WWE did this to themselves. There is no one else to blame but WWE. They need to take a strong look in the mirror and recognize the mistake that they have made since the brand extension started. What I am talking about is going to take place (took place) on this weeks edition of Friday Night Smackdown. For the handful of you who do not know, Smackdown, which airs every Friday is taped on Tuesdays of that week. This past Tuesday at the Smackdown taping,

Smackdown World Champion Batista was scheduled to face Edge in a street fight. In real life, Edge is suffering from an injury and they needed to write him out of storylines for a few weeks while he recovered. So many “smart” wrestling fans speculated that they were going to have Batista “injure” Edge for the time being. That wasn’t what WWE had in mind. Instead they decided to do an angle where Edge lead the RAW stars onto Smackdown in an “invasion” of sorts. Unfortunately real life had other plans. RAW Tag Team champions, Big Show and Kane came out and hit Batista with their finishing move, the double chokeslam. In the process of taking that more, Batista tore his latissimus dorsi, a muscle on the upper back that connects under each arm. He was in serious pain and the scheduled dark match between Batista and Randy Orton ended up being a two minute squash with Batista winning. After the match, Batista was helped to the back by WWE officials and trainers and was in serious pain backstage.

Now while I am not a doctor, I do know that the latissimus dorsi is one of the biggest muscles in the human body. A good scenario for WWE is that if it is a minor tear, Batista could be out for about three months to heal ala Ben Sheets of the Milwaukee Brewers. Sheets suffered a minor tear and it took him two months to rehab. No surgery required. Problem is, Sheets injury was MINOR. A major tear could cause WWE some serious damage. According to sources, Batista’s latissimus dorsi muscle apparently rolled up inside his body. Not much different than Triple H’s quad injury which kept him out of action for a little more than a year. What makes matters worse, Batista’s (who is no spring chicken at age 38) injury is one that is not only painful, but requires more rehab than a quad muscle and is in a more difficult spot to perform surgery on since they have to unroll the muscle. So a year off for this type of injury is being generous. WWE released a statement saying Batista suffered an injury and was visiting with Sports Medicine Guru Dr. James Andrews in Birmingham Alabama. Andrews is the GOD of surgery and if anyone can cut off a month or two from his recovery time, he can. That being said, Big Dave is still going to miss significant time.

This is where the trouble lies. WWE has drilled it into our heads that Smackdown is the B show. Hell, even Michael Cole and Tazz mentioned it on yesterday’s edition of Byte This.

Add that to the fact that they have done absolutely nothing to elevate anyone on the Smackdown roster other than the recent push of Ken Kennedy, WWE is lacking a BIG NAME player to represent Smackdown. Let’s face facts, WWE is not going to get solidly behind Eddie Guerrero or Chris Benoit as Smackdown champion. Will they place them in the transitional role? Probably. Long term fix like they were planning with Batista? No. JBL? Been there, done that. Kennedy? Too much, too soon. Randy Orton? It is a possibility. However pushing Orton may not be the answer. While he has the potential to be super huge, WWE should have stuck while the iron was hot. When he first won the title, he should have been continued to be pushed as a heel and he would be “THE STAR” that they are now lacking. Instead, they rushed his face turn, stumbled with him in a face position and then backed out of his title run. He staggered so much as a face that they removed him from the Wrestlemania main event slot with HHH and stuck Batista in his spot. So at least they recovered and ended up making a new star out of Batista but they got sidetracked on Orton. Orton has done wonders in re-establishing his heel persona, but a title run isn’t a good idea yet in my book.

Bottom line is, WWE has to hit the reset button. The pressure is on them. While their RAW ratings spiked (no pun intended) with their return to USA, they have since dropped due to tasteless angles, lack of vision for future angles and poor writing, booking and skits. Smackdown, well they are the B show. Plain and simple. UFC is making some noise, TNA is going to make huge noise once they get some more viewers. TNA isn’t white hot right now but they sure as hell aren’t lukewarm either. They are at a decent pace to make some waves. Maybe this time next year, we will be taking about TNA being a huge, multi million dollar company. Who knows?

What I do know is that WWE needs to end the brand extension. That is my big idea. Will some lower guys on the roster lose jobs? Probably. But a main event roster that consists of HHH, Kurt Angle, Shawn Michaels, John Cena, Batista (when he is recovered from injury), Randy Orton, The Undertaker, Chris Benoit, Eddie Guerrero, JBL, Kane and sometimes Rey Mysterio and you got yourself a solid main event line up. One that rivaled that of the Attitude era in possibilities of fueds for whoever is on top. Solid match ups and feuds that can fill a pay per view. Not to mention an undercard that can feature the likes of Carlito, Shelton Benjamin, Booker T, Mr. Kennedy, & Chris Masters. WWE can finally get some action back. They can recapture the magic. Then, only then will the “Power be back”

Matt Aponte considers himself a Quasi-Celebrity due to the fact he moonlights as an independent wrestler/manager in the North East of the United States. His home fed, Pro Wrestling is based in NY, however he does float around in some smaller New Jersey feds. Matt also writes columns - if you want to call what he does writing - for the leading Independent Wrestling News site on the planet, the Declaration of Independents as well as being the “diamond in the rough” for the funniest wrestling parody site on the internet,Gumgod.com

If you happen to live in the borough of the Bronx, home of the best professional baseball team ever assembled, you can watch Matt on his very own low budget public access show called "Matt TV" on Bronxnet Channel 68.

Matt, the self-proclaimed king of self-promotion and whoring out things for his own benefit, plans on bringing a new and unique style that he likes to call laziness to World Wrestling Insanity and resting on his laurels is something he loves to do. Matt hopes that this infectious writing style and laid back attitude rubs off on the rest of the World Wrestling Insanity staff.

Read Matt's blog at AYM’s INSANITY