Welcome to the “whew, that news of a trade had me concerned that WWE was going to mess up the best WWE show of the week, Smackdown” edition of The Wrestling List.
WWE did a “trade” last night which was explained in storyline by that Donald Trump made the deal before he left. They didn’t name all of the names on Raw but it was up on WWE.com today. Here are the talent moves. Raw is getting this talent: Gail Kim, Alicia Fox, Jack Swagger, Evan Bourne, and Mark Henry. Smackdown gets: Matt Hardy, Finlay, and The Hart Dynasty of David Hart Smith, Tyson Kidd, and Natalya. ECW gets: Shelton Benjamin, Goldust, William Regal, and The Bellas. Some interesting moves. I’ll go in depth on it after my Raw thoughts.
Sunday was the WWE Bash PPV. Here are the results of the show. The show opened with the ECW championship scramble match with Dreamer defending against Christian, Finlay, Henry, and Swagger. Dreamer ended up getting the pin near the end which had him retain the ECW title. Rey Mysterio defeated Chris Jericho in the title vs. mask match with Rey winning the Intercontinental title. Rey’s mask got pulled off but he had a second mask on underneath it. Rey hit the 619 and springboard for the win. Dolph Ziggler was next against The Great Khali in the no countout match. Kane got involved in the match and nailed Khali with a chair. As Kane walked off, Ziggler rolled in and got the pin on Khali. Next was the Unified tag team title match with The Colons defending against Priceless. As the match started, Teddy Long announced another opponent. Vince McMahon had put Long on notice for needing to step up his job performance and make some big moves. So, Edge and Jericho were put into this match. The finish had Edge making a tag that Carlito didn’t see. Carlito nailed Cody with the backstabber but the referee wouldn’t count cause Cody wasn’t the legal man. Edge then stepped in and hit a spear on Carlito to win the match and the tag team titles. Michelle McCool defeated Melina to win the Women’s title making Michelle the first woman to hold both the Women’s and Divas titles. She won the match with the Styles Clash. Next was CM Punk defending the World title against Jeff Hardy. Hardy hit the swanton and got the three count from the ref but Punk had his foot under the bottom rope. Hardy’s music was playing but the ref caught his mistake. He got the match going again which Hardy was very unhappy about. Punk went for the GTS but Hardy caught him with an elbow to stop the move. Punk was laying down covering his eye. The ref stopped Hardy so he could check on Punk. Punk then kicked the ref in the back which caused a DQ. The story was Punk saying that he couldn’t see and that the kick was accidental with him expecting the kick to land on Hardy. Hardy yelled at Punk that he had done it on purpose. Hardy then went on the attack on Punk frustrated over what Punk had done. Referees had to pull Hardy back. John Cena defeated The Miz after tapping to the STF. The main event was for the WWE title in the Three Stages match. Orton won the regular match which was the first fall when Triple H was DQ’d for hitting Orton with a chair. Triple H continued the assault with the chair which then started the second fall which was falls count anywhere. Triple H hit a pedigree on Orton on the floor to tie up the match. Last was the stretcher match in the third fall. The finish had Priceless getting involved. Triple H went for the sledgehammer and nailed Priceless with it. Orton then nailed Triple H with the metal piece off of the place where Triple H had the sledgehammer hidden. Orton then rolled Triple H across the line and won the match to retain the WWE title.
Getting to last night’s Raw. I thought this was a solid show. Vince McMahon opened the show and said that there was a 15 man trade with the storyline being that it was completed by Donald Trump before he quit. Also, McMahon announced that the weekly guest host or GM would happen. This week’s was Batista. Batista hit the ring and announced a four man tournament to set the challenger for Orton at Night Of Champions with Triple H taking on MVP and then John Cena taking on The Miz. Batista said that he wasn’t going to do this guest host deal when it was offered because he didn’t want to come back till he could wrestle. He was then told that he could have complete power and knew he could make Orton’s life miserable for a night so that was when he accepted it from Vince. Legacy arrived and Orton brought up the point of what was going to stop them from finishing the job on Batista? Batista then pointed out that he could fire all of them if they even looked at him wrong. He then said that Orton would be facing three of the newly acquired Raw talent from the trade in a three on one gauntlet match. Batista later told Orton that if Priceless interfered, they would be fired on the spot. So, Orton finishes the show with the gauntlet match. These were all surprises as we had yet to hear the names of the new Raw stars. His first opponent was Evan Bourne. The finish of that had Bourne going for his big finish and then Orton nailed the ropes knocking him off of the turnbuckle. Orton then hit a RKO as he pulled Bourne from the turnbuckle. That finished Bourne. Orton’s next opponent was former ECW champion, Jack Swagger. This finish had Swagger stepping on to the apron and taking a countout. Orton wins. Swagger got on the mic saying that he wanted to make a big impression on his first night on Raw and had always liked Orton. He stuck his hand out to Orton and Orton shook it. Swagger walked out. Orton’s last opponent was Mark Henry. Orton’s face was funny when he realized it was Henry. Henry got on the mic and said that he also wanted to make a good impression on his first night on Raw. He stepped out on the apron as well looking like he would take a countout. Henry then laughed and stepped back in the ring. Orton went to his knees begging and then Henry picked him straight up by his neck. The finish had Orton’s RKO attempt being countered by sending Orton to the ropes. Henry then hit the world’s strongest slam to get the pinfall on Orton. Wow, they put Henry over big by having him pin the champ. Moving on to the Night Of Champions tournament. Triple H against MVP was first with Triple H getting the win following the pedigree. John Cena and Miz was solid with Miz actually dominating most of the match. I thought Miz looked really good on offense and he had a lot of fans with him on every move he was hitting. The finish had Cena making the big comeback and hitting the legdrop off the top followed by the STF for the submission win. It will be Triple H vs. Cena next week with the winner moving on to face Orton at Night Of Champions for the belt. Chris Jericho and Edge took on The Colons in a rematch for the tag team titles. Edge and Jericho talked before the match with Edge saying he had went to Jericho about forming a united front to take over WWE. The finish was cool with Jericho and Primo battling on the floor. As Carlito was ready to hit the bottom rope for a move, Jericho shoved Primo into the rope on the floor. Carlito missed the rope and then Edge hit the spear for the win. The Colons argued a bit after the match. A fatal four way women’s match was held to determine the challenger for Maryse’s Divas title at Night Of Champions. This was a fun match!! Mickie James vs. Kelly Kelly vs. Beth Phoenix vs. Rosa Mendes. Funny moment with Beth turning on Rosa as Beth was on a mission to win. Mickie took out Beth with a kick which sent Beth crashing off of the steps. Mickie then hit the DDT on Rosa to score the win. Mickie then faced off with Maryse who had been doing commentary during the match. Kofi Kingston and Big Show battled to a double countout. Show took the fight to the floor. Kofi ended up knocking Show into the post but neither could beat the count. Show left very frustrated.
Other notes from Raw. It was announced that The Million Dollar Man, Ted Dibiase will be the guest GM next week on Raw. Ok, someone explain this to me. Didn’t Cole and Lawler make this big deal for weeks about The Colons being able to jump brands as long as they were champions but then saying that if they got beat, the new champs would be locked on their brand? Ok, so what happened to that? Suddenly, Edge and Jericho can jump brands too. That was just kind of bizarre. Was I the only one that heard Cole and Lawler say that Triple H had to wrestle twice on Raw? When I heard that, I thought that meant that the finals were going to be on this show too. I wasn’t the only one that heard that, was I? Did Lawler also really call the RKO on Bourne a running bulldog??!! Isn’t there just something funny about Teddy Long being put on “probation” by Vince McMahon due to job performance? Yeah, sorry that your show is so good that we’re putting you on probation. LOL. I loved the old school ECW-esque move with the women all having holds on each other. Very fun. Then, the charge by Beth into all three other women into the corner was cool to follow it. Like I said, I really liked the women’s match. Miz looked solid on offense against Cena and the announcers were putting it over with how shocked that they were with how Miz was dominating.
When this 15 person trade came up, my first thought was, oh no, Smackdown is going to get destroyed since it has been so good. So, I got some good relief after seeing the news of who was being moved. ECW on the other hand got destroyed. That was a show that has gotten a lot of good feedback in recent months. Good in ring action for sure on the show. Raw got some new stars. As far as individual moves, Matt Hardy is the one that I’m the most happy about cause I have been critical of how badly he has been used since being moved to Raw. He got lost in the mix quickly and having him back on Smackdown should be a good thing for Hardy and for the fans watching. I’m happy about seeing the Hart Dynasty on Smackdown. I think they could really shine being on that brand. I’m curious to see what things will be in store for the ECW guys moved over to Raw with Henry, Swagger, and Bourne. I am concerned that they will get lost in the mix too. Although, giving Henry a win on the WWE champion was a big deal. I’m interested to see what they do with Gail Kim on Raw. She is a nice addition and I’m surprised that she didn’t do more on Smackdown. Alicia Fox? Well, they didn’t keep her and Michelle together long. As far as the talent moved to ECW, well, Shelton will be a good pickup. I’m just not sure what there is left to do with Goldust, Regal, and the Bellas. Like I said, the real winner for me is Matt Hardy getting moved off of Raw.
The main event for this week’s Smackdown is Unified tag team champions, Edge and Chris Jericho taking on CM Punk and Jeff Hardy.
Some flags went up a couple of weeks ago when WWE posted that they were looking for a ring announcer preferably female with a good singing voice. Doesn’t that sound like what they have with Lillian Garcia??!!! It got a lot of speculation going that Lillian might be on her way out of the company. Lillian posted a blog over the weekend which talked of the rumors: Lillian did confirm that she is leaving and you can read her comments at this link: http://www.lilliangarcia.com
This is a bummer to hear cause I think she has become such a great ring announcer over the years. She really has become the voice of Raw with ring announcing. It has been nice having a ring announcer with such a strong voice as well. If you haven’t heard her sing the national anthem before a live show in an arena, you don’t know what you’re missing. I have heard her sing it live several times and it just sends chills through you!! Her greatest moment in WWE will probably always be the Smackdown after September 11, 2001. She did an INCREDIBLE singing of the national anthem to open the show. Talk about getting chills and getting you all pumped up after such a horrible week.
Here is the preview for the July programming on WWE 24/7 Classics On Demand. The theme for the month is “Superstars and Stripes Forever. Big Ones airing include WCW Great American Bash 1989 (GREAT, GREAT, GREAT show, Flair vs. Funk, Sting vs. Muta, Steamboat vs. Luger, WarGames, and more), WWF SummerSlam 1993 (Luger vs. Yokozuna), WWE No Way Out 2009. Old School house shows airing include MSG (12/31/91 – Hogan vs. Flair – the Rematch) and Boston Garden (1/11/86). TV Classics continue to air in order including ECW (October 1996), NWA (December 1986), Monday Night Wars (January 1998), World Class (July 1983), Prime Time Wrestling (April 1988), Mid-Atlantic (December 1981), Monday Night Wars: The Beginning (October 1995). A couple of Film Room shows will air which will be on Harley Race and then one with the WWWF vs. NWA. A couple of Coliseum Video releases will air including Hulk Hogan: Real American and also Hacksaw Jim Duggan. Also airing will the recently released Life and Times of Mr. Perfect DVD. It should be just the biography portion of the DVD obviously which I am really looking forward to watching. I’ve been wanting to see it for a while but have got to where I save my money on DVD’s as well waiting for them to air on 24/7 (with the exception obviously being the Randy Savage DVD). The shorties for the month should be a lot of fun. All of them are US title matches which span from NWA/WCW to WWE. That isn’t just the US Heavyweight title but also includes the US Tag Team titles from the NWA which includes The Midnight Express vs. The Fantastics. That is great stuff!! Shorties should be really fun to watch. Hall of Fame profile will be on Tony Atlas. This should be a really fun month of WWE 24/7 Classics On Demand. Lots of good stuff to see.
There were live reports last week saying that WWE was taking Randy Savage signs from fans in attendance at the TV shows. Kind of strange especially when they just released that DVD. Also, John Cena threw his hat into the crowd last week and a fan threw it back at the ring. The fan was ejected from the building. WOW, that is just dumb.
Torrie Wilson has made the final four on I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here on NBC.
So, Samoa Joe is now a heel in TNA and joined up with the Main Event Mafia? Sigh. It is so frustrating with how TNA has just ruined this guy. He was the hottest thing in wrestling a few years ago. If I could have picked one guy to watch matches of besides Shawn Michaels, I would have picked Samoa Joe. He was just incredible to watch. It’s just been awful to watch how the company has creatively ruined him.
That is all I have for this week’s Wrestling List. Wishing you all a great week!! Take care and God bless!!
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