2011 Pro Wrestling Thread

WWE is stuck between a rock and a hard place, IMO. There are zero appealing main event matches at this point. I can't think of a single big money match that will sell out the Georgia Dome. I wonder how many empty seats there will be/how many tickets they will have to give away to fill the stadium.

 

My thinking on the Rumble:

1. Undertaker comes out in the 20s, crowd goes wild. He cleans house, then .... Brock Lesnar appears and beats the heck out of Taker, setting up WM.

2. Final five comes down to Cena, HHH (another return!), Barrett, Punk and another member of Corre. Corre guy gets dumped by Hunter. Cena gets beat up, but then Hunter gets tossed by the double-team.

Barrett and Punk eye each other warily, but they decide to team up against Cena. Cena gets beaten up but as he's going over the top, he pulls Punk over instead. Punk remains at ringside all POed as the refs can't get him to leave. Cena's about to get Barrett out when Punk interferes somehow, causing Cena to get eliminated. Barrett's your winner.

 

Yeah but they've got two months to really pump up Mania. By the time the fireworks go off for that show, it'll be plenty interesting. At least I hope.

Right now my predictions for Mania are:

Main event 1: Randy Orton (C) vs. Chris Jericho
Main event 2: Edge (C) vs. Rey Mysterio vs. Alberto Del Rio
John Cena vs. CM Punk
HHH vs. Sheamus, No DQ
The Undertaker vs. Wade Barrett
Corre vs. the New Nexus
Money in the Bank: The Miz vs. Alex Riley vs. Kofi Kingston vs. Jack Swagger vs. Dolph Ziggler vs. Drew McIntyre vs. John Morrison vs. Ted Dibiase (With Miz saying that if he wins, he cashes it in that night and Riley there to help him).
Beth Phoenix, Natalya, Gail Kim vs. Laycool, Awesome Kong
Santino and Kozlov vs. Cody Rhodes and some other partner.

 

Taker vs. Lesnar would be an intriguing match for Mania but there's no way Dana White will let Brock in that match without him killing Taker and there's no way McMahon would let Taker in that match without having him keep his streak alive.

If Taker is going to lose at Mania, it's going to be to someone who will help the company long-term and I just don't see Lesnar doing the job when he's worked so hard to prove himself as more than just a wrestler in the UFC.

 

Unless Lesnar is just plain done with the UFC, I don't see Dana White letting him go back to wrestling. Doesn't he only have a pair of losses? I realize that life at the top of UFC is short, brutal and quick, but even that seems rough, to cut bait on a guy as friggin' huge as Lesnar. However, if Lesnar could get into a match for Mania, McMahon would be insane not to do it. When he was around, the guy was essentially Kurt Angle plus 100 extra pounds of explosiveness.

Booker T is rumored to be returning for the Rumble, which is kind of meh to me. He's yet another middle to upper middle card guy to me at this point. I think the number of guys who could have a big effect on buy numbers is pretty small, and they'd all be legitimately surprising for a variety of reasons - Lesnar, Angle, Sting, AJ Styles, RVD, Jeff Hardy, Samoa Joe, Mick Foley, etc. (In roughly that order.)

I think Cena wins the Rumble, mostly because I think The Miz will find a way to retain. It also wouldn't surprise me if the winner of the Rumble is someone who lost an earlier match - i.e. Orton or Miz coming in as a late entrant, or from the WHC match.

 

My WM predictions:

WWE title: Miz (C) vs. Cena
World title: Edge (C) vs. Barrett
Undertaker vs. Lesnar
Orton vs. Jericho
Corre vs. Punk/Nexus
Phoenix vs. Kong (LayCool in her corner)
HHH vs. Sheamus
MITB: Morrison, Riley, Kofi, Swagger, Kane, DiBiase, McIntyre, Rhodes.
Santino/Kozlov vs. Usos
Bryan vs. Ziggler (title for title)

 

Baron: Is Ziggler the IC champ? I thought he dropped that belt to chase Edge?

And there's no way they'd have a title-for-title match involving two belts steeped in tradition like the U.S. and IC belts.

My picks for tonight:
Miz retains
Edge retains
Del Rio does not win the Rumble. When has a wrestler who says it's his "destiny" to win the Rumble actually won it? Winner: I'm going with Wade Barrett.

 

My RR Final Four: Cena, Barrett, Punk, HHH (provided the rumors hold true and he makes his return tonight).

Sadly, despite the optimism on this board, I think we're going to get Super Cena and set up the eventual Cena/Miz title match at WM. This is one year where WWE isn't going to step out of the box and give someone a major push; instead, they'll play it safe and give the fans a short term boost at the expense of potential long term success. If Trips does come back, how he finishes will be a very huge indication as to whether he's ready to let the younger wrestlers step up a notch or his ego and lust to match Flair's 16 titles will take control.

The only thing guaranteed is Awesome Kong making her WWE debut tonight as the enforcer for LayCool, which would give the Divas division a much-needed jolt.

 

Cena, Barrett, Del Rio, Triple H (worst kept secret).

Then he'll have a title shot at Wrestlemania.

Because he's a McMahon.

What the hell happened to MVP?

 

He was future endeavored several weeks ago.

 

Here's a tag from wrestlingobserver.com. I no longer have a subscription, so I don't know the answer. Any guesses?

"Reports are the biggest non-WWE draw of the past five years in pro wrestling signs WWE deal "

Only name that comes to mind stateside is Kurt Angle. But knowing Meltzer, it could be someone from Japan or Mexico.

 

Sting?