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The Katz Files – Arnie Katz
My Weekly RAW (6/1) Notebook
The Kingfish Arnie Katz highlights the major developments and discusses what they mean.

Bye-Bye Vickie Guerrero
A short, surprising and successful WWE career has seemingly come to an end with Vickie Guerrero’s announcement that she is leaving pro wrestling to spend more time with her children. They’ve written her out of the show and, though she might return for a guest shot at some future time –is anyone ever really retired in WWE? – the 6/8 RAW was her swansong.

Some people spoke of “charity” when Vickie first joined WWE in the wake of her husband’s tragic death. Maybe it began that way, but Vickie Guerrero definitely earned her paycheck with her contributions to Smackdown and, more recently, RAW.

She was so perfectly hate-able as the General Manager. Vickie projected a self-centered, selfish, greedy character that incited the fans and energize angles.

Who’ll be the replacement? Insider rumors say it’ll be Ric Flair. As much as I like Naitch, that doesn’t seem like a great role for him. He is so passionate in his best monologues that he would do better as a manager, I would think.

Still, Ric Flair may be the best that’s available, so he could be at least a short-term solution.

Batista’s Injury
The Internet has blazed with rumors and counter-rumors about the severity, and even the existence, of Batista’s much-reported injury. I can see how fans might be skeptical. After all, this is professional wrestling, where things are so often not what they seem. However, the fact that Batista wrestled his Extreme Rules match without being visibly taped and that he did not appear to favor either arm during the contest might lend credence to allegations that he is being held out of the show for reasons other than an injury. The relentless miss-reporting on wwe.com hasn’t helped, either.

I tend to believe the injury is real, but that it may also get “overplayed” as part of some long-range plot considerations. If The Animal isn’t hurt, they are going to a lot of trouble to make fans believe that he is.

The 6/15 RAW will crown a new champion, probably in a four-way match with Triple H, John Cena, Big Show and Randy Orton. The most likely winner is Triple H, though it could happen in such a way as to involve him in a program with John Cena.

The long-range plan is obviously Cena-Batista. The timing probably requires at least one, and possibly two, intervening title runs. If I was booking, I would probably have Orton win so that Triple H could take the title from him and get some more payback in the long-running feud.

That’s all for now. I’ll be back tomorrow with a fresh installment of the Internet’s fastest-rising pro wrestling column. I hope you’ll join me then and, please, bring your friends.

— Arnie Katz
Executive Editor
[email protected]
(6/10/09)