That’s right boys and girls. I don’t mean to toot my own horn but I came from dead last into crazy first with No Mercy last night. Another note: John Cena has now screwed me 2 weeks straight. Week 1 he’s my dawg and doesn’t do anything. Week 2 I play smart with him going to shoot a movie and what happens? He wins the damn U.S. Title. Here are this weeks picks and notes:
Kyle Litke (Comics Reviewer)
Total Salary Used: 19,250,000
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Randy Orton: $6,500,000
Batista: $4,500,000
Christian: $3,500,000
Shelton Benjamin: $2,750,000
Tyson Tomko: $1,000,000
Mark Jindrak: $1,000,000
I should probably mention first that I don’t even watch Smackdown anymore. As a result, I have no idea who would be good for them, and decided I’d be best served by not even picking Smackdown guys (except for one, but see below!). So, why these guys? Orton’s expensive…but he’s also getting a huge push. He’s got a match nearly every show, and he usually makes appearances in at least 2 different segments, if not more. Batista’s another guy getting a push, and since he’s with Evolution, he’s another guy who should rack up tons of appearance points. And since he’s a big guy and a heel, it’s a safe bet he’ll win most of his matches…until the PPVs, anyway. Christian’s here because he’s in a program with both Shawn Michaels and Jericho, and I expect to see him get the upper hand a few more times. Shelton Benjamin’s just returning after an absence, so I expect to see him on TV a decent amount, and probably winning matches to capitalize off the whole “Beat HHH every single week” thing. Tomko’s on here because he’s quite cheap, and as Christian’s problem solver, he’ll probably at the least appear once a week.
Kyle’s Hot Pick: Mark Jindrak
So I don’t watch Smackdown. I don’t know much about what Jindrak was up to before. But didn’t he just show up and beat up Eddie and Big Show, and join up with Angle and Luthor Reigns? For a mere $1,000,000, this guy’s a steal.
Ben Morse (Co-Editor-In-Chief of the Nexus, writer of The Mean, writer of The Watchtower)
Hevia Note: These picks were prior to No Mercy
Total Salary Used: $19,250,000
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Booker T: $4,500,000
Chris Benoit: $5,500,000
Chris Jericho: $4,500,000
Mark Jindrak: $1,000,000
Trish Stratus: $2,750,000
Tyson Tomko: $1,000,000
Booker is my consistent champion pick, netting me points for holding the U.S. title as I don’t see him dropping it anytime soon; Triple H was too expensive, JBL’s reign is too shaky and Spike Dudley doesn’t wrestle enough. It just so happens that Chris Jericho now also fits the spot of fairly reliable champion, but I initially took him based on the fact that with the Highlight Reel and a match, he usually makes more appearances on Raw than most others. Chris Benoit rarely loses, title or not, so he’s another solid pick. Like many others, I took Trish Stratus based on the fact that she has the Women’s title and there are no real viable challengers on the horizon. I took Mark Jindrak to be one half of my “B-Show Stud” collection, since I figured I’d be guaranteed points for his weekly Velocity wins, but now that he seems to be moving up the card, I may need to re-evaluate, but I’ll see if they push him hard on Smackdown first. Tomko just seemed like the best pickup at such a low price given how many times he appears as a bodyguard for either Christian or Trish (seems to be only Christian now) and because he rarely loses. I’m contemplating picking up Maven as my other B-Show guy, but I have to see how he performs up against Jindrak and Tomko first.
Ben’s Hot Pick: Mark Jindrak
Same reasoning as Kyle. He won’t lose for awhile if they just jumped him up to Smackdown (unless he gets force fed to Big Show this week).
Hevia’s picks:
Total Salary Used: $20,000,000
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Billy Kidman $2,750,000
Christian $3,500,000
Kenzo Suzuki $2,500,000
Mark Jindrak $1,000,000
Shelton Benjamin $2,750,000
Tyson Tomko $1,000,000
Randy Orton $6,500,000
As far as I’m concerned this competition is over. I’ve been in first place in the Inside Pulse league for like 20 minutes and that’s good enough for me. However let me break my picks down for you. Billy Kidman: I have no clue how they made him the heel in the situation but I guess that’s cool. He’s being pushed as something so at the very least he’s going to appear. Christian has a match with HBK on Raw. This could be the main event so you’d get those points too. He very well may go over because they’re pushing this feud. Any more reason for Capatin Charisma? Kenzo Suzuki is slowly getting over so he will make an appearance and he has a belt. Any belt means something in this fantasy world. Jindrak will be on Smackdown and the boy got me mucho points last week by getting the win in the main event. Shelton Benjamin is being pushed…nuff said. Actually I swear I’ll walk out of the Garden if Mr. Benjamin is on Sunday Night Heat. Tyson Tomko = Christian has a match tonight. As for Randy Orton, I’ve avoided picking him because he costs more than anybody except JBL, but week after week he’s scoring major points. And they have to get him onto the voting for Taboo Tuesday so I’d expect him to be in the main event on Raw.
Hot Pick: Chrisitan. He’s been on a roll since his return and his feud with HBK looks to be a springboard for him. I doubt they’d let that go and have him get squashed.
What? No Blatt? He’s not talking due to his loss of first place? He’s Deconstructing Hevia’s Moveset trying to figure out how to unseat this weeks champion? Well good for him. What’s that you say? Crying? Wow. Literally? Like tears? Damn. Well all I can say is I hope I continue my string of dominance. I like watching people cry. It’s funny and it makes me feel better about myself.
Good luck to all you fantasy folks and once again, if we messed up your lives with our picks I encourage you to write to me and tell me how much you hate me. Hell I’m surprised I didn’t get any emails about ALL of us going for Booker T last week. I’ll go check my inbox. Until next week, this has been your Crucified Deconstruction of Rolling Dice for Week 3.
