Wrestling's 4R's 2.06.12: WWE Smackdown & TNA IMPACT Reviewed
Posted by Tony Acero on 02.06.2012
Daniel Bryan professed to be a role model, Sheamus faced Cody Rhodes, Randy Orton battled Wade Barrett and more! Wrestling's 4R's breaks down the Right, the wRong and the Ridiculous of WWE Smackdown!
How the 4R's of wRestling Work! Here is a quick explanation of the 4R's. The column will run TWO times a week. We will group our feelings on the shows in various categories: The Right, the wRong and the Ridiculous. The Right is stuff that worked very well: a great promo, a great match and so on. PuRgatoRy is a section between the right and wrong. It shows equal traits from both sides that cannot be ignored and needs discussed. It is not a bad place per say, as things can get remedied or go the wrong way the very next week. The wRong is what it sounds like: bad matches, bad or boring promos and so on. The Ridiculous is stuff that had no right on TV: Stupid angles and so on. And there is always a possibility of a 5th R, which is as bad as they come, unless you are TNA. They have a special R all of their own, the 6th R; the Russo-FN-Riffic~! Of course, that may not happen much any more due to him not having as much power as he used to. This column is supposed to be analytical, and at the right time very critical of the shows, it was the whole reason it was created. This is not a "mark" column, nor a "smark" column, our goal is to analyze the show from many different fronts, reward the good and call out the bad. We will not apologize for our opinions, they are as they are, whether positive or negative.
NOTE From Larry: Nothing from this week as we welcomed our second child, Aleksandra Jaymes Csonka, into the world on Friday. I will be back into full swing on Friday with the R's of Raw. Have a good week all.
Let's rock…
By: Tony Acero
Smackdown! 02.03.12:
Guest#3009 says that WWE doesn't agree with me, and that is the be all, end all answer to my qualms! "Natalya? She's got talent; pure talent, and they are continuously hindering it. I just want to know why."
Because that's an opinion and apparently one WWE doesn't share with you. If they thought she was great, they'd be pushing her..
Your "if then" statement is a bit of a non sequitur in that those two may have very little to do with each other. A logical fallacy if there ever was one, my dear guest. Here's the thing, it's not solely talent that a push is based off of, as we can all attest to. Aside from her pedigree, she has shown that she is credible in the ring. The issue doesn't lie in her talent, it lies in the writing team and the lack of care for the women's division. I'm no female apologist, if that's what they want to do with their talent, then so be it. But, as a critic, I have every right to complain about very apparent idiocy. A farting gimmick does absolutely nothing for her or for the fans.
Carl points out flaws in logic and character consistency: The whole lining up to get RKO'd was really awkward. It was obvious they were all going to get it, but they did nothing to sell believability. You'd think after the first one, the other 3 guys would have at least tried to fight Orton. No they just walked up and said "My Turn".
To be fair, when he was being pushed Drew McIntyre looked like a whiny winner, so it's not like his character has changed.
Aside from being awkward, it was retarded and did nothing for anyone. Lining up for an RKO? Really? Just duuuumb. As for Drew, yeah you may be on to something there, and look how far that character got him.
Hunico Stole my Bike feels strongly about last week's episode...I can only imagine he was upset about his bike... Worst episode of Smackdown in all of 2011-2012. Full production wrestling shows don't get much worse than this. I've seen thrown together highlight shows that were better than this. Even as bad as most of the episodes of TNA Impact were in 2010, this was worse.
Quite a bit of hyperbole right here, former bike owner. This was nowhere near the worst episode of Smackdown and I'd take it over any highlight show (Lord, I hate those).It wasn't the greatest, I'll give you that, but I don't feel it was all that bad. Nonetheless, you are entitled to your opinion, and thus, here it is!
Finally, Darth Mortis drops knowledge on tag team wrestling and why it gets no little to no importance: Look at the quarter hours for both WWE and TNA.
Tag team matches are usually the lowest rated segments.
As much as it may suck, as long as tag team wrestling segments pull in less ratings then comedy segments, there will be no huge movement to bring them back
Mr. Mortis, hello! In all honesty, ratings mean very little to me. I simply don't pay enough attention to them to correlate em with the shows that I watch. If this is true, (and I have no reason to doubt you) then it's a damned shame. I will ask this, however, is it that people are uninterested in tag team wrestling or are they uninterested in the tag team wrestlers as of now? Because if it is the latter, then the issue isn't with the idea of tag team wrestling, but is more so the issue of character development and storyline enhancement. Which brings me back to my original point within Tag Team Woes of last week.
Good responses last week, thanks a lot, guys!
QUICK RESULTS
- Sheamus Defeated Cody Rhodes [***]
- Epico and Primo Defeated Santino Marella and Hacksaw Jim Duggan [*]
- Beth Phoenix and Natalya vs. Tamina and Aksana [NR]
- Randy Orton Defeated Wade Barrett [***1/2]
THE RIGHT: HOLLA HOLLA HOLLA: Teddy Long is the longest running GM of any of WWE's shows (although Striker may be giving him a run for his money on NXT). I've always enjoyed Teddy Long on Smackdown because - save for a few short storylines - he typically keeps his nose out of feuds and plays the somewhat straight man. I love that his character is written that way as he typically only enhances a storyline instead of hindering it. Tonight was more of that, as he helped to drop Mark Henry from the show and announce the Elimination Chamber. Henry is injured and graciously worked through it for a bit, so it's great to see him get that time off that he needs. This segment flowed directly into the Royal Rumble winner coming out and telling us he'll announce who he wants to fight at Mania after Elimination Chamber. I can only assume that Bryan is going to do something to piss him off, but in the mean time, we had the great Cody Rhodes come down to berate him and the fans alike. Cody was spot on tonight, with his mic work and the match was no different.
SHEAMUS VS. RHODES: My only complaint was that this match was too damned short and probably could have gotten more time if the promo segments of tonight's show were cut shorter. Sheamus is incorporating a few of Finlay's moves into his repertoire and I'm all for it. It's a nice nod to a fellow Irish man and it prevents Shemaus from getting stale, which, I honestly felt like he was doing in recent weeks. Credit must go to Rhodes as well who broke out a Beautiful Disaster from the barricade and a Moonsault in this short match. There was the end piece of the match that ended with both men missing their respective kicks that I enjoyed and of course, Sheamus went over. A great match to start the show.
SANTIN-HOOOOOO: It appears that Santino is still on the hunt for a tag team partner that can beat Epico and Primo. I'm ok with this for a few reasons: First, it gives the tag team champions a spotlight every week so that we have them in the forefront of our mind and remember that they exist. Second, Santino is just a funny guy and works well in the whole random tag team thing. This will be just fine for the time being, but I hope we get a legit challenge for Primo and Epico soon, as they are rather crisp in the ring and have the capability to put on a great showing.
THIS IS YOUR ROLE MODEL: The pure essence of Bryan is getting better and better, as he is now attempting to change our eating habits for the better. If Bryan goes PETA personified, then I can guarantee the fans will come out hating in droves, and that's just a beautiful thing to see. I believe my favorite part here was when the crowd broke out into a "WE WANT BACON" chant. Glorious! I'll give props to Cole keeping to his disdain for Bryan and even more so for Bryan telling him to shove it up his vintage ass. My only qualm would be that I suppose there really was no need for Cole. Bryan could have come out and said everything he needed to without the waste of time of Cole in the beginning. That could have been used elsewhere.
Of course, the love of my life, AJ came down in her pretty little neck brace, and although I'm not 100% sure on this, there is a possibility of a heel turn for her as well. Did anyone else feel that way? Either way, it was nice seeing her. Oh, and Show...well, he did his thing and finally "snapped." This adds a bit of intrigue to the Chamber match and I'm still interested.
ORTON VS BARRETT: In what I assume is the end of their long lasting, bitter rivalry, Orton and Barrett pulled out a stellar match to close the show. It was given plenty of time to impress. Typically, when a match last longer than 10 minutes, there is a slow start with some methodical work to ease us into the match. Not this time. Wade came out with the fire, using the fists hard to start, and the match never gave up from there. Tables, Chairs, spit, the match had it all. Some high notes would be the fact that Orton ate the table, something I didn't see coming, Orton hit a nice Axe Handle from atop the barricade, Wade got himself a whole lot of offense and even pin pointed the back for some time, Orton hit a beautiful powerslam, and it took two RKO's to finish Wade. This was a match that didn't hurt Wade in the least, and I see big things for him. I am curious to see if they continue this or if they send Orton elsewhere. Either way, this was a treat and both men deserve some applause.
PURGATORY: There were a lot of little things that bugged me this week, so forgive me if they are short. I'd rather highlight each than write one big bulk.
HUNICO: The stereotypical Mexican was in full force tonight, coming out talking more like a character from a bad movie than anything close to reality. One too many "holmes" and "esse's" for my tastes. Taking the excessive vocab out, his promo made little sense and it was obvious that he was an afterthought.
KHALI'S BACK: This is a spectacle I really don't want to see, and I can only hope that he is eliminated quickly come the PPV. I never saw the spectacle of Khali, no matter how tall he is. At the very least, Show is athletic. Khali just...lumbers. It's bothersome.
BETH AND NAT FEUD? There seems to be something a brewing between these two aside from flatulence. If this is the case, then I'm all for it. I only hope that it's not centered around idiocy.
DREW IS A LOSER: I'm losing patience with this particular storyline, and I can only hope that something goes down soon because it's getting repetitive and annoying.
AKSANA: In a joke that made me laugh, Aksana moves from wRong to Right. I can only assume that she's going to not do anything of importance with Teddy Long, but at the very least they are using her for something other than standing there and not making sense.
THE WRONG: NOTHING
THE RIDICULOUS: FART JOKES II: It appears that the WWE Writing Team doesn't read the R's. If they did, they'd understand that this is just retarded and....RIDICULOUS! First of all, the aspect of a tag team match involving Tamina and Askana doesn't interest me in the least. But we couldn't even call it a match now, could we? It was all of a minute before Beth took control and ended it. Then we get to Natalya. In the back, her and Beth are doing squats and it appears that Natalya's eating habits are catching up with her because she is tootin everywhere. Last week and this week, she's left land mines for Santino to fall on and while there may be some people out there that find this entertaining, I find it anything but. It's juvenile humor and it's just stupid. I'm even a little mad at Natalya for going along with this idiotic notion of wrestling storytelling. You show me the point of it all, WWE, and maybe I'll forgive you. Fuckin worse than Cena poop jokes, man...
The 411
Four matches on the show typically means there was a hell of a lot of talking and nothing interesting. In this case, the show was relatively strong. The opening and closing match did more than make up for the lack of matches. I can't rightfully give this as good a rating as some are boasting it, however, due to a lot of dead segments that could have been cut even just a little and the fact that the Natalya thing is just...well, just no.
SHOW RATING: 7.5
By: Greg DeMarco
Impact Wrestling 2.2.12:
QUICK RESULTS:
* Samoa Joe & Magnus beat Crimson & Matt Morgan in 4:00 of a Buckingham Brawl [***]
* Austin Aries beat Mark Haskins via tapout in 4:51 [***]
* Bobby Roode beat James Storm in13:51 [***1/2]
* Tara pinned Gail Kim in 4:54 [***]
* James Storm beat Bully Ray in 14:14 [***1/2]
THE RIGHT: The setting: Damn was this crowd hot for Impact Wrestling! The arena looked great, I loved the feel with no big entrance stage. I've started to think that was getting played out, and this show moved that feeling forward. When a sold out crowd is attentive and loud for wrestling, it makes everything better. This is more proof that Impact Wrestling needs to get out of the Impact Zone. It's painfully detrimental to the product.
Samoa Joe & Magnus vs. Matt Morgan & Crimson: Despite the gimmick, this match just worked, son. The crowd was solidly behind Joe & Magnus (not sure TNA saw that coming, but they should have). Joe & Magnus have developed into a great team that you could actually rebuild the division around.
Austin Aries vs. Mark Haskins: I don't know if that was an intentional botch or not, but they worked a beautiful match up until that point. Aries is such a great heel it's not funny. And the crowd was completely behind him, and not the hometown boy (not sure TNA saw that coming, either!).
James Storm vs. Bobby Roode: It was good to see the champ get a win, and he got it in a great match. Both men have amazing chemistry, and Storm lost nothing in the loss.
Tara vs. Gail Kim: Probably the worst match of the night, but that's like being the least hot member of Extreme Expose'. They worked a good match that built to their PPV match at Against All Odds.
James Storm vs. Bully Ray: It's rare that making a guy work two matches on a program comes off as well as this did. But Storm had the crowd in the palm of his hand here, and Bully Ray was the perfect foil. The match order worked for me, since the show ended with Storm going over.
PURGATORY: The Bischoff Family Saga: Hulk Hogan being introduced as the trainer was completely obvious. Being spoiler free, I still knew it was going to happen. And I know many people hate this angle, but I don't. It's following a logical progression, it doesn't make me groan, and I think they'll use it to give some heat to Gunner along the way.
THE WRONG:
NOTHING.
THE RIDICULOUS:
NOTHING.
The 411
Spoiler free is the way to be! What else can I say about this program? Five great matches and a hot crowd. As I said in the TV report, this really felt like an old school Clash of the Champions. It wasn't perfect, but it's as close as TNA has come in a long time. Everything moved forward, and it played in front of a loud and appreciative crowd. I've often found myself watching a great match in TNA while thinking "this deserved a real crowd." They had one in London, and the difference was insane. Good job, TNA!
SHOW RATING: 9
As a reminder, I will be going by the 411 scale…
0 - 0.9: Torture 1 - 1.9: Extremely Horrendous 2 - 2.9: Very Bad 3 - 3.9: Bad 4 - 4.9: Poor 5 - 5.9: Not So Good 6 - 6.9: Average 7 - 7.9: Good 8 - 8.9:Very Good 9 - 9.9: Amazing 10: Virtually Perfect
If you haven't already, make sure you bookmark 411 or better yet, set us as your homepage! As always, thanks for choosing 411 for all of you pop culture needs!
lol that idiot face eli is the best player in NFL. smh. good thing we still got WWE. there has been 4 Summer of Punk, one in roh and 3 in WWE and i expect a 4th in WWE this year in the summer..
Posted By: Guest#5041 (Guest) on February 05, 2012 at 11:22 PM
Cograts to Larry for the baby and all, but a section with just Tommy Assero?
Please just stop the nonsense.
Posted By: Guest#2264 (Guest) on February 05, 2012 at 11:33 PM
"Your "if then" statement is a bit of a non sequitur in that those two may have very little to do with each other. A logical fallacy if there ever was one, my dear guest."
The fallacy is that you still don't get that this a SUBJECTIVE matter. If WWE had thought Natalya was as talented and special as you do, she wouldn't have a farting gimmick. Period. The fact that she does means WWE doesn't think much of her ability or least thinks much less of her than you do.
"Here's the thing, it's not solely talent that a push is based off of, as we can all attest to."
WWE's pushes are based on talent. WWE's opinion of who's talented, that is, not yours. WWE pushes who they believe are talented. In some cases, their views will be in line with yours. In other cases, their views will be a total 180 from yours.
Posted By: Guest#4322 (Guest) on February 06, 2012 at 12:00 AM
WWE's pushes are based on talent. WWE's opinion of who's talented, that is, not WWE's pushes are based on talent. WWE's opinion of who's talented, that is, not yours. WWE pushes who they believe are talented. In some cases, their views will be in line with yours. In other cases, their views will be a total 180 from yours.
Posted By: Guest#4322 (Guest) on February 06, 2012 at 12:00 AM
Uh, no. WWE pushes who they think will make them money. They push The Great Khali because he will make them money in the Indian market. The Great Khali is objectively not talented. He's not a good wrestler, he's not a good actor. He's just big, and from India. There are plenty of cases like this. WWE does not always push people solely on talent, this is a fact. Anyone who has been watching pro wrestling for any amount of time can see that.
Posted By: SeanAltly (Guest) on February 06, 2012 at 12:30 AM
lol that idiot face eli is the best player in NFL. smh. good thing we still got WWE. there has been 4 Summer of Punk, one in roh and 3 in WWE and i expect a 4th in WWE this year in the summer..
Posted By: Guest#5041 (Guest) on February 05, 2012 at 11:22 PM
What the hell are you talking about?
Posted By: Guest#3685 (Guest) on February 06, 2012 at 12:40 AM
"Uh, no. WWE pushes who they think will make them money. They push The Great Khali because he will make them money in the Indian market. The Great Khali is objectively not talented. He's not a good wrestler, he's not a good actor. He's just big, and from India. There are plenty of cases like this. WWE does not always push people solely on talent, this is a fact. Anyone who has been watching pro wrestling for any amount of time can see that."
WWE doesn't think Khali sucks, at least not at the roles in which they keep using him. They pretty obviously think he's good at comedy and is good for being a monster that they can push if needed or someone they can job to a guy they want really want to put over someone, like Mark Henry.
Posted By: Guest#7654 (Guest) on February 06, 2012 at 12:47 AM
Tony, I don't think AJ turning heel would work greatly. She seems like one of those people who are naturally a face, like (AJ) Styles or Sting.
Tiny and perky can be evil, but I don't think WWE would go far enough. Good looking women are generally faces, but unlike TBP or the Canadian Ninjas, she wouldn't get to do the bitch act.
Besides, AJ and Bryan could work the Liz/Savage dynamic where he becomes more of a heel because of what he puts the face valet through.
Posted By: Guest#7715 (Guest) on February 06, 2012 at 01:32 AM
WWE doesn't think Khali sucks, at least not at the roles in which they keep using him. They pretty obviously think he's good at comedy and is good for being a monster that they can push if needed or someone they can job to a guy they want really want to put over someone, like Mark Henry.
Posted By: Guest#7654 (Guest) on February 06, 2012 at 12:47 AM
Oh, and Khali can make the WWE money.
The WWE obviously feels that they can make more money off of Supafly's daughter than they can from Natalya.
Hopefully Natalya will get pissed about losing, will eventually snap, and go on a tear through the Diva's division. That's the only decent sounding payoff that can come out of this farting nonsense.
Back to Khali. He's not completely worthless. Actually, he's probably the third best legit "giant" in history, not counting Giant Baba, who wasn't actually a giant.
That's still not saying much, though. When it comes to giants, you've got Andre, who, while not a great worker by any stretch of the imagination, was decent for most of his career, had quite a bit of charisma, and was excellent with his facial gestures. Big Show has slowly, but surely, become a decent in-ring worker, has a boatload of charisma, is the only giant to be worth anything on the stick, and can actually act.
Then there's Khali. He's not bad at what he does, which isn't much. He never speaks, but he is a decent comedy act and is very good for putting other stars over, as well as rising stars. He is clumsy though, sounds like a retarded version of a very early Schwarzenegger, and is very slow in the ring.
Under Khali, though, the rest of the giants have been pure and utter shit. Guys like Kurrgan, Giant Gonzales, Giant Silva, and other bit role giants who never amounted to anything.
So, there you go. Khali might suck compared to your average worker, but for a giant, he's not half bad, plus he makes the WWE more money than the average mid to lower mid card schlub.
Posted By: Andis (Guest) on February 06, 2012 at 10:36 AM
I'm sure many of the guys in the back during impact felt as if the show was something special as the crowd was red hot for everything that happened. You could tell they was also motivated as well to perform.
As for Santino's quest for a tag partner, odds are it'll be Drew who he winds up winning the tag titles with and saving his job as well. Then it'll be like the Haas/Rico tag team back in 04.
Posted By: Michael (Guest) on February 06, 2012 at 04:07 PM
Congrats to Larry & Christy Csonka on the new addition to the family!
Posted By: Johnny Kinard (Guest) on February 06, 2012 at 05:04 PM
How do we know Nattie's not queefing?
The smell?
Like I said how do we know Nattie's not queefing?
Posted By: Andre the Midget (Guest) on February 06, 2012 at 05:09 PM
You know the sad thing about Joe and Magnus? They've had less than ten matches working together and they already have double team moves and a finisher with the snapmare followed by a diving elbow. While in WWE not a single team has a finisher.
Posted By: Kevin (Guest) on February 06, 2012 at 06:43 PM
I must say you hit that Impact review out of the park. I'm glad to see a really good episode gets the recognition it deserves...especially since the rating didn't reflect how good the show was. I hope next week's "Star Wars" episode isn't stupid.
Posted By: Guest#9588 (Guest) on February 06, 2012 at 06:58 PM
If Khali handwalks in the E.C., I'll be ok with him in it. Actually, it could be fun to watch him throw people around in the Chamber.
Posted By: The Great Capt. Smooth (Guest) on February 06, 2012 at 07:05 PM
you did a great job with the impact review! it was a excellent episode with a amazing crowd!!!
but im scared for next week, a star wars episode? their a slight chance it could be entertaining but... even if it were wwe i wouldnt be really excited about this concept...
Posted By: Guest#6009 (Guest) on February 07, 2012 at 05:07 PM
Copyright (c) 2011 411mania.com, LLC. All rights reserved.
Click here for our privacy policy. Please help us serve you better, fill out our survey.
Use of this site signifies your agreement to our terms of use.
