Lo-Down Wrestling Podcast: The Streak Playlist

As you're aware, I've spent the last few weeks doing a podcast series about the Undertaker's Streak. Due to the fact that I have not published all of them on this website, I've decided to do a playlist with links to them.

Part 1

Sawyer Paul from International Object joined me as we discussed Undertaker vs Superfly Jimmy Snuka at Wrestlemania VII as well as his debut at the 1990 Survivor Series.

Part 2

Scott T Holland was the guest as we discussed Undertaker vs Jake “The Snake” Roberts at Wrestlemania VIII.

Part 3

Scott T Holland became the first return guest as we talked about Undertaker's match with Giant Gonzales at Wrestlemania IX.

Part 4

Trey Irby, who contributes to The Wrestling Blog, was with me as we discussed Undertaker vs King Kong Bundy at Wrestlemania XI.

Part 5

Don Owens from the podcast Am I On The Air? joined me as we discussed Undertaker's match with Diesel at Wrestlemania XII

Part 6

Rich Thomas, who co-hosts the International Object podcast with Sawyer Paul, was the guest and we talked about Undertaker challenging Sycho Sid for the WWF Championship at Wrestlemania 13.

Part 7

Joe Drilling from the podcast What a Maneveur and I discussed Undertaker's match against Kane at Wrestlemania 14.

Part 8

Trey Ibry returned to the podcast and we discussed the Hell in a Cell match involving Undertaker and The Big Boss Man at Wrestlemania XV.

Part 9

Tom Holzerman from the Wrestling Blog was the guest as we talked about Undertaker's first match against Triple H at Wrestlemania X-7.

Part 10

Sawyer Paul returned to the podcast and we discussed Undertaker vs Ric Flair at Wrestlemania XVIII.

Part 11

Nick Gator joined me and we talked Undertaker taking on Big Show and A-Train, with a little (illegal) help from Nathan Jones, at Wrestlemania XIX.

Part 12

Corey Santiago was the guest and we discussed Undertaker against Kane at Wrestlemania XX, in which we saw the return of the dead man gimmick.

Part 13

Kevin Mahon, co-host of the Attitude Era Podcast, joined me as Undertaker faced Randy Orton at Wrestlemania 21.

Part 14

Bill Bicknell was the guest as we talked the casket match between Undertaker and Mark Henry at Wrestlemania 22.

Part 15

Bill Bicknell returned to the podcast and we discussed Undertaker challenging Batista for the World Heavyweight Championship at Wrestlemania 23

Part 16

Sawyer Paul was back on the podcast and we talked about the World Heavyweight Championship match between Undertaker and Edge at Wrestlemania XXIV

Part 17
Corey Santiago returned to the podcast as we talked about Undertaker facing Shawn Michaels at Wrestlemania 25.

Part 18
Joe Drilling returned and we talked about the Wrestlemania XXVI match between Undertaker and Shawn Michaels

Part 19
Kevin Mahon was back on the podcast as we discussed Undertaker vs Triple H at Wrestlemania XXVII

Part 20
Don Owens, who was there live, and I talked about the "End of an Era" Hell in a Cell match between Undertaker and Triple H at Wrestlemania XXVIII with Shawn Michaels, for some reason that is never explained, the special guest referee.

Part 21
Tom Holzerman was the guest for Undertaker's final Wrestlemania victory as he took on CM Punk at Wrestlemania XXIX.

As you're now aware, the Streak has ended with Brock Lesnar defeating Undertaker this year. I will be doing a podcast about it but you have to wait til just before Wrestlemania 31. Until then, I hope you enjoy listening to these podcasts and there will be more published over the year.

Money in the Bank - The Contenders

Money in the Bank is this evening and, as usual, there will be ladder matches to determine who will get a title shot for the World Heavyweight Championship and the WWE Championship. Let’s look at the contenders.

World Heavyweight Championship Ladder Match

Christian
Record: 0-4
The two –time World Heavyweight Champion and the current Intercontinental Champion is in his element in this kind of match. I know that a lot of people would love him to win it, but I don’t think he will
Chances of winning: Potential Dark Horse

Santino Marella
Record: First Time
I know that some people are wondering why the current United States Champion is anywhere near this match. I think that he has a very slim chance of winning but he was the runner-up to the 2011 Royal Rumble, so I’m not exactly ruling it out.
Chances of Winning: Slim

Lord Tensai
Record: First Time
Lord Tensai has been up and down the card since his return to the WWE. Because of that, I don’t think he will win.
Chances of Winning: Slim

Sin Cara
Record: 0-1
While 2011 has been difficult year for Sin Cara, 2012 has been so far, so good for him. I think he has a slim chance of winning and I still think that WWE would like a Champion who can, well...speak. Hopefully, he won’t get powerbombed through a ladder like last year.
Chances of Winning: Slim

Tyson Kidd
Record: First Time
Tyson Kidd is a tremendous athlete and is one of the underrated people in the WWE. It’s great to see him get a push and I think he has the potential to be a great Champion. However, I don’t think this will be that time.
Chances of Winning: Slim

Damien Sandow
Record: First Time
Damien Sandow has been a joy to watch since his debut on Smackdown and I think he is one of the best talkers in the company at the minute. It would be a massive surprise if he won the briefcase, but it would also be a nice surprise.
Chances of Winning: Er...it’s possible

Cody Rhodes
Record: 0-2
Could this be Cody’s time? Cody has been a revelation over the last 18 months with his excellent ability and character development. I have no doubt that Cody will be a future World Champion; the question is, are the WWE ready to give him that opportunity?
Chances of Winning: High

Dolph Ziggler
Record: 0-2
The question about Cody Rhodes could equally apply to Dolph Ziggler. Dolph has had chances to win a World Championship and he is (technically) a former World Heavyweight Champion. Personally, I don’t think he needs the briefcase but it could be exactly what he needs.
Chances of Winning: High

WWE Championship Ladder Match

The Big Show
Record: 0-1
The Big Show was looking good in his recent heel turn until Cena fucked that up. Now, I don’t really care. I can’t see him winning the briefcase though a feud between him and Punk could be interesting.
Chances of Winning: Slim

Kane
Record: 1-5
Kane has had the most experience in Money in the Bank matches yet he is probably the one who has the less chance of winning. Kane getting the briefcase would not help anyone.
Chances of Winning: Slim

Chris Jericho
Record: 0-3
The inventor of the match has an excellent opportunity to get the briefcase. It would be great to see. However, I can only see one people winning it and it’s not him.
Chances of Winning: Quite high

John Cena
Record: First Time
John Cena has never been in a MITB match before but he has suffered it by being cashed in on, not once but twice. He is the only one that I can see winning this match. The question is, will he do the honourable thing and actually cash it in to make a match or could this be the opportunity for a heel turn?
Chances of Winning: Very high.

Wrestlemania XXVIIII Predictions

It’s Wrestlemania baby! The Showcase of the Immortals! The Grand Daddy of Them All etc etc. The card for this looks stacked so let’s take a look.

Randy Orton will take on Kane in a feud that doesn’t really make sense to me. The reason that Kane is after Orton is because after a match between the two last July, Kane offered his hand to Orton. If that was the case, why did Kane attack Cena first when he returned? You know what, I don’t really care. Anyway, I expect Randy Orton to win this one.

Predicted Winner: Randy Orton

Cody Rhodes will be defending his Intercontinental Championship against the Big Show. This is the first time that the Intercontinental Championship has been defended at Wrestlemania in 4 years. I have loved Cody’s videos showing Show’s Wrestlemania lowlights. I would love to see Cody retain his title; however, I think that Big Show will become the Intercontinental Champion for the first time.

Predicted Winner: Big Show

Team Teddy will take on Team Johnny for control of both RAW and Smackdown. It’s a shame it’s not a Survivor Series type match as that could be an entertaining contest. I think that Team Johnny as I can’t see any value of Team Teddy winning. If he does, it looks like we will be having a lot of tag team matches, playa.

Predicted Winners: Team Johnny

Divas Champion Beth Phoenix and Eve Torres will take on Kelly Kelly and Maria Menounos. Ok, I have a few questions about this match:

·         Who is Maria Menounos?

·         When the fuck did Beth Phoenix and Eve Torres join forces?

·         When did Natalya and Beth end the Legion Divas of Doom?

·         Why should I care about this match? Seriously, why should I?

Thanks to the WWE fucking the Divas around, I expect this match to last less than 5 minutes. Due to the fact that a celebrity is involved, Kelly Kelly and Maria Menounos will win this one.

Predicted Winners: Kelly Kelly and Maria Menounos

Sheamus will challenge Daniel Bryan for the World Heavyweight Championship. I think that Bryan has been an excellent Champion over the last few months and Sheamus has been looking strong since he won the Royal Rumble. This is a tough one to call but I think that Sheamus will be the first Royal Rumble winner since the Undertaker in 2007 to become World Heavyweight Champion.

Predicted Winner: Sheamus

It’s the End of an Era as the Undertaker will go for 20-0 against Triple H in Hell in a Cell. Even though I’m a big Triple H fan, I wasn’t looking forward to Undertaker vs Triple H III. However, the story going into it and the fact that it’s in Hell in a Cell has made this a very intriguing contest. Plus there is the Shawn Michaels factor as he is the special guest referee and it’s all down to him. Whilst Michaels has beef with both of them, I hope he does what Triple H did when he refereed the Cena/Punk match at Summerslam and stay neutral throughout. I think that this will be a great match and, although they may be times when you think Triple H will win the match, I fully expect Undertaker to win and to go 20-0.

Predicted Winner: Undertaker

The WWE Championship is on the line as “Best in the World” CM Punk defends the title against “Best in the World in Everything he does” Chris Jericho. I know a lot of people are going to Wrestlemania to see Rock vs Cena; however, this has the ability to be the match of the night. The feud for this has been ok with Jericho playing the personal card to get under Punk’s skin, which I don’t mind. However, I just don’t think it’s necessary. This is a really tough one to call. I would be happy with both these guys winning. I’m going for Jericho to win this and become the new WWE Champion.

Predicted Winner: Chris Jericho

The main event (obviously) will be The Rock taking on John Cena in the match billed as “Once in a Lifetime”. The feud has been slowly simmering for over a year and, whilst it may have dropped the ball sometimes, I, along with millions of people, am really looking forward to it. This will be an exciting match and John Cena has to win this, he just has to.

Predicted Winner: John Cena

Whilst I’m looking forward to this, I won’t get to see all of it til Monday night. I hope you enjoy the show and I’ll post my review late Monday night.

Lo-Down Wrestling’s Fav Five: January 2012

Time for me to debut a new feature in which I name my top 5 wrestlers from WWE and TNA over the last month. I know I got this from Booker T but, unlike Booker, it won’t change from minute to minute, just month to month.

5. Kane

Kane, since he has come back re-masked, has been trying to get John Cena to “Embrace the Hate” by attacking Zack Ryder and scaring Eve Torres at every opportunity. I enjoyed the segments involving them on RAW on the 9^th January despite Zack taking decades to change the tyre, and Kane disappearing like Batman when he was attacking Cena before that. Kane, along with Cena, Ryder and Torres, are now one of the things that I look forward every week on RAW.

4. Bobby Roode

I know that I constantly mention that Austin Aries is the best thing in TNA right now (and he still is); however, he hasn’t really been on TV that much so I can’t put him in my Fav Five. The second best thing in TNA at the minute has been World Champion Bobby Roode. Whilst I would have liked his heel turn to be more gradual like Daniel Bryan’s, Roode has been performing brilliantly on the mic on Impact, pissing off everybody including Sting and his own family. I think that Impact has slowly improved over the last month and one of the reasons is because of Roode.

3. John Laurinaitis

I know that he’s not a wrestler but I have really enjoyed watching John Laurinaitis (did you know that he’s the Executive Vice President of Talent Relations and the interim RAW GM?) as he has evolved into a credible foil to Punk. What I like about Laurinaitis is the way that he kept on “inadvertently” screwing Punk over in his matches. Then Laurinaitis, aware of his job being under review, had a good role at the Rumble match then had a massive stroke of luck when The Undertaker interrupted his job review when he was about to get fired by Triple H. I’m glad that he didn’t get fired as I like Laurinaitis to continue in his role.

2. Chris Jericho

Chris Jericho was been absolutely brilliant since his return and yet he has only said one sentence since then. Jericho is excellent at playing the crowd as he showed when he returned on the 2^nd January. He spent over 8 minutes running round being happy and not saying a word then going off managing to get the crowd go from cheering him to booing him. Two weeks later, he was in a 6-man tag match with CM Punk and Daniel Bryan against Dolph Ziggler, David Otunga and Mark Henry. In probably the best hot tag ever, Punk tags in Jericho, he goes round playing to the crowd, slap-tags Bryan and goes off. He was the runner-up at the Rumble to Sheamus and is starting a possible Wrestlemania feud with Punk so the next few weeks involving Jericho will be very interesting.

1. Daniel Bryan

I know a lot of people think that Chris Jericho is the best thing going in the WWE right now. However, for me, it’s Daniel Bryan on Smackdown. His gradual heel turn since becoming World Heavyweight Champion has been awesome. Plus, I didn’t think that he had the mic skills that he has been showing in him. What I like most about Daniel Bryan is that we all know that he’s a heel, but he is at the stage that he doesn’t believe so. Bryan is using his head as well as his superb technicial skills to help him stay the Champion, provoking Mark Henry and lumberjacks in matches to inadvertently help him out. The best was when Bryan got his new love AJ to come to ringside when he faced The Big Show, and Show accidentally ran her over. Bryan sensed an opportunity and went mental at Show calling him reckless and a bastard. I have been really impressed with Daniel Bryan and I hope that he stays Champion until Wrestlemania.