Week 3 update - 4.28.2008

Raw

I was excited to see a re-match between Orton and HHH, hopefully with Orton taking back the title from HHH, but instead we got some insane ending with Regal pulling the plug on the show due to Kenndy's interrupting of his coronation AKA "insolence." Huh? The WWE is acting like the live crowd wasn't even there. What happened at the end of the match? Did Orton and HHH just get up and leave? So dumb.

Orton should have won the belt back clean, making this the second time that HHH has beaten him for the belt and then immediately lost it. That way, when HHH does end up keeping the belt, you could book him to beat Orton on a PPV, have Orton challenge him for a rematch that night or the next night on Raw, and have HHH win again, making it a decisive victory. All the while you can hype up the fact that Orton has beaten him in every immediate re-match blah blah blah. Stupid.

On the other hand, Jericho's segment with Shawn Michaels was pretty hilarious and worked very well. Jericho is best served as the cocky heel, because he can actually back it up in the ring. Interested to see how this ends up.

JBL beat a Highlander in like two seconds and then confusingly challenged both the winner of the main event title match (of which there didn't seem to be one) and John Cena. Who is he gunning for, here? Cena? The current champ? The Highlanders?

I actually liked the Paul Burchill / Katie Lea segment where they beat down Super Crazy. They thanked Regal for making it a two-on-one match and showcased the fact that Katie Lea can apparently wrestle. Here's to hoping Regal assembles a crew of swarthy Brits during his reign as King of the Ring.

Cade & Murdoch should not be broken up. THIS IS A BAD IDEA. Murdoch singing two verses of Garth Brooks' "Friends in Low Places" was super weird. Maybe they're going to make Murdoch a total maniac or something. They could be a powerhouse tag team like the Acolytes, but instead they're being separated. Fucking lame.

Good Divas beat the Bad Divas in a Backlash rematch. Whee!

Like Cody Rhodes over Santino, and this feud is shaping up nicely. Awesome seeing Rhodes get on the mic post-match to talk down to Santino, only to have Carlito (who we had nicely forgotten about on the outside) sneak in and deliver the Backstabber. Nice build. Also good to see Holly being a little rough (like in a "That's how you do it!" way) with Rhodes after his win and then Rhodes showing some fire. Good teacher/student thing going on there (they stole your idea, Bobek!).

Overall, decent show . . . terrible ending. Give Orton back the belt!!!

ECW

Dreamer loses to Mike Knox! Knox could pull off the crazy big-guy gimmick way better than Snitsky, who we've (thankfully) seen zero of lately. I like his loose-canon facial hair, too.

Shelton beat Kofi two weeks in a row. Good to see that Gold Standard gimmick is really raising Shelton to that next level.

Striker had Foley on his classroom segment, which was good because they're both great on the mic, but this seemed like filler more than anything else, as Foley probably won't be wrestling any time soon.

For some reason, Chuck Palumbo beat CM Punk. What is going on here?!

Main event saw Chavo and Bam Neely beat Kane, but with no commentary. Apparantly, the E is trying to get fans to talk about the shows after they're off the air, so Vince decided to stage some sort of announcer walk-off. I know we're talking about it now, but for all the wrong reasons. There was no teased tension between Taz(z) and Adamle, no bickering or anything. Is Taz(z) supposed to be frustrated with Adamle's lack of announcing skill? Is Adamle supposed to be pissed that everyone is making fun of him when he's trying his hardest? What the fuck is going on? So stupid.

Smackdown

Due to the Cubs game going into extra innings, I was only able to see the first hour of this show. OOPS.

Miz/Morrison retained the tag titles against Yang/Moore in a good match. Like the build here, too, because when those two finally lose the belts, it'll have an air of finally about it. Good, solid feud thus far. Throw in some gimmick matches and we're golden.

Mark Henry beat Nunzio (again), but this time Nunzio had Big Show in his corner for some reason, which led to a Henry/Show staredown. Okaaaaay.

Kozlov over Delaney. This was just Estrada softening up Delaney for their match next week on ECW's 100th episode. I'm guessing Colin will win his contract when he beats Estrada next week. Guessing.

Victoria and Natalya Neidhart over Cherry and Michelle McCool. I really like the pairing of Victoria and Neidhart, especially since they're really selling the fact that she's the Anvil's daughter: a total bruiser.

Then, I guess some other stuff happened: Hardy retained the US title against MVP, Finlay beat Julio Dinero (!), Foley talked to Batista who I guess is still pissed at Michaels, Jesse/Festus lost to Ryder/Hawkins, and I guess Vickie Guerrero decided that 'Taker's submission move was illegal, so he was stripped of the title. What?! Interested to see where this goes, but it's still so bizarre.

See you next week!!!
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