Irish Whip Fighting: Poor decisions, injuries plague RAW, SMACKDOWN

About The Name

Many of our readers wonder why our name doesn't have "UFC" or "MMA" in it. We think that too many sites begin or end with those acronyms (one of the main reasons we're such good pals with Martial Base). Truth be told, IWF started as a wrestling and MMA site, and the "Irish Whip" is one of wrestling's most hard-hitting moves. We also thought that a "whip" could be another name for biting, on-point commentary, the same commentary we hope to provide here. The name stuck, we couldn't change, and well...we just like being different than all the rest. Providing quality insights, no more or less news than you need to know, and the absolute best interviews on the web (seriously, how do we get all those guys? -- Liddell, Henderson, Ken Shamrock twice each), we like to think we're doing a pretty good job.

Tuesday, May 8, 2007

Poor decisions, injuries plague RAW, SMACKDOWN

The WWE seems to be stuck in a period of bad luck, only accompanied by some of the worst programming I've seen in years. As far as RAW is concerned, sure, they've been booking the cards like it's WrestleMania. But does any of that matter when The Great Khali interferes multiple times in one night? Not really. RAW has been the show to avoid injuries, and has seemingly decided to force bad fortune upon themselves as they push Khali for a title run. Last I heard, this guy was such a bad wrestler that no one backstage would agree to wrestle him. And now he's at the forefront of their A-show? Give me a break.

The current Intercontinental champ is a no-name Italian who is supposedly a good wrestler, but isn't being allowed to showcase his talent. He's expected to drop the title in feud with Chris Masters, the man who spent the good part of a year asking people to sit down in a chair. With one fell swoop, the WWE will reduce their champions from John Cena (serviceable) and Jeff Hardy (perfect for the IC belt) to an even worse wrestler and a steroid-laden gimmick gone wrong, respectively. For more on roids gone wrong, do a google image search for Buff Bagwell or Scott Steiner.

SMACKDOWN, on the other hand, was finally headed in the right direction when their two biggest stars went down in one week. The Undertaker, poised for a long title reign, pulled a bicep or something last week, forcing him to hand the title back to Batista. Why? Because SMACKDOWN doesn't have anyone better. Who is he going to give it to, Finlay? Unfortunately, the best bet for SMACKDOWN is a man who just had the title and proved he couldn't do anything with it.

Even worse, the young SMACKDOWN star Mr. Kennedy has been held down by BOTH bad programming and injuries. Just last week, he lost clean to Matt Hardy. Don't even get me started on this one. He formed an injury at a house show following this loss, from what I understand, and he was forced to drop his Money In The Bank Briefcase to a RAW Superstar, Edge. Edge is great and all, but I was really excited to see what Kennedy (and SMACKDOWN) would do with the opportunity. SMACKDOWN, showing promise less than a week ago, has gone back to being RAW's retarded, red-headed stepchild.

Between the developing problems of RAW and SMACKDOWN along with Mr. McMahon holding the ECW Championship, the WWE is facing its toughest times in recent memory. The worst part is...they're doing it to themselves.