Kennedy, Raw, Smackdown, WWE 24/7 June Preview, Extreme Rules PPV Preview, & More - June 1, 2009

Welcome to the “I never want to have Batista as my back up plan cause he takes coffee breaks and can’t figure out to climb the cage when the door is locked” edition of The Wrestling List. Yeah, I know trying to think logic with WWE's writing. What am I thinking?? LOL

Some big news to start out with this week. Mr. Kennedy is gone from WWE after being released last week. What happened seemed to be a last straw of sorts with him. During the ten man tag team match on Raw last week, there was a situation where Kennedy did a back suplex on Randy Orton. Orton landed hard and got up immediately furious. I actually noticed this at the time it happened that Orton sold it kind of odd but I just kind of brushed it off. Orton took a swing in the air toward Kennedy’s direction in anger over being dumped on his head. Orton crawled and made the tag like planned. The match ended and then there was the sequence where they were hitting finishers left and right. Orton still mad over the landing brought the receipt for Kennedy. He hit a vicious RKO on Kennedy. Kennedy’s wrist was injured slightly from the landing but he appears to be fine. You can clearly see Kennedy holding his wrist after the match. I happened to notice that too wondering if Kennedy was hurt again. Kennedy has had some strikes against him in the company. He was ready to be big time pushed but always seemed to get injured at the worst times. He was the money in the bank winner and then got hurt. One thing that really made him look bad was when he was doing interviews about how great the wellness policy was while venting out against the ones that had been suspended from wellness violations. Then, Kennedy got suspended for a wellness violation. This was right around the time that Kennedy was going to be named as the unknown McMahon son which WWE had to change plans on. Kennedy was then injured again and was just now back. Kennedy’s piling up of injuries were hurting his value with the company as well with him looking too fragile. Nearly injuring the WWE champion on a live show isn’t going to do you any favors with the company and appeared to be the final straw. Remember that Orton’s broken collar bone kept him out of action for a lot of time last year so no wonder that Orton was so furious. The decision to release Kennedy was made not too long afterwards. So, Kennedy has been released by WWE. He’ll have a 90 day no compete but I have to think that he’ll show up in TNA eventually. Kennedy has a lot of talent and I really got behind him for a while. Good on the mic. If he can stay healthy, TNA could really do big things with him. I’m just speculating on TNA of course but I HAVE to think that they’ll be interested in him once his no compete clause is over.

How did the NBA do up against Raw with all the attention on that situation? The Lakers/Nuggets Game 4 did a 6.9. while Raw did a 3.6. Raw was also beat on cable by the monster number that the season premiere of Jon & Kate Plus 8 did which was a 6.8.

Ric Flair is gone from Ring Of Honor which is no surprise due to his being back with WWE. He came out and talked to the live crowd before the HD Net TV tapings this weekend announcing that he was leaving. He had great things to say about ROH and said that he hoped that the fans would understand that his heart was with WWE. He had been doing an on screen role as ROH ambassador. He will still make his advertised appearances for ROH that he agreed to do. That is a bummer for ROH.

John Tolos passed away last week. He was 78 and passed away from kidney failure. Tolos had a big run in the 70’s as a heel against Freddie Blassie, Killer Kowalski, and others. To us younger fans, Tolos was known as The Coach, who managed Mr. Perfect in 1991 after Heenan quit managing.

Ok, so Raw. I was going to name this List the “can Michael Hayes please book Raw too?” edition but then the Batista greatness at the end changed all that. I have to vent at this one. Ha ha. Ric Flair challenges Randy Orton to a fight saying that he is going to keep calling out Orton until he answers it. The two meet in the parking lot with Flair attacking from behind. Orton got cut open somehow during this battle backstage possibly on that cart ride. The two end up battling into the arena. Flair has the advantage as they get to the announce table and he locks on the figure four on the table. Rhodes and Dibiase attack. Time for Batista, right? They continue to attack. They punch Flair and take him into the cage that had lowered. Still no Batista. The beating continues in the cage. Orton gets up and walks into the cage. He tells them to lock the cage and leave him alone with Flair. Still no Batista. The cage door gets locked and, hey, here comes Batista. So, was he at catering or something? I know. Here comes me thinking logic at WWE booking but I just have to laugh at all of this. He runs off Legacy. However, he can’t break the lock on the cage. I’m thinking at this point. Climb the cage. It’s a slow way to get in but you’ll get in. It sure beats standing outside and throwing steps. Ha ha. So, Flair gets beat down and Orton stares off with Batista outside the cage. From a WWE logic standpoint, I never want to have Batista as my backup plan EVER. It was lame too when he was concerned earlier about Flair in this fight. Wouldn’t he be watching the match on a monitor? It would have been excusable if Cole and Lawler had said that Rhodes and Dibiase attacked him in the back on the way to the ring leaving him slow to get out there. No mention of that. Instead he waits till the door is locked way after the initial multiperson attack. Let’s also remember that the same thing happened with Shane McMahon weeks ago too. Now, there was a stip on that with him not being able to get involved but the stip was off once Legacy got involved. Anyway, I know. I’m trying to criticize WWE's writing logic but my WWE logic says I want anyone watching my back other than Batista. LOL. Anyway, on to the rest of the show. Orton had gotten a cage match for Batista with a coin flip determining if Batista would face either Rhodes or Dibiase. Rhodes was the winner and he ended up losing to Batista fairly quickly. Orton stared off with Batista through the cage afterwards. At least Orton had a reason to not climb the cage cause he is a heel. LOL. A tag match was set up by Vickie with John Cena teaming with a name drawn out of a bag against Miz and Big Show. Chavo’s name was drawn and he was Cena’s partner. Miz and Show did not get along still. Miz tagged himself in at one point which infuriated Show. Show later tagged in and then Cena hit the attitude adjustor on Miz. The ref didn’t see the tag and Show was forced to get out. Miz then wouldn’t tag out to Show so Show punched Miz out from behind. Chavo then tagged in and pinned Miz to get the win. Cena took out Chavo after that with the adjustor. Show and Cena then went at it. Cena jumped off the ropes and landed right into a Show knockout punch. He then hooked the camel clutch on Cena. Kofi Kingston defeated MVP for the US title which was a fun match. Kofi countered MVP’s pin attempt into his own to get the win. Afterwards, MVP presented the title to Kofi and walked out. Maryse and Beth defeated the team of Mickie and Kelly when Rosa’s distraction led to Maryse pinning Kelly with a DDT. The Colons defeated William Regal and Matt Hardy. Hardy accidentally hit Regal with the cast which led to Carlito pinning Regal with the backstabber. Hardy and Regal argued afterwards. They later went to Vickie wanting a rematch and presenting their plan on why she'd want to help them. They told Vickie to make a match with her and Santino with Matt saying to trust them. The match took place and Santino had a bucket of slop that Vickie had brought to the ring. Matt and Regal hit the ring to attack from behind. Santino swung the slop all the way around hitting everyone. Everyone froze. The numbers got to Santino and he was knocked out by Matt’s cast. Vickie then poured the slop on Santino. Blah, blah, blah on that part.

Other notes from Raw. Isn’t there just something great about seeing Flair battling a Rhodes family member? Is it me or was MVP way too ok with losing the US title? Anybody else concerned that MVP and Matt Hardy are already getting lost in the mix on Raw? That was my initial concern with the draft. When the slop buckets came out, I had flashbacks to Sunny and The Godwinns. Speaking of the slop, did the front row get hit with that stuff too? They sure did freeze also. Wow, WWE sure was reaching on that Raw ratings graphic about last week? Isn’t it funny to watch them stretch saying they had more female viewers than these certain networks? Yeah, they were all on reruns probably and the females were watching Jon & Kate Plus 8. They got rocked by that show and the NBA last week like I said in the ratings news. Is Cole and Lawler announcing the PPV matches live in the ring supposed to increase buy rates? How great is the Randy Savage DVD commercial? I have to have that DVD.

Moving on to Smackdown. Yet another solid show. Easily the best WWE show of the week every week. Michael Hayes is doing a great job with that show. This show featured one of the best sneak attacks that I’ve seen in a long time. Rey Mysterio was set to team with Jeff Hardy to take on Chris Jericho and Edge. Jericho leaves Edge during their backstage segment sounding like he wasn’t interested in the match. Edge arrives and then Jericho’s music hits but no Jericho. Rey walks out and is doing his headbutt type deal with the kids with their masks on. He touches masks with one and then that one slams Rey into the barrier. Jericho takes the mask off to reveal himself and then pounds on Rey in the aisle. It was awesome!!!! No one saw that one coming and such a brilliant idea for an attack. Jeff runs out to save Rey as Jericho was about to take his mask off. Earlier in the night, Rey and Jericho had words with Jericho promising to take off Rey’s mask and expose him. So, Jeff takes on Edge and Jericho in a one on two match. The finish had Jeff hitting the twist of fate on Jericho but then gets speared by Edge. Edge gets the pin. After the match, Edge gets a ladder and nails Jeff with it. He finishes Jeff by using the ladder on Jeff like a sandwich. Other action on the show had Umaga taking on John Morrison. Umaga was DQ’d for using the samoan strap. He tied up Morrison in the tree of woe. Punk arrived with the money in the bank briefcase. He used it multiple times on Umaga to get him to bail out of the ring. Melina defeated Alicia Fox who was accompanied by Michelle McCool when she hit the legdrop landing in the splits. After the match, Michelle put the belt on Melina’s shoulder and walked off. Haas/Benjamin defeated Cryme Tyme when Shelton did an amazing counter out of Shad’s move to hit the paydirt for the win. The Great Khali and R Truth defeated Ziggler and Mike Knox when Ziggler bailed out on the match. Khali pinned Knox with the Punjabi plunge. Layla and Eve had their first match against each other with Eve getting the win. Layla tried to attack her afterwards but Eve avoided her sending her crashing to the floor.

I've read a live account of Jericho's sneak attack with the mask. The fan said that Jericho just quietly made his way from the back walking along to the right of the stage with the mask on. He didn't get hardly any attention on him. He hid his hands where he didn't look so much like an adult. Then, he nailed Rey Mysterio. Gotta love when something surprises you and in a good way. Very well done!!

In a wild reflecting type of story, the merger of AOL and Time Warner is about to come to an end. Why is this a wrestling story? Well, it isn’t now obviously. However, that merger was what many blame the ending of WCW on when it happened back in 2000. Eric Bischoff has talked in many interviews including the Monday Night Wars WWE 24/7 roundtable show that he knew things were about to go bad for WCW around that time. He spoke of how he walked in on a meeting with a bunch of guys in suits that he had never ever seen and they knew nothing about wrestling. WCW was losing money at the time and the new people in charge had no tolerance for it. Bischoff would be fired and WCW would continue to spiral downhill. Bischoff tried to buy the company with partners in 2001 but then Jamie Kellner made the move to not want WCW on the Turner networks anymore. Hard sell with the company then not having any TV deal to go along with it. The deal fell through and WWE bought WCW for a very little amount. Yeah, Russo deserves a lot of blame for WCW going down but this merger got the ball rolling big time. This is really what I see as the major problem that shut down WCW. After all that big deal with AOL and Time Warner merging, now it’s over with a little whimper. Amazing how things turn out isn’t it?

Here is the preview for WWE 24/7 Classics On Demand for June. The theme for the month is Wild, Wild West. Big Ones airing are: WWF Royal Rumble 1989, WCW Clash of The Champions 18, WWE Royal Rumble 2009. Old School house shows airing include MSG (7/13/85), Philly (7/16/83). TV Classics airing that are going with the theme for the month are Saturday Night’s Main Event (2/8/92), Prime Time Wrestling (2/6/89), Weekly shows continue to air with ECW (October 1996), World Class (July 1983), NWA (November 1986), Monday Night Wars (Raw and Nitro from January 1998), Monday Night Wars: The Beginning (October 1995), Prime Time Wrestling (March 1988), Mid Atlantic (December 1981). The History Of The Intercontinental Title will finish airing and WWE will also be airing The Triumph and Tragedy of World Class Championship Wrestling biography portion of the DVD set which is fantastic if you’ve never seen it. The Hall Of Fame profile will be on Dusty Rhodes. Shorties will revolve around the Wild West theme. Also airing will be a couple of Gordon Solie’s Film Room shows with one being on Terry Funk and the other being on Dory Funk Jr. The fan voting is between Royal Rumble 1997, WCW Road Wild 1998, or WWE Unforgiven 2005 with the winner airing in June.

The WWE Extreme Rules PPV is this Sunday. Here is the lineup. WWE Champion Randy Orton defends against Batista in a steel cage. World Heavyweight Champion Edge defends against Jeff Hardy in a ladder match. Intercontinental Champion Rey Mysterio defends against Chris Jericho in a no holds barred match. John Cena takes on The Big Show in a submission match. ECW Champion Christian defends against Jack Swagger and Tommy Dreamer in a hardcore rules match. CM Punk takes on Umaga in a Samoan strap match.

That is all for this week. Take care and God bless!!