Candice Michelle Falls on RAW

Here is the video of Candice Michelle's vicious faceplant from the top rope last night on Raw. Word is she is out 6-8 weeks with a broken clavicle. Get well soon Candice. More on This Story...

Vote for MISTTTTTTTEEEEEERRRR KENNEDY...

Kennedy!

The main event for Cyber Sunday was announced on WWE.com today, and rather than a Randy Orton showdown with either Triple H or HBK with fans picking the stipulations, they can now choose Orton's opponent between Shawn Michaels, Jeff Hardy, and Ken Kennedy. After last night's Raw, fans should vote for Kennedy, and here is why...

John Cena's injury sure has shaken things up a little bit. Does anyone else think that the current title belt should go back on the shelf for a while? The belt Orton currently holds is in the style of the John Cena spinner belt, but alas it does not spin. Still, it looks like a fly peice of bling bling. Cena himself hasn't done the rap stuff for years. Why should Orton not revert back to the "undisputed" style WWE title? I personally would love to see the winged eagle belt return.

Speaking of belts and birds, how about Beth Phoenix. Without doubt she is something to get excited about. PWP writer Daron Smythe has defeated Beth Phoenix via pinfall, and I've heard that he is arguing that he is next in line for a shot at the Glamazon. Good luck with that buddy. Either way, they are working her gimmick to perfection, and finally there is some good women's wrestling back on Raw. I thought when Trish left and Victoria switched brands that we may never see that again. Stupid ass Diva search...

To the Diva search's credit, I actually do enjoy Maria and Candice. While neither of them won that competition, they are products of it. That makes it about as lucrative as Tough Enough, who's pride and joy is former ECW champion John Morrison.

I would say that right now it appears that in order of in ring ability, Victoria remains tops. Right behind her are Mickie James, Beth Phoenix, and Melina. The next level includes your Jillian Hall's and Candice Michelle's, and at the bottom are Maria, Torrie Wilson, and some other nameless worthless bimbos.

Santino Marella continues to benefit from the upswing of not actually ever wrestling a match. His mic work has been histerical for weeks now. Too bad that after Val Venis won an internet poll stating that fans would rather see him as the World Champion than anyone else on the roster, he is doing job duty yet again.

Still, it was nice to see him receive face time rather than ubershitty wrestling personality Hardcore Holly. What type of world is it where the WWE brass see more value in Holly than Venis? Holly has a stupid face, buckteeth, a dumb redneck accent, nothing interesting to say, and is perhaps the most boring wrestler WWE has had in the past 10 years.

He makes Snitsky look like The Rock by comparison. Oh, that's right. Snitsky returned to Raw last night to face Val Venis. Daron Smythe has also wrestled Snitsky, but I am not sure of the result. I wonder if Snitsky had as much bacne then. It's horrible now, which makes me wonder if he stopped taking whatever he was taking when he got his wellness suspension in the first place. Those white lights during his entrance served to make this dude look extra ugly. Still, they are working his ugliness to perfection. Even his in ring work is ugly, but in a way that works for him.

The Bushwhackers 2.0 actually wrestled on Raw last night which makes a few dudes who saw them on the Ontario indy scene happy. Cousin Robbie and Cousin Rory whoa'd and yay'd their way down to the ring with arms swinging for their contest with London and Kendrick. They even stopped to lick a face along the way. Gross...

Anyways, some smart mark buttholes are begging that WWE takes the "handcuffs" off these two and let them show the world what they can do. I'd argue that just about every single wrestler on the WWE roster has the ability to compete at a higher level than they do on a weekly basis on Raw, but WWE has handcuffs on pretty much everyone.

Now what pisses me off is, these are the same people screaming about how terrible John Cena is. How many freaking t-shirts are the Highlanders ever going to sell? I'll tell you, 3000, because that's how many dudes that like wrestling are named Robbie, and will by a shirt that reads: "I'm Robbie!" It's just assinine to me to give these dudes a free pass, but come down on John Cena every week for two plus years.

Now to the beginnings of the WWE title picture. If you are living behind one of Umaga's ass cheeks or all three of Big Daddy V's breasts, you may have missed that that Randy Orton was awarded the WWE title at No Mercy, Triple H defeated him for it, Triple H defended it against Umaga, and then Triple H lost it back to Orton.

Now, many voted Randy Orton the wrestler of the week for the accomplishment of being the last man standing. I would argue that Triple H defeating Umaga and Orton before losing to Orton is a far more impressive feat. Still, I hate Triple H and everything he stands for.

On Raw, he squared off in a handicapped match against both Orton and Umaga. Finally, under the circumstances that he had wrestled three times the night before and was taking on Raw's two biggest heels, Triple H took a freaking beat down. Umaga got a measure of revenge on Triple H for his heelish and unwarranted sledgehammer attacks from months back. All the while Jim Ross screamed at how unecesseary it was for Umaga to rip Triple H apart with his bare hands. Funny how months ago, he popped a raging bbq sauce boner for Triple H beating the shit out of Umaga with a deadly weapon.

Triple H refused medical attention to walk to the back, because he is so bad ass. Remember, this is the dude that got dropped from a car by a crane and wrestled the next week. Last year, Vince McMahon bludgeoned him with a lead pipe, and while Shawn Michaels lay on the mat out cold, Triple H crawled around and attempted to get back up. The dude is a cyborg.

Anyway, the good thing to come out of the whole beatdown was that Triple H got taken out of the WWE title picture. Who got put in in his place? Skinner. Yes that's right folks, Steve Keirn returned to Raw, and apparantely he has kicked that awful tobacco habit. Wait.. Wha? That was Shawn Michaels? No way...

Ok, apparantely Shawn Michaels returned and not Skinner. Wow, totally fooled me. Anyways, now Michaels, Kennedy, and Jeff Hardy will be contending for our votes to face Orton for John Cena's title (I will refer to it as such until the belt design changes).

Now Kennedy has done relatively nothing good since he got on Raw, which has basically killed all his momentum. He jobbed to Super Crazy, was supposed to have killed Mr. McMahon kayfabe until Chris Benoit killed his family shoot, took a wellness suspension that stopped him from being Mr. Kennedy McMahon which I maintain was a blessing rather than a curse, and now he is losing in non-title matches to the guy with the gayest nickname in wrestlng history.

Somehow this has put him in line for a World title shot. Well, we Ken Kennedy fans will take it, because it's about time we had something to be excited about. The best part, the vote is in our hands. Now, I know Shawn Michaels just came back and we are excited to see him dance around and do his JESUS YEAH! entrance pose, but we KNOW that Shawn Michaels will be in the World Title picture and get his match with Orton. Why not make a statement by voting for Ken Kennedy? Of course, this assuming that all of Cyber Sunday isn't a worked fan vote anyway, which it most likely is.

The Triple H/Umaga match logically will get the fans choose the stipulation vote, as it is the only feud on the Raw brand right now with the steam to warrant it. Quite frankly, no one has enough heat to be with Orton in the Cell, no matter how good the match could be.

If you don't live in Mexico and you buy Lilian Garcia's album, may God have mercy on your soul. Go buy Macho Man's album "Be a Man" instead. At least it has long term comedic value.

If you don't vote for Kennedy for Cyber Sunday, I just don't understand. I have been trying to rally you for weeks. It's time to push the new faces of the WWE. Every single time we refuse to let go of the old, we end up in the same old funk. The business does not have to be cyclical. We could vote for Shawn Michaels and he can retire next year, or we can vote for Mr. Kennedy and build towards our future.

If you don't vote for Mr. Kennedy, you are as stupid as TNA for being in talks with malignant locker room cancer Kid Kash. I mean seriously, the guy has no draw value. If you are going to sign a trouble maker, at least sign a guy like Sid, Scott Hall, or try again with the Macho Man. At least there will be some return for your headaches.

Oh, and by the way TNA, your 2 hour Impact premier was terrible to watch, and I hate you for it, because you made one of my best writers, Chris Scott uninterested in coming to work.
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Beth Phoenix – Bringing Legitimacy to Women’s Wrestling

My idea of an entertaining wrestling match is a well-called bout based on a decent storyline with two or more athletically inclined individuals who have spent the time in the gym with the iron to maintain a healthy physique, featuring athleticism to move explosively, gracefully, and powerfully. It does not matter to me if they are men or women as long as I am engaged by physicality (maneuvers, bumps, and mobility) of the bout and the drama of the storyline.

However, for decades, I have thought that Women’s Wrestling in the WWE was lacking in these qualities, often changing the channel or taking a bathroom break when the Women’s matches came on Raw. After all, the WWE Women’s wrestlers have been marketed as little more than eye candy, historically.

What comes to mind as examples of this eye candy filler featured on the weekly programming?

Melina may be in excellent shape, but if I see her enter the ring with the full split under the bottom rope one more time, I’m going to vomit.

Candice Michelle may be shifting to a more athletic style now that she holds the belt, but I am having trouble forgetting all of her dancing in a circle like a stripper for the first year she was in WWE. My memory’s already too tainted.

These women are not the kind of stars I look forward to seeing on a WWE broadcast. I do not want to see fitness models. I can get that on ESPN2 a couple times a year and be happy. I do not want to see soft core porn. I can get that on Showtime.

Sure, Trish Stratus, at the end of her career, was very athletic, but her credibility was lost early on when she had the make-out sessions with Vince McMahon. Her televised matches were meant more to draw ratings from the 35 to 40-year olds who weren’t getting laid than to feature an athletic wrestling encounter.

Lita was an excellent wrestler, of course. Her time spent in Mexico and the Indy’s made her an outstanding wrestler. It’s too bad her career was shortened by her injuries, relationship problems, and that ridiculous boob job she got before she retired. In the end, a marred legacy.

Certainly, Chyna was a phenomenal athlete, combining plenty of gymnastic-style acrobatics along with her power. I will recognize that there have certainly been a handful of good female athletes in the WWE Women’s Ranks. But all three of these women I just mentioned are out of the business, now. The crop of truly athletic female wrestlers is all but dried up on our TV sets.

Until Now. Enter Beth Phoenix.

Beth Phoenix, whose real name is Elizabeth Carolan née Kocanski, grew up less than an hour from where I grew up. She’s from Elmira, New York. As a teenager, I had to drive past that town on the way to get to the nearest mall.

What the community of wrestling fans may not realize is that Beth Pheonix is truly an accomplished wrestler. She’s not just 5 minutes of eye candy like Maria Kanellis. Beth Phoenix is a true athlete. In fact, as the Iron Sheik would say, Beth phoenix is a shooter.

According to her wiki, she was the first female member of the Notre Dame High School varsity wrestling team. Her legitimate wrestling experience does not stop there. She went on to become the North-East freestyle women's champion (72 kg weight class) in 1999. She was the 1999 women's champion (72 kg weight class) at the New York State Fair Tournament and was named the most outstanding wrestler that same year in the Brockport Freestyle Tournament.

Beth Phoenix dreamed of becoming a wrestler, and she belongs inside the ring.

Her resume makes her one of the most qualified members of the entire WWE roster.

I am a strength and conditioning coach, and I can honestly say that amateur wrestling is one of the most physically intense sports, requiring some of the highest levels of conditioning in order to excel. As a practitioner of many different styles of strength training and conditioning protocols, I respect any wrestler who has risen to be champion at any level.

My hat is off to Beth Phoenix and I wish her the best with her career. I hope this article increases the awareness of just how impressive Beth Phoenix’ athletic background is.

Image sources:
Walking to Ring
Wrestling Team

-Napalm Jedd-


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House Shows Test WWE's Direction

On Saturday evening, I headed down to the WesBanco arena to get a glimpse of "Raw"'s Biggest Party of the Summer. I think that house shows can be a great indicator of things the WWE is testing out or thinking about. So here is a little report to let you in on all the action.

The show began with Sylvan and Maryse coming to the ring. Sylvan's hair is very blonde, but not a bleach color like Flair's. It looks like dude has been abusing Sun-In. Hopefully it doesn't absorb into his brain and make him go crazy, because the media would undoubtedly blame roids. Eh, ok, dude is probably abusing roids, because he looked big in Wheeling.



He wears like black spandex biker shorts, and he is a really ambigious character at the moment. He wrestled good old Hacksaw Jim Duggan, who probably got one of the biggest pops of the night. It was strange to me that I saw my first live show in 89 at the same arena and saw Hacksaw wrestle then too. Duggan got the duke in a largely forgettable match, but there is no denying that he was mad over for the live show. I don't think that translates much to TV, however. Maryse is very hot, by the way.

William Regal was out next, and he got a tremendous amount of heat. Regal defeated Super Crazy in a pretty good match. Afterwards Regal challenged guys around ringside to come and get a peice. A guy behind me told me that he would be more than happy to run in. I told him to go for it. He didn't. He introduced himself to me as the guy who ran into the ring during a local Black Diamond Wrestling show. He took a pummeling from then BDW Heavyweight Champ Nikita Allanov. The man informed me that he was on his way home after the incident to get his gun and shoot the Russian independent wrestler. Now that's heat...

Daivari had a great deal of heat as well. While I don't believe he should be pushed on "Raw", I do feel that he is underutilized. The man's character is a heat generating machine, and people still remember when he was getting a lot of face time with Muhammed Hassan.

He should probably be the Cruiserweight Champion as we speak. He wrestled Aaron Stevens, who was billed as hailing from Wheeling, WV, but we all know better. Stevens actually had a run on Smackdown, but that run was not enough to prove to fans that he wasn't from Wheeling. Stevens looked good, but eventually lost to Daivari. I expect Stevens to break out sometime before the end of 2007.

Cade and Murdoch defeated the Highlanders in a pretty standard tag team match. Not much more to say about that one.

Cody Rhodes entered and cut a pretty good promo about wanting Randy Orton in the ring tonight to pay for kicking his father in the head. Instead he got King Booker who was actually wearing flaming Booker T tights. Subtle hint? King Booker got the victory in a very good matchup. Before the match began, Booker told Rhodes to kiss his ring, but put him over as a future World Champion. I think that's putting the cart a bit before the horse, as Rhodes did botch a clothesline spot early in the match.

Any rumors of a planned push for one of my personal favorites, Val Venis are largely unwarranted. Val was over in Wheeling, but he came out as a special referee for a Candice/Jillian Hall showdown.

The match wasn't bad, and had a lot of false finishes, but I think it went too long. Many in the crowd hoped the false finishes would actually be the end. Candice hit an Unprettier to get the victory. Take that Christian Cage.

Santino Marella was one of the more entertaining guys before getting totally decimated by IC champ Umaga, who was actually over as a babyface. Marella appeared to have injured his shoulder during the match, so don't be suprised if he is not wrestling on "Raw" tonight.

Now for the kicker. I have seen Austin, Hogan, Savage, Rock, Triple H, HBK, Flair, Angle, Sting, and just about anyone you could want to see live, but I have never heard a pop like the one for Cena in Wheeling. It was deafening. There were pockets of Cena haters, but they could not overcome the thousands in attendance wearing his merch, and I am not exaggerating. Often I think the internet is too hard on Cena, as I feel his in ring style is booked by agents, not by him. Still, I couldn't imagine him being that loved.

If his match with Orton on Saturday is any indication of the quality of what their SummerSlam encounter will be, you guys are in for a great match. This house show match was the best Cena match I have seen since he wrestled HBK on Raw. It certainly trumped Cena's WrestleMania match with Michaels.

I would have preferred some Carlito or Mr. Kennedy, but you have to take what they give you. Still, if you are looking to find any indications of direction for the company from this show, the keys would have to be the Sylvan/Maryse duo we have all read about, the expected push of Aaron Stevens, and the capability for an amazing Cena/Orton match at SummerSlam. More on This Story...

R-E-S-P-E-C-T

We Want Wrestling! This chant has become ever more present and popular among today's wrestling fan.

Thanks to Vince McMahon, D-Generation X and many others, an actual in-ring product has been all but missing from WWE "Raw".

The straw that broke the camel's back was the abysmal Rosie VS. The Donald Skit that occured on the January 8 episode of "Raw".

At TNA's Final Resolution, the Voodoo Kin Mafia (who the majority of wrestling fans I talk to still refer to as the New Age Outlaws) claimed victory in their war against McMahon because of the way the "Raw" skit was received. Little did they know that a few minutes later, they would be receiving the same chant.

Former WWE Diva Search winner and current TNA Knockout Christy Hemme confronted VKM in the ring, leading a much needed movement in the world of professional wrestling, that has unfortunately been spearheaded by the wrong leader. Hemme began to talk about how women receive no respect in professional wrestling, an all too true fact. However the fact is, Hemme has never done anything to earn it.

However on WWE's "Raw" roster, there is a woman who has done more than enough to earn her respect.She is a former 2 time WWE Women's Champion and former PWI Woman of the Year. However, when the prominent women of wrestling are named, she is often left out. Her name is Victoria, and she has arguably been the most consistent in-ring performer on any brand of Sports Entertainment for the past five years.

Victoria's matches with the likes of Trish Stratus and Molly Holly revolutionized the role of women in professional wrestling. Her unique athleticism enables her to perform both military presses and backflips.

Victoria is the epitome of toughness. The WWE had enough confidence in Victoria to let her compete in cage matches and street fights. Victoria has done most of it with a knee brace on, because she opted not to have surgery on an injured knee.

Her first major run had it's legs cut out from under it, when Victoria was turned babyface at the height of her popularity. While normally this would make sense, the WWE decided to change the psycho character fans grew to love to a generic dancing character. Still Victoria was producing weekly in the ring.

Victoria has been forced to step back and give Diva Search winners time to shine. Both Christy Hemme and Candice Michelle have been featured at Wrestlemania's over Victoria. When Victoria attacked Candice, Christy, and Maria, her actions were met with applause by the audience.

Together with Lita, Molly, Jazz, and Trish, Victoria established a new place for women in wrestling, and elevated the Women's championship to a place where models with limited wrestling knowledge and ability could not compete. Fans wanted to see the four star matches that Victoria and Trish could deliver over the T&A of the new divas.

Still, most of the credit for the limited respect today's wrestling women do get goes to Trish and Lita. However, with both women recently retiring, Victoria has had the opportunity to step back into the ring with the new class of female, and to be quite frank, she looks more beautiful than she ever has.

Showing shades of her past "psycho bitch" character, Victoria has been one of the more entertaining aspects of "Raw" since November. She has consistently delivered solid performances against various women on the current roster, which is quite a feat.

Victoria and Mickie James, if done right, has the potential to be the next great rivalry in the world of women's wrestling. These two women have the potential to go to WrestleMania 23 and deliver the greatest women's wrestling matches ever, and one of the all time classics for any sex, provided that the WWE keeps their story going.

Victoria has been an often-overlooked aspect of the WWE in a number of ways. However, if WWE fans are clamoring for great wrestling, they need look no further than the fiesty raw diva with red streaks in her hair. If Playboy is looking for a best-selling issue, they need look no further as well.

Victoria has gone on record to say that she would love to pose for the magazine and I will go on record as to say in my opinion she has the most attractive body of any WWE diva, ever. That's quite a statement.

Maybe someday Christy, Candice, and Maria will do something to earn the respect that women in professional wrestling are clamoring for.

However, Victoria has not only been a featured Diva over the course of the past five years. She has won the first women's steel cage match. She has had incredible matches with a variety of women and men. She has been one of the most entertaining and consistent performers in professional wrestling. She's tough, she's innovative, and she's beautiful.

If we want wrestling and if we are going to begin giving women in wrestling their proper respect, then we need look no further than the master of the Widow's Peak.

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