World Wrestling Entertainment

By Phil Strum(noreply@blogger.com) It was the second week of SmackDown on MyNetwork TV. SmackDown has been consistently good the past few months. Maybe it has to do with the return of Michael Hayes and maybe it has to do with Jim Ross. Or maybe the folks on the blue show are just doing a better job of getting the job done.

By noreply@blogger.com (Phil Strum) • I'm sure Batista vs. Jericho will be a fun main event, but why make the fans choose between Shawn Michaels and Steve Austin. I'm not 100 percent convinced they won't pick Shawn Michaels, considering the great feud he's had with Jericho over the past few months.

By noreply@blogger.com (Phil Strum) • Batista CRUSHED JBL. That was a glorified, Superstars of Wrestling-style squasherrific squash. What ensued after the match with JBL complaining about the economy and being thankful for the economic bailout, to Cryme Time stealing JBL's limo and the Divas and Sgt. Slaughter getting in w...

By noreply@blogger.com (Phil Strum) RAW • The ladder match between Jericho and Shawn Michaels was right for the next step in their feud, a high-stakes title match. I'm not really sure where Mike Adamle went before Shawn came out (no one is probably), but this should be a really good match. As if there was a doubt. ECW

By Phil Strum(noreply@blogger.com) The new World Heavyweight Champion did an effectively smarmy opening segment, reinforcing himself as the top jerk on RAW. Jericho vs. CM Punk was announced as the main event of next week's RAW in Memphis in a steel cage. Not having Punk or Shawn Michaels at the show made for an interesting dyna...

By noreply@blogger.com (Phil Strum) It had been six-plus years since Chris Jericho reigned as the world champion and there couldn't be a more deserving guy in WWE than Jericho. In a surprising twist, Chris Jericho filled in for CM Punk and won the World Heavyweight Championship scramble match on the same night that he and Shaw...

By noreply@blogger.com (Phil Strum) • While I am disappointed the self-proclaimed Shaman of Sexy, John Morrison is not participating in the scramble after his loss to Marr Hardy, the pair had a terrific, well-worked match with lots of near falls, lots of counters and lots of cool looking moves. Both these guys are good enough...

By noreply@blogger.com (Phil Strum) SUMMERSLAM It's a fairly stacked SummerSlam card when you have people like Chris Jericho, Big Show and Kane not even making it onto the card. Will Shawn Michaels retire? My guess is probably not, but this is probably how we get Chris Jericho on the card.

By noreply@blogger.com (Phil Strum) • World Heavyweight Championship: CM Punk (C) vs. Batista • WWE Championship: Triple H (c) vs. Edge • ECW Championship: Mark Henry (c) vs. Tommy Dreamer • Shawn Michaels vs. Chris Jericho • New York City Parking Lot Brawl: John Cena vs, JBL • WWE Divas Championship: Michelle McCool vs. Natalya

By Phil Strum(noreply@blogger.com) The top secondary guys right now are Chris Jericho (face), Shawn Michaels (face) and Mr. Kennedy (face). That doesn't even cover ECW, where their title feud is Kane (face) vs. Big Show (face) or SmackDown!, where I can't even think of who other than Batista (who is taking time off soon) would c...

By Phil Strum Well, Impact was the only televised wrestling program this week that consisted of first-run material. WWE is running year-in-review shows all week. • I love that TNA acknowledged, in a backstage segment, just HOW stupid last week's show was.