State of Wresting: May 13th

Let’s run down the State of Wrestling today, May 13th

Raw:
Some decent feuds and some good talent. Lousy execution. Y2J and HBK could be tearing it up with excellent heel promos. Unfortunately, Jericho seems to be phoning it in. Someone just become a heel already. Kennedy’s feud with Regal is eh. It does not make any sense why Kennedy went after the GM instead of buddying up to him to become some kind of champion.

Speaking of champions, what’s with the Intercontinental Championship? Jericho is the champ, but that title has become so utterly worthless that it is a shame. The WWE United States Championship and WWE Women’s Championship mean more than the once prestigious IC belt. The main event level with Triple H and Orton is going as expected. Triple H feuds are repetitive. If you’ve seen one feud where Triple H is champion, you’ve seen them all.

ECW:
ECW. What can you say about ECW? I guess the biggest thing going is the Mike Adamle experiment. The guy is trying to learn, but I think WWE could have gotten some mileage out of a “terrible announcer” gimmick. ECW is the land of the undying feuds. The ECW champion will face the former champion every week for a month is a theme ECW has had for some time now. See CM Punk/Chavo, CM Punk/Johnny Nitro (later Johnny Morrison).

Smackdown:
Smackdown – the haven for wrestling fans. MVP and Matt Hardy could be WWE’s new Rock and Triple H if they do the WWE handles this properly. MVP is very entertaining on the mic and puts together good matches regularly. The Edge/Undertaker feud is continuing with Edge being the best heel going today. I find it odd that he’s effectively playing Triple H with the whole dating the boss angle. Edge reminds of Ric Flair. You believe that Edge could lose to any one of his opponents, but Edge still manages to squeak out victories using a variety of methods.

The held up World Heavyweight Championship storyline has been done before. I am not sure I understand why the WWE would interrupt what was going to be the Undertaker’s long reign. Maybe Taker wanted to pad his stats by winning the championship for a third time.

The Skinny:
WWE’s wasting talent on Monday night but at least Jeff Hardy is back, no one watches on Tuesday night, and Friday has decent wrestling and storylines on both the midcard and main event levels.

WrestleMania 23 Predictions (by Audrey).

WrestleMania Predictions (by my dog).

Instead of giving you a standard WrestleMania prediction column, I am going to shake things up. I asked my dog, Audrey, to chose the winner of each match of WrestleMania 23. How do you ask a dog to choose? Well, a simple and unscientific method was necessary. I took a memo pad, wrote the name of the competitors on opposite sides of the paper (I consistently placed champions on the left side of the paper). Then I placed a dog treat under each person’s name. Audrey sat and watched. I told her to “pick one.” The first one she chose, I figured was the one she picked. Let’s get to it:

Batista vs. Undertaker: Audrey’s pick — Undertaker. I agree with the dog. I think she picked a winner. Undertaker’s undefeated streak is something I don’t think will be broken — especially by someone as old as Batista.

John Cena vs. HBK: Audrey’s pick — John Cena. Another situation where I agree with the dog. This will be an excellent match because HBK will get the best out of Cena. Also, Cena can really tell a story. Cena is McMahon’s golden boy and should win. (I think Cena is undefeated at ‘Mania, too. Why should he start losing now?).

Lashley vs. Umaga: When I wrote on the paper “McMahon | Trump,” Audrey picked McMahon. I was shocked by this pick. I gave her another go. I wrote “Lashley | Umaga.” Then she picked Lashley. I figured she picked McMahon because she though McMahon would lose his hair. So far, I agree with every pick she made.

Money in the Bank: Audrey’s Pick — CM Punk (2nd Pick: Edge). This was a shocker. I took note of her 2nd pick because of the amount of competitors in this match. I don’t believe that CM Punk will win, but then again, I didn’t think that Lashley would be ECW Champion so early in his career. I figure Edge will win again because he’s got the 2nd most high profile WrestleMania undefeated streak.

ECW Originals vs. New Breed: Audrey’s Pick — New Breed. No one in my house picked the ECW Originals to win. I asked my wife about the match and she didn’t know 6 out of 8 of the competitors. I asked, “Do you think that the WWE will let RVD win in his home state of Michigan?” She answered, “No. New Breed will win, then.”

Melina vs. Ashley: I feel bad for a lot of wrestlers that are not on the card (Ric Flair, Carlito, Shelton Benjamin, Charlie Haas, Johnny Nitro, Kenny Doane, Chavo, Kendrick and London, Jimmy Yang, Greg Helms, and maybe William Regal) while Ashley has a championship shot. We all know that Mickie James or Victoria should get the title shot because they can actually wrestle. Audrey’s pick — Melina. I agree with Audrey, I think that Melina should win, but I think that Ashley will win because it will continue the feud to Unforgiven.

Kane vs. Khali: Audrey’s pick — Kane. I found this pick surprising since it is rumored that Kane is going to take some time off after WrestleMania. Maybe Audrey thinks that the WWE will let Kane have a win and then take some time off. I figure that Khali will win because the WWE always screws Kane.

Benoit vs. MVP: Audrey’s pick — Chris Benoit. I guess Audrey does not see a lot of title changes for this WrestleMania. I figure that Benoit is repeating his role as temporary U.S. champion (he lost the title to JBL last year, why not lose it again to MVP?). I’m picking MVP.

That’s it for WrestleMania Predictions. Even though it doesn’t seem like the best WrestleMania card ever, I think it will be a fun show where every wrestler performs their best. This is WrestleMania — the biggest PPV of the year. There will be some great wrestling, some great mania, and plenty of fun.