News to Start Your Weekend 4.06.07
Posted by Nick Marsico on 04.06.2007
Post-WrestleMania hullabaloo just like everyone else. Somebody buy me a new hard drive for my laptop.
So I just watched World Title Classic. It's that little ROH show that features a few nice things. The heating up of the Prophecy/Saints feud, which includes the end of the Maff/Whitmer version and the partnership between the two men who now see eye to eye, the continuation of the beginning of Generation Next in Ring of Honor, the announcement of the vacant Pure Title and the announcement of the first annual Survival of the Fittest show. Oh, and some match that went really long.
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There are some big things going on in TNA right now as far as the business end. Last week I mentioned in passing how they are looking to run some show in England later on this year. Let's add that they also are in more serious negotiations than they have been in the past in getting another hour for Impact. Let's also add that Spike is interested in putting out another TNA show that airs either some highlights from older shows (like UFC Unleashed) or a talk show (similar to UFC All Access). On top of all of that, other networks appear interested in getting TNA programming, including a mystery network that has never aired wrestling as well as MyNetworkTV. For me, at least, that's the channel that UPN used to be on before the merger with the CW. WB was 11 and UPN was 9. Now CW is 11 and MyNetworkTV is 9. I just find that interesting.
This is certainly a good thing for TNA. Part of me wants the second TV show to be another extra show for new matches and storyline progress, but if they're going to do the talk show/interview show type deal, that could leave Impact open for more wrestling, so it would be a fair trade off. Also if these other channels are interested in actually airing another show, it could lead to a Nitro/Thunder type deal with two shows on two networks. Yeah, I'd say RAW/SmackDown, but honestly if the ‘mystery network' isn't any bigger or is about the same as MyNetworkTV, then it would probably be closer to Nitro/Worldwide than anything else. Which is fine with me, because I enjoyed Worldwide. Plus I'd probably get to see Sonjay and Lethal wrestle there.
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- Trish Stratus is opening up a yoga center in Toronto. I just wanna watch.
- TNA Slammiversary in June will be held at the Nashville Municipal Auditorium on 6/17. I was hoping for the old Asylum, but as far as I know the place was a dump anyway.
- Classic Colt Cabana has FINALLY been signed by Vince and Co. Jesus on a pogo stick that took long enough. Exactly three weeks from tomorrow night will be his last show for Ring of Honor. It will fittingly be in Chicago. He will take on one mister Adam Pearce in his final contest. Pearce is a long time good friend of Colt. The Saints are now officially all a part of WWE, ladies and gents.
- WSX is dead. And we may never see the final episode. Originally it was thought that Kevin Klinerock and Big Vision owned the rights to it, and thus would probably put the first season on DVD. Over the past few weeks we've learned that MTV owns the rights. Chances are they aren't going to ever release it for the public to see. Nobody gets to enjoy the piranha match, I guess. And that exploding cage. We can see that at LockDown, though. I just wish MTV would put out that old ‘Undressed' show. That thing ruled.
- WWE got some press in a big article in the New York Times. I gotta be honest, while it is a big newspaper, chances are nobody who watches wrestling is going to read the New York Times.
- Steve Austin was disappointed at the pitch he threw at Wednesday night's White Sox game. He blamed it on the cold weather.
- The Grish, who I tend to loathe, will be hosting a soccer show for FSC. It's a Fox Sports channel. Coach also does some work, doing announcing and analyst work for college football games on CN8 among others.
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I enjoyed WrestleMania. I didn't like the pacing, though. They put way, way too much emphasis and time into entrances and all of the other stuff instead of the wrestling. That bothered me, and it destroyed the pace of the show. I've seen it mentioned elsewhere, such as in Dunn's Review, that the show had just a lot of crap in between the matches. It was a huge waste of time. They didn't even book too few matches. 8 matches, to me, is the perfect amount for a 4 hour card. Hell, even with all of the filler and everything they did on this show, it still ended about 20 minutes before 11. 10 of those minutes could have gone to Benoit and MVP and they could have thrown 5 more at the ECW match as well. It's just a shame that they couldn't have just gotten rid of so much of the unnecessary crap and just given more time overall. The ECW match could have been 20 minutes long and Extreme Rules, Benoit and MVP could have had 10 more minutes to really tell the really good story they had just begun to tell and they could have given each guy in the MITB a full entrance instead of cutting them off midway down the ramp.
As far as how the matches went, I enjoyed Money in the Bank. I'd put it pretty close to the first one from 2005 and significantly higher than MITB 2 from last year. I didn't really like the one at WM22 outside of a few spots, meanwhile this year I really liked a bunch of things. The multiple spears (including the one on Punk, which followed Punk dodging the first only to see 3 men get taken out once he took it) and the multiple RKOs were both really fun, Booker's counter to Randy trying to RKO him off the ladder was great and Hornswoggle's involvement was awesome (he's totally the most over midget ever). Booker grabbing his little stepladder was also great. He even busted out the old school Booker T line before Punk cut him off. I'm skeptical about Kennedy's victory. He's certainly up there and deserving, but I don't know if he needs it. We'll see how it turns out.
Khali-Kane wasn't as bad as it could have been. Kane did all he could, man. I wish Benoit/MVP would have gotten more time, but I really enjoyed what we got. We got to see the Ballin' Elbow, though, so that made up for it a bit. I was also quite surprised that the Swandive headbutt got the job done, but it did play well into the story that Benoit couldn't get the Crossface. It would have been a much better finish if they had more time to tell the story, though.
Batista said he was going to steal the show, and while he and the Undertaker didn't do that, they had a hell of a match. It's just a shame that it takes so much for Batista to really put his all into it. Now I'm not accusing him of loafing it, per se, but he doesn't seem to really want to do the absolute best he can unless he's put into a position where everything isn't being handed to him. The story went around the week before ‘Mania that he was pissed that he didn't get to close the card, thus he declared that anybody following him would really have something to live up to. That was his motivation – he didn't get handed the top spot on the card, and rightfully so since he's been putting on a lot of shitty performances since he returned from his injury, and that motivated him to put some more effort into it. Maybe shunting him down the card a bit will light a fire under his ass and he'll start trying to make all of his matches special, not just ones on big stages where he's trying to prove himself.
The hair match stuff was fun. Not the greatest match and not the best thing in the world, but a decent little affair. The bump Umaga took early when he just sailed over the top rope was something else, too. I want this guy wrestling the Undertaker. That could turn out to be a hell of a match. Was it just me or did it look like Trump was stabbing Vince rather than punching him after he tackled him? I got a kick out of him taking the Stunner, too.
Cena vs. Michaels was a damn good match. I want to look again at the I Quit match with JBL and his Last Man Standing with Umaga before declaring this one Cena's best match yet, but it was damn good and a hell of a way to end WrestleMania. As much as a bad rap the guy gets, he always performs big time when, as JBL says, the lights are on bright and he's a lot better than he's given credit for or even allowed to be by the company.
Overall I enjoyed it, and I got to see it for free and live (that Mario is a good guy, even if I suck at navigating through the Bronx), so I can't say I didn't get my money's worth. The only problem I really had, in the end, was the pacing of the show. At points it felt like an eternity went by between matches and it really took something away from the whole experience. This was definitely the best WrestleMania since XX, though.
Oh, and I almost forgot. The dancing segment with all of the legends and what not = GOLD, Jerry! Myself and everyone I was watching with really got turned around as the segment moved along. It went from groaning when it was just the black fellows and the retard with the dancing ladies, apathy when Mae and Moolah were brought into play to sheer mark out city when all of the legends showed up. Ricky Steamboat was the best, though. I loved the wink.
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Rick Funcannon said this before WrestleMania:
I would love to see Kennedy win MITB then after UT defeats Batista Kennedy comes in and beats UT for the
title. Sure it ends Takers streak(although that would be debateable since Kenndy vs. Taker isnt scheduled for Mania)but it makes Kennedy a huge star with a huge Wrestlemania legacy that could continue for a decade or more. It also keeps him on Smackdown for at least a little longer which I like because Kennedy needs a big World Title run before he makes the inevidble jump to Raw.
It wouldn't be debatable since scheduled or not, it happened. Plus it's not an excuse a babyface would use. Plus, he's dead. That would be his excuse. I wasn't on the bandwagon of Kennedy taking the case at 'Mania, so I certainly would not have been happy with him cashing it in and taking the belt from the Undertaker. It didn't happen, though, so all is well.
Ellen Brennan doesn't give a shit about Mark Henry:
Hi, I really enjoy your columns in 411 Mania, but, please could you tell me if anyone really cares what Mark Henry is doing? I just never felt any popularity vibes about him. Just wondering.
Some people started warming up to him over the last couple of years due to some pretty good promo work and a few decent matches. He's been used pretty well in a decent role since some point in 2005. I don't know that people are clamoring for a return, but he's not as unwelcome as he used to be.
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- I haven't read this week's column yet, but one of the new guys, Rob Halden, has already failed us all by straying from his original concept. It does, however, back up my little quick speech about John Cena. Check out You're a Genius.
- I enjoyed the Undertaker/Batista match. I really did. My problems with DAVE and his apparent lack of motivation outside of the show do factor into my thoughts on the match, though, and took away from it for me. I also thought that they relied a bit much on the big spots at the end as the story in lieu of really telling a better story, because the big spots weren't really big enough. O'Dog feels differently, though, and you can check that out in The Goodness.
To Matt Cappotelli: Keep fighting, good sir. You've been strong for this whole fight, and we all believe you will make it through. May 1st will be a glorious day, I say. I speak for all of the fans when I say we're pulling for you.
