Hawk 34

That sounds about the right time to come back. Set up a quickie feud with someone like Booker to give him a match at Slam and start the build to Orton/HHH.

Would this be the 4th straight year Orton-HHH was planned for WM at some point?

Insanity would still be the prevalent assumption. Oh, I'm just waiting for Nancy Grace to screw up and think Dr. Astin is Stone Cold Steve Austin.

ECW champion? Sure, that's pretty much established he'll be carrying that title pretty soon as it's essentially the European title of today. Now, the implication you carried with the emphasis on his lifestyle choices indicate you believe in the wake of the Chris Benoit bombshell, he'd be the ideal poster boy for a steroid-free WWE. On the surface, you could compare that with the shift in direction WWF took in the early 90’s with the first steroid outrage by shifting from the big men headliners to the smaller, less physically imposing main event acts in Michaels and Hart. Punk wouldn’t be the lone choice to use in that position but the idea that the legitimate lifestyle of CM Punk (as far as we know, we’ve learned we really don’t know anything about these people) would make a smidgen of difference in the perception of wrestling through the eyes of the general public and mainstream media is foolish. It’d be thought of a gimmick, as many people are still skeptical about the honesty of his claims. Punk has won over the company for getting over and being a solid worker although he hasn’t broke out yet in WWE. Aside from the initial rocky steps he took, specifically the situation in Iraq and rubbing some people the wrong way, he’s looked at in a stronger light. He’s essentially the main event top baby face for ECW and it’s a good place for him right now. He’ll continue to evolve with the WWE crowd and when the time comes, he can be moved up and be given a stronger marketed push from the company. Right now? Not at all.

I can't avoid the ads for that movie.

Cena-Lashley seems to be something they could have saved for Summerslam. I figured we'd more likely see a tag match with Cena/Lashley against Orton and Booker to set that up at the Bash.

I watched Benoit's match with MVP from Judgment Day quite recently and it didn't feel all that much different with the exception of the cross-face struggle sequence.

I just wonder if there was supposed to be a symbolic meaning to hanging himself on a weight machine. As opposed to a more conventional hanging or another form of suicide altogether.

Others once called Knoble, Benoit Jr. I've always felt a repackaged Dinsmore with Knoble would be a tremendous tag team. It wouldn't take much to repackage Eugene anyways. If they wanted to extend Orton's current gimmick, let Orton show up and take Eugene out and he returns as Dinsmore the quality wrestler. They managed to realize Hurricane ran its course, they should see that Eugene but that was the case well after that good summer run he had.

It's funny, because it's obvious by both his name and the whole sXe thing about his character (not just his personal life) that he's into hardcore punk. That just goes without saying. They should take a look at shirts for hardcore punk bands and go "okay...now replace this band logo with the words 'CM PUNK,' replace this grainy black & white picture with one of him," and then maybe change the tour dates on the back to dates of his victories thus far in the company. Fuck, I think I could come up with a better CM Punk shirt just ripping off a Hatebreed shirt, or even the classic Crimson Ghost Misfits shirt (I think that'd actually be pretty cool). A simple black tee, white silhouette of Punk's face and the arms doing the X, voila: CM Punk merch. ...for what it's worth, the second shirt is the least awful. how hard is that? Pretty much the same shirt as this one... Laz is right. Punk is probably the easiest guy to make a shirt for.

Nancy Grace is on Headline News, the show replays at 10.

Any reports on ratings for this show? I'm curious to see if there was a change given the news.

CM Punk shirt poll Horrible, all of them. Looks like they tried to cram every single tattoo of his onto a shirt. How can this company with all their resources still fail to create good t-shirts? edit: fixed link.

Fuck that..Edge has been using the spear for longer than anyone else in the company that I can remember. Batista should stick to the Batista Bomb, Lashley should use the Dominator. Edge has the worst looking spear in the business. Lacey does a better spear. Edge needs something that doesn't look completely weak.

He's had one since the day he left. The ball is in Jericho's hands with that.

Add Foley and JBL to that list. Jericho really went to bat for Vince right there. Quite a change from his attitude a week ago regarding the McMahon death angle.

Jericho, quite possibly has been the best rep. for pro wrestling in all of these interviews. Chyna is at the other end of the spectrum. Nancy, Cowherd and O' Riley don't even bother to do research. It's been 4 days, look things up.

Nitro might just manage to surprise people as the champion, might as well see what he can do with it. Short of getting RVD to come back, they could just as easily move one of the Hardys over to be the #1/2 face for that show. Jericho, if he hasn't completely turned off the idea of returning to the business after Benoit, and they can come with a deal, can be a viable choice to put on ECW.

I think they want Punk to do a chase for the title. Having him beat Nitro with no heat wouldn't mean a damn thing. Vince likes Punk. I think they chose Nitro because they probably didn't have major plans for him and figured he could be sold as a fluke with Benoit coming back from the family sickness and taking the title. Obviously, that changes. Now, he'll be pushed seriously and tonight, he came off as a champion and not a title-holder.

He looked very strong against Cena and Cena put that over after the match with the "God damn, he almost got me" sell. A DQ would have been cheap. The fans probably needed a good moment and Cena, the top face having a long good wrestling match and winning with a hot crowd helped. Nitro didn't come off bad here at all. He looks better in losing to Cena then he would have in a victory over a Tommy Dreamer or Balls.

They dd this show right tonight. McMahon didn't try to address the steroid issue and expressed sincere remorse about the tribute and made it clear they would move on. Open with their top star putting ECW champion over as a threat in a strong wrestling match to a hot crowd. Followed with a harmless and amusing old-school Piper skit. Closing with a good wrestling match. That's what should happen every week.

Watch them move Rey over to ECW when he returns. Actually, I don't expect a major star. Most likely, a Matt Hardy type.

We got a wrestling show tonight. Stick to this format, WWE. Have a "special" guest star every week to open the show, a skit and a quality main event.

That's true. Jericho might be the only one who would come close but he still had a damn good career outside Benoit matches. I mean for any future best of or wrestler collection releases down the road.

So do you think Punk is gonna pull a Briscoe sweep on Burke? MVP did that in the US Title match on PPV last month. It's a fresh ploy for WWE. They'll do it.