Here are my takes on each brand’s acquisitions in the 15-wrestler trade that WWE announced Monday.

RAW

Evan Bourne (from ECW): The good news for Bourne is that he’s now on WWE’s top-rated show. The potential bad news is that he could get lost in the shuffle with so many big names on the roster. He may have been better off spending another year on ECW and possibly getting a title run there. A program with The Brian Kendrick could be interesting (if Kendrick can get back on television).

Alicia Fox (from Smackdown): The former wedding planner, dance partner for D.J. Gabriel and ally for Michelle McCool will take on yet another new role. With a number of talented women on Raw’s roster, it’s going to be hard for Fox to make an impact.

Mark Henry (from ECW): Judging by his appearance on Raw Monday night, Henry is in line for the biggest push of his career. Time will tell if Henry can make it as a top-level babyface, but the angle to kick things off was well done.

Gail Kim (from Smackdown): Getting away from Michelle McCool is most likely a good thing for the talented Kim. On Raw, potential opponents include divas champion Maryse, Beth Phoenix and fellow babyface Mickie James. Let’s hope WWE hits the re-start button with Kim and she gets the push she deserves from Day One on Raw.

Jack Swagger (from ECW): It was only a matter of time before Swagger graduated to one of the big two. It’s also just a matter of time before he is in high-profile programs. He’s not going to become WWE champion overnight, but hopefully he will be allowed to gradually work his way up the card. In other words, let’s not have him doing four-minute jobs to a one-legged Triple H any time soon.

SMACKDOWN

Finlay (from ECW): He’s an asset to any roster because he’s a good worker and a strong mid-card character who also can interact with the top guys when necessary.

Matt Hardy (from Raw): What in the world is WWE doing with this guy? In the past year, he’s gone from Smackdown to ECW to Smackdown to Raw and now back to Smackdown. Now that he and brother Jeff are on the same show again, perhaps their feud will be revisited.

The Hart Dynasty (from ECW): Tyson Kidd and David Hart Smith made an immediate impact on ECW, but I don’t see any babyface tag teams for them to feud with on Smackdown other than Cryme Tyme. Hopefully, Natalya will get to wrestle in addition to accompanying Kidd and Smith to the ring.

ECW

The Bella Twins (from Raw): ECW does not have a women’s division, so I have no idea what Brie and Nikki will be doing on this show.

Shelton Benjamin (from Smackdown): I like this move. Yes, it’s a step back in the sense that he’s going from the B show to the C show (in terms of ratings), but I would rather see Benjamin as an ECW main-eventer than a Smackdown mid-carder. I think we can expect a Benjamin-Christian feud over the ECW title in the very near future.

Goldust (from Raw): I like this move, too. I find Goldust’s act entertaining, but on Raw he is strictly comic relief. On ECW, Goldust will likely have the opportunity to participate in meaningful programs in addition to performing his shenanigans. No word on who gets custody of Hornswoggle.

William Regal (from Raw): With Finlay gone, Regal will take over the role of the veteran who smartens up the young talent.

Final thoughts: Raw seems to have made out the best, as it got a future superstar in Swagger, a popular, exciting young wrestler in Bourne and a potential main-eventer in Henry. Smackdown gained Matt Hardy and The Hart Dynasty and really didn’t lose much. Clearly, the show that took the hardest hit was ECW, as it lost Swagger, Henry, Bourne and The Hart Dynasty. But, as I said, Benjamin is a great pickup, and Goldust will add to the entertainment value of the show. Plus, Zack Ryder and Paul Burchill may get more of an opportunity now, and there could be additional young talent on the way from developmental. I suppose the biggest surprise of the whole trade was that Christian remained on ECW, which is good for the show but not necessarily for him.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 9:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (21)
        

Realizing that the rosters needed shaking up -- especially Raw’s -- despite having a draft just two and a half months ago, WWE moved 15 wrestlers to different shows Monday. Judging by Monday night’s episode of Raw, the landscape may have changed, but in some regards it’s the same old story.

The big news coming out of the show is that Mark Henry appears to be getting a major babyface push on Raw. The former ECW champion was the third man in a three-on-one-gauntlet match against Randy Orton, and “The World’s Strongest Man” scored a clean victory over the WWE champion.

As far as creating a new top-level star, I thought the angle with Henry was well done and the crowd popped when he defeated Orton. Henry has paid his dues in WWE and I have no problem with him being given a prominent role. My only question is, why not MVP?

On the same show that Henry had his breakout moment, MVP faced Triple H as part of a four-man tournament to determine Orton’s challenger at the Night of Champions pay-per-view next month. Triple H, selling a knee injury and one night removed from a brutal two-out-of-three falls match against Orton, defeated a well-rested MVP clean. If MVP can’t get a win over a top guy in this situation, I don’t think he ever will. And I hate to come off as just another Internet wrestling writer criticizing Triple H, but it’s hard to defend the way he was booked to look like Superman the past two nights.

In contrast to the Triple H-MVP match, John Cena defeated The Miz in the other tournament bout. It was the complete opposite of Cena’s relatively easy five-minute win over Miz the night before at The Bash pay-per-view. The match went about 14 minutes and Miz dominated Cena for the majority of it.

So, let’s recap how the top three stars on Raw fared: a banged-up Orton lost clean to Henry in a gauntlet match; a healthy Cena was pushed to the limit by Miz; and a gimpy Triple H took out a fresh MVP in less than five minutes. Uh-huh.

When the tournament matches were announced, I was hoping for MVP vs. Cena in the final, with MVP going over due to interference from Miz. I suppose it was wishful thinking, but I actually believed that Triple H would put MVP over since he could use his injured knee as an out. Instead, we have Triple H versus Cena next week on Raw to determine who faces Orton at the next pay-per-view. You know what they say about the more things change.

Here’s a look at the wrestlers each show picked up. The wrestlers’ old show is in parentheses. I will post my thoughts on the moves later today:

Raw: Evan Bourne (ECW), Alicia Fox (Smackdown), Mark Henry (ECW), Gail Kim (Smackdown) and Jack Swagger (ECW).

Smackdown: Finlay (ECW), Matt Hardy (Raw) and The Hart Dynasty (ECW).

ECW: The Bella Twins (Raw), Shelton Benjamin (Smackdown), Goldust (Raw) and William Regal (Raw).

Other thoughts on Monday’s show:

The story line reason for the 15-wrestler trade is that Donald Trump made the moves while he was the owner of Raw. I suppose he made these deals with Teddy Long and Tiffany, the Smackdown and ECW general managers, respectively. Vince McMahon wasn’t happy about the trade but he said that he would have to live with it. Now that he is the owner again, couldn’t he just nullify it? …

I like the idea of a different guest general manager every week. It will be good to see “The Million Dollar Man” Ted DiBiase back on TV as next week’s GM. …

If Monday’s guest GM Batista had unlimited power, which is what he said, why didn’t he just fire Orton or at least strip him of the title? …

I was shocked to see how much Cena sold for The Miz. Having Miz be competitive is one thing, but it came off to me as unrealistic that the same guy that Cena toyed with the night before could look so strong. …

I like the way Jack Swagger was introduced. When he came out as the second man (after Evan Bourne) to face Orton in the gauntlet match, I feared that he was going to suffer a quick loss on his first night as part of the Raw roster. Instead, he refused to wrestle Orton, saying that he liked and respected him. That was brilliant, because it gets Swagger instant heat. …

It might be time for MVP to go back to being a heel. He just isn’t over enough as a babyface. …

The Edge/Chris Jericho-Colons match was good. No surprise there. …

I’m glad that Kofi Kingston did not get squashed by The Big Show. I have no problem with a double count-out. …

Maryse is not the greatest when it comes to doing commentary. It might have been better if she spoke French the entire time. I’m not sure what to make of the way she kept talking about how pretty Kelly Kelly is and how much she likes her. WWE can’t really go there now that it has a PG rating, can it?

Posted by Kevin Eck at 3:14 AM | Permalink | Comments (68)
        

When critiquing a wrestling pay-per-view, ultimately only one question is relevant: Was it worth the money?

With regard to Sunday night’s WWE pay-per-view, The Bash, the answer is no. That doesn’t mean it was a bad show, it just means it wasn’t worth $40 in my opinion.

The Bash had its moments, including another terrific Rey Mysterio-Chris Jericho match and a heated CM Punk-Jeff Hardy contest, but there wasn’t anything on the show that you’d be kicking yourself for if you missed it.

I think one of the main reasons the show didn’t feel special was because it was headlined by yet another match in the stale Randy Orton-Triple H feud.

There was one surprising development, as Jericho and Edge walked out of The Bash as the Unified WWE tag team champions after being added to the match between the Colons and Ted DiBiase Jr. and Cody Rhodes at the last minute.

Here is a match-by-match look at the show:

WWE champion Randy Orton defeated Triple H in a Three Stages of Hell Match: Earlier in the show, Ted DiBiase Jr. stormed out after having words with Orton, and Cody Rhodes went after him to try and calm him down. Neither DiBiase nor Rhodes had re-appeared by the time the match began, so it seemed as if Orton was on his own. The match got underway at 31 minutes past the hour, which seemed late for a two-out-of-three-falls match. Five minutes in, Triple H hit Orton repeatedly with a chair and was disqualified. A minute later, he Pedigreed Orton on the floor and pinned him in the falls-count-anywhere portion, evening the match at one fall apiece. It was explained that Triple H sacrificed the first fall in order to soften up Orton and win the second fall.

The third fall was a stretcher match. Triple H appeared to have the match won, but Rhodes suddenly showed up and prevented Triple H from pushing the stretcher across the finish line. After Triple H thwarted Rhodes and again prepared to win, DiBiase came out and saved Orton. Triple H took them both out with sledgehammer shots, but that gave Orton time to recover. He kicked Triple H low and then bashed him in the head with a metal plate that was part of the stage. Triple H fell onto the stretcher and Orton pushed him across for the win. Triple H got the last laugh, as he KO’d Orton with the sledgehammer after the match. I’m not sure Orton could have looked any weaker in victory, as the only fall that he won was basically handed to him by Triple H. He was pinned in the second fall and needed DiBiase and Rhodes to save him from certain defeat in the third. Then he got laid out after the match. Whatever. At least Orton retained the title. Please let this be the end to this feud. One thing to keep an eye on going forward is the relationship between Orton and DiBiase, as a seed was planted for a DiBiase babyface turn down the line.

Jeff Hardy defeated world heavyweight champion CM Punk by disqualification: Punk got a mixed reaction coming out, with more boos than cheers. He didn’t do anything overtly heelish in the early going, but his facial expressions and mannerisms subtly conveyed that he was not the same guy the fans used to like. At about the 13-minute mark, Hardy hit a Swanton Bomb and made the cover. The referee made the three count and Hardy’s music played, but then he realized that Punk’s foot was under the bottom rope and he ruled that the match would continue. Moments later, Punk, selling an eye injury, kicked the referee in the back and was disqualified. The question was whether Punk inadvertently struck the ref because his vision was impaired, or if he intentionally got himself disqualified to save his title. The angle got a lot of heat, and Hardy snapped after the match and attacked Punk. This was a well-booked match and Punk is doing a great job playing his role.

Rey Mysterio defeated Intercontinental champion Chris Jericho to win the title: This was easily the best match on the show and it had an excellent finish. After about 16 minutes of rapid, back-and-forth action, Jericho turned a 619 attempt into the Walls of Jericho. Mysterio teased tapping out, but he managed to slip out of the hold and he and Jericho exchanged near falls. Jericho then pulled the mask off Mysterio, but he was wearing a second mask. Mysterio took advantage of a stunned Jericho by hitting the 619 for the win.

John Cena defeated The Miz: I wouldn’t call this a total squash since Miz did go on the offensive for a few minutes, but Cena toyed with him early and then finished him off with The Attitude Adjustment and the STF. It will be interesting to see if Miz gets some retribution tonight on Raw to keep the program going, or if Miz was just someone for Cena to kill time with before moving on to his next top-tier opponent.

Edge and Chris Jericho defeated Unified WWE tag team champions Primo and Carlito, and Ted DiBiase Jr. and Cody Rhodes in a triple threat match to win the title: The story is that Vince McMahon told Smackdown general manager Teddy Long that he still is on probation, so Long tried to impress the boss by tweaking the tag team title match and adding Edge and Jericho to it. Edge and Jericho – who earlier in the show were rebuffed by Long when they made separate complaints about their respective situations – were hardly in the match, as both the Colons and DiBiase and Rhodes tried to keep them out. Eventually, Edge saw an opening and he speared Carlito for the victory. Before the match was made into a triple threat, I was hoping that DiBiase and Rhodes would win the title, but I really like the decision to put the belts on Edge and Jericho. Because the tag titles can be defended on any brand, that means more appearances on Raw for these two superstars. Plus, the fact that Edge and Jericho hold the title instantly makes it more prestigious.

ECW champion Tommy Dreamer won the ECW Championship Scramble over Christian, Finlay, Mark Henry and Jack Swagger: Everyone scored at least one pin except for Christian. He was pinned by Dreamer with about 1 minute, 20 seconds remaining in the match in what turned out to be the deciding fall. With Dreamer winning title matches on pay-per-views and Christian doing one job after another, I feel like I’m in Bizarro World. Speaking of which, Finlay still came out to the Hornswoggle music.

Dolph Ziggler defeated The Great Khali in a no-countout, no-disqualification match: Other than to get Ziggler and Khali a pay-per-view check, I have no idea why this was even on the show. A few minutes into the match, Kane, for some unknown reason, came out and attacked Khali with a bunch of chair shots. Ziggler then covered the fallen Khali for the win. I’m glad Ziggler didn’t do the job here, but now it looks like we’re getting a Kane-Khali feud. Ugh.

Michelle McCool defeated WWE women’s champion Melina to win the title: The effort was there, but I just didn’t care about this match-up. McCool winning did not surprise me in the least.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 5:07 AM | Permalink | Comments (46)
        

Predictions for tonight’s WWE pay-per-view:

WWE champion Randy Orton vs. Triple H in a Three Stages of Hell Match: In this two-out-of-three-falls contest, the first fall is a straight wrestling match; the second is falls count anywhere; and, if necessary, the third is a stretcher match. I’m predicting – and hoping for – an Orton victory. The title has changed hands too many times as of late and Orton is the guy who should be champion going forward. A 14th title reign for Triple H is the last thing the Raw brand needs right now. Whatever the outcome, this feud has overstayed its welcome and needs to end tonight. The problem is that because Raw’s talent roster is so thin at the top, there doesn’t appear to be any logical new opponents for these two.

World heavyweight champion CM Punk vs. Jeff Hardy: For me, this is the most interesting match on the card. WWE really seems to be onto something with Punk as a tweener world champion, so it wouldn’t make any sense to take the belt off of him. I envision one of those scenarios in which Hardy seemingly has the match won, but the resourceful Punk finds a way to escape with his title. I wouldn’t be surprised if Edge and/or John Morrison somehow got involved in the match.

Intercontinental champion Chris Jericho vs. Rey Mysterio: If Mysterio loses, he must unmask. Without the mask, Mysterio just isn’t Mysterio, and WWE will not make the same mistake that WCW did 10 years ago. Mysterio regains the title in a potential show-stealer.

John Cena vs. The Miz: The way the story line has unfolded on TV makes it seem as if The Miz is somehow going to steal a victory, but I just don’t see it happening. Miz makes it competitive, but Cena goes over clean with The Attitude Adjustment.

ECW champion Tommy Dreamer vs. Christian vs. Finlay vs. Mark Henry vs. Jack Swagger in a Scramble Match: The longer Dreamer holds the title, the more it is devalued. Henry was put over as the favorite on TV, which means he is probably the least likely to win. I’m going with Swagger.

The Great Khali vs. Dolph Ziggler in a no-countout, no-disqualification match: I would love to see Ziggler win, but I have a feeling that Khali is going over.

Unified WWE tag team champions Primo and Carlito vs. Ted DiBiase Jr. and Cody Rhodes: The time seems right to put the title on DiBiase and Rhodes. By the way, whatever happened to that story line with The Brian Kendrick looking for a tag-team partner to go up against the Colons?

WWE women’s champion Melina vs. Michelle McCool: I’m still having a hard time with this match being on the show instead of one between Maryse and Mickie James. I’m guessing that McCool wins the title.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 12:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (19)
        

At some point after I began writing this blog a little over two years ago, I stopped reading spoilers on the Internet. I did so because I want my first impressions of matches and angles on taped shows to truly be first impressions, and I also want the opportunity to be surprised when the unexpected occurs.

When I sat down to watch Smackdown Friday night, I had no idea that world heavyweight champion CM Punk was going to wrestle John Morrison in a non-title bout. Once the match was announced on the show, however, I was certain that I knew the finish: Punk, wrestling most of the match on the defensive and on the verge of defeat, would take advantage of one mistake by Morrison and pull out the victory.

Of course, that’s not what happened, as Morrison pinned the champ in an excellent back-and-forth match. Had I read the spoilers ahead of time, I would have robbed myself of a mark-out moment when the referee slapped the mat for the third time while Morrison had Punk’s shoulders pinned.

Punk’s clean loss was a shock since it occurred on the go-home show before his title defense against Jeff Hardy Sunday at The Bash pay-per-view. More importantly, the result seems to indicate that a big push for Morrison is happening sooner rather than later. One would think that Morrison’s victory over the champion thrusts him into the title picture regardless of who wins the Punk-Hardy match at The Bash.

The question is: Is Morrison ready for his close-up? Morrison has steadily won the audience over with his innovative and sensational offense, but he still hasn’t fully connected with the crowd the way a main-event-level babyface needs to.

I think doing “Rough Cuts”-style segments and video packages with Morrison would go a long way in getting him where he needs to be. The fans need to see that behind the fur coats, wind-swept hair and poetic promos is a likable guy who they can feel good about rooting for. I think WWE also should play up the fact that Morrison is a former Tough Enough winner.

Other thoughts on Friday’s show:

The star-studded Rage in a Cage main event, which saw Edge and Chris Jericho defeat Hardy and Rey Mysterio (with Punk as the special guest referee), was an entertaining way to cap off another strong episode of Smackdown. It’s hard to believe that both the world champion and the No. 1 contender were pinned on this show, and the guys who beat them – Morrison and Edge, respectively – apparently do not have matches at The Bash. …

I loved the finishing sequence to the Morrison-Punk match. After the match, Punk took another step to becoming a heel by suckering Morrison with a handshake that he turned into a GTS. The fact that Punk seemed conflicted about attacking Morrison showed that he’s still in the tweener stage, but probably not for too much longer. …

I’m not sure what to make of the show-long story line between Vince McMahon and Smackdown general manager Teddy Long. I do know that McMahon had me laughing out loud when he mocked Long’s facial expressions and yelled, “You got it!” at him. The scary thing about that scene is that supposedly it’s not too far from what it’s really like for WWE employees when McMahon is in a bad mood. …

I also chuckled when R-Truth tried to get McMahon to sing along to his “What’s Up?” entrance song. …

With R-Truth’s decisive win over Shelton Benjamin, I’m starting to think that he may actually be getting a legitimate push. Benjamin, by the way, cut one of his better promos before the match. …

Melina did a great job of selling that her jaw was injured (at least I think she was selling) during the tag match between her and Gail Kim against Michelle McCool and Alicia Fox. …

It’s beyond absurd that Kim is being treated as just another faceless diva while Melina and McCool are portrayed as stars. Instead of having Kim job to McCool yet again, wouldn’t it have made more sense to have McCool pin Melina, the WWE women’s champion, two days before their title match at The Bash? ...

I cringed when I first saw that Cryme Tyme’s wwe.com show, Word Up, had made it to television. However, if a jive-talking Jesse is going to be a regular on the segments, then I’m all for them.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 1:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (40)
        

The performances by Sting and Kevin Nash during the closing segment of Thursday night’s TNA Impact involving The Main Event Mafia were so good that they almost made up for a preposterous story line. Almost.

The explanation that TNA came up with for Samoa Joe’s heel turn at last Sunday’s Slammiversary pay-per-view was that he did it for the money (Jenna Morasca footed the bill, apparently).

Kurt Angle cut a promo early in the show in which he tried his best to make sense out of nonsense. The gist of it was that the MEM members realized they couldn’t beat Joe, so they paid him a lot of money to join them. He said the scheme had been in motion for quite a while. What about Joe brutalizing Kevin Nash, Scott Steiner and Booker T., you ask? Angle said it was all part of the plan to throw people off (I didn’t realize anyone suspected Joe was joining the MEM).

Angle also said that if you don’t get it, “you’re a moron.” Well, I guess that makes me one, because I still wasn’t convinced that Joe’s turn was anything other than an ill-conceived, last-minute swerve. If I’m wrong and it actually was the plan all along, then that’s actually worse, because it shows that the creative team has no concept of how to book a swerve that isn’t devoid of logic.

Despite the angle’s flaws, however, some good has come out of it, namely the fact that the MEM finally turned on Sting (unless that too was part of an even larger plan to fool us morons). Plus, it looks as if Matt Morgan is now in the MEM, although that wasn’t made clear.

The highlight of Thursday’s episode undoubtedly was Sting’s confrontation with the MEM at the end of the show. Sting said that Angle, Steiner and Booker turning on him wasn’t a surprise, but he expected more from Nash. That was actually kind of funny since Sting and Nash have gone back and forth between being enemies and friends over the years, not to mention the fact that Nash has a reputation in real life for being a manipulator.

That aside, Sting and Nash both cut tremendous promos. It perhaps was the best of Nash’s career, as he explained to Sting why he would always choose business over friendship. It built to Sting handing Nash a bat and turning his back, but Sting had a second bat concealed and was ready when Nash went to attack him.

It occurred to me as I was watching this angle that it would have been so much better had Samoa Joe not been involved. If the goal of the story line was to get Sting out of the MEM, the creative team should just have had Angle, upset that he lost his role as MEM leader, enlist Morgan to take out Sting with the rest of the Mafia’s help. It would have accomplished the goal and created a potential new star in Morgan. Most of all, it makes sense.

Other thoughts on Thursday’s show:

It had been more than a year since Angle’s last TNA world title reign, so I agree that it was time to put the belt back on him. With Angle holding the gold, TNA can make a strong case that it has the best world champion in any promotion. …

How is it that Angle has it in his contract that he gets to choose his opponent at the next pay-per-view? If that’s the case, why wouldn’t he just pick Shark Boy or Cody Deaner? I’m also confused as to how Angle seemingly has as much if not more power than executive shareholder Mick Foley, who seemingly has as much if not more power than TNA founder Jeff Jarrett. By the way, is TNA management director Jim Cornette even still in the company? …

Speaking of Foley, after playing an insincere heel for a couple months, he came off as a total babyface early in the show, but then acted like a heel again the rest of the show. Perhaps it’s his split-personality disorder acting up again. It must be contagious, because Beer Money’s Robert Roode and James Storm seem to have a case of it as well. …

Just wondering: Why was Joe still wearing his regular costume instead of a suit and tie or an MEM sweat suit? And were Steiner’s frequent references in the past to Joe being a “fat [expletive]” all part of the MEM’s elaborate ruse? …

Steiner wasted little time in finding another plump wrestler to taunt. He told Brother Ray that he had an “overactive pituitary gland” and also dared him to show his abs. Now that was funny. …

I was surprised that Steiner pinned Roode so cleanly in their singles match. I don’t agree with that decision. …

Booker referred to Team 3-D as The Dudleys in his promo. That infringes on WWE’s copyright, but, fortunately for TNA, most people probably couldn’t understood a word he was saying anyway. …

I’m wondering if there is going to be some sort of angle involving Earl Hebner. He was punched in the face by Jarrett recently, and Thursday he got shards of glass in his eye after Booker smashed a beer bottle over Storm’s head. …

The opening match between Brother Ray and Brutus Magnus got the show off to an energetic start. …

Daffney is an awesome character, but she would be even better if TNA let her win a bit more often. I also didn't see the point to having her get slammed into thumbtacks again. I can understand doing it at the pay-per-view last Sunday, but why subject her to that in a throwaway match on TV? ...

I think Lauren started a new catchphrase: “Are you OK?! Are you OK?!” …

It may not have been intentional, but Don West had the funniest line of the night after it was announced that Sharmell and Morasca would be wrestling at the Victory Road pay-per-view on July 19: “I think we all want to see that!”

Posted by Kevin Eck at 3:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (21)
        

If you never watch WWE Superstars, you won’t miss anything in regard to the advancement of story lines. However, if you enjoy wrestling matches (often good ones) presented in a straight-forward format, WWE Superstars is must-see TV.

And if you watched Thursday night’s episode, you not only were treated to three quality matches, but you saw some of WWE’s brightest young talent on display. Five of the seven wrestlers who appeared on the program are under 30.

The show opened with Jack Swagger (26) defeating Evan Bourne (26). That was followed by Dolph Ziggler (28) beating Jimmy Wang Yang (28), and Kofi Kingston (27) retaining the U.S. title in a triple threat match against Matt Hardy (34) and MVP (35).

Here are a few observations:

I still believe that Swagger has the biggest upside among the twenty-somethings, but Kingston is perhaps more “over” than any of them, including breakout-star-in-waiting John Morrison (29). During the triple threat match, it sounded to me like the crowd was behind Kingston more than MVP. …

Bourne’s size works against him becoming a main-eventer, but, like Rey Mysterio, he could overcome it because of his dynamic wrestling style. What really is holding Bourne back from a bigger push is his inability to cut even a serviceable promo. …

It’s becoming more apparent with every appearance that Ziggler has “it.” …

I have been a fan of Yang’s wrestling skills since I first met him as a teenager nine years ago when he was in WCW as part of the Yung Dragons. It’s obvious that he is never going to have a real high spot on the card, but every company needs talented hands on the roster such as Yang who have the ability to make their opponents look good.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 5:07 AM | Permalink | Comments (24)
        

In this morning’s post about Torrie Wilson’s performance on I’m A Celebrity … Get Me Out of Here, I listed other wrestlers who have appeared on network reality competition shows, but, as several of you have pointed out, I overlooked a couple.

I can’t believe I forgot Chris Jericho, who was on Fox’s Celebrity Duets in 2006. Then again, if you blinked, you missed him, because he was the first one eliminated. I also failed to include Matt Anoa’i (Rosey), who dropped out during the fifth episode of ABC’s Fat March in 2007.

For those who mentioned Matt Morgan on American Gladiators (NBC, 2008) and Trish Stratus on Armed and Famous (CBS, 2007), I did not mention Morgan because he was a character on the show rather than a contestant, and Stratus’ show was a reality series but not a competition.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 2:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (13)
        

After vowing three weeks ago to watch NBC’s I’m a Celebrity … Get Me Out of Here as long as Torrie Wilson remained on the program, I found myself torn between wanting the former WWE diva to win and wanting her to get voted off so I wouldn’t have to keep watching the inane reality show.

I stuck with it, however, because I knew that Torrie really wanted to win the thing – and she nearly did. Torrie ended up finishing second to actor Lou Diamond Phillips on Wednesday night’s final episode of the Survivor-like show.

I give Torrie a lot of credit. Not only did she spend three weeks in the Costa Rican jungle eating disgusting things and allowing giant cockroaches, snakes and spiders to crawl on her face, but she also had to live amongst vexatious “celebrities” such as Spencer and Heidi Pratt, Janice Dickinson and Sanjaya Malakar. After all that, swapping spit with Vince McMahon must not have seemed so bad after all.

To my knowledge, Torrie is the fourth pro wrestling personality to appear on a network reality competition show. Here’s a look at the others:

Stacy Keibler (third place on ABC’s Dancing with the Stars in 2006): Quite frankly, she was robbed. One could argue that former boy band member Drew Lachey was a deserving winner, but NFL Hall of Famer Jerry Rice finishing ahead of Keibler was – as the late, great Gorilla Monsoon used to say – a miscarriage of justice. At least Keibler ended up getting a deal with ABC out of it.

John Cena (third place on ABC’s Fast Cars and Superstars in 2007): Cena finished behind John Elway and a rodeo champion named Ty Murray in the stock car auto racing competition. The good news for Cena is that there were no fans chanting “You can’t drive!” at him.

Ashley Massaro (voted off on the second episode of CBS’ Survivor in 2007): It sure didn’t take long for the former Diva Search winner to be “escorted” off the island.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 6:07 AM | Permalink | Comments (10)
        

Whether it can be attributed to the publicity WWE received from the Donald Trump story line, the commercial-free format, the advertised main event of a Last Man Standing Match for the WWE title between Randy Orton and Triple H, or some combination of the three, one thing is for sure: Monday’s episode of Raw was a huge ratings success.

Raw drew a 4.5 rating (4.3 first hour; 4.8 second hour), a significant increase from last week’s 3.7. The show’s 6,813,000 viewers made it the most-watched episode of Raw since March 25, 2002, according to wwe.com.

You have to hand it to Trump. WrestleMania 23, which was built around his hair versus hair match against Vince McMahon, did a company-record 1.2 million pay-per-view buys in 2007, and now he is the central figure on the highest-rated Raw in more than seven years.

Based on the rating, I wonder if the Trump story line, which appeared to end on Monday after just one week, might continue at some point. A story on wwe.com about Trump’s appearance on Raw said “this may not be the end of the feud between these two world class promoters.”

Posted by Kevin Eck at 7:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (10)
        

Being in the journalism field, I’m always for anything that gets people to read, especially kids. That’s why I have to applaud WWE for it’s involvement in a program that encourages teens and tweens to visit their local libraries and read throughout the summer.

WWE is teaming with the Young Adult Library Services Association for the SummerSlam Reading Jam, which kicks off Wednesday in libraries across the country.

Participating libraries will award a poster featuring WWE stars Rey Mysterio, Evan Bourne, Beth Phoenix and Eve to the first 25 kids between 10 and 18 who check out two books. Each poster will be numbered. On July 17, two poster numbers will be drawn, and the kids with those numbers will each win an all-expenses-paid trip for two to SummerSlam at the Staples Center in Los Angeles on Aug. 23. There also will be prizes for runners-up.

I just wish they would have had something like this when I was a “tween.” Of course, back then, SummerSlam didn’t even exist yet.

For a list of participating libraries, click here.

For more information about the contest, click here.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 6:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)
        

Well, that was fast. Donald Trump’s tenure as the “owner” of Raw didn’t even last for a whole episode. Apparently, Trump’s involvement with WWE was just a one-week publicity stunt and not a longer-term story line.

I definitely was surprised when Trump “sold” the show back to Vince McMahon during Monday night’s commercial-free broadcast, thus ending the angle. The abrupt conclusion is a little disappointing, because I figured Trump making sporadic appearances on the show and interacting with WWE talent would be entertaining.

Trump did play his role pretty well on Monday’s show, and McMahon had a couple of funny scenes, too. They lost me, however, when McMahon started talking about how Trump doing commercial-free shows and offering refunds at live events was costing him a lot of money. If Trump owns Raw, how does any of that affect McMahon? I got a headache trying to figure that one out.

All I know is that for McMahon to re-acquire Raw, he had to pay Trump double what Trump had paid him for the show. And to think that McMahon said that Stan Kroenke should be arrested for impersonating a good businessman.

Other thoughts on Monday’s show:

It’s hard to complain about getting a Last Man Standing Match for the WWE title on network television, but while the match between Randy Orton and Triple H was good, the feud between these two is tired. Since Orton and Triple H are wrestling each other yet again at The Bash pay-per-view Sunday, the double count-out finish made sense. …

Speaking of tired, enough with the John Cena-Big Show matches already. At least Cena versus The Miz is something different, although I’m not too excited about that match-up either, even after the strong promo Cena cut on Miz early in the show. …

That was a cool spot in the Last Man Standing Match when Triple H inadvertently smashed a guy from the TV crew in the head with a ladder. I’m not certain if Triple H really nailed the guy or if it just looked like he did. …

The Smackdown six-man tag match (Jeff Hardy, Rey Mysterio and The Great Khali defeated Edge, Chris Jericho and Dolph Ziggler) was fun. Having Khali try to take a Codebreaker from Jericho probably wasn’t the greatest idea, though. …

There was zero chance that Khali was going to do anything off the top rope onto the floor, but his teasing of such a move got a pop from the crowd. ...

Goldust had the line of the night. When he mentioned that he was thinking of giving his blond wig to Trump, he said: “It worked so well for Goldberg. It got him over like gangbusters.” …

It’s tough to criticize WWE announcers since I know they have McMahon screaming at them in their headsets during broadcasts, but Michael Cole constantly saying that Maryse wanted nothing to do with Mickie James was really annoying. …

What were the odds that Jerry Lawler would have a bucket of chicken sitting in front of him during a divas tag match and not make one joke about breasts or thighs? …

Wow, a commercial-free episode and MVP doesn’t even make it onto the show. …

Cody Rhodes won a match!

Posted by Kevin Eck at 5:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (66)
        

Nobody appreciates a good swerve more than me. The key word, however, is “good,” because not much turns fans off more than an angle heavy on shock value and light on logic.

And that takes me to Sunday night’s TNA pay-per-view, Slammiversary (disclaimer: I have read online reports but did not watch the show). The big news coming out of the event is that Kurt Angle once again is TNA world champion. The even bigger news is that Samoa Joe helped Angle win the title, and then the two long-time rivals embraced after the match as Kevin Nash, Booker T. and Scott Steiner (but not Sting) looked on approvingly.

I know what you’re thinking: Didn’t The Main Event Mafia break Joe’s arm a while back, and didn’t Joe then systematically destroy Nash, Booker and Steiner (who Joe also attacked with his big knife) before vowing to kill Angle? And didn’t Joe just defeat Angle on Thursday’s episode of Impact?

My suspicion is that when TNA realized it had weakened Joe’s character by making him a naïve, whining babyface, the creative team attempted to rehabilitate Joe by repackaging him as an avenging anti-hero. And when fans didn’t really get behind that concept, TNA’s knee-jerk reaction was to turn him heel. It’s possible that Joe’s torn triceps – which he suffered earlier this month and could sideline him for up to six months if he elects to have surgery – forced TNA to alter whatever its plans were for Joe prior to the injury.

I can’t wait to see how TNA is going make sense out of Joe helping Angle. If Joe really is in the MEM, that seems like a bad fit to me. And speaking of a bad fit, I can’t imagine that Joe is going to look good in one of those fancy MEM track suits. But I digress. Perhaps Joe joining the heel faction and Angle’s title win will lead to the MEM attacking Sting and finally booting him out of the group.

Here’s what I think would be a better – and more logical – scenario:

Instead of Joe joining the MEM, Angle and Joe turn on the other Mafia members and form a new faction.

It is revealed that the mystery person that Joe has been taking advice from is Angle, not Tazz as everyone thought. Angle had convinced Joe that even though they have been enemies, they are actually very much alike as far as their violent demeanor and the fact that both have been let down by their friends. Angle, feeling as if the MEM showed more loyalty to Sting than to him, was the one who ordered the hits on Nash, Steiner and Booker, and Joe carried them out.

In an ambush, Joe and Angle jump Nash, Steiner and Booker. When the latter three eventually gain the advantage, Matt Morgan and Eric Young come out and help Angle and Joe. Sting then shows up to even the sides and clear the ring.

Angle later cuts a promo saying that the other guys in the MEM are yesterday’s news. He’s still in his prime, and he now will lead a group of guys that are the future of TNA in Joe, Morgan and Young. It will come to light that when Joe threw Young in the trunk of a car a while back, the driver was Angle, who then convinced Young that TNA had been disrespecting him.

So we’ll have a feud between a babyface MEM led by Sting against Angle’s faction. As for the soon-to-be-debuting Tazz, TNA can give him a role as a commentator or a manager.

That’s my idea. We’ll find out on Thursday what TNA has come up with.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 6:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (39)
        

A couple weeks ago, I wrote that Smackdown’s big four – Edge, Jeff Hardy, Chris Jericho and Rey Mysterio – were largely responsible for the consistently high quality of the show. After watching Smackdown the past two Fridays, however, it’s apparent that the talented quartet has gained a fifth member – CM Punk.

Since winning the world heavyweight title two weeks ago, Punk has come across like a legitimate top guy. That can be attributed to his solid performances in the ring and on the microphone, but also to the fact that he isn’t being presented as a fluke world champion like he was during his first reign. An opportunist? Yes. But not a fluke.

Punk is perhaps the most compelling performer in wrestling at the moment. His character thinks of himself as a babyface, but he’s displaying subtle heel traits. In Punk’s mind, he hasn’t done anything outside the rules, so he isn’t turning on the fans, it’s the fans who are turning on him because his actions harmed one of their favorites, Jeff Hardy.

In addition to Smackdown’s fab five, the booking is a major reason for the show’s success. On Friday’s episode, the creative team did a nice job of furthering the Punk-Hardy and Jericho-Mysterio programs by intertwining them. Best of all, viewers were treated to three star-studded matches featuring the top five guys.

One of those matches pitted Edge against John Morrison, and judging by Morrison’s performance, there could be a sixth guy in the mix real soon. In fact, Jim Ross declared that “John Morrison will be a world champion some day.”

Other thoughts on Friday’s show:

The finish to the Hardy-Jericho match worked on several levels. Having Mysterio jump out of the crowd and attack Jericho while disguised as a fan was a nice follow-up to Jericho doing the same thing to Mysterio three weeks ago. It led to Jericho getting counted out against Hardy, so the following was accomplished: Mysterio got revenge, Jericho suffered a loss without having to get pinned again, and Hardy scored a win over a major star heading into his title match against Punk. …

I also liked how the Punk-Mysterio match went down. Jericho, sitting at ringside doing commentary, interfered, and Punk took advantage of it to gain the victory. So Jericho one-upped Mysterio, and Punk again beat a fan favorite by being an opportunist. Hardy, meanwhile, came out to try to right the wrong by explaining what happened to the referee, but it was to no avail. …

In the verbal exchange between Punk and Hardy, the differences in their lifestyles were brought up without getting into specifics, which is probably a good thing since the free-spirited babyface is one Wellness Program violation away from termination, while the tweener/heel doesn’t smoke, drink or do drugs. If WWE wanted to go there, Punk could bring up that he won the Money in the Bank match last year and eventually became champion while Hardy, who would have been the favorite to win that match, couldn’t compete because he got suspended. …

Morrison’s performance on the mic probably was his best yet, but there’s still room for improvement. He also had a good match with Edge. The story was that Edge didn’t consider Morrison to be in his league, but then Morrison pushed him to the limit before Edge escaped with a victory. Edge does not yet have a match at The Bash pay-per-view on June 28, so perhaps an Edge-Morrison bout will be added. …

Michelle McCool’s beat-down of Melina was well done, but I just don’t have any interest in a match between these two, who are scheduled to face each other in a women’s title bout at The Bash. I would much rather see Maryse defend the divas title against Mickie James at the pay-per-view.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 3:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (29)
        

WWE announced on its Web site that Candice Michelle and Sim Snuka have been let go. Both have been absent from TV for a while, so neither move comes as much of a shock. In fact, I think a lot of people thought Snuka had already been released.

Michelle, a former Diva Search contestant, had gone from being strictly eye candy to a competent wrestler during her five-year stint in WWE. She won the women’s title in June 2007, but her career was derailed after suffering a cracked clavicle during a match on Raw against Beth Phoenix four months later.

After being out for five months, she re-injured her clavicle in her first match back and underwent surgery. She returned last fall, but she was never the same in the ring. Michelle was drafted to Smackdown last April but was never used.

Snuka, the son of WWE Hall of Famer Jimmy “Superfly’ Snuka, made his WWE debut in 2007 as part of the Deuce and Domino tag team. He was repackaged as a singles wrestler last year, and it appeared that he was going to get a push as part of the Randy Orton-led heel faction Legacy. Snuka was never officially part of the group, however, and he quickly disappeared from TV.

He reportedly was the cameraman during The Undertaker-Shawn Michaels match at WrestleMania XXV who was on the receiving end of Undertaker’s dive over the top rope onto the floor. Undertaker nearly landed on his head doing the move because the cameraman didn’t sufficiently break his fall.

As far as what the future holds for Michelle and Snuka, I wouldn’t be surprised if TNA had interest in Michelle, but I’m not as optimistic about Snuka. I could see Michelle either joining The Beautiful People – she would be a better fit that Madison Rayne – or feuding with them.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 8:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (24)
        

I don’t know how good one-on-one matches between Mick Foley and Jeff Jarrett will be, but the promos and backstage segments involving the two are pretty entertaining.

Thursday on TNA Impact, Foley had me laughing out loud with his sarcastic remarks at the announce table while Jarrett, his tag team partner for the night, was getting pummeled in the ring. Foley’s insincere heel character is reason enough to watch Impact every week.

Jarrett plays the straight man perfectly with his reactions to Foley’s antics. I think he says, “Have you completely lost your mind, Mick?” on a weekly basis. Jeremy Borash also is very good in his role as the guy who plays off both of them.

Other thoughts on Thursday’s show:

The main event was star-studded – Foley and Jarrett versus Kurt Angle and Sting versus Samoa Joe and A.J. Styles – but it wasn’t anything special as far as the action. It was effective as far as getting all five guys who are in the King of the Mountain match at Sunday’s Slammiversary pay-per-view in the ring together. Joe again looked strong, as he pinned Angle clean. Joe also came across well in an interview with Don West...

West had a great line during the main event. When Jarrett attacked Foley for abandoning him during the match, West, in reference to Jarrett, said: “What an ungrateful founder!” ...

As often happens with TNA feuds, the Team 3D-Beer Money program is starting to give me a headache. There was mutual respect between the teams, then they were enemies, then they seemed to be friends and now they are enemies again. ...

I like the fact that Matt Morgan is getting a high profile match at the pay-per-view against Sting. This is a great opportunity to add a fresh face to the top of the card, so hopefully Morgan will go over. The stipulation is that Morgan gets Sting’s spot in the Main Event Mafia if he wins. I could see Angle costing Sting the match for that reason. ...

The crowd loves Raven even though he is a heel. I can’t blame them. I have always found the Raven character interesting. It has been reported that Raven and Shane Douglas were brought back for Slammiversary with no definite plans regarding either of them going forward. I certainly would keep Raven around, and I also think Douglas has value as a heel manager. Perhaps Douglas and Eric Young would make a good combination. ...

It was announced that Young and Rhino will be facing The British Invasion in the Slammiversary pre-show match. Hasn’t anyone told Rhino that Young is a heel now? ...

Daffney said that she and Raven would make Mickey and Mallory look like Zach and Vanessa. OK, I get that Mickey and Mallory are the main characters in Natural Born Killers (a movie from 15 years ago that did not have anything to do with Shawn Stasiak, Mark Jindrak, Sean O’Haire, Chuck Palumbo or Mike Sanders), but who the heck are Zach and Vanessa? Honestly, I don’t even want to know. ...

Between Abyss’ over-the-top promo and Lauren’s poor acting, their segment was like something out of a bad B movie. ...

I liked that there was a stare-down between Tara and Awesome Kong. Their inevitable feud is definitely one I’m looking forward to. I still can’t believe that Tara never got an opportunity to cut a promo before her title match with TNA women’s champion Angelina Love on Sunday. ...

The best match on the show was between “Don’t Call Me Christopher” Daniels and Amazing Red.. ...

The down-on-his-luck Kip James being given a job by Foley as a handy man has the potential to be funny, but didn’t Vince Russo do the exact same angle with Hacksaw Jim Duggan being a janitor in WCW 10 years ago?

Posted by Kevin Eck at 7:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (11)
        

Judging by the amount of TV time The Hart Dynasty is getting, it’s obvious that the powers that be in WWE like what they see from the pink-and-black-clad trio.

Thursday night on WWE Superstars, The Hart Dynasty made its third appearance on a WWE television show this week and headlined its second consecutive program.

Tyson Kidd and David Hart Smith teamed with Jack Swagger Thursday to face The Colons and Christian. The babyfaces prevailed in an entertaining match.

Win or lose, THD is fun to watch. I wouldn’t mind if they were on multiple shows every week.

Other thoughts on Thursday’s show:

While I liked the six-man tag team main event, the two best things about this episode were provided by Maria, who served as the guest referee for the match between Eve and Layla. This may have been the first time ever that I paid more attention to the referee than the wrestlers. …

I did turn my eyes away from Maria long enough to see Eve execute a nice finisher in which she did a cartwheel into a back flip into a splash. Eve still has a long way to go in the ring, but she is getting better. I think the fact the she’s a little thicker than the average diva works to her advantage as far as looking the part of a wrestler. …

At Maria’s request, Eve and Layla seemingly buried the hatchet after their match. That’s good news, because I was having trouble sleeping knowing those two were at war with each other. Perhaps Maria could use her powers of persuasion to get Hulk and Linda Hogan to reconcile. …

My first reaction after Santino Marella lost to Chavo Guerrero was: “Why?” There’s certainly more entertainment value in Marella than Guerreo. The result only makes sense if the Marella-Guerrero program is continuing. The always-funny Marella deserves to get the last laugh.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 12:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (9)
        

For those who suspected that this Monday’s episode of Raw would have excess filler because it will be commercial free, you can probably rest easy. Talent from Smackdown and ECW will be appearing on the show, according to a report on pwinsider.com.

WWE seems to be making an all-out effort to raise Raw’s profile. In addition to having talent from all three brands on the program for the second week in a row, next week’s show also includes a Last Man Standing match between Randy Orton and Triple H for the WWE title as well as a live appearance by Donald Trump.

When all three brands get together, it illustrates just how much talent there is in WWE and usually makes for a more entertaining show. It raises the question of whether WWE should abandon the current model of having separate brands. While I would love to see WWE go back to a single roster, I understand the argument for not doing it.

As much as fans and critics take WWE to task for not giving a bigger push to certain guys, imagine how difficult it would be for mid-carders to get TV time if all of the A-listers were on one show. Plus, if the same talent worked Raw and Smackdown, it would making stretching out story lines more difficult. Even if WWE does decide one day to merge the Raw and Smackdown rosters, I would maintain ECW as a separate show consisting of up-and-coming talent and mid-carders who otherwise would be lost in the shuffle.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 6:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (18)
        

Christian got another reminder Tuesday night on ECW that he isn’t in TNA anymore.

“Captain Charisma” lost his second match in as many nights, this time putting over David Hart Smith of The Hart Dynasty. The previous night on Raw, Christian was pinned by Tommy Dreamer.

That’s a far cry from how Christian was booked in TNA, where he went nearly two years without a loss by either pinfall or submission. Oh well, at least the checks are bigger now.

I didn’t expect Christian to lose to Smith, but I actually like that decision. Smith and fellow Hart Dynasty member Tyson Kidd have a lot of potential and they need some quality wins to establish credibility. Plus, Christian wasn’t really damaged by the loss since it was caused by outside interference from Kidd.

In addition to the win being a feather in Smith’s cap, working a long match (approximately 14 minutes) against a seasoned ring general such as Christian was a valuable learning experience. Smith is still a little rough around the edges, but this was a pretty good match overall.

Other thoughts on Tuesday’s show:

Smith pinning Christian wasn’t the only surprise. After the match, Finlay came out and whacked Christian with his shillelagh. He did the same thing to both Dreamer and Jack Swagger later in the show. Finlay explained that the attacks on Christian and Dreamer were receipts for him suffering an eye injury while trying to break up a backstage scuffle between the two. Even though Finlay also hit Swagger, I’m guessing that he is turning heel. If that is the case, he needs to lose that Hornswoggle entrance music immediately. …

The non-title match between ECW champ Dreamer and Swagger wasn’t bad. The stipulation was that if Swagger won the match, he would get a title shot against Dreamer. Even though Swagger won clean, however, it was announced on wwe.com that Dreamer would defend the title at The Bash pay-per-view on June 28 in a Scramble Match against Swagger, Christian, Finlay and Mark Henry. …

I’m sure some people are going to say that Evan Bourne was buried because he was decisively beaten by Henry. I don’t think so. Given the size difference and the fact that Bourne was selling injured ribs, the outcome made perfect sense. Henry is one of the top heels on the show, so he needs to win sometimes, too, especially since he is in the Scramble at The Bash. …

Did you catch Hurricane Helms adjusting his shirt as if he had quickly changed into his clothes right before conducting the interview with Finlay? That, coupled with the way he has been delivering his lines and the fact that “a guy wearing green” damaged some equipment backstage last week virtually guarantees that Helms is about to revive his superhero character. As a Helms fan since the 3 Count Days, I would rather see him have a gimmick that isn’t so silly, but wearing a cape and green spandex tights is certainly better than being future-endeavored.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 4:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (19)
        

Monday night’s three-hour episode of Raw drew a 3.7 rating, according to multiple wrestling Web sites.

I would think that WWE is pleased with the number, which is the highest for Raw since the April 20 show also did a 3.7.

The thing about these three-hour shows is that the first hour always drags down the overall number, theoretically because a significant number of people don’t realize that the program is starting an hour earlier than usual. The second and third hours of Raw did a 3.75 and 4.1, respectively, which averages out to a 3.9.

It will be interesting to see how next week’s Raw does coming off the introduction of the Donald Trump angle as well as the announcement that the show will be commercial free and feature a Last Man Standing match for the WWE title between Randy Orton and Triple H.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 6:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (10)
        

A famous Roddy Piper quote came to mind while I was watching the spectacular Raw 3-for-All three-hour special Monday night. It’s the one about changing the questions just when everyone thinks they have all the answers.

WWE had announced on its Web site Monday that WWE chairman Vince McMahon would name a new Raw general manager on the show. The Internet pundits immediately surmised that since Raw was in Charlotte, N.C., Ric Flair would be introduced as the brand’s new authority figure.

Instead of getting “The Nature Boy” as the new Raw GM, however, we got “The Donald” as the new Raw owner. Just as McMahon used Donald Trump to pop a WrestleMania buy rate two years ago, he’s now calling on the mogul to spike the Raw ratings.

Will it work? That remains to be seen, but it sure can’t hurt. Trump is an iconic figure and his involvement with WWE will garner publicity for the company, at least in the beginning. Who knows, Trump’s presence may even make for some entertaining television. As for the still-vacant Raw GM position, Flair will likely get the role when the time comes.

In addition to the Trump angle, Randy Orton regained the WWE title; CM Punk, Tommy Dreamer and Chris Jericho successfully defended their championships; and Triple H won a battle royal to earn a title shot against Orton.

It was initially announced that the Orton-Triple H match would take place at The Bash pay-per-view on June 28, but Trump appeared via satellite at the end of the show and announced that Orton and Triple H would square off in a Last Man Standing Match for the title next week on a commercial-free episode of Raw.

However, Orton and Triple H are still going to face each other at The Bash, according to wwe.com. I don’t think that was made clear on TV, and it doesn’t make a lot of sense on the surface. It seems like the Last Man Standing Match should be the blow-off to the feud.

Other thoughts on Monday’s show:

When the battle royal came down to Triple H and John Cena, there wasn’t much drama for me. No matter who won, we’ve already seen Orton wrestle both guys countless times. As for the speculation that MVP would be catapulted into the title picture on this show, Sherri Shepherd’s favorite wrestler was the second man eliminated in the battle royal. …

During the battle royal, it didn’t make sense when Big Show intervened while a couple guys were trying to toss Cena over the top rope. Since Big Show hates Cena so much, why wouldn’t he help them get Cena out? Michael Cole tried to cover by saying something like, “It may have looked like Big Show was helping Cena, but that’s not the case. It’s every man for himself.” Well, it was a nice try. …

The WWE, world heavyweight and Intercontinental title matches were very good, while the ECW match was serviceable. All four matches were well-booked. …

I don’t know if Punk was doing a great job of selling his knee after landing awkwardly on the ring steps during the triple-threat match with Jeff Hardy and Edge or if he was really in pain, but I wasn’t sure he was going to be able to finish the match. That would have made things interesting since he was supposed to win. …

Punk is playing his tweener character perfectly. Depending on your perspective, he’s either telling it like it is and being true to himself, or he’s an arrogant opportunist. …

Everyone came out looking good in the fatal four-way between Orton, Triple H, Cena and The Big Show. Orton got the win; Cena and Triple H both appeared seconds away from winning; and Big Show was dominant before finally succumbing after taking all three men’s finishers. …

Jericho and Rey Mysterio got the night off to a good start with yet another excellent match together. The bout went about eight minutes, and I wouldn’t have minded if they had wrestled for another 20 or so. One question, though: Since Jericho is so determined to unmask Mysterio again, why didn’t he take it off him after hitting the Codebreaker? …

On the April 20 episode of Raw, Jericho, who had been drafted to Smackdown the previous week, said that he was “going to be gone from Raw forever.” At the time, I wrote that I was taking bets on how many weeks constituted forever. If you guessed seven, you win. …

At times during his ECW title defense against Christian, Dreamer looked like he was going in slow motion. Since Dreamer was booked to go over, I thought Christian losing because of a freak ankle “injury” was as good a finish as any. It’s hard to believe that Christian has gone from headlining pay-per-views with Kurt Angle to jobbing to Dreamer. …

I think Matt Hardy has a worse spot on the card now than he had prior to the feud with his brother. He was the first man eliminated in the battle royal (and it was done in a manner that made him looked like a jobber) and he also was verbally dissed by Punk. Hardy deserves better. …

It was great to see The Hart Dynasty getting exposure on Raw, but Tyson Kidd and David Hart Smith didn’t really get much time to show what they can do. …

Ted DiBiase Jr. and Cody Rhodes weren’t very impressive doing commentary, but the more opportunities they get to speak, the better they will get at it. …

Maryse definitely has a presence. She managed to make an impression without saying a word or getting physically involved in the action. …

It appeared as if Rosa Mendes landed on the top of her head while taking a DDT from Mickie James. …

When Goldust made an Ahmed Johnson reference, there was zero crowd reaction.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 11:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (72)
        

For the first time since WWE established ECW as a third brand in 2006, the WWE, world heavyweight and ECW titles will all be defended on the same network TV program (at least it’s the first time that I recall it happening) tonight in a three-hour edition of Raw dubbed 3-for-All.

Here are my predictions for the three title matches:

John Cena vs. Randy Orton vs. The Big Show vs. Triple H in a fatal four-way for the vacant WWE title: As I wrote last week, I think the title is going back to Orton. The belt never should have been taken off of him in the first place. I don’t think fans really care to see any of the other three participants as champion right now, especially Triple H. Unless Triple H turned heel, another reign for him would be stale. Quite a few people have speculated that MVP will somehow end up in the match and get a surprise win. I would love to see it, but I have a hard time believing that WWE will go that route. As much as I have been in favor of pushing MVP, I don’t think fans have truly taken to him as a babyface, and that’s more a reflection on questionable booking rather than MVP’s talent. The only way it might work is if MVP costs either Cena or Triple H the title and he goes back to being a cocky heel.

World heavyweight champion CM Punk vs. Edge vs. Jeff Hardy: It would be crazy to take the belt off of Punk this quickly. If WWE books Punk as a credible champion, the company will have a much-needed fresh face at the top of the card. I see the finish going down like this: Hardy hits a Swanton Bomb on Edge and goes for the cover. Just before the referee slaps the mat a third time, Punk breaks up the pin attempt, throws Hardy out of the ring and covers Edge for the win.

ECW champion Tommy Dreamer vs. Christian: Dreamer got his moment of glory, but now it’s time to put the title back on someone with a bit more credibility. Let’s be honest: Even when Dreamer was in the old ECW, he was never the top guy; his lone reign as ECW champ in 2000 lasted a matter of minutes. I think Jack Swagger will interfere and cost Dreamer the title, setting up a feud between the two of them while new champ Christian moves on to another program, perhaps against Mark Henry or Evan Bourne.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 3:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (15)
        

Maryland Championship Wrestling announced that legendary manager Jim Cornette, TNA’s Daffney and former WWE talent Kenny Dykstra will be appearing at its July 11 Shamrock Cup show at The New Green Room in Dundalk.

It is unclear at this point what their roles will be at the event. Another TNA star, Stevie Richards, also is confirmed for the show. He will team with Sugarmask in a four-way match for the MCW tag team title.

For more information, go to marylandwrestling.com.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 12:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (14)
        

The name Mitsuharu Misawa might not mean a lot to the majority of wrestling fans in the United States and other parts of the world, but in Japan he is considered one of the greatest wrestlers of all time.

Tragically, Misawa died Saturday in Hiroshima after being given a back suplex in a tag team match, according to wrestlingobserver.com. He was several days away from his 47th birthday.

According to the Web site, Misawa suffered an apparent heart attack after being knocked unconscious from taking the suplex. The match was stopped immediately and CPR was administered in the ring before he was rushed to a hospital in an ambulance. It is unclear whether he died in the ring or at the hospital.

I am not going to pretend that I have seen many Misawa matches, because I have only watched a handful on tape and YouTube. However, I certainly know of his reputation for being a great worker and a huge star in Japan from reading The Wrestling Observer Newsletter. Misawa was voted by Observer readers as Wrestler of the Year in 1995, 1997 and 1999.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 4:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (16)
        

If Friday night’s episode of Smackdown is any indication, CM Punk is not going to be booked as fluke world heavyweight champion in his second reign the way he was in his first.

Punk came across like a top guy on this show more than at any time during his WWE tenure. He opened the program with a solid promo that turned into a verbal and physical confrontation with Jeff Hardy and Edge; he later defeated Chris Jericho clean with the GTS in a good match; and he also did commentary during the Hardy-Edge match before brawling with both men to end the show.

It’s amazing how fresh and compelling the interaction between Punk, Hardy and Edge came across in comparison to the Triple H-Randy Orton-Batista saga that we’ve seen on Raw. I’m really looking forward to the Punk-Hardy-Edge triple threat match for the title Monday on the three-hour episode of Raw.

What makes Punk’s character especially interesting right now is the fact that he is a legitimate tweener. He wrestled as a babyface against Jericho, but in his promo and commentary, he was playing a subtle heel. I have a feeling he is going to be a full-blown heel eventually, but I like that there is going to be a transitional phase rather than a drastic change overnight.

I have to admit that when Punk won the Money in the Bank Ladder Match at WrestleMania XXV, I was less than thrilled, but after watching Smackdown, it’s hard to argue that Punk going over at Mania was a bad decision.

Other thoughts on Friday’s show:

The program appeared as if it was filmed rather than videotaped. Not sure what that’s all about, but I thought it looked pretty cool. …

I became convinced that WWE is serious about pushing Punk when he beat Jericho with his finisher in the middle of the ring with no interference. …

Speaking of Jericho, he just might be the real MVP in WWE. He consistently has good-to-great matches, cuts fantastic promos and is a big enough star that losses help his opponent but don’t hurt him. …

The Edge-Hardy match had a slower pace than we’re used to seeing when these two get together, but it made sense since they were selling being banged up from their ladder match at Extreme Rules last Sunday. Actually, considering some of the bumps they took at the pay-per-view (which took two place two days before this match), I’m not sure they were selling as much as they were legitimately sore. This match was still good even with Edge and Hardy toning things down. …

It may have been my imagination, but it seemed as if Punk wasn’t the only tweener on the show. I would swear that Jim Ross at times was making subtle heel comments. I really hope WWE isn’t thinking of turning Ross into a heel commentator. They’ve tried it before and it just doesn’t work. The fans don’t want to dislike J.R., and beyond that, he’s the best at what he does, so why try to fix something that isn’t broken? …

I really enjoyed the tag match in which John Morrison and R-Truth defeated Shelton Benjamin and Charlie Haas. R-Truth got another opportunity to speak before the match, and that’s a good sign for him.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 12:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (28)
        

It remains to be seen whether Samoa Joe can become a money-drawing lead babyface in TNA, but no one can say that the company isn’t making a legitimate effort at this point to get him there.

By portraying Joe as a whining, yelling, naive babyface a while back, the creative team had pretty much buried his character. But the writers apparently saw the error of their ways a few months ago and turned him into a violent anti-hero with a more menacing look.

Since the makeover, Joe has been booked as an unstoppable force. He destroyed Kevin Nash on two occasions, and Thursday night on TNA Impact, Joe took down both Scott Steiner and Booker T in First Blood matches.

Joe brutalized Steiner by putting a trash can over his head and whacking it repeatedly with a pipe. When the trash can was removed, Steiner was bleeding profusely. Booker was Joe’s next victim. Joe nailed him in the stomach with a pipe, and Booker began spitting up blood.

Joe couldn’t possibly have been put over any stronger. He came across as a real bad dude, and, thankfully, he did so without having to put a knife to anyone’s throat.

Next on Joe’s hit list is Kurt Angle. Those two have always worked well together and they’ve been kept apart long enough that a program between them won’t feel repetitive.

Other thoughts on Thursday’s show:

The Angle-Sting match was OK but it wasn’t anything special. The Matt Morgan/Main Event Mafia story line is getting interesting, though. ...

Tara (formerly Victoria in WWE) looked good in her TNA debut match against Madison Rayne. I’m still waiting for her to cut a promo or do a sit-down interview with Mike Tenay. ...

Is it just me or does Rayne seem out of place as a member of The Beautiful People? ...

I know that I’m easily confused (especially when I’m watching Impact), but how is it that Mick Foley, a shareholder in TNA, can fine and suspend Jeff Jarrett, the owner of the company? ...

Foley said he has lost his smile. Wow, Shawn Michaels did that promo 13 years ago and it’s still being referenced. ...

Shane Douglas looked better than I expected he would in the ring. I’m talking about the quality of his work, of course. From a cosmetic standpoint, “The Franchise” either needs to lose that farmer’s tan fast or else wear a shirt with sleeves. ...

I’m enjoying the Raven/Stevie Richards/Daffney faction. I especially liked Daffney’s beat-down on Lauren that we could hear but not see. It was something different and it allowed viewers to use their imaginations as to what terrible things Daffney was doing to her. I’m guessing, however, that the real reason it occurred off camera is because Lauren isn’t capable of adequately selling the beating.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 7:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (11)
        

Chris Jericho always talks about Smackdown being his show, which is debatable (have to go with Edge or Jeff Hardy on that one), but he definitely could make a solid case that he owns WWE Superstars.

Counting his appearance on Thursday night’s show, Jericho has wrestled on four of the program’s nine episodes, including three of the past four. Not only does Jericho’s mere presence raise the profile of the show, but it virtually guarantees a quality main event.

On Thursday, he defeated John Morrison in a very good back-and-forth match. Even though Jericho won (by holding Morrison’s tights), Morrison came out of it stronger for having pushed Jericho to the limit.

Once again, Jericho showed that he “gets it” when it comes to making sure his character stays over while simultaneously making his opponent look good. It’s one of the reasons why Jericho is such a valuable asset to the company.

Other thoughts on Thursday’s show:

Evan Bourne and Zack Ryder had a good match that was more competitive than I thought it would be. Ryder will probably never be a big star, but he could be around for a while as an entertaining mid-carder. …

Beth Phoenix looked more dominant than she has in a while in the tag match with Rosa Mendes against The Bella Twins. Her comedy act with Santino Marella raised Phoenix’s profile, but it also weakened her monster heel aura. …

It’s always nice to see The Bella Twins on TV. …

Did I actually hear Jim Ross refer to The Miz as a “tool?” I don’t disagree with him, but it still sounded funny coming from J.R.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 11:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (8)
        

Let’s take a break from talking about injuries, wrestlers being released and the burial of Randy Orton for a brief visit to the good old days.

I had been a wrestling fan for nearly 10 years in 1982, but I still wasn’t sure whether the blood was real or not. The secrets of pro wrestling were not as exposed as they are today, and I subscribed to the commonly held belief that wrestlers used blood capsules. They couldn’t really be gushing blood out of their foreheads, could they? It was all a show, right?

Looking back, it’s amazing that I couldn’t have figured it out, especially on the rare occasions that legendary WWF manager Capt. Lou Albano wrestled in singles matches. The WWE Hall of Famer couldn’t have made it more obvious that he was cutting his head with a razor blade if he had grabbed the microphone and announced it.

I was watching a Madison Square house show from 1982 on WWE 24/7 the other day, and the card included a match between Albano and Pat Patterson. The eccentric Albano was in rare form. As soon as the match began, Albano pulled a foreign object out of his tights. Patterson immediately took it away from him and started hitting him in the head with it. After each blow, Albano, in plain view, brushed his taped right thumb across his forehead, and the blood began pouring.

A dazed Albano wobbled around the ring trying to tag an imaginary partner before finally bailing and heading to the back. The entire thing lasted less than 90 seconds.

Classic stuff.

To watch the Albano-Patterson match on YouTube, click here.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 5:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (8)
        

The news has been out there since this morning, but in case anyone missed it, Umaga’s release from WWE earlier this week was due to his second violation of the company’s Wellness Program.

Under the guidelines of the program, a second offense carries a penalty of a 60-day suspension. However, Umaga (Edward Fatu) was fired because he refused to attend a rehab facility, according to a post on wwe.com.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 3:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (12)
        

The Hart Dynasty has wasted little time in becoming one of the main reasons to watch ECW. On Tuesday night’s show, the duo of Tyson Kidd and David Hart Smith defeated the odd couple team of Christian and Jack Swagger in a really good match. A week ago on ECW, Kidd had an exciting match against Christian.

As a team or as singles wrestlers, Kidd and Smith look like future stars. The other member of The Hart Dynasty, Natalya, also has been impressive in the ring when given a chance and on the microphone.

I wonder if WWE has given any thought to having Kidd and Smith win the WWE tag team title from Carlito and Primo. That way, THD could stay on the ECW roster, but they also could make appearances on higher-profile shows Raw and Smackdown.

Other thoughts on Tuesday’s show:

I loved it when Christian brought out a box of tissues during Tommy Dreamer’s promo. I consider myself to be a sentimental guy, but enough with the waterworks already. I liked Dreamer’s character better when he was drinking out of urinals. ...

The crowd booed Christian for power-bombing Dreamer through a table during the opening segment. I guess they didn’t see last week’s show when Dreamer suckered Christian and laid him out. As Christian said, what he did to Dreamer was a receipt. By the way, how is it that Dreamer, who put his body through so much punishment in ECW and even wrestled with a broken neck, could be hurt so bad going through a table that he was unable to compete in the main event? He sure looked like he was OK when he did a run-in at the end of the show. ...

What was with Vladimir Kozlov – the man with the greatest scowl ever – smiling and playing to the crowd? Next thing you know he’ll be telling us how much he loves “Double Double E.” Who knows, maybe he’ll get over better as a lovable big lug than he has as a monster heel, just like The Great Khali has. ...

If you would have told me a couple years ago that Tony Atlas would be wrestling on a WWE TV show in 2009, I never would have believed it. Then again, I never would have believed that Dreamer would be a champion in WWE in 2009, either.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 7:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (19)
        

It was announced during ECW Tuesday night that Batista has been stripped of the WWE title due to his torn biceps, and that the vacant title will be up for grabs during a fatal four-way match between Randy Orton, Triple H, John Cena and The Big Show during the three-hour edition of Raw on Monday.

It makes sense from a story line standpoint that the four biggest stars on Raw would be in the title match (although you could argue that Big Show just suffered losses on the past two pay-per-views and Triple H hasn’t been around for two months), but it’s disappointing that there are no fresh faces in the main event mix.

Had Mr. Kennedy not been abruptly released late last month, he would have been the most logical choice to get a spot in the match. The next-best candidates are Kofi Kingston and MVP. Unfortunately, WWE just hasn’t done a good enough job of getting Kingston, MVP or anyone else over as guys who should be taken seriously as world title contenders.

As far as the title match on Raw Monday, I think the title is going back to Orton. Big Show is a long shot, the timing doesn’t feel right for Cena, and another reign by Triple H would be stale – unless he were to turn heel.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 3:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (33)
        

The much-anticipated Randy Savage DVD, Macho Madness: The Ultimate Randy Savage Collection, was released today, and it was worth the wait.

Savage was one of my favorite wrestlers during the Hulkamania era in the WWF, and this DVD is a reminder of just how incredibly talented and unique of a performer he was both in the ring and on the microphone.

It goes without saying that the three-disc set of Savage’s most famous matches and promos are a must for any “Macho Man” fan, but I also highly recommend it for any younger fans who may not be that familiar with him.

The DVD has most of the Savage matches that you would expect – versus Ricky Steamboat at WrestleMania III, Ted DiBiase at WrestleMania IV, Hulk Hogan at WrestleMania V, Ultimate Warrior at WrestleMania VII, Ric Flair at WrestleMania VIII – but there also are several compelling matches that I had never seen before.

Among them is match against Shawn Michaels that took place in 1992 shortly after Michaels turned heel and became a singles wrestler, as well as a tag team match that pitted Savage and Bret Hart against Ric Flair and Michaels, also from ’92.

Not only do we get Savage in the ring with his contemporaries and future main-eventers such as Michaels and Hart, but there also is a match between Savage and “The Living Legend” Bruno Sammartino from 1987. There are matches from Savage’s stint in WCW, as well, including a good one against Diamond Dallas Page from 1997 that helped make DDP a star.

As much as I enjoyed the matches, however, the best part of the DVD for me are the promos. With his gravely voice, odd mannerisms and mixed metaphors, Savage had one of the most distinctive promo styles ever. His promos were often stream of consciousness and nonsensical, but the brilliance was in his delivery. Much like Flair, Savage could cut a heel promo that entertained you as much as it made you want to root for his opponent to put him in his place.

Unlike today’s heavily scripted promos, Savage was a star during an era when guys came up with their own stuff, and his creativity is on full display here in several interviews with Mean Gene Okerlund. Savage shows that he could pick up a random object lying around the studio – such as a cup, a newspaper, a broom, a trash can and even a miniature coffee creamer – and incorporate it into the interview. And the word association segment that he does with a “psychiatrist” on Tuesday Night Titans is just laugh-out-loud funny.

As with any retrospective on someone who has had a career as illustrious as Savage, not everything will be included on the DVD that you would like. I really wish the match from The Main Event in 1989 in which Savage turned on Hogan was on there. I also would like to have seen one of Savage’s promos from that feud with Hogan on the DVD. His intensity was off the charts during that run.

It’s also a shame that there is no pre-WWF footage of Savage from his days in Memphis and International Championship Wrestling – where he frequently feuded with his brother, Lanny Poffo.

As expected given the strained relationship between Savage and WWE, the man himself was not involved in the project, nor are there interviews from anyone talking about Savage. The clips are introduced by Matt Striker and Maria.

Still, what is on the DVD – including a fair share of Savage’s manager and real-life wife Elizabeth – more than makes up for what isn’t on it.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 6:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (27)
        

Batista, who is scheduled to undergo surgery today to repair his torn biceps, will be out at least four months, wwe.com reported earlier today.

While Batista legitimately suffered the injury sometime last week, WWE – as expected – is attributing it to the attack by Legacy Monday night on Raw. Looking ahead, I suppose we’re in store for another Batista-returns-seeking-revenge on Orton story line after the Triple H-returns-seeking revenge on Orton story line ends.

WWE did not address what will happen with the WWE title now that the champion is out of action.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 2:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (15)
        

I don’t know what WWE’s plans were for the WWE title before newly crowned champion Batista suffered a torn biceps, but Plan B definitely has a “been there, done that” feel to it. As I – and I’m sure many others – expected, Triple H returned to Raw Monday night, and his on-again, off-again feud with Randy Orton is back on.

Since it was Orton who put Triple H out of action nearly two months ago, it makes sense that Triple H would come back seeking revenge, but I just have a hard time getting too excited about yet another chapter in the Triple H-Orton rivalry. It’s time for both men to move on to other opponents, although looking at the Raw roster, that might be easier said the done.

The stage was set for Triple H’s return in the opening segment, as Legacy attacked Batista and injured his arm (apparently it was the healthy one that they worked on). After Batista was taken out in an ambulance, Orton invoked his rematch clause and Raw general manager Vickie Guerrero ruled that Batista would forfeit the title if he was not in the ring before the referee’s 10 count.

When it came time for the match, Batista was a no-show. The referee got up to eight before a camera backstage showed an ambulance pulling into the arena. The referee then stopped counting. It turned out to be Triple H who came out of the ambulance instead of Batista.

From there, Triple H delivered a severe beat-down to Orton, punctuated with a Pedigree onto a chair. Since the referee never finished counting – which didn’t make any sense, by the way – I assume that Batista still is the champion.

The live crowd was into Triple H’s assault on Orton, but it would have meant a lot more if we hadn’t seen Orton beaten up by Shane McMahon and Ric Flair recently. At this point, smacking Orton around is no big accomplishment. For the life of me I cannot understand what the WWE creative team is doing with him. They took a breakout heel and have systematically castrated him.

As far as the WWE title situation, it will likely be resolved on the special three-hour edition of Raw next Monday. It has been announced that there will be WWE, world heavyweight and ECW title matches on the show.

Other thoughts on Monday’s show:

It appears that Vickie Guerrero has been written out of the show, as she announced that she was quitting as GM because of the humiliation she suffered from the Hog Pen match. According to pwinsider.com, Guerrero recently gave her notice so that she could spend more time with her daughters.

After Guerrero’s story line resignation, Edge came out (so much for sticking to the separate brand concept) and admitted that he only married her for her power, and then went on to degrade her about her physical appearance. Guerrero has so much heel heat that Edge almost came off as a babyface. To me, this segment seemed excessively mean-spirited to the point that I felt bad for Vickie Guerrero – not the character, but the real-life widow and mother.

If this is really the end of the line for her character, she definitely had a good run and was way better in the role than I ever thought she would be. As far as who the next GM will be, I wouldn’t be surprised if WWE went with an interim GM for a while and then give the spot to Flair when he returns from selling his head injury. …

Just wondering: Why is it that when Vickie cries there are never any tears? And how is it possible that she and Edge never consummated the marriage when they were together all that time? Edge must have had the longest headache in history. …

Batista must have a lot of heat with the boys since no one came out to make the save when Legacy was brutalizing him. On a side note, why was Jerry Lawler suddenly referring to Batista as “Dave?” …

There was a sign in the crowd that said: “Legacy is a joke.” Based on how the group has been booked, I can’t disagree, unfortunately. …

I figured the John Cena-Big Show program was over, but apparently not. Speaking of Cena, he finally interacted with The Miz, and it appears that the two are headed for a meeting on pay-per-view, which I never would have believed possible a few weeks ago. Since the split between Miz and John Morrison, Miz has actually received the bigger push. …

After MVP got a nice win over Matt Hardy, he talked about wanting to be involved in the WWE title match next week. If Batista is going to be out for a while, the time is now to finally pull the trigger on elevating MVP. As for Hardy, he has lost a lot of steam since the feud with his brother Jeff ended. I hope WWE hasn’t relegated him to midcard-for-life status. …

The tag match between the Colons and Ted DiBiase Jr. and Cody Rhodes was OK, but not as good as you’d think it would be. …

Nobody loves Mickie James more than me, but it was painful listening to her trying to do commentary during the Maryse-Kelly Kelly match.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 11:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (44)
        

In another unexpected move, WWE has released Umaga, the company reported on its Web site. No further details are available at this time.

He is the second prominent wrestler to be let go by WWE in the past 10 days. Mr. Kennedy was released on May 29.

While never a bona fide main eventer in WWE, Umaga frequently faced the big stars and was considered to be among the best of the guys just below the upper tier.

Perhaps Umaga’s release explains why he just suffered back-to-back clean losses to CM Punk.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 6:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (32)
        

The news that Batista has suffered a torn biceps and will require surgery Tuesday raises questions about WWE’s booking decision regarding the Batista-Randy Orton WWE title match match at Sunday’s Extreme Rules pay-per-view and what the fallout will be as far as the title is concerned.

According to pwinsider.com, Batista had been injured prior to the match, so it was known going in that he would be out for significant period of time. The injury explains why the match was kept short (about eight minutes), but it doesn’t explain why WWE decided to take the belt off Orton and put it on a guy who probably isn’t going to be around for a while.

My best guess is that since Orton had already put Batista out of action once and Batista had come back seeking revenge, it would be repetitive to go in that direction again.

It’s funny, because after Batista won the title Sunday night, I wrote that I didn’t think Batista would hold the belt for long. I actually remarked to my friend that I wouldn’t be surprised if there was a rematch on Raw and Orton got it right back (similar to how Batista held the belt for just eight days in October after beating Jericho and then Jericho winning the rematch).

It will be very interesting to see how the situation is resolved on Raw tonight. I have to believe that Triple H will return and somehow be involved.

As for Batista, it’s not unfair at this point to label him as injury prone. He’s a major player in WWE, but the number of serious injuries that he has suffered over the years makes it difficult to do any long-term story line planning for him.

In other news, Jeff Hardy banged up his shoulder and suffered a broken finger at Extreme Rules, pwinsider.com reported. Apparently, the shoulder injury occurred during the spot in which he and Edge took a simultaneous bump off a ladder and onto another ladder that was set up horizontally between the ring apron and the guardrail.

There is no word on the severity of the shoulder injury or if Hardy will have to miss any time. It’s amazing given the nature of their respective styles, but Hardy is the exact opposite of Batista. Despite all the crazy bumps that Hardy has taken over the years, he has managed to avoid major injuries throughout his career.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 3:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (28)
        

Talk about going from one extreme to another.

At WWE’s Judgment Day pay-per-view last month, no titles changed hands in the four championship matches. I applauded those booking decisions at the time, especially in regard to the two world title matches.

“I’m a firm believer that frequent title changes diminish the value of the championship and lessen the impact of the switches,” I wrote. “There have been way too many [world] title changes the past several months. Barring injury, however, I think Randy Orton and Edge are going to bring stability to their respective championships.”

Well, so much for that. There were five title switches Sunday night at the Extreme Rules pay-per-view, including three changes involving the world championships. Orton dropped the WWE title to Batista, and Edge dropped the world heavyweight title to Jeff Hardy, who then lost it to CM Punk after the “Straightedge Superstar” cashed in his Money in the Bank contract.

The other new champions crowned at Extreme Rules were Chris Jericho (Intercontinental) and Tommy Dreamer (ECW).

As far as Sunday’s world title changes are concerned, even though I would like to have seen Edge get a lengthy run as champ for once – his nine reigns combined add up to a little more than 14 months – I didn’t have a problem with Hardy winning. And I really liked Punk cashing in and beating Hardy, because no one saw it coming.

What I didn’t like was Batista taking the strap from Orton. On the surface, this seems like the wrong call, but I’ll withhold final judgment until after I see what happens on Raw Monday night.

The other noteworthy development from Extreme Rules is that America’s Sweethearts – Edge and Vickie Guerrero – appear to be divorcing. Well, it was great while it lasted, but the pairing of the two heels has probably run its course.

Here is a match-by-match look at the show:

Batista defeated WWE champion Randy Orton in a Steel Cage Match to win the title: If CM Punk had not won the title from Jeff Hardy at the end of the show, this match would have been the biggest shocker of the night. Batista dominated the action and pinned Orton clean with The Batista Bomb in about eight minutes. When this match went on third to last, I figured that pretty much guaranteed what I was already fairly certain of – that Orton would retain the title. I got a bad feeling, however, when Orton had a chance to climb out of the cage but he chose to go for the punt to the head instead. I told my friend at that point that Batista was going to win. I don’t see Batista holding the title for long, though.

Jeff Hardy defeated world heavyweight champion Edge in a Ladder Match to win the title: I don’t know that this match will be regarded as a classic – which Hardy basically promised on Smackdown Friday – but it was a great match. There have been so many fantastic ladder matches over the years that it’s hard to devise spots that haven’t been done before, but Hardy and Edge came up with a few. In one particularly painful-looking spot, Hardy dropped Edge stomach-first on an upside down ladder, which closed shut on Edge’s ribs. Outside the ring, both guys took a bump off a ladder and onto another one that had been placed horizontally between the ring apron and the guardrail. Hardy also hit a Twist of Fate off a ladder. The finish came at about the 20 minute mark, when Hardy trapped Edge between the rungs of a ladder and then climbed the ladder and grabbed the title belt as Edge watched helplessly. My first thought after Hardy won: I guess this means he’s not leaving WWE, because the company wouldn’t put the belt on him if there was any question. Not so fast.

CM Punk defeated world heavyweight champion Jeff Hardy to win the title: Hardy barely had any time to celebrate his big victory. As Jim Ross was preparing to interview Hardy in the ring, Punk’s music hit, and Mr. Money in the Bank came out to cash in. Hardy had a look on his face that said, “You’ve got to be kidding me.” Punk went for the GTS right away on the weary Hardy, but Hardy surprisingly kicked out. Hardy then got a near fall with an inside cradle before Punk hit a second GTS and got the pin. Total time of Hardy’s second reign as world champion: about three minutes. Since Punk spoiled Hardy’s moment after he had finally clawed his way back to the top, I’m assuming that makes Punk a heel. A Punk-Hardy feud would be interesting, especially given their respective personalities. You’d have the straight-edged Punk against the free-spirited Hardy. Punk has shown in the past that he can effectively play the straightedge character as a heel by adopting an “I’m better than you” attitude.

John Cena defeated The Big Show in a Submission Match: I’m sure some will complain about the slow pace, but the match told a good story even if it was predictable. I thought the match was over after Cena hit the Attitude Adjustment, but he still couldn’t apply the STF to Big Show. Cena finally got a modified version of the hold on him, as he tied up Big Show’s foot in the middle rope instead of using a toehold. Big Show’s foot slipped out, but Cena’s facelock still looked painful and Show sold it great before tapping out at about the 19-minute mark. The problem I had with the finish is that the hold should have been broken since Show’s feet were under the ropes.

Chris Jericho defeated Intercontinental champion Rey Mysterio in a No Holds Barred Match to win the title: This was another very good match between these two that featured a lot of nice counters and near falls. Jericho, who cut a promo before the match that started at the merchandise stand and continued as he made his way through the crowd and into the ring, vowed to win the title and unmask Mysterio, and he did both. At one point, Jericho nearly unmasked Mysterio prematurely, as he was pulling on the mask and exposed more of Mysterio’s face than probably was intended. The finish was both clever and perfectly executed, as Jericho caught Mysterio on a 619 attempt and pulled his mask off in mid-move. Jericho then scored the pin as Mysterio covered his face. As great as this was, I can’t help thinking how much more it would mean if Mysterio hadn’t wrestled without his mask in WCW a decade ago. I suppose, however, that there’s a large segment of WWE’s audience that has no knowledge of that.

CM Punk defeated Umaga in a Samoan Strap Match: I’ve never been a big fan of strap matches, but this was fine for what it was and I liked the finish. During the match there was a graphic on the screen that showed how many corners had been touched. Not only was it unnecessary – counting to four isn’t that hard, is it? – but in the beginning it was off by several seconds in both directions. After some back and forth action, Punk touched three corners, and as Umaga tried to prevent him from reaching the fourth, Punk managed to hit the GTS and touch the turnbuckle for the win. Jim Ross called it a “shocking result,” which I didn’t get since Punk was a former world champion (at that point) and two-time Money in the Bank Ladder Match winner. That’s a lot more than Umaga has accomplished. By the way, are we ever going to find out the motive behind Umaga's attacks on Punk?

Tommy Dreamer defeated ECW champion Christian and Jack Swagger in an Extreme Rules Match to win the title: I’m not surprised that WWE put the title on sentimental favorite Dreamer, but I wouldn’t have done it. I suppose in the big scheme of things the ECW title is pretty much inconsequential anyway. Despite the result, this was a decent match. Dreamer hit Swagger with a crutch and then hit a DDT on him for the victory.

U.S. champion Kofi Kingston defeated William Regal, MVP and Matt Hardy: All the guys tried hard, but there were several botched moves that hurt the quality of the match. MVP, in particular, had an off night. Kingston got the win by hitting Trouble in Paradise on Regal.

Santina Marella defeated Vickie and Chavo Guerrero in a Hog Pen Match to become Miss WrestleMania: Just before the “match” began, Vickie announced that it was now a handicap match and Chavo was her partner. This was exactly what you’d expect – a short comedy match (about two minutes) that ended with both Guerreros flopping around in slop after Santina pinned Vickie. Santina putting a bucket over Chavo’s head and then punching the bucket to set up the finish was good for a chuckle. I also laughed when Chavo tried to brush the slop off of Vickie’s gown after the both of them were already covered in it. What wasn’t humorous, however, were Jerry Lawler’s one-liners when he was introducing the match. “The King” is usually pretty funny, but he must owe money to whoever wrote those lines for him.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 4:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (37)
        

Predictions for Sunday night’s WWE pay-per-view:

WWE champion Randy Orton vs. Batista in a Steel Cage Match: Orton will find a way to retain the title. This could be the night Triple H returns and gets involved in the finish.

World heavyweight champion Edge vs. Jeff Hardy in a Ladder Match: Hardy set the bar high when he pretty much promised on Smackdown that this match would be a classic. The way the story line has played out makes it appear that there is a good chance of Hardy winning the title, but I don’t think it’s going to happen. For one thing, Hardy reportedly has still not agreed with WWE on a new contract, so it would be risky for the company to put the belt on a guy who may be gone in a couple months. Plus, Edge has had too many short title reigns and the time is right for him to hold the championship for a while. Regardless of the outcome, this is almost certain to be the best match on the card.

John Cena vs. The Big Show in a Submission Match: The focus during the buildup to this match has been on how Big Show is too large for Cena to get the STF on. Once again, Cena will find a way and come out victorious.

Intercontinental champion Rey Mysterio vs. Chris Jericho in a No Holds Barred Match: If not for the Ladder Match being on the card, this one would probably be the show-stealer. I think Jericho wins the title and forces Mysterio to put his mask on the line to get a rematch (which is exactly what I thought would happen when these two wrestled last month at Judgment Day).

CM Punk vs. Umaga in a Samoan Strap Match: This one could go either way. I think Punk overcomes the odds and gets the victory.

ECW champion Christian vs. Tommy Dreamer vs. Jack Swagger in a Hardcore Match: It wouldn’t surprise me if Dreamer, the sentimental favorite (to some), wins the title, but I think the belt is going back to Swagger. Winning the title and forcing Dreamer to retire would increase Swagger’s heel heat.

U.S. champion Kofi Kingston vs. Matt Hardy vs. MVP vs. William Regal: I don’t see MVP getting the belt back or Regal winning, but I suppose there is a chance that Hardy could go over. Kingston has some momentum, though, so I think he’ll retain the title.

Vickie Guerrero vs. Santina Marella in a Hog Pen Match: This should be pretty funny. I have to go with “Ms.” Marella, and I wouldn’t be surprised if Chavo Guerrero ended up in the slop with his aunt.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 3:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (8)
        

Another Friday night, another outstanding episode of Smackdown. In what has become a weekly occurrence, WWE’s “B” show once again was second to none.

The program had star power and exciting matches and was an effective go-home show for Sunday’s Extreme Rules pay-per-view.

Smackdown’s big four – Edge, Jeff Hardy, Chris Jericho and Rey Mysterio – continue to be largely responsible for the high quality of the show, but the guys in the second tier – CM Punk, Umaga, John Morrison, Shelton Benjamin, R-Truth and Dolph Ziggler – are doing their parts as well.

By the end of Friday’s show, I was looking forward to seeing all three of the Smackdown matches at Extreme Rules, especially the Edge-Hardy ladder match.

Edge and Hardy got the show off to a strong start with a Cutting Edge segment. Having ladders in the ring and all over the set was a nice touch, as was having Hardy – and later Edge – sitting on top of the tall ladders in the ring for the interview. The segment ended with Hardy taking a scary-looking bump – does he take any other kind? – off the ladder and chest first onto the top rope, creating a whiplash effect.

Hardy came back at the end of the show after Edge had defeated Mysterio in the main event, and he laid out the world heavyweight champion with a Twist of Fate on a ladder and then a legdrop off the ladder. The final shot was of Hardy holding up the world title belt.

Nicely done.

Other thoughts on Friday’s show:

When Hardy climbed up the ladder and sat on top of it during the Cutting Edge, my first thought was: “Why doesn’t Edge just tip it over?” …

As expected whenever these two get together, Edge and Mysterio put on an excellent match. Good attention to detail by having Mysterio using caution when interacting with fans during his entrance. …

I was surprised that WWE would have a CM Punk-Umaga match two days before they meet on pay-per-view. I was even more surprised – although pleasantly – that Punk scored the pinfall. …

It was great to see R-Truth get some time on the mic to do something other than perform “What’s Up?” That was long overdue. He made a good accounting of himself in his verbal confrontation with Jericho, and the two of them had a decent match together as well. I’ll say it again: Give this guy an opportunity and I think he’ll get over. …

While it was nice that R-Truth got in a lot of offense before losing to Jericho, I might have booked the finish differently. Why not have Mysterio cause a distraction, giving R-Truth an opening to hit his finisher and beat Jericho? The loss doesn’t hurt Jericho, it furthers his program with Mysterio, and R-Truth gets a nice feather in his cap. Plus, if Jericho wins the Intercontinental title Sunday, it sets up a title program with R-Truth down the line. …

Morrison and Benjamin had another good match together. It appears that Benjamin is destined to be a guy with a lot of talent who never quite realizes his full potential, while Morrison really comes across as a performer on the rise. By having to overcome a leg injury in this match to defeat Benjamin, Morrison again demonstrated his toughness and resiliency (he also showed those qualities last week against Umaga). This is smart booking, because if Morrison is to get to the next level, he has to be seen as more than a guy with great hair and abs who does fancy moves. …

I wasn’t thrilled that Dolph Ziggler got pinned by The Great Khali, but losing to a guy the size of Khali shouldn’t hurt Ziggler too much. As a fan of Ziggler as a performer, I was encouraged by how much Jim Ross was putting him over in the commentary. …

I sure didn’t expect to see Layla pin WWE women’s champion Melina during the six-woman tag match that pitted Layla, Michelle McCool and Alicia Fox against Melina, Gail Kim and Eve Torres. Does that mean that Layla is next in line for a title shot?

Posted by Kevin Eck at 1:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (23)
        

I think TNA is onto something with Eric Young as a heel. On Thursday’s episode of Impact, he cut a good promo on Jeff Jarrett that left me looking forward to a feud between these two.

Young’s work in the ring has never been in question, but – and perhaps I’m in the minority on this – I found very little entertainment value in the goofy babyface character that he played. When I saw him show a more serious side on Danny Bonaduce’s radio show for the angle that set up their match at the Lockdown pay-per-view a couple months ago, it became apparent that Young had more to offer than just comic relief.

That’s actually the basis for Young’s turn, and TNA did a nice job of illustrating Young’s point by showing clips of some of the ridiculous situations he has been involved in over the years. To really get some heat on Young and build him up for his program with Jarrett, he now needs to attack a babyface and deliver a vicious beat-down.

Other thoughts on Thursday’s show:

The only problem I had with Young’s promo is that Jarrett’s three young daughters were referenced – again. It wasn’t done in a disrespectful manner, but enough already. We get it that Jarrett is a single father with three adorable kids, but does that mean that every heel that feuds with Jarrett from this point forward is required to mention it? ...

Daffney’s dark, psychotic character is great. She has much more of an edge now than when she was doing the “screamer” gimmick that was pretty much played for laughs. Her Lobotomy finishing maneuver on Taylor Wilde was cool. ...

Don West had the line of the night during the Daffney-Wilde match: “Taylor Wilde is the kind of woman you take home to meet your mother, then you sneak out and go hook up with Daffney.” Then when Mike Tenay said, “Where does that leave Awesome Kong?’ West replied, “Hopefully at your house.” ...

The backstage segment with Mick Foley, Kip James and Kevin Nash was pretty funny. After James begged for a job, Foley told him that money was tight. Then when Nash came in after James left and said that he wasn’t going to wrestle Joe in the cage unless his payoff was four times more than usual, Foley happily signed off on it. ...

Victoria is now being referred to as Tara. Why doesn’t TNA just just use her real name – Lisa Marie Varon? I was hoping she would get an opportunity to cut a promo on this episode to establish her character and explain why she’s in TNA. ...

What was with the wrestling attire (baggy gray shirt and gym shorts) on newcomer Jesse Neal? It’s hard to take him seriously when he looks as if he just got out of one of his training sessions with Rhino. By the way, Rhino looked angry at ringside when Neal lost to Matt Morgan. Tension between teacher and student already. Only in TNA. ...

During an interview with Lethal Consequences and The Motor City Machine Guns, Consequences Creed said that “we created the X Division.” I think he should have said “they created the X Division.” ...

I’m a bit unclear as to why Lethal Consequences is still attacking Suicide. You mean they really dislike him more than they dislike the Guns? ...

Watching the video of ODB training Cody Deaner made me long for the good old days of ODB’s Angle. ...

Why are Rocco and Sally Boy still wearing their Main Event Mafia security shirts?

Posted by Kevin Eck at 6:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (12)
        

If done correctly, a tried and true way to get undercard guys over is to have them get a “rub” from interacting with the top guys. That’s what happened on WWE Superstars Thursday night, as Jeff Hardy teamed up with R-Truth to face Chris Jericho and Dolph Ziggler in the main event.

The crowd was hot throughout what was a fun match and really got into R-Truth’s “What’s Up?” entrance even though he has lost his share of matches recently. I don’t think either R-Truth or Ziggler ever looked more like stars than they did in this match.

I’ve been an advocate of R-Truth getting a push since his he returned to WWE, and Ziggler has shown a lot of potential. Hopefully, WWE will build on this with these two and also take the same approach with other undercard guys who have a significant upside.

Other thoughts on Thursday’s show:

The Brian Kendrick is one guy who is definitely not getting a rub. As soon as the tag team match that pitted Kendrick and Jamie Noble against Goldust and Hornswoggle began, I had no doubt that Kendrick was going to get pinned by Hornswoggle. It’s obvious that WWE regards Kendrick as nothing more than a comedy act, which I think is a complete waste of his talent. I’m also tired of Hornswoggle pinning guys. That’s not to say that Hornswoggle doesn’t add something to the show. He and Goldust can provide some entertaining comic relief with backstage skits and Hornswoggle doing a spot here and there in Goldust’s matches. But the little guy scoring pinfalls on legitimate wrestlers is preposterous. ...

I was so afraid that WWE was going to kill David Hart Smith and The Hart Dynasty’s momentum by having Smith job to Tommy Dreamer. Fortunately, that didn’t happen. Christian, who was doing commentary during the match, said that some people are hoping that Dreamer wins the triple threat match with him and Jack Swagger for the ECW title at the Extreme Rules pay-per-view Sunday “so they don’t have to hear him cry through another interview.” Amen, brother. ...

Jericho’s always entertaining promos have become even more so since he started introducing words into them that have fans scurrying for their dictionaries. The word this time was “mucilaginous,” which Webster defines as “of or like mucilage,” which is defined as “any of various thick, sticky substances produced in certain plants.”

Posted by Kevin Eck at 2:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)
        

Stacy Keiber, whose first gimmick in wrestling was as naughty secretary Miss Hancock in WCW, has put the glasses and skirt suit back on in a video for funnyordie.com.

To watch the clip, click here. Show Stacy some love and vote “funny.”

Posted by Kevin Eck at 4:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (7)
        

A WWE spokesperson told The U.K. Sun that Randy Orton’s tirade during an interview with a reporter on a Mexican TV show last week was a work.

I speculated here this morning that it may have been pre-arranged to get heat on Orton and create a buzz about WWE’s shows in Mexico, as well as give the TV show some publicity. And, yes, Orton appearing to give the “cut” signal at the end perhaps was a giveaway.

However, I didn’t dismiss the possibility that it was a shoot because of Orton’s past anger management and attitude issues. Because Orton’s reputation is not a secret, it made the incident more believable than if another heel such as Edge had been involved.

As far as Orton’s promo on the guy, it was tremendous. He should be playing the lead villain in WWE’s next movie project.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 3:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (10)
        

Uh-oh. It looks as if Randy Orton’s Intermittent Explosive Disorder (IED) may have flared up.

A video of the WWE champion going off on a reporter on a Mexican television show during WWE’s tour of Mexico last week has circulated on the Internet.

The reporter started the interview by asking Orton what he had for breakfast. Seriously. Orton sarcastically replied that it was good question. Then the reporter asked Orton about his history of injuries and referred to him as being fragile. Orton became enraged, cutting a promo on the guy and moving toward him in a threatening manner.

I suppose there is a possibility that Orton and the reporter staged the whole thing in order to get heat on Orton and garner some publicity for the television show. After Orton stormed out and the segment ended, the hosts in the studio treated it as a joke.

If the incident wasn’t scripted, however, it raises questions about whether Orton has his admitted real-life anger management issues under control. Let’s assume for a moment that it wasn’t a work. I’m won’t go so far as to say that the reporter had it coming, but unless Orton was told ahead of time that the questions were going to be off the wall and playfully antagonistic, it was disrespectful – and not very smart – to tell Orton that he was fragile.

The reporter should consider himself lucky that he didn’t receive the same treatment that 20/20 reporter John Stossel got from “Dr. D” David Schultz in the ’80s.

To watch the clip, click here.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 4:29 AM | Permalink | Comments (15)
        

A few quick thoughts on Tuesday night’s episode of ECW:

In his most high-profile match to date, Tyson Kidd came through with a strong performance against Christian. The ECW champion gave Kidd a lot of offense before finally prevailing in what was an exciting match. I think WWE might really have something with The Hart Dynasty of Kidd, David Hart Smith and Natalya. It’s a bit of a shame that Natalya isn’t getting much opportunity to show what she can do in the ring, but she has been good as the spokesperson for the group. ...

I loved the obnoxious grin on Jack Swagger’s face when he came out to interrupt what may have been Tommy Dreamer’s farewell promo. I’m not that interested in the Dreamer story line, but WWE was succeeding to some degree in making Dreamer a likable underdog. That is, until Dreamer suckered Christian and laid him out at the end of the show. The crowd didn’t seem to like that too much. ...

The friction between Mark Henry and Tony Atlas probably doesn’t bode well for Atlas, who really hasn’t added much to Henry’s act. Plus, we all know that WWE’s philosophy regarding wrestling managers is that they are passe.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 9:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (9)
        

I watched the first two episodes of NBC’s I’m a Celebrity … Get Me Out of Here back to back late Tuesday night, and at times it was more excruciating than watching a 60-minute Iron Man match between The Great Khali and Vladimir Kozlov. I nearly tapped out about 15 minutes or so into the first episode, but because I like Torrie Wilson, I decided to stick with it.

It’s amazing to me that there are people who watch this stuff but turn their noses up at pro wrestling. You would think that reality show fans would appreciate wrestling since a lot of those shows take their cues from it – they have heels, babyfaces, conflicts and people cutting promos. The big difference – at least in my humble opinion – is that wrestling’s scripted conflicts are much more entertaining that reality TV’s obviously contrived ones.

I think my colleague Sarah Kickler Kelber, who writes a reality TV blog for baltimoresun.com, best summed up I’m a Celebrity when she said, “I feel dumber for having watched it.” However, I am going to try to keep watching the series as long as Torrie remains on the program. So far, the former WWE diva has made a good accounting of herself on the Survivor-like show, although she could be voted off as early as Thursday’s episode.

In one horrifying challenge that took place in something called the “trauma tank,” Torrie and her fellow celebrity contestants laid down in a basin full of cockroaches, tarantulas, snakes and other crawly things. The object was to stay in the basin longer than everyone else. Torrie made it to the final three (out of nine) and was the only woman to do so. At one point, she had a snake slithering across her face. That had to be the creepiest thing she has experienced since her father and Dawn Marie tied the knot in the ring in their underwear.

Torrie was one of the winners in the obligatory eat-something-disgusting challenge, as she managed to woof down a serving of cow intestines faster than Stephen Baldwin. I just had a thought: If Marty “Boogeyman” Wright was on this show, no one else would stand a chance.

People eating bugs doesn’t really do much for me, but the gross-out stuff isn’t what really bugs me about reality TV. The main reason I can’t tolerate these shows is because the majority of the people on them are incredibly annoying (my wife watches a lot of them and I catch glimpses before ultimately having to leave the room). What’s worse is that the cast members on the shows work very hard at being incredibly annoying because they know it will get them noticed and they can squeeze every second out of their 15 minutes of fame.

The heels on I’m a Celebrity are the married duo of Spencer Pratt and Heidi Montag. Before doing a little research on the cast after hearing that Torrie was going to be on the show, I had never heard of them and didn’t really know anything about The Hills, either. Words cannot possibly describe how unlikable these two are, especially Pratt, who, incidentally, has had talks with TNA about making an appearance at the Slammiversary pay-per-view on June 21. Think The Miz times a hundred. The couple’s villain act isn’t the least bit entertaining, as they have go-away heat, not I-love-to-hate-them heat.

And speaking of going away, Pratt and Montag seemingly left the show at the end of the second episode. Something tells me, however, that, just like the cockroaches they lived with in the jungle, getting rid of them for good won’t be easy.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 6:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (13)
        

When I first saw the story last week that nude photos allegedly of WWE announcer Matt Striker had been posted on the Internet, I didn’t think it was worth writing about, mostly because I thought there was a good chance that it was a hoax. And it may be, but the story is getting picked up by more and more Web sites and people have asked me about it, so I figured it should be addressed.

The explicit photos show full frontal nudity, although the person’s face is not shown -- at least that’s what I have read. I have not seen the photos, nor do I plan on seeing them. Reportedly, Striker took the photos himself and shared them with friends, and they ended up being made public.

If it really is Striker, I guess it proves that the ECW announcer is hardcore to the bone. Hey, I had to get in at least one bad joke here.

In all seriousness, with WWE now having a PG rating, this incident could possibly be detrimental to Striker’s career. And that would be a real shame, because Striker has done a very good job since becoming the color commentator on ECW last year.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 8:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (23)
        

I don’t know what’s worse for WWE champion Randy Orton, getting beaten up by a 39-year-old executive in a baggy shirt, sweat pants and sneakers, or getting beaten up by a 60-year-old man in a polo shirt, slacks and dress shoes.

Just as Orton did in his recent program with Super Shane McMahon, he eventually got the last laugh against Ric Flair Monday night on Raw, but what transpired prior to the end result was beyond absurd.

I just shook my head as I watched Flair, who is really looking his age, beat the snot out of Orton, a 29-year-old world champion in peak physical condition, in a brawl that started in the parking area backstage and continued on the arena floor. Cody Rhodes and Ted DiBiase Jr. finally ended the beat-down by attacking Flair, who, unlike Super Shane, could not handle all three Legacy members.

After Rhodes and DiBiase weakened Flair, they locked him inside a steel cage with Orton, who proceeded to punt the 16-time world champion in the head in front of Batista, who stood helpless outside the cage. The show ended with Orton doing his awesome psychotic glare at a furious Batista, who vowed to tear him apart at the Extreme Rules pay-per-view on Sunday.

In theory, Orton destroying Flair while Batista is forced to watch is a great way to end the go-home show. But to really get heat on Orton, he should have destroyed Flair when they were fighting, not the other way around. It would have been fine for Flair to gain momentary advantages with his “dirtiest player in the game” tactics and to keep coming back at Orton, but ultimately the young stud needed to get the better of the senior citizen.

To maximize Orton’s potential as a heel and a draw, he should be booked as a guy with no redeeming qualities who will take every shortcut to win, but who also happens to be the most talented wrestler in the business.

Other thoughts on Monday’s show:

Despite how unbelievable it is that Flair could beat up Orton (unless we’re talking about Cowboy Bob Orton), Flair did show a lot of intensity during the brawl, and he and Orton were laying in some good shots (the punt to the head was mostly a whiff, however). Orton was bleeding either from his neck or the back of his head, and Flair also appeared to be bleeding from the back of his head. Would anybody really use chops in a street fight, though? …

The way the final segment was scripted made Batista look bad. Instead of just standing there watching his mentor get brutalized, why didn’t he climb up and over the cage? He started to, but then gave up. Even Mick Foley has climbed the cage in the past. Between Orton getting beaten up and Batista lacking the athleticism to climb the cage, I’m starting to think that the main event at Extreme Rules should be Flair versus Super Shane. …

The creative team isn’t doing Rhodes any favors, either. I understand that Batista needed to get a decisive win heading into Sunday’s show, but Rhodes didn’t even get in a single offensive move during the cage match. It couldn’t have been any more of a squash had Batista been facing Funaki. How are fans supposed to take Legacy seriously as a dangerous heel faction? During the glory days of The Four Horsemen, you never saw Arn Anderson getting squashed by Nikita Koloff in a three-minute match. …

The highlight of the night was the match in which Kofi Kingston won the U.S. title from MVP. Both guys looked really good. …

Speaking of MVP, Carlito needs to spit in his face, because he is no longer cool. He took that woman from The View to a prom? You’ve got to be kidding. I understand that WWE is trying to reach a different demographic through an association with a talk show for women, but it would be a lot better for MVP’s image if he was being linked with someone hot like Tyra Banks (even though she is a little nutty). And what was with MVP smiling after Kingston beat him for the title? Shaking Kingston’s hand would have been fine, but losing a championship isn’t anything to smile about. …

The odd couple tag teams of John Cena and Chavo Guerrero, and The Big Show and The Miz made for a fun match. I think it’s great how even the heels don’t like Miz. By the way, “I’m The Miz and I’m awesome” has to be the worst catch phrase since “That’s not just the coolest, that’s not just the best, that’s Justin Credible.” …

Michael Cole referred to Big Show’s submission move as a Cobra Clutch Backbreaker. I think he meant Camel Clutch Backbreaker. …

The women’s tag match of Mickie James and Kelly Kelly versus Maryse and Beth Phoenix wasn’t bad. The highlight for me was Maryse’s cover of Kelly Kelly to end the match. …

I was surprised that WWE acknowledged that the Hog Pen match between Santina Marella and Vickie Guerrero at Extreme Rules is not the first of its kind. I was not surprised, however, that WWE failed to mention that Triple H was one of the competitors flopping around in the slop the first time such a match was on a WWE pay-per-view, in 1995.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 3:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (59)
        

… to vote for her on I’m a Celebrity … Get Me Out of Here, a reality series that premieres tonight on NBC and will air Monday through Thursday for the next three weeks, with the series finale on Wednesday, June 24.

The former WWE diva and Playboy cover girl is one of 11 celebrities who have been dropped into the jungle in Costa Rica for a month and will be put through audience-dictated challenges – apparently nasty insects and snakes will be involved – to gain food and other supplies. The votes of viewers decide who stays and who goes, with the last celebrity standing declared King or Queen of the Jungle.

Torrie sent the following e-mail a few days ago: “Well I made it to Costa Rica and the rain is crazy pouring every day! Good thing I am not a prissy little thing and ain’t afraid to get dirty! … I am certain I can kick ass but I need the votes too! Help a sister out please!”

As I have said before, I am not a fan at all of reality TV, but I’ll make an exception for Torrie. Now I just have to figure out how to find time to catch the show when I watch eight hours of wrestling a week.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 3:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)