Spoiling The Illusion

Wouldn't you know I wrote up this big return article yesterday, and when I'm almost done, my freakin' PC hangs on me and all the work I did was lost?!? If that weren't bad enough, the system hang caused my Stramyx settings to be reset and I don't know how to fix the settings! Jeez. At least my office PC is still good. Lets get to it.

WWE RAW
- OK, the main gripe here was Randy Orton getting disqualified for defending himself when he gave Kane a low-blow to prevent him from hitting him with a steel chair. Why the referee didn't bother to pull the chair from Kane like they would normally do in any other situation is beyond me. Maybe the ref was thinking,"I'll let Kane hit him with the chair, then I can disqualify him and save Randy from a bigger beating if the match goes on. Hey! He just low-blowed Kane! I'll disqualify HIM and do him one better!" Geez. If they wanted to make the main event a steel cage match, couldn't they have Triple H go to Bischoff earlier in the show to make it one instead of that whole fiasco they pulled?
- Couldn't they have had HBK on the show to help hype his match with Kane at the PPV? It's not like he's not 100% yet. But then again, Jerry Lawler seems to think he's not 100% healed, even after HBK did an interview from the Democratic Convention on RAW LAST WEEK with no signs of injury! They could have pulled a surprise save by Shawn helping Orton fend off Evolution and Kane, or he could have been the guy to get Orton disqualified by attacking Kane. So many possibilities and they decide not to have him on the show at all. It's not like we don't already know he's returning at Unforgiven. Or is it that HE doesn't know who his opponent is since Lita put his name on the contract???
- Where was Victoria? She's supposed to have a Women's TITLE MATCH at Unforgiven! And yet she wasn't even on the show? Couldn't they have booked a post-match beat down on Nidia to at least have Victoria come out to make the save and give the match SOME interest? What does it do for the importance of a title (or any match for that matter) if one of the participants doesn't even show up to hype or add interest to it a week before the big match?

NWA:TNA
- Jeff Jarrett is still champion. Big whoop. Ever notice how every "new beginning for TNA has to start with an "old face"? Jeff Hardy may not have been the ideal choice for world champion, but putting the belt on him even if it is for a short term till he loses it on the first monthly PPV would have been alot better than what they did. Heck, they already pulled one "bait 'n' switch" that night (see below), so why not another? A last minute three-way or fatal-fourway with someone, say Monty Brown, pinning Hardy to win the title would have made things a whole lot more interesting than the usual "super-Jarrett, cheap finish" match.
- I sat through TNA this past weekend on Star World and witnessed the "bait 'n' switch" debacle where they hyped Chris Harris VS Jeff Jarrett for weeks, and ended up with AJ Styles winning the title of Jarrett instead after Harris was taken out by Raven. It caused an uproar on the internet when it happened months back, and TNA decide to do it again, though lower on the scale. They hyped the Naturals to defend the tag titles against America's Most Wanted and Triple X (Skipper & Daniels), knowing full well James Storm has a legit injury and couldn't wrestle. Come the day of the show, they pull the switch seemingly taking AMW out of the match, then taking Daniels out of the match and pairing Chris Harris with Elix Skipper, and gave them the titles! Geez. Needless to say, alot of people AGAIN didn't appreciate putting down their 10 bucks for an anticipated match only to have yanked out from under them.

WWE SmackDown!
- I just hate it when they turn a real life situation into an angle, and at the same time this buried the already dying tag division on SmackDown. We hadn't seen Kidman on the show in months, let alone Paul London, then they shock the world beating the Dudley Boys for the tag belts and were seriously on a roll to making the belts credible again. Then suddenly one accident later where Kidman lands awkwardly after an SSP on Chavo Jr. and they hot shot breaking up this young and awesome team before they really get off the ground! Worse than that, they lose the belts to the makeshift team of Rene Dupree & Kenzo Suzuki?!? This, after they lost non-title matches to certifide teams like the FBI, and forgetting about former champions The Bashams? It's just dumb.
- And what does it say about the WWE Championship when the main storyline of the show is focused on the on-going Angle/Guerrero rivalry and not the world title picture? They've more or less been starting the show with the championship angle and ending it with Angle/Guerrero for the past few weeks now. It's already proven that JBL (as much I love the guy) is a failure as a champion, and Taker isn't helping, and the Angle/Guerrero feud pulls off rave reviews everytime! These are the two guys that the championship should be fought over by and not two big stiffs.

Check back later for my WWE Unforgiven results.