Monday, JANUARY 5 – 5:00 P.M. (CT)

-Given the big news this past weekend regarding Congress and steroid testing in professional wrestling, I will be writing a multi-part series analyzing everything that took place. Look for these blogs beginning tomorrow.

-WWE Raw kicks off 2009 tonight with a show that could produce two very good matches, if WWE allows their secondary titles to shine. William Regal will defend the Intercontinental Championship against C.M. Punk. With Punk earning his shot with a tournament victory, I am hoping the championship is on the verge of an upswing in prestige.

Regal recently stated on an episode of Raw that he would hold the IC Title until he retires. I know the recent release of the Intercontinental Championship DVD set was probably the reason behind pushing the importance of the title. However, if Punk defeats Regal tonight, everything that had been done to this point would be rendered unimportant.

I am hoping for an old school, secondary championship feud that leads to a WrestleMania match between the two for the title, which would be the first IC title match at the big event since Regal himself dropped the title to Rob Van Dam in Toronto at WrestleMania X-Eight.

-Also scheduled for tonight is a World Tag Team Championship match with champions The Miz and John Morrison defending against Rey Mysterio and Kofi Kingston. I doubt anyone predicts a title change here (there better not be) and I am not a fan of thrown together teams, but this could potentially be a very good match.

Don’t look now, but these seemingly meaningless title defenses for Miz and Morrison are starting to pile up. Pretty soon, there will be a nice little video package and some statistics to accompany their winning streak, if WWE decides to go down that road. Or, I could be putting way too much thought into this and the matches really are meaningless title defenses.

-With the Royal Rumble approaching, I imagine tonight’s show will hype the JBL vs. John Cena World Heavyweight Championship match. I am dreading this a bit because I am under the belief that this match is simply a throwaway match at the pay-per-view because it was too soon to give us Cena vs. Randy Orton. If WWE can make me believe that JBL has a chance to win the title, well, kudos to them. I don’t see it happening though.

-The NFL playoffs kicked off with a bang this past weekend. My normally solid predictions were anything but as I only correctly picked the Baltimore Ravens moving on to the next round. Thus, the Arizona Cardinals, San Diego Chargers, and Philadelphia Eagles all proved me wrong. The most disappointing loss of the weekend, at least here at Dot Net, belongs to the Minnesota Vikings. Many of our readers and the boss are Vikings’ fans. Worry not; the Vikings have the formula to be a playoff team for years to come. Of course, the Chicago Bears had that formula too.

This week should prove to be another interesting one. I will attempt to predict the winners again and hopefully I do better than one for four. First of all, the Eagles travel to the Meadowlands to play the Super Bowl Champion New York Giants. Eagle fans can be brutal, so playing on the road may be a blessing in disguise. I picked the winner of the Eagles vs. Vikings game to go to the Super Bowl, so I have the Eagles winning here. Eli Manning misses Plaxico Burress.

The Cardinals head to Carolina to play the Panthers. I think the Cardinals dream season ends here in what should amount to a blowout. In the AFC, the Baltimore Ravens will defeat the Tennessee Titans. In the game of the week for me, the Chargers head east to Pittsburgh to play my Steelers. I am worried about this Chargers team, but I think the Steelers hold serve here and win.

Imagine this: if the Chargers and Ravens both win, the Chargers, who were once 4-8 this season, will host the AFC Championship game. It will definitely be interesting to see how things play out. Imagine the Eagles and Ravens, two number six seeds, playing in the Super Bowl. It isn’t out of the realm of possibility; the Giants last year and the Steelers three years ago were both number six seeds.

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