We Are Wrestling

Complete List Of WWE PPV Dates And Locations for 2008

SpiKe — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 19:52:13 +0000

With the new year just around the corner I thought I would put up the most up to date PPV listings, including locations and dates courtesy of WWE magazine. Let me know which ones you are planning on going to.

Royal Rumble (January 27, 2008)
Madison Square Garden in New York City, NY
No Way Out (February 17, 2008)
Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas, NV
WrestleMania XXIV (March 30, 2008)
Citrus Bowl in Orlando, FL
Backlash (April 27, 2008)
1st Mariner Arena in Baltimore, MD
Judgment Day (May 18, 2008)
Qwest Center in Omaha, NE
One Night Stand (June 1, 2008)
San Diego Sports Arena in San Diego, CA
Vengeance (June 29, 2008)
American Airlines Center in Dallas, TX
The Great American Bash (July 20, 2008)
Nassau Coliseum in Uniondale, NY
SummerSlam (August 17, 2008)
Conseco Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, IN
Unforgiven (September 7, 2008)
Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, OH
No Mercy (October 5, 2008)
Rose Garden in Portland, OR
Cyber Sunday (October 26, 2008)
US Airways Center in Phoenix, AZ
Survivor Series (November 23, 2008)
TD Banknorth Garden in Boston, MA
Armageddon (December 21, 2008)
HSBC Arena in Buffalo, NY

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WWE Celebrates 15 Years Of Raw

SpiKe — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 18:05:21 +0000

Last night was the huge, three hour long 15th anniversary episode of Raw. There were some incredible moments and some awful moments, but it was certainly entertaining. Here are my thoughts on the show.

The biggest surprise of the night, and the moment that got the biggest reaction from me, was the return of RVD who had a very quick win against Santino Marella. The fact he went over a WWE contracted wrestler in such easy fashion strongly hints that a full return to the company may be in the pipeline. This could be a big hit to TNA, who thanks to his connections with Booker T are no doubt hoping he joins them sometime soon.

Though all the star names coming out took up most of the focus, there were a few wrestling matches squeezed into the show. The highlight by far was the ladder match between Jeff Hardy and Carlito. In an out of character moment for WWE, there were quite a few hard hitting spots, one moment even got an “holy shit” chant. When was the last time you heard that on Raw? Carlito was clearly desperate to make a point after his recent problems regarding wanting to quit the company. The less said about the other matches the better perhaps. Oddly, Marti Janetti was put in a poor match against Mr. Kennedy that did nothing for either guy, and if anything was a little insulting to Janetti. After Michaels came and did the save, he was joined by Triple H in a DX reunion instead. Why they didn’t put him in a Rockers return match with Shawn Michaels I do not know.

Speaking of Triple H, he rode a fine line on the show too. He came out and was involved in a full three promos which strayed into Vince McMahon attention seeking territory. There was the previously mentioned DX segment, and the usual routine he now has with Vince McMahon that opened the show. The highlight however, if you can call it that, was the return of Evolution. Unfortunately it was nowhere near as eventful as hoped (it was rumored they would tease the beginnings of the Wrestlemania mainevent feud).

Other highlights included Lita and Trish Stratus showing up and Hulk Hogan made a rather emotional speech too. Mick Foley and Steve Austin also made their now regular appearances. They were all used in pretty iffy promos, but I guess the fact they were there at all was the most important thing.

While there were a load of other former stars - some huge names and some less known guys from years ago - it is worth mentioning those that weren’t there. The biggest name missing was perhaps The Rock. It’s caused a bit of fuss in some circles because he doesn’t appear to want to pay homage to the company and show that made him the star he is. He’s been desperate to distance himself from his wrestling connections and for better or for worse, that’s probably a smart move in relation to his acting career. The other big name missing was Bret Hart. Despite the rumors, it was always a slim chance at best that he would show up but one can always hope!

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SpiKe — Sat, 08 Dec 2007 19:34:28 +0000

A great nostalgic video this week for you, from Saturday Night’s Main Event back in 1990. If only they knew what animosity would develop between Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels a few years later…

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This Week In Wrestling 06th Dec 2007

SpiKe — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 16:35:41 +0000

What rocked and sucked this week as of 06th December 2007.

What rocked:

After what has been a slack year for WWE, things finally look they are turning around. Raw has three great feuds in Triple H vs Jeff Hardy, Randy Orton vs Chris Jericho and Shawn Michaels vs Mr. Kennedy. Of course given how average the booking has been it’s perfectly possible they could mess it up. However, right now things are looking healthier than they have done for months.
TNA Turning Point will be remembered for that Samoa Joe promo, but there were plenty of other highlights, in particular the women’s division. The Gail Kim vs Awesome Kong fed has been a lesson in how you book a monster and the TNA knockouts are putting WWE divas to shame.
The Raw 15th anniversary will be interesting. Already confirmed are Mick Foley, Steve Austin, Trish Stratus and shockingly even Hulk Hogan though I will believe that one when I see it. Is there room for another big surprise name in there?
Regardless of whether it was a work or a shoot, the Samoa Joe promo at Turning Point was one of the best rants this year. Sitting there and watching that happen was pretty damn incredible. I’d like to hear from anybody who was at the Impact zone as to what the crowd were like about it.

What sucked:

The Samoa Joe promo was harsh. While he certainly had a point about some of the WWE rejects, it was unfair that Kevin Nash took a lot of the abuse for Scott Hall’s no show. As for him “padding his pension” it was TNA who pushed for Kevin to get back in the ring. Also, people like Christian Cage and Kurt Angle have brought a lot to the company.
Senshi has quit TNA. He is a great talent and the company will miss him. Thankfully there hasn’t been a mass exodus though, which has been rumored for some time now. Senshi leaving will probably also result in XXX splitting up, meaning the death defying Elix Skipper will no doubt disappear again.
As things stand The Rock isn’t going to be at the 15th anniversary episode of Raw! Now that he is going to start calling himself by his proper name (Dwayne Johnson) in his acting career, it is pretty much guaranteed that we will never see him in a wrestling ring ever again.

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The Story Behind Samoa Joe’s Turning Point Promo

SpiKe — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 20:05:53 +0000

TNA Turning Point was very eventful. If you haven’t heard what happened here is the story. Scott Hall was scheduled to be in the main event alongside Kevin Nash and Samoa Joe. The event was heavily publicized as the return of The Outsiders. However, perhaps rather predictability given his reputation, Scott Hall didn’t show up which naturally upset and annoyed a lot of people, especially Samoa Joe. To try and take heat off the company, management told Joe to go out and make a speech putting over some of the talent. They got more than they bargained for…

An emotional Joe went overboard and did a huge rant against the older, past it stars who came in and pushed down the people who he claimed were the real talent in TNA (he named Motor City Machineguns as one example). The promo went on a full five minutes longer than planned and to add further fuel to the fire, the president of TNA, Dixie Carter, was sat in the crowd. During the promo Samoa Joe looked over at her and said, “go ahead and fire me, I don’t care.” A lot of the speech seemed to be aimed at Kevin Nash, who was visibly pissed off about it, no doubt because he felt he was unfairly taking the flak for Scott Hall’s mistakes. He was so upset in fact, that after the match he stormed straight to the back without celebrating the victory. He later had a confrontation with Joe backstage which involved plenty of verbals and shoving, though Joe apparently backed down to avoid it escalating any further.

Don’t expect some huge fallout from the whole situation though. Yesterday TNA had a big roster meeting before the Impact tapings where Dixie Carter said everybody can be released if they so wished. The only person to take up the offer was Senshi. Having captured a case in the feast or fired match, it’s expected he will now end up with the pink slip. Samoa Joe also reportedly made a big, emotional apology for his actions at Turning Point and now hopes the rest of the roster will accept it. Booker T and Kurt Angle also gave pep talks, encouraging everyone to stay positive. Proof if any were needed that there is still a place for the old guard in wrestling.

In what was a rather amusing dig at TNA by WWE, on last night’s Raw during Mr. Kennedy’s promo against Shawn Michaels, he had a fake Scott Hall come out (along with a fake Kevin Nash and Marty Jannetti). Kennedy said to him, “I’m glad you could make it.”

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TNA Turning Point 2007 Predictions

SpiKe — Sun, 02 Dec 2007 15:55:02 +0000

TNA Turning Point just sounds like a filler PPV show to keep everyone entertained during the holiday season without doing anything exciting or dramatic. Expect most of the faces to go over in an old fashioned, feel good manner. There are lots of matches on this card but TNA have been on a roll with their PPV’s recently so even though this is a throwaway show, expect some great matches.

Kevin Nash, Scott Hall and Samoa Joe vs Kurt Angle, AJ Styles and Tomko
This is going to be fun but messy. Don’t expect a wrestling showcase here. Kevin Nash and Scott Hall are so past it and will be pretty embarrassing to watch them. The fact they have teamed up with an increasingly sloppy and out of shape Samoa Joe says it all. Kurt Angle, AJ Styles and even the rapidly improving Tomko are going to be wasted in this match. Seeing as Styles is something of a comedy figure right now expect him to get a Jackknife or Razer’s Edge.

Booker T and Kaz vs Christian Cage and Robert Roode
Potentially the match of the night. Booker T looks revitalized after joining TNA, Cage is incredibly entertaining both in the ring and on the mic, Roode is developing into a solid character and Kaz has only great things in his immediate future. TNA seems to be building up towards some huge faction feud and this match could go a long way into determining what factions are formed and who teams with who. I expect Booker to win purely because it’s too early in his TNA run to start losing matches.

Team 3D and Johnny Devine vs Motor City Machineguns and Jay Lethal
If the previously mentioned match doesn’t deliver this will almost certainly blow our minds. Team 3D and MCMG put on what I felt was one of the best matches of the year at Genesis and with the addition of two talented X Division guys we have the makings of a classic. Expect Sabin, Shelley and Lethal to win and continue the feud.

Eric Young vs James Storm
The buildup to this match with all the drinking contests has been both amusing and cringe worthy at the same time. I thought it was the start of a face turn for James Storm until he beat down Eric for being able to handle his booze better. Eric should win here because he’s been on a roll of late but seeing as Storm has nothing else going for him right now, he will probably smash a few bottles in the process.

Feast Or Fired
This sounds like an interesting gimmick match for a change. There are four cases, three of which contain title shots and one contains a pink slip. Seeing as TNA can’t seem to build up any old fashioned title feuds at the moment, don’t expect any big, surprise names to pick up the title shots. They will probably be throwaway matches just like Kaz vs Angle a few weeks back. It will be more interesting to see who gets fired. Seeing as there are reportedly quite a few wrestlers who want to quit TNA, this could be a good storyline way of writing them out, unless the guy refuses to leave thus creating a new feud with Jim Cornette.

Other matches
Abyss and Rhino vs Rellik and Black Reign should be pretty bloody. What else would you expect from 10,000 tacs? Hopefully, Judas Mesias will make his return and interfere.
As for the women’s title match, it’s difficult to see how Gail Kim can realistically compete with Awesome Kong so expect it to be little more than a squash match with Kong becoming the new Knockout champion. Expect the feud between these two to continue for a few weeks more.

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State Of The Titles: Nov 2007

SpiKe — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 19:01:48 +0000

What’s this? The singles titles in WWE are starting to get some prestige back? If November is a sign of things to come then that is definitely the case. The Intercontinental and US titles are in the capable hands of Jeff Hardy and MVP respectably. With the latter just waiting on Matt Hardy to return and his brother in a potentially huge feud with Triple H, there is definite potential as WWE move into the new year. And that’s before we even look at the big three titles:

Randy Orton
It looks like Randy Orton has cleaned up his act and really jumped on the opportunity he was given. Though it feels like he took a dozen super kicks this past month, he ultimately came out looking very strong against Shawn Michaels at Survivor Series. While he won’t ever be flamboyant and brash like The Rock, Chris Jericho etc, he has a manner all of his own that is really starting to come to the surface. While it looks inevitable he will drop the belt to Jericho, I can’t see it happening immediately. He will get plenty of RKO’s in before it does happen.

CM Punk
The Smackdown and ECW roster exchange is just the thing CM Punk needs right now. He has more to offer than what ECW can provide yet ECW badly needs him as their top face, so he’s really been wasting away these past months on the show with an uneventful title run. His mini feud with The Miz and John Morrison hinted at the potential of the new generation of WWE stars though.

Batista
Batista is on a roll right now. Firstly, there was the shock victory against Great Khali to win the heavyweight title, then there was the renewed feud with the Undertaker. Those two have some great chemistry in the ring and they put on some great performances. Now that Edge is back things look even better. I think it would be rash to rush the title off of Batista, but it’s looking increasingly likely he will get screwed out of it by Edge and Vickie Guerrero.

TNA
I thought I would group the TNA titles together because it looks like they have forgotten what a title feud is all about. Angle’s feud with Sting was more about personal issues than about taking the gold and he’s now wasting away time in a feud with The Outsiders who aren’t interested in the title belt either. The X Division provides some potential now that Team 3D have stolen the belt but right now I can’t see it leading to anything special. With Tomko injured that’s the tag division on hiatus too. Come on TNA, let’s see someone step up and have a good old fashioned title chase!

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Ric Flair Returns To Raw But Is He Retiring?

SpiKe — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 20:52:58 +0000

There have been plenty of stories floating around about what Ric Flair has been doing for the last few months. Reportedly he was unhappy with the way WWE was using him after his move to Smackdown and he didn’t want to be part of the company if he wasn’t active. He has also been setting up a number of outside interests, such as setting up a financial company, which hinted strongly that his mind was on life after wrestling. However, in all his interviews he was always professional and said the right things about his situation, suggesting that his relationship with the company was far from broken.

I’m living la vida loca, darling!

Last night Ric Flair made his much vaunted return to WWE TV in his home town of Charlotte, North Carolina which pretty much confirms that the two parties have come to an agreement as to his immediate future. Despite moving to Smackdown during the draft lottery earlier in the year, it looks like he will be a Raw regular again and get plenty of air time. This may be largely thanks to Stone Cold Steve Austin, who apparently originally suggested the storyline of having him wrestle for his career every week.

It’s been reported for a long while now that Wrestlemania 24 would be Ric Flair’s swan song and this storyline will most likely run through to that. I can imagine Ric Flair remaining undefeated for the next few months (with the occasional helping hand along the way, like what Chris Jericho did last night) which will ultimately lead to his last big Wrestlemania match. There are so many options open to WWE here. Could a last, big respectful match between him and Shawn Michaels work? Or could he possibly win the Royal Rumble and get a title match? What do you guys think could work?

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SpiKe — Sat, 24 Nov 2007 16:01:59 +0000

This past Monday Chris Jericho made his big return. It was pretty obvious as soon as they started doing the save_us promos that he was coming back but it was still exciting to see one of the best performers in the business come back. Some people have complained that he’s going straight into a title feud with Randy but it makes perfect sense. As Randy Orton said, he has nobody else to face and Jericho is just carrying on from where he left off. What were your thoughts on his return? Did you enjoy it?

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Matt Hardy Injured, Shelton Benjamin To ECW

SpiKe — Thu, 22 Nov 2007 17:15:14 +0000

Just when the Matt Hardy and MVP feud was getting nasty, it looks like Matt will be out of action for at least two months. On his way to the Smackdown tapings on Tuesday he was in so much pain he ended up going to hospital, where the doctors ultimately discovered he had a burst appendix. The rupture spread toxins throughout his body and it’s the treatment of this that will keep him out of action, as he has to take antibiotics to clean out his system. Though this is unfortunate for Matt, in the long run it could really elevate this already great feud even further. He will get to have a big return in a couple of months time, and it now means his feud with MVP should tie in nicely with Wrestlemania.

A lot of people complain about ECW but it does serve a purpose. Shelton Benjamin has some incredible athletic abilities but lacks good mic skills and was being wasted on the Raw roster. Now that he’s made a surprise move to ECW this past Tuesday he could get a decent push out of it, especially as it looks like he will be aligned with Elijah Burke who will also benefit from the partnership. While it’s too early to say where this will all go, if he ends up in a feud with CM Punk it wouldn’t surprise me, as he needs some fresh heels to face.

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