The SmarK Rant for WWE Extreme Rules 2009
- Do they really pay people to think up these names?
- Live from New Orleans, LA
- Your hosts are JR, Todd, Cole, King, Striker & Josh.
US title: Kofi Kingston v. William Regal v. Matt Hardy v. MVP
Hasn't the Fatal Four-Way traditionally been elimination rules or I am just losing my memory again? Kofi clears the ring to start and hits MVP & Matt with a pescado, then comes back in with a high cross on Regal for two. Kofi and MVP collide in an ugly botched spot and Kofi recovers with his wacky back elbow, but gets attacked in the corner by Regal. He tries a butterfly superplex, but MVP brings them both down instead and Matt covers all three of them in turn for two. Side Effect on Regal gets two. Yodeling legdrop on MVP gets two. Kofi comes back on Hardy and dropkicks him, then slams Regal onto Hardy and hits his wacky legdrop for two. He tries the spinkick on Regal, but gets tossed into Hardy and falls on top for two. MVP hits Kofi with an overhead suplex for two. The ring gets cleared and MVP does what I guess is a Ballin' Elbow. Regal clears the ring, but Kofi hits the spinkick to finish at 6:40. Kinda short and hard to follow. **1/2
Meanwhile, Josh Matthews bugs Big Show about his strategy for tonight.
No Holds Barred, Intercontinental title: Rey Mysterio v. Chris Jericho
Jericho's evil pre-match promo is great stuff ("I decided to become one of you…DON'T TOUCH ME!"). Rey charges in for the takedown and they brawl to the floor already, as Rey chucks a piece of the table at Jericho and dropkicks him into the railing. Jericho comes back with a whip into the stairs, but Rey does a flip off them and dropkicks them back into Jericho again. That's a cool spot. Back in, Rey with a springboard legdrop for two. Jericho drops him onto the top rope to slow him down, then does the catapult under the ropes for two. Rey tries to go up, but Jericho shoves him down and stomps away on the apron. He tries the springboard dropkick, but Rey gets his feet up to block and then follows Jericho down with a bodypress to the floor. Back in, legdrop gets two. He sets up for the 619, but Jericho evades him. Rey blocks a blind charge and rolls him up for two, but Jericho reverses for two. Nice reversal sequence into the Walls, but Rey reverses into a cradle for two. Rey with the head kick for two. Jericho clotheslines him for two, and then slides him right out of the ring like they were in an old Western. Jericho with a front suplex on the floor, which gets two back in the ring. Jericho hits the chinlock and tries for the mask, but Rey fights out and dodges a blind charge. Jericho hits the floor and Rey follows with a tope suicida over the corner. Back in, Rey with a headscissors and a bad-looking rana for two. Not sure what happened there. Rey tries the 619 again, but Jericho catches him with the spinning backbreaker and gets two. He blocks a rana attempt with a powerbomb, but the Lionsault misses and Rey hits a 619 to the back of the head. He goes up for the splash, but Jericho counters with the Codebreaker in a great spot and that gets two. Jericho gets frustrated and grabs a chair, but Rey dropkicks it back into his face and gets two. Arabian Facebuster gets two. Drop toehold onto the chair gets two as we get all the ECW tribute spots tonight. Jericho finally counters into the Walls, but Rey grabs the chair and nails Jericho with it to break. Another 619, but Jericho unmasks him in mid-move and rolls up the stunned Mysterio for the pin at 14:32, giving him another IC title. I liked last month's match a bit more because it had a better pace and more crazy reversals, but this was entertaining and hard-fought. ***3/4
Samoan Strap Match: CM Punk v. Umaga
This is the lame "touch all four" rules instead of the better "beat the fuck out of the guy with the strap and pin him" rules. There's a graphic in the corner that shows who has touched what corners, but it's way behind the action and thus useless. Umaga beats on Punk and touches two to start, but Punk kicks him down and gets two himself. Umaga takes him down with a samoan drop and whips him, then drops a headbutt. They head to the floor and Umaga wraps his arm around the post and pounds on it, then superkicks him off the apron. With Punk out, Umaga touches two turnbuckles unchallenged, but can't get a third one before Punk gets back in with a flying clothesline. Punk tries the GTS, but come on, and indeed Umaga flattens him with a leg lariat. Umaga charges and hits the post, and Punk goes low with the strap and puts Umaga on the floor. Back in, high knee in the corner into the bulldog, and Punk touches three turnbuckles. Umaga stops him with the uranage and touches three himself. Punk tosses him to break it up. He manages to touch three, but as Matthews notes, geometrically speaking it's impossible to hit the fourth one with Umaga on the floor. So he yanks Umaga back in to knock him down, and gets another three turnbuckles, then catches the charging Umaga with the GTS and touches the fourth one at 8:59. Kinda slow and plodding. **1/4
ECW World title: Christian v. Jack Swagger v. Tommy Dreamer
This is basically Christian's title v. Tommy's career. Swagger takes Christian down and out of the ring, then tackles Dreamer , prompting the babyfaces to load up the ring with plunder. Tommy beats on Swagger with the cane, and a legsweep gets two. Pumphandle suplex on Christian, but Swagger lays Dreamer out from behind and pounds him in the corner. Dreamer dumps him and somersaults off the apron with a garbage can, and back in for a cane-assisted clothesline off the middle rope on Swagger. He hangs Swagger in the Tree of Woe, but stops to declare his love for ECW and gets laid out by Christian as a result. Swagger comes back and canes Christian down for two. Gutbuster into a press slam gets two. He undoes the turnbuckle, but Tommy hits him with the cane and Christian gets two. Dreamer misses an elbowdrop, but Swagger hits the flying Christian with a garbage can, leaving us with Dreamer and Swagger. They slug it out with weapons and Swagger suplexes him down, then piles cans in the middle of the ring and sets up for a superplex. Christian brings them both down with a powerbomb and covers Dreamer for two. The crowd is just dead for this. Christian comes off the top with a crutch and tries the Killswitch, but Swagger sends him into the steel turnbuckle to break. Dreamer hits Swagger with a crutch, however, and DDTs him for the pin and the title 9:36. Kind of a shock since they usually go for the downer ending when someone is about to retire, but I'd say Tommy deserves a longer reign than his first one was. The match was a huge step down from the last couple of PPVs, though, as it was kind of meandering with a dead crowd and could have used some blood. **1/2
Hogpen Match: Santina v. Vickie Guerrero
Chavo gets drafted into the match by Vickie to somehow make it even stupider. Chavo and Santino throw mud at each other, and Santino reverses a piledriver attempt into the mud. Chavo tries to toss Santino into the pen, but gets thrown in there himself as irony strikes again. Vickie decides to get involved and gets a bucket of slop thrown at her, which is apparently the funniest thing ever on WWE TV according to Michael Cole, and Santino pins her at 2:43 to end this horseshit. Or pigshit. Whatever. -*** I felt sorry for the pigs who had to sit there and watch this because they were confined by their pen.
Cage match, RAW World title: Randy Orton v. Batista
Orton makes a run for it immediately and gets yanked down by Batista, who slugs away in the corner. Orton climbs again and gets pulled down again, and Batista clotheslines him and follows with a suplex for two. Orton fights him off and goes for the door, but Batista hits him with a corner clothesline. Orton sends him into the cage and gets a neckbreaker, but can't crawl out of the door. Batista with a powerslam for two. Orton fires back in the corner, but Batista hits the spinebuster. Orton counters the powerbomb attempt and backdrops him into the cage, however. Orton dropkicks him into the cage and climbs again, but changes his mind and tries the punt, which Batista evades. Orton escapes the powerbomb and Batista escapes the RKO, and the powerbomb finishes at 7:00 to give Batista the belt. Huh? That was barely even a finishing sequence. **
Submission match: John Cena v. Big Show
Cena immediately tries to take him down for the STF, but Show is just too big. It's not humanly possible, you know. Show pounds Cena down as Cole continues his obsession with talking about the size of Show's hands. Wow, he wears a size 22 ring, give him the World title again and shut the hell up. Cena tries to overpower Show and gets tossed as a result, and Show pounds the ribs on the way back in. Show gets a sleeper and Cena reverses to his own, but Show powerbombs out of it and goes back to work on the ribs again. And that just keeps GOING, until he finally tries a pump splash and Cena moves. Cena tries a slam for some reason and Show puts him in the CUDDLE OF DOOM on the mat. Cena miraculously breaks free of this devastating submission move, but Show tosses him as this somehow manages to get even more boring. And we're back in for the only thing that could make this thing suck even worse, the ABDOMINAL STRETCH. Cena escapes that, so it's now time for the bearhug. Cena fights out of that and hits the Five Knuckle Shuffle and FU, but still can't get that darn STF. Show puts him on the floor with the knockout punch, but Cena recovers long enough to send him into the post. Show heads back and Cena hits the legdrop, then tries to tie up Show's leg in the ropes and hooks the STF for the submission at 19:01. This looked really stupid, as Show's leg came loose and it was just Cena doing a crossface while Show was in the ropes. On the bright side, at least it ended this awful, awful match. *
Ladder match, Smackdown World title: Edge v. Jeff Hardy
Hardy with a corner clothesline, but Edge elbows him down and spears him in the corner, but Jeff comes back with a front suplex and retrieves the first ladder. Edge baseball slides it back at him, but charges and gets backdropped onto it. Jeff makes the first climb, but Edge hauls him down and flapjacks him into the ladder. Which didn't go very well. Jeff and the ladder kind of flop into the ropes off the bump, and Edge whips Jeff into the ladder in the corner to follow. Edge tries another spear and hits the ladder by mistake, but recovers by ramming the ladder into Jeff's knee. He follows with a Sharpshooter, which of course goes nowhere. JR likens a leg injury to "A one-armed man in a paper hanging contest". Um, if you say so, Jim. Edge climbs and Jeff dropkicks him down, then catches him with another ladder shot. He fetches an even bigger ladder and hits the Twist of Fate, but takes so long climbing the giant ladder that Edge is able to roll away from the swanton. However, Jeff goes with Plan B and dives onto the hanging belt instead, but is unable to unhook it before Edge pulls him down. Jeff climbs again and hits Edge with the Whisper in the Wind off the ladder, then brings a normal-sized ladder in before tackling Edge out of the ring. Another ladder gets set up on the railing and Jeff tosses one at Edge, but gets whipped into the stairs as a result. Jeff tries to charge and gets dumped into the front row, but puts Edge onto the ladder. He climbs yet another ladder and Edge follows, and they both go down and through the horizontal ladder. Is it any wonder guys are still getting as injured as ever? Back in, Jeff climbs first, but Edge dives off the huge ladder and Jeff catches him with a Twist of Fate in mid-air to bring him down. Jeff climbs again but Edge knocks him down, so Jeff ties Edge in the ladder to incapacitate him, then climbs and wins the title at 20:03. Now that's a cool finish. Felt like a bit of a spot show at times, but that's what people wanted. ****
However, the celebration is short-lived, as it's MONEY IN THE BANK time…
Smackdown World title: Jeff Hardy v. CM Punk
BIG heel reaction for Punk, who immediately gets the GTS for two. Hardy reverses another one for two, but he's done and a high kick and Go 2 Sleep finishes to give Punk another World title. Oh, the little girls are not going to be happy about that one.
The Pulse:
Pretty glad I picked WEC over this show, actually, as there was nothing here that was a must-see and some of it was just plain awful or bizarre. Main event almost saved it, but this was otherwise the definition of a middling show. Thumbs in the middle.
Raw stinking up another PPV? I’m shocked. SHOCKED I tell you!
Man there’s some crazy s**t going on in WWE. First Kennedy was released and now Umaga? And Batista given the WWE title even though he needs surgery?!
Anyways, thought it was a decent PPV. Edge-Hardy and Jericho-Mysterio were awesome, as expected, and made it all worthwhile. If they turn Punk heel (which I assume they will – otherwise he should have just beaten Edge) then it should make things even more interesting on Smackdown.
The strap match was the end for Umaga.
http://www.wwe.com/inside/news/10461872
Samoa Joe Vs Umaga, here we go.
does this mean heel punk? A bad show but, heel Punk would be worth it.
I was thinking the same thing – you’d think they would have him go over Edge and not take the celebration away from the mega-popular Hardy if they wanted to protect his face status. Also, this makes twice Punk has become champion by cashing in his MITB, which is making him look weak or unable to win a title the “real way.” That’s more Edge-like than a successful babyface.
I don’t think Punk using the briefcase to win the title makes him look weak. I can’t remember a time when he challenged for the World Title in an actual non-briefcase-related match.
I disagree. He beat 5 other guys TWICE to win a title shot whenever he wanted. I would think that people would look at him as pretty damn tough. I’m sure they don’t, but I probably would have back in my mark days.
You know how fickle fans are and in the “wrestling language”, winning the belt by the means that Punk has (twice now) is the act of a heel. If Hardy had somehow screwed Punk from the title at some point, then it could be interpreted as revenge.
Overall, the PPV was very mediocre. The Jericho/Mysterio and the Ladder Match was pretty good; but i’m tired of sooooo many constant title switches.
As we all know, the value of the belts at this point is absolute shite.
I’m praying WWE will bring back the “I’m Better Than You” gimmick.
This show had so much potential on paper after that very middling Judgement Day card (essentially all rematches here), I even purchased it.
Scott pretty much nailed this one. 4 way match was extremely sloppy – botched spots all around. Rey/Jericho was really good, liked the entrance, the shoulder back breaker reversal and the ending was slick. Punk was another one of those telegraphed “there’s no way he could ever beat Umaga” matches – OVER AND OVER again like Cena/Big Show. Slow, plodding AND predictable.
Since it was eXtreme Rules – we got trashcan lids for the ECW match. Incredibly tame. New Orleans crowd at least gave Dreamer a medium pop for winning. I just caught Orton/Batista from Armageddon on 24/7 and that match was 5x better then the 7:00 cage travesty. 7 freaking minutes? No run ins, no drama, nothing. Only time the crowd was in it was the beginning when Orton *nearly* slipped out after the bell rang. I would have liked to see Orton’s run go through Summerslam at least – not this every two months we switch crap.
Nothing else to add about Cena/Show – I guess there are no rope breaks in a submission match or something. The foot slipping and the camera catching it was pretty funny. 20 minutes for THAT?
I liked Jeff smiling at edge stuck in the ladder. Decent finish. I actually thought for a second that he must have signed a new deal to get the belt back. I like JR in the ring to interview Hardy when Punk’s music hit. Face vs face battle left the crowd perplexed. I guess Hardy didn’t sign that contract after all. Shitty ending for Jeff. Very heelish of Punk.
WOW Punk and Hardy squaring off for the title.
That’s like the Hogan-Andre or Austin-Rock of wussy looking wusses. Do I root for the guy in the full arm gloves doing a “whisper in the wind” or the guy with the Pepsi tattoo doing the lame kicks? Oh the decisions.
Smackdown just became my kryptonite.
Oh c’mmon, though your comment made me chuckle, Smackdown is still a very well paced WRESTLING show.
Yeah it is.
I don’t like watching Raw much anymore because well, it sucks. Smackdown is pretty good but I just can’t reconcile watching a show where Jeff Hardy and his ever lengthening ass-bandana are treated as viable competitors. I’m all to’e up inside.
I feel your pain…
I knew there had to be one person complaining about Smackdown. Congrats. Enjoy your table for one.
I just don’t like those 2 guys and they happen to be on top at the moment. The rest of the show rocks. Edge, Jericho, Killings, Umaga (until recently) and most everyone else is on top of their game. I’m not too high on Rey anymore but he’s just boring and played out more than off putting.
Jeff Hardy has no redeeming qualities whatsoever and Punk is nothing special. I think it’s his look more than anything that makes him seem so laughable. He looks like a douchy little man, I mean he has a tattoo of the COBRA logo. I grew up the 80’s too but that’s just la-ame. And the haircut adds to the general douchyness. It’s not really fair to judge so much on a look I guess but wrestling is all about appearances and I just can’t take a guy like him seriously.
I’m very well aware that I’m an extreme minority around here and I’ll enjoy my single table, thanks. I kind of like spreading out anyways.
Seeing as Punk is going to be a heel now, you should like Smackdown more.
That would make logical sense; but as we all know, that is not always the case in the “wwe universe” brotha!
Smackdown carried this PPV, it got the most exposure and rightfully so
Raw is just getting worse and worse… to be honest Orton was stale the moment WM25 ended, he’s gone back to being a complete pussy again and its rather boring.
If Batista isn’t badly injured I think it is a wise move going into the summer doing Tista/HHH and Tista/Cena because frankly Orton v any these guys seems so lame at this point.
Punk heel vs Hardy could be the feud that takes Punk to the next level… I don’t by him as a babyface, he is craving to rub in the whole ’straight edge’ lifestyle into the audience face and there is no better example to be made of than Jeff.
Smackdown last week was a far better show than Extreme Rules.
I’m all for a CM Punk heel turn. The business desperately needs a shot in the arm right now vis-à-vis a major turn of some kind. It doesn’t look like Batista will be turning anytime soon, so for now, Punk will do just fine. I just hope the ‘E is smart enough to tap into his indy scene roots and resurrect the “I’m better than you” character. Of course, Jericho is doing a version of that at the moment, so we’ll probably get the whiny “I’m tired of being held down” character instead.
Not really surprised at the release of Umaga. It seems that creative was running out of ideas for him as evident by his cutting actual promos. It seemed like a last ditch effort to find something new, but alas, it simply removed the mystique from him.
It’s sad really because the “unstoppable monster” gimmick works great at first, but quickly runs out of steam once the aura wears off and there’s no way to salvage it. (see also Yokozuna, et.al).
Umaga was BADLY hurt by Undertaker needing time off. Instead of what would probably be a pretty cool feud with Taker, he got stuck with Punk and that was, if anything, a step down for him.
I would’ve thought they’d have put Punk over him one more time in a title match just to get him started right, but who knows. Anyways, Punk probably won’t officially turn heel unless he gets booed out of the building tomorrow – they’ve already got logical feuds with Edge and Jericho lined up for him.
also, I think “monster heels” have always had a pretty short shelf life. Eventually they either have to learn to cut promos (SID!!) or turn face (Taker). Guys like Vader, One Man Gang, Kamala, and the monster of the monsters, King Kong Bundy have never had extensive runs in any one territory; it’s just the way they have to be booked.
Looks like Edge is making something of a face turn on Raw right now.
Heel Punk v. face Edge on the cards?
This PPV was rather decent. All the Smackdown and ECW matches wee good, if not great and Tommy Dreamer winning the title during what many thought would be his last match was a nice surprise. Another welcome surprise is a possible Punk heel turn. I don’t know how Smackdown could have gotten more awesome, but it just did.
Raw on the other hand, with the exception of Randy Orton and some of the midcard talent, the television show remains somewhat stale. It’s been kind of off since Backlash 6 weeks ago, and Raw just hasn’t been delivering the goods that the other two shows are. The hog pen match was a disgrace, Cena and the Big Slow have absolutely no chemistry and Batista winning the WWE Title right after Orton had just won it at Backlash has my head scratching. Why give an injured man a title, especially in a rather short match that should have gone on longer, whent he top heel on Raw needs all the credibility he can get especially with Huntor the Barbarian making his return.
I don’t get the Orton love. I watched some Raw for the first time in 3 years or so and I frankly found him just awful. I mean his delivery on the mic was laughable. I did think the ending with HHH was a nice payoff and at least for now the crowd popped big for him as a face.
The rest of Raw….Meh. Do we really need to see comedy six man tags? And I hate to say it but without steroids, guys like Rhodes and DiBiase just don’t look like wrestlers should. I guess that makes me a bad person for thinking that and I’m not advocating steroids, I’m just sayin…
You don’t have to be huge to “look like wrestlers should.” Ric Flair, Shawn Michaels and Roddy Piper all had the same type of build as Rhods and Dibaise and they sure all looked like wrestlers.
The problem with Rhodes and Dibaiase is that they don’t ACT like wrestlers should. All they do is stand around and stooge for Orton. There have been many stooges in WWE history but they usually had SOMETHING else going on the side besides stooging. Go back to DX in late ‘97-’early ‘98. Sure HHH was HBK’s stooge, but he also had his own feuds going on. Rhodes and Dibaiase are completely have no character, no heat and will go NOWHERE once their stooging days are over.
Right- you hear things about WWE being high on Dibiase and whatnot but since he and Rhoes joined up with Orton, they haven’t been put in any position to distinguish themselves as anything beyond Orton’s stooges. I don’t know if either of them will get oer individually but, given their placement on the card, you’d think they;d at least have had the chance to by now.
For example, when MVP interrupted Orton on RAW a few weeks back, they could have had Dibiase cost MVP his match v. Orton and set up an MVP v. Dibiase US Title feud. It gives Dibiase something of his own to do and puts MVP in a program with the top heel RAW faction.
But then who would Batista & Triple H beat up on their way to beating up Orton???
Am I the only one who has noticed that Randy Orton gets beat up A LOT? Last night was at least the 3rd time since the Royal Rumble that Raw has ended with Triple H beating up Orton.
Action action action! Five title changes in one night! Nobody’s got more surprises and twists and turns than us! This was the greatest night in the history of Nitro~!
*guitar*
WWE really needs a crusier tag belt to fully complete the evolution to 2000 WCW.
Came across this: A Tommy Dreamer promo about winning the ECW title. It’s one of the most emotional promos ever. Dreamer maybe a crappy worker, but the man can talk. He should become a commentator or manager or or ECW GM or something.
http://www.wwe.com/content/media/video/vms/extremerules/2009/june8-14/10442908
Gotta love that comment he made about his two daughters:
“Next to this [the ECW title] they’re the most important thing in my life.”
I’m sure they would happy to know that they rank almost as high as the ECW title in their daddy’s eyes.
For those wondering, some (but not all) of the weirdness lately is connected to Wellness~! issues, according to Meltzer. Which makes you wonder about Big Dave’s Mysterious Injury and HHH’s recent 60-day ’sabbatical’ from TV…
Just realized that there’s only three weeks between shows now, so I guess HHH has only been of TV for about 40 days or so. Oh well, never mind.
But the Dave thing…that’s mighty suspicious.
It’d only be suspicious if Big Dave wasn’t made out of glass.
And even if it was true, I wouldn’t think WWE would call attention to themselves by making Batista World champion.
You’re right, any sane, rational company wouldn’t put their top belt on a guy about to be suspended for Wellness issues. But in WWE these days, sane and rational rarely enter into the equation. And the timing is highly suspect: he goes down with this injury the same week that the Wellness suspensions are scheduled to begin?
Maybe it’s just a huge coincidence…or maybe that’s what they’re hoping we’ll think.
Well, I guess it was a coincidence. Amazing.
It doesn’t make me wonder. The most obvious answer is usually the correct one. Dave gets hurt a lot.
That WCW 2000 crack was not exactly warranted I don’t think. I mean, for the past couple years or so, you could set your watch by the fact that, if the WWE belt changed hands, then the World HW belt wouldn’t, and vice-versa. WWE tried to by unpredictable (”Anything can happen!!!”) but the thing about any competition is that sometimes it is predictable. Put Brock Lesnar in a cage with Kimbo Slice and you’ll see that this is true. The moves that were made on Sunday and Monday will either make sense in the long run or not, but I have faith that they will work out, barring injury.
How much do you wish HHH could go back in time and stop himself from wearing that ridiculous barbarian costume? Great t-shirt designs to be sure, but good lord man.
Anyway, the only thing I truly fear about all this is a CM Punk heel turn. For the same reasons that having Jeff be the face against Matt when Jeff’s drug usage is very well known, a heel Punk vs. a face Jeff is ludicrous. The people who cheer Jeff could see him lying face-down in a pool of heroin with a dead hooker by his side, and they would still cheer him in the ring when the music hits and he does his flippy stuff. (Pardon the hyperbole here.) A face Punk is too important to the WWE in the Wellness~! era to risk the impressionable people in the audience to think that his way of life is just a gimmick to rebel against because he’s acting like a heel. Punk has been a heel before, being all “I’m better than you and 90% of the crowd” against Raven, but that just doesn’t work now. I am straight edge myself, and get a lot of bullsh*t for it. A heel Punk would be disastrous.
Yeah arrogant heels never work.
The biggest mistake the WWE has made in the past few years in putting all the brands on all the pay-per-views. The goal was to boost buyrates by having all the stars on the shows but this is what ended up happening…
1) Buyrates are still going down.
2) It’s turned too many main eventers into midcarders. Its tough to take Orton/Batista seriously when its the 3rd to last match. And the ECW brand ends up looking like a stepchild…they should just be kept off the PPVs entirely.
3) It’s eliminated the midcard entirely. Why would they build a midcard feud when you have 3 weeks to get your main events back in order?
4) No feuds of any meaning. With the brand split PPVs, Raw & SD would have between 6 & 8 weeks to build feuds for everybody. Now they just have a constant rotation of a couple weeks.
5) No time to push a guy to the moon, even if they wanted to.
6) Too many title changes. To battle falling buyrates, they needed a hook for their PPVs so they went with title changes. But have ended up killing the world title. WIth split PPVs, it would be the tag titles, women’s title or IC title passed around, allowing the main belt to retain credibility.
7) Did I mention buyrates are STILL going down?
The WWE has to do one of two things. Either go back to the brand split PPVs (those buyrates were better than the ones they’re getting now) or unify the whole roster into one giant “brand” like its 1987 or 1999, unify the world titles and put the belt on Cena. He’s the guy, make him the guy and then go from there. Let Cena do his thing for 6 months because you know he’s good to keep the ship afloat with the kids while they rearrange their house and move forward as one “brand” again.
The best thing to do, and it sounds crazy, would be to unify everything, cut the roster in half, and basically tell TNA to take them or allow for another major promotion to rise up again. It’s the only thing that can save the business at this point. Create real competition again. Vince has had no fire to push the edge and create new original stars or material because he has no reason to do that. He’s making money off of wrestling fans who are and always will be wrestling fans. If he’s satisfied with that, then we are stuck with what we have.
I’ve often wondered why they’re determined to keep the split (or rather the illusion of the split) going at the expense of the titles and buyrates and ratings. The main arguments have always been that:
- Recombining the rosters would cost the company too much money and hurt the house show business.
- The midcarders would suffer because there would be fewer slots available.
- People would get sick of seeing the same main eventers on every show.
Well, my counter arguments are:
- If the house business is so vital, then by all means maintain seperate touring companies on the road. But adopt the old 1980’s system of A, B and C shows instead. Granted, the titles are so weak now that they’d never draw on their own, but if you sent, say, Cena vs. Show to Show A, Batista vs. Orton to Show B and Jeff Hardy vs. Edge to Show C and added the various midcard feuds into the mix, I’m guessing you’d draw some decent houses. And with the combined rosters you wouldn’t have the problem of one ‘brand’ getting more attention than the other leading to one main event or upper card feud having a lower profile than another. I think a feud like Jericho/Mysterio would draw well out on the road as a main event in certain areas, but as it stands now only a portion of the audience is even aware of it.
- The midcard argument doesn’t hold water anymore, because there are six hours of programming every week, and even with a loaded main event roster there’s still plenty of time to develop midcard feuds. Maybe that’ll mean the end of twenty-minute opening interviews and endless backstage segments and bad comedy, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. And that doesn’t mean that you have to pull an Impact and shoehorn every wrestler into every show, either. I don’t think the world will end if we don’t see Chavo Guerrero and Brian Kendrick every week.
- The main eventer issue is a trickier one, as there are many guys who can make legit claims to those limited number of slots. But it’s not 1996 anymore, and there’s no rule that says that every main eventer needs to be featured every week on television. You’ve got HHH, Cena, Orton, Edge, Batista and Jeff Hardy (assuming he comes back after his rumored departure) as full-time main eventers, HBK and Taker as part-timers and guys like Show and Jericho on the fringe. To me, that’s no different than the 1980’s when Hogan was on top but you had any number of guys underneath who were more than capable of working the top spot. So instead of trying to develop three new World title feuds every three weeks, combine the top titles and devise a longterm feud between a designated duo and only defend the main title every six or nine weeks. You might lose some revenue in the short-term for those shows where the title isn’t being defended, but then again the belts are so damaged now and in need of rehabilitation that it might not make any difference at all. And with a few hot non-title feuds and a gimmick match or two, I think those PPVs would do just fine. And alternating would keep certain guys from being over-exposed without the diluting effects of the split.
But having said all that, I don’t expect any of it to happen.
Also, the rosters are in serious need of pruning. The main event scene is pretty solid (although a decade of HHH on top is wearing thin) and I have no problem with the likes of Miz, MVP and Kingston in the midcard because they are relatively fresh faces and Lord knows we need more of those. And if you want to keep a few vets like Finlay and Regal around as player/coaches, that’s fine as well.
But what purpose does Chavo Guerrero serve these days? Or Shelton Benjamin? They are solid enough, but after all this time they still aren’t any more over than they were five years ago (and in the case of Chavo, even less so) and their matches are typically heatless and/or foregone conclusions if they’re facing upper-tier talent. I guess they’re hinting at a ‘World’s Greatest Tag Team’ reuinon with Haas, but what does that matter in a company with no interest in maintaining a tag division worth mentioning? Mark Henry has been around for THIRTEEN YEARS and it’s clear that he’ll never be anything special and I’m sure he won’t be missed for long if he got future endeavored tomorrow. And yet he’s still around with the same gimmick that hasn’t sold ticket one and wrestling the same match over and over again. Why? So the WWE can say ‘look at all the talent we’ve got!’ and use that as justification for two weak brands and one non-entity instead of admitting defeat and beginning to build a strong single roster? Why else would you rehire Golddust and bring back Chris Masters?
It’s crazy because they’ll do corporate housecleaning every year (and this past year, they’ve actually made some good choices) and yet they’ll call up other past failures or more green rookies to fill slots that don’t need to be filled. Guys like Ricky Ortiz and Zach Ryder and Mike Knox are kept around so maybe we won’t notice how thin and shallow the rosters really are once you get past the very top names.
Every year, WWE does the “we’ve got so much talent we can’t fit them all on the main Wrestlemania card” dark match and you see all those guys out there and you realize that they do employ a lot of wrestlers. But then you wonder: how many of those guys should even be on a Wrestlemania card to begin with? Or on PPV at all for that matter? Some of them aren’t even ready to be on national television yet.
Bignasty, TvTim: Some of the best analysis against the brand split i’ve ever read. Seriously.
Thanks, but really most of it is nothing that hasn’t been said already by others more knowledgable than me.
If you looked at the WWF roster in 1986-88, it was just was just as big as the roster now. They could easily do different touring groups without needing to signify what brand they are. Just have one group led by Cena as the draw, the other with Triple H, Jeff Hardy, another face. Its not rocket science, the WWF did this for years during Hulkamania.
And I think having just one guy on top with the world title would bring more credibility to the main event scene and to the title. I still remember JBL during one PPV yelling about how rare it is to see a world title match…and there was another one left on the card.
You keep a the world champ, keep the US & IC titles for the midcard, unify the women’s title and keep one set of tag titles.
When the WWF was at its hottest in 1999/2000, they figured out a way to have one giant roster and keep things fresh through Raw & SmackDown each week. Its not like theyd have to reinvent the wheel.
I was thinking the same thing re: the 6-9 weeks between a title defense. I’m fine with joint ppvs and split shows, but why does the WWE title have to be defended on ppv every 3 weeks? Why not mix it up a little and take a format more like the UFC where you have one or two defenses on a show tops, and the rest is a well rounded mid card.
They’ve also forgotten how to book PPV main events that don’t involve the world titles. The last time I can remember that is the HBK/Cena vs. Batista/Taker tag match that headlined No Way Out before WrestleMania 23. Or having a match like HBK/Taker from ‘97 that would headline a PPV even though it wasnt for a title.
I agree with all of the points above. These things could change the product enough to possibly entice me to watch again. I also have wanted them to go the UFC route for awhile (titles not defended on every ppv, diff. main eventers), but maybe this shows they don’t have enough faith in who/what they currently have on top to draw.
Seeing HHH return to feud with Orton again so soon shows the faith they have – it’s in the same old, same old. When Hunter emerged from that ambulance it made me wonder if they said he could use it with the condition that barbarian costumes were out. No wolfhair in a medical vehicles.