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Wrestling’s 4R’s Monday Edition 3.08.10: ROH, Impact, Superstars and SmackDown Reviewed!
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In HD where available…
By: Aaron Hubbard
ROH on HDNet 3.1.10:
QUICK RESULTS:
The Dark City Fight Club defeated The American Wolves (***)
Steve Corino defeated Bobby Dempsey (1/2*)
Rasche Brown defeated The Set (1/2*)
Sara Del Ray defeated Portia Perez (3/4*)
Kenny King & Austin Aries defeated Tyler Black & Roderick Strong (**1/2)
WOLVES vs. DCFC: Our first match of the evening was also the best. This was set up a few weeks ago when The Dark City Fight Club and The American Wolves got into a shoving match with ROH Tag Team Champions, The Briscoe Brothers. Then, the fans voted for the Young Bucks to face The Wolves over The DCFC, and the Wolves lost. With both teams being heels, it was a fresh match-up and the fans predictably rallied behind The Wolves. Davey Richards got chants immediately but encouraged the fans to cheer Eddie Edwards as well, and the fans got behind him as well. The Wolves adapted very well to being babyfaces, and this time the comparison to The British Bulldogs was never more appropriate. The DCFC aren’t exactly the greatest team in the world, and at times their offense kind of dragged, but the crowd really helped push the match over the top. They did get a pretty sweet Total Elimination variant and beat Edwards with Project Mayhem in a mild upset. I’ve been saying that the Wolves are going to turn babyface for a while now, more due to crowd reaction than anything. The Fight Club has a way to go before they become one of ROH’s best tag teams, but they have certainly proved to be capable of a good match with the right team in front of the right crowd.
SMASHING RASCHE OVER: Normally, this would be the spot where I say that these squash matches are getting redundant, but ROH pulled an old classic out of the woodshed, and featured the monster newcomer beating TWO guys instead of one. Rasche destroyed the set, which aren’t exactly all that impressive physically, and he did it in just a few minutes. I don’t know how good of a match Brown can have when given the opportunity to go more than a couple of minutes in a squash, but so far he’s been very impressive. There was also some storyline advancement as Shane Hagadorn and Prince Nana both wanted to sign on as his manager, but he ignored them and walked to the back. I hope this ends in Larry Sweeney managing him.
SARA DEL RAY FOCUS: It’s a little too soon to assume that ROH will actually follow up on this and give us a real women’s division for the company, but this was a good start. Del Ray got a video package where she got to put herself over as an athlete and not a Barbie doll. A promo like this is going to bring intrigue to fans of women’s wrestling and might even pique the interest of some female viewers, which is only a good thing. Sara then got to beat Portia Perez in a glorified squash. Perez looked a little nervous, I’m pretty sure this was her first time as part of a TV Show, but she worked hard and has personality. If ROH is serious about building a women’s division, they need to sign girls like Cheerleader Melissa and Mercedes Martinez to matches and try to bring back Lacey and MsChif. Del Ray and Haze are talented, but they can’t wrestle each other forever.
CORINO vs. DEMPSEY & POST-MATCH ANTICS: This match was better than I thought it would be. That’s not an endorsement. Corino does a bunch of things that annoy me and Bobby, while serviceable, isn’t going to pull out a classic anytime soon. The action was fine, but who the heck decided that Corino should use the Gannosuke Clutch on Bobby Dempsey? For those who don’t know what that move is, picture Kofi Kingston’s S.O.S. in slow motion. Now picture an overweight old wrestler attempting to do it on a massive blob. Not pretty, not convincing, and just freaking weird. Anyway, the main reason for this match was getting Corino out there so that Kevin Steen could come out and further his storyline, and I suppose it worked in that capacity. Not that anybody cares enough about Dempsey or Alex Payne enough to pity them, but the two Package Piledrivers helped put over just how over the edge Steen is lately.
MAIN-EVENT BOREDOM: To Tyler Black, Roderick Strong, Austin Aries, Kenny King, and whoever else was involved in the booking of this match…WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT? Four of the most talented, exciting wrestlers in ROH, in the MAIN EVENT program, on the MAIN EVENT of your television show give us THAT? An average, paint-by-numbers, ordinary tag team match? I mean, for crying out loud, WWE has better TV main events than that every week on SmackDown! It’s not that it was bad, as much as it was so mind-numbingly ordinary, and dare I say it, BORING! There was nothing, NOTHING special about this match. With the talent involved, I kept watching hoping it would get better and kick into fourth gear, but it never happened. Piss-poor ROH, piss-poor.
THE FIVE-MATCH FORMAT: There are certain things in wrestling that don’t work. The one-hour, five matches formula is one of them. With so many matches, plus entrances, celebrations, et all, there is almost no time for angle advancement. You can’t get your audience invested in the story. What’s worse is that with five matches, you can’t devote enough time to the matches to make them engrossing either. I felt like I was watching RAW on fast-forward. The American Wolves overcame the time limit by sheer force of will, but THREE squash matches and a disappointing main event make this show suck. ROH should really only be doing about three matches a show, but I digress. This format does not work ROH, it gives you crappy shows with no reason to care about your product.
| The 411
Wow did this show ever bore me to tears. The worst part is, the main event was promising and the opener was one of the better openers in the shows history, but this show just fell flat on its face. Wrestling shows need to either deliver a great in-ring product or give you intriguing stories you can invest your time and emotions in. This show did neither. The Wolves vs. The Fight Club was good, but not good enough to save the show. Avoid this episode. SHOW RATING: 3.5 |
I’m not going to respond to individual comments this week, but thanks to the ROH readers for answering the call and proving my point. It still won’t stop the fanboys from whining, but at least now there’s evidence to show they are full of crap.
By: Steve Cook
Superstars 3.04.10:
QUICK RESULTS:
Kofi Kingston d. Chavo Guerrero (**)
Evan Bourne d. William Regal (**)
Kane d. Mike Knox (*½)
Chris Jericho d. Goldust (***)
KOFI KINGSTON vs. CHAVO GUERRERO: This wasn’t an especially fantastic match, but it did the job of putting young Kofi over in convincing fashion without making Chavo look too ridiculous. Kofi’s in a weird area right now where he could be on the verge of breaking out as a star, but the trigger just hasn’t been pulled yet. Sometimes the trigger never gets pulled and you end up being MVP or Carlito. We’ll see if Kofi can kick it up a notch sometime soon.
CHRIS JERICHO vs. GOLDUST: I’m not on the bandwagon of people claiming that Goldust is one of the best wrestlers in North America, but he has been very good for the past year or so. Chris Jericho is THE BEST IN THE WORLD AT WHAT HE DOES, and what he did this week was have a solid Superstars main event with Goldust. One might wonder why Jericho’s spending his time wrestling on the “lesser shows” and not doing much on SmackDown other than getting speared, but I think it’s a good thing for the World champion to spend time on shows like Superstars & NXT, which puts over the importance of those shows. They’ve done a better job on this with NXT so far, as that seems more like a must-see show than Superstars, though this show is often quite solid. At any rate, good work by both the Gilded one and the Savior of WWE.
EVAN BOURNE vs. WILLIAM REGAL: I had pretty high hopes for this when I read the match listing…Regal has done some great stuff in the past and Bourne’s one of my favorite newer WWE Superstars. Unfortunately they had just under five minutes to work with and that wasn’t enough time to build a great comeback for Air Bourne while showcasing Regal’s unorthodox offense. I think these two could have a great match, but it wasn’t on this show.
KANE vs. MIKE KNOX: Sometimes Kane has matches that are pretty decent. Sometimes he doesn’t. Other than Knox’s awesome cross body, this was pretty much blah. At least it didn’t last too long.
Nothing of note.
| The 411
Decent show, but I have to say I was disappointed. On paper Jericho vs. Goldust & Regal vs. Bourne looked like a lot of fun and I had hopes of Knox pulling something out of Kane, but nothing quite lived up to what I was hoping for. Oh well, there’s always next week… SHOW RATING: 7.0 |
By: Chad Nevett
iMpact! 03.04.10:
QUICK RESULTS
Beer Money, Inc. defeated Matt Morgan & Hernandez, Generation Me, and the Motor City Machine Guns [*3/4]
Sean Morley defeated Jeff Jarrett in a Falls Count Anywhere No Disqualification match [1/4*]
Rob Terry defeated Doug Williams [DUD]
Jeff Jarrett defeated Tomko [*3/4]
AJ Styles (C) defeated The Pope D’Angelo Dinero, Abyss, and Desmond Wolfe in a Four Corners match for the TNA World Heavyweight Championship [*]
DESMOND WOLFE AND THE POPE CUT SOME DAMN GOOD PROMOS: In the lead-up to the main event, we got promos from Desmond Wolfe and the Pope D’Angelo Dinero, the sort that remind me of some old school promos. Desmond Wolfe lately has delivered promos that don’t necessarily make a lot of sense and that’s okay. I know, I’m going to jump all over the ‘not making sense’ parts of the show later and you may ask ‘Well, Chad, how is that any different?’ And it comes down to this: skill. When Desmond Wolfe doesn’t make sense at first, it leads somewhere that does or it gives us a window into his character. This week, it was some crap about serendipity that lead to the wonderful image of him breaking a door down, putting a cuppa on, and telling some lady to shut a window. Does it make sense? No, because he said it well and it tells you what kind of guy he is, so when he later says that he’s going to win the belt, you understand that this is a guy who will do what it takes. In the process, he also put over the current champ AJ Styles in some old fashioned ‘we’re both heels, so I’m going to play nice with him’ stuff. The added bit with Chelsea was interesting and set up him focusing on Abyss more than the belt. The Pope, meanwhile, recovered from his lackluster promo from a couple of weeks ago and even had the funny moment of him seemingly learning of his involvement in the main event mid-promo. That was fantastic and had me laughing as he went along with it, happy to get the shot. Both men delivered on the mic and were literally the only things Right about this episode.
BEER MONEY, INC. vs. MATT MORGAN & HERNANDEZ vs. GENERATION ME vs. THE MOTOR CITY MACHINE GUNS: I hate, hate, hate, hate, HATE matches like this where wrestlers can’t legally win matches at certain times. At any given moment, half of the participants of this match couldn’t win and that’s bullshit. However, that said, this match was more about advancing some angles and featured some solid in-ring storytelling. Things kicked off with Generation Me and the Motor City Machine Guns advancing their rivalry by cutting the ring in half and keeping the other two teams involved. It was a mini-match in an already far too short match and featured some solid double-team work from the Guns. After their loss to Generation Me in their debut, the Guns have gained the upper hand a few times and I would love to see a match between the two groups at Destination X (though that’s probably unlikely). Once Hernandez tagged himself in, the match quickly became about the division between the tag champs while making the smaller Max and Jeremy of Generation Me looking like rag dolls. Hernandez manhandled them without too many problems and Morgan did it with even more ease after tagging himself in. However, that led to James Storm tagging himself in with one of the discarded bodies of Generation Me and getting the win with a superkick. A short match that was really busy, best summed up by the Guns in the background after the match shrugging and looking somewhat confused.
JEFF JARRETT vs. TOMKO: After the complete failure of the bathroom match earlier in the show, Bischoff booked Jarrett in a real match later in the show. Jarrett went into the match with an injured shoulder and Tomko centered his attacks around that injury, giving him some much needed focus. He controlled most of the match, countering any comeback attempts by Jarrett with shots to the shoulder, but Jarrett eventually overcame the bigger man to pick up a win. Some solid psychology, but unimpressive ring action for the most part. Maybe if Tomko didn’t no-sell almost every piece of offense Jarrett got in, this would have been better. However, I will admit that I’m on the verge of almost caring about Jarrett’s struggle against Bischoff and that’s surprising.
RIC FLAIR TRIES TO BRIBE HULK HOGAN WITH WOMEN: Hey, let’s kick off the Wrong the same way that TNA kicked off this week’s Impact: with AJ Styles and Ric Flair offering Hulk Hogan anywhere between one and four women to keep Monday’s tag match from happening. I’m not entirely sure why Hogan turned the offer down since I know I was shouting at the TV for him to take it and I probably wasn’t alone. The only good parts of the in-ring promo were Ric Flair telling Abyss that he gets nothing because he’s a moron and AJ Styles speaking the truth that sticking Hogan as he is now next to AJ in the ring does tarnish Hogan’s legacy as a wrestler. He’s going to look pathetic. But, that’s covered a bit more later in the show (and this column). Upon Flair and Styles exiting the ring, Bischoff came out and announced that the title would be defended in a Four Corners match featuring Abyss, the Pope, and Desmond Wolfe. What’s a Four Corners match? An explanation would have been nice. Overall, though, this segment was bad.
While I’m discussing this angle, I do want to set the record straight: I was wrong last week. The hall of fame ring that Hogan gave Abyss isn’t the WWE ring, it’s the Pro Wrestling Hall of Fame ring that Hogan received when he was inducted. I, wrongly, assumed that if weren’t the WWE ring, they would have been explicit about that, even making a joke at how worthless that ring is. As well, I hadn’t read anything online that pointed to it being one ring or another definitively. But, I looked for pictures and the ring Abyss is wearing does look like the PWHoF ring more than the WWE one. However, I will say this: that doesn’t make the story much better. It’s still horribly goofy and lame.
ANGELINA LOVE CALLS OUT VELVET SKY: There was nothing in this segment that we hadn’t seen before. Angelina Love was attacked earlier in the day by the Beautiful People backstage during a photo shoot and Velvet Sky whipped her with a belt while Lacey Von Eric held Love down. As a result, Love came out and called Sky down to the ring, proceeding to beat her up until, finally, Von Erich and Madison Rayne came down to help Sky, used the Ugly Stick to knock down Love and, then, Sky proceeded to whip her again. I don’t understand why Velvet Sky came out alone to begin with and took that beating or why Angelina Love figured she could take on the three of them at once despite experience suggesting otherwise. After two weeks without even a mention of this feud, it seems odd to have this happen this week and not have anything new actually happen. Advance the story or forget it. We’ve seen Angelina Love get triple-teamed numerous times before, do something new.
FOUR CORNERS TNA WORLD HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH: From earlier in the column: “I hate, hate, hate, hate, HATE matches like this where wrestlers can’t legally win matches at certain times. At any given moment, half of the participants of this match couldn’t win and that’s bullshit.” That applies even more strongly to matches featuring the world championship. Seriously, there were times during this match where the current champion couldn’t pin anyone. He had to stand there and hope that a quick submission or pin didn’t happen. At least in regular three- or four-way matches, everyone is in the mix, or, in elimination matches, everyone must be involved with at least pinfall/submission somehow. In this match, the world belt could have changed hands while AJ Styles stood on the apron waiting to be tagged in by someone. That didn’t happen, thankfully, but this match went nowhere because they weren’t going to let that happen. We got forty seconds of action before it went to commercials and then another two minutes or so after the commercial break wherein Styles put the Pope in the Figure Four and the ref eventually called for the bell, leading to a big brawl with Desmond Wolfe, AJ Styles, and Ric Flair on one side and the Pope, Abyss, and Hulk Hogan on the other. Hogan cleared house and a bunch of backstage officials and security decided that the time to get involved and tried to break things up. So what happened? Hogan and Abyss attacked security! Really? Hogan, the supposed boss attacked his own security people? And that went nowhere except to a commercial break that returned for one minute of Hogan telling Styles and Flair that they’d get theirs on Monday. I can’t wait.
JEFF JARRETT vs. SEAN MORLEY: Bischoff made Jarrett the janitor, booked a falls count anywhere no DQ match with Sean Morley without Jarrett’s knowledge, and then that match happened in the men’s room. Good thing, too, because this segment was a piece of shit.
DEAR HULK HOGAN: DON’T BE A CRIPPLE: Ric Flair, AJ Styles, Kurt Angle, Abyss, Bubba the Love Sponge, and Eric Bischoff all tried to talk Hogan out of wrestling on Monday night. None of them succeeded. Fuck. Seriously, when friends, enemies, associates, and whatever you call Bubba the Love Sponge are all saying don’t do something, you probably shouldn’t do it. In the process, we were treated to an awkward exchange with Abyss about his childhood, Hogan and him being family, and his mom hating TV. We also got two unintentionally hilarious lines from Bubba the Love Sponge that have become running jokes between my girlfriend and myself: “We love you because you can still walk” and “Don’t be a cripple.” Those are words to live by, people.
MY FAIR FOLEY: Mick Foley. Etiquette lessons. Stuck up old lady. Write your own scripts for these segments and I guarantee they’ll be funnier than the trio of awful segments that aired. At least the etiquette lady pointed out that the custom-made tailored suit that Bischoff bought Foley doesn’t actually fit to give this whole storyline a definitive ‘no, we’re not even trying with this shit’ feeling. Why are they doing this story? What is the point?
ROB TERRY vs. DOUG WILLIAMS: Okay, I’m the head booker at TNA. I look at the schedule and notice that the X-Division-based pay-per-view Destination X is coming up, so you know what I do on Impact? Have the X-Division champ be on the wrong end of a squash match. BECAUSE THAT’S SMART BOOKING!
MR. ANGLE-SON: I love funny impersonations of wrestlers by other wrestlers. This wasn’t one of those. This was Mr. Anderson making fun of Kurt Angle because he’s injury prone. Anderson, of course, has a long record of perfect health, so that’s a completely valid criticism and smart point to base the entire promo around. Yeah, probably not. This was almost painful to watch and wasn’t funny or entertaining. There was a small glimmer of hope when Angle came out, but that quickly resulted in Anderson gaining the upper hand and leaving Angle on his back. In that respect, this feud was advanced, but in a poorly written and executed manner that showed just how little people care about Anderson since they wrote a segment that ignored both his past and whatever skills he has on the mic.
| The 411
The good news: this episode was a step up from last week. The bad news: it was a small, tiny step where instead of being offensively bad, it was simply bad in a boring manner. By the second hour, I was checking the time constantly, wondering when the episode would be over. As a reader wrote in to Jeremy to let him know, this week’s episode featured around 13-and-a-half minutes of wrestling. Total. Not exactly a big difference from the competition. During the episode Bischoff made fun of the guest hosting gimmick on Raw and, instead, offered Mick Foley etiquette lessons, a bathroom brawl, and an injury prone wrestler making fun of another for being injury prone. Not to mention a main event whose stipulation meant that the world champion was, at times, not allowed to retain his belt. I will predict that the move to Monday nights will help the show, if only because things can’t get much worse. SHOW RATING: 2.0 |
By: Jeremy Thomas
WWE SmackDown 3.05.10
QUICK RESULTS:
Matt Hardy d. Drew McIntyre [**]
Shelton Benjamin d. Dolph Ziggler [* ½]
Ezekiel Jackson d. Jimmy Wang Yang [¾ *]
Rey Mysterio d. Luke Gallows [** ¼]
John Morrison & R-Truth d. The Hart Dynasty & Cryme Tyme [* ¾]
Edge d. The Big Show [**]
MATT HARDY vs. DREW McINTYRE: Before this match, we had Drew showing backstage, instructing Teddy Long to set the record straight about his first loss being stricken from the record. Drew then got another shot at Money in the Bank, against Matt Hardy. Okay, I can get with that; I appreciate Drew’s association with the Boss, even if Vince won’t show up to push it. Drew once again got his awesome entrance; it’s a good thing that he hadn’t had this when he was facing Morrison because the sheer bad-assery of the combined entrances may have been fatal. The crowd was huge as ever for the Sensei of Mattitude, which I suppose makes Justin Gabriel (who accompanied him) the Deshi of Mattitude. Matt and Drew had a pretty decent match together, which had Drew in control for a good portion of the match to help get him over before Matt picked up the win. Again, this is interesting because Matt really doesn’t need the win to get over with the crowd; they already love him. But I’m okay with Drew not being in Money in the Bank and Matt getting into it. Hardy will do very well and Drew doesn’t need the ‘Mania match (even though he seems like he might still get one, maybe an Intercontinental Title match). This wasn’t the greatest match of the night, but it was technically sound and the crowd was into it. Works for me.
EZEKIEL JACKSON vs. JIMMY WANG YANG: So Big Zeke made his big re-debut here on SmackDown, and he did it by killing poor Jimmy Wang Yang. As a squash match, this was exactly what it needed to be. Jimmy got a few brave attempts at offense in here but ran into a freight train one too many times and paid the price. Jackson was given the ECW Title on that brand’s closing, so one would imagine big things are in the man’s future. He needed to come in looking like a monster and that’s exactly what he did here. I can’t say for sure that he will make it to the upper midcard, but the ‘E is certainly giving him a chance to earn that spot and it’s up to him to take it.
LUKE GALLOWS vs. REY MYSTERIO: Backstage, we saw Tiffany hanging out with Rey Rey and his daughter, and she ended up watching the kiddo while Rey went out to wrestle. If this puts Tiffany in a position opposite Vicki, I’m okay with it as long as they don’t try to redo the Kristal/Teddy angle with Tiffany as Miss Lashley. Once we got to the match, Luke had his entrance at Punk’s side as he talked about how all the kids loved Rey Rey to fill the void their neglectful parents left in them. Punk then talked about how Rey Rey was being a neglectful parent. Oh, I don’t like where this is going. Anyone else have visions (or nightmares) of Dominick dancing in their heads? Punk was awesome as always with his righteous indignation over what happened to him last week. Apparently this was Luke’s chance to punish Rey for what he did and impressed upon Luke that he was fighting for an entire society. And I will say this; somehow, Punk’s tirade managed to make Rey Rey even more over than usual.
As a match, this was actually not bad. Luke was the dominating heel of course, but Rey didn’t look quite so underdog as usual. And frankly, that’s right the way it should be. Luke may be a big guy but he’s way lower on the card than Rey Rey and he doesn’t have any business looking like a guy who’s close to beating Rey. He did get a chance to control portions and that helped him in a big way as the crowd was solidly against him, and I don’t think it was entirely just because he was the Straight-Edge guy. They had a nice, solid match and while Luke had his moments, Rey won nice and cleanly as he should have. I also loved the submission hold which was unexpected but cool. We then had Rey Rey get one over on Punk, which lets him stay on an even keel with the Straight-Edge Superstar. Good stuff here.
R-TRUTH & JOHN MORRISON vs. CRYME TYME vs. THE HART DYNASTY: So, this was a nice little match. Before it happened though, we had a backstage segment that wasn’t quite up to snuff. First off Slam Master J—who somehow survived the purge that sent Burchill, Maria, Helms and Haas packing—promoting a parkour workout that Morrison’s apparently been doing. Truth came in with Dave Otunga and they talked about what happened on NXT before Morrison and Truth talked about how they dropped the ball last week, along with some Mr. ZIggles references. They then talked about how everyone points at the ‘Mania sign and that they have to be on the same page to win tonight. Then there was some discussion of a team name; “This & That,” “Black Magic and the White Shadow,” and “The Unified Tag Team Champions.” This actually wasn’t a bad job by Truth and Morrison and I’m happy to see the NXT rookies getting promotion on SmackDown, but the Slam Master J stuff was pointless and I hate that constant WrestleMania sign pointing thing, so I had some overall issues here.
This match was for a Unified Tag Team Title shot at ‘Mania, and we were running under “standard” triple threat tag rules. As a match it did the formula nicely. Morrison played the face-in-peril against both Cryme Tyme and the Harts, until Truth made the hot tag and chaos reigned, as a certain self-disemboweling fox would say. This was a bit too much of a spotfest but unlike Shelton and Dolph, they kept it exciting. The match ended too quickly, but maybe I’m starting to get a little bit numb to it because it didn’t bug me here. Afterward, Truth and Morrison did some celebratory break-dancing. I hereby declare they need to call themselves the Dancing Fools II.
VICKIE STILL HAS DIVA POWER FOR SOME REASON: So backstage, Simply Flawless was buttering up Vickie and making Piggie James jokes still. Irony, they name is McCool and Layla. I will hand it to these ladies, Michelle & Layla know how to brown nose the right person here. Frankly, you all know that I’ve crapped all over Simply Flawless for a while here, but they’re doing what they need to with this—for the time being, that is. Move away from Mickie for the moment, move onto Beth. We need something fresh in the Women’s Title feud, and this could be it. I’m not big on the Flawless/Vickie alliance, but it does make sense from a kayfabe standpoint and I’ll give it a pass this one time.
MORE SPEARS THAN BRITNEY’S FAMILY REUNION: Okay, so last week I said that “Spear” could easily become Edge’s version of “What?” I also mentioned, in agreement with some of you guys who read, that I hoped it didn’t. Well, that was a hope in vain, wasn’t it? Starting with a pre-show video where they promoted the new catchphrase heavily, they had Edge come out to the ring to a massive pop from the crowd. He got on the microphone and talked about how he was concerned about Chris Jericho because week after week he kept saying the same things, and then kept getting speared. The crowd was eating this up, and more power to them, but frankly it was overload this week. It’s okay when you go overboard one week, because that’s part of structuring a promo sometimes. When you do it twice in two weeks, you’re just looking to get a catchphrase over. It came off as way too copied from last week, right down to Big Show coming out like Jericho did. Now, to be fair I thought Show was pretty good here. I love how Show Miz seems to be a more legitimate, mutual respect pairing than Jericho and Show. And then they used the Happy Gilmore reference, which was cute but also a bit lazy. Now, I do like how Show sold being hesitant of the spear, because they need to help get that over some (the move, not the catchphrase). No offense to the Edgester, but it’s a fairly generic finisher and they need to go a few extra lengths to make it more dangerous. My big disappointment here, frankly, was not having Show talk about how he had a pretty mean spear himself. That would have been priceless. This…just felt forced, and was only saved from the wRong by Edge and Show’s efforts to deliver the lines.
SHELTON BENJAMIN vs. DOLPH ZIGGLER: This was a one-on-one match to give Money in the Bank a little more awareness While I like both these guys and am happy to see them getting some time here, as a match it was a wee bit lacking. I’m not saying it was bad, technically unsound or anything like that, but these two guys just didn’t seem to click right in the ring. Dolph going for the sleeper twice in the match seemed fairly pointless; I realize the move is associated with him now and I’m happy to see it be put over some, but he hasn’t actually made anyone submit to it yet so I don’t think he should be relying on it quite so much. This seemed to be more of a spotfest; it wasn’t full of high-spot crowd-pleasing moments, but it was just a bunch of moves without a story behind it. With a bit less psychology than it needed, this can’t hop into the Right.
THE BIG SHOW vs. EDGE: We had a fun segment backstage earlier in the show, where Chris Jericho tried to play nice with Show and talk him into destroying Edge, because he owed it to Jericho. Show countered that this wasn’t about the World Champion and called him “One Way Jericho” before he said he was doing It for himself. He then, in an awesome little touch, paused and held the Unified Tag Team Titles up just a tiny bit for Jericho to see before he left. Poor Chris.
Then, for the main event, we got our match. I liked how Show was just before Edge’s entrance; he looked pissed off and clearly wanted to destroy Rated-R. The crowd popped huge for Edge again before the match got started, with Show quickly taking control. This started the match off slow and let it build up a bit, which I always appreciate. Show started to taunt Edge and that motivated the Number One Contender to come back, if only for a moment. Honestly, it felt a bit like they were taking it easy this week, and that’s not entirely a bad thing. It wasn’t a great match, but it did what it needed to. They sold the spear as a deadly finisher and that’s cool, although this was pretty much Edge getting beat up before he hit the spear and won. My big problem here came in that Jericho once again looked weak against Edge. How hard would it have been to let him get one over on Edge here? He’s really starting to look like Edge’s complete bitch, and that drug this down for me.
Nada
DID YOU KNOW?: Nope. And, as always, I don’t care.
| The 411
There was nothing that truly bothered me this week, as SmackDown mostly delivered. There weren’t any “can’t-miss’ moments though, and that makes this merely a good SmackDown as opposed to a great one. I liked that they didn’t do with the Money in the Bank matches what they did on Raw, and setting the Tag Title match was a good step toward an ever-more impressive-looking ‘Mania. Simply put, this was a good show that did what it needed and not much more. SHOW RATING: 7.5 |
From JJ Dillon:
Great RAW, Bret agreeing to a huge match that will do huge business along with the already stacked WM card…
I agree that the match will do big business and while it’s overshadowed by Shawn vs. Taker II, I don’t think that is a bad thing. Unlike past ‘Manias where Vince’s match becomes the main event (whatever the placement on the card), this looks more like a part of a greater whole. That works for me.
From DanBklyn510:
Am I the only one who sees Triple H turning on Michaels at WrestleMania and costing him his career. He eliminated Hunter in the Rumble, cost them the tag titles (twice) and has ignored his friend in a selfish pursuit since the Slammies. Last week he lets him get beaten by Sheamus. Triple H is going to be in a low to mid card match at Mania with a relative rookie in Sheamus. He turns on Shawn and he is the top heel on Raw, can team with Batista and feud with Cena, Taker…
I could see that happening. I guess it all depends on where this goes. He could cost Shawn the match and force him into retirement, which could then lead into a feud with Taker. The H-Man is due for a turn, and I could think of worse things for him. I don’t know that it will happen, but guess we’ll see.
From Guest#4815:
From a kayfabe standpoint, Cheech & Chong running RAW is pretty much exactly what would happen if Cheech & Chong ran RAW.
On a side note – everyone seems keen about the Batista promo … but it just begs a question I’ve had for years, and heavyweights like Bret Hart and Hulk Hogan are not exempt from this … WHY THE HELL DO WRESTLERS NEED TO WEAR SUNGLASSES INSIDE THE DARK, DANK FRICKING ARENA??? Illogical, I do declare.
That’s nothing new or even specific to wrestling. Celebrities have always worn shades inside, and doing so tends to just push someone to a more superstar-like persona. It doesn’t bother me really; there are more than enough illogical things in wrestling for me to gripe on and sunglasses are a relatively minor thing.
From Nimesh S.:
Yeah, a lot of people have harked on Batista’s promo ability. However, I think he took one giant step in silencing a lot of his critics with that one really good one last Monday. It actually puzzles me on why he remained a babyface for so long, while he’s done pretty damn well as a heel. And there are those who will point out Dave’s promo but did not mention Cena’s reaction; thanks for pointing that out. That very reaction came after Batista claimed that Cena can’t beat him and deep down he knows it. That look on Cena’s face sold it big time; it was a look of either his self-confidence being a bit shaken or “I may have met my match.” I’m betting that had Cena gotten in the last word, the promo wouldn’t have been as impactful. A lot of people in the IWC still hark on a lot of things having to do with Cena, but over the years, he’s gotten a lot better at the finer nuances of the game such as facial expressions. He may not be the most technical guy out there or the best at everything, but he works his tail off in and out of the ring. I personally can’t wait to see how the Cena/Batista program advances next week.
A lot of people in the Internet Wrestling Community probably threw their heads up in collective disappointment when it was decided that Batista would take on Cena for the WWE Championship. However, after these past couple of weeks, this will be a must-see match. One question: do you think that the match will be like Rock/Austin at WM17 or be filled with complications like Orton/HHH at WM25?
Another question: With the four proposed main events being Edge/Chris Jericho, Undertaker/Shawn Michaels, Bret Hart/Vince McMahon, and John Cena/Batista, which match do you think will close out WrestleMania 26?
From Tom:
My money is on Cena/Batista closing the show to send the fans home happy with a Cena win. Undertaker will go over, but only because HHH turns on Shawn, so that’s a bummer ending, Bret/Vince will suck balls, so it won’t go on last, and Jericho/Edge is clearly the “B side” in terms of world title matches this year, no disrespect to either guy.
I could see Taker/Shawn closing out the show, but honestly I think it will probably be Cena/Batista too. They usually want a World Title match to finish out the show, and I don’t see them putting Jericho/Edge on last. It all really depends on who goes over, but I think that they consider Cena/Dave the more high-profile feud and that’s what they’ll finish out with.
From Guest#9649:
Hey Jeremy how can you complain about a divas pillow match when what they wore to the ring was hot? Especially Maryse. Her outfit made it an 8.0. (By the way this was meant as Sarcasm and not to bash you. Like most people here would)
Maryse’s outfit made it a 4.0. Considering the rest was a -3.0, that’s very impressive.
From Guest#3324:
So Jeremy is randy Orton suppose to be the new Anti hero now in the WWE? Like Stone cold? He still acts kind of heelish but a face? Wonder if that would work or fail miserably like his first run?
I think the face turn will work better this time around, because a babyface Orton is something that fans have never bought. Orton is a better natural heel, and so at best he should be an anti-face. If they do it right, this could be big for Randy.
From Evan:
There’s someone in the WWE named Triple K?
Yep. Kelly Kelly Kelly.
From Scott:
I could’ve sworn I saw an Edge vs. Jericho match on a PPV before… I thought they had a ladder or TLC match one on one when Edge came back from some sort of injury? I wasn’t watching wrestling at the time, so I don’t know if the injury was kayfabe or not, but supposedly Jericho injured him. This was back in 2002 or 2003 or something.
I did some looking into it, and I couldn’t find any. If anyone can correct me, feel free.
From Loki:
“I personally don’t understand why they had Edge hit the spear, I think a tease would have been more effective.”
Surely, given the return of Hart, I can’t be the only one BEGGING for Jericho to wear a steel plate under his suit to KO Edge on a Spear attempt.
You know, I would totally mark for it. I don’t know that it would happen, but that would be damn cool.
From Question:
Whats the kayfabe reason for setting up Hunter vs. Sheamus at mania?
In terms of kayfabe, I’m sure it’s because ‘H pinned Sheamus in the Elimination Chamber, and Sheamus wants revenge. They haven’t said anything officially in terms of why, but that’s what would make the most sense.
From Cyrith:
I enjoyed RAW, but did anyone else feel like they were trying to do a PG 1997(more so than usual)? DX in the main event, blatant drug references, Divas in a T&A match, evil McMahon. Heck, we even had Batista reference the attitude era and Stone Cold.
That does seem like what they were going for. I don’t think it worked as well as they planned for, though. I don’t know, it just seemed a very awkward attempt to fit the Attitude Era into the current mindset. But that’s just me.
From CC Fanboy:
Oh hell, I’ve been harking on Big Dave for years! I had no issues with him in Evolution, but that’s completely different (and the fact I’m partial to heels). He’s been boring me for years, but since the turn on Rey I have been singing his praises. That promo that he cut was fantastic! He looked like King Douchebag, and it was brill! Of course, the cynic in me comes out. if Big dave keeps destroying Cena’nuff now, we know Superman’s going to win at Mania……
From Guest#2253:
Overrating Batista promo big time!
From Jason Douglas:
HOLY HELL, DID BATISTA JUST GIVE THAT PROMO?: This really was great work from both guys, and I have not been a fan of either of them. When Cena hit his “I give everything I have” bit, I was about to get annoyed. Most times that line seems to imply that the other guys in the locker room aren’t putting forth just as much effort. But Dave had the perfect response, and finally convinced me that his heeldom makes sense. Until this promo it was pretty much “Dave woke up one morning and decided he’s evil; deal with it”.
Any time a guy is motivated by winning titles, I’m on board. It makes any title he chases/defends feel important. Being motivated by money ties into Dave’s Evolution roots and fits his character. For the first time in a long while the Manimal is interesting. I’d give him the shady win here, putting HBK/Taker on last so the crowd can go home happy and keeping fans in doubt about both world title matches.
I have to agree, this was the promo that made Big Dave’s heel turn all worthwhile. It’s been good so far; I was okay with him turning on Rey because that made sense. But then he just seemed to be generally a heel with no direction; this set him on his course. I’m happy to see Dave putting himself at the top of his game and I think we’ll see some more good things from him coming as his heel run continues.
From The Great Capt. Smooth:
Jeremy, thanks for the kind words! Another random word I could go for is “Flabberscnackle!”. Anyway, back to RAW. The thing that struck me about the RKO/Ted Jr. match was just a few months ago they had a match where Ted couldn’t touch Randy or Randy said that he would punt him. The crowd was molten for Ted to hit Randy back. Now, they are all for Randy. The WWE really dropped the ball on a potential Ted face turn and it just goes to show how quickly today’s fans can change their tune.
Flabberscnackle isn’t quite as catchy, but I’ll go with it just for you. I don’t think that they dropped the ball, I think they just decided that Orton would make a better “face.” And frankly, I think that they made the right choice. Ted would be a generic face, but Orton is a more interesting one.
Until Friday, keep on kickin’ it!
~452~
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