Starting with the main event, I’ll go with Cena over Ryback.  This match is designed to have Cena go over a monster and look strong in the process.  The fact taht Ryback will have lost for the tenth straight month of PPVs in a row is an afterthought but Ryback means nothing anyway.  Cena wins the first fall, Ryback wins the second, Cena wins the third.  There’s nothing much to the match but it should be a fun garbage brawl.

Punk returns for the win to a big reaction from the hometown fans.  The interesting questions here are whether Punk shows up as well as what reaction Jericho will get.  Punk will clearly be the top star there, but can you imagine a bunch of smarks booing Chris Jericho?  The match should be awesome and Punk coming back is a big deal so this should be good.

I’ll take Shield to keep all of their titles with Orton taking the fall for the challengers.  Bryan is on fire but a tag title would be back to what he’s been doing for the better part of a year.  Kane will be a good first victim for Ambrose in his title reign.  The matches should be good and they’ve been well built up over the last few months.

Axel to win the title, which will be yet another death knell in his WWE run.  Miz continues to be nothing special in his face role, although I am glad to see the Skull Crushing Finale making a comeback.

AJ wins the title she should have won six months ago.

Ziggler retains the title as well to finally finish Del Rio.

Overall Payback should be entertaining but the numbers are going to SUCK.  No one is interested in the show because the world title has been a complete afterthought, making Punk vs. Jericho the default main event.  I don’t think anyone gives Ryback a chance but he has been doing better with his promos lately.

One of the other big matches on the show is the fourway for the tag titles with Chavo/Hernandez defending against Bad Influence, Bobby Roode/Austin Aries and the new team of Gunner/James Storm.  Adding Storm and Gunner brings some fresh blood into the mix, but the story still isn’t all that interesting.  Either way, they NEED to get the titles off Chavo and Hernandez, as they’re just not interesting at all.  Aside from Storm and Gunner, these same six guys have been feuding for what feels like ever and the story is very old already.  Let these guys fight different people over something a bit more important for a change.  As for the winners, I’ll go with Storm and Gunner, which is a shame as Storm could do so much more (once he’s healthy that is).

In Styles vs. AJ, I think it goes to Styles.  Angle doesn’t need the win and what good is AJ if he loses his first big match back from his pouting?  The Storm match he won was somewhat big but facing Angle on PPV is a bigger deal.  Anyway, I’ll go with Styles for the win here in what should be the match of the night.

Jeff Hardy is back in the six man tag with Joe/Magnus vs. Bischoff/Brisco/Anderson (Anderson is replacing Doc to give Aces and 8’s something resembling a chance).  There’s no reason at all for Aces and 8’s to win here and I can’t imagine they will, as Hardy needs to start getting revenge on Aces and 8’s and there’s no better place to start than here in a meaningless six man.  TNA wins, as they should.

I’ll take Park to win the TV Title, although it’s not like it really matters as he won’t defend the stupid thing.  I don’t get why TNA does this with so many TV Champions.  Joe defended it quite often and it made the belt seem valuable for a little while.  Anyway, Park wins, which will at least remind people that the belt exists.

Then there’s the X-Division Title match in an Ultimate X match with Kenny King defending against Chris Sabin and Suicide.  This is where the X-Division rules get on my nerves.  Sabin and King have a feud going, but we have to add Suicide to it to fulfill some requirement.  Suicide adds nothing to the match at all and is there just to fill in a spot.  I mean, was anyone begging for Suicide to come back?  The match would be fine as Sabin vs. King with Sabin being able to show that he isn’t frail and can still hang with anyone in the world.  Sabin should win the title and I think he will, although watch out for a surprise Suicide win.

Last Knockout standing between Gail Kim and Taryn Terrell: it makes sense for Taryn to win and set up the showdown with Mickie at BFG for the title so we’ll go with stupidity and logic by saying Taryn wins, but it’s really hard to care about this match for me.  I will however give them this: they’re doing a better job with building stories in the Knockouts division as it’s clear how we got here and it doesn’t feel like something we’ve seen a dozen times before.

Finally we have Sam Shaw vs. Jay Bradley in the BFG Gut Check Tournament final.  I’ll go with Bradley as he’s a better prospect and leave it at that, as this is just a match to determine who gets to be the jobber in the tournament while geting a single fluke win.

Overall Slammiversary should be ok as a show, but the buildup to it has done nothing for me.  The show feels like a filler PPV, which makes no sense for TNA given that they only have four shows a year.  Sting vs. Ray with Sting’s future title chances on the line again make it about Sting and not the title/champion, which is the way of life in TNA.  The whole Aces and 8’s story has taken so long to go anywhere (it began the show after last year’s Slammiversary) that it’s really hard to care at this point.  At the end of the day, it’s Sting/Hogan vs. the Dudley Boys and Anderson.  Other than that, there isn’t anyone in Aces and 8’s worth a thing and they’re fighting two of the biggest names ever.  TNA is rather dull right now because it takes forever to get anywhere with this lack of PPV, and now they use one on a Sting story.

Also I’ll take Jarrett or Angle for the Hall of Fame.

Cena to retain the title, but the feud continues next month.  It’s one of Cena’s signature matches and this should be a good brawl, but Cena keeps the belt.  This feud has been built up pretty horribly as Ryback has stopped doing everything that got him over in the first place.  Yeah he’s a heel now, but we can’t have him run over people as a heel.  That might make him interesting and seem like he’s someone that is a serious threat to Cena.  Lesnar tried that last year and he got stuck in the feud with HHH.

Del Rio over Swagger as we’re not going to see a heel vs. heel title match.  The fact that we’ve seen Del Rio make Swagger tap about five times now doesn’t help either.

The cage match is probably the hardest one to pick.  On one hand, HHH winning makes sense as the hero is supposed to beat the monster in the end.  On the other hand, it’s Brock Lesnar in a cage.  I know HHH has a huge ego, but I don’t think they’re going to let him beat Lesnar in a match like this.  The ads for the show have built it up as winning by escape, which makes me think it’s like Snuka vs. Muraco back in 83: HHH gets destroyed but Lesnar does something stupid and HHH escapes.  That would make Lesnar look stupid and incompetent, so it sounds perfect.

In what sounds like the best match of the night, I’ll flip a coin and say Sheamus beats Henry, only to be destroyed post match.  These two know how to work a hard fought match together and the straps will make things better.  They’re pushing the idea of Henry being strong enough to move anything so there’s already a decent story there.  This is using the old theory of taking two big guys and having them beat on each other for ten minutes.  There’s nothing wrong with that and this should be rather entertaining.

As for Big Show vs. Orton, I’ll take Big Show in a gut instinct.  Orton can lose time after time and keep his crowd reaction, so we can have Big Show win here and set up a rematch later on.  Big Show wins here in another entertaining match.

I think Jericho gets his win back over Fandango here as there’s really nowhere else to go for the feud.  Fandango would be a good candidate to go after the US Title had it not been for Ambrose getting the shot.  Then again Fandango was at the top of his game about four weeks ago when they should have pulled the trigger, but this is WWE so instead they turned a quick mainstream fad into something corporate and killed it faster than a vampire at the beach.  Jericho wins here but Fandango can easily bounce back.

Speaking of the Shield, it’s their night and they all come out with gold here.  Ambrose is seemingly getting the rocket push and the US Title is a great place to start.  As for the tag belts, they’re so far overdue for a change that their engines are about to explode.  Shield should win all three belts, if nothing else to make those titles main event belts.  Shield vs. HELL NO in rematches could easily headline a house show.

Overall, the show looks pretty good other than the top two matches.  This card is very indicative of the problems with WWE in general at the moment: the HHH vs. Lesnar feud is dragging everything else down and Ryback isn’t helping anything either.  It also shows the problem with having gimmick matches to start a feud: there’s no need for Cena vs. Ryback to start a feud with a last man standing match.  That’s the kind of a match that ends a feud, not gets it going.  The rest of the show should be entertaining and fun though, as the talent pool is as deep as it’s been in years in today’s WWE.

Thoughts/predictions?

The main problem here though is this feels like it’s just there to set up Mania 30 next year for the really big blowout.  That’s fine for people who are going (like me), but for fans going tomorrow it’s going to be a bit of a letdown.  That being said, it’s definitely going to be entertaining as every match would have to completely bomb for it not to work.  It’s going to be WAY better than #27, not as good as #26 or #28 and probably better than #25, which isn’t bad by comparison.

The show is going to be good but not great, and sometimes that’s as good as you’re going to be able to get.  I’m looking forward to it of course.  It’s Wrestlemania.  How can you not be fired up for it?

All that being said, I’m fine with the match happening again.  These complaints of the match being stale or played out are pretty ridiculous considering we’ve seen them fight ONCE in a a year and that match drew more money than any other match ever.  Again, we haven’t seen them fight in over a year and that match was an instant classic.  But somehow this match is stale because….it just is right?  Anyway the match itself should be fine.

As for the big question about it: no, I don’t see Cena doing the turn.  I see this being more like Wrestlemania 8 where Roddy Piper picked up the bell, looked at it, and sat it down instead if giving into the demons.  Granted he lost about ten seconds later but at least he had a clean conscience.  The main thing to remember abotu Cena becoming the villain is there’s no one ready to take his place on top of the company.  Cena is way too big of a cash cow for WWE and in his own words:

“”I just don’t see me getting there in order to please a very small group of 30-year-olds.”

That’s what it boils down to.  A lot of fans REALLY like John Cena.  He appeals to kids, he appeals to women, he appeals to families.  Cena is built up as a role model and he’s done that for years.  Yeah, the turn would be shocking.  Then three months would go by and where would we be then?  We would have a small group of 30-year-olds cheering for him and a bunch of people not buying his merchandise.  WWE is too smart to cater to such a small group of fans and at the end of the day, the right move is for Cena to stay where he is, at least until someone new is ready.

As for the match, I can’t imagine Rock keeping the title.  I just can’t.  Rock can’t be world champion long term because of his movie schedule, so you can’t expect him to keep the title even longer.  Also Cena has earned a big win as he hasn’t been champion in a LONG time.  Think about it.  Since Money in the Bank 2011, Cena has been world champion for 34 days, and 20 of those were spent as co champion with Punk.  His last title reign that went longer than three months?  The year long one which ended in 2007.  It’s been a very long time since Cena had an extended reign as world champion and it’s his time again.  Cena wins, as he should.

Speaking of Swagger’s matches, they’re a big problem as well.  Swagger is still having the same matches that he’s been having for years now which while ok, don’t scream world champion at me.  The Patriot Lock is good enough, but as a rule you don’t see top faces tap in big matches.  Thankfully Jack has the gutwrench bomb to get a pin with as well as various cheating tactics.  That doesn’t mean the match is going to be good, but at least it could work better than other things they might try.

Another problem is this “feud” and character have only been around for a few months.  Swagger wasn’t ready to make the jump up from where he was when he came back to a world title match at Wrestlemania.  This is reminiscent of JBL back in 2004 as he went from an old character to a brand new one to a world title match in just a few months.  That isn’t a good idea as there are no roots for this new character.  We haven’t seen him do anything other than hound Del Rio, so it’s hard to get into this revenge feud.  Swagger hasn’t done enough to earn vengeance yet.

The last problem with this is also because of the build.  As I mentioned, the problem has really been between the managers.  The broken ankle helped things, but the money move in this feud was to have Colter get Ricardo deported so Rodriguez could return at Wrestlemania and destroy Colter for good.  The ankle….eh it happened and was a good moment but they haven’t really done anything with it since.  I’m sure the managers will get into it on the floor during the match as well.

As for the match…..I think Swagger takes it.  Yeah he’s got the DUI hanging over him, but I’m thinking WWE rolls the dice on him anyway.  The other factor is that on top of the card, there’s no other heel that looks likely to win.  Swagger is the only heel who you could put over to keep every good guy from winning which never happens.  The feud will of course continue at Extreme Rules, and hopefully Jack isn’t nearly as dull as champion as he was a few years back.

The thing about Shield though is they can only do these six man matches against dream teams for so long.  They’ve done two already before this show and you can only buy them as unbeatable for so long.  Either that or we’re going to run out of combinations to fight them in big matches.  My guess is either way, soon after this we get an amicable separation by Shield to go after some singles gold, perhaps feuding with Cena in singles PPV matches over the summer.  It’s clear Reigns is going to be a big deal and the other two are going to be well pushed also, but the question is when and against whom.

As for the match, I’ll take Shield to win with Orton turning on his partners.  Over the last few weeks he’s been playing the peacemaker between the big guys, which makes him the least likely suspect, which makes him the most potential heel out of the bunch.  Like it or not, that’s WWE logic for you and odds are it’s how things are going to go.  Big Show regularly changes from face to heel every three months or so and Sheamus is still very over as a good guy, so that really just leaves Orton.  I’m not sure if it happens during or after the match, but I definitely think it happens and Shield gets the win before breaking up on good terms.

Ryback NEEDS this win far more than Henry does.  Mark is old and banged up and likely doesn’t have much more time in the company.  Ryback on the other hand has a good chance of being one of the top stars in the company for a few years to come.  A win over Henry would have meant a lot more a year ago, but here it still means a lot and the Shell Shock can be the signature spot for him for a long time to come.  Big moves like that at Wrestlemania have done a lot for guys in the past, so why not do it again here?

As for the match, if it’s somehow not clear yet, Ryback wins with the Shell Shock.  He definitely needs this match more than Henry, as Ryback hasn’t had a big win since…..before the Cell?  The big question is can he pull the move off without botching it badly?  Henry is another guy like Jericho who can do as many jobs as you ask him to do and he’s still going to be a solid threat because of how big and powerful he is.  He’ll also look good here because Ryback can throw him around like the monster that he is.  These matches can work wonders for someone and I think that’s what’s going to happen for Ryback……assuming he can hit the Shell Shock.

Now the main idea here is that one way or another, we need new tag champions.  Kane and Bryan have held the belts for like six months now and it’s WAY past the point where they should have dropped them.  The champions aren’t funny anymore, they’re not really fighting, their matches are nothing special, and the joke is way past over.  I don’t see why we’re sitting around watching them anymore when they’re not doing anything of note and haven’t been for months now.  If Langston and Ziggler don’t take the gold from them, hopefully someone does so soon.

As for the match, I’ll go with the unlikely idea of new champions.  It’s pure instinct which is rarely right but I can’t go with the champions retaining again after all these months.  Ziggler has been on a very small roll so maybe they’ll FINALLY give him something instead of just having him hold up a dented briefcase for nine months and hoping we think that means something.  Then again there isn’t much to the tag titles so it doesn’t fix anything, but in WWE’s eyes the gold is enough to make you mean whatever they want you to mean.  The titles change here methinks.

Oh and I’ve heard rumors of making this a six person tag with AJ and Kaitlyn being added to make it winner takes all titles.  If that’s the case, I’d bet on the heels taking the belts even more.  AJ is a good five months past being the best option for the title, but at least she would be better (and look better) than Kaitlyn.

On top of that, the stipulation of HHH’s career being on the line really doesn’t add much because HHH is already retired for all intents and purposes.  He wrestled twice last year and I think four times on TV the year before.  Putting his career on the line is nowhere near the same as when Flair or Michaels did it as they were both active competitors.  I get what they’re going for with the added stipulation, but at the end of the day the match isn’t very exciting at all.  It’s the same thing we saw and were bored by eight months ago with HHH trying and likely failing to have the big epic showdown he’s hoping for.

As for Lesnar, the problem is very simple: what does he gain from this match?  He’s already beaten HHH once and has done nothing else for the rest of his time in the company other than lose to Cena.  Why in the world would you have someone like that with that much money being spent on him in the same feud for the better part of a year with the match not being great?  It seems like such a waste, but given the millions he’s making a match, can you blame Brock for doing stupid matches like these?

The build has been nothing special either as it feels like they’re trying to recreate what happened last year with Taker vs. HHH.  The idea of the feud is that Brock beat up HHH last summer and now HHH wants a rematch to prove how awesome he is.  The idea of HHH fighting for Vince’s honor doesn’t do much for me and neither does Shawn being in his heterosexual life mate’s corner.  It’s going to be a lot of what we saw before with Shawn likely superkicking Heyman at some point.  I wouldn’t be surprised to see Stephanie and Vince make appearances during the match as well.

As for the match itself, I can’t imagine HHH losing.  He’s 43 years old and can still put on good matches which give younger guys a solid rub as a result.  As stupid of an idea as it would be to have Lesnar go 1-2 in his first year back with the company and waste two of those matches on HHH of all people, I can’t picture it going any other way.  HHH is going to get back in the ring again which is the right move, but at this price I’m not sure if it’s worth it.  Either way the match will be very physical but likely not live up to the standards they’ve set for the match, as HHH’s “epic” matches rarely work at all.