Wednesday, JUNE 10 – 6:21 PM

-Last Sunday at the WWE Extreme Rules pay-per-view, Batista defeated Randy Orton for the WWE Championship in a mere seven minutes. The following night on Raw, Triple H returned to WWE television and completely obliterated Orton in an impromptu fight. Remember, a week earlier, senior citizen Ric Flair easily handled Orton too, until Legacy gave Orton a three on one advantage.

This was not the first time Orton was mishandled by WWE when it seemed as though the sky (and beyond) was the limit for him. Nearly five years ago, Orton was the youngest World Heavyweight Champion in WWE history. Oddly enough, the same cast of characters were responsible for his demise then too.

Triple H, Flair, Batista, and Orton were known as Evolution. Orton won the title and apparently, that was a no-no. So, he was unceremoniously kicked out of the group. One month later, H beat Orton for the title with help from Flair and Batista. Just when Orton's babyface star was beginning to shine, the remaining members of Evolution unscrewed the light bulb and shattered it against the wall.

The idea then was for Orton to work his way back up and earn a match, as a babyface, against Triple H at WrestleMania 21. Of course, Batista inadvertently became very over with the fans and WWE decided to go with Batista vs. Triple H at WrestleMania. Orton received a damn good consolation prize, as he took The Undertaker to the limit and nearly broke his Mania streak.

The problem with WrestleMania sometimes is that life goes on 24 hours later. Orton ended up working a nice feud with Taker, but the damage he suffered as a result of his title "reign" was far from undone. In fact, Orton was the WWE Champion going into and coming out of WrestleMania XXIV. However, he was still missing that "it" factor.

Well, fast forward to late 2008 and early 2009. Orton became arguably the best heel in the company. Of course, rightful cases could have been made for Chris Jericho, Edge, and even Vickie Guerrero. Orton was involved in an extremely personal and potentially epic program with WWE Champion Triple H.

Orton was so good at being bad that he received the "I prefer the heel" cheers from the crowd. They were not babyface cheers, they were not "cool heel" cheers; they were simply "this guy is a badass and I prefer him to the alternative" cheers. I have yet to meet the person that wanted to see Triple H retain the title at WrestleMania 25.

Well, Triple H did retain the title and the match was slightly below average at best. Of course, Orton won the title at Backlash, and although he pinned Triple H to do so, it was in a six man tag. He then retained his title by being intentionally disqualified in a PPV match against Batista. Then Batista won the title relatively easily from him at Extreme Rules.

So, Orton's bookend title reigns have been lackluster at best. It took WWE a long time to get him strong again after the 2004 debacle. I have two questions for WWE: did you learn nothing from Orton's first title reign and how long will it take you to repair Orton this time around? Orton will have a chance to win the title back this coming Monday, but just months after WrestleMania, has Orton lost the unstoppable momentum he once had?

By the way, this Monday's match is a four way with Orton facing Triple H, John Cena, and Big Show. Wow, H first won the WWE Championship in 1999. Show also won it that year (and was a WCW World Champion in the mid-90s). Cena first won the title in 2005, and Orton of course became the World Champion in 2004. WWE is certainly going out of their way to build new stars. Wait a minute...

Monday, JUNE 8 – 4:20 PM (CT)

A couple of weeks ago, I praised Ring of Honor for making their title matches and title changes seem like huge events. The American Wolves defeated Kevin Steen and El Generico to win the ROH Tag Team Championships. Not only was the match amazingly entertaining, but the buildup was great too. It felt like a really big deal to not only see a title match, but to see the title change.

Fast forward to last night's WWE Extreme Rules pay-per-view, where four major titles changed hands and there were five title changes all together. Now, while ROH could afford to have more title matches (non-title matches on a DVD release should not happen), WWE's title changes for the sake of having a swerve should not happen either.

Let's begin with Chris Jericho defeating Rey Mysterio for the Intercontinental Championship. This title change made sense and Jericho pulling off Mysterio's mask definitely progressed the program in a logical fashion. While this feud has been good for the IC Title, it has not elevated it too much because the importance of the belt is on the back burner here. Nevertheless, this has been a very fun series of matches.

Of course, Tommy Dreamer became the ECW Champion, much to the surprise of pretty much everybody. I did not mind this and I'm curious to see where they go with it, but I’m wondering if the title change was done for the moment and not for any type of long term situation. I am hoping Dreamer having the title leads to a feud with Jack Swagger, allowing him to take over as General Manager for Tiffany. It would also be nice to Christian moved to Smackdown.

Moving onto the WWE Championship, Batista defeated Randy Orton to win the belt. I predicted this, but only because I thought it would be a ratings ploy to get people to tune into Raw tonight and possibly witness Orton winning the title back, especially if Batista is really injured (see the main page for that story). I don't agree with doing this with your flagship championship. Even if he wins the title back, Orton was weakened by this loss.

At the end of the show, we were treated to an amazing ladder match between Edge and Jeff Hardy. Hardy won the title, which surprised me. Then C.M. Punk came down to cash in the Money in the Bank briefcase, which did not surprise me. After two cool spots with Hardy kicking out of the GTS and nearly pinning Punk, Punk won the title.

Honestly, I am not quite sure what WWE was going for here. Last year when Punk cashed in on Raw to defeat Edge for the World Heavyweight Championship, it shocked the hell out of everyone. Punk cashing in at Extreme Rules was not shocking, and it seemed to disappoint the live crowd. Now, if WWE was looking to turn Punk heel, mission accomplished.

As usual, Hardy was super over with the crowd. When he won the title, the crowd loved it, especially after the hard fought, classic ladder match. Punk came down and in heelish fashion, defeated Hardy for the title in 63 seconds. Now, this is the WWE Universe, so it was okay for Punk to beat a heel Edge in similar fashion to win the title, but not okay for him to beat Hardy like that.

Tell you what, I have been looking forward to a heel Punk and the fact he is the champion on Smackdown only makes me more excited. Punk delivering "straight edge" heel promos to Jeff Hardy would be money. Edge can then recharge a bit and come back as a strong babyface, because the show needs them. I'm guessing these title changes will not stick for long, but hey, WWE is not ROH.

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