Wrestling’s 4R’s Tuesday Edition 01.06.09: TNA Impact and WWE Smackdown Reviewed!

Posted by Larry Csonka on 01.06.2009

It’s the Tuesday Edition of the 4R’s, and I won’t resort to a best of edition here… Ok, I lied, a little…

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 any PPV's, while my partner in crime Jeremy Thomas discusses WWE Smackdown. The column will run again on Friday's, covering WWE Raw, with Jeremy Thomas as well as ECW on Sci-Fi by myself. 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.

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In HD where available…


By: Larry Csonka

iMpact! 01.01.09:

Last week's episode of Impact was a "Best of" special, with some of the best matches of the year, and the FIRST TITLE MATCH OF 2009!

UN-BE-LEE-VA-BULL… ™Don West

Seriously though, for as many complaints as I have with TNA at times, and for all the times that they don't focus on some wrestling, this was a pretty fucking great show right here. I am going to use a loose R's format, and since TNA mixed new material and with old, I will be doing the same this week. Enjoy.

RIGHT:

- TNA Pop-Up: Today: For the most part, I really enjoyed the "pop up video" style inserts that they added to the show. Sure replaying great PPV matches is a good thing, but adding in something new is always appreciated. It added to the presentation overall and making something "old" feel fresh is always appreciated. I personally would have preferred that the comments be more "DVD –LIKE," kill the kayfabe, but what can you do. This was an enjoyable addition to the show.

- Angle vs. Jarrett: From my Top 10 TNA PPV Matches Column: For months they have been laying the foundation for the first ever Jeff Jarrett vs. Kurt Angle match. There were teases with the music, random guitars appearing, Jarrett finally coming back and then the sparring sessions on the mic all led to this. It went from "professional" to "personal" in the blink of an eye, Mick Foley was added to the picture and with all of that mixed together, there were a lot of expectations going into this match. In the roundtable before this very show I said, "I have high hopes for this match. Angle has quietly been having good matches all year, and Jarrett is criminally underrated in my opinion. I figure Foley has something to do with the ending, leading to an Angle vs. Foley match." Well, high hopes met, another great match from Angle, Jarrett delivers after a long absence, and Foley had something to do with the finish which likely still will lead to Foley vs. Angle. Sometimes I look like I know exactly what I am talking about! Excellent stuff here from a wrestling standpoint and this was my match of the night. Angle continued to prove himself here as he had another great match against another different opponent, and Jarrett continues to prove critics wrong. He gets a lot of flack and people have this idea that he can't work, which is as far from the truth as you can get. Sure a perfectly clean finish would have been perfect, but this was the first match and it had to lay the groundwork for what we are seeing right now.

PS: Hey Mick, dude, put up your hands. No one will think less of you.

- Joe and Angle get Locked Down: From my Top 10 TNA PPV Matches Column: The first thing I want to say that I am far from the only person that gave the match a high rating. I know that the match is pretty controversial as far as ratings go. I have seen anywhere from **½ to ***½ (411's JD Dunn) and even as high as the full Monty of *****. No way do I feel that it was a perfect ***** affair, but I do think it was great. Secondly, I feel that most people that disliked the match went in wanting to hate it due to the MMA theme and likely hate MMA itself. Not all, but a good portion. Which is fine, it all comes down to personal preference and I personally loved the match. If you didn't cool, if you bought it and were disappointed, cool. I never said you didn't have the right. This is one of those matches that people will either love or hate. Again, "I FEEL" that this was great. TNA is often bashed on for not living up to their claim to be an alternative. On this night they did something different, something out of the box and it was great. The first 6-minutes or so was almost exclusively MMA work. Angle came out as promised dressed for battle. MMA shorts, taped hands and ankles and was set to fight. Joe already works leg kicks and strikes and that is what they worked early and it worked. Angle would try takedowns, go for a mount and drop hard punches. They then slowly worked into more of a pro wrestling match, which they did at the right time. These guys took a risk, they could have done the usual match and played it safe, but they took a risk and it paid off. The realism, the psychology, it clicked and it worked to me. People were popping for the rope breaks, the submissions and I just loved it. Plain and simple. Some people are blowing the small "boring chant" out of proportion, saying that it was due to the MMA theme. That happened during a figure four spot that went a bit long. That has nothing to do with MMA. The match built very well all the way to the ending, and the crescendo was the Joe win, which has been in the works forever. Back when I reviewed the ROH Man Up PPV, and the Danielson match I said, "They worked the story, they worked the eye, they worked the MMA stuff and it all worked in the end. This is very fresh and exciting stuff to watch because it is so different from everything else on PPV." Well Joe vs. Angle went that route and it worked just as well. While ROH has worked MMA themes before, WWE and or TNA haven't, which again was taking a risk. We also got a CLEAN FINISH IN A TNA MAIN EVENT! That is an important thing to mention again. I also love the fact that they only used the cage ONE TIME, and it MEANT SOMETHING at the finish. So great. This match came off as a BIG TIME main event, it was pushed as such, and it delivered. Something TNA has not done well in their short life. In the end, everything about this was what was right about TNA, which is so nice to say. Also, the built for it all worked so well that this PPV was scored the highest TNA buy rate of the year. It's amazing what happens when you do a proper build and pay it off in the end.

- The First Title Match of 2009: Today: TNA offered up the first title match of 2009 on this show, as some fresh content. Sure there are some that are busting their balls because it WAS taped in 2008, but if that is the thing that you are concerned with, you have issues. I felt that this was a GREAT TV match. It lacked a little sizzle of a PPV encounter, mainly due to commercial, that kills some momentum, but this was good shit. LAX and Beer Money have great chemistry and always deliver, this was no different. This was a great way to end a great show, and I really hope we get more of this style of show, heavy on wrestling, in 2009.

PURGATORY:

- AJ vs. Sting: From the Turning Point PPV R's Amazingly enough Sting has set a record for himself in regards to holding the TNA title, so good on you Sting! I have always wanted to see Sting vs. AJ, one on one for some time. Sting is good when motivated and in there with someone that wants to go, and AJ Styles is…well, AJ Styles. They had a really good 15-minute match, unfortunately AJ decided to not take advantage of Sting after he hit the big move, he got distracted, missed the PELE and Sting used the old side roll for the victory. By doing that Sting completes the Main Event Mafia sweep in a match with great crowd heat, both guys working hard and a good match layout. Overall there was good drama here, and basically they needed to have Sting go over to not only complete the sweep, but to get the MEM over as the mega-heels that they are supposed to be. Similar to back when WWE had at least one PPV with the Evolution sweep. As always the follow up booking will be the key, they have done the easy part. They had the "veterans" go over and look like they are right. Now they have to follow it up with solid booking and in the end CLEAN and DECISIVE victories.

Today: A fine match, ***, but I would have shown the Angle vs. Abyss match or even the World X-Cup tag elimination, which was all kinds of awesome. I understand that they showed this match due to the Frontline vs. MEM angle, and that makes sense, but they had some better choices at their disposal, and I think they should have used something else.

- Knockouts Main Event: From the R's, 01.18.08 People know I wasn't happy about this being on TV, but the main reason isn't JUST because it was on TV. The main reason is that it was on TV with no build. I mean, at least give them a week of build so that they can make it important. Like the video deal with Angle and others putting over the match. You announce it this week and then run a TON of those over the course of this show and the next leading to the match, it is common sense and makes it more important. Anyway, I have to mention that I loved that the ladies got the main event spot, if they had to do it on TV, they had to do that to add the importance factor. As for the match itself, we only got 6-mintes of it, but what we got was good. That's another reason I was hesitant to have them put this on TV, they get 9-minutes but lose three to commercial. They worked hard as always and what we saw rocked, but the commercial makes it hard to rate. I strongly feel that if they were dead set on giving the match away on TV that they should have made it worth it, no commercial. Unfortunately we didn't get that, and that is a shame.

Today: I will add now that I understand that they wanted to have the Kong victory as a best of moment, since she is still with the company, which is the right call in that respect. But the Kim vs. Kong Final Resolution match was easily better than this, and on a "Best of" show, you should try to show the absolute best. But I understand why they did this.

WRONG:

- The Closing Video Package: Today: This video package was the "bad side" of TNA. You show all of these great matches, including the new tag title match, and the show was so great. But then you show this video package, which includes stupid ass shit like the Angle wedding, where AJ ended up "married" to Karen. WHY would you show shit like this? Those are the kind of moments that we want to forget, not be reminded of.

OVERALL:

- Overall: This was a damn great TV show. Great matches that showed off what TNA CAN and DOES do right, but that gets overlooked. I hope that we see more of "THIS TNA" in 2009.

- SHOW RATING: ****

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By: Jeremy "NOT LARRY CSONKA" Thomas

WWE SmackDown 1.02.09

The Right:

EDGE & SHOW BOND OVER VICKIE'S PICS…OR NOT: Edge was backstage all crazy pissed off about his wife's nude pictures being on E-Bay. Okay, sure…I could accept that. Or at least, I could if this wasn't the man who tried to fuck Lita in the middle of the ring a couple years ago. Sorry, not too sure that the Edgester's that concerned about modesty. Vickie ran off, presumably to puke, when Show said he'd seen the pictures, and Edge and Show were all up on each other about embarrassing actions—Edge's hiding behind Vickie professionally and Show's getting knocked out by a flyweight at WrestleMania. Gotta give Edge the decision win on points for that one. Anyway, this was a nice and short segment where Edge and Show did what they do best; they play very well off each other and it makes for fun times when they get to sniping back and forth. I think it's pretty obvious that Show's the guy who posted the pics online for profit, since he seems to be transitioning to a semi-face role, which is fine with me. Good stuff all around here from two of SmackDown's better talkers.

EVE AND MICHELLE: Eve was backstage to interview Michelle McCool about her actions against Maria last week. Michelle's justification was that Maria was jealous and purposefully cost her the title, and thus she's not apologizing to her. Michelle was totally channeling Raven with her "What about me?" shtick and then promptly put Eve in her place before walking off. Later in the show, Michelle came down to the ring to get the mike and announce that she's been thinking about what Eve said. She apologized to Maria in absentia and then asked Eve to come down to the ring. She got an apology from Michelle, which was short-lived before Miss McCool just punked the hell out of the poor girl. While Michelle's mike work was…well, not so good in the in-ring portion, she made up for it with the utter viciousness of her attack on Eve. Seriously, there were some things such as that knee lift to Eve's head against the guardrail that just made me cringe. Points to both ladies for dealing the punishment and selling it nicely, and to Michelle for her playing the character with the right level of crazy intensity. The ladies of the Butterfly Division make their share of mistakes, but I was digging it this week.

JESSE & FESTUS vs. THE BRIAN KENDRICK & ZEKE: I'll admit, it was nice to not see that MnM 2.0 screwing with Festus recap that always accompanies this duo for once. It's kind of played out by now. Kendrick got quite the crowd reaction on the way to the ring; they're really starting to get behind TBK, which is awesome. Unlike the Edgehead/Finlay & Khali match earlier, Jesse and Festus actually got a pretty fair amount of offense against the Number One contenders and was a little more fun to watch as a result. They were given a touch more time and they tried to make the most of it. It wasn't an early contender for free TV match of the year by any stretch, but the fact that it was more than just a squash match and that everyone worked hard on this match earns it a marginal right for me. Plus, you gotta love TBK's dick attitude by acting as if he was the MVP of the team when Zeke was the guy who got them the win.

THE SMACKDOWN ROYAL RUMBLE COMPETITORS…MOSTLY/TAKER'S BACK! Good ol' JR was in the ring to announce "SOME" of the SmackDown Royal Rumble competitors. Only some? Well, gee whiz, thanks JR. We found out that ‘H and Show (who we already knew from previous segments) were going to be in, as well as Kozlov and the U.S. Champion Shelton Benjamin. Ladies and gentlemen, one of these things is not like the other. Shelton promptly made his was down to the ring to berate JR for not calling him the odds-on favorite. He threatened Ross and made him leave the ring, then used the moment to put over his US Title reign. That's one of the things I appreciate about SmackDown, is that they actually do things to make the US Title visible and relevant. The contender's tourney of last month aside, Raw could take a clue from the Blue Brand for the IC belt. The Undertaker, who appeared in the ring, eventually interrupted Shelton and then choke slammed the shit out of the champ. We found out Taker was in the Rumble and he then posed for the crowd. This was all pretty good stuff; Shelton's pretty good on the stick, and the crowd popped for the Taker appearance. Mark this one in the "win" column.

EDGE & THE BIG SHOW VS. THE HARDY BOYS: And we come to a main event that saves the show. Edge came down to the ring first to give us a hell of a promo about how the fans blame him for everything, even Jeff's attack. He got the cheap heat by mentioning Vickie in the process, and got in a great line about how when Jeff isn't the champ, they can blame him. Awesome work by the Edgester. Show then came down with that little smirk on his face, and them Matt and Day-Glo came out to a good and fantastic pop, respectively. From Jeff's make-up today, he was clearly watching either Spider-Man or Sting's Wolfpac days. One the bell rang, these four guys really turned it on. The big story of the match was Show and Edge's failure to work together, and it was nicely done throughout the match without sacrificing the excellent match quality. The spot at the beginning where Show caught Edge was just awesome, as was the expression on Rated-R's face. All four guys were on their game tonight and built a great match that had the crowd hot throughout. One can argue that Show walking out compromises the credibility of the Hardy's win, but I disagree; it only would have been the case if Edge had worn down after that point. Instead, the brand champs took advantage of the situation and got a more or less legit pin on Edge, which gave the Day-Glo champ a little heat back in his title reign and sent the crowd off happy. Great stuff and I have nothing to complain about here.

puRgatoRy:

HAWKINS & RYDER vs. FINLAY & THE GREAT KHALI: As expected, Hawkins and Ryder were already in the ring without any kind of entrance, while Finlay and Khali got their own entrances. You know, I may hate the Punjabi Playboy angle, but I won't deny that the crowd is really into it, so I guess it is working. This was exactly what you'd expect, which Hawkins and Ryder being pretty much punked out all-around early on by Khali, Finlay and even Hornswoggle. They did get a period of control, however brief, before Khali came in and squashed the hell out of the former Edgeheads. This was too short to be worth much anything, and of course post-match they buried Hawkins and Ryder even more than usual by having Horny Tadpole Splash them a couple times. Hawkins and Ryder aren't worth crap these days so I guess I can't argue with the booking; this seemed just like a way to get Khali and Finlay wrestling as a team, or at least to just get them both some face time this week. Nothing terrible here, but certainly nothing too good. Poor, poor Edgeheads…I don't see them making past WrestleMania weekend with the company.

KOZLOV vs. HURRICANE HELMS: Now, I don't think that this was the end of Helm's push like a couple people have mentioned. Helms got the brief title contention push, and I don't think that his feud with Shelton is probably over; however, getting flattened by the undefeated Kozlov is hardly grounds for a burial. That said, this was a total squash match, and Helms bumped his ass off for Vlad well enough but I just can't take the big Russkie's vanilla "tough Russian wrestler" offense without something enjoyable to break it up. This was short and sweet and got Kozlov on TV with a win, which was probably important considering he's taken a few "not wins" over the past month or so and could use some rebuilding of his mystique before the Rumble. It just wasn't exactly my cup of tea.

The wRong:

THE GAME RUINS THE CHIPMUNK'S GOOD MOOD: Vickie the Chipmunk came out to start SmackDown in a great mood…such a good mood that she wished up a Happy New Year and gave a little rhyme about SmackDown being fine in 2009. She then proceeded to book her beloved husband against Jeff for the ‘E Title at the Royal Rumble and said that the Royal Rumble competitors would be announced later tonight. This was not exactly one of Vick's best talky moments, but it certainly wasn't her worst and she is starting to finally warm to her position. The crowd reaction wasn't as strong as usual, but she was announcing matches that the crowd would be hyped for and didn't do anything to piss them off, so I can appreciate that. She was just on her way out of the ring when lo and behold, H's music hit. They did a little banter back and forth about ‘H being on the Rumble competitors list, which included a few fat jokes and ‘H starting a Triple H chant. H-Man then proceeded to drop a ton of dirt over the open grave of the entire SmackDown roster by saying that if he wasn't in the Rumble, then a SmackDown guy probably wouldn't win. Listen, I like the ‘H, and he's entertaining. But crap like that just irritates the hell out of me. Way to sell Kozlov, Taker, Big Show, Shelton and the rest of the roster completely short, Hunter. The Game then busted out the Vickie Guerrero action figure, which led to a run of insults that boiled down to Vickie announcing he was in the Rumble and ‘H pointing out that there were naked pictures of Vick on E-Bay. Yes, that's right. Naked pictures of Vickie "the Chipmunk" Guerrero on freaking E-Bay. "Naked" pictures that they posted on WWE.com. That's just retarded. I mean, that's new levels of retarded. I'm okay with the idea that ‘H makes fun of Vick's weight on a regular basis. She must be fine with it, or I'm positive it wouldn't be happening. I don't even have a problem with the idea of supposed "Vickie nudes" from a taste point of view. But really? This is the best thing they could come up with? Yeah, screw you, Freddie. This was one of the worst opening talkie segments we've seen on SmackDown in some time, and not a good way to start off the New Year.

KIZARNEY vs. MVP: MVP was all dopey sad in the middle of the ring already, before Kizarney made his way down to the ring with a goofy sort of entrance that included airplane arms and big sideways steps. Yeah, here's your PG rating, guys, ‘cause Kizarney's totally for the kids. Tazz got the unintentionally funny line of the night by calling Kizarney's debut "highly anticipated." Dream on, Tazz. The announcers spent most of the time talking about Kizarney's look and vignettes, which was good because the match wasn't all that much to speak of. It wasn't terrible or embarrassing, and I think he has improved from his Sinn days but it wasn't at all good either. Of course, he was debuting and facing MVP, so we knew he was going to win. One thing you can actually start to hear is how the announcers are hinting toward MVP's rumored eventual face turn, building sympathy for him during the match. The biggest problem with this match was that it was slow and boring and went on way too long without much of a story to it. Kizarney's finisher was pretty smooth, I'll give him that, but he needs to pick it up in the ring before I'll give him much credit. If this is what we've been waiting for, color me truly under whelmed.

The Ridiculous:

NADA!

The 411

This was a lackluster show for the most part. There was way too much time given to the Vickie nude pictures angle and the continuing trend of too-short squash matches continued. Kizarney's debut match sucked, and the only really consistently good things were the McCool heel stuff and the main event. Not the best start to the year for the Blue brand.

SHOW RATING: **¼

Comment Time with Jeremy!

From Empire of Ownage
I don't know why everyone is set that HBK vs. JBL is gonna happen at Wrestlemania. Personally, I think JBL is going to lose the match at the Rumble on his own, and make Shawn give him his spot in the RR match DURING the match (maybe Shawn makes it to the final 6 and JBL's music hits). Shawn goes, but not before taking out the Undertaker, setting up that feud nicely. That way HBK/Taker can happen at Mania, Michaels can turn on Bradshaw during an episode of RAW and end up facing him at No Way Out.

Honestly, I think HBK vs. Taker at WrestleMania is fantasy booking. Good fantasy booking, don't get me wrong, but unless anyone can point me to any signs that the ‘E is actually considering this match I think that following the current storyline is probably a more reliable way to guess at what's going to happen. I'm not saying that I'm going to be right, a lot could happen between now and then, but I don't see them doing Shawn vs. Taker.

From Brad:
I belive one of the other columnists summed up Mr Orton earlier in the week just right with this quote "Seriously, who the fuck wouldnt want to be Randy Orton"

Im more hoping it can be some "tweener card" they can play later on when Kane attacks Kelly or something then Orton makes an epic manly save but continues being himself. Anti Hero FTW~!

I'll definitely agree with your first sentiment there, Brad, but I think making Orton a tweener would be a terrible move. As I've said before I think Orton is the best natural heel they have on the roster, and he needs to stay firmly in the bad guy category. It's where he excels. I see it more as a chance for a Kane turn then an Orton one. We'll see how it goes.

From ted g:
manu with a returning face and mentor UUUUUMAGA. I like it.

Except that Umaga is already advertised to return on SmackDown and Manu's on Raw. Besides, I think that would be a horrible move for Manu. They need to stick with the Legacy thing, but actually build him up. If they believe in him enough to put him in Orton's stable they should stay behind him.

From Polish post:
I disagree with you JT. Jericho gave us a special holiday new years promo so he could talk about how the fans would break their resolutions. He then segued into talking about HBK and he called him solipsistic.

solipsistic
–noun
1. Philosophy. the theory that only the self exists, or can be proved to exist.
2. extreme preoccupation with and indulgence of one's feelings, desires, etc.; egoistic self-absorption.

You see, the definition of his word means that HBK probably didn't have any resolutions. The fans break resolutions, while HBK cannot even be bothered to make them because he is so self absorbed and he thinks he already does everything right.

The promo made sense if you knew that word. But most of us had to look it up. By using big words, Jericho looks like even more of a condescending prick.

Subliminally making us feel stupid and thus having us resent him even more is a very advanced heel tactic. This promo should have been in the Right section. That's just my take on it.

Wow. Nice research there, Post. I'll admit, I just flew by that word and didn't pay much attention to it…that being said, I could see a case being made for it being Right-ish. I still don't think it was Jericho's strongest work by any means and was somewhat underwhelmed even with your info, but it definitely lifts things up a bit. Points to you, m'man.

From T-Mac:
I hated how Raw ended this week. But I have to admit it, they had me where they wanted me. I was begging HBK not to lay down for JBL. (Mark) Mission accomplished I want to see JBL eat Sweet Chin music more than ever now.

Exactly, Mac. That's why it was so right...it pissed us off and made us hate JBL, and that's just what they needed to do for this. When Michaels finally does turn on JBL, it's going to be pretty sweet I'm guessing.

From Guest#0756:
can we please stop encouraging this charlie haas rubbish?

Nope.

From tommy:
whats with the triple K references JT? i havent seen anyone use that except in your writing. is there a middle name noone else ever caught on to or are you a closet racist or is it just funny to use racial connotations?

Dear tommy,

Please see previous comments sections of the R's. Thanks for reading!

Sincerely, Jeremy.

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And I'm out of here!