Welcome to my preview for the second WWE PPV for the month of June, The (No Longer Great American because we remember there are Non-American fans) Bash. It's been a rough week for me both personally (I hate dentists) and I guess for the world with the passing of Michael Jackson and Farrah Fawcett in the same week. There's no question that Jackson had a huge impact on me growing up in the '80s in a similar way that the NFL, NBA and WWF did. I still remember being scared of the Thriller video every time it was on. I have very mixed emotions about the death considering the allegations that followed him in the last 15 years. Obviously, though, as a pure talent there may never have been anybody better in any genre in the past 50 years. Anyway, I've gone off on a tangent like usual. What you're here for is to read about my thoughts for The Bash coming this Sunday. I've also got a review of this week's (June 26/09) Smackdown. I get a lot of emails asking me to review Smackdown like I do Raw. I really don't have the time for it, but I've made an exception this week. It definitely won't be as in-depth as my Raw recaps, though.

If you haven't seen Smackdown yet and you want to avoid spoilers just scroll down until you see the first set of pictures to signify the start of the preview.

Smackdown Recap for June 26/09

Taped from Milwaukee, Wisconsin

I don't understand the point of Vince McMahon opening the show, threatening Theodore Long with his job and relishing over his "firing" of Trump. What did Trump get fired from? He wasn't technically employed. Oi, my head hurts just seeing the video package. What a waste of an opening segment.

R-Truth d. Shelton Benjamin (**1/4)
The best part of this was Vince no selling the "What's Up" on the intro. That was actually funny. Benjamin's pre-match promo was okay although his delivery seemed a bit forced like all his promos. He needs a manager. I'm stunned at how poorly they book Benjamin. I don't get it. I've been wanting this guy to get a serious push up the ladder for five years now. I even wrote one of my favorite articles the night when he beat HHH relatively clean at a time when they would actually book smart upsets like that. I have nothing against R-Truth. He's a good babyface that the crowd enjoys watching, but they need to toss Benjamin into the mix with the six guys on Smackdown that routinely have great matches with eachother (Edge, Jericho, Mysterio, Hardy, Punk and Morrison). He deserves to be at that level now.

Vince talks to Rey. He makes fun of his height. Rey should have made fun of the terrible booking that Vince did when Rey was champ. Anyway, Mysterio spoke to him in Spanish, which made Vince furious and he told Long that only English should be spoken on Smackdown. Wow, real informative.

Michelle McCool & Alicia Fox d. Melina & Gail Kim (*1/4)
This was fine. It's nice to see them tell a story within a match for once. Melina selling her jaw works for me. The only problem is that Gail Kim is booked like a jobber because of the WWE theory that you can only push two women at a time per show, which is ridiculously short sighted on their part. Other than that, it's fine.

Need to go off a tangent a bit because I read about the No Mercy PPV being changed to "Hell in a Cell" and Cyber Sunday being changed to "Annihilation." The Hell in a Cell matches in general have been a good draw, but to do a whole PPV with them is too much. Even if it's three HIAC matches on one show that's too much. That's how you ruin a good gimmick. Annihilation just isn't a good name at all. And how is that PG friendly? I don't think the names matter that much especially because the Cyber Sunday concept was lame. I guess the thinking of WWE brass is that changing the names of the non four PPVs is fine because they don't matter that much in the long run. I won't argue that. However, if they change the concept of PPVs to make every match the same that's going to hurt the quality of the shows more than it will help.

Vince talks to Punk. He likes him. Yep, he's heel. None of these filler segments were very good, by the way. I don't need or want to see more Vince on the shows. Been there, done that.

Cryme Tyme did their Word Up segment, Jesse the white farmer's boy acted black, they stole his bling and I guess that's supposed to be funny. Hey, Eve was in this segment. She's hot at least.

John Morrison d. World Champion CM Punk in a non-title match (***3/4)
This was the best TV match in WWE since…Morrison vs. Edge last week (I'd give that one ***3/4 too). I can get used to these great matches at the top of the second hour every week. They told such a great story from the moment they shook hands to the competitive nature of the match. They were kicking out of viable finishes with neither guy hitting their actual finisher, which is a great way to build up to future matches. Of course having worked together so much in ECW a couple years ago really helped them a lot. The finish was awesome. I wish I didn't read spoilers because I would have been shocked to see Morrison win clean with the rollup using his feet to pin. That guy's a hell of an athlete. Hopefully they follow this up with a PPV match because if they simply forget about Morrison beating Punk that would be very foolish. Post match with Punk turning the handshake into the GTS was fantastic too. Then he acted as if he was upset about being a jerk. I love it. This is how you do a proper heel turn.

Jericho's promo was awesome like usual. I doubt the writers feed him lines for his promos. I know he is the one that books most of his storylines now and I assume he writes his own promos since they are so much better than the norm. He was the best performer in 2008. Half a year into 2009, he might be again.

More awkward Vince stuff talking to Jeff Hardy. We get it, Vince, you're a heel. Please stay off TV.

Steel Cage Match: Edge & Chris Jericho d. Jeff Hardy & Rey Mysterio w/CM Punk as referee (***1/4)
I know that the average fan thinks cage matches make matches better, but that's not necessarily the case. Tag team cage matches don't work that well, which is why they are rarely done. I also hate the WWE booking of cage matches that allows somebody to win by pinfall, submission or escaping the cage. It should either be pin/submission or escaping the cage, but not both. I think I just hate he no blood policy because I grew up on the bloody WWE where a guy bleeds after being tossed into the cage. I'll never get used to the tame version. Anyway, the quality of the match was very good, but not great. I think if the cage wasn't there and you gave these guys 20 minutes they'd hit four stars, maybe even higher. The cage confines them a little too much for my liking. Still, you can't complain about a PPV quality main event that did a good job of promoting The Bash on Sunday. Loved the spot where Jericho whipped Mysterio into the cage only for Rey to immediately climb up the thing. They should book a finish like that just to make fans believe it can really happen. Things were pretty slow for the first 15 minutes, but the last 5 minutes were predictably great. Having Jeff Hardy get pinned is great. The tension between Punk and him was excellent. Edge scoring the pin was nice too. All in all, very good match.

More with Vince saying Teddy's job is on the line even though it was a great show again. "Smackdown should be more like Raw: crappy." Okay he didn't say that, but I thought it.

Rating: 8 (out of 10)

Final Smackdown Thoughts
Awesome show typical of what Smackdown has done in the two months following the draft. This is why I don't feel like spending my time reviewing Smackdown every week. It's almost always good. What's there to say? The new Smackdown Six (Edge, Jericho, Punk, Hardy, Mysterio and Morrison) carry this show every week. Even the bad stuff is kept short. It amazes me that the same company can have a show that's this good on a consistent basis while also having Raw being such an inconsistent program week after week. The formula is here. Have a midcard match that gets about 10 minutes (R-Truth vs. Benjamin), have a top of the hour match that gets 10-17 minutes (Punk vs. Morrison) and a main event that goes 10-20 minutes (Edge/Jericho vs. Rey/Hardy). Toss in an in-ring promo (Vince with Teddy although that wasn't great), one or two short matches (the ladies), a few backstage segments to get others on the show (plenty of those) and you have yourself a show. Smackdown comes off as an organized show that was well planned by a team of writers that thought about it in detail. Raw often times comes off as a show written on a napkin about 30 minutes before it hits the air, which is not actually the case, but that's what it feels like. Something internally needs to change in WWE to fix that problem.

I doubt I'll review Smackdown regularly. The Friday night thing just isn't great for me, which is why I typically watch it on Sunday mornings. Maybe I'll do it on the last show before the PPVs to at least give you some opinions on it the way I did it here. I think I can manage that. Or I'll get a blog going again and toss some thoughts on there. I'll figure something out and let you know Tuesday in the next Raw Deal column most likely.

One last thing before I get to The Bash preview that I wanted to talk about was the rating of Raw being a surprisingly high 4.53 with 6.8 million viewers. I think the main reason for that was it being a commercial free show. If people can watch a two hour show without having to change the channel they're going to stick through the whole thing. Look, people are lazy. We know this. We're the internet generation that wants everything here and now. We don't like waiting. I'd expect another commercial free Raw to happen probably once the NFL season starts in a couple months (God, I miss the NFL). Maybe there'll be another one in the summer. I don't think it's worthwhile for USA to do it often, but I can see them doing it several times in the year because they'll probably pop a big rating by doing it again. I give credit to USA Network for thinking out of the box a bit by trying something outside the norm. The same old shit isn't going to work.

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Moving on to The Bash on Sunday, I'm pretty excited about the Jericho/Mysterio blowoff match as well as the Punk/Hardy match just to see if they will go with a strong heel turn for Punk or if they'll continue to slowly milk it. Based on Smackdown this week, I think they'll go with the strong turn. Other than that? Let's just say I'm not as excited. Have to say I'm disappointed that there's no Edge or Morrison match on the PPV. Why not put them against eachother based on the very good match they had on last week's Smackdown? It would be better than Khali vs. Ziggler, which should have been just a TV feud. I look forward to be proven wrong, though.

Once again for the preview I'm joined by my former partner in crime known as Drqshadow. We wrote PPV previews together from about 1999 until 2004 or so. We did WCW and ECW previews while also doing WWF ones. You name it, we did it. He hasn't watched much in the past three years, but he does read about it, so not everything is foreign to him. With that said, this is most likely his last appearance because I've bought him out by paying double what he paid me to get into the preview. I'm just like Vinny Mac. Crazy? Smart? You decide.

Drq, any thoughts on the name of the PPV being changed due to McMahon realizing his company has fans outside of America?

Drqshadow: I don't think "The Bash" really has the sound of a good PPV - the "Great American" part had that old school WCW credibility to it but even it wasn't all that great a name either. I guess we should be thankful for small miracles - they could've renamed it "The Real American Bash" and headlined it with another Hogan match.

Unified Tag Team Titles: Carlito and Primo (c) vs. Ted Dibiase and Cody Rhodes

Drqshadow: Does Primo also enjoy the taste of a crisp apple, or is he
more inclined to the citrus burst of a ripe lemon? I'm glad there is such a thing as a tag team division at the moment, although I'm hardly filled with hope for the future, considering the way it's been traditionally forgotten, rediscovered and then subsequently forgotten again over the years. I'll go with Los Colons to defend the belts.

John: The Primo/Cody match on Raw was pretty bad with a poor crowd reaction, so I hope things are better for these guys at The Bash. I like all four of them and I think they all do a good job in playing their roles. The Colon brothers are good at getting the crowd involved while Legacy can get the crowd to hate them pretty easily, especially in tags. I'm sensing a title change here just because the Colons have done nothing with the belts for three months. It's time for something different.
Winners: Dibiase and Rhodes

No Disqualification: Dolph Ziggler vs. The Great Khali

Drqshadow: Dolph Ziggler? What is he, a technologically-advanced Russian porn star? I hope Khali has been doing some intense training in the alps for this match, or he'll never stand a chance. I can't even imagine the kind of quality we're going to get from a match between an eight-foot freak of nature and a former member of the Spirit Squad. Let's go with the porn star. He must break you.

John: I am not one of the people yearning for the Great Khali to return to PPV matches, believe me. Ziggler's beat him in a bunch of different ways without actually pinning him. This time I think Khali pins him clean. Ziggler needs to move on from here. You don't get better by working Khali.
Winner: The Great Khali

Women's Title: Melina (c) vs. Michelle McCool

Drqshadow: Are they still trying to do a separate title for Divas? (JC Note: Yes they are.) If so, I feel obligated to mention that it's hilarious that a division with maybe half a dozen active competitors gets two dedicated titles, while there's once again no cruiserweight champ. I'll go with Melina.

John: That outfit McCool had on Smackdown a couple weeks ago when she attacked Melina left me very uh…McHorny. Yeah, we'll go with that. I like her, to say the least. I'm not crazy about Melina as a babyface because it takes away from the strong personality that she obviously has. I think it's time for a title change, so McCool's my pick here.
Winner: Michelle McCool

ECW Championship Scramble Match: Tommy Dreamer (c) vs. Christian vs. Jack Swagger vs. Mark Henry vs. Finlay

Drqshadow: I love that Fit Finlay and Mark Henry are extreme enough to be competing for the ECW title. Paul Heyman must be so proud. I'll take Mark Henry with the X-TREME BAER HUGG to take the title.

John: Christian's one of my three favorite wrestlers in WWE (Jericho and Edge being the others - all of whom are fellow Canadians by the way), but I don't like him in ECW anymore. It's become too repetitive. If they're really dead set on keeping the rosters the same until next year's draft in April then this show is going to suffer. Yes, they can obviously elevate Evan Bourne and my fellow Canuckers in the Hart Dynasty, but what else can really be done. The roster only has a dozen or so people. It's the same thing over and over. In this match they get 20 minutes, which is good in the sense of building a match, but I don't think the crowd will be into the first 15 minutes that much. I'll go with Dreamer for the win simply because moving it off him after only three weeks would be silly. Then again, a silly title change in WWE has been the norm lately.
Winner: Tommy Dreamer

Intercontinental Title vs. Mask: Chris Jericho (c) vs. Rey Mysterio

Drqshadow: If WWE is smart, Mysterio isn't losing that mask. But then again, what am I talking about, since when was WWE smart? They just gave away a quarter million dollars to further a gimmick that was squashed before the end of the night. Regardless, when Mysterio went maskless in WCW, he lost a lot of his character and individuality that only really returned when he debuted in WWE with the fabric back on his dome. Jericho can survive without the IC belt, in fact I'm not sure why he's wasting his time with it in the first place, but Mysterio needs that mask more than anything. He'll be victorious.

John: I'm not getting into the ridiculousness of Rey's mask coming off. If you want to know what he looks like, Google it. Hell, there's even a picture of the guy in Jericho's own book. I think WWE is smart enough to keep the mask on because it adds that aura of mystery out there for the fans that truly don't know what the guy looks like. This has been the feud of the year so far. It's probably the end of it even though it's about two months early since that last match should happen at Summerslam. My guess is Jericho moves up the ladder to feud with Undertaker for the first time ever this summer. I loved their promo on the June 19 edition of Smackdown because each guy got to tell their side of the story. They explained why this rivalry exists. It makes sense. Jericho hates that Rey hides behind a mask while Rey hates the fact that Jericho berates the fans at every opportunity. It makes sense. It works. Listen to the crowd. They love it. They eat it up. This is a GREAT pro wrestling feud 12 years after they had a great pro wrestling feud in WCW as cruiserweights. I hope they get 15 minutes to tell the story they deserve (they should really get 30 minutes) with Mysterio winning by the end of it.
Winner: Rey Mysterio

John Cena vs. The Miz

Drqshadow: I'm just surprised Miz has made it this far in the industry. I can remember when cowardly heels were all the rage about ten years ago, with Jericho and Corino leading the way. Then the idea got watered down, the bookers went out of control and we wound up with half a dozen feuds that centered around a heel constantly avoiding the payoff by sending in his cronies or just avoiding the ring altogether. It was annoying, not entertaining. If it's one guy doing the job right, the gimmick can work but it's not something that can be spread around the roster. This seems like a match that's intended to be predictable, which would seem to indicate a swerve, but I don't give WWE that much credit. Cena wins.

John: I picked against Cena the last two PPVs. Not anymore. I still think he should have lost to Big Show at Judgment Day, but I guess that's not important now. He beat Show three times clean, then he lost to him this past week on Raw after Miz interfered. They've booked Miz as a big mouth who has yet to win any notable singles matches since going to Raw. I don't understand it. They should have at least booked him for some singles victories along the way. I guess they figure the crowds are never dead during Cena's matches, so it'll be fine in that aspect. Problem is, I don't think anybody's going to react to the pinfall attempts of Miz. That's why we might see Big Show come down to interfere. I think he'll try, he'll fail and Cena will get the victory with Miz coming close several times throughout the match.
Winner: John Cena

World Title: CM Punk (c) vs. Jeff Hardy

Drqshadow: I actually like this match, go figure. Punk seems to have the tools for a nice heel run at the top, and Hardy always gets so much sympathy heat that it's tough for him to even think about running as anything but a face. They're similar enough in stature that they should be able to work a convincing, innovative match without asking us to suspend our disbelief any more than usual. It's a shame that, whoever wins, (and I'm going with Punk) they probably won't find nearly as compatible a partner on the other side of the ring during their next defense.

John: This is an example of a fresh match that they have built really well. It's not overdone or something we've seen many times before. Punk's transition from the straight edge babyface into the heel that doesn't have any regrets has been tremendous. I don't have any doubt that he will be a good heel because I witnessed his very enjoyable run in ROH. He'll thrive in the role. Fans are going to want to boo him for being a jerk because he really does a good job of being arrogant. Fans also love Hardy, which makes it the perfect feud for Punk's new heel reign. I'm expecting a great match here that gets 15 minutes of ring time, teases a Hardy win on more than on occasion and ultimately ends on Punk scoring the pin with the GTS after some questionable tactics. Maybe a ref bump or maybe a shot to the head with some well concealed brass knuckles would do the trick. I feel pretty safe in saying Punk will retain the belt here.
Winner: CM Punk

WWE Championship Three Stages of Hell: Randy Orton (c) vs. Triple H
Fall 1: Regular, Fall 2: Falls Count Anywhere, Fall 3: Stretcher Match

Drqshadow: I love the idea that there could only be two stages of hell in a "three stages of hell" match, assuming somebody wins the first two consecutively. I know they want to protect the mystique of the Hell in a Cell, but wouldn't that be a better choice for the third stage than something as lame as a stretcher match? At least bring back the inferno match or something, because my definition of hell certainly extends further than a generic singles match, a falls count anywhere match and a ride on the stretcher. Unless the competitors plan to don the old school LOD spiked shoulder pads and turn this into a submissions-only match or something, this looks a lot more like a generic headline faceoff than a true trip down to the land of the damned. I'll go with Orton to retain and try not to yawn.

John: I like HHH as a performer although I love him as a heel. I love Orton as a heel champ. I don't love this feud. I think I dislike it by this point. It's been going on for four months (I still laugh about Orton going through the window), they've had at least five or six matches against eachother with the title involved and that's even with HHH being away for six months. We know Orton's a douche that tries to screw with HHH, but we've also seen him get his comeuppance plenty of times. Not only did he lose clean to HHH at Mania, Hunter also beat the shit out of him on his return to Raw. Then Orton, who never should have lost the belt in the first place, won the belt back in a match that involved HHH, yet Hunter was able to get another title shot by winning a match that same night! My head is spinning from all this. Two out of three falls is a different gimmick, but who out there likes a Stretcher match? Fans don't get excited about stretcher matches. Give them matches with pinfalls that decide the outcome. How is there drama in putting a guy on a gurney, then trying to push him over a line? Want to watch a good 3 Stages of Hell match? Check out Austin vs. HHH at No Way Out 2001. That's how you do a match like this. Even Michaels/HHH at Armageddon 2002 had good stips for three stages of hell. You don't use a stretcher match as the decider. It's so lame.

The feud is not fresh. Not only are there too many title matches in general, there are way too many title switches. The title has lost its value. I know they do them because they hope it will pop a big rating on Raw. That's some backwards logic. You're supposed to want your fans to pay to watch title matches on PPV, not see the new champ the next day on Raw. I'll pick Orton to retain because he should be in the midst of a long title reign. If he loses, it doesn't hurt him or the title because both have been hurt by this feud. Even if HHH loses here he'll likely win some battle royal or four way or some other ridiculous match to be number one contender again because I'm sure they're saving Hell in a Cell for this feud that will never end. It's a shame because the title picture could be so much fresher.
Winner: Randy Orton

That's it. I think it's a pretty good show with a match that's likely going to end arguably the feud of the year so far (Jericho/Mysterio), a fresh World Title match (Punk/Hardy) and a very tired WWE title match (Orton/HHH) that I'm sure a few people out there want to see for reasons I don't fully understand. I might order it because I might have nothing else to do on Sunday night although the price is a bit too much. Either way, I'll write about it in Tuesday's Raw Deal column, so be on the lookout for that.

I appreciate any feedback you guys can give so please send me your thoughts at oratoryjohn@gmail.com about anything related to WWE past or present. Please, keep sending them in. I'm a little behind on the replies because this week was really busy for me between work and my trips to the dentist, but I promise I'll get to all of them hopefully by the end of the weekend. If you add me on Facebook you'll see the links to my columns posted immediately as I post them on this website. It's an account that I use only for my wrestling columns rather than a personal one.

Enjoy the show, people.

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