Here's how dedicated I am to wrestling: I watched Armageddon last night at a smoke-filled bar -- and I'm allergic to smoke. I got home with a sore throat, had to put all my clothes in the laundry right away... too bad the WWE didn't make the effort worthwhile.

There were a few highlights at the PPV. Chris Benoit and Eddie Guerrero put on the match of the night. Kurt Angle is now WWE champion, putting someone interesting in the place of The Big Show. Plus, Shawn Michaels and Triple H put on a great show.

These three high points barely made up for many lows:

• The opening fatal fourway tag team match: if it was an elimination match, then why weren't JR and Lawler in the loop? When the announcers don't even know what's going on, it makes the match sloppier.



• Albert / A Train in a PPV match: ugh. Enough said.



• The continuing insult to intelligence of the whole Dawn Marie - Al Wilson storyline mounts. Dawn shows tape footage that upsets Al, puts his daughter down - and although he gets upset, the marriage will still happen. Riiight...



• Angle as champion is a step up - but he's soon supposedly taking time off for his knee surgery and recovery. Putting the title on a guy who can't work just seems pointless.


I guess the biggest disappointment of the show though: when you get down to it, it was mostly predictable. To me, it lacked the spark of surprise, the sizzle to make it interesting.