Lance Storm's Mania recap

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WrestleMania Recap

April 14, 2009

Okay, sorry I’m so late getting this up, but it’s been busy and I just got back from a vacation in Hawaii. I’ll talk more about my vacation, and a few other topics later this week, but I need to take a look back at WrestleMania and see how my predictions turned out.

I did not fare all that well to be honest, but at least it was better than last year and a lot better than I originally feared after receiving a text from my buddy Carlo in Australia the night of the event. For the record before looking at this year, my accuracy rate going in was 58% with last year’s percentage an embarrassing 44%.

HHH – Randy Orton: This is the match that killed me. I went against my past instincts of picking Hunter and it bit me in the ass. I really figured it was Orton’s time and I guess WWE figured not quite yet. I haven’t seen the show but I’ve been told this match fell extremely flat and I have a theory I want to share here. I think with the McMahon family build, everyone (including me) was expecting the extended run ins and extra shenanigans that usually accompany any match involving Vince or Shane. With the McMahons returning on RAW I thought that guaranteed their involvement at Mania, which had the crowd sitting back and waiting for the run ins rather than caring about the match. This is the big problem with Table Matches. Everyone knows that nothing-important can happen until the tables come out and Table matches are always flat as hell until you pull the tables out. I think everyone was waiting to pop and care about the match until after everyone involved was out there, and the finish came before that so they never bothered to get into the match. HHH retains the title and I’m 0-1.

Edge – Cena – Big Show: Thankfully I got this one right. I was really just taking a shot in the dark here but I picked Cena to win, and he won the title pinning the Big Show. Got to say though that I hate when a guy wins the title and doesn’t pin the champ, especially a baby face champion. Horrible booking IMO, but I’m back up to 1-1, so I’m batting 500.

Miz & Morrison – The Colons: Some may accuse me of cheating here because technically I got this match wrong, but hear me out. I picked Miz and Morrison to win and the Colons ended up unifying the titles but this match was not on WrestleMania so I’m not going to count it, at all. These are WrestleMania predictions and this match was not on WrestleMania. I’m still 1-1. On a side note I think I’ve finally been topped for the biggest travesty of justice in getting bumped off WrestleMania. At Mania XIX, Kane, RVD, Chef Morley and I had our World Tag Team Title match bumped off the show, but these four guys were unifying both sets of WWE Tag Team Titles, which makes theirs and even bigger match than ours. That doesn’t even cover the fact that this was one of the longer and better built feuds on the card.

JBL – Rey Mysterio: Boy did I miss this one, but in my defense I’m blaming HHH. The only reason I picked JBL to retain was because I didn’t think they would switch every title on the show. I thought Rey should win this match and would have picked him had I thought Hunter would retain. If only I’d gone the other way in the Main, my percentage would be way higher. 1-2

Hardy – Hardy: Had I thought about this ahead of time, I’d have just predicted a Hardy victory then I’d be all but guaranteed of getting it right. Either way I picked Matt and Matt won so I’m back to 2-2. Interesting though that I picked Matt to win figuring you can’t put the baby face over at the start of a program, yet with Matt drafted to RAW the program might be over anyway. Go figure.

Undertaker – Shawn Michaels: I really want to claim my two points for this one. Not only did I get the winner right, I predicted match of the night, and not a single person I’ve spoken with thinks there was even a close second. Congrats to both guys for pulling out all the stops. I’m up to 3-2 and looking pretty good.

Money in the Bank: This match is always a tough one and I missed it by a mile. Even if I were given 2 picks, I still wouldn’t have gone with Punk. Really disappointed it wasn’t Christian, but what can you do. 3-3

25 Diva battle Royal: Okay I think I should get extra points for this match. I didn’t even know who all was in this thing and I still got the winner right. Granted Santino did not dress up as Cloudy, but he won the thing and I called it. I heard this was awful to watch and really feel bad for the girls getting shown so little respect on the show. 4-3

Chris Jericho – Legends: Well I did pretty much predict Flair and Rourke would be standing tall at the end, but I’m still calling this a miss. I figured for sure once this match became an elimination, or a gauntlet match, or whatever it was the Legends would pull it out in the end, which they didn’t. Jericho won straight up and aftermath aside I missed this one. 4-4

So there you have it with eliminating the Tag Title unification match from the show there were 8 matches and I got 4 of them right. I hit 50% this year, which will hurt my average but is at least an improvement from last year. So with scores of 63%, 63%, 44%, and 50% over the last 4 years, I’m now looking at a 55% accuracy rate. I’m not exactly the Amazing Kreskin but with MITB, Battle Royals, and 3-ways to deal with I’m not doing too badly.

Lance Storm

P.S. I hope to have another commentary up in a day or so talking about the HOF, ROH on HD Net and a story or two from Hawaii.

How can this guy be allowed to blog on his 'Mania Recap' when he admits himself that he hasn't even saw the show

That's what I was thinkin.

Thought he was going through all the matches then realised he was going through all his predictions!

What a toolkit

What I will say though is I'm impressed with the way he talks about why the fans didn't seem into the Main Event, its a pro wrestlers insight and to be fair he does seem to know what he is talking about