Part 2 is here.
Road to Royal Rumble 2007 – 3
We’re two legs down in our build for Rumble ’07. Let’s finish it up here.
Smackdown is now NWA Friday Night Fight Night – which can be called just Friday Night or just Fight Night in shorthand (or FN Squared, for that matter) with JR and Bradshaw on the announce and Dusty as the commissioner. It’s stiff, stiff, stiff all Friday long – if RAW looks like NOAH and GDI looks like ROH, I think Fight Night looks like UFC, as I think about it. I see the phrase “blood feud” being used a lot, this is where people turn to for the violence.
Violence~ Motherfuckers. Violence~
So – their tournament is as follows:
Fit d. Haas
-Both came over with Dusty, along with Benjamin they form the core of what the new NWA is. Stiff and relentless.
Insert your own joke.
Fit goes over clean. Like Regal, Charlie’s gonna wind up as enhancement, since I’ll never get to use him.
Orton d. Nitro
-No, Orton doesn’t really fit in the brand, but his cockiness is a good counterpoint, with all the “tradition” talk that we’ll be drenched in on Friday – Orton, who just beat Fit clean at Survivor Series is overt that he doesn’t care at all about tradition, about yesterday – that he is the face of the NWA in the 21st century.
Nitro, who is keeping his name, is also cocky heel, he needs to feed Orton here, but I like him and he’s gonna be important in 2007.
Give Orton another RKO on Fit during this cycle – and let him RKO Dean too - and you’ve got that semi-final match set up for the Rumble.
Benjamin d. Regal
-A call back to Team Angle – recall, that Team Angle blew up when Kurt ordered the Code Red on Haas and then benched Benjamin, forcing him into the valet role – Regal took a stand against Kurt, said he couldn’t be part of what he was doing to Team Angle, and walked away.
Now, Benjamin’s a babyface, part of Strong Style, and he goes over Regal.
Flair d. Leviathan
-Flair’s gotta earn his face turn. He’s been a heel during his whole WWF career, except for what really turned out to be a swerve when he joined Steamboat as co-commissioners. So, as was set up in a previous post – he asks Dusty to come to NWA and be in the tournament, but Dusty is disinclined, given how Flair abused his power with the 51% Solution.
But Flair’s Flair – and he is made an active full time wrestler again when he beats Leviathan in the tournament. Flair’s gotta take a good beating, Leviathan’s his former protégée who he screwed – it’s a good enough beating, Flair fighting from underneath and then getting the fall – that it goes a long way toward winning the fans trust. People want to cheer Flair anyway, he’s Ric Flair.
Flair offers Leviathan a postmatch handshake, but he refuses, which is effectively a heel turn for Batista.
Which sets up the Arn/Flair thing, since AA is Benjamin’s manager. So, we add that.
Getting us to the tags.
RVD and Sabu, taking advantage of the ability of the tag champs to work all 3 shows become the first RAW wrestlers to work GDI. Be good if it were Philly or at least some other Northeastern city. RVD/Sabu coming back to the bingo hall would be kinda perfect.
Anyway, they go over Kendrick/Noble, who are my GDI tag team during this stretch (eventually, we’re gonna put the Jung Dragons back together, with Yang and Noble – Colt Cabana and Matt Sydal, for those of you paying attention, will also be working on Tuesdays.
They go over – and are then attacked by Sandman/Dreamer, recall, who attacked them after their title win at Survivor Series.
That’s gonna allow us to tether the tags to the big angle – Sandman and Dreamer go GDI – they say they know they aren’t young and hungry, like the rest of the guys on Tuesday nights – but they’re old and hungry. When Punk spat on the WWF and NWA belts – when he said the ECW belt was the only one who represented the ECW spirit – Sandman and Dreamer applauded.
They never gave a crap about the WWF – and the WWF never gave a crap about them.
They are from the tribe of extreme – misfits and freaks, the unloved and the unwashed.
And since ECW died – since it was swallowed up by the monster corporation from New York – they’ve been wandering in the wilderness.
But now – they’re home.
Because no one is more God Damn Independent than Sandman and Dreamer.
And just like Punk reclaimed our property – reclaimed our Holy Grail – reclaimed the ECW World Heavyweight Championship from the Evil Empire – the WWF – at the Royal Rumble – they’re gonna show those turncoats – those sellouts – those corporatized bitches, RVD and Sabu – what GDI is all about.
They’ll do a huge garbage match – a Double Hell Death Match – with glass tables on the two sides of the ring that have no ropes. It’s probably gonna be the high point in the amount of blood we’re going to spill in this stretch.
Lots of good things about doing it like this, one of the chief ones is Noble and Kendrick are going to be in the angle, adding some work where the guys who are actually in the match can’t in 2007 – they’ll take lots of bumps.
Dreamer and Sandman are just gonna be babyfaces on Tuesdays – I’m cool with that – it’s a revolution – CM Punk is ECW Champion, representing the ROH faction of 21st century indie guys – Sandman/Dreamer are selling the continuity of ECW with GDI, embracing Punk completely, giving GDI the full stamp of approval with whatever vestige of ECW goodwill remains.
Stevie, as mouthpiece for the champs, has a difficult job – but he’s not going to cede the babyface ground. RVD and Sabu are the Unified Tag Team Champions of the World – Stevie isn’t going to let Sandman/Dreamer say they’re somehow more extreme, more real, more down than his guys – I’m not gonna heel up RVD and Sabu on Tuesdays – I want the fans to do whatever they’re gonna do.
On top, as mentioned, is Punk/Matt.
Punk aggressively challenges Matt’s outsider status – Matt’s been Pillman, or maybe Pillman turned Austin, in this stretch – never having a WWF contract, fighting the system when the system was the Solution, attacking a babyface legend like Michaels.
But now – Matt’s got a contract, he’s the babyface in the main event at XXIII, he has his own segment on all the shows – Steamboat has given him a full contract – and at some point at the end of December – Steamboat finally reveals to Punk, after lots of back and forth, that Matt’s gonna face Punk for the strap at the Rumble main.
Punk works that – how is it that Matt hasn’t sold out to the man – what is it about him that’s not corporate – he’s facing a real outsider – a real revolutionary, CM Punk – Matt’s no different than a guy like Hunter or Flair or Edge.
That promo will lead to Paul London’s coming to RAW to wrestle Matt.
Recall, the deal with London is this – he’s not a true believer like Noble and Kendrick, who now are totally in Punk’s pocket – he just wants to wrestle – and when Punk promised him that he’d get the title shot at XXIII – he stayed GDI.
So, London goes to RAW, say for the go home match before the Rumble – he puts Matt over – Punk, with Maria in tow, attacks Matt postmatch – Punk, heeling it up, does the “shove Maria at Matt” spot – maybe he does it twice – the first time he does it, it works, Punk takes advantage as they do an extended brawling spot – and the second time – Matt lays Maria out with a Twist of Fate
The idea being that Matt’s still an outsider – because he’d lay Maria out.
Insert own joke here. Maria. Mmmmmm. The things I'd....I'm losing my place.
If that’s not hard enough – he can stick a fork between her eyes.
I’m looking for something just strong enough to keep Matt from being white meat, and not so strong that he’s a heel. ‘Cause, you know, Wrestlemania’s comin’.
Okay – we’re goin’ to San Antonio for Royal Rumble 2007.
ECW Title: CM Punk (w/Maria) v. Matt Hardy
WWF Semifinal: Edge v. Booker T
NWA Semifinal: Ric Flair v. Shelton Benjamin (w/AA)
NWA Semifinal: Fit Finlay (w/Dean) v. Randy Orton
WWF Semifinal: Executioner Lashley v. Undertaker (w/HBK)
Worldwide Titles: Sugar Shane Helms v. Chavo Guerrero (w/LWO)
Unified Tag Titles: Double Hell Glass Tables Death Match: RVD/Sabu (w/Stevie) v. Sandman/Dreamer (w/Noble/Kendrick)
Shawn Michaels v. Jeff Hardy
LWO: Carlito/Super Crazy v. Ken Kennedy/John Cena
Yeah, I’m down. Buy that show.
I’ll be back sooner rather than later. Royal Rumble
