Raw thoughts

Wrestlemania fallout

Batista & Cena gave ok promos's not up to par with recent weeks, but i loved Swagger's run in, i was hoping he would cah it in & win it, even though i don't wanna see the best passed around so easily. I'm prediction Swagger to lose when it happens but it should still help the All American American out in the long run.

I liked the 80's lumberjack match, good interaction plus the match itself was good while it lasted. Dibiase almost looked to be done with Orton, which i'm not sure is a good thing or not. Hearing Rhodes is out indefinitely was odd, not sure if it's kayfabe or not, but i expect him or Ted to go to SD after the draft. Glad Christian got the win btw.

The host's were pointless, was hoping to go down a heel route but instead they were just jokes, like the rest.

Loved HHH's promo, heartfelt & legit, nice attack by Sheamus aswell.

Didn't watch the divas match as Daffney was on Impact, love me some Zombie HOtness!

The HBK retrospective was great, the whoel show was well done in the Shawn Michaels department!

Bret's promo gave closure to his Vince feud then gave both the Miz & THe Hart Dynasty a rub. Ms truly is awesome & i hope for a good push for him this year, Hart Dynasty need the tag belts.

How awesome is the Randy Orton face turn, he never even really turned, he just got the pops out of the three legacy members, then wound up in a tag handicap match with HH as his partner. This week he was Cena's surprise partner and to great affect. It made sense since Batista was his opponent & it showed the respect Cena& Orton have earned for each other. He's still the psycho & not toned down liek many face turns lead to, and the crowd is eating it up. Either wwe get rid of the pg and just give us great programing, no need to revisit to attitude era by pushing the envelope just don't make it kiddy. Or keep it PG & have Orton as the ultimate babyface.

The Michaels farewell was emotional for me. He seemed so genuine, and i grew up watching this man, i expect him to have one more match, but as far as tonight goes, great outing, Thank You Shawn.

Wrestlemania thoughts

Well the one night where most wrestling fans either order or stream a pay per view has come & gone. I'm talkign about the showcase of the immortals WRESTLEMANIA!

Loved the opening video, as Wrestlemania is always put over well.

Tag Title Match: Was pretty short but was good while it lasted. Miz & Morrison need bigger pushes after the draft, perhaps shift Morrison back to a heel role. Loved Miz's ring jacket.
My prediction was ShowMiz

LEgacy Triple threat: Was what i expected, pretty good match, iexpect a three way elimination at Extreme Rules.
Prediction was Randy Orton

MITB: 10 might have been alot of people but everyone got a moment to shine, i especially loved the interaction in the exchange between Matt Hardy, Christian & Evan Bourne, the shooting star was awesome! The Kofi ladder walk was kind of funny, and the crowd seemed to be behind him for the match! Swagger winning was a shock. Most likely he'll lose his title match but i hope it's a sign for a legit push!
Prediction was Drew McIntyre, who btw looked out of place.

HHH vs Sheamus was ok, not great but a decent match regardless, HHH winning doesn't make sense since he looks to be taking time off unless he holds off til after Extreme Rules where he jobs to Sheamus.
Prediction was Sheamus

Rey vs Punk: Avatar vs GI JOE: I loved Punk's trunks, coolest ever! Match was really good, i expect mask vs hair match at Extreme Rules.
Prediction was Rey

Bret vs Vince: I knew the Hart's were workign with Bret but didn't expect it to be revealed so early, causing my to think the hart Dynasty would interfere. Was pretty much all the Harts beating on Vince then Bret using a chair about 20 times(non to the head). Hope this is a sign for a Hart Dynasty push!
Prediction was Bret

Face Divas vs Heel Divas: Meh, not a fan of current Women wrestling, hot yes but nothing much in the ring. Heels won
My prediction was the Faces

World Title: Loved the match, loved the post match beatdown, interesting that the announcers were saying Edge shouldn't be attacking Jericho and the fans were booing Edge. Won't mean much but i prefer Edge as a heel anyhow, loved the Sexton Harcastle namedrop. Glad Jericho's reign is lasting longer too!
Prediction was Edge.

WWE title: The Cena intro was bad imo, could've been good but went too long, match was what i expected from these two, neither are my favorite performers in the ring but both have been solid on the mic in recent weeks. Half expected Swagger to jump Cena after the match.
Prediction was Cena

Undertaker vs Shawn Michaels: Great match, not as good as last years, but just as good if not better than their hell In a Cell match, if only for the excitement of a streak possibly ending & another's "last match". Loved the final moments, Taker does the cut throat but stops, Shawn climbs up, does a cut throat himself, slaps Taker, then a beautiful jumping tombstone for the win. The post match stuff was great too, with the handshake & the hug, i grew up with these guys so it meant alot to me. Glad Taker won, HBK can always have another match, but Taker can never get that streak back.
Prediction was Taker.

As for my predictions i got 6 out of 10

As for other segments, the Hall of Fame was done well obviously, the pre show match i was surprised to see Yoshi win, as Mark Henry or Zach Ryder would've been my choices. The Santino skit was funny but so retarded.

Good wrestlemania though!

Evolution of the top heel

In wrestling there are alot of heel & face turns, in TNA there are turns way too often, but WWE does it so beautifully, that however is not the point of topic, but it does bring up two stars who have been heeling it up for years now on the other side of the fence.

Ric Flair is arguably the greatest heel of all time, spenidn most of the 80's & most of the 90s as the top heel of the NWA & WCW, and even his stint with the WWF. He had face runs of course but he will always be the great heel. Along with his cronies the 4 Horsemen he ruled NWA & WCW with an iron fist, puttign on great, matches with the lieks of Dusty Rhodes, Sting, Lex Luger, & Ricky Stemaboat, yes Luger used to be able to work damn good matches. His contsts were usually pretty long too, as he truly looked like a champion & WOOOO by gawd was the Man, not only may he be the best heel of all time, but i'd list his as one of the greatest if not THE greatest champion of all time. He embodied excess of the 80's, he elite, the status obsessed, and was amazing on the mic.

Two men who emulated The Nature Boy were Shawn Michaels & Triple H, Shawn portrayed a cocky boy toy character that turned face before he could become the top heel in the company for too long, once he returned to his heel ways he began to team with HHH. HHH was a BLUE Blood heel who has intercontinental title runs but never even cracked the main event(curtain call is to be blamed) and a Face HBK vs Heel HHH feud in 96 would've been great, but alas things worked out for the best. As the two real life chums became on on screen stable it was during the beginning of the Attitude era and DX was born. The ran wild on Raw, bullying Michael Cole, sticking Canadian flags in nostrils, referencing their dicks, & breaking kayfabe. Shawn went into retirement for 4 years and left DX witha new leader in HHH. HHH turned them face, and the clicked with WWF's young adult audience and were rebels against Vince McMahon & his corporation, but as i said, wrestlers turn and so did HHH. He joined the corporation & took on a new aggressive side, and became obsessed with winning the WWF title. In my opinion one of the greatest chases for the gold of all time, he went through The Rock, Steve Austin, attacking Jim Ross, and finally defeating Mankind for the gold. The Game we all know & love was born. HE "married" Stephanie McMahon and gained control of the company(life would imitate art), he then became the Ric Flair and ruled Raw & SMackdown with his iron fist, and his trusty sledgehammer. He even paired up with Ric Flair to do battle against the likes of his old partner Shawn Michaels, RVD, Kane, Kevin Nash, Goldberg, Chris Benoit & so on. He became the first heel to rule the wwe(well Yokozuna technically was but HHH did it longer as Yoko was the man for the better part of 12 months, and my man Randy Savage had some solid runs but not a long title run as a heel, it was a title run that began as a face & ended as a heel), he became what Flair would call him, the measuring stick of profesional wrestling. He & Flair started Evolution with two up & comers named Randy Orton & Batista, eventually they split up and after one last heel run as a singles star, Trips turned face reforming DX with Shawn Michaels this time as faces.

Around this time Edge had become a heel to watch on Raw, much like HHH becoming obsessed with winning the gold, he battled Shawn Michaels, Kane, a face Ric Flair, and Matt Hardy that spawned from a real life incident, eventually he cashed in his money in the bank briefcase & defeated John Cena to win his first WWE title. The run didn't last long but after a great feud with Mick Foley he & Cena reignited the feud & Edge got in a longer run. Randy Orton on the other hand had a failure of a face run, resulting in him turning heel & feuding with The Undertaker, the feud lasted the better part of 2005 & Orton moved on to feud with Rey Mysterio, Kurt Angle, Hulk Hogan 7 even Carlito. Edge & Orton formed Rated RKO and began a pretty good feud with DX & Ric Flair, the two men both couldn't be top heels on the same show so Edge went to Smackdown.

From 2007 to 2009 Edge was the main heel focus of the show, sure an injury put Khali in the picture but thankfully that didn't last long & a face vs face program was started with Taker & Batista, but once Edge returned he pulled another Triple H and got involved with Smackdowns general manager Vickie Guerrero(all an angle this time though), Vickie generated amazing heat, truly amazing heat, and that bounced right off & on to Edge, After a long feud with the Undertaker & Jeff Hardy, Edge eventually joined forces with Chis Jericho, who has been the mvp of the entire wwe for 2 years now, Edge got injured yet again which led to Jericho berating Edge on tv & like that, Edge was face. Jericho became champion after Edge returned from injury and the two are now in the World title match at WrestleMania.

Chris Jericho as i said has been the mvp of wwe for 2 years, and that all peaked from an injured Randy Orton. Orton had become the top heel on Raw, punting RVD, Michaels & Dusty Rhodes in the skull & starting a feud with John Cena. The feud with Cena began to involve HHH in what would become common throughout 2008 & 2009. Orton was injured in the summer of 98 & Jericho picked up the ball. Jericho began the best rivalry of the past few years with SHawn Michaels, an intense 7 month feud that involved several other talents on certain points, Jericho would torment Michaels every week on Raw & on pay per views, he started a righteous man character of sorts attacking several shortcomings & flaws on his enemies, particularly HBK. Orton reurned from injury & his new direction spoke the ugly truth aswell, going after authority figures & champions, eventually forming a stable with Cody Rhodes & Ted Dibiase. The student had become the teacher, and his whole look was changed, shorter hair, slower walk, a calculating ring style, and a snake like attack. He would go after Vince McMahon, Triple H, John Cena & Kofi Kingston, sure he may have stalled out a bit after last years Mania, but picked up full force again in his feud with Kofi. Seeds had been planted for Ted Dibiase to turn face & feud with Orton, but wwe never pulled the trigger & Dibiase soon became just a stooge in the fan's eyes. They began to cheer for Orton in a heel vs heel feud with Sheamus & eventually went full face, but luckily retaining all his heel characteristics.

So the two top heels of the past 5 years are both now faces, Jericho is still a top heel on Smackdown & Batista has become a great intriguing heel on Raw cutting damn good promos that make us non Cena fans smile.

Other great heels who have reached the top in recent years include JBL & CM Punk, i would've said Booker T put i truly hated the Kind Booker persona, and i still believe Eddie Guerrero could've had a great heel title run, though they were going for a face run before his sad passing. Other great heels work however in recent years: Jeff Jarrett, Kurt Angle, Big Show(loved his run on WWEcw) Miz(future star), John Morrison(better a s a heel imo), William Regal, Christian(would've been amazing heel champ on SD in 2005, same goes for Muhammad Hassan). But nothing will compare to Ric Flair & Triple H.