WWE/TNA Mark Madness 2011: Cena Survives, Hardy-Jarrett, Sweet 16 Underway

Mark Madness Round 2 Votes: 5,592

Mark Madness Cumulative Votes:  14,517

The second round of the 2011 Mark Madness Tournament has come to an end as the round delivered on an inherent promise to cast upsets and close contests for the right to lay claim to Internet supremacy. 

In what was the most exciting 24 hours in the tournament thus far, upsets and close matches that went to the wire defined a scintillating round that has produced a talented Sweet 16 field. 

Headlines

John Cena survives scare from John Morrison, escapes with victory. In arguably the most exciting match of the tournament so far, No. 1 overall seed John Cena lived up to his campy "Never Give Up" catchphrase to overcome an early 30 percentage deficit early and beat the popular John Morrison. 

Morison dominated the early ballots with 61 percent of the votes through 500 votes that seemed to have screamed upset. Cena came storming back to take a slight lead overnight only to relinquish the lead with just hours left until the round two voting deadline. 

As the last couple of hundred votes came pouring in, Cena was able to regain the lead, this time for good, as he scratched and crawled his way out of the second round. Cena will now meet Alberto Del Rio in the Sweet 16 in a rematch of the contest seen on tonight's episode of RAW. 

Miz/Sting fizzles in the suspense category. Amongst all the excitement in the second round, a hyped inter-promotional battle of current world champions between Miz and Sting did not account for any of it. Miz got out to a large early lead and never looked back as the reigning WWE Champion maintained around 60 percent of the vote for the duration of the match.

Jarrett and Hardy go to the wire in Battle of Internet Pariahs. As expected, Jeff Jarrett and Matt Hardy waged an evenhanded second round war as the Internet struggled to decide the lesser of two evils. The razor-thin battle split the audience for the entire voting period, climaxing with Jeff Jarrett squeaking out a 51.2 percent to 48.1 percent victory. 

The Jarrett Victory prevented what would have been an intriguing matchup between Jeff Hardy and Matt Hardy in the battle of bridge-burning brothers. 

Jeff Hardy holds on to eliminate Kofi Kingston. John Cena was not the only top-10 seed to have his hands full in the second round as Jeff Hardy (No. 7) got all he could handle against Kofi Kingston (No. 23). Hardy enjoyed a sizable double-digit lead for much of his match with Kingston, but Kingston closed the gap as the the late votes came in near the deadline. 

Hardy, perhaps a victim of negative headlines regarding his condition during last night's Victory Road pay-per-view, may be the most vulnerable top-10 seed left in the tournament. 

Upset Specials: Christian, Sheamus, Pope advance. With the first round proving to be relatively tame in terms of drama, the second round delivered three noteworthy upsets with the biggest being "The Pope" D'Angelo Dinero's comeback victory over Rey Mysterio Jr. Mysterio enjoyed a comfortable lead for much of the contest, but Pope would begin a continuous 12-hour surge as the second half votes were cast.

Pope would never look back, cruising to an impressive 12.2 percent victory over Mysterio with 56.1 percent of all votes cast for his matchup with the WWE star and former world champion. 

Other upsets saw high seed RVD (No. 14) and Dolph Ziggler (No. 16) eliminated by Christian (No. 30) and Sheamus (No. 32) respectively. Sheamus' upset victory coincides with an apparent rebirth seen earlier tonight on RAW when the 2011 King of the Ring defeated Daniel Bryan for the Unites States Championship.

Sweet 16 Matches to watch  

(5) CM Punk vs. (13) Kurt Angle.  The Punk/Angle tilt in the Sweet 16 figures to highlight a star studded crop of matchups. Both Angle and Punk have rolled all tournament long, with easy first and second round victories, however their respective toughest tests come against one another with a spot in the elite eight on the line. 

(4) Edge vs. (12) Triple H. Despite the noticeable difference in seeding, one would be hard pressed to make a case for either of these decorated champions as a favorite. There have been 24 world championship reigns between these two future WWE Hall of Famers, and their Sweet 16 match should be one of the more entertaining battles in the entire tournament. 

(3) Mr. Anderson vs. (11) The Undertaker. With all four No. 1 seeds (No. 1 - 4 overall) still alive, there is a high likelihood that Sweet 16 could see the first number one seed go down given the level of competition. 

Mr. Anderson has impressed thus far in the tournament with back to back blowout victories over Eric Young and Matt Morgan. Now, Anderson will face arguably his toughest test of the entire tournament when he goes toe to toe with the legendary Undertaker who has also cruised throughout Mark Madness.

The Sweet 16 round is now live! Click here to vote. Voting ends at Midnight (Eastern) tomorrow, March 15, 2011. Follow Big Nasty on twitter @ThisIsNasty for up to the minute analysis and coverage of the 2011 Mark Madness tournament.