UNFORGIVEN Preview

The Cards

WWE Championship Scramble

World Heavyweight Championship Scramble

ECW Championship Scramble

Divas Championship Match

Shawn Michaels vs. Chris Jericho

World Tag Team Champions Cody Rhodes & Ted DiBiase vs. Cryme Tyme

3 championship scrambles in one night so we can expect to see almost half of the show being allocated for heavyweight championship division. Other titles in contention - Divas & World Tag. After seeing what happened on ECW when 8 superstars were in a ring together we get chaos - and chaos leads to unpredictability. Nonetheless WWE has a knack for keeping the champs, well champs still after these kinda match. Of the 3 CM Punk can be seen as most likely to lose the title considering top notch competiton he'd be facing. Batista and JBL has been on the title hunt since forever and have yet to win the championship again. Kane's not far from the picture either since he was the ECW champion right before he got drafted to RAW. And Rey's having is comeback match and we know how much advantage comback superstars have. Level of playing field is even and the rules make sure of that too. HHH doesn't seem to have that much of a competition but then again factors such as his ongoing feud with Khali might come into play. The competitors, though not so much from the heavyweight championship division still comprises of extremely talented superstars and with all combined might give HHH quite a fight. Henry faces a somewhat more competitive group. Matt obviously persistent in his quest to win the title. Chavo also aims to reclaim what used to be his championship less than a year ago. Finlay and Miz also has proven to be fierce competitors on ECW. All this in mind Henry might have a hard time retaining the title.

Other cards includes the divas championship match. Maryse has for the past few weeks (and months) shown that she's worthy of a championship opportunity. She has what I find to be a "hard-hitting" brawling wrestling style. And I just knew last week that she's French-Canadian (at least what they said on SD). HBK Y2J - unsanctioned match: need I say more? heheh. I just hope HBK's injury won't affect his performance much since this seemed like the final battle between the two and we do expect a phenomenal match. We'll see. Also Cryme Tyme got their chance to win the gold facing Rhodes and DiBiase. This is long overdue but I hope they win it and put the titles on the line more than Rhodes and DiBiase did. My picks for the scramble (not necessarily who I think would win: Rey, The Brian Kendrick, Matt.

Unforgiven's official theme song is "Rock Out" by Motorhead

P/S: I just finished the Rock DVD (finally!) and will try to review it soon (too busy heheh). Next is The Legacy of Stone Cold Steve Austin which I've watched about a third already and hope to finish it soon (also trying to catch up with TNA IMPACT! - I'm about 3 months behind!!!)

FULL COMMENTS

The lack of updates is not due to the lack of activity: neither me nor the industry, in fact I watched more stuff recently than I did when I started this blog. Here's a quick wrap up of everything I watched after my last post...

RAW
Let's pick up where I left off: Adamle was named the new RAW GM and quite surprisingly I think he's doing a fine job as one. The Adamle Original though corny as it may sounds actually kept us entertained, pitting of great superstars giving us some great matches. The highlight of the recent weeks on RAW would be the Batista Cena feud. A 1st time ever encounter between the two was hyped by them winning the WWE Tag Championship one week and losing it the next. Not much of a surprise considering the fact that both tagged their partners with a slap in the face. Definitely a blockbuster of the summer: Most looking forward to at SummerSlam

JBL Punk's championship bout is somewhat overshadowed by Batista Cena match. Not even the drinking contest helped much in hyping up the match.

SMACKDOWN
Taker's back and so is Hell in a Cell. We haven't seen the Deadman yet on SD! not even sure if he'll be around next show. It's a teaser and the wait is just killing everyone. Oh well SS is only a few days away. Definitely the most looked forward to card this sunday. I mean it's Taker+Hell in a Cell, doesn't get any better than that. HHH vs Khali is also apparently being overshadowed by the other main event (Hell in a Cell) and they did tried to hyped the matched with an armwrestling match - with glass shards!! Of course it's still one to look forward to at SummerSlam.

Recent shows saw the Moscow Mauler Vlad Koslov seeking out competition but still not getting any but we might see that soon and it could be in the form of Festus. The Brian Kendrick also has a successful SD career after returning to the brand via the draft along with his adviser cum muscle Ezekiel. Might wanna keep a close watch on these guys.

ECW
Todd Grisham takes over Adamle's position as ECW's new SD announcer. Following Mick Foley's incident on SD! Matt Striker filled in Tazz's place on the announcer's table who's filling in for Mick Foley on friday nights. So much development on ECW I don't even know where to start. Mike Knox has a problem with Finlay being 'soft' but not sure if this is gonna be a long lasting feud but is a notable one nonetheless as it develops. Evan Bourne is probably ECW's MVP (no not SD!'s Montel V Porter). His unbelievable in ring skills is incomparable and just mind blowing. Apparently he trained in Japan's Dragon Gate dojo. Now he's battling it out with Chavo and Neely. Last week also saw the TV debut of the Dirt Sheet. Now I've never actually watched the show on WWE.com (I never get to watch anything there maybe they should use a new media player) but the show was hilarious. Hats off to Miz and Morisson. Matt Hardy wil be facing Henry at SS for the ECW championship.

OTHER STUFF I WATCHED

NJPW - New Japan Cup 'Who is the Highest' - A good show with a great collection of wrestlers from Masa Chono, Hiroyoshi Tenzan, Akira, Jushin Lyger, Hiroshi Tanahashi, and even US' Rhyno and Giant Bernard (a.k.a A Train/Albert in WWE). The main event saw a great match between Tanahashi and Bernard with Tanahashi beating Bernard and winning the NJ Cup trophy and prize money (weird for prowrestling I know).

The Rock: The Most Electrifying Man In Sports Entertainment - I only watched about half (it was too long 3 discs of about 2 1/2 hr each) and planned to finish it soon (hope to find the time) and write a review here. I'm not going to say anything just yet, will save it for the review. Look out for that soon (hopefully).

Saturday Night's Main Event (operation rescue edition) - Not much there but a bunch of good matches especially Jeff vs Edge (love to see this as a championship match in the future)

I think that pretty much sums up the last couple of weeks. Let's leave this post with a list of the full SummerSlam 2008 card and a clip of ECW's Dirt Sheet. Enjoy!

summerslam CARD

Edge vs. Undertaker (Hell in a Cell Match)
WWE Champion Triple H vs. The Great Khali
World Heavyweight Champion CM Punk vs. JBL
ECW Champion Mark Henry vs. Matt Hardy
John Cena vs. Batista
Montel Vontavious Porter vs. Jeff Hardy
Winners Take All Tag Team Match
Shawn Michaels announcement

Notes: The theme song for the PPV is Ready to Roll by Jet Black Stare and for more detailed info check out WWE.com's coverage as well as SummerSlam supersite

TAKER'S BACK - SMACKDOWN COMMENTS

On the last edition of Friday Night Smackdown Edge tried to apologize to Vickie and got a shock of his life when Vickie told him she had reinstated The Undertaker. To punish Edge even more, Vickie even made a match between the two at the upcoming Summer Slam. And as if that wasn't enough, it will be Hell In A Cell!!. It's great to have the Undertaker back again. SD has been developing into a more solid brand what with the drafting of RAW powerhouses HHH, Jeff, Maria and the rest and now that Taker's back and fact that R-Truth (Ron 'Truth' Killings a.k.a. K-Kwik) is returning to WWE to SD, things can only get better.

Also on SD a Summer Blockbuster Battle Royal ensued and now we have a new #1 contender for the WWE Championship. The Great Khali outlasted Kennedy, Umaga, Big Show, MVP, and Jeff Hardy to earn a championship match against HHH at Summer Slam. And by the looks of things Jeff and MVP might lock horns in the future after their confrontation at MVP's VIP Lounge.

RAW+ECW Comments

Last RAW we saw the return of D-Lo Brown. A welcomed addition to the roster and this might indicate more superstars returning. Punk is set to defend his title against JBL on Summer Slam. Batista now having issues with John Cena after a misunderstanding during an all out brawl towards the end of the show might lead to a face off between the two at the coming PPV as well. Also the ECW championship gets a new face lift: black silver color scheme (too lazy to upload photos haha) and Matt Hardy after winning the Fatal 4 Way match will have a championship match against Mark Henry at Summer Slam. Also it was great to see some funny segments on the show namely the backstage conversation of Miz and Morisson as well as Ortiz poking fun at TNA's LAX!!

Next up will be RAW where there is a possibility of a naming of a GM for RAW! Look forward to that.

GREAT AMERICAN BASH RESULTS

WWE Champion Triple H def. Edge

JBL def. John Cena in a NYC Parking Lot Brawl

World Heavyweight Champion CM Punk vs. Batista (Double-disqualification)

Michelle McCool def. Natalya to win Divas Championship

ECW Champion Mark Henry def. Tommy Dreamer

Chris Jericho def. Shawn Michaels

Shelton Benjamin def. Matt Hardy (new United States Champion)

Curt Hawkins & Zack Ryder win Fatal Four Way Tag Team Match (new WWE Tag Team Champions)

So the night started off with A Fatal Four Way (been seeing a lot of that lately) Tag Team match for the WWE tag championship. Two other teams are Finlay Hornswoggle and Jessie Festus. Hawkins & Ryder didn't quite pick up as much an impressive win but just like their mentor Edge: made good use of opportunities. Throwing off Jessie off the top corner and pinned him to take the title from Miz Morisson..as for them, they've had the title for quite a while and I have a feeling they won't win it back anytime soon. Expecting a feud between the two. One title loss for ECW.

Another title changed hand and yet another loss for ECW when Shelton Benjamin defeated Matt Hardy. After Matt's loss on SD a couple of weeks (or was that last week) this wasn't surprising but it's too bad that Matt had to lose the title. On the + side we have a great new US Champ in the gold standard. Surely this is gonna raise another bar in the US Championship division. With this loss. ECW is left with only the ECW Championship title.

A bloody (literally) battle between 2 very hateful wrestlers. It didn't quite end as expected though. After losing a lot of blood where HBK's eye injury was, Y2J took advantage and pummeled HBK until the referee deemed it a TKO. Shortly after the Divas championship match Y2J came out and announced that Michael's career is "finished" saying that he was diagnosed with a broken retina or something. This feud could go on all year and I hope it does: it would make a great Wrestlemania 25 card heheh.

Henry Dreamer match was even was even more shocking (not the outcome though). Colin Delaney had been flying under Dreamer's radar all this time. Eventually betrayed his mentor, pulling him off the corner and left some damage to his arm to ease Henry's job in retaining the ECW title. Quite an unexpected turn of events and I'm guessing Colin's part of Henry's click now as he should be I mean after what he did you can imagine what Dreamer would do to him so he definitely needs a fort: The World's Strongest Champion.

Michelle McCool forced Natalya (the submission specialist) to tap out to a leg lock (I forgot what she used..a figure 4 maybe) and was crowned the first ever Divas Champion. Well deserved win and hope to see Maria in the title picture soon.

As if there wasn't enough shockers already CM Punk vs Batista ends in a double DQ courtesy of Kane. Too bad really because the match was really good, and Kane had to come in and ruin it for everyone (except Punk maybe). At least Batista dropped a Batista Bomb on Punk, his way of saying 'it ain't over". Still can't figure out what Kane's problem really is. Guess we'll find out later tonight on RAW...you don't think it has to do with Taker do you?

I thought the parking lot brawl was reminiscent of the Rock Mankind superbowl half time show. Match started in , well the parking lot car's parked around them in a circle conveniently placed so as to be used as weapons. Broken doors here and cars on flame there not to mention honking and electrocuted balls (i know) and sometime after Cena thought it'd be better to bring the fight to the ring...well at least till the entrance area. When attempting to FU JBL onto the car, Cena was caught off guard and thrown down towards the car's windshield. JBL pinned him for the win and was helped out of the stage whilst Cena suffering a few cuts on his elbows walks out on his own standing tall - you be the judge.

HHH knew he had to fight off the whole familia so he thought he'd break them up first. Last friday night on Edge's wedding reception HHH decided to present them with a wedding gift: a video of Edge with their wedding planner Alicia Fox kissing just before the wedding. And what a gift that was complemented with a Sledgehammer and a huge panty for Vickie leaving Edge with a messed up marriage and a very very angry wife. Most importantly Edge was all alone for Great American Bash...or so we thought. Close to the end of the match Alicia Fox came in to aid Edge by taking the WWE title belt and tries to hand it to Edge but Vickie had other plans. She came out and gave Fox a clothesline (probably from hell lol) and it burst into a catfight. Later Vickie would take the belt and attempted to hit Edge with it but was stopped by the Fox and ref. Edge (probably aiming for the ref) accidentally speared Vickie and whilst stunned was finished off by HHH retaining the title.

Summerslam will be the next PPV set for August 18th (here). There was a trailer for it shown during GAB: movie parodies - hilarious with Indy and The Dark Knight.

Great American Bash

PRE-GREAT AMERICAN BASH COMMENTS

Reason why there had been a lack of updates is because well there isn't much to talk about. Since the draft I find RAW quite slow to in terms of development of storyline. I mean I only knew yesterday that The Great American Bash is just around the corner: that quick? Well here's my thought on the upcoming PPV


HHH VS EDGE (WWE CHAMPIONSHIP) Now I have a bad feeling about this one. Edge had always found ways to capture the World title and now that he feels like he'd been stolen out of the WWE championship he'd be hungry to be champion again and of course would most definitely do anything in his (and la familia's) power to win it. Yes I know he said he'd be in this alone but knowing Edge yeah right. HHH is alone on Smackdown and without possible help from outside associates I'd say the odds are stacked against him this Sunday.

CM PUNK VS BATISTA (WORLD HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP) CM Punk has said time and time again on RAW that he's worthy of being World champion. After facing off with the likes of JBL, Snitsky, and Kane over the past weeks his greatest test would come this Sunday in the form of Batista. Punk don't have a chance against Batista's power game but we've seen Punk's performace and it wouldn't surprise me if he comes out of Sunday still champion.

MARK HENRY VS TOMMY DREAMER (ECW CHAMPIONSHIP) As much as I like Dreamer, I'm gonna give this to Mark Henry. But if Dreamer does come out of this the champ, he definitely deserve it and it would be such a fan service to ECW faithfuls.

JOHN CENA VS JBL (NYC PARKING LOT BRAWL) What the hell? And I don't mean the match, I meant the final segment on RAW this past Monday. JBL supposedly rammed Cena with a car!!?? Well at least the match stipulation is something to look forward to. I don't get why JBL keep fighting Cena when he always comes up on the losing end anyways.

HBK VS Y2J Finally the culmination of the HBK Y2J saga. I just have one thing to say: It doesn't matter who wins I look forward to a great great match.

NATALYA VS MICHELLE McCOOL Now if you've been reading this blog you'd know that I think Natalya would win. On the contrary I have a feeling Michelle McCool would be the first Divas champion considering her popularity in the WWE.

Official Theme: Move To The Music by American Bang

*****

Note from the author: I haven't been following TNA for a while now. I'm still catching up. But I hope to do so soon so I can have up to date TNA commentaries to add color content to this blog. Speaking of TNA, if you watch last week ECW one of America's Most Wanted is now signed to the show: Chris Harris.

THE NEW DIVAS TITLE BELT

Would you look at that. So unique...and girly haha this is the new Divas Championship. Michelle McCool VS Natalya who'll be first to be crowned?


Divas Championship

RAW COMMENTS

Shocking and as they say Historic. CM PUNK cashed in his money in the bank the instant Edge was left hurt by Batista and won the World Heavyweight Championship, bringing it back to RAW. Now Edge got a taste of his own medicine and is probably after SD title: the WWE Championship. Target: HHH. I don't know how HHH is going to handle La Familia (I mean he wouldn't have much problem if he got D-X or Evolution backing him up). It's also possible that there would be a rematch clause (however unlikely considering the brand difference..not to mention Edge said he wouldn't appear on RAW ever haha). So it'd be interesting to see.

Not so much happening elsewhere on RAW. Y2J challenges HBK to a match at The Great American Bash and lost his IC Championship rematch due to DQ (pulling Kofi's tights...I think it's ridiculous). The new World Tag Champs the '08 version of Dusty and DiBiase didn't even have to face Holly (surprisingly) not even new challengers for the title. Cena's definitely next in line and I think he has a good chance but with JBL around as Marshall or whatever who's to say really.

I can't wait to see Rey in action. I was hoping he'd jump straight into the Championship action but I guess Santino had a different idea. But I think I'm starting to like the Santino character. Sure we hate him for being a jerk/idiot but you have to admit he is funny. Anyway would like to see more things happening on RAW (no no Jillian concert plese) it starts to feel awkward not having HHH around haha.

WWE RAW