And so we come to Wrestlemania 26, the biggest event of the WWE calendar, and effectively the end of the current season.  Granted, the next season starts 24 hours later with the next episode of Raw, but April is usually a breather month before any major new storylines get underway.  Insofar as a never-ending series can be said to build to a climax, Wrestlemania is that annual climax.

Normally I’d do this preview over the weekend, but I’m going to be out of town, so we’ll just have to do it now…The WWE’s biggest failing in recent years has been a tendency to abjure long-term planning and make everything up as they go along – or, worse yet, to come up with a long-term plan, start it, lose faith, and come up with a new long-term plan, possibly up to twice a week.  Fortunately Wrestlemania 26 has not been plagued by these difficulties.  For once, they came up with a general plan months ago, and they’ve pretty much stuck to it.  That’s not to say that the build has been flawless, and naturally there’s been a degree of tinkering.  But they’ve had clear stories in mind since January, which have been allowed to play out.  Naturally, this is a great improvement.

So, here’s what we’ve got.

1.  WWE Title: Batista v. John Cena. These two have both been main eventers for ages.  But they’ve also spent most of their time on different shows (or on the same side of the face/heel divide), so it’s a relatively fresh pairing.  Batista has been a babyface for quite some times, but he finally turned heel a few months ago, in frustration at his umpteenth failure to win the world title.  This, by the way, is classic wrestling writing.  If you’re turning someone heel, then giving them a losing streak not only helps to motivate that turn, it also gives credibility to bunch of other heel wrestlers in the process.  In the long run, everyone ought to win.

Batista’s next step was basically to position himself as a hired gun for the WWE’s evil owner Vince McMahon.  This dovetails with John Cena’s peripheral role in the McMahon/Hart feud which we’ll come to in a bit.  The upshot is that John Cena won Raw’s version of the world title at the February pay-per-view in a gruelling six-man, only to be thrown straight into an unadvertised title defence against Batista, which he naturally lost.  This is Cena’s rematch.

This is all solid traditional WWE booking.  Alongside that, they’ve tried to build the idea that Cena and Batista came into the company at roughly the same time, and that Batista is jealous of Cena’s status (at least in the company’s eyes) as the Hulk Hogan of his generation.  Again, it may not be Shakespeare, but it has the tremendous merit of making sense and giving the characters two relatively logical reasons to fight.  With wrestling, simple is generally good.  At root, what you’re really trying to achieve is a context in which the audience has a reason to care who wins.

Cena’s virtually guaranteed to win.  That’s the obvious pay-off to the story and it’s hard to imagine why you’d do anything else (though jitters about predictability sometimes lead the company to do ill-advised things just for surprise value).  Both guys usually deliver on the big matches and I’d expect this to be good.

2.  World Heavyweight Title: Chris Jericho v. Edge. Meanwhile, over on Smackdown, Edge returned in January from a lengthy absence due to (legitimate) injury.  He showed up as a surprise entrant at the Royal Rumble, won it, and thus got the right to challenge for either of the world titles on Sunday’s show.  Edge was a heel before leaving, but absence makes the heart grow fonder and all that, so as is common, he returns as a babyface.  His natural feud is with Chris Jericho, who was his tag team partner at the time of his injury, and who spent plenty of time afterwards whining about Edge thoughtlessly leaving him alone.  And wouldn’t you just know it, Jericho won the Smackdown title in February, thus making it possible for Edge to cash in his title shot and fight Chris Jericho.  (I wouldn’t have had both major titles change hands in February, but at least there were sound plot reasons for doing it.)

I’m not quite so sure about the build for this one.  As a heel, Edge has a well developed character.  As a babyface, he’s less clearly defined, and I think that’s a problem.  And while Jericho may be self-absorbed and obnoxious, he hasn’t actually done much to Edge.  All of which makes this a slightly underpowered story.

That said, Jericho and Edge are both very good wrestlers and their match is bound to be excellent.  I would expect Edge to win, unless they’re going to turn him heel very quickly, which seems premature.  It’s simply the natural pay-off, and Wrestlemania is where major storylines end.

3.  WWE Tag Team Titles: The Miz & The Big Show v. John Morrison & R-Truth. The Miz and the Big Show are the current unified tag team champions which, as usual, means that they get to appear on every show.  Miz has been something of a breakout midcard heel over the last few months.  While not the greatest in-ring wrestler, he’s good and getting better; moreover, he’s a great talker, and following a repackaging last year, he increasingly looks like a main eventer.  As well as holding the tag belts, he’s also the current United States champion, and he’s tied up in the main storyline on NXT.

Ah yes… NXT.  NXT is the replacement for the company’s C-show, ECW.  Vaguely conceived as some sort of hybrid reality show, in practice it’s ended up as a venue for introducing new wrestlers just called up from developmental.  The basic idea is that you have eight “rookies”, each paired with an established wrestler as their mentor (thus, getting some major names onto the show).  In some vaguely defined manner yet to be fully bottomed out, some of these people will eventually make it onto the main roster.  In fairness, whatever else one says about NXT, at least it’s different from Raw and Smackdown.

Miz is notionally mentoring indie legend Bryan Danielson, inexplicably rechristened “Daniel Bryan” even though his gimmick is that he’s indie legend Bryan Danielson.  The idea is that the long-suffering babyface Bryan has more credibility than his supposed mentor, and at some point they’re clearly going to fight.  This is a good idea.  Bryan isn’t officially booked on the show, but one would assume that he’s likely to show up at ringside and get involved somehow.

The challengers are John Morrison and R-Truth, a makeshift team thrown together fairly recently.  Morrison is there because he was Miz’s tag team partner back in their midcard heel days – he turned babyface quite some time ago.  R-Truth, who does a rapper gimmick, is another of the NXT mentors; his protege is one David Otunga, a rather limited wrestler who happens to be married to Jennifer Hudson, and who is therefore a high priority for the company.  Expect to see him show up too.

I’m tempted to say that the natural ending is for Bryan to cost his hated mentor the match, but that would result in Morrison and R-Truth winning the titles, which is not a very good idea – they aren’t particularly gelling.  So on the basis that some heels have to win on this show, I’m betting that the champs retain.  Match should be acceptable for the midcard.

4.  No DQ, no count-out: Undertaker v. Shawn Michaels. Another major storyline.  The Undertaker remains undefeated at Wrestlemania (even though he’s been beaten plenty of times on lesser shows), something that the company has managed to portray as very important indeed.  Last year, Shawn Michaels tried to break the winning streak, and failed.  This year, Shawn is desperate for a rematch.  After trying everything else, he eventually managed to get the Undertaker’s attention by interfering at the February show to cost him the Smackdown version of the world title.  So, Undertaker has agreed to the rematch, with the condition that Michaels retires if he loses.

Nobody takes retirement stipulations seriously any more, but Michaels is getting on in years and has seriously talked about retirement for a while now.  I don’t believe for a second that Sunday will be his last match, but a withdrawal into semi-retirement and occasional matches two or three times a year is a genuine possibility.  It’s certainly difficult to imagine Michaels winning; he’s an established main eventer in the sunset of his career and there’s simply no point in throwing away the Undertaker’s winning streak for that.

Last year’s match was generally considered a classic, which is the real reason why we’re getting it again.  Both guys are a year older and not in their prime, which is the reason why we’re getting the no-DQ, no-count-out stipulations – it makes it easier to use smoke and mirrors.  But again, there’s every reason to think this will be excellent.

5.  No Holds Barred: Vince McMahon v. Bret Hart. Oh god, where to start?  For the benefit of those of you who don’t follow wrestling…

Bret Hart was a major star for the WWE back in the 90s, when the company was going through a rocky period.  In 1997, he was the world champion, with the unusual gimmick of an anti-American Canadian patriot – intentionally designed to get him booed in America and cheered in Canada.  The company couldn’t afford his hefty contract and it was politely suggested to him that he might want to see what WCW had to offer him.  Hart duly jumped ship, but he was still the champion, and on his last night in the company, he was due to defend the title against Shawn Michaels.  In Montreal.

Hart wasn’t very keen about losing to Michaels in Canada on his last night, for various reasons, but made it very clear that he was willing to come back for an extra show and lose the title on TV the next day.  Vince McMahon was sceptical/paranoid about this, and suspected Hart was going to show up on WCW with his title belt instead.  (This was not completely fanciful, since Alundra Blayze had done the same thing with her admittedly worthless WWF Women’s Title.)  Eventually, a deal was hammered out where the match would end in a no contest, and Hart would show up the next day to leave the company and drop the title.  The final sequence of the match involved Hart and Michaels applying one another’s submission holds.  What actually happened was that when Michaels applied Hart’s finishing hold, they rang the bell, declared that Hart had “submitted”, and announced Michaels as the new world champion.

This is the so-called “Montreal Screwjob.”  By coincidence, Hart was being followed by a documentary crew at the time.  Interested readers may wish to check out the resulting film, Wrestling With Shadows, which is actually quite good.

Although it’s been beaten to death in later stories, the Montreal Screwjob is a genuinely important event in American wrestling.  It was transparently obvious to the viewers that Hart had not submitted.  Explanations had to be given.  This led to Vince McMahon – previously presented as an announcer – being acknowledged as the company owner, and developing his heel persona as the evil boss.  That in turn made him the natural foil for Steve Austin’s anti-establishment anti-hero, kicking off one of the most successful periods of the company’s history.

As for Bret Hart, he found himself in WCW as the company entered its decline, and eventually retired after suffering serious concussions.  His career petered out with having a proper finale.

And so we come to 2010, as Bret Hart returns to finally get his revenge on Vince McMahon, which, obviously, he will get.  In theory this ought to be a major attraction; in practice, I find it hard to imagine the match being any good given the age of the participants and Hart’s shaky medical condition.  Realistically they’ve got to keep this as short as they can without leaving people feeling that they’ve been screwed (which means about ten minutes), and use all the tricks they can think of to work around the limitations.  Hart has to win, unless the company has suffered a sudden loss of sanity.

6.  Money in the Bank Ladder Match: Christian v. Dolph Ziggler v. Kane v. Shelton Benjamin v. Jack Swagger v. MVP v. Matt Hardy v. Evan Bourne v. Drew McIntyre v. Kofi Kingston. The annual midcard ladder match mess, where the winner gets a title shot that they can cash in at (literally) any time.  Ten men is an awful lot, and to some extent this seems to be an exercise in getting bodies onto the show.

Now, historically, nobody has cashed in the Money in the Bank title shot and failed to win the title.  So in practice, this ought to be a big deal.  Whoever wins is in effect being crowned as a world champion in waiting. The oddity is that none of these ten are natural contenders.  Kane is a former world champion, but that was for one day in the late nineties, and he’s settled down to an upper midcard role as a lower-tier Undertaker.  Ziggler, Benjamin, Swagger, MVP, Hardy, Bourne and Kingston are all good midcard wrestlers, but in no way are they treated as potential world champions.

That leaves Christian, who did at least have a long run as ECW Champion and who would be a popular winner, and Drew McIntyre.  McIntyre is the Intercontinental Champion (the secondary title on Smackdown), and he’s doing a “chosen one” gimmick where Vince McMahon has endorsed him as a future world champion.  It hasn’t really caught on.  While he’s a decent talker, he’s an unspectacular (if solid) wrestler in the ring, and his slow and measured approach can come across as a poor man’s Randy Orton.  (To that extent, Orton’s recent babyface turn may help him.)

Perhaps acknowledging that McIntyre is clearly not getting the reaction that his exposure would suggest, the WWE has recently changed tack slightly, and McIntyre seems to be segueing into a “shoved down your throat” gimmick.  The idea is that he keeps losing matches but the company erases the loss on technicalities, or even for no reason at all, thus allowing him to keep making ludicrous claims to be undefeated.  He made it into this match in his third attempt to qualify, defeating a local nobody.  It’s been made abundantly clear that he doesn’t deserve his place in the match.

One theory is that this suggests he’s going to win.  Another possibility is that he doesn’t win but the company keeps trying to find ways to give him the title shot anyway.  If so, that probably means a feud with Christian, which would not be the worst idea in the world.

Complicating matters is the inexplicable announcement of a “Money in the Bank” pay-per-view for July, apparently intending to spin this match off into its own show for the future.  That presumably means that whoever wins has to cash in the title shot very quickly.

Ten people is an awful lot.  Expect a stunt show train wreck.

7.  Triple H v. Sheamus. Planned at one point as Raw’s world title match, this has been moved down the card, with Sheamus losing the title to Cena in February, and never actually getting his rematch.  It’s probably a better move.  While Sheamus did well as a rookie heel champion, I don’t think this has the cachet to main event the biggest show of the year, nor is it desirable to have your world title match go on in the midcard.  Better to do the match without the title.

Sheamus is a rising star, Triple H is bulletproof, so common sense dictates that Sheamus should win.  Common sense can, however, often be at a premium when it comes to Triple H losing.  Nonetheless, Sheamus is apparently seen as a Triple H protege, so chances are he’ll be trying hard to make Sheamus look good.  Should be okay.

8.  Randy Orton v. Cody Rhodes v. Ted DiBiase. The break-up match for Orton’s Legacy faction, as Orton turns babyface and his two sidekicks… well, gang up on him, basically.  This is a handicap match in all but name.  The storyline isn’t working, because Rhodes and DiBiase have spent years getting beaten up by main eventers trying to reach Orton.  While they’re talented wrestlers, their characters have little or no credibility in their own right.  At one point the plan was for DiBiase to turn babyface and confront his heel employer, which would have worked much better.  Instead, we’ve got something of a mess.  My instinct is that Orton should probably lose here, because the Legacy desperately need the credibility of at least being able to beat him two on one.  Without a strong storyline behind it, I don’t think this is going to work.

9.  Rey Mysterio v. CM Punk. CM Punk has been doing a sort of cult leader gimmick, with his “Straight Edge Society” faction.  It’s a good act; Punk’s great at being obnoxiously preachy.  There’s a storyline here involving Punk harassing Mysterio’s family, but the upshot is a stipulation that if Punk wins, Mysterio has to join the Straight Edge group.  There’s plenty of mileage in this feud yet, so my feeling is that this is one of the stories that should be springboarded out of Wrestlemania, and Punk should win.

Worth getting? Well, it’s Wrestlemania, so if you’re not buying this, you’re probably not in the market for wrestling pay-per-views at all.  But yes, there’s a lot of good stuff in this card.