The Happy Go Sucky Wrestling Report 12.19.07: Undertaker, Flair, Samoa Joe, Benoit, & More

Posted by Steve Sullivan on 12.19.2007

The Undertaker wins the Royal Rumble, Flair lights a fire under Carlito, Samoe Joe keeps losing title matches. The first half of 2007 shook the wrestling world.

2007 has been a very trying and interesting year for wrestling fans. As a scandal damaged the already tarnished and questionable reputation of our beloved sport, tragedies snowballed, forming an unescapable wall around a fan base that began to wonder why they even watched this sport. Some fans bailed, others, stuck around, determined to make professional wrestling the hot commodity it once was. There have been some good shows, and there was some bad shows. But despite how rough a year 2007 has been on this business, in the end, we all came out on top.

Today, we take a look back at some of the best and worst of each month in 2007. Today's issue, January-June 2007.

January 2007

News: The Undertaker wins the Royal Rumble.

Happy: This was probably one of the most unexpected surprises of 2007. This was a notch in the belt of the Undertaker who has already done more than many wrestlers will ever dream of in this company. This was a perfect move on WWE's part in preparing for Wrestlemania 23. Firstly, nobody expected to see The Undertaker win. Usually you can kind of tell who's going to win the Rumble but in this instance, the big payoff was a suprise to many wrestling fans. This buildup was perfect for Wrestlemania and would eventually lead up to what could arguably be the biggest feud of 2007 between the champ Batista and the Rumble winner Undertaker.

The past couple of years, Undertaker's undefeated streak had been kind of determined before the match even started. Fighting guys like Mark Henry and Randy Orton the last couple of years was not exactly the best buildup for Taker's undefeated streak. But in this case, we knew that history would be made, one way or another. Either Batista was going to lose his World Heavyweight Title, or the Undefeated Wrestlemania winning streak was going to end. This was a fantastic move on the WWE's part and the outcome made it that much better. By far one of the best stories in wrestling this year.

Go Sucky: While this was without a doubt a fantastic idea on WWE's part, this Royal Rumble, with no clear winner would have been a great chance for the WWE to promote a new talent into the main event scene, very similar to what they did with Chris Benoit. Yes I know Benoit was already pretty over when he won the Rumble due to his time in the business, but when he won the Rumble, his fanbase doubled ten fold. The Undertaker didn't really need to win The Royal Rumble to get over for a main event scene at Wrestlemania. In fact, the Undertaker vs Batista match wasn't even the MAIN main event for Wrestlemania. It was used somewhere in the middle. So what I didn't understand here is why they let this guy win the Rumble if you're not going to let him have his moment at the end of Wrestlemania.

And while the match between Shawn Michaels and John Cena was one of the best matches of 2007, a different opponent could have been used to push them over the edge and give Cena a long term feud with a heel rather than HBK for a couple of months. That's just my opinion, but as you can tell now, the WWE needs a couple of more heels that are over on Raw than they have now. Of course things are a lot easier in hindsight.


February

News: Ric Flair does a shoot on Carlito in an attemt to motivate him.

It's no surprise the last couple of weeks that the WWE really sees a lot of potential in Carlito. Obviously, they see a lot more than most wrestling fans do. But this was a decent attempt at firing him up in front of a live crowd and who better to light a fire under your ass than The Nature Boy. I thought it was great that the WWE went through extremes just to try to help Carlito reach his full potential. I think this particular storyline might have hurt more than it helped.

Go Sucky: Firstly, this whole storyline had bad timing. I believe that the WWE was hoping to fire up Carlito before Wrestlemania and throw him into the Money in the Bank match. It didn't work out though and because of this poorly thought out idea, both Carlito and Ric Flair was relegated to a Wrestlemania dark match. To leave Ric Flair off the Wrestlemania card was an awful idea. Yeah I know he's old and not capable of much anymore, but it was a sign of disrespect toward the Nature Boy. Ric Flair did Carlito and the WWE a favor by trying to help motivate him, and his reward was a no book at Wrestlemania. Probably one of the worst ideas of 2007.


March

News: Samoa Joe continues to lose TNA World Title Matches.

Happy: A lot of people say that Samoa Joe is being groomed for the future of TNA. I'm going to be honest here because I'm having troubles staying positive for this particular "Happy" report. TNA has had every opportunity to distance itself from the current WWE product, which many people believe is what's wrong with wrestling at the moment. TNA has bounced the World Title between old WWE/WCW hasbeens and has done little to promote its past and future product. I suppose the happy in the downfall of Samoa Joe is that Samoe Joe hasn't darted for the WWE.

Go Sucky: Now where was I? This has probably been the big story for TNA. Until recently, TNA has neglected its younger, more original talent in favor of WWE's rejects. This has hurt TNA in a sorts and has kept it from being any different from the WWE. Samoa Joe's build for TNA was tremendous when he debuted. The undefeated streak seems like such a distant memory. In fact, I can't remember the last time Samoe Joe had an impressive win. In the Spring of 2007, Samoa Joe would win #1 contender matches, but in the end, could not get put over TNA's precious collection of WWE rejects. I think TNA may and still has the chance to get over the 1.1 ratings hump by having a month of nothing and I mean nothing but TNA guys who never once appeared on a WWE TV in the last 5 years.


April 2007

News: Vince McMahon becomes the new ECW World Champion.

Happy: This actually became a pretty interesting angle between Vince McMahon and Bobby Lashley. Wrestlemania 23 really helped get Bobby Lashley over with his big win over Umaga and helping Donald Trump get the victory. Vince as a champ is the ultimate heel/face title chase and was a great idea to help promote ECW on Raw. It didn't really help but it was a great opportunity. It was also fun to see Vince get the ultimate prize in his investment of ECW by allowing himself to be the ECW champ. This must have been a big slap in the face of Paul Heyman (and probably why we didn't see Paul at the Raw XV Show). Regardless, this entire storyline made Bobby Lashley into who he is now and it was unfortunate that he lost that moment when he went down with the injury. But once he returns, the WWE will have a big man face who has all the potential to return as a major heel and really push the Raw product over the edge.


Go Sucky: I sort of thought it was egotistical and disrespectful to ECW and its originals to force them to watch the man who ultimately put them out of a job for years to wear the strap they gave their bodies for. On top of that, Vince hardly ever wrestled to retain the title and the whole situation got pretty annoying. In the end of course, the storyline would end with Vince's limo blowing up. Given that particular storyline had every bit of potential to be one of the best storylines in the history of Raw had it not been for the Benoit tragedy and the steroid scandal, to make Vince psycho over the ECW title, a title he, for lack of a better term, purchased, was just kind of silly.


May 2007

News: Kurt Angle defeats Christian Cage and Sting for the new TNA World Title at Sacrifice

Happy: This was one of those classic Vince Russo endings if there ever was one. Kurt got the tap while someone else got pinned and it was just a mess. I don't honestly feel that TNA has recovered from this finish. That's not necessarily a knock on Kurt Angle, although I do not like Kurt Angle as my champion. But when looking for something positive out of this, you do get the sense that TNA did try to do the right thing in increasing its ratings by having the to be continued on Impact, and have the champ announced on Impact.


Go Sucky: Unfortunately, the whole idea just sucked. It was stupid and pointless and did nothing for the ratings or the already angry fans. TNA really started digging itself deeper and deeper into a hole after this pay-per-view and it really hasn't delivered anything else since. It was finishes like this that has marred TNA's product through the majority of 2007 and only recently has TNA actually made an attempt at being different, only because Scott Hall no showed. Is there a chance that Scott Hall could be TNA's savior?


June 2007

News: Chris Benoit murders his wife and son, then commits suicide, sparking a national interest in steroids among professional wrestlers.

Happy: It's hard to find anything happy about this and in fact, it's more surreal and bittersweet than happy. But this tragedy hopefully will clean up professional wrestling. This has lead to the elimatination of cheaters and has hopefully opened the eyes of many athletes, not just wrestlers but baseball players, football players, etc, to the negative effects that steroids can have. Sometimes it takes a tragedy in order for something good to happen, and with all the suspensions and pink slips that have been handed out since the Benoit tragedy, I'd say wrestling is slowly getting itself cleaned up. I'm not saying its completely honest because many will argue about Randy Orton's name on the Signature Pharmacy List, but it's getting there.

Go Sucky: What's not bad about this? Innocent lives were lost and a tragedy shook the wrestling world very hard. The ill advised tribute show made this situation that much worse. But I don't think you need to hear from me just how bad this situation was and still is.



And with that, I bid you adios! Next week, we'll finish off the year. Have a merry Christmas and remember the true reason for the season. Until next week my friends, may your life be Happy..or Go Sucky!