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Wrestling’s 4R’s Tuesday Edition 06.02.09: WWE Superstars, WWE Smackdown, TNA Impact and ROH on HDNet Reviewed!

June 2, 2009 | Posted by Larry Csonka

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    In HD where available…


    By: Daniel Wilcox

    iMpact! 05.28.09:

  • THE RIGHT:

    X Division Championship: Suicide vs. Amazing Red: This week’s Impact opened up with a recap of the events at Sacrifice before going straight into the first match of the evening, the X Championship match between Amazing Red and Suicide, fresh off of his successful title defence against Daniels at the pay-per-view. I’m always in favor of a good solid wrestling bout opening up a show and that’s what this was. Although both guys got in their fair share of offence, Suicide was pretty much always in control of the match and didn’t really look too troubled by Red, as there were just one or two near falls towards the end for Red. That said the action was kept at a tremendous pace and they got a fair amount of time to put on a good match and they did just that. While one isn’t likely to remember this match long after viewing it, you can really have no complaints with two solid workers putting on such a match to kick off the show.

    The British Invasion Speak: Maybe it’s just the fact that I’m English and thus bias, but I love these guys and thoroughly enjoyed their brief yet effective backstage interview with JB. The Invasion just set up the ladder match for later in the evening (more on that later) and also went for cheap heat by taking on America. I also liked their no-sell of their relationship with Kiyoshi and Sheik Abdul Bashir. At the end of the day these guys are relatively new in TNA and so it’s always good when they’re given promo time to further put themselves and their agenda over.

    Knockout’s Championship Match: Angelina Love vs. Sojo Bolt/Victoria Debuts: So the Beautiful People were back in full force this week and Love was defending her title against Sojo Bolt. The match itself was pretty bland and certainly forgettable, with Love picking up the win following some distractions and hairspray use. The segment really picked up with the post-match antics. Seeing Kip get dumped (again) by the Beautiful People, who are one of the most consistently good acts in TNA by the way, is always a good thing, so there’s that. Then we get Love begging for more competition in the Knockout’s Division, and immediately Victoria shows up and takes out all three members of the Beautiful People, including hitting Love with the Widow’s Peak. The crowd was very much behind Victoria here and this was a pretty auspicious debut.

    Mick Foley’s Announcement: So they were building up to another big Mick Foley promo all night and eventually Foley revealed that it’d been decided that he would only defend the World Championship… once a year. Personally, I loved this. We know that it’s not going to be a case where the gold actually only gets defended once a year, and it’s a pretty original concept as far as I’m aware, so why not. If nothing else it puts a little bit more heat on Foley and that’s always a good thing. And it also serves to make the upcoming King of the Mountain match that much more important.

    King of the Mountain Qualifier: Eric Young vs. Jeff Jarrett/EY Snaps: Our first of two KotM qualifiers of the evening was between good friends Jarrett and Young. The two actually had a really good match for the time that they had, as they worked at a fast paced and gave us plenty of near falls. I really liked how Young lost not to Jarrett’s signature move The Stroke, but to a desperate roll-up by Jarrett. So Jarrett, as you’d expect, qualifies for the King of the Mountain match at Slammiversary. Post-match, we get Eric Young and Jarrett shaking hands only for EY to “snap” and attack Jarrett, more specifically his injured hamstring. It was good to see EY had a lot of heat on him once this beating was done because with Jarrett being Jarrett and EY being one of the more popular guys in the Impact zone, that could have turned out a whole lot different. But this was done really well, and even though I consider EY an average worker with average charisma, this new EY has a lot of potential.

    Team 3D Invitational Tournament Award Presentation Ceremony Thing: This was simple and effective. The key here was just how well they put over not just Beer Money, but the tag titles and the match at Slammiversary for the titles. And now even though we’ve seen this match on numerous occasions in recent months, I once again find myself very much anticipating the upcoming match. Good work all round here and further proof that sometimes doing things simply can be the most effective way of doing it.

    King of the Mountain Qualifier: AJ Styles vs. Daniels: Two words. FUCK YES! These guys, both as partners and as opponents, have put on some of the absolute best matches in TNA history and seeing them go at it one more time here was simply awesome and a great reminder of why I and so many others fell in love with TNA in 2005 went it was the shit. Now obviously this wasn’t as good as what we’ve seen from them on pay-per-view in years past, but it was still miles better than anything else we’ve seen on Impact in a long, long time. And for the most part these guys were only going at about half-speed until the last few near falls where they then picked up the pace a bit. The finish was pretty great even if it did come a little early for my liking, and simply put this was a great match to close the show. We then of course got the return of The Franchise, who laid out Daniels with the steel chain before leaving through the crowd as AJ returned to the ring. Admittedly the return fell a bit flat for my liking, but whatever, this was a great match to cap off a really good Impact.

  • PURGATORY:

    Sting Addresses The Mafia/Joe Speaks: So after Sacrifice where Sting pinned Kurt Angle, Sting is now in charge of the Main Event Mafia, and this was his first address to the Mafia and the fans. Sting brought in some changes including firing Angle’s hired-help and banning Jenna and Sharmell from the Mafia. Both of these were good moves because the whole Jenna/Sharmell stuff is a waste of time and the security really were not needed at all and in all honesty their presence was subtraction by addition. What I really liked about this part of the segment was Angle’s facial expressions whilst listening to Sting cut his promo, and Sting’s own delivery, which was very good. And then we get Samoa Joe coming out, continuing his Nation of Violence. He says over the next few weeks he’s going to take out Booker, Nash and Steiner one-by-one, and then he’s going to “kill” Kurt Angle. The knife was bad enough, and in recent weeks it had seemed as they’d starting going back in the right direction with Joe. But this is just retarded. So he’s been ordered to kill Angle, so he comes on TV and gives Angle 4-weeks notice. Terrific. And by terrific, I mean, awful, hideous idea. One step forward, two steps back. Other than that though, good segment.

    Psychotherapy with Dr. Stevie/The Return of Raven: Abyss is always involved in ridiculous, over-the-top storylines that more often than not are detrimental to his character (more parallels to Kane, by the way) and this whole therapy thing with Dr. Stevie is no different. It’s a ridiculous storyline, which continued this week with Richards forcing Abyss back into the straight jacket. We then get the return of Raven, only for Raven to align himself with Stevie and take out Abyss with the kendo stick while Lauren helplessly watches on. Now while I’m not a fan of the angle, I’m not going to pretend I’m not a huge fan of Raven and that I didn’t get a kick out of seeing him return to TNA here. I also have hope for a fun series of matches down the line because in the right environment, Raven can still put on some fun hardcore matches and there’ll be no better opponent for him then Abyss. Also, Lauren seemingly just gets hotter and hotter by the week, it’s absurd.

  • THE WRONG:

    Ladder Match: Doug Williams vs. Cody Deaner: Just like TNA thinks it’s a good idea to have a cage match on TV weeks before the all-cage match Lockdown pay-per-view, here we got a ladder match just weeks away from the pay-per-view that’s built around a variation of a ladder match. Not only that, but this was a gimmick match that went unadvertised. So even before the match starts this was never going to creep past purgatory at best, but them Cody Deaner answers Williams’ open challenge and the segment bombs, with Deaner pushing Williams far too close to the limit. Deaner is essentially a non-wrestler and yet he gets that much offence in on Williams, who is part of a stable that is still relatively unestablished. Yeah, I really didn’t like this as everything about it was poorly executed, and even the match itself was poor and totally uninspired. And then of course we get the post-match antics with Bashir and Kiyoshi congratulating the Brits, because all foreigners must be evil and unite in their hatred of America. Apart from the unoriginality of it, that thinking is just very tiresome and pedantic. There really was nothing good to be said about this.

  • THE RIDICULOUS:

    NONE

    The 411

    For once, the bullshit was kept to an absolute minimum. The focus was on building to Slammiversary (King of the Mountain was hyped a ton throughout the night, while other likely matches were set up) and good in-ring wrestling from the two King of the Mountain qualifiers and the opening X Division Championship match. With the returns of Raven and The Franchise, as well as the debut of Victoria, this is a show that’ll likely be remembered as a significant one. The turn of EY also makes the show memorable as well I guess. Of course the highlight was the main event. But there was very little wrong with this show and one can only hope that TNA continues in this direction, and that the faces new and old they’ve brought in work out. Now sign Elijah burke and get him on TV ASAP.

    SHOW RATING: 8.5



    By: Larry Csonka

    WWE SUPERSTARS 05.28.09:

  • QUICK RESULTS:
    – The Colons defeated TWGTT @ 13:30 via pin [***]
    – Jack SWAGGA defeated Finlay @ 4:20 via pin [*½]
    – John Cena defeated Ted Dibiase @ 11:33 via pin [**¾]

  • THE RIGHT:

    The Colons defeated TWGTT: The opening match of the show was TWGTT (and I don’t care if they aren’t being called that because I will call them that when and if I please, and I do at this time) facing off with the Undisputed/Unified/Only tag team champions of the company, the Colons. One thing I have wanted to see is the Colons featured on Superstars. This is the show that is there to showcase ALL THREE BRANDS, and they have stated that any team from any brand can challenge for the tag straps at any time. So Superstars is the place to do this, without breaking the new, and thus far solid lines in the brand extension (and I mean that as far as “since the most recent draft” goes). Anyway, back to the match, this was just a damn good TV match right here. Carlito and Primo are working very well together, and anytime Hass and Benjamin tag up, they bring the goods. As far as the match goes I have no complaint. I could have done without HOW they brought out Cryme Tyme. I HATE that all forms of run ins will have the entrance music play 99% of the time. But that complaint aside, it led to the finish and built to a tag team match for Smackdown, which is good. They just really need to work on getting real contenders for the damn tag titles, because they haven’t done jack or shit with them. But this match, I liked this match, let’s get these guys on PPV. Hell, they should have thrown a match together with a couple of the teams just to get some of this on PPV, a rematch would be cool with me.

    Jack SWAGGA defeated Finlay: The recent fear is that Jack Swagger will be pushed out of the top spot he was initially given, due to management not being happy with him and also because of working Dreamer into the title picture. I think when last week was over, that those fears are gone. Coming out of the tag team match on ECW, where he pinned Christian, Swagger was set to face off with an old nemesis in Finlay. They had a short, but fine match, and in the end Swagger got the clean and dominating victory over Finlay. Months ago they were booked as equals, with Swagger just getting by in long encounters, and that was definitely needed to help groom Swagger. Swagger’s victory puts him on a level above Finlay, and also gives him much needed momentum heading into the Extreme Rules three-way title match. Good stuff here.

    John Cena defeated Ted Dibiase: The main event of the evening was John Cena vs. Ted DiBiase. This was one of those matches that usually ends up with the “STAR” easily defeating the underling and then no one looks good in the end, and I HATE those matches. They constantly say they want to build new stars, but all too often they miss the chances. This however, was done the right way, and in the end, DiBiase came out looking good. This was a very solid TV main event, where both guys worked hard, Cena lost nothing as he gave DiBiase a lot of offense, and it just worked. DiBiase continued to impress in my eyes, having good matches with both Batista and Cena now, and that speaks volumes for his talent. It is one thing to look good with Chris Jericho, who is awesome and has good matches with everyone, but these matches with Cena and Batista to me prove that DiBiase will be the break out star of Legacy. As for the finish, I have no problem with guys tapping right away if they are made to look strong, which DiBiase was. This capped off a very good show this week, which is always nice to say.

  • PURGATORY:

    NONE:

  • THE WRONG:

    NONE

  • THE RIDICULOUS:

    NONE

    The 411

    This week’s edition of Superstars was a simple, yet effective show this week, and that is a good thing. The opening tag was good, and also set up a match for Smackdown, which is a reason that it is there. Swagger got an important victory, as he kept his momentum going and dominated Finlay, showing that he has surpassed him and that he is a threat for the triple threat at Extreme Rules. Finally, the main event was a good match, but more importantly, it was another great effort by Ted DiBiase. He previously looked good against Batista, and followed that up with another good outing with Cena. DiBiase is quickly pulling away from Cody Rhodes as far as who the future of the group is, and that’s fun to watch. Nothing was great or “must see”, but it was a damn fine show with nothing that insulted your intelligence.

    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: 8.0



    By: Jeremy “NOT LARRY CSONKA” Thomas

    WWE SmackDown 05.29.09

  • THE RIGHT:

    CHEAP POPS, MICKEY ROURKE & MASKS: SmackDown began with our Intercontinental Champion Rey Rey coming out to the ring to an enormous home-state pop from the crowd as J.R. and T-Grish told us that he was going to face off alongside Jeff Hardy against Edge and Chris Jericho in our main event. He started by getting a cheap pop by mentioning Cali, then talked about why he’d chosen the No Holds Barred stipulation—apparently this means he can hit Jericho with the 619, the 213, the 310, the 818, and every other area code in the state. Rey wasn’t too bad here, though he was cheap popping a wee bit much in my opinion. Rey Rey’s not the greatest talker in the wrestling world, but the crowd was already nuts for him and he didn’t really need to keep pulling for the hometown cheers, but it worked all right for what it was. He got cut off quickly enough by Jericho, who conversely pulled his usual share of boos, and he told Rey he had no idea what he was getting himself into. Chris was all about the “re’s” in this promo…reverberate, recompense, repercussions and so on. This wasn’t Jericho’s usual quality; I think he was pulling too many SAT words out where in most previous situations they’ve flowed naturally. Rey countered by pointing out how Jericho’s words meant nothing because he didn’t keep his word of stopping Rey from 619’ing him at Judgment Day or of taking out Mickey Rourke at ‘Mania. Oh, look, there’s Mickey in the crowd! I’ll admit, that was a nice touch there. They got Rourke semi-involved and it worked really well with the crowd, although it did distract from the focus of the promo just a little; not even close enough to ruin the segment though. Jericho accused Rey of living in a parasitic, hypocritical world and used Rey’s mask as a way to tear him down, saying that no one who wears a mask is truly good. He threatened to rip the mask off and that didn’t go over too well with the champ; they had a brief altercation before Y2J bailed. There were a lot of good things here and it seems like the mask is going to come into play somehow; maybe they’ll add a stip where Rey has to put his mask on the line? Despite the flaws in the segment it generally worked and it didn’t drag on the way that the opening segments sometimes do, so this gets a marginal Right.

    THE GREAT KHALI & R-TRUTH vs. DOLPH ZIGGLER & MIKE KNOX: Truth and Khali came out together to Truth’s music and Khali even participated; pure comic value can be found in the dorky was Singh was trying to dance down alongside them while exposing the fact that he has NO rhythm whatsoever. The crowd seemed to be digging the duo and Khali was having some fun with it, so you gotta give them credit for that. Knox and Ziggler came down individually, and Dolph actually seems to be getting over, as he got audible heat from the crowd. They recapped the mini-feud Khali and Dolph have had over the last few weeks, which has certainly done Dolph a lot of good. The match started off really hot with some fast-paced exchanges between Ziggler and Truth before Khali was tagged in and Dolph high-tailed it out of the ring after tagging Knox; it appears that Mountain Man Mike is on his way straight to Jobberville with the amount of offense he sold for here. At the very least, he was clearly the low man on the totem pole in this match, and I can’t help but wonder if Creative’s finally noticed that there’s just no crowd connection to the man despite their attempts to push him. Ziggler got some offense in for his team but outside of that it was a glorified squash with Knox being the squash-ee. As a match is was very tolerable and it build the feud between Dolph and Khali without putting them in much contact with each other, and while I didn’t really like how Khali was switching between angry Khali and fun-loving Khali I didn’t have too much I can complain about here.

    JOHN MORRISON vs. UMAGA: The set-up promo to this had Josh Matthews was backstage with John Morrison, asking him about his thoughts on Umaga; the Shaman of Sexy got another pretty nice little face reaction from the crowd, which is nice to see that he’s getting over well so far. Morrison delivered a hilariously bizarre promo about Umaga being a tree that was planted in place, but Morrison was like all the other trees that can run around; it seems pretty well official that the idea is to keep Morrison’s character more or less the same, just with a less dickish and more rock star attitude, which I’m totally okay with. Matthews had a follow-up question but didn’t get to ask it since Shelton came in. Morrison and Shelton played one-upsmanship, with Morrison pointing out that he’d beaten the man and his partner twice and Shelton saying he was the former US Champion and the Gold Standard. Good stuff here.

    Umaga carried his leather—sorry, SAMOAN strap down to the ring, pacing inside while Morrison did his fantastic slow-motion entrance. J.R. and T-Grish nicely pimped the Umaga/Punk Samoan Strap Match for the Pay-Per-View during Morrison’s entrance, and the ref had to force the big man to put the strap down before the match began. There was a fun little audible exchange between them early on as Umaga shouted at Morrison after shoving him to the mat, and Morrison countered with, “Oh yeah I forgot…you talk now.” It’s little things like that which help build characters and I appreciated that. This match was booked well, with Umaga pitting his power game against Morrison’s quickness and agility and it worked really well to give both men some nice offense; this strategy doesn’t always work as power vs. flying is sometimes an awkward pairing but these two did it very well. They had some really slick spots…I’m a sucker for Umaga’s toss into a Samoan Drop, and there were some other good stuff like the superkick on Morrison to the floor and some of Morrison’s quickness that came out in his dodges. The match slowed down a bit midway through with constant nerve hold variations from Umaga but it kept things adequately paced and didn’t drag things down much at all. The match ended in a DQ, which wasn’t exactly ideal but it did what it needed to which is protect both men to keep Umaga strong going into his match without causing Morrison to lose any momentum. It also gave them a chance to have Punk run down to the ring and get one over on Umaga to add some heat for the match. Afterward T-Grish got into the ring for an interview and Punk pointed out he’s not exactly the kind of guy who strategizes, but he always finds a way. The interview was decent enough; it wasn’t enough to convince me Punk’s got main event promo skills by any stretch, but it did its job here fine.

    CRYME TYME vs. THE WORLD’S GREATEST TAG TEAM: Okay, so J.R. may have said he didn’t see Haas and Benjamin staying together as a reunited tag team, but it’s things like this that seem to prove him wrong. They may still be coming out to Goldilocks’s music but they’ve been wrestling as a team solidly for a few weeks now, so I’m pretty sure it’s just a matter of time at this point, although it’s also entirely possible they could be using the WGTT to get Haas’s new aggressive gimmick over. We got a recap of the problem that started between these two teams on Superstars before we got to the match, which featuring Shad and JTG being used as it seems they best are these days—putting over another team. They busted out some interesting-looking spots like the inverted Alabama Slam splash of JTG onto Shelton, but it seemed to be more of Cryme Tyme in slow motion while they were on offense. On the other hand, it’s nice to see Shelton and Charlie looking impressive again, and while I would much rather see them both excelling in singles competition, a tag team push is still a push so I’ll take what I can get. Haas played his new gimmick nicely and they made him look good; meanwhile, outside of the hot tag and the minute or so immediately after Cryme Tyme was pretty much in selling mode here. Their momentum off the tag to Shad was quickly countered by the Paydirt for the win for the heels in a pretty decent match. I’m very intrigued to see where they’re going with these two from here, because it looks like good things could be ahead.

    EDGE & CHRIS JERICHO vs. JEFF HARDY & REY REY The set-up for this was really nicely done. Before the match we had a face-off between Team Ego where Edge told Jericho to follow his lead and do what he said, to which Jericho basically told Edge to screw himself and walked off, making it look like it was going to be a handicap match for the World Heavyweight Champion. Undaunted, Rated-R walked to the ring along and took the mic, delivering a promo about how Jeff could be summed up in two words; “Wasted Opportunity.” This was because Jeff picked a match that Edge owns and has had more success in than anyone in the ‘E. He pointed out that while Jeff always wows the crowds with his ladder match moments, he always wins. This was a fantastic little promo by Edge that showed how much better he is on the mic than Jeff, because while Day-Glo can be fantastic, Edge is consistently so.

    After the promo, Jericho’s pyro and music hit but he didn’t come to the ring, putting a powerful level of concern on the champ’s face. Then out came Rey Rey in one of his skull-face hoods over the top of his mask and drawing a major pop from the crowd. He came down and started slapping hands with his fans when out of nowhere, one of them grabbed Rey and slammed him headfirst into the guardrail. It was Jericho of course, and he hopped the rail to wail on Rey Rey and take him out of the match. Now this was a brilliant little bit of booking to show Jericho as the sneaky and evil little genius, and it was a sweet little twist on the usual pre-match attack. Jericho tried to get the mask off by Jeff came down and attacked to drive Chris off, leaving Rey Rey down and out and Jeff in a very sore spot. He agreed to go on as a handicap match against Jericho and Edge, which pretty much everyone acknowledge wasn’t smart, but was very much the kind of thing Jeff would do. I think J.R. and Grish just called Day-Glo stupid. Anyway, this was a pretty solid match that let Jeff get over as the guy fighting against the odds and really built him up nicely, but let Edge walk away with the win due to the greater odds. Jericho and Jeff work well together, and we know Edge and Jeff have good chemistry, and this nicely lived up to expectations. The whole thing also plays very nicely into Jericho’s feud with Rey as beside just the attack, he kept true to his word that Rey’s mask would be his downfall. This was just an amazingly well-booked main event that underscored exactly why Blue is better than Red these days, and have us a reason to be excited for Extreme Rules.

  • PURGATORY:

    DAY-GLO’S CHALLENGER SPEECH: Jeff came out mid-show, face paint-less and even without his armband thingies, to talk about his match at Extreme Rules with Edge. He talked about how some people thought he was crazy for choosing such a dangerous match, then brought up how he and Edge competed in the first tag team ladder match and now their feud would end in a ladder match. Cue the people using this as a clue to how Day-Glo’s probably not long for the ‘E (which may not be an invalid argument, really). He said he was going to prove that his title win last year wasn’t a fluke, but was meant to be and that he’d win at Extreme Rules. This was short and wasn’t one of Jeff’s best promos; there just wasn’t a lot of substance to it, and he was using his “end the sentence with a shout” cadence that he tends to do a bit too much. There wasn’t anything particularly bad here, it was just sort of there and while it did at least push the build to the match adequately enough it could have been a fair bit better with a bit more effort and a little more for Jeff to talk about. This week, he was just sort of coasting by, which isn’t good enough for a Right. In addition, the decision to have Umaga make his way to the ring for his match with Morrison while Day-Glo was still walking away from the ring seemed off-kilter and just sort of odd, which just made the whole segment feel more lackluster.

    LAYLA vs. EVE: We got a week-by-week recap of this little feud before the commercial and by the time we were back it was match time. I will admit that I was surprised that the crowd popped some for Eve, who looked damn impressive. Purple is definitely her color, I’ll just put it that way. Similarly Layla got a bit more heel heat than I expected; she seems to be in full skank mode at this point the way her ring entrance came off as she slithered around the ropes like it was a horizontal stripper’s pole. It still bugs me that they’ve wiped away the character development they did with her on Raw with Regal, but I can deal with this, especially if it brings us a segment at a cross-promotional show between the two where Regal asks what the hell happened to her and sneers her away. Now, I don’t think anyone who’s been reading my opinions of this feud will have any illusions about the way I expected this match to turn out. Layla’s never exactly been golden in the ring and Eve has shown potential but is still very green. The opening moments had me cringing the way I expected as it was basically just a hair-pulling, rolling-around the ring cat fight. Honestly, I will admit that it came off better than I expected by the end, and they booked around the duo’s limitations well. Layla played the power game—and by the way, kudos for T-Grish pointing out the NBA Dancer rivalry between the two ladies—and controlled the opening minute or two until Eve took over. There was nothing fantastic or particularly eye-popping here, it was all pretty basic stuff but it came across well. This worked as well as I could have hoped from them and this gets a puRgatoRy simply by virtue of lowered expectations.

  • THE WRONG:

    MELINA vs. ALICIA FOX: This of course was a match to continue the Melina/Michelle feud, with Alicia being the surrogate Michelle by virtue of their alliance. Michelle came down to the ring with Alicia, who’s hair seemed a little less enormous this week; I have to say, what the FUCK was Michelle wearing? She looked like a farmer’s daughter who works the streets when she’s not milking the cows, and it was just hideous. Alicia actually took control at first and Melina sold for her just a bit; you all know I love Melina, but I have to acknowledge she’s lost a step since moving to SmackDown. It’s very likely that she still needs to develop some chemistry with the Blue Brand ladies, as she was on Raw for a good while and knew her opponents there quite well but for whatever reason her matches are coming off seeming somewhat rough and at times a bit too choreographed. Tonight was one of those situations, and the match just didn’t connect right even though both ladies tried hard. Melina won with her new finisher, which J.R. seems to have named the Primal Scream, and post-match Michelle stole the title from the ref before shoving it into Melina’s hands and walking off with Alicia still lying in the ring. Good feud advancement but a poor match.

  • THE RIDICULOUS:

    DID YOU KNOW?: Nope. And, as always, I don’t care.

    The 411

    As bad as this week’s Raw was, SmackDown delivered nicely to keep things going on toward Extreme Rules. The Melina/Alicia match was far from sparkling and while Layla/Eve exceeded expectations it still wasn’t great, but the rest was pretty damn good for the most part. The main event portion of the show was just beautifully done and it delivered nicely to keep the Blue Brand’s momentum going strong toward the looming Pay-Per-View. If SmackDown can keep this going they’ll have the new mega-stars of the ‘E in no time, and I’ll have absolutely zero complaints about that.

    SHOW RATING: ***¼

    Comment Time with Jeremy!

    From Guest#7122:
    “And the Michelle turn did make sense at the time, becuase SmackDown was face-heavy on Divas, but she was pretty over as a face.”

    The total silence she got when she played to the crowd as a face says otherwise. That’s why turning her made sense. It hasn’t worked because she still isn’t over, but at least they realized she was bombing terribly as a face.

    I think you’re being a little hyperbolic there, Mr. 7122. Michelle may not have had huge face pops but as others have said she was pretty well over as a face. That said, my reasoning stands that the turn made sense at the time due to the overstacked babyface roster in terms of the ladies.

    From Kyle:
    I can’t believe Raw got that high of a rating. It is the worst i have ever seen it. The storylines are terrible and so is the wrestling. Raw right now is in horrible shape but Vince thinks raw is a great product so we won’t get any changes.

    One can hope the lack of a ratings bump will make the Boss see otherwise, Kyle. If not, I’m afraid we’re due for some dark times ahead for Monday nights.

    From KanyonKreist:
    I’ve got another thing for you to ponder, JT…

    Were you bothered at all by how extremely “golly gee” nice MVP was to Kofi when KK celebrated his win by coming down and pointing at MVP’s strap? “I’m glad you won! I want to give you a shot at the belt! It’ll be a great match…” Sorry, but has his “better than you” persona completely evaporated at this point? I know the losing streak was supposed to instill some humbleness in his character, but COME ON! I’m almost ready to mourn the passing of a great wrestling persona after this crap. His very name was a statement of superiority! You know, Roddy Piper? Jake Roberts? Steve Austin? THE ROCK? They got over HUGE after successful runs as heels, but they did NOT turn *NICE*. At no point did the Rock say “I’m gla-” sorry; at no point did the Rock say “The Rock is glad you’re getting a shot at my title; it’ll be a great, exciting, fun match, pal!” I may be exaggerating MVP’s new “friendly streak”, but you know what? Barely.

    Talk me down here, Jeremy; tell me it’s not the end of Montel Vontavius Porter as we know him!

    I don’t think that this will turn out so badly, Kanyon. I admit, the congratulating Kofi struck me as somewhat odd, but in the same match he commented on how he was right all along about Matt. It’s a subtle thing, but it does show that he’s still an arrogant guy…just one who’s mellowed out and gone face-ish. I’m sure we’ll see more of this and less of “Baby-Kissing Montel” down the road.

    From Rody Chodes:
    Wow, Kennedy made it through the promo without hurting himself—I’m impressed.

    ——

    idiot.. he has been injured 3-4 times and you’re making him look like kevin nash’s half brother

    Humor, dude. Look it up. S’all I’m sayin’.

    From CanadianCripper:
    I completely agree with #3543 on the Kofi/Regal/Hardy match. The triple threat bout was laden with botches galore. I certainly don’t mean to nitpick here, but the workers looked like they were having communication issues in the match, with no rehearsal or preparation.

    I really liked the premise of the match, for giving the US Title some on-air credibility. I appreciated the effort, but the execution misfired in a big way.

    A lot of people noted this one, and I’ll admit I may have rated it too highly based on the fact that it didn’t suck and, in comparison to the rest of the show, it was certainly a Right. I may have just latched onto it and overrated it because it was a massive improvement from that gods-awful opening segment.

    From fanboi13:
    I was not suprised at the pee poor qaulity of the Triple K/Maryse match.Maryse is overated and has never shown me that she has the ability to have a good match with anyone who cannot carry her. What suprised me was the idiotic ending. That has to go as one of the top five lamest match endings in the history of wrestling. Does this mean they are pushing Triple K? Great! Its not like Mickie James,Natalya, Beth Pheonix or Gail Kim could possibly give us better matches and make better champs than Kelly.

    I disagree that Maryse is overrated; she’s not fantastic but she is certainly improving in the ring. As someone else noted she does fine with good workers but no, she’s not at the point that she can carry someone, nor is Triple K. I certainly agree that the ending was just stupidly retarded though.

    From Sad Panda:
    Raw is just god awful at the moment, it is beyond a joke. I’m sure there is a point to all this Orton-is-everyone’s-bitch storyline …. Sigh.

    You’re more optimistic about Orton’s status than I am, but we’ll have to see where it goes from here.

    From Guest#4175:
    “Since when was THAT a disqualifiable offense?” in regards to the Divas Title Match….

    Since the WWE told referees to start disqualifying heels for heel tactics about a year or so ago. The intention was that Maryse pushed KK over the table, she used the table as a weapon, so to speak.

    The refs still suck at DQ calls, but the memo from last year was that the heels were not supposed to be able to get away with most of the things they do…in an effort to make wrestling more shoot-like…

    Can’t buy that one, Guest. The refs don’t book the finish of matches, Creative does, so the refs are just following orders. And this doesn’t fly when people don’t get DQ’d for doing far worse than this. Hell, Maryse just shoved Triple K; we’ve seen people not DQ’d for tossing people into the steps which is far worse. I get the reasoning but in this case it doesn’t fly.

    From ZeroVX:
    Honestly?

    You guys are blowing the whole McMahon/Kroneke thing WAY out of proportion.

    “Oh, he brought a grudge he had with this guy on live TV and wasted precious air time!” And you watched it anyway. What’s your point? You knew it was happening, you knew what he was going to do. No one forced you to watch it.

    Besides, it could’ve gone a lot worse. At least Vince picked an imitator who actually looked like Kroneke. He could’ve grabbed a mi-sorry, “little person”, but did he? No. And yes, the whole Enos = penis thing was juvenile, but besides that, Vince was actually mature about the whole thing. All he did was say to the imitator what he wanted to say to the real Kroneke, but couldn’t.

    Like I said, you guys are going completely overboard with this. It could’ve gone much worse, because he has done worse. And in the end, he got what he wanted: ratings.

    You’re right, I could have not watched it, but then there wouldn’t have had been a Raw R’s for that week. The point here, ZeroVX, is that I review the shows good or bad. If the R’s, WOTW and other such columns didn’t come into it I probably wouldn’t be watching the Red Brand at the moment. This is the same sort of argument that people use for people who dare to give movies bad reviews, and my response is always the same: If I only reviewed the stuff I liked, I wouldn’t be a very objective reviewer now, would I?

    As for the “could have been a lot worse” portion, I’m sorry but just because Vince has done worse than this doesn’t make this good in any remote way. If he wanted to say these things to Kroenke he could have devoted a little of his massive amount of ESPN, etc. interview time to that and then been the better man, carrying on business as usual and moving his billion-dollar company on toward a Pay-Per-View. Instead he wasted two hours. And he most certainly did not get ratings, and they dropped almost half a point from last week. That’s the result of Vince pissing his publicity away. Well done, ‘E. But hey, ZeroVX…thanks for reading!

    From 17:
    And yet you still give it *1/4?

    I pointed this out before and you made a very good point that * and lower ratings should go to shows which are really, really bad, like dying days of WCW bad, but by your own admission that was what RAW was this week so shouldn’t it get the ‘honour’ of a * rating?

    I was tempted. I really was, and I probably should have considering I overrated the Triple Threat match. But in the end, I didn’t even think most of the Thunder stuff was * as a whole show. Heroes of Wrestling would be an example of a less-than-a-snowflake show. It has to be truly, EPICALLY bad to get that low. It sort of boils down to this…even in my movie reviews the only things to get less than a star out of five after conversion from a ten point to a five point scale in the past couple years have been Meet the Spartans and Dragonball: Evolution. And as bad as Raw was, it wasn’t THAT bad.

    From Guest#0973:
    I actually think that Kelly, Kelly is improving. But your right. The divas get no reaction because it’s mostly bathroom break while there on lol. And if you don’t think Kelly Kelly looked hot on monday then your probally gay. Which i still think that you are. Complaning about what they were.

    Thank you for your opinion, Guest. Have a nice day!

    From DXSSI:
    I just wanted to point out regarding the upcoming Hog Pen match that Santina is pretty much a lock to win. And we all know what happened to the last person who WON a Hog Pen Match. Granted he didn’t do it in drag, but excepting that, if history repeats itself Santino will have a very good future ahead of him.

    I wouldn’t call Santina a lock to win, because I would have said the same for their first match but look what happened. That said, you make a good point otherwise.



    By: Larry Csonka

    ROH on HDNet 05.30.09:

  • QUICK RESULTS:
    – Roderick Strong defeated Rhett Titus @ 7:00 via pin [**]
    – MsChif defeated Daizee Haze and Sara Del Rey @ 2:00 via pin [NR]
    – Erick Stevens defeated Sami Callahan @ 3:00 via pin [*]
    – The American Wolves defeated Steenerico @ 15:00 via pin [****¼]

  • THE RIGHT:

    Building the Title Match/NIGEL: I have often complained about some of the small things that ROH hasn’t done, but like last week I am here to praise them for more great build to the title match. The interview/video segments on Austin Aries and Tyler Black were again well done. These videos were a good way to build the anticipation for the title match as well as highlight both guys, without the cliché in ring interview. These are the little things that they need to add to the show, and I am glad that they did it this week. The Nigel interview was also well done. He has come so far as a promo guy, and it showed here. He was having fun at his opponents expense, but he also made sure to put them over while doing so, a very important part of that style of interview. I still think that they should be adding DVD highlights or other video packages to push the feuds in the company, that is something that I personally was pushing for. They did some of this stuff this week, and I liked it. I hope that they keep it up.

    Roderick Strong defeated Rhett Titus: The opening match for this week’s ROH TV was Roderick Strong facing off with Rhett Titus. This was a good opener, with solid back and forth action and nothing to complain about, other than I would have liked it to get some more time. Strong needed the win, and Titus continued to look good, even in defeat. Strong is a very reliable worker that seems to work well with everyone, while Titus is constantly improving and had a great character and charisma. This was a fine way to open the show.

    The American Wolves defeated Steenerico: The only thing that I hate about this not posting until Tuesday is that by the time I get to this column, Dunn has stolen all the great lines. BUT FUCK IT! THIS MATCH PISSED EXCELLENCE! Seriously, thus far, this is my free TV match of the year. Steen and Generico are a great team, and they always have the crowd behind them. The Wolves bring a whole new intensity to the show, which is a welcomed change. Their great team work and dedication to working over Steen’s leg, added to Generico’s insanity and a nice mixture of table spots all clicked perfectly. Add in that this was the first big moment on ROH TV and was put over as such and this was simply awesome.

  • PURGATORY:

    Erick Stevens defeated Sami Callahan: Our squash match of the evening was the ROH Jobber to all Sami Callahan facing off with Erick Stevens. It was what it was, Callahan got in some offense, he then licked Stevens, which ANGERED HIM. Stevens then destroyed him and that was that. Stevens is undefeated on ROH TV, and they are trying to push him as a bad ass, but I agree with JD, it doesn’t work when he is such a goof on his promos. Also, it is obvious that he hasn’t had any real competition, but what is worse is how Prazak points it out. Sure he’s heeling it up, but don’t state the obvious TOO much. I didn’t hate it, but I also could have done without it.

  • THE WRONG:

    MsChif defeated Daizee Haze and Sara Del Rey:If there was one thing I hated on this show, it was the ladies match. WHY? Because this was one of those TNA moments that I bitch about ALL THE TIME. I do not care that it was not a title match, but the fact that you put this match out there, and proclaim that we are getting a treat by seeing the ladies of SHIMMER compete on ROH TV. But then they give them roughly TWO MINUTES to have a match. Sure the two minutes was good, but how in the hell can anyone get over in that amount of time? They can’t, that’s the answer. This was a horrible misuse of three ladies and their talent. Don’t put bullshit like this on TV, either give it the proper time, or take this time and add it to the other matches that could have used time, or even better yet, take it and do some video packages for the talent or to show DVD highlights. Again, this was a horrible misuse of these three ladies.

  • THE RIDICULOUS:

    NONE:

    The 411

    The first half of this show was just there, actually a little below average. But then the main event hit, and it was so damn awesome, it saved the show and made it something that you have to see. The main event is the type of thing that ROH needs to put on to show that they deserve attention, and they did that this week. If you missed this match, shame on you for six weeks!

    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: 7.9


  • 2009 PPV Rankings:
    ROH RISING ABOVE {8.0}
    WWE NO WAY OUT {8.0}

    TNA SACRIFICE {7.5}
    WWE BACKLASH {7.5}
    WWE ROYAL RUMBLE {7.3}
    TNA GENESIS {7.2}
    TNA LOCKDOWN {7.2}
    ROH CAGED COLLISION {7.1}
    WWE WRESTLEMANIA {7.0}

    WWE JUDGMENT DAY {6.5}

    TNA AGAINST ALL ODDS {5.5}

    TNA DESTINATION X {3.5}


  • 2009 TOP PPV Match Rankings:
    [WWE WRESTLEMANIA] – HBK vs. The Undertaker (*****)

    [ROH RISING ABOVE] – ROH WORLD TITLE MATCH: Nigel McGuinness © vs. Bryan Danielson (****½)
    [WWE NO WAY OUT] – THE SMACKDOWN ELIMINATION CHAMBER (****½)
    [BACKLASH] – LAST MAN STANDING: Edge vs. John Cena (****½)

    [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)
    [WWE NO WAY OUT] – THE RAW ELIMINATION CHAMBER (****¼)

    [ROH CAGED COLLISION] #1 CONTENDERS MATCH – Tyler Black vs. Jimmy Jacobs vs. Bryan Danielson vs. Austin Aries (***¾)
    [ROH CAGED COLLISION] ROH WORLD TITLE MATCH – Nigel McGuinness vs. El Generico (***¾)
    [TNA SACRIFICE] – I QUIT LEGENDS TITLE MATCH – Booker T vs. AJ Styles © (***¾)
    [TNA SACRIFICE] – Eric Young and Lethal Consequences vs. The Machineguns and Sheik Abdul Bashir (***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)
    [WWE WRESTLEMANIA] – MONEY IN THE BANK (***¾)
    [WWE JUDGMENT DAY] – Rey Mysterio vs. Chris Jericho (***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
    [WWE NO WAY OUT] – EDGE – The Ultimate Opportunist
    [WWE 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
    [WWE BACKLASH] – Edge and John Cena – Stealing the Show
    [TNA SACRIFICE] – The TNA Roster – Making the Best Out of Shitty Booking


  • 2009 TOP TV Match Rankings:
    I will update as often as needed.

    TABLES ARE LEGAL TAG TITLE MATCH: Kevin Steen and El Generico © vs. The American Wolves – (ROH on HDNet: 05.30.09) {****¼}

    Bryan Danielson vs. Tyler Black – (ROH on HDNet: 04.25.09) {****}
    Evan Bourne vs. John Morrison – (ECW: 04.14.09) {****}
    Christian vs. Jack Swagger – (ECW: 02.24.09) {****}
    Shawn Michaels vs. John Cena – (Raw: 01.12.09) {****}

    CM Punk vs. Chris Jericho – (Superstars: 05.21.09) {***¾}
    Bryan Danielson vs. Tyler Black – (ROH on HDNet: 05.09.09) {***¾}
    Bryan Danielson vs. Austin Aries – (ROH on HDNet: 04.04.09) {***¾}
    Beer Money vs. Team Canada – (Impact: 02.19.09) {***¾}
    Kurt Angle vs. AJ Styles – (Impact: 01.22.09) {***¾}

    Edge vs. Chris Jericho – (Smackdown: 05.15.09) {***½}
    Rey Mysterio vs. Shelton Benjamin – (Superstars: 05.14.09) {***½}
    Jeff Hardy vs. Chris Jericho – (Smackdown: 05.08.09) {***½}
    Edge vs. Kofi Kingston – (Superstars: 04.23.09) {***½}
    John Cena vs. Chris Jericho – (Raw: 04.20.09) {***½}
    Undertaker vs. Shelton Benjamin – (Smackdown: 04.17.09) {***½}
    Matt Hardy vs. Jeff Hardy – (Smackdown: 04.10.09) {***½}
    Primo vs. The Miz – (ECW: 03.10.09) {***½}
    Edge vs. John Cena – (Raw: 03.02.09) {***½}
    Lethal Consequences vs. Motor City Machine Guns – (Impact: 02.19.09) {***½}
    Undertaker vs. Shelton Benjamin – (Smackdown: 01.09.09) {***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…

    http://www.twitter.com/411mania
    http://www.twitter.com/411wrestling
    http://www.twitter.com/411moviestv
    http://www.twitter.com/411music
    http://www.twitter.com/411games
    http://www.twitter.com/411mma

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