Wrestlemania TONITE, baby!!!!!!!!111

This is MAH SUPAH BOWL!!!!!!!!!

Matches i wanna see most are HBK/Undertaker, the Colins VS M&M (though i wish there were no Bellas/lumberjacks involved).

Money in the Bank has potential, i think MVP will win it.
The HHH/Orton match is gonna be OK i think if no one gets injured for real.

Oddly i'm not to up on the triple threat with Cena/Show/Edge. This could have been a better match somehow.

Soon, i'll be making chili and getting junk food!

I now see why Shelton Benjamin still has a job. Sure he's boring and nothing special at all in basic matches, but he goes balls-to-the-wall for this thing every year. Finlay comes to the ring wearing...half of the Road Warriors' shoulder pads? And Hornswoggle has a mini-ladder he and Finlay use to inflict pain. There were some really great spots in this, and it was entertaining to watch; never having seen a FULL MitB match before, it's hard to judge where it fits all time. Kane and Henry actually fit in nicely in their spots of the match and did not bog it down. Sadly, MVP was the guy who seemed most of place or underused; he just didn't have any particular fun moments, even though I was pulling for him. Punk won...I had really convinced myself that Christian would. Hopefully Punk gets a proper push this time...

Santina wins the Diva Battle Royal! His promo after winning is PRICELESS, where he pretends to be his own sister, Santina, and proceeds to dance and gyrate.

Good god. Snuka looks TERRIBLE. He makes Piper look athletic and fit. Anyway, after some opening beatings at the hands of all three guys, Jericho makes short work or Snuka and Piper. In comes an amazingly game Steamboat who puts on a pretty good match with Jericho for a few minutes before getting Codebreakered. Flair takes umbrage and hits the ring, only to get beaten up. Jericho calls out Rourke; Rourke hits the ring and one-punches him. Oh, the career turns of an Oscar runner-up. Jericho winning and Steamboat's performance were the highlights.

This was pretty good, and Matt won, as I called and was hoping for, though the match was 85% Jeff beating the crap out of Matt, including a pretty sick Table-Matt-Chair-Table sandwich he did a splash through. If Matt is going to make an effective heel, they're going to have to tell him that heels are supposed to dominate matches. Oh well. Jeff misses a pretty epic looking double ladder leap-frog legdrop, then Matt puts his head through the hole between the seat and back of a standing chair and delivers the Twist of Fate. Pretty sick ending, and I can imagine the feud continuing where Matt is jealous that, despite his winning, Jeff gets all the credit for the match. Good plan, if that's what it is.

Rey beats JBL!!! JBL promised a quick beatdown....and he promptly lost in 20 seconds. As Rey left with his belt, JBL grabbed the mic, hemmed and hawed a bit, then yelled "I QUIT!" and ran off.

HBK has a fun little "lowered-from-the-ceiling, amalgam White Undertaker/basic HBK" ring entrance. The match is epic. EPIC. It really should have been the main event for two big reasons: It was the best match of night by far, and it killed the crowd. There was so much excitement and intensity, nothing that followed it could match it. All told, Michaels escaped the Gogoplata, kicked out of the Last Ride, and kicked out of the Tombstone; Taker kicked out of two Sweet Chin Musics, though both had the whole Michaels-takes-several-seconds-to-cover things, so you knew it was coming. Taker caught a moonsaulting HBK for a second Tombstone and finally got the 3. One of the best matches I have seen in a long, long time. And the crowd factor of dueling faces is great.

WHAT? Where are the tag belts (I later found out they were the dark match before the PPV. Bullshit. I was looking forward to that match more than just about anything on the card. We really couldn't have bumped Kid Rock for them? Weak. Oh)? This match was pretty good, better than i thought it would be. As far as triple threat world title matches go, it had as much as you could hope for, including Vickie getting speared yet again, and a pretty boss ring intro for Cena, where he was led to the ring by an army of people dressed up like him, doing the You-Can't-See-Me while Cena ran out amongst them. Cena wins after FU-ing Show, then FU-ing Edge onto him and pinning Show. Incredible show of strength by Cena at the end, lifting both men at the same time!

HHH and Orton was a good match. No run ins, no contraversy, just a straight well told story. The spanish announce table survived and i am surprised!

Man hbk vs taker was epic wasn't it?

This show sucked. MITB & HBK/Taker proved, as suspected, to be the only matches worth watching.

... and my download is at 76%... Thanks, guys.

<lopsided grin>
"Hey, I read that book! Over 1000 pages, right? You'll never guess that little girl killed all those people!"

Hey, the PPV was yesterday, it's fair game!

I was disappointed that Randy didn't win.

I like Randy, though a lot of people i post with don't.
Still it seems he tries too hard to be a heel. He needs to step back awhile and work on his character.

Randy holds a special place in my world of hate reserved just for himself.

If I was just taking his performances into account I probably wouldn't mind the guy all that much, he's a passable wrestler and enjoyable as an entertainer and character.

But, you add in what he's pulled since he's been in the WWE: Been caught for wellness program violations, took a dump in one of the Diva's bags, trashed a hotel room, and has generally been an irresponsible jackass.

Then take what he pulled during his "time" in the Marines, he went AWOL once, came back and then deserted, all within his first six months in, something the guy should still be in a Federal pen for, and the guy is famous, makes millions, and generally gets a free pass in life because his daddy was tight with Vince.

Yeah, I really don't like the guy at all, lol.

As for Mania, obviously Taker/HBK was great, who didn't see that coming though with as good as both of them are.

Money in the Bank was good, not the best they've ever had, but good, Shelton Benjamin was f'ing crazy good in that match, I'm hoping his performance gets him a little boost up the WWE's food chain. I personally didn't think Punk needed to win it again, Christian or MVP would probably have been better selections as far as building them up to a main event slot, which both are deserving of, but I guess this is one of those sit back and see what happens things.

Diva Battle Royale, what was the point? Both of the women's Divisions would have been better suited to a Champ vs. Champ match or a triple threat with Melina, Maryse, and McCool or even throwing Beth into the mix somehow would have helped, but instead we got a huge fuster cluck and Santino winning, yay, way to get some interest going in the Divisions and their actual wrestlers. Instead we get a continued mockery of women's wrestling. I think I'll stick to my SHIMMER for good women's wrestling since Vince doesn't seem to be interested in anything but the T&A his Divas can provide the 13 year old demographic.

JBL/Rey, again, why? I knew JBL would be retiring again fairly quickly, with all of the back problems the guy has I'm surprised he even came back at all, but I don't think that was a good send off at all for the guy, I don't like him much, but he's done a ton for the WWE and deserved better, at least getting more than one move in for god's sake. Whatever, I can only assume that he'll be back on Commentary on one of the shows in the near future.

Jericho vs. the Legends, quite the treat for me to see Steamboat working a match again, he worked with CM Punk a few years ago in ROH so I knew he still had some gas in the tank, but he came out and delivered one hell of a performance, one that will give younger WWE fans an idea of what the guy was all about as a wrestler and why he did indeed to be in the Hall of Fame. Other than that the match was worthless, which I figured it would be, Piper has a hard time walking let alone wrestling, and Superfly should have hung it up looonnnggg ago, so I wasn't surprised to see them go down quickly. Mickie Rourke's involvement wasn't much of a surprise, nor was the result of it, like he was going to go down to Jericho, that's not now these celebrity cameo's work in the WWE.

Triple Threat for the World Title, not many suprises here, Cena had to be the favorite to take the title home from this one based merely on the fact that Raw had no Champion leading up to Mania. All three guys turned in good performances, but the match felt like a TV mainevent instead of a PPV mainevent. Meh, whatever, I like Edge, Bigshow and Cena are just kind of around as performers, I've learned to accept their presence and that they aren't going anywhere for a while.

Orton vs. HHH, you know how I feel about Orton, but the guy got buried by HHH. Where was his grounds for a rematch like he asked for the next night on Raw? He got pinned clean, 1-2-3, if they wanted to continue the story they should have had some sort of a wacky finish to the match, although the WWE doesn't like to do that at Mania, but still, Orton going down like that is typically the finish to a feud.

My main disagreement is that the Tag Title match wasn't even on the mainshow despite being advertised as such. That match was one of the better ones at Mania period, yet we get the JBL Squash and the Diva Battle Royal eating up time that could have been used to get a wider audience interest in the Tag Division, guess Vince really does hate Tag Wrestling like has been rumored for years.

Overall I thought Mania had some strong points, but it really wasn't worth 55 bucks, nor was it anywhere near the quality that the WWE's biggest show of the year should have been outside of Taker/HBK. With the crappy build up it got I'm not sure how I expected anything different.

Good post, man! Lotsa good points and observations.

Money in the Bank was good, not the best they've ever had, but good, Shelton Benjamin was f'ing crazy good in that match, I'm hoping his performance gets him a little boost up the WWE's food chain. I personally didn't think Punk needed to win it again, Christian or MVP would probably have been better selections as far as building them up to a main event slot, which both are deserving of, but I guess this is one of those sit back and see what happens things.

I read a comment on MiTB i found real interesting, i gotta look it up and post it for you, see what your thoughts are on it.

Well with Punk moving over to Smackdown last night there are a ton of ways to look at why Punk got it.

1. Cena retains the title at Backlash and Punk cashes it in on him, although I'm not sure if that would constitue a heel turn or not, Smackdown really isn't in the market for Top Heels right now with Edge and Jericho wandering around, so this scenario seems fairly unlikely unless they're just doing it to get a champ back to SD.

2. Edge wins it at Backlash and Punk cashes it in on him and leaves Edge with the shortest World Title reign of all time, to me at this point this would be the best option, it gives Punk the title, he's established as a top contender right away, and you put him in a feud with the top heel to get him over, and it cleanly puts an end to Cena/Edge.

3. Edge wins and goes on to have a reign of terror with Punk eventually cashing it in on him to become a hero to the SD fans, another viable option, let Edge run wild on the roster with Punk saving the day, he'd be like frickin' Superman to them.

4. Punk cashes it in on someone else down the road in some unseen scenario.

That's kind of my problem with Money in the Bank, it's a cool concept, but if the person cashing it in doesn't win, what's the point? If they don't win they look like a complete boob in they eyes of the fans and I'm not sure how much room on the roster there is for another Santino Marella.

Well, Santino AND his sister!

I'm usually not a fan of the draft. They don't really "shake things up." What really happened last night? The women's, US & IC titles switched shows.
I do like Miz being on Raw, as i think he's gonna make a great heel. Ah well.
Here's the MiTB synopsis i read...

While being a great concept in theory the Money In The Bank match has, IMO, ultimately failed in practice. While the match itself has generally given lots of talent the opportunity to be showcased on wrestling's biggest stage and thusly has furthered the careers and raised the profile of a few talents - Lord knows it's probably the only reason Shelton Benjamin hasn't been wished the best in all future endeavours - the winners haven't generally gone on to benefit more from the match than anybody else involved. For some superstars it has been practically detrimental.

Starting with the first winner and the man who has undoubtedly benefitted the most from the annual stunt show, Edge, let's look at the fortunes of those who have triumphed in the match.

Edge won the first money in the bank back in April of 05 and later cashed in his chips to take the big belt from John Cena after he'd won an Elimination Chamber at New Year's Revolution giving Edge the first of his 8 titles reigns. This then is evidence that the Money In The Bank works like a dream in elevating stars to the next level. Welllllll, not quite. Sure Edge won the title but sure enough it went even quicker than it came as he dropped the strap to Cena just 18 days later at Backlash. Hardly making him look like a main eventer who truly belonged on the big stage it made Egde look like a chump who only won the belt because the MITB allowed him to sucker punch Cena. Ironically this is what has best benefitted Edge. It was the match that kick started all of Edge's title reigns and gave him the gimmick with which he has won the majority of these titles - The Ultimate Opportunist. This though, is the best possible example I can give as to how the MITB is a poisoned chalice. Yes, it has been the driving device behind Edge finally breaking the glass ceiling and winning the title on numerous occassions - both directly and indirectly - but at the same time, it has saddled him with the status that has limited him to constant transitional reigns lasting nothing more a couple of months at the most.

Moving onto the second winner and, IMO, the man who benefitted second most - RVD. Like Edge (who would again use his MITB-granted status as Ultimate Opportunist to hand RVD the win) the Money In The Bank match was a big catalyst in his finally winning a World Title. That said with ECW restarting he was the obvious choice regardless and it didn't really do all that much to elevate his status on the card or in terms of overness. The fans always wanted to see Van Dam with gold around his waist and especially in ECW. On top of that, again very similar to Edge, Van Dam's title reign lasted just over a month, his reign as ECW Champion was even shorter! The killer blow here is that just over a year after winning MITB Van Dam would be gone from the company - obviously lots of other factors played a part here but can we at least attribute this to the "Curse of MITB"?

Money In The Bank number 3 and it's The Return Of The Curse. Back when he won the briefcase was the last time Kennedy was healthy, over and out of the press, not making a total ass out of himself. As a man of science I can rule out the Money In The Bank being directly responsible but the fact remains - Kennedy won the match and his career has never quite looked the same. All the Money In The Bank really gave Kennedy was the distinction of being the only man to win Money In The Bank and not only fail to win a World Title but also lose the briefcase before even being able to cash it in!

Of course it was Edge who won the briefcase and went on to win the title from the Undertaker (again the Ultimate Opportunist). This was a lengthy reign for Edge lasting over two months before The Curse struck and left him sidelined and, worse, left the title in the hands of The Great Khali. It could be argued that Kennedy, Khali and Edge benefitted this year but what more proof of it being a poisoned chalice do we need than Great Khali as champion?


WrestleMania XXIV now and the year of CM Punk - a man whose moniker seemed very apt after what happened. Punk out-Edged (Edged out?) Edge by capitalizing on a Batista-inflicted beat down on Edge (man he pops up a lot - I mean really I've never typed out the word Edge this many times. In my life.) and took his title. A massive win for Punk, early on in his WWE career. No doubt the MITB made this possible. Again though, the MITB earned title reign was far from rosey. Punk's reign lasted a lot longer than RVD's or either of Edge's - 3 months - but he was given the Jericho Rey Mysterio CM Punk run and neverlooked credible. Again he looked like the only reason he ever got the belt was because MITB had allowed him a cheap shot. Not because he was a legitimate champion.

Of course there are two stories this year, as with last year. The real story is Jeff Hardy's. A man on an all-time career high leading into WrestleMania and looking an absolute certainty to win Money In The Bank and be the first to truly reach that next level. *Knock knock* Who's there? Oh it's The Curse. Jeff was suspended for 60 days (stupidity or curse? You judge) WrestleMania month and lost his Money In The Bank slot, his Intercontinental Title and his push to the World Championship. That said Jeff came back and was still one of the most over men in the whole company. While CM Punk stuttered through his title run, loking totally out of his depth, Jeff continued to go from strength to strength regardless and went on to defeat Triple and Edge (AGAIN) to win his first World Championship without ever having won Money In The Bank.

This brings us to this year then and CM Punk, pretty in pink, won his second Money In The Bank. The first man to do so and in consecutive years. That alone is an extra accolade already for Punk. Lookng closer though, what does it mean? CM Punk has already been Heavyweight Champion. Does he need the rub from MITB? Weren't there at least 3 other superstars who could've benefitted more from the win and eventual title shot? Of course the big question is how much of a role will Edge play in the briefcase's journey this year?

I love MITB, don't get me wrong and every year I look forward to it. To the buildup and the aftermath. I wouldn't get rid of it for anything. Really though has it ever actually served it's purpose? It reminds me very much of The King Of The Ring (another honour that The Rated R Superstar had bestowed upon him, back when he was only PG-13) in that only a few of those who win it ever really go on to the next level and those that do likely would have regardless.

Having read that, yeah, i can see poison chalice being attached to MiTB. For now. Given time, other stars are gonna use the damn thing wisely.
One thing i liked was, when Kennedy straight up said he was gonna challenge at WM that year. It was ballsy and i wish it would have happened. It could still happen, i can see Punk doing it, even saying he made a mistake acting like Edge and wants the Champ to know he's coming next year....

I don't know, we already saw Punk use the MITB in this kind of situation before where his brand doesn't have a title, and he's more than willing to kick Edge when he's down.

Ultimately the results of Backlash will determine what happens, if Cena retains there's no Title on Smackdown, and Punk using the MITB on him right after a last man standing match would certainly make sense.

If Edge somehow gets the title he'll be in a weakened state and vulnerable to Punk coming after him again, plus how cool would a Punk/Edge feud be?

I'm basically ruling that he'll go after HHH or Orton due to them being in a six man tag, who knows though, if Orton wins and takes a Batista Bomb or Pedigree after the match I wouldn't be surprised to see Punker jogging down ramp after Randy cost him his title last time.

Quite frankly I can't see HHH putting Punk over if he retains the title.

There's always Punk keeping it a while longer until a better opportunity comes up, but I can't see him pulling a Kennedy and announcing that he's using it at WM, like I said, he's demonstrated that he's willing to use it if a good situation comes up, and I see him going after the World Title since the WWE seems to want it's main title back on Raw, and HHH has that title right now.

Here's the full draft results, including the supplemental draft that just got over for those of you that are interested at all:

Raw Picks (From WWE Draft & WWE Supplemental Draft):
- WWE United States Champion MVP (#1)
- Big Show (#2)
- Matt Hardy (#4)
- WWE Champion Triple H (#5)
- The Miz (#7)
- WWE Divas Champion Maryse (#11)
- Mr. Kennedy
- WWE Unified Tag Team Champion Primo
- Nikki Bella
- Chavo Guerrero
- Hornswoggle
- WWE Unified Tag Team Champion Carlito
- Festus
- The Brian Kendrick
- Brie Bella

Smackdown Picks (From WWE Draft & WWE Supplemental Draft):
- WWE Women's Champion Melina (#3)
- CM Punk (#6)
- Kane (#8)
- Chris Jericho (#9)
- WWE Intercontinental Champion Rey Mysterio (#12)
- Shad Gaspard
- Alicia Fox
- Mike Knox
- Candice Michelle
- Ricky Ortiz
- Layla
- John Morrison
- JTG
- Dolph Ziggler
- Charlie Haas

ECW Picks (From WWE Draft & WWE Supplemental Draft):
- Vladimir Kozlov (#10)
- Ezekiel Jackson
- Zack Ryder
- DH Smith
- Natalya
- Shane "Hurricane" Helms

Raw certainly made out like bandits, again, this year, although that should be no real surprise since it's the Flagship show for the WWE. MVP was a great swap, he's done everything he can on SD besides win the big one and the WWE doesn't seem to like that idea at all, so putting him in a new setting and letting him run with a new crew was the only thing left.
Big Show, meh, he didn't need to move, I'm assuming he's just around to be Vickie's enforcer.
Matt Hardy was a good move, the guy is growing as a character by leaps and bound right now and could only get smothered by Jeff over on SD now that their feud is simmering down. Moving him to Raw, like MVP, was absolutely the right move to see how far he can take himself.
HHH, I pretty much figured it would be a year on SD for him and he'd be back on Raw, and that's exactly what happened.
The Miz, I don't care about or for him, so him moving doesn't really matter, he's got some potential, but Morrison was the highlight of their team by a long shot.
Maryse, she may not be the best wrestling Diva on the roster, but her antics and looks make up for it. She's entertaining and the Divas on both shows have gotten a bit stale, I think the champion switch and bringining in the Bellas will be enough of a shake up to make Raw's women interesting again.
Mr. Kennedy, the guy switches brands every year, so why the heck not do it again? He's mostly made Raw appearances lately anyway. He's a good wrestler, charismatic as hell, he just needs to stay healthy and he'll be a top guy no doubt.
Primo and Carlito, I see this being mainly to feud with Legacy and eventually the Hart Foundation. The WWE doesn't have much of a tag division, and these two are the best actual team they've got, so maybe they'll finally reinvigorate the tag division.
Bellas, mainly moved for the Colon's in my opinion, passable wrestlers, they certainly are unique though.
Chavo, to push Vickie around in her chair and be a scapegoat to suffer at her hands when she looses it, which is often. He deserves better, but atleast he's still got a job.
Hornswaggle, who knows why he moved.
Festus, without Jessie, who knows, his gimmick is over though.
The Brian Kendrick, I love this guy as a wrestler and a character, hopefully he'll get a shot at standing out again like he did at the championship scrable last year.

Smackdown got taken care of pretty well though, they lost a few of their bigger stars, but pulled in a few that I was quite honestly surprised to see move, i.e. Jericho and Rey.
Melina, she needed the move, actually the Divas needed her or Mickie to move, and she was the one to go. One of the most over women around, she's a hell of a performer, and the crop of opponents on SD will be a nice refresher.
Punk, I can only assume what we chatted about earlier is the case, he's there to get a title back to SD either at Backlash if it's brought back by Edge, to take it off of him when the time is right.
Kane, another guy who moves every year, why change that. Probably the least appreciated big guy in the WWE right now, or of all time, I'd like to see him gets some shots at the title eventually at the very least.
Jericho, needed the move, another guy who's done all he can over on Raw, the new crop of wrestlers to face off with will be a nice refresher for him.
Rey, I don't know why he moved, and I expected Evan Bourne to move to Raw today when I saw this pick, he'll certainly liven things up on the Blue Brand though.
Shad and JTG, don't know, don't understand, with the tag titles on Raw this seems like an exile rather than a good move.
Alicia Fox, probably the most talented of all of the FCW Divas popping up on the main roster, I suspect she'll wind up with Edge or Teddy before too long on the show.
Mike Knox, a really underrated guy in my opinion, how many guys his size outside of Kane can take the high fliers' offense and make it look as good as they do? Hopefully we'll see some more growth out of him.
Candice, I suspect heel turn here shortly with Candice moving, she's better at that aspect of her personality anyway. She's fairly injury prone, so they may be moving her to keep her matches down to a minimum and have her surface when they need her.
Ricky Ortiz, not a fan of this move, the guy needs more seasoning before getting to one of the big two, he's alright as a wrestler, but he needs some work and ECW, not Smackdown, is the place for wrestlers to do that.
Layla, has been playing second fiddle to Regal lately, maybe she'll get a chance to actually show her improvements as a wrestler on SD. She may wind up on the arm of Teddy as well.
John Morrison, SD got themselves one hell of a pick here, the guy is just a fantastic wrestler with a gimmick he's good at pulling off. His solo run can only mean big things for him, if we're lucky Punk will win the title and Morrison will pick his feud up with him again.
Dolph Ziggler, didn't need the move, not sure why it was done, don't care much for him one way or another.
Charlie Haas, his comedy gimmick seems to have run it's course, the guy is a hell of a wrestler, I hope he gets a chance to show it.

ECW got some interesting picks. Koslov is a complete bust, I'm assuming it'll be not long before he gets a chance to explore his future endevours.
DH Smith and Natalya move over and join up with Tyson Kidd, Natalya offically, the New Hart Foundation has arrived finally.
Helms was bourght back too early, so I'm assuming that this will be his offical welcome back to the WWE, hopefully he's in better shape than he was, they guy is a phenominal wrestler but tried to make it back too quickly.
Zack Rider is actually quite a good wrestler, I prefer his tag work, we'll see how this solo run pans out for him, I'm not sure that it will, but I'll give him a chance.
Ezekiel Jackson is scary, he's an alright wrestler, but with his look he'll be in the WWE until Vince croaks, lol. He's allot better character than he's shown thus far as well, hopefully going solo lets him flex his wings a bit.

Just my thoughts on the whole thing.

Maybe this should get changed to Pro Wrestling Discussion instead of Mania, lol.

Great synopsis on the draft, most of which i agree with.
You happen to catch WGN's new show Thursday night? Vince should just move Smackdown to that station, a station people might have as opposed to where it's at now...

The Miz, I don't care about or for him, so him moving doesn't really matter, he's got some potential, but Morrison was the highlight of their team by a long shot.

I'm a Miz fan, so i like the move, except for it killing one of the few tag teams in the division. Still I guess you can't have it all.

The Brian Kendrick, I love this guy as a wrestler and a character, hopefully he'll get a shot at standing out again like he did at the championship scrable last year.

He was flying high for awhile there i remember. Then just faded into the background. Kozlov kind of muscled his way into the championship scene the bastich!

Kane, another guy who moves every year, why change that. Probably the least appreciated big guy in the WWE right now, or of all time, I'd like to see him gets some shots at the title eventually at the very least.

Totally agree, the guy's been a staple for years now. He's looking better these days and could have a good title run in him if Vince were looking to reward hard work and loyalty.

I recently watched the show, it's a nice mishmash of all three brands, the matches were good, and it felt about right length wise for a fourth WWE show. If someone tuned into that out of curiosity they might be inclined to give one of the other shows, given that it's on regular network TV helps as well.

Personally I spend my thrusdays on Impact, the Knockouts and X Division guys anyway, and Smallville, so this will be one of those record and watch later shows.

I personally didn't enjoy Raw all that much last night, how the WWE can justify a PPV three weeks after WM is just beyond me, but there it is Backlash is this Sunday.

There has been zero build up outside of the Mainevents, they just annouce matches or segments and say good enough, feels like they're taking some pages out of TNA's playbook.

Here it is 5 days out from the PPV and we have five, count the FIVE matches announced, Matt vs. Jeff, Legacy vs. the HHH'ettes, Swagger vs. Christian, and Cena vs. Edge, and Jericho vs. Steamboat.

A typical three hour PPV needs 8 matches to fill up the time, if there's a super long match or a ton of segments, you could eek out a 7 match card.

That still leaves you with two matches to announce, and honestly in the last three weeks has there been anything brewing? Nothing PPV worthy, with the draft in the middle of this they haven't had time to set anything up, I'm guessing we get some sort of tossed together Diva match and maybe a CM Punk match, although if he's not on the actual card I'm looking for the cash in on the MITB.

I hate this time of year in the WWE, and Backlash is typically one of the worst if not the worst PPV of the year due to the WWE insisting on cramming a ppv down the fans throats.

With the current economy I wouldn't be surprised to see this PPV get some seriously low numbers buy wise.

TNA was pushing it having a PPV 2 weeks after Mania, although they had some fantastic build up, but WWE always pushes Backlash, I kind of wish the PPV would get canceled, but the WWE loves their PPV's and the money it generates, so I don't see it going anywhere.

I agree that sometime between WM and the next PPV is a sound thing to do.
With the draft they easilty have enough material to create storylines for a later PPV and hey, having some title matches/changes on TV is a nice thing to do for the fans that tune week after week.
Personally i'm hoping Edge wins the title. Why? I'm not sure. He's always been a favorite of mine and, many see him as an underdog in his title reigns but give the man his due he keeps getting the strap. He's tenacious and i like that.
Plus, Cena really needs a gimmick change, if not to full out heel then tweener. I know WWE brass troll sites like this, and i know people have been saying that about Cena for a LONG time now. They should think about it. Losing the belt'd be a good way to do it.

Either that or turn the Draft into the PPV, that's one of the few solutions I can think of for the woes of Backlash every year.

Ah, interesting idea!

They have CM Punk VS Kane for BackLash now, BTW. It'd be nice if Kane beat him down and took the briefcase. Yeah, i know, i'm a total Kane mark.

I love Punk, but the guy didn't need it two times in a row, personally I'm guessing Punk goes over in this match as a way of showing he can hang with anyone on SD in case anyone has forgotten what he's capable of.

Even with him in a match I don't see it being a long one, with him possibly cashing in at the end of the night.

Who knows, I've been wrong about the MITB cash in's before, but I think it makes allot of sense for him to snag one at the PPV, particularly if Cena goes over against Edge.

I know the title's going to SD. It has to, really, how it gets there, though, could be fun if WWE books it right.

Your ideas all make sense though, you really think this stuff out!

I've been watching for years and years, since I was 5, guess that makes 25 years now, plus I watch a ton of indy and Puro wrestling too, so I've seen it all at this point, it's fairly rare that I'm surprised by anything that happens storyline wise, every once in a while I'll get suckered by something, I'm usually paying more attention to the matches than the skits and segments anyway.

The Internet and the lack of a true "rival" in the business is what's killing the awesome "surprise factor" of the late 90's era.

That's true, TNA is getting there, although until they beat Smackdown ratings wise the WWE will continue to ignore them, of course I find everything in TNA minus the X Division and the Knockouts (and that's debateable these days) so completely out there and nonsensical I'm fairly convinced that Grant Morrison is booking their shows.

ROH just got TV, but HDNet has really hurt them, they've forced a new announcer onto the show to replace one of the ROH Original announcers, and god does he suck it's like Adamle except he steals lines from the other announcer), they have to replace the theme musics of all of the wrestlers, and they film in the old ECW Arena. Seriously, if you had asked me a year ago who had the best wrestling in the US, hell North America, I would have said ROH bar none, but it just isn't what it used to be, there are allot of factors that go into what has happened to them though.

The internet hurts wrestling allot as well, things that are supposed to be surprises get leaked all over the net before they happen all the time, I actually don't read spoilers for the most part unless I know I'm not watching the show that week, to keep what ever surprises they throw at me at least mildly entertaining.

Really what's hurting the WWE now is that they don't have their "IT" guy or guys anymore, HHH is good at pretty much everything in wrestling, but he's hard to market to the mainstream public and have the take him seriously. John Cena, god praise him for his efforts, will never be that guy for the company, he's sometimes funny, sometimes wrestles a good match, has the look, but he doesn't connect with the fans like Stone Cold or the Rock did during the attitude era. A prime example of that is him being the good guy in his match with Jericho this week on Raw, but nearly got booed out of the building for his efforts while they cheered Jericho, the announcers try and cover it up, but when they only people cheering for you is the fans 12 and under you aren't reaching the audience you need to.

Totally agreed...a new guy that can become a Stone Cold or Rock is a MUST.

I don't see one in the current crop.