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Posts Tagged ‘Shawn Michaels’

You can influence the next WWE pay-per-view. Cyber Sunday is a once-a-year PPV event in which WWE lets fans have a hand in deciding opponents, match types and other key elements of an upcoming PPV event.

The idea was originated about three years ago and has been a popular one with fans ever since. Personally, I find Cyber Sunday a bit limiting and wish they’d offer fans a wider palette of options, especially on main events.

Not that Shawn Michaels, Jeff Hardy and Mr. Kennedy aren’t good options, but what if fans wanted to vote for someone else to lock up with Randy Orton? That’s all I mean.

Anyway, here’s WWE’s press release on the whole thing… two weeks and counting!

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Log on, take over. WWE Cyber Sunday is the only interactive Pay-Per-View that lets fans take control. Visit WWE.com and vote to decide matches and more as the fans will control the fate of WWE Champion Randy Orton, CM Punk, Rey Mysterio, Triple H and all your favorite Superstars at WWE Cyber Sunday on Sunday, October 28th, live at 8pm ET/5pm PT, only on Pay-Per-View. A World Wrestling Entertainment Production. Go to wwe.com for more details.

There wasn’t much in the way of entertainment value to be gained from watching HBK’s concussion and attempt to wrestle through it on last weekend’s Judgment Day PPV. While it’s clear Shawn Michaels needs some kind of break from the biz, perhaps even a Kissimmee vacation, what’s not clear is whether the concussion is legit, or whether it’s a storyline excuse to give the aging superstar some time off from the WWE grind.

Right now, I’d have to guess it’s legit, if only because the match seemed pointless to the point of squeamishness. If it was only a storyline concussion to give HBK a few months off, the whole thing could have been way more entertaining in how it played out.

Either way, the result is a non-match that gets Randy Orton back over as a hardcore heel, a “legend killer,” as he prefers to be known in the storyline and the ring. With Edge moving over to SmackDown, and both Triple H and HBK out of action for the foreseeable future, Orton definitely needs to step up his game and become the top storyline heel for Raw … aside, of course, from Khali, who should be feuding with John Cena though SummerSlam, at least.

By devoting the entire hour-plus-overrun this past Monday to a “WrestleMania rematch” between John Cena and Shawn Michaels, the WWE has done more to legitimize the feud between the two babyfaces than anything they’ve done to date, including their Wrestlemania 23 main event match.

The Raw rematch, broadcast live from London, England, did not place Cena’s WWE title on the line, but in every other respect, the match was superior to the WM23 Cena-Michaels clash. It was longer, more brutal, more entertaining and took both men more to the limit of their showmanship and physical endurance abilities. Following the match, I’m sure both were interested in hangover cures.

That’s saying something. But not something good. WrestleMania is supposed to be WWE’s biggest annual event, and yet they give away a better match on a RAW broadcast from England than they asked people to pay for as part of WrestleMania? That just doesn’t make sense.

As the final RAW before the WWE’s biggest PPV of the year, WrestleMania 23, last night’s show demonstrated just how ill-conceived the main events have been. Michaels taking out John Cena with his Sweet Chin Music move was about as predictable and anticlimactic as it comes.

Truth be told, Cena vs. Michaels just isn’t that interesting. Both Michaels and Cena are too over as faces and neither is getting any genuine heel heat. And Michaels is about 10 years too late in his career to be main eventing WrestleMania against Cena. Far more intriguing would have been to match up Cena against Edge, Orton or The Great Khali, but apparently Vinnie Mac and company decided to play it safe this year. Too safe. And that makes for an uninteresting WrestleMania.

Despite prodigious amounts of promotion, including bringing in Donald Trump to help lend WM23 some outside-of-wrestling star power, the Billionaire’s Hair Match seems to intrigue Vinnie Mac far more than it does the average RAW viewer, and again suffers from utter predictability: does anyone really believe Lashley will lose and that Trump would agree to be shaved bald? Vinnie Mac is a foregone conclusion as the bald billionaire. Yawn.

I could go on, but the rest of the WM23 undercard is just as boring and predictable. And we all know that, whatever happens, the better undercard matches will simply get a RAW, ECW or SmackDown “rematch” next week, anyway, and that Trump will appear for one more video conferencing cameo to gloat over a bald Vinnie Mac on next week’s RAW. What else is new? Certainly nothing coming up at WM23.

About the only way to save WM23 is to throw the fans a curve ball by encouraging Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson to come out of “wrestling retirement” to make a surprise guest appearance and grab the WWE title away from Cena after Cena defeats Michaels, as part of what could be perhaps a six-month return that would climax with The Rock as a heel champ surrendering the title back to Cena at SummerSlam so he can go make movies again.

Of course, the likelihood of that is about equal to a “living and dead” reunion of The Beatles at WM23.

This year’s WrestleMania is quickly gearing up to be one of the most lackluster outings the WWE has seen since the days when Sid Viscious, Kevin Nash and Scott Hall were headlining main events for Vince McMahon’s promotion. Unlike those days, it’s not that the WWE lacks star power these days; it’s a matter of uninspiring booking that would make even Donald Trump prefer a boat charter cruise to watching the annual four-hour pay per view event.

As things stand now, the top two titles are being booked like so: The Smackdown world title holder, Batista, will be facing off against the Undertaker, while the Raw title holder, John Cena, will be facing off against Shawn Michaels. It’s an example of WWE favoritism booking at its worst.

Batista has had an uninspiring second title run as champ and while he’s a younger, fresher face in the title mix, his opponent has been around for over 15 years and lacks any hint of freshness; the Undertaker’s schtick was old at least five years ago, and his vaunted “undefeated at WrestleMania” run isn’t a compelling enough storyline to really put butts in the seats anymore. I couldn’t care less than I do right now about the outcome.

Making matters worse is that Batista is over with the Smackdown crowd as a “face,” while ‘Taker will simply never be booed at this point in his career, no matter what he does. Far more interesting for the WWE title would be to add Smackdown’s two top heels into the mix for a Fatal Four-Way match for Smackdown’s world title. I’m speaking, of course, about Montel Vontavius Porter (MVP) and Mr. Kennedy. A four-way clash between Batista, Undertaker, MVP and Mr. Kennedy would be far more compelling.

Over on RAW, the same “face vs. face” dynamic holds solid. Shawn Michaels, like Taker, is a long-term vet who lacks freshness and is so established with the crowd he really won’t ever be meaningfully booed or hated, which means another match in which a face champion, John Cena, could be booed in favor of a veteran challenger who can’t get over as a heel anymore. A heel turn for Cena is a possibility, but would only hurt his star power at this point in his title reign.

Far better would have been to book Cena against a true monster heel, the physically impressive and imposing Great Khali, in a sort of Wrestlemania III flashback match to the classic Hogan-Andre match. This would allow for a lot of David vs. Goliath excitement, and if McMahon felt he owed Shawn Michaels a main event nod, he could serve as a “where do his loyalties lie” special referee to the match.

I could list the handful of other matches that, so far, seem ill-conceived, but what’s the point? If the two main event matches are already a bust, this year’s WrestleMania is destined to be, as well.

As recent broadcasts reveal, the WWE’s top four superstars are now clear. The only people considered “WrestleMania main event-worthy” are The Undertaker, Shawn Michaels, John Cena and Batista. Arguably, only one of those superstars belongs in that elite group.

Heck, even though WWE claimed Undertaker could lay claim to ECW champion Bobby Lashley’s title just as easily as Cena’s or Batista’s, he wasn’t even featured in the big showdown on SmackDown last week. He finally showed up on Raw this week, but it was too little, too late. Despite ECW being more entertaining than SmackDown, WWE clearly doesn’t respect the promotion.

John Cena is unarguably WWE’s current top superstar and belongs in a WrestleMania main event. But the rest? Well, Batista doesn’t put butts in the seats and doesn’t really belong in that elite group, and if SmackDown wasn’t such a roster wasteland, he wouldn’t be there.

As for Shawn Michaels and the Undertaker, anyone who was main eventing back when Hulkamania was still running wild in the WWF ought not still be main eventing today. And it’s sad, since there are many younger superstars who would be better fits for a WrestleMania main event.

On the SmackDown side, Mr. Kennedy is very close to being ready, and nothing would help him peak better than a WrestleMania main event against Batista. Matt Hardy is also close to breaking through to main event status as a singles wrestler, after years and years of being a star tag-team player and having to make the adjustment to singles wrestling the last couple-three years.

The talent pool is even deeper on the Raw side of the pond. Both Edge and Randy orton are already ready to main event WrestleMania, and would make worthy adversaries for Cena. And if VKM really wanted to call back some memories of Hogan-Andre, he could easily toss The Great Khali against Cena un a man vs. monster type of storyline.

But for now, it seems, VKM can’t look past the stars of two decades ago, so it’ll be a retread of Undertaker and Shawn Michaels sharing main event stages with the current champs. And with ‘Taker having an undefeated record at WrestleMania, they may as well put his address plaque on Batista’s belt right now.

Uninspiring. Predictable. Too bad…

As a result of an actual injury at the New Year’s Revolution PPV, Triple H recently underwent surgery to reattach a tendon on his knee. The surgery will keep The Game out of the ring for 4-6 months, meaning he definitely won’t be around for WrestleMania in April.

All I can say is, thank goodness. Sure, it’s easy to nitpick at a wrestler who’s been overpushed as much as the Cerebral Assassin, but let’s be honest: the whole DX Reunion thing has been a bust. And while it may be the fault of bad booking, that doesn’t change the fact that it’s been a big, giant headache that requires the use of Fioricet or something similarly potent.

After all, DX’s first big feud that lasted WAY too long was with – the Spirit Squad? The annoying Team of Five simply hadn’t been built up nearly enough to merit such a long-standing feud with Michaels and Helmsley, and really robbed heat from DX more than it built up the Squad members.

Launching off that into a feud with Team Rated-RKO was a legit feud that was finally launching Michael and Helmsley back into the legit ranks, but frankly the feud’s credibility was a stretch after such a long feud with the McMahon Family and the Spirit Squad. Linking Squad holdover Kenny Dykstra to the feud didn’t help.

Frankly, the main reason the DX reunion doesn’t work anymore is that while Michaels and Helmsley are the biggest stars to emerge from the original DX faction, the original DX had a lot more to offer than just Michaels and Helmsley. Now, I’m not saying that WWE should have found a way to reunite the two DX vets with Road Dogg, X-Pac, Mister Ass and Chyna; that would only guarantee the DX reunion a failure.

What I am saying is, reforming DX should be as much about promoting promising new talent as it is about re-establishing the careers of the aging Michaels and Helmsley. I mean, sure, there’d have to be some heel-face turns to make it happen, but wouldn’t a new DX have been much more interesting if it had Michaels and Helmsley at the head of a larger group of young talent who are the next generation of WWE superstars?

Just going off the available WWE roster, here’s my Dream DX team: Shawn Michael, Triple H, Johnny Nitro, Melina, Joey Mercury and Carlito. Sure, one could maybe put together an even better roster if one were to scalp more talent from SmackDown and ECW, but with a core like this, it would lend legitimacy to the younger talent and make for more interesting booking.

In the final analysis, though, I think moving DX forward requires waiting until The Game returns, and then turning Triple-H heel. Helmsley has always worked better as the WWE’s hardcore heel, and if one were to play up the reunion of Michaels and Helmsley, then have Triple-H betray him, you could have that be the catalyst for a DX split where Michaels headlines a “good” DX faction, while Helmsley headlines a “heel” DX faction, and thus promote even more young talent.

If that were the case, here’s my suggested DX factions, based off current roster talent:

DX-Face:

Shawn Michaels
Cryme Tyme
Carlito
Mickie James
Charlie Haas

DX-Heel

Triple-H
Mercury, Nitro and Melina (MNM)
Shelton Benjamin
Kenny Dykstra