Who's wearing the pants?

It's time for another installment from the aussie mouthpiece. It's another wednesday, and that means another RAW has come and gone, and I'm here to give my thoughts.

So let's get straight to it.

I like where it's going. I like that they aren't rushing this angle. Who sent the text message? We still don't know, but now, as CM Punk said, it looks like we have a little mystery on our hands. And it's just getting more and more complex as each episode plays out.

Last week Kevin Nash didn't seem right. It didn't feel comfortable. He didn't seem comfortable. Luckily this week, things changed. Maybe it was being in the ring with his good buddy Hunter, maybe it was just a case of nerves, being back on a big stage (let's face it, TNA isn't really big time these days) for the first time in a long time. But, as I said last week, I am a huge Kevin Nash fan, so I am really glad that he seemed more comfortable in the ring. And I hope we eventually see him wrestling.


I also really like the story that's developing with Dolph and Vickie. Dolph is a great performer, he's going to be a world champion soon. Vickie is doing really well as a manager, and she is really over as a heel. I really hope they decide to run with the idea of giving her a stable of guys (possibly girls too) to manage, and bring back this idea of managers. They add so much to someone's presence. Remember when Shawn Michaels split from Janetty? He gained Sherri's managerial services, and was suddenly a top singles guy. Anyone who was associated with Bobby Heenan was automatically a massive heel. As the brain once said, "you listen to me, you go to the top. You don't listen to me... you're never heard from again".

So let's get into the specifics.

Straight away, let me say I'm hoping that Kevin Nash get's "hired"... it seems weird that he has no entrance music. But, I like the way it's being done, as HHH said, "He doesn't work here". That gives this angle the potential to run for a long time.

Anyway, here's the part where i start talking about what I liked about the show.

Man, I tell you what, I loved the ending to last week's show. Oh no, I just said i loved something Cena did! Look out, all those Cena haters are going to jump all over me. Big deal. Keep an open mind.
John IS changing his character ever so slightly. But he's doing it because it's right for the business, not to appease the people who dislike him.
But he's angry. He's got attitude. He's got balls. And that can only be a good thing.

And he's fighting to keep the integrity of the WWE championship whole. This I can get behind.

Cena's mic work this week was excellent. "I am so sick of trying to make average seem awesome".. I'm starting to wonder if he's talking about Del Rio himself, or the barrage of sub-standard storylines we've been fed for the last few years.
And John is right. As of right now, out of all the talent in the WWE, there's only one guy on RAW that can go with him. and that is CM Punk. I'd put Randy Orton in that category, but other than that, everyone else is retired or not wrestling right now. Shawn, HHH, Edge and Undertaker.
I did always enjoy his matches with Big Show though.

Whenever CM Punk's music hits you know things are going to get good. And as usual we're not disappointed. Punk is the voice of the voiceless again, saying it's a "re-run" and John Cena wants yet another title shot.

One thing i did notice, is Del Rio fits into this opening segment really nicely. He doesn't seem intimidated by being in the ring with, let's face it, the top 2 guys in the WWE right now. This bodes well for the future.

Awesome Jack Tunney reference by Punk.

This all seems very reminiscent of something to me though, in a good way. I watched Wrestling with Shadows last night, for the first time. A big part of that talks about the change from the wholesome product, with Bret Hart as the good guy, to the "evil" Stone Cold Steve Austin becoming a fan favourite, even though he is a "typical heel" type character. That's what's happening with Punk right now. He, as he said, insulted Stephanie McMahon right to her face at Summerslam. But he got cheered for it. It's a good sign, that things are changing. And every rebel needs a "man" to rebel against.. I'm not saying they're trying to re-create McMahon/Austin, but Hunter/Punk looks like it could get to that level.


I'd figured this would all lead to a Triple threat for the WWE title at night of champions. I mean I guess we could still get there after the finish to the main event this week. And they do need to make sure that Punk is on the card for Night of Champions. Every match is supposed to be a title match right? Triple Threat seems to be the way to go. Punk shouldn't win though, it should be another screwjob finish. Punk doesn't need the belt for this angle to work.

I guess Morrison/Del Rio was a good match. If you don't count the mis-steps by morrison. Sure he's athletic and high flying, but it takes more than that to be a top guy. If he wants to be the next Shawn Michaels (never going to happen) he needs to develop more of a well rounded style. Also, since coming back, if i'm right, he's only won once in singles competition? Why are they having him lose so much?

Divas. Lets see.. Eve got her neck snapped on the ropes and held her stomach.That kinda sums up how the match went for me.

Already talked about Vickie/Dolph. All i'll say is Alex Riley is the one that feels like an after-thought right now. Sure, he won, but the big story was Dolph and Vickie. Swagger got outshined as well. Admittedly, that's quite easy to do.

Ok so the Nash/HHH/Punk segment. Definitely my favourite part of the episode. Also, I'm so glad JR is getting a more dominant role as commentator. Cole can be the main guy on Smackdown, but JR is the voice of RAW, and he always will be.

As I said, Kevin Nash seemed so much more relaxed and comfortable this week. I don't get why people are worried that the fans of today don't know who Kevin Nash is. I mean, the internet is only a click/swipe/touch away these days. And this angle isn't for the casual fans. Let's be honest, it's for the fans who were sick of the product, and I also think for fans who may have stopped watching, who they're trying to get back.

Nash was great. HHH was great. It still feels a little stilted though. The most interesting part, was HHH saying "If you want to beat up CM Punk, go ahead ..... i don't care". Really think about it. All the little things that HHH has said in the last month, the things that at first seem harmless, and of no importance.. those are the things that people need to pay the most attention to. Not just HHH, everyone involved. Really go back and watch.

CM Punk, I think, may be on the right track. But I think (i hope this doesn't happen) this is all going to end up with Vince trying to get his job back. Laurinitis is Vince's yes-man.. and after the events of this week's RAW, it's clear he's not on HHH's "side". There's something more going on. And it's awesome.

The best part was that we got another HHH/Punk confrontation. And it was just as good as the first one. Punk is pushing the right buttons to get this kind of reaction from HHH and the fans. And Nash was just sticking up for his buddy. Or... was he sticking up for someone else.. someone who sends texts from other people's phones maybe...

The extra little backstage segment with HHH and Nash was good too. Nothing much to talk about, except for Nash telling Hunter that he's changed... It's interesting. I get the feeling Nash is working for Laurinitis, maybe trying to get Hunter to attack someone physically, so Laurinitis can use it as ammo to get Vince's job back. Just a thought.


Pastel colours don't look good as wrestling tights! And once again, the new tag team champions are just two singles guys who have been put together. Why are they teaming together? Why did it start? Give us some back story if you want us to care about the tag team division..

King refereneced the Bushwackers. Awesome.

So new tag champs.. that leads to a rematch at Night of Champions. Maybe there's going to be a run in from one of these apparent new signings of tag teams. .. Do something to make the Tag Team Titles matter.

JR.. A shooting star press is not a 450 splash.

And all we hear is that they've been talking about teaming for a long time after the match.. that doesn't make it interesting.


Ok, the main event starts now. Johnny Ace tells HHH that Nash was in a car accident.. my first thought was just that he did it to get rid of HHH so he could affect the outcome of the main event.

Miz and Truth shouldn't be a team. Truth may benefit from it, but it sends Miz backwards. Miz is main event. That's all.

As soon as this match was announced at the start of the show, it seemed pretty clear to me that Cena was going over. It made sense. it wasn't for any titles, and it keeps putting over the fact that Cena and Punk are on the same level.

Cena gets into the ring in a really impressive way. Just saying.

Ok so the match is the match, we all know what these guys can do in the ring, especially when they're wrestling each other.

Onto the finish.

Nice and simple when you think about it. CM Punk gets distracted, Cena picks up the win. Punk gets screwed over.

But if you add in the fake hospital call that Laurinitis gave HHH, that's when it gets interesting.

Oh, and before i go any further, of course Del Rio was going to attack the winner. Why else would he be out there? He can scout by watching a tv screen in the back.

Ok back to Nash. What does this mean? Did Nash have anything to do with Laurinitis giving HHH false information? My gut says no. Unless the story goes that Nash is being paid lots of money by Laurinitis/whoever Laurinitis is working for. I mean really working for.

Is Del Rio in on it? as the "corporate" champion, if i can use that term?.. I don't think so.

I can't wait for next week. The Nash/HHH confrontation is going to be worth it by itself, even without CM Punk, Cena, and the rest of the good stuff.


So what happens now? Well Nash is clearly operating on someone else's agenda. But the big question is who? The obvious answer is Vince, and that Laurinitis is the go-between with Vince and Nash. But, as with everything that's happened in the last 2 months, there hasn't really been any obvious stuff done, with the exception of the champ vs champ match at summerslam. But that was obvious in a good way. I'm hoping we don't find out who's behind it all until at least around the time of Vengeance. I'm not a big fan of the night of champions PPV, it's limiting in terms of storyline advancement, especially when your main storyline isn't really involving the title right now. But I am fairly sure they'll find a way to keep things interesting.

That's it, i'm done, leave a comment or send me a tweet @TheOZMouthpiece and tell me what you think. And if you don't like it, go suck a lemon.

The case of the Hardy boys and the poor management.

Welcome to another edition of the Aussie Mouthpiece. I am said mouthpiece.

I want to talk about the news that broke today (in australia at least), that being the firing of Matt Hardy from TNA wrestling.

I'm not going to talk about what happened with Matt, I don't know the circumstances, I'm not in any position to judge him, however, as we say in this country, if you drink then drive, you're a bloody idiot. so Matt, you're a bloody idiot.

What i want to talk about is TNA.

More specifically, how the hell can they justify firing Matt Hardy, yet keeping Jeff Hardy on the roster? Matt, who was already suspended from TNA, was caught driving over the alcohol limit. Not at a TNA event, not presently associated with TNA from the suspension. Jeff Hardy showed up to main event a pay-per-view either off of his head, or he became off his head on drugs during the broadcast! How is that not as bad as what happened with Matt Hardy?

How can you keep Jeff Hardy on your roster after that? He made the company look bad. Well, worse than it already looked with Hogan running the show. But showing up and trying to wrestle like that.. I just feel really bad for Sting especially, having to go out there and try to work a match with that guy.

I remember watching Jeff Hardy break out in WWE in 2007 or so I think. He had a match with Triple H, on RAW, and it was great. He was clean, he wasn't botching, he was connecting majorly with the fans, and if i remember correctly, he may have gone over that night. And then he got suspended and missed Wrestlemania 24.

But I remember him coming back, working his way back up and then finally winning the world title at the end of 2008. It was great, I was in, i was a fan.

And then what happened? 6 or so months later, he left. and 2 weeks later was busted with drugs. That was almost it for me with Jeff Hardy.

Let me just stop there, i was a big fan of the Hardys for years, those TLC matches were amazing, and I always liked Jeff because he was different.

So when he left and then straight away was back into drugs.. it was a let down. I'm sure for his more rabid fans it was a big let down. Like "he left just so he could get high again".

So this brings me to TNA again.
First of all they bring Jeff Hardy in, and then turn him heel? Jeff Hardy .. the guy with some of the most loyal fans i've ever seen? Heel? that ain't gonna work. It didn't. he just got high instead.
Then they bring in Matt Hardy, who had claimed on his youtube videos to be in great shape, but it appeared that wasn't the case when he made his first TNA appearance.
Now i don't think Matt looked bad at all, he looked in decent shape, but still, he had enough time after his WWE release (by the way.. the grapes thing.. yeah that was just weird. Trying to explain it as a gimmick.. i didn't buy it. It seemed like drugs.) He still had time to get in shape even better. But that's neither here nor there.

What did he have.. 3 matches in TNA? I didn't really notice when he got suspended to be honest.

Now we all know what happened at Victory Road. Hardy was off his face, and Sting had to wrestle a short match, and basically hold him down for the 3 count, after which Jeff completely no-selled Sting's finisher. Terrible. Made the company look bad as i said earlier.

But what happened? They just gave him time off to "get himself right". No suspension.. no firing.. Why the hell was he allowed to go to the ring in the first place? Who's foolish idea was that? Oh.. i forgot who runs TNA for a minute there....

So Matt Hardy got suspended for "showing up late".. that tends to happen with hangovers.
But the only thing i can think of is that TNA were planning on releasing him before the DWI or whatever you Americans call it happened.

But my point here is, how in the blue hell does Jeff Hardy, who is on trial for drug possession, still have a paid position at TNA, whereas his brother, WHO CAN WRESTLE and isn't potentially going to jail.. well until today.. how do they fire him first? Something is very wrong in TNA. Are they going to have James Storm stop coming out with a beer now? Probably not. Will they make Ric Flair stop talking about his reservations and crap at nightclubs? No.

WWE would.

Matt Hardy, probably shouldn't have a job. But not because of a drink driving incident. Especially when his drug addled brother (have you see those videos Jeff has put on youtube... Jeff.. don't give the guys trying to put you in jail more evidence.. jeez).. has a job in said company.

So as you can probably tell, I've given up on Jeff Hardy. I remember CM Punk cutting a promo about him just after the news of his drug possession came out. I hated CM Punk for that, I thought it was low, and whoever gave that the green light was a scumbag.

But now, after Victory Road.. i couldn't care less.


Anyway, I've written enough about these 2. I really hope they can both sort their lives out, if only for themselves. I don't think we'll see either of them in a (well known) ring for a long time, if ever. But the fact that Jeff Hardy is still employed by TNA shows you what kind of company they really are. And if i was one of the employees of that company, i'd be exteremely pissed off.

That's it, if you liked it, comment it, if you hated it, comment, and then go suck a lemon.

Signing out now.

Never leave your phone lying around.

Another week, and another RAW.

Welcome back to the newly named Aussie Mouthpiece blog. I am the Aussie Mouthpiece (formerly known as the Armchair Mouthpiece), and I'm here to talk about what I liked about RAW.

If you haven't read one of my posts before, this isn't a minute by minute recap of what happened on the show. Basically, what I do is talk about what I feel are the highlights, and what could potentially be in the cards.


So onto the show.

Coming off of Summerslam, which left us with more questions than answers I feel, this show needed to be top notch. We needed to hear from HHH, Punk, Nash, and Cena.

We got that.

But what we didn't get was a great show I don't think.

It felt like they didn't know where they are going with this angle yet. HHH is still in this weird funk of not having his role made completely clear yet..we're being given this 'corporate' good for business version of HHH.. but hopefully this storyline will give us a clearer perspective on where the HHH character stands. I don't think the blend of heel/face works for everyone, and he is one of those guys that it doesn't work for. Edge, CM Punk, Cena it works for.

So HHH started the show, apologised, claimed no prior knowledge of his actions at Summerslam. If they are going down this road of it eventually being HHH, for whatever reason, it kinda feels like we've been down this road before.
When Shawn Michaels returned, in 2002 there was an angle where he was attacked from behind and his head was put through a car window.  HHH claimed no knowledge, said he'd find out who did it.. and eventually it turned out to be HHH who attacked Shawn.
It is slightly different, but it's still the bad guy feigning innocence. I for one hope they don't go with HHH as the "guy who sent the text".

Alberto Del Rio is champion huh? .. I've always really disliked the elitist champions/wrestlers. He's good, sure. He has entertaining matches, and I think having him cash in the MiTB helps move Punk into a different level of his feud, away from John Cena, which means Cena may get more focused towards The Rock (Survivor Series is coming up fairly soon remember), and Punk can start "fighting the power". So to speak.
So Alberto Del Rio is champion.. I say he has the belt for at most, a couple of months.

They gave him a lot of mic time though, was a decent promo. Especially.. "Alberto, what are you gonna do today? I feel like beating up Rey Mysterio!". I just don't see him as the face of the company. Which is kinda what the WWE champion is, even more than the World Heavyweight champion at the moment.

Now, you may wonder why I don't talk about the matches a lot during these RAW posts. I was wondering that myself for a while, but I realised something after watching Raven's latest blog. He talked about why he watches wrestling, and that there are 2 types of people who watch wrestling. Those who watch more for the actual wrestling, and those who watch for the episodic storytelling. You can't tell a good story without the matches, but the matches need to have some kind of story behind them to make them really interesting. And I fall into that category of watching for the episodic storytelling.
That's why.

So Morrison and R-Truth have a falls count anywhere match. And he cut a bad, terrible, boring promo before the match.. Morrison is fairly good in the ring, but he's not awesome. There are other people on the current WWE roster that can do what he does, and more.

Scott Armstrong counts a lot slower than other referees.

The match was decent, but I'm not a huge fan of Morrison, I get a bit bored watching him. R-Truth needs a more serious promo or something. He's great in the ring, but the spiders and the c.o.n... spiracy thing makes it seem like he's a comedic character, when he could easily be so much more. I do like the little jimmy thing though.

One thing i don't like about this falls count anywhere match, is that they spent too much time out of the ring. John Morrison is supposed to be a high flyer right? Truth has a lot of moves that he hits after coming off of the ropes right? How do you do that, if you're out of the ring 80 percent of the time? Think about it.


Miz is great. I like Subway. Sure, that was basically just a big Ad for subway, but it was entertaining.

All i'm going to say about the divas match, is why the hell aren't Kelly and Eve in a match with the people they're feuding with? Bellas are not entertaining. That match, was not entertaining.

Oh hey look Kelly kelly ... who's leg was worked on for the whole match.. is walking with no trouble at all. ........

So this is the part of RAW that i'll be talking the most about. Kevin Nash, and CM Punk.

I am a huge Kevin Nash fan. When i started watching wrestling in 1996/97 he was the guy that became my favourite. So I was really excited about him being back on RAW.

What the hell happened?

He doesn't sound like Kevin Nash.. there was nothing goin on.. he sounds like he's on something. I like the explanation, "just business". Nash has been known for doing "business", so it makes sense.
Like I said, i'm a huge Nash fan, so it was disappointing that he wasn't, at least to me, at his best.

Punk on the other hand, was at his best.

I keep getting worried that the whole "what will he say" thing is going to become a bit stale, like, it'll just become a little boring, a little less shock value, but he keeps pulling out these brilliant lines.

"If Triple H told you to jump off a bridge would you? Because I think that would be good for business".

CM Punk is so good on the mic right now. Scratch that, he's been great on the mic for years, but now we're really getting to see how good he is, because he's been given a bit of freedom. He, and I'm sure not in a malicious way, ran rings around Nash mic wise.

I read that a lot of the little jabs etc. in this promo weren't talked about before hand. You could kind of see Kevin Nash getting pissed off at a few of the things Punk said, but for some reason, it didn't really come across that way in his voice. I just feel like Nash wasn't all there or something, he could be so much better.
He wasn't terrible by any stretch, don't get me wrong. Nash is awesome. He will always be awesome to me.

Punk is on a different level though.

I really hope the text message he read out was real. That was brilliant. Line of the night.

So really, to sum up, Punk was amazing, Nash seemed unsure of what he was saying, but he's still Big Daddy Cool when it all boils down to it, and that means I want to see more.
Also, Nash's goatee is awesome, even if it's a little reminiscent of Undertaker when he was in the ministry.

My only concern is that this is all going to end up a lot like the "Higher Power" story line. What i mean by that is all that's going to happen, the big payoff is that everyone is doing Vince McMahon's bidding. That would be boring.

I like that all the suspects are being shown, and the little backstage segment with Laurinitis and Nash was a great example of that. Now we're thinking.. Laurinitis is Vince's yes-man.. maybe it's Vince! Then later on Stephanie is in Triple H's office.. maybe it's Stephanie!
Regardless, it's interesting, and that's what's important. I'm almost at that point where i'm confident that this change to really entertaining wrestling and storylines is permanent, and they're not going to drop the ball. Almost.

One little thing, Jerry Lawler needs to stop calling Vickie Guererro fat. Hey king, go get some more plastic surgery!

The commentary on the Riley/Swagger match was way more entertaining than the match. And what the hell happened with that finish?

They're trying to rebuild the tag team division and make it relevant again. So instead of just putting two singles wrestlers together, aka evan bourne and kofi.. with no reason as to why they'd team up (unless i'm mistaken).. give us a reason for them teaming up, make them a tag team.. a proper tag team!


So much for giving Rey big plans for this summerslam/raw weekend. I guess maybe it was because of his knee injury, but, I never really believed they were going to have him win the championship.

So I have to talk about John Cena's promo too, because it was very, very good.
He's talking about integrity, bringing as much integrity to the WWE title as possible. I like it.
Cena showing some more attitude.
I love it. Not trying to be funny, no little jokes, just attitude and passion. That's what i want to see. And that's what Cena is giving us.

So what happens now?

Well, I think next week's RAW won't answer everything, I think we'll find out if CM Punk gets to fight Nash, but i'm guessing that wouldn't be at Night of Champions right.. because that's the Pay per view where it's all championship matches. So Vengeance? that's about 2 months away though. It'll be interesting to see what happens.

Clearly it looks to be Del Rio vs Cena coming up at some point. Maybe the night of champions match will be a Triple Threat. Punk vs Cena vs Del Rio. that makes sense.

I think Miz needs to be in there too though, they can't leave him off of two pay per views (I know he was at summerslam, but it was a last minute match)

Should be an interesting few weeks. Can't wait to see more CM Punk, more Nash, more Cena (wow, i just said that). Who knows, maybe more of the kliq will show up.. X-Pac works for WWE right?...

That's it, i'm done, if you don't like it, go suck a lemon.

Who's your (big) Daddy?

Well... time for a Summerslam roundup, review, and general recapping. Let me say this now. If you haven't watched Summerslam, maybe don't read this, because SPOILERS abound.

First general thoughts.. there were way too many ads in the first half of the pay per view.

6-man tag was a good way to get a lot of faces on the show, but didn't really serve any real purpose other than that.

Morrison didn't botch!

The musical guests bored me.

Ok onto the matches.

We open with an unscheduled 6-man tag match.

Miz cuts a promo and gets interrupted by R-Truth who cuts a promo and gets interrupted. This all feels really thrown together at the last minute. It's a shame that they couldn't have done a little more than this.
R-Truth's vest is now "Little Jimmy Proof".

I understand why they did the match, it gets these guys on the pay per view, even if there's nothing really going on with any of them at the moment. Maybe a better idea would have been take out 2 of them, take your pick really.. and add in Dolph, and Riley, and change it to a battle royal for the US title. Just for fun.

The match was pretty good however, and I definitely think the guys made the best of what they got. I'm pretty sure Rey's knee was troubling him though, he didn't get involved until the end of the match really.
Kofi Kingston is really talented, but it feels like he's stuck in this spot at the moment.. he needs to make something happen if he wants to rise up the ranks, so to speak. His crazy high clothesline/cross body thing at the end of the match was amazing though.

R-Truth is less of a joke tonight. Good to see.

Morrison is not as good as Morrison thinks he is.

I gotta stop talking about the match for a second though. The commentary from Booker T (and Cole at points) is awful. I can't believe that they went with Booker over Jim Ross. JR explained on twitter that Booker helps represent smackdown, but, I don't know, it feels like if you're going to bring him back, you'd want him commentating on your big events.

Ok back to the rest of the match.

Miz did something i've never seen before. It looks like a version of a Cutter, except that Miz dropped to his knees not his back. Kind of like a Cutter, mixed with a Stunner.. A... Stutter?

Not much else to say, the finish was fairly obvious, especially after 10 minutes and Rey Mysterio not being in the ring.. But what I did like is that having Del Rio in the opening match maybe took away a bit of the idea that he would cash in his money in the bank..... little did we know...

Was a good finish, and man... Rey kicked Truth in the head so hard! Morrison hit a great spinning plancha, and Kofi hit that huge clothesline. Rey with the 619 and splash for the win.

Solid opening match, especially given no prior notice for us. I give it... 6.5/10

Laurnintis is a tool. CM Punk needs to kick him in the head again.

Was really surprised to see Stephanie, but it definitely makes sense, seeing that CM Punk has brought her up in recent weeks. And it highlights the importance of the main event, that she would show up as a corprorate figure.

I love the crowd reaction to seeing Stephanie. Wooooaaaahhhhhh instead of the usual cheer.

One of the best lines of the night at the end of this segment. "I would, but uh.. i know where that hand's been". Hahaha. Punk delivers again. Damn he is on fire at the moment.

So Sheamus and Mark Henry is up next.

I gotta be honest, I wasn't looking forward to this match. I haven't watched a lot of Smackdown lately, and I'm not a believer that Mark Henry is talented enough to go higher than mid-card. I figured that out when he wrestled Undertaker at WM 22.
Sheamus, I hadn't really seen as a babyface yet, still wasn't sure how that would go.

I was pleasantly surprised on both fronts.

Mark Henry is doing really well with this push he's being given. It's believable. Just as Sheamus is, with the Irish warrior thing he's got going on.

From thinking about how this could go, it didn't make sense to have Sheamus win. If Sheamus beats Henry, Henry loses all momentum.
But if Sheamus loses, it doesn't do anything for Sheamus.
Absolute best line of the night was "Oh man... he just left a skidmark on that boy". Thankyou Booker T. Thankyou so much.

Sheamus is excellent as a babyface. The crowd seemed really into him every time he tried to make a comeback. And when he tied Henry up in the ropes and started pounding his chest, man.. Henry looked like he couldn't take it. Those shots sounded brutal.

The finish was great, and worked so well to keep both guys going. It put Henry over as a monster who can dominate anyone, and with Sheamus not being pinned, it didn't make him look weak either. If you get to watch a replay, check out the guy directly to the right of the impact in the front row, his reaction is priceless.

All in all, a much better match than I originally thought, Sheamus is going to go a long way. 7/10 (just for the finish!)

Cee Lo did some singing. I was hoping Mo and Mabel would come out and join him, we could have had a men on a mission reunion.
Divas joined him for whatever the second song was... and even that didn't make it more interesting for me.
Nuff said.

So the Diva's title match is up next.
This was a match I was looking forward to, not because it was going to be a classic or anything, mainly because I, like a lot of people, wanted to see Beth Phoenix knock the crap out of Kelly Kelly.
I don't buy Kelly as a tough wrestling type girl. Not in the slightest.
So there's not a lot to say about this match either, Beth had new ring gear.. I'm not sure about it, kinda liked the old stuff, but it's not bad by any stretch.
I didn't like the ending at first, with Kelly getting the quick pin, but thinking about it, it does make more sense to keep her (kelly) the champion, maybe next month's pay per view will be the changing of the times. Let them build Beth and Natalya up a bit more, have them destroy the Bellas (please) or something.

One other thing, Kelly Kelly needs to learn how to hit the ropes. It annoys me every single time i see it. The point of hitting the ropes is to get extra speed right? She turns, stops, and just touches them. It's ridiculous.

Anyway, Beth was great, Kelly wasn't. I hope we have a new Women's champion soon. 5/10

Stephanie on camera again, coming out of Cena's dressing room. I love what they're doing with this angle.

Great to see Jimmy Hart too. Although you could see the Little Jimmy coming miles away.

Wade Barrett vs Daniel Bryan.
I was looking forward to this one. Bryan is great, and i'm really starting to love what Barrett is doing. He comes across legitametly tough, reminds me of William Regal.
What i was NOT looking forward to was Michael Cole talking. Enough with the nerd crap Cole, you were a damn cheerleader!
Anyway, as I said I was really looking forward to this match. And i wasn't disappointed.
Lots of great back and forth action, Bryan showing a lot of submissions and locks and stuff you don't usually see in WWE matches.
Oh and his kicks look amazingly brutal.
Barrett hit some awesome moves too. that swinging sidewalk slam, and springboard backbreaker were two highlights for me.
Other highlights, Daniel Bryan's knee into Barrett's head. Owch.
The clothesline when Bryan was straddling the top rope.
Anyway, Barrett is awesome, Bryan is awesome. Let's hope we see more of these two in matches. 8/10

Orton and Christian ... I was hoping this would be good, but i wasn't expecting it to be.
Man was I wrong.

I think like everyone, knowing that this was going to be the 4th time in a row it would be Orton vs Christian for the WHC, I was kind of at that point of "again?..."

Again was worth it.

And we got the added surprise of Edge.
Now that was good, I got a little excited when he came out. But then I started thinking, Edge retired as a face, and the crowd are cheering him now... why would he side with the heel in this match?
So I was glad when he called Christian a bitch and left.

And the match was amazing. Orton was bleeding from 3 or 4 different places at the end of it, you could tell it was really brutal.
I loved the use of the table, leaving it flat on the ring mat instead of setting it up and then hitting the superplex on it. That was really different, and great. I guess it helped make it easier to put christian through it when Orton powerslammed him through it.
Orton still looks like Giant Gonzales to me, but with a lot more talent.
I was thinking for a while we'd see Edge again towards the end of this match, especially when Christian began to set up the Con-chair-to. The setup reminded me of the spot at the Royal Rumble a couple of years ago when Matt turned on Jeff Hardy. Sort of, I don't know, I just remembered that when he went for the chair. But I think it was right that we didn't see Edge, it was more like he said his piece and that was enough.
Also this is just a personal thing, but spitting on someone else is disgusting. I'm glad Orton beat the snot out of Christian after that.

So many brutal spots in this match, though the two that stand out for me were the RKO through the announce table, and the DDT onto the trash can.
Randy seemed like the obvious choice to have win this match, hopefully this is the finish of this feud, and we can move on to something new going forward.
Overall .. easily the 2nd best match of the night. 8.5/10.

One other thing, it's amazing how much of a reaction Orton could get, just by putting Christian's head on those steps and then placing his foot on top.. really, watch that part back again if you can. Sometimes it's what you don't do that leaves more of an impression. Sometimes you leave someone's face impression on a garbage can too.

And now we have the main event.
I love CM Punk's thing of sitting cross legged in the ring. just sayin.
I'm trying to understand the relevance of Cena saying to the camera "This is where i started. I used to walk the concourse of this place.. in gimmick".. I guess he just wanted to say it. Weird.

This match had so much hype to live up to, not just from Money in The Bank, but all of the promos on RAW. CM Punk was going to have to back up what he said, and Cena was going to have to prove he is who he said he was.
And HHH added into the mix just added to the expectations.

There were so many ideas floating around for the finish. HHH screws Punk, ADR cashes in his money in the bank.
HHH screws Cena.
Cena turns heel. (not going to happen)
I don't think most people were expecting that kind of finish though. I mean, apart from the foot on the rope, it was basically a clean finish. As i said in my previous blog what I thought might've happened is HHH ended up screwing Cena.. So i guess in a way I was right. But it was "accidental".

Oh yeah.. Why the hell is Michael Cole telling us which wrestler is which? First of all, even if someone hadn't watched before tonight, they've just seen a promo package of the events leading up to this match, they've both made their entrances with their names on the tron, and they've just been introduced by the ring announcer. WE KNOW WHO THEY ARE! Where's JR... seriously!

Ok onto the actual match.

Cena pulled out a lot of different moves in this match, I was really impressed with him. More so than usual. Because he's always consistent, he's always good at what he does, but there was a lot of new stuff. Maybe he's trying to show he can be more than the 5 moves of doom, not for the people who hate him, but for himself. I believe that's the only reason he'd change. Cena is not going to bow to pressure just to get people to like him. Best example, he hit a rolling sideslam/rock bottom looking thing.

Having said that, I loved the "Fruity Pebbles" chants.

Another thing i loved about this match was they went out there trying to do something different than Money in the Bank. There was a deliberate pace, lots of headlocks, lots of submission type moves, they didn't just go out there and try to recreate what they did a month ago. Punk even pulled out the Koji-Clutch.
So like i said, lots of different moves, lots of originality. Also, the way that Punk and Cena broke up each other's standard "routines" was great. Makes it feel different.

And man, Punk hit his head hard on that dive through the ropes onto Cena/the barricade. Sure, it's padded.. but so are boxing gloves. But it did lead to that awesome little spot of Triple H throwing them both back into the ring to stop the double count-out.

Favourite part of the match was CM Punk hitting the Macho Man elbow and the crowd going nuts chanting "Randy Savage".

I was really surprised at the finish, it seemed to happen very quickly, at a different pace to the rest of the match. Maybe they were running low on time or something. Not anything hugely different or anything, just we had Cena looking like he was making a comeback, but then within 10 seconds Punk hit his finisher and Cena's foot was on the rope.

Now, after thinking about this for a few hours.. I love this ending. Neither guy looks bad, because of the shady finish.
I was almost sure HHH was going to pedigree CM Punk when he raised his hand as the winner.. But as i've said before, it's all the little things that they're doing that make this feud, this storyline so great. Punk didn't take his eyes off of HHH so that there would be no way he could surprise him.
And then Holy SHIT... it's Kevin Nash! (with a sweet goatee by the way) That was the best moment of the whole show. Sure, he left Punk laying on the mat, but it's Kevin Nash!

And then... Alberto cashes his money in the bank. I've seen a few people talking about how in the past there's been rules like "the champ must be able to defend himself" but I think that goes against the whole idea of the briefcase. Remember the first time it was cashed in.. Edge on John Cena? Cena was bloodied, and had just gone through an elimination chamber match. That's what the briefcase is for.. for a guy to take advantage of a situation. I have no problem with that part of it.

Here's why Kevin Nash being the guy to attack Punk is brilliant. Kevin Nash, is Triple H's friend. We know this. Kevin Nash talked about coming back on the road full time, mentioning Cm Punk on twitter. Kevin Nash has been a bodyguard before. So the question now is why? Why did he do it?
CM Punk is going to think it was HHH's plan all along. Cena is going to be pissed with HHH for missing the foot on the rope. See where it's headed? It elevates this story even further.

So why did Nash do it? Well.. I have a feeling we didn't see Stephanie McMahon for no reason. Nash has said for years, that he's about money. Hopefully we get some answers on RAW this week. And Rey gets his championship match this week too, against Del Rio. That should be interesting.. But what will be even more interesting is how HHH sorts all of this out. The way he played the end of Summerslam was great, looking confused, and worried, and like he knew this was all going to come back to him because he was the special guest ref.

So for the last match, overall.. I think it lived up to the hype, it was easily as good as money in the bank, wrestling wise. 9/10

So overall, I really enjoyed Summerslam, and still i'm really excited for RAW this week. I can't wait to see where this is heading.. will Nash be back for a while, was it a one time deal with someone? How will Triple H try to solve all the problems that were caused?.. Who gets a rematch for the title?

What do you all think? Leave me a comment, or follow me on twitter at @TheACMouthpiece and tell me.

And if you don't like what i've said, go suck a lemon.

The Calm before the storm No. 2

Welcome back to the couch of creativity, with me, The Armchair Mouthpiece. I'm here to shoot some truthfacts right in your learning holes.

So I did something like this just before money in the bank. Basically, just going to give my thoughts on everything that's led us up to where we are at this point.

So I find it a bit strange that there are only 5 matches on the card right now for Summerslam. Thinking about it, there's a few reasons I've come up with as to why. Maybe we'll get some unnannounced matches, maybe for the Tag Team titles, maybe the US title.. Miz has to be involved somehow too.

Maybe there's going to be a crazy ending. Like money in the bank, but a lot longer. I don't mean the same as money in the bank, what i mean is where the end of the last match isn't the end of the pay per view.. where there's maybe a run in, or a return of some kind. I find it interesting that Paul Bearer is headed to L.A this weekend. Coincidence? maybe. Undertaker returning with Paul Bearer for one final run up to Mania? Well, like i said, only 5 matches on the card.. and 180 minutes of Pay Per View to fill. Remember the Royal Rumble 2006 where he came back at the end of the main event? ....

The other possibility I thought of was that maybe one of the MiTB winners will be cashing in their championship match. I mean think about it. 180 minutes.. 5 matches. the main events usually go 20-30 minutes.. Punk/Cena at mitb went about 45. But even so, say three 20 minute matches, that's one hour, 2 main event matches makes up maybe another hour and a quarter.. that leaves 45 minutes. enough time for another match, some kind of returning character, some kind of surprise anyway. Who knows, anything seems possible with what's been happening lately..

I would imagine though, we're going to see more than 5 matches.

Now what do I think are the matches to look forward to? Well, Cena/Punk is obvious. But the other two that i'm going to pick are the Diva's Title match, simply because of the storyline, and also Daniel Bryan/Wade Barrett. The only thing I'm not looking forward to is Michael Cole's commentary. Let's hope JR gets a lot of air time, I'm sick of hearing how "daniel bryan is a nerd".

Wade Barrett is definitely doing well for himself lately, he comes across as a legitimate tough guy, kind of like William Regal. Sure, maybe it's got something to do with the accent, but whatever works, you run with right? So that match is definitely one to watch out for.

I'm not doing predictions of who I think is going to win, because more often than not i'm wrong when i do that. So I'll just leave it at that.

The Diva's title match. I doubt it's going to be a wrestling classic, you need two great wrestlers, not just one, to pull that off. What it should be, is a changing of the times. As Beth Phoenix said, enough of the pretty perky divas. Let's have a champion that can actually wrestle, going against opponents that can actually wrestle. Except.. there's not that many on the roster that have that ability. I mean to the level that Beth Phoenix, Natalya, .. does Kharma still count?

Honestly it seems a little strange that 2 of their more talented female wrestlers have been let go or have quit in the past week. The skeptic in me wants to say that it's an angle with Gail Kim, but who knows? As long as we don't have to see hair takedowns in every diva's match, i'll be happy.

I think the Orton/Christian match is one match too many. Times have changed, at first I thought.. "but rememeber when feuds would last an entire year, building to a wrestlemania.. with the two opponents actually wrestling each other for that whole year? or at least longer than 2 months before people get bored. The last time any rivalry wokred that well was Edge vs Cena. And before you yell at me, Rock/Cena isn't the same thing because the rock ISN'T there. Which makes me feel like he's the heel. I don't care what he says, he's not showing up for more than a few "special appearances" before mania. And I'm fairly sure we won't see him before Survivor Series actually in a WWE ring.

So onto the main event. The big questions.. Why did Triple H insert himself into the match.. I see people writing about how it's an ego thing behind the scenes, HHH can't help but put himself into the spotlight.. These people seem to think Vince isn't running the show anymore. Hey people... wake up! Vincent K McMahon is still running the show.
So what's going to happen? Is HHH going to screw one of them? Well, from what we saw on RAW, they're trying to get us to think that CM Punk is under the impression that HHH and Cena have worked this all out, that the "fix is in" as he put it. I think we're going to see HHH and Cena come to blows honestly. I think there will be some kind of swerve. And I think by the end of the night, we will know for sure wether or not Triple H is a heel or a face in this new role.

I vote for heel.

Please, Heel Triple H is awesome. Remember 2003? Evolution? Amazing.

I HOPE CM Punk retains. John Cena doesn't need the title right now. He's got the feud with the Rock. Just off the top of my head.. here's a "how i might book it".

Cena gets screwed by HHH, siding with Punk (everything we've seen so far has been a swerve to get our minds away from that). This ushers in a slightly less PG environment. Punk goes on to feud with Mysterio, Miz, whoever is in the title picture. Hell he and John morrison had some amazing matches on ECW.
Cena meanwhile is pissed with HHH, and challenges him to a match at.. Vengeance? apt name. Maybe HHH says no, but you can fight this guy.. we get Nash back in the ring as Diesel.

So this keeps Cena in the main event picture, but not in the title picture. Then we're leading up to survivor series, Punk and HHH come to blows somehow, and the angle that i've seen on wrestling news sites takes place and we get Punk/HHH at Survivor Series. Maybe HHH gets involved with a Punk title defense and costs him the title inadvertently again at Vengeance.

As to who the WWE champion may be if all that happened.. who knows.. Rey (if he's healthy).. if not, Miz is the obvious choice. Or push a new guy for a few months. See if he can handle it. I'm talking Ziggler, or Morrison (let's hope not morrison). Del Rio even.

Here's a thought. Undertaker has been mentioned in WWE magazine in an article about the Vengeance PPV. Maybe, and again, off the top of my head... Taker returns at Vengeance, basically calls out Cena ( I don't know why!) But we get Cena/Taker at survivor series, in which Rock interferes.I don't know, I know that you need to keep Cena relevant though, which means either Title matches or big name matches.


I'd be interested to know what people think of that, it's the first time i've done anything like that, thinking about how i'd have a story go. Now obviously I claim no experience in actually booking anything, it's just some ideas i have. Please let me know what you think.

So to sum up, looking forward to CM Punk/Cena, and Bryan/Barrett mainly. Hopefully we get something extra, a surprise of some kind.

Summerslam awaits.
Until next time, this is the Armchair Mouthpiece, returning to the couch.

All knowledge, no matter how miniscule, how minute, will always be of use eventually.

Is the fix in?

Welcome back once again. I am the Armchair Mouthpiece, the lord of the lazyboy. And i'm here to hit you with the truthfacts.

It's that time again, another Raw has come along. So it's time for me to give my thoughts about it. What I think. You, the readers can think what you like, feel what you like. This is what I think. It's just me saying "here's my opinion, do you agree? why/why not?" If you don't like it, go suck a lemon.

So I'll be honest. I, like I'm sure a lot of people are focused on the main storyline that we're seeing at the moment, the CM Punk, John Cena, HHH and Rock saga. So once again most of what i'm writing will be to do with that.

I don't like that there's been no build up for anything else on Summerslam, at least from the RAW side of things. I mean aside from the Diva's Championship match. Which, for once, I'm at least a little interested in seeing. Mostly because Beth Phoenix is going to destroy Kelly Kelly. I know that it's Randy Orton vs Christian in a no holds barred match.. I always hated that name.. No Holds Barred.. it doesn't apply these days. Just call it a No DQ match, or a street fight. And Sheamus vs Mark Henry. That's all we have so far for the 2nd biggest pay per view of the year? ... I mean yes, everything is kind of revolving around Punk/Cena (and now HHH), but if this pay per view is second only to Wrestlemania, then there should be a better card, now what... only 5 days from the pay per view? Imagine if Wrestlemania was booked this way.. terrible.

But now onto RAW and what stood out for me. I'll get to the obvious in a little bit, but to begin, I am sick of Michael Cole. Why did JR come back if he's not going to be the lead play-by-play guy? Doesn't make sense to me. JR isn't a 3rd man kinda guy. Not anymore. I was watching Survivor Series 1995 last night, even then when he WAS the 3rd guy on the commentary team he still stood out, and i'm talking 16 years ago.

I get the feeling the angle shot with Miz and Mysterio was just in case Rey's knee is injured again, I read that he got hurt at a house show. So hopefully Rey isn't hurt too badly, and we can at least get some kind of match at Summerslam. Having said that, Miz hasn't been champion for about 3 or 4 months now, he lost the title at Extreme Rules if i'm correct, and he's not in the title picture now.. He's still calling himself the most "must see WWE champion" though.. I get what he means, but i think it would make more sense now to say something like "most must-see WWE superstar". But his promo was solid, really good I thought, he's one of those guys who just "has it".. and from what I understand he's had to go through some hard times to get there, so he definitely has my respect.

Am I the only one that doesn't think John Morrison lives up to his hype? he keeps botching movies.. people talk about Sin Cara botching moves.. look at Morrison though. I don't actually remember him hitting his finishing move cleanly, ever. It's always off target and he only hits with his arm or something. I remember not too long ago people were calling him "the next shawn michaels"... not a chance in hell. Seriously, Shawn Michaels, compared to John Morrison? there is no comparison. Morrison is good in the ring, and that parkour stuff is awesome to watch. But he's terrible on the mic. And without that getting better, he's not going to be able to connect in the same way that Michaels, Austin, Rock, CM Punk have.

HHH made himself the special referee for the Summerslam main event. I love this move. As soon as he started talking about it, you could see there was just a hint of what could happen if he turns Heel. He started talking about "how do you ensure one undisputed champion? You put someone in there who can control everything" (i'm paraphrasing.) He talked about change, how it's been a theme lately. He's right, and as far as I can tell, things are going to keep changing. Has anyone else noticed they're using "Anything can happen" again.. just like back in 1995/96. Just a nice little coincidence.

Now when he started talking about who the guy he picked was.. that was the start of the Heel turn. As he started reeling off the "larger than life" stuff, for about 5 seconds four or five names ran through my head. Who's he talking about? First I thought himself (always go with your first instincts is the lesson). Then as he said that man "towers over not only John Cena, but CM Punk" I started thinking Big Show? no.. Undertaker? Why would he come and referee..  then i thought Diesel/Kevin Nash... he's under contract with WWE, he's larger than life and towers over everyo.. oh what HHH said it was himself. Damn. Seriously though, I would've bought Kevin Nash being the Ref. He's buddies with HHH, he's talked about (and to) Punk on twitter.. it could have worked.

But I think HHH being the referee makes sense if the plan is to make him a bad guy.

And then we are told that there's going to be a contract signing. That peaked my interest, because it meant that CM Punk and Cena would be on the mic.

One thing i really liked was the little exchange between Cena and Triple H during Cena's entrance. Everything about this angle is really well done, and feels different. They played it perfectly. Cena trying to keep his words hidden from the camera's microphone, but not really at the same time.. and questioning HHH's motives. Really well done.

I'll be honest, I kind of skipped through most of the matches this week. For a few reasons. One, because i was watching at about 3am. 2, and this is more specific. I do not like Jack Swagger. He looks like Biff from Back To The Future. And that running around the ring gimmick, is kinda awful. Cena wins, nuff said.

R-Truth has become a joke. Sucks, coz Truth is awesome. Spider Soup? really?

Oh and another thing. Kofi Kingston is great, but pastel colours make him look weak. He is not weak.

Alberto Del Rio is awesome. But he needs a finisher that isn't a submission. It limits what stories can be told in a match if he always has to "work on a body part". He used a backstabber in his match on RAW with Punk this week.. Make that his second finisher or something. Give him a bit more freedom.

Ok onto the contract signing.

Oh wait, Divas. The gap in talent between the few that can actually wrestle well and the ones that can't is huge. Beth Phoenix, Natalya, ...who else is there?.. Oh right they fired one other one with talent, and the other quit. Beth Phoenix spoke the truth after decimating Eve this week. It should be about WRESTLING! Not perving.

Kelly Kelly looks unsure about everything she does. If change is really in the air, we will see a new Women's champion at Summerslam.


Dolph Ziggler will be in the title picture for real soon. He's one of the best things going today.

Ok onto the contract signing for real this time.

I love that Punk is given the freedom to say things that seem "contreversial" Talking about how what the contract signing segment is really used for was great.
Using the Rock's facebook video was interesting, but I'm guessing it was just used to keep the rivalry going between Rock and Cena. One a side note, Rock is boring. Yup i said it. I'm not a massive Cena fan, but Rock is coming across like a bully to me. Taking shots at Cena because of how he looks/dresses/what music he likes. And Rock? I'm a man, and you DON'T represent me.
But this isn't about the Rock, that's for another blog.
I LOVE Cena's promo on the haters. "maybe i could increase my workrate, maybe i could add to the 5 moves of doom, maybe i could let my heel persona shine through".. Ha! Brilliant. All signs of change. Cena said Punk (and the voiceless) think maybe he's a "product of the system". I think that's true. He's been marketed to kids. He did change.
He said maybe he's a little "too pg for ya". It's not him, it's the product as a whole. Cena being the face of said product, he gets the brunt of the criticism. Now I may not be a huge Cena fan, but i've said it before, I respect him for sticking to his guns, for not pandering to the people who hate him. Sure he's a product of the system, but he's not changing who he is to fit in with what other people want. And really, isn't that what CM Punk is doing too? Just in a different way?
But back to Punk.
It looked like to me after HHH called him gutless and Cena called him a phony, Punk actually got legitimately mad.
Maybe that's why he dropped the names of the released wrestlers. Laurinitis sure didn't look happy when Kozlov, Smith and Masters were mentioned. But then, maybe it's all part of the story and really, isn't that the mark of a good promo or angle? When we, the so called smart wrestling fans question wether something is real or not?

Only problem is dropping names has lost a little of it's effect since the first time he did it.

Punk was at his best as usual though, telling Cena he gave up on his dreams etc. It's all great stuff, it's all the signs of change happening.
Cena having the last word was great. He delivered that last little part so well. "You will be a loudmouth, one hit wonder". Punk calling Cena a phony seemed to get under his skin a little too.

The last thing i want to talk about is the ending of the show. It was, without a doubt, the best part of the entire show.

It was so well done, all the little things that came together to set up this match.
I'm talking about after the predictable table thrown aside spot.
Punk and Cena get in each other's faces, and Laurinitis breaks them up, firstly pushing Punk back, and then turning around to Cena to push him back. Now this is where it gets brilliant.
Punk goes to kick Cena in the head, but hits Laurinitis and MISSES Cena. Laurinitis goes down (which I'm always happy to see), and the HHH gets in front of Punk. Now Cena, in retaliation, goes to Punch CM Punk in the face, kind of hits HHH but actually CONNECTS with Punk.
That's important. That Punk missed, but Cena hit. Because what happened is Punk didn't see HHH and Cena argue and shove each other because he was knocked down and rolling out of the ring. So as far as Punk sees, he gets hit in the face with HHH holding him back, and then the next thing he sees, is HHH and Cena standing next to each other in the ring.

I can't stress enough how awesome that was. It sets up the match perfectly. Cena won't back down from HHH or Punk, Punk now thinks, as he said .. that "the fix is in" and Cena and HHH are working together, and everything will go back to the soul crushing status quo. Triple H is, at least appearing to be trying to maintain order, and send the impression that that's what he's going to do as the referee. But, let me take you back to the opening segment. He never said "I'm going to call it right down the middle." He said "I will call it, as I see it". And we all know, if the ref doesn't see it, it never really happened. Little touches like that are what the WWE has been missing, the little things that push the storylines over the edge and make them great, instead of good.

Absolutely brilliant ending. If you can, really go back and watch it to see what i'm talking about. CM Punk as the underdog, the guy that doesn't fit what society (or in this case, the WWE) says is "the norm", which I relate to. This match has a lot to live up to, but adding the special Ref element will give it a different flavour.

Let's just hope that the rest of the card will be as entertaining at the last 45 minutes or so are sure to be.

That's it. I hope you enjoyed reading this, leave me a comment, follow me on twitter at @TheACMouthpiece and remember, you only get truthfacts from the couch. and Cena is the beets of pro-wrestling. #CenaIsBeets

I hate you. You're so good.

Welcome back.... Back to hear some more from me, the Armchair Mouthpiece.

Today i'm doing something different. Today i'm talking about something that bothers me. Not a specific event or person, just a general annoyance that I've been wanting to get off of my chest for a long time.

Heels. 

Or, Antagonists. Bad Guys. Not "The bad guy", that's Razor Ramon, and he is great. 

And namely, the fact that I don't think that a lot of heels, or antagonists, get the credit they deserve. Now, I may be wrong, but I want to say my piece regardless.

I think that it's safe to say backstage the heels probably DO get the credit they deserve. I'd imagine they must.  I mean, if they didn't, we'd never have long term heel title runs would we? What i'm talking about is say, the way heels are removed from TV, like when they retire, or just later in life, or anything really. 

I have a few examples i want to mention. So i'll start with the big one. John Cena.

"He's not a true heel" I hear you say... Ok maybe not in the classic sense, but John Cena is arguably the guy who has gotten the biggest heat in the last 5 years or so. I mean, that seems like a pretty safe bet. Maybe Chris Jericho gave him a run for his money... "I am the best in the world at what i do"... damn that was good. Anyway back to Cena for now. 

You get all these Cena haters who are ready to just completely trample over anything he does with the "same old sh*t" or the "Cena can't wrestle" crap. Well... the money in the bank Main event dis-proved both of those things... even though they'd already been disproved thousands of times before that.

But I mean think about it. All of those epic matches that Cena has been in... One night Stand 2006 vs RVD, Unforgiven 2006 vs Edge, Wrestlemania 23 vs HBK... oh and MiTB vs CM Punk...  No-one can say that Cena had nothing to do with how great those matches are. Basically, you're an idiot if you think Cena sucks.

His character might be a little boring at times, I know there are times where i've wanted to see him snap, but that doesn't make him a bad performer. I know i preferred his old gimmick, i'm sure a lot of people agree, but it doesn't mean he sucks, just because he changed. Shawn Michaels' character changed... HHH's character changed.. and the big one of course, The Undertaker's character has changed a lot over the years, but it doesn't make them bad. What i'm getting at is, Cena is an amazing performer, he knows how to tell stories in the ring, and he draws. He deserves respect for that. Booing him because you want CM Punk to win is one thing, and everyone is of course entitled to their own opinion. This is mine. If you don't like it, then leave a comment and tell me all about it. 

But booing him because "he can't wrestle" is ridiculous. I've said it before, but watch his early matches, watch when he was John Cena, the rapper. He can do a lot, for some reason, he doesn't always do everything he can. But the man puts so much of himself into what he does, you can see it when he's talking, when he's wrestling, when he's doing outside of the ring stuff. And also, glimmer of hope, the last few weeks we've been seeing a bit of attitude from Mr Cena, maybe there's a light at the end of the bland tunnel. And i think the biggest thing that makes Cena great, he has the guts to go out into these arenas full of crowds that absolutely hate him for who he is.. That one night stand crowd was brutal, and MiTB wasn't much nicer. As of right now though... he still deserves respect for his work in (and out of) the ring. And if you don't agree, try living a week in his shoes. Then see how you feel. 

Edge.

I think Edge was one of the 2 top heels at the end of the attitude era. (Meaning 2005-2007). I mean, the whole Rated-R superstar gimmick was amazing. I remember hating him just about as much as any of the bad guys of that time. With the exception of JBL. But i'll get to him in a minute.

Edge is one of those guys lucky enough to retire on top. Literally, his last match was Wrestlemania, and he won, and he retired as world champion. Not a lot of other guys (or girls) can say that. I can think of one, who i'll get to later as well.

But Edge I think was a sort of victim of the PG era. His Rated-R gimmick never had the same steam once the WWE went PG, and I think because of this people may have forgotten exactly how good he was. The stuff with Undertaker in 2008 was pretty good, I especially liked the Smackdown just before summerslam, where Edge went crazy, after Mick Foley (who made his last appearance on WWE tv that night) challenged him to bring back "the real edge".. but we never got to see it I don't think. 

It's a shame too because Edge was amazing. As i said, the only person I could even think that i hated more, was JBL. 

Let me be clear, when i say "I hated ____" I don't mean the person, i mean that's how their character made me feel. That to me, is the mark of a true, and great heel. They make you hate them. but want to watch them at the same time. Not that they make you hate them and you want to turn the tv off. Like Michael Cole. 

So JBL. If the best heel on RAW was Edge, he was equalled, and possibly bettered by John Bradshaw Layfield.

I remember those matches, the JBL vs Eddie matches.. man especially the Judgement Day 2004 i think it was match.. Eddie took that sick chair shot... I think that really put JBL over as a dude who could do serious damage. But he (JBL) was consistently the best heel on smackdown, and had that massive run as WWE champion, before being beaten by John Cena. But he had so many great moments, yet I don't know that he is thought of as "one of the greats".

He should be. 

Remember when he got back in the ring after commentating for a while? He had that really intense feud with Chris Jericho. It was amazing.

But, getting on to the second part of this post.. how did he leave? He was beaten in about 30 seconds by Rey Mysterio, and then had a tantrum in the ring and said "I quit". Now from watching Chris Jericho's dvd I learned something. Remember when Jericho was fired and carried out by like 6 guys? He talked about how that was the best possible way to go out, as a heel. So I can understand the idea of JBL just yelling I quit. But I guess it's more of a personal thing, or my opinion or something, but i don't like people leaving in that way. Bradshaw played it amazingly though, yelling out to the crowd something along the lines of "you're going to be missing me by next week".. 

Another example of that, and I think a better example, is Lita. Remember Lita? Most newer fans would probably remember her as "Edge's slutty girlfriend".. I remember her as one of the better female wrestlers I've ever seen. But I wanted to focus on her last appearance, and compare it to the woman she had her greatest rivalry with, Trish Stratus. 

Remember how Trish left? She won the Women's title at Unforgiven 2006 (amazing PPV by the way), and retired the next night as champion. She got to leave as the 7 time i think? Women's champion and leave with her head held high. Who could ask for anything better? After all, she'd pioneered what we now know as the "divas division", and been one of the most successful female wrestlers of all time. Right? Compare her career to Lita's career.

Lita was a pioneer in the womens division, especially for high flying moves. The Lita-canrana, the Lita-sault.. She was awesome. She had some amazing matches with Trish too. Sure, later in her career she didn't wrestle as much, but she was still awesome. 

What i'm trying to say is that BOTH women had amazing careers, i would say on par with each other, with the exception being that Lita I don't think won as many championships as Trish.

But how did Lita leave? Anyone remember? I do, and still today it pisses me off, and kinda offends me. 

The segment started with Cryme Tyme coming out with a box, and proceeding to try to "sell off" Lita's underwear. Lita comes out to regain some of her dignity, and of course fails. and is sung out of the ring, out of the arena, and effectively out of the WWE with "Na na na na... hey hey hey... Goodbye".. Now i understand that a heel is out to get booed. But that was not the way to have one of your most successful wrestlers retire. It was terrible, and a little disgusting honestly. I really wish she had been given a less embarrassing last moment. She deserved it.

It feels like there's a big difference between how the good guys and bad guys are remembered too. I guess that makes sense, but I think there should be a respect for what people have done, regardless of heel/face alignment. Think about it.. JBL and John Cena headlined Wrestlemania 21. Doesn't that mean that JBL is partly responsible for putting John Cena over as the new "guy"... ? I'm sure some people will hate him more if they think about that too much, but JBL should be given as much respect as anyone else. What about before he became JBL.. remember the APA? Awesome stuff. 

I don't think that there very many guys today that are on that same level that Edge, or JBL, or, going back a little further, HHH were at as a heel. Or, back a little further still, Shawn Michaels. What have they got today?... CM Punk i don't think can be classified as a true heel anymore, he's kinda transcended that I think, at least for now. Who else is there.. Mark Henry? They're trying really hard with him, but i'm not getting it.. maybe it's a case of the 6th or 7th time, or whatever time this is they've tried to push him, is one time too many. So who else is there? Christian? he's a good heel.. I have to admit when he spit in Randy's face, that was an awesome heel move. But I don't think he's on that .. i guess "super-heel" level. There are some with potential I think. Oh before i go on, The Miz IS definitely the best heel at the moment. I can't stand that guy. That's kinda how i measure how good of a heel I think a guy is. R-Truth? He's got this comedic heel thing going.. which is good for the short term, but to really keep it going he needs that good guy to bounce off, like a John Morrison maybe. 

So potential? One name springs to mind. Dolph Ziggler. First of all, and this is just a little thing, but I think he needs a better finisher. pulling someone's head down to the floor.. i dunno, it just doesn't have that Impact i don't think.. But as a character, he's gotta be right up there as one of the best, or at least one with the biggest potential. He kinda reminds me of Rick Rude. I don't think that makes Vickie Guererro Bobby Heenan though. Although as far as heels go, she is another that is right at the top of her game. It's brilliant the way the crowd just completely buys into her gimmick. And she works it so well.

And then there's that strange thing that happens sometimes where the heel becomes cool. It's happened a few times, most notably I would say Austin of course. The double turn that happened at Wrestlemania 13. But there's been some others, Undertaker became a good guy without changing that character at all. CM Punk is another one obviously. DX was a heel group when they started. I'm not talking about heel/face turns, what i'm talking about here is Heel characters that became babyfaces without changing their gimmick. I always found that interesting. I think (and i'm not sure on this) the Road Warriors/Legion of Doom were another one. Just another thought.

So to sum up, people need to remember that when you're hating a heel, that doesn't make him bad. It's quite the opposite. What it means is that they're doing their job well. Just as when you feel good about a good guy, cheer for him, want him to win. And that the guys that you hated so much, were some of the best wrestlers you've ever seen, and gave you the greatest memories. Austin wouldn't have had so many iconic moments without Vince McMahon as the heel. Hogan wouldn't have had so many headlining matches without a heel to bounce off of. Actually.. maybe Hogan would have. he's got that ego thing. 

Heels deserve just as much respect, maybe even more so because they have the balls to go out there each night and get booed and antagonise the crowd.

Love them, or hate them, they're doing their job.

Leave me a comment, tell me what you think, but once again this is just my opinion. If you disagree, go suck a lemon.

Goons, Punks, and Attitudes.

Welcome to another installment of truthfacts from the lazy-boy himself, the Armchair Mouthpiece. And it seems we're at that point in the week again where I give you my thoughts on RAW, and what I think could happen.

Let me start off by saying, that unless it's amazingly clear that there's been a huge mistake made, you're never going to see me write something like "They did it wrong, this is how it should have been done" or "My way is better" or anything like that. I'm not going to sit here and pretend to be better than anyone. I'm not going to sit here and claim to have some knowledge of "the business" that i don't have. All i'm doing is giving my opinion on what happened, what may happen, and what i'd like to see happen.

Ok so onto the show!

There was an intro video package, I never like them, they seem to leave out tiny little details that could make them better. The biggest example that i can think of that is way back (waaaayyyy back) in 1993/94 with Bret and Owen, when Owen "turned on Bret". Owen, at the 94 royal rumble was in a tag match with Bret, and it ended with them losing and Owen blaming Bret, claiming that Bret was being selfish, staying in the ring when he was injured and try to get the pin/submission instead of tagging in Owen. The funny thing is, that's exactly what happened. Bret started to move over to tag Owen, but then changed his mind and went to put the sharpshooter on their opponents. 
So Owen had a legitimate side to his argument, but in the video packages for Wrestlemania and Summerslam that year, that part wasn't shown. All that was shown is Bret hurt, them losing, and then Owen attacking him. Now, to me, giving the heel a slightly more legitimate argument would have made it even better than it was (and that feud was amazing!)

Anyway, video package aside, I think it was assured that this RAW's opening segment would be either Triple H, or CM Punk with the other interrupting. I was thinking it would be Triple H out first, but I was suprised (pleasantly). I'm loving everything CM Punk is doing these days, so anytime he's on the mic for me it's great TV.

Then i got a little worried.

Punk started telling us why he came back. He told us all about how he had to make this life-changing decision (and if you've heard his interview with Bill Simmons on ESPN you know that's real). Talking about taking credit for the changes that have been happening. All that was great.

Then he said "some of that credit goes to you, the audience".

That took a little bit of steam out of it for me. I know he wasn't pandering, Punk just doesn't seem like the "I did it for you" kinda guy. He's an Anti-hero. And, just personally, i preferred the version he used on the bill simmons show.. "I'm gonna make this sh*t cool again" as opposed to "i'm going to make this fun again".

So I got worried. Was this going to be the end of the controversial CM Punk? Was he, now that he'd resigned, been told to ease up on what he'd been saying?

Then we got to the real point of it all. "The voice of the voiceless needs to be heard". And I got a little less worried. He certainely wasn't pandering, reverting, doing any of that. Punk is back because Punk wants to be heard. The only reason it sounded a little weaker than some of his other promos was because the crowd didn't give that "OOOOOOHHHHH" chant, just a nice applause because they were mentioned.

So it goes on, it's interesting, we get some strong CM Punk chants, and then Booom...... "It's time.. to play the game".

And i get worried again.

Now i'd read last week, or heard last week, that one of the original ideas floating around for CM Punk's return last week was to have HHH pedigree him. Would've been a fairly terrible idea I would imagine.

So this being the first time we'd seen HHH and CM Punk in the same ring (with HHH being in charge i mean), i got a little worried. Because HHH pedigree-ing CM Punk out of nowhere would kill the momentum he had, and it really would be, as CM Punk said, a return to the "soul-crushing status quo".

But, of course, that didn't happen.

Wow. That was my first reaction to this little segment. But, i have a couple of problems with it. One, I don't really buy HHH not liking CM Punk. I mean i can understand it, he's doing what's right for business, and CM Punk walking out with the title isn't good business, but this is HHH, one half of D-Generation X... i mean, they were going against the grain 14 years ago. I guess i prefer my Triple H with some more attitude. Attitude is a big word at the moment I think. We seem to be getting the slightly comedic corporate Trips though. Two, and this isn't really a problem, more an idea I had that I think would work for Punk. He talked about commodities, how he's a commodity and HHH couldn't afford to let him go anywhere else.

So it seems like one of the things Punk dislikes is that it's all about the money, or at least appears to be. CM Punk also seems like the kind of guy who doesn't really like mainstream music.. hell, he's not really mainstream anything. So he could talk about how it's not just him, i mean, there are great bands out there not getting any attention because they're not "the norm", they're not like everybody else.. something like that, just to bring a wider audience in. It could work, the whole Anti-hero thing, pushing for change. It could (if done right) give this angle, and the WWE a wider range of media outlets getting interested in them.. I'm not sure it's a road they would want to go down though. Being that they're using i think... C-Lo (is that his name?)'s song for Summerslam. I guess i just felt it would work, being a musician who's struggled with that, as i don't play "pop" music.

Back to the show. Wow i'm still on the first segment. Must mean it was either really good, or really long. Ha, i just checked. it's both. 24 minutes or something before the first wrestling match I believe.

So we still don't know what kind of boss HHH is going to be. I think Summerslam is when we're going to find out. As in, is he the good guy boss, or the heel boss? I'm hoping for heel, HHH is amazing as a heel.
I don't like the "without the WWE, you really mean nothing" .. that's a huge knock to TNA (deserved) and ROH (not deserved). That's part of that old Vince mentality that i do not like.
But let's talk about what i do like. I do like Punk telling HHH not to leave the ring. This part got me excited. I'd forgotten about the possible pedigree. Punk taking shots at HHH is a big move. It all needed to be said to keep up the whole "Punk won't play by the rules" part.

And then he let his Pipebomb off. (Pretty sure that's going to become a thing). "How many times have you said "ahhh I just don't think he has what it takes", when you're lying in bed with your wife?" WOW!

What the hell is with the Skinny Fat ass remark? Did i miss something? Can skinny people now be fat people too? Does it work the other way? can fat people be skinny? What am i missing here? weird.

So we had Triple H laying down the law. And then we get what i thought was the 2nd best part of the night. CM Punk not backing down, messing with HHH's suit and tie.. and then delivering .. "are you going to punch me in the face.... or do you have to go ask your wife's permission first?" Brilliant.

Stuff like that just helps show that it's a new day, there's a bit more attitude. I mean think about it from a backstage point of view, or a "real" point of view. So awesome. I'm excited.


Ok so on to the rest of the show.. Divas battle royal.. nuff said.

Except, Beth Phoenix works so much better as a heel. So whoever made that decision, well done. That, and only that, makes the championship match at summerslam interesting. Beth for champ.


Ok what else happened.. umm... Oh yeah that's right R-Truth.. He's doing awesome work right now. Not as good as last week, but still, he's great.

Ok i'll be honest, I didn't watch much of the matches this week. Not that they're bad, just that it's that same old status quo that Punk is talking about.
John Morrison is overrated though. He's not consistent. And consistency is what makes high flyers amazing. like Rey Mysterio. like Evan Bourne. Like most of the x-division in TNA.

Also i didn't watch a lot of the matches because i seriously can't stand listening to michael cole. especially the parts where JR and King are trying to call the match, and Cole just starts running down the babyfaces in the match. Boring, old, really bad, and really hard to sit and listen to/watch. Someone needs to reign him in.

Seriously, what was the point of that Alex Riley guy coming out and trying to get Dolph Ziggler to "drop Vickie".. is that the best way they could think of to start a potential Riley/Ziggler feud? C'mon.. what about.. oh let's see.. "Hey Dolph, your hair looks like crap"... or "Hey Dolph, you couldn't beat me if you tried".. and that's just off the top of my head (note... sarcasm). Dolph is great, but this promo sucked. Follow that means no-one will have his skills? what?


Hey Zack Ryder was on tv 2 weeks in a row.. if that's not a sign of change, nothing is!

Did Santino have a Mr.Cobra-o? I sense gimmick infringement.

Alberto Del Rio is a bit of a strange one for me at the moment. He won the Royal Rumble, but didn't win the Title.. (most likely because of it being Edge's last match i would have to think).. now he has the briefcase, and the first time he tries to cash it in he gets kicked in the head. (Which was awesome). He's great in the ring, but it seems like they're not sure if he is ready yet or something. News flash ... he's ready! Summerslam beckons .....

Ok now onto the closing segment. And once again, something that I (and i'm sure a lot of people) didn't expect, happened. Also, something i was pretty sure was going to happen, happened. It was the only logical choice. But before i get to that, Johnny Ace?? Is this the start of the power struggle between the old regime and the new?  We got to see a little of it with HHH clearly being annoyed about Laurinitis being out there. This storyline has the potential to be huge, especially with Laurinitis trying to get over as a heel by saying he replaced JR and trying to throw his weight around.

So now we get to my favourite part of the night. John Cena. Yep, i said it.

He's got a little of that word back.. that.. attitude. That 2003-04 era John Cena attitude that got him over in the first place. Imitating Laurinitis.. and of course the "punched you in the face" schtick. Brilliant. best part of the whole show. There's a little boston accent coming out in Cena's voice lately.. I kinda get the feeling this is all leading to the Rock/Cena thing, Cena is going to get his attitude back, and make that match amazing. Rock is going to do the same thing he did 10 years ago, and get cheered for it. But then, he's not gonna be there the next night. Cena will.


Ok so onto the end of the night. We have the Champ vs. Champ match at Summerslam. Then we had the little ego pose off thing... right way to end the night, especially with HHH getting a little pissed off and laying down the law.


So where could it be headed? Well apart from the obvious, hopefully CM Punk doesn't have to find any more urinals to throw up in, meaning.. hopefully we don't go backwards from here. Punk (i feel) should win at Summerslam if you want the momentum to continue. Or at least, if he doesn't win, it can't be a clean victory over him. Someone... HHH, Rey (he never got his rematch), Laurinitis, Vince.. a returning ___________ , someone! Remember, they now have to live up to the match they had at MiTB... so it's gotta be stepped up somewhere. I was thinking it might be some kind of gimmick match, a cage was the only thing that popped into my head.. they just had the ladder match ppv... last man standing wouldn't fit, i quit doesn't fit (yet), but who knows. I would love to see another one on one match between Cena and Punk. Maybe Colt Cabana will show up... could be fun.


Ok so in closing, I think this week's Raw did nothing but strengthen the whole "we've changed" bit. The matches i watched were good, not awesome.. Morrison botched a corkscrew dive over the ropes... Del Rio/Bourne was good. But clearly they're focused on Punk/Cena/HHH.. and rightfully so.

So what do you all think? Let me know please... I need criticism. At least RAW isn't the same old crap anymore though right? Gotta be a good thing, I know i'm excited about next week again. that makes it what.. 4 or 5 weeks in a row? That hasn't happened since i got Cable tv!

Also, on a different note, i need a new way to end these things..

Thats it for now.


What's it like to be me? You, will never, ever know.
#CenaIsBeets

But that was such a good year.. must be a bad vintage.

Welcome back to the Lounge of linguistics, where I, the Armchair Mouthpiece, yet have more to say. This time, on a topic i haven't really spoken on before now.

Michael Cole.

What happened? Seriously, I watched the first season of NXT, because.. well.. it was different, and actually slightly entertaining, especially knowing a little about Daniel/Bryan/Danielson and the WWE not being huge fans of talking about anything other than the WWE.

Personally, I think a sign that a character or wrestler, personality, whatever is getting over is that you feel something kinda strong about them. So therefore, to me, a heel character is getting over when you feel a strong dislike about them. But i think when it gets to the point that you would rather not watch any of the program than hear them/see them.. then it's getting a bit too much. That's what's happening with Michael Cole right now.

I actually enjoyed Cole on NXT, especially the season 3 stuff where he basically picked apart the program. Whoever came up with that idea should be given a medal. Or at least one of Cole's slammys. I didn't watch a lot of RAW and Smackdown before the Royal Rumble this year, so i didn't see too much of the beginnings of the Lawler/Cole feud. But what I did see was really a testament to Jerry Lawler and how good a guy he is. I mean, letting Cole talk about his mother, so soon after she passed, I have a lot of respect for Lawler, and always will. By the way, Michael Cole... if you want to know how to be a heel commentator and not alienate your audience, listen to King from about 1994 to 2004. That's how you do it! Not by burying everyone you apparently "don't like" and just talking about yourself.

That's where my problem lies with Michael Cole, at least commentary wise. If you watch Wrestlemania 27, there are at least a few instances during the matches where he just starts talking about his match with Lawler.. I mean, on RAW it's one thing, but Wrestlemania? You're going to draw people's attention away from matches they've paid to see, and make then think about you? I don't care if it's not his idea, it's a stupid idea. It didn't work, it was annoying, it made the matches less enjoyable. And especially in the Rey/Cody match, his commentary didn't make sense. Talking about how Cody is afraid to show his face.. at one point Jerry Lawler just says "his mask is clear you idiot" or something like that. I get that he's trying to side with the heel and be the "bad guy" commentator, but you shouldn't do that at the expense of other talent.
The other problem is the massive difference between how it feels when Cole is on commentary, and how it feels when Jim Ross is on commentary. JR is far and away so much better, regardless of heel/face alignment.
And when they are swapped halfway through a show, like Wrestlemania or this past week's Raw, you really notice the difference.

Which brings me to the other part of the Michael Cole issue... the matches.

Awful. I feel so bad for Jerry Lawler. That he had to try to make Cole look good in that terrible Ankle Lock at Mania, that the match had to go for so long, and in the end that the match ended up as a victory for Cole. I mean, people have been saying for ages that "we need change, different stuff should be happening".. but I don't think that Michael Cole, the commentator, beating Jerry "The King" Lawler, the what... 40 year pro or so, is what fans had in mind. That didn't make sense, Wrestlemania was the right time for that feud to end. Why not have your good guy come out on top at the biggest show of the year? Sure he got to beat up Cole a bit, and i know everyone loved that, but it shouldn't have ended up that way.

Oh and one more thing. I'm kinda sick of Michael Cole referring to Daniel Bryan as a nerd. What the hell is so wrong with being a geek or a nerd? And seriously, if Daniel Bryan is a nerd, what does that make Cole, other than a chubby bully? It's not like he's the epitome of a "jock".. maybe a jock-strap.. I have a big problem with that, because it's so high-school. Maybe it's just that I have experience with bullying, and it just disgusts me.

I get that he's just doing what the company wants, and he's just doing "business", but it's getting old. Actually, let me correct that. It was getting old back in march. Now it's beyond that. It's getting to the point where hearing his voice and his constant putting down of other people to make himself look good a: isn't working, and b: makes me want to change the channel. In fact, I think he is the reason i'm not watching Smackdown at the moment.

So it's time for a change. What i'm hoping happens is that with Jim Ross coming back to Raw, we get the set commentary teams, in the same vein as 2003 or so. I don't mean the same combinations obviously, but more that there is one Commentary team for RAW, and one for smackdown. And for the Pay per views we get a combination. The obvious choice is JR and King, and then Michael Cole and Josh matthews. I don't know where that leaves Booker T, but .. maybe he can have a fave five segment each week or something... does it matter? Put him back in the ring even!

That's it, not much else i want to say on the matter. Other than HHH seems to be making his mark, and let's hope it continues

What's it like to be me? You will never, ever know!