Professional wrestling thread

I read that Carlito wrestled Benjamin in the dark match right before the PPV started.

 

The problem is the brand split. The rosters have thinned out so badly that they don't have anybody other than Triple H, HBK or Edge on Raw that really could headline a PPV.

They need to push some of the younger, more talented guys. But it won't happen anytime soon. Vince is still way too obsessed with big bodies and monster characters.

 

Of all the guys to break UT's streak, this would piss me off the most.

Batista really is a terrible worker. The only thing he can do is clothesline people, pretty much.

That's shaping up to be a pretty bad main event for a WM.

 

It all goes back to Vince's big man fetish, though I was surprised they went as far as they did with him the first time. Then he got nicked for steriods and sent to rehab, and (surprise of surprises) lost most of his muscle definition while he was gone. Now he's doing quasi-comedy matches with Jerry Lawler, which is probably all he deserved in the first place.

 

Speaking of 'roids, anyone else notice the Snitsky-size acne on horse-face's/Test's back last night?

 

The brand split is so hopelessly watered down at this point I'm not sure why they're even bothering anymore. Look at ECW's PPV -- one Elimination Chamber match and one match involving four non-ECW guys. And the Hardy Boys Hardys wrestled on Raw against Edge and Orton, even though Matt was supposed to be banished from that show for losing a ladder match to Edge months ago (and why not bring up Lita one more time for the hell of it?). And (minor spoiler alert) MNM's "one night only" reunion is already a lie -- they wrestled at last night's Smackdown tapings.

They're not even bothering trying to explain this; why not just scrap the split at this point, perhaps keeping ECW as their sanitized extreme outlet where all the weapons and cruiserweight matches go, and be done with it?

 

Batista is an older Goldberg -- he has two moves he can hit with great velocity and sweetness (spinebuster, Demon Bomb), but there's not much to him outside that. And you can only milk it for so long. Batista can never hope to be as interesting as he was when he was the quietly disapproving muscle in Evolution's last days, slowly showing his distaste and distrust of Triple H until it exploded at the end of a Raw where he finally made the turn. It was as well constructed and well built up as anything WWE has done in the last three years. But once he got the belt, he was a lot more boring as the hunted than he was the hunter, and even a switch to Smackdown didn't do anything to revitalize him. And all the time he spent on the shelf with his quad injury amplified it.

But Smackdown is so hurting for upper-card workers that they don't have any real choice but to give him the belt, even if Booker T did a lot more with it in his King Booker gimmick. JBL's retired, Rey's injured, Undertaker's a special-occasion wrestler, Lashley's in ECW, Angle's in TNA, Eddy's dead. Right now the main event picture is Batista, Booker and Finlay. Perhaps they'll push Mr. Kennedy into that spot after his Undertaker feud, but he's really not that great a worker, he just has a good introduction gimmick. Eventually Benoit will be back there, but he's kind of tied up with Chavo and that horrifically stupid angle with Eddy's estate. Monty Brown is in, but apparently he's going to Raw. It's not pretty on Smackdown, no.

Kennedy

 

Smackdown has the next PPV. Wonder how many Raw and ECW people will perform on that to counter the losses it has right now.

 

And, since it appears that anyone who has posted on this thread actually knows what should make for a better PPV than anyone at WWE does, what do you do with the ECW PPV this weekend? There's only two matches announced (Chamber - RVD, Sabu, Test, CM Punk, Big Show, Lashley and then the Hardyz-MNM tag match) with only a few days to go.

How about this?

Hardcore Holly vs. Lashley (Heyman makes this match to weaken Lashley, but the plan backfires and he wins the Chamber and the title later that night)
Sandman vs. Kevin Thorn w/Ariel
Tommy Dreamer/Balls Mahoney vs. Stevie Richards/Mike Knox w/Kelly Kelly
Davari/Khali vs. FBI
Shannon Moore vs. Matt Striker
Interview w/Terry Funk, Mick Foley comes out and challenges him to a retirement match at Wrestlemania 23 in Detroit? Both guys can also be entered in the Royal Rumble.

 

WHAT?!?! Test's on roids? Christ, now I suppose you'll tell me there is no Santa Claus, too.

 

Update: Meltzer reporting that Sandman vs. Holly is officially on the ECW PPV

 

Umaga is not a talented wrestler. He's like Batista and only has two or three good moves.

He's a watered-down version of Rikishi (Phatu) and Samu.