I don't like Batista's character. There's nothing to get excited about with him right now.

I like your idea of a double-turn. Another idea I like is for Batista to screw HHH out of the title at Backlash and join Legacy. It could freshen his character and give HHH someone to fued with when his Orton fued is over.

Batista being he muscle of Legacy and eventually tiring of the act (SummerSlam?) could be interesting.

I think Santino is hilarious. The only problem I have is the announcers acting as if they don't know that's Santino.

Why do they continue to call the Colons the "unified tag champs?" Shouldn't they just be the WWE Tag Champs? With new titles?

I read earlier that the WWE is bringing out a tag-team DVD. Maybe a boost in the tag division will follow.

Just saw on ECW that Tiffany is the new GM of ECW, Teddy Long of Smackdown. GM's are useless right now. I'd like to see the shows have GM's who we'll actually remember years from now. I'm sure we'll remember Vickie, but she's just okay as GM.

on ECW tonight, Teddy Long said he is the new GM of Smackdown, and taking his place as ECW GM is Tiffany

I think the reason the miz and morrison didnt win is that they are going to split them up on next weeks draft and hopefully that means morrison will be getting a big singles push.

the only other thing that i could see happening at backlash to help orton win the title would be for shane mcmahon to align himself with the legacy, although that wouldnt make much sense since he has been in numerous fights with the legacy memebers

Is it just me or shudnt Batista be pretty peeved with Triple H too? Like didnt Triple H turn on Batista for a similar reason to Orton?

That cud be wat happens at Backlash. Batista screws over Triple H, leading to a Batista/Triple H program. Then the McMahons become heels trying to steal the belt from anti-hero Orton....

This wud also mean that Triple H doesnt cleanly lose to Orton, which is more than likely gonna be the situation....

I agree about Orton, etc. Another Shane McMahon PPV match? And he still hasn't bothered to stop by a gym and learn how to throw a punch? No thanks, Backlash.

I do not agree about Carlito, etc. JESUS CHRIST, could there please be another tag team. Any. Other. Tag team. At this point, I'd settle for the Bushwhackers. I have seen Carlito & Primo wrestle Miz & Morrison approximately eleventy-thousand times in the past three months, and I'm getting a headache. How can they possibly make a fuss over "unifying" the tag titles when apparently, there are only two teams in the division?

Kev... Really appreciate your commitment in getting thru these blogs despite your accident and your travel tiredness!

Have been following your blog for a long time now..... Keep up the nice words!!!! :)

Teddy Long is an uninspiring choice as the new Smackdown! GM. Almost as uninspiring as Todd Grisham filling the Smackdown! chair. JBL would have been outstanding in either role. I'm amazed Long and Grisham still have jobs in the 'E.

Stephen, you forgot about Jesse and Festus, as well as Rhodes and DiBiase. Hopefully the draft will give Biscuits n' Gravy an opportunity to find a home to get a well-deserved push.

I always find double-turns tough to believe. The only exception is the Bret Hart-Steve Austin feud. In the months leading up Wrestlemania 13, the fans had been booing Bret out of the ring (and this was before he started bashing America), and cheering wildly for Austin. Furthermore, Bret had been acting more and more heelish with each passing week, and the announcers were treating him like a turd in a punchbowl. The WM 13 double-turn was just a formality. I don't recall this scenario being duplicated at any other time, so there you have my skepticism of double-turns. I just can't buy a quick role-reversal

They could also go the face v. face route after the Six-Man Tag match. Batista scores the pinfall, allowing Triple H to keep the title, then starts a program with HHH claiming that if it weren't for him Triple H wouldn't have the belt and that he deserves a title shot.

With WWE's silly booking lately, I wouldn't be surprised if this is what we see.

Kevin, I agree with you entirely about being excited for the WWE draft. If every superstar can appear on any show whenever they please, it kinda eliminates the purpose of having superstars exclusive to each brand. Wouldnt the WWE be better by abolishing the whole brand exlusitivity system?

Cool. I'd rather look at Tiffany than Teddy Long.

Oh boy, Batista's back! Now things should get really interesting!

HHH needs to turn heel and Orton face as mentioned. This could help make Orton the next model anti-establishment hero, aka Stone Cold.

Will CM Punk be wasted again this year like last, or will WWE try to fix this year what they wasted last year?

Before Orton's and Batista's injuries it looked as if they were gonna turn Batista, so he'd align with Orton, that would play into a potential doubleturn as well.
Hoping this draft spells a well deserved singles push for Morrison .
According to JBL's blog doesn't look like he'll be doing much of anything on-air with WWE for quite a while.
Hopefully they keep Stephanie in the mix.
A Shane PPV match, putting Triple-H over the hottest wrestler at Wrestlemania, and Punk winning MITB again- does WWE not like their fans? At least we have Santino/a.

It was great to see Ricky Steamboat wrestle on TV again. The fans were into it when they chanted, "You still got it." If I'm in half the shape Steamboat is in at 56 then I'm doing pretty good.

Santino/Santina Marella is a comic genius and could use those talents outside the wrestling ring.

Triple H and the McMahons needed Batista to come in otherwise the fans would side with Orton if they haven't already done so.

But it begs this question. If the plan is for a double turn between Orton and Triple H/McMahons where does it leave Batista? Would he remain a face and align with Orton or does he turn heel as well?

If Orton turns face it doesn't make sense for Batista to remain a face because he's got a score to settle with Orton. Unless, of course, there are a couple of Orton-Batista matches and they waited until Summer Slam to make the turn.

Wondering why Eck loves Vickie so much. I'm only a recent re-convert to WWE (if that makes any sense), but Vickie has brought nothing but annoyance to my experience. I have hated the Edge-Show-Cena storyline, mainly because of Vickie. If she was a true brat, as Stephanie has been, then it would be entertaining. If she were a more compassionate character, it would be something that might even push me away from backing Cena. But all she's been is shrill and weak, giving no real reason to have feelings one way or another about her. I agree with Eck on just about everything else in this post, but this is the one point where I'm surprised to find a divergence. So I'm just curious, because there could absolutely be some stuff that I missed before my interest in wrestling was reborn a few months ago after quite a few years away. So what gives?

In all honest as soon as I saw Batista coming out to help Vince McMahon. I was like great good luck Orton winnig in this storyline. Maded it more definite with me when Vince announced batista would take his place. But seriously the realism and my suspension of disbelief is tested in this saga as if most of the time Dibase and Rhodes who are in their physical prime can't beat a 63 year old and a middle aged man, how can their beat a buffed up monster of man Batista who's fresh and back from injury. Batista will tear Dibase and Rhodes up like toilet paper. Hopefully WWe booking team will book Randy Orton to win the title in the next couple of months

Although I am not fond of Orton, I do believe he should be booked as the new "Stone Cold". But what would they do with Rhodes and DiBiase. The "anti establishment" hero is a lone ranger type.

Monday's Raw was soooo weak, the WWE needs an overhaul. Yes, the draft does not matter this year and we may see it fade in the future.

BTW, Punk has no choice but to go heel now. Too many boos starting since the MITB win. Best thing to do is what the Rock did and just go with it.

Last thing...WHY MAKE VIKKI THE NEW RAW GM, WHEN THE DRAFT IS NEXT WEEK!!!

I like Batista and I would like to watch a handicap match.HHH teaming up with The Animal against Randy Orton in a steel cage. Then a week later a Last Man Standing match between The Animal and Randy Orton

As a HUGE Steamboat mark from back in the day, I was so pleased I got to see him have that one last moment in the ring (since I didn't see the PPV). I also loved when the fans chanted "You've still got it" for him. He was never really a top of the card guy back in the 80s, but he was always my favorite wrestler for some reason. I hope looked over at the guys Monday night and say "We've got 'em!" one last time.

I'm in agreement that Orton should have won the title at WM. I'm in agreement that they are missing an opportunity here. Batista doesn't do anything for me as he has been in a storyline with everyone.
The only fresh thing they can do (and they need to do something) is for Jack Swagger to move to Raw or Smackdown, and be a player against HHH, Batista, UT, Orton, Edge, or Cena. Not sure he is ready, but something needs to be done.
Maybe a thing with Jericho, so Jericho could help him become more polished and help Swagger take the next step.
Christian winning MIB could have breathed new life into the mix, but obviously the WWE is keeping him in his place due to TNA.

I don't think HHH wants Orton to become a tweener/hero because when Austin played this role Trips was a second tier star. His ego won't allow Orton to become the top wrestler in the WWE.
Even if Orton does turn into that superstar anti-hero, HHH will still win a majority of matches. Sad but true.

Boos for CM Punk?

I didn't hear any of that?

In fact, he has the most signs every night. He needs a bit of a repackaging and he will be a top star soon.

Historically WWE has always been a face federation, while NWA was the heel federation. What would have made the Orton story work would be he and the Legacy actually proving they were right, and that they will force themselves into control of the WWE. The "always dark before the dawn" scenerio. That's what made the NWO work. They won the battle, and it would take WCW time, hardwork and alliances to win back over. That's also what killed WCW, because they could never give the faces a solid win. WWE should have let Orton win and rule for a while. Eh well, maybe it doesn't sell t-shirts.

I agree with most of your points about last night's RAW. I have just about given up on the WWE booking Orton properly. He has pretty much been HHH's whipping boy for the last year, and now the whole McMahon family is taking turns making him look weak. I had the exact same thought about the parallel between the Rock's title win in a tag match years ago and the upcoming 6 man tag match at Backlash. It was rumored that HHH hated the Rock and never wanted to put him over; I'm starting to think he has a similar bias against Orton, The only win Orton has over HHH was at the end of a night HHH wrestled 3 title matches ( I don't count last year's WM since Orton didn't pin HHH for the win).
And Vickie really seemed to be struggling with her announcements of both title matches on RAW. She said that Edge would be having his "last chance" at the title at Backlash and then started laughing (which I thought at the time was odd). When she came back out to mention it was a Last Man Standing match, I could just imagine the quick butt-chewing she got backstage- she probably only remembered the word "last" in the stipulation for the match and improvised.
And as for the draft, all the wrestlers crossing over to both shows in the last match or so really kills any special aura about the draft this year. It's getting to the point I'm not even sure which show people like Cena and Edge are even supposed to be affiliated with anymore.

Because GM's don't get drafted, they do the "drafting" (although all the picks are usually random, they could still do "trades" etc.)

Am I the only one that finds it odd that they are booking matches for the next PPV already when the next episode of Raw is the draft special? What if Orton, HHH, Batista gets drafted? Oh wait, I forgot, HHH and Orton are already on different shows. Yep, you are right Kev: it's hard to get excited about the draft.

p/s: Barr, look up some old promos by Teddy Long, back when he was a manager. The guy's talented but his skills are being under utilised by the WWE. Nothing unusual there. Remember Estrada?

My first thought when CM Punk won MITB was that maybe the WWE is tired of the mainstream image of the pill popping, drug using wrestler, so they decided to push the straight edge guy more heavily this year.

Bri on Li...

The boos I and some others are talking about came at the actual match. People were cheering hard for Christian to win the match and when CM was the one grabbing it all I heard were boos. I was in fact booing loudly at home when I watched that.

So I'm worried Orton's going to slip away from the title picture. With Batista returning I'm afraid he'll drop down into another mid-card battle with The Animal and HHH will find somebody else to job to him. I'd LOVE a double turn. With HHH and the McMahons making essentially another Corporation and Orton fighting back. Have DiBiase and Rhodes get drafted to Smackdown and Legacy would be broken up so Orton can go lone-ranger on the Corp. But in order for this to work without me throwing up in my mouth, Orton CANNOT pander to the fans. He has to continue being arrogant and selfish. He can't start making witty catch phrases for everybody to chant and repeat back to him. He can't start saying the name of the city he's in for a cheap pop from the crowd. He needs to STAY Orton. All WWE needs to do is focus on how HHH.

Also, they need to get Michael Cole and Lawler to stop being on HHH's side when he tries to beat the crap out of Orton with a sledgehammer. Even if he's the "good guy" and doing it for his family, they shouldn't support and cheer a man who's trying to injure somebody so seriously that they go at them with a huge hammer.

The three-hour draft special is next week. It’s hard for me to get too excited about shaking things up when it seems as if wrestlers can appear on any show whenever they please.

Hasn't this been the case for the past eight years? It's why I only bother to watch wrestling once a week...

"The guy's talented but his skills are being under utilised by the WWE"

That seems to be the norm with the underachieving WWE these days.

At least TNA is not so smug and tries (for better or for worse)!

Tears welled up for me when I heard the fans chanting "You still got it!" for Steamboat. I got even more teary-eyed to see my first wrestling crush, Steamboat, side-by-side in a wrestling match with my most recent wrestling crush, Jeff Hardy. My the years have flown by.

I can't attribute Christian not winning the MITB match to his TNA stint. Let's not forget, Jeff Hardy also did some time in TNA and when he returned in 2006, he was IC champ after a few months.

I definitely heard boos when CM Punk grabbed the briefcase at WM25. I think it was because other guys like Benjamin and Christian had done some spectacular spots and CM Punk really didn't stand out as far as I can recall.

I think Miz and Morrison are going to be split up during the draft. They are a great tag team but Morrison needs to break out at some time. I think Morrison would be a bigger singles star now than before he was with The Miz. He has the looks, the moves, and the personality to be a notable singles star- kind of like Shawn Michaels. Could he be a world champion on Raw or Smackdown? Maybe when Triple H retires.

If this split happens, The Miz will get lost in the shuffle. The Miz has improved in leaps and bounds and I have enjoyed watching him on TV, but if he hadn't been paired with Morrison, people would have continued to not take him seriously. Miz's bad attitude was enhanced by Morrison's arrogance and I just don't know where his career would go without Morrison.

I think now would be a good time to split the team up. They've had their success and it would be best to break them up before they become stagnant.

Try as I might to embrace WWE , I can never seem to commit as long as Vince McMahon still insists on playing superman in the ring .
Can't stand the guy in character and out . Either way an arrogant a****** .

Kevin-

Who would win in a 40 yard dash between Batista and HHH?

They both looked like hell running to the ring. There is no way Batista's hamstring is healed.

I agree, I keep tin foil wrapped around my head at all times so the aliens can't read my mind, and this six man was set up so HHH doesn't have to do the job for Orton. And that sucks quiet frankly. I don't see Batista flipping on The Game at Backlash, but I do see him costing the Game the title and then setting up a 3 way feud where everyone has a beef with everyone else.
And when did everyone turn on Punk all of a sudden. Alot of the posts the past couple months were all about how the weren't using Punk the right way and how they should be doing more with him and then he wins MITB and everybody says how he doesn't deserve it. I don't get it. I'll call it right now Orton wins (well get's the title) at Backlash, retains the next several months in triple threat, and singles matches aganist Batista and HHH, (where he finally puts him over clean.) All the while they put some real push behind Punk and he cashes in the breifcase, winning the title at SummerSlam. And those two already have history so it could work out great. Just one insane wrestling fans opinion.
P.S THANK YOU DRAGON!!! (clap, clap, clap, clap, clap) THANK YOU DRAGON!!!

AMC - as bad as WWE is sometimes (Orton HAD to go over HHH at WrestleMania), it's at least a legitimate wrestling organization unlike the joke that is TNA. And I attend all TNA tapings, sadly, waiting for the company to improve.

Solid RAW overall, kind of hard to be a big show considering the draft is next week but they set up some matches for Backlash and Batista's return was nice.

I see the Punk getting booed comment has caused a stir. My comments are simply referring to what happened at Mania. I also read he was booed in a later situation when showed on the Trinitron (forgot where).

Trust me, I am the BIGGEST Punk mark and was beyond excited when he had a title run. With that being said, I knew that if creative gave the MITB match over to Punk, the fans could turn on him, because they may have wanted a fresh face. As much as I liked for him to win, I am more against the WWE making bad choices for him.

My Backlash odds:
100:1 - Orton pins HHH
50:1 - Orton pins Batista
5:1 - HHH pins Ted/Cody
3:1 - Batista pins Ted/Cody
1:30 - Orton pins Shane O'Mac
1,000:1 - Batista/HHH pin Orton
1,000,000,000,000:1 - Ted/Cody pins Batista, Shane, or HHH

Miz and Morrison are defintely getting split up. No doubt in my mind. I thought Morrison did a fair job when he was Johnny Nitro. I think the Miz can hold his own now too.
We all know that Vince hates tag teams. He'll split two of best upcoming (although I wouldn't say Morrison is upcoming) wrestlers.

I've been kind of rooting for bad ratings and storylines lately just so Hayes and the rest of the writers are fired. I'm really tired of their predictable stories. Time for new ideas!

I like the idea of the double turn for Triple H and Randy Orton on paper.

Unfortunately, I simply do not believe that Orton can succeed as a face right now. He does not have the same qualities that made Stone Cold such a beloved anti-hero.

The primary example is that Stone Cold was the character that the "every man" could relate to and support. He bucked the system, disregarded conformity, and did what he wanted, regardless of the consequences.

Orton does not possess the same charm. I've studied his two previous face runs and they were awful. One match in particular stands out to me. It was a tag team match between Shawn Michaels and Randy Orton versus Triple H and Ric Flair in 2005. The story was that Orton had suffered a concussion at the Royal Rumble the previous night in effort to show him as a fighter and garner sympathy. Michaels did everything he could possibly do to enhance the storyline, but it just wasn't working the way it should have done.

There is an art to being a face in the world of professional wrestling. Chris Jericho has said that it is much easier to be hated than it is to be loved. He is right. Orton would need to do some serious work to attain that beloved status.

I'm not willing to rule out that he could pull it off, I'm just not sure that now is the time.

Let's work on getting him back to successfully making the crowd absolutely loathe him - as is his responsibility as a heel - and give him a great story to turn him face. Something memorable. Something worthy.

It is no longer an era in which a turn can be done simply. And Orton deserves something masterfully crafted, no matter which direction his character goes.

Bad News > how about Shane pining anyone? :-)

The good thing with the Backlash 3/3 match is that the WWE will need to make Priceless look stronger (I would'n t be surprised if they would take the tag team titles from the Colons), since they have to be a credible threat to HHH, Batista and of course the toughest SOB on the planet, the Undestructible Shane O'Mac.

I think they've overplayed their hand with the Vikki Guerrero as Raw General Manager angle.

She's still shaky on the mike and got off to an inauspicious debut last week.

If they continue as they have, the noise to signal ratio is likely to be too high with her in a major role on Raw. Perhaps on Smackdown this worked to some extent, but 15 minutes of Vikki per week on Raw in her current persona will be a bit hard to tolerate.

As someone else pointed out earlier her character really hasn't grown, nor has the WWE developed it along any dimension -- introspection, sophistication, complexity, understanding of the business, or depth of emotion. The interaction with Big Show and Edge has been more awkward and comedic than believable.

She's supposed to be a heel General Manager but has spent most of the last six months being taken advantage of by wrestlers -- which is hardly heelish. As a previous poster mentioned, her positioning is weak and her delivery shrill and grating. They've gone to the well with that too often already and it isn't very interesting.

Surely the writers can come up with some better material for her and perhaps work with her on her delivery.

JBL would have been a better choice as GM but he's been positioned as a heel with the McMahons as faces, so they probably couldn't put him in the role right now.

It was nice to see Edge, Jericho and Kane make Ricky Steamboat look good in the eight man tag match. Although 25 pounds heavier than he was in the late 80s, Steamboat still looked believable out there.

I wonder if the WWE has ever considered a 'Legends Division' -- one short 10 minute match every second week on Smackdown or Raw for wrestlers over 50, --- something akin to the senior's golf tour. Vince himself could be part of it, since he likes to test his ring skills occasionally.

They could even have a Legends Title to try to attract the over 40 fans from the roaring 80s when they drew huge crowds for Hogan, Steamboat, Savage, etc. That demographic might be attracted to the idea.

The interaction between the Legends the younger wrestlers during promos/interviews, particular angles, could also prove interesting.

This would only work if the WWE didn't treat the whole thing like a bad joke, with the Legends getting diminished each week by younger wrestlers doing run ins or belittling them in promos.

Marella is a great talent and probably would be a fine colour commentator. With his charisma and ring skills, he also could have been given a longer run as a title holder with one of the lesser belts.

Perhaps unwittingly, however, with his involvement as an in ring competitor, the WWE has really made a travesty of the Divas division now.

RESPONSE FROM KE: There already is a seniors division, in wrestling. It's called the TNA main-eventers. :)

I'd bet it is Shane that turns, given that he too is the son of a wrestling legend.If he stops trying to get involved in matches, he'd make a fine manager/stable figurehead.

Santino/Santina is easy, but brilliant.

I'd be into CM Punk alot more if he did his "I'm better than you because I'm straight-edge routine", although I'd have to admit the WWE has few convincing faces to keep up with the great heels they currently have (Orton, Jericho, Edge)

I'm surprised they allowed a true, in-ring Hall Of Famer like The Dragon to perform alongside John Cena. Was no one afraid that Cena would be exposed?

We really don't need to see Shane at the next PPV either. Put Punk back in the mix and let him get a nice rub from HHH and Orton. At least that has a chance of developing into something new and interesting.

I will be boycotting WWE pay per views until I see that some younger deserving talent is getting a nice push. Enough of the same old crap already.

Oh, and do away with the draft, keep a belt on each show and just let the talent flow across shows as needed. The "rosters" for each brand is a unexcusable farce.

Kevin, what did you mean when you said that Steamboat left unceremoniously 15 years ago?

RESPONSE FROM KE: He suffered a back injury while working for WCW and was fired while still injured. He retired after that.

I know this question doesn't really relate to this post but Kevin do you think that there could ever be a heel vs heel rivalry in WWE? I would like to see two heels or even heel factions go at it. I know that there have been some in the past, and Big Show/Edge rivalry was OK, but Cena was in that mix. I want a heel like Orton take on someone that's just as vicious and sadistic as his character.

Frank King > I would have loved to see Jericho, in his "legend bashing" thing, start to criticize the parents of the Legacy members, which would end up with a great feud between Orton and him. I bet that now that Y2J is at Smackdown, this dream is over.