WGN America

"We need to find a new network to air WWE Superstars!"

"How about WGN America?"

"I have never heard of that station before!"

"They're a Chicago based TV station!"

"Wow! What channel can I watch them on?"

"Well if you have cable you probably can't, BUT! If you have Dish Network or Direct TV it will be located in upper 300's of channels."

"Well what shows do they air?"

"They air reruns of Alf and Moesha!"

"So we're going to make a new wrestling show and then put it on a network that mainly airs reruns of old sitcoms and has a limited viewing audience?"

"That is what I'm suggesting, yes."

"If they were going to redefine "success" in the dictionary they would cite this programming choice as THE example. Let's do this!"

"Agreed!"

Thoughts on the Draft

Well the WWE certainly made some interesting decisions for the draft this year. I'll detail my thoughts and what transpired on the draft aired on TV and the supplemental draft which occurred on WWE.com.

I don't really understand why HBK, HHH, Cena, Batista, Randy Orton, and the Big Show all need to be on RAW. The main event part of RAW roster is now bloated in my opinion, complete with two world champions. This does make it a really difficult time for anyone who is in the mid card area to try and move up the ranks. I hope that guys like MVP, Matt Hardy and The Miz do not get buried during this time as they have all had good years and I would hate to see there futures cut short due to this.

Having The Miz attack Morrison was foolish to me. They already wrestled on every show anyways despite the fact they were ECW guys so why not let them just stay friends but be on separate brands? They work well together and they could always help each other out in the singles careers by randomly getting involved in matches to help the other cheat. You get to keep The Dirt Sheet and you get them building their own careers, win/win in my book.

While having The Miz attack Morrison was foolish in my book nothing was as foolish as splitting Hornswaggle and Finlay. Am I to believe that the WWE has plans for Hornswaggle, the leprechaun midget is you are unfamiliar, to be a singles wrestler? I'll have to wait and see I guess but it has left me scratching my head.

Smackdown has the potential to be a solid wrestling show now. This is assuming that they stop having it be a 2 hour recap for RAW as it has been lately.

ECW lost some good talent which has helped make it a quality show as of late. I hope that their new talent initiative will bring in some fresh faces who can capture the recent magic the show has had.

Overall the draft has left me a little confused. I am thinking things will be clearer once Backlash comes to a close at the end of this month but for the moment I'm left wondering who thought the majority of these moves were a good decision for the future.

Bring back the Anaconda Vice!

Take a good look at this photo! This is what is missing from CM Punk!

When CM Punk debuted in the WWE on ECW he was intense, passionate and brutal. Every match saw different moves applied, a lot of screaming and his submission finisher the Anaconda Vice. The vice had similar setup to the Rock Bottom but once he brought his opponent down to the mat he locked them up in what you see pictured to the left. This move really showed you what CM Punk was all about. He was intense, unorthodox, techincally sound and tough. Combine the above with a heavy metal entrance theme and a bunch of tattoos and it is no wonder as to why the fans embraced him. They embraced him so much it became a no brainer to put him on RAW.

Since being on RAW it seems that Punk has lost what made him connect with the fans so much in the first place. He moves have become formulaic, you know what you are getting in every match now. Not like before where you were not sure what was going to happen. You might get a scream out of him but he seems to have quieted down. I'd like to say we still get to see the Anaconda Vice but we don't. Instead we get the GTS, a fireman's carry which ends with a knee to the skull. It isn't a bad move but with John Cena on the same show you can not help but reminded of the FU. I don't want to be reminded of Cena, I want to see the bad ass, straight edge guy, covered in tattoos I saw busting skulls on ECW!

This guy is a talented wrestler but I feel like the WWE is letting him rest on his laurels as of late. Sure people are wearing his shirts and cheering for him now but if he doesn't change then I do not see this lasting forever. If you don't believe me then you should note the boos he received last Sunday when he won the money in the bank ladder match. He is a great talent to have but the WWE doesn't seem to want to explore his potential as a character and as a wrestler. We want to see the guy we thought was cool in the first place.

What can be done to help this? Let him do what he does so well and be a talented wrestler with diverse move set. Let him have long matches and meaningful feuds. Let him scream and yell and go crazy. Let him cut promos. Let him get in some faces and start fights. He can still be face but just let him have his edge back. More importantly let him have the Anaconda Vice back!

Wrestlemania Results

Well I didn't fare to well with my predictions this time around. Let's take a look and see how everything turned out.

25 Diva Battle Royal: (Wrong)

I had a hard time figuring out who was even in this match and I did not envy the announce team while this mess took place. Santina Marella was crowned the first ever Ms. Wrestlemania, winning the hearts of millions.

Money in the Bank Ladder Match: (Wrong)

CM Punk? Seriously? I would hope the WWE took note that when Christian, MVP and Shelton Benjamin were climbing the ladders the place was losing it. CM Punk wins and I hear boos and see garbage tossed into the ring. There was a lot of cool moves in this, especially from Kingston and Benjamin, and I think it would have been a real standout with a better choice of a winner.

This match also featured my favorite move of the night. It came after the botched sunset flip power bomb with Benjamin and MVP. Benjamin the picks up MVP like he is going to power bomb him and simply throws him over the top rope into a wall. That is what I like to call bad ass.

Chris Jericho Vs. Jimmy Snuka, Ricky Steamboat and Roddy Piper: (Wrong)

I'm not sure what the bigger surprise was, Chris Jericho winning or Ricky Steamboat's performance! This was a great match and watching Jericho wrestle Steamboat one on one was awesome. The interaction between those two was more entertaining than the main events we saw tonight, amazing. You also got to see Flair mix it up in the ring and Mickey Rourke too!

Shawn Michaels Vs. The Undertaker: (Correct)

This was an awesome match and love it or hate it the streak lives on. This was by far the best match of the night for me and judging by the crowd in Austin I don't think I am alone in that. I would like to give props to the cameraman who was crushed by the Undertaker during this match. Whoever he is, he took one of the hardest bumps of the night.

Jeff Hardy Vs. Matt Hardy (Extreme Rules): (Wrong)

Matt ditched the Hardy Boyz look and wins! So much for my Jeff Hardy guess. All in all it was a cool match with some pretty nasty bumps and high spots. Jeff's coccyx probably exploded after missing that leapfrog dropkick off of the ladder. Matt's twist of fate with the chair at the end was brutal too! I also think this was the first Wrestlemania where someone was hit with a shop vac, I could be wrong though.

JBL Vs. Rey Mysterio (Intercontinental Title): (Correct)

Rey Mysterio comes out as The Joker and beats JBL so quickly he gets upset and quits. It was an odd match but at least I guessed it correctly.


The Miz & Morrison Vs. The Colons (Tag Team Unification): (Wrong)

The Colons beat The Miz and Morrison and become the unified tag champs. Somewhere a child cries and wonders if god really exists.

Edge (c) Vs. Big Show Vs. John Cena (World Heavyweight Championship): (Correct)

First off, John Cena's introduction was lame as lame can be. The WWE continues to bury their heads in the sand by putting the belt back on Cena, ignoring the boos and garbage thrown in the ring as he holds the belt high.

HHH (c) Vs. Randy Orton (WWE Championship): (Wrong)

This match was a big let down for me. The crowd was not into it and they seemed to be more distracted with something happening in the crowd behind the announce tables. It was oddly paced and did anyone think the finish of this match was anticlimactic like I did? I think the WWE missed a real opportunity by not putting the belt on Orton.

If you are keeping score that means I went 3/9 with my predictions. Not my best outing but better luck next time I suppose. I enjoyed watching the whole show but was disappointed with the main events. The draft and Backlash are coming up soon so hopefully some of these "wrongs" can be righted then, fingers are crossed.

Please feel free to leave your thoughts on the show as well.

Thoughts on the Week 3/30 -4/4

I had a few ideas for some articles this week but really I am so overwhelmed with excitement for Wrestlemania I thought I would just touch on some things that caught my eye this past week.

- Randy Orton has really become an amazing in ring talent. The promo he cut on RAW this past Monday was excellent. He has great mic skills but he also uses body language perfectly to put emphasis on his words. The similarities between his current run now and that of HHH's back in 1999 are remarkable. It is only fitting that he should be going up against HHH tomorrow night for the WWE title. It only seems right that the torch be passed to Orton at this time.

- The new Legacy shirt is alright but did they only print two of them? How come Dibiase doesn't get one? I understand that the economy is in turmoil right now but get the kid a fucking shirt for crying out loud.

- Santino's Mankini...












AMAZING!!

- Enjoyed the main event on ECW this week mainly because of John Morrison. For those who missed it the Bella Twins fought each other with Miz and Morrison in one corner while The Colons were in the other. Morrison spent the match texting on his cell phone and when he looked up to see what was going on he asked the Miz what color tights their Bella was wearing. The Miz responded with red so Morrison yelled "Go red!" and went back to texting.

- The US Title rematch between MVP and Shelton Benjamin was a good outing in my opinion. There is some good chemistry between these two in the ring and during promos. MVP received another check in the "W" column which I would think signifies the end of this feud. I still think it is a fair bet that Benjamin is the winner of the Money in the Bank match tomorrow night.

- Earlier today I heard a radio DJ say that he thinks Ken Kennedy will show up and win the Money in the Bank match. I would love to see that happen! I would love to see Ken Kennedy come back period for that matter!

- Is it not odd that when they show the commercial for the hall of fame and they mention the future they show a picture of Jack Swagger? I think it is odd because he hasn't been on television in about a month and he is the ECW champion. Wrestlemania is a four hour program and we could not give this kid a five minute match? He was obviously bumped for that member of the Pussycat Dolls.

- I also want you all to take note that on Smackdown this week Ezekiel Jackson had his own match against Jeff Hardy. THE Brian Kendrick has a new jacket (pictured to the right) too and it actually sucks more than the last one.

That's all for right now! Everyone enjoy Wrestlemania tomorrow night and I am sure I will have plenty to talk about next week!

Do Not Push Brian Kendrick

See this guy pictured to the left here? His name is The Brian Kendrick and I'm officially over this guy. He needs to go away. Allow me to elaborate on why I think this should be.

First off his name is terrible, it means nothing to the audience. The word "the" should only be placed in front of action verbs with an -er for a wrestler name, like The Crusher or The Tickler. You know what you are getting there, a guy who crushes things and a guy who tickles things. With The Brian Kendrick I guess I am getting the best of all the Brian Kendricks. That would be okay if I had a frame of reference, like if I knew other guys named Brian Kendrick and they were all over the top people. Then I could say "Wow, the five Brian Kendricks I know are infamous! This guy must be outrageous since he is THE Brian Kendrick!". That would be great if it was the case but it is not. He is not the very best of a group of outrageous individuals that all share the same name. He is a guy that can not think of a cool name to save his life.

There is also the matter of his attire. Look at that jacket pictured above, it's terrible. It is slightly cooky but not enough to really say that you are really an outrageous person. Especially considering in contrast to other more wilder looking wrestlers on the roster. This coat looks like he dug out of the closet in the WWE wardrobe room, no one was ever going to wear that thing. It also does not really fit him, it is too long for his arms so he looks like a child in it. That does not really help him since he is a small competitor already. If you want to have your character wear outrageous clothing then go over the top with it. A fine example is Shawn Michaels, pictured to the right. Shawn understood what I am talking about since day one. A wrestler is like a living comic book character, so dress like it. Since Kendrick is a graduate of Shawn Michaels wrestling school you would think he would know this. Instead I have this guy prancing around in a jacket that even Haddaway would not be caught dead wearing.

Then there is his adviser Ezekiel Jackson, pictured to the right. He is a big man and he definitely looks like he could beat people up...but why does he always come out dressed in white linen? He is way too casual for my tastes. He dresses like a guy that should be walking the beach in the Caribbean. He just hangs out on the outside of the ring in his loose fitting, breathable clothes and watches The Brian Kendrick toodle around the ring. It bores me and I wish it would go away. They should really set Ezekiel Jackson up with a good gimmick and run with that instead.

To Kendricks credit I do think he has some talent in the ring itself, he is a capable wrestler. I just can not get over how lame his character is. He has had many opportunities to let us know who The Brian Kendrick is but it just has not worked. He has had his time in the sun now please let another wrestler try their hand in the spotlight. I know a certain individual that looks like a viking that could use it.

Push Mike Knox

When Mike Knox (pictured on the right booting that fool in the face) first debuted on the new ECW he was Kelly Kellys jealous boyfriend he looked more sleazy than intimidating. He maintained his heat by covering Kelly up whenever she felt the need to start stripping her clothes off, she was an exhibitionist then you see. Naturally his actions upset the male demographic, I can sum this up easily below...


1. Am I going to see a naked woman? Yes. Hooray!

2. Am I going to see a naked woman? No. I hate this

It's a simple concept for a character which works and couple that with his size, strength and speed and you have the tools for something decent. His mic skills are either non existent or have yet to be explored, I have not seen this from him yet so I can not say for sure. I think in time though it could be something that could be taught, assuming they're bad.

Anyways, he goes on a hiatus for a bit and then debuts on RAW. Now a single man who is silent, brutal and has long hair and an amazing beard much like a viking. Now he looks badass, we're making strides here. Then his first action is to attack Rey Mysterio and beat him viciously and appear out of nowhere when he does. Now he is a badass, mysterious, viking looking guy who is beating up a former world champion with ease. I am still into this at this point. Then when finally asked why he is doing what he has been doing to Rey Mysterio he says he does not know, he just does it... at this point I am sold. He is just a brutal looking guy who just beats people up, it is simple and I'm officially into this.

I feel like Knox has a lot of potential for growth if they give him the right opponents. I don't really feel that is what has been done for him thus far. Squash matches don't really do anything for character development to me. I know Mike Knox can beat up Johnny Red Trunks from Hoboken with ease, a jobber can be seen from a mile away. I want to see him beat people who matter with meaningful feuds. While he was in the elimination chamber at No Way Out he was eliminated early and has not really been seen much since. I am nervous that he is going to fade away at this point, which would be a shame. He needs a standout match with a legitimate opponent so the audience knows he will be around long enough so they can get behind him.

An example I often use when I talk about making new characters seem legitimate is when Gene Snitsky first fought Kane. This was back during the time when Lita had a miscarriage, while carrying Kane's bastard child, due to Gene Snitsky knocking her over. Naturally Kane is upset as we all find out that Kane has apparently always dreamed of being a daddy so he challenges Snitsky to a match! You can't just let a guy get away with this after all. What was supposed to be Kane getting the last laugh turned into Gene Snitsky crushing his windpipe with a steel chair. Snitsky won and all of sudden you know that Snitsky is serious now.

Mike Knox needs a match like this before the WWE creative team lets him fade into obscurity. He has a good look, good movement in the ring for a large man and he is young. Give this guy a legitimate push already.