Wrestling’s 4R’s Tuesday Edition 05.05.09: TNA Impact, WWE Superstars, WWE Smackdown and ROH on HDNet Reviewed!
Posted by Jeremy Thomas on 05.05.2009
Wilcox and Thomas take over as the Boss goes out of town…
Message From Larry! I was out of town this past weekend, so the schedule has been thrown off. Daniel Wilcox is stepping in this week to discuss IMPACT and SUPERSTARS. Jeremy will cover Smackdown as usual. Due to travel and other issues, the R's on ROH TV will run on Friday, along with Raw and ECW. Thanks for understanding, and enjoy the column!
In HD where available…
By: Daniel Wilcox
iMpact! 04.30.09:
THE RIGHT:
Stretcher Match: Awesome Kong vs. Madison Rayne: So Kong's quest for revenge on Angelina Love and The Beautiful People starts with this one-on-one match with Madison Rayne. Rudy Charles tossed all the others from ringside early, which then allowed Kong to obliterate Rayne. I liked the fact that Kong looked to inflict as much damage as possible despite the fact that she could have won the match within 30-seconds. And while the match wasn't exactly the most exciting thing you'll see on TV this week, it was simple and it was effective, re-establishing the fact that Kong is looking to kill some bitches dead. The stipulation probably wasn't really necessary, but it's not enough of a complaint to warrant this not being in the Right.
Matt Morgan Offers His Services to the Mafia: This seems like a really good idea if you ask me, for a couple of reasons. For one, Morgan doesn't seem to be going anywhere fast. There's not a lot for him to be honest, because most of the mid-card and all of the main eventers are wrapped in the Mafia/Frontline stuff that's still going on. Furthermore, the Main Event Mafia could really use a guy that's actually capable of keeping up with some of their younger opponents. There's only so many times Nash and Steiner and Sting and even Booker can go. They can't work all that well any more and it shows in their performances. Hence, Morgan would be a good addition for the Mafia because he'll have no problems working longer matches with faster and younger guys. Let's hope this goes somewhere good.
The Guns Call Out Suicide/Daniels: While I'd much rather the Guns advance in the Team 3D Tournament as I'll discuss later, this is certainly an intriguing scenario. The Guns have had enough of Suicide and are looking to find out who it is behind the mask. They seem to have found out that it's Christopher Daniels and so they call him out to explain his actions. Daniels comes out and while not really denying much, he does defend himself. This all led to Daniels having enough of the Guns and laying them out, but failing to hit the BME as the Guns escape relatively unscathed. I thought that this was a really strong segment with all three guys doing some good mic work to set up what could potentially be a really good angle going forward. I'm intrigued as to where this is heading, and hopefully Daniels will find a suitable partner to help tackle the Guns.
PURGATORY:
Kevin Nash and Booker T vs. AJ Styles and Samoa Joe: And this match perfectly illustrates my point. This was essentially a handicap match, and despite AJ being in there it was terribly boring, ridiculous slow-paced and uninspired. The whole thing with Joe didn't help either, and I felt it dragged the match down further. However, I've thrown this in the purgatory section because I'm so sick of these boring Impact tag matches involving the mafia that anything that looks like it's going to lead to a match between AJ Styles and Samoa Joe gets a big thumbs up in my book. AJ is right though, the whole Nation of Violence crap is just that, crap.
Opening Promo: Angle Makes A Sacrifice: So this week's show opened with Mick Foley explaining that he can get away with his actions from the previous week, because he's the champion, he doesn't work for Jeff Jarrett, he works with him. Fair enough, but wouldn't it be great if the relationships between the various members of TNA's management were better established? I mean, TNA has Jarrett, Foley and Cornette in charge, and at times it just doesn't make sense because seemingly each of their authorities' overrules that of the others. But whatever. We then go to the opening promo with Kurt Angle and the Main Event Mafia. Kurt Angle is now known as the Godfather of the Mafia, which is OK but I think already they're running the risk of running the gimmick into the ground by constantly referring to Angle as the Godfather. Angle then says he'll put his status as Godfather of the Mafia on the line at Sacrifice in the four-way title match. And Angle's going to employ a hostile takeover on Foley's office. Right, OK. This falls in purgatory because Angle's delivery, as usual, was pretty good here and he did a good job of putting over the whole Godfather aspect of the gimmick. I didn't like the hostile takeover stuff, it felt redundant and really, it didn't lead too much at all. But what makes this worse is that right after Angle's great promo, we see Mick Foley in the back, completely no-selling it, because he wasn't even paying attention. One step forward, two steps back.
THE WRONG:
Team 3D Invitational Tournament First Round Matches: So we got two more first round matches in Team 3D's Invitational Tournament, starting off with the Motor City Machineguns taking on Amazing Red and Suicide. Red looked pretty good in his return match up and as you'd expect from these four, the match was technically sound, fast-paced and very enjoyable to watch. All of that's great, but there were a lot of problems here, I felt. I'm going to sound like a typical whiney smark here but whatever, the regular tag teams like the Guns should not be doing the job to unestablished, thrown together teams. Especially the Guns, who are tremendously entertaining and more importantly they're very over. Furthermore, why is the X Division Champion in the tag title tournament? That doesn't make sense to me, and it's just another example of TNA having no idea what to do with half of their guys, even the champions. Stuff like this is just reminding me of the last tag tournament TNA ran, the infamous Deuce's Wild crapfest last year, which suffered from many of the same problems I've mentioned here. If this tournament is half as bad as that atrocity, it'll be awful.
Later in the night we were set to get LAX vs. The British Invasion. I see a lot of potential in anything involving Doug Williams, and in particular this all-Brit stable could be a welcome addition to the tag ranks of TNA. With Hernandez out injured I felt that having The Brits take him out backstage was a smart move, and it should have led to them then getting a decisive victory over Homicide to make them look a) like pricks that people will want to boo and b) guys who could actually beat the shit out of you. Instead, we got a prolonged handicap match where Homicide got in far too much offence for my liking. And it even took interference from Rob Terry at ringside for the British Invasion to get the win. So now they look like pussies who can only get the job done by taking out one guy backstage, and using all three members to beat the other guy in the ring. Genius. It didn't help that it was a painfully dull match.
THE RIDICULOUS:
Abyss vs. Cody Deaner: So this match was set up early in the evening with Deaner goading Abyss into a match by questioning his manhood and hitting on Lauren. The match had the completely random and pointless stipulation of allowing Deaner to use weapons, but not Abyss. Why? I thought Abyss didn't want to use weapons, so what's the point of that stipulation? Regardless, this was a tedious display of Abyss getting hit by a bunch of crappy looking weapon shots until he got bored and killed Deaner with the Black Hole Slam for the three count. Deaner has a horrible character and being paired with ODB probably doesn't help. But what the hell is going on with him getting all that offence on Abyss, and where is it leading? The answer is probably be nowhere, but such is life. Pretty much everything Abyss is involved these days seems to fall under this category as the guy is in essence becoming a self-parody. It's pitiful to watch, and it's going nowhere.
The Hostile Takeover: In a weird way, this was actually a fairly enjoyable segment, in that Foley's pseudo-arrogant new character is perversely entertaining and funny. I liked the line about not wanting to break Jarrett's guitar because of their problems, and also his request for Angle to be careful of his stitches. But for the love of God, this shit is not supposed to be funny. And I'm sick of TNA constantly hinting at big new names coming in and then for whatever reason they always fail to deliver. What happened to Foley's plan? Because it certainly didn't work. Having Sting come in and lay out Foley made sense, obviously, but overall the segment came off as cheesy and a mess. Frankly it reeked of Russo.
The 411
Since Lockdown, TNA seems to be making less and less sense. I've no idea who's in charge of the show, who's a heel and who's face, and this show did nothing to help solve or clarify those issues. This show dragged a hell of a lot and it didn't even have much in the way of wrestling to help it out at all, the exception being the tag match between the Guns and Amazing Red and Suicide. All of that said, this show hints at a few intriguing scenarios for the future, including the MCMG/Daniels angle, a potential Joe/AJ feud and the potential of Matt Morgan in the main event Mafia. Overall though, this was far from a good show, merely a return to the non-sensical styling of TNA.
As a reminder, I will be going by the 411 scale. Also, PPV rankings can and will likely change through out the year:
0 - 0.9: Torture 1 - 1.9: Extremely Horrendous 2 - 2.9: Very Bad 3 - 3.9: Bad 4 - 4.9: Poor 5 - 5.9: Not So Good 6 - 6.9: Average 7 - 7.9: Good 8 - 8.9: Very Good 9 - 9.9: Amazing 10: Virtually Perfect
SHOW RATING: 4.5
By: Daniel Wilcox
WWE SUPERSTARS 04.30.09:
THE RIGHT:
Evan Bourne vs. Paul Burchill: ECW was represented this week by Evan Bourne and Paul Burchill, who have had the odd confrontation on ECW in recent weeks so it was a nice bit of continuity to see them going one-on-one here. The match was pretty slow up to the commercial break, with Bourne getting in very little offence and Burchill controlling with a methodical pace. Just before the break Burchill blocked a top rope rana attempt, which lead to the knee injury that would then become the focal point of the match from then on. Burchill dominated from there with work on the knee as well as a couple of nice suplexes thrown in for good measure. Burchill's offence was good but it was matched by Bourne's selling, which was near flawless. I also liked that Katie Lea managed to get involved because too often managers/valets tend to add nothing to a gimmick and come across as really superfluous, which was not the case here. Eventually Bourne makes his come back and puts Burchill away with a one-legged Shooting Star Press. This was a really good outing for both guys and great way to represent ECW. I've no complaints with this match whatsoever.
Ted DiBiase vs. Carlito: First of all, I liked the short pre-match promo from Legacy. They addressed Shane's attack on Orton from Raw and said Shane would be taken out on Raw this week. This was a good way to hype Monday's show. But then they moved on to talk about tonight and said that they were after the Unified Tag Team Championships. When you've got guys saying they actually want the titles, the titles look important so this was a good thing. On to the match itself, the commercial kind of gutted it, but what we saw was pretty good stuff. It was sluggish before the break but really picked up down the stretch, and I liked the finishing sequence of DiBiase avoiding Carlito's springboard elbow and hitting Dream Street for the win. I also have to give credit to Michael Cole for remember Legacy's win over the champs a couple of weeks ago on SmackDown. A tag match for the straps would make a great addition to the Judgment Day card if that's how they decide to go.
PURGATORY:
Where has all the star power gone?: We're into week three of this new show and already it seems as though all the star power has gone. When this show began people were quick to say it'd become just like Heat, or Velocity, or whatever, essentially a showed that serves no real purpose. In the first couple of weeks WWE put some of their biggest names on the show, including Undertaker in the first week and Edge and John Cena in the second week. This week, no one on the show had anything even close to that kind of star power, which is a little disappointing if you'd tuned in expecting to see a big name or two.
However, it's no bad thing that mid-carders, tag teams and Divas now essentially have a show to themselves where they can get further exposure and importantly, more ring time than they would on their regular brand (this particularly holds true for the Raw guys). And while Superstars may end up resembling Heat, for now we've got mid-carders, not jobbers. So until Hacksaw Jim Duggan shows up, this show is rolling along nicely and giving more members of the roster an opportunity to shine.
Maria/Gail Kim vs. Michelle McCool/Alicia Fox: This week's show kicked off with some SmackDown Divas' tag team action, featuring Alicia Fox who just got drafted from ECW and yes, is apparently now a heel. I'm all for some of the Divas getting exposure on Superstars, and this match did just that. The match was, as you'd expect, nothing special whatsoever but I will say that Alicia looked fairly decent when in the ring, and even Maria had an OK night, despite selling the back when Michelle quite clearly kicked her in the head. Gail Kim looked great for the most part, but I will say that in places she was a little sloppy, noticeably on her cross body attempt. With the top female on SmackDown being Melina, I'd say that the right duo went over here as you need strong heels to challenge for the Women's Championship. So all in all, an OK but uninspired effort from the Divas, but nothing too offensive.
THE WRONG:
NONE
THE RIDICULOUS:
NONE
The 411
Ironically, despite the lack of star power on this show it may have been the most entertaining edition of Superstars yet. While there was nothing here too memorable, there wascertainly nothing bad and in one-hour the show managed to put over a potential tag title feud, highlight the Divas of SmackDown and show off one of the brightest young talents on ECW. The ECW and Raw matches were decent little bouts and are worth checking out. I can see this show really helping a lot of guys develop, and if you've got time to kill Superstars may turn out to be a good addition to WWE's TV line up after all.
As a reminder, I will be going by the 411 scale. Also, PPV rankings can and will likely change through out the year:
0 - 0.9: Torture 1 - 1.9: Extremely Horrendous 2 - 2.9: Very Bad 3 - 3.9: Bad 4 - 4.9: Poor 5 - 5.9: Not So Good 6 - 6.9: Average 7 - 7.9: Good 8 - 8.9: Very Good 9 - 9.9: Amazing 10: Virtually Perfect
SHOW RATING: 7.0
In HD where available…
By: Jeremy "NOT LARRY CSONKA" Thomas
WWE SmackDown 04.24.09
THE RIGHT:
SMACKDOWN IS JERICHO…OR IS IT?: SmackDown began with the emergence of our new Savior on Friday nights…the one and only Y2J himself. Jericho came down in his sharp suit to a strong heel reaction from the crowd, looking like he very clearly did NOT approve of whatever was on his mind. He pointed out how even though the commentators and colors had changed, we were all petulant tapeworms and he was the greatest superstar ever to be drafted to the Blue Brand. He gave us all a mission statement that we should forget everything we'd ever seen or heard, because SmackDown was his show and no one could do anything about it. Jericho scored further cool points by reminding us of his Slammy Award for Best Superstar of 2008 and bitched about having to be in the Fatal Four-Way match to determine the #1 Contender for the World Heavyweight Title but said he would win it anyway. This was classic Jericho, and he pulled out all the stops he's used on Raw for the last year: the SAT words, the disgusted attitude, the insulting demeanor toward the fans and talent, and simply brought his A game to his first SmackDown appearance since being drafted.
Of course, once Jericho mentioned winning the World Heavyweight Title it couldn't be left unchallenged, and so down came the champ to his own thunderous round of boos. He got on the mic and called Jericho out for not introducing himself so he did it himself, calling him Superstar of the Year, Tormenter of Senior Citizens and former World Heavyweight Champion. He pointed out that Cena had beaten Jericho for that title and Jericho's never beaten Cena, but Edge did just that at Backlash. Edge told Chris that SmackDown was HIS show and managed to out-heel Jericho, calling the Air Canada Center in Toronto the world's most famous arena—which the Madison Square Garden crowd of course went apeshit over. The playing of the egos against each other was just beautifully done, and they had the crowd chanting for Cena by the time they were done. In an arena like MSG, that's quite the accomplishment…and this set things up perfectly for the crowd to go nuts when CM Punk came out. He introduced himself to both men, telling Edge he could call him "Mr. Money in the Bank" and played the video from last year when he cashed in his Money in the Bank spot to beat Edge for the World Heavyweight Title. Punk was out to tell Edge that tonight—something was going to happen. Whatever it was, Jericho didn't care, and he ripped on Punk a bit, telling him to leave and delivering the great line "Do I make myself clear, Punk?" When Punk no-sold it, Jericho went off on a rant and headed off, leaving Rated-R and Punk in the ring. Edge prepared to leave as well, but Punk told him to wait up. He pointed out Vickie was no longer on SmackDown and the new GM had booked Punk against Edge tonight, non-title. Punk said he was also going to cash in the briefcase after he beat Edge. I gotta admit, that's a great way for Punk to use the Money in the Bank shot. There is no such thing as a non-title match for Punk right now, because Punk can win that non-title match, then cash in his briefcase and win the belt. Hell, even if he loses, he could come up behind Edge when the champ is celebrating and cash it in. I like the way they booked this, and all three men sounded good on the mic. The point of this seemed to be to get the crowd solidly behind Punk and accept him as a contender to the title. While I would like to point out that losing to Kane at Backlash doesn't help that matter much, this segment on its own sure as hell did a good job of re-elevating him and I heartily approve.
FATAL FOUR-WAY #1 CONTENDER'S MATCH: Assumedly, this is why Shelton and Morrison got cut short. Justin Roberts gave us the rules, accompanied by a little screen graphic, before Rey Rey came out to a hot little pop from the crowd. Out came Kane, followed by the Day-Glo Warrior (with only minor and semi-half-assed makeup, for those keeping track) and lastly OUR Savior, who had just had a close encounter with the Great Khali backstage and been told to stop whining. They went to chaos at first before Kane tosses Jericho, then Rey out of the ring to stand tall at the first commercial break. When we came back, Jeff countered a top-rope clothesline with a dropkick to kill Kane's momentum and then it evened out, settling into a "two people down, letting the other two wrestle" motif. This worked out quite well and we got a lot of great spots, culminating in Jericho pulling Day-Glo off of Kane after a Swanton so that he could make the pin. Kane left Jericho lying on the mat after the pin and then wiped the floor with everyone, leaving a chair in the ring. Jericho ended up using the chair in desperation to stop Rey, which led to a disqualification, and turned into a face vs. face match to finish things out. I was fine with Kane losing the way he did, and Jericho's loss protects him well enough, so these eliminations worked fine and let the two fan favorites stay in the match. At this point the match turned into a good, solid fast-paced between the two. We had a lot of fun spots, and Jeff got to play a role he rarely—if ever—plays, that of the bigger man. To his credit, he did it pretty well, not botching spots like catching Rey off the springboard moonsault and handling things nicely enough. Both of these guys can be sloppy from time to time but they handled it all really nicely, executed effectively, and the right man went over to send Jeff onward to face Edge at Judgment Day. Why is he the right man? Because Jeff can have great matches with Rated-R and I can say with some certainty that Edge won't lose the title after a month, and a loss won't hurt Jeff all that much. Thus we have solid booking and a really good match that played very well on TV. That's a winner.
DOLPH ZIGGLER vs. MVP: Before the match, we had a backstage segment with Montel talking to Sherri Shepherd, who was of course going to be in his corner. You know what, as weird as this whole association with the View is, I have to admit that Sherry actually did really well in this brief segment. Hell, make her a General Manager, at least she doesn't sound like she's reading off an invisible teleprompter. Dolph got a decently big entrance making his way down to the ring and grabbing a mic so he could introduce himself and knock the New York crowd. That brought out M.V.P. and Sherry, who shockingly got a decent pop all on her own. Madison Square Garden fans ALWAYS amuse me. J.R. proceeded to let us know that he was a big fan of the View—too much information, I think—and the match got started. Dolph took control early by juking the champion to the outside, but Sherri got in his face and gave Montel a chance to come back. They booked Sherry's involvement throughout this match, and had she not taken it seriously then this match would have been a joke. However, she clearly took her job very seriously, and say what you want about her tendency to say stupid-ass shit on the View (examples: "I don't know" when being asked if the world was flat and stating that the Jesus was born before the Roman empire), but she did a shockingly good job here. Meanwhile, M.V.P. and Dolph worked quite well together, and this did help establish Dolph on SmackDown a bit. Yes he lost of course, but he looked good in doing so and he's definitely not the joke that he had become on Raw. I never thought I'd say this, but a match involving a member of the View gets the Right from me.
EDGE vs. CM PUNK: Edge came out first for the main event, getting the crowd nice and riled up so they could pop big for Punk…which, of course, they did. The point of this match seemed to be getting Punk over huge with his re-introduction to the SmackDown crowd, and they undoubtedly succeeded at that. One of the biggest problems with Punk's title reign is that he never really looked like a threat against the big names on Raw…he seemed completely unable to defeat the top tier talent unless someone else came in to help him out, even if for their own reasons. This match had Punk look very solid and even controlling of the match at times against Rated-R, at the same time selling for the champion quite nicely. This was a good, competitive match-up between the two that saw a lot of give and take. Punk was still the plucky face that we saw during his World Heavyweight Title reign, coming back against Edge again and again, but it never had that feel of desperation that he was booked into on Raw. They teased the G2S a couple of times and had Edge counter it, including a nice counter into a Sharpshooter at the end of the match, which really got Mr. Money in the Bank's "never say die" attitude over with the crowd. From there he slipped out of a suplex and hit the G2S for a clean pin over the World Heavyweight Champion…seriously, talk about establishing a guy right into the main event scene. It was a match booked right to get one guy over without hurting another or resorting to screwjob finishes, and I loved it.
Of course, we didn't see him cash in the Money in the Bank shot—after Jeff won the Fatal Four-Way it didn't seem likely. In this case it was because Umaga came out to superkick Punk and wipe him out. This works fine for me, because I imagine that Umaga will be a decent feud for Punk while Jeff and Edge do their thing, and a win over the Samoan Bulldozing Machine can really solidify what this match did for the man. It was a great way to end the show, especially with Jeff coming out to stop Edge from attacking Punk and Swantonning him.
PURGATORY:
JOHN MORRISON vs. SHELTON BENJAMIN: Talk about a match with a lot of potential here. This was Morrison's "Welcome to SmackDown as a singles guy" match, and they couldn't have picked a better opponent, with Shelton looking rather strong as of late. The placing of two heels against each other was interesting, and speaks both to the overstacking of the bad guys on the Blue Brand and the likelihood of Morrison toward becoming a face. Really, when you consider that he's been turned on by Miz and this, then add in what looks to be a potential Jericho/Morrison feud from the last segment before the main event and it certainly seems to be in the cards for him. The match itself was fairly good…a little disappointing perhaps, as I was hoping for something special from these two, but they weren't given anything even CLOSE to enough time to tell a story in the ring. Morrison got the very convincing win, which shows that they're serious about pushing him, although it makes me concerned about how they see Shelton. He lost in a match with about as much length to it as the kinds that Chavo or Jimmy Wang Yang lose in, and while I don't think that he's anywhere near that status, this does make me wonder if they have any plans for the Gold Standard. For as long as it was, it was pretty decent, but that's not saying a lot.
THE WRONG:
NADA
THE RIDICULOUS:
BUMPIN' AND GRINDIN' WITH LAYLA LONDON: In our third set of Draft reviews, we were reminded that Shad and JTG had been drafted to SmackDown in the Supplemental Draft, which brought the duo down to the ring to a moderate fan reaction. Todd Grisham asked to be referred to as "TG;" sorry, man, but T-Grish is going to have to do. Cryme Tyme did the "Yo! Yo! Yo, yo, yo!" thing and pointed out that they were both debuting on SmackDown and appearing in their hometown for the cheap pop. Apparently, they were here to show us women dancing in a "Brooklyn Breakdown," and the competitors were Layla—who apparently and inexplicably has ditched her distinguished Regal outfits for a more skanky style of dress and a frizzed-out haircut. Next was the "Notorious E.V.E." and we got Eve, who retroactively gets an honorable mention in the Top 5 we did recently for Worst Entrance music. Layla apparently wanted to go first, and she started bumping and grinding to the new Black Eyed Peas song before Eve got her chance to do the same. They traded dance moves, and don't get me wrong Eve was appropriately hot, but—that's right, folks, get ready to rant about how I can't just sit back and enjoy things. What the hell was up with Layla here? Seriously, it's like this is Layla's skank-ass twin, because outside of being a bitch and attacking Eve because she lost, that woman had nothing to do with the Layla we've seen for months. Did Regal dump her and send her into a depression that caused her to end up working the streets, or is he just making her work the streets? Either way she looked like a cheap hooker here, and it was just terrible. The point of this segment was to get Cryme Tyme introduced to the Blue Brand as fun-loving guys and get them familiar with Layla, and it did that I suppose, but the whole betrayal of Layla's character drove me nuts. Hey, Layla…what was your reaction when you came to the arena and found out this is what you were going to be doing?
Figured as much.
The 411
Monday was the new era of Raw, and Friday was the new era of SmackDown; both are looking quite promising, though I have to admit I'm more excited about the Blue Brand. Raw may have the big stars, but SmackDown has the "Just Bubbling Under" talent that can flourish without having to worry about jobbing to the main eventers on Monday night. We had some really good matches including the fatal four-way, the US Title match and the main event. The bad was pretty stupid, but I'll take only one major thing to bitch about considering the great stuff we got. If they keep this up, we'll have a happy Jer.
SHOW RATING: ***¾
Comment Time with Jeremy!
From B.Mo.:
I was live for Raw, and while I was LOVING the MVP stuff, I swore a lot of that chant was piped after watching it on DVR. The crowd was into MVP but went absolutely insane for Shane. It was the biggest pop I've heard in an arena that small.
It's entirely possible that it was piped in, B. They've done it before, and it didn't sound like their usual piped in chants but if you said you were there I'll certainly take your word for it. The crowd always loves Shane, and that's why whenever they bring him out it's always in something big. They did pop pretty big for him on Monday.
From Shockmaster:
RANDY ORTON vs. MVP: I also really liked this match and how it was set up, save for the overly long gabfest before MVP came out. I agree the Shane stuff was far more plausible than earlier in this feud. I just worry that MVP's reactions are still based on his opponents and not him. He has a tendency to wave his arms at the crowd to get them worked up, and that smells of desperation. Mickie James does it too and it always makes me tense.
THE MIZ SPEAKS!: Let this lead to a good match with Cena and a solid midcard push. This guy can make it big if he's supported and keeps inproving his ring work.
THE BRIAN KENDRICK vs. KOFI KINGSTON: Criminally short and helps no one. They should have cut the Matt/Goldust non match and done this right.
BIG SHOW vs. BATISTA: This is why I gave Taker props for a good match with Show a week earlier. Batista and Kane should NEVER be allowed to wrestle Big Show again. As for the booking, I'm in Chicago and this did nothing to make me want to buy a ticket for Judgment Day. Congrats to Batista on being a placeholder until H gets his revenge. You know, again. As for Cena, I expect as much. At least he's another guy who can have a good match with Show.
It is entirely possible that MVP's reactions are more based on his opponents, though I did note that he got a good pop on SmackDown, and Dolph isn't exactly lighting people on fire. But either way, this is sorta how it works...if they keep putting him up against the hot heels, then eventually people will start to cheer for him. Call it Pavlovian wrestling, but it just works that way. I would love to see Miz take on Cena in a good, solid match that got him over. Obviously we shouldn't hold our breath hoping for a Miz win there, but he could get the Swagger rub and take off from there. I'm 100% in agreement with you that they should have cut either Kofi/Kendrick or Matt/Goldust and made the other more significant, and yeah, that match with Batista showed exactly why Taker deserves a lot of credit for his good match with Show.
From KanyonKreist:
I think Matt Hardy could've benefited a lot from NOT showing up on Raw to get a cheap win over Jobdust the night after his loss to Jeff. The attention spans of WWE fans aren't nearly as abysmal as the bookers seem to think. Are we really going to forget about Matt Hardy if we don't see him on Raw one night? I guess this falls under the philosophy that ANY television time is better than no time, which is absolute, undiluted bullshit. Why knock out poor Goldie with a cast and get a cheap, meaningless win, when you could have Matt come back in three or four weeks --with the cast still on, of course -- and make some sort of IMPACT, maybe get involved with some babyface they aren't doing anything with (who happen to number in the dozens)...? I guess that's as good a place as any to end a rant. What do you think about V1's situation on Raw, JT?
I'm actually hopeful for Matt on Raw. Obviously, he's not going to be headlining any Pay-Per-Views, but he'll be a solid upper midcarder if they play it right. They probably could have held off on bringing him out for a few weeks, but I don't think they did any damage to him by bringing him out early...in fact, I think it's a show of confidence in the Sensei, because it would have been easier to hold off but they obviously wanted him to be shown in the "here's our new drafted superstars" showcase, and that works just fine for me.
From JcJames:
On another note, why is it that so many of you writers take this so serious? It seems that a lot of writers prefer scripted wrestling to be real somewhat by having no comedy attached to it. Anytime (not only Santino) a comedy sketch is added you guys go crazy even though WWE has preteens as fans, seems like a few writers just need to lighten up and enjoy the sketches. At times.
James, I've covered my philosophy on this many times. I like good comedy matches, and if you look back you'll see where I've praised them when they do the right thing. The problem is that even comedy segments should be there to help get talent over. Most of the 'E's comedy these days doesn't do that, it just buries whatever talent is being made to look like a goof. Believe me, when there's a comedy promo or segment that plays right, I'll be praising it...wait and see. If, you know, they ever get around to doing that again.
2009 PPV Rankings:
-ROH RISING ABOVE {8.0}
-WWE NO WAY OUT {8.0}
-[ROH RISING ABOVE] – I QUIT MATCH: Jimmy Jacobs vs. Austin Aries (****¼)
-[TNA GENESIS] - Kurt Angle defeated Jeff Jarrett (****¼)
-[TNA GENESIS] - X-Division Title Match: Alex Shelley defeated Chris Sabin (****¼)
-[NO WAY OUT] – THE RAW ELIMINATION CHAMBER (****¼)
-[WRESTLEMANIA] – MONEY IN THE BANK (***¾)
-[CAGED COLLISION] #1 CONTENDERS MATCH – Tyler Black vs. Jimmy Jacobs vs. Bryan Danielson vs. Austin Aries (***¾)
-[CAGED COLLISION] ROH WORLD TITLE MATCH – Nigel McGuinness vs. El Generico (***¾)
-[TNA LOCKDOWN] – PHILLY STREET FIGHT: IWGP vs. TNA TAG TEAM TITLE MATCH – Team 3D vs. Beer Money (***¾)
-[TNA DESTINATION X] - X-Division Title Ultimate X Match: Suicide defeated Alex Shelley, Chris Sabin, Consequences Creed and Jay Lethal (***¾)
-[WWE ROYAL RUMBLE] – THE ROYAL RUMBLE MATCH (***¾)
-[WWE ROYAL RUMBLE] – WWE TITLE MATCH: Edge defeated Jeff Hardy (***¾)
2009 PPV MVP AWARDS: Not every PPV will have one, it just depends on who I think steps up and deserves some extra recognition.
-[TNA GENESIS] Sabin, Shelley, Angle and Jarrett – Rocking The House
-[ROH RISING ABOVE] – Danielson and McGuinness - Defining the ROH World Title
-[WWE ROYAL RUMBLE] – RVD – The Joke Pays Off
-[NO WAY OUT] – EDGE – The Ultimate Opportunist
-[WRESTLEMANIA] – HBK and The Undertaker – Stealing the Show
-[ROH CAGED COLLISION] – Nigel McGuinness – Better Than You Sugar Nuts
-[TNA LOCKDOWN] - Christopher Daniels – Pulling Double Duty
-[BACKLASH] – Edge and John Cena – Stealing the Show
2009 TOP TV Match Rankings:
I will update as often as needed.
-Bryan Danielson vs. Tyler Black – (ROH on HDNet: 04.25.09) {****}
-Shawn Michaels vs. John Cena - (Raw: 01.12.09) {****}
-Evan Bourne vs. John Morrison - (ECW: 04.14.09) {****}
-Christian vs. Jack Swagger - (ECW: 02.24.09) {****}
-Bryan Danielson vs. Austin Aries – (ROH on HDNet: 04.04.09) {***¾}
-Kurt Angle vs. AJ Styles – (Impact: 01.22.09) {***¾}
-Beer Money vs. Team Canada – (Impact: 02.19.09) {***¾}
-Lethal Consequences vs. Motor City Machine Guns – (Impact: 02.19.09) {***½}
-Edge vs. John Cena - (Raw: 03.02.09) {***½}
-Primo vs. The Miz - (ECW: 03.10.09) {***½}
-Undertaker vs. Shelton Benjamin - (Smackdown: 01.09.09) {***½}
-Undertaker vs. Shelton Benjamin - (Smackdown: 04.17.09) {***½}
-Matt Hardy vs. Jeff Hardy - (Smackdown: 04.10.09) {***½}
-John Cena vs. Chris Jericho - (Raw: 04.20.09) {***½}
-Edge vs. Kofi Kingston - (Superstars: 04.23.09) {***½}
And I'm out of here!
TWITTER
I don't use it, but Ashish says he'll stop paying me if I don't put this here…
I'll admit that I reacted less graciously than you did, JT, to the abrupt ending of the Morrison/Benji match.
It's just that I've been getting accustomed to seeing good 10-minute matches on Smackdown in recent months, and was expecting something special from these two extremely able in-ring performers. The squash left a sour taste in my mouth, as it was spewing forth a stream of obscenities. And after Shelton gave the UNDERTAKER a run for his money just a couple weeks ago??
Clearly, the only silver lining is that Morrison seems to already have a secure upper-midcard status on Smackdown.
Posted By: KanyonKreist (Guest) on May 04, 2009 at 11:30 PM
Furthermore, why is the X Division "Champion in the tag title tournament? That doesn't make sense to me, and it's just another example of TNA having no idea what to do with half of their guys, even the champions"
Well I do believe it was a last minute replacement for Paul London and the match was pretty good. And for the other tag match with LAX and the British Invasion it was a way for them to get Hernandez off tv.
Posted By: David (Guest) on May 05, 2009 at 12:01 AM
And why was the foley/angle thing not supposed to be played for laughs? It was played for laughs and it worked perfectly. Not to mention it continued on foley's quest of insanity due to him setting up angle by acting scarred and then he goes crazy.
Posted By: Havok (Guest) on May 05, 2009 at 12:16 AM
"Believe me, when there's a comedy promo or segment that plays right, I'll be praising it...wait and see. If, you know, they ever get around to doing that again."
They were pretty close with that Festus segment last night since the crowd LOVED it and still hate Jillian singing as always. They also hated Miz for his (somewhat typical) harassment of Festus.
Only problem is that Festus and Jillian won't be pushed (I suppose I can understand, however, since they are pushing new guys who have a much better chance of succeeding)
Posted By: Big Lantern Ghost (Guest) on May 05, 2009 at 12:22 AM
Yes! Finally someone agrees with me on the Layla thing!
Layla for the past 9 months or so was portrayed as "We all know I am better than you" heel and all of the sudden she's a whore? Well, that's another problem I hate. Everytime Cryme Tyme get's some Dyva Tyme, they get turned into booty shakin' sluts.
Posted By: Eboney (Guest) on May 05, 2009 at 12:27 AM
From Shockmaster:
RANDY ORTON vs. MVP: I also really liked this match and how it was set up, save for the overly long gabfest before MVP came out. I agree the Shane stuff was far more plausible than earlier in this feud. I just worry that MVP's reactions are still based on his opponents and not him. He has a tendency to wave his arms at the crowd to get them worked up, and that smells of desperation. Mickie James does it too and it always makes me tense.
_______
How would someone find this irritating? I always thought you WERE suppose to get the fans involved and gain reaction?
Especially in the last few months that Smackdown use to get double-taped. With people sitting there for hours, looking dead and emotion-less in the camera, I would pray for Mickie James, MVP or John Cena to get SOME emotion out of those bastards. You're at a fucking wrestling event. CHEER - do something!
Posted By: Kato (Guest) on May 05, 2009 at 01:47 AM
WTF with everything you rated on Impact. I don't get why people nitpick this show to death. It's actually not that hard to get. Why wouldn't u use an established team to put over a team that is less experienced. Isn't that what puttin someone over entails. And for the guns to "job" to Red and Suicide only leads into their storyline with Suicide. Kills two birds with one stone.
Posted By: bighustle (Guest) on May 05, 2009 at 02:26 AM
"I've covered my philosophy on this many times. I like good comedy matches, and if you look back you'll see where I've praised them when they do the right thing. The problem is that even comedy segments should be there to help get talent over. Most of the 'E's comedy these days doesn't do that, it just buries whatever talent is being made to look like a goof. Believe me, when there's a comedy promo or segment that plays right, I'll be praising it...wait and see. If, you know, they ever get around to doing that again."
Case in point, back in the good old days of early 2001, when Kai-En-Tai started the "We Are Evil...Indeed" promos, not only were they funny as hell, they got two virtual jobbers to the point when they were a very fun part of the show. Good stuff.
'Indeed' Funaki > Kung Fu Naki
Posted By: Loki (Guest) on May 05, 2009 at 03:46 AM
that's another problem I hate. Everytime Cryme Tyme get's some Dyva Tyme, they get turned into booty shakin' sluts.
Posted By: Eboney (Guest)
Thats wat i LOVE, Some non white gurrls
shakin thier hot asses
Posted By: Guest#3837 (Guest) on May 05, 2009 at 05:29 AM
LMAO Please never stop using that Layla pic. It is genius
Posted By: Sam (Guest) on May 05, 2009 at 05:56 AM
A friend of mine was at the tapings and Edge did not come out thunderous boos..but cheers. Jericho was booed out of the arena though.
It's ridiculous for them not to give Shelton/Nitro a good 15 minutes...they usually do on Smackdown but acted like they couldn't and gave Morrison a win after getting killed during the 5 minute match by Benjamin. Stupid.
CM Punk gets beat by Kane at Backlash but beats the Heavyweight Champion clean on Friday just to set up a match with Umaga of all people. That's weird booking too but the rest of the show was good.
Good to see Sting back and putting an end to this Godfather idiocy Angle was spitting. Kong is already more over than most male fans on Impact but that's been the case even with her as top heel.
We need more Katie Lea..don't care if it's ECW or Superstars. I just want more..she's away good on the mic to be going to waste like this.
Posted By: Mr. DiMera (Guest) on May 05, 2009 at 07:38 AM
"I'm intrigued as to where this is heading, and hopefully Daniels will find a suitable partner to help tackle the Guns."
Hopefully, after Kaz gets over his injury, Daniels will team with Suicide!
Failing that, I see nothing wrong with AJ taking a break from squabbling with Joe and his TNA title quest to give us a Phenomenal Angels vs The Motor City Machine Guns match - that has MOTYC written all over it.
Posted By: Mr Quimby's Beard (Guest) on May 05, 2009 at 07:42 AM
csonka you totally underrated smackdown again!
Posted By: thomas = csonka (Guest) on May 05, 2009 at 08:50 AM
Can anybody explain what the hell TNA is trying to do with Samoa Joe?? I've never seen a whinier, less sympathetic, douchebag of a character in wrestling who I THINK is actually SUPPOSED to be considered a bad ass.
Who is he mad at? Why is he mad? Does he want or even care about the title? Is he a heel or a face? Why should ANYONE cheer for this guy? Does he ever plan on adding anyone else to his "Nation of Violence"? Shouldn't a "Nation of Violence" have more than one member in its "population"? Shouldn't a true "bad ass" be able to fight without knives, swords, other assorted bullshit weapons?
WTF??
Posted By: Dave (Guest) on May 05, 2009 at 10:18 AM
Obviously we all know that you will see Suicide(Kaz) and Daniels face off against the motorcity machine guns at some point..great angle
Posted By: Guest#3026 (Guest) on May 05, 2009 at 11:34 AM
Larry, I think it's good that Homicide got a lot of offense. He's going to be going it alone the rest of the year and he always does the job when LAX loses. Starting him off looking like a bug on a windshield would be bad.
Alicia Fox completely blew the first two moves she was involved in and has a long way to go. I don't believe Gail just forgot how to wrestle after a few months away.
SMACKDOWN IS JERICHO…OR IS IT?: When Jericho said how the scenery had changed but everything else was the same, to me it just underscored that he's been cutting the same promo for a solid year. "Grrrr, I'm angry and feel disrespected. You're all hypocrites." Insult, insult, cue face music and interruption. Face sucks up to fans, insults Jericho, a match is made. Please get a new act. Weren't we specifically told on draft day that Edge and Jericho are friends? Then you've got the bland Punk hopelessly trying to keep up with Edge on the stick, and Edge inexplicably selling Punk as a threat despite beating him clean on Smackdown previously and Punk having almost zero momentum. I get what they were going for with this segment but it just felt forced and random.
FATAL FOUR-WAY #1 CONTENDER'S MATCH: While I love the elimination format, a heel champ meant a face had to win, and with Edge/Rey having been done we had a foregone conclusion here. The match was good though so it's only a minor gripe.
DOLPH ZIGGLER vs. MVP: JR said that after Backlash the brand split would be in full effect. Why wasn't this match on Superstars? Anyway, Star Jones V2.0 annoyed me terribly and dragged this match down. At least it did Dolph a lot of good. I won't even get into the notion of any man on earth watching The View.
EDGE vs. CM PUNK: The ONLY reason the outcome gets a pass is the announcers repeatedly selling that Edge was less than 100% from Backlash. The cash-in swerve was brilliant, letting us think Punk was going to get speared and lose. As someone who finds Punk ridiculously overrated it could be great fun waiting for him to slip on a banana peel and blow his chance. They must know a lot of us think he will be the first to lose and playing into that is smart booking.
The Cryme Tyme segment is what DVR's were made for.
Posted By: Shockmaster (Guest) on May 05, 2009 at 11:44 AM
"…and this set things up perfectly for the crowd to go nuts when CM Punk came out."
hyperbole much?
Posted By: Guest#2323 (Guest) on May 05, 2009 at 02:40 PM
: bighustle
WTF with everything you rated on Impact. I don't get why people nitpick this show to death. It's actually not that hard to get. Why wouldn't u use an established team to put over a team that is less experienced. Isn't that what puttin someone over entails. And for the guns to "job" to Red and Suicide only leads into their storyline with Suicide. Kills two birds with one stone.
Thanhk you!
Everytime TNA does shit like this it garbage,but when WWE does its smart.
Posted By: Jason (Guest) on May 05, 2009 at 05:42 PM
I think it's time you added another "R".
You need to start discussing uRinal cakes!
Posted By: Llyod Braun (Guest) on May 05, 2009 at 10:05 PM
