Mercy Killing

I was shocked to see the WWE change their direction and scrap two matches with only five days until their No Mercy pay-per-view.

The matches in question were Batista against Fit Finlay and Booker T defending his world title against Bobby Lashley.

Apparently, the management decided that Lashley wasn't a good enough draw as a challenger to the world title and needed to mix things up.

The result was placing all four of these wrestlers in a 'fatal four-way' match with the title on the line.

The main writer for Smackdown left his position late last week and Michael Hayes has taken over so this change was possibly the first decision to be made under his watch.

With Smackdown being taped on a Tuesday and being aired on Friday nights the news of the match configuration meant that casual fans only learnt about it forty-eight hours before No Mercy was to begin.

My prediction for the win has to go to King Booker. His role as the hated heel champion has been well received and it would be too soon to take the strap from him. Batista would be my second choice and it would make a lot of sense for him to win and then head into a feud with Umaga who may be joining Smackdown after his 'loser leaves Raw' match against Kane this Monday night.

But, unless the new writing team decide otherwise, it has to be a King Booker title retention.