JoeDirt

-Jim Ross, a man who was SET ON FIRE by Kane, is suddenly all anti-Gene Snitsky when Snitsky beats up Kane at Taboo Tuesday, even after Kane basically raped Lita and forced her to marry him. -We're supposed to boo Kurt Angle for shaving Big Show's head, but Big Show chokeslamming Angle on concrete is forgotten. Name some more!

This was one of the most blatant ones ever. And they showed a replay of it, too.

If you pay the $1.49, do you get to keep the match on your computer or is it a "watch it for a week" thing?

I believe the Undertaker was going to flush the Big Show's dad's ashes down the toilet. No shit? Yeah, that's right! I remember that now too! The angle was going to culminate at some house party or something, wasn't it? And Taker would return and flush the ashes down the toilet? Wow, they should have done that.

I wouldn't waste the EC on a show like the Rumble, which is going to draw because of the Rumble itself anyways. Plus that's four guys that could be in the Rumble that wouldn't be because of the chamber match.

I don't know what will happen on RAW in the next few weeks, but coming out of New Years Revolution there is no doubt HHH will be the champ one way or another. I'm really concerned about Smackdown's lack of any direction. RAW seems to at least have a direction right now, whether you like Randy Orton or not. Guys like Batista, Benjamin, Snitsky and Edge are getting good pushes and seem to be really getting over. There are a lot more positives on RAW than on Smackdown right now. Smackdown is just a mess. There are very few stars getting built up, and no direction you can really see them going in. That said, I see Eddie (or maybe Booker) as champ heading into the new year, and losing to Angle at the Rumble. I predict Orton will win the Rumble, so we have HHH vs. Orton and Angle vs. Taker at Wrestlemania. It's really hard to say with Smackdown, though, because who really knows what the hell is going on with that show. Some people have said we might see JBL vs. Cena for the title at Wrestlemania and that's a possibility I suppose, but Meltzer said that isn't the current plan, so I'll go with that.

I think Vince lost confidence in Luger fairly quickly, as he was never really pushed hard after WM10.

Well there's the solution to the WWE getting fewer PPV buys. Just auction off the divas panties after every show...

WWE Non-Raw notes from Baltimore by Clancy Gilpatrick Just got back from the Raw at the Arena and thought I would send you the results from Heat and the dark match and my thoughts on the show. Dark Match: Chris "The Masterpiece" Masters def. Julio Dinero Julio was announced from Baltimore and got a big pop. Masters was booed long before he opened his mouth and showed decent charisma. Heat Matches: Val Venis def. Viscera Christian def. Can't remember and I should Rhyno/Tajiri def. La Resistance GENE SNITSKY!! massacred Danny Morrison(Doring) Shelton Benjamin def. Stevie Richards Watch Heat if only to watch SNITSKY's clothesline in the corner on Doring. After Raw went off the air, Orton gave HHH a 2nd RKO after HHH sold the first one for ever. Random Thoughts: I really enjoyed the show live. As far as crowd reactions, the crowd was not that live tonight. They popped for very little and were quiet through the "Desire" video with really no pops for anyone but Hogan, Rock and Austin and those were not all that loud. They had about 35% of the arena tarped off. I would say the rest of the arena was about 80% full, whatever that would be. Also there was NO heat for the Hassan promo, and that was the most aggressive of them all. No sense trying to be subtle. Why wait and let the audience figure it out on their own when they really just want you to boo them as heels. Randy Orton is absoulutely the #1 baby face on the show. There were more people wearing Orton shirts than any one else. It seemed like every other person was wearing some kind of Orton merch. Edge is crazy over with the girls. I mean REALLY over and the dudes really dislike him. HHH got the 2nd biggest babyface pop of the night when he came out for the triple threat. I think Bryan was absolutely right about him wanting to be the #1 baby face and #1 heel at the same time. The crowd is also begging for Batista to turn on Evolution. I hope they wait to pull the trigger but you know how that goes. Clancy Gilpatrick Towson, MD

The WWE is always going to be thought of as a joke. No way around that.

How many random women have debuted in the WWE in the past few weeks now?

It's only a matter of time before the males in the crowd completely turn on Orton. He'll still get the Jeff Hardy pop from the women, but the guys will turn on him. His babyface routine is so forced, is completely feels like pandering to the crowd, just begging them and saying "please like me! I'm cool because I'm having these chicks strip for you and give me lap dances!" Orton sucks. And THAT'S why the fans are 10 times more behind Batista right now, and Batista hasn't even completely turned yet.

Randy Orton is such a tool. He'll never be over huge because unlike guys like Austin and Foley and Rock, Orton is not a cool guy. He's a douchebag tool.

Eugene eliminates Maven...anybody else smell a heel turn coming up?

None of that "total control" they were supposed to get. Big Vis and Rhyno are gone, battle royal still continuing. As Vince changed the match he ripped on Stevie Richards, saying that "anyone" could win a battle royal and would we really want someone like him as our world champ? Poor Stevie...

The spoilers above were posted by the Torch. http://www.pwtorch.com/artman/publish/article_10954.shtml

There are some spoilers for tonight's RAW at: http://www.pwtorch.com/artman/publish/article_10954.shtml

Ha, I was just about to post this. Nice thinking. If Orton were smart, battle royal would go on first, and then if HHH lost he could get a world title shot on the same night.

They've got something up their sleeve, I'm telling you...otherwise there's no way in hell the "golden boy" would go third instead of fourth.

These two have the most ridiculous storylines in WWE history, I think. But let's work with the crap given us and put something together here. Okay, first off they were brothers and Kane set the house on fire, causing Kane and Taker's parents to die. Or wait, did Undertaker get revealed as having set that fire? Anyways, Paul Bearer raised Kane and Taker separately. And Bearer was really Kane's father, so Kane and Undertaker are half brothers. Right? Oh, and when Kane was little he might have had sex with Katie Vick's dead body. And then they finally collided in the WWF. And Kane buried Taker alive, so Taker came back as the dead man again and beat his brother at Wrestlemania this year. Can you add any "facts" to this shit?

The original plan for the Bossman/Big Show "ha ha your dad is dead" feud back at the end of 1999 was to lead to the Undertaker returning and feuding with Big Show for the title, I believe, but Taker hurt himself right before he was going to return and had to wait a few months before coming back in May of 2000. And as Big Show didn't get over great as champion, he dropped the belt to HHH, as Vince decided to do HHH vs. Foley at the Royal Rumble instead of HHH vs. Big Show. I believe the original plan for the Undertaker's return was scripted by Terry Taylor, and I remember it as being really weird and "out there" but I don't remember many details...maybe someone can help out? Also, does anyone else remember rumors that Chris Jericho was going to be named "Exacalibur" when he debuted in the WWF?

Good reviews so far...and I love the randomness.

There's a reason this is happening this week and Jericho is booking next week. If HHH is simply going to retain, why not have him beat Jericho this week and do the battle royal last? No, something is definitely up here. I can honestly see HHH losing the belt here, though I'll probably feel like an idiot at the end of the night for thinking so. 1) Somebody like Edge or Batista wins the title. Next week Jericho books himself in a title match against them. HHH costs Batista the title if its him, and the split is complete, or maybe HBK returns and costs Edge the title, and Jericho wins it. Then Jericho drops it back to HHH at New Years Revolution. 2) Jericho wins the title and then I don't know exactly how he'd book next week, but the end result would be him losing to HHH at New Years Revolution. 3) HHH retains. But if so, why have Jericho book last? They're headed somewhere with this, but I don't know exactly where...I could see the battle royal not even happening tonight, to be honest. But if HHH beats the entire roster in a battle royal to retain his title, it'll be ridiculous.

Good review. I've been interested to see this show, now I just might pick it up. Too bad a lot of the singles matches weren't anything special, though. But I really like the concept of this show and I think they should do it a few times a year.

I think we look back on stuff more fondly than what we're currently getting. I'm not saying that 2004 WWE is fantastic by any means, and there are a LOT of improvements that need to be made. But look at it this way...televised wrestling is way better now than the two minute matches from 1998 and 1999. Younger, new guys are starting to get pushed now, where as the past few years we've seen guys like Goldberg, Piper, the return of the nWo, etc. We've seen title reigns for Chris Benoit and Eddie Guerrero, and even if they weren't handled wonderfully, at least they had their moments at WM20. No, it's not how great the first half of 2000 was by any means, but it's shown some signs of life. Another thing that hurts is the fact that there's no competition. Honestly, looking back I think the WWF looked great just because of the crap WCW put out. And looking back, at least WCW had more good wrestling than the WWF had in the Russo days. Now with no competition, all of the internet's ire is focused directly on the WWE. The WWE is rebuilding, something necessary because of the horrible booking since Steph look over. They're looking for their stars to carry them through the rest of the decade. It's going to be interesting to see what happens, and who catches on with the fans and who flops.