Hunter's Torn Quad

UFN brings in the numbers:

It's generally a good idea to get people to pay to see the payoff to a tease, especially one that revolves around the main event of your next PPV, rather than give it to them for free.

I hope the only thing going any kind of distance is Eddie Sanchez's head when Cro Cop kicks it clean off his shoulders.

Which can always have a screwy finish.

My guess was close enough. If it is Cena vs. Undertaker at WM XXIII, I guess it's Shawn and Flair(?) against Rated RKO to blow off that feud.

From PWInsider

With the talk by Shawn of Undertaker not yet making his choice of which title to go for, and an apparent major change of WM plans, I would not be surprised to see Undertaker show up at the end of Raw, chokeslam everyone in sight and declare his intention to go after Cena.

Cena also beat Undertaker on a Smackdown after Vengeance of that year, when A-Train laid out Undertaker to set up their match at Summerslam.

Dave can only report what he's been told. If he hasn't been told anything specific, and he might not have because his source might not want to risk being shown to have leaked something that is clearly major, then he can't report anything specific.

Lashley vs Test? Yes. And it'll be the TV match getting the clean finish, again.

And you'll never guess the main event to ECW on Sci-Fi tomorrow night.....

It will be a money match, I think their first ever match or at least their first one in a long time. Undertaker always works hard at WM, and he's going to have to work hard to get something out of Batista who has been nothing short of terrible since he returned from injury. It should be no longer than fifteen minutes, and should end with Undertaker winning. Whether Undertaker should ever lose at WM or not, and I think he ideally should at some point, it shouldn't be to Batista for all the reasons everyone's stated.

The point of the Rumble is to get over the storyline that will create the best possible buy rate for WM. Given the big Streak vs. Title storyline has a lot of potential for it, and that the build for Batista vs. Undertaker has been great, slow burning stuff, last night's Rumble did it's job.

Or maybe MNM interfere to keep that issue going.

Burial might be too strong a word, but they didn't make him look good by having him walk out like a coward and still get dragged back in to get beaten up. Kennedy worked hard to get something out of Batista, but the match was still only decent. The ECW title match was completely lifeless. Cena and Umaga had a great match. The Rumble was pretty slow until the last ten minutes and then it picked up a lot. I wouldn't have had Undertaker win by throwing Shawn out, because I think that hurt the pop Undertaker got for winning. It's telling that JR wasn't announcing the Rumble. And Chris Master's must have pissed in someone's cornflakes if he got eliminated by RVD.

Ebestan Hansen Kiku-Kiku-Kiku

Rashad was doing what fighters are told to do; keep fighting until the referee actually stops the fight. And that might just be the most devastating KO in UFC history. Watch the replay, and on the third angle you see every jaw at cageside drop all the way to the floor. The guy next to Rogan even jumps into the air as well. And let's not forget that poor Japanese woman who looks terrified.

Meltzer on The LAW just now: Undertaker was going to win the Rumble going back two months. Triple H was a possible winner, but once he got injured it was definitely Undertaker. Thinks they'll do something with Edge and Orton, though maybe not a full split, going into WM XXIII, possibly having Edge-Orton-Cena at WM XXIII to make Cena the underdog. Dave thinks it's too soon to split Edge and Orton anyway, even by Summerslam, and thinks they should hold it off until Survivor Series. Unless plans change, which Dave says they have to, Batista is set to beat Undertaker at WM XXIII. Dave thinks people would be genuinely upset if Batista ended the streak, and thinks the only way to make it work is to have Batista go full blown heel and to build to Undertaker getting the big win down the line. As of a week ago, it was meant to be HBK vs. Booker at WM XXIII with Trump and Vince in their respectiver corners, though tonight seems to indicate that idea has been scrapped. Thinks they might go with HBK vs. Khali, because Shawn could be able to get something out of Khali.

If his push is dead, then how come he's still winning matches? CM Punk beat cleanly one of the guys they were actually PUSHING on the last show. Who was touted as a former boxer with a high win record. So I don't see too much of a de-push. Or at least, they're not jobbing him out. He went from winning clean with his hold to selling for most of the match and winning with a cradle. Yes, they're not jobbing him out, but his push has been scaled back.

By the way, where does WON get this news from anyway? Sources within the company. Shouldn't you take it with a grain of salt rather than as official? Dave has an excellent track record when it comes to WWE news. Is he always correct? No. But he's right far more often than he is wrong. And it's not like the behavior reported goes against the track record of WWE. It's not like WWE has come out and said all of this. You expect them to come out and say that Vince hates ECW and think nobody on the brand, bar Lashley presumably, can work? They're not going to say anything about half of this.

1/27/07 rvd420 - multiple time PBP.

If Anderson and Finlay argue that Holly should get pushed ahead of Punk because of tenure, what happens if Howard Finkel gets brought back for a gimmick match or something? Does he get to beat Batista because he's been around for twenty seven years while Batista's only been there for five?

It's going to be funny watching either man sell for the other.

Before the last PPV there was a disagreement with Nash and Backlund. Nash wanted to put one over on Backlund by talking about "gimmicks" (wrestler talk for getting high on somas or other forms of downers) and other drug references that he thought Backlund wouldn't get. Backlund though did get what he was talking about and threatened to leave unless Nash changed it. Nash being his usual dickish self. Morale is down again. There is now a real divide between the star group (Nash, Sting, Angle, Christian, Jarrett) and the rest of the roster. The star group not only get more money but also have a seperate dressing room to the rest of the workers. One of the few things TNA had over WWE was a more unified locker room. Now, they're losing that. Brother Ray has a lot of heat over the last PPV match with LAX over eating up Homicide. I'm dying for Ray to pull this shit with Rick Steiner when they wrestle shortly. Of course, Ray won't, because Rick would fight back and I doubt Ray has the balls do try it against someone willing to dish it out. There is still talk of adding members to LAX. Konnan has been pushing hard for Senshi, but his attitude is such that TNA aren't sure about pushing him. The booking committee have suggested bringing Apolo and Machete back to the group. If they have to add people, make it just one person or they risk watering things down, and make it Senshi. Dutch Mantel, Vince Russo and Jeff Jarrett have asked Mike Tenay to rejoin the booking committee. They have also asked Jim Cornette to join the committee and Cornette has agreed in principle but they haven't come to a deal over money yet. Even with Tenay and Cornette involved though Russo will still be in charge and will continue to have the greatest impact in the shows. That TNA appears to be somewhat accepting of their booking shortfalls is enough to generate a small glimmer of hope that they might yet have some long-term hope. Steiner is planned to be Christian's consultant. On what? How to cycle?