WWE Unforgiven 2005 Preview
Later tonight we'll see the next Raw-only pay-per-view, Unforgiven. Looking over the card you get the feeling that the company could possibly have a few plans in place or just threw a few matches/feuds together just to fill some airtime. Sometimes when I think it is one way it turns out to be the other. With a (mostly) new creative team in place I'm betting this will be a bit more story oriented than filler. There's really no way of knowing at this stage. So let's take a look at the matches and my predictions.
John Cena(c) vs. Kurt Angle - WWE Championship
Do you know how much I love Kurt Angle? The man has it all. Mic skills. Workrate. Psychology. He’s comedic. He’s dramatic. He’s what John Cena should strive to be. But he’s also what John Cena won’t strive to be. Cena has no reason to improve his game to be as good of a performer as Angle is. He’s over (even though there seems to be a backlash growing against him). This match will show us if Cena really wants to improve his game or if he’s satisfied being where he’s at now. I should also note how I find it frustrating that the Raw writers refuse to acknowledge this rivalry that started on Smackdown. It’s these little things that would make the shows that much better. Ah well.
Prediction: Cena pulls it out but will look worse for wear.
Ric Flair vs. Carlito(c) - Intercontinental Championship
WOOOOOOOOOO! Dass not cool. There’s been relatively no build-up for this match. Why are they even feuding? I don’t remember. I know it turned into Carlito taking Flair out in the back. Did it start with Flair saving Ashley? Whatever. If they are trying to build Carlito up to be a respectable champion than he needs a feud. A small rivalry with Flair won’t cut it despite Flair’s fanbase.
Prediction: I can’t imagine why they would put the belt on Flair for any reason than he has never held it before. And if that’s what they are shooting for then they went about the angle way wrong. If Flair wins, the title then expect the feud to keep going. But that would only make the backstage assault meaningless at that stage of the feud. Sigh.. Carlito. Gotta go with the Bad Apple.
Shawn Michaels vs. Chris Masters
Legend versus Hype. And despite my thoughts of how I believe where Masters will be in a few years, at this stage it is still all hype. I’ve insisted all along that he’s in the wrong gimmick. It’s holding him back a lot. Right now Shawn is carrying this feud entirely on his own. Shawn uses enough of his own crafted abilities to make it seem as if at least his half of the feud isn’t totally scripted.
Prediction: HBK doesn’t need the win but a loss to Masters at this stage won’t benefit either of them. Masters needs a clean loss to get to the next stage of his career. Shawn doesn’t have to break the Masterlock but putting Masters down will be just as meaningful. I’ve gotta give it to HBK.
Edge vs. Matt Hardy – Steel Cage Match
Wouldn’t it be great if this was handled right? Even accepting that the situation was turned into an angle they’re still not properly doing it. The announcers aren’t selling the angle as it is nearly enough. And if they were it would make the angle that much stronger. The angle is about Edge being the WWE’s next golden boy and how his actions resulted in a friend getting screwed. On top of that, Matt returning only because of Vince McMahon is seen as an insult to Eric Bischoff (the on-air representation of Johnny Ace) going out of his way to ruin Matt’s career getting him beat up, making him lose, etc. It’s not only going on backstage but it’s going on on-screen as well. Just acknowledge it. We all see it. Have JR sell it more!
Prediction: Does it need to be said that Matt needs the win? He has yet to get a victory over Edge in his revenge story. And he was even pinning Edge after the Side Effect off the ramp that got them loaded into an ambulance. Why the hell didn’t the ref count the pin anyway? But yeah – Matt needs to win. Edge wins.
Big Show vs. Snitsky
Why is this a feud? It was only a month or two back that Big Show was squashing the Snit. I’m probably the only person that enjoys the ringwork of both men as well. And why are they feuding? It’s not enough to know that they just are.
Prediction: I can’t imagine the Big Show not winning. That said, a win for Snitsky could be big for him if they followed it up with Snitsky being dangerous and on the loose. Still – Big Show wins.
The Hurricane & Rosey(c) vs. Cade & Murdoch - World Tag Team Championship
Stale versus Not Quite Ready. Does anybody really get excited when Hurricane and Rosey come out anymore? They’ve been treated like a joke for so long now. They were finally starting to build up momentum again with Super Stacy in their corner, but now that is over since she moved to Smackdown. Cade and Murdoch have great chemistry together and a lot of charisma to boot. I just wish their theme music hadn’t been changed this past Monday.
Prediction: Hurricane & Rosey holding the tag titles are doing the belts no favor. It needs off of them at least 3 months ago. Cade & Murdoch need the win and the WWE needs the belts on them. Just give it to them and find something new for Hurricane & Rosey stat.
Trish & Ashley vs. Victoria & Torrie
TRISH! HEEL VICTORIA! Oh. It’s a tag team match. At least they aren’t on the same team. There is a lot of truth in this angle they have going with the women not liking the Diva search. It’s apparent in how much weight Torrie has lost unnecessarily. What happened to her ass anyway? It’s gone! Anyway, coming off of the poor match Ashley and Torrie has last week expect some nerves to be a bit raw going out there tonight. We’ll see if Trish is ready to go or not yet/ Still. It’s great to see her back and wrestling against Victoria.
Prediction: They’re certainly not going to job out a returning Trish Stratus and somebody they just paid $250,000 for a year of work. The feud(s) continue on Raw when the heels get a small measure of revenge.
Shelton Benjamin vs. Kerwin White
Chavo’s new gimmick will never be anything more than lower midcard at best. But that’s fine because the WWE will never see him as anything more than that anyway. He’s done enough oddball gimmicks that people are used to it by now. Meanwhile you have Shelton Benjamin who should be in the upper midcard at this point getting held down until his mic work improves a bit. Nevermind the fact that he is already better on the stick and in the ring than Chris Masters who sure as hell won’t be putting on nearly as good a match with HBK and Shelton did on Raw a few months back. Bah. Anyway, the racial implications of this match are so wrong but so hilarious because it is so wrestling. And the feud is built only on the racism as well. You have two great wrestlers in a feud based solely around a joke centered on racism. And you know something? I’m just glad they’re on the pay per view. Now let them do a great technical match, I beg you!
Prediction: I have no idea. I really don’t. Neither can afford to lose and a win for either won’t help their careers much. Let’s give it to Kerwin.
John Cena(c) vs. Kurt Angle - WWE Championship
Do you know how much I love Kurt Angle? The man has it all. Mic skills. Workrate. Psychology. He’s comedic. He’s dramatic. He’s what John Cena should strive to be. But he’s also what John Cena won’t strive to be. Cena has no reason to improve his game to be as good of a performer as Angle is. He’s over (even though there seems to be a backlash growing against him). This match will show us if Cena really wants to improve his game or if he’s satisfied being where he’s at now. I should also note how I find it frustrating that the Raw writers refuse to acknowledge this rivalry that started on Smackdown. It’s these little things that would make the shows that much better. Ah well.
Prediction: Cena pulls it out but will look worse for wear.
Ric Flair vs. Carlito(c) - Intercontinental Championship
WOOOOOOOOOO! Dass not cool. There’s been relatively no build-up for this match. Why are they even feuding? I don’t remember. I know it turned into Carlito taking Flair out in the back. Did it start with Flair saving Ashley? Whatever. If they are trying to build Carlito up to be a respectable champion than he needs a feud. A small rivalry with Flair won’t cut it despite Flair’s fanbase.
Prediction: I can’t imagine why they would put the belt on Flair for any reason than he has never held it before. And if that’s what they are shooting for then they went about the angle way wrong. If Flair wins, the title then expect the feud to keep going. But that would only make the backstage assault meaningless at that stage of the feud. Sigh.. Carlito. Gotta go with the Bad Apple.
Shawn Michaels vs. Chris Masters
Legend versus Hype. And despite my thoughts of how I believe where Masters will be in a few years, at this stage it is still all hype. I’ve insisted all along that he’s in the wrong gimmick. It’s holding him back a lot. Right now Shawn is carrying this feud entirely on his own. Shawn uses enough of his own crafted abilities to make it seem as if at least his half of the feud isn’t totally scripted.
Prediction: HBK doesn’t need the win but a loss to Masters at this stage won’t benefit either of them. Masters needs a clean loss to get to the next stage of his career. Shawn doesn’t have to break the Masterlock but putting Masters down will be just as meaningful. I’ve gotta give it to HBK.
Edge vs. Matt Hardy – Steel Cage Match
Wouldn’t it be great if this was handled right? Even accepting that the situation was turned into an angle they’re still not properly doing it. The announcers aren’t selling the angle as it is nearly enough. And if they were it would make the angle that much stronger. The angle is about Edge being the WWE’s next golden boy and how his actions resulted in a friend getting screwed. On top of that, Matt returning only because of Vince McMahon is seen as an insult to Eric Bischoff (the on-air representation of Johnny Ace) going out of his way to ruin Matt’s career getting him beat up, making him lose, etc. It’s not only going on backstage but it’s going on on-screen as well. Just acknowledge it. We all see it. Have JR sell it more!
Prediction: Does it need to be said that Matt needs the win? He has yet to get a victory over Edge in his revenge story. And he was even pinning Edge after the Side Effect off the ramp that got them loaded into an ambulance. Why the hell didn’t the ref count the pin anyway? But yeah – Matt needs to win. Edge wins.
Big Show vs. Snitsky
Why is this a feud? It was only a month or two back that Big Show was squashing the Snit. I’m probably the only person that enjoys the ringwork of both men as well. And why are they feuding? It’s not enough to know that they just are.
Prediction: I can’t imagine the Big Show not winning. That said, a win for Snitsky could be big for him if they followed it up with Snitsky being dangerous and on the loose. Still – Big Show wins.
The Hurricane & Rosey(c) vs. Cade & Murdoch - World Tag Team Championship
Stale versus Not Quite Ready. Does anybody really get excited when Hurricane and Rosey come out anymore? They’ve been treated like a joke for so long now. They were finally starting to build up momentum again with Super Stacy in their corner, but now that is over since she moved to Smackdown. Cade and Murdoch have great chemistry together and a lot of charisma to boot. I just wish their theme music hadn’t been changed this past Monday.
Prediction: Hurricane & Rosey holding the tag titles are doing the belts no favor. It needs off of them at least 3 months ago. Cade & Murdoch need the win and the WWE needs the belts on them. Just give it to them and find something new for Hurricane & Rosey stat.
Trish & Ashley vs. Victoria & Torrie
TRISH! HEEL VICTORIA! Oh. It’s a tag team match. At least they aren’t on the same team. There is a lot of truth in this angle they have going with the women not liking the Diva search. It’s apparent in how much weight Torrie has lost unnecessarily. What happened to her ass anyway? It’s gone! Anyway, coming off of the poor match Ashley and Torrie has last week expect some nerves to be a bit raw going out there tonight. We’ll see if Trish is ready to go or not yet/ Still. It’s great to see her back and wrestling against Victoria.
Prediction: They’re certainly not going to job out a returning Trish Stratus and somebody they just paid $250,000 for a year of work. The feud(s) continue on Raw when the heels get a small measure of revenge.
Shelton Benjamin vs. Kerwin White
Chavo’s new gimmick will never be anything more than lower midcard at best. But that’s fine because the WWE will never see him as anything more than that anyway. He’s done enough oddball gimmicks that people are used to it by now. Meanwhile you have Shelton Benjamin who should be in the upper midcard at this point getting held down until his mic work improves a bit. Nevermind the fact that he is already better on the stick and in the ring than Chris Masters who sure as hell won’t be putting on nearly as good a match with HBK and Shelton did on Raw a few months back. Bah. Anyway, the racial implications of this match are so wrong but so hilarious because it is so wrestling. And the feud is built only on the racism as well. You have two great wrestlers in a feud based solely around a joke centered on racism. And you know something? I’m just glad they’re on the pay per view. Now let them do a great technical match, I beg you!
Prediction: I have no idea. I really don’t. Neither can afford to lose and a win for either won’t help their careers much. Let’s give it to Kerwin.
posted by Stefan at 12:37 PM
2 Comments:
What gimmick would you give Masters to get him over anyway?
Well, Masters was just called up way too early. He's starting to show some promise in the ring, bumping like a ping pong ball and other nice things.
But he's a naturally cocky guy. He doesn't need the "strong man" gimmick in a company full of hosses much bigger than he is. It doesn't work at all. He should just be a brash, arrogant heel along the same lines as Rick Rude. He should be out there talking about how nobody else is in as good as shape as him without getting into the "Nobody can break my masterlock" business. It's unnecessary. It really won't do his career many favors when it is broken.
So: A) pure arrogance, B) insults everybody for not being as good looking as he is, C) Justifies his win/loss record as being because he's that great. It stays away from the pratfalls of the current gimmick while retaining the same that is hiding below the surface of what he has now. Best of all it's an obvious extension of what he is like IRL and allows for a natural growth of his character. As it stands the gimmick is severely holding him back — especially since they obviously have no idea wher they are going with it.
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