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Wrestling’s 4R’s Friday Edition 3.26.10: Raw, Impact and NXT Reviewed!
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By: Jeremy Thomas
Raw 03.22.10:
QUICK RESULTS:
John Morrison d. The Miz [** ½]
Kofi Kingston d. Vladimir Kozlov [*]
Sheamus & Legacy d. Randy Orton & HHH [**]
Shawn Michaels d. Kane [** ¼]
Michelle McCool, Layla & Maryse d. Gail Kim, Eve & Beth Phoenix [DUD]
SHAWN GETS AN EARLY EULOGY: Raw kicked off with the Heartbreak Kid making his way down to ringside to talk about his upcoming ‘Mania match against the Dead Man. Shawn had a fire in his expression on the way down to the ring and we saw a recap of Shawn attacking Taker at the end of SmackDown. He then got on the mic and got excited, saying that he had a feeling just like he had in January of 1992 before he threw Marty through the Barber Shop window, before he beat Bret for the title at ‘Mania 12 and before he kicked Taker’s teeth down his throat. Nice little heel reaction by the crowd from the Bret comment, by the way. The point was that Shawn felt he could do anything, including beat Taker at ‘Mania. He mentioned that there was a new Shawn Michaels DVD out just when he put his career on the line in a little worked shoot comment, but he then went off on how it’s not the end, but the beginning. Shawn, surprisingly, stumbled just briefly in his words; it wasn’t very obvious because he covered, but it was noticeable. He then did a nice bit about how he wouldn’t be known as Mr. WrestleMania and so on, but as the man who ended The Streak.
That brought up a video on the Tron that showed Shawn’s career in retrospective—and was nicely done, of course. Much love for the WWE Production Team as usual. It ended with a “Shawn Michaels Career: 1985 – 2010” graphic, and Shawn looked angry for a moment until it turned into a smirk. He called out the Dead Man…but instead, he got Pete Rose. Well, not exactly an upgrade but you take what you can get, right? Pete got on the mic and wished Shawn luck at ‘Mania, giving him props before he asked Shawn to compete against Kane as a way to help him get revenge for all the attacks throughout the years. He called it “same stipulations as before.” So if Shawn loses to Kane, he retires? Anyway, this was a good if not great promo; Shawn’s brief stumble hurt it a bit, and Pete…well, he didn’t sound good. He’s sounded way better in previous appearances and I don’t know if he’s had health problems, but he seemed a bit slurred. It didn’t drag it out of the Right, but this paled in significance to the work they’ve done on this feud over the past few weeks.
THE MIZ vs. JOHN MORRISON: Miz was out first with his tag team partner and their crappy mash-up music for this match, which was of course to build up the heat for the Tag Team Title match at ‘Mania. Surprisingly we got no promos before the match from Miz or Morrison, but Show and Truth joined Cole and Lawler on commentary while the former tag team partners got it on. This was the first match of the show and was a hell of a way to get the in-ring work kicked off. Show got off the awesome line “He’s too pretty to be dangerous,” and even beyond that the commentary here was pretty good. They did a nice little set of adversarial work against each other and kept things moving without just yelling at each other incoherently. Inside the ring we had an unsurprisingly impressive match; Morrison and Miz are no strangers to working together and they did very nicely in the ring. The story here was solid, with Morrison trying to get momentum and Miz trying to do serious damage to Morrison during the match. This was of course not the most of what these two were capable of but I was fine with that; no way should they put it all on the line the Monday before ‘Mania. I liked this match just fine and Morrison got a much-needed win here. Good stuff.
SOMEONE GETS SCREWED THIS WEEK: Midway through the show, we got a recap of last week’s contract signing between Bret and Vince, where Bret unveiled his master plan against the Chairman of the Board. After that, down to the ring came none other than The Hitman himself. The crowd popped nicely for him as he made his way to the ring and got a mic. From there, he delivered what was another very good promo about how when he came back, he never thought he’d get a shot at WrestleMania. The dirt sheets say otherwise, Bret. He put over the show and then gave us another history lesson about how after he left the ‘E, he got a bad taste in his mouth and now he can conceivably leave on a good note. There was a nice permutation of “Bret Screwed Bret” into “Bret Beat Vince,” which got the crowd chanting as could be predicted. He promised a whole host of dysfunctional Harts in Phoenix and that Vince had better stay indoors lest Bret’s sisters get their hands on him. An awesome little shoot comment followed about how Vince had driven half his family out of the ‘E—ouch—and said good things were going to happen next week as he got his hands on Vince. As a last thing, he put over his past performances at ‘Mania including his match with Owen, and he promised that he would be on his game at ‘Mania. That brought out Vince, who said that one way or another on Sunday, Bret was screwed. This was a good promo by Bret, with the exception of a little word tripping at one point, and Vince’s succinct rebuttal left an air of mystery. What’s going to happen here? I know I’m intrigued more than I was before this promo, and that’s all they needed to do.
SHAWN MICHAELS vs. KANE: So, apparently Pete Rose’s sole purpose for guest hosting was putting Kane against Shawn? Yeah, that makes him one of the least impactful guest hosts to date. But I digress. I’ve always been a fan of the Big Red Monster, and you all know I love Shawn. So I was looking forward to this match, as I always do when these guys lock up. Things started off slowly but not in a bad way, as Kane took control early on and had Shawn up against the corner several times. Shawn battled back before Kane stopped him for a moment; HBK came back with a couple submission holds and evened things out. Unfortunately, the match hadn’t gone on long enough before Taker made his presence known and choke slammed Shawn. That wasn’t enough of course, and Kane kept going, but it wasn’t long after that the superkick gave Shawn the win. I enjoyed what there was of this match and it did some good stuff in terms of giving us a sample of what Shawn would be up against at ‘Mania; no one can deny that Kane is always viewed as Taker Lite so the booking here was good. I would have liked to see more, but what we got was a nice little taste and left me wanting more. That was the point, so good on them.
THE MAIN EVENT SHOWDOWN: Throughout the night, they showed various packages hyping Cena vs. Big Dave at ‘Mania and talked about their face-to-face that we knew would end the show. So when Justin Long announced the Manimal, we knew it was time for the final go-home, hard-sell moment of the show. Big Dave came out in his shiny white T-Shirt and the WWE Title over one shoulder and a host of security at his side. Big Dave busted out a Razor Ramon nostalgia moment as the crowd booed him, then said we would all have to get used to him being the champion because John Cena would not ever beat him. He busted out the “Bad things happen to John Cena” line and said we love Cena because he runs his mouth and gets us excited, while we hate him for telling it like it is. The line about him not seeing fans or even people, just money-money-money was a pretty nice one. He thanked the crowd for their money and said we paid to see greatness, then basically said that Cena would disappoint us before calling the challenger out.
And come out he did. Cena came out with his Serious Look on, and make the slow walk up the ramp into the ring. Cena said he’d already disappointed the fans because he let Dave win the title. The crowd started a “You Can’t Wrestle” chant, and frankly Cena let that go on a little too long. He should have just cut it off and it would have died off quicker. Cena then talked about how he should have seen this coming, but he didn’t. Basically, this was the darkest before Cena’s dawn, and that gave Dave a chance to harp on him. Big Dave said that he was a loser like the crowd, and Cena then said he was finally making sense. He told Dave that he wasn’t very good at being the Manimal and taking people out, because Cena was still there. Dave got pissed but it was all for naught as the Champ pointed out the security and how he was still standing there. Cena came back around and got his confidence back…and he sold the audience on it. This was good work by both men, and I’ve enjoyed this somewhat different take on the feud that’s now come full circle into Cena having the confidence to take on Dave. Nice work to end the show; it wasn’t a home run, but it was a solid triple and there’s nothing wrong with that.
RANDY ORTON & ‘H vs. SHEAMUS & LEGACY: Earlier in the show, the Game was taping up when Orton came in. I was happy to see once again that they aren’t ignoring continuity here and are still portraying these guys as having big problems with each other. To make a long story short, the H-Man didn’t trust Orton and Orton didn’t like ‘H; there was a vague comment–either a half-threat or a plea for reason–that Hunter had to make it to WrestleMania. It wasn’t a deep, full-on psychological promo but it didn’t need to be, and less was more there.
Do you want to know what I meant by “less was more?” Well, look at the Legacy promo and take the exact opposite of that, and it’s precisely what I mean. Cody got on the mic and talked about the Triple Threat rules and how after eighteen months of abuse, he and Ted were finally free. Cody talked about how they would have been superstars without Orton, and that they would have been legends regardless. Ted got on the mic and talked about exposing Orton’s arrogance, and then Cody talked about how he was more the future because he’s younger. This was perfectly okay, and I did like the faint jabs Ted and Cody took at each other, but by and large this was “Tell Don’t Show” and ran contrary to what I would prefer.
Then we got the match itself. Sheamus came down to the ring to join his tag partners while the faces made their way to the ring. Sheamus started off with the Game in the ring, and then changes his mind and tagged out. Who said that Sheamus was a fearless heel again? (Don’t get me wrong, I like him, but letting someone else start the match? Not a way to get your heel/face over. These two teams went back and forth, and they didn’t do too badly. This looked very good from that point on as Orton hit a spot-on powerslam to take over and Sheamus got put down, prompting Orton’s psychotic bits. Unfortunately Sheamus came out of nowhere to hit the pin. Was this a great match? Not at all. In fact, it lagged even considering its relatively short time period. Also, if you’re going to put the heels over, why not Legacy who REALLY need the win? But it did what it needed to and gave Sheamus a major win while leaving the Game standing strong. I had some issues with it but it served its purpose.
KOFI KINGSTON vs. VLADIMIR KOZLOV: Well, glad to see they remembered that Kofi needed a match at ‘Mania. Jack Swagger was out on commentary here and he did an okay job as Kofi took on the Moscow Mauler for a shot at Money in the Bank. We all knew how this was going; in a multi-man ladder match would you have a high-flyer like Kofi or a generic power guy like Koz? That’s what I thought. This was one sided early on as Koz controlled the match, but Kofi came back and hit the Trouble in Paradise out of nowhere for the pinfall. You know, I do like Kofi getting the pinfall here obviously, but I will repeat what I said about these short Money in the Bank squashes; they help no one. No one thinks Kofi’s the man because he got his ass kicked then hit two matches to take home the pin. That only works with monster characters, not high-flyers. I thought this match suffered overall by the shortness and abruptness of the ending and wasn’t a fan.
DID YOU KNOW?: Nope. And, as always, I don’t care.
SIX DIVA TAG TEAM MATCH: Okay, new rule. You have to have a match that lasts at LEAST half as many minutes as the number of competitors in the match. Six Divas—three minutes. I know, that’s too much for many of you but it would have at least had a point. In this case, it was frankly a pointless time-wasting exercise. I would live to see what Maryse and Lay-Cool did as a team, and it would have been nice to see Beth take them all on and Eve get a few licks in as well. By licks I mean punches, people…get your minds out of the gutter. But no, instead we had a fifty-something second match where Michelle hit the Faith Breaker on Gail for the pin. Yeah, this was a waste of time, and Gail deserves better. Screw this. Treat the division semi-seriously or don’t, but don’t give us two minutes of entrance and less than a minute of match.
| The 411
Was this the best Hard Sell Raw they could have done? Hell no. The Diva BS was pointless, the Handicap match didn’t play as well as it should have, Kofi seems like an afterthought in Money in the Bank and while I enjoyed it, Shawn vs. Kane and the promo that started the show wasn’t as good as the rest of the feud has been. But that doesn’t mean this wasn’t a good show overall. They brought the Cena/Batista feud right to where it should have been and the Bret/Vince bit was nicely carried off. I’m also more interested to see the Unified Tag Title match than I was before. So in short, this was a good but not great way to sell the Red Brand feuds. We could have gotten better, but I’ll take what I can get. SHOW RATING: 7.0 |
From This Is The New MEME:
Someone actually WANTED to watch Destination X???
LOL TNA
Actually, yes. I was interested in seeing the show and how it went down, and I wasn’t sorry I did. Yes, the show was mediocre overall, but some of the matches (Ultimate X, the 4-way Ladder Match & Angle/Anderson) were well-worth seeing. I always try to watch the Pay-Per-Views if I can, and even the bad ones there’s usually something to enjoy.
Well, except Heroes of Wrestling. And WCW Sin. But I digress.
From jbardo:
I have to say after the last 2 weeks im really hyped for Rey-Punk now, the build up has been excellent & we know they can put on a really good match if they get enough time that is. From Loki:
Given the awesome promo from 2 weeks ago, two really good segments this week, and the lack of bloody stupid ‘Spear’ chants, I can’t help but think that Punk/Mysterio is eclipsing Jericho/Edge, almost to the point of becoming the real Smackdown main event for Wrestlemania.
I gotta agree with this. I have a feeling this will be the opening match on the card because, like the ECW Title matches used to be, it can be counted on for the wrestlers to give their A-Game and get the crowd hot. Nothing wrong with that.
From Guest#4213
The Taker vs McIntyre match was nearly exactly what it needed to be, the only thing which would have made it better if McIntyre got no offence at all. Both McIntyre and Sheamus have been complete and total failures in every conceivable way possible, despite what some might like to believe, and they need to get the squashing that is long overdue for them so some guys with actual talent can get pushed. I only hope Triple H vs Sheamus goes the same way or better still just consists of a pedigree and a minute of posing before a clean pinfall.
From Guest#9060:
Drew getting squashed here and losing to Kane and Matt Hardy means he is going to win MiTB, sorry to say that Christian isn’t going to win
From Guest#5606
Seriously, did Taker and Drew’s entrances combined last longer than the match? This isn’t as joke – it’s a serious question…
From Kip:
@4213
No, that was a dumb ass move for WWE. Now from the sounds of it you would get all hot and bothered if Hornswoggle won the title. Burying your IC champ is bad business, but some people will watch any crap WWE tells you too.
From Anonymous:
“The Taker vs McIntyre match was nearly exactly what it needed to be, the only thing which would have made it better if McIntyre got no offence at all. Both McIntyre and Sheamus have been complete and total failures in every conceivable way possible, despite what some might like to believe, and they need to get the squashing that is long overdue for them so some guys with actual talent can get pushed. I only hope Triple H vs Sheamus goes the same way or better still just consists of a pedigree and a minute of posing before a clean pinfal.”
Wat? There’s no way the Sheamus push can be seen as anything other than a complete success.
From ThePants:
Personally, I like McIntyre a lot more than Sheamus, who I also like. He just gets more heat because he was the one who won the title that actually means something. But, I actually want to see where this stuff goes SURPRISINGLY. I’d like to see McIntyre almost have the case, then someone (Christian?) jump in from nowhere and grab the case. Now, like Raven said “You may be a smart mark, but that means you’re still a mark”
From Manu:
Giving Mcintyre vs Undertaker even 5 mins more would have given mcintyre so much more credibility, its unfortunat5e they decided to do this
Five more minutes would have been EXCELLENT. I would have given the match a Right then. Because even if Taker pounded on McIntyre for most of those, that would have built up his resiliency. But instead, we got Drew getting jobbed out. Like Kip says, burying the IC Title is clearly a bonehead move, whether you like the guy or not. As for 5606’s question, I believe it was a close call but the match JUST won out on time.
From The Great Capt. Smooth:
There’s just something fun about seeing smaller wrestlers like Rey snapping and going off on bigger people. All we need is for Evan Bourne to go off during the MITB match. Steve, the Louisville crew will have it’s revenge. How about a brawl in the infield?
Yeah, seeing a guy like Rey go off is great because most of us have been there and have been in the “smaller guy” position. So when he does it, we can sympathize with him…especially when Punk is being such a dick. Good booking and good feud all around.
From jeremy thomas:
Until Friday, keep on kickin’ it!
Gimmick infringement!
From Big Fat Fag:
No complaints but I was wondering, if ROH is on Monday nights with Raw and Impact, then why is it R’d with the latter-week shows? That is all.
Long story short, Aaron doesn’t get HDNet (few of us do, I believe) so he has to review it when ROH becomes available to him. It works out better now anyway, because it means the Friday column is three shows as is the Sunday one.
From GIMH:
Hart Dynasty are a joke, them being squashed should always be in the right
Your hatred is deep, my young Padawan. Reject it, for that is the path of the Smark Side.
By: Chad Nevett
iMpact! 03.22.10:
QUICK RESULTS
The Beautiful People & Daffney defeated Tara, Angelina Love, Sarita & Taylor Wilde [*1/4]
Rob Terry (C) defeated Tomko for the TNA Global Championship [DUD]
Jeff Jarrett defeated Mick Foley in a Loser is Fired Match [**3/4]
Matt Morgan defeated Hernandez(?) [*1/2]
Rob Van Dam & Jeff Hardy defeated Beer Money, Inc. [***]
“WHAT YOU DIDN’T KNOW ABOUT ME”: I rather liked the song Eric Bischoff began the show with.
MICK FOLEY PUNCHES OUT BUBBA THE LOVE SPONGE: Who didn’t love that? TNA: finally giving the fans what they want.
BEER MONEY, INC. vs. DRUG MONEY, INC.: Someone called the team of Rob Van Dam and Jeff Hardy that in the comments section to the question about which Monday night show people liked more this week and it made me laugh. Maybe I’m the only one, but I had to throw it out there. Hardy and RVD coming out to save Jeff Jarrett from a double-team by Beer Money lead to this main event, which was a pretty decent match. The promos leading to the match had a bit of an old school feeling with both teams getting some air time, though Jeff Hardy pointing out that he had a feeling that coming out and challenging Beer Money to a match might lead to a match with Beer Money had me scratching my head a little. Both teams looked good, but this was a match for Hardy and RVD to showcase their moves, hitting a series of high-flying spots, and picking up the win. Not sure that putting them over Beer Money was the best decision, but it was a feel good end to the episo—oh wait, there’s Eric Young and… TNA actually announced a match for the next episode? They decided to tell people that, yes, Eric Young, Jeff Hardy, and Rob Van Dam will be taking on the Wolfpac? It killed the heat a little, but was still a smart move since maybe people will tune in knowing that Hardy and RVD will be in the ring.
BISCHOFF GETS HIT WITH A GUITAR: While I dug the song, the segment was much too long with an oddly placed commercial break. Eric Bischoff, upon finishing his song, mocked Jeff Jarrett for his continued guitar-smashing gimmick, calling him out to prove that he can actually play the guitar and isn’t a failure at everything. Despite Bischoff’s taunting and even handing Jarrett the guitar, daring him to use it, Jarrett didn’t rise to the bait and walked away… until Bischoff brought up his little girls and Jarrett quickly made an about-face, took a couple of practice swings while Bischoff’s back was turned, and then cracked the guitar over his head, knocking Bischoff unconscious. At this point, there was a commercial break and, after the break, Bischoff woke up and told Jarrett that that was it, he and Foley have both crossed the line, and they would fight in a match where the loser is fired. It was an effective way to set up the match with Bischoff basically forcing Jarrett into a position where he screwed himself just as Foley did last week. Still, if it had been tightened up and wasn’t extended over a commercial break ten minutes into the show, this might have made the Right.
FOUR-ON-FOUR KNOCKOUTS MATCH: And it’s more of the same for the Knockouts division with Sarita and Taylor Wilde thrown in for good measure. This wasn’t a bad match, but the finishing moves showcase at the end was much too slow and there was an odd bit where the ref refused to count a pin with two of the Knockouts because they weren’t the legal women, counted a pin that was broken up with two other women, and then counted the concluding pin with an additional two different Knockouts. A little bit of internal logic failure. Nothing really stood out as impressive, but continued the Beautiful People/Angelina Love and Tara/Daffney feuds.
ROB TERRY (C) vs. TOMKO FOR THE TNA GLOBAL CHAMPIONSHIP: Rob Terry squashed Tomko and didn’t look too bad doing so, but I’d still like to see him have an actual match rather than squashing people that have had actual matches with main eventers.
JEFF JARRETT vs. MICK FOLEY IN A LOSER IS FIRED MATCH: This was obviously meant to be a bit of an ‘instant classic’ and it wasn’t. There was no build, neither man is anywhere near his prime, and does anyone think this will stick? Without that emotional connection, this was just an average match. It was still entertaining, of course, as Foley and Jarrett went into it promising to both give it their all. It began a little slow with each man feeling the other out and Foley even tried some wrestling moves that didn’t look good. Beer Money as co-refs didn’t add anything to the match and their interference with Jarrett was a little annoying, but I liked how Foley didn’t slow down as a result. The ending with the chair didn’t work for me, but Jarrett winning was the smart move since they’re setting up a feud with Beer Money, while Foley only has Bischoff. As well, Jarrett’s fight to rise through the ranks does have potential. Now, let’s start taking bets on how long it will be before Foley returns to the ring… I wonder if he’ll return before Samoa Joe…
HERNANDEZ vs. MATT MORGAN: I gather from the recap video of Destination X that Hernandez is the face and Morgan is the heel in this feud despite Morgan making a lot of sense last week on commentary, talking about Hernandez not putting the team first. What stuck this match in this category was how one-sided it was. Both guys are powerhouses, but Hernandez was so dominant until the end that it came close to burying Morgan. The ending was a good way to prolong the feud, but in a show that ‘coincidentally’ contained a lot of headshots, possibly to mock a certain company that banned them recently, highlighting the real dangers of headshots as a means to explain why one of your wrestlers is off TV and working in Mexico isn’t necessarily the right way to go.
TEAM HOGAN AND TEAM FLAIR TALK AT ONE ANOTHER: Hogan and Abyss came out and Hogan got on the mic, saying that he was going to put the business first and get this personal stuff out of the way, so, at Lockdown, it would be Team Hogan captained by Abyss against Team Flair to settle things once and for all. Abyss then stepped up and delivered an odd mix of goofy comedy and weird creepy, because that’s where his character is now. He talked about Abyssamaniacs, but also of killing Flair and Styles… and I think he meant kill them. Flair and Styles came out, Flair in the wheelchair and Styles on crutches, and Flair announced Sting as the captain of Team Flair. Then, the lights went out and, when they came up, Hogan was handcuffed in the corner of the ring on both wrists, Sting was sitting on the opposite turnbuckle, and AJ was beating Abyss with his crutch. The Pope came down to save the day, Hogan was freed, taking hold of Flair’s wheelchair and pushing him towards Abyss who clotheslined the hell out of him. After, the Pope stuck one of his bills in Flair’s mouth ala the Million Dollar Man, because imitating an arrogant heel from the ‘80s is what faces do these days (has he ever done that before, because I don’t remember seeing him do that…?). Standard bullshit that didn’t really follow-up on the Styles/Abyss match from Destination X and didn’t explain what the match at Lockdown actually is.
BISCHOFF AND HOGAN CONTINUE TO NOT QUITE SEE EYE TO EYE: They keep teasing Hogan and Bischoff feuding, but I don’t see the point. Their good cop/bad cop routine is a good dynamic even if I don’t always like the stories it’s used in. Hogan and Bischoff feuding over power is a story we’ve seen a million times before, but two guys with two different styles working together isn’t really, especially if TNA takes advantage of that more.
NO X-DIVISION?: The night following Destination X and not a single X-Division match or segment save a recap? I know those guys went out there and tore it up, but, as Bischoff said on the first permanent Monday show, the X-Division is TNA’s engine… so where were they? I could expand it to ask about Kurt Angle and/or Mr. Anderson, maybe some more direct follow-up to Nash betraying Young than setting up a match for next week at the end of the show. I know they’ve got a lot, but they had time for a squash match (probably the only match from Destination X that no one wanted to see a follow-up to) and dragged out Bischoff/Hogan promos, they could have fit the other stuff in. It was conspicuous.
| The 411
Impact is actually improving each week, finally rising to the level of ‘average.’ None of the matches were bad, but only one was better than average, while the non-wrestling segments were more in that mediocre to bad range. Actually announcing a couple of matches for next week is a smart move and, hopefully, we’ll see some X-Division guys in action. Thankfully, nothing outright awful, definitely an improvement over recent weeks. SHOW RATING: 5.5 |
By: Michael Bauer
NXT 03.23.10:
QUICK RESULTS:
Heath Slater and Justin Gabriel defeated Wade Barrett and Skip Sheffield [*3/4]
Darren Young and David Otunga defeated Daniel Bryan and Michael Tarver [**1/4]
NOTHING
SLATER AND GABRIEL AGAINST BARRETT AND SHEFFIELD: The opening match saw the rookie team of Heath Slater and Justin Gabriel face the rookie team of Wade Barrett and Skip Sheffield. Barrett and Sheffield felt like an odd team since they fought each other last week, but there were no real issues with the team. The match was pretty darn good, with Slater and Gabriel getting in some pretty damn good offense before Barrett and Sheffield, before the “heel” dominated part of the match. The hot tag comes and Slater goes into the house of fire mode… and that’s where the match took a huge downturn. The ending of this match was a total train wreck and it’s why this match isn’t in the right section. Slater slipped out of a powerslam attempt and went for the school boy, which is fine… except that he let go immediately to get ready to duck a Wade Barrett big boot. The problem… Barrett wasn’t even in the ring yet. They recovered okay and Barrett clobbered Sheffield and left Gabriel plenty of space to fly in and… land in front of Barrett to just hit him with a forearm?? Justin has all the potential to be the next Evan Bourne, but he missed that jump badly. Again, he recovered for the forearm, but that was two huge blunders in the last twenty or thirty seconds of the match. And sure, they are rookies by WWE standards, but with how much time these guys had in FCW, this shouldn’t be happening.
YOUNG AND OTUNGA AGAINST BRYAN AND TARVER: The main event match was the other rookie teams vs. rookie team match with Daniel Bryan and Michael Tarver facing a very unusual team of Darren Young and David Otunga. I say that again based on these two facing off twice already and their mentors feuding in recent times. Once again, the match was pretty good and for anyone watching on television, anything was better than what we had for the 30 minutes prior, but more on that later. Tarver and Bryan definitely looked motivated this week and that was probably due to them being a combined 0-6 in NXT competition. Like I said before, the match was pretty good and Bryan got to show off a ton of his submission techniques, including a few that reminded me of his Ring of Honor days. My main complaint with this match is two-fold. Again, we had Bryan eating a pinfall, which should almost go to Tarver by default. But the other piece was the nonsense with Tarver and Gallows. When that happened so early on in the match, you just knew it wasn’t the last time you would see it in the match and sure enough, Tarver pretty much just went right up to Gallows when nothing was going on to keep Bryan from the tag. Finally, Tarver got the idea, but Bryan didn’t want any piece of it and just sent Otunga into him. Bryan tried the missile dropkick, but I’m not sure exactly what happened there with that miss. It looked like the plan was for him to not go for it, but he did anyway. The spinebuster ended it and Bryan goes to 0-5. I’m not fully sold on that either, but see my thoughts in Fact or Fiction for that one.
A LOOK AT DANIEL BRYAN AND DARREN YOUNG: This is same complaint I had last week with Otunga’s video. I understand putting them over with the promo videos, but we now have seen them for four weeks. Can we please get different material in their interviews? Is it that hard to interview them again with their thoughts on the first four weeks or however many it will be when the video shows? This is not knocking the quality of the videos, just the execution in using them.
HOW MANY VIDEO PACKAGES CAN YOU FIT INTO ONE SHOW?: Ok, I want to recall a conversation I had with 411 Game Editor Chris Lansdell on Tuesday Night. To some extent, I asked him the following: “So, how nice is it that I have nearly a half hour to do anything else than follow WWE NXT while I’m recapping it?” Yeah, that’s pretty much what it felt like on Tuesday Night as I watched the third straight WrestleMania video package in between matches. Listen, I get the fact that WrestleMania needs to be hyped to no end, but doing this for nearly a half an hour straight bored the absolute hell out of me and told the NXT rookies that they are not important enough on virtually their own show. Now, this would be okay had the two matches has gotten more time as a whole, especially the opening match, but the videos went on for nearly double the time as the matches. This is the type of shit TNA does to make everyone shit on them, not the WWE.
| The 411 This episode was nothing more than a vehicle to get WrestleMania over without having any of the people actually involved in any sort of capacity. The mere fact that we only had two matches for a total of 15 minutes would solidify that. The matches themselves were pretty good, but if I wanted to see a near half hour or promo videos, I would watch the 30 minutes before WrestleMania. SHOW RATING: 3.0 |
Until Monday, keep on kickin’ it!
~457~
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