Can They Be Champ? 12.18.07: The Road Begins

I was at Armageddon on Sunday. Despite some of the screwy finishes, I still managed to enjoy myself a good bit. The HHH/Hardy and HBK/Kennedy matches were a lot of fun. Orton/Jericho was awesome. It’s a shame the match was tarnished by the JBL interference. I kind of selfishly hope that the rumors about him returning to the ring aren’t true. I enjoy JBL more as an announcer than an in-ring performer.

The triple threat was fun, and I didn’t notice the two other Edges until after the match was over. Having Edge win was the right choice. It looks like Edge vs. Taker is getting closer and closer to being a sure thing for WM24.

The crowd was pretty weak, though. Pops and chants were few and far between. Worse yet, I had some Attitude Era fans sitting beside me. You know, the guys who watched wrestling back in the late 90’s, but now only go to local shows. The whole night they would randomly shout things “Rock Bottom” or “Mankind”. Shoot me.

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Larry and his wife have a new podcast up! This time they talk about Armageddon, praising the action while condemning the booking. Sounds about right.

TO STREAM: Simply press the play button on the podcast player.

TO DOWNLOAD: Right click on the DOWNLOAD HERE link below and then save the mp3 file to your computer.

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DOWNLOAD HERE

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I don’t really have a clear cut subject for tonight. I’m going to free form it up. Let’s just let things flow and see what happens.

Jericho vs. Orton. They really booked themselves into a corner with that one. Jericho is brought back with much fanfare, claiming to “save us” from the evil Orton. Unfortunately, the WWE needs to start thinking about WrestleMania, which they need a match for. Now, there are two ways you can go about booking a one vs. one WrestleMania main event.

1. You go with the classic heel vs. face match (preferably with the heel being the current champion).
2. You do face vs. face, but those two faces better be as over as hell, and they better have had practically no contact in the ring before.

Face vs. Face is out for WM24. Cena vs. HHH 2 could have worked, but he’s injured. What else could they do? Michaels vs. HHH? Been done to death. Jeff vs. HHH? We just had that for free.

Of course, there is the possible HHH vs. Batista match, and while the two have fought before, it has been awhile. People may be ready for a rematch. It’s not a match I would personally like to see. But it would draw buyers.

Actually, now that the Royal Rumble match will be Orton vs. Hardy, it looks like HHH is going to be the challenger going into WrestleMania 24. Unless he wins the title on Raw or something crazy. No Way out is supposed to be headlined by an Elimination Chamber match, where the winner gets a shot at whatever title wasn’t claimed by the Royal Rumble winner. I guess there could be a WWE title match there, but I doubt it.

I think it’s far more likely that we’re going to see a heel vs. face match. So, who will the heel be? Well, tell me, who could it be besides Orton? He’s pretty much the only heel he’s even close to WrestleMania main event caliber on Raw. Mr. Kennedy is nowhere near ready. Hopefully is program with HBK will help him get there, but it’s going to take some work. Who else? Umaga? He just lost to Ric Flair. I think his stock has fallen quite bit this past year.

The heel has to be Orton. That said, I really think Orton will be the champion going into WrestleMania. I think it’s safe to say that HHH will be his opponent. Orton will have already feuded with all of the other big faces (Micahels, Jericho, and Hardy). True, HHH and Orton had those two matches that one night, but I think the match could still draw.

For what it’s worth, I feel pretty confident that HHH will be the winner of this year’s Royal Rumble. That will get Orton vs. HHH going. Then Undertaker will win the Elimination Chamber at No Way Out, which will get Edge vs. Taker going.

Hey, not bad. I’ve pretty much been rambling and I’ve already come up with two confident predictions for WrestleMania 24. While I’m at it, why don’t I throw down some more WM24 predictions?

• The IC belt will not be defended.
• Money in the Bank will happen one more time. Despite it being totally logical, the winner of the match will not cash in immediately after the night’s main event.
• Bobby Lashley will win Money in the Bank. God, I hope I’m wrong on that one.
• Ric Flair will have his “retirement” match against Shawn Michaels.
• The buy rate will be down from last year is Cena is not apart of the show.
• Stone Cold Steve Austin will make some sort of arbitrary appearance. We’ll all love it anyways.

Man, I am good.

This email is a couple weeks old, so forgive Seth for predicting Armageddon events.
What about this scenario?

At Armageddon, most likely, Orton retains. Probably dirty. But he retains. You’re right. I can’t see Jericho having much of a program with Hardy or HHH. (Getting side-tracked. For Raw, what kind of mind game would it have been if Orton had suggested Ric Flair as Jericho’s opponent! Jericho would have HAD to throw the match, or something. Would’ve been great.)

Back to the issue at hand. Orton retains at Armageddon.
HHH beats Hardy, clean, after a hard-fought bought. They hug.

Rumble: HHH wins the title. Hardy wins the Rumble.
Raw after Rumble: HHH congratulates, then Pedigrees, Hardy. Boom. Instant heat.
Who wins at Mania? No clue. But that would be a great set=up. Bringing it full-circle, Hardy wins the title. Maybe it’s not a long run, but it would be pretty sweet.

So. That’s how I would book the Mania main event. But I’m not a WWE writer. Maybe Hornswoggle will win the Rumble and battle HHH at Mania for the title and the company, or something like that.
– Seth Roy
I’m sorry that I had to print this after Armageddon happened. Still, you predictions weren’t all that far fetched. Although I never really thought that we were going to see HHH vs. Hardy at WM24.

Keep the e-mails coming. . The Royal Rumble is the next PPV, which makes me happy. That’s always my favorite wrestling event of the year.

So long, fair well, good bye.