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Wrestling’s 4R’s Monday Edition 1.04.10: ROH, Impact, Superstars and SmackDown Reviewed!
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In HD where available…
By: Aaron Hubbard
ROH on HDNet 12.28.09:
BEST MATCHES ON HDNET: The last show of the year was just a best of show, so it’s kind of hard to rate rehashes of stuff you’ve already seen. This show gave us the final minutes of several of the best matches of HD Net’s tenure. From the fatal four-way with Aries, Lynn, Danielson and Black, to Black vs. Danielson to the Wolves vs. Young Bucks to Danielson vs. Strong, we saw a lot of the best matches of the year. You could argue that they should have shown one or two complete matches, but I actually liked this because it showcased more of the roster and the great action they’ve had from different wrestlers and served as a great hard sell for the next year.
TAG TEAM FOCUS: I was very glad that ROH decided to showcase their tag team division on this show, as it’s something that ROH has that other promotions don’t. Well, maybe. Seeing as how the Bucks are in TNA, Steen and Generico have split, and the Briscoes may be WWE-bound. Still, it was very nice to see. ROH can’t match up with WWE or TNA’s production values, so they should highlight what they have that those companies don’t. A real tag team division is the perfect thing to highlight.
ROSTER SHOWCASE: ROH did a smart thing here by showing highlight videos of The Necro Butcher, Claudio Castagnoli, Kenny Omega, Chris Hero, Eddie Kingston, Rhett Titus , and Delirious. These videos showed their signature moves and had tags with their gimmicks (Very European, Addicted to Love, etc). I thought this was a nice way to show the depth of the ROH roster when they probably wouldn’t have gotten to be on the show with their matches. I didn’t like them leaving out Colt Cabana, but this was a very nice touch. I’m also going to throw in the farewells of McGuinness and Danielson here, as it was fitting that they say goodbye at the last show of the year.
NONE:
DANIELSON PROMO: ROH promised to show us the promo that aired after Bryan Danielson’s match with Roderick Strong, which was what I was most looking for on this show. What ROH did was show the parts of the promo where Danielson put over the company and the wrestlers that have been having great matches. We didn’t get to see the promo in its entirety. Perhaps this was because WWE would have made a big stink with Danielson talking about them signing him, but I felt ripped off. Granted, Danielson cut the same basic promo about a million times in his last month on the Independent scene, but I still felt that ROH dropped the ball here.
NONE: But we do get the very first…
“CHIRS” HERO: I’m borrowing a phrase from Chris Jericho to discuss this. You know, crappy angles I can deal with. Bad matches I can handle. And yes, even questionable video quality is acceptable to me. But this I cannot deal with, cannot handle, and it is totally unacceptable to me. As mentioned above, ROH had several highlight packages for some of their characters. However, during the video package for Chris Hero, we got a big graphic saying “Chirs Hero: That Young Knockout Kid”. Yes. CHIRS HERO! Absolutely freaking ricockulous. I’d like to call it bush-league, but this is beyond bush-league. When you can’t even spell your own top star’s names correctly, it shows that you really just don’t care. This isn’t a typo on a flyer, this isn’t an Adamle special of mispronouncing a major character by accident. This is a shown on your TV product. ROH is supposed to be putting their best foot forward for this show. Top quality production values, great matches. And we get “Chirs Hero”. I hope whoever is responsible for this gets concussed with his kicks and k-oed with his elbows.
| The 411
Well, it’s a best of show, so you know it’s not going to be horrible. However, this was basically an hour long commercial for the show, saying “Here’s all the great action, all the great stars, and all the great moments that have been on TV this year, in case you missed it!” There’s nothing wrong with that and it’s probably a good idea to do this in case any new viewers start watching the show. However, those same new viewers would also be seeing things like “Chirs Hero” and Rhett Titus humping Jerry Lynn’s face. Old fans just get a bunch of highlight videos. Not a horrible show, but totally skippable. SHOW RATING: 5.5 |
By: Chad Nevett
iMpact! 12.31.09:
QUICK RESULTS
– Hamada defeated Madison Rayne [*1/2]
– ODB defeated Traci [*3/4]
– Roxxi defeated Velvet Sky [*]
– Awesome Kong defeated Daffney [3/4*]
– Taylor Wilde and Sarita defeated April Hunter and Lorelei [**1/4]
– Hamada defeated Roxxi [*1/2]
– ODB defeated Awesome Kong [**1/2]
– ODB defeated Hamada [**3/4]
NEW YEARS KNOCKOUT EVE HOSTED BY TARA: Four hours of Impact is a bit much, but the concept of the show was very strong: a Knockouts tournament to determine the number one contender for the belt and the top three PPV matches of the year shown in their entirety. Sounds like a great show for anyone without any plans on New Year’s Eve who just wants to watch some good wrestling. I won’t be addressing the three PPV matches separately, preferring to focus on the new matches and content in the episode, but the fans chose three excellent matches: Desmond Wolfe/Kurt Angle from Turning Point, AJ Styles/Samoa Joe/Daniels from Turning Point, and AJ Styles/Sting from Turning Point. I could complain about commercial breaks disrupting the flow of the matches (the Wolfe/Angle match, in particular, suffered from this), but all three matches are great, the triple threat being my second favourite match of the year. Airing them for fans to see is a great idea and worked well, for the most part. Having Knockouts Champion Tara basically act as host of the show was another smart move since the tournament was all about getting a chance to face her in the ring. It kept her as a presence throughout the show, reminding us who this tournament revolved around, although seeing her in action would have been great.
ROUND 1 – AWESOME KONG vs. DAFFNEY: A textbook Awesome Kong match: Kong dominated, Daffney fought back to no avail, Kong killed a bitch dead as she’s wont to do. Simple, but effective.
TAYLOR WILDE AND SARITA vs. APRIL HUNTER AND LORELEI: A nice change break from the other Knockouts matches as this was more energetic and had a much quicker pace. Probably the most exciting Knockouts match of the evening, this one had the tag champs show off their skills and played up the idea of their opponents trying to earn a spot on the roster, which tied into the theme of the episode. While the champs walked away the winners, Hunter and Lorelei looked pretty good in the process, too. I wish this match had been longer, but that doesn’t stop it from being in the Right.
ROUND 2 – ODB vs. AWESOME KONG: ODB is one of the few Knockouts that looks like she can handle Kong on her own terms and that’s the story they told. If the match against Daffney was a textbook Kong match, this was the exact opposite as ODB brought a physical assault to Kong that she’s not used to, not able to dominate her opponent as much as normal. However, they did establish that Kong was the physically dominant one as the match progressed, leading ODB to win by smashing a bottle over Kong’s head. Both Knockouts came out of the match looking strong and dominant.
ROUND 3 – ODB vs. HAMADA: It all came down to this as ODB and Hamada competed to see who would walk away the new number one contender for the Knockouts Championship. By this point, both women looked tired and drained from their previous matches, which had me worried that this wouldn’t deliver… thankfully, I was wrong. Hamada worked her ass off in this match and took some big risks, like the moonsault through the table. She’s starting to really show what she can do, while ODB does what ODB does best: brawls and beats her opponent down. Normally, I don’t like big matches like this ending in victories where the winner wins because the loser screwed up, but the idea of Hamada going too far in order to win and it being the cause of her loss works really well here. Hamada’s youth and eagerness was contrasted with ODB’s experience and patience well with the veteran managing to escape the victor.
ROUND 1 – ODB vs. TRACI: So, is every match involving Traci going to be about her bad arm? It makes sense for opponents to go after it, but it’s been the center of every Traci match that I’ve seen for the past couple of months and they’ve got to somehow move beyond it. ODB and Traci gave this match a little bit more outside of the arm angle, but not enough to differentiate this from every other match Traci has been in recently. Within that context, this match would wind up in the Wrong, while outside of that context, it was Right, so I’m splitting the difference.
HOGAN, JARRETT, FOLEY, STING, OH MY!: Throughout the episode, various video packages/recaps of recent events in TNA were shown, detailing the Hogan deal, Jarrett’s exile and return, Foley’s paranoid quest, and Sting’s possible retirement. Since this episode is the last before Monday’s live show, it makes sense to remind the audience of each, but four videos was just too much. TNA needs to learn that less is more sometimes. That said, they were generally well done and told you what you needed to know about each man’s recent past and actions.
ROUND 2 – HAMADA vs. ROXXI: Both of these Knockouts can deliver strong matches, but something felt off here. There was a lot of good back-and-forth, some good counters and unexpected moves, but it all happened… so… very… slowly… It was a good match in slow motion and these two can do better than that.
ROUND 1 – HAMADA vs. MADISON RAYNE: Not a bad match, but also not great, and it’s in the Wrong for that very reason. This is the match that kicked off four hours of Impact and for it not to be something special, something extraordinary is Wrong. If you want people to watch four hours of your program, you need to make them want to with the first match and that didn’t happen here. It was acceptable, a little boring, and did not leave me excited to watch four more hours of this. I did like the new jacket and outfit Hamada came out in. It’s the same t-shirt/warm-up pants look she’s had to date, but giving her a unique, custom look helps a lot.
ROUND 1 – ROXXI vs. VELVET SKY: The worst of the first round matches in that it was the slowest and safest, which is saying something since a lot of them suffered from working a slower pace, presumably to conserve energy. This one, though, didn’t really give any impressive moves, tell a story, or do anything interesting as Roxxi and Sky went through the motions until it was over. And, then, Lacey Von Erich came out and beat down Roxxi… because she can? If she’s going to get involved, why not have that happen during the match itself? I know the Beautiful People are supposed to come off as a little dumb, but they’re supposed to also understand wrestling, too, right?
ODB’S INVOLVEMENT: Why was ODB in this tournament at all? Shouldn’t she, as the Knockout who lost the Knockouts Championship at Final Resolution two weeks previous, get an automatic rematch against Tara? I hate this sort of inconsistency in wrestling: sometimes rematches happen, sometimes they don’t, sometimes they’re automatic, sometimes they’re earned… well, which is it? As far as I’m concerned, ODB winning the tournament is her earning what was hers already, making this whole thing a waste of time in one regard. This should have been a way to elevate another Knockout as a contender, a way to bypass introducing some personal pretext for a feud. While the options for a replacement for ODB are limited to Lacey Von Erich or an injured Alissa Flash, that’s still better. A little consistency when it comes to the treatment of belts isn’t too much to ask.
HOGAN IS COMING! LIVE ON MONDAY! HE’S COMING! LIVE! DID YOU KNOW THAT HOGAN WILL BE HERE LIVE ON MONDAY? DID YOU KNOW? DID YOU? HULK HOGAN! MONDAY! LIVE! TNA! MONDAY! HOGAN! HOGAN! HOGAN! HOGAN!: Yes, it is a big deal for TNA, but reminding the viewer before and after virtually every commercial break is overkill. At this point, I want Hogan to arrive for the sole purpose of shutting them the hell up about Hogan coming. Some promos/commercials are good, but the sheer amount of them over four hours was beyond annoying. Say it with me: less is more, less is more, less is more…
| The 411
A decent tournament from the Knockouts and three fantastic matches from the rest of the year made for a pretty good episode, honestly. The tournament suffered in the first round from slower, safer matches designed to keep the winners fresh for future matches, which made the first half of the show very dependent on the Wolfe/Angle and Styles/Joe/Daniels matches, while the second and third rounds featured marked improvements. I went into this show really excited to see the Knockouts really work hard to prove how great they are and that didn’t happen really. The Knockouts division is very strong with some of the best female wrestlers in North America and we’ve seen them do better than this in the past. However, overall, it was an entertaining episode that kept my interest for all four hours. Not as great as I hoped for, but it didn’t fall below my expectations by much either. SHOW RATING: 7.0 |
By: Steve Cook
Superstars 12.24.09:
CRYME TYME vs. MIKE KNOX & CHARLIE HAAS: There was some nice old-school team work in this one by the team of Haas Knox, but ultimately it wasn’t enough to put away a tag team with much more experience. I think the random booking monkey made the matches for this show, and certainly had hit or miss results. As usual, Knox’s matches get extra RESPECK for his manly beard, which is just amazing right now.
CARLITO & JACK SWAGGER vs. MVP & CHRIS MASTERS: Who would have thought that Carlito would have gotten the last televised pinfall of the decade? Decent match here with a bunch of guys that seem like they’re on the verge of big things, but haven’t gotten there quite yet. The teamings are quite random and I don’t think either of these teams have much of a future, but there was enough established chemistry between MVP/Swagger & Carlito/Masters to make it work.
MELINA vs. ALICIA FOX: This was kinda there. Nothing good, nothing too bad…just a match. Alicia did a nice Northern Lights suplex, but I don’t think she contributed anything else of note. Melina was also a one move wonder with the Infared. The rest was utterly forgettable and not worth having an opinion on.
SHELTON BENJAMIN vs. VANCE ARCHER: My inebriated recap of the match:
Shelton Benjamin vs. Vance Archer: Oh for heaven’s sake. If I have to watch Shelton put over Lance fucking Hoyt somebody’s gonna die. Kick by Hoyt, some lame slaps, Shelton fights back., Hoyt hit’s a Bubba Bomb and gets two. He works over Shelton while I wonder who to commit ultra mega mass homicide on. CHINLOCK! VINTAGE ORTON! Shelton fights out of the brutal chinlock…gets a forearm off the seconed rope, German suplex by Shelton gets two. Hoyt drives him into the corner. Shelton Stinger splashes him from behind, but gets crotchd on the second attempt. No no no no no no no no…Hoyt gets disqualified for stoming Shelton while in the Tree of Woe. That finish fucking sucks and I want to murder whoever thought this was a good idea.
Winner: Shelton Benjamin (DQ)
Vance Archer hits a super slow version of an inverted DDT to get his heat back. SOMEBODY’S GONNA DIE~!
Yeah, it wasn’t exactly my best work. But I reprint it here to show exactly how much I hated this match. Vance Archer needs to go somewhere that I don’t have to watch him wrestle, and Shelton…well, I don’t know what he can do at this point. TNA? ROH? Crystal meth?
ASK THE DIVAS: No Maryse? No Bellas? OUTRAGEOUS~! Ridiculous, even.
| The 411
My opinion of this show probably would have been higher if I wasn’t missing Angle vs. Wolfe, April Hunters’ boobs and other things going on during Impact so I could recap it for the website. Looking back, it wasn’t a great show, but pretty average by Superstars standards. SHOW RATING: 6.0 |
By: Jeremy Thomas
WWE SmackDown 12.18.09
QUICK RESULTS:
CM Punk d. Matt Hardy [** 1/2]
Dolph Ziggler drew with Kane [**]
The Great Khali d. The Carolina Panther [DUD]
Drew McIntyre d. John Morrison by DQ [** 1/4]
Mickie James d. Beth Phoenix [**]
Rey Mysterio d. Chris Jericho [*** 1/4]
Batista drew with R-Truth [**]
BEAT THE CLOCK: MATT HARDY vs. CM PUNK: SmackDown started off with T-Grish and Striker laying out what was happening tonight, after which we got Luke Gallows and CM Punk making their way down to the ring to a nice little set of heat. Punk seems to be doing exactly what a manager/mouthpiece should do…help transfer heat onto their protégé in order to help get them over. Punk was looking a little shaggy in the facial hair category, which kinda worked. He cut a promo about New Year’s Resolutions and had some nice fan interaction, trashing the fans and responding directly to how they reacted to him. He laid out his savior shtick and brought it all back to Luke, then asked everyone to make a pledge. I loved the ‘put your hands on the screen and feel me flow through you’ bit, it’s reminiscent of an evangelist which is right where he should be going. This was at least a variation on his usual Straight Edge thing and I appreciated the slight differences while staying true to the character. All in all, it was a killer promo from Punk that I really enjoyed. Nothing tops threatening to kick the ass of every fan in the arena, and he promised to save someone in the audience a la Ted DiBiase’s cash giveaway. The man’s got some serious old-school influences and I enjoyed it.
Matt’s opponent in the Beat the Clock Challenge was Matt Hardy, with the winner setting the time to beat for the shot against the Dead Man. I always enjoy Beat the Clock, it’s a wonderful way to build a tension as the ever-counting down clock keeps us watching and waiting to see who will win. Punk and Hardy worked well together once again; it wasn’t their best match but it did set a solid stage for what was to come in the show. The crowd was super into the match to no one’s surprise and both guys looked strong here as they worked each other over. It was a little bit slow as Punk did a lot of rest holds, but slow doesn’t always equate to bad and I enjoyed this. Punk got the win which he rather needed, and afterward the numbers took control as Matt got beat down by Punk and Gallows. Good stuff here.
JOHN MORRISON vs. DREW McINTYRE: They played the recap of their altercation on Superstars last week during Morrison’s entrance, and by the time they’d come back Morrison had a scowl on his face that showed more emotion than any of his recent promos have. They tried to bust out all the stops for this match and did some interesting spots…not all of them worked though. Morrison’s attempted spin kick off the guard rail looked too choreographed, and I know people will say that it was a difficult spot to do; that’s why you shouldn’t do it unless you’re ready. After that things became much smoother, and I appreciated that they presented McIntyre as a guy with a game plan. At the same time Morrison got the rest of his spots off nicely. Now, I had a bit of a problem with the ending, because I don’t like the cheap DQ wins as a rule. But in this case, it was plotted out nicely and it makes Drew look smart. There’s nothing wrong with a weaselly heel, and in this case I think it worked well enough. It was a match with some problems, but not enough to make it suffer as a whole.
MICKIE JAMES vs. BETH PHOENIX: How is it that this match actually feels fresh? These two have fought each other so much that it seems unlikely they could make the match seem new and interesting, but this wasn’t bad. We had Michelle and Layla sitting at ringside with fake Beth headbands and anti-Mickie, pro-Beth tank tops on. The match wasn’t nearly as good as it should have been, as they kept it short by necessity due to all the Beat the Clock matches. But the finish was fun with Michelle accidentally kicking Beth to give Mickie the win. After the match they teased a Beth face turn with Beth semi-coming to Mickie’s aid…but in reality of course, she was just fighting a common enemy in Michelle and Layla and once they were gone, Beth hit the Glam Slam to get her heat back. Good stuff all around here, and that Glam Slam was a moment of awesomeness. I like Beth as a tweener.
BEAT THE CLOCK: REY MYSTERIO vs. CHRIS JERICHO: Jericho was out first for this match, and got in the ring to bust on SmackDown and the gelatinous tapeworms who watched on Fridays…even the WWE. He promised to defeat DX on Monday and then win every championship in the WWE. You gotta love hubris taking all the way to the top and then some. The crowd popped huge for Rey Rey as always and he came down to the ring to try for his chance at Beat the Clock. These two are of course no strangers to each other or to putting on good matches together, and this was good. It was nowhere near the quality of some of their other matches, even the SmackDown matches, but I enjoyed it. I feel that the E is falling into some very typical spots with him—how many people are going to toss Rey on his belly to the outside?—but they executed very well and it played into both men’s characters nicely. Jericho was crafty and arrogant, Rey Rey was plucky and had heart. This was a perfect example, also, of two veterans with perfect timing. As the time counted down, tension was nicely built and they timed it right down to where it had one single second left. I loved that and it was a great example of when the Beat the Clock challenge works.
BEAT THE CLOCK: KANE vs. DOLPH ZIGGLER: Okay, so apparently they’ve decided it’s okay to give Dolph a win again? Hopefully this is the beginning of his re-push that often comes from the ‘E after they push someone hard and then drop it. Dolph took on Kane in what started as a shockingly technical match from Kane…that was actually pretty good. I know, I’m surprised too. They had a couple someone sloppy moments, such as Ziggler hitting a counter into a DDT with something less than precision, and their grappling didn’t always have the most crisp execution—possibly due to Kane’s lack of usual reliance on such a style. Once he got back to his power wrestling, it worked out better; either way it was far from bad. Once again, the crowd was into the match and both guys looked pretty decent here. I didn’t entirely like the draw, because it seems like the ‘E can’t figure out whether they want to push either guy, but the Zig Zag after the fact helped Dolph. This isn’t quite a Right, but I dug portions of it and it was far from a wRong.
BEAT THE CLOCK: R-TRUTH vs. BATISTA: Rey Rey was out at the commenter’s booth watching as the Beat the Clock leader. Truth was out first, and of course the crowd always loves him. And of course they love to boo Big Dave these days. I’ll be honest, I was surprised as hell that they were willing to put Truth over a bit. They’ve given signs of wanting to give the guy a push, but this was the first time I remember then having a non-loss a main eventer in quite some time. Big Dave looked dominating of course, but that’s probably how it should be. This match was okay, but was nowhere near the quality of Punk/Hardy or Mysterio/Jericho. It wasn’t even McIntyre/Morrison good. Basically it involved the Manimal dominating Truth for seven minutes and playing cocky, then not winning because…well, he was a dumbass and Rey decided to take advantage. Yes, it’s heelish for Rey and that’s a bit odd, but whatever. This match was uninspired and I think it would have been better to have this be a full match and have Dave beat Truth in an exact tie so that they could pull the joint number one contender mess. Instead we had this, and Vickie coming out to say we’d be seeing Dave battle Rey next week for the Number One contendership. Anyone else think it’s gonna be a draw?
THE GREAT KHALI vs. THE CAROLINA PANTHER: Yeah, at least I knew this was going to be short. The poor guy in the ring couldn’t even get any heat off this, and you knew his ass was getting handed to him by Khali. Yay, we’ve gotten Khali back on SmackDown in a pointless segment. Nothing to see here folks, move along.
DID YOU KNOW?: Nope. And, as always, I don’t care.
| The 411
It’s really hard not to give a lot of love for a show where there was only one real wRong or worse, and even it was only about thirty seconds. The Beat the Clock challenge worked well as always and we got some great matches and no bullshit. That’s exactly what SmackDown should be about and I enjoyed the hell out of the first show of the year. It was a great start for the Blue Brand’s 2010. SHOW RATING: 9.0 |
From birds_of_a_feather:
A wrong has to be the limited screen time of Sheamus on Raw. This past week corrected it some what but on Jan. 4 with no Cena all we will get is him sqaushing primo.
A wRong it may be, Birds…but not for this show specifically, where Sheamus was all over the show.
From Marky Mark:
Sheamus vs Cena is a RIGHT.
They built it up from the beginning to the end, and ratings increased through out the show, so intrigue was there.
Then they had their match, without giving too much away until their (guessing) Rumble ‘blow-off’.
Sheamus ‘took out’ Cena, as he won’t appear on RAW this week, and he remains the champ. All is well.
No, interest was there. Intrigue was not. And I won’t deny that the interest was there, but the match still was lacking and the ending pretty much sucked the life out of things. I agree with the rest though.
From Guest#3124:
I dont understand what is being admitted about the show and jericho…
Probably best that you don’t, really.
From Enough:
Vince built Bret up perfectly on RAW.
He showed the long video for people that don’t know him and name dropped him for two three weeks straight to tease the diehard fans.
Bret gives HBK his match with Taker in exchange for a superkick to Vince’s jaw, and the rest is butter……
I certainly agree that he built Bret up very well and gave those younger fans who don’t know Bret a reason to care, and he gets kudos for that (thus the Right). I don’t know if the Bret/Shawn/Taker/Vince prediction you gave will play out, but I guess we’ll see.
From Guest#8886:
no jeremy i disagree with you about the diva’s match. I thought it was one of the better one’s i have seen in awhile and Maryse can speak french to me any time.
To each their own. Maryse can speak French to me any time, but I’d prefer she not be able to talk. Just sayin’.
From fdgh:
Fuck HBK looks like such a tool. Hes a goddam walking WWEshop ad at this point.Most wrestlers just sport the shirt and maybe a hat. Hes head to toe in that crap.
Well, he is a company man through and through. Maybe he actually likes the stuff, you never know. Either way, they’ll probably go away when the inevitable D-X breakup happens.
From heel:
Raw was good, if not for nothing else but the announcement of bret’s rreturn next week. Kofi and Orton continuing is great news, but i’m bummed about hte chavo inclusion in the tag title match. I can’t believe u put it in the right column. The match was quite bad. And the way they make jericho bitch about being better than raw, and then the next moment whine about being off raw?? That doesn’t make any sense at all. 4 weeks to the rumble. I hope they build it up well. As far as ai can see from the brands, no one is being built up as a legitimate winner of the rumble. We have time, so thats the only good thing. I still say morisson wins the rumble, if not for nothign else than to promote his upcoming dvd. Sad however that his push seems to have stalled somewhat…
The Royal Rumble isn’t a “promote the DVD” moment. He’ll get in the Elimination Chamber, but for a guy to win a title shot at ‘Mania, he has to be at the point that he doesn’t need a high-profile match in order to sell his DVD’s. I have no idea currently who’s winning the Rumble, so we’ll have to see how it goes.
From fanboi13:
I actually thought the Kelly Kelly/Maryse match belonged in purgatory. Never thought I would type this,but Maryse got a lot more out of Kelly than I thought possible.In my opinion it wasn’t a right,but it wasn’t a wrong. If Maryse was put in meaningful matches that actually got time I might actually start loving to hate her character. My main gripe against her was that I thought she was all character and no in-ring skill. She showed enough skill to get a purgatory (in my POV) match out of Kelly so I am willing to give her a chance.
I wanted to bump it up, but I couldn’t in good conscience. There just wasn’t enough there for me. I’m happy to see you’re more willing to give her a shot though, because I do think Maryse has an upside.
From The Great Capt. Smooth:
I hope we get a Bret/Santino scene. It doesn’t have to be major, just something to make us giggle. It doesn’t matter, because Bret will screw Vince and show up on Impact…with Cena. Won’t happen, but it would be fun.
Heh. Yeah, it would be fun…but total dream of course. I would find a Bret/Santino scene interesting though.
From Guest#2778:
How was that Maryse promo a wrong? That was one of the best things about Raw! Not often I say this about a female in wrestling, but I think she should get more mic time. Hot, crazy, bitch speaking French FTW.
I’m not saying that Maryse isn’t hot people, or that it doesn’t turn me on to hear her speak French. But the match was weak and the promo was nothing. That’s what I’m saying.
From Guest#4201:
The ring almost exploded trying to contain the combined sexiness of Maryse and Kelly Kelly.
They weren’t that awful in terms of wrestling this time. Nothing good but I expect very little from the divas outside of them being attractive.
Let’s be honest, nobody really cares otherwise. Gina Carano vs. Cyborg was carried on Gina’s sexiness but everyone that knew a thing about MMA knew Cyborg would beat the crap out of her. But Cyborg didn’t really matter in the promotion of the card, made less money, and now as champion people went back to caring…because she just is not as pretty. People want someone pretty so they can pretend she is great, rather than admit they like her because of her looks. Anna Kournikova was like this too.
Clearly, you don’t read the comments on the R’s because people do care about the in-ring work. Yes, attractiveness is important but if that was all one needed to get to the top than Triple K, Torrie Wilson and others would have made it to the top when they didn’t. I think you’re overestimating that aspect of it.
From Guest#9885:
You failed to mention that Maryse is the least over wrestler ever(without exaggeration) and the idea that she is a better wrestler than anyone is particularly unfunny too to be honest
I failed to mention it because it’s not true. Thanks for reading though!
Until Friday, keep on kickin’ it!
~434~
