Hailey's Newsies - Issue 80 - April 12th 2010

Subject: Hailey's Newsies - Issue 80 - April 12th 2010 Mon 12 Apr 2010, 4:13 pm

Shad Gaspard Turns Heel
With Cryme Tyme officially dead, here's a way to turn Shad Gaspard into a main event heel.

Cryme Tyme is Dead

Cryme Tyme has officially come to an end.

On Smackdown this week, Shad Gaspard & JTG were working a match against John Morrison & R Truth. Cryme Tyme quickly lost the match. Afterwards, fans were shocked when Shad Gaspard decided to take his anger out on his long time partner by attacking him.

During an interview later on in the show, Shad Gaspard angrily revealed that he was done with JTG and that now is his time to shine.

Cryme Tyme is no more.

Surprising Split

Most people felt that the end of Cryme Tyme would be when WWE finally decides to release both of these guys. Not too many predicted that a split was going to be the final outcome for the team.

When Cryme Tyme bursts on the scene during the fall of 2006, they immediately became one of the company's most popular acts. They were able to connect with the audience through a series of over the top skits. A future tag team title reign was predicted by all.

A year later, Cryme Tyme would be placed in a feud with Lance Cade & Trevor Murdoch, who were the World Tag Team Champions at the time. A real life feud evolved between the two teams. It led to an incident that started off in the ring and ended up backstage between the two teams. Management decided to side with Lance Cade & Trevor Murdoch, so Cryme Tyme was released from the company.

Though they were released, WWE knew that there was some high marketing value in Cryme Tyme. The company decided to bring them back in 2008.

When they initially came back, people thought that WWE was finally going to push them this time around. JTG & Shad Gaspard were even associated with John Cena in a very promising stable known as Cryme Tyme Cenation. For some unknown reason, though, the company decided to drop that idea before it had a chance to truly blossom into something big.

Even though they were given a title shot at Summerslam 2009 against Chris Jericho & Big Show, it was painfully obvious that the company had no intentions of pushing Cryme Tyme as a serious threat to the division. They were basically just fillers.

To see them being split as opposed to being released is quite a shock to most fans.

Size Matters

A few months ago, management was said to be highly disappointed in Shad Gaspard. The problem was that he simply did not improve enough during his time with the company. There was much higher expectations for Shad Gaspard than JTG.

The reason why management wanted more from Shad Gaspard is because of his size.

It's no secret that Vince McMahon loves his top stars to be "larger than life". At 6'1", JTG is far from being a small man. However, he pales in comparison to his much more muscular 6'7" partner. Shad Gaspard had a look that Vince McMahon could promote.

Management might still not be happy with his abilities in the ring. He hasn't shown much improvement since last year. He's not an awful wrestler, but he's very average in a lot of things. Shad Gaspard is good at working the audience with his mic skills and skits, but he has yet to learn to do that with his in-ring performance.

However, size does matter, so he'll get a chance to show what he can do as a singles wrestler.

The Game Plan

If the goal is to turn Shad Gaspard into a main event level wrestler, then the writers are going to have to put in some overtime. A carefully constructed storyline path has to be taken in order for that to happen.

First of all, his character is going to have to change. He can't be goofy any more, so there's going to have to be a more serious tone to his character. Personally, I don't think they should get rid of the "street thug" aspect of his character, though. Fans already associate with that. Use that as a base.

Next, the writers need to line up the proper opponents for him to work against. Here's a sample storyline path for Shad Gaspard to follow.

JTG - The natural progression of the storyline needs to start with the split of Cryme Tyme. Shad Gaspard and JTG need to feud for a month. With a strong storyline already in place, then the writers can actually put these two in a match to open up a PPV. Shad Gaspard has to dominate the match and destroy his former tag team partner.
Goldust - Goldust is a good choice for any young wrestler to work with because he understands the game, and he can guide people in the ring. This feud should help to improve Shad Gaspard's overall skill set. Once again, Shad Gaspard needs to dominate this feud, which doesn't necessarily need to end with a PPV match.
Finlay - Finlay basically provides what Goldust does, except he's got a little more experience and is slightly better at it. After all, the guy was working as a backstage agent for WWE for a period of time. Shad Gaspard shouldn't be as dominating in this program, but he should still get the win. Another match that should open up a PPV.
Matt Hardy - Matt Hardy isn't as much of a teacher as Goldust and Finlay are, but he does have more of a connection with the audience than those two. This is definitely a lower card PPV match. Shad Gaspard should not dominate this match, but he should win. Afterwards, he needs to follow it up with a vicious attack to get heel heat from the audience.
Kane - Kane and Matt Hardy aren't that far apart in terms of credibility nowadays. However, Kane's size would make a much better match up for Shad Gaspard. The PPV match should be booked fairly even. In fact, it might even do Shad Gaspard some good to cheat to win this one. That way, he can capitalize on the heel heat from his feud with Matt Hardy.
Rey Mysterio - Rey Mysterio should be Shad Gaspard's first upper card opponent. The "David vs Goliath" storyline is obvious. The surprising choice here would be to have Shad Gaspard actually dominate Rey Mysterio during a PPV match. Use the shock factor to get audiences to believe that the big man is legitimate.
Edge - With Edge being quite popular with the audience, it would be easy for Shad Gaspard to get heel heat in this program. The booking for this program will all depend on how over Shad Gaspard is with the audience after working all of those feuds to get to where he is.

If you really want to push a guy properly, you have to go with the nice slow build.

TNA Releases Christopher Daniels
How big of a loss is it for TNA to lose Christopher Daniels to ROH?

TNA Releases Christopher Daniels

Over the weekend, the collective eyebrow of the internet wrestling community was piqued when Christopher Daniels showed up unexpectedly at the Ring of Honor pay per view.

It was a surprise because there had been no signs of Christopher Daniels being released by TNA. No official announcement was made. Nor was he removed from the official website. For all that everyone knew, he was still employed by TNA.

With everyone in confusion, speculations started to grow.

Some thought that he had defiantly shown up in Ring of Honor as a way to express his displeasure with his situation with TNA since Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff came on board. Others thought that a secret agreement had been made between TNA and Ring of Honor.

Well, those speculations can be put to rest now because it has been confirmed that Christopher Daniels was indeed released by TNA.

Daniels' Displeasure

It was no secret that Christopher Daniels had grown unhappy with his situation in TNA.

When Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff came in to take over the company, they immediately went over the current roster to determine which stars they were going to promote. Among the guys that were already with the company, Eric Young, Matt Morgan, AJ Styles, and Abyss were amongst the ones chosen to be pushed.

Missing from that list was Christopher Daniels.

Despite the fact that he's superb in the ring and severely underrated on the mic, Eric Bischoff and Hulk Hogan did not see star potential in Christopher Daniels.

This was somehow made known to the Fallen Angel, and he was not shy about expressing his displeasure at his status.

Returning to ROH

Unless he wanted to go work outside of the country, Christopher Daniels basically had three options.

Independent - Christopher Daniels could have traveled the country working at various independent wrestling shows. With his star power, he could have easily commanded the main event spot and a pretty nice paycheck. However, things aren't nearly as consistent with these smaller companies.
Ring of Honor - Christopher Daniels was already familiar with Ring of Honor and their fan base. He also knows that there's a good chance of being pushed, possibly even as the world champion. Despite not being a huge company, they are a lot more stable than the majority of the independent wrestling companies.
WWE - Had WWE ever been interested in Christopher Daniels, then they could have already gone out and signed him years ago. The company just isn't willing to give him a chance even though he's better than the majority of the guys that are on Raw and Smackdown right now.

In the end, Christopher Daniels decided that option two was the best one for him. He returned to Ring of Honor and was immediately given the spotlight.

Survivor Series Mattel Action Figures
WWE has released a brand new action figure series called "Survivor Series Mattel Action Figures". It includes Undertaker, Cena, Miz, Kingston, Mysterio, and Morrison.

http://www.wweshop.com/search.asp?prc=n&searchterm=survivor+series+mattel&x=0&y=0

TNA House Show Strategy
Will TNA actually be able to survive with their strategy on house shows?

TNA House Show Strategy

"Learn to walk before you run."

That's one of the wisest sayings known to man.

It basically means that you need to get all the basics covered before trying to expand into something a little more complicated. No one learns to fly a plane by immediately taking controls of a 747. No one can build a global wrestling company without first building a stable wrestling company.

Looking around the internet, and you'll see a lot of message board filled with users who criticize TNA for doing house shows in small venues and in small towns. They'll point at how WWE makes millions from their pay per view events and thousands and thousands of dollars from their house show events.

Listening and agreeing with these guys means that you're taking business advice from teenagers and young adults as opposed to someone like Dixie Carter, who has been in charge of a multi million dollar business.

TNA is doing the smart thing by ignoring these critics and taking the slow approach towards their house show strategy.

Up Close and Personal

Turn on TNA iMPACT! each week, and you'll see some of the biggest names in the business.

Sting, Hulk Hogan, Ric Flair, Kurt Angle, Kevin Nash, Jeff Jarrett, Scott Hall, and Eric Bischoff are the familiar faces that you'll see when you flip the channel on Monday nights.

Go to TNA house show, though, and chances are, you're not going to see a lot of these guys.

At the house shows, TNA generally likes to bring along guys like James Storm, Robert Roode, Samoa Joe, AJ Styles, Homicide, Hernandez, Amazing Red, and Eric Young. Kurt Angle and Jeff Jarrett are the two big name guys that regularly appear at house show events. TNA received tremendously good news recently when Jeff Hardy informed them that he was willing to work house shows.

TNA keeps the likes of Sting and Hulk Hogan away from house shows because it keeps the costs lower, which means that the company has a higher profit margin.

By giving this option to big name wrestlers, TNA also improves their standings as an alternative work place to WWE.

While some fans might be disappointed that they don't get to see the big names, TNA does make it up to them by making their house shows a lot more personal. Wrestlers regularly visit with the fans during and after the shows. Some lucky fans are even allowed to go backstage during the shows.

More fans leave happy than unhappy at these events.

Those Left Out

You're not too good of a business man if you feel that TNA should be trying to book events at locations such as the Staples Center or Madison Square Garden.

It's just not going to work right now.

Instead, TNA is doing the wise thing by booking shows at smaller arenas. Rather than trying to fill 30,000 seats, TNA is currently content with filling 600 to 1,000 seats. It's not as easy as some think to be able to fill 30,000 seats. Your company has to be a bigger brand in order to pull that off on a nightly basis.

TNA also is targeting smaller cities and towns that are skipped by WWE.

Later on this week, TNA is going to be doing house shows in Corbin, Kentucky and Pikeville, Kentucky. Both of those towns have about 7,000 people living there. WWE would never consider going there because they would need the entire city to attend in order for it to profitable.

Attending a live wrestling event is a much different experience than watching it from home. Those that have never been won't truly understand just how different it is. The level of excitement and joy is much greater. In fact, it might even be great enough to convince fans in smaller towns to support TNA on a regular basis.

TNA isn't going to be able to steal all of the WWE fans in the big cities. However, they can steal some of the smaller town fans who have been neglected for years.

Problems for Wrestlemania 27
This is part 1 of a mini-series of articles that will be written on the subject of next year's Wrestlemania, in this part we will be looking at how Wrestlemania 26 was built and what it means for next year's show.

Looking Ahead: Wrestlemania 27
Part 1

The build for Wrestlemania 26

It can be said, that in January of this year, it was very unclear exactly what would be on the card for Wrestlemania 26. There weren't any big feuds at the time, Sheamus was the WWE Champion, although all the smart fans knew that he would not main event Wrestlemania, there were hints of a Shawn Michaels/Undertaker match but it wasn't certain. It was unclear what guys like Triple H, John Cena, Randy Orton, Kofi Kingston and Batista would be doing.

On television and the pay-per-views leading up to the big show, the build was very weak, the Royal Rumble was highly predictable and WWE made little effort to hide the return of Edge, which killed the surprise and his return got a lukewarm reception from the live crowd. Feuds were desperately thrown together, Jericho was given the title at the Elimination Chamber so Edge could challenge him, Batista was given a title match for the other brand's title so John Cena could challenge him, the Money in the Bank ladder match featured 10 men which turned out to do more damage than anything else, probably because there were no standout favourites to win this year.

Although the card for Wrestlemania 26 was actually the strongest in quite some time, the execution was lackluster for the most part simply because the matches were so thrown together, other than Shawn Michaels Vs Undertaker it was hard to get really pumped up for any of the matches.

In an attempt to throw together a great card for this year's show, they've done themselves a lot of damage in preparing next year's event.

Big Problems for Wrestlemania 27

By throwing all of these matches together this year, WWE have played some of their remaining big money cards prematurely which is going to make next year's event difficult to deal with, here's where the creative stand right now.

No Shawn Michaels
Chris Jericho Vs Edge - Done
John Cena Vs Batista - Done
Triple Vs the majority of the rest of the main event scene - Done
Apparently WWE no longer have the Vince McMahon character around to promote a match, a task it was highly successful in achieving in previous years
There is no promise that Rey Mysterio, Big Show or Batista will be healthy or even active in a year's time

In short, the neglect from creative to the midcard talents is starting to show itself, as even though the WWE main event scene doesn't necessarily need any more players, they don't have any midcard talents ready to take any of those spots in the future, with the exception of the Miz and possibly Kofi Kingston. Everyone else has been beaten into place to the point where most people feel the same.

What's Next?

This article has been very negative up to this point, but there is some hope for Wrestlemania 27, there are a couple of big money matches left that will draw, and that is partly the point of this mini-series. In the next couple of installments, we will look into possible ideas to main event next year's show.

However, it has to be noted that the past three Wrestlemania's have all had very similar main event performers, in fact 24 and 25 had essentially the exact guys if you replaced Floyd Mayweather with Shawn Michaels. Generally, to make next year's show feel more special there needs to be some new faces there, possibly a big superstar making moment, just like Wrestlemania 21.

TNA: Replay!
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
Prophet City Entertainment

By now, everybody knows that TNA crossed the Monday line. iMPACT! now crawls along as it does battle with WWE RAW. For better, (eventually), or worse, TNA's flagship show is now in a Monday time slot.

An Accidental Situation

Something that not many people talked about actually happened. TNA actually created a pretty big void on Thursday nights.

iMPACT! has been missed on the Thursday time slot. As ironic as it sounds, Mondays have always been pro wrestling days, but Thursdays obviously have become the adopted cousin for pro wrestling.
This really proved to be true when TNA ran their monday impacts on Thursdays for a couple of weeks. It showed that, even with the live product on mondays, for whatever reason they could still pull numbers with the same content on the Thursday.
Remember, as far as American veiwing numbers go, Spike was actually quite pleased with the growth of TNA on Thursdays. The replays may have created an opportunity if somebody could grasp the idea.

TNA: Replay

Perhaps TNA should bring back Replay. Wait, apologies.

Perhaps TNA should introduce Replay. The second show the company really needs.

Sixty minutes. 120 minutes. Either or. The taping schedule wouldn't even have to be adjusted, and you wouldn't even have to produce an entirely fresh show either.
Simply take the dark matches fimled prior to the official impact start, sprinkle in some of the matches normally used for the web match format, and then tape 4 or 5 matches + promos fresh for the show with a roster that doesn't have enough room on Mondays, (coming back to this idea). This can be done on a slightly extended pre-recorded Tuesday taping.
If need be, you can even throw in the "best match from monday night" just to make sure people see it.

Stealing talent

The only real adjustment that would need to be made is talent assignment. TNA doesn't really have a roster big enough to front two exclusive rosters. At the same time, you don't want to burn your top guys out so there has to be some sort of staggering.
The top flight guys need to remain fresh, and most of them are going to work both days anyway. What you don't want is for your top level talent to have to work 3 times in 2 days.

Some of the roster will have to be exclusive to Thursdays, while others jump around between the two. This is not a problem at all but instead it'd be the perfect solution.

Your monday show would be fine. Nothing would really have to change there. The Thursday show would be used to even out 180 minutes made 120, (which is what TNA tries to do with iMPACT!). Now you'd have all the people you want to push in positions to really get good, solid, slow-building pushes. You'd also have very marginal cost increases that would probably get balanced out by the extra premium commercial slot time.

Talent Tree

Back to the above area, you'd really need to get the talent organized properly, but who would fit? Lets break it down.

TNA iMPACT! ROSTER: STAPLE

AJ Styles (C) - Matt Morgan (C) - Douglas Williams (C)

Abyss - Kaz - Nash - Jeff Hardy

Rhino - Orlando Jordan - Shanon Moore - Kurt Angle - Hernandez

TNA REPLAY! ROSTER: STAPLE

Rob Terry (C) - Angelina Love (C) - The Beautiful People (C)

Jay Lethal - Eric Young - Desmonde Wolfe - Samoa Joe

Tomko - Amazing Red - Brian Kendrick - Homicide - Raven - Dr. Stevie

Kiyoshi - Jesse Neal

TNA ULTIMATE ROSTER: MIGRATION
*These would be the guys that could appear on either show at will depending on what is needed. All champions, tag teams, and the KO division would also fall under this category.

Hogan - Sting - Flair - Jeff Jarrett

Bischoff - Mr. Anderson - Rob Van Dam - D'Angelo Dinero - Scott Hall

The Result:

What you'd get with this setup would be the ultimate Monday show with the flexibility to always have the hottest guys at your disposal along with the guys who should always be on Monday night even if they're doing things on Thursday nights too.

You'd also get programs with the time they need to develop along with a very strong X Division feel to the Thursday Show where challengers can be built up to head over to Monday and face the X Champion or, have the X Champion come over for a title defense on a Thursday. You'd also give the Global Championship the required time to grow by having it be the exclusive full time men's title by itself.

The Knockouts would once again have the time, across two shows, to shine properly without being thinned out and as mentioned before, the X Division would have the time needed to rise again.

The Thursday show would be absolute Napalm as it wouldn't have to be as dramatic as the Flagship show, so it'd be more wrestling in itself while being able to show off the best from Monday, former Web Matches, or even some house show 5-star matches.

ECW Stable in TNA
TNA is about to unleash a brand new stable consisting of former ECW wrestlers.

ECW Stable in TNA

When it was announced that Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff were joining up with TNA, there was a huge buzz created within the internet wrestling community. Whether or not you liked the move, you were talking about it.

Now that they've been there for a couple of weeks now, the buzz has died down a bit.

Buzz is definitely what you need if you're going to be going head to head with WWE on Monday nights.

In order to create a buzz, the TNA writers know that they have to come up with something big. Something that will get the fans talking again.

That something appears to be a brand new stable consisting of former ECW wrestlers.

Potential Members

One of the beautiful things about stables is that it gets fans to talk about potential members and how well they would fit into the group.

Let's take a look at the potential members of this new ECW group.

Rob Van Dam - Mr Monday Night is the guy to lead the stable. His popularity speaks for itself. He knows how to work the audience with his mic skills, and he doesn't seem the type to mind sharing the mic with others.
Team 3D - TNA shouldn't do the stable if these two guys aren't involved. For many, these guys were the backbone of the original ECW. Brother Ray's legendary ability to work a mic should serve the stable well.
Rhino - The company loves this guy because he's such a hard worker. They simply just aren't able to fit him into their plans right now. Putting him into the ECW stable gives him something to do and keeps him on television on a more frequent basis.
Raven - Everyone remembers Raven from his ECW stint. He was truly one of the biggest legends there. He hasn't done much lately, so this might be a way to get him going again.
Dr Stevie - Stevie Richards is another guy who hasn't been doing much lately. However, his gimmick might not fit in well with the group. Then again, they could always just switch him back to his old gimmick. Fans aren't going to miss the Dr Stevie character.
Taz - Taz obviously isn't going to be wrestling again, so he won't be included in the group. However, an interesting idea is to have him openly side with the ECW stable from the announce table.
Spike Dudley - The company recently brought back him back into the mix. For how long? Nobody knows. If he's going to stick around, then it makes sense to throw him into the group as well.
Tommy Dreamer - Tommy Dreamer isn't signed to TNA just yet, but his no compete clause with WWE has expired, leaving him eligible to sign a new deal. If the ECW stable does happen, then this increases his chances of being signed.
Jesse Neal - Everyone knows that Jesse Neal was not a part of the original ECW. Heck, he wasn't even involved with the business back then. However, his addition to the group could make sense because of his involvement with Team 3D and Rhino over the last year.
Mick Foley - While Mick Foley is already at a position where he doesn't need a stable to get over, it would make for an interesting scenario for him to "return to his roots".

Paul Heyman's Reaction

If you know Paul Heyman, then you know he's never been one to shy away from telling you openly how he feels about something.

Come on, this is the same guy that was willing to butt heads with Stephanie McMahon and Vince McMahon when he was working for WWE. How many people in this business dare to do that? Most of the time, people just agree with whatever they say and run with it.

Paul Heyman has often times criticize TNA for the way that they run the company. His latest rant on the company is that they don't allow babyfaces like Jeff Hardy and Rob Van Dam to cut intense promos threatening revenge for the beatings that they've been taking. Little stuff like that doesn't get past the former owner of ECW.

Imagine just how more vocal he's going to be if TNA creates a stable using his former guys.

He'll nitpick at everything, including the company's choice of stable members. He'll also complain if one of the lower guys in the stable isn't used properly. If the group is made to look weak, don't expect to see him holding back on that as well.

Of course, things would be a lot more interesting if TNA were to actually sign Paul Heyman and bring him in to lead the stable.

Then, we'll have a major buzz.

Induct Lex Luger
Lex Luger deserves to be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame.

Induct Lex Luger

With Wrestlemania 27 scheduled to be in Atlanta, Georgia, there have been discussions going around about doing a WCW theme for the hall of fame cermony. After all, Georgia was considered the home territory of the NWA and WCW for decades.

Ever since those reports surfaced, wrestling fans from all around the world have been debating about which WCW wrestlers would get inducted into next year's class.

Obviously, names like Sting, the Steiners, and Goldberg have been brought up and approved by wrestling fans alike.

However, one name has yet to be unanimously agreed upon.

That name is Lex Luger.

Luger's Legitimate

If you're one of those that don't believe that Lex Luger deserves a spot in the hall of fame, then you probably did not see a lot of his work during the late 1980s and early 1990s.

The former Miami Hurricane lineman is a bona fide hall of fame wrestler.

For those of you that are into numbers, take a look at what Lex Luger has accomplished in his career.

WCW World Heavyweight Champion
WCW World Tag Team Championship
WCW United States Heavyweight Championship
WCW World Television Championship
NWA World Tag Team Championship
NWA United States Heavyweight Championship
1994 Royal Rumble Winner

Pro Wrestling Illustrated has also honored Lex Luger multiple times.

He was involved in the feud of the year in 1987, 1988, and 1990. In 1991, he worked the classic tag team match that also featured Sting and the Steiner Brothers. Lex Luger also has won the most popular wrestler of the year, rookie of the year, and wrestler of the year awards as well.

Those accomplishments are nothing to sneeze at. Compare his accomplishments with some of the guys that have already been inducted into the hall of fame, and you'll see that he's superior to some of them.

If you're someone that prefers to honor a wrestler based on his impact in the business, then Lex Luger wins that area as well.

His legendary feud with Ric Flair over the NWA World Heavyweight Championship was an amazing run. For a feud to last for years and still be accepted by the audience, it takes a lot of hard work and talent. Ric Flair and Lex Luger were able to accomplish that.

The 6'5", 265 pound wrestler was also chosen by Vince McMahon to take over the top spot in his company. In 1994, he won the Royal Rumble and was scheduled to capture the world title from then champion Yokozuna. The thing that prevented that from happening was an off screen incident.

Lex Luger also made an impact on the very first episode of WCW Monday Nitro. He made a surprise appearance towards the end of the show. It shocked wrestling fans all over because he was still under WWE contract a day earlier. Afterwards, he played a pivotal role in the legendary nWo storyline.

Total Package

Lex Luger was both overrated and underrated at the same time.

People felt that he was overrated because of his spot in the company. There were many other talented wrestlers that were on the roster that did not get the same chances that he did. Resentment came about from that. It's much similar to the situation with John Cena is in right now.

While it's true that there were superior performers underneath him, Lex Luger wasn't a slouch by any stretch of the imagination.

In the ring, he's not going to amaze you like Ric Flair and Ricky Steamboat. However, he was able to step up his game in main event matches, especially when paired with top level in-ring performers. He might not carry the match, but he doesn't need to be carried. Very much like Batista and John Cena, both of whom excel even more when paired up against the likes of Shawn Michaels, Triple H, and Undertaker.

With mic skills, Lex Luger was much better than people gave him credit for. Though he did have a tendency to resort to shouting during his promos, he was still quite capable of getting his point across and enticing the audience to rally behind him.

The part that gives him the "Total Package" nickname, though, is his physique.

Very few wrestlers during that era had a body as impressive as Lex Luger's. He was comparable to Hulk Hogan, Ultimate Warrior, Batista, John Cena and a later years Scott Steiner. Those guys had the "larger than life" look to them that made people view wrestling differently.

He's not the best overall performer ever. Far from it. However, he was the total package.

Wrestlemania 27: John Cena Vs Undertaker

In part two of the mini series Looking Ahead: Wrestlemania 27, we look at what could possibly be a big money main event for WWE to have on their big show for next year, and how and why this feud should take place.

Looking Ahead: Wrestlemania 27
Part 2

Wrestlemania Main Event: John Cena Vs The Undertaker

John Cena and the Undertaker are two of the most successful and biggest stars in the history of the WWE, but they've never clashed before on the big stage, which is why this match needs to happen for Wrestlemania 27.

A Fresh Feud

Over the past couple of years WWE have been steamrolling through most of their remaining fresh main event feuds, Randy Orton Vs Batista, John Cena Vs Batista, Rey Mysterio Vs Edge, Edge Vs Chris Jericho, and many others have all been done. However, John Cena and the Undertaker haven't seen too much of each other since their feud in 2003, and both men have updated their gimmicks and personalities since then.

A Credible Challenger Approaches

The Undertaker's Wrestlemania streak has now grown to 18-0, and the company has spent so much time promoting the significance of this in recent years that defeating the Undertaker at Wrestlemania has become impossible for essentially all of the roster to believably challenge it. As entertaining as the past two matches against Shawn Michaels were, they were slightly flawed by the fact that people knew that Shawn Michaels would not be the one to end the streak.

That's why John Cena is the perfect opponent for the Undertaker.

Fairly or not, John Cena has earned a reputation for burying others and of course being "Super Cena", partly born out of him being the top guy on the roster and being Vince McMahon's baby boy of the WWE. Knowing that John Cena is capable of ending the streak, and how much that would upset some fans who take the streak seriously, it would provoke an emotional response out of the fans.

Booking the Match

It would take too long to go through the build up or preparation of the match week by week, but basically what the creative team would need to do is push that dread that the fans would have about the possibility of John Cena ending the streak.

I would push Super Cena to the max, obviously the chances of Vince McMahon turning his biggest money maker heel are virtually none, but John Cena has to be the one of the two that the fans are inclined to boo, because you're just not going to get a Wrestlemania crowd to boo the Undertaker over John Cena, there's too much respect there. So rather that make Cena into a heel character for the build up, you take the things about his character that have turned so many of the fans off of him and push those.

For example, the Undertaker could ambush John Cena in his normal lights out sneak attack fashion, where he would go for a chokeslam or a tombstone, and have John Cena power out of it, and hit a quick Attitude Adjustment. Also, during the match you could have a spot to provoke a reaction from the audience, about 20 minutes in the Undertaker could slap on his Hell's Gate submission hold which no-one has got out of, and have Cena no sell it, scoop Taker up and powerbomb him back down to the canvas. All of this adds to the illusion that Cena is going to be the man to beat the Undertaker at Wrestlemania.

But of course, Undertaker still gets the win and goes 19-0, the fans go home happy, have a spectacular main event, in a match that could or could not have a title involved, it doesn't really matter. Obviously, nothing can really "save" Cena now, but doing the job to the Undertaker might get some of the heat off of his back.

The Fortunate Sons
A new stable led by Ted DiBiase could be coming soon.

The Fortunate Sons

When WWE brought up Ted DiBiase from the developmental league, they made the smart move by putting him into a program with Randy Orton. Even though he was already well known because of his father, Ted DiBiase received quite a rub by being associated with one of the biggest stars in the company.

Many believed that the stable would be the vehicle in which WWE would use to turn Ted Dibiase into a main event wrestler.

That would not be the case.

In an attempt to rush a match for Wrestlemania 26, the company decided to break apart the Legacy stable. Cody Rhodes, Ted DiBiase, and Randy Orton were going to go their separate ways. Randy Orton remains a main event wrestler, but Cody Rhodes and Ted DiBiase, though, are still years away.

Since the company obviously can't turn back the hands of time and get Legacy back together, they are now looking into going forward with another stable.

This time, the stable is to be led by Ted DiBiase, who the company sees main event potential in. The group is to be called the Fortunate Sons, and the concept is going to be quite similar to the Legacy concept. Second generation wrestlers Joe Hennig and Brett DiBiase are both rumored to be called up to join the group.

Rhodes Block

Right now, management isn't quite sure what they're going to do with Cody Rhodes. The company has used the injury angle to keep him off of television while they decide on what to do.

Obviously, with his connection to Ted DiBiase, he's going to be mentioned as a potential member of the Fortunate Sons stable. After working together for a while now, the two do have some chemistry between them. Plus, the audience is already accustomed to seeing them together.

The fact that management hasn't figured out what to do with Cody Rhodes is another sign that they might just take the easy route and throw him into the stable.

With Ted DiBiase expected to get a singles push from the stable, don't expect to see him teaming up with Cody Rhodes. Joe Hennig and Brett DiBiase might not be developed enough to function as a tag team on their own, so Cody Rhodes could be used to pair up with one of them.

Back to Orton

For now, it appears as if the program between Randy Orton, Cody Rhodes, and Ted DiBiase is over.

Randy Orton is transitioning more into his babyface role. Ted DiBiase has apparently started a program with Christian. As stated before, Cody Rhodes is being kept off of television while the writers decide on his future.

The three of them will definitely have to come together again if the Fortunate Sons stable picks up steam.

It makes too much sense for the Fortunate Sons to feud with Randy Orton.

With a lot of fans still trying to get accustomed to Randy Orton as a babyface, it would make sense for him to play the disadvantaged star in peril. The four members of the Fortunate Sons could work together against Randy Orton. The audience would surely root for the "underdog" in that scenario.

John Cena is the WWE Heavyweight Champion right now. He's also a babyface. WWE rarely does programs between two babyfaces, so Randy Orton is going to need something to do while he's out of the title picture.

All the credit goes to WrestlingRevealed

Power 25 Divas - April 10th 2010

23 - Beth Phoenix
The Glamazon wanted to get her hands on Michelle McCool this week, but she had to settle for dismantling Layla on "WWE Superstars" instead.

22 - Maryse
The Divas Champion watched from ringside as Eve became the No. 1 contender to her title. Will Maryse be able to stop the beauty when they battle next week?

21 - Michelle McCool
The Women's Champion has no interest in facing Beth Phoenix and thanks to her alliance with Vickie Guerrero she may not have to.

19 - The Hart Dynasty: Kidd, Smith and Natalya
Ever since coming to the aid of Bret Hart at WrestleMania, The Hart Dynasty has been on a roll. They picked up another win this week over Caylen Croft & Trent Barreta.

15 - Straight Edge Society: CM Punk, Luke Gallows and Serena
This twisted trio decided to pick a fight with Rey Mysterio and has been paying for it ever since.

Almost Making the List
Eve - The beauty won the Red Carpet "Dress to Impress" Battle Royal on Raw, earning a Divas Championship Match next week.

All the credit goes to WWE.com

» Hailey's Newsies Issue 20 - April 12th 2009
» Hailey's Newsies - Issue 82 - Special Issue #5 - Diva/Knockout Awards Nominations April 2010
» Hailey's Newsies - Issue 70 - February 12th 2010
» Hailey's Newsies - Issue 81 - April 18th 2010
» Hailey's Newsies - Issue 79 - April 3rd 2010 - Huge Newsie!