theFRANCHISE

Miz Vs. Morrison Vs. R-Truth for the U.S. Title (aKa a normal match, belts will never change at a house show).

I also figure there will be a match between Maryse and Eve, since they're both listed to be there. As are William Regal and Vladimir Kozlov, so I'm hoping Santino shows up, and teaches some fools to beware of the Cobra.

Belts will only change hands at a house show if there's an injury or they're that desperate to get the belt off the champion ASAP.

As for Maryse and Eve...I'm JEALOUS. Those are my two favorite Divas right now...I'd marry both on the spot, even without getting to know them.

Awesome! I went to one 5-7 years ago at "The Bob" Carpenter Center at the University of Delaware, and you could tell they knew they weren't on TV (they were missing each other by a Rey Mysterio body length). I was wondering how the quality is nowadays, and Youngstown is a good sample location.

My first WWE live event was a house show at BCC in 2003. I'll never forget my dad having me go into his trunk to get something and finding front-row tickets waiting for me along with a one-sheet poster advertising the event.

I remember pissing off Kevin Nash in the main event that night because I was rooting for then-heel Triple H and chanting "Diesel Sucks"

Edge already stated in an interview (I believe with the Wrestling Observer or PWI) that he will likely be finished within the next two years because of his injury history. He wants to be healthy in old age and he recognizes that the injuries are a sign that he can't keep pushing his body the way he used to.

As for Jericho, he's never been better in his career. He is the complete package right now. He can keep losing matches (as he has on television for quite some time now) and still be viewed as a legitimate main eventer because of how he's booked to lose and how skilled he is. It seems as if this final stretch run in his career is focused mainly on elevating talent, as he's put over quite a few guys and has helped bring legitimacy to each belt he's carried, no matter how brief. He has been involved in some great feuds over the past couple of years and this is some of the best mic work he's ever done. Sure, people might miss his old Rock Star gimmick, but I love how he's showing his acting chops and can get almost anyone over.

I'm just thrilled that, even with the poor quality of some of these storylines, there's so many younger guys being gradually pushed in WWE. Sure, some pushes could be handled better than others, but at least their main event and mid-card scene isn't as stagnant as TNA right now. Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff have really done a number on that company...

When I look at The Miz, I think it's a bit appropriate that I see parallels between himself and his idol, The Rock. Just as The Rock helped legitimize the Intercontinental Championship, The Miz is doing the same for the U.S. Title. Though their promo styles are different, I see a bit of Rock's charisma in Miz. I also see some of the same solid ring work and a general ability to tell a story in his matches. As much as he's over with the crowd as a heel, he's just so vastly improved that it's hard not to like him.

The one promo that really made this connection click in my head was on the 5/17 commercial-free edition of RAW, right before Miz's U.S. Title match with Bret Hart. Miz snatched the microphone from the interviewer and cut a promo as he was walking to the ring (something he had done earlier this year), but it was the smooth delivery of the promo that had me convinced that was his star-making moment.

Meanwhile, this promo is often pointed to as the star-making moment for The Rock as a main-eventer: YouTube

I've always heard Maryse is very sweet and kind out of character, even though she plays the... witch very well. She's probably the best looking diva in a very long time, in my personal opinion and my girlfriend hates it lol. Everytime she comes out I have to hear it about her doing "stripper moves" (aKa her hair flip).

It just makes me sad that basically the only diva who can wrestle well is Gail Kim. Which is why it pissed me off that they gave the Divas Title to Eve, who can't even pull off a dropkick ninety percent of the time, yet Gail Kim usually performs well, and usually loses all her matches. Eve shouldn't even be allowed in the ring until she's learned how to properly wrestle, even if it's by diva standards. Oh... and Beth Phoenix, I forgot about her. So that's two divas who can actually wrestle.

It took a while for Sheamus to grow on me. I found his paleness off putting and his promos to be meh, but after a while I became a fan. Although I will say that he did get pushed way too fast. I'm thinking Raw just needed another main event superstar (since this was before Edge was on the roster, Shawn Michaels and Triple H were busy with the latest rendition of DX and pursuing the tag titles), all they had was basically Cena and Orton who were nearly always in a feud for the WWE title. Sheamus was probably in the right place at the right time with his connections to Hunter, and he got the push. But hey, at least it's worked out. He's pretty over with the fans as a heel.

Maryse has the "it" factor. It also helps that she can wrestle decently when she wants to. That said, it sucks that Beth Phoenix is injured since she and Gail Kim, like you said, are two of the only Divas that can actually wrestle. Eve is improving, as is Layla, but they're not to the level of TNA's Knockouts -- before Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff ruined TNA, anyway.

As for Sheamus, there's nothing that convinces me he's truly over as a heel. I'm just ambivalent to him -- and I'm pretty perceptive about the industry, as I'd like to think.

You swoon? I'm officially giving you a man-card revocation warning.

If you actually watched a few of her entrances, you'd be swooning too -- even with your gorgeous wife.

I hate Sheamus with a passion. His ring work does nothing for me, and he offers nothing in the way of charisma or entertainment on the microphone. His look does nothing for me. Frankly, if he wasn't Triple H's workout partner, I don't see how he would've gotten a push otherwise.

I'm a bigger fan of Maryse for obvious reasons

Every time her music hits and she walks out and does that hair flip, I just swoon.

I guess that's what you get when you try to reveal La Parka's face.

Apparently, some lucha libre fans have no clue of the mask's importance in Mexican culture for luchadores. Go figure.

Part of me feels that one day, the company is going to come back to something similar to the Attitude Era, so they can keep their fanbase. Although it wouldn't surprise me to see them stay with the Family-Friendly approach.

We're seeing shades of the shift back towards a more mature product in various storylines. Granted, we won't be seeing any more of the blatant profanity or sexually-suggestive skits with the Divas, but we'll see more adult-oriented storylines.

We'll never see the regular use of blood (their blood policy is, in part, due to the risk of hepatitis) and we likely won't see any more unprotected chairshots to the head, but we'll still see wrestlers get creative in finding ways to convey the gravity of moments. People don't understand that those two policies weren't instituted because of the family-friendly approach, but rather, as response to things like the Chris Benoit murder-suicide and general health concerns. Concussions are a big thing in all of sports, hence the need to remove chairshots to the head if wrestlers aren't taking them properly.

The writing overall just needs to improve. You don't need to be vulgar to tell a good, edgy story. You can still do an Undertaker-Stephanie McMahon abduction storyline and you can still do an Austin-McMahon blood feud, you just won't see them pushing the envelope for the sake of shock value. Back then, it was all for ratings. At this point, now that the ratings are as good as they'll get, give those loyal viewers an incentive to keep watching by giving them storylines that won't insult their intelligence.

I'm a huge fan... of the WWE's marketing department. Freaking brilliant.

The fact that they've got me hooked at 21 years of age is a testament to how great they are.

All kidding aside, though, they are a marketing juggernaut now more than ever, even compared to when the entire industry was at its peak in the late '90s. Because of their new age-appropriate initiative, they've got a broader demographic and broader appeal. Though the storylines are tamer now, I'll give them credit for pulling off some decent feuds in the past couple of years. Chris Jericho vs. Shawn Michaels, Undertaker vs. Shawn Michaels, Randy Orton vs. Triple H (until their crappy WrestleMania match), CM Punk vs. Rey Mysterio, etc. There's been some really mature and well-done angles that make me forget that this is the PG era.

Every time I see John Cena on TV, I'm reminded of how people like to draw comparisons between himself and The Rock. However, as much as I'd like to think that Cena is better than people give him credit for, there's always something that stops me from making those Rock comparisons. His delivery on the mic is corny, his promos do nothing to stand out, and his ring work is average. Sure, he's put on good matches, but rarely has he been able to carry a match on his own when placed with a mediocre worker. Moreover, his Superman gimmick is getting tired -- at least The Rock was able to reinvent himself multiple times while maintaining his core gimmick.

John Cena has just gotten to be annoying. Though I understand his value as the poster child of WWE's current PG era (which is slowly shifting towards PG-13), they need to do something fresh or else the fans will stop caring about him, especially as the kids get older.

I remember when the fans were getting tired of The Rock around 2002. Then, he came back from his time off and turned Hollywood in 2003, becoming perhaps the top heel that year. Cena needs to do something similar (not necessarily turn heel -- though I would love it) or else the fans will simply turn on him yet again.

Born & raised in Newark, DE.

Sucks living in Eagles country -- but there's been plenty of love for the Ravens 'round these parts ever since Flacco got drafted by Baltimore.

But, it's easy to separate the newly-converted fans from the real Ravens fans in DE; ask them if Terrell Owens was ever (technically) a Baltimore Raven at any point in time -- fans who know their team history will know what I'm talking about.