Hawk 34

I wonder if they brought chalkboards and teacher's desks in bulk.

Team DX Vs Team Rated RKO -This could be a really great match given the talents involved and considering those people, I see this match getting a healthy length of time, from 25-35 minutes. The issues intertwined here allow for some great interactions. There’s the obvious rivalries but the lingering past of Edge/Matt especially with Lita possibly being ringside will be a great scene with a likely verbal crowd blowing it up. This also has the arrival of CM Punk in a main event in such short time and with a supportive crowd behind him, his stock will rise dramatically. How this match goes down is also intriguing because you have the situation of two top teams going against each other but Orton and Punk with specific winning streaks going. Punk has the undefeated streak that they appear to be making into something of importance heading into the EC match the next week. Orton has been the sole survivor for the past Series events How do I see this match going? Since I expect this to go long, Im confident they will have a lot of mix and match work here. Of all the match-ups, I’m most interested in seeing Punk interact with Edge. I really do think that they’ll put Punk over here because the rest of the faces don’t necessarily need it nor do I really expect Matt to be a survivor. Order of elimination 1. Triple H pins Knox (HHH needs to go over someone here and Punk has already gotten him twice) After Knox is eliminated, I see a spot with Knox trying to force Kelly to leave with her but she declines and sticks and behind Punk as Knox leaves in anger. 2. Jeff Hardy pins Helms 3. Nitro pins Jeff via Melina assistance 4. Edge pins Shawn (People wouldn’t expect Shawn to go early and with Edge doing the usual heel stuff, Shawn leaves early despite his past history of success in Series matches) 5. Matt pins Edge (I see them writing Lita out here and the best way to do it is if Lita trips Edge (It’d work either if it’s because it’s on purpose or mistake). It’d be the most fitting way for her to leave and I’d have Edge berate her at ringside and that’s where Matt steps in and Edge shakes his head and walks away. 5. Orton pins Matt Hardy (Orton gets a sneak pin on Hardy after the Edge/Lita stuff) 6. Orton and Triple H double-count-out spot. Either men can afford a clean job and they always do this spot. 7. Punk submits Nitro for the win. Before Punk beats Nitro, he tricks Kelly who tried to interfere in Nitro’s behalf(revealing that she decided to stick with Knox instead) but Punk was one step ahead of her and sends her away. Punk and Nitro get a short heat segment leading to the Anaconda Vice. Since I don’t expect them to close the show with a celebrating Punk, we’ll find DX/R-RKO brawling in the back finishing off with some big stunt to close it off. Team Cena Vs Team Show -With one SS match being loaded with great match potential, this match is loaded with potential, train wreck potential. None of these guys are pretty wrestlers but you have big personalities that will be met with the usually vocal crowd in Philadelphia. Unlike the previous match, the interactions aren’t as appealing with the exception of maybe Sabu and Finlay. This shouldn’t be very long, no more then 12 minutes. Order of Elimination 1. Kane pins MVP (Instantly, maybe less then a minute into the match. He has no place here and that’s been the entire point to his existence on SD, Kane’s bitch). 2. Lashley pins Test (Lashley needs to look strong and Test is the victim here)3. Finlay pins Kane (set up a deal with these two for their next feud)3 Umaga pins 3. Sabu (The days of Sabu being protected or even booked to mean something have passed) 4. Umaga DQ’d after vicious attack on Cena (Umaga can’t take a lost yet and it prolongs the Cena/Umaga program) 5. Finlay pins Cena (Cena will be selling the beat down like death and Finlay capitalizes on it with a cheap victory) 6. Lashley pins Finlay 7. Lashley counted out after Heyman and cronies get involved 7. RVD pins TBS (During chaos of the Heyman and Lashley, RVD sneaks in a van daminator to steal a victory heading into EC to sell that RVD has TBS’s number) Batista Vs King Booker -The matches between these two haven’t been the best but that’s what you expect with Booker being the workhorse of the pair. The feud has been better then expected and the crowds do care, but it seems they remain intent on holding off the Batista title win until WM. That’s quite a while right now and as decent as this program has been, Im not confident that it can sustain that long. Which means they’ll probably need to separate these two or at least move Batista out of the way so they can transition the title onto someone for Batista to take at Mania. Which makes this match in the air, because they have done a number of non-finishes, DQ’s and other cheap finishes but I can’t see them having anyone go over clean here. This is a risky move but it’ll work if done right. Have a reversed decision spot with Batista going bat-shit on Booker after scoring the victory and the ref’s overturn the decision. Chris Benoit Vs Chavo Guerrero -This has been a fairly pedestrian feud but when the impetus is about Eddie Guerrero’s Widow having a questionable relationship with the deceased’s nephew and Eddie’s other “best” buddy drawing offense to it and Chavo goes around screaming “YOU’RE NOT A GUERRERO!”. Whatever, but when these two are given a healthy dose of time which probably won’t be the case (no more then 12 minutes, max for these two). I’d use this as the opener as it should be short enough but Benoit’s very over in Philly, so they should be into it. Ken Kennedy Vs Undertaker -Kennedy has been greatly put over here during this feud. Far greater then Orton even was and much more believable. Undertaker is battling injuries right now and since he and the company are high on Kennedy, there’s no reason that he shouldn’t go over here and I think he will. While WWE is bad, they aren’t TNA bad with booking decisions (well, not as frequent). I actually would like to see a double spot with each men busting each other simultaneously and then just beating each other to a pulp until be separated by the officials and such. Lita Vs Mickie James -Lita is out the door and she’ll be dropping the title. The match will be pretty short as they really don’t need to stretch this out further then 5 minutes. The real intrigue with Lita is what happens with Edge, later that night. Spirit Squad Vs Legends -This has gone almost unappreciated lately but Kenny has been fantastic with his current character direction. Johnny has the makings of a good face and hopefully they pull the trigger on that face turn. The match will, without question, be designed with the faces having fun and working the crowd with signature spots and such. Match result is almost assuredly to be Doane walking out leaving Johnny trapped in the F4 to have no option but tapping out.

How do the other two matches NOT resemble the old school pairings? Each match is mix and matched with main eventers and mid-carders with intertwined issues. That is EXACTLY what the original matches were.

I don't see how that can be, Marvin. ECW is one match booked right now that is hardly appealing enough to justify such a high price. SS is far from a mess since all the matches have been built better then most PPV's have from top to bottom. You have a main event that'll probably be well worked with the talents involved (When the worst wrestler in the match is a big guy who can take bumps and is almost a lock to be out first, that's a good collection of workers) with various interlacing issues going on to make it more exciting. You have a trainwreck match involving Cena/Show's respective teams that combined with the usual overbooking they do for these types of matches along with the Philly crowd, you have an interesting dynamic involved. Chavo/Benoit, while it hasn't been the most brilliant storyline, they usually provide a good sound match if given 10-12 minutes. Kennedy has been put over in a big way by Undertaker and with Taker's injury and how high he is about him, we could see a proverbial torch passing here, or at the very least, a good bloody brawl. The legends/SS match is time filler that won't even last long. Lita/Mickie will be short and maybe Lita will be motivated, Batista/Booker will be another flop of a match but again, it'll be short. Also, the ECW show is going to be in a virtual non-ecw market with a main event loaded with workers that are either completely banged up, likely to set new standards for botching, a wrestler who is built as a MMA style fighter in what is sold as a warzone, a green roid monster and two other guys who haven't gotten much steam right now. The rest of the card will be atrocious unless they purposely load the card with Smackdown/Raw matches to entice the smarky crowd.

This was a fantastic dramatic and tense episode of network tv. It started and just kept going and never let up, even the Micah/DL/Niki stuff didn't bother me.

TNA and ROH are generally seperated with some rare exceptions (such as the LAX crossover with Cornette). Joe is still a top dog in ROH with two big programs involving the champion in a blood feud and being Homicide's partner of choice against long time rivals, The Briscoes.

Remember that time frame from early 2004 to mid-2004, where they had 6/8/10 man tags every week using random variations of (Shawn, Benoit, Benjamin, Jericho, Foley against Evolution, Christian and Tomko) and they were usually pretty damn good TV with hot crowds and such? Yeah. This isn't one of those matches.

They won't allow sub-part production for it's shows.

She is leaving though and they will have to explain her actual abscence including where Edge stands. They could go about this in a variety of ways that'll have logical success but they'll choose the lazy path instead. This isn't like Carlito/Trish which lasted 6 weeks and they brushed it off a couple weeks later during the Torrie/Carlito segment that explained Carlito breaking up with Trish. This is the top heel partnership in WWE for the past 18 months coming to an end.

I've always felt the comparison of Chono being a japanese version of The Rock to be fair enough. Each could work when they needed to but it was all charisma and presence that made them so popular.

Well i doubt they want to keep doing women's tourneys every month until the division is gone---oh shit. They might as well let Lita retire with it and just dump the Women's title for now until theres enough Women on RAW to comepte for it. They have Mickie, Victoria, Beth and about 20 girls in development* *Don't bother with the punchline, Rando

I know that girls probably confuse you but you should tell the difference between Mickie and Trish. He was talking about Trish winning her last match. It read, at first, like a demand for Lita to job. Still enough.

I know that girls probably confuse you but you should tell the difference between Mickie and Trish.

This is where Matt should come out

Nah, Metallica 1997.

A series of knee and neck injuries had more to do with it then her implants.

I find it ironic that Dusty, whom was never a physical looker decides to wear a shirt to cover his aged body while Piper and Flair haven't despite obvious declines.

I just noticed this SS guy looks like Orton and Matt Sydal mated.

Rookies in the back, learn from Dusty.

Would you like some people to die in the match? No, of course not but it still stood as a fairly paint by numbers ladder match with Hardy only minus a few bumps since Nitro was able to key Hardy in. You can have a fantastic ladder match and even minimized with spots but this match wasn't either. In ladder matches, you have two options. A) Balls out spotfest or B) psychology driven physical match. This was either.

Razor was the one who went under the ladder on the entrance and he was the one who did the job.... All I remember is someone walking under it and someone doing the "no no" finger wag before sliding around it. For some reason I was picturing Razor NOT going under it, since he went on to win. Shawn did the gesture while Razor cockingly went under it. The second time around, Razor climbed the ladder on the way in.

Benoit and Jericho was loaded with psychology and still didn't skimp on the spots. Benoit and Edge had their own little psychology during the MITB 1 match. The WMX match involved it as well. Basically, if it doesn't involve Hardy or RVD, it'll use psychology.

He isn't allowed anymore to do Meth, Crack, Gas and whatever else that TNA let him do as long as he showed up.

I just wonder if they can out botch RVD/Sabu.

Pre-match hype, they showed Nitro being ultra-confident with Hardy being nervous. The ref taking the belt away was just playing off the old routine of the wrestler having to give the title up before coming out, so it could be hung.