by Adam Carriker

Adam Carriker wanted to change it up for his third blog. We decided to give you all an incentive to being active in his blog too. We are going to give away a signed photo to the winner of the contest. With WrestleMania coming around the corner, Adam Carriker shares some stories about growing up and developing a strong love for the WWE. He also shares his predictions for this weekend’s WrestleMania! What do you think of his opinions?

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Make sure you check out our interview for a background by clicking here.

I will always remember watching Hulk Hogan slam Andre the Giant at WrestleMania III. I will also always remember the Ultimate Warrior beat Hulk Hogan at WrestleMania VI. Every Monday Night was filled with epic drama from these larger-than-life characters. Monday Night Raw and Monday Nitro always started at 6pm (pacific time) and ended at 8:00pm. At least they were supposed to, but they always ran over time. I will never forget flipping back and forth trying not to miss any of the action, especially when 8pm rolled around, because both shows would reach their peak at the end and you couldn’t get stuck watching one show or else you would miss the end of the other one. This was back in the day before there was this little thing called TiVo, so once you missed it you couldn’t watch it later at your leisurely convenience.

The other memory I have of wrestling is when my dad and I went down to rent the little box to put on top of your TV, so you could get the pay-per-views. We didn’t do this a ton because it cost money, but we would occasionally do it, and that always meant it was a big deal. The last pay-per-view we ever ordered together was WCW’s Bash at the Beach in 1996. The day Hulk Hogan turned heel. I will never forget when he came out and it looked like he was going to save some wrestlers from getting beat up, but instead he joined in the attack and thus, became a bad guy. Afterwards, he was talking on the mike and the entire crowd was throwing their food and drinks at him. They hit him in the middle of the ring. Thus, birthing what became known as the NWO or New World Order of Pro Wrestling. This was the last pay-per-view we ever ordered. My dad refused to watch Pro Wrestling afterwards and to this day, is still disgusted with it. From then on, it was banned in the Carriker household. I missed a good five years of wrestling because of it.

I remember when I was the eighth grade I started hearing everyone talk about this guy named Stone Cold Steve Austin. For about a year, he was all I heard about. Finally, I decided to watch wrestling while my dad was in the other room. Now, you know how you hear about somebody and you get this image of them in your head, and it is usually way off? Well, that’s exactly what happened to me. I had pictured Stone Cold to be an African American guy with earrings. Instead, he is a Caucasian guy from Texas with a leather vest who ran around drinking beer and flipping everyone off. Not quite who I had imagined. But, I was hooked. Every Monday night for the next three years while my dad was in the other room, I would watch Raw and Nitro until I heard him on his way to my room, then I’d quickly change the channel. Out of the two hour shows, I’d probably get to watch about an hour of wrestling, so about thirty minutes of each show. So not a whole lot, but enough to keep up with the story lines so I knew what was going on.

Then when my freshman year of college rolled around… Talk about all the freedoms that go along with that! One of which was that I could watch all the wrestling I wanted. It was great! This was right around the time that Goldberg came back and joined the WWE. He is my favorite wrestler of all time. It was perfect. I loved his entrance. I loved his combination of raw power/explosiveness. And I loved his attitude of running right over and right through people. All of it really intrigued me. Let’s not forget his streak of 172 straight wins as well.

That is how I got into wrestling as a young boy, tried to stay in touch with wrestling, and still the reasons why I love watching it to this very day. I have to admit, my wife is not a fan, even though she always watches and is paying attention from the other room, but she will never admit it. I told her when our children are old enough to know what’s on TV, I won’t watch it around them, but we will see.

(IMPORTANT: In Carriker’s post below, he predicts the outcome of the biggest matches at WrestleMania this Sunday. Leave a comment below with your prediction for all eight of the matches! In the event that more than one person has the “most correct” predictions, a random name will be selected from the list as the winner. The person selected as the winner will WIN a signed 8×10 photo of Carriker.)

Last but not least, here are my predictions for WrestleMania:

1- Kelly Kelly & Maria Menounos vs. Divas Champion Beth Phoenix & Eve

I think that Maria Menounos will pin Divas champion Beth Phoenix scoring the upset and the win for her and Kelly Kelly. Whenever they have a guest at WrestleMania, the guest always wins, and beating the Divas Champion would be the most thrilling.

2- Randy Orton vs. Kane

This is a tough one to pick. They are both making recent comebacks and they are both top competitors. I think Kane will score the minor upset using some sort of underhanded tactic, cementing him as “the Devil’s Favorite Demon.”

3- Team Teddy vs. Team Johnny

I predict that David Otunga pins Booker T with some outside interference from John Laurinaitis to get the victory for Team Johnny, making Laurinaitis the General Manager of both Raw and Smackdown. This will vault Otunga’s career as well as keep the very good new found heel Laurinaitis on Raw and promoting him in charge of Smackdown as well. Thus, making him a bigger star than he has ever been.

4- Intercontinental Champion Cody Rhodes vs. Big Show

Part of me thinks that the Big Show will improve on his 3-8 WrestleMania record with a win, and his first WrestleMania win in singles competition. The other part of me thinks this is what could uplift Cody Rhodes to bigger and better things. In the end, I think Cody Rhodes wins, vaulting him into a possible World Heavyweight Title match against the winner of Daniel Bryan and Sheamus.

5- World Heavyweight Champion Daniel Bryan vs. Sheamus

Sheamus wins, re-cementing himself as one of the top dogs in the WWE. Even though Daniel Bryan just won’t go away, I think he loses and Sheamus starts to climb to the top of the WWE. This has to be the worst title match in the history of WrestleMania.

6- WWE Champion CM Punk vs. Chris Jericho

This will be the best wrestling match of the whole night. I think CM Punk will keep his title by beating Jericho. I would also not be surprised if there is a rematch-post WrestleMania.

7- The Undertaker vs. Triple H (Hell in a Cell Match with special ref, HBK Shawn Michaels)

To me, this is the toughest match to predict all night. I find it hard to believe that the Undertaker beats Triple H two years in a row, right after beating HBK two years in a row at WrestleMania. Part of thinks it would be really cool if Undertaker won, running his WrestleMania win streak to 20-0, setting up an epic match against John Cena at next year’s WrestleMania. I think HBK will play an obvious role in this match somehow. My prediction is that HBK screws his buddy Triple H out of the win, thus setting up a match between HBK and Triple H to find out who the better wrestler is. This will also set up that Undertaker vs. Cena match for next year. I know, I’m reaching out pretty far into the future here with this one, but hey, that’s what makes it fun.

8- John Cena vs. The Rock

Perhaps the most anticipated match in WrestleMania history. It’s definitely the longest anticipated match in history (except Floyd Mayweather vs PacMan, if that ever happens), with over a year’s worth of build up. I predict this will be the most emotional match of all time. Nobody can electrify the crowd like the Rock. And being in front of his home town of Miami, Florida, that place is going to be nuts for Rocky, especially with John Cena as his opponent. Cena gets responses out of an audience I’ve never seen any other superstar ever get, with the combination of both negative and positive energy he generates at the same time. In the end I think Cena wins, signifying the passing of the torch from the Rock onto Cena. This will make Cena one of the biggest superstars of all time.

“WrestleMania has been on my bucket list since WrestleMania VI when the Ultimate Warrior fought Hulk Hogan. I was hooked.” –Brian Flood NFL employee

(IMPORTANT: In Carriker’s post above, he predicts the outcome of the biggest matches at WrestleMania this Sunday. Leave a comment below with your prediction for all eight of the matches! In the event that more than one person has the “most correct” predictions, a random name will be selected from the list as the winner. The person selected as the winner will WIN a signed 8×10 photo of Carriker.)

Follow @AdamCarriker94 Follow @ProInterviews