Chris Shore and Marvin Hermanstyne hang out around the DotNet water cooler and discuss the Royal Rumble, Bret Hart confronting Vince McMahon on Raw, and the end of ECW.

Shore: Wow, we haven’t done this in a while Rich. You look.....different. Don’t you think that tan is a little much?

Marv: LOL...he's been demoted to NXT duties for the next six months, so I'm taking charge here.

Shore: Oh, Marv, it's you. Well that works out better anyway. So, a returning Edge is our 2010 Royal Rumble winner. Tell the truth, you marked out when his music hit.

Marv: I really did, dude. Longer than the 0.2 seconds I did when Cena returned in 2008 and my buddy Nate had to smack some sense into me.

Shore: Don't feel bad, we all did. I can't believe he recovered so quick from the surgery. And he looked really good too. Are you excited about him headlining Mania, and do you think we get the Edge/Jericho match we want to see?

Marv: I would love to see Jericho and Edge steal the show like Taker and HBK did last year. My suggestion is to hold off on Edge wrestling until close to Mania to work off the ring rust and then we should get the five star classic match we been dying for.

Shore: They should keep him from wrestling on TV for a while, I agree. Maybe a tag match here and there, but no singles matches on TV. I think if he and Jericho are able to book this angle themselves (like Michaels and Jericho last year) then they can build a quality story that will create a number of buys for Vince and company. They need a good card for Mania. Other than the Rumble match itself, I felt the show was a little underwhelming. I mean, the matches were good, but no juice, no excitement. What did you think?

Marv: The Rumble was okay, but the match itself was the third shortest in Rumble history. Taker/Mysterio was a soild veteran match, Orton vs. Sheamus felt somewhat throwaway but not bad, Christian vs. Zeke was OK, but Christian clearly carried him and The Miz vs. MVP could of been better but it was impromptu. Mickie winning and JBL-esque squash on McCool was an headscratcher, but at the end, I'm glad this Piggie James storyline is over. But the Rumble match itself dissapointed me because of the 30 participants, 18 of them had ZERO eliminations and most of them were young guys.

Shore: I noticed that. The match had a strange flow to it, what with Punk owning the first third of the match. Speaking of which, he was incredible in his role. If he had tossed Triple H like he had the others, I would have died in my living room. I'm concerned about him going forward though. He wasn't exactly made to look good against anyone of any substance, just guys you didn't expect to win. Do you think he's helped or hurt by his Rumble experience?

Marv: I'm pretty neutral on his experience. He really needed to throw someone out who was relevant but being dominant during his time in the match gains him some credibilty and it will be one of the memorable things of the match.

Shore: I hope so. His Straight Edge Society is the most intriguing thing on Smackdown right now, at least until Edge comes back full time. It is not, however, the most intriguing thing on WWE TV. Monday night, the Vince McMahon/Bret Hart angle took an interesting turn after a killer promo segment. What did you think?

Marv: Its going in the right direction because its so much time to build up to this match, it will be a nice money maker. I really don't want a tag match with Cena and Hart vs. Batista and Vince because they will end up throwing together some weak stipulation. Let them have respective singles matches: Cena vs. Batista - interbrand match and Bret vs. Vince in a street fight.

Shore: My concern is Bret. If he can't go at all, and Monday makes me feel that way, I think the tag match is the way to go. Look, I would rather see the singles matches too. But I would rather have a lame tag match than two lame singles matches. If Bret can't get it done, they need to protect him. The last thing they need is for Bret to hurt himself by trying too hard.

Marv: If they are going to go the tag team route, let this be at the end of the first hour.

Shore: No luck there, end of the second hour at best. Speaking of ending, I saw your thoughts about the end of ECW in the Dot Net Member forum. Care to give me your favorite ECW memory?

Marv: Yeah, the blog was basically a brief overview of my thoughts of the ECW brand. I didn't get full in-depth about the demise of the "C" brand, but I felt it was important that people knew that the WWE's version of ECW was not clearly the same as the old school version. But my favorite memory of ECW was the Stairway to Hell match between RVD vs. Sabu. This was some classic material I can watch again and again. One Night Stand 2006 when RVD faced Cena....was also an classic moment because of the way the REAL ECW fans treated John Cena.

Shore: The RVD vs. Cena match has become a cliche, but cliches become cliches because they are true. The hate for Cena that night was unreal. It was like an old school event were the fans used to stab the wrestlers on the way to their cars. For me, the Zombie coming out was my favorite moment because it showed how ignorant Vince was to ECW and its fans. I hate to see it go, but I also want to see this new show, even if NXT is the dumbest name I have ever heard.

Marv: What's the deal with that Zombie?? Powell even joked about him when he was on Between The Ropes the other night. Does everyone want that cheesy character back? If that's the case, bring back The Shockmaster. I'm interested to see how this new show goes also because I want to know, will it be all new people and they ship all the vets to Raw and SD? Or will they bring more veterans from the big brands to have matches against the younger talent? NXT sounds pretty bushleague if you ask me just like the XFL...but this is blooming idea of Vinnie Mac, so all we can do is wait to see how it turns out.

Shore: The idea of a show showcasing new talent is exactly what ECW is, so I'm not sure how the new show will be any different. The only veterans I'm interested in seeing go somewhere are Christian and Regal. The rest do nothing for me. As long as Croft and Baretta don't end up on Smackdown. We have enough boring tag teams as it is.

Marv: It's been said that it could be like an reality show, so will it be like Tough Enough or a show that you see on VH1 or Bravo? Please...oh please... ship Crock and Baretta to Raw so they can be Cena's and Hunter's new jobbers. Anyway, good talking with ya, Shore. Now that I'm holding things down, you won't have to worry about carrying Twilling around anymore. He can go to New Orleans and scream "Who Dat" with the Saints fans who are gonna be awfully dissapointed when #18 lights dem Saints for three TDs and 325 yards. Who Dat, Who Dat...Who dat gonna beat dem Saints? The Colts 30-24...

Shore: Nice. The good news is, you're better than Twilling 9 out of 10 times. See you next week.

RECOMMEND THIS ARTICLE: