Hey, what’s up? You’re reading that one section of TBL we call the News and Analysis, hopefully, a section you enjoy! Plenty of things to get to this week, and many topics to discuss, so let’s get on with the show.
The WWE presented their Royal Rumble PPV this past Sunday. The show got the “thumbs up” from most people, but it wasn’t “over-the-edge” exciting to quote a certain TBL team member. Kurt Angle and Chris Benoit had the match of the night, whereas Triple H and Scott Steiner fell on the short side of the stick and disappointed many. Elsewhere, the Rumble match was definitely good, but not the greatest we’ve seen. Again, overall, it was a good show.
Come Monday night, the fallout of the PPV was to be felt on WWE RAW. Scott Steiner was still after Triple H but got Batista instead. The show ended with the coming of Triple H, Ric Flair, Batista, and Randy Orton together as a group, which we’ll get into later. The very anticipated “atomic bombshell” by Eric Bischoff was dropped and Steve Austin has been officially invited by RAW’s GM to return to the RAW Brand and the upcoming No Way Out PPV. Also on the show, the Dudley Boyz lost the World Tag Team Championships, which they had just captured, as Regal and Storm got their belts back with the help of the one and only Chief Morley. RAW’s rating is in and the show scored a solid 3.8 rating. This is down from last week’s 3.9, but being an edition of RAW after a PPV, not a bad score. WWE has seen worse in their past, and of course, they’ve seen much better as well.
Thursday night saw SmackDown! air on UPN and the show has gotten plenty of positive reviews, and almost none negative. That’s understandable, as SmackDown! presented a night of great wrestling combined with a true surprise by Stephanie McMahon — the return of Hulk Hogan. Elsewhere on the show, Kurt Angle took on Rey Mysterio, while the other two members of Team Angles lost in singles action, as Charlie Haas fell short against Chris Benoit, and Shelton Benjamin did the job for Edge. All three matches were of high quality. SmackDown! scored a 3.5 rating this week, which is up from the usual 3.4. The overnight score was a 4.8, also up from recent weeks.
Triple H is still the World Heavyweight Champion after having what some are calling a “horrible” match with Scott Steiner this past Sunday at Royal Rumble. A review by the one and only Michael Blaszkowski is available on our site, and I’m sure you’ll hear on the Rumble from others, so I won’t get into it too much, but try to quickly give you a few thoughts here and there. First off, Big Show shut a lot of people up in my opinion. The big man gave it his best in his match with Brock Lesnar, and Brock actually managed to carry Show through an “OK” match. It could have gone much worse, and I think Show and Lesnar should be given credit for making it a good bout for what it was. Not sure what to say about the World Tag Teams title match. It wasn’t a bad match, but fans seem disappointed that the Dudleyz didn’t deliver some wood after what Vince McMahon said to D-Von on RAW. Anyway, I had Storm/Regal as my prediction last week (which ended up being the only wrong prediction, alongside Steiner, might I add), and obviously the plan was for them to keep the belts, as they regained them on RAW. Then came Dawn Marie and Torrie Wilson. It was an all right match, but it was a reminder of all the senseless and needless things these two have been involved with in the past couple of months. I can write at least a paragraph on here about Triple H vs. Scott Steiner. Heck, even make a column out of this, but I must ask you one thing — Heading into this match, did you really expect anything else? I pondered last week just how bad this match will be and we had to see that coming. Hunter is still suffering from all these nagging injuries, whereas Steiner’s physical condition is obviously neither here, nor there. Since Triple H couldn’t carry Steiner through the match (and I am not sure even if he wanted to), you saw the result. Steiner’s moves was limited to a minimum, and the crowd ended up turning on him and even booed him. It should also be noted the PPV was in the New England area, where fans would support their Greenwich buddy Triple H. Then we go to Kurt Angle vs. Chris Benoit. Without a shadow of a doubt, the match of the night. The two worked it great, and Angle was on top of his game though his knee was obviously bothering him here and there. I really don’t know what to say, besides these two always bring the best out of each other when they’re in the ring, and they did just that this past Sunday. The fans giving Benoit a standing ovation after the match is all you need to draw any conclusions. Just compare this reaction to the one Steiner got in his match with Triple H. Just like Tazz says every Thursday night — “There’s only one Kurt Angle.” The Royal Rumble match itself was pretty good. I found the 2001 and 2002 matches better than the 2003 edition, but I wasn’t disappointed. The lack of SmackDown! storyline-knowledge that J.R. and Jerry Lawler displayed while commentating was obvious, and even annoying at some points. Michael Cole and Jerry Lawler could have commentated the match, as they’ve worked together before and WWE would have been able to get the storylines from both brands working.
Eric Bischoff has invited Steve Austin back to the RAW brand, and is even expecting the Rattlesnake at WWE No Way Out in February. Bischoff promised to drop an “atomic bombshell” at the PPV and he announced the next night that his reasoning behind his actions was the fact that Austin was never given the opportunity to give his side of the story over why he left the company. RAW Magazine will feature an article by Steve Austin in its next edition where Austin will actually tell his side of the story. It’s not clear whether or not he’ll be at No Way Out though. Several things to say here. First off, Vince McMahon gave Eric Bischoff a 30-day period to turn RAW around. Nobody really knows how many days are left, as Eric Bischoff said 21 were left on RAW, Chris Nowinski said it was 23, and WWE.com at one point said 22. Anyway, the bottom line is that the February 10 edition of RAW (which yours truly will attend to) is when this period ends, and the No Way Out PPV is on February 23, or 13 days later. Basically, this whole deal doesn’t do any good to Eric Bischoff storyline-wise. The second thing to mention is that Steve Austin is all but confirmed to return and all the rumors can now rest. Unless a turn of event happens, I would expect Austin to be back by WrestleMania for sure, and if not, I would think the WWE chooses to do so on purpose, because their WrestleMania card is getting pretty stacked right now. An idea that comes to mind — and that’s just a thought of my own — is for Shane McMahon to still take over RAW and get the fans totally behind him by signing Steve Austin to his brand at No Way Out, that being his first big act. It just looks that WWE wants to move away from the “2nd period” of their roster split (the first one being Ric Flair/Vince McMahon as owners), but at the same time continue with the idea. Introducing Shane can definitely help that. I’ll have more in the weeks to come, as more developments occur.
Several months ago, talks started on-line about a future recreation of the popular Four Horsemen stable. This one was to consist of WWE Superstars Triple H, Ric Flair, Randy Orton, and Dave Batista. On Monday night, these 4 guys came together at the end of RAW as they laid a beating on Scott Steiner. It seems that the stable is definitely on, but it hasn’t yet been decided if they’ll call the group the Four Horsemen. It’s really nice to see the WWE elevate their younger talent to the top. Batista has the body and look to make it big, though he’s still green in the ring. Putting Ric Flair on him is a good beginning in making him a star, that’s for sure. Randy Orton is very talented and if genes count in this business, he’s got pretty good ones! If you look at it with a different eyes, Randy Orton and Batista are RAW’s version of Team Angle, as they both represent two up-and-coming stars that get a huge push to main-event status rather quickly due to their talent. However, Orton and Batista have been more established than the SmackDown! duo, which creates for even more intrigue over on RAW. I would expect them to work together, as a tag team when needed, but mainly focus on singles competition.
The involvement of Ric Flair and Triple H is another thing that should be discussed here. It’s expected that Triple H will portray the role Ric Flair once played in the WCW years of the Horsemen, whereas Flair will play a JJ Dillon type of persona. I think this will definitely add even more fuel to this storyline. I was a believer of the idea that Flair has been used the wrong way ever since he lost RAW to McMahon, but the long setup with Batista has been worth it. Flair can play the role of the “legend” who’s just “taking the ride with the youngsters” here and giving them the much-imporant pointers, and some ringside help, to add more to the heel persona of the group. Triple H can be a leader. He has certainly proven that backstage. There’s really only one way this storyline can go wrong and that’s if WWE uses Batista and Orton to simply work for Triple H rather establish them as their own characters. I highly doubt we’ll see that in the near future, and Triple H will really shut a lot of on-line people up if he starts doing more for Batista and Orton storyline-wise. In a way he’ll be giving them a rub without having to worry about losing matches or titles. The storyline is a great concept, we just have to see what the WWE does with it from here. As far as the Four Horsemen name goes, I don’t like the idea of calling them that. Let history be what it is — history. There’s a rumor going around that another member could be added to this stable. We don’t deal with rumors here, so let’s wait and see what’s up.
Hollywood Hulk Hogan is back to the WWE. The legend made his return to SmackDown! and what a return it was. Before anyone starts talking about how old Hogan is, and how it’s so wrong to bring him back, and how he shouldn’t be on SmackDown! where all the young and prosperous talent is, here’s my opinion of that talk — Shut up. Simply… Shut up. You’re talking about Hollywood Hulk Hogan. You’re talking about the man who not only revolutionized wrestling, but put it on the map. Most of you won’t be reading this report, or won’t even be watching wrestling if it wasn’t for him. I know you won’t agree if you haven’t been watching for a long time, but if it wasn’t for the success Hogan brought to this industry, it might as well had never grown into what it was a couple of years ago, and heck, even what it is today. Hulk Hogan is back for his last run. He said it himself. It’s like Bret returning one last time to say good-bye. So let’s not become picky and say “He can’t take a bump,” or “He can’t even walk right.” We know that. Everyone knows that. Hulk Hogan knows that. He’s not in his 30’s and he’s not up-to-date with anyone else. But he’s Hulk Hogan. Just enjoy the ride one more time, and place yourself several years back in time when his segments air. If he’s used wrong, then criticize. Just let Hogan be for now and for the last time enjoy and remember what wrestling once was. If you didn’t have the chance to experience it, I know this will be harder to grasp, but I think that so far WWE has done what Hogan said they would — they’ve handled things right. Hopefully his last run will be handled the right way and everyone will enjoy it. This way he also gets to say one final good-bye, the way he should. I think WWE did a great job on Thursday night. The first thing they needed to do is to air the whole segment. Even if it caused them to completely delete the Notorious D.O.G. vs. B-2 match (where the Guerreros were also involved), and even if they had to get rid of the Brock Lesnar promo (the one they showed was a backstage segment Lesnar filmed later; at the taping he came out to the ring and talked). Second, Michael Cole and Tazz not saying a word during Hogan’s arrival to the ring made the moment even better. Again, I hope they continue to handle the situation well, and give Hogan one last run, milk it for all it’s worth, and then have the biggest legend in this business say his final words.
Finally, the season finale of WWE Tough Enough III was held on Thursday night. For those who missed it, it was Bob Holly’s best friend, Matt, alongside the high-flyer John who won WWE contracts and were crowned Tough Enough III Champions. Jamie ended up being the “final cut,” as voted by the fans through MTV.com and ToughEnough.com. I think the right people won the contracts. John is just amazing. A standup Shooting Star Press, and the kind of balance this guy has on the top rope are things you don’t see often in this business. He has a great physique, an even better look to him, and he definitely has a persona. He’s a perfect choice. Matt proved that he’s not only “tough enough,” after what Bob Holly did to him, he earned everyone’s respect by showing what this business means to him. He didn’t do the right thing for himself, but did what was asked of him. Matt’s in-ring skills are also definitely something WWE will be after. He has the look and the charisma, and I think WWE will also manage to capitalize on his character. He can start a storyline with Bob Holly eventually, as well, which some consider a plus. Another thing to note here is that Matt’s parents have been in touch with WWE and were extremely unhappy with what Bob Holly did to their son. It was said on several sites that Matt was a sure lock for the win, because otherwise he could sue WWE for what happened. I am not sure if that played a big role in their decision, but I highly doubt it was their main reason behind the choice. Matt is just very good in the ring and deserved a contract. He WAS tough enough! As far as Jamie, Jonah, and Eric go, I don’t think we’ve seen the last of them. Jonah and Eric have already been invited to an oversee tour by a foreign promotion, and will probably work the Indy circuit for a bit. I can tell you right now that WWE can do so much more with Jonah, Eric, and Jamie than with Linda Miles or Jackie Gayda. Nidia’s embarrassing promo on the finale wasn’t pretty either. Tough Enough 4 might happen, it’s not yet been decided, but MTV is very happy with the show and the ratings it has brought for them. The season finale scored a very solid 2.6 score.
That will do it for this week. There was plenty of stuff to cover, from the Royal Rumble, to RAW and SmackDown! and Tough Enough III. I’m sure there will be plenty to talk about next week as well, and you’ll see new thoughts for sure. Before I leave you with My Two Cents of the week, just to let you know, I should be back next week with a whole new report, unless Michael Blaszkowski has planned another incident involving your truly. A fully recovered Eddie says watch the people around you that play baseball and have K for their first initial. (click here)
My Two Cents
Did WWE give the Dudley Boyz the World Tag Team belts for one night just so they can become 16-time World Tag Team Champions and Ric Flair doesn’t feel lonely in that area of greatness?
Will you be surprised if soon we find out that Triple H has turned down EXACTLY 16 challengers for his World Heavyweight Championship?
So Bill DeMott wasn’t at the Tough Enough III finale at The World, supposedly because he was on SmackDown! (as Coach said), but Josh Matthews, who was also on SmackDown! that night doing a segment with Big Show, was present at The World?
Did anyone else hear the guy who screamed “Taylor got screwed!” when Nidia did her super-long and super-boring bit on Tough Enough III?
Now that Vince has referred to Al Wilson’s death, do you expect Undertaker to go back to being The Phenom for one night just so he can get good ol’ Al Wilson back on SmackDown!? (Lord, have mercy!)
Thanks for reading everyone! Your thoughts are always appreciated, so feel free to write me back with any feedback, positive or negative! Thanks for your time. See ya.
Eddie
