The Ace of Knaves
Getting Noticed By Management
First and foremost, I'd like to apologize for being so cynical earlier. It was rude of me, and I'm sorry for it.
Second, even if WWE wants to further delay Cena vs Taker at WM, that would be a bad idea. As reported in wrestlezone.com, The Wrestling Observer is reporting that although the first 11 rows of the Georgia Dome in Atlanta have been sold for WrestleMania 27, there are still plenty of tickets left available throughout the arena for the big event. This has by no means been a normal sellout in terms of early ticket sales like it has been in the past for WrestleMania.
Wrestlemania 25 only generated 960,000 PPV buys. This amount was less than the 1,058,000 buys that WrestleMania XXIV achieved. And Wrestlemania XXVI was even worse, only 885,000 buys. This figure is down from WrestleMania XXV's figure of 960,000 buys.
Gone are the days when Wrestlemania would sell out "in minutes" just because it was Wrestlemania and we knew we were going to get a helluva show full of "epic matches", celebrity guests, live music acts, Vince getting his, and a "shock of the year".
This year (uh, next year, I mean) we can look forward to no Shawn Michaels, no Chris Jericho, no Batista, perhaps no Triple H, maybe no Undertaker (though those two will probably be back before WM), perhaps no CM Punk (depending on his injury rehab) and Christian, no "epic" storyline involving Vince getting his comeuppance, no celebrities, no live music acts, no "big show" atmosphere, just a very expensive extended episode of RAW.
WWE PPVs, for the most part, have been very lackluster this year. The WWE has been in a creative rut this year, recycling storylines and feuds, overexposing their biggest stars, and failing to generate much excitement with their new performers. Their biggest angle this year (Nexus and Cena forced to join them) has failed to deliver on its promise and has become boring and stale. And I'm sure you already know WWE's PPV buyrate slipped 16% this year. There's only one match that can save Wrestlemania 27 and WWE still needs to grow their balls to even realize it. The Streak match, if utilized right like the last two WM, can sell a PPV on its own (again like the last two WM). And Barrett vs Taker is definitely no bigger of a draw compared to Taker vs Cena or Taker vs Y2J...well, mainly Taker vs Cena, though.
And unless the main event is Cena vs The Undertaker or The Rock comes back to wrestle a match, WM27 will be a failure compared to WMs of the past.
For the five talentless giants part, I have to disagree again:
1) Mark Henry (Wrestlemania 22)
This match and feud could have done wonder for Mark Henry's career but unfortunately it did not. This was probably the biggest chance of Mark Henry's career to finally to prove to all of this that this guy could actually wrestle and could be one of the top wrestlers in the WWE. But the matches was very disappointing and a complete wasted year of The Undertaker's matches at Wrestlemania. WWE had the chance to book actual great competition to face The Undertaker at Wrestlemania 22 like having The Undertaker face Kurt Angle, Booker T, Chris Benoit or someone else. This match was a complete joke The Undertaker had to carry this match which was probably one of the hardest things to do since not only is Mark Henry a super-heavyweight wrestler and he isn't skilled, The Undertaker wasn't in the best of shape neither. To make the matter worse, Henry is still a lower mid-carder until now. And in the end of 2006, he blatantly admitted on an interview that he didn't care his Wrestlemania 22 push was a failure cause he only did it for money. Not only this match will probably go down as the worst casket matches of all time, one of the worst Wrestlemania matches of all time, and one of the worst matches of all time, Taker also didn't gain anything by defeating an ungrateful and underachieved lower mid-carder.
2) A-Train (Wrestlemania IX)
What a joke to The Undertaker's Wrestlemania streak and Wrestlemania in general. Did anyone else remember that this match was shorter then the dark match for Wrestlemania. Yes. this match was nothing special and to prove it name one time that someone actually mementionhis match...exactly no one cares or cared about this match because it was an average match and dididn'tive The Undertaker's streak any crcredibilityr help there so called careers at this point. The idea of this being called a feud is a complete joke if you ask me. I don't even remember the build up for this feud. How the hell the greats Taker actually shared history with like Stone Cold, Mankind, Bret Hart, and Kurt Angle never got to face Taker at Mania but A-Train did? A-Train left WWE soon thereafter as a lower mid-carder. What credibility did Taker gain by defeating someone maybe half the fans won't even remember cause he never actually did anything worthy?
3) Giant Gonzales (Wrestlemania IX) .
You would think that they would have good chemistry since they were both tall wrestlers...but they didn'tThe match was horrible if you ask me and I am surprise I didn't hear the boring chants all the way through out the match. This is acknowledged as the worst The Undertaker match of all time. This match was just simply nothing special no good back and fourth action with this match the crowd was dead. If you ask me The Undertaker's entrances more historic, exciting and better then the actual match. Don't forget the ending
This match was simply Taker's worst ever, nothing else come even close. Gonzales is often labeled as the worst big man wrestler ever and also one of the worst gimmicks ever. What credibility Taker acquire by defeating such a bozo who never won anything?4. King Kong Bundy (Wrestlemania XI)
King Kong Bundy was in the WWF in the mid 90s simply because Vince McMahon at that time was having financial trouble with his company, and he was desperately attempting to keep some of the attention from the 80s that WWF had gotten. King Kong Bundy was a main character in the 80s, and Vince had him around...but it was obvious Bundy wasn't going to do a thing in WWF in the 90s. It was obvious Vince McMahon just wanted Taker to have a match at Wrestlemania 11, so he threw in another monster at him hoping the fans would buy into the fact that Undertaker would have some trouble against Bundy..but the fans weren't buying it, it was obvious Taker was going to win that match. We should have seen Taker vs Bret instead this match and Bret vs Backlund for the 100000th time. I mean, what kind of credibility Taker have by defeating Bundy, anyway? He's only poor man Andre The Giant.
5. Big Boss Man (Wrestlemania XV)
Even until this very second, I still wholeheartedly believe Vince preferring Big Boss Man instead of Mankind to face Undertaker at Wrestlemania 15 was one of Vince's stupidest decisions of all time. Instead of making a storyline where Vince hired Mankind as his bodyguard to face Undertaker at WM 15, Vince actually believed a feud with Taker would bring Big Boss Man to the main event scene. Trading a guaranteed Wrestlemania match of a lifetime for the worst Hell In A Cell match ever which remains The Undertaker's only Wrestlemania match to receive 'boring!' chants from the fans. What a decision, Vince. How come Taker gain even an ounce of credibility when his match was booed 'boring' by the crowd and his opponent was a lower mid-carder until his death?
