benn

A little harmless speculation for Maria fans: http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2003560...6020653,00.html

Did anybody else notice that everyone's strikes on this show seemed a lot stiffer than usual? It was like the SD roster is motivated to up the quality of their matches now that they've lost a few guys and ECW has started.

Edge needs to win to end the Raw/ECW crossovers. It's hard to see Cena helping the guy who cost him the title in the first place but they're both anti-ECW so I guess its not out of the question. What happens at Summerslam will probably depend on whether Triple H wants his next title run yet and if he keeps playing face or turns heel again.

EDIT: Already posted, my bad.

Putting JBL on commentary may be the smartest thing WWE has done all year.

JBL going nuts over Finlay's leprechaun is fucking hilarious. Not to mention listing everything that could be under Vito's dress.

This week's Smackdown was really good. JBL on commentary is absolutely fucking fantastic. I was pissing myself when he got all excited over Finlay's leprechaun and kept talking shit about Matt Hardy and Lashley and listing all the things that might be under Vito's dress. Loved it. He even had Michael Cole laughing. The wrestlers were a lot stiffer than in typical WWE matches, was a lot better to watch. Regal and Finlay work brilliantly as a tag team too. All that was missing was a London and Kendrick match or promo.

Flair is broken-down and has no in-ring credibility left to anybody who isn't the most blind of Flair marks.

Now that I think about it, I guess they could reverse the screwjob or something. Have RVD fast-counted or something, he and Heyman say fuck this and create their own ECW title. Whatever way it's booked, they need to protect both Cena and RVD as the top guys on Raw and ECW and come out of it with separate titles for all 3 brands.

Cena/Orton at WM23. I wouldn't want to be Edge after he inevitably jobs to Cena at Vengeance and the depush starts.

Hmm now that would be something of a mistake.

Diet sodas rule.

I agree 100% with all of this post. I watched it with my girlfriend who is a new fan, and my two sisters who are fairly markish and their reactions were exactly as you described.

It wasn't meaningless, it was fun and set up the new brand to be established. I don't know what all the bitching is for, there's nothing wrong with creating an ECW title that is separate and distinct from the WWE championship. RVD doesn't and won't look like a joke, a jobber or anything else of that nature.

Kayfabe Vince hasn't seemed particularly interested in the title for a long time.

You can't even really compare this year's ONS to last year's, they're in totally different contexts. Last year the show was a one-off nostalgia trip, this year it was to relaunch the brand. RVD was not treated like a jobber. I don't like Cena but it would have been idiotic for WWE to have him come off looking like a pussy because he's their flag-bearer for Raw, which we've heard that they're treating as THE show. They can establish ECW perfectly well by having Heyman and RVD tell Vince to fuck himself when he tries to strip them of the title. I thought the PPV had a great atmosphere, the crowd was red-hot, and the matches were for the most part entertaining. Sabu/Rey was building really well, its a shame they had to cut it short for whatever reason, and the 6-person match had some nifty spots in it as well. The FBI vs Crazy/Tajiri tag match at the start was lots of fun too.

It wasn't that bad. Cena came out looking strong but I don't think that RVD was treated like a jobber. You're right in saying that the crowd reaction at SD/ECW tapings will make or break the brand though.

Man, this PPV actually has me excited. I haven't been excited about wrestling in a long time and I was never really an ECW fan either.

I gotta agree here, Dreamer fucked that table spot up bad and Edge did well to not have broken his neck.

It just has a Paul Heyman voiceover to some old ECW footage saying featuring the crippler Chris Benoit, among a few others, Sabu is the only other one I can remember offhand.

For what it's worth, my cable provider is advertising Benoit as appearing at ONS. I suspect it to be the ad for last year's show though.

I concur.

I understand that and I don't even disagree with Hulk's actions or motives. I'm saying that act of stealing the spotlight is incongruent with the way that he's saying he has no problem dropping the title to anybody that he's told. Obviously he put Warrior over but I don't think that sabotaging his run was an act of class like Hulk suggests, even if it was for the good of the company.

I think Stacy Keibler is hot as hell. A woman doesn't need huge fake breasts to be attractive, although admittedly they are very nice to look at in most cases.

I'm one of the last guys that would ever jump on the Warrior bandwagon but that is pretty fucking hypocritical. Hogan lost clean and handed the belt to Warrior, that was very classy and he did it with charisma. Not hypocritical at all. Hulk Rules. Sabotaging "the wrong guy"s title run, whether justified or not, is still hypocritical when you're claiming that you're more than happy to drop the belt to anybody that you're told.