Royal Rumble Prediction Poll: McCool vs. James – VOTE!

This is the second of a series of polls I’ll be running all week for the five matches at the Royal Rumble. The poll is at the bottom of this post. Two on Sunday. Three on Monday.

The three month feud between Smackdown’s Women’s Champion Michelle McCool and number one contender Mickie James comes to a head at the Royal Rumble next Sunday, January 31st. I have really liked this feud. It’s the best and most memorable women’s feud probably since Trish/Mickie, which was four years ago now. They usually don’t devote this much time or tell this much of a story involving the women. I’ve been pleasantly surprised. The question is: Who’s going to win?

If Michelle wins: The feud continues likely into WrestleMania where Beth Phoenix could be inserted to make it a triple threat match, which would be the culmination of a long feud that has seen Phoenix toe the line between heel and face a few times.

If Mickie wins: The torment she’s suffered from Michelle and Layla calling her “Piggy James” has led to plenty of confrontations that have usually led to Mickie getting beat up. If she wins the belt the fans are happy that the tortured babyface has overcome the obstacles to win the Women’s title for the 5th time. Question is, would the win be better here or at WrestleMania?

Royal Rumble Prediction Poll: The Royal Rumble Match – VOTE!

This is the first of a series of polls I’ll be running all week for the five matches at the Royal Rumble. The poll is at the bottom of this post. Two on Sunday. Three on Monday.

It’s pretty self explanatory. Do I need to really go over the rules of the Rumble match or do we know? I think we know. The winner gets a title shot at WrestleMania, unless they do the stupid thing they did two years ago and give the title shot at No Way Out (now known as Elimination Chamber). Please don’t do that again. I think they learned their lesson last year. Orton won the Rumble and then he beat Shane McMahon at No Way Out before losing to HHH at WrestleMania. Then he got more title shots because…well…that feud sucked.

Who’s going to win? Will it be one of the obvious choices with one of three babyfaces from Raw or maybe a less obvious choice with one of the three heels from Smackdown? Could a midcarder break through for the win? Lots of options. Good star power in the match too. I love the Rumble.

The poll is below. Pick the winner and enjoy the discussion that I’m sure will be heated.

Five Thoughts on TNA Impact 01/21/10

Technically this will be more than five thoughts. I’ll write four major points and then go with a random thought format for the fifth part. This will be even shorter than the one I did last week. If you want a recap of the show, look elsewhere. I’m writing this assuming you saw it or read a recap. Cool?

1. They ended the main event by having the ref, Earl Hebner, screw Kurt Angle out of the TNA Title when AJ Styles put the ankle lock on him and they rang the bell. Angle went nuts, cursing all over the place and even spitting on Hulk Hogan. Obviously it’s a re-enactment of Survivor Series 1997 with Hogan in the Vince role while Angle is in the Bret role. Of course, in this case there’s no real life controversy or any reason why this even happened other than to re-create one of the most famous things that’s ever happened on a wrestling show. Hogan reacted to it all like he had nothing to do with it while Angle said he quit and would go work for Vince McMahon again. What was great was the crowd cheered when he spit on Hogan, who I guess is supposed to be a babyface? Who really knows? I give Angle a lot of credit for his performance. Problem is, who really believes it? I guess some might, but if wrestling fans are smarter these days (I’d like to think they are) then they know this is just another lame attempt to re-create Montreal by a company that claims to be different than WWE. And how is this different? That’s what I’d like to know.