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.

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.”

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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