Oh, boy. I love these topics. I'm heading into mania... Which I've held off on doing for almost two years now. The style is more or less '97 WWF. Still has that Attitude Era feel, but with the blue of the golden and new generation eras. DX is all over the card and consists of the Outlaws, Triple H, Shawn Michaels and Rick Rude. X-Pac turned on Hunter and Shawn after seeing them abuse Kane (They claimed they knew a secret from his past, which more or less less to him being obedient.) X-Pac came out, saved him and now is teaming with Kane in the tag title match against the New Age Outlaws, The Real Americans and Heath Slater and Justin Gabriel (Who won the titles when Ziggler and Ryder vacated the tag titles after Ziggler won the Royal Rumble. A tag tournament was held and the Outlaws and Kane/X-Pac were the final teams. The outlaws injured X-Pac in an attempt to be handed the titles, but GM Steve Austin revealed that he would give a new team a chance. The outlaws underestimated them and lost.) Also, because I've delayed this show for so long I've added a US title match. If I recall it'll have Kalisto, Mysterio, Sin Cara, Samoa Joe, Miz, Dean Malenko and Sami Zayn. All of whom are debuting, apart from Mysterio who had at least one match when X-Pac debuted.
DDP vs. Rock is one of the bigger matches on the card. Rock turned heel when Austin and Vince decided to have a match to decide who will become the owner of WWF. If Vince wins Austin is no longer GM, if Austin wins he becomes CEO. Rock turned corporate and joined Vince's team while DDP joined up with Austin, Austin ended up winning and DDP and Rock started battling over who is the real people's champ. In a similar manner, Punk vs. Austin is there. Punk made his return in the Royal Rumble. Just a few months earlier he had left when he lost a loser leaves town match to Wade Barrett (Who had beaten him for the title the night before.) Austin rehired him and they battled in the Royal Rumble match. Punk was a face until No Way Out. He joined Austin's team but turned on the team and got Austin eliminated. Since then he's been trying to get a match with Austin. It all culminated with Punk and Gallows trying to injure Brian Pillman. Austin finally came out and decided to give Punk the match.
There's also Undertaker vs. Luke Harper. See, I'm a huge fan of Luke Harper. This somehow lead to me giving him a monster push, which started with a European title match. Barrett and McIntyre were corporate guys after Barrett beat Punk and the Nexus broke up. Vince introduced the European title almost specifically for McIntyre to win, it was more or less a test for him. He ended up facing Luke Harper and Jack Swagger to decide the champion for the vacant title. It all started when Harper tombstoned Swagger, essentially taunting the Undertaker. Who made his return and Tombstoned Harper in retaliation. McIntyre crawled over and pinned Harper... But he kicked out at two. Then Drew pinned Swagger for the win. This lead to the Royal Rumble, where they met again and Harper was eliminated by Undertaker. They battled at No Way Out where Harper won with an avalanche tombstone and the Wyatts claimed that Harper had killed the Undertaker. He made his return and made the NODQ Wrestlemania match official. Harper beat Lesnar, driving him off the RAW roster (At the time a friend of mine was gonna start doing the SD side of things, I didn't really want Lesnar and he did.)
Whew, sorry for the novel. I get really excited talking about this and I've been trying to get it going again for forever. Drew McIntyre won the Euro title and him and Barrett were Vince's chosen two. Until Barrett turned on Vince leading into his title defense against Daniel Bryan. Now a babyface, Barrett lost the title and McIntyre, feeling that Barrett had betrayed him out of selfishness I can't remember all of the build to this, but they had a match for the European title at No Way Out. They had a competitive match, but in the end Barrett was in control and McIntyre could barely move, but wouldn't give up. Barrett showed mercy to his best friend and threw him to the outside, where he got counted out. They made up and then Orton set his sights on McIntyre. After failing to win even the Hardcore title, Orton had grown frustrated and decided to go after the Euro title. McIntyre had him beat and Batista got involved. This set up a tag match for Mania in a match where the Euro title might be on the line? Haven't decided yet.
Daniel Bryan won the title at the Royal Rumble, but Shawn Michaels cashed in on him and won the title. Afterwards Daniel Bryan was recruited by Austin for the elimination tag match against Vince. Cena was on Vince's team, the two went at it and after they each wanted to prove they were the better wrestler. On RAW they chose opponents for each other at the request of CEO Austin. Bryan wrestled Cesaro and Cena wrestled Justin Gabriel. Having see each other in great matches only fueled the feud and made the Mania match official.
The Shield and Hart Foundation have been at it since I started and... Unfortunately I can't remember how it started. The Shield beat the Hart Foundation at Money in the Bank (Which ended up being my December feud) and they were involved in the gang warfare match (A match where only tag teams and factions would be on the outside. If I recall... The Shield, DX and Ziggler and Ryder were on the outside.) between Bret and Shawn for the title at No Way Out. They finally agreed to one more match at Mania to settle the feud. One of the feuds I was most excited to do was Goldust vs. Cody Rhodes. This one began when Cody started calling out and taunting Goldust. Finally, Cody was about to use the Shattered Dreams when Goldust appeared and cost him the match. Cody, infuriated by this called out Goldust and they had a match at MITB, which ended prematurely after Goldust dropped Cody face first onto the Turnbuckle post. Cody returned in Undashing form, claiming that Dustin ruined his face and that what began as a friendly rivalry had become a blood feud. They faced off in the Royal Rumble match, where Cody was the runner up, him and Ziggler came in at number 1 & 2, both being the ironmen of the match, which Ziggler won by eliminating Cody. Cody and Goldust faced off in a bloody Bullrope match. Cody won and proceeded to wrap the rope around Goldust's neck and throw him over the top rope, hanging him. He then covered Goldust's face with a paper bag. After that Goldust realized Cody wasn't right and tried to reason with him, but ultimately realized this wouldn't end until one of them was gone and now mania.
Now the Hardcore title has been a fun story. I debuted it as a title more or less for Curtis Axel. I didn't have him at the time so Jimmy Uso won it and Axel made his debut and beat him for it. Since then I think he's only lost it once (Yes, the 24/7 rule is in effect.) He claims to be better than perfect, he's hardcore. Becoming "Mr. Hardcore" Curtis Axel, his goal has been to elevate the title. Even when he's attacked outside of a match he'll pin anyone trying to take advantage of the 24/7 rule. My Axel broke, so the plan became giving Rowan the title (He would drag Axel out to the ring and pin him, implying that he injured Axel.) However, I've replaced Axel since then, so maybe he'll keep it.
Almost done. Two matches left with actual stories. Shawn, Rude and Helmsley have made it a habit to beat up Ziggler and Ryder at this point. However, last time they did this, someone came out to make the save. Sting. DX went running and then the next week called Triple H and Rick Rude called him out. Sting appeared and they tried to sick the outlaws on him and he took them out with his bat. Sting and Ryder finally got their hands on Rude and Sting put him in the Scorpion Death Lock, forcing him to accept a tag match at Wrestlemania. Triple H and Rick Rude vs. Sting and Zack Ryder
Okay, main event and then this novel is over. Shawn Michaels vs. Dolph Ziggler. Michaels won Money in the Bank thanks to Kane. The next month at Royal Rumble he cashed in on Daniel Bryan and obviously that same night Ziggler won the rumble. Austin revealed that at No Way Out, in preparation for Wrestlemania he'd wrestle Bret Hart. He managed to defend his title despite interference from Ziggler and Ryder. So the next RAW Michaels, Hunter and Rude called out Ziggler. If Ziggler couldn't beat Rude he'd lose his Wrestlemania title match. Ziggler agreed and Austin more or less said "You agreed, so this is all you." Ziggler lost due to interference and in the following weeks Michaels would put him in ridiculous matches, like a 1 vs. 5 handicap match. Thanks to run ins and general chaos, Ziggler almost won, but failed. I think that Ziggler would've won his title shot back on RAW after Austin makes a cage match against Triple H, but I can't remember if I actually did it. Cause I ended up skipping a RAW to go straight to mania. So, yep.
There are some other matches on the card, but they've being added more recently and don't have story behind them. Jericho vs. Steamboat, Gallows and AJ Lee vs. Finn Balor and Bayley are the only ones, I think. But I did leave one more spot on the card open for another filler match. I really want to finally do the show, but I always get frustrated by the format (I don't have any kind of Crowd printout. I always did the shows on my dresser with a basic ring) and now I want to get all of the fancy arena stuff and use the ASR, but don't have room anymore. So, I dunno. But I'm really hoping to finally get back to it soon.
