The curse of Smackdown ?

lw

Just read a good article in the sun. Not sure if any of you got to read it yet.

http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2...340192,00.html

WHILE keeping up our campaign to rid wrestling of steroids and other drugs, SunSport Online will also be bringing you regular WWE and TNA news and reviews as we always have.

This week two writers look at The Great Kahli’s ascent to world heavyweight champion:

THINK you're in danger if you have seen Tutankhamen's tomb?

Maybe there's a hex on you if you have the surname 'Kennedy' in American politics.

You may even believe that throwing a black cat beneath a ladder straight through a mirror would place on a curse your head (or maybe the cat's).

But nothing, not even any of the above, come close to the Smackdown brands curse of the world heavyweight title.

Edge, who had only gained the strap on May 8, was forced to relinquish the belt last week on Smackdown, due to a legitimate tear of his left pectoral muscle.

This led to a hastily booked battle royal, which in turn resulted in The Great Khali becoming the least talented champion in the belt's history.

And yes, I am including David Arquette.

It isn't the first time, though, that the belt has changed hands rather quietly in this, or a similar, manner.

After winning the title at WrestleMania 21 in April 2005, Batista not only walked through his pit of danger, he strutted and strolled, defeating all in his wake and looking the part as one of the company's standard bearers.

However, at a house show in early January the following year, he was injured, tearing his right triceps in a match with Mark Henry, who you are more likely to describe as a high-flying luchadore before suggesting he is graceful in the ring.

Batista emotionally was forced to stand in the ring and give up the title. Later that night Kurt Angle won a battle royal to claim the gold in his home town of Philadelphia.

And from that point on, anyone who held the championship on Smackdown has had their life tinged with a little controversy, bad luck, injury, or all three.

Angle dropped the belt in a triple threat with Randy Orton and Rey Mysterio, with the Mexican master of the 619 emerging victorious.

Angle, though, was showing increasing signs of mental frailty and erratic behavior behind the scenes.

He was drafted soon after to ECW, but within three months he was gone, released from the WWE due to 'personal reasons'.

He turned up in TNA a month later.

Mysterio, soon to return to WWE we hear, had lost the belt to King Booker at last year's Great American Bash.

A feud with Chavo Guerrero ensued, but Rey's troublesome knee injury was sufficient to see him laid up for sometime after surgery.

We can only hope that he returns to his old self after his lay off, as no-one can match the high flying style Mysterio possesses.

So what of King Booker? He inherited his seemingly poisoned chalice from Rey-Rey in July 2006, but after WrestleMania this year he was on the shelf too.

A mixture of elbow and knee pain, including a meniscus tear, was enough to force the dreadlocked monarch out of business for a while.

He is now back and gunning for the soon to return Triple H.

Booker was relieved of the belt by Batista, now back after his own injury worries, but he was drop the belt to the legendary Undertaker at this year's WrestleMania.

Surely The Deadman, with his powers of the dark side would not be susceptible to this curse?

Well, not only was he susceptible, he actually suffered the same injury that had forced Batista to surrender the strap.

Unbelievably, though, and showing incredible commitment and testicular fortitude, as our friend Mick Foley might say, Taker completed a match, allowing Edge to appear afterwards, Money In The Bank briefcase in hand and Mark Henry by his side, to defeat The Phenom and become world champion for a Third time.

And so we return to the injury suffered by Edge last week.

Is the curse due to the number 13, which appears in several dates when some of these occurrences came to pass?

Could it be that someone on another plane is trying to show Vince McMahon what happens when you keep pushing Mark Henry?

Or perhaps it's merely the spirit of WCW - where the belt originated - living on and cocking up everything in its path.

Whatever the curse may be, we think it has now attained its final goal.

Nothing can be worse than The Great Khali headlining PPV events.

demanufactured

I like that line about WCW, so true , vice destroyed what could have been a great storyline and he could have kept WCW going if he forked out the cash , but noooooooooo he wanted WCW dead , well guess what vince , its haunting you now isnt it.

Bobalicious93

hopefully this means Khali will be (badly) injured now!

ShawnRaven

demanufactured wrote:

I like that line about WCW, so true , vice destroyed what could have been a great storyline and he could have kept WCW going if he forked out the cash , but noooooooooo he wanted WCW dead , well guess what vince , its haunting you now isnt it.

Not exactly, as the first one he showcased after the buyout is now currently one of their biggest stars on the RAW roster. He's pretty much monopolised the industry, as seen on a famous t-shirt on a Fatboy Slim CD, "I'm #1 so why try harder".

The guy is a billionare, his only competition is indirectly UFC as far as the PPV market as TNA nor ROH are major threats. So um, i think he'd probably laugh if he read that statement to be honest

VR!

demanufactured

what i meant was he didne fork out straight away for goldberg, nash and the like , yeh i know nash is a hasbeen but it was the only way that the storyline was gonna be beievable , as it was it was a **** storyline

ShawnRaven

demanufactured wrote:

what i meant was he didne fork out straight away for goldberg, nash and the like , yeh i know nash is a hasbeen but it was the only way that the storyline was gonna be beievable , as it was it was a **** storyline

Yeah, the thing is, it would be a lot of money to fork out for a storyline that went by the wayside anyway. As the likes of Hall, Nash, Hogan and Goldberg were under guaranteed contracts by Time Warner. And if you were being paid to sit on your ass all day doing nothing, you'd do it too.

Vince could have bought out the contracts, but as stated, it's a lot of money for a hit & miss storyline.

Bringing ECW into the mix was a bad idea, it was far too soon and didn't give enough time for the WCW storyline to kick in. Having Shane and Stephanie in the mix certainly didn't help.

The Invasion storyline wasn't just killed by lack of star power, the writing was bloody appauling!

VR!

demanufactured

true dat

iv been watchin wrestling since i was a kid and to see how downhill its gone in 20 years is sad

i got into wcw when i discovered it on tnt in early 98 , it was great seeing my old heroes in wrestling as i thought most of them retired , goldberg was my favourite after a while of watching it, i loved his intensity and loved seing him destroy people too lol

ShawnRaven

demanufactured wrote:

i got into wcw when i discovered it on tnt in early 98 , it was great seeing my old heroes in wrestling as i thought most of them retired , goldberg was my favourite after a while of watching it, i loved his intensity and loved seing him destroy people too lol

Nitro was unreal from 95-98 but went rapidly downhill after that. WCW's downfall was it provided great TV but utter sh*t PPV nine times out of ten, with main events that were seen on "thatudderpromotion" five to six years earlier, and blowoffs that nobody really gave a f*ck about, which is why i think they eventually lost the monday night war. WWE made a batch of new stars, especially with unused WCW talent. WCW tried to re-capture lightning in a bottle with hasbeens like Hogan, Savage and Piper, and got a very limited stretch with them. With Hogan, the NWO storyline gave him a complete new lease of life, but after three months, it was the same sh*t wearing different colours.

Savage was so unreliable at that point too, as much as it kills me to say as i'm a huge Savage mark from the 80s. But his twisted personal life and the fact that he never fully got over the split with Liz, i don't think helped the situation, and the writing team took a lot of liberties regarding that situation as well (Flair stealing Liz and sending Savage bankrupt storyline from 96-97).

Piper, for all intents and purposes was a shadow of his former self coming back from another hip replacement surgery. His WCW matches were so painful to watch it's not even funny.

And the worst of all was the likes of Jericho, Malenko and Guerrero were all opening for these guys!

VR!