Welcome to the “I'm waiting to see what WWE's reaction is to the Hulk Hogan/Dixie Carter/TNA announcement of a live three hour Impact going head to head against a live Raw” edition of The Wrestling List. A couple of big news items this week. One really sad while the other is very exciting.
The first bit of news is that Umaga passed away on Friday. Eddie “Umaga” Fatu was 36. It appears that he passed away due to a heart attack. He of course worked for WWE for a while but was released last year after a couple of wellness policy violations. He recently worked on the Hulkamania tour in Australia and had just recently returned home from the tour. No word on any kind of cause but obviously sad news. Umaga became a major player in WWE a couple of years ago including a great last man standing match with John Cena at The Royal Rumble. It was a fun match that they had and that is his best match in my opinion. Afa Anoai has put out this statement on his passing: On behalf of my family, the Anoa'i and Fatu family, we are devastated and shocked by the loss of our Eki. Our son, nephew, brother, cousin, husband, father. Our hearts are broken, and words can't express what each of us are feeling. It is so comforting to know how loved Eki is by his family, peers, friends, and most of all his fans. When I received that a.m. phone call that my nephew was in the hospital, I dug deep and prayed and cried and begged for a miracle. When we lost Eki, I knew it was God's will, and that he is with my sister, his mother, who passed just a year ago. We are making our plans now for our farewell to Eki, but I wanted to take this time to thank everyone for all of the thousands of posts, emails, letters, and cards. Although I have not been able to bring myself to answer them personally, your kindness does not go unnoticed. I want to especially thank our WWE family and Stephanie McMahon for everything, and her phone call was very comforting to me in my time of sorrow. God bless each and every one of you, and I've said it a hundred times, the best people in the world are our wrestling people. You'll never find a more dedicated group of people. Be safe and be healthy, and love one another. God bless, Afa the Wild Samoan
"Pops"
My thoughts and prayers go out to his family as they have already been battling tough times even before this.
Now, the exciting news. Hulk Hogan and Dixie Carter were at The Ultimate Fighter finale and were set to make an announcement concerning TNA. Hulk Hogan was interviewed by Joe Rogan while Carter looked on. Well, their big news was that TNA will have a special live three hour Impact on Monday, January 4 from 7pm to 10pm central time. Yes, that will go head to head with Raw. So, a battle between wrestling companies will happen with two live shows going head to head for the first time in almost ten years. Dixie Carter said that they had now fired the first shot at WWE. There is talk that this show will feature the first TV appearance by Hulk Hogan and I expect there to be more surprises. The show will be broadcast from the Impact Zone at Universal Studios, FL. They need to book this show full out going head to head. Have some big matches and do some good stuff. Keep Russo under control with his writing obviously and not do anything insane. LOL. How will this show do head to head? Honestly, I can see the show doing a good rating but I don’t expect it to take a chunk of the WWE audience. I think the WWE audience will probably remain mostly the same. TNA usually averages around a 1.1 or 1.2 with Impact on Thursdays. So, if they could jump that rating at all, that would be a win. My expectations would be maybe a 1.5. Regardless, getting that kind of promotion for the special on such a big show like a UFC show is big for them. Regardless of what the rating is, this is big for TNA. I expect them to start taking chances which is what they need to do. This is a gutsy move to go live head to head on that Monday night and I give them all the credit for going for it. That will be an exciting night for wrestling fans to have choices again. TNA has to make a big splash with this show and use the attention that Hogan is going to bring that night and showcase the other amazing talent that they have. What I am interested in seeing is what WWE does to react to this. Will they build up Raw on that date or just not care and go about normal business? If they build up that show, I think it shows that they at least care enough about this TNA special to have a bigger show. That is what I’m waiting on with how WWE reacts. What am I going to do? My plan is to watch the live Impact and then watch Raw afterwards. I just really feel that TNA is going to go big with this show and put together something big. I think a lot of people will channel change between the two like the old days of the Monday Night Wars between WWF and WCW. I never did that though. I watched one and then would watch the other show afterwards. Then, Bischoff would ruin shows for me by announcing Raw results. Hated that!! LOL. I may have to go old school Wrestling List format for that night. That would be fun.
Tonight’s Raw was in Dallas and hosted by Mark Cuban. I thought WWE did a good job with Cuban and he seemed to settle into the role easily. Here are the happenings of the show. He opened the show talking about his plan for the show and also that he would be sitting at ringside just like he does for NBA games. So, he sat there with several of the Dallas Mavericks players. The show opened with John Cena taking on Carlito. As Cena was about to hit the five knuckle shuffle, Sheamus made his way on to the ramp. Cuban stood in the middle of the aisle making sure Sheamus wouldn’t get to the ring. Cena ended up pinning Carlito following the attitude adjustment. Cena and Sheamus would have a faceoff later in the show with Cuban asking them questions. Sheamus would talk a lot and then Cena would say no comment in rebuttal. Cena did a lot of talking to end it though talking about all of his challenges in the last seven years. The two ended up throwing furniture (imagine that!!) and then Sheamus shoved Cuban down. As Cena turned to Cuban, he caught a boot from Sheamus. Cuban got back up and faced off with Sheamus. Cuban shoved him down and I got really worried at this point of what WWE was doing. Sheamus got back up and then gave him a knee to the stomach. Then, he put Cuban through the table. The Mavericks players in attendance jumped over the barricade and slowly got involved. Sheamus walked off. The show ended with Cena getting to his feet and staring off with Sheamus who was on the ramp. DX faced Chris Jericho in the handicap match. Jericho shoved Triple H into the referee knocking him down. Big Show arrived and headbutted Shawn to the mat. Triple H went for a chair and nailed Show in the back. Show then punched the chair. JeriShow then took out DX from there. Show put them in between a ladder on the mat and Jericho nailed it with a chair a couple of times. Jericho then climbed the ladder as he and Show stood over the beaten DX. Other happenings had more with Mark Cuban. Legacy would arrive with Orton demanding that Cuban wave his no title match stipulation which Cuban didn’t do. They played off of the RKO at Survivor Series 2003 that Orton hit on Cuban with Legacy making threats. Dibiase and Rhodes ended up being put in a match against Bourne and Primo. Dibiase won with the dreamstreet. Cuban also had announced that Orton would take on Kofi Kingston and that he would be the special referee. The match finish had Orton going for the RKO and then Kofi countered it into a backslide. Cuban then big time fast counted giving Kofi the win. The whole storyline was that now Cuban had gotten even for the attack six years ago. Also, Kofi and Orton were even at 1-1 in their series of matches. Their deciding match will be at TLC on Sunday. The Miz defeated Mark Henry to retain the US title. Miz nailed Henry into the steps at one point. Miz was caught off of the turnbuckle in the finish of the match. Henry’s slam was counted into a DDT and Miz won cleanly. Wow. Maryse faced Gail Kim in a match which had Maryse winning when she kicked Gail off of the turnbuckle. Maryse used the ropes to help get the win. After the match, she went to special guest ring announcer Kelly Kelly to get her to announce her as the future Divas champion. They shoved and then Maryse was about to get on the attack. Melina ran down and Maryse took off. In one of those “hmm, ok” kind of matches, Hornswoggle teamed with Eve to take on Chavo and Jillian. The finish had Eve pinning Jillian. Chavo attacked Hornswoggle after the bell throwing him to the mat. Eve stood in front of him to prevent anything else from happening. Chris Masters then jumped in the ring to stand toe to toe with Chavo saying that he would have to go through him to get to Eve. Masters put him in the masterlock and then slammed him. He did the dancing pectorals again which Eve apparently liked. Yeah, it was a bizarre segment. So, they are going to try and push Masters as a face?? Well, they’ve tried everything else. WWE might as well see if this works.
Other notes from Raw. Wow, already getting chills just watching that Tribute To The Troops show promo that aired tonight. Always an incredible show. Anyone else find it funny that they made sure to announce that Cuban was the creator of HDNet which is the network that has Ring Of Honor programming. I liked a lot of the NBA references by Legacy including several things that I had forgotten about. The DX and Hornswoggle stuff was just kind of there for me this week. It just wasn’t as funny. Glad that Big Show is back to the black tights instead of the blue. Not sure what to make of the Miz/Henry finish. It sure helped Miz out for sure. Not sure if it helped Henry though. Henry’s stay on Raw just hasn’t been very good so far. He was much better when they just had his character as a monster on ECW. I was watching Eve’s offense and she has an interesting dropkick with how she lands it. Wow, no tribute to Umaga graphic by WWE. They have mentioned him on the website so it isn’t like they have completely ignored it. So, overall the show was all right for me. There were times where I wondered if WWE was going to build strong to the PPV or not. The last 30 minutes picked up with that.
I continue to enjoy watching TNA Impact. I watched the show again last week. The Kurt Angle/Desmond Wolfe feud along with the AJ/Daniels feud would be enough to get me to tune in. Both have been fun to watch so far. Wolfe opened the show saying how he hadn’t lost to Angle cause Angle beat him with an illegal submission hold. He also added that a beating required a physical and mental one and that he was winning that war. Wolfe talked of their match at Final Resolution which will be two out of three falls. First fall is pinfall. Second fall is submission. Third fall is escape the cage. Angle arrived and Wolfe locked himself in the cage. Angle then climbed over the cage and hammered on Wolfe. Wolfe then got brass knucks out and nailed Angle with them. Later, Angle was seen talking to Foley wanting a match but Foley tried to use it to bargain with Angle on his Hogan knowledge. The main event had Angle in a different scenario. Foley announced that Angle would face the team of Dr. Stevie and Raven. Foley said that he knew that both sides had done him wrong but that at least someone would get hurt out of it. Stevie was knocked from the ring and went up the ramp with Daffney holding his arm. Raven nailed Angle but Angle ended up winning with the anklelock. Up on the ramp, Stevie got hit with a black hole slam on the stage by Abyss. Wolfe then hit the ring again and laid out Angle. As far as AJ and Daniels goes, AJ was at ringside scouting Daniels during his match with Abyss. Daniels had a conversation with the Beautiful People earlier in the night. Daniels was about to get chokeslammed and then pointed to the screen. The female announcer linked to Abyss was being pushed around by the Beautiful People backstage. That distracted Abyss and then Daniels got the win. Daniels called AJ in the ring to battle it out. As AJ was about to get in there, the mystery man once again attacked AJ. Before the match, AJ made another plea to Sting to return his and everyone’s phone calls cause everyone was worried about him. They showed Mike Tenay’s sitdown interview with Dixie Carter about TNA’s future. Nothing really big out of this other than to say that her and Hogan would be working together on the company to make it better. She talked of how she wanted everyone to work as a team to succeed. When asked about Jeff Jarrett, she said that he had been sent home as a result of a personal situation and that was all she was going to say. Now, they showed Foley later calling Jarrett at home wanting answers about Hogan. Jarrett ripped on Foley and TNA. Later, it was announced that Foley would be taking the cameras to Nashville next week to interview Jarrett. I’m really interested to see where TNA is going with their storylines from here as it sure does scream that we’re going to be seeing more shoot style storylines. Foley continued to try and get answers from various guys including Kevin Nash about what Hogan was up to. Everyone kept saying that Hogan was there to make the company better. In other action, Alex Shelley defeated Doug Williams after hitting sliced bread for the win. The Pope tried to get Suicide to be his partner at Final Resolution which included Hernandez and Morgan already. Suicide defeated Homicide following a backslide. Homicide attacked him after the match and then Pope ran in for the save. Pope offered a handshake but then Suicide walked off. Pope wrestled Jesse Neal later on with Pope getting the win. Neal attacked Pope after the match and then the lights went out. Lights come back on and Suicide saves Pope to even them up for the night. Team 3D and Rhino hit the ring but then so did Hernandez and Morgan. Team 3D and crew ended up leaving. ODB interviewed Tara on her show where ODB basically accused Tara of wanting to just waltz in and take over cause she is a former WWE diva. Tara said that she gave up her two year contract in WWE to come there cause she respected the division so much and was tired of being a joke in WWE while being a Barbie doll trainer. ODB ended up attacking her as the segment was going. Beer Money ended up losing to Eric Young and Kevin Nash. Storm’s attempt at a superkick was stopped by Nash from the outside. Young then hit Roode low and nailed a piledriver for the win. Foley arrived after the match to talk to Nash about Hogan. Nash did more of the teasing stuff. I thought the best comment was Nash telling him to just call Hogan. Foley said he would and asked for Hogan’s number. Nash said that he had it but Hogan asked him not to give it to Foley. I thought that was funny. Lashley and Kristal talked about Scott Steiner to build to their match. I thought it was kind of silly when Lashley started the in ring promo by saying I have nothing to say about Steiner. Ok, why are you here then? LOL. Hamada defeated Sarita in the knockouts match. I was really impressed with Sarita as it was the first time that I’ve seen her.
Last week's Ring Of Honor on HDNet opened with a match between Eddie Kingston and Claudio Castagnoli. Chris Hero watched the match from the aisle. The whole story of the match was Kingston wanting to be like Hero. The finish had Eddie getting a chair but it was taken away by the ref. Kingston then reached into his tights and had one of Hero's loaded elbow pads. He nailed Claudio with it and got the pin. Hero was shown being very frustrated up on the ramp. Next was The Briscoes taking on The Dark City Fight Club. I, of course, know of The Briscoes and have seen some of their incredible matches over the years in ROH. The other team was new to me. I really enjoy watching The Briscoes cause they are so fast paced. I picked up on something so small as Jay whipping his opponent to the ropes and Jay was already in the air with the dropkick before the opponent was on his way back. Then, it landed perfect. The finish of the match had them all fighting on the floor and chairs started getting thrown. The ref lost control and rang the bell. Wrestlers and officials made their way out to try and separate the teams but little progress was made. Nice tag team brawl on the floor. The ROH on HDNet debut of The Set was next as they took on Kevin Steen and El Generico. I loved the finish of this match. The little guy jumped off the top rope and was caught in mid air by Steen. Steen then LAUNCHES him up in the air and then just slams him. It was one of those moves that we often joke about with how bigger guys must enjoy wrestling little guys cause of the ability to launch them like that. LOL. They then hit the tag team finish of the swanton and frog splash for the win for Steen and Generico. The main event finished the show with ROH champion Austin Aries taking on Colt Cabana in a non title match. Cabana hooked an inverted sharpshooter and then King made his way to the ring to interfere. Albright ran out right behind to keep him from the ring. As the ref was distracted, Aries tapped out. Titus made his way to the ring but Cabana knocked him off of the turnbuckle. Aries then took over from there and won with a submission victory.
WWE is back home after touring overeas for the Tribute To The Troops show last week. The show will air on Saturday, Dec. 19 at 8pm central time on NBC. This is such a great show every year. Seeing the WWE superstars getting to mingle with our superstars, the troops is just incredible to see every year. It is such a pleasure to watch the troops get to just take a break and be entertained for a little while by the WWE show. One of my favorite shows to watch every year and WWE does an amazing job producing it.
Mickie James has indeed signed a recording contract with Nashville producer, Kent Wells. The plan for release for her debut album is the spring of next year. Good for Mickie. I wish her all the best with it for sure.
The TLC PPV is this Sunday coming to you live from San Antonio. Here is the lineup. John Cena defends the WWE title against Sheamus in a tables match. The Undertaker defends the World title against Batista in a chair match. Chris Jericho and Big Show defend the tag team titles against DX in a TLC match. ECW champion Christian takes on Shelton Benjamin in a ladder match. John Morrison defends the Intercontinental title against Drew McIntyre. Kofi Kingston takes on Randy Orton. This looks like a solid show on paper. I expect DX and JeriShow to be a wild one. I have hopes for the Christian/Shelton ladder match. It should be good if WWE gives it a decent amount of time. It will be interesting to see what WWE does with Sheamus in this main event as this is easily the highest profile match for him to date. Like I said, I think it will be a solid show all around.
That is it for this week. Have a great week!! Take care and God bless!!
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.