Hawk 34

It would make sense because Orton went out of his way to piss off Batista at the XV special and the easy set up would be for Batista to challenge him after winning the Rumble as a battle of Evolution. What you want to see or don't want to see is irrelvant. I wouldn't fret, though. Batista is due for another muscle tear by February.

The word you were looking for isn't irony. That's not ironic.

A Hart Foundation DVD with a heavy focus on chronicling that 1997 year would be a really intriguing release since it's one of the highest peaks of WWE's history. Not sure how much you can cover Neidhart since his career wasn't remotely noteworthy except for his stints with Bret and family. I could see them expanding it further and doing a piece on the Hart Family as a whole and the Dungeon, which would allow for more people to partake in the story. I should make it clear that I meant just the wrestling aspect of the family, the personal lives of the Hart Family would be a daunting task to cover. I'm not sure how much Stampede footage WWE/Bret own, though.

With 18 seconds left, ESPN goes black with UCLA making a charge and return to live footage just before they go for the seemingly easy FG that they missed. Mormons are partying it up in Vegas tonight.

Very unlikely. It's a sore subject for obvious reasons and let's face it, he wasn't such a huge star that they HAVE to do a dvd on him. There is a long line of other deceased performers with less sticky circumstances to produce biographies. The best I think we could hope for is that Bret and WWE agree to do another DVD and they place a couple Owen and Bulldog matches on there as a tribute.

Mysterio having knee problems hasn't stopped him for continuously working through it. It says quite a lot about how poor his knees are when he just had surgery on them and spent months rehabbing. I do enjoy the idea of Punk fighting off many different people all for different reasons. MVP wants more gold, Chavo wants respect, Striker with the aid of the 2 Fat Black Beasts wants power. Throw in Benjamin, whose current direction in ECW is designed for his chase for gold. Which means Punk would likely drop the title to someone he wasn't even aware of.

I consider that more as a sign of newfound intelligence in the business of his profession, which is something he has also lacked in the years past. I don't see it as him doing it as a measure of respect to the company, that is what I would consider a growth of maturity.

I don't know if that's maturity or just keeping the bridge intact.

Survivor Series will get one. WM, Rumble and Slam are just bigger deals but they'll probably produce one later this year. I wonder if we'll ever see stuff like No Way Out anthology sets in 5-8 years. Scrob, you forgot Avalanche! I've been saying this for years but Terry Funk needs a DVD. He's a brilliant storyteller, has a fascinating career and quite a handful of great matches to his credit.

At work, people always flip about the cost of repairs. I'll be honest, if we really wanted to rake people over, we could but we're not. We're genuinely honest(most of the time). Before I came over here, I always did the brake jobs myself because it was cheaper and usually quicker that way. My favorite people are those paranoid people who think their car is going to shit every threee months. I tell them everything is fine but they insist it isn't.

That's a integral part of these bio DVDs. Its not enough to have good wrestling matches but you'd also need to have a interesting personality or career. Piper rarely had a great match but he was such a character that he warranted his DVD. Pillman had good matches in his catalogue as well as being such a unique personality. The truth is that if Tenta were alive, no one would even consider a DVD for him. It's sad to say but Tenta would be fairly low on the desired DVD releases for any wrestling performer, dead or alive.

Maria has already said she will do Playboy after her sister graduates high school.

I will make one prediction because as HTQ stated, nothing else will change. Jim Cornette will be out of the company before the year ends by his own frustrations with the head slaming stupidity or he'll be driven out. He'll do more shoots and fanboys here will be all excited.

Punk-MVP is a long awaited match that occured in the past before MVP grew as a worker and should be a hell of a match.

What is Ventura doing these days?

I pointed that out as well but he tried to cover it by saying Rey would get pushed because he's mexican (ignoring Rey's well documented history with 'roids) and Jeff would get a push because he has a drug history and Eddie got pushed on the same merit as a feel good comeback story. Even though Eddie was never clean despite what they tried to say but he never defended his stance there as well.

Despite increased scrutiny, WWE talent will continue to fail drug tests but none of them will be named Triple H, Batista, John Cena or Undertaker. The congressional hearings will occur and a handful of WWE names are requested to appear, amongst those are, Vincent McMahon, John Cena, Mick Foley, Edge, Mysterio (in a mask, which the media will ridicule), Ric Flair and Chavo Guerrero Jr. Various names will appear against WWE and the business with an ax to grind. Nothing of true significance occurs from this other then Congress making a stern warning that Pro Wrestling needs to have a more strictly regulated drug testing system. The hearings, which would occur just before Wrestle Mania 24, will have little to no damage to the success of the show. WWE will see another injury plagued year with at least 2 to 4 top names being affected, top candidates would be Edge, Mysterio, Kennedy and Kane. However, John Cena will return in the mid summer with tremendous success and Summer Slam amasses a profitable performance when Cena makes his long awaited return match. Increased efforts to keep international markets on the rise will see even more chaotic tours leading to more injuries, burn out and lackluster product but profits emerge as always, thus justifying it. In yet more efforts to remain on the mainstream, WWE will set up more celebrity angles, including a Hollywood relationship with Paris Hilton or someone of her ilk and whichever heel WWE feels warrants that spot and a match for PPV is built with that personality in the corner of that said heel against whichever face he is feuding with at the time and a face diva of his own (Kelly/Maria/Mickie). The celebrity diva will turn on the heel and walk out with the faces to ensure a favorable reaction. Mr. Kennedy will once again shove his foot into his mouth. Many talents (Haas, High Landers, Snitsky, Thorn, Moore, Boogeyman, Knox) will be released just after Wrestle Mania but replaced with talents of equal measure to keep the balance in store. Steven Richards will retire full-time to focus on his office duties. Bob Holly will slip into a role as producer at the later part of the year. Shawn Michaels will take an even more limited schedule to focus on his church obligations and to nurse festering injuries. Matt Striker completely leaves the ring action to become the first exclusive manager in WWE in years and moves from the big black freaks to a legitimate main event manager of champions’ ala Cornette. WWE hires independent wrestling standouts, Chris Hero and Delirious to a development contract. There won't be a mass exodus from TNA but WWE will pick up the services of LAX to bolster their efforts on the Hispanic demographic. The Dudley Boys will get their wishes of returning to WWE but the reunion is short lived. Not a single meaningful name will leave WWE for TNA. Paul London will request his release to return to the independents with the agreement that he'll not appear in TNA. The top talent to emerge from FCW/OVW will be Colt Cabana but not as the best friend of CM Punk as many hope/expect. Paul Burchil will finally get called back up in the summer but with little fanfare. RVD and WWE have many talks throughout the year with each sides differing on opinions but after another crucial injury loss, WWE agrees to give in and sign RVD by the fall. He'll get a push out of the gate but the momentum will deteriorate somehow. Jim Ross will have another battle with health issues that forces WWE to get serious about a permanent replacement. Triple H will turn full fledged heel once again around early summer when some guy named John Cena is ready to return. MVP and CM Punk will be main event level acts for Smackdown but in reversed roles of a Heel Punk and Face MVP. Jeff Hardy will be a world champion. Matt Hardy will win his triumphant blow-off and US title over MVP at WM only to lose the title the next week on Smackdown to John Morrison. Tag Team Wrestling will enjoy a brief resurgence in the summer but by winter will be a distant memory. Deuce and Domino, will get repackaged. Along those lines, cruiserweights will get their annual few weeks of shine before going back to squash fodder. Gregory Helms will return as The Hurricane, in an effort to bolster sales. Teddy Hart is given another chance and he gets fired again shortly after.

Silas Young is a good talent. He'll join a healthy list of good talents not doing anything in developments.

Punk has mediocre matches against mediocre opponents on a mediocre show that no one watches. WWE didn't strike while the iron was hot with him, and now it's too late. He may have been king of the Indy's, but Big Daddy V swallowed his heat in the black hole that is his stomach. He needs to get off ECW, immediately, if he wants any hope for success. Mysterio will get a push because he sells merchandise, and he's going to be a focal part for WWE's expansion into Latin America. Jeff Hardy will be touted as an Eddy Gurrero-esque success story. A guy who successfully battled his demons, and made it to the top. You touted Rey's push on the merit of punishing steroid users. If you want to claim Mysterio will get his usual push for the usual reasons, that's perfectly within reason. Eddie Guerrero was still abusing drugs at the time of his death, that's hardly a success story. Jeff's getting a push because he's over with the crowd and Cena's on the shelf. To give Hardy that type of push wouldn't be prudent, since it'd be directly compared to Eddie. ECW is still Sci-Fi's highest rated program and Punk is over. "Hope for success", you act as if he's Shannon Moore. The booking of the Morrison feud was horrific but the title change was very solid with one of the biggest pops of the year.

How is CM Punk floundering? He's essentially the face of ECW which draws good enough ratings for Sci-Fi and he's a popular merch attraction for the company. He's quite liked by the company and they made a big effort to put him over on the CNN story and because of his lifestyle, he will be a very important chest puffing show of action from Vince McMahon. Why would Mysterio get a push when they are trying to punish steroid users? Mysterio's been one of the most frequent and OBVIOUS users in the company and was named in the raid. Do I even have to mention Jeff's long rap sheet with drug abuse?

When was the press conference?

Was the "Lashley Clone", Charles Evans? In a spot like that, they need to have more known personalities work. Throw Noble and Dreamer out there and give them 10 minutes instead of two unknowns to kill a crowd during the wait. Try-outs and OVW guys should work before SD starts.

Sting isn't under contract. So, instead of having Sting-Flair close out Flair's career which is something Flair has openly asked for, you'd rather see Sting appear out of nowhere to a crowd that likely doesn't remember him or their history. How are the lights going out in outside field? Also, you're crazy if you think Flair wins on his way out. Flair's old school, he'll lay down. It's not too late to do that angle with Flair although it'd be shortened down.

The Majors Brothers are in a main event storyline. Wow.

Was this the first of Chavo since he got suspended? I haven't paid close attention to Smackdown.