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1. Day 625 - Very European

2. Day 626 - Questions, Questions, Questions

2.5 Day 627 - Raw Running Diary

4. Day 628 - Are we on the verge of a new.. world.. order?

5. Day 629 - Bury This

6. Day 630 - What types of WWE Network programming would YOU be interested in?

7. Day 631 - Smackdown Running Diary

Day 625

After God knows how long I've been talking about how he deserved to be on the WWE roster, I'm thrilled to finally say that Claudio Castagnoli has signed a deal with the company and has already reported to FCW for his stint there. With the signing, there are still some negatives to go along with the positives, so that's where I come in, with a look at both sides of the fence.

Positive - He has signed with WWE
Kind of a "duh" inclusion there, of course. I'm just happy to see him get his chance. I've been writing columns on this site for the last three-and-a-half years, and I think I've been saying that he should be on the WWE roster for the last three-and-a-half years, as well. With his unique "look", size, strength and moveset, he's been "WWE ready" for a while now.

Negative - Name change
I should actually include this one with a bit of an asterisk. His FCW name is Antonio Cesaro, and while I am disappointed that he isn't getting to go with Claudio Castagnoli, not only am I not surprised that the name was changed, it actually isn't that bad. It's a lot easier to say and type than Claudio Castagnoli, that's for sure. I've seen some people complaining that "Antonio Cesaro" sounds like the name of an Italian guy, and not someone that is Swiss, like Castagnoli is, but Claudio himself tweeted in response to someone that "Castagnoli" also sounds like the name of an Italian guy. He's right. Maybe his name will change again when he gets called up to the main roster. It wouldn't be the first time we've seen someone's name changed for FCW and then changed again when they were called up, so it's definitely a possibility.

Negative - He's riding solo
This one could come with another asterisk, because it could easily change at any time, but conspicuous by his absence is Claudio's long-time tag team partner, Chris Hero. We received word, a while back, that both Castagnoli and Hero received their WWE tryout together as The Kings Of Wrestling, that both of them had impressed WWE officials, and that both of them had contract offers on the table. We have yet to hear anything about Hero signing his contract, and because only one has signed so far, the immediate reaction is to think that Claudio is the only one coming in. That isn't necessarily true, of course. Maybe Hero is still going over his contract? Maybe he wanted to let Claudio have a few extra days to have his "shine"? Maybe he has some more independent dates that he wants to finish up before he officially takes himself off the market? We don't know anything yet, and Chris Hero isn't saying on Twitter, one way or another, so we'll just have to wait and see.

Positive - More quality tweets
This positive is pretty specific to myself and to those of you that not only enjoy Twitter, but follow Claudio. If you follow Claudio, you'd see that he's already been in some very entertaining back-and-forths with people like William Regal and Seth Rollins/Tyler Black, and now that he's working in FCW, there's more time for him to find shenaniganery to tweet about. He already knows a lot of the people in the company, both on the FCW and WWE rosters, and some of them he hasn't seen in a while, so catching up and sharing stories should be fun.

Negativity - Ring Of Honor's quality takes a hit
It can be argued that the current RoH roster is about as weak as any roster the company has put out in their nine years of existence. That was with Claudio Castagnoli. Now that he's gone, one of the best all-around performers is no longer there, and obviously, things would only get worse if Chris Hero heads to WWE, as well. Claudio was someone that has mainly been used in the tag team scene in the last few years, but at any given time, he could easily be inserted into an upper-card singles feud, and as was the case in 2007, could even main event and receive shots at the RoH World Title. Losing that kind of talent and that kind of roster versatility is something that hurts, and can't exactly be replaced easily. I guess they could bring another "no-name" in, but they have a lot of them already. A friend of mine watched their most recent show, after not watching RoH for about a year, and he had numerous Samuel-L-Jackson-In-Coming-To-America "WHO THE FUCK IS THIS ASSHOLE?!?" moments while watching everyone come out for their matches.

Positivity - Test of strength
For the last few years, I've wondered who possessed more freakish strength.. John Cena or Claudio Castagnoli? Now, with them in the same company, I could very well be on the verge of finding out, or at least getting a good idea. Claudio's a muscular guy, but he's not quite as put-together as Cena is as far as his musculature goes. Claudio's a good four inches taller than Cena is, but Cena's muscle mass gives him a good 15-20 pound weight advantage. However, Claudio has been able to "wow" people with feats of strength on a near regular basis. Holding someone straight up in the air in a stalling vertical suplex for over a minute? Check. Lifting people that outweigh him by over 100 pounds in a giant swing and swinging them around for several seconds? Check. It should be fun to see him working in a company where the average wrestler is larger than the average wrestler in the various promotions Claudio is used to working for.

All in all, I'm just ecstatic that he's finally getting his opportunity in the "big leagues". Hopefully, that "WWE ready" overall package plays in his favor and he doesn't end up stuck in FCW for a year like we're getting with Seth Rollins. We shall see. One thing I do know.. FCW, and WWE, in general, is about to get Very European. Prepare yourselves, folks.

Writer's Note: I didn't write about this week's Wrestling Revolution Project roster additions because it was a week of mostly unknown people, and the column wouldn't have been very long at all. In five people, you got someone I'm not a fan of as a singles worker ("Machine Gun" Karl Anderson), two names I'm barely familiar with (Shawn Spears & Pat Buck), a name whose gimmick is 20 times better than his in-ring work (Joey Ryan) and an actress who hasn't even been involved in wrestling (Trisha LaFache). Not much of a column, but hey, at least I kept you all up-to-date on the roster.

Writer's Note Part Deux: We recorded our Night Of Champions predictions in the second episode of the Lords Of Podcast Roundtable today. It's a 42.1MB download, and it clocks in at just under 46 minutes long. It can be found at the following link, along with a link to the first podcast (it's on a different site now, because of problems that some of you had with MegaUpload)..

Lords Of Podcast Roundtable

The HiPE Playlist: The podcast.

Napa Know-How. N-N-Napa Know-How. (fuck you, Napa, for getting that stuck in my head)

Hustle
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-Team Sleep--------------------------Day 626

Well.. Night Of Champions is over, and I don't know about any of you fine folks out there in ReaderLand (or any of you ugly ones, for that matter), but I actually came out of the pay-per-view with more questions than I had going in. I guess it goes along with the soap opera-style of booking that WWE is running with these days, but for a lot of people, those are the kinds of things that should be saved for episodes of television, and maybe for one match on a pay-per-view to make you wonder what will happen on the following night's episode of Raw, but what we got tonight was damn near question after question after question all night long. Let's take a look, shall we? We'll go along with the match order, just to make things easier.

Air Boom defeated Awesome Truth by Disqualification, and as a result, retained the WWE Tag Team Titles
Since when does WWE do any sort of non-wrestling references when they're still fresh?: This is a company that always seems to reference pop culture or other sports in a wink-wink type of way, but way after those things stop being relevant. Michael Cole always makes fun of Jim Ross' commentary for all of the "dated" references that JR makes, and in a way, JR's commentary represents the company, as a whole, when they're trying to be "hip". Tonight, however, they actually gave a nod to the Floyd Mayweather VS Victor Ortiz boxing match that happened last night. Capitalizing on something when it's damn near at its absolute freshest point?!? Who's in charge here?!? Most of you already know the spot I'm talking about, but for those who don't, it was the part where Miz landed a headbutt in the corner and got dropped by a punch to the face as he was looking at the referee. Not only was it a reference to something outside the world of pro wrestling, it was a reference to another "combat sport". Nice.

Wouldn't it have made more sense to have Air Boom sneak out a victory?: I get that you want to keep Awesome Truth looking strong, but it's not much of a conspiracy when you get disqualified after laying your hands on a referee. For the storyline to really make sense, it would have been fitting to have Air Boom actually get the victory with a roll-up or something. Clearly, the story is that the ref missed a few things that ended up benefiting Air Boom, but the match wasn't over yet. Getting that upset and purposely getting yourself disqualified isn't being a "conspiracy victim". It makes you look stupid. It would benefit the heels more if they actually were coming across as victims of a conspiracy, but eh, there's still time, I guess.

Cody Rhodes defeated Ted DiBiase to retain the Intercontinental Title
Was this Ted's final shot?: They continue wanting to push Ted DiBiase. That much is pretty clear. However, what is also clear is that the majority of fans at arenas all around the globe don't care enough about Ted to justify any of these pushes. As I said in the Night Of Champions predictions podcast, Ted needed the win here much more than Cody did, but without a real connection with the WWE Universe, and with his turn just taking place, he hadn't done anywhere near enough to justify becoming the Intercontinental Champion yet. That put the company in a weird spot here. Yes, Cody got the win, but he needed to hook Ted's tights to do it, which would seem to set up a rematch. Of course, if the fans continue to show nothing but indifference, why even bother with giving Ted another shot at the title, let alone actually giving it to him? Don't be surprised if this ends up being Ted's last chance. If he doesn't find some sort of connection with the crowd, he could very well be released.

Dolph Ziggler defeated Alex Riley, John Morrison and Jack Swagger to retain the United States Title
Are we ever going to get an end to the Ziggler/Guerrero/Swagger storyline?: I know I'm not the only one that feels this way, but it seems like the storyline has been going on for months and months with no real advancement. We're pretty much in the exact same spot now as we were going into the pay-per-view, which is pretty much the exact same spot as we were in going into this past week's episode of Raw, etc. Ziggler gets the pin, and he's able to show Vickie that he's a "winner", while Swagger is a "loser" because he failed to get it done. Swagger will undoubtedly be pissed that Ziggler "stole" the pin from him, and will confront Dolph about it on Raw, and Vickie will remain in the middle of everything. At the rate they're going now, Vickie will finally make her decision about her "clients" at some point around WrestleMania 32. It just never ends.

Mark Henry defeated Randy Orton to become the new World Champion
Will the IWC finally accept Mizark?: Through the years, Mark Henry has been one of the IWC's most disliked wrestlers. People hated him. They thought he was too slow. They thought he was too fat. They thought he had no mic skills. They thought his matches were boring. They wanted him gone. With this recent storyline, I've seen a lot of people warming up to him, though. They weren't claiming to be huge fans of his or anything, but they were at least able to admit that he was deserving of a main event run on Smackdown. However, as the IWC has shown time and time again, they enjoy building someone up.. right until they become a World Champion, where they turn their backs on that particular someone. Now that Mark Henry is the World Champion, I can just about guarantee you that you'll start to see more of those "Mark Henry sucks" types of opinions coming back out, and they'll say that Henry isn't "worthy" of being the top guy on Smackdown.

How badly does Mark Henry need a strong title reign?: Right now, with the way everything is playing out, you can just about assume that Randy Orton will get his title rematch at the Hell In A Cell pay-per-view. That places things in line for a perfect "WWE style" formulaic match where Orton wins the title back.. Henry is being booked as an unstoppable monster, the match taking place inside a Cell means there are no rules and things are opened to more damage from the champion, Orton is now having to sell a leg injury.. it's another "overcoming the odds" situation that the company loves to book. It's another tough spot, because giving Henry a two-week title reign destroys his credibility, but can anyone really picture Orton losing clean yet again? They've spent all this time and effort in trying to build Henry up, but short of debuting someone as his long-lost younger brother to come in, rip the cage off of the Cell and hit Henry with his very own finisher, losing the match makes all of that a waste of time.

Kelly Kelly defeated Beth Phoenix to retain the Divas Title
Why?: No, seriously.. why?

Beth or Natalya?: Kelly has defeated Beth on multiple occasions now, so where does the company go from here? Do they give Beth yet another title shot? Technically, in the world of kayfabe, she certainly doesn't "deserve" one. She's had her chances, and she has yet to take the title from Kelly, so maybe it's time to move on? If they move on, what about giving Beth's Divas Of Doom partner, Natalya, a shot? It has been over seven months since Natalya has even had a shot at the title, so it makes sense to give her another shot. What is she going to do otherwise? We've got to get Beth and Natalya feuding eventually, don't we? Wouldn't it make sense to have Natalya become the Divas Champion, and for Beth to eventually grow jealous, or for Natalya to eventually begin rubbing it in that she was able to accomplish something that Beth couldn't? Works for me.

John Cena defeated Alberto Del Rrrrrio to become the new WWE Champion
Why?: It's damn sure no secret that I'm a John Cena fan. I'm probably the biggest John Cena fan in the entire IWC. However, I can't justify making him the WWE Champion yet again. It just doesn't make any sense. I have absolutely no idea what they're trying to do with ADR. He started this year off with all the momentum in the world, but they didn't turn that momentum into a title reign. They blew it. Then, they booked him to where he lost all of that momentum and people began to grow tired of him, but that's when they decided to make him the WWE Champion. They blew it again. Then, they gave him a 35-day title reign and put the title back on the one person in the entire company who, if he never won another title for the rest of his career, wouldn't lose any ground at all. They blew it yet again. I've been telling you folks that the company would panic about their ratings go down. No matter how many blogs, columns, comments and message board posts I've seen that said ratings don't matter, I've continued to tell you all that ratings still do matter to those in charge of the company because they refuse to evolve (again, I told you so) from their archaic line of thinking, and that they'd panic far sooner than they should. What did they do, almost right after I said that? They put the title right back on the company's top draw, seemingly for no reason at all. They're backed into a corner here, though, because what happens when the ratings continue to drop? Tomorrow night's Monday Night Football game isn't a huge matchup (Rams at Giants), but it still involves a team in the largest television market in the country (New York), and it's still the NFL. In the next month, Monday Night Football will be delivering such matchups as Redskins at Cowboys (two more huge television markets, a division rivalry game, and the Cowboys are one of the most popular teams in the NFL), Bears at Lions (division rivalry game, two more huge markets, and the Lions are one of the hottest young "must-see" teams in the league), and Dolphins at Jets (another team in the largest television market in the country, and another division rivalry game). It's going to take a whole lot of work to even keep ratings where they are now, but they'll probably drop a bit more. Then what does the company do? How much more panic will we see?

How much "destiny" can one man have?: Anybody want to start taking bets on how long it will take ADR to say that it's his destiny to become the WWE Champion yet again? My prediction? Tomorrow night on Raw.

Triple H defeated CM Punk to remain C.O.O. of the company
What the hell happened?: As of this very second, we're about four hours removed from the end of the pay-per-view, and there are still people trying to process everything that happened during this match. As everyone expected, Kevin Nash made his return and got involved, attacking both Punk and Triple H. As everyone expected, John Laurinaitis got involved, seemingly putting all of the extra-curricular shenaniganery in motion. As some people expected, Awesome Truth got involved, attacking not only Punk and Triple H, but referee Scott Armstrong, as well. Outside interference of different kinds from four different people, at different times in the match. What a mess.

Who's working with who, and why?: It's pretty clear that Kevin Nash and John Laurinaitis are in cahoots. It's.. somewhat.. clear that The Miz and R-Truth are also working with them. It's also clear that Laurinaitis is trying to get Triple H removed from the company, even though Truth had a mind-numbingly dumb move by breaking up a pin attempt from Punk, mere moments after Miz pulled Punk onto Triple H for another pin attempt that Trips kicked out of. We still don't know what Laurinaitis' big problem with Triple H is. Does he want the COO gig for himself? Is he doing all of this to get Vince McMahon back in power so that he can go back to being Vince's "yes man"? Is he doing this for Stephanie McMahon, who wants to be the one to run things? Is there someone else we're not thinking about (Shane McMahon, maybe)?

Does Punk believe Triple H now?: Ever since Trips and Nash began having their issues, Punk has said again and again that he didn't believe they were really feuding. He assumed it was all a way to get his guard down, and that it would all be a SWERVE~! with Trips and Nash revealing they were working together all along. Well, now Nash has attacked Trips and participated in something that was designed to completely screw Trips over. Will Punk believe Trips now? Will this end up in them.. *gasp*.. teaming up to face the apparent new-age nWo?

Triple H is in charge, isn't he?: He fired Kevin Nash. Nash showed up, anyway. John Laurinaitis tried to set up a hostile takeover to get him removed from power. The Miz and R-Truth attacked him, in an attempt to get him removed from power, even though Truth apparently forgot what was going on and tried to save Trips once. Trips is supposed to be in charge, so shouldn't he just fire all of them, and that will be that? Yes, it's pro wrestling and we need some drama, but what's stopping him? Going back to when Vince McMahon was feuding with "Stone Cold" Steve Austin, it seemed like Vince fired Austin on countless occasions, but there would always be a way for Austin to return somehow. Of course every single one of those guys would find a way to return eventually, but if Triple H doesn't come out immediately on Raw and tell Laurinaitis, Nash, Miz and Truth that they're fired, something's wrong. Well, I guess he wouldn't have to tell Nash that he's fired, since he already is, but you get the point. Even if he fires them two minutes into the show, and a minute later, we get the reasoning why they won't be fired (the Board Of Directors aren't happy with Trips, blah blah blah), it still needs to take place.

Why are people whining about Punk being "buried"?: Sometimes, I wonder if some of you bother watching, or if you just read the results after the fact and skip right to the last line, where it says who won the match. I double dare someone to explain to me, in a way that makes ANY sense, how CM Punk was "buried" tonight? Various shots with a steel chair. Paydirt from R-Truth. Three Pedigrees. A Jackknife Powerbomb from Kevin Nash. Everything else that took place in the match. That's what it took for Punk to lose. HE TOOK FIVE FINISHING MOVES BEFORE HE WAS PINNED!!! This is on the heels of a feud with John Cena, where he was able to kick out of a handful of Attitude Adjustments, as well as not tapping out to the STF, even though he had it locked on for lengthy amounts of time. John Cena. Triple H. Those are two of the most dominant workers of the last decade. Two guys that have defeated the biggest and the baddest people in the company, and it usually took one finisher to do it. So, besides becoming Super Punk in the last two-plus months, he remains involved in the storyline that features more air-time than any other storyline in the company. A storyline that, with all of the new additions and plot twists that have yet to happen, will only receive even more time on television every week. All that, and people are still crying like little girls that people are being "buried" like Punk will now be feuding with Tyler Reks on Superstars for the next two months before being released. You people make me fucking sick to my stomach, and if we never heard from you again, it would be too soon. Maybe.. just maybe.. if you actually watched the entire show, and not just 20 minutes here and there every week, you'd "get it", but I doubt it, because it's still clear that you don't know what you're talking about. Just admit that times have passed you by, and move on with your lives. Finger of shame, folks. Finger of shame.

Oh, and because some of you are interested in these types of things, here are my star ratings for the show..

- Air Boom VS Awesome Truth: 2 stars
- Cody Rhodes VS Ted DiBiase: 1.75 stars
- Dolph Ziggler VS Alex Riley VS John Morrison VS Jack Swagger: 2.5 stars
- Randy Orton VS Mark Henry: 2.5 stars
- Kelly Kelly VS Beth Phoenix: 1.25 stars
- Alberto Del Rrrrrio VS John Cena: 3 stars
- CM Punk VS Triple H: 3.25 stars

Writer's Note: The two podcasts are pretty-much dated at this point, but I'm going to post the link to where they can be downloaded, anyway, just to make sure everyone has it. We're in the beginning stages of possibly looking into creating iPhone and Android apps for those of you that are unable to download the podcasts to your phone. I'll definitely continue to keep everyone updated on that, as well as on new podcasts coming soon. Anyway, here's the link..

Lords Of Podcast Roundtable

The HiPE Playlist: "Longview" by Green Day.. "Welcome To Paradise" by Green Day.. "Pulling Teeth" by Green Day.. "Basket Case" by Green Day.. "When I Come Around" by Green Day.. "Brain Stew" by Green Day.. "Holiday" by Green Day.. "Boulevard Of Broken Dreams" by Green Day.. "Wake Me Up When September Ends" by Green Day.. "21 Guns" by Green Day

If you stop struggling, then you stop life.

-------------------------Day 627

9:00pm: Night Of Champions is over, and now, the very quick turnaround to Hell In A Cell begins. How many more questions will we get on tonight's episode of Raw? How many answers will we get? Let's find out.

9:01pm: There's a sign that says "Kelly Kelly Is Champ". Boy, those people in Cleveland sure are creative.

9:02pm: We're starting off with "Cult Of Personality" playing, which, of course, brings out CM Punk, who, it should be noted, is back to wearing his Best In The World shirt, and not the Ice Cream Bar shirt he was wearing last night. He's also limping his way to the ring, selling the effects of last night's brawl. He appears dressed to wrestle, but this looks to be a promo.

9:03pm: Very noticeable mixed reaction from the Cleveland crowd for Punk.

9:05pm: Punk feels that there is a conspiracy. Not the conspiracy that Awesome Truth are always talking about, but Triple H's music interrupts Punk before he can explain anything.

9:07pm: Triple H saying that he's still the COO of the company brings another mixed reaction from the crowd.

9:08pm: Trips' first order of business tonight is to book the main event of Hell In A Cell. It's a blockbuster, folks.. John Cena defends the WWE Title against both Alberto Del Rrrrrio and CM Punk in a Triple Threat Match. Oh, and the match will take place inside of the Cell. That's huge.

9:10pm: Punk says he now realizes that someone is playing both he and Triple H, putting them against each other and using their emotions against them. He feels someone higher on the ladder is responsible for all of this, which promptly brings out John Laurinaitis and his annoying voice.

9:12pm: Punk feels that Laurinaitis is behind all of this, saying that Laurinaitis probably feels he can take Triple H's job as COO if Trips is removed from power.

9:13pm: lol @ Laurinaitis firing Punk, and then Triple H immediately stepping in to say Punk isn't fired. Well, that didn't really work out too well, did it?

9:13pm: Hmm.. Trips promises that someone is getting fired by the end of the night. The plot thickens. Again.

9:18pm: A cross-brand eight-man tag match, with all eight men getting the jobber entrance? Sad. It's Kofi Kingston, Evan Bourne, Sheamus & Justin Gabriel VS Christian, Wade Bar-ruh, Michael McGillicutty & David Otunga. Interesting.

9:19pm: This Cleveland crowd is about as excited for this as they were when they heard LeBron James was taking his talents to South Beach. They're pretty much dead to this point.

9:21pm: Sheamus entering the match for the first time wakes the crowd up, after David Otunga looks like an idiot, swinging his arm in a clothesline attempt a good foot-plus over Evan Bourne's head.

9:22pm: Brogue Kick on Otunga. Hit him again, Lobster Head!

9:22pm: ..well, he did, but this time, it was a Celtic Cross, and Sheamus picks up the win for his team. Kind of a weird match. It was yet another one of those huge multi-person matches where only a small portion of the workers actually participated in the match. It was done to push the story of Sheamus VS Christian, but that could have been done without including so many extra people.

9:24pm: In a backstage segment, ADR complains about being placed in a Hell In A Cell match, and then says he prays Mr McMahon returns to run the company. Hmm.. foreshadowing of some sort?

9:29pm: The former WWE Champion, Alberto Del Rrrrrio, is out for our next match. Ricardo Rodriguez doesn't look like a very happy man. He looks like one of his "friends" told their mother about what has been going on for the last few months.

9:30pm: John Morrison is out to be ADR's opponent. This could be interesting.

9:31pm: ..it could be, but it wasn't. The match is already over, with ADR picking up a submission victory. Hey, folks.. that was how you bury someone. 'Twas no es un problema for El Patron. Morrison continues to have the strangest booking of anyone in the company.

9:34pm: Sir in the Prilosec commercial, stop worrying about when to take your heartburn pill, man! You have several fires breaking out on your chest and stomach! Can't you feel them?!?

9:37pm: Ladies and gentlemen, this is a historic night. TNA wrestler Brutus Magnus is apparently tonight's guest host of Raw, for some strange reason. Is this a TNA takeover of some sort? They keep calling him a "huge ackman", though. I don't even know what an ackman is, let alone what a huge one is.

9:39pm: Vickie Guerrero has had enough of Magnus and his shilling of a Rock Em Sock Em Robots movie. She just came storming out, along with the United States Champion, Dolph Ziggler.

9:41pm: lmao @ Dolph's little inside joke towards Mason Ryan.

9:43pm: How has Magnus not mentioned TNA yet?

9:43pm: Magnus says he's going to return to the locker room and find a big "underdog" to face Dolph Ziggler tonight. Almost instantly, a "We Want Ryder" chant breaks out. Magnus then runs out and grabs a fan's sign that says "Ryder > Wolverine". I don't get it. What an odd segment.

9:45pm: Awesome Truth are shown arriving backstage, and John Laurinaitis tells them that Triple H wants to see them in his office immediately. Oh noes~!

9:49pm: Sin Cara is out for our next match, which means.. FINGERPOINT OF DOOM~! Which one is it, though? Jerry Lawler says it looks like the original Sin Cara, and then Michael Cole points out that they're mirror images of each other. You know, other than the two-inch height difference and at least 15-20 pound weight difference. Cole, you fucking idiot.

9:51pm: The Intercontinental Champion, Cody Rhodes, is out next, but before we can even have a match, the other Sin Cara is out. ZOMG WITCH WUN IZ WITCH?!?!?

9:52pm: These announcers look like the biggest fucking douchebags on the planet for trying to play off like these are two twins in the ring. Seriously, guys.. all of you.. even you, JR, sound like assholes right now.

9:53pm: The Sin Caras have a little fight to absolutely zero reaction from the crowd, and Cody Rhodes is nowhere to be found.

9:54pm: Hey, Awesome Truth are apologizing to Triple H. Trips has fined them both $250,000 for placing their hands on a referee last night. That's quite the penalty, no? Before kicking them out of his office, he books them in a match tonight.. against CM Punk and John Cena. Uh-oh. Either way, a $250,000 fine is insanity. Do you know how many packs of Newport cigarettes that could buy R-Truth? Do you know how many of Vince McMahon's ugly vintage suits that could buy The Miz?

10:00pm: Did.. did they just run a commercial for Smackdown, where they're asking people to tune in on Friday and find out whether or not Randy Orton was the newest member of Mark Henry's "Hall Of Pain"? After mentioning, all show long, that Mark Henry is the new World Champion? Hell, when the commercial ended, what was the very next thing to happen? Still shots from Mark Henry's victory last night. It's almost like they don't want people to watch Smackdown at all.

10:01pm: Jim Ross, before bringing Henry out for an interview, announces that Orton has invoked his rematch clause, and we will, indeed, have Mark Henry VS Randy Orton at Hell In A Cell.

10:02pm: "What?" chants are the single dumbest thing to ever happen in wrestling, and everyone who participates in them deserves to have their families perish in a fire. Fuck you, Christian, for not answering your cell phone that one day, causing "Stone Cold" Steve Austin to leave you a voicemail in which the "What?" chant was created. It's all your fault, asshat.

10:04pm: Mark Henry is demanding that Jim Ross apologize to him for all the years of Ross being a doubter in him. He reveals that Ross went to Vince McMahon in the past and referred to Henry as "injury-prone" and an "underachiever", and says that Ross told Vince that Henry should be fired. As soon as JR apologizes, Henry says that he hates ass-kissers. That's hilarious.

10:06pm: Henry starts choking JR, but Jerry Lawler runs in to make the save. Big mistake, old man.

10:07pm: Henry tells Lawler that if he's going to save JR, he has to take JR's place, which leads Jerry to preemptively punch Mizark twice. That didn't last long, though, as a headbutt took Lawler down. Lawler is then laid out with a vicious-looking World's Strongest Slam.

10:08pm: Mizark clears the announce table off, and then delivers another World's Strongest Slam to Lawler, this time through the table. Ouch. lol @ the fans telling Mark to "get Michael Cole". If he did, he would instantly become my favorite wrestler of all-time.

10:09pm: Without a doubt, Mark Henry is the best character going in wrestling today, and is one of the best characters that wrestling has seen in the last several years. Awesome stuff.

10:14pm: "This is where you beg for your life!" - What a fucking line from Mark, as he choked JR. Best part is that you really believe he could kill a man.

10:14pm: Both Lawler and Ross are off of commentary now, and Josh Matthews is out to replace them. Well, at least it didn't leave us with Michael Cole all by himself on commentary. Can you imagine how awful that would be?

10:15pm: Kelly Kelly & Eve VS Beth Phoenix & Natalya is up next. The Divas Of Doom look pissed.

10:18pm: Is that a good booking decision? NOPE. Chuck Testa. It's also another sneaky victory for Kelly and Eve. What. The. Fuck. Both Kelly and Eve continue to defy the laws of probability on a weekly basis. Just when you think you've seen them wrestle as poorly as they can, they find ways to top their previous performances.

10:24pm: Well, Magnus' "underdog" choice is, as we suspected, Zack Ryder. Ryder VS Dolph Ziggler, up next.

10:29pm: Magnus just punched Ziggler in the face!!! The TNA takeover has begun!!! Where's everyone else?!? Zack Ryder wins the match, but it was non-title, so he isn't a dual champion.

10:35pm: Well, it's official.. Jack Swagger is the newest member of whatever "stable" Vickie Guerrero is putting together. Hooray?

10:38pm: Nice video package for the previous Hell In A Cell matches. I love watching those. They do a great job in showing just how dangerous the matches are.

10:39pm: lol @ Miz having no rhythm, chanting "You Suck" completely off-beat as R-Truth tries his best to rap. This is hilariously bad.

10:44pm: It's time for tonight's main event. Nice chunk of time left in the show for this one.

10:46pm: Whoa. Justin Roberts put some extra stank on his introduction of John Cena. He always drags it out to "JOHHHHHNNNNN CEEEEENAAAAA", but he added an extra couple of seconds to it tonight. Props to him. I guess.

10:52pm: Thank you, DVR. I accidentally unplugged my laptop and had to restart it. Oops.

10:53pm: Nice DDT from Miz, and nice selling of said DDT by Cena.

10:53pm: Alright, all caught up on the DVR.

10:57pm: Playing the role of Ricky Morton tonight, ladies and gentlemen.. John Cena. Fitting, since he name-dropped the Rock-N-Roll Express during his backstage segment with Punk earlier.

10:57pm: Perhaps it's because they're in his hometown, but the crowd is a lot more alive when Miz is in the ring than when Truth is in the ring. Hometown or not, Miz is a better worker, so it could be that, as well. Maybe Cleveland is just full of people who hate blacks. *Kanye shrug*

11:00pm: Go To Sleep for Miz.. and it's over. Punk and Cena win. Before they can celebrate for too long, though, Triple H's music hits again, and he walks out to the top of the ramp.

11:01pm: "Punk.. good match. Miz, Truth.. you're fired." - That's all he said. It was so casual. So nonchalant. That's it. He just said it, and then left. That was hilarious.

11:02pm: Awesome Truth jump Trips backstage, and the WWE roster breaks it all up. Trips has Miz and Truth physically removed from the building, and we fade to black. So, let's see here.. Kevin Nash, The Miz and R-Truth have all been "fired". That makes them.. "Outsiders".. doesn't it? We're looking at the 2011 nWo forming before our very eyes, folks.

#ThankYouTelevisionShowsForAllReturningFromHiatus: Trying to put more of a direction in the CM Punk/Triple H storyline, with Punk now focusing on the fact that someone is basically playing "puppet master".. Hell In A Cell already having their double main event signed (although they don't have much of a choice, since it's less than two weeks away).. Alberto Del Rrrrrio getting to look really strong after losing the WWE Title.. Brutus Magnus being a much better guest host than most expected him to be.. Mark Henry being in absolute beast mode yet again.. CM Punk & John Cena VS The Miz & R-Truth.. Triple H's delivery as he "fired" Miz & Truth

#FuckYouDVRForNotHavingEnoughSpaceForAllTheShows: Pointless eight-man tag match.. John Morrison, period.. Worst TNA takeover of all-time.. Jerry Lawler being too old to take an actual headbutt from Mark Henry without turning into dust.. Kelly Kelly is still awful.. Eve is still awful.. The booking of Beth Phoenix & Natalya is still awful

Grade: C+, MAYBE B-, if you want to be really generous.

Writer's Note: Don't forget to keep track of the following link for all of the podcasts/audio columns my crew & I will be putting together. The next one should be posted on Thursday at some point, will feature a new cast of characters, and will be almost strictly MMA & boxing-related. Anyway, here's the link..

Lords Of Podcast Roundtable

The HiPE Playlist: Raw.

My name is Kunta Kinte 9000, and you can Kunta kiss my ass!

-------------------------Day 628

I know I've mentioned it a lot in my columns in recent weeks, but I'm pretty torn on the idea of an nWo-like faction showing up on World Wrestling Entertainment television. Sure, it's an idea that isn't very fresh, but if done right, it can definitely provide a spark for the product, and it certainly looks like that's the direction they're going in.

Since becoming the storyline COO of the company, Triple H has now "fired" three people.. Kevin Nash, The Miz and R-Truth. If you want to be technical about it, he also "fired" Vince McMahon, which would make it four names. Of course, with Kevin Nash's history in the business, him being any sort of "Outsider" is something to pay attention to. Are they really building up to a group of "outsiders" coming in to try and take things over, though? If there was a time to do it, it would be now, with Survivor Series being a mere two months away.

Of course, you have to look at the cast of characters to determine whether or not it's really a good idea. First, you have to look back to the original nWo, starting off with Scott Hall and Kevin Nash. Two big, bad motherfuckers. At the time of the nWo's formation, Hall was 38 years old, and Nash was 37. Not exactly young guns, but still at the peak of their careers, and the peak of their athletic abilities. Then they added Hulk Hogan, who was almost 43 at the time, and that's when things really took off. Hogan clearly wasn't a young, athletic name, but he was yet another big name and another physical specimen, on top of being, arguably, the biggest name in the history of the business. Throw in approximately 138 more people, and you have quite the dominant force in the world of wrestling.

Fast forward to the here and now..

Kevin Nash is involved again, but he's also 52 years old, and is in nowhere near the physical condition he used to be. You have The Miz, who is definitely young enough (he'll be 31 in a couple weeks) to bring something different to the table, but you also have R-Truth, who is 39. Neither man is a large and/or physically intimidating athlete, so it makes it tougher for the group to come in and "take over". With Hall, Nash and Hogan, you had people who could believably make their presence known and beat up anyone in their way. You don't have that with the current group, even if you add Vince McMahon and/or John Laurinaitis to the mix. Not only are these guys not quite as physically intimidating, but in the world of kayfabe, you have people that are midcarders and authority figures. Oooh, scary.

There are ways of adding to a potential group, though. There are always.. ways.. to make things happen.

If you're looking at a group of people who want Triple H removed from power, it would be easy to find more names. Trips has made his fair share of enemies through the years, and, as the main authority figure in the company right now, will undoubtedly continue to make more enemies with every passing show. You know what would be a good way to get various midcarders with no legit direction involved in a storyline that gives them that direction, as well as steady time on television? Putting them in the "nWo". That seems to be everyone's biggest concern right now. Whether you're for or against the idea of ending the brand split, you have concerns with the fact that only a handful of people on both Raw and Smackdown seem to have a direction to go in. Everyone else is either floating in purgatory or is being used sparingly.

Even with that, you're still looking at a bunch of midcarders. Sure, they could have people outnumbered, but in the eyes of the casual fan, is a group consisting of, say.. The Miz, R-Truth, Drew McIntyre, Tyson Kidd, etc.. really be viewed as a legit threat? I don't think so. No.. they need some sort of main event power in the group. Perhaps.. a champion.

I already know some of you are rolling your eyes, but this isn't necessarily going where you think. Look at the two top guys in the company.. World Champion Mark Henry and WWE Champion John Cena. Both of them, in their own way, would provide an immediate boost of credibility and power to the "nWo". Let's start off with Mark Henry..

We've already seen how dominant he has been in recent months. Imagine if he had a whole bunch of backup on top of that? I've already mentioned that the IWC has begun to come around on Mizark, after all these years, but not everyone is a fan of his mic skills just yet. They think Henry is a fine choice to be a main event talent, but that he needs some sort of a mouthpiece for him. Well, while being in a faction isn't quite the same thing as having a manager, it still allows other people to handle the majority of the talking, allowing Mark Henry to do what he does best. That's scary to think about, even if I don't agree at all that Mark Henry's promos suck. Now, on to the reason why some of you were rolling your eyes.. John Cena..

I'm not going to sit here and predict a heel turn for Cena, nor am I even really saying it needs to happen right here, right now. I'm just saying there can be some comparisons made between this group and the original nWo. For instance, it was Hulk Hogan that shocked the world and turned heel, adding a huge name to the group and carried them forward. Well, if John Cena turned heel, it would shock the world, and he'd add a huge name to the group to carry them forward. Oh, and who does everyone feel is this generation's "Hulk Hogan"? Exactly. I know that some people are now reading this and saying it couldn't happen because we've seen Cena get physically attacked by the very same folks that he'd be joining up with. Well, to those people, I merely have to bring your memory back to.. *gasp*.. the original nWo, when Scott Hall and Kevin Nash attacked Eric Bischoff in the very beginning of the storyline, with Bischoff being revealed as an nWo mastermind the entire time only a few months later. It's happened before. It could easily happen again.

In one way or another, the company seems to be building towards some sort of group that features disgruntled names, out to remove Triple H from power and take the promotion back. There are still things that need to fall into place, but for the time being, it's fun to think about.

Now, it's your turn ReaderLand. If we really are going to get a 2011 version of the nWo, who would you place in the group? Would you have Cena turn heel and be the in-ring leader? Would you have Mark Henry join the group? What about having CM Punk turn and join them? What about some assorted midcard names? Maybe some new talent, like Seth Rollins, Dean Ambrose, Antonio Cesaro, etc? Holla at ya boy and let me know what's on your mind. I want to see how your groups end up.

Writer's Note:

Lords Of Podcast Roundtable

The HiPE Playlist: Nothing tonight.

Charlie Sheen is to stand-up what Larry Flynt is to standing up.

-------------------------Day 629

*By Request*

I thought I had shared my thoughts and opinions on this subject already, even if it was basically in passing, but the controversy at LoP rages on, and people keep asking me to speak on it, so I'm going to devote a short column tonight (I have a podcast to participate in later) to the subject of whether or not CM Punk was buried at Night Of Champions. I know, I know.. hopefully this is the last time I have to say anything about this subject.

Just looking at the situation at absolute 100% face value, you have to say Punk wasn't buried at all. He was in the main event of Night Of Champions, and will now be in the main event of the following pay-per-view, Hell In A Cell, this time competing for the WWE Title. Depending on how you value kayfabe and how much you feel the WWE Title is worth, not only was Punk not buried, but he actually is moving up the card.

Of course, you can't just look at things at face value like that. You have to dig a little deeper.

As I mentioned in my "review" of Night Of Champions, I really don't see how Punk lost the match equals out to him being buried in any way. Perhaps if he would have been pinned after a single Pedigree with no outside interference, we'd be having a different conversation right now, but that's not how he lost. Not only did it take more than one Pedigree to beat him, it took more than two Pedigrees to beat him. Not only did it take more than two Pedigrees to beat him, but technically, it took more than three Pedigrees to beat him, because he also took a Paydirt from R-Truth. Not only did it take more than three Pedigrees and a Paydirt to beat him, but he also took a Jackknife Powerbomb from Kevin Nash. That's on top of the punishment he suffered throughout the rest of the match.

It simply astonishes me that people seem to be overlooking that fact. Once again, I'm assuming these people love to talk out of their fucking asses just for the love of attention, because it's pretty clear they aren't watching the product. All they saw was "Winner: Triple H (Pin, 24:09)", and they decided to hop their ignorant asses online and mash their grubby fingers onto their keyboards for a little while. Like I said, if the match ended with zero outside interference from anyone, and Triple H just hit one Pedigree for the win, I still wouldn't necessarily agree that Punk is being buried, but I'd be a helluva lot more understanding to the arguments of those who feel that way. All that punishment, though.. my goodness. Triple H has been using the Pedigree as his finishing move for the last, what, 15 years now? Can you name how many matches he's been in where it took three Pedigrees, on top of everything else, to win him a match? From his time as a jobber to his time as a rising star to his days as the Intercontinental Champion to his initial main event push to the time when everyone felt he was going out of his way to "bury" people to every single reign atop the company to now.. facing off with the likes of The Undertaker, "Stone Cold" Steve Austin, The Rock, John Cena, Randy Orton, Batista, Mankind/Cactus Jack, Shawn Michaels, Goldberg.. all those years and all those legendary opponents.. and this is something we haven't really seen before. If Punk has been buried, how deep underground were all of those folks sent by Trips himself?!? God knows how many matches he's won in his career with only one Pedigree and no outside interference. The people that lost those matches might as well have retired on the spot and went into a different line of work, because those types of burials can't be reversed.

Right now, at this very minute.. 9:12pm EST on Wednesday, September 21st, 2011.. CM Punk is still in a fantastic spot in the grand scheme of the WWE product. He's still main eventing, as I mentioned earlier. He still gets as much television time as anyone on the roster, if not more television time. He's set to receive another shot at the WWE Title in the main event of the next pay-per-view. He's clearly about to be playing a large role in whatever this "nWo" storyline is going to end up being, as I wrote about yesterday. Other than the fact that some people hate Triple H, and others are obsessed with how much backstage "power" he's had through the years, can someone.. anyone.. give me a good reason as to why Punk has been "buried"?

Because Triple H won the match, and we aren't getting an immediate rematch?!? Are you kidding me?!? If moving CM Punk from a non-title feud to a title feud is "burying" him, then every wrestler in the history of the business would love to be "buried". Repeatedly. As often as possible, actually.

Because Triple H is getting focus as the COO of the company?!? Of course he's getting focus. He's a "made man".. as an in-ring performer. As an authority figure, though, he's still pretty much brand new. Punk, it can be argued, has been "made" since Money In The Bank. If you're going to get the authority figure over, you have to give him time to do so. Do I wish he had 20-30 minute promos every week? No, I don't, but if we're going to be getting the storylines that it appears we are going to be getting, we need to fully establish any differences between "Triple H: Wrestler" and "Triple H: COO". That's what they're doing.

Please.. I'm begging you folks.. I know some of you have left me messages and feedback saying that you agree with the "CM Punk is being buried" line of thinking, but you didn't give reasons why. I want to know why you feel Punk is being buried, especially now that he's getting a WWE Title shot at Hell In A Cell. Someone.. let me know. Educate me.

Know this.. in the upcoming Lords Of Podcast Roundtable podcast (not the one being filmed tonight), I'll have much more to say about all of this. Look for that podcast this weekend. I just wanted to know what everyone else has to say on the subject before some East Coast/West Coast beef breaks out.

Writer's Note:

Lords Of Podcast Roundtable

The HiPE Playlist: Nothing tonight.

God bless Troy Davis.

-------------------------Day 630

So, it would appear that World Wrestling Entertainment is seeking fan interest in various types of programming for the upcoming WWE Network. Before I get into any of that, there's an interesting thing that was mentioned, and a lot of people are already talking about it. Here's the exact quote from WWE..

"This network would include all of WWE's monthly pay-per-view events to the lineup at no additional cost. Rather than having to pay for them, they would now be monthly specials with the same match quality you’re used to seeing on pay-per-view for no additional cost. These events would only be on The WWE Network."

When some people see that, they take it as WWE shutting down their pay-per-view operations and just moving the events, from WrestleMania all the way down to events like Hell In A Cell or Capitol Punishment, to their network. Other folks, like myself, feel that they mean the pay-per-view events will still take place, but then be moved to the network soon thereafter. For instance, the upcoming Hell In A Cell pay-per-view is on October 2nd. In my theory, Hell In A Cell would then be available to watch, for free, on the WWE Network somewhere in the vicinity of a week later, to allow for repeat pay-per-view airings to take place. I won't claim to know the finances of things, but I would imagine WWE would lose out on way too much money to just cancel all of their pay-per-views, unless of course, they're going to charge $600+ to subscribe to the network. I'll admit, removing the pay-per-view aspect of things and having those events air live and free on the network would be an amazing thing to do for fans, but when you're out of business in a year because of it, would it really matter?

Now, on to the main point of this column..

Let's take a look at the things WWE is gauging interest in, and I'll share what my personal interest in those things happens to be. You are here to read my opinion, after all. Don't worry, though.. I'll still be asking for your thoughts and opinions at the end. Let's get it poppin..

Classic footage of older promotions like WCW, NWA, ECW and the AWA: I think this is the most "common sense" inclusion for the network. With the ridiculous amount of video that the company owns, it would almost be a crime if they kept most of it away from the general public. Honestly, you could make the network nothing but old wrestling footage, 24 hours a day, and wrestling nerds from all over the place would not only tune in, but happily do so. I don't know if you've realized it yet, but with all of the time and effort I put into doing things for this site, I'm pretty much a textbook "wrestling nerd", so I'm pretty excited about the idea of seeing some old footage on the WWE Network, whether it be television shows, pay-per-view events or single matches.
Level Of Interest (Scale of 1-10): 10

New non-wrestling shows: When I first read about this, I immediately wondered what types of non-wrestling shows they were talking about. Of course, that would be a determining factor in things. It wasn't too much longer until I found out one of their possible ideas.. a cooking show which would star Big Show and his wife, Bess. The premise is that you'd be given an all-access look into their kitchen, and you'd see just how Bess is able to feed a man who is seven-feet-tall and has tipped the scales at around 500 pounds at various points throughout his career. There's even hints that other WWE Superstars would make guest appearances on the show, cooking things up, as well. I don't know about you folks, but that show sounds corny.. and also like something I'd watch, at least in the beginning. As big as Show is, you know the portions of food he eats aren't small and frilly. I hate cooking shows where the finished product of what they cook looks like a plate garnish. I'd actually like to see what Show can scarf down in a single meal. That intrigues me. I wouldn't want shows like this to be a very large part of the network's schedule, but they could be very useful to break up the monotony of airing nothing but wrestling matches all day and all night.
Level Of Interest: 6

Documentaries: This is another thing that you have to make certain assumptions about. I'm guessing this means documentaries that they've already released on DVD through the years. If not, you'd have to think that will seriously cut into the amount of DVD sets they can continue to release in the future, since everything would already have some sort of documentary on the network already. Going on that assumption, I'm still somewhat interested in this, because the company has released some fantastic documentaries through the years, and many of those are very worthy of multiple viewings. Like I said for the non-wrestling shows, though, I wouldn't want to see these docs popping up on the schedule all the time. Then you run the risk of repeating the same ones over and over again, and we don't need that. My biggest problem here is that I've already seen all of the documentaries, so none of them, as good as some are, would be new to me. That hurts my interest level a bit.
Level Of Interest: 6.5

WWE talents hosting their favorite movies: Various networks have tried things along these lines through the years, and they usually don't end well. You'll see someone "host" a movie, and with the intro and all of the talking from the "host" after every commercial break before they send it back to the movie, it makes the movie itself difficult to watch. You just can't get into any sort of "flow" when you have to take so many breaks from the movie. If that's what they're going to do, I want no parts of it. Sure, it would be a little interesting to find out the favorite movies of various WWE personalities, but if I'm tuning in to watch, say, Scarface, I'm tuning in to watch Scarface, not to watch Wrestler A talking every 15 minutes. Even if it's just a brief introduction from someone, and then the entire movie, with no commercial breaks, I can't say I'm too interested. Personally, I'd be more interested in finding out what John Cena's favorite movie is than actually watching John Cena's favorite movie. The same goes for pretty much every WWE Superstar, Diva, etc.
Level Of Interest: 3.5

Repeats of Raw and Smackdown: It should be pretty easy to figure out my interest level for this. If they're referring to repeating that current week's episodes, then I don't care. As you should already be able to figure out, I watch every episode on their specific day. The episodes that are worth saving, I save to my DVR. The other episodes get deleted as soon as I'm done watching them. Therefore, if I need to watch something again, I have it available on my DVR whenever I want, so I don't need to wait for it to re-air on the WWE Network. If they're talking about older episodes of the show, my interest level goes up, but even then, I either have them on an external hard drive or have had them on the drive at one point, so it's not like I haven't seen them in forever. It would be something that I'd have to find while flipping through the channels when nothing else is on. Infomercial, infomercial, infomercial, random episode of Raw from 2002, infomercial.. yeah, I think I'll just watch the random episode of Raw from 2002, thank you very much.
Level Of Interest: 0 (if it's that week's episode) or 4 (if it's random old episodes)

New weekly live in-ring shows: To be honest with you, if this isn't about FCW, I'd be really disappointed. I've said, all along, that FCW should air all over the place, and not just for specific markets in Florida. It would be great for everyone to get to know the future of the company in the present, so that they aren't just random people debuting on the main roster to no crowd reaction. It would also be a good way to gauge who should get called up and when. If FCW Wrestler A is performing better than FCW Wrestler B in his matches but has more people changing the channel when he's wrestling, then you have to go with promoting FCW Wrestler B first, I'd say. I don't think this will end up being the return of Superstars or NXT to television, because those wouldn't count as "new" shows, but I guess it wouldn't shock me. Otherwise, I have a hard time thinking of new in-ring programming they could have, unless they went with an idea of airing random house show matches. Not entire house shows, but matches from here and there.. John Cena VS Alberto Del Rrrrrio from Denver, Randy Orton VS Cody Rhodes from Sacramento, Air Boom VS The Usos from Dallas, etc. No matter what, though, FCW has to be included in this. It just has to, I would think.
Level Of Interest: 10 (if FCW is involved) or 6 (if FCW isn't involved)

Daily in-studio interactive shows similar to news programs or SportsCenter: This one is interesting, because there's always something to talk about in the world of wrestling on a daily basis. I think I've done a pretty decent job in proving that over the last 630 days. My problem with WWE doing a SportsCenter-like show is that you just know they're going to follow kayfabe with their news, making things far less interesting. This week would probably feature interviews with Triple H where he could tell the world why he fired The Miz and R-Truth. Lame. There are much better ways to pull something like this off. Hell, it might even be something to think about doing for LoP in the future, but only time will tell.
Level Of Interest: 2

Interactive call-in shows hosted by WWE talents: Remember back when Byte This was on WWF.com? The only things anyone remembers from the show is when people would prank call and cause some sort of ruckus. If they brought back a show along those same lines again, they'd better have some amazing call screeners or be airing on some sort of delay. The internet is a lot bigger than it was when Byte This originally debuted, which means you can become "famous" on the internet much quicker than you could before. All it would take is one idiot calling in and cursing someone out live on the air, and BAM, you've got trouble on your hands, just so the idiot can tell his 29 Facebook friends and 14 Twitter followers that he just called Scott Stanford a "faggot" on television. I just think it's a recipe for disaster more than anything else. Of course, we love train wrecks, as long as we don't happen to be in them, so it could still be a popular choice.
Level Of Interest: 3

Reality show with former WWE stars living in a house: Oh. My. God. This has so much potential to go down as one of the greatest things to ever be shown on television. Rounding up a bunch of random wrestlers, making them live in a house together and filming all of it sounds incredible, but three words could make it even better than the human brain can comprehend.. The Iron Sheik. Think about that, ladies and gentlemen. Hell, you wouldn't even need anyone else in the house. Just Sheiky Baby being filmed 24 hours a day would be enough to make people tune in, and it would provide an entirely new meaning to "anything can happen in the World Wrestling Federation" because you just never know what Sheik is going to say or do next, and that's what makes it beautiful. If you can honestly sit there and say you wouldn't be interested in a reality show involving former WWE stars, I can honestly sit here and say you're a liar. Yeah, I said it. Big whoop. Wanna fight about it?
Level Of Interest: 10 (without The Iron Sheik) or 100000000000000000 (with The Iron Sheik)

Your turn, ReaderLand. Look at those categories again. What interests you? What doesn't? What would you like to see? I know I did a column a long time ago about possible WWE Network programming, and probably asked that same question, but this is a different time with a different take on the topic, so I'm asking you again. Holla at ya boy and let me know what's on your mind.

Writer's Note: In case you missed it, a new podcast was posted earlier today. This one is about the recent Floyd Mayweather VS Victor Ortiz fight, as well as predictions for the upcoming UFC 135 pay-per-view. At some point before my Smackdown Running Diary, yet another podcast will be recorded, this one based on wrestling again. Look for that podcast to be posted either tomorrow night or Saturday, most likely. For now, click the following link to go and download today's podcast (or the first two that I've participated in, if you haven't already done so, even though they're slightly dated at this point)..

Lords Of Podcast Roundtable

The HiPE Playlist: "Cupid" by 112.. "Only You" by 112 & Notorious B.I.G. .. "Can You Stand The Rain" by Boyz 2 Men.. "Notorious Thugs" by Notorious B.I.G. & Bone Thugs N Harmony.. "Day N Nite" by Kid Cudi.. "I'd Die Without You" by PM Dawn.. "What's The Time, Mr Wolf?" by Southside Of Bombay.. "I Wanna Know" by The Foreign Exchange.. "Triumph" by Wu Tang Clan.. "Visionz" by Wu Tang Clan.. "C.R.E.A.M." by Wu Tang Clan.. "Mass Appeal" by Gang Starr.. "My Valentine" by Carl Thomas.. "Pretty Girl" by Jon B.. "Welcome To Jamrock" by Damian Marley

What up, Coolie Bop?

-------------------------Day 631

9:00pm: Thank you, DVR.

9:01pm: We're starting this week's episode with.. John Laurinaitis? That's different. It appears that the Smackdown locker room is around ringside for some sort of announcement. Honestly, this is a horrible decision, because nobody wants to hear Laurinaitis. Half the crowd doesn't care, and the other half just want him to go away.

9:03pm: Laurinaitis introduces us to the brand new World Champion, Mark Henry. I love that Henry's mere presence parts the sea of Superstars and Divas at ringside, and they make room for him to get to the ring. Great visual to put him over as a scary motherfucker.

9:04pm: Mizark says it's going to take 15 years for someone to take the World Title from him. That would make him quite the old champ, but I guess it's still a fair point.

9:05pm: Triple H's music hits, interrupting the champ. What an asshole.

9:06pm: Before Trips can even get a single word in, Christian interrupts him and gets into the ring. You know what that means, folks.. it's officially a clusterfuck opening segment. Take a shot, I guess.

9:08pm: Christian is using this opportunity to say that he deserves one more shot at the World Title, saying that he's going to defeat Randy Orton after Hell In A Cell, when Mark Henry will inevitably choke and drop the title back to "The Viper".

9:10pm: Trips apparently doesn't think Christian should wait that long, and he books Christian in a match against Mark Henry tonight, with the World Title on the line. It will be a Lumberjack Match, which I guess we should have seen coming, considering everyone being at ringside.

9:12pm: Our first match tonight is Sheamus VS Heath Slater. Ginger-on-Ginger violence! It's a shameful thing, Lobster Head! Too many limes! Loud noises!

9:14pm: I almost checked the settings on my television just now. So.. much.. orange..

9:17pm: A Brogue Kick finishes it off for Sheamus. Clearly, Heath Slater has been buried. I'll give him this, though.. he did a good job in selling all of Sheamus' hard-hitting offense.

9:19pm: Christian is backstage, trying to convince The Great Khali to be on his side for tonight's main event. He asks Khali if he'd rather face a World Champion the size of Mark Henry or someone "smaller, but much craftier". Khali doesn't respond, so Christian asks if he understands him, which leads to Khali saying that he understands Christian is small. HILARITY.

9:22pm: Justin Gabriel VS Wade Bar-ruh is up next. THE NEXUSPOWERS EXPLODE~!

9:24pm: Quiet crowd.

9:25pm: Bar-ruh wins in a match that was considerably shorter than I expected. That means Justin Gabriel's burial is twice as bad as Heath Slater's burial. Lots of people getting buried these days.

9:27pm: Randy Orton giving a backstage promo, having a Mitch Hedberg moment, where he cuts the entire promo looking just off to the side of the camera.

9:28pm: Christian's trying to recruit some more, and this time, it's Ezekiel Jackson. Christian's mouth nearly gets his head removed from his shoulders, though. HILARITY.

9:30pm: AJ & Kaitlyn VS Beth Phoenix & Natalya. Who will be buried in this one?

9:31pm: Kaitlyn doesn't look very old, so I'm guessing she's the Diva that Rosa Mendes feels should lose weight, and not the Diva she thinks is 40-years-old.

9:32pm: Glam Slam.. Beth pins AJ. Kaitlyn gets buried, but AJ gets buried twice as much because she took the fall. Well, at least we know that The Divas Of Doom can safely defeat AJ & Kaitlyn. I guess that means Kelly Kelly is 20 times better than either AJ or Kaitlyn.

9:35pm: Our next match is Randy Orton VS Cody Rhodes. You know what that means.. THE LEGACYPOWERS EXPLODE~! It feels like this is the 20th consecutive show that these two have faced each other.

9:37pm: Both Orton and Rhodes are showing nice aggression early on here.

9:39pm: Dear WWE.. turn the mics down on your referees, or remove the mics altogether. It's really distracting.

9:39pm: Orton gets himself disqualified after purposely hitting Cody with Cody's mask, and of course, this sets Orton off, and he absolutely mollywhops Cody on and around his face with the mask. Ouch.

9:42pm: They've done a great job in editing it out, but it's crystal clear that Cody is a bloody fucking mess after being hit in the head with the ring bell on the outside. There's blood all over the place. On the announce table (which Orton then RKO'ed Cody on top of), in puddles at ringside, all over Cody's body, on Orton's body.. everywhere. Goodness gracious. He had to have been busted open hardway. Even though he won the match, it's common sense to indicate that Cody was buried there.

9:44pm: Irish people love potatoes, so Christian brings Sheamus a potato backstage. HILARITY. He tries to recruit Sheamus to have his back during the Lumberjack Match. Sheamus sarcastically agrees, and then takes a bite out of the potato, realizing that it's not from Ireland, but from Idaho. Oh, that sheisty Christian.

9:47pm: The Great Khali VS Jinder Mahal. *sigh*

9:49pm: They just showed a shot of the first few rows during the match, and just about all of the fans on-camera were looking at their phones, around the arena or talking to the person next to them. An arena full of people, and not a single fuck is being given about this match.

9:50pm: Khali wins in a quick match. Jinder Mahal receives perhaps the biggest burial of anyone on the show so far.

9:51pm: Sin Cara is out next, but WHICH ONE IS IT?!?!?

9:52pm: These fucking idiots on commentary are still trying to pass both Sin Caras off as "indentical". They really think we're retarded.

9:52pm: Daniel Bryan is out to be Sin Cara's opponent. There's a small bit of blonde hair coming out of the bottom of this Sin Cara's mask, which would indicate that it's the original, and not Hunico.

9:55pm: The other Sin Cara runs down, behind the ref's back, shoves Sin Cara off the top rope, and then lands a Swanton Bomb on Daniel Bryan for the win, effectively burying Bryan in the process. "Twin Magic".. I guess.

9:57pm: Dumbest. Announcers. Ever.

9:57pm: Christian is continuing his recruiting backstage, and runs into none other than Zack Ryder. Christian wants Zack to convince Randy Orton to help him out, but Zack gets a phone call from Hugh Jackman and decides to take the call instead. HILARITY.

9:59pm: Air Boom VS The Usos? I highly doubt this match will get much time to work with, but it could still be very fun. These two teams, based on styles, should be able to work well together. I'd love to see a legit feud between them, as a matter of fact.

10:03pm: Somewhat of a sloppy match, but Air Boom pick up the victory. Just as I thought, it was kind of a short match, which only makes the burial of The Usos even stronger.

11:27pm: Thank you, DVR. I had some business to attend to, but it's main event time. Will Mark Henry walk out of Smackdown with the World Title, or will he be buried?

11:30pm: Mark Henry just tossed Christian what looked to be 15 feet in the air. Holy hell. Freaky strong.

11:33pm: The entire Smackdown locker room just tried to get Mark Henry back in the ring, and he fought them all off before getting back into the ring all on his own. That was great.

11:34pm: Christian decides it wasn't worth it, so he tries to leave, but Sheamus appears and tosses Christian back into the ring.. right into the arms of Henry. World's Strongest Slam wins it for the champ, burying Christian in the process.

11:34pm: Randy Orton is out, and they fight. Orton tries to go for an RKO, but again, Henry pushes him away. Orton finally gets the upper hand, this time by dropkicking Henry out of the ring, but Henry's still standing tall with the World Title in his hand to end the show.

#ThankYouSinCara: Sheamus VS Heath Slater, as both men put on nice performances, even though it was almost a squash match.. Randy Orton really needed that extra level of violence and aggression, having to go up against Mark Henry and all.. Christian offering Sheamus a potato as a peace offering.. Air Boom VS The Usos showing plenty of potential as a fun tag team feud.. Mark Henry VS Christian was fun while it lasted

#FuckYouSinCara: John Laurinaitis talking.. Not showing the epic blood loss that Cody Rhodes suffered.. The Great Khali VS Jinder Mahal.. The amount of people that were buried in a single episode.. The announcers continuing to look like complete idiots when it comes to the two Sin Caras

Grade: C

Writer's Note:

Lords Of Podcast Roundtable

The HiPE Playlist: Smackdown.

I'm baggin saggin sad.

Source: lordsofpain.net