RAW Reaction: Kennedy/Carlito Get Big Wins

Tonight's RAW contained eight matches, and needless to say, there were some surprises. Kennedy pins Lashley with a clean victory and Carlito beats the Champ!

Firstly, Carlito's Cabana is back, which should provide him with a nice push out of the mid-card and toward the top of the roster. Let's hope. We'll review the matches one by one here:

Divas Tag Match - The sole purpose of this match was to move Santino Marella in a new direction. It's been rumored lately that he'll be making a heel turn, which makes sense considering that WWE sees foreigners as more hatable wrestlers.

Santino Marella vs. Umaga - It was surprising not to see Jeff Hardy make an appearance in this match. He'll most likely be fighting Umaga at SummerSlam, so look for that feud to continue. Umaga is really starting to get some huge pops.

Cody Rhodes vs. Daivari - It wouldn't have surprised me at all to see Cody lose this match and moved to Smackdown. Afterall, he was just brought up from OVW and might want some more time before he has a full-time spot on the A show. But he seems to be over with the fans and I'm sure we'll be seeing much more of him. Also, he threw an absolutely awesome powerslam in this match.

Mr. Kennedy vs. Bobby Lashley - Match of the night. Firstly, it was great to see Lashley finally using his amateur wrestling background and throwing Kennedy around rather than just doing traditional powerhouse moves. Secondly, it was awesome to see WWE give Kennedy a clean win over Lashley, a man who has been pushed to the sky since earlier this year. I think WWE realizes that Kennedy has more potential between the two.

King Booker vs. Jerry Lawler - This match was fairly laughable. Lawlers offense amounted to punches and, at one point, an elbow drop. This whole "King" thing is just leading into a King Booker-Triple H match at SummerSlam.

Cryme Tyme vs. Two Guys - Not bad for a squash match. The auction of the guy's boots after the match went a little long, though. Is Cryme Tyme finally receiving their push? If you recall, several months ago they won a guaranteed title shot...SummerSlam?

Randy Orton vs. Sgt. Slaughter - Right now, WWE is just throwing legends at Orton for him to kill. I think they might have finally run out. Regardless, it's getting repetitve and I hope that they move on from it. It's almost assumed at this point that Orton will be winning the title from Cena at SummerSlam...I just hope he wins it clean.

John Cena vs. Carlito - It was cool to see a main event like this. Two very popular and over guys doing battle. It was also "cool" to see Carlito win this one. The fact that Cena didn't kick out of Carlito's finisher also makes him seem a little fallible, setting us up for a loss at SummerSlam?

Overall, tonight's RAW was an entertaining one. By the way, I'm sick of visiting (other) wrestling sites and reading about how stupid, crappy, and unwatchable WWE is. If people don't like the WWE product, then why are they watching it? And ordering the Pay-Per-Views??? WWE puts out a very entertaining product, and while we all wish they did things differently, they are doing what they think is best.

Drew Arnold, writing for The Irish Whip

Read More...

Great American Bash Reaction

Have Smackdown's belts been rendered meaningless? Will Cena be champ for much longer? Will CM Punk no longer be the centerpiece of ECW? The answers...

All titles except for the Cruiserweight Championship were retained at this years Great American Bash. Let's go match by match and see what each outcome entails:

MVP def. Matt Hardy to retain U.S. Championship
- MVP is a great champ and WWE recognizes his potential, so it's no surprise to see him get a clean win here. This feud could be a great one, though, so look for it to continue into SummerSlam for a rematch.

Hornswaggle wins Cruiserweight Championship
- Well, the Crusierweight belt hasn't meant that much in recent years, but it's probably reached a new low. It's not as bad as giving the Great Khali a world championship, but it's getting there. If anything, Hornswaggle at least brings more attention to the belt and it should be cool to see how this storyline is handled. Hornswaggle vs. Chavo at SummerSlam? Surely not...

Carlito def. Sandman
- Apparently, even though this was a Singapore Cane match, the cane was never even used. Also, Sandman had no beer when he came out of the crowd. Is WWE censoring him? I hope not. This feud will most likely evolve into Sandman and Hacksaw vs. Carlito and William Regal for a gimmick match at SummerSlam.

Candice Michelle def. Melina to retain Women's Championship
- It seems that WWE is set on Candice being champ for a while, which is fine by me. It's tough to see where things will go from here though...Mickie James is clearly the most popular diva, so why not give her a title shot? At the same time, though, Jillian Hall and Beth Phoenix are two good heels. I'm thinking Mickie James becomes the #1 contender.

Umaga def. Jeff Hardy to retain Intercontinental Championship
- No real surprise that Umaga gets the clean victory over Jeff Hardy here. Now this is the question: will Umaga carry the belt into SummerSlam? I don't think so...remember that Umaga will be fighting against the Jackass crew, and what better way to get him angry at them than their interference forcing him to lose the belt?

John Morrison def. CM Punk to retain ECW Championship
- Morrison's set for a long title run here. He really deserves it: he's a great wrestler but he needs to get better on the mic. I think CM Punk is a better wrestler and a better speaker, but he will be champ before long. I'm not so sure that this feud will continue. We've seen house shows advertising Morrison vs. Tommy Dreamer, even though we saw Dreamer lose to him just a couple weeks ago. Regardless, I hope that this feud does go through SummerSlam: WWE needs to have its future (CM Punk) on the card.

Randy Orton def. Dusty Rhodes
- This was easy to pick: does anybody see DUSTY RHODES getting a push? Orton has been on a roll lately in order to set up for...a championship run and a feud with Triple H. Orton will beat Cena (finally) at SummerSlam to win the belt. Look for Cody Rhodes to start feuding with Santino Marella, Santino being a heel.

Great Khali def. Batista and Kane to retain the World Heavyweight belt
- This is absolutely sad. But here is what we're headed to: Great Khali vs. Batista at SummerSlam. This is so dumb.

John Cena def. Bobby Lashley to retain WWE Championship
- This was easy to see coming, or HEAR coming. Take one listen to Bobby Lashley on the mic and you know that he is miles short of being WWE Champion. He's been pushed too hard and too fast...I'm glad he finally got beat clean. He'll feud with Kennedy now and (hopefully) put him over.

There we go! What are your thoughts about the Bash or the upcoming SummerSlam?

Drew Arnold, writing for The Irish Whip

Read More...

End of Summer Preview

What direction will the WWE be taking from now until Summerslam? How will the major returns affect the end of the summer? I'll give you some analysis on the rumors and facts of the end of the summer in WWE. Also, I'll give you my opinion on ppv predictions, but I want your take too.

Alright folks, let's look ahead shall we? The end of this summer COULD be one of the greatest in WWE history...COULD be. WWE has to start basically from scratch, and this will allow them to develop creative storylines and build up superstars a great deal.

This huge summer could happen because of 4 reasons:

1. Almost everyone on the WWE roster will be intact (so it seems) With the exception of Helms HBK and maybe Taker...I think that everyone will be intact by the end of summer...which is a result of the next reason...

2. Huge returns. Think of the amount of hype that they can build for the returns of Rey Mysterio, Triple H, and possibly The Undertaker. If you didn't see Smackdown last night, they are already doing return promos for Rey Rey. WWE needs to maximize the excitement of these returns and give the fans some great return feuds.

3. Media Coverage. They got huge mainstream media coverage for the McMahon storyline and the Benoit tragedy. This got the attention of many people and got them interested (or disgusted) in/with WWE. They can continue this great media coverage by becoming even more controversial (Attitude Era anyone?) and utilizing their special guests (Steve-o, Knoxville, and the crew) to give the non-regular viewers people to relate to and give them reasons to watch.

4. Summerslam. This ppv sounds HUGE. Combining the stars of the hit show "Jackass", the returns of Triple H and Rey Rey, and the rumored huge match that Mick Foley has been training for for some time now creates an unstoppable ratings machine attracting WWE fans and MTV fans alike.

As I said before, the end of this summer might be the greatest ever. Starting from scratch can be a very good thing, because the creative team can (hopefully) give the WWE viewers classic feuds and matches that wouldn't have existed if the injury plague didn't happen. So basically I am looking at all of these major injuries as a good thing...because although we lost major superstars for many months, we get to start over and get fresh feuds.

Now we get to the fun part...predicting!

I'll write what I think the cards for the next two ppvs will be:

The Great American Bash:

Edge (c) vs. Kane (World Heavyweight Championship)...locked
John Cena (c) vs. Bobby Lashley (WWE Championship)...locked
Johnny Nitro (c) vs. CM Punk (ECW Championship)...locked
Batista vs. The Great Khali...locked
Dusty Rhodes vs. Randy Orton
Chavo Guerrero (c) vs. Jimmy Wang Yang (Cruiserweight Championship)
Rey Mysterio vs. Mark Henry

Alright, I'll start out by saying that there is a rumor that Mick Foley is training for a huge match at Summerslam (...what I think is a last hurrah). Who will he fight?...There are many superstars that it could be (remember all of this is just a rumor for now, but it is still fun to think about). It could be John Cena, Triple H, Mr. Kennedy, etc. But I am going to go with Randy Orton. Mick Foley=Legend...Randy Orton=Legend Killer. Foley has put superstars over all of his life, and I think he will put Randy Orton over in a Hell In A Cell match.


Summerslam:

Mick Foley vs. Randy Orton (Hell In A Cell)
Umaga vs. The Jackass Crew (Some weird stipulation).
John Cena (c) vs. Bobby Lashley (WWE Championship)
Burke vs. Cor Von vs. Punk (c) vs. Nitro (Hardcore ECW Championship Match) okay...maybe not...
Triple H vs. Mr. Kennedy
Rey Mysterio vs. Edge (c) (World Heavyweight Championship)
Matt Hardy vs. MVP (c) (United States Championship)
Batista vs. The Great Khali
Melina vs. Mickie James (Women's Championship)

Although Summerslam is about a month and a half away, that was actually really fun. I would love to hear your opinions on the card for Summerslam and the Great American Bash.

Read More...

WWE Will Have HUGE Success This Summer. Here's Why:

Right now, WWE seems to be in a bit of a lull. A couple factors go into this: they are coming off the backend of Wrestlemania and they a suffering through some major injuries to some major superstars. The good news for WWE is that both of these problems will solve themselves at around the same time...this summer.

Think of this:

Over the course of the next couple months, we will see the return of some major superstars. Rey Mysterio, Triple H, and (my favorite) MISTAAAAAA KENNEDY will all be returning and receiving main event roles in WWE programming. There are also reports that WWE would like to sign Chris Jericho in time for Summerslam. These main event superstars can provide much better mainstream interest than Bobby Lashley, the Great Khali, or Batista ever could.

Also, WWE should be emerging out out of its post-Wrestlemania lull around this time. Huge main eventers + huge stages like Summerslam = Success for the WWE.

I'm looking forward to this summer's WWE programming. I truly think that if WWE handles its storylines properly then over the course of the next year it will return to being a fixture of pop culture. Post your thoughts...

Drew Arnold, writing for The Irish Whip

Read More...