Bleacher Report - Undertaker

The WWE Dropped the Ball with the Randy Orton/Kofi Kingston Rivalry

Ryan Michael — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 20:51:22 -0500

This rivalry had all of the potential in the world to succeed beyond measure but instead, it fell flat on its face.

You'll have to forgive me as I have not had the time to track the B/R response to this rivalry, but I'm just going to go ahead and assume that most people would consider it a success.

I wouldn't.

But it's not because of my overwhelming bias for everything that is Randy Orton.

Granted, I do feel that the most talented man in the industry deserves better, but not even I expect him to win all of the time. But allow me to elaborate regarding my view on Kofi Kingston.

He is without question, one of the very best performers the WWE has to offer.

The WWE did the right thing by allowing him to develop his character by dropping the fake accent and giving him the chance to cut quality promos for the first time in his career.

I had never heard Kingston cut promos like he had during his feud with Orton, and I found this new take on his character to be refreshing.

The WWE had to allow him to become his own man if they ever hoped for him to be pushed past the mid-card level and they have succeeded in that respect. The problem is, they pushed him too fast and pushed him against the wrong guy.

Randy Orton is not someone to mess with, plain and simple.

And with all due respect to Kofi Kingston, he had not earned enough stripes when he defeated Randy Orton at Survivor Series.

Randy Orton has taken out the best the WWE has had to offer, period, I don't even need to go through the laundry list of names.

They should not have taken someone who was "on the rise" and have him topple the WWE's most dangerous force.

It would be like having Dolph Ziggler defeating the Undertaker, but yeah...

The WWE had no problem allowing a mid-card face to topple a main-event heel, but they would certainly take issue with a mid-card heel toppling a main-event face.

I'm sure that some of you might disagree with my analogy, but I don't see any greater a differential between Ziggler and the Undertaker than I do between Kingston and Orton.

But if they're going to have Kingston beat Orton, couldn't they have made it a bit more realistic?

Watching a six-feel tall Kofi Kingston physically dominate a man who made Triple H cry is bad enough, but seeing it progress week after week without seeing Kingston being placed in any bit of danger is just bad booking.

The WWE did succeed in getting people to cheer for Kingston more than ever.

It seems as though their willingness to allow Kingston to dominate week after week without any sort of repercussions encouraged the people to embrace him more than ever.

That's good for both Kingston and Orton because it shows that they are playing their roles well. It's just a shame to have seen a rivalry that would appear to be so uneven one way end up so one sided in the other direction.

I'm sure that tphe WWE is happy with their decision, as may be many people.

But that doesn't make the direction the right one, or the realistic one for that matter.

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WWE Survivor Series 2009 Prediction Competition Results

Hayley-L Graham — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 06:54:07 -0500

Survivor Series has come and gone for another year, and what an event! Both main titles were retained, Kofi Kingston took another step up the ladder, and Shawn Michaels knocked the taste out of Triple H's mouth on many occasions.

Between all this calamity, who was able to prove their prediction skills and claim the top spot? Who had the shame of being in last place? Did anyone else become a member of the 100 percent club?

48 brave creatures put their pride, honor, and ego on the line to risk a chance at glory, but for whom did the price pay off?

Let's find out in the final table for the Survivor Series prediction competition!

Three points: Joint 48th

AkD

Tom Dunn

Four points: Joint 46th

Peter Lange

Patrick Schoemehl

Kenneth Fagan

Roopan Verma

Justin Thomas

Six points: Joint 41nd

Ashley Morris

Miss Annie aka AK127

Niall Kelcher

Justin Erickson

Mike Salvatore

Dub Sizzle

John Landrigan

Josh McMullen

Hurricane Hubbard

Tommy Cochran

Hayley Graham

Josh Edwards

Seven points: Joint 29th

Aadhya Shivakumar

John Harris

Andrea Claire

Rocky Getters

Eight points: Joint 25th

Jev

Damian H

Shane H

Jose Moguel

Nick Signorelli

Steven Merriam

Dale Burke

Nine points: Joint 18th

Dustin Speaker

Chris Mueller

Zohair Khan

Mr Mean

Christopher Ngo

Legend Killer

Svyato Rovenchuk

Sebastian Cedeno

Juan

Catalina Monsalve

10 points: Eighth

Greg Bush

11 points: Joint Seventh

Benjaimin David

David Eddings

Ricky Bhatia

xxValentinoxx Aka rashad

Rob Gushue

Captain Charisma

12 points: First

Asheel Din

Congratulations to Asheel for topping the table, erasing the humiliation of receiving 0 points in the last contest.

Thanks to everybody for taking part, as that is what really counts!

With the newest PPV, "TLC: Tables, Ladders, and Chairs" just around the corner, will anybody else be able to step up and claim first place, adding their name to the list of past winners?

Thanks for playing, and I'll see you at TLC!

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WWE Survivor Series: Five Things We Learned

Jeremiah Graves — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 02:53:59 -0500

At the end of every pay-per-view, we are left with many questions and few answers. However, last night at Survivor Series—in a rare change of pace—we were left with plenty of definitive answers. Sure, there are plenty of questions we can still ask: Who’s next in line for Undertaker’s title? Will JeriShow be able to co-exist as partners? Is Rey Mysterio ever going to be the same? Why do they still book awful women’s matches? The list could go on and on, but questions notwithstanding, here’s a look at five things we learned at last night’s Survivor Series.

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