WWE Weekly Wows/Duds for the Week of 5/1/2011

Hello, fellow Bleachers. I've decided to devote a weekly column to what stood out for me as the five best moments and three worst moments coming from WWE programming over this past week.

From seeing a decent PPV out of Extreme Rules to a shocking and somewhat controversial World Heavyweight Title change on Smackdown, I present to you my first look into the highs and lows of the WWE for the week of May 1, 2011.

The Five Wows of the Week

Starting off with the week's best moments for the WWE.

5. Developments with Nexus and Corre at Last

After weeks of seeing Nexus being punching bags for Randy Orton and Corre floating around Smackdown with nothing going on, it looks like both factions are starting to build up on something with Mason Ryan demolishing Kane and Big Show on Raw and Ezekiel Jackson getting a nasty beating as he is kicked out of the Corre on Smackdown.

It does look like there is about to be some tension between Mason and his fellow Nexus members, though the coming weeks should be focused on giving him some more personality to get the crowd drawn to him if the WWE want to build him up as the next Batista.

As for Ezekiel, looks like he's back as a face while Corre is down one member meaning Ezekiel looks likely to feud with his former teammates and unless Corre plans to be a three-man group, they could get a new member to replace Jackson.

This seems like a plan in its early stages of Vinnie Mac building up two big, muscular guys as the next big things.

4. Michael Cole Rock Bottomed for the Night

Compliments of Michael Cole getting taken out of commission by the Rock at the start of Raw, the broadcast for the rest of the night proved to be much better on the ears with Jim Ross taking Cole's place and having less interruptions over commentary on matches from Cole's usual obsessing over himself and heckling of the other commentators.

It was a nice way to make up for the sorry excuse of a match that Cole took part in with Jack Swagger against Jerry Lawler and Jim Ross at Extreme Rules.

3. R-Truth and John Morrison Feud Continues

R-Truth's heel turn has been making for a fresh change for his character over the past few weeks and it looks like the WWE will be having him continue off his rivalry with John Morrison considering the run-in attack from Raw on Monday.

I see this being a potential match for Over the Limit in a few weeks.

2. The Debut of Kharma

The woman formerly known as Awesome Kong officially made her presence felt at Extreme Rules on Sunday by taking out the departing Michelle McCool and has been doing quite well thus far at adding a fresh presence in the lackluster Diva division by interrupting matches and plowing down one of the contenders in said match.

I got a laugh out of hearing some folks in the audience on Smackdown shouting out "One more time" in response to her delivery of an Implant Buster on Alicia Fox.

As long as WWE books her right, Kharma should make for a fearsome presence in the Divas division and you shouldn't have much of an excuse to take toilet breaks during a Divas match anymore.

1. Christian, New World Heavyweight Champion

Likely to be one of the WWE's best "feel good" moments for this year, Christian's World Title victory at Extreme Rules is one of the few moments in recent memory where you could visibly feel the emotions of a new champion as Edge would come in to celebrate with his long-time best friend following his victory.

While his victory over Alberto Del Rio was somewhat predictable with Del Rio now drafted to Raw, it still made the best match of the night for me with its intense moments over the ladder and Christian finally getting a World Title reign in the WWE, even if made a short one compliments of the later events from this week's Smackdown.

The Three Duds of the Week

Now let's get to the steaming pile of duds from the WWE this week.

3. Michael Cole and Jack Swagger vs Jerry Lawler and Jim Ross

The rivalry between Michael Cole and Jerry Lawler is really starting to get dragged out at this point and unfortunately, the WWE doesn't really seem to realize this.

It's bad enough that a young talent like Jack Swagger is being dragged into a feud pushing Cole's ego and having to wrestle a 60-plus year old wrestler. But to toss Cole and Jim Ross into the match screams for a sorry waste of time, especially if you have Cole just cowering around and all wrapped up in bubble wrap.

Combine this with Michael Cole pulling off a win yet again and you have a feud that WWE is likely gonna continue dragging out that we wish could just end already.

2. The Rock's Birthday Celebration

This is nothing against The Rock who still proves himself to be quite entertaining for me and most other WWE fans.

However, the man is only popping up in occasional appearances leading up to his big match with John Cena at next year's Wrestlemania and this was another example of the WWE creating something for a temporary boost in weekly TV ratings by using The Rock's popularity to pull in fans.

The celebration also made for a large waste of TV airing time as the WWE has Over the Limit coming up in the next few weeks and didn't really put much effort in pushing many storylines for potential matches representing the Raw brand at the next PPV.

There's only two weeks left to put matches together and the buildup to them is quite likely gonna be lackluster due to the limited amount of time there is to promote them. Is it any wonder that PPV buy rates for the company have plummeted in recent years because they don't make any effort at pushing developments that would make the fans care enough to buy said PPVs?

1. Christian's Short World Title Reign

While the match between Christian and the Viper on Smackdown made for a decent match, I have to admit that the setup to get this match together just sucked and it is no wonder fans online have gotten worked up about it.

While the Miz-Cena title rematch on Raw made sense, Christian and Randy Orton seemed like a match that could have been better pulled on PPV with the next few weeks focused on building up a storyline between the two on Smackdown, even if Christian's role was only as a transitional champion.

Instead, Orton was literally given the title on a silver platter as he didn't have to take part in any number-one contender match on that night and seeing fans in the arena choose between him, Great Khali and Mark Henry at the start of the show had you knowing of what was about to come for Christian.