News to Start Your Weekend 3.30.07
Posted by Nick Marsico on 03.30.2007
Eugene doesn't come up once in this column. That doesn't mean he shouldn't become the third member of the Highlanders. He's half of each of them. Bald like Robbie and a retard like Rory. Maybe they're all 'tards though.
It appears to have become common place at the beginning of this column for me to bring up a show I've watched recently and to mention something about it, and possibly to tell you to buy it. This week I have a couple – I've only watched the first disc thus far of the first show, but I'm thoroughly enjoying the first night of the CHIKARA Trios Tournament 2007. Los Ice Creams rule, especially that third member who has made his debut for this tournament. He looks oddly familiar, though… Other guys to check out are the RIDICULOUS American Balloon, the awesome Yoshiaki Yago, the "Hydraulic" Challenge with the Mini Man-Monster the Hydra taking on 60+ year old Robbie Ellis, and a couple of guys I saw for the first time, the Jersey All-Stars. I like them immediately due to JERSEY PRIDE~!, and they look quite good in the ring, too.
The second show I wanted to quickly make some notes about is a WWF pay-per-view from 1998 – Breakdown IYH. I never got to see this one live, but it's got the famous visual of Vince McMahon in his limo flipping Steve Austin the bird as he held the Smokin' Skull belt that Kane and the Undertaker had just double pinned and defeated Austin for in a triple threat title match. Some stuff I wanted to note – I loved how Jerry Lawler used to always vehemently deny being Brian Christopher's father. I miss when Lawler used to actually be funny. Oh, and when Al Snow and Head were way, way over. Man, Marc Mero's shooting star press was really good looking. I didn't remember that Bradshaw used to look exactly like he does now… his hair was dyed jet black, but it was short and in the same style and he had no facial hair. The only difference in his attire was no ‘JBL' on the back of his trunks and a pair of white boots. He was a damn good promo even back then, too. The triple threat cage match with Rock, Shamrock and Mankind was also awesome, and the crowd was all over Rocky. He was getting pops that definitely rivaled Austin's, and I had forgotten just how over he was. And technically he wasn't even a face yet. This was a really fun show. Just wanted to note it, since I checked it out over the weekend.
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Donald Trump slapped Vince McMahon at the WM press conference on Wednesday afternoon at Trump Tower in NYC. It has made news in a lot of places including Sportscenter among others. On top of this, USA Network is claiming that it and WWE have once again returned to being huge parts of pop culture. I'll agree when the ratings start mirroring that statement. RAW isn't even getting 4.0s on a regular basis at this point, and while I don't care that much about ratings, if more people don't start watching the programming then that means the company hasn't "returned to pop culture glory". The ratings are slightly up since the Spike TV days, which the press release mentions, but it's nothing significant. DVD sales are up, but they're producing more and better DVDs. As far as I'm concerned, the only reason WWE is getting shown on other channels and programs is because they're doing a lot of goofy things that the media likes goofing on. Trump slapped Vince. It's silly and goofy. That's why you'll see it on ESPN and the Insider and Entertainment Tonight, not because it's a big deal that the public really cares about. It's just a little bit of publicity that WWE is trying to capitalize on in the WrestleMania season. You can't blame them for doing whatever they can, but wrestling isn't a big pop culture entertainment juggernaught right now like they were in the late 90s.
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- Like last year, the first couple hours of the Hall of Fame ceremony will be playing on WWE dot com and the final hour will air on the USA Network. That's Saturday night. On Sunday morning they will air a replay of AM RAW at 9 and a replay of the final hour of the HoF ceremony at 10.
- Pretty obviously, Steve Austin will be inducting Jim Ross into the Hall of Fame.
- A pilot for a Lucha Libre show is being filmed for the G4 network. It's going to be called ‘Viva La Lucha' and it's for us English speaking peoples. One of my favourite things about this news story is the fact that CHAVO CLASSIC is going to be one of the commentators. Already I want to see this. Other guys involved that people may know – Juventud Guerrera, Psicosis (as Nicho El Millionaro), L.A. Park (the real La Parka, not the guy working for AAA under the La Parka name), Joey Ryan, Disco Machine and Human Tornado of PWG and Los Ice Creams(~!), Lince Dorado and Jigsaw of CHIKARA. Click here for a list of all the matches scheduled to be shot with the pilot.
- Brock Lesnar says he only got into WWE for the money, and if they money is right, he would fight Kurt Angle in an MMA bout. I'd like to see it.
- Triple H can walk without crutches, Chris Masters is getting hair restoration treatment and Mark Henry is once again working matches as he worked during the tour of Mexico last weekend.
- Dixie Carter was in England this week on TNA business. She was there discussing a possible trip there for TNA to run live shows overseas.
- Sting noted on TNA's website that he is once again considering retirement, just like he did at the beginning of 2006. He says he feels that 2007 will be it and that he won't be involved with commentary or anything else on camera once he's done.
- Larry Zbyszko said on the Monsters in the Morning show that TNA would be getting a 2 hour time slot soon. It hasn't been confirmed anywhere else, however. I didn't hear it, but I bet he said he was hoping it would happen but whoever sent the news bit in either heard it wrong or heard it the way he wanted to.
- The two newest Ring of Honor DVDs are now for sale at Ring of Honor's website. They are the first and second night of the Fifth Year Festival: NYC and Philly. I was at both shows. Get them NOW. Only 20 bucks, and the NYC show especially is better than any WWE or TNA PPV you've spent 30 or 40 bucks on in a long time.
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All Star Extravaganza III – Detroit, Michigan Friday, March 30, 2007 – ‘Michigan Mart'
- Dragon Gate is once again invading Ring of Honor for this huge WrestleMania weekend double shot, and in a big 8 man ROH vs. Dragon Gate tag team challenge, the Ring of Honor team of Austin Aries, Delirious, Rocky Romero and Claudio Castagnoli will take on Dragon Gate's CIMA, Susumu Yokosuka, Dragon Kid and Ryo Saito. This is quite an eclectic team for Ring of Honor, as the only two men with any recent interaction teaming with each other are Delirious and Aries, men who have a common enemy in Roderick Strong. Rocky has been working in Japan a lot recently, and Claudio is an odd factor to have on this team and in the match. He has been in some heated struggles with Austin Aries in the not too distant past, so their interaction may be something to look at, although they may fight together for Ring of Honor in their current bigger battle with Japan, who have taken all of the ROH belts. But then again, Claudio has turned his back on ROH in the past, so can he be trusted?
- Speaking of ROH belts, another big main event for the first show in the double shot is for the ROH World Tag Team Titles. SHINGO & Naruki Doi, champions and members of the Dragon Gate roster, will defend their newly won belts against the men they defeated for them in the UK, Jay & Mark Briscoe. The Briscoes lost those belts in only their first defense and then had to ‘man up' against each other the following night. Did their one-on-one confrontation in England give them the edge they will need in their big rematch for the gold they had chased for so long and then lost so quickly? Or will SHINGO & Doi continue the reign of the Japanese contingency over ROH's championships?
- In another ROH vs. DG challenge, the No Remorse Corps' Davey Richards will go one-on-one with Masaaki Mochizuki. Ring of Honor fans have been clamoring to see Mochizuki in ROH, and now he's here. Who will the fans side with? Richards has turned on the fans and is running with Roderick Strong, who has turned on big fan favourites Austin Aries and Jack Evans, but Mochizuki is part of the Dragon Gate contingent. This will certainly turn out to be a good match, but the fan support may prove to be interesting.
- Speaking of Roderick Strong, he will take on Jack Evans tonight in Detroit. Evans, at the start of this whole fracas, didn't want to fight Strong. He didn't want to lose a friend, but it has escalated to the point where that seems to be the case. Evans has declared that he will be finding a group of guys to be on his side of this new group warfare, but he hasn't revealed anybody yet. Strong and Richards haven't revealed a new member at this point either, and Davey will be busy tonight, so Evans and Strong will be on an even playing field or so it seems. Let's just hope that Jack's Dragon Gate ties don't end up biting ROH in the ass.
- Just one night before their huge cage match, Jimmy Jacobs and BJ Whitmer will do battle in a mixed tag team match. Anything goes as Jacobs and Lacey will take on Whitmer and Daizee Haze. There have been a lot of casualties since the beginning of this blood feud, especially women, and they're both right in the line of fire again tonight. How far will Jimmy and BJ go tonight in preparation for their cage match tomorrow night? This one could get ugly, and it's only going to be a preview of what might happen tomorrow.
- In other action, Homicide will battle Christopher Daniels in another match between a pair of guys who were on the first Ring of Honor show. Last month in Dayton, Homicide defeated Daniels in a triple threat match that also included Jay Briscoe. Both men have also recently lost ROH gold, so a win here may be the beginning of either man getting back on the right track. In an ROH standby, a Four Corner Survival will take place – Matt Sydal vs. Colt Cabana vs. Chris Hero vs. Adam Pearce. Nigel McGuinness, Brent Albright, Pelle Primeau and YAMATO will also be on hand tonight.
Supercard of Honor II – Detroit, Michigan Saturday, March 31, 2007 – ‘Michigan Mart'
- Remember one of last year's best matches of the year? Many people even listed it as their top match of 2006. It was the all Dragon Gate 6-man tag team match. This year ROH has signed a sort of rematch, and Detroit will get to see the return of the 6-man tag team match up under Dragon Gate rules. This year, CIMA will team up with SHINGO and Susumu Yokosuka to take on Dragon Kid, Ryo Saito and Masaaki Mochizuki. CIMA has two new teammates while Dragon Kid and Saito are back together with only the H-A-G-E not at their side after he turned on Ryo late last year. Does this give them the edge in this gigantic ‘rematch' with huge hype and expectations? We'll find out tomorrow night.
- The war between former stable members, tag partners and good friends will continue as Roderick Strong and Austin Aries will face off with each other for the first time since Strong turned on Aries in New York City. Strong's FIP Title will be on the line, so this could end up being quite the night for Aries. He could go one-up on Strong in their feud and take not only some pride, but also Strong's Heavyweight Title belt. It's going to be a heated one in Detroit. I wonder what Davey and the newest member of the NRC will be doing during this match.
- A cage match generally happens in order to bring finality to an issue and to settle things. Generation Next faced the Embassy. Samoa Joe faced Jay Briscoe. Ring of Honor faced CZW. This Saturday night, BJ Whitmer faces Jimmy Jacobs. You may think you've seen bloodshed and chaos and havoc and turmoil and any other word under the sun during this feud. You may think you've seen all of that in the other cage matches. Well wait for tomorrow night. BJ and Jimmy HATE each other. Their problems with each other have escalated to quite an unbelievable point, and Saturday night, in Detroit, in a cage, may be the end of it all. Hell, it may just be the end of this chapter and lead to something even worse down the line. With these two guys and the way their relationship was destroyed and their blood feud began, anything looks like it can happen at this point. Jimmy may be done with Colt Cabana after their Windy City Death Match in Chicago, but everything in Jacobs' life is volatile right now. It's going to be something to see.
- It looks like Jack Evans may be using his ties with the Dragon Gate promotion to his advantage as he battles with former partner Roderick Strong and his No Remorse Corps. On Saturday, Jack Evans and one half of the ROH Tag Team Champions Naruki Doi (if he and SHINGO retain the belts on Friday) will take on Davey Richards and a member of the NRC that will be announced on Friday or Saturday. Evans hasn't yet announced anybody as a part of his faction, but Doi is a fine choice to help in a tag team situation. I thoroughly hate to question Jack's allegiances, but I've been doing it for this whole column. Maybe he is ‘just friends' with the Dragon Gate guys, though. He did want to stay friends with Roderick, you know.
- In a rematch from the Chicago event of the Fifth Year Festival, the Briscoes will have a tag team match against Christopher Daniels and Matt Sydal. Surely they will defend their titles if they are able to succeed in their quest on Friday night against Doi and SHINGO, and that would certainly make things interesting, as Daniels and Sydal lost those belts to Jay and Mark.
- During his road to winning the Ring of Honor World Title, Homicide had many road blocks thrown in his way. One of them was in the form of Brent Albright, the man the former champ paid off to further injure Homicide's problematic shoulder. Albright says he will do anything for the money and that with him in ROH it's all business, but this was something personal to Homicide, and he will be holding Brent responsible for his actions. Saturday night Homicide will look for some retribution and retaliation as he goes one-on-one with Brent Albright.
- More will surely be added to the card as Rocky Romero, Colt Cabana, Delirious, YAMATO, Nigel McGuinness, Chris Hero, Adam Pearce, Claudio Castagnoli and more have been signed for this show.
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It's WrestleMania weekend. That certainly came fast. This Sunday 8 more matches will happen in Detroit, just in a much bigger venue on a much larger stage.
- John Cena vs. Shawn Michaels: It was a ‘will he? won't he?' feud as we all wondered if and when one guy would finally physically attack the other. It's now the same situation for the outcome of the match. Will Cena or won't he lose the title?
- Batista vs. The Undertaker: These guys actually threw people at each other during their feud. They did. Batista's not going to end the streak, by the way.
- Battle of the Billionaires: They took up way too much time on TV, but at its core it was mildly entertaining. It would have been a lot more fun to watch if they didn't spend so much time on it and if they would have made Umaga more of a threat. That one week in February and this past Monday on RAW weren't enough.
- Money in the Bank: A lot of people are predicting Mr. Kennedy here. Others are saying Edge because he's undefeated at WrestleMania. I certainly would like to see that streak continue, but I wouldn't be heartbroken if it ended. I like the little extra push CM Punk has been getting the last couple of weeks, too. Maybe he's less of a dark horse than we thought. He's my pick no matter what.
- Originals vs. New Breed: The feud has been pretty fun and added some direction to the ECW show for the first few weeks. If nothing else, we've seen some good stuff from Burke. And Dreamer gets to wrestle at ‘Mania. Everybody wins.
- Melina vs. Ashley: It's a shame London and Kendrick don't get to be on this card. Either way I'll just be looking at Victoria, so whatever.
- Kane vs. Great Khali: Sometimes garbage is fun to watch. JR actually trotted out the old ‘bowling shoe ugly' line for this one on RAW. Yeah, he knows it's going to suck too. I'm still looking forward to it, though.
- Chris Benoit vs. MVP: People have been reporting that this match has been tearing down the house show circuit recently. I hope they can at least partially bring some of that magic to what has a good chance at being the opener on Sunday night. It's either this or the ECW match.
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Greg Clark, a fan of the Opie & Anthony radio pogram, supports me on my lack of support of Anna Nicole:
I'm a fan of the site and a fan of the column, keep up the good work. Just felt compelled to shoot you a vote of support after reading your column today. Specifically, this is in regards to the guy who took issue w/ your comments about Anna Nicole and her baby. I found your comments quite funny, that other guy can go F himself.
Alright, keep it up, and good luck.
Frrrrrrrrankis,
It's Frrrrrrrrrrunkis, dummy. With a ‘u'.
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Speaking of that fellow, mister Rene Boulet had a retort:
just wanted to let you know that rené IS my real name,its a guy`s name(i dont see what is so ``ambiguous about RENÉ..),and im sorry if my english is not perfect,im french after all and i am doing my best in a language you can understand..at least i give it a try..do you?you say that im not ``well-spoken``? i write in english with the words i know,and i try to express myself with them..if we had a conversation in french(which i highly doubt you could do..),it would be very different..anyway,i have been visiting this site for YEARS now,and wont stop doing so because you hate anna nicole smith,her baby,one of her hundreds of candidates for the father title,her mother,the universe..thank you very much.
ps im sorry but i tend to be a little on the defense when i hear people talking about little babies.. even the ones who had less than perfect mothers...you have any kids?
Well if English isn't your first language then I take back my insults as far as your writing is concerned. This is the internet, though. Every day I end up interacting with people who are at least in their mid teens and can't formulate sentences in English even though it is their first and only language. That's why I'm quick to criticize whenever I get an email with poorly written English.
And I'm not even talking about Anna as a mother. The baby is quite young -- she really barely had any time to be a mother. I was just commenting on her life as a whole.
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Manu Bumb is back! He liked my comments on Anna Nicole. On Jarrett's return and more, however:
Too often, people only focus on the title part of that arguement (such as HHH himself), and completely forget that the titles really dont mean jack compared to who is dominating the show, so even though HHH hasnt had the title in 2 years, if he continues to dominate the shows, we continue to suffer. I couldnt care less who had the title. it is in fact possible to tell compelling stories that dont even involve championships, WWE just forgot how.
And while we're talking about titles, have you noticed how the E has been really good at manufacturing mediocre champions over the past few years? Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying all the champs suck, they're just mediocre compared to Austin, Rock, and Hogan. Its a down period in terms of champion quality. Lashley, Batista, Cena (the most mainstream of the champs, but still mediocre compared to....), and while i hate to say it, mysterio, booker, and (in the future) kennedy. They're really good at getting guys up to that level (which is why Umaga had two PPV title matches, and is still around), but that level isn't where they need guys to be. that level is where they need their midcard guys to be - they need their main event guys to be HUGE.
I agree with you about dominating the show has nothing to do with who the champion is. It's a point that I've been making for a long while now. With the rest, there very likely never will be another Rock, Austin or Hogan. That doesn't mean, however, that nobody else can be really good. There are a number of reasons that nobody has gotten to their level. The wrestling business isn't as big as it was during their time. A guy like Cena, if his reactions and the way he sells were exactly as it currently is but WWE had the fan base and mainstream popularity it had in the 80s and late 90s, he would be up there very, very close to that level. Is he as good as those three? Not in any way, but he's pretty close in certain ways to all of them. As far as other guys are concerned, it's just the nature of the beast, as they say. WWE isn't what it once was, not the way they were able to get a lot of different guys on different levels over (top card, mid card, lower card, etc). Talent wise, a guy like Kennedy is right up there with some of the bigger names – he has a ways to go before he molds himself perfectly and his presentation of himself becomes as good as it's going to be, but he's got the goods to be somebody. Same goes for a guy like CM Punk. He's got it all, he just needs to hone it to near perfection on the national stage he's been given and he needs the right push behind him. They just won't get to become as big as the others you've mentioned because business just isn't what it used to be.
Also, check out one of the newest NWA promotions. NWA Black and Blue will be running their first show in a couple weeks, Saturday night April 14 in Levittown, PA. The show starts at 7PM and the doors will be open at 6:30. All tickets are only 10 dollars. The show will be at the Salvation Army -- 215 Appletree Drive in Levittown.
The main event will see Reckless Youth also known as Tom Carter, legendary indy talent taking on WWE legend Doink the Clown. Also, a nice young man I know will be doing the ring announcing, and there will be talent scouts there from the NWA to scout him for future gigs in other NWA promotions, so if you can, come out and support him and all of the boys.
