Hardy/MVP vs Undertaker/Kane is actually set for next week's Smackdown, not No Mercy. God only knows why not, they could use some filler for the card.
Big Daddy V as a world champion is just too silly to contemplate.
Isn't that exactly what we all thought about the idea of Great Khali becoming Smackdown champion? Plus: WWE loves to have big hosses wear their gold belts and Punk fights in his hometown. And you never win a match in your hometown.
By the way: Despite not having a cruiserweight champion, the title is not featured on the card. Drat, I'd really wish WWE would do something useful with their cruiserweights, like TNA did - pre Russo - with its X-Division.
To bitch some more: A rematch between the Rednecks and Londrick would have been nice as well.
By the way, Paul: Is there any way for you to watch the Ring of Honor PPVs in Scotland? If so, you should really check them out. Despite their abysmal production values, the wrestling itself is incredibly good. When you see guys like Claudio Castagnoli and Matt Sydal give it their all, you just realise how mediocre WWE's actual matches are. And Danielson vs McGuiness is a clear MOTY contender. Really, give it a shot if you can, it's time that's well invested.
Rumours have Umaga and Mark Henry switching brands very soon, with the former feuding with Undertaker and the latter against Mark Henry. We must share the suck! So, basically, your hope against a HHH victory here is well-founded but in vain.
[checks segment again]
Huh. Vicky doesn't actually say *when* the match is going to take place. But yes, if you really hunt, the Smackdown website does indeed say that it's "next week."
Oh well, better go back and delete that bit.
ROH have a show on TWCFight which basically consists of them airing the DVDs in serial form, several months behind America. As you rightly say, the production values are pretty abysmal and the wrestling is generally pretty good - although ROH does tend to attract the sort of crowd who are blown away by a well-executed headlock.
The same channel also airs a weekly show by RQW, the promotion that's supposedly just about to get appointed as the WWE's UK developmental territory. And boy, that's a weird show. Their wrestlers aren't bad at all; their production values are extremely high for an indie show. But they insist on running matches from multiple different promotions without enforcing consistent booking, so that guys flip from face to heel and back again depending on where the match was taped, even when they're defending RQW's titles, and they're so blatantly angling for a bigger TV show that they haven't really bothered themselves about selling tickets. (Compare the other UK-originated show, LDN, which for all its many flaws and questionable production values, indisputably has a ton more heat.)
Watching Triple H these days infuriates me more than ever. He can't decide if wants to be a fearsome, upstoppable warrior or a guy who makes juvenile cock jokes. So he does both. And after beating up a midcard heel, the tag team champs AND their #1 contenders (who are fellow babyfaces) he shrugs to the camera like he's on a sitcom breaking the fourth wall. AAARGH!
What I'D LIKE to happen: HHH, Umaga and Orton in a three-way. That will free up some space on an already light card for an unannounced match, say Murdoch & Cade vs. Kendrick & London, or Jeff Hardy vs. Shelton Benjamin. Either of those would have potential to be match of the night on this card. Anyways, have a three way for the belt and have Orton squeak by with a win underhandedly. Triple H and Umaga have unfinished business in a feud that could potentially draw money for Survivor Series. So Orton wins, and as he's celebrating with the title, the Titantron shows those "Save Us" Matrix looking promos, which turns into Jericho's entrance. Jericho comes out to thunderous applause and... we go off the air. The fans in the arena are treated to an amazing promo, and watching at home get a similar promo to begin RAW the next night, launching what would be a very hot feud.
What will PROBABLY happen: Sledgehammer to Umaga, Pedigree to Orton (either in separate matches or a three way) DING DING, all hail the cerebral assassin, yadda, yadda, yadda, commence angle where Vince tries to get the belt off of HHH while being subjected to more hilarious cock jokes. Vince'll probably win the belt from HHH at some point in that angle too.
True, the ROH audience can be pretty annoying (same goes for the TNA audience, which has the uncanny ability to go from "Boring" to "This is awesome" in the span of one - rarely, very well executed - plancha) and has a tendency to get all snobbish about their product.
It's just that both PPVs so far had main events that just blew me out of the water. High intensity, great wrestling, the guys got a decent amount of time to tell a story in the ring... and then I look at WWE's last offering, where the top of the card consisted of some 8 minute DQ brawl between Orton and Cena and an incredibly boring "match" between Taker and Mark Henry.
And that's where WWE right now can take some hints from ROH. Sports entertainment is fine and well, but at times the audience also likes to see some actual wrestling (as proven by the hour long RAW match between Cena and HBK). That's why it annoys me that 9 out of 10 times we seem to be stuck with title matches consisting of face versus monster heel, which nearly never translates to a good match. (Exception: Cena vs Umaga in their Last Man Standing bout.)
What were your predictions for MVP&Matt vs The Brothers of Destruction?
I can't believe I'm saying this, but in defense of Congress, they've been going after everyone involved with steroids and sports/whatever the Hell pro wrestling is. They've gone after baseball, they've gone after track and field, they've threatened the WWE. For better or worse, it's something Congress is genuinely concerned about. Given the choice, I'd rather see them deal with that than try grandstanding over stupid comments by AM radio jocks.
I admit I'm not a fan of Orton, but I think the WWE dropped the ball when they tried to make it look like Orton injured Cena. While acknowledging Orton's post-match beat down, they should have credited the damage to Kennedy. Kennedy could then get a push off ending Cena's run via injury, and they could have built a Kennedy/Orton feud, with Orton angry that Kennedy stole his "killing" of Cena's legend.
As for steroids, as Taibak said, Congress is going after everyone. The problem is that they aren't really doing anything. Baseball had hearings where the players said they weren't using, and that was pretty much it. Vince does his lip service response, and no one of importance seems to notice it doesn't really punish anyone Vince likes nor does it try to fix any problems. Marion Jones is only now facing a jail sentence not because she used steroids, but because her recent admission acknowledged that she had lied about it before.
"This has reached laughably absurd levels in recent weeks - behold as Hunter mightily defeats five men at once, including the tag team champions!"
It was arguably worse in the Spirit Squad/DX days, where Hunter managed to win against as many as eight or more people. Sure, HBK was there, but HBK was selling the opponents' offense and often only accounted for one opponent if any. Heck, wasn't there a match where the Spirit Squad, Lashley(?) (was he ECW champ at the time?), King Booker (Smackdown champ), Finlay, and maybe even the McMahons were unable to stop HHH?
"but Khali was suspended for health reasons shortly before the show (due to, ahem, "elevated liver enzymes")"
Weren't there legit Hep C concerns on Smackdown at the time, due to Bob Orton admitting that he'd had it only after bleeding in matches for months beforehand?
"Oh, and Batista will win, obviously - they're not stupid enough to put the belt back on Khali."
How often do people actually win their signature match-types anyway?
"and then ended up giving the match to the giant Big Daddy V, who wasn't even in the tournament. There's nothing like completely ignoring your stipulations to piss off the audience"
Not unlike Hornswaggle winning the Cruiserweight belt because he happened to be running across the ring when the referee started the match. The ref never considered that if Hornswaggle was legitimately in the match, then he should have been counted out in the first ten seconds, as Hornswaggle was clearly out of the ring for the vast majority of the time.
Beating the Spirit Squad wasn't quite so bad, because they were male cheerleaders and they were clearly intended primarily as comedy characters. The problem with DX was that if they were going to be that dominant, they should have won the tag champs. Instead they just beat the title holders decisively and left them as lame duck title holders. If they really felt that strongly that the tag belts were beneath DX, then they shouldn't have had them feuding with the tag champions in the first place.
As for Hornswoggle's title win, the referee's call was completely consistent with the rules as applied in previous matches. As Jim Ross regularly points out in passing, the rule is that there are no count-outs and no DQs in one-fal multi-wrestler matches. The quirky logic is that you can only be eliminated under elimination rules. If it's a one-fall match, then it can only end when someone decisively wins.
Nobody ever seems to make use of the no-DQ rule, but the no-count-out rule is used regularly - almost every WWE triple threat match involves guys taking turns to stay out of the ring for minutes at a time.
So Hornswoggle duly entered by showing up for the bell in an open invitational match for which he was eligible; and as he couldn't get counted out, he was entitled to come back later and pin Jamie Noble to win. It's utterly stupid, but it's totally consistent with the rules as they've been applied in recent years.
Speaking of Hornswoggle, what happened to the Cruiserweight Championship? I don't think I've seen him with the belt since the night he was revealed to be mini-McMahaon. Is it vacant? Is there anybody fighting for it, the way they're doing with Cena's belt? Does it exist anymore?
Vicki stripped him of the belt so nothing would happen to him. It's currently vacant.
Quite why Vicky felt the need to use that excuse is unclear, mind you, given that he hadn't actually defended the title in two months.
Baines: Well, Congress found a way to make Bud Selig (commissioner of Major League Baseball) look like an articulate, decisive leader. In and of itself that's a pretty impressive accomplishment.
If Hornswaggle winning the belt was by the rules consistent, then why did they have the referee act confused before he decided to do the pinfall count? If he knew Hornswaggle was in the ring at the start, then he should have already have decided if Hornswaggle was a valid contender. (Though it isn't like the WWE referees have issues with the rules. I still remember an old no DQ match where Earl Hebner tried to confiscate a chair.)
As for what happened to the Cruiserweight belt, it is currently vacant. The Jimmy Wang Yang/Jamie Noble stuff is based on the idea of both of them trying to prove themselves worthy of it. I can't recall who else is even a cruiserweight on Smackdown anymore. Shannon Moore? Didn't Funaki and Chavo get caught in the steroid thing? So they might not have been able to do their normal quick dog-pile match for a new champion.
As for Vickie vacating the title, it seemed mostly to cover that they were moving Hornswaggle to Raw where Vince's storylines live. The idea had merit, but forcing a supposed fan favorite to relinquish his belt under normal circumstances would be a heel act for a GM.
Isn't that exactly what we all thought about the idea of Great Khali becoming Smackdown champion
No one with sense did. Khali had remained the unstopable monster, Big Daddy V doesn't have that.
Quite why Vicky felt the need to use that excuse is unclear, mind you, given that he hadn't actually defended the title in two months.
Actually he had. He beat Jamie Noble by countout a couple of times.
If Hornswaggle winning the belt was by the rules consistent, then why did they have the referee act confused before he decided to do the pinfall count? If he knew Hornswaggle was in the ring at the start, then he should have already have decided if Hornswaggle was a valid contender.
Having not seen Hornswaggle since the beginning he had to think back to the beginning of the match to remember if Hornswaggle had been there.
According to Dave Meltzer, WWE was planning on taking the title off Hornswoggle and then just quietly retiring it. All things considered, that's probably for the best. Noble, Moore, Yang and Chavo would be far more useful propping up the tag team ranks instead.
New Champion? That ladder from Japan.
You know I don't buy that. I don't see them creating an uneven level of title between Smackdown and Raw. As long as Raw has the women's title Smackdown will have the CW title.
Jason: He beat Jamie by count-out on the Smackdown immediately after his title win, and that's the only time he's ever defended the belt. His only other scheduled defence never happened (he won by forfeit) and it was still over a month after the first one. So strictly, he should have been stripped of the belt long ago.
Really? I thought he only won it two months ago. And in his second defense he won by countout with Noble sprinting to the ring after the ref had declared he had till the count of ten to get to the ring. Considering he was sprinting to try to make it in time I don't see how that could be a forfeit.
Wow that pay-per-view was great! By great I mean horrible. A RAW-like segment to begin? A pizza eating contest instead of a match? A ten minute title reign? Umaga, whose head can withstand multiple chair shots and DDTs, is cast aside with a single pedigree? What were they thinking, that any of this was any good? I also suppose the final match will be "Exhibit A" in Triple H's "You see? I lie down to people, so I deserve a long, indestructible title run" defence.
Iain: "Noble, Moore, Yang and Chavo would be far more useful propping up the tag team ranks instead."
The WWE thinks nearly as little of the tag team ranks as it does the cruiserweights. Both exist primarily as fodder and filler. (Though cruiserweights have sunk so low that the WWE no longer even seems to consider them worthy of "fodder" status anymore.)
If the cruiserweight belt was dropped, then two of those four wrestlers would be gone within a month, and the other two would be gone in a few months. Because the WWE doesn't see the need for more than two tag teams at any particular time, and also is continually bringing up new tag teams. (And half the time, one of the active tag teams is really just a temporary story-driven combination of two singles wrestlers, who will win the belts and then feud with the one other tag team for a few months before finally separating again.)
"So the idea of Hunter pinning Umaga clean and then going on later in the night to beat Orton as well... well, I could very much see that happening. It's a godawful idea, but it would stroke his ego, and therefore it's a real possibility."
Very nearly right there Paul. A shockingly poor PPV all round by the sounds of things, I feel sorry for people who paid money to see Matt Hardy vomit.
Well, I saw some people calling the second Hunter/Orton match a MoTY candidate.
Well the LMS Orton/HHH match definately was one hell of a match. One of the highlights of the night. Still trying to figure wether Orton's a 1-time of 2-time champ now and if they've ever done a rematch for a rematch.
And that Tag Team match was entertaining, but .. weird. Kendrick sure made some nasty falls.
Two. (Three if you count the time he held what's now the Smackdown title.) They're recognising his ten-minute reign.
That's not even the shortest WWE Championship reign either; Wikipedia has Yokozuna down for a three-minute reign when he won the title at Wrestlemania 9 and then immediately lost it to the returning Hulk Hogan. And Andre the Giant, who held the title for forty-five seconds before turning it over to the Million Dollar Man.
Commenting by HaloScan
