Hail Sabin!

                It’s the day after Chris Sabin became the TNA Heavyweight Champion of the world and my only question is:  Where does TNA go from here?   Similar to last year with Austin Aries, Sabin got the nod from Hulk Hogan and vanquished the top heel in TNA.   But much like Austin Aries’ title run came to an end via Jeff Hardy winning the Bound For Glory series, will Chris Sabin suffer the same fate?

                While TNA may have questionable booking at best, I want them to know that there are options out there for them, and I’m going to take you right now through a three part program that can make this whole situation not go down the crapper.

                First and foremost, Chris Sabin needs to keep the TNA Title until Slammiversary.   I can take you that far, TNA, but beyond that it’s up to you to figure out where to go.   So who does Sabin defend the belt against at Slammiversary?   Why the winner of the BFG series of course, who will hopefully be Austin Aries. 

                Aries and Sabin are two solid workers, the only two thus far to cash in the X Division Title for the TNA Title shot and, well, they had some drama leading up to the match with the mask and all, so this will make for a most excellent feud and series of matches if portrayed correctly. 

                At this time, the other two factors we need to consider are both Aces & Eights and the Main Event Mafia.   These two factions pretty much take care of each other.   The time for Aces & Eights is through.    They need to break up, but it doesn’t need to be pretty.

                First off, there can be some dissension between Bully Ray and Devon, with Devon noting that he still has gold.    Bully Ray needs to break off though (at least for now) and go feud with Hulk Hogan and Brooke.    Initially, Hulk Hogan could have someone fight on his behalf.   I’m not going to name any names because TNA has a lot of stars they need to build up, but even if Bully Ray was to lose a big match to Hogan’s protégé, Ray could still give the guy a hardcore beat down afterwards, forcing Hogan to step in and finally face Bully Ray to get the divorce and blah blah blah.   Look, I think we all know this is ending with Hulk Hogan getting back in the ring, right?

                So then what is there for the rest of the Aces & Eights members?   For some reason, I feel like Devon and Mr. Anderson should have a decent feud over the TV Title.  I don’t know exactly who else is left after that.  DOC (aka Luke Gallows aka Festus aka whatever his real name is) got released and so did D-Lo Brown.   Does that leave anyone besides Mike Knox and Wes Briscoe?  I feel like it does, but anyway, throw Knox and Briscoe into a tag team and call it a day for Aces and Eights because it has been long enough.

                On the flipside of this, we have the newly reformed Main Event Mafia.   Wouldn’t it be nice if they could just all say that they got back together to get rid of Aces & Eights, they did that, so now they’ll go their separate ways?   Sting can go back into semi-retirement until he is needed to come back out and fight evil once again.   Rampage Jackson isn’t ready to wrestle yet anyway so I have no idea why he’s even in the MEM.   Samoa Joe and Magnus can go back to tag team purgatory, where they might even bump into Mike Knox and Wes Briscoe.   Kurt Angle, well… He can do pretty much whatever he wants because he’s Kurt freaking Angle.

                                This should set up things rather nicely, as a potential Slammiversary card could see Sabin vs. Aries, Devon vs. Anderson, Bully Ray vs. Hogan’s protégé, and then, you know, how hard would it be to come up with something for Kurt Angle, AJ Styles, Jeff Hardy, etc.??   Those guys should be the easiest ones to make matches for since they have so much history.  

Money In The Bank: WHC Ladder Match Predictions (Part 2)

                As I’ve been following WWE throughout this final week leading up to Money In The Bank, I think it is important to note that WWE seems to be hinting at someone cashing in on that very night.   Randy Orton made mention of it, but what a swerve it would be if someone from this MITB ladder match did it.  Think about how perfect it would be:  Dolph Ziggler finally regains the WHC and one of these heels takes it from him.   It’s so good it practically writes itself.

                Now, onto the final three participants and my #1 pick to win this thing.

(3) Cody Rhodes – Despite my opening comments, I think Alberto Del Rio could retain the title in a hard fought match with Dolph Ziggler (Let’s say AJ Lee or Big E costs Ziggler the title shot), Cody Rhodes could come out and take the title from Del Rio to really shake things up.   Cody, while primarily a heel, could become a great fan favorite by crushing Del Rio.   Not to mention the fact that his mustache has given him some credibility amongst the fans.  

                So what would happen if Cody Rhodes were to win the WHC, you ask?   Simple, really.  It’s the match/feud WWE has been building to for the past few years.   Cody Rhodes would acknowledge that he took advantage of Del Rio, but just did what anyone else would do, making him a tweener and not giving him the full out face push.   Then, he’d be reluctant to give a title shot to his deserving buddy and former tag team partner Hardcore Holly… Umm, I mean, DAMIEN SANDOW, and through a series of events on Smack Down!, probably involving Teddy Long and tag team matches, Damien Sandow will challenge Cody Rhodes for the World Heavyweight Championship.   And no matter who wins or who loses, this will be a story for the ages. 

(2) Damien Sandow – Should Damien Sandow win the MITB contract, I could see him cashing in on Dolph Ziggler.   It’s just a matter of intelligence to attack the champion when he is most vulnerable and it’s about time we got a champion who could talk on the mic and draw heat by insulting the crowd.   Sandow has that Rick Rude heat, while people are still not too keen on Alberto Del Rio as a face or heel. 

                Put Damien Sandow in a feud with Dolph Ziggler and you shall sell pay-per-views.   Have Damien Sandow partake in a long term storyline involving him winning the Royal Rumble and being blinded, then this would be even more perfect.

                You see, it’s not that long until the end of the year and we need to start thinking about the Royal Rumble.   Damien Sandow could take the title from Dolph Ziggler this very night, then give him (and possibly even Del Rio) a rematch at Summerslam, then continue a singles feud with Ziggler for a little bit.   Or Damien Sandow could hold the briefcase and wait to cash in until he’s good and ready.  

                When should that be?   Why, after the Royal Rumble of course.  I’d book Sandow to win the Rumble.  The next night on Raw, he announces he will challenge for both the WWE Title via his Royal Rumble victory and WHC via his MITB contract at Wrestlemania 30.   WWE would probably never book that though.

 (1) Dean Ambrose – Dean Ambrose is the biggest player in this match, and yet he also seems to be promoting this match the most in media interviews as well.   Wouldn’t it be something for him to win MITB in his former stomping grounds of Philadelphia?   You have to imagine he’ll have some fans in attendance.

                So what would Dean Ambrose do with the MITB briefcase?   Simple:  Whatever he damn well pleases.   To prove their dominance, Dean Ambrose will become the World Heavyweight Champion and The Shield will become unstoppable in WWE once again.   That is my bold prediction for this pay-per-view.

                Look, whether Seth Rollins and Roman Reigns win or lose, you know they’ll probably be out to help Ambrose.   Or they could at least help him win the title later on.   Either way, you know the title should be coming home to Dean Ambrose because I believe in The Shield and this guy is the future of WWE.  Unfortunately for his opposition, the future is now.

Money In The Bank: WHC Ladder Match Predictions (Part 1)

                The World Heavyweight Championship Money In the Bank ladder match features seven men going for a title that six of them have never held.    I have broken this into two parts, but it is my list from 7 to 1 of who I’d like to see win this match, why and what effects it could have on the wrestling world.

 (7) Jack Swagger – The theme of the World Heavyweight Championship side of the MITB match is “up and comers” and, well, Jack Swagger is anything but an up and comer.  The guy has already won MITB and been World Champion.   He “headlined” Wrestlemania this year against Alberto Del Rio in a losing effort.  So what would giving the briefcase to Jack Swagger really prove?   Nothing.   Swagger is in this match because he is a workhorse and one of the bigger guys to counteract with the smaller, high flyers.  (Think of him as this side’s version of Kane, though there will be no surprise upset) My only hope is that since Jack Swagger’s manager Zeb Coulter is also aligning himself with Antonio Cesaro now, this might give him a chance to turn good in this match.   An anti-American Swagger did not work, obviously, but imagine the reception this guy could get as a face.   You know, years back Jack Swagger was in the corner of Michael Cole at Wrestlemania and I fully expected Swagger to turn on Cole, launching him into a huge babyface push that never quite took off.   So while I do hope that this match will help change the direction of Swagger’s career (or at least give him some direction), I’m not too hopeful given the WWE track record with him.

(6) Fandango – Regardless of what anyone may believe, Fandango is not really ready to become World Champion at this point in his short lived career.  That doesn’t mean WWE won’t put the title on him, but there isn’t really a big upside to having Fandango as champion now versus, say, in a year from now.  In some ways, guys really need to lose a MITB match before they can win one.   Just ask Kofi Kingston (Remember him?)  I could see Fandango taking part in a good midlevel feud coming out of MITB and then if his character really can stick, he can look into becoming the champion down the road. 

                 Isn’t it odd how not that long ago the speculation was Fandango becoming IC Champion and now he’s in the World Title picture?   What if Fandango had not gotten injured and pulled from the triple threat IC Title match?  Would Curtis Axel instead be in this match and Fandango be the current IC Champion?  One has to wonder. 

(5) Wade Barrett – I don’t know what it is about Wade Barrett that people like (or like to hate when he’s a heel) but to me this guy had the peak of his career when he first came into WWE as the leader of Nexus.  He had all the cards in his favor, yet somehow fell into a sinkhole since that time.  If Wade Barrett was ever posed to become a major champion, that would have been the time to do it.   Right now, Wade Barrett becoming World Champion accomplishes nothing.   Sure, Barrett is stagnant in his career and this might push him into a direction that makes him seem, I don’t know, better, but what can really happen here?   Let’s say Dolph Ziggler eventually gets the World Title back as a face, and then the heel Barrett cashes in on him and just destroys him like a monster would.   Okay, that’d be kind of cool and make Barrett look threatening in some ways, but where would they go from there?  I guess Ziggler and Del Rio could work a program while Barrett defended the title against Randy Orton or Sheamus or someone, but, um… I don’t know.  When has the World Title ever really had meaning in WWE anyway?  Most of the time it’s just there to float around and you tend to forget about it anyway, so maybe it is a good title for Barrett after all.   But I’m not really expecting Wade Barrett to win MITB this time because I think he needs to do some major career overhauling if he’s ever going to become champion.  He needs to be a character that people are invested in. 

(4) Antonio Cesaro – What a coup it would be if the Cesaro and Jack Swagger were climbing the ladder and Zeb Coulter helped Cesaro win the MITB  briefcase.   Even without being World Champion yet, Cesaro would already have a feud set up with Swagger, where Zeb could say that Swagger let him down and he let America down.   This could play out well with the Swagger face turn and go back to where WWE seems to want to go with the idea that “foreigner = heel”.  The only thing is that, um, Antonio Cesaro doesn’t really need to win MITB to make this feud happen.  In fact, this seems like a much better feud that could play out for whatever reason without the World Title/MITB briefcase being a part of it.  Yeah, these two guys could cancel each other, leaving the spot open for someone else to seize.  I’d love to see Antonio Cesaro as World Champion.  He has all the qualities one needs, including stand out matches with Randy Orton.   I’m just not sure if now is his time or if he does get a Zeb Coulter backed push now if it will end up any differently than Swagger at Wrestlemania. 

                Realistically, Jack Swagger needs to regroup but so does Antonio Cesaro.  If WWE is serious about bringing glory days back to the tag division, Antonio Cesaro needs Chris Hero.  Weren’t they signed together for a reason, WWE?