Reported by Mike Siciliano of WrestleView.com
On Tuesday, September 11, 2007 at 4:48 AM EST

Let's start by saying I didn't watch Raw. But I was interested in the outcome, no question about it. One, for finding out what exactly would happen to the champ for him stretching out William Regal (the Raw GM) like an overused rubber band, and two, who is the illegitmate son of the Chairman of the Board.

I just got done reading one of the best Raw recaps out there, and that's NOT BECAUSE he's my colleague here, but because he's just that good, and when Hunter had some issues with what transpired, I think I do as well. Let's go through them piece by piece.

Raw goes SMACKDOWN
While the angle itself is kind of lame, but at least, it's one million times better than what they were headed in to prior to the tragedies of the past few months, I thought the idea of bringing a little Smackdown to Raw was tremendous. It's obvious from the angle that Vinnie Mac wanted Khali as his son, (don't ASK ME WHY), and having him show up to further gloat the issue was nice. And then, having Batista come out afterwards and get the pop by spearing Khali to save Jeff was a hell of a build up to the World title match this weekend at Unforgiven. It was a creative use of the talent roster, and a nice way to build up this rivalry that is gaining a little steam (God, I hate saying that), between two guys I don't like, the World Heavyweight Champion, and Batista.

Cena goes INSANE
I've said on a number of different occasions that Cena is done as champion. I probably will say it again this weekend. But, this new "insanity" aspect with Cena's dad, and Cena out for revenge, well, it's nice. Don't get me wrong, I'd like to have seen Cena take a nasty spot, come back two weeks and later, and swear blood revenge, and leave families out of it, but this one doesn't bother me as much because Cena's father is involved in the business with an independent fed out of Massachusetts, so he knows the score before getting into the game. I hate the use of families in these feuds, because it always becomes overdrawn and suffocating, but here, it appears to have been done much more refreshingly, and there's an absolute immense amount of buildup for the return match at Unforgiven. The one thing I have to agree with Hunter on, there ought to be a stip here. With no stip, there's probably going to be a chapter 3 in this soon to be trilogy before we finally see what happens with the WWE title.

With the stip issue, I remember reading that a Cyber Sunday style pick would be a Cena/Orton match with one of the stips being Hell in a Cell. (This was also before I read that WWE lost the trademark to Cyber Sunday, so who knows what's going to happen.) Personally, I'd put them in Hell in a Cell right now, and let this thing fly. Cena won the belt a year ago in a TLC match, so let him either keep the year going or lose it in just as sick a stip match as the TLC match was.

A sidebar issue or two
Like I said, I didn't watch it, but the recaps didn't mention anything about the announcers recognizing the tag title change in South Africa. Can someone let me know if WWE did acknowledge it last night? I would hope so, as its only fair, but who said life in the WWE is fair?

Um, ladies and gentlemen, who in their right mind got in to Shelton Benjamin's ear and told him to dye his hair blonde? Um, er, no comment.

The little bastard is the rich bastard
So, Kennedy's stupidity cost him this slot, and they give it to, Hornswoggle?

Mind blowing.

Ok, the good and the bad.

1. The Good. Hornswoggle is a terrrific comedic performer. He will figure out a way to make people laugh, one way, or another, and right now, like my friend Mr. Golden said, wrestling needs laughter, in a big big way.

2. The Good. WWE really put the wool over our collective eyes. I personally never dreamt in a million years they'd go this route. Any possible way was on the table when Kennedy was taken off, but this, this was straight out of the left field bull pen, bluntly.

3. The Bad. Golden again is right on the money here, not many people, not many fans, are going to give this a chance. They're going to see this angle, and grumble right out of the gate saying, why him, why him, and not give it a chance to formulate in to something entertaining.

4. The Bad. The rumored phasing out of the cruiserweight championship appears to be taking place right before our very eyes, and that, ladies and gentlemen, is a casualty Smackdown cannot afford, in my humblest of opinions.

Now I read initial reports as to how this was going to end, with a nice feud with the son and Triple H. But, tell me, how the hell is HHH going to do anything significant with Hornswoggle? This really will be a turn for the surreal before it's all said and done. I only hope that the benefit of the doubt I am trying to give this angle now doesn't come back to bite me in the keester.

I just had a weird thought, I know this isn't sequential with the column, but think about this. Wasn't the Hardy/Khali match for the IC title? Is it possible that Khali won the IC title, and is bringing it to Smackdown? And with Hornswoggle coming to Raw for the kid angle, would he bring the cruiserweight title with him? I mean, think about this.

WHOA. Nevermind. I went and checked com. No dice. Also, when it comes right down to it, the only legit cruiserweights on the raw roster are London and Kendrick. The rest are on Smackdown or ECW. Damn. I thought this could work. Save two titles, and refresh them immensely at the same time.

To go back and close up the Hornswoggle issue, before I just had that minor brain storm or drizzle as the case may be, I have to, I can't believe I'm going to say this, but I have to tip my hat to WWE creative. I'm curious to know who you thought was the son before it was revealed. I think honestly, not many of you had Hornswoggle as your pick. I sure as hell didn't.

You want to know who I thought was his son? Simple. Someone who was not on the Smackdown tapings last night in Minneapolis. Someone like Rey Mysterio. Always shrouded in mystery, yadda yadda yadda. I thought they were going to go that way with the clue, "things are looking up." I never dreamt they'd mean that, LITERALLY.

The Suspensions as of now

So obviously we know William Regal and Umaga had been suspended, as result from last week's debauchery at the hands of the Game and the Champ. From all things considered, and from what I have read, it appears King Booker was also a fallen comrade in arms, and that may have been the final straw with the King, but I won't go further in to that yet, because I want to see more information come in before I talk about it on the column. Now, as of this week, Mr. Kennedy, who was destined to take a walk, has left the television scene for "impersonating a McMahon." Creative way to say something to the effect of, "pissing off the boss."

That's four. Who else? I didn't see hide nor hair of Chris Masters, and his name has been on the list. Eugene obviously is a victim of this whole mess, and I know I'll be flamed for the use of the word victim, but I have my reasons why I use that word. So, that's six.

I have to eat major crow on Orton, apparently, which is a shock from where I sit. (THAT'S NOT A KNOCK, it's just an opinion). Santino appears to still be around, which is also, to me, a shock. Is this whole notice thing with Flair a suspension in the dark? Good question. Doubtful, but a good question. I guess we have 7 potential names? The question is, will the 11 names be revealed on November 1st, or will the future names of violators be revealed after November 1st. It's the ongoing debate that won't seem to end anytime soon.

Like I've said numerous times, credibility is gold, and right now, WWE's is tarnished copper.

Quick Notes on TNA No Surrender

I have to give it to Kurt Angle. Not for dropping the World tag team titles to Ron Killings. (I won't acknowledge that Pacman Jones is on that team, because it's just a damn carat to have got him in to the mix, and nothing more. It's Killings in a handicap match against anyone else, bar none, and now we'll get three weeks and change of thuggery and near criminal graffiti all over the place trying to make it look cool and hip, only to have them eventually lose the titles to, I guess, AJ Styles & Tomko. Talk about the damn odd couple.

But, back to Angle. Kudos to Angle for dropping the X title to Jay Lethal. It was the right thing for business. Regardless of anything that's gone on with this whole multiple title thing, and the narcissitic complex Angle has gone on since bringing his wife in, and everything else, Angle did the right thing for business and gave the X Division back to the X Division. Now, it appears Jay Lethal will at least have a reign of over a day, since I read the 3 weeks of spoilers, and without killing anything major, Lethal made it through that time with the title still in tact. It was BUMPY AS HELL, but he did make it.

I forgot, one other thing, wasn't TNA supposed to debut a new acquisition sunday night? A former World Champion as it were? No? You remember that, cause I do. What happened there, boys? Drop the ball a bit, me thinks.

Back to the tag team #1 contender gauntlet, someone explain to me how AJ Styles & Tomko are a viable #1 contender when you have teams like LAX, Triple X, and the Motor City MachineGuns jobbing all over the place. Three LEGIT FULL BLOWN TAG TEAMS that could fight all over the world for months on end with feuds that would make the hardest mark scream, and they give the contendership to Styles & Tomko. I didn't even mention the old boys, 3D & VKM, but hey, I digress. Here's a weird question. Is this carat to Styles a ploy to keep him happy because of how his character has been portrayed on television?

Shameless Plug time, and Closing it up.

Ok, the response for the 200th (so to speak) anniversary column has been tremendous. With that being said, it's going to encompass not only here, (hopefully set for the next release), but also a new aspect of the column. I've been saying this for a while, but it's officially opened. I have opened up a new blog, OUTSIDE OF MYSPACE, specifically for wrestling discussion or anything else that may cross your mind. I have polls up, I have links up, I have past column links up, I have my PPV picks record up, I have a list of every single wrestler that has been mentioned to me to add to the Palace Report Card up, it's really getting rolling. It's time to make it public, and hope that you guys take the time to come over, check it out, and comment away. I check it daily, and I will update it often.

What I'm considering, since the response has been very positive to this idea, is to have a top 20 or so featured on the column here at WV, and then have the remainder of the reader generated list graded on the blog. That list that is up is STRICTLY READER GENERATED. I have put up zero names to that list of talents that you want me to grade.

Bluntly, I'm flattered. Thanks for the support, and all the emails.

You want an address for the blog? Oops, silly me.

Click here for the Pro's from the Palace Column blog, available at mikesiciliano.blogspot.com.

Click here to email me.

Thanks again. Take a moment to remember the fallen victims of today. Till next time, everyone.

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