The Shoot: Professional Wrestling's Weekly Recap

Hardy back on top!; Diesel heads to RAW; Lashley makes the save!

Well after taking a week off last week to go on vacation with my wife and daughter, The Shoot returns this week following a decent Night of Champions PPV from WWE.

TNA, in the mean time, continues to muddle everything and leave most of us scratching our heads regularly.

WWE

Well I guess WWE is making their move to keep their top babyface under contract. Jeff Hardy's win last night definitely qualifies as surprising, considering all of us know that his contract is on its last legs. But this definitely raises eyebrows.

Maybe the company and Hardy have finally come to terms and Hardy is going to be given a lengthy world title run.

I would expect the feud with CM Punk to continue at least through SummerSlam! And while I know many Bleacher Creatures seem to dislike these guys, there is no doubt this is the top feud in the business right now.

They are successfully making Hardy even more over while turning CM Punk into the "unintentional" heel, which makes him 10x more intriguing then he ever was as a face.

As for the rest of Smackdown! I thought Big Show joining with Chris Jericho was kind of silly personally. I don't see any reason for Big Show to be doing tag team wrestling. This is just another case of WWE creative not figuring out anything to do with their influx of talent, so they just throw them together and make a tag team.

I like the Dolph Ziggler and Rey Mysterio feud and I was glad they held off putting the strap on Ziggler's waist, at least for one more PPV.

Mysterio always does a solid job of putting others over because of his solid work rate and ability in the ring. And of course, Rey Rey is already as over as he could be, so this does not hurt him any in the slightest.

ECW seems stuck in a funk now that Swagger, Bourne, Henry, and the Hart Dynasty have moved on.

I am really curious who they think should step up to face Christian next for the ECW Championship. Vladimir Kozlov has a solid heel champion feel to him and Shelton Benjamin could fit the mold as well, but other than these two guys, it is slim pickins on Tuesday Nights.

Over on the flagship on Monday Nights, I really don't know where the RAW writers are going to go at this point.

I am hoping that they bring Shawn Michaels back and have him challenge Randy Orton for SummerSlam! but I don't think that is very likely at all. HBK would provide some freshness, but I imagine we will see the same old Orton vs. John Cena vs. Triple H boredom we have been getting.

I also cannot seem to get into Kofi Kingston even though every Internet fan and their mother swears by this guy. I just don't see anything from him that seems fresh and I think that the United State Championship would be better suited on the waist of MVP or Jack Swagger.

Tonight's RAW should be very interesting with Shaq coming to the nation's capital for an appearance as guest host.

I really hope we see HBK make his return tonight, just seems like the kind of spice the show could use.

TNA

I have said it before and I will keep saying it until they fix it.

What a mess this company has become.

With backstage tensions between Kurt Angle, Jeff Jarrett, and Kurt's ex-wife Karen Angle boiling over, The King of the Mountain has been forced off television—maybe for good!

As this is going on, the best worker in the company, AJ Styles, gets a staph infection and will miss some time.

And if those weren't bad enough, the storylines flat out suck top to bottom.

The Main Event Mafia now has about 55 members, including Taz and Matt Morgan, which makes me wonder if it should be called the Upper-Midcard Mafia.

Exactly what are they going to do with Taz? Just have him keep parading into the ring for no damn reason?

At least they kept Bobby Lashley out of the mafia, but I am still unsold on him doing TNA full time, which means they will not be able to get much of a true program out of him longterm.

That leaves all of us scratching our heads as to who is who on Thursday nights.

Eric Young has now went face-to-heel-to-face-to-heel-to-face-to-heel, all in about 18 months. And still has no charisma what-so-ever.

Daniels has virtually disappeared off of the card since his return despite still being one of the top five ring workers in the company.

What exactly is going on with Sting again? I really have no clue.

Our Legends, Tag Team, and World champions are all AT LEAST 40-years-old and average 45 years of age!

Their newest addition cares more about his MMA career than wrestling, but will still be forced into the main event.

The only thing this company has going for it right now is its incredibly strong Knockout and Tag Team divisions.

Beer Money Inc. should still be the tag team champions, but I can deal with them dropping the straps as long as Team 3D brings the titles back to the true tag teams in the long run.

I think British Invasion has made a huge impact and will be in the tag title mix as well.

Tara has been really solid and really has helped boost Angelina Love to a solid heel level. I think that between Kong, Tara and Angelina Love, they really cannot go wrong with the Knockouts title right now.

One final piece of good news: TNA has struck a deal with Playboy and we will get to see Traci Brooks in all of her glory.

Brooks is hot as hell, but lets hope that Velvet Sky is gracing the pages of that magazine in the near future.

Weekly Rankings

Big shake up in rankings as we have had two PPVs since the last shoot. Hardy remains top dog, but now has the gold to go with it!

WWE - 1. Jeff Hardy (WHC), 2. Randy Orton (WWE), 3. CM Punk, 4. John Cena, 5. Triple H., 6. Chris Jericho, 7. Rey Mysterio (IC), 8. Christian (ECW), 9. Jack Swagger, 10. Kofi Kingston (US)

TNA - 1. Kurt Angle (TNA), 2. AJ Styles, 3. Samoa Joe, 4. Homicide (XD), 5. Daniels, 6. Hernandez, 7. Kevin Nash (Legends), 8. Beer Money Inc., 9. Sting, 10. Matt Morgan

Tag Team - 1. Beer Money Inc., 2. Scott Steiner and Booker T. (TNA), 3. Team 3D, 4. British Invasion, 5. Motor City Machine Guns, 6. Big Show and Chris Jericho (WWE), 7. Priceless, 8. The Hart Dynasty, 9. The American Wolves (ROH), 10. Lethal Consequences

Overall - Jeff Hardy, 2. Randy Orton, 3. Kurt Angle, 4. CM Punk, 5. John Cena, 6. AJ Styles, 7. Triple H., 8. Chris Jericho, 9. Austin Aries (ROH), 10. Rey Mysterio