sek69

What's funny is that he just did a promo about not missing work due to injury.

from WWE.com:

Actually, the Spirit Squad might be a blessing in disguise as the cheerleader gimmick at least lets them show off their athletic ability. However if they almost kill HBK again like they did on RAW, that could be the end.

Angle was a pussy about it. Having his wife go on the radio and bitch about it didn't make him sound any better. It's wrestling, things happen. HHH didn't get punished for beating the shit out of JR (who's not even a wrestler) and injuring him, and RVD shouldn't have been buried for giving someone a fat lip. Hell, Angle started wearing the mouth guard because Cena busted his grill twice and loosened his teeth. Where was the "he can't work" squad then? Who's bright idea was it to have Jericho use a powerbomb? Was it Sid's fault that WCW had him jump off the top rope when it wasn't something he normall did? I don't remember Jericho injuring anyone (my mind swiss-cheeses a lot of what happened around that time) but it wasn't like he Droz'ed anyone.

But HHH *did* say they couldn't work, at least he did with Jericho and RVD. Sorry if that's too smarky for you, but it did happen.

Jericho spent his time as Unified Champ cleaning up dog poo for Stephanie. I know he said that it was his idea, but it's not how you book the first guy to unify the WCW and WWE titles. What WCW did with Booker is immaterial, since it's WWE that booked him in an angle with racial overtones and had him do the most obvious "you've been buried" job in recent memory. RVD was the most over guy in the company for a while, and they responded to the fans by jobbing him out. If anything, his injury layoff gave him a fresh start in the fans eyes. How'd they handle it? By having him job *again* to the same guy who jobbed him out the last time. There's no "smart mark party line" about it, it's pretty much obvious to every Marky McMarkerson that the WWE buried those three when they could have been the guys to carry the ball. Besides, I'm the last person that would be parroting any "party line" explainations, since I'm the one who always gets called a smark basher for proving wrong a lot of their dearly held beliefs.

It's a miracle she escaped with only the injuries she had. If you watch the bump, she pretty much broke her leg to avoid breaking her neck.

I think it was just a case of bad timing as Candice seemed to miss her cue and that left Ashley and Mickie literally hung out to dry.

Meltz News that might be tangentally related: Leading the lambs to slaughter? I can imagine Vince or Johnny handling this with their usual smoothness, delivering a big "Yay WrestleMania" peptalk then firing half the people in the room.

Meltz said it best when the Heart Throbs were released that people who saw them in OVW were shaking their heads in disbelief and people who only saw their WWE work had the complete opposite reaction. WWE's attitude toward tag teams is complete bullshit. The Tolands (Dicks) and the Heart Throbs were over in OVW, only to get shit on in WWE. Cade and Murdoch got an inital push, but then it became clear they were being used to make fun of AMW and they were broken up and turned into Heat jobbers. Meanwhile the tag team titles on RAW (the ones with the history) are held by two singles wrestlers who have been booked as unbeatable and as such never defend the belts.

WWE had tons of chances to make guys like Jericho, RVD, and Booker the next generation of stars but they didn't and it was almost always because a certain someone would run to Vince and say the person in question couldn't work.

I'd say "win in the second to last one". I mean, look at HHH's WM losses: One was against the one guy who has as much pull with Vince as he does (Taker), one was to establish the guy he groomed as the next big superstar (Batista), and the other was to set up the WM Moment of Eddy and Benoit in the ring together as champions. This WM match coming up seems to have a more HHH vs Jericho vibe, as I don't see him going into the match as the challenger and losing.

No one's mentioned the best part, when they come back and the stage manager or whoever that was is explaining that Belz got hurt. Hogan does an admirable job of explaining that it was a good example of why you shouldn't try wrestling moves at home, only to have Mr. T cut him off and go on a ramble about how wrestling is real and Belzer found that out just like the guy from 20/20 (I'm sure Vince loved that).

I don't see HHH losing a title match at Mania, no matter how much the company wants to push Cena.

They don't have the backing of the main wrestling company. It's like Canton claiming to be the football HOF if the NFL had its own in-house Hall.

The WWF HOF is as close to a real HOF wrestling will have (don't get me started about the WON HOF, it's no better than WWE's since Dave's got his MMA boner). Besides, the only thing people bitch about is them putting Pete Rose in the "Celebrity Wing", which was just a PR move anyway. The rest of the people in there deserve it for the most part. Hell, it's pretty much the only time WWE will pay any attention to its past anyway.

Dusty's not going to be the top guy inducted no matter what year he goes in. Most current fans don't know him and most of the ones that do only know him as the polka dot wearing son-of-a-plummer with Sapphire.

With Bret and Eddie already in, and Dusty probably next since he has a DVD coming out, who do you think will fill out the Class of 2006? Assuming a class size of 7, my picks: Bret Eddie Dusty Ricky Steamboat The Freebirds (with Ray Gordy doing the induction honors) Mr. Fuji (they always pick someone completely random) William Perry (he was in the Battle Royal at WM 2 in Chicago, and it would have someone other than Pete Rose in the "Celebrity Wing")

Yeah, Rude knocked him out (or at least knocked him silly).

Mickie James did a rana on Ashley to elimate her from the battle royale, and Candice Michelle was supposed to push them both out. She was a little late and Mickie had to hold Ashley longer than expected which resulted in an awkward looking bump to the floor for both of them.

To be fair, I think everyone wanted to smack Warrior around. Hell, Rick Rude actually did.

Wrestling companies always seem to get caught in that web, fans want to see the guy they don't like lose the belt, and when he does, the heat goes away since they wanted to see the ex champ lose more than they wanted to see the guy who won with the belt. 9 times out of 10 the promotion ends up putting the belt back on the guy the people wanted to see lose, since then there was at least some heat.

Well lemme tell ya something Mean Gene, everyone's gunnin' for the Hulkster and he just does what he has to do to keep the WWF championship. If he has to fly 500,000 miles across the ocean and get rough with that nasty Fujinami dude, then that's what he's gonna do. He'll take that big nasty Fujinami and choke him out with the Pythons, then he'll take all his little Hulksters on his back and fly them back home again because THIS IS WHERE THE POWER LIES~! *rips off shirt, poses and snorts*

I just loved how just when the crowd was hottest for RVD, KICK WHAM PEDIGREE!

If it's RAW only, I'd say Carlito, RVD, Shelton, Masters, someone completely random like maybe Matt Striker, and Kane (he was in the last one for no reason, why not this one too?).