Loss Posted May 16, 2005 Report Share Posted May 16, 2005 Preview: It?s finals time. The Gold Rush Tournament comes to a close as the No. 1 Contender to Batista?s World Heavyweight Championship is officially determined. Will it be the Big Red Monster Kane, or ?Mr. Money in the Bank? Edge? Edge has used his coveted briefcase at every opportunity to help get him over the top in recent matches, while Kane has his own X-factor in wife Lita. Will the Gold Rush Tournament end with Edge being chokeslammed to Hell, or with Kane being speared off his feet? Tune in Monday night to find out ? alongside the World Heavyweight Champion ? who Batista?s next opponent will be. Also announced for RAW, Ric Flair gets his match against Christian. ?The Dirtiest Player in the Game? dispatched with Tyson Tomko last week on RAW, and now there?s nobody left between the former 16-time world champion and his target: Captain Charisma. Will Christian be able to come through in a huge match for his peeps? We?ll find out Monday. And the team of Chris Jericho & Shelton Benjamin will get their chance at retribution when they face Muhammad Hassan and Daivari in tag-team action. All this and much more, Monday night at 9/8 CT, only on Spike TV. I suspect we're going to get at least one turn tonight -- either Lita or Chris Jericho. I'm inclined to think it's Lita, and they'll continue foreshadowing Jericho's turn. I can't see them running two turns in one night without it seeming like overkill. And that's assuming the current plan is to turn Jericho heel. Putting Flair over would be the dumbest thing they could possibly do right now, but then again, Christian rarely wins, and they're trying to purposely devalue him before he heads to Smackdown, which is the most defeatist and illogical thing they've done in some time, considering they plan on running him on top. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sek69 Posted May 16, 2005 Report Share Posted May 16, 2005 If the constant devaluing of Christian before he switches brands doesn't illustrate how Smackdown is viewed as the B-show, I don't know what does. The fans have pretty much demanded a Lita turn, but then what? Do they team up the real-life F buddies? Edge doesn't need a broad to get over, unless they do a Kevin Sullivan-Fallen Angel thing with them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MyOwnSummer Posted May 16, 2005 Report Share Posted May 16, 2005 Edge doesn't need a broad to get over, I don't know about that. Edge's heat has been suffering for awhile now and the only real reaction he seems to get is the Matt chants. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Hunter's Torn Quad Posted May 16, 2005 Report Share Posted May 16, 2005 Lita turning on Kane to go with Edge could give Edge that little something he needs to finally stand out from the crowd, and I think their pairing has a lot of heel potential, providing it's allowed to get pushed as it should be, and you-know-who doesn't decide to squash it. And if Lita does turn on Kane and go with Edge, it makes it inevitable that Matt Hardy will be brought back, because the chants for him will only get louder after the turn. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Some Guy Posted May 16, 2005 Report Share Posted May 16, 2005 I hope Vince gets all stuborn and decides to try to run out all the Matt chants and that they continue to get louder and louder and go on so long that most fans forget why they are chanting for him. Then I hope Vince brings him back and the angle dies. Vince deserves it for firing the poor guy, unfortunately Matt doesn't. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Alfdogg Posted May 17, 2005 Report Share Posted May 17, 2005 Sadly, there's no game to change over to tonight should RAW start to suck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mad Dog Posted May 17, 2005 Report Share Posted May 17, 2005 Why can't the WWF actually push people the fans demand? Christian gets over so what do they do? They job him out until no one cares about him anymore. I really hate this company anymore. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Big Papi Posted May 17, 2005 Report Share Posted May 17, 2005 I don't like what they are doing with the ECW PPV. There is no need for a team of RAW Superstars to show up. I wish the would only show the promo for the PPV. This crap with Bischoff is exactly what I did not want to see. They are going to fuck it up. I just know it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coffey Posted May 17, 2005 Report Share Posted May 17, 2005 I don't like what they are doing with the ECW PPV. There is no need for a team of RAW Superstars to show up. I wish they would only show the promo for the PPV. This crap with Bischoff is exactly what I did not want to see. I said a lot of the same things to my friends while watching the show tonight. It's just so apparent that WWE doesn't have a clue about what the appeal of ECW was. Contrary to popular belief, ECW wasn't just garbage matches. You can't just slap two wrestlers together and give them trash cans and expect it to mean something. That's not fucking ECW. You can't just name drop Paul Heyman and think that it means something. WWE fucked it up during the InVasion and they're going to fuck it up again the exact same fucking way. You just know that on Smackdown Teddy Long is going to have to announce that a Smackdown team is coming too. It's fucked. They are going to fuck it up. You know it and I know it. You know, I got pissed off when Eric Bischoff mentioned that a Raw team was going to show up at the ECW show. I knew right then I no longer had any interest in watching the show. Not to mention with Chris Candido randomly dying, the Triple Threat can't get together. The match between Tajiri and Benoit was a joke. It was just like the old shitty WWE hardcore matches. It wasn't anything like ECW. The feel isn't there. The atmosphere isn't there. The crowd certainly wasn't fucking there. A couple of marks chanting ECW doesn't have any fucking merit. It was also obvious that Benoit wasn't coming off of that ladder. I was like "who's coming out?" when he started to climb it because everything was out of position. Jerry Lawler just BLASTING ECW the entire match got on my nerves more than anything else. Who the fuck is he? Fuck him! That pederass mother-fucker. I'd rather watch wrestling with occasionally compelling storylines and occasionally good matches with good commentary than sit through anything that that mother-fucker calls. Even if ECW had spotty wrestlers and a lot of bad endings to storylines, they provided me with more entertainment than probably any other company ever has. I loved Styles and Callis on commentary. Hell, I loved Shane Douglas on commentary. ALL OF THEM were better than fucking Lawler. We won't talk about Lawler "coming to J.R's aid" or getting random matches once a year either. He's been worthless for at least the past seven years. I don't care if he was getting fed the fucking lines either. He should've been out of a job when he walked because of the fucking Kat bullshit. Hell, for the record, I've never seen a Lawler match that wasn't the shits either. I hated the old Memphis style. I'll take the lights going out so that we have to guess who's going to be there when they come back on in ECW over an entire Lawler fucking comp. You can talk about the card for the Hardcore Homecoming being as bad as you want. It'll still be better than this fucking corporate WWE "hardcore" bullshit. I'd rather watch CZW or XPW. Maybe even Big Japan or Juggalo Championshit Wrestling with Abdullah fork-fucking random ICP members. That's what I get for watching Raw again. Now I'm just pissed off and bitter. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Al Posted May 17, 2005 Report Share Posted May 17, 2005 Jerry Lawler just BLASTING ECW the entire match got on my nerves more than anything else. Who the fuck is he? Fuck him! That pederass mother-fucker. I'd rather watch wrestling with occasionally compelling storylines and occasionally good matches with good commentary than sit through anything that that mother-fucker calls. Even if ECW had spotty wrestlers and a lot of bad endings to storylines, they provided me with more entertainment than probably any other company ever has. I loved Styles and Callis on commentary. Hell, I loved Shane Douglas on commentary. ALL OF THEM were better than fucking Lawler. We won't talk about Lawler "coming to J.R's aid" or getting random matches once a year either. He's been worthless for at least the past seven years. I don't care if he was getting fed the fucking lines either. He should've been out of a job when he walked because of the fucking Kat bullshit. That was the one part I did not mind. After Lawler's feud with ECW, it would have been odd to see him do an about face and start cheering the promotion. Agreed with the rest of your post however. That is certainly not how either Tajiri or (especially) Chris Benoit wrestled in ECW. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loss Posted May 17, 2005 Author Report Share Posted May 17, 2005 Coffey, you must not remember the Lawler/Paul E. feud in 1997. Of course Lawler was going to say those things. And wrestling is fake. Whether he meant them or not, he was instructed to say those things. There's no ad-libbing in WWE. None. As for hating the Memphis style, I don't know what to say in retaliation to that quite honestly, except that 95% of ECW was overbooked crap, bad wrestling, and storylines without payoffs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marty Posted May 17, 2005 Report Share Posted May 17, 2005 I find Coffey and I don't agree too often, but he is right about how neither Benoit nor Tajiri wrestled in ECW the way they did last night. I'm very curious as to whose idea that was anyway. I have a weird feeling Stephanie thought of that, considering how much she hates Heyman. Lawler knocking ECW worked for me though. The ECW PPV, and the promotion behind it, is booked to be a babyface type of angle, so to speak, thus having Bischoff, Coach, and Lawler (especially given the 1997 angles) makes perfect sense. It's actually some of the better commentary Lawler's done lately. I don't know if that's saying much, but it's true. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loss Posted May 17, 2005 Author Report Share Posted May 17, 2005 Considering that Lawler and Heyman are anything but friends, I think it comes across better because what he says is heartfelt. I really need to do a Google search for a transcript of some of their arguments on RAW. They were priceless. On the BWO ... Lawler: "Another ECW ripoff ..." Heyman: "Of what?" *dead silence for at least 10 seconds* Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Mac Posted May 17, 2005 Report Share Posted May 17, 2005 Th thing whr Bishoff says E, C and W wont b mntiond on RA is stupid. So Edge already has a title shot yet wins a tournament to get a title shot? Yea, that makes sense. Also the colour of the briefcase somehow changed in the last 7 days. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Big Papi Posted May 17, 2005 Report Share Posted May 17, 2005 Also the colour of the briefcase somehow changed in the last 7 days. The briefcase is changeable. It's the contract inside that is the prize. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loss Posted May 17, 2005 Author Report Share Posted May 17, 2005 I have a sneaking feeling it's going to come down to Edge losing to Batista, pulling out his MITB contract *immediately* and catching Batista off guard for a quick pin to win the title. If that happens, it's going to make the world title look like the hardcore title, and it's going to make Edge look like as unworthy a champion as possible. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Mac Posted May 17, 2005 Report Share Posted May 17, 2005 Eh, the Vengeance poster has a HIAC match advertised between HHH and Batista and Tista has the title in the poster so it's pretty unlikely. I know that posters aren't necessarily related to what will happen on the show but when they advertise a particular match and have the title belt on one guys shoulders then it's a pretty clear sign. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loss Posted May 17, 2005 Author Report Share Posted May 17, 2005 They did that with Goldberg/HHH at Bad Blood 2003 as well. And that was before they found out HHH had bulging disks in his neck. It's very possible we could still get HIAC, but I'm expecting Batista/Edge to headline the next PPV, which is sort of preposterous as a marquee match. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Strummer Posted May 17, 2005 Report Share Posted May 17, 2005 Edge, in the backstage vignette with Lita last night, said the winner of the tournament faces Batista next week. I really don't know how they are going to work this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Dazed Posted May 17, 2005 Report Share Posted May 17, 2005 I'm amazed that they've blown through this entire tournament in what - 4 weeks? They could have used one match per week as the main event and had it last over a couple of months from Backlash to whatever the next PPV is (I assume it's about 8 weeks away?) It makes each match seem more important, adds hype to the tournament, and gives you a reason to tune in more weeks... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Some Guy Posted May 17, 2005 Report Share Posted May 17, 2005 Considering that Lawler and Heyman are anything but friends, I think it comes across better because what he says is heartfelt. I really need to do a Google search for a transcript of some of their arguments on RAW. They were priceless. On the BWO ... Lawler: "Another ECW ripoff ..." Heyman: "Of what?" *dead silence for at least 10 seconds* Heymen two weeks later on Raw: How are things at the swing sets in Louisville, Jerry? Heymen also was the one who "exposed" Brian Christopher as Lawler's kid on TV. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Hunter's Torn Quad Posted May 17, 2005 Report Share Posted May 17, 2005 I wouldn't have minded what Lawler was saying that much if he hadn't gone off on ECW using trash cans and tables, and calling that type of wrestling garbage. Did he even watch himself in Memphis ? Lawler did ECW before ECW did ECW. Lawler was doing hardcore angles, using trash cans and tables, going through them, was involved in violent and bloody matches before ECW was even a pipe dream. From a storyline standpoint, yes, it makes sense for Lawler to castigate ECW. But there were ways for him to do it without coming across like a hypocritical buffoon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loss Posted May 17, 2005 Author Report Share Posted May 17, 2005 The differences in Memphis and ECW were night and day, though; mainly because kayfabe actually mattered in the former. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Hunter's Torn Quad Posted May 17, 2005 Report Share Posted May 17, 2005 Lawler was still blasting ECW for doing the same things he did. Lawler blasted ECW for being violent and using tables and garbage cans when Lawler was doing the exact same thing 20 years ago. He comes across as a hypocrite for blasting the same thing that he did on a regular basis himself. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loss Posted May 17, 2005 Author Report Share Posted May 17, 2005 I can see the point there to an extent, although even the brawls in Memphis were more based around psychology and getting the crowd to erupt, whereas ECW was more about dangerous stunts used to get a big pop for the "Holy Shit!" factor. Of course he can't say that on TV since it would be a breach of kayfabe, but yeah, Lawler always looks like a hypocrite to me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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