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Hello all, I’d like to welcome you to my column – “Walking the Aisle”. For this go around, I’ve decided to look inside WrestleMania as we approach the 25th edition of the “Super Bowl of Professional Wrestling”. Instead of sitting down and writing up a fantasy card or sharing my predictions, I thought it’d be cool to compare this year’s card with the past four WrestleManias to see if, or should I say, how many, threads of commonality can be found. I think you’ll be somewhat amused and definitely interested. I’d love to hear what you think, so feel free to email me at ncat8531@postoffice.uri.edu. Until then, sit back, relax, and check out the “Sabermetrics of Mania”.
Carlito/Primo vs. Miz/Morrison (Unified Tag Team Championship Lumberjack Match): This happens to be one of the matches I’m most looking forward to and on the outside looking in, it seems to be somewhat unique for recent WrestleManias. It is indeed only the second tag team championship match held over the past five years, with the other being at WM XXII between Kane/The Big Show and Carlito/Masters. But, looking deeper into the match you’ll find a link to past events – the Lumberjack stipulation. Thanks to the announcement by Teddy Long on ECW making this a Lumberjack Match, this will represent the third straight year Mania has either had a Lumberjack or Lumberjill contest. On a side note, it’s kind of sad to see Carlito in the same spot after three or four years. Moving on…
Chris Jericho vs. The Legends: This is what I call a Wrestlemania tradition, “The Sideshow Match”. Yes, this might’ve not been the original plan for the artist formerly known as Y2J, but it does fit in with the past sideshows nicely. So lets list ‘em, some worked, some didn’t, you decide: Akebono vs. The Big Show in a Sumo match at XXI, Boogeyman’s handicap match vs. Booker and Sharmell at XXII, Hair vs. Hair between Trump and McMahon (Lashley vs. Umaga at XXIII), and last year’s Big Show/Mayweather showdown.
25 Diva Battle Royal: When looking at women’s matches over the years, it’s a title match, filler match, or both. We start out with the Trish Stratus vs. Very Green Christy Hemme at XXI for the belt. At Mania XXII we had both, first a title match between Mickie James and Trish Stratus, then an eye-pleasing mind numbing Playboy Pillow fight between Torrie Wilson and Candice Michelle. At XXIII Vince and the creative team combined the Lumberjack/Jill rule and the women’s title match for Melina vs. Ashley. Finally, last year, it seemed to be a can you top this competition because we were presented with the, drum roll please…. “Playboy Bunnymania Lumberjack Match” between Beth Phoenix/Melina and Maria/Ashley. Yes, that was the actual name of the match.
Money in the Bank (Finlay, Kane, MVP, Benjamin, Kofi, Christian, Henry, Punk): Now this is more a staple, than paint by numbers situation, so I won’t get upset over the repetition of the match. I also won’t ever discourage it, as it’s one of my favorites year in and year out. But can we get some new blood involved? When looking at the participants of this year’s MITB and the past four installments, it’s ridiculous how many repeat performers we have. At WM XXV we’ll have newcomers Kofi Kingston and Mark Henry, which is nice. However, let’s look at the others shall we? Leading off we’ll have Christian, Kane and MVP trying for the briefcase for a second time in their WWE careers. Bank veterans Finlay and CM Punk have three appearances to their credit, and yes, this is Punk’s third consecutive trip. But nobody, and I mean NOBODY, tops Shelton Benjamin. This will be Shelton’s fourth Money in the Bank match at Wrestlemania, which leads me to push the idea of naming it the “Shelton Benjamin Invitational Ladder Match” at Mania XXVI. If you look deeper you’ll find that Benjamin, Kane, and Christian bookend this common WrestleMania trait, being in the first and most recent edition. By the way, has their spot changed much within the WWE landscape over that time? Hmm…Next!
HBK vs. Undertaker: Obvious. 16-0, still running…Juiced to see it.
Hardy vs. Hardy (Extreme Rules): At first, this would’ve been your normal brother vs. brother battle making you recall the days of Owen vs. Bret. However, much like the tag match, things changed when the stipulation was added. In three out of the last four Manias, we’ve had some variation of the Hardcore Rules Match. At XXII it was the memorable Edge vs. Foley straight up hardcore match. Unfortunately a potential string was broken when the only thing that could be seen as hardcore about XXIII was Money in the Bank. Maybe the writers figured the Khali vs. Kane match was going to be brutal enough to witness (rim shot)…But, have no fear, because in XXIV we began the new streak with Finaly and JBL’s Belfast Brawl.
JBL vs. Mysterio (IC): Now this might be your one outlier. This will be the first time in a long time that the IC title has been defended at the biggest show of the year and I’m glad about that…Just wish it was Punk vs. Mysterio.
Cena vs. Big Show vs. Edge (World Heavyweight Title): Even though I didn’t quite realize it, a triple threat heavyweight title match has become another usual occurrence at WrestleMania. On the heels of Mysterio/Angle/Orton at XXII and Orton/HHH/Cena last year, this will mark the third time in four years this one time novelty has gone down.
HHH vs. Orton (WWE Title): This is one of my favorites, dubbed, the HHH rule. This will be the fourth time in the past five years that HHH has wrestled for a heavyweight title at WrestleMania. The only year he didn’t, he was inactive due to injury (WM XIII). This rule does go farther back, but I’m not one of the HHH bashers out there. Let’s give him credit where it’s due, he has lost his three prior championship shots.
So, when you look really in depth at the numbers of match-up’s, scenarios, and stipulations, it seems that there’s a reason that WrestleMania has lagged in “freshness” lately…WrestleMania is quickly becoming “Groundhog Day” in format. Since WrestleMania XXI we’ve been treated to a lot of the same type of matches involving the same talent.
However, I didn’t write this to trash this year’s show. I’m actually looking forward to the event and think that the WWE has put together as good a card as they could the way talent was booked up to the big night. Yes, things could’ve been booked differently heading up to April, 5th, but once WWE made some key decisions on talent they were basically stuck in a corner with what they could do. All things considered, I think XXV had a shot to be better, but is still worth the purchase. I just hope for some different talent and ideas for next year’s “Big One”.
I’m geared up for my next two columns, so here’s a tease. In my next write up, I’m going to share my biggest concern after doing this research. Being a passionate fan I realized some of this concern, but grew even more aware and scared when looking into it. After that, I’ll explain how WWE “booked themselves into a corner” leading up to WrestleMania XXV. Until then, remember to suspend your disbelief.
