First things first, I want to send a special THANK YOU to Ryan Mancuso for being sweet enough to make a tape for both myself and Sharon of some great old matches. I can't wait to rewatch Dean Malenko vs. Eddy Guerrero in their last match in ECW. I have seen it once before and it besides being incredibly emotional, it is one hell of a match, 2 out of 3 falls from two of the best in the business.

Ok, onto the rants...

Last week, I took a "sick day" and went to meet the Undertaker at the Raleigh Sports and Entertainment Complex. I went with one of the biggest UT marks on the planet and it was a lot of fun. My friend Luke had just gotten a tattoo with the UT symbol in it, (its really cool) and the Undertaker loved it, and spoke to him for a long while about it. It was so great to see my friend meet his favorite wrestler and get such a great reception from him, and his interest was genuine. After we walked away from the table, Luke had the greatest expression on his face, it was like he had seen God. So I am going to send CRZ a picture which maybe he will be kind enough to put up somewhere in this column. By the way, for anyone that cares, Undertaker is about a million times better looking in person...LOL...those tattoos he has are gorgeous as hell too. Heather showed up as well and as usual it was great to see her. Can't wait till August girl, you, me and Sharon are going to tear shit up!!!

Ok, so I want to start off doing something I don't usually do and that is pick a performer of the week...now by week I mean last week's Smackdown and this week's RAW. Usually I am just impressed overall by the many talented WWF wrestlers every week, but this week, one individual stood out above the rest and that is Matt Hardy. Matt Hardy was part of the two of the best matches, and for that I want to put him in the spotlight. Matt Hardy has the "Christian complex". He is a major talent in his own right, but tends to get overshadowed by his younger, and many times crazier younger brother Jeff. (sort of like Christian with Edge ...get it...) so I wanted to take this time to sing his praises for a second. Personally, last week on Smackdown, the Hardy Boyz were part of the two best matches of the night. The incredibly solid match between Jeff and Benoit, and then the slightly better match between Matt and Eddy. Both matches rocked but upon reflection I found the Matt/Eddy match a little bit more satisfying...(excluding the ending to the Benoit/Jeff match which kicked total ass...I mean I love Jeff and all but seeing him waffled by the belt made me smile almost as deviously as Benoit...you just gotta love those heels). The thing about Matt Hardy is he is a very solid mat wrestler, something that his brother could us a little more polish with, AND he also does the high flying crazy moves as well. Lets remember back to Backlash, when the Hardys were involved in the Hardcore fight, it was Matt who took that wicked bump from nearly the top of that swinging hook, not Jeff, and lets not forget the Triangle Ladder Match at WM 2000...of course everyone talks about the Swanton Dive off the ladder...which was legitimately the move of the night, but we must not forget the other moves, and the other bumps as well...Matt Hardy took a vicious power bomb off the announce table through a table, as well as being thrown off the table that was balanced on two ladders and fell through a table below shattering it into a thousand pieces. There are also the countless moonsaults and leg drops from the top rope as well...so needless to say, Matt Hardy is just as much a high flyer as his brother, he just tends to be overshadowed by the sheer insanity of what Jeff does sometimes. The other thing is, whereas Jeff Hardy is very graceful in the ring, Matt tends to be a little clunky, so that could be another reason he isn't as highly praised for his high flying maneuvers as his brother. But getting back to Smackdown and RAW, ok, its not to hard to look good in the ring with Eddy and Benoit, but if you are GOOD to begin with, and things are clicking then you have a great match. Last week on Smackdown, Eddy and Matt pulled out that kind of match. They did the whole pin reversal combination which I just love, and it even got a standing ovation from two guys in the front row (ECW fans no doubt) hell I would have been standing too. The reversals, the moves, the in ring chemistry, and that was just one hell of a match. Eddy hits his sweet new end move, the 'rana off the top rope and you have a clean pin to end a great match. I swear I was marking out like a fiend. Then to make matter even better, you have Matt trying to avenge his brother's loss with another incredibly solid match against Benoit. Again, Matt showed off his ample mat skills and pulled together quite a match, now I know Benoit makes almost everyone look good, (although he had a rough time helping the Road Dogg), but Matt more than held his own in the bargain. It was not Benoit making someone look good, it was two men working hard together to put on a great match. So after my long winded (what else is new) explanation I want to give a virtual standing ovation to Matt Hardy...and the fact that he is gorgeous has nothing to do with it.

Speaking of the Hardys, a couple of weeks ago, Jim Ross mentioned that Jeff Hardy was complaining of severe pains in his side, and that he was going to be tested. On a message board I read that Jeff was in pretty bad physical shape backstage, liming and in constant discomfort. If this is the case, why is he still working a full house show schedule. Ok, I can understand he doesn't want to miss TV, and as one of the 16 participants in the KOTR, he can't really miss TV, but does he have to be at every single house show. Please give this guy a rest. I mean Matt has proven that he can have exciting singles matches, so have him fight some of those, and let Jeff heal up.

One more thing about the Hardys and I will move on...I have to say, I am loving this little feud the Hardys have going on with Benoit. At the end of the Jeff Hardy/Benoit match on Smackdown last week, Benoit applies the Crippler crossface, and Jeff taps out. Benoit shakes his head as if in praise, and puts out his hand for Jeff to shake. Like I've mentioned before I am a sucker for that mutual respect thing, and I was freaking out...then suddenly Benoit smashes Jeff in the face with the belt, and give a totally maniacal grin...WOW...simply awesome Now that's how you play a heel...sheer perfection. But the best part, he practically kills Matt on RAW, refusing to release the crossface, and then he waffles Jeff yet again when he tries to rescue his brother. I don't know where the hell they are going with this, but at this point I don't really care, I just want more.

So the end of this match leads to one of Rebecca's dream match ups...Christian vs. Jeff Hardy...now true, the match was only 2 minutes, but with such beauty in the ring, it is a good thing it wasn't any longer, I probably wouldn't be able to take it. I swear two minute matches usually suck, and although they could have done a lot more, it was great for what it was...and even though Christian lost, I was happy to see Jeff go on to the KOTR tournament...

What I was not happy to see was Dean Malenko accompanied to the ring by hos and then jobbed to X-Puke. Now Dean becomes the only Radical not to make it to the tournament, and this just makes me so damn mad. Maybe this means we will actually get a lightheavy weight title defense at the PPV...but I doubt it...hell when was the last time Dean had a title defense...oh yeah, he's to preoccupied by the hos... GRRRRRR (that is the sound of me growling in dissatisfaction in case you were curious.)

Ok, so Linda McMahon is the women!! No she may not have the best mike skills, but she always has something interesting to say...Making her daughter defend the belt against Lita rocked, but even better was having her husband and son fight the Dudleys in a table match...too bad we didn't get to see them actually go through tables...but seeing Vince fall from the top rope, with Buh Buh practically falling on top of him had me very pleased indeed. I love the Dudleys, and no matter how over they get, and man are they OVER...this will never change. And this has nothing to do with my giant crush on Buh Buh, it doesn't!!!

Other things the WWF are doing right:

The Kurt Angle/Stephanie McMahon story is the best "story line" going on right now in my opinion. It was great to see him come to her rescue when she was getting her ass kicked by Lita....did you see that Olympic slam, Lita sold it like a damn champ...sure fire way to get Lita way over, have her feud with Stephanie...the crowd absolutely hates her, and they will love Lita even more if she can kick her ass. Back to Kurt, the hugging was so damn cute, and HHH's expressions were the best. At first he was all pleased but then he sees the second hug, and he gets pissed off, we didn't even get to see his reaction to the third hug because he was dragged away to unmask Kane...needless to say this is only the beginning to this storyline with Kurt. Now that he has hugged her once, no twice, no three times, it seems like he will just want more...if this elevates Kurt Angle to the Main Event to eventually feud with HHH that is fine by me...

Chris Benoit is finally getting over...and I'm loving it. He goes out there, puts on the best matches...and just flat out kicks ass...for all the talk I've heard about how horrible he is on the mike, I think he is doing a great job with the promos the WWF has him cutting. The best was when Kevin Kelly confronted him about what he did to Jeff, and he said, why did I do it, because I can...can we say BAD ASS!!!!! So Benoit is getting over on his wrestling ability, he has brought back prestige to the IC belt, and I for one can't wait till he's fighting for the Heavyweight Belt...

Ok, Screw the Rock/HHH feud, give me more of the HHH/Jericho feud. I have decided that Y2J is the best opponent HHH has ever had. He consistently gets the best matches out of HHH, and I cannot wait till he finally gets the victory he deserves. I know its coming and I can be patient...but not that patient. Y2J is ready able and willing to be elevated. Instead of giving us the shitty Main Event at KOTR they should have just let Jericho headline...if him and HHH put on the same kind of match they did on RAW then the WWF has nothing to worry about in terms of fan reaction. The crowd was red hot for that match, and rightfully so...it was awesome...

Not much to complain about this week, except the Dean Malenko stuff, anything having to do with Trish Stratus...I just can't stand the girl and Too Cool as the most boring tag team champs of all time...the Hardys and Christian and Edge were mixing it up a little during the KOTR qualifier...dare I hope they are starting up my favorite rivalry once again...Have Christian and Edge regain the titles at KOTR, and then feud with the Hardys for the belts for two months culminating in an insane match at Summerslam...where the Hardys will walk out with the belts, well deserved and long overdue...

Ok, enough from me, I wrote longer than I expected (of course) and still didn't say all I wanted to say...till next time...