Pro Wrestling Power

You can complain about a lot of things with the WWE right now, but you can’t say that they’re being overly predictable, at least not with all of their storylines. Batista defeating John Cena for the WWE championship at the Elimination Chamber pay per view in a 30 second match after Cena just won his chamber match may not be the most popular move in the world, but who can really say they saw it coming? I sure as hell didn’t.

Surprises are a good thing, especially in this day and age of the Internet and wrestling rumor sites. But while I applaud them for the surprise twist on the WWE title situation, when all the Internet smarks thought they had everything figured out, it still doesn’t make up for the fact that the PPV was nothing great and the past couple Raw’s have been adequate at best.

I’ll start with Elimination Chamber. Both championship chamber matches were solid but not spectacular, and while Batista winning the title from Cena after his match was a huge surprise, Chris Jericho winning the world title in the main event was not. Nor was Shawn Michael’s interference and sweet chin music on Undertaker to cost him the title. But it was well executed at least.

The Intercontinental championship match was very ho-hum, and as usual, the women’s  match was a gigantic waste of time that no one cared about. We once again got an unadvertised United States championship match between The Miz and MVP, and once again The Miz retained in a decent match. But how much further can this feud go if MVP keeps losing? Do they put them in some sort of gimmick or stipulation match at Wrestlemania for the title or will they both be in the Money in the Bank match, or will they be doing something else entirely, like ShowMiz defending their unified tag team titles?

As for Raw last night, we got another show that was very light on wrestling, with terrible guest hosts and a blatant lack of logic with the number one storyline heading into Wrestlemania.

Jewel and her husband Ty Murray seemed confident in front of the crowd and were at least well spoken, but like so many other guest hosts they were obviously out of their element and their bullriding segment was atrocious, although Big Show and The Miz did what they could to save it.

Jericho’s opening promo was very good as usual, and I like how they had Edge tell the world that he would be challenging him for his title with an emphatic spear. 

There was a decent 6 man tag team match in which Evan Bourne actually got the pin, ShowMiz retaining their tag titles, Chrisitan winning a money in the bank qualifying match, and we have a new divas champion. Yay! Well at least she’s hot.

I like what they’re doing with Orton from the looks of the 6 man match, with him giving the through the ropes DDT to Cody Rhodes and the RKO to Ted Dibiase. It looks like his face turn is imminent.

I’m also happy to see that they’re still going to have the money in the bank match at Wrestlemania despite having a pay per view of the same name later in the year. I’m also happy that Chrisitan is in it, and even though the other 7 participants have yet to qualify, I think he should be the one to win it.

The best segment of the night by far was the Michaels/Undertaker promo with an awesome video package. Fans were split on whether they wanted to see this rematch, but I think after seeing how well they have started to build and will continue to build this match, and how good the actual match will be, people will look back on it as a great decision, no matter who wins. For the record, I’d really like to see Michaels break the streak. If anyone is going to do it, it should be him. I wanted to see him win last year but this year I am really pulling for him, even though I know that if he lost, his “retirement” wouldn’t last more than 5 or 6 months.

The main event match/segment with Cena and Batista started off poorly, but by the end of it I actually found myself kind of enjoying it. I mentioned a lack of logic regarding this angle above because it should have been Sheamus vs. Cena with the number one contendership on the line if both men had a return title match clause. But then again this is pro wrestling, where logic takes a back seat many times to whatever the booker, in this case Vince McMahon, thinks will be the best for business. And I could see his reasoning I guess, with not wanting Sheamus to be defeated cleanly and keep him looking like a strong main eventer. But it still doesn’t make much sense from the average fan’s point of view.

That was a good beatdown by Batista to Cena though, especially with the repeated stiff chair shots to his back and the way he kept coming back to beat him down more when he saw him attempting to get up. That was an effective segment to build towards what will obviously be a blockbuster match, but probably one that isn’t too well-wrestled.

The overall rumored card for Wrestlemania looks stacked and with four official matches already announced it’s really starting to take shape nicely. I think the WWE is on the right path with most of these feuds and there is the potential for this to be a really good show. That being said, taking the EC PPV by itself and Raw last night by itself and rating them based on their sheer entertainment value, I’d have to give both about a 5 out of 10.

They are headed in the right direction on the road to Wrestlemania, but starting next week, for the March 1 Raw, they need to pick up the pace and start putting on really exciting shows if they want Wrestlemania 26 to be the overall success that it can be.

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