Five-Star Conversation 02.16.10: The Art of the Build

BUILDING A MYSTERY
As you read this, the professional wrestling industry will be almost midway through back-to-back Pay-Per-View weekends, as TNA presented Against All Odds last Sunday and WWE will offer Elimination Chamber this Sunday. This is a pivotal time for each company; obviously, where WWE is concerned, The Road to WrestleMania is more than underway, and, likewise, obviously, represents the company’s most important time of year as even those who look down their considerable, condescending noses at our sport and scoff know are familiar with the brand represented by WrestleMania. Likewise, though, considering the recent changes occurring at TNA, it strikes me as crucial that The Hogan/Bischoff Regime deliver on the PPV front, as, one has to imagine, that would be the true measure of their success – are fans willing to pay to see the stories set up on iMPACT! be furthered/resolved?

The importance in increasing TNA’s viewership is pretty obvious – more fans of the product should equate to greater PPV buys, which is where the real money in professional wrestling lies. Merchandising, DVD sales, house circuit revenue are all well and good and play an important role in feeding the proverbial beast, but there’s a reason why PPV has long been referred to in the industry as The Promised Land, and that’s because, as long as profits outweigh production costs, the greatest opportunity to fill a franchise’s coffers comes from a successful PPV buy rate. I’m hoping for their own sake TNA is keeping this bottom line in mind as they appear to continue their self-righteous crusade against Vince McMahon and WWE. Nostalgia fulfillment to re-ignite the Monday Night Wars isn’t going to necessarily make anyone want to pay to see your product.

But let’s tuck away that soap box and have a look at the actual product. I, admittedly, had not checked out another installment of iMPACT! since I wrote about it a couple weeks ago. Not for any good reason, mind you; I wasn’t off-put by what I saw, in fact, I was surprised to have liked as much as I did, aside from that which had me rolling my eyes, as I was, quite frankly, expecting much worse. However, neither was I compelled to tune in the following week or to do any catching up on-line in the interim to see what I’d missed. TNA is like that one ex who texts you or sends you a Facebook message every once in awhile wondering when they can “see you again” seemingly not getting there was a reason you dumped them in the first place; it’s always going to be there and maybe it won’t be all that bad, but is it really worth the effort to risk getting sucked back in again?

Nonetheless, when I plopped my virus-infected heinder down in front of the TV ready to dive into my $16 burrito Thursday night (yup, another Abbey special), I figured what the hell, let’s see what’s going down in Orlando. I was struck what a solid and concise job they did focusing on this Sunday’s PPV, leading to it in seemingly very logical fashion. For the uninitiated, an eight-man tournament had apparently been set up earlier in the evening (I came in late to the show) which would basically be the construct of AAO, consisting of two quarter- and semi-final matches, then a final match, the winner being named the named the #1 Contender to whoever walked out of the main event as TNA World Champion. Likewise, the main crux of this week’s iMPACT! was a series of qualifying matches to determine six of the final eight contestants (Bischoff had apparently reserved the right to personally name the final two contestants himself).

Like I said, I joined the show in progress and hadn’t seen iMPACT! in a couple of weeks, so I’m not sure exactly how many qualifying matches had occurred previously in the evening or in prior weeks. I did see a qualifier that was essentially a rematch between D’Angelo Dinero and Orlando Jordan that I quite enjoyed. These two have definite chemistry in the ring and I’d really like to see a longer feud transpire between them at some point (sooner rather than later), as I must admit, as I said I would, Jordan continues to impress the more I see of him. The story in the previous bout was that Jordan took advantage of a knee injury The Pope suffered the night before at the hands of Desmond Wolfe and won the match. This time, though, with no such prior injury to hinder his progress, Dinero got the duke and advanced. Time for a tie breaker!

The only other qualifying match I saw was basically a squash from the word go between Matt Morgan and, in this case, the appropriately named Suicide. Just let your imagination run wild and you’ve pretty much got it. Morgan has his act pretty well refined right now and is brimming with confidence. All said, the guy really looks like a star and, as easily as he moves around the ring, it’s easy to forget how immensely huge he is. Vince must be kicking himself for having saddled this future world champion with that ignorant stuttering gimmick a few years back on SmackDown!.

Four performers had already qualified and were set to face each another in a tag match which would force them to co-exist with another member of the tournament vying for the Top Contention spot – again, way to innovate one of the things WWE has done so well for over a decade now, Bischoff. It was to be Kurt Angle (who had his mind preoccupied with Hogan’s loyalties, to TNA or to Scott Hall and Sean Waltman) and Ken Anderson (who is really overdoing the mic gimmick) versus Desmond Wolfe and Hernandez. The basic outcome was that Anderson took advantage of Angle’s preoccupation of mind while plying his sneaky, chickenshit heel antics to take advantage of the damage Angle inflicted on Wolfe to walk with an undeserved victory and momentum leading into the PPV.

The final segment that appeared to directly lead to AAO was the confrontation between TNA World Champion AJ Styles, flanked by Ric Flair, and #1 Contender Samoa Joe. Joe hit the ring (looking a little more in his old RoH shape…?) and called out Styles, criticizing his having thrown away his credibility with the fans by having hooked up with Flair in a passionate diatribe that had those in attendance squarely in the corner of The Samoan Submission Machine. Styles answered Joe’s call, initially looking like a little boy playing dress-up, but, I was pleased to see, really stood fast and held his own as he attempts to inherit the Nature Boy crown, firing back at Joe for all of the times he himself had changed proclivity (a point I myself was making in my own mind as I listened to Joe). “And just how is that Nation of Violence working out for ya, Joe, now that the Main Event Mafia’s money’s dried up?” Ouch!

This was a functional confrontation between two men who, by all rights, should be tearing down the house as I type this on Sunday evening. It recalled the history the two men have between them, how much they’ve been through together and against one another and brought it right to the present as to why they’re facing off once again, without giving away too much of anything such that the PPV match should be fresh and garner a fair amount of snowflakes.

However, there was a post-promo backstage promo (yup…) as Styles was leaving the arena where he was confronted by Bischoff who got in his face and named himself the special referee for the TNA World Title match at AAO, presumably to prevent Styles (who, here, BTW, was waaaay overdoing the whole neo-Lil’ Naitch gimmick to an embarrassing point) from cheating to retain his title. Huh…?

By the night’s end, the brackets for the quarterfinals were such: Kurt Angle versus Ken Anderson, Desmond Wolfe versus D’Angelo Dinero, Hernandez versus Matt Morgan and Mick Foley versus Abyss, Bischoff having named the final match there after Foley meekly came to Bischoff and acquiesced to come on board and do whatever he had to do in Bischoff’s eyes, as long as Jeremy Borasch and Abyss were to be safely and gainfully employed under The Hogan/Bischoff Regime. Bischoff also gleefully added the caveat that, should anything funny go down between Foley and Abyss during the match, that Abyss would be forced to unmask on the following installment of iMPACT!.

I was also quite pleased to see that, although focused on building to the PPV on the go-home, TNA wasn’t falling prey to tunnel vision, as we also saw a rematch for The X-Division Title, recently won by The British Invasion’s Doug Williams from former champion, The Amazing Red. Here, too, would I like to see a longer program develop between these two, as they, like Dinero and Jordan, seem to have a solid chemistry, although I have a suspicion that Red doesn’t “cut the mustard” in the eyes of the current Regime, and so was thus relieved of his ten pounds of gold in favor of Williams. Although I quite like Red, I can’t argue with putting The XDT on the extraordinary Williams, who, I feel, could be a harbinger to the rebirth of the division and signal a renewed focus on taking the division back to its’ roots in terms of “It’s not about weight limits but no limits” and prevent it from being the neo-CruiserWeight Title. That said, though, let’s hope that current contracted talent such as Brian Kendrick, Shannon Moore, The MCMGs and Jay Lethal are still regarded as valued contenders. On the other side of the coin, let’s, too, hope that the founding intent of The X-Division isn’t lost and the belt doesn’t end up just another singles title!!!

We also saw a women’s handicap match where former enemies Tara and Angelina Love combined forces to take on the trio of The Beautiful Ones in a match, the less discussed, the better, but it’s good to see this story continue, even if Love was the physical anchor in TBP and it leaves one shaking one’s head seeing three basic non-wrestlers going over two decent-to-damn good performers in a schmozz like this. BTW, I’ve got five that says Taker does Michelle face-down/ass-up while watching TBP.

There was a promo where Bischoff disallowed Jarrett entry into the tournament despite an impressive performance, based on the fact that Jarrett said he’d start at the bottom and work his way up to the main event, deserving it each step of the way, and Bischoff didn’t think Jarrett was quite at that level yet. Bischoff’s logic is actually pretty solid, but the glee with which he shut down Jarrett makes this worth mentioning for two reasons: 1) This is obviously going somewhere, Jarrett likely snapping at some point, tiring of playing the good guy; and 2) This really confuses me, because we have Hogan and Bischoff seemingly playing the good guys in charge, especially in Hogan’s regard as we’ll see in the “main event promo” and in the fact that Bischoff named himself special referee in the Styles/Joe match, yet here he is being a dick to faces like Foley and Jarrett. Am I supposed to be confused, because I am, and, as much as I fucking loathe Bischoff, I’m not going to want to sit around and figure out his grand plan. It’s turning me off more than it’s intriguing me.

Likewise, when I tuned in, Hogan was blowing wind in the ring about “donning the red and yellow again if I have to” in order to get his point across to some of the more problematic members of the roster. Just sitting down to eat, hearing that almost encouraged me to turn the channel right there…I mean, I was already sick, right? And I’m not going to gloat and say I told you so, because I you didn’t see it coming, you’re wearing a nametag that says “Hello, my name is MARK”.

But Eric Young hit the ring to confront Hogan about Hall and Waltman beating down his buddy Nash, and then later in the show Angle was all up in Hogan’s withered grill about Hall and Waltman, Hogan saying he’s barred them from the property, telling both of them separately if they want a piece of Band ass, they’d have to do it elsewhere, but by the end of the show, Hogan opens up the door to allow them in and they gang-jumped Angle, beating him down with brass knuckles. Then here comes Hogan acting all nWo and everyone’s supposed to think he’s all in with them, then he pounds on them and “proves” that he’s down with TNA, confounding Angle’s fears that he’s in it for himself and for his buddies. Like that proves anything at all.

All in all that whole thing went down the way I figured it would and if my faith wavered at all, it’s like, if you tell someone to turn right, no left, no right, no left, no right enough times, they eventually take their hands off the wheel and stop caring.

Basically, last week’s iMPACT! was a pretty good show, focusing mainly on that which needed to be established to get the viewer to Sunday with some farther developing stories being seeded along the way, but, as far as I’m concerned, everything would be a damn site better if Hogan and Bischoff would stay locked behind the planning doors and allow the current generation of TNA to perform without all the old school WCW schmozz-y obnoxiousness from marring an otherwise decent product.

BTW, just based upon what I’ve seen, I think we’ll see the following occur at AAO:

Desmond Wolfe will go over D’Angelo Dinero; Matt Morgan will defeat his partner Hernandez to meet and be defeated by Wolfe in the semis. Kurt Angle will take revenge on Ken Anderson for his antics on Thursday and will receive a bye to the finals when Mick Foley and Abyss are called in a no-contest at Bischoff’s discretion, leading to another bait-&-switch situation where Abyss’ mandatory unmasking is concerned this Thursday. Angle will defeat Wolfe to be named #1 Contender to AJ Styles TNA World Title belt, as Styles will retain over Joe, but in some kind of messy way such that he doesn’t come out as the decisive champion. Perhaps next month’s PPV will feature both Angle and Joe getting a shot at Styles in a Triple Threat match? (Okay, so, in the aftermath of AAO, I was WRONG, but I’m pleased with the results more than I am with my predictions!)

I’m not going to harp on the apparent continued fallacy that The Hogan/Bischoff Regime is bringing anything too terribly innovative to iMPACT!, as, although enjoyable as the qualifying matches were, we’ve seen the exact thing on both Raw and SmackDown! in recent weeks as performers have been clashing to qualify both for Royal Rumble and Elimination Chamber spots, so for those of you experiencing a bit of déjà moo, that being the distinct sense that you’ve seen this bullshit before, you’re bang on.

Both rosters have their Elimination Chamber rosters all set to go:

RAW – Sheamus (defending Champion), John Cena, Kofi Kingston, Randy Orton, Ted DiBiase, Triple H.

SmackDown! – The Undertaker (defending Champion), Chris Jericho, John Morrison, Rey Mysterio, CM Punk, R-Truth.

Considering the manner in which McMahonagement squandered a golden opportunity to utilize all of the breathing room it had allowed itself to really create a special build to the Royal Rumble, they’ve gotten on their horse and are riding toward this Sunday’s PPV and, it should definitely be mentioned, are looking beyond that to the grand finale in WrestleMania, as well.

Let’s have a look at last week’s shows and consider how well each brand has been building to Elimination Chamber:

Raw opened with a little interface between WWEC Sheamus and ECWC Christian, such verbiage leading to a match at Christian’s behest to the guest General Manager of the week, Whatshisname Edwards (who, to his credit, was a damn site more engaging and personable than the last two matchsticks who hosted from the wonderful world of NASCAR…that backflip off the top rope was pretty sweet, too). This was a significant opener for two reasons: 1) Christian was allowed to announce that, following the demise of WWECW in couple weeks, all members of the roster would become free agents, able to be picked up by any WWE brand seeing fit to do so, which, although a matter of obvious necessity, could be a real wild card where final WrestleMania construction is concerned; and 2) Sheamus was allowed some ring time where his belt was in no jeopardy, although he stood to lose face and valuable momentum should he lose to a fellow champion…of course, he didn’t. Still, Christian was game and this was a fun match that psyched the crowd, the whole point.

Shawn Michaels has one big bee I his bonnet. By now we all are aware of the fact that HBK wants one more crack at The Undertaker at WrestleMania, but that such a shot has become a virtual impossibility as, the more this eats at him, the less of a grip he has on himself, which is forcing him to lose focus and lose opportunities. To make matters worse, his not-so-obsessed bestest pal, Triple H, is cool as a cucumber and continuing to rack up opportunity after opportunity, including, as mentioned above, a slot in this Sunday’s Elimination Chamber, which does nothing to quell The Kid’s Heartbreak.

Early in the show, Michaels accused HHH of looking out for himself more than he cares about the mental well-being of his supposed best friend, which led to the Triple-Threat Elimination match for The Unified Tag Team Titles. The Straight-Edge Society challenged from SD!, as well as the relatively new team of The Big Show and The Miz in as nifty a match as we’ve seen on Raw in awhile (perhaps an answer to my criticism last week of “when do we ever really see wrestling on Raw anymore”?). I, for one, am a staunch believer in the notion that all matches involving more than one contender/opponent/team (such as in Triple-Threat, Four-Corners matches, etc.) should be contested under elimination rules, but that might be Heyman’s Kool-Aid still mingling in my system; that way, The Straight-Edge Society would appear much less a smoke screen for DX dropping The UTTTs, which is pretty much what they were.

However, a second look can add depth to this story. Notice that it was HBK whose Sweet Chin Music earned the pin on CM Punk, thus eliminating The Society, and it was HBK’s ill-fated self-tag into the match once HHH had restored DX’s momentum against the remaining ShowMiz that was the DX’s downfall, such that the confusion HBK’s tag caused HHH distracted him, thus allowing The Miz the pinfall on Michaels for the match and the titles. It seems as if HBK was struggling with the compulsion to successfully defend the belts by himself in an attempt to get his groove back and prove, even if to no one else but himself, that he’s worthy of carrying his half of the team as Tri apparently is beginning to look on at the other career opportunities beginning to present themselves to him. Alas, it was not to be for The Heartbreak Kid.

After the match backstage, HBK was seen pleading with SD! GM Teddy Long to be let on to Fridays and allowed into that Elimination Chamber match, which Long had to politely decline, getting super-kicked for the trouble, HBK announcing that his career is over, stomping off, leaving HHH in disbelief.

This to me seems like a great story thus far, if only for the welcome break in the silly, child-pandering nonsense we’ve seen since DX reformed, but, moreover, because we’ve been seeing this story develop for a few weeks now and is something that is going to stretch all the way to WrestleMania, which is the kind of long-term story build I think the Grand-Daddy of them all deserves to showcase. It also raises questions, will HBK get the shot? Even if he does, can he end the streak (as huge an HBK mark as I’ve been for the past 15 years, I’ll be upset if he does, because the legacy of Shawn Michaels does not require this accolade!)? What happens if he doesn’t get the shot? What happens if he does and can’t get the job done? What about his (kayfabe, obviously) friendship with HHH? Might we see HBK/HHH at WrestleMania instead? This is the kind of open-ended storytelling I like to see in professional wrestling and I’m looking forward to following this one all the way down to the wire.

Ah, but DX isn’t the only Raw stable suffering from internal rot. Legacy are falling apart now that Ted DiBiase and Cody Rhodes are wearing their big boy pants and suddenly aren’t completely convinced that Randy Orton is the shit he’d have them believe he is. Furthermore, Rhodes & DiBiase appear to be sizing up one another, as well! I don’t know about you, my friend, but this brewing program holds a lot less interest for me personally, simply because it’s been common knowledge for a good long time now that the dissolution of Legacy is going to lead to a monster face push for Ted DiBiase, complete with a couple blatant teases along the way.

It makes sense and stands to reason that the student will turn on his teacher, and so the only real mystery is where does that leave Cody Rhodes, eef you wee-yull? Being the smallest of the trio, my heart tends to fear for him, although, considering the fact that all ECW roster members will become free agents, perhaps Goldust will get picked up by Raw and we can finally have that Rhodes family feud that it makes sense to see…? It would be good timing, to allow Rhodes to go off on his own, to just throw his hands in the air, having had enough of Orton and DiBiase, and, including Duthty in the mix in the “whose side will dad choose”, wouldn’t really leave young Cody out on his own, either. Again, just brainstorming.

All in all, it wouldn’t surprise me to find DiBiase put his foot down against Orton in the midst of The Chamber, costing them both the opportunity, leading to an ultimate Legacy meltdown and an Orton/DiBiase showdown at WrestleMania. But I don’t want to get too ahead of myself in terms of EC predictions just yet…

Reeling it back in to discuss last week’s Raw, it was Rhodes who picked up a quick inside cradle three-count on Orton when Sheamus interfered to distract Orton, Rhodes taking advantage and walking with the surprise victory. Obviously, this will do nothing to improve The Viper’s outlook or his collective opinion of his protégés. The question has been raised concerning potential ties between Rhodes and Sheamus, but it strikes me that Sheamus was interfering out of his own sheer delight, as he seems to be a man who prefers to walk his own lone path. However, this, too, appears to point to, indeed, reinforce the notion that Legacy’s days are singularly numbered.

Of course, things are heating up between Vince McMahon and Bret Hart, as, of course, we new they would, Vince being the perfect bastard and Hart simply looking to close once and for good, one of the most difficult chapters of his life…ironically enough, all for our entertainment! (Incidentally, did anyone else notice that WWE has announced a slew of house shows in Canada in May, after The Hitman’s contract expires? I think it would be a great thing for Hart to sign an extension and do a sort of farewell tour under the WWE banner in his home country that holds him in such high esteem, but that’s just me.)

I’m not going to go too far into any quality of analysis thus far where this Hart/McMahon program is going because we all pretty well know what’s going on there. We’ve seen McMahon have his sports entertainment extravaganzas with employees (and even his son!) at WrestleMania before, this will likely be more of the same. Mind you, I’m not pooh-pooh-ing this completely – although no technical spectaculars, they’ve all managed to be entertaining and better than one might have considered they might have been going in. I’d even wager that this one could stand to be up on the curve because of Hart’s legitimate expertise at actual wrestling. Who knows. Look at it this way, had Hart not agreed to come in and work this angle, rumor had it we’d have seen Vince McMahon versus The Undertaker. Cross your fingers for next year.

Lastly with respect to Raw, we saw the tease for what apparently will culminate in the John Cena/Batista match at WrestleMania, via Vince having hired out Batista to attack Hart and take out Cena, which included a SmackDown! tease, so let’s get right to Friday night!

All in all, SmackDown! was extremely focused toward Elimination Chamber this week, as the six contestants involved in the main event representing their brand were paired off in three singles matches.

SmackDown! kicked off with a damn fine match between CM Punk, backed by his Straight-Edge Society, versus Rey Mysterio. Mysterio got the duke, but also got his ass handed to him post-match by the sober collective, punctuated by a Go2Sleep. But it wasn’t just the three-on-one activity or the fact that Punk put Mysterio down with his signature move that made this so special and memorable; rather it was the set-up to the execution. After The Society had laid out Mysterio, Luke Gallows picked up his limp body and laid it across Punk’s outstretched arms, somewhat in crucified effigy, setting Mysterio into perfect G2S position, Punk delivering the killing blow with proud precision, cupping his unconscious head in his hands wailing, “I can save you, Rey…!” It was fantastic.

Now I don’t know if this is going to extend beyond Elimination Chamber and blossom into a full-blown feud for WrestleMania, but I, for one, would LOVE to see it do just that. These guys have exceptional chemistry in the ring and if this match here was any indication of what they’re capable, I say give ‘em 15 or so minutes and turn them loose “when the lights are at their brightest”, as JBL used to say. It seems to me as if the gauntlet has been thrown down and these two could very well take one another out of the game this Sunday. We’ll see…

Who likes Drew McIntyre’s new entrance? For me, it’s a little too reminiscent of Randy Orton’s, but it’s a marked improvement; it suits him and, when I heard the music start, it made me look up and take notice. It’s the kind of music that sort of makes an announcement and the full screen showing of McIntyre’s Tron video completes that announcement, especially as his name is plastered across the screen. It makes sense and displays that WWE is really behind pushing this kid, which is great to see for a young talent.

I suppose it was an eventuality that McIntyre should find himself facing Kane, as The Big Red Monster seems to be the keeper of the gate of the midcard. All who wish to pass up the card must first face Kane. I think I just channeled a drunk Matt Striker there…I can hear him say that. It’s funny, because, to look at McIntyre, I immediately think that he’s going to be an Orton-style traditionalist grappler, so it always and still confounds me to see him man up and brawl the way he does, and, because he employs that style of brawling, it strikes me that he squares up to Kane better than he would were he that Orton-style wrestler.

This strikes me as something else that could eventually make it to WrestleMania if the back-story is developed more. Obviously, here’s McIntyre looking to tear up any and everything in his path on his way to the top of WWE, and it seems as if he’s only mildly taken aback by the ominous presence of Kane, actually welcomes the opportunity to scrap with someone who might stand up and pose a similar such quality of threat in return. Meanwhile, McIntyre’s a good looking kid with all the gifts, attributes and opportunities that were never afforded him when he was The ICC’s age, and Kane has a bit of a chip on his shoulder over it. Okay, maybe a whole can of Pringles. And Kane is damned if he’s going to watch another pretty boy waltz past him up the card to accomplish more than he was able to. And so they beat the shit out of one another.

On Friday’s SD!, we had a double-count-out that, it seemed to me, was instigated by Kane, as he kept McIntyre too occupied on the floor to answer the referee’s count. Another thrown-down gauntlet, forcing the undefeated McIntyre not to have his hand raised in victory after the bell rings. That’s also a nice, non-committal start to all of this. I say, take it to Elimination Chamber, put the belt on the line, but spin the ensuing brawl well out of control and have the referee call for the bell to throw out the match. McIntyre is still champion, still undefeated, but nothing has been settled; indeed, if anything, the ante has been upped. Lead on to WrestleMania, to a No-DQ rematch where McIntyre continues his reign as USC and his undefeated streak remains in tact.

Does anyone else wish/think the feud between Mickie James and Simply Flawless should have ended at Royal Rumble when James decisively defeated Michelle McCool in, what, 12 seconds and they had the whole cake-in-the-face spot? That, to me, says blow-off. Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe I’d just rather see Mickie James versus Beth Phoenix. Maybe it’s time to finally unleash the greatest diva in the company at the moment in Natalya and let the three of them go at it? THAT’S a match I’d like to see at WrestleMania. Or maybe if Michelle would just wrestle more than she talks and Layla just…danced…? But, that’s not the focus of this article. If McMahonagement wants to continue the program, continue they did. At least they got my Moo-Moo-Cita involved! As Matt Striker said between screeched, “EXCUSE ME”s, “THERE’S my valentine!”

With the lead-in from Raw, Batista’s “explanation” was brilliant. He worked that non-promo in perfect stages. He allowed himself to be introduced by Josh Mathews, took his time getting to the ring, then casually gestured for the mic, paused to glare out at the crowd, then, realizing Mathews was still in the ring, glared at him, as well, tacitly dismissing him, Mathews beating a hasty retreat outside. The Altered Beast brought the mic to his mouth as if he was about to speak, just as a “CENA!” chant broke out, Dave pausing to allow that to gain momentum, run its’ course and die out, then he just dropped the mic altogether and did a stroll around ringside, pausing in front of a fan in a Cena shirt, the camera focusing in on the shirt to pop the crowd as Batista headed for the ramp, prompting a “You suck!” chant from the crowd. Dave sneers and roars, “You want an explanation?!” as he stomped back into the ring and picked up the mic again…only to take stock of the jeering fans, smirking in spite of himself and dropping the mic once more, walking out of the arena to a chorus of boos.

This is the Batista I was hoping to see. This incarnation of heel Batista is eons more interesting, more polished and more valuable to WWE than nay incarnation of face Batista has ever been. Dave got more heat by saying nothing at all than he could have had he delivered an eloquent, passionate promo…except that’s his rival’s turf, John Cena. There’s times when Cena comes off like a modern-day Duthty Rhodes with his passion and commitment. But Dave ain’t about that anymore, and, once he actually speaks, I think that’s going to be just about what we hear from him. I’ve got a lot of time for this program and I’m looking forward to watching it evolve.

One wonders if this will spill over even more so into Vince/Bret? And interesting, as long as we’re talking build, that Teddy Long (who looked pretty good for having taken a point-blank super kick from HBK just four days earlier) would announce Batista/Edge to headline the go-home for a PPV neither man is involved in…

What the HELL is Matt Hardy doing with Khali?! Can someone explain this to me? And now Matt’s all down with Maria, too? Glutton for punishment with those dingy fake redheads, aren’t you, young Matthew? This was, I’m heartbroken to say (no pun intended) an awful segment with a schmozzy match, and there really is no reason for it, because Khali was riding the apron for most of this brief encounter with The Hart Dynasty. Things went all pear-shaped when Natalya reached in and tripped up Matt from the floor and Maria bolted over and pounced Natalya. Really? REALLY? And Maria lived…? The HELL you say. No, sir, I don’t like it. I don’t like it at all.

If this is going to go anywhere, I see one or two things going down: 1) This feud continues in mixed-tag fashion with both ladies getting in the ring, too, where we see Natalya dumbing herself down to make Maria look good because she’s got “MAINSTREAM MEDIA APPEAL” and is on Celebrity Apprentice; 2) With The Big Show and The Miz as The UTTTs, in theory, they size up well with Matt and Khali…do the math…*shudder*

Perhaps even a bigger disappointment was the non-match between John Morrison and R-Truth (who I’m pleased to see really coming up…I admit that I was wrong that his victory over CM Punk a few months ago wouldn’t make a difference for him, because it was actually played up and fans have built a swell of support underneath him, so well done!). Basically, the bell rings, they go back and forth for a couple moves and Morrison lands wrong and messes up his ankle. This has work written all over it, but how exactly? How will this play into the match this Sunday? Stay tuned…

In the evening’s final chapter, Edge came to the ring to cut a promo where he basically put over the brutality of the Elimination Chamber and how lucky he is, being the Royal Rumble winner that he is, that he doesn’t have to suffer through it, that his most taxing task of the night is…which champion to challenge for WrestleMania once all is said and done. He throws out a few names before bringing up The Undertaker, the history they have and the temptation ending that streak holds for him.

The Undertaker’s opponent for the main event, Chris Jericho, interrupts him to run him down as only Jericho can, saying he has no empathy for Edge because he has no idea what it feels like to be so injured because Jericho doesn’t get so injured. Jericho invites Edge to take note of what transpires in the ring when he defeats The Undertaker, because it’s the same thing that’s going to go down at Elimination Chamber, only then, Jericho walks with the belt.

Edge takes a seat at the commentators’ desk as the match unfolds, the action eventually spilling out on the commentators’ side. Jericho leans over the desk to get into Edge’s face, only to be manhandled by Taker, who fires off a deathly glare Edge’s way, Edge standing to greet it. Taker moves as if to throw Jericho back into the ring but chucks him squarely at Edge, who avoids the intended blow. Taker then grabs Jericho and fires him back inside, then turns around and lays out Edge with a huge boot to the face (and judging by the raw mark on Edge’s cheek as he walked up the ramp post-bout, it appears as if Taker really tagged him, too)!

Back inside, Taker hits The Last Ride on Jericho and it feels as if that’s going to be all she wrote, but Edge has recovered, hops in the ring and levels The WC with a Spear (the match is No-DQ, so this was somewhat predictable in some fashion). A weary taker looks to finish Jericho, but eats a Codebreaker for three and Jericho leaves the ring with momentum over the champion!

So if the question is, are the top three brands in the industry, whether we agree with their booking decisions or not, are building their stories and appointed “pushable” talent appropriately at a time when, for whatever reason, it’s crucial for them to do so, I think the answer has to be yes! Both appear to have immediate and longer-term goals in place and are striving to meet such goals. The Elimination Chamber undercard is starting to be fleshed out with McIntyre/Kane and the finals in the tournament to name a new Divas Champion between Gail Kim and Maryse. If they like, they could see The Miz defend his UST with Show in his corner against a #1 Contender, or we could see ShowMiz defend the belts and Mickie could always pad out the card with a Women’s Title defense, as well, since there’s already a story behind that match.

The wildcard in rounding out the WrestleMania card likely stems from where the ECW roster fallout lands, so there’s still time to let that happen, and, of course, there’s a Money in the Bank match to cast yet, too. I know I say this a lot and end up with egg on my face, but if we can keep this quality of focus in building forward and make a commitment to focus only upon that which will matter and keep all the superfluous hoohah to a minimum, we could be one step closer to seeing some better stories told in the 21st Century.