First off I just want to say Wrestlemania 24 was an amazing event. It delivered on every level and I loved every single minute of it. My party turned into a bit of a disaster as the curse of Virgin Media (UK cable company) struck again and we lost the feed for the second year in a row! Luckily some of our other friends were also holding a Wrestlemania party so we managed to dash round just in time to catch MITB.

Prediction wise I did ok getting 5 of my choices correct. Generally the less predictions I get correct the more I will enjoy the event as it become less predictable and more exciting, the exception being a match like MITB which is going to be quality whatever happens, just so happens this year I got the winner right!

The Finlay vs JBL match was an excellent way to open the show. Due to my loss of feed I missed this match but have since watched it online and it was pretty brutal and enjoyable. Looks like this program is set to continue as JBL picked up the win much to mine and everyone else’s surprise, major props to Sharpshooter who correctly predicted this one via the comment board on last weeks blog.

I was very surprised that MITB was the second match on the card but it truly kept the momentum of the show going. This was a phenomenal match with some insane spots. How is Shelton Benjamin still able to walk? Crazy stuff! Also the spot where Morrison did the Moonsault with a ladder was insane! This was in my opinion the best MITB so far. And best of all it featured the return of one Matt Hardy who as I predicted came out and did an insane Twist of Fate from a ladder on MVP to continue their feud. I am glad CM Punk won the match and I will be interested to see where they take his character from here. I would personally enjoy seeing Punk chasing the WWE title on RAW but it seems set for a long battle between Orton, Cena and Triple H so perhaps have Punk going after The Undertaker instead. Now that would be a feud!

The Batista vs Umaga match was impressive as I expected it would be. Very impressed with how Batista managed to save the Batista Bomb at the end of the match. I predicted this one completely wrong but thoroughly enjoyed it. I really hope Umaga makes his way to Smackdown to continue this feud although it looks like we may be getting a Batista vs Shawn Michaels program now and believe me I am totally fine with that!

The ECW title match was a little disappointing, I would have at least liked to see creative give Chavo a chance against Kane although this does give Kane a very dominant start as champion. I am guessing WWE creative have hope we have all forgotten the amount of times Kane has lost to Khali! Once again I got the impression this was Vince spitting in the face of ECW but with everything else he has done to the brand is it really that much of a surprise?

The career ending match of Ric Flair was breathtaking to watch. Absolutely brilliant pure wrestling throughout and an early contender for match of the year if not match of the decade. Both guys worked so hard and Michaels had some insane spots such as Moonsaulting through the announcer’s table, that looked painful! Flair wrestled such an impressive match and I truly believe he could just go on and on. It pains me to realise that we may never get a chance to see Ric Flair in a Wrestling match again, however this match combined with the touching send off on Monday’s RAW helps ensure that Flair received one of the most legendary send offs in Wrestling history. Thank you Ric! You will be missed.

The Bunnymania match was saved by Santino and some good booking by WWE. When Santino came out taking a starring role in Melina’s entrance I do not think I have ever laughed so much, comedy stuff! I also enjoyed how WWE booked Beth over Maria as it kept their women’s champion looking strong and hopefully now this playboy business is over for another year we can go back to actual Women’s wrestling. I would be really up for seeing Victoria come back to RAW and challenging Beth for that Women’s title. Snoop Dogg was pretty funny as well when he took out Santino, would it have been too much to ask him to learn his lines though?

The Triple Threat Match for the WWE title was superb. I was so into this match from start to finish. There were some points I was screaming for Orton not to tap out to Cena. It was exhilarating stuff and all three guys worked so hard and showed why they are the top three superstars in the company without a shadow of a doubt. I was very happy to see Orton retain, its cements him as a proper champion have now beaten both Triple H at No Mercy and Wrestlemania and also pinning John Cena at Wrestlemania. Great match and great result, in addition it ended Cena’s “streak” at Wrestlemania. The fact that Cena did not win meant I enjoyed his presence in this match and I believe he brought a lot to the table as did Triple H. However there is no doubt we are now in the Orton Era and long may it continue!

The Big Show vs Mayweather match was so much better than I was expecting. I am so thrilled that WWE did not let Mayweather beat Big Show cleanly and instead needed help from his posse, a chair and some brass knuckles. This was a very enjoyable match although I felt it should have been slightly lower down the card, Flair/HBK and the Triple Threat certainly should have been after it at any rate. I am very much looking forward to seeing Big Show take on some proper wrestlers now although from the last week of television it looks like its going to be Khali so I may have to wait for this wish to be fulfilled a little longer!

The main event between Undertaker and Edge was truly special and without a doubt a 5 star main event! So many counters, near falls and great spots had me glued to the edge of my seat for the duration of the match. True it marked the end of the Rated R Era for now but what a way to end it in style. I was marking out big time when Edge hit that final spear, for a second thinking he could be winning until Undertaker locked in that submission move of his. I really hope Undertaker gets a long title run that is not disrupted by injury, he sure as hell has earned it, this was my favourite Undertaker match since his legendary clash with Triple H at Wrestlemania 17. It really was that good!

So with my Wrestlemania thoughts out of the way its on to this weeks show

The show opens with Team Rated R making their way to the ring minus their titles which they lost at Wrestlemania. Interesting to see Edge wearing the new Chavo T-shirt! Edge began by apologising to everyone including Vickie for losing to The Undertaker, Chavo proceeds to say how he let the family down. This was a great promo from the heels with both of them getting plenty of stick from the crowd. Chavo has come on a lot during his run with the ECW title. Vickie booked both title rematches for Backlash. Lets hope Chavo actually gets a move in on Kane this time! Kind of mystifying how Vickie can now book an ECW title match, I thought that was Estrada’s job. Ah well the wonders of being a Guerrero!

The first match of the night saw MVP taking on the returning Matt Hardy. Wow it really seems just like this feud is picking up where it left off. Matt did a great job against Orton on RAW on Monday and I am so pleased to see him back on Smackdown. Anyone who reads my blogs on a regular basis will know how much I have been looking forward to this moment. This started off as a total brawl with Matt getting in much of the early offensive. These two have lost none of their in ring chemistry and I am really looking forward to a potential Backlash encounter between these two. Hopefully next week we will be seeing Matt Hardy as a guest in the VIP lounge once again. This was a very good match which was given plenty of time and with Matt showing no signs of any ring rust, guess those extra few weeks off made the world of difference for him. Very impressive how Matt targeted MVP’s knee in revenge for the injuries MVP inflicted on Matt all those months ago. Matt picking up the win via a Twist Of Fate. Wow what a match and certainly reinforcing just how much we have missed Matt Hardy on Smackdown! Matt has come back to save us!

Next up Zak Ryder of the Edgeheads or The Rated R Entourage as they call themselves was taking on Festus in singles action. I really hope this develops into a feud to determine the Number One contenders for the tag belts. Festus did a lot early on in this match to demonstrate his position as one of the top power house wrestlers on Smackdown, he is certainly the most unorthodox! Zak Ryder, who continues to impress me, certainly gave Festus more of a challenge than others have done, this match however was all about the impressive Festus and I continue to enjoy his character developing week by week on Smackdown.

Next up we got to see Ric Flair’s farewell address from RAW on Monday. This was one of the most emotional moments I have ever seen in Wrestling. If I can get hold of this video it is so going up on my Myspace. Have to admit it brought a tear to my eye once again.

Next up HBK made his way out to the ring and gave a very emotional speech about how he feels about retiring Ric Flair and how he now feels he has closure. However Batista interrupts Shawn to a huge pop. I really like they way creative are teasing a potential feud between these two. There is a rumour going around that HBK could be on his way to Smackdown and that for me would be one of the greatest draft picks of all time. Nice comment from Batista saying “Oh that’s right the Showstopper doesn’t do jobs” This was a very believable promo from Batista, probably one of the best he has done. If these two feuded I will be glued to the TV. Roll on the next WWE draft and bring HBK to Smackdown!

Vladimir Kozlov finally made his debut after working dark matches for the last few weeks. However after the last segment I honestly do not think anyone really cared too much for this match, it was a total squash and the crowd were dead throughout. I have heard some good things about Kozlov though, I can imagine he could put on some good matches against the likes of Kane or Umaga. He looked powerful but I will reserve judgement until he is given a real opponent.

Awesome John Morrison is on Smackdown again. Coolest entrance in WWE ever! This week our WWE tag team champions were taking on Team Yang once again. I really hope these two teams would properly resume their excellent feud. A ladder match between these two teams would be something to see. This was very quick match with Morrison picking up the quick victory, things ended up with The Great Khali coming out and destroying everyone. Disgusting! How can Smackdown creative allow this idiot so easily destroy 4 great athletes? However The Big Show came out to save the day and stood toe to toe with Khali and forced him to back down. If these two had a feud or even a match I would be rooting for Big Show all the way and it least it would keep Khali from squashing the roster.

Next up came the finale of the diva contest and Teddy Long was in the ring with some motorbike people. Cherry has her own theme music now, perhaps a sign she will be getting a larger role from now on. Michelle got her usual positive reaction. I could see her on RAW feuding with Beth. That was a nice bike Michelle won. I hope she gets to keep it! Victoria once again made this segment. Next up NATTIE NEIDHART DEBUED and absolutely kicked ass! Now that’s what I’m talking about: A proper women’s wrestler! Smackdown is starting to get a proper women’s division and I would just really like to see all of the proper female wrestlers on one brand in order to get some decent feuds and matches going. Then perhaps WWE could start to rival TNA’s excellent Knockout division.

Main event time next as the Brothers of Destruction squared off against one another. I was disappointed to see Undertaker has gone back to his hat and coat. The Wrestlemania Ministry style jacket he wore on Sunday was awesome and I was hoping he would be keeping it from now on. I knew this would be a good match, Kane and Undertaker work so well together whether that is as opponents or allies and I was not disappointed here. This was a very even match with both champions looking very strong. Whilst in previous encounters Undertaker has certainly dominated this time the brothers just seemed to counter each other out and instead wrestled a good technical match to begin with and developed into a slug fest as things developed. Great moment when both champions sat up at exactly the same time. Team Rated R charged into the ring and commenced a beat down but Undertaker and Kane fought back and performed tandem chokeslams and tombstones. What a fantastic moment. I will be happy to watch these two as champions and long may they reign. And we got the awesome Brothers of Destruction ring exit and this time once again they are both champions. Great stuff!

This was an excellent post pay per view edition of Smackdown, normally post per view shows can lag somewhat but that was not the case here at all. I did not enjoy seeing Khali decimate four of the best athletes on the roster and the Kozlov debut was a non event in my books. However the rest of the show was excellent, the tandem moves in the main event were a joy to watch and it was great to see Nattie Neidhart finally debut. Match of the week though without a doubt was Matt Hardy vs MVP. Great stuff!

This weeks edition of Smackdown scores a good 8/10

That is all for this weeks edition of Chris Reviews Smackdown. I will be back next week with Chris Reviews Smackdown. Please leave me some feedback on the comment board and I will try and get back to you. As always I can be contacted on a_agreement_called_forever@hotmail.com and www.myspace.com/agreement_called_forever

Until next time Matt Hardy has come to save us!

Smackdown Power 10
1: The Undertaker (+1)
2: Kane (+3)
3: Edge (-2)
4: Batista (-1)
5: MVP (-1)
6: The Big Show
7: Jesse and Festus
8: Matt Hardy (NE)
9: Victor Kozlov (NE)
10: The Edgeheads

On a different note I’m going to stick with Drop of Gold for Shelton Benjamin’s finisher, but not for the lack of great suggestions. Thanks to Hardyfan77 for the Shellshocker, I also love the name and I’m definitely filing it for future use, it just didn’t seem to fit the character for me. To Big Guy and JONOvsLFCvsWWE I also like the Gold Rush, the only reason that I didn’t go for that was to avoid confusion if the WWE ever decides to have another Gold Rush Tournament on Raw as opposed to the Beat the Clock Challenge on Smackdown! I must say though I considered it just for the fact that it was in one of those matches, against Shawn Michaels, that Shelton took that Sweet Chin Music in midair after springboarding into the ring, still on of the most amazing spots I’ve ever seen. Finally, to LanceDanger, you have now idea how close I came to bookending Morrison’s Swan Song with the Thong Song, if they ever form a tag team it would be instantly changed and I’m still tempted to change it regardless. Now onto tonight’s show.

Once again the tag team title match jerked the curtain of tonight’s show with Miz and Morrison, entering first and starting this night of great, defending their belts against Colin Delaney and the Innovator of Violence in an Extreme Rules rematch. Simply put this match should have been the main event of the show for two reasons, one it was the only title match on the show and two all four of these guys worked their asses off and put on one hell of a match. There were some really great spots in this match including a simultaneous Superplex (Miz to Dreamer)/Powerbomb (Delaney to Morrison), a double tree of woe complete with a Dreamer dropkick of a trashcan into both of the champ’ faces, and Delaney hitting the old Dudley Boyz Wazzaup while donning the hometown Bears’ helmet. One of my favorite parts came when Delaney was thrown over the top rope as he attempted an Acid Drop and Joey Styles stammered like he’d never seen the move for about ten seconds over what to call it (apparently wondering whether it would be safe to reference Spike Dudley) and settled on “Some kind of modified Tornado DDT”. Following this was an amazing move by Morrison where he executed a moonsault from the apron onto Delaney while holding a trashcan to his chest. The finish saw Dreamer get thrown through the backside a table that was leaning against a turnbuckle. This was a fantastic match, given a little but of time, and all of the participants filled their roles perfectly. If you missed it I think there is a replay on WWE.com at some point or I’m sure it will make its way onto youtube within a few days, check it out. Now I only wish the rest of the show could have lived up to this great start, however it was not to be.
The next segment saw General Manager Armando Estrada announcing the Wrestlemania 24 (cough, dark, cough) 24 man Battle Royal with member of all three brands, the winner to face Chavo immediately thereafter for the title. If nothing else this segment confirmed what the opening match of Wrestlemania will be. Kidding aside I’m sure that they will not have a heel-heel opener which means that it will be some unused face picking up the win, while I’m free to change my mind before the show I’ll call the winner as either Matt Hardy (granted he is not in the MITB), Supercrazy, or a debuting Chris Harris.

Stevie Richards welcome to joberville, population you, and of course Mayor James Curtis. In a pointless squash the Great(?) Khali, who will luckily not be appearing at Wrestlemania with the announcement he is in the Battle Royal, squashed poor Stevie in about 25 seconds, max. With only three weeks of wins against nobodies, and yes that includes you jealous boyfriend Mike Knox, why exactly were we repeatedly shown that throat injury footage to get reinvested in the character? Post-match Knox came in and beat Stevie down further, most likely angry about being forced to job to a jobber two weeks ago, kicking off what has a good chance to be the least cared about feud since both of Kane’s feuds with people who spilled coffee on him.

Next we saw the usual Kofi match, this time against Deuce of the greasers with Domino and Cherry at ringside. The highlight of this match came in Deuce’s entrance as hailing from “the other side of the tracks” which always cracks me up. It’s come to the point where if you’ve seen one Kofi match you know what you’re going to get. I was very disappointed in this as after working or being involved with Kelly² the past few weeks I figured we’d see her managing to help and even it up, I guess she realized she’d never go back. Kofi won the match with the Cool Runnings/Trouble in Paradise combo, but if the Greasers’ are supposed to be heels, why didn’t the two on the outside even try to get involved or distract the referee even once, was there a point to them even coming out?

Next we saw Elijah Burke go from main-eventing to jobbing to someone who is not even on the brand in a mere two weeks, an impressive feat, when he took on Lennie, I mean Festus. Nothing really to say about this match other than to wonder why, if Jessie and Festus were on the show, they didn’t get involved in the tag title match earlier if they want the belts so bad. Even showing up and blocking the entrance so that Miz and Morrison couldn’t walk out would have been an effective way to further their feud.

Finally CM Punk took on Big Daddy V in a MITB qualifier that was just as bad as it sounds and as their other encounters in late fall were. I realize that ECW is a glorified developmental territory, but who decided it would be a good idea to put Sisqo on guest commentary? He is phenomenal in the ring but keep him as far away from the mic as possible, I was just waiting for him to yell “AIN’T NO STOPPIN’ ME NOW” after every sentence, actually I kind of wish he had cause at least that would have kept me laughing. Punk won via countout, because it would be too confusing to have him reintroduce the Anaconda Vice, and post-match hit a GTS on Striker. I’m guessing that next week we see Punk and another face MITB participant against Sisqo and Big Daddy V.

Overall this show gets a B-/C+ and that is being very generous, the only thing that saved this show was the phenomenal tag team title match that opened the show, other than that you could have turned the channel and not missed anything. I know it might be hard this week but let’s keep the comments and e-mails up, maybe we can inspire them into putting out a better show, and they had better with Wrestlemania fast approaching. There’s always next week and who know, maybe the champ will actually even show up.

This week’s show started off with a great video package detailing all of the history between CM Punk and Chavo Guerrero, giving the main event a very special blow-off feel. If I said it once I’ll say it a thousand times whoever is in charge of creating the video packages deserves a raise, no matter how much they are making.

The tag team title match jerked the curtain of tonight’s show with Miz and Morrison, entering first and incurring my wrath, defending their belts against Colin Delaney and the Innovator of Violence. I’m still wondering why Colin doesn’t just wear pants if he’s never going to put the upper part of his tights on? This match was very good, but not quite up to what these two put on last week as most of the match focused on Miz and Morrison’s desire to hurt Delaney any chance they got. The end saw Delaney finally having enough of it and waffling the champs with a chair after Dreamer ate a double gutbuster. While I would agree that this was a very good finish in that it kept both team’s strong I am wondering how they expect the champs, as great as they are, to keep up passable feuds on two different show, perhaps we’ll see Jesse and Festus invade next week during the Extreme Rules rematch to set up a three way dance at Wrestlemania, or since it’s the tag belts, the dark match at ‘Mania. Also if Estrada is supposed to be a heel GM why did he grant Delaney and Dreamer a rematch so quick?

Next up the Stevie Richards return tour ran into a major speed bump in the form of The Gold Standard Shelton “Sisqo” Benjamin. The story of this match was Sisqo’s focusing on Stevie’s arm and shoulder and let me tell you when Tazz was explaining a figure four hammer lock I was even longing for Randy Orton’s reverse chinlock. I was actually pleasantly surprised by the finish as it saw Sisqo go over Stevie cleanly with his reverse bulldog which I am now dubbing the “Drop of Gold” but new, and unquestionably better, suggestions are more than welcome. Even though I like Stevie more than Benjamin I am always glad to see a heel win cleanly as that does more in my mind to legitimize him than any promo could. Unfortunately Sisqo ruined the respect he had just gained by yelling his catch phrase that will never catch on. For some reason the crowd was absolutely dead throughout this match, save a weak attempt to start a Shelton chant, and it seemed there was nothing Stevie or Shelton could do to get them into it, one of the rare cases that a lack of crowd reaction really wasn’t the wrestlers’ fault.

Backstage we saw Kofi and Kelly² in a segment that ended with the latter brawling with Layla and trust me the less said about this the better.

Next up we had our weekly squash, I guess they ran out of babyfaces on the brand with Kofi backstage and had to import Kane to squash poor James Curtis. Before the match could start Chuck, sans Rico and Billy, rode his bike around the ring while the action was taking place, the match was probably 45 seconds at most with Curtis taking the loss after a chokeslam. At least this worked to further Palumbo and Kane’s storyline for Smackdown!, but does ECW really not have enough “Extremists” to fill out a one hour show? Where’s Elijah Burke, main event the past two weeks to not even a mention, and enough with the squashes we really don’t need one to two a week. This is the first time I’ve seen Palumbo in a while, is it me or does he look even more ambiguous than his Billy and Chuck days?

The show was headlined by the highly anticipated rematch between Chavo, who yes…entered first, and CM Punk. This match was very good and I thought better than their one at No Way Out until the ending which in my mind ruined the entire thing. The finish saw Punk get crotched on the top rope after an attempted superplex then eat a Chavo frogsplash for the clean loss. As much as I enjoy clean heel victories this made absolutely no sense to me as not only does it make Punk look extremely weak there is no other face contender to take his spot. Also with the type of build and time they gave this match it was primed for a Punk victory. Though I am not a Punk fanboy I thought he worked his ass off here, as did Chavo, and was very surprised and disappointed in how they chose to book, instead it looks like this feud will be needlessly extended and if and when Punk does eventually win it may seem more like a fluke than a hard won victory.

Anyway that’s my two cents so lets hear yours, lets keep those comments and e-mails coming and don’t forget to name Sisqo’s finisher.

Speaking of Austin and double-switches, I hear what both Chris and LanceDanger are saying about my complaint that the “I Quit” match at Wrestlemania 13 isn’t on the new Stone Cold DVD when they argue that it is already on the Bret Hart DVD, as well as the best of Wrestlemania DVD, and as a tradeoff the great Austin-Hart match from Survivor Series is included. My only problem is that this is not just any match this is the match that Austin himself has pointed to as the one that “made him” (and says as much in the DVD commercial which I just assumed meant the match was on one of the discs) and in a DVD about the man I don’t see how the most important match of his career can be left off, no matter how many other DVDs it appears on. If it was up to me, and they have the footage, I would have included both matches as well as the street fight from the next nights Raw that ended up with Austin driving an ambulance, with Hart in it, out of the arena. With all that off my chest, onto this week’s Tuesday night delight.

The show this week opened with the announcement of a triple threat match to determine the #1 contender for Chavo’s ECW title belt featuring CM Punk, Shelton “Sisqo” Benjamin, and Elijah Burke, with the winner to face the champ next week for the title. Considering that there is only one face in this match and we have a heel champion I have a pretty good idea who is walking out of the match with the title shot. On a side note, is there any reason that every three-way match has to be a triple-threat match, what happened to the triangle match? I would love if they changed the Cena-HHH-Orton match to this where, as I am sure that most of you know already, it takes two falls to determine the winner as opposed to whoever wins the first fall.

The card opened up with Kelly² teaming with my man Kofi, finally getting a decent opponent, against Layla and Santino Marella, who honestly is my favorite thing going right now and has been ever since his “altered” performance of Rehab months ago mocking The Condemned. I couldn’t get “They tried to make me watch the CONdemned, but I said No, No, No” out of my head for days after word, without complaint may I add. I thought Santino trying to do Layla’s leg entrance and straining his hamstring was great. The match was a typical inter-gender tag match but I did like to see Kelly² getting physically involved with Marella, delivering a double dropkick with Kofi early in the match. The match ended with Kelly² hitting her “as to be named” fameasser finisher on Layla and scoring the pinfall victory, setting up a new “Name That Finisher” contest. Considering that we have Kelly² with entrance music that begins Holla² I think it’s only fair that each submission should be typed twice.

Next up was the “behind the scenes” Playboy photoshoot with Maria, don’t get me wrong I will be very happy to see the pictures when they come out but considering we are on basic cable this was pretty much a waste of time for me. I’m sorry if I couldn’t care less of her designing her hood and clothes for shoot, but I just don’t.

Stevie Richards continued to hike the comeback trail, with the next roadstop being Mike Knox. All kidding aside with the match that Knox put on with Kofi two weeks ago and the match he put on tonight Knox is really doing God’s work and doing his jobber role to perfection in putting his opponent over. The beating he put on Kofi was by far the most Kofi has received yet and tonight he used some very good ring psychology in focusing on Stevie’s throat with his offense, something that I didn’t realize until Knox started that was not present in Stevie’s previous two matches. The first throat shot that Stevie took really brought me back to the first back shot that Shawn Michael’s took back in his comeback street fight with HHH at Summerslam (not that the match tonight held a candle to what I would rank as one of the 25 best WWE matched ever, just a similar feeling). The only, minor, complaint I had about this match was with the beating Richards was receiving it would have been perfect to end it with a Stevie kick out of nowhere as opposed to the Stevie T that they chose to end it with. However, if creative believes that only Michaels will have that type of kick as a finisher than the complaint is moot.

Before commercial Colin Delaney (congrats on the contract) made me laugh by being more concerned with getting his own entrance music than Dreamer’s pep talk about him being a champion at some time in the future.

Coming back from the break it is Tommy Dreamer and Delaney entering the Palace of Wisdom against Miz and Morrison, who are the only individuals on the brand I love more than Kofi, in a non-title match. Delaney continues to impress me with the amount of a beating he can take while Miz/Morrison just continue to use innovative double-team moves to perfection. Dreamer and Delaney actually picked up the win with Dreamer going of the Miz after a DDT. Backstage Lena Yada Yada Yada, who apparently is now an interviewer, informs us that there will be a rematch, for the titles, next week. As much as I am enjoying this angle I hope they don’t Holly/Rhodes’ it and have Dreamer and Delaney win, at least not yet as Miz and Morrison are absolutely perfect as the heel champs.

Chavo actually showed up tonight to do the commentary for the #1 contenders match and “scout” his possible opponents. This match was actually as good as I hoped that it would be, the only thing that dragged it down was that it was painfully obvious that Punk was going to win the match ever since it was announced. While I would say that it would have worked better as a fatal fourway with another credible face, I honestly can’t suggest anyone as both Kofi and Stevie were involved in good matches earlier, Dreamer is in the middle of his own program, and I don’t want anyone outside the brand involved in the title hunt. Punk did end up winning with a GTS on Elijah while Sisqo was outside of the ring and the show ended with a staredown between Punk and Chavo.

Overall I would rate this show a B+ and definitely was worth watching; the only thing dragging it down from an A was the predictable end of the main event as every other match on the card was both good and served its own purpose of advancing other storyline. However, for those who do not regularly tune in to ECW I would recommend doing it next week as there will actually be two title defenses, Tag and Heavyweight, and because of that next week is shaping up to be the best show of the short year. Until next week keep the comments and e-mails coming and don’t forget about the Kelly² Kontest.

I hope that y’all liked the prediction piece that I did with Chris and hopefully we can do it again for Wrestlemania and beyond. With Joey Styles mildly pushing Jamaican Buzzsaw as the name of Kofi’s finisher I have to ask whether you guys want to stay with “Trouble in Paradise” or would this just cause confusion? Secondly, though there were some good challengers, such as CAS’s submission of “The Walk of Fame” and Punkfan77’s suggestion of “The Sexy Slice” e-mailer Shawn has won the Morrison “Name That Finisher” contest with “The Swan Song” and will enjoy the immortality and hearty round of applause that goes with that victory. Sadly with no new finishers this week there is no contest, unless you want to give any early submissions on the Kelly² fameasser finisher. With all of that out of the way it is on to tonight’s show.

The show started out with Ric Flair coming to the ring to be interviewed by Tazz on how it feels to be the first ever active wrestler inducted into the Hall of Fame. However, before Ric could get very far into his promo he was interrupted by Elijah Burke who wanted to welcome Flair to “his” show. Now I really like Elijah and was very happy to see him on TV, but just the fact that I just had to type that makes it very hard for me to buy ECW as Elijah’s show. Burke was then interrupted by Shelton “Sisqo” Benjamin who in turn wanted to welcome Flair to the land of extreme. The segment ended with a beatdown on Flair that ended with a Punk save, ABC, but effective, booking that set up for the tag team main event.

Kofi went back to the well of joberville tonight, renting Jason Riggs. I love Kofi and am still extremely impressed with his athleticism but I though that this match was a step in the wrong direction, after taking on Mike Knox last week I had hoped for Nunzio or Balls Mahoney this week to start building Kingston up as an even more credible threat as one can only dominate no-names for so long before there must be a move up the ladder. Also, we have seen Kofi perform remarkably well on offense and defense, such as his impressive leapfrogs, but I would really like to see him in the ring against someone who will work over a body part so I can see him sell an injury. On the same note I would like to see him in a match that is given a little bit more time. Needless to say Kofi won with the Cool Runnings/Trouble in Paradise combo and I can only hope that the small amount of mic time he was given after the match is indicative of him moving up to more credible opponents. Personally I would put him in the ring with Elijah Burke for about a month, then move him onto Shelton, and finally onto Chavo if he is still with the brand, champ or not.

After the match there was a commercial for the new Stone Cold DVD and I’m very conflicted about buying it. While I am a very big fan of Austin’s, becoming more so after he retired and realizing how much I missed him, how can this DVD not include the I Quit match with Bret Hart at Wrestlemania 13, the match that even he states made him what he was and a match that is definitely in my top ten of all time.

Back from commercial the WWE production team worked their magic again in recapping the events of last night’s Raw involving JBL’s attack on Hornswaggle. I thought that the attack was a very good idea and very well executed as it would have been ridiculous if Hornswaggle could escape every trap set before him. I do have to admit that when I was watching it I kept on waiting for Jericho to come down and make a save but I guess that program is awkwardly over in a very anticlimactic fashion.

The Miz, with John Morrison, took on Colin Delaney, with Tommy Dreamer one on one. I guess that the WWE has not come out with their Wrestlemania 24 shirts as the innovator of violence was still schilling No Way Out. This match was very effective in advancing the story line and I appreciated the little things like Tommy coaching at ringside, telling Delaney to never turn his head in the ring. I might get killed for this, but I love watching the Miz (and Morrison) wrestle as they at least bring a little bit different moveset in with them, I especially like when Miz has his opponent in the 619 position and climbs their back, jumps over the top rope, and brings clotheslines the throat on the rope. It reminds me of the top rope clothesline that my favorite wrestler growing up, Macho Man, used to do and I have no idea why someone else hasn’t taken it yet. The Miz ended up winning the match and post match Morrison, who was kicked out for approximately 30 seconds, retuned to beatdown the underdog team. Again I think that this angle is a classic one and I am enjoying it more and more every week and I think that all involved are playing their parts perfectly, I hope that Dreamer and Delaney do not eventually win the tag straps but if they do at least it will be in a better fashion than Holly and Rhodes.

Kelly² talked about how she was glad Maria was doing Playboy and said that she wanted to do it in the future too, not really much more to add to that.

Stevie Richards won the obligatory second squash match of the night against James Curtis who was last seen two weeks ago doing the job to Kofi. Stevie went over with the StevieT and it is still great to see him in the ring. I would think it will be a major tossup between he and Kofi who takes that main face role one ECW once CM Punk is moved to another show, assuming rosters remain relatively the same.

The main event of the night saw Flair and Punk team up to take on Shelton and Elijah, I thought it was mildly amusing to see how excited Punk was to be teaming with Flair but I can’t say I blame him, I’d probably be worse. This match was going along great until Sisqo dropped Punk over the top rope in a rather obvious botch that set up the Flair hot tag, as when Punk got back in the ring they went back to the exact same position. Flair got the submission victory after Burke missed the Elijah Express and the Figure Four was locked in, afterwards he and Punk celebrated the victory in the ring.

This was a very average show that I thought opened effectively, kind of stagnated Kofi, did a good job advancing the Delaney/Dreamer-Miz/Morrison storyline as well as reintroducing Stevie Richards to the crowd, and had a very enjoyable tag match to headline the show. With that being said I am saying that it was average for one reason, where was the champ? The show after a PPV and there was barely a mention of Chavo and his victory over Punk. I love Ric Flair, he’s one of my favorites of all time, but this was less of a true ECW show than the Ric Flair show as his retirement angle completely buried the ECW title storyline. I do wonder if this would be the case if Punk wasn’t the only legitimate face on the brand, which would have allowed that other person to tag with Flair. I still am not sure that Flair’s retirement angle, as important as it is, should dwarf the title on a brand he is not even a part of, I guess we’ll have to wait until next week to see if their will be any explanation on where Chavo was.

Until next week, keep the comments and the e-mails coming let me and Chris know if you like our tag team prediction blog and let me know if I’m looking too harshly at the Flair guest appearance, which I very well might be…

I am expecting another solid outing from WWE here. Every match on the card has great potential and I am so hyped about both of the Elimination Chamber matches. I expect No Way Out to deliver big time just like the Royal Rumble. There is some doubt at this point if Rey Mysterio will be able to wrestle after his injury but for the purpose of this blog we will assume he will be. If he is not cleared expect a filler title match with someone like Kane with Edge retaining.

Hey it’s Aaron, I don’t know how excited I am for the Smackdown! Elimination Chamber, but I do think that the card presented here has PPV of the year potential if all of the matches deliver their promise.

Chavo Guerrero vs CM Punk – ECW Championship:

Chris’ Prediction: I fully expect to see this match open the show and I am not expecting it to be given that much time on the card which is a shame as I believe both these guys are capable of putting on a 5 star match. However I am still expecting a solid bout and I expect to see Chavo walking away as ECW champion albeit via DQ. This will set up a big match at Wrestlemania between Punk and Chavo. I fully expect either Edge or the Edgeheads to get involved here to help Chavo retain his gold.

Chris’ Predicted Winner: CM Punk via DQ (Chavo retains)

Aaron’s Prediction: I think that Chris is probably right in picking this as the match to open the show and I see it being given 10-15 minutes with some high spots to get the crowd into the action early. I’m picking Chavo to win here with Punk eventually claiming the belt back at ‘Mania because there are really no other (face)contenders at this point and I don’t see him continuing the feud with Chavo after he regains the belt, he’d probably move onto Shelton, but I don’t know if they’d have enough time to build it properly in a month. I see either a Punk victory by DQ or a double DQ or double-countout leading to an Extreme Rules match at Wrestlemania.

Aaron’s Predicted Winner: CM Punk via DQ

Ric Flair vs Mr Kennedy – Career Threatening Match:

Chris’ Prediction: This is an easy one to call. There is simply no way that Flair is losing this one and his career will continue to survive up until Wrestlemania. I fully expect to see a clean win for Flair here, possibly getting Kennedy to submit similar to the MVP match last month. I am expecting a solid match though and imagine Kennedy will be giving a lot of focus to Flair’s “injured” leg. Kennedy needs to move up into the main event picture after this match as he has truly developed into a top class heel on RAW and I expect big things from him in the future

Chris’ Predicted Winner: Ric Flair

Aaron’s Prediction: I don’t see there being any way that Flair loses this match, I don’t know if he’ll pick up the win cleanly though as I see the dirtiest player in the game tag coming back out. I am not in love with Kennedy as a main-event player yet and would unless the WWE is set on Michaels-Flair at Wrestlemania I think Kennedy would benefit by becoming obsessed with Flair after the loss and chasing him until a rematch at Wrestlemania. What I would love to see even more is an MVP interference with him facing Flair at ‘Mania with the obsession of taking him out as I believe he would be much more deserving of the rub, but with MVP’s involvement in the Elimination Chamber and the strong rumors of it being Michaels-Flair at Wrestlemania I don’t think this will happen.

Aaron’s Predicted Winner: Ric Flair (by the trunks)

Smackdown Elimination Chamber Match:

Chris’ Prediction: If you have been reading my Smackdown blogs you will know what a good job I think Smackdown creative have done in building this match. Whilst there may not be as many main event stars in this match I am still expecting it to be an awesome spectacle. That being said for me there is only one clear winner here and that is The Undertaker. I fully expect to see Edge facing Undertaker for the title at Wrestlemania and therefore the Deadman will destroy all opposition in this match. I predict that Undertaker and Batista will be the last two standing and they will steal the show with a great battle. Undertaker however will emerge victorious. Expect to see Big Daddy V starting the match and possibly Khali as there is no way either of these two could fit in the Elimination Chamber pods! I am expecting good things from both Finlay and MVP here as well with Finlay eliminating Khali and MVP eliminating Finlay. I really hope we get to see Big V and Khali fight each other as well as I believe their future belongs with facing each other.

Chris’ Predicted Winner: The Undertaker

Aaron’s Prediction: I sure hope you’re wrong about a potential Big Daddy V-Khali feud, I don’t think my eyes could take it. But seriously, two predictions that I feel comfortable in saying they will come true; on is that four men (V, Khali, MVP, and Finlay) have no chance of winning. I’m actually going to take Batista in this match as I don’t see the WWE wanting to end Taker’s winning streak at “Mania, but also can’t see them taking the belt away from Edge so quick. Also I don’t know if they would have time to build a good Batista-centered feud in a month but the Undertaker’s streak at Wrestlemania is already built in for them. I wouldn’t be surprised if Edge or the Edgeheads try to get in to interfere. The other prediction is that V will be one of the starters as there is no way his fat ass is fitting into a pod.

Aaron’s Predicted Winner: Batista (though Chris is probably right in picking Taker)

RAW Elimination Chamber

Chris’ Prediction: There is no doubt in my mind that this match will steal the show. I cannot remember a time where the four top faces (excluding the champion/number 1 contender) all featured in the same match. I expect to see Jericho and JBL starting things off with Jericho eliminating JBL to continue their feud and Jericho in turn being eliminated by Umaga. Triple H and Shawn Michaels may work together at some point to get rid of Umaga but after that I expect to see them go at it against each other and that will be something to see. Whilst Triple H seems to be the undoubted favorite here in most people’s eyes I am going to go with Jeff Hardy for the win. Jeff has been on such a great run despite losing at The Rumble. However after the 5 star match he put on with Shawn Michaels the other night on RAW WWE creative must surely realize that Jeff’s time is now. I still see Triple H and even possibly Orton involved at Wrestlemania in either a triple threat or a fatal four way but one thing that I want to see as a fan is Jeff Hardy headlining and winning the WWE championship at Wrestlemania.

Chris’ Predicted Winner: Jeff Hardy

Aaron’s Prediction: I agree with Chris that this will be the match of the night and one of the early favorites for match of the year if it reaches its potential and as much as I would love to see Jeff Hardy win and go onto headline ‘Mania I just can’t do it. JBL and Jericho will fight at ‘Mania so they’re out, Umaga is not headlining, and Jeff will probably be money in the bank (I see him eventually capturing the title at either One Night Stand or Summerslam) and Michaels is rumored to be facing Flair at ‘Mania, though I’d prefer a continued feud with Kennedy (or even better MVP). So with all of the out I would have to go with HHH to advance to the granddaddy of them all. Honestly I see this match playing out 3 ways, Hardy winning (with a Swanton off of a pod) to go with the underdog story or Michaels/HHH winning either with respect (if Orton retains) or turning on one of the other (if Cena captures the title). Also if Cena does win Hardy does not, its that simple.

Aaron’s Predicted Winner: Triple H

Edge vs Rey Mysterio – World Heavyweight Title:

Chris’ Prediction: There is no way in hell that the Rated R Era is coming to an end at No Way Out. I was pleasantly surprised at the match these two put on last time as I was not sure their different styles would work well together. As long as Rey is cleared to compete this should be a good match although if he is carrying an injury it may be a fairly short one. I expect to see some interference from The Edgeheads distracting the referee allowing Edge to pull some sort of dirty move to retain the title. This will then nicely set up the match I have been aching to see for so long Edge vs Undertaker at Wrestlemaina.

Chris’ Predicted Winner: Edge

Aaron’s Prediction: I’ll keep this as short as the match will probably be after Mysterio’s injury. There’s no way Edge is not at least going to Mania as champion and I’d be shocked if he didn’t walk out that way, no matter who wins the chamber. I’m sure we’ll see Vicky, the Edgeheads, or even Chavo returning a previous favor helps Edge to victory to keep Mysterio looking strong, that is unless the injury is serious and they have Edge just destroy Mysterio and “be responsible for putting him out of action” to make Edge look even stronger heading into Wrestlemania.

Aaron’s Predicted Winner: Edge

Randy Orton vs John Cena – WWE Championship:

Chris’ Prediction: The match that no one wanted to see so soon will without a doubt be the low point of the evening for me. Its not that Cena and Orton do not work well in the ring together, they really do. My problem with this match is there is no way that Orton will retain his championship. Cena will prevail and end up heading into Wrestlemania as WWE champion again. I really hope WWE creative will do the smart thing and have Orton get DQed to retain setting up a triple threat at Wrestlemania. However Cena love him or hate him is the top guy in WWE and after all the fuss made about his return there is no way I can see him not winning here. The match itself should be a solid one but I for one am dreading Monday’s RAW and the opening words of “The Champ is Here!!!!”

Chris’ Predicted Winner: John Cena

Aaron’s Prediction: I’m actually going against Cena in this one and picking Orton to retain, albeit through cheating or outside interference so they can have a big money Cena feud and big money title feud both coming to a head at ‘Mania. I’m actually picking a Kennedy interference under the reason being he’s sick of Orton being praised/blamed for putting Cena out when it was actually him. I know I’m probably wrong but I just got a feeling. Also I it has been too long since there was a face chasing a heel champion into ‘Mania to capture the title and really it is those victories that are the most memorable (and this could have been done if they just held this match back a month) so I see creative actually shocking people and look for Orton to retain with a face coming out of the Chamber to face him. However I do think that this will be a very good match that will likely be given the time that it needs, I just hope that it is this and not the Chamber that ends the show. Also, please let Orton enter second he is the champ and deserves it I am sick of WWE letting the individual with the bigger pop enter second irregardless of whether they are the titleholder or the challenger I know its ticky-tacky but it bothers me every time I see it.

Aaron’s Predicted Winner: Randy Orton

That’s all for this debut edition of The Talent Exchange. I hope you have enjoyed reading and please leave us your predictions and thoughts on the comment board. We will be interested to know what you think will happen at No Way Out.

Chris will be back later with Chris Reviews Smackdown and Aaron will be back on Wednesday with Guilty As Blogged. As always you can contact Chris on a_agreement_called_forever@hotmail.com or www.myspace.com/agreement_called_forever

And Aaron on

aaronshaw@nesl.edu

The show began with my ECW champion Chavo Guerrero coming to the ring to talk about how disgusting his swim in the Gulf of Mexico was last week, going so far as to insist that he now had a large rash. He then showed exclusive footage of his rescue as he apparently can’t swim, the clip culminated with him Drozing all over the dock/pier. After the clip Chavo insisted that he was a fighting champion who didn’t want to wait until Sunday, rather he wanted Punk tonight. This challenge brought out GM Estrada who, though he agreed that Punk did besmirch Chavo the past two weeks, refused to let the champ compete tonight. However he couldn’t in good conscience deny the crowd their weekly straightedge fix, so he booked Punk-Mark Henry for later on tonight. After doing the job to Cena the past two weeks, not to mention to Undertaker for the past month, exactly how much credibility does Sexual Chocolate have left? I guess he is still is physically imposing and the casual viewer may be impressed by him, but other than that I don’t know why Henry needed to be injected into the main-event feud on two different shows. Unless Punk is allergic to massive amounts of sweat I can’t see them having him lose cleanly.

After the break there was a recap of the Stevie Richards interview from last week that chronicled his throat injury and the many surgeries that were necessary to repair it. This all led to Stevie’s in ring return in a match with Rory Foxx, which was just a softball squash just used to get Stevie in the ring again. However, don’t take that the wrong way as I was just happy to see Stevie again, he could have been wrestling Moppy and I would have been happy. All I can hope for is that Stevie can have at least one run with the ECW title, or at the very least a credible main-event feud for the belt, before he is forced to retire. The match ended with Stevie hitting the Stevie T and I was happy to see both Stevie victorious and a shot at a Blue World Order sign in the crowd, which made me happier I’m still not sure.

In this week’s dose of ECW diva action Kelly² took on Layla, accompanied by Lena Yada Yada Yada, but sans Victoria, there was no mention about her absence (just the damage she inflicted on Kelly² last week) so I’m not sure what to really make of it. I don’t think she was ever officially traded to ECW but she seemed to be a pretty important part of the story line so if she’s not here or mentioned next week I’ll just assume she’s back on Smackdown!. As for the match I was much more impressed by Layla then Kelly² in the ring, as I think Joey Styles was, as we both seemed pleasantly surprised that she attempted a bit of ring psychology by focusing he attack on Kelly²’s arm. As is usually the case with any woman’s match not involving two of the big 4 (Beth, Mickie, Victoria, and Jillian) this match had its fair share of awkward moments and transitions but all in all was much better than I thought it would be when I saw who was competing. Kelly²’s no selling of her arm at the end of the match gets a mulligan from me as she is still very green in the ring and also may have been surprised that Layla focused on one body part. Kelly² ended up going over with a version of the fameasser/rocker dropper, and if it’s not named soon I smell another contest in the coming weeks.

To answer my prayers from last week Kofi actually got to wrestle someone who has had some history in ECW this week as he took on Mike Knox, and my love affair with Kofi is alive and well. From the twisting leapfrog that turned into a monkeyflip, to the Sisqo top turnbuckle leap, to the fact that he actually had to absorb an increased amount of offense I thought this was the best match the Kofi has had yet. He ended up going over Knox with the Cool Runnings/Trouble in Paradise combo running his record to four and zero. The only thing that I would like to see in the next few weeks is the separation of the moves, the Trouble in Paradise is a move that can come out of nowhere, much like the sweet chin music, and I’d like to see them play that up in a few spots.

Next up was a rematch from last week with John Morrison, with the Miz, taking on Tommy Dreamer, with Colin Delaney. Morrison came down before the commercial break and I was fretting that I never got to hear his amazing mike skills anymore, but luckily I got that treat on the other side of the break and he did not disappoint. I know a lot of you will think I’m joking, and I would in no way try to convince you he’s good on the stick in fact he’s quite awkward, but its because of that awkwardness that I could listen to his promos all night. The first time I heard him incorporate Shaman of Sexy, Tuesday Night Delight, and 15 Minutes of Fame into one run-on sentence made me so happy. Also there is no way you convince me there is a classier was to say you are going to kick someone’s ass then saying you will take them to the “Palace of Wisdom”. He told me to be jealous, and I was. The match ended when Dreamer reversed Morrison’s as-yet-to-be-named finisher into a DDT. Post-match Miz and Morrison beat down Delaney after eliminating Dreamer. Against my wishes I’m actually starting to get interested in this angle and for my money it is already better then the other mentor-student storyline with Holly and Rhodes on Raw.

Sweatxual Chocolate made me laugh when he told the guy backstage that he wasn’t going to a match, but a funeral. I guess after being present at a birth a few years ago it’s only fitting. I wonder if he gets that hand birthday presents…

The main-event was what one could expect out of a featured Mark Henry match, which is not much. Chavo came down ringside to cheer on Henry, but ended up eating a GTS to end the show after Henry lost via DQ when he would not break a chokehold on Punk in the ropes. I think that this would have been a great time to reintroduce the Anaconda Vice, man I love that move and its name, and I after having Henry job out to Cena last night I don’t see why they felt the need to protect him by the DQ ending.

Except for a lackluster main-event I thought that this was a very good show, probably the best of the year so far and as I suspected even though I didn’t enjoy the match the WWE promo team made that Gulf of Mexico match look like gold, whatever they are making it just isn’t enough. With nothing but its main-event feud with even a chance to make it to PPV this show did a good job promoting that match, while also advancing its other storylines with the return of Stevie Richards being my personal high point of the night. Let’s hear what y’all think and remember to vote or suggest something new for the Morrison finisher contest and keep your eyes out for that No Way Out preview…

Also, let me apologize if I seem a little out of it this week, I’m still getting over that painful Superbowl loss, but all credit goes to the Giants, they just flat out beat our brains in and showed they wanted it more. Why the Pats went for it on 4th and 13 instead of going for the field goal will be something I always question, but there are no excuses the Giants earned the victory and are the better team. Finally, I’m a little bit of a political junky and with today being Super Tuesday I’ve been flipping between all of the news channels all day. Now it is time for Guilty as Blogged.

The show opened up with Punk coming out to the ring to invoke his rematch clause and get a title match with Chavo tonight, after showing a video recap of the Mariachi segment from last week. It looks like Punk enjoyed that tremendous mustache almost as much as I did. With the gauntlet thrown out comes oooooo Chavo who talks about how disrespectful Punk was last week and informs him that he will not get his rematch until No Way Out, prompting me no applaud the fact that at least the rematch will be able to make a pay-per-view, especially if it is the blow-off match with the feud not carrying to Wrestlemania (which it very well may). However, Punk and Chavo will be fighting tonight as GM Estrada announces the first ever “Gulf of Mexico” match, all of the time with me trying to see if it was Vince Russo under the hat and sunglasses. The match will end when one of the participants is thrown into the Gulf of Mexico, and will be competed under “Extreme Rules” (thank you for that rather than no DQ Estrada). While I like both Punk and Chavo this match sounds like a recipe for a crowd-killing disaster. All I could think about during the commercial break was the Hardcore Championship match between Hardcore Holly and Al Snow at St. Valentine’s Day Massacre 1999 that ended up in the Mississippi River in Memphis, Tennessee.

The first match of the night was a diva’s tag match with Victoria and Layla, with Lena yada yada yada (still with no team name) taking on Kelly² and Michelle McCool. Coming off last week’s surprisingly passable match with Victoria I had high hopes for Kelly² but felt she regressed a bit this week as she looked to be concentrating a bit too much on her hitting her spots than staying within the flow of the match which just killed the psychology. I thought that McCool presented herself a lot better, but not near Victoria’s level, but felt that the WWE missed a golden opportunity to have either Palumbo or Noble appear during this segment to further their feud as again, with no men involved and no title on the brand there is no real point to diva matches, I’d much rather they all be given male superstars to valet for and have the occasional mixed tag match with, or be shipped to Raw if they are good in the ring, such Victoria is. With Vince’s apparent anointing of Kelly² as the diva of the future I wouldn’t be surprised if Victoria is on the brand exclusively for the reason of working with her so when she is eventually shipped to Raw she can have a passable match and they can someday put the Woman’s title on her. Anyway, the match ended with McCool not loving Layla and being too distracted outside of the ring to breakup the pinfall after Kelly² ate a widow’s peak. The crowd was absolutely dead for this match and with no real story to tell and shaky in-ring work there was no reason for them to get into it. I hate to say it but I’m starting to miss the choreography challenged Extreme Expose because you got the double bonus of seeing them and knowing they would be off the T.V, within 5 minutes.

Before the break they teased the upcoming Shelton “Sisqo” Benjamin-Kane rematch this week on Smackdown!. The only question I had about this was I was under the impression that Kane resided on ECW, rather than being part of the “talent exchange”, but a trip to wwe.com cleared that up. I don’t remember either Tazz or Styles referring to him as a Smackdown! superstar recently which probably explains my confusion.

Upon return from the commercial break it was time for John Morrison, with the Miz, to take on Tommy Dreamer, with Colin Delaney, stemming from Dreamer’s save of Delaney from the tag champions’ post-math beatdown of Delaney last week. Again, it might just be my memory failing, but I thought this was billed to be a tag match between the four. While Miz was dressed in street clothes and a scarf (I don’t know why) Delaney was out in his wrestling trunks and bandages to sell the injuries. This was an alright match with Morrison hitting a very pretty outside-inside dropkick to Dreamer who was on the apron. The match ended with Dreamer taking Morrison’s as-to-be-named finisher after saving Delaney from a Miz attack. A pretty good match and the furthering of a feud is all you could really ask for from the mid-card placement of this match and feud and the crowd was into it, even starting a “Tommy” chant a couple times.

Before the break Joey Styles had a sit-down interview with Stevie Richards who is returning next week from throat/neck surgery which all stemmed from Terry Funk dropping a bicycle stand on him in the original ECW back when Stevie was leading the Blue World Order. It’s sad when a 15 second clip of someone getting seriously injured is better than 75% of what is currently being put out on this brand. I hope that this results in Stevie getting a decent push as I have always enjoyed him throughout his career, even when he had the most annoying entrance in the business with Right to Censor.

Next up was the subject of last week’s Kofi Kontest who this week took on jobber James Curtis, who looked like he could fit right in with Cade and Murdoch. Curtis was given more offense than mini-Tomko and Rob Echo combined, mostly in targeting Kofi’s arm. But, much like the last two weeks this match was more about showcasing Kingston’s great athleticism which it succeeded in doing very well as he executed a great Sisqo-esque leap to the top turnbuckle, but seemed a little lost when he got up there. Kofi won after the Cool Running and Trouble in Paradise combination and I still love this guy. I’ll give him one more week to be visiting Joberville but after No Way Out he’ll have to move on to someone who at least has entrance music.

Finally, we got to see the “Gulf of Mexico” match and it was every bit as bad as I feared. Punk came out first dressed in street clothes with Chavo coming out next after borrowing Dreamer’s No Way Out promotional t-shirt, any reason he couldn’t be wearing his “Warrior” shirt that a guy in the crowd had on? Anyway, this was an extreme rules that featured no weapons, that’s really all that needs to be said. At one point Punk and Chavo fought to the back and no cameraman followed them, I guess Vince doesn’t pay them as much as he did during the Hardcore title days. After Punk and Chavo ran (I’m guessing here) to the nearest exit, and Tazz and Styles did a poor job filling the time, they fought into the street and Punk was thrown onto a car and kicked Chavo into the cameraman, leading it to fade to black and a commercial break. I’m usually not big on “commercial break placement” criticism, but it would have flowed much better to place the break while Punk and Chavo were booking it to the exit rather than have two awkward pauses in the match, especially so close to each other. The match ended with Punk hitting the GTS on Chavo, sending him into the water. The fishermen acted exactly as I, and I’m guessing many of you, did at home looking very uninterested in the fight going on right next to them. However, I’m sure the great WWE film/promo team will make the visual of Chavo on the drink look like gold.

All in all tonight’s show was average, maybe a little below, as the matches, aside from the Dream-Morrison one, weren’t that impressive but the show did do a good job of furthering the main-event feud and the Kelly²-Layla, Lena yada yada yada one, even if I think it is a weak one and would have booked a Palumbo or Noble appearance. Before I finish I wanted to address one of the comments from last weeks blog regarding my wish for ECW to have a secondary title where I believe it was Kingaj (?) who suggested that rather they adopt a Ring of Honor Style ranking system and I wanted to say that I think this is a great idea as it would give every match meaning. With that in mind I’ll debut my own ECW top ten and would be more than happy to read all of yours. Anyway, lets heat up the comment board and e-mails again as we have the Morrison finisher contest where the winner can have their fifteen minutes of fame.

ECW Top Ten

1.Chavo Guerrero (Heavyweight Champion)

2.CM Punk (#1 Contender)

3.John Morrison (Tag Team Champion)

4.Miz (Tag Team Champion)

5.Shelton Benjamin (Sisqo)

6.Kofi Kingston

7.Big Daddy V (fat)

8.Tommy Dreamer

9.Elijah Burke (At least he wrestled last week)

10. Stevie Richards (is there anyone else?)

As for Raw, I hate the decision to have Cena-Orton at No Way Out as to me it just craps on the achievement of winning the Rumble. With the PPV being 3 weeks away I could change my mind, but I see Orton going over Cena “reinjuring” him, allowing him to film his latest movie, and dropping the belt at “Mania to HHH or Hardy and having a great feud with a returning Cena without tying up the title in the process.

Now, onto the fiesta that was ECW.

The show started out with a recap of last week’s main-event, Chavo capturing the ECW heavyweight championship. As I said last week I have no problem with the change as it allows Punk to chase the belt, which should be more entertaining than his mismanaged reign with no real feuds to speak of.

The first match was Kane against Shelton “Sisqo” Benjamin, this stems from Sisqo’s elimination of Kane in last week’s over-the-top-rope challenge. I was wrong about Sisqo as I really though he would be the “ironman” in the Rumble to really lend some more credibility to his character, but he was eliminated very quickly by HBK, which Tazz somehow called a “major upset”… This match was pretty poor all around, while Sisqo’s leap to the top rope is impressive, it shouldn’t be used all the time as it desensitizes the audience to just how special it is. Sisqo hit a very sloppy superplex off of the jump in which he didn’t take the time to hook Kane’s arm. He then proceeded to target Kane’s leg, which Kane sold whenever he remembered it. Sisqo’s undefeated steak came to an end with a count-out loss which Kane seemed very upset about, but not so upset that he would follow Sisqo to the outside and breakup the count.

Next up was Kelly² against Victoria which when I saw just made me wonder why exactly we had to see a diva match on a show where they are competing for essentially nothing as there is no title to win or any male influence to further another feud. With that being said I was pleasantly surprised by Kelly² as she actually looked decent in the ring. I don’t know how much of this can be credited to being in the same ring as a great worker such as Victoria rather than another green diva in Layla but I was impressed nonetheless. She did a very good job flipping around the ring in selling Victoria’s offense and when she did get in her own offense it didn’t seem too forced. I was glad to see they did not give her the win however. The crowd seemed pretty into this match but quickly deadened with the weak post-match attack of Kelly² by Layla and Lena yada yada yada, who seem to have formed some kind of alliance with Victoria, but again unless they get a “Meat” ala P.M.S. what use is a female stable on a show without a female championship. One other thing that I did take not of was during the match Styles noted that Victoria “could be the only diva that could match up with the Glamazon”, which kind of a shot at Mickey who is probably still the #1 contender for the belt.

Next up was Colin Delaney against Miz and Morrison and I just don’t care. One, I have no use for this angle at all, and two it is bad enough that the tag teams straps aren’t ever defended on Raw, why waste the other championship team with this tripe. One other thing that bothered me is that the tag team champions should have a joint entrance, if not a team name, if they are to be seen as anything more than a transitional team. Post match Dreamer came down to stop a further beating of Delaney, unless this results in some kind of feud for the belts this was a worthless segment.

Punk fought a returning Elijah Burke, who I was very happy to see, in a pretty lackluster match; no word if control of the New Breed was up for grabs. I must say that as much as this match was mediocre throughout I loved the end which saw Punk catch a leapfrogging Elijah on his shoulders for the GTS in a very cool visual.

Next up was another squash match which saw Kofi Kingston square-off against Rob Echo(?). Let me just say that I love Kofi, everything about him is fun to watch, this was the definition of a squash match but it was highly enjoyable solely because Kofi is fun to watch. Kofi went over with the people’s legdrop, insiguri combo again. After last week’s rant I was happy to see Kennedy’s finisher get a name in the “Mic Check”. With that in mind I’d like to name Kofi’s finisher until we are given an actual name and if we think ours is better we’ll stick with it. E-mail any suggestions to me at aaronshaw@nesl.edu (with title as Kofi Kontest) and I’ll give some of the highlights in next week’s blog and unveil the winner. If this works out, and we still haven’t been given one, we can do Sisqo’s finisher next week.

The show concluded with Chavo’s championship fiesta in which he was introduced by GM Armando Estrada; I really wish they had kept Estrada as Umaga’s mouthpiece, as much as I do love the Samoan scream, as he really seems to have been lost in the shuffle since Estrada’s departure. I know a lot of people had a problem with Chavo’s entry into the Royal Rumble and so did I, but for a different reason. I have been waiting for a while for a heel champion to enter himself in the Rumble so that he could face himself at ‘Mania. If Chavo had brought this up as his reason for entering I would have loved it, but as it was barely mentioned his involvement did nothing but devalue the title. Edge appeared via satellite to give Chavo his present of a highlight package of Chavo’s WWE career, culminating in last week’s win. The show went off the air when CM Punk, dressed up as part of the in-ring Mariachi band (with a tremendous mustache) Jarretted Chavo and stood over his prone body, ensuring that this feud will continue, hopefully we’ll at least get a pay-per-view match this time.

Overall this was a pretty weak show aside from Kofi and the great visual of seeing Punk in a mariachi outfit, sombrero, and extremely fake mustache. This show is dying for a secondary belt, like the return of the TV title, or a declaration that the tag team straps now reside on ECW because with no feuds besides the main-event one there is really no reason for other matches to occur, especially between people who have no shot at the belt. If they do decide to put the tag belts there they should unite the belts and make ECW a show with two tag matches, a mid-card feud or two, and a main-event feud. Regardless this is a problem in all three brands as someone really needs to remind the writers that to make viewers care about the action and watch throughout the show we need to be given some kind of story behind the matches. A few mid-card stables could do the industry wonders.

Signing off from the land of extreme, let’s keep the comments going and don’t forget to e-mail about the Kofi Kontest.

ECW opens with a recap of last weeks main event showing Edge attacking CM Punk with the belt and costing him the match against oooooo Chavo and setting up tonight’s main event. So far I have liked the matches during this feud but have not really like the overall booking. I feel a couple of tag matches could have been booked, for instance one this week between Edge/Chavo and Rey/Punk to save the title match for the pay-per-view. It shows just how far the prestige of the ECW title has fallen when it can’t even garner curtain-jerking status for a pay-per-view.

The first match was an Over-The-Top-Rope challenge featuring Kane, the Miz, John Morrison (with the best entrance in the business), Tommy Dreamer, and Shelton “Sisqo” Benjamin. Early in the match Dreamer attempted to eliminate Sisqo but was thwarted by Morrison, this would have made more sense if Dreamer was trying to eliminate Miz, but in either case why would Morrison want to save his competition? I guess heels stick together. Dreamer was the first man eliminated and a three-on-one attack on Kane ensued culminating in Sisqo’s finisher which Joey Styles referred to as an “inverted bulldog” but looks suspiciously like a jumping downward spiral, which may or may not have become the finisher of choice for wrestlers with no credible main-event finisher, i.e. Mr. Kennedy. If Edge couldn’t make it work neither can these two, especially if they are not given some sort of gimmick name. If Shelton is the “Gold Standard” call it a “Drop of Gold” or something for in most cases a finisher without a name is a finisher that will eventually be dropped. Sisqo eventually wins after he “skins the cat” and pulls Kane to the outside. All in all it was a pretty good match to start the card and did an effective job of getting people into a Royal Rumble type match.

Back from the break we are shown the Rambo sponsored flashback to newcomer Lena Yada declaring herself the winner of the dance-off between Layla and Kelly². Let me say that when I saw the uncut trailer for this movie over the summer it just blew my mind. I just bought the Rambo trilogy for $15 with a free ticket to this movie included and I will definitely go this weekend, maybe a matinee before the Rumble. Anyhoo, Coach decided now would be a good time to pollute the airwaves and is in the ring to be the judge of the “Best Body Contest” between the three aforementioned ladies. In my book Layla won this thing hands down, but the crowd crowned face Kelly² like they were supposed to. The crowd and I can agree on one thing though with their complete lack of reaction of any kind to Lena. Whether during her “dancing” or the post-dance beat down of Kelly² I don’t think I have seen less display of emotion. The good news is if this keeps up she can soon be saying hi to Brooke and Ariel on the ECW diva scrapheap. It’s sad when Coach is the high point of the segment (never thought I’d say that) but at least his dance brought back memories of he, the Rock, and the Charleston.

Kofi Kingston debuted next, looking like he stepped right out of the Cool Runnings casting line, facing mini-Tomko aka local wrestler David Owen. I am digging Kofi very much though as it’s always nice to see someone who is athletic and wrestles in a slightly different style then most of the roster. The highlights of this match included an impressing Sisqo-esque jump by Kofi onto the top rope, what looked to be the people’s leg drop, and a front insiguri that picked up the win for the man from Jamaica, despite Tazz’s insistence throughout the match he was from the Bahamas, but in Tazz’s defense its not like there have been weeks of vignettes to hype his debut. Typical first match squash with mini-Tomko not looking very polished, I am interested to see what they will do with Kingston and anyone that takes TV time away from Big Daddy V is ok by me.

Coming back from the break there was a great promo for the Royal Rumble match that cited very important numbers, such as there have been more winners that entered 27 than any other number. Just a quick preview of the Rumble, which I am pretty excited for:
MVP vs. Flair “Career Threatening Match”
There is absolutely no way that Flair is losing this match as his last run
will last at least until Wrestlemania. With that said I would be surprised to see him go over the United States Champion cleanly as a DQ victory may be in store. I am also expecting Matt Hardy to make some sort of appearance at the event and if they want to rekindle the MVP-Version 1.0 feud having Hardy cost MVP the chance to end Flair’s career would be a good way to do it.
Winner: Flair

JBL vs. Y2J
Just as there is no way Flair is losing I don’t see anyway that this ends in anything except a DQ finish as this is a feud that may culminate at ‘Mania with a possible “Texas Bullrope” match layover at No Way Out to piggyback on JBL’s beatdown of Jericho two weeks ago. I believe they will have the Ayatollah snap and get himself DQed with JBL taking a major beating.
Winner: JBL (by DQ)

Rey Mysterio Jr. vs. Edge “World Heavyweight Title”
I see Edge winning with the help of the Edgeheads and a possible swerve Chavo where Mysterio is in trouble, Chavo runs down with Cole marking out about their history and Chavo helps with the beatdown. This could lead to a cage match at No Way Out if they want to continue the feud until the #1 contender for Edge’s title at Wrestlemania is determined.
Winner: Edge

Jeff Hardy vs. Randy Orton “WWE Title”
This is the toughest title match since the Orton-Cena match at Summerslam for me to call. My instinct is to say that Orton goes over, probably via DQ so not to kill all of Hardy’s momentum. However, I would love to see Jeff win the strap as I feel he can legitimately carry the title despite his lack of great mike skills (see his respect tour on Raw this week as evidence of this). Also was I the only one laughing when he went on the respect tour of the entire ringside crew, looked directly at Mark Yeaton, but could not bring himself to say he respected him. Personally I think Yeaton died a little inside when they stopped announcing the time limits for every match. If Jeff does go over, and Matt does not appear in the Flair-MVP match, I could see the victory coming with a major assist from his brother. Also don’t rule out a heel turn by Matt in allying with Orton and feuding with his brother if HHH talks his way into a title match at Wrestlemania and they still want to keep Jeff high profile.
Winner: Randy Orton (by DQ)

Royal Rumble Match
After reading that the Rumble winner is most likely coming from Smackdown! One would have to take the Undertaker as the repeat winner. If they end up going with a winner from Raw it would have to be HHH, just because I can’t seem him passing up the main event at “Mania. I would be absolutely shocked if it was anyone besides these two, with the possible minor exception of Batista if they feel ‘Taker is an injury risk.
Winner: The Undertaker

Back to the show, Tazz is in the ring with Colin Delany and I am feeling very tempted to change the channel as they are showing a recap of Colin’s past “matches”. This week Colin gets to face the Great Khali, accompanied by Arab Bischoff, making his triumphant return to the land of extreme. This absolutely killed the crowd energy, leaving me to wonder if there was any reason Elijah Burke couldn’t have had this match. After the match Styles’ commented that these matches were getting uncomfortable to watch, if he was referring to Khali’s matches than I am in complete agreement. Honestly unless Delany is going to eventually get a win soon ala the 123 Kid then these segments/squashes are really just a waste of everyone’s time and a guaranteed crowd killer and channel turner. At least the sight of Edge heading down to the ring before the break got me back into the show a little.

Back from the break Tony Chimel announced that this match would be no disqualification, seeing as we are in ECW I would have much preferred it announced as being contested under “extreme rules”. The fact that all ECW title matches are not under such conditions is a rant for another time. The story of this match was Chavo’s attack of Punk’s ribs, culminating in Edge spearing Punk in those injured ribs after he had delivered the GTS to Chavo, meaning the winner and MY new ECW champion oooooo Chavo. I am very happy about this and am curious whether Punk will attempted to regain his title or jump to Smackdown! to gain revenge on Edge who attained HHH’s goal near the end of Evolution to have his stable control two different shows. The show went of the air with Chavo, Edge, Vicky, and the Edgeheads celebrating in the ring, but not before Vicky forgot she was in a wheelchair and started beeboppin’ and scottin’ all over the ring until her wheelchair was brought into the ring for her.

Overall I thought that this was a very good show, but it is a shame that the title change couldn’t have happened at the Rumble. Hopefully a rematch will be announced this Friday for the Rumble, if it is I see Chavo retaining. The title change was unexpected for me as I fully believed Mysterio would show up to thwart Edge’s interference. I can’t remember the last time all of the heavyweight champions were all heels, but I expect it to stay that way until Wrestlemania with three babyface chase stories.

Until next week, y’all stay classy