Raw, Smackdown, TNA Bound For Glory Results, Bragging Rights Preview, & More - October 19, 2009

Welcome to the “when I looked at the clock near the time of the Shawn/Jericho match, I realized we weren’t going to get a match” edition of The Wrestling List. That figures too cause that was the match that I was looking forward to.

Rupp Arena hosted Smackdown last week and here is a recap of the show. Teddy Long opened up the show announcing Chris Jericho, the team captain of Smackdown. Jericho talked trash on DX and then was interrupted by Kane. Kane was saying how he was going to be a co-captain. Jericho said that was his idea all along for him to be in that role which was pretty funny. Smackdown team qualifying matches took place all night. Dolph Ziggler qualified by defeating Finlay and Mike Knox in a triple threat match. Finlay nailed Knox with the shilleigheigh (yeah, I’m sure that isn’t how you spell it, LOL) but Ziggler stole the victory by pinning Knox. Next was a tag team qualfiier. Cryme Tyme defeated The Hart Dynasty when JTG pinned Tyson Kidd. Eric Escobar defeated Matt Hardy to qualify. Escobar is Vickie Guerrero’s new man. Vickie got the distraction of Matt which led to Eric getting the pin on Hardy. Drew McIntyre was the last one to qualify by defeating R Truth. In other action, Rey Mysterio got a win on Batista in the main event. Rey hit a 619 and then went for the springboard which was caught. Batista went to hit the Batista bomb but Rey countered it into a rana. Rey got the win but Batista’s shoulder was up with the ref not seeing it. Batista argued the call with the ref but then let it go. He congratulated Rey and left the ring. CM Punk hit the ring and attacked Rey with the GTS. Punk took off through the crowd. Batista ran back to the ring to help Rey. Really good back and forth between John Morrison and The Miz as they reunited on The Dirt Sheet. They talked trash on one another. I really liked the line of Morrison’s by saying that Raw had become a cheap version of Saturday Night Live. You know, it really does remind me of SNL now that I think about it with a little bit of wrestling thrown in. The talk was how teams break up and one goes on to super stardom while the other goes nowhere. That brought up The Rockers with them arguing over who would be Marty Jannetty. The divas had a segment backstage with Mickie and Beth both making their statement to Michelle and the Women’s title.

This week’s Raw was a better show than last week. It had more wrestling on it which I liked but I was hoping for more. Cena and Triple H was good but I was really looking forward to another Shawn Michaels/Chris Jericho match. Tonight’s show was guest hosted by Snoop Dogg. I thought he did a solid job. He’s a long time WWE fan and also does good with his appearances. He got in some action as well getting to throw some shots at Chavo. DX talked about the Smackdown team including doing a lot of comedy. They introduced their team. Basically, the problems started with the team not getting along. DX then announced that the team would then be in action. Not including DX of course. So, Henry, Big Show, Kofi, Swagger, and Rhodes took on the team of MVP, Bourne, Primo, Chavo, and Masters. The idea was that if anyone from Team Raw lost the match, they would be replaced by the person who pinned them. The finish had Cody hitting the crossrhodes on to Primo. Swagger then tagged himself in and made the pin on Primo. Swagger stole the win from Cody. This started problems between them and then the whole team ended up going at it. DX was watching from the monitor in the back at this time. Later, John Cena took on Triple H. This was hyped as Cena’s possible last match on Raw. Lots of counters and kick outs to finishers. Cena kicked out of the pedigree while Triple H was able to kick out of the adjustment. The finish did have Triple H winning with the pedigree. After the match, they shook hands. Cena got up and saluted the fans with a look of knowing this could be his last Raw match. The show finished with the Shawn Michaels/Chris Jericho match. Well, it didn’t happen. Jericho got on the mic instead and brought out his Smackdown team. Shawn was on his own till Triple H brought out a reunited Team Raw. They faced off with Triple H telling Jericho that what brought them back together was their common hatred for Jericho, the team, and Smackdown in general. Vickie Guerrero arrived saying that she was a consultant for the team and denied the fight happening. Triple H mocked Jericho about listening to his boss and then said that they don’t work for Vickie and Team Raw started the fight. The show went off the air with the brawl going on. Snoop Dogg set up a match with Orton taking on Dibiase. Dibiase said he had been trying to call Orton all week but got no response. Orton walked in on the interview saying that Dibiase would do the right thing tonight and show respect by not fighting back against him. Dibiase’s excuse of the pin last week was saying that he did what he had to do to get a win adding that Orton would have done the same thing. The match took place with Orton landing a shot and then he would stare at Dibiase. Dibiase would look furious and then Orton would land a kick. This kept going including Orton shoving Dibiase. Dibiase then shoved Orton back and Orton landed on the mat. Dibiase then backed off and then Orton hit him with a RKO for the pinfall. After The Miz called out Jannetty last week, Snoop appeared replacing Miz’s opponent for tonight. Marty Jannetty was the opponent and got to have a decently competitive match with Miz. Miz won with the skull crushing finale. Melina defended the Divas title against Jillian Hall who was accompanied by Chavo. Hornswoggle stopped Chavo from interfering and then Melina hit the split legdrop for the win. After the match, Chavo went after Hornswoggle but Snoop Dogg ran out to save him. Snoop then landed some shots on Chavo. The divas came to the ring and everyone danced including Hornswoggle as well.

Other notes from Raw. Great tribute to Captain Lou Albano tonight on Raw. I’m not sure that mocking the Smackdown team on how nobody knows who they are is the best way to build a PPV match. Why? Well, because the team does have talent on it that people don’t know. LOL. I’m not sure that WWE making fun of the Triple H/Kane angle was a bright thing to do when Linda is trying to fight in politics and they are bringing that stuff up against her. Yes, the people fighting against her have brought up some of the more tasteless angles that WWE has done over the years and that has been one brought up in the last week. I did laugh at Triple H bringing up Kofi’s accent being gone. That has been discussed a lot lately with wondering when that character change happened. Wow, Mickie James didn’t even get put on the Smackdown Divas team. She was replaced by Natalya who barely gets to wrestle anymore. That music video of the Cena/Orton feud was really well produced which aired tonight. Their production team is just amazing at putting together video packages like that especially set to mainstream music. Isn’t it kind of silly to promote this as possibly Cena’s last match on Raw? They do cross promotional shows all the time. Even if he loses on Sunday, the odds are that Cena would be on the next three hour Raw which is coming up soon. I did laugh at Santino when he walked in cause I got the Charlie Brown/Snoop Dogg joke immediately. Wow, WWE sure was balancing that kids rating tonight during that whole segment with Snoop Dogg lighting……candles. Did anyone else laugh at the “did you know” segment which asked if we knew that they were the longest running entertainment program? Yes, we did know that. You remind us of it at least five times every show. I’m not sure why you would have Triple H go over John Cena right before Cena’s big iron man match where he is going in as the challenger. That just didn’t make much sense to me other than making Triple H look bigger.

Wow, how weak does the Smackdown team look against Team Raw? That fatal four way on Smackdown really took a lot of star power out of that elimination match. I just don’t get how you build this match with so many unknowns on the Smackdown side especially when you have them being mocked as nobody’s. The star power is very one sided for Raw. It didn’t help that they put Show on the Raw side when he would have at least added some star power to the Smackdown side. Smackdown has some young guys with potential but not enough has been seen of them yet. Escobar and McIntyre are being thrown right in there with not much known about them. I’m wondering if this match turns into a squash with Jericho being the only one left battling.

Next week’s Raw will be guest hosted by Nascar’s Kyle Busch and Joey Lagano. When I saw that Busch would be the host, I had to look on the schedule to see where Raw is next week. I was kind of surprised to see that it takes place in Buffalo, NY which is out of Nascar country for the most part. If you aren’t familiar with either, expect to hear a lot of boos for Busch. He has become Nascar’s bad boy. Lagano is a youngster who recently started driving the #20 that used to be driven by Tony Stewart before Tony left to form his own team this year.

TNA held their Bound For Glory PPV last night which is of course their WrestleMania show of the year. The show opened with the TNA X Division title match with Amazing Red defeating Suicide, Alex Shelley, Chris Sabin, and Daniels. Daniels did suffer a separated shoulder and hurt his neck during the match taking a nasty bump off of the Ultimate X wires. Sarita and Taylor Wilde defeated The Beautiful People to retain the Knockouts tag team titles. Eric Young defeated Kevin Nash and Hernandez to win the Legends title when Young pinned Nash. The Full Metal Mayhem match featured Team 3D taking on Beer Money, The British Invasion and Booker T/Scott Steiner for the TNA and IWGP tag team titles. The belts hung above the ring and that was the way to win. Devon was able to grab the IWGP tag belt to win those for Team 3D. A few minutes later, The British Invasion was able to win the TNA tag team titles. ODB defeated Awesome Kong and Tara in the Knockouts title match. Bobby Lashley defeated Samoa Joe but Joe never tapped out. The ref called for the bell since Joe was out of it in the submission. The crowd was much more into Samoa Joe. The LA crowd was booing Lashley. Joe also wrestled this match with the flu. In the Monster’s Ball match, Abyss defeated Mick Foley which also had Dr. Stevie as the special referee. Lots of nasty spots in this one. The biggest was Daffney being chokeslammed on to a barbed wire board. Abyss took out all three of them and counted the three count with Stevie’s hand. Kurt Angle defeated Matt Morgan. The crowd was very mixed on Angle and Morgan. The finish had Morgan catching Angle’s moonsault attempt but Angle rolled up Morgan for the win. Then it was main event time with AJ Styles defending against Sting. If Sting loses, he would walk away from wrestling. AJ was able to defeat Sting with the pele followed by a splash to retain the title. Sting and AJ shook hands afterwards. Sting let AJ have the moment in the ring with the victory. AJ called Sting back to the ring to speak for the fans. He thanked the fans and put over AJ’s victory. Sting said that he didn’t plan on pulling a Brett Favre and making an announcement. He said that he didn’t know if he’d come back but wanted to stay forever after hearing the fans reaction to the match. Glad to see AJ get the win.

Jerry Lawler will be commentating on Smackdown this week and be reunited with Jim Ross. Todd Grisham is on his honeymoon after recently getting married.

The Smackdown vs. Raw 2010 video game is released tomorrow in stores. The WWE Batista: I Walk Alone DVD is released in stores tomorrow.

Well, we’re halfway through October and WWE has yet to put up ANY voting for next month's Pick Your Big Month for the five year anniversary of WWE 24/7 Classics On Demand where the fans choose the programming.

It appears that WWE has listened to the fan complaints of the editing of blood on WWE 24/7 Classics On Demand. For a few months, WWE started going black and white during bloody matches to mask it. They got a lot of complaints over it and I’ve already voiced my opinion of leaving original footage the way it is. There have been several matches that have aired which do have blood in them and the black and white is gone.

The WWE Bragging Rights PPV is this Sunday on PPV and here is the lineup for it. Randy Orton defends the WWE title against John Cena in a 60 minute iron man match with no rules. If Cena loses, he leaves Raw. The Undertaker defends the World title against Batista, Rey Mysterio, and CM Punk in the fatal four way. Team Raw of DX, Mark Henry, Big Show, Kofi Kingston, Jack Swagger, and Cody Rhodes take on Team Smackdown of Chris Jericho, Kane, Cryme Tyme, Dolph Ziggler, Eric Escobar, and Drew McIntyre. Intercontinental Champion John Morrison takes on US Champion, The Miz. Raw vs. Smackdown with the divas as well. For Raw, Melina, Kelly Kelly, and Gail Kim take on Michelle McCool, Beth Phoenix, and Natalya from Smackdown.

That is it for this week. Have a great week!! Take care and God bless!!

Shane McMahon Leaving WWE - October 16, 2009

Wow, big news out of WWE today. Shane McMahon is leaving WWE. Yes, you read that right!! WWE released this statement earlier today: STAMFORD, CT – Shane McMahon, Executive Vice President of Global Media, announced today he has tendered his resignation effective January 1, 2010.
Shane stated, “It has been an incredible experience to help build WWE® into a global phenomenon. However, having been associated with this organization for the majority of my life, I feel this is the opportune time in my career to pursue outside ventures.”
“Even though I am personally saddened by Shane’s decision to leave the company, I am proud of the enormous contributions he has made. He will unquestionably bring passion, commitment and extensive business experience to any endeavor he pursues,” said Vince McMahon, WWE Chairman and CEO.
http://www.wwe.com/inside/news/shanemcmahontodepartWWE

Now, Shane McMahon has since released this personal statement about his leaving the company.
It is with great sadness that I announce my resignation from the WWE, effective January 1, 2010.

I have never even considered a future outside the walls of the WWE. However, sometimes life takes an unexpected turn and while it is the most difficult decision I have ever made, it is time for me to move on.

First and foremost, I would like to thank my father for the incredible education working with him has provided and for giving me the opportunity to play a role in building WWE into the global phenomenon that it is today. I am extremely proud to have been the 4th generation in this business, and I am grateful for everyday I was able to work along side not only my own, but the entire WWE family.

Thank you to all of the WWE Superstars both past and present for your passion, pride and dedication. You are truly the engine of the organization and it has been a pleasure to work with, learn from and get to know all of you. Thank you for the privilege of sharing the stage with you and for allowing me to become but a momentary member of your elite brotherhood. I have so much appreciation for the many sacrifices you endure, both physically and personally, to make this business the success that it is. The respect I have for each of you is immeasurable.

Finally, there are no words to express my gratitude to WWE fans the world over for supporting this company through good times and bad and for your unbridled passion that fuels the Superstars’ performances. I am profoundly grateful to have been able to entertain you both in front of the camera and from behind the scenes. You are the greatest fans in the world.

I will always love this business and will remain a fan forever.
Shane
http://www.wwe.com/inside/news/shanemcmahonresigns

My reaction to this? Umm, WOW!!!! What can you say to this news? I am completely shocked and, like everyone else, wondering what the reasoning is behind this move. Keep in mind that Linda McMahon recently stepped down as CEO to pursue politics in Connecticut. So, that leaves Vince and Stephanie. I'm curious to see what Shane's next move is cause I just really have this gut feeling that he is going to try something business wise. I, of course, know nothing other than the press release and his comments with what has been put out there so far.

Ok, now I just have to speculate and let my imagination run wild. This is all just me being hopeful. How awesome would it be for Shane to go start his own promotion and be a competitor? I just really feel like Shane may try to do something but I don't know what. If not wrestling, maybe it will be something else. He is into the MMA stuff too and has often wanted to tie MMA into WWE but that got shot down too as he saw a long time ago how MMA was taking off in popularity. It will be interesting to follow this story and see what happens. Wouldn't it be funny if the storyline of 2001 came true in real life where Shane steps up as a competitor to WWE cause he didn't like the current product of WWE? Again, this is all just me talking, speculating, and hoping. It is fun to just let your imagination run wild though on a story. This story could be something simple on why he is leaving or there could be more to it. We'll just have to wait and see.

The Passing of Captain Lou Albano - October 16, 2009

Such a sad news story to hear this week with the passing of Captain Lou Albano. There was talk the night before he passed that he was in very bad health and things weren't looking good. Albano passed away at the age of 76 of natural causes. Albano's popularity really showed this week based on the amount of media outlets that picked up the story. Albano was big into helping get the then WWF over to the mainstream media and helped the wrestling boom of the 80's. He was put with Cyndi Lauper and helped with the build of her with WrestleMania. You may also remember that he appeared in her music video, Girls Just Wanna Have Fun. Lauper and Albano kept in touch over the years including her writing the fore word for his autobiography released in recent years. Lauper has been quoted in recent days with crediting Albano in helping get her music career climbing. When I started watching wrestling, Albano was a manager so that is what I'm always going to remember him for. He was also a face by the time I was watching so his heel stuff that I've seen over the years has been on tapes. His name is always thrown in there when you talk about great wrestling managers over the years. Albano was inducted into the WWE Hall Of Fame in 1996. He was truly one of the legends of WWE history and, like I said, it has shown this week with the many tributes and articles about him. He will be missed for sure. Wrestler's Rescue released this official statement from the Albano family after his passing: Speaking on behalf of the Albano family, Wrestler's Rescue is sad to report that Captain Lou Albano has died at the age of 76. Albano carved out his place in pro wrestling history for, as best put by Bruno Sammartino, his inimitable "gift of gab," all complemented by his trademark rubber bands and Hawaiian shirts. Albano enjoyed a rich career as both a wrestler and manager, gaining worldwide fame as Cyndi Lauper's father in the smash hit, "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun." The family is currently in the process of planning funeral services; please respect their privacy during this tough time. Wrestlers Rescue will keep you updated as the family makes it available. For more information, go to www.WrestlersRescue.Org or email questions to WrestlersRescue@aol.com

Raw & Smackdown Thoughts, Divas Trade, WWE 24/7, & More - October 12, 2009

Welcome to the “what a strangely booked episode of Raw that was” edition of The Wrestling List.

That was one strange edition of Raw. The booking was all over the place. I wasn’t quite sure what to make of it. Strange night of booking around the teams. Teams not getting along. Nancy O’Dell and Maria Menounos of Access Hollywood were the guest hosts. I thought they did a solid job. I’ve always liked Maria and think she’s cute. Triple H opened the show but there was no Shawn Michaels there. So, the joke was that they had Shawn on the phone all night. Jericho announced that he would be captaining Team Smackdown at Bragging Rights in the big 7 man tag team match against Raw. Triple H would be the captain for Raw. Jericho and Show made their way to the ring. Show was a Raw roster member so Jericho said that he wanted him on his team. Triple H started a riff between the two when he asked Show if Jericho was the boss of him. The two traded little verbal jabs at each other. Show ended up saying that he’d rather be on the Raw team. Triple H then said that there was no room for Show on the team. LOL. Triple H said that he had gotten a match between Show and Jericho and if Show won, he earned a spot on Team Raw. The two did go at it after Jericho continued to make Show mad. Show nailed a shot on Jericho out of the ring. Jericho held his knee like he was hurt. Show went to check on him and then Jericho ran in trying to beat the count. Show pulled him out and then Show beat the count in to win the match by countout. Show joins Team Raw. A qualifying match was set with John Cena vs. Ted Dibiase vs. Cody Rhodes. If Cena won, neither of Priceless was on Team Raw. The others could earn a spot by getting the win in the match. It was a doubleteam most of the way on Cena. As Cena hooked a STF on Dibiase, Orton slid in and out of the ring getting Cena’s attention. As Cena and Dibiase looked at Orton, Cody rolled up Dibiase to get the win and earn the spot on Team Raw. Dibiase and Orton were furious over what occurred while Cena laughed on the ramp. Nancy then made a match with Cena teaming with Orton against Rhodes and Dibiase. That match finished the show. Cena got a tag to Orton while he wasn’t looking and Orton did go at it with his teammates. Cena went for the adjustment on Dibiase but Orton attacked Cena. As he was pounding on Cena in the corner, Dibiase rolled up Orton to get the pinfall. Orton was furious after the match while Priceless went up the ramp. Orton then turned to get hit by an adjustment from Cena to end the show. Orton mentioned earlier about getting Cena a big opponent for possibly his last match on Raw. His opponent next week will be Triple H. In other qualifiers for Team Raw, Swagger defeated MVP. Kofi Kingston defeated Evan Bourne with the trouble in paradise kick as he caught it on Bourne as he jumped off the turnbuckle. Surprise segment with the divas. Mickie James defended the Divas title against Jillian Hall. Mickie was hit with a powerbomb in the corner and then Jillian made the pin while she had her feet on the ropes. The ref didn’t see it and Jillian won the title. However, Nancy arrived to say that she had made a trade over the weekend involving the divas. Melina was brought out as the newest member of Raw and the title was on the line at that moment. Melina won the match quickly. The finish was messed up as she was going to win with the legdrop into the splits. I’m glad that they decided to go with something else as Melina then hit the sunset flip slam for the pinfall to win the Divas title. Later, Beth Phoenix confronted Nancy and Maria about how she had heard that she was being traded to Smackdown. Maria made a joke about it and Beth slammed her head against the wall challenging her. Santino egged it on and Maria was put into a match later. So, it was Maria Menonous teaming with Kelly Kelly and Gail Kim against Beth, Rosa Mendes, and Alicia Fox. Maria looked solid in the ring and did get a kick and slap in on Beth before tagging out. The finish had Maria dropping and clotheslining Rosa on the rope. Kelly then landed a legdrop on the back of the head of Rosa to get the win for the team. The Miz did a promo where he announced that he would be facing John Morrison at the PPV. Triple H had some funny backstage segments with Shawn on the phone. He did have a cardboard standup of Shawn in the room. It was usual DX comedy.

Other notes from Raw. When Jericho and Show started not getting along at the beginning of the show, my immediate thought was Vince Russo just entered the building and that Jericho and Show would hate each other only to team up at the end of the night faking out everyone. Ok, the segment with Hornswoggle and Triple H was completely silly but I laughed hard at him superkicking the cardboard standup. It was funny too with the next segment later on and a bandage was on the standup’s head along with a bandaid. I laughed at that too. I said it already but I thought Maria did a solid job in the ring. She’s as good as several of the other divas for sure. Good job Maria!! I thought her and Nancy were really good tonight and one of the better co-hosts so far. They seemed to be having a good time and did a solid performance. Did you see Lawler’s “Lawler for Mayor” shirt that he was wearing? I still laugh at Jericho saying that he’ll fight Bob Barker anytime and any place. Good job by Melina and Jillian to call an audible and do a different finish to the match. I’ve seen many mess up a finish and just go ahead and do the pinfall. Glad that they did the kickout and then go with a different finish.

Snoop Dogg will be the guest host next week on Raw.

WWE promoted the divas trade that was going to be posted on WWE.com and here is what it is. On Raw, it was announced that Melina had been moved to Raw. Beth Phoenix had been moved to Smackdown. Now, the rest of the trades have been revealed. Mickie James is going to Smackdown. Rosa Mendes is going to ECW. The Bells are going to Raw. Eve is going to Raw. I’m curious to know what the deal is with all the switching. It did seem like we needed some fresh matches with the divas. Yeah, I’m not happy with Mickie going to Smackdown. They sure did just take that belt off of her quickly tonight on Raw. It almost felt like a squash of sorts cause it happened so fast. I guess Mickie will be able to feud with Michelle now for the Women’s title. Umm, weren’t the Bellas already on Raw?? They are on Raw all the time anyway. Actually, Smackdown looks like it will have a stronger women’s division than Raw with Beth and Mickie going over to Smackdown. There could be a nice battle between Mickie, Beth, and Michelle for that Women’s title. Now that I think about it, I think I might like the move of Mickie to Smackdown. Actually, I am more optimistic about it cause the divas stuff on Raw has went away from wrestling. Smackdown will maybe have more wrestling with the division. I expect the Divas title to revolve around Melina on Raw.

The Smackdown side of the title match at Bragging Rights was set up on Friday night with Teddy Long opening the show. However, he was interrupted by CM Punk who had his own idea for a rematch. Vince McMahon made his way to the ring and announced what Long’s main event for Bragging Rights would be which was Undertaker defending against CM Punk, Rey Mysterio, and Batista in a fatal four way. Undertaker did make an apperance on the show where he did some trash talking about his opponents for Bragging Rights. The main event of the show was CM Punk taking on Batista. The finish had Punk trying to get away from Batista including crawling under the ring. Batista pulled Punk back and then picked him up for a Batista bomb on the floor. Punk grabbed the ropes to counter it and then kicked Batista away. Punk then got back in the ring beating the ten count and won by countout. Rey Mysterio defeated Chris Jericho after hitting the 619 and the springboard splash for the win. John Morrison defeated Dolph Ziggler to retain the Intercontinental title. I liked the finish of this match. Maria came to ringside to support Dolph. He had set up a chair to use in the match by sitting it next to the ring. She took the chair to sit in at ringside to support him. So, when he went to grab the chair, it was gone. He realized that Maria had it and then turned to take Punk’s flying kick. Morrison got the win. Backstage, Maria apologized while Dolph was upset over the loss. He said that his professional life was looking great but not his personal life. He then dumped Maria. Michelle McCool defeated Eve with a boot to the jaw to get the win. Drew McIntyre and Kane defeated Matt Hardy and R Truth. The finish had McIntyre sending Hardy into a Kane uppercut on the apron. McIntyre then hit his finisher on Hardy to win the match. There was a backstage segment with Vickie Guererro and her new man with her saying how she was disappointed that he wasn’t booked on the show while also criticizing Long’s decision on the Bragging Rights main event. Her point was that it stacked the odds against the original combatants but he did start to say that it was Vince’s idea.

Want to own the NWA title once held by Ric Flair? The much talked about Highspots auction for the belt is going up. Highspots has asked for a $75,000 minimum bid on it. Will the bidding go up? We’ll see. This isn’t an Ebay auction but you instead have to contact them directly to be a legitimate bidder. http://www.highspots.com/nwabelt.asp

WWE continues to change names of their PPV’s. The No Way Out name for the February PPV is now gone and is now just going to be called The Elimination Chamber. Not sure if I’m crazy about the name change but that is the focus of that show every year anyway. I liked the No Way Out name but oh well.

Stone Cold Steve Austin did an audio interview with the UK Sun which you can check out at this link: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/sport/wrestling/2672063/Stone-Cold-Steve-Austin-on-The-Suns-WrestleCast-Download-exclusive-interview-with-Damage-star.html
In the interview, he talks of how he is going to be very picky about future WWE appearances after seeing the great tribute music video of his career that was made for him at the Hall Of Fame. He mentioned the creative side of WWE and said that he would make sure that it was going to be something big time good for him to come back for if he did. He did say that he has recently turned down invitiations to appear as a Raw guest host and also to appear on the ten year anniversary of Smackdown.

Three hours of TNA Impact this Thursday night on Spike TV with there being a Kurt Angle/AJ Styles match that is said to be very good. So, if you don’t tune into anything else on the show, it sounds like that match may be worthwhile.

Say some prayers for Dr. Death Steve Williams. He is once again battling cancer which has unfortunately returned. He has had such an awful battle against it over the years. He was able to defeat it after a tough battle five years ago. Praying for him to be able to do it again.

It looks like the Nashville Fairgrounds which has run wrestling for many, many years now will be shut down in the near future. You may remember that TNA ran their weekly PPV shows from that venue when the company first started before moving to Orlando.

I was watching some Kane stuff on WWE 24/7 Classics On Demand over the weekend. I’ve thought about this for a while now but don’t you think it is time to go retro with Kane? Put the mask back on him and go full out with the gimmick again. This Kane has long run its course long ago so why not go retro and put the mask back on? It worked big time for Undertaker and I think fans would be into Kane’s return as well.

Jim Ross mentioned in his latest blog about the newest set of roundtable shows set for WWE 24/7 Classics On Demand. They taped a show on managers which included JR, Michael Hayes, Jimmy Garvin, and JJ Dillon. Cowboy Bill Watts was unable to make it so JR moved over to the guest chair and Joey Styles was picked as a replacement host for the program. JR said that Bobby Heenan was talked about a lot. Yep, I’d say best manager of all time if I had my pick. He was able to get heat not only himself but more importantly on his wrestler. http://www.jrsbarbq.com/blog/roundtable-updatejblvickies-backhiac-intriging

WWE 24/7 Classics On Demand will have their five month anniversary next month. I’m happy to say that I’ve been a subscriber for three of those five years. Believe me, I wanted it from day one but ordered it literally from the first day uit was made available here locally which was October of 2006. To celebrate five years, WWE 24/7 Classics On Demand will be doing Pick Your Big One month, which based on the preview, means that the fans will be voting for programming including Big Ones, TV Classics, Shorties, and more. No news on what the voting will be between or anything like that.

And last but not least. After hearing all this talk from people that Murray was going to get some professional wrestling for over ten years now, they are finally getting a show. No, it isn’t WWE but TNA is coming to Murray. A TNA house show will be held at the RSEC on Friday, November 6. I am curious to see what the attendance will be for the show. The TNA show in Cape didn’t draw a big crowd from what I remember and I don’t really expect a big crowd in Murray. The only thing that is an unknown factor here is that this is the first wrestling in Murray so that in itself could draw more people. I will say that the promotion for this event has been bad so far. No one knows it is happening. The way that I found out was that there was a thing in the newspaper months back where all the local venues were promoting their lineups of stuff for months ahead. The way that I found out about when tickets were going on sale was on TNA’s website. There has been nothing in the newspaper about it. I don’t know what the advertising is like up in Murray but here locally, there has been NOTHING about it since that original one little mention. Advertised on the show are AJ Styles and Samoa Joe and I’m hoping that will be the main event.

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

Smackdown Ten Year Anniversary Thoughts, Raw Thoughts, PPV Results, & More - October 5, 2009

Welcome to the “that Eddie Guerrero tribute music video stole the show for the Smackdown X Year Annivesary Special” edition of The Wrestling List.

WWE held their Cell PPV last night and here are the results. The three Cell matches were spread out through the PPV. The World title match opened the show with CM Punk defending against The Undertaker in the Cell. The Undertaker hit the tombstone to win the World title. John Morrison hit the starship pain to retain the Intercontinental title against Dolph Ziggler. Mickie James retained the Divas title by defeating Alicia Fox following a nasty DDT. Chris Jericho and Big Show defeated Batista and Rey Mysterio to retain the Unified tag team titles. Rey hit Big Show with the 619 but then caught a Show punch on the springboard attempt and Big Show got the win. The next Cell match was John Cena defending the WWE title against Randy Orton. Cena and the referee made contact sending the ref crashing to the floor. Cena then hooked the STF and Orton tapped but the ref didn’t see it. As Cena returned to the ring after trying to get the ref, he got hit with a RKO. Orton then hooked a submission hold but the finish was Orton nailing the punt on Cena. The punt whiffed pretty badly but Orton did get the pinfall to win the WWE title. Drew McInytre defeated R Truth following a DDT. Kofi Kingston defeated The Miz and Jack Swagger to retain the US title. Swagger nailed Miz with the powerbomb but Kofi was able to hit Swagger with his kick and got the pin. The show finished with DX taking on Rhodes and Dibiase in the Cell. The fight ended up on the floor instead of inside the Cell. Dibiase and Rhodes ended up locking themselves inside the Cell alone with Shawn. Triple H could not get into the Cell. He left and came back with cutters to get the door open. Triple H got back in it and evened up the odds. The ref brought a new chain out to lock the door and Triple H used it on Dibiase. Triple H hit a pedigree on the floor on to Dibiase and then threw him out of the Cell and locked the door to keep him out. A chair was put on Cody’s throat and Shawn hit a top rope elbow on to Cody. Triple H then nailed Cody with the sledgehammer while Shawn nailed a superkick. Shawn then pinned Cody to win the match for DX.

Tonight’s Raw was guest hosted by Ben Roethlisberger. He opened the show with a football themed match with the Diva Bowl. Mickie, Melina, Kelly, Maria, Eve, and The Bellas defeated Beth, Michelle, Jillian, Rosa, Natalya, Alicia, and Layla. Mickie hit a big DDT on Michelle but then pinned Alicia with a forward roll. Gail Kim was the referee for the match. After the match, Orton arrived. He went ahead and called out Cena knowing that Cena would have something to say. Cena did walk out and have something to say but Orton would not do the rematch tonight. Cena talked about how they have THE rivalry going in WWE today and how there needs to be one more match to decide it. Cena challenged Orton to a 60 minute ironman match and then no more rematches. Orton said that there was nothing in it for him and wanted stipulations added. Orton made it no disqualification and no countout. Cena accepted but then Orton wanted another stipulation. If Cena loses, he leaves Raw. He can go anywhere else but he would be off Raw if he doesn’t win the title. Cena did accept and the match will take place at the next PPV, Bragging Rights. Roethlisberger was in the ring later in the night and was confronted by Jericho and Big Show. They talked of how it was a shame that he didn’t have his offensive line to protect him. Ben brought out his offensive line. They and Big Show lined up but then Show and Jericho bailed out. DX then arrived. DX and Jericho had a way too short mic exchange. I really wish that had went longer. DX laid down the challenge but Jericho and Show backed down from it. Ben however made the match for later in the night. DX and the Steelers all then posed together including doing the DX chop with the pyro. The match took place to end the show. DX looked to be about ready to finish the match but Big Show put a double suplex on to both of DX. Show ended up outside the ring where he was taken out. Jericho was then surrounded by Shawn and Triple H. Jericho took off to leave but was then stopped by Ben and the Steelers wearing DX gear. Jericho went back to the ring where he took a superkick from Shawn and was pinned by Triple H. DX, Ben, and the Steelers then all celebrated and posed together to end the show. In other action, Miz went to Ben wanting a match with Kofi. Ben granted him the US title match but said that if Miz lost, he would have to utter the phrase “I’m the Miz and I’m awful”. Miz agreed to the stipulation and the two had a solid match. Kofi hit the trouble in paradise but Miz landed outside the ring. Kofi went and got him but Miz was able to kick out. There were more near falls but Kofi eventually was tripped up on the turnbuckle. Miz hit the skull crushing finale to get the pin and won the US title. Jack Swagger did a promo promising to go undefeated for the rest of the year. His first win on this promise was against Primo as he beat him with the powerbomb. Chavo and Masters had a match with MVP and Henry. The finish had MVP pinning Chavo but Masters broke it up. However, the elbow to break it up by Masters caught Chavo. Henry took out Masters with a charge and then MVP pinned Chavo. Henry came up hobbling on his knee. Masters and Chavo argued over what happened and then Masters hooked the masterlock on to Chavo. Hornswoggle arrived and bit Masters to save Chavo. Chavo hit a DDT and then faced off with Hornswoggle. Hornswoggle smiled and did the DX chop and took off up the ramp.

Other thoughts from Raw. Yeah, that DX pose with the Steelers was pretty cool and you know that they’re going to use that for some publicity. I said this already but I really wished that DX and Jericho could have had more mic time back and forth. I thought the penalty flag throwing in the Diva Bowl was lame. I get why they did it cause of the gimmick of the match but it just goofy to me. Santino was funny with his backstage segments tonight including him taking two slaps, one from Alicia and the other from Hornswoggle. Did you get the vibe from the fans that they weren’t as excited about a Cena/Orton rematch as they were supposed to be? So, an ironman match with no rules. Well, that is at least different. That match will definitely be a challenge for both of them.

Next week’s guests hosts for Raw will be Access Hollywood’s Nancy O’Dell and Maria Menounos.
WWE is announcing the plans for the Bragging Rights PPV besides the 60 minute ironman match. There will be Raw vs. Smackdown matches with the winners of the matches facing each other in a big finale at the end of the night. It is very similar sounding to the 1990 Survivor Series grand finale match. The one and only year that they did that at Survivor Series.

The Smackdown Ten Year Anniversary show was on Friday night and was a fun show. There were two segments that obviously stood out over the others. One being The Rock’s pre-taped appearance but to me the segment that stole the show was the music video tribute to Eddie Guerrero. Wow, this was incredibly produced and set to the Boyce Avenue song called “Hear Me Now”. It covered his career and also the Eddie tribute shows. Just incredible!! That is really all that can be said. The Rock was a major highlight with his taped segment. He opened the segment trying different scripted openings and scrapped them all going with the normal, Finally the Rock has come back to Smackdown. He went right into full Rock character very easily and was great. Lots of good comedy including him pondering who Dolph Ziggler was. He went on to sing Smackdown hotel and then started mentioning World Champion, CM Punk calling him BM Punk cause every time that he talks, fans want to take a bowel movement. He started to talk trash on The Undertaker and then backed off asking if they could edit it. He was afraid of payback and called in the producer who wouldn’t do the edit. He then gave him a “it doesn’t matter” and it was classic Rock. Rock then gave the big tease saying that he had his time on Smackdown and that maybe it was time for him to try Raw and be a guest host. There is a tease that we’re going to be hoping for to happen!! Other action on the show had the 8 man tag team main event, DX, John Cena, and Undertaker against Legacy and CM Punk. I was really interested to see the interplay between Shawn Michaels and Undertaker since this was the first time that they were in the ring together since their epic encounter at WrestleMania. They did have some nice staredowns. Shawn offered a tag and got a stare from Taker. As Shawn bounced off the ropes, Taker tagged himself in and they had a stareoff. The finish of the match had Triple H feeding Punk to Taker but Punk ran and bailed. So, Taker grabbed Orton and brought him in the hard way. Taker hooked the submission on Orton but Cody broke it up. Dibiase was about to hit dreamstreet on Triple H when Shawn superkicked Dibiase. Cena dumped Punk over the ropes on to Priceless on the floor. Orton was then surrounded by all four faces in the ring. Undertaker hit the tombstone on Orton to get the pinfall. Undertaker then stared down with Punk who was laying in the aisle. Dolph Ziggler and The Miz defeated John Morrison and Kofi Kingston. Dolph countered Morrison’s springboard move and then hit his finisher for a clean win on Morrison. Michelle McCool defended the Women’s championship against Melina in a lumberJILL match. I just don’t understand the whole lumberjack thing for the women. The lumberjills ended up in a brawl on the floor. Beth ended up tripping Melina up as she was on the turnbuckle. Michelle then hooked the Styles Clash from there and pinned Melina with it. Batista defeated Kane with a Batista bomb for the pinfall. The rest of the show was backstage segments at the Smackdown party. Vickie Guerrero was there and announced that she was returning to Smackdown as a manager and had her new boyfriend and wrestler with her. The Iron Sheik and Sgt. Slaughter provided some comedy arguing over countries. Michael Cole was there and they had him saying “vintage (insert name here)” lines over and over. Jericho and Show walked in wanting more respect for being there on the very first Smackdown in 1999. R Truth and Drew McIntyre got into an altercation during the party. The show did start with a new open and theme song. The highlight segment of the history of the ten years was well produced as well. I would have liked to have seen more highlight clips throughout the show.

If you missed the incredible Eddie Guerrero tribute video on Smackdown, here is a link to check it out: http://www.wwe.com/content/media/video/vms/smackdown/2009/october1-7/11909428

I am halfway through the WWE Judgment Day 2009 PPV that is currently airing on WWE 24/7 Classics On Demand. That Rey Mysterio vs. Chris Jericho match was a LOT of fun!!! The counters to the 619 were fun and that crowd went nuts when Jericho countered it into the walls.

Dennis Miller is saying that he is going to be a guest host on Raw coming up soon.

Samoa Joe has been using his Twitter account asking for help for relief for the tsunami and earthquake that hit Samoa last week. Fox News even did an article on him: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,558000,00.html

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

WWE 24/7 Classics On Demand - October Preview

Halloween will be the theme for the month of October on WWE 24/7 Classics On Demand. I always like that they do that but just wish the variety was a bit more sometimes on the Halloween themed month every year. It also reminds me that I’ve had WWE 24/7 Classics On Demand for three years now cause I got it right at the end of October. It showed up and I scrambled trying to get everything watched before it expired and the November programming arrived. LOL. Three years and it has been worth every bit of the money!! Anyway, here is the preview for October. Big Ones airing include WCW Halloween Havoc 1991 (Luger vs. Simmons – 2 out of 3 Falls for the WCW title), WCW Halloween Havoc 1998 (Goldberg vs. DDP, Hogan vs. Warrior rematch), and WWE Extreme Rules 2009. Old School house shows airing include Los Angeles (January 29, 1989), MSG (July 1, 1991), and Maple Leaf Gardens (March 23, 1986). TV classics airing include ECW (December 1996), NWA (January 1987), World Class (August 1983), Monday Night Wars (Raw and Nitro – February 1998), Monday Night Wars: The Beginning (Raw and Nitro – December 1995), WWF Prime Time Wrestling (May 1988), Mid-Atlantic (January 1982). There are several Halloween themed TV shows airing including the Saturday Night’s Main Event episode from 1985, Prime Time Wrestling from October 1990, ECW from October 2006, and WWE Raw from October 2005. The Hall Of Fame profile will be on Mr. Fuji. The shorties will be matches based on the theme for the month including matches from Demolition, Legion Of Doom, Ultimate Warrior, Papa Shango, Oz, Doink, Boogeyman, and more. Also airing will be the recent Kane DVD release called Twisted, Disturbed. Then, of course we have the fan voting winner. I would have liked to have seen the fan voting poll be between Halloween Havocs but the winner of the fan voting between Royal Rumble 1994, IYH: Buried Alive, and Great American Bash 2004 will air. Looks like a fun month!!

Raw Thoughts, WWE Cell PPV Preview, & More - September 28, 2009

Welcome to the “why has Raw gotten so boring?” edition of The Wrestling List. Has the “guest host” gimmick taken too much attention of the show and left little to the rest of it or is it just boring overall?

Tonight’s Raw was the last Raw before this Sunday’s PPV. The guest host was Rev. Al Sharpton. I just thought tonight’s Raw was dull overall. It is just the same stuff every week with a different guest host. The show opened this week with the VIP Lounge with MVP and Mark Henry. MVP went to announce Sharpton but instead got Jericho and Big Show. Jericho and MVP argued over bigger ways to introduce Sharpton. Al Sharpton was introduced to the crowd. He promoted his education tour and then MVP laid down a challenge for Jericho and Big Show. Jericho mentioned how they had a match already and then had the tag title match on Sunday so they didn’t want it. Sharpton asked the fans if they wanted a tag title match tonight and of course there were big cheers. So, he made the match and it was underway. Jericho and Big Show defending the tag titles against MVP and Mark Henry. The match went for about twenty minutes. Some impressive power spots in the match involving Show against Henry. Show’s distraction led to a codebreaker by Jericho to get the win on MVP to retain the tag team titles. The main event of the night was the gauntlet match with John Cena taking on Jericho, Show, and Randy Orton. Cena faced Jericho first. Jericho hooked the walls and Cena got to the ropes. Jericho wouldn’t let go of the hold and the ref called for the DQ. Lawler put over how this must have been the plan by Orton was to injure Cena. Jericho didn’t let go of the hold until Big Show arrived. Jericho stayed at ringside. Cena eventually got Show up for the adjustment and then Jericho attacked from behind. The doubleteam got going and then Show hooked the clutch. Orton then arrived and slowly made his way to the ring. Cena got back to his feet and the two faced off. Cena pointed up at the Cell above the ring. It started to lower and Cena grabbed Orton where he couldn’t get away till it lowered as he started to run. The door however was left open. Cena challenged Orton to go for it and he did. Cena cut him off from getting out and the two went at it. They did end up outside the Cell. Cena picked up Orton for the adjustment and Orton grabbed the Cell and climbed to the top of it to avoid getting hit with the move. Cena followed and the two battled on top of the Cell. Cena then hit the adjustment on to Orton on top of the Cell. The show ended with Cena standing triumphant on top of the Cell. In other action, Cody Rhodes and Ted Dibiase went to the ring talking about the Cell match against DX and talking about what they would do to DX. DX interrupted doing comedy stuff from up in the top of the lower level of the arena. DX then made their way to the ring and said they weren’t waiting for Sunday. Rhodes and Dibiase bailed out as DX got in the ring. Jack Swagger defeated Evan Bourne following a powerbomb. Swagger was still wearing the stolen US title. Miz made his way to the ring after the match while Swagger was talking trash about Sunday. The two ended up in a fight and then Kofi ran out and grabbed the US title taking it back with him. Mickie James defeated Rosa Mendes who had Alicia Fox in her corner. Mickie won with a spin kick. Hornswoggle and Santino took on the team of Chavo and Masters. The finish had Masters winning with the masterlock submission on Santino. Afterwards, Masters looked to help Chavo and then put the masterlock on Hornswoggle. Chavo looked frustrated and punched Masters to break the hold and left. The rest of the stuff with Sharpton was mostly comedy kind of sketches and then finished off with him singing while the Bellas danced with him.

Other notes from Raw. It really is a bummer that there aren’t more stronger workers for Mickie James to work with on Raw. It really is almost that feeling of let’s just have a round the clock Mickie/Beth feud. I say that in respect to Gail Kim but it appears that WWE isn’t going to push her and that match on Raw a few weeks ago is likely the reason. Jericho was great on the mic tonight but he always is anyway. That did look impressive where Mark Henry caught Big Show running into the corner. Besides the closing angle with Cena and Orton on the Cell, not much to talk about overall on this show.

WWE announced tonight that NFL star, Ben Roethlisberger will guest host next week on Raw.

This Friday will be the 10 year anniversary special of Smackdown. Expect to see some “best of” stuff along with the announced 8 man main event of DX, Undertaker, and John Cena taking on CM Punk and Legacy. I have heard that The Rock has done a pre taped message which will air during the Smackdown anniversary show as well.

Rey Mysterio is back from his wellness policy suspension and will team with Batista on Sunday’s PPV against tag champions, Big Show and Chris Jericho.

It didn’t take long for Jim Cornette to end up somewhere after he and TNA parted ways. Cornette showed up at the Ring Of Honor event over the weekend and appeared on the TV taping.

Lilian Garcia’s farewell last week at Raw continued after the show went off the air. DX and Cena remained and brought Lilian in the ring. She did their catchphrase with them and then DX left. This was a lot of fun. Line of it was Triple H saying “and for the millions….not watching around the world” since they were off the air at that point. LOL. Sign of the night portion of it is the WWE Sign Guy holding up a sign that says “why can’t Chimel leave instead?” “I’ve Had The Time Of My Life” then played in the arena as Lilian waved at the fans. Lillian’s fiancé was brought into the ring and he and Lillan danced in the ring. Afterwards, Lillan made her way around ringside saying goodbye to the fans. Also, Lilian posted on her Twitter account today that she got married today. Big congrats to her and her husband. Wishing them all the best!! Speaking of her Twitter account, she posted this picture of her and the other divas backstage at last week’s Raw: http://twitpic.com/io6u1

I watched the Shotgun Saturday Night episode from January 1997 which is currently airing on WWE 24/7 Classics On Demand (well for one more day anyway). This was fun to watch again and featured the Austin/Terry Funk brawl. I watched this thinking how great it was to just have a heel that didn’t back down. I’ve heard this talked about lately in a lot of wrestling discussions about how most of the heels are all scared now. Austin was different and stood right up to whoever. Yeah, I loved him for it and was a huge fan of his way before his face turn. I loved Funk talking trash to him at the announce table on this show and Austin just saying that he’d better quit talking about him. As Funk got back in the ring, Austin finally got sick of it and got up. He walked right in the ring and stood face to face with Funk. You just don’t have heels doing that anymore. Why can’t we have tough heels anymore? You might remember that Shotgun Saturday Night originally started as a format of matches taped inside of a club type venue. I liked the concept just because it was something different at the time. The format didn’t last long at all. It is still fun to watch and look back on it.

Here is the lineup for the WWE Cell PPV this Sunday. Keep in mind that not all of these matches will take place in the Cell. This isn’t a format like TNA Lockdown. CM Punk defends the World title against The Undertaker in the Cell. John Cena defends the WWE title against Randy Orton in the Cell. Shawn Michaels and Triple H team up to take on Cody Rhodes and Ted Dibiase in the Cell. US Champion Kofi Kingston defends against The Miz and Jack Swagger. Unified Tag Team champions Chris Jericho and Big Show defend against Rey Mysterio and Batista. Intercontinental Champion John Morrison defends against Dolph Ziggler. Mickie James defends the Divas championship against Alicia Fox. This should be a solid show but one thing that I’ve heard discussed a lot is just how to you book three Cell matches on the same show. How you make every one of them exciting? There have been multiple Cell matches on a PPV before as King Of The Ring 1998 featured the Mankind/Undertaker match followed by Austin and Kane. My point being is that how many people talk about Austin and Kane’s Cell match from that night and that involved a title change!! Mankind/Undertaker has always been the story of that show. I’ll be curious to see how these three Cell matches play off of each other on this show.

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

Lillian Garcia Farewell, Raw Thoughts, Hulkamania Tour, & More - September 21, 2009

Welcome to the “farewell to Lillian Garcia” edition of The Wrestling List. If you didn’t know, tonight was Lillian’s last night on Raw as her contract is up and she is moving on other things. She has been with WWE since 1999 and has definitely made her mark in WWE over that time. She is greatly going to be missed.

Tonight’s Raw was guest hosted by Cedric The Entertainer. The show opened with Triple H taking on Cody Rhodes. Shawn Michaels and Ted Dibiase were at ringside. Cody ended up on the floor at one point and slapped Shawn. Shawn chased Cody and ended up battling both of Legacy on the floor and they hit him with the high/low. Cody got back in the ring but was about to get hit with a pedigree. Dibiase attacked with a chair to the back causing the DQ followed by a chair to the head. Dibiase hit the dreamstreet and Cody hit the cross-rhodes. Shawn then grabbed the sledgehammer from under the ring and jumped in the ring and Legacy bailed. Randy Orton and John Cena had their contract signing for their WWE title Cell match. Usual trash talking and it was told that this was Orton’s last shot at the title. There was no physicality allowed between the two of them so Orton brought out Show and Jericho. They both attacked Cena. Henry and MVP arrived to help out Cena. Cedric then made a six man tag team main event. Jericho and Show later went and talked to Cedric. A stipulation was added. If Cena, MVP, and Henry win, Orton has to face the three of them in a gauntlet match next week. However, if Orton, Jericho, and Show win, then Cena has to face the three of them in a gauntlet match. The match happened with the finish having Cena lifting Show over the ropes with the adjustment. Henry had Orton up but then Jericho took out Henry from behind. Orton hit a RKO for the win on Henry. That means that Cena will face Orton, Show, and Jericho in a gauntlet match next week. In other action. The stealing of the US title continues. Josh Mathews interviewed The Miz who had stolen the US title last week from Kofil. Kofi jumped in and attacked Miz and took his title back. The Miz defeated Evan Bourne in a match afterwards. Kofi defended the US title against Jack Swagger. Miz made his way out and took the title again. On his way up the ramp, Swagger attacked Miz and took the belt for himself. The match didn’t continue since Swagger left. Mickie James took on Beth Phoenix with the new number one contender for the Divas title, Alicia Fox, watching at ringside. Mickie nailed a press off of the apron to the floor on Beth. She then celebrated and took a swing at Alicia. The distraction led to Beth sending Mickie into the post. She then hit her finisher to pin Mickie. Alicia then made her way into the ring and nailed a scissors kick on to Mickie as she held up the Divas title. Santino Marella was made the comedy sidekick with Cedric. Chavo was sick of the guest hosts and challenged Cedric to a match. Santino helped encourage Cedric to make it happen. The match happened with Santino being assigned as special ref. Cedric was in an outfit that included a mask. Cedric changed places with someone under the ring in the same outfit. He did all the damage and crawled back under there. Hornswoggle crawled out in the same outfit and hit the tadpole splash. Cedric then returned and got the pin on Chavo. All three involved against Chavo then celebrated in the ring.

Other notes from Raw. Great to see Lillian Garcia get to give a big farewell speech and get a classy sendoff before the main event. It’s WWE so you tend to expect that most people won’t get a classy sendoff. She deserved one and got it as she gave a great heartfelt tearful speech. You’ll be missed Lillian!!! I thought Cedric did a solid job tonight. The Bellas got used again as valets for Cedric much like they were for Bob Barker a couple of weeks ago. Umm, wouldn’t you at least try to win the US title first before you stole it if you’re Jack Swagger? I mean you did get the title match after all. I just thought that didn’t make much sense. Just kind of an “ehhh” edition of Raw tonight for me anyway.

Rev. Al Sharpton will be the “guest host” for Raw next in Albany, NY.

Linda McMahon has stepped down as CEO to make a run at a US Senate seat representing Connecticut. This has gotten quite a bit of media coverage and had been talked about for several months now. You can check out her website at: http://www.linda2010.com

The Hulkamania tour in Australia has been making major headlines in the last week. Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff are running the shows and have pulled some big talent on to the show. One of them is including Ric Flair who has agreed to wrestle Hogan two different times. Yep, Flair is coming out of retirement. The tour is going to include four dates with these stars appearing: DDP, Ken Anderson (formerly known as Ken Kennedy), The Godfather, Umaga, Brutus Beefcake, Sean Morley, Lacey Von Erich, The Nasty Boys, Heidenreich, Orlando Jordan, Jimmy Hart, and more. For more info on the tour, here is the link to the official site: http://www.hulkamania.com.au/

AJ Styles won the TNA championship at the No Surrender PPV.

D-Lo Brown announced on last week’s Between The Ropes that he is about to retire from the ring and appears to just be finishing up commitments at this point.
http://www.betweentheropes.com

I watched a match that I had COMPLETELY forgotten about on WWE 24/7 Classics On Demand over the weekend. It was a match from WWF Wrestling Challenge in 1990 between Shawn Michaels and Bret Hart. I’m positive that I haven’t seen that match since the Saturday morning that it aired. It was a short little match which saw Neidhart and Jannety get involved but still it was a lot of fun for history’s sake. I had completely forgotten that they had wrestled a singles match during their tag team days.

Strange editing on WWE 24/7 Classics On Demand this week that I noticed. I'm talking about Bret Hart's music which was the music that he used upon his arrival in WCW. It has been edited out of the WCW Monday Nitro broadcasts but yet I heard it intact on his Hall of Fame profile section in his match between himself and Ric Flair from WCW Souled Out 1998. I'm not complaining obviously!!!

Have a great week. Take care and God bless!!

Trish Stratus Back On Raw, Breaking Point Results, & More - September 14, 2009

Welcome to the “100% Stratusfied” edition of The Wrestling List. Great to see Trish Stratus back on Raw tonight as the guest host. Long time Trish fan so I was really looking forward to tonight’s show.

The WWE Breaking Point PPV was last night in Montreal and here are the results. The show opened with Big Show and Chris Jericho defeating Mark Henry and MVP to retain the unified tag team titles. Henry was knocked out by a Big Show punch from the apron. Jericho then got the pin on Henry. Kofi Kingston defeated The Miz with the trouble in paradise. Cody Rhodes and Ted Dibiase defeated DX. Triple H was knocked down from a chair shot from Cody away from the ring. The doubleteam on Shawn got going. Shawn was able to come back and fight them off including a superkick to Cody. A couple of minutes later, Shawn’s next superkick attempt on Dibiase was stopped when Cody pulled him low blow style into the post. Cody hooked the figure four on the ringpost. Dibiase then hooked the million dollar dream and Shawn tapped out. Triple H was crawling down the aisle trying to get to the ring but obviously didn’t make it. Kane defeated The Great Khali in the Singapore Cane match after he won with a chokeslam. Christian defeated William Regal with the killswitch to retain the ECW title. John Cena defeated Randy Orton to win the WWE championship in the I Quit match. Orton controlled most of the match. Cena used handcuffs in the finish as well using the handcuffs while hooking the STF. Orton then said I Quit. Here comes your Montreal finish. Ugh. CM Punk defends the World title against the Undertaker in a submission match. Punk tapped out when Undertaker hooked the choke. Teddy Long then arrived saying that Vickie Guererro had banned that move a long time ago and ordered the match to continue. Undertaker went for the last ride but Punk got out of it and nailed Undertaker’s knee. Punk then hooked the anaconda vice and Scott Armstrong immediately called for the bell. Undertaker did not submit though. Armstrong gave the belt to Punk and ran out of the building. Yes, they did ANOTHER Montreal finish.

Ok, just want to speak on the finish of the Punk/Undertaker match. WWE often jokes about how fans can’t get over the Montreal finish from 1997 especially the fans in Canada. The fans appear to be over it. WWE is the ones that KEEP doing the same finish over and over. It’s boring. When you’ve seen the same finish done probably 100 times since the original one happened, do you really care anymore?

Tonight’s WWE Raw had one thing positive for sure going for me tonight. Trish Stratus. Great to see Trish back. If you didn’t somehow know, I’m a long time fan of Trish’s. That girl worked hard to get better and better. She became possibly the best in ring female worker ever. I would argue that one too. So, Trish is the guest host tonight in her hometown of Toronto. The show opens with Batista’s announcement. He thanks the fans and it sounds like he is going for a retirement speech especially based on the fact that he still had a brace on his arm. Randy Orton makes his way to the ring and baits Batista saying that he was retiring cause of him adding to save the speech cause no one cared. Batista then started laughing and said that there was two reasons for it. One was because Orton was so predictable and the second being……that he was taking his brace off. He then hammered Orton and clotheslined him out of the ring. He then announced that he will be going to Smackdown but that Trish had given him one last Raw match which would be against Orton tonight in a no holds barred match. Yeah, Orton wasn’t looking happy and was backing up the ramp stunned after being knocked from the ring. The match takes place to end the show. Orton keeps going for a chair or some sort of weapon to battle with. Batista throws Orton over the announce table at one point. Orton gets back in the ring and his RKO attempt is countered. Orton then bails out and backs up the aisle. Cena’s music hits and he throws Orton back into the ring. Batista hits a spinebuster and Batista bomb for the win. Trish did announce the main event for the Cell PPV saying that it would be Orton against Cena in a Cell for the WWE title. Trish made a number one contenders match for the Divas title. The winner will get a title shot with Mickie James. Alicia Fox defeated Gail Kim with the scissors kick. Mickie was doing commentary at ringside. Later, Beth Phoenix confronts her about being left out of the match. She said that Trish retired cause she was scared of her. Jericho walks in as well as Trish had made a comment about him earlier. They reference their relationship years ago in 2004. She went back at Jericho saying that she was happy he had found a new soulmate, The Big Show. Beth continued to crack on Trish for leaving mentioning her yoga studio. Trish announced a mixed person match with Trish and a partner against Jericho and Beth. Trish’s partner was MVP. Trish and Beth started off in the ring. Trish ended up being shoved off by Jericho during a pin attempt. MVP took Jericho out of the ring. Big Show arrived causing the DQ. Henry got involved too. The brawl was on. Trish got on the mic saying this match wasn’t over and made it a six person match. Jericho tagged out to Beth toward the end. The person in the ring was MVP. LOL. Beth shoved MVP and then he blocked her kick and gave her to Trish. Trish and MVP then did MVP’s ballin’ move which was fun. Trish was tripped bouncing off of the ropes by Big Show. Henry then took out Big Show on the floor. Beth tried to get the advantage and pin Trish but Trish kicked out. Trish gets back on offense and hits the stratusfaction for the pin on Beth. Great stuff. Big pop from the fans on the win. Shawn Michaels faced Ted Dibiase tonight. Triple H and Cody Rhodes were at ringside. Legacy did a promo before it saying how they were the only ones to ever make DX tap out. Shawn was selling his eye injury during the match. Shawn went for the superkick and Cody pulled him down toward the post. Triple H took out Cody. The bell rang upon Cody getting involved for the DQ. The fight was then on as all four guys battled all over ringside. The fight was even for the most part. The fight ended on TV when Triple H threw Cody into a camera guy. Jack Swagger and The Miz defeated Kofi Kingston and Primo. Kofi got distracted by Miz leaving with the US title and Swagger took advantage to get the win. Hornswoggle and Evan Bourne defeated Chavo Guerrero and Carlito. Hornswoggle spit the apple in Chavo’s face and then hit the splash for the win. Afterwards, Chavo said that he was done with this and admitted defeat. I do too!! I admit defeat too!!

Other notes from Raw. Imagine my disappointment when Lillian opens the show saying “welcome back to Raw…..Batista”. LOL. I was expecting Trish and I get Batista. Yeah, disappointed to say the least. LOL. I’m wondering how many people knew that Trish wasn’t blond anymore. She has had her hair color different for a while now if you didn’t know. I loved the reference of Mickie James saying that she was quite the fan of Trish’s back in the day. What a great feud that was!!! Speaking of references, I loved that they remembered the Jericho/Trish relationship. The heel turn by Trish at WrestleMania XX was great stuff. I loved the whole love triangle angle. One of the better storylines and series of matches resulting from it in recent years. I thought it was silly when Lawler said that the camera going down cut their whole feed which was why the commercial happened. If you lose your whole feed due to one camera, you’ve got problems. LOL. Wow, I couldn’t agree with Chavo more. I admit defeat to this feud too. I tap out. I wanted to tap out at week one. They sure are pushing Alicia Fox and really not pushing Gail Kim. I loved seeing Dibiase dropping the old school fist drop made famous by his dad. How funny was Jericho telling Trish that he would face Bob Barker anytime, any place? I’m glad that tag match continued with Trish cause I was thinking, how lame!! We get Trish back and it goes for two minutes. So, I was thrilled that the match kept going. Was I the only one that was SURE that Cena would be Trish's partner again? I was shocked when it was MVP.

A couple of other announcements from Raw. It was announced that DX will face Legacy in the Cell at the PPV. Also, Cedric The Entertainer will be the guest host on Raw next week.

WWE corrected a major mess up last week that was hilarious to follow. PWInsider.com reported last week that WWE had scheduled the Royal Rumble to happen on the same night as the NFL conference games, January 24. Yeah, the second biggest football day of the year. WWE usually avoids that night cause do you really want to go head to head with such important games in such a popular sport? Well, WWE was about to try it. When the story got out, WWE moved the Rumble to the following Sunday, January 31. I don’t know if someone just messed up with the scheduling or what. That would have cost them a TON of PPV buys if they hadn’t moved that.

Lillian Garcia posted on her Twitter account that next week’s Raw will be her last date in working with the company. She is leaving to go do other things including getting married. They had better let her sing the national anthem before that show and let her go out strong. I just hope WWE gives her a classy exit but it is WWE so I doubt that will happen. WWE put out a “want ad” in the industry several months back looking for a replacement basically asking for the personality of another Lillian Garcia.

The Best Of WWE Smackdown DVD hits stores tomorrow. Should be a good DVD and it has a lot of great Smackdown moments from over the years. Wow, Smackdown has been on for ten years now. It has had its ups and downs for sure. The moments showed for sure in that DVD commercial that aired tonight. I will never forget that 9/11 tribute show. WWE was the first organized event after 9/11 that took place if I remember right. The show opened with an INCREDIBLE rendition of the national anthem by Lillian Garcia with the roster of talent out on the ramp paying tribute. The show was just a bunch of matches with no storyline. Just a way to entertain the fans and give us some normalcy. The superstars taped tributes that aired in between matches talking about the events of the week. I’ll always remember Lita’s comments during it saying that she had just taken her first deep breath of the week and hoped that they helped us take our first deep breath. I always remember that cause that night was the first bit of normalcy that I had had since 9/11 which was just two days after the tragedy. It really felt like the first breath that I had taken and I’ll never forget how great that it was just to see The Rock walk out to a big pop from the fans. It was the biggest that I had smiled in days just having something normal going on with something as simple as me sitting and watching wrestling. Lots of great moments on Smackdown over the years for sure and I’m sure that DVD will cover a lot of it.

The match listings have been announced for the new Hulk Hogan DVD that I recently mentioned and I am very excited about it. They are going to be putting more non-national TV matches on it including many house show matches from the 80’s. I'll go over the lineup when the DVD gets close to release.

I watched a WCW Worldwide show on WWE 24/7 yesterday. The main event was Stunning Steve Austin winning the TV title from Beautiful Bobby Eaton from back in 1991. I really enjoyed this show. It has been a LONG time since I have seen that match!! Fun times.

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

The Price Is Raw Recap, WWE 24/7, Breaking Point Preview, & More - September 7, 2009

Welcome to the “considering Chicago is usually a cheer for the heel type of crowd, I thought they might boo Bob Barker” edition of The Wrestling List.

The Price is Raw was the theme for tonight. Raw’s guest host was Bob Barker. Barker was introduced at the beginning of the show with a very Price Is Right sounding introduction done by Howard Finkel. He introduced the contestants for the opening segment which were Santino Marella, Jillian Hall, IRS, and…..Chris Jericho. Each came from the crowd which included Santino running wild and tripping over the barricade. Jericho walked from the back looking very annoyed to be there. I don’t know why but I found this segment to be funny. I have no idea why!!! LOL. The Smackdown DVD is bid on with Santino bidding $1,465. Jericho is insulted and won’t bid. Jericho ends up saying the number one in his overall comments to Bob and Bob takes that as a bid. Everyone else overbids so Jericho wins. His prize up for grabs is a trip to Hawaii and he has to beat MVP to get it. MVP counters the codebreaker attempt to win the match. The game show part returns later when White Sox player, AJ Pierzynski is brought in to replace Jericho. Santino wins and plays for a hot tub. The Bellas were the Price Is Right girls and Santino wanted them included but they weren’t. LOL. Santino’s opponent was Big Show in a bodyslam contest. Show slammed Santino one handed. Bob then introduced another bodyslam contest opponent which was Mark Henry. Both tried several times to slam the other but Henry legit picked up and slammed Big Show. On to the serious stuff though and less ha ha. John Cena took on Cody Rhodes in the middle of the show. Cody explained that he is sticking with Legacy pointing out how Orton had made him a main eventer and was staying loyal to Orton. Cody tried to hook a figure four but Cena stopped it and countered it into a STF. Orton ran in causing the DQ and then Cena was about to hook the hold on him but Orton slithered out of there. Cena then hit the adjustment on to Cody. The main event was DX taking on Randy Orton and Chris Masters. The opponents for DX were chosen by a Bob Barker spin of the wheel. Triple H and Orton battled over the announce table. Masters hooked Shawn in the masterlock. Triple H broke that up and then Shawn nailed a superkick on Masters. Shawn hooked a figure four on Masters and then Triple H hooked a sharpshooter on to Orton. Masters tapped out. Legacy arrived and pulled Orton out of the sharpshooter. The DX/Legacy fight ended up backstage. Orton avoided it hiding off to the side. Rhodes and Dibiase and DX battled to the parking lot and then Rhodes and Dibiase bailed out stealing a car. Orton talked in the ring and then Cena arrived. The brawl was all over ringside. As Cena got back in the ring, Orton nailed his on the apron DDT. That stopped things quickly. Orton nailed a RKO on to Cena on a chair while he taunted as the show went off the air. In other action, Barker announced Chavo’s opponent would be Evan Bourne. The prize for Chavo if he won would be a brand new car. Hornswoggle got involved squirting Chavo with a super soaker. As Chavo went for him, Bourne rolled him up for the win.

Other notes from Raw. I’m not sure that a comedy show is the kind of show that you want as a “go home” episode before a PPV. I seriously thought that Bob Barker might get booed in Chicago. LOL. He got a nice ovation instead. Speaking of getting booed, how hilarious was it that AJ was getting booed. I love how Chicago is split on the baseball teams. Fun rivalry. Well, at least they found something to do with the Bella twins. Which is worse for Chavo’s future? Getting beaten up by Hornswoggle every week or getting taken down by Bob Barker? Chicago fans loved Chris Jericho tonight. Big pop when he hooked the walls on to MVP. You just had to know that someone was going to use that Happy Gilmore line and Triple H was the one that did it. So, was Bob confused on what a bodyslam is? Did you see the camera guy accidentally take a kick from Triple H on the tag into the ring? Was there any doubt on who was taking the fall in the main event??!! So, Shawn in the masterlock once again on Labor Day. I’m referring to the Raw in Nashville back on Labor Day in 2005 where Shawn was in the masterlock challenge.

The Air Canada Centre website was right. WWE confirmed tonight that Trish Stratus will be the guest host next week on Raw. Woo hoo!!! Happy about that. It will be great to have Trish back for a night. They also promoted a “career altering decision” from Batista next week.

Place your bets now. How long till Lawler says “Bizarro land” next week on Raw in Toronto? LOL. I’ve got one minute and thirty eight seconds.

I haven’t had a chance to watch Smackdown yet so there won’t be any Smackdown recap this week. I will tell you that with Rey’s suspension, the Intercontinental title was moved over to John Morrision. Morrison defeated Rey on the show to win the belt.

Ring Of Honor is losing yet another star. Nigel McGuinness is on his way to WWE as well. This is coming off of the week that it was announced that Brian Danielson had signed with WWE.

I have watched the Rise and Fall of WCW DVD that was recently released. I’ll have a full recap and review of it coming your way soon in a special edition Wrestling List. Overall, I was disappointed with it. I thought a lot of things were left out of the story of what happened. I didn’t think it was particulary biased or anything like The Monday Night Wars DVD so that was an improvement. I’ll post a review of it later on when I get it typed up.

If you have Comcast, there is a free preview going of WWE 24/7 Classics On Demand. Head over to the Sports/Fitness section, click on WWE/UFC and you’ll see Stone Cold Free View. They have quite a few programs in there from the week one update of WWE 24/7 programming including ECW 1996, Mid Atlantic 1981, Stone Cold shorties, WWE 2009 Hall Of Fame ceremony, Bret Hart Hall Of Fame profile stuff including matches, Clash Of The Champions 23, and more. WWE is promoting it as 15 hours of free stuff to watch. Definiltely check it out if you have it!

WWE sure is going to the gimmicks to sell PPV’s. We have the upcoming PPV that will be focused on the Cell matches. Now, WWE has changed the December PPV to be entitled TLC. I assume that both of these shows mean that we’ll be seeing multiple matches with the gimmick in place.

WWE advertised last week that ECW would feature the entire Shawn Michaels/Undertaker match from WrestleMania 25. It did not feature the entire match but instead showed the INCREDIBLE music video package from the WrestleMania special. Glad that they showed that but they definitely did some misleading advertising on that.

The winner of the fan voting for WWE 24/7 Classics On Demand for September was In Your House: Revenge Of The Taker. I thought something that I’d do for the List every month is just take a look at the choices each month and give my thoughts on them. So, your choices for voting for October are Royal Rumble 1994, In Your House: Buried Alive, or the Great American Bash 2004. I’ll start with Royal Rumble 1994. This was definitely a memorable show. This featured the tie finish in the Rumble between Lex Luger and Bret Hart. This was of course leading up to WrestleMania X. This featured the heel turn by Owen Hart on Bret Hart in the tag team title match. All you had to do was tag me. LOL. I always loved that line from Owen. Last but not least as far as memorable goes was the Undertaker taking on Yokozuna for the WWF title in the casket match. This was when about 15 guys beat up The Undertaker and he was finished off. Then, he ascended up with some cool effects tied into the video screen. I’ll never forget watching that show that night with my friends. That gets us to In Your House: Buried Alive from October 1996. This featured the Undertaker vs. Mankind in the first ever Buried Alive match. Solid match and new concept. There is an early Steve Austin/Hunter Hearst Helmsley match in their rivalry. The rest of the show is just kind of blurry to me. Nothing really that spectacular on it. Interesting that WWE.com has Shawn Michaels vs. Goldust listed. That match was a dark match and wasn’t featured on the PPV. Thought that was kind of odd. Shawn does do commentary during the Sid/Vader match which was the match to decide who would face Shawn for the gold at Survivor Series. The Great American Bash 2004 is the one that should NOT be picked. Although, part of me would like to see this match just for the bad of it. LOL. One of my favorite PWInsider post PPV shows is the guys ripping on this show. It was hilarious and had to be much more entertaining that the actual show. The show is headlined by Eddie Guerrero defending the WWE title against JBL. The Undertaker takes on The Dudleys in a Live Free or Die match. Oh wow, this makes me want to go back and listen to that audio show. If I had to pick, I’d pick Royal Rumble 1994. I think that is the better of the three shows.

The WWE Breaking Point PPV is this Sunday on PPV. Here is the lineup for the show. CM Punk defends the World title against The Undertaker in a submission match. Randy Orton defends the WWE title against John Cena in an I Quit match. DX takes on Cody Rhodes and Ted Dibiase in a submissions count anywhere match. Chris Jericho and Big Show defend the Unified tag team titles against MVP and Mark Henry. Intercontinental champion John Morrison defends the title against Dolph Ziggler. The Great Khali takes on Kane in a Singapore Cane match.

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