Hey Scott,
Thought a discussion about potential Royal Rumble winners would be quite interesting after Jeff Hardy won the WWE title at Armageddon. After Survivor Series I was sure that Jeff would win RR 2009 and challenge Edge at Wrestlemania but now it's up in the air. Any thoughts? I think it would be nice to have a heel win after 9 years of face victories. Admittedly the last heel to win (Vince) was a big letdown but if an actual wrestler wins, it can give them huge credibility (and heat) - e.g. Austin in 1997, HBK in 1995, Flair in 1992.
Frankly after 18 million title changes this year, I don't think there's much special they can do as far as a main event goes, but Randy Orton could use the win to really put him over the top as far as being a top main event guy. Either that or the obvious one with Batista winning and challenging Cena.
Hey Scott,
I'm interestng in hearing your views on the "underdog" Jeff Hardy winning the title despite his WWE wellness suspensions and personal demons.
I think it's a year and three jobs to HHH too late to matter in the grand scheme of things. The cynic in me says that he's just there as a transitional champion for the shitty russian guy because no one else wants to put him over and thus Hardy fans shouldn't get their hopes up for a long reign.
Tags: Batista, Jeff Hardy, John Cena, Randy Orton, Royal Rumble, WWE
Thought I’d ask while this is new and you might be looking.
Have you stopped writing WWE PPV rants again?
As I noted in another thread, Christmas season is incredibly busy for me at work and I don’t have the extra time (or motivation) to slog through PPVs at the moment when I’m not getting any particular enjoyment out of it.
3 jobs and 2 wins. His record since they began feuding isn’t really that bad. He’s 3-3 if you include his victory in the triple threat that included both of them.
But it’s not just who wins, it’s the way that they win.
Like how Triple H had to use a Pedigree on a chair after the first one got kicked out of? He beat Hardy with a roll-up in their second match and in their third had to resort to an unusual set-up for the Pedigree.
Wow, AN UNUSUAL SETUP? Clearly we are all wrong! HHH is putting Jeff over like gangbusters, and considers him on the same level! It must be true….unless of course you’re just one of those whiny bastards who thinks if somebody says it on the net, they are just being a smark.
Nah, couldn’t POSSIBLY be that.
He said it was how they win. Considering your average Triple H match ends with just a kick and a Pedigree, forcing him to find an alternate method to using his finishing move is notable. Did I say he was being completely unselfish? No. But to act like the guy is burying him is ridiculous.
And yes, the majority of stuff I read on here is just pointless whining. I have no problem with people having constructive criticism, but when people have absolutely nothing positive to say about something, why are they bothering to watch that thing in the first place?
People who complain about HHH are morons. I have a theory that it’s a contingent of wrestling fans who are still reeling from being picked on in grade school, and thus always believe the “little guy” needs to win and be put over and is being “held down”, etc.
I’m sure there are politics, but IWC smarks blow it out of proportion. Fact is, you have no clue how things are actually run in the WWE, and neither does Scott Keith for that matter. The rumors/gossip posted as actual news items on sites like 411 are about as reliable as tabloid newspaper reporting.
Jobs to HHH? They’re about even in terms of win-loss. Seeing as HHH has laid down for Hardy’s 180-pound swanton, I think it’s safe to say that Hunter is doing his best to put him over. If anything, it is killing H’s credibility. Jeff has gotten legit wins over him – not just the fluke-rollup-on-the-big-guy variety.
HHH has been with the company for over a decade, is a proven draw, and still brings the workrate on a consistent basis. He really doesn’t have to be laying down for anybody. He gives Day-Glo / Edge the top spot, sells for the Russian stiff and Shelton Benjamin. Maybe he legitimately wants to help the company?
I sure can’t see guys like Brock or Steve Austin or many other past stars (sans Flair) laying down for Hardy.
I have yet to see HHH job to the swanton. Sure he has taken the move but he hasnt jobbed to my memory.
(Now if I am wrong please feel free to rip me to shreds, Im a casual Smackdown/WWE PPV watcher at best.)
But when HHH jobs to the swanton on a big 4 PPV (basically Wrestlemania or Summerslam) Then he put Hardy over.
Hardy has been over since 99-00. He never needed that. What he needed was a main event rub, and I feel that HHH hasnt really given his all to stamp the fact that Jeff Hardy is a main eventer. Its almost sheer force of will.
You’re right, Jeff Hardy is not solidified as a main eventer. That would be a true statement if he wasn’t involved in the WWE title match for the last 5 PPVs in a row and currently the WWE Champion.
Boy, that dastardly HHH, always holding down threats to his crown! Give it a rest.
Hardy has a good solid fan base of kids and that’s what WWE is looking for these days. Plus, he sells enough merchandise to warrant his new spot despite his mic shortcomings and his past issues.
Jimmy Johnson, the former ‘Canes/Cowboys/Dolphins coach has said this repeatedly…if Joe Schmoe fell asleep in a team meeting, he got cut the next day. If Aikman or Irvin or Emmitt feel asleep, they got a tap on their shoulder to wake up.
I love the argument that something should have been done a year ago, therefore it shouldn’t be done. If anything, you should wait to put someone on top and do it later than you should than pull the trigger to early.
It should have been done a year ago, because it was great timing. The Hardy-Orton feud was awesome, and to cap it off with Hardy winning would have been great. Now, it’s still cool, but a lot of people have lost interest.
And while I agree that you should wait, considering the fact that Jeff Hardy has been a major star for almost 10 years, I think we can say that “they should wait to put him on top” is silly in this situation. It’s a better example if you’re talking about CM Punk.
Did you hear the pop Jeff received when he won the title? It drowned out his music and was easily the loudest ovation I’ve heard in 5 years.
I’d say that very few people have “lost interest” in Jeff finally ascending to the top.
Of course, we smarks on the internet will always say that it would have meant more if they had done this, or if he had beaten him instead. But we’re the ones generally pirating the PPVs on the internet, so our biased, overthinking opinions don’t – and shouldn’t – matter as much as the casual fans in the arena that popped HUGE and went out to buy his new t-shirt.
Any good links for pirating those ppv’s?
No, I didn’t hear the pop Jef received when he won the title. Because I’m one of the “very few” who lost interest, apparently. I’m sure the pop was big, but your hyperbole always kills your points. To you, everybody is mega over, everybody gets molten lava reactions, and anyone who doesn’t like it is just bitching.
I say it would have meant more if they had “done this” because the program was insanely hot with Hardy-Orton, the the Raw title is the more important belt, Orton was an established champion, and it would have happened at the Royal Rumble.
But you’re right, I’m JUST BEIN’ A SMARK for thinking that having Hardy win over a guy he’d been feuding with for months, who’d been holding the title for far longer(did Edge even have a title defense in this “reign”?) on one of the 3 biggest PPV’s of the year would be bigger than beating a transitional champion in a 3-way match at one of the B-level PPV’s.
It can’t be that you just like to bitch at fans on the internet and try to say any complaints they have are just “being a smark”, could it?
Also, great point on how smarks never pay for the product, and the arena is 100% casual fans buying T-shirts. Because hey, the smarks buy nothing. It’s all casual fans scooping up the DVD releases. And a CASUAL fan drops hundreds of bucks for Wrestlemania tickets. And CASUAL fans are the ones who buy the PPV’s every single month. Yeah, I’m sure you are totally right on that one.
The only thing worse than smarks bitching about the product they don’t watch is smarks bitching about other smarks, and acting like they are superior. You are the one who needs to give it a rest.
That’s a valid point, but so is the one below. I’d agree that pulling the trigger too early can be problematic (Orton 2004 being an example), and I also agree that “it should have been done a year ago” shouldn’t be a reason NOT to do something. However I also think it’s a good point that timing is key and while putting over Hardy NOW isn’t necessarily bad, or bad for business, it could possibly have been more effective had it been done a year ago.
It’s all speculation anyway.
Shitty Russian guy…please Vladimir Kozlov is one of my favorite acts in the WWE right now
I think he’s decent too. A darn shade better in every respect than the current champ at any rate.
Kozlov is awful. His ring-work is boring beyond belief, and the man can’t cut a coherent promo to save his life. Not to mention the fact that the fan-base appears to have no desire to watch the man wrestle. Look at this Cyber Sunday poll numbers for crying out loud!
Granted, the booking team did Kozlov no favors by having Undertaker pretty much eat him for lunch, but I think “Shitty Russian guy” pretty well covers it.
Have Russians in wrestling ever really cut “coherent” promos? At least Kozlov’s accent is legit. The same can’t be said for the Koloffs, Krusher Khruschev, etc.
Now that he’s champ, and given WWE’s tendency to look backwards going forwards, might i suggest he adopts a new nickname: Stoned Old Jeff Hardy
Hopefully they don’t make this a transitional reign for Hardy, but I am not optimistic. It is arguable that he is their top babyface right now. Is there any opponent he could face where he wouldn’t be the crowd favorite right now? Probably not. Yet sadly what the predictable WWE will do is have Edge win the Rumble and have Hardy drop the strap to HHH before mania to set up HHH-Edge, since god forbid we have a Mania without HHH fighting for a title. Hardy will probably get stuck fighting “the guy who attacked him in the stairwell” at Mania, whether it be Matt or Christian. Remember the days when the top heel faced the top babyface for the title at Mania? This year that would dictate Edge-Hardy and Orton-Cena, yet we’re going to wind up, probably, with Edge-HHH and Batista-Cena, two matches we have already seen this calendar year on PPV.
“Remember the days when the top heel faced the top babyface for the title at Mania? ”
Go through the list of main events, particularly the earlier ones, and see how false that rings. I think you’ll be surprised.
I also get enjoyment from the fact that your own pessimistic attitude has ruined Wrestlemania 25 for you. That’s the nature of the IWC: Figure out the scenario you would hate most and then make a comment as if it’s the most likely path the WWE will take. Hence, the event will suck and wrestling remains boring and predictable.
Then ignore the fact that your “predictions” are false 80% of the time and find another minor quibble.
Didn’t happen at Mania 1, but the top face and heel were against each other.
Mania 2, Bundy was pushed into the top heel spot for the show. I guess you could argue that there were bigger heels, but they probably would have been fed to Bundy to get him more over for the main event if they needed to.
Mania 3 was most definitely top face vs. top heel.
Mania 4 wasn’t, but the top face and heel were both involved.
Mania 5 was top face vs. top heel.
Mania 6 was top 2 names in the company.
Mania 7 was top face vs. top heel, but similar to the Bundy match in that they made him the top heel FOR Wrestlemania.
Mania 8 was top face vs. top heel, in both main events.
Mania 9 was.
Mania 10 was.
Mania 11 wasn’t.
Mania 12 was another babyface-babyface match.
So 8 of the first 12 WERE top face vs. top heel, Mania 1 was top face vs. top heel, but in a tag bout rather than for the title, and in the other 3, either the top face or heel were in the match for the title. So far, your point isn’t really working.
Mania 13 wasn’t, as Austin-Bret were the top names.
Mania 14 was, so we’re 9 for 14.
Mania 15 was, 10 of 15.
Mania 16 was, but with the crappy 4 corners idea. 11 of 16.
Mania 17 wasn’t, but they went with two top stars instead(and Austin was turned heel, so what the hell, I count it). 12 for 17.
Mania 18, I guess was, by default. 13 for 18.
19 wasn’t.
20 sort of was. HHH the top heel and HBK I guess was the top face(though Rock was on the card, he was more of a guest appearance). So we’re 14 for 20.
That’s 70% of the Mania’s…….and your point was “Go through the list of main events, particularly the earlier ones, and see how false that rings. I think you’ll be surprised.”
Funny that you go on to rant about the IWC making stupid statements, then pretending like they didn’t say them. Will you now pretend you didn’t make this stupid statement, or admit that you were just, as usual, trying to pull the “You just don’t like it because you’re one of those dirty rotten smarks!” card again. newsflash man: people can be smarks and dislike the product, and the reason for that NOT be that they are internet fans. some of legitimately find it boring.
i know you think everybody is a top notch superstar that is met with the biggest reaction of the year every time they have a match, but not everybody loves it as much as you. deal with it.
Thank you, youknowwho. I’ve been noticing what you articulated here popping up more and more on this blog, particularly from a lot of posters who want to criticize and sound “smarter” than Scott. It’s been getting aggravating.
Thanks youknowwho for making my point (and saving me from a lot of typing!) Mania has normally been the top heel vs. the top face. Plus, the top face is almost always in the featured match, whether it be against the top heel or not. My point was that Hardy is the top face and therefore should be in the main event.