Championship Titles/Calibur of Matches

[Mr. JL]

Last year, the Royal Rumble certainly was a sign of things to come in the year 2003, when it comes to the two seperate title pictures on the two different brands. While the WWE title on Smack Down! had a flurry of great matches all year, the World Heavyweight Championship title had some pretty poor to average matches at times throughout the year.

It all started at the Rumble, Angle vs Benoit for the WWE title was math of the year calibur. And well, HHH vs Steiner was worst match of the year calibur. This brings me to my question, is the first Championship match at the Rumble, going to set the pace for this years calibur and intensity of the two respective titles?

So far, Lesnar vs Holly looks to be in some bad shape. Lesnar is just coming off of an injury and Holly has only been a few months back, coming back from a serious neck surgery. Plus, Holly has never been in a championship match such as this, ever before in his career, and I'm not too sure the fans have accepted him as a main event guy. Basically, will this be the HHH/Steiner match from last years Rumble?

While the HHH vs HBk match looks to be a great encounter, with a logical stipulation to it. Both these stars gel very well together in the ring, and after seeing their match on Raw a few weeks back, the only question is, can they surpass the calibur of that match? I know this one will be great, but can it top their previous work?

Looks to me, as if the titles will change positions. Where the WWE title was surrounded in great matches, and the World title was surrounded in some pretty bad matches. And too me, it looks like the Rumble will set the pace.

Which title do you see having the better year, as far as the match calibur is?

[Evil Vito]

<font color=goldenrod>I see the WWE Championship doing better.

I personally don't think that Brock/Holly is going to be as bad as everyone thinks, especially when you keep in mind that Brock has carried the Undertaker to two **** matches in the past.</font>

[sensai86]

You've got a point,I hope it's not a sign of thing to come.Triple H and HBK's match is going to good but the Holly/Lesnar match might be like last year's HHH/Steiner match which was at the rumble.So hopefully it's not a sign to come.

[M-A-G]

<font color=goldenrod>I see the WWE Championship doing better.

Brock has carried the Undertaker to two **** matches in the past.</font>

What matches were YOU watching?

[Corkscrewed]

Though SD!'s main event looks bad now, the future looks more promising. We're seeing potential feuds between Eddie and Brock, possibly Benoit and Brock, and of course there's always Angle in the mix. Plus Cena might get elevated this year, so there's a lot of possible storylines here.

On RAW, you have Triple H and HBK. And if HHH retains... then what? You've exhausted practically everything else--save a HHH/Jericho feud which hasn't been done for a while.

[AareDub]

I think you're probably right about this setting the pace, at least for the first half of the year. I see a lot of potential on the Raw side of things. In the short term we'll most likely see HHH vs Benoit (if the rumors are true). Then where do they go after that? I think by then Jericho could be in a top face position, and one of the top 3 faces will turn. Either Jericho, Benoit, or HBK. That sets up possible Jericho/Benoit matches or HBK/Benoit, or even more Jericho/HBK. If the WWE plays there cards right and lets those feuds play out well then one of the three guys should be a very dominant face champion led to face the next up and coming heel challenger.... Randy Orton. I know people don't think he's ready yet, but I wouldn't see something like this happening until very late this year. Yea, I think if things go like this on the Raw brand, we're in for a great year.

On the Smackdown side we've got Holly/Lesnar to start things off. Then we're more than likely going into a Lesnar/Eddie G feud followed by a brief Lesnar/Goldberg feud. People talk about being tired of seeing HHH with the belt, I'm freakin tired of seeing Lesnar with the belt. After Wrestlemania I don't see much potential for Samckdown. They could do Angle/Lesnar again to get the title off Lesnar. Then maybe Edge could move into the number one contender spot? If not Edge, then we'll probably see another Angle/Cena feud with Angle being the heel this time. Cena could come out on top this time leading into Cena/Guerrero part 2. That should at least get them through the first half of the year.

[The CyNick]

I dont think Holly-Lesnar could possibly be as bad as Steiner-HHH.

I also dont think HHH-HBK will be as good people assume it will be. LMS is a dumb idea for this match. A lot of what made the HHH-HBK match on RAW so good were the near falls. In LMS those are taken away, I mean I knwo you can do 8 and 9 counts, but its not the same as pin covers (as they say on SD). I mean it'll still be a good match, but i have a feeling if its overbooked it could end up being like their match in Dec 02 which I thought was horrible (At least for an HBK match).

As for the future, I mean it all depends on who has the title. If HHH keeps the title on RAW, we'll likely see another poor year for main event match on RAW. Granted HHH-HBK could be good tonight, and HHH-Benoit will be good for Mania and if they go again at Backlash. But, if HHH ends up with the title after the fued is over, who can he have great matches with? RVD is still dead, same for BT, and in all likelyhood HHH will get injured again at some point. Now, if Benoit were to have a long run with the title, then of course RAW will have better main events then last year. But even then, if they book Benoit against someone like Kane for a long term fued, well then that would likely produce some horrible matches.

On SD, the Rumble will be average, NWO if they go with Eddie-Brock will be awesome, and Mania, while it wont be a 4 star match, it'll likely have a special feeling where Brock will come away looking like a bigger star. Going past the Rumble, I think the plan is to go back to Eddie-Brock and possibly give Eddie a title run. If that happens there are tons of possibilities for god matches (ie Angle). even if Brock retains, aside from Eddie, he has Edge who will be back soon with a huge push, Cena down the line, and even Taker if he gets over with the Deadman persona could seem like a fresh fued.

I think I have more faith that SD will produce better matches, because they dont have HHH holding people down from getting to the top. But I would agree that it should be a better year for RAW provided the title is kept on Benoit for a long period of time.

[Astley316]

i think it's always hard to find oppenents for the champions at the rr cause it's like getting to the end of the wrestling year and most peoples thoughts creativly are allready looking to post wm so it's pointless giving new people a push, so in the case of smackdown there feeding holly to brock and the case of raw giivng us a greate match between two hrivals that can be resumed practlly any time