Wrestling Wrap: Wrestlemania Main Events, Ric Flair to Ring of Honor, Savage DVD

The main events for Wrestlemania 25 finally start to take shape, Ric Flair signs a deal with Ring of Honor, and Randy Savage will finally get his own WWE DVD release...thanks to this very blog?

Here's a quick-hit recap of the latest wrestling news, courtesy of your good friends at Ropes, Ring and Cage:

> Sorry about no update on WWE's No Way Out pay-per-view last night. I had to do some edits on two pieces for FIGHT! Magazine, including one on Benji Radach that I'm really excited about. It's due to come out in April, perfect timing for his Showtime match against Scott Smith on 4/11.

> If you watched RAW Monday night, you saw the two main events finally begin to take shape for Wrestlemania 25. John Cena did a good job selling the fact he wants a rematch against World Champion Edge and that looks to be the favorite to headline the show. With the assumption the angle will have to be mostly built on Smackdown (ugh), you're going to see a lot of Edge on RAW over the next month. Is there any question no one wants to work on Friday nights?

The final segment featured an unexplainable street fight between Randy Orton and Shane McMahon where once again, Shane was made out to be just as talented as Orton with the recovery skills of a video game character that just found a power-up icon.

Eventually, McMahon was felled and Orton delivered the head kick of doom which Shane failed to sell as well as his old man did. This prompted Stephanie McMahon to come out and within a minute of build, Orton delivered an RKO to Steph and gave a few million people a chance to cheer.

She's supposed to be a sympathetic character, right? Uh huh.

However, the WWE pulled back the curtain a bit more and World Champion HHH rushed to Steph's aid, almost blowing a blood vessel in trying to sell how angry he was. (Wait until you see this...it's quite strange.) Regardless, life will imitate art again as I fully expect HHH to defend the family and his title against Orton at Wrestlemania.

Also in the works: Shawn Michaels vs. Undertaker (if Michaels can beat JBL next week on RAW) and the assumed Jeff Hardy vs. Matt Hardy encounter. Decent card, but where's the mainstream draw?

> For decades, Ric Flair has been regarded as possibly the greatest wrestler of all-time. Now, Flair will associate himself with a group that is regarded as having some of today's great wrestlers in Ring of Honor.

ROH announced the multi-date deal today that will begin on March 13 in St. Louis with a meet-and-greet autograph session and appearance during the live show.

I'm not sure if he can appear on their upcoming HDNet series, but I'm interested to see how this plays out considering his expected involvement with Wrestlemania.

> I was excited to hear that the WWE will finally release a Randy Savage DVD set entitled Macho Madness: The Randy Savage Ultimate Collection to be released on June 9th, as announced by Jim Ross in his blog recently. A match list hasn't been announced and it's unknown if Savage will be part of the creation.

Now, I have to point out that Todd Matthy did a great job in compiling the ultimate Savage match collection for his dream DVD set just a few months ago on this very site. Did a McMahon read it and decide it was a great idea? Could Ropes, Ring and Cage be to thank for this DVD to finally hit stands?

Yeah, I didn't think so either, but it's nice to think about.

> This got lost in the mix, but the WWE will have their annual Draft one week after Wrestlemania on April 13. Like last year, we'll have live coverage right here on the site.

> For those that missed it, here's the WWE No Way Out 2008 results with some brief notes. It was on Sunday from Seattle, WA at the Key Arena.

- Triple-H won the World title in an Elimination Chamber match, pinning the Undertaker. Jeff Hardy, Vladimir Kozlov, Edge and Big Show were also involved. Big story here was Edge getting eliminated just a few minutes into the match which would lead to something a lot bigger later on.

HHH wins his 13th WWE title, but at this point, the sheer number doesn't mean as much as it should. More on this later this week. There was no Matt Hardy interference, which I thought was a waste of an opportunity.

- Randy Orton defeated Shane McMahon in a street fight. Highspots, plenty of emotion and a good finish. I realize people, including myself, couldn't stand the McMahon light-punchfest from a few weeks ago, but when it comes to one-off matches, at least Shane puts on a show. Why this had to bleed over into Monday, I'll never understand. Will we ever see a Best of Shane-O-Mac dvd? Pete Gas! Rodney! Joey Abs!

- ECW Champion Jack Swagger pinned Finlay. Seriously, can the Hornswoggle era end already? Swagger did win clean, but they've booked him very weak since he defeated Matt Hardy. It's okay to have a strong champion, guys.

- Shawn Michaels def. JBL. I didn't see the match, but apparently Shawn's wife was at ringside. I haven't heard good things about the match quality and was surprised they blew it off so early. I guess they wanted to clear the decks for HBK vs. Taker at Wrestlemania, but still...

- Edge won the World title in an Elimination Chamber match by pinning Rey Mysterio. Edge returned early on, KO'ing poor Kofi Kingston and taking Kingston's place by hiding in one of the pods.

Then-champion John Cena was pinned by Edge after taking finishers from Edge, Mysterio and Chris Jericho, which was an interesting twist. Kane and Mike Knox were also in the match, in case you cared.

While this was a good event, changing the belts this often has to be addressed. I don't think anyone expects Cena to leave Wrestlemania without the gold (the feel good moment for the kids) which would be overload on title changes. I say unify them, have one champion and move on.

Josh Nason - josh [at] ropesringandcage [dot com] - has published MMA, wrestling and boxing blog Ropes, Ring and Cage.com since 2007. If you are using any content or recapping from this site, please include a link to www.ropesringandcage.com. Thank you for your support!