Straight to Nowhere

There's a lot that WWE is getting right at the moment, and it feels like it's somewhat out of necessity. Make no mistake about it that Vinnie Mac or someone else upstairs is very much aware of the stiff competition that Raw is being forced to face each week. Sure, Monday Night Football is the same ol' threat that it is every year, but it just seems that, as of late, there's something huge every Monday. Last week, there was the Charlie Sheen Roast (laugh if you want, but it targets a similar audience). This week it was Terra Nova. So turning Raw into a Supershow format has some obvious motivations behind it.

And, because of this change, Raw feels like it's ready to burst with talent. It's spontaneous and offers varied types of matches each week. Let's face it - whether or not you thought that every decision on there was smart or whether the right people came out looking good or that sort of thing, Raw was VERY easy to watch this week. Though not perfect by any stretch, Raw has been entertaining as of late. And Smackdown has been... well, doing enough to get by, really (although last week's episode suddenly did huge ratings. I'm not sure what that's about.). Actually, that's one huge problem right now.

Don't get me wrong, Smackdown isn't awful by any stretch. But making it better would be simple enough that it's a bit of a head scratcher as to why it hasn't been done yet. Why not end the roster split on that show, too? Essentially, the Smackdown roster is pulling double duty each week by being on both shows, while the Raw roster - the alleged "A" roster - is only on once. If Raw is supposed to feature the best Superstars, then shouldn't they be the ones you want pulling double duty? That seems like pretty simple logic to me, and it's been a huge oversight in logic as of late. Seriously, why is Ezekiel Jackson (just to pick a random example) on both shows, while Cena and Punk stay completely away from Smackdown? Your B-listers should be seen less, not more.

The other major problem (that I haven't recently covered) is one that has held WWE back for a while - maybe for as long as I can remember: their ADD-ridden style of spontaneous, inexplicable pushes and burials. Let's continue to pick on Ezekiel Jackson as an example. This was a guy who, a little over a month ago, was being put over talented guys like Wade Barrett and Ted Dibiase, with the obvious intent being to push him. He was the Intercontinental Champion. Somewhat abruptly, he was jobbed out twice to Cody Rhodes and before long, was put up against Mark Henry. Not only did Henry beat him, but he beat him fairly definitively and at his own game, no less. Jackson's physical strength is his thing, and Henry did it better than him. That means that Jackson is pretty much worthless - it's the worst way to have to lose. Now he's a lower mid-carder who will most likely only continue to go down.

Since Jackson sucks, I have no problem with his push ending and going the opposite direction, but why, then, did WWE bother putting the effort into pushing him ahead of others in the first place? It's not as if he was awesome for a while and suddenly screwed up in some major way. He's just as lousy as he ever was. If they were willing to back off of his push that fast, then why try to send him to the moon in the first place? WWE has no restraint in pushing people, presumably because they always want the next big star. But it almost never works like that. Fast pushes just annoy the audience. Everyone just groaned when Sheamus won his first two WWE titles in well under a year, and even Brock Lesnar's title win came way too soon. Nobody likes to remember that because it was a match involving Lesnar and The Rock, but at the time, nobody really bought Lesnar as a star.

Since I've already mentioned Henry, I might as well address his title win. I don't necessarily have a problem with him winning the title, as his current push has made him seem like a total monster. But I don't know that I would have given him the strap. He's not built for any kind of a long reign whatsoever - he was a born challenger and a major threat, but not an actual champion. There have been way too many title swaps as of late. However, if Orton comes back and overcomes the monster in order to get his title back at the next PPV, that might be the best decision, two week reign or not. I didn't like the way their match went at Night of Champions - the story should have been that Orton couldn't hurt Henry, but he started off the match punching and kicking him down to the mat so he could stomp on him. The end came with Henry kicking at him from the mat. It didn't make Henry look dominant at all. Either way, the elephant in the room is that the RKO wasn't used, which is presumably the one thing that could put Henry down. I imagine we'll see it at Hell in a Cell.

As for the other major title match, I don't really have a problem with the outcome, though I don't like that Del Rio got beaten as badly as he did, tapping out and all. Yeah, I'm sick of Cena with the belt, too, but Del Rio's run wasn't really working and Cena and Punk are the two biggest guys right now. Del Rio will get another chance somewhere down the road. I thought it was kind of dumb that he got put down by a random string of kicks from Punk on Raw, though. I'm not necessarily against ending matches with something other than someone's finisher - it makes it less predictable and reinforces the idea that there's actually a point to the first 3/4 of the matchup - but this made Del Rio look extra weak, something that he definitely doesn't need. Bet the farm that the Triple Threat on Sunday ends with Cena pinning Del Rio. Barring some ridiculous interference, it really can't go any other way.

Punk and this whole conspiracy story-line is compelling in general, but it's so obvious that it ends with Vince McMahon returning and taking us back to where we were prior to Punk's big Money in the Bank promo. I hope that they are smart enough to realize that we all see this coming and it's just a swerve. Keeping that in mind, the Punk vs. HHH match was pretty underwhelming. They were in a tight spot in that they wanted to maintain everyone's credibility. Thus their solution was to have so much interference that any conclusion would be completely questionable. Punk mostly saved face, though he came off as a bit of a cowardly heel in the face of Triple H's macho face persona - that bothered me - but he also kicked out of 2 Pedigrees, so it's a moot point, I suppose. The upside is that another showdown with them down the road is very possible, and hopefully the mechanics of the match will be better. Trust me, keeping Punk from winning too much is definitely a good thing. When he gets another title run, it will be so much sweeter because he had to chase it. Booking 101 - your best babyface is almost always better when chasing.

Believe it or not, the Diva's Title match actually drew my attention. Kelly x2 has gotten better. No, she's not nearly as good as they make her out to be, and she's only been given so many chances because Vince has a hard-on for her (and really, who can blame him?), but she is starting to come around a bit. Even so, Beth should have won. Beth is clearly better in every capacity, and she just looks stupid getting rolled up all the time by someone half her size. Hell, you could have Kelly eventually win it back, if you wanted, but Beth really should get another title run. In the meantime, having Eve and Kelly together every week has been good for my blood flow.

At least Kelly's been consistently and slowly brought up through the ranks, though. There are plenty of others who are jumping all over the place. First, let's give credit to Ted Dibiase for becoming relevant again within the span of a month or so. Actually, credit should go to Cody Rhodes. By being such a strong heel, he made it so that Dibiase basically just had to show up to become a respectable face. All the same, I hope that something more gets done with their feud, with it possibly ending in Dibiase getting the belt, sending Rhodes officially into the main event picture. He's clearly the next heel in line for the main event picture.

Weren't we saying that about Wade Barrett about a year ago? The fact that he's not doing a thing right now is as puzzling as almost anything else in WWE. It's not like he even needed to be pushed - last year, he was there, feuding with John Cena and Randy Orton. They backed off giving him a title reign, which, though questionable, at least made some sense, since he could very easily come back to it. Then Punk got their attention and they decided to saddle him down with The Corre and he's just sort of dwindles from there. Give him one relevant feud with a high-end talent and he can get back into the swing of things. For a while, he was losing so frequently and irrationally that I thought they were making a point of burying him to build to some kind of losing streak angle. Thankfully, an easy victory over Justin Gabriel suggests that someone remembered the hierarchy on Smackdown. I guess we'll see. Still, Cody Rhodes is taking his spot.

One guy who IS receiving a losing streak story-line is Daniel Bryan (the fact that Booker T calling him "D-Bry" just rang through my head is infuriating). If you remember, Barrett even beat him at Summerslam. I like these types of stories, though the last one with MVP had no real payoff. Bryan's fine, in the long run, as long as he has the Money in the Bank case. However, he's gotta get away from this God-awful Sin Cara angle. He's too much of an afterthought right now.

Speaking of afterthoughts, who the HELL did John Morrison piss off? I know that, earlier this year, Melina basically forced him to say some stupid crap about Trish Stratus, but that was a while ago. He's not just getting lose, he's having all his credibility destroyed. Del Rio squashed him so bad that it was hard to watch, and there are plenty of other examples to cite. But the bottom line is that Morrison's entire career is in trouble. He'll be lucky to stay on TV at the rate he's going. Forget a future title run. And I have no clue as to why. Remember how red hot he was during his feud with Sheamus last year? Remember how over his crazy Parkour stuff was getting and then how well he did during the Elimination Chamber? How can you just throw all that away, for seemingly no reason?

Remember how hard Drew McIntyre was getting pushed? Seems like a long time ago, now, doesn't it? That's ADD-style booking at its finest. The other Celtic guy, however, Sheamus, is on fire. He's doing so well with the crowd that he might have to get factored into the title picture before long. Sometimes a genuinely tough-looking dude with a positive attitude is all the crowd wants to see, and within the last year, he's really come along. When it was down to him and Cody in Monday's Battle Royal, the crowd popped hard. Give credit to both guys.

One last guy who is ready for a push is Dolph Ziggler. Somewhere along the way, this guy picked up some mic skills, which were the only thing he was missing. I have to hand it to WWE for using the surprisingly entertaining Hugh Jackman (hey, he surprised me when he hosted The Oscars, too. Maybe I need to have more faith in Wolverine) to get some mid-carders over, as opposed to just lumping him in with main eventers. Those segments were highly entertaining, and I think Ziggler needs to lose Vickie and feud with somebody bigger than Ryder (no offense to the Long Island Iced Z). He's going to be quite the WWE Champ one day, and I very much appreciate that he and Cody Rhodes have brought a lot of credibility to the mid-card titles.

One last thing: Cena and The Rock are going to be on the same Survivor Series team against unnamed opponents. This is going to be bad. First off, who the hell could pose a legitimate threat against them? Everyone already knows that Cena and The Rock are going to be the Survivors. The only worse position than on the opposing team in which to find yourself would be on the same team as Rock and Cena. If you read my last article, you know how predictable WWE's booking of elimination matches has always been. And in order for those two to clean house against their opponents, all their teammates are going to have to get eliminated very quickly. There's gotta be a way to sell pay per views.

Speaking of which, when is the next one? This Sunday? But there was just one 2 weeks ago. Okay, WWE, you've had too many of these things for years now, but when they're 2 weeks apart, that should set off some signals. The moment Triple H had to say that out loud, he should have realized something was wrong. Who do they expect to buy that many shows at the price that they're asking? Those had better be some damn fine matches - ones that push the right guys.