The Shoot: Professional Wrestling's Weekly Recap

WWE starts making Punk a punk; TNA getting stale; Ring of Honor crowns new champ!

Another busy week in the world of wrestling. Despite a lack of a PPV event, WWE provided must-see television with the injury of their WWE Champion, the intrigue of the World Heavyweight Champion and the set-up for an extraordinary RAW scheduled for this week.

Ring of Honor also made waves by crowning their first two-time World Champion in company history with Austin Aries!

WWE

The WWE is heading into a solid Monday night with a 3-hour edition of RAW called the "Three-4-all."

After deciding to put the WWE Championship on Batista...WWE got bitten right in the butt! Big Dave got hurt during the cage match with Randy Orton at Extreme Rules and was written off television on Monday Night when Legacy brutally attacked him in the ring and "broke" his arm.

Technically, Batista is the champ as I write this, but on Monday Night there will be a Fatal Four Way match featuring John Cena vs. Big Show vs. Randy Orton vs. Triple H. Should be the main event of what is shaping up to be a super edition of RAW.

I really have no clue who they are going to put over in this match. I think they may be shaking their head right now and want to just get the strap back on Cena as fast as possible. I could, however, see any of the four guys walking out with the gold.

Interesting fact: These four wrestlers have a combined 26 world championships between them. By the end of Monday, that number will be 27.

This week's edition of ECW featured the ongoing three-way feud between ECW Champion Tommy Dream, Jack Swagger and Christian.

The All-American American and Captain Charisma both light up the screen anytime they get hold of a mic or get in the ring to wrestle. While Dreamer might be a little out of his element, he has a really likable quality that makes him work as the champ.

The Hart Dynasty continues to dominate the mid-card and Tyson Kidd and DH Smith both look absolutely fantastic every time they hit the ring. I would expect one of them to move into the ECW championship mix in the not-so-distant future.

ECW has quickly become the best show on WWE television. A week ago I wrote that Smackdown! was king, but I was mistaken.

Smackdown! is still keeping up though.

This week's edition featured new WHC CM Punk opening the show and getting a cascade of boos mixed with cheers from the crowd.

They really are going to milk it out, but it appears that they intend on turning Punk full-heel. Which means there is little doubt he goes over to retain his title on Monday in the triple threat against Jeff Hardy and Edge.

I like the slow turn angle with Punk, but what I learned in the process is that Jeff Hardy is without question the top face in the company right now.

Think about it. Just over a week ago Punk is getting cheered by EVERYONE in the stands, and with just one moment...he starts getting booed. You turn on the top face and you get booed. That simple.

Hardy is uber-over and the face of Friday nights. WWE has to do everything in their power to make sure he stays under contract.

Looking forward to Monday Night RAW...and hopefully will be enticed to bring my faithful readers a mid-week column after it unfolds.

TNA

Impact! managed to completely bore me this week.

We saw Samoa Joe in back-to-back First Blood matches with Scott Steiner and Booker T. The Samoan Submission Machine went over in both contests and has "taken out" three members of the Main Event Mafia.

We all know that he has broken his fingers, but I think they are still going to keep him on television, and probably still in the main event at Slammiversary.

The Mick Foley v. Jeff Jarrett feud is actually just crap. It was slightly intriguing at first, but Jarrett's extremely terrible acting has made it almost unwatchable. I love Double J in the ring though, so the King of the Mountain match should at least work.

I feel it should not even be mentioned, but the whole Stevie Richards, Raven and Daphne storyline just sucks. I never loved Raven anyway, but this whole return is pretty lame and makes little sense in the TNA world.

The saving grace of this week was a phenomenal match between Kurt Angle and Sting for the final spot in the KotM match. Angle won due to interference from Matt Morgan (which is another terrible storyline) but it was a great match as both of these legends gave all they had for the Impact Zone.

I think that Angle might come out of Slammiversary with the world title, but I'm not sure, which of course keeps me watching.

Ring of Honor

While it might not make it to television for another month or more, it is definitely worth mentioning that Austin Aries claimed his second Ring of Honor World Championship on Saturday by defeating defending champ Jerry Lynn and Tyler Black in a three-way elimination match.

He is the first two-time holder of the company's top title and ended Lynn's reign after just 71 days, which is pretty short for a ROH champ.

Match of the Week

This week's match of the week came down to the Angle v. Sting match and Edge v. Jeff Hardy on Smackdown!

I loved both matches, but both finished with outside interference.

I will take the Sting v. Angle match for this week's crown.

Weekly Rankings

Nothing two major this week to change the rankings. With Jerry Lynn going down, Aries makes his debut.

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

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

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

Overall — 1. Jeff Hardy 2. A.J. Styles 3. CM Punk 4. Kurt Angle 5. Edge 6. Chris Jericho 7. Sting 8. John Cena 9. Austin Aries (ROH Champ) 10. Samoa Joe