2006: Reviewing the Year of Wrestling: Part 1.

There are plenty of other articles looking over the past year in wrestling. I’ll be writing a couple of articles about the past year. I’ll look at the year in terms of WWE, TNA, their main event scenes, their undercard, tag team situation and miscellaneous. This will be a multi-part posting considering how long this post could be.

WWE Main Event Scene:

Raw’s WWE Championship scene brought in new main eventers this year. Only three men held the WWE Championship this year: John Cena, Edge, and Rob Van Dam.

Edge has now solidified himself as a believable main event-caliber wrestler. He had some fantastic matches with Cena, but the one match that stands out to me is Edge’s title defense against Ric Flair in a ladder match on Raw. The match was excellent with dangerous spots and showed how badly Edge wanted to keep his WWE Championship. Actually, every WWE Championship match Edge performed in showed how badly Edge wanted to be champion. From good promos to excellent matches, Edge should remain a main eventer (assuming Triple H doesn’t crush him in singles competition).

Rob Van Dam looked to be the new/old face of WWECW. WWE took a chance by having the WWE Championship given to the high flyer at an ECW PPV. WWE’s biggest championship belt rested on the shoulder of RVD. RVD then blew his spot by getting caught on drugs. The ECW and WWE championships were taken from RVD quickly and it looks as though Van Dam will never be a champion again. I expect RVD to go to TNA as soon as his contract is over.

John Cena is the champ and has been quite established as the top face of WWE. I think his ring skills have improved and he does what he can with scripted promos. Raw is stacked with other main event level talent such as HBK, Triple H, Randy Orton, Ric Flair (when necessary), Umaga and Hacksaw Jim Duggan. Okay, I’m kidding about Duggan – just seeing if you were paying attention.

SmackDown!’s World Heavyweight Championship scene was chaotic. Batista vacated his title, Raw’s Kurt Angle filled in as champion (after HBK refused to go over to SmackDown! according to articles online), Rey Mysterio was terribly booked as champion only to lose to the revitalized King Booker. King Booker kept the title with excellent promos, created a stable of wrestlers, but lost the championship to Batista in November. The best thing for the division this year was King Booker. His size and ability allowed him to feud with wrestlers of all sizes and his personality made the fans root for the babyface. Hopefully, he’s solidified himself as a true main eventer after numerous false starts (such as the WrestleMania XIX debacle against Triple H).

SmackDown! needs to position some more main eventers for its championship scene. Finlay’s feud with Batista, involvement in King Booker’s court and his excellent ring work make him a candidate for rising to the main event. Chris Benoit is a main eventer and does not need the U.S. title. Mr. Kennedy has positioned himself at the upper mid-card/lower main event after his excellent feud with Undertaker. If need be, Kane can become a champion with the right push. Mysterio and Undertaker can float around in whatever scene they would like although Taker has more control over his own destiny.

Next Time: I’ll cover either TNA’s main event scene or WWE’s undercard.

Raw: Sept. 4th Edition

Tonight’s Raw had that “Raw before the PPV” feel.

The show opened with the WWE Champion, Edge, doing an excellent heel promo with a snazzy trailer video to put himself over. The segment was interrupted by John Cena who caught Edge (who jumped off a ladder) then FU’ed Edge through a table. Good promo, good segment, great intensity.

Jeff Hardy and his “Watching Paint Dry” Segment was quite good. It’s a bit of a stretch to set up a joke, but it was alright. The Hardy/Nitro match was way better than I expected. I think Hardy did an admirable job carrying Nitro. Nitro also unveiled some new moves like a standing moonsault and a nifty backbreaker-neckbreaker combo. I fully expect Jeff Hardy to win the IC championship at Unforgiven, btw.

There was some tag team stuff and the continuation of the DX/McMahons + Big Show storyline. I didn’t care for much of the DX stuff, but at least there was a tag team match with tag team moves being used.

The shock of the night was seeing a former SmackDown! Cruiserweight and ECW alum go over the WWE homegrown. I’m talking about the Super Crazy vs. Chris Masters match. It was a decent match and Super Crazy showed everyone the prettiest moonsault in the business.

It looks like Trish is going to go out as champion at Unforgiven – that’s the right thing to do. Additionally, that will bring uncertainty to the championship picture. Could there be a women’s championship tournament maybe open to all WWE divas (including SmackDown!)?

The main event for next week’s Raw is Vince vs. Triple H. I don’t know if that will push buyrates up or not. I thought Vince was shooting when he said he wanted to main event at MSG and now he will. Let’s hope that it will be the last time the 61 year old does this.

A six person tag match? Once again, seems like a device to use right before the PPV. It looks like Carlito is getting some passion out of Randy Orton. Orton is back to a more aggressive style (like when he was challenging for the IC championship a while back). Edge does a fantastic job selling for Carlito and just about anyone he is in the ring with. Here’s hoping he wins at Unforgiven so he’ll be an unsufferable bastard for weeks to come.

Did anyone else find it interesting to see Cena and Orton wrestle? Those two are supposed to be the future of the business (even though Cena is the present) and will probably end up headlining a WrestleMania one day.

Orton gets the win by RKO’ing Trish. The finish was a good way of protecting everyone.

All in all, a pretty good show. Surprisingly solid.

SummerSlam 2006 Thoughts

Now I had said I didn’t want to pay for SummerSlam 2006 because the card didn’t seem too great. But then I got caught up in the SummerSlam hype. I actually attended the first SummerSlam with the MegaPowers vs. the Megabucks – so I’m a SummerSlam fan.

They got me to pay up the 40 bucks and I watched the show. Here’s my opinion on it: It was a decent show that was quite fun and set up storylines for a while. Did anyone else notice that every match (except the DX one) had the loser enter the ring first?

The night opened up with Rey vs. Chavo because no other match could open. I enjoyed the match and the two have very good chemistry. Chavo selling of Rey’s offense is believable and the two did not disappoint. I think their No Way Out match was better and no Vicki Guerrero interference would be nice, but all in all a good opener with some nice highspots.

Hogan/Orton was what I expected except for the finish of Hogan going over. It’s not like he needs to protect his spot so I don’t understand why he didn’t job to Orton. Hogan played the crowd excellently and he’s the smartest man in wrestling – I wonder how he would do as a booker (assuming he was no longer an on-air talent).

Show vs. Sabu was alright. I was surprised there was no interference by Paul Heyman or RVD or someone. The two didn’t work together that well and the match was sloppy in parts.

The I Quit match was more hardcore than the ECW match. Some crazy bumps had me cringing for both wrestlers. The match ended abruptly with Mick quitting to save Melina and quite possibly means that the feud will continue.

DX vs. The McMahons (+10): I enjoyed seeing Ken Kennedy getting such offense on DX. It would be nice to see a Kennedy vs. HBK feud since the two can be loudmouths very well. Since Kennedy is such a star on SmackDown! it’s only a matter of time before he is sent to Raw. Anyway, the match portion was weak, but I enjoyed seeing the McMahons using tag-team finishers from the past. I was disappointed they did not use the Midnight Express’ finisher. It also set up a Kane-Umaga feud to give both men direction.

King Bookah vs. Batista: Batista needs some conditioning work since he nearly botched the Batista Bomb. Bookah retains and the feud will continue. That’s good for SmackDown!

Edge vs. John Cena: Cena loses in front of his home crowd so Edge will do the job at Unforgiven in Toronto. I’m glad Edge successfully defended the WWE championship at such a major PPV. It was a good match and I still think that Edge is a great champion. He seems like he could lose any match to any opponent (take a look at his ladder match against Ric Flair or his recent match against Carlito). He draws good heel heat and fans want to see him get his butt kicked in the ring.

BTW: I also liked the interaction between the champions. It makes the two shows really seem like two different promotions.

Transvestite Vito and the Ambassador to Canada

So I’m watching SmackDown! on my DVR and I caught the Vito vs. Sylvan match. Now, why would I watch such an awful match? I watched the match because it’s a good sign for WWE Creative. While I know both men have terrible gimmicks, at least the two have gimmicks and storylines.

For some time now the midcarders would come out and just wrestle without any clear direction. Now both Sylvan and Vito have direction and terrible storylines – but at least they have direction and a storyline. Not too long ago, a bunch of wrestlers were let go because the WWE had “nothing for them.”

These two will never be World Champion (they’ll probably never reach U.S. Title contention either) – but creative has something for them. Something is better than nothing.

BTW, King Bookah is great in his role as “The King.”

Last Week’s WWE Supershow

Last week, I attended the WWE Supershow in East Rutherford, New Jersey. For those of you who don’t know, a WWE Supershow is where the WWE records both SmackDown! and Raw at the same event. SmackDown! is taped first and then is followed by the live episode of Monday Night Raw. Telltale signs of the Supershow include black ring ropes and the Raw polygon-shaped Titantron.

The show started with a dark match featuring the return of Bob “Hardcore” Holly. The fans were supportive of Holly’s return to the ring.

SmackDown! followed the dark match and the fans were pretty much sitting on their hands until Ken Kennedy and Batista had their match. The crowd did not care for SmackDown! as evidenced by a sign I saw, “I only came here for Raw.” The Chavo/Rey segment did not get as much heat as it should have. Two people in front of me tried to start an “Eddie’s Dead” chant. I found that quite distasteful and disrespectful of the late, great Eddie Guerrero.

King Booker and Undertaker had a quality match that the fans appreciated. However, the crowd was hot for Raw even though the episode of Raw was really no better than SmackDown!

The WWE Red and Blue brands shouldn’t be competing, all the WWE should see is green.

It just shows the sad state of the WWE. WWE constantly puts over Raw as the “flagship of the WWE” and puts down SmackDown! At least JBL tries to put over SmackDown! as the “A Show.” The fans have bought into the WWE thinking that SmackDown! is the B show and not worth watching. For a short time, SmackDown! was the real A show with Kurt Angle, Edge, Rey Mysterio, Los Guerreros, John Cena, Randy Orton, Big Show and Brock Lesnar.

Every time SmackDown! has some momentum, the WWE undercuts it. Take a look at that list – who is left? Rey Mysterio and Chavo Guerrero are left. Triple H took Edge and brought back Orton to Raw. Show and Angle are anchoring the WWECW with star power.

SmackDown! is usually saved by a Raw wrestler coming over to the show. When Batista vacated the World Heavyweight Championship, Raw’s Kurt Angle managed to win the SmackDown! championship. Shortly thereafter, HBK got a pinfall victory over Angle on Monday Night Raw (while Angle was the SmackDown! Champion) to further show the fans that Raw is superior to SmackDown!

I cannot understand why the WWE would bother to do this considering any WWE brand brings the WWE money. For some reason, WWE is choosing to bury one show at their own expense. WWE could be making money on all of their brands, but chooses to do so with Raw and the new ECW. SmackDown! has quickly become the third brand.

So if anyone from the WWE is reading this, build up SmackDown and ECW to be equal to Raw and just make some serious money. When the brands are built up, fights between SmackDown! and Raw during the big-money PPVs would generate buyrates. The perfect example is the interpromotional classic, Raw’s HBK vs. SmackDown!’s Kurt Angle. Two superstars whose interactions were limited by being on separated brands allow for a slow building feud that can take months and their match will make money on a joint-brand PPV.

The WWE Red and Blue brands shouldn’t be competing, all the WWE should see is green.

Quick Thought on the WWE World Championship

With Booker T now the World Champion, shouldn’t Bobby Lashley challenge for that championship? I could have sworn that Lashley handled Booker T quite easily when Booker was challenging for the United States championship. Then Finlay could beat Lashley.

Post-GAB 2006 Thoughts

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Once again, I haven’t seen this year’s Great American Bash. However, I’ve taken a look around the web (at great sites such as PWInsider and LordsOfPain.net) to see how the show went down.

King Booker T is the new World’s Heavyweight Champion. I have no idea if the WWE managed to plan long term enough with a worked fight between Booker and Batista, but if they did – good for them. Chavo did turn on Rey like I thought. That makes sense. Odds are that they will fight over Eddie. Maybe the WWE can just simply make this about being the best wrestler in the business. Either way, the two have had some great matches in the past and this will give Chavo a main-event level feud.

Batista lost his mind and destroyed Kennedy. Kind of had the same ending that I had written a couple of days ago except Batista got DQ’d instead of Kennedy. Post match destruction was what I expected (I said that Batista should “flatten” Kennedy). It has the makings of a good long-term feud.

However, with Batista going after the World Championship this SummerSlam, there is a chance that Mr. Kennedy will be without a program. There are a couple of ways to keep this storyline going with Batista going after the championship. Kennedy could simply be plugged in and a three way match for the World Championship. I don’t think Kennedy should be put in the main event based just yet. I think he needs some more time to grow. But, with the WWE SmackDown! Brand hurting for main-eventers, pushing Mr. Kennedy into the World Championship race would increase the amount of main-eventers.

Alternatively, Kennedy could become a member of King Booker’s Court. This could lead to humorous interactions between Kennedy, Regal and Finlay.

SmackDown! may have quite a decent showing at SummerSlam with Booker and Batista (with Kennedy floating around), Chavo and Rey feuding once again, and the unfinished Lashley-Finlay U.S. Championship feud. Plus, the Cruiserweight championship could be defended. What’s my idea for a storyline? The Hurricane vs. Gregory Helms. It would make for an interesting subplot during the summer as we could wonder, “Who is the Hurricane?”

The Upcoming Great American Bash

Because I should be studying, I’ve decided to write about the Great American Bash (“GAB”).

This Sunday night, WWE is presenting the Great American Bash with its SmackDown! brand. The Great American Bash has easily become one of the worst pay-per-views of the year in its short WWE existence. GAB featured Eddie Guerrero losing the title in a gimmick match thanks to Kurt Angle and also featured the demise of Paul Bearer using a cement truck. Last year, Batista headlined GAB and it had a DQ finish on a PPV. A DQ finish on a show that costs money. That is unacceptable.

I remember when the Great American Bash was a big PPV for WCW. I may be wrong, but it seemed like the GAB was the 2nd most important PPV for WCW (next to Starrcade). I remember watching Sting finally defeating Ric Flair for the NWA World’s Heavyweight Championship as it happened. I used to look forward to these shows.

WWE has managed to destroy the Great American Bash name. Also, I have no idea how a PPV with that title fairs in the international market. I am not going to order the PPV, but I’ll make a few predictions.

Predictions for GAB 2006:
The Main Event:
Rey Mysterio will retain the championship. Every other columnist has Rey losing so the WWE can get the title back on Batista at SummerSlam by defeating Booker T. I find this highly unlikely for the reason the WWE isn’t that smart. It would make sense to push the feud between Booker and Batista since they had that fight while promoting SummerSlam. It would make sense for a loud-mouth, arrogant heel to face off with the top face on Friday Night SmackDown! That’s why I think the WWE is going to screw up. It’s too logical and intelligent. The WWE’s style is to fly in the face of logic. They could quite possibly turn Rey heel to confuse the masses and ruin his marketability. That sounds more like the WWE to me.

In the alternative, if Rey does lose, I expect Chavo to cost him the title and have Rey feud with a returning Chavo while Batista chases the title once again.

Other Matches:
Batista vs. Ken Kennedy
Originally, it was meant to be a #1 Contender’s match. I am not sure if that stipulation is still involved with Mr. Kennedy substituting. I expect Batista to go over cleanly considering Ken couldn’t even beat Matt “When was the last time I was on a PPV?” Hardy. What chance does Kennedy have against Batista?

Here’s how it should go down: Kennedy gets himself DQ’ed by choking Batista with that hanging microphone wire. Then we find out that Kennedy has a buddy in the production truck who let that happen. Batista saves himself, flattens Kennedy, and looks strong. Kennedy looks strong with a crazy performance and he didn’t lose via pin or submission.

Here’s how it will go down: Kennedy has limited success with offense before the Batista bomb lays him out in a match that will go under 10 minutes (excluding the intros).

Beyond that, I don’t care about the rest of the card.

Take it easy, readers.

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