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Wrestling’s 4R’s Tuesday Edition – 10.21.08: TNA Impact and WWE Smackdown!

October 21, 2008 | Posted by Larry Csonka

How the 4R’s of wRestling Work!
Here is a quick explanation of the 4R’s. The column will run TWO times a week. On Tuesdays I will discuss TNA Impact and WWE Smackdown. Also, if there is a PPV, that will be covered in this column as well. The column will run again on Friday’s, covering WWE Raw (with Jeremy Thomas) as well as ECW on Sci-Fi. If there is a PPV that weekend, I will also run the RETRO R’s of the show from the year before as well as address some comments when time permits. I will group my feelings on the shows in various categories: The Right, the wRong and the Ridiculous. The Right is stuff that worked very well: a great promo, a great match and so on. PuRgatoRy is a section between the right and wrong. It shows equal traits from both sides that cannot be ignored and need discussed. It is not a bad place per say, as things can get remedied or go the wrong way the very next week. The wRong is what it sounds like: bad matches, bad or boring promos and so on. The Ridiculous is stuff that had no right on TV: Stupid angles, Diva searches and so on. And there is always a possibility of a 5th R, which is as bad as they come, unless you are TNA. They have a special R all of their own, the 6th R; the Russo-FN-Riffic~! This column is supposed to be analytical, and at the right time very critical of the shows, it was the whole reason it was created. This is not a “mark” column, nor a “smark” column, my goal is to analyze the show from many different fronts, reward the good and call out the bad. I will not apologize for my opinions, they are as they are, whether positive or negative.



In HD where available…


By: Larry Csonka

iMpact! 10.16.08:

  • The Right:

    IMPACT IS LIVE NEXT WEEK AND IN HD!: While it became repetitive and a bit annoying at times, I truly feel that TNA did a great job of hyping next week’s Impact. If you didn’t know, and I don’t see how you could have missed it, TNA will not only be LIVE next week, but they will also be in HD. TNA constantly plugged he event, the show ended with Jarrett and Foley on their trip to Vegas, Cornette, “called in live from Vegas” and they even announced the FULL CARD for next week’s show.

    * Booker reveals what is in the briefcase
    * Christy Hemme vs. One of the Beautiful People
    * TNA X-Division Title Match: Sheik Abdul Bashir © vs. Jay Lethal
    * TNA Knockouts Title Match: Taylor Wilde © vs. Awesome Kong
    * Tag Team Hard Rock Hardcore Text-Off Gauntlet Match: Team 3D vs. Beer Money vs. LAX vs. Matt Morgan and Abyss
    * Kevin Nash and Sting vs. Samoa Joe and AJ Styles

    So for next week Booker pays off the briefcase tease, Hemme goes for revenge (which while not exciting to me played off of this week’s show), Lethal cashes in his X-Title shot, we get a knockouts title bout, a wacky text gauntlet that is a re-match of the great Monsters Ball match at BFG and finally a main event that plays off of the big angle they are running. Overall this was the best thing they did this week, and while it will likely only bring in the usual 1.0-1.2 rating, you have to appreciate that they tried.

    THE NEW CHAMP IS HERE: Sting was here to give his first interview as the TNA World Champion. He explained that while he was the champion, he knows that he should not be there. He admitted that Joe was the better wrestler at Bound for Glory; that he bit off too much against Joe. Sting knew that 10-minutes into the match that he was done. But Joe chose to mock Sting and his entire generation and didn’t go for the win. Joe should have been more like Sting, he should have just taken the win and walked away, but he refused. I liked this because Sting admitted that he was owned, but once again is making it al about him and what HE would have done. What HE thought was right. HE thinks it should be one way, and he thinks he is completely right in those feelings. This brought out AJ Styles, who did NOT approve of Sting and the way he has been acting. AJ explained that all Sting does is preach respect, but he doesn’t live what he preaches. He sits home and spends his money while AJ is on the road busting his ass to make money and support his family and to make this company grow. I loved AJ talking about laying the foundation and building “THIS HOUSE,” while all Sting has done is hang a fancy chandelier and call it his. When Sting made it personal by mentioning AJ’s dad, they brawled. Overall this was a strong segment, and with Joe not allowed to challenge Sting, AJ is stepping up and I think that is a good thing. I am thinking Sting, Nash, Angle and maybe Booker vs. Joe, AJ, JJ and Foley for the next PPV.

  • puRgatoRy:

    Raisha Saeid w/Awesome Kong vs. Roxxi: The promo before the match I hated, as Roxxi decided to be ODB Lite and with a profanity laced promo. That wasn’t the worse part, she kindly reminded us that she has lost, A LOT, and that she doesn’t care. Great. This was another short match, but I will say that it had a ton of energy and it felt like they were actually trying to have a good match. I appreciate that you see. The one thing I have decided upon is that they need to shit or get off the pot with Roxxi. She can only beat the lower tier chicks and then lose the big match so many times until the people stop caring about her. She gets the win here to rebound from the PPV loss, but then Kong kills her after that. I figure Roxxi gets involved in next week’s title match in some way. The other thing I am worried about is Saeid. Yes she is Kong’s second, but they have repeatedly told us about her training and that she is an accomplished wrestler. But she ALWAYS loses. She has no credibility and they are telegraphing a loss every time they toss her in the ring. I hope that the character is coming to an end soon, as she is being wasted right now

    Sheik Abdul Bashir w/X-Division Title and Sonjay Dutt w/SoCal Val vs. The Motor City Machineguns and also KRAZY KURT and no Joe: So Impact kicks off with this little deal, a tag match with no explanation. I mean, why are Dutt and Bashir tagging other than they are heels? Anyway, they have a match and aside from a few small miscommunication issues, but fine for the little time given, actually, fine for the ridiculous amount of time they got. Seriously, they don’t even get 4-minutes? Jesus. But the match is fun, the Guns get a rare win and I am happy. That is until Kurt Angle comes to the ring and then OWNS Sabin, Shelly and Dutt. Thankfully Bashir got to escape that, Lord knows he doesn’t need to look like shit again. I like when Angle is this crazed lunatic because he pulls it off well, but WHY is Kurt the one going bat shit and trying to destroy people? I get that he is upset, but he has targets; Foley and JJ. If anything Samoa Joe should have been the one on the rampage and killing people. He lost the title, he got screwed by a man he thought was his mentor and if anything he is pissed at himself for not taking the win when he could. JOE should have been the crazy fucker running through everyone like a bad taco and looking for revenge. Not having him on the show I feel was a huge error.

    Booker Speaks/Hernandez w/Homicide vs. Booker T: We had another wacky Booker T interview this week on Impact. Some hate these interviews and the accent, but for the most part I like them. He discussed hunting lions and that he preferred to hunt the Elephant and remove the tusks with his bare hands. He then said he would defeat “Gonzales” and then next week, reveal what was in the briefcase. Hernandez and Booker then had their match. It wasn’t bad by any means, but it once again felt as if Booker was just going through the motions. That’s a trend lately with his TV matches, and that is not a good thing. Booker got the win with the low blow and case shot, so at least Hernandez was screwed in the loss.

  • The wRong:

    23:50: I’d like to think we all know the drill by now. TNA is supposed to be the alternative, they try to be different, and they claim to be the wrestling promotion. So I am their conscience, their wrestling stopwatch. Each and every week I keep track of the time of wrestling on the show, and discuss it here. We got some more wrestling this week, unfortunately most of it wasn’t that good or was just there to be a lead in for an angle. Matches can tell a story as well, but they aren’t allowed to on Impact. And please, CUT DOWN ON THE NUMBER OF SEGMENTS! If you extend the matches, you don’t have to run so many damn segments that end up not meaning that much. Streamline baby, streamline…

    FAREWELL FOLEY – A Dangerous Game: In my opinion TNA continues to play a dangerous game with their product, and when they do that they are putting up the audience as the stake in this game. I think that we all remember Sting’s comeback, they did the tease, he returned, wrestled on PPV and then as soon as he was back, he “left.” Sting claimed he did what he had to do, prove that he could still do it and help the company, and then he said it was over. He left his bat in the ring and left the company. When this happened TNA has peaked in the ratings at a 1.2 with nearly 1.7 million viewers. But then when this was over, the ratings began to drop and became stagnant. When TNA did this angle with Sting, they were sure that they would get the fans to stay and the new ones to come back. They felt that the angle was going to cause the ratings to continually grow. But they didn’t. We fast forward to 2008. Mick Foley comes to TNA. He is hyped as the greatest acquisition in the history of the company. Foley then gets into the mix and is inserted as a special enforcer. Tenay makes mention that “this is Foley’s only contractual obligation to TNA,” which that by itself makes them look stupid. Thursday they had Mick Foley make his “final appearance” with TNA. I made the joke in the Impact recap that, “I don’t know about you, but I for one will never forget the Foley era of TNA.” Sure it sounds like I am being a smart ass, but it’s the truth. They were playing it up as if they could never thank Foley for all he has done for the company over the last few days. What an Impact he had on the performers of the company. Now don’t get me wrong, they should be hyping a name as well as possible, but this came off as repetitive and a bit lame. Also, they do the, “I am leaving” and then SECONDS LATER Jarrett is talking to him about staying. By the end of the episode, he is now staying and will have another in the long line of, “Announcements that will shake the foundation of the wrestling world.” I’m sorry if I can’t get that excited for it, again.

    Matt Morgan vs. Kurt Angle: The main event on Impact this week was set by Jim Cornette via telephone. Since Kurt Angle was running wild on the roster, Cornette decided that he would put a stop to it by putting HIS man Matt Morgan in the ring with Angle. I liked that Cornette laid it out like that, but from there I was not high on a lot of what happened. Morgan tried to give this emotional interview, which I will say wasn’t bad, but I just had trouble getting fully into it. He was explaining that he didn’t really want to get into the main event match because his mind wasn’t into it. His mind was with his BEST FRIEND, HIS BOY, HIS PARTNER Chris Park; Abyss. I guess since I don’t know about their day to day routines, maybe they hang out all the time and double team chicks nightly; but I just didn’t realize that they were that close. Anyway we had our main event match, and it was a pretty good match for the time given. I thought they worked hard, and that Angle bumped well for Morgan. Commentary sucked as they said that Angle kicked out of the Hellevator, which he didn’t; he kicked out of the Catatonic. Angle would then escape the Hellevator, clip the knee and then get the Angle slam for the win. Yeah. The Angle Slam beats jobbers. The Angle Slam is a transition move these days. Beating Matt Morgan with it clean wasn’t a smart move in my opinion. Beating Matt Morgan CLEAN period was not a good move I feel. What was even worse than this was the fact that Abyss came out for the save and Angle beat HIS ass! I know he is recovering from burns and the table spot, but seriously, Angle owns the Monster Tag Team with little effort? “Headexplode.jpg”

  • The Ridiculous:

    Kevin Nash vs. Consequences Creed: Just days after doing battle for the X-Division title, Consequences Creed was set to be in action on Impact. He would have the biggest challenge of his career against a former world champion, and wrestling giant Kevin Nash. Creed was all fired up before the match with a wacky promo, and while I knew he would lose, and lose clean; something I had no issue with, what we got was complete bullshit. Kevin Nash and Creed has a match and it was nothing more than a 2-minute squash for Nash. This was absolutely horrible. As I said, I knew Creed would lose, and lose clean; I didn’t have a problem with that. But the fact that Nash was booked to go over him in just 2-minutes is ridiculous. Yes Nash is big, yes Nash is the bigger star and yes Nash if a former world champion. I have said time and time again it isn’t the fact of someone LOSING it is HOW they lose. If they were trying to get Creed over, well, this did both jack and shit to do so. Creed just walked off of TNA’S BIGGEST PPV OF THE YEAR, was in a TITLE MATCH and ONLY lost due to getting cheated. Let me state this again, I knew Creed would lose, and lose clean; I didn’t have a problem with that, but you’re telling me that Nash couldn’t get the heat, Creed makes a big comeback and they actually, I don’t know, make it competitive before Creed takes the loss? He came out of this looking like complete shit. If they wanted Nash to go over THAT strong, Creed should not have been the guy to get squashed. They have Sharky, Eric Young; hell, I would have granted Devine’s release effective Wednesday and had HIM do the job on the way out. The sad thing is that to me, this ruins the post-match promo that Nash cut. I felt that the promo was very good, I LOVED how he said he was biding his time for 10-months, since Joe disrespected he and Scott Hall. It’s a great angle because Nash helped build up Joe just so that he could tear him down in revenge. I wish they could have done this differently, again with Sharky or Young, because honestly the segment would have been gold due to the promo. Instead, I ended up hating most of it.

  • The Ri-GOD-DAMN-diculous:

    Hey Kurt, wrestling IS a work!: Dear Kurt Angle,

    Wrestling is a work.
    Please work light with non-wrestlers like myself.
    I don’t like eating meat through a straw.

    Love,
    Dave Penzer

    Dear Kurt Angle,

    Wrestling is a work.
    Please work light with non-wrestlers.
    You’re a piece of shit.
    I hope someone jacks you in your fucking jaw and soon.
    Go pop some pills.

    Love,
    Larry Csonka

    SHOW RATING: (**) And that my friends was Impact. Not exactly the best of shows coming out of “the biggest PPV of the year” or leading into the live Impact special. Let’s hope that show delivers.



    By: Larry Csonka

    WWE SmackDown 10.17.08

  • The Right:

    THE BIG SHOW SENDS A MESSAGE: I really liked the opening to the show this week for Smackdown. The Undertaker vs. Big Show is one of the big, no pun intended; matches for the Cyber Sunday PPV. So they not only hyped the match with the segment, but they also got out the voting choices, for you fine WWE Universe members. I thought that Show came out and delivered a great dick heel promo, mocking not only the Undertaker, but also the fans because, “They get confused with voting this time of year.” Great line Show, great line. He then proceeded to roll out three jobbers and destroyed them in the choices for the fans to vote on. He knocked a due out, submitted a dude and then was the last man standing as he dropped a jobber through a table. Show came off as ruthless, power hungry and basically, an asshole. This segment was full of win.

    BIG ZEKE: THE Bryan Kendrick was unfortunately unable to perform this week on Smackdown, the poor man had a tickle in his throat. Seriously, that’s dangerous shit right there people; infections are nothing to mess with. But thankfully THE Brian Kendrick had a replacement lined up for the match he was supposed to be a part of, BIG ZEKE. BIG ZEKE destroyed Super Crazy in a minute with ease, and he looked great doing so. The man looks like a JACKED Bad News Allen with the basic black trunks and short boots. With them backing THE Brian Kendrick out of the singles scene, I wouldn’t mind at all seeing BIG ZEKE and THE Brian Kendrick as a tag team, ala HBK and Diesel.

    TAKER vs. KHALI: Vickie Guerrero and the Big Show had a backstage meeting with Khali and his little sideburns dude that translates for him. Show wanted Khali to take out the Undertaker, plain and simple; but Khali didn’t want to be a puppet, but agreed because Show said that Vickie would make life hell for him. So these dudes has a match, and truth be told it was not bad at all. It was short, Khali worked his power spots, and the crowd was behind Taker as he made his comeback. Big Show would have NONE of this a she came out and laid out Taker with the chokeslam. Big Show would grab a chair and tell Khali to attack Taker, but he refused. Big Show would call him stupid, and Khali would slap the chair form him, yell in KHALISE and then leave. I am pretty sure Khali said, “I’m getting the FUCK out of Dodge, because that dude is about to sit up and whoop the first ass he sees.” Khali is a wise man indeed, because Taker did sit up, and he did whoop the first ass he saw as he sent Big Show to the floor with a chair shot. This was all good stuff. The pre-match promo and after match actions by Khali all build towards his face turn, and we got more simple, yet effective build for Big Show vs. Taker. I had no problems with this.

    VLAD the DESTROYER vs. THE CHARASMATIC ENIGMA: The main event of the show was Vladimir Kozlov vs. Jeff Hardy. Overall I liked this a lot. Jeff had his bumping boots on, HHH did a very good job on commentary putting over the Cyber Sunday match as well as both competitors, Kozlov looked great and I LOVED the little touches of Kozlov constantly staring down with HHH after he would hit something that laid out Jeff. Jeff works well with bigger guys, because he bumps well and makes a great comeback that the crowd can get behind. The bottom line here is that Kozlov needed the win way more than Jeff did. I know a lot of people don’t like Kozlov, and they don’t feel that he deserves the push he is getting. I have actually enjoyed the build and push of Kozlov thus far as it has been slow, consistent and overall well done. He now has the credibility he needs with the decisive victory over Jeff. They did this with Umaga, and it helped Umaga and never hurt Jeff. The fact is that no matter how many times he loses or how many times he fucks up outside the ring, he will perpetually be over. Kozlov NEEDED the victory heading into Cyber Sunday, and he needed the win if he will be facing HHH at Armageddon as rumored. And again, depending on how they will do things, this is all part of the bigger plan for Jeff. The other thing is that they haven’t faltered on the Kozlov push, and now they can try and get that one big payoff match before they decide to back him down the card, you know they will. I had no problems with this at all.

  • puRgatoRy:

    MVP vs. R-TRUTH: This was a situation of good and bad all mixed into one, which is why I am thankful for purgatory. The layout was good as MVP was continuing to talk up the fact that he needed one more victory and his incentive clause kicks in. This plays into the over confidence factor that is now jinxing MVP. He and Truth had a short, very short match and Truth won with the AX kick. Truth needed to continue winning, since he has defeated Shelton multiple times, and is essentially the #1 contender for the US Title. With that all being said, I HATED how short this was. I have said it 1,000 times, you CANNOT expect guys to go out and get over or have anything resembling a good match with such little time. Come on, seriously, give these guys a chance to succeed on TV.

    KIZARNY: I didn’t comment on this last week, and to be honest with you I didn’t see the promo. Yeah, I DVR’d right past it, my bad. I think most will remember Sinn from his run in TNA as part of James Mitchell’s New Church. Mitchell would cut promos and throw darts at the back of Sinn, a trick he had previously learned since he was a carnival performer. Seriously. That shit looked crazy and played into the New Church theme perfectly at the time. I never thought he was great in the ring, but he was more than serviceable. I haven’t seen him much since his TNA days, so he could have improved. So I watched the promo, and while I don’t hate it as a lot do, I didn’t exactly think this was great either. Part of me likes that this is a different character, and I think that at times we need more characters back in wrestling. But then there is part of me that feels like this is an “inside” character and that most won’t get it. I am willing to see where it goes and wait for an official debut before I discuss it more, but that’s what I am thinking right now. Oh, does anyone else think it feels a bit like a PEDO gimmick? That video was a bit creepy.

  • The wRong:

    THE COLONS vs. THOSE FORMER EDGE GUYS = REPEAT FILLER: Kicking off the show, match wise was a tag team title match between the brothers Colon and those former Edge guys. This was a waste of time. They only got 4-minutes to work, it once again felt like the same old basic wrestling school formula, and at times as if they were just going through the motions. Also, this was a title match, why the hell did the title match only get 4-minutes? I also disliked that they shot right to the immediate rematch. Couldn’t we give the Former Edge Guys SOMETHING and, I don’t know, feed them a non-title victory to make them seem like they don’t completely suck? Let’s move on.

    JBL’s ALMOST COUSIN and THAT SPIRIT SQUAD GUY vs. BISCUITS and GRAVY = HISTORY FILLED FILLER: After last week’s hotly contested (*snicker*) 8-man tag match and the drama that was Jesse and Festus “moving” Braddock and Dykstra, we got this tag match. The set up was there, unfortunately they completely failed in the execution. The match only got 2-minutes, was completely rushed, they couldn’t even pull off a basic formula tag contest, and worse of all, it was bland as shit. In the end it didn’t need to be on the show as the time should have gone to Truth vs. MVP or the tag title match. This was a waste of time.

  • The Ridiculous:

    DIVAS BULLSHIT POLE MATCH: Seriously, seriously…seriously. Another fucking pole match? The ladies division on Smackdown is only a few months old and the POLE MATCH is apparently the staple to crown contenders. They had two pole matches to get the first two ladies to compete for the title, and now we get another contender with a pole match. I mean, shit, is this TNA? Russo can you hear me? And not only was it a pole match, but it was a short match. It is like they booked a 10-minute match, laid it out, and they cut the first 7-minutes. And not only was it short, but it sucked! The match was shit. I think the other thing that bothered me was the short interaction Maria (FUCKING MARIA IS GETTING A TITLE SHOT?) and McCool. McCool came off as a total heel with her little cheek pinch on Maria. Why would we be doing that? Oh wait, that’s right, because they have booked Nattie and Victoria like shit and they have no credibility. Maryse already had her chances, and they even blew off the CLEAN win she recently got over McCool. Blah, fuck this.

    SHOW RATING: (**½) I didn’t get to watch this show until Sunday night, but all I constantly heard was about how much the show sucked. While it wasn’t a great show, I didn’t think it was horrible either. I would classify it as, “solid, but unspectacular.”


    And I’m out of here!

    ~…2…~

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