This is the time of year when I don't really pay much attention to WWE's product (generally happens between January and December). So I haven't seen much of the build-up to Sunday's Judgment Day show.
Of course, I'd still be happy to post a little something about how bad I think the card is ...
I've already blogged about how horrible this whole "stripping Undertaker of the title" storyline idea is ... but now I realize why they did it. Triple H vs. Randy Orton wasn't going to draw flies, even in a cage, so having a match where you know a new champion will be crowned is the only way to intrigue the fans even a little bit.
I mean, look at how Triple H has been protected this year. In January, he was just one player in a 30-man match. In February, he was just one player in a six-man match. In March, he was just one player in a three-man match at the biggest show of the year. In April, he was just one player in a four-man match. And this month, he's in an actual one-on-one match -- with the protection of a separate match for a vacant world title to actually be the attraction.
I'll blog sometime soon about why I think Triple H as champion is a bad, bad idea, but for now, I'll just stick with the predictions for this Sunday's show:
Edge vs. Undertaker for the vacant world title: It makes sense for Edge to win the title. Why else strip Undertaker of it? An Edge win is heat for Edge and gives Taker a logical return match. I think you'll see a Taker win here though, for the simple reason that he's due for another long run with some fresh faces, and also because from a booking standpoint, it makes little to no sense.
If they do put the title on Taker, I'd like to see them do another draft, with some fresh heels moving to SmackDown, and with Edge moving to Raw, mostly because Edge vs. Triple H is one of the few big-money feuds we still haven't seen.
Speaking of which:
Triple H vs. Randy Orton for the WWE Title in a cage: Triple H will retain. Makes no sense for Orton to win it -- if he was only going to be titleless for a month, why take it off him in a meaningless four-way to begin with?
The Miz and John Morrison vs. Kane and CM Punk -- I think the champions will retain when the challengers somehow cost themselves the match (Kane hits Punk by accident, etc), leading to a Kane vs. Punk match down the line. I just hope they don't waste the "Money in the Bank" shot on an ECW Title match, effectively killing the "Money in the Bank" gimmick for the second year in a row. And what if they do a think where Miz and Morrison beat the living heck out of Kane, and then after the match, Punk cashes in his shot and beats his own partner for the title?
John Cena vs. JBL -- Cena goes over.
Women's Title match -- Don't care.
IC Champion Chris Jericho vs. Shawn Michaels -- Will either end in a DQ/countout, or Jericho will retain. There is absolutely no reason to put the title on Michaels. I do think this will be the match of the night.
And I do think WWE has dropped the ball again by not showcasing King William Regal.
What do you guys think?
Comments (8)
I think it could be a decent pay per view. Keep in mind that HBK-Y2J isn't for the title. Either way I think Jericho needs a win, since he's been losing lately and HBK has been winning lately. Then he can go into a feud with Jeff Hardy.
And I think Kane and CM Punk might actually win the titles so tension will build between them even more and it'll give WWE more time to think of what they're actually gonna do with CM Punk, because I believe there isn't a good plan, unless they are planning on him vs. kane at one night stand.
I agree with Quinn on both accounts.
I think Jericho needs to win this match. Since returning he hasn't been able to secure a decisive victory on PPV. Sure, he beat Orton by DQ at Armageddon and he accumulated two of the five pinfalls in the Elimination Chamber match at No Way Out, but he hasn't come out of any PPV match ahead and seems stuck in a rut.
As for CM Punk and Kane. This could easily go both ways. I don't see them wasting the "Money in the Bank" title shot on the ECW Championship. But, I assume they'll spend a few months teasing that they are. It would make perfect sense to put the Tag Team Championships on these two in "strange bedfellows" type of way and add tension between them.
I would like to see Edge back on Raw. Unless they plan another fued between him and Matt Hardy. I don't think there is much left for him to do on Smackdown and there seems like more options for him on Raw. Between long awaited fueds with Triple H and Randy Orton, and a possible fued with Jeff Hardy. It just seems like there is much more he could do on the Raw brand.
I'd say HHH is only champ because Cena can't work house shows, and HHH is just the placeholder face champ because they want a heel to take it off of him. I'm begging for Regal. This allows them to do HHH vs Regal. They could have done some triple threat or something to go straight from Orton to Regal, but maybe a year long heel reign wouldn't have pleased fans, and the company may have thought they'd just throw in a 'happy ending' somewhere just to balance it out. I can't see this being a long HHH reign in any case. He'll either drop it in a couple of months to Cena or Regal IMO.
I agree that the reason they stripped Taker was to make their title match more interesting. If they didn't strip Taker it would have been your typical annual 'new babyface champ retains for the next 2 months' kind of match. This gives real chance that Edge wins.
Is Y2J/HBK for the IC title? I didn't think it was. WIll be a good match though, hopefully Batista appears and absolutely destroys HBK.
I'm looking forward to the tag match, it could spawn an interesting story whichever way they go. If PunKane wins, you have the whole trust issue as Punk is MITB holder, if Miz/Morrison win, you're gonna have them both claiming they deserve an ECW title shot, and perhaps there will be inklings of a split - even though they are gold together.
Well, I'm interested in hearing why you think HHH is the wrong choice to be champ. I actually thought we were past all the HHH hate after 3 years of him wrestling midcard.
As far as the PPV card goes, it's been a while since I've actually wanted to pay for one other than 'Mania or Rumble, but I don't think this is a terrible card.
HHH should retain. Orton is a decent talent all around, but I've never thought he was the kind of guy who was a convincing champion. He had a good couple of months, but its time to move on.
Edge/Taker is a toss up. It does not make sense to strip Taker and put it right back on him, other than that it might generate a few extra PPV buys. Edge has more potential as champ, but I think it might be good to cool him off for a while. 4 short World Title reigns don't really add up to a legacy, and I think adding a 5th so soon might not do anything for Edge or the belt. I think Orton would be great to swap brands to shake things up a little. Add him to the World Title feud w/ Taker, and have a series of matches between the 3 guys, every time in some way Orton and Edge could cost each other the win over Taker. Done right, thats a 3 way feud that could easily go 3 or 4 PPVs.
Tag Title match is kind of meh. The reason WWE doesn't seem to have a great plan in place for Punk is that Punk wasn't supposed to win MITB. He was the only one in MITB that made any sense at all to put it on after Hardy got suspended. If they wanted to do something interesting creatively with Punk, they should have Hardy make another attempt at apologizing to the fans like he did on Monday's Raw, and have Punk interrupt him. Punk could then brag about his "Straight-Edge" lifestyle, rub it in to the "druggie" Hardy, and make a heel turn with it. Punk's gimmick is so much like early Kurt Angle that they need to utilize it. Have the two of them wrestle in 3 PPV matches. Put Punk over on the first 2, then have Hardy win the last one, this time with the breifcase on the line. Punk gets a rub for beating Hardy a couple times, and Hardy gets back to where he was pre-suspension. This of course is dependent upon WWE to take a leap of faith on Hardy again.
Jericho has the IC Title. The only way to really generate heat for Jericho is to put him in IC Title matches. He and Michaels are going to have a great match no doubt, but Michaels will either win, or Jericho and Batista both will put Michaels down for the count. Either way, Jericho doesn't come off looking strong. Jericho's return was one of the most interesting storylines WWE has had in the last few years, and I think a lot of people, myself included, think WWE waited too long for him to make his return. If he would have appeared 3 or 4 weeks sooner while the story was hot, he would have been over huge. By the time they pulled the trigger, people had grown tired of being teased. That said, they put him in a program immediately with Orton, which was a dead end for him because they weren't gonna put the belt on him. Kind of hard to have a triumphant return without the triumph part. Jericho should have been placed in a feud he could actually win to start his return off. Best thing to do now is have Jericho narrowly beat many upper-midcard guys in IC Title matches to build his heat OR get really creative and put the ECW Title on him. If ANY Superstar can make the ECW Title interesting, it would be Jericho. You could even have him take the title on Raw or Smackdown and antagonize the other rosters, rather than relegate him to "C" show status. Having a Jericho/Kane program, with Jericho playing the role of the sneaky heel who barely squeaks by with a victory, would do wonders for both guys, as well as the ECW Title.
Cena needs to feud with Batista. I know, most people would hate this match on paper but the fact is Cena has managed to put on some good matches, Batista has really suprised with some of his performances, and the two guys were the figureheads of the company for a while, so to have them play off each other could be fun to see. For the record, I'm not a Batista fan, just working with what they got.
Michaels....I'm probably gonna get flamed for this but he's the guy that should be WWE Champ. Turn him heel. Have him double cross Triple H and win the title. Better yet, have the Hardy/Punk feud end with Hardy winning the MITB shot, then have him lose it under dubious circumstances to Michaels. Then have HHH and Michaels on the same side of an Elimination Tag at Survivor Series. They win, last two Survivors on the last match of the night. While they celebrate, Michaels hits the superkick, Regal counts HHH down and declares Michaels the new champ after cashing in the MITB opportunity. Then rather than re-ignite the Michaels, HHH feud for a long period of time, have HHH get caught in a feud with Regal. (Oh and give Regal a fighting chance this time, not like the First Blood Match a few months ago.)
Then Michaels should dominate the brand until Mania.
The final match of Wrestlemania 25 should be Hardy vs. Michaels for the belt. Have Hardy win the Rumble and go on to beat Michaels. End it like Mania 10 with Hardy being toasted by the rest of the roster for his win.
Oh, and then have him and Matt do a program, with Matt as the heel.
After watching SmackDown, I'd be shocked if Jericho-HBK didn't involve Batista shenanigans.
I'm gonna say something I never thought I would say...
I think HHH should have the title from now until Wrestlemania.
Bear with me... I think he should run through everyone, not literally squash everyone, but come out on top, find a way to win PPV after PPV for the rest of the year. And gradually develop into the egomaniacal heel that we all love to hate because of his huge success. And he should beat all the major baby faces - Cena, Hardy, Jericho (unless he goes heel), etc. Oh, and definitely Michaels, with perhaps a storyline of him trying to put HBK out forever like Flair.
Then, the man who has the potential to be the biggest face in WWE IMO... Mr. Kennedy... comes waltzing into 'Mania to beat the egotistical, backstabbing, corporate champ HHH for the gold.
I can understand why people would hate this idea, and part of me does to. But I think for Kennedy's sake this would get him over better than a win over anyone else. Or anyone for that matter who would finally beat Trips.
The bottom line, HHH plays a great heel, and that's what he should be.
No Regal v. Kennedy, no Santino, no MVP or Hardy? What about Shelton and Wang? There booking is killing me this month... After WM I really thought things were looking good, but they did this last year too... Bummer...
And its obvious that the eventual Cena v. HHH angle is the one there banking on going into the summer... Even though it would have made perfect sense at Mania. After all, Orton winning didn't mean anything a month later...
It is as if the WWE doesn't actually want anyone to buy this PPV. There was virtually no push on TVs for it, and it is little more than a Backlash redux. They break apart the Fatal Four Way this time with JBL/Cena, as if anyone cares how this will play out. JBL has been horrid in his return, even his promos have been substandard. HHH/Orton...it's too early for a cage match. I think the feud could have had potential if they'd have built it better, culminating maybe in a SummerSlam Hell in a Cell where Orton won back the title. I agree its too soon to put it back on Orton after taking it from him. The Taker-strip felt weak (or in the words of Cena's-Regal promo "WCW Thunder bad", especially if Taker wins).
Creative is doing some good things. The Kennedy face turn was needed and I like the stuff he's doing with Regal. I don't mind them going more slowly with this, but they need to focus the Regal-power stuff in a better way, especially since they have 2 other brand GMs doing the same thing.
I also like the program with HBK-Jericho-Batista. There's some great chemistry between the three, and if done right they can bounce the dynamic all through the summer. For instance, have Batista cost Jericho the IC belt against Michaels, then you've got Jericho chasing Batista chasing Shawn and there's many ways you can go, eventually have a Triple Threat for the IC and acutally make the title mean something again.