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Welcome to WRESTLEMAN #9. Last week I wasn't sure what I was goin to write about this week - and then out of the blue on tuesday morning, I read the headline - 'Booker T and Batista in a Bloody and Brutal fight!'. So I'm postponing the subject I had in mind, and I'm gonna write about this.

Did Booker T and Batista actually have a ‘shoot fight’ while WWE were filming the SummerSlam commercial?

Initially, when the news broke on WWE.com about the ‘bloody and brutal fight’ that was supposed to have lasted ‘at least five minutes’, I thought no way is this a shoot. But know I’m a lot less sure about that!

Michael Cole recently took over the position of chief editor of WWE.com. In an interview on the site, he seemed intent on making some improvements to the site to ensure fans will want to check there everyday. That could mean two things. 1. The WWE are making the other wrestling news sites redundant by breaking the backstage news openly on their own site. Or. 2. One of the new plans is to use WWE.com to start storylines and feuds more frequently.

If it is number 1 then we can presume this fight is a shoot – therefore, not planned by WWE. Or if number 2 is true, then this will undoubtedly be a work.

In the past WWE.com has rarely ever broken kayfabe, so generally almost everything on the site is ‘worked’ by WWE. Reporting backstage flare-ups is pretty much unprecedented.

Obviously, two superstars coming to blows in shoot fight is incredibly unprofessional – especially from someone with the experience of Booker T. These two men are around 40 years old, so of everybody in the locker-room you would say these two would be amongst the most mature – therefore, the least likely to fight. Although, we are talking about an ex-con and an ex-bouncer here.

Why would WWE expose themselves to the bad publicity they would receive from breaking this news officially? I can’t see a logical answer to that question. Maybe they feel the bad publicity would be less harsh if they admitted the incident, rather than it breaking from somewhere else. But I’m not sure that is the case, as they could have just denied that the incident took place. The swelling and bruising could have easily be explained by saying they were suffered at a house show – however, both men didn’t have the option of hiding away as they were making a public appearance at the See No Evil premiere the same evening.

Surely Batista and Booker T would have to face disciplinary action for this unprofessional behaviour? Nowhere has even mentioned the word punishment anywhere – and I highly doubt this action will be condoned by Vince McMahon.

The Sun online wrestling writers have met both men and claim that they are two of the nicest men they have met in the business. And in their opinion, they couldn’t see these two men being involved in such a brawl.

Also, how many fights last at least five minutes? These to could have killed each other in that amount of time! And with JBL, Mark Henry, Benoit, Finlay, Ricky Steamboat, and others breaking them up – there’s no way the fight could have lasted that long.

However, there have been a number of things to suggest that this was actually a real shoot fight. First of all, Batista does not need a storyline/feud to come back with – because he’s got Mark Henry to go after for injuring him in the first place. So if this was a work, so Batista could feud with Booker – then he’s almost letting Mark Henry off-the-hook for putting him out of action.

It seems strange that the WWE would openly admit that they are shooting the SummerSlam commercials (for August) already. WWE normally want fans to believe that the matches and feuds aren’t planned 3 months in advance. This again is almost breaking kayfabe – are we supposed to believe its ‘real’ if RVD and H start a feud, when they have already made the commercial for the match? (Not a Spoiler by the way, just an example).

Rumour has it that there is some legitimate heat between Batista and Booker. It’s claimed a lot of the SmackDown! Superstars were not happy with Batista’s attitude while he was the champ. He actually bad-mouthed the entire SmackDown! roster while he was on RAW during an interview with The Sun, calling them the second rate/B-show – something that even got him into to trouble with WWE management. In a later interview after he was drafted to SmackDown!, he said “I felt like they were just handing me the show”. In my opinion that’s pretty disrespectful to Undertaker, JBL, Eddie, Benoit, Rey, and also Booker T.

As we know Batista has only been involved in the wrestling business for about 4/5 years, and if he is taking that attitude it is bound to rub the veterans up the wrong way.

Booker T has also made comments in interviews about Batista’s physique and speculated steroid use in 2003. He said that he could pay for it when he started tearing muscles (…. why is Batista out again? …. That’s it, torn bicep and torn back muscle). Although, it should also be noted that Batista has slimmed down a bit since his early days as Evolution’s Animal.

Another problem with this being a ‘work’ is that Booker (the heel) seems to come across as the good guy on WWE.com, rather than Batista (the face) looking like the good guy. Booker T seems to have a point when explaining his argument – where as Batista is just defending himself “I am not a prick!”. (Also, the language should be noted – they don’t use the word ‘prick’ on TV, so why use it in a work on-line).

WWE have posted the pictures showing the damage of the fight – with Booker T bearing a very swollen left-eye, and Batista with a few cuts and bruises.

Quite a lot of places are already claiming that this fight has been confirmed to be shoot, but I’m still not 100% convinced. Despite all the signs pointing towards this actually being a shoot, I still have my doubts.

I’m still hopeful that this is all an elaborate work by WWE. As I exciting as it has been – it is not good when two top superstars act this unprofessionally. If this has all been a work, congratulations WWE for a great job. And hopefully there is more of this to come. Everything has been unpredictable this year – Edge’s title win, Rey’s rumble win, Cena retaining at ‘mania, etc – and long may that continue. I’m sure WWE are getting a great amount of satisfaction by continually messing with the know-it-all internet marks.

Either way this has been something to get the wrestling world talking. No matter what – these two will be having a high profile feud as soon as Batista is back from injury. Pencil this in, World Heavyweight Champion Booker T defending his title against Batista, (ironically) at SummerSlam.

- Elsewhere, it was a good move turning Mick Foley heel this week on RAW. Its fair to say he had become very stale over the last 3 or 4 years, and this could re-juvinate his carreer. Although, I was pretty disappointed that it came at the cost of the of the heavily advertised Hardcore re-match.

- Three weeks on the bounce for the Spirit Squad in the RAW main-event. They're quickly becoming RAW's MVPs - much in the same way MNM are the SmackDown! MVPs.

- Why the hell did Rey Mysterio have to job cleanly to Mark Henry? Are they just trying to bury the World Heavyweight Champion? How hard would it have been to throw in a ref-bump and use a bit of interference from JBL (who was ringside anyway).

- Umaga squashed two more jobbers this week. He's getting more exciting every week! Now we here that the WWE has plans to put him in the main-event frame after SummerSlam. Oh well, at least he can wrestle - but there is just no place for a Wild Samoan in 2006.

Well that's all for this week's edition. I'll be back next week with my predictions for Judgement Day and to talk about the success of the King of the Ring tournament.

Thanks for reading.

WRESTLEMAN

Piczo