Randy Orton: Due Payer -- by Eric James Taylor After watching Randy Orton's performance at Backlash this past Sunday night, I have three words, to quote ECW's Joey Styles: OH MY GOD! First off, I never, ever expected Orton to take the bumps he did, although I kept saying to myself, that's the only way he'll be taken seriously. He was up against Cactus Jack, for god's sake. The way I looked at this match before hand was, this either could be Orton's downfall, or it could be his "Hell In a Cell". Fortunately, it ended up being the latter. From the outset, I was kind of disappointed. Lackluster performance by Orton, and an almost refusal to take any big bumps right off the bat kept me in suspense. When the barbed wire board came out, I waited impatiently for Orton to go into, which he did not. Again, more disappointment set in. It wasn't until he took the bat the head that I began saying, okay, now we're heading in the right direction. I could never have expected how right I would be in thinking that. When Orton dragged out the thumbtacks, I thought it was good for him that HE brought them out, rather than Foley producing them. Then came the first huge bump of Orton's short career: he took a HUGE dive right into the tacks. His reaction was quite possibly the most genuine reaction I'd ever seen in wrestling history. The amount of tacks that were embedded in his skin made me say "Finally, I can take Randy Orton seriously." The second bump came when Foley tossed him from the stage through an equipment table. My respect for him again grew immeasurably. Then Foley dropped an elbow from the stage onto Orton on the table. At this point, I dare say I became a Randy Orton mark. When he actually won the match, I found myself very proud of Randy, and actually cheering the win. Indeed, this match had been his "Hell In the Cell", and as will be felt in the future, this match has done for his career what the Cell did for Foley's. The most impressive thing about this was, in all the times Foley took bumps into tacks, he wore a shirt and full tights. Orton did it in trunks alone. A bare-backed dive into thousands of thumbtacks is rather impressive, and the person who would do so is either incredibly crazy, or incredibly brave. Either way, Randy Orton should be respected for taking the bump. While I think both Triple H and Randy's claim that he now is a legend is a bit premature, I do think he has indeed set foot on the road to being a legend. Good for you, Randy. You paid the ultimate dues, and now deserve whatever success you achieve in the future.

The "new" WWE: Talent created and talent wasted -- by Tony Manning Lets look where we are at now. We are at a time where a gimmick won't get you over any more. You have to go by your real name and have the "new" wrestling skill. That skill is Cruiserweight and Heavyweight wrestling mixed all into one. Wrestling was different. I remember back in the day when there where Heavyweights and then the Lucha Libre did all the highflying stuff. Only the big guys were alound to have the title and the smaller guys would be there to supports the bigger guys by putting on great high flying matches. Now a days in WWE you bairly see one guy do high flying moves. Lets look at guys like Paul London and Spanky. Spanky was awesome, a personal favorite of mine. He would do so much sweet stuff in the indys. He also has a great character. The only problem is when he got to WWE he was a joke. From day one he started out by running around naked and things like that. He wasn't aloud to show off his great abilities a real guy like that belongs in the indys. About Paul London, he is a great athlete himself. I have a copy of the NWA TNA X Division DVD, and he has a match on there. WOW is that match great or what. When he was going to come to WWE I was all physiced. WWE should use him the way he was ment to be. They could of put him in the Cruiserweight open at Wrestlemania and have him win it. But do they? NO of course not. I don't want to say that WWE is completly going bad. They are pushing a lot of new guys which I really like. Beniot, Eddie, and Shelton are 3 guys who deserved the pushes they got. One problem though it seems like if you weren't in WCW and you didn't got to OVW then you will never get big in WWE. WWE is on the top right now, and it will continue to be on the top. So, weather you like it or not its the best thing going today. Trademark that one, because thats my story and I'm sticking to it.

WHY DID THEY GET RID OF SEAN O'HARE?!?!?!?! -- by Dylan First of all, WHY DID THEY GET RID OF SEAN O'HARE?!?!?!?! AND HOW CAN ANYONE SUGGEST TO GET RID OF THE IC CHAMPIONSHIP?!???!. And speaking of championships, Triple H needs to give it a break. I mean, in the old days, a face would hold onto the belt for years, and that did add respectability to a champion, but this formula doesn't work if the person constantly holding the belt is a heel. Triple H, give it up. Let some other heel go for the belt. Also, WWE needs more big heels that don't job all the time. Push guys like Matt Morgan, Test, and Rhyno for example. And something needs to be done with the tag teams. Tag teams used to be simple. Take two guys with some in-ring talent. Give them some weird gimmick (For gods sake the Killer Bees were better than most the teams thrown together now) and you have a tag team. Is that not possible anymore? Finally, Keep pushing the younger guys, AND KEEP EUGENE! The WWE needed an 80s era George Steele in a bad way. I saw him at a live show, and the crowd loved him almost as much as Benoit and Jericho.

Where it all begins.. Again! -- by Brian Bertrand I think the WWE has done a rather fine job utilizing the new "Where it all begins again." slogan and had a great job with the recent roster changes among RAW and Smackdown! The only problem I have with that is that Kurt Angle does a piss poor job as an administrator gimmick. I believe that William Regal would have an easier job. JBL has a nice new gimmick bringing back the money-hungry gimmick used by "The Million Dollar Man" Ted DiBiase and Mike Rotunda. Shelton Benjamin has a great run on RAW and Brock Lesnar leaving the WWE gives the young guys a better boost even though Lesnar is one hell of a wrestler despite his WMXX preformance. I think Scott Steiner, despite being released, should have made the switch to Smackdown! so he can bring back a sort of a Godfather gimmick since he likes his freaks. The man could do a lot of good there and I know there are others who would do just as well. The funny thing would be if Eric Bischoff picked Stephanie McMahon for RAW. That would have been a very funny storyline. Other than that I see no problems with this new change in WWE. The storylines are being handled well and Mick Foley's back. All we need now is The Undertaker gaining more TV time and I wouldn't complain.

An Extreme Idea -- by Brad Dykens I'd like to touch on the television departure of the GREAT Paul Heyman. I reckon it's a good idea for WWE performers, especially those who do not wrestle, to take time off to refresh themselves and come back with something new. Paul Heyman is a genius and is not being used to his fullest potential. There was a rumor going around about starting up the ECW brand again, and giving them a 1-hour show on Television and having Paul Heyman be the General Manager. I think it would be a fantastic idea. As long as they don't go into it thinking it will compete with RAW & Smackdown!. Each brand has its own b-show; RAW has HEAT and SD! has Velocity. Well on Saturday night we have VELOCITY & CONFIDENTIAL on Spike for two hours, but on Sunday we only have one hour of HEAT; I suggest they put ECW on for an hour after Sunday Night Heat. Paul Heyman could run the show in a babyface roll, and the roster would include Tommy Dreamer, The Dudleyz (all 3), Stevie Richards, Lance Storm, Rhyno, Tajiri, A-Train, Orlando Jordan, Chuck Palumbo, Hardcore Holly, Rico, Nunzio, Rodney Mack, Dawn Marie and Gail Kim with Joey Styles and YES Joey Styles on Commentary. Also bring in Tony Mamaluke (to team with Nunzio), Justin Credible (to team with Lance Storm), Super Crazy, Joey Mathews & Christian York, Roadkill & Danny Doring, and last but not least Jerry Lynn!

WWE Needs to Wake Up -- by XtremeFalls43 Ok Lately I think the WWE has just got lazy, ok the Draft was a good idea, but why in the hell did Vince break up every damn tag team, APA gone, Worlds greatest Tag Team gone, La Resistance was water down, Venis and Stom are broken Up it looks, Dudleys are stale I mean they need somethign to change, Hurricane and Rosey aren't being used at all. Man has the division fallen off, I mean WWE/WWF was the home of great teams like the LOD, New Age Outlaws, The harts, The Nasty Boys( THe most Under estimated Tag Team of all time, give them credit). WWE has Flair and Batista which is actully a desent team if u ask me, and Rikishi and Scotty 2 hotty which is pretty good. ONe thign intill he fired was to bring O'Haire and Jindark back as a team cause O'Haire was screwed by Piper coming in cause after he left they had nothing to do for him he should of been left alone cause before that he was getting some buzz. Now the Singles division for the first time is gettig a chance to shine by the new open spots with No Lenser and GOldberg or ROck or Austin. By the Way Brock Lesnar is just a punk if u ask me he took his ball and went Home he should not be aloud to come back and get a push cause its not fair to people Like Edge and Storm and RVD who deserve them. Now everyone says the WWE has the polotics problem and u know what VInce should do when they say there goin to go home if they don't like what Vince wants let them go home, News Flash to people like Shawn Micheals and HHH, and Undertaker(Rumored to be) There is no where for them to there is no ECW and WCW, TNA can't Pay them what they think they should get so yeah. I saw that other colum where he said that Bishoff and Vince and Heyman should join forces one problem non of them could get a long so its not like it is really VInces faught. Now Vince needs to rethink stuff if u ask me like Bring back the Manager again and make a differen't stable to fight Evolution man ok so yeah that is my opinion..