By Shane McKinley, Torch specialist

For all of those people who complained about Jeff Hardy, here's R-Truth for you. What's up? R-Truth's stock. What's down? C.M. Punk. He's not below sea level, but it's a mighty big drop off for him. What I'm thinking is that WWE pumps up Truth a bit and has Punk waste time until his Money in the Bank appearance at WrestleMania.

Hopefully WWE steers away from the Ref Scott Armstrong angle. Like they don't show a video package of Scott Armstrong counting the three when Punk won his first ECW championship.

-I liked the dig during the WWE Hogan "Whatever was left on the cutting room floor" DVD that the footage was from Hogan's prime. A lot of top WWE stars are past their prime, too.

-I've done a lot of diva wrestling bashing in my articles, but I gotta say that I will be sad to see Mickie James go. Mostly because I wonder who is going take her place. Liked the match with Natalya. I also liked it when Jim Neidhart beat up Evan Bourne on Smackdown...wait, that didn't happen. Because that would be beyond dumb.

-I get the impression that John Morrison cares about his craft. Solid stuff in his promo. He's in a feud with Dolph Ziggler that has just about reached its expiration date. I suppose I would be higher on Ziggler, but I've gotten sick of his Daisy Dukes hot pants.

And to me, the normally jacked up British crowd was subdued during this week of WWE programming. Maybe they were expecting Cena vs. HBK II. Too bad.

-Turns out that it appears that Jamie Noble is indeed "retiring" from the WWE. Noble is respected in the business. Guys like Goldberg and Brock Lesnar? Not so much.

-I enjoy Drew and Finlay drinking some beer and beating the piss out of each other. That's Finlay's calling card. The "medical attention to the shillelagh shot" was a bit laughable.

-I enjoyed Batista's intensity and to-the-point contract signing, but the main reason that he wants to cripple Mysterio is because "Mysterio cost me a shot at the World championship wahhh." Something's missing here. Why exactly does the character of Batista want to become World champion? Why is the World championship so important to him that he had his old friend Mysterio sign a "Hold Harmless" agreement? Nobody knows, so when Matt Striker says the cliche that this feud is "beyond personal," it rings hollow.

Jericho vs. Undertaker for the first-time ever was pretty good TV. Did it need to be shown? Um...after the match ended, Big Show came out in his cute singlet. Then Kane (why not?) comes out. A jacked up Vince McMahon puts two and two together: "Next week, it's the Brothers of Destruction vs. JeriShow!" That's why WWE fans buy $30 T-shirts and $50 PPVs. Because of the heart-pounding excitement only WWE can offer.

That's it for me. It's only been two weeks and people are already bored with Lance Archer. I'm telling ya, cool vampire character is the way to go. Throw in a fake set of vampire teeth and he's the next World Hvt. champion.

(credit to slam.canoe.ca, Ih6.ggpht.com, and img.skysports.com for pics)

Email is mckinley.torch@gmail.com

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