nucleardonkey

I believe the difference here and why people are making such a big deal about it is that throughout their careers guys like Cena, Sting, Flair, Angle, Hogan, Foley, and Jericho have all either had their moments of serious regret where they either said or did something to merit a disrespectful reaction. Or have burned out the audience by portraying the same character for so long without any sort of change that the audience is sick of it. In Taker's case however he has done nothing really to merit such a response. He makes sure to keep the character fresh in some way whenever he returns with it so he's not got that "we've seen this already" factor of Cena, Jericho, and Foley to a certain extent. He protects the character and makes sure whatever the situation that he's taken seriously unlike Sting, Flair, Hogan, and Foley. And he's never had a really embarrassing media moment for fans to tear apart like Angle, Hogan, and Flair all have. What it comes down to is The Undertaker is one of the few wrestlers going these days who has earned every ounce of respect he gets and then some not only for his in ring work but also how he carries himself outside of the ring. That's where the crowd last night was completely in the wrong and just being idiots for the sake of being idiots, because unlike nearly anyone else you could name The Undertaker has earned truck loads of respect and he hasn't really done anything over his career to lose any of that respect.

Not if it was played up that Daniel beat Barrett after taking a sizable beating then Santino came up from behind and caught Daniel off guard with a roll up. It would have made the chamber look totally unpredictable and then brought in more viewers to Smackdown to see what happened with Santino and the world title then a quick squash submission victory for Daniel and the world is right again.

Santino really should have been given the victory there....the man is over like no one else. If anything Daniel could have used his rematch to get the belt back on Smackdown and then gone into Mania against Sheamus.

I think the point is with hockey, baseball, and football the players are wearing a lot more than just their underwear and a pair of boots. There's going to be some seriously cold wrestlers that night.

That's pretty close. Zema did a moonsault from the top rope to the floor but either he came up short or Jesse was too far back and instead of Jesse catching Zema like normally both of Zema's knees landed flat on the top of Jesse's head and he crumpled immediately to his stomach and didn't move again after that. It was scary but you gotta give it up to both of them, Jesse for showing so much recovery already (according to sources he's moving his arms and legs and will fully recover), and to Zema for not breaking character at any point during the whole thing it really made him look even more despicable as a heel.

After seeing last night's RAW I honestly do thing they will be turning Cena heel and it will be horrible, a total failure that makes Austin's heel turn during the invasion angle look genius. He's been inching closer and closer to that full breaking point for weeks and then instead of having him snap and become this beast annihilating everyone.....he steals his only friend's girl then nearly punches him while he's in a neck/back brace. It's another example of WWE seeing a problem then seeing the perfect solution to fix it....then going the completely opposite direction. What they did right was definitely the entire HHH/HBK/Taker segment. That was just phenomenal story telling with each of them trying in one way or another to goad the other into fighting Taker and neither willing to then Taker demanding HHH again. I'm guessing the cutting of the hair is going to be explained as Taker destroying the Undertake brand based on HHH comparing Taker to a product for him to sell. I think by the time the match rolls around it will be ABA Taker in the match instead of The Dead Man. Whoever came up with that scenario needs to be writing the whole show.

I believe last weekend he made an appearance for NWA presenting someone with a new title belt. Other than that I haven't of him doing anything.

They're basically repeating the build up to Taker/Shawn 2 only instead of Shawn coming out and demanding a second match it's Taker demanding the match with HHH refusing. My guess is Taker will continue interfering in HHH's plans like he did Monday before HHH could get his revenge on Laurenitis and generally causing chaos in his life, perhaps even kidnapping Stephanie and holding her for ransom, until HHH finally has no choice but agree to the match.

I loved the show over all. It wasn't a classic by any means but it did the trick. I was waiting the whole time after Jericho entered for something big to happen but it never did which to me completely cut his legs out from under him before he even got them under him to begin with. My biggest gripe is that Monday they took a major step forward with Cena and did something that could have got him over as a face with ALL of the audience only to then take 3 huge steps back tonight by not only reverting him right back to SuperCena but then to have him left crying in the right over Ryder. It's like none of the past month happened and he was actually smiling at one point in the match.

WWE: "Who? Benoit? We've never heard of anyone by this name, perhaps you are mistaken." - The official response to that question. Actually though they are correct Benoit was in for 61 minutes in 2004 and Rey was in for 62 in 2006 beating the record Benoit previously held by just under a minute.

When the brand split first started there was only 1 World title, 1 set of tag titles, and one divas title and it worked. Just do the world title like they are currently with the tag and divas with the champion being a free agent of sorts and defending the belt one month against a RAW star while feuding on Smackdown with one of theirs then the next month defend against a Smackdown star while building to the next RAW match. There's no reason they can't merge the top belts and make THE World title open branded. Plus it gives them the perfect reason to finally debut the new Belt they've apparently been sitting on for the past few years. Then with the World title being open branded make the US and IC titles more rigid in which brand they are on and have that the only person who isn't featured on both shows so then the US title because RAW's big championship and the IC title Smackdown's and those champions become number one contender to the World title. Then you have a brand specific title for each brand and 3 open WORLD titles that go between the brands.

Nah, they've already made it clear that there will only be 30. Plus really, 60 people in 1 battle royal? That would never work. I think either Daniel Bryan or CM Punk will enter as champion and win it or they will lose the title earlier in the show to someone already entered and they will win leading to title vs. title and Mania....preferably Punk vs. Bryan but more likely than not one of them will be dropping their title.

CM Punk may be the champ but before this past week when was the last time he was in the final segment of a RAW? The focal point of RAW recently has been Kane/Cena when in reality it should be switched. Kane and Cena would a great mid program story to keep Cena alive on TV, keep the ratings strong after the divas match, and lead up to the Punk/Laurinitis confrontation to close the show. History should show that a good anti-authority storyline is an instant ratings grabber when done right and CM Punk and John Laurinitis have the chemistry to really do something magic.

I think it should....imagine WWE right now if Cena would take a couple of months off between title reigns and completely disappear. WWE would actually have a main event roster instead of just having Cena and Orton with a bunch of supporting characters to help keep them over. It stops the fans from becoming completely burnt out on someone.

He may have won the tag titles but when has he been booked to look like a legit champion? The last time he looked like a legit star was when he was Cena's little buddy for a couple of weeks and then they never followed up on it. He could easily go to ROH or TNA and make just as much money as in WWE while also being free to do stuff he likes to do and not having to worry about being suspended for pot. Getting out of WWE at this point would be a win/win for him. Plus if I'm not mistaken he's spoken out a few times in the past about being unhappy in WWE.

Am I the only one thinking Evan Bourne is purposely getting suspended again and again until they finally fire him? It's really an interesting move some people have used since the wellness policy was put in place to use it to get out of their contracts either purposely or just by happenstance. The wellness policy is becoming more like the midcarder's get out of jail free card than it is a way to keep the roster clean.

I don't think so. I think what we're going to get instead is simply Cena becoming more intense and less cartoonish while remaining a face. Which actually could work and get some of if not all of the smarks behind Cena too IF they go all the way with it and have him intense in the ring AND on promos. Either way realistically if they do turn Cena heel all that I see happening is after a month or two of heel Cena he's flipped and the smarks start to cheer him while the kids boo him. Intense face Cena is the best route at this point because if done right it can get everyone behind Cena instead of keeping the crowd split.

Yea my problem with Swagger has always been that I can't take him seriously in any sort of legit role because of his speech problem. He looks legit and even works that way but the second he opens his mouth all the emphasis he gained by ripping someone's ankle apart are negated. I'd really like to see them go the clueless heel route with Daniel Bryan and Jericho. Have Jericho come out on RAW and repeat last week until the crowd starts booing then just have him yell "THEY LOVE ME!" while they boo him. Something similar with Bryan only have keep barely keeping the title by cheating and then going into these very over the top celebrations and cutting baby face promos about how this is a dream come true and he will never lose the title as long as he has the support of the crowd obviously to a lot of boos.

Damn, I'm glad to see optimism is alive and well on these boards. You say he will probably lose and end up back in the midcard but you compare him to CM Punk? Isn't CM Punk currently the number 2 man in the company right behind Cena? Face it....everyone in the modern era with few exceptions as had terrible first reigns as world/WWE champion and been made to look weak but very few of them are sent back to the mid card permanently. Do I see this reign lasting beyond Friday? No. Actually I see Show or Henry getting the belt back before the week is over. But I also see Bryan being in the main event scene off and on from here on with a full leap into a permanent main event slot by the end of next year and a couple more world title reigns along the way. When I say this looks like the beginning of the Wrestling era it's obvious the crowd is pushing it in that direction. Cena's getting booed out of every building he appears in, Punk and Danielson are getting huge pops everywhere, the ratings are dropping the farther they go down the "entertainment" path and rising when they showcase more wrestling. Eventually they will have to evolve or die and it's painfully obvious the majority are slowly beginning to want wrestling over "entertainment".

Does any one else see this as the beginning of WWE taking the Ring of Honor formula and using it to better their own product much like they did in the mid-90's when they turned ECW into the Attitude Era? Perhaps this is the beginning of the Wrestling Era in WWE. Either way I have never been so excited about an episode of Smackdown in my life! It's going to be amazing seeing Bryan Danielson walking out on a WWE program wearing one of their top titles.

Yea, for as much hate as Jeff Jarrett seems to get the single best period in TNA's history was when he and AJ were trading the NWA title back and forth. Sadly as far as the big two are concerned none of their championships mean anything at this point in time and nothing short of a solid year long run with regular defenses will change that. It's like they're purposely devaluing their championships with things like the current design of the WWE title, Eric Young walking around with the old TNA world title after finding it in a trash can and no one saying anything about it, then titles changing hands sometimes 2 or 3 times a month. You'd think they'd figure it out when RVD's 23 month TV title reign and Samoa Joe's 21 month ROH world title reign put each of them on the national map in a big way while also making the titles meaningful.

Yea it was kind of bogus the build of the match was perfectly done and then completely undone by the finish. They should have had Roode cause AJ to get counted out at the last minute then have Roode run off if they're building to what I think they're building to, Roode vs. AJ vs. Hardy vs. Storm at Genesis. Or had it go sudden death with Roode getting a cheap roll up victory. Either way AJ still looks strong because he held his own with one leg and Roode gets over as a cowardly heel. The problem with TNA is they keep showing these signs of brilliance like they could actually do something right then they drop the ball in a big way. The Bobby Roode heel turn could have been a massive story that would have made Roode and Storm both legit main eventers while also re-establishing AJ as a main star and setting up Kaz, Daniels, and Joe as future main eventers. Instead they had to hot shot a quickie James Storm title run followed by an even more hot shotted Roode heel turn and abysmal feud with AJ that really did nothing for either man. The weekly PPVs were amazing because the focus was where it should be, on the wrestling. The stories were there solely to give them a reason to wrestle and almost everything made sense. I think it's a combination of burn out on the writer's parts seeing as with a few exceptions they've had the same head writer from the inception until just recently and then of course said writer (Russo) getting too much freedom. I really only watch for the originals because no matter what ridiculous thing Russo comes up with from the opening bell until just before the finish AJ, Roode, Joe, Daniels, Storm, The Machine Guns, Aries, and Angle are going to put on a match the rivals and most of the time even surpasses any WWE main event.

That's exactly how it ended. AJ was in the ring yelling, Roode was up the ramp celebrating, and the crowd was chanting "5 more minutes" as they went off the air.

I pretty much agree with everything said there. I remember a time back before the internet where me and my friends would all sit around on Monday night and actually be excited and talk about how great it was to see Sting take out 20 people with nothing more than a black baseball bat. If that same angle was done these days though everyone would be jumping all over the fact that he just ripped off The Crow. Hell EVERYONE knew where he got the look and character and WCW certainly wasn't hiding that fact but no one cared and it became some of Sting's most beloved work. I'd love to know when and why the switch took place from watching wrestling and enjoying the show to watching wrestling just so you can be miserable and complain about it. Is it because now we all go to sleep on Friday/Saturday nights instead of waiting up until 2AM to catch ECW (or in my case MCW, USA Pro Wrestling, Memphis Classic, NWA Wildside, AND ECW....good times, good times )?

I've never seen a match of his but the videos they were playing actually had me excited for his debut. I thought he'd be a killer character similar to Umaga back in the day. But now I'm bored with him and he hasn't even debuted yet. They killed the momentum he had built up through Superstars and his videos on RAW.