cm punk, becoming full on messiah gimmick,

i noticed he had the stigmata drawn on his coverings last week.


Tell you what, that stuff with husky harris was a bit rough to watch.

Are you insane?

He's fantastic on the mic, you're completely wrong about HHH IMO - it was the other way round (Michaels was the guy who HHH learned from and should thank for getting on the map around 1997).

Re in the ring, you must be joking with that too.

Just remembered my favourite WWE moment of the past few years:

Charlie Haas impersonating Beth Phoenix

He did really well with that whole impersonation persona actually.

Remember been at the MEN Arena in late 2008 for the Raw taping. The legendary bagpipe music hit, the crowd popped bigtime, and out walked Rowdy Roddy Haas.

It was only the dark match, more fool anyone who actually thought it would be Roddy Piper!

He did Hulk Hogan the night before in Sheffield and some kid at the interval said "I can't believe Hulk Hogan was here"

shows just how highly regarded his skill is. And you forget, he has been wrestling for the last 10 years with screws in his back! Just thinking about that is insane. The performances he put on whilst being almost crippled at one point is nothing short of amazing. Shawn is and will always be one of, if not THE greatest of all time.

I look forward to your rebuttal as to why you feel he is 'no better than Christian'

AJ Styles isn't on the tour due to picking up a hip injury while at home with his kids, Kurt Angle has been added as replacement, plus Matt Hardy has also been added.

Smackdown looks like it could be a interesting show from reading a few spoilers.

If I could just add an additional foot note to the whole Shawn Michaels thing, the guy could have a good match with anyone. His ladder match at WM10 stole the show. The Ironman match with Bret Hart was an incredible story match. Hell, he even had a good match against the Great Khali

Gutted, am attending the MEN Arena show, was thinking / hoping I would finally see Ric Flair wrestle live, probably never going to happen now.

+ never seen Tara wrestle live either.

Should still be good though.

Yeah, little close to the bone for WWE PG.

Also, back on the HBK hating stuff, Gregory Helms has been tweeting about HBK and what he thinks of him

Is it true he hates him?

It's more a case of "This guy has had a more successful career than me and I'm likely washed up at 36 so I'm going to slate him and anyone else who's actually better at my job than me"

That's very believable actually. I know there's two sides to the story about HHH, HBK etc holding people back over the years but ATEOTD it's always down to whether you can or can't draw money. Bobby Heenan put it brilliantly when he was asked about Hulk Hogan. He said that the wrestlers who complained about Hogan saying he wouldn't work with them etc didn't do so because they couldn't draw money, no other reason. Classic quote - "Hogan would work with a grape if it'd draw money!"



However, HBK and HHH were hypocritical to slate Hogan for refusing to lose to HBK - HBK famously did that same thing at least a few times in his career.

has agreed that he has been a different person since his return.

Hogan not putting Shawn over was ludicrous, as Hulk wouldn't be around much longer and HBK would still be there afterward. Hulk should have done the right thing. Like for instance what Austin did for Rock at WM19.

As for Shane Helms...well...what did he ever do? He had a nonsense gimmick which although humurous was never going to draw money. When they turned him heel and gave him a more serious gimmick he just sort of floundered. Okay worker, nothing particularly special. Highlight of his career were his skits with The Rock when he returned as a heel. Some of the funniest moments on raw ever were between them two. Apart from that he never really acheived anything. It's not because HHH or HBK held him back, it's simply because he didn't have the talent to get over. Vince will thrust anyone into the limelight if theyre over. Look at Jeff Hardy, you'd never think he'd ever become a world champion, but he got super over, and vince pushed him to the top

HBK = best in ring performer of all time.

Alberto Del Rio = Best WWE up and comer for 5 years.

I don't know why WWE don't try and sign more stars from Mexico, give them a couple of years in FCW to learn the USA style and call them up.

Well, if Russo was still at WWE it'd be down to his casually racist belief that american fans only want to see american wrestlers

Dont think you can argue with either of those statements. Del Rio is a pheomenal talent, not only does he have the in-ring skills, but has the mic ability to go with it. Great to watch, and hopefully he'll win the RR and get a deserved title shot.

Well yeah. That's because he's actually earned his spot, he's not some guy who's spent 3 weeks in a development territory then get shoved on TV before he's ready. Del Rio has a family background in pro-wrestling and a background in amateur wrestling. He's been doing it for 10 years before coming to WWE.

Have to disagree with that bit Jeff - why not let them work their own (Mexican style) on WWE TV, which would offer fans something new and fresh, + help invigorate WWE's stale product. WCW did it in the 90's with Psychosis, Juventud Guerrera, Mysterio Jr etc and it is credited with helping WCW become the number one company in the world (until WWE's Attitude Era officially began in 9icon_cool.gif.

In Vince Mcmahon Goldfish Bowl World (TM) that means Del Rio had no previous experience before WWE then.

Russo would have booked RAW with 3 title changes, 2 face/heel turns, a funny backstage segment involving someone leaving a smell in the bathroom, then whipping a black man in the centre of the ring.

Before David Arquette beat HHH, Big Show, Taker & Kane in a 4-on-1 match.

Because unless they were working with someone from Mexico, which, if they get called up to the main roster may not happen, they will need to know how to work the North American style. Guys like Jericho can do both, which is good. But guys like Triple H wouldn't want to do many Lucha spots, thus meaning if they can't work well in the American style, they probably wouldn't be able to put on great matches.

The lucha style is completely different to any other style of wrestling, and from what i've heard over the years, it is the hardest to master and it is more difficult for a major star in Mexico to make it big in other markets, simply because of the vast differences in styles.