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BOOKING THE ROAD TO WRESTLEMANIA

Booking Royal Rumble, Elimination Chamber & Wrestlemania

This year’s Wrestlemania is one big question mark for the wrestling community.  If WWE has a big plan for this year’s show, they have not started the ball rolling yet from what I can see.  None of the current feuds or stories feels more to me than filler right now, which may be the plan.  However, if the plan is not clear yet, here are a few ideas I had on effectively booking the biggest show of the year.

First things first…the brand split is a total joke and there are WAY too many PPVs.  Let’s let Wrestlemania be the final nail in the coffin of this ridiculous way of doing business and start off the next day as the first of a new organization of WWE.  I don’t think there is one person out there who believes there is such a thing as a “Raw contract” or that the “Smackdown General Manager” negotiates hiring and firing of wrestlers.  Guys from both “brands” just show up wherever anyway, so why bother?  I understand the need for selling tickets and advertising Cena for RAW shows and all the kids want to see him and then if he wasn’t there the crowd might be upset, but there is a much better way of handling this:  one combined roster with storyline specific shows.

Vince can still keep his two touring groups and call them RAW and SmackDown but wrestlers would not be tied to one show.  For 4-8 weeks, one wrestler would tour with the same group (RAW or SmackDown) while working a program with another wrestler.  At the end of that program (culminated at a PPV) the wrestler could start another program on the same show or jump back to the other show and start a program there with someone else.  They would then tour with that group until that story was over.  The audience would almost have to start watching both RAW and SmackDown to keep up with all their favorite wrestlers because they would be on different shows every month or two.  Both shows would feel fresh because you never knew who would be where the day after a PPV.

On that topic, I’d eliminate at least 4-5 PPVs, if not 6 or 7.  All you really need are 6 PPVs a year and two months between to build to them….maybe even throw in a few free special shows on USA or NBC like a “Clash Of Champions” between PPVs twice or so a year to add a little extra but who is really buying 13-14 PPVs a year at $50+?!?  I know I can’t afford to give over $700 a year to WWE to watch wrestling.  Here should be the PPV schedule:  Royal Rumble in late January, maybe a Clash Of Champions-esque show end of February to promote Mania, Wrestlemania in early April, a ROTATING PPV name in early June, SummerSlam in late August, a ROTATING PPV name in mid October, Survivor Series in late November and a Clash Of Champions-esque show the week between Christmas & New Years as a special “End Of Year” show.  The rotating PPV names would be based on what the storylines require…..Hell In A Cell, Elimination Chamber, Night Of Champions, TLC, etc.

But all of this would need to be promoted from now until Wrestlemania this year…..so here is how I would book those shows:

At Royal Rumble, Edge defeats Dolph early in the show.  Dolph runs into Orton in the back who makes a joke about Dolph losing and tells him to watch him to see how you win a title.  Dolph then interferes and costs Orton the title starting a feud between those two.  The last 3 in the Rumble are Cena, Barrett & Punk.  Barrett and Punk begin to team up on Cena but when they almost have Cena eliminated, Punk drops them both and wins the Rumble.  The next night on RAW he says everyone always decides the next night which title they want to challenge for, but he says he knows Elimination Chamber is coming up and will hold his decision until after that show to see who is champion.

Leading up to Elimination Chamber, Barrett challenges Punk for a 4 vs 4 match between Nexuses in the Chamber where it starts as a tag match and doors open to give advantages until it’s 4 on 4.  In the RAW elimination chamber match it’s Miz vs Cena vs Sheamus vs Morrison vs Orton vs a Mystery Man.  The Monday before Elimination Chamber it’s revealed the Mystery Man is HHH when he interferes in a tag match with Sheamus/Miz vs Cena/Morrison and beats down Sheamus.  In the SmackDown elimination chamber match its Edge vs Del Rio vs Big Show vs Kane vs Rey vs Christian (who returned at the Rumble).  At the PPV, Cody Rhodes defeats Kofi Kingston for the IC title.  We cut to the back where Kane is left lying before the chamber match…we’re told he is unresponsive and almost seems to be in a “vegetative state”….his arms have been folded across his chest.  The announcers play up the Buried Alive match where Kane and Nexus buried Undertaker and wonder if Taker came back to take out Kane….they also question who is going to take his place in the Chamber match.  The Nexus Chamber match is next and ends when it’s down to Punk & Barrett, the lights go out and Taker appears in the ring and proceeds to beat down Wade Barrett, and then leaves the ring and Punk covers and wins.  The RAW chamber match ends when it’s down to Cena & Miz….Cena has Miz in the STF near the cage wall when Riley interferes, allowing Miz the opportunity for a quick roll up to steal the win and keep the title.  In the SmackDown chamber match, it starts with only 5 guys and an empty cell…..in the end it’s down to Edge vs Rey vs Show when Show beats Edge and Edge snaps and gets a chair and beats Show senselessly…..during all this CM Punk runs down and slides into the last cell and ends up coming in and pinning Show and then it’s down to Punk vs Rey and Rey almost has the title won several times but Punk ends up hitting him with brass knucks and wins the title.

On RAW the next night, Punk gloats how he is smarter than any other wrestle because he took the World Title before Mania and now is headed into Mania as the champion and #1 contender, so as Royal Rumble winner he chooses to main event Wrestlemania against himself for the World Title.  Vince McMahon’s music hits and out comes the chairman.  He says that is not happening, Wrestlemania is the biggest day of the year for his company and he’s not going to let these shenanigans go on any longer.  He says at Wrestlemania there will be a World Title match and it will be Rey vs Punk.  He understands Edge should get the shot being the former champion but he is going to have his hands full at Wrestlemania with a pissed off giant, the Big Show in an extreme rules match.  He also asks Miz to come out and says he has seen enough of Riley interfering in Miz’s matches and at Wrestlemania it’s going to be Miz vs Cena and Riley is barred from the ringside area.  The RAW General Manager beeps in and Cole starts to read that maybe the Miz should get a chance……right then McMahon yells at Cole to stop.  He said this “anonymous” General Manager thing has gone far enough.  He said he gave Cole the job months ago with the understanding that he would make matches and decisions for the good of the show from the broadcast table and the anonymous thing was supposed to keep everyone from trying to politic the boss but all he has done has used it to make the Miz the star of the show and himself look like an ass.  He said everyone knows it was him, especially after that long “good looking” etc. speech he gave.  He said Cole was fired as RAW GM and is back to being just an announcer.  On that same topic, he needs his leaders to have a backbone so Teddy Long is fired too.  At Wrestlemania, it will be about new beginnings and a new direction for WWE.

McMahon goes on to say he is merging RAW and SmackDown back together and there will be a new Vice President of Operations named to handle all day-to-day operations of both RAW & SmackDown after Wrestlemania.  He also said with one unified brand should be one unified title, so Wrestlemania will be the proving ground for 4 men.  CM Punk will defend his World Title against Rey and Miz will defend his WWE title against John Cena.  The World Champion will then face the WWE Champion in the Main Event to determine the new WWE World Heavyweight Champion.  He also says the Intercontinental and US titles will now become the most sought after belts because in order to get a WWE World Heavyweight Title shot, you have to have been a former World/WWE, US or IC champion first.  He also announces that he will begin cutting down the number of PPVs to 6 each year and that the WWE Title will only be defended on PPV, so if you want to see the champion defend the belt it will only happen on PPV.  All other matches involving the champion will be non-title.

Also, later that evening HHH comes down to the ring and calls out Undertaker.  He says that they are a lot alike and he likes how Taker waited all that time to come back and take out Kane and Barrett at just the right time just like he waited until the perfect time to come back and take out Sheamus, but now he has a proposition.  He said he never got the chance to finish his sentence to Shawn when Sheamus took him out so he’s going to use this time right now to finish what he was saying almost a year ago…..he always felt like he was in Shawn’s shadow and he was having to prove to everyone that he was better than Shawn and if Shawn tried two years in a row to beat Taker at Wrestlemania and couldn’t get it done than he was gonna do it this year and prove to everyone he was the better man.  Taker accepts….a week later Shawn shows up and asks Hunter what he’s doing and Hunter says he wants Shawn to be the ref to count the three proving he’s the better man.  They can play up that Shawn says he respects Taker but HHH & Shawn may be trying to pull a fast one and Taker doesn’t want to be part of their little game so it would be a very involved story whether HHH is really trying to one-up Shawn or if they are scheming to screw Taker out of his streak…..

Now the Wrestlemania card would look like this:

World Title:  Punk vs Rey

WWE Title:  Miz vs Cena

Undertaker vs HHH with HBK as referee

Edge vs Big Show

Orton vs Ziggler

US Title:  Bryan vs Wade Barrett

IC Title:  Cody Rhodes vs a returning Evan Bourne

Money In The Bank (all former champions):        Christian, Kofi, Sheamus, Morrison, McIntyre, Truth, Kane, Swagger

Tag Titles:  Santino & Kozlov vs Del Rio & DiBiase (new tag team that can be called International Investments Inc.)

Divas:  Natalya vs Melina vs LayCool in a 4 Way

Otunga/Harris/McGillicutty vs Jackson/Slater/Gabriel

I’d book Bourne to win the IC belt, Bryan to retain the US, Morrison to win the Money In The Bank, Del Rio & DiBiase to win the tag titles, Taker to keep the streak, Cena to win the WWE title and Punk to retain against Rey and then have the main event be Cena beat Punk to win the new Unified title to send everyone home happy.

Thoughts?