Latest Thoughts: NXT, Raw, Chamber & WM26

It's been quite a week for WWE wrestling, with the Elimination Chamber PPV on Sunday producing two new major champions, the follow-up on Raw, the premiere of WWE NXT and all the hype surrounding the upcoming Wrestlemnia 26 event in March. Amazingly, the huge sports spectacular is just a month away, making it seem as if we're full speed on the Road to Wrestlemania!

First up, the Chamber produced two new champions: Chris Jericho and Batista. Jericho's win is one many saw coming a mile away with Shawn Michaels sneaking into the Chamber at the end of the match to cost Taker the title. That one move right there set up two Wrestlemania matches, with Taker finally accepting Michaels' challenge for a rematch, and Edge easily deciding to challenge Jericho for the World Title. The twist with the Michaels-Taker match is that Shawn Michaels will put his career on the line against the streak. Will Taker really be the guy to retire Michaels, or is this a set up to give HBK another Wrestlemania moment, much like when he sent Flair out of WWE at Wrestlemania 24?

The surprise winner and iffy one at the Chamber was Batista. You could have predicted he'd at least interfere in the proceedings, but the fact he was given a title opportunity like that does cheapen the WWE Championsip. Cena's reign lasted a few minutes, and the match in which he lost the belt lasted about 30 seconds. Wouldn't it have made more sense if Vince entered Batista into the Chamber match when it was down to the final 2 competitors, Triple H and Cena? Or maybe have Batista lay someone out or Vince even inform the wrestler, "sorry business is business, Batista's in, your'e out". Instead, they tried to add some wow factor by Vince playing the spoiler of a Cena celebration. No need to make these silly 5 minute title reigns which makes former champions who held the belt for almost a year look weaker now.

That brings up some other points, does Cena need to be in the Wrestlemania title picture each year? Yes Cena's a merchandising and ticket sales juggernaut, but the story could have just as easily given Cena vs. Batista a part of the main event status with the title matches at Mania. Triple H vs Sheamus would work fine too, although it seems fans would be ready to burn down WWE HQ if HHH was put in yet another championship match at Mania. Anyways, the current story involves Cena, Bret Hart, Batista and Vince. It still appears Bret and Vince may factor into that match somehow, maybe as corner representatives for Cena and Batista at Mania. The fact they have Bret Hart break a leg on his way out of the Raw arena, sets up the intriguing part of the story, will he wrestle, is he done? He'll be at Wrestlemania 26, we just have to see in what capacity. Maybe he knocks Vince off the apron in the final moments of the match, or spits in Batista's face, or gives a sharpshooter.

Speaking of Triple H and Sheamus, are these guys going to be fighting each other at Mania? Will they be two of the MITB competitors? It seems they are at least 2 of a handful of wrestlers who will need something to do at the big Pay-Per-View in March. I can see Smackdown's Rey Mysterio and CM Punk fighting in some sort of Mask vs. Hair match at Mania, where Punk will look to "unmask the true nature of Mysterio" if he wins, and Rey will add the stipulation to shave Punk bald like he does of his disciples. Could be interesting to see.

Four men have qualified of eight for MITB so far: Christian, Kane, Dolph Ziggler and Shelton Benjamin. My early pick after seeing just four of the Money in the Bank competitors is Christian to win it, then cash in to challenge former tag partner Edge for the World Title. We'll have to see who else is in though, if HHH and Sheamus are in, that changes the picture.

And what about the divas picture? It's not what it used to be for sure, but why postpone a Divas Championship match that was on the Chamber card for at least a week or so like that? It's not like they really needed to tell a big story in the Maryse vs. Gail Kim match to sell Maryse's title win the next night on Raw. Nor did they need to tell the story that Vickie is upset with Mickie James on Smackdown, so she sends Layla and McCool as "Smackdown's best divas". WWE needs to stick with the advertised matches on the card. They added in a last minute "PPV rematch" between MVP and Miz for the US title, yet changed the other match. Strange.

Also in divas action, Michelle McCool re-captured the WWE Womens Championship against Mickie James on last night's episode of Smackdown. The match saw Vickie Guerrero as guest referee, who fell out of the ring before she could count McCool's pin. Layla tried to help Vickie up, as Mickie turned the pinfall on McCool. Mickie yelled for Vickie to get in and count it, but instead Vickie slapped Mickie in the face. A kick to the face later from McCool, and Mickie was down for the count. Beth Phoenix was shown during the match watching backstage, and some have speculated they'll do a Triple Threat match for the title at Mania. Makes sense.

That brings us to the Miz, and the debut of WWE NXT on SyFy this past Tuesday. Miz is mentoring Daniel Bryan, a former Ring of Honor star (Bryan Danielson), who was quite impressive in his debut on the show. The storyline there is that Miz and Bryan don't get along, so it's a lot of tough love, with Miz giving his rook a beatdown to close out NXT. However Bryan really held his own in a match against World Champion Chris Jericho, showing off some great moves in his debut. While Miz has thrown out a challenge to Teddy Long on Smackdown to find them some Wrestlemania 26 tag opponents, wouldn't a great Wrestlemania moment be for Miz' rookie Daniel Bryan to somehow earn a US Title opportunity and defeat Miz at Mania? It's possible, although 1) I don't know if Bryan's quite ready, and 2) it's unsure if this will get in the way of the WWE NXT series. Still Daniel Bryan is the one to watch early on from WWE NXT.

Raw's guest hosting lately has produced some really awful spots, with Jerry Springer's "Shocking Relationships" skit one week and then Jewel and Ty Murray's time-filler diva bull riding contest the next. You can only wonder what the half-baked comedy duo of Cheech and Chong will bring for Kelly Kelly and the Bella Twins to participate in. If the camera zooms in on a giant bong to open Monday's Raw, you know the family-themed program has really gone off track!