Kingston one step from Mania title match?
Kofi Kingston will compete in a Gauntlet match Tuesday night on Smackdown when he will face Randy Orton, Cesaro Samoa Joe, Sheamus and Rowan.
If, or when, Kingston wins the match, he will earn a WWE championship match against Daniel Bryan at WrestleMania.
Kingston teased this kind of push when he appeared on Busted Open, a pro wrestling talk show on SiriusXM, back in January, but he was really keen about it.
The crowd has really gotten behind Kingston and if the match against Bryan takes place, the crowd will be emotionally vested.
Ring of Honor delivers
Ring of Honor presented its 17th anniversary show Friday night and it is now full-speed ahead as the show prepares for its Madison Square Garden debut and the Pittsburgh show on April 13.
ROH champion Jay Lethal wrestled Matt Tavern to a 60-minute draw Friday, while the main event saw PCO and Brody King defeat ROH tag champions, The Briscoes, in a Las Vegas Street Fight to win the titles.
For more information on the show in Pittsburgh, go to www.rohwrestling.com or https://www.rohwrestling.com/live/events/41319-steel-city-excellence-pittsburgh-pa.
Angle鈥檚 last match
Kurt Angle announced on Raw Monday night in Pittsburgh that he will wrestle at Mania and that it will be his last match.
While his opponent has not been announced, there are several possibilities and it will be interesting to see if WWE will have him face a younger guy or a returning legend like John Cena.
My issue is that Mania is three weeks away and WWE just announced that this will be it for Angle. With it being Angle鈥檚 last match, it is a big deal, but it definitely does not have a big match feeling and that is a shame.
Had WWE been building towards this, fans would have already built up an emotional attachment. Newer fans don鈥檛 remember the Kurt Angle that the rest of us remember.
Granted, Angle was in TNA for a decade-plus, but his original WWE run was legendary and he became one of the top in-ring performers of all-time.
Go back and watch his work from the early-2000s and pick from a myriad of opponents: Eddie Guerrero, Edge, Chris Benoit, The Undertaker, Triple H. The list could go on and on.
Want one match to watch of him to see his greatness? Watch his classic with Shawn Michaels at Mania 21, as it is one of the top-five Mania matches of all-time.
Bliss hosting Mania
It was announced earlier this week that Alexa Bliss will be the host of WrestleMania.
On This Day
In 2002, WrestleMania X-8 took place.
The match of the night was The Rock defeating Hulk Hogan in a stellar bout. The Rock entered as the good guy and Hogan as the bad guy, but the crowd decided it was going to overwhelmingly cheer Hogan and by the end of the match, the wrestlers exchanged roles.
The only other match of note was The Undertaker defeating Ric Flair in Flair鈥檚 greatest Mania match.
While the rest of the card was strong on paper, the show lacked and WWE鈥檚 new creative direction, which had seen changes with lead writers a short time earlier, was evident and it wasn鈥檛 for the better.
This week鈥檚 question
We are only a few weeks from WrestleMania and WWE has not announced who The Undertaker is facing. Is he wrestling on the card? If not, I don鈥檛 think I will even watch. Ryan, California.
WWE has given no indication, or teased, that Taker will have a match on 鈥淭he Granddaddy of Them All鈥� card.
There was a little buzz this week that he would face 鈥淭he Demon King鈥� Finn Balor, but much like Angle鈥檚 last match, there is little time to make it happen.
If Taker does not wrestler, it will break his WWE record of having a match at 18-straight Manias snapped.