ProWrestlingViews.com

Posts Tagged ‘MVP’

Last week’s Raw introduced a new number one contender to the title picture, as a threat to John Cena’s title. It wasn’t Orton or DX or even Legacy. It wasn’t even Jack Swagger or Evan Bourne. It was… wait for it… Sheamus!

While the storytelling pushed his threat-level to Cena’s title, Sheamus isn’t exactly my first choice when it comes to introducing a new face into the WWE title picture.

I mean, heck, what about someone who’s been picking up momentum and earning his way there for a while, like MVP? Montel Vontavius Porter would be a great match to John Cena, both on the mic and in the ring.

Oh well; Sheamus will be a “one PPV and out” opponent anyway. And the match should be marginally more interesting than colon cleanser reviews.

Last year, MVP was diagnosed with a potentially-fatal heart condition that was unearthed in testing conducted via the WWE Wellness Program. MVP credits that test with saving his life and says the condition has been corrected and he is back to 100-percent health.

Although MVP is hoping to land a spot or two in upcoming WWE Films movies, he’s not looking to pull a Dwayne Johnson and leave WWE for films any time soon. “WWE is my passion, so leaving the WWE to become a full-time actor, that’s not something I’m looking at right now,” MVP said in a press release.

Sure is good to see MVP praising WWE for catching a heart condition rather than the program catching a WWE superstar perusing a list of best diet pills.

You know, looking back over the main matches at WrestleMania again, I’d have to say that my favorite match was still the WWE title match between Randy Orton, Triple H and John Cena. While the Flair-HBK match had way more emotion, the truth of the matter is that the WWE Title match just had more youth and energy.

You don’t have to be a futures broker to see that John Cena and Randy Orton will be WWE mainstays for some time to come. The question here is where the next big stars are, who are lining up behind them.

I still like the long-term potential of Ken Kennedy and MVP, and Jeff Hardy isn’t exactly new, but his solo work in WWE since returning from TNA is like a fresh start for him. My main complaint, though, is that in both WrestleMania and now the upcoming Backlash, WWE continues to insist on overpromoting the inferior SmackDown brand.

Let’s face it; Raw is where the action is. Let’s start structuring the PPVs to reflect that, shall we?

Ric Flair earned a victory over MVP as part of the opening match to the 2008 edition of the WWE Royal Rumble PPV. In the ongoing storyline for Flair, the Nature Boy will continue to have a job with WWE until the next time he loses a match. The storyline has led to Flair winning five consecutive matches, including the win Sunday night over MVP.

While Flair wasn’t vamping it up by wearing a bustiers or another other such showman nonsense, his matches since this storyline began did have the feeling of being a retirement / final tour storyline. The PPV event was held at Madison Square Garden. Flair wrestled at the facility for the first time in 1976, do to still be in the ring, winning matches, 32 years later and in his 50s is an achievement worthy of the Verne Gagne era of pro wrestling.

This week’s SmackDown featured what could become Montel Vontavious Porter’s big chance to grab a portion of the WrestleMania spotlight in the first weekend of April. In a match that featured relatively little setup, Batista battled MVP over the “honor” of Ric Flair’s legacy.

Now, it is ProWrestlingViews.com’s position that, far from being the 2007 wrestler of the year that WWE claims him to be, Batista is the most overexposed and overhyped performer of 2007. However, it’s also clear that main event status runs through Batista over on SmackDown, so even though he doesn’t hold the belt, clashing with Batista can only help MVP in his rise to main event status.

Clad in tights and sheepskin boots, MVP and Batista had a great TV match that showed the potential of the feud without giving away so much that it would diminish PPV buy rates. Batista does the “unstoppable force” thing well, and MVP is a versatile enough performer to pull a watchable match out of him.

Most think Batista is headed for a title match against Edge at WrestleMania, but if the company (hopefully) changes course from overexposing the Beast in the WWE title picture, a feud with MVP that reaches its zenith at WrestleMania might be a good use of Batista outside the title picture, and help push MVP into main event status. That could be good for both mens’ careers.

Finally, what is for me probably going to be the highlight of this PPV! A real, traditional, five-on-five Survivor Series elimination match. Only trouble is, a real-life injury to Matt Hardy means it’s not even five-on-five, but four-on-five. Geez, can’t they at least pull off a surprise here and insert someone?

I mean, with all that footage of Edge with his chainsaw, it’s not like it would require some highly technical plasma cutting to write someone new into the match. Oh well.

This match had the best in-ring psychology of the night, even if it ran a bit predictably. OK, so Matt’s out and the odds seem against Triple H’s team of babyfaces? No problem. Let’s get the boring ones out of there right away. So DOWN goes Kane. Then DOWN goes Rey-Rey. Now it’s five on two and we have some classic ring psychology to work on here.

I will say, it was nice to see Mr. Kennedy and MVP in the same ring again; they have good in-ring chemistry and although Kennedy is on Raw and MVP’s on SmackDown at present, I predict big things for these two; they will be tearing it up against each other sometime in the next five years, at some major PPVs, and doing it for a championship strap. Both are great “talents of the future.”

After that, the other team began to thin out. First down goes MVP. Then Kennedy. Then Big Daddy V. Then Finlay.

By the time it’s down to Triple H and Jeff Hardy vs. Umaga, I half-expected Hardy to get eliminated. But not this time. Triple-H and Jeff show some good teamwork in a crowd-pleasing, feel-good, Thanksgiving PPV finish that has both men celebrating a babyface win. And the match was appropriately long! Over 20 minutes of ring time and with interviews and entrances, almost twice that!

OK, I’m a happy man as far as this PPV goes with, after THIS match.

WINNER: Triple H’s team
RATING: 8.7