Your Stu's News, My Stu's Views 4.03.07
Posted by Sam Caplan on 04.03.2007
My thoughts on Wrestlemania, Raw: The Night After, ROH's double shot in Detroit, and more!
Sorry to disappoint you all who were hoping to read the Greatest Columnist To Ever Hit 411, but Larry Csonka had travel problems and is unable to make it this week, so I'm your substitute teacher. I was going to do my usual news format, but I just did that two days ago and there's not much in the way of real news to report since then. So instead, I decided I'll go over the big weekend shows from WWE and ROH, talk about what we're looking at going forward, and if you're REEEEEAL LUCKY, maybe I'll even throw in some TNA talk at the end.
Stu's Views On Wrestlemania 23
Wrestlemania was, of course, this past weekend in Detroit, Michigan at Ford Field, and the official word is that they set a new attendance record in the building with over 80,000 people showing up. See folks, it's stuff like that which they point to when we sit around complaining about the creative direction. But that being the case, it was a pretty good show, and after skipping watching Wrestlemania 22 live last year, I was happy that this year's edition looked like a good enough show that I felt compelled to plunk down the 50 bucks. For the most part, it did deliver, although it felt really pedestrian at times and didn't have that big "Wrestlemania moment", but there was plenty of good on this show, which I would put firmly in top ten territory.
The big news, and the main point of interest, was the Undertaker vs Batista match, which saw Undertaker win his fifth World Title and go up to 15-0 at Wrestlemania. Undertaker did drag a good match out of Batista, who looked a lot more motivated than he has since returning, although that could be due to the Undertaker. He can be very persuasive when he needs to be, just ask Shawn Michaels. But it was a really good power match which saw, among other things, the Undertaker become the first man to kick out of the Batista Bomb and then hit the Tombstone for the clean win. He actually made it look a lot easier than I expected him to, I was figuring it would be a really close match, but aside from the Batista Bomb, I didn't think Undertaker looked like he was in trouble at all during the match. I was really surprised that it went on halfway through the show, and got a bit of a bad feeling since that's where matches with shitty finishes go so they still have time to send the crowd home happy, but it had the right ending anyway. This apparently didn't make Undertaker and Batista any happier, and by all rights this should have been the match that closed the show, but I don't think they could have followed up the WWE Title match.
And that brings us to John Cena vs Shawn Michaels, and as you can always expect, Michaels put on another of his classic Wrestlemania performances and, unfortunately, he also suffered another of his Wrestlemania losses. It's a matter of record that Shawn Michaels has a horrible record at Wrestlemania (5-9, actually), but going in knowing he's going to lose always seems to motivate Shawn that much more, as if to say "fine, I'm going to lose, but I'm going to show you why I should go over." As you all probably know, I'm the biggest Shawn Michaels mark there is and I was really disappointed when he not only lost, but actually tapped out, but I'd say he easily carried John Cena to his best match ever, and the clean win over Michaels gives Cena another huge shot of credibility. However, the crowd was solidly against Cena, and that exposes one of the major problems with him and justifying his position. Sure, he might get cheered against Khali or Umaga or Orton or whoever, but when he's put in there with anyone who has a long history of popularity and/or strong in-ring performances, like Shawn Michaels, Triple H, Kurt Angle or Chris Jericho, he gets booed ten times out of ten. I don't even want to think what it would have sounded like if they had done Cena vs Undertaker instead. Don't get me wrong, the guy works his ass off every time out and never lets the crowds bother him, and that's to be respected, but it's still a major problem they're going to have to deal with if they want to continue pushing him at the top. I have a feeling that he's the guy that's good enough to go with at the top for now, but when the real next big guy comes along, he's going to be playing Bret Hart to his Steve Austin.
The unofficial third main event saw Bobby Lashley, with Donald Trump in his corner, face Umaga with Vince McMahon in his corner. This was totally overbooked, especially when Shane got involved and did the Van Terminator on Lashley, but I have to say that I was really surprised to see Austin get as physically involved as he did here, especially taking those bumps from Umaga. It was really cool to see the Thesz press and Fuck You Elbow make their return, but of course the highlight of the match was seeing Vince get his head shaved. As usual, he did a fantastic oversell, and my first thought when I saw bald Vince was "Oh wow, it's Mr Strickland from Back To The Future!" The Stunner to Trump was something I could picture happening, but didn't know if Trump would be willing to take, but he did. It was one of the worst selling jobs of all time, but he did take it and I have to give him credit for that, because it made the last two months of him looking like he'd rather be anywhere else worth it.
Money In The Bank was good, although I was surprised to see them open the show with it. It was a decent length as well, but not as long as I had hoped. I thought the spot where Jeff Hardy did the legdrop off the huge ladder onto Edge and through a table at ringside was awesome, but with the way the angle was booked for the last few weeks, it didn't make sense for Edge to just bump and do a stretcher job like that, I really don't think he played enough into the match to warrant the last few weeks of booking, and the Edge/Orton breakup wasn't advanced at all either. However, Kennedy was my second pick after him, so I was happy to see him go over, and I was even happier to see CM Punk be the last guy he had to fight off to get the briefcase. I think they're finally coming around and realizing what they have in CM Punk, but are being smart and building him slowly.
As for the rest of the card, I originally thought Ashley was going to win the Women's Title like everyone else, but then I thought "Wait...Melina is the one who knows how to wrestle, and they also probably don't want to take the title off of Raw." So I changed my pick at the last minute and turned out to be right. Kane vs Khali was a suckfest, and although the slam spot was cool, you know that it was 100% done to take a shot at Hulk Hogan. I thought MVP vs Benoit was good and MVP got to show a lot more of what he can do than he has been up until now, though I was surprised to see Benoit go over. Finally, the ECW Originals vs New Breed match was where I figured it would be, either as the opener or a cool down match, and it turned out to be the cool down after Undertaker vs Batista. Everyone in that match looked motivated to the max, and I have to think that the ECW Originals didn't know if they'd ever make Wrestlemania ever again, and they wanted to make it count if this was their only shot.
Overall, really good, fun show,although the lack of a real Wrestlemania moment (Vince McMahon haircut notwithstanding) really is going to hurt it in terms of where it's going to be remembered in terms of the overall hierarchy, sort of like Wrestlemania 21, although that show at least had Angle vs Michaels.
Stu's Views On Monday Night Raw: The Night After
And that brings us to last night's episode of Monday Night Raw. After watching the ending of Wrestlemania Sunday night, the program between John Cena and Shawn Michaels predictably continued. To the shock of probably nobody, they finally dropped the World Tag Team Title, although in my estimation it was one week too late. Cena came out to give his post-Wrestlemania victory speech, but Shawn Michaels interrupted and said that he refuses to acknowledge Cena as the better man. Cena offers him a rematch anytime and anyplace, and of course Michaels wants to do it right here and right now, but Jonathan Coachman comes out and, at the behest of Vince McMahon, puts them in a ten team battle royal with the World Tag Team Title on the line. Cena and Michaels hold it together well enough to come out with the win, but Coach says that he had plans for just such an event, and immediately starts a second ten team battle royal for the World Tag Team Title. Halfway through the match, Michaels says "Know what? Fuck this!" and tosses Cena, voluntarily giving up the World Tag Team Title and, for the umpteenth time in his career, loses a title without being beaten for it. I was personally pulling for London and Kendrick to get it and unify the titles since they deserve it more than anyone, but the Hardyz end up taking it, and I'm okay with that finish.
The Michaels-Cena drama continues backstage as Michaels says that he threw the match to get rid of the World Tag Team Title since it was just confusing the situation and repeats his desire to get another title shot. This brings out Randy Orton, who seems confident in his chances of beating John Cena. As if that wasn't enough, Edge comes out later in the program and throws his hat in the race for the next title shot. Isn't it great that, even without Triple H around, there's enough main event level talent that you can get enough singles and multi-person matches out of them to last several months?
We also got the next chapter in the Vince McMahon saga, as he walked around backstage all bald and stuff, prompting our weekly DAMN! from Ron Simmons, then came out to the ring with a very jaunty hat on, which he claims was surgically cemented to his head by his doctor until his hair grows back in, and makes a Lashley vs Umaga rematch for tonigh, only this time it's for the ECW Title. Of course this brings out Bobby Lashley who pulls the hat and various other coverings off of Vince's head and exposing his bald head. Finally, Vince tries ti hide his head under Lillian Garcia's skirt, but Lasshley makes us all proud by yanking Lillian's skirt off (in a scene which would surely result in Lashley getting arrested and probably beaten up at the station if it happened in New York) and Vince ran to the back. He got so pissed off that he announced that the Lashley-Umaga match would now be a handicap match with Armando Alejandro Estrada teaming with Umaga. Can you guess what happened? That's right, Lashley beat Estrada to retain.
In other news, it looks like the Melina-Mickie James feud is back on as Melina came out to blab (without Johnny Nitro) and Mickie James ran in and laid her out, which is presumably going to set up a match at Backlash. Also, Carlito and Ric Flair defeated Charlie Haas and Shelton Benjamin, while the Great Khali squashed Super Crazy.
Stu's Views On ROH's Wrestlemania Double Shot Weekend In Detroit
In the two days leading into Wrestlemania, Ring Of Honor had a double shot weekend in Detroit. I think these shows are great moves since there are so many people in town for Wrestlemania anyway, and they always have great shows Wrestlemania weekend. The big news coming out of this weekend for ROH was that the Briscoes are the new ROH World Tag Team Champions, but Mark Briscoe was badly hurt when he landed wrong on a shooting star press to the outside and came down on his head. Jay finished the match and defeated Shingo and Naruki Doi by himself while Mark was taken to the hospital. Mark wasn't released until yesterday, and it appears that he suffered a severe concussion on the move and is questionable for the next ROH weekend on 4/13 and 4/14. He obviously didn't wrestle the next night, and Delirious teamed with Jay instead to defeat Christopher Daniels and Matt Sydal.
Mark wasn't the only one to suffer an injury, either. Jimmy Jacobs and BJ Whitmer were both injured in their cage match on Satuday. Whitmer suffered some kind of neck injury and will mimss the 4/13 and 4/14 double shot, while Jimmy Jacobs completely tore his ACL and will need surgery to repair it. Jacobs will be out of the ring for 6-9 months, but will still have some role on most shows going forward. Two stables were bolstered, as Rocky Romero joined the No Remorse Corps alongside Roderick Strong and Davey Richards, while Larry Sweeney brought Tank Toland onboard with Chris Hero. Sweeney's group appears to have entered into a feud with Nigel McGuinness, while the NRC will continue their feud against Austin Aries, who lost to Roderick Strong with the FIP Title on the line on Saturday.
In other news coming out of Wrestlemania weekend, the Dragon Gate guys put on what were said to be two phenomenal main events, and we also had a couple of surprise returns. Chris Sabin and Alex Shelley made their returns to ROH and challenged the Briscoes to defend the ROH World Tag Team Title against them when they return to Chicago, and Jim Cornette returned to ROH and rejoined his former hired muscle Adam Pearce and Shane Hagadorn as they appear set to restart their feud with Homicide. Cornette has additional backup this time around in the form of "The Shooter" Brent Albright, and Albright is certainly a formidable foe if there ever was one, and he has made an immediate impact since coming to ROH.
All this brings us to the next pair of ROH shows, which will take place on 4/13 in Lake Grove, New York and 4/14 in Edison, New Jersey, and both shows will feature the return of ROH World Champion Takeshi Morishima. In Long Island, Morishima will team with Chris Hero to face the British duo of Nigel McGuinnes and the returning Doug Williams, and then the following night in New Jersey, he'll defend the World Title against Nigel in a singles match. The rest of the Long Island lineup, as it stands now, looks like this:
Elimination Match: Austin Aries, Matt Cross, & ???? vs Roderick Strong, Davey Richards, and Rocky Romero
This will be the next step in the war between the No Remorse Corps and Austin Aries' as-yet unnamed group. From the latest ROH Newswire, it seems that we won't find out who the new member is until the night of the show, which would lead me to believe that it'll be someone new rather than a current ROH talent. I think it would be cool if it were El Generico or Kevin Steen (or maybe both) because I was in attendance for their match with the Briscoes in Philadelphia that got them more bookings and they looked great. However, they're booked elsewhere on the show so unless they pull double duty, I have no idea who it could be, but I hope that if Jack Evans is putting his own group together that this doesn't mean Gang Warz 2007. Then again, Gabe Sapolsky's never steered us wrong, so I have faith in him.
Non-Title Match: Jay & Mark Briscoe vs Kevin Steen & El Generico
Speaking of Steen and Generico, if this is anything like the first match in Philly then it'll be a really good match. It remains to be seen if Mark is able to compete, but I would bet money that he won't be, so I wouldn't be surprised to see this match changed.
Jack Evans vs Shingo
When the Four Way Fray between them in New York a couple of months ago came down to these two, it was a good big man vs little man dynamic, and these two are familiar with one another from Dragon Gate, so while I'm expecting a good match out of this, I also wouldn't be surprised to see Shingo become a member of Jack's new group, and that the rest of the group will be filled out with Dragon Gate talent.
Colt Cabana vs Delirious
This was one of the first live ROH matches I ever saw back in 2005 when they went at it in Woodbridge, Connecticut and it was a very entertaining match. In addition to being two excellent workers, they're two of the funniest guys around, so now that both men have moved up the card I expect this to be played for comedy at the beginning but quickly turn into a really good wrestling match.
SHIMMER Presents: Sara Del Rey vs Daizee Haze
The novelty of SHIMMER is starting to wear off, and I've seen these two go at it several times already and Del Rey kills her every time. I'd probably find it eassier to get excited about SHIMMER if I didn't see the same four or five girls over and over, but whatever.
Here's what's announced for Edison as of now:
Jack Evans & Delirious vs Roderick Strong & Davey Richards
Delirious has heat with Roderick and Davey, so it would make sense for him to join Jack's group as well, and if Shingo joins up with the two of them, I think they'd make a very entertaining group of goofballs wackjobs who can get it done in the ring, and I think there's some great possibilities if they go that way. However, I don't think that Evans and Delirious have a hope in hell of beating Roderick and Richards.
Colt Cabana vs Doug Williams
Colt Cabana is well versed in the European style, so look for a lot of chain wrestling and Rube Goldberg-esque counters and takedowns. I don't know if Williams is sticking around at all, but if he isn't then I'd say Cabana's probably going to go over.
Shingo vs Matt Cross
If Shingo winds up joining Jack Evans, this could be part of the three way war between the former Generation Next members. That said, Shingo's gonna kill Matt Cross.
The Other News
TNA has announced that Slammiversary will take place on 6/17 in their original home of Nashville, Tennessee.
And there's your damn TNA news. Happy now?
Enough Links To Choke A Camel
For anyone who didn't see it and still cares, the final part of the 411 Wrestlemania Retro Roundtable saw the panel look back at Wrestlemania 22.
More Wrestlemania preview stuff, as Sean, David and Alex run down their pre-Wrestlemania thoughts in The Triple Threat.
Matt Short expands our horizons with his weekly look at Pro Wrestling NOAH in The Navigation Log.
Andy Clark has the first word on Wrestlemania in The Shimmy.
Finally, Mat Sforcina and Nick Marsico do their thing in The Fink's Payload.
Oh wait, there's one more thing! Check out the final edition of this year's 411 Wrestler Of The Week. Who was 411's Wrestler Of The Week winner?
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That's it for me today, check back tomorrow when Leonard Hayhurst comes at you with the 10th Day News Report, which will be coming on much less of short notice than this did. Thanks for reading!
