Welcome to the “I’m glad they decided to get some mileage out of that Cena/Batista spot on the steps from last week” edition of The Wrestling List. Solid Raw tonight with WWE setting up some more storyline and match possibilities going into WrestleMania.
Tonight’s Raw had Nascar’s Carl Edwards as guest host. He didn’t have a major part on the show just as Shatner last week. The focus seems to be keeping the guest hosts to a minimum as we get closer to WrestleMania. There were several happenings that WWE did on this show. First, DX took on CM Punk/Gallows and ShowMiz. Earlier in the night, Shawn talked to Triple H about wanting to take DX to WrestleMania to compete for the first time but Triple H said that he had other goals obviously since he is in the Chamber and Shawn isn’t. This was an elimination match with Punk and Gallows being eliminated first. Shawn countered out of the GTS and hit the superkick to pin Punk. DX was in control at the end when Triple H hit a spinebuster. Shawn tagged himself into the match which led to a stareoff between Shawn and Triple H. Miz then ran the two into each other and Miz rolled up Shawn for the pinfall. Show and Miz are the new tag team champions. DX sat in the ring stunned over the loss. Backstage, Shawn went to Teddy Long who was at the show. Shawn demanded a trade to Smackdown. Then, Long could replace someone in the chamber match with Shawn. Long said that the match was already set and nothing could be changed. Shawn went off about it grabbing Long out of frustration. Triple H stopped Shawn saying that things had gotten out of control and asked if he was just going to throw everything away over this obsession including DX and his career. Shawn then said “my career is over” and superkicked Long. Shawn then walked off. Really good backstage segment. John Cena took on Ted Dibiase. Cena came to the ring with a game face on and just destroyed Dibiase. He threw him into the barrier and then hooked the STF on the floor. The match never got going. Cena got in the ring talking about Batista and the attack last week. Yes, they showed the footage of the post Raw stuff with Batista attacking Cena and laying him out on the ring steps in Nashville. Cena said that he didn’t care why Batista did it but wanted him out in the ring. No Batista so Cena starts calling Vince out saying that he knew Vince was behind it. Vince does arrive with a bunch of security. Cena said it would take more than ten security guys to stop him. Vince went right in the ring saying that he wasn’t afraid and didn’t need the security. Vince admitted paying off Batista for the attack on Bret but said he had nothing to do with the attack on Cena. Vince said that maybe Batista just didn’t like Cena like he didn’t himself. He said that he liked Cena business wise and then Cena went off again saying how it was all about the money with Vince. Cena went on to talk about how he performed for the love and energy of the fans. He also mentioned that he heard Bret say that he wanted to face Vince at WrestleMania. Cena gets Vince all fired up telling him to either get your WrestleMania moment or stand by the money. Vince then says yes to everyone’s face after being baited by Cena. Cena said that Vince had one more person to say it face to face to. Vince runs the footage from last week of the attack on Bret. When the footage finishes, Bret gets in the ring after coming through the crowd. Bret starts hammering on Vince and then security jumps in. Bret takes out several of them. Vince then walks up the ramp saying that he had changed his mind and says no to WrestleMania. He tells Bret that he deserves to keep getting screwed. Bret goes nuts after that destroying electrical equipment around the staging area. He then destroys monitors at ringside which was very Montreal like. How many times are we going to see that lately between WWE and TNA? In other happenings on Raw, Orton took on Cody Rhodes. Earlier in the night, there was definite dissention between the group. Orton was in control until Sheamus came out to distract Orton. Rhodes hit the crossrhodes for the win. Sheamus then attacked Orton after the match. Rhodes ran in with a chair to run off Sheamus. The opening segment had Sheamus confronting Raw guest host, Carl Edwards, wanting special treatment in the chamber match. Christian made his way out and talked of how the ECW roster would be free agents in a couple of weeks. Christian challenged Sheamus for a champion vs. champion tonight. The match took place with Sheamus winning it. Carl Edwards made matches for next week which will be the Chamber participants facing off with each other. It will be Orton vs. Sheamus, Kofi vs. Dibiase, and Triple H vs. Cena. Gail Kim defeated Jillian with Maryse doing commentary. After the match, Maryse came in the ring and hyped up Gail. She spoke some words in French too which was probably something bad. LOL. The two shook hands.
Other notes from Raw. Just pointing out that I called the tag team name “ShowMiz” weeks ago. LOL. I thought Edwards did a solid job tonight. I was waiting to see if we’d get his trademark backflip. Edwards is a WWE fan and a friend of Cena’s so I knew he’d be better than his Nascar counterparts of months ago. Funny moment with Hornswoggle getting out of the car when it drove into the building. I liked the Shawn stuff tonight. Really good. I like the whole storyline of Shawn just losing it cause he can’t get Undertaker at WrestleMania. His obsession is getting his focus off. Curious to see where they go from here with it. Jerry Springer will guest host Raw next week. Wow, they are going to do Cena vs. Triple H again on free TV? WWE really doesn’t mind giving away that match free for sure.
The first Hall Of Fame inductee for 2010 was announced tonight which was Ted Dibiase. They did a great video package of him. Seeing him kick the basketball away from that little kid sure did bring back memories. Remember all of those things that Dibiase used to do like that? Ahh, memories of watching wrestling on Saturday mornings.
This has been talked about for a while now but WWE is pulling the plug on ECW. Vince McMahon announced that ECW will end on February 23 and that there will be a new show in its place called WWE NXT. NXT will stand for next generation. Vince did a speech during the show thanking the crew and superstars for making ECW a success. No mention of the original ECW and some of them have responded about it. Taz said this on his Twitter account: "So, WWE ending their "vision" of ECW (thank god). ANY ORIG ECW wrestlers get a thanks? How about Paul Heyman did he get a thanks? Classy move!" Tommy Dreamer had this response: "Many people have asked me why I left WWE. If you watched ECW tonight, a piece of the puzzle was revealed for my actions. Stay tuned". Let's get back to what Vince said though. Thanks for making ECW a success. It was anything but a success. We all hoped that ECW would be an alternative. We got that sign at the first One Night Stand of how great it could be if allowed to be. That was a great show. Then, the word came out before the second One Night Stand that ECW was being relaunched. We definitely saw signs of what the new ECW was going to be and it wasn't going to be pretty. My last great memory of this new ECW is going to be the night of the last time that WWE put their "vision" of ECW in front of a traditional ECW audience at the Hammerstein Ballroom. The "change the channel" chant during the Batista/Big Show match remains one of my favorite crowd chants ever to this day. The revival of ECW could have been such a money maker for WWE. Instead it became just another WWE show that looked like all the other shows with the ECW letters unfortunately on it. I'm just glad that the letters ECW are now off of this show or I'll call it what I called it a couple of years ago, WWECW.
WrestleMania 27 will take place on April 3, 2011 at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta.
I actually watched WWE Superstars for the first time last week since its return to see the video of Nashville. Nicely produced show. Solid matches and
Speaking of Nashville, I'm glad that WWE used that Cena/Batista footage from the post show last week. That was too big of an attack and steps spot to just not use. We all groaned in the building when Cena landed on those steps. It looked nasty. I did find the editing interesting making it look like Batista returned right after Cena helped Bret. In actuality, Cena wrestled Sheamus for several minutes before Batista returned for the attack.
During the State of TNA address recently, Eric Bischoff talked about Chris Jericho and how he didn't feel like Jericho was world champion material at the time. Well, Jericho fired back on his Twitter account saying "Bischoffs right I can't headline in TNA...cos I'm not in my 50s".
Hulk Hogan called into Rob Van Dam's radio show last week basically trying to recruit him into coming to TNA. The two talked for a little bit with Hogan saying that they would be going to Monday nights "sooner than later". RVD told Hogan that they needed to have a conversation off air. Well, that is interesting anyway.
The TNA Lockdown PPV on April 18 will be back on the road taking place at the Family Arena in St. Louis.
WWE Classics On Demand recently produced a show called 10 Count. It covered their list of the greatest WWE matches from the 2000's. Interesting list and I just thought it would be fun to go over it. Take some time to reflect on them. I'll start from number ten and work my way up the list.
10. Edge vs. John Cena - TLC Match - Unforgiven 2006. This is a very solid match. Edge and Cena have had one of the best feuds in recent years. Fun crowd reaction to this one and the Canadian crowd was definitely on the side of Edge.
9. Randy Orton vs. Mick Foley – Backlash 2004. This was the night that Mick Foley talks about with how hard that he was working to make Randy Orton's character. Get him to that next level. He definitely did that. This match also had one of the crazier thumb tack spots in it that I can remember. Orton taking the tacks full out. No shirt or anything to soften it. Orton full out lands right on the tacks and I about fell off of my seat when it happened.
8. Kurt Angle vs. Shawn Michaels – Vengeance 2005. Shawn vs. Angle in 2005 was a great series of matches to watch. You put two performers in the ring with each other with the capability of these two and magic will happen. Most people talk about their WrestleMania 21 match from earlier in the year so it was interesting to see this match make it over the other one.
7. Steve Austin vs. Triple H – 2 out of 3 Falls – No Way Out 2001. Fun match. This was the culmination of the whole build of their feud when the storyline was that Triple H had been the one that took out Austin with the car. Great two out of three falls match with each fall being a different kind of match. I still remember the stunned reaction when Triple H won this one.
6. Brock Lesnar vs. Eddie Guerrero – No Way Out 2004. This is probably the best match of Lesnar's wrestling career. Well, you have to throw Lesnar's matches with Angle in there as well obviously. This was the night that Eddie Guerrero catapulted to the top of the wrestling world by winning the WWE title. The crowd went nuts and the celebration with Eddie in the crowd afterwards will never be forgotten. Eddie deserved that moment and he got it.
5. Triple H vs. Cactus Jack – Cell Match – No Way Out 2000. Great series of matches between these two in that early part of 2000. I would have picked the Rumble 2000 match over this one easily from Madison Square Garden but this was a good one too. This ended Foley's career for about a month until he came back for WrestleMania 2000. Big spot in this match that everyone remembers is the backdrop to Foley sending him through the cell to the ring below. That was the play off of the big spot from King Of The Ring.
4. The Rock vs. Hulk Hogan – Wrestlemania 18. Great, great, great match. This match blew away everyone's expectations. This is still one of my favorite matches of all time. The crowd reaction in Toronto was amazing. Hogan goes in there as the heel and 60,000 plus are chanting Hogan. I'll never forget the tie up and then Hogan shoves him off. The crowd just jumps up and roars to life. They booed everything that Rock did. He would land a punch and they'd boo. Hogan would land a back suplex and the roof would go off. This was the night that Hulkamania was reborn and it was a night that all of us Hulkamaniacs got that remembrance of seeing our childhood hero go to battle. The crowd reaction took this match to a whole different level.
3. Hardys vs. Dudley Boyz vs. Edge & Christian – the first TLC match- Summerslam 2000. Great match here. I still think TLC 2 was the better one of their two TLC matches but this was a great one and launched the TLC series of matches that we still see today. All three teams worked hard in this match and put their bodies on the line. Back on the year in review show in 2000, they did a recap of this match interviewing everyone involved. The Dudleys talk about how Devon was up there hanging by the belt and how he is scared of heights. It was funny to hear Devon talk about it. He and Hardy hang from the belt kicking at each other and then Devon just crashes hard on the mat. Unbelievable.
2. Shawn Michaels vs. The Undertaker – Wrestlemania 25. My first reaction to seeing this at number two was ......what could possibly be number one??? LOL. This would be my number one match of the decade. Incredible match. I've said this many times that I don't throw the "greatest" this or that around hardly at all. This match was one of the best matches that I have ever seen. The chemistry that these two guys had in the ring was incredible. The crowd was just eating out of the palm of their hands. We had so many false finishes. Every time I'd think that has to be the finish, someone would kick out. The psychology of this match was so simple and great. Shawn would just kick and flail around whenever he realized that he was either caught or about to be caught in the tombstone putting over to the fans the seriousness of how he had to get out of that hold. I just kept hoping that there were guys in the back watching this match and taking notes. These two stole the show and it was a bad deal for the two title matches having to try and follow this one. I just don't know if having them rematch at WrestleMania XXVI would be a good thing or not cause how do you possibly top this one? You also have to factor in that Taker is hurting pretty bad right now physically from all the stories I've heard.
1. The Rock vs. Steve Austin – Wrestlemania 17. Oh, the night that they tried to turn Austin heel in Texas. This was a bad idea. Great match. Bad finish. Austin aligns with Vince and destroys The Rock with a chair. Austin pins him and the fans still go nuts. You can't turn Austin heel in Texas. It isn't going to work and didn't. Actually, his whole heel turn really didn't work. Fans still cheered him. There were a lot of things that WWF did wrong in 2001 and this was one of them. I do think that WrestleMania 17 was the best PPV of the decade though.
The TNA Against All Odds PPV is this Sunday on PPV. I haven’t seen Impact from last week but have heard good things about it. Here is the lineup for the PPV this Sunday. AJ Styles defends the TNA title against Samoa Joe. The 8 Card Stud Tournament takes place to determine the top contender for the TNA title which includes Kurt Angle, Desmond Wolfe, Hernandez, and Ken Anderson. Team 3D takes on The Nasty Boys. I’m sure more will be announced on Thursday’s Impact.
Have a great week!! Take care and God bless!!
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