Professional Wrestling (WWE, TNA, ROH, etc)

[Andrew]

The fallout from that should be entertaining. There's been talk of Orton/Cena at Wrestlemania since they can't do Cena/Batista and it could well be for the title afterall, the fact the JBL got the last word in on RAW means he's probably doing the job at the Rumble...though apparently plans change right up until PPVs so he could still go over, it would certainly be less predictable if he did. I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

[Lean]

Orton FTW.

[Andrew]

The insider reports on the angle are interesting, to say the least.

[Chino]

The Punt kick last monday was one of the best!

[buzzy]

I had a good feeling about Randy winning the Rumble, because Rev Thoery, the group that plays Orton's theme song, was tapped to play live on the Raw epsiode after the Rumble, figure a kind of celebration.
But now they said their appearance has been cancelled, but even if they would play I think it would just to promote the new music CD from the WWE.
Also Orton getting the victory in the Battle Royal doesn't necessarily favor him this Sunday.

Anyway, I'm kinda tired of reading spoilers, the Royal Rumble is the PPV I enjoy the most the whole year, just because the Rumble match is usually quite unpredictable, so i hope to see some kind of surprise this Sunday as well.
(Eh at least Cena isn't in the Rumble).

[Andrew]

There's always the possibility of a swerve though. None of the rumour sites had word that Cena was in the Rumble last year, they managed to keep that one very quiet.

[Andrew]

I didn't order the Rumble, not as much disposable income at the moment but I read the results and wow, a huge swerve on the annual "Road to Wrestlemania".

The most noteworthy event was definitely Matt Hardy's heel turn, screwing Jeff out of the title and no doubt setting up brother vs brother for Wrestlemania. Bret Hart vs Owen Hart was fantastic back in the day and I have high hopes for this one too with two great workers and an intense storyline with that hint of realism given that they are actually brothers. I'm guessing this will lead to Matt Hardy revealing himself as the attacker, unless it's still going to be Christian and it'll be Edge/Christian/Matt against Jeff...or perhaps it'll be Jeff/Christian vs Edge/Matt. In any case, a good angle moving forward.

Putting the title back on Edge disappoints me a little though. He's a fantastic heel, a fine worker and a worthy champion but it's getting old, especially with all the interrupted reigns and the fact he's now a seven time champion. It sort of devalues the belt to have all these short reigns and if they're going to do Taker/HHH at Wrestlemania then Edge will have to drop the belt, probably at No Way Out, which means another short reign and of course, pads out everyone's championship reigns just a little more. It's not the end of the world but the magnitude of the major belts is hurt a little by it in my opinion.

Randy Orton winning the Rumble is kind of different given that he's a heel but also kind of predictable given the booking up to the event. It'll probably be Orton/Cena for the title at Wrestlemania unless they throw another swerve in at No Way Out, not necessarily a bad idea. Should be a solid angle no matter where it goes but I think the Hardy feud could overshadow all others.

[buzzy]

Nice, a Hardy-Hardy feud. Matt's better as a heel, anyways. I guess they didn't want to pull the trigger on Christian because too many were expecting it. (I think I heard a "We want Christian" chant at the start of the match, not sure though.)

I'm pretty sure they'll do Orton-Cena at Mania, but I'd love to see where they're going with the McMahon angle right now.

Andrew, how'd you know about the Taker-HHH matchup, anyway? I thought they have their personal issues and that there won't be any storylines between those two. And even if they gonna do it, it dowsnt have to be for the chip, does it?
From what it seems Taker has renewed his feud with Big Show at the Rumble, which I don't hope though.

Nice to see an RVD appearance as well

[Andrew]

It was just one of the rumours I'd heard about but with the latest developments it probably won't. I have heard that the backstage issues between them have been squashed though and whatever the specific problems were they're now water under the bridge so it wouldn't be a problem.

You're right though, it does look like they might be renewing the Big Show angle which is a bit of a disappointment. That's nothing against the Big Show, he too is one of the best big man workers in the business but it's not fresh and this remains the problem with the brand split. On one hand you've got two major titles so you can elevate workers and put two people over as world champions at once (three if you want to give the ECW belt the same credit) but you've got the same people working with one another a lot which makes for good matches because of their familiarity but from a storyline perspective it gets a bit stale.

[RKO]

I wanna know how much Randy Orton paid for that tattoo he got on his back. That is something I have in mind of getting when I'm around 23-25, something similiar...not the exact same thing.

[Andrew]

Probably a decent amount, his tattoos are pretty elaborate.

[Null17]

Probably hurt like hell too. I read somewhere that Kennedy said that getting his tattoos on his back were the most painful.

Didn't watch the Rumble but...
RVD! RVD! RVD!

[Andrew]

Only a one time appearance though, but nice to see they're still on good terms.

We should probably come up with an acceptable period of time to use the spoiler tags after a PPV or Raw/Smackdown episode.

[Lean]

Liking much of the PPV, but to be honest I'd like JBL to win, just to rid Cena of the title. Also, I'm wondering how things will be on SmackDown now that everybody was wowed with the new Matt-Jeff angle, and how Christian will be inserted into it.

[Andrew]

You'd honestly prefer JBL to have the title over Cena? Sure, Cena's character is back to being very stale and corny and the WWE's PG approach isn't helping matters but I didn't really enjoy having JBL as the champion the first time around, for all nine months of it. Cena's workrate is fine and he's a credible champion. JBL's character isn't that much better, he draws a lot of heat you've got give him that but I think he works best as a heel that bullies people relentlessly and wins "meaningless" matches but doesn't win major titles (or in this case, win them again).

[buzzy]

Once everybody's using spoilers they kinda get unnecessary

I'm with Andrew though. JBL's a good heel, awesome at drawing heat (Not quite as succesful lately as some months ago in my opinion), but I'd rather have Cena wearing the belt.
I too wonder how they gonna involve Christian in the storylines maybe being an accomplice from Matt Hardy but I kinda doubt that.
If he comes in as a face he could have nice feud with Edge, who is without a storyline at the moment, right?

[Andrew]

Well, it depends how they proceed with the Matt/Jeff angle. It's possible that Edge will be out on the outside of that but at the end of the day it will probably be Hardy vs Hardy which will leave Edge without an angle.

[Null17]

The Hardys feud might just get me to watch WWE regularly again. Have to squeeze in some time to watch it especially if The Instant Classic (That's Christian to those who didn't see his TNA stuff) will be involved.

[buzzy]

lmfao. They even changed the name of the PPV show 'One Night Stand' to 'Extreme Rules'. What the fuck, that's not a name for a PPV. Imagine a promo starting with "But This Sunday, at the Extreme Rules, I'm ..." Come on.

[RKO]

ECW should be taken out. We all know what ECW stands for and right now ECW is not extreme at all. Take that show out and just have Raw and Smackdown. It is causing the WWE money and its pointless. They should also not allow superstars to be on Raw and Smackdown in the same week. Like if Matt Hardy is on Smackdown then let him be, dont put him on Raw one week then Smackdown the next. Everybody knows how it was before, when a superstar from Smackdown comes to Raw it brings interest, like what does he want, whats he doin here and it kept the show interesting, or if a Raw superstar shows up on Smackdown. Only defend the major titles (WHC & WWE) at PPV. It is the best for the heels to have the titles because then it would make it hard for the faces to win because the heels cheat to win. Y'all know the Evolution days, and it was almost impossible for HHH to lose the title. They should do something like that with the Legacy.

Now as far as that angle goes, I was surprised when Shane attacked Orton...I thought he was gonna go in the ring and shake Ortons hand and they form a stable and go against Vince...or when Vince comes back he might be with the Legacy and turn on Shane and Steph. This is clearly one of the best storylines in a long time.

Also they need to bring Undertaker to Raw and have him start a feud with Kane leading up to WM 25 and have Kane beat Undertaker then it would be interesting what happens next with those 2.

Jeff vs Matt is good...but I was hoping for Christian to come back to WWE and him join Edge....so they can have the Hardy Boys vs Edge & Christian at WM25 in a TLC match.

[Andrew]

I agree that it's a bit silly continuing to call it ECW when the program is barely extreme but it does have name recognition and it's a decent way to elevate younger talent without having to give them major titles or secondary belts with longer and more prestigious status within the company. As long as they've got the resources and the TV slot, a third brand isn't a bad idea and it's not exactly pointless because it's kind of a high profile developmental territory but the name is definitely inappropriate.

Keeping wrestlers strictly on their brand is keeping more within the brand split but inter-brand matches frankly keep things fresh. As I said before, Edge is a great heel but seeing him with the belt is a bit stale and he's been working with the same few people in the main event scene for a while now, so if they can change things up and have the odd inter-brand stuff it keeps things interesting.

As for heels having the titles, I agree that sometimes it's better to have the heel defending and the faces chasing him but like anything, that too grows stale (as I said, I'm a bit bored of Edge being champion and having all these short reigns). Sometimes you need to put the belts on the faces and ride the momentum of the fans getting behind "their" champion. Neither side can be too dominant.

Undertaker won't be going to RAW unless Michelle McCool goes as well, since they can travel together being on the same show. With the move to MyNetworkTV Smackdown is being pushed as a show on equal footing with RAW (one of the reasons HHH is on the brand now) and keeping a veteran talent like The Undertaker on the brand helps out with that. I don't think Kane needs the rub of ending Taker's streak either, if it ever comes to an end it should be when he's ready to retire and the rub should probably go to a younger talent who could benefit from it more in the long run.

Hardys vs E&C would reek of awesomeness (as they used to say) but the way it's shaping up it should be a good angle regardless.

[RKO]

Yeah....they should switch ECW to "WWE D League" lol.

But if they are really looking to change the name then maybe WWE Developmental.

[Null17]

There's already a WWE Developmental, they just call it FCW.

[RKO]

I know there is, but making it from ECW would make it bigger.

[Andrew]

FCW and similar developmental territories in the past are good for wrestlers who are greener but for workers who are ready to take the next step and need to be built up on WWE programming. It's hardly extreme but ECW benefits from name recognition so I don't see them changing it anytime soon.