CHEAP HEAT: ARMAGEDDON WRAPS UP A BUSY 2007 PPV SLATE

by Matt Loede, Let's Wrestle

The WWE wrapped up an interesting year of PPV's this past weekend with Armageddon, taking place at the Mellon Arena in Pittsburgh. The show had it's usual two main events, with Randy Orton defending the WWE title vs the recently returning Chris Jericho, while the last match main event was a three-way with Batista dropping the World Heavyweight title to Edge in a match that also included Undertaker.

The premise was that the Majors Brothers, a seldom used tag-team that if you don't watch the shows a lot you have no idea who they are, were dressed as Edge #2 and Edge #3 and took bumps to help him confuse Batista and Taker and win the strap.

The Edge regain is not a shock at all, as they are pushing for the eventual Undertaker run that is basically booked for WrestleMania. For those that are fans of Batista, don't fret, the current booking plans from what we have been told and are reporting is that he will win next month's Royal Rumble, and then challenge old friend Triple H (who will top Randy Orton for the belt at either the Rumble or February's No Way Out) for the strap at Mania. Oddly enough that will be a rematch of the main event from WrestleMania 21 in Los Angeles three years ago.

All in all, the company pushed 15 PPV's down our throats in 2007, meaning if you purchased each and every one, your wallet would be short a total of $599.85 today. In this day and age, that is a lot of dough to be shelling out simply to be entertained for close to three hours once a month on a Sunday night. Out of the 15 PPV's in 07, I think only maybe 5 were really worth the full price of $39.99:

1. WrestleMania
2. Royal Rumble
3. Great American Bash
4. New Year's Revolution
5. Backlash

After that, the other nine had their moments, but let's just say that the money you would have spent on them would have been better spent elsewhere. Right now for 2008 there are 14 PPV's scheduled, with the New Year's Revolution being scrapped. They will once again double up the months of June (One night Stand 6/1 & Vengeance 6/29) and October (No Mercy 10/5 & Cyber Sunday 10/26).

- Considering the 15th Anniversary last week and a PPV Sunday night, Raw Monday night in Buffalo was one of the worst showings we've seen in sometime. The first hour went like this - Women's Santa's Little Helper match, Vince McMahon angle with Jeff Hardy & Triple H, William Regal and the Coach vs Triple H, Cody Rhodes and Bob Holly vs Cade and Murdoch and a Ric Flair promo that was waaaaaayyyy too long. In other words, this first hour made the Bears-Vikings Monday night game look exciting.

- The Jeff Hardy push is being met with a lot of excitement by the company as well as the wrestling community as a whole. It puts someone in the mix other than the usual - Triple H, Undertaker, Edge and Batista, and gives hope that the company will continue to push different, fresh talent. Of course with that, we also know that the four men mentioned above are currently the four main eventers for Mania. Even with that, there is hope for the future.

- The Chris Jericho/John Bradshaw Layfield feud is going to be an interesting one. The one thing that is right now really lacking for this feud is the reason for it. JBL said during RAW that he attacked Jericho because he touched him during Y2J's match with Randy Orton at the PPV. Huh? I mean, yes, I realize they need a reason to push this feud forward, but they should come up with something better than that.

- JR's latest blog entry talks about RAW's 15th Anniversary, as well as the whole Hulk Hogan saying Randy "Macho Man" Savage's "Oh yeaaah" catchphrase. It was thought at first it was a cry to have a Hogan-Savage match at Mania in Orlando, which is at this point totally far fetched. Ross says he thinks that Hogan was poking fun and having a laugh at Savage's expense. The plan for Hogan, if there is one that can be worked out for Mania, is a match with Khali.