It wasn't a shoot tonight (or a Metallica song if you're paying attention to the titles). WWE is going in the direction of keeping William Regal in the general manager position on Raw, and I couldn't be happier.
When I saw Vince McMahon open the show tonight, I was afraid they'd play an angle where Regal was fired as GM and he makes a return to ring. Luckily, that didn't happen. Regal is gold as GM and the past two weeks have catapulted his character to having the same type of authority as Eric Bishoff had as GM, or Stephanie McMahon or Paul Heyman as GM of SmackDown.
It's a smart move, because WWE programming had been missing a good authority foil for the past few years. It brings back the anything-can-happen feeling wrestling in general has been missing since the Monday Night Wars ended. I'm excited to see where it's going to go.
Will Ken Kennedy's confrontation with Regal be a mini Austin/McMahon-type feud? Will the king meet the King of Kings in the guise of Triple H? Only time will tell, but my vote goes for well...both. There's still a ways to go until SummerSlam.
The greatest gift a wrestling promotion can give a fan is the unexpected. So far, I'm happy with what's been under my tree.
Just when I thought was going to end with one of those stupid WCW climaxes where everyone crowds the ring and unconvincingly beats each other up, the lights go down and there's Randy Orton. I didn't see that coming for miles. Like I said, I'm happy.
I do, however, wonder if the lights out is part of a little mini-tribute to the original ECW. They'd pull that trick all the time, mostly because they couldn't afford any better way to surprisingly plant a guest out there. The bookers of the two Hardcore Homecoming shows even did it to great effect. The first was Mick Foley. The second...Lance Storm.
Other notes:
Anyone else yawning at this Chris Jericho/Shawn Michaels thing? Who put on curse on Jericho? Everything he's touched since his comeback has had to opposite effect of Midas...I'm still buying Mr. Kennedy's new music...Mike Adamle was better when he was screwing up his lines on his own. You can't catch lightning in a bottle, and his scripted flubs sound forced. Or course, I have no idea if his first ones were scripted, but whatever the case it sounded canned tonight...Carlito should take some notes from "Rowdy" Roddy Piper...I'm shocked at Roddy Piper's Santino Marella DUI shoot...Cody Rhodes has a cocky heel in him just waiting to get out...Good job building the Cena/JBL match without Cena even in the country...Only two matches booked for Judgment Day and it's only two weeks away, do I smell WHC tourney?...Where's Umaga? Did he forget his passport?
OK, so I'm overstating my butchery of the Gill-Scott Heron song. It's not a revolution after all, but it was a chaotic week of WWE television. And a pretty exciting one to boot. I know fans are quivering with disapproval after Raw went off the air without a conclusion to the Randy Orton/Triple H WWE Championship bout.
I know fans are still scratching their heads over what happened with Mike Adamle the very next day.
I know fans are outraged over the Undertaker being stripped of the World Heavyweight Championship.
For every complaint you want to lob at whoever put these ideas together and streamed them into your living room, I want to remind you of every other complaint that WWE programming is predictable and not as edgy as during the Attitude Era. That's right, I'm talking to those people.
What you loved about wrestling in the 1990s was its unpredictability, its turmoil (perceived or real), and its environment that cultivated the idea anything could happen. That's exactly the place where WWE landed this week. And it's a good place to be.
This is a win-win situation. WWE's ratings will undoubtedly receive a bump as viewers will just HAVE to tune and see what the outcome is.
Who won? Who's the announcer? Who's the champ?
As for the fans, we may be back in an era where we can't figure out the outcome from weeks away. It's a pattern WWE's been following since at least Royal Rumble 2008.
Who'd have thought Jeff Hardy would get such a push?
Who'd have thought John Cena would return?
Who'd have thought Orton would retain?
Who'd have thought Triple H would beat him a month later?
And, who'd have thought Mike Adamle would get Joey Styles job and then walk out (work or not).
What I'm saying here is that this beats the days of John Cena vanquishing everyone in his path ala Hulk Hogan circa 1986 may just be gone. This may be the beginning of whole new chapter in WWE and pro wrestling in general. Just how far will the creators try to blur the line between fantasy and reality? (Remember about a year ago, Vince McMahon was going to fake his own death until a real tragedy intervened.)
However far, I'm pretty sure we'll be watching with much more interest than say John Cena versus Mark Henry for the WWE Championship headlining a pay-per-view.
I hope WWE stays on its current course, and I hope the haters keep hating. Because if they're hating, they're still passionately watching.
Other notes:
I hope last week's play by Regal wasn't a way to throw him back into wrestling full-time. I love him as GM (and king) and think last week's action give him more gravitas and authority...I bought Kennedy's new music as exciting for the first time, weird and Pavlovian...Why did CM Punk get buried this week? You'd think he'd be on track to become a top guy...Was HBK limping on the wrong leg?...Anyone else find 'Friends in Low Places" a little bizarre?...Will Batista please JUST TURN HEEL ALREADY!....Do I smell World Heavyweight Championship tournament?...probably not :(
Match of the week: Shelton Benjamin v. Kofi Kingston ECW
Promo of the week: Mr. Kennedy confronts William Regal RAW
The shocking Adamle walk-out controversy steered this blog away from Backlash 2008 for a few days, but we're back to review the final match. And it gets...
****1/2
This match made the night worth the price of admission despite a relatively lackluster undercard. Business picked up almost immediately with Randy Orton rolling out to grab a chair and watch the three other performers pummel each other, getting jumped by John Cena in the process.
Things kept going with an awesome piece of work. With Orton in Cena's STFU, John Bradshaw Layfield taunts the legend killer to tap. All the while he gets trapped in a crossface from Triple H.
The four-way stuff was fun enough, but after both Cena and Layfield were quickly eliminated we're left with two of the best workers in the business to square off.
These guys wrestled another four-and-a-half star match to close last year's No Mercy in Rosemont, Ill. Even their match to open the show (they wrestled twice that night) I'd give three and a half stars.
So, they went at each other, with Triple H doing some great work to sell his torso injury. The back-and-forth action created what is the ultimate wrestling situation: the fan having no idea who's going to previal.
Triple H did prevail indeed and notched his twelfth world championship reign. I'm excited to see how it's going develop. And with both guys already setup for a rematch at Judgment Day 2008 in two weeks, I'm psyched to see them get it on again in the steel cage.
One other note: I'm a big fan of blood in wrestling and feel that I don't get my money's worth unless someone bleeds. That is except if the performers put on a stellar show. That's exactly what happened here. My beloved juice was not necessary, and that's really saying something.
I'm watching ECW on Sci-FI and I was shocked to see Mike Adamle just walk off his job as announcer. The show continued with the match between Kane and Chavo Guerrero, but without any commentary because Tazz apparently followed him. Neither came back.
So, what's the deal? Did Adamle legitimately quit? Is this a meta-work cognizant of the fans' simultaneous disdain about Adamle's performance and outrage over classic ECW Joey Styles being replaced?
One thing is for sure. If you watched the show, or read about it later, you'll be tuning in to see just what on earth happened.
I've asked it before, and I'll ask it again. Why didn't this match have any stipulations? It was a mediocre match to begin with at WrestleMania. Why would anyone want a rehash?
Unfortunately for both performers and fans, the match wasn't much better than WM24. That's not to say it was bad. I liked the "I'm going to hurt you," angle with Undertaker, and I'm happy his triangle choke didn't end up with his own shoulders on the mat.
However, for whatever reason, this program can't seem to capture my imagination. I'm surprised since I like Edge, and usually like Undertaker when he's wrestling someone worth watching.
These matches have been by-the-numbers affairs, though. Consequently, they've been a little tough to watch. Not horrible, but certainly well below expectations. Two and a half stars, simply because the instinctual talent in both performers still makes them interesting to watch.
Oh well, hopefully both will shake this off and move on to bigger and better things.
