I have been writing about wrestling on the internet for nearly ten years now. There have been a lot of ups and downs, but the good outweighs the bad and I’m back to writing because I miss it just as much as I miss being a fan of the wrestling business like I was back when I first started. The last column I wrote on the current wrestling scene was last year’s One Night Stand show. I didn’t remember a thing from that show until I read it again. A few weeks after that the Benoit tragedy occurred and I didn’t know if I’d ever come back to writing about the current scene, much less watch it. I didn’t watch that much to end 2007, but I got back into WWE around the time of the Royal Rumble and have stayed with it ever since.

For this column, the idea is to cover things that have happened since WrestleMania up until this weekend’s One Night Stand PPV. I’ll try to stay on the more recent stuff, but I hope you can forgive me if I am nostalgic a bit about the things that happened WrestleMania weekend as well as at that event itself. Plus, this allows me to catch up on the things I missed and hopefully sets me up to continue writing about the current scene going forward.

Thumbs Up to…
The draft lottery. One thing’s for sure, it does get people talking. The problem is it’s hard to be brand exclusive when people from other shows appear on Raw and vice versa. Still, the general wrestling fan is going to be excited about new matchups happening. They probably need a new Raw GM by that date, though. It would help to create the rivalry. Otherwise it’s not a big deal at all. I have no idea who is moving although I’m pretty sure it’s not HHH. Maybe he can be traded for three people again, though! I’m sure his ego could use the lift again. It’s been a few years.

Thumbs Down to…
The same top matches over and over again. I like Triple H vs. Randy Orton and Undertaker vs. Edge feuds, but does WWE really think they’re going to bring in new viewers by doing the same matches month after month? Every match these guys have had has been around the **** range, which is very good, but it’s very hard to convince fans that a match is going to be that different just because of match stipulations. A guy in his early 30s with multiple major injuries like Edge doesn’t need to be taking 15 foot bumps off a ladder. It’s too much of a risk.

Thumbs Up to…
The Batista vs. Michaels feud with a slice of Jericho on the side. This is the best thing going in WWE right now because it’s simple. Michaels feels bad about retiring Flair while Batista is pissed that his mentor is gone. Michaels says and does one thing while Batista doesn’t believe him because of his past of being a notorious liar. It’s not a complex story. There aren’t layers to it. Fans don’t want to have to think too much. Give them something easy to understand like this feud and they’ll sink their teeth into it because it works. This is by far the most interesting thing Batista has been a part of since his Triple H feud three years ago. I hope he turns heel from this. I think he’s got great potential as a heel because his face run has run its course. I wouldn’t be shocked if a heel Batista is defending one of the World Titles against a babyface John Cena at next year’s WrestleMania. It’s one of the few big matches they have left where it would be something new.

Thumbs Down to…
Whoever decided to pay Mike Adamle a salary of $300,000 per year (I think that ‘s what it is.) As far as we know he had very little knowledge about WWE. They put him at the ECW desk because they realized they were spending all that money on him to talk for 30 seconds on Raw prior to this. My questions are who is his agent and what was the person smoking that agreed to pay this man that much money on an annual basis?

Thumbs Up to…
The hiring of Mick Foley as Smackdown announcer. The wrestling business is filled with a lot of questionable characters that make a fan like me question why I even like it in the first place. Foley’s one of the good guys, though. He’s a true fan of the business that lived his dream by being a very good professional wrestler and is now giving back to the business by putting over the current crop of performers with his words. You need announcers, especially the analysts, to have credibility in order to reach the viewers. That’s something that Jonathon Coachman didn’t have. Fans like to hear an ex-wrestler explaining why a basic looking move might hurt. I’m glad that WWE asked Mick and that he accepted the position.

Thumbs Down to…
The price of PPVs being $39.99 and $44.99 in HD, at least here in Canada. Am I crazy, or was it $29.99 like two years ago? I know the price of everything is going up, but couldn’t WWE cut its fans a break? How about they go with the $40 price for the big four PPVs, then they go down to $30 for the other ones. I think they’re asking too much for PPV buys. Then again PPVs have been a good source of revenue for the company over the years, so maybe they’re doing okay that way.

Thumbs Up to…
The Beth Phoenix vs. Mickie James feud. I enjoyed it a lot and I like that they’ve thrown Melina into it in order to restart the Phoenix/James feud soon. Phoenix is the best heel woman performer they’ve had since my girl Trish in 2004/05. You need your heels to be dominant like her. She says she’s going to beat people up and she does it. That’s what made James’ title win such a big thing. My only gripe is I wish Phoenix held the belt longer. The problem is there aren’t enough opponents to keep her busy until the time when she should have lost it, which was somewhere around Summerslam. If they held off the title switch that long it would have been an even bigger moment. Still, they did a great job of making the win seem important.

Thumbs Down to…
The idea that every woman in the company is a wrestler. Some of them just aren’t cut out for it. You can’t be hiring mainly fitness models with trim bodies who aren’t used to physical activity and expect them to be capable in the wrong. Half the girls in the company look like wrestlers because they make it look real, but the other half are awful because they make it look fake. I don’t need to name names. I think it’s obvious to the average fewer. Put them at ringside as valets for certain wrestlers that need it. Fans like looking at pretty girls when they just stand there looking pretty. They’re not as appealing when they throw bad forearms to the face of somebody that’s overacting.

Thumbs Up to…
Giving money to the fans. I guess this will help attendance for Raw tapings, huh? I doubt the viewers at home will care too much, but if they advertise in the local markets that you could get $1,000 or so just by going to the wrestling event then that will help attendance. Vinny Mac is not giving away $1 million dollars. He’s going to make it back and then some most likely. And if he doesn’t? Big deal, he’s basically a billionaire anyway.

Thumbs Down to…
Poor usage of the secondary titles. At this year’s WrestleMania the Intercontinental, US, both tag titles and the Women’s Titles were not defended. Why have the belts if they’re ignored on the “grandest stage of them all?”

Thumbs Up to…
The Rock for his speech at the Hall of Fame ceremony. Man, I miss that guy in WWE so much. I haven’t thought much of his movies, but can you blame him for choosing that route if he can make as much money as he has? Obviously not. I don’t buy too many DVDs anymore although I will probably buy the WrestleMania one because of The Rock’s speech among other things. I can’t imagine how good he’d be as a wrestler to this day if he never left. To his credit, though, he left at his peak and we never got to see him broken down, which is probably a good thing.

Thumbs Down to…
The poor planning on the Smackdown brand. Everybody knew that Edge was going to lose the belt to the Undertaker at WrestleMania. We also knew that Undertaker would win the rematch because that’s what always happens. Then he got stripped of the belt by the evil GM, Vickie Guerrero. The reason it was done is because the company felt there weren’t any top heels ready to challenge Undertaker for the title. I don’t understand this. You knew who was winning the belt and when, yet you’re not prepared as a company to move on to the next feud? What do writers do all day? They should have this stuff mapped out months in advance. Now either Edge or Undertaker are going to get hurt falling off a ladder or going through a table because the powers that be didn’t have the foresight to find a capable replacement.

Thumbs Up to…
The decision of giving the Money in the Bank title shot to CM Punk. He’s popular, he’s a hard worker and he’s probably not going to be suspended due to drugs due to his straight edge lifestyle.

Thumbs Down to…
The spinner belt being the WWE title. Let that be John Cena’s title. When somebody else wins it they should use the traditional WWE title belt. It looked awful on Raw a couple weeks ago when HHH was walking down to the ring with the belt and it started spinning. Does not fit his character at all. Austin had the Smoking Skull belt, Cena has the Spinner belt and everybody else has the same one. Much easier.

Thumbs Up to…
Randy Orton’s title run. I know this is looking in the past a bit, but he deserves credit for being a very consistent performer during his time as champion. Even though I think triple threats are overdone, I’m glad he was a part of the title match at WrestleMania because he earned that spot.

Thumbs Down to…
ECW. It’s not a very good show. I barely watch it because it’s on Fridays at midnight here in Canada, but I read about it and the results never make me want to record it to make sure I see what happened. I don’t understand why it’s even called ECW if they barely have Extreme matches in the first place. They definitely have a big enough roster to warrant a fifth hour of primetime TV, but the name of ECW isn’t selling tickets or getting fans excited. Change the name of the show to something that doesn’t tell people the show is extreme when it’s actually very tame.

Thumbs Up to…
Jim Ross and Michael Cole. I don’t know if either guy gets enough credit for the job they do. When you hear Mike Adamle, though, you realize how good these two are. And yes, Cole’s become a very good play by play guy that keeps things light hearted. He’s come a long way from being the uneasy looking backstage interviewer.

Thumbs Down to…
Jeff Hardy and William Regal. Both were in line for big pushes, yet both made the mistake of being caught with some form of drugs at the worst possible time. I know that Hardy’s back now with the chance of having a big push, but his momentum was stopped when he went away for a couple months after he was at his absolute highest point. Same with Regal. I read his book, so I’m fully aware of what he’s gone through in order to be a professional wrestler. I hope there hasn’t been a relapse and that he’s able to come back strongly.

Thumbs Up to…
Ashley Massaro. Good for you for fighting the claims that you used to be a prostitute. And if it’s true that you were a prostitute then I’m giving you a thumbs up for charging people $25K for a night! I have a shiny Canadian loonie in my pocket. Anybody wanna spot me the $24,999?

Thumbs Down to…
That entire debacle that was the bastard son angle. It started out with so much hype because we all figured whoever the person was would get a mammoth push. Then it was the midget, who was then forced down our throats and honestly kept me from watching most of WWE in the end of 2007. Finally they realized it sucked, said he was Finlay’s son and we haven’t seen much of the midget since WrestleMania. Fine by me. What an awful angle that was. I’m always going to wonder how it would have played out if Ken Kennedy was the bastard son as originally planned. Maybe I should have given a thumbs up to whoever decided to end the thing. Nah, it was so bad that it deserves the downwards thumb.

And lastly…

Thumbs Up to…
WWE for the way they honored Ric Flair on Raw the night after his last match. That was my favorite moment of the year so far and I doubt it will be topped. It was awesome to see the locker room empty like that to pay tribute to a guy as great as Flair. He deserved it and I’m glad it was on television for the world to see so that memory can last with us forever. I look forward to seeing the full Flair speech from the Hall of Fame ceremony too.

In Closing…
This was a fun column to write. I might be doing a preview for One Night Stand on Friday or Saturday, so I’ll get another chance to write about the current happenings in WWE. If I get the chance next week I’ll write a column similar to this one about TNA.

I’ll end this by asking for your feedback on what I said here or anything else you feel like asking me about. I watch pretty much all the WWE shows still and I watch TNA as well, so anything on any of those subjects is fair game with me. The worst thing about not writing was missing out on the interaction I had with my readers, so please write me with your thoughts at [email protected] and I promise a reply as soon as I can.

Smell ya later,
John C. – [email protected]
MSN: [email protected] – Do not email me here! Will not be read!

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