WWE recently released the Hulk Hogan’s Unreleased Collector’s Series DVD set. When I heard about another Hulk Hogan set coming out, my first thought was great but what more can they release that hasn’t been seen? Most of these DVD sets are PPV matches and matches that are more common. WWE promoted this set as something different though. They promoted it as unreleased material and lesser seen matches. The lineup was released for the DVD and I was definitely happy with it. It lived up to the promotion. I’m a Hogan for over 20 years and there were matches on this that I have never seen. Even the stuff I had seen, the matches aren’t commonly released. So, let’s get right into this.
Disc one covers his early WWWF and AWA days while also going into his early run as WWF champion. There are some rare matches to start this for sure including Hogan in a squash match against two guys from Championship Wrestling in 1979. It was really funny to just sit and watch this cause the crowd was so calm. Little did they know what Hogan would become. There is a WWWF championship match with Bob Backlund defending against Hulk Hogan from 1980. Fun match especially for history’s sake. Speaking of history, there is a match between Hogan and Andre The Giant from 1980 in Madison Square Garden. Interesting to watch a different style match between the two and nice to see them show this match instead of the more common Shea Stadium match. Yes, Hogan does bodyslam Andre in this match too much smaller fanfare. Amazing what a few years and an incredible match build will do!! The last thing on this set from before the WWF days is a AWA match with Hogan taking on Nick Bockwinkel and Bobby Heenan. This was such a fun match to watch and such an easily booked match. Heenan was entertaining teaming with Bockwinkle and Hogan was big time over with the fans. This gets us into the WWF days. I loved them digging into the vault and getting a Hogan vs. Savage match that I have not seen. I’ll say this again later as well. Hogan vs. Savage is one of my favorite rivalries of all time and their best matches were probably in the mid 80’s. The match on this set is from 1986 and taking place in Detroit. A fun Snake Pit segment is shown on this disc as well which shows Jake The Snake Roberts talking to Hulk Hogan which aired on the same day as WrestleMania III. What makes this segment even more fun is Jake showing the new larger WWF title. Jake kept pointing out that WWF had not made a bigger belt for any of Hogan’s other bigger challengers. I thought this segment really did good on building up the odds that Hogan was facing against Andre. The first disc finishes off with matches against Kamala and Killer Khan.
Disc two moves up into the end of Hogan’s WWF run covering matches from 1987 to 1991. A couple of matches here that I haven’t seen to start off with as Hogan defends against The One Man Gang. The match that really gets my attention is a rare title defense against Ravishing Rick Rude. This was a lot of fun to watch. I don’t think I’ve ever seen Hogan and Rude go one on one so that was a big bonus with this DVD. As far as the rest of this disc, I’m just going to comment on some random matches. First, Hogan takes on King Haku from late 1988. I hadn't seen a match back when Hogan was wearing the helmet with the fist on it. I always remember seeing pictures of him in it in the Apter magazines. I still don’t seem to know why he was wearing it other than just some gimmick to do. A rarity on this set is a promo by Hogan talking about Savage and WrestleMania V. You may remember that Savage was dissecting the whole year leading up to WrestleMania of how Hogan had wronged him. They were long promos by Savage where he would fix the footage like he wanted to back up what he was saying. Well, Hogan would do rebuttals against them and this was one of them talking about Survivor Series 1988. I haven’t seen these in probably twenty years so that was a fun little addition to this DVD set. Speaking of Savage, this gets us to Boston Garden 1989 rematch for the WWF title. Another Hogan/Savage match that I had not seen. Add Sherri to the mix and it makes this match even more fun. The UK Rampage tour was the scene for a Hulk Hogan/Sgt. Slaughter WrestleMania VII rematch. Hogan still had the bandage on his head still selling the Slaughter attack from the month earlier. The disc closes with a MSG match between Hogan and Flair during their short WWF feud. One thing that was always a bummer and completely frustrating for me as a fan was that we didn’t get a nationally televised match between the two of them from this era. So, the two MSG one on one matches that occurred are definite treasures for fans.
Disc three moves on to Hogan’s career in WCW and his return to WWE in 2002. We get three matches from 1995 with Hogan teaming with Savage against Flair and Vader at Slamboree, against Vader at Bash At The Beach in the cage, and then a match against Sting on WCW Monday Nitro. The match with Sting is a really good pick for a rare match. This was when Hogan was coming out in all black. Even though there is a run in finish, it is a good pick of matches for so early in the Hogan/Sting rivalry. The nWo era picks up from here. The first match is Hogan defending the belt against The Giant at Souled Out 1997. Yeah, this match was not so good but it is a match of theirs that isn’t featured as much. Usually, Road Wild or Hog Wild (whatever the name of it was that year) in 1996 is shown with Hogan winning the belt. Yeah, that nWo PPV was a bad idea and it was not a good show all around. I’m all for the next match being on this set as we get Hogan and Bret Hart from Nitro in 1998. At the time, there was good news and bad news with this one. The good was that this match was happening. The bad was that this match was thrown away on a Nitro and the worst part was that It was just a setup for Bret to join the nWo. I’ve always felt that this was a bad turning point for WCW too. Bret should have been the guy on the other side that finally leveled things out for WCW in their battle with the nWo. Of course, you had the Wolfpack and nWo black and white at this point so it was out of hand. Hogan vs. Bret just seemed so thrown away. From here, the DVD goes back to Hogan’s comeback run in WWE. The segment is shown from the night after WrestleMania X-8 where Hogan got the incredible reaction from the fans in Montreal. Still so powerful to watch. The rest of the WWE matches on this set are good picks as they are TV matches and not as featured as the PPV matches. There is a match against Flair from Raw and a match against Triple H from Smackdown. The Edge/Hogan vs. Billy and Chuck tag team title win has been put on other DVD’s so this set features the rematch from the next week on Smackdown. The DVD closes with a match against Kurt Angle from Smackdown which led to the Hogan/Lesnar match the next week.
Overall thoughts. Good DVD and really well produced. As a Hogan fan, I was happy with getting to see a LOT of matches that I had never seen. Seeing them pick a lot of the house show matches from local broadcasts was really nice. When you get later in the TV era, it’s hard to pick out stuff that hasn’t been seen cause TV is so different now. When you get into the 80’s, there is all sorts of stuff that you can work with. There are some interview extras on the set as well covering all Hogan eras. Also, there are matches on this set that apparently don’t have original commentary so Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler recorded some new commentary over it. I thought they did a good job talking about history and talking about the differences in the product at the time. If you’re a Hogan fan, you’ll likely love the set. I really enjoyed it.
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Monday, December 28, 2009
TNA/Hulk Hogan vs. WWE/Bret Hart - Head To Head Live Next Week
Welcome to the “it’s TNA and Hulk Hogan vs. WWE and Bret Hart live next Monday night” edition of The Wrestling List. Hope everyone had a great Christmas!!!! This week, I have recaps of Raw, Smackdown, previews of TNA and WWE’s head to head battle next Monday night, and more.
Don’t forget that next week will be the big wrestling night on Monday night, January 4. TNA and WWE do battle with both shows being live. TNA Impact will begin at 7-10pm central time on Spike TV with a three hour show. Hulk Hogan will be making his first appearance in the Impact Zone. WWE Raw will run from its normal time of 8-10pm. Next week’s guest host will be Bret Hart.
Tonight’s WWE Raw was all about setting up next week although tonight’s episode was much better than recent weeks. There really wasn’t anything on this show that I couldn’t stand. I will say this though. WWE is paying attention to that TNA show next week. Bret Hart and they have two other big matches announced including Kofi vs. Orton and then DX vs. JeriShow. Anyway, let’s get to tonight. Yes, Bret Hart will be the guest host on next week’s Raw. Vince McMahon made his way to the ring to address the “rumors” of Bret coming back to WWE. A video was shown highlighting Bret’s career and then it went into Survivor Series 1997. Vince is still playing the “Bret screwed Bret” story. He talked of how he put the fans first and let Bret come back for the Hall Of Fame. Vince says that he offered a handshake that night and the feeling from Bret wasn’t mutual. He then said that he would put that aside and do it for the fans but then can’t get the words out announcing Bret as guest host. He then says that Bret will not be back and starts to walk out. Shawn Michaels arrives and talks about rivalries being bigger than the business at times and how you can’t deny the fans. Then, he starts talking about Undertaker instead of Bret. Shawn talked of still wanting his rematch for WrestleMania 26. Vince responded by saying that he had learned not to mess with Undertaker and said that Shawn would have to get that from Undertaker. Shawn then turned the talk to saying that he could understand being scared of Undertaker but couldn’t understand why Vince was scared of Bret. Shawn said that maybe Vince needed to close the chapter on one of the few open chapters that he has left in his life. Shawn then promised that “only good things were going to happen”. Vince said that he wasn’t afraid of anyone but did take note of what Shawn had just said. Shawn also added that he’d be more than happy to see Bret one more time. Vince then made the announcement that Bret will be the guest host next week. The main event battle between John Cena and Sheamus continued throughout the night. Cena opened the show getting a table from under the ring and calling out Sheamus for their match right then. Cena wanted a tables match. Sheamus arrived and said that he had nothing to prove to Cena cause he had won a tables match. He wanted a straight up match for later. Sheamus went to walk away. Cena leaped over the table off of the turnbuckle in the corner which looked mighty impressive. He picked up Sheamus and hit the adjustment through the table. Later, Cena was being interviewed and was attacked by Sheamus. That made them even on attacks. The match closed the show and you knew it was going to be a strange finish just by looking at the clock. Cena goes to hit the adjustment and Sheamus hangs on to the rope. Then, as Cena pulls him away, Sheamus grabs the referee and pulls him down. The ref rings the bell for the DQ and Sheamus saves his title. Sheamus went to leave and Cena ran down the aisle. Cena throws him back in the ring but catches a foot from Sheamus as he gets back in the ring. Sheamus follows with another one and then stands with his foot on Cena’s throat just before the show ends. Chris Jericho was outside picketing the event with a petition wanting signatures to get back on Raw. It was stuff straight out of his WCW days. Loved it. Big Show walks out there at one point saying that they had a great relationship and team but that it was over and time to move on. One was on Raw and the other was on Smackdown and long distance relationships don’t work. This was funny stuff. Show gives Jericho an envelope. We later find out that it was event tickets in the envelope. DX was set to take on Big Show and a partner of his choosing. His partner, Chavo Guerrero. Ok, didn’t expect that one. Jericho arrives and watches from the front row looking very jealous. The finish has Shawn taking Show out of the ring. Hornswoggle arrives and tries to hit a pedigree on Chavo. He gets it countered but Triple H lands it to win the match. Jericho jumps over the rail furious over the loss. He gets up on the apron and takes a superkick from Shawn. Triple H gets on the mic and says how tired he is of Jericho’s antics saying that he’ll give him one more chance. A rematch is set for next week between DX and JeriShow for the tag team titles and Jericho is off Raw for sure this time if they lose. Orton was shown backstage with Legacy talking about breaking up the group. He talked of how they had been beaten by three guys that had never teamed before last week. Two matches were made with Dibiase and Rhodes in singles competition. To remain in Legacy, they had to win their matches. Dibiase faced off with Bourne. It looked like Dibiase was set to put Bourne into the turnbuckle but misjudged where he was. Dibiase then hit dreamstreet for the win. Orton watched these matches from ringside. Next, Rhodes took on Mark Henry. Henry landed his move over the ropes and then went to the floor hobbling. They played up that Henry was hurt and Rhodes took advantage taking out his knee. Rhodes picks up the win. Orton looked pleased with the wins. The Miz took on Kofi Kingston. Timbaland was tonight’s guest host and he made the decision to have two matches between them if Kofi won the first one. The second would be for the US title. Kofi won the first match when Miz jumped off of the top rope into the trouble in paradise kick. The second match ended when Kofi hit the kick again but was pulled from the ring by Randy Orton. Orton put him into the post and hit the RKO. Orton made the challenge for next week’s Raw saying that he was going to land a kick on Kofi. Maryse defeated Kelly Kelly following a DDT and then bragged on herself to Melina saying that she was coming to get the championship.
Other notes from Raw. How awesome was it for retro’s sake to see Chris Jericho holding a “conspiracy victim” sign again??!! When he was out there, I was thinking how it reminded me of that WCW storyline and had that sign in mind. Then, minutes later there is he is holding the sign. LOL. I loved it. Jericho in the front row was great. Did you hear the fan yell at him "Jericho, down in front" when he stood up? That was funny. Do you think that WWE would do Shawn vs. Bret at WrestleMania 26? There were little subtle hints tonight that made me wonder. Did you see the guy in the front row with the old school 1988 Bret Hart shirt on? Wow, that brought back memories. Vince McMahon talked about how much that we are all enjoying his ingenious idea of the guest host every week. Two points. Are we really enjoying it? The other point, wasn’t Donald Trump the storyline reason why we’re here? Would it surprise you that he had forgotten that? LOL. I can’t be the only one that gets a laugh out of Vince getting the “what” treatment. How stiff was that knee from Dibiase to Bourne??!! Wow. I’m still wondering if that finish went wrong as far as the setup into dreamstreet. Ok, I laughed at Hornswoggle and Triple H playing bowling with Jillian. If you missed it, Triple H duct taped him to a skateboard and rolled him across the hall into a singing Jillian which got approval from Timbaland.
Last Friday’s episode of Smackdown was a Christmas night episode. The main event featured DX taking on The Hart Dynasty. Earlier in the night, Jericho talked to The Hart Dynasty and said how they needed to make an impact adding that they hadn’t earned anything yet such as a tag team title match. DX appeared on the screen mocking JeriShow and also the Harts. The Harts then made their impact by hitting their finisher on Jericho. The match later took place later and the Hart Dynasty hit their finisher on Triple H. Shawn broke up the count. Smith’s running powerslam was countered when Triple H sent Smith running into a superkick from Shawn from the corner. Triple H then hit the pedigree for the win. After the match, Hornswoggle came out and he and DX all did a Christmas celebration. The Undertaker took on Rey Mysterio for the world title. After Undertaker hit a chokeslam on Rey, Batista did a run in and did battle with Taker. The two went back and forth. Rey then nailed Taker with a dropkick to the back followed by a 619. As Rey jumped off the top, he was caught in a choke. Batista then hit a spear on Taker. Batista then went for Rey and fell into the ropes. 619 and springboard to Batista and Rey took off from the ring. The team of R Truth, Matt Hardy, John Morrison, and Finlay defeated the team of CM Punk, Luke Gallows, Drew McIntyre, and Dolph Ziggler when Morrison pinned Ziggler with the starship pain. Mickie James and Maria teamed up against Beth Phoenix and Layla. Michelle McCool was doing commentary during the match. Mickie was visibilly upset throughout the match wanting to get at Michelle and Layla. Mickie got the hot tag and was hammering on her opponents. Mickie nailed a spin kick on Layla to win the match and pointed right at Michelle. Mickie rolled out and went after Michelle. Beth nailed Mickie from behind and fired her into the announce table. Michelle talked trash on the way out as Beth looked to be sizing up Michelle. Cryme Tyme won a squash match and also handed out presents to the crowd. There were some Christmas party segments with Teddy Long and Vickie Guerrero that were funny. They also involved Hornswoggle.
TNA will air this Thursday night on Spike TV for New Year’s Eve. Four hour special that will run from 6-10pm central time. Featured on the show will be a one night Knockouts tournament to determine the number one contender for the championship. Taylor Wilde and Sarita, the Knockouts tag team champions, will also be in action. TNA will also air the top PPV matches of 2009 which was voted on by the fans.
I haven’t remembered to do this this month so here we go. The fan voting on WWE Classics On Demand for the month of January is between Starrcade 1987, WWF In Your House: D-Generation X, and WWE SummerSlam 2005. For me, this is a clear winner on which I would pick of the three. However, I’ll just talk about each one. Starrcade 1987 had the event moving up to the north into Chicago. The main event featured the Ric Flair vs. Ronnie Garvin title match, a Road Warriors vs. Anderson/Blanchard match for the tag team titles, and Dusty Rhodes facing off with Lex Luger for the US title. This show also has the scaffold match between the Midnight Express and The Rock N’ Roll Express. Moving on to IYH: D-Generation X. This is one of the most played PPV events on the Classics On Demand. I think this airs every year so I’m really tired of it. The show is from December 1997 and had a main event of Shawn Michaels defending against Ken Shamrock. There is also the Stone Cold Steve Austin vs. The Rock Intercontinental championship match which is one of the first in their great rivalry. Those are the two most memorable matches off of this event. WWE SummerSlam 2005 was really a mix of both worlds. The main event was Hulk Hogan taking on Shawn Michaels in what was an epic encounter in history. Really good match between the two. We have the good with that but then let’s get to the bad. This was the first match between Edge and Matt Hardy in their big feud that was set up off of personal issues between the two. I’ll never forget the reaction of all us to the quick finish of this match. WWE blew this match big time. This feud was the hottest thing going at the time and people were talking about it all summer. Then, they put them in the ring and WWE booked a really lousy quick match that pretty much stopped the buzz for that feud. The show also featured a fun John Cena vs. Chris Jericho match. Yeah, SummerSlam was a good show for the most part but my vote goes to Starrcade 1987 as an old school fan. It was the better of the three shows in my opinion. That is where my votes goes.
So, now we wait. Next Monday will be big. The biggest night in wrestling in a very long time. We’ll have head to head live competition against each other. TNA brings their show to Monday night for a three hour show beginning at 7pm central time and running until 10pm on Spike TV. Hulk Hogan will make his debut for TNA and I would not expect to see Hogan until after 8pm. I wouldn’t be surprised if we see him right at 8pm. I mean this is the guy that used to sit in the locker room in WCW and watch the monitor to see what WWE was doing and be strategic on when to send out the nWo. I fully expect to see some surprises as well including debuts. I just hope that TNA starts announcing matches this Thursday. They need to get some matches out there. There have been teases of AJ Styles vs. Samoa Joe which would be great but we’ll see. TNA needs to build a big show and really showcase their talent and not do anything dumb. I do not expect this show to do a big rating. Like I’ve said, I think if the show even did a 1.5-2.0, that would be a win. I think if they bring their whole audience over from Thursday night, that is a win. The fact that TNA has gotten the wrestling world talking is a win. WWE obviously has TNA on their radar with this special based on the fact that they have Bret Hart announced and also two other big matches. Bret Hart will return to WWE after 12 years not including the Hall Of Fame appearance to guest host Raw. DX will face JeriShow in a rematch. Kofi Kingston will also have a rematch with Randy Orton. This is going to be fun!! Make your plans to watch, record, or whatever you have to do. I will be going old school Wrestling List with the format next week. If you were a reader of the List back in the era of the Monday Night Wars, the format will look familiar.
Talk to you soon. Take care and God bless!!
Don’t forget that next week will be the big wrestling night on Monday night, January 4. TNA and WWE do battle with both shows being live. TNA Impact will begin at 7-10pm central time on Spike TV with a three hour show. Hulk Hogan will be making his first appearance in the Impact Zone. WWE Raw will run from its normal time of 8-10pm. Next week’s guest host will be Bret Hart.
Tonight’s WWE Raw was all about setting up next week although tonight’s episode was much better than recent weeks. There really wasn’t anything on this show that I couldn’t stand. I will say this though. WWE is paying attention to that TNA show next week. Bret Hart and they have two other big matches announced including Kofi vs. Orton and then DX vs. JeriShow. Anyway, let’s get to tonight. Yes, Bret Hart will be the guest host on next week’s Raw. Vince McMahon made his way to the ring to address the “rumors” of Bret coming back to WWE. A video was shown highlighting Bret’s career and then it went into Survivor Series 1997. Vince is still playing the “Bret screwed Bret” story. He talked of how he put the fans first and let Bret come back for the Hall Of Fame. Vince says that he offered a handshake that night and the feeling from Bret wasn’t mutual. He then said that he would put that aside and do it for the fans but then can’t get the words out announcing Bret as guest host. He then says that Bret will not be back and starts to walk out. Shawn Michaels arrives and talks about rivalries being bigger than the business at times and how you can’t deny the fans. Then, he starts talking about Undertaker instead of Bret. Shawn talked of still wanting his rematch for WrestleMania 26. Vince responded by saying that he had learned not to mess with Undertaker and said that Shawn would have to get that from Undertaker. Shawn then turned the talk to saying that he could understand being scared of Undertaker but couldn’t understand why Vince was scared of Bret. Shawn said that maybe Vince needed to close the chapter on one of the few open chapters that he has left in his life. Shawn then promised that “only good things were going to happen”. Vince said that he wasn’t afraid of anyone but did take note of what Shawn had just said. Shawn also added that he’d be more than happy to see Bret one more time. Vince then made the announcement that Bret will be the guest host next week. The main event battle between John Cena and Sheamus continued throughout the night. Cena opened the show getting a table from under the ring and calling out Sheamus for their match right then. Cena wanted a tables match. Sheamus arrived and said that he had nothing to prove to Cena cause he had won a tables match. He wanted a straight up match for later. Sheamus went to walk away. Cena leaped over the table off of the turnbuckle in the corner which looked mighty impressive. He picked up Sheamus and hit the adjustment through the table. Later, Cena was being interviewed and was attacked by Sheamus. That made them even on attacks. The match closed the show and you knew it was going to be a strange finish just by looking at the clock. Cena goes to hit the adjustment and Sheamus hangs on to the rope. Then, as Cena pulls him away, Sheamus grabs the referee and pulls him down. The ref rings the bell for the DQ and Sheamus saves his title. Sheamus went to leave and Cena ran down the aisle. Cena throws him back in the ring but catches a foot from Sheamus as he gets back in the ring. Sheamus follows with another one and then stands with his foot on Cena’s throat just before the show ends. Chris Jericho was outside picketing the event with a petition wanting signatures to get back on Raw. It was stuff straight out of his WCW days. Loved it. Big Show walks out there at one point saying that they had a great relationship and team but that it was over and time to move on. One was on Raw and the other was on Smackdown and long distance relationships don’t work. This was funny stuff. Show gives Jericho an envelope. We later find out that it was event tickets in the envelope. DX was set to take on Big Show and a partner of his choosing. His partner, Chavo Guerrero. Ok, didn’t expect that one. Jericho arrives and watches from the front row looking very jealous. The finish has Shawn taking Show out of the ring. Hornswoggle arrives and tries to hit a pedigree on Chavo. He gets it countered but Triple H lands it to win the match. Jericho jumps over the rail furious over the loss. He gets up on the apron and takes a superkick from Shawn. Triple H gets on the mic and says how tired he is of Jericho’s antics saying that he’ll give him one more chance. A rematch is set for next week between DX and JeriShow for the tag team titles and Jericho is off Raw for sure this time if they lose. Orton was shown backstage with Legacy talking about breaking up the group. He talked of how they had been beaten by three guys that had never teamed before last week. Two matches were made with Dibiase and Rhodes in singles competition. To remain in Legacy, they had to win their matches. Dibiase faced off with Bourne. It looked like Dibiase was set to put Bourne into the turnbuckle but misjudged where he was. Dibiase then hit dreamstreet for the win. Orton watched these matches from ringside. Next, Rhodes took on Mark Henry. Henry landed his move over the ropes and then went to the floor hobbling. They played up that Henry was hurt and Rhodes took advantage taking out his knee. Rhodes picks up the win. Orton looked pleased with the wins. The Miz took on Kofi Kingston. Timbaland was tonight’s guest host and he made the decision to have two matches between them if Kofi won the first one. The second would be for the US title. Kofi won the first match when Miz jumped off of the top rope into the trouble in paradise kick. The second match ended when Kofi hit the kick again but was pulled from the ring by Randy Orton. Orton put him into the post and hit the RKO. Orton made the challenge for next week’s Raw saying that he was going to land a kick on Kofi. Maryse defeated Kelly Kelly following a DDT and then bragged on herself to Melina saying that she was coming to get the championship.
Other notes from Raw. How awesome was it for retro’s sake to see Chris Jericho holding a “conspiracy victim” sign again??!! When he was out there, I was thinking how it reminded me of that WCW storyline and had that sign in mind. Then, minutes later there is he is holding the sign. LOL. I loved it. Jericho in the front row was great. Did you hear the fan yell at him "Jericho, down in front" when he stood up? That was funny. Do you think that WWE would do Shawn vs. Bret at WrestleMania 26? There were little subtle hints tonight that made me wonder. Did you see the guy in the front row with the old school 1988 Bret Hart shirt on? Wow, that brought back memories. Vince McMahon talked about how much that we are all enjoying his ingenious idea of the guest host every week. Two points. Are we really enjoying it? The other point, wasn’t Donald Trump the storyline reason why we’re here? Would it surprise you that he had forgotten that? LOL. I can’t be the only one that gets a laugh out of Vince getting the “what” treatment. How stiff was that knee from Dibiase to Bourne??!! Wow. I’m still wondering if that finish went wrong as far as the setup into dreamstreet. Ok, I laughed at Hornswoggle and Triple H playing bowling with Jillian. If you missed it, Triple H duct taped him to a skateboard and rolled him across the hall into a singing Jillian which got approval from Timbaland.
Last Friday’s episode of Smackdown was a Christmas night episode. The main event featured DX taking on The Hart Dynasty. Earlier in the night, Jericho talked to The Hart Dynasty and said how they needed to make an impact adding that they hadn’t earned anything yet such as a tag team title match. DX appeared on the screen mocking JeriShow and also the Harts. The Harts then made their impact by hitting their finisher on Jericho. The match later took place later and the Hart Dynasty hit their finisher on Triple H. Shawn broke up the count. Smith’s running powerslam was countered when Triple H sent Smith running into a superkick from Shawn from the corner. Triple H then hit the pedigree for the win. After the match, Hornswoggle came out and he and DX all did a Christmas celebration. The Undertaker took on Rey Mysterio for the world title. After Undertaker hit a chokeslam on Rey, Batista did a run in and did battle with Taker. The two went back and forth. Rey then nailed Taker with a dropkick to the back followed by a 619. As Rey jumped off the top, he was caught in a choke. Batista then hit a spear on Taker. Batista then went for Rey and fell into the ropes. 619 and springboard to Batista and Rey took off from the ring. The team of R Truth, Matt Hardy, John Morrison, and Finlay defeated the team of CM Punk, Luke Gallows, Drew McIntyre, and Dolph Ziggler when Morrison pinned Ziggler with the starship pain. Mickie James and Maria teamed up against Beth Phoenix and Layla. Michelle McCool was doing commentary during the match. Mickie was visibilly upset throughout the match wanting to get at Michelle and Layla. Mickie got the hot tag and was hammering on her opponents. Mickie nailed a spin kick on Layla to win the match and pointed right at Michelle. Mickie rolled out and went after Michelle. Beth nailed Mickie from behind and fired her into the announce table. Michelle talked trash on the way out as Beth looked to be sizing up Michelle. Cryme Tyme won a squash match and also handed out presents to the crowd. There were some Christmas party segments with Teddy Long and Vickie Guerrero that were funny. They also involved Hornswoggle.
TNA will air this Thursday night on Spike TV for New Year’s Eve. Four hour special that will run from 6-10pm central time. Featured on the show will be a one night Knockouts tournament to determine the number one contender for the championship. Taylor Wilde and Sarita, the Knockouts tag team champions, will also be in action. TNA will also air the top PPV matches of 2009 which was voted on by the fans.
I haven’t remembered to do this this month so here we go. The fan voting on WWE Classics On Demand for the month of January is between Starrcade 1987, WWF In Your House: D-Generation X, and WWE SummerSlam 2005. For me, this is a clear winner on which I would pick of the three. However, I’ll just talk about each one. Starrcade 1987 had the event moving up to the north into Chicago. The main event featured the Ric Flair vs. Ronnie Garvin title match, a Road Warriors vs. Anderson/Blanchard match for the tag team titles, and Dusty Rhodes facing off with Lex Luger for the US title. This show also has the scaffold match between the Midnight Express and The Rock N’ Roll Express. Moving on to IYH: D-Generation X. This is one of the most played PPV events on the Classics On Demand. I think this airs every year so I’m really tired of it. The show is from December 1997 and had a main event of Shawn Michaels defending against Ken Shamrock. There is also the Stone Cold Steve Austin vs. The Rock Intercontinental championship match which is one of the first in their great rivalry. Those are the two most memorable matches off of this event. WWE SummerSlam 2005 was really a mix of both worlds. The main event was Hulk Hogan taking on Shawn Michaels in what was an epic encounter in history. Really good match between the two. We have the good with that but then let’s get to the bad. This was the first match between Edge and Matt Hardy in their big feud that was set up off of personal issues between the two. I’ll never forget the reaction of all us to the quick finish of this match. WWE blew this match big time. This feud was the hottest thing going at the time and people were talking about it all summer. Then, they put them in the ring and WWE booked a really lousy quick match that pretty much stopped the buzz for that feud. The show also featured a fun John Cena vs. Chris Jericho match. Yeah, SummerSlam was a good show for the most part but my vote goes to Starrcade 1987 as an old school fan. It was the better of the three shows in my opinion. That is where my votes goes.
So, now we wait. Next Monday will be big. The biggest night in wrestling in a very long time. We’ll have head to head live competition against each other. TNA brings their show to Monday night for a three hour show beginning at 7pm central time and running until 10pm on Spike TV. Hulk Hogan will make his debut for TNA and I would not expect to see Hogan until after 8pm. I wouldn’t be surprised if we see him right at 8pm. I mean this is the guy that used to sit in the locker room in WCW and watch the monitor to see what WWE was doing and be strategic on when to send out the nWo. I fully expect to see some surprises as well including debuts. I just hope that TNA starts announcing matches this Thursday. They need to get some matches out there. There have been teases of AJ Styles vs. Samoa Joe which would be great but we’ll see. TNA needs to build a big show and really showcase their talent and not do anything dumb. I do not expect this show to do a big rating. Like I’ve said, I think if the show even did a 1.5-2.0, that would be a win. I think if they bring their whole audience over from Thursday night, that is a win. The fact that TNA has gotten the wrestling world talking is a win. WWE obviously has TNA on their radar with this special based on the fact that they have Bret Hart announced and also two other big matches. Bret Hart will return to WWE after 12 years not including the Hall Of Fame appearance to guest host Raw. DX will face JeriShow in a rematch. Kofi Kingston will also have a rematch with Randy Orton. This is going to be fun!! Make your plans to watch, record, or whatever you have to do. I will be going old school Wrestling List with the format next week. If you were a reader of the List back in the era of the Monday Night Wars, the format will look familiar.
Talk to you soon. Take care and God bless!!
Saturday, December 26, 2009
TNA Lockdown 2008 - DVD Review - December 26, 2009
TNA Lockdown 2008. I recently watched this DVD and the show was a thumbs in the middle show from me. The action was fine but as usual with TNA especially at this time, the booking was a negative from me. Match of the night was Lethal Lockdown match with Team Cage taking on Team Tomko. This was a wild one and lots of fun. Crowd was really into this one. This was also the night that Samoa Joe won the TNA championship (FINALLY!!) by defeating Kurt Angle. I was just kind of indifferent to this match as they tried to make it more of a MMA style match. I thought the match was good but just not as good as some of their other matches. The Cuffed In The Cage match screamed bad booking to me. I never liked the Super Eric gimmick. It was just really cheesy to me and it came off like that in this match. The knockouts matches were good which included a fun tag team match with Gail Kim teaming with ODB against Kong and Saeed. The show had a hot opener with the Xscape match for the X-Division championship. Lots of big spots and fun. I barely paid attention to the Booker/Sharmell vs. Roode/Banks match. BG James against Kip James was just there for me. Overall, the show itself gets a thumbs in the middle. Good action but the booking just left me thinking…ok….at times. Fun extras on the DVD which include an inside look at the fan convention where you Borash interview various stars as they interact with the fans. This was about a fourteen minute extra and I enjoyed it a lot. There is also a Joe vs. Angle rematch from Impact a few weeks after this show that is an extra. That is a nice bonus and another extra is photos from the event. I give the DVD itself a thumbs up. I liked the extras put on there. The booking of the event just left me annoyed at times.
WWE: Starrcade: The Essential Collection - DVD Review - December 26, 2009
The Essential Starrcade. The history of Starrcade is one big deal in wrestling history. Before there was WrestleMania, there was Starrcade. The Essential Starrcade features a documentary and also includes the top 25 fan voted Starrcade matches in history. I liked that the documentary focused more on the early days of Starrcade than instead of toward the end. Unfortunately, the show became just another show in later years. When Starrcade began, it was what the NWA built toward and had huge matches which sold out buildings. The concept of Starrcade was Dusty Rhodes and Barry Windham who came up with it. There are a lot of people interviewed for this including Dusty Rhodes, Ric Flair, Harley Race, David Crockett, Arn Anderson, Magnum TA, Road Warrior Animal, Jim Ross, Rowdy Roddy Piper, Greg Valentine, and more. A lot of focus goes to the first Starrcade in 1983 with Flair vs. Race. I love that they showed a lot of archive footage including announcements about the event. Talk turns to how they simulcast the event as well for people that couldn’t get into the building. Flair and Race isn’t the only great match from that show as Piper vs. Valentine in the dog collar match gets a segment including reflections from Piper and Valentine. The event grew and then was held from two different buildings with Greensboro and Atlanta. Oh, and I need to mention how great it was to have some of the interviews and new footage taking place from the Greensboro Coliseum. It added a cool retro feel to the documentary. Atlanta and Greensboro would have matches and then would get to watch the action from the other venue. The Night Of The Skywalkers is covered including interviews with Jim Cornette and Animal. Cornette said that he still has pain from that fall from the scaffold. Magnum TA is discussed with his accident before Starrcade 1986 which would have likely seen his rise to world champion over Ric Flair. Everyone really puts over how Magnum was being groomed to be a huge star in this business before his career ending accident. I often do wonder what would have happened with Magnum had his career kept going and how different that history might be. The controversy over Starrcade and Survivor Series in 1987 is touched upon. Starrcade had always run on Thanksgiving night but WWF decided to use it for Survivor Series. WWF told cable companies that if they wanted to carry WrestleMania, the big money getter of the year, that it would be in their best interest to pick Survivor Series over Starrcade. David Crockett talks a little about that on the documentary. One thing that isn’t really discussed about that Starrcade 87 event in Chicago is yes, it was a hot bed for NWA action, but they really hurt their drawing power there after The Road Warriors were not booked to win the tag team titles in their hometown. Fans were wanting that title change and didn’t get it. From there, it goes into the Ted Turner era of WCW and how Starrcade became mostly a gimmick event. Dusty Rhodes really criticizes WCW at this point for how they really had no clue how to book wrestling even though they had great business executives. They just didn’t know anything about wrestling. I didn’t hate the Battlebowl concept like so many people did. I thought the first one was fun but the rest were just kind of ehh. Starrcade was brought back in the mid 90’s and Bischoff is given credit for that. The 1995 one was not touched upon which included the US vs. Japan series although they do talk about the mistake of booking so many unknown Japanese stars on the 1992 event. No mention of the huge build to either the Piper/Hogan match from 1996 or the Sting/Hogan match in 1997. Both were huge matches for Starrcade although the finish of the 1997 match really started the fall of WCW in my opinion. They do cover the 1998 Starrcade match with Goldberg’s streak ending to Kevin Nash. Mixed opinions on this one. Jim Ross said that he thought it was a mistake while Arn Anderson said that it was long overdue but also pointed out how hot Goldberg was at the time. Anderson’s feelings were just that the longer that the streak kept going that it was actually hurting Goldberg. From there, the event isn’t even discussed from 1999 to 2000. Yeah, not much to discuss there. The only memorable thing from that is the ladder match in 2000. It was nice to see Starrcade get a nice tribute documentary and get treated like it should. It’s a shame that the event got lost in the shuffle in later years but it was huge in the beginning.
Now to the matches. Fans were asked to vote on their favorite Starrcade matches and here are the results. I’ve also added my thoughts on the matches too.
#25 Piper vs, Hogan – Starrcade 1996. This was the first match between the two in many years and WCW built up to it huge. What bugs me the most is that this match was in Nashville. I would go to my first show two months later.
#24 Sting vs. The Great Muta – Starrcade 1989. This match took place during the Iron Man Tournament and is a very solid match.
#23 Steamboat and Douglas vs. Windham and Pillman – Starrcade 1992. I actually watched this match not long ago on WWE Classics On Demand. This was a great match!! I had forgotten how good that it was.
#22 Goldberg vs. Kevin Nash – Starrcade 1998. This match had to likely get voted just for history’s sake. This match is still one of the more talked about title changes due to the creative decision behind doing it. Nash ended Goldberg’s winning streak that night with help from Scott Hall and a taser to win the WCW world title.
#21 BattleBowl Battle Royal – Starrcade 1991. This was the first BattleBowl event that WCW did. The basic idea was that there would be tag team matches with the winners moving on to the battle royal. The teams had names drawn randomly where you might have enemies teaming together. I liked the concept of it but it got way too predictable toward the later BattleBowl events cause the realism of that many enemies teaming together was just lame. The first one though was something I really enjoyed. The battle royal came down to Sting and Luger in the end with Sting winning the first BattleBowl. Solid battle royal and the ending with Sting and Luger was a lot of fun.
#20 Steve Austin vs. Dustin Rhodes – 2 out of 3 falls match – Starrcade 1993. They had a really fun series of matches in the early 90’s in WCW.
#19 Anderson and Blanchard vs. The Road Warriors – Starrcade 1987. This is the night that the NWA ruined their drawing power forever in Chicago. This match had been built up huge with everyone and their mother expecting The Road Warriors to win the tag team titles that night in their home town. The title change didn’t take place and there was a ripoff DQ finish that really angered the fans. The NWA never drew attendance as well in Chicago after that.
#18 Jushin Thunder Liger vs. Rey Mysterio Jr. – Starrcade 1996. Yeah, you can’t go wrong with two of the best high flyers ever going at it. I LOVED watching Liger matches in the 90’s and was always so excited when he’d have a WCW run. His style was so different from anything that I had seen in wrestling when he showed up in WCW in the early 90’s. Then, you have Rey who was incredible at the time of this match and you’ve got a classic.
#17 Night Of The Skywalkers II – Midnight Express vs. The Rock N’ Roll Express – Starrcade 1987. Definitely a solid match here. I think that more people talk about the first Skywalkers match more than this one but this deserves plenty of attention as well.
#16 Ric Flair vs. Lex Luger – Starrcade 1988. I remember this being a very fun match and I was sure that Luger was going to win the NWA title that night. WRONG. This was one of their series of matches from 1988 where Luger would get so close but couldn’t win the belt. That pretty much sums up the Flair/Luger feud. They did the finish at the Bash earlier that year in 1988 where Luger had Flair in the rack and had the title won but the ref stopped the match due to Luger bleeding from the forehead. That is a finish that most fans will remember from that time. #15 Eddie Guerrero vs. Shinjiro Ootani – Starrcade 1995. This goes back to the US vs. Japan event which had a lot of good matches.
#14 Dusty Rhodes / Sting vs. Road Warriors – Starrcade 1988. I have good memories of this match but it has been a while since I have seen it. World tag team championship battle.
#13 King of Cable Tournament Final - Sting vs. Big Van Vader – Starrcade 1992.
The Sting vs. Vader feud was one of the best feuds of the early 90's. Can't really go wrong with any of their matches.
#12 Brisco Brothers vs. Steamboat/Youngblood – Starrcade 1983. Match off of the original event and these two teams always had good matches against one another.
#11 Dusty Rhodes vs. Ric Flair – Starrcade 1985. Classic. That is really all I can add.
#10 Eddie Guerrero vs. Dean Malenko – Starrcade 1997. This was in the midst of Eddie having some incredible PPV matches in 1997. Cruiserweight title on the line.
#9 Iron Man Tournament - Road Warriors vs. The Steiner Brothers – Starrcade 1989. I believe that this was the first meeting between these two teams. I remember being so excited that these teams going to face off in this tournament.
#8 3 Count vs. Jamie Knoble & Evan Karagias vs. Jung Dragons – Starrcade 2000. Ahh, one of the few highlights of the last months of WCW. This match is often forgotten cause of the bad era of WCW that it was in. Very fun match. What does it say that it is the only thing that I remember off of that show.
#7 Sting vs. Ric Flair – Iron Man Tournament – Starrcade 1989. Like the Road Warriors and Steiners, this match between Sting and Flair was an epic encounter in the tournament. It ended up being the deciding match in who won the tournament as well.
#6 Greg Valentine vs. Roddy Piper – Dog Collar Match – Starrcade 1983. This bloody match is one of the most talked about matches of both of these guys careers.
#5 Road Warriors vs. The Midnight Express – Scaffold Match – Starrcade 1986.
Just like the last match, this is also one of the most talked about matches of each of these teams careers. The sight of the scaffold was amazing. Jim Cornette's night? Yeah, not so good.
#4 Sting vs. Hollywood Hulk Hogan – Starrcade 1997. This match had such an incredible build to it. Everyone was excited for this match that had been built up for over a year. This was Sting's return to the ring. The delivery on the match though went badly based on the very badly booked finish. The fast three count that wasn't actually fast. I point at this match as the turning point in the Monday Night Wars with the momentum going to the WWF.
#3 Ric Flair vs. Harley Race – Starrcade 1983. A Flare For The Gold. Incredible night in the history of Ric Flair in the steel cage.
#2 Magnum T.A. vs. Tully Blanchard - I Quit Match - Starrcade 1985.
Just a bloody brawl. How about just saying that?
#1 Ric Flair vs. Vader – WCW title and Flair’s career on the line in Charlotte – Starrcade 1993. One of my favorite matches ever. It absolutely deserved to ranked number one among the fans. If you are unfamiliar with this, Vader had just been built up as this absolute monster. Such a indestructible force!! Flair seemed to have no chance. The result would have Flair unleashing a big time pound attack on Vader which was a lot of fun to watch as the crowd in Charlotte went crazy.
This is a fun DVD set and you’ll really enjoy it. Documentary is a fun look back and there are a lot of great matches on this set. Big thumbs up from me.
Now to the matches. Fans were asked to vote on their favorite Starrcade matches and here are the results. I’ve also added my thoughts on the matches too.
#25 Piper vs, Hogan – Starrcade 1996. This was the first match between the two in many years and WCW built up to it huge. What bugs me the most is that this match was in Nashville. I would go to my first show two months later.
#24 Sting vs. The Great Muta – Starrcade 1989. This match took place during the Iron Man Tournament and is a very solid match.
#23 Steamboat and Douglas vs. Windham and Pillman – Starrcade 1992. I actually watched this match not long ago on WWE Classics On Demand. This was a great match!! I had forgotten how good that it was.
#22 Goldberg vs. Kevin Nash – Starrcade 1998. This match had to likely get voted just for history’s sake. This match is still one of the more talked about title changes due to the creative decision behind doing it. Nash ended Goldberg’s winning streak that night with help from Scott Hall and a taser to win the WCW world title.
#21 BattleBowl Battle Royal – Starrcade 1991. This was the first BattleBowl event that WCW did. The basic idea was that there would be tag team matches with the winners moving on to the battle royal. The teams had names drawn randomly where you might have enemies teaming together. I liked the concept of it but it got way too predictable toward the later BattleBowl events cause the realism of that many enemies teaming together was just lame. The first one though was something I really enjoyed. The battle royal came down to Sting and Luger in the end with Sting winning the first BattleBowl. Solid battle royal and the ending with Sting and Luger was a lot of fun.
#20 Steve Austin vs. Dustin Rhodes – 2 out of 3 falls match – Starrcade 1993. They had a really fun series of matches in the early 90’s in WCW.
#19 Anderson and Blanchard vs. The Road Warriors – Starrcade 1987. This is the night that the NWA ruined their drawing power forever in Chicago. This match had been built up huge with everyone and their mother expecting The Road Warriors to win the tag team titles that night in their home town. The title change didn’t take place and there was a ripoff DQ finish that really angered the fans. The NWA never drew attendance as well in Chicago after that.
#18 Jushin Thunder Liger vs. Rey Mysterio Jr. – Starrcade 1996. Yeah, you can’t go wrong with two of the best high flyers ever going at it. I LOVED watching Liger matches in the 90’s and was always so excited when he’d have a WCW run. His style was so different from anything that I had seen in wrestling when he showed up in WCW in the early 90’s. Then, you have Rey who was incredible at the time of this match and you’ve got a classic.
#17 Night Of The Skywalkers II – Midnight Express vs. The Rock N’ Roll Express – Starrcade 1987. Definitely a solid match here. I think that more people talk about the first Skywalkers match more than this one but this deserves plenty of attention as well.
#16 Ric Flair vs. Lex Luger – Starrcade 1988. I remember this being a very fun match and I was sure that Luger was going to win the NWA title that night. WRONG. This was one of their series of matches from 1988 where Luger would get so close but couldn’t win the belt. That pretty much sums up the Flair/Luger feud. They did the finish at the Bash earlier that year in 1988 where Luger had Flair in the rack and had the title won but the ref stopped the match due to Luger bleeding from the forehead. That is a finish that most fans will remember from that time. #15 Eddie Guerrero vs. Shinjiro Ootani – Starrcade 1995. This goes back to the US vs. Japan event which had a lot of good matches.
#14 Dusty Rhodes / Sting vs. Road Warriors – Starrcade 1988. I have good memories of this match but it has been a while since I have seen it. World tag team championship battle.
#13 King of Cable Tournament Final - Sting vs. Big Van Vader – Starrcade 1992.
The Sting vs. Vader feud was one of the best feuds of the early 90's. Can't really go wrong with any of their matches.
#12 Brisco Brothers vs. Steamboat/Youngblood – Starrcade 1983. Match off of the original event and these two teams always had good matches against one another.
#11 Dusty Rhodes vs. Ric Flair – Starrcade 1985. Classic. That is really all I can add.
#10 Eddie Guerrero vs. Dean Malenko – Starrcade 1997. This was in the midst of Eddie having some incredible PPV matches in 1997. Cruiserweight title on the line.
#9 Iron Man Tournament - Road Warriors vs. The Steiner Brothers – Starrcade 1989. I believe that this was the first meeting between these two teams. I remember being so excited that these teams going to face off in this tournament.
#8 3 Count vs. Jamie Knoble & Evan Karagias vs. Jung Dragons – Starrcade 2000. Ahh, one of the few highlights of the last months of WCW. This match is often forgotten cause of the bad era of WCW that it was in. Very fun match. What does it say that it is the only thing that I remember off of that show.
#7 Sting vs. Ric Flair – Iron Man Tournament – Starrcade 1989. Like the Road Warriors and Steiners, this match between Sting and Flair was an epic encounter in the tournament. It ended up being the deciding match in who won the tournament as well.
#6 Greg Valentine vs. Roddy Piper – Dog Collar Match – Starrcade 1983. This bloody match is one of the most talked about matches of both of these guys careers.
#5 Road Warriors vs. The Midnight Express – Scaffold Match – Starrcade 1986.
Just like the last match, this is also one of the most talked about matches of each of these teams careers. The sight of the scaffold was amazing. Jim Cornette's night? Yeah, not so good.
#4 Sting vs. Hollywood Hulk Hogan – Starrcade 1997. This match had such an incredible build to it. Everyone was excited for this match that had been built up for over a year. This was Sting's return to the ring. The delivery on the match though went badly based on the very badly booked finish. The fast three count that wasn't actually fast. I point at this match as the turning point in the Monday Night Wars with the momentum going to the WWF.
#3 Ric Flair vs. Harley Race – Starrcade 1983. A Flare For The Gold. Incredible night in the history of Ric Flair in the steel cage.
#2 Magnum T.A. vs. Tully Blanchard - I Quit Match - Starrcade 1985.
Just a bloody brawl. How about just saying that?
#1 Ric Flair vs. Vader – WCW title and Flair’s career on the line in Charlotte – Starrcade 1993. One of my favorite matches ever. It absolutely deserved to ranked number one among the fans. If you are unfamiliar with this, Vader had just been built up as this absolute monster. Such a indestructible force!! Flair seemed to have no chance. The result would have Flair unleashing a big time pound attack on Vader which was a lot of fun to watch as the crowd in Charlotte went crazy.
This is a fun DVD set and you’ll really enjoy it. Documentary is a fun look back and there are a lot of great matches on this set. Big thumbs up from me.
Monday, December 21, 2009
Raw Recap, TNA Final Resolution, ROH Final Battle, & More - December 21, 2009
Welcome to the “I knew we were in trouble with this episode of Raw when they started with the bad Tiger Woods spoof” edition of The Wrestling List.
January 4. Wrestling fans. Mark that date on your calendar. I know it already was marked but circle it even bigger. I’m not just talking about TNA’s three hour special but I’m also talking about WWE. This is going to be a VERY big and exciting night for all of us wrestling fans. Make plans to keep an eye on both shows. Hulk Hogan said in a media appearance that he was predicting that TNA does a 3.0 on January 4 head to head against Raw. Hogan is obviously pumping this show up big but no way does it do a 3.0. If it did that kind of rating, I would be stunned beyond belief. Realistically, I think it doing a high of a 1.5 would be a big deal. The show averages between a 1.0 and a 1.3. If they could keep their audience from Thursday and get them to follow to Monday night, I think that is a win. I think the highest that the show could do is a 2.0 and I really don’t see that happening. Of course, you never know but I’d love to see it do a really high number. I think Jeremy Borash said it best lately in an interview when asked about what kind of rating that they need to do for it to be a win for the company. He basically said that there is a lot of buzz among fans and that it is the talk of the wrestling world right now with their live head to head January 4 show. He said that they have already won just based on that. I tend to agree with that statement. Regardless, I am pumped to watch these shows on January 4. It should be the most fun that us wrestling fans have had in a very long time. TNA does have a billboard up in Times Square advertising the live Impact which features Hulk Hogan on it.
As I watched Raw tonight, my thought was are they trying to make a run to make this show even worse than last week? They sure tried!! LOL. That first hour was tough to watch. We opened the show with Johnny Damon in the ring as the guest host. He does his speech and then suddenly a tiger jumps over the rail being chased by a woman. I’m thinking what is this? Then, I finally got the joke or lack of one. A blonde woman chasing a tiger with a golf club. Yeah, a Tiger Woods spoof and it was really bad. When you spoof something and people aren’t sure what it is, that is a bad sign. Then, we got to the DX at Little People’s court. Oh, this was so bad. I love DX obviously but these segments were bad. Just not even funny. Thankfully, the court only went for two segments. I thought this was going to be painful if it continues all night. Basically, DX arrives in the empty arena. They get a message to go under the ring. They go under the ring complete with bad echo voice sound effects. This leads them to a hallway when they turn the lights on. Apparently, going under the ring leads you to another place in the building. They enter a room full of little people including the jury, judge, and officer. The judge was made to look like Judge Judy. Hornswoggle arrives and DX gets beaten down by the officer by a nightstick in the back of the leg when they won’t sit down. The video is shown of what they had done to Hornswoggle over the last couple of months. DX keeps putting their foot in their mouth as the court keeps going. They are guilty and Shawn goes off on a rant of how Hornswoggle would have to prove himself if he wanted in DX and they weren’t letting him in. They get all sorts of things thrown at them. DX runs out of the door and tries their hardest to keep the door shut from the group chasing them. They run out down the hall and come up from under the ring. Shawn then gets tripped and Triple H holds him from getting pulled under the ring. Yeah, this was bad. It was really bad. Big Show took Johnny Damon up on his promise that one of the Santas tonight would give a WWE superstar their wish for Christmas. Show called out Santa to close the show with The Bellas arriving with him. After hearing him talk for about fifteen seconds, I realized it was Chris Jericho’s voice. Show said that what he wanted for Christmas was for his best friend and partner, Chris Jericho to be back on Raw. Santa then granted the wish saying Jericho would be back next week. Hornswoggle then arrived in DX gear and exposed Jericho as Santa. Then, the little people surrounded Jericho in the ring. Jericho went after them and Show ended up side slamming one of them. They then grab Hornswoggle and surround him in the ring. Hornswoggle goes at them with a superkick and nails Jericho in the shin but Show picks him up for a chokeslam. DX arrives and makes the save. They take out JeriShow and then Triple H talks of wanting to beat up Hornswoggle. Shawn then says that he is starting to grow on him and Triple H says the same thing. They make a deal to let him be the DX mascot if he drops the lawsuit to which he agrees. Thankfully, the in ring action picked up at times. John Cena took on Jack Swagger. The match was competitive. Cena ended up winning with the STF for the submission. MVP took on WWE champion Sheamus. As MVP bounced off the ropes for his ‘ballin’ move, Sheamus nailed him with a kick. Then, Sheamus hit the celtic cross for the win. Cena arrived right afterwards reminding everyone that Sheamus still owed him a rematch and he wanted it right now. Sheamus teased facing him but then stepped out of the ring and left. Legacy took on the team of Kofi Kingston, Mark Henry, and Evan Bourne. Bourne got a lot of nice offense in when he got the hot tag. The finish had Orton getting tossed from the ring and then Kofi caught Dibiase with the trouble in paradise kick for the win. The team of Melina, Kelly Kelly, and Gail Kim defeated the team of Maryse, Jillian, and Alicia. Maryse picked up Kelly and then Melina dropkicked Kelly on top of Maryse to get the pinfall. Carlito was shown hitting on Eve backstage and Masters stepped in to stop it. This led to a match between Masters and Carlito with Eve at ringside with Masters. Masters won with the masterlock and then Eve walked in with mistletoe and Masters got a kiss. The Miz defeated Santino in a Santa costume following the skull crushing finale.
Other notes from Raw. Yeah, it is really time to retire the guest host idea. It’s time for WWE to quit trying to be a variety show and get back to wrestling. Isn’t it funny how WWE fails to mention about Jack Swagger’s “not going to lose anymore” gimmick especially when he is facing Cena who is now doing the same thing? So, Masters is going to call out his finisher before he hits it? Is this the 2009 version of Bad News Brown’s ghettoblaster finisher where he called it out before he tried to hit it on Hogan back in 1989? LOL. We had a lot of legends dressed up as Santas backstage. The Dusty suit of course had a polka dot on it. Vince McMahon was shown in a backstage segment with Damon where Damon asked him about the rumor of Bret Hart being a guest host. Vince said that it was Chrismas and he didn’t want to talk about it. That wasn’t the only thing with Damon backstage as he ended up getting a kiss from Mae Young as well. It has been a while since we’ve gotten a Mae cameo. Just when the tiger segment was so bad, we got a repeat performance of it later. Make it stop. One of the highlights of the show was definitely seeing the Tribute To The Troops music video again. Can January 4 get here any sooner?
Next week’s Raw will be guest hosted by Timbaland with a main event of Sheamus defending the WWE title against John Cena.
TNA held their Final Resolution PPV last night from the Impact Zone in Orlando, FL. Mike Tenay and Taz have a new spot to call the action from in the building as they are no longer on the floor. The show opened with The British Invasion retaining the TNA tag team titles against The Motor City Machineguns. Tara defeated ODB to win the knockouts title after turning the TKO attempt into a sunset flip for the win. Next was the Feast or Fired battle royal. Oh, how do I cover this match? Basically, you can keep grabbing briefcases with some containing title shots but one containing the end of your TNA career. In the match was Beer Money, Homicide, Sheik Abdul Bashir, Kevin Nash, Samoa Joe, Kiyoshi, Rob Terry, Cody Deaner, Jay Lethal, and Consequences Creed. Sheik got the first briefcase. The second was received by Rob Terry while the third went to Kevin Nash. Samoa Joe got the last briefcase. Here is what each found in their briefcase. Nash got a tag team title shot. Samoa Joe got a TNA championship match. Terry won a X-Division championship match. That meant that Sheik was fired. Matt Morgan, The Pope, Hernandez, and Suicide defeated Team 3D, Rhino, and Jesse Neal in the elimination match. Morgan was left at the end against Team 3D but was able to defeat both of them in a row giving his team the win. Bobby Lashley defeated Scott Steiner in the last man standing match. Steiner was injured early in the bout but fought through it. The finish had Steiner with a pipe. Kristal grabbed it from him and threw it to Lashley. Lashley hit a spear and then nailed him with the pipe to win the match. Abyss and Mick Foley defeated Raven and Stevie Richards in the Foley’s Funhouse Rules match. That means no rules. Abyss pinned Raven with the black hole slam to win the match. Next was the three degrees of pain match between Desmond Wolfe and Kurt Angle. The first fall was a regular pinfall match with Wolfe winning with the tower of London. The second fall was a submission match. After many submission counters, Angle locked in the anklelock for good. Wolfe finally had to tap out. The last fall involved the cage where you had to escape to win the match. It was the classic battle of one going over the top while the other tries to go out of the door. Angle was climbing over the top and Wolfe tried to beat him to the door. Angle reached the floor first and won the third fall and the overall match. Main event time with AJ Styles defending the TNA championship against Daniels. AJ retained the TNA title by landing the Styles clash off of the ropes to get the pinfall.
Ring Of Honor held their Final Battle 2009 event from The Manhattan Center in New York City despite the blizzard conditions. The show was also ROH’s first live streaming pay event on their website. So, you were able to watch live if you weren’t able to be in attendance. Here are the results of the show. Claudio Castagnoli won a four way match which involved Kenny Omega, Colt Cabana, and Titus. The finish had Claudio pinning Titus. Travel problems kept the Necro/Deirious vs. The Embassy match from happening. Necro Butcher and Gypsy Joe were unable to make the show due to the snow. So, Delirious ran out taking on The Embassy by himself. The odds were not with him but then Pelle Primo arrived. He ended up being taken out by The Embassy. Bobby Dempsey arrived and he evened up the odds. However, The Embassy was able to fight back to defeat them pinning Dempsey. Eddie Kingston defeated Chris Hero when Kingston put on the elbowpad and nailed Hero with it. The Young Bucks defeated Kevin Steen and El Generico. Steen got on the mic afterwards talking about how he was going to be gone for a little while due to needing knee surgery. He talked of how he hasn’t been the performer that he used to be due to his knee while thanking ROH officials and wrestlers for his time in company. Then, he turned to Generico and said how he hated his guts. He then nailed him followed by a chair shot to the head. An upset Colt Cabana made his way to the ring and faced off with Steen. Steen kissed Cabana and left. Well, that was bizarre with Cabana but a big heel turn. Kenny King defeated Roderick Strong when King rolled him up along with a handful of tights to get the win. Rocky Romero defeated Alex Kozlov with him winning by submission. New ROH tag team champions as The Briscoe Brothers defeated The American Wolves to win the belts. Teddy Hart, Jack Evans, and Julius Smokes all arrived in the ring together after the lights went off and then came back on. They were set to be on the show but were delayed due to the blizzard. It ended up turning into a match between Hart and Evans. Evans got the win following a 450 splash as Smokes was the referee. The main event saw a 60 minute match between ROH champion Austin Aries and the returning Tyler Black. The match ended at the 60 minute time limit and resulted in Aries retaining the title. The fans there were just not into this match at all. The live reports are interesting to read as this match just never got to a good pace for the fans along with expectations. Add into the fact that there was a blizzard outside and that is going to make your mood worse. The Kings of Wrestling and The Briscoes came brawling through the crowd after the match concluded. The show ended with The Briscoes and Tyler Black in the ring. Tyler’s arm was raised and the crowd started booing. Tyler then got on the mic and ripped on the fans saying that if they didn’t like that performance, then they weren’t real wrestling fans. He put over how everyone in the company works hard to make it the best wrestling in the world and apologized for not getting things done for the fans. He said that there is always next time which just got the fans to boo more not wanting to see a next time. Yeah, the main event left a bad taste in a lot of fans mouths.
ESPN did a story recently which followed up on the chronic traumatic encephalopathy being in athletes. Basically, it is damage due to hits to the head. The Brain Injury Research Institute has been researching this in athletes including football players. I think that they have released some interesting information in the last couple of years. The article last week talked about the CTE found in Andrew "Test" Martin. The levels were said to be close to Alzheimer's patients that are much older than him. I think these studies are very interesting and it just goes to show that these guys need to tone down the style of shots to the head. I feel like it has toned down quite a bit in WWE. The product years ago was just very different though.
WWE has major PPV competition on the weekend of WrestleMania 26. UFC has moved their UFC 111 PPV to March 27 which is the night before WrestleMania.
Christy Hemme announced her retirement last week. You may remember that Christy injured her neck badly a while back and recently returned to the ring. She said that she was extremely nervous being back in the ring afraid of re-injuring it especially with how bad of a road that she had coming back from it. She just doesn’t want to be an in ring performer anymore. I don’t blame her a bit. She is still staying with the company but just won’t be in the ring.
That is it for another week. I want to wish all of you a very Merry Christmas and happy holidays. I hope that it is a very blessed one for you. Take care and God bless!!
January 4. Wrestling fans. Mark that date on your calendar. I know it already was marked but circle it even bigger. I’m not just talking about TNA’s three hour special but I’m also talking about WWE. This is going to be a VERY big and exciting night for all of us wrestling fans. Make plans to keep an eye on both shows. Hulk Hogan said in a media appearance that he was predicting that TNA does a 3.0 on January 4 head to head against Raw. Hogan is obviously pumping this show up big but no way does it do a 3.0. If it did that kind of rating, I would be stunned beyond belief. Realistically, I think it doing a high of a 1.5 would be a big deal. The show averages between a 1.0 and a 1.3. If they could keep their audience from Thursday and get them to follow to Monday night, I think that is a win. I think the highest that the show could do is a 2.0 and I really don’t see that happening. Of course, you never know but I’d love to see it do a really high number. I think Jeremy Borash said it best lately in an interview when asked about what kind of rating that they need to do for it to be a win for the company. He basically said that there is a lot of buzz among fans and that it is the talk of the wrestling world right now with their live head to head January 4 show. He said that they have already won just based on that. I tend to agree with that statement. Regardless, I am pumped to watch these shows on January 4. It should be the most fun that us wrestling fans have had in a very long time. TNA does have a billboard up in Times Square advertising the live Impact which features Hulk Hogan on it.
As I watched Raw tonight, my thought was are they trying to make a run to make this show even worse than last week? They sure tried!! LOL. That first hour was tough to watch. We opened the show with Johnny Damon in the ring as the guest host. He does his speech and then suddenly a tiger jumps over the rail being chased by a woman. I’m thinking what is this? Then, I finally got the joke or lack of one. A blonde woman chasing a tiger with a golf club. Yeah, a Tiger Woods spoof and it was really bad. When you spoof something and people aren’t sure what it is, that is a bad sign. Then, we got to the DX at Little People’s court. Oh, this was so bad. I love DX obviously but these segments were bad. Just not even funny. Thankfully, the court only went for two segments. I thought this was going to be painful if it continues all night. Basically, DX arrives in the empty arena. They get a message to go under the ring. They go under the ring complete with bad echo voice sound effects. This leads them to a hallway when they turn the lights on. Apparently, going under the ring leads you to another place in the building. They enter a room full of little people including the jury, judge, and officer. The judge was made to look like Judge Judy. Hornswoggle arrives and DX gets beaten down by the officer by a nightstick in the back of the leg when they won’t sit down. The video is shown of what they had done to Hornswoggle over the last couple of months. DX keeps putting their foot in their mouth as the court keeps going. They are guilty and Shawn goes off on a rant of how Hornswoggle would have to prove himself if he wanted in DX and they weren’t letting him in. They get all sorts of things thrown at them. DX runs out of the door and tries their hardest to keep the door shut from the group chasing them. They run out down the hall and come up from under the ring. Shawn then gets tripped and Triple H holds him from getting pulled under the ring. Yeah, this was bad. It was really bad. Big Show took Johnny Damon up on his promise that one of the Santas tonight would give a WWE superstar their wish for Christmas. Show called out Santa to close the show with The Bellas arriving with him. After hearing him talk for about fifteen seconds, I realized it was Chris Jericho’s voice. Show said that what he wanted for Christmas was for his best friend and partner, Chris Jericho to be back on Raw. Santa then granted the wish saying Jericho would be back next week. Hornswoggle then arrived in DX gear and exposed Jericho as Santa. Then, the little people surrounded Jericho in the ring. Jericho went after them and Show ended up side slamming one of them. They then grab Hornswoggle and surround him in the ring. Hornswoggle goes at them with a superkick and nails Jericho in the shin but Show picks him up for a chokeslam. DX arrives and makes the save. They take out JeriShow and then Triple H talks of wanting to beat up Hornswoggle. Shawn then says that he is starting to grow on him and Triple H says the same thing. They make a deal to let him be the DX mascot if he drops the lawsuit to which he agrees. Thankfully, the in ring action picked up at times. John Cena took on Jack Swagger. The match was competitive. Cena ended up winning with the STF for the submission. MVP took on WWE champion Sheamus. As MVP bounced off the ropes for his ‘ballin’ move, Sheamus nailed him with a kick. Then, Sheamus hit the celtic cross for the win. Cena arrived right afterwards reminding everyone that Sheamus still owed him a rematch and he wanted it right now. Sheamus teased facing him but then stepped out of the ring and left. Legacy took on the team of Kofi Kingston, Mark Henry, and Evan Bourne. Bourne got a lot of nice offense in when he got the hot tag. The finish had Orton getting tossed from the ring and then Kofi caught Dibiase with the trouble in paradise kick for the win. The team of Melina, Kelly Kelly, and Gail Kim defeated the team of Maryse, Jillian, and Alicia. Maryse picked up Kelly and then Melina dropkicked Kelly on top of Maryse to get the pinfall. Carlito was shown hitting on Eve backstage and Masters stepped in to stop it. This led to a match between Masters and Carlito with Eve at ringside with Masters. Masters won with the masterlock and then Eve walked in with mistletoe and Masters got a kiss. The Miz defeated Santino in a Santa costume following the skull crushing finale.
Other notes from Raw. Yeah, it is really time to retire the guest host idea. It’s time for WWE to quit trying to be a variety show and get back to wrestling. Isn’t it funny how WWE fails to mention about Jack Swagger’s “not going to lose anymore” gimmick especially when he is facing Cena who is now doing the same thing? So, Masters is going to call out his finisher before he hits it? Is this the 2009 version of Bad News Brown’s ghettoblaster finisher where he called it out before he tried to hit it on Hogan back in 1989? LOL. We had a lot of legends dressed up as Santas backstage. The Dusty suit of course had a polka dot on it. Vince McMahon was shown in a backstage segment with Damon where Damon asked him about the rumor of Bret Hart being a guest host. Vince said that it was Chrismas and he didn’t want to talk about it. That wasn’t the only thing with Damon backstage as he ended up getting a kiss from Mae Young as well. It has been a while since we’ve gotten a Mae cameo. Just when the tiger segment was so bad, we got a repeat performance of it later. Make it stop. One of the highlights of the show was definitely seeing the Tribute To The Troops music video again. Can January 4 get here any sooner?
Next week’s Raw will be guest hosted by Timbaland with a main event of Sheamus defending the WWE title against John Cena.
TNA held their Final Resolution PPV last night from the Impact Zone in Orlando, FL. Mike Tenay and Taz have a new spot to call the action from in the building as they are no longer on the floor. The show opened with The British Invasion retaining the TNA tag team titles against The Motor City Machineguns. Tara defeated ODB to win the knockouts title after turning the TKO attempt into a sunset flip for the win. Next was the Feast or Fired battle royal. Oh, how do I cover this match? Basically, you can keep grabbing briefcases with some containing title shots but one containing the end of your TNA career. In the match was Beer Money, Homicide, Sheik Abdul Bashir, Kevin Nash, Samoa Joe, Kiyoshi, Rob Terry, Cody Deaner, Jay Lethal, and Consequences Creed. Sheik got the first briefcase. The second was received by Rob Terry while the third went to Kevin Nash. Samoa Joe got the last briefcase. Here is what each found in their briefcase. Nash got a tag team title shot. Samoa Joe got a TNA championship match. Terry won a X-Division championship match. That meant that Sheik was fired. Matt Morgan, The Pope, Hernandez, and Suicide defeated Team 3D, Rhino, and Jesse Neal in the elimination match. Morgan was left at the end against Team 3D but was able to defeat both of them in a row giving his team the win. Bobby Lashley defeated Scott Steiner in the last man standing match. Steiner was injured early in the bout but fought through it. The finish had Steiner with a pipe. Kristal grabbed it from him and threw it to Lashley. Lashley hit a spear and then nailed him with the pipe to win the match. Abyss and Mick Foley defeated Raven and Stevie Richards in the Foley’s Funhouse Rules match. That means no rules. Abyss pinned Raven with the black hole slam to win the match. Next was the three degrees of pain match between Desmond Wolfe and Kurt Angle. The first fall was a regular pinfall match with Wolfe winning with the tower of London. The second fall was a submission match. After many submission counters, Angle locked in the anklelock for good. Wolfe finally had to tap out. The last fall involved the cage where you had to escape to win the match. It was the classic battle of one going over the top while the other tries to go out of the door. Angle was climbing over the top and Wolfe tried to beat him to the door. Angle reached the floor first and won the third fall and the overall match. Main event time with AJ Styles defending the TNA championship against Daniels. AJ retained the TNA title by landing the Styles clash off of the ropes to get the pinfall.
Ring Of Honor held their Final Battle 2009 event from The Manhattan Center in New York City despite the blizzard conditions. The show was also ROH’s first live streaming pay event on their website. So, you were able to watch live if you weren’t able to be in attendance. Here are the results of the show. Claudio Castagnoli won a four way match which involved Kenny Omega, Colt Cabana, and Titus. The finish had Claudio pinning Titus. Travel problems kept the Necro/Deirious vs. The Embassy match from happening. Necro Butcher and Gypsy Joe were unable to make the show due to the snow. So, Delirious ran out taking on The Embassy by himself. The odds were not with him but then Pelle Primo arrived. He ended up being taken out by The Embassy. Bobby Dempsey arrived and he evened up the odds. However, The Embassy was able to fight back to defeat them pinning Dempsey. Eddie Kingston defeated Chris Hero when Kingston put on the elbowpad and nailed Hero with it. The Young Bucks defeated Kevin Steen and El Generico. Steen got on the mic afterwards talking about how he was going to be gone for a little while due to needing knee surgery. He talked of how he hasn’t been the performer that he used to be due to his knee while thanking ROH officials and wrestlers for his time in company. Then, he turned to Generico and said how he hated his guts. He then nailed him followed by a chair shot to the head. An upset Colt Cabana made his way to the ring and faced off with Steen. Steen kissed Cabana and left. Well, that was bizarre with Cabana but a big heel turn. Kenny King defeated Roderick Strong when King rolled him up along with a handful of tights to get the win. Rocky Romero defeated Alex Kozlov with him winning by submission. New ROH tag team champions as The Briscoe Brothers defeated The American Wolves to win the belts. Teddy Hart, Jack Evans, and Julius Smokes all arrived in the ring together after the lights went off and then came back on. They were set to be on the show but were delayed due to the blizzard. It ended up turning into a match between Hart and Evans. Evans got the win following a 450 splash as Smokes was the referee. The main event saw a 60 minute match between ROH champion Austin Aries and the returning Tyler Black. The match ended at the 60 minute time limit and resulted in Aries retaining the title. The fans there were just not into this match at all. The live reports are interesting to read as this match just never got to a good pace for the fans along with expectations. Add into the fact that there was a blizzard outside and that is going to make your mood worse. The Kings of Wrestling and The Briscoes came brawling through the crowd after the match concluded. The show ended with The Briscoes and Tyler Black in the ring. Tyler’s arm was raised and the crowd started booing. Tyler then got on the mic and ripped on the fans saying that if they didn’t like that performance, then they weren’t real wrestling fans. He put over how everyone in the company works hard to make it the best wrestling in the world and apologized for not getting things done for the fans. He said that there is always next time which just got the fans to boo more not wanting to see a next time. Yeah, the main event left a bad taste in a lot of fans mouths.
ESPN did a story recently which followed up on the chronic traumatic encephalopathy being in athletes. Basically, it is damage due to hits to the head. The Brain Injury Research Institute has been researching this in athletes including football players. I think that they have released some interesting information in the last couple of years. The article last week talked about the CTE found in Andrew "Test" Martin. The levels were said to be close to Alzheimer's patients that are much older than him. I think these studies are very interesting and it just goes to show that these guys need to tone down the style of shots to the head. I feel like it has toned down quite a bit in WWE. The product years ago was just very different though.
WWE has major PPV competition on the weekend of WrestleMania 26. UFC has moved their UFC 111 PPV to March 27 which is the night before WrestleMania.
Christy Hemme announced her retirement last week. You may remember that Christy injured her neck badly a while back and recently returned to the ring. She said that she was extremely nervous being back in the ring afraid of re-injuring it especially with how bad of a road that she had coming back from it. She just doesn’t want to be an in ring performer anymore. I don’t blame her a bit. She is still staying with the company but just won’t be in the ring.
That is it for another week. I want to wish all of you a very Merry Christmas and happy holidays. I hope that it is a very blessed one for you. Take care and God bless!!
WWE Tribute To The Troops Recap - December 21, 2009
WWE aired their Tribute To The Troops 2009 show on Saturday night on NBC and here is the recap of it. As I always say, you’re not going to get any criticism from me on booking, matches, or anything. That isn’t what this show is about. This show is all about entertaining our great troops over in the Middle East and giving them a break. The show was incredibly produced as it always is with the many video packages set to a lot of various music. I always look forward to seeing the music video at the end cause it is a tremendous highlight package. I’m also curious every year as to what song that they will pick to close it with this year’s video being set to Bon Jovi’s “Superman”. Great, great, great music video tribute. I really liked the John Cena video package on the many trips that he had made on the Tribute To The Troops shows. It was set to Nickelback’s “Never Gonna Be Alone”. There was another great video package as well showing all the superstars taking part in a lot of military activity with the troops. That was fun. As far as in ring action, the main event had John Cena taking on Chris Jericho. I can’t remember this happening in years past with timing but WWE had to explain why John Cena and John Morrison were still holding their championships on the show. They explained that the show was recorded earlier in the month along witn putting a graphic on the screen. Both stars lost those titles at the TLC PPV. Crowd was very much behind Cena in his match. The finish had Jericho going for a high crossed body. He landed it but Cena rolled through and picked up Jericho straight into an attitude adjustment for the win. Rey Mysterio and Mark Henry defeated Carlito and CM Punk. Rey hit a double 619 on to Carlito and Punk. Rey hit the springboard splash while Henry landed the world’s strongest slam. Each of them made the pin at the same time on Punk and Carlito. The Miz defeated John Morrison in what was billed as a champion vs. champion match. Miz avoided the starship pain but Morrison landed on his feet. Miz then knocked down Morrison and put his feet on the ropes to help get the pinfall win on Morrison. In another moment on the show, R Truth came out dressed as Santa Claus. He was a rapping Santa Claus and then he introduced the divas. Kelly, Layla, Alicia, and The Bellas all made their way to the ring handing out gifts and kisses to the soldiers. Speaking of the divas, Eve was the ring announcer for the show. Fun show and it’s just a bummer that it is only one hour now since being moved over to NBC. I want to say a thank you to all of WWE whether it is the talent, crew, and just everyone involved that take time out to go do that show. Not even just this year but I’m talking about this year and all the years. It was great to see the troops having fun and the line of the show was to this one soldier that was interviewed. He talked of his kids saying that he “does this job so that his kids don’t have to”. He said that with tears in his eyes and I thought that summed it all up. Incredible bravery. Merry Christmas to all of our troops overseas and praying that they all stay safe.
If you were watching Tribute To The Troops, the first thing you may have noticed is that WWE has done some replacing to their opening. Hulk Hogan is out of it including video and his voice. He was replaced by Ted Dibiase. Also, Mick Foley being thrown off of the cell has also been taken out. Yeah, I think WWE is paying attention.
If you were watching Tribute To The Troops, the first thing you may have noticed is that WWE has done some replacing to their opening. Hulk Hogan is out of it including video and his voice. He was replaced by Ted Dibiase. Also, Mick Foley being thrown off of the cell has also been taken out. Yeah, I think WWE is paying attention.
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
WWE Slammy Awards, TLC PPV Results, TNA Final Resolution Preview, ROH Recap, & More - December 16, 2009
Welcome to the “wow, was that one boring and bad three hours of Raw” edition of The Wrestling List. I have been very entertained listening to audio shows this week with people just ripping that Raw show apart cause it really was bad. You know me, I’m optimistic but this was bad. LOL. First, let’s start with the PPV results from Sunday night.
WWE held their TLC PPV Sunday night from San Antonio, Texas. The dark match before the show was CM Punk and R Truth. That concerns me having Punk on the dark match. My concerns got worse after watching Raw. Truth ended up pinning Punk. The PPV started and Christian defeated Shelton Benjamin in the ladder match to retain the ECW title. Christian was cut open pretty badly during the match at one point and the match was stopped so officials could stop the bleeding. You may be thinking, what is that about? Well, WWE is really pushing that PG rating and they do not do blood anymore. So, they are going to do what they can to prevent it. That is why there was no blood probably for the first time ever in the Cell matches lately. Cena was cut open accidentally a few months ago and refs were down there immediately cleaning him up while the cameras tried to stay off of it. Drew McIntyre defeated John Morrison to win the Intercontinental title when he won with the DDT for the win. Vince McMahon was shown backstage congratulating Drew. Michelle McCool defeated Mickie James to retain the Women's championship when Michelle pinned her with a big boot. Next was the tables match for the WWE title. When I saw where this match was on the card, my first thought was that they might do the title change and then do what Cena teased a few weeks ago and have Cena finish the show by winning the title back in a rematch. So, Cena defends the WWE title against Sheamus. The finish had Cena holding Sheamus up on the turnbuckle looking to hit the adjustment through the table. Sheamus got out of it but Cena then tried a superplex. Sheamus countered and shoved Cena off the turnbuckle and through the table. Yep, new WWE champion, Sheamus. Guess what? No rematch though. I thought for sure that was what they were going to do but didn't. Next was the World title chairs match with Undertaker defending against Batista. Yeah, the finish to this was weak. The finish had Batista hitting a low blow on Taker and then nailed him with the chair. Batista gets the pinfall and wins the World title. Well, for a moment. Teddy Long arrives and declares that even though chairs are able to be used in this match, an obvious low blow is not legal. So, he restarts the match. Batista charged at Undertaker but Undertaker put his foot up into the chair. Batista then gets nailed again with the chair. Undertaker picks up Batista for the tombstone and wins the match. Yeah, I thought they booked this match lame as far as the finish. So, you can use brutality of chairs but that is off limits. Just kind of lame to me. Next was the match with Randy Orton and Kofi Kingston. The finish had Kofi going for the trouble in paradise but Orton countered into the RKO. Orton gets the pinfall. The show finished with the TLC match between DX and JeriShow. Sounds like this was a really good match. The finish had Shawn nailing superkicks and then DX shoved the ladder over sending Big Show to the floor. Triple H then held the ladder so Shawn could climb it for the win. DX wins the tag team titles.
Oh, where do I start with this bad edition of Raw? Let us not forget that this was a three hour Slammy Award special. How could this show be so bad? There are some nights where I’ll watch the show and think maybe I’m the only one that thought this show was bad. Monday night, I knew that I wasn’t the only one that didn’t like the show. It just didn’t make any sense all around. The matches were strange, the finishes were bizarre, and the Slammy stuff was just mostly annoying. What are you thinking WWE? This was a bad show. I wouldn’t even call it bad. Last night, the adjective that popped into my head was annoying. This was an annoying show. There was a really funny and ironic segment in this show that summed it up. Vince McMahon and Dennis Miller are on the stage. Vince was making comments and the crowd was not reacting at all. They really weren’t reacting to Miller either. Vince then asks the crowd if “they passed away before the show” and ripped on the crowd for being bad. They’re not a bad crowd. They got a bad show. Here is one of my points too. We had three hours of TV. Yet, we were having these matches that were barely going three minutes. I couldn’t believe that they had Punk and Cena go so short. They had such a good match the last time and I was looking forward to the follow up. Then, Punk basically gets squashed and it was the most annoyed that I’ve felt over a match finish in a long time. On Sunday night, Punk is wrestling dark matches and Monday night he was getting squashed. Anyway, let’s go into the recap of events. Dennis Miller was guest host. Yeah, this just didn’t work for me. The Superstar Of The Year award was decided by a tournament which should have been a lot more fun than it was. The four in it were Undertaker, CM Punk, John Cena, and Randy Orton. Cena took on Punk first and Punk controlled the very beginning. Suddenly, Cena hooks the STF and Punk gets to the ropes. Then, Cena pulls Punk back to the middle and taps out. Punk gets squashed. Cena got on the mic and apologized for letting anyone down Sunday night. He said that his road to WrestleMania began now and was saying that he would not lose another match until he won back the WWE title. Undertaker faces Randy Orton later on and the two ended up on the floor. Legacy arrived and distracted Taker. Taker kept being tempted to go after them. He then turns into a RKO on the floor. Orton then rolls into the ring and beats the count. After the match, all of Legacy attacked Undertaker. He took them all out including laying out Orton with a chokeslam. That gets us to the tournament final. Cena vs. Orton. There was a moment that made no sense to me. Orton ends up nailing his DDT off the apron on to the floor. Then, he PICKS UP Cena and rolls him in the ring. From a logic standpoint, I’m thinking that the count is at five, why would you pick the guy up and put him in the ring? Get the countout win like you did earlier!! LOL. This booking just made no sense. Cena made his comeback and won with the adjustment. Then, Sheamus walked out and faced off with him from the stage. Then, we had these other matches on the show that barely got any kind of time. DX took on JeriShow after they demanded their rematch for tonight. The match barely happened. As the match started, Shawn got down behind the referee. Triple H shoved the referee who fell over Shawn and then the ref called for the DQ. The story was that DX had gotten disqualified and now Jericho’s only chance at the tag team titles was out the door. Speaking of out of the door, Jericho was taken by a lot of the talent from the ring and kicked out of the building sending him back to Smackdown. Christian, Kane, and Khali teamed together to defeated the team of Regal, Kozlov, and Jackson. Kane and Khali are suddenly friends while it is clear that Kozlov’s push is forever gone as he got pinned by a Khali chop. Kofi Kingston is set to take on Cody Rhodes. The match goes on and then Dibiase interferes. Evan Bourne makes the save. Dennis Miller then declares it a tag team match. Cody wins with the crossrhodes on Bourne for the win. Then, we have the seven on seven divas tag team match which was basically a one on one match. Mickie James and Rosa went at it with Mickie winning with a DDT. It was over quick. We had Miz, McIntyre, and Ryder taking on Morrison, Tatsu, and Mark Henry. Tatsu got the win when he pinned Ryder. Ok, the Slammy Awards portion. Yawn for the most part. Tag Team of the Year was JeriShow which was not much of a surprise and deservedly so. They beat out DX, The Hart Dynasty, and Legacy. Breakout Star of the Year goes to Sheamus as he won over Tatsu, McIntyre, and Abraham Washington. Yeah, it would have been ridiculous if anyone else had won it considering he is WWE champion. Diva of the Year went to Maria which was fan voted. Surprised about that. During her speech, she was interrupted by Batista saying that he should be awarded the screwjob of the year award for what happened at TLC. Yes, they spoofed the Taylor Swift/Kanye West thing months after it happened. It didn’t work at all with Batista being the one to do it. It just looked goofy. Ok, here comes a good moment in the show. Match of the Year presented by Triple H. Shawn Michaels vs. The Undertaker (WrestleMania 25) wins over Team Raw vs. Team Smackdown (Bragging Rights), Hardy vs. Edge ladder match and Punk cashing in the MITB (Extreme Rules), Cena vs. Orton I Quit match (Breaking Point). Yeah, this was the easiest decision ever on that one. Shawn accepts the award with Triple H saying that he had the unfortunate task of trying to follow that match and couldn’t. Shawn lays out the challenge to Undertaker for WrestleMania 26 saying that he knows he can beat Undertaker. So, there is the tease. Speaking of teases, let’s get right to the other one. Dennis Miller and Vince McMahon are on stage together and Vince presents the Raw co-host of the year category with Bob Barker winning over Shaq, The Osbournes, and Seth Green. Vince asks about who people would like to see as a future guest host. Dennis Miller brings up the name Bret Hart. Vince says the same old line of the last time Bret was there, Bret screwed Bret. Actually, the last time that Bret was there was for the Hall Of Fame but anyway. J Miller asked the fans what they thought and there were cheers. Vince walked off. It sure does look like we may be seeing Bret Hart in the near future on WWE TV. They went way too far with that tease for it not to happen. The Shocker of the Year award went to Jeff Hardy being retired by CM Punk which won over Sheamus putting Cuban through a table, Batista turning on Rey, and Orton DDT’ing Stephanie. Extreme Moment of the Year went to Jeff Hardy’s dive off of the ladder through the table on Punk which won over Triple H’s home invasion of Orton, Kofi’s dive on to Orton on the table at MSG, and Show throwing Cena through the light. Matt Hardy accepted the award. Carlito eventually nailed Matt and then went into a pretty funny acceptance speech. Masters hooks the masterlock from behind on Carlito and then Matt punches Carlito. We’re not done though. Here comes the really bad stuff. The oily dancing guy, Abraham Washington, and Tony Atlas present the Oh My Moment of the Year. Wow, this was bad. It was really bad. It had Atlas doing his laugh through the whole segment laughing at Johnson. Michael Cole getting sick on Jericho won over Masters doing his pectoral muscle dance, Shawn Michaels superkicking the little girl, and Santino’s Thanksgiving where he kept getting pies in the face except for the one he got on Vickie. Cole runs up the ramp like he just won an academy award and jumps all over Johnson. I am not making this up. LOL. Then, he takes some little shots at JR which I’m sure he was told to say. This segment here was the final straw on this show with just how horrible that it was.
Other notes from Raw. I am going to say this right now. If Bret Hart ends up being the guest host on January 4, you cannot tell me that they aren’t paying attention to TNA’s live three hour Impact. Yeah, they would just coincidentally put Bret on that night. Remember last week when they said that it was Jericho’s last match on Raw? Then, we get to this week and he walks out to get the first award. I get tired of the whole last match on Raw thing cause all three brands are on Raw all the time. How nasty looking was that crossrhodes by Cody on Bourne? Wow, that Abraham Washington segment was terrible. Is that gimmick getting anywhere on ECW? I think that segment would fit into that word I said previously which was annoying. Why didn’t Undertaker get a trophy too for being a part of the WrestleMania 25 match? LOL. I thought that would have been cool to have them both come out to accept it and face off. Then, you still could have had Shawn set up the challenge. Wasn’t it strange to see some of the guys that were escorting Jericho out? It isn’t like they were all Raw guys. Why are ECW guys kicking him out? LOL. If you’re wondering what Striker’s mistake was on commentary that he didn’t want to say was, he mentioned on the TLC PPV that the Intercontinental title hadn’t changed hands in 20 years in Texas. He really looked silly when the title had changed hands at WrestleMania this year in Houston. Have you noticed that WWE is starting to rotate the same “did you know” stats? Ok, I laughed a lot at the DX Christmas segment. That was funny. Triple H accidentally taking out Shawn’s built ladder match set was hilarious especially with the uh oh look on Triple H’s face. They were playing off of the similar segment last year where Shawn couldn’t get the Elimination Chamber set together for his kids in time for Christmas. This year had the point of Shawn saying that he had finished it 11 days early. So, Triple H looks to calm Shawn down and sits him down in the chair in a DX snuggie (!!!!) to watch a DVD. Shawn spits out his drink when he realizes that the match is of Triple H beating up Shawn. Hornswoggle shows up giving them gift cards to the WWE shop website. He plugs his own DX merchandise and they go for him. Hornswoggle escapes and Triple H is accidentally beating up Shawn in the snuggie instead of Hornswoggle. Triple H ran when he realized what he had done. This was a funny segment and much funnier than the one from last week.
Johnny Damon will be the guest host on next week’s Raw.
If there is a WWE show that you need to watch every year, it is the Tribute To The Troops this Saturday on NBC. The show was recently recorded from over in the Middle East with the superstars entertaining and meeting the troops. The special is always amazingly produced with matches and great segments set to music. This is a show that you should go out of your way to watch whether it is live or recording to watch it later. It is incredible. Tribute To The Troops airs on Saturday at 8pm central time on NBC.
WWE released some of their most recent PPV buy numbers and they did see increases. The Breaking Point buys was down from last year's Unforgiven PPV. 225,000 buys last year and the buys this year was around 200,000. The Cell PPV replaced No Mercy and did more buys than last year with this year getting 300,000 buys compared with 261,000 for No Mercy last year. Bragging Rights did 200,000 buys which was up from the Cyber Sunday PPV last year that it replaced which did 153,000 buys.
This is over a week old now but here are the results of last week’s Ring Of Honor on HDNet show. Jim Cornette opened the show announcing that there would be a Pick Six Contender Series. He picked out the top twelve competitors in ROH to face each other in matches. The top six would then get the opportunity at the title and also get a $2500 bonus from HDNet. If you lose, you’re out of the title picture. He announces the six matches which are Delirious vs. Kenny King, Colt Cabana vs. Claudio Castagnoli, Roderick Strong vs. Davey Richards, Sonjay Dutt vs. the returning Tyler Black, Mark Briscoe vs. Jay Briscoe, and Kenny Omega against Chris Hero. These matches will take place over future episodes. Cornette took notice that Austin Aries didn’t bother showing up at the meeting but then Aries arrived. Aries ripped on Cornette and then Cornette fired back saying that this tournament was taking place because he was tired of Aries hand picking easy opponents to defeat. Aries stood up to Cornette telling him that he would face anyone of Cornette’s choosing in the main event. Cornette took him up on it and put him in the ring with Kenny Omega, Davey Richards, and Roderick Strong in a four way match for the ROH title. That match took place which was a fun one. Strong and Richards had an intense face off and went at it for a bit. Strong went to pin Richards after hitting a powerbomb. Then, Aries snuck in and nailed Strong. Aries pinned Richards and retains the ROH title. As the show was about to go off the air, Tyler Black appeared up on the ramp making sure that Aries knew that he was back. In other action, The Briscoes defeated El Generico and Kevin Steen in a number one contenders match for the tag team titles. This was a really fun one with a lot of nasty moves. Jay hit the Jaydriller on Steen leaving Mark to pin Steen for the win. There was a segment where Steve Corino talked about coming back to Ring Of Honor since they now had national TV and he wants to be on TV. LOL. Fun show.
TNA holds their Final Resolution PPV on Sunday night and here is the lineup. AJ Styles defends the TNA title against Daniels. Desmond Wolfe takes on Kurt Angle in the three degrees of pain match. Last man standing match with Bobby Lashley taking on Scott Steiner. Team 3D, Rhino, and Jesse Neal takes on Matt Morgan, Hernandez, Suicide, and Pope in an elimination match. In a feast or fired match, the loser will be fired from the company. ODB defends the knockouts title against Tara.
That is it for this week. Take care and God bless!!
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