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Twilling's Blog: Dwayne Johnson is number one, Undertaker and Shawn Michaels team up, will we finally get an IC Title match at Mania? Will the fans be disappointed when Chris Jericho's opponent is announced?

Posted in: Twilling's Blog
By By Rich Twilling
Mar 16, 2009 - 05:53 PM

Monday, MARCH 16 – 5:53 PM (CT)

-Dwayne Johnson's movie, Race to Witch Mountain opened up number one at the box office over the weekend. Wow. Honestly, I did not expect the movie to do very well at all. Johnson is definitely becoming a leading man to be reckoning with in Hollywood. He just hosted SNL for the third time. It doesn't look as though his career will bomb and he will come back to wrestling anytime soon.

-As every show is at this time of the year, Raw tonight is very important to WWE as we close in on WrestleMania. With tonight's main event of Shawn Michaels and The Undertaker vs. JBL and Vladimir Kozlov, we should get an entertaining next step towards the epic showdown at Mania, and we might also get an Intercontinental Championship match as well.

JBL vs. Kozlov seems to be the logical direction they are going and a quick blowup between makeshift tag team partners tonight would accomplish that goal. I doubt people will bang down the door to see this particular Intercontinental Championship match, but at least the title will be defended at WrestleMania for the first time in seven years.

-The most intriguing story heading into WrestleMania to most people involves a man not even scheduled for a match (yet). Chris Jericho has verbally and physically abused ring legends such as Roddy Piper, Jimmy Snuka, and Ricky Steamboat over the past several weeks.

I have been saying this for awhile now, but the longer WWE waits to announce Jericho's WrestleMania opponent, the more disappointed people will be when/if Jerry Lawler is given the spot. Lawler deserves a match at WrestleMania, but this is not the match for him. Of course, a dream opponent would be The Rock or Bret Hart, but neither of those men will in the ring in Houston at WrestleMania.

I think most fans would be perfectly happy with Piper or Steamboat. Mickey Rourke seemed to be the person in which this whole program was built around, but it seems more unlikely that we'll see him. Steve Austin would be great, but Jim Ross has gone out of his way to say Austin will not wrestle again. That could be a swerve, but it probably isn't one.

Besides Lawler, Ric Flair seems to be the only option in terms of legends. Hulk Hogan just had surgery and I would be very surprised to see him. Flair would be just fine, but most of the opinions I have heard or read state that Flair should remain retired. If he is healthy enough to go, I could see Batista fighting on behalf of the legends, but that would probably be a letdown too.

So, we are back to Lawler. One could assume that the legends will pick at Jericho's bones after the match, and Austin will have the final say. Honestly, I would love to see Hogan and Austin in the ring together having a beer. Hogan and Austin are the two biggest WWE stars ever and that would be a very special WrestleMania moment. In fact, I would rather get that moment than have one of them wrestle Jericho.

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