wrestling / Columns

Wrestling’s 4R’s 09.20.11: Impact and Smackdown Reviewed!

September 20, 2011 | Posted by Jeremy Thomas

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    By: Jeremy Thomas

    iMpact! 09.15.11:

    QUICK RESULTS:
    The Pope, Devon, Miss Tessmacher & Tara def. Sarita, Rosita, Hernandez & Anarquia [* 3/4]
    Velvet Sky def. Angelina Love [** 1/4]
    Samoa Joe def. Matt Morgan [* 3/4]
    Bobby Roode def. Kazarian [** 3/4]
    Sting def. Ric Flair [* 3/4]

  • THE RIGHT:

    ROODE HAS TO RUN THE FORTUNE GAUNTLET: I really dug this. AJ and the rest of Fortune welcomed the Bound for Glory series winner down to the ring and congratulated him on getting the shot at Kurt Angle at BFG. AJ did a good job on the mic and built Bobby up really solidly; Daniels’ promo was great as well as he needled AJ to keep that rivalry in mind but was also outwardly praising Bobby as well. This promo was all about pushing Fortune and of course Roode specifically and I thought everyone in the ring delivered in their congratulations. It was a great moment for Roode and had the crowd loving him even more than they did by the time Kurt Angle came out. Kurt’s promo was also very good as he built Bobby up and didn’t try to tell him that he wasn’t ready. That’s the kind of thing that you would expect the main eventers of either company to do. We’ve heard the “snot-nosed kid” comments from Hogan, ‘H and the like for years now, but Kurt didn’t do that. Instead he played Fortune against each other and made Bobby run the Fortune gauntlet over the next several weeks leading into Bound for Glory. Good stuff; not unexpected but well-delivered and we’ll get some good matches out of it to boot while building Roode up for Bound for Glory.

    ANGELINA LOVE vs. VELVET SKY: This was the first of the “Queen’s Qualifier” matches to find out who would face Winter at the four-way Knockout Title match at Bound for Glory. I liked them putting the Beautiful People partners against each other; we’d seen this match several times recently but that was during Angelina’s zombie phase so this was different. I thought these two worked pretty well against each other. Was it a great match? Of course not. But it was solid and didn’t have any awkwardness to it; they worked pretty well in there together. I didn’t much like the finish because the “partner miscommunication” thing seems like a crutch sometimes but otherwise this was pretty decent stuff.

    CRIMSON’s PROMO: Crimson joined us by satellite for a sit-down interview where he talked about Samoa Joe’s attack on him. Crimson seemed self-assured and comfortable talking, which is something I don’t really think we’ve seen from him before. It was a good little bit of time that kept Crimson in the public eye without needing to resort to some kind of silly angle or set of backstage scenes and I enjoyed it for what it was.

    JEFF SEEKS FORGIVENESS: After last week’s main event promo, Jeff was here tonight to seek forgiveness from the boys. He ran into a speed bump in AJ though, who delivered an awesome tearing-down of Jeff. It sounded like a real, legitimate rant and let’s be frank–AJ wasn’t wrong. I really liked this promo because it showed that, at least in storyline, Jeff isn’t going to have an easy road to redemption with the boys. Even Devon’s promo was, while supportive, a “tough love” kind of thing. Now, you can argue that Jeff shouldn’t be in any angle right now and I absolutely do not disagree with that. I would like nothing better than for Jeff to be getting himself more stable. But if TNA is going to use him, this is not a bad way to go about it. Devon and AJ were both great in this and I appreciated it.

    KAZARIAN vs. BOBBY ROODE: Not gonna mince words here on this one; this was a really good match. Roode and Kazarian wrestled a good, enjoyable match that worked both men’s styles really well. What made me happy was that it in no way was a squash win for Bobby. Roode is already riding a wave of momentum from the BfG Series and we know that is going to continue, so using him to have competitive matches against the Fortune guys is only going to be good for them. The match was booked well and you could see them go from the match between friends to a more heated affair. I thought that Frankie and Bobby worked really well in the ring together and it may not have been a five-star classic, but it was as good as you could want from the first match of a gauntlet series like this.

  • PURGATORY:

    EIGHT PERSON TAG MATCH: This was our opening match and had the Pope, Devon, Miss Tessmacher and Tara against Mexican America building off No Surrender. This got a little more time than I expected it do and for an eight-person mixed tag match that ran all of five minutes it wasn’t terrible. Of course it meant limited ring time all in all but with Anarquia in there that isn’t a bad thing. Things were on a good run until chaos came about, which allowed Brooke and Tara to get the double pin. This was by no means great but the energy was solid and it made for a fun little diversionary match that despite the chaos had no real shenanigans. I’ll give this a passing grade.

    KAREN JARRETT CONTINUES TO BE A BITCH: Okay, so I loathe Karen whenever she opens her mouth. I think she’s terrible and annoying, and not in a good way. She’s what Vickie was when she started out with a tiny bit more skill on the mic and a bit more natural bitch attitude. Anyway, I’ll start with what I did like; I enjoyed Madison Rayne kissing Karen’s ass. Madison plays that up well and it’s fun to see her in that bitchy ass-kissing role. I’m also happy to see that TNA is continuing to develop storylines with the Knockouts instead of treating them like an afterthought the way WWE does the Butterfly division. Now, if they can only do it without Karen opening her mouth and pushing the typical “sluts and ho’s” party line that every Knockout authority figure ever has, I’ll be happy. This was good enough to avoid the wRong, but Karen dominating the conversation keeps it from being Right.

  • THE WRONG:

    STING & FLAIR FACE OFF: Impact started off with the Nature Boy making his way down to the ring in full robe regalia. He called out Sting and out Joker Sting came for the microphone face-off. The promo work was a little bit over-the-top with Flair saying that the only way Sting was getting through Hogan was over his dead body and Sting responding that Flair was going to die at his hands. There was a fair amount of “do you know who I am” and threatening to bite fingers off and such before they nearly came to blows and security came out to separate them. It was surprisingly short but also fairly disjointed. I didn’t much like this as an opening segment to be honest; it didn’t add anything to the show though it did at least get the crowd hyped up. But then this is the Impact crowd and there are times it seems as if they’d get hyped up for an appearance by Naked Mideon.

    SAMOA JOE vs. MATT MORGAN: This was a submission match that was also a Bound for Glory rematch. Some people might wonder why a stipulation match is airing on Impact while the regular match was on Pay-Per-View, and those people wouldn’t be hideously wrong to wonder about that. It didn’t bother me as much as it might some because the point isn’t TV vs. PPV, it’s chronological escalation. It would almost make less sense to have the stipulation match before the regular match, so there you have it. My problem with this match was more that it just didn’t seem to be a great one. both Morgan and Joe seemed to be a bit less than motivated; they were kind of just going through the motions here. There was also a distinct lack of psychology as a whole to the match, it was more just wrestled as a regular match followed by the submission attempts. It wasn’t terrible but I didn’t really like it either.

    STING vs. RIC FLAIR: This was our main event and got the big match introduction from JB. So there’s no way to get around this; this match was obviously edited. Reports from the live show say that it was a hideous match and I imagine that’s probably the case, but I can’t judge a match on what I didn’t see. What I did see was not the worst thing I’ve ever seen by any stretch; it wasn’t even the worst thing I’ve seen this year or this month. But a match between Ric Flair and Sting should not be in that particular ballpark. It shouldn’t even in the same sport. I will give them credit for busting their asses and trying to make this match as good as it could be. The one thing you can always, ALWAYS say about Sting is that he will always try to rise above the potential limitations of a match and deliver the best match he can. You can say the same about Flair. That these guys did this and the match was this poor is sad to say, but I give them effort for doing what they could. That being said, under no circumstances do I ever, ever want to see Flair in the ring again. This was uncomfortable at times and that superplex was a scary, scary fucking thing. You could see that Flair was hurt badly there. Seeing Flair try to hit a chop after that was actually painful to see, and the end result was what we wanted but how we got there was not something that I think anyone wanted to see.

  • THE RIDICULOUS:

    NADA

    The 411

    You know, I thought this show was going to be one that lived or died based on the quality of the main event but it didn’t. Sure, Sting vs. Flair was not good at all and there were some other problematic moments in the show but overall I actually enjoyed it. The Fortune Gauntlet was set up well and the match it gave us was really good, the Knockouts delivered and all in all, this was the best Impact we’ve seen in weeks. Here is hoping that the quality keeps up going forward.

    SHOW RATING: 7.0



    By: Tony Acero

    Smackdown! 9.16.11:

    QUICK RESULTS
    Daniel Bryan def. Sin Cara via DQ [**1/2]
    Beth Phoenix def. AJ [1/2*]
    Sheamus and Justin Gabriel def. Christian and Wade Barrett [***]
    Heath Slater def. The Great Khali [NR]
    R-Truth def. Evan Bourne [1/2*]

  • THE RIGHT:

    EDGE OPENS: Edge’s recent returns to Smackdown have been pleasant enough, especially considering how heartfelt they seem and that unfortunately his career was cut short. He touched on a few things that were easy to like and kept it short enough so that it didn’t interfere. What was most pleasant, of course, was Cody Rhodes coming out to help keep things interesting. Cody is nothing short of amazing on the microphone and he has become one of my favorite aspects of Smackdown. He’s got his character down to a tee and even if there are some times when I think he may overdo the slow drawl of his voice, it’s still great. The segment closed with Ted DiBiase getting the best of Cody, which is something that they needed going into the PPV

    BRYAN vs. SIN CARA: Evil Cara worked the heeldom greatly and Bryan’s inclusion into the match was nothing we haven’t seen. The match was good and, admittedly, I wasn’t sold on the Cara vs. Cara match at first, but it seems like it may be interesting. I’m not saying it’s going to be the greatest thing and it certainly won’t light the WWE on fire, but if anything we’ll get some nice over-spotty matches. Anyone notice the seemingly canned in reactions at the end? I’m still waiting for my Red Sin Cara outfit….

    TRISH STRATUS: Her segments were kept short and it’s always nice to see her. Also, kudos to her for mentioning the Internet Champion!

    CHRISTIAN AND BARRETT vs. SHEAMUS AND JUSTIN GABRIEL: Gabriel was a nice addition to the match as I was a bit skeptic and thought they’d throw Big Zeke in there. Instead, we got a good match here that with a few more minutes could have been great. There was nothing wRong with the match so I can’t complain On the contrary, it was good enough for me to want more. Barrett and Sheamus have their power moves down as they all look convincing and almost make you cringe after each. Christian was his usual great self and Justin is doing nothing but learning. Good stuff all around.

    THE CUTTING EDGE: Mark Henry on the mic intimidates me, and I’m on my couch as far from Canada as anyone. He’s got a presence and they’ve done a great job recreating that presence. The end where Henry is tossing Superstars like chicken bones was all kinds of great and, really, if you didn’t think Henry was going to win on Sunday by the end of this segment, then you at least questioned it. Good job.

  • PURGATORY:

    AKSANA, THE NEW HHH?: I found it funny how Trish was the one walking in on Teddy Long bending over behind Aksana when a few years ago we saw her and Triple H in the same position. I’m sure that’s what they were going for, so no, I don’t feel all cool for noticing, but the reason why it is here is the fact that I’m still uninterested in Aksana’s presence.

    GEEK GODDESS: I place this here mostly in jest as the last thing I want to see is my beloved AJ get smashed to nothingness by Beth Phoenix, but honestly, what can I truly expect from this match?

    HEATH SLATER vs. KHALI: *yawn* Well, it progressed a storyline, and it’s always nice to see Heath go kersplat! Other than that, complete throwaway match that no one wanted to see. Oh yeah, and there’s that Jinder guy who came out to say stuff about 99% of the fans know nothing of.

  • THE WRONG:

    TRUTH vs. BOURNE: Although I enjoyed R-Truth’s Miz assisted freestyle before the match, this probably shouldn’t have been done. First, we give Evan the jobber entrance even while he is the champ, then we have a match that was just way too short. I get that perhaps they want us fans to believe that they’ve got one up on the tag champs, but Truth be told…we already know that. Squashing Bourne did little for the champs or for the challengers.

  • THE RIDICULOUS:

    Nothing

    The 411

    On one hand, I felt the show did a good enough job selling the PPV, on the other I thought it was pretty weak, especially where wrestling was concerned. The Cutting Edge segment did its job and I like that every match had some semblance of purpose, but Khali and Slater, Bourne and Truth, AJ and Beth…those two could have been different and a bit longer.

    SHOW RATING: 6.50


    Until Friday, keep on kickin’ it!

    …and remember to stay grounded!

    ~608~

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