{"id":1788,"date":"2010-03-29T07:50:23","date_gmt":"2010-03-28T21:50:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/?p=1788"},"modified":"2010-03-29T20:47:07","modified_gmt":"2010-03-29T10:47:07","slug":"wrestlemania-xxvi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/?p=1788","title":{"rendered":"Wrestlemania XXVI"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’ll be updating this post later in the day as I’ll be at work and can’t watch the show live unfortunately.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"jerichotwitter\"
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

There’s no doubting that the WWE is a very different product nowadays than what it was in the Attitude era.\u00a0 PG-rated, banned chairshots, stoppages for bleeding in matches…its actually quite refreshing to see the product being a little less scummy for a change.\u00a0 And one change I think they’ve really built upon in the last few years is making Wrestlemania a really polished Superbowl style ambassador for the product as a whole.\u00a0 They’ve got a pretty successful formula now for the range of matches, which cover special attraction matches (Bret v Vince), gimmick matches (Money in the Bank) and title bouts.\u00a0 Like everyone else, I’m really looking forward to the two special attraction matches this year, Bret vs Vince and Taker vs Shawn II, but the card as a whole looks pretty good.<\/p>\n

Here’s a rundown with some predictions.<\/p>\n

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Womens Battle Royal<\/strong>
\nHopefully better than last years schmozzle where it wasn’t really clear who all the participants were.\u00a0 I’m picking Beth Phoenix for the win.<\/p>\n

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Randy Orton vs Cody Rhodes vs Ted Dibiase<\/strong>
\nThey kinda ballsed up the build to this feud.\u00a0 The two rookies, Rhodes and Dibiase, have generally looked like chumps and the crowd appear to firmly side with Orton even though he’s generally acted rather heel-ish throughout.\u00a0 I guess Orton goes over here and then everyone goes their own way from here?<\/p>\n

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Showmiz vs Morrison & R-Truth<\/strong>
\nBig Show looks so chuffed to be at Mania in that photo.\u00a0 All four participants have had a pretty good year, particularly Miz who I don’t think anyone really gave a shit about a couple of years ago.\u00a0 I think there’s more than ShowMiz can do with the belts against other teams so I’m hoping they retain.<\/p>\n

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CM Punk vs Rey Mysterio
\n<\/strong>Could actually be one of the better matches of the night if its given a bit of time.\u00a0 Punk is one of my favourites so I’ll definitely be rooting for him against Mysterio in this one.\u00a0 Bonus points if he wins via blatant cheating.\u00a0 No pointing have a stable with two followers if you’re not going to use them, right?<\/p>\n

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Triple H vs Sheamus
\n<\/strong>Rather unexpectedly, 2009 gave us Sheamus, the big pasty Irish guy, who has been booked more or less as Brock Lesnar 2K10, winning the World Heavyweight title in his first attempt, after only a couple of months on RAW.\u00a0 He’s also had some clean wins over the bigger stars in the company already.\u00a0 This match will probably give us a pretty big indication of whether the company continues to have him as a main event fixture or whether he’ll lose that momentum.\u00a0 A win isn’t essential here but it’ll be interesting to see how he fares.\u00a0 I’m calling a win for Triple H here personally.\u00a0 Generally a safe bet (although he does have a crap Mania record).<\/p>\n

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Money In the Bank
\n<\/strong>Don’t care who wins, really.\u00a0 Well, maybe cheering a bit for Swagger or Kofi.\u00a0 Just looking forward to the annual Shelton Benjamin Spotfest and I’m hoping Evan Bourne does a couple of moves for the highlight reel too.<\/p>\n

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DAVE Batista vs John Cena
\n<\/strong>Batista has been quite entertaining since he turned heel, having cut some pretty sweet promos on Cena.\u00a0 Also, their last bout a couple of years ago at Summerslam was pretty decent.\u00a0 Here’s hoping we get more of the same.\u00a0 I go with Cena getting the win here.<\/p>\n

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Bret Hart vs Vince McMahon
\n<\/strong>Twelve goddamn years in the making!\u00a0 The only way this can end is Bret sharpshootering Vince in the middle of the ring.\u00a0 Although if they do another screwjob on Bret it would be hilarious.<\/p>\n

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Chris Jericho vs Speary McSpear Spear
\n<\/strong>Its pretty sweet to see Jericho in the main event title bout at Wrestlemania as his last one years ago against Triple H was complete crap.\u00a0 Hopefully he can eek out a win here against Edge but I’m not holding my breath.<\/p>\n

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Undertaker vs Shawn Michaels II – Streak vs Career
\n<\/strong>They had one of the best matches in Mania history last year.\u00a0 This time they’re upping the stakes in the rematch with Shawn announcing that he’d retire if he didn’t break Undertaker’s undefeated streak (17-0 going in).\u00a0 Regardless of what happens, it should be a huge sendoff for two guys in the twilight of their career.\u00a0 Strangely enough, I find myself wanting Shawn to win but I’m pretty sure Taker will retire him here.\u00a0 Jim Ross twittered that this match will go on last.\u00a0 It’s gonna be amazing (hopefully).<\/p>\n

Final Verdict: <\/strong><\/em>Show was a little bit so-so.\u00a0 There was some rather blah matches that were too short or didn’t really have a whole lot too them (tag matches, Legacy match, divas) and Bret vs Vince was aaaaabsolutely beyond terrible.\u00a0 On the other hand Taker\/Shawn II really delivered, Jericho retained in a World title match, Punk\/Rey was fun and Money In The Bank gave us Kofi On Stilts.\u00a0 So overall, lets call it even.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’ll be updating this post later in the day as I’ll be at work and can’t watch the show live unfortunately. There’s no doubting that the WWE is a very different product nowadays than what it was in the Attitude era.\u00a0 PG-rated, banned chairshots, stoppages for bleeding in matches…its actually quite refreshing to see the …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[495,93],"class_list":["post-1788","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog","tag-wrestlemania","tag-wrestling"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1788","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1788"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1788\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1800,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1788\/revisions\/1800"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1788"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1788"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1788"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}