I also have a busy Saturday ahead, and will be watching the late rerun of Backlash, if at all, due to a belated Passover dinner at my in-laws' house. But I thought I'd leave you with predictions; best case from there, late Sunday night I will have Backlash reax, worst case, Monday will be a double-post day with Backlash reax and Raw thoughts. Please don't give me up for dead this weekend though I *will* be back - unlike so often happened at my other blog. ;) And with no further adieu then ...
BACKLASH PREDIX:
World Heavyweight Champion Undertaker vs. Edge
On the one hand, I have a hard time imagining them wanting to bury Edge so far as to have him decisively beaten twice by the Undertaker. On the other hand, I can't see them just giving UT a month with the belt. I also don't like the hotshotting of the belt as always seems to be happening when Edge is champ - this past reign I believe was his longest to date, clocking in at around 3 mos. Before that it was 2. So I guess I'd predict an unclean win of some kind - either Edge wins, but by DQ or countout, or UT wins similarly upon the interference of Edge's posse.
Big Show vs. The Great Khali
While this match will admittedly be impressive to see, I fear a train wreck. First of all, I agree with whoever it was about a month ago who commented that it would be more effective having these two tag-teaming; once you have two behemoths in the ring, their impressive size almost cancels each other out, whereas if you put these two in a ring against, say, London and Kendrick, it would stand in stark contrast. Secondly though, neither are particularly 'athletic'. When you add to that the fact that Khali has two bad wheels and is scheduled to return to India after this PPV for much-needed knee surgery, not only does that take even further away from whatever athleticism might have existed here, it also makes the outcome fore-ordained; Big Show just lost to a non-wrestler 1/3 of his size, and is currently fighting an opponent headed to the DL: can't see this one coming. *sigh* Hopefully Show can carry it as well as he could the Mayweather fight, but Mayweather is at least a legit athlete: I think this one might be a bit of a - er- heavier load.
United States Champion MVP vs. Matt Hardy
This is probably the match I am most looking forward to on this card, and find the hardest to predict. On the one hand, Matt has been long due a singles title run, and MVP is heading on, I'd imagine, to bigger things anyway (paging Mark Calloway ...); and if he isn't, he should be. However, while this was the hottest feud last year, Matt's been on the sick list awhile and just came back last month; has there been enough re-build for a blowoff, which a Matt win surely would be? I for one can't wait for this match - unless Shawn Michaels pulls something truly special out of his match with Batista, or Edge and Undertaker repeat/perhaps even surpass their stellar Wrestlemania outing, For the sake of going out on a limb I am saying it's Matty's time. I am also calling this one for match of the night - and perhaps an early match of the year contender.
WWE Champion Randy Orton vs. John Cena vs. Triple H vs. JBL
(Fatal Four Way Elimination Match)
OK another one that's not easy to predict - though somewhat easier than the last one. I am going to call Randy Orton as retaining here - he will go on to a program with Triple H that will see Trips win at Summerslam, thereby giving Randy a good long run with the belt, while allowing Triple H to reclaim his crown on a bigger stage than Backlash. I'm assuming JBL is inserted into this scene to give Cena a more minor, backburner feud to keep him in the public eye on Raw, while allowing him some more flexibility to finish filming his movie as he goes on to a part-time schedule in the coming months. Ultimately we will see Triple H vs. Cena in the fall, where I predict Cena will ultimately regain the title, miraculously just in time to promote said new movie. As a dark-horse, they pull the trigger on a Triple H title reign NOW ... but with Cena about to film and JBL as being fairly new back on the scene after a long layoff, I don't see either of them as major threats at this time. And even Triple H for that matter ... they wouldn't cut short young RKO's world title reign to stroke the ego of a man who already has more accolades in the wrestling business than anyone other than his idol ... would they? :P
ECW Champion Kane vs. Chavo Guerrero
This one strikes me as a no-brainer and I'm not wasting a whole lot of screen space on it - Kane retains. His title reign is still fairly new, I expect he still has a month or two anyway left in it. After the crap this wrestler (sorry ... sports entertainer) and his character have been put through, if this tertiary belt IS taken off of him this quickly, I would be taking a good look over my contract for loopholes. Stat.
Batista vs. Shawn Michaels (Special Referee: Chris Jericho)
The hardest thing here is to predict who Jericho will screw, as that will determine the outcome of this match, as well as the future of Y2J and said screw-ee. I'm going to go with Jason Powell here and say he's going to gyp Shawn out of the win, leading to a Jericho-Michaels feud for the IC belt on Raw, freeing Batista up perhaps for a #1 contender feud with MVP? Or another World Title feud with UT, this time with the belt on the Deadman? I'm not going to try to predict the future here, I just predict that Y2J will cost Shawn the match as they have more incentive (and potentially much better matches) in fighting one another than muddying the brand waters even further. Therefore, Big Dave gets the dubious duke.
12-Diva Tag Team Match
Mickey, Maria, Ashley, Cherry, Kelly and Michelle vs. Beth, Melina, Victoria, Leyla, Natalya and Jillian
I suspect this match is going to be used to move Mickie on to her next opponent. Therefore, I think Mickey is going to lose for her team, to one of the heel gals. Given I think that focusing on WRESTLING again might be a nice change after the requisite hype Maria got for Playboy - especially since they actually have a decent roster of women's wrestlers now, as opposed to JUST eye candy - I think that Natalya is going to go over Mickey, probably in a less than clean fashion, to keep the champ strong while giving this feud some good legs to start on.
So that's it guys - I'm a bit concerned that I see a lot of potential for there to be one or two unclean finishes on this card in order to give *someone* the duke in their match while still protecting the other guy (or girl) - but the ones I predicted I don't so much have a problem with, if done right, as they do accomplish that end, and none of these matches (with the exception of Matt-MVP) should really be blow-offs necessarily anyway - they might move some people in different directions (see Shawn and Batista), but all of these matches should start the company down the post-WM path they want to go on, and in that sense I don't mind there being some unfinished business left ... again, if done right and if it serves a purpose (as in the Shawn-Batista match I predicted ... hell, anything that leads to a Michaels-Jericho program, I'm all for, pleasepleasepleaseplease!).
Anyway - we'll see how I fared with these predix Sunday night. Till then, be well and see you at the matches.
On the one hand, I have a hard time imagining them wanting to bury Edge so far as to have him decisively beaten twice by the Undertaker. On the other hand, I can't see them just giving UT a month with the belt. I also don't like the hotshotting of the belt as always seems to be happening when Edge is champ - this past reign I believe was his longest to date, clocking in at around 3 mos. Before that it was 2. So I guess I'd predict an unclean win of some kind - either Edge wins, but by DQ or countout, or UT wins similarly upon the interference of Edge's posse.
Big Show vs. The Great Khali
While this match will admittedly be impressive to see, I fear a train wreck. First of all, I agree with whoever it was about a month ago who commented that it would be more effective having these two tag-teaming; once you have two behemoths in the ring, their impressive size almost cancels each other out, whereas if you put these two in a ring against, say, London and Kendrick, it would stand in stark contrast. Secondly though, neither are particularly 'athletic'. When you add to that the fact that Khali has two bad wheels and is scheduled to return to India after this PPV for much-needed knee surgery, not only does that take even further away from whatever athleticism might have existed here, it also makes the outcome fore-ordained; Big Show just lost to a non-wrestler 1/3 of his size, and is currently fighting an opponent headed to the DL: can't see this one coming. *sigh* Hopefully Show can carry it as well as he could the Mayweather fight, but Mayweather is at least a legit athlete: I think this one might be a bit of a - er- heavier load.
United States Champion MVP vs. Matt Hardy
This is probably the match I am most looking forward to on this card, and find the hardest to predict. On the one hand, Matt has been long due a singles title run, and MVP is heading on, I'd imagine, to bigger things anyway (paging Mark Calloway ...); and if he isn't, he should be. However, while this was the hottest feud last year, Matt's been on the sick list awhile and just came back last month; has there been enough re-build for a blowoff, which a Matt win surely would be? I for one can't wait for this match - unless Shawn Michaels pulls something truly special out of his match with Batista, or Edge and Undertaker repeat/perhaps even surpass their stellar Wrestlemania outing, For the sake of going out on a limb I am saying it's Matty's time. I am also calling this one for match of the night - and perhaps an early match of the year contender.
WWE Champion Randy Orton vs. John Cena vs. Triple H vs. JBL
(Fatal Four Way Elimination Match)
OK another one that's not easy to predict - though somewhat easier than the last one. I am going to call Randy Orton as retaining here - he will go on to a program with Triple H that will see Trips win at Summerslam, thereby giving Randy a good long run with the belt, while allowing Triple H to reclaim his crown on a bigger stage than Backlash. I'm assuming JBL is inserted into this scene to give Cena a more minor, backburner feud to keep him in the public eye on Raw, while allowing him some more flexibility to finish filming his movie as he goes on to a part-time schedule in the coming months. Ultimately we will see Triple H vs. Cena in the fall, where I predict Cena will ultimately regain the title, miraculously just in time to promote said new movie. As a dark-horse, they pull the trigger on a Triple H title reign NOW ... but with Cena about to film and JBL as being fairly new back on the scene after a long layoff, I don't see either of them as major threats at this time. And even Triple H for that matter ... they wouldn't cut short young RKO's world title reign to stroke the ego of a man who already has more accolades in the wrestling business than anyone other than his idol ... would they? :P
ECW Champion Kane vs. Chavo Guerrero
This one strikes me as a no-brainer and I'm not wasting a whole lot of screen space on it - Kane retains. His title reign is still fairly new, I expect he still has a month or two anyway left in it. After the crap this wrestler (sorry ... sports entertainer) and his character have been put through, if this tertiary belt IS taken off of him this quickly, I would be taking a good look over my contract for loopholes. Stat.
Batista vs. Shawn Michaels (Special Referee: Chris Jericho)
The hardest thing here is to predict who Jericho will screw, as that will determine the outcome of this match, as well as the future of Y2J and said screw-ee. I'm going to go with Jason Powell here and say he's going to gyp Shawn out of the win, leading to a Jericho-Michaels feud for the IC belt on Raw, freeing Batista up perhaps for a #1 contender feud with MVP? Or another World Title feud with UT, this time with the belt on the Deadman? I'm not going to try to predict the future here, I just predict that Y2J will cost Shawn the match as they have more incentive (and potentially much better matches) in fighting one another than muddying the brand waters even further. Therefore, Big Dave gets the dubious duke.
12-Diva Tag Team Match
Mickey, Maria, Ashley, Cherry, Kelly and Michelle vs. Beth, Melina, Victoria, Leyla, Natalya and Jillian
I suspect this match is going to be used to move Mickie on to her next opponent. Therefore, I think Mickey is going to lose for her team, to one of the heel gals. Given I think that focusing on WRESTLING again might be a nice change after the requisite hype Maria got for Playboy - especially since they actually have a decent roster of women's wrestlers now, as opposed to JUST eye candy - I think that Natalya is going to go over Mickey, probably in a less than clean fashion, to keep the champ strong while giving this feud some good legs to start on.
So that's it guys - I'm a bit concerned that I see a lot of potential for there to be one or two unclean finishes on this card in order to give *someone* the duke in their match while still protecting the other guy (or girl) - but the ones I predicted I don't so much have a problem with, if done right, as they do accomplish that end, and none of these matches (with the exception of Matt-MVP) should really be blow-offs necessarily anyway - they might move some people in different directions (see Shawn and Batista), but all of these matches should start the company down the post-WM path they want to go on, and in that sense I don't mind there being some unfinished business left ... again, if done right and if it serves a purpose (as in the Shawn-Batista match I predicted ... hell, anything that leads to a Michaels-Jericho program, I'm all for, pleasepleasepleaseplease!).
Anyway - we'll see how I fared with these predix Sunday night. Till then, be well and see you at the matches.
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