Apologies for the lateness guys but I am just about to get caught up with my wrestling. I have watched all the shows (besides last night’s Impact) now. I really didn’t realise it would take me so long to get caught up again. Anyway, sorry for the shorter news week and unfortunately, due to work, I wont be able to post my usual predictions column. I will give my quick thoughts on the Rumble at the end of this column though, and hopefully I will be back to normal after the PPV event.
Jeff Hardy did a crazy dive off the stage on last week’s Raw show. Did that look amazing or what!? I guess that Jeff is both a stuntman and a wrestler and feels completely safe is doing what he does, but its still a hell of a risk to do something like that. We are dumbed down a lot these days, as far as high spots are concerned, due to all the harsh match types and big moves that we see, but Jeff is always willing to put his body on the line and do something that still makes us cringe and wonder why the hell he thinks he should do it. Kudos for Jeff for still wanting to push the boat out, and I really hope he is appreciated when it comes to the following year. Once his feud for the title is over, he needs to be pushed at the top of the card still or they will really be screwing him over.
It’s been confirmed that Kurt Angle will now go on trial for his DUI charge. This happened quite a while ago now and doesn’t actually seem to be causing much controversy for either Angle or TNA, so neither party is really concerned about it. On top of that, it is highly unlikely that anything will come from the case, seeing as the only witness to the case is herself up on a DUI charge as well. Obviously the case wouldn’t have been brought if they didn’t think they had a credible case, but I really don’t see this one going anywhere and causing an upset to any parties involved.
Chett The Jett, a development wrestler, was recently suspended due to violating the Wellness Program. This didn’t take long into the new year at all! Chett supposedly had a bright future in the WWE and was a main attraction over in OVW, before he was moved to FCW recently. In the last month he was due to be called up to a main roster, where he was slated to be taking on the role of a Polish monster in the mould of Ivan Putski. However, the whole idea was nixed when it was discovered that Chett couldn’t actually speak any Polish - you’d think that they would have realised that sooner.
Who knows how this will the young mans career; he was just about to be called up and that has obviously been cancelled now, but these violations never seem to stop any major plans in the long haul.
Could it possibly be true!? Apparently Samoa Joe is slated to become the next TNA World champion. The backstage opinion is that they have steadily been grooming Joe for the title over the last 2 years but always felt that they missed the best opportunity or that they felt that the moment was not quite right. We shouldn’t expect Joe to win the title straight away (i.e., at the next PPV event) but, unless TNA drops the ball one more time, they seem to be fully backing him to eventually walk out of this current program as the title holder, possibly by beating Kurt Angle at Lockdown.
Now, I am all for a title run for Samoe Joe, but it does make me laugh that TNA has felt that past opportunities have not felt quite right, but that this time it would work for Joe to become champion. Fair enough he has a lot of momentum - but he has literally hijacked a feud between two other men and just been inserted in the Kurt Angle vs. Christian Cage feud.
Mick Foley is fully expected to retire this year, and he means it this time. I know retirements generally mean nothing anymore, and Foley is a perfect example of this - having retired 8 years ago and still coming back to enter a meaningless (for him) Royal Rumble just like the rest of the roster. However, it is strongly being reported that Foley is going to be completely finished by the end of the year even if he doesn’t get a chance to have another big match, and his last one against Coach becomes his final singles match. I doubt that that scenario will hold true and I am certain that he will get one more big match, probably at SummerSlam, otherwise it would be a shame to end his career in such mediocrity.
Team 3D are now confirmed to be under contract until autumn so they will, despite the rumours, definitely not be leaving next month. The rumour was that they would be heading to the WWE in February, and I couldn’t for the life of my figure out why, but it turns out that it is not happening. Devon is even saying that they would more than likely re-sign their contracts, when they expire, as well. Whilst this makes sense as they are doing well now, and would probably not fit into the WWE anymore, I am not sure what more they will accomplish in TNA either. They have been excellent in this X-division feud but it can only go on so long and will probably have run its course by the end of the year. Obviously the team are good ambassadors for Japan and NJPW but that isn’t enough to keep them on the roster. They could go back into the tag team division (most likely) but I really think that this will see them turn stale and more than likely appear over used by the time their contracts come up this fall.
TNA and UFC have agreed upon a deal that will see TNA promoting Brock Lesnar and his upcoming UFC fights - this deal includes Kurt Angle himself giving interviews about Angle as well. I guess this could be seen as a good step towards getting Lesnar into TNA, which is what a lot of people are hoping for, but I think it is quite unlikely. There is the possibility for some cross-promotion but I don’t think Lesnar is interested in wrestling at the minute and the deal is much more likely to be purely used for advertising purposes, both in TNA promoting the UFC and in the future, the opposite way around as well.
TNA’s Impact show drew its highest ever audience rating last week and actually had 10% more viewers than the ECW that aired in the same week. Like the last ratings win for TNA, I don’t see this as a win for TNA over ECW as this is more about the failing of the latter show than it is about TNA achieving something over ECW. However, it is still quite an accomplishment for TNA and it is only good to see their ratings finally improve - especially for what wasn’t exactly the greatest show they have ever put on. Hopefully the ratings will continue to hold steady and gradually improve (along with the product itself). Something I do wonder though is how much of this rating is based on people tuning in after the good quality of the previous show. If this is the case, then how much of it can be down to the women’s title feud which main evented that show?
James Mitchell announced his big secret; he is Abyss’s father. Oh no. I think the majority of viewers saw this one coming a long time ago but were just hoping that it wasn’t the case. I can’t think of another way they could have gone with this storyline, but I don’t really see how this can benefit anyone involved. Sure the Abyss-Mitchell feud can continue for a while, but what then? Will Abyss forgive his father and rejoin him? Will he get rid of his father once and for all and become a tag team with his “brother” Judas Messias? Only time will tell I guess.
94% of people on WWE.com voted that Tommy Dreamer should be used more. This was in a response to a piece of writing he submitted to the website complaining that he was not being used properly. I think, given that there would be no reason for the WWE to fix this pole, this shows that a lot of people are still interested in seeing Dreamer in action. Luckily, they also seem to have taken notice immediately as he was quickly added to the Rumble match and then used on the ECW weekly show as well. Dreamer has earned his spot on the roster and I hope that he continues to be used after this weekends Rumble match. Hopefully he will be taken more seriously this time as well - not like the last time when he earned his title shot and was then simply crushed and pushed out of the way at the last minute.
Well unfortunately that’s it for my news roundup this week, but hopefully I will be back next week with a bumper edition. Below are my quick predictions for the Rumble; I may be able to get a proper column out on Sunday, but don’t hold your hopes up as I just might not have time - which is why I’m putting them down here instead.
Really, Really Quick Royal Rumble Predictions
Flair to defeat MVP - No brainer; MVP might be a good choice to retire Flair, but there is no way it is going to happen yet.
JBL to defeat Jericho - If this was a feud ender, I would go with Jericho to win. However, I think that this feud will be continuing for a little while yet, and the best way for that to happen would be to have JBL pick up the cheap win, or after Jericho gets himself disqualified.
Edge to defeat Rey - This is a filler feud and everyone knows it. I think a Rey title win here would be even more shocking than a Jeff Hardy win.
Orton to defeat Jeff Hardy - I am so close to changing my mind and many other columnists have decided to go with Jeff. I would love to do the same and have Jeff down for a short title reign over the next month. Unfortunately, I just don’t think Vince has the balls to mess up his WrestleMania plans and cash in on this one.
The Royal Rumble match:
Before I wrote this I had an idea, but certainly wasn’t brave enough to go with it in the end. It has to be between Taker and Batista for the win, but both seem boring choices to me - with Taker possibly being a bit worse due to winning it last year. I wanted to go with someone else winning, and Taker defeating them at No Way Out to take their sport. Then I thought that that scenario would work best if Batista won and then Taker took it from him, seeing as it is those two who are really vying for the title shot. I would then have Batista turning heel by attack Taker in the main event of WrestleMania, ending his streak, and starting off a proper heel-face feud through the summer. But like I said, I didn’t dare go that route!
Winner - The Undertaker
Thanks for taking the time to read again, hopefully I’ll be writing again soon.
Any comments or queries, feel free to contact me at batista666@hotmail.com