RAW 7/3/2006:A New WWE Champ, and the Return of an Old Friend (me)

And so it would seem that I left this blog alone for way too long. To my dozens of readers, I apologize for being away. I was busy training for the next Tough Enough contest (and maaan, I woulda won, too!).

Before Raw went on air, I decided to check WWE.com to see if they were headed to the Atlanta area anytime soon. The last time a WWE event was held here, my girlfriend and I witnessed Eddie Guerreo and Rey Mysterio in a steel cage, MIIIISSSSTTTERRRRR KEEENNNEDY (kennedy...) squash someone, and Batista beat JBL in a Texas Bullrope match. I figured we were about due for another show, but no such luck.

Instead, I ran across the headline that RVD and Sabu got busted for weed. What a spoiler...

Anyway, a recap of the re-crap from last weeks show plays, and then the opening theme cranks up, and I didn't even realize that I knew the lyrics by heart until my girlfriend points out, "You don't even like that kind of music!" And she's right...I also don't like the type of music that leads into the Friends intro, but I sing along to that too...

Triple H & Shawn Micheals attempt to strut into the rear entrance of the Wachovia Center but are blocked by Coachman and a hoarde of rent-a-cops. "Apparently you guys don't read WWE.com," says Coach, "DX is banned from the arena!" Shawn is all like "wha?" and Trips is all like "cha..." and Coach is all like "fuh..." and Shawn is all like, "ehhh?" and H is all like, "No worries!" You can almost visualize the lightbulb over Hunter's head as the world's oldest teenagers walk away.

Cut back to centerstage, and we have Edge with Lita in tow ready to regale the Philly crowd with a promo. Copeland tells us that John Cena is like the Phillies (no heart and can't win) and he is more like Terrell Owens, can't wait to get the hell outta Philadelphia. Oooh...Dag! That went over with the live crowd but most likely fell flat with the millions and millions back at home. Edge says there's a triple threat tag team match between himself, John Cena, and RVD along with their mystery partners. So far, I'm all ears, as that's what had been advertised on WWE.com since last week. Before Edgy can introduce his partner, Cena jumps him out of nowhere. A quick toss by Vanil--ahem-Cena sends Edge out of the ring, Rob Van Dam's music hits. He might have tapped out last week, and he might not have. We'll never know since Edge interfered in the title match. The only solution is to give away Saturday Night's Main Event main event match tonight. Vince doesn't mess around, does he?

Speaking of whom, the Genetic Jackhammer shows up in his loooong limo and greeted by Coach. "DX is gone, right?" Vince asks. "No problem," Coach replies. As Vince walks into the arena, a Hummer full of screaming party chicks pulls in.

...and then a wrestling match broke out!!!

Lita vs Torrie Wilson -- Lita has had significant upgrades to her *ahem* build, but since she broke her neck filming that episode of Dark Angel, her wrestling ability has plummeted. Torrie has added more puppies to her repitoire, but sadly, it's only a poodle. The ref ended up being the happiest man on the planet for a second or two when Torrie inadvertantly stinkfaced him. Lita won, but with no hurricurana or anything exciting at all.

Backstage, Vince bitched about no catering or attendants. Coach told him it was a holiday and most lucky bastards have that holiday off. Everyone but bartenders and internet wrestling reviewers...

The Spirit Squad vs. Val Venis, Viscera, Eugene, Snitsky & Hacksaw Jim Duggan -- I was pissed off immediately because they didn't play Val Venis' ring music hellooo laadies . Tell you what, I can do a Val Venis entrance better than Val Venis himself can do. Too bad all of you reading this at home or office will never know. I did the Val Venis entrance for my girlfriend when this match started and three hours later I still can't get her off me. She did mange to point out quite accurately, that Duggan is still in better shape than Ric Flair. The Spirit-Jackoffs won this match with a pretty cool double-flying-elbow on the old fart. I still have to know, though, why does the crowd chant U-S-A during a match that features ten Americans?

Back outside, DX is throwing a tailgate party. HHH is raosting Mr. McMahon sized weenies and DX sized footlongs. Beavis and Butthead live! Terry, one of the company truck drivers shows up and wants to of those fine sausages to fill his buns. Trips sends Micheals off to find Mr. Fuji and summons two fine babes to bare breasts for our lonely trucker. I swear, for half a second I saw nipple, yes I did! My girlfriend saw it too! We saw it half a second before the USA Network did, as they cut to black...


(just now, I had to pause in my writing this RAW commentary as I was in need for a bag of Cheeto's...it's not easy being cheesy indeed)

After weeks of semi-funny vignettes, The Highlanders debut!

The Highlanders vs. Matt Striker & Rob Conway -- The long-awaited debut is here! Jim Ross informs me that Rory is the bald one and Robbie is the unkempt one. The Scotties seemed to have their timing off in their TV debut, but managed to salvage it by putting the heads of their opponents under their kilts. Striker had the right idea by bailing on Conway, saying "I'm smart, you're not" and avoiding the tag. The crazy Scotsmen pulled off a pretty cool finishing move on the Conman, a double fireman's carry straight down. They then proceeded to go off with Sean Connery and party like it was 1599.

Back outside, Trips is standing in front of the beer table quite distracted. Candace Michelle stops by and asks what's in the that there truck over yonder. HHH stammers through his explanation of the production truck as if someone were under the table performing oral sex on him. Candace starts to act as if she too were having oral sex perfomed on her. Hunter then proceeds to squeeze a mustard bottle all over the place (wink wink! get it? ;) ). Candace fakes one as well (your mom fakes 'em better). Then two more chicks emerge from under the table wiping their lips. The ones on their mouths, you sick freak! The Cerebral Assasin promises to show Candace the production truck, but needs a minute or two to recover first. (Wuss..)

After the commercial, Trips, HBK and the bimbettes have comandeered the production truck. In a related story, NASA plans to launch the Space Shuttle despite numerous safety concerns.



Back inside the arena, nature calls Mr. McMahon. He asks Coachman to keep an eye out while he stoops to using a public urinal. Luckily for those of us at home, the Wachovia Center has a camera placed right where the WWE production truck can gain access to it. The boss whips it out, and proceeds to introduce the 8th Wonder of the World, Andre the Giant to the urinal. Some people might think that's strange, but I assure you, I do the exact same thing each and every time I take a whiz in a public restroom.

(Okay, that's not entirely true...sometimes I mix it up and sing "Weeeeellllll...well it's the Big Show!!! Yeah it's a big bad show tonight...")


Coachman bursts into the men's room and gets whizzed on his leg. With that, the Chairman struts off to the ring. The shennanigans, tomfoolery, and hijinks keep on coming as DX crank up the mic to make Vince sound like Alvin sans Chipmunks, and down for the Darth Vader effect. A few farting noises later and Vince walks off in a huff. A huff including a reprise of his 1987 perormance of "Stand Back".

Carlito Carribean Cool vs. Johnny Nitro (with Melina) for the Intercontinental Title -- I haven't posted in a while, so let me catch you up by stating that I'm a huge mark for Carlito. Not in a gay way, mind you. More like in an attitudinal manly sort of way. I indentify with the guy in recognizing what is and what is not cool. I also regurgitate apple chunks in the faces of those who are acting in an uncool manner. That's what cool people do. Did I mention Melina is hot? Yeah, buddy! Actually, she's starting to annoy me, but whatever. Triple C had this match won when Melina interfered causing the DQ. Trish ran in to save the day which caused our heroes in the truck to show us repeated HLA. Carlito not winning the title? Not cool. HLA? Now that's cool!

Umaga vs. Scott Wright -- Now it's time for some real wrestling, right? Wright? Wrong. I was getting ready to yell at my TV "My name is Arrrrrmando Allllleeeehhanndro Ehhstrrrada" when the DX'ers in the truck interuppted me. Hunter, dude, I know you're reading this, and please, don't interrupt me when I'm saying Armando Alejandro Estrada's name along with him. Just because a guy from an island in the Atlantic is representing a guy from an island in the Pacific doesn't mean it's an excuse to sell t-shirts. I damn near missed the whole match as I went to the fridge for another beer. I'm assuming Jamal won.

After the commercial, Vince jumped in his limo, only to get smoked out by fireworks that may or may not have been coming out of the moon roof. Trips and Micheals taunted him, betting they would be let in the arena next week.

Randy Orton came out and posed on the stage. Nothing gets my girlfriend hotter than me standing next to the TV doing the Randy Orton Pose while he's on TV doing it as well. Between my Val Venis, Randy Orton, and my Batista-like guns, it's a wonder she ever let's me out of the house. Anyway, Cowboy Bob's boy has a hard on for Hulk Hogan's baby gurl. Aww hell... Do we have to drag out Old Man Bollea for every SummerSlam?


Rob Van Dam vs. Edge vs. John Cena for the WWE Championship -- I was on the fence as to whether or not RVD was worthy of being the Champ. Looks like I'll never get the chance to find out what my opinion was. In a prelude to what will be at least a suspension for Rob, he had to job the title out. And his two opponents? Two people who have already had a turn or two at the belt and (in my mind) not yet worthy. Ah well...RVD went for the frog splash on Cena, who rolled out of the way. Cena then went for the FU on RVD but got speared by Edge. Edge then covered RVD for the 1-2-3 and became the new WWE Champion.

It's Time For A Dose Of Mattitude (AND THAT' A SHOOT!)

Since the late '90's, pro wrestling has started to reveal many of it's secrets to attract viewers. For a while in the "Attitude Era" of WWE, writers would do whatever they could to attract viewers. Be it sex angles (Early Val Venis character), violence angles (The Marianna/Chaz Domestic Violence angle), or the completely strange (Mae Young giving birth to a hand is one of the many main examples). While this did gain WWE some new members to their audience, the appeal died down after a few years. Recently, WWE has been going into the direction of "Shoot" television. They have begun to base storylines on real life happenings in the real world, and between the wrestlers themselves.

Earlier this year, Matt Hardy was released from WWE due to comments he posted on his website regarding his ex-girlfriend Amy "Lita" Dumas and Adam "Edge" Copeland. Since then, both Edge and Lita recieved backfire in regard to the real life situation. Whenever Lita appeared on screen, fans would continuously boo her and chant "We Want Matt" and "You Screwed Matt". Now you'd expect this to be done to a heel. The worst part is, Lita was supposed to be a fan favorite. Because of all of this WWE management were forced to turn Lita heel and align her with Edge. Everytime the two characters would appear on screen together, the fans would continue to chant the previous said chants. WWE continued to push the two as a couple on TV. This lead to the two eventually getting "married" on TV. During the wedding, Matt Hardy's entrance music/video started playing on the TitanTron. Needless to say, the fans went crazy (Even your's truely fell for it and jumped off the couch and yelled "Holy s**t!"). Sadly Hardy did not make an appearance, and Edge revealed that it was supposed to be a joke. What was interesting was that Hardy's theme music recieved a huge response from the audience (Or a "Pop" as it is known in the wrestling community).

WWE apparently took notice of the reaction Hardy got, and a few weeks later brought back Hardy to TV as a "invader" who was against Edge, Lita, and most importantly WWE for screwing him out of his job. WWE is making this look like Hardy is not under written contract with them. As of this moment, rumours are Matt will be making a run-in appearance at this weekend's TNA Pay-Per-View "No Surrender". Now if this does infact happen, this could very well be the single greatest moment in pro wrestling. Dare say, this could be bigger than original nWo in WCW. Sure, it's a pretty bold statement, but if I am correct, all three of them can make this into a pretty big storyline. I applaud all three of them. Mainly Edge and Lita. Regardless of what had happened in real life, I respect them for all the crap they took from the fans. But I also respect Hardy for the fact that he was so passionate for his job that he was able to get it back through his fans.

Even if all of this turns out to be a work, it will have done a great job fooling even the smartest wrestling fan. Could this be a success however? Only time will tell.

TDK Interviews Johnny Kashmere

Johnny Kashmere is one of the most successful wrestlers on the independent scene. Johnny first debuted in the pro wrestling scene in 1999. He eventually became partners with Trent Acid. The tandam would make a name for itself on the independent wrestling scene as The Backseat Boyz. The team was so outstanding, they won the CZW Tag Team titles on three different occasions. In 2004, The Backseat Boyz broke up, and they each went their seperate ways. Since then, Johnny has done a fantastic job establishing himself as a singles competitor. Recently, I got the chance to talk to Johnny.

TDK: How did you get into pro wrestling?

Johnny: I trained with the Pitbulls in the old Animal House in Philadelphia, PA. It was located half a block from Pat's and Geno's Steaks. My main trainers were Trent Acid, Gary Wolf, Mike Kehner, and a few others.

TDK: Which wrestlers did you look up to growing up?

Johnny: Undertaker and Curt Henning

TDK: What city do you enjoy wrestling in front of?

Johnny: Philadephia, then New York, then the deep South.

TDK: What do you consider the greatest moment of your career?

Johnny: Winning the Big Japan Light Heavyweight title in Korakeun Hall and being the first American ever given the honor to return home to the USA with it.

TDK: What was your favorite match you've taken part in?

Johnny: Probably myself vs Trent Acid for Steve Corino's PWF federation a few years ago. We used a Christmas tree, the ring truck, a chandaleer and even Donnie B in the match....a true classic.

TDK: If you could wrestle anyone (Past or present) who would it be?

Johnny: Nick Mondo

TDK: If the Backseat Boyz were still together, which tag team would you like to face?

Johnny: The Carnage Crew, Tony Devito and HC loc, also Dunn and Marcos and The Briscoe Brothers

TDK: When you're not wrestling, what do you enjoy doing?

Johnny: Bartending, lifting, practicing, the usual.

TDK: If you were not a pro wrestler, what would you probably be doing?

Johnny: Acting

TDK: What advice would you give to someone who wants to become a pro
wrestler?

Johnny: Join the Animal House if you're in the Philly area, if not, always look at the history of your trainer(s) extensiveley and make sure that they come highly recommended within the industry before ever handing any money over.

TDK: Here you can do a "Foley" and plug any events you will be appearing at and anything else.

Johnny: PWU presents Fools Gold on April 1st at 9 PM at the Animal House. Steve Corino vs Tom Carter aka Reckless Youth with special guest ref: HOMICIDE. Trent Acid vs Jack Evans.....Corporal Robinson vs Homicide.....The Rockin Rebel vs The Human Tornado....Carnage Crew vs Dunn and Marcos....Tri State Titles (champions) Devon Moore and Drew Blood vs (challengers) All Money is Legal....E.C. Negro vs The Grim Reefer....Student Warfare pits Steve Corino's Class: Alex Law and Ricky Landell vs Devito's Class: Cloudy and Cheech w/ Chung....full events schedule at www.prowrestlingunplugged.com

TDK Interviews Sonjay Dutt

Sonjay Dutt is considered one of TNA's best X-Division wrestlers. He has also been featured in the Eidos game Backyard Wrestling 2: There Goes The Neighborhood. Not too long ago, I was able to interview TNA star "The Original Play from the Himalaya" Sonjay Dutt.

TDK: How did you get into wrestling?

Sonjay:: I went out and got trained.

TDK: Which wrestlers did you look up to as a kid?

Sonjay: Ric Flair, Sabu, Benoit, Guerrero.

TDK: What do you consider the greatest moment of your career?

Sonjay: Going to Japan was very important to me.

TDK: What was it like to work with Sabu in TNA?

Sonjay: It was amazing, he is a legend and I loved every bit of time I had working with him.

TDK: What was it like to be involved in the Piper-Snuka-Kash segment at Victory Road?

Sonjay: Really cool working with the guys that I grew up watching. Piper and Snuka are legends and it was an honor to be out there with them.

TDK: What is your #1 goal that you want to accomplish as a wrestler?

Sonjay: Just to make a living doing what I love.

TDK: If you could fight any wrestler that you have not fought yet (Living or dead), who would it be?

Sonjay: Um, every WWE diva.

TDK: What kind of match would it be?

Sonjay: A lets get naked and roll around match.

TDK: What would you be doing if you were'nt a wrestler?

Sonjay: Hustling.

TDK: What advice would you give someone who wants to be a wrestler?

Sonjay: Eat right, get trained.

Visit Sonjay's website at SonjayDutt.com

TDK Interviews Frankie Kazarian

Not too long ago I was able to get an interview with TNA star Frankie Kazarian. Kazarian has held the TNA X Division Title on two different occasions. Once by himself, and the other with Michael Shane. Anyway, onto the interview...

TDK: How did you get into the wrestling business?

Kazarian: I was trained in MA by Killer Kowalski. I moved from California to start training.

TDK: What wrestlers did you look up to growing up?

Kazarian: Hulk Hogan, Tito Santana, Ricky Steamboat, Bret and Owen Hart, Shawn Michaels.

TDK: What is your favorite match you've been in?

Kazarian: I have had a lot of favorites. First Ultimate x, a Four Way I had in New Zealand with Chris Sabin, Jerry Lynn, and Johnny Swinger come to mind.

TDK: What was you greatest moment in your career?

Kazarian: I haven't had the greatest moment of my career yet. Winning the X-Division title ranks high up there, however.

TDK: What was it like to hold the X-Division title?

Kazarian: Holding the X belt was great. It is very cool when a promotion has the confidence in you to let you carry the ball for a while.

TDK: Who is your favorite person to work with?

Kazarian: I enjoy working with a lot of different guys, to name a few, Chris Sabin, Chris Daniels, AJ Styles, and Adam Pearce.

TDK: If you could fight any wrestler that you have not fought yet (Alive or dead), who would you fight?

Kazarian: I would never fight anyone dead, that’s just wrong. I’d love to wrestle Shawn Michaels, Bret Hart, Triple H, Chris Benoit, Chris Jericho and Killer Kowalski.

TDK: Who would you like to wrestle the most?

Kazarian: Shawn Michaels, he in my opinion, is the best wrestler there has ever been.

TDK: When you aren’t on the road, what do you enjoy doing?

Kazarian: I enjoy working out, spending time with friends and family, movies, watching football, all sports, and a heap of other various activities.

TDK: What advice would you give to someone who wants to become a wrestler?

Kazarian: It’s not what it seems like on TV. Get an education, but if this is truly your passion, please get trained the correct way, and be safe.

Visit Frankie Kazarian's website at www.thefuturefrankiekazarian.com

TDK Interviews Josh Prohibition

Josh Prohibition made his debut in the indy wrestling scene in 1999. Since then, he has managed to capture a few titles including the XPW Tag Team Title. Josh was also featured in the 2003 video game Backyard Wrestling.

TDK: How did you get into the wrestling business?

Josh:I always loved wrestling and in 1996 I discovered ECW
and thought it was the greatest thing I ever saw.
After my baseball days ended because of a shoulder
injury I had a few backyard matches then received
training when I realized how dumb it was.

TDK: Which wrestlers did you look up to as a kid?

Josh: Mick Foley had the biggest influence on me.

TDK: What is your favorite match you've taken part in?

Josh: I haven’t had a favorite match yet.

TDK: What match style do you enjoy more? Regular or
Hardcore?

Josh: Regular, I think hardcore wrestling is dead.

TDK: What was it like to be included in the video game Backyard Wrestling?

Josh: It really didn’t do much for me. I didn’t get paid
to be in it either, how you like them apples.

TDK: What kind of music do you listen to?

Josh: Real punk rock, not the poppy and emo crap on tv and
on the radio right now. Wearing studded belts and
having spikey hair used to get me picked on. Now
Abercrombie models and Frat losers are wearing it.

TDK: What city do you enjoy wrestling in front of?

Josh: London England, Toronto Canada, and the IWA Mid-South
fans.

TDK: What do you think you'd be doing if you were not a
pro wrestler?

Josh: I’m going to school and coaching baseball still even
though I’m a wrestler. I probably would be slurring
my words in a punk rock band somewhere on tour
sleeping on someone’s floor.

TDK: What do you consider your greatest moment as a
wrestler?

Josh: When Harley Race told me after one of my matches
“that’s what wrestling’s all about.”

TDK: What advice would you give someone who wants to be
a pro wrestler?

Josh: Lol, go to school and find another job. If you are
hard headed and really want to do it I would say: do
amateur wrestling in high school and if you can
college. Get in great shape, don’t backyard wrestle,
watch a lot of Benoit tapes, and find a good wrestling
school with a trainer who has actually done something
in the sport, not a schmuck.

Visit Josh's official website at JoshProhibition.com

By Popular Demand....The 2004 Year-End Awards

What a Crappy year for wrestling. Also, 2004 was a great year for wrestling. Not the worst year, not the best year either. Ho hum... Before we carry on, let's review the class of 2003:

2003 Rookies of the Year: Shelton Benjamin & Charlie Haas: Both were split in the post Wrestlemania XX Fantasy Draft. Shelton went on to better things on RAW and Charlie got bogged down in mid-card hell back on Smackdown!.

2003 Tag Team of the Year: Los Gurreroes: Their breakup provided a couple of great matches, but more importantly elevated Eddie Gurrero to the top tier of the business. Eddie deserved his title run, and let's hope he gets a chance at another run.

2003 Breakout Star: John Cena: Yeah, that was definitely a good call. Word life.

2003 Angle of the Year: Steve Austin vs. Eric Bischoff: So much potential wasted. Too bad. Stone Cold will be back another day, I say.

2003 Match of the Year: Brock Lesnar vs. Kurt Angle 60- Minute Iron Man Match: That was indeed a helluva match, but cannot top some of the matches that took place in 2004.

2003 Wrestler of the Year: Brock Lesnar: What a disappointment he became. I was all over his bandwagon and then the bastard jumped ship. To be fair, I was rooting for him making the Vikings team, but since he didn't, let him become the next member of Vince's "Most Exclusive Club", and bring him back. Big Show's latest using of the F-5 might, just might, be a bit of foreshadowing...

So without further ado, lets jump to the

Drewcifer 2004 Award Show (yeah it's a big bad show, y'all...)

2004 Rookie of the Year: Not much to crow about with this year's rookie crop. We had Luther Reigns who did little. My man, my main man, Carlito Caribbean Cool came up too late in the year. That wasn't cool. No, Rookie honors no doubt go to Nick "Eugene" Dinsmore. He played his callup well, and gave us old school fans a taste of the past by making part of his gimmick as someone who imitates the old school fans. He's a cool dude. My suggestion is that they come up with an angle for him where he was "only pretending" to be a retard in the first place.

2004 Tag Team of the Year: Again, another suck-ass year for tag-team wrestling. When will the powers that be bring back the old school tag teams like the Midnight Express or Demolition, or the Mulkeys? Ya know? As much as I hate to do it, I have to hand out the Tag Team of the Year Award to La Resistance (Sylvian Grenier & Rob Conway). They've managed to stay atop the tag team division when there really isn't a tag team division to speak of. I really wish I could be awarding this to the Hurricane and Rosey.

2004 Breakout Star: The winner this year was co-holder of last year's Rookie of the Year honors. Damn right, it's all about the benjamins, baby!!! Shelton Benjamin got hotshotted to RAW during the fantasy draft and made himself a big star overnight. His first night on RAW saw him beat HHH in the main event and my boy just kept on rollin'! Up until the shoulder injury and all, but, um...yeah, my boy came back and won the Intercontinental Title at Taboo Tuesday. Shelts has three wins over HHH on RAW. Trips doesn't job to just anyone, so you know Shelton is going places.

2004 Angle of the Year: Good god almighty it started out horrible, and it damn sure hasn't ended yet, and we're all bound to be tortured for a few more months by this whole mess. But for some sick reason, it's managed to capture all of our attention. Kane & Lita is your Angle of the Year. Brief synopsis: Lita loves Matt. Kane lusts after Lita. Kane promises not to kill Matt if Lita sleeps with him. Lita gets pregnant. It's anyone's baby. No, wait, it's not Matt's baby. It's Kane's baby. Kane beats Matt in "The Winner gets to Marry Lita" Match. Kane marries Lita. Kane puts Matt on the disabled list. Gene Snitsky shows up out of the blue and causes Lita to have a miscarrige. It wasn't Snitsky's fault. Lita wins the Women's Championship. The year ends with Lita threatening Snitsky with the impending return of Kane. What a year...

2004 Match of the Year: The cool thing about the WrestleMania XX DVD was the extra disc where they played the top ten WM matches. What they didn't play on the extra disc was on disc II, and that happened to be the main event for Wrestlemania XX. The 2004 Match of the year goes hands down to Chris Benoit vs Shawn Michaels vs HHH at Wrestlemania XX. What a match!! I'm still watching it on DVD. I'm going to my friends houses and putting it on their DVD players. No match that I've ever seen has topped that triple threat match. And Benoit winning at the end was the piece de' resistance. I watched WMXX from Hooters and every single person in that bar was cheering when Trips tapped out. BENOIT!!!!BENOIT!!! BENOIT!!!


hmmm...whom do you think Drew will pick as Wrestler of the year?

oh, I dunno...John Heidenreich? no wait...I'll bet it's A-Train~-~ no wait, Rikishi!!!...right?


2004 Wrestler of the Year: He started off the year winning the Royal Rumble lasting 65 minutes in the process. He jumped to RAW and challenged HHH for the World Heavyweight Championship at Wrestlemania. He won in a triple-threat match, and went on to carry the title until Summerslam. Even after losing to Randy Orton, he still managed to keep a top spot on the Raw roster. The man spent 18 years in professional wrestling and finally earned the top spot. The wrestler of the year for 2004 is undisputably Chris Benoit. The good news is, he's in the main event for New Years Revolution, and looks to carry on his spot as a main event player. Thank the wrestling gods for people like the Rabid Wolverine. In a year where wrestling was sometimes unbearable to watch, Benoit never once failed to entertain.