This is the season, Bravos

This is it for the Braves. The next two weeks are the season. A winning record and the playoff hopes are still alive. Anything else and we can start planning October vacations and looking forward to football season.

Last night, the Bravos lost the first in a three-game set at Cincinnati. After that we travel to Boston for a weekend series. Then we come home for a makeup game with the Cubs, three against the Yankees, three against Boston and finish things up with three against Philly.

Counting last night, that's a 16 game stretch that makes or breaks the season. We're already 0-1. Do I think the Braves have what it takes? Yes and no. The starting pitching is there, for sure. The bullpen is there on most days. The role players and hitters are there. What's not there, however, is the biggest obstacle. A power hitter that gets people home. Chipper and Brian McCann can't do it all by themselves. They need someone in-between them to really make them a deadly 3-4-5 combo. Jeff Francoeur doesn't have it. Whether it's a trade or whatever, the front office needs to find a piece to fill the hole in the Braves lineup.

Point is, come the end of the night on Thursday, July 2nd, we'll know if the Braves will be in contention come September.

WWE getting it together

This past Monday, WWE had it's highly advertised three-hour Raw special. With four title matches, it had potential to be the show to really kick start an upswing for WWE programming. It did not disappoint.

On the Raw brand, Randy Orton recaptured the WWE Title in a fatal four-way match over Big Show, Triple H and John Cena. It was then announced he and Triple H would have a Last Man Standing match on next week's commercial free Raw (another awesome move by the WWE) for the WWE Title, and the two would also square off at The Bash on June 28th.

In the 10-man battle royal that Triple H won to earn the title shot, Kofi Kingston had a strong showing as the US Champion, which is also good for the mid-card.

And, in what seems like a miracle, creative is actually pushing a tag team title match. At The Bash, the Unified Tag Team Champs Carlito and Primo Colon will defend the belts against Priceless.

On eCW, the battle for the silver belt is a four way affair between champ Tommy Dreamer, Christian, Jack Swagger and a returning Finlay (who appears to either be turning heel or at least moving to tweener status -- either way he's better without Hornswaggle).

But, the bigger development on eCW is the emergence and push of the Hart Dynasty -- Tyson Kidd, David Hart Smith and Natalya Neidhart. Of course, all three were trained in the infamous Hart Dungeon. Smith is the son of British Bulldog Davey Boy Smith, and Natalya is the daughter of Jim "The Anvil" Neidhart. I'm excited for this stable, really excited.

On Smackdown, the ongoing Intercontinental Title feud between champ Chris Jericho and Rey Mysterio is great television, and exactly what a wrestling feud should be. Fans should slobber over this, because we're watching one of the best heels ever in Jericho.

In the World Heavyweight Title picture, the champ CM Punk is growing on me. His new character fascinates me, it's really old school. He just cares about winning the title, period. He doesn't care if you love him or hate him. He doesn't want allies and he's not out to make enemies. He's just there to wrestle. Excellent tweener, although I feel like he'll be a full-fledged heel sooner or later. Of course, Edge and Jeff Hardy are there in the picture as well.

My only problem is that creative doesn't seem to know what to do with guys like John Morrison, Shelton Benjamin, R-Truth and Dolph Ziggler. They're all great mid-carders (Morrison and Benjamin have main event potential as well), but with the Jericho/Mysterio feud taking up the IC Title picture, creative seems at a lost on how to book those guys. Morrison and Benjamin started a feud, but it hasn't gained any steam lately. And where are Mike Knox and Kane?