Smark Out Moment

UPDATE: On tonight's ECW, Zack Ryder defeated Tommy Dreamer in a "career on the line" scenario. Dreamer then cut a promo thanking the fans and putting an end to his WWE employment. On his MySpace blog, he states that he may be going to TNA (which is no surprise as indicated below) but with the Hogan addition, does Tommy Dreamer really offer much that TNA would want? Then again, they wanted Stevie Richards...lol.

A couple reports I'm reading say that Tommy Dreamer may have requested his release from the company and that they may have granted it to him, waiting for his contract to fully expire before he departs.

First, I have to wonder...why now? This time last year, Dreamer was the ECW champion and was booked pretty well considering his age, limited abilities, and lack of true potential star power for the company. Essentially, he was given a rather decent pat on the back for his service - something a lot of people never get. Is Dreamer leaving because he's frustrated that they didn't keep this up and have him as some top guy in the company? If so, that's pretty foolish of him, seeing as how he's basically on Finlay-level when it comes to the talent hierarchy. He's there to make the younger guys look good, get a steady and decent paycheck in the process, and pass on his knowledge to the next generation.

Now, if Dreamer wants to leave for other reasons, like his body just can't take it anymore, or he wants to spend more time with his family, then that's more reasonable as he's already had his little run at the top of ECW and now he's stagnant, so it'd be a good time to call it quits. There's also the question that everyone asks when someone leaves the company: are they TNA bound? TNA recently has been adding people left and right and they've seemed pretty happy with Stevie Richards (and now Raven, two ECW originals), so maybe there's something to that theory.

Nonetheless, Tommy Dreamer isn't the first guy that I was thinking would be released come the new year, as I thought his quote-unquote "legend status" would keep him protected for a little bit longer. But, if he requested his release, it throws all that out the window. With these reports out there, I wouldn't be too surprised to see him gone asap, and right around the time they start relieving themselves of Jimmy Wang Yang, Slam Master J, Tyler Reks, and Eric Escobar. And really...losing Tommy Dreamer isn't that big of a hit, considering how they may be changing the ECW brand very soon to something different, which eliminates all of his "ECW home-grown" material.

Once again, the WWE is going to have a 3-hour Raw wherein the Slammy Awards will be the focus. I've always been a fan of the Slammys, despite how they really have no worth when you think about it. It's just a fun concept that can sometimes give someone a little bit of an extra push and add some credibility to them. Sadly, there's no Owen Hart to simply steal the awards, which was classic.

Unfortunately, after the horrible piece of shit ppv TLC, I have absolutely no faith that the WWE will make this entertaining or worth anything.

Tag Team of the Year
Nominees: DX, JeriShow, Legacy, and the Hart Dynasty
Prediction: DX
--JeriShow comes out and challenges them to a rematch and says that it's a travesty that they were overlooked.

Oh My! Moment of the Year
Nominees: HBK Superkicks a little girl, Chris Masters' dancing pecs, Michael Cole throws up on Jericho, Santino Marella pies Vickie Guerrero
Prediction: Santino
--They can't call it the OMG moment, they have to go with the prissy "oh my"? These nominees are terrible.

RAW Host of the Year
Nominees: Bob Barker, Shaquille O'Neal, Seth Green, Ozzy & Sharon Osbourne
Prediction: Shaquille O'Neal
--I don't know.

Shocker of the Year
Nominees: Batista turns on Rey Mysterio at Bragging Rights, Randy Orton DDT's and kisses Stephanie McMahon in front of Triple H, CM Punk defeats Jeff Hardy causing him to leave WWE, Sheamus slams Mark Cuban through a table
Prediction: Orton or Punk
--Whichever one doesn't win is the person that wins Superstar of the Year. Though they seem to be jerking themselves off to Sheamus so much lately I wouldn't be surprised if they chose that. I'd say Punk has the advantage here.

Breakout Star of the Year
Nominees: Drew McIntyre, Sheamus, Abraham Washington, Yoshi Tatsu
Prediction: Oh yeah, like this one is hard to predict.
--I repeat: fucking ridiculous with all this McIntyre and Sheamus bullshit.

Extreme Moment of the Year
Nominees: Kofi Kingston Boom Drops Randy Orton through a table on RAW, Big Show throws John Cena into a search light at Backlash, Jeff Hardy dives off a 20 foot ladder on CM Punk at SummerSlam, Triple H fights Randy Orton at his home and throws him through a window 
Prediction: Big Show Searchlight
--And here's the part where Cena comes out and says he's been through a lot and will get his WWE title back. Blah blah blah.

Diva of the Year
Nominees: All of the Divas
Prediction: Mickie James
--The fact that the fans are choosing this means that Mickie will win, which is good, as she deserves it.


Match of the Year
Nominees: Shawn Michaels vs. Undertaker at WrestleMania 25, John Cena vs. Randy Orton I Quit Match at Breaking Point, Jeff Hardy vs. Edge Ladder Match at Extreme Rules, Team RAW vs. Team SmackDown at Bragging Rights 
Prediction: HBK vs Taker
--If it isn't, then something's really wrong here - outside of all the Sheamus and McIntyre bullshit, of course.

Superstar of the Year
Nominees: John Cena, CM Punk, Randy Orton, The Undertaker 
Prediction: Orton or Punk
--Whichever one doesn't win the Shocker of the Year is going to win this. Orton has the advantage on this though.

You want to sum this up? Slow, boring, booked horribly, devoid of thought, totally missing that originality factor, and overall just bad. This was an IMMENSE let down on every single front in my eyes.

ECW Championship (Ladder Match): Christian (c) def. Shelton Benjamin
So once they stopped the match due to Christian bleeding, the momentum was dead. Really, this match boils down to Shelton having a good show and not getting any real credit in the end. Does that sound familiar? Yeah, it's Shelton's entire career. He consistently puts on good, entertaining matches, but gets shit on. The hanging spots with the powerbomb, the swinging and standing on the ropes, the sunset flip counter and the broken ladder were fun, but nobody will remember them in a few months. I'm very annoyed that Shelton didn't win here as it just made so much more sense to have Christian in the Royal Rumble and Shelton face Regal at the ppv. I guess they don't plan ahead. Now, one of those two (Shelton or Regal) will be in the RR and NOBODY will think they have any chance at all at winning, whereas with Christian, a lot of fans would be throwing his name out as a top five contender. This makes it so that's one less person out of the already limited amount of names that people would consider having a shot, and when there's only 3 names left, it causes the Royal Rumble to be predictable as shit, like last year. This match was a huge let down as I expected so, so much more out of these two, but to be fair, we probably shouldn't place the blame on them. I'm sure they were told not to do too much because they didn't want the pay-per-view to peak so early.

Intercontinental Championship: Drew McIntyre def. John Morrison (c)
Surprised? Of course not. It was only a matter of time before McIntyre won since they're obsessed with him. The crowd was not into this match at all and neither was I. Two minutes into this, it was telegraphed that McIntyre would win, and the finish was so incredibly obvious a minute before it happened that if you didn't see it coming, you're a flat out idiot. Neither the fans, nor I, found it very entertaining to watch McIntyre use headlocks on Morrison for the majority of the match. Definitely not good.

Backstage: The Whhhores
Hey kids, isn't Drew McIntyre so great?!?! OMG Sheamus too?! Triple H must be creaming himself!!! This just left a sour taste in my mouth.

Women's Championship: Michelle McCool (c) def. Mickie James
The crowd was not into this at all, either, and it was again obvious that Michelle would win very early on. You know what is so sad about this ppv? The highlight of the entire event was in this match. Yes, the highlight of TLC was in a DIVAS match. And you know what it was? It was Jerry Lawler's commentary. "Mickie James has a pretty good background...pretty good foreground, too" and "What do you do with a degree from Florida State? Put it under your windshield when you park in a handicap section" were hilarious.

WWE Championship (Tables Match): Sheamus def. John Cena (c)
Flat out boring, but the fact that the match itself sucked is in no comparison to how bad the outcome was. Sheamus wins the title...why? In all seriousness, anybody...and I mean ANYBODY, who reads this review, I want you to tell me why you think Sheamus deserves to be a WWE champion in the record books, above other people. You mean to tell me that the Miz can't win a single match against John Cena but Sheamus is able to win the world title after defeating Jamie Noble, Shelton, Goldust, and a few jobbers? You mean John Morrison isn't ready for a world title, but Sheamus is so great he can win the top prize in the company this quickly? Triple H again, I swear to Christ. You kiss this guy's ass and he sure as hell rewards you. What was the crowd response? Nothing. And what happened to that idea of John Cena challenging for his rematch right afterwards? Yeah, we're supposed to forget about that. Now, you know for a fact that the very Sheamus drops the title is at the Royal Rumble, so what the fuck is the point of this transitional championship anyway? Just to get John Cena another number? And before anyone says it, shock value does not equal great. The fact that nobody thought Sheamus would win but they gave it to him doesn't mean it's a good decision. By that rationale, you could have booked Hornswoggle to face Cena, everyone would expect Cena to retain, and if they just gave it to the midget, it'd be a good decision. So no, I don't think Sheamus deserves this, I think Triple H is behind it all, I think it's a HUGE slap in the face to every one of the wrestlers that have worked their ass off and are currently being overlooked, and it is by far one of the worst ideas that has happened this year in the WWE. Absolutely fucking ridiculous.

World Heavyweight Championship (Chairs Match): Undertaker (c) def. Batista
The stupidity continues. What was the point in this match? They announce that the only way to win is through pinfall or submission, which means you CANNOT win from a disqualification or a count out. They state that chairs are legal..ok, you can't win by disqualification, so that means EVERYTHING is legal. Lawler screws up saying that the ref is counting them out, which not only is he not doing, but nobody can win that way anyway. Then, Undertaker has to break his submission hold when Batista reaches the ropes, despite how there is no disqualification. Batista wins, but Teddy doesn't allow it because of a move that would normally cause a disqualification? Idiots, there's no disqualification, you can't win the match by a DQ or count out! And if you want to say it's because of some sort of retroactive "we looked at the tapes" rule, then why did Morrison lose his championship when McIntyre cheated? As soon as the match starts, Undertaker immediately wins in a way that is as predictable as all hell. The match itself was boring and slow - which was a theme of this ppv apparently - and the senseless rules and horrible finish was the cherry on top. Now, on top of this, we'll see these two again at the Royal Rumble in a title match where Batista will end up winning it, and there's YET ANOTHER person that isn't in the Royal Rumble that has credibility.

Backstage: Legacy the Amnesiacs
DiBiase tells Kofi that he hasn't ever been in the position where he's faced Orton one-on-one. I guess we should ignore the last two matches these two had against each other, which were one-on-one. WWE Creative is filled to the brim with idiots.

Randy Orton def. Kofi Kingston
Slow, generic, not worth being basically the runner-up main event, etc. There was a nice dropkick spot on the outside and overall, Kofi came out of this looking good, but the match itself was so rudimentary that I wanted to skip forward the entire time.

Backstage: Batista Crap
Batista threatens Teddy in the obligatory "I'm going to intimidate you and get a rematch" scenario. Unnecessary.

Unified Tag Team Championship (TLC Match): DX def. JeriShow (c)
Slow. Again. How in the world did every match on this card end up being so dragged out and boring? I'm not sure why they still have two tag titles when it's unified, nor am I sure why HBK didn't receive that big of a response from the crowd. Maybe it's because by now, they realized that they spent their money on this crappy ppv and there's no refund. There was an innovative way of retrieving the belts, and I'm curious where they'll go from here, but I sincerely hope it isn't just a generic "DX breaks up" or "JeriShow breaks up" situation. Hopefully DX drops the belts to the Hart Dynasty as they're the only other tag team that have any real value.
 This was a terrible pay-per-view and it seriously makes me wonder why there are so many morons working for this company. Not only did the matches not deliver at all, but the booking was just utter garbage, and if the point of an event like this is supposed to make you anticipate the upcoming weeks of TV and really want to be entertained by the follow-ups, they failed horribly for me, as I do not under any circumstance want to see even 20 minutes dedicated to Sheamus and McIntyre being shoved down our throats.

Absolute shit and a huge let down. I'm not even sure I want to watch Raw tomorrow night, even though I love the Slammy Awards, because I'm positive there will be tons of Sheamus and McIntyre. You can already see it coming, as the only nominees for Breakout Star of the Year are Sheamus, McIntyre, Yoshi Tatsu, and Abraham Washington (a guy that is not over with the crowd and has yet to wrestle).

We're in for a lot of bullshit for the next few months, ladies and gentlemen.

This month, TLC no longer stands for Tender Loving Care nor The Learning Channel, but rather the much more brutal Tables, Ladders, and Chairs - a pay-per-view featuring those dangerous weapons. So far, the gimmick ppvs have been hit or miss, but on paper this looks rather impressive save for one giant pale Irish flaw.

Women's Championship: Michelle McCool (c) vs. Mickie James
I have a feeling that Beth Phoenix may be turning face soon to balance out the trio of Michelle/Mickie, Natalya/Beth, and Layla/Maria and that the booking of the triple threat #1 contender match where Natalya and Beth kept going at it was a test run for such a turn. If that does happen, Mickie just might not end up being the champion by defeating Michelle, as that could go to Beth instead. Do I really care? No. But I'd rather see Beth turn face and have a good set of matches with Natalya than to have the same old garbage on rerun where Mickie beats Layla and then Michelle tries her hardest to cut a promo but comes off looking stupid. Because there are three other titles that have the potential to change hands here, I don't think this will be one of them.

PREDICTION: Michelle McCool retains.

Intercontinental Championship: John Morrison (c) vs. Drew McIntyre
Well we all know that it isn't long before Drew McIntyre wins the title from Morrison. Why? Because HHH likes him, and whoever HHH has a crush on is pushed (see Sheamus). The question is whether or not Morrison drops it now or later. It could go either way, though I'm starting to think there may be a chance at Morrison winning the Royal Rumble (which I would love to see) and if that's the case, he won't be Intercontinental champion at the same time, so he could very well drop it here, although he could also drop it on Smackdown in between now and the Royal Rumble. I foresee three potential title changes at this ppv, and I don't think they'll pull the trigger on all three, so this may or may not happen depending on the other two. The match itself should be decent but not great, as I haven't been impressed by McIntyre at all yet.

PREDICTION: McIntyre wins by pinfall or loses.

Randy Orton vs. Kofi Kingston
Kingston has looked great so far and the only win that Orton has over him (recently) was through cheap methods, so I'd be surprised if Kofi walked out with the win. Orton will get a quick RKO after a very back-and-forth match. Kingston will lose, but he'll walk out looking very good in the process.

PREDICTION: Randy Orton wins via pinfall.

ECW Championship (Ladder Match): Christian (c) vs. Shelton Benjamin
Goddamn am I excited about this! I love ladder matches, I think Shelton's massively underrated, and I think Christian has done a great job putting people over as of late. These two are having a great set-up where both are staying face and talking about stealing the show, and I think it's a guarantee that they will. I'm a little worried that they may try TOO hard and get injured, but then again, these two know what they're doing. I can see Christian dropping the title here in order to participate in the Royal Rumble, and Shelton having to defend against Regal at the ppv.

PREDICTION: Shelton Benjamin wins the title.

WWE Championship (Tables Match): John Cena (c) vs. Sheamus
I won't drag this down by reiterating why I feel this way (as, again, you can read my full thoughts in this article) but simply put, I think it's a travesty that Sheamus is being put in a main event spot just because he's friends with HHH, and I think it's a huge mistake. An even bigger mistake will be if they somehow are stupid enough to give Sheamus the title here, but I'm hoping and praying that that doesn't happen. I don't think it will, but you never know, as the WWE has shown at times to be INCREDIBLY incompetent. Still, as said, I think Cena will retain here, and I think the layout will be very similar to what we've seen a million times. Sheamus spends the entire match beating the hell out of John who fights back a few times but doesn't do too much. Then out of nowhere, Cena is able to give Sheamus the Attitude Adjustment onto a table and retain.

PREDICTION: John Cena retains.

World Heavyweight Championship (Chairs Match): Undertaker (c) vs. Batista
Like the IC title match, it's more of a question of when rather than if. I'm more inclined to think that Batista wins the title here and Undertaker enters the Royal Rumble, but you never know as they may want to do a rematch between the two at the ppv. Whatever happens, I hope this feud doesn't last long as I'm tired of Taker/Batista, and I hope that if Batista is going to be walking into WrestleMania as champion that he faces Morrison or Cena instead of Triple H. Don't ask me how that might happen, but you can NEVER count HHH out of the world title for WrestleMania.

PREDICTION: Batista wins the championship.

Unified Tag Team Championship (TLC Match): JeriShow (c) vs. DX
If this match would have taken place a few months ago, I would have thought JeriShow would drop the titles and Jericho would win the world title from the Undertaker. Now that that is over with, it seems like they won't be doing Edge/Jericho, most likely since Edge needs more time to recover. Instead, Jericho and Big Show will probably remain tag team champions up until WrestleMania. Therefore, DX has to either lose here or drop the titles back to JeriShow soon afterwards. The match will have its slow points with Big Show but should be entertaining overall.

PREDICTION: JeriShow retains.

With the Road to WrestleMania approaching fast, it's hard to say whether or not this pay-per-view will be a catastrophe or a glorious beacon of awesomeness in the eyes of history, seeing as how one little mistake can theoretically ruin their Superbowl of 2010 or start a snowball effect of amazement. We'll just have to wait and see and hope they know what they're doing.

The WWE locker room is apparently pissed off that the same few people keep getting all the focus - and I completely agree with them. Raw has proven itself quicksand to anybody who isn't Randy Orton, Batista, John Cena, or Triple H, as most people are lucky to find themselves wrestling in a non-feud on Superstars because Raw just happened to need another fifteen minute segment with one of these guys. On this week's Raw and the one previous, both Jesse Ventura and Carlito addressed the issue and spoke of a need of some new blood in the spotlight. Now, while Ventura may feel that way, he hasn't been involved in the product and supposedly needed cheat sheets just to know the entertainers names, whereas Carlito is a well known proponent for the cause. Numerous times, Carlito's been vocal about how he and others (Umaga and Kennedy for example) feel like they're being held back by certain individuals, namely Triple H. First, look at that trio of names and think about where they are now. Umaga and Kennedy have been fired and Carlito is regularly fluctuating between being a jobber and being told they "have nothing for him right now". His tag team championship reign with Primo was the only upside of Carlito's recent career and that occurred on Smackdown. When drafted to Raw, the duo was broken up and now Primo easily loses to everybody (if he's even used that month) and Carlito spent mostly the entire time off TV entirely.

This is where it gets confusing, though. Both Ventura's and Carlito's promo targeted John Cena as the source of this overbearing yawn of the "same old, same old". While there are reports that some of the heat is being directed towards Cena backstage, time and time again it's proven to us that it is really an issue of Paul Levesque and his associations. It's no secret that John Cena is the golden boy of the WWE, and for good reason, as he's popular and marketable. However, it's also clear that his friendship with Hunter is a huge driving force behind his status in the WWE. In the past few years, only a small handful of people have been truly put over by HHH, namely John Cena, Batista, and Randy Orton. You may argue Jeff Hardy, but his only actual win over HHH was a quick roll-up and he subsequently was beaten by Triple H multiple times afterwards. So Ventura and Carlito peg Sheamus as someone who supposedly has the back of all the young guys in the locker room - that they want him to beat John Cena. Let's look closer at that...

Obviously, WWE is avoiding the issue of Triple H being the source of the problems and pinning it storyline-wise on John Cena. For argument's sake, it's understandable, as Cena is the champion right now. But what seriously has me irked is that this storyline is being done in a way that completely degrades those "hungry young guys" in the locker room. Who is the person receiving the new blood push? Sheamus - the workout partner and friend of HHH. This is a huge slap in the face to everyone who has worked hard over the years but has not received a proper push because they are are simply not pals with Triple H. Sheamus certainly does not have the qualifications to be a world title contender when it comes to overlooking the other talent. Jack Swagger for instance was the only champion and main focal point of an entire brand and not only did a decent job of it but was also getting over with the crowd. He has been in numerous feuds that revolved around more than just the generic "I attacked you and we wrestle a lot" layout. Sheamus on the other hand has had two of those so-called "feuds" with Goldust and Shelton Benjamin and squashed local losers and that is the full experience so far. He receives no response from the crowd. He has not proven himself able to carry a championship, nor has he proven that anybody will tune in to watch him. The fact of the matter is, Sheamus is getting this spot solely because he has been befriended by Triple H. Nothing has changed. Even on Smackdown, Drew McIntyre is receiving a push and will most likely win the Intercontinental title soon, and it's been proven that he has the backing of Triple H. Coincidence?

Essentially, what is this going to accomplish? Sheamus is not ready for the main event as the two qualifiers are the ability to make money and establish a connection with the crowd, neither of which Sheamus has. He is also just a friend of HHH, so there is no progress in trying to make things fair, since the sycophant "who can kiss Vince and HHH's asses the most" contest continues. The lack of a response from the audience will cause the WWE to not follow up on this and drop the momentum very soon (especially since the Road to WrestleMania is approaching fast) and thus, Sheamus will fall into obscurity. This will make management look at the young stars as unreliable and unworthy, so the backlash will be something excruciating in it's tiresome nature with WrestleMania being revolved once again around the same few names.

The end result is that nobody that wasn't already going to be pushed due to their friendship with HHH will get any sort of a positive, the new talent will be looked at as a waste and not pushed, the mediocre Sheamus will go the way of Vladimir Kozlov and become irrelevant, and we're taking a step backwards as those that were overlooked (and are smart enough to see the HHH connection) will be even more upset.

Apparently the time may be coming very soon where ECW is no more:

As noted before, WWE has been in talks with the SyFy network about re-branding ECW and coming up with new programming for Tuesday nights in the 10pm time slot.

The latest is that the show will most likely be a program to showcase up and coming WWE talents, pretty much what it is right now, just without the "ECW" letters and probably a new look.

The talks between SyFy and WWE have been going on for a while now as SyFy has been unhappy with the ratings.

I'm all for this, seeing as how it may FINALLY shut up the people that are constantly saying "ECW isn't extreme enough" because they haven't yet realized that ECW is not supposed to be the original ECW, but is merely "WWE's third brand" which happens to use the ECW name in order to maximize their profit intake. You can't fault the WWE for doing such a move as it gave the brand more notoriety when it first was issued (and admittedly, did have more of an extreme atmosphere to it what with the ECW originals and such). But for years, people have been pissing and moaning about how it's still called ECW, and I've grown tired of it. Plus, renaming the brand to something completely "WWE-centric" may just be a breath of fresh air.

There are three problems that I can foresee happening, though.

First: the name. They need to make sure they pick a good name that doesn't make the brand seem lackluster. They could easily just name the brand "Extreme", but that's a bit lazy and 90s-cliche, isn't it? There's also the possibility that they could simply bring back the titles of Velocity or Heat, though I don't think either of them sound like a standalone brand on par with Raw or Smackdown. The only in-storage name I can think of that would have any credibility as a brand name is Havoc but I'm not even sold on that. Equally, they need to make sure to rename the ECW championship something that will retain it's current credibility or upgrade it even more. As it stands right now, the ECW title fluctuates between being as important as the IC and US titles to being slightly above or slightly below. With someone like Christian holding it and feuding with William Regal and Shelton Benjamin it has the status of being slightly above. When people like Yoshi Tatsu and Chavo Guerrero are involved, it is lower on the scale. They should also redesign the belt while they're at it and make it smaller so it doesn't look so awkward around everybody (save for Mark Henry, which is was perfect for lol).

Second, the atmosphere. Usually they don't completely strike out when it comes to songs, but I've actually grown incredibly fond of "Don't Question My Heart" starting off my ECW night. For some reason, the pacing and the echos just seem to fit it extremely well. Maybe it's because Raw and Smackdown have much faster songs and it's nice to have a little lull in between...I'm not sure. There's also the issue of colors, logos, and so forth. It never made much sense to me that Raw and Smackdown have red and blue respectively, two of the primary colors, but ECW's logo was predominantly red, their ropes are silver, and their shirts during brand competitions are black. It just seems like yellow is the more likely color, or perhaps even green. I doubt WWE will make some huge mistake and thrust pink and purple on the brand to totally emasculate the audience, but you never know.

Third, the purpose. ECW is working extremely well right now in it's roster dynamic. You've got the old veterans that have no shot at main event status on the two bigger brands but still have something to offer (and can help train the young guys), the young guys that need the training while they debut, and the midcarders that you want to elevate to the next level. This needs to stay the same. If they make the error of having just new talent on the brand, it will become FCW 2.0 and nobody will want to watch that. If they try to overload it to make up for lost ratings, Raw and Smackdown will suffer. They should really just look into moving one big name over during the draft to take the place of Christian (my choice would be Rey Mysterio) and then keep the rest of the wheels turning as they currently are.

We'll all have to wait and see if any of this comes to fruition and what it comes to us as, but this is definitely something to keep our eyes on.