WWE - The Ultimate WrestleMania 24 preview (Part One) @ Sunday March 30

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World Wrestling Entertainment's WrestleMania 24 pay-per-view takes place TONIGHT, and all week long we're providing readers with a number of 'Roundtable' pieces building up to Sunday's show.

Don't forget that OddsPreview.com will have live match-by-match coverage of WrestleMania 24 from 11pm GMT.

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Ahead of tonight's show, Phil Lowe and Mark Bright are counting down to the WWE's biggest pay-per-view of the year and tonight bring you the first of a two-part WrestleMania 24 preview!

Pre-WrestleMania 24 match: 24-man Battle Royal with the winner facing Chavo Guerrero for the ECW Title

Mark Bright: This is being broadcast on WWE.com at 11:30pm, just half an hour before the show starts, which means once you take out entrances and the time it'll take to clear the ring, you're looking at 5-10 minutes of action, and several rapid-fire eliminations.

From how the match has been built on television, Mark Henry appears to be the favourite, but I don't see them doing a heel vs. heel match to presumably open the PPV show. I think it'll be a situation that Henry is the last elimination, and therefore the first feud for a new champion.

Now, as entertaining as the idea is of having Colin Delaney pull off a miracle, my choice to win the battle royal would be Kane. He's been a loyal company man for many years now, and the WWE likes to reward that loyalty on occasion (see current World Tag Team Champion Hardcore Holly as an example) with a token title run towards the end of their career. Plus, despite not being used as anywhere near as big of a main-event threat as he was a decade ago, the fact remains that he's still a very popular individual.

WWE WrestleMania 24 - Live coverage at OddsPreview.com, Sunday, March 30

Phil Lowe: We'll be covering this match live at around 11:30pm GMT on Sunday night, and although WWE don't think enough of it to showcase it during the pay-per-view itself, it should still be entertaining and will warm up the live crowd (if they need warming up for the biggest show of the year anyway).

In our betting preview I wrote that my hesitation about backing Mark Henry here is that the winner of this match faces current ECW champion Chavo Guerrero, and to do a heel vs. heel (bad guy vs. bad guy for the non-wrestling fans reading this) match at WrestleMania in a match that very few would care about makes no sense to me - even for WWE. I stick by that and as was the case yesterday, I'm predicting that Kane wins here.

ECW Title Match: Chavo Guerrero (C) vs. The winner of the 24-man Battle Royal

Mark Bright:
As stated earlier, I believe Kane will win the battle royal and go on to defeat Chavo Guerrero to win the title. To be honest, Chavo has been a massive failure as ECW Champion, his boring matches, dull promos and the perception that the fans have of him as a lower-card guy have all lead to some uninteresting television and I think it is time for that to change.

In fact, so unconvincing has Chavo been as champion that I believe there are only two possible winners of the battle royal that would lead to Chavo retaining, that being Tommy Dreamer and Colin Delaney. Anyone else wins the battle royal and they win the title.

Phil Lowe: I'm assuming that this will open the show and follow on from the pre-PPV battle royal. Anything other than a title change and I'll question WWE here. I expect that regardless of Guerrero's opponent, it'll be kept relatively short, and could quite possibly involve some outside interference as a result of the previous match.

If nothing else, this should be a solid enough encounter to set the mood for the bigger matches later in the night.

Bunnymania at WrestleMania

Mark Bright:
Why couldn't we have had Jerry Lawler vs. Santino Marella with the women in the respective corners here?

From a wrestling perspective, this has a real chance at being the worst WrestleMania match ever. Beth Phoenix and Melina are fine in the ring, but Maria is awful and the less said about that waste of oxygen known as Ashley Massaro the better.

Snoop Dogg is acting as the MC for this match, whatever that means. Lots of talking and ending words with '-izzle' for no reason I guess. Santino needs to be at ringside to make this entertaining. And if you want a prediction, Maria's team to win, because the girl doing Playboy doesn't lose comedy T&A filler tag matches.

Phil Lowe: The only hope for this being remotely entertaining is any interaction between Snoop Dogg and Santino Morella. The in-ring stuff here will unquestionably suck. Team Playboy of Ashley and Maria are awful in the ring. Maria, to her credit, at least shows willing and wants to learn, but I've not seen a single Ashley Massaro match in the WWE that makes me think she's valuable to the company. The Playboy girls win. Everybody else loses.

Money in the Bank Ladder Match
Chris Jericho vs. CM Punk vs. MVP vs. Shelton Benjamin vs. Mr. Kennedy vs. John Morrison vs. Carlito


Mark Bright: Before his 60-day suspension for recreational drug use, Jeff Hardy was a lock to win this match. He has built a reputation over his career as the king of ladder matches, and so much was this match built for him that they haven't even bothered to bring a replacement into the match in his place, going with 7 men in the match instead of the usual 8.

Shelton Benjamin is in the match to remind people that he can jump high, and have half the internet forget for a few months that he has absolutely no other redeeming qualities as a pro wrestler.

John Morrison and CM Punk could both be future stars, but they are also here to make up the numbers, and hopefully put on a good enough show that they get drafted away from the ECW brand and onto Raw or SmackDown shortly after WrestleMania.

Mr Kennedy is a contender to win, as he won last year but didn't get to cash in his title shot due to injury. And there will be at least one slow-climb tease with him in this match.

Chris Jericho would be the safe option for the WWE, as they know they can plug him into a title match at any point, plus if he moves to SmackDown then main events against Undertaker, Batista or Edge would be fresher matchups than seeing him against Cena, Orton or Triple H.MVP - Can he win Money in the Bank at WrestleMania?

But my pick to win this match is MVP. It's been clear that he is someone that the WWE is very high on for over a year now, and to become somebody the fans buy as a top star, he needs a "coming out" moment of sorts, something that will make the fans sit up and take notice of him as somebody they should invest their energy into watching every week.

As far as the match itself goes, you have your quota of jaw-dropping moments, you have spectacular moves, you have teased non-finishes and you have the intrigue of having several people not used to working with each other all the time trying to put something memorable together.

As is the case every year, if things click with this match it has an excellent chance of stealing the show.

Phil Lowe: A few weeks ago, Jeff Hardy was pretty much guaranteed to win this match until he failed a company drug test and as a result was ordered to sit on the sidelines for two months.

Now, with the original eight-man match down to seven (unless WWE add a last-minute, it's wide-open.

I wrote in the betting preview that Chris Jericho, who was the favourite to win with the bookies, isn't worth backing. Traditionally, the winner of this match is somebody who WWE are keen to push to the next level in the months after WrestleMania. And as somebody who has already been at the top - and in all honesty has been a disappointment since making his return to the WWE several months ago - Chris Jericho is not going to be seen as a true main event guy for some time, if at all.

There's definitely a case for Mr. Kennedy to win this. The winner of last year's match, his push towards the dizzy heights of the main event was hampered by injury, and if WWE management are planning to push him again in the upcoming months, Sunday night is the time to start that push. That said I still remain unsold on Kennedy, and struggle to understand why Jim Ross can compare him to Steve Austin. They're miles apart, in my opinion.

Elsewhere, MVP, whose matches and promos have made for great viewing on Smackdown over the past year or so, is somebody who could definitely be involved with the main event guys down the line, and he's my pick to win this.

While CM Punk has an outside chance of winning, he's one for the future, and the time is right to push MVP to the next level.

Raw vs. Smackdown: Umaga vs. Batista

Mark Bright:
Yes, six years after the original WWE roster split, all it's good for is a mid-card throwaway match that could be as early as second match on the card.

As far as the match itself goes, though, I am really looking forward to this.

The WWE have done an excellent job at building these two guys up as potential monsters, and that was after their interaction during the Royal Rumble match in January, where my immediate thought was "wouldn't it be awesome if they do Batista v. Umaga at WrestleMania?"

Over the last year, it was like a light bulb went off in Batista's head as through his matches with Undertaker, Edge, and MVP he became a really good big-man worker, rather than somebody who could be carried to good matches by Triple H or Eddie Guerrero working really hard for him, as was the perception before.

Umaga has settled into the role of upper mid-card monster jobber really well, where people still think of him as a threat to the top guys, but he never actually beats them, and he delivers on that in the ring too.Umaga (pictured) takes on Batista at WrestleMania 24

I am predicting Batista to win this match, then Umaga to be moved over to SmackDown later in the year to continue the feud.

Phil Lowe: While the match screams "We have nothing else for Batista to do so we'll come up with this," I'm looking forward to this. I'm not really a fan of Batista, but when he works to his strengths (as seen with excellent matches with Triple H and the Undertaker) he can be worth the ticket money.

Umaga deserves to be much higher up the pecking order than he is, and while his current "monster heel who we can use to make the good guys look good" role serves a purpose; I'd like to see WWE do more with him.

For a prediction, Batista wins. If they keep within their limits here, this could be the surprise match of the night.

Belfast Brawl: Finlay vs. JBL

Mark Bright:
You know what's surprised me? In the last couple of weeks, the hype for this has seen both Vince McMahon and Hornswoggle taken off TV. As a result, this match is much less an emotional storyline issue that has been built up for six months, and more a mid-card brawl between two guys people don't really care about all that much.

It was also a mistake to have Finlay play the hurt father out for revenge when people have only had a couple of weeks, rather than a couple of years, to get used to the idea that Finlay is Hornswoggle's father, and thus they don't really care that he's out for revenge.

However I think on Sunday they can rescue this.

These two, to put things plainly, will beat the hell out of each other. I expect Hornswoggle and Vince to get involved at some point too. And I'm picking JBL for the win, because I think the show will be perhaps too loaded with babyface wins that a strongish heel win is really needed at some point and this is really the best place for it.

Phil Lowe: Just like the Batista vs. Umaga match, I'm also looking to this. If they play to their strengths, they can justify their spot on the card. And those strengths here are simple: Beat the holy hell out of each other. That's exactly what I expect to happen here, and this should be brutal. JBL to win, with post-match festivities seeing Hornswoggle return, Vince getting involved, and Orlando dancing to the Irish jig.

We'll have Part 2 of our WrestleMania preview available from around 7pm GMT ahead of our live WrestleMania 24 coverage which gets underway at around 11pm GMT.

If you've missed any of our WrestleMania 24 articles from the past week, here's our full archive:

- WrestleMania 24 betting preview
- Michaels ready to steal the show once again at WrestleMania 24
- Who can benefit the most from Ric Flair retiring?
- Is Triple H main eventing WrestleMania based on being related to the boss?
- Should The Undertaker's winning streak end at WrestleMania 24?
- Should Ric Flair retire at WrestleMania this Sunday?
- Has Mayweather's involvement hindered WWE's WrestleMania build?

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