Wrestling’s 4R’s Monday Edition 11.16.09: ROH on HDNet, WWE Smackdown and WWE Superstars

Posted by Jeremy Thomas on 11.16.2009

Chris Jericho battle for the first time ever, The American Wolves continue to rule the ROH tag team scene and MVP battles DiBiase on Superstars! Wrestling’s 4R’s breaks down all the action from WWE Superstars, ROH on HDNet, and WWE Smackdown!

Larry returns tomorrow with Dragon Gate and TNA Turning Point coverage.

TWITTER

CSONKA TWITTER!
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

If you haven't already, make sure you bookmark 411 or better yet, set us as your homepage! As always, thanks for choosing 411 for all of you pop culture needs!


In HD where available…



By: Aaron Hubbard

ROH on HDNet 11.09.09:

QUICK RESULTS:
- Kevin Steen and El Generico defeated The Super Smash Bros. [***1/4]
- Chris Hero defeated Bobby Dempsey [**1/2]
- Rasche Brwon defeated Sal Rinauro[1/2*]
- The American Wolves defeated Bryan Danielson and Roderick Strong [****]

THE RIGHT:

SUPER SMASH BROS. MELEE: I had a ton of fun watching this match. Kevin Steen and El Generico are always good for an entertaining match, and I had heard good things about the Smash Bros. from CHIKARA. These went out there and just had a sprint of a tag team match, working fast, hitting cool moves, and getting over. Steen heeled things up a bit, which was smart, because he's entertaining in that capacity and his tweener status allows him to do that without losing credibility as a face. The finishing stretch was many kinds of awesome and finished with the Assembly Line, which is something I always mark out for. I also marked for Hogewood saying "Slap the Porpoise!" in SPANISH!

HERO VS. DEMPSEY: I have a soft spot in my heart for Bobby Dempsey because I got into ROH around 2007, and his angle with Sweet & Sour was just tremendously entertaining. It was nice to get a callback here, as he wrestled the man who gave him the most abuse during that angle, Chris Hero. Hero basically had an extended squash, but he had to have Shane Hagadorn distract Bobby before getting an advantage. Hero had a strong showing here and beat Dempsey soundly with two rolling elbows, giving him such much needed momentum after the big loss to KENTA.

FEAR THE RACKET!: Jim Cornette appeared on ROH TV for the first time, and put it over like a million bucks, saying it was a WRESTLING company, not a sports entertainment company. He also put himself over a bit and said that with he and HDNet together, ROH fans haven't seen anything yet. I'm glad to see Corny back in a promotion I enjoy.

WOLVES VS. STRONG/DANIELSON: There's really not much to say about this other than it was absolutely awesome. I love all four guys and they worked hard and had a good match. There were a few little things like repeated moves that kind of kept it going past the **** plateau for me, but it was still really good. We got tidbits of Richards-Danielson that REALLY makes me want to see their singles match. Some people were wondering why Eddie Edwards won and why Strong took the loss. Here is my argument. Out of the four, Edwards is the least established and needs the win the most. However, beating Danielson would have been a bit much, in my opinion, as I don't think fans could have bought him beating Dragon. That's the other big one. Danielson's final countdown tour was mostly spent on his back. This is good for business, but it doesn't suit the gimmick of "Best in the World" to lose every time out. Plus, this kept both Richards and Danielson out of the decision to help sell their singles match.

PURGATORY:

ARIES, BLACK, AND A FIREBALL: I didn't really care for this segment. Aries came out and said there are two kinds of people; the greats who become champions, like himself, Nigel, and Bryan. Then there are the ones who are good but not great, who never become champion, like Roderick, Cabana, and Tyler Black. This felt very much like a parrot of the promos McGuinness has been cutting for a while. Then he talked about how Black said the Austin Aries Lucky Lottery is rigged, and invited Tyler out to pick the next opponent. This was just to allow him to set the paper on fire and get an injury angle going. Nothing bad here, just nothing I'll remember next week, and that's saying something considering there was FIRE involved.

SKULL-KRUSHING DEFEAT: This week saw the in-ring debut of Rasche Brown, who promptly destroyed Sal Rinauro. In promos this guy has proved to have charisma to spare, and I believe if he can deliver in the ring, he will be a big star for ROH. He didn't really get a chance to impress here since it was a squash, but he did do a variation of the Burning Hammer. Only time will tell if this guy is worth showcasing.

KINGSTON PROMO/EMBASSY PROMO: Eddie came out for a few seconds to say that maybe he should be more like Chris Hero. Who knows what he meant? We also got a promo from Prince Nana talking about the Beard vs. Beard match between Grizzly Redwood and Ernie Osiris. Both of these could go either way, so we'll just have to wait and see.

The wRong:

NONE

THE RIDICULOUS:

NONE

The 411

One of the best shows from ROH all year. Heck, this was one of the best hours of wrestling TV PERIOD this year. Nothing bad, and most of the purgatory is stuff in it's beginning stages and I just don't know where it's going to go. Both tag team matches were great, we got to see a Burning Hammer, and the main event is just stellar. I loved this episode.

SHOW RATING: 8.5

---

By: Steve Cook

Superstars 11.12.09:

THE RIGHT:

MVP vs. Ted DiBiase: MVP & DiBiase are two men who have been hyped a lot on the Internet, but I've never seen the big fuss in either. At least Teddy's got plenty of time to develop into what people think he is…MVP's 36 years old and pretty much in the prime of his career, so it's always amusing when people refer to him as a "young star". This match was a pretty decent Superstars main event, with DiBiase doing pretty well with his Ortoncito moveset and demeanor while MVP did the babyface thing. Doing a small package finisher would have been ok except that was the finish to one of their earlier matches, but other than that it was a solid outing.

PURGATORY:

Matt Hardy vs. David Hart Smith: The match wasn't really that offensive to me for most of it. Smith beat up Hardy a lot, Hardy got some offense…your typical Superstars match featuring two guys looking for something to do. The finish (the first in a parade of pretty bad ones) makes this a pretty good candidate for the Wrong section, as the wrong guy went over by pretty lame means. My bias against anything Matt Hardy is involved in aside, the finish made the Hart Dynasty look like idiots and Hardy looking like the luckiest person in the world to manage to beat this pack of morons. Ol' D.H. does have some potential, and fortunately nobody will actually remember seeing this match two weeks from now, so life does go on. The match itself wasn't terribly exciting, but was decent enough to keep it from being totally Wrong.

THE WRONG:

Shelton Benjamin vs. Zack Ryder: I don't get to watch ECW most weeks, so this whole Ryder/Rosa Mendes thing was new to me. I approve of giving Rosa something to do that doesn't involve wrestling, but…yeah, this finish made the other ones look fantastic. Rosa checks on Ryder outside the ring after he got knocked down, but neither of these brain surgeons are smart enough to remember there's a countout rule. And in case Ryder didn't look enough like a clown, Shelton hits his finisher on Ryder right when he gets back in the ring, even though the bell's rung and the match is over. Who's supposed to be the babyface here? I think Superstars is not only where the young talent goes to test things out, but it's also where the writers run nonsensical finishes and see if they get over.

THE RIDICULOUS:

Ask the Divas: Did Gail Kim actually say that the best relationships start out as friendships? From my personal experience, that never happens.

The 411

This was an ultimately forgettable edition of Superstars that featured nothing of great importance. I'm kind of running out of things to say about this show, so hopefully they give me something to sink my teeth into next week.

SHOW RATING: 6.0

---

By: Jeremy Thomas

WWE SmackDown 11.13.09

THE RIGHT:

CM PUNK vs. R-TRUTH: The Blue Brand kicked off their show in Sheffield, England with CM Punk coming out to the hatred of the crowd. They recapped the Punk/Truth match from last week and Scott Armstrong's actions in the match, and then Punk got on the mic and played the cheap heat card by trashing the United Kingdom. We got the drunken smokers references and how we need him to know how to be righteous. Again, this was same old, same old from Punk but it's been a few weeks since we heard it so it wasn't quite as stale as it might otherwise seem. Plus, Punk delivered nicely as always. We found out that Punk filed a formal complaint against Armstrong. Who exactly do you file that complaint against? The referee's union? I mean, I get that he probably bitched to the board, but I didn't think they needed to file anything, just go and talk to them like others have. I guess Straight Edge means you do all your paperwork too. After that, Truth came down and countered Punk by saying he was filing a complaint against Punk for impersonating a man. Okay, that's a weak insult. But Truth did okay playing the uber-face man of the people against Punk's arrogance. Truth said Punk was a punk. Well…yeah. Kind of his name, after all.

As far as the match goes, it was as good as you might expect between these guys. They work pretty well against each other, and we got a strong start by Truth before Punk took over and started to dismantle him. I think that some people might have problems with the amount of offense Truth got or the fact that he was protected in the loss, but I didn't mind it considering that they're facing off in the Survivor Series match. Credit has to be given to T-Grish and Striker, who are getting better and better at re-finding their groove. Without any offense to JR, I would love to see these guys stay on SmackDown for a good, long while. The match here was pretty decent and the promo was too; it could have been better perhaps but I have no real complaints.

CONTRACT SIGNING MAYHEM: Honestly, is there any other kind of contract signing than the mayhem-oriented kind? And how cool would that be if all contract signings were like this? When Alex Rodriguez signs a contract extension with the Yankees, he could nail Jason Giambi with a baseball bat, or Brett Favre could have hit Brad Childress with a helmet-enhanced headbutt. That's what we need more of, damn it.

Anyway, we got a recap of the attack at Bragging Rights as everyone assembled in the ring, and then Striker began the proceedings. Big Dave was being a nice little dick with the "Hey Rey, nice to see you, you look good" stuff, while Rey Rey was all business. They got the contract signing out of the way and then Dave got on the mic to play some show and tell. He had a hold harmless agreement so that the Manimal couldn't be held responsible for what he does to the Masked Wonder. I gotta admit, that was nice. The looks they were giving each other over the contract were nice, and Dave got huge heat when he called Rey a coward. Rey then signed it and then embarrassed Dave by flipping the table on the big guy before leaving. Honestly, this was short but I think it worked that way; we didn't have a long, meandering promo by either and we didn't need to. These guys are doing good work against each other and the booking team is letting their dynamic speak for itself. I can't at all complain about that.

JOHN MORRISON vs. DOLPH ZIGGLER: We got a pre-match promo earlier in the show with John Morrison, where he talked about how big of a challenge this was and how he had butterflies, but Dolph Ziggler was a nervous wreck. I've said it before and I'll say it again; Morrison's promo work has improved a hell of a lot since they let him become more natural. Obviously, he has a way to go but this was a perfectly acceptable hype promo. Dolph got a bit less than his usual heat down to the ring, but it seemed like the crowd was too busy cheering the idea of an Intercontinental Title match to transition smoothly into Dolph hate. And the crowd certainly loved Morrison and the greatest entrance in professional wrestling today. Also, Striker called him the "slow motion superstar," which amused me greatly.

These two guys started off fast right out of the gate, and delivered in the ring from the opening bell. Dolph slowed things down while he was in control, and that let them build a nicely paced match that kept the crowd more or less into it throughout the duration. They hated Ziggler while he was in control and popped big when Morrison began his comeback. This didn't have the all out, go for broke feel of a Pay-Per-View match but it worked very well as a TV match. I hate that I again have to say that Dolph's window seems to be passing him by, and I think the ending was both abrupt and a cheat. The crowd hated the ending too, and I don't blame them. Otherwise, this kept me entertained and I enjoyed it.

CHRIS JERICHO vs. THE UNDERTAKER: Josh Matthews asked Jericho pre-match if he was concerned with the match. When Josh mentioned his nickname, "The Dead Man," Jericho went off on how Taker's a normal guy and that the fans have been waiting ten years to see this and he's going to beat Taker. Good promo by Chris; it was quiet but intense and outside of a "plebeians" reference it wasn't over-riddled with SAT words. By the time the intros were over we have fifteen minutes; plenty of time for them to put on a great match. Well, we certainly got a good match, but I don't know if I'd qualify it as great. I didn't have a lot of complaints, because "It could have been better" isn't a complaint in and of itself. Both guys looked good, Jericho had his periods of control but I don't think anyone expected him to win. It made more sense for him to look good but lose, and they could point out how Taker can beat him one-on-one, but with Show in the mix it may be too much for him. They had some fun reversals at the end and Jericho's Walls into the Hells Gate was nice. We got some brawling at the end with Show coming down to attack and Kane making the save, which sets up Jericho & Show vs. The Brothers of Destruction for next week, which should be fun. Are they finally going through with the Kane face turn, or are they going to have him turn on Big Bro? Wait and see.

PURGATORY:

MICKIE JAMES vs. NATALYA: Before this match, we got a segment backstage where Layla confronted Mickie and told her she needed to get to stepping off the Blue Brand. Mickie stood up to Layla while Michelle snuck into the dressing room in the background. This was short and sweet, with no wooden performances from either. I just know someone's going to make a Divas/wood joke from this, by the way. And if you didn't…you just thought of it. Gotcha!

Mickie came out to the ring then, while Nattie had no entrance of her own. This was certainly not a great match, but it was mostly serviceable. They had a few issues with slowness early on, but those pretty much disappeared after a minute or two. After that it was pretty decent, until Michelle and Layla came down. They came down too early for the match to get too far, Nattie's clothesline seemed sloppy at that point and really…a feud development over Diva clothes? I'm very happy to see Nattie get a big win though, and that and what we got of the match was pretty good.

ANOTHER BETH SQUASH: Again, I will say that I appreciate how they're rebuilding Beth into a monster heel again. It's great to see, and it's a lot better than having her squash the same Divas over and over again. I do think it's getting a bit repetitive, and that does cause some issues here. However, Lisa Taylor was presented as a champion in her own right and it didn't feel as bad as, say, beating the amateur wrestler who beat her years ago. I also think that Lisa took some really good offense from Beth, and that also helps. In the end, this was another squash for Beth and I'm more or less okay with that. Could certainly be worse.

THE WRONG:

DREW MCINTYRE vs. FINLAY: We had the Irishman being a dick on Raw, and now we have the Scot. They recapped the McIntyre/Finlay thing from a couple weeks ago before McIntyre spoke up and said that Finlay hadn't been worthy to enter the ring, but he had a change of heart and decided to let him in so he could beat the crap out of him. What a guy. Finlay made his way down to the ring to the crowd's delight—not a lot of Protestants in the arena, I guess?—and was raring to go. This was, in a lovely change for Drew, an actual match. We found out from Striker that Drew met Vince at a celebrity golf tourney…okay, sure. I love Striker's little anecdotes. As for the match, it was actually fairly decent…or started to be, before the ref stopped it for the two beating the crap out of each other. Have I ever mentioned how much I hate that? Yeah, I thought I did. McIntyre walked away the victor thanks to a couple shillelagh shots, and I'm okay with that. For Christ's sake though, give the guy a real match! I'm starting to wonder if they're too busy trying to protect him and he's just not that good in the ring.

THE RIDICULOUS:

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

The 411

Pretty decent show this week. There was nothing-horrible going on here, and the one weak match was countered by some very good stuff that pushed the feuds going into Survivor Series. We also set up next week nicely with the main event and Morrison vs. Ziggler in a two out of three falls match. All in all, I was quite happy with this show and hope that they continue to roll like this.

SHOW RATING: 7.5

From Industry:
Disappointing Swagger lost so soon, but he still has a lot of upside in his VERY young career.

Ricky Fatton was a boring host.

I agree that Swagger still has a big upside, but I think that Hatton was far from terrible. I mean hell, we've had much worse than him in the guest host train. I wouldn't want him to come back, but I'm not sorry he did it.


From TLC PPV:
Having JeriShow vs. DX once again on RAW tells me they are not going to 'actually feud'. Next month, in HBK's hometown, look for a TLC WWE title match between Shawn and Cena.

We'll see. I think they're going to hold it off and let it go around the Rumble or so. But then, maybe not...time will tell.


From fanboi13:
I would have to put the Swagger/Bourne match in the right. Of course I am way biased. Any match where Evan Bourne is not jobbed is a good match to me.

I did like that of course, I just would have liked him beating someone who's not in the midst of a win streak storyline is all.


From NICEEEEEEEE:
Love the writer for this. Tells it like it is.

On behalf of Bauer and Lord Csonka, thanks!


From sepih:
do you think there either turning Kofi into a main eventer soon or are they knocking Orton down to mid card player now that he can't go after the title.

I think that, like Johnny commented, they're pushing Kofi upward. It's certainly seemed that way so far. I may be wrong, but I really don't think so in this case; I think the 'E knows what they have in Kofi and are really going to give him a shot.


From lighten up:
Jump on me! Come on, jump on me!

- "Hate Any Cena And/Or DX Comedy 'Cause That's The Cool Thing To Do" Bandwagon

Which is why I gave the Cena/DX comedy segment from the week before props, right? Good show, man.


From ohmyumbrella:
I didn't see RAW, so can't really judge how bad the Santino and Hatton exchange was, but the 'Ricky Fatton' joke is a reference that Hatton himself has made during the past. Hatton's well known for putting on huge amounts of weight in between fights, and when in training wears a 'Ricky Fatton' t-shirt (it's a t-shirt with a picture of him and the - now dead - racist comedian Bernard Manning together wearing diapers and nothing else. Really). So, although I agree it's a lame joke, it's not WWE or Santino's lame joke.

Ahh, okay. Again, not a boxing fan, so I didn't know that...fair enough. It is still a lame joke, though.


From Zaner:
Jack Swagger's streak breaking couldn't have been any better for him. Since we all know that wins and losses mean nothing in wrestling. Now he can move onto an actual feud with let's just say a certain someone of awesomeness

Wins and losses don't mean anything until the promotion decides to build an angle around it. 173-0, anyone? Let's face it, if the 'E puts a lot of hype into a win streak, the fans have a better chance of buying it. I agree that the Miz feud is better, but I wish they had been more far-sighted than to start an angle and kill it so they could hype a feud.


From ZeroVX:
Baby steps is hardly an excuse. Sheamus had a move set when he debuted. Likewise for Yoshi, and Bourne, and even DJ Gabriel. We should need to wait and see what he can do, we should know as soon as he comes in.

Speaking of Gabriel, whatever happened to him?

Probably in FCW or whatever, I'm not sure. Yes, Drew totally needs to be in matches; that's where we completely agree. I just see progress and I'm willing to give (some, SMALL) credit for that.


From KanyonKreist:
I dunno if KK/Fox sucked enough to be Ridiculous. I mean, maybe if one of them sold a move that didn't even connect or something like that... which they sometimes do... Damn, when the hell is Maryse coming back...?

Also, I dunno if you saw the WWE episode of Dinner: Impossible, but the Miz's heel work on that show was better than most guys' heel work on actual WWE broadcasts. At the very least, it's safe to say that Miz is better at simply BEING a heel than the WWE writers are at WRITING for heels. This kid's got a huge upside- oops, I was JR for a second, sorry.

The thing that irritated me with Triple K and Fox is that Kelly botched a cover. Let me say that again...she botched laying on top of her opponent and hooking her legs. That's very sad, and I couldn't let it go. I don't watch Dinner: Impossible, but that the Miz is a better heel than the writers are able to make him doesn't surprise me.

---

And we're out of here!


~419~