Another week, another fill-in as The Payload looks at the return of The Game.
Dan: Welcome all, to another edition of The Fink's Payload, the only column on 411 that's for the people, by the people and all that crap. Anyway, I'm Mr. Wilcox, master of ceremonies, and with me are fellow Payloaders…
Matt: To all of you, I'm to be called "Joshi Lover".
Bayani: and playing the part of Rob Halden this week is…Bayani Domingo. Oh, um…you're all idiots!! How's that?
Dan: Last week you were asked to book the return of Triple H, and
while I thought that would receive a fair number of ideas, it turns out nobody really likes The Game and we only got 3 ideas, but here they are anyway. First up is P-Kon;
It seems to me, at least thus far that they will be putting the IC on Umaga, but what about Regal? I would love nothing more than to see Regal every week and have him strike down all who lay in his path and eventually take the WWE title from Superman himself! But they just won't do that...
Just before the Great American Bash, WWE announces via wwe dot com and on air promos that Trips will be returning to action, but it doesn't say when. Regal comes out to the ring three weeks in a row and works his promo magic. The jist of it basically being that the e is creaming over HHH returning and don't seem to have anything for him to do. So he decides to go over them and challenge Triple H upon his return. And after three weeks of challenges and h not coming out, regal is convinced that he is a "bloody coward" and demands the ref raise his hand in victory as a result of a forfeit. In the middle of Regal's victory announcement HHH's music hits and the crowd eats it up. Regal looks scared. A short time later the music stops and Regal
laughs a hearty British laugh. He announces that he had them all fooled and he was behind the music playing. As he is laughing and explaining, Trips hops from out of the crowd and slides in the ring behind Regal. The crowd cheers and, realizing something isn't right, Regal turns around into a smile followed by a pedigree.
Next week HHH fights a squash match agains Davari or someone to shake off
the rust then addresses the crowd to let everyone know that he is back and better than ever. Regal comes out and expresses his disgust in the way HHH attacked him saying that if he were a man he would have met him face to face instead of ambushing him from behind. Triple H distinctly remembers looking into his eyes before he pedigreed him to hell, but Regal disagrees. Trips stares at Regal and says that he is face to face with him right now and asks him what he wants to do next. Regal tells him to turn around. Trips ponders whether or not its a trick but turns around just as young randall Orton sneeks up and hits H with an RKO. then the beatdown on trips by Regal and
Orton. the following week sees H challenge Regal that night followed by Orton at
Summerslam. regal says that isnt fair but agrees with the added stipulation that should regal win tonight, he will team up with Orton in a handicap match against the H's at SS. trips agrees. Regal and Hunter face off in a match that ends in a no contest following interference by Randy. regal and Orton walk up the ramp in celebration as trips makes it to his feet and coach comes out with a mic. He says in order to satisfy both parties agreement it will be William Regal and Randy Orton vs Triple H in a gauntlet match at SS!
the week before the big party sees the Regal version of it all as he and RKO team up against trips in a hadicap match. Lots of tom-foolery and heel antics prevail as regal and Orton pin H at the same time following an RKO for the big double u.
Summerslam is here and Trips is pissed. Regal is his first opponent. Following an average length match Regal gets the intentional DQ, followed by a hefty beatdown on Hunter. regal smirks and leaves whats left of HHH in the ring for Orton to deal with. Orton comes out and delivers an RKO to H and goes for the pin but H kicks out. After some headlocks and multiple pin attemps, Trips begins to mount a comeback. It turns into a real match with HHH scoring the pinfall and the W in the gauntlet match.
You get the feud we all know is going to happen with added Regal! Put that in your pipe and smoke it!
I'm sorry that was dumb.
Dan: To be honest, that really wasn't one of your better ideas P-Kon. You have The Game, Triple H, arguably the biggest Superstar in the E at the moment, and his first match back is against Daivari, his first feud is against Regal and it all just seems unimportant. I suspect that he will feud with Orton, but why pair the Legend Killer up with Regal? Too farfetched for my liking.
Matt: I have to agree with Brutha Dan here. Honestly, this just makes no logical sense. When Trips comes back he should be put right back into the top of the card where he belongs.
Bayani: Wow, someone has a Regal fetish I see? At this point there is a better chance of William Regal donning knickers, a page boy hair cut, and skipping down to the ring singing "Berries and Cream, Berries and Cream" than there is of him feuding 1 on 1 with HHH. My guess is it's either Randy or Kennedy that goes 1 on 1 with the Game…which of course ends up in a squash that Trips will call a "rub".
Dan: Next up is Simon;
Okay, I like the sound of this one because you can take it so many places and it's so open-ended. So here goes (by the way, I'm going to stick with working talent and not go down the road of SO many of your contributors and say "Austin comes back, wins a match, Stunners Vince, then drinks beer, then punches another woman......)
Okay, we start at the main event of TGAB, Cena vs. Lashley. Now, I really don't like the way the E are giving us this at such an unimportant event. These are the two strongest faces in the company right now, seems stupid. But anyway, to salvage the "big" feel to this feud and to keep both men strong, the match here somehow ends up with a double pin, leaving us with no idea as to what the hell this means.
Next night on Raw, Coach comes out with the blinged up title belt (boooooooooo) and explains the situation, he is about to make a decision when Cena comes out, cuts him off, explains that he has been the champ for nearly a year (remember 1999 and 2000 when it changed every two months!) and that since he was the champ before, he should be now. Lashley comes out after that and says, hopefully in short because he just sounds awkward, that since he never lost the EC dub' title, and pinned Cena, that means he should reign. Cena and Lashley face off and are about to kill each other until Coach comes between them. He says that NEITHER man is the champion and
that he will make a statement on the future of the title on next week's Raw. He eats a spear and an FU and Cena and Lashley stare each other down with the belt on the ground in between them to end the show. The next week, Coach announces the "Biggest Match of the Summer" for Summerslam. There will be an 8-man, over-the-top rope battle royale. The last two men will then fight to a pinfall/submission finish for the WWE title. Cena comes out, says this is completely unfair yada yada yada.
Lashley comes out and tells him to stop complaining, they face each other off again, big cheers from the crowd then they look at Coach and are about to injure him but Kennedy runs out from under the ring and lays both men out with a chair. Coach then introduces us to his "pick" for Summerslam....Kennedeeeeeee.
Come Summerslam,it gets to the eight man. We have Cena, Lashley, Kennedy,
Booker, Orton, Jeff Hardy, Umaga and Snitsky. Jeff goes first, then Snitsky. Then Orton, then Booker. Umaga gets double teamed out by Cena-Lashley and we're down to 3. Coach strolls down and goads Cena and Lashley after throwing Kenn-dog a chair. He lays them out and throws Lashley over, Kennedy vs. Cena. Cena is out cold and Kennedy is about to pin him when "(back-slide) It's all about the Gaymmmm and how you playyy it!" Triple H makes his big comeback, fully attired in wrestling gear, clotheslines Coach on the ramp and hits the ring. Kennedy is completely shocked as The Game beats him down. He pins Cena's lifeless body after ordering the ref to count and throws him over the top for good measure. He then Pedigrees Kennedy and
orders the ref to count him down as well. 1-2-3. HHH walks out of Summerslam with the belt.
Raw the next night, Coach and Kennedy come out and say that Kennedy is the rightful WWE champion and that HHH has literally ruined the title match and
stolen the title belt. Cena and Lashley will argue that they were not legitimately eliminated but it will be pointed out that they were thrown over the top rope and pinned respectively before Kennedy was gone. They will slowly be out of the picture in this angle now because their program will eventually become so intense between each other that it will distract them out of this arc. Kennedy calls The Game out but he doesn't show. There is no sign of HHH backstage either so Coach decides to use this to his advantage and says that the scheduled main event for the evening is Jonathan Coachman vs. HHH. If Coach wins, Kennedy will officially be WWE Champion. If HHH wins, he will be officially granted an undisputed Championship match at Unforgiven against Kennedy. "As if that would happen!". That night,
Coach comes out to the ring for the "match" and gets on the mic, saying Trips
isn't man enough to even appear in the building. He orders the ref to start the match and count HHH out, a la Bischoff vs. McMahon 1998. "1.....2.....3....". "That's right Triple H, you're gonna lose to The Coach and you ain't getting that title shot!" "(back slide) It's all about the gaymmeeee and how you play it!". Game hits the ring, squashes Coach and sets up the match. Show goes off the air with HHH and Kennedy staring each other down from the ring to the ramp.
After that, you can go one way or the other. I'd personally make HHH get screwed at Unforgiven and have him chase the title down. I aimed here to have a more surprising style of booking, something which the WWE has lacked the last 5 years, trying to combine the Attitude Era with the current one.
All thoughts much appreciated and I'd love to see this go up.
Great column every week by the way guys, keep it up!
Simon "The Stealer", Ireland.
Dan: There are things I really like about this, and things I really don't like about this. The idea of Cena and Lashley going to a draw at The Bash sounds fine to me, and though the set up of the Summerslam match has a few gaps of logic, it's Coach so it's all possible. The 8 man battle royal thing is a good concept and all, and it'll get guys on the card that deserve to be on the card, so I'm OK with that. Kennedy feuding with Triple H is fine with me as well, so we're OK so far. But your idea lacks logic in a lot of places. Cena and Lashley wrestle to a draw, so surely Cena should
retain? And are you intentionally turning Cena into a pussy heel? Do wrestlers usually walk out in the middle of title matches and pin one of the competitors? This ain't ECW my friend. The ideas in general are good, but this just needs a little refining.
Bayani: HHH and KK feuding is fine by me, but it's waaaay too soon to throw Trips into the title mix already. He'll come back as an Uber face, yet again,
and he'd be well off fighting Orton or Kennedy away from the belt because the title scene is just so crowded right now. He has proven time and time again to be a better heel champ than a face champ so while him and Kennedy are feuding in the upper mid-card it gives Cena/Lashley some time to develop. A double pin though is a good idea, maybe something like the "Ultimate Fighter Finale" where that dude DDT'ed
himself the same time he gave the other guy the spinebuster and he tapped. Classic. Just classic.
Matt: Dan's points are pretty valid though I'm only down with this plan if the Cena vs. Lashley match goes on for about a minute. That would make the Bash the best PPV ever. Give the rest of the time to somebody who doesn't put me to sleep. Oh, did I upset anybody? What I enjoy the most about your idea is the 8-Man tag. More guys at the top that deserve it the better. Too bad it isn't a 6-man without the two I really could do without.
Dan: Here's hoping Andrew can get us on track with this final entry;
Hello,
I am really excited for Triple H's return in August. I have heard rumors that Shawn Michaels will be back in time for Survivor Series, so I've used that information in my fantasy booking. Enjoy.
Summerslam- Triple H versus Randy Orton (Street Fight)- This is what I've been hearing is in the books already, so I used it as a starting point. There is no way Orton should win this match, either. Triple H has his moment in the sun. Later that night, John Cena defeats Bobby Lashley to retain the WWE Championship in the main event. It is a controversial win: Lashley shows desperation by bringing the belt into the ring, swings, misses, drops the belt, and Cena winds up using it when the referee's back is turned. Oooh, drama. The next night, Hunter opens up Raw and says he is ready to take back his WWE Championship. John Cena comes out, they go face to face, and we get a big... tease. Coachman (or Regal, whoever) shows up on the ramp and announces that he is sick of the way the championship has been treated lately. If its not the challengers breaking rules to get the belt, he says, its the champion breaking rules to keep it. He decides that there will be two triple threat matches that night, with the winners of these two matches going on to challenge John Cena at the next pay per view in a triple threat match for the title. The matches are made: Triple H vs Umaga vs Mr. Kennedy and Randy Orton vs Lashley vs King Booker. Trips and Randy win the matches, and the feud continues...
Unforgiven- Triple H versus John Cena versus Randy Orton (Triple Threat for the WWE Championship)- Well, HHH gets his title shot, and get this! The championship picture is now wrapped up with the Triple H/Randy Orton feud, which is a result of the DX/Rated RKO feud that started in late 2006, which began because Randy was still pissed at Triple H for taking his only world title at this event in 2004. Wow. I'd be impressed to see this kind of continuity. Anyways, this match should be pretty good, as all three men have history with each other and if Triple H is as big a face as we think he will be, I would like to see Cena play dirtier just to keep his title. It could
give some spark to his character, as he'll be just trying to keep the title from HHH and that in itself will get him booed. I pick Cena to retain here, probably by sneaking up on Triple H and delivering the FU right after Orton had just gotten a pedigree, and then pinning Randy.
Over the next month (or three weeks, whatever the period between PPVs is) the Orton saga is going to come to a close. Triple H gets more violent, since Randy is now to blame for his injury and his lack of championship gold. Leading up to No Mercy, Randy Orton plays chickenshit heel and avoids the Game, so the natural culmination to this feud is, of course, a Hell in a Cell match.
No Mercy- Triple H versus Randy Orton (Hell in a Cell)- Brutal. Bloody. I don't think Randy has a chance. Maybe he can go on hiatus after this match or something, because Triple H is going to look so good beating this kid into a pulp. That same night, John Cena retains against King Booker to keep the championship.
The next night, Triple H again opens the RAW show by talking about how great he is and how he wants the belt around his waist. John Cena shows up and says he is ready anytime, anywhere... TEASE! The two are interrupted again by Coachman. He says that Triple H just had a title shot a month or so ago, and while destroying Randy Orton is a good start, he has to prove himself in order to receive another shot at the title. Even though Survivor Series is only a month away, there is still the Cyber Sunday pay per view where Triple H must face an unnamed opponent and put his title shot on the line. Similar to Batista's recent "Do or Die" match, if HHH wins, he will receive a title shot at Survivor Series, and if he loses, he will move back to the bottom of the ladder. John Cena eagerly agrees to the stipulation. But who will the unnamed opponent be? Coachman says that anyone employed by WWE is available, and the fans will get to choose the person responsible for picking Triple H's opponent (since every match has to be fan-interactive). The choices are: Coachman, John Cena, or a random selection. This gives a certain amount of mystery to the voting. We can safely assume that Coachman will give him a tough opponent, but what about Cena? Does he want to test his possible competition or does he want the match so much that he would pick an easy opponent just to make it official? And what kind of crazy name would a completely random selection bring to the table?
Cyber Sunday- The Triple H #1 Contender Challenge- Well, who knows who the
fans will pick? The answer is that it doesn't matter. It's the Great Khali either way. As a Coachman opponent, he is big and scary and might stand in the way of Hunter's title quest. As a Cena pick, he is a guy that Cena already beat up a few times and a good test of the Game's skills before the big showdown. And as a random selection, well, who the hell is going to vote for random selection? I guess he is kind of random, though. Triple H wins. Later on in the show, John Cena participates in the second-ever Champion of Champions match against Edge (World Champion) and CM Punk (ECW Champion). Edge's title was on the line, and he got himself counted out, or
something similarly nefarious, so he retains.
Survivor Series- Triple H versus John Cena (WWE Championship)- The big one.
It should be a real main-event type of showcase, with Triple H playing the huge babyface taking back his championship and John Cena playing the resourceful, young titleholder. I can see them doing a number of things with this, but the story I want to see involves Shawn Michaels making his return (completely unannounced, or as close to it as they can get) and superkicking the hell out of John Cena. Triple H takes the title that night and we get a huge DX reunion to close out the Survivor Series... until Shawn Michaels delivers the sweet chin music to Triple H! He gives the camera a
Dastardly grin as he signals that he is back and he wants the title, then walks away
from the ring. John Cena got screwed, Triple H won the title but got turned on by his friend, and Shawn Michaels turns heel... all on the tenth anniversary of the Montreal Screwjob.
Well, I don't know exactly where the story might go from here. Triple H is the new WWE Champion and should be a huge face, while bad-guy Shawn Michaels will be his challenger. They could have matches at Armageddon, NYR and the Royal Rumble and maybe trade the championship. John Cena should stay in the picture since he was screwed out of his title and it would be more interesting to watch his character, with a new attitude, chase the title and maybe win it back around Wrestlemania. I think that this booking would keep Triple H as a face longer than most scenarios since he almost naturally seems to drift back to the heel side of things. What do you think?
Dan: Seriously, this is the kind of feud I'd have gone for. Everything about this idea is gold except for the fact that you bury Randy Orton, but it's not like WWE doesn't do that enough anyway. One of the best ideas I've seen since joining the Payload, I think.
Matt: You're hired.
Bayani: Not bad, well thought out and all. I'm not bonkers over Randy being buried, but you just know it'll happen no matter what. Also I'm kinda iffy
on HBK turning heel because he has resisted it for so long that I doubt it will happen. If anything I think that HHH is more likely to turn heel again and HBK remain the plucky babyface. Still, I like the idea of Cena and DX mixing it up if for no other reason than Vince would absolutely soil himself over the merchandising and possible buy-rate. If anything I'd imagine them stringing that triple threat along for a while and headlining WM24 with it. Just watch. Overall, best idea this week.
Dan: And now for our ideas. As I said, I would go with Trips taking the title off of Cena towards the end of the year, and HBK returning and turning on The Game. Seeing as Any stole my idea though, I'll continue with this a little bit. From here, you should keep all 3 guys tweeners. Each guy will get cheered for by their own group of fans, and each will get sufficient boos to keep it interesting. Try to keep them apart for a while, give Triple H some title defences against Booker, Kennedy etc in early 07 while Cena and Michaels battle with each other. Then at WrestleMania,
put all 3 in a Triple Threat Match. Tell me that wouldn't draw big money? And
what better way for WWE to erase any memory of Chris Benoit than putting on
the same match they did 4 years ago, only with a replacement for Benoit winning it?
Matt: I really want to see Triple H wrestle. That's what he does best and what I think makes us remember why we love him in the first place. Hopefully this injury doesn't hamper his ability like the last one did, but that could have been the fault of his opponents. As for what I'd do I think I'd have the H's come back in an old school run-in save type deal. I don't exactly know who I'd pick for him to save, but certainly from Kennedy. I want Kennedy to spend some time with HHH. It'd help him learn the game from one of the best and certainly put on a fantastic show in the process. The big if is the health of HHH upon his return. Can he go 2000 style or will we get 2003?
Bayani: You know, there is really only one way to go here: HHH and Randy feuding since Trips will naturally want to go over the biggest Heel they have left on the roster and really Randy-kins is the only heel not even getting any ‘tweener "pops". Which sounds like a deliciously sweet n' sour frosty summer-time treat. Mmmm…"Tweener pops". But I digress. I'm thinking they have Randy beat the livin' tar out of Dusty, then have his son get beaten down trying to help him after Ken Kennedy comes to the aid of Orton for no apparent reason other than heels just like beating down faces no matter how little it makes sense to help another heel. At Bash at the Beach have it be Dusty/Cody vs Kennedy/Orton, but during the PPV have them leave Dusty lying and Cody comes to the ring along. Just then have Motorhead start blazing across the speakers and let HHH come in as his partner. Make it a surprise rather than a big advertised event and sell a few west coast buys or replays. Then have Orton/HHH split off and Kennedy/Cody split off. That way Summerslam becomes a big deal 1 on 1 match. Really this serves the purpose of ‘continuity' as well as letting HHH go against someone guaranteed not to get any ‘face reaction' as well as punish Randy further for just being a giant douche'.
That's all for this week. Thanks to Bayani for stepping in when needed. Continuing the returning superstar theme, this week's homework is to book the return of Rey Mysterio.
