This Week in ‘E – Tables, Ladders and Chairs…Oh My…

Columns, Features

Sheamus became WWE Champion at TLC, the Slammys~! are upon us and John Cena to be absent for the first battle in the supposed new Monday Night War…I’m guessing Vince isn’t worried…

Opening Witty Banter
Sheamus huh? Wow…I did not see that coming, but it’s certainly a nice change of pace. It seemed as if it was too soon for Sheamus to win the Championship but then I remembered Yokozuna debuted in November 1992 and was Champion by April 1993 so I guess it’s not unprecedented. Also got check out some local independent wrestling this weekend, which is always a treat. I encourage you all to see your local stars in action any time you can.

Now let’s take some ‘E…

The News of the Week
As has been the norm the past few weeks news on the WWE front has been slight, but tonight is the Slammys~! Here are the nominations and my exclusive picks on who will/should win.

Superstar of The Year:
– John Cena
– CM Punk
– Randy Orton
– The Undertaker

How is defending champion Chris Jericho not nominated again this year? That being said, expect Randy Orton to win this year so he has something else brag about.

Diva of the Year:
– All the Divas are nominated and the winner will be decided by fan vote on WWE.com tomorrow.

Eh…I don’t really care. I’d expect Melina or Mickie James to win I’m sure.

Match of the Year:
– Shawn Michaels vs. Undertaker at WrestleMania
– John Cena vs. Randy Orton – “I Quit Match” at WWE Breaking Point
– Jeff Hardy vs. Edge – Ladder Match at Extreme Rules
– Team RAW vs. Team SmackDown, Bragging Rights

Shawn and Undertaker is walking away with this award. Most obvious pick of the night.

Tag Team of The Year:
– DX
– Jeri-Show
– Legacy
– Hart Dynasty

Legacy and The Harts are here just to pad out the category. Expect Jeri-Show to win this one so that Chris Jericho can at least brag about something this year.

Oh My! Moment of the Year:
– Shawn Michaels superkicks little girl in cafeteria
– Chris Masters performs special “dancing pecs” routine for Osbournes
– Michael Cole vomits on Chris Jericho at SmackDown’s 10th Anniversary
– Santino Marella accidentally nails Vickie with a pie

It should be Shawn kicking that girl hands down, but if they are serious about this comedy push for Masters then he will win.

RAW Guest Host of the Year:
– Bob Barker
– Seth Green
– Shaq
– Ozzy & Sharon Osbourne

Bob Barker~! come on down!

Shocker of the Year:
– Batista turns against former friend Rey Mysterio
– Randy Orton DDTs Stephanie and forces Triple H to watch
– CM Punk forces Jeff Hardy to retire after Steel Cage Match victory
– Sheamus slams Raw host Mark Cuban through a table

That Orton DDT was pretty bad ass and one of the few truly memorable images on RAW this past year.

Breakout Star of the Year:
– Drew McIntyre
– Sheamus
– Abraham Washington
– Yoshi Tatsu

Oh wait…this is the most obvious pick of the year….A Slammy and the WWE Title? Sheamus will be doing good come tomorrow night.

Extreme Moment of the Year:
– Kofi Kingston lands a Boom Drop on Randy Orton at MSG
– Big Show chokeslams John Cena into arena spotlight at Backlash
– Jeff Hardy jumps from ladder onto CM Punk at SummerSlam
– Triple H invades Randy Orton’s home

All are decent choices to win, but I’d go with the Boom Drop to continue to give Kofi some more mileage.

The Day in Connecticut has reported that Linda McMahon’s Senate campaign has already spent $2 million in its first three months, but that they did not provide detailed itemized listings of what the expenditures were, thus breaking federal regulations.

So is she just trying to lose this election right out of the gate or what?

John Cena won’t be at the big January 4 RAW as he is scheduled to do the coin flip and promote WrestleMania XXVI.

So does Cena win back the WWE Championship tonight or at the Royal Rumble?

Christopher Nowinski sent out the following letter to the wrestling community, regarding concussions in the sport…

To the professional wrestling community:
I was saddened today, but not surprised, to learn that Andrew “Test” Martin was suffering from Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE), a progressive degenerative brain disease caused by repetitive trauma, when he passed away. I had the honor of wrestling Test on multiple occasions and he had my respect both as a performer and as a person.

Most wrestlers and wrestling fans are aware that since retiring from WWE due to multiple concussions, I have dedicated my life to the study, treatment, and prevention of CTE. Our non-profit Sports Legacy Institute (SLI) was responsible for the diagnosis of CTE in Chris Benoit in 2007, the first professional wrestler diagnosed with CTE. In 2008 I teamed up with the top researchers in this field to start the Center for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy (CSTE) at the prestigious Boston University School of Medicine. Along with Dr. Ann McKee, Dr. Robert Stern, and Dr. Robert Cantu we have now analyzed the brains of over twenty athletes, and are beginning to develop an advanced understanding of this disease

More importantly over 225 active and retired athletes have volunteered to be part of a longitudinal study on CTE. By enrolling in our CONTACT study at the CSTE at Boston University School of Medicine, they will be committing to donating their brain to CTE research after death. CONTACT members also agree to update their medical and trauma histories annually with the CSTE by phone. This study will enable the CSTE to obtain more accurate and detailed histories of donors and compare them to future pathological findings, eventually allowing us to understand the specific risk factors and clinical course of CTE.

Over 20 wrestlers have already enrolled or recently pledged to join the study, including Rob Van Dam, Matt Morgan, Lance Storm, Ken Kennedy, Molly Holly, Tony Garea, Antonio Thomas, Dawn Marie, Kevin Fertig, and other big names who at this point choose to remain anonymous. The only group of professional athletes so far with a greater commitment to this research is NFL players, with over 60 current and retired players involved.

Considering how the CSTE’s research combined with SLI’s advocacy were able to convince the NFL last month to completely change their approach to both concussions and lower-impact repetitive brain trauma, Test’s tragic death provides an opportunity to create change and to prevent this from happening to others.

I would like to encourage current and former professional wrestlers to become part of the research that we expect will eventually lead to treatment and a cure for CTE. I am enrolled and will be donating my brain to help my former colleagues. I hope you will choose to join me and over 20 other members of our fraternity in this important endeavor.

Chris Nowinski
cnowinski@sportslegacy.org

To enroll, call
Megan Wulff, MPH
Research Coordinator
617-638-6143
mawulff@bu.edu
To learn more, visit www.sportslegacy.org

I have nothing witty to say about this, other than I’m glad to see Mr. Nowinski continuing to fight the good fight for the professional wrestling industry.

Wrestler of the Week
Week of December 7 – 13: Sheamus
Coming out of nowhere and winning the WWE Championship in his first time out as challenger definitely qualifies for best week ever status. I must say I was definitely not expecting a Sheamus victory at TLC but I’m excited for some fresh blood in the main event scene. Even when he loses the belt back to Cena in a few weeks it will solidify him as a main event level superstar and his name will always be in the record books forever as one of the elite few to win the WWE Championship.

RAW’s On Tonight!
It’s the Slammys bitches! Three hours of RAW tonight come live from Corpus Christi, Texas, hosted the great Dennis Miller. Matches will be secondary to gloriousness of the Slammys and Dennis Miller’s quips (but then don’t matches always take a backseat on RAW?) But I’m sure Sheamus will have plenty to say about his unexpected WWE Championship win. Will John Cena cash in his rematch tonight or wait until the big January 4 head-to-head show? DX also came out of TLC as Tag Team Champions so they should also have plenty to say as well, but will Shawn finally work Tuesdays? All this and much more I’m sure.

On Last Week’s Episode…
SmackDown

Superstars

RAW

How They Rated
SmackDown! (11.27.09) – 2.1

Superstars (12.3.09) – .9

A.M. RAW (12.6.09) – .8

RAW (12.7.09) – 3.2

ECW (12.8.09) – .8

This is Boring, What Else is There to Read?
Hack continues to bring the love to the independent organizations of the world.

Wheeler continues his awesomeness with his RAW reviews.

Skvarla, Rushfieldand Morgado all give their thoughts on Umaga’s passing.

In Case You Didn’t Spend the $40
Marshall handled exclusive TLC coverage for the Pulse.

Here is how it all went down:

In the opening Ladder Match, ECW Champion Christian successfully defended his Championship against Shelton Benjamin.

Drew McIntyre pinned John Morrison with a Butterfly DDT win the Intercontinental Championship.

WWE Women’s Champion Michelle McCool defended her Championship against Mickie James, pinning her after a big boot.

Sheamus defeated John Cena to WWE Championship in a Tables Match after both men were on the top rope and Sheamus pushed Cena off and through a table.

In a Chairs Match for the World Heavyweight Championship, The Undertaker successfully defended his Championship against Batista. Batista had originally won the match after a low blow and a chair shot, but SmackDown General Manager Teddy Long restarted the match, claiming the match wouldn’t end in such a way.

Randy Orton pinned Kofi Kingston after a RKO.

DeGeneration X (Shawn Michaels & Triple H) beat Chris Jericho and The Big Show in a TLC match to win the Unified WWE Tag Team Championships.

IP Staff Roundtable Results for WWE TLC
The staff got together to talk TLC and here was what our expert analysis revealed. Most everyone did middling to awful, the other resident WWE guru around here, Andrew Wheeler, walked away with a victory once again.

Roundtable Champion: Andrew Wheeler: 4-3 (165-96)

The rest:
Steven Gepp: 3-4 (23-34)
Paul Marshall: 3-4 (140-98)
Roy Reynolds: 3-4 (30-21)
Fake Vince: 2-5 (2-5)
Widro: 2-5 (62-54)
Raffi Shamir: 1-6 (119-103)

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For more relevant, interesting and exciting wrestling information from your truly, check out my gig as the Pro Wrestling Examiner over at Examiner.com.

Mark was a columnist for Pulse Wrestling for over four years, evolving from his original “Historically Speaking” commentary-style column into the Monday morning powerhouse known as “This Week in ‘E.” He also contributes to other ventures, outside of IP, most notably as the National Pro Wrestling Examiner for Examiner.com and a contributor for The Wrestling Press. Follow me on Twitter here.