News to Start Your Weekend 1.19.07
Posted by Nick Marsico on 01.19.2007
It's another one of them there firin' sprees! Who's gone? Who's next? Find out inside! Also, lots more, including a rant on Russo detractors (yeah, I know, sorry), runoff from the Payload and other stuff. Just click, would ya?
It looks like I get to be the first person to really talk in depth, well, in depth as I care to, about this year's first wave of the big firing spree in World Wrestling Entertainment. It's always an exciting time when we get to log on to these wonderful interwebs and see who no longer has a job working for Vince McMahon. We get to speculate on where they might be going to , where they might be going back to, why they got canned – we get to be angry about people getting the boot and annoyed because we thought more could have been done with them. It is a fun, fun time to be a part of the IWC. It's like a second Christmas, just not for those who lost their jobs, but for those of us who get to watch as more names are announced on the dot com. So this, obviously, gets to be the lead story this week.
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Thus far there have been 11 casualties. The list reads Al Snow, CW Anderson, Sylvester Terkay, Jazz, Rodney Mack, Tony Mamaluke, Doug and Danny Basham, Gangrel and Mike and Todd Shane, the former Gymini.
I don't really see the point of grouping Snow in with this list, because while he is now no longer going to be a part of active competition, they are keeping him around to do all of his duties in Ohio Valley Wrestling, including being a trainer and TV commentator. He's not been on TV more than a few times over the past few years, rarely does dark matches and hasn't done a whole lot as far as house shows. Nobody would really have noticed if they just took his profile down from the ECW roster page; something would have been posted here on 411 mentioning that the profile was gone, a couple people might speculate, and then it would come out that he's still working in OVW, and nobody would really bat an eye. It's not a big deal, I just felt like mentioning it, since he's the only one out of the 11 who is still working with the company now.
Anderson will probably find some success in indies around the country, or maybe he'll go over to Japan where his friend Steve Corino is having lots of success. Jazz may end up becoming another addition to the TNA roster, and if they're really looking to start a women's division, I'd call that a smart move. Rodney Mack probably won't make waves anywhere, and we likely won't hear his name unless it's alongside Jazz. Mamaluke could end up back doing some stuff in Ring of Honor and I'd be open to it, but I'm not going to miss him if he doesn't show up there. Most people didn't even know Gangrel was still employed, and he'll do fine with whatever he does on the indies. The Gymini could have been a nice addition to what was looking to be a budding tag division on SmackDown when they first came in, but one of them got hurt and Simon Dean got taken off TV, and that was the end of them.
The only one out of all of these names that I really care about and am looking forward to hopeful success elsewhere are the Bashams, or at least Doug on his own. It would be pretty cool to see them together getting a chance in Ring of Honor or even TNA at this point. I definitely would like to see them in ROH, though.
Overall there are no big surprises, as Terkay was the only one regularly on television. Mamaluke was on every once and again, even showing up on the ECW PPV, but he was getting squashed by Terkay. Nobody else was doing anything other than the Bashams, who were Heyman's security, and with him gone, there's obviously nothing for them to do. Obviously.
So that's that, and it was fun. There wasn't really anybody to get mad about, and even those with potential, like Terkay, probably isn't going to really piss anybody off. That's the only shame here, that I and the other jerkoffs here on the IWC can't angrily complain about one of our darlings being fired just to see him be hired back within the next year or so after good or marginal success on the indies.
That's always funny, as well, as we were all complaining about how Jamie Noble got fired, and then he went to Ring of Honor, had awesome matches and even won their World Title, and now he's not even on TV, and on the rare occasions that he does show up, it's to get squashed. He got that short run with Kid Kash in the Pitbulls tag team, but since Kash got fired, Noble hasn't done anything. While it may be better for some guys to take WWE contracts and not wrestle much, it isn't better for everybody, as some of them can have good success on the independent circuit and make good livings for themselves. And of course for anybody who really has a chance to actually be fired from WWE, it's basically always going to better for us, the fans, as far as getting to watch them wrestle.
We'll see how all of this turns out over the next couple months, and over the next few days and weeks I'm sure a couple more people will no longer be employed.
On a quick note, I'm also reading that the second in command for the SmackDown writing team under Michael Hayes has been fired, and it was Hayes himself pushing for it because they had clashes. On what I don't know. Maybe Hayes doesn't like Jews. Uh, that's parody. No libel here. His name was Andrew Goldstein, by the way. Was. Is, of course. He's not dead, just without a job.
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Speaking of lots of wrestlers, the majority of the wrestlers who will be participating in this year's Royal Rumble have been announced, but as tends to happen, there is some confusion. 27 guys have been announced for the match, and though Joey Styles said during his match with Punk that Striker would be a part of the Rumble match, he has not been announced on the website. At this point, the list of wrestlers stands at 27 officially:
1.Shelton Benjamin 2.Chris Benoit 3.Carlito 4.Tommy Dreamer 5.Kenny Dykstra
6.Edge 7.Finlay 8.Ric Flair 9.Chavo Guerrero 10.Jeff Hardy 11.Matt Hardy
12.Hardcore Holly 13.Kane 14.King Booker 15.Chris Masters 16.Shawn Michaels
17.The Miz 18.Johnny Nitro 19.Randy Orton 20.Montel Vontavious Porter
21.CM Punk 22.Sabu 23.Sandman 24.Kevin Thorn 25.Undertaker 26.Rob Van Dam
27.Viscera
They're calling it the most star studded rumble ever, which I think can be partially contributed to a third World Title match on the card. It's comprised of singles guys instead of having a bunch of tag teams and lower carders. There's plenty of that, but most of the big names are in the Rumble match. I think that Mark Henry will be another addition in his return to action, and I bet that Striker and Marquis Cor Von will round it all out, leaving the split between brands 11 for RAW, 10 for SmackDown and 9 for ECW, which actually turns out to be a fair split.
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And since I just love the segues here at the News to Start Your Weekend… speaking of Marquis Cor Von, he made his debut Tuesday night on ECW. This is of course Monty Brown under a different name but with the same nickname or moniker if you will, being the Alpha Male. He also hails from a similar place, as he was from the Serengeti in TNA and on ECW he's from the Animal Kingdom. He's got the same short tights on as well, and they have "pounce" written on the back, and he did the move. I'm sure next week it will be called as such. He had a promo as well, which was pretty good, but I was kind of sad that he didn't rub his head on the ropes. I enjoyed that. And he didn't use the catchphrase.
The music seems hit or miss, either people love it or hate it, and I'm on the side of those who love it. It does fit what I'm seeing his ECW character being, and I think that's what people have a problem with – they are going by his TNA character due to the similarities of most of what ECW is doing with him, and that's not correct. He's playing an Alpha Male, a ladies man, a dude who is the big dog, the cool guy. In TNA he was the Alpha Male, a guy who was like an animal and had animal instincts but had the mind of a man, basically. The character is different; the nickname just works both ways.
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Yes, there have been many firings, but there have been a couple new hirings. Outside of Monty Brown's appearance as Marquis Cor Von, the man he squashed was also hired under a developmental contract. That is Cassidy Riley. Also signed to a development deal was Ace Steel, SEXY Ace Steel, who of course played Donald Trump a couple weeks ago on RAW. That could turn out to be a very good thing. I don't see Riley going anywhere, but Ace Steel, if given a chance, could end up doing something really good. I don't know if I really see it happening, but it would be quite nice. We'll see how that turns out eventually. I'm betting at least one of them, if not both, never see the light of day outside of OVW or Deep South.
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Some TNA news, as their ratings have been going up a bit and seem to now finally be showing stability above 1.0, including having 1.5 million viewers (not a 1.5 rating) for their last show, which is the most viewers ever for one showing of Impact. Next Thursday UFC gets the primetime spot, so Impact will air Wednesday night, January 24, an hour later than usual at 10 PM. They also may be airing a special on the night that RAW will be pre-empted for the dog show, which is February 12. It's not confirmed yet, and it hasn't been said whether it would be a one or two hour show, but one would assume two hours. At least that would be the smart thing to do.
Kurt Angle is scheduled to have a match on February 18 for the New Japan promotion for a show at Sumo Hall. His opponent hasn't been announced as of yet, although I wouldn't be surprised if he just ends up in a tag match for the sake of his health. As far as having a match in Ring of Honor, booker Gabe Sapolsky has said that there haven't been talks and that he doesn't expect it to happen.
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I love my segues, don't I? I can't seem to get enough of them. There are plenty of things going on in Ring of Honor. Austin Aries will be having a big grudge match against Claudio Castagnoli in Philadelphia on February 17. I wonder, with Claudio getting thrown to the curb by his former best friend and partner Chris Hero, could a loss to big tag rival Austin Aries add to what may lead to a complete downward spiral for the Most Money Making Man?
Becky, or Rebecca Bayless as she is now going to be going by – to be more proper I assume – will be rejoining Ring of Honor as a backstage interviewer starting with next weekend's Boston show.
ROH is looking into bringing Doug Williams back to the states to work some upcoming shows. I'm certainly looking forward to that. Doug was a big part of the beginning of Ring of Honor, and he had a lot of good matches during the first year of the company. He's, as Jim Ross would say, a solid hand that I'd like to see in present day ROH.
Another grudge match is scheduled to take place, this one for the return to Manhattan on February 16. On the first night of the Fifth Year Festival, BJ Whitmer will get a chance for some redemption on Brent Albright, and Albright will get his chance to finish what he started on December 23. Tables will be legal in the Albright/Whitmer match on 2/16.
Jack Evans is set to return to Ring of Honor at the end of this month, and he's looking to make an impact and get some gold. Is he talking tag team gold? Maybe he'll be seeking out some singles gold in the form of former Generation Next partner Roderick Strong's FIP Heavyweight Title. This could turn out to be very interesting.
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Final Resolution was a damn good PPV. I've seen, as it tends to go, people going both ways on this one, but outside of a couple missteps, I found the show to be quite awesome. The opener was a really good match, even better than their brawl/match last month at Turning Point, and I thought it was fantastic. These two have good chemistry together, and the way the match ended and what we saw on Impact last night means that this issue isn't over quite yet.
The X title match was short, but they got a lot into the 12 minutes they were given, and it came out quite well. Sabin's the new champ but didn't show up on Impact and neither did his two opponents, but there's a new issue brewing in the X Division with Senshi and Austin Starr, so right now Sabin, being champion, might end up being the odd man out. It's possible that we have upcoming for next month's PPV a Lynn vs. Sabin match to finish off that part of the feud and Senshi vs. Starr to determine who gets Sabin after the February pay-per-view. Maybe Daniels for now is the odd man out then, but I'm sure he's going to find himself somewhere in this feud, and he'll likely get Jerry Lynn after Lynn gets his shot at Sabin.
Bob Backlund is a crazy old man, and I don't think anybody would have it any other way.
The Storm/Williams match was less of a PPV attraction and more of an angle advancement with a decent TV match for a little filler, but the whole angle really worked out well. With a two hour show it's probably likely that this match and angle would likely have ended up on TV rather than PPV, but in the long run it doesn't matter, because I think it's a pretty hot angle now, and it's going to lead to a little wrestling between the women and an eventual Chris Harris return with Gail at his side, and if done right, it could get a real big pop, and the one-on-one match between the two will probably be quite good. Remember, the reason they were put together as a tag team all those years ago at the beginning of TNA was because they were so familiar with each other from wrestling against one another. I actually almost thought Harris was on his way out when it was actually just Petey on Impact this week, but the situation where Petey came out is pretty perfect for a way for Harris to come back when he eventually does. I haven't read any of the spoilers, so we'll see if this turns out how I kind of envision it to. Have I mentioned that I love Storm's new music by the way? Because I really do. His entrance is awesome and he comes off, much like LAX, as being worth a damn because of it.
The VKM stuff was a bit longer than it needed to be, but I think Christy's promo was effective. The crowd turned against it but I think in the end they were able to get the crowd back on their side for the most part, and this could lead to some interesting things. I was annoyed by the sit down interview with Christy on Impact, though, because it didn't further anything. I think we got the point at Final Resolution that Kip's a womanizing douche, and his involvement told us nothing more. I was hoping that we would get to see a little more into what Christy wants her involvement on the PPV to lead to, but I guess we're going to have to wait.
The NWA Tag title match was going along decently, but not great, until Runt came in to ruin it. That's one of the problems I had with the show, but in the end if it leads to more of his brothers just tossing his ass around like in the old days, I wouldn't have a problem with that. I wouldn't mind if Runt found a partner and had his own little feud with his brothers, to be honest with you.
The 30 minute Iron Man was a really, really good match. I'm not sure if I'm willing to say great, but it was awesome, if nothing else. I found it to be the best of the three, with the first and the second, in that order, behind it. They repeated the Muscle Buster into the sunset flip spot, and normally I wouldn't have a problem with it, but them Joe was able to hit the move on his third try without actually changing anything up. Logic would say that Kurt, even in a weakened state, would still be able to counter it, as he was ready for it twice before, and neither time was particularly early in the match. Other than that I really didn't have much to dislike about the match. The very large numbers at the bottom of the screen was pretty distracting and I could have used a break from it. They should have left us without it and put it up only when there were either milestones (every 5 minutes for a few seconds would be fine) or upon each fall with a graphic that had the time counting down and a scoreboard. Either that or at least have the numbers substantially smaller on the screen, because I was distracted as all hell and that hurt my enjoyment of the match a bit.
I liked the finish of the match as well, with Joe having used up a lot of his arsenal (his TNA arsenal, at least) and looking to Kurt's move to try to hopefully tie the score back up. I was also glad that they didn't do one of my least favourite spots nowadays, the reversal-reversal-reversal ad nauseum spot that Kurt seems to love to do with the Ankle Lock. I love submissions and I love counters and reversals and all of that goodness, but Ankle Lock-Choke-Ankle Lock-Choke-Ankle Lock is just tedious and it really hurt the likeability of the second match to me.
Also, a note on the rules of the match… they had the 30 second rest period between falls (might have been 15, I wasn't paying that close attention to Earl Hebner), and I was seeing that possibly factoring into the decision at the end of the match, especially how Joe happened to be down a fall as the contest was closing. I'd love to see it be a part of the finish of a future Iron Man match where a guy is down by say two falls with very little time left. He's able to get one fall with either under 30 seconds or about 45 seconds left, and now, by the rules, he has to sit and wait for the rest period to finish before he can go after his opponent. In one scenario, the time runs out on him and the match ends before he has a chance to even try something, and in the other scenario he has to wait, and by the time he gets a chance to go for a quick pin or to put a submission on an injured body part, there's 30 seconds (or 15 depending on what the rest period was) wasted at the very tail end of the match that ends up costing him. Just a thought, as I actually had it running through my head as the match went on that it may end up causing some trouble as the match wound down.
And as for the main event, I liked the match until the last minute or so. I thought it was going quite well and I liked how the champion was pinned first, although that probably could have been done a bit better, but the idea was there and it worked out pretty well. Basically I thought everything before the ref bump was more or less fantastic. Thinking about it now, the finish works because of Abyss' very confused nature, as he's not sure if he's working for Mitchell or trying to help Sting, so in a story advancing sense it was okay, but it hurt the match as far as it was just a bit too overbooked. The Abyss run in after Tomko got out of the cage I liked, and putting him back in the cage to let the match continue uninterrupted worked, but I would have liked, purely as a story within the match, for it to then be finished between Sting and Cage to at least put a little bit a of capper on their feud. That didn't happen, but for the overall story I guess it made sense for the bit after that with Abyss and Mitchell in the ring to happen. Not perfect, but it was fine, and Christian is our new champion. Here's hoping he doesn't lose it to Kurt in February.
Just to tie up some loose ends with Impact this week, the Angle/Styles match was underwhelming, but one probably shouldn't have expected much more. The commercial break certainly hurt, but it wasn't an outstanding match anyway. I thought the little thing between Styles and EY at the beginning of AJ's promo with Borash was quite funny, so that was my big mark out of the night.
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To Larry, on what you said in your Impact report: I said it on the message boards and I'll say it here, there's nothing wrong with booking Styles and Angle on Impact. It was in a response to what something Byers said:
"And this is the top problem with Vince Russo. He thinks of himself as a TV writer whose job is to get ratings for TV, not as a wrestling booker whose job is to do what's best for the wrestling promotion."
My reply to him, and this goes to anybody who has the fucking silly sentiment that you showed in your heading for the AJ/Kurt match:
It's not a problem because that seems to be the goal of TNA at this point. It might be something that you don't like, but at this point in time TNA is looking for ratings in order to further its goals of getting more TV time. That IS his job, and it's stupid as fuck to think it isn't. They wouldn't have hired him if that's what they weren't looking for.
What's best for the promotion right now is getting ratings for TV. If nobody's watching your TV show, then sure as hell nobody is going to watch your PPVs. Just because a match is done once doesn't mean that all of a sudden it stops being marketable and something that can sell PPVs. You have to remember that a match alone doesn't sell a show, but rather the build to it. Sometimes a prior match, even one without build, is something that helps to build up a future match that people are going to pay for.
So no, Larry, Ryan and whoever else is down on TNA for booking this match, it isn't an exercise in hating money, it's something that can possibly lead to bringing in more money. You can't make the fans have to pay for EVERY match, because without giving them a reason to watch your TV show, there's no way they'll watch, and without seeing what's on TV they have no incentive to buy your PPV, because to them it would just be a bunch of matches taking place, because they wouldn't have been around to see the build. Every once in a while you have to throw the fans a bone, and in the case of the Kurt/AJ match on this week's Impact, if was a small, fairly unsatisfactory bone. To think that the match that happened on this show is going to have a negative effect on prospective PPV buyers when an Angle/Styles match does happen on pay-per-view is not a very well-informed and, bluntly, not a smart view to take.
Larry, I love you and you should know that. If it weren't for you I wouldn't have this column and I wouldn't be able to be saying what I am right now, but I really dislike your condescending "We Hate Money" think you do, because it doesn't make any sense to me. If you don't like something, don't throw out comments like these that leave some annoying ambiguity out there. Explain yourself, because I really don't understand it, and much like most everything Byers writes, it comes off as blind Russo hatred more than anything else, and it's just not warranted right now. Before Russo, TNA had plenty of things going for it, but week in and week out and month in and month out nothing of consequence really ever happened. Something would take place, and the next show nothing would be changed and nothing would really be advanced. Russo has changed that. There's very little or no downtime on Impact every week now, and with one of the big Impact slogans being that it's supposed to be your "one hour adrenaline rush", it finally feels like that's true. It's certainly better than Sting's game show, isn't it?
I'm not a blind follower of Russo. He's done a lot of stupid shit over the years. I hated a lot of the shit he did with TNA back when he was an active character on the show and I didn't like him doing that with WCW either. I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt, though, because my patience with Impact and TNA in general was really wearing thin before he showed up, and now I'm more into them than I was back when they were on Friday afternoons on FSN and during the summer of 2005 when they were on the internet. I liked those shows, and I'm really digging a lot of the stuff they're doing now. It's fine to not like it, but a lot of the problems I'm seeing people complain about really seems like a lot of petty shit. Outside of the obvious "too much going on at once", which at times I definitely agree with, most of it seems to boil down to things being "Russoriffic", and it comes off as more of an attack on him and not wanting to like anything he does rather than a real unbiased opinion on the show.
In any event, I feel like Christy Hemme at last Sunday's PPV, but the "We Hate Money" thing I saw when reading the Impact report put me over the edge. Respond if you will, Larry, Ryan, or anybody.
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Now that I've got that off my chest, here's a little something left out of this past Monday's Fink's Payload, a column moderated by myself and mister Mathew Sforcina and myself. From Billy Ayers:
Impact opens up with alex shelley walking to the ring for an opening interview.
Shelley- ya know over the past couple of weeks I have talked to tna management and I have gotten them to agree with me on the fact that tna needs to be shaken up. I have shown management tapes in my personal collection and have impressed them. So mangement has agreed to let me bring in 3 new talents to tna. Who are these three you ask well you'll just have to wait and see. Shelley drops the mike and walks off.
Next impact: Alex shelley vs. sonjay dutt
Finish- dutt goes for the standing shooting star press but shelley gets his knees up and hits the shellshock for the win. Shelley grabs the mic
And now as im sure you are all full with anticipation I introduce to you the first member of the new movement in tna….. Davey richards! The crowd roars as richards comes to the ring. Dutt gets up and is confused untill richards charges at him with a kick to the head followed up with a D.R driver. Shelley and richards leave the ring.
Next impact: Alex shelley and davey richards vs. the naturals
Richards and shelley win when shelley hits sliced bread number two on douglas while richards hits a tope on stevens.
Next impact cornette comes out and announces that shelley's new "faction" will face bently,kazarien, dutt, and lethal at slamaversary.
Slamaversary: After all the opposing team is announced shelley and richards come to the ring. Shelley grabs the mic to announce the next 2 members of his new stable. And without further ado I announce to you the two newest members of the next generation of tna: Jake and Dave Christ….Irish Airbourne! Airbourne rush to the ring and the match is on and it is a spectacle of innovation and tag manuvers courtesy of jake and dave christ. Shelley's faction work over dutts back untill he gets the hot tag to lethal and all hell breaks loose. It's a free for all, untill shelley hits bently and kazarien with a duel sliced bread number two richards hits lethal with the D.R driver and irish airbourne hit the irish airraid on dutt for simultanious pins!
Impact: Shelley vs. lethal vs. chris sabin for the X title
X division action takes place untill the two teams from Sunday spill out the ramps and its all out mayham and shelley gets a rollup out of nowhere on lethal for the win and the X title. Richards grabs a chair and starts nailing people left and right untill shelley's fraction are the only ones standing around the ring. Shelley grabs the mic. I told you we are tna's guiding light and nobody will stop us.
Two weeks later….
Airbourne goes on to win the tag straps from LAX thanks to interference from shelley and a belt shot from richards.
Shelley's new fraction goes onto dominate tna with shelley as the leader airbourne as the tag champs and richards as the enforcer.
This idea would give tna's midcard a shot of adreniline as far as angles go. Shelley's group would also bring great matches and possibly some actual heat thanks to shelley's mic skills and playing a chickenshit heel who sends his lackeys to do all his work for him. It would also bring in 3 new talents and would give them pushes as well as makeothers look good.
It's not a bad angle at all, and given Shelley's track record with stables (Generation Next, of course), this feels like something that could work out quite well. My biggest problem with it is the use of Irish Airborne as the group's tag team. They're still basically nobody important, and the crowd isn't going to care about them when they make their appearance at the PPV. Instead of them, the Briscoes would be a great choice. The crowd in Orlando seems to at least somewhat know them, as I have seen a few "Briscoes to TNA" signs, and they're a lot better than the Crist brothers. Also, don't expect for the crowd to go batshit crazy for Richards. Some of them may know him, but it's not likely to bring a huge pop, and the viewing crowd at home isn't going to have any clue who the guy is. I know who he is and you do, but the majority of the people won't. It's a good general premise and it works as far as the long term basis of this week's homework was, so as long as you aren't expecting them to be over like Samoa Joe from the very beginning, I like the idea.
Robert Toskey has a reply to something else I mentioned in the Fink's Payload:
I didn't bother wikipediaing it but I believe John Doe Jersey was the name of the hobo in Dogma.
That would be correct, sir. I was speaking of said hobo, and of course the hobo was God in human form playing skeeball. Yes, I was calling myself God, thank you.
Finally, truth_soldier has some comments from last week's edition of this very column:
I liked what you did with the WWE programming, as far as letting Umaga and HBK feud over the belt. It's a better idea than anyone on the ign boards has come up with. I'm also interested in seeing Jimmy Snuka's adopted son on Smackdown. Is he a high flyer like is dad?
I wish I knew more about NOAH. You make a lot of those guys sound like great wrestlers.
More good things to say about another WWE ppv. I was planning on skipping the New Years Revolution dvd, but, once again, because of your input, I will probably pick it up.
I didn't see until the end of this that I was INCLUDED IN THE ARTICLE (and I completely marked out at myself, sending my family into turmoil when I shouted HOLY CRAP). I don't expect to see that all the time, if ever again, but it made my day. One question about that segment, though. What am I missing about the Judgment Day show? I can't recall anyone ever mentioning before that it was a good show, and, aside from Londrick winning the tag titles over MNM, it appears to be a horrible card.
Thanks again for another great read. I look forward to the next one.
I've admittedly not seen a whole lot of Deuce's (Snuka Jr.) work, but from what I've seen he's solid but not spectacular. He wrestles (and oddly, looks) a bit like his father, but the standard for high flying is so much different than it was back in the Superfly's heyday that it really isn't comparable to the stuff guys do right now. He isn't, from the stuff I have seen of him, really a high flier, just the generic stuff that you'll see most guys in the developmental camps doing – the top rope crossbody blocks and the like.
On Judgment Day 2006, I just enjoyed the show. It wasn't great, but then again most of WWE's PPV offerings were pretty awful, so this one stood out a bit to me. The aforementioned tag title match was really good and a great opener, Benoit versus Finlay was a stiff and very fun match and Melina vs. Jillian was surprisingly decent. The Helms/Crazy match was pretty good, but not spectacular (better than Helms vs. Yang at Armageddon), and Angle vs. Henry was a much, much better match than it was at the Royal Rumble. Booker vs. Lashley was a solid match between the two guys. A bit short, but solid and it was the King's crowning match. I like the JBL/Mysterio matchup, and while it wasn't as good as the match they had at No Mercy 2005 (the one with Eddy vs. Batista), I found it to be quite enjoyable. It wasn't a great card by any means, but it was more solid than most of the garbage WWE did in 2006, so I appreciated it.
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And that just about does it for this week. There's no PPV this weekend (but there is one next), so no quick ‘n dirty predictions. Check out my radio show, as you should every week, RocketBusta Radio, and listen to Radio TGO for some good music programming if you're tooling around the internet and feel like listening to some stuff you don't have on your iPod or the garbage you'll find on the regular radio. No commercials, either. To finish out the Team Game Online trio of things to listen to, check out Unsportsmanlike Conduct, a good hour or so long sports discussion show.
And, as always, for more Ring of Honor, check out Ari's Column of Honor. Outside of Dunn's rundowns, it's my favourite thing to read on this site. And no, Ari, that's not an insult to you. The COH is just long, and I have a damn short attention span. I still do find myself reading the whole damn thing every week and enjoying it, but shorter = easier to read, by gawd.
Speaking of long, that's what this has been. See ya next week.
