Rapppppppaddddooo!

John Cena! John Cena! John Cena!

He’s wrestling Kane tonight.

Also on Raw, we’ve got more IC Title tournament hijinks: John Morrison will face off against Finlay and The Miz will take on Rey Mysterio. I think there’s also some sort of Divas match, but who really cares.

Discuss Raw here.

Sundays with no wrestling PPVs tend to equal no wrestling news. Because of that, I’ve decided I’ll start a new tradition here at PWB: the Sunday Debate.

Let’s start off with a simple topic that we always like to debate: who is the greatest professional wrestler of all-time?

This is really a tough one. There have been great wrestlers in every decade: guys like Lou Thesz, Gorgeous George, Buddy Rogers, Freddy Blassie, Bruno Sammartino and Harley Race and Andre the Giant eventually gave way to guys like Ric Flair, Hulk Hogan, Terry Funk and Dusty Rhodes in the 1980s. But who can forget Ricky Steamboat, “The Macho Man” Randy Savage, and Bret Hart? And what about a guy like Shawn Michaels, who rose to prominence in the late 80s and early 90s and is still wrestling? The Undertaker falls in that category, as well. So does Sting.

Then, of course, you’ve got the new stars of the mid-90s and the Attitude Era: “Stone Cold” Steve Austin, The Rock, Mick Foley, Chris Jericho, Triple H, Booker T, DDP, Scott Hall and Kevin Nash. Then there’s the newer crop of top guys: Kurt Angle, Edge, AJ Styles, Christian Cage, Samoa Joe, John Cena, Rey Mysterio, Eddie Guerrero (R.I.P.), Jeff Hardy and The Miz (OK, just kidding on that one). But seriously, one of those guys might be on their way to being one of the greatest of all-time.

There are a lot of different things that go into this debate: wrestling ability, persona and drawing power have to be the most important things to consider. Also, you have to look at it from this angle: is the guy a household name?

Those are just names off the top of my head. I know I’m leaving some big names out. But let’s get the debate going: who do you think is the greatest professional wrestler of all-time?

I’ll give you my top 5:

1. “Stone Cold” Steve Austin - As if I would choose someone else. He made the WWE relevant and cool during the hottest era of professional wrestling.

2. The Rock - He also made the WWE cool during the Attitude Era and early 2000s. In fact, he was so popular, he cut his career short and became a bona-fide movie star. His rise to stardom is so unique I think you have to put him near the top.

3. Hulk Hogan - Wow, I hate to do this, but you can’t deny the guy’s star power. He wasn’t much of a wrestler, but then again, he never really had to be thanks to his persona.

4. (Tie) Bret Hart - Simpy the best technical wrestler ever. This guy could make any stiff look good.

4. (Tie) Ric Flair - I think it’s only fitting that these two guys who didn’t really seem to like each other tie for fourth place. Flair was the man, especially in the Southern United States.

5. Undertaker - Just look at this guy’s longevity and drawing power–it’s ridiculous. Also, his ability as a big man is truly unmatched. I’ve never seen such a big man wrestle so well. I put Undertaker at number five instead of Shawn Michaels simply because he can make any feud popular, with or without a championship belt inovlved. Like it or not, more people seem to be interested in a random Undertaker feud than the greatness that was Chris Jericho and HBK earlier this year. That definately counts for something in my book.

There are really some tough choices involved in deciding who’s the best–I always have to throw a lot of my personal biases out the window. Granted, I’ve got Stone Cold first, but I actually put Hulk Hogan on this list, and that pains me. It also pains me to leave HBK and Mick Foley off, but you gotta do what you gotta do.

I enjoyed the “Beat the Clock” concept Smackdown used last year, and it looks like it’s making its return tonight. Here’s a non-spoiler preview of tonight’s show courtesy of PW Insder:

“Beat The Clock” matches, where the winner of the match with the fastest time gets a WWE Title match at Armageddon:
- Jeff Hardy vs. Brian Kendrick.
- Matt Hardy vs. Vladimir Kozlov.
- Triple H vs. Shelton Benjamin.

- Jesse & Festus vs. John Morrison & The Miz.

- Nikki Bella, Brie Bella & Michelle McCool vs. Maryse, Natalya & Victoria.

- Edge and Vickie Guerrero will appear on the show.

Based on Jim Ross’ description of this show, I’m pumped:

Speaking of Tuesday night, Friday Night Smackdown was in Albany, N.Y. taping the next two Friday nights of the broadcast. Both shows are wrestling heavy based on today’s TV wrestling world and this Friday night see significant wrestling action featuring multiple, competitive matches involving HHH, Jeff Hardy, and Vladimir Kozlov, among others. There has never been a perfect wrestling show produced at least that I have ever seen but this one is a good,solid program that features mostly in ring content and not backstage bits that often times do not play to the individual’s strengths.

I like the sound of “wrestling heavy based on today’s TV wrestling world…” I guess that means we’ll get some actual wrestling matches tonight, once again proving that Smackdown > Raw.

While Christian’s future with TNA remains up in the air he just got one more good reason to jump back to the WWE. Dave Meltzer is reporting that Christian’s good friend Tomko has signed a new contract with the World Wrestling Entertainment. One can’t help but think at least part of the reason WWE would take on contract with someone like Tomko during the same time that there cutting talent is to court Christian. I for one am looking forward to the return of the Edge, Christian and Tomko faction on Smackdown.

-sideshowRaheem

Personally I found the way the WWE booked Jeff Hardy’s absence from the Survivor Series 3-Way a little off putting but I didn’t know how against it you could be until I read Paul Heyman’s thoughts on it in his latest article for The Sun UK:

The callous view taken by WWE chairman Vince McMahon and those around him, not even taking into account how brazenly insensitive this storyline may be viewed, is yet another in a long line of demonstrations by McMahon that getting people talking is paramount.

He feels that no rules apply because ‘it’s only entertainment’ and people should embrace the soap opera-like enticements to stay tuned.

I think it was just bad business.

WWE made the conscious choice to present a scenario that called for speculation as to why the reportedly twice-suspended Hardy was found unconscious in his hotel.

Not once did WWE report the entire day ‘Hardy was jumped by an unknown assailant’ — that ‘new information’ was revealed only during the PPV broadcast.

To make matters worse, WWE acted like regional promoters in the 1970’s, appearing to be almost giddy at the fact several mainstream news agencies picked up the story as legitimate.

“They’re buying it as a shoot!” Whoopie!

This type of behaviour just leaves such a bad taste in the mouths of people who already look down on pro wrestling/sports entertainment.

God I wish this man was still booking a wrestling show ANY WRESTLING SHOW! Heyman continues to show he has full grasp of what people want to see. What I found most disturbing is that this fake story was reported as real news by several legitimate news organizations including AOL News, CNN.com and ABCnews.com. In an industry where a wrestler being found dead in a hotel room is at least a once a year occurrence the WWE should not be intentionally fueling the stereotype of the drugged out wrestler especially if that want a more “family friendly” image. Read the entire Pual Heyman rant here.

-sideshowRaheem

Before I went to sleep last night, I decided to tune and watch the final segment of Raw to see what the WWE would do with John Cena. Surprisingly, I found myself enjoying the end of the show.

True, Cena’s promo was over-the-top face material, but it wasn’t as bad as people are making it out to be. In fact, I thought it had something that we see very little of in the WWE-passion. Whether or not you like what they guy is saying, he cut a good face promo. Just ACCEPT it.

The post-match beat down was also entertaining. Jericho calls Cena a bunch of names, provokes him, and Cena attacks. Jericho played the heel role to perfection, and Cena showed a real fire with that beatdown. I honestly thought it was a great performance. In fact, I thought I might come on the blog this morning and see some of you guys praising Cena for a good job last night. I was totally surprised when I didn’t.

Face it–last night’s post-promo ass-kicking by Cena made sense within the storylines of each character. Why can’t a face beat down a heel after the heel calls him a “worm” and several other names? Is there a wrestling rulebook that has to be followed at all times by the bookers? If that were the case, there would be no point in watching, because you’d already know what was going to happen.

I thought perhaps we’d see the same old stuff. You know, Jericho attacking Cena from behind, perhaps even with help from another heel like JBL. But instead, WWE switched it up, and we got something new.

I really don’t see last night’s events “taking away” from the upcoming Cena/Jericho match since we already know that Cena can “beat” Jericho in a one-on-one match-up. In case you guys haven’t noticed, Chris Jericho’s playing the sneaky heel–he’s not booked to be the kind of wrestler that would just go in and beat Cena one-on-one. He relies on dirty tricks. So Cena facing up to him and handling him in a brawl situation is totally within the context of each guy.

Bottom line–I want everybody to do something for a second. Take a step back from your pre-programmed, IWC John Cena-hating ways and look objectively at the conclusion to last night’s Raw. Was it really that bad?

Or would you rather see more Batista/Jericho stuff? At this point, I’ll take Cena over Batista. At least Cena has a personality, even if he is lame at times.

What about C.M. Punk? He had a title run earlier this year, and I don’t recall him showing much personality during that run, either. In fact, I thought he was surprisingly boring, although part of that is not his fault since the WWE has neutered his wrestling-style. The CM Punk we see in the WWE is not the same one we saw in Ring of Honor.

OK. So any other faces on Raw? HBK? Well, we’ve seen HBK/Jericho about 1,000 times now, so I’ll avoid that, too.

The only other main event-level face on Raw right now is Rey Mysterio, and while he’s obviously a more spectacular wrestler than Cena, he’s just as kid-friendly. In fact, the way I see it, the only two options right now for a title feud on the face side are Mysterio and Cena.

Kofi Kingston and (I guess) Kennedy are the only other two faces on Raw who could even remotely scratch main event level, and neither of them appear to be ready. Cena’s basically the only option to feud with these guys right now.

Cena’s wrestling skills aren’t the greatest, but he’s not terrible. He’s had some fantastic matches in the past with a range of wrestlers, so I’m not even going to complain about his wrestling considering the WWE’s standards. He has improved by leaps and bounds. He works hard, he’s good to the fans, and like or not, the ratings were better when he was champion.

Don’t think I’m Cena’s Number one fan now, because I’m not. I’m simply pointing out reality. In fact, I don’t think Cena can save this show–it’s gone to shit in the past year. At least if Raw were off-the-wall ala some of the past TNA Impact shows I could be entertainined by laughing at it. Unfortunately, the show has become brutally boring because it’s the same old stuff OVER and OVER again. As enetertaining as I thought last night’s closing segment was, they’ll probably screw this up down the line by doing the same things they’ve already done with Cena. Many of you are right–he should turn heel.

My bottom line here, though, is this: John Cena is not that bad. There’s better and there’s worse. But right now, for Raw, there’s no better option on the face side.

If you don’t like it, do yourself a favor and watch Smackdown, ECW or Impact! Hell, go watch an ROH DVD, because if you hate John Cena that much, you probably aren’t going to need to pay for cable to watch Raw for a long while.

It’s time for another edition of Monday Night Raw, and I couldn’t be more geeked! OK, I lied. I just wanted to see if I could actually use the word “geeked” here, but it just doesn’t work. I can’t believe people use ridiculous phrases like “I’m so geeked.”

On the bright side, tonight’s Raw will actually do something no Raw has done in a long time: spotlight the Intercontinental Title. There’s going to be the first round of a tournament to decide the number one contender for William Regal’s IC Strap–I’m excited about the concept.

Also, Rey Mysterio and HBK will face the Miz and Morrison in a tag match, and some guy named John Cena will return to the show.

Discuss Raw here.