Looking Ahead – 11th July 2006

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Looking Ahead – 11th July 2006

Welcome one, welcome all. Please accept my humble apologies for missing last week folks. If you worked three 14 hour shifts in a row, you wouldn’t want to write a column either. Unless you’re Superman, or just a freak of nature that can go without sleep.

Speaking of freaks, let’s see what’s knocking about on IP today.

Have A Gander…

Go Vote for what you think is the “Funniest Movie of our Generation” on IP’s forums. My vote’s on Ace Ventura.

Eric S is back again, and has what looks like to be a job on the horizon. About damn time, dole-scrounger.

If you missed Raw yesterday, check out The Rabble, The Raw Events andTommy P’s Raw Coverage.

Will Cooling is right. Brit’s DO do it best… and I should know. I’m one of them.


SMACKDOWN

Next PPV – Great American Bash; 23/7/06

The Announced Card

World Heavyweight Championship Match
Rey Mysterio vs. King Booker

The title will get switched here hopefully, marking an end to the abysmal title reign of Rey Mysterio’s. Has anybody in history been so underused and been made to look so weak like Mysterio has been since he’s held the World title? King Booker has been on fire recently, and a World title reign will give him even more of a swagger in his step. He’ll only hold onto it for 4 months at the most (dropping it to Big Dave at Survivor Series probably) but still, it’s a nice reward for all the consistent hard work he’s put in over his WWE career.

Of course, Mysterio could fluke out another win, leading to a rematch at SummerSlam, where a Booker win might make for more of an impact, so we’ll have to wait and see.

Batista vs. Mark Henry

This is going to be a tough match to call. Not. I, along with everybody else in the entire World can see Batista beating Henry cleanly in the middle of the ring. The thing that I’m interested in seeing is if they can pull a good match out of each other. Obviously it’s not going to be a scientific mat classic, but it should be a good-to-decent brawl if nothing else.

Punjabi Prison Match
The Undertaker vs. The Great Khali

OK, what the hell is a Punjabi Prison Match? Is it a cage match, with a roof on, with vines and leaves wrapped through and around the steel? With a Tiger thrown in for fun? Shit… could this really be the return of the Dog Pound match, but replacing the dogs with tigers? It wouldn’t surprise me.

It could be a cage match, but using bamboo shoots instead of the steel cage. Fuck knows. Just some ideas floating around my brain. Anything to help me forget that I know we’ll see an abortion of a match.

United States Championship Triple Threat Match
Bobby Lashley vs. Finlay vs. William Regal

I absolutely love which ever WWE Creative guy thought of putting Lashley in matches with Finlay and Regal. You can tell they have really high hopes for Lashley, and have maybe learnt not to push people who can’t put together a basic match too soon.

Will we see a double-cross of sorts from Finlay or Regal during the match? I’m going with a Finlay face turn (hell, his little midget gets cheered already, so they might as well), who can then start a lengthy feud with Regal. Did they tease the turn on Smackdown this past week (when Regal and Finlay were filmed talking about what they did to each other back in WCW)?

Time will tell. I’d continue the Lashley vs. Finlay/Regal feud until SummerSlam, then shift Lashley into a short program with Henry.

Speculation…

Super Crazy vs. Psicosis

From the looks of things, this is pretty much a dead cert. It should be an awesome match if they’re given the proper amount of time to tell a story. 20 minutes would be great.

London & Kendrick vs. The Pit Bulls

The Pitbulls are picking up steam and are looking mighty impressive, so a match for the Tag Titles is just common sense. I’ve heard somewhere that London’s injured, so this might not go down, but if it does then that will give Smackdown two great Tag Team Title matches in a row on PPV. I can’t believe I just wrote that, but hell, I did.


RAW & SmackDown! (& Probably ECW)

Next PPV – SummerSlam; 20/08/06

The Announced Card

N/A

Speculation…

Rey Mysterio vs. Chavo Guerrero

Whether the World Belt is around the waist of Mysterio or not, this is a great match for the PPV. It’s one of the “Big 5”, so is the perfect stage for a feud of this nature. If it ever happens, which I believe it will at some point.

Rey Mysterio vs. King Booker

If they decide not to put the belt on King Booker at the GAB, then a rematch here would make sense. They could even pit them against each other inside a Steel Cage, to give Booker’s win all the more meaning.

Batista vs. King Booker

They can play off the “fight” they had a while back at the SummerSlam Photoshoot, Commercial or whatever it was. It might be a bit too soon to pull the trigger on this though, but they’ve got to do it sometime.

The Undertaker vs. The Great Khali

Die Khali Die… Die Khali Die… Die Khali Die…

Ok, so I don’t really want the guy to die, but I do want him to go back to OVW for a good few months. Ney, years. Ney, decades. He might improve slightly if he does.

Fuck it, just fire the guy.

By a weird coincidence, last years GAB saw Taker kill off Muhammad Hassan, so we might see the same thing happen again. Awesome.

Bobby Lashley vs. Mark Henry

This would be an opportune time to see if Bobby can carry a match by himself. A test if you will. A win over Henry would also look good on his early résumé, plus it’d help propel him towards the main event, where he should be by this time next year if things are still looking thin on Smackdown.

DX vs. The McMahons

It looks like we’ll get this match at SummerSlam, which will most likely be the end of the DX reunion. Any longer than that, and it’s on borrowed time. Hell, it’s on borrowed time as it is, but anything after SS and it’d dead in the water.

What do you think by the way? Fancy emailing me your thoughts on DX, or just anything in particular? Shoot me an email. I’ll reply to it and everything. Just gives me something to do on these long, boring night shifts I do at work.

John Cena vs. Edge for the WWE Championship

Edge NEEDS to hold onto the World title much longer than he did the last time he had his greasy mits on it. If it were up to me, I’d have the Edge vs. Cena rivalry continue past SummerSlam, Survivor Series, the Rumble and end up at WrestleMania 23, where Cena could capture the World title once again.

Johnny Nitro & Melina vs. Carlito & Trish

I’m just going by what we saw on Raw yesterday, but it’s safe to say we’ll see a combination of a Carlito vs. Nitro match on the card. Making it a mixed tag match gets Melina and Trish on the card too, freeing up some space and putting off the eventual Melina vs. Trish blow off match, possibly at Survivor Series, which is a perfect time for Trish to exit gracefully in a “Loser Leaves Raw” match. Damn I’m good.

Big Show vs. Tommy Dreamer – ECW World Title Match

I’m pretty sure ECW will have a spot on the card, even for just one match (and that’s all it should be) so I’d obviously have to go with Big Show, but as for Tommy Dreamer, well, he has sort of a feud going (I think) with Show and he’s another old ECW guy who could do with a small push. I would have said Big Show vs. Sabu, but Sabu has some ground to make up after his arrest so I don’t think he’ll get the spot.

Randy Orton vs. Hulk Hogan

Any reason to get Brooke Hogan on my TV is a good one (I can’t help it… I’m an ass man and MAN has she got an ass…), and a win for Orton over Hogan would be a couple of steps in the right direction.


RAW

Next PPV – Unforgiven; 17/9/06

The Announced Card

N/A

Speculation…

Depending on the fallout from SummerSlam, I’d say it’s a given that we’ll see the Cena – Edge rivalry continue, as well as some form of DX breakup and the tag titles should really be defended here too, because it doesn’t look like they will be at SummerSlam or anytime soon. Really though, there’s no face team apart from the Highlanders on Raw, so who knows who they’ll defend the straps against.

The IC title will also be on the line, that’s a given. If I had to pick, I’d still go with the Nitro vs. Carlito combination and I think there will still be some fuel in the fire, even after SummerSlam.


The Last Bit…

Go buy Wolfmother’s album “Wolfmother”. It kicks all kinds of ass.

Also, email me, because I’m going to be very bored tonight. If you’re lucky, I’ll even post it in here next week.

Stay easy…

Danny Wallace.