Well, it appears that months of giving and taking half a dozen German suplexes in every match continue to take their toll, as now Kurt Angle will join Edge on the injured list for the next year following that really popular neck surgery all the kids are having. Angle has had neck problems for years, so the suplex-happy Smackdown style of wrestling can't be pointed to as the sole culprit in this, but I still hope that the current near-crisis situation that has shelved two top stars and destroyed the Wrestlemania main event that everyone's been waiting months for will lead the WWE to wise up and tone down the neck bumping a bit. Sure, they got rid of the piledriver and such moves a while back, but stopping people from landing on the top of their head doesn't do much good when the number of times people land on their neck in every match keeps going up. And the difference is, the piledriver only hurts someone when it's done wrong. If you do it properly, nobody's going head first into the mat. But with the German suplex, even when it's done right, it takes a toll on the neck.

I'm not saying they should ban the German suplex. I like the German suplex. I just think they need to get back to the days when a single German suplex meant something. Lately, guys like Benoit and Angle have, during some admittedly great matches, been turning the German suplex into the new punch. A guy can take three of them in a row and still be in good enough shape to reverse the waistlock and hit three of his own. And as a result, the fans don't really care that much about the move. It's not a finisher. Three or seven or ten in a row still aren't a finisher. It's just that move they do a bunch of times before they get to the submission holds. And so the fans pop for the submission holds. I wish the WWE would notice the reaction the Crossface or the Ankle Lock get. Or the great response that the opening matwork sequences in the Benoit/Angle matches at Wrestlemania XVII and Unforgiven 2002 got. The fans don't need flashy moves and dangerous bumps to pop. The good wrestlers can get the crowd into their matches without killing themselves. A more mat-based style could get over if pushed consistently. And as an added bonus, if the wrestlers decide to use a German suplex, they can get over one of them as a dangerous move again.

It's really sad to see the best wrestlers in the WWE killing themselves to put on good matches when they're capable of having good matches without the crazy bumps. All the bumps do is shorten their careers and lessen the number of great matches they can have. The period last year when Smackdown had Kurt Angle, Chris Benoit, Eddie Guerrero, Edge, Brock Lesnar, Rey Mysterio and such all healthy and doing good work was lots of fun, but if they keep up this style of wrestling, we probably won't see another period like it again. Edge and Angle will be missed. Hopefully they'll come back to a WWE not encouraging others to follow in their footsteps.  ¶ joe | 10:32 PM |