Backlash Preview (Pt. Two)

I'm miserable at the moment from pollen allergies, so I'll just give you my heavy-hitters of Backlash for now. Provided I get better, I'll have the rest of the matches previewed on Sunday.

Jeff Hardy vs. Matt Hardy

Matt Hardy's heel turn has been like wine for me - it sucked right out of the gate (especially since we were all disappointed when Cristian wasn't in that chairshot spot), but it really has gotten better as time has passed. Couple that with murmurs of Jeff Hardy's contract expiring and how he's declined extensions, and it looks like the older brother will come out triumphant yet again. But if that's the way it goes I don't foresee this match being a memorable one since I doubt these two will do anything we haven't seen since Wrestlemania XXV. They've already had a match involving ladders, a stretcher, and they had yet another face-off in the ring this week on Smackdown. As you can see, too many in-ring clashes between these two already has me doubting their PPV match.

Edge vs. John Cena

This is being billed as the be-all-end-all match between these two... somehow I highly doubt that. Anyways, in spite of the rumors of Edge needing time off I don't think he will lose this match. First off, he just came back a couple months ago after that break following his long program with Undertaker... remember that fantastic beard he sported for those couple days?!? Secondly, John Cena taking the title back to RAW wouldn't make sense. Nothing would come of Cena holding the title - the potential feuds that could stem from Edge taking the title back to Smackdown would far outnumber the likely feuds we'd see with Cena.

Also, with the WWE recently saying that the draft will take effect after the upcoming Backlash, RAW would then have two titles should Cena win. And considering that the crowd is behind both him and HHH (even though it's obvious the crowd isn't into Cena as much as the WWE thinks) , it wouldn't make sense if the deservedly popular CM Punk - who solved the issue with two titles on one show last year - swooped in later on and picked up one of their titles again just for the sake of giving back a title to Smackdown.

Randy Orton/Ted Dibiase/Cody Rhodes vs. Triple H/Batista/Shane McMahon

The biggest bust of Wrestlemania XXV was by far the main event. The promos heading into that match were fantastic, and the anger HHH felt each and every time Orton tormented him leading into that main event was palpable. When Triple H "trapped" Cody Rhodes in a steel cage that one RAW, I was going nuts over how good this rivalry had gotten. Truth be told, despite that annoying grabass crap that was going on with HHH, Shane McMahon and Vince McMahon, this first-class feud had been so enjoyable that I found myself rooting for both the champion and the challenger. It's too bad these two had a train wreck of a match unworthy of all they hype it had.

The WWE surely saw their precious WM XXV main event crumble to pieces, and has done whatever damage control they could do since. In came Batista to give this rivalry a twist it sorely needed, and once again despite all the man hugs Batista, HHH, and Shane-O-Mac have apparently been dying to give each other, this rivalry has life once again. Certainly the WWE has set this up nicely should HHH not want to get "embarrassed" and drop the title himself to Orton, what with the champion and his buddies not being able to co-exist at times. But this bout, no matter which way it goes, probably will be the last band aid applied on the proverbial bullet-wound that was the WM XXV main event.

Backlash Preview (Pt. One)

(Taker swoops in and saves the day)

Let's be honest... Wrestlemania XXV was saved by the Shawn Michaels-Undertaker match.  Hell, even Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat gave us a memorable moment or two.  But the PPV was lackluster all-around from the debachery that was the Divas Battle Royal, to the Money-In-the-Bank match which featured more lard than any of us cared for, to the main events that were shockingly disappointing.  And ever since that pathetic attempt at a PPV, the WWE has gone back to cover the tracks of shit they left behind on April 5th.  Rather than begin fresh new clashes in the new "season" after the annual draft, they've done their best to give us more notable matches to close the rivalries that were.  I can't blame them to be honest... they heard us voice our distaste from the havoc in Houston, and responded by giving the most notable busts of Wrestlemania XXV, in essence, a do-over.  

So how is the next PPV, Backlash, shaping up?  Stay tuned for my match-by-match breakdown in the coming days.

Wrestling and Poker...

I'm looking to slowly get away from writing about poker, a passion of mine that will likely make me broke one of these days, and shift into a full-time wrestling site (http://wwerumorsandrants.blogspot.com will be this site's new address). Creatively, I'm just burnt out with poker, and don't really have much to offer that genre since it has been extremely difficult to fit poker into my day-to-day schedule. It's really not a big deal though, as most of the stuff I wrote was more about my poker experience than anything theoretical, so certainly the poker community will barely notice the tiny hole I'm leaving behind.

Anyways, I don't know why I suddenly am focusing most of my creative energy into wrestling. Maybe it's that everything that lead into Wrestlemania XXV and the backlash afterward has got my creative juices flowing again, or maybe it's just that there is so much to analyze and discuss now in the universe that is the WWE. Whatever it is, it's caused me to make my mind up to specifically devote this page to wrestling. I won't necessarily delete my old posts - although as of this post my site has apparently been taken over by a silly search engine that I can only imagine will give my computer an STD if I use it (which has now been fixed) - because maybe I'll suddenly get the moxie to write about poker some time in the future and rant and rave about that once again. So if you were one to pay daily homage to one of my many Phil Ivey-slurping, Doyle Brunson-sputtering posts, have no fear... my posts will still be here. But new poker posts will be no more.

... for now that is...