-Live from San Antonio, Texas

-Your hosts are Cole and King

-Recap of the final segment on last week’s show. That actually felt like a big Raw moment watching it live, so WWE didn’t even need to fudge the video package. Gotta love Bret beating Khali to the ring too.

-No Nickelback this week. Cena’s music just hits and he comes out alone. Cena mentions Nexus, and they get booed heavily. Good sign. Solid promo to start by Cena as he runs down everything that’s happened in the feud and talks about what’s at stake in the Summerslam match. Needless comedy is inserted as well because WWE writers can’t help themselves. Jericho out to a babyface pop. The look he gives the crowd is priceless as he’s not happy at all about being on “John Cena’s team.” He basically says it’s his team and firmly establishes he’s still a heel. Cena slaps the microphone away from Jericho, and the look on his face is once again priceless. Give this man a raise to stay in WWE beyond September. Cena’s impassioned response on why Jericho should face Nexus is tremendous. Jericho comes back one more time by talking about destroying Nexus and then Cena. General manager alert. The Summerslam 7-on-7 main event will now be an elimination match. Nexus will take on seven Raw superstars in a preview. Jericho and Cena will also be in a tag team match. D-X is hinted as the general managers based on what Cole said.

-This was a tremendous opening segment that I think sold a few Pay-Per-Views. You had Cena establishing himself as a leader.

-Randy Orton vs. Jay Uso

Sheamus is sitting ringside for the match, but hedoesn’t join Cole and King on commentary.  I bet that would be more entertaining than the match. Isn’t it a little soon for Uso to be in singles matches and jobbing to top stars. Shouldn’t we at least wait until they’re mid-carders ready to be elevated? Orton wins a short match after hitting an RKO on Uso. Least the number one contender is winning leading to the match.

-Winner (s)/Rating: Randy Orton/1/2*

-Jimmy Uso comes from behind on Orton. We know where this is headed.  No, we don’t Sheamus runs in and accidentally kicks Jimmy Uso in the head. Orton hits an RKO on Sheamus. Miz comes out with a referee. Once again Sheamus is unconscious. Orton hits an RKO on Miz. Guess he’s tired of these cheap title victories. No bell so Miz retains the briefcase.

-Another good segment to lead toward the Pay-Per-View.

-Edge is chatting with Ted Dibiase, and he doesn’t want Khali on the team. Edge is even considering taking Khali out. Dibiase is wrestling Morrison later on. Khali’s translator overheard everything. The plot thickens.

-Miz and Sheamus are arguing in the ring as Raw comes back from break. Sheamus and Miz are the team to take on Jericho and Cena. That should be entertaining.

-Summerslam recall is Honky Tonk Man losing the Intercontinental championship to The Ultimate Warrior. What a great moment.

-Khali is unhappy with Edge and challenges him to a match. If Edge wins, Khali is off the team. LET’S GO EDGE!

-Jerry Lawler is going to be a part of the seven man team taking place later on in the evening. Way to show depth there WWE.

-Edge vs. The Great Khali

Nexus walks out quickly. Edge takes the high road and Khali is left alone. Bell is never rung.

-Winner (s)/Rating: No-contest?/N/R

-Khali is allowed to walk away and remain on the Summerslam team. WHAT? COME ON.

-Team Raw (Mark Henry, Yoshi Tatsu, Tyson Kidd, David Hart Smith, Goldust, Mark Henry, and Evan Bourne vs. The Nexus (Wade Barrett, Darren Young, Michael Tarver, Heath Slater, Skip Sheffield, David Otunga, and Justin Gabriel)

I’m not even going to try and keep track of the eliminations. One of the highlights is Lawler’s punches. Another is his dropkick. His flurry on Gabriel leads to a time-out by Nexus and a commercial break. We come back and find out Lawler was eliminated. That makes me quite sad for some reason. Crowd is surprisingly into this despite the Raw team being cannon fodder. Good for them. The Raw team slowly dwindles as Nexus is booked really strong. Henry manages to get some offense in on every Nexus team member but even succumbs to Skip Sheffield’s spear. Evan Bourne and Tyson Kidd are the only ones left. Tyson Kidd is quickly dumped by Darren Young. Barrett hits his finisher on Bourne. 1-2-3. WOW! Props to WWE for showing some real balls.

-Winner (s)/Rating: The Nexus/*

-Maybe the match itself wasn’t great, but the booking got was fantastic. Nexus got to look strong once again. Not a single one of them did the J-O-B in this match, and I believe everyone got to eliminate someone or at least hit their finisher. Gabriel hit the 450 splash on Bourne after the match. Barrett cuts a promo and gets some darn good heat going. He talks about the friction between the Raw team members. Skip Sheffield keeps that theme going. Tarver wants Cena alone against the seven Nexus members. If only Nexus had better theme music.

-Miz and Sheamus have a moment.

-Brie Bella (w/Nikki Bella) vs. Alicia Fox

Lawler is back on commentary and has a headache. Knowing I was about to call a Brie Bella match would give me a headache too. Bellas tries to switch, but Jillian Hall is at ringside to prevent these kind of shenanigans from taking place. Fox wins quickly after an axe kick.

-Winner (s)/Time: Alicia Fox/1/4*

-Jillian has a gift for Alicia, her singing. Alicia pretty much turns babyface by axe-kicking her. Our first bad segment of the night. Least Alicia hits a nice axe kick.

-Come back with R-Truth rapping. He asks the crowd, “What’s up?” This show and the buyrate for Summerslam is the answer.

-Ted Dibiase (w/Maryse) vs. John Morrison

Dibiase controls with his perfectly acceptable but ultimately non-descript offense. Morrison picks up the pace with a number of kicks. He goes for starship pain. Maryse provides a distraction. Dibiase goes for the cover and puts his feet on the ropes. R-truth pushes them off. Morrison charges, but Dibiase drop toeholds him into R-Truth and gets the three count.

-Winner (s)/Rating: Ted Dibiase/*

-Just another excuse to tease more tension between the Raw team members. Now it seems even the guys who are friends (Morrison and R-Truth) aren’t getting along. John Cena is watching the monitor and looks concerned. Be interesting to see how this all pays off in future weeks or at the Pay-Per-View. This already looks to be the best main event since Wrestlemania as far as build-up and hype.

-Same video package that aired before the show. Did we really need to see this again? I loved how earlier in the show, they said Bret Hart was training in Calgary for the match. Sex with his new wife is considered training? You know what. I’ll buy that.

-Randy Orton interview. Josh Mathews asks a question so dumb. I’m surprised he doesn’t get hit with an RKO for his troubles.

-John Cena and Chris Jericho vs. Sheamus (WWE Champion) and The Miz (United States Champion)

Bet you all forgot Miz was still the U.S. champion.  Neither team can even decide who’s going to start the match. Well, this is going to be fun. Miz and Cena actually start. Cena makes short work of him. Kind like their “feud” last year. Bet you all forgot that too. Sheamus in and he fares no better. Jericho tags in. Series of forearms in the corner. Sheamus comes back with stomps. Referee pushes Sheamus back. Crowd loudly cheers for Jericho. High leg kick and a dropkick. Choke on the apron. Kick to the midsection and a punch by Sheamus. Jericho pulls the rope. Sheamus misses a charge. Miz is knocked down. Miz and Sheamus resume their arguing outside the ring. Commercial break.  Cena and Jericho still in control of Miz as they come back. Jericho tries to apply the Walls of Jericho. He dropkicks Sheamus off the apron. Miz nails Jericho with a boot to the face. Heat segment on Jericho. Yup, he’s a babyface here.  Hot tag is prevented by Sheamus in a nice spot. Sheamus and Miz continue beating Jericho down. Miz misses a blind charge. Hot tag made at last. Wow. Great moment as Jericho hesitates before tagging. Jericho turns on his partner and hits a codebreaker on Cena. Miz pins Cena. Eek.

-Winner (s)/Rating: Sheamus and The Miz/**1/2

-Jericho applies the Walls of Jericho on Cena. Khali comes in to talk sense to everyone. Edge spears him. Morrison and R-Truth are out. The arguing continues as all seven members of Team WWE are not getting along. Nice story being told throughout the show.

Final Thoughts: An extremely well-booked show that told a consistent story throughout the whole show. The Nexus are a strong unit who are ready to do anything for victory while the seven WWE guys absolutely cannot get along. Maybe the wrestling wasn’t great and maybe there were a couple useless segments, but overall this was a strong show that made me interested in Summerslam. Considering Summerslam is the second biggest show of the year for WWE, I’d say this singular focus will help in the long run with the buyrate.

-Live from Tulsa, Oklahoma

-Your hosts are Mr. Vintage and Mr. Puppies

-Money in the Bank witnessed a number of huge happenings on the Raw brand as Sheamus retained the WWE championship after some interference by Nexus, and Miz apparently took the next step towards main event status by winning Money in the Bank. Both the Hart Dynasty and Alicia Fox retained their respective championships. Now we’re on the road to Summerslam. Before I get into Raw, three things. I’m not going to time the television matches because of commercial breaks and brevity. Also, I’m not going to bother with play-by-play since everyone else does that. Instead, you get snarkiness and analysis (sometimes at the same time). Finally, I apologize for no Raw or Smackdown reports last week.  It’s my responsibility to insure that all the shows get reviewed eventually despite other people perhaps feeling differently. For the time being, I’ll be handling both Raw and Smackdown. Now on to the show.

-Number One Contender’s Match (Winner gets a title shot at Summerslam)-Edge vs. Randy Orton vs. Chris Jericho

Well, I guess we’re about to figure out one Summerslam main event right away. I’d also like to track Raw over the last 12 years. I bet if we were to look back, the Raws that start out with matches have been better by percentage than the ones that start out with promos. Jericho and Edge try to work together but Orton does a fairly good job isolating each man. Every attempt at the RKO is thwarted until the end. Things break down between Edge and Jericho of course because they’ve got rather large egos. Would be nice if they had kept those two feuding for a long period of time instead of going back and forth. Crowd is responding to Orton as a babyface. Good sign for WWE. Jericho and Edge rotate going to work on Orton. Pay-Per-View quality triple threat to open the show. Great way to start my era of reviewing Raw. Some great counters all over the place.  Finally, Orton RKOs both men and pins Edge to become the number one contender for the WWE title.

-Winner (s)/Rating: Randy Orton/***1/2

-Hot way to start the show. Orton and Sheamus had a really disappointing match at the Royal Rumble, but with Orton as the clear babyface, I’m hoping the more defined roles can lead to something better. Orton is seemingly becoming the type of babyface WWE wants and needs.

-Edge calls for Jericho to come back into the ring. Both men say they can have Nexus come out and beat the other. Nexus responds by first beating  up Edge. Then as Jericho applies the Walls of Jericho, the Nexus beats Jericho up. Nice way to put the feud between Jericho and Edge on the backburner and set up what eventually happened at the end of the show. Good promos from everyone involved (especially Barrett) and another thumbs up segment. It’s like they knew I was reviewing the show or something.

-Matthews asks a dumb question about Barrett can take out Mark Henry one-on-one. He should have gotten beaten up just for being a moron. Barrett sure can talk. Nowe we just need to see if he can work a miracle out of Mark Henry. Sheamus walks in with the Dublya Dublya E championship belt and wants a meeting with Barrett. He’s smartened up at least. No going into the Nexus office. He’s content to wait.

-John Cena Sad Promo ^TM. He’s not sure what to about Nexus now that even Edge and Jericho have been taken out and sees the writing on the wall. Cena wants to meet Barrett and the rest of Nexus in the ring. He teases joining the group. I doubt a single person over the age of 12 buys this. Since I’m at least that (although some would argue my maturity level), this is stupid.

-Eve Torres vs. Maryse (w/Ted Dibiase)

It’s amazing. Maryse should be used to help get Dibiase over, yet she has one thousand times the charisma and personality he does. It’s not even close. Dibiase is as boring and bland as a wrestler can possibly get. Maryse is hot but can’t wrestle a lick. Eve wants to get better and is at least trying. Typical sloppy Diva’s match that the crowd doesn’t care a bit about. Maryse gets her foot on the ropes on a pinfall, but the referee counts three anyway. Dibiase rightfully complains. Well, that was a dumb ending.

-Winner (s)/Rating: Eve Torres/1/4*

-John Morrison takes Dibiase out and hits Starship Pain. Maryse got screwed and not in the good way.

-Sheamus promo. He talks about beating Cena three times. It’s amazing how all three of those had the flukiest endings ever. Sheamus claims to have made a truce with Nexus and is ready to move on to challengers. Miz comes out with his red briefcase and talks about being able to cash his title shot in at any time. Whether it be tonight, Wrestlemania, or next July. YOU’VE GOT MAIL! General manager says Sheamus is going to wrestle Evan Bourne and Miz should stay at ringside. More good promo work from Sheamus and Miz. The effect of the briefcase was made clear, and Sheamus transitioned away from his feud with John Cena. I seriously doubt Miz actually cashes this sucker in against Sheamus or any WWE champion any time soon. I’d love to see Miz wait until Wrestlemania and cash it in there. That would be a great way to elevate Miz once and for all.

-Sheamus (WWE Champion) vs. Evan Bourne

Takes Bourne a couple minutes to come out since the match was booked on the spot. Hey, they almost treated this like it was real. Sheamus and Bourne have good chemistry together since they’ve wrestled before, and Bourne is a bumping machine. Michael Cole needs to stop using the word quote. It’s getting as annoying as his use of the word vintage, a word Cole has ruined to the point I cringe when I hear it from anyone, even out of the context of wrestling. Sheamus of course gets the win after some chicanery by the ropes and a big boot. Way to keep the Bourne push going.

-Winner (s)/Rating: Sheamus/**

-Miz nails Sheamus with the briefcase and Skullcrushing Finale onto the briefcase. He is about to cash in his title shot, but the referee refuses to ring the brawl until Sheamus is actually conscious. Fine decision there since they got to tease the briefcase being cashed in a little bit longer. R-Truth comes out. Miz goes over and grabs the briefcase. R-Truth and Miz brawl briefly. Then Miz runs like a bat out of hell since the bell never officially rang. The drive toward Miz’s WWE title win continues.

-Miz cuts an angry promo and vows to be the champion within a year. I’m very excited to see how this chase turns out. He really needs to be WWE champion at some point and hold the title a long time.

-Summerslam flashback is Steve Austin vs. The Undertaker. What an epic match. Makes me realize there isn’t a single match on this year’s upcoming card that will be as epic.

-Sheamus has ice on his head. Randy Orton comes in and taunts him. A helpful reminder that they’re the Summerslam main event in just four weeks.

-Santino Marella and Vladimir Kozlov vs. William Regal and Zack Ryder

Wonder if Regal is wondering what the hell he did to deserve this. Santino and Ryder start. Oh. My. God. I’m done with this match already. It’s basically the comedy segment of the evening, so I guess it’s a lot more tolerable than what they do with the guest hosts or Santino. Regal walks out on Ryder. Santino hits a headbutt and gets three on Ryder.  Just move on quickly.

-Winner (s)/Rating: Santino Marella and Vladimir Kozlov/1/4*

-Wade Barrett talks with the troops before heading to the ring.

-Wade Barrett vs. Mark Henry

Not exactly the level or type of opponent I’d be putting Barrett in with. He needs to get better in the ring fast in order for Nexus to maintain credibility. Barrett is unbelievably great on the microphone, but there hasn’t been a single match where he’s shown himself to be this great worker. Barrett should be wrestling singles matches with Jericho on every house show for the next two months and then should work with guys like Edge or even Regal. Barrett nearly kills Henry with his finisher and gets the three count. I guess they wanted to establish Barrett’s power, but that looked dangerous.

-Winner (s)/Rating: Wade Barrett/*

-Barrett and Nexus call out Cena. If we all hadn’t been trained to see these swerves coming, I think this would have been one of the more effective segments of the year. Thanks Vince Russo. As it is, Cena’s interaction with Barrett merely kills time until the last minute of the show. See, Cena just wanted to test the group. Now it’s time to fight. Cena has slowly been recruiting a team of men to fight Nexus. Slowly they come out. Edge is first, and the image of standing with Cena is pretty powerful. Morrison is out in jeans. Guess he’s trying to toughen his image up. R-Truth is up next. Wonder who Miz is wrestling at Summerslam. Khali is out next. I know people are going to bitch about Evan Bourne not being involved, but if this were real I’d rather have a giant on my team than the borderline midget. I’d like to see Bourne get some sort of push, but him not being involved in this match doesn’t appall me. And if I were to vote anyone to replace him, it would actually be the last man introduced, Bret Hart. Wonder if that was supposed to be Ricky Steamboat’s spot. Chris Jericho also comes out. Guess even he’s willing to team up with the hypocrites and sycophants just one time because Nexus sucks that much. Nexus runs away. Far away. Pretty hot ending to a very good show.

Final Thoughts: Definitely one of the better Raws this year. We’ve already got two Summerslam main events, and they were both set up well. I’m very interested to see how this multi-man tag match is built up because I have a feeling there could be a turn taking place at the Pay-Per-View. Are they going to tease a turn? How are Edge and Cena going to get along. How is Jericho going to get along with anyone? How will Nexus fare in individual matches? At this point, we’ve got to hope guys like Barrett and Tarver and Slater can carry their own weight in the ring. If not, this angle will falter very quickly. Still a big thumbs up for Raw this week.

Wrestler of the Year: Yamato

Other contenders: John Cena, Tyler Black, Davey Richards, Austin Aries, Roderick Strong, Chris Jericho, Claudio Castagnoli, Chris Hero, El Generico, Kevin Steen, Masaaki Mochizuki, Naomichi Marifuji, Prince Deavitt

Instead of coming up with numbers  for the other contenders, I’m just going to come up with a random list of guys who deserve mention and will be guys to watch the rest of the year.

When it comes to this award, I’m more basing this on their in-ring ability. I’m not sure how much wrestlers even have an impact on drawing power, so I think a better idea is to focus on what wrestlers do inside the ring. In all honestly, this was such an easy choice for me. Yamato is a guy who’s had tremendous matches in Dragon Gate Japan and Dragon Gate USA. In a company known for high flyers who aren’t the best at selling, Yamato has brought a more technical style to the main event scene. The two best examples of this are an Infinity match with CIMA and his Mercury Rising contest with Susumu Yokusuka. That doesn’t even take into account matches with Naruki Doi and two matches Masaaki Mochizuki. I’d say Tyler Black or John Cena are tied for a distant second.

Tag Team of the Year: The Young Bucks

Other Contenders: BDK (Claudio Castagnoli and Ares), The Colony (Soldier Ant and Fire Ant), The Briscoes (Mark and Jay Briscoe), Kings of Wrestling (Chris Hero and Claudio Castagnoli), Switchblade Conspiracy (Jon Moxley and Sami Calihan), Age of the Fall (Jimmy Jacobs and Tyler Black), House of Truth (Josh Raymond and Christian Able), Mike Quackenbush and Jigsaw, K-nuska (Susumu Yokusuka and K-ness)

Tough call. Kings of Wrestling and Briscoe have had a very good feud, but Hero and Claudio haven’t really had many matches as the champions. Same goes for Claudio’s other duo with Ares. I’d say the second half of the year with each team getting more title defenses will move them up the list. Age of the Fall have had a great run in AAW. Quack ‘n’ Saw has delivered on some excellent in-ring performances but haven’t had much better than a .500 record nor have they held any gold.

‘It all comes back to the Bucks, a team I said was the best team of 2009. The Bucks continues defending their tag team titles in great matches before finally losing the belts at DDT4 2010.  And having seen that tournament? They ended their title reign  in the best possible way.They had a pair of four star matches in DG USA before their eventual departure. They even had some memorable matches during King of Trios 2010. I think the Bucks will be usurped by another team on the list, but the Bucks PWG tag team title reign ending might go down as one of the top moments in independent wrestling this year.

Non-Wrestling Performer of the Year: Bryce Remsburg

Other Contenders: Jacob Hammermeier, Truth Martini, Prince Nana, Jim Cornette, Gavin Loudspeaker, Excalibur, Rick Knox, Phil Colvin

I swear I didn’t give him the award because he was (and might be again) on the show. Is there anyone who better represents CHIKARA than Bryce? He’s one of the best referees in the business. Want proof? Look at all the Indy companies he’s refereed for. This doesn’t even take into account his announcing for CHIKARA which gets better with every show. He seems to show a genuine level of excitement for what’s going on in the ring. He also does a fine job getting storylines over. And think about this. When wXw came to Philadelphia in March, who announced the show Bryce Remsburg. And I’m also counting the Fan Conclave for the purposes of this award because of how awesome an experience it was for me and everyone involved.

If Jacob Hammermeier had a slightly more active role, he so would have won this award going away. I don’t think there’s a BDK member more hated than he. He’s so gloriously annoying as a ring announcer that when he gets taken out once and for all, the pop might be as loud as when the BDK lose the tag team titles or Cibernetico.

Comeback of the Year: Steve Corino

Other Contenders: Colt Cabana, Paul London, Ring of Honor (yes, the whole company), Brian Kendrick, Cyber Kong, Edge

What I like about this category is the many criteria you can judge it by. You can go to injuries and say a guy like Cyber Kong or Edge deserves it since both of their careers could easily be in jeopardy right now. Then I look at Brian Kendrick, a guy I buried at the end of 2009. He’s had good efforts in DG USA and TNA of all places. London is sort of an unknown because a lot of his standing with this award will be determined by his PWG tag title reign. His three matches during DDT4 2010 were a positive sign. Cabana focused too much on comedy and not enough wrestling. His focus in 2010 has been much improved. Ring of Honor- I’ll put it this way. Anyone who watched the company in 2009 and thought they were just fine was watching the shows with rose-colored glasses. Period. This company was putting on a lot of useless shows with bad booking and horrendous finishes. The finishes still aren’t great, but everything else has gotten so much better.

That brings me to the guy who’s going to win this award easily. Steve Corino meant nothing for indy fans last year. A lot of people looked at Corino coming back to Ring of Honor as a negative. All he’s done is consistently put on some of the best performances in recent years and been a major reason for the success of the El Generico vs. Kevin Steen rivalry. His year can be summarized when he took a chair shot to the heat while his head was in barbed wire at Bitter Friends, Stiffer Enemies. It was a brutal shot that exemplified Corino’s seemingly full commitment to Ring of Honor.

Most Improved of the Year: Zero Gravity (Bret Gakiya and C.J. Esparza)

Other Contenders: Malachi Jackson, Green Ant, The Cutler Brothers, AIW

I think I’ll have more of a sense of this award in December.  Zero Gravity have been a part of AAW for a couple years actually. Their growth started in last year, but anyone who’s watched an AAW show would notice it a lot more this year. Gravity has made spot appeareance for CZW, but AAW is where they’re breaking out. They’ve had two excellent matches with House of Truth. They were part of my favorite main events, an eight man tag at Appetite for Destruction. I know Aeroform gets all the publicity, but I think Gravity has more to offer in a similar type of role.

Malachi Jackson was a guy who I thought blew in 2009. He put on an impressive performance on night one of King of Trios and is at least putting on tolerable matches in PWG. Cutlers weren’t exactly stiffs last year, and Green Ant’s “improvement” might have more to do with the booking rather than just natural improvement.  Even if Drew Cordeiro wasn’t a friend of the show, I’d have to give Absolute Intense Wrestling a lot of credit. AIW was a rinky dink promotion out of Ohio not too long ago. They’ve show-horned their way into a crowded indy wrestling scene thanks to a number of well-done DVDs. Two were shoot interviews. One with a freshly released Colt Cabana and the other a hilarious interview with Matt Classic. Next was the Jack of All Trios that featured a number of talented wrestlers where the winner would get into the King of Trios. Guys like Flip Kendrick, Louis Lyndon, and Johnny Gargano have received opportunities throughout the northeast and Midwest. A relationship with CHIKARA leading to a doubleheader a couple weeks ago is another step in the evolving of AIW.

Most Underrated: Silas Young

Other Contenders: Arik Cannon, Northstar Express, House of Truth, Ryan Taylor, Brandon Bonham, Ares

I almost feel like I should just put AAW under this category, but I don’t want to come off as biased. Nonetheless, there are a lot of roster members who don’t get their just desserts. A lot of the PWG locals might not be household names, but they’re putting on some of the best matches in the company.  I guess none of these guys work in the northeast, so no one talks about them. If you haven’t watched any AAW or PWG, it’s well worth buying a DVD. I included Ares because the guy doesn’t get any credit for his in-ring work. Yes, he ‘s involved with the BDK, but beyond him being eeeeeeeeeevil, he’s a really strong talent inside the ring. Despite all the names on this list, there really is one guy who stood out above the rest.

The king of underrated this year is Silas Young because of his consistency as the AAW heavyweight champion. He’s had a number of good matches with Shane Hollister, Tyler Black, and Matt Cross. I could make an argument Colt Cabana’s best match since returning to the indies came against Young back in April at Point of No Return. He might be the best heel champion of the last couple years based on his ability to draw genuine heat from the Berwyn Eagles  Club. Even though he won the title in November, I see no signs of Young’s title reign ending.

Best Weekly Wrestling Show: Infinity

Not even bothering with other contenders here. Smackdown was actually pretty good the first couple months, but it has decreased rapidly with such an emphasis on Drew McIntyre and taking away much of the star power. Raw has too much comedy and too much of the writers not being able to make up their minds about angles. The Nexus angle brings some improvement to the show lately thankfully. NXT is a joke, or the WWE at least treats it like one. Impact… I don’t even need to go there. ROH is decent but has a few important flaws.

Infinity has some of the best wrestling on a weekly basis. I can think of multiple four star matches without even thinking. There are storylines, video packages, and an emphasis on promoting the product. If  none of the shows in the states can bother producing a show as good as this, then I’m going across the Pacific to find a great weekly wrestling show.

Feud of the Year: Kevin Steen vs. El Generico

Other Contenders: The Briscoes vs. Kings of Wrestling, Tyler Black vs. Austin Aries, Tyler Black vs. Roderick Strong, BDK vs. CHIKARA, World-1 vs. Warriors, The Young Bucks vs. PWG Fans, John Cena vs. Batista, C.M. Punk vs. Rey Mysterio, nXt vs. WWE

I don’t even know what to say. This is a remarkably simple feud. Generico and Steen were former partners, championship partners no less, who broke up in Ring of Honor. They’ve feuded in other places, yet what used to be old is new again. Steen’s presentation at Final Battle 2009 no doubt helped kick this feud off in an impressive way. While the trashing of the main event is well-deserved, it also needs to be said that the Steen and Generico feud kicked off in classic fashion. From the promo to the chairshot. It was all perfect. The promo work by Steen has had a lot to do with the success of the feud as well.

The efforts of Colt Cabana and Steve Corino shouldn’t be left behind either. Generico doesn’t do promos, so Cabana’s presence has become invaluable to lend a little bit of verbal sparring. And it’s not really fair for Cabana to be on Generico’s side without Steen getting a partner of his own. It also allowed ROH to put off a singles match between the former partners until Death Before Dishonor mere weeks ago. In what other feud in recent memory has it taken six months for two guys who are feuding to have a one-on-one match. Just an incredible feud, and if this doesn’t end up winning “Best Feud of 2010.” I’ll be floored.

Company of the Year: Ring of Honor

Other Contenders: CHIKARA, PWG, AAW, Dragon Gate

WWE and TNA aren’t on this list because they don’t deserve to be. Evolve doesn’t make the cut because they can’t decide on their own rules and have only run three shows. That leaves five companies, all of which I follow. I’m pretty much digging everything that is going on with all five companies I mentioned for this award. I don’t think CHIKARA nor PWG are as good as they were last year, but their shows are still worth checking out. Dragon Gate has a produced a number of incredible matches, but they’ve also had some negative moments (Abdullah the Butcher and L.A. Park anyone?)

Ring of Honor has streamlined the number of shows they’re running. They’ve become the first wrestling company to regularly experiment with the iPPV concept. The video packages, which can all be seen for free on YouTube and the website, has also helped improve the way ROH promotes their shows. The television show has at least become more focused on promoting the Pay-Per-Views. ROH has upgraded their announcing (not much but it’s a start) and the way they produce their DVDs. Tyler Black has been a major upgrade when it comes to being the ROH champion, mostly from an in-ring standpoint. El Generico and Kevin Steen has been one of the most compelling feuds in all of wrestling. Kings of Wrestling against the Briscoes is a solid number two. I wouldn’t say ROH is perfect, but they’ve reclaimed their spot as a top wrestling company.

Match of the Year: The Undertaker vs. Shawn Michaels(****1/2) (Wrestlemania XXVI)

Other Contenders:

DG/DG USAWorld-1 vs. Warriors (****1/2)(Mercury Rising) World-1 vs. Warriors (****1/4)(Dead or Alive 2010) Yamato vs. Naruki Doi (****1/4)(Compilation Gate), Yamato vs. Masaaki Mochizuki (****1/2)(Infinity), Yamato vs. CIMA (****1/4 (Infinity)

ROH: Tyler Black vs. Austin Aries (****1/4)(8^th Anniversary Show)Kings of Wrestling vs. The Briscoes (****1/4)(The Big Bang) Tyler Black vs. Austin Aries vs. Roderick Strong (****1/4)(The Big Bang), Kevin Steen and Steve Corino vs. El Generico and Colt Cabana (****1/4)(Bitter Friends, Stiffer Enemies II)

AAW: The Phoenix Twins vs. The House of Truth (****1/2) (The 6^th Anniversary Show)

EVOLVE: Davey Richards vs. Kota Ibushi (****1/2)(Evolve 1)

PWG: The Young Bucks vs. The Cutler Brothers (****1/2)(DDT4)

Basically, these are all the matches I’ve given ****1/4 or above. It’s honestly a pretty sad list when you look at it. Neither CHIKARA or PWG make the cut. Not to say they haven’t had any great matches, but they haven’t had any MOTYC. Sorry guys. This is the weakest year I can ever remember for great matches. By this point last year, I’d given one match ***** and another ****3/4. This year, I’ve given three matches ****1/2 and that’s it. ‘Taker and Shawn from Wrestlemania 25 was number three on my list last year. If it wins this year? That’s just sad. Shouldn’t be surprised by WWE only having one contender considering how poor the Pay-Per-Views have been and all the departures. Ring of Honor will always have matches on the list because of the talent involved. Here’s to better wrestling in the second half of the year, and some matches that light my world on fire. I fully expect PWG and CHIKARA’s summer run to produce multiple candidates that will make me change the list drastically.

These ten awards should give you an idea what the year 2010 has been all about. Tomorrow I will look at a burning question facing each company.

So tonights a big night for WWE as they host the viewers choice edition of Monday Night Raw during the next three hours. It would be not only one of the best nights of Raw, but also one of the best endings of a Raw episode in years. So lets get this started as tonight Chris is taking over the Raw Reviews.

Opening up the night is General Managers from both Raw and Smackdown! in the form of Bret Hart and Teddy Long. Of course the bantering of tonights historic evening is going on until the interruption of Randy Orton. Orton demands Edge one way or another and of course Edge obliges the fans by coming out and telling everyone that he is going to finish what he started. The “Hitman” and Teddy Long offer the choices of debate, sit up contest, or an one-arm match where Edge will have one of his arms tied behind his back. Didn’t Austin do that years ago? Great segment though as it really puts both superstars over as bad asses who aren’t going to back down from anyone. Even Edge isn’t playing the chicken-shit heel and is prepared to fight mono e mono. Of course the night has to continue and we have The Big Show come to the ring for his match against his former tag partner Chris Jericho where the fans are going to pick the stipulation of course from WWE.com. Hey at least there are smart phones out there now that can surf the web while you’re at an event. So we have the first match of the night:

Chris Jericho vs Big Show in a Bodyslam Challenge
The Big Show knows he’s gonna have fun with this so we have Big Show opening his arms in allowance to let Jericho try, but Jericho being the ass he is has to go and slap the Big Show. Head-butts and chest chops fly in retaliation from the Big Show but Jericho finds a way to reverse the situation in an attempt to body slam the Big Show. Hey so far both talents have found a way to make this match entertaining and that is what counts. The end of the match comes as Chris Jericho attempts a cross body press but the Big Show catches him and body slams him down winning the first end of the match. Of course not to disappoint the fans he makes Jericho tap to a modified camel clutch and then throws him over the top rope to show he could have beaten Jericho under any stipulation.

The Unified Tag Team Championships are on the line as the fans get to choose who the Hart Dynasty fight against, The Uso’s, The Dudebusters, or one of the worst tag teams of the decade The Great Khali & Hornswaggle. Why can Hornswaggle just be put into comedy skits and not actually have a role in any wrestling match?

This absolutely shows the stupidity of these viewers choice shows and clearly shows that most of these rigged votes because it makes no sense that a make shift team would win over a feud that has been building for the last two weeks. I’m gonna say that in some way the Uso’s are still going to make an impact tonight.

Unified Tag Team Championship match: The Hart Dynasty vs The Great Khali & Hornswaggle

Not the greatest way to start, but we have Tyson Kidd going up against Khali. I’m not sure why anyone would start that way though the quickness could have been the plan in order to chop the giant down to size. We have a tag from Khali to his pint-sized partner and of course the tadpole splash is attempted but after a miss and a slam we have Tyson Kidd pinning Hornswaggle for the win and retention.

Of course this isn’t the end and finally The Uso’s show up though after two weeks the Hart Dynasty get to show dominance and aren’t laid out for the first time. Short and sweet but it got the point across.

We get footage of the Undertaker’s memorial from Kane and really this is going to be an interesting storyline as who knows what we’re going to get from Kane as I’ve always felt that Kane can still be a force to reckon with if used correctly. This is possibly the best promo from Kane in the last five years, hell possibly 10.

Hey look at this, we finally are going to get the guest hosts out in the open as it’s going to be the A-Team movie cast. Epicness in it’s history making as a still contracted UFC fighter is making an appearance. Bradley Cooper comes out first and he schills the movie out to the fans of the WWE and really says nothing…fail.

Jerry Lawler earlier left the commentation booth and is found backstage wandering around but gets dragged in the back by Murdock and B.A. Rampage is on a WWE screen and the first job is to find King’s crown….. not that epic but still semi funny and of course the Guest Host whores.. I mean the Bella Twins have to earn their money some how by making it on screen.

Santino comes out to a semi decent pop as he’s going up against Kozlov as he’s tried to join the ranks with Vladimir and William Regal. This is going to be either an arm wrestling match, a dance off, or a match. Of course a Brian Gerwertz classic as this is going to be a dance-off.

Santino Morella vs Kozlov in a Dace Off
Santino’s strength shows in his promo ability but this is of course going to be a great waste of time, but hey for three hours you gotta give something entertaining. Santino does almost every bad stereotypical dance style in existence, but soon Kozlov is going to do something horrible. He speaks. Holy crap he’s doing the Robot and a decent Moonwalk, but of course he has to bring back horrible memories of Dude Love and Scotty 2 Hotty. God damn that was more awesome than it should have been, of course the ending dance moves and head butt are probably being YouTubed right now.

It’s going to be a Divas specialty match as we could have 6 on 6, a battle royal, or champion vs champion.

Diva Battle Royal
Do you really want me to do commentary for this? I didn’t think so and if you did… damn you. We basically have the Divas all fighting over and doing basic pushing and shoving. Tiffany is eliminated by the co-Womens champs… how do they both…nevermind. Kelly Kelly is gone next. Gail Kim is gone. Bella Twins next and we are down to the wire. Lay-Cool is eliminated but that leaves us with Eve vs Jillian Hall and Maryse. Eve is quickly dumped out and as Jillian tries to celebrate with Maryse, she gets whats coming as Maryse dumps her out. You can see Maryse being pushed against Eve very soon.

We get the announcement that Edge vs Orton is going to be the One-arm tied behind his back match. But we get Sheamus walking back stage but he gets confronted by Kane about Undertaker. Sheamus shrugs it off stating that if he did such a great thing he would have sung highly about it. Sheamus is going to face either Evan Bourne, Mark Henry, or Kane.

Sheamus vs Kane
This is something that I can actually say I’m looking forward to as I am a fan of two big guys who can tell a story in the ring. This is going to be a brawl and what else would you expect? Kane is dominating the match for the first few minutes until he tries to go for his top rope clothesline. Sheamus though gets huge top rope body slam on Kane for a two count. Second times must be a charm though as Kane is able to get his top rope clothesline the second time. Sheamus counters the chokeslam in a very decent fashion and almost hits his big boot but then gets thrown over the top rope. I, as well as other insiders have pretty high hopes for Sheamus and really see the potential that he brings despite some of the unwarranted hatred from a majority of the internet crowd. Sheamus loses via a count out but really this didn’t make him look weak but at the same time made this budding inter-brand feud seemingly interesting for future bookings. Not to say that the Undertaker’s disappearance is a mystery to those of us online, but hey it can definitely provide some entertainment especially for Kane.

We get to vote on Cena’s opponent also as we get to pick between Swagger, Rey Mysterio, or CM Punk. Intriguing to say the least as I can see all three of those men having a decent match with the champ. Wade Barrett gets his cameo interview for Raw, and as we reported on ProWrestlingPonderings.com Facebook page earlier that we can expect to see him on Raw with his mentor Chris Jericho. Of course this could just be good foreshadowing to what would happen.

We then get to see Ted DiBiase Jr. with Virgil, but we get the typical skit that we had to expect was coming. But hey seeing Virgil face to face with Rampage was well worth it. It of course turned out to be I.R.S., yes Irwin R. Scyhster who confiscated the crown. Why couldn’t Ted Sr. be in attendance?

U.S. Champion R. Truth & John Morrison vs. The Miz and Zack Ryder
The main story here is the building of The Miz vs R. Truth where in some odd fashion R. Truth seems to be getting the larger push than the usual suspect of John Morrison. Of course, as is reported on many sites, McMahon is high on R. Truth and it I can’t say that R. Truth doesn’t at least get a decent pop on house shows and during his TV appearances. The pairing of Zack and Miz is also pretty awesome, no pun intended, as the character parallels are obvious. This is a great tag of mid-card talent that showcased all of their skills. It’s exactly what WWE needs to build their mid card talents into upper-mid card superstars. Hell I wouldn’t mind seeing all four of these men in a Fatal Four Way at the PPV for the United States title. It’s a shame that Dolph Ziggler fell off the radar, though this rebuilding of the sleeper hold as a finisher is growing on me. Great back and forth match that ends with Miz and Zack Ryder getting the win over R. Truth and Morrison. Good match that held the crowd and didn’t make anyone look weak and allowed them to schill the NXT Season 2 which I still have yet to watch…grah I’m behind.

We see Edge and Bret Hart in the back and of course Kane has to accuse Bret… yes the lethal Bret Hart would have been able to take out ‘Taker… still a fun little skit that did touch some nerves obviously when Kane mentioned that the legacy of the Undertaker might challenge that of Bret’s.

Edge vs Randy Orton in an arm-tied-behind-back Match
The build to this was decent and it really does put over that Randy is going to have that “Stone Cold” aura where he still has heel tendencies but is going to be the people’s choice. Can WWE build a better tweener than Russo? I think so. Of course Edge had to find a way to get a no-contest but that just made the anticipation for when Orton has full use of his arm even more. On a side-bar note, has anyone else noticed that Orton hasn’t used wrist tape since he became a tweener? Had this been the end of Raw, it still would have been a so far entertaining show that really didn’t have a lot to suffer through.

For the first time we see the WWE Champion John Cena and we get another A-Team skit. Mean Gene, as Rampage tweeted, is a PIMP when it comes to the interview unlike Josh Matthews, who is just a scary stalker.

Drew McIntyre vs Matt Hardy
So we see this feud come to fruition on Raw which isn’t so bad seeing as how it wasn’t really going anywhere on Smackdown!. The returning Matt Hardy comes out to the ring to what sounded like one of the louder reactions of the night. This guy really needs to channel those Version 1 promo abilities as Matt Hardy hasn’t impressed me ever when he’s a face. But I do have some hopes for Drew as well as I have watched him in Irish Whip Wrestling, though the weak argument that Matt is on Raw now and thus isn’t suspended is just stupid. Does this mean he’s a Raw superstar? Or can Teddy Long actually un-suspend him? Whatever it is thank god Matt isn’t in those horrendous purple key tights. What was that crap? Decent match though despite it’s quickness as it did provide something to the feud as Matt legitimately acted like he was pissed at Drew instead of just going for the win and being satisfied with that. Did he just eat some of Drew’s hair? WTF moment of the week for me so far.

B.A. Boracas has been captured and it’s Ted Jr with I.R.S. and Virgil. Wow this is going to get dumb real fast. Dana probably is laughing his ass off though seeing as how it clearly shows the ridiculousness…entertainment part of the WWE. Smart move on WWE though to not capitolize on making it a UFC vs WWE issue. Roddy Piper on Raw though is always a good thing and no doubt this is going to blow up in Teddy’s face. Dusty Rhodes and Mean Gene to the rescue? Wow. Well it’s always fun to see the legends involved and this was meant to be a feel good moment. Spinebuster by Rampage Jackson! If this man wanted to be a wrestler, I’m damn sure he’d have money written all over him.

WWE Champion John Cena vs CM Punk
The leader of the Straight Edge Society CM Punk is once again going to face John Cena, let’s hope it turns out better than his past outings with the WWE Champion on Raw. This was a good match with some good sequences for both Punk and Cena. I’ll give credit where it’s due in that Cena may not be a technical marvel but what he does have he uses well and can definitely tell a story in the ring which for many wrestling fans can sometimes be deemed more important than how many suplex variations a talent knows. Punk deserves half the credit as well as he has proven throughout his career that he can have a good match with almost anyone, no matter what. Is it just me or did we actually see a faster paced style from John Cena and CM Punk tonight than what we’re used to seeing? Good back and forth action with Punk trying to wear down Cena’s strength while we saw more high impact moves from Cena. Both went for submissions, but it would be hard pressed to say that Cena didn’t do more damage per hit than Punk which is the way it should be. I just don’t understand when a heel does flashy crowd pleasing moves.. it just shouldn’t happen. That’s heel 101 as far as I’m concerned and you can tell that Punk knows how to work both heel and face very well… though Wade Battett and the rest of the NXT wrestlers came out to invade the show boat promotion of the WWE. All the season 1 NXT rookies, including everyone’s favorite Daniel Bryan, have come to invade the WWE! This is what we’ve been waiting for out of the WWE and this is definitely going to take them to the next level. This by far has been one of the best endings to not only Raw but a wrestling show period. I’m as excited for this as I was when the Age of the Fall first came out at Ring of Honor’s Man Up PPV. This is just a plain win for all the talents of WWE and everyone. It was great to see them actually seem renegade as they attacked everyone from Lawler, to the ref, to Striker, to even the ring announce crew. Justin RRrrrrrrRoberts just got decked…win. The WWE has officially been invaded and hopefully they will do more with this than they did that horrendous WCW Invasion..sorry I had to bring that up. I hope you all enjoyed this review and be sure you listen to the podcast that was posted on Monday following this episode.

Be sure to check out my Strikes & Bumps ROH Columns every Sunday as well and do leave me some feedback.

Raw kicks off with a recap of the Cutting Edge.  Edge and Orton fight and Edge gets an RKO for his troubles.  This match is officially signed for Over the Limits and the Viper makes his way to the ring to kick the live event off.  Randy is normally a man of few words, but he’s got something to say to Edge.  He knows the Rated R Superstar.  Edge sees Randy as a threat.  It only takes moments before Orton is interrupted, but it’s not what you think.  Grammy Award Winning artist Meat Loaf hits the ring to plug his new album.  Apparently, he’s got Randy’s new theme song.  Randy actually agrees to let Meat Loaf “hum a few bars” of this song.  But Loaf’s going to do better than that, we get to hear the whole song.  It’s a bit slow for Randy’s taste, but Loaf’s not done pandering to Randy and the fans, pimping his new album.  This is embarrassing for both the WWE and Meat Loaf.  Finally, all our misery is ended as Loaf gets RKOed and the Rated R Superstar is quick to come onto the stage.  Edge talks about Randy not liking celebrities.  He’s gone to WWE Corporate.  Edge announces that Guest Hosts will no longer have any authority on Raw.  But, Edge went even further and said Raw needs a permanent GM.  They agreed and EXCUSE ME.  Just when you thought it was safe to watch Monday Night Raw, Vickie Guerrero is Raw’s new General Manager.  What a great “Welcome to Raw” for my first review.  Vickie assures us she’s there to be professional.  The best way for that would be to put a muzzle on her face.  For attacking celebrities, Orton will be reprimanded.  He challenges her to come down and do it herself, but Edge says that ain’t happening.  Randy will take on Edge and a partner of his choosing tonight in a Handicap match.  Looks like the Viper has his work cut out for him and we’re doomed to hear the Queen of Screeching on Mondays.  God help us all.

After the break, Cole and Lawler confirm that Vickie is indeed our new GM and Chris Jericho is set for action.  Should he win this match, he and The Miz will have a shot at the Unified Tag Team Championship at Over the Limit.

Chris Jericho vs. David Hart Smith w/Natalya

Tyson Kidd is not at ringside because he’ll face The Miz later with United States Championship implications on the line.  No titles on the line tonight, but a chance at the Unified Tag Team Championships or the United States Championship hands in the balance.  Should Miz lose, he’ll have to defend next week in Toronto against a member of the Hart family.  Smith looks like he’s going to be dominant early on, but the veteran Jericho is quick to counter Smith and take complete control.  DH starts coming back, but it doesn’t last long.  Jericho stays on top until the bitter end.  Smith, again, looks to build momentum, but it stopped with a thumb to the eye and a Codebreaker for the win.

Rating:  **

Winner:  Christ Jericho

Jericho wins and puts Miz and himself in a match against the Hart Dynasty at Over the Limit.  Backstage we see Edge talking to Batista while Michael Cole and Jerry Lawler speculate on whether the Rated R Superstar is trying to recruit The Animal before going to commercial.

After the commercial they preview Smackdown where Mysterio & Punk will square off just 9 days before they meet at Over the Limit in a Hair vs. Rey Joining SES match.  After this brief preview, R-Truth escorts tonight’s Celebrity Guest Host Flavor Flav to the ring.  While Truth welcomes Flav to the ring, William Regal is lurking around the commentary table.  Flavor Flav pimps his new show and asks the fans to make some noise for him and R-Truth.  What’s up?  Shut up and get the match going.

R-Truth vs. William Regal

Flavor Flav leaves after his “sing-a-long” and Regal starts off going on the attack.  He fights back and quickly causes Regal to duck out of the ring.  Carlito & Primo hit the ring and take out R-Truth, making some noise on Raw.  As they head back to the stage, Ted DiBiase is waiting for them with envelopes, looks like they got paid off to take out R-Truth.

So far, my first night reviewing Monday Night Raw, this show is a rolling train wreck.  I’d ask if things could get worse, but asking that will only prompt them to do just that.  When we return, we see a highlight video of Eve winning the Diva’s title and Maryse training in the ring before the show.  The trainer wants the former Diva’s Champion to try harder and gets the taste slapped out of his mouth for his troubles.  Backstage, Josh Matthews asks if Randy is worried about who Edge will choose for a partner.  He’s not.  He wants Vickie to come to ringside for the match though.

Zack Ryder vs. Evan Bourne

Ryder is still out to try and impress the ladies since his break up with Rosa Mendes.  Gail Kim and Alicia Fox are at ringside for his match.  Ryder talks about tonight being his first win on Raw in the last night the WWE will originate from the Igloo.  We’ll see about that.  Evan Bourne is no push over, and Ryder didn’t do so well a week ago against Mark Henry.  Ryder starts off with a knee to Bourne’s chest.  He taunts the high-flyer while sending repeated knees, but Bourne connects with a head scissors and a kick to the head off of the ropes.  His momentum is short lived, though as Zack hits the Rough Ryder, slowing down the high-flying Evan Bourne.  Evan is able to connect with another boot to the head, flooring Ryder.  He starts climbing the turnbuckle to fly and Fox gets on the apron.  Gail Kim isn’t going to have that, she pulls the legs out from under Alicia Fox, allowing Evan to hit Air Bourne, his picture perfect Shooting Star Press, and this match is academic.

Rating:  **

Winner:  Evan Bourne

Bourne gets to leave the arena with the lovely Gail Kim and Ryder still has yet to receive his first coveted victory on Monday Nights.

Following the commercial, John Cena is out to finally reveal the stipulation to his WWE Championship defense at Over the Limits.  John’s had a week to think about the stipulation and in that time, he’s thought about Batista being right about how he won the Last Man Standing Match.  Cena is not a coward, and he’s going to prove it.  The match at Over the Limit will be the last time Batista and John Cena will face off.  If Cena loses, he will forfeit his Rematch Clause.  The match type at the PPV will be an I Quite match.  And now, Cena wants to thank Shamus for helping Cena in the decision, otherwise he would have rushed it and chosen something else.  Shamus comes out to the stage claiming he’ll leave Cena in no condition to beat Batista should he come all the way down to the ring.  He asks Cena if he really wants him to come down.  Cena’s ready to get it on and settle things.  Shamus starts walking down the ramp and Batista comes in from behind.  They work together to blindside the Champion and Batista sends him outside the ring, slamming him into the ring post before sending him back in to Shamus.  Shamus hits a massive kick and Batista comes in, looking for a Batista Bomb, but Mark Henry comes down to the ring and makes the save, sending The Animal to the ground.

Backstage, Vickie is texting away while Edge comes in and says he found a partner.  He and Vickie talk out some of their issues.  The Rated R Superstar convinces Guerrero to come to the ring with him, reminding her that if Randy tries something, she can fire him on the spot, and she can be there to see the look on his face.

Tyson Kidd vs. United States Champion The Miz

After a commercial, it’s time for the second big match involving the Unified Tag Team Champions and two former Unified Tag Team Champions.  Should Tyson Kidd defeat the Miz in this contest, Miz will be forced to defend his United States Championship next week in Toronto.  Early on, Miz is in total control early, but that doesn’t last long.  Kidd uses his impressive speed to roll up The Miz and get a very quick victory.

Rating:  ½

Winner:  Tyson Kidd

Turns out The Miz gets to decide who he defense his United States Championship against.  He’s not going to face any of the three members of the Hart Dynasty.  Instead, he’ll face Bret Hart for the United States Championship!  That should be interesting.

Matthews tracks down Batista backstage, who has a match with Mark Henry later on.  The Animal would rather comment on the fact that he’s going to make Cena scream “I Quit” and he’s planning on making an example of Henry after the commercial.

NXT Rookies vs. Raw Superstars

John Morrison, Yoshi Tatsu, Goldust, & Santino will take on all 8 NXT Rookies.  Goldust starts off with Wade Barrett.  They go back and forth before Justin Gabriel and Yoshi Tatsu are tagged in.  It’s not long before David Otunga tags himself in and really takes it to Tatsu.  He’s able to get a near fall on the Raw star.  Morrison comes in on fire, taking down Heath Slater.  Michael Tarver charges in illegally and gets tossed into another rookie and out of the ring.  Skip Shefield distracts Morrison while going for Starship Pain.  Slater gets his knees up.  He then makes the tag to Daniel Bryan who John Morrison seems to get the better of before tagging in Santino.  Bryan quickly rolls up Santino and gets his first win in the WWE with a roll up!!

Rating:  **

Winner:  NXT Rookies

With Bryan’s first victory, that made this train wreck of a show worth it for me!  Daniel Bryan gets his first victory in the WWE, at least televised, and it’s about time.  Now all that needs to happen is for Vickie to get a nice punt to the head and I can call this one a successful Raw.

If you missed the top of Smackdown last Friday, you get to see highlights of Drew McIntyre being first suspended, then stripped of his Intercontinental Championship, and finally fired by Teddy Long for his continued assaults on Matt Hardy.  A new Intercontinental Champion will be crowned on Friday as Christian takes on Kofi Kingston.  After that, the Bella Twins are backstage with Flavor Flav asking about his new show.  Vladimir Koslov and Santino come in.  Santino is still pandering to get a tag team together with Koslov, and Vlad simply refuses.  Regal comes in and tells Koslov not to listen to Santino and Flav thinks the Moscow Mauler should hear Santino out.  This leads into a free style rap session with William Regal.  Surprisingly, this wasn’t bad.  It got a chuckle out of me, anyway.  It did not, however impress Flavor Flav.

Batista vs. Mark Henry

Batista comes out to the ring and sits in a folding chair in the ring as Raw takes a commercial.  When we come back, not only do we find out the guest host for next week, Buzz Aldrin, but Henry assaults him with a chair in the pretaped preview.  Don’t worry, I’m sure it wasn’t him, he was in a space suit, but it killed the great vibe I had following Daniel Bryan’s first win.  Anyway, Henry comes to the ring and Batista unleashes on him, attacking with the chair and then locking in a cross-face/Rings of Saturn type submission hold until the World’s Strongest Man passes out.  No real match here, again.  Batista leaves to a chorus of boos before we get a recap of Randy Orton RKOing Meat Loaf off the top of the program.  The main event is next as Randy takes on not only Edge, but a partner of Edge’s choosing in a handicap match.

Randy Orton vs. Edge & Ted DiBiase w/Vicki Guerrero

No surprise here as DiBiase is the chosen partner of Edge and he starts the match off.  Randy looks to dominate early, but Edge tags himself in and puts a stop to that.  DiBiase and Edge seem to work well together, using frequent tags and dirty tactics behind the back of the referee.  Orton manages to fight his way out of a suplex attempt by Edge, but gets a boot to the face instead.  He looks to get some momentum, finally, when his former protégé gets tagged back in, but Ted follows him into the ropes and blind sides Randy with a clothesline.  Orton finally does get the advantage of DiBiase, flooring him and then sending Edge off the apron into the announce table.  Randy hits his “vintage” backbreaker and looks for the RKO.  DiBiase shoves him off and rolls out of the ring.  R-Truth comes down the ramp, forcing DiBiase to run back in.  He finally gets an RKO and Randy walks away with the win.

Rating:  **

Winner:  Randy Orton

After the match, Randy eyes the new General Manager of Raw, Vickie Guerrero.  Vickie screams for her ex-husband to wake up and tells Randy not to do it.  She’s warning him.  She tries to threaten Randy with being fired, but can’t get the words out of her mouth.  Vickie is pissing down her leg as Orton eyes her.  It forces her to resign as General Manager of Raw.  Edge gets up and tries to attack Orton, but he gets an RKO, too.  Vickie high tails it out of the arena as Orton glares down at his PPV opponent.

It’s safe to say that this Raw was pretty worthless.  The best part was seeing Daniel Bryan get his first official victory.  They furthered some storylines, which needed to be done, I guess.  We had a new GM for a night before she tucked her tail between her legs and ran from the Viper.  If this is how Raw is going to be every week, I may have to reconsider reviewing it.  At least I don’t have to stomach Vickie Guerrero as General Manager again.  Ugh, but I bet I’ll see her on Smackdown with Michelle & Layla.  EXCUSE ME?!!  Have a good night, folks!

-After a similar video package Shawn Michaels and Michael Cole talk about the WWF championship. They completely gloss over Sid’s victory at Survivor Series 1996 and pretended like he just forfeited the belt in February of 1997. This was the infamous “lost my smile” speech that all the internet geeks love. Michaels talks about his world title reign and all the pressure that was put on him. Since their first match is on another HBK compilation, we get their second and last match.

-Shawn Michaels vs. Mankind (WWF Monday Night Raw)(August 11, 1997)

I believe every single WWF title defense Michaels had in 1996 was included on one collection or another. That’s pretty amazing. Michaels uses a garbage can on Mankind to start, but a mandible claw almost ends the match quickly. They brawl on the outside and disturb the announce table. Elbow from Michaels off the apron. Michaels controls the match, but a superkick is dodged. Mandible claw again, but Michaels rams him into the post and the stairs. Back suplex to the announce table. Egads. Triple H and Chyna come down to ringside. After a commercial break, Michaels rips Mankind’s mask. Michaels posts his shoulder but Mankind misses an elbow.  Sleeperhold by Michaels. He controls with a wide variety of questionable tactics. Mankind brawls back and gives us a little bang bang. Hard rights. Big knee in the corner with Michaels prone in the corner. Now Rick Rude comes down to ringside. Michaels misses another elbow. Mankind hits a double arm DDT. Helmsley pulls Mankind’s leg. Rude grabs a chair and nails Mankind right in the head. Superkick. 1-2-3!

-Winner (s)/Time/Rating: Shawn Michaels/8:41/***

-Tremendous match given the time. I’m pretty sad these two only had two matches and didn’t get a  long term program.

-Our next logical step is the Attitude era, an era that Michaels was only a part of briefly due to a back injury. Michaels talks about wrestling the British Bulldog and getting heat in England by beating him for the European championship. He tries to justify the decision to win the match, but I don’t buy that argument.

-WWF European Championship: British Bulldog (champion)(w/sister Traci) vs. Shawn Michaels(WWF One Night Only)(September 20, 1997)

You might notice the name Traci. She suffered her entire life with cancer and Davey Boy Smith dedicated this very match to her. This was the first United Kingdom only Pay-Per-View, which never aired in the United States. Slow start and Michaels firmly establishes himself as the hell. Not that it required much work anyway. Every offensive move the Bulldog does gets a huge reaction. Incredible. Bulldog works over the arm of Michaels for the next few minutes. Huge vertical suplex, and heeeere comes Rick Rude. Crowd buzzes for his appearance. He immediately makes his presence felt by interfering twice on behalf of Michaels. Michaels takes control of the contest, and the crowd behind their hometown hero. As both men collide head-to-head, Triple H and Chyna head out to ringside. Crowd chants for Bret Hart to come down. Michaels hits a big elbow but refuses to cover. Another elbow and it’s time to tune up the band. Bulldog counters and goes for the powerslam. Rude holds on to the ankle. Bulldog fights  Rude off. Rude distracts the referee as we have an attack on the outside. Bulldog tries to powerslam Michaels, but his leg gets caught between the guard rail and outside mat. Triple H, Rude, and Chyna attack the Bulldog’s leg. A pedigree appears to KO the champion. Back inside and Michaels takes Bulldog’s knee brace off. After applying a figure four leglock, Hunter and Chyna provide extra leverage for the challenger. Rude takes one last cheapshot.  Referee Earl Hebner stops the match because the Bulldog can no longer defend himself.

-Winner (s)/Time/Rating: NEW European Champion-Shawn Michaels/22:32/****

-Garbage comes flying into the ring. Michaels and Helmsley continue to taunt the Smith family. Diana even comes into the ring but Chyna stops. FINALLY, Bret and Owen Hart come out to stop this vicious crucifixion of the Bulldog. This has to be one of the most humiliating moments in Bulldog’s career. To lose after having dedicated the match to your dying sister and get absolutely beaten to a pulp has to be an embarrassing situation. Even if this is a worked situation, it showed where the power lied. Within two months, all but one member of The Hart Foundation would be out of the WWF altogether.

-Michaels talks about his rivalry and series of matches with The Undertaker. They’ve had a couple famous matches you may have seen before.

-Casket Match- WWF Championship: Shawn Michaels (champion)(w/Triple H and Chyna) vs. The Undertaker (WWF Royal Rumble)(January 18, 1998)

These two had two matches in the fall of 1997. The first was a match at Ground Zero in September that went to a no-contest. The second was at Badd Blood where Kane made his debut and the match won a bunch of “Match of the Year” awards. I’ve also never seen a casket match where I’ve thought it was all that great a gimmick match. I’m sure ‘Taker having wrestled guys like Kamala, Yokozuna, and Mark Henry has led me to have this opinion. Incredibly, Michaels takes a back bump on to the edge of the casket. This bump, which came not five minutes into the match is what took Michaels out of professional wrestling for four years. Not to say it looked harmless, but it didn’t look any worse than a lot of bumps Michaels had taken in the decade beforehand. They follow the tried and true formula of the previous two matches with ‘Taker beating the hell out of Michaels, and Michaels bumping around. When I talk about their Mania match, I’ll explain the subtle differences as far as style. Michaels actually pulls out powder, and I wonder if we’re in Memphis. Michaels takes control and uses everything at his disposal, including the steel stairs.  Triple H also isn’t afraid to interject himself as hits ‘Taker with a crutch. Michaels applies a sleeperhold that eats up a lot of time. ‘Taker suplexes out of it and sits up. Superkick appears to end this match. A cover won’t do it, but stuffing him in the casket will. After being placed in the casket, ‘Taker grabs Michaels by the balls…literally. Again in the casket. Michaels elbowdrops ‘Taker, and the lid is shut. Match can’t end like that, so we continue. Huge chokeslam and ‘Taker TOMBSTONES HIM INTO THE CASKET.  Then the New Age Outlaws and Los Boricuas run out like the heels did in 1994. I don’t even want to get into that discussion, so let’s just move on to Kane coming out to seemingly help his brother. Everyone pretty much predicted what would happen next, and even I knew what was going to happen. You didn’t need to be a smart mark to figure it out. Kane attacks his brother and helps Shawn Michaels get the victory.  Thankfully, we skip over Kane burning the casket. What a hokey and unneeded moment.

-Winner (s)/Time/Rating: STILL WWF Champion-Shawn Michaels/20:36/***1/4

-Michaels talks about having to leave the WWF because of the aforementioned back injury. He also talks about the four years in retirement, including finding Jesus, getting married, and having children.  Cole asks about Michaels’ match with Chris Jericho at Wrestlemania 19. You can really see the difference in Michaels’ personality here, just in how much he’s calmed down.

-Shawn Michaels vs. Chris Jericho (Wrestlemania XIX) (March 30, 2003)

This was number 12 on my Wrestlemania match rankings. It was also the beginning of the second coming of Shawn Michaels. At this point, I was endlessly fascinated by the comeback of Shawn Michaels. I never thought I would see him wrestle again after Wrestlemania 14. The man was an injured and drugged out mess. Then, to see him at Summerslam 2002 against his old buddy Triple H was like a miracle. I thought that would be it for him, but the memories from that match could hold me. To see him come back that one time was like a gift. Seeing him win the world title again, seeing him have that epic match with Triple H, and now wrestling someone who was considered to be the next Shawn Michaels excited me to no end. I’m not a religious person myself, but if finding God and finding religion is what it took to save Shawn Michaels from such a dark path of drugs and a giant ego, then it was all worth it.

Wrestlemania 19 was in a sense built up to have four big main events. I know there were two world title matches, Hogan vs. McMahon, and Austin vs. Rock, but this was the match I was looking forward to the most. And it did not disappoint. Take away the fact that Michaels shot off modified versions of the “Badd Blasters” during his entrance, this was as good of a wrestling match as you’ll ever see from the WWE. The psychology of this match was very good because everyone in Safeco knows Michaels has a bad back for real. Jericho spends most of the match working on that back. If only the psychology could have paid off better, I’d be willing to give is a 9. I know a lot of people wanted to see Chris Jericho win this match, but I think the story being told was of a man making his Wrestlemania comeback being able to complete the journey with a victory. I only wish these two could have had a more extended program back in 2003 so that Jericho could get a bigger rub from his hero. Michaels wins, not with his superkick, but with a simple roll-up after nearly 25 minutes of great wrestling. The ending with Jericho kicking Michaels in the groin after hugging him was also a classic, great moment too.

-Winner (s)/Time/Rating: Shawn Michaels/22:33/****1/2

-Very emotional conversation as Michaels talks about wrestling Ric Flair in what should have been his last match. There’s no burying here despite Flair tarnishing his legacy in TNA.  Then they backtrack five years as Michaels and Flair met for the first time.

-Shawn Michaels vs. Ric Flair (WWE Badd Blood)(June15, 2003)

Michaels and Flair had been chipping at each other since Flair was Triple H’s manager. This was just two legends having a match instead of the very emotional situation that developed some five years later. Michaels and Flair try to outdo each other with struts and chops. Flair takes control of the match with a chop block, and now we go to school. Figure four leglock early in the match, and Michaels barely reaches the ropes. Flair goes to the top, and of course is slammed down. Michaels tries the superkick, but Flair counters into a figure four leglock attempt. Michaels gets a small package for two before applying a figure four of his own. Flair pokes the eyes. Woo. Michaels rolls up Flair, but the referee takes a minor bump. Flair goes to the top rope again, but the two opponents butt heads. No idea what that the hell that was supposed to be. Superplex by Michaels. Then he goes for a table? Flair is laid prone on the table. Randy Orton comes from the crowd and gets a superkick. EVOLVE! Michaels leaps on top of the prone Flair and puts him through the table. Michaels puts Flair back into the ring and gets a cover. 1-2-NO! Flair gets his tree leg and low blows both Michaels and the referee. Crowd woos. Michaels is still in control of the match and hits a top rope elbow. Tune up the band now. Superkick but Orton nails Michaels in the head. THE VIPER STRIKES! 1-2-3!

-Winner (s)/Time/Rating: Ric Flair/14:18/***1/2

-Flair and Michaels are as good as it gets. This match showed why. It was a fairly simple match until the ending shenanigans. Good back and forth between these two veterans.

-Time to talk about another classic. The Wrestlemania 21 match between Angle and Michaels had almost impossible expectations and somehow met them. Michaels pays Angle his due respect. Man, this has been the DVD of no burials. Amazing.

-Shawn Michaels vs. Kurt Angle (Wrestlemania 21)(April 3, 2005)

This was number 8 on my Wrestlemania match countdown. This was the actual main event of Wrestlemania 21. You had two of the very best wrestlers in WWE finally meeting for the first time. And if that wasn’t enough, the build-up for this match was very very good. You had Angle being bitter going back to 1996 when he was an Olympian and Shawn Michaels was at his best with his first WWF championship run. This angle was also good because Michaels cost Angle a shot at the WWE championship during the Royal Rumble. Then to further the goodness, Angle brought back Marty Janetty out of mothballs. Hell, Angle’s match with Janetty damn near got Marty a job. He also brought Sensational Sherri out to apply his anklelock and even sing Shawn Michaels’ theme song. Going into this match, I wasn’t so sure if these two could deliver with such high expectations.

These two went out there and had about as pure a wrestling match as the WWE would allow. Shawn Michaels spent much of the first half working the headlock. The work on the ankle by Angle on Michaels was a lot of fun. The only reason I can’t give this match a perfect ten is because it took way too long for Michaels to tap out and submit. Other than that, this was one of my favorite matches of all time at Wrestlemania. There was a lot of great action and great drama. I only wish Kurt Angle could go back to this form and continue having these kickass matches on a monthly basis in WWE instead of wallowing in TNA. Shawn Michaels was in something of a rut at this point since he was sort of a main eventer but sort of drifting around. This match really got Michaels back to business and they would go on to have some additional matches with Angle over the next few months. Those never approached this match though. Really classic stuff.

-Winner (s)/Time/Rating: Kurt Angle/27:25/****1/2

-Now we get to the dirty laundry portion of the program as Michaels is going back to Montreal in 2005 to cut a promo on Hulk Hogan. What was fascinating about Montreal (besides the obvious) was the fact that Hogan got an enormous eight to ten minute ovation the night after Wrestlemania. Michaels also talks about his relationship with Hulk Hogan. This is a must see portion of the DVD.

-We get our first live promo with Shawn Michaels. It’s from the August 15, 2005 edition of Monday Night Raw as Michaels channels his 1997 self one more time to go completely heel on both Hogan and the crowd. I know that Michaels isn’t that guy anymore, but his assholishness is a sight to behold. The Bret Hart and Hulk Hogan teases were just mean though. Michaels certainly still knows how to get the crowd against him.

Disk 2 Thoughts: I wish we could have gotten more older footage, but you certainly can’t go wrong with any of these selections. If you don’t own Wrestlemania 19 or 21, then this is a must have to get those matches in your collection. Also good to have his other matches with Ric Flair and Mankind on DVD.

-We open the DVD with a video package showcasing John Morrison’s best moves in WWE. All these various nicknames make him sounds so hokey. He’s a great athlete though; some would say he might be the next Shawn Michaels. Morrison is the host of this DVD, and he’s on a California beach. It’s where he grew. This segues to…

-ECW Championship: John Morrison (champion) vs. C.M. Punk (ECW)(September 4, 2007)

Yeah, I don’t get it either. Least this is an awesome match. This was back when I HATED Morrison because all he did was beat C.M. Punk, who’s pretty much my favorite wrestlers in WWE these days. This is Punk’s last chance to be ECW champion. Basic start while the crowd chants for Punk. Music to my ears. Punk with a hip toss and into an armbar. Morrison with an uppercut. Punk regains control as he dropkicks Morrison off the second rope. Slam and a legdrop get an early two count. Series of kicks and chops. Vertical suplex. Morrison regains control and tries a powerbomb from the apron to the floor. Punk hits a springboard splash onto the outside. Punk rolls Morrison up after a commercial break. He tries the knee in the corner, but Morrison rams his head into the mat. Morrison hits a springboard dropkick and Punk crumples to the floor. Chinlock by Morrison. Knee to the gut as Punk was about headbutt . Roll-up by Punk gets two. Running knee by Morrison gets two.  Sleeper by Morrison. Punk tries to escape, but gets slammed down. Morrison climbs to the top, but Punk superplexes him. Quite the noise. Kick to the gut and series of right hands. Punk with clotheslines and a leg lariat. 1-2-NO!  Running high knee in the corner. Bulldog. 1-2-NO! Welcome to Chicago try, but Morrison gets a pele kick. He sets up for the Starship Pain and gets it. 1-2-NOO! Neckbreaker but it’s GTS time. Morrison rolls Punk up and grabs the ropes. Referee notices and stops the count. Punk gets a roll-up for two. Enziguri. Punk with a blind charge that misses. Morrison misses a flying kick. GO 2 SLEEP!!!!! 1-2-3!!!!

-Winner (s)/Time/Rating: NEW ECW Champion-C.M. Punk/12:30 shown/***1/2

-I’ve got a personal bias toward this match for obvious reasons. This is very good all things considered. Both guys actually came out looking better. I think this was the first sign Mr. Morrison could be something special.

-Morrison talks about his days with The Miz and more specifically, “The Dirt Sheet.” We see highlights of this internet sensation. This was a pretty awesome show. Wish they could have gotten more time as a team.  I think this was a far better way to showcase Morrison’s personality than the stupid promos Morrison cuts on Smackdown these days.

-The Miz and John Morrison vs. D-Generation X (RAW)(November 3, 2008)

Miz and Morrison had been mocking Triple H and HBK in recent weeks, meaning this won’t end well. This was also the night before the presidential election of 2008. Match starts during a commercial break. Michaels and Miz tag in and Michaels takes control. Flying forearm. Atomic drop. Flying elbow. Basically the usual. Tune up the band. Morrison interferes, but Michaels fights him off. This does give time for Miz to clothesline Michaels. Heat segment on HBK. Enziguri leads to the hot tag as Triple H comes in punching. High knee on Morrison and he goes after Miz too. Facebuster on Morrison. Spinebuster on Miz, who prevents the pedigree. Chuck kick by Morrison. Michaels breaks up the three count. Morrison kips up ala HBK and tunes up the band. SUPERKICK! Miz tags in, and they tell the crowd to suck it. Well, that’ sjust dumb. Why not cover Triple H? Miz in the pedigree position. That fails. Morrison gets sent out.  Superkick by HBK leads to a pedigree and the win for D-X.

-Winner (s)/Time/Rating: D-Generation X/6:38 shown/*1/2

-Of all the Miz and Morrison tag team matches, did they really have to show this one? It’s not all that good, and we see Morrison (or in this case his team) do the job.

-Morrison talks about enjoying his time with the “WWE universe.” He answers a bunch of questions about alternative occupations, what it was that made him want to be a WWE superstar,  his ideas for ring gear, where his nicknames came from, where the palace of wisdom is located, if they serve chocolate at the palace of wisdom, what other things he can do in slow motion, what Morrison does to attract women, if someone can shred cheese on his abs, and if he was going to ever be the world champion. This came off heavily scripted and lame.

-John Morrison vs. Evan Bourne (ECW)(April 14, 2009)

I’m certainly not going to complain about Evan Bourne being on any DVD. Mat wrestling to start. Shoulder tackle takes Bourne down. Bourne comes back with an armdrag and he turns into an armbar. Morrison misses a dropkick from the second rope and almost gets pinned. Bourne gets tossed neck first into the middle rope. Euroean uppercut. Bourne comes with a flurry. Morrison stops him, but Bourne hits a leg lariat. Bourne kicks Morrison in the corner. Blind charge in the corner leads to a palm strike by Bourne. Leg sweep by Morrison. Running knee and Bourne falls to the floor. Back in the ring where Morrison works Bourne’s back and neck over. Bourne escapes with a headscissors. Morrison drifts to the outside. Bourne comes off the ropes but gets dropkicked in the leg. After a commercial break, Morrison is seen chinlocking Bourne. Bourne with a series of kicks to the leg. High sends him back down. Morrison back to work. Strikes by Bourne, but Morrison applies an armbar. He tweeks it and almost gets a three count. Chickenwing takes Bourne down.  Bourne finally escapes and hits back elbow. Kick to the gut and lariat. Hurancanrana and a dropkick leads to a one more kick to the midsection.  Morrison goes to the top, but Bourne palm strikes him. Bourne leaps and gets a hurcancanrana on Morrison off the top rope. Morrison stun guns Bourne, and they exchange roll-ups. Bourne crossbodies Morrison over the top rope. Bourne leaps off with two knees to the face. 1-2-NO! Two kicks to the chest, but Morrison reverses. Neckbreaker try but Bourne comes back with a knee. To the top for a shooting star press. Pele kick by Morrison. Moonlight drive neckbreaker gets three in a great match.

-Winner (s)/Time/Rating: John Morrison/13:33 shown/***3/4

-This is like the best match in the history of the ECW television program that aired on SyFy. Very good work from both men. What a different feeling this match had too.

- John Morrison showcases some of his work-out routine. He does some cool –looking stuff that I couldn’t do in my dreams No jokes here.

-Non-title match: John Morrison vs. Chris Jericho (Intercontinental champion)(WWE Superstars)(June 11, 2009)

I believe this is the first match from the new version of WWE Superstars to make the cut on a WWE DVD. Jericho stalls by walking outside the ring. Headlock by Jericho and he wants the referee to ask Morrison if he wants to give up. Awesome moment there. Armdrag into the armbar. Forearms and a slap to the back of the head. Morrison fires back. Leg lariat into another armdrag. Jericho regains the advantage briefly but a blind charge leads him into the boot of Morrison. Clothesline over the top and a screwdriver dive to the outside. Jericho comes back by knocking Morrison off the ropes. Commercial break and Jericho controls the entire way. Morrison is knocked to the floor while selling the knee. Back suplex and a chinlock by the I-C champion. Backbreaker and a Russian legsweep get a two count for Morrison. Running enziguri quickly gets Jericho back on top. Morrison quickens the pace. Series of reversals and Morrison hits a twisting DDT. Blind charge and Jericho comes with a bulldog. Lionsault misses. Chuck kick, a move named after Chuck Morris. 1-2-NO! Jericho is swatted off a codebreaker try. Running knee. Morrison gets his legs tangled up and almost gets put in the Walls of Jerichio. Starship pain attempt, but he reverses another Walls of Jericho attempt into a roll-up. Jericho then with a roll-up of his own. He holds the tights and gets the three.

-Winner (s)/Time/Rating: Chris Jericho/10:25/***

-Morrison sure is doing a lot of jobs on his own DVD. I can see these two having some excellent matches on Pay-Per-View. This felt more like a prologue. Really enjoyed the match since Jericho can do no wrong at this person.

-John Morrison does some cool-looking and dangerous exercising in various arenas across the country. His athleticism is something no other WWE star can touch, and that’s something which no one can take away. I can rip Morrison for a lot of his goofy talking, but he’s an intense guy when it comes to working out.

-John Morrison vs. Edge (WWE Smackdown)(June 19, 2009)

Edge cuts a promo burying Morrison beforehand. What a lovely way to put over the man you’re trying to showcase on his own DVD. Morrison cuts a promo that’s nowhere near as good as Edge’s. Basic to start as neither man gains an advantage. Morrison does get an grab an elbow. Edge pulls the hair. Morrison with an armdrag and an armbar. Edge uses a number of shortcuts and takes control on Morrison. Nothing too fancy as Morrison takes quite the beating for a few minutes. Morrison kicks Edge on a blind charge. Clothesline and a dropkick gets two. Morrison climbs to the top, but Edge rams him abdomen first on the top turnbuckle. Morrison flails all the way to the ground. Commercial break and we come back with Edge once again methodically working Morrison over. Morrison with rights. Leg lariat off the ropes but his ribs are injured to follow up. Backbreaker/flatliner combo. Edge kicks Morrison but misses a dropkick. Running knee gets two for Morrison. Edge with a huge boot. Edge climbs to the top but gets pele kicked to the floor. This time, Morrison is able to follow up. Morrison beats Edge up out on the floor for a brief time before going back into the ring. Morrison goes for chuck kick, but Edge applies… a sharpshooter? Well, that’s interesting. Morrison reaches the ropes. Russian legsweep by Morrison. Set-up for startship pain, but Edge crotches him on the top rope. Morrison is hung in the tree of Joey Lawrence. He manages to get a roll-up, but Edge throws him off into the middle post shoulder first. Edge’s spear attempt misses. Chuck kick gets a long two count. Moonlight drive neckbreaker is turned into an Edgecution. 1-2-NO! Morrison twisting DDT for two. Starship pain misses. Uh oh. SPEAR! 1-2-3!

-Winner (s)/Time/Rating: Edge/14:19 shown/***1/4

-Another good match but also match with Morrison losing. I would have appreciated seeing some of Morrison’s other title wins. He did win the Intercontinental championship a couple years ago and had some amazing matches with Jeff Hardy.

-Highlight package of Morrison’s coolest looking moves while he describes what they do. He makes sure to tell the kids not to try his maneuvers at home. Would be nice if these moves were helping win bigger matches. I like Evan Bourne, but beating him doesn’t mean a great deal right now.

-Non-title match: John Morrison vs. C.M. Punk (World Heavyweight Champion)(WWE Smackdown)(June 26, 2009)

Punk wasn’t a full heel at this point, but he was getting close. Regardless, he’s awesome and I miss him being world heavyweight champion. Code of honor is followed for this match. Feeling out process. Punk applies a headscissors. Morrison switches the momentum with an armbar. Series of covers by both men. Knee lift. Series of them by Punk. Counter of another kick by Morrison as he goes with a kick of his own to the leg. Chinlock as Morrison uses Punk’s own arms to choke him. Punk switches it up. Neckbreaker by Morrison. Ram into the corner but Morrison misses the chuck kick. Powerslam gets two for Punk. Series of kicks by Punk. Leg lariat and a running knee in the corner. Bulldog gets a two. He calls for Go 2 Sleep now. Morrison fights it off. German suplex by Punk gets two. Commercial break. Feel like I’ve written that a lot tonight. Headscissors applied by Punk, and he elbows Morrison in the head. Elbow to the back of Punk. Hard clothesline takes Morrison down again. Figuere four on the head. Morrison reaches the ropes. Punk kicks his way out and ends up at ringside. Morrison kicks Punk and moonsaults his opponent. Two count in the ring. Forearm exchange. Clothesline by Morrison. Dropkick. Leg lariat. 1-2-NO! Punk turns a running knee by Morrison into a half crab. Morrison jumps from outside to inside and almost gets put to sleep. Flying chuck. 1-2-NO!  Starship pain setup. Punk pushes him down and hits a gordbuster off the top. After getting a two count, Punk tries another Go 2 Sleep. Series of roll-ups. Morrison gets one more as he hooks the shoulders and gets  the upset win.

-Winner (s)/Time/Rating: John Morrison/12:50 shown/***1/4

-Really good match and it was nice to see Morrison actually win a match. Also would have been nice if this victory had gone anywhere. Morrison would have to wait more than a month to actually receive a world title match, but he wouldn’t even receive it on Pay-Per-View.

-John Morrison goes to see how surfboards are made, like a better-looking Mr. Rogers.

-World Heavyweight Championship: Jeff Hardy (champion) vs. John Morrison (WWE Smackdown)(July 31, 2009)

Feel like I’ve seen Hardy on television recently. Not sure where. Might have been some horrible dream I had on Monday night. These two start out slow, so this match is getting some time at least.  Hardy quickens the pace up with a roll-up for two. Morrison responds with a clothesline. Back and forth with Hardy in control. Legdrop to the abdomen blocked. Morrison slingshots Hardy over the top rope, to the floor. Morrison fakes a dive, kicks Hardy, and springboard moonsaults the champion. Commercial break. Chinlock from Morrison after they come back from break. Hardy goes for a twist of fate but it almost the victim of a jack knife pin. Hot shot off the rop. Morrison misses starship pain. Hardy dodges and gets a whisper in the wind. Snapmare into a resthold.  Hardy gets a legdrop from the second rope for two. Chinlock. Morrison judo throws him and sells the neck. Backbreaker and Russian legsweep by Morrison. Standing shooting star press gets two. Morrison with 10 punches in the corner. Neckbreaker gets two. The two men punch each other while on the apron. They continue batting to the top rope. Both men spill to the outside. Come back after another commercial break with Morrison punching away. Hardy gets a clothesline. Another legdrop to the midsection, followed by a dropkick. To the outside again where Hardy sends Morrison into the barricade. Hardy uses the stairs as leverage to fly into Morrison. Back inside, the champion gets two. Twist of Fate countered. He tries another whisper in the wind but fails. Running knee by Morrison gets two. Chuck kick misses. Leg lariat does not. Hardy gets crotches on the top rope. Morrison chuck kick finally. Another two count. Moonlight neckbreaker doesn’t work. Hardy hits a front forward suplex. To the top rope. Swanton bomb hits. 1-2-NO! Hardy goes for a double stomp in the corner. Morrison kicks away and hits… no, he doesn’t hit starship pain. Twist of fate. Swanton hits again.

-Winner (s)/Time/Rating: Jeff Hardy/14:49/***1/2

-The match quality of this DVD is certainly not in question as there have been a number of good matches showcasing Morrison at his best. Hardy was at his peak of popularity and in-ring prowess. This was also during a period when Smackdown was at it’s best as Hardy feuded with Punk. Rey Mysterio feuded with Chris Jericho, and John Morrison continued his rise.

-John Morrison goes surfs up dude.

-WWE Intercontinental Championship: Rey Mysterio (champion) vs. John Morrison (WWE Smackdown)(September 4, 2009)

This was just before Rey Mysterio’s drug suspension took hold. Since Mysterio was the I-C champion, he had to lose the belt immediately. He chose John Morrison, and he certainly did everything in this match to make you miss him even before he went on “vacation.” This is definitely the best match of Morrison’s career and the biggest victory to boot. Morrison seemed to be missing that elusive babyface victory because while he’d have some tremendous individual matches, he’d lose a lot. This DVD is a perfect example of this as the DVD shows losses to Edge, Chris Jericho, and Jeff Hardy. Beating Punk was nice, but he’d done that before. Not to mention, it was a non-title match.  Some amazing athleticism from these two. Very cool moves from these guys. Hope these two can have another match in the near future. I’m actually stunned WWE hasn’t had these two wrestle a return match.  After one of the longest and best free television matches in 2009, Morrison hits starship pain for the win and the championship. Fantastic.

-Winner (s)/Time/Rating: NEW Intercontinental champion- John Morrison/18:21/****1/4

-The last match on this DVD was at least a big victory for Morrison as he put a top level performer in one of the best matches of his career. I’ve seen this match three times now and find new reasons to love it.

-Morrison thanks us for going on a journey through his life. What? I saw a couple segments about his workout and surfing. I learned nothing about his life. In fact, the first two years of his career were completely ignored.

-Bonus promo with John Morrison cutting a promo as ECW champion. He’d been Johnny Nitro for a couple years before, and this was his first official show as John Morrison. I completely forgot that two minute period when had a press agent named Paul McBride. Does anyone actually remember this?  He’s certainly no Melina. CM Punk comes out, and they exchange words. Morrison with a cheap shot. He beats him down. Segment over. Makes sense why it was included I guess

Final Thoughts: I guess a big question comes to mind with this release. What’s the point. I can see a few years from now, if Morrison finally starts getting a maintained push, giving him a two or three disk set that showcases various matches from his career. This didn’t seem all that useful  since a lot of the matches show Morrison losing, and the segments between the matches don’t give us a whole lot of insight. In particular, the segment where he answered questions was lame.

There are still pluses to the DVD. All of the matches are very good, and you will have a hard time finding them on another DVD. The negative is that Morrison still hasn’t that break-out match as a babyface singles wrestler on Pay-Per-View. I’d recommend getting this down the road for ten bucks or something like that. Otherwise, save your money for the possible three disk set down the road.

So my WrestleMania predictions didn’t exactly go well – I did correctly call ShoMiz, Orton, Hart, Cena, and Undertaker winning, but those picks weren’t that hard to pull off. I should have called Jericho to retain, because my first gut feeling was that Y2J would get the duke against Edge but logic had to interfere. And maaaaaaaan, was I off on how Taker-Michaels would play out.

But I digress. Welcome back to another edition of NXT Generation, the one stop shop for all your NXT needs. This week, we’ll be getting the results of the first Pro’s Poll, where we’ll see just who is on the fast track to superstardom.

We open cold with a mini-recap of the first six weeks and a listing of the components of the Pro’s Poll (Record, Strength of Opponents, Work Ethic, and “It” Factor). Following the theme song, Matt Striker is in the ring. He calls tonight the most important in NXT’s history and says that the eight Rookies have done everything to impress both the Pros and the Universe.

The Rookies are introduced and brought out one by one. Michael Tarver has one of the best shirts ever: “Run NXT.” It’s awesome for both how it looks and because of the irony inherent in Tarver wearing it. The Rookies line up in the ring and we’re getting the Poll right now!

WWE Pro’s Poll #1
8. Darren Young
7. Michael Tarver
6. Skip Sheffield
5. David Otunga
4. Heath Slater
3. Justin Gabriel
2. Wade Barrett
1. Daniel Bryan

That’s right, kids…Bryan gets #1 despite being 0-5 and the undefeated Heath Slater is 4th. Shocking. Darren Young is asked for his comments and he says that he needs to step it up. Daniel Byran notes how his win-loss record is not the best and he mentions that Michael Cole isn’t high on him. Bryan says that guys who look like superstars and are married to famous people can’t wrestle, which leads to Dragon and Otunga facing off. Otunga compares Bryan to eating mashed potatoes, which Bryan says makes no sense. Bryan then makes fun of Otunga’s fashion sense.

Striker then announces the next Pro’s Poll is in six weeks, and that starts off the elimination process. He says the ultimate winner will get a title shot against a champion of their choosing. Striker also announces the main event: a battle royal with all eight rookies – the reward for the winner is the spot as Raw’s guest host next week, which is pretty good cross-promotion for Tuesday nights if you ask me.

Cole in incensed that Bryan is number one and says that if you go to WWE.com, you can vote on what the rankings should be.

Match #1: Eight-Man Tag: Raw Pros (The Miz, Christian, William Regal, and Carlito) v. 2. Wade Barrett and Smackdown Pros (CM Punk, R-Truth, and Matt Hardy)

Just as a note, starting this week, I’ll be noting each Rookie’s ranking when they’re involved in a match.

Team Smackdown is accompanied by Wade Barrett and the Straight Edge Society. Chris Jericho isn’t going to be competing as a result of injuries sustained from Edge, instead offering up commentary. Barrett is taking his place, and Cole notes that he thinks Barrett should have been number one.

R-Truth and Carlito start off. Truth slaps the apple out of Carlito’s mouth and sends him off the ropes. He tosses Carlito to the mat and works in an arm wrench. Truth quickly tags in Punk, who keeps up on the arm and hits a leg drop on it. Carlito works himself to his feet, but Punk keeps twisting away. Carlito eventually punches his way out of it and tags in Regal. Regal begins to beg for mercy and ask to switch Rookies, which leads to Punk tagging in Barrett. The Englishmen shake hands and Regal backs into the corner to tag in Christian.

Captain Charisma slaps Barrett, who responds by shooting Christian into the ropes. Christian ducks under his opponent and gets kicked to the gut and sent to the mat. Barrett hits a shoulder tackle on his opponent and then sends him into the corner. Christian takes the opportunity to elbow Barrett in the face and go for a rollup, which gets 2. Barrett gets up and tags in Hardy. Christian tags in The Miz, who begins laying into Matt. Hardy responds by beating Miz’s head in the turnbuckle and clotheslining him off the ropes. Hardy hits a corner clothesline and climbs up, going for punches. The two spill to the outside, and all of the combatants stand off on the outside around them as we go to commercial.

When we come back from commercial, Carlito has Hardy in a headlock. Matt works himself to his feet but gets pushed into the unfriendly corner. Carlito tags in The Miz and puts Hardy on the ground. Hardy gets to his feet due to Miz stalling and begins punching away. Miz rolls around and puts in a headlock, but Hardy drops out of it and tags in Truth. Truth hits a big clothesline and then picks up Miz and slams him on his face. Truth runs to the corner and hits Regal, backing away as Miz charges. Truth hits a big roundhouse kick and then takes out all of the Raw Pros. He puts Miz on his shoulder, who counters out and hits a beautiful neckbreaker. Miz goes for the cover, but Punk breaks it up. Miz tags in Regal, who begins laying into Truth. He stomps away and then goes for a cover but only gets 2.

Carlito is tagged back in and places his knee square in Carlito’s back. Truth counters out and starts punching. He bounces off the ropes, but Carlito catches him with a dropkick and cover for 2. Carlito drags Truth to the corner and tags in Christian. He throws Truth over his shoulder and begins cranking his opponent’s neck. Truth gets to his feet and slaps away. He then bounces off the ropes, only to get taken down for a cover attempt.

Regal is tagged in next and he begins kneeing Truth. He flips him over by the shoulders and gets 2. Regal tags in Miz who hits a suplex for 2. He taunts the Smackdown guys by putting Truth’s hand out. Miz hits a leg drop and then puts on a chinlock. Truth gets to his feet and punches away, but Miz throws him into the corner and hits the swinging corner clothesline. He climbs to the top and goes for a double axehandle, but Truth catches him with a dropkick. Truth crawls to his corner and gets the hot tag to Punk. Christian is in for Raw and Captain Charisma dominates early, getting a good elbow off the top. Punk kicks Christian and goes for the Go 2 Sleep, but Christian slips out and tries for the Killswitch. Punk slips out of that and goes for the corner bulldog, only for Christian to push him off. Punk charges and gets kicked in the head for his trouble. Christian goes to the top and hits a dropkick. He goes for the cover, but Barrett breaks it up. This causes it to break down, with Carlito tossing Barrett, Hardy hitting the Twist of Fate on Carlito, Regal taking out Hardy, Truth kicking Regal, tossing Miz, and leaping over the top himself. Barrett tags himself in but gets caught by Christian with an inverted DDT. The ref is distracted as Jericho grabs Christian. Barrett picks up Christian and hits his shoulder slam finisher to get the win.

Winners: Wade Barrett and the Smackdown Pros
Thoughts: A very good match that told an interesting story. The breakdown and Jericho interference was somewhat predictable, but it worked here. Barrett builds off of his #2 ranking to look incredibly strong here. I also liked the dynamic of the two brands competing, rather than faces vs. heels, which caused for some interesting, although brief in-ring pairings. Truth played the face-in-peril well here against the Raw guys and the Miz looked really good, but the story of the match was definitely the Rookie.
Rating: **3/4

We come back from the break with a musical recap of Shawn Michaels’ career and farewell on Raw last night. The farewell speech was one of the greatest things I have ever seen as a wrestling fan, and this video – while awesome – didn’t do it justice. After the video, Michael Cole thanks Shawn for being a friend. The commentators show the Pro’s Poll again, and Josh Mathews notes that no one cares what Cole thinks. Man, wouldn’t it be awesome if Daniel Bryan won the main event and got to share Raw with Cole? Heh…given my track record, I probably just jinxed that possibility.

Main Event: Match #2: Rookie Battle Royal, Winner is Next Week’s Raw Guest Host: 1. Daniel Bryan v. 2. Wade Barrett v. 3. Justin Gabriel v. 4. Heath Slater v. 5. David Otunga v. 6. Skip Sheffield v. 7. Michael Tarver v. 8. Darren Young

With all eight participants in the ring, everyone descends on Barrett; the other Rookies toss him within seconds and then break off into separate groups. That first elimination sends us straight to commercial.

Over the break, both Darren Young and Skip Sheffield were eliminated. Slater is being worked on when we get back, but he slips back into the ring. Daniel Bryan quickly eliminates Michael Tarver and then skins the cat to get back into the ring. This catches the attention of Heath Slater, who charges Dragon and sends them both flying. In very short order, we’re down to David Otunga and Justin Gabriel, and I see where this is going from a mile away.

Otunga and Gabriel lock up and then start exchanging punches. Otunga uses his fists to gain the upper hand and drives his shoulder into Gabriel in the corner. Gabriel kicks his way out and hits a forearm. Gabriel flips over Otunga and kicks him hard in the back of the head. Gabriel goes to the top and hits the 450, but that doesn’t help much in a battle royal. He stands around and wastes time after hitting the move and really gives Otunga a chance to catch his breath. He finally picks Otunga up and can’t get him over the rope; Otunga comes to and claws Gabriel’s eyes to free himself from the potential elimination. He quickly grabs Gabriel and tosses him.

Winner: David Otunga
Thoughts: I’m not really a fan of battle royals in general, especially when I have to do a write-up. Way too much is happening at once and it’s generally impossible to follow. It’s a blessing and a curse, however, when you get a battle royal such as this one. I really didn’t leave much out from the above summary, largely because this was a two-way match really quickly. However, that caused the match to suffer a little. I figured that this would finally be Daniel Bryan’s first win, but apparently it was not to be. Also, for a battle royal, the finish was incredibly anti-climactic. I realize Otunga is as green as grass, but they couldn’t have come up with something a little more interesting than Gabriel wasting a ton of time and then getting raked in the eyes?

And yeah, that whole finish somehow managed to lower my opinion of Otunga, which I didn’t think possible.
Rating: 3/4*

After the match, R-Truth comes to the ring to celebrate with his Rookie. Matt Striker comes to the ring and Otunga uses the opportunity to say “I told you so” and that he deserved to be #1. He’s happy to be next week’s guest host and says to expect the A-List stamp all over Raw and 427 green M&Ms in his dressing room to finish the show.

Overall Thoughts: Not a whole lot of wasted time this week and as a result a much better effort overall than last week (obviously). We didn’t see any repeated hype packages and instead got two solid matches from the competitors. While I disagree with some of the rankings in the Pro’s Poll (we all know I love Daniel Bryan, but I wouldn’t have started him off at #1), it works and it shows that even with his record, someone high up in the company is high on him. I have friends who insist that WWE was burying him, but this week sort of disproves that theory.

That’s going to do it for Week Six. Join me next week when I will no doubt have a lot to say about the “A-Lister” hosting the “A-Show” and making half the audience fall “A-Sleep.”

It’s somewhat funny that I’m going to be the guy publicly predicting how WrestleMania is going to play out tonight. For those of you who don’t know anything about my past history with predictions, I’ve got a bit of a reputation for being – well – horrible. Doesn’t matter if it’s wrestling or not, I very rarely do well when it comes to predicting how things are going to play out.

That said, I do enjoy making my awful predictions, if only because it’s usually good for a laugh or two. So, here’s how this column is going to work: I’m going to write up some of the match history and how I expect things to play out. I’ll predict who’s going to win and how they’ll do it (more or less), and I’ll even tell you how positive I am of that person (or people) winning with the help of confidence points. We can all laugh especially hard when I give one match’s result 10 points only for it to be totally wrong.

Before I jump in with that, though, let’s talk about the match order for the night. It’s usually a pretty big surprise to see the order that WWE throws matches out for WrestleMania, and it’s quite likely that we’re all going to be surprised – and complaining – about how the show’s order. I was reading yesterday about the possibility of Undertaker-Shawn Michaels II going on last despite it not being for a World Championship, and I actually think that it could be the main event. If, in fact, this does go on last, the order I present my results in is the order I expect the matches to go on, hence why one of the World Championship matches is in the middle of my predictions.

Fun fact, by the way: the 9 men’s matches on the show all feature at least 1 former World Champion, which I amazing when you think about it.

Without wasting any more time, let’s get to the predictions!

1. Money in the Bank Match – Winner Gets a World Championship Match At Any Time Between Now and WrestleMania XXVII:Christian v. Dolph Ziggler v. Kane v. Shelton Benjamin v. Jack Swagger v. MVP v. Matt Hardy v. Evan Bourne v. Drew McIntyre v. Kofi Kingston

Given that Money in the Bank is set to get its own pay-per-view in the summer, my first inclination is that regardless of who wins, he’s going to cash in relatively soon. I wouldn’t be surprised if the briefcase holder cashes in at Extreme Rules in April. The fact that the match is going up from last year’s 8 participants to a full 10 means that things are probably going to be even more non-stop than usual, and it also means that the match will probably be a little bit longer than usual so everyone can get their crazy spots in.

The general consensus I’ve seen in predicting this match is that one of three people is sure to win the briefcase: Christian, McIntyre, and Kingston. I’m inclined to believe that it’s going to be one of them too. When you look at the three of them compared to the others, it really looks unlikely that one of the seven dark horses will come out of nowhere to get the win.

That’s no knock against the other competitors, but let’s be serious here – Kane’s career has always been that of the solid midcarder, and there’s no way they’re going to give him a title shot. Dolph Ziggler, while talented and vastly underrated, hasn’t done anything of significance since his summer feud with Rey Mysterio. Shelton Benjamin is in the match to hit his jaw-dropping arsenal and little else, and the same can be said for Evan Bourne. MVP lost all relevance about ten months ago. Jack Swagger, who may be a future World Champ, isn’t ready for that push up the card right now. Matt Hardy – well, Matt’s not going to be rewarded as long as his brother is on TNA. That leaves the big three.

Looking at the three remaining competitors, each one has his strong reasons to explain why they’d be picked to win. Christian was the only reason to tune into ECW during its dying days as he single-handedly carried the brand through just about all of 2009. He’s both good in the ring and on the microphone. Drew McIntyre, while having a very short career thus far, is reportedly a pet project of Vince McMahon’s and more than likely a future World Champ. The only question for him is if this is his year. Kofi Kingston set the world on fire at the end of last year with his feud with Randy Orton before cooling off around mid-January. While he’s nowhere near as hot as he was then, the fact is that he’s the most over guy in the match AND he was the most heavily pushed of the ten in recent months.

I could see any of the three of them win this match, but my gut tells me that Kofi Kingston is going to be the guy to pull down the briefcase. Like I said, Kofi’s probably had the biggest last few months thanks to his feud with Randy Orton, AND he’s got a ton of fan support. When he qualified on Monday, the crowd reaction probably sealed it for him. While Christian or Drew winning wouldn’t surprise me, I just think Kofi’s got the strongest case for the case right now.

Winner: Kofi Kingston via briefcase retrieval
Confidence: 4

2. Unified Tag Team Championship: ShoMiz © v. John Morrison and R-Truth

Typically, WrestleMania’s first match is a hot opener that gets the crowd really into the show, which is why the Money in the Bank match has been starting things off recently. To prevent complete burn out, though, the second match is usually something with a slower pace that will calm everybody down a little bit. And while John Morrison has an exciting, innovative offense, nothing says “slower pace” than the Big Show.

The big draw of this match for me is that The Miz and John Morrison, by far the best WWE tag team since Edge and Christian, are now facing off. I know that not everyone is a Miz fan, but I feel like he’s one of the best heels in the business right now and I’m happy whenever he’s on the screen.

There’s not much to say about the match itself. While the Unified Tag Team Championships are a lot more prominent than either of the tag titles that had preceded it, I’m not expecting a lengthy, epic battle like in the days of the Hart Foundation here. More than likely, we’re going to see The Miz get cornered and dominated by Morrison and Truth until he gets a tag in to Show, who’ll clean house.

Now, the illogical part of my brain that rabidly covers NXT can’t help but notice that two of the four people in this match are mentors to prominent Rookies on the show. The logical part of my brain is telling that part of the brain to shut up, though. Those expecting David Otunga and Daniel Bryan to play parts in this match are probably going to be disappointed. I just don’t see WWE throwing out two of the NXT Rookies out in the match. Because of that, I don’t think we’re going to see the titles change hands. Factor in that Morrison and Truth aren’t really big enough draws to appear on both shows, and I feel like the result here is locked up.

Winners and STILL Unified Tag Team Champions: ShoMiz via Big Show chokeslam on R-Truth
Confidence: 7

3. Randy Orton v. Cody Rhodes v. Ted DiBiase

The Legacy Triple Threat is probably the weakest non-Diva match on the card, and I blame that on two factors: poor booking and unexpected crowd reactions. I really don’t think Creative was expecting Randy Orton to be the face in the Legacy breakup, and so they were thrown for a loop by the crowd being so in to him when the stable fell apart. As a result, the build has been lacking.

A Triple Threat was probably not the best choice here either. I was expecting an Orton/DiBiase match to settle their personal feud with an undecided Cody acting as ref, but when Orton got the crowd behind him, that went out the window. Now, the match we have has two of the three competitors having no reason to fight each other, which means that it’s going to take a miracle for this match to work for any real length of time.

Really, I’m expecting Orton to take a lot of abuse from a unified Rhodes and DiBiase for the lion’s share of the match as that’s really the only way all three competitors will be helped out by this match. Orton will get the “face in peril” pop and his former underlings will get a chance to look dominant. The alliance will come undone when one of them hits their finisher on Orton – let’s say Rhodes. As both guys are going to want the win, there will inevitably be some fighting over who gets the win. Teddy will hit Dream Street on Cody, and that’s when Randy will pop up and hit the RKO for the win. Keep in mind that when you look below, my confidence points are based on who’s winning, not on who’s taking the loss.

Winner: Randy Orton via RKO on DiBiase
Confidence: 6
4. CM Punk v. Rey Mysterio: If Punk wins, Mysterio joins the Straight Edge Society

According to early rumors for this match, the original plan for this battle was going to be Punk’s hair for Mysterio’s mask, but it was shot down because the result would be obvious, given that Rey looks like a twelve year old – and is incapable of drawing due to looking like a twelve year old – nobody would have given Punk a prayer of winning.

By changing the stipulations, the result here is going to be a lot less obvious. There remains a question as to whether or not Rey would have to unmask if he were forced into joining the Society, but that could be delayed with a rematch down the line.

Punk was probably the single best guy on Smackdown for all of the last year, thanks to his feud with Jeff Hardy and the fact that he’s been nothing short of awesome on the microphone week in and week out. Mysterio, meanwhile, has had something of a resurgence of his own in the last year thanks to him being healthy and involved in a number of solid feuds of his own.

I really could see this one going either way due to the excellent build, but the presence of the Straight Edge Society makes this one a little clear for me. I wouldn’t be surprised to see Luke Gallows involved, especially since this match has (or had) no-DQ stipulations attached.

Winner: CM Punk via Go 2 Sleep and Luke Gallows
Confidence: 2

5. Triple H v. Sheamus

Let’s start simply: this match is all about Sheamus. Despite a two-month reign as WWE Champion, the Irish Warrior has done little to cement himself as a legitimate main eventer or threat. This is likely because his title win came off as a fluke and because he was incapable of cleanly beating any serious threats (unless one counts Evan Bourne as a serious threat).

In other words, this bad boy is a must win for Sheamus if they want him to have anything that remotely resembles a long-term career.

For Triple H, meanwhile, there’s pride at stake. Can Triple H remain over despite losing to Sheamus? I’m thinking that considering the relationship that he and Sheamus have, Triple H will not only help Sheamus get that first big win, but that he’ll do it as clean as a sheet too.

Factor in what I think will happen later in the show…well…we’ll wait until later for me to discuss that.

Winner: Sheamus via Celtic Cross
Confidence: 3

6. World Heavyweight Championship: Chris Jericho © v. Edge

You know, I’m a huge fan of both Jericho and Edge, but I really think that the build to this match has been a little lacking. You’d think with as much history as these two have had, we’d have gotten more build up since the Royal Rumble. The groundwork was laid for this match back in the summer when Edge was put on the shelf with yet another long-term injury, forcing Chris Jericho to choose the Big Show as his replacement tag team partner. It was fairly clear that when he came back, Edge would be seeking revenge for Jericho’s callousness, and the Rated R Superstar’s return at the Royal Rumble laid the groundwork.

Maybe it was the wariness of the crowd in cheering on Edge, who’s been a solid heel for the last five years, or maybe it was the fact that their interactions since the Rumble started out as one-sided for Edge, but I don’t think the crowd is all that into the match.

That said, though, I have a feeling that the World Heavyweight Championship match is going to steal the show. Everyone seems to be talking about how good every other match is going to be, but I don’t think it’s much of a stretch to argue that this will be in the running for Match of the Night.

Normally, I’d argue that either guy could take this match, given that things have gotten a lot more even in the last two weeks or so, but the fact is that for the last two years, the Royal Rumble winner has failed to walk out of WrestleMania with the belt. That, more than anything else, dictates who’s going to win this one.

Winner and NEW World Heavyweight Champion: Edge via SPEAR
Confidence: 8

And by the way, I don’t expect anyone to cash in the briefcase on Edge, even if Christian winds up winning.

7. No Holds Barred: Vince McMahon v. Bret Hart

I don’t really need to go into the history of this match at all, do I? The fact is that Hart v. McMahon has been 13 years in the making, and it’s one of the most highly anticipated matches on the card, despite the fact that it’s not going to be a barn-burner.

Let’s face facts here: Bret really can’t take a lot of damage in this match. He had a stroke a few years back, which pretty much dictates that he’s not going to be bumping around a lot.

There’s really not a whole lot to say other than I expect little more than token offense from Vince and an absolute beating from Bret. The crowd will be hot simply because Vince is going to get demolished in the center of the ring.

Winner: Bret Hart via Sharpshooter
Confidence: 10

8. Mickie James, Kelly Kelly, Eve Torres, Gail Kim, and Beth Phoenix v. Michelle McCool, Layla, Maryse, Alicia Fox, and Vickie Guerrero

Ah, the typical Divas cool down match. Yes, kids, I expect this one to go on after two of the four main events on the show in an effort to avoid burning out the crowd. I may not be expecting much from Bret v. Vince, but I do expect the crowd to be molten for it.

I’m really not going to go into a lot of detail for the Divas match. Here’s what I’m thinking: both champs are heels, and a face needs to be built up. Therefore, we’re getting the face team to win.

Nuff said.

Winners: The Face Divas, with Eve rolling up Layla
Confidence: 9

9. WWE Championship: Batista © v. John Cena

This is the anti-World Heavyweight Championship match, in that the build for Batista v. Cena has been nothing short of phenomenal AND I’m not expecting a barn-burner in the ring. Neither Batista nor Cena are exactly known for their in-ring prowess, but I honestly don’t think anyone needs to worry about this match delivering.

The entire story here is, of course, that John Cena has never beaten Batista. This would normally make me quite confident that Cena, as the golden child of WWE, would get his big win on The Animal here.

Not so fast though.

You see…Batista has just gotten himself over as a major heel in the last few weeks AND I’m usually of the mindset that WrestleMania’s booking isn’t always so black-and-white obvious. Cena’s win here seems almost TOO obvious.

For what it’s worth, I think we’re going to get a decent length match here with a whole mess of power spots. Inevitably, Batista’s going to elbow out of at least three attempted Attitude Adjustments, because that’s been the recent norm for Cena matches. In turn, we can expect Cena to writhe out of the Batista Bomb a couple of times, too.

I’m somewhat shaky on this one, but even with the “too obvious” comments, I’m going with my gut on the Cena victory. Even if I’m wrong here, I am 100% confident that Cena will have some horrendous entrance again this year. I will be able to take solace in that.

Winner and NEW WWE Champion: John Cena via STF
Confidence: 5

10. Main Event: Streak v. Career, No-DQ: Undertaker v. Shawn Michaels

Forget about the history here. Forget about the fact that Taker’s been hurting and forget about the “HOW CAN THEY POSSIBLY LIVE UP TO LAST YEAR” nonsense that’s been surrounding this match for the last few months.

It’s Shawn Michaels.

And the Undertaker.

Again.

If nothing else, I’m POSITIVE that this match will be amazing. I’m less than positive of the result, though.

So let me tell you what I’d do when it comes to booking the match. I do believe that this is what will happen, but it’s important to note that I didn’t come up with this on my own. A whole mess of credit has to go to my best friend Jon who largely got the ball rolling on this one (by which I mean he came up with almost everything).

I’m expecting our main event to go on for a solid half hour. Unlike last year, where Shawn Michaels slowly got more and more desperate as the match dragged on, I’m expecting him to get confident with each passing minute. Because of the experience of having faced Taker at Mania before, he’ll find himself more and more in control as time wears on, and Taker will find himself the desperate one.

The No-DQ stipulation is an important one, of course, and it will come in to play at several points in the match. The most important for my explanation of this particular match will be when Taker decides to bring a chair into the ring, because it will inevitably lead to him taking it face first thanks to Sweet Chin Music. Then, Shawn will find himself delivering another superkick to make sure he’s taken care of the Dead Man.

And that’s when Triple H will run in.

You see, the reason I think Trips will put Sheamus over clean as a sheet is because he’s not going to need some controversial finish and rematch. The Game is going to turn heel during the main event of WrestleMania, all because Shawn Michaels has been so selfish since he declared his intentions of a rematch with Taker in December. Shawn’s short-sightedness cost Hunter the tag titles and the Royal Rumble. It strained their friendship.

And Hunter’s not going to stand for it.

So right after that second Sweet Chin Music, Triple H will make his presence felt with an absolute beatdown on the Heart Break Kid. A pedigree on a chair will seal the deal, and a revived Taker will get the win but be none to pleased with the result.

In the months that will follow, we’ll see Triple H take on Undertaker at Extreme Rules, dominate Raw, win back the WWE Championship, and ultimately lose it thanks to Shawn returning (or Shawn will cost him next year’s Rumble). I don’t think this retirement will be a permanent one – instead, Shawn will get to ride off into the sunset next year after taking on Triple H one last time.

It’s worth noting that if that doesn’t happen, this match is a total toss-up. Normally, I don’t bet against the streak, but if there’s no interference here, there’s no reason to believe that the streak will continue. I’d be more sure of interference if I knew for sure this match WASN’T main eventing (doesn’t seem right to have interference in the main event of WrestleMania), but that would make Triple H’s betrayal even more awesome.

Winner: Undertaker via interference from Triple H
Confidence: 1

Regardless of how the show plays out, we’re going to have a pretty strong spring from WWE simply because of the number of feuds that can be branched out from this show. I don’t think it’s going to be a stretch to say that on paper, WrestleMania XXVI is one of the strongest ever. I don’t think it will reach the heights of 17 and 19, but tonight still has the potential to be an all-time classic.

That’s going to do it for me. I’ll see everyone Tuesday for the usual NXT review and for my apology spiel for going 0 for 10 in my WrestleMania picks. Hope you enjoy tonight’s show!

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