Ziggler's firing paves the way for some kind of surprise entrant (Chris Jericho, maybe?) in the SmackDown Elimination Chamber match.

Which would be a good thing; I'd much rather see Jericho than Ziggler in a Chamber match.. Although I hope WWE still has future plans for Ziggler. Maybe they're going for a face turn at some point?

The twelve man tag team match was great! It was definitely the highlight of the show for me, particularly when Booker T said "What the hell?" to CM Punk hitting Cena with the GTS. I was dieing with laughter after that.

Don't you find their treatment of the World Heavyweight Championship ridiculous in the extreme here? What was the point of it all? Why make Ziggler a world champion only to deny him the opportunity to get promoted as such? Why cut short Edge's title reign yet again only to give him another presumably short title reign? It's not as if they didn't had any other options. Teddy Long could have just said the (guest) referee's decision from last week's episode was final - as is usually the case, after all.

I'm not a TNA fan. I hate the nonsense that runs rampant on their shows. When I read a comment by a TNA mark deriding you of being bias, I usually just dismiss them because I think they have to be mentally unbalanced somehow to actually prefer TNA over WWE. Yet here we have an example in the WWE of the same sort of absurd booking decisions that so characterise TNA and you do not even make a comment on the wisdom of the decision - or lack thereof. But on the most recent TNA post, you spent a few paragraphs criticising (rightly so) the absurd booking decision(s) that led to the money making RVD vs Hardy feud being thrown away for free on television.

So come on, offer some comments on whether the WWE's treatment of their title on this episode is a good thing or not. And why.

RESPONSE FROM KE: I'll be completely honest: If a wrestler other than Ziggler was involved, I probably wouldn't have liked the angle. But I'm a big Ziggler fan, and I was happy to see him hold the belt, even for a few moments and in the manner that it happened. I'm guessing (hoping) that this leads to bigger things for Ziggler. Like I said, working a world title program with Edge gave him a nice rub.

Doug Williams, one of the most talented workers in the business, jobs out in a minute to Hernandez whilst Robbie E, in quite possibly the worst gimmick since Shockmaster, is competing on equal terms with Kaz and competing for the X Division title?

Oh, TNA.

I was in attendance at this show (only because it was a Christmas present - I'se broke), and what you didn't see afterwards was Dolph and Vicki coming back out demanding Zig's rematch. Which brought Teddy back out with a "You just don't get it, do you?" He then called on Security to remove Guerrero. When DZ remained in the ring, Long said, "I have special Security for you." Cue: The Big Show, who came in, handed out a KO punch and carried him out of the ring.

Here's how far Ted diBiase, Jr has fallen: The dark match saw him - sans Maryse - lose to Percy Watson!?!

bring back golberg and b4 kali

you really believe it will be only 5 in the chamber with the undetake expected back?

I remember when Superstar Billy Graham's girlfriend fired Bruno Sammartino then he lost the title when Sky Low Low pinned him in a fatal 4 way because he won the money in the bank match after pinning Domenic DeNucci.

Seriously, why do you still watch this garbage?

How great would it be to see Dolph Ziggler attack R-Truth and take his place in the raw elimination chamber and win it. Then again, with The Miz most likely winning his match, we're definitively not seeing a heel vs. heel match.

Fun Fact: Dolph is the 3rd person to hold the Tag team titles (as Nicky), the intercontinental title, and the world title.

How telegraphed were the punches on Friday Night Smackdown? You could see them coming Monday.

You had to know that Teddy Long was coming back from his attack when Vicky claimed to have evidence that Edge had attacked Long on Raw. It was only further confirmed when Vicky fired Edge at the start of Smackdown.

How anybody could believe that Edge would stay fired heading into the Pay-Per-View just a couple of days away is beyond me. And to treat the Heavyweight Title like that is pretty bad even if there is a precedent for it.

Now the only suspense is who takes Ziggler's spot in the Chamber. I doubt WWE leaves it empty. Any chance that one of the guys close to returning (HHH, Undertaker) takes it?

Sorry if you have answered this question already, but wasn't Kelly Kelly fired by Vickie as well? Is Teddy going to hire her back or is she going to RAW?

I try to follow you as much as I can so I am sorry if you already addressed this in a previous blog.

I agree with you about Punk and Wade. Here is the man that essentially kicked him out of his old group, is now the leader, and now you're trying to re-establish yourself as a factor on SmackDown with your new running crew and they both act as if nothing happened? Continuity seems to be a huge problem in the WWE.

I can't count how many times a story line was brewing only to have it end at the drop of the hat, and have guys that were feuding for weeks turn around and be tag team partners and everything go off without a hitch.

RESPONSE FROM KE: My guess is that Teddy Long re-hires Kelly Kelly on the next Smackdown.

I know I'm beating a dead horse here, but world titles are now "officially" meaningless. I don't mind weak heel champions who win and retain the title by cheating (like the Miz), but I do mind heels simply being "awarded" the title. It's like the title is just a prop to be thrown on someone's waist as part of a storyline...I realize that is in essence what championships are in 'sports entertainment', but the more we see garbage like this past Smackdown the less meaningful the said prop becomes. Eventually, why should someone put themselves through hell, trying to win Royal Rumbles or Money in the Banks when you can be "officially" recognized as a world champion for free?

I wouldn't be surprised if they used that empty slot to bring back one of those big names we expected to see at the Royal Rumble. I don't know that they'd win the belt but maybe make last two just to get some heat. I'm betting on a surprise entrant.

That has to have been the shortest major WWE world title reign ever. The only other one that comes to mind is that ppv from a few years back when Triple H won the title and then lost it to Randy Orton later that night.

Any thoughts on who will replace Ziggler in the Elimination Chamber match? I'm thinking Cody Rhodes, mostly because Rey is in the match.

With his world title win, Dolph is now a Triple Crown champion by WWE standards. He won the tag titles back in 06 with the Spirit Squad, IC title last year, and now the world title. I know he's just ribbing the fans, but he was teasing a jump to TNA on Twitter Friday night. I thought I'd bring this up, an interesting note from the latest issue of WWE magazine. In their trivia section about the Triple Crown, one of the questions was: "Which of these Triple Crown champions is also a Grand Slam champion?" The choices were Rock, JBL, Y2J, and Edge, and the correct answer was Jericho. This is not entirely correct, because JBL is also a Grand Slam champion. In fact, he's the only wrestler in WWE history to win every possible title. (I'm including the WWE title and the world title as one.) He's a former WWE champ, IC champ, Hardcore champ, US champ, European champ, and Tag champ.

I really want to like Booker on commentary, but he is distractingly-- not humorously-- bad.

This Friday he was triumphantly repeating "He lost-- but he didn't beat him!" (meaning, I think, that Miz *WON* but didn't beat Kofi). That's a perfect example of Booker's problems-- too many pronouns, unclear, unenlightening.

Part of it is probably the chemistry... these three-man tables are such a mess. If it was (as a suggestion) just Booker and Striker that would be fine with me. With his knowledge of the moves and history, Striker would be a great play-by-play guy, and Booker could just yell "Whoa!" and "He's gonna do it!" and "He got him!" I'd enjoy that.

and DiBiase losing to Percy Watson... ouch. Man, DiBiase is dragging Maryse down with him; she's easily one of the most entertaining (and hottest) on the Divas roster.

@loco: The shortest official major title reign would be the 45 seconds (or so) Andre the Giant held the WWF Championship before giving the belt to The Million Dollar Man.

At least, I don't remember any shorter reign than that.

for the record, I voted for Ziggler.

They advertise the SD Chamber match here in Australia without Dolf, but a very familiar name is in it. The return of ...... HHH

"Fun Fact: Dolph is the 3rd person to hold the Tag team titles (as Nicky), the intercontinental title, and the world title."

How is he the third? I count Orton, HHH, Edge, Mysterio, Jericho, Benoit, and Kane just to name a few.