wrestling / Columns

Wrestling’s 4R’s Monday Edition 5.24.10: ROH, Superstars, Impact and SmackDown Reviewed!

May 24, 2010 | Posted by Jeremy Thomas

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    In HD where available…


    By: Aaron Hubbard

    ROH on HDNet 05.17.10:

    QUICK RESULTS:
    QUICK RESULTS:
    Rhett Titus & Kenny King def. Josh Raymond & Christian Able [***]
    Claudio Castagnoli def. Andy Ridge [*]
    PICK 6: Roderick Strong def. Kevin Steen [**1/2]

  • THE RIGHT:

    STRONG SAGA: One of the main focuses of this show was the fallout of Roderick Strong’s failed bid at Tyler Black’s ROH World Title at Supercard of Honor V. Roderick was being his usual pissy self at Jim Cornette, who was trying to explain that Roddy is paranoid and blaming other people for his problems. Austin Aries came in and talked about their history as tag team champions, and how if Strong leans on Aries he can become “second best” like he used to be. Strong said it was his time to be “the best” and slapped Aries, and we got a pull apart brawl. Roddy came out for his match against Kevin Steen, but Aries brutally attacked him before he could get in the ring. Thus, the match between Steen and Strong became more angle than match, with Kevin putting Strong over, saying he respects him and that Roddy should forfeit the match and live to fight another day. Strong was having none of it, so Steen channeled Terry Funk and beat Strong up, offered him a chance to quit, and then beat him up some more. In the end, he got a surprise roll-up to counter a Small Package, after driving Steen crazy by chanting “Ole!” when Kevin asked him to quit. Kevin was awesome on the mic and this worked really well, with one character reaching the edge of sanity and the other way past that line.

    OPENING TAG: Josh Raymond and Christian Able are the former House of Truth, who I’ve heard good things about but had not gotten a chance to see in action until this match. And yeah, I see why they are getting positive reviews. Kenny King and Rhett Titus also looked great as a team in here, better than I’ve ever seen them look. This was a hotly contested, exciting opening tag match with lots of cool double-teams that made both teams look good. Nothing wrong here.

    CLAUDIO SQUASH: No shocker who won this match, as there’s a huge difference in size and star power. However, Claudio allowed Ridge to show off all of his right-legged offense before obliterating him. He made Ridge look good, a guy who could have some success but was outclassed on this night. Claudio showed off his strength with the no-hands airplane spin and won. This is how you do a squash right.

    THE ART OF BEER CHUGGING: I have no thoughts on this, and words can do this no justice:

  • PURGATORY:

    EDWARDS vs. RICHARDS RECAP: So yeah, if you read my review of this match, you know I loved it and it’s one of my top three matches of the year right now (with Taker-Michaels and Angle-Anderson ahead of it). So, I’m not going to complain about ROH showing part of this great wrestling match again, as a fan of great wrestling. However, it is a questionable use of TV Time, which brings me to the big problem: ROH’s taping schedule vs. its episode schedule, which has resulted in a lot of middling shows. I’ll save my other complaints for later, because this is some of the best filler you can find.

  • The wRong:

    TOO MUCH RECAP: This week we got a recap of last week’s battle royal, the incident with Delirious, the TV Title Final (which was cool in its own way), and get this a recap of what happened two minutes ago! I have the benefit of watching the show without commercials due to the esteemed ROH Brazil, but I still don’t think a forty minute show has anything worth replaying a full minute of. Word has come out of the circumstances that led to there being so much recap, which is why I’m not putting this in the Ridiculous section this time, but it’s still a wrong.

  • THE RIDICULOUS:

    NOTHING OF NOTE.

    The 411

    With as much recap as there is on this show, there is no way that this can reach the higher digits. However, the hot opener, the hilarious skit with Cabana and the angle advancement with Strong was enough for this to be an above average episode. Not the first thing I’d recommend, but I wouldn’t be shooing people away from it either.

    SHOW RATING: 6.0



    By: Steve Cook

    Superstars 05.21.10:

  • THE RIGHT:

    VLADIMIR KOZLOV vs. SANTINO MARELLA: This certainly wasn’t much of a wrestling match, but it lands in the “right” section of the column for everything else. Santino’s promo talking about their similarities and how they should form a team was rather hilarious, and the moment at the end where he screwed everything up by slapping Kozlov on the chest was tremendous. And man, Santino was over like nobody’s business up in the T-Dot. He’s a funny guy, but you would have thought he was the next Steve Austin or something. So if Santino’s the next #1 contender for the WWE title, we know who to blame…this was still pretty good stuff though.

    CODY RHODES vs. CHRIS MASTERS: It’s time for us to stop expecting very little from Chris Masters, because the guy delivers every chance he gets to be in the ring. Unfortunately for him these days it’s mostly jobbing on Superstars, but he worked a really good match with the Uncommon Son of the Common Man this week. Cody followed up on his brother’s match with Regal by working over the arm of Masters, which was pretty ingenious because later on in the match when Masters tried to apply the Masterlock, he could only get it halfway on due to his bad arm. Cody hit the Cross Rhodes soon afterwards and it was all over. Smartly worked match here that continued to show Masters’ improvement as a worker and made Cody look like a million bucks too.

  • PURGATORY:

    GOLDUST vs. WILLIAM REGAL: These guys could have a really great Superstars match at some point, and I get the feeling that they’ll have that opportunity sooner rather than later. This one didn’t get enough time and I never like the whole blood stoppage thing for minor nicks and scratches. To his credit, Regal almost made it work by filling the time with hilarious facial expressions. One has to wonder what exactly the plan is for Regal these days. He’s becoming a pretty awesome tweener character on NXT, with his support of Daniel Bryan and general goodness whenever he gets a chance to talk. Meanwhile on Raw/Superstars, he’s a heel that loses in rather quick fashion. I’m not saying the guy should be contending for titles, but I think the NXT stuff should lead to something. Good arm work & selling in this match, which continued in Goldust’s brother’s match later on in the show. I just wanted more.

    CHRISTIAN vs. DOLPH ZIGGLER: This match also suffered from high expectations. Christian has been on fire for quite awhile now, and Dolph is one of the most improved guys on the WWE roster over the past year or so. Sadly, this match didn’t do a whole lot for me. I think it was probably a little too methodical for my liking, which is my major complaint with Ziggler’s style. There’s a place for that type of wrestling and I know a lot of people like it, but I’ve cursed with a short attention span and that leads to me not enjoying Ziggler’s matches as much as other people do. This was still pretty decent but seemed like it was missing something. Perhaps a purpose, and maybe with their altercation on the SmackDown the night after we’ll be getting more from this pairing. That has potential.

  • THE WRONG:

    Nothing of note.

  • THE RIDICULOUS:

    Nothing of note.

    The 411

    Superstars has officially become the WWE show you watch if you want to see wrestling matches. SmackDown used to be better about that but it’s kind of fallen into the Raw trap of focusing on outside-the-ring stuff and not so much on the matches lately. The great thing about this show is that it gives the guys not on the two main shows a chance to do their thing and show people why they should be on the main shows. Most of the people on this week’s show accomplished their objective, and even Santino & Kozlov’s portion of the show was worthwhile. Good show this week.

    SHOW RATING: 7.5



    By: Chad Nevett

    iMpact! 05.21.10:

    QUICK RESULTS
    Roxxi defeated Madison Rayne [1/2*]
    Orlando Jordan defeated Rob Terry [1/2*]
    Rob Van Dam & Jay Lethal defeated Beer Money, Inc. [**]
    Eric Young defeated Shannon Moore [*1/2]
    Kazarian defeated Homicide, Brian Kendrick, Chris Sabin, Alex Shelly, Max Buck, Jeremy Buck, and Amazing Red in a battle royal [*]
    Jeff Hardy defeated Sting [*3/4]

  • THE RIGHT:

    KURT ANGLE IS BACK AND IS REINVENTING HIMSELF: Kurt Angle came out to explain why he didn’t come out in earlier in the show when he’d been named the number two contender as part of the new top ten contenders list. Angle doing a promo is usually guaranteed quality and this was no exception. He discussed how TNA has changed from a place where he was once one of the elite, but, now, there are tons of guys who can main event. He discussed how he’s done everything in wrestling there is to do, so what’s left? He’s not done and he wants to prove once again that he is the best, so he took himself out of the top ten and said that he’s going to wrestle every person on the top ten until he’s worked his way up to the world champ. A great promo with a lot of emotion and a fantastic idea. Kurt Angle versus that list of guys is a promise for a series of great matches. I’m looking forward to seeing this play out.

    ROB VAN DAM & JAY LETHAL vs. BEER MONEY, INC.: This match was scheduled as Beer Money versus Jay Lethal and a partner of his choice. During a pre-match documentary thing, Lethal was interrupted by RVD who said that he’d be his partner since Lethal had his back at Sacrifice. The weird thing? RVD speaking of himself in the third person and doing the thumbs pointing when saying his name. It left me with the impression that he does that anytime the words ‘Rob Van Dam’ are spoken no matter where he is, which is funny. I’m also digging Lethal as the young guy that’s just trying to prove himself and, sometimes, let’s his wrestling geekiness show when he gets excited over being in the ring with Ric Flair or his reaction to RVD being his partner. Also prior to the match, Ric Flair and Beer Money did a short promo with Christy Hemme where Flair put Beer Money over as TNA’s muscle, forcing Hemme to feel James Storm’s arm in the process. The match began with the dynamic of Beer Money being more harmonious and working Lethal pretty well, cutting the ring in two. However, Lethal and RVD had some good chemistry as they picked up the win after some good double-teams and smart tags, including Lethal doing a blind tag to RVD to set up the Lethal Combination on Storm, then RVD did Rolling Thunder, and Lethal won it by putting the Figure Four on Storm. Not a long match, but a very well executed one that has me looking forward to seeing more of Jay Lethal as just Jay Lethal.

  • PURGATORY:

    ERIC YOUNG vs. SHANNON MOORE: Prior to this match, Jesse Neal confronted Brother Ray in the back while Brother Devon tried to play peacemaker and Shannon Moore stood there. That ended with Neal walking away, telling Team 3D to watch out. As well, just before the match, the entire Band came out and Eric Young did a decent promo on the mic about how the Band is there for big paydays and they’ll take anyone out to get them. But, they’re honorable guys, so they’ll let you know they’re coming. Not exactly in line with the behavior of the group, but Young is solid on the mic. His match with Moore didn’t quite gel completely. He looked really good, but Moore didn’t see able to get into a groove. They played a little with the idea of outside interference until Brother Ray came out and Neal charged through the ring to attack him on the ramp. Using the distraction, Scott Hall hit Moore with a tag belt and Young won. After the match, Devon broke up Ray and Neal only for Ray to attack Neal again in the ring, yelling that he brought Neal in and could take him out. The match here wasn’t anything special and wasn’t even the main point of the segment.

    ROB TERRY vs. ORLANDO JORDAN: Rob Terry sold an injured leg and this match wasn’t much more than Orlando Jordan trying to take out that leg while Terry tried to power through. In the end, Jordan prevailed with the ref ending the match. I would have stuck this in the Wrong, but Terry’s selling of the leg was actually pretty good. It elevated the match somewhat. Not the best angle on the show, but anything that shows the Freak improving is welcome.

    STING vs. JEFF HARDY: The main event, which had lots of hype, including a couple of promos by Hardy. One backstage in that documentary style where he talked about always liking Sting and having a match with him being a pretty big deal. His other promo was in the ring and he said… basically the same things. Not sure why they bothered with both. It’s also weird to see someone come out and do a promo in the ring for a match that’s happening that night without a run-in or advancement of the conflict since those are usually done backstage (and they’d already one!). The match was somewhat disappointing given the first time ever hype and the two guys involved. Sting seemed unmotivated, which isn’t anything new. He just kind of walks through his matches on autopilot, while Hardy did seem to be trying, but couldn’t quite get on the same page as Sting. The only spot that stands out is the awful Scorpion Deathlock that Sting put on Hardy that didn’t look convincing at all. The match ended with Mr. Anderson interfering and helping out Hardy. Apparently, Anderson is now Hardy’s biggest fan. After the match, Hardy pushed him away before Sting took them both out with baseball bats. The match wasn’t that bad, but it wasn’t great. If this is the Sting we have, his match with RVD isn’t looking promising.

  • THE WRONG:

    ERIC BISCHOFF INTRODUCES THE TOP TEN CONTENDERS FOR THE WORLD HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP: The show began with Eric Bischoff and Miss Tessmacher coming out and introducing the new top ten contenders for the World title. The rankings are based on three criteria, we’re told: fan voting, their careers as a whole, and their careers while in TNA. Then, Bischoff counted them down one by one: 10. Samoa Joe, 9. Rob Terry, 8. Desmond Wolfe, 7. The Pope, 6. Abyss, 5. Mr. Anderson, 4. Jeff Hardy, 3. AJ Styles, 2. Kurt Angle, and number one… the Icon… Sting! When announced, each guy came out and we got a little video hyping them up, which was alright. The only exceptions were Kurt Angle as he didn’t come out at all and Sting, who immediately went down to the ring and didn’t get a video. There, he said that Hogan and Bischoff wanted to change things and promptly smashed the prints/posters on stands, proclaiming that to be change. Bischoff then said that Sting would be a fighting number one contender and would be taking on the number four contender, Jeff Hardy, in a match, so Sting beat up Bischoff a little before Hardy came down and beat up Sting a little before Sting got back on top and Rob Van Dam came down and Sting retreated.

    There were a few things that really stood out here as not smart writing: first off, Sting as the number one contender. As was shown after, neither Hogan nor Bischoff like Sting right now. Dixie Carter (the third member of the championship committee) has also had her problems with him and we’re supposed to believe that they chose him to be the number one contender? Why would they do that? It’s not merit unless you literally give equal weight to each wrestler’s entire career, which seems like a pretty stupid way to determine who gets a title shot right now. Sting hasn’t done a whole lot since returning from hiatus except participate in some multi-man matches and what happened on Sunday with Jarrett at Sacrifice. Nothing that says ‘Number one contender’ beyond the desire to have him and Rob Van Dam main event Slammiversary because, er, that’s what they want…? Most of the rankings seem as random — which is fine if they were determined by matches where booking enters into it. But, they were supposedly determined by legitimate, logical means and that doesn’t show. They should have just used the 8-Card Stud Tournament at Against All Odds to determine the ranks initially, because just rhyming off who deserves a shot never works. Having guys who may have seemed undeserving win matches to earn the shot does. I also didn’t buy the stuff at the end because none of the heels really got involved when I think they would have loved to lay a beating on Hardy or RVD given the current ‘all of the faces vs. all of the heels’ environment in TNA.

    ROXXI vs. MADISON RAYNE: Roxxi returned and took on Madison Rayne in a non-title match that wasn’t good. Apparently, Madison Rayne has only won one singles match in her entire TNA career and that was on Sunday, so there’s your Knockouts Division champ for you. I’m never a big fan of someone returning and immediately getting a win on a champion, especially when Madison Rayne just ended Tara’s career. She didn’t look like someone who just did with Roxxi dominating for most of the match and getting the win relatively simply.

    X-DIVISION BATTLE ROYAL FOR THE NUMBER TEN CONTENDER SPOT: First off, they want to determine the number ten contender just from X-Division guys? That seems somewhat arbitrary. What happened to the three criteria? There isn’t an eleventh person? Why do these guys have to fight for a spot that was just given to others? And why only X-Division guys? And, here’s a biggie: if it’s going to be an X-Division wrestler, why not, oh, let’s say, the X-Division Champion, Douglas Williams? He wasn’t even in the match! So, there are eight guys who aren’t the X-Division Champion that are more deserving a World title shot? Nice to know that if we ranked the X-Division, Williams would come in at number nine. The battle royal was pretty boring overall. We joined it in progress and had to figure out who was in it on our own, which is a good way to get over the possible contenders for the number ten spot. Lots of quick eliminations until it got to two three guys as Brian Kendrick revealed that he had been hiding outside of the ring and everyone at home collectively went “Kendrick is in this match?” The only thing advanced was Kazarian’s previous desire to talk with Ric Flair as Flair came out to watch Kazarian win the battle royal, earn the number ten contender spot, and, apparently, prove something to Flair. Awful, nonsensical booking plus lackluster in-ring product equals WRONG.

  • THE RIDICULOUS:

    ABYSS TAKES POSSESSION OF CHELSEA: Abyss won at Sacrifice and, therefore, gets possession of Chelsea for a month. Yes, the good guy won, so he gets to own a woman, and he intends to collect, because that’s What Hulk Hogan Would Do. When it came time for the hand-over, security escorted Desmond Wolfe and Chelsea to the ring while Wolfe berated them for what they were doing and gave us the only entertaining part of this entire angle. In the ring, Abyss demanded that Wolfe give him what’s his and, after they came down, Wolfe told Abyss that it wasn’t going to happen and kicked Abyss in the balls. Okay, that was actually entertaining, too, until it got much dumber as Wolfe pulled a bottle out of Chelsea’s bag, broke it on the ring post and began threatening Abyss with it, even slicing up Abyss’s arm. Abyss, undeterred by pain, knocked the bottle away, hit the Black Hole Slam and proceeded to toss Chelsea over his shoulder and take her to the back. Because Abyss owns Chelsea now. As Taz says, it’s a little chauvinistic… you think? Watch for this story to show up on lists of horrible angles in the future as Abyss shows that he’s determined to participate in just as many stupid and awful stories as Kane has throughout his career.

    The 411

    The matches were mostly good, while the stories were mostly bad. I really don’t like the way they’ve handle their top ten ranking system, but it does mean we get Kurt Angle versus Samoa Joe, Kazarian, AJ Styles, Desmond Wolfe, and six other guys, so there is a bright side. I’m digging Jay Lethal’s new persona, but hating everything done with Abyss. The main event didn’t deliver like it needed to either. Pretty typical Impact, actually.

    SHOW RATING: 4.5



    By: Jeremy Thomas

    WWE SmackDown 05.22.10

    QUICK RESULTS:
    Lay-Cool d. Tiffany & Kelly Kelly [* ¾]
    JTG d. Caylen Croft [*]
    Vance Archer & Curt Hawkins d. Brent Roberts & Jeremy Barner [* ¼]
    Kofi Kingston d. The Big Show [** ½]
    Rey Mysterio & MVP d. CM Punk & Luke Gallows [** ½]
    Drew McIntyre d. The Big Show by DQ [* ½]

  • THE RIGHT:

    MICHELLE McCOOL & LAYLA vs. TIFFANY & TRIPLE K: Before this match, we got a recap that showed how Layla had won the Women’s Championship last week. This week, we found out that Team Lay-Cool is actually CO-Women’s Champions. Man, whatever Michelle needs to do in order to hold that belt, right? The faces then showed up, and I have to say it’s a sad statement that T-Grish had to note which one Triple K is. Now, I had to say, this was a stunningly good match. Note that I’m not calling it “good” without a qualifier, because it was too short and basically amounted to the Blondes having offense until Michelle came in and stopped them with one move. But man, Layla looked good in her one bit of offense and Kelly and Tiffany…wow. When did they become aerialists…and manage not to look like train wrecks during the process? This was probably the best Triple K match I’ve seen in a long time and while it could have been much better, it could have been light-years worse. It’s a Right per lowered expectations, but still a Right.

    DID YOU KNOW: BIG SHOW EDITION: Early in the show, we had the Big Show giving us his own little version of Jack Swagger’s “Did You Know?” parodies. He talked about some of the accolades Swagger has boasted about and then said “but did you know that three weeks ago, I knocked Jack Swagger out?” We then got a recap of that very punch out, and then went back to Show who said it was just one of his many accomplishments, then gave a big ol’ smile. We also found out how he choke slammed Swagger through an announce table. These, like Swagger’s, were short but funny and I personally liked his clowning on Swagger quite a bit.

    JACK SWAGGER vs. KOFI KINGSTON: Before the match got started, Swagger got on the mic and got on Show for disrespecting himself, his accomplishments, Oklahoma, his daddy and the World Heavyweight Championship so he would disrespect Show at Over the Limit. This was a short and sweet promo which got the job done well enough. Then Kofi came out and the crowd popped nicely enough for him. Kofi had some good moments here on offense and Swagger stepped up his game fairly nicely as well. This match didn’t have the greatest level of psychology that we’ve seen from either of these guys but it worked out nicely, and Swagger and Kofi made good opponents for each other. They established a good rapport and the match flowed pretty nicely; meanwhile the crowd stayed into it for the most part. I thought that the end of the match was a bit goofy, but Show coming out so he could deliver one last Jack Fact made me smile and it played into the feud well since Show’s spent the majority of this feud just getting in Swagger’s head and throwing him off his game. A pin for Kofi over the World Heavyweight Champion gives him some momentum heading into Over the Limit and it didn’t hurt Swagger much so I’ll give it thumbs up.

    REY REY & MVP vs. CM PUNK & LUKE GALLOWS: So considering the last couple weeks, I guess Montel is just the new random tag team partner guy? Whatever works, I suppose. As the last hard-sell of the Rey/Punk feud, this worked just fine. Personally, I would like to see Gallows get some more singles action because he’s acquitting himself quite well as of late and proving to be one of the better big man workers in the ‘E right now. MVP played the face in peril here and did so admirably, selling for the SES decently. Of course, the crowd was dying to see Punk and Rey in the ring together and they held that off as long as they could which is the right way to build a feud via a tag team match. The crowd popped loudly for Rey’s hot tag and he came in hot as always; we had one little botch as Rey was nearly dropped by Punk and that hurt the match but it otherwise worked out well. Rey got the big pin to get the most of the momentum going into Over the Limit and I’m okay with that as it improves Punk’s odds of winning on Sunday.

  • PURGATORY:

    NEW PLEDGES AND BALD PUNK PICS: SmackDown kicked off with the Straight Edge Society in the ring with three people sitting on stools. Surprisingly, Luke Gallows talked on the mic first and talked about how he used to be like the three guys, but he was saved, et cetera. Serena got her moment to talk and ordered us to stand up and show Punk the respect he deserves. Not Serena’s best moment on the mic, but not terrible. Luke then took over and blasted Canada for letting teenagers legally drink, then said the three dudes in the ring would be taking the Straight Edge pledge. Honestly I’m not gonna lie, they all kinda looked like they needed it. Serena had a couple more moments to be mediocre on the mic until Punk took over and told the pledges and all of us to stand up, raise our hands and feel the power of Straight Edge flow through us. It’s been a while since we’ve seen a soul get saved, and that helped this out some because it seemed at least vaguely fresh again. And of course, Punk was the man but hey, that’s nothing new. The heads got shaved and the crowd booed, and everything worked out as well as the Society could have hoped.

    Well, except for Rey Rey. He showed up and popped the crowd, then mocked the pledges for getting their heads shaved. He’s the babyface, right? Then, they went exactly where I had hoped they wouldn’t. I don’t know, maybe it’s just me. But I always think the “show the guy putting his hair on the line in a Photoshopped bald picture” thing silly. It’s fun sometimes, but do they really need to go that direction every time? I have actually been happy to see they hadn’t for a long time, but they finally succumbed and it made me sad. The rest of this segment was fine and someone (or more than one) will get after me for this, but going that tired route for a segment was enough to knock this otherwise good opening segment into puRgatoRy.

    CURT HAWKINS & VANCE ARCHER vs. BRENT ROBERTS & JEREMY BARNER: Roberts and Barner didn’t get an entrance and that wasn’t really surprising since…well, we know who was winning here. This was a simple squash match where Hawkins and Archer beat down the nobodies for a little over a minute and got the win. Hawkins and Archer were fine here and wiped the floor sufficiently well with the scrubs, then got a promo where they talked about how they had twenty-two days left to make an impact and would do so whether we liked it or not. I suppose that means that they’re heels. This wasn’t a very good match of course but it worked for what it needed to be.

    VICKIE & DOLPH AREN’T AMONG THE PEEPS, BUT SWOGGLE IS: Vickie was backstage texting or something when Christian showed up. Vickie was all excited about the Peep Show coming to SmackDown and was angling for an appearance, but Christian said that he’d rather have people watch the show. Zing! That pissed the Executive Consultant off and she said she was popular, so Christian then showed some video of potential interviewees like Bret Hart, the Mountie, the Brooklyn Brawler, Jared from Subway and some dude named Lester who loves chicken. Christian promised a guest who has never seen eye to eye with him. Yay, height jokes for the win? Not so much, but whatever. The point was, the guest was Hornswoggle. We had a good couple weeks without him so I suppose we were due, but I could have good a few weeks (or months) more without him. Horny popped the crowd, but really can’t someone tell the little leprechaun that D-X is dead? Christian clowned around with Swoggle and let him do his D-X stylings, then got him on the seat for an interview. Christian taught Swoggle some Canadianisms, and I was starting to get bored.

    Thankfully, Vickie showed up with Chavo. You know a segment is dying for me when I’m glad to see Vickie. She shut down the Peep Show and mocked Horny as the guest, then went for cheap heat by ripping on Canada. Christian then made like ‘H and basically called Vickie a fat moose. Chavo then entered the ring, causing Swoggle to hit in a box and Dolph to come out of hiding to attack Christian. I assume this is the start of Christian’s new feud, and I can’t say I’ll complain about that. The rest of the segment was mediocre and while there was some novelty humor at Swoggle grunting his way through words, it died fast and this was a lukewarm experience for me.

    DREW McINTYRE vs. THE BIG SHOW: Before the match we had an interview with Drew where he talked about how Matt Hardy and Teddy Long deserved exactly what they got, and so does he by being the Chosen One. There was more dropping of Mc. McMahon’s name before Kofi showed up and said he was going to get the title this Sunday. Nice to see Kofi get a little promo time again, he’s good on the mic. Drew was decent as well, and this was a fine little promo.

    Show was out first for this match and we got a recap of him costing Swagger his match against Kofi earlier in the evening, and then we got Drew’s killer theme song and his Ortonesque walk to the ring. This match started off a little iffy as Show and Drew seemed not to click in the ring, and it was only after Drew walked off and Show threw him back in the ring that they seemed to settle down. Mostly this was Show beating on Drew with the Intercontinental Champion making a few comebacks. I don’t know that these two have too great of chemistry because there was just too much awkwardness for it to seem effective and the match never got off the ground. It was short and cut off as Swagger came in to attack Show, which caused the DQ and gave Swagger back some heat. Decent booking I suppose, but not much to the match other than finally letting Show get angry with Jack.

  • THE WRONG:

    JTG vs. CAYLEN CROFT: We got a little pre-match taped promo from the Dudebusters when they went down to the ring in which we found out that they bust dudes up. Okay, that works I guess. The match didn’t work quite as well. I talked last week about how the Busters had started to improve, but this was not a particularly great match on Croft’s part. His offense was just sort of there and he didn’t mesh at all well with JTG. The former Cryme Tymer’s offense was brief and he botched the Mug Shot before ending the match too quickly with the Shout Out. This was just an all-around poor showing that didn’t get much time, and they may have been rushed because of that but either way I didn’t find the match very good at all.

  • THE RIDICULOUS:

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

    The 411

    This was not a bad SmackDown and was actually a fair bit better than we got last week. We had a couple good or better-than-expected matches and some solid feud building for the Over the Limit matches which is exactly what we needed. Sure, there were some iffy or worse moments, but they didn’t dominate the show and I’m okay with them considering where the focus was. Hopefully the improvement continues, because I liked what I saw here for the most part.

    SHOW RATING: 7.0

    From Gary:
    Aboout the canned heat on Smackdwon,all you have to do when you hear cheers and boos on the show just look at the crowds.If you hear loud boos and the people are just sitting on their hands when someone comes out then you know its canned.

    From gooched
    canned heat is a touchy subject on smackdown, because people either assume they do it too often, or they brand people who think so as conspiracy theorists. I tend to take all reactions as geniune unless painstakingly obvious, such as CM punks painfull hometown reaction where he obviously got the biggest reaction of the night and their audible CM punk chant magically transformed into you suck chants, it was infuriating to say the least.

    I pretty much feel the same way as gooched does. It’s frankly impossible to say whether heat is canned or not. The video is often edited in order to remove signs they don’t approve of that have been snuck in or for several other reasons, and I’ve heard the argument made that if the ‘E wanted to cover up lack of reactions than they would do so with crowd shots too. Whatever the reason, I don’t think the debate will ever be settled; I don’t buy into the canned heat rule but I don’t have a huge problem with people who do. I’ll just offer my differing opinion when it comes up.

    From Cyrith:
    Swagger taking the RKO on monday just bugged me. In part because I mark more for Swagger then I do for Orton, and I want to see him as a true main eventer. But also because it didn’t really add anything. We know Orton is a dangerous man, did he really need to take out Swagger to prove it? Only to then be stomped down by Edge. It seemed like we got Orton being the predator, Edge being the ultimate opportunist, and Swagger being…the victim.

    I don’t mind Swagger taking the RKO; I absolutely see your point but the fact remains that Orton’s the Raw main eventer and Swagger is the SmackDown main eventer. So on Raw, it made more sense for Orton to get heat back at Jack’s expense. I do get your point though.

    From kennedyfan:
    i’m 21, and i recognized Virgil right away

    There is hope after all for kids these days!

    From Nitpick much?:
    You said it yourself. Christian got his ‘heat back’ by feeding Edge to Taker. THAT is why they ran the angle, so the E & C feud continues…..

    No, I get that. I absolutely do. I guess where I disagree with this is in my hopes that they were going to hold off on putting these two in the ring until later. It’s purely personal preference, but I love it when they hold off on matches between two potential feuders to build anticipation. To each their own, that’s just my reasoning.

    From Bob:
    “It’s kind of sad that not many people seemed to recognize Virgil, but it’s not like the guy ever got huge crowd reactions anyway.”

    Apparently you’ve never seen Royal Rumble ’91 or Wrestlemania VII. Virgil was massively over when he finally turned on the Million Dollar Man.

    Probably could have clarified that by saying that he never got huge reactions on his own. He got huge pops by turning on DiBiase, but that was more about Ted’s heat and not Virgil’s overness.

    From Guest#3681:
    Was Batista doing the Nagata Lock III on Cena in the pic? I thought batista didn’t pull out submissions, let alone puro ones.

    It did indeed look like the Nagata Lock III, for what little I’ve seen of it. It’s basically the Rings of Saturn with the crossface added in, which may or may not be the same thing as a Stu Lock (which I’ve never seen). Good eye.

    From Guest#8189:
    Why do i get the feeling that if WWE wasn’t PG at the moment, Cena’s fans would be called the ‘C-section’.

    I would mark for that. Seriously.

    From DeeRayMoore:
    Being upset that Bret won the title is a very wannabe smark thing to do. After all Bret has been through, it was a great moment to see him standing in the ring with championship gold again, which no doubt would have happened if not for the stroke and concussion.

    I loved the moment, but I saw nothing but people shitting on it because it didn’t make sense…who cares! It was great…and Bret is great…and I can’t see anyone who was actually there for his career to shit on it because they don’t “see the point.”

    From Jon:
    I think you’re being harsh on the Bret Hart title win; it was a bad match, sure but it was a feel good moment, advanced the Miz and Jericho/Hart Dynasty and will (hopefully) set up a feud for the Miz and someone over the US title. The title was hardly prestigiuos anyway, it’s not like he won the world title!

    Actually, I would have been happier if he did win the World Title. That would have been a happy moment worth giving him, and the World Title is used for hugely over guys. The US Title isn’t, and Bret winning it doesn’t help the title and it seems like the ‘E is throwing Bret a bone and giving him a last title reign as a half-assed feel-good moment. And Dee, as much as “feel good moments” are good from time to time, Bret got his feel good moment by making Vince submit. When it involves a title, it needs to make sense to me because the ‘E is a creative business and this doesn’t make sense in a creative or business standpoint. Also, I was there for the entirety of Bret’s WWF/E career and was always a huge Bret mark, so assuming that I wasn’t is a bit much. I’m glad you enjoyed it though.

    From jedielias:
    Bret for GM!!! And he could even hold onto the U.S. title a while. Be great to see him come out with the belt alot. Everyone says it’s a prop these days anyway. And shit how long did Miz go without defending it anyway??? Other choices for GM, Trish, Stephanie McMahon!

    Bret’s time with the ‘E is supposedly done soon enough, so I doubt he’ll be the GM. Trish has no interest for now, and Stephanie is busy in Creative as well as raising her family. I don’t know who the GM will be, but I don’t see it being any of them.

    From The Great Capt. Smooth:
    I love the Big Show/Cena commercial idea! Is it wrong for me to want Layla as champ, just so she can jump around and celebrate, and jump around some more?

    There is NOTHING wrong with that.

    From Guest#3509:
    Wow, what a priviledge, Edge and Christian go back home and face off in front of family and friends they grew up with. Besides the Hardys wrestling each other at Wrestlemania this has to be one of the best feeling two wrestlers could have. It was like Christian was like “we’re home lets tear the place down” and they did. Christian, Edge and Jericho have the absolute most counters of any generation of wrestlers. All three have won Tag Team Championships together and the best feuds against each other. Remember Jericho and Christian betting a dollar on who get Lita or Trish first… Where was Edge then? I digress…..
    Just a great feel good moment where there were no heel nor face, just two hometown kids showing their skills and talents off for their people.

    One thing I don’t get on 411mania, is how irritated they get for free matches and/or giving away matches. I rather not pay for entertainment if I don’t have to. If a prostitute gives me a freebie, who am I to complain? I blame Czonka with the “No buys” he was doing a long time ago. It’s like why should any wrestling be good if it’s on free TV, all matches should be 45 second squashes.
    This Jeremy was literally bugged that he had to watch Edge & Christian for free! What about the thousands in attendance, GOD forbid they get their money worth. Madness, I tell you and I’m not talking Macho Man Madness. For every match that you get upset for because it’s free, feel free to grab $20, turn that sumbitch sideways and stick it straight up your roody poo candy ass.
    No BUYS! That’s how I like my wrestling.

    You’re totally allowed to like your wrestling like that, 3509. I have zero problem with your opinion of that. My problem is not that I was “bothered” that I watched Edge vs. Christian for free, but rather for a few reasons. One, it was a relatively throwaway match instead of something that added to the eventual Edge/Christian feud. Two, I watch the Pay-Per-Views. If I’m going to pay for them (and I do pay for them, thank you very much), I want to pay for something better than what free TV gives me. Why should I feel good about paying for Over the Limit if I’m getting better matches on Monday Night Raw? And third, this isn’t TNA. Frankly, it doesn’t bother me personally as much when TNA does it, because TNA doesn’t give a rat’s ass about PPV buyrates. They’re obsessed with popping the ratings; the only thing that gets me about that is that they do it counterintuitively and don’t promote it. The WWE on the other hand is more interested in buyrates because…well, frankly it means money. If they’re interested in buyrates, they should promote toward that. I enjoyed the match, but it sets expectations unrealistically for PPV and that’s a problem.

    From Higherlevel:
    Eat Defeat is the best finisher and finisher in the game. What the hell is the Killswitch or the play of the day. No Eat Defeat means two things, a foot in your mouth and the end of the match. Sure beats RKO which means Randy K. Orton. TKO is a technical knock out but that not what the RKO does, so really that’s a stupid name for a Cutter.
    Eat Defeat is right up there with the Got 2 Sleep in which you do exactly that.

    Glad you enjoy it, my friend.

    From onelovehell:
    “Also, “Eat Defeat” is a stupid finisher name for a stupid finisher.”

    The name might be stupid but the move is original in WWE terms and unique. Sometimes I agree with you 100% and other times I think you are a smark that doesn’t realize they are a mark.

    OLH, let’s clarify. I’m a mark. I’ve always acknowledged being a mark. So are you. We’re all marks, one and all. So with that out of the way, I think the name is retarded and I’m not big on the finisher either. It’s not very visually impressive and it looks like the kind of thing Gail could easily botch and do serious damage. She does have a reputation for being sloppy from time to time. The juice should be worth the squeeze, and I don’t believe it is here.

    From midcard madness:
    Thank you for putting the Divas match in the right and giving Layla some dues. She isn’t going to be putting on a 5 star classic anytime soon, but she can sell and her roll up off the ropes was the best move I saw all week.

    Also I don’t think the Ryder/Bourne match was wrong but in Purg, it wasn’t that bad and I’m all for anything that gets to show the midcarders in not a total embarrassment and it actually had coninutiy with Ryder and the ladies that wasn’t just relegated to Superstars. I mean part of this could be given to it being commercial free but I’ll still take it to making the main show.

    I was really iffy on where to put the Ryder/Bourne match, but ultimately decided the length of the match killed it for me. I can’t completely disagree with a puRgatoRy argument though.

    Until Friday, keep on kickin’ it!

    ~474~
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