Draft Results & Night of Champions

WWE held their 2008 Draft on Monday night and I was zero and whatever in picking who was to be drafted. I'm ok with that. So, some of the big names changing brands include HHH to Smackdown, Batista to RAW, Matt Hardy to ECW, Umanga to Smackdown, Kennedy to Smackdown and Kate to RAW. The biggest surprise of the night was the announcer swap of Jim Ross to Smackdown and Michael Cole to RAW. I can wrap my brain around the swap because Cole is the person to shoulder the announcing duties of the WWE for the next ten years. Corporate just needs to find the modern day equivalent of Jerry "The King" Lawler to do color commentary. I like having Mick Foley doing the color duties on Smackdown as he is very knowledgeable about the biz and I think Foley and Ross will do well with each other. I just hate not having Good Ole JR on Monday Nights.
HHH going to Smackdown makes sense as Stephanie runs the show and with her about to have a baby, HHH will most likely take over some of the creative duties. Which leads to this Sunday's Night of Champions PPV.
Now that almost every title holder (save Edge) has switched brands, this Sunday's PPV should see oodles of title changes. The marquee match (HHH vs. Cena) will most likely see a title swap and maybe an injury angle on HHH's part as he is expecting a new child (Mozel Tov!). Edge vs. Batista could see a title change as well to get a main title on each show.
The Tag Team Championship (Bob Holly & Cody Rhodes) should change hands to Teddy Jr. and his secret partner (rumored to be the son of Davey Boy Smith). I think the WWE should create a stable of the sons (and daughter) of WWE Legends. Have Randy Orton be the leader and then bring back their parental units (Davey Boy RIP) to battle it out.
-Wrestling Geek

2008 King of the Ring Thoughts

On April 21, WWE ran a three hour RAW on USA Network. It was during this show that a new King of the Ring was crowned. At one point, the King of the Ring was a WWE Pay Per View event. For the last couple of years, the WWE has stretched the KotR tournament over a few weeks on RAW. On Monday, they returned to the single night format.
I believe King of the Ring has found its identity on RAW.
Now, to the gripes. It would have been nice to have the KotR determine the #1 contender for a title. It seemed like most of the superstars in the tournament already had storylines going for them. CM Punk was the winner of the Money in the Bank ladder match at WrestleMania XXIV. MVP has a feud with Matt Hardy. Chris Jericho is the Intercontinental Title holder and will be the special referee for the Michaels/Batista match at Backlash. William Regal is the current General Manager of RAW. It would have been nice for some of the talent who didn't have ongoing storylines to participate in the KotR.
William Regal winning the tournament isn't horrible for me. I can see how the new title could play into his role as GM of RAW. I was really pulling for Finlay as this could have been the start of a new angle for him as his WrestleMania XXIV opponent JBL is working the fatal four way at Backlash. We'll see what King Regal does at the PPV.

Y2J Added to the Mix

The fallout of Rick “Wooooooo” Flair’s retirement story comes to a head at WWE’s Backlash. Scheduled for the show is RAW’s Shawn Michaels versus Smackdown’s Batista. HBK is doing penance for winning his WrestleMania XXIV match with Flair, thus retiring the Nature Boy. WWE began an angle between HBK and Dave “The Animal” Batista the next day. Batista’s beef with Shawn is that the Heart Break Kid should have “thrown the match” so that Rick could continue to be in the ring, performing. Batista is blaming HBK for taking Flair away from him.
This is a very organic way to develop a feud from the retirement angle. I was hoping that this would continue through out the summer and then culminate with the SummerSlam PPV. On the April 14 edition of RAW, the feud took a different turn. Thanks to some pointed jabs at HBK during Chris Jerico’s Highlight Reel (and sweet chin music to Jerico’s jaw), Y2J is now the special guest referee for the match between HBK and Batista. During the match, Shawn will have the upper hand against The Animal. At some point, Jericho will administer the Code Breaker finishing move on HBK, giving the win to Batista.
Here now is the real SummerSlam marquee event… HBK vs. Y2J. Now, will this be a battle for the Intercontinental Title or just a straight grudge match? I will have to go with “grudge” on this one as Shawn is a little above holding the IC Title. But it will be one hell of a match.

WrestleMania 24 is over, now what?

WrestleMania is in the books for another year. The spectacle of all spectacles is the culmination of storylines and feuds that started with the Royal Rumble or before. The Royal Rumble begins the Road to WrestleMania, No Way Out should continue the WrestleMania storylines, WrestleMania is the biggest event of the year and then Backlash serves as a postscript to the big event.

The week after the Backlash PPV should serve as a fresh start for the company. On each of the three flagship shows (RAW, ECW, Smackdown), the WWE should conduct a weeklong draft. Each show gets five draft picks. The draft picks would come from the two other shows.

I was very against the brand separation when it began a few years ago. Lately, I’ve been seeing lots of WWE superstars crossing over. Is this due to the brand separation not working out or was it because of the lead-up to WrestleMania? Now that the three shows have their own identity, it makes sense that the superstars keep to their own shows. So when a superstar does go on one of the other shows, it means something.

New faces and new storylines would be a great new start for WWE fans.

If He Wins, We Lose

There is a reason they call him “The Showstopper”. Shawn Michaels repeatedly gives the best performance in every WrestleMania in which he has a match. He has had his triumphs, but many times, he has come up with the short end of the stick. Despite his great performances, he has lost his matches in WrestleMania X, XIV, XX and 23. Shawn is due for a win at WrestleMania. That’s where the conflict comes in.

The Heart Break Kid has a match with the legendary Rick Flair at WrestleMania XXIV. The stipulation for this match is that the next match Rick Flair loses, he will be forced to retire.

Let’s think about the ramifications of a Shawn Michaels’ win at WM24. The first and most obvious is he will be forever be known as “The Man Who Forced Rick Flair Out of the Business”. This would put Shawn’s “face” status at risk because everybody reveres The Nature Boy. This could also organically grow into a feud with Triple H because of the bond H and Natch’ share.

If Shawn Michaels loses, Rick Flair lives to wrestle another day and no conflict would come from the match.

Since HBK has had more than his share of conflict during his fantastic career and since Flair is being inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame, there is only one outcome for this match… Shawn Michaels will end Rick Flair’s in-ring career. But as we have seen before, anything can happen.

Why Jeff Hardy, Why?

Reports are coming out today that Jeff Hardy has been suspended by the WWE for 60 days for violating the company's drug wellness policy. This comes as a shocking surprise as the rainbow-haired warrior was enjoying a big push by the WWE. Hardy was doing everything right in breaking out as a mid-card wrestler and becoming main-event worthy.
He enjoyed a huge push for the No Way Out pay-per-view for challenging Randy Orton for the title in the main event. His Swanton Bomb off the scaffolding on RAW will be on the 2008 highlight reel. He was doing everything right.
That's why his loss of the Intercontinental Title to Chris Jericho on the 3/10 episode of RAW was such a shock. It makes sense now, Jeff will be off the air for two months. And it couldn't have come at a worse time for him. He was to have competed in the Money in the Bank Ladder Match at WrestleMania XXIV... say goodbye to that payday and to a match at the Backlash PPV. I was really pushing for Jeff to win this year's MitB match and get another shot at the title. Meanwhile, the company is less likely to push you upon your return, if you return at all.
On the positive side, Hardy has two months to sit at home and heal up and then explode on his return to the WWE. On the negative side, he has 60 days to loose his fire and realize there is life outside of wrestling. I am hoping for the former.

What's Our Theme Music Again?

One thing the WWE has been able to do is able to do is find great PPV theme music. Take the past few WrestleMania shows. Shinedown's "I Dare You", Saliva's "Ladies & Gentlemen" and even Peter Gabriel's "Big Time" all worked for promoting the shows. That's why I was a little worried when the WWE announced that the Red Hot Chili Peppers "Snow (Hey Oh)" was the official theme song of WrestleMania XXIV. As much as I love the Chili Peppers, I'm just not seeing Jeff Hardy jumping off the top of a ladder while "Snow" is playing. It just lacks the edge of past songs. Unless the WWE has the Chili Peppers playing live at WM24, they should just drop the song. Besides, there are other Chili Peppers songs that would work.

Thankfully, somebody at corporate saw the problem. Now, Rev Theory's "Light it Up" has been added as "one of WM24's theme songs". This song is the "edge" song that is befitting of the Granddaddy of Shows. "Light it Up" has been getting lots of spins during RAW/ECW/Smackdown broadcasts and "Snow" has been pushed to the background.