WWE Raw, Royal Rumble Preview, TNA vs. Impact Zone, Montreal Revisited AGAIN....By TNA - January 25, 2010

Welcome to the “if TNA is trying to do something different than WWE, why are they recreating the Montreal match finish down to the very last detail?” edtion of The Wrestling List. Wow, if you saw Impact this past Thursday, it just left me frustrated thinking why are they recreating this too? It was 1997…...again…in a different company. LOL.

First, let’s get into tonight’s WWE Raw. Really enjoyed tonight’s show. Solid booking, solid matches. There really wasn’t anything on it that I disliked. The show was guest hosted by Dule Hill. He was set to be joined by his co-star on Psych, James Dulay, but the story on his appendectomy was true. That was the real reason that he wasn’t on the show tonight. So, Hill was left on his own and was one of the better guest hosts. He was funny, didn’t stumble at all, and was entertaining. Good solid performance out of him tonight. The big news of the show was the Vince McMahon segment in the middle of the show. Vince talked about selling Bret down the river to WCW and how the fans forgot about him. Vince went into the crowd asking fans to give him one good reason on why he should bring Bret back. Vince eventually said that there was no good reason to bring him back and that Bret would not be returning to WWE. John Cena made his way to the ring and confronted Vince. Not the usual Cena entrance either as he walked straight to the ring with a game face on. Cena said that he wasn’t there to change Vince’s mind but said he was tired of the treatment of the legends that had helped Vince build the company to where it is today mentioning Bret and the treatment of Piper at MSG. Cena mentioned that Vince has put an expiration date on all of them for when they can’t make him any money anymore or help his ego. He pointed out how Vince wants the fans’ last memory of Bret to be of Vince kicking him a few weeks ago. Cena said for Vince to invite Bret to Raw next week or show that Cena is right about him but promised that when his own expiration date had passed that he would be knocking Vince out of his wheelchair on Vince’s 90th birthday. Cena then walked out after saying to Vince again to invite Bret to Raw next week. Vince got the last word by telling Cena that he was booked in a match tonight against Sheamus. However, the confirmation was made later in the show. Bret Hart will be on Raw next week to confront Vince McMahon. As for the Cena/Sheamus match, Randy Orton made his statement in it. Sheamus had Cena knocked out on the floor following a kick. As the count almost got to ten, Orton ran in and hit a RKO on to Sheamus causing the DQ. Orton then saw Cena crawling into the ring and went for the DDT off the middle rope. Cena got out of it and hit Orton with an adjustment to close the show. Other happenings on the show had DX opening it up against Legacy. Shawn and Triple H did a promo before the match saying that they each have a dream to win the Rumble and they’ll have to agree on that. During the match, Triple H was set to hit the pedigree and then Shawn tagged himself in. The two faced off for a moment and then Cody ran the two of them into each other. Shawn hit a superkick to Dibiase. Shawn turned back to Triple H. Triple H ran with a clothesline and Shawn ducked with the clothesline hitting Rhodes teasing on where that clothesline was intended. Shawn then pinned Dibiase for the win. After the match, Triple H offered his hand to Shawn. The two celebrated together and high fived giving a mutual respect look at each other. Legacy later was showing cracks in their foundation backstage as Orton walked in when the two were about to have words over the last couple of weeks of happenings. Orton said that they all needed to get on the same page now. MVP and Miz had more words back and forth before MVP’s match with Big Show. Show ended up beating MVP fairly easily following a chokeslam and Miz mocked MVP after the match. MVP would get his revenge later on when Miz faced Kofi Kingston. MVP’s music hit and he walked out on the stage. Miz then got distracted watching MVP and Kofi hit trouble in paradise to win the match. The semifinals of the Divas championship tournament took place. Maryse was cutting a promo before her match when guest host, Dule Hill started playing around with the pyro scaring her. Maryse ended up defeating Eve following a DDT to advance to the finals. Before the next match, Alicia Fox went to Hill asking for him to predict the future on whether she would win. They did put James Roday on speaker phone as Cena was in the room. So, he did get to appear on the show in some form. Roday started to say that he was actually the psychic on the show and then Hill hung up on him. He said that Alicia would win the match. Well, Alicia lost to Gail Kim who will face Maryse in the finals. Alicia goes out to Hill who was on commentary and ready to sneak off. He told her that he was just an actor who played the friend of a psychic. She ended up slapping him and walked off. The slap looked really good too. Earlier, Hill was with Carlito and went into the production truck. Hill said that he would pick a random graphic and that would be Carlito’s opponent for tonight. It landed on Kelly Kelly. LOL. So, Kelly was set to face Carlito. Santino arrived asking to take the place of Carlito in the match. Swagger then attacked Santino from behind getting revenge for previous weeks and put him into the post.

Other notes from Raw. Like I said, I liked the show and thought Hill did a very good job as guest host. Fans have to be thankful that Ticketmaster is hosting the Axxess tickets and not Live Nation after the mess with the Hall Of Fame tickets. The Miz’s catchphrase is really getting over. Fans are chanting with him. I don’t really have any other thoughts on the show other than what was put in the recap. Solid show.

Next week’s Raw has Bret Hart confirmed to confront Vince McMahon on the show. The guest host for the night is William Shatner.

This week’s Smackdown will feature DX defending the tag team titles against CM Punk and Luke Gallows.

Two things being released by WWE this week. The Best Of Raw 2009 DVD will be released tomorrow and will include matches and moments from the year. Also, WWE will release WWE The Music Volume 10 on Thursday and will be an Amazon download exclusive. The cost? Only $3.99. The price does go up on it after February 1. Theme songs included on it will be Legacy (Dibiase and Rhodes), Dolph Ziggler, The Miz, Christian, Bret Hart (his new remixed theme), Sheamus, Tiffany, Ezekiel Jackson, Evan Bourne, Primo, Zack Ryder, The Hart Dynasty, The Bella Twins, and JeriShow.

Stone Cold Steve Austin appeared as a guest star on tonight’s episode of Chuck along with another favorite guest star of mine, Kristin Kreuk from Smallville. The episode was fun and it was fun to see Austin guest star on one of my favorite shows.

If you attend a TNA live event, you are not a fan but a cast member. That’s right. A cast member. I don’t know if you’ve heard about this but before the Impact tapings last Monday night, TNA Director of Production, Steve Small talked to the live audience. He basically laid down a set of ground rules for fans after the crowd reaction to the Genesis PPV there in the Impact Zone. Some of the things that were mentioned were him telling fans, oops, cast members, that you need to help them tell a story to the audience at home. He wants the crowd to be rowdy and have fun. However, he wants the crowd to not be cursing, throwing up middle fingers, and gang signs due to there being kids in the crowd. I think the gang sign thing is something that the TNA audience has come up with for themselves as they have their own fun group name and signs for themselves. I don’t know that story so you’ll have to excuse me on that part of it. He talked of how they have to spend money to edit out the cursing on the broadcasts and really put over there being kids there. Ok, this is one of the most ridiculous things that I have ever heard of happening at a live event. Here is my counter points to this thing. I get the whole “we have kids in the audience” thing. That is completely understandable and I am perfectly fine with that of course. However, you have a show during the new regime change where a wrestler threw up a middle finger. What is the difference in that and the fans doing it?? You also have wrestlers cursing all the time on that show including Kurt Angle throwing out all kinds of loud words on last week’s Impact which was bleeped out and which was taped AFTER this meeting took place. LOL. Another point of mine is that you are talking about having kids watching when you had a strip poker game going on during the January 4 live show and having women dressing as they dress. Then, you have Beer Money, enough said there. You can’t tell the audience one thing when your show is doing the opposite of what you are telling them. Then, the sign issue. Bring your signs, unless we don’t like them, and then we’re taking them. That is the case there and at WWE events. That goes to the whole we’re telling a story and we want you to help tell it thing. It comes off like help us tell the story that we want you to tell. To nitpick this thing (LOL), aren’t cast members supposed to get paid??!! This whole thing was such a turnoff for me cause it was so contradicting of what they were telling the audience to do and what the show is. Just really turned me off. I’m really hoping that the TNA audience down there does revolt on this thing and protest it. I think it is getting ridiculous. You want to get the opinions of the fans of what is working and what is not. I guess if you don’t like something, just sit there and do nothing. If you don’t like the show, sit there and don’t move. LOL. There were ways for TNA to address this problem with the fans and all. I just don’t think that was at all the way to go about it.

TNA Impact last week. Oh, where do I start with this show? This show left me so worried about the new creative direction of the company. So, now WWE is not the only one recreating Montreal as now TNA is doing it too and right down to the last detail. Let’s run down the recap of what happened and compare it to Montreal in 1997. AJ Styles and Ric Flair open the show bragging over the win at Genesis. Out comes Kurt Angle followed by Hulk Hogan. Hogan talks of how he had changed his mind on Angle only getting one title shot in 2010 due to the unfair events of Genesis. The rematch would take place on Impact which had AJ and Flair furious. So, the rematch takes place. Hogan makes his way to the ring as the match continues. I should also point out that Earl Hebner was the official in the match. AJ and Angle start reversing holds. Angle’s anklelock gets reversed into one by AJ. As soon as AJ hooks the anklelock, Hebner calls for the bell. Angle playing the part of Bret Hart gets up furious. AJ playing the part of Shawn Michaels takes off out of there. Hulk Hogan playing the part of Vince McMahon gets all sorts of words yelled at him by Angle. Yes, lots of words that had to bleeped out over TV. Remember the lecture that production gave the TNA audience about language with kids in the building? Well, here is Kurt Angle yelling all sorts of words. Angle spits in the face of Hogan who was still standing on the floor. Angle yells how he is quitting TNA and going back to WWE. Angle goes nuts and roams up to the announce position grabbing a chair and slamming it against the staging area. That is the same as Bret Hart destroying ringside equipment after the finish of the match in Montreal. This was so bad and just had me wondering what are these guys thinking? You are trying to be an alternative to WWE and you do a finish that is EXACTLY the same as the Survivor Series 1997 finish in Montreal. This finish has got to be the most overdone finish in wrestling history. It has been just over twelve years later and we still are seeing companies booking this finish. Like I said, this finish and the rest of the show left me concerned over the future of the creative direction. Mick Foley continued to try and get to talk to Bischoff throughout the night. Foley eventually got his wish and Bischoff asked the cameras to leave after Foley ranted about how he wasn’t going to let Bischoff and Hogan ruin the company that he had helped build. At the end of the show, Bischoff walked to the ring bloody and got the mic. He said that Mick Foley was fired. What happened with The Band? Well, Hogan talked to Nash and said that Nash was under contract while Hall and Waltman weren’t. Hogan told him that he had to get them under control to which Nash replied that he understood but they were like brothers to him. Hogan said that this was time to work and not play like with what Hall and Waltman had been doing. Hogan told Nash to get the job done tonight as he had a match with Young against The Nasty Boys. Later, Hogan and Bischoff were in the ring when The Band arrived. Hogan told Hall and Waltman to hit the road and that they didn’t work there anymore. Nash was later shown with them backstage as they were being escorted out. Nash told them to just go and that he’d find a way to fix this. So, Young is concerned that Nash doesn’t have his back cause of The Band being back. Nash assures him that things are cool with them. The match takes place with Nash and Young against The Nasty Boys. The finish has Knobs nailing Nash into the ring post outside. Saggs hits a pump handle slam on to Young for the pinfall. In other action, Orlando Jordan got a clean win on The Pope. Yeah, Jordan is now winning matches over Pope and Pope has had all sorts of momentum. Ken Anderson arrived in the ring during the show. He talked of how everyone hypes what they are going to do in TNA but he isn’t because he is going to let action speak louder than words. As he talks trash on Abyss, Abyss sneaks up behind him listening to him. He speaks a few compliments on Abyss but then starts bashing him. Abyss goes on the attack but Anderson is able to bail out before Abyss can hit the black hole slam. Hernandez and Matt Morgan defeated The British Invasion to retain the tag team titles. Rob Terry got involved and threw a briefcase in the ring. The swing of the briefcase backfired as Hernandez ducked it. The British Invasion was then pinned. Terry got in the ring afterwards and the finger pointing began on who cost who the match. Foley then arrived and destroyed them with a chair as that was one of his attempts to get Bischoff’s attention on the show. Madison Rayne took on Angelina Love. Angelina won it with a bicycle kick. After the match, Angelina continued to hammer on Madison. Velvet and Lacey made their way to the ring with the “ugly stick”. Angelina stayed on offense against them as well but the numbers added up. The Beautiful People ended up beating down Angelina. They also played audio throughout the night of Bubba The Love Sponge calling Jeff Jarrett live on the air talking about TNA and the new Hogan/Bischoff regime. It was really lame to be honest. LOL. So, can you tell how I felt about this show? Like I said, I am very concerned over the creative direction of this company right now after seeing the Montreal finish AGAIN and so blatantly done. I’m still giving this time as it is early with the company making changes but I am beginning to get concerned.

This release really had me surprised. TNA released Alissa Flash last week. What in the world?? I have been a fan of hers after seeing her on the TNA house show. Solid in the ring and good gimmick. The fans were into her but they let her go. Someone is going to have to make me understand the decision on letting her go.

The WWE Royal Rumble is this Sunday on PPV. The lineup will consist of these matches: the 30 man Royal Rumble match with the winner getting a title shot at WrestleMania, Sheamus defending the WWE title against Randy Orton, The Undertaker defending the World title against Rey Mysterio, Michelle McCool defending the Women’s title against Mickie James. ECW champion Christian defends the belt against Ezekiel Jackson.

That is it for tonight with The Wrestling List. Wishing all of you a great week!! Take care and God bless!!

WWE Raw House Show In Cape Girardeau - Live Report - January 23, 2010

Live report time as I attended the WWE Raw house show in Cape Girardeau last night. Solid show and a hot crowd. The building was full for the most part. I’ll go into the pre-show notes. I should point out that The Miz was doing local radio promotion interviews for the Cape show and I heard one of them streaming online with KGMO. He stayed in character with the interview and was very entertaining. Funny moment when he and the host talked about the lack of respect for him. They pointed out that the photo advertisement for the show had him getting beaten up by John Cena. Miz said that here he was doing the local promotion for the show and not Cena but yet they use that photo against him. They went over the lineup of matches for the show including them discussing that Orton always gets a good reaction in Cape due to being near his hometown of St. Louis. It was a fun interview overall. Back to the actual event, Surprisingly not as many people lined up in the parking lot watching the stars arrive as there have been in events past. I was able to get to the front of the line immediately. Most had already arrived by the time we got there but we did see Ted Dibiase, Santino, and Randy Orton arrive. Doors opened fairly early giving people a chance to get their food, merchandise, and find their seats.

On to the event. We kicked off the event with the national anthem and then right into the wrestling action. The show opens with a ECW match with Yoshi Tatsu taking on Zack Ryder with Rosa Mendes in his corner. Wow, that “woo woo woo” gimmick does nothing for me. LOL. Just kind of a blah opener for me but I don’t watch ECW either. Tatsu won with a spin kick off of the top turnbuckle to win the match. The next match was kind of surprising to me as far as Legacy being on the second match of the night. Legacy took on Mark Henry and Evan Bourne. There was a match change there as the advertising had Big Show against Mark Henry. The two other advertised matches took place though. Anyway, very solid match. Big pop for Mark Henry when he was introduced. Cody Rhodes got on the mic ripping on Mark Henry saying that he was the spokesman for a weight loss company while Dibiase was a movie star. Dibiase kept running from Henry early in the match. Evan Bourne got a hot tag at one point and hit his fun high flying moves but Dibiase stopped him giving Legacy the advantage back. Henry would be the next to get the hot tag. Henry slammed Rhodes which led to Bourne hitting the shooting star which looked amazing. Dibiase broke up the count. Henry went to the floor with Dibiase. Bourne got back on offense with Cody but Cody was able to counter and hit the cross-rhodes for the win. After this match, Kelly Kelly was introduced. She came down the aisle and announced that they were going to have a guest bell ringer. She would ask the trivia question of how many participants are in the Royal Rumble match and the winner would be the bell ringer. A girl answered it right and she was brought to ringside. She sat with Kelly during the next match. Johnny Curtis made his way to the ring. Yeah, I had never heard of him and he actually mentioned that in his promo that we were probably wondering who he was. He hyped what he was going to do in WWE. His opponent was Primo. This match went way longer than I expected. Primo ended up winning after nailing a cross body off the top rope. Kind of surprised that Primo got the win to be honext as I expected that they’d put over the new guy. Next was the fatal four way for the US championship. US champion, The Miz made his way to the ring and did a promo about the upcoming match and also about the Royal Rumble. Lots of crowd heat on him. His opponents would be Jack Swagger, MVP, and Carlito. The Miz avoided the action off and on during the match letting his opponents go at it. Swagger and MVP would go at it late in the match. Miz made his way in and broke up the action. Miz went to the top rope only to see Carlito and Swagger waiting for him. Then, they hit the big spot out of the corner where Carlito and Swagger had Miz in a double superplex position. MVP then came over and powerbombed them all out of the corner. Big spot and the crowd erupted on it. MVP then got on big offense from there. MVP hit the playmaker on Carlito but Miz knocked him from the ring and covered Carlito for the win to retain the title. Miz grabbed the belt and paraded down the aisle with it. Next was the six divas tag team match with Santino Marella as the referee. Santino got a good pop and was really playing off of the fans on his entrance. Maryse, Alicia Fox, and Jillian Hall made their way into the ring with Santino trying to get high fives, hugs, or whatever but got nothing. LOL. They took on the team of Gail Kim and The Bellas. Santino does get a hug from that team. Lots of comedy spots in this one. Early on, one of the Bellas and Maryse ended up pulling hair on each other and Santino got in the middle of it. His hair got pulled too and he started his high pitch scream. They then started rolling around and rolled around on him too which was funny. Another comedy spot when Gail and the Bellas did a riding the bull spot on the heels. Got a lot of laughs. Another spot where a Bella (yeah, I can’t tell them apart, LOL) was bouncing off the ropes and Alicia dropped down. Bella went for a high crossed body and was caught by Santino. He kept turning from side to side and then the feet of the Bella twin would catch the other participants knocking them down. Santino then dropped her and went into the corner just sitting there. The finish had Gail pinning Jillian after landing a foot to the jaw. After the match, Santino celebrated with the winners. Time to throw out some free merchandise to the crowd. Kelly Kelly arrives with Hornswoggle and the crowd loved Hornswoggle. T-shirts are thrown into the crowd with the crowd all up on their feet. Hornswoggle did give the DX chop to the ring announcer which was funny.

After intermission time, the action continues. Big Show gets a good reaction as he makes his way to the ring. His opponent was Chris Masters accompanied by Eve. Crowd was definitely with Show in this match. Show even sneered at the crowd at one point for the cheers. There were two guys in the front row that he ripped on with one guy posing like Hulk Hogan. Show said “listen Hogan, shut up” and then ripped on the other guy as well. Show landed a chop at one point and that led to Masters doing his dancing pecs gimmick. He wouldn’t be doing that later with Show landing more chops. They sounded nasty too. Show went after Eve on the floor. She reeled him with a romantic moment and then slapped him. Masters go on offense from there getting Show down to one knee. Masters hooked the masterlock but Show threw him over his head after a few seconds. When Masters returned to him, Show hit the chokeslam for the win. Solid match and the crowd was definitely for Big Show. Next was probably the match of the night. Randy Orton taking on Kofi Kingston. Big hometown like pop for Orton as expected. I love watching Randy Orton matches in Cape cause the mixed reaction is always fun. He brought out his old arms out pose on the turnbuckle which I haven’t seen in a while. Kofi gets a nice ovation as well but the crowd was definitely mixed in this one. Yeah, I was chanting for Orton. Lots of RKO chants from the crowd. Orton had the loud section of fans up on the side. Kofi would hit the trouble in paradise kick but Orton fell out of the ring on it. Kofi brought him back in the ring but Orton was able to kick out of the pin attempt. Orton nailed a RKO moments later but Kofi was able to kick out of it. A frustrated Orton got to his feet and went for the punt. Kofi avoided it and went for the trouble in paradise again. Orton ducked it and Kofi ended up getting hit with a RKO with Orton getting the pinfall on it. Cool finish to the match. Main event time with Sheamus defending the WWE title against John Cena. Sheamus was the first one introduced and did a promo before the match. Cena was introduced and got a huge ovation from the fans. Cape Girardeau loves John Cena!! No mixed reaction here and if there were boos, they were drowned out. Solid match. Sheamus hit his big kick on Cena but Cena was able to kick out. Then, Cena picked up Sheamus about twenty seconds later and hit the adjustment. Sheamus kicked out of that. The finish was well done and laid out a big tease to the crowd. Cena went to the top rope but was stopped by Sheamus. Sheamus hit the celtic cross out of the corner but Cena kicked out. A frustrated Sheamus shoved the referee down and then Cena hooked Sheamus in the STF. The ref rang the bell for the DQ but Cena jumped up like he had won the title since he did have the submission on as the bell rang. The crowd jumped up and went crazy too. Cena’s facial expression was great when he thought he had won the WWE title and then the announcement was made that Cena won by DQ meaning that Sheamus kept the title. Cena questioned the referee and then was hit from behind by Sheamus. Cena hit Sheamus with the adjustment and Cena’s music played to finish off the show. Cena talked with some fans around ringside as he roamed out of there. That was the end of the show. After the show, we stuck around to watch the superstars leave the building. Nothing really spectacular of interest happened. Nice moment when Cena saluted the fans twice as he was about to get in his car. It is usually interesting to see the pairings of who is riding with who to and from events.

Other notes and thoughts on the show. I liked the booked finish of the main event. I kept thinking how are they going to book this to where Sheamus keeps the title but the fans go home happy with Cena winning. Then, the tease happened that Cena had won only to learn of the DQ. Kids were mad!! LOL. When we were leaving, there were kids just furious over Cena getting ripped off. It took me back to my Hulk Hogan days as a kid when Hogan would lose. Let me tell you. The kids love John Cena. They love him. Cena had those kids in the palm of his hands all through the match chanting for him and with him on every move. It was fun to see how many dads put their kids up on their shoulders in the ringside area so they could get a good view of him coming down the aisle. The families are definitely back at WWE events and are dominating the crowd now. There was quite the reaction from fans on the announcement that Cena had signed a lot of pictures being sold at the merchandise stand. Like I said, I love watching Orton matches in Cape. The fans add so much to his matches cause you just get such a mixed group of reactions. He is going to get cheers there and is actually going to get some cheers everywhere. Orton has his fans no matter how big of a heel that he is. I like him and a lot of that has come from watching his matches in Cape over the years. Orton is fun to watch live and he is a heel that I enjoy cheering for at live events. There was a heel fan type section up in another part of the lower level. It’s too bad they weren’t closer for them to be louder in the action. You could hear them though and they were loud for Orton. Show got a big reaction and I wondered if it was more for him or if it was more against Masters as a babyface. Although, Show did get a big pop when he came to the ring. WWE teased no sort of problems between Rhodes and Dibiase at this show and Dibiase was doing a lot of jawing back and forth with the fans. I liked the divas match a lot but missed not having Mickie James on the Raw brand. Santino’s role in the match was fun. Kelly did a good job as host and the crowd liked her. I didn’t get a good look at the merchandise stand to see what was being sold. They were selling drinks at the concession stand where you could get them in a WWE cup only sold at live events. I thought that was a nice idea to sell more stuff. Hot crowd in Cape. Hope you enjoyed the recap. Take care and God bless!!

TNA Genesis Results & Thoughts, WWE Raw, & More - January 18, 2010

Welcome to the “TNA’s major competition might not be with WWE but instead with their own fans in the Impact Zone” edition of The Wrestling List. What am I talking about? Well, TNA is making changes and the fans in Orlando are not liking a lot of it. TNA’s six sided ring is no more. Hogan and Bischoff have gotten rid of it and the traditional four sided ring was used at last night’s Genesis PPV. The six sided ring has been used for almost six years now by TNA. There were definitely fans in attendance at the PPV that weren’t happy about the ring being changed. Fans chanting “we want six sides” and also fans had signs taken away that were against the ring change. The ramp was also changed for the show which had the ramp elevated and reaching all the way to the ring. It was very ECW and old school early 90’s WCW like. There were more changes and booking decisions that didn’t go over well which I’ll get to in a moment. First, let’s start with Impact from Thursday.

Thursday’s TNA Impact was the second show from the new Hogan/Bischoff regime. Solid show and I really enjoyed it. There was a segment with Kurt Angle and AJ Styles talking about the respect that they had for one another. AJ did tell him that this was his last title shot in 2010 at Genesis and Angle said he only needed one shot. The two shook hands and both left. AJ was then attacked by the masked man again. The mask was taken off and it was revealed to be Tomko. AJ was shown later going to Bischoff wanting a match with Tomko on that night. Bischoff said that he needed a main event and the match was made. The match takes place with AJ taking on Tomko. Ric Flair makes his way to the ring and does commentary on the match saying he is there to observe. Angle watches the match as well and goes to Flair to greet him and show respect. AJ wins the match with the pele kick but then gets attacked by Tomko after the match. Angle jumps in and clears the ring of Tomko. Angle gets the belt and hands it to AJ offering another handshake. AJ takes the belt and walks off as Flair smiled from the announce table. In other happenings, Hogan and Jarrett had a confrontation in the back. Jarrett talked about how this was his company that he built from the ground up while adding that the young guys weren’t worth pushing. Bischoff spoke up saying that he was tired of listening to Jarrett talking about building the company and said that they would have been out of business immediately if Dixie Carter hadn’t put money and time into the company. They tell Jarrett to either get out or put ring gear on like everyone else and compete. Hogan gets up and Jarrett starts backing off. I thought it was a nice exchange. Beer Money went to Bischoff during the show wanting a match with Hall and Nash saying that it was them that laid them out on the live Impact. Bischoff said that he would get back with them on that. Later, Hernandez and Morgan took on Beer Money but The British Invasion interfered. Beer Money was left in the ring and then The Band arrived of Hall, Nash, and Waltman. The numbers added up and The Band got the advantage. Security broke it up and Bischoff arrived. He questioned what he was going to do with them while also announcing that tag match for Genesis with The Band against Beer Money. Mick Foley questions were asked all night with everyone saying they didn’t know where he was. There was a match set with Team 3D taking on Lethal and Creed but Lashley attacked Creed and Lethal on the way to the ring. Kristal then got on the mic again demanding a meeting with Hogan saying that every member of the roster would be laid out one by one until the meeting took place. Team 3D made their way to the ring after not being able to get in their locker room occupied still by The Nasty Boys. Brother Ray talked of how they were asked in Japan about what happened with their locker room and that was how they got the news of the happenings. He talked of how the Nastys had ridden Hogan to TNA now and how they were now going to reclaim their locker room along with the help of an ax. They knock down the door with the ax but then are attacked by the Nastys who leave them laying in the floor. The show opened with a very hot opener with the debut of The Young Bucks who are now going by the name of Generation Me as they took on The Motor City Machineguns. This was a lot of fun!! Lots of Young Bucks chants from the crowd. I was very interested to see how they did in TNA after watching them in Ring Of Honor. Lots of high flying including a ridiculous series of moves from the ring apron. The finish had Generation Me hitting their three move combo to get the win. Desmond Wolfe defeated Samoa Joe with the tower of London. The Pope was on commentary and he and Wolfe talked trash on one another afterwards. Sean Morley arrived on the scene talking about his production plans for TNA. Daniels came out and embraced Morley like they were going to be friends. Daniels then attacked Morley and laid him out with the BME telling him to get out of his company. Morley fought back while the talking was going on and Daniels ended up leaving the ring. The Beautiful People took on Hamada and Kong. On the way to the ring, The Beautiful People saw Angelina Love sitting in the front row and went to welcome her back. Hugs all around except from Lacey who wasn’t excited to see her. The match takes place and Kong pins Madison with the awesome bomb. After the match, Angelina jumps in the ring and takes out Velvet and Lacey but her target was definitely Velvet. The announcers put over how Angelina was mad at Velvet for being replaced. I liked that angle that they did there. Interesting edition of Impact and I thought it was solid. Lots of good action on the show.

TNA Genesis opened last night with Hogan and Bischoff in the ring. The fans immediately started chanting “we want six sides”. Hogan then said that they had six sides and it had only got the company so far and now they were going all out to get the company bigger. Boos kept coming and then Hogan said that they weren’t going to have six, eight, or any playpen side rings saying this was where real men wrestle. Yeah, that drew even more boos. Bischoff added how no one likes change but that the ring was just the beginning. The first match of the night had Amazing Red defending the X-Division title against Brian Kendrick. Red won with the code red to retain the title. Sean Morley defeated Daniels in the second match after hitting the money shot. Fans did not like that finish and several turned their back on the ring. Tara defeated ODB to win back the Knockouts championship in a two out of three falls match. Tara won the first fall with a small package. Tara won the match after hitting the widow’s peak for the win. Matt Morgan and Hernandez defeated The British Invasion to win the TNA tag team titles. Lashley entered Bischoff’s office to see Abyss and Bischoff arguing. Abyss then took out Lashley and knocked him out. Bischoff was annoyed with the match now being messed up while Abyss said he was trying to protect Bischoff. Hogan walked in and told Abyss that he would still have a match tonight but to leave the hardcore antics in the locker room. His opponent would be named later. Desmond Wolfe defeated The Pope by pinfall in what many called the match of the night. Borash was told by Bischoff that he was off of TV after letting Foley in the building a couple of weeks ago. The fans really hated that as well and booed that big. Christy Hemme was named as his replacement as she interviewed Ric Flair. Beer Money ended up facing Kevin Nash and Sean Waltman. Waltman was in for Scott Hall. Hall lost paper, rock, scissors earlier in the night to compete in the match. Hall would make his way to ringside during the match and distract Beery Money. Hall ended up pulling a fan over the rail and beating him up with Waltman going to stop him. Roode ended up pinning Nash. Nash was furious at what had occurred and then Hogan and Bischoff were shown backstage. They both said that they had given up on Hall, Nash, and Waltman after giving them a chance. Hogan said that he would take care of this on Impact. Abyss made his way to the ring and then his opponent was revealed to be the former Mr. Kennedy, Ken Anderson. Abyss went to use a chair during the match but the ref pulled it away. At that time, Anderson got some brass knucks and nailed Abyss with them and got the win. Several fans turned their back on this finish as well. The main event was AJ Styles defending the TNA title against Kurt Angle and the match went to the ring with a lot of TV time left. The match went just under thirty minutes. Flair did arrive and watch the match later on into it. The finish had AJ in the anklelock. AJ looked about ready to tap and then Flair pulled the ref from the ring. AJ then tapped out but the ref obviously didn’t see it. Angle went after Flair but Angle was clotheslined by AJ. Flair then gave the belt to AJ and told AJ to hit Angle with it. AJ paused thinking about it and then nailed Angle with the belt. Flair grabbed Earl Hebner and threw him in ring. AJ makes the cover and wins the match to retain the TNA title. AJ and Flair then celebrated in the ring as AJ has turned heel and is now paired up with Flair.
Ok, now I’ll move into my thoughts on the show. This is a real mixed bag for me but my major complaint is right at the top of the card. AJ Styles being turned heel. I can’t stand this idea immediately. Maybe they’ll make it work but it’s a frustration for me to watch. I like AJ being the top guy and pushing him as the number one babyface of the company. He’s the homegrown guy and has all the talent in the world. Now, you turn him heel and put him with Ric Flair. I heard a good comment last night on post show audio that I was listening to and that was how are you expecting fans to boo AJ Styles and also Ric Flair? That isn’t going to happen. LOL. My main problem with the heel turn is that this takes a lot of ring work off of the show. What do I mean? I’m talking about the difference between the in ring style of a face AJ vs. a heel AJ. When AJ wrestles as a heel, he has to go at a much different pace being a heel. His last heel run had him barely doing any of the stuff that he is great at and I’m afraid that will happen again. As a face, AJ can go full out and be the incredible athlete that he is. The decision to turn AJ heel is going to have to win me over cause I am not feeling it and it is concerning me. Another complaint of mine is the push of the former WWE guys. The one that really gets my attention is Daniels and Sean Morley. Daniels has been in the main event picture recently again FINALLY and now they have him losing to Morley who just lost to everyone in the world during the last of his WWE run. That really concerns me. When they had that angle set up on Impact, I never really considered that Daniels might lose. Another concern of mine is that there is a difference in growing your company and turning your back completely on the fans that have been with this company for years. The Impact Zone is an audience that is going to tell you what they feel and I love that. That is what I miss about the ECW audience of old and this is as close as we’ve got to that. They voiced their opinion last night about the six sided ring and were basically told that nothing mattered previously leading up to the new regime change. That just made them more angry. They turned their backs twice during the night with one being when Morley beat Daniels and then when Abyss was defeated by Anderson. It should be pointed out that there is talk that officials were telling fans that if they turned their back again, they’d be ejected from the building. Add to that that the anti-six sided ring signs were being taken away from fans as well. TNA has tried this in the past with them trying to get people to do what they want as far as reactions and it sounds like it is getting worse. Jeremy Borash was removed from TV and the crowd reacted big time negative in the building to it. I don’t know if that is permanent or what. Where was Samoa Joe on this show? This was the first PPV in his TNA career that he was not booked on to and that is concerning!! There were good things on the show obviously including the Wolfe/Pope match and other good in ring action. I don’t want it to sound like that I’m ripping on this whole show cause I’m not. The show overall sounded like it was good. There are decisions being made that are already concerning me and I’m just afraid that a lot of these younger homegrown guys are getting pushed to the side. The AJ heel turn is the thing that concerns me the most along with the treatment of the TNA fans. Yes, you need to build the company but include everyone. Don’t say that everything has been garbage up to this point because that is an absolute lie. I think the new regime has a challenge on them to top the best matches and moments in TNA history.

Tonight’s WWE Raw was guest hosted by Don Johnson and Jon Heder. I thought it was a solid show and continued the build to The Royal Rumble. The show opened up with Vince McMahon in the ring talking about Bret Hart and how he wasn’t bringing back Bret cause Bret was like an old horse that needed to be put down. He said that the fans were what caused this cause they are always wanting younger, faster, quicker wrestlers which doesn’t match Bret. The Undertaker arrives and Vince adds that he wasn’t done talking. Undertaker tells Vince that he is one of the few people that was in Montreal and saw the whole thing happen with Bret. Taker tells him that he saw eyes of fear that night and sees it in him tonight too. He calls Vince a coward and how he had now screwed Bret twice. Vince disagreed and then left the ring for Taker. Taker’s main purpose was to be there to answer the challenge from Shawn Michaels. He calls out Shawn saying he will answer it personally. Shawn arrives and Taker says Shawn was closer to ending the streak than anyone else had been but that he was going to save Shawn the bitter disappointment again. Taker said he had nothing to prove and said no to the rematch. Taker called Shawn out for a match tonight to let Shawn prove that he could beat him. Shawn said no to that saying that he was going to beat him on the grandest stage of them all. Shawn’s next plan was that he was going to win the Rumble and then move on to face Undertaker for the World title at WrestleMania. Taker told Shawn that it was the only way that he would get the WrestleMania match with him. Triple H kept trying to talk to Shawn throughout the night but never did get to. Heder and Johnson were the guest hosts as I said and Heder played the heel role. The main event was made by Heder as he made Miz and Big Show a tag team putting them against DX. After Hornswoggle interrupted a locker room discussion between Heder, Show, and Miz, the decision was made to make it a six man tag. Triple H was involved in this discussion as well. Heder would be the partner of ShowMiz. Yep, that is what I’m calling the tag team with a play off of the word showbiz. Heder wasn’t happy about this at all. So, the match takes place. Heder comes out wearing a very Ric Flair like robe and plays up the funny in this match. He and Hornswoggle go at it briefly. Triple H tags in and Heder bails out. Johnson was in DX’s corner and throws Heder back into the ring. Show gets to Triple H before he can do anything but then Show takes a superkick from Shawn. Show lands on Heder. Shawn then nails a kick to Miz on the apron. Hornswoggle nails the tadpole splash on to Show and Heder and then pins Heder to win the match. After the match, Triple H tells Shawn that he has a problem with what Shawn said earlier about the Rumble. Shawn gets annoyed and then Cena arrives. Cena says that he is back in the Rumble this year and then Big Show says the same. Show takes down DX but then Cena knocks Show from the ring. DX throws Cena out and then Triple H throws Shawn over the top. Triple H gets on the mic and says that is his problem adding that he is in the Rumble too and plans on winning it so Shawn won’t be able to face Undertaker. In other happenings, Cena teamed with Kofi against Legacy. The finish had Dibiase saving the pinfall for his team after Cena hit the adjustment on Cody. As they got up, Kofi tagged in. He went for a high crossed body. Dibiase saw him and ducked but Kofi got Cody with it for the pin. After the match, Dibiase helped up Cody who shrugged off Dibiase and walked out mad. Sheamus defeated Evan Bourne following the celtic cross. Randy Orton watched from the ramp and then faced off with Sheamus in the ring after the match. Sheamus held up the belt and left. Later, Orton defeated Chris Masters after hitting a RKO. Sheamus watched the match from the ramp as well. After Orton won, he turned and took a kick from Sheamus leaving him laying. Jack Swagger called for a rematch of the over the top challenge from last week with Santino. Santino arrived dressed like Don Johnson saying he wasn’t going to compete but had a substitute. The replacement was Mark Henry who won by press slamming Swagger to the floor. Gail Kim and Eve defeated Maryse and Alicia Fox when Eve hooked an arm submission on to Alicia for the submission victory.

Other notes from Raw. Always great to see WWE pay tribute to Martin Luther King, Jr. I thought Johnson and Heder did fine tonight. Heder was a goofy fun kind of heel in his role. I thought the two of them did better reacting to the live crowd right at the moment more than a lot of the other guest hosts. I will be seeing that movie that they were promoting, When In Rome, because, well, it has my favorite actress in it, Kristen Bell. How many commas can I put in that last sentence? Geez. Was that robe that Heder was wearing and the goofiness of it a shot at Ric Flair? Did you catch Jerry Lawler mess up and call Randy Orton by the name of Randy Savage??!! That was hilarious. I bet Vince was furious. LOL. Looks like we’re starting to maybe see the push of Dibiase being split away on his own. What exactly is the roll that Kofi is on according to Michael Cole? All I’ve seen for the most part lately is Kofi losing so one or two weeks of wins doesn’t count as a roll. I just hope that they can build some momentum on him in the next few weeks including the Rumble. Wow, Evan Bourne isn’t even getting entrances anymore. Did you notice that Swagger’s pyro was gone too? Wow, WWE has messed up everyone that they brought over from ECW. Bourne, Swagger, and Henry had all sorts of good things and momentum happening on ECW and they’ve done nothing on Raw. WWE has pretty much turned them into a joke on Raw which is disappointing. MVP’s cameo for the night was getting knocked out by Big Show. Why is Heder saying that he brought in Big Show to the show as an insurance policy for him when Big Show should already be there since, I don’t know, he is on the roster. LOL.

WWE did a 3.7 rating for the Mike Tyson episode of Raw last week which was up from the 3.6 with Bret Hart. As far as TNA Impact, the show did a 1.3 back in its normal Thursday night time slot. That is up from its normal as well on Thursday. Dixie Carter posted on her Twitter account last week about her and Hogan meeting with Spike executives and how the meeting went very well. She teased an announcement coming soon. I tend to think that we’ll get an announcement of something involving Monday nights before it is over.

Bret Hart has commented on his Facebook page that the segment with he and Shawn Michaels on Raw was unscripted. He said that he did see Shawn earlier in the day but that what they said in the ring was “unrehearsed and heartfelt”.

Some definite drama over the WWE Hall Of Fame tickets going on sale last week. LiveNation was doing the ticket sales and put the tickets on a pre-sale to fans. There was some sort of error about tickets in sections that weren’t to be released to the general public. So, LiveNation cancelled all the ticket sales and put them on sale again later in the day. If you bought tickets earlier in the day and didn’t know about the error, you didn’t get the tickets that you had bought. You may not have had time to know about the ticket error. I would be so annoyed if I bought tickets and had seats that I loved only to have worse seats due to an error out of my own control. I feel bad for the people that bought tickets and then didn’t get tickets at all. There are many that are in that situation as the Hall Of Fame is already sold out.

Stone Cold Steve Austin will guest star on next week’s episode of Chuck on NBC.

WWE is offering a free WrestleMania chair to fans who order all three of the PPV’s including Royal Rumble, Elimination Chamber, and WrestleMania XXVI. You can check out more info at this link: http://www.roadtowrestlemaniaoffer.com

WWE released Eric Escobar in recent days. Not anything surprising there especially after they ended the relationship storyline with Vickie Guerrero so quickly. I mentioned at the time that I didn’t see his future being that bright in WWE after the plug was pulled on that so fast.

WWE is airing the old Best of the WWF Volume One Coliseum Video right now on WWE Classics On Demand. They are saying that Volume Two is going to air next month so maybe they are going to air all of these. I still remember renting these videos as a kid and there were a lot of great matches on this series of videos.

Wishing all of you a great week. Take care and God bless!!

Check out The Wrestling List online at:
http://www.thewrestlinglist.com

Raw/Impact Ratings, Tyson Guest Hosts Raw, & More - January 11, 2010

Welcome to the “I loved the Mike Tyson’s Punchout NES references tonight” edition of The Wrestling List. One thing is for sure about last week in the world of wrestling. It was exciting again. People were talking about it and really enjoying all the craziness of it. Wrestling was really fun again.

The ratings are in for last week’s head to head wrestling battle between TNA and WWE. One number did surprise and the other didn’t. First, TNA did a 1.5 which was the highest rating ever in the history of the show. One thing that I found interesting was that the show only lost half a million viewers from hour one till when the show went head to head with Raw. Fans stuck with the show for the most part. Obviously, TNA is very excited about this and Hulk Hogan is already talking in interviews about going to Spike TV about going live every Monday night. We’ll see if that happens but I have to think that Spike would give it consideration. I think that is an excellent number for TNA. They brought their usual audience over from Thursday and gained on it. I had predicted between a 1.5 and a 2.0. Now, WWE Raw did a 3.6 rating. This number did surprise me. It surprised me because it wasn’t higher. In fact, it did the same exact number as the week before. No jump at all. I was stunned over that. I really thought that Raw would go up over a 4 easily with the return of Bret Hart. I don’t know if those fans are just gone or if there is too many years in between or why that number didn’t rise. Even though Raw had more viewers, I say that TNA was the winner last week. They increased their audience and had a lot of people talking. Even with Bret Hart on the show, WWE couldn’t raise their audience.

Let’s get into tonight’s Raw from Minneapolis. Solid show and I enjoyed it. Good crowd as well which was vocal on who they liked and didn’t like. Lots of mixed reactions tonight from that crowd. Very anti-Cena group in the house and a very pro-Orton group there as well. I noticed that even the Miz and MVP were getting mixed reactions in their face off. There really wasn’t anything writing wise on this show that I just didn’t like so I’m happy with it. Mike Tyson was the guest host for tonight’s show. The show opened with him in the ring talking about his appearances with the company back in 1998. Doesn’t Austin vs. Tyson seem forever ago??!! I’ll never forget watching that go down that night. Now, that was exciting. Anyway, back to tonight. Basically, we got all the main players in the ring together. Sheamus interrupted Tyson and talked trash of how Tyson was an ex-champion while he is the current WWE champion. Randy Orton arrives and wants a title shot from Tyson. John Cena arrives and wants the same thing. Kofi Kingston gets involved as well saying that everyone had had a title shot while he hadn’t gotten even one yet. Tyson makes a triple threat match between Orton, Cena, and Kofi with the winner facing Sheamus for the WWE title at The Royal Rumble. So, the match takes place and most of it features a doubleteam on Orton. When Orton is thrown from the ring, Cena and Kofi get ready to face off. Sheamus shows up on the ramp and that distraction gets Orton back on the advantage. Later on, Cena hooks a STF on Kofi but it is broken up by Orton. Cena ends up taking a trouble in paradise kick from Kofi knocking him from the ring. Cody makes his way to ringside and nails the steps into Cena. As the ref is distracted with that, Dibiase gets in the ring and gets Kofi off of the offense. Orton then hits a RKO seconds later and gets the win. It will be Sheamus defending the belt against Orton at the Rumble. Shawn Michaels was shown talking to Triple H saying that he got closure with Bret last week and was going to do the same with Tyson this week over WrestleMania 14. Shawn talks to Tyson but Jericho walks in. Jericho and Tyson are on the same page with Tyson saying that he enjoyed knocking Shawn out and wanted to do it again. So, Tyson makes a match giving Jericho yet another chance to get back on Raw. It will be Jericho and Tyson against DX. The match takes place at the end of the show. I should point out that before the match, Shawn demanded that Undertaker give him an answer on next week’s Raw about the challenge for WrestleMania. Tyson and Shawn grapple for a while with Tyson continuing to overpower Shawn. Triple H gets in and powers with him better. Jericho later gets in the ring and DX gets control. When Tyson gets tagged back in, Hornswoggle arrives in boxing gear. Earlier in the night, Tyson had threatened Hornswoggle on if he showed up in the match. The two teams face off. Then, Tyson stands behind Jericho. He takes his shirt off and there is a DX shirt. Very reminiscent of 1998 with what he did there. Tyson turns and joins back with DX. Tyson knocks out Jericho and then Shawn pins Jericho. Tyson brings his son into the ring and they pose with DX. In other action, Legacy defeated Mark Henry and Evan Bourne when Cody pinned Bourne with the crossrhodes. MVP and The Miz had a good verbal exchange in the ring with the two just basically ripping on each other. I liked that neither backed down from one another. The fight was on and it stayed even but MVP ended up knocking Miz from the ring. Vince McMahon made a speech in the ring saying that Bret’s closure was what happened to him last week. Vince announced that Bret would never be back in WWE. The Divas championship tournament continued with Alicia Fox pinning Kelly Kelly and then Eve defeating Katie Lea as they move on in the tournament. Maryse did commentary on the Eve/Katie match as she would face the winner. Eve and Maryse did a bit of a faceoff after the match. The rest of the tournament bracket has Maryse against Eve and also Gail Kim against Alicia Fox. Jack Swagger called out anyone to face him and try to throw him over the top rope as he hyped his chances in the Rumble match. So, Santino accepts the challenge. Swagger throws him out but Santino holds on eliminating Swagger. Not looking good for Swagger’s future when Santino is getting put over on him.

Other notes from Raw. How great was Cena’s references to Mike Tyson’s Punchout? Cena said he beat Tyson and it took him two years of his childhood to finally beat Tyson after getting through Piston Honda twice and then Super Macho Man. Then, I loved the line of how he compared his triple threat match to Punchout saying that it would be him, Bald Bull (Orton), Von Kaiser (Kofi) battling to see who would face Soda Popininski (Sheamus). Did you hear the “you screwed Shawn” chants from the crowd at Tyson after they showed the WM14 footage? I thought that was funny. I really like Kofi’s SOS move that he does and also that nasty looking backbreaker that Katie does. Wow, the women’s division is really hurting on Raw with Melina hurt and then Mickie and Beth being moved to Smackdown. Did you hear the “boring” chant at Vince? That crowd was not afraid to be vocal on things tonight like I said. I love those crowds. Isn’t it kind of funny to see WWE show footage from back in the attitude era and play it during this PG era of WWE? They have to cover up so much and it was almost like that highlight package of Austin/Tyson was tamed down taking some of the intensity out of it.

Next week’s Raw will be guest hosted by Don Johnson and Jon Heder.

Here is an article where Bret Hart talks about his return to WWE. http://www.calgaryherald.com/sports/BACK+RING/2425695/story.html

A couple of new shows from TNA to tell about. TNA is set to launch a new internet show with Jeremy Borash which will be a pre show and post show to Impact. It appears that it will be called TNA Live based on what Borash posted on his Twitter account and will begin this Thursday. TNA will premiere TNA Epics this Thursday night following Impact. The show will be a monthly special and will be hosted by Mick Foley. The show will focus one superstar and include some of their best matches. The first episode will be on Kurt Angle with these matches including Angle vs. Samoa Joe from Genesis 2006, Angle vs. AJ Styles from Hard Justice 2008 in a last man standing match, and Angle vs. Jeff Jarrett from Genesis 2009.

Tony Halme, better known as Ludvig Borga in the WWF in the mid 90’s, passed away over the weekend. He passed away in his apartment at the age of 47. My thoughts and prayers obviously go out to his family and friends.

There has been problems recently with WWE Classics On Demand. The update for January was barely anything on cable systems across the country. People were getting part two of WCW Spring Stampede 1997 but missing part one. Basically, hardly anything showed up that was supposed to be there. Add with that that we weren’t even sure what we were supposed to be getting. A lot of times there are just various subscribers from certain cable companies that won’t get a full update. Last week, nobody got the full update. It was enough to where WWE.com posted info about it saying that there was problems and they were working on it. The full update did show up but another problem lately has been programs looking like they are streaming video. There is a Prime Time Wrestling episode up there now that looks like I’m streaming it instead of its usual quality. I would like to see WWE be more customer friendly with this service. Most of the time, they just leave you hanging on what the problem is. However, WWE Classics.com which is available on WWE.com as a streaming service is fantastic with their customer service. They post on the forum about any issues and take subscriber feedback along with interacting with subscribers. I just wish WWE Classics On Demand was that way too. It’s hard enough to get info sometimes on what programming is going to show up much less figure out problems. Sometimes, it feels like they are trying to keep it as a secret to us in case our programming that we’re supposed to get doesn’t show up.

Seth Green was on The View recently and he and Sherri Sheppard got into a discussion of their involvement with WWE. Seth talked about how great of a time that he had as being a guest host on Raw and how it was a dream come true for him. He commented on how being in the ring with those guys in the main event was one of the best moments of his life. He was nervous about it but said all of them kept telling him that they would take care out of him out there. He joked about Randy Orton giving him a stiffer kick in the chest and how he loved it saying how it was great that he got kicked by the viper. It was a really funny segment and you can really tell how much of a fan that he is.

WWE has announced the guest hosts for the next several weeks. James Roday and Dule Hill will guest host on Raw on January 25. Raw on February 1 will be guest hosted by William Shatner.

The TNA Genesis PPV is this Sunday night on PPV. Headlining the PPV will be AJ Styles defending the TNA title against Kurt Angle. Also, this will mark Hulk Hogan’s return to PPV. Where will TNA go with the company’s direction? Well, we’ll have to wait and see. I’m excited to see what will happen on this show and also on this week’s Impact.

That is it for this week. Wishing all of you a great week!! Take care and God bless!!

TNA Year One Documentary - DVD Review - January 11, 2010

Over the Christmas holidays, I watched the TNA Year One documentary DVD. It was an interesting documentary which only covers the first year of the company’s existence. Lots of people were interviewed for it including Jeff Jarrett, Dixie Carter, Jeremy Borash, Don West, Mike Tenay, Bob Ryder, AJ Styles, Christopher Daniels, James Storm, Chris Harris, and many more. The documentary starts with talking about how the company was put together and all the planning that went into it. The decision to go straight to PPV was discussed as a way of going about getting TV without having a TV network. The company knew that they couldn’t get TV at that time cause wrestling just wasn’t wanted at the time so the weekly PPV concept was tried. They knew it was a gamble to get fans to spend money on just giving a company a chance. Interesting story from the beginning where they talk about the first show. They had a wrestler named Cheeks who wrestled in the dark match before the PPV portion of the show went live. He bounced off the ropes and broke part of the ring. Keep in mind that they are about go live right after this and starting with a hot six man tag team match. So, Ron and Don Harris go to ringside immediately to begin working on the ring. What I loved to is that they played the communication backstage about the scramble of what to do while this work was done. The plan was made to switch the segments to open the show with the legends being introduced and then go to the six man tag team match. As the show goes live, you can see the Harris brothers running away from ringside as they had just gotten the ring fixed. They weren’t sure if it was going to hold or not but they did what they could. It held up and the show went fine. You get to hear stories of the struggle of that first year of TNA with so many people predicting their demise. Talk turns to talent being signed with some being signed immediately after watching a Bert Prentice show in Nashville which featured Harris vs. Storm. They were signed right after that into TNA. The company hit financial problems and that was when Dixie Carter got into the mix. It is really interesting to hear just how hands on that she was with the company immediately including physically working on the set. How ironic of a story too with Jarrett and Carter talking about how they lived next to each other before they worked together. They met at one time at the same apartment complex that they lived at and then would become business partners. The move to the Asylum in Nashville is talked about and I’m glad to see that this was discussed big cause that building really was important to TNA. Everyone puts over how the Asylum is always going to be an important time in TNA’s history. Harris and Storm talk about how they were put together as a tag team but neither had any interest in it. They wanted to be singles stars but ended up making magic together. The X-Division is focused on saying that the company needed something to stand out as unique. The Jarrett/Raven feud is talked about with how big it was for the company. Don West talks about arriving at the Asylum and having to park forever away cause there was such a crowd there to see the match. They show footage of the huge line there trying to get inside for the match. They had to turn away thousands. Everyone talks about how they were so glad to have that experience of the first year of TNA to talk about knowing what a fight it was to keep going but that they wouldn’t want to go through it again. During the documentary, there are year one moments thrown in showing big happenings. One thing that I found odd was that Vince Russo’s name was not mentioned once in the documentary but footage involving him is shown in the year one moments. I remember watching the first three shows of TNA’s weekly PPV’s and enjoying them. Then, I heard Russo was on board and I bailed. LOL. I had seen enough of his booking over the last couple of years that I didn’t need anymore. Overall, I enjoyed the DVD. I do think that there needed to be some more footage of shows and matches kind of mixed in to break up the interviews at times. One thing that I thought was kind of glossed over was the big names that they brought in over the first year. There is an extra that just shows the various talent but I thought it deserved more. Another extra worth checking out is the Curt Hennig tribute where various talent talks about Hennig being in TNA for a little while and then discussing his passing. The Storm/Harris match that got them signed by the company is shown on the DVD in highlights. That was fun to watch. Matches included as extras include: AJ Styles vs. Jerry Lynn vs. Psichosis vs. Low-Ki to crown the first X-Division champion, Lynn vs. AJ vs. Low-Ki in the triple ladder match for the X-Division title, AMW vs. The New Church for the tag team titles, and Jeff Jarrett vs. Raven for the championship. I give this DVD a thumbs up. I enjoyed it.

Monday Night Wars Return For One Night, TNA Impact Head To Head With WWE Raw Live - January 4, 2010

What a night!! That is all that can be said. If you didn’t tune into the Monday Night battle tonight between TNA and WWE, you really missed out. Wrestling was really fun again. Remember how fun that it used to be? Well, tonight brought back those memories of just how fun it used to be to have competition. Tonight was fun. I had chats going, text messages coming in, and it was clear just how many people had tuned in tonight. This was a very fun night and I had a blast watching it. I’ve taken about six pages of notes on both shows so this is how I’ll recap it. I’m going to cover each show from beginning to end as it happened. Then, I’ll go into some random thoughts and then go into my overall feelings on each show. How did I watch the shows? Well, just like always. I never channel flipped back in the day and I didn’t tonight. I watch one straight through and then the other. I stayed with TNA Impact through its duration. Then, I watched Raw. There were rumors and news coming out all day about who was backstage at Impact but I avoided all of it. I wanted no spoilers on this amazing and unpredictable night of wrestling. Tonight, we had debuts, returns, Hulk Hogan debuting for TNA, and the chills of seeing Shawn Michaels and Bret Hart in the same ring for the first time since 1997. Ok, I should also point out that it is 1am and I am not going to proofread this beast of a List. LOL. If there are any misspellings or anything, I apologize.

Let’s start with TNA Impact. Impact kicked off at 7pm. Hot crowd in Orlando at the Impact Zone. Many matches were promoted. The show opened with the steel asylum match for the X-Division title. In the match were the Motor City Machineguns, Jay Lethal, Consequences Creed, Suicide, and The Amazing Red. Hot opener with a lot of action. The way to win the match was to climb out through the hole in the top of the cage. The finish had Homicide getting a baton and then started nailing everyone with it. The bell was rang and the match was declared a no contest. Homicide went to climb out as everyone went after him. The fans were going nuts over the finish furious with it and they were having to drop the audio on one word of what they thought of it. Then, some familiar music hit. I found it funny that not many reacted or knew the music. Shot number one fired at WWE. It’s Jeff Hardy’s music. Jeff arrives through the crowd. He jumps over the rail and Homicide goes after him. Hardy takes out Homicide nailing him with a chair on the ramp and also nailing a twist of fate. Hardy climbs to the top of the cage sitting atop looking at the fans. Hulk Hogan’s limo is shown on its way to the building. Kevin Nash is interviewed by Christy Hemme. Nash says that he got a phone call from Hogan that he was on his way and that he wasn’t alone. He talked about how Hogan is always with the number one promotion and how this will be a great thing for him all around. His friend will be there and it will be more money for him. Tara defends the Knockouts title against ODB. ODB ends up winning the title after a handful of tights. After the match, Tara laid out ODB with the widow’s peak. Backstage, a limousine arrives and shot two at WWE is fired. Ric Flair gets out of it. Later, Mike Tenay says that Flair is in AJ Styles’ locker room. We are shown footage of Mick Foley arriving at the venue but being denied access. He is barred from the building but Foley promises to not disrupt things with Hogan saying he just wants to see it live. Bobby Lashley and Kristal arrive in the ring. Kristal announces that Lashley has an announcement. He got a big babyface reaction from the crowd and then it turned to a heel reaction quickly. Kristal makes the announcement for him that he is going to pursue MMA and wants his TNA release criticizing wrestling. The reason given is that he has better things to do. Backstage, we see The Beautiful People playing poker. Also backstage, we see Scott Hall and Sean Waltman being denied access into the building. They started to choke the security staff. We see Hogan’s limo arrive but then a second limo arrives next to it. Someone jumps out of it and then gets into the Hogan limo. After the commercial, we see that Hall and Waltman have gotten into the building and are in the crowd. To no surprise, Hulk Hogan walks out at 7:55pm. 5 minutes before Raw goes on the air. It reminded me of the WCW days. Big reaction for Hogan and he arrives in black along with the black beard. Hogan gets in the ring and hypes up TNA and how excited that he is to be there. Hall and Waltman try to get over the barricade but are stopped by security. Hogan sees this going on and gets security to back off. They make their way into the ring. Hall and Waltman talk about how they had to be there and how they were there ready to make the big money once again. Hogan then said how that wasn’t how things were going to be. Things were different now and that it was time to grow up and make things right for the business. Hall and Waltman weren’t happy with this at all saying that things were going to change with or without Hogan. Kevin Nash arrives and says to let Hogan have his role. Hogan says that it isn’t a role but is instead what he promised Dixie Carter, change. Nash says that sure is different from the phone call conversations that he had had with Hogan. Nash asked when Hogan went so corporate? This brings out Eric Bischoff as things were starting to get testy between the sides. Bischoff says that communication is the new style of how to do things learning from the past. Bischoff adds that everyone is going to have to earn their position in the company. Nash says he understands that and says they’ll see Bischoff later. That leaves Hogan and Bischoff in the ring. They talk of how everyone is under a microscope and how it is time to take the company to the top. Dixie Carter was shown at ringside during this. Bischoff asks for the format of the show from someone in the back and then tears it up. He hands out a new format and says changes begin now. As they finish up, the camera points up and we see Sting up in the rafters. Another match as the Knockouts tag team titles are defended with Taylor Wilde and Sarita defending against Awesome Kong and Hamada. This was a really fun match. Oh, and during this match, we see that the Machineguns have been knocked out backstage. The finish of the match has Wilde being put into the post and knocked out by Hamada. Kong lifts up Sarita in a powerbomb position. Hamada jumps off with a dropkick to Sarita as Kong lands it in a powerbomb. Kong and Hamada get the win and are the new champions. Back to the poker game and in walks Val Venis. He joins in saying that he is taking the game to the next level. Yeah, it was a strip poker game. Yeah, whatever to these segments. Back to Mick Foley trying to get into the building. Security won’t let him in and he says that he has another plan. Then, The Nasty Boys try to get in and won’t be let in either. Next, we get a squash match with Matt Morgan and Hernandez defeating Raven and Dr. Stevie when Stevie just gets destroyed and pinned by Morgan. Christy interviews the Pope backstage and he is interrupted by Orlando Jordan who says that he was invited by Hogan to the show. The Pope competes next against Desmond Wolfe and gets the win!!?? Pope wins with a small package. We then see two things. Jarrett arrives in the building. Rhino is shown knocked out backstage. AJ Styles is interviewed and says he is excited to see what is next from Hogan. Bischoff walks in and says that the match with AJ and Angle won’t be happening at the PPV but will instead happen tonight on Impact. Jeff Jarrett does a promo in the ring talking of the company’s history and how he built it. He talks of the critics and how no one gave them a chance. He says that yet here he is standing in a TNA ring on Monday night and how the best was yet to come. Hogan then appears on the screen saying that he was tired of hearing Jarrett say “I” to everything. Hogan says that Jarrett ran the company into the ground quickly and that Dixie Carter was the one that resurrected the company. Hogan points out that he is now Dixie’s business partner. He tells Jarrett to get ready to compete in the future and earn his spot as well and that it was time for the young guys to get a shot. Daniels is interviewed but it is stopped after Jeremy Borash is shown panicked on the phone. It’s from Mick Foley and he is trying to get into the building. Borash goes to stop him. Jeff Hardy is shown backstage painting and hanging out with Shannon Moore. Moore says that it is time for them to go meet with “the big man”. Next is Samoa Joe taking on Abyss. Really solid match. The finish has Abyss shoving the ref away which gives Joe an opening to nail Abyss with a chair without the ref seeing it. Joe then hooks the choke for the tap out win. Kristal is shown backstage talking to Bischoff as she demands a meeting with Hogan over Lashley wanting out of his contract. Beer Money is shown knocked out backstage. Cut to the door again and we see the Nastys still trying to get into the building. Their buddy and Hogan’s buddy, Bubba The Love Sponge shows up to try and help them get in. He distracts the door guy and sneaks them in behind him. Jeff Hardy and Shannon Moore are shown leaving the building with envelopes which I assume was contracts. Girls swarm Hardy and he gives them the painting that he had done. The Nasty Boys are shown destroying Team 3D’s locker room including spray painting their pics. Team 3D is in Japan which is why they aren’t at the show. Main event time as AJ Styles defends the TNA title against Kurt Angle. What a match that this is!! First, the masked man attacked AJ near the beginning of the match. Angle then threw the guy out of the ring cause Angle wanted his shot at the gold. He helped AJ up so they could get the match going again. Lots of counters and reversals. Angle kept kicking out of repeated Styles Clash finishers. He also kicked out of a 450. Styles continues to counter the anklelock. He also kicks out of repeated Angle slams including one off of the top rope. Great fan chants during this one including “this is wrestling” and “who needs Bret?” Ric Flair walks out on the stage near the end of the match. Before the finish, he walks to the back. AJ hits the Styles Clash followed by the 450 to get the win. The two embrace after the match. Hogan arrives on the stage saying how the two of them were the two best wrestlers in the world. Hogan’s words are cut short when someone whispers something in his ear. It was about Foley getting into the building. Foley is shown interrupting the poker game and gets sent down to Hogan’s office. Instead of seeing Hogan, Foley runs into Bischoff. Foley said that he had always said that there was no way that he’d ever work for Bischoff again. So, he was going to get fired by punching Bischoff. Foley is attacked by Nash, Hall, and Waltman. Hogan walks in and pauses the action. Not sure if he was wanting it stopped or what and the show goes off of the air.

Other notes from Impact. Spike TV ran a countdown on the screen throughout the day in the corner promoting Hulk Hogan’s debut for TNA. TNA was the number one trending topic on Twitter for a while tonight. After they announced it on TV, I did check and sure enough there it was. I thought that was a very cool moment and a sign that people were watching. I called all along that we would not see Hogan until 8pm. Hogan walked out at 7:55 pm. I laughed at the whole Lashley thing cause he had this announcement but yet Kristal was making it for him. My thought was ok, that has to be a heel move but he was getting the face reaction. About that time, the fans turned on him. I just thought that was bizarre to have a babyface doing that sort of thing but it all made sense in the end. I’m hoping that Bubba The Love Sponge isn’t going to be taking over for Jeremy Borash on interviews. The Nastys trying to get it was pretty funny and, come on, you knew we were going to see them as close as Knobbs is to Hogan. Interesting that Hogan came out to the old nWo mix. Let me fill you in on this. WCW released a CD over ten years ago that was a nWo CD with different mixes of the song. That was one of the versions on it and I assume that Jimmy Hart owns it if they’re using it. Jimmy owns a lot of that music. I really was surprised at just how few of people in the Impact Zone knew that Jeff Hardy music. Wow, you book a lame finish with that steel asylum match and the fans let you know about it. At least Hardy’s arrival was a nice payoff. I liked Lethal’s really classic Savage look with the red tights and yellow boots with the white stars.

Overall thoughts. Very happy with the show. Lots of fun and the first hour was awesome with all the surprises. It just gave you this feeling right off the bat that this was going to be an unpredictable night and they were ready to make some noise. AJ and Angle was awesome!!! Incredible match. Did I like everything on this show? No. There were some finishes that had me annoyed. When the show opened with the no contest in the cage, I thought uh oh. Good match and lousy finish. That has been a problem with the company so that had me a bit concerned. The whole Hogan, Hall, Nash, Waltman, Bischoff thing is interesting and I’m into that. The squash on Raven and Stevie was annoying to me. What was up with Wolfe losing to the Pope? That baffled me and concerned me a bit. Jeff Hardy and Ric Flair’s arrival to TNA was great. Loved the knockouts matches especially the tag match. Abyss and Joe had a really fun match too.

WWE Raw opened right up with Bret Hart being introduced to the crowd. Big ovation for Bret. Bret talks of how, yep, things are a little frozen now with him back there. Bret says that Vince has always find a way to stop his return. He thanks the fans for not forgetting him and says he owes everything to them. He goes on to talk about how he won the 1993 King Of The Ring in that building and mentioned how Jerry Lawler attacked him afterwards. He says hi to Lawler which was funny. Bret then says that he has 12 years to get off of his chest and calls out Shawn Michaels. Shawn arrives and seeing the two of them face to face was just wild. Talk turns to burying the hatchet and moving on. Shawn said that Bret deserved what happened in Montreal because he disrespected the business and disrespected Shawn. Shawn says that, yes, he was in on it while Bret adds that he rests his case. Shawn says there is a part of him that has no regrets but also adds that he has changed. Shawn added that he always respected Bret but there were times when he couldn’t stand the sight of him. Shans says that when he thinks of Bret, he doesn’t think of Montreal but instead thinks of Anaheim and WrestleMania 12 cause the two of them did what people thought they couldn’t do with the ironman match. Shawn does say that he is ready to move on and asks Bret if he is ready too? Bret says that Shawn is right and it is time to move on and that their careers shouldn’t be remembered just for that moment. Bret offers a handshake and Shawn accepts it. Shawn goes to walk out but then pauses. Shawn walks back and the two hug in the ring. Shawn leaves but then Bret calls out Vince McMahon. No Vince. After the commercial break, Josh Mathews talks to Vince and Vince says that he was in a meeting and that was why he didn’t respond. Vince adds that he knew nothing of what had just happened but wasn’t going to be called out. The news is told of Melina’s injury and there will be a tournament to crown a new Divas champion. First round match is held with Maryse taking on Brie Bella. She is accompanied by her sister and they do the switch in the ring. Maryse sees the switch happen and it doesn’t make a difference as Maryse wins with a DDT. Miz arrives and talks to Maryse about how he might just call her back if she wins the title. Miz does commentary on a fatal four way match to detemine his number one contender. MVP is able to defeat Mark Henry, Jack Swagger, and Carlito. MVP faces off with Miz after the match. Jericho is shown trying to work a deal with Bret Hart. Jericho says that Bret can get his ultimate revenge by ringing the bell early as a special ref when Jericho hooks the walls on Shawn. Bret says that he is over it all and not into it. Bret points out that Jericho was the one that screamed the loudest in the dungeon years ago. DX takes on JeriShow for the tag team titles. Hornswoggle interferes and Jericho takes him down. The pedigree is countered into the walls by Jericho. Jericho turns to sit down on it and gets superkicked. Triple H gets the pin and Jericho is gone from Raw once again. Randy Orton goes to Vince McMahon trying to get a deal done. Vince says that he isn’t doing a deal with Orton as he sees as what Orton did to him as worse than what Bret did. Orton’s deal was that he would kick Bret later on and he wanted a number 30 entry into the Rumble. Vince wanted nothing to do with it. Orton runs into Legacy backstage where they tell him that he has to win against Kofi tonight or they’re kicking him out of the group like he did to them last week. Sheamus goes to the ring and calls for a new challenger. He calls out anyone and Evan Bourne accepts it. Sheamus says that if Bourne can beat him tonight, he’ll give him a title match at the Rumble. Sheamus is able to kick out of the airbourne after Bourne nails it almost a minute in. Sheamus wins with the celtic cross. Next is Orton taking on Kofi. Kofi’s trouble in paradise kick is blocked by Orton as he puts his arms up. Orton then nails the RKO for the win. Legacy watched sitting at ringside and didn’t look thrilled that Orton had won. Vince McMahon arrives in the final segment saying that he doesn’t have to call Bret out since Shawn and Bret had buried the hatchet. Vince said that he had too. He goes into promoting next week’s guest host, Mike Tyson. However, Bret walks out to the ring and takes his jacket off. Vince says that he isn’t there to provoke Bret but does say that Bret did Montreal to himself. He says that he never forgot about getting spit on and getting punched in the locker room or the disrespect at the Hall Of Fame. Vince adds that he’s just being honest and wants two words from him, I’m sorry. Bret says that he has two words for him but they aren’t I’m sorry. Bret says that he is halfway to closure and is ready for the other half. Vince said that he thought he’d want to kick Bret in the guts when he came face to face with him but that he didn’t. He puts over Bret’s career and how great that he was. Really talks Bret up big. Vince offers a handshake and Bret accepts it. Vince then raises Bret’s arm to the fans. After the last one, Vince kicks Bret low and leaves Bret laying in the ring. Vince walks off and then Bret gets up looking at Vince from the ring. The show then goes off the air.

Other notes from Raw. Where was John Cena tonight? Well, he was previously booked to appear at the Fiesta Bowl flipping the coin for the game. You have to think that they regretted that. It was nice to see WWE pay tribute to Dr. Death Steve Williams. Well deserved. Yes, that new Bret Hart shirt is available at WWE Shop if you’re wanting it. Ok, I did laugh at the DX segment backstage with Hornswoggle. Shawn asking Triple H why he treats Hornswoggle like a kid was hilarious especially pointing out that “he has a beard!!”. I laughed out loud at that line!! Wow, Carlito and Mark Henry get no entrances at all. Then, when they come back from commercial, Henry is nowhere to be seen. Did I miss this SOS move from Kofi? Cole was calling it like it was a move that he has been doing. After the show, the roster came out and paid tribute to Bret including carrying him around the ring. WWE.com has already posted footage of it which you can check out at this link: http://www.wwe.com/content/media/video/vms/raw/2010/january1-7/13169622

Overall thoughts. I thought this was a solid show for the most part. It didn’t have as much fireworks as I thought it would. I really expected more out of Shawn and Bret. I honestly didn’t expect the whole truce thing especially so early. When the truce happened so early, I thought we’d see Shawn in the final segment. They definitely left the ending with Bret and Vince as a possibility for the future. The rest of the show was just business as usual. I will say that after watching Impact and how adrenaline packed and fast paced that it was, it was hard to get back to a slower pace with Raw.

How much reaction was this Monday night battle getting online? I’ve mentioned about TNA being the top trending topic on Twitter. Well, at 8:20pm, I looked again. TNA, Bret Hart, and Jeff Hardy were all top ten trending topics. So, you have three wrestling topics in the top ten on Twitter. Also, WWE was a trending topic in the last hour of Raw as well but TNA had that top spot all night of wrestling topics.

The strategy between TNA and WWE was fun. Here comes Hogan at 7:55pm and out comes Bret Hart right at the beginning of Raw. TNA planned things out well making a couple of big surprises known with Hardy and Flair in that first unopposed hour. Then, you close with a great AJ and Angle match for the last 30 minutes of the show.

Show Of The Night: Definitely giving this to TNA Impact.

Match Of The Night: AJ Styles vs. Kurt Angle on Impact. Great match!!

Line Of The Night: “He has a beard”. Shawn Michaels to Triple H about talking to Hornswoggle like he is a kid.

Sign Of The Night: On Impact: “Hey Vince, This Means War”. Yeah, the signs just aren’t as good as they used to be.

Moment Of The Night: Seeing Shawn Michaels and Bret Hart standing in the same ring together for the first time since Montreal in 1997.

Melina suffered a major injury at a house show in New Hampshire. She tore her ACL which will keep her out of action for a very long while. What a hit that is to the women’s division. One of the few really good in ring performers that WWE has in that division.

Paul Heyman has written an excellent blog on his preview thoughts of tonight’s head to head matchup of WWE and TNA.
http://heymanhustle.craveonline.com/articles/news/37888-paul-heyman-the-real-story-behindqthe-monday-night-war-2010q

A really classy sendoff for Tommy Dreamer last week on ECW. Dreamer has finished up with the company after asking to be let go. I saw the spoilers for ECW and that Dreamer was going to be getting a tribute and tuned in. I watched his last match with Zack Ryder with the storyline being that if Ryder won, Dreamer would leave ECW forever. So, Dreamer did the job and put over Ryder. Dreamer then got on the mic afterwards and spoke to the crowd about the second time that he had ever seen WWF wrestling was in that building and quoted the exact seats that he was in. He added that there was a Piper’s Pit on that show. He talked about how much the letters ECW meant to him and how the fans were family to him. He talked of the respect that he had for everyone backstage. Tommy finished up and then took off the ECW shirt. He kissed the logo and laid it down on the mat. Such an incredible moment and it really was that final ECW moment. The last of the ECW originals leaves and he knew that it was the end of an era for him. The letters that he fought so hard for all these years coming to a close. It was a very emotional speech from Tommy and his wife, Beulah McGuillicutty, and two little girls were in the front row. He went and hugged them. Tommy then took his two girls back up the ramp with him. Just an emotional moment to watch and if you’re an old school ECW fan like myself, it really was this amazing finale moment to see. ECW never has been what it could have been since being resurrected by WWE. The old ECW has been gone for a long time now. However, this moment brought it all back and Dreamer was able to say a great tearful farewell to something that has meant so much to him and so many people. It really was the feeling of that this was the last ECW moment that had any ties to what it was. Thank you Tommy. This isn’t the last of Tommy Dreamer though. I just know that we’re going to see him again soon and he’ll be in a locker room full of his ECW friends. It doesn’t take a genius to see where I’m going with that. I’d be surprised if Dreamer didn’t end up in TNA. If it does happen, I just hope that TNA uses him to his ability. If you’ve been a Dreamer and ECW fan like me back in the day, you knew what Dreamer was capable of and is still capable of. WWE just never used that. Why? I don’t know. We could go over the list of ECW original names that WWE did not use decently and we’ll all be confused over what they were thinking. Tommy Dreamer bled ECW. That guy loved that company and fought for it all the way. Even over the resurrection of it by WWE, you would often see comments online from Dreamer that voiced his frustration over what it had turned out to be. When you think of ECW, Dreamer is going to be one of the first names that you think of. He gave so much to making the company happen and seeing it progress. Thank you Tommy for all the incredible ECW memories!!

Closing out the List this week is the sad news to talk about as Dr. Death Steve Williams passed away. Williams had recently had his cancer come back on him after beating it years ago. He had an awful, awful battle with it. You talk about a guy that put up an incredible fight against it. Williams was 49.

That is it for this week. What a fun night to be a wrestling fan again. Hope you all enjoyed it!! I know that I did. Have a great week!! Take care and God bless!!