Hawk 34

Main Show 1) The YRR of Sal Rinauro, Jason Blade, & Kenny King defeat Delirious, El Generico, & Mike Quackenbush when Delirious was hit with a crutch and Jason Blade got the pin. Good opener. ~All of Sweet & Sour Inc. with the exception of Bobby Dempsey are in the ring. They announce the $1000 Daniel Puder submission challenge. First up is Alex Payne, and he's submitted quickly. Rhett Titus is next, and he's done in 30 seconds. ~Larry Sweeney announces that Chris Hero and Sara Del Rey are now the Intergender World Tag Team Champions. They will defend the belts against Ernie Osiris and Alexa Thatcher. The belts are a joke. 2) Chris Hero & Sara Del Rey squash Ernie Osiris & Alexa Thatcher to retain the "Intergender World Tag Team Championships". 3) Roderick Strong defeats Jigsaw when he made him tap to a new submission. It resembled a backwards Figure 4. 4) Jimmy Jacobs defeats Jack Evans by submitting him to the Guillotine Choke. 5) Claudio Castagnoli defeats Austin Aries after two Ricola Bombs. Aries was playing heel throughout the match. ~Claudio calls out Puder and says he wants to take Puder's $1000 challenge. Claudio puts up $1000 of his own money to take on Puder. Puder can not make Claudio tap, so Sweeney attacks Claudio with a chair and steals his money to end the first half. ~INTERMISSION~ 6) BJ Whitmer & Shane Hagadorn defeat Bobby Fish & Eddie Edwards after a Whitmer powerbomb on Fish. 7) Kevin Steen defeats Brent Albright with the Package Piledriver. Good match. 8) FIP World Heavyweight Championship: Erick Stevens defeats Bryan Danielson following a restart. Just like last night, the match ended via countout and Stevens has it restarted. He PINNED DANIELSON with a Doctor Bomb. (then I died a little inside). 9) The Age of the Fall vs. Briscoes brawl ends in a no contest. Jay got injured during a spot with a ladder and EMTs came out to attend to him. The Vulture Squad (Evans & Jigsaw) came out and brawled with Black and Necro. Apparently this became the match, as Jack won with a springboard 630. Nothing else said about Jay.

I expect them to give each show the same stage but use different lighting for each show.

In Jericho's case, he's more determined to get revenge on the guy who cost him the title on two seperate occasions and tried to hang him. MVP knows retiring Flair would be the biggest accomplishment of his career and would sacrifice a spot in the Rumble to accomplish that. Flair already proved he can win the Rumble, beating a champion (even if it isn't a title match) at this stage in his career would be a chance to prove he's still the man.

That's biggest difference between TNA and WWE. WWE has 2 passable workers who rarely ever do anything worthwhile, TNA has good workers who get to shine. TNA will find a way to screw it up but the fact WWE didn't pull the trigger on Kong before TNA did was a big blunder.

Sean Casey (the baseball player, not the scummy wrestler) was a good guy though. Casey is a decent name and since he's a baseball guy and all, you have that connection to the famous poem. I like Lance enough to not be concerned about the name of his son. The kid had it tough enough in his life, no need to harp on his name.

They usually put a guy like that in the final six (MVP and Carlito, for the last couple of years for instance) anyways but since they're inducing the second chance EC match for No Way Out, I'd say it's less likely now. They could place a guy in the EC just to fill a spot but the best you can probably hope for is someone like Finlay, and that wouldn't be a stretch. Punk could just throw his usual "I crave competition and what better to quell that then a Royal Rumble, with 29 others in that ring" as a cover. Having Punk in the Rumble would be interesting given the crowd support he's likely to have. Whoever eliminates him will get some considerable heat. So, it should be Shelton to get that build going. Hornswoggle is going to be #1 or #30. If Hornswoggle is #1, I can see him outsmarting a few low card guys until Khali comes out and clears the ring except Hornswoggle. Finlay comes out next and chops Khali down and over, I'd love for Finlay to toss Hornswoggle right after that just to be the asshole he is. As for debuts/re-debuts? I don't expect anything outside of Lashley's return.

I have a hard enough time naming my dogs. If I have kids, I'll call them by numbers.

WWE's refusal to bring in talented female workers has been the only good thing TNA has taken advantage of in the past year.

A giant baby would live up to the hype.

The easy solution is to move ECW ahead of SD. Crowds will stay hot for Batista or UT at the end, or they can at least edit any non-pop they can. Having a 2-3 hour delay wouldn't hurt matters. Obviously, for the west coast shows, they would have to go back to live ECW's. Also, if you take Punk off ECW, it really lacks identity, since right now it's basically "The show CM Punk is on". Sure, they could move another face from the crowded Raw/SD placement (like Rey or Matt) or just elevate another new guy once they move Punk over to Smackdown.

They could always go outside of ECW in the way of Kennedy, Umaga or any other mid-card heel.

It's a testament to his appeal when he maintains a level of overness despite having nearly zero promo time (felt like the promo on Chavo on NYD was the longest promo he cut in-ring since he debuted in 2005 and it was quite effective, I must say). They made a mistake of dragging out Morrison/Punk longer then it ever needed to, especially throwing Miz into the mix. Then they went and threw him into a feud with Kane against Henry/BDV and it went nowhere. Chavo, is a fine performer but he isn't going to help Punk. Punk needs a real direction other then just coming out for a pop and a 10 minute match every week.

Foley, could go after Punk with or without the EC/RR win. I'd be all for a match between the two, if I felt going over Foley meant something anymore. It's a good thing for a secondary show, but I'd be more inclined to see Punk against Benjamin in a wrestling clinic or in a great extreme rules match with Umaga/Finlay at WM.

There is an advantage to having the Elimination Chamber act as the second chance match at NWO, it opens a small window of hope that they might actually have a "upset" winner but again, it's a small window. Ideally, they'd just have the Rumble winner challenge for the WWE title and the EC winner challenges ECW (or vice versa). Undertaker doesn't NEED to earn a shot. Edge should be jumping up and down to get UT at WM, chomping at the bit to end the streak. Instead, they won't do that because everyone must fear Undertaker. Problem is, they won't waste a winner going after what amounts to being the equivalent of TV title.

Actually WWE.com just says they were added to the match. It doesn't say they had to qualify or anything.

I was thinking they were doing that at Rumble especially since Chavo has failed to win twice (but now that makes me think they'll do an extreme rules stip). Punk/Benjamin would be a fine match. I think this is the best singles persona of Shelton's career, now that they have carefully scripted his promos and given him a clear direction.

Barbarian, Berserker, Duggan, Dibiase (whose singles career was fading) Haku, Hercules, Col. Mustafa, Michaels (he was a freshly turned singles star), Repo Man, Tito Santana (a glorified JTTS at that point), Sags, Slaughter (well after his heat died), Skinner, Snuka (way pass his time), Valentine (ditto), Volkoff, Warlord. That’s half of the line up, pepper in a few mid-card acts. The big attractions of the 1992 rumble were Hogan, Flair, Sid, Savage, Piper, Roberts and Undertaker. That's only 7 names. Hardly any different from what 2007 will offer. What made the Rumble so significant was Flair's performance and the fact the title was on the line. Getting a title shot won't duplicate the enormity of winning the title outright. Now, you can get the Rumble which will have good line up of stars although less realistic winners thanks to the title shot stipulation as well as a strong under card. You brought up 1992, that had a horrible under-card aside from a feel good pop for Piper's win.

There's no way HHH would drop himself to face Regal at WM. If HHH isn't in the title match, it's against Flair.

Raw would be Shawn, Umaga, Kennedy, Santino, Carlito, Rhodes, Holly, Lashley (as a surprise, I would hope), Murdoch, Snitsky, HHH (he'll probably go the Brock route), London, Kendrick, Haas SD/ECW Batista, Undertaker, Chavo/Benjamin, Henry, MVP, Kane, Finlay, Noble, Yang, Moore, Flair, Khali, Miz, Morrison, Big Daddy V and Matt (surprise). I assume Punk will face Benjamin or Chavo. That makes it a realistic probable list that the fans will buy as a legit chance with...3 guys. Batista, Undertaker and HHH. You're missing Hornswoggle and Foley. You're right, one day later and I forgot. You can toss Londrick off the list.

Raw would be Shawn, Umaga, Kennedy, Santino, Carlito, Rhodes, Holly, Lashley (as a surprise, I would hope), Murdoch, Snitsky, HHH (he'll probably go the Brock route), Foley, Haas, Hornswoggle. SD/ECW Batista, Undertaker, Chavo/Benjamin, Henry, MVP, Kane, Finlay, Noble, Yang, Moore, Flair, Khali, Miz, Morrison, Big Daddy V and Matt (surprise). I assume Punk will face Benjamin or Chavo. That makes it a realistic probable list that the fans will buy as a legit chance with...3 guys. Batista, Undertaker and HHH.

They then cut to Ric Flair, who will be weeping uncontrollably backstage. That'll be two midgets to outlast his record.

Hornswoggle will be #1 and last over an hour.

Looks like we'll have a strap/bullrope match at the Rumble.

I liked the 3rd match the most. It wasn't a wrestling match like the first two. It was a war. After you check out the Raven and Joe stuff, you have to get to the Rave feud because that was gold with a couple brutal matches.