The Shoot: Professional Wrestling's Weekly Recap

Daft Punk takes World Heavyweight crown; TNA slows down; ROH steals the show!

It was a very busy week in wrestling.

WWE capped the week with a surprisingly strong Extreme Rules PPV. TNA continued to try and make me believe Eric Young is a heel. Ring of Honor stole the show with a tremendous four-way World Championship match—hardly stained by the fact that it was taped two months ago.

WWE

Well, RAW, Smackdown! and ECW were, in general, pretty lame as they built up for Extreme Rules to close the week. The weekly television was actually pretty bland and assured me that the PPV was not going to be worth checking out, but, as usual, WWE kept its hand close to its vest and provided a solid show.

I was not that enthralled with Kofi Kingston taking the United State Heavyweight Championship off of MVP, but I guess there definitely could be worse people holding the title.

The Fatal Four Way match was kind of boring, but I expect MVP and The Flyin' Jamaican to put on a couple of other solid matches in this face v. face feud.

The Intercontinental match was very solid of course, because whenever Chris Jericho is involved things seem to be golden. I like this feud a lot because I like the teasing of showing Rey Mysterio's face.

In the end, they should definitely keep Rey Rey in the mask and have Y2J and the high-flyer both restore some credibility to the IC Championship.

I think I like the ECW Championship on Tommy Dreamer and really enjoy watching this one hour show every week right now.

Christian and Jack Swagger are absolute stars right now. They make this show a MUST WATCH every single week. The Hart Trilogy is great also, and Finlay, Tommy Dreamer, and Kozlov are all watchable when they get television time.

Hell, I have not even gotten to mention Evan Bourne.

Seriously, a solid show right now.

On to the fun stuff. I was shocked and appalled by Batista going over Randy Orton for the WWE Championship. It makes very little sense to me.

Batista is by far the weakest "main-eventer" on the roster and if they are setting up Batista v. Triple H, I am really confused. Orton should have held the belt for a long, long time. The only person who should have had a shot at taking that off of him is John Cena or Triple H.

Those are the only faces that get enough play to square off with a heel as strong as The Legend Killer. I am not interested at all in RAW right now. I will still watch of course, but this show's time as the flagship seems over.

Smackdown! is where the drama is right now. 

Jeff Hardy v. Edge in a Ladder Match for the World Heavyweight Championship was phenomenal.  It was a great match with a shocking ending by making The Charismatic Enigma a two-time world champion, but then they really shocked us.

Why bring out the uber-face CM Punk to steal the title from the uber-face J. Hardy?

I can't really tell you why. Seems to make no sense at all, but it definitely makes me want to watch.

Are they going to turn Mr. Chicago Made heel? Will Hardy lose it after getting gold in his hand for such a short time again? Will Edge stay in the WHC picture or move on after getting shafted by Vickie Guerrero and getting no help to retain his title?

There are simply a ton of ways that SD! can go right now, which makes it very interesting. With Hardy, Punk, and Edge at the top of the card and Rey and Jericho at the upper-midcard, this show is absolutely the top show in professional wrestling right now.

The ending of Extreme Rules alone made the show better than anticipated...and the solid performance of Rey v. Y2J, Cena v. Big Show, and the ECW triple threat made it a solid close to the week for WWE and made next week must-see TV.

TNA

TNA struggled to really grab my attention this week.

I think having Eric Young feuding with Jeff Jarrett is interesting, but why not do a real feud? Why have Double J in the King of the Mountain match while Super Eric is stuck doing something else?

The tag team division continues to steal much of the main event spotlight with solid performances regularly for Team 3D, Beer Money Inc., The British Invasion, and Motor City Machine Guns.

It is nice to see this division so strong here as it is something that really keeps Impact! different from WWE TV on a weekly basis.

As for the main event scene, I like that Samoa Joe and A.J. Styles are in the King of the Mountain match right now, but, as previously stated, I wish JJ was not in the picture.

I am wondering what exactly they are going to do with Joe now that everyone in the world knows he has a couple of tough injuries. I'm not sure at all what they are going to do with him.

This week could be really important toward setting up exactly what we are looking at for Slammiversary. I figure we are in line to see Shane Douglas v. Daniels added to the card.

And, of course, there will be at least one more person added to the KOTM match and probably two with Joe's injury.

Match of the Week

No doubt...the four way Ring of Honor World Championship match that aired on HDNet on Saturday. It was a match between champion Jerry Lynn, Bryan Danielson, Tyler Black, and Austin Aries.

A phenomenal match with great spots, great near-falls, and amazing ring work from all four performers.

Trust me, I thought that Jeff Hardy v. Edge at Extreme Rules was a great match. And sure, the ROH match was filmed in April, but still just amazing television and one more reason all of you should be watching Ring of Honor.

Weekly Rankings

A major shakeup this week as there were THREE different world title changes in the WWE and a solid title defense on Ring of Honor.

WWE — 1. CM Punk (WHC) 2. Jeff Hardy 3. Edge 4. Batista (WWE Champ) 5. Chris Jericho (IC Champ) 6. John Cena 7. Randy Orton 8. Kofi Kingston (US Champ) 9. Christian 10. Jack Swagger

TNA — 1. A.J. Styles (Legends Champ) 2. Kurt Angle 3. Daniels 4. Sting 5. Samoa Joe 6. Jeff Jarrett 7. Suicide (X-D Champ) 8. Mick Foley (TNA Champ) 9. Beer Money Inc. 10. Eric Young

Tag Team — 1. Beer Money Inc. 2. Team 3D (TNA Tag Champs) 3. British Invasions 4. British Invasion 5. Creed & Consequences

Overall — 1. CM Punk 2. Jeff Hardy 3. A.J. Styles 4. Kurt Angle 5. Edge 6. Batista 7. Chris Jericho 8. John Cena 9. Daniels 10. Jerry Lynn (ROH Champ)