Happy New Year! The Week That Was In Pro Wrestling

Welcome everyone to the new year of anarchy for the squared circle. After a year that left us scratching our heads and screaming till our lungs got sore, we plan to open up the year with even more insanity and a big weekend filled with surprises and twists.

With that said, here's the recap of last week's pro wrestling events.

WWE RAW

On the final stretch of RAW, Randy Orton gave his Legacy comrades a simple ultimatum: Win or you're out! Out of the three younger members, two of them survived an onslaught from their opponents as Cody Rhodes defeated former World Champion CM Punk to start off, using IC Champion William Regal's interference to get the victory. Sim Snuka prevailed in a very physical contest against Charlie "Superhaas" Snuka. But Manu was not as lucky as he suffered defeat at the hands of ECW Champion Matt Hardy.

But Legacy may have had some help with their quest to impress the boss when Randy Orton fell short of his goal to face John Cena at the Royal Rumble. Orton and Jericho were the first two men to fall in the Fatal Four Way Elimination Match to determine the next challenger to Cena's World Heavyweight Championship.

In the end, it was JBL's money that forced Shawn Michaels to lay down for the first time in his career. Now John Bradshaw Layfield will renew an old rivalry when he faces John Cena for the World Title at Royal Rumble.

Speaking of Cena (and Michaels for that matter), Rey Mysterio opened the show not demanding answers, but demanding retribution for last week's actions. Mysterio decided that he wanted a chance to earn his spot in a match that he should have been in. After Michaels openly agreed to face Mysterio that night, JBL decided that HBK would not have that chance to face him.

As Mysterio tried to talk sense into HBK, Mike Knox came down and tried to decimate Mysterio once again, but Cena came down and fought off the assault. In the back, Cena did enough to convince RAW Law Stephanie McMahon to make a year-end match that would shake the foundation of RAW for the end of 2008.

With that, Team Cena, consisting of The Champ, Rey Mysterio, Kofi Kingston and Cryme Tyme went out and handed Team Knox, consisting of Kane, The Dirt Sheet, Dolph Ziggler and of course Knox, a tough defeat to swallow heading into 2009.

On an even more lighter side, Melina survived several other Divas to earn a shot at former friend and current Women's Champion Beth Phoenix at Royal Rumble. Melina got some revenge on Phoenix, but it was The Glamazon's biggest fan, Rosa who got the last licks in as she jumped over the barrier and took down the new #1 Contender.

ECW on SciFi

Mark Henry had one chance to prove that he should fight for the ECW Championship. All he had to do is defeat the ECW Champion Matt Hardy. Just when it looked like Henry had the match won, Jack Swagger came down and caused a disqualification. Because of this, it's obvious that Swagger wants to face Hardy and become the ECW Champion.

Due to the DQ, Hardy felt the wrath of an angry monster as he fell victim to the World's Strongest Slam.

In all honesty, it's clear that if Teddy Long is looking for someone to start the year off right, he may have found it in The All American American Sooner, Jack Swagger.

TNA IMPACT!

This week's broadcast saw nothing more than a recap of what the yahoos in Tennessee believe were the matches of the year. Unfortunately, they only delivered one actual match to end the year. That's not a good way for 2008 to end for a company that has to keep pace with three different brands.

So there sole match of the night saw the TNA World Tag Team Champions Beer Money defeat former TNA Tag Champions LAX to retain their gold heading into 2009. With that said, I hope that everyone enjoyed TNA, because if they don't pick up the pace in 2009, this will be the final year we see the dinosaurs of WCW battling it out again.

Friday Night SmackDown

SmackDown got the pleasure of starting off the new year for pro wrestling, and did it ever start with the mother of all shockers. The first broadcast of 2009 saw the announcement of WWE Champion Jeff Hardy being informed that he will face Edge for the WWE Championship at The Royal Rumble. But Vickie's night was just getting bizarre.

As Vickie tried to enjoy a new year, Triple H came down to find out if he would be in the Rumble. After being informed of his entry into the match, The Game informed The Rated R Wife that some "racy" (and gagging) photos of her were being auctioned on EBay. As she tried to get the photos, it was too little too late as The Great Khali came down after his match to announce that he won the bid for the photos.

They were later posted on WWE.com, but for some reason, no one can find them now. I wonder why????

Speaking of Triple H and Vickie, she decided to get even by putting The Game in a Triple Jeopardy Match this Friday night. The Game will be involved in a Tables Match, Handicap Match and Last Man Standing Match.

Speaking of The Rumble, we now know at least five participants in the match: Triple H, The Big Show, Vladimir Kozlov & Shelton Benjamin. But before the fifth name can be announced, the Gold Standard comes down and makes it clear that no one will stop him from winning the Rumble. But he forgot to mention one individual, who wasted no time in letting that be known.

As Benjamin continued boasting, a familiar voice said one simple thing (I think you forgot someone), the lights went out and when they came back on, The Phenom appeared and chokeslammed him straight to hell. Oh yeah: The Undertaker is the fifth guy entered in The Rumble Match.

The former Divas Champion on the other hand did not have a good night as she had to apologize to Maria for her actions last week. Michelle then called out Eve Torres, who she insulted earlier that night. She apologized and asked for forgiveness. After being given forgiveness, McCool decided to beat her former friend down, thereby destroying her friendship with both women.

But on the funnier side, we did get to see Mr. Kennedy, who continued to give his former friend some "chin up" advice. After MVP lost (again) in the debut of Kizarny, Kennedy came out to not only try to help his friend get past his slump, but also remind us that...Behind Enemy Lines: Colombia will be hitting video stores everywhere this Tuesday!  

The main event consisted of The World Champion Hardyz facing Edge and Big Show. As the unlikely pairing of The Rated R Superstar and World's Largest Athlete made it a fight, the Big Show decided to leave the ring and the match, leaving Edge to fight off the championship brothers. After Matt nailed the Twist of Fate, Jeff dropped the Swanton Bomb to pick up the win for the ECW and WWE Champions.