No Way Out Results, Raw & Smackdown Thoughts, Christian Returns On ECW, & More - February 16, 2009

Welcome to the “I think Triple H is about to lay down a major beating to Randy Orton next week on Raw” edition of The Wrestling List.

News for the week. WWE News: Christian returned to WWE TV last week and I’ll talk about it later in the List. More inductions for the 2009 Hall Of Fame. The latest names include Terry and Dory Funk Jr which was announced on Raw tonight. Dusty Rhodes will induct them. You have to like the class by Terry Funk who commented recently that he is not worthy of the induction. Yes, you are Terry. Without a doubt!! The WWE Draft will be returning once again as it appears to be happening on the April 13 edition of Raw. There was big news last week from My Network TV. They are now going to become a rerun type network. The exception is WWE Friday Night Smackdown. That is the only program of theirs that will continue to be original programming. Things are definitely not looking good for that network if they are already going this route. Smackdown has done big business for the network obviously and has single handedly carried them to ratings success.

All right. Starting with last week’s Smackdown. Edge and Vickie opened the show with Edge talking about how he injured his neck last week due to the tombstone from The Undertaker. He laid the blame on Big Show for leaving him. Vickie said that she decided to keep Edge out of action for the night after consulting with his doctors so he could compete at No Way Out. Show made his way to the ring and mocked Edge while also adding that he was looking forward to beating up Edge on Sunday. He told Edge to do something instead of always relying on Vickie. Vickie made a fatal four way main event with Undertaker vs. Triple H vs. Big Show vs. Kozlov. That match finished the show. Good action in it including the faceoff of Triple H and Undertaker. The finish had Triple H hitting the pedigree on to Kozlov. Undertaker then hit the tombstone on Triple H. Show hit the chokeslam on Undertaker. Then, Edge jumped in the ring and hit a spear on to Show causing the DQ. Edge then held the title over his head as the show ended. Jeff Hardy returned to Smackdown following the attack by his brother. Big ovation for him. It was short comments from Jeff as Jeff said that brothers should have your back and didn’t know what was wrong with Matt. As Jeff talked, this music played that was what played with Matt’s comments a couple of weeks ago. Pictures of them over the years were shown. Jeff talked about how he had great memories of him and Matt watching the Rumble over the years but now the only memory that he had of the Rumble forever was betrayal. Jeff said he was moving on and concentrating on the chamber match on Sunday. MVP and Chavo Guerrero ended in a DQ finish when Shelton got involved and attacked MVP. Chavo then got up and hit the frog splash on to MVP to insinuate that he wanted a US title shot at Shelton. Miz and Morrison defeated The Colons when Morrison hit his finisher on Primo for the win. The stipulation set before the match was that the Bellas would go on a date with the winner of the match. So, get ready for some entertaining Bellas/Miz & Morrison date clips. R Truth defeated Zeke following a rollup. Maria got a win on Michelle McCool when Eve arrived to cause a distraction leading to Maria with the rollup from behind for the win. Before that, Michelle was really hammering Maria’s leg after she slammed it on top of one of the ropes. Michelle was quick to point out that Maria had help and that was the only reason for the win.

Other notes from Smackdown. I liked the moment of Jeff walking into the building backstage and getting greetings from the talent as he walked down the hall. I thought that was good. How cool was the spinebuster by Triple H on to Undertaker followed by Undertaker sitting up a few seconds later? I liked JR’s comment talking about the slow motion effect of Miz and Morrison’s entrance comparing it to himself entering the kitchen every morning.

WWE’s No Way Out PPV was last night and I’m hearing really good things about it. Match of the night seemed to be the opener, the Smackdown Elimination Chamber match. How about that for an opener? There were big happenings on the show. Jeff Hardy and Edge were the first entrants in the chamber. Hardy ended up pinning Edge early on which meant a new champion would be crowned. The next order of entrants in the chamber was Kozlov, Big Show, Triple H, and then Undertaker. Undertaker eliminated Kozlov hitting him with the last ride. Undertaker superplexed Big Show which then was followed by a swanton from Hardy off of one of the pods and pinned Show. Undertaker eliminated Hardy with a tombstone. That brought it down to Triple H and Undertaker which was a huge showdown. The finish had Taker going for the last ride but Triple H was able to avoid it hitting the pedigree for the win. Triple H is the new WWE champion and this is his 13th title reign. Edge was then shown backstage furious over losing the title to which Vickie basically said that it was his own fault. Randy Orton defeated Shane McMahon in the no holds barred match. The finish had Shane going for the head kick on Orton but Orton avoided it hitting the RKO for the win. Jack Swagger defeated Finlay with a power bomb to retain the ECW title. Shawn Michaels had his wife at ringside for his match against JBL with the stipulation of Shawn getting all the money promised and being done with JBL if he won. If JBL won, he owned Shawn forever. Shawn won the match following the superkick and is done with JBL. The last match of the night was the Raw Elimination Chamber match. This match changed early when Edge took out Kofi Kingston as Kofi was on his way to the ring. Edge destroyed him with a chair and then ran into the pod shutting himself in it. Jericho and Rey Mysterio started the match and then was followed by Kane a few minutes later. Rey eliminated Kane following a dive from one of the pods. Mike Knox was the next person into the match. Jericho then eliminated Knox following a codebreaker. Edge was the next one into the match and after that John Cena. Cena wasn’t in the match for long as he was hit by a codebreaker, 619, and then a spear by Edge who pinned him eliminating him. This meant that a new World champion would be crowned. Rey was able to counter the walls of Jericho into a pin eliminating Jericho. This brought it down to a final two of Edge and Rey. Edge was hit with a 619 but was able to avoid Rey’s next move sending Rey crashing into one of the pods. Edge pinned Rey to win the match and the World title. Wow!! Some definite changes happening leading up to WrestleMania. The question was how would these title changes change up Raw and Smackdown.

Tonight’s Raw didn’t provide us with many answers just yet on the champions situation but one thing was clear, Randy Orton is about to get a beating from Triple H cause I’ve never seen that look on Triple H’s face before!! Ha ha. Edge and Vickie opened Raw where he gloated about his win and told the fans how wrong they all were calling him a loser after he lost the belt last night. He then ran around ringside pointing at all the people that were wrong which was hilarious. Vickie explained that when Stephanie left with Shane to the hospital last night that she became the next highest person in charge and said someone had to replace Kofi in the chamber match. She felt Edge deserved it the most. The decision stands and Edge is the official new World champion. John Cena arrived and congratulated Edge on his win saying that he had to give it to him for pulling it all off and winning fair and square. He then said that he didn’t like it though and wanted a rematch. Edge said that he just wrestled in two chamber matches which no one had ever done and wasn’t wrestling tonight. He said that if Cena wanted him, come to Smackdown looking for them. Edge pointed out their history and then mocked him. That set off Cena who grabbed him and told him that he will find him and hurt him. The other major storyline of the night revolved around Shane McMahon asking for a fight with Orton tonight with Legacy banned from the fight. Orton accepted and that was the main event of the night. Stephanie pleaded with Shane not to do it cause of how hurt he was after last night including his hospital stay. Stephanie was later seen on the phone pleading with someone about hurrying and getting there to stop this from happening. The fight goes on and Shane gets the best of him for a while including the fight going out deep into the floor level. The fight ends up back at ringside with Shane getting nailed into the table and the steps. Orton stays on offense for a while after that but Shane makes a desperation dive on to Orton sending him crashing over the table. Shane nails Orton with the ring bell twice and sets up a chair in the corner going for a Van Terminator. As Shane climbs the turnbuckle, Dibiase and Rhodes attack Shane. Cody hits his finisher and then Orton sets for the kick. He nails Shane with the kick and Shane is out. Stephanie runs down to the ring as does the paramedics to check on Shane. Shane is put in a neckbrace as Stephanie cries while Orton stands over Shane. Stephanie cries to Orton over what he just did and then he hits the RKO on Stephanie. Orton immediately falls down in the corner shocked over what just occurred. The crowd pops as Triple H runs into the ring and Legacy bails. Triple H checks on Stephanie. He then starts shaking and nears tears as he looks at Orton on the ramp who looked terrified. I can’t remember ever seeing this look on Triple H’s face before so that all played pretty well on TV. It left me thinking that Orton was about to get beaten down pretty badly!! Wait for the beatdown next week to occur. Other happenings on Raw. Chris Jericho continued to talk about Mickey Rourke and how he didn’t want Rourke to win the award cause it would encourage more washed up legends to return. Out comes Rowdy Roddy Piper who spoke against Jericho saying that he used to like Jericho cause he could talk and then back it up. He said that Jericho only judges and runs his mouth now. Piper said that the movie was about the respect for everyone in the business and about the thrill of performing for the fans. Piper went on to say that he would perform for the fans even if he had to crawl to the ring if they wanted to see him adding that old school is cool. Piper extended his hand to Jericho but then Jericho kicked him in the leg and proceeded to continue kicking while he yelled at Piper to crawl. Really good segment and Piper showed again why he is one of the best talkers ever. JBL made an announcement that he wanted to face The Undertaker at WrestleMania saying that he now had a bigger goal than his original and that was to end the streak. Shawn Michaels made his way out and mocked JBL throughout. The Hearbreak Kid was definitely back. Shawn said that it was Mr. WrestleMania who deserved the shot at The Undertaker. Shawn challenged him to a match next week on Raw where the winner will face Undertaker and JBL accepted. Priceless and William Regal defeated CM Punk and Cryme Tyme when Dibiase hit his finisher on JTG for the win. Melina defeated Beth Phoenix to retain the women’s title. Mickie, Kelly, and Candice made their way to the ring to even the odds against Rosa and Santino. That led to the distraction of Beth and Melina rolled her up for the win. Kane won a squash on Jamie Noble. Rey Mysterio defeated Mike Knox with a rollup out of the corner.

Other notes from Raw. Edge on two shows instead of one!! That is a good thing people. Yeah, all of you people that said he was a loser, you were wrong, wrong, wrong. Ha ha. I love his told you so speeches as of late. That character is such a jerk. I love it!! Ha ha. He’s my second current favorite behind Shawn. Yeah, you already knew that though. Edgehead since 1998. Great to see Rowdy Roddy Piper on Raw. Loved it!!! I’m thinking that we’re going to see Rourke next week on Raw possibly especially with the Academy Awards being over and I’m wondering what other legends may show up to confront Jericho. How great was it to see Shawn Michaels back in full form this week? The dance and the attitude was back and I loved it. HBK was back. Him poking JBL over and over just like last week was hilarious. Funny stuff when Edge told that kid that when he grew up that he was going to be wrong too. The kid got a laugh out of it too. That Saturday Night’s Main Event DVD promo was very cool. Classic stuff!! JTG was looking good on offense on that hot tag in the six man tag match. The WrestleMania moment this week was on WrestleMania IX. Yeah, not a very good WrestleMania. Very little that was memorable on that show. As a Hulkamaniac, I was thrilled with the ending of the show as a kid. I loved the ECW promo just seeing the Christian stuff. Funny that they were using the Disturbed theme for Austin’s HOF graphic. For a while, they didn’t use that music on the DVD’s and WWE 24/7 and replaced it with his other theme song. I loved the Disturbed theme song and like it better than any of his theme songs.

Announced for next week’s Raw in Nashville is Shawn Michaels vs. JBL with the winner facing The Undertaker at WrestleMania 25.

I’m assuming that we’re going to get a Shawn Michaels/Undertaker match at WrestleMania. Of course, I could be wrong. I know nothing as far as WWE’s WrestleMania plans. That is obvious considering the events of No Way Out. If it is Shawn and Undertaker, I think Undertaker has to win. I love Shawn Michaels but I love Undertaker having that streak. If Undertaker does ever lose to end the streak, Shawn is the one to do it though. After all of this speculation, watch JBL win. If JBL did win, what do you do with Shawn for WrestleMania?

Christian returns……on ECW. I didn’t see that coming. Not sure how that works out for Christian either. I just felt that bringing him back on Smackdown would have had a lot more momentum to it putting him around Edge and the Hardys. He did get a pop when he came out to confront Jack Swagger. He also did get a non title win on Swagger. Christian is using his old music. Well, sort of. The song is the same but it has been mixed and now has a male singer to it. Great to see him back anyway!! And, the peeps rejoice!!

Tomorrow night’s ECW main event will be Christian and Finlay against Jack Swagger and Mark Henry.

Stevie Richards appeared on last week's TNA Impact. If he is sticking around, I hope they do good things with him.

Here is a shocker but a good one!! WWE now has plans to release a Randy Savage DVD set once again. The release date is June 9th and will include a ton of Savage matches. This set has been off and on the future DVD release list for years now. For a future Wrestling List, I ought to make my own list of Savage matches that I would like to see included on the set. This will be a must buy set. Yeah, don’t expect for Savage to be returning for the set. Of course, who knows? I’m just saying that WWE is still very cold to him for some reason.

I did watch a fun NWA show from 1986 on Sunday. A very nice angle was on that show where the Midnight Express and Jim Cornette attacked The Road Warriors and Paul Ellering. Fun stuff.

Have a great week!! Take care and God bless!!