In memory of Owen Hart-Gone but never forgotten......
and Popeye, loyal friend.....

Greetings sports entertainment fans! Wow, what a week to be a wrestling fan! I loved this banner so I borrowed it for this column (hope you don't mind, Chris) (as long as they don't sue me, I don't mind :) - CRZ) Alright, I'm a week late but let me start with the PPV; I don't know if it was because of low expectations or what but I really enjoyed it! Even the Lita/Chyna match! Granted they were both still sloppy and Chyna almost lost her top but I thought it moved pretty quickly. Of course the match of the night belonged to Kurt & Benoit.

I was very happy to see Kane finally awarded with the IC belt, even if he didn't win cleanly. I thought for a minute there HHH would get back at Stone Cold for making him lose but surprise surprise he didn't! I WAS very disappointed to see the dreaded X-Factor go over 3 of my favorite teams-APA, the Dudleys AND the Hardys and just a tad disappointed that Jericho's partner turned out to be neither Lance Storm NOR Tajiri but I won't complain. I just hope all of you remember that it was my dear compadre Rebecca Cerese who predicted the awesome pairing of Benoit & Jericho weeks ago!

So Judgment Day got a thumbs up from me, it wasn't the best PPV but it certainly freshened things up. So from there we get a RAW where we see Stone Cold finally starting to get the heel heat he deserves, gets called out by Jericho and we end up with a great main event! I'm not sure about the deal with Big Show as the hardcore champ-I thought Rhyno did very well with that belt. I also HATED that Matt Hardy, while giving XPuke a good fight, needed Eddy to come out and help him retain his belt. But those are minor quibbles.

I laughed at the HORRIBLE acting of Debra & Stone Cold until UT appeared like a ghost and was very effective at menacing Debra and totally punking out Stone Cold. Again I ask, how will the fans EVER take him seriously as the bad ass he once presented himself as? He hides behind Debra's skirt! He's playing the epitome of the cowardly heel.

And my my, while it was great to see Shane, what the hell was he talking about? As Rebecca says 'Sesame Street references rule!' but still, what was he drinking or smoking before he came out? Kurt, as usual was awesome-I loved his excitement at getting his medals back-loved E&C's roles in that too! I realize the main point of Shane's promo was to set up this future PPV 'Invasion' and hopefully lay more of the groundwork for that with the next PPV. Surely one of the WCW guys will come out and avenge his new boss getting slammed like that!

And yes, being the boring romantic girl that I am, I'm enjoying this WWF adaption of 'Romeo & Juliet' featuring Spike Dudley & Molly Holly. I was reading on another web site someone questioning what she could possibly see in him-now now, Spike is adorable! And he's brave-he'll take on ANYBODY! Well...that could make him crazy too. Whatever-I think they pair up nicely. I loved the Dudleys backstage promo too-so when did Bubba lose the Southern accent?

HHH's promo with Stone Cold was intense too, I liked him reminding Steve how HE still had his belts while HHH only held the tag team one now. But what is up with Steve and 'I'm Stone Cold Steve Austin' stuff? He reminds me of that man in the 'Popeye' movie that was always demanding an apology! Why does he feel the need to remind you of who he is? Of course nothing surpasses Benoit's pep talk to Jericho backstage-if only Jericho had nodded and not spoken at every break!

The pairing of Eddy & Jeff Hardy was very intriguing, they made quite a team! I'm not sure where they're headed with this storyline but I'm looking forward to it. It's inevitable that we're waiting for eddy to turn his back on the Hardys soon. But wouldn't it be something to see HIM cause a split between the brothers and NOT Lita? I wonder if Matt will stay skeptical while Jeff becomes more accepting of Eddy thus breaking up that tag team? Hhmmm....

So RAW ended with a great main event-which we haven't seen much of recently. I was very happy to see Benoit & Jericho capture the gold-again a vision that Rebecca wrote about (Miss Cleo will be offering her a job soon I'm sure!) Then we get hit with the news that HHH has really injured himself in that match. While I'm not a big HHH fan, I'm very sorry to hear that and I wish him a speedy recovery. I guess it's lucky that Cold Game happened to lose the titles. So now with HHH out for the next 4-6 months ( I think he'll push himself to get back as soon as possible) who will fill his shoes?

Well I think Smackdown answered that question-Kurt Angle! So let's talk Smackdown: it started off on a sour note for me which was X Puke beating Eddy Guerrero CLEANLY!!! God, whose coffee did Eddy piss in? I guess we all refer to the CRZ play book which states that 'XPac never loses in singles matches'! so from there it's TAJIRI!!! Of course I barely recognize him because he's dressed in street clothes! God, Regal's man servant? Couldn't they dig up Ralphus or Virgil? We want Tajiri in the ring! Anyway, I loved Kurt's menacing of Molly and of course Spike running in to save his girlfriend! Awwwww...they're SO cute!

Spike bumped like a champ for Kurt and I guess his brothers figured to let him suffer since he was defending his lady love. Kurt really looked psycho on this match! It was great! So, you think with HHH out, he'll put the moves on Steph?

I imagine she may be off TV for a little while tending to her husband but that storyline was dropped so quickly, this would be a great time to pick it back up. I imagine this would be a good time for HBK to return too.

We won't even talk about that silly backstage stuff with Blackman, Trish and an overacting Grandmaster Sexay. Geez! I'm not sure about this little trio but Steve Blackman seems to play well off whomever he's paired with. And seeing Trish do the Worm? A bit scary!!

Of course the highlight of the show was the TLC match- I thought it surpassed them all. Benoit is THE MAN!! He showed it during the PPV and he certainly showed it on both RAW and Smackdown! I like that they gave them more than 10 minutes to do the match too. Those guys bumped their asses off and while I get a little scared with these matches raising the bar a little higher each time, it was exciting, it looked painful, and it made you gasp with every crazy bump they took! The conchairto to Benoit's body just looked awful, not to mention that dive he took off the top rope through a table! Someone in the crowd held up a 'Respect Benoit' sign and I heartily agree with that!

I was pleased to see Metal featured Jerry Lynn vs. Christopher Daniels and Raven vs. 'The Shooter' Tony Jones matches! Those guys put on good matches too. It's good to see Tony do something with the WWF after seeing his tryout in 'Beyond the Mat'. And this is the first time I've seen Christopher Daniels but I'd heard of him, he & Jerry had good chemistry and they did good together! But then I'm hardly ever disappointed with Jerry's matches!

So all in all, it's been a good week to be a wrestling fan! I just hope it's the beginning of many!

Until next time.......

Sharon
First Lady of the Oracles