Well whoever it was in here who guessed.......streak vs career deserves some props on the call, but it makes it a dead giveaway that Taker will win. As I've pointed out before once a streak ends, its over forever. But careers never end in WWE. HBK will lose, take a few months off and be back in time for Summerslam.

If Batista and Cena is all about Vince/bret (or if they are involved in ANY way) now it's stupid. Cena/Batista is personal now. Batista screwed Cena outta the WWE title so now it needs to be about them two only. not lackeys for the bret/vince storyline.

I'm so sick of the WWE doing "career" matches only for them to return months later.. Either Shawn should break the streak or he should retire

Well no, it wasn't just Batista who screwed Cena, Vince was the figure head of the whole idea.

Vince helped Batista screw Cena, while Batista helped screwed Bret. That's why I see these things interconnected.

No, as Vince explained last night he made a deal with Batista to help him embarass Bret and he promised him a title match anytime he wants. vince said Batista chose Elimination Chamber. This is a WWE title match and its now personal. It's about Cena and Batista.Bret nor Vince need to be anywhere near it.

And they needed that to set everything up, now both feuds are firmly in place and no longer need to be interconnected.

Notice how HHH and the whole DX split has been subtly moved out of out the HBK Taker picture.

Update... new MITB participants have qualified from this week's Smackdown. A couple of surprises.

Dolph Ziggler beat R-Truth and Morrison in a triple threat to win.

Kane beat McIntyre.

Shelton beat Punk (after a Mysterio interference)

So as of right now the participants are:

Christian, Ziggler, Kane, Shelton

Big surprise no Morrison or R-Truth. I'm guessing Evan Bourne will be in it now.

I'm guessing we get an IC title match involving Morrison then, unless he gets involved in Punk/Rey.

Without Morrison there, though, unless a top top guy like a HHH or Sheamus enters, it would seem to be Christian's match to lose. It's not going to be Ziggler or Shelton, and Kane wouldn't make sense.

Granted they could just give it to a "lesser guy" and have them be the first to not win the title, but that's pointless.

Christian will definitely win. McIntyre, Truth, and Morrison have already failed to qualify and Miz said on Smackdown that he wants a tag title match at Mania so he won't win. There aren't really any other viable options.

There is always a last chance battle Royal for the last spot in MITB so I can see Morrison winning that to get in... Also, I think Truth might take on Mcintrye for the IC title

I see this ending up as the final card.

WWE Chamiponship (Main Event)
Batista © vs John Cena

World Championship
Chris jericho © vs Edge

Streak vs Career
The Undertaker vs Shawn Michaels II

Hair vs Mask (though I don't like that stip with Punk's gimmick it makes sense)
Cm Punk vs Rey Mysterio

Street Fight
Bret Hart vs Vince McMahon with SCSA as guest referee

MITB
Christian vs Ziggler vs Shelton vs Kane vs Kingston vs Tatsu vs Morrison vs Ryder

Randy Orton vs Ted Dibiaise and Cody Rhodes

IC Championsihp
Drew Mcintrye © vs R Truth

Women's Championship
Michelle © vs Mickie vs Beth Phoenix

WWE Tag Team Championship
ShowMiz © vs ??? I really can't think of anyone here? maybe Hart Dynasty or something? who knows

10 matches is quite alot, but neither Hart/Vince or the divas match will last that long. so they would still have about 3 hrs and 45 min to get in 8 matches which is plenty of time.

This post has been edited by Wang+Hughes: Feb 25 2010, 09:51 AM

I was the one who knew they were going this route after Shawn said " my career is over" it was really predictable. I don't think Taker/HBK II is as predictable as everyone else does though. Shawn gains nothing from ending the streak I agree with that, but at the same time after what Brock did to them I can't see Vince allowing a young guy to do it either because he might either A. jump to TNA or flake out and then the streak is broken for nothing. Shawn also gained nothing from retiring Ric Flair either yet he did, so I wouldn't be shocked to see him end the streak. Why go with the same match in back to back years with the same ending?

Updated card... this mania is looking stacked right now.

This is high praise, but this could possibly be the best Wrestlemania ever.

Well the obvious solution is to keep the streak in tact then. Brock is one guy, people like him and Goldberg who wrestled cause they couldn't get a real athletic career don't make up the majority. I don't think anyone would jump to TNA IF WWE was 100% behind them and pushing them. Only way a young guy is gonna jump to TNA is if he doesn't feel WWE is using him enough and TNA offers him more time and a better direction. It wouldn't make much sense for a young guy to want to grow in TNA since WWE as soo many better opportunities. The problem is right now they don't have that young guy, so the streak should stay in tact. HBK retired Flair because thats the guy Flair wanted to have hid final WWE match with. Flair picked him because he was his friend. Who says they have to have the same match with the same ending? HBK and Taker have been doing this a long time. They'll think of a way to pull it off. The streak is very important.

Plus think about this........they have an HBK DVD coming out next week. A teased HBK retirement will boost the sales of that DVD. Thats probably the only reason its coming out since most of HBK's classic matches are already on DVD. They have no reason to release another except to cash in on a teased retirement.

watch how big bret/vince gets on March 15th

Eh, I wouldn't go anywhere near that far. Batista/Cena has a great storyline so far, and I do think both guys will bring it,but they have limitations and we're talking solid match tops, not an epic one. Shawn and Taker could, but having just seen it last year, it's probably going to lose something. Edge/Jericho should be good, as should Rey/Punk. Orton VS Dibiase/Legacy/Whatever should be okay but probably not amazing. Money in the Bank should be fine, but we've seen it a million times. Bret VS Vince should be a good spectacle, not expecting a good match but I wouldn't hold it against that one.

I mean, I think it'll be a good Wrestlemania, maybe up there near the top, but I don't see any way it tops Wrestlemania 17. Benoit/Angle in a 4 star plus match, TLC 2, HHH/Undertaker (before the quad tear when HHH could have a great match with anyone), Rock/Austin in one of the biggest and best Wrestlemania main events ever (I'd only put Hogn/Andre above it in terms of "big match", and quality wise, only Benoit/HHH/HBK competes I think). The Shane VS Vince match was tons of fun with a lot of storylines culminating at once, the Gimmick Battle Royal was pretty neat...even Jericho/Regal and Eddie Guerrero/Test were pretty good. In my opinion it's got two 5 star matches (Rock/Austin and TLC 2), two four star plus matches (Benoit/Angle and HHH/Undertaker), and everything else was either 3 stars or better (which is above average to me) or kept very short and used as a way to give everyone a chance to catch their breath. Easily my favorite PPV of all time and it's not even close. I don't see any way this one can possibly top it with the matches we're going to get, but it's got the potential to be close to the top.

I dunno...I am looking forward to it and I think it's been done well, but it's lost a little bit. I know they couldn't keep it secret and I know they had to build the match, but the big moment for me was seeing Bret return. Now that he's been back for weeks, it's lost some of its luster, and since I have no expectations that Bret can still bring it in the ring with the injuries/stroke/12 years off/facing a 60 year old Vince, I'm not really dying to see him in the ring again. If he could still go and it was against, say, Shawn, I'd be buying the PPV right now for the promise of that, but it's just not there for this.It's still a match I'm looking forward to seeing,I don't think it'll be a total suckfest because Vince is usually very good about booking his matches properly to make them decent, but I think the whole "Bret Hart is back in a WWE ring!" has kind of worn off after a month and a half of will they or won't they, and it's not going to be as epic as it could have been.

I'm not saying they should have,but I actually wish Bret didn't even show up before now. Have Vince taunt him or something leading up to Wrestlemania (for whatever reason), challenge him to a match, and do what Eric Bischoff did in WCW when he challenged Vince, come out to the ring at WM and do the whole "Well, I guess Bret is scared, he won't come out, blah blah blah", then Bret's music hits, that would have been an absolutely epic reaction,do the match then, and then the next night Bret can do the thing with Shawn.

Maybe that wouldn't have worked as well,but I think Bret/Vince sells itself to be honest, and having Bret appear on TV as much as he has (which isn't even a lot) takes a bit away from the novelty of "He'll never work for them again!". I think the buildup has been just fine, just the novelty has worn off.

That's where our opinions differ. I think Cena/Batista could be a 5 star match. Cena is one of the best in the business at carrying people. With the build, I could see them stealing the show. HBK/Taker is probably a 5 star match as well. They know what they did last year. Both men are smart enough to know that they have to do something different. It will be fine. I'm expecting a 4.5 out of Punk/Rey, if not 5/5. Jericho/Edge should be a 4, as should Orton/Legacy and MITB. Bret/Vince will be a spectacle and HHH/Sheamus should pull a solid 3.5. Add to this that we may get Morrison/Truth (which should be great, if given time) and possibly a tag title match (eh, ShowMiz have no credible opponents). I think this could be epic. By the way, X7 is the best of all time in my opinion too. They need to pull out a great PPV to top it.

Heh, no offense, but I think you're insane. Neither Batista nor Cena has ever hada 5 star match that I've ever seen, Cena's maybe close with guys like HBK, but Batista's never even been close to that level...they don't have the technical wrestling ability to do it that way and while they're solid brawlers (especially Cena), they're not Rock/Austin. No way in hell is Orton/Legacy/whatever that good...as much as I like Orton's heel character, in the ring he's not that great, and the kids are good but not quite at that level. Punk and Rey are good but if you're expecting a 5 star match, I think you'll be really disappointed, while both guys are very capable wrestlers, I don't think the WWE style match type that they'll have to wrestle will lend itself very well to these two putting on a 5 star match. Money in the Bank is solid but I wouldn't give it 4 stars the past few years with better guys in it. The only ones I agree on are Jericho/Edge and HBK/Undertaker, HOWEVER, the problem with HBK/Undertaker is even if they put on another 5 star match, it's not the same as what happened last year, which was really epic. Look at the expectations...last year, people went in thinking "Eh, Undertaker's really limited now, it should be okay since HBK is good, but nothing amazing", and were blown away with this epic 5 star match. This year people are going in thinking "5 star all the way, mark it down for match of the year right now!", and anything short of somehow even better than last year will be a bit disappointing.

I just don't see how Cena's going to have a better match against Batista then he's ever had against guys like HBK, Jericho, and Edge, all far superior wrestlers to Batista. Do I think it will be good, yes. I expect somewhere between 3-4 stars and it wouldn't shock me if they put on a 4 star match, but I'll be absolutely shocked if they suddenly pull out wrestling ability they've been hiding for their entire careers and put on a 5 star match. I don't see Orton as being capable of having a 4 star match against anyone short of an HBK type talent at this point. Punk and Mysterio are great wrestlers but let's be honest, with the WWE style being the way it is, when was the last time either guy had a real, 5 star classic? Even the Punk/Hardy series of matches, which I thought were awesome, weren't quite that good. I don't think it's virtually impossible like I do for Batista/Cena, but I'm expecting about a 3.5 star match from them. And Money in the Bank is more or less the same as it is every year, but this year there's no Edge, no RVD, no Punk, no Jericho, no Morrison (probably, although that can change if he gets added in a last chance battle royal type thing). I certainly expect it to be good and enjoyable, but again, 3 stars or so, because I really don't think it's going to be any different from the last few years, which are essentialy the same thing...set up spot,hit spot, repeat 15 times until someone wins. Those are fun but after so many they run together. One of the things I liked about TLC 2 was they actually did something a little differently by involving the outside interference of Lita, Spike, and Rhyno and doing it well. Plus the match wasn't overdone at that point. The thing I expect to enjoy the most in MitB this year is rooting for Christian rather than the match itself. I also think these things tend to become a huge mess (entertaining, but entertaining in a "3 star" kind of way) when you throw more than 5 or 6 single wrestlers into the match.

As for the build, I thought Orton/HHH had really good build last year, but that match was a disaster. And we do still have a few weeks to go (and so far the build has been fantastic), but Rock/Austin had some of the best build, in my opinion, we've ever seen, complete with one of the best video packages I've ever seen.

To each their own of course, I just think you're crazy. I think it's got a chance to be up there, maybe even the second best ever (what's universally considered the second best Wrestlemania, anyway? 10? 20? 10 had the two 5 star matches but nothing else, Luger/Yokozuna is painful to watch, and 20 had the 5 star main event but I honestly don't remember the rest of the PPV) if a lot of things break right. But best? I can't see that. Hell, I hope it is because it would mean an absolutely amazing PPV to top 17, I just don't see that happening. I don't think the talent currently in the WWE is capable of matching that. Nobody in the company is as over as either Austin or the Rock was at that point, and I don't think, overall, the wrestlers can match the ability of Rock/Austin/Angle/Benoit/HHH in his prime/etc. But we'll see.