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It was an opening match, sure, but the Jeff Hardy-MVP match that kicked off this year’s edition of SummerSlam was enjoyable and full of action, especially for a 10-minute match. Jeff Hardy is a longtime favorite of ProWestlingViews.com and MVP has been a hot prospect in our books since his Inferno match with Kane over a year ago.

While part of me was hoping the match would push Hardy’s quest for a title match, it’s difficult to feel too bad after the way MVP put on a show in the match; MVP’s approaching the level of being ready to main event, also, and tonight’s match certainly helped. These two guys are among the hardest workers in WWE and put on one of the better 10-minute matches in recent memory.

The UK Sun is reporting that once Mick Foley’s WWE contract expires at the end of this month, he will make the jump to NWA-TNA, WWE’s only potential competitor, and will become a part-time wrestler with a schedule similar to Sting’s. The article charges that Foley is not content being in an announcing or non-wrestling role at WWE.

But hold your horses! On his blog, good ol’ JR, Jim Ross, claims all of this speculation is a lot of hooey, and he plans to talk to Foley soon to “see how things are going.” That’s WWE-speak for trying to talk him into staying with WWE, of course.

Just like some Web sites that sell auto insurance compare rates from other companies before you buy, I’d hope Mick thinks long and hard about moving to TNA. At this stage in his career, it’s a move that cannot be undone in the eyes of the McMahon family, who would almost certainly lock him out of the WWE Hall of Fame or any potential return to WWE later on.

The UK Sun report claims Foley wants to help put TNA on the map; however, if WWE converts like Christian Cage, Jeff Hardy (before he came back) and Kurt Angle haven’t been able to pull that off, what could a broken-down Foley do for them?

Bad career move, Mick. Hope you don’t opt that direction.

WWE typically does this once every few months or so; they company has announced the release of several workers from their WWE contracts. The list includes:

1) Braden Walker (f/k/a Chris Harris)
2) Nunzio
3) James Curtis
4) Shannon Moore
5) Domino,
6) Big Daddy V
7) referee Nick Patrick

Add Mick Foley’s non-renewal coming up, and that’s a significant number of folks on the bus out of town. One would think they needed a couple of these guys in order to make sure they don’t fall into TNA hands. But better to have WWE trim talent like someone on Anoretix, than to have WWE retain too much talent, overextend their budget and then decide to can the whole deal, I guess.

Apparently, working as an announcer for Vince McMahon is an avocation that could lead you straight into needing a pulse oximeter, if Mick Foley is to be believed. Despite being only a few months into being Smackdown’s color commentator, Mrs. Foley’s baby boy has announced on his own Web site that, through mutual agreement, he will not be renewing his contract with WWE in a few weeks, when it expires on September 1.

“Creatively, the announcing job wasn’t working out too well,” Foley said.

Behind the scenes, it is believed Foley didn’t care for Vince’s treatment of him; the elder McMahon is apparently known to be very demanding with announcing talent within the company.

So Mick Foley takes a hike, and Mike Adamle gets promoted to Raw GM? Something smells rotten, and it’s in the vicinity of Vinnie-Mac’s trousers.

I was among the first to make the observation, but others are now starting to catch on; the WWE Attitude era, typified by The Rock, Stone Cold Steve Austin and others, is now over. With John “The Champ Is Here” Cena writing “JBL is poopy!” at a face taunt against a heel, it’s clear that WWE is subtlely changing their branding from the over-excesses of the Attitude era to a more family-friendly atmosphere is a welcome move for those of us who remember watching WWE as kids and being able to see an episode without an overdose of mature-rated content throughout the program.

Sure, back then WWE’s sponsors were mainly made of up acne treatment providers, but I think they’ve started to realize how many young kids watch their shows, especially given how many of their events are sponsored by videogame makers.

WWE Attitude was fun while it lasted; but I’m glad to see the company returning to a less risque product.

SmackDown’s Mr. Kennedy was injured recently and could be out of action anywhere from six weeks to six months, according to his own official Web site. The should injury involves a torn labrum.

With this sort of injury, six weeks of evaluation and physical therapy could correct the problem; if that doesn’t work, Kennedy will undergo surgery to repair the labrum and the recovery time from that is four to six months following the procedure.

While it may require some rather delicate surgical equipment rather than a bunch of air tools, the one thing Kennedy remains sure of is his desire to return to the ring as soon as he’s healed up.

I don’t think it’s hype when Ric Flair said that his parting of the ways with WWE was amicable, or that his goal was to stop relying on WWE to “prop him up,” but that he wanted to build his own name and reputation as a brand unto itself.

Flair is apparently not interested in a return to the wrestling ring upon his release, but is looking to explore other avenues of generating revenue and becoming a business man capable of “standing on his own” without the help of the McMahon family and WWE.

Hopefully, Flair will follow through with his plan and start making announcements about his next achievements soon; after the send-off Flair received at WrestleMania last spring, it would be a shame to see Flair sign with TNA or some other promotion in a vain attempt to extend his in-ring career.

Flair’s not some acne-ridden kid anymore; at 59, it’s time he pursued something new, like he was talking about, and he certainly has the skills to do well in other fields.

A few years ago, Flair played around with the idea of running for public office in North Carolina as a Republican; that would seem to be a potential course of action for Flair and would re-define his post-wrestling career.

Vince McMahon and WWE are long-term experts at taking lemons and turning them into lemonade. The Rock was hated when he first began his WWE career, and not in a good, heel-ish way; he eventually became one of WWE’s most popular wrestlers and certainly, now, the most successful former wrestler ever to move to Hollywood and take on acting. And The Rock is only one such example.

Their latest project could be their biggest challenge, however; some folks will remember Mike Adamle from his days hosting the original incarnation of American Gladiators. After several years of relative obscurity following that show’s demise, Adamle emerged in WWE earlier this year as an interviewer, and eventually an ECW play-by-play announcer.

His stint as announcer was plagued by mistakes and gaffes that showcased his lack of a wrestling background, as well as his unfamiliarity with the WWE roster. His appeal was roughly that of an air conditioning compressor.

However, since being named the surprise new GM of Raw, Adamle seems to be getting a second chance, this time utilizing his weaknesses with the hope to turn them around to strengths. So Adamle doesn’t know the WWE roster that well? Put him in skits that have him directly interacting with members of that roster. Adamle is hated? Make him the heel GM of Raw so that fans booing him fits in with his role.

Smart booking could help Adamle succeed as a heel GM of Raw, and this past week’s Raw did that pretty well, hot-shotting three title defenses onto one night. And if Adamle screws up again and says that a 2-on-1 handicap match against a face champion with title match implications has “never been done before?” Well, all the more reason to boo him.

It’s risky, but it gives Adamle a new shot at finding a niche in the company. It’ll be interesting to watch. And just let me suggest a bit of booking myself: a lot of people wouldn’t mind seeing some WWE talent beat the crap of out Mike Adamle. Whether it’s Punk or someone else, I’m not saying, I’m just saying… what’s good enough for Vinnie Mac is good enough for Adamle, right?

I’m a fan of the McMahon family and their involvement in the TV storylines, but I must admit that their extended absence has been a good thing for RAW and SmackDown.

Sometimes, too much of them on TV is simply too much and their prescence becomes about as welcome as commercial collection agencies at a Debtors Anonymous meeting.

That’s why I hope they don’t rush Vince back to his on-camera roll. The shows are more fun and less predictable now, and I’d like to see WWE run with this concept for a while longer.

Who knows? Maybe when they finally bring Vince back, they’ll even find a way to make his character fresh and unpredictable.

After a five year absence from a WWE ring, D’Lo Brown finally returned to Monday Night Raw last week. Hold your enthusiasm, please. I know, I know, it’s not like The Rock has come back, nor even Chyna…. D’Lo Brown, at his best, was a slightly-above-average midlist wrestler.

But hey, he looked clean, fresh and energetic in a feel-good return match against Santino Marella and maybe he’ll even have a chance to get a bit of a push this time ’round. You never know, stranger things have happened… like Stephanie McMahon wearing religious jewelry.

While Batista winning the Fatal Four-Way main event on Raw to become the number one contender and set up a Punk vs. Batista main event at Great American Bash was a refreshing change of pace, the single weirdest booking moment came after the match, when Kane, among the losers of the Fatal Four-Way, put on a fairly good act of going apeshit, beating up ringside officials and the announce crew to express his disappointment.

I swear, he’d have hit Mae Young with a pella pan if he’d had the opportunity. It was an odd moment.

Odd because it seems to be the centerpiece toward setting Kane up to be a main eventer once again, which frankly doesn’t do a whole lot for me. Kane’s been main-event pushed for well over a decade now, and to be honest, he hasn’t had much mystique since he stopped wearing the mask. Although a faithful and yeomanlike worker, his star just hasn’t shone very brightly … not for quite a while.

Considering that most of Raw was a beginner’s primer, set up to welcome new viewers to the show, rolling out Kane as a monster main eventer in this way is out-of-place with the show’s new direction and certainly won’t help anyone who may have watched 10 years ago feel like much has changed in WWE since the last time they watched regularly.

This week’s RAW got me to thinking about John Cena’s antics and how they measure up to those commited by Stone Cold Steve Austin in his prime. Watching Raw from a new TV wall mount, I was amused by Cena abusing JBL’s stretch limo, with a little help from Crime Tyme, and for a moment flashed back to some of Stone Cold Steve Austin’s trash-a-limo antics in his fued with Vince McMahon.

It’s an easy and obvious comparison, but is it apt? The more I thought about it, the more I realized how much WWE has pulled back from the over-the-top, nearly NC-17 antics that were the hallmark of the WWE Attitude era.

See, when Stone Cold struck out at Vince McMahon’s limo, he left nothing to doubt and no thought uncensored. If he spray-painted anything on McMahon’s limo, it would likely say something like, “Austin 3:16″ or “Kiss My Ass” and then he’d flip off Vinnie Mac and the entire audience while cracking open some brewskis. It was on the surface quite similar, but in execution, much edgier.

Compare that to Cena’s destruction of JBL’s limo. The biggest insult Cena spray-painted? “JBL is poopy!”

Welcome to “Everyone Poops!” your host if John Cena, boys and girls. WWE has arrived safely back on TV-14 territory. Hopefully that will mean more viewers.