High Road/Low Road 12.08.2006: The Extreme Elimination Chamber
Posted by Chad Nevett on 12.08.2006
At December to Dismember, the ECW title was on the line in the first ever Extreme Elimination Chamber. Was it a good idea to have the title on the line in this match or was it a bad idea? You decide in this week's High Road/Low Road.
Welcome back to the High Road/Low Road! A brief explanation of the column: Uncle Trunx takes the Low Road (negative view) on angles, gimmicks, and other wrestling related "stuff" while Sat takes the High Road (positive view).
The Results for Batista versus King Booker at the Survivor Series:
High Road: 22%
Low Road: 60%
Both Roads: 18%
E-Mails:
These are all of the e-mails that we received this week. We do not respond to the actual e-mail, but the reply to your e-mail will be below.
Wesley Rice Writes:
As soon as I read what the topic was this week I choose to go low road. The match was the worst of King Booker's title reign, the way it was booked was a mess having Batista cheat to win was stupid. They have been building up Batista to win the title back since he came back from injury and he has to cheat to win, this totally devalues the win. If you want to hear more from me check me out on www.myspace.com/wesleyrice1
Sat: I liked the ending of the match because King Booker has been cheating to win, so it was only fair that he won the title. And SmackDown is low on competitors for the title, so Batista and King Booker can face for the final time at the Royal Rumble.
Uncle Trunx: I can't agree about SmackDown being low on competitors for the title. You have Benoit, Kane, Regal, Undertaker and Finlay all potentially involved, with just a little creative booking. I agree that Batista's cheating to win was a bad idea; heels cheat, faces don't as a rule of thumb. Making Batista cheat to win added nothing; if they wanted to go that way, why not make the match no DQ?
Nathan Carter Writes:
For the Batista / King Booker main event I took the high road, however I took the high road on ONE condition, and that condition is that they give the championship back to King Booker at the Royal Rumble. I mean come on, if the WWE is smart which I hope they are they will focus this year's "Royal" Rumble around Mister Royalty himself King Booker. I think that it was a good idea for them to take the title off King Booker because I would have been hard to keep the title around his waist until Wrestle Mania and keep the crowd entertained. I am one of the ones who say, "Why the hell does Batista need to get the championship back." I would much rather see Booker go into Wrestle Mania as champion than Batista. I have 0% interest in seeing Batista vs. Undertaker in the main event. Does that mean we are going to see Face vs. Face in the main event? Is Undertaker going to win the Royal Rumble? Lets give the younger guys a their chance to shine. Batista already had his moment, plus SmackDown still desperately needs new championship talent so I wouldn't mind a Raw or ECW superstar winning the Rumble and then jumping to SmackDown to face the King at the big one WM23. Just because it's the biggest show of the year, doesn't mean that you have to rely on supposedly the biggest starts you have (Big Dave and Taker). However I could see where the WWE is coming from as they would want SmackDown to actually have the main event this year after getting raped by Raw last year. It's a double edged sword really as you are putting a lot of money into one guy who may or may not steal the show. I have nothing against Batista. I think he's a great wrestler but sadly that's what is holding him back. SmackDown to me is still the minor leagues of the WWE (not counting ECW) Batista should either be sent to Raw or send some actual competition for Batista to SmackDown. While I feel that Kennedy, Finlay, and other superstars will be in championship contention its way too early for this year's WrestleMania. The WWE NEEDS to have another draft lottery and needs to have it immediately after WrestleMania. But again back to the issue at hang. I thought that taking the title off of Booker now makes this interesting on SmackDown as we will be seeing something new. Plus the main event was a good way to close the PPV. High Road for me.
Sat: The only reason that the title should go back to King Booker is if they have a challenger lined up for him. Right now, it would be easier to find a challenger for Batista than it would be for King Booker. You could easily build the Royal Rumble around King Booker as you described above. I really don't want to see Batista versus The Undertaker, but it is a dream match up and that will be the only reason that the WWE has to go with tat match up. SmackDown is holding everybody back. Batista was so good on RAW and so bad on SmackDown. It's pretty obvious that the main event talent has problems on SmackDown. However, I will say that the mid-carders are flourishing on SmackDown. Thanks for continuing to write every week.
Uncle Trunx: As I said above, Benoit would be a great challenger for King Booker, as would Undertaker or possibly even Kane. SmackDown does seem to be presented as the minor league, or at least the "second division"; you have Raw, then SmackDown, then ECW, then the feeder leagues (OVW). This is a shame, as SmackDown has some of the best workers in my opinion; it's less about them sending some competition and more about booking the guys they have to be a threat.
John Bryant Writes:
If you could put 6 guys from any fed into 1 Extreme Elimination Chamber who would it be and why?
Sat: Interesting Question. Here's my six, Rob Van Dam, Shelton Benjamin, AJ Styles, Christopher Daniels, Samoa Joe, and Shawn Michaels. I probably missed somebody important, but that's off the top of my head.
Uncle Trunx:
Any fed at all? I'm likely to fill it up with UK Indy workers, just because they'd never get the chance otherwise…
Assuming you mean guys that the readership will have actually heard of, I'd go with the following:
Finlay, Cactus Jack, Samoa Joe, Doug Williams, Shelton Benjamin and Chris Benoit. Ok, so I left one UK Indy guy in there. Go and look him up if you don't know him!
Matt Short Writes:
I do like the extra tab on the voting. It makes sense since a lot of the time it's easy to see both sides of the argument. In this case however, I am voting low road on Batista vs. King Booker.
The match was indeed passable. Maybe it should have been better considering that the match headlined one of the Big 4 PPVs of the WWE. A lot has been made about how Batista has generally lost the appeal he had before his injury. His in-ring work is just down in general and don't have much interest in watching his matches. But Batista getting the title back was inevitability and it was more of a question of when he was going to do it then if he could do it. When he returned he had a huge amount of support behind him. A lot of people thought that he was going to be the needed spark to SmackDown's World Title scene. I think his inability to have his grudge match against Mark Henry really hurt a lot of his momentum when he came back. And it just feels like he never got it back. His return to the top just lacks that feeling you'd expect in a storyline like this. Like I said we all knew it was going to happen. The end result is just a bit of a letdown.
The main event picture on SmackDown is rather strange at the moment. There are guys who could very well main event, but outside of the Undertaker, Kane, or Chris Benoit it'd be hard convincing your average fan that they'd be a legitimate threat to the champion. Kennedy is the most likely pick to move up to the main event on SmackDown, but the laws of WWE booking says that a heel can't win the title from another heel one-on-one. Batista as champ limits their booking decisions right now. With few viable heel contenders besides King Booker or possibly Finlay, the main event seems a little slowed down. Though with the Armageddon tag team main event, it seems a little calculated doesn't it? Kennedy and Undertaker are set to finish their feud and the winner of that will be most likely get a title shot. Finlay, who's involved in the tag team main event has been put into the title picture and can easily get a decent match out of Batista. But honestly, the man who could have benefited most out of being in the SmackDown main event would have been Lashley. WWE is quite high on him right now, and I think he'd be a better choice to be champ on SmackDown than on ECW right now (which is a whole other can of worms for next week I think.) Essentially, I think SmackDown would have been better off letting Booker keep the title for a little longer and trying to build up more heel challengers for Batista to face. But as I said, I do see Kennedy getting the next title shot if he beats Undertaker at Armageddon. Plus, Mark Henry is likely to receive a shot if he returns so that Batista can settle his feud with him. It could get interesting before its all said and done. So I'll hold out hoping that we'll see this come through well in the end.
Sat: Glad you like the extra tab. You were the only one to give a response on it. Good point about it being better because it was headlining a major pay per view, but I think that they were given the main event slot was good enough. I think that you made a great point about why Batista lost his steam. I don't agree with King Booker keeping the title because he had nobody to face. They could have done the tag match at Armageddon and then put the title on Batista at the Rumble, but I think that with Batista as champion, they can go with Ken Kennedy, Undertaker, and Mark Henry when he returns. Also, Uncle Trunx's reply will be next week because I had already put the column together when I got your e-mail.
This week's High Road/Low Road featuring...
The Extreme Elimination Chamber
High Road:
December to Dismember was going to have a hard time drawing a good buy rate. It was following a major pay per view and ECW is also not an established brand. That is why it is important for the Extreme Elimination Chamber to be the main event at December to Dismember. The Elimination Chamber has helped to draw decent buy rates for the last two New Year's Revolution and it could potentially do the same for December to Dismember.
Low Road:
Booking more than two matches in advance might have helped the buy rate, rather than throwing all the main eventers (and some mid carders) into a big gimmick cage and hoping people would buy it on the strength of that. ECW is not an established brand, but building some storylines and having them pay off at the PPV might have been a better way to raise the interest.
High Road:
It was a great move to put CM Punk in the Extreme Elimination Chamber. It allows the WWE to see where CM Punk is in his development and when he should be ready for the main event. I personally like having a youngster main event a pay per view with some other veterans because he doesn't have to do too much and he can gets some valuable experience. These are the reasons why CM Punk should be in the Extreme Elimination Chamber.
Low Road:
CM Punk had a great little storyline feud going with Mike Knox. Surely having that pay off at the PPV would have been more sensible than throwing Punk into the main event which he had no chance of winning? Including him in the Survivor Series alongside DX and the Hardys was a good test of how far he has developed; surely there was no need to test that out again a few weeks later?
High Road:
I felt going to into this match that is was one of the most intriguing Elimination Chambers because there were so many possibilities on who was going to win the thing. Was the dominant champion going to overcome the odds? Was Rob Van Dam going to get his revenge for the South Philly Screw Job? Was the ECW newcomer going to achieve his goal? Or was the upstart CM Punk going to win the title? I can't recall an Elimination Chamber ever being this intriguing.
Low Road:
I can't recall an Elimination chamber ever being less intriguing. It was an open secret that Big Show was on his way out; Test was never going to win as he was in there to protect Big Show. It was too early for CM Punk and they moved Lashley over to ECW just to be in the match. They might have put the belt on RVD, but he got eliminated early. As soon as he was gone, it was Lashley all the way.
High Road:
I liked the decision to get Sabu out of the Extreme Elimination Chamber because it helped the match and helped to expand the storyline. It helped the match because Sabu was definitely going to botch some moves. His match against Rob Van Dam on ECW was awful. Sabu was botching move after move and it was not a good idea to have him in the match. Taking Sabu out of the Extreme Elimination Chamber helped the storyline because it showed that Paul Heyman and the Big Show were willing do anything to keep the title. Also, this gives another storyline for ECW to use in the upcoming weeks and that is Sabu versus Heyman's group to get revenge for being taken out of the chamber.
Low Road:
I hate bait and switch booking. Sabu in an extreme environment could have been fun and probably helped to boost the buy rate a little. However, instead of that we get a storyline to take him out and they put Holly in there instead. I think the fans in the arena summed it up with their nice loud chant of "Bull s**t".
High Road:
My gut feeling before seeing this match was that it was definitely going to tank. However, after seeing the match I was impressed. The match was decent, but there were a few minor problems. The first problem that I had was the botched count when Test pinned Hardcore Holly. The second problem was expected, but it hurt the match. This problem was that the match really slowed down at the end. Again, it was the Big Show and Bobby Lashley, so I wasn't surprised. However, there were some great moments in this match, such as Rob Van Dam as Spiderman, Rolling Thunder over the top rope and Test coming off one of the pods. The positives of the match outweigh the negatives, so this match gets a thumbs up from me.
Low Road:
The match did tank. The whole event finished 45 minutes early and there were clear chants of "we want a refund". A few high spots don't make a match good and in this case they merely served to show what we should have seen. This could hardly be termed "extreme"; I've seen far more extreme episodes of Raw. I'll be amazed if ECW survives this sort of fiasco.
High Road:
All of the eliminations made sense. CM Punk needed to get a loss here because undefeated streaks get boring. CM got his first loss and it is nothing to be ashamed off because he lost to a talent performer (Rob Van Dam) after some amazing moves (Van Terminator and Five Star Frog Splash). Hardcore Holly's elimination made sense because it was every man for himself. Rob Van Dam's elimination was perfect because there was no way that he should have survived after Test's elbow drop from the top of the pod. Good job by the WWE for planning out the eliminations.
Low Road:
CM Punk should have been outside the chamber in another match. That way he could have continued his feud and his first loss could have been built up more, rather than having him eliminated first. That helped nobody and made him look like he was a lesser wrestler than the others. I also fail to understand why they had the three slowest, most plodding guys in at the end. I won't even mention the confusing, botched elimination of Holly because that speaks for itself.
High Road:
It was a great move by the WWE to put the title on Bobby Lashley. CM Punk should not have won because he hasn't been the WWE long enough. Rob Van Dam should not have won the title because he might screw it up. Big Show could have kept the title, but is struggling with his injuries, so this was the perfect time to get the title off of the Big Show. Also, Lashley has dramatically improved since his debut, so it was time for him to go to the next level.
Low Road:
So a performer who was not fit to main event a SmackDown PPV in a singles match a mere 2 months ago is now fit to be a world champ? This buries ECW even further. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if the whole thing signals the end of ECW. It was a horrible, rushed PPV with an awful main event. It honestly looks like no thought at all went into it and it was treated as an afterthought. And the WWE has the nerve to charge money for that.
Are you taking the High Road or the Low Road?
High Road/Low Road Plugs
We are taking the high road on these articles so you should read them...
Ari Berenstein has the ROH results from Edison, the ROH news, and a preview of ROH in Chicago Ridge and he defends Daniels/Sydal as the tag team champions in the Column of Honor
