I went to Wrestlemania 28 this year. It was awesome. The feel, the place, and the fact that I counted it as a holiday. This was my third Mania and I am now getting a feel of what to expect. Axxess had a familiar feel this year, but added a few new things, and the event itself was a world better than Wrestlemania 27.
The night after Mania, I attended RAW. The Miami crowd were crazy, and I know they came across as hot on TV, but to actually be there was one of the great wrestling experiences I think I will ever have. A guy dressed in all Macho Man gear in the front row got the crowd going nuts during CM Punk's match against Mark Henry, The Rock got an outstanding reaction, and to my surprise, so did Brodus Clay. The man they all wanted to see that night (and no it wasn't Brock), was Daniel Bryan. All the 'Yes; chants from the start of the night to the end, really encompassed what the fans were telling the WWE. Now Bryan wasn't on the show, but as soon as they were off the air, we were treated to a six man tag match, and sure enough, Flight Of The Valkyries hit, and if you think Lesnar got a reaction, this, if it was possible, was bigger.
Enough about my experience, as that is not what this piece is about. I just wanted to set the scene coming into Wrestlemania. Because what is funny is, after Mania, I have since watched one episode of RAW. It would be kind of like continuing American Football after the Superbowl. A lot of people in the IWC, have been whispering about the idea of an off season for the WWE. Now as financially non-viable as this may seem, it has its pro's and con's.
The first pro is obvious. The time off for not just the wrestlers but the creative team would be met well. It gives them all time to recharge, heal injuries, come up with decent stories, and most of all, it keeps the fans wanting to see their favourite performers. I guess, more importantly than that, Vince would actually get some time off. Who knows, if you kept Cena off TV for a few months, maybe some of the older fans would enjoy seeing him back...then again, maybe not. But when you consider that some members of the roster work hurt, it really does make a lot of sense. Rey Mysterio for example may not have taken pain pills and got himself suspended if he had time off to heal.
Another pro in this circumstance is that people will be more inclined to pay more money for PPV's if they don't get 13 of them per year. Keeping the PayPerView idea in short supply creates more of a demand when they actually come around. That is why the big four always did so well.
One more would be the attraction from other wrestlers outside of the company if there was an off season to bring in newer talent. I know Kurt Angle is retiring in two years, but had this been implemented before, Kurt may have reconsidered. The workload was always too much for Kurt, and you can see that in the amount of weight he has lost since being in TNA. But if you are looking at TNA talent, who knows? An off season would be very interesting to those performers who deem their current workplace to not be giving them what they need. Its an interesting avenue to go down.
But with that, there are obviously the cons. First and foremost, finances. Vince McMahon is money driven. If you took away three months of programming, the company would initially lose money. From advertisers, the TV networks, loss of PPV buys, and of course, live ticket sales. Sure, this does seem like a big hit. But the WWE has lived without this before. Going back to the PPV thing, if you had a choice of buying lets say seven decent PPV's, instead of thirteen, you would consider it more no? The quality of these PPV's would be better, which in turn would engage more people to buy. Wrestlemania this year has allegedly done as many buys for one PPV, as all of the B PPV's over the year. That is saying something. Saturating the market much? With the inclusion of the WWE Network, the WWE doesn't have to go away entirely. It can still stay relevant and charge people the $60 a month it wants to. This is, of course is all theory related, and in terms of numbers, I am merely going on the information they we as fans are all given.
The only other relevant con, is that, lets say the WWE went on hiatus straight after Mania. Daniel Bryan was getting very over after his 18 second loss to Sheamus. His ability to 'grab the brass ring' would have been taken away, as would have been his potential push. He is the hottest property in WWE right now, and if they went away for three months, would he still have the same marketability when he returned? All very good questions.
So I am sure the debate will rage on, and after reading this back, it does appear that I am in favour of a break for the company on the whole, as I feel it would keep people wanting. What do you think?
Tuesday, 5 June 2012
Tuesday, 10 January 2012
The WWE Hall Of Fame 2012
So out of all the front runners, Edge has been chosen as the man to 'main event' the WWE Hall Of Fame class of 2012.
After a visit to a wrestling forum on the topic of Edge being inducted, there were many who were happy with his inclusion. There were many who were happy, but felt that there were others more deserving of the accolade in front of Edge. And then, as there always are, were the people who were not happy and thought it to be too soon.
Me, I'm happy for Adam Copeland. I think he is just as deserving as anyone to be inducted into the Hall Of Fame. Lets look at his career. He started with the WWE in 1997, thus has given a good 14 years to the company that bore him and brought him in. In 1998 Adam Copeland debuted on TV for the first time as Edge, a loner character that entered the arena through the crowd.
He won 14 tag team championships, most of them as part of a team with his on screen brother Christian. He won five Intercontinental titles, one US title and was WWE and World Heavyweight Champion 11 times. His total belt tally over his career hit an amazing 31.
On top of all that, he is one of only two men in the companies history to hold all men's titles. He won the King Of The Ring Tournament in 2001 and the Royal Rumble in 2010. It's hard to argue with facts.
At 38, Edge will be the youngest inductee into the Hall Of Fame (next to Eddie Guerrero who was also 38, but older in days)and a lot of the criticism hotting the IWC is that he is too young and the company should wait a while before inducting him. My question is, why? He will never wrestle again, that is fact. Strike while the iron is hot. The wrestling world has a short memory and while we as fans do not, I believe that a Hall Of Fame induction in five years time would not have the powerful heart felt reaction that I am sure it will on March 31st this year. Age has nothing to do with it. People are also stating that there are others more deserving of the spotlight this year. I partly agree as there are many men and women who deserve recognition, but you have to look at the politics surrounding the big names that people are dropping into conversation.
The Macho Man Randy Savage for example. He is more than worthy of a place in the Hall Of Fame, but if all of the rumours about his alleged affair with an under age Stephanie McMahon are to be believed, then I don't think we will ever see him in the WWE Hall Of Fame. Owen Hart I'm sure will come through sooner rather than later I just don't think it will be this year. With everything from Owen's widow threatening to go legal at the very sight of her late husband on WWE's programming, and the WWE's careful treading, it may be a while before we see this, or for that matter, an Owen Hart DVD. The other name being thrown around was Mick Foley. It seems logical to have Foley in the Hall Of Fame, but again I think that will be saved for another year. Finally, there's The Rock. I'm sure Rocky has a lot left in the tank as far as wrestling goes and that will be saved for when he can no longer go inside the squared circle.
There is no question in my mind that Edge (Adam Copeland) deserves his place, and on behalf of someone who will be in attendance on March 31st in Miami, Florida, I for one am really looking forward to saying a proper goodbye to the Rated R Superstar.
After a visit to a wrestling forum on the topic of Edge being inducted, there were many who were happy with his inclusion. There were many who were happy, but felt that there were others more deserving of the accolade in front of Edge. And then, as there always are, were the people who were not happy and thought it to be too soon.
Me, I'm happy for Adam Copeland. I think he is just as deserving as anyone to be inducted into the Hall Of Fame. Lets look at his career. He started with the WWE in 1997, thus has given a good 14 years to the company that bore him and brought him in. In 1998 Adam Copeland debuted on TV for the first time as Edge, a loner character that entered the arena through the crowd.
He won 14 tag team championships, most of them as part of a team with his on screen brother Christian. He won five Intercontinental titles, one US title and was WWE and World Heavyweight Champion 11 times. His total belt tally over his career hit an amazing 31.
On top of all that, he is one of only two men in the companies history to hold all men's titles. He won the King Of The Ring Tournament in 2001 and the Royal Rumble in 2010. It's hard to argue with facts.
At 38, Edge will be the youngest inductee into the Hall Of Fame (next to Eddie Guerrero who was also 38, but older in days)and a lot of the criticism hotting the IWC is that he is too young and the company should wait a while before inducting him. My question is, why? He will never wrestle again, that is fact. Strike while the iron is hot. The wrestling world has a short memory and while we as fans do not, I believe that a Hall Of Fame induction in five years time would not have the powerful heart felt reaction that I am sure it will on March 31st this year. Age has nothing to do with it. People are also stating that there are others more deserving of the spotlight this year. I partly agree as there are many men and women who deserve recognition, but you have to look at the politics surrounding the big names that people are dropping into conversation.
The Macho Man Randy Savage for example. He is more than worthy of a place in the Hall Of Fame, but if all of the rumours about his alleged affair with an under age Stephanie McMahon are to be believed, then I don't think we will ever see him in the WWE Hall Of Fame. Owen Hart I'm sure will come through sooner rather than later I just don't think it will be this year. With everything from Owen's widow threatening to go legal at the very sight of her late husband on WWE's programming, and the WWE's careful treading, it may be a while before we see this, or for that matter, an Owen Hart DVD. The other name being thrown around was Mick Foley. It seems logical to have Foley in the Hall Of Fame, but again I think that will be saved for another year. Finally, there's The Rock. I'm sure Rocky has a lot left in the tank as far as wrestling goes and that will be saved for when he can no longer go inside the squared circle.
There is no question in my mind that Edge (Adam Copeland) deserves his place, and on behalf of someone who will be in attendance on March 31st in Miami, Florida, I for one am really looking forward to saying a proper goodbye to the Rated R Superstar.
Monday, 16 August 2010
TNA Whole F'N Show and WWE SummerSlam Analysis
I missed a little of last weeks action but I am back with a look back on the TNA iMPACT/PPV the Whole F'N Show and WWE's SummerSlam, and I am going to start with TNA.
The show opened brilliantly with Kurt Angle Vs AJ Styles. They could not have kicked off the show better than with these two wonderful atheletes. Tenay and Taz played up the whole idea that if Angle loses then he retires. Lets face it. People know he is not going to fail against the number 6 contender. At this point, Kurt Angle looks like he is stealing Ric Flair's retirement angle. The match was good. A little slow at first but the match did pick up towards the end with some good counters and a good finish. These two have done better but Angle picked up the obvious win.
Then we go from a good storyline, to a bloody confusing one. Angelina Love Vs Madison Rayne is up next. One or two good spots here. Tara(I mean biker lady) comes out, Velvet follows her, beats the crap out of her and tries to take off her helmet but she has a balaclava on underneath. Meanwhile, apparently Angelina Love has dropped Rayne for a pinfall and a new Knockout Champion is crowned, although she was stripped of the title three weeks ago and now has it back. Wonderful (sarcasm).
Next up is Matt Morgan Vs Mr Anderson Vs The Pope. Now this match disapointed me. I was expecting a really good long match and what I ended up with was, well, a boring short match that Morgan stole after Anderson hit a Mic Check on Dinero. Upsetting.
Jeff Hardy was up next with his 'Open' challenge. Shannon Moore accepts. Yawn. Don't get me wrong, I think Shannon is great as part of a tag team, but there doesn't really seem to be much in the way of a draw in him. The match was slow, and as hard as I tried, I couldn't get into it. Hardy with another obvious victory.
Finally, we get to the semi-main event of the evening which, in my opinion should have been the main event. The Motor City Machine Guns Vs Beer Money in the last of the five series was epic. Amazing. TNA knows wrestling, I will give them that. This match was a best 2-out-of-3 falls match. Superb first fall. High flying double team moves from MCMG, really great tag team wrestling. Beer Money get the first fall after some great reversals lead into the DWI. Second fall comes in quickly from that as Sabin and Shelley team up on Roode to connect with the neckbreaker/splash combo to even the match. After that fall, I saw some truly awesome tag team wrestling. Shelley and Sabin finish the match with a double super kick on Storm and two neckbreaker/splash combo's to bring to a close one of the best series' in the history of tag team wrestling full stop. Just brilliant. These two teams have shown what is right with TNA Wrestling and I can only hope that they can build on the positives here.
The main event of the evening was the Stairway To Janice Match (who the hell made that up?) for the TNA World Title between Abyss and RVD. Now I have believed for some time that Abyss should not be in the TNA World Title picture and this match proved it. He isn't very good on the mic and bar his ability to take bumps on tacks and glass, he doesn't really do very much. The match was slow, and quite boring in places. The match finish came with RVD hitting a coast to coast move on Abyss onto a barbed wire board and finished with the Five Star.
The end of the show was a little poor. Hogan comes out, puts over the ECW boys and RVD and invites them to the ring. They come in and Dreamer puts over everyone including Jesus. The lights go out, and when they come back on, the TNA roster attacks EV2.0 and bloody them in a mature rated 'Nexus' style beatdown. If you can't beat em', copy em' right? Flair comes down the aisle and singles out Dixie Carter and tells her that she brought this on herself. The show ends with the ECW boys all bloodied up and the TNA roster standing tall. About bloody time. All in all, quite a poor show this week unfortunately, and with such a good line up, it just didn't have a PPV feel, apart from of course, the awesome tag match.
Now moving onto a slightly better PPV in WWE's SummerSlam.
Another good opening bout to a PPV in Dolph Ziggler Vs Kofi Kingston. Now I am all for Vicki Guerrero making a living for her family, but in my opinion her on-screen role is just shambolic. Eddie would be turning in his grave. Getting back to the match. Actually very entertaining albeit a little bit slow in places for an opener. The end of the match was ruined a little as Nexus came out of the crowd and attacked both men before Barrett cut a last promo before their match later in the show. I can understand why creative did it, but they could have chosen the Diva's match to annihilate some competition. Not that I am encouraging man on woman violence of course. Shame, but an okay start to the PPV.
Next was the Diva's title blah blah blah, Melina over Fox to win the title. LayCool come out blah blah blah knock out Melina. Enough of that thank you.
Next up is Big Show Vs The Straight Edged Society in a 3-on-1 handicap match. To be honest, this match really didn't interest me and it was a very slow match. Punk and Mercury did their best but it wasn't a classic by any stretch. Show won after Punk deserted his team and Show hit the chokeslam on Mercury and Festus (Gallows whatever his name is).
AWESOME! The Miz then cuts a promo about how Cena begged him to be a part of Team WWE tonight. Another truly excellent piece of mic work here for The Miz, and to my suprise, The Miz accepts Team WWE's offer.
Next up its the WWE title match between my new hero, Shaemus and Randy Orton. Good crowd reactions for both in this match. A bit of a brawler type match here. Very entertaining. I can't help but worry every time Orton bangs his fists on the floor now as that is how he popped his shoulder out a few months back. Pretty crap finish to be honest, very disapointed with the DQ finish. Orton tries to make up for it with an RKO on the announce table but it doesn't really do much for me here. Bad booking.
The semi-main event of this evenings PPV is Kane Vs Rey Rey for the World Title. Excellent video package hyping the match, and Kane comes out with a casket, near enough giving away that a return for the dead man is imminent. Match was good. Very good actually. Kane used his strangth well, worked on Mysterio's back for a while and Rey Rey got in some good offense. The finish of the match was well done, a lot of counters, with Kane coming out on top with the chokeslam. After the match Kane went to drop Mysterio into the casket, and suprise suprise, The Undertaker is in the casket. Goosels Kane, Kane fights back and tombstone's the less than 100% Undertaker (presumably because Taker has been vegitated for a lifetime). Good clean win for Kane here, and advances his storyline with Taker by taking him out on his return. Good solid stuff.
Time for the main event of the evening, with Nexus out first. The WWE team come out one-by-one and finally we hear the familiar AWESOME! theme music and out comes Miz. Cena stops Miz by saying that they couldn't wait until the day of SummerSlam for his answer. They already got Team WWE's seventh member and its...DANIEL FREAKING BRYAN!!! Truly great booking. Brilliant stuff. Just one thing to note. Michael Cole. You are a true jackass. Your commentary is awful, and although it is part of your gimmick, your constant hatred of Daniel Bryan licking the minge of The Miz is so damn irritating that I wish the WWE could fire you and replace you with anyone. Say Matt Striker. Your a complete tool that will never amount to anything other than being the shitty stand in for Jim Ross. Now back to the action. Bryan shuts up Cole two minutes in when he makes Darren Young tap to a beautiful modified crossface. Michael Tarver is eliminated next thanks to John Morrison. Skip Sheffield then eliminates both Morrison and R-Truth with his patented clothesline. Good build up here. Bret Hart is eliminated next via DQ for using a chair on a member of Nexus that I cannot for the life of me remember. I think it was Skip Sheffield. Jericho tags in hits a Codebreaker on Sheffield, Edge tags in and hits a Spear to eliminate Sheffield. Jericho then eliminates Otunga with the Walls Of Jericho. There is then a breakdown in communication between Edge, Jericho and Cena which leads to Edge and Jericho being eliminated. The beat the crap out of Cena and leave him lying. Cena then tags in Bryan and Bryan puts the Crossface on Slater forcing him to tap. The Miz then enters the ring and knocks out Bryan, causing him to be eliminated. This leaves Cena Vs Barrett and Gabriel. Gabriel misses his 450 splash and Cena covers, before Barrett comes in and gets put in the STF by Cena forcing the tap out and WWE's victory.
Good solid PPV this year for the WWE, the right match was the main event here, the 7-on-7 was a very good match to watch and kept me guessing. There were some poor parts but overall a very good effort by WWE creative here.
The show opened brilliantly with Kurt Angle Vs AJ Styles. They could not have kicked off the show better than with these two wonderful atheletes. Tenay and Taz played up the whole idea that if Angle loses then he retires. Lets face it. People know he is not going to fail against the number 6 contender. At this point, Kurt Angle looks like he is stealing Ric Flair's retirement angle. The match was good. A little slow at first but the match did pick up towards the end with some good counters and a good finish. These two have done better but Angle picked up the obvious win.
Then we go from a good storyline, to a bloody confusing one. Angelina Love Vs Madison Rayne is up next. One or two good spots here. Tara(I mean biker lady) comes out, Velvet follows her, beats the crap out of her and tries to take off her helmet but she has a balaclava on underneath. Meanwhile, apparently Angelina Love has dropped Rayne for a pinfall and a new Knockout Champion is crowned, although she was stripped of the title three weeks ago and now has it back. Wonderful (sarcasm).
Next up is Matt Morgan Vs Mr Anderson Vs The Pope. Now this match disapointed me. I was expecting a really good long match and what I ended up with was, well, a boring short match that Morgan stole after Anderson hit a Mic Check on Dinero. Upsetting.
Jeff Hardy was up next with his 'Open' challenge. Shannon Moore accepts. Yawn. Don't get me wrong, I think Shannon is great as part of a tag team, but there doesn't really seem to be much in the way of a draw in him. The match was slow, and as hard as I tried, I couldn't get into it. Hardy with another obvious victory.
Finally, we get to the semi-main event of the evening which, in my opinion should have been the main event. The Motor City Machine Guns Vs Beer Money in the last of the five series was epic. Amazing. TNA knows wrestling, I will give them that. This match was a best 2-out-of-3 falls match. Superb first fall. High flying double team moves from MCMG, really great tag team wrestling. Beer Money get the first fall after some great reversals lead into the DWI. Second fall comes in quickly from that as Sabin and Shelley team up on Roode to connect with the neckbreaker/splash combo to even the match. After that fall, I saw some truly awesome tag team wrestling. Shelley and Sabin finish the match with a double super kick on Storm and two neckbreaker/splash combo's to bring to a close one of the best series' in the history of tag team wrestling full stop. Just brilliant. These two teams have shown what is right with TNA Wrestling and I can only hope that they can build on the positives here.
The main event of the evening was the Stairway To Janice Match (who the hell made that up?) for the TNA World Title between Abyss and RVD. Now I have believed for some time that Abyss should not be in the TNA World Title picture and this match proved it. He isn't very good on the mic and bar his ability to take bumps on tacks and glass, he doesn't really do very much. The match was slow, and quite boring in places. The match finish came with RVD hitting a coast to coast move on Abyss onto a barbed wire board and finished with the Five Star.
The end of the show was a little poor. Hogan comes out, puts over the ECW boys and RVD and invites them to the ring. They come in and Dreamer puts over everyone including Jesus. The lights go out, and when they come back on, the TNA roster attacks EV2.0 and bloody them in a mature rated 'Nexus' style beatdown. If you can't beat em', copy em' right? Flair comes down the aisle and singles out Dixie Carter and tells her that she brought this on herself. The show ends with the ECW boys all bloodied up and the TNA roster standing tall. About bloody time. All in all, quite a poor show this week unfortunately, and with such a good line up, it just didn't have a PPV feel, apart from of course, the awesome tag match.
Now moving onto a slightly better PPV in WWE's SummerSlam.
Another good opening bout to a PPV in Dolph Ziggler Vs Kofi Kingston. Now I am all for Vicki Guerrero making a living for her family, but in my opinion her on-screen role is just shambolic. Eddie would be turning in his grave. Getting back to the match. Actually very entertaining albeit a little bit slow in places for an opener. The end of the match was ruined a little as Nexus came out of the crowd and attacked both men before Barrett cut a last promo before their match later in the show. I can understand why creative did it, but they could have chosen the Diva's match to annihilate some competition. Not that I am encouraging man on woman violence of course. Shame, but an okay start to the PPV.
Next was the Diva's title blah blah blah, Melina over Fox to win the title. LayCool come out blah blah blah knock out Melina. Enough of that thank you.
Next up is Big Show Vs The Straight Edged Society in a 3-on-1 handicap match. To be honest, this match really didn't interest me and it was a very slow match. Punk and Mercury did their best but it wasn't a classic by any stretch. Show won after Punk deserted his team and Show hit the chokeslam on Mercury and Festus (Gallows whatever his name is).
AWESOME! The Miz then cuts a promo about how Cena begged him to be a part of Team WWE tonight. Another truly excellent piece of mic work here for The Miz, and to my suprise, The Miz accepts Team WWE's offer.
Next up its the WWE title match between my new hero, Shaemus and Randy Orton. Good crowd reactions for both in this match. A bit of a brawler type match here. Very entertaining. I can't help but worry every time Orton bangs his fists on the floor now as that is how he popped his shoulder out a few months back. Pretty crap finish to be honest, very disapointed with the DQ finish. Orton tries to make up for it with an RKO on the announce table but it doesn't really do much for me here. Bad booking.
The semi-main event of this evenings PPV is Kane Vs Rey Rey for the World Title. Excellent video package hyping the match, and Kane comes out with a casket, near enough giving away that a return for the dead man is imminent. Match was good. Very good actually. Kane used his strangth well, worked on Mysterio's back for a while and Rey Rey got in some good offense. The finish of the match was well done, a lot of counters, with Kane coming out on top with the chokeslam. After the match Kane went to drop Mysterio into the casket, and suprise suprise, The Undertaker is in the casket. Goosels Kane, Kane fights back and tombstone's the less than 100% Undertaker (presumably because Taker has been vegitated for a lifetime). Good clean win for Kane here, and advances his storyline with Taker by taking him out on his return. Good solid stuff.
Time for the main event of the evening, with Nexus out first. The WWE team come out one-by-one and finally we hear the familiar AWESOME! theme music and out comes Miz. Cena stops Miz by saying that they couldn't wait until the day of SummerSlam for his answer. They already got Team WWE's seventh member and its...DANIEL FREAKING BRYAN!!! Truly great booking. Brilliant stuff. Just one thing to note. Michael Cole. You are a true jackass. Your commentary is awful, and although it is part of your gimmick, your constant hatred of Daniel Bryan licking the minge of The Miz is so damn irritating that I wish the WWE could fire you and replace you with anyone. Say Matt Striker. Your a complete tool that will never amount to anything other than being the shitty stand in for Jim Ross. Now back to the action. Bryan shuts up Cole two minutes in when he makes Darren Young tap to a beautiful modified crossface. Michael Tarver is eliminated next thanks to John Morrison. Skip Sheffield then eliminates both Morrison and R-Truth with his patented clothesline. Good build up here. Bret Hart is eliminated next via DQ for using a chair on a member of Nexus that I cannot for the life of me remember. I think it was Skip Sheffield. Jericho tags in hits a Codebreaker on Sheffield, Edge tags in and hits a Spear to eliminate Sheffield. Jericho then eliminates Otunga with the Walls Of Jericho. There is then a breakdown in communication between Edge, Jericho and Cena which leads to Edge and Jericho being eliminated. The beat the crap out of Cena and leave him lying. Cena then tags in Bryan and Bryan puts the Crossface on Slater forcing him to tap. The Miz then enters the ring and knocks out Bryan, causing him to be eliminated. This leaves Cena Vs Barrett and Gabriel. Gabriel misses his 450 splash and Cena covers, before Barrett comes in and gets put in the STF by Cena forcing the tap out and WWE's victory.
Good solid PPV this year for the WWE, the right match was the main event here, the 7-on-7 was a very good match to watch and kept me guessing. There were some poor parts but overall a very good effort by WWE creative here.
Wednesday, 4 August 2010
WWE RAW Results and Analysis 02/08/10
This weeks RAW opened with the refreshing sight of Edge coming out down the ramp to talk about last weeks breakdown between the RAW SummerSlam team. Another strong promo from Edge, saying that he needs to start listening to himself. He said that he knew the RAW team wouldn't work and last week that was proven. He did agree that Nexus needed to be taken down and said that he was going to do things his way tonight by taking out Wade Barrett one-on-one. Cue R-Truth. Truth comes out and actually does quite well interacting with what Edge had said, claiming that Edge up to this point in his career hadn't needed to fight for everything. He said they had to fight for everything they loved, including his family, friends and most of all the WWE Universe (cheap pop). Truth finished by saying that Edge needed to pull his head out of his own 'rear end'. Edge then hit back before the ridiculous Apple text message sound went off and 'Wrestling's Most Hated Man' Michael Cole came up to draw our attention and 'I Quote...'. The GM says that Barrett Vs Edge would be happening right now and asked that Truth please leave the ring. Truth ended the segment by telling Edge that he was on his own. Good solid opening with not the usual suspects. I enjoyed Truth and Edges interaction although this anonymous GM thing is starting to really piss me off.
Edge Vs Barrett was up next and to be honest, it was a little slow. Too much hitting and not enough actual wrestling for my liking. Barrett does have a mean kick to the face on him though. Reminded me of Samoa Joe a little, although a little skinnier. The match finish came when Barrett signaled the Nexus to come out of the crowd and Edge just managed to escape through another part of the crowd.
We then cut to a good backstage segment with Edge looking for John Cena and asking him where he was in that last match. Great heel work from Edge during this bit. Edge then tells Cena that he is going to have to beat Nexus without him at SummerSlam because he quits. Cena in his best acting looks gormless, now finds himself next to Chris Jericho. Cena asks if he is going to quit too and Jericho says that he isn't, because Cena is the problem, thus he should quit. This leads to them setting up Cena Vs Jericho tonight with the loser leaving the SummerSlam team. Good segment.
Interesting little bit with Khali, David Otunga and Michael Tarver next with the Nexus boys trying to plant the seeds of doubt and telling Khali the reason they didn't attack him last week was because they respected him. A nothing piece, but okay to keep the storyline in check.
Once again Diva's match...blah blah blah...Alicia Fox wins, Melina turns up does a cool Sunset Split and says 'I'm back'...big woop...NAAATTT!!
Next up is Shaemus Vs Goldust. I smell a squash. Interesting to note though, they did a clever little piece on Shaemus Vs Goldust a year ago on ECW with both men getting in some good offense. Shaemus, after all that completely squashed Goldust without breaking a sweat. He then took the mic and delivered a great line in "What a difference a year makes". Good stuff here and Shaemus is getting better and better. Says Orton couldn't beat HHH, and he ended his career. He said he has everything he needs and that is the WWE title. Excellent way to keep Shaemus going into SummerSlam and the promo was top notch.
Cena Vs Jericho is up next. A long TV match which seemed a little slow at times, but I thought it was definitely a PPV quality contest, but to be honest the finish baffled me a little. Cena locked in the STF and Jericho tapped before Cena could properly lock the move in. Strange stuff here. Obviously there has to be some kind of explanation at some point. Cena tries to lure Jericho back to team WWE but Jericho walks off. The match itself was very good, and although slow in places, told a very good story. Everything bar the finish was top stuff by WWE.
Excellent little backstage segment with Edge and Jericho next, putting their pasts behind them and saying that the reason Cena wanted them on side was because they were the best on the team. Edge says if they stick together they could run RAW. They shake hands as we cut to commercial. Interesting little segment which could lead them to getting away from the WWE team at SummerSlam and potentially involving them in something else.
Ted DiBiase Vs Khali, a very poor match but what do you expect? Nexus come out and tease helping Khali which then allows Khali to administer the Head Vice on DiBiase for the win. What a bore!
The main event of the evening is up next with The Miz coming out and cutting a promo before his match with Randy Orton. Another excellent promo by The Miz, talking about Orton and how his best case scenario would be beating Shaemus at SummerSlam and then relinquishing the belt to him. Orton then comes out for their match. Very, very good match. This one told a story and The Miz is really stepping up his game. Orton ended up with the clean win via rKo but in a way that didn't make The Miz look weak. Shaemus then run down the ramp to attack Orton but Orton turning and began pounding on the mat as the show closed. Good close to the show, although it has been done many times before.
Overall, not a bad RAW, but definitely not the best. Khali's and Edge's matches were slight low points, but with The Miz's promo and match, and Cena and Jericho's good showing, there was plenty of wrestling for once.
Edge Vs Barrett was up next and to be honest, it was a little slow. Too much hitting and not enough actual wrestling for my liking. Barrett does have a mean kick to the face on him though. Reminded me of Samoa Joe a little, although a little skinnier. The match finish came when Barrett signaled the Nexus to come out of the crowd and Edge just managed to escape through another part of the crowd.
We then cut to a good backstage segment with Edge looking for John Cena and asking him where he was in that last match. Great heel work from Edge during this bit. Edge then tells Cena that he is going to have to beat Nexus without him at SummerSlam because he quits. Cena in his best acting looks gormless, now finds himself next to Chris Jericho. Cena asks if he is going to quit too and Jericho says that he isn't, because Cena is the problem, thus he should quit. This leads to them setting up Cena Vs Jericho tonight with the loser leaving the SummerSlam team. Good segment.
Interesting little bit with Khali, David Otunga and Michael Tarver next with the Nexus boys trying to plant the seeds of doubt and telling Khali the reason they didn't attack him last week was because they respected him. A nothing piece, but okay to keep the storyline in check.
Once again Diva's match...blah blah blah...Alicia Fox wins, Melina turns up does a cool Sunset Split and says 'I'm back'...big woop...NAAATTT!!
Next up is Shaemus Vs Goldust. I smell a squash. Interesting to note though, they did a clever little piece on Shaemus Vs Goldust a year ago on ECW with both men getting in some good offense. Shaemus, after all that completely squashed Goldust without breaking a sweat. He then took the mic and delivered a great line in "What a difference a year makes". Good stuff here and Shaemus is getting better and better. Says Orton couldn't beat HHH, and he ended his career. He said he has everything he needs and that is the WWE title. Excellent way to keep Shaemus going into SummerSlam and the promo was top notch.
Cena Vs Jericho is up next. A long TV match which seemed a little slow at times, but I thought it was definitely a PPV quality contest, but to be honest the finish baffled me a little. Cena locked in the STF and Jericho tapped before Cena could properly lock the move in. Strange stuff here. Obviously there has to be some kind of explanation at some point. Cena tries to lure Jericho back to team WWE but Jericho walks off. The match itself was very good, and although slow in places, told a very good story. Everything bar the finish was top stuff by WWE.
Excellent little backstage segment with Edge and Jericho next, putting their pasts behind them and saying that the reason Cena wanted them on side was because they were the best on the team. Edge says if they stick together they could run RAW. They shake hands as we cut to commercial. Interesting little segment which could lead them to getting away from the WWE team at SummerSlam and potentially involving them in something else.
Ted DiBiase Vs Khali, a very poor match but what do you expect? Nexus come out and tease helping Khali which then allows Khali to administer the Head Vice on DiBiase for the win. What a bore!
The main event of the evening is up next with The Miz coming out and cutting a promo before his match with Randy Orton. Another excellent promo by The Miz, talking about Orton and how his best case scenario would be beating Shaemus at SummerSlam and then relinquishing the belt to him. Orton then comes out for their match. Very, very good match. This one told a story and The Miz is really stepping up his game. Orton ended up with the clean win via rKo but in a way that didn't make The Miz look weak. Shaemus then run down the ramp to attack Orton but Orton turning and began pounding on the mat as the show closed. Good close to the show, although it has been done many times before.
Overall, not a bad RAW, but definitely not the best. Khali's and Edge's matches were slight low points, but with The Miz's promo and match, and Cena and Jericho's good showing, there was plenty of wrestling for once.
Monday, 2 August 2010
TNA iMPACT Report 29/07/10
Lets get down to business with the TNA iMPACT taping from 29th July 2010.
The opening segment was to be expected. EV2.0 (aka ECW oldies), come out, this week including Brother DeVon. And Tommy Dreamer took the mic and began talking about HardCORE Justice. Now to be honest, as good as Dreamer is on the mic, I kind of lost interest. They then went on to address Brother Ray. DeVon lured Ray out onto the stage and began pleading with him to put everything that had happened with Jessie Neil to the side and rejoin the old ECW crew for one night at HardCORE Justice. Taz gets on the mic and plays cheerleader by saying “just do it Ray”, and apparently that was all Ray needed to put aside the months of storyline build up as a heel to turn back face. After the love-fest, the familiar sound of the fake nWo music hit and Hulk Hogan arrived at the iMPACT zone. Thus starting another five minutes of praising Dixie Carter and telling the ECW guys how great they were. There was absolutely no need for Hogan in this segment whatsoever. They finished the segment with Abyss coming out and cutting another bad promo. I’m sorry, I just cannot stomach Abyss’ mic work. They should give him a manager for a mouth piece. Hogan set up Dreamer Vs Abyss for later in the show in a no-DQ match.
Next up was a Knockout’s match featuring Serita Vs Angelina Love. This was a very generic match. Love went over. Nothing really of note to report on this one.
Next up was a backstage segment with Orlando Jordan (he still employed?) and Eric Young. They were talking about being partners (aka jobbers) in tonight’s match against Ink Inc. Young has reverted back to his very old (and stale) crazy gimmick, the commentators noted after this segment that Young was acting this way because he was kicked in the head on an edition of TNA Xplosion. Young also said he was bringing back-up to this ring for the match.
Up next was Ink Inc. going over Young and Jordan. Not actually all that bad a match. Young brought a manikin to the ring as the back-up he mentioned. Ink Inc finished the match by hitting Jordan with their trademark finisher.
Tommy Dreamer had a backstage promo next. Said even though he doesn’t have a TNA contract, he was going to show Abyss what Extreme is. Good promo. Nice build up for the main event as well.
Next up, Ric Flair came out with the four members of Fortune, Kaz, AJ Styles and Beer Money. Good promo work here by Flair, saying that he will invoke his rematch clause against Jay Lethal on next week’s iMPACT. Robert Roode then got on the mic and thanked Flair for making Beer Money the last two members of Fortune, but knew it was only a matter of time before Flair asked them. Great stuff from Roode here. Storm took the mic and added that they will beat the Motor City Machine Guns tonight and become four-time tag team champions. Kazarian was next on the mic and cut a promo on what it meant to be a part of Fortune, even taking a shot at the Nexus angle on WWE TV, saying that they were not a group of rookies looking to take over, but four seasoned veterans looking for the respect they deserve. Styles was next on the mic, and did what everyone expected him to do, changing the Global Title into the TV Title. Flair then got back on the mic but was interrupted by Kurt Angle, who said that AJ was the next member of the roster on the TNA top ten that Kurt was coming up against. They teased the match as Kurt Angle went to the back. Good solid stuff from Fortune here. They all looked strong on the mic, which is half of the battle, I really like where they are going with this group, and providing that TNA legitimise them, they can be huge.
The steel cage match in the best of five series was next with the MCMG’s sneaking in over the back of the cage to attack Beer Money. Roode was busted open really early in this match. The match itself was nothing short of superb. Truly excellent wrestling, which told a great story inside the cage. Good use of the surroundings by the Machine Guns as well. Great spot towards the end of the match with Sabin taking a Jimmy Snuka-esque dive from the top of the cage onto Beer Money. The finish of the match came when Storm accidentally hit Roode with the beer bottle and the Gun’s administered the neck-breaker splash for the win. The series now stands at 2-1 to Beer Money. Cannot wait for next weeks match!
Matt Morgan next out to Mr Anderson’s music and mocking his mic work. Funny bit with the mic not coming down properly. I’m thinking that Morgan is starting to sound a lot like Val Venis. Mr Anderson is out quickly to mock him. Good stuff from Anderson. Morgan gives Anderson one ‘free’ punch to the face and as he closes his eyes and braces himself, Anderson drops to his knees and low blows Morgan. Melee ensues. Morgan gets the upper hand before Jeff Hardy makes the save. Security guards come out (why) and get a little rough with Hardy and Anderson, which the commentators bring up. Then three TNA trainers (D-Lo, Simon Diamond and Al Snow) all come in and break up the fight. Segment finishes with the trainers berating the security guards for their handling of Hardy and Anderson. Very strange 10 minutes of TV. It is not very often that faces outnumber the heels but with Hardy and Anderson, this was the case before these ‘security’ guards got involved.
Anderson and Hardy are backstage with Christy and Anderson explains that the two ‘security’ guards have trained to be wrestlers for years and never got their break so they settled for security work for TNA. Tonight they plug Hardy and Anderson Vs Morgan and the two ‘security’ guards in a 3-on-2 handicap match. Okay explanation; just don’t know if I care.
The next match was The Freak Rob Terry Vs Kazarian. This match baffles me. Terry went over Kazarian in 30 seconds! A man who is supposed to be booked to be a part of the biggest stable in the company right now gets beat by Rob Terry. That is bad enough, but in a squash? Very bad booking by TNA.
Anderson and Hardy then come out for their match with Morgan and the two ‘security’ guards. Not a very good match here. Morgan abandons his partners as Jeff Hardy gets the victory with the Swanton Bomb.
The final segment of the week came from Eric Bischoff who came out with his smoking hot assistant, saying that everything Dixie Carter has done to bring in EV2.0, was for the good of TNA. It all sounds a bit strange from the man who systematically put ECW out of business. He said he wanted to give back to the fans too. He said he will put on a PPV quality episode of TNA iMPACT on August 12th. Before he can continue he is interrupted by Abyss (not again) who says ‘They’ have given him orders to arrange the main event of the August 12th iMPACT as Abyss Vs RVD in a ladder match. Not bad work from Abyss here. He goes to attach Bischoff before RVD runs in and stops him. They brawl until Abyss guillotine’s RVD on the railing. RVD is helped to the back as Tommy Dreamer makes his way out for his match.
Tommy Dreamer Vs Abyss is not a bad match. Very weapon heavy but that is to be expected. Dreamer brings out a barbed wire board but before he can do anything he is choke-slammed by Abyss for the pinfall victory. Good way to keep Abyss over as the monster heel, but I’m still not a believer.
Overall this week, the wrestling has been excellent again. Promo’s still need work but I am looking forward to next week and to HardCORE Justice.
The opening segment was to be expected. EV2.0 (aka ECW oldies), come out, this week including Brother DeVon. And Tommy Dreamer took the mic and began talking about HardCORE Justice. Now to be honest, as good as Dreamer is on the mic, I kind of lost interest. They then went on to address Brother Ray. DeVon lured Ray out onto the stage and began pleading with him to put everything that had happened with Jessie Neil to the side and rejoin the old ECW crew for one night at HardCORE Justice. Taz gets on the mic and plays cheerleader by saying “just do it Ray”, and apparently that was all Ray needed to put aside the months of storyline build up as a heel to turn back face. After the love-fest, the familiar sound of the fake nWo music hit and Hulk Hogan arrived at the iMPACT zone. Thus starting another five minutes of praising Dixie Carter and telling the ECW guys how great they were. There was absolutely no need for Hogan in this segment whatsoever. They finished the segment with Abyss coming out and cutting another bad promo. I’m sorry, I just cannot stomach Abyss’ mic work. They should give him a manager for a mouth piece. Hogan set up Dreamer Vs Abyss for later in the show in a no-DQ match.
Next up was a Knockout’s match featuring Serita Vs Angelina Love. This was a very generic match. Love went over. Nothing really of note to report on this one.
Next up was a backstage segment with Orlando Jordan (he still employed?) and Eric Young. They were talking about being partners (aka jobbers) in tonight’s match against Ink Inc. Young has reverted back to his very old (and stale) crazy gimmick, the commentators noted after this segment that Young was acting this way because he was kicked in the head on an edition of TNA Xplosion. Young also said he was bringing back-up to this ring for the match.
Up next was Ink Inc. going over Young and Jordan. Not actually all that bad a match. Young brought a manikin to the ring as the back-up he mentioned. Ink Inc finished the match by hitting Jordan with their trademark finisher.
Tommy Dreamer had a backstage promo next. Said even though he doesn’t have a TNA contract, he was going to show Abyss what Extreme is. Good promo. Nice build up for the main event as well.
Next up, Ric Flair came out with the four members of Fortune, Kaz, AJ Styles and Beer Money. Good promo work here by Flair, saying that he will invoke his rematch clause against Jay Lethal on next week’s iMPACT. Robert Roode then got on the mic and thanked Flair for making Beer Money the last two members of Fortune, but knew it was only a matter of time before Flair asked them. Great stuff from Roode here. Storm took the mic and added that they will beat the Motor City Machine Guns tonight and become four-time tag team champions. Kazarian was next on the mic and cut a promo on what it meant to be a part of Fortune, even taking a shot at the Nexus angle on WWE TV, saying that they were not a group of rookies looking to take over, but four seasoned veterans looking for the respect they deserve. Styles was next on the mic, and did what everyone expected him to do, changing the Global Title into the TV Title. Flair then got back on the mic but was interrupted by Kurt Angle, who said that AJ was the next member of the roster on the TNA top ten that Kurt was coming up against. They teased the match as Kurt Angle went to the back. Good solid stuff from Fortune here. They all looked strong on the mic, which is half of the battle, I really like where they are going with this group, and providing that TNA legitimise them, they can be huge.
The steel cage match in the best of five series was next with the MCMG’s sneaking in over the back of the cage to attack Beer Money. Roode was busted open really early in this match. The match itself was nothing short of superb. Truly excellent wrestling, which told a great story inside the cage. Good use of the surroundings by the Machine Guns as well. Great spot towards the end of the match with Sabin taking a Jimmy Snuka-esque dive from the top of the cage onto Beer Money. The finish of the match came when Storm accidentally hit Roode with the beer bottle and the Gun’s administered the neck-breaker splash for the win. The series now stands at 2-1 to Beer Money. Cannot wait for next weeks match!
Matt Morgan next out to Mr Anderson’s music and mocking his mic work. Funny bit with the mic not coming down properly. I’m thinking that Morgan is starting to sound a lot like Val Venis. Mr Anderson is out quickly to mock him. Good stuff from Anderson. Morgan gives Anderson one ‘free’ punch to the face and as he closes his eyes and braces himself, Anderson drops to his knees and low blows Morgan. Melee ensues. Morgan gets the upper hand before Jeff Hardy makes the save. Security guards come out (why) and get a little rough with Hardy and Anderson, which the commentators bring up. Then three TNA trainers (D-Lo, Simon Diamond and Al Snow) all come in and break up the fight. Segment finishes with the trainers berating the security guards for their handling of Hardy and Anderson. Very strange 10 minutes of TV. It is not very often that faces outnumber the heels but with Hardy and Anderson, this was the case before these ‘security’ guards got involved.
Anderson and Hardy are backstage with Christy and Anderson explains that the two ‘security’ guards have trained to be wrestlers for years and never got their break so they settled for security work for TNA. Tonight they plug Hardy and Anderson Vs Morgan and the two ‘security’ guards in a 3-on-2 handicap match. Okay explanation; just don’t know if I care.
The next match was The Freak Rob Terry Vs Kazarian. This match baffles me. Terry went over Kazarian in 30 seconds! A man who is supposed to be booked to be a part of the biggest stable in the company right now gets beat by Rob Terry. That is bad enough, but in a squash? Very bad booking by TNA.
Anderson and Hardy then come out for their match with Morgan and the two ‘security’ guards. Not a very good match here. Morgan abandons his partners as Jeff Hardy gets the victory with the Swanton Bomb.
The final segment of the week came from Eric Bischoff who came out with his smoking hot assistant, saying that everything Dixie Carter has done to bring in EV2.0, was for the good of TNA. It all sounds a bit strange from the man who systematically put ECW out of business. He said he wanted to give back to the fans too. He said he will put on a PPV quality episode of TNA iMPACT on August 12th. Before he can continue he is interrupted by Abyss (not again) who says ‘They’ have given him orders to arrange the main event of the August 12th iMPACT as Abyss Vs RVD in a ladder match. Not bad work from Abyss here. He goes to attach Bischoff before RVD runs in and stops him. They brawl until Abyss guillotine’s RVD on the railing. RVD is helped to the back as Tommy Dreamer makes his way out for his match.
Tommy Dreamer Vs Abyss is not a bad match. Very weapon heavy but that is to be expected. Dreamer brings out a barbed wire board but before he can do anything he is choke-slammed by Abyss for the pinfall victory. Good way to keep Abyss over as the monster heel, but I’m still not a believer.
Overall this week, the wrestling has been excellent again. Promo’s still need work but I am looking forward to next week and to HardCORE Justice.
Tuesday, 27 July 2010
The 26/07 Edition Of RAW and 22/07 Edition Of iMPACT!
Lets start off with this week's WWE RAW, coming off what many have been calling the best booked episode of RAW all year.
The opening segment went a long way to help mould the lines that have been metaphorically blurred from last weeks alliance between the heels and faces of the brand. Chris Jericho is still very good on the mic, and although he always comes off well, the 'hypocrites and parasite' lines have been so over used by him over the last year that they barely gathered any cheap heat at all last night. John Cena was okay, his voice does grate on me at times, constantly either being really hyperactive or really mellow. He need's an extra dimension in the way that he uses the mic, but overall, the segment (bar the ridiculous interruption by the 'Anonymous' GM) did what it set out to do.
I assumed the Randy Orton vs Jey Uso match was going to be a squash, and it was...kind of. Uso managed a small amount of offense but in the end it was obvious to everyone that Orton was going to come out on top. I thought the rKo on Shaemus was obvious but I love the fact they teased another Miz cash in only for it to be foiled again by Orton. Very good close to a short match.
The Nexus' match against the RAW lower card (bar Evan Bourne) was okay, not great. It had its moments, I just don't think they did a very good job of protecting the one man (Bourne) who has been getting a good push recently. The match ended very quickly when it was him by himself. An okay promo by Nexus to finish off the segment, although Skip Sheffield still doesn't sound too good on the mic, and Otunga's spinebuster still looks sloppy and horrible.
By now, I choose not to waste my breath on the Diva's segments.
Ted DiBiase getting a win against John Morrison was quite a shock for me, although it did go quite far to further the implosion of Cena's group angle.
The main event was good, Shaemus and The Miz actually make quite a good team. Was nice to finally see The Miz in a main event, and, even more than that, win it. He looked strong, and picked up the sneak win after Jericho's turn on Cena. The Miz looks like a true main event player and deserves a title at some point. The last scene in the show did well to bring it to a close, having all of Cena's group in conflict.
A good RAW this week, not quite as good as last week, but still strong in the places that it needed to be. Nexus still look like the undefeatable stable and Orton is still the most over thing in the WWE right now.
Moving onto TNA iMPACT last Thursday.
Wow! AJ Styles is in the elite group of pro wrestlers that have held the Global Championship. A proud day for pro wrestling? Probably not. AJ Styles is one of the two best things about TNA right now and to bog him down with the Global Title is ridiculous. But on the plus side, at least the 'Walking Wellness Policy' violator Rob Terry no longer holds gold. And, the relationship between AJ and Kaz has been very entertaining these last few weeks. Here's hoping that AJ can bring some prestiege to that belt. But it looks like its going the same way as the WWF European title...in the bin.
On any given normal week, I would praise the Knockout Division for making the women of TNA look awesome. This week however I have to be critical. The clusterf**k surrounding the Knockout's title has me confused. So now they have stripped Angelina Love of the title and given it back to Madison Rayne because they couldn't prove who the biker was at Victory Road. Why not just strip her of it at the PPV? I don't get it. Okay tag match with The Beautiful People (bar Velvet 'smoking hot' Sky) running off with the mystery motorcyclist. Weird.
Kurt Angle vs Hernandez was a very good match. Big man against a technician. Wrestling 101 here with Angle wanting to move up the TNA rankings. Angle went over clean, as expected but made Hernandez look very credible. Good simple stuff from TNA.
The Kevin Nash/Jarrett segment was a little idiotic in my opinion. I did get a laugh out of the 'log in the punch bowl' remark, but other than that, if they are building to a Nash vs Jarrett at HardCORE Justice then, well...its going to be a long match.
Jeff Hardy vs the second best thing about TNA right now, Samoa Joe was excellent. Another PPV match on free TV. I know they have to make the best of it all, but seriously, Jeff Hardy vs Samoa Joe is a good feud that they could easily pull off. The whole time limit draw thing was okay with me, but was I the only one who noticed that this match was the only match to have that stipulation? Talk about spoling the end of the match before you have even started. And why did JB count down from twenty at the end? Poor booking to what was a truly excellent match up.
Matt Morgan vs Mr Anderson was an okay match. I am really enjoying Anderson in TNA at the moment and the 'Asshole' gimmick is really getting over.
Another good match from Beer Money and the Motor City Machine Guns in their best of five series. THis time it was a street fight at the discretion of Beer Money, who came out victors again to put themselves up 2-0 in the series. I wonder who is winning the next two matches between these two awesome teams??? hmmm
Finally Dixie Carter's announcement ended up turning into another group of ex-WWE guys shitting all over Vince McMahon and the 'legacy' it destroyed with the newer WWECW. Dreamers tears looked about as real as a hookers fake orgasm (apologies if they were real) and now they have systematically made TNA all about ECW. Not such a bad thing to try and attract a new audience but the old ECW faithful are now mostly in their late 50's and looking at Raven, Dreamer and Co. they are not far behind. A bit too nostalgic for me when you could be giving the time to guys like AJ Styles and Ken Anderson. Also hearing through the dirt sheets that the ECW faction in TNA is now to be called EV2.0 which stands for Extreme Version 2.0. I'm not going to say anything. There's no point.
Overall a good showing by TNA in the wrestling department, I always enjoy watching Styles, Joe, Angle and Anderson in featured matches, but in TNA's case it's 'what they do, they do well, but what they do badly, they do terribly'. Wrestling was very good, segments were still very poor.
That's me for this week, will be back next week for another round of reviews, thanks for reading.
The opening segment went a long way to help mould the lines that have been metaphorically blurred from last weeks alliance between the heels and faces of the brand. Chris Jericho is still very good on the mic, and although he always comes off well, the 'hypocrites and parasite' lines have been so over used by him over the last year that they barely gathered any cheap heat at all last night. John Cena was okay, his voice does grate on me at times, constantly either being really hyperactive or really mellow. He need's an extra dimension in the way that he uses the mic, but overall, the segment (bar the ridiculous interruption by the 'Anonymous' GM) did what it set out to do.
I assumed the Randy Orton vs Jey Uso match was going to be a squash, and it was...kind of. Uso managed a small amount of offense but in the end it was obvious to everyone that Orton was going to come out on top. I thought the rKo on Shaemus was obvious but I love the fact they teased another Miz cash in only for it to be foiled again by Orton. Very good close to a short match.
The Nexus' match against the RAW lower card (bar Evan Bourne) was okay, not great. It had its moments, I just don't think they did a very good job of protecting the one man (Bourne) who has been getting a good push recently. The match ended very quickly when it was him by himself. An okay promo by Nexus to finish off the segment, although Skip Sheffield still doesn't sound too good on the mic, and Otunga's spinebuster still looks sloppy and horrible.
By now, I choose not to waste my breath on the Diva's segments.
Ted DiBiase getting a win against John Morrison was quite a shock for me, although it did go quite far to further the implosion of Cena's group angle.
The main event was good, Shaemus and The Miz actually make quite a good team. Was nice to finally see The Miz in a main event, and, even more than that, win it. He looked strong, and picked up the sneak win after Jericho's turn on Cena. The Miz looks like a true main event player and deserves a title at some point. The last scene in the show did well to bring it to a close, having all of Cena's group in conflict.
A good RAW this week, not quite as good as last week, but still strong in the places that it needed to be. Nexus still look like the undefeatable stable and Orton is still the most over thing in the WWE right now.
Moving onto TNA iMPACT last Thursday.
Wow! AJ Styles is in the elite group of pro wrestlers that have held the Global Championship. A proud day for pro wrestling? Probably not. AJ Styles is one of the two best things about TNA right now and to bog him down with the Global Title is ridiculous. But on the plus side, at least the 'Walking Wellness Policy' violator Rob Terry no longer holds gold. And, the relationship between AJ and Kaz has been very entertaining these last few weeks. Here's hoping that AJ can bring some prestiege to that belt. But it looks like its going the same way as the WWF European title...in the bin.
On any given normal week, I would praise the Knockout Division for making the women of TNA look awesome. This week however I have to be critical. The clusterf**k surrounding the Knockout's title has me confused. So now they have stripped Angelina Love of the title and given it back to Madison Rayne because they couldn't prove who the biker was at Victory Road. Why not just strip her of it at the PPV? I don't get it. Okay tag match with The Beautiful People (bar Velvet 'smoking hot' Sky) running off with the mystery motorcyclist. Weird.
Kurt Angle vs Hernandez was a very good match. Big man against a technician. Wrestling 101 here with Angle wanting to move up the TNA rankings. Angle went over clean, as expected but made Hernandez look very credible. Good simple stuff from TNA.
The Kevin Nash/Jarrett segment was a little idiotic in my opinion. I did get a laugh out of the 'log in the punch bowl' remark, but other than that, if they are building to a Nash vs Jarrett at HardCORE Justice then, well...its going to be a long match.
Jeff Hardy vs the second best thing about TNA right now, Samoa Joe was excellent. Another PPV match on free TV. I know they have to make the best of it all, but seriously, Jeff Hardy vs Samoa Joe is a good feud that they could easily pull off. The whole time limit draw thing was okay with me, but was I the only one who noticed that this match was the only match to have that stipulation? Talk about spoling the end of the match before you have even started. And why did JB count down from twenty at the end? Poor booking to what was a truly excellent match up.
Matt Morgan vs Mr Anderson was an okay match. I am really enjoying Anderson in TNA at the moment and the 'Asshole' gimmick is really getting over.
Another good match from Beer Money and the Motor City Machine Guns in their best of five series. THis time it was a street fight at the discretion of Beer Money, who came out victors again to put themselves up 2-0 in the series. I wonder who is winning the next two matches between these two awesome teams??? hmmm
Finally Dixie Carter's announcement ended up turning into another group of ex-WWE guys shitting all over Vince McMahon and the 'legacy' it destroyed with the newer WWECW. Dreamers tears looked about as real as a hookers fake orgasm (apologies if they were real) and now they have systematically made TNA all about ECW. Not such a bad thing to try and attract a new audience but the old ECW faithful are now mostly in their late 50's and looking at Raven, Dreamer and Co. they are not far behind. A bit too nostalgic for me when you could be giving the time to guys like AJ Styles and Ken Anderson. Also hearing through the dirt sheets that the ECW faction in TNA is now to be called EV2.0 which stands for Extreme Version 2.0. I'm not going to say anything. There's no point.
Overall a good showing by TNA in the wrestling department, I always enjoy watching Styles, Joe, Angle and Anderson in featured matches, but in TNA's case it's 'what they do, they do well, but what they do badly, they do terribly'. Wrestling was very good, segments were still very poor.
That's me for this week, will be back next week for another round of reviews, thanks for reading.
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