Batista pulls a hammy, another occult character that involves Kevin Thorne gets the axe and R-Truth wasn’t allowed to go to Bizzaro-land last Monday. Apparently it’s was a quiet Christmas week around Hamilton Avenue.
Opening Witty Banter
Thanks to an extended holiday vacation in my backwoods hometown I have been “off the grid” and away from the Internet since Friday morning. Needless to say I’ve got a lot of catching up to do, so forgive the brevity of this week’s column.
Besides it was Christmas this past week so the ‘E was a little slow with the news this week.
Let’s take some ‘E…
The News of the Week
It turns out Randy Orton’s head kick to Batista two weeks ago on RAW was more than just a way to get Orton over as a bad-ass and put heat on the Orton-Batista Evolution feud. Batista had been having hamstring issues on the recent European tour and the injury was aggravated when they returned to the States. Early prognosis is that Batista will be out 6-8 months, obviously putting him out of any WrestleMania XXV plans. In the past big Dave has had two tricep tears as well torn lat muscles.
On the 26th, Dave came out of surgery a success and will start physical therapy almost immediately.
I thin I am with a lot of wrestling fans in that I would never wish harm on a wrestler, but I am glad that Batista is off of television for the foreseeable future. Batista had become incredibly stale over the past months (or years) and he desperately needed a heel turn to freshen up his character. He had become the main event guy who you know wouldn’t win, and I think this time away from television will be good for Dave, WWE creative and fans who are getting tired of seeing big Dave take up TV time. I think he will come back next summer with renewed vigor, an excited fan base, a fresh perspective from creative, some possible new opponents and a ready-made revenge feud with Orton all waiting in the wings. Other than the pain and suffering Dave must go through, it sounds like a win-win for most involved.
The company has already dropped all plans for the new Hade Vansen character that was debuted in a video package on SmackDown! two weeks earlier. The plan was the character to be “Fallen Angel”-like occult character who apparently would be thrust immediately into a feud with Undertaker. Kevin Thorne also would have made his return to TV as a heavy for Vansen’s character, and developmental talent Black Pain would also have been brought up to work in the angle. Now all three characters are scrapped and all three talents will remain in developmental until something else comes along. Michael Hayes was behind the entire angle but Vince McMahon himself scrapped the angle, not wanting an unproven developmental guy put into a high-profile angle with Undertaker.
Okay why wouldn’t they have programmed the new character against low-card guys like Jesse and Festus or even someone like R-Truth or Great Khali before being thrown into the main event wolves against Undertaker? Apparently Hayes was also behind SmackDown!’s last occult figure in Mordecai, which failed miserably before being transformed into Kevin Thorn. I can’t really say any more than that as there wasn’t enough footage of the character to even begin to develop. I would imagine some fans didn’t even notice the vignette and chalked it up to some goofy commercial or even fast forwarded through it.
R-Truth was denied access into Canada last week when WWE entered Toronto for the RAW/SmackDown Supershow taping last Monday. Truth went back to America and was obviously not a part of the double show.
This comes off the heals of the reports that R-Truth is in the doghouse for his subpar wrestling skills. Time will tell what happens with Truth in the coming weeks on SmackDown! His win-loss record in the new year may help determine where Truth lies on the SD! booking scale.
On the 22nd, WWE’s legal team filed a motion in regards to the Levy/Sanders/Kanyon “independent contractors” case, asking for a full dismissal of the lawsuit. WWE’s legal team provided 89-pages of motions and judgments from other cases of a similar nature to back up their motion. WWE claims the following:
“The wrestlers’ contract explicitly says they are “independent contractors” who are not entitled to health coverage and other benefits, and that no claims the wrestlers make can trump those contracts. The Plaintiffs cannot escape the clear language of the Booking Contracts.”
Both sides are now awaiting the court’s decision.
I’m seriously digging this court case. I can’t wait to hear the next chapter of this drama.
The Road to…Royal Rumble
30 Man Royal Rumble Match
no participants officially announced so far
World Heavyweight Championship
John Cena (c) v. either Randy Orton, JBL, Chris Jericho or Shawn Michaels
rumored matches:
Jeff Hardy v. Edge for the WWE Championship
CM Punk v. William Regal for the Intercontinental Championship
Hurricane Helms v. Shelton Benjamin for the US Championship
Wrestler of the Week
Week of December 22 – 28: Trish Stratus
This past week’s RAW was a pretty awesome show overall thanks in part to the sheer number of matches, the main-event quality of said matches (I’m looking at you Punk and Jericho) and the “bizarre” Toronto fans, but the high-point was the show-long story that led to the one-night return of Canada’s hottest export – Trish Stratus. Her return blew the roof of the place and looked like she didn’t miss a beat after being gone from the ring for over two years. Please WWE give her millions of dollars to go against Beth Phoenix at WrestleMania for another one-night shot.
RAW’s On Tonight!
It should be another show on RAW tonight as JBL, Chris Jericho, Shawn Michaels and Randy Orton meet in an elimination match to determine John Cena’s World Championship contender at the Royal Rumble. Being it’s elimination style it should go at least 30 minutes in order to do it proper justice. Plus I would imagine some Royal Rumble qualifying matches would start tonight as well.
On Last Week’s Episode…
Norine brings the SmackDown!
Marshall and Blatt provided double RAW coverage.
How They Rated
SmackDown! (12.19.08) – 2.1
Tribute to the Troops (12.20.08) – .9
A.M. RAW (12.21.08) –
RAW (12.22.08) – 3.2
ECW (12.23.08) –
This is Boring, What Else is There to Read?
I was all ready to jump on Kirschner for aping my Wrestler of the Week feature (which I have aped from numerous places previously) but then I see he went a totally ‘nother way and actually made it informative to those unfamiliar with the CHIKARA roster. Good stuff.
For more relevant wrestling information from your truly, check out my other gig as the Pro Wrestling Examiner over at Examiner.com.
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