http://www.f4wonline.com/content/view/9794/
Didn’t we just have a draft that was supposed to shake up the rosters and fix all the problems they’ve been having? But hey, they’ve only been trying to make something out of Mark Henry for what, 14 years now? I’m sure this time will be the charm.
poor Shelton. poor Borne. and my prediction for the next Raw breakout star: not MVP, not The Miz – all hail Jack Swagger!
regarding Smackdown: if they book their additions okay, the show will be even more awesome than before (Hart Foundation!).
Raw was awful. The lack of logic continues to amaze me, it’s simply unbelievable.
So Trump buys Raw only to sell it right back to Vince. Fine, incredibly retarded and stupid; but fine. Yet, he makes moves that Vince, the supreme owner/head of the board whatever can not reverse now that he owns Raw again?? Did he like the ideas? Why shit on Trump then if you kept his ideas? For me, this 2 week angle ranks among the dumbest things i’ve ever seen.
Gimpy HHH beats MVP in 4 minutes, what’s new there. At least, Miz was booked tonight the way he should’ve been last night. So you can elevate Miz or MVP; but instead we get the millionth push for Mark Henry? Why dear Lord…why!!
I do like Swagger on Raw but I smell him joining Legacy and be turned into another Orton lackey, because you know…”you must pay your f’n dues!!” We’ll see how that plays out.
I love the additions to Smackdown though, and will continue to sing the praises of that show. Maybe Matt can find his footing there again and the NHF is intriguing to me even though they desperately need a true mouth piece. (The Anvil would be perfect, no?)
I like the idea of a weekly GM on Raw because at least it’s fresh – and I’m certainly looking forward to seeing Million Dollar Man next week! But I agree, the logic of the whole thing was terrible, even by WWE’s standards. The least Vince could have done was to say that it was the one Trump idea that he liked and is therefore keeping.
Cena-Miz was very good. While he should not have been booked so poorly at the Bash, I did like how they played up the fact that he learned from his mistakes and was being more aggressive and had better anticipation. They should have him cleanly beat some mid-carders durilng the next few weeks.
MVP was buried – guess HHH doesn’t watch Smackdown to see how to make mid-carders look good. Having said that, MVP really needs to get some edge back both in his promos and in the ring (like his 2007 run).
I hope Bourne and Swagger do well on Raw – they’re certainly welcome additions. As for Henry, I agree with the guy below that he’s done okay recently, i.e. a decent heel that looks mean and gets booed but unlikely to draw money. The only problem is that he has now been turned face and pushed to the main-event. Maybe it’s WWE’s way of making the HHH-Orton feud look good.
The Smackdown trades are great – M Hardy and HD for Shelton and Kim is a good deal. I’m just annoyed they didn’t put Christian on one of the big two because he’s wasted on ECW.
maybe someone more current – to keep the tradition intact – Lionhart Chris Jericho instead of old ECW/Japan lionheart name?
In all fairness, Mark Henry has found a niche in the last 2 or so years as the menacing heel, and has improved greatly in my eyes.
He’s not meant to draw money, he’s meant to look mean and get booed and be the force the up and coming face must contend with. He’s done well for himself.
Honestly, Mizark was signed with huge expectations like he was going to be some kind of bigtime face for them, and it never happened. He’s a perfectly acceptable midcard heel for what he is, but WWE has yet to be forgiven by the IWC for thinking he’d be something more.
I like the promotion of the Hart Dynasty to Smackdown…I think they’ve got something really good there, and they’re ready to have a program for themselves, rather than be designated heels for whichever face isn’t in the main event that week.
At last Smackdown was unscathed this time around.
ECW.. well and truely raped.
ECW getting killed in these drafts/trades is like Winter. You know it is coming, there is nothing you can do and you just hope it is a mild one.
Six months from now ECW will have rebuilt itself somehow. Regal will have been booked like an ultra badass and be really over. Christian will have completely outgrown the show and some new guys from FCW, mid carders with upside from TNA and possibly a ROH will have made it an enjoyable show and then the big 1.5 will come and pick the bones again.
It is what it is at this point, a high end developmental program that happens to be on National TV. And that is OK, it is still fun to watch guys develop. I just hope Joe Hennig enjoys his run as ECW champ.
People are way too hard on Mark Henry.
I like all these trades, especially Raw which gains a little guy to bounce for the stars, the most promising young guy in the company and an established veteran.
I just hope they don’t shotgun Swagger to the title. The ECW sort-of title is ok for him but he doesn’t need to jump straight into holding a real strap.
They ain’t gonna put the WWE Title on Swagger. He’ll be in the US TItle picture, which is looking pretty good: Kofi, Bourne, Swagger, MVP, Kendrick, Miz, Rhodes & Dibiase could be in there..
And that’s the bigger problem – I can’t even remember the last time the secondary title on Raw was used to elevate someone to the main event (Orton circa 2004?). Usually, it’s become a way to “slot” a guy at a level that they’re never going to get out of. Look what’s happened to MVP – he’s basically portrayed as unable to even beat a badly injured HHH; not only that, he couldn’t even come close to finishing him.
Bourne is SCREWED now, to boot. He’s a guy that definitely won’t be better off on the “big” show.
I shudder to think what they’ll do with ECW now, since taking the title off Christian killed whatever heat he had left and there’s no one in developmental who can come close to filling in for the departed guys. At least if Hass had also moved over, Shelton might be worthwhile since he’s much better with Charlie around to control a match’s pace….
I think the WWE used Cena’s US Title run that same year to elevate him…I still remember his title win over Big Show to start off WrestleMania XX as a star-making moment.
I agree though that the fans have now come to associate those belts with “midcarder” when it should be “midcarder…with a chance to hit the main event” like the IC belt was for so many years.
Just like the old days, where ECW gets raped by the “Big Two”. I fully expect injury-prone Matt Hardy to be future endeavored once he returns from injury and jobs out to R-Truth. At least Raw will be fun to watch again (maybe).
BTW, Shelton Benjamin has completely lost wahatever he had in 2004-05. He’s a slow, boring wrestler (except he can JUMP REALLY HIGH). Good riddance, I say.
Raw was terrible tonight. It was a preverbal shit sandwich tonight. The only positive from the show was Jericho/Edge. Other than that, the WWE has essentially buried Miz 2 nights in a row as some form of bizarre punishment for actually getting over (most likely from his own ideas and not from Vince). Miz might have been winning most of the match, but it doesn’t matter because it will be forgotten by Thursday due to Cena easily winning. MVP looked terrible in losing to HHH who had blown out his quad and was in 2 tough matches the previous week. Anyone who is convinced that HHH has changed behind the scenes is full of it. Now the “fresh” main event next week’s Raw is HHH/Cena.
The execution of the gauntlet match was god-awful as well. The only positive here is that at least Bourne will make the 1st hour of Raw exciting in the future. Having Swagger become Orton’s personal lackey is ridiculous and Mark Henry getting ANOTHER push is absurd. Yeah, Henry has improved in recent memory, but he still going to fail at day’s end in the main event slot as he has the last 20+ times the WWE has tried it. I felt the emotion Henry showed during the match was great, but wouldn’t that have better served to someone like Swagger? If Swagger goes on last, does those same jesters as Henry, and then pins Orton in a quick fashion, there is your new star right there. Instead, we get the same retread as the last 10 years and Swagger looks like a tool because he wants to join the worst stable ever created.
I would suggest everyone avoid the Raw spoilers for next week…the booking gets way, way worse.
That said…the Edge/Jericho vs. Colons match rocked the house. And Jack Swagger is on the verge of the Jesus push…he’s got the look, he’s a good in-ring talent and he has the legit sports background in the mode of Brock (not saying he is Brock).
So now you have the Hart’s 3.0 (or Dynasty or Trilogy or whatever) on Smackdown where the top two full fledged heels (who just happen to be Canadian) just joined forced.
Could we be seeing some version of the Foundation as the new top heel stable in wrestling (and yes I know Edge was not trained by the Hart’s, and in fact is Eastern Canadian… but I doubt most people will make that distinction). The Harts against Rey/Hardy/Morrison/R Truth could be the bee’s knees.
Aside from Bourn getting sent to be a job guy on Raw despite being really over, it was actually a pretty decent reshuffle.
It kind of amazes me that the WWE doesn’t see the potential in Bourne…especially when you’re now marketing to kids. Bourne looks like the underdog and he has awesome offense…I would imagine 12 year olds would go crazy for the guy. And to older fans like me, I like the guy because he’s a good worker and a fun guy to watch in the ring.
I would think that the answer is obvious. He’s not very big so there’s no way he’d win a fight against someone bigger than him in real life, therefore, he can’t do in world of sports entertainment.
That may be true but it doesn’t stop WWE if the wrestler is talented enough. HBK has never looked like he could ever win a fight and of course there’s Rey Mysterio. Bourne is the ideal person to eventually replace Rey as the hugely talented underdog that everyone likes.
That was sort of my point…his lack of size would appeal to kids as the underdog. I know the WWE has always had that attitude towards cruiserweights but I would figure they would look at the way Mysterio is over with fans and try to create their own super-cruiserweight with Bourne.
I could totally buy Bourne in the Mysterio role. In fact at this point I think he’d be better at it than Rey is considering his age and staleness.
Unfortunately (for Bourne) Mysterio is still around.
STALENESS?
Rey has been on FIRE the last year, and for the last six months, he’s been the most consistent worker in the company.
Guy’s found his spark (and his movement) again.
Here’s what I find hilarious about Evan Bourne: online WWE fans (not necessarily here, but at certain other sites with numbers in their name) trash the ROH roster as nothing but spot monkeys. So WWE signs the biggest spot monkey on their roster, other than Jack Evans (who has been gone for a couple years), and what do WWE fans? GO APESHIT FOR THE GUY. Especially online, at certain websites with numbers in their name.
Yeah I often hate the IWC with a passion.
I”ve always hated the name “Internet Wrestling Community” with a passion too. Really, we need a name for the people who talk about wrestling online? How lame is that?
Mark Henry? Tremendous. Status quo truly is God.
I thought the end of Raw was a nice surprise and it sort of reminded me of the Shane Douglas/Bam Bam Bigelow altercation of 1997 (minus the actual title change). Mark showed great charisma and the fans popped for, of all moves, the World’s Strongest Slam. If Mark fails, Mark fails but he’s been around for so long that I don’t see anything wrong with giving him a bit of a push every now and again. He has stepped his game up big time since becoming the ECW champion for a little.
I am glad you all already know exactly what’s going to happen to Evan Bourne before it happens. I’m not saying he’s going to get pushed to the moon but why don’t you wait and see before you bitch and moan? Pre-emptive complaining and cynical armchair fantasy booking is super boring and I can totally see why no one of you like wrestling anymore but I have no idea why you still watch it.