Wrestling’s 4R’s Monday Edition 9.06.10: ROH, Superstars, Impact & SmackDown Reviewed!

Posted by Jeremy Thomas on 09.06.2010

Kane played mind games with the Undertaker, the four semifinalists for the TNA World Title collided in a tag team match, Tyler Black fought Steve Corino and more! Wrestling's 4R's breaks down all the action from ROH, SmackDown, Superstars and Impact!

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In HD where available…


By: Aaron Hubbard

ROH on HDNet 08.30.10:

QUICK RESULTS:
Roderick Strong & The House of Truth def. Andy Ridge, Jay Freddie & Mike Bennett [**]
The Kings of Wrestling def. Colt Cabana & El Generico [***]
10 MINUTE HUNT: Eddie Edwards def. Mike Sydal [1/4*]
Tyler Black def. Steve Corino [***1/4]

THE RIGHT:

BLACK vs. CORINO: I did have one major issue with this match, but we'll get to that later in the Ridiculous section. Anyone who's read this section of the 4 R's knows that I've been anything but kind to Steve Corino over the last several months, but this was quite a good performance. Obviously, Corino has no chance of beating the ROH Champion, but he did well in that role. Black, to his credit, has been the ideal ROH Champion for the last several months, and while I still contend that there are six or seven men more talented than Black, Tyler has been excellent as champion. That reign is likely to end this Saturday, but let's give credit where credit is due: Tyler Black, you have been a great ROH Champion.

HOUSE OF TRUTH vs. JOBBERS: Looking at this line-up, it was easy to predict the winners. Fortunately, ROH played to that and allowed the jobbers to look good before losing. Looking good in a match with Roderick Strong, #1 Contender and likely the next world champion, is a good thing. This was better than I thought it would be, and I have to wonder if ROH has more plans for Mike Bennett, because he looked very good in this match.

KOW vs. GENERICO-CABANA: Claudio Castagnoli, Chris Hero, El Generico and Colt Cabana. There is no way this could be anything but entertaining. This was a light-hearted but still competitive match, with lots of fun spots. More importantly, it showcased two teams heading into huge matches this Saturday, in a way that made both teams look good going into it. This was a real treat to watch and was good enough that I didn't mind the somewhat iffy finish.

GLORY BY HONOR IX HYPE: Since ROH is pre-empted tonight, this was the go-home show for Glory by Honor IX, which looks to be ROH's most historic and perhaps best internet PPV to date. With the exception of the 10-Minute Hunt, each match focused on showing wrestlers involved in the show's three biggest matches: Roderick Strong vs. Tyler Black, Kings of Wrestling vs. Wrestling's Greatest Tag Team, and GeneriColt vs. Misters Wrestling. Beyond that, we got good to excellent promos from Strong, Tyler, Steen and Cabana tonight further hyping the show. Cornette announced Terry Funk's involvement, and the Funker is looking great for his age. We also got a sweet video package to end the show. This is how you hype a PPV correctly, and I am AMPED to see it just like I was AMPED to see Death Before Dishonor VIII. Good job ROH.

PURGATORY:

NOTHING OF NOTE.

THE WRONG:

10-MINUTE HUNT: This was fine, since it didn't take too much time and had a really fun spot in it, but goodness these are getting tedious. I also have to say that Mike Sydal continues to be unimpressive, and his opening promo was obnoxious to top it off. Harmless, but ultimately pointless.

THE RIDICULOUS:

CONTINUITY FAILURES: Two major issues kept this show from hitting on all cylinders for me, and they both have to do with tape delay. Let's start with the main event; after seeing Tyler Black cut a great heel promo to start the show where he basically tells the ROH fans to go fly a kite, the main event sees him slapping hands and working like a babyface. Then we get not one, but TWO post-match beatdowns on Black, first by Steen and Corino and then by Roderick Strong. This was supposedly designed to get us to feel sympathy for Black, but given the current situation it just made me cheer for the heels.

The bigger issue for me was seeing Shane Hagadorn in Eddie Edwards' corner for the 10-Minute Hunt. I guess I just imagined Davey, and Eddie by association, tossing Hagadorn to the curb last week. Look, I know this show is pre-taped and stuff like this happens, but it is ROH and HDNet's job to make me forget that it is pre-taped. This isn't even the usual continuity issues between TV show and non-televised events, these were internal continuity issues with the TV continuity. Not working ROH.

The 411

This was a go-home show for Glory by Honor IX, and in that capacity it delivered. We also got two very solid wrestling matches, which is always a plus. The continuity problems really bugged me, but if you can forgive them this is one heck of an ROH episode. I'll be giving your live recap for GBH IX, so I'll see you then and I'll see you here in two weeks.

SHOW RATING: 7.0

---

By: Steve Cook

Superstars 09.02.10:

QUICK RESULTS:
Ted DiBiase d. Goldust (**¾)
Santino Marella d. Jimmy Uso (*)
Kofi Kingston d. Chavo Guerrero (**½)

THE RIGHT:

TED DiBIASE vs. GOLDUST: The Bizarre One was announced at 238 pounds, which makes me wonder when he ever weighed less than that. Maybe really early in his career when he was feuding with Ted DiBiase's father? Goldust has gotten himself into great shape and is putting on good matches here on Superstars every week. This week was no different, as he got a great effort out of DiBiase, a man who has been in limbo ever since Legacy broke up and he was supposed to be the breakout star. He hasn't broken out yet, but at least he has Maryse in his corner. I'm not sure it's possible for the Sexiest of Sexy to look any better than she does, and she was great in her role at ringside here. Heck, even Michael Cole & Jerry Lawler didn't bother me as much as they usually do, as they were having fun on commentary and actually paying attention to the match. That doesn't happen often with them on this show. Good stuff from everybody involved.

NXT 3 ROOKIES BEATING DOWN KAVAL IS LEFT OFF THE NXT RECAP: We can only hope this means that they're going to forget that ever happened.

KOFI KINGSTON vs. CHAVO GUERRERO: These two got a lot of time for the main event this week, and they used it pretty well. Kofi did his usual kicky stuff, Chavo did a good job of carrying most of the match on offense but his downfall was a pretty cool Trouble in Paradise from Kofi while he was on the top rope. Whoopsie daisies. I think the one downside was that Chavo did a better job selling a knee injury than Kofi did, and I spent a lot of time wondering when Chavo hurt his knee. I remembered it was during a spot on the ring apron eventually.

PURGATORY:

Nothing of note.

THE WRONG:

SANTINO MARELLA vs. JIMMY USO: This was just a whole lot of nothing. Santino can be amusing, and the bit with Tamina leiing him and petting his cobra was funny, but this doesn't lead to anything that I have interest in seeing. Cole kind of buried all of this by saying "Well folks, if you haven't had enough yet there's still plenty more to come on Superstars." Why is he starting to make sense to me? This is disturbing.

THE RIDICULOUS:

Nothing of note.

The 411

Pretty decent episode of Superstars this week. Two good matches, but Marella v. Uso keeps the show from getting too high on the scoring scale.

SHOW RATING: 6.5

---

By: Chad Nevett

iMpact! 09.02.10:

QUICK RESULTS
Madison Rayne & Tara defeated the Beautiful People [1/4*]
Steve Richards defeated Abyss [1/2*]
Sting defeated Jeff Jarrett [*1/4]
Fortune defeated EV2.0 in an Eight-Man Elimination Tag Match [**]
The Pope & Mr. Anderson defeated Kurt Angle & Jeff Hardy [*1/2]

THE RIGHT:

EV2.0 CALLS OUT FORTUNE: After Fortune took out Mick Foley backstage, Tommy Dreamer and company were out, demanding Fortune come out. AJ Styles led the way and did the lion's share of the duties on the mic. It's actually pretty astonishing how much he's progressed as a heel. It doesn't feel nearly as forced or laughable now as it did when he first teamed up with Flair. He ran down EV2.0's matches on Sunday, making fun of them all the way, and giving their chances of winning any at none, taking special pleasure in the idea of making Dreamer say "I quit" in the House That AJ Built. This set up the four-on-four elimination match nicely and showed off Styles's mic skills. Entertaining promo segment.

KURT ANGLE & JEFF HARDY vs. THE POPE & MR. ANDERSON: Given the time restrictions, this was a pretty decent match. The Pope and Anderson controlled things for most of the time, beating on Hardy, who was this match's sacrificial lamb. One thing I didn't like was the way Anderson acted in the match. Earlier in the show, he was trying to convince the Pope that they should work together, but he had an attitude throughout the match about tagging in and out. It's like they switched places in story between the backstage segment and this match. But, in the match itself, ignoring what happened earlier (and, come on, who doesn't want to ignore most of those awful backstage segments?), it was good storytelling and got across the idea that the Pope and Anderson are wary of one another heading into their match on Sunday. That story wasn't used with Hardy and Angle, but there wasn't much of a chance — and, come on, Angle is too much of a Professional to care about that. He's a born Winner and knows he can handle Hardy on Sunday. The finish playing off last week's match against Fortune where Pope stole the pin was a nice touch, but it wasn't exactly a steal here since the Pope was the legal man way before the pin, making Anderson's assumption that he should get the pin erroneous. After the match, the guys fighting one another at No Surrender started to fight, leaving Impact to end in a brawl. Again.

PURGATORY:

THE BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE vs. MADISON RAYNE & HER OFFICIAL BODYGUARD: While this match was god-awful, the overall segment was effective in advancing the story and finally revealing that, yes, Madison Rayne's bodyguard is Tara. About damn time, too, since everyone knew it was Tara all along and I couldn't take Taz and Mike Tenay playing dumb anymore. Clearly, Taz couldn't either as he teased the idea that he knew who it was throughout the segment, but never said who. Look, the real mystery here wasn't who the mystery woman was, it was why Tara would be helping Madison out. But, I gather from some of the teases later, they may have revealed that on Reaction. I don't know, because I don't watch that crap. Overall, though, the pre-match brawl was alright, the match was pretty bad, and the identity was finally revealed. Wow, not completely terrible.

STING vs. JEFF JARRETT: Jarrett trying to sell Samoa Joe on helping him was good for a laugh, mostly as Joe looked at him like he was a babbling crazy man, which he kind of is in this story. The match was fine, nothing special, but nothing too bad either. I could have done without Kevin Nash interfering in the exact same way three times without any consequences. Then again, they did adhere to the comedy rule of three, making this match something of a joke. Joe coming to Jarrett's aid at the end was strange since he seemed to genuinely not care at all if Jarrett lived or die prior to the match. I kept waiting for the swerve and Joe to attack Hulk Hogan. I guess that will wait until Sunday night...

LONDON BRAWLING AND THE MOTOR CITY MACHINE GUNS HAVE WORDS: First off, would it have killed TNA to have London Brawling actually wrestle as a team on the show that airs in North America (you know, where the majority of the TNA audience lies)? Second off, things were great until the Guns came out and it turned into a promo that I could have swore Triple H wrote. Maybe it's just me, but I could do without the waxing philosophical over dick sizes. Not that funny. I am amused that Chelsea still seems to hate Desmond Wolfe, making those two the anti-Macho Man and Miss Elizabeth. They're just a horrible couple that hates one another and stays together out of spite.

EIGHT-MAN ELIMINATION TAG MATCH - FORTUNE vs. EV2.0: The first half of this match was pretty good, while the second half had a few questionable moments. The first half was typical tag team action with Sabu getting a chance to show off. He hit some decent moves, but did so looking like a very old man. His post-elimination attack on Douglas Williams at least gave the idea for those two fighting at No Surrender a reason beyond ‘the X-Division Title needs to be defended and we haven't paired up Sabu with anyone yet.' The addition of Brian Kendrick to EV2.0 is an odd one, but I like it. Kendrick has the right attitude, I like seeing him wrestle and EV2.0 needs a talent infusion (emphasis on ‘talent'). He eliminated Kazarian with ease and then went crazy on AJ Styles. His drop-kicking of the ref was... baffling to say the least and led us into the commercial break. When we came back, a few things happened that seemed odd. The first was the Gore that James Storm took. Prior to it, he was in his corner with Ric Flair yelling advice to him, while Rhino set up the Gore. Now, I read the situation that Flair was warning Storm that the Gore was coming, which would have made sense given the players involved and where they all were, but that wasn't the case as Storm ate it. Seemed like a lapse in solid storytelling. Then, Tommy Dreamer eliminating both members of Beer Money before dominating against Styles... is Dreamer meant to be the Hardcore Hulk Hogan now? He was two breaths away from death and, then, he no-sold everything up until the Pele that finished the match (really, a Pele finishes the match?). It was fine, I guess, but the second half seemed more intent on making sure certain plot points where hit than telling a cohesive, logical story. They wanted Dreamer/Styles at the end and for Dreamer to look like he's got a shot against the Phenomenal One, but that meant making Beer Money look like idiots... not to mention making Styles look somewhat idiotic.

THE WRONG:

HULK HOGAN WANTS TEAM WWE TO RAISE THE BAR IN TNA: The show began with Hogan, Bischoff, and Miss Tessmacher coming down to the ring and calling out the four guys in the World Title Tournament. (Side note: when Hogan comes out, does anyone else say "New World Order" and "For life" at the appropriate times to his music, too? I can't help myself...) Hogan talking about TNA being great and wanting to raise the bar was... tiresome. Does the guy know how to say anything else? He's like one of those dolls with the string on the back that you pull and it says one of, like, five things. Pull Hogan's string! "TNA is the place to be, brothers!" Pull Hogan's string! "The World Champion is raising the bar!" Fuck me. Abyss coming out broke up the monotony and we did learn that Fortune is not ‘Them,' which is both good and bad. Good because that would have been lame. Bad because that means there's still a ‘Them' out there. We learned that ‘They' are gearing up for Bound for Glory where something big will happen. Hogan wanting none of what Abyss was saying made the promo one-sided and buried Abyss's part to a degree. Maybe someone should have written out a few witty rejoinders for Hogan. Writers can be a good thing. The ending of the segment was strange with Jeff Hardy maybe hitting Abyss? I don't know, I looked away for a second, saw a flash of movement, and then there was a commercial break with the events never referenced again on the show. Ronnie says Hardy hit Abyss and I trust Ronnie, but what the hell, TNA? Strange and confusing way to end the first segment of the show.

STEVIE RICHARDS vs. ABYSS: Did this match even happen? It seems like I blinked and Stevie Richards had won on a fluke only to get his ass handed to him by Abyss after the match. Prior to the match, Richards said he wasn't afraid of Abyss... clearly he didn't pay attention to the backstage brawl last week, but I assume the post-match beat down will make him think twice in the future. Question: Richards still has his Dr. Stevie trunks, so is he still meant to be a doctor?

THE RIDICULOUS:

NOTHING

The 411

A recovery after a couple of weeks of putrid shit. The two tag matches were decent, the revelation of Tara finally happened, and AJ Styles on the mic was good. Not quite the stellar ‘go home show' you want, but any improvement is good, right?

SHOW RATING: 6.0

---

By: Jeremy Thomas

WWE SmackDown 08.27.10

QUICK RESULTS:
Christian def. Drew McIntyre [* ¾]
Michelle McCool def. Kelly Kelly [* ¼ ]
Dolph Ziggler def. Chris Masters [* ½]
The Big Show def. Luke Gallows & CM Punk [** ¼]
Cody Rhodes def. Matt Hardy [* ½]

THE RIGHT:

CHRIS MASTERS vs. DOLPH ZIGGLER: Masters was already in the ring of course because he's the guy clearly taking the loss; Vickie came out to rile up the crowd by announcing her boyfriend. Now, you know that I'm going to complain about the match length and frankly this was much shorter than we should have gotten to make us give a rat's ass. Yes, it was another squash match and there's nothing wrong with a couple of those, but a little more time would have resulted in a better match. This does get a marginal Right, simply because the ring work we saw was pretty decent and the squash did Dolph some definite good.

BIG SHOW vs. STRAIGHT EDGE SOCIETY: I was actually looking forward to this match a bit, because I keep wanting to see them put Show and Gallows in the ring for a semi-extended period of time because I think they could do some good stuff. We did get some more between them and they weren't bad at all. Obviously Punk's the best worker in the match, and that was another chance for the 'E as they could sell the feud between them nicely. Punk and Show work pretty well together and that helped this match out as a whole. I would give this match a middle-road thumbs for a Pay-Per-View but as a TV match it was perfectly fine. This match sold Gallows as a guy who can somewhat hang in there with Show; of course, he took the loss but that's both expected and plays well into storylines. Show busted out a little something special for the final move and then made Gallows tap. Decent stuff—again, nothing great but perfectly acceptable. Post-match, Punk was seriously pissed off and he picked up Gallows for the G2S. I don't think this means the end of the Society the way some are predicting, and I think a win over Show will put the group back together but of course I wouldn't be shocked if they split the team up. Solid developments in the storyline and decent match either way.

KANE'S MAJOR ANNOUNCEMENT: T-Grish and Striker hyped a "major announcement" from Kane for the whole of the show, and as we found out it was a pre-taped promo by the Big Red Monster. Kane did another bang-up job here in his promo work and he did a good job of pointing out how his sins were going to make him better than the Dead Man. He announced he would defend the World Heavyweight Title against Taker at NOC and seemed unafraid. Again, this is a major change in previous feuds between these two because other than the very first appearance of Kane he's always seemed hesitant as a heel to face Big Bro. So they're putting him over strong, which I appreciate.

After the brief promo, we got a bunch of druids coming down to ringside with a casket…and in the casket was Kane. Man, did that get the crowd PISSED. Teasing Taker is always a surefire way to gain heat…even more than teasing someone like Austin. Kane continued his promo and talked about how the only thing he saw in Taker was weakness and that he would be beating Taker, et cetera. Kane continued to deliver a strong promo, one that wasn't undercut by a stupid score or the like. Of course, then Taker came out and the supernatural stuff was goofy, but well-done and it didn't go on for so long that it felt disjointed like Monday did. Kane continues running strong and I have no issue with that.

PURGATORY:

ALBERTO'S PARTY GETS CRASHED: SmackDown kicked off with Tony Chimel announcing the ring announcer, which is like saying that Nathan Jones cut a promo on the guy who couldn't wrestle. Out came Del Rio, sparkling in white with his uber-car and he came down to the Mexico-themed ring with a big ol' smile on his face. He talked about what he did to the chihuahua Rey Rey and showed us what he did last week, which is why we were having a celebration tonight. So Alberto is Rey Rey's Sheamus? Anyway, Del Rio did another good job on the mic here, and while it wasn't anything wonderful it was so over the top that you couldn't help but respect its charm.

But wait…we weren't done yet. Out to the ring came Christian, who said Del Rio was JBL—oh wait, no. He's Enrique Iglesias. Ahh, silly jokes. Del Rio called Christian an American something-or-other. I have no clue what the second word is even after multiple listens, so I'll assume it was accurate to Christian's being Canadian and that he didn't really call him an American. Anyway, it got serious and Christian got in Alberto's face, providing a good counter to Alberto's heel antics. Now, I liked this promo and it led into the match nicely enough, but it really kind of irritates me that they decided to do this instead of continuing the Christian/Hardy mini-feud. There are a lot of people who could go after Alberto on Rey's behalf, and this is just another example of how they have no idea what to do with Christian. Good promo work, iffy result.

CHRISTIAN vs. DREW McINTYRE: This match kicked off with the pre-match attack, and the ref had to ask Christian if he was okay to continue. He was and so we got this match. Now, Christian is a great worker and McIntyre is developing into a good one, but this match seemed just a slight bit lacking. It was by no stretch bad but it wasn't up to the quality that we should expect from these guys. They went for some wacky spots to make up for the fact that they only had four minutes to wrestle, and then despite all of it and Drew's attack he still lost cleanly. Listen, I'm not going to hate on Christian getting a win but this really made Drew look weak, and considering they're trying to push him with this new Cody Rhodes tag team it just would have made more sense for him to get the win.

TRIPLE K vs. MICHELLE McCOOL: Yeah, we knew where this was going: Michelle is heading into Night of Champions while Kelly's done nothing. I was just hoping for this to be a tolerable match or a short one. Surprisingly, we got short. Layla was on commentary for the all of two or three minutes these guys wrestled, and she did a good job being annoying while Michelle appropriately dominated Tri-K in the ring. This was a squash match to give Michelle and Team Lay-Cool some momentum heading into NOC, and there's nothing wrong with that.

SHOCK TREATMENT: Backstage, Hornswoggle was getting electrodes put on his face because apparently Teddy wants "Mister Swoggle" to be able to speak. Okay, I have to admit that I chuckled a slight bit at the See-Say. But anyway, the shrink was going for electroshock therapy, which of course turned into Horny getting shocked, then the shrink got the tables turned on him. Yeah, this was incredibly silly but you know what? It was short and I'm all right with that. Whatever gets the leprechaun to stop grunting like he's humping a doorknob is fine with me as long as it doesn't take up too much show time.

THE WRONG:

THE VI-SWAGGER LOUNGE: This segment came around thanks to last week's "Invitational" and thus we had Jack Swagger's VIP Lounge. Swagger had his dad in the ring, still in a neck brace, and he reminded us of last week's events via video. Jack was all smiles for that and he played this very well once again. Swagger gave Dear Old Dad some props and a chance for him to speak. Jack Sr. proceeded to pimps Jack's accomplishments as a nine-year-old push-up artist and then we had Swagger giving us some push-ups. Yes, I know the point was to make us hate Swagger, but this was "turn off the channel" heat because it went on for a bit long. MVP then came out and mocked Swagger's VIP Lounge. Montel started chucking the stuff in the ring and Swagger sacrificed his dad so that he'd be okay. Basically, this segment was a cross between the Big Show trophy-smashing segment and Kane chock-slamming Jack Sr. And it didn't come off as well as either of them because once again Jack and MVP are going through the motions in a feud against each other.

MATT HARDY vs. CODY RHODES: Before this match began, Cody cut a promo on Matt while coming down to the ring making fun of him for not paying attention to Cody's grooming tips and generally being ugly. The crop circle line was kinda funny, I'll give him that. Cody then called Matt fat—the 411 commenters loved that—and then we got into the match. I like Matt a lot, and I think Cody's been doing some great promo work but this match seemed very off-key. Both men just seemed off on their timing with each other and while they wrestled a generally competent match it just seemed to come off as very stilted and a little sloppy. Matt's single-leg crab didn't look very impressive and they just kind of worked against each other rather than with each other. A fairly ugly Cross Rhodes ended this highly-disappointing match which could have been so much more.

THE RIDICULOUS:

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

The 411

Wow, this was just a half-assed show. The vast majority of it was just middling at best, and only a few things stood out in any one direction. It's like the Friday Night show knew that Raw sucked so they didn't feel like they had to do much to top it. That's true, but that doesn't make this good. It was just a weak effort that is ultimately forgettable. In fact, nothing particularly good or memorable happened at all, outside of the Kane/Taker match being announced. Throwaway show.

SHOW RATING: 5.0

Until Friday, keep on kickin' it!


…and remember to stay grounded!


~504~