I think that R-Truth putting over John Morrison was a good decision, but I don't see Mike Knox as someone to whom R-Truth should lose. Knox has a pretty cool finisher, but aside from that, I don't find him very interesting.

Cryme Tyme has to go.

The Raw Rebound can feel free to leave my screen at any time. I saw it twice, this week: once on ECW, and once on Smackdown. Monday's Raw was largely a waste of time. It didn't deserve one Rebound, let alone two.

Hey Kevin - While I have made it a point to refrain from being argumentive with you anymore about the whole WWE / TNA thing ( partially because it's just opinions anyway , and part due to the fact you may have been right ) . I still , deep down gain some pleasure when your fingers are forced to type something negative about WWE .
Now , if I could just once read something negative written by you about " Rocker Boy ." :)

Man I laughed so hard when McCool landed the "Styles Clash" on Gail Kim... Ultimate disrespect.

I agree Kevin some hits and some misses. I can't figure out what they are doing with Gail Kim. Melina has yet to make her return to Smackdown either. They are going to have to start a program between Michelle McCool and Melina sometime soon.
Is there anybody on the Smackdown roster who can speak Samoan? then we will have our spokesperson for Umaga.
The Hardy/Jericho match was exceptional. As was the Punk/Edge match.
I think they might do a tag match with Haas/Benjamin and Morrison/Partner to be named later.
Don't know if you remember this guy but Mike Knox kinda reminds me of Killer Tim Brooks who terrorized WCCW back in the 70's and 80's.

hey Kevin ive got a question is Haas a heel now?

p.s. you have the greatest blog ever always reading it

RESPONSE FROM KE: I appreciate the kind words. As for Haas, I assume he is a heel since he was with Benjamin.

While Charlie Haas was prorbably not the best opponenet for John Morrison, they were able to put on an entertaining match. It is goo to see The World's Greatest Tag Team befriending each other again and working together. Morrison just keeps on impressing with his athelticism and mic skills.

Interesting that you say Smackdown is now Edge's show since HHH has gone. I don't think it stopped being Edge's show even when HHH was there. When HHH was drafted, the focus of Smackdown was Edge-Vickie and Edge-Undertaker. Even with the WWE title, Hunter was below Edge on the card (e.g. stuck with Khali at Summerslam).

I know Edge then took a few months off, but when he returned he took the title off Hunter and had a main event programme with Jeff Hardy while HHH was stuck with Koslov and Big Show.

And who knows - we keep talking about HHH breaking Flair's world title record but Edge has won 9 world titles in three years. If ge keeps it up, he might sneak past both of them!

Have to completely agree with you all on Gail Kim and R-Truth. I can't imagine much worse a buzz kill than R-Truth lighting the crowd ablaze with an electric entrance only to be put away with a clean, boring finisher from Knox. The silence and disbelief was deafening. How on earth can you book that way? Knox gains nothing from a victory like this - he's the new Val Venis of the "WWE Universe" as far as I'm concerned, in good and bad - and R-Truth lost another step.

How hard is it to simply let R-Truth take the mic, put on a few heartfelt promos (we all know he can do it just fine) and then get into title contention?

What really annoys me is how they award backstage segment time to Mr. Rally Towel but not R-Truth. The fact of the matter is, right now, both Gail and R are pretty hollow as characters and sorely need fleshing out instead of wrestling time and more L's on their records.

Whatever happened to those awesome vignettes they ran for Truthy, during which he was the most well-rounded WWE character in recent memory?

I'm a bit disappointed they dropped Haas' gimmick of impersonating other wrestlers; I thought he was really entertaining at it, and you're going to make him be jobber to the stars anyway, he might as well have an act.

I'm pleasantly surprised at how well the WWE is handling Dolph Ziggler. I thought the guy was going to be a comedy act, and didn't think he'd do much after he got a quick 30-day suspension. But they've let him go in all of his matches, and he's looked very impressive in all of them. Letting him lay out Khali in a DQ was surprising, and spiced up the usual sort of squash time waster there is too much of on WWE programming.

As much as I dislike WWE burying everyone coming from or returning from TNA, I think Vince believes it will save people from leaving WWE in the long run. From that perspective I guess it makes sense.

I think R-Truth is winded before he even starts the actual match with that entrance of his, hence the losing.

Wasn't the plan a while back for Umanga to learn English or something?

More Charlie Haas, less Cryme Tyme.

Edge v. Hardy, I feel a stipulation coming.

I have to totally disagree with you on R-Truth and Cryme Tyme.

R-Truth is a wonderful athlete, but a mid-card pro wrestler at best.

Cryme Tyme on the other hand are a greatly entertaining tag team, that should be given more time to entertain in the ring than on the mic. JTG has a TERRIFIC upside to him.

And since the subject of Triple H and Ric Flair title reigns came up earlier, I was wondering if you had any new info about a question I posed to you in an earlier blog.

"Hey Kevin I have a question for you for perspective's sake.

With Triple H obviously gunning for Ric Flair's record of 16 World Titles, I was wondering how was Ric Flair perceived back when he was in the midst of winning these championships, basically the spot Triple H is in now?

Was he viewed with the same reverence for his accomplishments as he is today, or was he seen as a selfish self-promoter much like Trips is seen by many today. Do we look at Flair's accomplishments differently because we have the luxury of historical perspective or because his wins and subsequent reigns were that damn good, (pun intended) and were the right business decisions?"

RESPONSE FROM KE: The thing with Flair is that WCW kept putting the belt back on him because the "next big things" such as Lex Luger and Sting didn't draw. He wasn't always in a politically powerful position. Several of his reigns in the mid-to-late 90s were a little tainted because the belt was changing hands so much that it destroyed the prestige. Even Vince Russo and David Arquette held the title. Flair held the title five times from Dec. 1995 to May 2000, and his reigns lasted a month, two months, a month, a week and less than two hours.

I'm boycotting Smackdown as long as Edge is the champion. I'm sick and tired of that guy.

Why does TNA and WWE even bother with women wrestling anymore?

9/10ths of segments involving female wrestlers are absolutely cringe worthy. Since Trish and Lita left, nobody has given a damn.

The strangest part about the match between Mike Knox and K-Kwik was when JR mentioned how distinguished Mike Knox looks backstage in reading glasses!! JR has never been strong on color, but I felt that comment was straight outta Bizarresville! Unless WWE starts hyping Mike Knox as a Dr. Jeckyl/Mr. Hyde persona, or maybe James Myers/George Steele.

In regards to Ceasar's question on Ric Flair and his title reigns, I always try to get the newer fans to realize that Ric Flair's 16 title wins were nothing like Edge's 9 where the timeframe of those reigns is a little past a year.

If you add up the days during which Ric Flair was World champion, it is about 10 YEARS! In terms of days as champion, I think Flair is second to Bruno Sammartino.

Hey Kevin,

Do you think that the R-Truth and Gail Kim booking, combined with Super Shane is purely a McMahon ego thing?
I mean, I don't want to pretend that I know the inner workings of the business, and I don't know their strategies, but why would Vince (and WWE) bother to recruit TNA talent just to bury them if they thought that TNA wasn't even a viable competitor like WCW once was? I would think that not even acknowledging TNA would be a better strategy, cheaper and not wasting air time on someone they don't even want the fans to get behind.

Plus, I would have thought that WWE would have figured out that the super man act on anyone (but especially Shane) died in the mid 80's. Who wants to watch an unstoppable, invincible wrestler these days whether they are a babyface or a heel? The entertaining matches are always the ones that goe back and fourth. The super man act wouldn't fly with anyone. If it is in fact just an ego thing for Shane to be booked as invincible, it is just really pathetic... obviously I don't know what is really going on there....

Complaints aside, I'm glad they seem to finally get that they should push some more talent. With Shawn Micheals' rumored retirement at WM26, Undertaker getting older, Triple H's popularity is spilt at best (even though I still enjoy most of his work) Cena still gets booed wildly and Batista and Big show are likely never going to improve their acts, they really need to elevate Kofi Kingston, Punk, Morrison, R-Truth, Mysterio, Benjamin, Umaga, Evan Bourne and Christian and Swagger.

Kofi Kingston and R-truth in particular, because if the marketing is apparently to family friendly wrestling, these two guys are (at least on camera) good for people of all ages to watch, including long time fans like us.

Morrison is so much better away from that goofball The Miz.... R Truth/Ron Killings/K-Kwik, all have one thing in common, he is not very good.

Edge is very underrated as one of the elite performers in WWE/WWF history. What ever role he is in, he is great at it, and I think he makes a great champ....How can you boycott watching Smackdown when he has the belt, but people love Eminem wannabe John Cena who gets the belt every other night

Promos are sounding terrible these days. The whole PG-rated theme is really off-putting. Mysterio sounded like a third grader saying "Just shut up." This is just one example. Hardy's promo wasn't above a third grade level either. And then there's R-Kwik...

I am in agreement with most everybody here it is terrible what they are doing with R-Truth & Gail first of Knox will probably be jobing in 6 months and probably gone in a year so what is the point secondly I can uinderstand Gail the champion is a face and their not gonna do a face v/ face for the Title, secondly as long as Mccool is dating taker im quite sure he's gonna make sure his girl stays on top. As far as Flair goes u have to look at it like this his 16 reigns came from 3 different promtions JCP,Turner and WWE not just 1 company also you have to figure in his reigns were longer and spread out almost 20 years and he would have to go to different promotions and defend his title all over the world such as Texas , Japan, Peurto Rico, Florida, that would be like Edge going down to TNA and defending his title against A J Styles then 2 months later going over to Japan to face lets say the great Muta and then coming back in a few months and defending the belt against the ROH champ.

Is it not too early to say that Gail Kim has been buried? I started watching wrestling just a few months ago, and I never watched TNA. So for me, there were all these WWE Divas, about twenty of them, fighting each other every week. Then comes Gail Kim, and she immediately gets some matches against the main event Divas, gets some wins (didn't she pin Maryse, for instance?), gets some losses, but is really present on the show. It would have seen kind of strange if she would have immediately had a huge streak of victories, that would have shown that the WWE Divas that were there before here were not so good. I like Gail Kim, and she seems one of the best women wrestlers at the moment, no doubt about that, but I don't see what is so shocking about her losing some matches. Sure, she could have won one or two more matches, but she is facing the best Divas every time she wrestles, and it seems likely that she will get a title shot sooner or later?
For me, we could talk about her being buried if she had only been a part of one or two of these matches where half of the women involved never even appear in the ring, but it has not been the case...

Axl - just for a sense of perspective: Gail Kim, in her first ever WWE match (pre-TNA) won the WWE Women's Championship. I think many are/were expecting her to pick up where she left off before WWE wished her well in her future endeavors. Maybe they didn't really mean it, huh?

Does anyone else think a long Benjamin/Morrison rivalry would be the best thing for WWE. They need to make Benjamin a more arrogant/cheating, but always winning heel.
And have you noticed that he is the only Black wrestler in the WWE that doesn't fall into a stereotype, he's just a great wrestler. I think that's why he doesn't get over by the crowds but the internet people love him. He doesn't dance, rap, or do stupid jumpshots before he makes a move. And it's sad to see fans liking R-Truth or Cryme Time dancing around like modern day Steppin Fetchits and Benjamin not getting any fan support.

As for the women's division, the only women worth watching mat-wise are Phoenix and Kim. Phoenix is too good so she has to do comedy now, and Kim had to be taught a lesson like you said Kevin.
And the only reason people are upset about women wrestling now is that there is no more lingerie matches or stripping. Other than their skill, that's what got Lita and Trish over so much. Unfortunately for women it's not the skill, it's the sex.

I have ask you Eck, what is it, exactlly that you see in R-Truth? It seems like all sizzel and no steak with that guy. It's very entertaining doing lots of hand-springs and splits but at end of the day can he work a decent match?
He reminds me of Buff Bagwell. He was over with the fans and had decent mic skills, but he couldn't really get it done in the ring. And I'm sorry that ring entrance of his is unbareable!! Listening to him talk, let alone try to sing is hard for me to do. Somebody hand him a losange!!
But to play devil's advocate it is perplexing that WWE spends all the time running vinnettes weeks before his debut. They give him a unique ring entrance which helped him get over with the fans quickly and then he get's beat clean all the time.
Vince does have a way of turning guys who I thought were worthless from other companies into caracters I could get behind(Finlay and Regal come to mind.) So yes, if pushed properly, maybe play up the whole thing about him growing up with nothing and turning to crime when he was younger, he could be a star.But I'm sorry I just don't see it in him at all.
I respect your opinion, and alot of the things you write, I'm thinking, but I really have to ask What is you see in him?

RESPONSE FROM KE: I think he can work a decent match, but even if he isn't the greatest ring technician, who cares? Some of the biggest stars of all time were not considered great workers. Take, for example, a guy like Junkyard Dog. Great entrance. Charismatic on the mic. Put lot of butts in seats. Terrible worker. The difference between JYD and R-Truth is in how they were pushed. Mid-South and WWE looked at JYD and saw his potential, so they played to his strengths and tried to hide his limitations. It seems like WWE sometimes looks for a reason not to push a guy rather than the other way around.

Frank, I disagree with you about women's wrestling. First off, I think you missed Mickie James as far as mat-worthy goes. And I don't think many people are concerned about the lingerie, etc. matches missing, except for immature types. Not naming names...

Thanx Eck, I get what your saying and I guess that's what I was trying to get at when I said about playing devils advocite. I probably would get behind him if they gave him a push, but I still think there is just way too much wasted energy with they way he wrestles. Take Evan Bourne for instance, yeah he flys around the ring alot but everytime he does it has a reason behind it. I just find all the cart-wheels and what not, a bit unnecessary.
Oh well, thanx for giving me you're side of it and thanx for mentioning JYD when you did. It helped remind me of cool you are. Let's not fight anymore....atleast until football season!

Andre the Midget : If you were a reader about a year ago , Kev and I had some epic battles . He enjoys the challenge . But as you said he's a cool a guy and willing to hear all sides .
By the way , I'm a Ravens fan .