We're still a couple of weeks away from Wrestlemania 25, but I thought I'd take a minute to look at what's already announced, what will likely be added to the card, and some predictions.
WWE Championship: Triple H (c) vs. Randy Orton
At one point this match was supposed to main event Wrestlemania 21, but Orton was fizzling at that point (and while no one would admit it, Triple H was at a low point as far as being an effective main eventer went, and needed someone who was hot at the time, like Batista, to make it work). I expect this match will be the show closer and will likely be good. My only problem with it is that we've seen Orton vs. Triple H several times, many of which in the last year and a half. Their previous matches have ranged from highly enjoyable (street fight at No Mercy 2007) to grating (Unforgiven 2004), but Orton has come a long way as a performer and Triple H is a reliable ring hand when he's motivated and has his working boots on. As per usual with my predictions, I predict Triple H retains if this goes on last, but Orton will win if this pulls a middle of the show position.
World Heavyweight Championship: Edge (c) vs. Big Show vs. John Cena
I am actually a bit relieved that Show was added to the match since Cena/Edge is another pairing that has happened numerous times, probably too often to have been an attractive Wrestlemania showdown. Show adds a wild card to the match, and while he more than likely isn't going to take the championship, adds another element to the storyline. It's been entertaining watching Vickie become torn between the two heels, and in many ways this is really just their storyline now, with Cena thrown in merely to make sure the crowd doesn't lose interest. The aspect that this match probably won't be headlining makes me think that Edge could retain, sort of how Orton won the triple threat WWE title match last year. It's up in the air whether or not Cena needs to take the championship, since the draft will take place so quickly after Wrestlemania, so if Raw doesn't have a World title then there's an easy solution.
Money in the Bank Ladder match: CM Punk vs. Mark Henry vs. Christian vs. Finlay vs. Kofi Kingston vs. MVP vs. Shelton Benjamin vs. Kane
It'll be a beautiful day when CM Punk and Shelton Benjamin are given the chance to do something else at Wrestlemania than make sure this match is a success, but at least they get to be on the big show. There's really no telling who is going to take the brief case this year. Punk just won it last year, Henry seems to have peaked in his current role, Vince doesn't want to push Christian, Finlay is a JTTS, Kingston probably isn't ready, MVP just got off a months long jobbing streak, and Benjamin is only here to provide some high spots. That leaves Kane, since he's continually over and every couple of months the booking team gets the itch to push him as a title threat again. I'm going to go out on a limb and predict Kane as the winner. Also, the participants this year are varied enough so we'll see a different type of Ladder match, as obviously you won't see Mark Henry doing sunset flips over the ladder, etc.
Matt Hardy vs. Jeff Hardy
To be honest, I haven't been keeping up with Smackdown, so I can't really judge how the build is going. Jeff Hardy has been one of the hottest WWE stars over the past two years and Matt's betrayal will be a sore spot to many of the younger fans. I am hoping that this will end up being a quality match, as both Hardy's have grown as performers since their stinker of a feud in late 2001. That feud was so disasterous that the Hardys actually had to spend some time off television so that their image could recover. But now in 2009, I consider Matt to be one of the most underrated stars on the roster due to his ability to have strong matches with everyone he's paired against, and Jeff is a much more well rounded performer who had a string of quality main event matches in the last year. Having a great match against each other at Wrestlemania would do a lot for both of them. I predict that Jeff goes over, unless the dreaded Wellness Policy fairy strikes again.
The Undertaker vs. Shawn Michaels
This feels awful thrown together and forced thus far. I like that Shawn Michaels isn't going through the tired motions of being terrified of all the Undertaker's light and pyro tricks and special effects, though it would be more interesting if someone they were trying to build up could do that. I would be a lot more interested if Shawn would go full blown heel, even if it was temporary (similar to what he did against Hogan in 2005) because no one is going to boo The Undertaker at Wrestlemania. With a little luck, they can achieve the same chemistry and work-rate they found in their famed Hell in a Cell match from 1997 and the intense heat of their finals encounter at the 2007 Royal Rumble. Obviously, the Undertaker will go over.
Chris Jericho vs. Roddy Piper, Ricky Steamboat, and Jimmy Snuka
Well, this is definitely not the direction anyone expected them to go with Jericho's kicking-legends-in-the-shin angle. I'm guessing this is a last minute rehandling of the feud because a certain Texas Rattlesnake decided he didn't want to wrestle after all, and another certain Best Actor runner up didn't want to cheapen his movie by actually wrestling for real. The match will probably not be any good from a work-rate standpoint, but these four are smart enough to put something together that will at least be entertaining. My prediction is that Jericho comes up short when Ric Flair gets involved.
25 Diva Battle Royal
Every diva in the company will participate, and WWE is trying their darndest to get former divas to return for one night. So far we know that Wendi Richter and Lita aren't interested, so hopefully they can pull in Trish Stratus, Sunny, Molly Holly, Jazz, Ivory, and a host of others to give this the right level of novelty. No championships are on the line, but the winner will be named Ms. Wrestlemania. To be honest, I prefer they go this route then having potentially two women's championship matches, since I can count the number of talented in-ring competitors on one hand.
So those are the official matches. They haven't done a terrible job of getting most of the workers who deserve to be on the show on the card so far. The rumored JBL/Rey Mysterio match for the Intercontinental Championship was teased on this week's Raw by the commentators around the time Rey was done making short work of Dolph Ziggler. That would be a fine addition to the card as they have had enjoyable matches in the past, and it's great to see the IC title getting defended on Wrestlemania for the first time since Wrestlemania X8 in 2002. We should also expect that John Morrison and The Miz will battle Carlito and Primo Colon. I would hope that their match could be a unification match, and that we can go back to only having one set of tag team champions. By having the Tag Team titles as property of ECW, it gives the champions the freedom to face teams on both Raw and Smackdown, and there are barely enough teams on all three brands to justify having Tag Team belts in the first place. Finally, I would expect that Jack Swagger will be added in an ECW Championship defense. I would predict that they are going to want to capitalize on the returning Matt Bourne, and he will be getting a title shot. It would be nice if they could include Tommy Dreamer somehow, since this will likely be his final chance to be on Wrestlemania as an active competitor. If it were up to me, it would be Swagger, Bourne, and Dreamer in a triple threat.
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