DaveyBoy's Wrestling Menu #70 - Armageddon Predictions, WM 20 Feedback + More
Submitted by DaveyBoy on Wednesday, December 10, 2003 at 2:27 PM EST




THE WRESTLING MENU #70

Welcome one and all to the 70th edition of The Wrestling Menu, the column that is sure to satisfy your taste buds when it comes to discussing all things wrestling.

Straight into it today, as it may be another long edition.


APPETIZERS

Armageddon Predictions

Remember that I only went 3 from 8 last month at Survivor Series, so I wouldn't rush out & put your life-savings on my predictions this month if I was you!!!

BOOKER T vs MARK HENRY: Poor Booker... Booker wins... Enough said. Nah, I can't leave it at that, but that pretty much sums up my thoughts on this match-up. The only way that this feud could have even remotely worked is if the so-called 'Strongest Man in the World' was made out to be a real monster & had done everything imaginable to Booker personally. But really it's just been a series of back-and-forth average matches. Hopefully, it's destined to end here with a win to the more deserving of the two. Winner: Booker T

THE DUDLEY BOYZ vs GARRISON CADE/MARK JINDRAK vs THE HURRICANE/ROSEY vs LA RESISTANCE vs VAL VENIS/LANCE STORM vs SCOTT STEINER/TEST in a Tag-Team Turmoil Match For the World Tag-Team Titles: This one could get confusing. Although, if it is booked sensibly, I could see it being a good way to give the division's importance a bit of a push. The way I look at it is that within the last 6 months, the WWE have given tag-team titles to 2 relatively new & unproven teams (La Resistance & The Basham Brothers). Going back even further, you can even include Haas & Benjamin into this equation. Now it is Jindrak & Cade's turn. Winners: Mark Jindrak & Garrison Cade.

SHAWN MICHAELS vs BATISTA: This is going to be an interesting one to watch. In fact, it could be the ultimate test of the 2003 version of HBK. I'm not saying that Batista is that bad a wrestler, but if Michaels can carry Batista, in what surely will be a clash of styles, to even a 7 out of 10 match, then there is a real valid argument that HBK should be the RAW headliner leading up to WrestleMania 20. The main reason for this bout is surely to further Batista's push. But unlike Randy Orton a few months back, I don't see that happening through victory. Maybe a post-match beatdown of epic proportions will do the job. Winner: Shawn Michaels.

CHRIS JERICHO & CHRISTIAN vs TRISH STRATUS & LITA: Oh boy, this could be a real stinker & waste of time. I haven't minded this storyline so far, but making a match out of it is a bit desperate. I just hope the WWE have had this planned for a while & are 100% sure that they will be able to entertain us. All the signs lead to Jericho turning at least semi-face during this bout. Either way wouldn't bother me really, as long as the guys still get the victory. I'm not being sexist, it's just that even if the girls get Jericho's help to emerge victorious, what's it going to do to Christian's career!?!?!? Winners: Chris Jericho & Christian.

ROB VAN DAM vs RANDY ORTON for the InterContinental Title (Special Referee: Mick Foley): Orton is destined to win this title somewhere along the way. It's just a matter of when. The match will be another interesting clash of styles & could really go either way quality-wise. If Orton can keep up with RVD, this could be good. Otherwise, I can see it turning out rather mediocre. My bet is that when Orton finally does win the title, the WWE will allow him to hold it for quite some months. I suppose throwing Foley in the mix here could postpone his title win, but I say to heck with that & they may as well put the title around his waist now. Winner: Randy Orton.

BILL GOLDBERG vs TRIPLE H vs KANE in a Triple Threat Match for the World HeavyWeight Title: I really don't know how this match will turn out. It sounds strange to say it, but it sort of depends on Goldberg. If he is right at the top of his game, then he could almost single-handedly make this watchable. Hopefully, he will be. As for the result, I really am unsure. All I hope for is that this match & it's winner has been booked for quite some time now, and that also includes the victor's next couple of months worth of title defenses. Goldberg could win because he has started to be booked correctly lately & a loss could ruin his momentum. Kane could win because if anyone deserves a title reign, it's him. While Triple H could win because he is Triple H. With absolutely no confidence, I suggest that things are going fine as is. Winner: Bill Goldberg

Well, there you have the 2003 version of Armageddon. I'm thinking that there may be one further match added with only 6 bouts listed so far. Either that, or Bischoff & Foley are going to crap on forever to waste a lot of time. The card looks really mediocre. I can't genuinely say that I'm really anticipating any match at this event. Furthermore, some of the set-up of feuds has been very lackluster. This is very disappointing as long-term feuds being set up properly is what I think should be the main goal of the brand-specific pay-per-views. Oh well, the WWE better deliver on the night, or I could see this being a real stinker of a ppv. That would be a shame after the excellent Survivor Series last month.


MAIN

WrestleMania 20 Card Feedback

I was originally only going to mention briefly the feedback I received for my projected WrestleMania 20 card from last week, but I got so much feedback, that I thought I would expand on it further. And man, was my feedback varied!!! I got everything from "excellent" card to "terrible" card. Of course, there was a lot of in-between as well. This seems to be a topic that has really hit home with my readers, and all sorts of opinions & ideas have surfaced. If you haven't had the chance to read my projected WrestleMania 20 card, you can do so by clicking the following link: http://www.lordsofpain.net/news/2003_/articles/1070482743.php

Ok, instead of posting some of my readers' cards, I am going to ask myself some mock questions, which basically cover the main points that kept coming up most frequently within the e-mails that I received. Hopefully it works & is a good way of communicating other ideas, my opinion, etc, etc, etc... Here goes:

Do you really think that the brand extension will be adhered to at WrestleMania...??? Call me naive, but yeah, I actually do. I think Vince McMahon will ride it out for at least another year. I think there are ways of having Kane wrestle 'Taker, and maybe even Goldberg wrestle Lesnar, without scrapping the brand extension temporarily or permanently.

Wouldn't it be great to see the World HeavyWeight & World Tag-Team Titles unified again though...??? Yep, it would. I liked the idea of an undisputed champion initially. But I don't think it will happen.

Why didn't you have a big money match on your card...??? I did acknowledge this last week. My theory is that the sum total of great matches would make up for the lack of a so-called 'big-money' match up such as Rock vs Hogan, Hogan vs McMahon, Angle vs Hart, etc... Having said this however, I do anticipate that there will be a huge match of some sort. It will most probably involve Stone Cold Steve Austin.

Why did you have so many multi-man matches...??? I also acknowledged this last week. I also would prefer mainly singles matches, but it was my way of getting as much of the deserved talent on the card as possible. If booked sensibly, they could all work, in my opinion.

Why didn't you just have a battle royal to include as much talent on the card as possible...??? Good question, as I will never say "no" to a battle royal. They are pretty much always fun & entertaining. The only question here would be what would be the prize for the winner? Plus, it's a little hard to do with 2 separate brands.

How could you leave Matt Hardy & Christian off the card...??? Well, I'd rather not, but I couldn't squeeze them in. Remember that The Dudley Boyz, Kane & Rob Van Dam al missed out this past year. Someone will be disappointed this year as well. Those are my tips right now.

Why did you have so many gimmick matches...??? I'm probably guilty on this one. I suppose I thought that if none of the gimmicks were used in matches between December & February inclusive, then they would still appear relatively fresh enough, while adding that spectacular element to the event.

Do you really think that Steve Austin will wrestle Chris Jericho on a WrestleMania card...??? I'll admit that I don't. While it is logical & sensible to have this match-up, I don't think the WWE will be able to resist a big-money match with Austin against either Vince McMahon, Hulk Hogan or Bill Goldberg.

Do you really think that idea with The Rock & Triple H could realistically work...??? You bet your a$$ I do. If they set it up properly, I think it would be gold. It would also have everyone anticipating the next night on Raw.

Isn't it obvious that the WWE will go with Triple H vs Mick Foley...??? Ummm, I wouldn't say it's obvious, although it is quite logical. But for some reason, despite their past great matches, this match does nothing for me in the year 2003. Plus, wouldn't Triple H want to be involved at the top of the card? I'm not sure a match like this could main event.

How about a Shawn Michaels vs Rock match...??? I hadn't really thought about this, probably because it's not an obvious perfect mix of styles. But I'm coming around to the idea more & more, because both guys don't mind putting their opponents over & working hard for the overall good of a match.

Wouldn't it be better & make more sense if Randy Orton was in a match with some sort of legend like Mick Foley Yeah, that's not a bad thought. I still think though that if he walks away from WrestleMania with both the InterContinental & Tag titles, that he would still get a huge push from that.

Surely another Kurt Angle vs Brock Lesnar match is one too many...??? Look, it probably is, and I said so last week. I just can't see who else Lesnar could go against. I don't think the WWE would go with a Lesnar vs Benoit match for the WWE Championship, while a match with Goldberg would go against the brand extension. However, I have changed my mind here & the next question answers how...

Wouldn't a Kurt Angle vs Chris Benoit match be great...??? Oh, hell yeah. I would anticipate this rematch from Royal Rumble 2002 so much that I have changed my mind on this. It's just too good to knock back. And you just know that these two will deliver again.

So, if I've changed my mind on that match, you are probably asking wouldn't that effect my whole projected card...??? Well, yes it would, but it wouldn't have to alter too many matches. If you have Angle vs Benoit & Lesnar vs Goldberg, that just means that the US Title match from my initial card will become a singles match & the only person left in the lurch then is Shawn Michaels. He could easily fit in somewhere on the card because of his great adaptability. He couldn't even be thrown into The Rock vs Triple H main event!!! Otherwise, any other alterations the WWE are probably going to make (for example; Austin vs McMahon or Triple H vs Foley), would free up someone like Jericho or The Rock, who would both have a great match with HBK.

Oh well, we will see how we go & how close we all are to the eventual card. It's only 3 months away now!!!


DESSERT - Contracts!?

I figured as we were approaching the end of this year, I had at least one more 'sound-off' topic in me. I could have gone on & on about how bad a decision turning John Cena face this early is, but I think I've thrown that opinion briefly into my last 3 columns anyway. I could have also gone on & on about the booking for Armageddon, but I sort of just did that in the 'Appetizers' section of this column. So the topic I have chosen is 'contracts'. No, not the real ones that all wrestlers have with the WWE. I'm talking the storyline sort that possibly only belongs to Matt Hardy.

To say the least, I was not at all happy with the explanation given for the Master of Mattitude's defection from SmackDown to Raw a couple of weeks back. In fact, I thought it was terrible. It's actually a little hard for me to not completely go off on a tangent with this topic & onto free-agency in American Sports. As a lifelong fan of both the NBA & NFL, I have found that my enthusiasm has dipped for both these sports over the last few years purely & simply because of free agency. I struggle to keep up with who plays for which team anymore. Does any sort of loyalty still exist!?!?!? And don't even talk to me about these so-called men who lift their intensity & enthusiasm in the last year of their contract.

Anyway, back to the matter at hand; For quite some time now (possibly a year), the rosters have remained very consistent following the Brand Extension Draft in March of 2002. Sure, there was the original flurry of wrestlers switching camps for absolutely no reason, but it settled fairly quickly & the WWE seemed to remain true to their word from then on. About 2 months ago (following his pay-per-view loss to Zach Gown at No Mercy), most who are reading this knew that Matt Hardy would be switching over to Raw to join his real-life girlfriend Amy 'Lita' Dumas. I have no problem with this & actually admire the WWE for allowing this to occur. However, the way in which it was done will not help the promotion in the long run.

When it was heavily rumored that Hardy would be switching, there was a lot of speculation as to how it would happen. Would the WWE finally air a storyline trade, or would they come up with an angle which would include Matt having a reason to go...??? While I probably would have preferred the former, I didn't mind the latter. But their choice of reason was, in my opinion, terrible; His contract with SmackDown ran out!!! When has it ever been mentioned that each brand had set contracts!?!?!? I think it was briefly spoken of in the few months following the draft, but wrestlers were moving around so much that no-one took notice of them. When things settled down, I just thought it was reasonable to presume (storyline-wise) that wrestlers were bound to multi-year contracts, or that contracts did not exist. Hell, I can't recall Eric Bischoff ever rejoicing because one of his Raw wrestlers was thinking about switching brands, but Eric re-signed him at the last moment!!!

But alas, when Matt Hardy had to make the switch, the old 'expired contract' reason came out of nowhere. Obviously an 18 month contract too, as that is the approximate length of time after the draft. Funny, I've never really heard of an 18 month contract in professional sports. Maybe they only exist in the WWE because of the lack of a wrestling season as such. I don't know... It just seems like a silly reason for Matt's switch to me. And it's pretty much already been forgotten now. In fact, after it happened, the only real further reference in the storylines that it got, was Paul Heyman's initial speech ("prior management letting the contract slip through a crack") & now continuous push or de-push (depending on which way you look at it) of Shannon Moore.

Surely (yeah, yeah, I know; Don't call me Shirley), if a relatively major superstar like Matt Hardy moved from one brand to another, then the whole 'my contract expired/is about to expire' reason would be used more frequently in WWE programming. Wouldn't one wrestler mention to another backstage that their contract was about to end & they were thinking of not renewing it & switching camps!?!?!? I don't know, maybe they will surprise me & this will happen in the upcoming months. But I'm not putting any money on it, that's for sure.

So how would I have done it...??? Well, if the WWE didn't want to do a trade between wrestlers of some sort (read my column edition #41 for my opinion on how these could effectively work), then I would have had Matt get into some sort of argument with Heyman (or even Vince) to the point that he was told he was no longer wanted on SmackDown. Hell, that could have even been done after the ppv loss to Gowen. Either Vince or Heyman could have said that he had just lost to a one-legged wrestler who hardly has a win to his name, and that his performance was so unacceptable that he was no longer wanted as an employee. Matt is disappointed, even angry, but there's nothing he can do about it. Two weeks later, Eric Bischoff signs him & says he was never given a chance & under-used on "that other show". This could even hint at some
inter-promotional rivalry, and would definitely do nothing but good for the brand extension.

I suppose at the end of the day, I just dislike when the WWE doesn't use great continuity & logic in their storylines & angles. It reeks of booking on the fly & doesn't do anyone or anything any good in the long-term. This angle does still have time to be saved, but I just get this feeling it's not going to be bothered with. It will just pop up in a year or two when the next wrestler needs to switch shows out of personal necessity. Next stop is WrestleMania 20 & I just hope that if there is going to be any inter-promotional matches, that the reasons given for these are better
explained than this.


Ok, that's it for edition #70 of 'The Wrestling Menu'. I hope you enjoyed it. As per usual, please don't hesitate to send me your thoughts on any one of the 3 topics I wrote about today. I'm always interested to hear your feedback & ideas. And you know that I will reply to all feedback. My e-mail address is DaveyBoy123@bigpond.com

Man, we're getting closer to Christmas & New Year, but The Wrestling Menu just keeps rolling along. Next week, I'll have my usual PPV Review. Hopefully, the WWE will deliver at Armageddon. And I will also have my special year-end awards. As per usual, there is sure to be something controversial in there. Look out for the column same Wednesday time & same LOP channel next week. Until then, this is DaveyBoy signing off & asking you to remember that dinner is best served in 3 courses.













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