Welcome to the “aren’t you surprised that Umaga’s first words weren’t something against Stan Kroenke?” edition of The Wrestling List.
You knew this was coming. TNA is in the right place at the right time. TNA is jumping on the WWE/Denver Nuggets situation. They already had shows scheduled for Pueblo, Colorado and Cheyenne, Wyoming. The Pueblo show is for May 29 and the Cheyenne show is on May 30. TNA is offering a $10 discount to any fans that show up and present an unused WWE ticket from any of the Colorado canceled shows. They have also invited anyone associated with the Denver Nuggets whether it is players, coaches, broadcasters, and front office staff to the Pueblo show. TNA President, Dixie Carter, had these comments in their press release: "Some of the biggest pro wrestling fans in the nation are in Colorado. It was sad to see the WWE pull out of all their scheduled shows in Colorado recently because of the scheduling conflict with the NBA playoffs. I want everyone in Colorado to know that TNA Wrestling is coming and we hope to see you at our first shows ever in your state. For WWE fans that paid for any of these cancelled events, we are offering you $10 off the purchase of tickets to come see us and enjoy the best fan experience in pro wrestling." I have to give TNA a bunch of credit here. Perfect scenario for them to jump into there.
Tonight’s Raw was what we expected. Vince McMahon ripping on Stan Kroenke. My concern was that it was going to be too much and dominate the show. It wasn’t as dominating as I thought it would be. My thoughts? Ehh. The show overall just wasn’t very exciting. I did notice that Staples Center was empty in the upper levels. That is to be expected considering how late tickets went on sale. The show opened up with E. Stan Kroenke being introduced. Then, out comes a spoof of him and also spoofs in the front row with Jack Nicholson, David Stern, and Lakers owner Jerry Buss. I guess I’ll just go ahead and say Kroenke in recapping this segment even though it was of course a spoof of him. He talks about how he hates WWE and their fans while also talking about how he is sick of being vilified by everyone. He points at the graphic that depicted him with a tail and horns. Vince McMahon’s music hits and he gets a big pop from the Staples Center crowd. Vince says that he is launching a basketball league to compete with the NBA but says it will be a failure cause Kroenke and his crew will run it. Anyway, the segment goes on with Vince making fun of Kroenke’s first name which was what the “E” stood for which was Enos. Vince finishes it by saying that what matters is that the WWE Universe was disrespected and that they don’t take it and push back. Vince shoves him down. Miz arrives saying that he is from the hometown of who the real NBA champions will be and shows his Cleveland/LeBron James jersey. He says that LeBron is awesome just like himself. More trash talking on Cena saying that he’ll run Cena out of town just like Kobe did Shaq. Cena makes his way to the ring but is attacked from behind by Priceless. Batista runs out and helps Cena. He hits spinebusters but then Big Show arrives. Lawler jumps in to help against Show but Show takes care of him quickly. Cena and Batista then double clothesline Show out of the ring. That was how the segment ended. The main event was the ten man tag team match with Legacy teaming with Show and Miz taking on Cena, Batista, MVP, Lawler, and a surprise partner. That partner would be Kennedy who made his Raw return at the end of the Orton/Flair confrontation. The faces wore Lakers jerseys while the heels wore Nuggets jerseys. They had personalized jerseys as well. The Lakers announcer actually introduced the wrestlers like it a basketball game. The match itself was all right. The finish had MVP pinning Rhodes with the playmaker. MVP was then attacked by Dibiase afterwards. Then, we saw finisher after finisher getting hit. Show went for the double chokeslam on Cena and Batista. They reversed it into a suplex with them dropping Show with it. All the face team celebrated the win. The best segment on the show was Flair calling out Randy Orton. Flair was awesome during this segment. Flair came to the ring and called out Orton immediately. Orton walked out saying that he had already lowered himself by hitting a 60 year old man last week and wasn’t going to do it again. Flair yelled at him to do it again. Orton told him how Triple H only kept Flair around cause he felt sorry for him and now Orton felt sorry for him too. Orton told him “it’s over”. That fired up Flair who slapped him and then Orton got on the attack. Punches landing until Batista arrived which sent Orton running. Batista had to keep holding Flair back. In a triple threat match, Kofi Kingston defeated Matt Hardy and William Regal which grants him a US title match next week. Kofi pinned Hardy when he avoided the cast shot attempt and hit the trouble in paradise for the win. MVP was on commentary and he and Kofi talked after the match. MVP said he’d be happy to give Kofi a match. Kelly Kelly got her Divas Championship match against Maryse. The finish had Maryse pounding on Kelly on the announce table. She then shoved Kelly off the back of it as the ref counted. Maryse was going for the countout win but instead the ref DQ’d Maryse for shoving Kelly over the table. Kelly attacked Maryse after the match but Maryse escaped. Santino teamed up with Mickie James and defeated Chavo and Beth Phoenix when Mickie rolled up Beth for the win. The win granted Santino the opportunity to name the stipulation for the match between Santina and Vickie at Extreme Rules. Yeah, ugh!! Santino named it a hogpen match. Goldust and Hornswoggle defeated the team of Kendrick and Festus. The Colons were on commentary. Kendrick was about to hit Festus with a chair after the match while Festus was out of it. Primo surprised Kendrick by ringing the bell and bringing Festus back to attention. Kendrick took off running. Wow, this shows seems worse just by recapping it.
Other notes from Raw. How great was MVP’s line of him saying that he tried to tell everyone that Matt Hardy was no good but no one believed him? That reminded me of Bobby Heenan after Hulk Hogan turned heel and joined the nWo. Heenan went on a rant about how he had been telling everyone for 20 years how lousy of a person Hogan was. Ha ha. Classic heel stuff there. Umm, if Mickie James is in the building, why would you not have her getting involved with Maryse after what she did to her last week??!! Just didn’t make much sense to me. Didn’t The Miz technically become a star in New York considering that was the season of The Real World that he was on? Jim Ross did commentary tonight with Michael Cole since Lawler would be in action. So, suddenly Goldust is doing the stuttering thing again? Wow, did WWE bring that back out of nowhere!!! I thought the DQ finish for Maryse shoving Kelly over the table was lame. Noooooo, I was hoping WWE was done with the Santina stuff. Now, we get a rematch with Santina and Vickie at Extreme Rules. The Santina gimmick needs to go away. Anyone remember the previous hogpen match between Hunter Hearst Helmsley and Henry Godwinn? The promo for the ladder match of Jeff Hardy and Edge is really well produced!! It started to get annoying that Michael Cole kept referencing that Kroenke spoof as if it was the real guy. That Magic Johnson statue outside of Staples Center is awesome!!!
Moving on to Friday Night Smackdown. Edge opened up the show talking about how there is no doubt that he is the face of the brand now with him winning at Judgment Day while Jericho and Punk lost. He ripped on Hardy for a bit and that brought out Teddy Long. Long said that he couldn’t do anything with the referee’s decision since Matt illegally interfered but that he was ordering a rematch at Extreme Rules. Jeff Hardy arrived and wanted a match on Smackdown with the winner picking the stipulation. Edge was mad over Jeff trying to make his own matches. Jeff said that Long had declared Smackdown as the fans’ show so Jeff went into the crowd asking if this match was what they wanted to see. All of them said yes and Long made the match. So, the main event of Smackdown was Edge vs. Hardy with the winner of the match getting to make the stipulation for their match at Extreme Rules. Jeff was still selling that he was rattled from Matt’s cast shot at the PPV. The finish had Jeff hitting the twist of fate. As he climbed to the top rope slowly, Edge got up there. He went for the edgecution which was the same finish from the PPV. Hardy knocked him off to the mat. Hardy jumps and hits the swanton getting the victory. Jeff then said that he would be climbing a ladder to win the World title as their match at Extreme Rules will be a ladder match. Other happenings on Smackdown were John Morrison and Cryme Tyme defeating Shelton Benjamin, Charlie Haas, and Ricky Ortiz when Morrison pinned Haas with the starship pain for the win. Rey Mysterio did an interview with Jim Ross where he talked about his heritage and the ties to the Intercontinental title while also talking about the importance of his mask. Chris Jericho took on CM Punk. The finish had Umaga interfering and attacking Punk with a strap. Umaga had Punk in a tree of woe and then nailed him with the samoan spike. Umaga then SUDDENLY TALKED!! LOL. He said that Punk may think he is hurting now but to wait until their match at Extreme Rules which would be a Samoan strap match. Jericho went to Teddy Long later in the show saying that he had heard Rey’s interview and wanted another match. Long said the match had already been made for Extreme Rules cause Rey had just been in his office. The match at Extreme Rules with Rey and Jericho will be no holds barred. Josh Mathews interviewed Melina which had Alicia Fox interrupting saying that she had a message to deliver from Michelle McCool. The message was to tell Melina that the belt would soon be hers. Melina then told Alicia to deliver a message as well. She said to not send a little girl to do a woman’s job and then slapped Alicia. Michelle McCool defeated Gail Kim to become the number one contender for Melina’s Women’s title. The finish had Alicia Fox as a distraction leading to Michelle getting the advantage back to hit the Styles clash for the win. Dolph Ziggler defeated R Truth. After the match, Khali arrived looking for his revenge. Ziggler backed up to the ring from the ramp and caught a kick from R Truth. As Khali got to him, Ziggler was able to recover and run through the crowd to get away.
Other notes from Smackdown. I liked the build for the Hardy/Edge ladder match with JR pointing out how the two of them were in the first ever tag team ladder match ten years ago and now they will face off in the same kind of match for the World title. Great job JR cause that is a great way to build the match!! Loved that he brought that stat up. How did Ricky Ortiz become a heel??!! He was a face on ECW and suddenly he’s a heel on Smackdown for no reason. If only Teddy Long were Jack Tunney, then he could veto a referee’s decision. Long time fans will get that joke. Wouldn’t it have been hilarious for an Edge head in the crowd to answer no to Hardy when he was asking if fans wanted to see the match. I was trying to think if I would have had the guts to do it if the mic were put up to me and then me say no cause it was unfair to Edge. Ha ha. Have you noticed how WWE and Rey Mysterio completely ignore his WCW run where he lost his mask? Isn’t it funny to hear someone that never talks in English suddenly talk in perfect English? I’m talking about Umaga. I just thought that was funny that WWE suddenly has him talking. It was like with Kane in the late 90’s when he suddenly began talking. After that Rey interview, I thought for sure that we were going to see a mask stipulation in the Rey/Jericho match. I expect the mask is still going to remain a part of their feud somehow. Next week will see Layla and Eve facing off in a match building off of their recent feud.
If you aren’t able to watch Smackdown on Friday nights or record it, you have another great option!! Hulu.com is now posting full episodes of Smackdown. They did just have full episodes of ECW but now WWE and Hulu have come to an agreement for Smackdown. It is definitely the best show of WWE’s right now so give it a view. They are editing it a bit though pulling some things such as not showing the strap shots from Umaga to Punk. They also didn’t show the brawl backstage between Eve and Layla opting to instead show freeze frames with audio. Strange. Anyway, the rest of the show looks great online. http://www.hulu.com/friday-night-smackdown
TNA sent out an announcement on their TNA Mobile text service about three stars appearing at this week’s TNA Impact tapings. One is Raven. The other is Shane Douglas. Victoria has returned and will be wrestling for the company under the name of Lisa Marie Varon.
By the way, the Nuggets defeated the Lakers in Game 4 tonight in Denver by the score of 120 to 101. Series is tied 2-2.
Take care and God bless!!
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