Falls Count Anywhere

10-04-07

Try my whistle.

HUGE Problem for the WWE
OK, if a company is cursed, it’s the WWE right now. Yes, they got the 30-days suspended back to the shows, including Mr. Kennedy. Things were looking up for once and they were ready for a big run.

Then John Cena tears his pectoral muscle.

That’s right, the night the guys return, in a match where he was facing one of the guys who was coming back, he does a simple hip toss and ends up out for 6 to 8 months. It’s the worst possible scenario, since he’s the biggest draw on either show. He is the only thing that brings in kids and one of the few draws for the women, though the Hardys draw girls, too. I’d say we’ll see Jeff get pushed harder.

And you have to wonder who will be the next champion. Vince McMahon simply announced that John Cena has been stripped of the title and that it’ll be revealed on Friday who will be facing off to decide who will be the champion. The names that are up for consideration are HHH (who is my choice for the guy who’ll end up with it), Umaga, Randy Orton, Jeff Hardy and Mr. Kennedy. They could also try and use the introduction of Chris Jericho to put him in the mix. That would make a huge impact and if it led to a feud with HHH it could lead to some big business.

I’m not sure that Umaga would be a good choice as he’s been sorta pushed to the back (and certainly the angle they did with HHH would make him a worse choice). They could go with Orton, but there’s a lot of weakness in the booking there unless they claim that he was the one that injured Cena. That could lead to a program when he comes back, but I gotta say they won’t need it.

The fact that they didn’t announce specific names would say to me that they are throwing in Jericho. They don’t want to give that away and they still want to put him right in with things. Jericho could probably draw women along and he could be a strong draw to kids. He’s got a good name and that might be enough to put him over the top.

This has always been a problem. There have been injuries all over the history of wrestling. More than once an injury has changed long-standing plans. The end of the chase that would have ended Dory Funk Jr.’s reign was stunted because of an automobile accident. A few other reigns have had problems because of regular injuries.

At least three WWF title reigns have been cut short because someone got hurt. Shawn Michaels vacated the title once because he hurt his knee (and lost his smile) and at least one of Kurt Angle’s reigns was shortened because of his injuries. It’s a part of the business.

John Cena’s no stranger to injuries either. He had a serious knee injury when he was working in 2002 or so. He’s been luckier than most and has worked through some serious beatings. This one is serious, and while not to put the idea that he’s been a roider in the past or even the present, it’s an injury that Batista has had and I believe that it’s the same one that put The Patriot’s career on ice. It’s something to think about.

Still, this is the biggest problem the WWE has had to manage in ages. When Steve Austin went down with injuries in 1997, they still had Bret Hart and brought back Shawn Michaels and The Rock was coming up. The Undertaker was there too. They had far more depth and only one show to put together each week. Now they have three. This is bad.

I wanna see where this goes, and I’ll keep you up with what’s happening.

Next week I’ll do a Thursday big one since I’ll be at Silicon (along with Derek, Lon and Ric) and it’s highly unlikely that I’ll not get to watch anything until at least Monday night.

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Chris Garcia