CHEAP HEAT: WRESTLEMANIA XXIV COUNTDOWN OFF AND RUNNING

by Matt Loede, Let's Wrestle

The official countdown to the WWE's biggest show of the year is now in full effect, as WrestleMania XXIV is now less than four weeks away from Orlando, Florida. Right now on paper it seems like the show is going to challenge last year's show in terms of matches, as they have officially announced six matches. Here are the matches announced so far:

WWE Championship Match
- Randy Orton (c) vs. John Cena vs. Triple H

WWE World Heavyweight Championship Match
- Edge (c) vs. The Undertaker

Money In The Bank Ladder Match
- Confirmed thus far: Ken Kennedy vs. Chris Jericho vs. Shelton Benjamin vs. Jeff Hardy vs. Carlito

Career Threatening Match
- Ric Flair vs. Shawn Michaels

Playboy BunnyMania
Candice Michelle & Maria vs. Beth Phoenix & Melina

Interpromotional Match
Batista vs. Umaga

The Big Show vs. Floyd Mayweather

Right off the bat, the WWE Title match could be one that gets lost in the shuffle a bit, as I think they need to do more to build that up. Having each of the three wrestlers be a "GM" on RAW for a week is sort of lame, and I think we need to see more actual interaction between them. Triple threat matches are tough in my opinion to pull off, and even though we all knew that John Cena was going to win last year vs Shawn Michaels, the build was better because it was one-on-one.

The Edge vs. Taker match also seems somewhat predictable, since at this point in his career there is no way Taker is going to lose at Mania. The one thing though about this match that could make it interesting is if they actually allow, and I doubt they will, for Edge to lose, yet keep the belt via countout or DQ. I think the company would take a backlash for that, being a cheap ending, and the only way this should end is with Taker with the blue light and fog holding the belt up once again.

As for the rest of the card, like last years Umaga vs Bobby Lashley gimmick match with Donald Trump and Vince McMahon involved in the hair vs hair challenge, it looks as if they are going to push the Big Show vs Mayweather bout to no end. They are paying Mayweather a ton of money, no matter if it really is $20 mil or not, and they are going to take advantage of his mainstream attention that they are going to get from having him on the card.

The one thing that will be interesting to watch is if they do what they did back at WM XI when Lawrence Taylor was involved in a match at Mania, and that was to put it on last as he took on the late Bam Bam Bigelow. They pushed that match to no end, and while it was okay, they bumped the WWE Title match, which was Shawn Michaels vs Diesel. I for one think they should keep with the premise of throwing on the WWE Title match last, while Mayweather and Show can go on second-to-last and have a great buzz.

What they will likely do though is have the Edge vs. Taker match on about 4-5th in the card, then have the Show-Mayweather match 3rd last, Playboy Bunnies match second last, then the WWE Title match. Speaking of which, the buzz around the net is that Triple H is "a lock" to win the title at Mania, as they won't put it right back on Cena since he needs time off to flim his next movie, and they want the fans to go home happy, so putting it on HHH is the obvious choice.

* The WWE Hall of Fame which will take place the night before Mania, has been starting to build, as they announced Mae Young as the next to go in this year. With that, we have Ric Flair, Rocky Johnson and Peter Mavia, and now Mae Young announced. The word is Jack and Gerald Brisco will also get announced, along with long time announcer Gordon Solie.

* Speaking of which, tickets for the Hall sold out in about 5 mintues on Saturday morning, only for them to hold back a lot of the upper level tickets till about 11am. As of this morning, there are actually tickets available, but nothing but nose-bleeds. As for lower levels and floors, there are none to be found anywhere, meaning that the WWE is really holding them back.

* On a scale of 1-10, with 10 being the best, Floyd Mayweather's promo's on RAW Monday night were no better than a 2. The angle is simply not working, and Mayweather is a waste of time right now, and those promos were about the worst things I have seen on WWE TV in quite some time. They are REALLY going to have to do something special to make this thing watchable. Mayweather, as stated in this column before, is simply a better heel than face, and he has no idea whatsoever on how to play a good guy.

* WWE Diva Ashley Massaro is off TV right now, but it's not for anything else other than she is hurt and should be back soon. I would expect to see her as one of the "lumberjills" at ringside for Mania's Playboy Bunny match.

* A couple more celebs are on the docket for Maina, the first of which is socialite Kim Kardashian, who to be totally honest with you I had never heard of before I read about her on-line. No idea as to what Kim is going to be doing, possibly some sort of backstage segments or something like that?

Raven-Symone, who is in some new Disney movie with Martin Lawrence, will also be at Mania, again doing what who knows. Raven is probably best known for at one time being the cute little kid on the Cosby Show in it last few seasons.

Also rapper 50 Cent will be escorting Floyd Mayweather to the ring for his bout with The Big Show, which should be interesting. 50 Cent sang the theme song that Mayweather currently uses to come to the ring.

Finally word has come down that rapper Snoop Dogg will be a "Master of Ceremonies" for the Bunnymania match with the laides of the WWE. That match has also beeen changed a bit to become a Lumberjill match, like it was last year as a way to get the ladies on the card.