SmackDown and TNA
Because of that chat with Mayor McSteamy, I wasn’t able to watch any wrestling this weekend while I was at the Sonoma Valley Film Festival. I’ll write up a couple of things from the fest later this week and early next.

NEWS
Randy Orton was suspended for 60 days for Unprofessional Conduct. There’s a lot of speculation that it was something that happened at Mania Weekend, but others say that it was an earlier lockerroom incident and still others say that it’s all about a long0-term series of problems. It’ll go into effect on April 12th, after the next SmackDown! taping. The fact that he wasn’t given the World Title at Mania speaks to the fact that they’ve had problems with him for a while.

RAW
Edge started the show by saying that he was glad to be back in the hunt for the title with the Three-way Title shot at the PPV. Edge said that he was a highly successful champ and when Cena came out he added that people only tuned in to see Cena win the title back.

I like the way they’re trying to sell it, but it ain’t true and it ain’t gonna get folks to stop booing Cena, who was both cheered and booed here, too. Of course, HHH came out. Edge mentioned his win over Foley, which HHH said he had done ages ago. They announced HHH and John Cena vs. Edge for later in the night. Edge didn’t like it, and Cena slapped H. It was an exciting opening.

Rob Van Dam pinned Rob Conway with the big Five Star Frog Splash. This was fast. They’re calling him Mr. Money in the Bank. They just had Edge drop that gimmick. Shelton did commentary, which continued his gimmick of being a well-dressed competitor without Mama. He’s a star in the waiting. Shelton challenged RVD for a match at Backlash (which I believe would have been for the Title Shot). Van Dam then said that he’d do it if Shelton put up the IC belt.

In another strong segment with Mickie James, she said that she loved WrestleMania and that she couldn’t wait to get back to Toronto to celebrate with her Canadian peeps. Maria, who had a sudden moment of intellectual clarity, said that Mickie wasn’t a Canuck and Mickie went ape and challenged Maria to a match.

...and those matching uniforms look so crisp...

The Spirit Squad beat Big Show and Kane when Kane flipped out and turned, leaving the Spirit Squad as champs. Kane destroyed the SS early on in the match, and then there was some interference and then Kane started throwing chairs. The match was awful. Kane then started chokeslamming folks, including the ref. He then went toe to toe with Show, who was trying to talk sense to him and then ended up Chokeslamming him. I kinda liked the ending and the crowd popped for it.

In the weirdest, and some might say most distasteful, angle in a while, they had Vince and Shane in a church saying all sorts of very wrong things. They were in a real church and Vince even did HHH’s spitting using Holy Water. I’m rather surprised he didn’t start burning up from the inside because of that. He listed all sorts of ways in which God shouldn’t mess with him. This was weird and I’m not a big fan, but the crowd did pop a couple of times.

They had Alejandro bring out Umaga and beat a jobber using the old Asiastic Spike. It was awful. They’ll never get this guy over.

Carlito and Masters did a little thing. Carlito said that he had lost 275 pounds of deadweight. Well, his career certainly did, but sadly I fear that his push may suffer. Carlito and Masters both got a bit of a face reaction. That’s weird. It might be because Carlito is such a great heel they don’t want him as a face. Masters got mocked and then Carlito called for a Masterlock challenge. Before Carlito was put into the Masterlock, he hit Masters with an unprotected chairshot to the head. Nice angle and I didn’t expect Masters to take that kind of shot.

...and our stats are about to go up. Click the pic to see where it ends and prove my point.

Mickie beat Maria, and it was absolutely terrible. They had Trish come out dressed as the old Mickie James. She then kissed Mickie and had her leave in all sorts of faux shock. Nice angle and I’m a big fan of where they’re going with this.

John Cena and HHH beat Edge. Cena tried, and even hit a belly to belly suplex on Edge, and later a vertical suplex. Edge actually made a comeback and worked over HHH and gave him the Implant DDT. Cena was about to get the FU from Cena until HHH broke it up and gave Edge the pedigree. Cena then gave HHH the FU for his troubles and managed to apply the STFU on Edge for the submission. It was a nice match and I’d say that it’s a good feud, especially if it ends up with Edge taking home the belt.

Overall, it’s a good show with some moments of sucky wrestling but some good angles. Go figure…