Welcome to the only column that almost got drafted to the weekend coverage slot. Don’t worry, I pulled a Triple H and stayed on my current slot. This week, I am a day late, but I know I’ll be forgiven. You got me for your Friday Morning coffee break because Wal*Mart loves me and they know I’m a sucker to work extra. Grab yourself a donut and continue to read.
When the only thing to talk about is what happened last year or what happened this week…I’m going to talk about what happened this week, mainly because what happened last year is done, there’s no way you can rewrite history. Just know that the man done excellent things in the ring and I will always remember him for that aspect.
Last Time on TMR
On the last report, I mentioned how the Wellness Policy screws up creating new superstars. It’s nothing you haven’t seen before, because deep down, we all know that the monkeys won’t elevate new stars because of what happened with Brock Lesnar and Bobby Lashley. I’ve also gave you my picks, and I’m about to tell you how I did.
Draft Analysis
I had 20 picks, and I gotta say that only four of them were right on the money. I guessed Umaga and Maria heading to SmackDown and CM Punk and Kane heading to ECW. However, this year’s draft left some big surprises and I have to say…RAW got raped this year.
Everyone’s screaming at me because I am supposed to say that ECW got raped so bad that it’s not even funny. Let me try to defend my reasoning by providing you with the ultimate list of who left RAW and who came to RAW.
RAW Lost
1. Jeff Hardy
2. Jim Ross
3. Umaga
4. Ken Kennedy
5. Triple H
6. Trevor Murdoch
7. DH Smith
9. Brian Kendrick
10. Maria Kannelis
11. Carlito
12. Super Crazy
RAW Gained
1. Rey Mysterio
2. CM Punk
3. Michael Cole
4. Batista
5. Kane
6. Jamie Noble
7. Deuce
8. Chuck Palumbo
9. Matt Striker
10. Layla El
11. Kofi Kingston
Legend: Bold=Main Event Talent; Italics=Mid/Upper Mid-Card Talent; Standard=Everyone Else
RAW lost 12 superstars (but gained 11), including main event talent Triple H and Jeff Hardy. Argue all you want, but Triple H going heel right about now is what the company needs with Randy Orton on the sidelines. Your top heel on RAW right now is John Bradshaw Layfield, and that is a laughable joke right now. Chris Jericho, as much as he tries to be a heel…you can’t consider him a top heel. RAW did gain main eventers such as Rey Mysterio and Batista, but both of them are not working heels right now unless they plan on turning Batista for the “Evolution 2.0” idea with Randy once he returns. CM Punk is your wildcard right now and he holds the Money in the Bank briefcase. The writers have a lot to do to build up a credible heel and Punk being that man…as Pulse Glazer would say, would be “fantastic”.
Your big winners of the 2008 Draft is…..surprise…ECW! When you look at ECW, you see people that are mainly those working to get to RAW or SmackDown. Matt Hardy and Finlay are two such superstars that will ultimately work with the rest of the ECW talent and share the ECW title a couple times as well. Mark Henry may also be serviceable to the brand only because despite how much he sucks in the ring, he’s at least over as a heel. Super Crazy can finally get back on television for a while and Hornswoggle can continue to be a comedy act. Yes, I just typed that.
SmackDown also came out winners in respect that they got Triple H and Jeff Hardy, but not only that, they got Jim Ross, who came close to quit the WWE about 100 times between Monday night and Tuesday morning. JR realized that the WWE needs someone who can sell the show and there’s no one better than good old JR. He won’t be around forever, so it’s about time to see if Michael Cole, the star of Deliverance, can carry the flagship.
Overall, it was a great draft for the WWE and for once, Vince lived up to his promise and he really shook things up. Let’s see what the writers can do with what is given to them.
WWE Can Be Bush League Sometimes
Everyone and their dog probably seen the ending to RAW Monday night. In case you haven’t, here’s the clip from RAW. Somehow, embedding YouTube videos have changed to a degree since the update to the site, but you can still click on the links.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=YpbC6qq6tzQ
Tuesday on ECW, they played a recap clip about what happened. Here’s that YouTube clip for you.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=bsVFW6ZyEoQ
In the first clip, you can see the “lever” being released, causing the big money sign to drop. The second clip was much more realistic and that should had been what we should had seen Monday night on RAW. It’s the minor things like this that can point the WWE to be bush league because of bad camera work, and the fact that they were obviously staging the “accident”. I can argue that it was also in bad taste, considering that a couple weeks back, a TNA crew member died from a set collapsing. At first and I’ll admit, I thought that wasn’t expected – the whole accident angle, but after watching the replay, I was impressed that it was completely staged – unlike the limo explosion from last year (yes it was staged, but it looked pretty darn real at that time. Add to the fact that just a year ago this week, Chris Benoit killed his family and himself…many people wonder WHY the WWE would stoop to new lows to try to entice viewers? There were other ways to get out of giving out a million dollars a week, but the WWE went the wrong route and it’ll be interesting to see what happens this upcoming Monday on RAW.
TNA Beats ECW Last Week!
In a major shock to the IWC, TNA Impact last Thursday scored a 1.04 rating while ECW scored a .99 rating. While the .05 difference is negligible to say the least, this piece of news generated some buzz from around the net. I, for one, would be interested to find out how the hourly ratings for that Impact were. It seems that no one releases the hourly ratings for Impact like they do for RAW every week. I’m not sure if it is because Nielsen doesn’t have them available or if Impact isn’t as important to anyone that they don’t care about the hourly ratings. This week, TNA has a mountain to climb as ECW scored a 1.18 rating. That rating should be known later today most likely.
From Around the Pulse
Matthew Michaels posted the complete 2008 WWE Draft Results.
Mark Neeley and Pulse Glazer are your new Inside Pulse TNA Tag Team! Catch them weekly for the Live TNA Report and 10 Thoughts!
Mark Allen looks back to what happened with Chris Benoit last year.
Bambi Weavil talks about this weeks RAW.
Scott Keith is finally getting HD and he has more mail from his dear fans.
Wrap-up
Night of Champions is this weekend on Pay-Per-View. Keep it to Pulse Wrestling for all the late breaking news and anything else that comes from Night of Champions. I will see you Monday night for RAW and we will see what the company’s direction is. Until then, I’m Jamaican myself crazy!
