The Shoot: Professional Wrestling's Weekly Recap

Judgment Day disappoints; TNA building for Sacrifice 

Well it was a busy week for wrestling fans. WWE shows had to build up to their PPV, TNA is still setting the card for Sacrifice.

WWE

World Wrestling Entertainment had a slow week of build-up for their Judgment Day PPV. RAW, ECW, Superstars and Smackdown! hardly did anything memorable or special in building for the big event. Smackdown! was kind of a mess since Rey got hurt in the filming of his Superstars match. On to the show.

At best Judgment Day gets two out of five stars. This is a very kind grade in all honesty.

I cannot think of one reason to have Umaga go over Mr. Money in the Bank CM Punk. That is Punk's second-straight PPV loss after winning the briefcase. Somehow he cannot top the upper-midcard, but on a recent episode of SD! was able to go over Edge? 

I personally really like the Christian vs. Jack Swagger feud and think both of these guys are absolute stars in the ring and on the stick. I expect this feud to continue on for a while. Was happy with seeing Christian go over to retain in a very solid and clean match.

John Morrison continued his face turn progress by topping Sheldon Benjamin, but, even with all the athleticism, this was not a fun match. Kind of does not feel right turning Morrison face right now. He is so strong as a heel and really should get a solid run before switching to face. I think he could get pretty stale quickly.

Rey Mysterio retains the IC title over Chris Jericho in a very solid match. They got good time, put on a solid show, and had Rey retain clean in a match that really helped set up the future of this feud. Expect Jericho to keep making attacks on Rey and build toward at least one gimmick match before this feud ends.

Randy Orton retained the WWE Championship against Batista. Boring match. Silly end with Ric Flair coming out and getting involved. Ridiculous that Orton has to get DQ'ed to get the win. Nothing I like about this or this feud. Triple H v. RKO was solid, but they dragged it out and seem to have written themselves into a hole.

John Cena wins over Big Show, effectively ending a feud that they could have gotten at least one more match out of. I think they may drag this feud out a little longer, but it has run its course now that Cena got the one-on-one win. I know it is not a popular opinion across the Internet world, but Cena should almost always be in the World Title picture ... or he seems kind of out of place.

Edge finishes off this below average PPV by topping Jeff Hardy to retain the World Heavyweight Championship. This match was GREAT in the ring and could have saved a three-star rating for the show, but the fact that they ended it by bringing up an over-and-done-with feud actually made me seething mad.

What the hell is Matt Hardy doing involved in this match? Makes no sense to me. I am not all that upset that Edge retains, but to have Matt get involved lets me know we have not run our course with the Hardy feud, a feud that should have ended at WrestleMania.

All in all ... I think the writers and bookers have really got to figure some things out, especially on SD! If they take Hardy out of the title picture then who do they move up to challenge Edge? Maybe Undertaker is ready to make his return to the ring, but short of that they have very little to work with on the face side of things.

TNA

Well ... this is just completely difficult to follow on a weekly basis. The "sacrifices" wrestlers have to make to get into the title match at "Sacrifice" is just silly. And the whole Kurt Angle turning over the Main Event Mafia to someone who can pin him or make him tap out is absolutely silly.

So, the rest of the crew is all right with just following someone new? Ridiculous.

Sting putting his career on the line is silly too. Just does not feel right, even if he is planning on retiring, which I feel is not the case, this is not the way to do it.

The best thing TNA has going for them right now is the wonderful mic work of the Motor City Machine Guns. The promo done with Chris Daniels in the ring a couple of weeks ago was absolutely brilliant and Alex Shelley and Chris Sabin entertain every time they step into the ring.

I kind of like Mick Foley as champ and the whole "crazy" character he is playing, but between him and Jeff Jarrett, there is not ANY good acting, which makes all their segments kind of painful.

Not sure where all this is going, but with TNA, it likely is going to a Double J t or Olympic Hero World Title run ... which is a shame. They have got to find a way to get A.J. Styles to the top of the mountain at some point.

Weekly Rankings

Here are my weekly rankings for the wrestling week 5/11/09-5/17/09:

WWE - 1. Edge, 2. Randy Orton, 3. Jeff Hardy, 4. John Cena 5. Chris Jericho, 6. Rey Mysterio, 7. Christian, 8. Batista, 9. Jack Swagger, 10. John Morrison

TNA - 1. A.J. Styles, 2. Kurt Angle, 3. Chris Daniels, 4. Mick Foley, 5. Samoa Joe, 6. Awesome Kong, 7. Suicide, 8. Alex Shelley, 9. Booker T., 10. Sting

Tag Teams - 1. Team 3D, 2. Beer Money Inc., 3. Motor City Machine Guns, 4. Lethal Consequences, 5. Carlito & Primo 

Overall - 1. Edge, 2. Randy Orton, 3. Jeff Hardy, 4. John Cena, 5. A.J. Styles, 6. Kurt Angle, 7. Chris Jericho, 8. Team 3D, 9. Rey Mysterio, 10. Bryan Danielson (ROH)