My thoughts post No Mercy are now almost 24hours old and I've had time to settle my mood a little. I won't deny that I was very disappointed that Jeff didn't win, even though I KNEW he really had no CHANCE IN HELL, I still in my heart was hoping for the outcome ALL his TRUE fans wanted. It helped a little when the only consolation I could offer my daughter was the fact that he has stated publicly he does what he does NOT for the titles/belts, they hold very little interest for him, but of course he is aware of what the fans want so if he does win a belt it's more for us than him. So that being said the fact that Koslov looks to be the next contender for the belt against Triple H is not a shock to anyone however I do believe it will end up at Cyber Sunday being a triple threat, I don't think they will just drop Jeff out of the picture altogether after all Koslov continually attacked both Jeff and Triple H prior to No Mercy so there is some validation for having Jeff in a title match again.

I've read today that some comedy skits were removed at the last minute from No Mercy so I still believe my prediction that Charlie Haas would appear would have been correct and I've also read that the fan reaction from the event itself was not what WWE was hoping for with the Undertaker/Big Show ending. I can see why initially because I myself had the same thoughts, WTF was that, but having had 24 hours to think I believe it was an obvious way to end it given that Undertaker never loses by submission/tapping out, and has only lost cleanly a handful of times in his very long career so given this was a normal wrestling match, no weapons involved, no distractions or interuptions and against Big Show, and both have Boxing Skills, what better way to have him lose than a Knock Out, and he can still recover and slowly build to the climax (whenever that is going to be) with his mind games and such and it keeps the feud going and doesn't make either one look bad. Well at least I don't think either one looks back, keeps Big Show alive as a rotten so and so heel, and Taker (given his age and current health status) would naturally like almost anyone else have succumbed in the same way by being punched that hard from someone who is 7ft and over 400pounds, how wouldn't that make sense. And it's something new to Undertakers storyline given that he is supposed to be able to withstand almost anything and come straight back from it and the only times he doesn't is when he wasn't expecting it and hadn't thought ahead and planned for the probability, (all of this Kayfabe Character analysis) so I suppose if he follows his past he should stay in the background for a while and plot some huge revenge and maybe a re-invention of some sort but I doubt that bit really, I don't think they go into it too much these days like they did before.

I had a lot of trouble watching the HBK/Chris Jericho match and at one point I found myself feeling on the verge of crying. I strongly dislike ladder matches, not quite sure why, I never worried and felt the same way with TLC matches, just the ladder matches and this one was awful for me. I kept thinking it looked like something was going to go horribly wrong. I love HBK and Chris Jericho together and never have a problem in a normal match but as with their last match that I felt was too over the top with the use of the belt, this one was also too much for me. Thankfully Batista won the No1 contender match and now he and Chris can focus on each other. I need the break.

I still think Santino and Beth will part ways sooner rather than later and I'd also love to see the culmination of the storyline between her and Batista but I expect that will just be ignored in the hopes that no-one remembered it was being built now that he's won the No1 contender spot and I guess they'll just focus on that storyline. I'm happy Beth kept the belt though, and I'd like to see Mickie back in the running for it.

I don't know anyone who didn't know Matt would retain his title and I'm happy he did. He did a reasonably good job against Mark and I'll give Mark huge ticks for helping out, I noticed a few times he sold some moves by Matt well, those that would have been possible against someone his size, which I think was quite admirable of him given he went in knowing he would come away the loser. It must be hard to go into a match for anyone knowing you have to make it look authentic when you know you aren't the winner. He may have been no-ones pick or favourite as the ECW champ in the first place and not unlike Punk, a token gesture, but he is in real life still a human being and a very nice one at that. Yah for Matt though, my favourite after Undertaker.

The match between Rey and Kane was okay as far as the difference in size between them goes but I'm still unsure about all this. Kane really is a big oaf in the ring and slow, Rey looks like he is always having to be extra careful and of course he has to be and he has also slowed up considerably since his return, I like the storyline, or at least the idea behind it but I think it just doesn't work too well because of the size difference and style difference. How difficult must it be (for all of his career) to have to wrestle in boots that have a lift in them to make him look the 7foot they claim he is, no wonder he's slow and is limited with what he can do. If Rey was only selling his injury last night I hope they finish this storyline up a quickly as they possibly can without making it look like a total waste of time.

I liked the other stuff they threw in with Randy, The Simple People, MVP, Punk and Kofi. It was funny enough to break the show of wrestling matches and I guess we'll be finding out later at the Raw Taping that Punk has chosen Kofi to be his tag partner to go after the tag titles. Cool, I expected he would and I like Kofi. It also makes sense given they were both ripped off with their individual title runs. I expect they will win the belts leaving Randy and the Simple People to do their thing with this stable if it is actually going to eventuate.

That'll do for now. I was pretty much wrong with my predictions on who would win and who would or wouldn't have interference in their matches and who would show up but didn't, the only ones I got right were Matt and Batista and Triple H but that was only because I was sure of interference but in my heart I really wanted Jeff to win so I won't take it as a clean victory on that prediction. Until next time.