Dark Age

I hope they don't go with Jericho/Tomko. The match they had at the Manchester House Show I attended was horrible. Tomko blew at least 3 notable spots in the match, sold nothing, had no offense other than punching and kicking (seriously he didn't use 1 move) and it was just a terrible match. I hate knocking on a guy who has only just been brought up but Tomko is really, really bad. As in, Nathan Jones bad. Even worse. Hopefully, if Christian is okay, they will go with Jericho, Matt and Lita vs Christian, Tomko and Trish which could at least be decent. Oh, and Evo could win the belts back. Edge could then recruit Tajiri as a partner with Benoit busy. Or they could just screw Jericho/Tomko, put Jericho with Edge, have Tajiri/Eugene/Regal vs Cade/La Resistance and Matt/Christian. Much better.

I was going to put these up last night, but I didn't get back until 2am. Crowd is buzzing. The lights go out and 'The Fink' appears in the ring. Huge pop for him. "Hello Newcastle". I couldn't decide whether that was really funny or really sad. Either way the crowd didn't care, still popping huge. I thought they would have got all over him for that. He babbles on for a while before introducing a very special guest. I had to expect she would be here after reading the other show reports, but I didn't really care either way. Yep, it's Stephanie McMahon. Another huge pop for her. It's funny being surrounded by marks. All of them were gasping and going nuts, talking about Stephanie 'being back'. They wondered what she would do to Vince, and why she is on Raw. She talks for a bit, but the mic is really quiet and so we can barely even hear her. Of course when you can't hear Stephanie McMahon, you know what she has to do, right? Yep, she starts screeching and screaming all over the arena. Ugh. She says some things that only the first few rows can hear (no else reacted), and gets booed for it. She then says something about Manchester which get's cheared. I'm sure she was just going through the usual 'mention other cities, then say yours to get a cheap pop' routine. She tells us to have a good time, blah blah blah, leaves and it's time for our first match. Match #1 Matt Hardy V.01 vs Batista Fink announces the match will be for one fall, whcih gets a big pop for some reason. I guess everyone was just excited we were getting underway. OH YEAH! Large pop for Matt. You're gonna have to deal with me looking for vaious ways to say someone got a really big pop, because everyone did tonight. Batista enters to another big reaction. Very mixed thoguh. More boos, but some people were cheering him. Bell rings, crowd pops, we are underway. Stalling for a couple of minutes as both guys try to get the crowd's support. Hardy poses, gets cheered. Batista poses, booed. Big 'Hardy' chant from the crowd. Batista tosses Matt about for a while before Matt comes big with a few punches. Doesn't last long though, as he gets sent into the corner ribs first, and then back first. Crowd was insanely hot. Batista tosses Matt over the top, then puts him in a bearhug in the ring. Crowd get's behind Matt again. He fights back. Matt gains the advantage and hit's a plancha. Back in the ring, sit-out powerbomb is attempted but Matt fights out if it. Matt with the Yodelling leg Drop gets two. TOF is blocked by Batista, who then hits a spinebuster for 3. Winner: Batista in about 7 or 8 minutes Opinion: Not bad actually. Batista has improved ALOT, and Matt is Matt so it was okay. Crowd heat was great, and this was a decent opener. *1/2 After the match, Batista hits another spinebuster then leaves. Referee reverses the decision. MATT WINS! Winner (Take 2): Matt Hardy by DQ after the referee reversed his decision Batista returns again to give Matt another spinebuster before leaving. Levaes to alot of heat. Matt finally gets up and leaves to a big pop. Match #2 Hurricane and Rosey vs Rob Conway and Sylvain Grenier Howard announces this a tag team match (duh) which gets another pop for some reason. Big heat for La Resistance and a big pop for Helms and Rosey. Not bad, actually. Much better than Raw. Rosey had an actual superhero outfit on! No more homemade threads for him. It was orange and blue, and looked pretty cool. Hurricane with some high flying stuff to begin with, which the crowd is digging. Crowd popped for an armdrag! La Resistance gained the upper hand and dropped Hurricane on the barricade. FIP process began. They delayed the hot tag for about 5 minutes. Crowd chanted USA! This was one crazy crowd. EUGENE came out to a really big pop. He took his jacket off to reveal an England football jersey which just made the crowd pop even more. Rosey got the hot tag and did the usual. Eugene got in the ring and started riding Conway which the crowd loved. Conway went nuts and through Eugene's shirt to the outside. Eugene jumped out after it. Conway and Eugene arguing as Rosey got hit with the flag. Cover got a hot 2 count. Blind tag Hurricane. More arguing between Conway and Eugene which led to Eugene tossing the jacket at Conway. Distraction allowed Helms to hit the neckbreaker/samoan drop combo for the win. Regal escorted Eugene to the back as the super hero and his S.H.I.T (or is he a superhero now that he has a costume?) celebrated. Winners: Hurricane and Rosey in about 9 or 10 minutes Opinion: Solid stuff. Just the usual formula tag match, but it works and there was some nice work from Hurricane plus the hot crowd. ** Match #3 Rhyno vs Garrison Cade You know the crowd is hot when Garrison Cade is getting alot of heat. Rhyno chants from the go. They do the lockup and roll to the outside still in a lockup bit then head back in the ring. Cade goes down and he's injured. Yeah, right. I think I was the only one who knew what was going on, because, you know, I'm cool and everything. Cade stayed down for about 5 minutes. They really dragged it on. He finally goes to leave as the crowd applauds. Rhyno holds the ropes open and Cade (you're gonna be shocked. I know I was) is actually okay, so he boots Rhyno to the outside. Jumping Jacks just incase we missed the point. He rolls Rhyno back in the ring and gets 3. Off a kick? Winner: Garrison Cade Opinion: Hardly even a match. DUD Match #4 Randy Orton vs Shelton Benjamin Ooh, now we're getting somewhere. Crowd popped for Shelton, but Orton get a MONSTER reaction. Well that surprised me. Everyone popped for his entrance, but most were behind Shelton in the match. Good opening to the match, and the last few minutes were really good but they seemed kinda lost for the brunt of the match. It never seemed like they had any actual story or purpose behind the middle portion, and it just seemed like they were wasting time until they could start firing off the near falls, rather than building to them. Alot of chain wrestling to begin with which the crowd didn't seem to get. Shelton gains the upper hand, but Orton drops him on the barricade. Shelton takes a great catapult into the ringpost, which looked really neat. After this it just kinda died. Orton needs to get him a good submission move or something, because at this point he just switched between a variety of restholds. The chinlock, bodyscissors, camel clutch and abdominal stretch were all used. They didn't build to anything, or have any purpose behind them, it was just wasting time. Anyway, once they got that junk out of the way, we had a really hot final 3 or 4 minutes. Shelton got about 5 good nearfalls on Orton. Shel-Shocker got 2. Springboard Crossbody got 2. A great roll-up which seemed like a very lucha manouvre got 2. I can't really describe it. He used the top rope to go into a wheelbarrow forward roll, then rolled backwards for 2. It looked really good. Shelton missed the Blinger Splash, and Orton rolled him up. He get 3 with his feet on the TOP rope. Winner: Randy Orton Opinion: Decent, but the middle portion was boring and served no purpose whatsoever. The ending was great and the opening stuff was decent meaning it was still an okay match, but they really need to improve for Badd Blood. **1/4 Match #5 Triple H vs Shawn Michaels INSANE pops for both guys. The cameras going off when H posed was something to behold. Darn good match that went about 20-25 minutes, but I was expecting more. Still, they didn't hold back or slow down. Shawn bled after hitting the steel steps. H went for a Pedigree on the outside, reversed to a catapult into the ringpost by Shawn. Triple H bled. The last 10 minutes or so were fantastic. Shawn kept fighting, and reversing, every hold used by H. SCM was blocked by H, who then hit the spinebuster for 2. H went for a superplex, but got knocked down. Elbow by Shawn, but H pulled him off the top. Pedigree attempt, reversed to a backbody drop. Flying forearm got 2. Another SCM, this time H ducked, hit a DDT and got another long 2 count. Abdominal Stretch with the ropes by Trips. Shawn fought out of it and got one of his own. Shawn with a crossbody got 2. Up top and the elbow drop got 2. SCM is AGAIN ducked by H, goes for a Pedigree, Shawn reverses to a jacknife ala SS02 and gets..... 2. Brilliant nearfall there. H with the high knee gets 2. Attempts another, Shawn ducks. Shawn with a dropkick misses and H hits the facebuster for 2. A few rollups from both guys get 2. Shawn fights out of a Pedigree and finally hits SCM for the win. Winner: Shawn Michaels Opinion: ***1/4 Match #6 Chris Jericho vs Tyson Tomko Not much reaction for Tomko, which was weird considering the crowd reacted for anything all night. They reacted for the entrance (Christian's theme) but didn't give a damn about him after that. Trish was met with the usual 'slut chants'. Jericho got a big face reaction, but what's new? This was No DQ, of course. Really bad match. I felt bad for Jericho. I don't like laying it into a gut who debuted just a few weeks ago, but man Tomko was terrible. He had no offense (punches and kicks, never used ANYTHING else) and botched alot of stuff. First botch came when Jericho ducked a clothesline from Tomko, Tomko left his leg trailing. Jericho tried to move but just kinda stumbled for a while, then both guys just wandered around for a bit. The next mess-up came when Jericho went for his springboard dropkick. To be fair, this may or may not have been Tomko's fault but it was still bad. Jericho just completely missed Tomko on the dropkick. Jericho stayed down and Tomko had no clue what to do next, just standing on the apron before coming in, lifting Jericho up and then repeating the spot. The No DQ stipulation hardly played a factor. Trish came into the rin to get spanked, which somehow meant she played dead for the rest of the match. Seriously, a spanking injured her? Tomko tried to use a chair, Jericho ducked and hit an enziguri with Tomko landing on the chair for 3. That was the only time a weapon came into play. The match sucked badly, but the ending was pretty neat. Winner: Chris Jericho Opinion: 1/4* Match # 7 Edge vs Ric Flair Big pop for both guys. The crowd was 'Wooing' (or 'Whooing') all night, so you knew they were gonna go nuts for Flair. And go nuts they did. Flair with the strut early on, so Edge decided to strut his stuff himself. He got booed. He seemed P.Od big time after this and bailed to the outside for the mic. Edge then proceeded to go nuts on the crowd, telling us all to "choke on this with your yellow teeth you British bastards". Wow. So that meant that we had a double turn. Edge was now the heel, Flair the face. Edge was the biggest heel on the show (exception possibly being Bischoff), Flair was just over beyond belief. Edge pretty much played Flair in the match, doing the old begging in the corner before the lowblow and eye poke stuff, hitting chops, etc. Flair went for a sunset flip and pulled Edge's pants down. Edge wrestled the rest of the match with his ass hanging out. He went up top (with his ass out) and got thrown off himself! That wacky Edge. Flair went up top... and it worked! Well he came OFF the top anyway, but didn't actually hit anything. Edge hit the spear.... for 2. Big pop there. Flair with the dropkick to the leg, chopblock and then the Figure-Four. Edge tried to fight it, but had to tap out! Winner: Ric Flair in 10 minutes Opinion: Years better than the Raw match. Edge played a great heel. I presume this was just because of the face reactions Flair has been getting on the tour, but could a heel turn be coming for Edge? It seems like he's getting lost in the shuffle amongst the Raw faces, and a non-Evolution heel is needed. Eventually, either he or Shawn is gonna have to turn. **1/4 Match #8 Victoria vs Lita vs Molly Holly Match lasted about 2 minutes. Victoria had the Tatu theme, which was interesting. She also had the 'Yes, I've lost My Mind' soundbite at the begining, which she has hardly used since turning face. Is she just not allowed to use the theme on tv or something? Victoria got a bigger pop than Lita. Match was really rushed. Whethe rit was due to someone being injured, or rushing to finish by the advertised time (10.30), I dunno but nothing of note happened here. Molly got tossed out. Then came back in and tossed Lita out. Victoria hit the Widows Peak. That was the match. Lita had almost exited the second the match ended. Winner: Victoria Opinion: DUD Match #9 Chris Benoit vs Kane Huge pops for both guys. Kane's pyro scared the crap out of everybody. Really rushed. They wanted to be finished by the 10.30 bell time, I presume, meaning the last two matches were really rushed. This one only lasted about 8 minutes, when I was expecting about 15-20. It was booked HORRIBLE. It really was. It may have just been the UK crowd, but this match made Kane look like a HUGE babyface. First, for the first 3 minutes, Benoit kept on bailing on stalling. Not wise to do that with your babyface champ. Then, the actual match was about 5 minutes long. Kane hit a big boot, took the turnbuckle pad off, Benoit reversed Kane into the corner getting a nearfall. Benoit attempted the sharpshooter, Kane fought out. Benoit with 3 Germans. Headbutt, Kane set up, no selling it. Benoit with a dropkick. Another headbutt. Kane no-sells again. Big mistake there, as the crowd popped big time for Kane sitting up, and it got even bigger the second time. They made Kane look great, no doubt, and they were obviusly expecting that after all this, Benoit making Kane tap would make him look great as well. But still, they are gonna have to change something at BB, otherwise Kane will be turned face during the match. Kane attempts the chokeslam, Benoit reverses to the crossface and gets the tapout. BIG pop there. That was the entire match. Really dissapointing. I suspect it would be much better if they had about 20-25. You can't really fault the wrestlers, though, as the match was booked poorly, and was really rushed. Winner: Chris Benoit in about 8 minutes Opinion: 1/2* Not the best wrestling show I have ever seen, but it was still a great few hours and very enjoyable. I can't really do the top 5 pops and heat because it was just too hard to tell. Everyone got a great reaction. Edit - Report is done.

You know, I am also sure I've heard Kenzo say Mysterio, as well as America. Because that's what we all wanted right? Rey jobbing to Suzuki on pay per view. Outstanding! Besides, Kenzo will be released by the end of the year. Why push him? Better yet, why even sign the guy?

^ Funny Stuff It'll be Taker. Cena is tied up with Booker, Eddie still going with Bradshaw, the only guys even slightly plausible are Taker, RVD and Rey. RVD and Rey have got the tag thing going, so it has to be Taker.

Wow, he got a bigger reaction on ONE house show. ~OMG BENOT NOT OVER!!!!11! Seriously, people should stop harping on about Benoit not being over. Because he is. End of story.

They could have Benoit/H on Raw with Shawn costing H the match. Means both guys have actually cost each other a title match, gives a kick ass 25 minute match on Raw, and sets up the big blowoff between Benoit/Trips nicely. I'm not sure if they are gonna do this, or the card from the previous night at the Manchester show tonight (which I'm going to) or a different card all together. Either way Benoit/H or Benoit/Kane and the 6man tag or Shawn/H is goodness in my book. Plus some Eugene antics will keep me entertained. No Christian, Tajiri, Val, Stevie or Palumbo makes me sad, but the cards seem good enough.

And did he respond?

I thought it was usually the other way around? Anyway, I'm going to the show tomorrow night, and I'm sure the card will be an almost exact replica of this one. Which is fine because I'm looking forward to H/Shawn, Kane/Benoit, Edge/Flair and Orton/Shelton. It could have been even better if Christian was okay to go with Jericho, but alas, I guess I'll have to settle for Tomko Is Tajiri still selling the injury from Batista the other week? You would think he'd at least be back on house shows by now. Still, the show tomorrow should be pretty decent. I'll post what goes down on here.

And yet, Shane would STILL win.

It would be neat though. Here's hoping they have her go nuts when she drops the belt. Absolutely. It's one reason why it worked when Rocky and Austin turned. They played pretty much the same character only on the other side of the fence. Cena turns face and sudenyl he's a really good guy, loves the crowd, etc. Same with Victoria. It's a problem. WWE realises people like these characters, so they turn them face and let the crowd get behind them. Once they've turned face, WWE feels the need to change the character to become more fan friendly, forcing the character to lose the edge that the fans began cheering them for to begin with. I don't know why this is so hard for them to understand.

Yeah, except that Raw has actually been good the past couple of months.

Which is, naturally, the reason they won't bring it back. It's one thing to bring back a small, IYH type ppv like Halloween Havoc, but bringing back Starcade would be just like seeing WCW WrestleMania. It just doesn't feel right.

Then can electrocute Hardcore Holly. No one will care.

Every single SmackDown, and every single PPV, and every single house show? I don't like Cena as a face either, but he is as over, if not more, than he has ever been. He still is one of the most over guys on SmackDown. The only guys who get as big/bigger pops than Cena are Taker and Eddie. Taker wasn't around from SS to Mania so it's natural he would be getting a bigger pop. Plus ~ITS TEH DEDMAN! It's then a toss up between Eddie and Cena who will get the bigger pop. He is as over as ever. The feud with Dupree has halted his progress, but it hasn't damaged him. Like I said, he is as over as ever, is still US Champ and will come out of the feud as the winner (I presume). I would have Cena turn heel. Let the crowd pop for him as much as they want, but keep him as a heel. He will bet even more over from being a heel because the crowd will pop more because they know that they shouldn't. Eventuually, turn him face/tweener again but let him keep his edge. And Cena needs a feud with a good worker so that he doesn't get exposed. Charlie Haas seems a good option. Even elevate Jamie Noble.

Hey! Its generic WWE Mark #452. How are you doing buddy? I couldn't quite make out what you were trying to say but I'll try. Who told you that Victoria just decided to start dancing for no reason what so ever? Was it one of your 'sources'? Why did you say 'people are reading too much into this'? You say that as if everyone is passing around conspiracy theories or something. Everyone just said they were bored of her. God. Anyway, to stay on topic, yeah Victoria is boring as hell as a babyface. What I would like to see is her remain this way till a feud with Trish starts. Trish does something like a massive beatdown with Christian or something, and it makes Victoria go nuts again. The crazy Victoria and Stevie get back together (as faces), she gets the theme back and everyone is happy.

Wasn't this rumoured a while ago? And EugeneMark, they haven't actually announced that it will be Raw Roulette, you know? You're acting as if that has already been announced.

Sounds at least a little better than it has been lately. Let me guess. Eddie/JBL is Last Man Standing. They keep playing up Eddie passing out or whatever. So Last Man Standing would be ideal to Bradshaw. Booker/Cena at GAB? I don't care. Booker should be going after Eddie and Cena shouldn't be dropping the belt, whcih I think he will if he faces Booker. Booker gets screwed again I suspect. I'm sure he gets some sort of crappy tv win over Taker next week. Dudleyz vs Undertaker Handicap Match? God is this show horrible. Chavo vs Classic? Who, really, thinks this is a good idea?

Shut up you troll. Every single thread that you 'contribute' in, all you do is bash Benoit. I'm not saying that everyone should like him, or whatever. If you don't like him, fine. But all you do is bash him (even when there is no reason for it) to try and piss off everyone else. Like me. Seriously, can the mods do something about this guy? Go back and read all his posts, all he does is bash Benoit. I'm sure you will come back with how you are merely expressing your opinion or some crap like that. Whatever.

Actually, didn't Victoria and Stevie come together during the Test/Stevie feud? Stevie was pissed off that Test hit him with the cane the week prior so he came out when Stacy was in the ring with the t-shirt gun. Stacy hit Stevie with a t-shirt, which led Victoria to attack her (they had a match later on). They remained a team after this.

Triple H never won the match. Both guys shoulders were down, meaning it was a draw. However, when it's a draw, the Champion keeps the belt. Bischoff screwed it up when announcing it.

Who would you call a great worker? (not meant to be malice or anything, I'm just curious)

HAH!

Jericho was pulling the exact same stuff with Goldberg last year. You say pyschology is used to show what the wrestler is thinking. They must be pretty big idiots if they're working over someone's arm for ten minutes then forgetting about it and trying to get a pin off a moonsault. That is more inexcusible than just not building to something.

And yet Nash still wouldn't job in that environment.

I'm pretty sure Benoit doesn't build to the Crossface every match. Take the tag match last week for example. He was suplexing the crap out of Orton for a while, chopping him, then he locked on the Crossface after no build. This is okay, but Kurt doing it isn't? I know in an ideal world, they should build to submissions. However, can it not be presumed that these guys can just lock on a hold just like that and get a submission? That's why they are submission wrestlers. Sometimes they destroy the body part until it eventually gives in, some times they can just lock in a submission out of nothing. Not too hard to believe.