The Bell to Bell News Report 03.22.09

Posted by Randy Harrison on 03.22.2009

TNA stinks up the joint with Destination X but somehow manages to redeem themselves with Impact, the WWE blurs the lines even further between the brands and even makes a title unification match and ROH makes their national television debut. All of this big news and a whole lot more is waiting for you in this week's Bell to Bell...

Hello out there to all of you fans of the squared circle and welcome to another edition of the Bell to Bell. There's lots to cover for shows this week as we had Destination X taking place in Orlando this past Sunday as well as the rest of the usual suspects through the week. It's a good thing there was an extra show because the news for this week was pretty much a dry well outside of the odd bit and bite. Not sure why things have slowed up so much on the news front lately, but I'll try my best to make sure that there's enough things talked about here to make you feel like you got your money's worth. That includes the newest inductees into the WWE Hall of Fame, the re-release of Wrestling With Shadows on DVD and all of the news and happenings coming out of Orlando in TNA.

Before we get into the meat of the column, I wanted to touch on something that happened this past week in the world of hockey as the last time I mentioned hockey in the column it seemed to strike a bit of a nerve with the readers who left a bunch of comments on Sid the Kid and Ovie. Alexander Ovechkin notched his 50th goal of the season this past week (no small feat in today's NHL) and he celebrated in true Ovechkin fashion. Here's the proof:



To me, it seems like its a little excessive, but I don't think it's worth all of the furor and anger that people have been voicing over it. It's a difficult feat to put together a 50-goal season these days and seeing as he's got a reputation as an excitable player who has a lot of fun on the ice, it's not so bad. I wouldn't agree with it if he did it all the time and honestly it used to piss me off a lot more when Jagr used to do stupid things like that. In this one instance though, people are just making a mountain out of a molehill. I've always been a proponent of the theory "act like you've been there before" in all sports, but this incident pales in comparison to some of the antics we see in the NFL and such. He's one of the best players in the game and he was celebrating a major accomplishment with a little extra style. No need for considering changing the rules to make things like what he did a penalty.



Sunday


The Show



TNA Destination X Results:

Angelina Love, Velvet Sky and Madison Rayne vs. Roxxi, Taylor Wilde and "The Governor" - Winners: Roxxi, Taylor Wilde and "The Governor" (pinfall, Wilde bridging German suplex on Rayne)
Brutus Magnus vs Eric Young - Winner: Brutus Magnus (pinfall, second rope Tormentum)
10,000 Thumbtacks Match: Matt Morgan vs. Abyss - Winner: Matt Morgan (Carbon Footprint off the ramp into bed of tacks)
TNA Knockouts Championship: Sojournor Bolt vs. Awesome Kong (C) - Winner: Awesome Kong (pinfall, Awesome Bomb)
Scott Steiner vs. Samoa Joe - Winner: Scott Steiner (disqualification, lead pipe shot)
TNA Legends Championship: AJ Styles vs. Booker T (C) - Winner: AJ Styles (pinfall, Styles Clash)
TNA Tag Team Championship (Off The Wagon Challenge) Team 3D vs. Beer Money Inc. (C) - Winners: Team 3D (countout)
Ultimate X for the X-Division Championship: Jay Lethal vs. Chris Sabin vs. Consequences Creed vs. Suicide vs. Alex Shelley (C) - Winner: Suicide (belt retrieval)
TNA World Heavyweight Championship: Kurt Angle vs. Sting (C) - Winner: Sting (pinfall, Scorpion Deathdrop)

This actually had a chance of being a good show on paper. All of the elements were there for this to be at least decent, if not a solid pay-per-view offering. Even reading the results it seems like a fine show. Yet somehow, TNA managed to screw up damn near everything that they could in three hours and this came off as possibly one of their worst pay-per-views that I've ever seen. To start out with, the show had eight matches booked, which is probably one too many for a three hour show, but instead of just pushing the wrestling to make sure every match was able to get its own time, they added another match during the show. Out of nowhere, TNA seemingly realized that they still had Brutus Magnus under contract and had him come out to challenge Eric Young in a match that was fine, but really could have waited until Impact. Speaking of Impact, the first hour and a half of the show felt like I had paid thirty dollars for the privelege of watching Spike TV as they filled it with not only a silly segment with Sheik Abdul Bashir that went nowhere, but they had the finish of the One Night with ODB contest, which went NOWHERE. The segment was death outside of the odd laugh coming from me at Shark Boy's antics and I could practically feel the hand of TNA management stealing the money from my wallet the whole time. This was a total waste and had no reason to be on the pay-per-view, but yet there it was taking up nearly twenty minutes that could have gone to much better use elsewhere.

On top of all of the nonsense with the in-ring segments that took away from the night, we finally got the return of Samoa Joe to TNA after weeks of build and a couple of months of inactivity from the "Samoan Submission Machine". He had threatened Scott Steiner week after week and Sunday was supposed to be the first shot for Joe to get revenge on the Main Event Mafia for breaking his arm. What the people wanted and what I wanted was for Joe to lay on a serious beating before definitively beating Steiner and moving on to the next victim. Instead, what we got was a match that lasted barely a minute before Joe got himself disqualified. Granted, this wasn't one of the main events or anything, but TNA had hyped this return pretty heavily and after seeing the match, I couldn't help but feel like they had pulled a bait-and-switch on the fans by booking the match the way they did. It left a bad taste in my mouth, but I was still excited for Ultimate X, the Beer Money match and the main event so I let it slide. I would have been disappointed and things would have been fine there, but instead TNA decided to go back to the sheer stupidity of the angle with Joe and his sling blade and later in the night we went into the back to find Lauren with Joe. Joe was covered in dirt and blood was dripping off of his knife. He essentially said that he had scarred Steiner and that the rest of the Main Event Mafia was next. Guh?

This was honestly one of the stupidest things I have seen in wrestling in quite some time, and believe me, I've seen some stupid things. Joe needed to come back as an ass-kicking machine that gets his revenge the best way he knows how, by beating people up in the ring and making them suffer. The babyface is always supposed to get theirs by beating the heel in the ring. As I said a moment ago, they could have had Joe lay in some extra shots or maybe get in a couple of extra Muscle Busters. They could have had him hold the rear naked choke for a few seconds longer, just to help get over how much he hated Steiner. Instead, they took their returning babyface and made him a knife-wielding pyschopath who is apparently committing felonious assault to get his revenge. Stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid stuff on every level and this was almost enough for me to turn the TV off and call it a night.

Even after that though, I was willing to give TNA a shot because they still had matches that I wanted to see. Unfortunately, the matches left only delivered halfway. AJ/Booker was solid and had the right man going over in AJ, but it was only watchable because AJ dragged a decent match out of Booker. If Booker had been on, these two could have done something great, but instead they just ended up having an okay match. An okay match would have been fine for an episode of Impact, or for a pay-per-view that was going better, but this pay-per-view needed some saving and this one didn't deliver. The Beer Money/Team 3D match was also a decent match, but the stupid ending pretty much ruined the opening fifteen minutes for me. Rather than doing that finish on the pay-per-view, they should have done that finish on this week's Impact to help build for the Lockdown unification match. Pay-per-views are for payoffs, not for building to the next pay-per-view. You couldn't help but feel a little cheated once the match was all over and there's no one to blame but TNA's bookers. They paint themselves into a corner every time that they book one of these Off The Wagon matches against an established team and if they set up the whole angle just to get rid of Petey and Lance Rock, than it was retarded and short-sighted of them to do so.

The night wasn't all terrible though as we did have the last two matches of the night that delivered. Ultimate X was a great version of the match that featured some innovative offensive moves sprinkled throughout the usual exciting match that the X-Division delivers when the cables are strung across the ring. The ending (though we've seen it before with Daniels) was impressive and also opened the door for a possible unmasking of Daniels down the road as anyone with a working memory would have to know that Daniels was the only person capable of pulling that move off. A very entertaining spotfest and probably one of the better Ultimate X matches that I've seen in a long time, but I don't think that it's worthy of the mountains of praise being heaped on it by some people in the IWC. Don't get me wrong, it was great, but I also think that it seemed that much better because of the crap that it was up against from the first two hours of the show. People were so happy to finally see something decent and entertaining that they may have overrated it a little bit, but it was still a fun spot-filled showcase for the X-Division and some of TNA's brightest up-and-comers.

The main event was actually a lot better than I thought it was going to be. I expected it to be awful with Sting's limitations and all of the extra bodies in the ring, but it was fairly solid up until the clusterfuck at the end. You have to question why they would put this on right after the Ultimate X match as some of the crowd was likely burnt out after that match, but Angle and Sting worked hard enough to get them back into it by the middle of the match. Sting honestly looked better than I've seen him look in months and he's either starting to heal up his nagging injuries or he just sucked it up because he knew it was a big show and it needed something a little more. Either way, Sting brought it hard and managed to match Angle step for step and move for move. I was thoroughly entertained right until the classic TNA overbooking reared its ugly head and marred the finish. You knew that with Jeff Jarrett and Mick Foley out there that they'd figure into the finish, but it's a shame that they had to because this match was actually good enough that they didn't need to add all of the nonsense at the end. The one thing I did like is that while Sting used the distraction provided by Jarrett, that was more a situation of Angle losing his head and Sting taking advantage rather than Sting being outright helped by Jarrett or Foley. That was the one thing that TNA did right with the finish because it kept people from feeling like Sting was a champion that needed help to keep the belt. If they're trying to get Sting into a tweener/face role, they need him to win matches like this on his own rather than taking help and seeming almost heelish.

All in all, the good was FAR, FAR outweighed by the bad on this show and while the last two matches were great, there was no way that this show could be saved. I'm not going to go as far as some people I've seen and call it the worst pay-per-view ever from TNA as there were some redeeming qualities in this one, but I will say that it was probably the worst that I've seen from TNA in quite some time and that it left me feeling disappointed by the time the show went off the air.


The Stories

-- Sunday featured a bit of a dearth of news stories as there was little going on in the world of wrestling. Lots of people commented on the death of Andrew Martin including Lance Storm, who wrote one of the more poignant and heartfelt tributes to him on his personal blog. Outside of that, the only big story was that Dwayne Johnson's new movie, Race To Witch Mountain, opened at number one at the box office, taking in almost $25 million in its first weekend in theaters. That's a quality opening for a March release and just goes to show that Johnson has crossed over completely into a bonafide movie star. I will give all the credit in the world to Johnson for becoming as big a star as he has and if you think about it, it's kind of funny to look at how his movie career has somewhat mirrored his wrestling career. When he started out as Rocky Maivia, he had the moves down and knew what he was doing, he just hadn't put it all together yet. This was a lot like how his performance in The Mummy Returns turned out. You could see that he had all of the pieces to be a big movie star, he just didn't know how to use them properly. The Scorpion King was much like his time with the Nation of Domination as he moved from being a supporting character to being a breakout star and from there, things only got bigger and bigger for him in both fields. Granted, he may never be as big a movie star as he was a pro wrestling star, but the man has been able to parlay the performance training he learned in the WWF/E better than anyone has before and you have to give him credit for that.



Monday


The Show



Monday Night Raw Results:

Shawn Michaels and The Undertaker vs. JBL and Vladimir Kozlov - Winners: Shawn Michaels and The Undertaker (pinfall, Shawn's Sweet Chin Music on JBL)
Beth Phoenix, Jillian Hall and Layla vs. Kelly Kelly, Mickie James and Melina - Winners: Kelly Kelly, Mickie James and Melina (pinfall, Melina roll-up on Phoenix)
Triple H vs. Cody Rhodes - Winner: Triple H (pinfall, sledgehammer shot)
Dolph Ziggler vs. Rey Mysterio - Winner: Rey Mysterio (pinfall, top rope splash)
Kofi Kingston, MVP and CM Punk vs. Shelton Benjamin, Mark Henry and Kane - Winners: Kofi Kingston, MVP and CM Punk (pinfall, Punk's GTS on Benjamin)
Edge vs. John Cena - Winner: None (No Contest)

Raw this week was what felt like week eight thousand of the Vickie Guerrero/Edge/Big Show/John Cena storyline and this week we saw John Cena having to take on Edge with Vickie as the special referee. The match itself was alright and served as a pretty good main event, but the all of the extracurricular stuff between the four is starting to get a little tiresome in my opinion. A storyline like this with all of the extra bells and whistles should be taking place at a show that needs that kind of hype. WrestleMania is about the event itself and is bigger than any angle or storyline as for the most part it's about ending feuds and settling scores. The way that this has been going so far, it feels like this whole situation is going to be little more than a springboard into another feud after WrestleMania with the catalyst coming at the big event itself, which would only serve to cheapen things a little in my eyes. Sure, there may be some good one-liners coming out of this and it may be getting a few laughs, but it just doesn't feel like a WrestleMania-worthy storyline to me and it's starting to affect my enthusiasm for the event.

The Triple H/Randy Orton fued bubbled and simmered for another week as well as Triple H got his hands on Cody Rhodes inside a steel cage. Of course, it wasn't in a steel cage at first though as Triple H apparently had one materialize from the ceiling with no one realizing that it was there. He completely squashed Cody, which makes sense since Cody is one of Orton's underlings and not someone that could be considered a main event level talent, and then brutalized him with the sledgehammer. This didn't completely make up for how things have gone in the past few weeks since Orton's RKO on Stephanie, but it certainly didn't make things any worse for once which was nice. There's still a long way that the WWE has to go in two weeks to get people back on board after the fued hit the skids for a couple of weeks. If they do more things like this and have it focus on the action in the ring and in the arena instead of trying to turn everything into a movie, they might just have a chance to win me back around in time for the actual bout at WrestleMania.

Chris Jericho finally got his opponent or opponents I guess I should say for WrestleMania and it's definitely a disappointment with how hot the angle was going into it. For all of the rumors about Mickey Rourke and Stone Cold Steve Austin, it looks like the WWE is going with Plan Z and putting on Jericho vs. Steamboat, Piper and Snuka with Ric Flair in their corner. Here again, this is a situation where it would be perfectly acceptable for a match like this and an angle like this to play out on any other pay-per-view, but this is WrestleMania and this was built to be a centerpiece match. Having only one guy (Steamboat) who might actually be able to go in the ring and losing all of the mainstream crossover potential of Rourke or Austin is a disaster for the WWE as this was one of those chances to make something a true WrestleMania moment and have it be larger than life. Instead, we get the seniors tour making an appearance and likely embarassing Chris Jericho in the process.

It's funny to look at how things have been going towards WrestleMania with Triple H/Orton and Cena/Edge/Big Show being decent matches that are getting terrible builds while the build for the Jericho match was fantastic only to serve as a letdown once the actual match was announced. Seemingly the only match on the entire show that has the build as well as the prospect of a great match is the feud between The Undertaker and Shawn Michaels. On this edition of Raw, they teamed to take on JBL and Vladimir Kozlov and while the match was only as good as could be expected with both JBL and Kozlov in it, the interactions between Taker and Michaels during the match were fantastic. That includes the ending that had Michaels seemingly stealing the victory right out from Taker's nose by dropping JBL with Sweet Chin Music while Taker had him set up for the chokeslam. It was a physical extension of the "anything you can do I can do better" verbal argument that they had a couple of weeks ago. After the match, Michaels leveled Taker with a taste of Sweet Chin Music while Taker had his back turned, which will only further infuriate the Dead Man. When you add in the fact that Michaels seems to be going subtle heel here, much like he did against Hogan at SummerSlam a few years back, it's all pointing towards a match that is worthy of being on the grand stage of WrestleMania. It will be interesting to see how they ramp up the intensity this week with Undertaker likely being supremely pissed off at being cheapshotted by HBK after the match was over.

As for the rest of the show, it all just kind of felt bland with a whole lot of nothing interesting happening. The Rey/Ziggler match was kind of pointless, the six-man tag Money in the Bank preview match was nothing special and the women's six-Diva tag was forgettable at best. It's really scary to think that with two weeks left until WrestleMania that A.) They're still making matches when most of the card is usually firmed up well in advance and B.) that there was only about fifteen minutes worth of compelling TV in the two-hour show. It's been a long time since there's been a time that WWE TV struggled its way into WrestleMania and sadly, this is starting to look like one of those years.


The Stories


A well-deserved honor for a family that's seen far too much grief...

-- Monday was another semi-quiet day on the wrestling front, with the biggest story being that the legendary Von Erich family was named as the latest inductees into the WWE Hall of Fame. I just watched the two World Class historical DVD's again recently and I have to say that each time I watch them, I'm struck by how much class and strength Kevin Von Erich possesses. It would be easy for someone to crumble in the face of so much tragedy, and God knows that his brothers did, but Kevin remains strong to this day as the last pillar of a once great legacy. The Von Erichs helped to usher in a new era of professional wrestling in World Class and they were the precursors to the Rock n' Wrestling era that had the WWF printing money. They company was incredibly infulential to the wrestling business as a whole, and while the end of the story was marred by the multiple tragedies the family endured, there's no denying that they have a rightful place in the Hall of Fame. The induction featuring Kevin will be one induction that I will make sure not to miss as it is sure to be emotional, but will also be incredibly uplifting. Kevin deserves this almost as much if not more than the family does as a whole, and it will be a heart-warming moment to see him in the spotlight talking about something positive for a change.

-- TNA made some smaller news throughout the day on Monday as news broke that both Cute Kip and Jackie Moore were going to be phased out of their on-screen roles to become agents in the Knockout division. I applaud the move for Kip because it had been so long since he had done anything of note on television that he's not going to be missed. The one that I don't understand is splitting Jackie away from Beer Money Inc. as they are one of the hottest things going in TNA right now. I get that Jackie's not the only reason they're as hot as they are, but she's definitely helped them and to take her away from them seems like a bad move. I'm just hoping that it's not the first event in a sequence of them that will end up taking away Beer Money's heat and possibly even splitting them up as a team. For those of you who would wonder why TNA would split up Beer Money when they're one of the most successful things going on the roster right now, you have to remember that it's TNA. They've made mistakes like this in the past, making the right booking choice at the wrong time, and this wouldn't be that outside the realm of possibility. I hope I'm wrong, but it looked like there were some small seeds of dissension at the pay-per-view, so it seems like a possibility. It would be a shame if it happened, but I wouldn't be completely shocked.


At least he didn't end up getting killed like his brother Apollo...

-- Also coming out of Orlando on Monday was an update on the condition of Consequences Creed, who had seemed to have his bell rung during the Ultimate X bout. Creed was diagnosed with a concussion and was pulled from Monday's Impact tapings as a result. After seeing that match a couple of times, it's hard to try to figure out where the concussive blow came from, but I have to say that TNA is lucky that he was the only one that ended up on the injured list. Some of those spots, while mind-blowing, were incredibly risky and there could have easily been two or three more bodies in the infirmary after it was all said and done. Best wishes to Creed for a quick recovery, though let's hope that TNA doesn't rush him back too soon. Head injuries are no joke and as much as I like Creed, he needs to be 100% before he comes back, period.



Tuesday


The Show



ECW on Sci-Fi Results

Christian and MVP vs. Shelton Benjamin and Mark Henry - Winners: Shelton Benjamin and Mark Henry (pinfall, Benjamin's Pay Dirt on Christian)
Jamie Noble vs. Evan Bourne - Winner: Evan Bourne (pinfall, Shooting Star press)
Paul Burchill vs. Finlay - Winner: Finlay (pinfall, Celtic Cross)


ECW was a real mixed bag this week as it was a show that had both good and bad moments. The biggest part of the show was the closing interview that featured another edition of the Dirt Sheet hosted by The Miz and John Morrison. We got a great interview portion featuring Miz and Morrison at their best and the Bella Twins were also there, with Morrison proclaiming them to be their girlfriends. Bree seemed to be confused, but Nickie was all over that. The Colons came out after being made fun of by Mizzorisson and challenged them to a title unification match at WrestleMania. Miz and Morrison accepted the challenge and the segment ended with the Bella Twins splitting as Nickie sided with Miz and Morrison while Bree stuck with the Colons. The segment did everything that you could expect it to as it flowed well, was entertaining and actually made a decent match for WrestleMania. I had said a few weeks back that I was hoping that these two teams would get twenty minutes or so at WrestleMania and while I don't think they'll get that long, I do think that the stage has been set for them to have a great match. I don't know if it needed the added element of the Bella split, but that also worked to an extent as well.

The big match of the show was the Money In The Bank preview match featuring Christian and MVP taking on Mark Henry and Shelton Benjamin. This one sadly got decimated by a commercial as we missed out on nearly four minutes of action for commercials in a nine minute bout. While it got cut up pretty badly, what we did see was actually pretty good. As Larry pointed out in his R's for ECW though, there's a lot of interaction going on between all of the parties involved in the Money In The Bank match, seemingly a lot more than there has been in previous years since the brand extension is being fully ignored this year. If they keep doing this all the way up to WrestleMania, people might get tired of seeing combinations of these eight in the ring and as such the match will come off as a little flat. I'm already concerned about the match as there are some big boys in it this year that will likely change the dynamic of the match and when you also factor in what I was talking about with the burn-out, the usual show-stealer could be in position for a slight fall from grace this year.

While he didn't get much time in the ring, this week did finally see the return of one of ECW's hottest rising stars, Evan Bourne. I don't understand why they had Finlay/Burchill eat up a bunch of time at the end of the show when they could have just given an extra five minutes to Noble and Bourne and had it be an actual match. The crowd was behind Bourne all the way, but like I said before this just didn't feel like anything special after spending months building the hype for his return. If they wanted a squash, they should have just stuck him in with a local jobber like they've done with Tyson Kidd. While it's good to have Bourne back, it ended up wasting his return as well as devaluing Noble (yeah, he can't get much lower, I know) in the process.



The Stories

-- The big story on Tuesday saw the WWE announcing that they would be lowering their lowest-priced tickets for all of their events, dropping them from $25 to $20. While that might not seem like a big deal, it just goes to show how far reaching this economic crisis is. Most times, sporting events and things like wrestling prove to be recession-proof and still manage to hold onto their business during tough times. The WWE dropping their prices like this just proves that they're having trouble getting people into the arena. This will work out two-fold for the WWE as first off, for every five dollars they lose on selling tickets to people who would have bought them anyways, they'll make money by bringing in new fans that might not have picked up their tickets unless they were at the reduced price. That will likely help bump up their gate revenue for their house shows and if one out of every five of these fans head to the souvenir stand to pick up a t-shirt or a program or anything of that nature, that's just more money coming in to the company. While they might take a bit of a hit in lowering their ticket prices the way that they have, it's a smart move in the long run as the more people they get into the building (even at a cut rate), the more money they'll be able to make.



Wednesday


The Stories


I heard that Sheik wanted this to be the cover....WWE officials were not amused...

-- Sad news from the WWE as it was reported on Wednesday that a planned autobiography chronicling the life of the Iron Sheik has been canceled after the WWE was unhappy with the first treatment that was submitted to them. While I don't think that there's any great loss in not hearing the Sheik's full story as he seems a bit of an odd choice to have his own book, there's no denying that it would have been funny to read about 500 pages of Sheik ranting and raving like a lunatic. The good thing about this is that it opens up the bidding to outside parties, meaning that Sheik will likely be able to tell his story completely uncensored and without the rewriting and omitting of history that the WWE tends to do from time to time. If/when the Sheik is able to find a publisher for his story, I'll be adding it to my list of stuff that I want on Amazon because there's no denying that while it might not be interesting in terms of stories or events that changed the wrestling business forever (outside of the job to Hogan), it will be very interesting to get Sheik's opinions on his career and his co-workers down on paper. It'll be like a technical manual on how to burn every bridge you've ever had in your life....after you've raped the bridge and broken its back that is.



Thursday


The Show



TNA Impact Results:

Motor City Machine Guns vs. Team No Limit - Winners: Team No Limit (pinfall, Naito roll-up on Sabin)
Raisha Saeed and Awesome Kong vs. ODB and Taylor Wilde - Winners: ODB and Taylor Wilde (pinfall, Wilde crucifix on Kong)
Sheik Abdul Bashir vs. Samoa Joe - Winner: None (No Contest)
Madison Rayne vs. The Governor - Winner: The Governor (pinfall, small package)
Kurt Angle and Sting vs. Jeff Jarrett and Mick Foley - Winners: Jeff Jarrett and Mick Foley (pinfall, Foley chairshot on Sting)

TNA Impact tried to stem the bleeding from the severed artery that was Destination X and while I don't agree with how they're doing it, they seemed to do a good job in putting on a mostly entertaining show. They actually managed to take their video packages for Destination X and have it look like a show that was a good show, which was something I never would have expected to happen in a million years. The opening segment ran a little long, as it does most weeks, but it did manage to give us the most star-filled main event in Impact history as you see in the results listed above. Foley's work on the mic during the first segment was great, especially when he came to Sting and questioned why Sting was talking for him when he's his own man. As I said, the segment ran a little longer than it needed to be to get the point of the main event across, but it was fairly solid work from all of the combatants on the microphone so I'm willing to let it slide. That and they didn't do like ten reactions to the promos immediately after, which is always a bonus.

From there, we got a great bit of tag team action from the Motor City Machine Guns and Team No Limit from Japan in the opening bout of the night. They got about seven minutes or so and put on a great match. All I could hope for is that they get another chance to do it again at Lockdown and that they get about ten more minutes or so to really dazzle. Unlike a lot of the matches that feature TNA talent against international talent, this match actually had both sides working incredibly well together and using a style that meshed with each other. It was a welcome change from the past few weeks where there's been very little action inside the ring to get excited about. The match also led into a promo from Beer Money Inc. after they attacked Team No Limit after the bout. They called out Team 3D and made a winner takes all bout at Lockdown between themselves and Team 3D for their TNA World Tag Team Championships and Team 3D's IWGP Tag Team Championships. The sad thing is that it pretty much paints the picture that Team 3D will be winning as I doubt that New Japan would allow a title change between to American teams on an American show. The interview segment with them was quite good, it's just too bad that the match will likely be an anti-climax at Lockdown.

Samoa Joe came back to Impact this week with his first in-ring action on the show since being taken out by the Main Event Mafia. After "scarring" Scott Steiner for life, he took on Sheik Abdul Bashir. The match was pretty much a re-do of the match with Steiner at Destination X where he spent a minute or two beating up Bashir before he punched out the referee for the DQ. Joe ended up dragging Bashir to the back and stringing him up by his ankles before beating the piss out of him with a kendo stick or a broomstick or something. As I said during the review of Impact, Joe is starting to look a little less like a scorned ass-kicker out for revenge and more like a bully who is picking on people with weapons. If TNA isn't careful, they're going to lose the support for Joe as he's going to have a lot more in common with a heel than a babyface. Since he's come back to TNA he's 0-2 and if things don't change soon, the entire build that they had for Samoa Joe leading up to his comeback is going to be a total waste. They need to have him be a remorseless ass-kicker, which he is right now, but they need to put it into the ring so that he can start getting revenge in the way that fans are used to. Yeah, they're trying something different and looking at Joe as a counter-babyface, but the difference between someone like Joe and someone like Stone Cold Steve Austin is that Austin took his lumps but did his fighting like a man with his fists. Joe constantly relying on weapons makes him seem weaker, which is generally a trait that is in line with the heels. I'm willing to give this a chance as it goes forward, but I'm starting to feel less happy with the angle is going the longer it plays out.

The main event featured four of the biggest stars in wrestling as Sting and Kurt Angle took on Jeff Jarrett and Mick Foley. The match itself was fairly solid, as was the storyline weaving through it of Sting and Angle and their distrust of each other. As usual, Angle didn't tag Sting and Sting didn't like it. Angle kept beating and beating on Foley with Sting trying to plead with Angle to pin him because he didn't want any more abuse than was needed. Foley eventually got away from the beating and Jeff Jarrett started laying down the law on Angle. The end came with Foley grabbing a chair and chasing Angle from the ring before BLASTING Sting in the head with a chair for the pinfall. In a bit of a change of pace for TNA, we didn't have to wait until next week to find out what Foley's motivation was as they scheduled some promo time for Foley and Sting afterwards. Sting questioned Foley's motives and then challenged him to a match at Lockdown. Foley again played off of his feelings in the opening segment, questioning who Sting was to say that he was finished and needed to be pinned. He added that he was going to beat Sting up to show just how much he had left in the tank and that finished Impact while making what will likely be the main event for Lockdown.

I'll say this for the entire finish of the show, it was different. It was different than just seeing Sting and Angle carrying on again for the millionth time, which made it a fresh change of pace. I still don't agree with the fact that Foley and Sting are going to be doing battle when there are a lot of younger guys who could really use the rub a lot more, but it is what it is. Foley and Sting both did well to sell the match with their promo work after the match and I'm actually excited to see what's going to happen in the weeks leading up to Lockdown with this angle.


The Stories


This one falls into the category of must-own for any true fan of professional wrestling...

-- We found out on Thursday that there is going to be a DVD re-release of the groundbreaking documentary film Bret Hart: Wrestling With Shadows. The new version will be a double-disc set that will feature the original documentary on the first disc with a bonus disc that will be a biographical DVD on Owen Hart, touching on his life, his career and the tragic accident that cost him his life. With Jake Chambers riling the masses earlier this week with his Wacky Wrestling Theory column on Owen Hart, it's plain to see that the man is still missed and still has an impact on the wrestling business, nearly a decade after his death. I would have bought this one all on its own as I have an old VHS copy of Wrestling With Shadows and would love to have the movie on DVD, but when you add in the Owen biography it goes from "I'll buy it when I have the chance." to a "I must buy it immediately." After reading the desciption of the disc in the press release, my only hope is that the Owen disc isn't just a re-hash of his unfortunate end, but rather a celebration of his life from beginning to end. I get that the way that he died was one of the most important things to happen in his life, but there were so many other things that need to be touched on as well. If it doesn't feature stories about Owen's sense of humor, his love of his children and wife and his incredible potential that was left unfulfilled, the disc will be a huge disappointment. Owen deserves better than that.

-- TNA was back in the headlines on Thursday as they were nominated for two MI6 awards, which recognize excellence in marketing and promotion of video games. The company was honored in the "Thinking Outside of the Box" category for their work in creating the character Suicide in the TNA Impact video game and bringing it to life as a real character on their show. While I will say that the idea has been lacking a lot in the creative department from a wrestling standpoint and that the suit has seemingly been a hinderance to careers rather than a help, from a marketing standpoint TNA deserves the nominations. They were able to blend their virtual world product with their real product rather well and they've managed to draw attention to their video game and their wrestling show as a result. I don't think the character has any long-term drawing capability and that the idea will likely be gone sooner rather than later, but it's definitely an original concept that TNA has attempted to use and they deserve to be recognized for that.



Friday


The Show



Friday Night Smackdown Results:

Triple H vs. Vladimir Kozlov - Winner: Triple H (pinfall, Pedigree)
United States Championship: MVP vs Shelton Benjamin (C) - Winner: MVP (pinfall, Playmaker)
Shawn Michaels vs. Kane - Winner: Shawn Michaels (pinfall, Sweet Chin Music)
Extreme Rules: Jeff Hardy vs. THE Brian Kendrick - Winner: Jeff Hardy (pinfall, Swanton Bomb)
JBL vs. The Undertaker - Winner: The Undertaker (submission, Devil's Gate)

Sigh. I really need to move into an area that actually gets MyNetwork. Either that or that retarded station needs to fold so that Smackdown can be moved to a station like WGN or Sci-Fi and I can actually see the show every week. For yet another week, my source for Smackdown failed to deliver and I've been unable to catch the entire show as of this writing. Sure, I've seen bits and pieces but not enough to deliver a full-on, fleshed-out report on the show. Instead I'll just give a couple of thoughts on what I've seen so far.

The MVP/Benjamin match was solid and fairly unspectacular and I'm hoping that if they get the chance to do it over again at Backlash that they'll get a lot more time to tell a proper story. Parts of the match felt rushed and the whole thing seemed to be verging on sloppy, but that could just be me. For all of the build-up they've put into the Benjamin/MVP feud and the MVP character, this felt like it was a bit of a letdown as a pay-off. Hopefully they'll get a chance to blow things off right further down the line.

The other thing that I wanted to touch on was the development that the Hardy vs. Hardy match has now been made into an Extreme Rules match. In kayfabe terms, you can say that it makes sense because of Matt's history with ECW. In a real-world sense, it's great because it means that they're going to get to use the tables, ladders and chairs that have helped make them famous. I don't get why they wouldn't just do a straight wrestling match at WrestleMania and escalate things from there for the other PPV's instead of seemingly blowing their whole wad early, but we'll just have to wait and see how things play out. Who knows, we could get a chance to see a Hardy Boyz fight in a Hell in the Cell. That would be one to write home about, especially if the build kept going as strong as the build to the upcoming WrestleMania bout has been.

I'm sorry that I don't have more to say about the show, but if I've said it once I've said it a thousand times. I won't wax poetic and babble on about a show that I haven't seen because I respect you guys too much to half-ass it. As I said, hopefully I can end up finding a way to actually see the show on TV every week instead of having to rely on internet posts and things of that nature.



The Stories


If EY loses to this guy, I riot...

-- Last week I reported on the story that Danny Bonaduce, the winner (I think) of Hulk Hogan's Celebrity Championship Wrestling, would be competing in a match at TNA's next pay-per-view Lockdown. This week, we found out that Bonaduce had received permission from the people at CCW to do the show and on Friday we found out that he has an opponent for the match at Lockdown. Apparently Eric Young drew the short end of the stick and will be in the ring with the former Partridge at Lockdown in Philly. Young and TNA interviewer Jeremy Borash visited Bonaduce in the studio of his morning radio show in Philadelphia and signed the contract while shooting an angle for the match. Here's the video of the incident in case you missed it:



I really, REALLLLLLY hope that this is a dark match for EY's sake as this could end up being fairly detrimental to his career win or lose. They're obviously having him heel it up for the sake of the angle as Bonaduce will likely get a pop for being in the same town he runs a radio show five times a week, as well as for being somewhat of a celebrity. That being said, unless they go full-blown heel with him on TV, it's going to be a half-assed attempt at trying to capitalize on some local publicity and this will just end up coming off lame. It's not that I have hopes for a Young/Bonaduce match to be some sort of five-star classic, but Young has the ability to possibly get over with the crowd on his own merits and shit like this isn't going to help him.


I call this one..."Actor in Repose"....

-- Also on Friday, video surfaced of John Cena's appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live the night before while he made the media rounds for his new movie 12 Rounds, which opens next weekend. During the interview, Cena made it a point to tell people that even if he was to win an Oscar, he wouldn't ever leave wrestling the same way that Dwayne Johnson has since his movie career has taken off. I can't help but feel like it's easy for him to say something like that now because he hasn't had a movie that's taken off to be a huge hit yet. If Cena had a part in a movie that was similar to Rock's part in The Mummy or a leading role like The Scorpion King that made a decent amount of money, I think that Cena would be gone on the next thing smoking. There's something to be said for making more money and having less physical wear and tear on your body by acting instead of wrestling and I get the feeling that Cena was toeing the company line when he made that statement. The WWE is probably a little butt-hurt at being left in Johnson's past and sent Cena out to make that kind of statement almost as much to take a shot at Johnson as to appease Cena's fans who might be worried they'll lose their hero to Hollywood.

-- TNA Impact made news again with their ratings as the show from Thursday night drew a 1.34, making it the highest rated TNA show of all time on Spike TV. How they are managing to draw these ratings with all of the old guys at the top of the card and all of the crap that they're putting on TV and on PPV is beyond me, but I have to congratulate them for actually doing it. For the longest time, no one thought there was a chance for growth with TNA and that they were just going to continue to tread water until they folded, but it now appears like that's not the case at all. I'm still a little leery of the ratings rising now as it could just lead to them treating it as justification for focusing on the older talent and that could lead to the young guys getting pushed even further down the card, but we'll just have to play the waiting game on that one.


Saturday


The Stories



-- ROH finally made some news this week on Saturday as their weekly TV show finally made its debut on HDNet. I won't go too far into it as it will make its full debut in the Bell to Bell next week, but I really enjoyed the show. The announce team of Mike Hogewood and Dave Prazak was better than I expected it to be, especially Hogewood who seems like he's really done his homework and is making the effort to be a quality announcer. The wrestling was spot-on, as you would expect from Ring of Honor, but the biggest thing that impressed me was the look of the show. Ring of Honor, even on pay-per-view has looked really bush league on occasion, but this show was high-class, professional and most important did a great job of introducing the competitors. Before every match, each man got a thirty-second promo and while they made their entrance there was something called the 1-2-3, which was three facts about each man. They could be something about their alliances within ROH, their finishing holds, or their accomplishments and it was a fantastic way to make sure that people knew who they were watching. I was very impressed with the debut show, even more impressed than I was with the debut pay-per-view and this one is going to have a full on slot next week and every week after as it was a quality wrestling program from start to finish.

-- There was also some tough news for ROH on what should have been a celebration for them with their HDNet debut and their HUGE 7th Anniversary show. ROH Champion Nigel McGuinness, one of the cornerstones of the HDNet advertising campaign before the debut of the show, suffered an apparent arm injury that will likely force him from action for four to six months with surgery being heavily discussed. He will work the 7th Anniversary show to defend the belt against KENTA as well as working the ROH PPV taping scheduled for Houston, but after that we can expect to be without Sir Nigel for quite some time, which is a shame. I don't know if they're going to run an injury angle to get the belt off of Nigel or if they're going to wait it out to let Nigel keep the belt. With the way that their TV schedule runs, they'd possibly be able to do something like that to have Nigel not have to give up the title, but I can't see them putting their only singles belt on hold for almost half a year. The worst possible timing for ROH and all I can do is wish the best to Nigel on a speedy recovery.


Well, that does it for the news in the professional wrestling world this week. Remember next week we're going to be covering ROH in-depth with all of the rest of the weekly shows and in April when Superstars starts, I'll likely be covering that too meaning that Thursday will have two shows in the Shows section. As if this column needed to be any longer huh? Anyhow, thanks for taking the time to check me out this week and enjoy the week of wrestling coming up. I'll be back in seven to do it all over again. Later taters!!

If you're a fan of MMA, be sure to check out Nokaut.com for more of my work.