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WWE - Is Triple H main eventing WrestleMania based on being related to the boss? @ Thursday 27 March 2008, 01:50 PM

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World Wrestling Entertainment's WrestleMania 24 pay-per-view takes place this Sunday night and for those of you in the United Kingdom, it airs live on Sky Box Office.

But if you can't or won't shell out the money to order the PPV live, whether you're in the UK, Europe, the United States or anywhere else, fear not, as OddsPreview.com will have live match-by-match coverage of WWE's biggest event of the year.

We're building up to WrestleMania by discussing various topics relating to Sunday's show.

In this edition, Phil Lowe and Mark Bright are looking ahead to one of the most anticipated matches of the night with the question: Is Triple H main eventing WrestleMania based on being related to the boss?

Phil Lowe:
Regardless of WWE pushing the Big Show-Floyd Mayweather contest to the media, the Raw brand triple-threat encounter at WrestleMania 24, rightly or wrongly, is the main event.

Current champion Randy Orton puts his belt on the line against both John Cena, and Triple H, with a new champion almost certainly being crowned to close Sunday night's show.

And in all honesty, I care about this match as much as I do the Playboy 'BunnyMania' content. In fact, if we're guaranteed some interaction between Santino Morella and Snoop Dogg, chances are I'll care about that one more.

As I touched on yesterday, Jeff Hardy really should have been the man facing Orton at 'Mania. But Hardy has let himself and WWE down, and that idea is out the window.

So, we're left with Cena and Triple H. Both big stars, both true main event stars, but neither really needing to be in this match. Personally, I'd have had Cena take on Trips in a one-on-one contest, with the winner getting a title shot down the line.

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Of course, that would bring up the question of who Orton would face for the title on Sunday. Smackdown's Batista seems like an obvious contender, and drafting him over to Raw in exchange for say Chris Jericho would have suited me fine.

But what's done is done, and we have our triple-threat main event.

So should Hunter be involved in the main event? Quite honestly: no.

It's not that he's not deserving of a spot at the top, because he is. But WWE could quite easily have found something else for him to do.

He could have faced Batista, or even done something with Ric Flair (although I'm glad Flair is working with Michaels instead of Hunter). Or, for a change, he could have taken The Undertaker's role and got a win over somebody who shouldn't have even been on the card (see Jones, N, Henry, M and others to get an idea of some of the wood that 'Taker has had the misfortune to work with on the biggest show of the year).Triple H

But because Hunter is as close to being a McMahon as anybody can ever be, and to a lesser extent because he was forced to sit out last year's show through injury, then he's involved on Sunday.

It says an lot about the poor state of WWE programming right now - and by that I mean the high amount of below-par build for some of this Sunday's matches - that the two top draws on the Raw roster in Hunter and Cena are doing very little to make me, and a lot of others, feel like the main event at WrestleMania is "must see."

To his credit, Triple H was the only individual involved in that awful segment at the start of Raw this past Monday night that did a good job of pushing their match.

That said we're just a few days away from 'Mania. I'm still not sold on this match, and I'm still not sold on Triple H being involved.

Mark Bright: In some respects Triple H is an easy target for criticism from online wrestling fans.

He preaches that hard work will get you into a top spot in the industry, yet that's easy for him to say when he sits in on writing meetings, his wife writes the TV shows and his father-in-law owns the company.

However, the crowd do buy into him as one of the biggest stars in the company, and he has worked through injuries in the past, and two years in a row now he's been scheduled to win the WWE Title in the WrestleMania main event but it's been delayed for different reasons.

He does put on good matches most of the time - although his criticism of so-called "garbage wrestling" rings extremely hollow when you consider that almost all his highly-regarded matches have involved blood, chair shots, people being put through tables and of course the ridiculous use of the sledgehammer - and, unlike Jeff Hardy, is someone that can be relied upon not to screw up his personal life in a way that would negatively affect the company's plans.

To get a prediction out of the way, I think Triple H is winning the WWE Title in the last match on the card this Sunday. I think that's wrong for three reasons.

First of all, he shouldn't be in the WWE Title match on this show. A month ago I would have said that the best option for the WWE Title match would be Jeff Hardy, and I think the complete silence when Triple H pinned him in the Elimination Chamber at No Way Out was testament to that.

The fans like Triple H, sure, but that reaction told everybody that they thought it was Hardy's time and they weren't interested in another Triple H title shot.

But, for arguments sake, let’s say the WWE knew about Hardy's problems and perhaps even expected him to screw up. Then, they have a ready-made storyline with John Cena and Randy Orton. The former champion who never lost the belt in the ring, against the man who put him out with injury and has beaten everybody in his path since then.

It's a simple and effective storyline with a clearly defined good guy and bad guy (no matter what the smarky crowd reactions might be), and adding a third man to the match just clouds the waters and downplays that issue.

Second of all, this match should not close the show. The build up has been uninspiring at best, clearly overshadowed by Floyd Mayweather-Big Show and Ric Flair-Shawn Michaels, both of which I think will garner louder crowd reactions and greater interest on the night.

I can see the reasoning for a comedy match sure to end in some kind of mass brawl screwjob or a guy's retirement not closing the show, so if they want to close WrestleMania with one of the two title matches, why not Edge v. The Undertaker for the World Heavyweight Championship?

It's been well documented that Undertaker was upset at not closing the show at WrestleMania 23, so he went and stole the show with he and Batista putting on the best match on the card.

It's also been well documented that Edge thought he should have main evented WrestleMania 22, so he went out with Mick Foley and had the best match on the show that night.

I don't see why the WWE are setting themselves up once again to put a match in the middle of the card that will have people after the show saying "why didn't that go on last?" and results wise, either Undertaker winning the Title or the streak being broken by Edge are both huge enough events to deserve closing the show.

Third of all, I don't believe Triple H winning the WWE Title is the right thing to do. I am firmly of the opinion that the best thing for business is Randy Orton retaining the belt.

This would mean that over the spring and summer they can run with the Orton v. Triple H, Orton v. Cena and Triple H v. Cena singles matches that they have built up so much, and the first two of those matches are only a big deal if Orton retains the title this Sunday.

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Phil Lowe can be reached at phil.lowe@oddspreview.com, while Mark Bright can be contacted at mark.bright@oddspreview.com.

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