The Official ILWWE Road to Wrestlemania 21 Thread

We were reminded of the Batista contract signing every two minutes
It looks like they're continuing the build to a Christy-Trish match that will surely kill the women's division once and for all when Christy wins that match (particularly if it's at Mania)
Orton/HBK beat Edge/Xtian in a damn good 20 minute match
Snitsky beat Shelton Benjamin by DQ in a rematch from last week and the match DID NOT SUCK!! Shelton got a good match out of Snitsky before snapping and blasting him with a chair.
Jericho beat Simon Dean
Hassan/Benoit confrontation, "I'm disrespected", "I'm going to shut you up once anc for all" followed by the beatdown and a match announced for next week

Batista signing -- after a backstage segment in which Big Dave overheard HHH admitting that he set up the JBL footage and the attempted vehicular assault (the eavesdropping was icing on the cake, but it was well done), everyone comes out for the big signing, Bisch:"Come to RAW", Long:"Come to Smackdown, playa", HHH:"Do what's right for you and for Evolution", Big Dave:"I've known what I was going to do for a long time" (big pop)(thumbs up)(frowns)(thumbs down)(rips HHH's head off with a lariat and powerbombs him through the table) "see you at Mania, beeyotch!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

The last scene was stretched out for about 15 minutes, but it had to be. And the payoff delivered.

Hopefully it's not all downhill from here. They've handled the Batista push almost perfectly so far. I can't see HHH and Batista doing a **** match at Mania, so they'd better book it right.

If the past is any indication, then we're in for six weeks of HHH making Big Dave his bitch on RAW. But if the past were any indication, then they would have blown the Batista push already just like they blew everyone's push over the last few years.

I'm feeling more and more embarrassed for Flair every Monday. This week was particularly bad. Send him with Orton to Smackdown to take on the Undertaker.

I fear the result of next week's Benoit/Hassan match.

The interview with Hassan in this month's RAW magazine is really good.

I think we can be happy that Flair/Foley will not be happening at Wrestlemania.

In retrospect, it's looking like the pre-NYR Batista-Benoit match completely killed Benoit, while pushing Big Dave into the stratosphere. Benoit's been midcard fodder ever since.

So yeah, I fear that match next week.

It's looking like Benoit and Jericho are tied up in a program with Hassan for Mania. I hope I'm wrong.

They finally got Hogan to agree to the Hall of Fame ceremony. That was inevitable.

Batista doing cookie-cutter face promos = not what got him over. They recovered a bit by having HHH chicken out of getting in the ring with him. Poor Flair.

Hassan blew 89982 moves in the match with Benoit, and I think they changed the finish on the fly. Still nothing on tap for Benoit at Mania.

Chris Masters still sucks. Odds they make Jericho try to carry this sack of shit at Mania = 3:1

Edge and Shawn had a great match, but why didn't Angle cost Shawn the match? Edge could use the win, and Shawn wouldn't have been hurt much by that sort of loss. Edge, welcome to the midcard. Next stop: Ultimate midcard match at Mania.

I was right, Benoit was supposed to job to the ring bell shot that wasn't.

And I now realize that Edge beating Shawn wouldn't have made sense, because the RAW main event is HHH, Batista, and nobody else. So, Edge can't move up the card by beating Shawn right now. Instead, Shawn looks stronger going into the dream match with Angle, while Edge will end up in the six way failed and de-pushed main eventers ladder match.

Jericho really ought to move to Smackdown.

On paper, it's a fantastic angle*, although I would have excluded WM22 in that 12-month period.

Amazing that Batista was so over that he still got cheered against Flair in Flair country. I still don't understand why they didn't hold off on that match for another week.

Lucky Benoit gets to job clean to HHH next week -- one year to the day after he beat HHH at WM XX. How far the mighty have fallen, etc. Also, this whole "HHH has NEVER beaten Benoit one-on-one" thing apparently doesn't include all of the year 2000.

* provided anybody but Kane wins

-- Michael Philip Philip Philip Philip Annoyman v1.0 (M_P_P_P_P_Annoyma...), March 8th, 2005 6:08 PM.

That will be happening a little sooner than you had figured. Like in about ten minutes.

Speaking of feeding people to others, it's make or break time next week for Hassan when he faces Shawn. If he wins, he's a player. If Shawn wins, welcome to Sunday Night Heat.

Then I remember that it's Shawn, and it's the WWE.

The correct finish is Hassan going over with Angle's help.

Does anyone else get the impression that the trip/steph braintrust will not be happy until hhh surpasses Flair's number of world titles?

I can see HHH winning one short of Flair's total in a sort of clumsy reverential gesture. And then waiting for him to die and winning 15 more.

Great showing from the ladder match guys, even though they were obviously playing it safe. This shows how awesome they all are. Except for Kane of course.

Why are they building a Batista vs Bischoff feud? Haven't we seen enough of Loner Champions vs Evil Owner/GM?

Last night on the LAW, they aired an interview with Trish where she basically said that Christy is useless and their match will suck. Side point: they aren't really going to make Trish look weak in an arm-wrestling contest, are they?

This would be upsetting if anybody actually took the women's division seriously.

Anyhow, not much happened in the last hour, Stence. Michaels v Hassan ended with an Angle run-in (they almost got the finish right re: my comment last week). Shawn looked pretty unmotivated during the match, but Hassan held up OK.

Batista v HHH "staredown"/"non-violent confrontation"/"debate" ended (obv.) in violence. HHH slapped him and then it was ON. But Batista delivered the sort of promo that he should have been giving all along, i.e. delivering killer one-liners with the relaxed voice of a cold-blooded killer.

-Shawn Michaels beats Kurt Angle clean after escaping the Ankle Lock three times (at least two by reversal or 'Christing Up'), then gives him the Sweet Chin Music with the ankle Kurt worked on the entire match and pins him easily.

-Kane wins the ladder match and challenges for the World Title the following night on RAW.

-Eddy Guerrero beats Rey Mysterio in a 6-minute match due to Chavo interference.

-Akebono beats the Big Show in the sumo match with the help of a returning Rikishi.

-Hulk Hogan wanders out to cut a promo on Mohammed Hassan, calling him some variation of "towelhead", then beats him up. Which results in a huge pop. Which will consequently result in Vince giving Hogan another year-long run as an unstoppable babyface main eventer.

-Christy defeats Trish despite blowing at least two moves.

-The Piper's Pit segment with Austin includes a "funny" segment featuring Mae Young and the Fabulous Moolah.

-Randy Orton beats the Undertaker clean.

-Cena beats JBL. If you're wondering why this is something I do not want to happen, you probably haven't had to watch a Cena match before.

-HHH beats Batista by hitting him with the sledgehammer after a ref bump.

Kane could challenge Batista on the next RAW PPV, maybe even stretching the feud into more than one PPV, therefore killing Batista dead in a matter of three months, thereby leading to HHH regaining the title by Summerslam.

All of the actual women's wrestlers blow at least two moves per match, so Christy will obviously blow more than two herself. She's even got Lita training her, so "blowing spots" must be part of her regular training regime.

OTOH, Orton should beat Taker clean.

Also, I don't get the "Angle is too hurt to have a great match with Shawn" talk (not here, but on other boards). Angle's had more protection in the last six months than Fort Knox. He only wrestles on big cards now. In 2003, his neck was hanging by a thread, he tore a hamstring 30 seconds into the match, and still put on a show with Brock who isn't as good a worker as Shawn. Angle can go when he needs to, and the match on Sunday won't disappoint.

He didn't beat the shit out of her, he just RKO'ed her. Besides solidifying him as a heel, in storyline terms it was supposed to signify that Orton was completely focused on beating Taker and was ridding himself of all other distractions.

I doubt that Orton will beat Taker, but I think they need to build this one and have Orton beat him at the next PPV.

For most feuds, that would make sense, but this one is entirely built upon Orton ending Taker's Mania streak. Beating him at another PPV won't a thing (of course, I wouldn't be the least bit shocked if that happens).

A consensus seems to be forming around Cena losing to JBL and winning the title at a Smackdown PPV. The argument is that you don't want to change both titles on the same show, and Batista HAS to win given the epic buildup.

There's some interesting commentary here, but he's also a crackhead.

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=dursin/050331&num=0

Eddie-Rey match of the night, do we think? Or Angle-Michaels?

Now I'm listening to Live Audio Wrestling and they're saying that it was a thumbs down show. They're nuts.

Cena-JBL was a total WTF match -- they've had JBL get the crap beat out of him in all his matches, only to cheat like nuts and somehow win in the end. And how did they pay off eight months of shit like that? By Cena getting literally no offense for ten minutes, then hitting the FU to win, no run-in's, no fighting off the Cabinet, no overcoming the odds, no cheating on JBL's behalf, no false finishes, nothing. Bleh.

HHH probably got too much offense in his match as well, but chalk that up to having a 22 minute match instead of a 12 or 13 minute match (which would have been better suited to Batista's talents at present)(yeah, everyone said that months ago, and what do you know, they were right)

they messed up several moves too. one they seemed to have missed twice in a row.