The Master's Dojo: Bash Recap and The Evolution

Hello ladies and gentlemen and welcome to another fantastic edition of The Master’s Dojo!! Today, I will be covering WWE’s most recent Pay-Per-View and start my series on the Evolution of WWE since the Invasion, back in 2001. Without further adieu, let’s get it on!!

I’ll start with the match for the Women’s Championship, between Melina and Michelle McCool, which McCool won. I’m glad this match turned out like this. I think this can really make McCool a serious competitor in the realm of female wrestling. She is also the first female to be Women’s and Diva’s Champion (which isn’t that big since the Diva’s Championship has only been around since last year’s Great American Bash). If McCool and Melina can start a real rivalry, I think there is still hope that Female Wrestling can be somewhat salvaged. Good win for Michelle. A match I didn’t see a point in was Dolph Ziggler vs. Khali. I realize that they’ve been feuding on Smackdown, but this seems totally unfair. Ha, think again. Actually, it was totally unfair until a certain beast came to the ring and attacked Khali with a chair, allowing Dolph a cheap victory. Of course I’m talking about the returning Kane. As much as I didn’t want to see this match, I wanted to see Kane. Kane vs. Khali feud? Could be interesting…or could be boring. We’ll see, but for now, I’m just glad that Kane is back. There was one other match that I found way too predictable, and that was John Cena vs. The Miz. Look, Miz is terrible. Cena, no matter how much you hate him, is way better than Miz. I’m glad Cena pummeled him on Sunday. Get Miz off of TV. A couple of finishers from Cena is just what I wanted to see at The Bash.

Now for the matches that matter, starting with the ECW Championship. Tommy Dreamer, the heart-warming story in WWE right now somehow  defied the odds once again, more so this time, and defeated 4 other men in a Championship Scramble match. I really thought Dreamer would be over-powered in this match. Finlay is a great brawler, Henry is huge, Swagger is…well, good enough and Christian is a great wrestler. Yet somehow Tommy Dreamer came out on top. Maybe we’ll see Dreamer hold onto the belt for a while, and start a real rivalry/feud/storyline on ECW. Then there was the match for the Unified Tag Team Championships, between Legacy and The Colons…and another team. I believe WWE.com is referring to them as “Team Ego”. Edge and Jericho. The winners of this match were Edge and Jericho. Until part-way through the show, they weren’t even supposed to be in the match, Edge wasn't even supposed to be competing. After arguing with Smackdown GM Teddy Long, Edge was given a spot in the PPV. And it was in the Tag Title match, with Jericho, who was still angry about losing his Intercontinental title (which I will get to next). I could not be happier with this. A couple of WWE’s best competitors, making the Tag Team division look respectable again. This is fantastic. As long as they keep their egos in check, this will be fantastic. It could be like Angle and Benoit. They hated each other, but they were a good team. I think that could be what happens with “Team Ego”. Anyway, I’m glad this happened and I think it will turn out well.

Now, as I mentioned earlier, Jericho dropped the Intercontinental Championship to Rey Mysterio. Rey’s mask was removed from him, but he had a second mask, which confused Jericho and Rey capitalized, picking up the victory. I really thought it was time that Rey Mysterio lost his mask. I like his mask, the tradition it holds and the roar it brings from the crowd, but I thought maybe it was time that WWE was going to change it up a bit. Now it looks like Rey will be looking for a new feud too, since Jericho is now the Tag Champion. Personally, I think that this could be an opportunity for R-Truth. I know we would end up having two faces in a feud, but I’m sure kinks could be worked out of that. Two exciting, crowd pumping stars going over the coveted (or formerly coveted) Intercontinental Championship. Or, this could be an opportunity for John Morrison to win a title. I like Morrison as a heel, and his new finisher is awesome. So I’m thinking either Morrison or R-Truth as the next contenders for Rey Mysterio’s Intercontinental Title. Now, RAW’s main feud was taken to a new level at The Bash, when Randy Orton and Triple H faced off in a 3 Stages of Hell match with a One Fall match, Falls Count Anywhere Match and a Stretcher match. Of course it came down to the stretcher match. Triple H was going to win, he was so close…and then Legacy came and ruined it. This feud is really irritating me. Orton can’t win a big match on his own any more. Triple H should have won that match. Oh well, he hit Orton in the head with a sledgehammer. Now, as we found at on RAW, Triple H will fight Cena next week in the finals of the Night Of Champions Tournament, which Batista (guest host on RAW) created. I think Triple H is going to win because Miz will screw Cena over. However, I hope I’m wrong. I’m done with Orton vs. Triple H, really. I’d much prefer to see a change. Now on Smackdown, the main feud is Jeff Hardy vs. the new heel CM Punk. I like him as a heel. At The Bash, Jeff Hardy thought he had won, but Punk had his foot in the ropes. To make a long story short, mass confusion ensued, CM Punk DQ’d himself and Jeff Hardy went nuts. Now, as much as I like CM Punk as a heel, I have a real issue with people getting intentionally disqualified. Man up, fight the guy. Anyway, sooner or later this feud is going to become really heated, more so than it is now, and someone else is going to enter this feud. I’m guessing Undertaker, around Summerslam. I think that would be a great way to come back. The beastly veteran, the up and coming superstar and the Ultimate Enigma. It could actually turn out well. Or Kane could get involved with Undertaker and/or the World Heavyweight Championship. I am really enjoying Smackdown recently, and it is for sure quality entertainment, unlike the flagship.

(Just a quick side note, a lot of the Pay-Per-Views have changed set-up and names this year. The Bash was changed from The Great American Bash, which I don’t quite understand. Unforgiven has become Breaking Point, featuring  mainly Submission matches. Cyber Sunday has become Annihilation, which I guess means that the fan voting aspect is out. One Night Stand is now Extreme Rules. However, my favorite is that No Mercy is now Hell in a Cell. I love Hell in a Cell matches, and a PPV full of them will be awesome, in my opinion. Anyway, I just want to know why they made all of these changes now?

Now I would like to start a new series in my articles: The WWE Evolution. I am going to talk Smackdown, RAW and ECW and how they have changed since the Invasion of 2001 (or in ECW’s case, since 2005). I will start with early Smackdown. But first, a little background. WWF introduced Smackdown in 1999 as the 2nd level show in the company, to match-up with WCW’s Thunder. Until 2004, the show was also on Thursdays. The show was frequently referred to as The Rock’s show, due to his “Layin’ the Smackdown” catchphrase. After the Invasion, Vince decided that since there was an abundance of talent from WCW and ECW, that Smackdown would become its own brand, with its own talent, and RAW would do the same. The first pick for Smackdown was The Rock in the 2002 (and first) WWF Draft. Smackdown did start with some stars, such as the Rock, Chris Benoit, Kurt Angle, Edge, Chris Jericho and more. Stephanie McMahon was the first official General Manager of Smackdown. While GM, she competed and ruled over the brand. Also, at the announce table, Michael Cole, the Play-by-Play man since its inception (and all the way through 2008) was joined by former Alliance member Tazz (they would stay together until mid-2006). In 2002, Smackdown saw the career of a soon-to-be famous superstar begin. That superstar is John Cena. He used the gimmick of a white rapper, free-styling and anyone and everyone. Another superstar that made a big impact on Smackdown was, and still is, The Undertaker. He has been on Smackdown for many years now, and has never been back to RAW. This has been a quick background and early history on Smackdown. In the coming weeks, I will also be going over early RAW, Smackdown and RAW in the mid-2000’s and beyond.

Well ladies and gentlemen, thank you for reading this weeks article. Before I sign off, I’d like to give you guys one more poll: What would rate The Bash, on a scale of 1-10? I love getting your input. Until next time, I am The Master of Puppets, the dojo is closed and I AM OUT!!!

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