[i knew I'd lose interest in this thing rather quickly, but I need to comment on this. Is DVDVR the worst board out there or what? Wow. I mean, at times, it can be really good. But get a load of their latest gems. Benoit/OJ, at GAB, was a good match. Carlito is the best wrestler on Raw. The tag title match at GAB was good. Burchill is the worst on the roster. Oh, but it might actually be Shawn Michaels! Benoit was a LOWER MIDCARDER when he was world champ.
I honestly can't believe the stuff these guys come out with. In no way do I think Shawn is the best in the company, or that Benoit was booked well as champ, or that Burchill is really good, but, shit, this stuff is insane.
Anyway, I'm probably going to start using this blog again, so expect 3 or 4 more entries before I lose interest for the second time. Watched a decent bit of stuff lately, so reviews on the way!
As an aside, I recently talked about making Velocity/Heat comps. Well, I finally managed to get EVERY Velocity ever aired, and I've started work on the comp, so if anyone is interested, either drop a comment here, or give me a PM. I'll probably start commenting on these matches soon, too. Note, I am not really interested in making money off this stuff. What I am interested in, however, is setting up a NMB type thing, where I could send out the comps and we could set up a thread to discuss them or whatever. Any guys from there who are interested can get involved too. Obviously, to be a part of this, you would have to be able to watch and comment on all the matches.
And that's it.
Kenta Kobashi & Go Shiozaki vs. Jun Akiyama & Genichiro Tenryu (4/24/05)
This was the semi-main to NOAH's horrible 4/24/05 show. The card had so far seen a couple of DUD-level six-mans, an early, screwjob finish and a couple of average-slightly decent matches. So now we have Japan's strongest wrestler, along with his young protege, vs. a surly old legend along with the younger, but just as cantankerous Akiyama. Does it save the card? Depends on one's standards I suppose.
It was clear right off the bat, that Tenryu wanted at Kobashi, as he attacked Kobashi before the bell had even rang. This was followed with Tenryu throwing a table at Kobashi, and a while later, throwing a bottle of water at him. This built great anticipation for the eventual meeting between the two. Unfortunately for Tenryu, Kobashi was greatly angered, and when the two did eventually meet, Tenryu was absolutely brutalized with chops, ending with his chest being beet red, to go along with a stream of blood.
As the match went on, the general story was clear. Tenryu was destroying Shiozaki in order to taunt and anger Kobashi. This was evident when Tenryu kept drilling Shiozaki with stiff lariats, stuff punches and stiff chops, and then giving Kobashi a look of contempt after each sequence. It worked perfectly, because Tenryu plays the old bastard character so well, and Shiozaki took the beating like a champ.
As the match winded down, it was clear that Kobashi and Shiozaki were well behind. They did have a feint glimmer of hope when Kobashi helped Shiozaki gain the upper hand on Tenryu, while he (Kobashi) took care of Akiyama on the outside. Shiozaki ended up showing his immaturity, by going for a moonsault much too early. This lead to a great, momentum-changing nearfall when Tenryu pulled Shiozaki off the top and then hit a monster lariat. At this point, Akiyama had turned the tables on the outside and was able to keep Kobashi out, while Tenryu hit a powerbomb on Shiozaki to take the victory.
They didn't do much, if anything wrong here, but they didn't really go all out either. It was a good story being told in the right context, which didn't lend itself to being a classic wrestling match. Still, this was pretty good, and I'm sure if it had happened in certain other promotions, you'd have people calling it a low-end MOTYC. ***1/4
For fun, and to spark debate, I’m going to be watching all the matches on the Best of Japan 2002 - Complete Edition tape set, that you can find at Highspots. It’s a 13-tape set of 86 of the best matches in Japan in 2002. I’ve watched the set once, so I’ve already rated the matches, but for this venture I will be giving a new rating, and I shall also list some of the key moments and spots in each match. The recaps won’t be too in-depth; there are 86 matches to go through, and if I went into too much detail I’d never get finished in a timely manner. However, I will give enough notes so that, hopefully, a lively and intelligent debate will be sparked.
For a couple of the matches, such as Osamu Nishimura vs. Manabu Nakanishi from the G1, the tape set has the clipped version, but if I have the complete version of the match in question, then that is the version I shall be recapping and rating.
This is how Volume One looks:
I’ll review the matches in Volume One, list the matches in Volume Two, review those matches, and then do the same thing for each of the subsequent volumes.
The announcement of Samoa Joe versus Jushin Liger for TNA certainly provoked a reaction over at Strong Style Spirit.
It's almost enough to make you long for more posts from the likes of Fishyswa and Iggy.
Ok, here's what I want to do. Hopefully enough people read this blog so that we can get some sort of reasonable discussion. Lets discuss the best matches from 2000-2005, or early "Match of the decade candidates". Post as many matches as you want, but only if you really think they're truly great enough to be one of the best of the decade. You don't have to provide in-depth analysis, unless you're questioned. And even then, it doesn't have to be long-winded or anything. I'll fire off a few matches that I think are candidates and I will provide analysis if called upon (because then I can rewatch the match with that in mind).
Ok.
1. Samoa Joe vs. CM Punk (12/04/04) I admit, I thought this was a ***** match the first time I saw it. The story was just utterly fantastic, as they played off of past matches better than their 2nd match, and the blood really played in perfectly with the ending while leaving the door open for more matches between the two. I've been seeing criticism of this match (although nothing credible, because all I saw was a ***1/2 rating, with no analysis given, by a guy who's a crackpot). I don't know if it's a legit *****, as I need to watch it again. And the thing about that, is that I don't have access to it so I can't rewatch it at the moment. I've no doubt it was up in MOTDC territory though.
2. Samoa Joe vs. CM Punk (10/16/04) My god, I'm coming across like an ROHbot. Yikes. But this match was seriously fantastic. Probably the best 60 minutes I've seen. Once again, the basis of the match was them playing off the previous draw, and they did it in a way that left no doubt as to what they really meant by it. What makes it even more impressive, is that I believe this match was put together kind of at the last moment, when Steve Corino (who was originally facing Joe) had to pull out of the card.
3. Kenta Kobashi vs. Yoshihiro Takayama (04/25/04) This is what happens when Kobashi is involved in a big time match, and he doesn't go crazy with the no-selling/fighting spirit nonsense. That pretty much explains why it's here.
4. Hiroyoshi Tenzan vs. Jun Akiyama (8/17/03) I don't remember this match too well, other than the fact that I thought it was the best match I had seen from the period 1999-2003. I haven't seen any talk of this match, so I'm kind of curious as to what others think about it. Hopefully we can get some discussion on this match specifically, as it would give me a reason to watch it again.
Essentially that's pretty much it. Those are the only ****1/2 matches I've seen since 2000. Feel free to pick apart any of the matches you see, as long as you're bringing the points.
HTQ’s Thoughts on September 20th
I didn’t see a lot of Unforgiven because I had almost no interest in watching anything the card had to offer. What I did see wasn’t that great, but there were a few standout moments, primarily Matt Hardy’s huge legdrop off the top of the cage onto Edge. What was so great about it was that the fans went apeshit for the move, when it’s really a very low-risk move in terms of the chance of something going horrible wrong. It used to be that the fans didn’t care if you came off the top of anything, let alone a cage, unless you were doing 720 degree splashes through flaming tables. Now, they’ve been reeducated to pop for something as basic as a legdrop, even if it is being done off the top of a cage.
Other moments worth paying attention include the great sell-job done by Hurricane off of the DDT he took from Trevor Murdoch, which had one writer to the Observer website so incensed because he thought it was real, and he got so irate over that. Also fun to see that Christ Masters isn’t over a lick still, even though he’s been given the superpush this year.
Vince’s reaction to the upcoming ‘war’ between him and Spike/UFC is funny for all the wrong reasons. To combat this new threat, which is more a creation of his own mind than anything else, Vince is going back to the past by bringing back every big name he can get, and almost every minor name he can find or drag out of rehab. Instead of building to his future by building up his future superstars, Vince is instead relying on names from the past to help fight the problems of today. That never works, and while he might get a one-night boost out of this, it’ll do nothing positive in the long-term. He could have brought the names back one at a time to get a big boost out of each of them, but because he’s panicking, Vince is going for one huge boost all at once, and in doing so is throwing away whatever he could have got from those names by showing a little patience. It’s strange how Vince shows patience when you’d think he’d panic, and panics when he can afford to be patient.
Raw was Bore again. I recorded it, went through it in about ten minutes, and I don’t appear to have missed anything. We get Cena vs. Bischoff for the Raw ‘Homecoming’ on October 3rd. What a classic that’ll be(!). Can we stop with Renegade Babyface versus Evil Owner/GM part 324,686,939?
The prospect of Brock Lesnar wrestling for New Japan appears to be far more likely than a lot of people think. On The LAW radio show this weekend, Dave Meltzer speculated that WWE legal got word that they would likely lose the case, which they probably would have done had the case gone to trial, which would greatly weaken the strength and validity of the no-complete clauses in their contracts, and so are going to try and avoid that by making some sort of settlement to allow Lesnar to wrestle in Japan. If this happens, and Meltzer does think we’ll see the proposed Brock Lesnar vs. Masahiro Chono vs. Kazuyuki Fujita ‘dogfight’, and Lesnar is given the green light to compete for New Japan, then it could be that big boost the company needs to really turn the corner.
Any guesses for the finish to that match?
Over in TNA, they’re about to debut on Spike with Jeff Jarrett as their world champion. Yes, they put the NWA belt back on Jeff. Dixie Carter recently gave a lengthy interview about the company, and her remarks about Jeff make it clear as to why he got the belt, and it might not be entirely down to how he works in the ring. I don’t know what the relationship between Jeff and Dixie is like, but she came across as a lovestruck teenager in the interview when talking about Jeff, and it confirmed once and for all, as if any but the blindest of people had any doubt, that TNA will forever be a vehicle to push Jeff Jarrett as the superstar he can never be.
Ring of Honor changed their main title too, as Bryan Danielson is the new ROH Champion, taking the belt from the soon-to-be departing James Gibson last Saturday night. This is a great move by ROH, because they’ve put the belt on arguably their best in-ring worker, and it’s on someone who isn’t set to leave anytime soon, which I think took away from the recent title reigns of CM Punk and Gibson. The only question now is how long of a reign Danielson will have. With the short title reigns of Punk and Gibson, I’d like to see Danielson keep the belt until at least the end of the year.
HTQ on Jeff Jarrett regaining the NWA Title
Last night in Windsor Ontario, as part of a combined TNA/BCW show, Jeff Jarrett beat Raven to win the NWA Title.
And with that, TNA’s hopes of growing into something special were dashed.
Let me make it clear that I don’t hate Jeff Jarrett. I think he’s a decent worker, with decent charisma, and decent mic skills. And therein lies his biggest problem; he’s thoroughly decent, and there is absolutely nothing about him that stands out in any way, shape, or form. He doesn’t have anything mind-blowing in his repertoire, he doesn’t have superstar charisma, and he can’t talk people into the building. While it would be great for someone to have all three of those qualities, the top guy of a promotion, especially a promotion that is about to make a bid to go national, should have at least one of those qualities, and Jarrett has none of them.
So, why is someone with such obvious flaws at being a top guy being promoted as a top guy?
Well, TNA was originally formed by Jeff’s father, Jerry Jarrett, and the idea behind TNA from day one was for it to be a vehicle to push Jeff as a superstar. Now, Panda Energy might be the majority stockholders, and Dixie Carter, who is a member of the family that owns Panda, might be taking a more hands-on approach to running TNA, but make absolutely no mistake about the fact that Jeff and Jerry still have considerable stroke. The title change should be proof enough of that. The booking in TNA is currently being done by a committee headed by Scott D’Amore, with Mike Tenay, Jeremy Borash, Dixie Carter, and Dutch Mantell. The astute amongst you will note that nobody on that list has the last name Jarrett, and might think that means he has no say over creative. Think again. Jeremy Borash and Dutch Mantell are long-time friends of Jeff, with Dutch even being brought as booker for a brief period last year. You can bet that Borash and Mantell are going to be looking out for Jeff’s best interests, whether or not they are TNA’s best interests.
So, why is someone with such obvious flaws at being a top guy being promoted as a top guy?
Panda Energy and Dixie Carter are believers in star power; the more power the better. They want to have a star on top of TNA heading into their debut on Spike TV, and in their minds Jeff Jarrett is the biggest star they have. The problem with this mindset is that, outside of Jeff and his immediate family, nobody considers Jeff a star. When Jeff was last seen on national television he was on top of WCW when it was getting some really shitty buy-rates and was slowly and painfully dying right before our eyes. Even before that, Jeff was last seen in the WWF doing a midcard gimmick of hitting women over the head with guitars, and his last night saw him get pinned by Chyna. Jeff had been in the WWF for two years at that point, and it wasn’t until he got the women beating gimmick that he began to get even the smallest glimmer of a reaction from the fans, and that was with his best friend at the time, Vince Russo, being heavily involved in the creative direction of the WWF. Quite how someone who has had such miserable and pathetic run on national television can be seen as the guy to take TNA to the next level, I don’t know.
Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you a master class on how NOT to open a PPV. This match took place in the period of 1998 where WCW decided to push the babyface Wrath, who started to get incredibly over, especially his pumphandle slam "The Meltdown" (until, of course, he fought Kevin Nash on Nitro, derailing all the good progress made). Bryan Clarke, although limited as a worker, could put on an entertaining powermatch and logic would dictate that Wrath would steamroller through Glacier, who had never been over in the 2 years since his debut. A quick squash for the popular Wrath, demolishing Glacier with a string of powermoves, would warm up the crowd nicely and was the obvious way to go, right?
Wrong.
Oh, it's true enough that this is a squash. Glacier gets in very little offence, and what he does is no-sold, even his Khryonic Kick, one of his major moves . In fact, his offence is no sold to the extent that Glacier seems to be ignoring the no-selling and continuing with his offence without a care. The majority of the match though is Wrath on the attack, and he does so, very slowly. Punches and kicks and chokes with power cables are the name of the game and it's only the excellent selljob performed by Glacier (witness the nice 360 Marty Jannetty clothesline selljob or the bumps taken from several weak looking Wrath chops) that stops this from being totally dull. Finally, after eight or nine minutes of slow offence, Wrath sells something for Glacier, who instantly decides to try his finisher, the Ice Pick (Asiatic Spike). From the way Glacier telegraphs it, with his thumb held aloft for an age, we know he has no chance of applying it. Indeed, Wrath blocks it and instantly hits the Meltdown for three. Ten minutes of slow squash, when 5 minutes lopped off would have made the same point, hidden some of Wrath's limitations on offence and psyched the crowd up for the awful PPV ahead. Good work WCW, 1/2* because I'm feeling generous towards Glacier's fine selling
HTQ on Brock Lesnar and Spike/UFC vs. USA/WWE
Brock Lesnar
The biggest international wrestling story this week concerns Brock Lesnar and his on again/off again status in regards to his working the October 18th Dome event for New Japan Pro Wrestling. His participation has changed from being rumored to assured to turning into a definite maybe. The biggest hold up is, of course, his ongoing lawsuit battle with WWE over the non-compete clause that he signed as part of the agreement to allow Lesnar to leave WWE last year. The actual non-compete clause is worded as follows:
That doesn’t seem so bad, until you find out that this clause lasts until June 30, 2010
Yes, Brock Lesnar is legally barred from participating in professional wrestling or MMA anywhere in the world for the next ten years. Such a clause seems excessive on the surface, and really it is, but the key point to remember is that Lesnar willingly signed such a clause, and you’d think he’d be bound by it no matter what, right? Well, not necessarily. While the non-compete clause seems airtight on the surface, a little checking into the legal facts and background show that Lesnar has a reasonable chance of winning this lawsuit.
The lawsuit is being held in Connecticut, and Connecticut law doesn’t hold up non-compete clauses if they are shown to be unreasonable in terms of length and geographical consideration, and preventing someone from working in their chosen profession anywhere in the world for ten years would seem to fit that bill.
Brock’s lawyers also have ammunition in WWE allowing Ultimo Dragon to work in Japan while still under contract, and when WWE released a number of talents recently their non-competes did allow them to work in Japan. If they can argue that WWE is being unfair in allowing others to work in Japan while still under contract, and point out that WWE has no trouble letting others work in Japan as part of their non-compete clause, then they may have a much stronger case than a lot of people are giving them credit for.
Spike/UFC vs. USA/WWE
The biggest story in the US wrestling scene is the impending war that sees Spike TV and UFC taking on the USA Network and WWE. With Raw moving back to USA on 10/3, it was a given they’d go the extra mile to make it special and they going to do that by bringing back Triple H. However, things got interesting when Spike TV decided to put a live UFC special on 10/3 to go head-to-head with Raw. This move was inspired when Spike got word that, for the first time ever, the 8/29 edition of Ultimate Fighter beat Raw in the Males 25-34 demographic, which is Spike’s key demographic age group. Not only that, but Spike are also adding a reply of the new TNA show to their Monday night line-up as well. USA and WWE very quickly fired back, and it was announced that Raw would start early at 7:55pm, and would be a three-hour ‘Night of Champions’ Special, with the returns of Steve Austin, Hulk Hogan, Triple H, Vince McMahon and Mick Foley (though Foley might not be there as he’s meant to be in Australia the next day, and unless he tapes something for WWE he won’t be able to take part). Not only that, but immediately after Raw, USA would be airing a one-hour special to highlight the best of Raw on USA.
When you add in the UFC Unleashed show and the UFC reality show Ultimate Fighter, which will now be kept on Monday’s, the line-up for 10/3 looks like this:
Spike
8-9pm: UFC Unleashed
9-11:05pm: UFC Live
11:05-12:05am: The Ultimate Fighter 2
12:05am-2:10am: UFC Live replay
3:10am-4:10am TNA Impact!
USA
7:55-11:05pm: RAW 'Night of Champions'
11:05-12:05am: RAW Exposed
For wrestling and MMA fans, 10/3 is going be a very historic night, as a potential new ‘Monday Night War’ could be starting out. How this all unfolds won’t really be known until the ratings come out. For this to be a true Monday Night War, then UFC has to do numbers that Spike are at least satisfied with. Anything less than a good rating will see Spike pull back from being behind UFC and going ahead with the new Monday night line-up. However, a really good rating, and a thrilled Spike, will undoubtedly see Spike get firmly behind UFC, and TNA in their quest to remain the kings of Monday Night cable. How Spike sees the UFC ratings will be in part determined by how they eat into Raw’s ratings, which themselves will be of importance. Anything less than 4 is going to be seen is a big disappointment, and you’ve got to believe that WWE are going to expect something in the high 4’s for this one.
Personally, I’m thinking the live UFC does a 1.8 but does strong in the Male 25-34 demographic, and that Raw will get a 4.2, with their peak being a 4.5 at best. That’ll lead to more UFC on Spike, TNA getting a good replay slot on Mondays, and a brand new Monday Night War for us all to watch and enjoy.
Big Show vs. Edge (/wLita)
No match...Snitsky buts in and its- Impromptu Tag Madness.
Big Show and Matt Hardy vs. Snitsky and Edge (still w/Lita)
Ok match...* 1/2 stars...
Kerwin White vs. Shelton Benjamin
... why Benjamin not in OVW?
Womens division picking up a little bit.
Ric Flair vs. Chris Masters
This is why Ric Flair still can do it. ** and 3/4 stars...
Tajiri and Eugene vs. Cade and Murdoch
One star
Kurt Angle and Tyson Tomko vs. John Cena
Well... on to some puro news and the biggest one is, FIRE PRO is OUT BABY! JEAH!!!!!!
Here some other News:
There is more coming soon...so keep it here...
I just watched the ad for the Self Destruction of Ultimate Warrior DVD, and I can't wait to pick this up.
Ever since I was a kid, I never liked the Warrior. A LOT of people liked him, but me and my brother never did. I especially didn't like him when he defeated Randy Savage in a "retirement" match. Hey, I was a kid, Savage was my favorite wrestler, and I thought wrestling was real. My brother is a big Hogan fan, and he still cringes when he sees clips of the Warrior beating Hogan for the title at WM 6. Anyway, he was just so damn goofy and weird.
So, I'm watching this clip and it starts off pretty normal, and then bam! Hogan, McMahon, Heenan, Okerlund, Helmsley, Bischoff, and JR are all there just letting the Warrior have it. Hogan called him a cartoon. Helmsley said the Warrior was the most unprofessional wrestler he ever worked with. Heenan said that no one wanted to be around him. And Vince McMahon said he couldn't wait to fire him. I know that WWE went ahead with a negative portrayal of the Warrior when Warrior didn't want to participate in the DVD, but even so, this type of DVD couldn't be more of a dream come true for people like myself and my brother.
A lot of people will probably be pissed (especially Warrior fans), but I for one can't wait to pick up a copy. If you haven't seen the clip yet, go to WWE.com, and the video is on the home page.
If you have itunes, it should be there-
Just go to podcasting and possibly and maybe... you will see the show- if not go to the search and type in Toon Radio Advance Regen
If you dont have Itunes, this link will get you to the radio show:
http://www.toonradioadvanced.com/Radio/Episode72.m3u
Note, there is a diffrent intro for Itunes (1:49) than the Winamp/Web one (3:38)
Any comments, suggestions?
Yea, Though I Walk Through The Valley Of The Shadow Of Suck – Part 1
The Undertaker and Kane v Kronik – Unforgiven 2001
Oh dear lord, did this much suck the big one, and then some. Here we have a match where three of the four involved are infamous for their reluctance to sell, with the fourth participant, Kane, getting caught up in the Vortex Of Suck™ that is Undertaker, Brian Adams and Bryan Clarke. There is absolutely nothing resembling psychology in this match, with the closest thing to it being how one team will punch and kick a lot, then the other team will punch and kick a lot, before the other team resume punching and kicking, and the whole thing starts again. All through the match, it becomes glaringly obvious that nobody wants to sell anything for the other team, with the closest thing to selling being each guy nodding their head in a rather vigorous manner when getting punched. What non-punch/kick moves that did happen were executed with such sloppiness and hesitation that you’re left thinking that either this match was called on the fly, and so nobody was prepared for what the other guy was going to do, or that if it was laid out beforehand, everyone developed a case of amnesia and forgot everything that had been agreed to. There were a number of blown spots, leading credence to the theory that the match was laid out beforehand but that those involved just forgot what had been planned, some of which were blown with such mind numbing incompetence that, not only were you left with no clue what was meant to happen, but that those involved were so bamboozled that they had no idea on how to salvage things. Case in point being Adams hitting the ropes and Undertaker swinging for what I guess was meant to be a clothesline or something, but he barely grazes Adams, who then turns around to face Undertaker before they stare at each other for what seems like an eternity before Undertaker decides to just punch Adams, and get on with things.
The biggest example of someone being totally unwilling to sell came in the big babyface comeback, if you can even call it that, being that the babyfaces sold almost nothing, when Undertaker was punching away at Kronik. While Bryan Clarke took a flatback from each blow, the best we got from Bryan Adams was on instance of him going down to one knee for a bout two seconds. Apart from that, he wasn’t selling a thing during the big comeback, which takes away whatever fire this suckfest of a match was able to generate in the first place. Eventually, Adams deigns to sell a punch by dropping to the mat and rolling out to the floor, on his feet, naturally, leaving Clarke to get chokeslammed by The Undertaker, which mercifully ends this absolute travesty of a match.
Afterwards, Steven Richards, who was managing Kronik, but played no part during the match, goes to hit Undertaker with a chair, but gets caught, and winds up getting chokeslammed by Kane, and takes the best bump of this whole sorry mess, and sells that one move better than anything ‘sold’ during the match itself.
This match was without a doubt one of the very worst matches of all time. It was horrible beyond belief, and after watching it you can understand why Kronik were summarily given the boot the next day. I don’t know if the star rating scale goes as low as is needed to rate this disaster, but if it does, the rating this abomination would get undoubtedly be minus infinite stars.
Hello, and welcome to my blog, where I intend to look at a variety of different matches, with different lengths, gimmicks, standard of worker, purposes and give my humble opinion on them. While I may not have the knowledge of a HTQ or a RRR, I hope you'll still enjoy my attempts at match analysis. Without any further ado...
Chris Benoit vs The Barbarian-WCW Monday Nitro April 1997
I've chosen this match not as the usual "look how good Benoit is against even the worst opponents", but to show my theory that Barbarian is actually underrated as a wrestler. Now, I'm not going to try and convince you he was actually really good, but he's generally looked back on as a talentless muscle man, like his former partner the Warlord. I personally believe that, if he was in his prime today, he'd put the likes of Heidenreich or Snitsky to shame. The match is in the middle of the "Dungeon Of Doom hate Chris Benoit" storyline. Barbarian charges to attack, but Benoit ducks and kicks the tar out of Barbarian in the corner. Barbarian fights back, setting up Benoit for a powerbomb, only for it for be reversed into a sunset flip, where Barbarian makes the ropes. A Northern Lights suplex gets two for Benoit. In a clumsy moment, Benoit telegraphs some interference by looking directly at Jimmy Hart at ringside, before running off the ropes, where Hart predictably trips him up. Benoit levels Hart, but the distraction allows Barbarian to hit a big boot on Benoit on the outside and throw him into the ropes, which looks pretty nasty. Back inside, Benoit ducks a clothesline and hits a German suplex, but gets caught on the top rope, allowing Barbarian to launch him across the ring with an overhead belly to belly. Barbarian tries his top rope headbutt, but misses, allowing Benoit to hit his own for the win.
Now, as a short TV match, I'm not going to try and pimp this as an underrated, forgotten classic. However, it was a decent, fun match. Barbarian sold all Benoit's offence believably, especially when getting the shit kicked out of him in the corner. His top rope overhead suplex looked awesome, as Benoit literally went to the otherside of the ring and he looked comfortable going to the top rope, in spite of the fact he missed the move. Obviously Benoit also looked great here, attacking the larger man with hellacious ferocity. Overall, a good match, especially for the time given **
Didnt go in so well...
Kurt Angle vs. Eugene
** stars.
The Heart Throbs vs. Val Venis and Viscera
* star...jobber city for the Heart Throbs
Matt Hardy vs. Snitsky
No match as Big Show comes into the ring...
Tyson Tomko vs. John Cena
* star... Cena hasnt lost a match in...
Torrie Wilson (w/Candace Michelle and Victoria) vs. Ashley
* and 1/2 star. was not a messy match.
Shelton Benjamin vs. Rob Conway
Can we get Benjamin to Smackdown...please?
YOURE DAMN RIGHT!
Hurricane and Rosey vs. Cade and Murdoch (non-title)
* star...
UGH... let Peter end this review of RAW...
THANK YOU!
Now on to Puro News:
New Japan ran an angle with Osamu Nishimura advising Hiroyoshi Tenzan to not enter into Chono's Black New Japan army.
Hustle ran an angle with Generalissimo Takada stating that he would not wrestle on the 11/3 Yokohama Arena (Hustle Mania) show. Takada considered Naoya Ogawa's challenge to a match "a joke."
Hustle has hired two new "image girls" for advertising campaigns. The girls are 20-year old Aki Motoki & 23-year old Ai Ito. These girls are known in Japan as "gravure idols," which is slang for models. When the image girls were introduced, "Hollywood" Tadao Yasuda did a run-in because he was attracted to the women. Look! He has the card shirt on! Hustle's 2nd in command in the PR department, Kishimoto, was not happy about the arrival of the hot women.
Saturday, more news, and hopeully a full review of SMACKDOWN's Friday.
Until Then
This weekend, after a near six month Hiatus- The show returns:
There will be 8 segments. It will be the largest pre recorded show I have done. In these segments- there will be a 3 min intro, some comments- news on the second segement. Then we will start with the meat and the bones of this episode, the Reviews. We start with ABC Kids, then 4Kids TV (FoxBox) then The Loontices review, followed by the rest of Kids WB. Each item mentioned is a segment. This is followed by my commentary-other shows you should be looking at, and then final notes.
Heres were you join in. You can send audio shoutouts-to be aired on this show. Yahoo (somewhat thankfully) allows voice messages in there new PC to PC Phone Call version of Yahoo IM. If you dont have or dont want to use it- you can still send Voice shoutouts at this adress [email protected] or [email protected]… The ground rules are, for Yahoo IM Voice Messages, No longer than 30 - 45 seconds. For the E-mail, its 20-25 seconds. All Voice Messages can be in Real Player, Quicktime, AAC, MP3/MP4 or WAVE format for the e-mail. No cursing- keep it clean.
This is what to say on the message-
Hello (or any greeting) this is _ from (the site that your are from or post) and your lisening to Toon Radio Advance Regen hosted by Ronixis (then give your shout out)
The ITUNES version will have a 1 min intro- where as the main site will have the 3 min one. Its will be diffrent as well, because I will be giving a intro of the show, how the show started and such. After this, there is no diffrence between the ITUNES version from the Website version. There will be some harsh langage on both versions, lisener discretion is advised.
And as for the shout outs, the last DAY is the 8th of Sep. The show starts taping all weekend long, is uploaded Sunday Morning- to be ready for Sunday Night- and all weekend- until the ITUNES version is ready. Both versions will be up as long as The ITUNES version stays.
The YahooIM nick to place your messages (Thats Yahoo Messager with Voice ONLY, not 5 or 6) is Pokekec.
If you use Yahoo Messanger WITH VOICE (Not 5, 6, nor Trillan-Unless the Trillan you use is the pay version).
Go to the Phone Icon on the top of Y!Messenger. Once there, click on the table called other contact. Then type in this
pokekec
then press ok. Then it will ring once. If you hear a beep, talk into the mike with the shout out- and then once your done, end the call. The Yahoo Server will hold the message, and it will be played on the show.
The shows that are going to be reviewed (as of this week, no changes are to be annoused yet) are:
Under Kids WB
(All of the new Kids WB shows and the returning shows)
Naruto
Bobo (you know this name)
IPGX
Zach Bell
Gerlaold McBoingBoing
Under 4Kids TV
(All of the new shows and the returning ones)
Kappa Mikey
Under ABC Kids
(all of the new and returning shows)
(any new Jetix shows i need to get before wed tell me asap)
Adult Swim and Spike TV
NOTE EVANGLION WILL NOT BE REVIEWED.
Afro Samurai
Samurai Champloo
FullMetal Alcalmist
The Boondocks
Andre3000's show (Dont know the name)
David Banners show (dont know the name)
Robot Chicken
More details every day until the first taping on Friday. Until then...
Friday Night Smackdown Is next week! With PPV like action!
NOTE! Starting In Two Weeks, We will add TNA to the TV reviews. So it Will be, Monday Night Raw, Friday Night Smackdown, NWA-TNA Impact. That would mean updates would come On Tuesday (for TNA), Wed (Raw), Sunday(Smackdown).
Matches:
Heidenreich (WWE Tag Team Champion--w/Road Warrior Animal) vs. Joey Mercury (w/Melina and Nitro)
* star.
WWE United States Title: Orlando Jordan vs. Chris Benoit
When is Orlando Going to OVW? Maybe Heyman can save him...
Christy Hemme vs. Stacy Keibler
No Match...
Booker T (w/Sharmell) vs. Mr. Ken Kennedy
This was...well a good ** match. I didnt like how the used the distraction.
Simon Dean vs. Batista (World Heavyweight Champion)
Funny DUD. But Funny never the less.
Paul Burchill and William Regal vs. Scotty 2 Hotty and Funaki
This was an OK match. ** stars.
Randy Orton (w/Bob Orton Jr.) vs. Rey Misterio Jr.
There setting Eddy Guerrero to face Batista? UM NO. *** stars for this match, and Orton should face Batista.
This is somewhat a toss up. But I give the edge to Smackdown.
ALL READY BAD TIMING FOR SMACKDOWNS PREMERE!
Over at TNA:
CM Punk heads to OVW First...
Now To Puro News:
FIRE PRO News!
Not much really, just more info about the contest. 15 days away (or should I say 12 days)
Anyway, lets have prayers go out to all those in NO. Keep them in your prayers.
We will see you next week.
