News to Start Your Weekend 1.12.07
Posted by Nick Marsico on 01.12.2007
Torn quads and afros and hats made of curry, Jimmy loves Lacey and his boots are furry. These are a few things and a statement.
So what's going on this week? Plenty of stuff, but nothing especially interesting. I'm still off from school and will be for another week or so, and I don't have a job so nothing is really going on with me at all – just a lot of losing NCAA Football '07 to my friends. Lots of that. I'm watching the 2006 Chikara Tag World Grand Prix as well, and I just finished Night 1. If you get a chance, try to check out both matches Team Kai En Tai Dojo (MIYAWAKI & Yoshiaki Yago) had, first against the Thomaselli Brothers and then the match of the night against Team DDT of KUDO & MIKAMI. Awesome stuff, and it made me a big fan of Yago, who until seeing this I had only ever heard his name. It's too bad his team didn't move on in the tourney. I was, however, a part of this week's Fact or Fiction column with mister Michael Weyer of Shining a Spotlight. Check that out.
By the way, if you read my column often, you'll notice that I've gone through tons of different formats and whatnot. I think from now on the format is just going to be however I feel like putting it together week to week. Sometimes it might be like last week where I separated ROH from WWE/TNA with headings, sometimes it'll just all be together, sometimes I may separate all three – it all depends on my mood and how lazy I feel or how organized I want everything to look. Today I don't foresee much of a format at all.
==========
Triple H tore his quadriceps muscle in his right leg last Sunday on PPV, and I read about the injury before I saw his match, so I spent my entire first viewing of it watching his legs and waiting to see how he hurt himself, and maybe it's just because I was watching for it, but his legs seemed really wobbly and just not strong. So he'll be out until May at the earliest. Should we expect DX to return in the summer? I for one hope not, but at the same time I don't want to see another reprisal of the damn Triple H vs. Shawn Michaels feud that I've seen a bunch of people talking about, I don't want to see HBK add more people to DX, and I don't want DX returning in a few months. Either let Shawn take a break after taking a beat down from Orton and Edge, or let him chase Umaga for the title through the spring. That's right, I say give Umaga the belt at WrestleMania and then let Shawn have a series of really good matches with him, win the belt early in the summer, and then have Edge take it from him at SummerSlam and let the man have his real title run that he should have had in 2006. Wow, from Triple H tearing his quad to me complaining about Edge not getting a fair shot, heh.
I think I've reported this before, but OVW tag team Deuce and Domino may get the call up to one of the main shows some time soon. They're currently on tour with SmackDown and ECW. I like the team and think their 1950s greaser gimmick is fun stuff. Deuce is Jimmy Snuka, Jr, by the way, adopted son of the Superfly.
Sexy Ace Steel played Donald Trump on RAW. The show was a giant piece of shit, and so was the match segment, although I did laugh quite a few times because it was Ace, and I love Ace. How could one not?
Gene Snitsky might face Lashley for the ECW Title at WrestleMania. I've seen people bitching and moaning about this, along with earlier reports that it would be the Great Khali. The problem is that they've been complaining about how they don't want either guy in a WrestleMania main event. Now, I could see maybe complaining about either guy getting a singles spot on the card, but it's the ECW Title match, it's going to be, at the highest, 6th from the top. It's not a main event.
Sylvan got arrested for going 96 MPH in a 55. He got bailed out and is going to court for it. He'll probably get some points on his license or something at the very worst. And yet once again, just like the last story, I've seen retards overreacting about this. It's not a big deal, and it's Sylvan, not The Rock.
Check out MTV's Wrestling Society X website. There's a cool looking trailer for the show and photos and a roster and such. Lacey with a nice makeup job and some good lighting is like 5 times hotter than normal. Oh, production value. The show debuts two weeks from this upcoming Tuesday on January 30 at 10:30 on MTV up against the second half of ECW on Sci-Fi. I'll just download them both anyway, so it's no big deal to me.
The Briscoe Brothers are the new GHC Jr. Heavyweight Tag Champions after winning the belts on Sunday in Japan. They defeated Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Takashi Sugiura. Looks like we're going to be getting some good NOAH tag team action going on in Ring of Honor in the near future. I gotta say, I don't think anybody expected the Briscoes to take the belts with them, so this comes as quite a welcomed surprise.
BJ Whitmer will get a World Title shot at ROH's next event in Dayton on February 23 no matter who the champion is. Often, as is the case with Jimmy Rave's prospective upcoming title shot on February 16, when a match is booked it will happen whether it is for a title or not. BJ is currently slated to go up against Homicide, but if any of his challengers defeat him, then Whitmer will be challenging the new champion.
It looks like Samoa Joe won't be wrestling Nigel McGuinness on February 16 in New York, because they will be wrestling on January 26 in Boston the night before Joe's title shot against Homicide. That means that at ROH's return to NYC, Samoa Joe will be getting a response from somebody from NOAH, not just a representative. Maybe he will be challenged by the man who is the partner of his next ‘dream match', Takeshi Morishima. Think we'll see Mohammed Yone vs. Samoa Joe on 2/16? He did show up with Chris Daniels in the most recent video wire. As always, check out Ari's Column of Honor for more.
==========
I watched New Year's Revolution during the week, and I actually thought it was a damn good show. From top to bottom there really wasn't a bad match, with only the Carlito vs. Masters match falling apart thanks to being placed in a really tough spot, coming on right after DX destroyed Orton and Edge. It wasn't a bad match, but the crowd didn't give a fuck and it was short. The cage match started the show off on a very good note, and somehow even the tag team turmoil match was entertaining and none of the matches were shitty. That was a nice change from the normal crap we see with these matches. I can't remember a single really good tag team turmoil match outside of the one that Jericho and Benoit won back in May of 2001 that won them the tag title shot that they cashed in on the night that Triple H tore his quad for the first time. That was a good thrown together match on the PPV, and I believe they were a surprise entrant, too.
Mickie and Victoria had a good match with a good finish that really brought a good conclusion to the first part of this storyline. I actually am quite surprised at the fact that even though Trish and Lita are gone, they're still trying to get the Women's division some direction, and it is going along quite nicely. People thought those two leaving was the death knell, but here we are a few months after both women are gone, and the Women's Title has had a good developing feud that began about 2 months ago which led to the first high point of the story at the PPV. Victoria got the second part of the story going by asking Melina to help her take over the division, and the women that Victoria destroyed along the way stopped her from helping Victoria take the belt, and that closed the book on that chapter. Now we get to see where it goes from here, with Victoria and Melina aligned against the rest of the women. As far as the match itself, it was better than they non-title match the two had on TV, and I was glad that the really believable false finish near the end of the match where Mickie rolled up Victoria out of the Widow's Peak didn't kill the crowd before the actual finish with the DDT counter. This match and all of the stuff over the past couple months with the women has been quite well booked, and I for one appreciate it. It would be nice if they would bring some more of the talented wrestlers that they have on the roster over to RAW.
It's a shame Triple H had to get hurt during the tag title match, because up until that point, I thought the match was damn fantastic. Hell, even a couple things after that spinebuster were pretty sweet, namely Shawn's Sweet Chin Music out of nowhere on Orton and his suicide dive near the corner a little later on. That little segment, though, with Orton hitting the shitty RKO on Triple H who couldn't stand that was followed by the superkick while Orton posed would have been awesome if Edge would have speared HBK after the superkick rather than just weakly pushing him down. This was still the match of the night to me, and as I've been pointing out, still had plenty of bright spots after the torn quad.
Cena vs. Umaga went about exactly as I had hoped it would go. I was personally expecting a pretty good match but was afraid that it could have gone horribly wrong, but instead I got the good match, probably a bit better than I expected, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. The crowd was really hot for it and Umaga has a lot of really good offense that kept the near 20 minute match going while he basically squashed Cena outside of a few quick flurries of offense. I think the finish could have been a little cleaner in execution, as Cena didn't make good contact with Umaga as he came in for the corner splash, but I liked the booking and I certainly think the crowd's huge reaction to Cena rolling Umaga up and getting the pin added to it.
At this point, I don't think anybody really would have a whole lot to gain from beating Umaga and ending his win streak – there are no faces on RAW who are really in the position that one big win, such as this, would have pushed them up into superstar status, and I think it was just about the right time for Umaga to lose. Now he can move on without that stigma surrounding him, and now all of his matches aren't clear-cut that they will end either with him winning or a DQ. The same goes for Punk, by the way. Stop complaining about him losing to Holly. They're feuding. If Holly doesn't look like a threat, then what's the point of a feud? Plus, it's not like the unbeaten streak was a big deal. It wasn't a big part of his character, and he's already been pinned clean, albeit not in a one-on-one match. Get over it, queers.
But yeah, I thought the New Year's Revolution show was a damn good way to start off 2007's PPV schedule. It's too bad the abomination that was this week's RAW had to take place the next night and completely destroy all of the momentum they had at the end of Sunday night.
==========
I only have one piece of feedback this week, and it's from truth_soldier:
I didn't read the stuff you wrote about the ROH show in December, because I actually plan on buying that show when it comes out, and wanted to avoid as many spoilers as possible (even though I've already ruined Homicide winning the title).
although I will tell you that Angle vs. Undertaker is my WWE match of the year
Can't argue with that, although I'm still miffed that you won't even consider Nitro vs. Hardy at Unforgiven (I know it's not close, but still).
John Cena has had a hell of a year.
Couldn't agree more. I get sick of the hatorade that has been spit on him all year, but I got tired of defending him about July or so. Great writeup of him, although you forgot to mention his TLC match from Unforgiven. Have you seen that ppv?
Nice to see that you mentioned Edge's match at ONS. It has been overlooked as a match of the year candidate everywhere I look. I also loved what you had to say about Smackdown.
Overall, good stuff. Thanks for the read.
I don't see a point in considering the Hardy/Nitro match. You even said it yourself that it's not even close, so why bother? It was a good match and I have noted multiple times in the past that it was the match that restored a lot of my faith in Hardy as far as being a competent and capable worker, but it was a good PPV match, nothing more. It wasn't even the match of the night, let alone of the year. The TLC match is included in my statement about Cena having a great series of matches against Edge. I think calling it a match of the year candidate is a ridiculous overstatement, but it was a very enjoyable match.
I have seen the show, and I think it got way too much hype – the Hardy/Nitro match was a fine opener, Umaga vs. Kane was better than I expected but nothing to write home about, the Hell in a Cell was a completely and outstandingly unnecessary addition to the card and just left a bad taste in my mouth seeing as they already had a TLC on the card, although the match itself was decently entertaining. Trish vs. Lita was a good women's match, and as I said the TLC was really good. I didn't really like the flow of the show, but it was certainly good, just not great. I personally thought No Way Out, One Night Stand and Judgment Day were better shows than Unforgiven. I'd say WrestleMania as well, but going on the fact that it was supposed to be the biggest and best show of the year and it turned out to be a disappointment even with a few quite good matches, I can't put it up there, I guess going by a sort of scale, since WM is supposed to be the absolute standard and Unforgiven is just a throwaway single brand show.
I think the reason the tag match that with Edge at ONS is overlooked was because at the time a lot of people were disappointed with the show and just completely wrote it off, ignoring some of the good stuff we got from the show.
Thanks for reading, sir.
==========
And finally, the traditional quick picks for this Sunday's Final Resolution PPV:
