The Bell to Bell News Report 05.31.09

Posted by Randy Harrison on 05.31.2009

A painfully slow news week, but there's still plenty to talk about as TNA had a pay-per-view and John Cena tried again to goad The Rock into one more match. The WWE finally found a venue to host Raw and the show wasn't quite what it should have been. All that and the usual hockey talk heading into the Stanley Cup Finals is just a click away...




It's the last Sunday of May, summer is just around the corner and it's time for another edition of the Bell to Bell! Tough week this week for news as there was next to nothing happening, not even any huge stories like last week's WWE debacle. It might make for a bit shorter column this week, but I assure you that I won't be skimping on the quality at all. I've got my thoughts on TNA Sacrifice, the Lakers/Nuggets match from Raw, John Cena trying for the millionth time to latch onto The Rock's coat tails and an unfortunate passing in the sport of one of the legends of the ring.

With all of that to get to, I considered forgoing the hockey talk this week, but with Detroit all the way in the Stanley Cup Finals, I couldn't bring myself to do it. The Wings finally dispatched of the pesky Chicago Blackhawks and moved on to a Finals rematch with the Pittsburgh Penguins, who the Red Wings beat in six games to lift Lord Stanley's Cup last season. While a lot of the pundits feel like the Penguins are the team to beat this year because of all of the hype going behind Crosby and Malkin, they're forgetting how many pieces from last year are missing from the Penguins team, including Marian Hossa, who now skates for the Winged Wheelers. The other thing they're forgetting is how steady Chris Osgood has been between the pipes all playoffs long and how young skaters like Jiri Hudler and Darren Helm are coming into their own. It's not just Datsyuk and Zetterberg for the Wings and that depth could likely be the key to them lifting the oldest trophy in professional sports for a second straight year. Unfortunately for me, I'm missing out on getting to talk about Game One as the finish will be right around when my deadline hits, but rest assured I'll be watching it and watching Game Two on Sunday night as well.

Not only is the NHL crowning their champion, but their minor league, the AHL, is crowning theirs as well, with my hometown Manitoba Moose vying for their first AHL title and the first professional hockey title in the city for thirty years. They're going up against the Hershey Bears in the finals and it's got the potential to be a great series as they were 1-2 in the standings and 1-2 in attendance all season. It somehow seems only fitting that the two crown jewels of the AHL will battle for the Calder Cup. With a sell-out for Saturday night's first game and a likely sell-out for the second game, the Moose will likely and hopefully be able to use that home-ice advantage to finish off the best season of hockey that Winnipeg has seen since the last days of Bobby Hull and the WHA.

Alright, alright, let's get to the wrestling that you all know and love. Ring the bell and we'll get this report underway!



Sunday


The Show



TNA Sacrifice Results:

Eric Young and Lethal Cosequences vs. The Motor City Machine Guns and Sheik Abdul Bashir - Winners: Eric Young and Lethal Consequences (pinfall, Lethal's sunset flip on Bashir)
Knockouts Monster's Ball Match: Daffney vs. Taylor Wilde - Winner: Taylor Wilde (pinfall, TKO onto a trashcan)
X-Division Championship: Daniels vs. Suicide (C) - Winner: None (Draw)
TNA Knockouts Championship: Awesome Kong vs. Angelina Love (C) - Winner: Angelina Love (pinfall, roll-up)
Kevin Nash vs. Samoa Joe - Winner: Samoa Joe (submission, bodyscissors)
Team 3D Tag Team Invitational Tournament Final: Beer Money Inc. vs. The British Invasion - Winners: Beer Money (pinfall, late-match shenanigans)
TNA Legends Championship (I Quit match): Booker T vs. AJ Styles (C) - Winner: AJ Styles (submission, Jenna Morasca throws in the towel)
TNA World Heavyweight Championship (Ultimate Sacrifice match): Sting vs. Jeff Jarrett vs. Kurt Angle vs. Mick Foley (C) - Winner: Sting (pinfall on Kurt Angle, Sting assumes leadership of the Main Event Mafia)

TNA's latest pay-per-view offering Sacrifice is in the books and while I will say that it was better than I expected it to be, the show still fell a little flat in the end for me. A lot of that probably has to do with a main event that ended in a somewhat convoluted fashion with Sting picking up the win over Kurt Angle. While I have no problem with Sting becoming the leader of the Main Event Mafia and I'm interested to see how the Angle/Sting dynamic plays out with Sting in charge instead of Angle, seeing a TNA World Heavyweight Championship match set up the way that it was with Foley only losing the title if he was pinned forced a bit of escaping logic. The rules for the match were somewhat glossed over in that unlike a regular four-way match, the only way that Mick Foley could lose the title was if he was pinned or made to submit. That's not how it went as guys were trying for pins on everyone else throughout the match and it all seemed a little silly. The TNA World Heavyweight Championship should be the most important thing in the entire company, and when a main event match is set up to where guys are not all killing themselves to get a pinfall on the champion, the belt ends up becoming a prop and a side story rather than a focal point for the match on a smaller scale and the entire company on a larger scale. The match itself was pretty much what you would expect from some of the older TNA talent, but it wasn't completely terrible. As I said, the main thing that kept me from being able to fully enjoy it was the fact that Jarrett, Angle and Sting didn't have 100% of their focus on beating Foley for the belt.

While that one was a match that had a semi-interesting finish and wasn't much on the in-ring work, the bout between Booker T and AJ Styles for Styles' TNA Legends belt was a case of the exact opposite. The in-ring work between these two was tremendous and I would feel safe in saying that this was one of, if not the best performances that Booker has given since starting in Orlando. It's rather unfortunate then that a chance to help build AJ up even bigger in a great finish was spoiled by the outside of the ring nonsense between Jenna Morasca and Sharmell. Booker could have easily taken the loss here and it not only wouldn't have hurt him at all, it would have given Styles a huge rub as someone who beat the Mafia at their own game. Insted, Morasca throws in the towel, the Mafia beat themselves, the dumb feud between Jenna and Sharmell continues and AJ gets thrown under the bus in a match that could have made him a credible challenger for whoever manages to unseat Mick Foley and could have even served as a springboard to a TNA title reign. It doesn't affect how much I enjoyed the match up to that point as it was a solid piece of business from two professionals and got plenty of time to build, but it could have been so much more that I was left feeling a little disappointed after it was all said and done.

Looking quickly at the Samoa Joe/Kevin Nash match, someone needs to sit the TNA bookers down in a dark room with this piece of film and scream at them that THIS IS WHAT THEY SHOULD HAVE DONE WITH JOE MONTHS AGO!! Forget this brooding tweener shit and just have him go out and destroy the people who destroyed him and made him this darker, violent character. The past weeks have seen Joe floating around aimlessly, pissing off everybody while chasing people around with a slingblade under the silly premise of his "Nation of Violence". If they had had Joe do this from the beginning, I think that the people would be a lot more behind Joe than they are and it would be one of the top storylines in the company rather than an afterthought. Instead TNA got too cute with the booking and tried to get five things done at once with Joe, meaning none of them stuck and they all stunk. It might not be too late for them to salvage this whole thing since people were salivating over Joe's return right up until he made it, but TNA is going to have to keep having Joe do this repeatedly for it to have any shot. While I'm talking about it, I have to give Nash credit for taking his beating like a man. People can bitch about Nash and rightly so, but he did the right thing here and made Joe look like a world beater, which is worthy of a tip of the hat in Big Sexy's direction.

The rest of the show felt like a mish-mash of every other TNA pay-per-view of the past six months, though there were some bright spots like the X-Division title match and the finals of the Team 3D tournament. Daniels and Suicide did a decent job in their match though it felt like Kaz under the hood might need a bit more ring time before trying to work an extended match like that. He seemed to be a little rusty and it affected the match a bit, but with a pro like Daniels it was not as noticeable as it could have been. The tag match between Beer Money and the British Invasion was actually better than I thought it was going to be and showed just how over Beer Money are and how much Brutus Magnus has improved since his horrible Maximus gimmick went tits up. The match showed again that TNA has the market cornered on tag team wrestling when it comes to the in-ring product and in my mind the right team went over. Granted, there's a trophy presentation on Impact this week and it's likely that the British Invasion will get involved, possibly leading to a three-way tag match on another Impact leading into the next pay-per-view, but I can live with that since it would keep them from interfering on the shot that Beer Money's managed to earn. Having the Brits barge in on their shot and make it a full-on three-way match at the PPV would essentially render the whole tournament idea pointless, so let's hope they don't waste everyone's hard work by taking that lazy road.


The Stories

-- Well let's take a look here and see what's happened on Sunday, shall we? Oh. It looks like ECW's going to get bumped from its timeslot on July 7th because of the debut of what is probably another crappy Sci-Fi original movie so it will air on July 9th instead. Only problem with that being that the WWE has just added another show on Thursdays called Superstars and that both programs will air in the same timeslot. In other news, prepare to see Christian, Vince McMahon, and in a one-shot deal, The Boogeyman verbally and phsyically assault the "president of Sci-Fi" on next week's ECW show in protest. Yep, it was a REALLY slow Sunday, thanks for asking!



Monday


The Show



Monday Night Raw Results:

WWE Divas Championship: Kelly Kelly vs. Maryse (C) - Winner: Kelly Kelly (disqualification, Maryse using the announce table)
Matt Hardy vs. William Regal vs. Kofi Kingston - Winner: Kofi Kingston (pinfall, Trouble in Paradise on Hardy)
Santino Marella and Mickie James vs. Vickie Guerrero and Beth Phoenix - Winners: Santino Marella and Mickie James (pinfall, Mickie crucifixes Beth)
Goldust and Hornswoggle vs. THE Brian Kendrick and Festus - Winners: Goldust and Hornswoggle (pinfall, Goldust's Final Cut on Kendrick)
Nuggets vs. Lakers Ten Man Tag Match: The Nuggets (The Miz, Cody Rhodes, Ted DiBiase, The Big Show and Randy Orton) vs. The Lakers (MVP, Jerry Lawler, Mr. Kennedy, John Cena and Batista) - Winners: The Lakers (pinfall, MVP's Playmaker on Rhodes)

The much-ballyhooed and heavily hyped Memorial Day edition of Raw emanated from the Staples Center in Los Angeles after a week dripping with controversy and while it would have been a great opportunity for the WWE to use the heightened attention to put on a blowaway show, this one ended up feeling like more of the same old, same old. The show started out on the wrong note right away as Vince decided that it was time to air his dirty laundry on the centerpiece television show for his company by bringing out an E. Stan Kroenke impersonator to run down the WWE and their fans. Of course, Vince made the big save by coming out to lay a verbal bitch slap on Kroenke and I cringed as Vince took all of the goodwill that the mainstream media had given him during the past week and wiped his ass with it. Granted, he did manage to take a poke at himself during the segment with the XBA crack, but it was basically Vince showing off and showing up someone with the tact and grace of a juvenile delinquent. Now if this was a five-minute segment, that's all well and good, but instead we got FIFTEEN FUCKING MINUTES of this nonsense once it was all finished and it had dragged most of the main event's participants into its vortex of suck. You might think I'm being a little hard on the segment, but it's shit like this that embarasses people who are fans of wrestling and provides ammunition for people who aren't. As I said last week, the right way for Vince to handle this would have been to be classy, yet honest while making a statement about the situation before moving on to the rest of the show. Sadly, I forgot that classy and Vince McMahon rarely go in the same sentence when it comes to Vince being on-screen.

The aforementioned main event saw a WWE-ized version of the NBA Playoffs as the face Laker team took on those heelishly powder blue Nuggets. The match was nothing to write home about but wasn't actively bad either, which is a plus. I enjoyed that they went all out with it and even had the basketball-style introductions, but the problem with that came in that it took nearly ten minutes for everyone to get to the ring, leaving less time than was needed for ten guys to get in enough spots to not make everything seem rushed. As anyone with half a brain would expect, the Laker team picked up the win when MVP hit the Playmaker on Cody Rhodes, but it wasn't as fulfilling a victory as you would expect. While this one managed to involve nearly everyone who is currently in a major angle on Raw, none of those angles were advanced and it just felt like a match for no other reason than Vince's ego trip. It was fun to see Kennedy get to work in his comeback match after being out for such a long time (even if it would end up being a short-lived return) and there was nothing outwardly objectionable about the match, but it felt like it was rushed and missing intensity. Almost like when you see players from the NFL going half-speed in the Pro Bowl, that was what this match felt like. All of the big names, just going at about 75% or so rather than at full speed. When you add in that the WWE has a pay-per-view that they have to feverishly build to and this main event did nothing for it, it all ended up feeling like a bit of a lost cause.

For me though, the match of the night was the triple threat between Kofi Kingston, William Regal and Matt Hardy. I've really been enjoying Hardy since the most recent heel turn and the injury and this one was no exception. All three of them worked hard with the time they were given and put on a very solid triple-threat match that followed the standard triple-threat formula but didn't get bogged down by it. When you add in the fact that MVP was at the announce desk doing some good work on color commentary, this was easily the best segment of the show in my eyes. It was nice to see Kofi pick up the win as he's starting to get into that territory where wins for him are becoming more important and this one was a big one, giving him a shot at MVP's US Championship. While I think that the title shot will more than likely lead to some sort of interference from Regal, Hardy or both, it's nice to see a midcard feud with more than one option, something that hasn't happened on any of the three brands in a long time.

The last thing I want to touch on from Monday's episode of Raw was the interaction between Ric Flair and Randy Orton, which continued for another week. After Orton got the best of Flair last week with a cheap shot, Flair was fighting mad and called Orton out, against the wishes of his bestest protege Batista. Orton responded and while he's still doing some things on the mic as a heel, the people seem to have given up on hating him because of how weak and silly he's been booked as week after week. The other thing I didn't understand is how a feud between Batista and Orton has turned into this Flair/Orton deal. I get that Big Dave is not much to write home about on the mic, but it feels more like they're building to a mythical match between Flair and Orton rather than an actual bout featuring Batista. If they wonder why the crowd is dead for the title match at Extreme Rules, they'll have to look no further than how they've been booking heading into the match. The promo did end up leading to the return of Kennedy, who confronted Orton and got into his kitchen, making it seem like he was going to be booked somewhere in the middle of this main event mess. We all know now that that's not the case, but at the time it was a good way to get the crowd excited again after the promo had sucked out a lot of their life.


The Stories

-- Annnnnnnnnnd Monday was no better thanks to the holiday here in the US. I guess even wrestlers take Memorial Day off. Odd because I can remember there being more news on Christmas Day than there was on Memorial Day. I wonder if that's because Santa's a wrestling fan....





Yeah, maybe not.



Tuesday


The Show



ECW on Sci-Fi Results:

Vladimir Kozlov vs. Russ Taylor and Joey Munos - Winner: Vladimir Kozlov (pinfall, Iron Curtain)
Mark Henry vs. Evan Bourne - Winner: Evan Bourne (count out)
Tyson Kidd, DH Smith and Jack Swagger vs. Christian and Tommy Dreamer - Winners: Tyson Kidd, DH Smith and Jack Swagger (pinfall, Swagger's Gutwrench Powerbomb on Christian)

ECW on Sci-Fi continued the build of the past few weeks with the Christian/Swagger/Dreamer feud and the emergence of the Hart Dynasty serving as the focal points of the show. The opening segment saw Christian and Swagger engage in a little verbal sparring session. Swagger complained about being cheated twice in his previous two championship challenges and that he had another one all lined up for Extreme Rules. ECW General Manager Tiffany cut Swagger off and let him know that instead of a one-on-one match, it was going to be a triple threat match with Tommy Dreamer added to the mix after he signed a one-day contract extension. She also made the bout a Hardcore rules match, meaning that Dreamer will either win the title or walk away from the company. While I don't necessarily like the way that they've booked this whole Dreamer retirement deal, it's at least nice to see them follow through on giving him his all or nothing scenario that he wanted. Knowing Dreamer and his wrestling sensibilities, there will be plenty of chances for him but he'll come up just a bit short and leave the business on his back, in true wrestling tradition. As for the opening segment, it was a good way to get to where they needed to get to without being anything spectacular.

The first in-ring match of the night (I've mentally blocked out the latest Kozlov jobber-bashing since they're all starting to bleed together anyhow) saw Mark Henry taking on Evan Bourne. After a couple of weeks where Bourne has been playing second fiddle, he got a chance to shine again, turning the usual "big man/small man" match on its ear while picking up a count out win. I'm not sure if it's that Rey Mysterio has kind of burnt me out on the format, but most of those kinds of matches tend to suffer from the size difference rather than play off of it, but this one was able to play off of it and be very entertaining. Bourne picked up the win after an impressive showing and a pair of knees to Mark Henry's face, scoring a count-out that means that this feud will most assuredly continue on. I have no problems with that as Henry is someone that has the credibility of being a former ECW Champion and both guys were looking for something to do to keep them from being lost in the shuffle of the hour-long ECW program. If they continue to have matches like this one, it could end up being a very good program for both of them.

The night's main event saw the newly-named Hart Dynasty joining forces with Jack Swagger to take on Tommy Dreamer and Christian. The bout was originally supposed to include Finlay, but he ended up taken out in a backstage brawl between Dreamer and Christian, leaving it as a handicap match. While I feel like the WWE has played out the handicap match gimmick as of late, they've not happened very often on the ECW show at the top of the card, so this one was alright. The Hart kids did REALLY well in this match, even though Kidd seemed to get the short end of the stick in terms of being in the ring for his team. They looked like they belonged in there with Swagger, Dreamer and Christian, which is not something I would have said for Kidd when he was in the middle of his squash-tastic debut run or during Smith's cup of coffee on Raw. In the end, Swagger picked up the pin on Christian after his gutwrench powerbomb and the heels attacked Dreamer and left him laying after he tried to take a pound of flesh from Swagger after the match. As I said, the Hart Dynasty looks like it could become something big on ECW if they're continually given chances like this to shine.


The Stories


Won't be seeing any more Green Bay Plunges anytime soon I guess...

-- It only took one match before the WWE's version of Glass Joe, Mr. Kennedy, was injured again during his return match on Monday's episode of Raw. At the end of the show, Kennedy was seen clutching his wrist and from all accounts, he injured himself when he botched up taking the RKO from Randy Orton near the end of the bout. There was no word on the severity of the injury at the time of the report, though it wasn't thought to be serious and there was no time off needed to recover. At least he dodged a bullet there and things can't really get any worse for him...right?


"I swear, this is the last time I'll bring him up...Scout's Honor..."

-- John Cena spoke about his favorite subject again as of late, Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, as well as his recent flop at the box office, 12 Rounds. Here's Cena's take on both;

On 12 Rounds doing poorly: "I've had to fight that battle my entire career. Vince McMahon has been fighting that battle since he took the company global. It's personal ignorance. People don't know how good we are as entertainers. They don't know how good we are as people in the media. The only way we can silence those voices is by putting together a good product. We've done that with 12 Rounds."

On Dwayne Johnson: "Rock's a hardworking guy, he's a great guy. I'm just speaking as a selfish wrestling fan. The same kind of selfish wrestling fan who would boo me for whatever reason. Selfishly, I miss him in the ring. I wish he would come back. He is physically in his prime. One of the greatest sports entertainers we've ever had. But he's an actor now. The trouble is, here I am telling everybody I love the business - it's the same thing Rock said then went out and made movies. He's basically made my life tougher. I'd love to have him back. I'd love to have a WrestleMania match with him - maybe next year."

Where to begin, where to begin. Firstly, 12 Rounds didn't do badly because of the ignorance of the media or anything else, it did badly because it WAS A SHITTY MOVIE!!! I know that it might be hard for you to believe John, but the movie was good as a Sunday afternoon popcorn flick on Cinemax or something, no more and no less. It's not a good movie and no amount of positive press would change that. It shows just how committed to the company Cena is when he says that it was a good product though. I don't think if he was being completely honest with himself or with the interviewer that he would have said something like that.

Moving on to the next batch of nonsense with The Rock, Cena again is trying to lump himself in there with Johnson by saying that he's "just like him" and that Johnson's "made his life tougher" while he tries to become a movie star. He continues to talk like a desperate fanboy about how much he wants to have him back and how he hopes for a WrestleMania match with him. Cena needs to cut that shit out because it's just looking sadder and sadder the more he does it. I'll be more than willing to eat my share of humble pie if this is some sort of slow-building deal that leads to a Rock/Cena match down the road, but that's about as likely as me having a WrestleMania match with Cena.



Wednesday


The Stories


An idea that's only about ten years too late for "The World's Most Dangerous Man"...

-- The WWE has announced that their September 13th pay-per-view will no longer be known as Unforgiven and will instead be billed as Breaking Point, with the main event matches for the show all being held under submission stipulations. While I'm not sure how they'll work the stips to make all of the matches seem different, I'm at least happy to see them doing something a little bit different with their show. The problem that the WWE has been running into for most all of their shows is that they all feel the same. Back in the original pay-per-view days, all of the WWE's shows felt different, whether it was Survivor Series, Royal Rumble or WrestleMania, all of the shows seemed like they had something that you couldn't miss. Even moving into the later years with shows like King of the Ring, there were still shows that felt like something outside of the norm. Nowadays, every show feels like the same show with the only difference between them being the set and the color of the ring ropes. This idea will give the show something that makes it stand out from the pack, which while it may not affect anything intially, could help bump the buyrate up for the show in the long run if the gimmick gets established and the fans catch on to it. While it may not be the best idea, it's at least something, which is more than can be said for the company lately.




Thursday


The Shows



WWE Superstars Results:

Charlie Haas and Shelton Benjamin vs. The Colons - Winners: The Colons (pinfall, Carlito's Backstabber on Haas)
Finlay vs. Jack Swagger - Winner: Jack Swagger (pinfall, Gutwrench Powerbomb)
John Cena vs. Ted DiBiase - Winner: John Cena (submission, STF)

Unfortunately, Thursday saw me having to take the night off from wrestling at the last minute due to some circumstances beyond my control that needed my attention, so Superstars and Impact are unfortunately not going to be covered this week. I sincerely apologize to all of the readers for not being able to give my thoughts on either show, but I stand by my decision and would do it again in a second. Sorry for being vague about it all, but I tend to enjoy my privacy when it comes to issues like what I had to deal with. I'll be back on top of everything next week and I'll have the full slate of shows covered from top to bottom. Thanks again for your understanding, dear readers.




TNA Impact Results:

X-Division Championship: Amazing Red vs. Suicide - Winner: Suicide (pinfall, Wrist-cutter)
Ladder Match: Doug Williams vs. Cody Deaner - Winner: Doug Williams (briefcase retrieval)
TNA Knockouts Championship: Sojo Bolt vs. Angelina Love - Winner: Angelina Love (pinfall, )
King of the Mountain Qualifier: Eric Young vs. Jeff Jarrett - Winner: Jeff Jarrett (pinfall, roll-up)
King of the Mountain Qualifier: AJ Styles vs. Daniels - Winner: AJ Styles (pinfall, roll-up)


The Stories

-- TNA finally made some news on Thursday as the announced that they will be joining the WWE in the online archive department with the introduction of the TNA Video Vault. Every TNA pay-per-view from 2004 to the present will be available, as will TNA Home Video DVD releases. The vault will be made available to everyone, with each event being available for $3.99 per showing or an entire month's worth of programming available for $7.99. There will also be a yearly subscription offered by the company and plans are in place for TNA to add exclusive programming as well as shows from TNA's weekly pay-per-view days. I am rather excited about this one as I'm a big fan of the online archives. I was a member of the WWE.com Legacy service for a while and will be again soon, and I can see myself signing up for the TNA service as well, especially when they start getting into airing the weekly pay-per-views on there. I haven't been able to see much from those days, so I would welcome the opportunity to get to see them through the Video Vault. A lot of people, myself included, get on TNA for some of their booking decisions and the way that the weekly shows are presented, but the company has really been on the ball as of late when it comes to the digital side of getting their product to the fans. From the iTunes deals, to the exclusive content and web-only matches, to this upcoming deal, TNA seems to really be embracing new media in their attempts to make gains against the WWE empire.



Friday


The Show



Friday Night Smackdown Results:

The Great Khali and R-Truth vs. Mike Knox and Dolph Ziggler - Winners: The Great Khali and R-Truth (pinfall, Khali's choke bomb on Knox)
Alicia Fox vs. Melina - Winner: Melina (pinfall, split legged bulldog)
Umaga vs. John Morrison - Winner: John Morrison (disqualification, Umaga uses Samoan Strap)
Cryme Tyme vs. Shelton Benjamin and Charlie Haas - Winners: Shelton Benjamin and Charlie Haas (pinfall, Benjamin's Paydirt on Shad)
Layla vs. Eve - Winner: Eve (pinfall, roll-through on a cross-bodyblock)
Edge and Chris Jericho vs. Jeff Hardy - Winners: Edge and Chris Jericho (pinfall, spear)

Needing a bit of an outlet after a tougher Thursday, I was happy to see that Smackdown is still on its roll as the best wrestling show on TV, even if there were a few hiccups. The show started out really strong with Chris Jericho continuing his crusade against Rey Mysterio, promising to disfigure Rey-Rey and give him brain damage at Extreme Rules to take back the Intercontinental Championship. Rey gave Jericho some shots about his deal with Mickey Rourke at WrestleMania, but Jericho got the last laugh in the talky portion of the segment by suggesting that Mysterio is a coward for hiding behind his mask and that he will have his secrets revealed when Jericho rips his mask off at Extreme Rules. Mysterio and Jericho then got into it physically and before Mysterio could get too far ahead, Jericho pulled the great heel move of cutting and running. I wasn't a big fan of this program when it started since it's a step down for Jericho to be fighting for the Intercontinental Championship after his main event run, but they've won me over as of late in the past couple of weeks. These two had more going later in the show, but we'll get to that when we get to that.

The best match of the night was the main event featuring Chris Jericho and Edge joining forces to take on Jeff Hardy and Rey Mysterio. Unfortunately for Jeff, Jericho decided to pose as a fan and beat up Mysterio before the match leaving Hardy to fend for himself against the current World Heavyweight Champion and a former Undisputed Champion. As I said before, I'm pretty burnt out on handicap matches when it comes to the Raw brand, but they've been used so sparingly on ECW and Smackdown that they're still useful booking tools on those shows. This one was actually a pretty decent little TV match and though not up to par with some of the Smackdown main events we've been treated to lately, all three guys did a good job in telling a story during the match, something that seems to be lost most times when wrestlers just rely on the handicap crutch. Jeff fough hard all the way up to the end, but in the end the "ultimate opportunist" jumped on another one to spear Jeff nearly all the way out of his face paint to pick up the win. Not only did Hardy have to take the big spear, he also ended up eating a ladder shot or two from Edge after the match, with Edge standing tall. Last week, he seemed to be thrown off by the ladder match stip, but this week he came back strong to put it over on Hardy, continuing the build to their Extreme Rules match which could end up being pretty epic given both guys' histories in ladder matches.

Another thing I wanted to make sure I talked about was the tag team bout between Cryme Tyme and Benjamin and Haas. From all accounts I've seen, Cryme Tyme pointlessly got involved in the bout featuring Benjamin and Haas on Superstars, which led to this match. The match was probably one of the best that I've seen from Cryme Tyme in either of their stints in the WWE and I'm sure that it's no small coincidence that it happened against two of the best technical wrestlers in the company in Benjamin and Haas. The big surprise in the match for me was JTG, who was able to hang with the three smaller guys even though he hasn't shown a lot in the way of stamina in his time in the WWE. He was right there with Benjamin, Haas and Shad step for step and it was impressive considering that we never really got a sniff as to what either guy could do from their two-minute tag specials on Raw. I'm not saying that they're going to be a second coming of the Midnight Express or something, but they are already off to a better start after a few weeks on Smackdown than they were after a year or more on Raw.


The Stories


He can't believe it happened either...

-- Without any question the biggest story on Friday was the somewhat surprising release of Ken Kennedy by the WWE. After making his return from a long injury layoff on Monday night, Kennedy appeared to hurt his wrist while trying to take the RKO from Randy Orton. That was only part of the story though, as Orton was nearly injured as well during the move (and with a history of shoulder troubles it wouldn't take much for Orton) which led to a confrontation between Orton and Kennedy backstage. All accounts have it as Orton calmly talked to Kennedy and laid out that he needed to be more careful to avoid hurting someone else in the ring. As I said, the release is somewhat surprising since Kennedy had just made well-publicized return, but on the other side of the coin, the WWE is simply looking to protect themselves and their talent. I'm not going to suggest that Kennedy is cursed or that he's too frail to continue to compete, but he's definitely someone who has to be chalked up as a disappointment considering how much potential he had. He won Money in the Bank (but promptly had to give up the shot to Edge due to an injury), and was set to be made for life in the WWE by being outed as Mr. McMahon's illegitimate son (a failed Wellness Test led to Kennedy losing his main event slot in the angle to a comedy act), but outside of that did little else to stand out as one of the stars on the WWE roster. He had a catchphrase and some serious charisma, but he just hasn't been able to capitalize on it and considering that Kennedy has spent more time in rehab than on WWE TV and nearly took out himself and the current WWE Champion in his return match, I'm can understand why the WWE felt like they had no other choice but to let Kennedy go. I'm sure that once his non-compete is through, we'll be seeing him in TNA so there's no reason to be worried about Kennedy's future, but it has to be a bitter disappointment for him considering how close he came to the top and how much more he could have done with the opportunities he was given.

-- Sad news to close out Friday as "The Golden Greek" John Tolos passed away at the age of 70. Tolos, who is probably best known to wrestling fans as Mr. Perfect's manager The Coach, was one of the top heels in California for a long period of time and was also part of a successful tag team with his brother Chris. Together they ran roughshod through the old territories like Florida, Stampede, the WWWF and the Toronto/Detroit area. They held numerous tag titles throughout the territorial days and in one of their most famous matches, defeated Gorilla Monsoon and Killer Kowalski for the then-WWWF US Tag Team Championships. Tolos also holds a special place for me as a wrestling fan due to his involvement in the UWF promotion run by Herb Abrams which I reviewed for this site. Tolos was sometimes the only thing that made the shows bearable as he would fluctuate between cogent commentary and near-lunacy and even at that time, he still had a passion for the business that was palpable. I'd like to share my condolences with all of Tolos' family, friends and fans and send my best wishes out to those who are closest to him.



Saturday

The Show



ROH on HDNet Results:

Rhett Titus vs. Roderick Strong - Winner: Roderick Strong (pinfall, kick to the face)
Sara Del Rey vs. Daizee Haze vs. MsChif - Winner: MsChif (pinfall, Desecrator DDT on Haze)
Erick Stevens vs. Sami Callihan - Winner: Erick Stevens (pinfall, Doctor Bomb)
ROH Tag Team Championship: (Tables Match): The American Wolves vs. El Generico and Kevin Steen - Winners:


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.

-- Tag team tables match main event!! Boooo-YAAAAAHH!!

-- Just to give you all a heads-up, I've already got Roderick Strong filled in as the winner of this match, it's just the matter of how he does it.

-- ROH must get a discount on the "name across the ass" tights since both of these guys have them on in this one.

-- Prazak: "You can NEVER have too much thrusting!" Hogewood: "I'm gonna move my chair over here about a foot..". Great stuff from those two. They really seem to be starting to gel together as a unit and they're quickly becoming one of the better announce teams out there. I had my doubts, but they're starting to fall into place.

-- I like Strong and he's definitely able to go in the ring, but he's starting to fall into that "boots and tights" kind of mold that's a solid hand without any personality.

-- Titus actually had more for Strong than I thought he would have had. He did pretty well in there and held his own, even if Strong came out on top. I don't know about you, but I'd feel like I had to shower for a week if Titus ground his balls against the back of my head like he did to Strong. No wonder he got kicked so hard in the finish.

-- If tradition holds, MsChif should end up dropping this one since AOTF haven't done a thing since ROH debuted on HDNet.

-- Wow, I'm honestly shocked. That Desecrator is something else and I'm surprised that someone in the X-Division of TNA hasn't stolen it already.

-- I dig Erick Stevens as much as the next guy, but they really need to put him in there with someone who means something because they've gone about as far as they can on the choo-choo squash train.

-- Gahhhhhh...make the split-screen go away!!! PLEASE!! I can't stand it and it's taking away from my enjoyment of the biting of Generico's face.

-- So far, so good for these four. I think I missed the part where they talked about whether both members of a team need to be driven through a table to pick up the win or if it's just that tables are legal and it's pinfall/submission. Oh well, I'll figure it out.

-- Oh Jesus, that looked like it nearly killed Generico. The bump looks five times worse when the table doesn't break, but it probably hurts about ten times mo...1-0 DETROIT!!! HOSSA BURNS HIS OLD TEAM FOR THE FIRST GOAL OF THE FINALS!!

-- Generico comes flying out of nowhere!! Great move to take out both Wolves!!

-- GAHHHHHH....that powerbomb was NASTY!! Richards isn't dead, but it's probably pretty close if he takes both splashes.

-- He did and he JUST got saved by Edwards. Great tag match and makes me wish it was just a regular match so these four could truly shine.

-- How high did Generico get up on that splash to the floor?? That was absolutely insane and if he had gotten any higher he might have hit the rafters.

-- Why, why, why? Ring of Honor should be the alternative to the overbooked mess of TNA and WWE. Why have Hagadorn do a run-in in what I believe is the first championship match to take place on HDNet?

-- New champions!! We have new ROH Tag Team Champions!!! What a finish!!


The Stories

-- Another day, another lack of quality news items. It wouldn't be so bad if there hadn't already been at least three or four different times this week where I was worried I'd have nothing to talk about. Hopefully things pick up next week because this is starting to get a little depressing.




That does it for this week's Bell to Bell. Next week, I'll be back with more talk on the week's wrestling shows and hopefully I'll have a little more news to discuss as well. If you're following the finals, leave your thoughts about who's going to come out on top, the Wings or the Penguins. If not, be prepared to scroll past the introduction next week as it's bound to be chock full of Stanley Cup Finals talk. In the mean time and in between time, I'll be back here and I'll hope to see you here next time for the Sunday sensation, the Bell to Bell News Report.


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