In just a few short weeks, the Road to Wrestlemania 29 will begin. Usually at this point each match will have been decided, and all storylines will work towards finalising these on TV. This is my look at the first of the three pay per views that will decide just who will be king of the mountain come the early hours of the 8th April 2013 (at least for us here in the UK).
Its guaranteed that Vince McMahon will have already noted who the Rumble winner will be this year. If you take the time to look at the news sites online, you'll have seen that John Cena is the rumoured winner, who will go on to take on the Rock for the WWE title in the Wrestlemania Main Event for that all important pass-the-torch moment. I have many gripes with this scenario.
Firstly, this would mean that the Rock would win the WWE title at the Royal Rumble by cleanly beating CM Punk. This is itself a travesty. Whilst I can understand that the Rock will no doubt bring in numerous ratings and buyrates, he isn't a constant performer anymore. Having the title put on him will be a slap in the face to those who actually generally deserve it. CM Punk would have been champion for around 430 days at the Rumble. This means that whoever beats him would have done what no-one has been able to do for the past 14+ months. If the Rock does beat him only to pass the title to Cena, who - in my honest opinion - is at the point where he doesn't need the title, this cheapens Punk's reign.
I'm all for a new champion (thank god the days of constant title changes appear to be behind us!) but it really should be someone else and more deserving. My choice would be either Dolph Ziggler or Daniel Bryan (who, along with CM Punk, are two of the best workers in the company) as they would benefit more from the victory, especially as they have the criteria to be the future for the company over the next few years.
At the moment, the current Wrestlemania card is as follows:
Sheamus vs Randy Orton for the World Heavyweight title
John Cena vs the Rock for the WWE title
Brock Lesnar vs HHH
CM Punk vs Undertaker
At present, the predictable booking seems to be in place. However, things can change - look at last year's Royal Rumble when Chris Jericho was booked to win until an hour before the pay per view started, as Vince McMahon realised that every fan in the world knew that was the finish so he stuck a different winner in. Current news reports state that they are looking to keeping the title on Punk until Mania, which would be the preferred fan option, however this is just rumour at this time.
Looking at the current rumoured Mania card, this would mean that Punk loses the title to the Rock & will not be involved in the main event, which would be a travesty given all that he has done over the past year. Whilst a Punk / Taker match would no doubt be a great match, we all know that he won't beat the streak. There are so many options available in order to keep the title with Punk & have him lose to a babyface in the Mania main event. Cena vs Punk doesn't do it for me (neither does Cena vs Rock), & I would rather have Cena take on Taker.
Please Vince, don't do what every fan knows you want to do & give Rock the title - that can be done after Mania if need be. Jericho came back & put himself in the title picture last year - he didn't need the title then & Rock doesn't need it now!
Aside from the WWE title, the World Heavyweight title seems to be going in a predictable fashion, with Sheamus rumoured to either be the champ going into Mania, or win it from Randy Orton in the opening bout. This leaves a question as to when one of these two will take the title off of Alberto Del Rio, who only won it a week ago - will it be at the Rumble or the Chamber? It seems that Del Rio's face turn is to begin with an interim championship reign. I think that putting the title on him was a master stroke, as it meant something due to Big Show being a super-dominant heel. The rumour is that Orton will turn heel & beat Del Rio. I'm all for that, as a heel Orton can do wonders with the over-loaded face stars they have. I would have loved a Daniel Bryan vs Dolph Ziggler match, but we can't always get what we want.
It will be interesting to see how the next two months plan out on Smackdown. Big Show will be involved at Mania, as they are looking to put him against Ryback - so am expecting some developments there. Hopefully, by the time the Elimination Chamber comes around, things will start getting finalised (I will do a blog about the Chamber at that time).
At present, the only 2 matches announced for the Rumble are the WWE title match and the Rumble itself. Now I'm a fan of the Rumble match. I used to love the unpredictability of it. But recently, its quite easy to determine who will win. With Cena rumoured for this year, he was actually the last entrant whose appearance at the 2008 Royal Rumble genuinely shocked me (he was ruled out for about 8 months due to injury, but made an appearance after 3 months). Aside from the odd legend or two, we can pretty much work out just who will win. I want there to be the good spots where midcarders fill the ring only for one main event star to clear house - Kane in 2001 springs to mind. The final few wrestlers in the ring should always be of the level where they could main event Mania. This is one of the best gimmick matches that the WWE has. Don't screw it up for the fans Vince!
The Road to Wrestlemania begins on the 27th January. I for one hope that come the end of Wrestlemania, the new breed of superstars will be taking over - as I plan to be at the 2015 Royal Rumble, I hope that will be the case!
