| Date: 03/25 | 11:00 PM |
| Views: 1,951 | |
From now until WrestleMania XXIV we will count down to "The Grandest Stage of Them All" with a series of editorials taking a look at the show in Orlando. This week long series culminates on Saturday, March 29th - the last day before 24th annual WrestleMania takes places. In our third entry we take a look at the Raw vs. Smackdown match between Umaga & Batista.
Let's all be perfectly honest about this - Batista and Umaga are both being rewarded with a WrestleMania payday here. Neither one of these men had anything going on going into 'Mania itself. Both missed chances to get a title shot on their respective brands of Smackdown & Raw, and they both didn't have any other feud going on leading into this Sunday. William Regal set this one up almost a month ago on Raw by saying he had received a letter from that "cheeky cow" Vickie Guerrero challenging him to a match to show which brand is supreme in WWE. You'll note she didn't even bother to challenge ECW - that's saying something about their importance in the big scheme of things. Nevertheless Regal accepted her challenge and immediately thought of YEW-MAIN-GAH as his representative. Paul Birchill made some noise about wanting to be the Raw brand man instead, but that story was dropped almost immediately and I'm glad - the whole incest angle with Birchill's "sister" Katie Lea was too disgusting for TV and I didn't want her seducing Regal week after week.
The build for this match has been possibly the weakest of any on the WrestleMania card. Both men have faced and beaten a slew of competitors on their respective shows, just to show us how strong and powerful they are, but neither has faced anybody close to their own rank on the card let alone push within WWE itself. It's easy to make a guy look strong beating up jabronis, it's MUCH easier to make a guy look strong beating up guys the fans consider credible. The lack of interaction between the two hasn't helped either. We needed more "inter-brand invasions" to push this match, and unless one happened at Smackdown tonight (the spoilers aren't out as yet) there's no more time to push it before 'Mania this Sunday. Even if they did do an angle on Smackdown, a two day push is hardly a push at all for a PPV. Ask TNA Wrestling - they know a thing or two about last minute pushes that don't make one fucking bit of difference to PPV buyrates. If it seems like WWE doesn't really care about the match given how little it's been mentioned on TV OTHER than when the announcers run down the WrestleMania 24 card, you're absolutely right - they just don't give a shit. What this boils down to is giving two guys who have busted their asses on their respective shows a chance to cash in at the biggest show of the year. Batista has been higher on the card on Smackdown than Umaga has on Raw, but currently they're about relatively equal in status - midcarders with no feuds. They do deserve the payoff, but where does WWE go with them after WrestleMania?
The one and only good thing they both have going into this match IS their relative equality on their respective cards. There's almost no way to predict who's going over in this match, which should make for some actual excitement watching it, on top of the fact that Dave Batista has been known to "kick it up a notch" when working on the 'Mania card - it always seems to bring out his best. Since Umaga is surprisingly good as a technical wrestler (even though they often ignore that to have him play a strictly monster role) and Batista is a very popular big man wrestler, the two can certainly create some fireworks and "Light it Up" as Rev Theory would say at WM24. I'd be lying if I said this was the match I was most excited about, and if I miss a minute or two of it standing in line for the bathroom I won't be heartbroken, but I still imagine we'll get a great series of power moves and near falls leading up to a big finish. The rumor going into this match is that whoever loses will jump brands, which may be the answer to the question "what do they do with them afterwards." In that case I expect Batista to go over, although just to put a little heat on the feud, he may not do it cleanly.