-The big news of the day is that Shawn Michaels might be out with a knee injury for tonight's Taboo Tuesday. He hurt it during the 3 way match last night. This COULD force the WWE to actually rig the vote so that they could put Benoit in the main event against Triple H, while protecting Shawn in the tag match against La Resistance with Edge. Edge then can turn on HBK to "put him out of wrestling" for a while as HBK gets surgery to repair the knee. That's a damn shame that Michaels is possibly out for a few months, if not more... RAW needs a performer who can give us great matches on any night, such is the case he gave us with Christian a few RAW's ago. With HBK possibly injured, that leaves Benoit to face Triple H. Is HHH going to get back his win?
Here's the problem... it seems as though the WWE wants to start pushing Edge as a serious heel. To do so, they would have to make a FACE win at Taboo Tuesday and then for Edge to feud with the current champion. A heelish Edge is NOT going to feud with a heel Triple H. It's like eating fish with ice cream, it doesn't make sense! It is my opinion that Chris Benoit STILL has a lot left in the tank and was a worthy champion from Wrestlemania to Summerslam. Frankly, it was a severe mistake to take his title away at Summerslam to give it to an unproven Randy Orton. But hey, taking the title off of HHH and keeping him out of the spotlight for a while was exactly what Pat Patterson suggested, and he was handed his walking papers....
-So I went to WWE.com and casted my votes for Taboo Tuesday. Being that I felt that Chris Benoit was a worthy champion from Wrestlemania to Summerslam, I voted for Chris Benoit to be in the main event (plus, with HBK's injury, that will produce the best absolute match). I voted for a Submission Match between Ric Flair and Randy Orton. Flair's too old to take a beating in a falls count anywhere and a cage match, as a submission match would suit him best and keep the match more competitive. Flair has the best chance to win in a submission match, given that Orton's chinlocks can't make anybody submit. I went for the most dangerous weapon in the "Weapon of Choice" match between Kane and Gene Snitsky, as I chose the Lead Pipe.
I find that Batista would make a great Intercontinental Champion at this point, so I voted for him to wrestle Chris Jericho... I've seen Eric Bischoff get shaved before and the servant stipulation was lame. So in honor of the late Brian Pillman, I went with the Loser Wears a Dress stipulation between Eric Bischoff and Eugene. We've seen a lot of school girl outfits in the WWE already, and I don't see how the nurse outfits would be revealing. I went with French Maid outfits for the divas match, given that it would show the most cleavage. Same goes for Carmella vs. Christy, as an Evening Gown match would provide the most cleavage, especially for showing the goods on Carmella, the 2003 Playmate of the Year. Yeah, you know what body part is thinking for me right now... By the way, what the fuck is an aerobics match?
There you go... I voted, therefore, I have a right to complain. Same goes for November 2nd, as I'll be voting first thing in the morning, as should everybody else in the United States.
-Looking at the stats of the Tough Enough 4 cast (which you can do so by Clicking Here), do you notice something? The shortest guy is 6 foot 1 inch and he's also the lightest at 210 pounds. The rest, except for another at 6'1", are really large in size. It clearly shows the mindset of the WWE is to still THINK BIG. Now, if I were running the contest, guys who were 5'11" - 6'3" would be ideal. Midsized wrestlers seem to be the best all around performers, as long as they are in shape. Here, though, the WWE has half of their contestants being 6'4" or more. I guarantee, too, that the 6'7" and 6'9" guys will get WWE contracts no matter what. Look at Matt Morgan for proof of that.
Vince McMahon still thinks big. Smackdown is getting ruined by this thought process. The likes of Nathan Jones, John Heidenreich, among many others, are constantly shoved down the fans throats. Smackdown actually has a younger audience and a more urban audience than RAW or any other wrestling programming, given that it's on UPN. They do NOT want to see John Heidenreich doing his best Kane impersonation. They want to see more flavor with the likes of Eddie Guerrero, Rey Mysterio, Booker T, John Cena, and others mixing it up with the big name WWE stars, such as Kurt Angle, Big Show, and the Undertaker. They do NOT want to see an overpushed John Bradshaw Layfield against the Undertaker (which I heard drew terrible Pay Per View buyrates!), and now Undertaker vs. Heidenreich.
And now, a part of Smackdown will be used to sign the next untalented bigman to repeatedly shove down the fans throats in the future. Can't wait.
-Reports now suggest that Kane is NOT leaving the WWE, for he actually has a long term deal with the WWE and is happy there. Well, I won't discount that recent report, but SOMETHING prompted the rumors that Kane might be leaving the WWE. The Honky Tonk Man wouldn't just instantly make up that rumor just to poke fun at the WWE, even though I wouldn't put it past the guy. Reports agreed with Honky Tonk that Kane was feeling unhappy with the WWE. My guess is that the WWE either just gave him a nice contract extension OR that Kane threw a hissy fit backstage to the bookers about the way he was used and possibly threatened to quit if things didn't improve. I think that after all of the crap Kane has endured since his Necrophilia feud with Triple H in late 2002, he deserves better and should be pushed as a serious main eventer. He's the opposite of the big oafs you see on Smackdown: the guy can actually wrestle and perform! I guarantee that NWA-TNA would absolutely love to have Kane on their roster.
-Speaking of TNA, I missed the show yet again! Damn it! I also missed Smackdown, but so what?
-Scott Hall and Kevin Nash are officially with NWA-TNA now... TNA had Scott Hall at one point and he amounted to nothing. Nash was worthless in the WWE when he returned from quadricep surgery (although he was awesome in the Punisher!). Please keep in mind that Hall and Nash were very popular together in 1996 and have yet to recapture that magic ever since... yeah, that's more than 8 years ago for those keeping track.
-Diamond Dallas Page might appear with TNA? Did DDP ever get his injured neck checked out or fixed? Rich in KC, where are you when I need you?
-Former ECW wrestler and current independent wrestler New Jack was arrested last week "aggravated battery" after stabbing his opponent 14 times with a metal object. While 14 times is quite a bit, New Jack's opponent, Jason Lane, is quoted as saying that the weapon use was planned before the match. I've seen New Jack in action many times and once in person. He seems to add a lot of realism to his weapon use and sometimes gets too into it. I saw him stab a guy with a fork repeated times, but no aggravated assault charges were filed. I'm guessing New Jack will avoid jailtime because of his opponents agreeing to the use of the weapon, but will probably have to pay fines and maybe do some community service for this incident. It's pretty sad, though, for the promoter of "Thunder Wrestling Federation" to say that the match wasn't supposed to be hardcore when New Jack's opponent agreed to make the match hardcore. Don't promoters know what their wrestlers are going to do in some way or fashion? In addition, do you honestly expect New Jack to wrestle a one on one, clean wrestling match? You're crazy if you ever think that would happen. New Jack IS hardcore wrestling and any promoter needs to take note of that before having him wrestle before an audience.
-So I went to another independent wrestling show... I caught Black Diamond Wrestling on Saturday evening. Pretty good show overall. One of the best indy tag matches that I ever saw happened with Virus/Unknown vs. Justin Idol/Devin Devine, with lots of near falls, fantastic tag wrestling, and a great finish. Breathtaking match, and it's gotta be a hard act to follow when your hot opener ends up being the match of the night. That's not to discount the rest of the card, though. The Premiere Players (Daron Smythe and Dash Bennett) versus Tri Chi Fraternity (Hammer and Blitzz) was an entertaining tag bout with a well booked finish. Shiima Xion vs. Jason Gory was a pretty solid bout, with lots of good spots hit. The main event 3 way was a wild bout for the new BDW titles between Virus/Unknown, Tri Chi Fraternity, and Jason Cage/Nikita Allanov. It turned out to be a brawl around the entire arena, with fun chaos happening all around. Virus and Unknown were crowned the champs to end a good outing by BDW.
I saw a pretty shocking aspect of pro wrestling, though. During the main event, Jason Cage and Nikita Allanov were eliminated. This prompted Allanov to attack his partner for losing and he then powerbombed Jason Cage on the floor, outside of the ring! Mind you, the place they wrestled in was a former basketball gym, so this was a hard wood floor. And I've seen both Vader/Cactus Jack powerbombs in WCW. This had far more force than both of those, as Allanov slammed Cage with a lot of force onto the hardwood floor. Was it intentional? I don't know about the situation and I don't really care to even debate that... but Jason Cage was on the floor, in severe amount of pain. He remained there for a while, and many of his fellow BDW wrestlers and some fans stuck around in support of Cage. That was touching, especially with the looks on the wrestlers' faces that this could be them, given how dangerous wrestling can be at times. Luckily, Cage only suffered a badly bruised back instead of something broken, herniated, or dislocated. Thank God!
Like I said, good show overall and they'll be returning to Wheeling, WV on November 27th at the MAEA Science Center.
On to the RAW portion of the column.
The show started off with Eric Bischoff coming out (in his classic Karate uniform) and called out Eugene. Eugene came out, hoping for a fight, and Bischoff gave him one with Gene Snitsky. This was a complete squash, as I wonder what the purpose of pushing Eugene against Triple H was all about? After the match, William Regal also got destroyed by Snitsky and Bischoff got in a shot on Eugene. Man, Snitsky seriously needs to win today at Taboo Tuesday!
I enjoyed having Edge, Chris Benoit, and Shawn Michaels debating, ala the Presidential Debates, with podiums to discuss who should win the shot at Triple H. Very well done and smart move by the WWE. Edge said he never got a title shot... Chris Benoit insisted that he's made both HHH and Michaels tap out, so he should get the title shot. HBK said he "had a plan", obviously poking fun at John Kerry in the debates. I wonder if that plan is on HBK's webpage? Ohhhh.... I guess this debate didn't have an insane amount of rules like the presidential debates, as an angry Edge prompted the debate to turn into a brawl and the moderator of the debate to flinch too much before HBK hit him with the superkick. Well done segment and nice use of real life stuff, such as the debates, to incorporate into wrestling.
Victoria/Nidia/Stacy defeated Molly Holly, Gail Kim, and Trish Stratus in yet another cookie cutter women's match, with more and more discrediting happening with Stacy beating up and taking the offense of legit women's wrestlers. The match sucked, but it served its purpose to remind us that they are wrestling tonight. VOTE FRENCH MAIDS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I laughed HARD at Gene Snitsky telling Lita that Kane's going to lose Tuesday night just as Lita lost her baby. That's so cheesy and over the top that I loved it! Snitsky, just out of being purely a trainwreck of a character and over the top, is quickly becoming one to watch on RAW for entertainment reasons.
Good reaction from Ric Flair after watching the Jimmy Kimmel comments from Randy Orton about Flair's age. Given the recent injuries and the old body that's breaking down, I think a final retirement is coming soon. With that being said, why not let him win the World Title one last time?
Pretty good tag match between Orton/Jericho vs. Batista/Flair. Looks like the WWE really wants either Batista or Shelton Benjamin to win the IC title shot, as shown tonight. Flair was very much over, taking away many cheers from Randy Orton. Hell, Triple H took away cheers from Randy Orton. The long running point is that Randy Orton is NOT ready for the main event spotlight that he's been sadly given. Flair got the win in this match, thus showing that he might have a chance against Orton at Taboo Tuesday. YEAH RIGHT.
You'd figure that when Taboo Tuesday is the next night, you should have its creator on the show? Of course, as Vince McMahon made his way out to the ring. Before Vince could say anything, one by one, 6 people from the Intercontinental Title voting came out to beg for Vince McMahon's endorsement. This made for a very entertaining segment and put heavy emphasis on the IC title match! Well done, bookers! Vince then decided to have a 6 man match to determine the endorsement winner. Shelton would win this crazy bout that featured Vince McMahon on commentary for the first time in a long time. Afterward, Benjamin took the endorsement and shoved it, saying Vince was only one vote... he needed the millions of fans to vote for him as well. VERY well done segment, which reeked of Paul Heyman with the impromptu match and wrestler after wrestler coming out.
Looks like Lilian Garcia was "punished" for her recent excessive partying late at night by having to do a lesbian kiss on live TV with Christy. I STILL want to know what an Aerobics Match is. Looking back on it, I should have voted for it just to see what bullshit stipulations they'd come up for this kind of match.
The main event was pretty impressive with Shawn Michaels vs. Chris Benoit vs. Edge, with Edge winning by holding the tights. Great chemistry among the 3 wrestlers, as you won't see this chemistry against an egotistical Triple H. All 3, here in 2004 at least, care more about the performance than the outcome (opposite of Michaels in 1995-1998). Edge will probably lose on voting, unless fans get split on HBK and Benoit as faces with Edge as the lone possible heel. We'll see, but I still insist that the vote will be rigged to keep Edge out of the main event.
LAST WORD: FINALLY, a great show by RAW that makes you WANT to buy a Pay Per View. Very impressive booking for a change with a nice mix of good, actual wrestling. It's about damn time! I'll go [ A+ ] (A plus) on this excellent RAW, heading into Taboo Tuesday. I'm very interested in how the buyrate for this show will play out.
XWF Inc. Wrestling - It's FANTASTIC!
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