The Bell to Bell News Report 04.26.09

Posted by Randy Harrison on 04.26.2009

Now that the WWE Draft is over, what could there be to talk about? Well, between Lockdown, Backlash, Draft fall-out, the potential return of Bobby Lashley and the potential exit of Jeff Hardy from the WWE, I think things will be just fine. Add in my usual update on the Stanley Cup playoffs and this week's Bell to Bell is jam-packed, BABY!!




Greetings humanity, and welcome to this week's edition of the Bell to Bell. With TNA Lockdown on Sunday, the usual plethora of shows from TNA, the WWE and ROH and some big news from all three brands, there's a lot to get to so I'll just skip the formalities and get right into the hockey news. What, you didn't think I'd neglect that did you?

It was a good week in Hockeytown as my beloved Red Wings managed a clean sweep of Columbus after a thrilling 6-5 victory on Thursday night in front of a rabidly hostile crowd at the Nationwide Arena. Despite being outplayed for the majority of the series, I have to give Columbus some props for being a tough opponent in the final game and giving it their all to try to pick up the win in front of their home fans. It was a high-scoring, high-speed, back and forth struggle that was tied at 5 late in the third before Columbus was called for a too many men on the ice penalty with a little over a minute remaining. While I've seen some people complain about the call, the rule is a black and white call and can't be something that is left up to the referee's discretion. There's either six guys on the ice or there isn't and in Columbus' case there were six men on the ice and they were assessed a penalty. If it had happened to Detroit and they had lost the game by a goal, I'd be saying the same thing while cursing the stupid player that ended up getting caught where he shouldn't have been. All in all, Detroit looked strong in the series with the power play clicking, their big guns scoring and Chris Osgood putting to rest any of the worries that fans had about his goaltending heading into the playoffs. I don't know who will be next for Detroit, but it's likely either going to be Anaheim or the winner of the Chicago/Calgary series. Chicago/Detroit would be a fantastic series based on their history and the great game they had in the Winter Classic, but that would mean one less Canadian team, so I'm hoping that it's Anaheim. Plus if it's Anaheim, I'll likely be able to get down there for a game to get to see my boys in action personally. Look for another update next week including Detroit's opponent in the conference quarterfinals and my thoughts on how that series could play out.

With that out of the way, it's time to get to the wrestling news, so ring that bell and start this news report off right!



Sunday


The Show



TNA Lockdown Results:

X-Division Title X-scape Match: Kiyoshi vs. Jay Lethal vs. Sheik Abdul Bashir vs. Consequences Creed vs. Suicide (C) - Winner: Suicide (escaping the cage)
TNA Knockouts Queen of the Cage Match: ODB vs. Madison Rayne vs. Daffney vs. Sojournor Bolt - Winner: ODB (pinfall, powerslam on Bolt)
IWGP Jr. Tag Team Title Match: Team No Limit vs. LAX vs. The Motor City Machine Guns (C) - Winners: The Motor City Machine Guns (pinfall, Made in Detroit on Naito)
Doomsday Chamber of Blood Match: Abyss vs. Matt Morgan - Winner: Matt Morgan (pinfall, chokebomb into tacks)
TNA Knockouts Title Match: Angelina Love vs. Taylor Wilde vs. Awesome Kong (C) - Winner: Angelina Love (pinfall, roll-up on Wilde)
TNA World Tag Team Titles vs. IWGP Tag Team Titles Philadelphia Street Fight: Beer Money vs. Team 3D - Winners: Team 3D (pinfall, 3D through a table on Roode)
Lethal Lockdown: Team Jarrett (Samoa Joe, AJ Styles, Jeff Jarrett and Christopher Daniels) vs. Team Angle (Kurt Angle, Scott Steiner, Booker T and Kevin Nash) - Winners: Team Jarrett (pinfall, Jarrett guitar shot on Booker T)
TNA World Heavyweight Championship: Mick Foley vs. Sting (C) - Winner: Mick Foley (escaping the cage)

Where do I begin with this show. I was excited by the X-scape match that began the show and gasped like just about everyone when Suicide performed his crazy leap to escape the cage. It was a solid start to the show and gave me some hope after how things had been leading into the event. From there, the wheels kind of came off for a bit as only the IWGP Jr. Tag Title Match was worthwhile until we got into the meat of the show with the triple main event. The Knockouts title match was decent and actually a lot better than I thought it was going to be before the accident that knocked Angelina Love unconscious. I have to give big props to both Suicide (Christopher Daniels) and Love for taking big risks and finishing strong. Love managed to get herself together enough to finish the match despite being knocked out cold, while Daniels made that crazy dive off of the cage onto the masses, knowing that he needed to still be at 100% for his appearance in the main event Lethal Lockdown match.

Moving on to the IWGP Jr. Tag Title match I was talking about before all six guys worked their asses off and made you nearly forget that the outcome was pretty much going to be an afterthought due to the Japanese titles being on the line. There were some crazy spots like Hernandez's overhead throw of Chris Sabin that slammed Sabin into the cage and left him falling on the top of his head and the huge Made in Detroit that ended the match. These guys brought the speed, intensity and great spots as well as some fantastic teamwork which tends to be forgotten about in the cage environment. They only got about ten minutes, but they were still one of the best matches of the night and one of the few early matches that felt like it wasn't taken out of its element with the involvement of the cage.

The IWGP/TNA Tag Title World Tag Team Dominating Rulers Of The World And Stars and Planets match featuring Beer Money Inc. and Team 3D was changed to a Philadelphia Streetfight on the last episode of Impact before the show and I wondered how it was going to play considering that it was going to necessitate them leaving the cage open to access all of the various weapons in play. They actually worked around it well and put on one hell of a match that actually helped put Beer Money over huge despite the loss. The crowd was hanging on every move, Beer Money got in a ton of great offense, including the awesome Beer.....MONEY...double suplex on Devon through a table, but 3D matched them step for step. The huge top rope Bubba Bomb was insane and Roode is a champ for taking it, along with the match-ending 3D through the table. This wasn't fantastic by any stretch of the imagination and was probably not what anyone would expect when you're looking at a match for Tag Team domination. When I think of best tag teams in the world I don't tend to think of table spots, weapons and brawling in the crowd.

The Lethal Lockdown match was up next and as with every year, AJ Styles stole the show with a crazy spot off the top of the cage. This year, he went through the roof and onto all four members of the Main Event Mafia. It wasn't as good as some of the other year's Lethal Lockdown matches and I think that that is a direct result of having a disproportionate number of wrestlers near or over 40 involved. Team Jarrett picked up the big win and managed to turn back the charge of the Main Event Mafia, but my problem is that it didn't feel convincing. Usually War Games/Lethal Lockdown-style matches are meant to feel like an ultimate blow-off and after seeing Impact this week, it ended up turning the Lethal Lockdown into just another match as the whole MEM/TNA storyline is still going in full force. There were the usual spots and blood that seem to accompany every Lethal Lockdown and it was decent enough, but not the coming-out party for guys like Styles, Daniels and Joe that I think a lot of us hoped it would be, especially considering that the pin only came after Jarrett had gotten the big guitar shot on Booker. After the match, Bobby Lashley made his first TNA appearance and did a lot of pointing towards the cage. Kurt Angle seemed happy and Jeff Jarrett seemed upset, so if that's any indication of which way he's going to go, I'd bet that he's going to join the Frontline cause if he ends up getting into this mess at all. It's really the only choice for him as Lashley as a heel without a manager to be his mouthpiece would be an unmitigated disaster.

The main event of the night saw Sting defending his TNA World Heavyweight crown against Mick Foley. After a somewhat suspect build for the first few weeks, Foley really got on his horse and made people take notice and interest in this match. I had said last week that if they were able to have a decent match and have Foley take a couple of big spots that it would hopefully at least feel like the match lived up to the build. Unfortunately, that's not what we got. It felt like they didn't know whether they wanted this to be a no-rules style cage match or a match that was a regular title match that happened to be in a cage and the result was a bit of a mess. As would be expected with Foley and Sting both having bad knees it was a slow match and as expected from a Foley match there were things like barbed wire and the like. The finish saw Foley just barely beating Sting out of the cage to win the championship in a result that I don't think anyone saw coming. I could go on and on about how it's a terrible decision to move the belt sideways to Foley, a part-time tweener, instead of keeping it on Sting to help put someone younger over when he finally loses it. I'm sure that Foley is going to lose it soon, possibly even at the next pay-per-view, but when he loses it it's probably going to mean a lot less than it would have if whoever wins it had gotten it from Sting. Unless this is just a way to get it off of Sting and onto Kurt Angle in a multi-man match or something like that, this is a bad idea.


The Stories



-- Sunday was slow with some rumors about the two former World Champions that TNA had promised for their Lockdown PPV but nothing concrete. That left only a box office update on Dwayne Johnson's Race To Witch Mountain and John Cena's 12 Rounds. Johnson's movie fell to #15 at the box office, but has put together a strong six-week total of over $63 million. Cena's wasn't ranked at all and has barely earned over $11 million in its four-week run. If there's anything that's a perfect reason why we'll never see the much-attempted Rock/Cena feud in a WWE ring, this is it. I've been critical of Cena for his continued sniping at Johnson that's left him looking like the smaller dog yipping for attention and with these numbers that criticism is validated. Cena is nowhere near the star that Johnson is so it becomes easy for him to make his "I'll never turn my back on wrestling like Rocky did" statements. It's easy to say you won't do something when you know that the opportunity isn't coming. As much as I think that Cena is an entertainer and loves wrestling, if he had a chance to make $5 million or $10 million a picture, don't think for a second he wouldn't jump on it and leave the WWE in the dust. Johnson is a bonafide movie star and has moved on and everyone, including Cena, should be happy for his success instead of trying to goad him into doing something for a company that he left years ago. Cena also needs to realize that no matter how hard he tries, he's never going to be the mainstream star that Johnson is and he needs to be happy with what he has instead of being bitter over what he doesn't. Let it go John and enjoy the success you have. Everyone will be much happier that way.



Monday


The Show



Monday Night Raw Results:

Chavo Guerrero vs. Batista - Winner: Batista (pinfall, Batista Bomb)
Kane vs. CM Punk - Winner: CM Punk (pinfall, DDT)
WWE Women's Championship: Beth Phoenix vs. Melina - Winner: Melina (pinfall, Last Call)
John Cena vs. Chris Jericho - Winner: None (No Contest, Edge-ference)
Rey Mysterio vs. The Big Show - Winner: The Big Show (pinfall, KO punch)
No Disqualification: Randy Orton vs. Triple H - Winner: Randy Orton (pinfall, RKO)

The WWE began their first full week after the WWE Draft on Monday and they started their new year, so to speak, in the United Kingdom. Like most years, there was a bit of a Draft hangover on Monday night, which saw a lot of the guys that were drafted away to Smackdown still playing vital roles on the show. One of those guys was Chris Jericho who started the show with a solid promo talking about how the fans will be begging him to come back to Raw before six months are out. That led to an interruption from Ricky Steamboat and a further back and forth between these two that set up a singles match between Jericho and Steamboat for Backlash. While I appreciate that we're going to get to see Steamboat and Jericho go at it one-on-one without the chaff of Snuka and Piper, it's sad that this match ends up getting made as an afterthought less than a week before the show. Jericho has been on point for the better part of a year and he ends up in a gimmicky match at WrestleMania followed by nearly being forgotten about afterwards. I understand that Steamboat's promos aren't a strong suit so it would have been hard to build this for two or three weeks, but even an extra week would have made people care a little bit more about the match. I won't mind it so much when I see the pay-per-view on Sunday, but during this show it rubbed me wrong a little bit.

After opening the show with a promo, Jericho got his farewell match on Raw against the World Heavyweight Champion John Cena. Despite being marred by a No Contest finish that was a necessity to keep Cena strong heading into the pay-per-view and with Jericho heading to a new brand, the match itself was a strong one. Jericho looked strong and on the same level as Cena which was a good thing considering he's going to have to go to a new show and he put on a much better farewell match than the one he had on Raw after the SummerSlam match against Cena that led to his retirement. As I said though, the non-finish wrecked things a little bit with Edge coming down to push both guys off the top rope before beating down Cena. This leads well into their match coming up at Backlash and it ends up helping to give Edge a bit of a boost heading in after he lost some of his lustre with his loss at WrestleMania. On the whole though, this was a solid match and it served as a good send-off for Jericho as he heads over to the Blue brand and hopefully another strong push to continue all of the great work that he's done on Raw the past year.

The main event featured Randy Orton and Triple H in a WrestleMania rematch as well as a match that helped build toward the six-man tag main event at Backlash. While this wasn't quite the type of WrestleMania rematch that the Londoners got when they saw Michaels/Cena after WrestleMania 23, it was still a pretty good match overall and MUCH better than their WrestleMania match, though anything probably would have been. I talked last week about how Orton and Legacy were going to have to get theirs back this week to have any chance of having people think that they could actually pick up the win at Backlash and that began this week with Raw. Orton picked up the win over Triple H with an RKO and the seeds of doubt were planted on the face side after all six men got involved in the finish and Batista inadvertantly speared Shane McMahon. Now there's actually a glimmer of hope for Orton and his cronies heading into the pay-per-view, but despite that hope I would expect to see Triple H reign supreme again on Sunday. The rule of thumb is always that whoever goes over before the pay-per-view is likely on their backs when the satellites are live and running. This was a strong finish to the show as they had Orton regain some of the wind in his sails that he had before WrestleMania and laid the groundwork for a possible Batista turn at the pay-per-view or afterwards which could put a fresh spin on a feud with Triple H.

The rest of the show was kind of a rehash of what has gone on in the past couple of weeks with Beth Phoenix, Melina and Santino/Santina Marella continuing their issues and CM Punk and Kane continuing theirs. The only other match worth touching on was the Rey Mysterio/Big Show match, which served as Rey's sendoff for the Raw brand as well rehashing the Rey vs. a big man match for the four hundred and thirty-sixth time.


The Stories

-- The attendance for the previous night's Lockdown show was released by TNA and it was put at somewhere between 4,000 and 4,500. While that looks solid at first glance, remember that last week I was talking about how TNA was giving away tickets to the show and that the building holds 8,000. Unfortunately, with all of TNA's successes as of late, this looks like a bit of a letdown and dare I say, a failure. There's no word yet on how many of those fans that were in attendance were papered, but my guess is that there was a good deal of them that ended up getting in for free. As I said last week, if TNA is going to be heading into new cities for pay-per-views, they're going to have to realize that they can't charge top-dollar price and expect people to fork it over, especially these days. I applaud TNA for wanting to run new buildings, but if they want shows to be a success, they have to consider dropping their ticket prices from the get-go. While you might not make as much money as you would for a full-price show, you're still making more than you would in a 900-seat Impact Zone and you're exposing your live product to new people and new fans while performing in front of a full house. Perception is reality and when you're performing in front of a sold-out house you look big-time. When you have to paper the house to get a building half-full, you're small potatoes and TNA needs to shed that struggling image if they ever want to truly be competitive.



-- As I talked about in the coverage of the pay-per-view earlier in the column, it was reported on Monday that Christopher Daniels indeed pulled double-duty during Lockdown, competing as Suicide in the opening match of the night before starting the Lethal Lockdown match for Team Jarrett. Wrestling twice in one night, as two different characters, is a test of physical and mental stamina as a performer and Daniels passed it with flying colors so congratulations to him on that. That congratulations is tempered by the fact that TNA were playing with fire and they were so, SO lucky that they didn't burn themselves. Granted, he was working a much safer style than he usually does in the X-scape match, but what would have happened if Daniels had injured himself on the jump from the cage that ended the match. TNA would have been left in the uneviable position of finding a last-minute replacement for Team Jarrett, completely destroying any momentum that Daniels would have had out of his triumphant return. Luckily for TNA, Daniels came out of the PPV without a hitch and as long as he doesn't go down to an injury while playing Suicide at the Impact tapings, they should dodge a major bullet when Kazarian returns to play the role.



-- Continuing with the post-Lockdown news, word is out that Bobby Lashley, despite making an appearance on TNA pay-per-view, is not signed with the company. The appearance was to allow Lashley and the company to become better acquainted with the hope being for TNA that he would like what he saw and sign with them to wrestle on a limited schedule while still training for his MMA career. I could see this working as Lashley trains out of American Top Team in Florida and would likely be used in a TV/PPV role only so he could avoid the house show circuit. That's all well and good for him, but it would end up being a bad deal for TNA because they already have problems with getting a lot of their main-event stars out for the house shows. And while I'm on the subject of this likely ending up as a disaster, hasn't TNA learned a lesson about using people that aren't under contract to them? Time after time, TNA has put precious television time into people who aren't with the company long-term and each time it's burned them and made them look silly. If they didn't have a deal with Lashley in place, there's no way that he should have been appearing on that pay-per-view, especially when it looked like he was ready to be injected into the MEM/Frontline feud based on Jarrett and Angle's facial expressions. Sadly, this is TNA and most of the MEM/Frontline stuff has been forgotten anyways, at least on the Frontline's side, so it wouldn't be that big a shock to see this disappear too if Lashley gets cold feet. On my list of frustrations with TNA, the feeling that they always seem to end up making the same mistakes over and over again is pretty high up, if not first.



Tuesday


The Show



ECW on Sci-Fi Results:

Hornswoggle vs. Natalya Neidhart - Winner: Hornswoggle (pinfall, roll-up)
Evan Bourne vs. Paul Burchill - Winner: Evan Bourne (pinfall, Shooting Star Press)
Vladimir Kozlov vs. Frankie Sloan - Winner: Vladimir Kozlov (pinfall, spinebuster slam)

ECW on Sci-Fi took a HUGE step backwards from last week's show which featured one of the best free TV matches of the year. This week's broadcast saw a decent match from Evan Bourne and Paul Burchill that while solid wasn't anything spectacular. Bourne did the same thing he always does by impressing to the maximum with the time given to him, as well as picking up a win over a much bigger opponent to try to help him get over as someone who can beat anybody. Something like that should lay the seeds for Bourne to get a push up the card to take on some of the bigger wrestlers that are available at the main event Championship level. Unfortunately for Bourne, no one cares about Paul Burchill because he hasn't done anything at all of note since returning from his injury and hasn't had the office behind him since he was a goddamn pirate. A match that could have helped solidify Bourne in the main event level and REALLY could have given Burchill a shot in the arm with some credibility ended up being something that will probably be forgotten in a week or two because of the way that the WWE has booked Burchill over the past few months.

The rest of the show in the ring was just awful. Hornswoggle defeated Natalya in a match that never should have even happened. Natalya is a new talent and trying to get over, alongside someone like Tyson Kidd who is getting his first big push, and for her to end up jobbing out to a midget in about two minutes is a disgrace. They cut her legs out from under her at the worst possible time as she was just beginning to establish herself on her own in the ring as well as part of the team with Kidd and possibly DH Smith who is now on ECW. Now it feels like all of that work has been derailed so that they could have a silly comedy moment. Add to that another Kozlov squash and this was probably one of the worst episodes of ECW in terms of action in the ring in quite some time. Even when they haven't had the best matches, they've managed to at least be good more than bad. This week it was bad more than good and I was left feeling pretty apathetic by the time the matches were done.

The disappointment of the wrestling for me was somewhat tempered by the fact that the end of the show with the contract signing for the Christian/Swagger ECW Championship match was very well done. You know that every contract signing is going to end up in fisticuffs these days and this one was no different but Swagger did a lot of solid work before the fight began. He held his own with Christian on the microphone after Christian had talked circles around him when he made his return to the WWE on the ECW brand and even managed to one up "The Instant Classic" a little before leaving him laying with the gutwrench powerbomb through a table. Swagger's been in the doghouse as of late, but things have fallen into place for him to deliver big time. He did well to not get buried by Christian on the mic since Christian can talk his way out of a paper bag and that sets him up for a big performance on Sunday. If he can pull it together and put on the same type of match that he had against Christian a month or so ago on ECW when they put on a fantastic free TV match, his stock could rise dramatically and he could continue the roll that began last week when he was booked on a nearly-equal level with World Heavyweight Champion John Cena.

All in all though, this was a bad show to sit through and hopefully things get better for ECW after all of the tumult of the Draft has settled because it surely can't get much worse.


The Stories



-- The big, big, BIG story on Tuesday was the news that the WWE is having trouble re-signing Jeff Hardy and that once his contract expires in 2-4 months, he could be gone from the company. Apparently, Hardy hasn't been very receptive to the WWE's offers, forcing the WWE to do something unthinkable and offer him a one-year deal that would allow them more time to try to get him inked to something long-term. I will say that this certainly explains a lot in terms of how the feud between Matt and Jeff has been booked to this point with Matt going over strong at every turn. There are a couple of ways to look at this situation, but here's my take on it. If Jeff feels like he just wants to do his own thing and get out of wrestling for awhile or possibly forever, this is probably the best move for him. I've seen people casting stones, suggesting that Hardy is wanting to get out of the WWE so that he can continue with recreational drug use. While I'm sure there would be a little herb in Jeff's day-to-day, I don't think you quit a multi-million dollar job because you want to do some drugs on the side. Besides, if Jeff is unhappy on the road because he doesn't want to be there, it's a dangerous place to be for someone with that type of addictive personality. It would be easy for him to start dropping some pills or something to try to numb out the sense that he's unhappy and could likely be more dangerous for him than quitting to pursue something else he enjoys doing like his art or his music. I'm sure that he's made enough through his WWE career to have a respectable life after the wrestling business and if that's the way he decides to go, who are we to judge his path? There's always the other side of the coin and that other side would be that Jeff does indeed want to quit the company and "live life on his own terms" by getting high as shit every day and doing whatever he wants without the restriction of a contract and drug tests. If this is the reason that Hardy is reluctant to sign off on new deal than it's a good thing he's going and I hope the door doesn't hit him in the ass on the way out. If someone wants to throw away a talent and a career because they want to do drugs, they deserve to fall out of the stupid tree and smash their face on every single branch. If he leaves to do his own thing, I'll wish him well, but if he leaves to do some chemical things, it's good riddance to bad rubbish.



-- Just when you thought the news out of Lockdown was over, even more stuff pops up as Tuesday saw confirmation that new TNA Knockouts Champion Angelina Love had suffered a concussion near the end of the bout after taking a top rope flying bodypress from Taylor Wilde. When I was watching the show, there was no doubt that she looked like she was completely out of it after that shot and I'm not at all surprised to know she ended up with a concussion. Big props to her for gutting it out and finishing the match the best way she knew how. It may not have looked very good, but I'm betting that it took everything she had to execute it and it just shows that while she may not be the best in-ring performer, there's no questioning her dedication to the business. It was a scary moment on the live show on Sunday, but it's good to know that she's going to make it out of it relatively unscathed with no major injury and that she'll be able to enjoy her first TNA Knockouts title run soon enough. TNA planned to have her used in non-wrestling segments during this week's Impact tapings and it's expected that she'll be able to return to wrestling by the next set of tapings. Well-wishes to Angelina on a speedy recovery for an injury that could have ended up a lot worse.



-- Former NWA, WCW and WWE manager and current TNA on-air talent Jim Cornette has opened up his own official website at jimcornette.com and he kicked off the site with a bang, writing the first of what will hopefully be many commentary pieces, discussing why hiring professional writers in professional wrestling is a bad idea. If you're familiar with Cornette's televised rants on Raw during the Monday Night Wars, consider these a written-word version of those segments. For those of you who didn't get a chance to see Cornette on fire during those rants, here's a sample.



Cornette is dead on the point with his first commentary and it's full of the same types of turns of phrase and corny Cornette jokes that are always entertaining. I loved Jim Cornette growing up as a wrestling fan, but didn't begin to appreciate him fully until I could hear him speak his mind on a variety of topics with Dave Meltzer in the alternate commentary for the Wrestling Gold DVD sets. Hearing his passion for the business and his knowledge of the history of professional wrestling gave me a newfound respect for him as he is one of the few guys in the business that will shoot straight with whoever he's talking to, no matter who it is. I would have to put Jim Cornette as a top five on my list of people I'd want to interview and his site is now a daily destination for me as in between commentaries he answers questions from the fans on a near-daily basis. As a total Cornette mark, it's tremendous watching him answer serious and silly questions alike. Great work, Jim and continued success with the site.


Wednesday


The Stories

-- Like most weeks, Wednesday saw things slow to a crawl on the news front. There were some rumblings about Paul London possibly making his first appearance in TNA as part of a tag team with Amazing Red during the Impact tapings, closely followed by London possibly killing his first appearance by not telling TNA of a prior back injury that kept him from making that appearance, but that was pretty much it. There was some news about the DVD release for John Cena's 12 Rounds movie (pretty telling that they're already making plans for the DVD release despite the movie opening a month ago), and it looks as if the DVD will feature many alternate endings that were filmed but not used. Be on the lookout for the ending that sees Cena drop a People's Elbow on the villain of the film while wearing a sandwich board sign that says "Look over here, Rock! Please, PLEASE LOOK OVER HERE!! I'M BEGGING YOU TO LOOK AT ME!!!!!".


Thursday


The Shows



WWE Superstars Results:

Rey Mysterio and CM Punk vs. The Big Show and Kane - Winners: The Big Show and Kane (pinfall, Kane Chokeslam on Punk)
Mixed Tag Match: Finlay and Hornswoggle vs. Tyson Kidd and Natalya Neidhart - Winners: Finlay and Hornswoggle (pinfall, Hornswoggle tadpole splash on Kidd)
Edge vs. Kofi Kingston - Winner: Edge (pinfall, spear)

Unfortunately, due to a scheduling conflict that left me unable to do the Impact report and my inability to add a new timer to the DVR, I wasn't able to see the entire Superstars show this week. I stepped into the show right around the beginning of the Mixed Tag Match and while I am sad that I did because of the way the match turned out, I'm glad that I did because it means that I can talk about it. I railed on the Hornswoggle/Natalya match during the ECW section and I'm going to do even more railing now because this was an even bigger disgrace. Hornswoggle over Natalya wouldn't have been so bad if it had led to Kidd managing to pick up a win over Finlay during this one, perhaps through nefarious means that allowed Natalya to get her revenge on the midget. Instead, we get a match that was even SHORTER than the ECW mixed singles match AND the damn midget gets to pin Kidd, completely devaluing him and destroying any work that they had put in on him on the ECW program. Granted, they haven't put much into him outside of a couple of squashes, but the kid had some real promise and could have been a very good heel foil for guys like Evan Bourne. Instead he gets pinned by a comedy act in a little over a minute. Total bullshit and thins like this are what are starting to hurt the WWE's product as a whole. Finlay and Hornswoggle are going to be eternally over because the kiddies love them. Kidd and Natalya need to have some kind of footing to get anywhere since they're just debuting. A bout that Kidd and Natalya desperately needed to win to save what little credibility they had left and they get jobbed out. Hopefully things can change with DH Smith on the brand with them, but I'm not holding my breath.

For as bothered as I was by that mixed tag monstrosity, the main event between Edge and Kofi Kingston was a breath of fresh air. I was hard on Kingston when the vignettes debuted because he seemed like he was going to be a comedy act all the way and knowing some of Kingston's work in developmental I felt like that was going to be a mistake. Kingston held his own during this match, which felt like it was a bit of an unintentional blow-off for Edge's attack on Kingston prior to the Raw Elimination Chamber match at No Way Out. These guys got twelve minutes and didn't have to suffer through a commercial interruption which meant that the match flowed really well and didn't feel disjointed at all. You knew that Edge was going to pick up the win to stay strong heading into Last Man Standing at Backlash, but he gave Kingston a lot in a good little back and forth match. If Kingston manages to get into the upper mid-card and busts through into the main event scene before too long, this is the match that people will likely be able to point to as the reason why. Great job from both men and with the emphasis that is placed on wrestling, Superstars is quickly becoming my favorite WWE show. I'm still not sure that they're going to be putting on shows this strong every week and I'm convinced that eventually it's going to turn into Heat, but for now I'm enjoying it while it lasts.




TNA Impact Results:

Team 3D Invitational: Beer Money Inc. vs. Lethal Consequences - Winners: Beer Money Inc. (pinfall, DWI)
Ladder Match For TNA Knockouts Title Shot: Sojournor Bolt vs. Taylor Wilde - Winner: Sojournor Bolt (retrieval, brass knuckles shot)
TNA Legends Championship: Kevin Nash vs. AJ Styles (C) - Winner: AJ Styles (disqualification, Booker-ference)
Team 3D Invitational: Team No Limit vs. Eric Young and Jethro Holiday - Winners: Eric Young and Jethro Holiday (pinfall, Young crucifix on Yujiro)
Jeff Jarrett vs. Scott Steiner - Winner: Jeff Jarrett (pinfall, Stroke)


TNA Impact had all of the fallout from Lockdown and while you would expect them to try to build on last week's momentum and pull out all the stops, this week's show felt really flat to me. They started things out with Mick Foley and Jeff Jarrett in the ring talking and Jarrett announcing the first title defense for Foley at the Sacrifice PPV in a fatal four-way match that will see all three of the challengers sacrifice something to be in the match. They better hide the goats and bunny rabbits in Orlando, that's all I'm saying. This segment was everything that was wrong with the two main angles of the company going into Lockdown. Firstly, Foley came out to a bit of a pop before half of the crowd chanted "Foley" and the other half chanted "Sting". I was on TNA in the past for their issue of booking both Foley and Sting as tweeners that the fans couldn't get fully behind and sure enough that's still the case now that the match is over. Neither guy benefits from that and it just illustrated the point I was trying to make during the build to the match. Secondly, this was Jarrett and Foley, two of TNA's forty-something crowd verbally sparring back and forth while the talented young guns who should be getting the chance to make an impression on the microphone sit in the back with their thumbs up their asses. It's starting to sound like a broken record, but pushing the main event level full of forty-year old talent without helping build any new stars is just asking for trouble once those guys call it a career. You'd think Jarrett would have learned that lesson the first time around with WCW.

Apparently that lesson wasn't learned as the main event of the show featured a "Cactus Jack Smack Attack" match between Jarrett and Scott Steiner as part of the fall-out from the pair's interaction at Lockdown. They brawled back and forth using a bunch of weapons that Mick Foley had laid out for the both of them. The intensity of the brawl was pretty much destroyed by the fact that they used some of the lamest weapons in professional wrestling history. Besides all of the usual kendo sticks and trash cans, we got to see things like Scott Steiner on a pogo stick ( I could almost hear Oklahoma yelling "POGO, POGO, POGO!!"), Steiner laying into Jarrett with a plastic Santa Claus and perhaps the most apt weapon attack of the match, Jarrett hitting Steiner with a walker. The only way that could have been more perfect is if Kevin Nash had been in the match and Jarrett hit him with a box of Just for Men. Not only did they use ridiculous weapons but the weapons that meant something that they had on hand that could have helped sell the intensity of a "twenty year friendship exploding", like an entire section of the ring walled in barbed wire, ended up unused and rendered pointless. The finish came with Jarrett waffling Steiner with a guitar before hitting the Stroke, like practically every match he was involved in in the late stages of WCW, before Kurt Angle came in to attack him. The high point for me was Foley's color commentary after the match when he said "I think he's gonna check on a helpless Steiner. Oh, I was wrong.." before Angle laid Jarrett out with an Angle Slam. For some reason that was laugh out loud funny to me. Fole ran off Angle and Steiner with a chair shot to Angle before completely laying Jarrett out with an even nastier shot. Jarrett called Foley out after the match, threatening to fire him but he was interrupted by another Bobby Lashley sighting. Like Lockdown, Kurt Angle was smiling and Jeff Jarrett was troubled by the appearance. To me the silliest part of this whole thing was that it was Angle, Jarrett, Foley and Steiner as the focal points while Christopher Daniels and AJ Styles stood in the ring like afterthoughts.

The other big development of the show saw the announcement of Team 3D's Invitational Tournament that will see teams from around the world competing for a trophy, $100,000 and a title shot against the TNA Tag Champs. While this could be fun to see some new teams come through TNA, this is likely little more than a vehicle to allow Beer Money to earn their way to another shot at Team 3D. This could be something cool as TNA could become a place that features tag team wrestling and with a few quality matches of a decent length, TNA could further differentiate themselves with a multi-week tournament that builds in tension until reaching a climax with the final. Instead, I'm guessing that we're going to see a lot of short matches, screwy finishes, wacky mismatched tag partners and Beer Money coasting all the way through to the finals. Meh. They can prove me wrong of course, but I'm not expecting them to move mountains especially after how things have gone off the rails in the past seven days.

The rest of the time, the show was the epitome of what goes wrong with TNA most weeks. The ladies ladder match was too short and not very good, even before Bolt managed to fuck up using a pair of brass knuckles. The Foley segments where he dragged the TNA Championship belt around to all of his daily stops had a couple of moments that made you chuckle, but for the most part they were painful to watch and not very funny at all. I get that they were just trying to show him as being a delusional ass that loves the title for all the wrong reasons, but it was just silly. If he drags that belt around any more, he'll give Tim Sylvia a run for his money. Everything else was just kind of there. Nothing exciting, nothing innovative, no Samoa Joe, no Motor City Machine Guns, nothing more than a show that did nothing to advance anything worthwhile or build on last week's momentum.


The Stories



-- Dragon Gate USA announced details for their debut show, which is set for the former ECW Arena in Philadelphia on July 25th. While no names or bouts have been announced, there are big plans for the debut show including collectible tickets, a meet and greet session that will feature a bonus match, and a DGUSA appreciation bag that will include show specific collectibles that will only be available in the gift bag. It appears that they're trying to introduce DGUSA as a premium brand of pro wrestling as stated in their press release and while I can understand them wanting to do something different, they're going to be hard-pressed to find success by trying to build this show off of brand recognition alone. There are the ROH fans who know about Dragon Gate from their past involvement with the promotion, but outside of that there aren't a lot of people in North America who even know that the company exists. Building sales off of a show with no matches and no listing of talent who will be appearing is a tough sell, no matter how many bags of free stuff you give away to people. As the weeks go on, this could end up as a better deal if they're able to announce some matches and build some buzz off of the wrestlers appearing, but for now this is looking like a bad idea.

-- More news regarding Bobby Lashley's situation involving TNA came to light on Thursday as he was announced as signing on for a May 15th fight against Mike Cook as part of the Canadian-based Maximum Fighting Championship's next card. This is on top of a proposed mid-summer date against Bob "The Beast" Sapp on another regional MMA card in Biloxi, MS. It appears that the deal will be for Lashley to continue working with TNA and that there are talks for a deal in place to work out a sponsorship deal for MMA and professional wrestling. As I said before, the only one that looks like they could end up being burned and the only one that will likely end up getting burned is TNA. Unless Lashley puts pen to paper and signs some sort of deal with them, they're taking a serious risk by putting him on television at all, let alone inserting him into the top storyline in the company. While I can see how working pro wrestling and MMA could work out well for Lashley short-term because he could continue to gain exposure for his MMA career while appearing on TNA television, there is also a chance that he could royally screw himself if he was ever to end up injured while performing in a TNA ring. My guess is that TNA made a big deal out of nothing, Lashley will make some appearances on TV and as a "special enforcer" or whatever the hell TNA ususally decides to make someone when they can't wrestle or don't want to wrestle and he'll cash TNA's check with a smile while promoting his fighting career. For everything that TNA does right, like Daniels' return to action, they promptly drop the ball by getting involved in a mess like this.



Friday


The Show



Friday Night Smackdown Results:


Matt Hardy and Kane vs. Jeff Hardy and CM Punk - Winners: Matt Hardy and Kane (pinfall, Matt roll-up on Jeff)
The Big Show vs. The Undertaker - Winner: The Big Show (KO, Show Punch SMASH!)
WWE Divas Championship: Gail Kim vs. Maryse (C) - Winner: Maryse (pinfall, DDT)
MVP vs. Chavo Guerrero - Winner: MVP (pinfall, Playmaker)
Cody Rhodes and Ted DiBiase vs. Batista and Shane McMahon - Winners: Batista and Shane McMahon (pinfall, Batista spinebuster on Rhodes)

The last show of the first week in the new-look WWE and the last show of the week from London actually brought a show that was fairly heavy on the in-ring action and the show benefitted for it. Before we get to that though, we'll talk about the strong promo work from both Edge and Jeff Hardy to help build to their respective matches at Backlash on Sunday. Edge was absolutely on fire with his show opener, showing the footage from the Raw beatdown on Cena as well as touching on the history that he and Cena have in their nearly three-year long feud. This one was a piece of promo master work from Edge and showed that he's easily strong enough to help carry Smackdown after the draft has finally taken hold and (hopefully) everyone stays on their own brand. Later in the show, Jeff Hardy talked about how he and Matt have had their history with Matt coming out on top each time and that when it comes to I Quit, he's planning to send Matt to Monday nights as a loser and a quitter. This wasn't quite as compelling as Edge's opening segment, but Jeff is doing a lot to help people continue to care about a feud where the babyface has lost convincingly in two straight gimmick matches. I'm not sure how things are going to shake out on Sunday as that's likely going to be a byproduct of what happens with the contract situation, but hopefully these two let it all hang out and give us an even better match than their first two.

Moving into the wrestling portion of the show, a lot of Smackdown's performers that were drafted got the chance to put on their final performances before trading shows. Chavo Guerrero and MVP had a solid little match and MVP continued his roll, beating Chavo on his way into a US Championship defense against Doplh Ziggler next week. The match itself was good work from two veterans, but my problem with it was that it made MVP look a little weak since he was unable to dispatch Chavo with ease despite the fact that Batista mauled him in under thirty seconds. Just because they're different brands, doesn't mean we forget and after seeing Chavito handled so easily on Monday, it's just silly to have him go 50/50 with someone who is expected to help carry a brand as a secondary champion that is being groomed for the main event level. Solid chemistry and execution from both men, just a match that didn't need to happen based on where both guys are in their careers if you ask me.

The Big Show ended up making his final appearance on Smackdown taking on one of his biggest rivals, literally and figuratively, in The Undertaker. These two got a LOT of time and while it felt the same as mostly every other Big Show/Taker match, it was still pretty good and they managed to make me care about a match that it feels like I've seen at least twice or three times a year since 1999. Unfortunately, much like the Cena/Jericho match on Raw, this one was a solid match that was knocked down a peg or two by a bit of a suspect ending. While this one has a leg up on Raw because it had an actual decisive finish, it was still a bit of a cop-out after having them go tooth and nail for nearly twenty minutes. I get that they need to protect both guys because of the upheaval of the draft, but I'm hoping that ends with Backlash and that starting next week we can actually have some definitive winners in matches again instead of parity booking straight across the board.

The main event of the final go-home show before Backlash featured the four men involved in Backlash's main event not named Triple H or Orton. After the miscue on Raw, Batista and Shane McMahon had to team with each other against Legacy and as with last week, Rhodes and DiBiase got time to shine, even in the loss. Batista did what he always does, which is power offense in short bursts, McMahon managed to not kill himself after nearly driving his tailbone through the mat on Superstars last week and even did well to help sell the dissension in the ranks that was planted on Monday after the Batista boo-boo. I can't say that I completely understand why they had Batista and McMahon go over, especially with the stipulations on Sunday night, when they could have easily had Rhodes and DiBiase get the pin on McMahon after some shenanigans left Batista on the floor. It would have kept Legacy strong heading into the match and would have further served to fuel the problems that the face team seems to be having. It would have made much more sense to me as it would have helped put Rhodes and DiBiase over as threats to the crown while giving McMahon and Batista another layer of tension going into the big match.


The Stories

-- TNA announced on Friday that one of their biggest pay-per-view events of the year, Slammiversary, will be headed to the Palace of Auburn Hills in Detroit, MI on June 21st. Here's a video confirming the announcement.



While it's great to see TNA expanding into new areas with their pay-per-view shows and while I think that it's going to be cool to see TNA on a larger arena scale, they need to consider the negatives to this as well. Lockdown just took place in wrestling-crazed Philadelphia and featured two of ECW's lynchpins winning the TNA Tag Team titles in a cage on top of a pseudo-return for one of Philadelphia's legends in Cactus Jack/Mick Foley. Despite all of that, they had to heavily paper the crowd to get the attendance up to 4,500. How in the world does TNA expect to fill a nearly-20,000 seat arena in Detroit going up against those kinds of odds? Like I just said, for everything TNA does that is a positive (announcing a new city for a PPV), they shoot themselves in the foot in the same breath (booking a massive arena that they'll likely never fill).



Saturday


The Show



ROH on HDNet Results:

The Dark City Fight Club vs. Grizzly Redwood and Andy Ridge - Winners: The Dark City Fight Club (pinfall, Dark City Street Cutter on Ridge)
Nigel McGuinness vs. Alex Payne - Winner: Nigel McGuinness (pinfall, Tower of London)
Chris Hero and Eddie Edwards vs. Jay Briscoe and Kevin Steen - Winners: Jay Briscoe and Kevin Steen (pinfall, Steen package piledriver on Edwards)
Bryan Danielson vs. Tyler Black - Winner: None (Draw)

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.

-- The Littlest Lumberjack you say.....well I think you're going to need a chainsaw to even have half a chance against DCFC, you Highlander looking mofo.

-- Contrary to popular belief, there is no truth to the rumor that the tattoo of writing on Davis' side is a recipe for his mother's chicken pot pie.

-- Holy hell, that double underhook overhead suplex looked VERY impressive. Is it wrong of me that I want Ridge to tag in that little woodcutter to see him fly around.

-- With the size of Chavis and the size of Grizzly, it almost looks like child abuse on Halloween watching Chavis fling him around the ring. I think that Grizzly almost got pounced out of his beard.

-- That was destruction. I can't wait to see DCFC against some of the top teams in ROH. They've got something about them that could make them huge stars in ROH and I want to see what happens when they take on teams like the American Wolves and Steenerico.

-- Kudos to ROH and HDNet for using their production skills to have Nigel McGuinness on the show despite his injury and title loss by editing out his entrance with the ROH Championship belt. Extra kudos to McGuinness for telling them to kiss his British ass. Good times.

-- The part of a grappling dummy will be played tonight by Alex "Sugar Foot" Payne. BWAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! I like the little touch that Dave Prazak added to the match by bringing up the past history between Payne and McGuinness.

-- I don't know if McGuinness has made plans for a career after wrestling, but he could definitely be an optometrist with how closely he was examining Payne's eyeballs with his fingers during that eyerake. Payne's lucky that he was able to keep it in his head.

-- I guess I'd better enjoy my Sweet and Sour while it lasts. I wonder how they're going to explain Sweeney away in the upcoming weeks on HDNet.

-- Prazak dropping knowledge again, bringing up the past match between Edwards, Hero, Briscoe and Steen. He's really picking up the slack that Hogewood is leaving behind and doing a great job this week.

-- I don't know, all four guys worked hard but that match just left me feeling a little flat. I think that it's just hard to see single portions of three great teams and not get to see the actual teams. Too much of a damn tease.

-- How awesome is Danielson for that facial expression as the fans started in with the "You're gonna get your fucking head kicked in" chant. That was tremendous and yet another of the many reasons why I love Danielson and am happy to get to see him on a weekly basis.

-- Solid chain wrestling from these guys so far and I'm impressed with how well Black is able to hang with Danielson so far. I hadn't seen a lot of Black before getting to see him in ROH and he's definitely living up to the praise that he's been given before then and since beginning his ROH career. He's got potential by the bucketful.

-- That hanging surfboard into the Dragon Sleeper is a beautiful submission finish and if Danielson doesn't use it as a finisher, I would love to see someone like Daniels get a hold of it in TNA. That move looked sick and was a great piece of creativity from Dragon.

-- Be on the lookout for a new segment on ROH on HDNet called Tyler Black: Male Prostitute because Danielson just laid the pimpiest of slaps right into his grill. That was NASTY.

-- WHAT......A......FINISH!! I don't have any bullet points for the last five minutes or so because that was just action firing on all cylinders. Fantastic moves, hot crowd, brilliant execution from both men. THAT is what Ring of Honor is all about and the fans on HDNet got to see it. Tremendous.


The Stories

-- The swine flu epidemic that is creating quite the panic in Mexico has had an unexpected casualty as for the first time since 1985, Arena Mexico will be shut down and there will be no lucha libre in the building this weekend. The last time the arena was shut down was due to a massive earthquake and it's believed that by cancelling all lucha libre shows this weekend, the government is hoping to cut down on infections by discouraging large gatherings of people. This is an unfortunate story to be sure as 60 people have already died from this strain of swine flu, but the government definitely made the right call here. With a large crowd of people coming from all over the country to see the show, the infection could have become more widespread and reached even further into the country than it already has. By keeping the flu cases isolated into a smaller area, there is a better chance of avoiding a mass infection until some sort of cure or vaccine or solution is found. While it sucks for the luchadors and their fans, this is ultimately for the greater good and I'm sure that everyone is happy with the decision.



-- TNA has a flurry of news snippets to close out the week as well as they announced on their website that Jay Lethal has re-signed with the company on a multi-year contract. Considering that these young stars are hopefully going to be the future of the company sometime soon, it's smart for TNA to be getting all of these guys locked into long-term deals to avoid losing them when they're in their prime. For all of the flack that I give to TNA, they're heading in the right direction by signing these guys long-term. Now if only they could book them properly, they'd have something.



-- TNA also announced that this Thursday on Impact, former X-Division Champion The Amazing Red will make his return to the company. Red was one of the guys that helped put the X-Division on the map as he and guys like AJ Styles helped carry the wrestling portion of the early weekly TNA pay-per-views. He suffered a serious knee injury that nearly ended his career in Japan in 2003 and came back to TNA for short stints in 2004, 2005 and 2006 before ultimately retiring in the beginning of 2006 after suffering another knee injury. He's since made a comeback on the independent circuit through the late stages of 2008 and early into 2009 and it looks as if he's going to be back in TNA beginning this Thursday. While I'm hoping for a long run since Red was one of the most exciting high-fliers in the X-Division, I'm not sure if his knees will be able to hold up for such a thing to happen. Either way, I'm happy that he's going to be back and I'm going to enjoy it for as long as it lasts.

-- Finally, TNA released their webmatch of the week this week and it was the highly-touted, five-star classic between Eric Young and Danny Bonaduce that took place during the Lockdown pre-show. For those of you who haven't had a chance to take a peek, check it out.



Yes, it was terrible. All in all though, I have to say that things could have gone much, much worse for this match. I was expecting all kinds of shenanigans that would have Bonaduce getting the win and making Young look even more foolish than he already has. Thankfully that wasn't the case and despite getting beaten down by Danny Partridge's nunchuks, Young is no worse than he was coming into this little debacle. I also have to admit that there was a part of me that was laughing HARD on the inside when Rhino nearly speared that little ginger midget out of his tights. It's a good thing that TNA didn't promote this very heavily because it would have turned into a disaster for them, but for what it was it was harmless and entertaining.

-- Since things are running a little long, I won't bore you with my thoughts on how Backlash will turn out and instead I'll just give you my quick picks for the show coming up on Sunday night.



Kane vs. CM Punk Winner: CM Punk
Chris Jericho vs. Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat Winner: Chris Jericho
I Quit Match: Matt Hardy vs. Jeff Hardy Winner: Jeff Hardy
ECW Championship: Christian vs. Jack Swagger (C) Winner and NEW ECW Champ, Christian
Last Man Standing for the World Heavyweight Championship: Edge vs. John Cena (C) Winner: Edge
Six-Man Tag Match for the WWE Championship: Randy Orton and Legacy vs. Batista, Shane McMahon and Triple H (C) Winners: Batista, Shane McMahon and Triple H


That does it for me this week. Stick around next week for my thoughts on Backlash and all of the rest of the televised wrestling action as well as all of the news and opinions you can shake a stick at. Randle's in tomorrow from the heart of Canada and as always, in the mean time and in between time I'll see you right back here next time for a brand new Bell to Bell! Enjoy the week, everybody!

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