The nXt Invasion Has Begun!

Wow, it's been a long time since I've been excited to write about an angle that WWE has produced. RAW is just about the same thing every week, one big commercial for the next PPV, and the guys in the main event stand there looking at each other and holding up belts. Well not this week. WWE gave us a 3 hour viewers choice special, which was an OK change, but nothing earth shattering. The stuff they did with the A-Team was descent and the surprise appearances by legends like Roddy Piper and Dusty Rhodes always add to the show in my opinion. For the main event, viewers were given the opportunity to choose John Cena's opponent for the night, between Rey Mysterio, CM Punk, or Jack Swagger. Mysterio was the obvious choice, being by far the most popular, and just about every other viewers choice for the night went as expected. So the first surprise was that CM Punk was selected as the opponent. Whether it was Punks hardcore ROH type fan following, or whether WWE wanted it that way who knows. So it looked like we would get Cena winning, and probably facing off with his ppv opponents....but that's when things got interesting.

Enter Wade Barret (NXT season one winner,) who earlier had cut a promo saying that by this time next week, everyone would be talking about the accomplishment he would achieve that had never been done. So it looked like Barrett would challenge Cena, and step right ino the main event picture. This is when all hell broke loose. Suddenly we see other members of NXT season 1 appearing from the crowd all over the arena. Before we knew it, the NXT roster was jumping CM Punk, John Cena, the referee, Jerry Lawler, Michael Cole, ring announcers, Matt Stryker......EVERYone. The riot scene continued as the NXT group destroyed the ring and everything around it. The angle was great.....the crowd was genuinely concerned as Cena got his ass kicked by every member of the crew. It all seemed natural and real......a lost art in today's wrestling. Bodies were lying everywhere, as Wade Barrett stood tall with the NXT Army, as the whole group were brought to the next level in 1 segment. Daniel Bryan even spat in Cena's face after continuously yelling "I'm better than you!" The realism first used in the Michael Cole/Daniel Bryan feud was maximized here, as you had a group of legit pissed off guys deciding to take a stand and become stars on their own, not due to a joke of a game show.

Not since the nWo days have I seen such a segment that really got the people like this did......maybe the stars used weren't on the same level of Hogan/Hall/Nash.......but the impact with this can still be huge if WWE does this right being it is being done with a group of young guys. If WWE can run this as an invasion angle, with the NXT group lead by Barrett......then Barrett can definitely use it to step right into the title picture. And if WWE is now seeing that realistic serious angles like this are what people want, they are right. Give us a choice, don't force us to love Cena, we don't. Give us a group of rebels who won't take no for an answer, and if you tell them no they will kick youur ass and destroy the arena. WWE gets the first big thumbs up from me in years on this one.

Vince McMahons Million Dollar Mania Was a Ratings Failure!

Well it's officially been proven, even contests where you have a 1/1241151116 chance of winning some big money, are not enough to make people watch RAW. Last night's first edition of Vince McMahon's Million Dollar Mania actually brought the ratings DOWN to a horrible 3.0. I for one thought the idea that this money contest was the main focus of the show totally sucked. The money giveaway was also the main event of the show, following the headline match which was Triple H vs. Jeff Hardy. Another problem with all this was that they put on the same old boring shitty show, with a game show around it. RAW pulls out 1 or 2 good shows in a row, then back to the same crap. Same boring title picture, with guys trying to sell the upcoming pay per view HARD, to the point its just annoying and obvious. WWE was more fun when it was more targeted toward adults, and we could see some humor geared towards the 18+ crowd, and even some more sexually based stuff on the show. Now they really have no direction, just wrestling matches, trying to keep it clean since they have a kids magazine now, and the merchandise sales decide which guy is in the main event, and who can and can't be a heel.....can't lose those merchandise sales! All these problems are just regular problems now for WWE, but with this million dollar giveaway going on, the matches are just fillers around the next round of money to be given away. Good thing is, the lower the ratings get, the more WWE will see the fans don't like the crap they're giving us, and will keep on doing drastic things to make something work again. We know this Monday, Vince's Million Dollar Mania will go on once again, but they better definitely give us a way better show that isn't just a pay per view commercial, or WWE is going to be plummeting back to the ratings levels they were at in the mid 90's. In reality, I'm sure people realize that their chance of actually winning is NOT that high, therefore they probably flip to another channel in between giveaways, if that many people even care enough about it to watch at all. It is rather sad, that Vince is blatantly saying he wants to pay people to watch, while the method is already not working, I think their creative problems are the real root of the problem. I feel eventually, Vince will have no choice but to pull the trigger on a John Cena heel turn, it will be the only fresh thing that's happened in WWE in the past few years, and even then, there is no guarantee that they'll do it right.

WWE RAW is Good Again....Until the Main Event.

So I've sat back and observed RAW the past few weeks, and I've seen a much more enjoyable show since Wrestlemania 24. Things were getting terribly boring for awhile, and predictable as well. Now I'm not saying there aren't still things that suck, such as WWE constantly having the main event made by an in ring promo, just like tonight's was, where Regal talked about Orton and JBL wanting rematches with Cena and HHH. Regal says they want rematches at the pay per view, then says "But tonight, there will be a tag match...".....now STOP right there, at THAT very point, we know that the tag match will be Orton and JBL vs. HHH and Cena, but as we do EVERY week, we have to sit through "It will be, JBL and Orton......" (Again, we must pause, and pretend we don't know who the opponents will be,) "Taking on John Cena..........(who could the partner be???)........and TRIPLE HAITCH (Regal's spelling of his name)"......this process occurs week after week it seems, and DAMN is it old and tired. Same old guys, same old main events, but wow, the WWE midcard and even lowercard angles and matches have been great lately! Chris Jericho pulled a great match out of Batista on Monday, and Jericho had a great match with HBK at Judgement Day, hmm, seems maybe Jericho should be main eventing! Jeff Hardy has exploded back on the scene, picking right up where he left off, getting huge pops from the crowd, and he's possibly the most over guy in the company. Is he main eventing? Nope. How about Mr. Kennedy, his new role as a bad ass face has been really good, and he's getting great reactions, and his match with Regal was really good, and popped the crowd for the finish. Even the stuff with Cade and Murdoch is fresh, any involvement with Roddy Piper is great, and his stuff with Santino is no different, its a nice little extra story on the side that is more character based. The divas are doing their part, as the heel on heel Beth Phoenix vs. Melina feud is new and interesting, and both are good in the ring, so no complaints in the diva area on RAW. So really it seems that new talent is shining lately, and the main even scene is just stale. We've seen Triple H as champ before, seen his entrance 12 million times. Cena has been used much less lately, which is very good, after he was crammed down our throat for a few years. Even mainstays like Shawn Michaels, have been able to get involved in a good fresh feud with Batista and Jericho. For some reason, it's the main event/WWE Title picture that can't heat up right now. Because of the great talent under the main event, I'll keep watching and enjoying RAW....Smackdown, still very boring in my opinion, and ECW is so pathetic, its not even worth watching. I think my next post will be a look at TNA, and what is good and what is bad there, similar to this post, but shockingly, in my opinion, the best thing in TNA right now......are the TNA Knockouts! More to come.....

Three No Way Out Matches Confirmed

Elimination Chamber Match For WWE Title Shot At WrestleMania XXIV
Jeff Hardy vs. JBL vs. Chris Jericho vs. Triple H vs. Umaga vs. Shawn Michaels

WWE Championship Match
John Cena vs. Randy Orton (c)

Career Threatening Match
Ric Flair vs. Mr. Kennedy

Update: Candice Michelle's Injury on RAW

Candice Michelle was injured after falling from the top rope in her match against Women's Champion Beth Phoenix on Raw. She was rushed to a local medical facility where it was determined she suffered a cracked clavicle.


Further tests are currently being conducted to rule out any other possible injuries. Candice will be out of action 6-8 weeks.

Newswire: Booker T to stay with WWE, Trish Stratus Returning?, Ric Flair/Nascar Incident

Sources: Wrestling Observer Newsletter, PWInsider.com

- Despite speculation over the past month, the word going around backstage in WWE is that King Booker will be back with the company after he serves his sixty day suspension. As of the time of this writing, Booker has not accepted any outside bookings and is able too since he does not have a new WWE contract in place. We are, however, able to confirm that Booker is in the process of negotiating a new contract with World Wrestling Entertainment.

- The official WWE web site has a “where are they now” interview with former WWE Women’s Champion Trish Stratus. In the interview Trish reveals that it was Paul Heyman that recommended her to the producers of “Armed and Famous”, the reality show that aired on CBS where celebrities became police officers in Indiana. WWE.com is teasing a third part to the interview where she will discuss a potential return to the company. While that is the teaser for the interview it is highly unlikely that she’ll end up back in WWE anytime soon.

- NASCAR drivers Kyle Petty and Denny Hamlin got into an altercation over the weekend at the Dover International Speedway in Delaware. The Associated Press covered the squabble and wrote, "With all the finger pointing and trash talking, it's too bad Ric Flair didn't stick around after his Busch Series appearance a day earlier to watch this skirmish."

Preview: Monday Night Raw

Credit: WWE.com

Though he is still sore, John Cena’s father doesn’t regret the beating he took from Randy Orton last week on Raw. In fact, he’d do it again if it meant protecting his son’s WWE Championship.

“I couldn’t let [Jonathan] Coachman strip my son of the WWE Championship. That title means everything to him,” Mr. Cena told WWE.com. “He’s worked so hard for it. My only regret is that John had to be there and see it [the beating] firsthand.”

Last Monday, Mr. Cena put his body on the line when Acting Raw GM Jonathan Coachman threatened to strip The Champ of the WWE Championship due to events of Unforgiven. At Unforgiven, Mr. Cena got involved when Orton grabbed him out of his ringside seat and prepared to re-enact his previous attack where he gave him a concussion. However, the WWE Champion intervened and locked Orton in an STFU, enabling his father to punt the Legend Killer in the skull.

An outraged Coachman intended to make Cena pay by stripping him of the WWE Championship, but The Champ’s Dad wouldn’t let that happen. And despite pleadings from his son, Mr. Cena took on the younger, stronger and sadistic Orton, and was beaten mercilessly. In Mr. Cena’s eyes, there was no other choice. He remembered how 8-year-old John made championships out of cardboard and dreamed of someday wrestling for WWE. The elder Cena is proud of the man that 8-year-old boy has become. He couldn’t let Coachman torpedo his son’s remarkable title reign.

“I guess you might ask, ‘What the hell is this about?’” Mr. Cena said. “But this is about family. My son has broken his back to keep the WWE Championship. If that [Cena’s keeping the title] meant me accepting a match with Randy Orton in the middle of the squared circle, and taking a butt-kicking, then guess what? Let’s do it again. I grew up on the streets, how tough can Randy Orton really be?”

Looking at Mr. Cena, you know where The Champ gets his dogged determination, courage and stubbornness. Though he cherishes the WWE Championship, Cena loves his family more. Orton’s attack on his father the day after SummerSlam made him think about his priorities. Cena is proud of his dad for having the courage to face Orton in the ring. However, he never wants to sacrifice his family for the WWE Championship.

“This business is just that – it’s a business,” The Champ said. “World Championships can come and go. The record for winning the championship is 16 times, which means that you can also lose it 16 times. The bottom line is that family doesn’t come and go. You’ve got only one dad and mom … and I’m always going to put them before the business.”

Mr. Cena realizes that Orton has used him as a tool in his quest to take his son’s WWE Championship. He is battered and bruised, but still proud. And when all is said and done, Mr. Cena hopes his son beats a very simple message into the Legend Killer, especially at their Last Man Standing Match on Oct. 7 at No Mercy: Don’t mess with family.

“I’m not a wrestler; I’m a fan like everyone else,” Mr. Cena said. "But I guess The Champ’s got it right: If you want some, come get some.”

What will The Champ have to say about his father’s match with Orton when Raw comes to Milwaukee Monday night? Tune in to Raw at 9/8 CT on USA Network and find out.