The Bell To Bell News Report 07.19.09

Posted by Randy Harrison on 07.19.2009

Lashley signs with TNA, Raw has Seth Green guest host and there's a slow-simmering turn on Smackdown that you might have heard about once or twice. Click on in for my thoughts on all of these topics and more videos from classic Canadian wrestling! The Bell to Bell is busting at the seams this week people!!




Well, I've made it through the gauntlet of last weekend's UFC 100 live coverage and the aftermath of Brock Lesnar heeling it up on the entire UFC fan base and Frank Mir specifically, so that means it's time for another edition of the Bell to Bell. This week seems like another fairly light week for big stories, though there was a big one to come out of Orlando in the middle of the week that was an easy choice for this week's main event. Other than that, I'm not sure what I'll be talking about outside of the shows as this week has been pretty hectic with news updates and interviews in my other life as editor of an MMA website. I do know that there's going to be a special opinon piece later on in the column and a ton of great videos from a classic Canadian territory, so without any further delay, let's get right into it. Hey Apollo!! Make it happen!!



Ding Ding....







WWE Monday Night Raw Results:

Six Diva Summer Swimsuit Spectacular Match: Kelly Kelly, Gail Kim and Mickie James vs. Alicia Fox, Rosa Mendes and Maryse - Winners: Alicia Fox, Rosa Mendes and Maryse (pinfall, Maryse's DDT on Mickie)
Primo Colon vs. The Miz - Winner: The Miz (pinfall, Reality Check)
MVP vs. Jack Swagger - Winner: Jack Swagger (pinfall, gutwrench powerbomb)
Chris Jericho vs. Mark Henry - Winner: Mark Henry (countout)
Hornswoggle vs. Chavo Guerrero - Winner: Hornswoggle (pinfall, extra-small package)
Evan Bourne vs. The Big Show - Winner: The Big Show (submission, Colossal Clutch)
Legacy vs. Seth Green, Triple H and John Cena - Winners: Seth Green, Triple H and John Cena (disqualification, Legacy triple-teaming)

Raw's Summer of Fun trudged on on Monday night, with the seemingly out of place Seth Green hosting the broadcast. While I do get the reason for Green being there as he and Triple H were promoting the newest season premiere of Robot Chicken that Triple H will be part of, have you ever heard of someone so random as a host of a wrestling show? It's not like Green has been seen at a ton of events or is a huge fan (though there seems to be an inordinate amount of wrestlers used in Robot Chicken sketches so maybe he is a big fan and just hasn't shown it), so the pick seemed a little out of the blue. All of that being said, Green didn't do a terrible job. He interacted well with all of the wrestlers, especially Chris Jericho, and he didn't get swallowed up by the larger-than-life characters that wrestlers are when he had to deal with them one-on-one. His only mistake, I think, was booking himself in the main event. Thankfully we didn't end up with another Arquette situation as about a million people pointed out, but it was still a pretty tough way to end a show that was already bordering on mediocre.

Green earned himself a lot more teenage boy fans for his show though when he made the opening Six Diva Summer Swimsuit Spectacular, which was a regular six woman tag match, but with the women in skimpy bikinis. The man knows how to play to his demographic, that's for sure. The match itself was nothing, but some pre-teen boys got to see some barely covered titties, so I'm sure some fans would call it a success. As far as the rest of the actual wrestling on the show, things were pretty terrible as the only match that seemed to get anything more than a cursory amount of time was the MVP/Swagger match and even that one only clocked in around eight minutes. Even the main event six man tag match barely went seven and a half. I'm not trying to say that Raw should be a show like the old days where it's just a ring, an overhead spotlight and an hour and a half of wrestling matches just jammed together, but when you're trying to sell a wrestling pay-per-view in a couple of weeks, it probably wouldn't hurt to have a little of it on your show.

Speaking of the MVP/Swagger match, I have to say that I enjoyed the match and its "glimpse into the recent future" feel, but I have to wonder what it is that MVP has managed to do this time to piss someone off into stalling a push. MVP seemed to be ready to bust out and jump up to the top of the card a while back, having some great interactions with Randy Orton, but has fizzled out as of late and it seems like Swagger is the one getting the solid push. I still don't understand why the WWE has this syndrome where they feel like they can only push one guy at a time up to the next level, but I'm hoping that they can both make the leap on the strength of a strong feud with each other, though I'm not holding my breath for that one. It looks like Swagger's time is now, while MVP's time may be a ways off yet.

I do want to make sure that I talk about the Chris Jericho segment where he came out to address the Unified Tag Title situation and the subsequent match with Mark Henry. Jericho's promo was awesome, calling back to Greek god Achilles and suggesting that he should have known that Edge would be the weak link of the team. The only part I had a little trouble with was the "contract clause" that Jericho had put in in a flash of clairvoyancy before Edge had his injury, but that was able to be forgotten about as it led to Jericho introducing Mark Henry as his new partner. Much like a couple of weeks back with Randy Orton, Henry decided that he wasn't going to play that and Jericho's facial expression was classic. Henry stripped Jericho down and they had a mini-match afterwards with Jericho bailing to take the countout loss. While this wasn't a great segment for Jericho or the tag titles in terms of getting something settled, it was a lot of fun and very entertaining. I never thought I'd say it, but Henry seems to be having fun as a face and is taking the ball and running with it so far.

The main event was a bit of a disaster for me as this one was pretty much a handicap match with a pair or three comedy spots thrown in to give Green something to do. Not only was it a tough match in terms of one of the participants, it was rough in that they got seven minutes to try to do something to make me care about what was going on in the ring. It really seemed like the match was only there to tease some dischord between Triple H and Cena while giving Green his "one shining moment" moment. I have no problem with that, but they essentially sacrificed the entire main event on their number one program to do it and it kind of left me with a bad taste in my mouth at the end of the night. The show as a whole seemed to suffer from just spinning their wheels as not a lot of anything was advanced and the in-ring action suffered greatly for the appearances by Green throughout the night. There were definitely fun moments in the broadcast, but it almost made you forget it was a wrestling show with all of the other side stuff going on, which isn't a good thing if you ask me.




ECW on SyFy Results:

Christian vs. Shelton Benjamin - Winner: Shelton Benjamin (pinfall, Paydirt)
Paul Burchill vs. Yoshi Tatsu - Winner: Yoshi Tatsu (pinfall, roundhouse kick)
Goldust vs. Zack Ryder - Winner: Zack Ryder (pinfall, Zack Attack)
Sheamus vs. Roman Cornell - Winner: Sheamus (pinfall, modified uranage/backbreaker combo)
Vladimir Kozlov vs. Tommy Dreamer - Winner: Vladimir Kozlov (pinfall, Iron Curtain)


ECW on Syfy (that still feels weird to type) tried to bridge the wrestling gap that began on Raw with their show this week. The only problem is that they tried to do it with quantity over quality and ended up jamming five matches, count 'em FIVE MATCHES into a one hour show. While the task seems fairly Herculean, I should preface it by saying that the Tatsu, Sheamus and Kozlov matches were all relative squashes and finished within four minutes. While Tatsu and Sheamus I can understand, I really had a problem with the main event as it made Dreamer look terrible while putting a ton of heat and build into a guy that's not even wrestling for the title at the pay-per-view. If they're trying to book it to add Kozlov into the match, I can understand why things happened the way they did, but if they're just trying to build Kozlov as the next challenger after Dreamer/Christian at Night of Champions, they're doing a piss-poor job of it because they're completely overlooking the actual title match that still has to take place.

The only match that got a decent amount of time was, surprise surprise, the only good match of the night as Christian and Shelton Benjamin opened the show with a very solid ten minute match that did a world of good for Benjamin. After the Tatsu debut disaster, Benjamin has looked good in every appearance since and is starting to build a little momentum. I can't bring myself to get behind him yet because Shelton is the king of the fizzled push, but for now he seems like he might actually have a chance in ECW if they don't forget about him completely for the sake of Kozlov. Christian didn't get any favors done for him by taking the loss so close to the PPV, but he can handle it because he's over like nobody's business and it won't hurt him any, so I'm happy that Benjamin was able to get a big win in a good match that both guys worked well in.

Keep an eye on Yoshi Tatsu in the coming weeks as he's been booked like he's going to be a big deal for ECW down the road, but he botched a springboard attempt in his match with Paul Burchill. If it's a one-off deal where he just had a small slip there shouldn't be any problems for Tatsu, but if he turns into someone who can't work a match without botching at least one or two spots, he could find himself back in FCW and working on his in-ring mechanics before too long. He's going to have to work on making his gimmick one that fans want to see as well as for now he's just kind of a generic Japanese babyface with no real reason for people to get behind him. I know it's early, but there hasn't really been anything other than his ring work and the WWE's decision to book him against heels to make the fans cheer him that makes him a solid face. It's definitely a wait-and-see situation as he's seemingly going to get every chance to make this work. I wish him the best, but he's got some work to do to prove that he wasn't brought up too soon.

As for the other recent call-up, Sheamus, he did another number on a jobber this week and it looks like he's going to be getting the same treatment that Kozlov is getting....and Ezekiel Jackson's likely going to be getting...and Mark Henry got....and Kane got.....and Kevin Thorn got....etc. etc. I love ECW, but they really need to work on better ways to bring in new guys than just having them crush jobbers week after week. I'm not saying they have to bring in a raw talent and just shove him to the top of the card, and I'm not saying that the squashes don't have their place because I remember how effective they were when they were used heavily in the 80's. It's just that it's starting to feel repetitive in that every new ECW talent that comes onto the roster spends the better part of three months just kicking the shit out of guys in two minute matches while doing little to nothing to connect with the fans. Hopefully once they get all of the introductory squash matches out of the way, we can actually see some of these new guys against each other to not only give us some decent matches, but to help them all get better through solid in-ring work.




WWE Superstars Results:

Cryme Tyme vs. The Hart Dynasty - Winners: Cryme Tyme (pinfall, JTG's modified backbreaker on Kidd)
Katie Lea Burchill vs. Brie Bella - Winner: Brie Bella (pinfall, roll-up after Masked Confusion)
Kofi Kingston vs. The Big Show - Winner: The Big Show (pinfall, chokeslam)

Superstars continued it's slow and steady decline this week as this was probably their weakest show to date. That's not a knock on the people involved on the show, but the bar has been set pretty high in the first couple of months and this show just wasn't able to get there. The show did feature the first promo segment I can think of since the reboot as Rey Mysterio came to the ring to talk about the Dolph Ziggler attack before he was interrupted by Ziggler himself. The back and forth between the two in the middle of the segment was great and continued to illustrate how well Ziggler is running with what he's got and how he's been able to take a gimmick that was a joke in the beginning and turn it into something viable now. I didn't care very much for the end of the segment where Ziggler played coward to someone that he's nearly twice as big as, but that was a minor misstep in what was otherwise a quality segment and something that worked big to help these two continue to build their feud.

As for the wrestling on the show, there's not a lot to talk about outside of the opening bout between Cryme Tyme and The Hart Dynasty. The match was a pretty good way to open the show, even though it was a little cookie-cutter. As much as Cryme Tyme are getting themselves back over with their little "Word Up" schtick, this is definitely a situation where I was hoping for The Harts to get over because they are still trying to establish themselves after being uprooted from ECW. Cryme Tyme has been up and down and up and down and it's pretty clear that they're not going to be setting the world on fire in main event situations anytime soon, but the Hart kids still have a chance to get over as future main eventers and stars for the brands. The match was alright and this isn't to say that the Harts are somehow doomed forever, but they probably should be going over strong in this mini-feud if they're going to be able to move forward past the level of teams like Cryme Tyme.

The other two matches on the show were pretty well wash-outs as the ladies match was there as another excuse to have the Bella twins pull the old switcheroo and the Kofi/Show match was passable, but nothing exciting and a little unbelievable to have a barely 200-pound Kofi going nearly move for move with an over 500-pound Big Show. Granted, its not like Kofi was doing anything more than just landing hit and run offense, but it still looked a little off and doesn't really bode well for a possible future feud for Kingston's US Championship. It was better than their Raw match, but that's not really saying too much. That's how I saw Superstars break down and hopefully they can pick some better matches next week and a little bit more time to execute them. I appreciated the idea of having Rey come out to do the promo, but it would be better for them to keep those kinds of segments infrequent as it really took away from any time to be able to put together better matches.




TNA Impact Results:

Samoa Joe vs. Amazing Red - Winner: Amazing Red (disqualification, Joe abuses referee)
Suicide vs. Chris Sabin - Winner: Suicide (pinfall, Wrist Cutter)
Feast or Fired TNA X-Division Championship Match: Homicide vs. Suicide - Winner: Homicide
Alissa Flash vs. Sarita - Winner: Sarita (pinfall, victory roll)
Six-Man Elimination Tag Team Match: Kevin Nash, Booker T and Scott Steiner vs. Beer Money Inc. and AJ Styles - Winners: Booker T and Scott Steiner (pinfall, last eliminated Robert Roode)
Non-Title Six Sides of Steel Match: Kurt Angle vs. Sting - Winner: None (No contest, MEM/Foley/Jarrett shenanigans)


I had commitments that kept me from being able to even think about taping Impact, let alone watching it later, but I wanted to make extra sure that I was able to touch on the Alissa Flash vs. Sarita match as it featured two of the best women wrestlers in the world making their official Impact debuts. Alissa is probably better known as Cheerleader Melissa to SHIMMER fans and Raisha Saeed to TNA fans, but it looks as if she's going to be pulling double-duty as both Saeed and Alissa for the time being. Sarita is Winnipegger Sarah Stock and both ladies look like they could be leading the charge for the resurgence of the TNA Knockouts Division. The ladies haven't had a lot to celebrate since the days of Gail Kim vs. Awesome Kong and talk of the Knockouts getting their own show, but these two put on a fantastic match and I'm really excited for the future of the division with women like Kong, Tara and now Sarita and Flash. I've always enjoyed the Knockout Division when it's been good and it looks like it might be getting good again real soon.




Friday Night Smackdown Results:

CM Punk vs. John Morrison - Winner: John Morrison (pinfall, cradle counter)
R-Truth vs. Kane - Winner: Kane (pinfall, big boot)
The Hart Dynasty vs. Cryme Tyme and Eve Torres - Winners: The Hart Dynasty (pinfall, Natalya's lariat on Eve)
Jeff Hardy and Rey Mysterio vs. Chris Jericho and Dolph Ziggler - Winners: Jeff Hardy and Rey Mysterio (disqualification, Punkerference)


The WWE's best and brightest show lived up to its billing again this week as Smackdown redeemed an entire week's worth of sub-par shows to right the ship as the WWE heads towards Night of Champions. All of the blue brand's big programs like Punk/Hardy and Mysterio/Ziggler/Jericho/Edge got their times to shine and the matches were made the focal point of the show as always. Beginning with the opening segment with Jeff Hardy and CM Punk, Punk did a great job again of doing his level best to get the fans to hate him without doing anything outwardly evil. Hardy addressed Punk's accusations about Hardy's less than clean living and Punk continued to dress Hardy down for being a joke. The greatest part for me was when Punk was talking about how it scared him to see little kids in Hardy gear thinking that he's a hero. Things like that are what's going to make this heel turn one of the most successful in a long, long time. In fact, this is the best slow-burning turn that I can remember since the Batista/Triple H program that led up to WrestleMania 21. Let's just hope that the booking after the actual turn takes effect remains as strong as that's going to be just as important a factor in Punk's long-term viability as a heel.

Moving to another turn that could be slow-burning for another reason, Chris Jericho cut another promo to address his holding of all four Unified Tag Team Championships. Of course, he didn't do it until he had interrupted Edge's interview via satellite discussing his injury and the road back that he faces. Before he could even talk about Jericho, he was interrupted by the man himself, and Jericho was not happy. He continued in the same vein as the Monday night promo, cutting down Edge for being the weak link in the team before calling Edge pathetic. Jericho intimated that he's in the market for a better partner with a list of accomplishments that doesn't include injury after injury. Jericho even went so far as to call himself the face of Smackdown and the face of the WWE (I wouldn't argue that), while claiming that Edge could be gone from the WWE forever. Edge ended the segment by shutting Jericho down with a face-leaning promo, talking about how he's going to prove people wrong, especially Jericho, and that he's going to use Jericho's attitude as motivation to come back better and stronger. The entire segment was great and when you couple this promo with Jericho's work since Edge's injury and Edge's few face glimpses before they even won the straps, there's no way that Edge isn't coming back as a white-hot babyface out for revenge on the evil Jericho.

As I said before, Smackdown wasn't just about talking as there was a ton of quality in-ring action as well including the non-title match between CM Punk and John Morrison that opened the show after the Punk/Hardy segment. I'm convinced that these two guys could put together a three-star match in their sleep and this one proved to me that I'm right. Despite three minutes or so of a commercial break, we got to see Punk and Morrison going all out for nine minutes, busting out a ton of quality spots in the process. Morrison's face act has been a little bland for me so far, but his work in the ring hasn't suffered at all so if he can find a personality as a good guy, he and Punk could be two guys that could be seeing a lot of each other in main events for a long time to come. As it was, this was a Cole's Notes version of some of their other great matches. Not a full-on classic, but definitely a strong way to start the show in the ring and a solid match from two guys who can seemingly do no wrong in the ring as of late.

The night's main event continued the strong wrestling as Chris Jericho teamed with Dolph Ziggler to take on Jeff Hardy and Rey Mysterio in a tag match that saw Hardy and Mysterio pick up the DQ win when CM Punk, who had come down to ringside to do some commentary for the bout, interfered and caused the bout to be thrown out. The match was decent work from all four guys and Punk was decent as the color guy, but again the main principles really began to shine once the match was over. Punk got into Rey's face, or more accurately, Rey got into Punk's face and ended up taking a beating from Ziggler, while Jericho rolled Hardy into the ring for a Codebreaker and the Walls of Jericho. Punk watched the entire beatdown before just walking away and letting Hardy suffer, which was a great dickish move that again could still be justified in the fact that Punk never laid a hand on either one of them during the entire beatdown. The rest of the show may have had a couple of cold spots, but the finish was terrific and just another example of why Smackdown is the best wrestling show on TV today.




ROH on HDNet Results:

The ROH section is going to be on hiatus indefinitely as I'm finding it increasingly difficult with a heavier workload to be able to cover the program properly. Once I have figured out a better system or a better way to work in watching the ROH show while not missing my deadline, I will add it back into the rotation, but for now it goes. I apologize to all of the ROH fans that I may be slighting with this decision, but it's better than having it be a half-assed, last-minute review of the show (on the weeks that I can even do the show). Thanks for understanding, folks.








MAIN EVENT


Lashley's finally ready to Dominate TNA...but for how long?

-- After making an appearance for TNA as part of the Lockdown pay-per-view and a one-shot appearance on Impact, Bobby Lashley disappeared and was thought to be one of those cases of someone being written into TNA storylines before being promptly forgotten about and ignored forever. That doesn't seem to be the case in this instance though, as Lashley announced that he has signed a new contract with TNA this week and will be appearing at both the Victory Road pay-per-view and the next batch of Impact tapings directly after. Lashley spoke of wanting to wrestle and fight and that TNA is offering him up the opportunity to do both. He also talked about wanting to give something back to the fans that were disappointed when he chose to leave the WWE and that he's only going to be working four days a month for TNA with the rest of the time devoted to his MMA training.

This is a sweetheart deal for Lashley as he gets to wrestle again to help build his fanbase while cross-promoting any MMA fight that he ends up taking part in just by appearing weekly on Spike TV and TNA PPV. I have to say that it will be much more rewarding for us to be able to see him in the ring instead of just standing on the ramp and pointing at people menacingly. What they're going to do with him is going to be interesting as it's likely that he's going to be slotted right into the main event, where he was looking to be getting involved in a storyline with the Main Event Mafia. Whether that continues on now with all of the recent turmoil within that group surrounding Samoa Joe and Sting is the question, as the dynamic of the group has changed completely since when Lashley made his appearances.

The only negatives that I can see in this deal for TNA is that they get Lashley for a limited amount of time per month, which means no house shows and no championship reigns for Lashley since there's only so much that you can do as a champion when you're only working four days a month. There's been too much of that going on in TNA and having Lashley doing the same thing would be a bad thing for TNA. The other problem arises in that Lashley is going to continue with his MMA career and if he strings together three or four more wins, you know that the UFC is going to come calling. If that ends up being the case, Lashley would likely drop TNA like a bad habit, contract be damned. Dana White, the President of the UFC has gone on record numerous times saying that he would not allow someone to compete in professional wrestling while signed to a UFC contract and that would be the situation Lashley could find himself in with a few more wins over some experienced opponents.

As I was talking about before with the booking, when you consider the fact that Lashley could conceivably ask to be released at any time (and I'm sure he's got a clause in the contract that lets him go free if the UFC is trying to sign him), it's going to be hard to book him with any effectiveness as he's not going to be able to be a part of any long-term storylines or things that could require a lengthy build to the payoff because there's always going to be that chance that Lashley could end up leaving before then. This is a good thing for TNA in the short-term in that they finally got Lashley to put pen to paper, but it could be more of a hassle in the long-term for a relatively small ratings gain (how much pull is Lashley going to have in the ratings...seriously?) than it's worth. It will be interesting to see how the company defines Lashley's role within it through the first round of booking out of the PPV.


Featured Bouts



-- Ken Anderson broke his silence after his release by the WWE, dropping a press release on the Heyman Hustle, former ECW guru Paul Heyman's latest project. Anderson spoke about the videos that he has been releasing online in the past few weeks and said that while they're partly about showing the WWE that he had a lot more to offer them than he was able to show them before he was released, they're just as much about showing that he can entertain and that he's "auditioning for the world" in his own words. While that's all well and good, you have to believe that most of what he's doing is trying to keep his name viable so that when the time comes he can sign with TNA and try to stick it to the WWE for letting him go. For all I know, Anderson could be a genuinely nice guy and not harbor any ill will towards the WWE, but I know that if I was let go in the manner that he was, I would want to get myself back on camera to show my wares as soon as possible. This is his way of auditioning for TNA rather than auditioning for the world, and unless I miss my guess, we'll be seeing Anderson making travel arrangements to get to Orlando before too long.


Hardy's days are starting to be numbered...

-- Apparently Jeff Hardy has still not chosen to re-sign with the WWE despite his contract being up in less than a month. There is a good chance that he'll be working Summerslam, but after that no one has any idea when Hardy could be back in the WWE if he chooses not to re-sign. There's no word on what has made Hardy decide that he wants to take a break from the grind, but it's safe to say that a grueling travel schedule, a grueling in-ring schedule and a tumultuous period of time outside of the ring could be playing a role. I've said it repeatedly, but the WWE is missing out on a big opportunity to make someone a monster heel by destroying Hardy on Hardy's way out if he decides that he wants some time off. Hardy is probably the guy that could bring about the most negative emotion in fans towards the man who injured him and if the whole situation is booked right, the heel in question could enjoy a huge run for as long as Hardy chooses to be off and then move right into a huge money program with Hardy if/when he decides to return.



The Midcard



Special Opinion Piece: Since When Did Telling The Truth Make You A Heel?

I don't do this very often, but I felt like this was something that tickled my fancy and needed a bit of a special essay. Hope you guys don't hate it too much!

The oldest adage in pro wrestling seems to be that the good guy tells the truth and does the right thing and he always wins in the end. Lately in the WWE, it seems as if anyone that wants to be a good heel just needs to get shot up with some sodium pentothal. For whatever reason the fans have decided that people that are telling the truth deserve their scorn and their boos. Whether it's a reflection on today's culture where everyone feels like they're counter-culture for the t-shirt they wear or the hairstyle they have I'm not sure, but apparently in the interest of being opposite, someone speaking their mind and speaking from the heart is not worthy of peoples' cheers anymore.

CM Punk is suffering now through this phenomenon as he is telling the truth week in and week out about Jeff Hardy and is being booed for it. Watching it as a smart fan, there's no doubt that there's an ulterior motive to what Punk is doing and that he faked his eye injury and is using his truth-telling to take digs at Jeff Hardy's character. However, the majority of fans in the live audience at most WWE shows are not what you'd call "smart" fans that know the ins and outs of the business and what goes on behind the curtain. To those fans, Punk is just telling it like it is and he's still finding the fans that once cheered him turning their backs on him.

When Punk cashed in his shot on Jeff Hardy and won the World Heavyweight Championship, the fans chose to boo Punk and consider him cowardly, despite the fact that those same fans roared when Punk did the same thing to Edge for his first title reign. Hardy is a recovering drug addict and while he does deserve some credit for dealing with his problems, he doesn't deserve to be treated like a hero simply for not throwing his life away with drugs. I'm not trying to be an ass, but that's the truth. Someone who chooses to avoid that lifestyle all together without the painful lessons learned from abusing that lifestyle is someone that should be commended. Someone like Punk should be wearing the white hat as he's never touched anything resembling a drug and isn't that what you want to have your kids emulating?

One of Punk's fellow competitors on Smackdown knows only too well what happens when the fans don't like the truth that you're choosing to speak. Chris Jericho returned to save Raw and got a tremendous response from the fans for it. However, those same fans that cheered him on in his bouts against Randy Orton and JBL chose to boo him when he told the truth about someone who the fans liked more than him, Shawn Michaels. Jericho told the fans how it was with Michaels faking an injury against Batista and trying to play everyone for a fool, but because Michaels is someone who the fans like cheering for more than Jericho, the fans chose to shit all over Jericho's truth and boo him. The ensuing feud saw Jericho correct in his view that the fans are hypocrites because they choose to overlook someone's lies because they are his fan, rather than holding him to the same standard that they hold everyone else up to. Anyone else that lied about an injury and cheap-shotted their way to a win would be considered a heel, but because it was Michaels, he was given a free pass and Jericho was right to point out the double standard.

After Jericho was done with Michaels, he began to speak about the various legends of the WWE that had been choosing to make multiple appearances on the road to WrestleMania in conjunction with the Oscar push for the movie, The Wrestler. While Jericho may have been a little harsh in his assessment of some of the legends heading into his bout at WrestleMania, it's not like he was lying when he was telling them that they were past their prime and that the time that they were spending talking and taking up television time could have been spent on younger talent that are wrestling in their prime right now and could be becoming even bigger stars by plying their trade and honing their skills. Instead of lauding Jericho for choosing to stand up to the older stars that were taking time that they shouldn't have been given and fighting the good fight for the younger guys that don't have the clout to fight for themselves, the people booed Jericho even harder because of Ric Flair and Roddy Piper being perpetually more over than Jericho could ever be.

This is hardly a new phenomenon though as Bret Hart is one of the first, if not the first, to fall victim to it, all the way back in 1996. Hart had spent the better part of seven years being the hero and the guy that the fans could always count on to wrestle hard and fair, while standing up to all of those that chose to break the rules. Once Stone Cold Steve Austin came onto the scene, those long-standing ideals of what someone should stand for as a babyface fell apart and Hart lamented against the crumbling of the difference between right and wrong. Again, Hart was telling the truth when he said that the fans should be cheering for someone who wrestles within the rules and doesn't curse or use profane finger gestures, but because the fans decided that they liked Steve Austin more, they weren't willing to listen to the Hitman's words. Hart, much like Punk and Jericho now, was cast out by the fans as a pariah and was forced into a heel role despite not changing anything to warrant it.

The biggest point that I'm trying to make here about the careers of all three men is that there's a time when fans have to ask themselves whether they're willing to cheer someone because they tell the truth, or only willing to cheer them when they don't say what the fans don't want to hear.



Jerking The Curtain


Last week's look at the WFWA got a pretty positive response, so this week I figured that I'd go back into the vault as promised and bring out some of my favorite Stampede Wrestling videos. I was a little too young for the real boom period of the promotion when Bret Hart, Bad News Allen, The Mongolian Stomper and Dynamite Kid, but I got to see the late 80's Stampede shows on local TV and on TSN and I remember vividly some of the matches of guys like Owen Hart, Brian Pillman, Makhan Singh, Jerry Morrow and The Great Gama. As I watched those shows, I loved seeing the throwback clips and classic matches that they would show from time to time and I have to say that growing up, Stampede was easily my favorite promotion as there was always plenty of wild action and guys that you loved to cheer for and loved to hate. Here's some glimpses of the Stampede I remember and still look back on fondly twenty years later.


Owen Hart vs. Makhan Singh with the North American Heavyweight Championship on the line!



Bad News Allen Turns on The Stomper!!



Chris Benoit in action from 1987....



Dynamite Kid vs. Bruce Hart in an obscure classic...



Bad News Allen Challenges Bret Hart For the North American Title...




The Final Bell


That does it for me this week everybody. I'll be back next Sunday with my thoughts on Victory Road and all of the news of the week as well as my opinions on the week's shows including Raw with special guest hosts ZZ Top, which should be a trainwreck of epic proportions, no matter how much they love wrestling. Randle's in tomorrow, so be sure to check out his Experience and in the mean time and in between time, I'll see you all right back here next time for a brand new edition of the Bell to Bell!


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