CBlog XVI- Return of the CBlog

It has been almost one year since I last posted an edition of the CBlog (the last one was on August 31, 2007), but now I have decided to start this thing up again. As I did before, I will be posting a blog anytime I have anything WWE-related to discuss. Simple enough.

Let me start with what many considered the big shocker of the week- Mike Adamle getting named the new General Manager of RAW. I hated Adamle at first and I still expected him to screw up every now and again on ECW, but he had been doing pretty good as ECW’s Play-by-Play announcer. I didn’t even think of Adamle as being a possibility of being the new GM. I was thinking either Jim Ross or Mick Foley after the World Tag Team Championship Match that saw the RAW Announce Team of Michael Cole & Jerry Lawler challenge for the belts. I think this decision is much like the WWE’s decision to move Adamle from his spot on RAW to being a commentator- they need to justify the amount of money Adamle is getting paid to be on the roster. If they go with the screwed up Adamle, it could make RAW quite the interesting show, to say the least.

As far as Adamle’s replacement on ECW goes, I think Todd Grisham is quite good as a play-by-play announcer. He did pretty good on Heat (which is pretty much what ECW is nowadays). He certainly did better in his first night as an ECW commentator than Adamle has been doing for the last few months.

Speaking of ECW, the people that read this blog (if there ‘s anyone who does, that is) may notice that I don’t comment much, if at all, on the happenings of ECW on Sci-Fi. It’s simply because ECW does not provide a lot to discuss.

With that said, I move on to SmackDown. I am absolutely loving this MVP/Jeff Hardy feud. I think it’s one of those great “personal” feuds (like Jericho/Michaels for example). I’m a sucker for the kind of feuds that add some of “real life” to the angles like this one does.

Though it seems as though WWE is trying to better SmackDown to, allegedly, get on FOX in the future, I have a couple complaints about the Triple H/Khali match at SummerSlam. I’ll start with the obvious complaint that Khali is the challenger for the WWE Title. That’s bad enough right there, the fact that he is challenging for the title at one of the WWE biggest pay-per-views is astonishing and disappointing. To me, that’s what Khali is in a nutshell- a big disappointment. I understand that WWE wants to put Khali in a main event level position because he’s so big in India, but this is too much. My other complain about this feud is the fact that the WWE Champion Triple H is barely appearing. On last week’s SmackDown, Triple H made a brief appearance in that face-off with Khali and this week, he is nowhere to be found. Showing a video vendetta like that does not replace Triple H actually appearing. I understand that the return of The Undertaker to face Edge in a Hell in a Cell Match at SummerSlam is a major thing for the WWE and for SummerSlam, but that’s no reason to have such a one-sided feud for the biggest championship in the WWE, held by, arguably, one of the best WWE Champions of all time.

I am aware that Saturday Night’s Main Event took place this weekend (actually just about an hour ago), but that was just a big disappointment all the way around. The shameless and just painful plugging of NBC’s shows by J.R. was just intolerable. This just reeked of NBC trying to get the WWE audience to watch their shows and the Olympics. The plugging was one thing, but the matches sucked too. Edge Vs. Jeff Hardy was a decent match, but it was still no jewel. The other two matches were just very poor. Jenny McCarthy’s appearance was pointless to me. She just came out and said almost the exact same thing(s) that those pre-taped celebrity interviews have been saying for the last couple of weeks.

To finish off this blog, here are my SummerSlam 2008 predictions:
WWE Championship: Triple H (c) def. The Great Khali to retain.
This match will easily be one of the worst, if not the worst match of the show. Triple H is good at carrying wrestlers through matches, but there is no hope for Khali. This one is a no-brainer.

ECW Championship: Mark Henry (c) def. Matt Hardy to retain.
I think it would be great to see Matt Hardy win the ECW Title from Henry, but I don’t see it happening.

Hell in a Cell Match: The Undertaker def. Edge
For me, this match is more about the return of The Undertaker and the match itself than about who wins the thing. I fully expect ‘Taker to win this one, since it is his return to the WWE. If done right, this could be quite the historic match.

Batista def. John Cena
With the way that Batista’s last two World Title matches have gone against CM Punk, I think WWE will throw Batista a bone and have him get the win over Cena. This match will probably be a mix of botches by Batista and just straight up crappy “wrestling” (if you even want to call it that) by Cena. I still look forward to the match to a certain degree, as it will be the first time they’ve had a match one-on-one against each other, plus the build has been pretty good too. I think it would be a neat idea to have the winner of this one go on to face CM Punk for the World Heavyweight Title later in the night. Granted, I read on a wrestling forum that some of the users there think Randy Orton may return to challenge Punk. I honestly forgot about Orton, but I guess that is a possibility. I would say that two big returns on one night would be too much, but they did it last year at SummerSlam with Triple H & Rey Mysterio.

Well, until next time…………..