Can't say I ever thought I'd be watching a CM Punk/Edge main event on Smackdown. This is a bit surreal.

Well, Phil didn't look too bad, botched spot off the top rope aside. Clean loss, but they didn't just job him in 90 seconds. He might do okay in a program with Edge.

That was very anti-climatic.

Random thought: I wonder when we're ever going to see Colt Cabana?

Holy crap, Mike Adamle!

Just a crazy idea but considering that ace steel is also in developmental a edge & the edgeheads against a reformed second city saints would work well. Of course the chances of that happening are slim to none. and alot closer to none

I love Edge. Love him so very much.

But I hate the ****ing Spear more and more every time he uses it.

BRING BACK THE DOWNWARD SPIRAL

David Lagana get shitcanned yesterday apparently. Guess there'll be some changes on ECW.

Ohhhhhh ****. But then, I guess Velocity didn't need a dedicated writer, either.

No love for Mike Adamle? He was drafted by the Chiefs!

My predictions for tonight:

Jeff Hardy loses and goes straight back to the midcard.
Triple H wins.

I wonder who fills out the 30. I think they were 6 short on the last list I saw.

If you ever wondered whether Vince is insane or not:

I remember watching Raw a few years ago and watching Vince stare lovingly in a very perverse kind of way at Steph's new tits. I thought to myself then that we was a real life nutbag. I mean, acting or not, who the **** plays that kind of a storyline? He made a real show of it, I'm sure you guys remember it. It was definitely creepy.

Wanting to be the storyline father of her baby is off the page crazy, but I give him a total pass on the boob thing. Do you remember that dress Steph had on? Good lord. The Pope would have taken a peek at those tits.

I wonder if she breast fed her kid.....

LMAO

Brutal, plus just plain gross!

Any sopcast channel for the Rumble?

http://www.lovelypk.com/voips/voip-sop.html

BS Hardy deserved the win

Looks like I got the first prediction right. Damn.

Rowdy Roddy Piper and Jimmy Superfly Snuka now in the Royal Rumble

Undertaker and Shawn Michaels both eliminated

I guess this means Triple H will win the RR

HHH 29.

Yeah, he doesn't hold anybody back. Not him.

Oh shit, Cena.

Cena back

They did a great swerve with that. He was interviewed this week saying there's no way he'd be back before mania.

HAHA CENA IS BACK

Holy shit, lol.

Well, that's going to leave a mark.

Glad I was wrong about HHH winning, either way. I'm genuinely amazed he was willing to job.

YES!!

Sadly, this all but guarantees the end of prediction #1. Hardy gets buried now.

Yep. First Jericho and now Hardy. I was really wanting Hardy to win but now it all makes sense.

Orton vs Cena at Wrestlemania and Cena is going to win

Yeah, we're looking at Cena/Orton, HHH/Batista and Edge/Taker. Cause something tells me Cena won't be challenging Chavo.

Sad part is, that puts Jeff Hardy in the MitB match, or up against someone like Kennedy (although it's looking to be Kennedy/HBK...).

Question is, who's going to end Flair's career at WM?

HHH could win the title at NWO and face Cena at WM. But I doubt it

The rage building up inside of me is immense. It is my dearest hope that the citizens of New York riot and maybe cause Cena to get re-injured and maybe kill everyone who made the decision for Cena to win. That felt like opening up a small explosive where a Christmas present should have been.

Got to give props to them, because nobody saw that coming.

The funniest part is that MSG totally marked-out for him. Then a minute later they realized what they'd done.

ROFL

They hinted at Flair vs. Kennedy on the show. Switch around your matches and that leaves HBK vs. Jeff Hardy, which would be a big match for Jeff. They could even do a ladder match, which would be great. But they wouldn't do two ladder matches, so Money in the Bank would have to go.

I totally marked out. I like Cena though and if it wasn't for Hardy the WWE would be pretty boring while Cena was gone.

Hell in a cell maybe.

WTF???

Cena was back after fucking 3 1/2 months??

Talk about a quick healer.

Wow, I guess Mecca must really feel fooled now.

His original prediction was that HHH would beat Orton for the strap at the Rumble, which then turned into HHH winning the Rumble and then beating Orton @ 'Mania.

How much you want to bet we'll get focus on Raw on how Hornswaggle never got eliminated.

I thought there was no DQ in the Rumble.

Having HHH come out at 29 to ensure the IWC's collective groan was a great swerve, and the finish itself was pretty well done (if frustrating, upon the bitter realization it was going to be HHH-Orton or Cena-Orton). On the bright side, they can practically continue Cena-Orton where they left off if they're willing to let Orton be Mr. Headkicking Rapeface again.

I feel pretty bad for Hardy, though I have to admit I marked out at the awesome ReversalKO. Now that Cena's back, the poor guy's never, evvvver getting another shot as a main-eventer. Agayn.

How the hell are they going to squeeze that in along with an hour and a half of Cena and a thirty-minute long Trips promo?

Good point.

From what I've read, it sounds like Ace Steel is being buried in OVW, so chances of him making it to the main shows are slim. Colt should make it up at some point. Also, WWE would not recycle an old ROH stable, no matter how great it was or how much sense it would make.

Looks like Matt Sydal is the recipient of a mega-push right now, so we'll probably be seeing him very soon on one of the main shows.

Not sure what to make of this:Just seems a cool, respectful thing to do, but it might have been "school" too. I don't know.

I can't tell what they're doing with Punk. Pushing him? Punishing him?

They're sure as heck punishing me with this Chavo title reign BS.

The only way I'll be happy with Punk losing the title is if they are grooming him to make a run at Edge on Smackdown.

That's what's confusing about it. Edge beat him clean Friday without any outside assistance. That doesn't seem like the beginning of a push or a feud.

And I think this Chavo run has hurt him more than it's helped him, and it hurts the brand, too (which wasn't all that hot to begin with).

It's making me wonder if he isn't in the doghouse again. But I haven't heard anything.

Tonight's Raw

- John Cena will also open the show tonight and discuss his victory at Royal Rumble last night.

- Triple H and a partner of his choice vs. Snitsky & Umaga

- WWE champion Randy Orton & JBL vs. WWE Intercontinental Champion Jeff Hardy & Chris Jericho

God, I love the elimination chamber.

Watch...Big Show costs Cena at No Way Out....

HHH wins the chamber..

So H goes onto mainevent mania and win while Cena gets stuck with Big Show...when it comes to H the company will buck all tradition and even hose Cena who at this point is more important than H is.

Do you really think they would bring back Cena 4 months early just to swerve the crowd for one night?? Vince is dumb at times, he's reckless at others, but he's not grotesquely reeruned.

He's winning at Wrestlemania. End of story. Whether it is in a triple threat match of Cena-HHH-Orton, or Cena-HHH, he's winning.

I hate it, but that would be an abysmal business decision not to do so.

Well the original mania plans didn't involve Cena maineventing....so I wouldn't be surprised...

Either way H is going to weasel his way into the mainevent at the expense of someone. And if he were to go over Cena it would be pretty typical WWE.

These original plans you've spoken of have been wrong at every step. We already went over this before.

Dirt sheets can't be trusted.

First it was HHH beats Hardy---Wrong
Then it was HHH beats Orton---Wrong
Then it was HHH wins the Rumble---Wrong.

Here's a ? I have, if HHH does mainevent, do they turn him heel or Cena, cause one of them will have to be unless both Cena and HHH wrestle Orton in a triple threat. Then you can keep them both face. Otherwise, your *plan* requires more convoluted booking than a 2000 version of Nitro.

Cena vs Hornswaggle at WM

Because they didn't do the same thing last year with HBK and Cena....

Also when you read plants you have to gauge off them because shit changes every 5 minutes. People get all up in arms about what Meltzer says and call it smarkbait or some shit like that, as quick as plans change it's hard to keep up...

But when I said original plans I was talking all the way back to their long term plans back before Cena was injured. With everyone available they were prepared to go into Mania without him maineventing. Now things change but just pointing out they had those thoughts at 1 time.

And this crowd lost all cool points, if you wanna gain them for booing Cena you lose all of them for cheering the midget.

One of the main forms of counterintelligence is disinformation. It benefits the WWE to do things like toss false dirt sheets to the smarks.

Well it depends who you are reading, I think some people think if they aren't right 100% of the time then it means they are stupid and never right.

Meltzer and Alvarez tend to be more credible than say Wade Keller. Now I expect Cena to mainevent and go over because it is by far the right thing to do, but this is a company that has screwed up more times than can be counted.

JBL has bigger tits than Maria.

I'm kind of glad the WWE has put (or tried to put) the ixnay on newsleaks, because it allows something like Cena's return last night.

It's something I've learned over the years from spoiler sites on movies: knowing what's going to happen can really take the magic out of it sometimes.

JBL is like a vacuum that sucks all life out of Raw. The show was really entertaining up until the main event, then it's 3 good wrestlers and jiggly out there.

All-in-all not a bad show, though.

Ok, I'll definitely look at it, and spill seed while looking at it, but is anyone else a little bit disappointed that Maria posed nude?

It must be the GND thing. Once again, not a bad thing, but it seems more like something Mickie (again) or Melina would do.

Not that she's particularly 'classy' to start with, but it does kind of kill any class and/or mystique she might have, yeah.

At least she won't be spreading the open stab wound the way Mickie did (not that I didn't enjoy that, either).

Another thought is that Ron Killings may show up around NWO. Although unlike big show, I think he may need some build; I'm not sure anybody outside of a million or so people that follow TNA will have any idea who the random black dude that just showed up is.

Killings will probably end up a part of the SD/ECW crew and I don't expect him till after Mania since they consider that "the start of the new year"

Every scenario for the main event has involved HHH being in it. So how would he be weasling his way into something he's always been in?

About the sheets, Meltzer tells the exact same story every year, starting in around August about how "the plan for Mania is for the belt to go to HHH". When was the last time that actually happened? Everyone was convinced he was beating Cena when they wrestled two years ago because it's all Meltzer was saying for months on end. Not only didn't he beat him, he never got the belt at all.

And about the "original" Mania plans, it wasn't a fact that Cena wouldn't be in a title match. When Meltzer first talked about it, he said HHH vs. Kennedy (when Kennedy was going to be Vince's son) would be for the title. But he said a week or two later on his audio show that he was just assuming, because Cena vs. Batista (the pre-injury plan) was a big enough match that he didn't think it needed a world title involved to draw.

But he said Cena/Batista could easily be the title match and HHH/Kennedy could be the big McMahon jerk-off with Vince dragging the whole family out again. He said they probably hadn't thought far enough ahead yet to know who they'd have the titles on by then, and at that early stage they just had ideas for matches they wanted.

How's that? Cena has been booked like Superman for 3 years straight. The last two endings of WrestleMania have been Cena defending his title and winning. He's not an up and comer trying to break though. HHH is not holding him down.

Regardless of who he wrestles, he can stand to lose a match. Cena defending the title AGAIN and winning AGAIN is not going to do anything for WWE's business, except annoy the legions of people who already think he's being shoved down their throats. And I like Cena. But further making him look unbeatable isn't going to suddenly start a big ratings upswing.

I can't see them changing the world title twice in about a month, though, from Orton to Cena and then Cena to whoever. So I would guess either Cena wins at Mania or he's not in the title match.

In fairness the guy is their biggest draw and those guys rarely lose at Mania, faces almost always go over at Mania and top draws as well.

How many times did Hogan do a Mania job?

I like to take shots at Triple H because the guy in all fairness completely bucks things that everyone else went with. Here's an example...an incoming heel champion has only won at Mania 3 times in a mainevent match...H has 2 of those wins...

I've been to shows, Cena is the most over guy out there. He moves the most product he makes them the most money, so apparently a good majority of their audience doesn't reject him. He usually only gets that reaction in the smarky towns who think it's cool to boo the face wrestler.

I'm not even a Cena fan but he shouldn't be jobbing very often. His counterparts are Randy Orton who is a younger guy but isn't in his class..and a couple 40 year olds hangin on. Then there's Jericho who the WWE will never push as a top guy...Jeff Hardy who is major over but will probably always be stuck in the between spot and then there's JBL..the fat man titty havin guy that is treated like he was a huge star..that one I don't get.

It was kind of funny last night at the rumble when it came down to triple h, batista and cena. It was like "which guy's going to blow a tire first?"

It amazes me that Cena's back. I'm not sure it's the smartest thing to do, but you have to respect a guy that's really putting himself on the line for a job he legitimately seems to love. Guys like hhh and batista give off this vibe that they're in the business for some other reason, maybe for themselves, but Cena doesn't. At least not to me.

I've said it before, but I absolutely hated the guy three years ago. But he's really grown on me.

He's going to be protected, too, backstage. Stephanie essentially "discovered" him. He has the big guns behind him.

Hell, can you see HHH doing the job he did Sunday for anybody else? Guy returns early from injury and Hun-Tor takes the fall. And then the next night on raw they have no kind of confrontation at all, no setup to prove Hun-Tor's supremacy...

The only guy I ever think has a chance to go over HHH is Cena because Vince will never allow Cena to be buried everyone else is fair game though....

As for the other things you said, other than his 1 injury Cena has been one of the more durable guys they've had. He's had 1 injury in the entire time he's been pushed. The other 2 guys are extremely injury prone though...

I think Triple H is in the business because he loves it but his agenda's will always be questioned. He idolized Flair growing up but the way he acts about himself and the way he does things speak more of Hogan. He's also put himself by marrying Stephanie in a position to still be relevant to wrestling for the rest of his life and possibly even longer. H is one of those guys who I think because of what he's into wrestling wise and all that has a great future when he retires. I think his mind for the business is outstanding just not when he's involved as being an active participant.

It's kind of weird to say this but when Vince is gone..the future of that company is going to rest more on Triple H than anyone, he's more right minded to the business than any of Vince's kids.

Batista got into it late for the money and women nothing more nothing less.

But I must post this..

http://i223.photobucket.com/albums/d...s/hhhpaper.jpg

If Cena wasn't pushed as the end-all, be-all, Superman, Overcome-the-odds, never lose at all, excruciatingly long reigning champion whose gimmick consists entirely of being "Tha' Champ," then he'd be a lot more palatable.
You can tell that he cares about the industry, and despite his tendency towards 5 moves of doom, was involved in some of 2007's best matches.
If Cena was allowed to actually lose sometimes it'd be a lot better situation.

No doubt, the future of the business is Levesque and Stephanie. It's a matter of when, and not if.

I think part of the reason I tire of him is because he's been doing the same gimmick for a decade. Which says something for his longevity, obviously. But eventually enough is enough.

I don't know why, but I got the vibe watching Raw tonight that Cena's losing at No Way Out.

Triple H doesn't even have a gimmick anymore...sometimes he's DX guy other times he's bad ass other times he's just there...I couldn't even tell you what his gimmick is.

To what Reaper said, here's the only problem with that. If you want someone to get over you have to book them dominantly. If Cena loses matches now it's a huge deal because he never loses. You get to the point where just him jobbing can make someone a star.

The other thing is, this doesn't really apply to Cena now because he is already a star. But I hate 50/50 booking more than I hate star power booking. If you book everyone 50/50 no one really gets over you have a roster of just guys and no stars, TNA has a severe issue with this kind of booking.

At the core of it all, he's always the same guy. Hun-Tor the Barbarian. The King of Kings.

That's just it, it's not 1987. If Hulk Hogan hadn't come along until 2005, and every show was ending with him kicking out of the other guy's finisher, dropping the leg, and posing, he'd be getting booed just like Cena is. Probably much worse, 'cause at least Cena's not that bad where it's the same formula every time.

But it's gotten to the point where there's no odds he can't overcome, no wrestler he can't beat. And, good lord, he just came back in 4 months from something they said would keep him out a year. Who is he, Jack Bauer? Does he have the healing ability of Wolverine?

And like I said, I like Cena. I'm not one of these too-cool-for-school guys in the crowd who dump on him. I think he's entertaining and better in the ring than a lot of people give him credit for. I've never cared when he wins. I thought the Rumble surprise was great.

But it's kinda gone from it being "cool" to hate Cena to the point where there's comparisons out there between Sunday's Rumble finish and WrestleMania 9 where they shoe-horned Hogan back in as world champion out of nowhere. This resentment like "Oh God, not Cena again".

Is it a horrible decision if he wins the belt and then wins at Mania? Not at all. But he could stand to lose, that's all I'm saying. Not all the time, not even again for the rest of 2008. Just once in a major match.

OMFG, that was the greatest moment in the new ECW right there.

Don't fuck with the straight edge mariachi.