Then there’s this.A year ago I was as fired up for a match as I’ve ever been because of Cena vs. Rock.  I didn’t know if it was going to be good or bad, but I needed to see it one way or another.  That being said, the feeling isn’t there this year.  I’m not saying I don’t want to see the match because I do and there’s no way this won’t be good.  The problem is there’s nothing separating this match from last year’s version.  Yeah it’s for the title, and maybe 10% of the promos have been about said title.  It’s not adding anything and is the definition of a prop to set up this match.

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.

Yeah this match is happening too.This is such a dull feud after a very hot start.  There are multiple problems at the end of the day with the match, but the worst of all is fans aren’t getting behind Del Rio.  A lot of the fans agree with what Swagger and Colter are saying and that’s not a good sign when you’re looking for a new top face draw in Alberto.  This brings us to another problem: all the heat is on Colter.  Swagger basically just stands around and says WE THE PEOPLE before getting into the ring for the same matches he’s been having for months.  The real issue here seems to be between the managers instead of between the wrestlers in the match and that’s not a good sign.

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.

If there’s a potential show stealer out there, this is it.Shield has been as dominant as any new group of people I’ve seen in years.  They came in and have instantly been treated like a killing machine.  Look at the names they’ve taken out: Ryback, Rock, Cena, Bryan, Kane, and now they have a shot at Orton, Sheamus and Big Show.  The questions to this match are will Shield stay undefeated and who, if anyone, is going to turn on their partners.  At the end of the day, it’s really hard to buy Orton, Big Show and Sheamus as working together well enough to do something Cena couldn’t accomplish.  The KO punch is certainly a wildcard though as it’s knocked out Reigns and Rollins before.

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.

At least it isn’t called the Colossal Jostle.There isn’t as much to say about this one.  At the end of the day this is one of those matches that is there to give us a cool visual rather than have a competitive match.  I don’t think it’s any secret that the odds say the match ends with a big old Shell Shock on the big old Henry, and that’s the right call for this match.  It shouldn’t run more than seven minutes tops, as you don’t want to expose either of these guys as being as limited in the ring as they actually are.

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.

This could go more than one way.First and foremost this is one of the matches that depends on where it is on the card.  If it’s late in the show, I can’t imagine we don’t see new champions.  If it’s earlier on in the show, I think the champions retain and Ziggler walks out with a title later on in the form of the Smackdown big gold belt.  This is also interesting because it’s the in ring debut of Langston, who has had some very entertaining matches down in NXT.  I’m not sure if we’re going to see the fun Langston or another generic power guy, but either way it should be fun.

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.

Now stop me if you’ve heard this one before.Brock Lesnar debuted a year ago and this is his second feud.  He’s spent roughly eleven months feuding with HHH over something that I’m still not entirely clear on.  I think Lesnar started this because he was mad about HHH running the show and then beat him up at Summerslam, but now it’s about revenge for Vince.  Or something.  Anyway, we saw these two have a No DQ match at Summerslam which was nothing all that exciting at all.

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.

This is quite the debut match.Fandango is Johnny Curtis in another new gimmick as a dancer (I’ll give them this: they’re repackaging him over and over until he finds something that works.  It’s VERY refreshing to see someone getting a new gimmick for a change instead of the same failing gimmick pounded into the ground.  Look at someone like Chris Masters.  There’s obviously talent there but WWE wouldn’t let him have anything but “he’s muscular and strong”.  A gimmick change can do wonders for a guy) who won’t wrestle until someone pronounces his name right.  Jericho, ever the smart aleck, mispronounced his name over and over, finally making Fandango snap.

This is a match which could go either way.  If the Fandango character is deemed a failure, Jericho goes over.  However, Jericho is the undisputed king of the jobbers and is willing to put over anyone on two legs at a moment’s notice.  It’s not like Jericho’s character is going to lose his status with a loss here either as he’s firmly in the legend status where he could lose every week for a year and still be at the same level.  The build for this has been pretty solid with Fandango being so over the top that he’s very entertaining.  The problem for him is likely to be his in ring work, which from what I saw at a house show in February is bad at best and depressing at worst.

As for the winner, I’ve got to go with Fandango.  He’s been built up too well and it’s clear that WWE sees something in him, given the amount of times they’ve repackaged him over the last few years.  Jericho is likely leaving again to do band stuff, so a loss and post match beatdown could very well be likely.  The match is likely to be entertaining because of both guys being such entertaining characters.  Fandango wins and should send Jericho part of his paycheck every week for a year as a result for putting him over like this at Wrestlemania.

I wouldn’t be surprised to see this get bumped to the pre-show as well.This is the big return of the Bellas in what is supposed to be part of the resurgence of the Divas division by giving the Funkadactyls a rub.  The problem with that theory is that no one is going to care about any Diva if they’re treated like schmucks like Kaitlyn.  As for the male counterparts…..eh.  Tons of Funk are a glorified comedy team with the dancing stuff but the kids like them a lot in the same vein of Rikishi and Too Cool back in the day.  The Scholars on the other hand are back together and still losing almost every time they’re out there.  I’m hoping the team is done for good after this so we can get them doing something worthwhile.  Given that the tag division reboot is dead, having them as singles guys is the only thing left for them.

As for the match, I think it goes to the dancing team, presumably with Naomi getting the win.  It’s clear that WWE sees them as the next big thing in the Divas division.  She got a spot in a PPV title match late last year and was showcased in the tag match on Monday.  She’s much better in the ring than Cameron, but Cameron is better in the looks department which tends to be the bigger deal anymore.  This isn’t going to be much of a match and it might get eight minutes at most.  I’d bet on the dancers to win though, if nothing else for the big dance party post match.

What better place to start a preview than with the match that starts before the actual show?I’m still not entirely sure what these guys are fighting over.  I’d assume it was the movies they were in, but it’s not like that’s been mentioned for two weeks or so.  Barrett has been champion for months now and at times I forget he even has the belt since he loses so many non-title matches, including one to Miz a few weeks ago on Raw.  The idea is supposed to be that Miz is some kind of Figure Four master or whatever, even though he’s used the move for like three months and has only been decent at it for about two of those, so look for a lot of Figure Four attempts.

There’s a reason this match is going to be on the pre-show.  Not many people are interested in seeing it, it’s not going to be much in terms of quality, the title means next to nothing, we saw this match two weeks ago, and Barrett is a lame champion.  I’ll go with Miz to win here to give the fans something to “care” about, even though not many people care about him at all.

It’s arguably the second biggest show of the year and I can’t say I’m thrilled for it.  The show is at the Alamodome which had over 60,000 people in it for the 1997 Royal Rumble, but I don’t think they’re going to get that many this time.  Let’s get to it.To begin with, we’ll look at the world title match, which has one major problem:

Why are they fighting? It’s been made clear that the only reason Ray has gotten this shot is because he’s Hulk’s son in law. Ray didn’t win a big match, he hasn’t beaten anyone in a singles match lately (his last televised one on one win was against Jesse Godderz. Before then, his last singles win on TV was in SEPTEMBER when he beat Aries, as in the guy he lost to on PPV in December), he and Hardy have no personal issue, and Ray has barely been around him due to feuding with Aces and 8’s. Hardy was gone for a month and is just now back in action but he hasn’t had much interaction with Ray either.

At the end of the day, Ray hasn’t earned this shot and hasn’t won anything of note lately, Hardy hasn’t done anything to Ray, and they don’t hate each other.  What is the interest in seeing them fight?

For a prediction I’ll take Hardy to retain, as all signs point to Bully winning and turning heel.  Since that would make sense, we’ll say it won’t happen.  Also it would make Hogan look stupid and we can’t have that.

Next up is Lethal Lockdown which brings us to Aces and 8’s.  Let me try to get through this as fast as I can so I don’t have to think about them.  Aces and 8’s is probably the worst major stable in company history.  From taking FOREVER to reveal a member to having D-Von and Anderson as their top names to having D’Lo Freaking Brown revealed as their second in command, they have nothing going for them and they haven’t in the NINE MONTHS they’ve been around.   At the end of the day, we have no idea why they’re doing what they’re doing and there’s no sign that such information is coming anytime soon.  The whole story is a disaster.

The ONLY chance they have at salvaging it is to win Lethal Lockdown while revealing a big name as their boss.  The problem with that is all signs point to either Jeff Jarrett or Eric Bischoff being the boss, which doesn’t do much good.  The problem is we’ve seen them both lead massive stables before so it would be the same warmed over stuff we’ve seen before with lower level names and far more damage coming in.

As for the match, I’ll take the bikers but given how things have been going, I’ll expect them to lose.

Kurt Angle beats Wes Brisco despite a ton of help from Aces and 8’s.  If that happens, the bikers win Lethal Lockdown.

I’ll take Roode and Aries to keep the belts.  It’s way too early for them to lose.  Either way, for the love of all things good and holy, PLEASE don’t put them back on Chavo and Hernandez.  I can’t take that again.

Velvet keeps her title.  I can’t take more Gail Kim on top either.

Robbie T destroys Robbie E of course.

I’ll take Kenny King to retain and Joseph Park to beat Joey Ryan.  You haven’t heard of these matches?  Most people haven’t either, but that’s because TNA is awful at setting up a PPV card and they added these matches in at the last second to fill in some time.

Overall Lockdown is a very uninspiring show.  Between the lackluster world title match and Aces and 8’s dragging things down,   This isn’t a show that I’m thrilled with watching but TNA has surprised me before.  Grnated they’ve also had some of the worst shows I’ve ever seen but hopefully that won’t be the case here.

Thoughts/Predictions?