Wrestling’s 4R’s Friday Edition 06.19.09: ECW and Raw Reviewed!

Posted by Larry Csonka on 06.19.2009

It was a big week in wrestling! Donald Trump bought Raw, Randy Orton won back the WWE Title, and the ECW and World Titles were defended on Raw! Elsewhere on ECW, Jack Swagger defeated Tommy Dreamer to earn a shot at the ECW title and Finlay returned and was not happy! Plus RetRo TNA! The Friday edition of Wrestling's 4R's breaks down all the action from WWE Raw and ECW on Sci-Fi!

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By: Jeremy Thomas

Raw 06.15.09

The Right:

REY REY vs. CHRIS JERICHO: For an opening show match, we got the traditional hot match style that SmackDown has taken to using to get the crowd and audience hyped for the show. In this case, it was Rey Rey challenging Chris Jericho for the Intercontinental Title. Jericho came out first with the Intercontinental Title around his waist and the boos of the fans flying around his head as per usual. J.R. and T-Grish put over Jericho's record number of Intercontinental Title reigns as Y2J got on the mic and trashed Raw for falling into a tailspin. Granted it has, but not for the reasons he was talking about. Jericho reverted back to the big word-using here and I'm hoping it was a temporary slight reversion, as I was hopeful of seeing the slight change to his character continue. He did continue the desire to save Rey Rey from his mask, which was nice. Rey Rey himself came out next to the usual monster pop. They started out nicely with Mysterio taking it right to the champion, which makes sense considering how heated the feud has become, and the duo continued it on to have another quality match between them. It was high-impact and fast-paced, with some nice spots early on like Jericho catching Rey Rey off the apron for a face slam into the table. The storytelling to the match was predictably good, with the usual little guy act of Rey being combined with Jericho's continued attempts to rip the mask off. That of course factored into the finish as well, where Rey had Jericho nearly beaten and went for the West Coast Pop only to have the mask pulled over his face. That led to the Codebreaker and a title retention for Jericho without hurting Rey any. There was only one moment that seemed clumsy, which was when Rey came out of a whip into the corner awkwardly and then prevented a bulldog via a toss into the turnbuckle, but it also went off smoothly enough that I can't be sure they didn't plan it that way. It was a strong way to start Raw and let this feud continue on toward the Bash.

FATAL FOUR-WAY WWE TITLE MATCH: This was our first hour main event, which was pretty good booking as those who forgot that it was a three-hour show this week would be able to tune in somewhere around this match. Lillian Garcia was in the ring to announce this one, and in a nice touch they waited for all four guys go get into the ring before she made the participant announcements; it added a big fight sort of feel to it, and I always appreciate the small touches like that. Orton got a decent amount of heat and Show a touch less from the crowd, while of course Cena and the Game were over as hell. This one started off with, unsurprisingly, Orton and ‘H squaring off while Cena and Show battled, though it didn't last for long before ‘H and Show ended up in the ring. I have to admit, I wasn't expecting this to be as good as it was. They did the four-way formula very effectively and used ‘H and Cena working together early on to take out Show before they faced off together. This was a faced-past, chaotic and hard-hitting match from four guys whose individual matches against each other have been anything but as of the last several months. Of course, we fell into the standard, seen-it-before elements of a four-way from time to time but those were used effectively. This wasn't pure magic in the ring, but it was quite good and the ending sequence of one finisher after another worked beautifully. And for ONCE, thank the gods, Show actually hit the Vader Bomb! The finish was somewhat unexpected, because I honestly expected the Game to win so that Orton was chasing him, but this worked very well and it actually helped Orton repair some of the damage that's been done to him. He didn't need Legacy to help him win this one and he went over three other main eventers. No, the Game didn't get pinned, but with Orton winning that makes sense as they're clearly building to Orton/'H and they would want to hold off on that kind of a finish. It's the best WWE Title match we've seen in a long while, either on Free TV or Pay-Per-View.

SHOOTING A MIDGET IS AWESOME: Coming back from a commercial break, we saw Goldust and Hornswaggle shooting T-Shirts to the fans with one of those T-Shirt Guns that they love getting into shenanigans with so much. You knew someone was getting shot in the nuts here, but I will admit it turned out far better than I thought. The Miz came down to the ring to interrupt Goldie and Horny, sporting his "Anti-Cena" T-Shirt, and said he had a message for Donald Trump: if he wanted to take the show to the next level then he should make Miz the new face of Raw. Well, he is 8-0 against Cena, so… Miz delivered a pretty decent jackass promo here talking about how he was totally right about Cena and left him unconscious in the ring. He said he was going to toss Cena and earn a WWE Title shot at the Bash and then market himself to the moon. He then immediately turned on Horney and Goldie, which caused Goldie to call Miz out for having no creativity since he wasn't willing to make out with Ahmed Johnson. Goldie's promo here was decent and referenced some nice moments of his own past, including a brief return of Tourette's before Miz proceeded to tear him down in pretty awesome fashion by pointing out how irrelevant the man is, which instantly got the crowd chanting "You Suck" overwhelmingly loud. Miz once again pointed out the truth as a worked insult, that Goldie was irrelevant and no one cared about him. He then quickly took out Goldie and tormented Hornswaggle, even forcing him to get on his knees before shooting him in the groin with the T-Shirt gun. Now seriously folks. Shooting a midget in the balls? That's surefire heat. This was great stuff by Miz and I was very happy to see it.

CM PUNK vs. EDGE vs. JEFF HARDY: This was the second-hour main event, and was preceded by Punk giving an interview with Josh Matthews. To start with, I have to say kudos to Straightedge for taking the time to throw tribute to Misawa out via his wrist tape. It was a small gesture, but clearly visible and a nice touch. Punk basically delivered the same sort of promo he did on SmackDown, pointing out that everyone loved it when he cashed in the Money in the Bank against Edge, but hated it when he did it to Jeff. You know, you can't disagree with his logic there. It was cut short as Matt Hardy (and Cast) came in and congratulated Punk on cashing in. Punk proceeded to trash Matt and basically tell him to fuck off. This was good stuff from Punk who is still playing both sides of the fence, and it's working well.

After J.R and Lawler recapped Edge divorcing Vickie last week—which can now officially be played to heel out Edge since she's not around to remind us what a heat magnet she is—Edge came out into the ring to the crowd's vitriol. Jeff of course had a big ol' pop from the crowd—and was face-painted, for those keeping track—and Punk had a decidedly mixed reaction. These three have put on some great matches between them in one-on-one situations, and this was like the best of those matches put together. They also got the post-entrance announcements to add to the important feel of the match, after which Jeff came out hot, taking it to both of his opponents. Things quickly turned around here and while much like the Four-Way they had some of the standard Triple Threat formula come into play, this was handled even more effectively then the Raw guys did and most of the time it didn't feel like just another three-way. They paced this one out a little bit and gave Edge, Jeff and Punk over fifteen minutes to deliver a kick-ass match that put all three guys over strongly. The signs are there to set up Punk's heel turn or keep him going solidly on the tweener run, as J.R. called him nearly as much of an opportunist as Edge…and of course he proved that at the end of the match as he played his card when he had the chance to take Hardy out and pin Edge following a Swanton. At the same time, he's not the perfectly assholish, easy-way-out opportunist exactly; he's still willing to go toe-to-toe when he needs to, and that's what helps make him an effective tweener. Meanwhile this match was just superb and everyone's timing was just spot-on here. The only gripe I could find was T-Grish calling a sleeper a "head lock," which is an example of a rare Grish mistake, but that takes the tiniest bit of shine off a great match.

puRgatoRy:

BABY OIL BOY'S CLUB?: Backstage, Josh Matthews was standing by with Randy Orton when we came back from break. The crowd gave a decent boo while Matthews tried to recap the events of the week before, which turned into Orton threatening him over it. Orton talked about how he's put out the whole of Evolution with his punt kicks and then talked about how Triple H came out with Sledgie because he couldn't take Orton on his own. Um yeah Randy…I think we all remember what he was doing to you around Backlash without the hammer, thanks. Orton promised to make us all forget about what happened last week, which I would certainly appreciate. This brought Cena into the camera's range and he mocked Randy and called him a talented but gutless, spineless Grand Wizard of the Baby Oil Boy's Club. He then reminded Randy that there were two other guys in the match. We all know what I think about Cena when he plays it off too jokey, and this was no different while Orton tried his best (as usual) to act like he wasn't the joke of the main event. This was mostly a throwaway segment that didn't do much for either guy, but it wasn't bad enough to pull it down into the wRong…it was just kind of there. I expect a lot more out of these two and when they're on, they deliver nicely…tonight just wasn't that kind of night.

THE HART DYNASTY vs. THE COLONS: Cody Rhodes and Ted DiBiase were out to watch this match and scout the Colons while providing commentary. DH and Tyson were out first with Natalya and managed a minor crowd reaction much like their competitors the Tag Team champions did. Legacy did a tolerable job on commentary here while the match went on in the ring; my only complaint is that they seemed to go to shots of them a bit much which took away from the actual match. This wasn't a great match, and had no chance of being so due to the tiny amount of time given here, but they did try to make it as good as a two and a half minute match can be. Legacy punked the hell out of the champions and tossed them to the outside to add a bit more heat to this feud. It's nice to see Legacy being built up more, even if the match could have had more time.

NUMBER ONE CONTENDER BATTLE ROYALE: This was announced by Vince after the WWE Title match, in order to determine a contender for the title. Oh, look, Triple H is in it. There's a surprise. Battle Royales are notoriously hard to rate, but hey, that's why I don't give star ratings to individual matches. During the entrances they highlighted Miz's chair attack on Cena and Show last week, then immediately brought out Show. Of course, the last people (and the only two who's entrances came after the break) where ‘H and Cena. Anyone wanna bet on who's winning this one? This was a more or less standard battle royale, with chaos in the ring for the first several moments. They had some fun spots, such as Miz's sliding out under the ring and trying to slide back in at the last moment only to lose, and I was totally fine with that as he was eliminated by the top two faces on Raw, which does him little damage. As Randy Orton watched from the entrance ramp things were quickly whittled down to Cena, the H-Man and Legacy, and after not too long it was Cena and ‘H. I did appreciate that they let Rhodes and DiBiase last to the final four (not including Miz), and even had them look good in there against Cena and ‘H. What I didn't appreciate was the way they made MVP look stupid. It won't do him any damage in the long run but it did bug me. Anyway, this boiled down to Cena and the Game, and the Game was the one who picked up the win predictably. But WAIT! The Trump showed up on the ‘Tron and announced that the match wouldn't take place at the Bash but on the no-commercial Raw next week! Yeah, that's smart. Sell your PPV short for the sake of a gimmick show's main event. Idjits. The Battle Royale itself was pretty decent though, and that gives this one a pass over the bad booking and angles.

The wRong:

CHRISTIAN vs. TOMMY DREAMER: First off, allow me to say this. Tommy Dreamer, ECW Champion. I love it. Call me a fanboy or a mark because it's damn true, but I also think it's a perfect way to solidify Tommy's legacy as the heart and soul of ECW. No, he's not the guy who never got it done anymore, but really is that such a bad thing? That said, I've been enjoying the title scene on ECW and was very hopeful for this match. Unfortunately it got about as much respect as ECW usually gets when it has to compete with the Big Boy Brands for time; it got about five minutes. Worse yet—and this really pissed me off, to be honest—they decided to put up a shitty little graphic in the bottom left-hand corner of the screen advertising the WWE Title match in ten minutes and counting. Okay, really? Do we have to point out that matches are given allotted times right out of the gate? And before anyone points out the possibility, this match was NOT given a time limit and so we were to expect that this match was already set for less than ten minutes, thanks to the obvious need for a commercial break in-between. It's essentially a further short-selling of the ECW Title match for the sake of the WWE Title match and that bothers me. And, of course, it did get less than ten minutes as Christian and Tommy were expected to put on a decent match in less than four minutes, which of course didn't happen. It was rushed and pointless, except for putting Tommy over Christian for some legitimacy to his title reign and credibility as an ECW main eventer. Of course, that clearly doesn't mean much in the ‘E's eyes. The failing here wasn't in the competitors' hands, it was in the booking and presentation, both of which sucked.

MICKIE JAMES vs. ROSA MENDEZ: This was a match intended to give Mickie some momentum heading into her inevitable title match against Maryse. This also got Rosa into a one-on-one match, which is (I believe) her first one on television. Mickie was rocking the turquoise outfit again and looking quite good in it, Rose was also looking quite good in red, and even with her own entrance music…who knew she had it? Before the bell rang however, down came Maryse to ringside, putting them both to shame and scouting her competition. This was a match that got nearly no time—a common trend, of course—and yet looked as if it was going to have some potential until Rose decided to go to the standard "I'm a Diva who can't wrestler" repertoire of rubbing Mickie's face on the mat and stomping ineffectively. It picked up just slightly when Mickie took over, quickly picking up the pinfall after her DDT finisher. After the match Maryse considered confronting Mickie but headed off, furthering the angle where the Butterfly Champion has been ducking Mickie. An iffy match to lead toward what could be a decent feud if they built it right.

The Ridiculous:

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

The Ri-GOD-DAMN-diculous:

THE DONALD TRUMP BULLSHIT: Our Extra-Special Three-For-All Raw started off tonight with Michael Cole and Jerry Lawler talking about Vince's pending appearance and the rumors about what he was there for—to appoint a GM or to make a major announcement about something else. A wee bit later they had a video interview with Vince McMahon, who was backstage and about to announce the new General Manager of Raw. But wait…no, he wasn't. He was going to allow someone else to do that, because when opportunity knocks you seize the moment, and offers happen that you can't refuse and twenty other clichés. The bottom line was—shockingly—Vince McMahon was SELLING MONDEY NIGHT RAW! OH MY GOD! THIS IS SO SHOCKING! THIS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT THING EVER!





*Cough* Yeah, sorry about that, I should have busted out the warning before, not after. Also, I think I officially broke my sarcasm machine there. Anyway, this was an interesting start, but I think we all knew this was heading somewhere seriously south. This isn't just the aforementioned cynicism, this is history. Whenever someone becomes a part-owner in something in the WWE, shit goes seriously downhill. Remember Ric Flair's first run as part-owner? Not one of his high points. How about when Shane-O Mac bought WCW and Steph bought ECW? Started off hot, but then the Invasion quickly went south. So needless to say, I saw this and immediately groaned. I imagine a lot of people were expecting this to be Flair but something just didn't seem right to me, and not even Lawler and Cole talking in their "serious voices" could convince me that this was going anywhere right. Things got further downhill as we had a pointless segment with the Divas acting like brainless twats—Oprah and Obama as potential buyers? Really, guys? Wow, thanks.

Of course, this was not the stupidest moment of this angle. Yes, anyone who thinks this angle is remotely a good idea should step away while I rant here. Seriously, they're bringing Donald Trump back? Donald Fucking Trump? Of all the stupid, asinine ideas, this is one of the worst. Seriously no, this is one of the worst ways they could have played this. Never mind the fact that I was already apprehensive, because with the right sort of person behind the sale this could have worked out all right. But let's be frank, people. The ‘E used Donald Trump because they knew it would get mainstream coverage, and they wanted to play in the news media some more like a retarded giant in a china shop while they basked in the horrified fascination of the news outlets who were actually vaguely sympathetic after the whole Nuggets thing. But Trump, despite high ratings from the Apprentice, does not have charisma and does not come off as someone who wrestling fans generally like. Don't believe me? Listen to how much the crowd shit all over this idea the second Trump's name was mentioned. What's worse, Trump is a terrible promo man who talked all over Vince, quite possibly because this looked just like it was recorded and Vince was just playing off that. And commercial-free…wow, yeah that's a treat. That means more time for them to have dumb backstage segments where Triple K and the Bellas act like ditzes and Santina can be forced to make out with Goldust or whatever stupid shit they're going to put Marella through. What, you think they'd actually use that time for more matches? Three and a half minute ECW Title match on a three hour Raw, folks. That's all I'm gonna say. I'm sure someone somewhere thought, legitimately, this was a great idea. I bet Vince LOVED it…and I bet everyone who had a lick of sense didn't have the balls to stand up to him and say "No boss, that's fucking stupid." And now we're all stupider for it. This is instant WrestleCrap in the making, and mark my words: by the time this is done, it'll be the number one contender for Worst Angle of the Year in the 411Mania Year-End Awards. Seriously, fuck this whole thing.

The 411

Another improvement in Raw, although there's still a LOT of Stupid. Mostly one big, toupee-wearing one. The wrestling was great, even the Cena/'H/Orton/Show match and the right are enough to mostly counteract the incredibly, ultimately retarded angle that's sure to be the focus of Raw for the next few months. This kind of shit is why I hate the three-hour Raws...they always find some major story element to focus on that's absolutely ridiculous and in my book the story should augment the wrestling, not specifically seek out to take away from it and this one earns a middling thumb sideways.

SHOW RATING: **½

Comment Time With Jeremy~!

From Guest#0982:
glad u guys r taking notice to the constant burial of benji

It's getting kind of hard not to at this point, honestly.


From Kyle:
It's amazing how good Smackdown is compared to raw. Raw may be the a show in terms of how it is viewed Vince and company but to the fans at home Smackdown is on a roll. Smackdown features exciting wrestling a mid card with storylines. Raw on the other hand features the same guy in the main event. Smakcodnw may have the crown jewel of the draft in Chris Jericho what a blow to raw it has been. Here is a guy who is great on the mic and great in the ring. Also guys like Rey and Punk coming over have helped. At the start of the draft I thought Raw would come out on top, but now Smackdown is a show that I used to miss and now don't want to miss. It's amazing to think that Smackdown and Raw are run by the same company. Smackdown contains rising stars and older ones and it is gelling even without undertaker who could have a fresh feud with someone like jericho when he returns.

SmackDown has, in my opinion anyway, two crown jewels of the draft in Punk and Jericho. Raw did get a couple good ones in Show, 'H, Hardy & MVP, but so far no one's made as much of an impact on their brand as Y2J and Straight-Edge. Somehow, I think that by the time the year is up and we're ready for another draft, my answer's going to be the same.


From KanyonKreist:
JT, good observation about them possibly fearing Edge getting pops on Smackdown. I hadn't thought of that...

Anyway!

Of all the things on tonight's Raw that brought feelings of aggravation and nausea, what brought up the most in you?

Personally, I can't see anything scoring lower than the horse-shoed and CRIMINALLY SHORT ECW Title match. Not only was it awkwardly shoved directly before the WWE Title match, and not only was it only about four and a half minutes long, but they flat-out TOLD you it would be a short match. As soon as it started, they showed the fucking countdown to the WWE Title match, with TEN minutes and counting!! How does that not come off as blatantly disrespectful to the guys in the ring, let alone the championship itself...?

One more thing, Thomas: who do you think should have won the #1 contender's battle royal?

(The correct/my answer: MVP... I mean come ON already, he doesn't have to WIN the belt, just get him up there on the card...)

Yeah, I can't think of anyone who would have worked better then Montel, really. If we're not talking about the PPV, then they really could have given MVP the title shot and then used the match to a) put Orton over, b) push MVP and c) further the 'H/Orton feud by having the Game come out after the match to save MVP from a sidelining punt kick. But then, I guess that would have made sense. As for the aggravation and nausea, it was totally the Trump bullshit. The ECW Title match pissed me off to no end, absolutely, but it was a pale imitation of how pissed I got at McMahon "selling Raw" to Trump.


From Travis:
CLEARING THE AIR AND SETTING THE TITLE SCENE: I do think you are looking at the Jeff Hardy Swanton in the wrong light. I think it was a matter of selling the abuse he took in the match at Extreme Rules (especially after that ladder spot on the outside where when landing on it, Jeff's shoulder was slammed rather hard into the ground. Looked like a mini-catapult reaction), I know if I went through all that, I would be pretty fucked so it makes sense for Jeff to be a bit sloppy when pulling it off. As for his in-ring psychology, I think he has done a lot better since he returned to the WWE as a whole in the ring, I mean he proved he could mat wrestle back in I believe '03 before he originally left when he tried to switch up styles to which the fans were not happy. All in all I am giving him the benefit of the doubt that the Swanton was planned to work out like that.

That is a possibility and I acknowledged that; it simply seemed to me like he legitimately fucked it up. I may well be wrong and it could have been a work that was booked in to sell the injuries, and if so then I was worked to be sure and kudos to them. He seems to be okay for now, so I'll give them the benefit of the doubt.


From Shockmaster:
CLEARING THE AIR AND SETTING THE TITLE SCENE: Ten points for Punk delivering a sensible promo where everything he said was valid. Minus ten for sounding like he's on Prozac. Edge says the title is his life. Jeff sounds like he won the lottery when he's champ. Punk's demeanor just says "Oh look, a quarter". I never liked Hogan, but got why others did. With Punk it's a complete mystery to me.

CHRIS JERICHO vs. CM PUNK: If Punk hasn't bought matching BFF bracelets for he and Jericho, he should. Yet again this pairing makes me think, if only momentarily, that I've sold Punk's ring skills short.

JEFF HARDY vs. EDGE: Not one of their best outings, but they've set the bar very high and I still enjoyed this. Punk was as bland and awkward as Mickie James last week. You never think something as simple as speaking could be difficult until you hear someone just go blank. That and the complete inability to emote at all made this a bad idea. Even Randy Orton delivers promos better, and I can't think of a worse insult.

DOLPH ZIGGLER vs. THE GREAT KHALI: Dolph is confident even when he shouldn't be. This is fleshing out his character without using promos, even if the matches have been lacking. Hey, to keep me interested while Khali is on my screen, he must be doing something right.

JOHN MORRISON & R-TRUTH vs. THE WORLD'S GREATEST TAG TEAM: My thoughts exactly, Jeremy. WGTT deserves to win some.

MICHELLE & LAYLA vs. EVE & MELINA: Only low expectations keep me from calling this a train wreck. The "Faith Breaker" was worse than usual, and I'm a Michelle defender. Melina is overrated, while Eve and Layla are just green. I see signs of hope here, but not for some time. They're all better than Maria or the Bellas.

I wouldn't say Punk sounded like he was on Prozac, he just sounded like a guy who's been champion for a week and has had all that time to deal with fans being pissed at him (which would take the happy edge of any title win, I would think). He certainly could have been more emotional, but he adopted a certain style here and I think he needed something to contrast him from Edge and Jeff in terms of being champion; in this case, I thought it worked. Punk and Jericho definitely work great together, and the Hardy/Edge match was of course great. I will totally agree that Dolph is, inexplicably, doing something right and I give him credit for that. But for Melina being overrated...yeah, I can't buy into that one. I think she's fantastic, and not just because of how she looks. She can be choreographed-looking sometimes but the more she works with people the better she gets, and it's only a matter of time until she's putting on great matches with Michelle.


From fanboi13:
I was really pissed off at the WGTT vs Morrison/R-Truth match not being in the right.I was going to call you a moron and insult your upbringing. It was a fun match that I really enjoyed and so I thought it should have been in the right. However, the more I think about it the more I think you are right to put it where you did. It was a really fun match,but it did hurt Shelton and Haas a lot. I never once in the match thought that WGTT was going to win.That does hold them back.In order for any attempt at a push to go over the fans have to believe the guys getting pushed can win against the opposition.I expect them to job and that hurts them when and if the E decides to push these very talented in ring performers.Thus,they should have gotten the win.R-Truth and Morrison are not a regular tag-team and loosing to two guys who made their name as a tag team would not have hurt them much. Sorry about calling you a moron and wanting to insult your upbringing.

Um, apology accepted? Seriously though, you hit the nail right on the head fanboi. The more that they shove Benji and Haas down via losses, the harder it is to buy into them. Give them ONE win over Morrison and whoever; I promise, it won't kill Morrison's mystique. And this is coming from a Morrison fan.


From Melina is awesome:
"Melina is overrated"

Anyone who actually believes that is a clueless moron.

Hey, now. Be nice...I'm the only one that people get to call a clueless moron around here. (Well, and Larry, but I wouldn't do that; people have vanished off the face of the Earth for less! I'm not the first JT, after all...)


Fromo MachoManFanStill:
I believe I've said it before but Daniel Wilcox is doing an awesome job in the R's! He seems to get the idea behind each category and doesn't take too long to explain his reasoning. This isn't a shot at Csonka (my favorite columnist) or Eubanks but Wilcox is just great. As for Geoff, I used to like to read his section but his explanations are SO long, now I just skip over them and try to catch his weekly column. But hey, someone else may enjoy it, so that's cool.

Hey Macho. I'm Jeremy Thomas, not Geoff, and Geoff hasn't been doing the R's for a while. I appreciate the compliment of being mistaken for him though! Your critique of the excessive length is noted, and is the kind of constructive criticism I like to hear. I don't aim for a specific length, I just write until I feel like I've said what I need to, but I may just give it a try to cut it down depending on the reaction. Thanks for reading!

---

By: Larry Csonka

ECW 06.16.09:

QUICK RESULTS:
- David Hart Smith defeated Christian @ 15:00 via pin [**½]
- Mark Henry defeated Evan Bourne @ 3:30 via pin [*]
- Jack Swagger defeated Tommy Dreamer @ 12:00 via pin [**¾]

The Right:

David Hart Smith defeated Christian: David Hart Smith vs. Christian was the opening match of the show, and this had a little bit of history as the June 4th episode of Superstars saw Kidd facing Dreamer, and Christian on commentary. He tried to help Dreamer and failed, thusly making him look the fool. As I have mentioned repeatedly, Christian has been great since his return, and he needs to be working with guys like Smith. I will say that this was Smith's best WWE match to date. It was a strong performance by him, a good heat segment and Christian gave him plenty in the match. Kidd would cost Christian the match, and give Smith the big win. Smith and Kidd need big and CONVINCING victories at this point. Smith looked good, they played the numbers game, and Christian doesn't come off as a loser, he looks like he got screwed. Good match, good result and the Hart Dynasty is coming along well thus far.

Jack Swagger defeated Tommy Dreamer: The main event was a non-title match between ECW Champion Tommy Dreamer and Jack Swagger. The deal was if Swagger won, he got a title shot. Simple, old school booking where the champion can lose, the challenger look good and like he has a chance to win the title, but the champion also keeps the title. I don't mind matches like this at all. As is the usual with ECW, they got a good amount of time to work, and Dreamer and Swagger have a good chemistry. They won't be having classics, but they work well together and even in a regular match can put on something enjoyable to watch. The story was the finish. Dreamer was able to avoid the DOCTOR BOMB, but missed the big splash and got rolled up for the pin. Swagger wins without his finisher off of the mistake, getting back on the winning track, which he needed. We're also reminded that while Dreamer has had a good little run, that he could lose to the youngster at any time. This was a good main event, and no complaints from me.

PISSED OFF FINLAY: The big news is that Finlay was back and he was back to being a bad ass. He took out Dreamer, Christian and Swagger with the SHACKALACKI and made one thing clear, do NOT piss off an Irishman! The best part is that not only did this rebuild him, but it all made perfect sense. He hates Swagger already, he is mad at Christian and Dreamer due to their altercation injuring his eye, causing his loss to Swagger on Superstars a few weeks back. Finlay looked like a true bad ass, he sent a message, and it worked well in my eyes. This also helps set up the Scramble match with Dreamer, Swagger, Christian, Henry and Finlay.

puRgatoRy:

Mark Henry defeated Evan Bourne:Mark Henry and Even Bourne had another match this week, building off of the matches where Bourne won via count out, DQ as well as Bourne's win over Atlas. It was fine for the time they got, which was also part of the plan. Last week Henry destroyed Bourne, and he was working with the DDP approved taped ribs to sell that. Henry was able to take advantage of this and won the match. While the booking of this worked well, I worry about Bourne. He isn't BERRIED by any means, but I was thinking that they were going to pull the trigger with him getting the win and heading to the scramble match. But that wasn't to be. Henry gets that chance, and while I don't have a huge problem with that, I was hoping for Bourne to really freshen things up.

The wRong:

NONE

The Ridiculous:

FINLAY's MUSIC My only REAL complaint about the show was Finlay's stupid ass music. They still had him with the midget music after he comes back, looks like a bad ass and beats down the world. Go back to the old music for now or give the man new music. This took away from the great end of the show in my opinion,

The 411

Overall this was a damn fine show. DH Smith had his best effort to date as Christian keeps delivering, as well as putting over guys when need be. Swagger and Dreamer had a good outing as well, delivering a fun main event. I worry about Bourne, bur he was protected with the rib injury and Henry was rebuilt as a killer heading into the Scramble match. Also, the rebuild of Finlay was done well and made sense. He hates Swagger already, he is mad at Christian and Dreamer due to their altercation injuring his eye, causing his loss to Swagger on Superstars a few weeks back. he cam back as the bad ass we all love, and it felt fresh.

SHOW RATING: 8.0

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TNA SLAMMIVERSARY 2008!

The Matches:

X-DIVISION TITLE MATCH: Petey Williams defeated Kaz @ 15:25 via pin ***¾

ODB, Kim and Roxxi defeated Love, Sky and Moose @ 10:13 via pin **

TNA WORLD TAG TEAM TITLE MATCH: LAX defeated Team 3D @ 15:00 via pin **¼

AWESOME KONG'S $25,000 OPEN CHALLENGE: Awesome Kong defeated Serena Deeb @ 2:30 via pin *

AWESOME KONG'S $25,000 OPEN CHALLENGE: Awesome Kong defeated Josie @ 2:25 via pin *

AJ Styles defeated Kurt Angle @ 22:45 via pin ***½

TNA TITLE KING OF THE MOUNTAIN MATCH: Samoa Joe defeated Roode, Rhino, Cage and Booker @ 19:52 via pin ***¼

THE RIGHT:

X-DIVISION TITLE MATCH: The opener is a very important match on a PPV, a point that I always discuss here. In many ways this was a perfect match to open the show, and I understand why they did. I figure the company figured that Angle vs. AJ and the KOTM match would be great and end up delivering to the point that they would overcome this match. Unfortunately with Angle being hurt and the KOTM not being quite as great as it has been in past years (but not bad) this match ended up stealing the show. With less matches on the card and this actually being a one on one match, these guys actually got the time they needed to not only put on a good match with no rushing, but to actually show what they can do. This was 15-minutes of great actions, cool spots, some new ones (Sling shot into the cutter that Kaz did) and as far as their work and the match they put on I have no complaints there. An excellent job by both men as Kaz continues to shine and Petey worked hard and did very well coming off of the orbital bone injury. In the end this was a really good opener that let both guys shine. Unfortunately it wasn't built well on TV well, which is a real shame. On one hand I hated the shenanigans, because it took away a bit, but it did make sense as it played off of last month's show as well as made Kaz look like a great resilient face. Also with Kaz being a part of the World X Cup, Petey needs to retain the title here to keep the title active and not lost in the tournament.

ABYSS IS BACK…: Abyss is back and I suppose that is a good thing. He made his return after the opener, when Steiner and Petey were beating down Kaz. He stormed the ring sporting new asylum issued wrestling gear and a new mask and took out Steiner, Petey and Khan with black hole slams. He looked strong in his return and I would assume that he and Steiner will face at the next PPV, as it was the plan for this show until Steiner got injured. Abyss should win there and from there I am not sure where he goes. They teased he would "come home" on the show, they delivered the return and in the end, I have no real issues with it.

AWESOME KONG'S $25,000 OPEN CHALLENGE: Some felt that this was too much like filler for the PPV, but I again liked the continuation of the Kong Challenge. As mentioned, as they do this they are allowing the other ladies to solidify their characters and create secondary feuds. They are obviously heading towards debuting a new lady, who will likely be a good addition to the division, and I am all for that. At Slammiversary TNA brought in SHIMMER regulars Serena Deeb and Josie, and they did a fine job. In the end, Kong continues to kill and I enjoy it. The segment came off well, as they are slowly giving people hope and some excitement, until Kong ruins the party. These ladies, even in the short time excited the crowd (especially Josie, announced from Memphis) and I feel that the segment was an easy right. Since they didn't pay it off here, I figure it comes in the next few weeks on TV, leading to a PPV match while the other 6-ladies featured on the show face off again in some form of stipulation match. They also tied in the Elvis shit to this, kept it to about a minute and Kong KILLED him. It was short, still dumb, but Kong killing the guy was great.

AJ Styles defeated Kurt Angle: I will admit that the match was hard to enjoy due to Angle noticeably hurting. I was more afraid for him that about the match quality. Either the man was selling very well, he was hurting badly or it is a bit of both. But overall this was a good match. AJ and Kurt worked very hard out there, and while this was no classic, they did a good job of putting on a wrestling match. That's the thing that TNA should do more often because they have the talent to do so. Good lay out, good wrestling, some stiff shots, AJ returning to his baby face form and the early ejection of Tomko all worked. Would I have loved a completely clean finish here? Hell yes. But I have to admit that Karen screwing Kurt does play into the angle, as much as I dislike it. This was good stuff, and I hope as Angle get healthy we get even better from them because they certainly have the ability. The major gripe I have is that they said this was about hurting the other guy and called it a grudge match, yet they started with lock ups and mat work. Come on now. This was a good match though, as it was about showcasing two wrestlers having a wrestling match and I have no issue with that concept. They worked hard, they eventually got the crowd but I felt lie it was headed towards a higher gear, but never quite got there. That could have been due to Angle's health, which if that is the case, I have no problem staying in a lower gear to protect him and wouldn't punish the match for it. But if that is the case, I again say that maybe some time on the shelf would have been for the best. I have seen much lower ratings for the match and much higher, I fall in the middle.

TNA TITLE KING OF THE MOUNTAIN MATCH: The stuff before the match was great as they showed a brief video for each man, showing how they got into the match and then each guy got a bit f promo time. Very much like Lockdown, they made the world title match the focus of the show by doing this, and that is a good thing. All five guys worked hard in the match and they had a good layout I thought. The crowd was dead though, which did them no favors. They did a good job of teasing everyone becoming eligible, minus Joe, and that the curse of the King of the Mountain Match could get him as well. Cage really stood out, taking on the daredevil role for the match with some fun bumps. Overall I thought it was a fun match, but a notch below other KOTM matches that I have enjoyed more. They had the time though and that is a good thing, as I was afraid they may be too rushed and not get the nearly 20-minutes that they got. The end was a bit off putting, as Nash basically screws Booker and Joe gets the win, in anti-climatic fashion. I also felt that this made Joe look a bit weak, especially after his promo. This is pretty much every thing you come to expect from the KOTM match. Even though there weren't some of the usual suspects in there for the so called big spots, Cage fit the bill and really did every thing he could to make for some fun, and possibly memorable spots. I wasn't sure how good the match would be but I will admit I was pleasantly surprised as they laid every thing out rather well, minus the finish, which came off a bit anti-climatic. Again I fall in the middle with my rating, as I have seen anywhere from *** - ***¾ for the match. In the end I felt Angle vs. AJ and the X-Title matches were both better, but in the end, three good matches for the PPV.

PURGATORY:

ODB, Kim and Roxxi defeated Love, Sky and Moose: The ladies were on display again here on PPV as Gail, ODB and Roxxi were out for revenge against the Beautiful People and their new muscle MOOSE. That's right, they changed Mickie knuckles name. I figure that she signed and wanted to keep here name, fine, but MOOSE is a horrible name. Also her ring gear said MICKIE on it and shit, come on now, you have to do better than that. With that aside, the ladies worked hard as always and put on a fine match. Nothing special, a very basic tag actually, but not bad at all. I have a problem with MOOSE losing in her first match. I know it protects Love and Sky, but it is very questionable. Also I question ODB getting the pin. Gail is over big and doesn't need it. ODB won on Impact, it was time to give Roxxi a little taste of revenge here since the good girls were going to win, but she didn't get it. Overall ok stuff, but some issues held it back. They can do better match wise as well, they have shown that.

TNA WORLD TAG TEAM TITLE MATCH: In the roundtable I said, "If 3D is motivated the match should be good." I won't say that 3D were being lazy out there, but the overall pacing of the match was very slow and lacked heat for the majority of the match. Well, there was hat, but it was face pops for 3D since they are "the name" to the casual fan. They would eventually get into LAX as the match went on and they did their thing, but it just never got going. The thing is that they ad plenty of time, 15-minutes actually, but they seemed to rush into 2nd gear and tease going to third but pulled back. It was like someone wrote a story, and the introduction and build was 999 pages, and the ending and climax was 1 page. They also did the same run in spot with Devine and Hector, minus the table in this match. It wasn't bad, but it felt like a TV main event and I had the feeling of been here and done that when it was over.

THE WRONG:

NADDA:

THE RIDICULOUS:

THE WEDDING: This may have been the worst wrestling wedding I have ever seen. Forget the fact that it is a rehash of Macho and Liz, and forget that we knew what was basically coming here. Those aren't the problems. The problem is this. They did do the Dutt turn finally, which is good. He beats on Jay, and then, THEN instead of Dutt coming off looking strong he gets beat down by Koko B Ware and Kamala. KOKO B WARE AND KAMALA! Sonjay Dutt looked like an absolute joke out there and tome it kills the heel turn. Add to that the fact that the legends had NO heat, unfortunately, and the fact that this skit killed all of the momentum the show had and this was just horrible. This was a dark mark on another wise enjoyable show.

Closing Thoughts:
I have to say that for the most part this was a rather enjoyable show. Three matches delivered well, the bullshit was kept to a minimum and while I have some issues with the booking, they aren't nearly as bad as usual. Also, TNA steered away from gimmick madness for once, calmed down on the amount of matches that they usually do and delivered some good wrestling. Sure I would have liked to have guys like the MCMG's and James Storm on the show, but I will take simplicity over throwing everyone on the show. They actually gave the performers a chance to succeed instead of handcuffing them, a pleasant surprise. Overall I will go with a 7.7 out of 10 and a mild recommendation to check it out, it was a pretty fun PPV. Hopefully they look at some aspects of this show and Lockdown to see the things that really worked and continue on that path, because when they want to TNA can be great on PPV. Also, if you have a suggestion for the MVP award, I will listen to all suggestions. No one stuck out to me this time around.

---

LARRY'S RANKINGS THUS FAR

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

-TNA SACRIFICE {7.5}
-WWE BACKLASH {7.5}
-TAKE NO PRISONERS {7.4}
-WWE ROYAL RUMBLE {7.3}
-TNA GENESIS {7.2}
-TNA LOCKDOWN {7.2}
-ROH CAGED COLLISION {7.1}
-WWE WRESTLEMANIA {7.0}
-WWE EXTREME RULES {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)

-[TAKE NO PRISONERS] – Tyler Black & KENTA vs. Austin Aries & Katsuhiko Nakajima (****¼)
-[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)

-[WWE EXTREME RULES] – IC TITLE MATCH: Rey Mysterio vs. Chris Jericho (****)
-[WWE EXTREME RULES] – WORLD TITLE LADDER MATCH: Edge vs. Jeff Hardy (****)

-[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)

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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
-[WWE EXTREME RULES] – Rey, Jericho, Edge and Hardy – They Are Awesome
-[TAKE NO PRISONERS] – Tyler Black, KENTA, Austin Aries and Katsuhiko Nakajima – Main Event Excellence

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

-ROH WORLD TITLE MATCH: Jerry Lynn vs. Austin Aries vs. Tyler Black vs. Bryan Danielson – (ROH on HDNet: 06.06.09) {****¼}
-TABLES ARE LEGAL TAG TITLE MATCH: Kevin Steen and El Generico © vs. The American Wolves – (ROH on HDNet: 05.30.09) {****¼}

-Edge vs. Rey Mysterio - (Smackdown: 06.05.09) {****}
-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) {****}

- Edge vs. Jeff Hardy - (Smackdown: 06.12.09) {***¾}
-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}

- Chris Jericho vs. CM Punk- (Smackdown: 06.12.09) {***½}
- Chris Jericho vs. John Morrison - (Superstars: 06.11.09) {***½}
-Jeff Hardy and R-Truth vs. Chris Jericho and Dolph Ziggler - (Superstars: 06.04.09) {***½}
-Christian vs. Tyson Kidd - (ECW: 06.02.09) {***½}
-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}

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And I'm out of here!



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