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In the upcoming Fatal Four-Way match at Backlash, JBL has seemed the odd man out. While Cena, Orton and Triple H belong in the title picture, JBL has seemed like the interloper and the subject of an unmerited push.

That was remidied at the England broadcast of WWE Raw, when JBL cleaned house on both Triple H and current champ Randy Orton, in a well-orchestrated match that made him seem like a world-beater. Sure, John Cena’s absence from Raw made JBL’s victory a bit hollow, but the image of JBL holding Orton’s belt over his head as Raw closed will certainly help give JBL the final push he needs to make the Fatal Four-Way seem like a contest of equals.

After the beating Triple H and Orton took at the hands of JBL, they’ll definitely need some massage therapy to be ready to go again at tonight’s RAW King of the Ring broadcast.

With the firing of Joey Styles as the play-by-play announcer of ECW, Vince McMahon has effectively severed one of the last ties to the upstart rebel promotion Tod Gordon and Paul Heyman started about 15 years ago. His replacement, Mike Adamle, formerly best known as the announcer of the original American Gladiators, is a wrestling newbie whose inexperience hurt the ECW telecast this week, and could very well doom the promotion in the ratings.

Perhaps there were good reasons behind the scenes for letting Styles go, including a price tag issue brought up by the company’s budgeting software. Who knows? But for anyone who was holding out any vestige of hope that ECW could rebound and recapture its former glory, the last spark of hope was snuffed out with Styles’ dismissal.

Last Monday’s Raw broadcast had one of the best women’s title matches on display in a long time. Champion Beth Phoenix and challenger Mickie James put on a long, roughly seven-minute contest that was surprisingly physical. The payoff came when the imposing Phoenix felt victim to the fast-moving James’ quickness for a surprise win and a title change.

In all honesty, though, the victory is somewhat pyhrric, given that Phoenix was given the title almost immediately upon entering the WWE and was never established well as a character on TV broadcasts. Her title reign was long but rather empty as a result, and putting the title on James gives the fans of WWE a performer who has established an appealing persona, as well as a record of working hard in the ring.

Truth be told, though, this is a match that would have been better-suited to WrestleMania, rather than a Raw broadcast; but the women’s division is currently a bit morose, given too often to sex-appeal matches at PPV, rather than athletic title matches like the one one Raw last Monday.

Perhaps a rematch for grudge purposes will be worked up for a future festool PPV. Give James and Phoenix some time to cut promos against each other and a 12-minute spot to do real ring work, rather than bra-and-panties crap, and you’d have a very watchable WWE Women’s Title match for a future PPV.

One of my favorite WWE PPV events is coming back, but not as a pay-per-view. Instead, the legendary King of the Ring event will take place on a single, three-hour broadcast of Monday Night Raw this Monday, April 21, on USA Network.

I used to say I’d give up a lifelong season pass to the North Padre Island rentals of my choice just to see King of the Ring return. Now, I don’t have to. It will be a load of fun to see who they put the crown on this time. King of the Ring made its reputation on crowning the next big WWE heel star, and launched the WWE careers of such folks as Stone Cold Steve Austin, Bret Hart, Ted DeBiase, Kurt Angle, Edge and Brock Lesnar.

The PPV disappeared for four years, and came back in 2006 as a Smackdown-only event, with Booker T crowned as King Booker. There was no King of the Ring in 2007, but this year’s Raw event will include competitors from Smackdown and ECW as well as Raw.

I can’t wait!

WWE’s Chris Jericho proved on last Monday’s RAW broadcast from England that he has the potential to pull off one of the quickest heel turns of all time. All he had to do was walk out on stage to Ric Flair’s entrance music and begin to cut a promo against Shawn Michaels.

Although Michaels is working a program against SmackDown’s Dave Batista at Backlash, the groundwork is already being laid for a Jericho-HBK feud that could help headline Raw-branded events throughout the summer. Both men are ring veterans who know how to work a match, work the ring psychology to get the crowd on its feet, and both cut excellent promos.

If this is going somewhere, I’m ready for it. And Jericho can just be glad that Michaels wasn’t wearing golf shoes when he performed that Super Kick to Jericho’s jaw.