Despite what some people have said, it was monumentally stupid and idiotic, if expected, for Hunter to bury Cena on Raw. You NEVER highlight the legitimate weaknesses of a babyface, especially your top babyface. A heel should never say something that the people can agree with. Hunter did just that, in spades, on Monday, and in one fell swoop cut the legs off of John Cena before their Wrestlemania main event. Yes, this segment, where the heel exposed the weaknesses of the babyface, was meant to draw buys for Wrestlemania. Quite how making your main babyface look like shit is meant to draw, I don’t know, but I don’t think that matters with Hunter. Maintaining his death grip as the top star of the whole company as always taken precedence over building stars for the future. And no, Batista doesn’t count, because he is zero threat to Hunter’s spot. The chances of Hunter doing what he did for Batista with Cena or anyone who could be long-term star are nonexistent.
The new WWE Talent Wellness Program is a step in the right direction, but it’s ultimately just pissing in the wind as long as the real problems, such as the hard road schedule and Vince wanting the kind of look out of his top guys that can only come out of a syringe or bottle of pills, are ignored and brushed under the carpet. Until those issues are tackled, the program, for all its good meaning, won’t do any real good in the long-term.
The Spirit Squad is a half-decent opening match comedy gimmick, but it should not include guys like Johnny Jeter or Ken Doane, who actually have the ability to be solid and possible top line members of the roster. The Spirit Squad gimmick is a modernized version of The Red Rooster, in that if it has any length of time, whoever gets saddled with it can never be taken seriously again, no matter how talented he is. Terry Taylor was still a good worker post-Red Rooster, but the gimmick killed his career because was never taken seriously again.
The Vince McMahon Kiss My Ass Club segment to end Raw was just stupid, pathetic and was yet another example of Vince booking Raw for ego and kicks. Nobody gives a flying fuck about Vince’s ass, his talentless son (it doesn’t take talent to fall onto airbags), or this stupid angle that should have stayed dead. Instead of something that might have helped build real interest, we’re going to be stuck with Shane doing his stupid routine of shitty dancing, over-contrived bumps, and no-selling. And he’s going to be facing a guy who already has that covered. Yes, Shane is wrestling Shawn Michaels at the first return broadcast of Saturday Nights Main Event. The only highlight of this train wreck will be who can do the most nonsensical bumps and who can sell the least. Shawn’s performance here is likely to be similar to his show, and I emphasize the word show, against Hulk Hogan at Summerslam, just turned down a notch or two. Vince might have been fine with Shawn’s business exposing antics against Hogan, but he’ll not stand for that against Shane.
Ultimate Fight Night 6: Round-by-Round
Josh Koscheck vs. Jonathan Goulet
Koscheck totally controlled the fight and was never close to being in danger. Koscheck continues to show that he could be a title contender down the line. Guess I’m going to have to wait a while for Josh to finally get the shit kicked out of him.
Dean Lister vs. Yuki Sasaki
A very slow start but it turned into a good round. Lister controlled the direction of the fight and clearly won the round, but Sasaki put up more than enough of a defense to avoid being blown out, so I have it 10-9 for Lister.
Round two was again controlled by Lister who tied Sasaki up in knots on the ground, but Sasaki somehow weathered the storm and escaped to get things standing for the last few seconds. The question is does Lister win 10-8 for such dominance, or does he only win 10-9 for not being able to finish? I’ll go with 10-9, making it 20-18 for Lister going into the third and final round.
The third round saw Lister gassed out from trying to put Sasaki away in round two, but Sasaki was equally gassed and was unable to take advantage. 10-10 round, so I have it as Lister winning 30-28.
All three judges give it 30-27 to Lister. There was very noticeable booing from the crowd to that, probably from Lister actively trying to stall during round three.
Chris Leben vs. Jorge Santiago
Round one was even, and neither guy did enough to make me give them the nod so I have it 10-10.
Round two was slow standing up until Leben hit home with a great left hand knocking Santiago out cold.
They showed the punch a couple of times in slow motion and it hit Santiago right in the face and he was out before he hit the ground.
Joe Riggs vs. Jason Von Flue
It went to the ground and Riggs controlled Von Flue en route to a great triangle choke. Von Flue flipped the bird and then quickly tapped out, which was funny.
Karo Parisyan vs. Diego Sanchez
Round one was very heated with the crowd being loud and noisy. Sanchez was awesome with how easily he was able to get Parisyan’s back. Parisyan was cut under one of his eyes, so that may give the round to Sanchez with the judges, but Parisyan was able to take Sanchez down with some excellent judo throws, so I score the first round even.
Round two was all-action and Diego again showed tremendous agility with his ground game. He was able to effectively neutralize Parisyan and dominated the round so I give the round to Diego. It’s 20-19 for Diego on my scorecard.
Round three was exciting with a hot crowd who never let up. Diego was again in command with Karo trying to hang in there, getting limited respite. Karo did get a throw in there, but Diego was just dominating in this round and I’d give it to him 10-8. With that, I have him winning the decision 30-27.
The judges gave it Sanchez with scores of 29-28. 29-28 and 30-26.
An awesome fight, and a real FOTY candidate.
Booker T and Batista: It's a work, pure and simple. It's a nice attempt at trying to make a worked angle seem legit, but it's a complete work. That said, at least the resulting matches should be good.
Rey's treatment as World Champion: This has been beyond horrible. Since just after the Rumble, they've booked Rey just about as bad as you could possibly book him, especially as World Champion. He was mistreated before winning the belt, being beaten just the week before he won the World title, and since then Rey has, outside of the match with Randy Orton, been treated as an absolute joke. His size, which can either work for him or against him, has been handled in such a terrible manner as to make it an albatross around his neck rather than something positive, which it could be. Worst of all, he's been beaten clean two weeks in a row, by Mark Henry and Khali, and it's not even to set up a future title match; Rey's next PPV match is against JBL, and he's set to lose the belt there. There is no way to credibly rationlize or justify this treatment of Rey, but it is, sadly, no real surprise when you consider the size-obsession of those in charge of the decision making process in WWE.
The 'return' of ECW: With this being a pet project of Vince McMahon, this has every possible chance of succeeding, because Vince is going to put all of his muscle behind this. That said, there are still a number of pitfalls for this project to overcome. First of, while Vince is apparently gung-ho on making this work, the biggest chance of this succeeding is also the biggest chance it has of failing, and that's Vince. For this to work, and I mean really work, Vince has to think differently to how he usually does, but with the same drive. He can't use a WWE mentality to make an ECW (even if it's really WWE) project work. For this to work it has to be different to WWE in as many ways as possible, or it'll just be a third WWE brand, and we don't need another one of those.
The return of DX: This will be a short-term success, but it has no legs if it's the same DX from 1997-1999. That DX, as hot as it was, was part of another era, and to try and recreate that success today just isn't going to work. Shawn and Hunter reuniting will get a huge pop, but for this to have any kind of lifespan, it cannot be the same DX it used to be. For one thing, Shawn and Hunter are now nine years older and, lilke it or not, fans just are not going to be buy people of their age, almost 41 and 37 respectively, playing at being young punks. They could, just about, get away with it during the original run of DX, but it simply won't work now. I'm not even sure Shawn and Hunter can pull of being punks, at least in the vein that the DX name will warrant, but for it to work they need to make this version of DX a new variation on an old formula, but if it's the same DX as from 1997, then it will be a bomb.
Jim Cornette in TNA: This could have been a good thing for TNA, but it won't be, simply because for TNA to really hit it big the kinds of changes needed, especially taking Jeff Jarrett out of the main event scene, just are not going to happen. Whatever positives could come from Cornette being part of TNA are going to be more than offset by the simple fact that until TNA makes fundamental changes; Jeff Jarrett out of the main event scene, a proper structure to the X-Division, more believable/realistic angles,etc, then nobody who gets brought in is going to have any kind of long-term positive effect. TNA needs to change from within before it can anything other than a distant, and cold, #2.
Matt Hughes versus Royce Gracie: I think time has passed Royce by, and unless something very strange happens, then Hughes is going to win, and I would not be surprised if he mananges to get Gracie to tap out. Hughes in the 4th round by stoppage.
TUF 3: Ken Shamrock is either a bad coach or he's been edited to look like one. Add to that the fact that Tito is so much better at coaching, and Ken comes across as a behind-the-times old guy who seems unable or unwilling to modernize his approach to teaching the fight game.
Already part of another entry, I thought this match deserved its own thread:
Hulk Hogan v The Warrior – Halloween Havoc 1998
Billed as an ultra important rematch that the people have been waiting 8 years for, this is actually an exercise in ego placating that has been 8 years in the making. Warrior beat Hogan at Wrestlemania VI back in 1990, and this is Hogan’s chance to get his win back, and all it cost for this ego trip was about $3m, which is what WCW paid Warrior for this match, and maybe a couple of others, before letting him sit at home for the remainder of his deal due to Warrior being totally useless.
This match was straight out of the 80’s, with slow and plodding brawling, if what these two did can even be called brawling. Indeed, the blows that these two men exchanged were so weak, that you’re left wondering why they bothered to sell any of them, when they had all the force of a tortoise’s fart. In the midst of all the sloppy brawling, they squeezed in a few notable spots from their Wrestlemania match, the three main ones being:
1: Nick Patrick getting bumped by Hogan off a criss-cross spot, but in a very comical manner, due to Hogan barely even touching Patrick, and Patrick throwing himself almost halfway across the ring.
2: After more bad brawling, and the N W O B Team of Giant, Stevie Ray and Vincent running in to play pinball for Warrior’s bad punches, Warrior covered Hogan, even though he could clearly see the referee was still down. This allowed Warrior to check on the referee and, and stop me if you’ve seen this before, allow Hogan to sneak up from behind and hit a belly-to-back suplex.
3: Warrior hitting two double ax handles off the top rope, which Warrior was kind enough to warn Hogan about beforehand, as Warrior was heard telling Hogan, “I’m coming off the ropes.”
Somewhere in all this mess, Hogan’s weightlifting belt came into play, with both men using it, and Warrior using it as a makeshift knuckleduster, and getting a little juice from Hogan.
This led up to that spot, where Hogan tried to throw a fireball at Warrior, but totally botched it up in such a laughable fashion that the crowd groaned badly, and it was around this point, or maybe even beforehand, that pretty much all the heat vanished from the arena. Not that the crowd were molten for this abomination to begin with, but what heat this match had had evaporated into nothingness by now.
Remember at the beginning how I said the match was straight out of the 80’s ? Well, so was the finish. Eric Bischoff hit ringside, and jumped up onto the apron and grabbed the referee in a side headlock, which allowed Horace Hogan, who Hulk had beaten down on the previous Nitro, to hit the ring and turn heel by giving Warrior a very gentle chair shot to the back, which Warrior sold like he’d been hit with a shotgun at close range. Hogan made the cover, hooked the tights, and Eric let go of the referee who counted the pinfall, giving Hogan his win, his ego boost, and ending this absolute disaster of a ‘match’.
The Horace Hogan turn on Warrior, when he had just got beaten up Hogan and the B Team the week before, was explained the next night on Nitro as tough love or some other such nonsense.
So, what did Eric Bischoff and WCW get out of paying Warrior $3m so Hogan could get his win back ?
They got the single worst match in WCW/NWA PPV history, and the worst match to ever take place during the WCW v WWF rivalry. This total joke of a wrestling match had absolutely no redeeming features at all. Not even watching Hogan botch a spot in such a monumentally incompetent fashion could give this stinking pile of shit any value. I know why this match took place, but quite why anyone would think fans would give a damn about this match, when the clamor for a rematch had died out almost as soon as the first match had ended, I don’t know. Even if every single demeaning and negative word in the English language was wheeled out, you would still fail to accurately describe this utter shambles of a match.
Rating: Absolute Suck.
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.
“Mark”, “smark”, and “smart” are three of the most prevalent labels given to groups of fans that gather online to talk about wrestling. We’ve seen them for years, we’ve all used them at one time or another and I hate all of them and every label like them.
To me, the only label a wrestling fan should be given is “fan”. There’s no such thing as a “mark”, “smark”, or “smart” fan. There is either a good fan or bad fan. A good fan either knows what he’s talking about, or admits to not knowing much about the subject at hand and accepting that there are people who know about some things better then he does. A bad fan doesn’t know what he’s talking about and cannot or will not admit to this and refuses to accept that their knowledge of the subject at hand is limited. A good fan will be open to different points of view and will listen to disparate opinions and respond with a well thought out and reasoned response that intelligently puts across their point of view and, hopefully, intelligent discussion is the result. A bad fan will get very angry and irritated at having their faults pointed out. They’ll get defensive, will probably start insulting people, and drag the discussion down in a vain attempt to maintain the illusion, if only in their own mind, that they really do know what they’re talking about.
You can keep making comparisons between good fans and bad fans, and the differences between the two should be obvious, but there is a better reason to stop labeling people as a “mark”, “smark”, or “smart” fan than the fact that any such label is inaccurate. The moment you label a person or a group of people with a tag like “mark”, it instantly becomes easier to dismiss their opinion or point of view out of hand because you’ve distanced yourself from the fact that the person with that opinion is a person with a mind and could have the intelligence to bring a reasonable point of view and instead have grouped them in with a segment of people that, to you, don’t have an opinion that matters as much as other people, and that’s a dangerous thing to do when you want an intelligent discussion. Dismiss people for being bad fans if you want, because bad fans are just that, bad. But don’t dismiss someone because you think they’re a “mark”, “smark”, or “smart”. You never know what you could be missing out on.
Wrestlemania thoughts
The tag match was ok, though it wasn’t anything special and I’m guessing that Carlito and Show didn’t get the belts because Carlito and Masters are set to split up soon and they’d rather have a team that is sticking together be the ones to get the belts. Not that it matters, because whoever do get the belts will be getting squashed within a month by a useless relative of someone in power.
MITB was pretty good but not as good as the MITB from last year. Shelton Benjamin was the star of the match, like last year, and did some great spots. The crowd was hot for RVD and they popped big for his win.
The Batista-Orton deal seems to foreshadow what, at least for this week, is the preferred main event for Smackdown at Wrestlemania 23.
Benoit and JBL was not the PPV quality match that they had been reportedly having at house shows, but they didn’t get a lot of time. It was decent, but that’s about the best you can call it.
Edge and Mick Foley had my MOTN with a great hardcore match. Lots of great spots and the finish will be in the WM highlight reel for years to come. It was far better than Foley’s match with Orton a couple of years ago because there was a lot more done.
The backstage deal with Booker T, Sharmell and the freaks was funny at first but it ended up feeling like a bad SNL skit. Ted DiBiase looked a lot like Jimmy James from Newsradio.
Skimmed most of Booker and Boogey Man, but I don’t think I missed a lot.
The women’s match was surprisingly good until the finish got blown beyond all hope. The real story was the crowd turning on Trish huge and Mickie becoming, for at least one night, a super over babyface.
Vince looked like a walking cartoon character.
The casket match appeared to be better than it had any right to be, and Mark Henry looked ok. Not good, but ok. Undertaker was feeling it, especially after his big running dive.
Vince and Shawn had a capable affair, but it certainly wasn’t as good as Vince and Hogan from 2003 and I don’t think it got as much heat as it should have done for such a strongly pushed program. They covered up as best they could for Vince’s weaknesses and the big finish capped things off nicely.
The SD main event had some “WTF?” booking with Angle getting a visionary tap out on Rey, which keeps Angle strong but kills Rey, especially after he tapped out rapidly on Smackdown last week. Angle looked tiny and his physical transformation over the last year or so is very sad but not unexpected.
The time of the match was totally unforgivable. Would it really have killed Vince and Hunter to shave 5 minutes off of their respective matches and give these three the time to have the great match that they seemed more than capable of delivering? The finish got a good pop which was a surprise considering that the crowd booed whenever Rey or Orton were on offense.
I skipped the Playboy match or whatever that nonsense was called.
Hunter and Cena had a far better match than I think anyone was expecting. With a minimal amount of gimmickry, Hunter and Cena had a really good match, excellent for Cena, and it had an incredible atmosphere with the pro/anti-Cena fans never staying quiet for long if at all. The finish was initially a surprise but it wasn’t much of when you stop and think about the turmoil and second guessing going into the WM weekend when it came to the top matches and their finishes. I’ll give Hunter credit for doing what I don’t think anyone predicted and tapping out clean. I know people want and can’t wait for Cena to turn heel, but Dan Wahlers made an excellent point in his latest column when he pointed out that a lot of the backlash against Cena is because it’s a rebellion thing and the fans are bucking against the system. Once booing Cena is the ‘correct’ reaction it’s not being cool or rebellious to boo Cena then it is likely that the reactions to him will stop being so loud and compelling. The best thing to do right now is to keep him babyface because it’s the ideal way to maintain the huge reactions he gets and to keep people wanting to pay to see Cena, whether it’s to boo him or cheer him.
Wrestlemania 22 was better than 21 because, while the peaks might not have been as high as last year, the valleys weren’t as deep, and the whole show was more solid. I don’t think it was worth $50, but it was a better PPV than most people thought it would be.
HTQ on the G1 Climax Tournament Finals
This years G1 Final was a heated and emotional night, but not necessarily one where sensible booking was prevalent.
Was there a reason Nakamura wasn't allowed to last any longer? It's not like they were short on time with the other G1 matches...
I can see the logic in Fujita going over, but can anyone tell me the logic in beating Kawada in little over six minutes? Was it really necessary to beat Kawada like this? Could they not have gone at least over ten minutes? Beating Kawada like this, especially when you add in the loss to Kashin, just diminishes from the lustre of any future Kawada matches, no matter how the NJPW devotees over at SSS try to spin it.
And this lead to the final of:
Yes, they built up Fujita all tournament only to have him go down to Chono in less than ten minutes I'd like someone to explain the logic in this. I know people are going to bring up the Hashimoto factor, and Chono did reference him in his post-match micwork, and it makes for a great sentimental story, but if the negatives outweigh the positives, as they usually do in this situation, then business has to win out over sentiment. People will also bring up the brutal nature of Fujita's match with Kawada, but like with Kawada in the semi's, couldn't Fujita at least have gone past the ten minute mark?
Overall, this years G1 Tournament has been a mix of hot matches, heated crowds, and some really baffling booking. As you might expect, the NJPW devotees over at SSS are praising the G1 up and down, calling it tremendously booked, and saying it's one of the best of all time; one even tried to justify the booking by saying, and this is a verbatim quote:
He quickly got support from another devotee:
Yes, there are other levels than just good or bad booking, but why should I have to accept booking that is just 'acceptible'? Why shouldn't I expect and demand, from the most prestigious tournament in wrestling, good booking? Why shouldn't I expect or demand booking that makes sense? New Japan is one of biggest promotions in the world, and the G1 Climax Tournament is the most prestigious tournament in wrestling. Anything less than spot-on booking doesn't cut it, and is far from 'acceptible'.
And I'll finish up my G1 entries with this gem from the boys over at SSS:
Yes, poor booking doesn't matter. Bet you didn't know that, did you?
How many buys do you think WM will get, both domestically and internationally?
For comparison's sake, last year's did around 1,000,000 buys total, but only about 650,000 buys, which is very low for WM, were domestic. Do you think international buys can carry the WM brand again, or will the international scene be just as low as the domestic level?
Vengeance PPV
I’ve seen clips of the PPV which is all I care to see of it. The Foley/Flair angle looked well execute and as heated as anything WWE have done in a while that didn’t involve John Cena. Flair bled like crazy, which, to be blunt, is about the only thing he can do and not look like the 57-year-old that he is. RVD’s WWE Title match against Edge, apart from being criminally placed in the middle of the card, looked pretty good, and from Jim Ross’s comments after the pin, it seems like Van Dam’s win was booked purely to surprise people because it was felt the original plan was too well known. I ignored the DX vs. Spirit Squad main event, because I have less than zero interest in anything DX-related. It also didn’t help that DX have humiliated and embarrassed the Squad, and Vince McMahon, for three weeks in a row, so quite why they expect people to pay for what they’ve already seen for free I don’t know. The highlight for me was Fake Kane pinning Real Kane clean in the middle of the ring. Why? Well, it’s because of…
Fake Kane storyline gets dropped
Less than 24-hours after Fake Kane beat Real Kane, clean, the entire character and storyline was dropped, due to the complete apathy the Vengeance crowd had for their match the night before. I can’t remember if this has happened before, where a wrestler was put over a big name clean and then promptly got dropped and the whole angle scrapped. What makes it funny is that the deal got dropped because the crowd didn’t care about it. The crowd has crapped on a lot of angles and storylines before but the usual Vince McMahon MO is to push back even harder and force the angle or storyline down peoples throats. My guess on why things happened differently this time is that Vince wasn’t happy with the first angle to begin with, and probably from the get go he was looking for some reason to end it. With the crowd at Vengeance sitting on their hands for the Fake Kane vs. Real Kane match, that gave Vince the out he was looking for, and the whole mess, which was meant to stretch until Wrestlemania, was dropped.
’ECW’
This week, it was revealed that Vince McMahon is going to turn ECW into a complete WWE-style third brand and anything even remotely resembling the original ECW is going to slowly dropped. It seems Vince was upset with how the current ECW is faring and has decided against doing something different with it and instead ECW is going to be more of the same. While it’s not a surprise that Vince is turning ECW into the WWE ‘C’ show, it is a little baffling that this is happening; 4-hours a week of WWE-style programming isn’t exactly setting the world on fire as it is, so quite why another hour of the exact same product is expected to fare any differently, I don’t know. The best thing to have done with ECW, which meant it had zero chance of being done, is to have made it into a ROH/TNA-style product, with the emphasis on the wrestling, with angles and storylines as the garnish to the main course of in-ring action. From a business standpoint, it makes more sense to offer two different styles of product, because then you can draw in the Sports Entertain fans with Raw and Smackdown and you can bring in the wrestling fans with ECW. That way, you’re getting more pieces of an already small pie and you can make more money. With ECW being made into another WWE-style brand, it’s going to attract the same viewers who would have been attracted by Raw or Smackdown, and there’s only so many of those viewers around right now. Instead of gaining new viewers, WWE may either split the viewers they have into three groups, or simply burn them out altogether to where they stop tuning it completely.
Kenta Kobashi has cancer
My thoughts are with Kobashi right now. Kobashi has long been one of my all-time favorite wrestlers and I’m really hoping he pulls through. My first thought on finding out about his condition was what happened with Shinya Hashimoto, who was another favorite of mine. We can only hope that Kobashi’s story has a happier ending.
Back In Black
You go away for a week or so, and things really did get worse. I didn’t think it was possible, but TSM actually got worse while I was gone. This place was only drenched in idiocy before, but now it’s a full out flood, and the women and children are manning the lifeboats. If anyone has any real gems to point out that should get posted in my blog PM me a link or something, because just a cursory glance over the past week or so of TSM postings has made me reach for the sick bag and I’m not trawling through that crap anymore.
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.
UFC:
Best knockout from a punch: Brad Kohler on Steve Judson at UFC 22
Best knockout from a kick: Yves Edwards on Josh Thompson at UFC 49
Best submission: Matt Hughes on Frank Trigg at UFC 45
PRIDE:
Best knockout from a punch: Igor Vovchanchyn on Francisco Bueno at PRIDE 8
Best knockout from a kick: Gilbert Yvel on Gary Goodridge at PRIDE 10
Best submission: Ryo Chonan on Anderson Silva at PRIDE Shockwave 2004
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.
I hate idiots. I despise them with a purple passion. If someone is so badly not up to speed on something that they’re going backwards, then they need to get the fuck out of my way and pollute somewhere else with their idiotic, asinine and downright retarded opinions, because I don’t want them anywhere near me. If someone is open that they’re don’t know about something but are willing to learn, then fine, I have no problem with people like that. In fact, I like people like that, because they’re open to learning. But I hate people who clearly don’t now what the fuck they’re talking about wandering around and stinking up the place with every brain fart that they feel the need to inflict on people.
I hate people whose blind, sycophantic, bordering on pathologically obsessive devotion to a certain person leaves them unable and unwilling to be objective. Instead of verbally fellating these people at every turn and making people think you’re hopelessly in love them, which is undoubtedly true in certain cases, why don’t you sad inadequate people try opening up your mind a little ? Why don’t you try, just try a little, to open your tiny little minds to the possibility that the love of your life does not does have the sun shining out of their ass. Try opening up your mind to the possibility that maybe, just maybe, your hero isn’t much of a fucking hero. They’re human, not a god, and they’re not this perfect being that you imagine them to be. Oh sure, they might seem to acquiesce on a point or two and seem to acknowledge the failings of their loved one, but you know full well that they’re just paying lip service, and that in the back of their minds they’re constantly convincing themselves that they are right and everyone else is wrong. People like this need to either get a goddamn life, or find the nearest bridge and taking a fucking swan dive off of it.
I hate religion. I think that any belief system that tells you that you can go to a so-called heaven but only if you believe in this or that particular deity, or give all of your money to a person or other conglomerate, is an absolute joke, and I really think that if people find the need to believe in a mystical being to give their lives meaning or order really need to examine themselves. Let me clue you in on something folks. The only faith you need is a faith in yourself. Not in some mystical being high in the sky. Not in some ‘prophet’ from 2000 years ago or whenever. Just yourself. If you want to believe that some mystical force is guiding your actions and leading on a path of ‘righteousness’, then go right ahead. But if you wake up and realize it’s all one big con game don’t come crying to me, expecting me to give a shit. I tried telling you what the score was, but you were too interested in believing in someone that isn’t there rather than someone who is, that being you.
Raw
Carlito and Jericho argue
I had this feeling Piper would show up with what Jericho and Carlito were saying. Piper looks ancient. Hey, how about pushing someone who doesn't need Rogaine? Well, at least it was a surprise.
Chris Masters v Tajiri
"Listen to what Chris Masters is about to get?" That would be apathy, Jerry. The biggest pops from the crowd were for the guy not getting an almost relentless six-month plus push. Even the light "ECW" chant was louder than any reaction Masters got. He isn't getting over, and it's been six-months already. Give it up. End the Masterlock Challenge so this dead weight can be sent back down to OVW so he can get back to school.
Edge, Lita and Snitsky backstage
Matt Hardy better be coming in tonight as rumor suggests, or at least be signed to be coming in soon, or them bringing his name up again is stupid.
HHH update
Well, whoever had three-weeks on how long it would be before Hunter's name was mentioned again, you win. And they're laying the foundations of a babyface turn as well.
Shelton Benjamin v Carlito
Did anyone else get a Sting v Ric Flair vibe off of that no-sell spot from Benjamin early in the match? And did anyone else get a Money Inc. v Natural Disasters vibe off of that lame finish?
John Cena promo
The babyface champion being dictated to by the heel GM? Man, that's a cutting edge and original angle right there. And Cena v Jericho at Summerslam? Didn't one of the pop-up and spyware ridden sites claim that it would be Cena v Edge? You mean they were wrong?
Diva Search
Pass.
Kurt Angle Invitational:
I guess this means that Raw, not only has two talk show segments, but now two segments where a wrestler makes an open challenge. At least the interplay between Angle and Striker was funny. Angle shouldn't be submitting the guys with one second to go. He should be submitting them with one second gone.
Matt Hardy attacks Edge backstage
At least it was executed in a realistic fashion, with Hardy literally coming out of nowhere.
Kane v Edge
Just a backdrop for the Hardy v Edge angle. They are doing it the right way, and executing it like a shoot. No music videos, no catching Hardy on camera behind Edge and Lita, or anything like that. Hardy hits the ring out of shot, and the actual security staff are the ones to try and drag him down. Yeah, it's not a shoot, but the way they are playing things will make it easier for people to suspend their disbelief. The Ring Of Honor mention and the lack of commentary while Matt was getting taken away were a pair of nice touches. While the angle is getting handled like this, the right way, this will get Matt super over.
Piper's Pit with Shawn Michaels
No shirt, just a cross this week for the Holy Roller Kid. Shawn Michaels is not used to this type of reception???. The kiddy chaser was calling the action when Shawn was the hottest heel in the company. What brain surgeon fed Lawler that line? And if Lawler came up with it himself, he's once again made a fool of hmself.
Shawn can talk good, but he came off as too much of a babyface after what was played off like the ultimate betrayal. The superkick to Piper was to be expected, but to me it clouds the issue with Hogan, because there should be repercussions from it, and that will just take attention away from the Hogan deal. Of course, nothing will likely come of it because of that fact, so why even do it?
And what was Shawn's reason for turning on Hogan? To get a match with him? Was it out of hatred for not stepping down?
Apart from the Matt Hardy angle and the way Angle talked to Martel/Striker, though not how the Invitational ended, Raw didn't measure up to anything.
Buff Bagwell recently gave an interview where he said that Spike Dudley didn't belong near a wrestling ring. I guess that's why he lasted over 4 years in WWE Buff, while you got fired after less then 4 weeks. And how did you make use of your time in WWE Buff? You were late for every training session at Titan Towers, ruined what might have been a decent Invasion storyline by entering your typically sub-par performance, missed house shows and had your mother calling in sick for you, and, oh yeah; got bitchslapped by The Hurricane. So, while a guy who had 'no business' being near a wrestling ring was making a decent, albeit low-level, six-figure income for 4 years, you were restricted to making about $1,000 a shot on the Indy scene, when you could get booked. Life must suck for you Buff, knowing that Spike Dudley was on national television while you were scratching with the chickens.
Is it just a coincidence that some of the most nonsensical stuff posted is from people who clearly either don't know what they are talking about, or are desperately trying to hold onto some misguided bias?
Earl Hebner was fired this past week, apparently for selling merchandise without permission. I'm sure Hebner can find solace in the fact that, after Montreal, he got a raise to $500,000 a year, meaning he's earned around $3.5m or so since then.
After the huge negative reaction to the terrorist angle on Smackdown two weeks ago, UPN told WWE that Muhammad Hassan can no longer appear on Smackdown. Subsequently, it's now been confirmed that the Hassan character will be dropped altogether, with his match against Undertaker this Sunday presumably being his swan song. I'm probably going to talk about this one in a little more depth in a future blog entry, so I'll just say for now that the people who blindly defended this angle, and most of the people defending it were doing so blindly, probably have no clue how much damage that terrorist angle really did, but I doubt they even care about that.
Another RVD thread, and another round of people showing their bias and a lack of understanding of wrestling. This is another subject that I'll cover in a future blog entry, but suffice it to say that, yes, in some ways RVD is overrated, but to write him off for that is incredibly short-sighted. And the comparison to Shelton Benjamin is funny for all the wrong reasons,
There's a Smackdown PPV this weekend. No, really, there is a PPV this weekend, though you might not know it. There isn't one match on the card that I'm interested in seeing. I'm sick of JBL in the main event, and even if Batista beats the shit out of him and pins him clean, which he should, I don't want to see it, because I've zero desire to see JBL in the main event. Animal and Heidenreich v MNM? MNM should win, and they should beat Animal, but knowing Animal's hatred of doing jobs, it'll be the guy sticking around who does the job. Undertaker v Hassan might be interesting, in that with WWE having to drop the Hassan character, I'm wondering if Vince will try and get one last tasteless angle out of dropping the character.
I was sad to hear that Lord Alfred Hayes passed away a few days ago. For me, Hayes was the most underrated commentator of the 80's. He called the matches with an air of legitimacy, treating everything that was going on in the ring as if it was real, and he did it in a way that didn't insult your intelligence either. He made it a lot easier to listen to matches if Gorilla Monsoon was calling the action as well, because Gorilla was really terrible from around 1988 onwards, and Hayes was good at offsetting him.
Also sad to see the passing of Shinya Hashimoto. Hashimoto was a favorite of mine in the 90s, due to his punishing style of heavy kicks and chops, as well as his hot comebacks. One of my favorite matches of 1996 was his match against Riki Choshu in that years G1 Climax tournament. It didn't have any insane moves or crazy spots, but it was filled with intensity and emotion, and the crowd were going nuts as Choshu had to hit Hashimoto with I think it was 9 lariats before Hashimoto could get pinned. I remember that G1 for Hashimoto, who was the IWGP Champion at the time, doing the clean job in all three of his matches, and in doing so creating three fresh challengers for the IWGP Title, but the real beauty is that the nature of the matches meant Hashimoto was still crazy over with the fans, and so everybody won.
Watched most of the PPV the last couple of days, and it wasn’t ECW’s best effort.
Mikey Whipwreck vs. Justin Credible was poor, and while they tried hard, it wasn’t enough to make the match anything other than sub-par. You had the usual run-in interference that plagued a lot of ECW matches, unnecessarily most of the time, with Jason hitting the ring and the referee just going along with it, which was an ongoing theme of the whole night.
Taz vs. Pitbull #2 was a squash to write out the Pitbulls as major players due to legal trouble they had gotten into earlier that year. They’d run their course as well and weren’t of any real value anyway, so it was no great loss. They were put with Lance Wright, he of Hype Central ‘fame’, with Lance doing a gimmick where he’d been sent to ECW at the command of Vince McMahon, and to this end, after the match, Brakkus showed up to face off with Taz, and the result saw Taz choke out a security guy who was keeping them apart. Paul Heyman was on color for this match, and screamed for the production guys to play anything they had at hand when the guard got choked out, trying to treat the incident as a shoot.
Tommy Dreamer vs. Rob Van Dam was a reasonably entertaining highspot match with both guys working hard and bumping hard. You had the interference as usual, but at least it made some sort of storyline sense, with run-ins from Sabu, Dan Kroffat and Doug Furnas, playing on the WWF vs. ECW theme, as well as the surprise return of Stevie Richards, who superkicked Dreamer. The match ended apparently in a no-contest, and with Van Dam, Kroffat and Furnas and Richards parading around a WWF banner. This saw Sandman show up and his match with Sabu followed.
Sandman and Sabu was a Tables and Ladders match, and has gained almost cult like status for being incredibly bad with an almost non-stop procession of botched spots. I can tell you right now that the match is nowhere near as bad as people have claimed over the years. I remember Dave Meltzer gave it -*** which I thought was grossly unfair back then and I think is just as unfair now. Don’t get me wrong, the match isn’t that good, and there are some badly blown spots, but it’s still above, just, the DUD zone, and far from the worst brawl you’ll see. It’s not the best brawl you’ll see either, but there are plenty worse out there. The match does go on a little too long, and would have done even had everything gone to plan, and the finish saw Sabu use a ladder for an Arabian press to get the pin.
The main event was Shane Douglas vs. Bam Bam Bigelow in a low rent version of Ric Flair vs. Vader from Starrcade ’93. The booking going into this match was all over the place. Douglas and Bigelow were top heels in the Triple Threat stable and the storyline at the time had Rick Rude, who was aligned with the Triple Threat, brining in outside names for Douglas to defend the ECW World title against, because Douglas wanted Rude to find the best international talent for Douglas to test his skills against. At a TV taping in New York, Rude reveals that Douglas’s opponent is Bigelow, turning both Bigelow and Rude instant babyface, and Bigelow pins Douglas for the ECW World title. However, with N2R taking place in Pittsburgh, which is the home state of Douglas, the big storyline of the PPV sees Douglas, a top heel, having to be a one night top babyface to play the hometown hero, while Bigelow, now a top babyface, having to be a one night top heel.
The match itself wasn’t very good and Bigelow, who was pretty good in Japan, looked terrible here. Bigelow, playing the Vader role, controlled most of the match and it was painful to watch because he didn’t do much for the first 10 minutes other than punch, kick or headbutt Douglas around. Things sort of picked up as the match wore on, and there were some decent spots somewhere in all the mess, but the match wasn’t even a house show quality main event let alone a PPV quality main event, and if Douglas or Bigelow were looking to show they were better, or even as good as, Flair and Vader, then to say they failed miserably would be an understatement. Had N2R been somewhere else and they just wrestled a normal match, with no hometown hero storyline, then it might have been decent. Instead, we got a 25 minute match that felt like 45 minutes and just never went anywhere.
Yves Edwards vs. Joe Stevenson
A good first round, which I’d give to Edwards. He did a good job of fending off Stevenson for the most part, and he scored with a great looking high kick.
Stevenson totally dominated round two, but the real story was the bleeding from Edwards off the cuts to his head. The canvas was splattered with Yves blood, and was a sight to see.
Going into round three, I have it 19-18 to Stevenson.
The doctor stops the fight, though, and Stevenson gets the victory. No complaints with the stoppage, because that was a cut that just wouldn’t stop bleeding and it was going to impair Yves’ vision.
Frank Mir vs. Dan Christison
Christison did just enough to win a very boring round.
Mir was totally blown up and did very little. Neither did Christison, but he did get an armbar on Mir that came close, so I’d go with Christison again.
Not a very lively round, but Mir did more than enough to win it, but it won’t save the fight for him with me.
I gave it 29-28 to Christison. Mir won it 29-28 with all three judges, and it’s not a decision I really agree with.
Ken Shamrock vs. Tito Ortiz
This has the atmosphere of something special. Hopefully, we’ll see a special ass kicking from Ortiz.
Ortiz wins by ref stoppage in 1:18. I’m not a fan of Ken, but that stoppage was way too premature. A terrible decision by Herb Dean, and I’d be chanting “bullshit” too.
Dana White calls out Wanderlei Silva and then Chuck Liddell and announces that, if Liddell gets past Sobral, which is likely, it will be Silva vs. Liddell in November. Holy shit, I am there.
Josh Neer vs. Josh Burkman
There were some good exchanges in what was a very even round.
Burkman did enough, including a great takedown, to win the round. It goes into round three 20-19 for Burkman.
Third round was even, but Burkman, I think, did enough to win the round and the fight.
I have it 30-28 for Burkman. Burkman wins it by unanimous decision.
Andrei Arlovsky vs. Tim Sylvia
The first round was mostly action, with Arlovsky doing more than enough to win the round for me.
There was a lot of back and forth action in round two, but I don’t think either man did enough to win it.
The third round was dangerously close to being without any merit. Sylvia did get decent punches in, but they didn’t win him the round in my eyes, though. It’s 30-29 for Arlovsky so for in my book.
Round four = snooze. No winner. 40-39 so far on my card.
More of the same in round five.
I have Arlovsky winning 50-48, but I’d hardly call him a winner based on his performance. The judges have it 48-47, 49-46 and 48-47 for Sylvia. This fight was beyond boring as shit. Round-by-round, I had Arlovsky winning, but if I were to judge the fight based on overall performance, I’d call it a draw. Neither man did anything to warrant being called the UFC Heavyweight Champion, and the heavyweight division needs a lot of rehab to overcome this debacle.
Overall Outside of the terrible call in the Ortiz vs. Shamrock fight, the announcement of a possible Wanderlei Silva vs. Chuck Liddell fight in November, and Yves Edwards bleeding like crazy, there was absolutely nothing of note on this PPV, and it had the least merit of any UFC PPV for a long time.
HTQ on Day Six of the G1 Climax Tournament
Day Six saw a collection of hot matches, and an upset match in terms of length, as Masahiro Chono just destroyed Kendo Kashin.
Tanahashi gets a forfeit win due to Makabe's injury, though he wrestled a non-tournament match later in the night, beating El Samurai.
Goto getting the expected win over the young Yano.
Nakamura continues his march to the Block B finals. By not keeping the match short, this means that Nakamura's injury from yesterday was a badly thought out work, or legit, and Nakamura wasn't that injured after all.
One of two matches on Day Six that I can't wait to watch. I was hoping for another time-limit draw between these two, but I'll settle for almost 20 minutes.
I can see them wanting to keep Chono strong, but if Kashin was going to go down in less than two minutes, did he have to beat Kawada? Couldn't Kashin have beaten someone else, allowing Kawada to lose to someone else? I'd rather Kawada only have lost one match, but if the intricate booking required two losses, I wouldn't have had one of those losses be to Kashin if he was going to get squashed like this.
The most interesting match of the night in terms of style and content, this is the second match of Day Six that I cannot wait to see.
No surprises here, with Tenzan keeping his campaign strong and looking set for the finals.
Reportedly a hard fought match in the main event, Fujita gets the win, but Nakanishi not being a pushover.
After Day Six, this is how things look:
Block A:
1. Hiroyoshi Tenzan [8]
2. Masahiro Chono [8]
3. Toshiaki Kawada [8]
4. Yuji Nagata [6]
5. Osamu Nishimura [5]
6. Minoru Suzuki [5]
7. Tatsumi Fujinami [4]
8. Kendo Kashin [4]
Block B:
1. Kazuyuki Fujita [12]
2. Shinsuke Nakamura [11]
3. Manabu Nakanishi [8]
4. Hiroshi Tanahashi [7]
5. Yutaka Yoshie [4]
6. Tatsutoshi Goto [4]
7. Toru Yano [2]
8. Togi Makabe [0]
Block A is a three-way tie between Tenzan, Chono and Kawada, with it being virtually certain that two of the three will be in the finals stage. Nagata has a theoretical chance of making it to the finals, but it would require him to beat Tenzan, Chono to lose to Fujinami, and Kawada to lose to Nishimura on Day Seven. Block B is headed by Fujita and Nakamura, who are both assured of entry into the finals stage, with the only question being which one will finish the group stage on top, and that question will get answered in two days as they face off in the main event of Day Seven.
Day Seven will see Yoshie v Goto (Yoshie to win), Suzuki v Kashin (Kashin to win), Tanahashi v Nakanishi (Nakanishi to win), Nishimura v Kawada (Kawada to win), Fujinami v Chono (Chono to win), Tenzan v Nagata (Tenzan to win), and Fujita v Nakamura (Fujita to win).
For predictions, I was 6-1 on Day Six, which is a return to form after a bad Day Five.
