No Mercy, RAW, DVDs, more
October 19, 2003

Hello everyone, and thanks for checking out News & Analysis. Man, I can't catch a break lately! After a week of celebration, happiness, and birthday partying, I ended up being sick this whole past week, dating all the way back to last weekend. That prevented me from doing a report earlier this week. My apologies. I really can't catch a break these days! I hope I will be forgiven! On with the good stuff...

WWE presents their No Mercy PPV event tonight, as the SmackDown Superstars will get it on for the brand's second exclusive PPV showing. I could basically turn this update into a No Mercy predictions one, but I'm not going to do that. Why? Quite frankly, I'm not even interested in most of the matches on the card, nor do I care about the PPV itself. WWE hasn't done a good job with this event, and it shows. The fact is that I have a lot of friends who buy WWE PPVs (and they're mostly non-Internet WWE fans) every month and they're skipping this one. That tells you something. I'm just going to go ahead and run through the card really quick, with a sentence or two here and there.

A-Train vs. Chris Benoit

I did enjoy their feud for a bit. It's just that this match has been done several times in the past with no real purpose or storyline behind it. They finally went ahead and got them into a storyline. I don't mind A-Train but Benoit is an athlete of a much higher caliber. I actually expect A-Train to pick up the win.

Eddie Guerrero vs. Big Show

It's yet another failure of WWE writers to understand what the fans are feeling. Eddie Guerrero should have been a main eventer by now, fighting people like Angle and Lesnar. Him teaming up with Chavo worked out well in the beginning. It's still good today as they have kept him going as a singles competitor. Some might even argue that The Big Show, coming off of main event status not too long ago, is a good competitor. However, wrestling wise, this is an odd pair. Let's see if Eddie will be able to get a good match out of the big man. My Prediction: Eddie.

Matt Hardy vs. Zach Gowen

Matt Hardy is a former European, Intercontinental, and Tag Team Champion. He's also the founder of Mattitude, a storyline that actually meant something on SmackDown a while ago. Key word here is "meant" -- past tense. If you can't see that Zach Gowen is turning heel eventually, give me a call and we'll talk. My Prediction: Zach Gowen.

I think I'm stuck. Who else was on this card? Oh yeah, the main events...

Kurt Angle vs. John Cena

The one match worth watching on the PPV. They could have built it better but I'm not going to complain due to the other horrible stuff they have on the card. If you're buying the PPV, that's the match you want to see. My Prediction: Angle.

Rey Mysterio vs. Tajiri

The other match worth seeing. My God, this PPV card sucks. Anyway, this should be yet another great encounter between two internationally-known (can you say Ultimo Dragon?) cruiserweights. I hope they bring the house down yet again! Tough one to predict, but I'm going with Tajiri.

Brock Lesnar vs. The Undertaker

The Undertaker will win the belt eventually. Whether it'll be here, on SmackDown, or later, I don't know. But you can be sure that he will win it. I will only support that move if WWE retires him shortly after. Seeing him one more time as The Phenom would also be cool, and I'm sure a lot of fans want to see that. Maybe it could happen? Am I dreaming? Prediction: No contest/The Undertaker

Stephanie with Linda and with Shane at home vs. Vince with Sable and Hunter at home

Yeah. Have a good honeymoon Steph. Prediction: Vince

So there it is. Not much to say really...

Since I didn't get the opportunity to do so earlier this week, I thought I'd give you some quick thoughts on RAW. I felt that the show was better than recent weeks, and it was obvious. The return of Booker T was great. I'm glad to see him back... Was it just me or did Shane look better in the ring?... Can Kane be ever put out?... Wasn't the Tables match cool?... I wonder what they'll do about Austin attacking Stacy... Were you really surprised when the "crippled" Co-G.M. who can't wrestle anymore, took a shot by Scott Steiner, laughed, stood up and beat the crap out of him?... How stupid are the WWE not to realize that they can't do that anymore since the guy who Austin creams can never get back at him?... Can you say Chris Jericho?... Is it just me, or did they absolutely make Goldberg look heelish in the pair with Michaels?... I'll wrap this up with something that all of you should remember when it comes to cutting WRESTLING promos (not entertaining, like Rock does): Ric Flair = The Greatest.

Before I go, I had the opportunity to check out two DVDs this week -- Rey Mysterio 619, and Trish Stratus -- Stratusfaction Guaranteed. Rey's DVD is pretty cool. It's not what I expected to see though, as it was done more in character, rather reveal what Rey is all about. They do show a lot of his history and traditions, as well as how he broke into the business, so I definitely recommend it. The extras are pretty cool, with I believe about 10 or 12 matches, so definitely check that out. Trish's DVD was probably one of the best ones I've seen so far. It's really good. They did a tremendous job of portraying what she's all about and basically told the story of her life. There's plenty of cool extras as well. I recommend getting both, but Trish's is a must-see if you're a fan of hers. I was talking with TBL's own Trevor the other day, and we were both saying how nobody has ever said anything negative about Stratus. She really is a great person from what I've heard both on, and off air.

That will do it for this week folks. A still recovering Eddie wishes you a good week and I hope to be back on Tuesday or Wednesday!

Thanks for reading. See ya.

Eddie

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