commie_050

Oh give me a fucking break. It's not Russo that wanted to bring in a watered down WWF to WCW...it was WCW executives who hired Russo to put on the type of product he was putting on. How much sense would it make to bring in Russo and tell him, "you know what, why don't you put on a Bill Watts type of wrestling show." That's just not the type of product he knew how to do. And WCW executives should have realized it. It's like hiring Big Show and telling him to go out and put on a Chris Benoit-style match. And as far as a Bill Watt's type show...they had something pretty much close to that from August-October 99' when Sullivan was booking, right before Russo came in. The cruserweights were putting on great matches, Benoit/Malenko/Saturn were tearing it up and DDP/Raven were putting on great matches. And guess what...it wasn't exactly setting the world on fire, was it? Sports entertainment style of TV being a clever way to disguise an untalented roster? Say what you want about it but if it wasn't for that style of show, the WWE would not exist today. They had a pretty talented roster in 1996 and most were putting on good matches. Bret, Owen, Shawn, Austin, Taker, Sid (who was decent at the time), Vader, and Rock were all in the company. But at the time the company was in the toilet. Why? Because despite all of those guys being good workers, no one gave a crap about them because the storylines weren't designed in a way to make you want to emotionally invest in them. I'd check out the match listings for Road Wild and Fall Brawl 1999. IIRC, they were probably two of the worst PPVs of all time. In fact, I would argue the WCW product improved slightly when Russo came in October. But by that point, WWF had basically converted anyone who was willing to watch their product. Russo's involvement in 1999 can be defended, but his return in 2000 can't be. By that point, WCW should have known it needed to provide an alternative.

Not to mention the PEDIGREE she ate at WM 18. HHH doesn't have much room to complain.

The return of INTENSITY~!

Which, of course, would make no sense. But, sadly, I think you're right.

Maybe they're just admitting, "Well, we really screwed up the booking of the No Holds Barred match, let's have a do over."

I miss the broken down, defeated HBK.

Awesome. The "Crawl!" did it for me.

Jeebus. VKM definately did a 180 on his Wrestler reaction once the Oscar buzz started ...

Does the company really need two sets of tag belts? There are like 5 tag teams in the entire company. Just unify 'em.

A-freakin'-men.

Talent development is part of it, but I think the bigger issue is that title reigns are just a lot shorter. With weekly TV and monthly PPVs, title matches happen a lot more often, and so do title changes. If you add up the total weeks holding the titles, I would assume HHH is probably behind Hogan.

Again... the ankle got worked. It would be incredibly stupid for Orton to go for the punt on an injured ankle. It's not like he's the face with nothing to lose, he has a Wrestlemania title shot to worry about, why injure himself further? Re: Swagger. It's all about the Lisp. But why book him to injure his ankle? Part of the allure of the match was seeing Shane get punted. I can understand making it a competitive match - no one wants to see a squash on PPV - but why not book a punting on the PPV people paid for!

Wow, JBL/HBK better be incredible. Or something insane needs to happen in the RAW EC.

Ugh. Why hold off on the punt? There better be an angle later in the evening. I'll be severely pissed if they wait until RAW for it - reward the people who buy your PPVs!

Terrible. Just terrible. I agree. The McMahon-Orton Regime? Ugh. If Steph does turn (which I don't think should happen), it should be at Mania during Orton-HHH.

Like I said, Rock/Austin isnt happening, it was just a desire of Austin's to have. I could see Orton benefitting from being in there against Austin, but doubtful he would go over Austin, yet still get a nice rub by being in there with him. Really? One of the top stars in the WWE needs the rub from a retired wrestler? That's my problem with Austin/Orton, or Austin being involved at all. The WWE has a nice roster right now, probably the deepest since 2000. Why use your biggest event of the year to put over guys who aren't wrestling?

Right, As has been mentioned, Orton has already said he will cancel WM if he doesn't get his title shot. If you don't think they will be willing to drop the McMahon's angle, I think HHH is a much better proxy for the McMahons in the ring than Cena.

I think I'd prefer Austin in a referee or special enforcer capacity to prevent Priceless from interfering. Basically, having Austin as ref makes it a No-DQ match without it actually having to be a No DQ match. Although Austin isn't particularly good at not making himself the center of attention when he's in a non-wrestling capacity.

I like the draft right after WM. Otherwise, there's like this weird limbo period afterward. WM, I think, should be the end of the WWE year, and the draft the new beginning.

Agreed. I was fine with the feud until Trips made Randy his job boy last year not one, not two, but three PPVs in a row. I haven't been motivated to watch WWE for a while, the last few months have brought me back, so I missed those PPVs. You have a point. I wouldn't recommend HHH-Orton unless Orton goes over.

I agree with you about the Taker title reign, but I think the benefits you mention (and the downsides to the alternatives) outweigh the that minus. Plus, if Taker beats Cena, that puts him on RAW, with potentially fresh feuds. I'm also tired of the smirking Kevin Nash-esque face HHH (basically DX HHH without any teeth), so a heated, personal feud with Orton would do him some good as well. And I'm sure USA would be all about having Taker back on Raw. Although if Orton leaves for Smackdown, does he take Legacy with him... and if he does, who comes to Raw to balance things out? For the time being, they would float, since he'd sort of be affiliated with both shows anyway. I assume the draft will occur shortly after the draft, so deal with that issue then. Personally, I'd like to see Priceless with the unified tag belts, floating between both shows anyway -- Miz and Morrison are already doing so, so just unify the tag belts already. There aren't enough quality tag teams to have two seperate belts. HHH and Orton has been done, but I think the McMahon angle adds a new element. I don't mind seeing two guys with history go at it, as long as the object of the feud is fresh. I feel Orton has improved enough and added enough to his character that the feud would be a bit different. And HHH (in storyline terms) needs something to light a fire under his ass. The family angle does that, and changes his character up a bit. Again, I just can't see how Edge-HHH inspires anything other than "ugh." Cena-Orton is fine, but I'd rather have HHH jump in as part of the McMahon family. I fear Cena-Orton would just be McMahon-Orton with Cena floating above the fray until WM. That's a waste of Cena when he could be used in a fresh feud.

I agree with you about the Taker title reign, but I think the benefits you mention (and the downsides to the alternatives) outweigh the that minus. Plus, if Taker beats Cena, that puts him on RAW, with potentially fresh feuds. I'm also tired of the smirking Kevin Nash-esque face HHH (basically DX HHH without any teeth), so a heated, personal feud with Orton would do him some good as well. I also want to see Jericho and Rourke happen, but I fear the results of a singles match. I think the tag would actually be highly entertaining (and more beliveable than Rourke actually challenging Jericho in singles.)

Again, not trying to predict what the WWE WILL do (in fact, I'm fairly certain they won't) just what I'd prefer to see happen. Gun to your head, which set of title matches would you be more likely to shell out money for?

Explain how Edge vs. HHH or Cena vs. Orton is nonsensical. I'd argue that those two matches make the MOST sense for each show. Cena and Orton are clearly the two biggest stars on Raw and the same can be said of Triple H and Edge on Smackdown (short of Undertaker). Nonsensical might be bad term. Boring and predictable are better. Cena's been doing his own thing for a while now, I think throwing him into the McMahon's vs. Orton is a copout. HHH fits perfectly. Outing HHH as Steph's husband gets more heat on Orton. That, to me, is the money match that will draw. Taker vs. Cena is the best possible match you can do with Cena once Orton challenges HHH. Any other person challenging Taker is a foregone conclusion (and Cena is as well, but he is the most credible threat. I guess whether you do it now depends on whether Vince plans to allow Taker to retire with the streak. If he does, saving Cena might be better. If not, Cena shouldn't be breaking the streak anyway, it should be used to get someone new over.) Again, the current setup just doesn't scream Wrestlemania to me. Maybe I'm just trying to hard to justify my fantasy booking, but that's the way I see it.

Agreed.. And Cena would be booed out of the building in Houston if he was pushed as a legitimate threat to end the Streak. As for the whole Rourke angle, I know it won't happen... but this is BEGGING for Jake Roberts to be involved... whether Jericho brings him out, or he gets on the side of Rourke with Piper and Flair. Rock was booed out of the building at WM X7. And X8. So, heat off the charts is a bad thing, now? It's not like he wouldn't recover. I understand waiting on it, but, shit happens all the time, injuries occur, etc. etc. Why not strike while the iron is hot? I might be biased, only because I'll be attending. I'm just not excited at all for HHH vs. Edge and Cena vs. Orton. It's Wrestlemania, after all. If there are other, better options, I'd love to hear them.