WrestleMania Finalized & The Week Is Done

Its Friday afternoon and the work week is less than two hours away from being done. The team and I have produced and uploaded one Hell of a paper this week, if I do say so myself. With that, I thought it was time to hit the old blog and share some thoughts on the weekend, the WWE and WrestleMania.

So lets start with Mania. Seems that with each post I write, the WWE creative team reveals a new match or two. But now, after weeks of storyline development and exposure, the card for WrestleMania 24 is completely finalized. The only thing left unknown at the time of this writing is who will be taking the 8th spot in the Money In The Bank Ladder match. That vacant spot was already filled by Jeff Hardy, but as you've read in my last entry, he's been suspended for 60 days for violating the WWE Wellness Policy. I have my vote on who'll take that spot and you'll see it below.

Once again, here is the card for WrestleMania 24, updated and (hopefully) finalized:

1. World Heavyweight Championship match, Edge (C) vs. The Undertaker
2. WWE Championship match, Triple Threat rules, Randy Orton (C) vs. Triple H vs. John Cena
3. Special Attraction match, The Big Show vs. Floyd "Money" Mayweather
4. Career Threatening match, Ric Flair vs. Shawn Michaels
5. Smackdown vs. Raw match, Batista (S) vs. Umaga (R)
6. Money In The Bank Ladder match, Chris Jericho vs. Ken Kennedy vs. Carlito vs. Shelton Benjamin vs. CM Punk vs. MVP vs. John Morrison vs. 1 more wrestler to be announced
7. Bunnymania Lumberjack match, Candice Michelle & Maria vs. Beth Phoenix & Melina
8. Belfast Brawl match, Finlay vs. JBL
9. 24-Man Battle Royal, Winner faces ECW Champion Chavo Guerrero immediately afterward
10. ECW Title match, Chavo Guerrero (C) vs. Battle Royal winner

So there you go. That is the card for this year's extravaganza. I gotta say, this has a chance to be one of the best Manias in the last few years. I felt that Mania 23 had the wrong main event, which hurt its overall grading in my opinion, and that Mania 22 underdelivered in many aspects. People can debate, argue and blog all they want about how WrestleMania will "suck", "fail" and "be ruined cuz of John Cena's lack of ability", but there's no denying that the WWE is looking to put the "wrestle" back into the show. As for the addition of a Battle Royal, how can you go wrong with that? The earliest editions of WrestleMania featured them, and it always brought fans to their feet. I like the reward of the winner facing Chavo Guerrero for the ECW Title. It may come off as an excuse to have the ECW Title featured on the card, but at least its being done in a creative way, as opposed to just some random one-on-one match. And though many die-hard loyalists look at the WWE's version of ECW as a glorified farm league, I'm personally glad that they're giving the brand, and its World Title, the opportunity to perform at the biggest show of them all, even though I myself don't watch ECW.

The other thing I was going to touch on was the last participant for the MITB Ladder match. In my last entry, I left a cliffhanger of sorts by indicating that Rob Van Dam should return and fight the match. However, due to the events of ECW and tonight's (taped) Smackdown, the 6th and 7th wrestlers now in it are CM Punk and John Morrison. Good choices, because this is obviously a crash-n-burn match that will have a number of spectacular moves on display, and Punk and Morrison are young, athletic and deserve the exposure. On the other hand, I had originally thought that Punk would face off against ECW Champion Guerrero, while Morrison would be featured in a WWE Tag Team Titles match with his partner, The Miz. The spots would then be filled by Matt Hardy and Kane. But now that Jeff Hardy is suspended, and there's only one spot left remaining, I'm pretty sure that it'll still go to Matt Hardy because he's ready to return and it'd be a good opportunity to reignite the feud he had with MVP, which would spill into the MITB match and lead to a singles match at the Backlash PPV for the United States Title. Yeah, I'd love it if RVD returned, and so would millions of other fans, but it won't be at WrestleMania.

Anyway, since it IS Friday, I'm not too sure what to do with this weekend. Well, I know what I'm doing tonight, just not sure about Saturday and Sunday.

At my lunch break, I rented two movies that I've been wanting to see for a long while. "Hitman" and "Into The Wild". I've heard mediocre things about "Hitman", which is an action flick that was adapted from the video game series, but I'll judge for myself. The problem that most people have about movie criticizing is that they refuse to understand the specific genre that a movie is aiming to live up to. General comments like "That movie SUCKED!", "What a waste of time!", and "It wasn't what I thought it was" drive me nuts. Whenever I watch a movie, I'm not expecting to be satisfied all the time. I'll watch it, turn the TV off (or leave the theater), and make my own judgment on it. The only difference is, I back up what I say and I'll always give you reasons as to why I found it either uninteresting, boring, or "sucky". Do I expect to like "Hitman"? Yes. I'm a fan of the game franchise and I was genuinely interested when I saw previews and trailers for the film. But time will tell.

As for "Into The Wild", this is one that I've been dying to see for months. Its directed by Sean Penn, and is the true story of a young man named Christopher McCandless (spelling?), who made a choice to explore the Alaskan wilderness and live there. The entire soundtrack is by Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam, so right there I'm hooked. I've heard a lot of good things about the film, and a friend of mine said that he almost cried in the end. Wow. That's good enough for me. I'm not afraid of watching a film that may induce tears. Hell, I nearly welled up in the final scenes of "Man On Fire" with Denzel Washington. I can't wait.

As for the rest of the weekend, I may hit the city tomorrow to buy some clothes, and maybe a couple movies. One thing that I am upset about is that "There Will Be Blood" is now finished playing at the Capitol Theater. Just when I have time to finally see it, it's OVER. Dammit....

Anyway, those are said plans for the next 48 hours. Hope everyone has a gooder.

Keep 'em laughin',
Derek

Busy Weekend, But That's What They're For

Right now, I'm sitting in my office typing this after "the crew" and I have completed production on another week's issue of The Outlook. Pretty good issue, I'm proud of it. Very local-oriented.

So with that, the work week (pretty much) comes to an end. I now find myself having to fill the next two days with things to do and people to see. Which makes me glad that I've already figured out my weekend plans. So many times before, I'd find myself watching a movie or playing video games on Sunday nights, thinking I could have done so much more with the weekend. But most times I'm limited in the socializing department because my best friends live away from home. Chris in Saskatoon, Kyle in Swift Current. But I make do with where I am and what I have.

Luckily, Conquest Merchants games and having an extensive, ever-expanding DVD library work with me, not against. Its always great heading down to the rink on a Friday night, seeing the same people in nearly the same places, and watching the game, regardless if Conquest wins or not. And then going home and throwing a movie into the DVD player is always great. My problem is that I never seem to know what I want to watch. Comedy? Action? Documentary? Horror? If you've ever seen the collection, then you know what I'm talking about. My brothers will ask to borrow a movie and then spend five minutes standing in front of all of them, going through each shelf before finally deciding.

This weekend is planned out pretty well, IMO. Tonight, I'm seeing the Merchants play host to the Kenaston Blizzards and then watching either "Heat" or "The Godfather II". Yes, I still haven't decided. But I'm leaning towards "Heat" at the moment, though an hour from now I could be in the mood for some Corleone crime family shenanigans.

Tomorrow, I currently plan on going up to Saskatoon with my brother Brendon to do some window shopping, though I intend on picking up one of my favorite movies of 2007 on DVD, "3:10 To Yuma". From there, the two of us are planning on seeing two movies over at the Galaxy theater - the mysterious monster movie "Cloverfield" and Sylvester Stallone's return to ass-kickery in "Rambo". After that, we'll most likely grab some supper and head home, to once again see the Merchants play at the rink.

On Sunday, I'm hoping to order the WWE's annual PPV extravaganza, the Royal Rumble. Thirty men enter the ring, and only one man stands tall in the end. This is the first year in a very long time that I have absolutely no idea who is going to win it, though I'm leaning towards Triple H, the Undertaker or Batista taking it.

With that, the weekend will be over at that point, but at least I can say it was well-spent, unlike many times before.

Talk to you next week. Until then...

Keep 'em laughin',
Derek