The Piledriver Report 2.06.08: A Potpourri Piledriver Report

What is Mark Henry doing on my TV on Monday Nights? I thought he was a SmackDown! superstar. Even the WWE thinks that he is a SmackDown! brand wrestler. If they didn’t, Mark Henry would NOT be under the SmackDown! Superstars page. Unless I dosed off during Monday Night RAW due to my post-Super Bowl night insomnia, the WWE never really gave a reason why a SmackDown! wrestler would show up on RAW, except to challenge John Cena to an arm wrestling contest. This is dumb. At least when SmackDown! wrestlers show up on ECW, and ECW wrestlers appear on SmackDown!, the WWE built up a “talent exchange” storyline for it to make sense. Besides, I still have the awful vision of when Kurt Angle couldn’t carry Mark Henry to a decent match at the Royal Rumble a couple of years ago. Despite being drastically improved, I can’t see Cena working Henry into anything close to a passable contest.

Brock Lesnar finally makes his UFC debut: This match surprised me, both for the action and the result. I expected a 2 round fight that Brock would eventually win. What I saw was totally different. Despite tapping out in 1 minute 29 seconds, Brock totally dominated Frank Mir. I was stunned at the brute force that Brock used from the outset. I was watching the event with someone that doesn’t know many of the main players in UFC. When they saw Brock’s domination over Mir, he said, “WOW! They really put him in with a ham and egger.” Therefore, when Mir snitched Brock’s ankle, we were shocked that he lost. In the long run, I think the loss did not hurt Brock or the UFC. People need to remember that this was only Brock’s 2nd fight in Mixed Martial Arts. Plus, Brock was destroying Mir before he got caught. You can mark this down right now. Brock will one day hold the UFC Heavyweight championship. In his next fight, Brock will probably start off against a weaker opponent, and gradually build up his experience before he takes on another UFC “superstar.” By the way, it was nice to see several wrestlers in attendance showing their support for Brock Lesnar. Once the former WWE Superstar can learn how to protect his legs, he should be a dangerous force in the UFC.

Bobby Lashley gets his requested release from the WWE. I can’t say that I am sad to see him go. When he was first brought up to the WWE, I looked at him as a newer version of Brock Lesnar. Like Lesnar, Lashley was strongly pushed from Day One. However, unlike Brock, there was something about Lashley that I didn’t see what the WWE saw. Lashley was missing something. Maybe it was that he was still relatively “green,” or maybe he’s just not the athlete that Lesnar is. Lashley was put in a super high profile position, that he had no business being put in at the moment. After giving him the rub of all rubs at last year’s WrestleMania, word came out now that Vince’s pet project wants out. The timing is perfect for his release. He’s been injured for months, so no body misses him. During his time away, several wrestlers, like the Undertaker, Edge, Rey Mysterio, Triple H, Shawn Michaels, and John Cena all came back from long-term injuries, so they aren’t suffering from the same talent depth problem that they were before. A loss of Lashley doesn’t hurt the WWE. He was out of sight, and out of the fans’ minds. Most non-Internet, wrestling newsletter-reading fans will not even realize that Lashley left. It’s not like he will show up tomorrow on TNA Impact. The WWE will never allow that to happen following his release. The rumor has it that Lashley may be going into the MMA field. After all, he was training for Mixed Martial Arts before the WWE signed him. Good luck, if that’s what you want to do, and thanks for allowing me the freedom to complain about the “Triple H/John Cena Show” with out having to complain about yourself being shoved down our throats too.