I'll take anything of Goldust over anything of Black Reign's. :)

Poor kelly kelly randy is an idiot and we all know that he has a wife and that they just had a baby .....
do think thjbl will beat cena?????

RESPONSE FROM KEVIN ECK: No.

Did I miss something? Wasn't it an over the top battle royal? Kelly Kelly went through the ropes not over yet was eliminated.

I thought I saw John Cena Sr. for a second in the front row when Mike Knox was exiting through the crowd but he wasn't acknowledged on TV.

Did you notice the awkward pause after Lawler told Cole to say it like JR: business is about to pick up?

So are the Battle Royale rules the same for the Diva's as the male wrestlers? Jillian Hall threw Kelly Kelly through the bottom and middle ropes and she was eliminated? Don't you have to be tossed over the Top rope with both feet touching the floor? Speaking of Shawn Michaels, how about this for a Wrestlemania XXV match. Undertaker vs. Michaels and the loser must retire!

Orton wants nothing more to do with Kelly Kelly? That's hard to believe. If he were cheating on her, I could buy it, but he doesn't want to keep her around at all? To me, that is as far-fetched as HBK being broke.

The Hardy-Manu match was a small letdown, but I guess that I have been conditioned to expect solid matches from Matt, every time.

I think the WWE needs to find another corporate talking head to interact with the wrestlers on Raw. Since Vince-Austin a decade ago, the company has been spinning its wheels in this regard.

A guy who could possibly pull the corporate talking head role off with panache would be Flair, if they could come to terms with him and bring him back into the fold.

This storyline with Michaels and JBL would be a good place to insert Flair. As General Manager he could "suspend Michaels without pay" for damaging the integrity of the sport and then later hire JBL as the Assistant GM.

Meanwhile, Flair could revel in Micheals troubles to feed his own ego while flaunting his wealth and hubris, living the nightlife, ignoring major issues and doing everything but his job.

They could even bring back Arn Anderson and Sid (in addition to JBL) as Flair's sharp dressed lackeys to keep Michaels, and later HHH and Cena, at bay.

About Michaels being the best actor in the company, he noted in his autobiography that he wishes he had taken more drama classes while he was in college.

I'm excited about The Legacy. They have a lot of interesting options. Do you have any 2nd or 3rd generation stars you's prefer to see in the group? Do you know all the possible candidates? Off the top of my head, I can think of:

* Vince McMahon (no chance, but his grandpa & dad were promoters)
* Shane & Steph (I could see Randy trying to get sympathy from one of them by pointing that fact out)
* Chavo Guerrero
* Natalya
* Harry Smith
* Jesse (of Jesse & Festus fame)
* Ted Dibiase
* Manu (as of right now, he's not in)
* Rey Mysterio (his uncle wrestled)
* In developmental, I believe they have Barry Darsow's son, Curt Henning's son, and Mike Rotundo's son/Barry Windham's nephew/Blackjack Mulligan's grandson
* On the indie circuit, we have Reid Flair and Rick Steamboat jr

Michaels turned in an incredibly stellar performance - something that can be said a great deal in 2008. This week, however, it felt different.

What I mean by that is we have seen him angry, we have seen him vengeful, we have seen him playful, we have seen him confident, and we have seen the proud warrior that is the basis of his character. What we saw last night was Michaels playing the part of the victim perfectly.

With his body language, facial expressions, and his fluidly emotional eyes, Michaels showed us that JBL stripped him of his pride and his dignity, and how powerless he feels. He also showed the audience that he will cling to whatever honor he can, as he did not simply lay down for the pin, he made sure to take the Clothesline.

For myself, what amazes me more than anything else is that Michaels has mastered using his eyes to convey emotion. That is one of the most difficult things an actor has to learn. Michaels does it better than anyone in wrestling, and many actors in the Hollywood industry.

I believe JBL is going to win the title at the Royal Rumble.

HBK will then win the Royal Rumble match setting up HBK v. JBL at Mania. There isn't enough time to setup a proper Undertaker-Michaels feud.

I thought they were building up Mike Knox as a total badass. What was the point of having Cena clear him from the ring single handily with a single clothesline and then having him job yo Mysterio in the tag match. That just kills his mystique.

How can you say Sim Snuka brings more to the Legacy than Manu? He dresses like a total jobber and does nothing in the ring to make him stand out. Manu at least has a few nice power moves. Snuka and Rhodes on the other hand are totally brand and bring absolutely nothing to the Legacy or the WWE.

Kevin what do you think are the chances of JBL beating Cena at the Rumble? I mean now that he has Michaels in his corner, whose to say Michaels wouldnt interfere in the match and cost Cena the title?

RESPONSE FROM KEVIN ECK: I think it's unlikely.

You have to give it to Michaels. He has made this angle successful and engaging. But let's give credit where it's due to JBL. He is coming across better than ever as a heel, his mic work always good, and also with looking trimmer of late, his in ring performances are getting better. His match against Rey Mysterio was clear proof of that.

As for the Legacy, well Randy Orton continues to be compelling. The angle you mention with Kane would be interesting and fresh but as Orton doesn't care for Kelly Kelly, it will be difficult to get invested in it. Rhodes and Snuka make much more sense than Manu, though surely he still has a place. I mean let's be honest - he did have Matt Hardy to wrestle and not Charlie Haas....As for Haas I am getting bored of his gimmicks now.

Whilst it was logical for Regal to interfere with Punk, that's 2 clean losses in a row....Punk not winning the IC belt next week would continue the strangest booking of any superstar ever. Well perhaps other than MVP.

With the matches taking shape for Royal Rumble for the titles, it will be interesting to hear your thoughts Kev on how the Rumble match itself will play out. With the title matches being Cena JBL and presumably Hardy Edge, you will have HHH, Orton, Jericho, Michaels, Taker as legit winners. I can't see anyone else other than Cena being in the Raw main event - though I could see Cena dropping the belt to JBL at the Rumble with Michaels interfering, only for the rematch at the next PPV for Cena to regain with Michaels costing JBL setting up a Wrestlemania match for those 2....Michaels Taker could wait another year. As for Smackdown main event.....who knows!? That's what makes it interesting

Hi Kev,

I don't know if anyone noticed a comment made by Michael Cole about Dolph Ziggler, but he said on more than one occassion that Ziggler is undefeated. But didn't he lose to Batista in his debut match on Raw not so long ago?

Yeah I noticed in the diva battle royal Kelly Kelly (so good they named he twice :) didnt go over the top rope but through them. Im glad Melina is getting a push, she deserves it, hopefuly thel be a feud with Melina, Beth and Santino...like before when Santino tried to immatate her entrance, funny stuff.

it may just be me but at first I thought the legacy was great, anything with Randy Orton at the moment is great. But I feel the other members let it down...Apart from Cordy Rhodes the other two just seem boring and have no personality. Manu is soooo boring in the ring and on the mic in promos. and Sid Snuka, well I know its early days for his new persona but i havent seen much potential, he gets no heel heat from the crowd and is also bad at promos. Those two are riding on Rhodes, but mainly Ortons legacy, I hope they can sort this out as the Legacy has alot of potential, maybe a new membe ris needed? would be great if Orton manipulated Stephanie to join, a new corpriation like from the attitude era would be great. What you think Kevin?

I don't quite agree on Michaels part. There was good 2-3 minutes wasted on that laying down stuff. This RAW was a big letdown for me specially after last 2 enthralling weeks of RAW.IMO,last week's RAW was the best RAW of this year.Jericho and Punk after stealing the show last week were being made to job to Shawn and Cody respectively.That really killed the momentum of these 2 guys. Please somebody tell me they have something in mind for Jericho.
Overall, this week of RAW was peice of crap.As they say "too many popcorn matches".

For quite some time now, the rules for WWE Women's Battle Royals have been to throw your opponent(s) out through any set of ropes with both feet touching the ground.

LOL I'm not surprised that you ate up HBK's performance Eck. Still, it was about the only memorable thing on a bland, predictable, and uneventful RAW. It didn't take an hour for Superman Cena to transform Knox from a potential monster heel into Snitsky. Cena also gave one of his corniest promos even, which is saying a lot for John. Legacy is spinning its wheels as basically Orton (who's been phenomenal and I'd be shocked if he didn't win the Rumble barring injury) and a bunch of third rate lackeys. Even the main event was boring before the last few minutes, and no match featuring two of the best workers ever in Jericho and Micheals should ever be boring. JBL was the obvious choice two weeks ago, as Cena wasn't going to drop the belt here and Orton nor Jericho (who suddenly has no direction) needed to job here. They killed the Kelly/Kane angle in one shot, and instead of making her sympathetic, made her out to be a naive (insert your favorite expletive). Granted, considering the way she's been passed around the locker room, that may not be overly farfetched.

Marko50 is correct. At Taboo Tuesday 2005, the rules were clearly stated before the Fulfill Your Fantasy Battle Royal match that the Divas just had to be thrown from the ring to be eliminated; top rope not required.

Kunal, everybody does the job every now and then. Just because someone loses, doesn't mean that their momentum is killed.

Punk lost by countout because Regal interfered. That's not a clean loss, and he wasn't pinned, and it furthers the intrigue of the IC title match. Not to mention, Punk is just flat over with the crowd. Live crowds just love him. I was at SummerSlam '08 and No Mercy '08. The cheers and chants for him blew the roof off the house, which was especially impressive at the latter event because he wasn't even wrestling.

Jericho is too over, too hated, and too great at his character and development to lose momentum due to a loss. Jericho is one of those people that can lose a lot, and still be wicked over. I wouldn't worry about him.

In my opinion the only way the JBL can beat Cena is if MIcheals interfeares in the match and if that happens I will dispise HBK forever ...

I think Michaels definitely made the whole match work on Monday. It's so cliche'd, but he really is the Showstopper. He's taken what should in all rights be a disaster of an angle and made it compelling. It is kind of funny that I commented a while ago that this is the exact angle they should have done with Rey when Kane locked him up (the reluctant follower). Looking back on it though, Rey couldn't make that angle work anywhere near the same way this one is.

I am reserving judgement on the Legacy. It'd be a mistake to send Manu down now, he'd never make it back unless he bleaches his hair and calls himself Ralph Ziggler. He needs to be the silent brute, not the awkward talking guy. How far off is Dibiase from a return after his movie? It seems way too early to split people out, so I see him or someone else as helping Manu grab Randy's attention to get back in.

Have a happy new year Kev and thanks for always having great insight.

For Mark,

Flair would be a horrible GM. He already had that role and it went flat fast. Plus he wouldn't come back for this angle since Shawn is basically playing him. Flair's ex wives have all of his money, his businesses all have gone under and that's why he wrestled until he was 60. Other industry guys say Flair disgraced the sport for the last 3 years wrestling at that age and only able to take 3-4 different moves (though no one could make it work like he did). I think as a manager his mic work would be perfect, but that's the side of me that misses managers like Bobby Heenan and old school Jim Cornette who were just heat magnets.

Kev, am I too far off on my Flair comparison though to Shawn's portrayal of The Wrestler? He's had quite the fall from grace with the punchout, TMZ coverage and high school appearances too. Kind of funny since Flair still wears suits and is just about broke. Meanwhile, Foley still wears flannels with probably millions in the bank and gets targeted in SI like that.

That pause between Lawler and Cole was the most awkward and hilarious thing to behold.

Is it just me or does Dolph Ziggler seem to have some shades of Mr. Perfect in him?

Shawn Michaels was definitely the wrestler of the YEAR.
-Jericho didn't do much until the Michaels feud.
-Edge missed significant time.
-Ditto for Cena.
-Triple H was good but mostly a ho-hum year, which is definitley disappointing considering he spent the better part of the year as champion.
-Jeff Hardy is the only other viable option.

I know the whole world was wait for a Michael's SUPERKICK! I was sad it did'nt happen.

Anyway, let's keep Manu and team him up with Snuka as a Samoa/Fiji team. I like Slater's idea Legacy could actually be deem as mega- faction. Sweeping titles and, battle royals and tournaments.

As usual spot on with all your comments... I just have to ask, did you catch the sign someone had that said "Move #521, Armbar" ?

My favorite promo EVER.

RESPONSE FROM KEVIN ECK: I didn't see the sign.

Although I disagreed with last night's ending (far too predictable), it was executed well thanks in large part to HBK. He's incredible, at his age, to consistantly be the best in-ring wrestler and the most engaging and entertaining superstar most of the time.

Thought the 10-man match was fun and the crowd was hot during the match. Kofi indeed got a nice rub with Cena...he's becoming a star. That move Rey performed on Morrison was awesome.

Randy Orton is the best heel since Edge in 2006. He's so great, so arrogant, in large part because he IS his character. I've had run-ins with the man before. It's no gimmick.

Good show overall.

Mina
WWE is going nowhere with Jericho.I don't see a point in putting Jericho in that match. For me, that was an aweful peice of booking.Yeah you're right. Everybody has to job at some point in time. But the irony is Jericho has jobbed million times by now. Its high time that WWE shoves Jericho into our throats. And don't even get me started on Punk.He is next Bret Hart for me.Infact his career has been going just like Bret Hart.Bret Hart was so over with the crowds.He was projected as a role model for kids.Bret Hart was send to midcard level after winning his first wwf championship. And same goes for CM Punk as well. And yeah making him lose to a talentless Cody Rhodes is like a torture to me.He is so over with the crowd.But can anybody tell me how many matches has he won since dropping that belt. Everybody is going gaga over Orton. But believe me, the next big thing is CM Punk. Period!!!

And yeah everybody has to job at some point in time... I haven't seen mc. mahon's son in law do that. maybe he needs another MSG or another Ultimate Warrior.

Btw happy new year to all of you.

No question, the WWE is setting up a swerve with the JBL-HBK angle. HBK's character is going to legitimately turn heel. HBK will say he's relishing the lavish lifestyle and the power of money. Basically, he'll revert to his obnoxious character of the 90s. This is perfect for this economic climate. HBK will be a complete sellout. The heel turn will be official when HBK gives Triple H a superkick at the Rumble or at a RAW shortly after that. Triple H will be trying to aid HBK in some way, and it will be a setup for a major WrestleMania program between Triple H-HBK (and you don't need the title on the line). JBL would be HBK's manager. HBK and JBL's heel heat would be off the charts. Having a JBL-HBK Mania match would be too predictable.

RESPONSE FROM KEVIN ECK: I'd be shocked if Michaels went heel.

Hey Kunal. I don't know about stats since dropping the belt, but the entire year stats look good for Punk. According to BSWW.de, Punk was in a total of 174 matches (the most of anyone in the WWE for the year) and won 119 of them. The only person who had more wins than Punk was Triple H, who had 20 losses for the year with 145 total matches.

Interestingly, in Jericho's A Lion's Tale, he states that anyone who is capable of calling a match, being a ring general, will spend more time than one would expect doing the job.

Honestly, though, the point of Jericho in the match was that three of the four participants were the three best former World champions in the mix. Jericho deserved to be in the match. It would have been worse if Jericho was excluded from it.

Sometimes, it's ok for someone coming off two huge programs to have a little bit of a breather before throwing the wrestler right back into another one. I certainly do not see obscurity for Jericho in the future.

Do I like that Jericho lost? Not really. I never like that. But I understand it's part of the game.

When it comes to female wrestling ... TNA is so much better then WWE ... the WWE has become very lame when it comes to female wrestling ... WOOOOO

Ric : I know two reasons why TNA's womens wrestling is better than WWE's . -......... Go ahead fill in the blank Kev .

I know you wrote this a long time ago but I have been searching like crazy for someone who agrees with me about the HBK/JBL angle. Sure at first the whole thing seemed ridiculous. Older people like us know that Shawn's definitely not broke. I wanted to throw something at my TV when he made that speech about working for JBL. However, I can now appreciate the genius behind it because Shawn and JBL are really making it work.

This night that you spoke of had me on the edge of my seat. I called the whole thing two weeks before the actual Fatal 4 -Way but I never in a million years could have called that ending. It was great. I keep telling my friends that Shawn's performance that night should earn him an academy award because he had me sold. And every week a new piece of the puzzle comes together. People are screaming for HBK-Taker at Mania and while I would love to see it, I don't know if they have enough time to fit it in the card. This storyline is one of the more gutsy ones being that it's completely far fetched but I feel like it's a winner. I don't think anyone else but Shawn could have pulled it off which is why it's hard to say Shawn's not the best at what he does.

I would love to play in a movie with him. Even with my bad acting I'm sure he could make even me look good. Oh and I agree about JBL/Mysterio. That match was actually entertaining! Can't wait to hear more of your thoughts.