wrestling / Columns

Wrestling’s 4R’s Monday Edition 12.14.09: Impact, Superstars, ROH and Smackdown

December 14, 2009 | Posted by Jeremy Thomas

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    In HD where available…


    By: Aaron Hubbard

    ROH on HDNet 12.07..09:

    QUICK RESULTS:
    – #1 Contenders Match: Jay & Mark Briscoe defeated Kevin Steen & El Generico [****]
    – ROH World Title Match: Austin Aries © defeated Kenny Omega, Davey Richards and Roderick Strong [****]

  • THE RIGHT:

    CORNETTE LAYS DOWN THE LAW: Very rarely does ROH have lengthy in-ring promos. Usually there is a good reason when they do them. The reason for this was twofold. 1) Introduce Jim Cornette into the show and explain what his purpose is, and 2) Give some much-needed focus to a show that has been somewhat scatter-shot since its inception. It succeeded on both accounts. Unlike Ric Flair, Cornette comes across as a legitimate authority figure and he seems genuinely excited to be here as opposed to picking up a paycheck. He really put Ring of Honor over as the future of wrestling, and while that’s most likely hyperbole, it’s still nice to see he takes his job seriously.

    The first thing on Cornette’s list was to announce the Pick 6 series, which will set up the rankings for who is in line for an ROH World Title Shot. This is a simple and effective way to let the fans know who is in line for those shots and to make up to six matches on a card legitimately important. He then announced six matches, which will take place over the next few weeks to fill these Pick 6 slots, and in doing so, has made those shows important. While the matches range from the average (Colt Cabana vs. Claudio Castagnoli, Chris Hero vs. Kenny Omega) to the sublime (Davey Richards vs. Roderick Strong, Jay Briscoe vs. Mark Briscoe), everyone at least means something. Next week we get a double dose as Tyler Black faces Sonjay Dutt (one guess who wins that one) and Kenny King vs. Delirious (slightly less obvious). Doing this has made me excited for the next several weeks.

    ROH TITLE MATCH: The second thing on Jim Cornette’s list was putting ROH Champion Austin Aries in his place. While the Lucky Lottery was kind of annoying and Aries constant cheating and shenanigans have been even more annoying, I’m glad it happened because this promo was our reward for it. Aries will no longer dictate his challengers by “random” drawing, he will be a fighting champion. Aries for his part seemed willing, albeit reluctant, to take on the role and said he would face anyone tonight. So Cornette put him in a Fatal Four-Way Match with Davey Richards, Roderick Strong, and Kenny Omega, for the ROH Title. While I have some complaints about how this came around (see below), I was very pleased with the match. It was a little too chaotic for my tastes and it was hard to follow at first, but it eventually started to get focused and it was very fun.

    Richards and Strong provided the hard-hitting action, both on each other and on the other two. I particularly liked how they worked together to take on Omega (via Alarm Clock and Sick Kick) and then just whaled on each other, because it references their history as partners and now enemies. Omega showed a lot of the potential that people have talked about over the last year and had a very crisp performance. I like how he turned up the intensity after Aries slapped him in the face when he tried his “STOP!” spot. But the real star of the match was Austin Aries, who played the role of a champion with the odds stacked against him and desperately trying to hold onto it. He delivered the pendulum elbow, not with his usual swagger, but quickly and fiercely. That summed up how Aries had to wrestle perfectly, and his performance really elevated the match for me. Reportedly, Aries has started to bring back some of the Aries of old in response to Cornette’s laying down of the law, and that can only be a good thing.

    #1 CONTENDER’S MATCH: The winner of this match would face the American Wolves for the tag titles at Final Battle. While the fatal four-way was a great match, I personally feel that this one was a bit better. It was more focused and told a more cohesive story. The Briscoes and Steenerico have a well documented rivalry going back two years, where they had several great matches together. This was another great match. It also benefited from being a rematch to a match with a screwy ending a while back. With no Wolves to break it up, these two teams just went after each other. The best spot in the match came when Mark blocked Steen’s Swanton Bomb with his knees, which you would normally think would turn the tide in the Briscoes favor. But Mark has had knee problems, and that aggravated it, and allowed Steen and Generico to gain control. I really like when wrestlers make me think they are going one direction, and then go in another direction that totally makes sense. That’s what happened there.

    Mark was consistent with selling the knee even through the go-home sequence, which was really fun to watch. Everything from the hot tag to Jay was crisp, fast-paced, hard hitting and was just plain fun to watch. Even a spot where Jay hit a stunner on the ropes on Steen and ended up making a platform for Generico to dive onto him from was done in a way where it didn’t look contrived, and that’s a big accomplishment. Mark’s knee was brought up at the end with Steen using the Sharpshooter, which was a great false finish. In the end, the Briscoes won after taking out Generico with the Doomsday Device, which allowed them to double-team Steen and Jay hit the Jay Driller to win. Fantastic match and another reason this show is great.

  • PURGATORY:

    CORINO PROMO: Well, Corino isn’t bleached blonde. I know, I’m shocked too. This is in purgatory because I really have no idea how Steve Corino is going to do in the current Ring of Honor. I’ve never been as high on him as some, but he’s something of an Indy Legend and was serviceable in the ring the last time I saw him. So, this is in purgatory until further notice.

  • The wRong:

    LOGIC PROBLEMS: These are minor issues, but they did bother me. First, Jim Cornette forgot to mention Chris Hero vs. Kenny Omega in the Pick 6 tournament, and Dave Prazak had to mention it as an aside. Fine, I can live with that, people aren’t perfect. But here’s my big issue. First, Cornette announces this Pick 6 #1 Contender’s thing. And then, he puts three of the twelve guys in a title shot the same night. So, logically speaking, haven’t Omega, Richards and Strong had a title shot and just bypassed the system? What was going to happen if they won? Was Aries going to take the place of the winner in the Pick 6 match? What about his rematch clause? And since they Omega, Richards and Strong lost, do they even deserve Pick 6 matches now? Should Hero just get a shot without beating Omega, since Omega just got his shot and lost? Finally, they showed a preview for Final Battle that showed Aries defending the title against Tyler Black. Well, just give away the results why don’t you? Yes, I know it was pre-taped and there really wasn’t any chance that Aries would lose anyway, but still. Really minor complaints, but they were avoidable mistakes and could have pushed this show up even further.

  • THE RIDICULOUS:

    NONE:

    The 411

    Even with my very minor complaints, this was the best hour of wrestling programming I’ve seen all year. Everything had a purpose, everything delivered and delivered big time. Two four star matches back to back is nothing to sneeze at, and Cornette’s promo added a sense of importance to the show and to the next several shows. I’m really excited to see where it goes from here. As Ari said about this show, it’s a “must watch” and a “just watch”. Folks, THIS was Ring of Honor.

    SHOW RATING: 9.0



    By: Chad Nevett

    iMpact! 12.10.09:

    QUICK RESULTS:
    – The British Invasion defeat Chris Sabin [*1/2]
    – Scott Steiner and Awesome Kong defeat Bobby and Kristal Lashley [*]
    – Eric Young defeats Hamada for the TNA Global Championship [3/4*]
    – ODB defeats Tara in a Trailer Park Throwdown Street Fight [*1/4]
    – Team 3D, Rhino, and Jesse Neal defeat Hernandez, Matt Morgan, Suicide, and D’Angelo Dinero [**1/4]
    – Velvet Sky defeats Lacey Von Eric in a mud wrestling match [DUD]
    – AJ Styles defeats Desmond Wolfe for the TNA World Heavyweight Championship [**1/2]

  • THE RIGHT:

    ERIC YOUNG VS. HAMADA FOR THE GLOBAL CHAMPIONSHIP: When Kevin Nash announced that the World Elite leader and current Global Champion Eric Young would defend his title on American soil that night, Young looked shocked and betrayed… until he found out who his opponent would be. Hamada has been working her way through the Knockouts division, defeating both of the Knockouts Tag Team champs in singles competition in two consecutive weeks, and this match actually put her over. First, Young delivered a strong promo raising the idea that the match was a try-out for Hamada to join the World Elite, something that would benefit the group, and that he also respected her ability enough to consider her a threat to his belt. Second, the match itself was booked very well. There’s also a danger in having a man fight a woman in that either gaining too much offense either suggests a dangerous message about male-on-female violence or makes the man look weak. Hamada got off a good amount of offense, hitting numerous high spots, and demonstrating that she was, in fact, a credible threat. But, Young winning by dodging the moonsault and using the ropes for leverage ended the match quickly. This could have been a disaster, but worked really well with Hamada looking better than ever and Eric Young still Global Champion.

    HULK HOGAN/STING VIDEO PACKAGES: Normally, Hogan packages would fall into the wrong or ridiculous categories as TNA continues to hype the same three video clips for Hogan’s debut on January 4th, but the addition of the Sting clips here make it work very well. Sting and Hogan have a pretty detailed history from their days in WCW and hyping up Hogan’s debut against the possible return or retirement of Sting gives that debut a possible angle that fans can really get into. The packages are well put together and put both men over big time.

    AJ STYLES VS. THE HIGHEST BIDDER: At the top of the show, Kevin Nash announced that the highest bidder would get a TNA World Heavyweight Championship match against AJ Styles. When Styles came out, the mystery built the anticipation well and the sound of a wolf howling followed through on that promise with Kurt Angle on commentary acting as the cherry on the top. The action between Styles and Wolfe was good, but never really got going to show off either man’s best, acting mostly as a teaser for their eventual confrontation in the main event of a pay-per-view in 2010. Angle’s commentary did a great job at not just selling both men, but selling their unique styles and approaches to in-ring action. The involvement of Daniels at the end made perfect sense and worked to make Wolfe even more of a loner: he’s the heel that the other heels hate, which is the role he’s been hinted at being in since his debut. All in all, this not only worked to sell the matches at Final Resolution, but also planted the seeds for feuds between almost any of these four men in the future.

  • PURGATORY:

    BRITISH INVASION VS. MOTOR CITY MACHINE GUN: The first match of the night was so close to being in the Right category if it weren’t for the ending. All three members of the British Invasion against Chris Sabin in a handicap match could have been a trainwreck, but it was done with a lot of skill. Sabin got in some offense early, but was quickly outdone by the teamwork of Doug Williams and Brutus Magnus. Those two handled it perfectly by playing to the crowd and acting so overconfident that you wanted Sabin to mount a comeback, which he did courtesy of Rob Terry’s inexperience. Big Rob, despite his size, is the weak link in the British Invasion and was exploited as such, but it resulted in Sabin picking up the victory when he should have lost after almost coming back completely. Having Sabin go over three men would be questionable in any circumstances, but when they’re the tag champs, it’s just stupid, and a great way to kill a solid, well-executed match.

    SCOTT STEINER AND THE KNOCKOUT OF HIS CHOICE VS. THE LASLEYS: Kristal Lashley making her in-ring debut is a good way to up the ante of the Steiner/Lashley feud and began well with Steiner’s promo backstage where he continued to insist the Main Event Mafia still exists, that whichever Knockout he tags with can just sit back and watch him beat up Bobby Lashley, and threatened the Lashleys’ son in the best crazy heel fashion (“Correction: he’s one-and-a-half” made me laugh). His choice of Awesome Kong made Kristal’s involvement even more potentially disastrous, but I did wonder why the MEM’s resident Knockout Traci Brooks wasn’t selected if the MEM is still a stable as Steiner keeps insisting. The match itself was pretty basic stuff with each man getting in some offense until Kristal accidentally tagged herself in and it looked like Awesome Kong was about to kill another bitch dead (as the saying goes) until Steiner got back in the ring and stole the pin… with a sickening thrust as the punctuation on the match. It advanced the angle and made their fight at Final Resolution even more personal, but the match itself was mediocre.

    FEAST OR FAMINE PROMO WITH SAMOA JOE AND BEER MONEY: This promo did its job in putting the feast or famine match at Final Resolution in the minds of fans and Joe’s half of the promo was well done, especially his dissatisfaction with not having any matches since Turning Point and not being involved with tournament on Thanksgiving. Beer Money interrupting and bringing up the value of participating in this sort of match was good, but neither man delivered their lines strong enough to keep this in the right category. A solid promo that did its job, but didn’t excel either.

    TRAILER PARK THROWDOWN STREET FIGHT: As an angle, this was entertaining as Kevin Nash set up this match between Knockouts Champion ODB and Tara with the stipulation that each had to drink a six-pack before the match. Considering ODB’s normal perchance for alcohol, this set Tara at a disadvantage, which was handled well with ODB mocking her by performing actions from sobriety tests as she entered. But, while those elements were entertaining, the actual match was plodding and boring, including one botch from Tara when a trash can lid slipped from her hand and went flying into the crowd (but it was covered well by both). ODB being unable to climb a regular ladder, so getting out a step-ladder to do a splash was pretty funny, and the end where Tara was too drunk to continue made sense, but Tara is better than stumbling around, pretending to be drunk. Not fantastic, but not all bad either.

    TEAM 3D, RHINO, AND JESSE NEAL VS. HERNANDEZ, MATT MORGAN, SUICIDE, AND D’ANGELO DINERO: The stipulation that whoever ate the pin would start the elimination match at Final Resolution alone for five minutes made this match a more natural fit for next week’s Impact as a lead-in, but this still allows for a match next week to continue the build. Jesse Neal coming out in the Pope’s jacket, revealing that he wouldn’t be in the match thanks to a backstage beat down was a really strong way to get the crowd interested and build some heat quickly. The match itself had some strong psychology for the first half as Team 3D and company worked over Suicide, the weakest of their three opponents. When Suicide managed to tag Hernandez in, things fell apart a bit, culminating in a chain of each wrestler’s finishing move that ended with… Jesse Neal spearing Hernandez for the win? Really? Putting over Neal is a good idea, but the spear wasn’t executed strongly and neither Hernandez or Morgan came away from this matching looking as strong as they should. But, setting up Hernandez as the guy to stand alone for five minutes should repair that, hopefully.

    BLACK MACHISMO INVITATIONAL PROMO: I was wondering where Jay Lethal had been and he finally emerges to discuss the Black Machismo Invitational. Nothing special, but I simply cannot get enough of his Macho Man impression. It’s a weakness, I admit, but Black Machismo always produces at least one laugh.

  • THE WRONG:

    BIG SEXY, LARGE AND IN CHARGE: The show kicked off with Mick Foley’s return from the ‘Foley/Jarrett Summit’ only to find Kevin Nash in his office, behind his desk. It seems Nash has arranged for Foley to meet Hogan, but Foley has to leave now, so Nash wants to run the show for the evening and gets his request. This set-up had a lot of promise since Nash is one of the best guys on a mic in the business and his character lends itself well to the arrogant GM role. But, his opening address and rundown of the evening’s matches was flat and dull, particularly from Big Sexy. The normally charismatic Nash was low key and seemed to be reading his line directly from the script. He did appear more animated when discussing the Knockouts or getting guys to bid on a world title shot, but not by much. He then disappeared for the rest of the show aside from a couple of appearances with regard to the Beautiful People mud wrestling match. Given the usual involvement of Mick Foley in decision-making throughout the show, why wasn’t Nash booked in a similar fashion, interacting with TNA talent backstage between segments? A big letdown given Nash’s abilities.

    THE BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE AND THE EIGHT SIDES OF PLASTIC: Yes, I’m a man and I am straight, but this was just a disaster. The backstage skits between the girls and Nash weren’t funny or well-acted. The constant threats of kissing aren’t really alluring. The match (if you want to call it that) was, thankfully, short, but not entertaining or sexy. The only thing that made the whole thing tolerable was the light attitude taken toward it. It was treated as a fun exercise, but never really delivered any of that fun.

  • THE RIDICULOUS:

    THE FOLEY/JARRETT SUMMIT: Mick Foley spends the entire episode searching for Jeff Jarrett in boring, awkward segments where he storms into places and yells for Jeff or Dixie Carter. Foley’s paranoia is interesting at time, but these segments were devoid of content and purpose. In the end, he finds Jarrett and eventually convinces Jarrett to return to TNA. That could have been accomplished in last week’s phone call and saved everyone a lot of trouble, especially those of us who watched this garbage.

    “TOMKO IS BACK”: And yet he does nothing and the video is only five seconds long, accomplishing nothing at all.

    The 411

    With Mick Foley out of the picture, Kevin Nash running the show could have been something different and entertaining, but never really delivered. Nash was almost nonexistent and the matches were mostly different and original, but none of them delivered on the in-ring action. The Foley segments that ran throughout the episode were awful and could have accomplished the same results in one segments instead of half a dozen. As is often the case with TNA, lots of promise, but the execution falters.

    SHOW RATING: 5.5



    By: Steve Cook

    Superstars 12.10.09:

  • THE RIGHT:

    Dolph Ziggler vs. Finlay: Ziggler & Finlay have finally gotten on the same page and are now capable of having very good matches with each other. I remember they had a match on this show a few weeks ago where they were apparently reading out of different playbooks, but this was a much better effort from both men. I liked how they put over the head to head collision as a big turning point after the match…head trauma has been all over the news lately thanks to the NFL cracking down on players competing after suffering concussions, and WWE should make sure their audience knows that blows to the head are a big deal. Hopefully as the fans become more aware of this, WWE wrestlers will do less head bumps than they already do and the profession will be a little bit safer.

    Hart Dynasty vs. Jimmy Wang Yang & Slam Master J: I think Yang & J just might be the Anti-Freebirds. I’d love to see some backstage segments with J teaching the Asian Redneck how to be more “street”. Anyway, the Hart kids got to look pretty good against J & Wang here, with Natalya even getting in on the action by bodyslamming Yang on the floor. I continue to see lots of potential out of the Dynasty.

  • PURGATORY:

    Jack Swagger vs. MVP: The match was pretty good, probably one of the better efforts out of the MVP/Swagger pairing so far, but I can’t say I was a big fan of the buildup to the match. MVP cut a promo early in the show basically saying they don’t like each other and that Swagger has a lisp. Yes, because speech impediment gimmicks always get over. That wasn’t so bad, but Swagger’s promo in-ring before the match was counter-productive at best. He used the recent WWE heel talking point of “I don’t need catchphrases to get over”, then he called himself the All-American American, had difficulty saying his own name, and then said that he approved his message. Fortunately Swagger’s good enough in the ring to not come off like a complete doofmonger, though I think “doofmonger” may be what they’re going for with Swagger’s character.

  • THE WRONG:

    NONE

  • THE RIDICULOUS:

    NONE

    The 411

    This was an interesting episode of Superstars in that people that the Internet wrestling fans complain don’t get enough of a push got victories and looked pretty good in doing so. A sign shown during Swagger’s match said “Ziggler & Swagger Deserve Better”…WWE isn’t strapping a rocket to these guys’ backs like they are Sheamus, Drew McIntyre and people of that ilk, but it seems from this observer that these two men & the Hart Dynasty are being positioned for pushes with a slower build. Sometimes these kinds of pushes work out a lot better than people being pushed immediately with very little rhyme or reason. Good episode this week, but it could have used a little variety…maybe work in a babyface squash and take out some of the Raw recapping.

    SHOW RATING: 8.0



    By: Jeremy Thomas

    WWE SmackDown 12.11.09

  • THE RIGHT:

    IT’S NOT ABOUT US, IT’S ABOUT DAVE: SmackDown started off with the Manimal coming on down to ringside and receiving mostly boos along the way. His heel turn was iffy in a few spots in terms of crowd reaction, but putting him against the Dead Man seems to have helped a lot. Big Dave talked a little about some things he wanted to get off his chest, such as how he didn’t ask to face Rey Rey tonight; it was the little guy himself. That got a healthy round of boos, and then Dave turned on the crowd to say he didn’t care what they think. He said he used Evolution, he didn’t need Rey Rey and he doesn’t need us. He then asked for and received a spotlight in the ring, which is right where he said he was supposed to be.

    So, I’ve been critical of Dave in the past for his promos, and rightly so. The man is always over and has the perfect WWE look, and he’s not as bad of a worker as some people say. That being said, he’s always had a tendency to rush his promos and stumbles over his words more than anyone else. Tonight, he blew all of that out of the water and gave one of the best promos he’s ever done. He was calm, he was methodical, but you could really and truly believe that he felt what he was saying. Sure, the “I used Evolution” thing was a little wonky to bring up perhaps, but the spotlight moment was sheer brilliance. He also had the crowd just eating right out of his hand. This is a new side to Big Dave we haven’t seen before; a cool, confident side. He’s comfortable in this heel persona and it’s paying off in spades. So yes, in case you couldn’t tell…I loved the hell out of this opening.

    CM PUNK & LUKE GALLOWS vs. MATT HARDY & R-TRUTH: We finally got a chance to see Luke Gallows wrestle in his new gimmick. Before that, we got another promo by Punk that trashed the Jeff Hardy DVD in order to help promote it. This was a nice, solid promo by the Straight Edge Superstar by calling all the parents trash for buying the DVD as stocking stuffers. Apparently if you watch it, you’ll hallucinate and think that you can fly and do the impossible; that’s certainly a much more interesting innovation than Real 3D. Truth and Matt came out then with a bag full of the DVD’s to hand out. Awesomely, Punk responded to “What’s Up?” with “Straight Edge!” I loved the way this was constructed around Truth’s entrance, with Punk shouting at the crowd for taking the set. With Punk taking the mic shot to the head, Gallows started off the match, but Punk quickly tagged himself in and paid for it. This gave Matt and Truth a nice little portion of control, and this really played out well as a back-and-forth affair. Gallows had a pretty generic big man offense for this match but he’s also getting used to wrestling outside of the Festus gimmick, but it worked for the amount we saw of him. Gallows got the win for the team, which helps build his cred, and that’s absolutely fine. All in all, this worked well.

    ERIC ESCOBAR vs. CHRIS JERICHO (AND THE BIG SHOW): Before the match we had a brief set-up where Escobar and Vickie were arguing in Spanish and Escobar made a joint fat/age joke. That pissed Vickie off, and thus the match, which Escobar was fine with. I like Escobar’s character building here, and putting him against a guy like Jericho is wise because Y2J can help him to a good match and getting his ass beat by a World Champion is no loss of credibility. Escobar’s move set seems to be improving a bit; I wouldn’t call him a great worker, but he’s definitely improving. Show came down after a few moments and Escobar tried to get the job finished quickly, but yeah…didn’t happen. From this point it was all the tag champions and rightly so. This was short, but in this case Escobar gained in credibility by getting squashed, just by virtue of his brief appearance of holding his own against Jericho. Afterward we got a promo by Jericho and Show about how they were going to destroy DX and the DX Army. Nothing much to complain about here.

  • PURGATORY:

    JOHN MORRISON SHOOTS LIGHTNING BOLTS OUT HIS ARSE: Drew McIntyre came down to the ring, all pissy that he wasn’t on the cover of the WWE Magazine about the future of the WWE but John Morrison—who he beat last week—was. We got a recap of Morrison’s win last week and then Drew mocked the fans for believing in Morrison. This was another decent promo from McIntyre, who definitely has the mic skills if his ring work picks up to be an upper level guy. Drew’s promo brought out Morrison—err, sorry, William Wallace—in full “battle the English” regalia and let T-Grish and Striker pop off Braveheart references. Morrison was absolutely authentic to the style of Braveheart, right down to the idea of rewriting history when facts got in the way. (Mel Gibson won an Oscar for his direction and for Best Picture, not for “his performance.” Hey, I’m a Movie Zone guy too, I gotta know my shit.) Of course, Drew was pissed about it and Morrison just played it off to piss him off more.

    You know, there are things I did like about this. As I said, Drew wasn’t bad on the mic at all, and the Braveheart stuff was funny for a bit. But I think it played too long and it really started to drag about midway through. Also, you should not carry a sword to the ring if you can’t avoid cutting yourself with it, which Morrison pretty clearly did just above his left, white-painted eye. This was by no means terrible and I did enjoy portions, but I think it just went on too long to stay in the Right which is a shame. I’m very interested to see how the McIntyre/Morrison match plays out Sunday, but this didn’t help that interest level any.

    MICKIE JAMES & MARIA vs. MICHELLE McCOOL & LAYLA: Anyone who thinks I was worried about the potential of this match gets a kewpie doll. We got a recap of the angle from last week before Michelle and Layla came down to the ring in the Piggie James T-Shirts. Apparently, Mickie and Michelle are actually having their match at TLC, which should be interesting. You know what…as a match this wasn’t terrible at all. Maria’s arm drags basically consist of her pulling on the opponent’s arm and making them to the flipping, but they kept Maria’s presence short and Mickie did some decent work against Michelle and Layla. This wasn’t fabulous or anything, but it was perfectly decent and a definite step up from the ladies’ matches we’ve seen on the Blue Brand as of late.

    REY REY vs. BATISTA: Okay, so I’m going to take a moment to bitch here. By no way, shape or measure should Rey Rey be back already. The guy had a quick fix surgery; fine, I think that he should have gotten the full fix and waited to come back till he was 100% but I’ve accepted that the man is NEVER going to let himself do that for any of the times he’s been injured. But for the sake of the gods, he got surgery only two weeks before this show was taped. They already did the stretcher job with him, he could have easily sat it out a while instead of come back this soon for a Street Fight. But no, the guy’s crazy so they let him; whether he was medically cleared or not, this was stupid. Okay, off my soapbox…time for the match. This was basically a standard Rey Rey vs. Big Man match, only with less Rey comebacks and more getting his ass kicked. I suppose this was fine as it let Rey do more selling and less acrobatics, but it still suffered a little in terms of match quality. Big Dave went over super-strong and the win after the chair show did well in selling the PPV match with Taker—which is, of course, a chair match. So, I’m curious about this Chair Match thing still. Does that mean that ONLY chair shots are legal in terms of weapons? I mean, what happens if a table comes into play? Does that cause a DQ? Anyway, Big Dave got to brutalize Rey some more, Taker came out and finished strong to end the show, and that’s it. Sorry, there were good moments in this match but it wasn’t quite a quality main event.

  • THE WRONG:

    KANE vs. MIKE KNOX: There was a backstage segment earlier in the show where Knox said that he enjoyed fighting Kane and said they were both monsters, and he wanted a rematch. Kane’s response was that he was the only monster but they would fight. Okay, let’s call a spade a spade here; this segment was pretty brutal. Also, I want to ask how the hell Kane is a face the way his character is booked. He’s obviously intended to be a face with the opponents he’s being booked against, but really, I think he’s getting more of the “cool heel” cheer. That’s fine, I suppose, I just find it interesting. This mic work between the two was far less interesting however. Similarly, the match was not all that great. I gave their match last week a puRgatoRy because I felt they were just coasting a bit through that match. This match more or less played out like a replay of that one. Striker and Grish did their best to put the two over, but the work inside the ring really wasn’t worth the effort. These two are capable of more than this, and I really don’t need to see them face off in successive weeks. If I’d wanted to see last week’s match again—which I didn’t—I would have just replayed that one.

  • THE RIDICULOUS:

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

    The 411

    If not for the Kane/Knox match and the main event, I would have enjoyed almost all of this show. The Diva tag match was better than I expected and even the Morrison/McIntyre thing had its own goofy charm. The rest of it was really good and I enjoyed the lot of it as it built to TLC. As it stands, it was still definitely the stronger show this week between it and Raw, and I thought it did a good job at what it was attempting to accomplish.

    SHOW RATING: 8.0

    From fanboi13:
    “Why is she being booked like an underdog here who got her ass handed to her by Gail for most of the match”

    The booking of the match was completely screwed up. They should have given this more time and had a good back and forth match (Gail is after all a former women’s champ even if you know nothing about her non-WWE work) and made both women look good. As it is, it did nothing for Gail and made Maryse look like a lucky chickenshit. I am no fan of Maryse, but if they are going to push her they need to make her look good. Winning a hotly contested match against a former women’s champ would have done that.

    I agree with pretty much everything here fanboi…except for not being a fan of Maryse, of course. What would have worked well was a few back-and-forth minutes where they looked good against each other before Gail took over, then Maryse won in the same manner. How hard would that have been?

    From Nick M.:
    I personally would have put the moment with Mark Cuban knocking down Sheamus in the “Ridiculous” section, but otherwise I concur with your rationale, Jeremy. I do however 100% agree with your estimation of Trent Barreta & Caylen Croft…these guys are the equivalent of an Ambien in tag team form.

    I don’t think it out and out ruined what was otherwise a good segment, but it did certainly bother the hell out of me. Whatever the reason they did for it, I don’t think it worked the way that the ‘E wanted it to. But ah, well.

    From Guest#3660:
    Regarding Gail-Maryse, the same thing happened last week in the tag match. Melina got in all the offense on Maryse during their exchange before losing.

    The crowd reactions to Maryse and Gail’s entrances are worth noting. Kelly introduced Maryse, and as her music hit, the crowd noticeably popped, as if Maryse was a babyface. Kelly then introduced Gail to pretty much total indifference.

    Like fanboi mentioned in a comment after this one, the reaction was very disappointing. Maryse is starting to get the “cool heel” pops and that’s fine, but Gail’s lack of reaction is depressing. The ‘E has booked her like shit, so the fans are not caring. Funny how that happens. If they were smart, they would realize she’s someone they should be building up to rely on as a contender. But they aren’t, so no one cares.

    From Zipper:
    “Why is she being booked like an underdog here who got her ass handed to her by Gail for most of the match and ran away after a slap, only to get a win after a single counter and feet on the ropes?”

    You’ve got to remember, Jeremy, this is the Raw booking team. Every heel must be a coward who steals their wins, and whose dominance is displayed in an inconsistent manner at best.

    Somewhere Randy Orton is crying himself to sleep.

    Yeah, I hate that. Why all Raw heels end up being cowardly types is beyond me. Don’t get me wrong, I have nothing with cowardly heels, it works sometimes. But this reminds me of the Jim Watts style of booking which is fine sometimes, but you need some variety from your heels or they all start to meld together. And that, of course, is definitely not a good thing.

    From The Great Capt. Smooth:
    I have to say that the whole Masters face turn came off as odd, but when’s the last time anybody heard a “Masterlock!” chant? If this is what finally gets him over, then good for him. Also Hornswoggle’s attempt to do the booby dance has to be one of the greatest moments in human history. (not really, but it was great)

    I agree…as much as I don’t find the pec dance funny, I’m glad SOMETHING has finally helped get Masters over. It’ll be interesting to see if he can sustain this reaction, or whether the novelty’s going to wear off and he’ll go back to obscurity. Hopefully it’ll lead to a Chavo/Masters feud that removes Hornswaggle completely from the occasion, but we’ll see.

    From Ghandi II:
    “Mr. Cool took the fall as well he should.”

    Anybody else remember Carlito pinning Cena in his debut match. My how times change.

    “Evan and Primo are a tag team I could really get into”

    Yeah. I seem to remember them throwing two no-hopers nobody liked into a tag team in 1997 and they worked out quite well. Of course they then went to TNA and started calling themselves the Voodoo Kin Mafia (wtf?), but they had a couple of good years.

    “Okay, what retarded monkey came up with the idea for this match?”

    Don’t call Triple H’s wife a retarded monkey. He’ll beat you up in a really bad match at WrestleMania.

    Ha…nice. He’d have to come find me first though…and really, I’d take on ‘H in a really bad match at ‘Mania. The payday would be worth it. You make a good point with the NAO reference, though I don’t think that Bourne & Primo have James and GUnn’s charisma. Still, I think they should stick together as a tag team; they could definitely do worse for themselves.

    From Ben:
    I really like reading your columns. Thanks for the effort.

    Thanks, Ben…appreciate it!

    From Ian:
    is it just me or has the 4r’s of survivor series not been posted yet??

    Keep an eye out for the Lost R’s of Survivor Series, available on the Special Features of The 4 R’s of Wrestling in DVD stores everywhere soon!

    From Phil:
    Mark Cuban actually respects wrestling and took up for the wwe anytime he was interviewed by the media.

    I don’t doubt that at all, Phil. As I said, Cubanm was a champ throughout the show and I respect the job he did as guest host. I just didn’t like him pushing Sheamus down.

    From Jason Douglas:
    “Mark Cuban—guest host, 170 pound or so Mark Cuban—stood up to Sheamus and shoved him to the ground. He shoved the challenger to the WWE Title—the guy who’s ended Jamie Noble’s career and put John Cena through a table—to the ground. Way to destroy some monster mystique, guys.”

    I didn’t have that reaction at all. Sheamus never thought for a second Cuban would dare touch him. You can tip over a cow if it doesn’t see you coming (not that I’ve done it myself). Had it been a punch I could agree, but two hands to the chest of an unsuspecting man didn’t make him look weak to me. Add in that this act followed Sheamus shoving Cuban down with ONE hand and I just don’t see the problem. Sheamus’ expression even said “I can’t believe you just did that”. Making him look invulnerable was never going to make up for him being pushed into a PPV main event long before anyone believes he can win. The act that followed was all over mainstream TV, so it did exactly what it was meant to.

    From August:
    Ridiculous: Jeremy blasting an entire angle because Sheamus tripped over his own feet, even though he proceeded to tear Cuban a new one.

    Not to mention the incident has gotten almost nothing but good press, with Cuban making the rounds saying how great it was being on Raw. But go ahead and let a small mistake ruin an awesome segment.

    Fair enough on the media exposure, although I do think that they should spend less time on media exposure than they do building new stars, and Sheamus needed the star building done a bit. Jason, I can see that point on your reaction; August, I didn’t blast an entire angle or say it ruined the entire segment, I actually gave it a puRgatoRy. Blasting it would have been the wRong, and I noted a few times how much I liked the rest of it. Thanks for reading though!


    And we’re out of here!

    ~428~

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