The Bell To Bell News Report 07.05.09

Posted by Randy Harrison on 07.05.2009

Your post-July 4th hangover edition of the Bell to Bell is chock full of news this week as I've got my thoughts on Edge's injury, Roddy Piper's DUI arrest, the huge 15-man, tri-branded trade in the WWE and a ton more. Not only that, but there's a couple of special guests this week as well, so click on in for a look!



Now that you're all full of barbecued food and more patriotic nonsense than you can shake a red, white and blue stick at, it's time for your end of the week dose of all of the wrestling news and opinions fit to print in the last seven days, The Bell to Bell! I'm your decidedly un-American host Randy Harrison and this week we've got a lot going down including Roddy Piper's DUI arrest, a huge 15-man trade in the WWE, Edge's injury and how it's going to affect the WWE's future plans and a final story that will speak to the school-aged boy that lives inside every full-grown man. When you add that in to the reports on all of the shows including the WWE's latest pay-per-view offering, this column is chock full o' goods and will give you more bang for the buck than those fireworks you brought back from Mexico. Yeah, the REAL fireworks. Anyhow, I've had enough hyping myself up and you've had enough babbling, so let's get to the news!

In the immortal words of Apollo Creed;


Ding Ding....








WWE The Bash! Results:

ECW Championship Scramble Match:Christian vs. Finlay vs. Jack Swagger vs. Mark Henry vs. Tommy Dreamer (C) - Winner: Tommy Dreamer (final pinfall on Christian)
Intercontinental Championship vs. Mask Match: Rey Mysterio vs. Chris Jericho (C) - Winner: Rey Mysterio (pinfall, springboard splash after 619)
No Disqualification: Dolph Ziggler vs. The Great Khali - Winner: Dolph Ziggler (pinfall, a million or so Kane chairshots)
Unified Tag Team Championship Triple Threat Match: Ted DiBiase and Cody Rhodes vs. Edge and Chris Jericho vs. Primo and Carlito Colon (C) - Winners: Edge and Chris Jericho (pinfall, Edge's spear on Carlito)
WWE Women's Championship: Michelle McCool vs. Melina - Winner: Michelle McCool (pinfall, Faithbreaker)
World Heavyweight Championship: Jeff Hardy vs. CM Punk (C) - Winner: Jeff Hardy (disqualification, Punk striking the referee)
John Cena vs. The Miz - Winner: John Cena (submission, STF)
WWE Championship Three Stages of Hell Match: Triple H vs. Randy Orton (C) - Winner: Randy Orton (wins Stretcher Match to win the Three Stages 2-1)


WWE's newly-rebranded BASH pay-per-view hit the air on Sunday night and to say that the show was mostly disappointing would be putting it mildly. Not surprisingly, the bright spots of the night were provided by the usual suspects who have been carrying the WWE's entertainment load in 2009, CM Punk, Chris Jericho, and Edge. Before we get to the good stuff though, let's wade through a little bit of the bad. The main event Three Stages of Hell match between Triple H and Orton was decent enough, but could have honestly been made a straight stretcher match and been just as good. They haven't done a Three Stages of Hell match in forever and this was a chance for them to re-establish the match and have it hold the same kind of regard as the classic Triple H/Stone Cold version. Instead, it felt like they viewed the first two falls as minor annoyances to get to the Stretcher match that ended things. One of the few gimmick matches the WWE has that's not totally over-exposed and they dropped the ball with it, big time.

The other thing I wanted to touch on in terms of the negative was the second-to-last match that had John Cena taking on The Miz. After weeks and weeks of Miz's verbal assaults, they finally had the chance to hook it up one-on-one and a lot of people thought that this could be the chance for Miz to solidify himself as a star with a win. Now I wasn't someone who thought that he NEEDED to win, but he at least needed to show that he could hang with Cena for a little bit and have some time to put on a decent match. Instead, we got an extended squash for all intents and purposes, with Cena getting a clean submission. The only way this could have ended up worse for Miz is if Cena had bent him over the ringpost and given him a little of the old "jailhouse romance". Not only did Miz look like a chump, but it essentially wasted the weeks that they've spent building to this. Tons of TV time went into this match and trying to get Miz over and in five minutes they blew it all away. Call it a case of one step forward, eight steps back for Miz and hopefully he's able to recover because while he may not be the next coming of The Rock, he was entertaining in the build to this match and has potential to be a solid star for the company if they don't completely cut his legs out.

It wasn't all bad for the show though, as there was plenty of good stuff as well. It shouldn't come as a shock, but all of the good stuff had a decidedly blue Smackdown-y tinge to it. Starting out with the Mask vs. IC Title match between Jericho and Mysterio, I had high hopes for this one based on the fact that they've had a ton of history and lots of great matches in the past. Not only that, but Mysterio is injury-free, meaning that he could go at 100% and not hold anything back. These guys tore the house down, much like I thought they would, and the crowd was molten for the entire thing. The finish with the double masks has been done before, but it was still great and fit into the scope of things rather well. Jericho can continue to rail on Mysterio and talk about how shiftless and shady Mysterio is for wearing the mask and cheating to keep it, while Mysterio can continue to print money by selling those masks to every kid in the country. That's a win-win situation if I've ever heard of one. Big props to the crowd in Sacramento too as they took the match from being a very good match to a great one just by being so into it and upping the excitement level.

That wasn't all from Jericho though, as he and Edge managed to finagle their way into the Unified Tag Team Championship match and steal the titles, much in the same way that they've both earned title reigns in the past. The match was pretty good and the fact that the Colons and Legacy went out of their way to not tag either Jericho or Edge into the ring was a great bit that added to the bout. While I tend to not like the mish-mash tag teams, I'm alright with it in this case as Edge and Jericho already have a bit of history and have at least a semblance of a reason to be a tag team. When you add that to the fact that they're both incredibly entertaining and that this could end up leading to the classic "mega-team breaks up after title loss" storyline that could turn Edge face, it's all good all the way around. Let's not forget that by becoming the Unified Tag Champs, they now have carte blanche to appear on Raw and ECW too, which will easily make them the most entertaining things on either brand. EDIT: This was written before the story of Edge's injury, which will be covered in the Main Event section below. Now all that we can do is dream of what might have been....sniffle...

The last thing I want to make sure that I get to talk about from the show on Sunday was the World Heavyweight Championship match between Jeff Hardy and CM Punk, the match that likely would have been headlining the show had there been a finish booked. Usually, I'm not a fan of a BS finish like a disqualification in a title match of this stature, but this one was done perfectly. From the way that Punk has been booked as a sneaky, manipulative little pain in the ass since he cashed in MITB, this was exactly what they needed to do with him. The match was decent and to be honest I was a little disappointed in it until the finish kicked in because I had hoped for better. After seeing the finish though, I can understand why the match wasn't their best because it would have been sad to have a fantastic match wasted on a non-finish. Punk's full-on selling of the eye injury, coupled with his "why are you booing me?" attitude means that his slow-burning heel turn continues on as one of the most entertaining things on any of the brands. As much as there's a risk of burning out the Hardy/Punk feud by having them continually fighting over the title at every pay-per-view, I have to admit that I would love to see them go at it again at Night of Champions with Punk going total heel on Hardy before heading into SummerSlam.

All things considered, the show was decent, but it felt like there was a lot more that could have been done, especially with the potential that this show had based on the card heading into it.




Monday Night Raw Results:

Night of Champions Tournament Match: Triple H vs. Montel Vontavious Porter - Winner: Triple H (pinfall, Pedigree)
Unified Tag Team Championship: Primo and Carlito Colon vs. Edge and Chris Jericho (C) - Winners: Edge and Chris Jericho (pinfall, Edge spears Carlito)
Night of Champions Tournament Match: John Cena vs. The Miz - Winner: John Cena (submission, STF)
Kelly Kelly vs. Mickie James vs. Rosa Mendes vs. Beth Phoenix - Winner: Mickie James (pinfall, DDT on Mendes)
Kofi Kingston vs. The Big Show - Winner: None (double countout)
3 on 1 Gauntlet Match: Randy Orton vs. Three Mystery Opponents (Evan Bourne, Jack Swagger and Mark Henry) - Winner: Mark Henry (pinfall, World's Strongest Slam)

Raw may not have been three hours this past Monday night and it may not have been commercial-free, but the show was packed with action from top to bottom thanks to guest GM Batista, who made his presence felt from the open of the show. I wouldn't want Batista to be GM every week because he's still stale as all hell and terrible on the microphone, but for this one night it was fun. Good news for Batista too in that he didn't break his wrist holding the microphone during the opening segment.

I'm not going to go all the way and say it was a great show, mainly because there was still a lot of problems, but there's at least some potential there now for good things to begin happening down the road. Looking at the opening match of the night, I think that it was a mistake to give away a five-minute Triple H/MVP match when that is one of the few matches that could be a fresh one once MVP gets his bump up to the top of the card. MVP didn't have to win as it's pretty much a given that he's going to be at the level he's at for a while yet, but he didn't seem terribly competitive against essentially a one-legged Triple H, which doesn't bode terribly well for his future. If he can't do well against a main eventer with a bad wheel, what's going to happen when he ends up pushed up the card and no one believes in the fact that he can win. They had a window with the MVP/Orton stuff when MVP first came over after the draft, but it looks like that window is starting to slam shut and it may be a while yet before it's opened again.

In another case of established star vs. rising star, John Cena and The Miz met again in a rematch of the Bash match from the night before, with the winner moving on to face Triple H for a title shot at Night of Champions. In my opinion, this is the match that should have happened at the Bash, especially with all of the build that went into the PPV effort. As with the night before, Cena submitted Miz, but in a much more competitive match that Miz looked a LOT better in. While this may end up being better for Miz in the long run as more people will see him wrestling strong with Cena on USA Network than would have seen on pay-per-view, I hope that it's not a case of too little, too late. There was the potential for a lot of damage after Cena's squash at the PPV and if Miz is to be taken seriously as even a midcarder, he's going to have to start picking up a win or two in big matches sooner rather than later.

The one thing that Batista did that shook things up a little in the main event was sticking Randy Orton in a gauntlet against three debuting Raw superstars. The first out was Evan Bourne and Cole and King did a great job in putting him over as much as they could for the time he was out there. Orton got the win and that brought out Jack Swagger. Swagger forfeited his turn with a countout and a handshake for Orton and with that the final competitor in the gauntlet made his first official appearance on Raw. Mark Henry came out and and echoed Swagger's respect for Orton and even went so far as to climb out to the apron before deciding that he wanted to make his mark on Raw with a win over the WWE Champion. Henry did just that, dispatching Orton with the World's Strongest Slam to a surprising pop. I don't think Henry is going to work long-term as a babyface since big men are generally better suited to being heels, especially those who are as charismatically challenged as Henry is, but it was interesting in that for the first time in a while we were given a reason to care about Henry. He's been the same generic character since the late-90's, so for him to be doing something even slightly different is noteworthy. I'm not sure where they're going with this since Henry isn't the most credible of face challengers, but I could easily see him ending up in a program with Big Show or someone like that.

The rest of the show was hit and miss, as Raw has tended to be lately, with more misses than hits. The Divas match wasn't very good, the Kingston/Big Show match was wasted time that could have easily been something else that could have made a difference in the long run. While this wasn't quite as good a show as something like Smackdown, it was definitely better than Raw has been since the draft, which is a good thing.




ECW on Sci-Fi Results:

Shelton Benjamin vs. Yoshi Tatsu - Winner: Yoshi Tatsu (pinfall, roundhouse kick)
Sheamus vs. Oliver John - Winner: Sheamus (pinfall, modified backbreaker)
Vladimir Kozlov and William Regal vs. Tommy Dreamer and Christian - Winners: Vladimir Kozlov and William Regal (pinfall, Kozlov's Iron Curtain on Dreamer)

If you watched ECW after the blockbuster trade of fifteen Superstars between the three brands, there was essentially one word that could sum up the entire show. "Who?". As part of the ECW Talent Initiative, the Tuesday night show saw a TON of new and debuting talent includng Yoshi Tatsu, Sheamus and Abraham Washington. Let's take a look at each debut one at a time, shall we?

Yoshi Tatsu: Not much to be said about him as we only got to see him in action for about eighteen seconds since most of the short match with Benjamin was taken up by Benjamin's pseudo-racist nonsense. The track record for Japanese wrestlers in the WWE doesn't exactly scream "future WWE Champion" for Tatsu, but I'll reserve my judgment until I get to see him in action for a little more than a ten-second kick and pinfall sequence.

Sheamus: Longtime WWE Developmental talent Seamus O'Shaugnessey finally got his call up to the main roster and for those of you who felt like ECW got shafted when Finlay was moved away from the brand, you're in luck! Sheamus is Irish and loves to fight, just like his departed countryman, though he appears to be a bit less gruff and grumpy. He got the Kozlov treatment for his debut, cutting a short, somewhat non-descript promo before laying down the squash on the hapless jobber across the ring from him. Much like Tatsu, he just kind of showed up and got TV time with nothing to really build him up or distinguish him as a face or heel, technical wrestler or brawler, so it's going to be up to the booking team to figure him out in the next few weeks or he's going to flounder without direction.

Abraham Washington: Wow. I don't really know what to say after that talk show, if you can even call it that. If it's possible to fail on every level during your debut segment, Washington did just that. Apparently he's been entertaining in a similar role in FCW, but this entire thing was just death. I mean, I'm not expecting every wrestling talk show to be the second coming of Piper's Pit, but this was heatless, hopeless, boring, bland and a waste of a good ten minutes of TV time. Not only that, but no one in the audience and I'd wager no one at home cared a lick about what Washington had to say either. Just awful and I wouldn't be surprised to see him go away in another couple of weeks if he continues to stink up the screen this badly.

Moving on to the main event match, this was actually a pretty decent little tag match and it helped build up Kozlov as someone who can be a serious threat to the title rather than ECW's resident squash farmer. The promos leading up to the match were solid as the Dreamer/Christian team had tension due to their battles over the ECW Championship and the Regal/Kozlov team seemed keen on destroying both of them. I'm pretty sure that if there had been better matches on the show and not a hundred debuts of people I don't know and have no reason to care about, I wouldn't have liked this as much, but it was the oasis in the desert that this show needed. I'm not sure where they're going with this new talent deal for ECW, but they've got a lot of work to do to regain their momentum and an even thinner roster to do it with.




WWE Superstars Results:

Santino Marella vs. THE Brian Kendrick - Winner: Santino Marella (pinfall, sunset flip)
Charlie Haas vs. John Morrison - Winner: John Morrison (pinfall, Starship Pain)
Zach Ryder vs. Tyler Reks - Winner: Edge vs. CM Punk - Winner: Edge (submission, Punk's eye injury)


The first three matches of Superstars were all either squashes or extended squashes, even the match that saw Tyler Reks make his debut for the ECW brand against the inexplicably popular Zach Ryder. Reks looked like he has some potential, but much like Yatsu and Sheamus, there's only so much that you can show in two minutes so the jury is still out on whether he's going to be any good or not. The Santino/Kendrick stuff was standard for what you would expect to see on a D show, with Marella being entertaining while not really being terribly good in the ring, while Kendrick played a great cocky heel. Sad that he won't get anything to do with that, especially with the promise he showed a while back on Smackdown, but I guess this is what he can expect until he decides to stop smoking the bud.

The main event saw Edge and CM Punk squaring off with Punk still doing a yeoman's job in selling his eye injury before, during and after the match. The match was probably one of the worst that you could expect from them as they were a little tied-down by Punk's having to constantly sell the eye, but what it lacked as a match, it more than made up for in advancing the angle with Punk. As I said during the Bash piece and will likely say during the Smackdown piece, Punk's turn is the best thing going on any of the three brands right now and is succeeding at being compelling without falling into the trap of sledgehammering the point home. Punk's subtle moves and facial expressions are helping paint a picture of a heel that fully believes that he's in the right and the fans have deserted him and that is going to be much more entertaining than just another heel that does bad and violent things because he wants to.

Superstars seems to have finally settled into its niche where we're going to see about thirty minutes of squashes and lower-card stars before getting a decent main event with bigger names. Much like I said when the show began, the WWE has a real problem with maintaining interest in booking secondary shows like this. Sunday Night Heat began as almost an extension of Raw, with storyline developments and even the odd live show heading into pay-per-view events. They had all of the big stars in the beginning before slowly petering down to a star or two in the main event with the WWE's version of enhancement talent in the rest of the show. Finally, they ended up with the show being nearly all guys that couldn't manage to get any time on the main shows and were battling to be the best of the worst as it were. While this show had the Punk/Edge main event that was quality for what it was, I wouldn't be surprised to see matches like that going by the wayside in the next month or two for main events like Dolph Ziggler/Khali or Cryme Tyme vs. Haas and Benjamin. I'm not saying that that's necessarily a bad thing as it gives those guys some TV time to get over, but it won't be the same show that it was when it debuted.




TNA Impact Results:

Cody Deaner vs. The Amazing Red - Winner: The Amazing Red (pinfall, Red Eye)
Eric Young vs. Rhino - Winner: Eric Young (pinfall, rope-assisted roll-up)
The Beautiful People vs. Amazing Kong and Tara - Winners: Awesome Kong and Tara (pinfall, Kong's Implant Buster on Velvet Sky)
Team 3D vs. Scott Steiner and Booker T - Winners: Scott Steiner and Booker T (pinfall, British Invasion-ference)
TNA World Heavyweight Championship: AJ Styles and Jeff Jarrett vs. Samoa Joe and Kurt Angle (C) - Winners: Samoa Joe and Kurt Angle (technical submission, Jarrett passes out in Angle's anklelock


The main angle of this week's episode, as always it seems, was the offshoots of the various programs that the Main Event Mafia are currently involved in. The Samoa Joe business continued as he teamed with Kurt Angle to defend Angle's TNA World Heavyweight Championship against Jeff Jarrett and AJ Styles in the Impact main event. I still don't know what they're planning on doing with Joe, but the way he's been booked has been so uneven, it wouldn't surprise me to see them have him turning on the Mafia next week. The match was decent with three of the four guys able to go pretty well in the ring, but the post-match was where the news was made as the entire Mafia laid a beatdown on Styles and Jarrett, only to have Sting emerge from the darkness to leave them laying before taking Angle's title belt back into the shadows with him. I tell you what, if this thing is building to an Angle/Sting match for Starrcade, this should be awesome!! Er...I meant Victory Road. And by awesome I meant a boring rehash. We knew that Sting would be turning eventually as they've been teasing it practically since he joined the Mafia, but instead of being something that could be remotely different and interesting, it's the same thing that Sting did when the nWo formed, just for a different reason. Back then it was about a lack of trust, now it's about a lack of respect, but it's all essentially the same to me and a real shame since Sting could be doing so much more to give credibility to TNA's younger stars.

On the tag team scene, the number one contenders for the TNA World Tag Team Championships were determined and rather than another match between Team 3D and Beer Money, we're going to get Beer Money defending against Booker T and Scott Steiner after the British Invasion interfered and cost 3D the match. I actually like the booking on this as it gives Beer Money and Team 3D new players to interact with, while possibly pulling the Brits up to a level that could see them being legitimate title challengers in the near future. The match itself between 3D and the MEM was better than it had any right to be as Booker is the only one out of the four that still has a little gas left in his tank, but even then it would likely have suffered if it had been given more time and they had all started to suck wind. If anything, the promos between Beer Money, Steiner and Booker should be some comedy gold if Steiner continues sounding like a lunatic and Beer Money continue to be the same funny, cocky guys they've been since they formed the team.

I would talk about the rest of the matches on the show, but they were all too short to really bother with. The one thing I'll touch on before walking away from this steaming pile is the Eric Young/Rhino match that saw Young cheating to win and Rhino ending up in a miscommunication with his Navy buddy, Jesse Neal. The match was short and kinda meaningless in the scheme of things, but Young is doing the best with what he's been given by showing a ton of potential as a heel. If they could get away from having every heel at the top of the company aligned with the Main Event Mafia, there could be a chance for Young to get over as a baddie and actually move up the card for the first time in about fifteen tries. I would love to see him gain some momentum with the turn before challenging someone like AJ Styles for the Legends belt or maybe a nice reign with the X-Division belt, but I'm not going to hold my breath on that one just yet. I've been burned too many times before in beginning to care about EY only to have the powers that be in TNA forget about him completely.




Friday Night Smackdown Results:

Ricky Ortiz vs. Finlay - Winner: Finlay (pinfall, Celtic Cross)
Dolph Ziggler vs. R-Truth - Winner: Dolph Ziggler (pinfall, jumping Russian legsweep)
Rey Mysterio vs. Kane - Winner: Kane (pinfall, chokeslam)
The Hart Dynasty vs. Cryme Tyme - Winners: Cryme Tyme (pinfall, Shad's STO on Smith)
Michelle McCool and Layla vs. Melina and Maria - Winners: Melina and Maria (pinfall, Melina's Primal Scream on Layla)
Edge and Chris Jericho vs. CM Punk and Jeff Hardy - Winners: Edge and Chris Jericho (pinfall, Edge's spear on Punk)


Smackdown's strong run of shows continued this past week, even though this one wasn't quite up to the high standards that the blue brand has been setting as of late. Like every other week, Chris Jericho, Edge, and CM Punk carried the mail for Smackdown, though there were some surprising performances from Rey Mysterio and Kane that helped push the show that much further. The best part of the show for me was the opening segment with CM Punk showing all of the footage from the Bash PPV to support his stance that he had done nothing to deserve the boos that he has been receiving from the fans. He did a tremendous job in getting over his point and showing that he is justified in how he feels, while still maintaining that edge that keeps people unwilling to trust him. Not only did Punk cut a great promo on his own, but the interplay between him and Jeff Hardy leading into their challenge for the Unified Tag Titles in the main event was awesome. The "Just Say No" to attacking him part that Punk laid on Hardy makes me very excited or the return of the straight edge dick Punk that was so great in the past.

The main event match was a good, but not great, bout and was more about the interactions between Punk and Hardy as well as the match-ending melee where Hardy faked an eye injury to allow Edge to get a spear in on Punk for the pinfall. After the match, Hardy admitted to faking the injury and Punk seemed very unhappy, which I'm sure will provide him with more ammunition to use on the fans and on Hardy next week. They're booking this tremendously as I'm not sure if it would have worked as well without Hardy's presence. He's one of the few faces that can always get cheers no matter what it is that he does and by allowing him to do some heelish things to respond to Punk while the fans cheer him on, they're giving Punk a huge springboard for when he finally decides to take the heel turn on and pushes the pedal to the metal.

Moving on to the Mysterio/Kane match, I was worried going in that it was going to be one of those disasters like the matches they were having on Raw when Kane kidnapped Mysterio and took him off to some deep, dark place after stealing his mask. Instead, we got a fairly decent tilt between these two that kept Mysterio's roll going for another week while allowing Kane to look like the monster that he is to re-establish himself as someone who can be an upper mid-card threat and a possible challenger for Mysterio's Intercontinental Championship. Kane has been gone and forgotten for a while now, so this was exactly the kind of match that he needed to get back into the swing of things and to give himself a bit of an identity on the crowded Smackdown show.

The last thing I'll touch on from Friday's show is the Hart Dynasty/Cryme Tyme bout, which worries me because as I'll talk about below, the Harts could have stayed on ECW and become a dominant faction within that brand while gaining valuable experience that could have served them well in the future. If the trade brought them to Smackdown to be cannon fodder for teams like Cryme Tyme and the Colons, then it was a huge mistake and it will end up hurting both of them a lot more than it will help.




ROH on HDNet Results:

Ring of Honor on HDNet was pre-empted due to the July 4th holiday. Look for it to return soon to the Bell to Bell.






MAIN EVENT


Bad news for the "Rated R Superstar"...

The Smackdown brand took a major blow on Friday night as Edge suffered what is believed to be a torn Achilles tendon during a house show match in San Diego, CA. If that is indeed what the injury is, it's expected to keep him on the shelf for the rest of the year and will force the WWE to change their plans for both Edge and Chris Jericho, his partner as Unified Tag Team Champions. There's obviously no plans in place at this time for them to be able to figure out what to do since the injury just happened this weekend, but from reports it looks like they're trying to find something from the footage on this past Friday's Smackdown show to explain the injury. Expect to see either Legacy or The Colons pick up the straps from Jericho soon after the announcement is made on television, or perhaps for the belts to be vacated with Legacy and The Colons fighting it out for the titles.

As I said previously this is a terrible blow to Smackdown as Edge has been one of the best performers of the year and was easily in the running to be considered as an MVP of sorts for the entire company. Since being elevated to the top of the card, he's put on great matches, had consistently solid feuds and been one of the most watchable characters no matter what brand he was on. Edge had gone through a good run of being injury-free as of late, but there is word going around that he was working around some nagging injuries which could have led to him injuring himself further. As much as that can be the case in some cases, when it's an Achilles rupture it just goes with no real warning and can happen just as easily to someone who is completely healthy as it can to someone with pre-existing injuries.

With Edge out of the picture, I would expect the Punk heel turn to really gain some traction now as outside of Jericho, the sides are a little tilted on Smackdown in terms of top-flight heels. Punk will be able to take some of that load off while Edge heals up and if we're lucky Edge could come back as the recipient of a face turn that could see him challenging heel Punk for the Championship he feels should be his. The seeds have been planted on a couple of occasions to foreshadow the eventual turn, especially in his address to Vickie Guerrero on Raw a while back where he was actually getting some strong face reactions. If he's out for an extended period it would make sense to bring him back as the hot babyface out for revenge because if he's brought back as a heel it would feel a little stale and warmed over, almost like the programs were put into freeze frame while he was gone.

Of course, all of this is just speculation at this point as there has yet to even be any confirmation of a serious injury from the WWE, but it's likely that we've seen the last of Edge in 2009. I'm sure I speak for all of the staff here at 411 when I wish Edge a speedy and full recovery and a safe return back to the ring as soon as he's 100%.


Featured Bouts

-- Before Edge's injury, the biggest story of the week was going to be the 15-man trade that shook up the ranks of all three brands in the WWE. The kayfabe reason for the trade was that Donald Trump had orchestrated the deal before handing control of Raw back to Vince McMahon, but you'd have to think that it's just a way to try to move some of the people around to try to shake things up as outside of Smackdown things have been fairly stale with the WWE's programming. If a hockey team isn't performing up to standards, they'll release someone or trade someone or fire the coach to try to light a fire under the rest of the guys on the team and I'd suspect that this is the case here. Here's how the trade broke down and who went where;

Traded to Raw: Evan Bourne, Jack Swagger, Mark Henry, Alicia Fox and Gail Kim

Traded to ECW: Shelton Benjamin, Goldust, William Regal, Brie and Nikki Bella

Traded to Smackdown: Matt Hardy, Finlay, David Hart Smith, Tyson Kidd and Natalya

As usual it looks like ECW took it hard without lube as they lost the most out of any brand while getting back some dead weight and a couple of serviceable hands. While I would be inclined to agree, it's not for the reason that you all might think. You see, while guys like Jack Swagger and Mark Henry had done about all there was to do in ECW, Evan Bourne and the Hart Dynasty were still using their time in ECW to learn and to help acquire all of the tools that they'll need to get over on a consistent basis. By taking them out of that type of learning environment early, the WWE risks stunting the growth of all of the performers, especially the Harts, who seemed to be beginning to find their way and getting better with every week on ECW. The rest of the moves are cosmetic as Finlay, Goldust and the Divas will all make minimal impact while Matt Hardy is injured and won't be back for a while. We'll have to see how this whole trade shakes out, but for now I'm concerned about this negatively affecting some of the young talent, especially a guy like David Hart Smith, who has shown some problems in the past when he was a part of the Raw roster.



-- Some sad news coming out of Hollywood as WWE Hall of Famer "Rowdy" Roddy Piper was arrested late Wednesday night on a DUI charge. Piper was pulled over and given field sobriety tests which he failed and was promptly arrested with a bond of $5,000 placed. While this isn't as sad as some of the other stories out there about wrestlers and their falls from grace, this is sad because of the dangers involved when it comes to drinking and driving. Nobody is immune from a drunk driving accident and we should all be thankful that Piper was caught and arrested before he did damage to himself or anyone else who was on the road that night. Piper has since posted bail and is likely on his way to Connecticut where he was scheduled to begin shooting a movie in the beginning of the week. There is no truth to the rumor that these actions were what caused him to fail the sobriety tests...none whatsoever....





The Midcard

-- More sad news to report on out of Mexico as two mini wrestlers, La Parkita and El Especrito were found dead in their hotel room in Mexico City on Monday. According to local authorities the two men, whose real names were Alberto and Alejandro Jimenez, were seen with prostitutes on their way back to their hotel rooms and that once there, the prostitutes drugged and robbed the minis. Because of their small stature, the amount of drugs used by the hookers during the robbery turned out to be a lethal dose. Both men were just 35 years of age. 411 sends our condolences out to the Jimenez family as they attempt to deal with this senseless crime.



-- In a lighter topic, this week saw the relase of the Rise and Fall of WCW DVD listing and for as much as I worried that it was going to be a white-washed version of the truth or revisionist history, it looks like they're going to cover all of the major moments in NWA/WCW history. Whether the documentary that will be included in the set will be factually accurate is a whole other issue, but based on the match listing and the extras from this set, as well as the aforementioned documentary, this is going to be an easy add to the must-buy list and will likely be in my hands soon after the DVD is released. Things that are going to be most interesting to me are going to be things like the Black Saturday and Bill Watts portions of the documentary as well some of the great matches from the NWA days and the height of the Monday Night Wars.



Jerking The Curtain

Another light week again this past week for wrestling news and after the success of the feuding family in the previous edition of the Bell to Bell, I decided that I'd find another wacky story for you all this week. This one comes from just outside of Sacramento, CA and goes out to all of those kids out there who had a crush on one of their teachers back in the day;

ELK GROVE, Calif -- A class of fifth graders in California got a shocking crash course on the birds and the bees courtesy of their teacher and an x-rated home video she accidently included in a DVD of classroom memories.

The error was not caught until after the DVDs were distributed to the students and their families. Parents tell CBS 13 Sacramento that the woman is a good teacher that made an honest but embarrassing mistake.

According to the station, the offending DVD starts with a menu screen that displays various school trips and functions. Click on one of them and "you see kids in a classroom sharing stories. They then start clapping and the video suddenly cuts to sex."

The teacher, according to CBS 13, called one family's home the day after the DVD was sent and apologized profusely, "asking the man and his wife to call every parent they knew to stop their kids from seeing the DVD too."

"All she could say was that it was a horrible mix up," said one father.

CBS 13 reports that the local school district is investigating the case, but that it is unlikely that teacher, who is well-liked and respected, will lose her job.

But there is good news in all of this. School officials say a new, more appropriate, DVD will be sent to students in the coming days.

I honestly don't know how anyone could be that dumb as to splice in a piece of sex tape in with some footage from the Christmas concert, but I guess anything is possible. If anything this is the biggest piece of evidence in favor of giving your files actual names instead of just numbers as that would have probably prevented the confusion that allowed an entire class of fifth-graders to see their teacher's vagooch. Don't you agree, special guest and true Shogun master of the Bell to Bell?


"SHO' NUFF!!"



The Final Bell

Well folks, that's my time and bandwidth for this week. Randle's in tomorrow as always and expect there to be some sort of pro-Canadian rant against the Fourth of July or something of that nature. No pay-per-view tonight, but rest assured there will be plenty to talk about in the next seven days, so in the mean time and in between time, I'll see you all right back here next time with a brand new edition of the Bell to Bell. See you all in seven!


If you're a fan of MMA, be sure to check out Nokaut.com for more of my work.