NB: This column was originally posted on June 3rd 2008 on the original TotalWrestling.net site. This is just so people are aware, I am not refering to the current product as there is now a fair amount of original matches being offered.

I was thinking up some interesting topics for this blog and I was thinking about WWE’s creative team seemingly stuck in a circle. Here is my point. WWE, try as they might, are giving us the same match month after month for a long time. The thing I am doing as well is adding fact to this column, not just opinion.

First of all, there is WWE’s flagship show, RAW. The main event scene has been the same for over a year.

Wrestlemania 23 – (April 1 2007): John Cena defeated Shawn Michaels
WWE RAW – (April 23 2007): Shawn Michaels defeated John Cena *
Backlash – (April 29 2007): John Cena defeated Shawn Michaels, Edge and Randy Orton in a fatal 4 way
Judgement Day – (May 20 2007): John Cena defeated The Great Khali
One Night Stand – (June 3 2007): John Cena defeated The Great Khali
Vengeance – (June 24 2007): John Cena defeated Bobby Lashley, Mick Foley, King Booker and Randy Orton
Great American Bash – (July 22 2007): John Cena defeated Bobby Lashley
Summerslam – (August 26 2007): John Cena defeated Randy Orton
Unforgiven – (September 16 2007): Randy Orton defeated John Cena by DQ
No Mercy – (October 7 2007): Randy Orton awarded the WWE title
No Mercy – (October 7 2007): Triple H defeated Randy Orton
No Mercy – (October 7 2007): Triple H defeated Umaga
No Mercy – (October 7 2007): Randy Orton defeated Triple H
Cyber Sunday – (October 28 2007): Shawn Michaels defeated Randy Orton by DQ
Survivor Series – (November 18 2007): Randy Orton defeated Shawn Michaels
Armageddon – (December 16 2007): Chris Jericho defeated Randy Orton by DQ
Royal Rumble – (January 27 2008): Randy Orton defeated Jeff Hardy
No Way Out – (February 17 2007): John Cena defeated Randy Orton by DQ
Wrestlemania 24 – (March 30 2008): Randy Orton defeated Triple H and John Cena
Backlash – (April 27 2008): Triple H defeated Randy Orton, John Cena and JBL
Judgement Day – (May 18 2008): Triple H defeated Randy Orton
One Night Stand – (June 1 2008): Triple H defeated Randy Orton

So, there’s 21 PPV matches from Wrestlemania 23 to present day. With the exception of the Cena vs Michaels match on RAW which is the only one that springs to mind that I can remember off the top of my head. Out of those, Triple H was involved in 7. John Cena was involved in 11. Randy Orton was involved in 13. Shawn Michaels was involved in 5. Also in there was Chris Jericho (1), Mick Foley (1), King Booker (1), Edge (1), Umaga (1), JBL (1), The Great Khali (2) and Bobby Lashley (2). Of those matches, we got: John Cena vs Shawn Michaels 3 times, Randy Orton vs Shawn Michaels 3 times, John Cena vs Randy Orton on 7 occasions and Triple H vs Randy Orton 6 times.

This is my point that there is not really any originality in the company. The thing I need to say is this is just the main event scene on 1/3 of the shows. We saw ECW championship matches involving CM Punk and John Morrison many times. We’ve seen Batista main eventing SmackDown! along with Edge and Undertaker pretty much non-stop since Wrestlemania 23. Great Khali got a few title shots too when Edge and Undertaker were injured. In the midcard scene we got Matt Hardy vs MVP going on for almost 9 months (including the time Hardy was injured), Miz and Morrison defending the WWE tag team titles against Shannon Moore and Jimmy Yang time and time again.

WWE has a lot of great talent on their rosters. They just fail to push them when needed or fail to make any real stars. Look at the list on RAW. During the time from October to February, John Cena was injured, so instead of using this as an opportunity to make new stars, instead, we got Triple H again and Shawn Michaels again. Jeff Hardy did get a month but then blew it with his drug abuse.

People may think from this comment I am being negative about WWE or being anti-WWE, and trust me, there are times I am. The point of this blog is to take a look at a repetitive product. Something which has honestly turned me away from WWE in particular over recent months (until One Night Stand, I hadn’t seen a WWE show in almost 9 months). I just didn’t see any point in watching the same match time and time again. Hell, One Night Stand was a night of constant rematches. Batista and Michaels had faced off at Backlash, Edge and Taker had faced off since this time last year (with the exception of the summer when both men were injured), then as soon as they returned they were back to square one. Triple H vs Orton we have covered above. Jeff Hardy and Umaga have been facing each other every 2 weeks for the last 5 months or so, Cena and JBL were feuding heading into Backlash, then also at Judgement Day. The most original matches on the card were the Singapore Cane match and the I Quit match, these were the ones I was most looking forward to and the ones I enjoyed the most.

Well. Until next time, I look forward to hearing your comments and thoughts on this column to chris@totalwrestling.net