RAW Spoiler for this week

It's excellent work. Even the fake stuff gives you that buzz, imagine what would happen if they did some real ones.

As for the 10th aniversary of Trips last match, that's part of my point. Been done.

With the Triple H vs Undertaker thing, there's talks of it being another streak vs career match. Eh.....it wouldn't be that great but It would draw a hell of a lot better then Taker vs Barret would.

I still hope Sting does end up working for wwe. But if he doesn't...I guess we get HHH vs Undertaker

I think Undertaker should retire eventually, with his streak in-tact. Get the feeling that HHH will eventually end it.

Undertaker's winning streak at Wrestlemania isn't about to be broken by anyone, regardless of whether they are married to the boss' daughter, wear a lot of purple and baggy jean shorts, or white and black face paint.

Taker has the most stroke of anyone in the locker room, and he clearly wants that to be his "thing" that he's remembered for. I also think he wants to get to 20 and then call it a day.

Yeah you're right. I just wasn't sure if HHH's ego would make him try and get him booked to go over Taker at WM. I don't think Cena or Sting going over would happen but HHH does seem to have some idea in his head that he should win every match ever. Or used to when I stopped watching Raw anyway. Month after month he'd have someone challenge him for his WHC and every month they'd lose. I didn't even bother watching his PPV title matches back then as I already knew who was going over!

I honestly think Trips is way beyond that now. He could probably have had another half dozen title wins if he'd wanted, and instead he's been content with learning the business and taking a back seat. Besides, if Trips was ever going to demand a job from Taker he would have done it back 10 years ago when his ego was really rampant. And he didn't- he stared at the lights like everyone else.

I totally agree. I don't think Trips is as egoecntric these days, which is good because he's a damn fine wrestler/mike man when he's not.

I also personally don't think that anybody will end the streak either. But my point was that you have to put it in peril or it isn't as good a match. With Sting you COULD just about see them doing it. Not with Trips.

But I guess we just buckle in and wait and see!

Well after last night's promo there's no doubt its Taker's return, as they showed his face.

Ah well...there goes another theory...

I still think Sting is coming as i'm pretty sure he's signed because he hasn't gone back to TNA, but as I mentioned earlier, I still think that they are going to disappoint and deflate the audience first (as they've done here) and then bring him in after this, or maybe even on the same night as Takers debut here.

yeah I refuse to let the Sting issue die. I'm extremely excited that the Rock came back even if it is just him on the mic for awhile then he's gone again. But I also want to see Sting. He's the one guy they never got and it would be awesome to see him in the ring.

I heard some guy on a podcast recently say (paraphrased):

"If Sting had gone to the WWF in his prime, and let Vince McMahon give him the opportunity, put up with any kind of held-down due-paying that they would have thought he needed, and then eventually let his career and dedication take off just like Triple H did so long ago, today, Sting would have, no doubt, been one of the very biggest names in the industry today.

Today as it stands, he is no Steve Austin, Rock, Triple H, Undertaker or Kurt Angle even. But if he had been in the WWF in that era, he absolutely would have been.

And the best thing for Sting, especially now, and before he gets to be too old, this is his last chance to get there, let it happen, and reach that elusive plateau. Becuase even now, if he goes, he WILL sell T-shirts, he WILL sell tons of DVD's, and he will become THE MAN, if only he puts his reservations aside and allows it to happen.

Sting has been very careful and distrusting of the WWE, and I think, he has been too careful for too long. Because he is only aging forward and not backwards, and before it's too late, at one point before he regrets it, he needs to at least take that risk and give it the opportunity the chance to happen, because right now, he really doesn't have a lot to lose and everything in the world to gain.

If the WWE fucks him up, they fuck him up, but it still won't take away from anything he's done up to this point, anyway. He's at the perfect time in his life where he needs to bite the bullet and jump on it."

I agree wholeheartedly with that.

I was discussing this with somebody when we still thought Taker-Sting might happen (I agree that Sting will probably still sign, my theory bit was about the Taker match). The question was would Sting-Taker sell itself on it's own or would the lack of knowledge of Sting to the average WWE fan mean they had to build who is was.

I had thought Sting was well known in wrestling circles, even to most average fans. OK, he might not have gone Hogan/Rock/Austin big, or even as Mike says Trips big but I suggested the history of him being Sting was enough.

My friend thought they would need more of a sell, work it longer. I can see what he means. Sting has done films but I don't think he has the same instantly recognition factor.

That said I still think anybody who reads the wrestling press wouldn't have been able to ignore Sting.

I honestly think Sting still has enough name recognition that a match between the two of them would sell. The WWE has mentioned Sting plenty of times in the past, brought out WCW DVDs that feature him prominently, and use his image on the back wall of the WCW Vintage set (as well as using his matches a lot in the programme itself).

So I think if he showed up on the same night Taker returned, there would be enough there to make the match a very big deal.

But I agree with the sentiment in Mike's post, if he really wants to cement his legacy, he needs to bit the bullet and do it now while there is still that desire amongst fans to see him.

I think diehard WWE fans will need time to warm to Sting. One of my workmates swears by WWE, and won't watch any other wrestling. When I told him of the Sting vs Taker rumours, he turned his nose up at it and said "Who cares about Sting?". So I can see diehard WWE fans taking a little while to warm to the idea of Sting being in WWE, and I think they need to build the feud over a longer period just to get Sting as over as he deserves to be.

I'd be inclined to agree with that. Although you never know for sure. Because we have youtube, legions of sting promos and matches are at your fingertips so it's not like WWE fans wouldn't have heard of him. The older, computer-literate ones anyway. I guess getting him over is a different kettle of fish.

To be honest though Shane, I don't think most WWE fans are that elitist. WWE has a knack and a habit of taking tons of "other fed" guys and transforming them into almost immediately accepted "WWE Guys".

WWE is mostly seen as "the place where almost every talent considered to be "the best" has been at one point or another, and simply being there tends to get that talent branded to them. Even everyone in the past known as "WCW guys" or "ECW guys", the minute they set foot in WWE, they became assiimilated to the WWE image. From The Dudleyz to Booker T to Al Snow, to Eddie Guerrero, when asked about them, most people would instantly point to WWE as where they watched them the most.

Only a few examples of big names who failed to have that would be a few guys whose WWE runs were almost compete disasters, and I can only think of Goldberg and DDP as two major examples who still failed to major "brand identify" with WWE in the long run. And that's mostly because of huge wastes of potential and epically dropped balls in this two cases.

That person you know who said "Who cares about Sting?" I have to believe would be the vast minority opinion. If they aren't already.

Oh yeah. What the HELL were they thinking with DDP anyway?

I think they took one look at DDP and said "This guy will never be anything but a relic of the early 90's" and refused to even try.

To this day I love DDP, and I think it's criminal what WWE did with his career, tbh. They took one look at his face, his look, his style and said "Yeah, no.". When a good booker would have still found a way to play his strengths, if they really wanted to.

Instead, he was a stalker (why?) and a self help guru (made no sense.) instead of just being DDP.

When the WWE want to really put the effort in to get someone over, there is no-one than can touc their production values and work. If Sting signed for the WWE today, by the time Wrestlemania rolled around the company could have you believing he was God almighty if they wanted to, regardless of whether you had ever heard of him or not.

Take a look at the WWE locker room right now - a lot of those guys grew up as big Sting fans. It wouldn't take much if guys like Edge, CM Punk, Cena and others were to react like he was something special.

Plus, I do think there are enough of the long-term fans that the audience reaction would have enough critical mass to overcome the doubters.

Remember, in the last 2 months the WWE have managed ot get Lawler over to the point where people are seriously discussing whether he might be the next WWE champion. If they can do that to him, they can get Sting over without breaking a sweat.