

JBL/Finlay is money either way. I'd prefer a No Contest ruling to keep the feud brewing after Mania.

I'd have Chavo over CM Punk with help from the Edgeheads to keep the La Familia strong, keep Punk strong and keep the heat between the two for Punk's draft to SmackDown.

I understand where you're coming from with the Burke thing, but I feel that to get the right rub and to be believable the guy has to be more over than Burke is. Kennedy, MVP, Hardy, even Shelton... but not Burke. He's great, but he's not there yet unfortunately. I think Michaels is a decent choice. Sure there's no rub but the match will be amazing and there's so much mutual respect that it's basically a thank you from the book to both guys.

MITB is better off with 6 rather than 8 guys. I'd do Hardy, Kennedy, Shelton, Y2J, Umaga and Elijah Burke. Realistically it could go to any of them. If Burke is booked strong enough going in he MIGHT be able to pull it off. Otherwise Kennedy for a second time in a row is fine and also more believable.

I'd love to see Orton retain. But Cena and Triple H are going to be the top guys. Period. I'd keep the title on Orton. The next night on Raw have a rematch that Kennedy runs in on Cena in to set up a Kennedy/Cena program and run a Triple H/Orton program. Wishful thinking that keeps the title off Cena and keeps him out of but close to the main event. WWE needs to learn that you don't need a belt to be over.

And the title change of the night, have Taker keep the streak. He's synonomous with the WWE, let him keep the one record that actually means something to people. And like Fatty mentioned in an article the guy has enough stroke in the company. He'll take the streak to retirement.

Anonymous said...

Fucking terrible. Stop writing!

D.J.B. said...

Mike, while I like some of your comments my only thing is Taker's streak.

When Kane said he was probably going to retire Taker came up with Kane ending Taker's streak. Kane said no, not Taker. I don't think Taker really cares, I may be wrong about him caring, but I don't see it as that big a deal.

Taker transcends everything. Give him cool music and a bad ass entrance the following week on "SmackDown!" he's still over. Taker doesn't need titles, he doesn't need streaks, he doesn't even need TV to be over. He's the damn Undertaker and that's enough.

Why not serve that purpose by putting over the one guy who has the potential to be the biggest heel the E has had in what 20 years. What better way to get heat for Edge? It may even get more sympathy love for Taker if Edge cheats to win at Mania.

As far as dude johnson...hey, you're back. Yay. Like the new nickname.

Anonymous said...

i dont care if Takers streak ends but i do think edge needs to stay champ.

kennedy needs to go over in money in the bank.

cena needs to die and orton needs to retain.

Anonymous said...

Great ideas DJB, I'd buy that I really like the tag unification, but I'd go with different winners simply because V won't wear a manzier. You do have a good point about them being great to build another team on though.

I'm not sure about Shelton getting the ECW title, I like Mike's idea. I can't see CM achieving anything more in ECW. Plus it'd tie in good with my MITB match.

Women's matches are pretty crap on TV and PPV but they're great in person and would really pump the crowd. Plus it gives me time to get more chips and stuff.

I still want to see streak vs career. Taker vs Flair. I don't believe Flair losing to Elijah will help Elijah at all. He's simply so far out of Ric's league it wouldn't work, it'd look bad for the E and would piss off too many people. Of course loosing to Shawn doesn't do anything for him either, but if he lost to somebody who was hot and always on the verge of making the main event and never quite getting there it'd work.

I'd rather see Umanga win the money in the bank and suddenly get a good heel manager who tricks him out of it resulting in a face turn for Umanga, who'd then go to ECW and get the title against current heel champ. Then Elijah could really shine in a fued against him both in the ring and outside. Kennedy winning again seems anti climatic.

Having Edge end UT's streak would be huge and very apropos. This would definately elevate Edge and solidify his career. (yeah I know I have taker in with flair, they're both good matches!)