Who should take Lesnar's spot?

[Lil' Bitch 0]

This would be a perfect reason to move Benoit back over to SD.

 

*also wishes Edge to stay and RVD or Booker T to arrive

[Scroby 0]

You know its hard to tell where the WWE goes from here. They have Lesnar and Goldberg both leaving after this sunday, and I highly doubt that Goldberg will resign. Taker's gonna basically burry (no pun intended) everyone on Smackdown. Big Show wants to take time off for his injuries but most likely needs to stick around now for Taker. Even HHH is leaving after Backlash to do movies. Tensions on Smackdown is very high right now due to all the bs that seems to be going on, and we thought Raw was horrible (lol).

You know I think the only way for the WWE to go is move a few of the guys who arne't doing jack squat on Raw over to Smackdown and maybe move up a few guys from OVW as well. I don't think the brand extension should end and I really don't see why thats a people think ending it would be a good thing. I personnally don't wanna see the same people twice in one week doing main events, it annoyed the crap outta me before the brand extension even happen.

I also noticed when HHH left that a lot of wrestlers got a lot more tv time and a lot more of them were given pushes, so I got a feeling the same thing will happen over on the Smackdown side after Lesnar heads off into the sunset. Personnaly I would like to see RVD, Lance Storm, and lets see who else.....hurricane and spike over to Smackdown. But the problem with moving Hurricane is the possibly of leaving Rosey with nothing to do. Maybe move him over as well to help out the tag team divison. I wouldn't put Booker T on Smackdown just because he helps pops the crowd over at Raw and isn't really a crowd buzz kill. Storyline wise Matt Hardy can't really go back to Smackdown because storyline wise Heyman hates Hardy for jumping to Raw. I would also push Rhyno to the U.S. divison to feud with Cena but only as a monster heel, sorta like when Rhyno was in ECW. Lance Storm and RVD would be good for any heel to feud with, or actually I would make Lance heel again over at Smackdown and have him stick Canadian stickers all over the titles again, actually no I take that back there isn't many belts to stick stickers on. But I would make Lance heel again.

Ummm thats all I can think about, but I'm pretty sure that could work, but you know Vince is gotta be thinking "why did I bring Beniot to Raw?"

[JoeDirt 0]

Lesnar's just one guy. A great main event talent, sure, but still just one guy.

 

They'll just keep Angle at the top and give Show an even bigger push after his ankles get better. Then they'll give Train a US title level push, or maybe even that new Japanese guy everyone hates.

 

I don't think they'll do anything too drastic.

[The Ghost of bps21 0]

Lesnar's just one guy. A great main event talent, sure, but still just one guy.

I think what you're looking for is that Lesnar is also the ONLY STAR THE WWE HAS MADE IN A LONG LONG TIME.

 

They don't trust Angle as a main eventer because of his injuries...Rock is gone...Austin is retired...

 

Lesnar was THE guy for the next...7 years?

[Kahran Ramsus 0]

Lesnar's just one guy. A great main event talent, sure, but still just one guy.

I think what you're looking for is that Lesnar is also the ONLY STAR THE WWE HAS MADE IN A LONG LONG TIME.

 

They don't trust Angle as a main eventer because of his injuries...Rock is gone...Austin is retired...

 

Lesnar was THE guy for the next...7 years?

Exactly. This is as devastating as if Austin had to retire after the Owen Hart match. Brock was THE guy for the immediate future and now he's gone.

 

There is nobody to take over like when Austin got hurt in 1999, and the business is down like when he originally got hurt in 1997. In both cases you have one wrestler on top that is destroying the promotion (Shawn - 97, HHH - 04). This is the single worst thing to happen to the WWF since the NWO.

[Kahran Ramsus 0]

As for the question, nobody can replace him, but there is only one choice to take his spot. He is the only guy on the roster who isn't doing much and has the skill to take over the top heel spot and get over right away. Chris Jericho. Anybody else that they promote would be the wrong guy. He is literally the only right choice right now.

[Guest Anglesault]

Goodear, that's pretty close to what I was thinking, actually.  With him believing so deeply in his cause against Eddie, I could easily see him turning that into a semi-psychotic rampage after the loss (maybe have him randomly run in people's matches and put the anklelock on people...or something like that).  That, or maybe they could run an angle where Kurt injures Eddie sometime before Judgment Day, Eddie somehow steals a second win from Kurt, injuring him in the process, then having Kurt return for revenge at Vengeance, which in addition to setting up the SummerSlam match would give Kurt a chance to heal up if his neck is giving him trouble.

So, we have it with the heel blowing it twice, the face injuring the heel, and the heel coming back to avenge an injury?

 

And people are supposed to care?

That's a worst-case scenario, but it's not impossible to make that work.

I'm not so sure that it's not impossible.

[Fro 0]

You know I think the only way for the WWE to go is move a few of the guys who arne't doing jack squat on Raw over to Smackdown and maybe move up a few guys from OVW as well.

The only guys in OVW who are really ready are Nick Dinsmore, Nova, and Johnny Jeter.

 

Out of that group, I'd only project Jeter as the one with a chance to get above the midcard.

 

They've milked OVW dry by bringing up people too early and it'll be a year or so before the next crop of guys is ready.

 

Most of the rest of the roster has been buried beyond repair, and now Taker will be back to squash everyone on Smackdown.

[Jobber of the Week 0]

How about this :

 

End the goddamn brand extension now

This is the answer.

 

It would actually give some of the guys lost in the amount of talent on Raw (such as Booker, Jericho, RVD) something to do.

[Jobber of the Week 0]

Sure why not lets have HHH and his ass buddy Shawn run roughshot over both shows. It will be fun.

HHH is off to go filming, and besides, he can try to call anyone over from Smackdown to Raw as he likes (as we've seen with Edge and Benoit) so what the fuck does it matter? It's no different to have a split or not.

[justcoz 0]

How about this :

 

End the goddamn brand extension now 

 

 

This is the answer.

 

It would actually give some of the guys lost in the amount of talent on Raw (such as Booker, Jericho, RVD) something to do.

 

I still don't understand anyone's logic behind ending the brand split? Do you not realize that there are guys on both rosters who already don't get on television? By ending the extension, you are just going to see the same guys on both shows? Austin will waste 20 minutes on Smackdown, in addition to 20 minutes on Raw, riding his stupid ass ATV down the ramp and calling himself Sheriff. The extension is needed to build and develop new stars. I could almost guarantee you that Eddie Guerrerro would not be WWE champion right now if there was no brand extension? He would have been buried by HHH the minute he got a pop from the crowd.

 

The problem isn't the extension, it's the suck ass creative teams. Do I think they need to shake up the rosters from time to time? Yes, most definitely, there should be a yearly post Wrestlemania trade to change up each show for the coming year. It's absolutely not feasible for WWE to end the split though.

 

Listen to the Pittsburgh music scene on Live 365

[Guest Anglesault]

How about this :

 

End the goddamn brand extension now 

 

 

This is the answer.

 

It would actually give some of the guys lost in the amount of talent on Raw (such as Booker, Jericho, RVD) something to do.

 

I still don't understand anyone's logic behind ending the brand split? Do you not realize that there are guys on both rosters who already don't get on television?

And that's your ringing endorsement of the brand extension? That it's not working?

[bobobrazil1984 0]

Push Cena up hard, and move a heel (not HHH), over to Smackdown. I say Christian. The Christian/Cena and Christian/Eddie promos could be gold.

 

Oh wait, Christian isn't big.

[Kahran Ramsus 0]

Christian can't back it up in the ring. Matt Hardy is better.

[bobobrazil1984 0]

Matt Hardy's also been jobbed out for the past month or two. How exactly are they going to suddenly move Matt over and put him an upper-card slot? Not saying Christian can make the jump up and be completely legit or anything, but considering how entertaining his heel schtick right now in the Jericho angle is, I could see him being a temporary M.E. heel opponent for Smackdown.

 

Sadly, if they hadn't spent all this time turning Jericho into a lukewarm face... they could have just moved Jericho over, and he would have been a great M.E. heel.

[CanadianChick 0]

I think it is time for the WWE to look to the future and that future is Shelton Benjamin. I know breaking up WGTT will kill the tag division but is neccesary to buid a new top heel. Bring Teddy Long over as his manager and have him feud with Cena for the US title. By Summerslam or Survivor Series, Benjamin will be ready to take the top heel spot and be WWE champion. In the mean time, have Chris Jericho win on Sunday and just when you think he and Trish are going to kiss, have him push her down and have him become full fledged heel again. He will then move back to Smackdown and become their #1 heel until Shelton Benjamin is ready.

Yeah, sure. Let's just piss away the last five monthes of this angle. That would be awful. He was in a five month angle with literally no payoff, AND it makes Christian look stupid on top of that? Christ, that's Russo territory. Unfortunately, I don't see Jericho going, espeically as a heel. The only heel that would move is HHH, with Micheal's being the #1 heel on Raw.

[justcoz 0]

I still don't understand anyone's logic behind ending the brand split? Do you not realize that there are guys on both rosters who already don't get on television? 

 

 

And that's your ringing endorsement of the brand extension? That it's not working?

 

I thought I made my point later by saying that Eddie Guerrerro would have probaby never won the world title had it not been for the brand extension? He would have been fed to HHH along with Lesnar, Cena and anyone else who was getting over. If there wasn't a brand extension we'd have one champion and guess who that would be? I wasn't trying to put together a ringing endorsement of the brand extension. That wasn't my intention. It's failed on many levels. My point was that ending the extension wouldn't resolve anything except get the same people on both shows at a time when they desperately need to develop and push new stars.

 

Listen to the Pittsburgh music scene on Live 365

[Papacita 0]

Goodear, that's pretty close to what I was thinking, actually.  With him believing so deeply in his cause against Eddie, I could easily see him turning that into a semi-psychotic rampage after the loss (maybe have him randomly run in people's matches and put the anklelock on people...or something like that).  That, or maybe they could run an angle where Kurt injures Eddie sometime before Judgment Day, Eddie somehow steals a second win from Kurt, injuring him in the process, then having Kurt return for revenge at Vengeance, which in addition to setting up the SummerSlam match would give Kurt a chance to heal up if his neck is giving him trouble.

So, we have it with the heel blowing it twice, the face injuring the heel, and the heel coming back to avenge an injury?

 

And people are supposed to care?

That's a worst-case scenario, but it's not impossible to make that work.

I'm not so sure that it's not impossible.

Again, it all depends on how it's played up.

 

They could probably let Eddie go over Kurt at Mania (preferably clean, but having him cheat to win would fit the storyline). Post-Mania, Kurt snaps and injures Eddie with the anklelock. Eddie wants revenge, so the rematch is signed for Judgment Day. Kurt dominates most of the match by exploiting the injured ankle, but late in the match, the ref is bumped. Kurt goes for the anklelock, Eddie counters into one of his own and makes Kurt tap, but there's no ref to catch it. Eddie breaks the hold to wake the ref, allowing Kurt to pull a foreign object, KO Eddie for the win. A second ref comes down after the match and reverses the decision, Kurt's gets pissed, tries to re-injure Eddie but Eddie again turns the tables with an anklelock on Kurt, holding onto it so long that he injures Kurt's ankle.

 

Over the next few months, we give Kurt a series of vingettes (sorta like the Brock/Cena stuff from last year) in which he goes into semi-psycho mode, talking about how he should be the champion, how the WWE snatched his dream away from him and how he's coming back to take what's his, ruin Eddie's life and make the WWE suffer for ruining his dreams (or something along those lines). He comes back after Vengeance and goes on a path of rage leading into the rematch at SummerSlam.

 

It's probably not the best scenario, but I don't think it'd be all that hard for people to buy into.

[Human Fly 0]

Someone will get brought in soon that is a big name and over the hill as Vince is desperate and will act without thinking. You know the one person in the world who loves this news more than anyone else right now is Hulk Hogan. I would be surprised if Hogan is not brought back and given a top spot.

 

Other over the hill names I expect that will be rumored are Hall, Nash, and Sting.

 

Goldberg getting resigned now I expect has a stronger chance of happening. Bob Sapp has been mention a few times as a possible signing too, I do not rule that out.

 

Vince will not be sleeping between now and Wrestlemania as I am sure that the match has already been re-booked 5 times in the past day.

[Guest Korgath]

This thread is interesting for the sole reason that Brock is, like someone pointed out, just one guy. He may be the biggest new star, but he's really just one guy. He may have been the #1 heel on Smackdown, but he's really just one guy.

 

That's where the irony lies. The main event has always revolved around the same old people that when one leaves, suddenly the whole world is thrown into chaos. Who's the #2 and 3 heel on Smackdown? Big Show? Angle? These two were preparing to get time off.

 

Who's the #4 heel? NO ONE.

 

That's right. The drop is so freakin' far that there's no one left to elevate properly.

 

Who should take Lesnar's spot? No one. There's a big gaping hole that no one, not even the Big Show could fill.

 

If they were smart, they'd put Taker on RAW where there are people big enough for him to feud with. Otherwise, he'd just pull a HHH on Smackdown.

[RavishingRickRudo 0]

I agree with the Benjamin sentiment. Just have him and Cena meet up one day and Cena does his thug act and Benjamin calls him out on it saying he's sick that this white boy is getting all this attention acting black.

[Markme123 0]

3:40 am PT

 

Until this time my opinion on the Brock situation has been "Well you can't expect him to waste his body for a industry he doesn't appreciate anymore. Good for him"

 

But, just now I have realized how much I am going to miss Brock and how much SD! will suck without him. Just think back at everything he's given to the show as champ and challenger. Fuck. No chance of a Brock v. Benoit rematch huh?

[Guest I Got Banned for Sucking]

That Cena/Benjamin scenario would be a great way to set-up a great match.

 

If Brock Lesnar doesn't want to wrestle anymore, it really is his decision - people can call him a "sell-out" or whatever, but at least, as you said, he's not wasting his body for nothing.

 

In regards to The Rock... Did he or did he not sell-out? He still loves the industry, so I'll say yes.

 

But in another way, no - that discussion never ends.

 

I implore you to take a look at this thread.

[Guest Goodear]

I agree with the Benjamin sentiment. Just have him and Cena meet up one day and Cena does his thug act and Benjamin calls him out on it saying he's sick that this white boy is getting all this attention acting black.

They seriously need to avoid having a Haas and Benjamin split up feud though. Keep both guys as friends to help build up the pitiful state of the heels on Smackdown and set up the natural tag matches that they're going to have to work regardless. Christ, what they've been doing with WGTT since they went out with those injurioes has been criminally bad. And why? So they could push the BASHAMS. Meanwhile the FBI can't even get on the show.

[humongous2002 0]

This is what happens when the WWE put their eggs in one basket, not in a million years Vince expected for Baby Brocky to quit his company after Wrestlemania, ever since that bimbo Stephanie became the head booker this company has been going down the crapper, it feels that they book things at the last minute and they either focus on HBK,HHH,Taker, or Lesnar and sometimes Angle, everybody else gets lost in the shuffle here and there.

Everybody else has been buried or misused that it would be a challenge to get them over again or in Jericho and Rvd's case management refuses to back them up,it's sad to see this company make the same mistakes WCW and other dead federations made, if you don't learn from past mistakes, then you are bound to repeat them.

[RavishingRickRudo 0]

Exactly, under ^^^ scenario it's Benjamin doing his own thing, and since it's "race related" it's understandable and Haas is backing Benjamin for moral support but not participating because he's not black.

[Guest Jack Potts]

I strongly concur with RavishingRickRudo, Goodear, and the other Benjamin supporters. Shelton Benjamin has all of the qualities to be a breakout star. He's fantastic in the ring and has great heel charisma. For years, fans liked to speculate, "Who is the next Shawn Michaels?" In my opinion, it could easily be Shelton Benjamin. Not splitting him and Haas is definitely the way to go if WWE pursues this route. Transitioning TWGTT from a tag team to more of a faction could allow them to slowly develop strong characters.

 

The Cena/Benjamin feud is a great idea, too. My roommate recently contended that the WWE needs to build more rivalries among wrestlers who are on a similar level to build up both parties and get their characters over. An example is The Rock/HHH rivalry. Their feud started when they were mid-carders and it has such resonance that it could easily be revived today. Think about last Monday on Raw. They can't even have HHH in the same segment as The Rock, for fear that A) they might overshadow the other wrestlers, B) fans might honestly think the WWE was trying to rekindle the feud.

 

My other pick is Doug Basham. I've sung his praises before on this board, but he's crisp in the ring, and his build reminds me of a young Steve Austin.

[Mystery Eskimo 0]

Do Diamond and Swinger have TNA contracts? If not, WWE should sign them up and have Haas and Benjamin go into singles.

 

Perhaps they could steal Abyss too. Although Taker would squash him pretty quick.

[Spaceman Spiff 0]

It's Chuck Palumbo's time to shine.

[Guest ChrisBenoitPMW]

I don't know why everyone is acting like this is the end of the world! Exciting times are ahead! The WWE will now be forced to create new midcard characters that are not bland and generic!

 

As for what I'll like to see, with regards to an eariler comment made about midcard feuds escalating to main event feuds sometime down the line...(eg: HHH vs Rock)

 

Orton splits from Evolution and then heads over to Smackdown after getting his ass kicked by Triple H or Batista! Over on Smackdown John Cena is still US champ, beating challengers such as Rhyno, A-Train, Hardcore Holly! Leading into Summerslam, Cena and Orton start up a feud over the title!