When you're a team like the Washington Nationals sometimes two in a row has to be considered a winning streak. For the WWE - who hadn't allowed a fresh and exciting influx of young talent into the main event picture in quite a while -  staying on track for two weeks in a row with promoting new main event talent would be an accomplishment worth going to Denny's over.

Last week on WWE RAW they really got the ball rolling with a main event match for MVP, long in-ring interviews for The Miz and Matt Hardy, a win for Kofi Kingston and a new costume for The Brian Kendrick. They continued the trend on Friday Night Smackdown with CM Punk defeating the champion, Jeff Hardy winning a title shot, MVP getting a celebrity guest manager and John Morrison picking up a win. With Batista and Shawn Michaels both saying publicly that they don't know how much longer they'll continue and The Undertaker's health in real question there's never been a better time. But you know how well Triple H shares his toys.


No, the show did not abandon the existing stars like Batista and Randy Orton - and that's a good thing. Shane McMahon decided he should be in the main event again this week, getting crushed like a Coke can by all three members of the Legacy as usual. But on the bright side his ankle is now supposedly shattered, so I'm crossing my fingers he'll be out of the spotlight for weeks. More realistically in the wrestling world I don't expect to see him in action until a run in at Backlash.

On the other hand, though, Cody Rhodes and Ted DiBiase Jr. were in the main event right there with Shane. It's easy to dismiss their push because 1) they're a tag team and 2) they're riding coattails. But they've been visible on WWE RAW for a while. MVP really seems to be on his way to main event status, competing in a main event match for the second week in a row. The Miz got a nice, long opportunity to draw heat on the microphone, continuing to pick John Cena apart as The Champ lay defenseless in the hospital. Matt Hardy whined pitifully about having to wrestle with a cast on, then stepped in the ring to show he could do it; and Kofi Kingston picked up a big win once again. The Brian Kendrick was even back, and for him the fact that his entrance was shown on camera is a good sign.

The card for WWE Judgment Day is shaping up to be less promising ,with MVP, Matt Hardy, The Miz, The Brian Kendrick and Kofi Kingtston, not to mention CM Punk and John Morrison over on RAW, not yet scheduled for action. You'd think they'd be even more succesful at building heat if they actually had a storyline they were promoting.

For that matter, Shawn Michaels or The Undertaker aren't on the Judgment Day card yet either as they continue to sit on the bench with serious injuries. Evidently when The Undertaker was beaten so badly by the Big Show on Friday Night Smackdown that the referee had to stop the match it wasn't to promote a feud as it was simply to get Show over. I guess that's just as well since I had no desire to see another Undertaker/Big Show feud. But the non-angle-starting beat down still seems weird. Shawn in particular is building serious demand and should be hailed as a hero upon his return.




-Henry Jenkins, BuddyTV Staff Writer
(Image courtesy of World Wrestling Entertainment 2009. All rights reserved.