WWE HAS MADE AN ABSOLUTE MESS OF THEIR TITLE SITUATION
By Doug Brown on 2/18/2009 11:45 AM
No Way Out definitely produced some surprises this past Sunday. The biggest had to be Edge being the first one eliminated in the Smackdown Chamber, and then later coming out and inserting himself into the Raw Chamber and winning it. With Smackdown now in possession of the World Title, and ECW in possession of the World Tag Team Titles, this leaves Raw with only the WWE Intercontinental Title and the WWE Women's Title. Edge's win did leave a lot of questions going into Raw the next night. The biggest one being, would his title win be allowed? What we got were a lot of ridiculous answers.
Vickie made the claim that once Stephanie left with Shane to go to the hospital that made her the highest ranking official, and therefore she gave her approval to Edge being in the chamber. Where do I even begin with the load of crap that is? If they want us to look at what we are seeing as if it were all legit, then Vickie, who is the Smackdown General Manager, has no business making decisions about a Raw title match. She claimed she had board of directors approval, but shouldn't someone check into that, because Mrs. Guerrero-Copeland, isn't known for her honesty. If God forbid something should happen to David Stern, I don't think the NBA is going to go running to Roger Goddell or Bud Selig to make any decisions for them. Plus, Edge went out and attacked Kofi Kingston, and then barricaded himself in the pod. Edge made the decision to place himself in the match. Vickie couldn't have made the decision to replace Kofi went Edge ran down to attack him, because he wasn't out of the match yet. And why should that be Vickie's call anyway? What about ECW General Manager Teddy Long? If anything they should have called Stephanie on her cellphone, let her know what happened, and then she could order Edge thrown out, and put someone else from Raw (C.M. Punk or Shawn Michaels anyone?) in the match. And why didn't some of the other guys from Raw come out there, break into the pod, and haul Edge out of there? What ever happened to brand loyalty?
Then we get to Raw the next night. I was fully expecting Stephanie to come out and address the World Title situation, since I don't know, she's the Raw General Manager, and it is kind of her job! Instead, we got nothing. Normally, I'm not Stephanie's biggest fan, but in this instance, she should have been all over this. If they want her to get over as a babyface, then she should have come out, and put Vickie in her place. She should have said something to the effect of, "You don't make decisions concerning Raw, I do." Stephanie could then have Vickie escorted out of the building. Since they like to do the "referee's decision is final," schtick, she could then have made Edge defend the title against the three men left in the ring with him John Cena, Rey Mysterio, and Chris Jericho in a fatal fourway. That would have been a much better finish to this week's show than Shane-Orton 2.
A few weeks ago, I wrote a column suggesting that they get creative when coming up with matches for Wrestlemania 25. The original indication was that we were going to get John Cena vs. Randy Orton as the main event, which I did not want because they have already had numerous matches against each other both on pay-per-view and free television. Now they seem to be going with two main events that are even more stale in Cena vs. Edge and Triple H vs. Orton. While I thought their initial segments on Raw to kick start the matches were good, I have to question why are these matches taking place? These are matches that have done many times in the past on "lesser" pay-per-views, and on free television, and now they are expecting people to plop down $54.95 plus tax for this? To quote the great Fred G. Sanford, "Are you crazy?" It's Wrestlemania 25, and they should doing something special, not the same stuff over and over again.
There is still a question of what to do about the respective major championships. With Raw being the flagship show, it is stupid for them not to have their own World Championship. Does Edge jump to Raw, or does Triple H? Are they going just start appearing on both shows? Plus, how does it make Raw look to have the first guy eliminated in the Smackdown chamber come over and win their chamber match in the same night? They just did this same thing with Chris Jericho and the Championship Scramble five months ago. This is also the third time that Edge has won a World or WWE Title by inserting himself into matches he wasn't involved in. While it adds to his "Ultimate Opportunist" gimmick, it cheapens the value of the championship.
