Welcome to the “even after the draft, Smackdown is still the better show” edition of The Wrestling List. Better storylines, better matches on Smackdown so far over Raw. Raw has more star power but Smackdown is having the better shows.
Tonight’s Raw centered around the story of Batista and Legacy. It was very much like last week but with a different result. The show opened with Legacy calling out Batista. Orton offered Batista a spot in Legacy saying that he could be his Arn Anderson and be Orton’s enforcer. Batista turned it down saying how much he hated Orton. There was a no contact ruling or no PPV match laid down by Vickie but Batista decided to throw that out saying that Vickie couldn’t cancel the main event of the PPV. Vickie waved the no contact rule and then named the main event of the night. First, it would be Priceless taking on Batista. If Batista won, he got Orton one on one. If Priceless won, it would be three on one against Batista. So, the match takes place with Priceless and Batista. Dibiase distracts the ref and Cody grabs a chair from under the ring. He throws it inside and Batista picks it up. He takes a swing at Cody which the ref sees. DQ happens and Priceless wins. Batista then started hunting Legacy down backstage. Cody disappeared and Orton eventually found him. As he was found, Dibiase was taken out. Orton told Cody to prove his worth and take out Batista. Cody roamed backstage with a pipe but was taken out from behind by Batista. This made the match with Orton one on one. Batista ended up getting DQ’d cause he was repeatedly bashing Orton with a chair including shots on the ankle. He grabbed the steps from outside but then Cody got involved. Dibiase did as well. Batista was able to overcome and took everyone out leaving Orton crawling up the ramp. The final statement was Orton having to move to avoid the steps when Batista threw them from the ring to the floor. In other action. Upon the suggestion of Chavo and Big Show, Vickie put John Cena in an exhibition match against The Miz to prove that he was able to compete against Show on Sunday. Miz did a lot of trash talking but Cena had his eyes on Show who watched at ringside. Cena was more mobile than last week but Miz was in control for a lot of the match. As Cena was close to putting away Miz, Vickie showed up on the screen saying the exhibition match was over and that Cena had shown that he wasn’t ready to compete. Miz took out Cena from behind and then proclaimed he was now 3-0. Show smiled at Cena down on the mat and walked off. MVP hosted the VIP Lounge which was with William Regal. Just trash talking back and forth which was about to get physical when Matt Hardy’s music hit. Hardy continued to complain about his having to wrestle with the injury. Kofi ended up attacking Matt from behind and then Chavo announced what Vickie’s decision was on this. It would now be a tag match with Matt and Regal against Kofi and MVP. The finish had Kofi nailing Matt’s cast and then Matt walked away from the match. MVP hit the playmaker on to Regal for the pin. Mickie James and Kelly Kelly defeated the team of Maryse and Jillian. Mickie countered Maryse’s DDT and then hit her own DDT to pin the Divas champion for the second week in a row. The story of Santina Marella and Beth continued. Beth stayed on offense for most of the match and then Santina won with a small package. Santina then danced all over the ring which was pretty funny. Kendrick defeated Carlito after he rammed Carlito’s shoulder into the post and then rolled him up for the win. Kendrick then claimed he was going to get “the” partner to win the tag team titles with.
Other notes from Raw. Isn’t it kind of funny that Batista is turning into WCW late 90’s Sting of 2009? Easy to fool. That was what I was thinking with all the DQ outsmarting as of late. Maybe WWE has been watching their WCW library. Ha ha. What is up with Michael Cole always having to read personality stuff of the divas during their matches? I almost feel like I’m trying to be set up on a date while I’m watching the match. Is this wrestling or matchmaker.com? Is Vince feeding him that stuff or is it him on his own? I can probably answer that one. No Mickie James vs. Maryse match added to Judgment Day? Hmm, I figured that they would go for it. How impressive was Beth picking up Santino in a press slam and throwing him back in the ring? I don’t even think she struggled!!! Ok, the segment with Santina in Vickie’s office was pretty funny. Well, Cole and Lawler with live mics in the ring doing the rundown of the PPV lineup was well….different. I can’t remember the last time that was done. It almost felt like the 1990’s WWF Free For All shows all over again. All we needed was Todd Pettingil and Sunny. They have got to let Miz continue to do these shooting type promos. His line on more people seeing that match than 12 Rounds was a good one. Miz is going to keep rising up if he keeps being able to do these style of promos against his opponents. What was with Raw ending at 10:02? That is counting a PPV promo at the very end too.
Another fun Smackdown on Friday night. The show opened with Rey Mysterio being introduced by Teddy Long welcoming him back to the show. Chris Jericho interrupted the preceedings saying that he was the face of Smackdown and wanted an apology from Long about the DQ last week pointing out that no one had ever been DQ’d in a fatal four way. He told Rey that he didn’t have a chance of winning anyway. Rey finally had enough and popped him. Rey walked out and Jeff Hardy arrived. Hardy said that if Jericho wanted respect then he would have to beat him. The announcement was made that they would face each other in the main event and if Jericho won, he would be added to the Hardy/Edge match at Judgment Day. Hardy then slapped Jericho to end the segment. Edge went to Long complaining about the fact that his match could now be a three way. Long told Edge that he would be having a rematch with Punk that night on Smackdown but it would be non title. Long did say that he had no control on whether Punk might cash in the MITB after the match like last week. Nice finish with Edge grabbing the ropes to avoid the GTS. Edge then went for the spear and Punk leap frogged over him crashing to the floor. Edge then walked off taking the countout loss. He later pointed out that Punk can’t cash in MITB if he isn’t there. Umaga once again attacked Punk and left him laying in the ring. The Hardy/Jericho match closed the show. Edge did commentary with JR and Grisham. Rey ended up at ringside to watch the match. Jericho threw Hardy on to Edge at the announce table. Edge then got up on the apron and he and Jericho had words. Edge walked off. Jericho put a pin attempt on Hardy but Jericho had his feet on the ropes to help with leverage. Rey pointed it out to the ref and stopped the count. Jericho was furious at Rey’s interference. Jeff hit a modified twist of fate and the swanton to win the match. Jeff walked toward Edge on the ramp staring him down. Rey then hit a springboard on Jericho in the ring. Other action on the show had John Morrison pinning Charlie Haas, accompanied by Shelton Benjamin, following a splitlegged corkscrew moonsault. Morrison called for Shelton to come into the ring afterwards but Shetlon walked out. Mike Knox defeated R Truth following his neckbreaker finish. Michelle McCool defeated Gail Kim who was accompanied by Alicia Fox. Michelle countered Gail’s hurricanrana attempt into a Styles clash for the win. The Great Khali was the surprise opponent for Dolph Ziggler. Ziggler had challenged anyone in the locker room saying that he was going to go through the whole Smackdown roster. Ziggler ended up being DQ’d when he kept pounding on Khali with a chair. Round two of Eve and Layla with Cryme Tyme. This time it was arm wrestling. Eve ended up winning and was again attacked by Layla afterwards like last week.
Other notes from Smackdown. I loved the exchange with JR and Edge. Edge said that he hated whiners and then JR asked him “by the way, how is your wife?” I did think it was funny that JR and Grisham pointed out that Jericho got his way in the opening segment by whining. Wow, WWE breaking out the old World’s Greatest Tag Team music for Haas.
Here is the latest in the saga between WWE and Kurt Angle. The Miami Herald did an article comparing stories between the two on what happened with Angle leaving the company. It definitely gives an inside look at the wellness policy and even Angle’s manager was admitting some wrong things that Kurt had said. WWE definitely looks like the better out of this whole thing for sure now. Here is the article if you want to check it out. Definitely worth a read!! http://www.miamiherald.com/sports/other/story/1026972.html
If you want to see the trailer for the new Macho Man Randy Savage DVD, head over to his website at: http://www.machomadness.com It looks awesome!! Can’t wait for this set to be released!!
WWE is going to be releasing a Rise and Fall Of WCW DVD in the fall. Now, this will be interesting to see. Is this going to be another WWE spin on the company wars where WCW is painted as the big bad bully who stole all of their stars? The Monday Night Wars DVD sure was mostly a one sided view with WWE being the good guys against WCW. I didn’t like that DVD at all cause the story was very one sided on what view they wanted to push. It will be interesting to see who is interviewed for it as Eric Bischoff said on his Twitter account last week that several WCW executives had been asked for interviews with several turning WWE down. Can you imagine what the Russo treatment will be on this DVD? I’m curious to see how they paint Randy Savage. WWE has always bashed Savage for leaving but the fact of the matter is that Savage still wanted to have an in ring career. Vince wanted him to not wrestle anymore and just be an announcer. Savage left and went to WCW where he had many more great years of in ring performances. Will Nitro get its due for being innovative and changing the wrestling landscape? The Rise and Fall of ECW DVD was phenomenal many years ago when it was released and told the story. Was all of it accurate and told down the middle? No, but you can expect that. That ECW DVD biography program was phenomenal with the interviews that they had and stories that were told. I just hope that WWE will tell the story of WCW without constantly making them look like the evil bad guys that tried to put them out of business. I always kind of get annoyed anyway when Vince does that when he put territory after territory out of business in the 80’s by using many of the same tactics. It was interesting during the Monday Night Wars roundtable show on WWE 24/7 that was taped in the last couple of years where it was finally admitted by WWE just how close that Eric Bischoff was to putting them out of business. I really need to do a special Wrestling List about what happened with WCW. Maybe I’ll do it after I watch this DVD in the summer and talk about stuff in the DVD and things that were left out. Yeah, I’ll do that. That will be fun. Can’t wait to view it. Just hoping that we at least get near a fair story on it!!
Ring Of Honor has announced that Lance Storm will be coming out of retirement for a couple of shows on July 24 and 25. Bret Hart will be making an appearance for ROH on July 24 and Ric Flair will be making an appearance on July 25. Huge weekend for ROH.
The WWE Judgment Day PPV is this Sunday night and here is the lineup for it. World Champion Edge defends the title against Jeff Hardy. WWE Champion Randy Orton defends against Batista. John Cena vs. Big Show. ECW Champion Christian defends against Jack Swagger. Intercontinental Champion Rey Mysterio defends against Chris Jericho. CM Punk vs. Umaga.
Have a great week!! Take care and God bless!!
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