The Bell To Bell News Report 04.05.09

Posted by Randy Harrison on 04.05.2009

Your last stop before the biggest show of the year is the Bell to Bell! Check out my thoughts on another week of ratings success for TNA, a big shake-up in Ring of Honor and all of the pre-WrestleMania hype you can handle! All of that and my WrestleMania XXV predictions are just a click away...



Well, it's finally here. After a year of waiting and nearly three months of solid building, WrestleMania XXV is less than twenty-four hours away. This week's Bell to Bell is going to obviously have a WrestleMania-centric vibe to it, but there's still plenty of other action and news to get to as well including TNA and ROH's weekly shows and TNA's continuing rise in the ratings. There's talk about Tazz's sudden departure from the WWE, the return of one of TNA's biggest stars and Hulk Hogan's continuing wrestling match with sanity. There's a ton of things to get to on the biggest day of the wrestling year, so let's get right into it and ring the bell!!



Sunday


The Stories


I swear, if I have to wrestle on one more of these ECW reunion shows, so help me CHRIST...

-- Sunday's only story of any remote consequence saw Shane Douglas announce a new ECW reuninon show for November of this year called "N2R: The Final Chairshot". Douglas and current TNA interviewer Jeremy Borash put together the Hardcore Homecoming shows in 2005 and 2006, both of which were fairly entertaining in their own rights. There are two problems that I have with this new reunion. First off, I don't quite understand the need for another ECW reunion show. It seems like there are new reunion shows popping up all the time and while I love that they all get to get together and BS about old times and one of the most influential promotions in wrestling history, it's starting to become a little sad. Less and less of the original ECW wrestlers are around or in working condition to actually put on a match and as the matches at these things get worse and worse, all it does is drag down the legacy of the original ECW. I'm all for these guys getting together to do shows with Q & A sessions or live shoot interviews or things of that nature, but when it's guys that clearly have no business being in the ring due to health issues or advanced age, it ceases to be interesting. The second problem I can see with this thing is that Douglas has decided to call it some variation on November To Remember, which I'm about 99.9% sure that the WWE picked up ownership of when they bought up ECW. Expect Douglas to hear from some attorneys soon and for me to report on a news piece that has the show changed from "November To Remember" to some other connotation of memories of November or of some other hardcore term. The names to these things are usually nothing if not predictable. I've seen the press release for this thing claiming that it's the last time that these names will ever be brought together for a reunion-style show at the "World's Most Famous Bingo Hall", but if you remember that old rule about never saying never in wrestling, I'd expect to see one of them set up for 2010 before too long.



Monday


The Show



Monday Night Raw Results:

Melina, Gail Kim, Kelly Kelly, Eve Torres, Brie Bella, Mickie James, Maria, Tiffany, & Alicia Fox vs. Beth Phoenix, Jillian Hall, Maryse, Michelle McCool, Natalya, Nikki Bella, Layla, Rosa Mendez, & Katie Lea Burchill - Winners: Melina, Gail Kim, Kelly Kelly, Eve Torres, Brie Bella, Mickie James, Maria, Tiffany, & Alicia Fox (pinfall, Tiffany's small package on Katie Lea)
Chris Jericho vs. Jerry Lawler - Winner: Chris Jericho (submission, Walls of Jericho)
Rey Mysterio vs. JBL - Winner: Rey Mysterio (pinfall, springboard splash)
John Cena vs. The Big Show - Winner: The Big Show (pinfall, chokeslam)
MITB Battle Royal - Winner: Kane (Eliminates CM Punk and Christian simultaneously)


Raw's biggest go-home show of the year actually turned into the WWE's biggest go-home of the year as we would find out later in the week. All three brands were represented on Monday night and the biggest storylines heading into the big match got their final pushes towards Houston. Starting the night off for me was the Chris Jericho/Jerry Lawler match. I knew going in that this was going to be trash when it came to the work inside the ring, but Lawler and Jericho were able to tell a great story that served as a nice appetizer for what we're going to see at WrestleMania. Lawler had flashes where he was able to take over on Jericho, but Jericho did what he was supposed to do and what he's expected to do as someone who is younger, faster and stronger than his opponent. Jericho's cockiness cost him a couple of times but in the end he submitted Lawler with the Walls and positioned himself in great shape heading into his Legends bout against Piper, Snuka and Steamboat. Lawler was one of the greatest storytellers in the ring in his prime in the early 80's and Jericho has picked up that mantle since his return and together they put together a short and inspired bit of in-ring action that even made me forget the sloppy build to it from the week before.

For yet another week, Shawn Michaels continued to one-up The Undertaker as they build their way to their match for the ages. A funeral for Mr. WrestleMania was announced and everyone assumed that it was going to be the Undertaker hosting things. However, it ended up being Shawn Michaels yet again proving that he can be cold and caculating enough to out-think the Deadman. Michaels cut a great promo in the ring surrounded by a casket and all of the other trappings of a funeral, talking about how The Undertaker has never been able to beat him in all of their previous matches. He even talked about how this could be the biggest match on the card because of the history of each man and the history that could be made in Houston. Before he could finish however, the lights went black and The Undertaker appeared out of nowhere in the middle of the ring. Michaels was nowhere to be seen and after Taker did a little scouting around including opening the casket, he let his guard down just enough for Shawn to slip out from underneath the casket and unload with Sweet Chin Music. Shawn punctuated it like it was September of '98, crotch-chopping and shit-talking Taker as he laid flat on the canvas. As much as everyone in the past has said that they've gotten inside The Undertaker's head, no one has done it quite like Shawn Michaels has this year and by doing so they've taken the one match that would seemingly be a certainty and placed just enough doubt in there to make even the smarkiest smark feel like there could a chance (however slight) that HBK can pull it off. For the first time since they've begun acknowledging the streak, it feels like it's in real jeopardy and that can only help enhance what could be a true classic.

The two championship main events got their time in the sun as well as The Big Show met John Cena in the show's halfway point main event. Surprisingly enough, John Cena took the clean pin as Show beat Cena with a chokeslam, but if you look a little deeper, the result may not be as surprising. The match was good and both guys did the best with what they had, but you can tell that Show has been added to the match as an afterthought and will likely end up being the guy taking the pin. How do you try to divert attention from someone that everyone suspects will be eating the pinfall and make them seem like a credible threat heading into the main event? Well, having him beat the biggest star in the company clean on the biggest show heading into the biggest pay-per-view of the year seems like a pretty good idea. It's not going to help anything as Show has had the stink of upper-midcard all over him since about six months after he came to the WWE, but it at least gave the Cena-haters something to shut up about for a little bit while giving Show some time to shine. I had no problems with this one and it was actually a bit better than I expected it to be going in, which is always a pleasant surprise. That's not to say it was great because it wasn't, but it wasn't the trainwreck I was thinking it was going to be when I heard about the match before the show began.

The night ended with Randy Orton's WrestleMania address and the fallout from his attack on Stephanie McMahon and Triple H at the end of last week's Raw. Orton's address was pretty much what you thought it would be on a hard-sell show. He talked about how proud he was of what he did the week before, etc. etc. I'm not trying to belittle it because it was an awesome promo, but it felt like it was just preamble to what was really going to happen, which was the expected final confrontation between champion and challenger. The segment didn't start getting good until we heard the familiar music of Vince McMahon. After weeks on the sidelines after Randy Orton's punt to the head, McMahon came back ready for revenge, but he didn't come alone. After son Shane and son-in-law Triple H made their own entrances, it was time for a three-on-three bar fight at ringside. While I didn't like it a few weeks ago when Shane McMahon managed to beat up Legacy with some of the weakest punches ever, this segment wasn't about snug punches or workrate. It was about emotion. Sure the punches might not have looked the best, but they looked like they would if someone was in a real fight beacuse not every punch can be a Rocky-style haymaker like it is in the world of pro wrestling. The WWE needed a huge moment to help draw the last-minute buys to WrestleMania and this last segment delivered it. It might not be to everyone's taste, but I thought it was incredibly successful in giving the WWE Championship match that last extra little push. Great ending to the show and a great ending to the WrestleMania push in terms of entertainment value.


The Stories


You've got a better chance of one day finally living down this photoshoot, Shawn...

-- From the "Hell Freezes Over" department, Shawn Michaels conducted an interview with the Orlando Sentinel, talking about WrestleMania XXV, his possible retirement and his induction into the WWE Hall of Fame. The real doozy came when Michaels intimated that perhaps the best person to induct him into the Hall would be.....Bret "The Hitman" Hart. Here's what HBK had to say...

"I was saying that from the perspective of I so much enjoy the Hall of Fame but it can be – and I want this to come out right – it's a time of tribute and a time of honoring but often we get focuses all on the good and it tends to be, I don't know, a little fluffy. I would like mine to be, I don't know, maybe be honest. I'm one with who I was and I'm one with who I am. I felt that Bret Hart could bring a real perspective to that. He's always been a guy even know that despite all of our differences, he's still always been objective about my ability. They didn't put this in there I don't think – the only thing that he wouldn't have any knowledge of is the person I am now and I understand that. It was from the idea of wanting someone that could give a real honest perspective of my career because it hasn't all been fluff and it hasn't all been fantastic and I think that's OK. I just felt that I can be a pretty strange guy. (laughs) I supposed that it was just something that I thought, gosh, my Hall of Fame induction to be more about truth more than anything else. It's sort of a fantasy, sort of, dream job and it's a great line of work so we can create anything we want and it can be very fairytale-ish and I think that's great on one hand. I just figured maybe it would be, I don't know, neat or nice to have somebody that can give a real perspective on the journey because it hasn't been a fairytale. It's turned out awesome but it was a tough, rugged road. I just thought that maybe he could give a fresh perspective to it. It's one of those things that you go I know this sounds crazy but…"

I love Shawn for wanting his induction to be as honest and as true to his career as possible, but I think that it's as likely for Hart to induct Michaels as it is for me to earn a spot on the 2010 Canadian Olympic Hockey team. Despite numerous attempts by Michaels since his turn to religion to try to bridge the gap that Montreal caused, Hart has seemed to be unwilling to let bygones be bygones in the situation. I was surprised enough that Hart showed up to the Hall of Fame ceremonies for his own induction and I'm willing to bet that it was one of the stipulations that McMahon put on him for allowing Hart to have creative control on his DVD set. For Hart to come back to induct Michaels, perhaps the man he hates the most in the world, some huge changes would have to take place in the next year and I just don't see that happening. If it ever did though, I can guarantee you that I'd make the trip to whereever that ceremony was being held because that would be one of the historic moments in wrestling history.


I haven't heard him this fired up since the third time he was fired...or was it the fourth...

-- Jim Ross recently fired back to fans in his blog who questioned whether he was phoning in his commentary work for Friday Night Smackdown. Here's what good ol' JR had to say on the issue...

As you will see in the Q&A section we have just updated, a fan asked me if I was essentially phoning it in on Friday Night Smackdown
this week as I did not have the same intensity that I usually have. He said he read on the internet where I was trying to draw attention to myself by doing a lousy job because I am still angry about being on Friday Night SmackDown and not on Monday Night Raw.

What a load of manure.

I have been been battling pneumonia for the past two weeks that has included an infected, fluid filled lung. This infection has zapped my strength. My doctor instructed me to stay down for two weeks but I had work to do with the Smackdown tapings in Corpus Christi and a trip the following week to Connecticut to voice over the Smackdown program that aired this past Friday. I never took the two weeks off that I perhaps should have in hindsight and I will be the first to admit that my work the past two weeks wasn't up to my own personal standards.

However, for any one to think that I am not giving 100% effort at work is pathetically ignorant. Those that say such B.S. do not know me well nor have they known me long. My work ethic has never been questioned in my career by those that I have worked with or that matter in my life.

I'll be the first to admit that I would be shocked if someone like Ross was phoning it in since in everything I've ever seen or heard from the man, his passion for the wrestling business seems to be nearly all-consuming. I will say though that since he's been moved over to the Friday show, his commentary seems a little less enthusiastic. While I tend to chalk that up to the way it comes off on television because it's a voiceover rather than live commentary, it is noticeable and one of the things I'm most struck by when I'm watching Smackdown. I wouldn't say that he's not giving it 100%, but there's definitely a huge difference between JR live and JR on tape.



Tuesday


The Show



ECW on Sci-Fi Results:

Christian and Finlay vs. Mark Henry and Kane - Winners: Mark Henry and Kane (pinfall, Henry's World's Strongest Slam on Christian)
Nikki Bella vs. Brie Bella - Winner: Nikki Bella (pinfall, roll-up)

I actually missed the ECW show this week and from the looks of it I'm glad I did because this seems like it was a whole lot of nothing. The Diva match between the Bella Twins sounded like it wasn't much of a match and the tag match, from all reports I've read, was little more than the same old, same old from the MITB participants that we've had in the past few weeks. Throw in copious amounts of video packages and that pretty much wraps up ECW. Nine minutes of wrestling for an hour-long show is horrible and frankly I don't feel the least bit badly for missing the show. If only I had a Monday timeslot I could have saved a lot of you an hour's worth of your time by helping you avoid this disaster.


The Stories


Enjoy the time off....it's well-deserved sir

-- Tuesday began with a bit of a shock as the news broke that Tazz was leaving his post as color commentator for Smackdown as his contract expired. Tazz gave his notice a few weeks back that he was not going to re-up with the WWE and that he needed some time off to recharge his batteries. In a class move from Tazz, he offered to work WrestleMania so as not to leave the company in a bad spot despite not having a contract with the company. I think that this is just a case of a guy that has been on the road for the better part of twenty years who just wants to have some time away from the grind. While I wasn't the biggest fan of Tazz in the beginning when he started out with his color work, he'd grown into the role rather well and for a while was the best color man in the game. He experienced a little bit of stagnation when the switch between Michael Cole and Jim Ross took place, but that's understandable since he was essentially losing one of his closest friends and traveling buddy on the road. When you consier that aspect, one has to wonder if Tazz would have made the same decision if he had been spending the past year on the road with Cole like things have always been. Tazz will be missed as it seems like the number of quality commentators that the WWE has is getting smaller and smaller, but considering he's stated that this is more of a break than a retirement and he's leaving the company the right way, expect to see him back behind the desk in a year or two.

-- Nobody asked for it....nobody wanted it....but here's ANOTHER Wrestlelicious promo video in advance of the company's debut, sometime around the beginning of the Apocalypse.



This seems like a mix between old-school WWF full of characters rather than people and the abomination that was the American Wrestling Federation. I'll admit that I love bad wrestling as much as the next guy because it's funny in that whole Mystery Science Theater sense, but this just seems like it's going to be an unwatchable program.


Er...maybe they should have had Triple H do the induction instead...

-- An announcement was made on Tuesday's ECW show, confirming that Vince McMahon will be the man to induct Stone Cold Steve Austin into the WWE Hall of Fame. Considering how intertwined those two characters will be in wrestling history, it makes sense to have McMahon do the induction, especially since he's not running as a heel on TV at the moment. I'm sure it will be an emotional night in Houston and I can guarantee that I'll be watching it to see how it all plays out. I've never been a big fan of having someone from the McMahon family doing an induction because it feels like anything that they become involved in seems to take second billing to the name McMahon, especially in light of the recent back and forth between Vince and Dixie Carter. In this case though, Stone Cold is a big enough star that he'll be able to withstand a few minutes of Vince's ego-stroking. That being said, Vince is someone who ultimately respects the business and I'd expect his comments to be somewhat short, somewhat sweet and definitely complimentary of the one guy who nearly single-handedly saved his company.



Wednesday


The Stories

-- Only one big story really worth reporting on for Wednesday, but it features a spoiler so I'll advise you all to take the proper precautions if you don't wish to have your fun wrecked.....

SPOILER ALERT!!!!!!! SCROLL PAST THIS SECTION IF YOU DON'T WANT TO KNOW!!! THIS IS YOUR LAST CHANCE!!!


I MEAN IT!!!




The latest batch of Impact tapings saw the return of "The Fallen Angel" Christopher Daniels as the fourth member of Jeff Jarrett's team for the Lethal Lockdown match against the Main Event Mafia. According to the spoiler notes, Daniels has a bit of a new look with new tights and new entrance music and got a huge pop for his return. Daniels' return also means that Frankie Kazarian will be taking over the Suicide gimmick unless Daniels is going to pull double-duty for a few weeks. Considering they're pushing him into a main event slot and seemingly looking to get him a spot in the top of the company in the future, it probably wouldn't be the best idea to have him in spot-filled X-Division matches. My guess is that Kazarian is back to 100% and that's why they're able to move Daniels away from the horrible gimmick and bring him back as himself. I'm really excited to see his return as Daniels is one of my favorite wrestlers and I'll admit that it's going to be tough to wait two weeks to see it as part of the go-home show before the Lockdown pay-per-view.




END OF SPOILER!! WE NOW RETURN YOU TO YOUR REGULARLY SCHEDULED NEWS REPORT!!



Thursday


The Show



TNA Impact Results:

Lethal Consequences and LAX vs. Shiek Abdul Bashir, Kiyoshi and Team No Limit - Winners: Shiek Abdul Bashir, Kiyoshi and Team No Limit (pinfall, Bashir's WMDDT on Creed)
Main Event Mafia Security (Rocco and Sal) vs. Team 3D - Winners: Team 3D (pinfall, 3-D on Sal)
Madison Rayne vs. Taylor Wilde - Winner: Taylor Wilde (pinfall, roll-up)
Scott Steiner vs. AJ Styles - Winner: Scott Steiner (pinfall, Steiner Flatliner on a chair)
Sting vs. Samoa Joe - Winner: Sting (disqualification, Joe abuses a referee....again)

TNA Impact continued the build to their all cage match pay-per-view Lockdown on Thursday and while I missed part of the show while doing the TNA Impact report, I did manage to catch up with what I missed before sitting down to write this report, which is a good thing. The show itself wasn't actively bad or anything, but it continued down the same road that TNA has been on for the past few months with the pushing of older talent while younger talent gets little to no time in the ring to try to get themselves over to a level where they could help carry the company someday. The opening match of the night was the epitome of "let's stick some guys out there for four minutes" as none of them really had any kind of beef with each other and it ended up feeling like an exhibition match or something. Bashir going over seems kind of pointless to me unless this is the beginning of a slow build for him to job to that sailor fellow from Destination X. Actually wait, that still makes it pointless. If the heels were going to win, why not give a nod to Team No Limit to actually have them appear to be more than the jobbers they've been portrayed as so far. When Global Impact comes on and No Limit are shown taking the Motor City Machine Guns to the absolute limit in a great match, it's going to devalue the Guns a little because no one is going to know what No Limit has done in Japan, only what they've done in their US run which is next to nothing.

The wrestling in the middle of the show was pretty bland and I could have done without the Team 3D match as well as the Knockouts match as they didn't serve much of a purpose or bring anything to the show. The Team 3D match felt like it was only there to give a reason for the post-match angle with Beer Money making the save for Brother Ray and Brother Devon and I'm willing to give that the credit it deserves. It was an interesting development as it really furthered the idea that Beer Money are looking to take down Team 3D straight up to prove that they're the best in the world. If they want to send them through the stratosphere as heels, they'd have Beer Money wrestle it straight all the way through before cheating at the end (yeah, I know TNA has enough swerves but bear with me) to get the big win and send Team 3D packing. While I know that there's no way that's going to happen because of the Off the Wagon stipulation and the New Japan tag belts being involved, but the heat would be through the roof for Beer Money if they managed to outsmart Team 3D in their own hometown before ending one of their careers. That would be how to make a successful team into a massively successful team right there. Ah well, maybe someday down the road we'll see them get a rub like that because they surely deserve it.

The big developments of the show centered around the Lethal Lockdown match including the opening promo which saw Scott Steiner make a plea to Jeff Jarrett to join up with the Main Event Mafia because it's where he belongs as opposed to trying to help the young guys that don't respect him. Jarrett turned down Steiner's offer, but it does open the door for a little dissension in the ranks of the TNA team heading into the huge cage match. I don't know if they would really have Jarrett turn, but it could be something that might add another underneath layer of storyline to the match. That led to Jarrett trying to figure out who is going to be the captain for Team TNA after Samoa Joe withdrew from his position at the end of last week's show. Jarrett decided to choose AJ Styles for all that he's done from the opening days of TNA, but Styles gave it right back to Jarrett. Here is another perfect opportunity. Any of the younger members of Team TNA could be captain and could get the huge bump from being the leader of the winning team in a brutal multi-man main event. Instead we get a part-time wrestler who will likely be the captain meaning that he'll get the credit for the win if they get it, no matter what anyone else does in the ring. TNA is so frustrating sometimes, it kills me.

The final developments of the Lethal Lockdown build came in the final two matches of the night as Scott Steiner met with AJ Styles in the first match of the Lethal Lockdown advantage series. The long and short of it is that it's a best two out of three matches series with participants from both sides in the Lethal Lockdown match. The first team to win two matches gets the advantage in the order of the match, meaning that the winning team will have the 2-on-1, 3-on-2, and 4-on-3 advantages throughout the match. The match between Styles and Steiner was alright, but it was clearly Styles doing the heavy lifting. Steiner picked up the cheap win and with that gave the Mafia team a 1-0 lead in the best of three. My guess is that TNA wins next week and the Mafia win the third and deciding match to allow for the time-honored heel advantage to stay true. In the main event of the night, Samoa Joe upped the emotional ante in the bout by taking Booker T's woman hostage after a schmozz match against Sting led to Booker trying a 2-on-1 beatdown. I really have no idea what they're doing with Joe right now, but if they're trying to turn him into TNA's version of Stone Cold Steve Austin they're failing miserably. I really wish they would give him some direction instead of just having him kicking ass because it's about revenge instead of wins and losses. It's starting to get tiring to see him in match after match that lasts little more than two minutes before he attacks a referee for some reason. Meh.

If you notice I didn't touch much on the build for Foley/Sting, it's because it was pretty underwhelming this week with Foley's sit-down interview continuing his tack that he's going to take out his aggression on Sting for Sting's attempts to save Mick from further punishment a few weeks back. As I said before, they're trying to have Foley be a heel but he's still doing things that make people laugh and that's a recipe for disaster. Having two tweeners in one match is just asking for either a confused crowd or a dead one and that's bad news for a main event that's supposed to be bigger than the "other wrestling event in Houston".


The Stories


"Where my lawyer at dawg??"

-- Thursday continued the rather slow news march as the only thing worth commenting on was Booker T's open letter to the WWE. As reported here a couple of weeks back, Booker's Legends of Wrestling Fanfest was set for April 3rd in Houston, the same weekend as WrestleMania. In the letter, Booker alleges that the WWE waited until he had announced a roster of legends before contacting certain legends with ties to the WWE, forcing eight of them to make a decision between Booker's convention and making appearances for the WWE during WrestleMania weekend. Booker hinted at possible legal action in the letter and questioned why the WWE is using such tactics against a charity event. I don't know about Booker's legal footing in the situation, but I can't see there being any case made. Sure, everyone assumes that the WWE had something more to do with the legends cancelling than just making them an offer, but is there really any way to prove that? It could also be something as simple as the people who were offered deals by the WWE choosing to take those deals because they were better for them in the long run. I agree with Booker that it's suspect that the legends in question weren't contacted by the WWE until Booker had announced them for his convention, but that's another thing that would be rather difficult to prove. It seems like Booker's letter had an effect though as the WWE allowed "The Mouth of the South" Jimmy Hart to rejoin Booker's Fanfest soon after. I'm betting that this will probably be the end of the situation and I'd be surprised if this ended up going the legal route in the future.



Friday


The Show



Friday Night Smackdown Results:

Gail Kim and Maria vs. Maryse and Michelle McCool - Winners: Gail Kim and Maria (pinfall, Kim's Straight Jacket Neckbreaker on Maryse)
US Championship Match: Shelton Benjamin vs. MVP (C) - Winner: MVP (pinfall, Playmaker)
Jeff Hardy vs. Ezekiel Jackson - Winner: Jeff Hardy (pinfall, Swanton Bomb)

There wasn't a ton of wrestling to talk about on this edition of Smackdown, so I'll end up covering it all pretty quickly. The Divas tag match was actually pretty decent and it was nice to see Gail Kim back in action, seemingly without a hint of ring rust on her. She was in fine form and the fact that she got the pin on Maryse sets up a tailor-made program for after WrestleMania with some likely interaction betweeen the two in the Miss WrestleMania battle royal to up the ante. The United States Championship match was also decent enough with nothing that really jumped out at me, but nothing that offended me terribly either. MVP continued his momentum with a big win in the match sending him into Money in the Bank with the big Mo on his side. Considering how the US Championship has been treated recently, it wouldn't surprise me if MVP continued his roll, won the MITB and then vacated the US Championship into some sort of tournament. I'm not completely sold on MVP winning the thing, but if he does, I'd expect to see a tournament on Smackdown before too long. The "main event" between Jeff Hardy and Ezekiel Jackson was again a case of a match being perfectly acceptable while being perfectly pointless at the same time. It got Jeff in action and got him a win heading into WrestleMania but it really didn't need to be here and would have seemed retarded in retrospect had Hardy suffered some sort of freak injury in the match.

To sum it all up, if there was ever any doubt as to how low on the totem pole Smackdown has fallen in the grand scheme of things in the WWE, this past Friday night's show was crystal-clear proof. Sure, the three matches that were featured on the show had some sort of peripheral involvement with WrestleMania, but for all intents and purposes this just showed that the REAL go-home show for the big event was on Monday night on the USA Network and to a lesser extent on Tuesday on Sci-Fi. I liked how they filled the show with clips and things from the WrestleMania AXXESS event as that looks like one of the real highlights of the weekend outside of the event itself, but there were just WAY TOO MANY promo packages and highlight videos for my taste. They turned their Friday night show from one of the three supposedly equal brands into little more than an extended version of the half-hour Free For All's that they used to run on the PPV channel before the live show started. You got a match or two that meant next to nothing and then a WHOLE lot of clips and that's what Smackdown felt like to me. While I get that they had to do the hard sell for WrestleMania, it still feels like a bit of a missed opportunity to put a little icing on the cake heading into Sunday night in Houston.

If I had to hazard a guess, I'd figure that the WWE didn't want to have the hot finishes to their angles heading into WrestleMania on a show that barely draws in as many people as ECW or Impact because of the terrible network they're on. They blew everything off big on Monday and then just played it safe on Friday to keep from having big developments happen on a show that a lot of people would likely miss. I don't necessarily agree with it, but I can understand it I suppose.


The Stories


Champion once again...

-- One of professional wrestling's true class acts finally got his just due on Friday night as Jerry Lynn defeated Nigel McGuinness for the Ring of Honor World Championship at Supercard of Honor IV in Houston, TX. As a guy who has given his life to the professional wrestling business, Lynn has experienced a bit of a career rebirth in Ring of Honor as a sort of real-life, Randy "The Ram" Robinson style character. I'm not going to talk about the match until I have a chance to see it, but it is a well-deserved honor for Lynn, who I had the pleasure of meeting at an indy show in Winnipeg soon after ECW dissolved. Congratulations to Lynn on the biggest win of his career and the second major championship he's had the honor of holding.

-- In news that may just stave off that Armageddon I was talking about earlier with the Wrestlelicious nonsense, it appears that we're going to be saved the punishment of a second season of Hulk Hogan's Celebrity Championship Wrestling. According to industry insiders, casting notices have not been issued for the second season, leading many to speculate that the show will be one-and-done. It's not that the show was actively terrible or anything like that, it was just so hokey and so hard to sit through that I'm glad I won't have to sit through it again. It's not so much that the fact that Hulk Hogan was involved made it better or worse, but it sure didn't help. I'm sure I'll draw some fire from the Hogan supporters out there, but I think he'd be best served to just take a couple of years away from the limelight because all he's doing at this point is chipping away at his once-great legacy with these side projects and sad attempts to stay relevant.

-- If it's Friday, I'm likely going to be reporting on the TNA ratings as those seem to be the ratings that have the most people talking lately. This week's edition of Impact got a 1.3 rating and actually set another new record for their largest audience ever with just under 2 million viewers. That might not seem very good compared to the ratings of the WWE's Big Three, but when you consider that just under 2 million people watched the free UFC card on Spike the night before, it makes TNA one of the heavy hitters on Spike's line-up. Maybe with the ratings increase, Spike will take advantage as the show has been growing primarily on word of mouth with little to no advertising at all for the show. If Spike were smart, they'd start running the same kind of commercials that the USA network runs for Raw and put them on starting Sunday and all the way through up to Thursday afternoon before Impact begins. With a little bit more promotion, the show could find itself possibly pushing 1.5 and up before the end of the year. It might not be 2's and 3's, but it's tangible progress and that's something that I think very few expected out of TNA when they began on Spike. Now if they could just book better shows that didn't feature large amounts of gibberish they'd be able to shoot those ratings through the roof.



Saturday


The Show



ROH on HDNet Results:

Sterling James Keenan vs. Erick Stevens - Winner: Erick Stevens (pinfall, Doctor Bomb)
Cheech and Cloudy vs. Dark City Fight Club - Winners: Dark City Fight Club (pinfall, sitout powerbomb neckbreaker combo)
Necro Butcher vs. Chris Hero - Winner: Chris Hero (pinfall, loaded Roaring Elbow)
Austin Aries vs. Bryan Danielson - Winner: Bryan Danielson (submission, triangle choke)

This is mainly an action based show that hasn't had a lot going by way of storylines, so I'll just hit this with some bullet points to touch on things that jump out at me as I watch the show before deadline.


-- We start the show off with the news that Jerry Lynn is the new ROH Champion after defeating Nigel McGuinness in Houston. With McGuinness' injury there really was no other choice and I'm hoping that Lynn gets a chance to shine with a major title since it's something he never got a real chance to do when he was in ECW.

-- Sterling James Keenan, international bad ass. That sounds like one hell of a business card.

-- The crowd seems a little bit better mic'd this week as we are actually hearing them during the opening match, which is a bonus.

-- Mike Hogewood needs to calm down a little bit before he has himself a stroke. He saw a punch and acted like Keenan tried to rape Stevens against the turnbuckles or something.

-- Stevens cho-cho-chose Keenan but I don't think Keenan accepted. Unless an Implant DDT is a sign of love in Ring of Honor, which I doubt it is.

-- Stevens needs to give Brother Ray some mohawk lessons. Yeah, I said it.

-- Jack Swagger needs to give Stevens some Doctor Bomb lessons. Yeah, I said it.

-- Bryan Danielson cut a surprisingly good promo and despite a couple of missteps where he hesitated for a moment or two, he really did a lot to help get his character over with the newer fans who might be watching ROH for the first, second or third time.

-- Is Cloudy twelve? And he's the veteran of the team? Seriously?

-- Oh man, why do I get the feeling that these pipe-laying black men are going to get back at Cheech and Cloudy for about three hundred years worth of subjugation in about five minutes.

-- Jesus, that finisher looks like it means business. Quality double-team finishers are something that seems to be missing these days from wrestling, but that one was spectacular. Solid effort from DCFC and I'm looking forward to seeing more from them in the future.

-- Aries needs to lose that molester facial hair and stat. I don't think anyone can call themselves the greatest man who ever lived when it looks like he's going to be trolling a playground in a white van after the matches.

-- HELL YES, nothing makes my Saturday night quite like a little Sweet and Sou-ah!! As for Necro Butcher, that thirty-second promo was nothing short of fantastic. They got across everything his character is about in under a minute.

-- "I'm a manager, I'm a manager!!" God love Larry Sweeney. He's a throwback to how managers in wrestling used to be and always should be. Tremendous.

-- That chair-assisted powerslam on the floor was fantastic. It's a wonder that no one has used that move before in any of the other major promotions as it seems like something simple.

-- "No way referee, that's not my loaded elbowpad, it's just my giant Hero cock. Thank you for noticing"

-- How sweet is the crowd chanting the lyrics to "The Final Countdown" at Danielson? That's even before starting in with their chant that Aries is "gonna get his fuckin' head kicked in". Mike Hogewood's reaction to the chant was fantastic as well.

-- Austin "THE ARMDRAGON" Aries!!

-- That cross armbreaker and the talk about Danielson training with the Xtreme Couture MMA camp was a great bit of depth to the character of Danielson while also playing off of the large base of MMA fans who watch HDNet because of their extensive coverage of the sport. Great stuff from Dave Prazak, who has been much better for me on these HDNet shows than he is on some of the DVD's that I've seen.

-- Danielson's flying knee off the apron is a thing of beauty. I'll never get tired of seeing that and seeing it in HD for the first time was awesome. It looked like a million bucks too because Aries was willing to take it full force so kudos to him.

--Danielson's triangle choke beats the ever-loving hell out of The Undertaker's gogoplata-style move. That match had a great blend of high-flying action and hard-hitting mat wrestling. Probably the best and most accurate representation of Ring of Honor thus far in the three weeks of their HDNet broadcasts.


The Stories


"It's gonna draw 400,000 people to the building in Houston, brother....I swear!!"

-- Sigh. So much for that staying out of the limelight thing when I spoke earlier about Hulk Hogan. He conducted a recent interview where he stated that it was supposed to be him taking on John Cena at this year's WrestleMania. Don't just take my word for it though, here's the words from The Immortal One himself...

"You know what, I was supposed to wrestle John Cena for the title, and about four weeks ago I had back surgery. Vince and I were talking about how much involvement I wanted to have in Wrestlemania, and if I wanted to keep wrestling, and out of nowhere my back just got really crazy. I went in for an MRI and I had to have some emergency surgery that threw me out of the game. I was kind of flipped out about it, I thought I'd be the main event this year."

I'm not exactly sure how to take this one really. This could just be a matter of Hogan trying to keep his name out there to try to build some buzz to force Vince to bring him in for this kind of match, or it could be that this was the actual plan. If this was really what the plan was supposed to be and if there was really supposed to be a match between Cena and Hogan at WrestleMania, I have to thank whichever BillyWitchDoctor.com it was that worked that voodoo they do to screw up Hulk's back to keep him off of the show. In all seriousness though, my guess is that Hulk's back tensed up when he realized it was going to have to spend three seconds on a canvas in front of 70,000 people and forced him to the sidelines. Either way, it's for the best as Hogan would likely have done little more than take from Cena at a time when Cena can sorely afford to lose any more momentum in terms of his career. It's fortunate for all involved that fate stepped in if you ask me.

THE BELL TO BELL'S OFFICIALLY OFFICIAL WRESTLEMANIA PREVIEW!!



-- We're just about out of time in this week's Bell to Bell, but there is still more than enough time for me to bust out my WrestleMania XXV preview full of my quick thoughts on the matches that everyone will be talking about come Monday morning. Without any further delay, let's get right into the meat of this thing.

Intercontinental Championship: Rey Mysterio vs. JBL (C): This one is probably not going to be very good considering JBL's health at this stage in his career, but it should be exciting enough with Mysterio flying around the ring to get the crowd on their feet. JBL promised something groundbreaking and history-making and I don't have the foggiest what it's going to be so I'll just sit back and enjoy. After Rey-Rey got the win on Monday, expect JBL to win here and possibly retire as Intercontinental Champion.

Winner: JBL (pinfall, Clothesline from Hell)

Unified WWE Tag Team Championships: The Colons vs. The Miz and John Morrison: While I'm pissed at the lumberjack stipulation, which will likely rob us of a clean finish in a title unification match, this one should be good if it gets the time that it needs and all four guys are able to recreate the magic of some of their matches earlier this year. The Colons have been great champions on Smackdown (despite no real competition), but there's no way you can deny a team as hot as Morrison and Miz their proper glory.

Winners and NEW UNIFIED WWE Tag Team Champions: The Miz and John Morrison (pinfall, lumberjack shenanigans into Morrison's Moonlight Drive)

Extreme Rules: Jeff Hardy vs. Matt Hardy: With the disappointment of their first series of matches and initial feud still somewhat fresh in the minds of longtime fans, Matt and Jeff have had a bit of an uphill battle entering into this feud. They've done well with it though and I'm really impressed with the heel mic work from Matt, setting the table strongly. Look for Jeff to pick up the win, but I highly doubt that this feud will be over with just one match so I'm calling an attack from Matt post-match.

Winner: Jeff Hardy (pinfall, 30 foot Swanton Bomb through a table)

Legends Match: Chris Jericho vs. "Rowdy" Roddy Piper, Jimmy "Superfly" Snuka and Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat w/Ric Flair: After rumors that had this being the centerpiece of WrestleMania and a build that made Jericho one of the most hated men in professional wrestling history, we get a match that seems to be a bit underwhelming. As everyone else has said, hopefully Jericho eliminates Snuka and Piper relatively quickly before him and Steamboat put on a slower-paced version of the match Jericho probably dreamed of since seeing Steamboat/Savage at WM III. With Flair and possibly Mickey Rourke on the outside of the ring, they'll likely cost Jericho the match to let the Legends stand tall.

Winners: Roddy Piper, Jimmy Snuka and Ricky Steamboat (pinfall, Steamboat flying bodypress on Jericho after Flair and Rourke interference)

Money In The Bank Ladder Match: Mark Henry vs. Kane vs. Christian vs. Finlay vs. CM Punk vs. Kofi Kingston vs. MVP vs. Shelton Benjamin: This could be the first MITB match since the inaugural match at WrestleMania 21 where two or three guys could legitimately be considered as viable candidates to win. This one should be spots galore as usual, but with Mark Henry and Kane involved and the Extreme Rules match on the card, look for things to be toned down a little bit from past years. As much as I think that MVP is being built to win it, I can't see them not giving Christian a chance at the upper level after bringing him back from TNA. Christian will win this one and save his shot for a chance at taking out his brother later this year.

Winner: Christian (briefcase retrieval)

The Undertaker vs. Shawn Michaels: The one match on the card that truly has the epic feel of a WrestleMania bout. The build to this one has been fantastic with Michaels and The Undertaker playing mind games with Michaels actually having the upper hand. I would be surprised if they ended Taker's streak so I'm guessing that Michaels' upper hand in recent weeks will be the way he gets his rub out of the program. A possible classic in the making if both guys have their 'A' games on hand. Taker goes to 17-0 with a chokeslam and Tombstone, finally getting his win over Mr. WrestleMania.

Winner: The Undertaker (pinfall, Tombstone piledriver)

World Heavyweight Championship Triple Threat Match: John Cena vs. The Big Show vs. Edge (C): This one has been built around the love triangle between Show, Edge and Vickie Guerrero with that love triangle being the way that Cena got into the match to begin with. We know that Show is going to take the pinfall, we just don't know how. As for the Vickie involvement, I hope they get it out of the way early instead of having it be the crutch involved in the finish. In keeping with his "opportunistic" character, look for Show to chokeslam Edge, Cena to hit an FU or whatever it's called now on Show before collapsing, allowing Edge to spear Cena and cover Show to retain his belt. Future program with Edge and Christian over the WHC? I think so.

Winner and STILL World Heavyweight Champion: Edge

WWE Championship: Randy Orton vs. Triple H (C): This is the true grudge match of the card and the one that seems to have everyone guessing as to how it's going to end up. Orton is one of the biggest heels in the company right now, nipping right at Jericho's heels or even surpassing him, so you have to wonder if they want to diminish his heat by having him take the loss. However, this is WrestleMania, Triple H is the top babyface and we'll likely see Trips and the rest of the McMahon's standing tall in the ring as we fade to black on the "25th Anniversary" of WrestleMania. Orton will likely get a rematch at Backlash and he might even win it, but I wouldn't expect to see him do anything other than eating a Pedigree before looking into the stars of a Houston night.

Winner: Triple H (pinfall, Pedigree)


That does it for my quickie preview of WrestleMania (yeah, I left out the Miss WrestleMania battle royal but honestly I don't think that's going to amount to much more than a piss break for me) and for this week's edition of The Bell to Bell. I thank you all for taking the time to read it and I hope you'll all be back here next Sunday for my thoughts on WrestleMania, all of the fallout from the biggest show of the year and so much more. Randle's in tomorrow with the News Experience and with that I'm off to settle in to check out the festivities of WrestleMania weekend. In the mean time and in between time, I'll see you all right back here next time for a brand-new edition of the Bell to Bell News Report. Enjoy WrestleMania everybody!


If you're a fan of MMA, be sure to check out Nokaut.com for more of my work.