At this point, the plan for WrestleMania XXV is to have Mickie Rourke sit at ringside and get involved somehow with the finish of the Jericho match, reports WrestlingObserver.com. The idea is to build Rourke up as a former boxer and somehow implement a Big Show-type of punch to Jericho when Rourke is confronted. As far as Jericho’s opponent for the event, Vince McMahon has apparently been telling people that he has it covered, but no one knows who it is at this point. Hulk Hogan is saying that they could not come to an agreement and unless plans change at the eleventh hour (which is very possible), it won’t be him. There is some talk of Jerry Lawler being the guy to face Jericho since he’s stated in the past that he would like to wrestle at WrestleMania before his career is over. He has never wrestled on a WrestleMania event. Nothing is confirmed at this point, however.
This year’s draft decisions will mostly be decided the weekend of WrestleMania due to the fact that the entire creative team will be there in Houston. Vince plans on holding extended meetings that weekend to discuss the direction heading out of WrestleMania and after the draft. It does look at this point that Triple H is definitely coming over to Raw because most of the key people don’t believe his WrestleMania match with Orton is going to be a one-off deal. Outside of that, it doesn’t seem like much talk has went into the draft yet.
As we’ve reported, Freddy Prinze, Jr. is now out of creative, although reports now indicate that many have expected this for quite some time, specifically Stephanie McMahon. She offered him a promotion complete with more duties a couple of months ago, but he declined claiming he was looking at giving notice a few days later. Stephanie talked him into staying on part-time for a while, but he virtually took himself out of the picture for weeks leading up to his departure. He was on the creative email-list that went out, but had not been attending shows and if he did give any input via email, no one knew about it. The idea is that WWE would like to keep some sort of working relationship with Prinze, but it will not be in any creative capacity.
