Spoiling The Illusion Ep.3

Welcome to the third edition of Spoiling The Illusion. Got two big bones to chew with this weeks edition of RAW, so here we go:

– The main gripe here would have to be Shawn Michaels KO’ing Chris Benoit and signing his name on Benoit’s WrestleMania XX contract, thus it automatically puts Michaels in the main event slot that Benoit rightfully earned. And Eric Bischoff still has to confer with his lawyers to see if Michaels’ signature on the contract is valid? COME ON! When was it stated that the winner of the Royal Rumble is GUARANTEED a shot at the world champion at WrestleMania UNLESS someone else signs his name on the contract? Does this mean next time they have a live contract signing, anyone can just rush the ring and sign his name to automatically get a title shot/main event slot? For that matter, throwing logic completely out the window, does that mean if the Malaysian National Football team were about to sign someone to a multi-million dollar contract, and I rushed in and signed my name before the signee, does that automatically make me a member of the National team? Hell no, My @$S would be spending the night in jail.

- Why the heck was Benoit made to be so intimidated by Triple H? This is NOT Benoit’s first main event. This is NOT Benoit’s first World Title shot. This is NOT Benoit’s first match with HHH. He even has years of wrestling experience over HHH. So why the heck was he made to look so pitiful when HHH was berating him? We all KNOW Benoit is fearless. That’s why we call him the RABIB WOLVERINE. This is a man who beat Rikishi mercilessly with a steel chair at a past King of the Ring because he had nothing to prove there. This is the man that has proven time and time again why he is the best WRESTLER in World WRESTLING Entertainment. Heck, he even headbutt Stephanie McMahon once just cause he could.

No Way Out PPV predictions
Only SIX matches? Either their going to give them more work time, or expect a lot of backstage shenanigans, maybe something to put over the Torrie/Sable issue of Playboy.

The World’s Greatest Tag Team VS The APA
- APA spend most of the match beating down the smaller Haas and Benjamin, but lose in the end due to their cheating tactics.

Rikishi & Scotty 2 Hotty VS The Bashams & Shaniqua – Handicap Tag Title Match
- Bashams win back the gold after Shaniqua takes a stinkface.

Jamie Noble VS Nidia – Noble to be blindfolded
- Jamie wins when a new Diva debuts to help him.

Rey Mysterio with Jorge Paez VS Chavo Guerrero with Chavo Guerrero Sr. – Cruiserweight Title Match
- This has potential to be the show-stealer, but will be marred by outside interference. Chavito beats Mysterio for the Title.

Kurt Angle VS John Cena VS Big Show – No.1 Contenders Match
- This will be a tough call, but I’ll have to go with Kurt Angle. Cena will go on the face Big Show at ‘Mania for the US Title.

Brock Lesner VS Eddie Guerrero – WWE Title Match
- Expect Goldberg to play some part in Guerrero winning the title.


IWGP Title Tournament predictions
Due to the advancement of modern technology, I will base my predictions for this weekend's New Japan IWGP title tournament on a simulation I ran in the PS2 game King Of Colosseum, probably the best puroresu game to run simulations on. I ran an eight man tournament with all PC controlled players and here's what I got:

Round 1 - Tenzan survives a barrage of stiff lariats to beat Sasaki with the TTD.
Round 1 - Nagata makes short work of Yasuda and pins him with a Backdrop Hold.
Round 1 - A lot of out ring brawling, Chono taps out Tenryu with the STF.
Round 1 - Takayama destroys Tanahashi and breaks him with the Everast German Suplex hold.

Round 2 - After almost half an hour of back and forth action, Nagata beats Tenzan with the Nagata Lock II
Round 2 - Chono avenges his previous losses to Takayama, beating him after several Yakuza Kicks

GHC Jr. Title (I just couldn't resist!) - It takes TWO Ligerbombs to finally put away Momota for Liger to retain his title.

IWGP Tournament Finals - A bloody and exhausted Nagata reclaims the IWGP title after countering the Yakuza Kick into a Backdrop Hold

Bare in mind this was just a video game simulation. But the NFL annually does the same thing for the SuperBowl and every year thus far the team that wins in the video game wins the actual SuperBowl! This could indeed be a sign of things to come....

Major League Wrestling closes it's doors....Again
I can't believe I forgot to mention this yesterday. Earlier this week MLW head honcho Court Bauer announced the cancellation of all remaining MLW shows and TV deals due to financial problems, and again would be shutting down operations for what looks to be permanant this time. Apparantly two of their financial backers backed out after other deals they ran went sour. And would leave MLW in deep financial trouble if they went on with any shows.
Dave Whitaker of 1wrestling.com had a very good perspective where he claims the company tried to move too fast before it had firmly established itself. I might have to agree when you consider all the big events they tried to pull off in the short amount of time they were around. Dave also gave a good idea of how he would have run things the secod time around.
The way I see it, theres still the possibility of an MLW resurrection somewhere down the line if Bauer and co. can re-vamp the whole operations of the company. I would start off small by just doing the regular indy-style house shows followed by the occasional video release for bigger shows, like what many other smaller feds like ROH would do. And when the time was right, try to make the pitch to get MLW back on TV like how ECW did. But only after the company reaches financial stability.