ProWrestlingViews.com

Mutilchannel News broke the story that NBC-Universal and the WWE have extended their current TV contract by an additional two years, through 2010; the current deal only ran through 2008.

Although no Cartier watches were exchanged, the new contract does call for a higher payout to WWE for programming, above the current level of $31 million per year.

NBC-Universal airs WWE Monday Night Raw on the USA Network, as well as ECW broadcasts on the SciFi Channel; the agreement also means there will be more WWE Saturday Night’s Main Event specials on NBC periodically throughout the year, when Saturday Night Live would normally be broadcasting reruns.

The agreement keeps the lion’s share of WWE-branded programming on NBC-Universal venues; the exception is WWE Friday Night SmackDown, which airs on the CBS-Warner Brothers-owned CW Network.

Who would have thunk it? I’m actually getting excited about Cyber Sunday.

I bopped over to WWE.com to vote tonight, just because I’d been putting it off for too long, and some of the matches actually look fun. I really want to see Orton take on my Mr. Kennedy, though the vote probably won’t go my way there.

And I’m eager to see C.M. Punk face off with a back-from-suspension John Morrison, and the vote MAY go my way there, since the other two choices are a five-time retread (Big Daddy V) and a comic-relief wrestler in The Mizh.

Most of all, if Stone Cold is voted in as the guest referee for the Smackdown title, the bit of nostalgia will be a fun thing, too. I’m actually potentially excited about a SmackDown brand match in this upcoming PPV, even if it’s only about the guest ref!

And we all know my low opinion of the SmackDown brand. This’ll prove interesting!

As a native Minnesotan and Minnesota Viking fan, it only took four words to get Mr. Kennedy over with me as a heel. The first night he appeared on SmackDown and was introduced, the ring announcer included these four words: “…from Green Bay, Wisconsin…”

Nothing gets the blood of a Viking fan boiling more quickly. And Ken Anderson, whose ring persona is “Mr. Kennedy,” didn’t disappoint, playing the classic heel while stealing a bit of his gimmick from classic boxing announcer Michael Buffer, grabbing the mic from Harvey Finkleman and re-announcing himself to the crowd in Michael Buffer style.

It helps that Mr. Kennedy is a good talker on the mic, cutting sharp heel promos and enjoying the boos, taking his heel sensibility from classic Minnesota wrestler, Jesse “The Body” Ventura, who always liked to say he was just “telling it like it is.”

It also helps that Kennedy can wrestle a solid match. He does this while delivering solid basics in the ring, showing a decent understanding of ring psychology, which was prominently on display in his now-classic SmackDown feud with Undertaker. He doesn’t require a special outfit or ring entrance to demand attention; it’s all pretty straight-forward with Mr. Kennedy, because it works without the extras. His only gimmick is to get in front of the camera and “be an ass.” Which is how the best heels get over.

What I like about Mr. Kennedy’s potential is that he’s more of the cocky ass than the cowardly type. I’ve never been a fan of in-ring heels like Triple-H, who go around talking like they’re completely unbeatable, but whine like little girls when someone builds a match that stacks the deck against them. I’ve always thought true cocky heels were easier to hate; they never back down, quake in their boots or complain because they’re just too overconfident to ever worry that things might not turn out in their favor.

That’s the kind of heel Mr. Kennedy tends toward, and it’s a lot more appealing. Wise up, WWE: Make Mr. Kennedy the new WWE champ in Cena’s absence. He’s the kind of heel who can not only earn boos, but sell WWE product, from Mr. Kennedy t-shirts to personalized pens.

It simply didn’t rank up there with Sanford and Son’s Redd Fox grabbing his chest and yelling heavenward at his deceased with that he’s coming, the big one had arrived. Instead, it played like a bad parody of that.

I’m speaking, of course, about the Teddy Long-Kristal wedding that dominated last Friday’s WWE SmackDown. With all the real-life health problems, all the real-life deaths and all the real-life tragedies the WWE has suffered, they never seem to learn that fictionalized tragedies are not entertaining.

One would think, after last summer’s badly-botched, terribly-timed “death of Vince McMahon” storyline that too closely mirrored the real-life Benoit family tragedy, that it would be a bit longer before the WWE went the “fake death” route again.

Unfortunately, they seem to have gained no wisdom in this area at all, as Friday’s program verified. Every creative type responsible for Friday’s show should be given a set of dog tags to wear that read: WARNING! This WWE creative type may be allergic to entertainment. Keep away from shooting scripts!”