:lol:

Umaga is going to win the title.

Excuse me...

(cries)

You know, I still haven't gotten on the Umaga bandwagon... and I don't think I'm going to. And I've tried, oh, how I've tried.

While an entertaining character, he certainly isn't what I'd call champioship material.

I don't even find him that entertaining. Estrada is great, Umaga is meh.

You guys are nuts. GIve Umaga the title. Its at least more interesting than Cena, Orton, anything DX, or giving Edge another pointless run with it.

You got a point, and with Kane on Smackdown, I can't use him as a blockage anymore.

Thank God.

Eh, the only reason I'd give the title to Umaga now would be to create a big time rematch for them at Wrestlemania, but only after Umaga kills someone at the Royal Rumble. It might even work out to have Umaga defend the title against Kane at No Way Out too, making Umaga ready for the challenge of Cena. Then Cena could win the Royal Rumble, cementing his main event status even more.

It would work, but I wouldn't necessarily clamor for it. Umaga as the WWE Champion would not do it for me.

I don't like the idea for NWO... and Umaga in the WM Main Event? Why not just kill wrestling altogether.

It would work, you just don't want to see Kane job to Umaga again :P

I wouldn't want to see it either, but it might help No Way Out's usually poor buyrate.

Hm, I should make more outlandish statements.

Hardy versus Nitro in a cage for the IC title is going to be a ***** classic. Better than Bret/Owen at WM X.

Probably, Bret/Owen was **3/4 at best ;)

Bullshit... * tops. It had no story, was duller than watching paint dry, and served no purpose to the rest of the card.


HOPEFULLY everyone knows I'm mocking a certain someone else over at TSM.

:Sets Rowe's soul on fire.:

What? It was better than Bret/Austin at WM13, which is maybe ** if I'm generous B)

Now you'ved lied to the people. ** For that boring suckfest? Psha, you're lucky I didn't break oout the negatives.

So the Royal Rumble is coming up soon. I've either been not paying attention or something because this is the first year in like 8 years that I haven't known the Rumble winner going in.

Logical guessing:
Edge or Randy Orton is winning if it's someone from Raw, King Booker or Undertaker for smackdown.

I'll go with Edge.

Undertaker is winning the Rumble and putting the streak on the line against Batista's title.

Yay.

Wow, that's quite the craptacular WM main event. That might even be worse than Taker/Sid or Batista/HHH was.

Hogan/Bundy was quite bad too, considering the lame build up for it.

But it's WWE, and they always manage to make WM worth a damn these days somehow.

I actually thought that Hogan/Bundy was rather underrated considering how bad that it could have been. It worked for what they needed it to do, which is more they can say for plenty of other Mania main events.

Hogan/Bundy at 2 owns. The simple rib story is better than anything Batista could comprehend.

So far, the Rumble is underwhelming. MNM/Hardys was a good opener, but Test/Lashely was a disaster. Batista/Kennedy was good, but Batista seemed to be dialing it in. And the ending ruined the match. I'm typing this as Umaga/Cena is going on, and it's a bad match. I'm not even interested. It's basically less interesting than the "Tennessee Street Fight" I paid $3 to see a few weeks ago at my local indy. All I can think is that I used to want to watch PPV's, and they used to be worth buying.

And that Austin/Kennedy would be a great Mania match. It would be a great rub for Kennedy

Taker picks up the win in a halfway decent Rumble.

And I'm surprised that Punk lasted half as long as he did

So Undertaker FINALLY won the Rumble?

(waits for the "He's retiring at WM" comments)

Actually, I'm thinking they might give Taker the title for one more run. If they think that giving Batista the win at Mania is going to do something special for ol Dave, it's not. People will seriously hate him if he breaks Taker's streak.

I never thought about that...

Kill 'im, 'Taker!

So when can we finally pull the plug on the Batista experiment?

I say the next time he gets backstage heat for being a dick, or the next time he gets seriously injured.

WrestleMania, of course. Where your push to the top either blasts off (Bret Hart, Chris Benoit) or crashes to earth (Yokozuna, Sid).

So who thought in 2000 that in 2007 we'd still be talking about Undertaker main eventing?

<----

It's not like you asked "Big Show" or someone else who's push was inconsistant.

I always thought around then we'd be talking about Kurt Angle, Chris Benoit, Brock Lesnar and Chris Jericho as the top guys in the WWE.

Well, 1 out of 4 wasn't bad. Too bad Angle got fired and jumped to the enemy ship.

I would have told you that Taker would be main eventing if he was still wrestling. He's the company guy now, he can do whatever the fuck he wants.

Just finished the show, spoiler-free. Rumble is one of the only shows that I'll avoid spoilers for, so I'll have a true watching experience. It helps that WWE has been pretty damn good in this new year. So, my thoughts, before I read everyone elses:

Opening Video package was wonderful. Just one of those things that get you hyped up for a great show.

Opener was good enough. Strange offense by Mercury throughout, with tons of pounding. First on Matt's "busted jaw" and then on Jeff's ribs. Very odd offense throughout the match, but a great heat spot really upped it a few notches. **1/2

Test v Lashley was downright horrible, but I'll admit that I never even gave it a chance. I don't care about ECW, especially with these two (mainly Lashley) being on top of things. The fact that they do a non finish, just days after doing a finish on free TV is fucking rediculous. DUD

Batista v Kennedy was refreshingly good actually. I am a pretty big critic of Batista, and think he has sucked ass since he went to Smackdown, but they wrestled the right kind of match here. Kennedy with some great work on the knee, and Batista was fairly consistent with the selling. The reverse Figure 4 was badass, and I wish they would've gone with a finish other than Batista hitting his finisher, because of the knee. Better than I expected, and they better be careful, cause that crowd was turning on Batista in a very Cena-like fashion. ***

Umaga v Cena up next, and another main event that I was JACKED for, the 2nd in the month for WWE on PPV, with the same guys. This match was fucking wonderful. A great brawl, great story, and great continuity from their last encounter, and Cena's injury. Cena was ruthless and just brutal, and I loved the double use of the stairs. Umaga was getting up from a ton of shit, and I loved the throwback to NYR with the attempt of the F-U with Cena faceplanting on the steps. Umaga's table spot was great, and I bought it as the finish. Its HARD to do a false finish in a Last Man Standing match, but they pulled it off. Back in the ring with one of the best finishes I've ever seen, to the best Last Man Standing match I've ever seen. ****1/4 I was holding at 4 stars, but my flat out enjoyment of this match bumped it up a notch. They did an amazing thing here, as I went into the match adamantly against Cena retaining. They managed to tell such a great story (for the 2nd PPV in a row) that they got me on Cena's side, rooting him on to choke the life out of Umaga at the end. Great selling by Umaga on the finish.

The Rumble was pretty good. I'm not comfortable rating it, because it is just tough. It was good, but lacked memorable spots other than the finish stuff, and the Batsta-Kane issue. It had a nice flow and didn't seem to have many dry spots, which is a good thing. I was VERY upset at a few things. Khali coming in, and moving SO slow, and all of those talented individuals having to sell to his ass was just depressing and actually killed the crowd for a large portion of the match. Then of course, he dumps all of these guys, and nobody can beat him. Well, nobody but the Undertaker, who gets #30? Seriously, why the fuck does Taker get 30. Does this guy have a contractual obligation to do as little as possible and get the biggest rewards and paychecks?

Moving on from my bitching session, I actually really enjoyed all the work with the Final 4. Orton, Edge, HBK, and Taker were all on, and although I wanted HBK to win, very badly, they pulled out a great finish, and I honestly didn't know who would win until Taker dumped him. Can't remember who called it (I'm thinking Lawler?) but someone yelling out "This is how he eliminated Deisel!" as HBK set up for another superkick was just a really great call. Good rumble, with a great ending. HBK got a huge push out of this thing, and should have something great waiting at Mania. Orton-Edge should continue to build until explosion, but Edge is such a strong heel right now, I can't see him being the face. Orton on the other hand just isn't cheerable, cause he is a total douche, so I can't see him being a face either. It'll be interesting if they make the decision to turn one of them, but I think a 4 way (Cena, HBK, Orton, Edge) is a possibility for Mania, even though I hate it.

Thumbs WAY up.

Sounds like I would've enjoyed the show, had I ordered it. In the mean time, I'll probably get the DVD. Nice writeup, Jamie, I'm glad you enjoyed it so much.

I don't get the love for the Cena-Umaga match. Maybe I'll watch it again tomorrow