The Shoot: Professional Wrestling's Weekly Recap

Judgment Day, Part 2; Sacrifice shocker

A solid week as we had a PPV in TNA and WWE gave us a strong sense of Deja Vu.

WWE

RAW kicked off the post-PPV week with Ric Flair appearing and showing his support for Batista. This segment also kicked off the Extreme Rules card by announcing Randy Orton vs. The Animal part deux...this time in a STEEL CAGE! Who cares?

Flair had his stamp all over RAW and it really was not all that impressive to me. I actually smell a heel turn coming with him taking Orton's side, but that probably is just me. He has also "called out Orton" for this week's edition of RAW. How exciting it will be to watch a 85-year-old man beat up our under-30 WWE champion.

The rest of RAW was spent booking another rematch, Big Show vs. John Cena part deux, this time in a SUBMISSION MATCH, and forcing us to watch Vickie Guerrero get a victory over Santino Marella, as Santina, for the Ms. WrestleMania crown. Hopefully, this is just them getting rid of Santina and having Santino get a solid feud with William Regal.

On ECW, we continued to get a view of the new Hart Trilogy faction and I like where it is going. Having DH Smith go over Finlay in the Main Event was a good shake up and nice to ECW able to draw interest outside of Jack Swagger and Christian, who clearly are the most talented guys on the brand.

We did see Christian challenge Tommy Dreamer to a ECW Championship match at Extreme Rules, but I see Swagger somehow either stealing the spot or getting himself in for a Triple Threat match.

Superstars was solid with CM Punk getting a win over Chris Jericho, but they went right back at it the next night on Smackdown! and reassured me that I would once again get to see Mr. Money in the Bank vs. Umaga. A total garbage feud, but at least this time they will likely have Punk go over when they face off in a Samoan Strap match at ER.

They proceeded to let me know I had two more rematches coming up at Extreme Rules. Rey Mysterio will defend his Interconti-whocares Championship against Chris "I was a world champ not that long ago, but now can't get a win" Jericho in a No Holds Barred match and Jeff Hardy will get his 1,000th shot at a world title in a Ladder Match against Edge.

Having a card that already has five matches that are the same as last PPV really leaves me shaking my head. Hopefully, something happens to spice up a PPV that looks doomed to be another snoozer.

Let’s be honest…the feud over using the Pepsi Center instead of the Nuggets was more interesting than WWE television this past week.

TNA

Was very happy with Sacrifice as both the six-man tag match to open the show and the tag team tournament finals were solid matches. A.J. Styles was solid as always and Samoa Joe looked pretty good despite having to carry Kevin Nash. The main event, however, made me feel like I was just watching the WWE senior tour.

I actually thought that Mick Foley would have to be the one getting pinned so that none of the others had to “sacrifice” anything, but was surprised to see Sting get the victory by pinning Kurt Angle.

This angle that now Sting is the “Godfather” of the mafia is stupid. So now Big Sexy, Scott Steiner and Booker T. are like, “Sure Sting, you lead us now, we can't make up our minds on our own.” It will still be somewhat dramatic as we get to see if Sting keeps Angle in the Mafia, but might struggle as an angle overall.

I am a little disgruntled the the MEM has become nothing but old guys fighting and bringing old guys back. It looked good early against the young guys like Jay Lethal, A.J., Joe, etc. And still looked good with Rhino and Team 3D on Frontline’s side.

But having them feuding with Jeff Jarrett and Cactus Jack? That just does not make much sense to me.

Looking forward to this week’s Impact! To see where they are taking all these storylines, but I really hope it is at a point where they are moving the young guys back into the main event mix.

Weekly Ratings

Here are my weekly ratings for May 18-24:

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

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

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

Overall – 1. Edge, 2. Randy Orton, 3. Jeff Hardy, 4. A.J. Styles, 5. John Cena, 6. Kurt Angle, 7. Sting, 8. Samoa Joe, 9. Bryan Danielson (ROH), 10. Team 3D