The thread…of VENGEANCE!
Sounds more dramatic that way.
Anyway, didn’t watch as usual, and nothing in the results would entice me to bother. Was there even a REASON behind the clusterfuck main event? They’re just randomly stacking the odds against John Cena now? Johnny Nitro as ECW World champion doesn’t exactly thrill anyone, but they want to make the guy a star, so it’s worth a shot, I suppose. You can see how it’s better than admitting that someone non-WWE-trained like Punk might be worth a shot.
As for the rest, I’ll catch it when it’s on 24/7 six months from now, and I’ll likely have forgotten about it by then anyway and can view it unemcumbered by my petty prejudices against bad wrestling and dumb finishes.
I’m hearing that Punk got injured/took a bad bump/something unplanned happened and they changed the finish on the fly.
I still wanna know what happened to Benoit.
Is that part of the new powers they want referees to have? They get to change booking decisions? I don’t care if Punk’s leg fell off, Nitro finds a way to roll him on top for the pinfall.
this complete pure speculation and not founded on any website or backed by anything but my own thought process:
Beef Wellington passed away and benoit needed time off to deal with his passing. As awful as Wellington’s death is, im hoping that that was the reason and something worse isn’t going on with Benoit.
Again, just throwing a theory out here, feel free to diagree.
Benoit worked the night Eddie died, and most likely it was not required that he do so. I doubt he’d take off for Wellington.
I, of course, have no better theory of my own to offer.
All that’s known about Benoit is “family emergency”.
This whole Cena thing, however, is a bit out of control. We are now in his 281st day as champ, which means that this is his longest reign. It’s longer than Triple H’s longest reign with ANY World title, for God’s sake. I’m not saying that in-and-of-itself is bad. I’m saying that they’ve pulled this “overcome the odds” schtick so damn much, he’s not overcoming the odds anymore. God, he’s not even defending the title anymore. Now, he’s just DOING.
It’s always been my theory that they just want us to hate someone INSTEAD of HHH, so that when they bring HHH back to the top, we’ll WANT him there. It would have been a solid idea if “WrestleMania 22″ hadn’t come up. They keep trying to make Cena up as “the next Hulk Hogan”. Well, two problems with that, Cindy: 1) nobody in their right mind likes Hulk Hogan anymore, and 2) this isn’t 1987 anymore. You can’t have year-long face champions because soon they lose their credibility. Sure, with us smarks, it was a LOT quicker, but I’m not talking about just smarks. Ten-year-olds aren’t ten anymore two years later,six-year-olds aren’t six anymore two years later, and adult fans aren’t exactly patient people either.
His title reign is longer than any title reign by Steve Austin, The Rock, or Mick Foley, (arguably) the three most popular stars - in that order - after Hogan. I remember in 2000, right after the King of the Ring, when HHH regained the title after trading it back and forth with Rocky for those past few months, and reading a story that said they took the title off the Rock because they realized it was more compelling for him to chase the title than to hold it. The Rock, of all people! Cena doesn’t need the belt in order to be the most popular guy in the company, and at this point he’s not going to be any more popular with the belt than without. If anything, he’s less popular as champion.
Though I will say that, and I can’t believe I’m saying it, a title defense ending in a Dusty Finish the following night (after pay-per-view) would actually freshen up his title reign, because it makes him look vulnerable, and therefore more impressive the next time he overcomes the odds.
“Family emergency” definitely was not hyperole here.
I thought the PPV was horrible. A silly, short 5-man main event with an obvious conclusion. A non-finish in the Smackdown title match. An ECW title match that appeared from nowhere (though at least in WWE’s defence here, there’s nothing they could have done about Benoit). Slaughter and Snuka in a bizarre tag match, which wasn’t even fresh as both guys have been on TV numerous times in the past year. The other matches were too short to mean anything at all.
Overall, very disappointing, especially when you consider what matches are available to them. We could have had Cena v Booker, Edge v Matt Hardy, etc.
Back when Duece & Domino were in OVW, they revealed that one of them is the nephew of Snuka. That helps explain the nostalgia match last night.
Really liked the Edge / Batista match, though. Has a title match ever been restarted like that and the outcome remain the same? Now Edge can move on and Batista can go fued with Mark Henry or Khali.
JET
If Cena isn’t the champion on RAW, then who should ne?? Carlito?? Like it or not, Cena is the star of RAW and consistently gets fan reaction, either positive or negative, so he moves the needle more than anyone else and his buyrates main-eventing PPVs have been consistent. So, I have no problem with him being champ, but I’m pretty sure he’ll drop the belt to Orton at Summerslam, which will set up Orton as the heel champion to feud against the returning King of son-in-laws
Kennedy?
…Kennedy?
Lashley could have pinned someone other than Cena and had a run with it. Maybe have Orton cause Cena to not break up a pin, and let them feud for a little bit. I didn’t pay for this show, and Cena’s neverending reign makes me not want to buy ppvs. We were so deflated seeing him hold his shitty belt at the end of Mania, though it shouldn’t have been a surprise. I find Kennedy worthless, so I’m sure he’ll get title shots when he returns.
Nice to see that my “Fear the power of Hulk Cena” sign in Richmond last week wasn’t far off. Maybe WWE is trying to make Triple H holding the belt not seem bad or something, because this Cena regin is ridicilous (sic). Oh and when in doubt have Foley job to him, since Foley will job to almost anything at this point. Maybe its Foley’s idea to “give back,” but this guy fell off burning bridges, cages, etc.. and they had to cart him out last week due to Ugamga and last night he eats FU and does the JOB? I know Foley’s semi-retired to retired, but come on . . .
Have they really run out of stuff for Cena to do that they have to have him wrestle 15 guys and he can only beat the old retired guy?
Deer Fata$$ McMahon, you have ruined the WWE. Hope Brooke Hogan does finally have a #1 hit and uses that money to buy TNA for her daddy and put the WWE out of business. Hogan as TNA champion will crush anything the WWE can do.
I don’t mind Cena as champ, or the fact his title reign has been long. In fact, i think long reigns give the belt status and it means more when someone finally beat him.
BUT, i wish they’d give him some proper one v one feuds against decent wrestlers. Orton, Booker, Kennedy, even William Regal could all provide a good series of matches and interesting combinations.
Maybe stretching it a wee bit with the Regal name-drop… he will be Booker’s lackey again soon enough, which is fine by me because it keeps him on TV entertaining me.
I’ve never felt so much disappointment reading a PPV recap as when I found out Deuce & Domino’s opponents were Slaughter and Snuka instead of Martel and Garea.. at least they did the jump-in I s’pose..
With Regal’s mic skills and technical ability, if pushed properly he could easily have an entertaining top-level feud. Unfortunately, he’s been put in a silly comedy role for so long it’s easy to forget how talented he is.
No disagreement out of me, I’ve always been fond of Regal and still am. And I do like the logical pairing with Booker & Sharmell, I think the three could be quite the force. Unfortunately though the Regal character gets next to no respect booking-wise, and I’m afraid he’ll just end up doing jobs on Booker’s behalf for a few months.
Perhaps though I am too jaded - five years ago I never would have bought that Fit Finlay would become one of the top characters on SmackDown, but am happy to have been proven wrong.
Cena chasing the title doesnt seem to me like an interesting storyline. it would be a recycled Austin storyline or more recently Batista chasing Booker and Edge. When someone finally knocks Cena off it will be a big deal. I think Finlay and Regal should have joined Benoit in ECW.
Holy shit….can this be true? Chris Benoit has been found dead? Check out WWE.com. THis news is making me, like, shake.
CHRIS BENOIT IS DEAD No joke… its on WWE.com… its says he and his family were found dead. Go to wwe.com if you dont believe me.
This is tragic
Chris Benoit AND family? I don’t swear but this is fucked up and very, very sad.
Just heard the Benoit news. Absolutely devastating.