Angle-plex

After displaying somewhat decent mic skills and charisma Monday, Maven lost in a three second match not once, but TWICE tonight. Now in a time when WWE is really lacking in credible midcarders, this booking makes no sense. Where exactly are they going with this? Maven might not exactly light the world on fire with his workrate, but are the creative team so full of ideas for feuds for Shelton that they felt the need to throw Maven aside and throw in....who? Hassan? Simon Dean? Rosey? I know the world has been demanding a Shelton/Grenier feud for quite some time now, but did they really have to humiliate Maven?

WHAT?!?! Keep Grenier away from Hassan. Hassan could actually be a good IC contender. If I want to see someone botch nip-ups or forget to kick out when they're supposed to I'll watch a Grenier match.

Triple H as champion to start off 2005. Who would have thought? I'm a little puzzled as to what he'll be doing for the Rumble. I guess he could face any of the guy from the Elimination Chamber in a singles match, but as to who they'll pick I have no idea.

Does this mean that we're going to be getting Chris Jericho, "American Hero" for WrestleMania?

At first I though Christian was better than Edge, mainly due to Edge's first couple of singles feuds with Angle, Booker, and the unbearably bad feud with Regal which seemed to last 800000 matches. In the last few months however, Christian has become stale and Edge is (sort of) connecting to the fans with his new heel character, so I see Edge as being the more talented of the two. As far as old school WWF midcard goes it was better because they actually had characters. Nowadays it's Shelton (Old School Face), Maven (Old School Heel), Christian (Old School heel) and so on. Not to mention that nobody (with the exception of maybe three people) could cut a promo to sell a match if their lives depended on it.

Loss, did I mention that I love you?

After thinking about it, I'm now convinced they made this show be as awful as it could be just to make the Rumble look that much better.

That would be fine as long as Shelton, you know, is giving some kind of PERSONALITY beforehand.

You mean the infamous "Losing Streak" gimmick that has shown time and time again to do nothing but hurt everyone involved? Marvelous.

The greatest part of his win tonight is that it proves Triple H is now master of the Elimination Chamber, Hell in a Cell, and Three Stage of Hell. And Title Matches. And Singles Matches.....

At least WWE knows how to send the fans home happy.

You'd take bumbling idiot honky tonk man Bradshaw's title reign over a title reign by a guy that's booked to be 2x better than the entire roster? The JBL character is entertaining. The HHH character is not. But Bradshaw's a midcarder that can't win a match without serious cheating and isn't looked at as a threat by anyone. Not to mention that I'll never forgive him for making me sit through his awful SummerSlam '04 match with Undertaker. Trips has been booked to be better than everyone else on the roster, so people can actually buy him as a credible champion. Trips was obviously going to win anyways. Benoit had lost momentum, Edge and Batista aren't ready, Orton still has to wait, and Jericho is Jericho.

You'd take bumbling idiot honky tonk man Bradshaw's title reign over a title reign by a guy that's booked to be 2x better than the entire roster?

To his defense, he was facing old slow fat fuck announcer Lawler.

Benjamin is still IC Champ. You mean Shelton "Generic Old School Face" Benjamin? No thanks.

I'd say Eddie and Art Barr's run as Los Gringos Locos completely trumps anything HBK has done for being memorable. Eddy vs Lesnar from No Way Out 2004 also has an incredible crowd reaction, far moreso than the HIAC match you mentioned. Well, we're in the WWE folder, and I italicized "in the WWE" for a reason. Nothing in Eddie's WWE run is as memorable as Hell in the Cell or even Iron Man match at WrestleMania 12. Well, I know HBK hasn't, so it's kind of a moot point. I'd peg the Good Friends, Better Enemies match at about ****, but that's obviously opinion. It's been while since I've seen a Shawn/Sid match. Eddy vs Lesnar, NWO 04, again is far better than both of those. I'm sure many of Eddy's great TV matches are also just as good/better than those, and I can find some examples if you really want them. Agree to disagree I guess. I didn't find the NWO match anything special. A good *** affair, but not a (WWE) MOTY candidate like Angle/Austin, Angle/Benoit, the first Hell in the Cell, the iron man match, and HBK/Foley from Mind Games were. Not when the ENTIRE STORY OF THE MATCH is that his back has been destroyed. It's not the kip up people have problems with - it's when it runs against the work they are doing that the problems arise. It doesn't matter. If you're getting destroyed by a guy the size of Brock Lesnar for a good ten minutes, it's still ok to nip-up because he wasn't "working the back"? EDIT: I will admit that Eddie/Rey Halloween Havoc '97 is better than anything Angle has done, and is better pure wrestling than anything Shawn has done. That was seven years ago, however, and his WWE run has been lacking.

Completely wrong. Eddie might be better than Angle, but Shawn? Could Eddie carry Nash and Sid to **** matches? I doubt it. Has Eddie done anything as memorable as the first Hell in the Cell? Shawn's not the best seller, but he can add more drama and get the crowd more into a match than Eddie could on his best day. As far as Angle goes, his match with Benoit at Royal Rumble 03 and his SummerSlam 01 match with Austin are better than anything Eddie has done in the WWE, but that's all opinion anyways. And as far as Rock goes, he's obviously a better seller than both Angle and Shawn, since we've NEVER seen him do a nip-up late in a match after getting beat down before, have we?

Recent mistakes include putting the belt on Bradshaw, a guy with a decent MIDCARD character, during a time when the Smackdown brand needs a top draw to carry the show. Kane feuding with Shane McMahon and losing to everyone since losing his mask. The guy could have been a monster had he been booked properly, and now's he's back to where he was in '99. Orton's face turn. Undertaker's "return of the Deadman".

The orginal was so scary I nearly fell asleep while watching it in the theater, so I think I'm going to have to pass on this one. What can they do with this one that will make it any different (better) than the original? The premise of the first movie was exactly screaming "sequal", was it?

Bradshaw needs to drop the title by WrestleMania (Jesus, did I just type that?). A big win over him by anyone won't mean much since he's getting the Honky Tonk Man title reign that has not worked since, well, Honky Tonk Man. However, all possible title matches for Smackdown SUCK, so I guess they'll go ahead and give Cena the win even though it will be too early. The best possible scenario for that belt is to hotshot it to Angle and trade HBK over to Smackdown after the Rumble. No other face challenger would work (Eddie is stale, Booker is stale, RVD wont get pushed, Rey's too small, Cena's not ready). Big Show is the possible exception, although I don't think the world is demanding a Big Show WWE Title win at WrestleMania. Jericho shouldn't be in IC title matches. I don't even LIKE Jericho anymore, but the IC title needs to establish it's own division. Benjamin vs Hardy vs Xtian wouldn't be bad, although I'd prefer Benjamin vs Hassan if his gimmick stays strong.

Before Edge wins the title, I think he needs to change his finisher. The spear doesn't look like it would particularly knock a guy out for the three count. That DDT thing he use to do would be better.

He needs to stop the rhyming and all the gay jokes if he wants to get anywhere. Calling someone "gay" may be funny to the people under 14 in the audience, but it will not make someone want to order a PPV to see a match between Cena and said "gay" opponent. A feud with JBL now would just end up with Cena saying that JBL, The Bashams and Orlando are all gay together and end with an anti-climatic title win after a lackluster feud. That will do nothing but ruin any future that Cena may have. Only after he lose the rhyming, start cutting some "real" promos, and gets in some good (serious) feuds is when he'll be able to move to the next level.

Damn does this guy know how to hype a match. This is the future of the WWE right here folks! I have nightmares thinking about how horrible the build to a Bradshaw/Cena WWE Title match at WrestleMania would be. Nice to see that RVD, even with Rey's interference, can't overcome the amazing skills of Doug Basham. And he loses after a DDT? I'm glad I gave up on the idea that they might actually push him years ago. Wow. Talk about great build to a WWE Championship match on a big 4 PPV. Someone show me where I sign up to order the Rumble.

I catch the reruns a lot, and this is one of the funniest shows that was ever on Television. I thought it kind of went downhill after Diane left, but it was still a good show until the very end. Coach was probably my favorite character with Cliff and Norm running close second.

VS.