Following up on one of my eariler blogs about criticism and how not much is said of stupid booking when its done by WWE, well, I’m looking back at it since there were some developments on a couple of the major points I made, mainly the tag team champions being pussies and the Scramble match.

So, first thing first, we have the Scramble match. I gave WWE credit in my last blog as it is somewhat of an original match, besides the Wrestlemania 2000 match (which I touched on), I don’t think there has been a match like this in 8 years, so in wrestling terms, its brand new and never been seen before (since wrestling works on 7 year cycles). Well, credit where it is due, I thought while it was a bit of an out there idea, it would likely work as it has an air of originality to it, how wrong I was proved. It turns out that in WWE, if one brand has something, the others need one too (remember the Elimination Chamber at No Way Out?).

RAW GM, THE Mike Adamle made the match, it was to be CM Punk defending his World Heavyweight title against JBL, Batista, Kane and John Cena (who due to injury has been replaced by Rey Mysterio, which I think will only improve the match quality). So, a solid line-up of main eventers. I question JBL’s participation since I pointed out he is 0-3 against CM Punk (all have been clean pinfall finishes too). Batista is 0-2 against Punk, although both were as a result of DQ’s through interference, so he should be in here, plus he beat Cena at Summerslam. Kane is in here because…..well, because he is big and they wanted him in there. I don’t think he’s won a match of relevance since about 2003 so in a way, I question his participation in here. And finally, we had John Cena who has been on a losing streak, but due to injury, we have Rey Mysterio who is just returning from a lengthy lay-off (wasn’t he feuding with Santino before he left?). His last win came in his match against Santino (who at that time was a walking punchline and hadn’t won a match since dropping the IC title). Based on that, it was a decent group of people who could likely draw a decent buyrate as there is a fair amount of star power in there.

But, this being WWE, that wasn’t enough….

SmackDown! GM Vickie Guerrero announced SmackDown! would be having their own Scramble match for the WWE championship at Unforgiven. Now, this wouldn’t be too bad, was SmackDown! not suffering from a very steep lack of depth. We obviously have Triple H in the match, his 4 contenders, Jeff Hardy, MVP, Shelton Benjamin and THE Brian Kendrick. Now, I am a fan of every man in this match. I think they all bring something different to the table. Triple H is a great technician, Jeff Hardy is great when he is allowed freedom to fly, MVP is a good all-rounder, Shelton, when he is on his game, is one of the best talents in WWE, and Brian Kendrick is someone I have been a fan of since his ROH work as Spanky. My problem with this, nobody in the match seems to have any real build behind them to make us believe that they will be able to walk away with the title. Kendrick got into the match because Big Show threw a bunch of jobbers out of a battle royal (and Zeke was on the outside to catch Kendrick and put him back in the ring without his feet ever touching the ground). Shelton needed Mike Knox to help him beat Finlay. MVP got into the match by a countout win over Festus (another jobber) and Jeff Hardy needed Triple H and a chair to help him beat Khali. None of these men have been built as potential challengers, they are just a bunch of random guys who beat jobbers.

Finally, ECW GM Teddy Long decided if RAW and SmackDown! were having one, then little brother wants one too, and ECW got itself a scramble.

Mark Henry is defending his ECW title against Matt Hardy, Chavo Guerrero, The Miz and Finlay. So, firstly, Matt Hardy should be in the match as he has been closest to beating Henry, Chavo has lost a number of matches in recent memory and got in by beating Tommy Dreamer (jobber). The Miz, the less talented half of the Miz and Morrison got in by beating one of the brightest stars on ECW in Evan Bourne, now while Bourne shouldn’t be in this match, neither should Miz. Finally, we have the man who couldn’t get into the SmackDown! scramble beating the man who cost him the shot, that part, from a booking perspective makes sense, but giving him a second shot? I guess ECW really is just there for people who can’t succeed on SmackDown!.

Well, thats all I have to say about that. I wouldn’t mind if there was just one and we had a singles match for the WWE title between Jeff Hardy and Triple H (being that Jeff holds a clean pinfall victory over Triple H from Armageddon last year), a triple threat on ECW with Matt Hardy vs John Morrison vs Mark Henry and a Scramble for RAW, it would change up the booking a bit, but having the same match 3 times in 3 hours looks like desperation to me, and with the report that only 6,000 tickets have been sold for the show only leads me to believe that is true, why else put as many names on the card as is humanly possible. On the bright side of Unforgiven, Michaels vs Jericho is looking to be a showstealer, but how capable will Michaels be considering he is basically working with one arm?

Now, the other point I made in my last blog was about the tag champions being beaten single handedly by John Cena on a number of different occasions. How about having Randy Orton come out on national television and call your tag team champions worthless? He told them they were talented, but come on, they were beaten by a single man. Why couldn’t they have had Priceless beat down Orton? He had just been on TV and called then worse than nothing, why not have them show some balls and kick his ass, instant heel heat as opposed to letting them be run down by an injured man? I honestly see Orton coming back at Unforgiven and helping them get the title belts back, forming a “Next Generation” stable with Rhodes and DiBiase, this was just a pre-cursor, but they still come across as little bitches, although in fairness, SmackDown! aren’t doing much better as they were in the aforementioned jobber battle royal. Oh well, at least they got their title belts back.

Just while I’m distracted, as for the Orton comments this past week on RAW, what is the point of publicly pointing out that your champions aren’t worthy? You may say “Orton is a heel” or “he was just getting heat”, but why in that way? He pointed out that every champion on the brand and the show itself is a joke, he bitched about how the heel champions were a “lovesick teenager”, “the worst Intercontinental champion in WWE history”, “Totally Worthless” and a “disgrace to the World Heavyweight Championship”. That right there just buried RAW and made it look second rate, at least to me. Was one of the writers getting fired the following day and just decided to change the promo for shits and giggles? Or did someone genuinely think that making the show look like a pile of shit would be a good idea?

Well, until next time, I look forward to comments being left, gives me something to read when I’m bored