Welcome to the “doesn’t a DQ take place if you get hit BY the person trying to interfere and not the other way around?” edition of The Wrestling List.
The WWE Night Of Champions PPV was last night and here are the results and happenings. Who would be Chris Jericho's partner? It wouldn't take long for us to find out as the tag team title match opened the show. Jericho announced his new partner, The Big Show. Jericho and Show defeated Cody Rhodes and Ted Dibiase to retain the titles when Show got the submission win on Dibiase. CM Punk was interviewed and ended up walking out into the arena ripping on the parents in attendance for letting their kids look up to Jeff Hardy. The ECW title match was next with Christian defeating Tommy Dreamer to win the belt when Christian reversed a DDT to hit the killswitch for the win. With Big Show as a tag team champion, he was replaced in the US title match by Primo. So, it was Kofi defending against Primo, Carlito, Swagger, Miz, and MVP. Kofi retained the title by hitting Carlito with the trouble in paradise for the win. Michelle McCool retained the Women's title by defeating Melina. Next was the triple threat for the WWE title with Randy Orton defending against Triple H and John Cena. Orton was put in a sharpshooter by Triple H while Cena had the STF on him. Orton was tapping but the ref didn't know what to do since both guys had a submission on him. Rhodes and Dibiase got involved attacking both Triple H and Cena. This was a no DQ match so the match went on. Triple H and Dibiase battled out to the floor while Cena picked up Rhodes for the adjustment. Orton then hit Cena with a RKO to get the pinfall and retained the title. Mickie James defeated Maryse to win the Divas champion when she hit a DDT for the win. Very happy with this win as a Mickie fan. She becomes the second woman to have held both the Women's and Divas titles. Rey Mysterio defeated Dolph Ziggler to retain the Intercontinental title after he hit the 619 and splash for t he win. The main event was CM Punk defending the World title against Jeff Hardy. The finish was Hardy going for the twist of fate but it was countered into a GTS. Hardy was able to kick out. As Punk continued to try and get pins, Hardy kept kicking out. Punk then got up and took the belt walking away from the ring. Hardy ran after him and brought him back to the ring. Hardy hammered on him and then hit the twist of fate. The swanton followed and Hardy got the pin. Jeff Hardy is once again the World champion.
Raw opened with Jerry Lawler introducing tonight’s “guest host”, Shaquille O’Neal. He got a good ovation but also did get some boos as well considering that Washington DC is a NBA town. Plus, he is going to be playing for a rival of Washington’s and that is Cleveland. Lawler and Shaq discussed the plans for the night including the beat the clock challenge to determine the opponent for Orton at SummerSlam. Jericho interrupted and said that when he heard that the most dominant player in NBA history was going to be the “guest host” that he was expecting Kobe Bryant. Shaq then called him “Christina” and gave him a kiss on the forehead. Jericho’s reaction was priceless. It almost looked like he was trying to keep from laughing. Jericho demanded to be catered to by everyone and said that if Shaq didn’t cater to him, there would be problems. If he didn’t agree, he’d have to introduce his tag team partner which he did, The Big Show. Show arrives and he and Shaq stare off nose to nose. Show told him that he had a better chance of hitting two free throws in a row than intimidating him. Shaq called him fat boy and challenged him to a match right then. Show backed down saying that he’d cripple and hurt him so then the NBA would breathing down his neck over taking out their superstar. Shaq said that he knew that would be the response so he had hired two people to take them on. He brought out Cryme Tyme adding that the match would take place tonight and that Shaq would be the special enforcer. The show closed with that very match. The match was stopped by a DQ when Big Show came in the ring without a tag and started hammering Cryme Tyme. He nailed the double chokeslam on them and then stared off with Shaq. Shaq took off his ref shirt and jumped in the ring. The two faced off and shoved each other. Show hooked a choke and then Shaq did the same. They choked each other and Cryme Tyme attacked Show. Shaq then hit a football tackle to knock Show from the ring. The Beat The Clock Challenge took place. Participants were John Cena, Triple H, Mark Henry, Jack Swagger, and MVP. The first match had Mark Henry taking on Carlito. Carlito stalled for time for a while but got in quite a bit of offense. Henry finally won with the slam at 6:49. I thought that was way too long for that win to take. Next was MVP taking on the back on TV, Chris Masters. They signed him a while back but he hasn’t been back on TV yet. Masters is still doing the Masterlock gimmick. The fight ended up on the floor. Masters wouldn’t let him back in the ring and hooked the masterlock. The result was a double countout with the story being that Masters had played spoiler to MVP’s chances. Triple H was shown walking through the back and was attacked by Dibiase with a club to the leg. The match was next and Triple H was favoring the leg in the match. Triple H took on Cody Rhodes. Cody worked on the leg a lot. Dibiase showed up jumping on the apron with about 30 seconds to go. Triple H went to punch him but it was played up that he was afraid to do it and get DQ’d. Cody runs and Triple H moves. The shot knocks Dibiase off the apron. Triple H then hits the pedigree on Cody with one second left but can’t make the pinfall in time. So, Triple H is out and Henry still holds the top time. Jack Swagger lost his match when he lost to Evan Bourne with a little over three minutes left in the match. Swagger went for the gut wrench but it was countered into a small package for the win. The last match was Cena vs. The Miz. Randy Orton was at ringside watching the match. Cena won with the STF with 2:22 left on the clock meaning that he will face Orton at SummerSlam for the belt. Orton walked in the ring after the match and the two faced off with Orton holding the belt for Cena to see. Mickie James, Kelly Kelly, and Gail Kim defeated the team of Beth Phoenix, Alicia Fox, and Rosa Mendes. Gail tagged herself in on Mickie and then got the pin on Alicia. I could not tell if Mickie was upset with Gail over it or not. The ending of the match was just very scrambled directing wise. The pin didn’t get shown cause the camera was focused on the Kelly clothesline to stop the pin from being broken up. Mickie gave a look at Gail but the announcers didn’t play it up. I couldn’t tell if they were setting up a Mickie/Gail rivalry or not. Here comes the odd booking moments of the night. Well, a couple of them anyway. LOL. Kendrick was ready for his match with Kofi and mouthed at Lawler that he would be destroying him after the match. Kofi nailed Kendrick with the trouble in paradise and the quick win. Then, Hornswoggle wrestled Chavo AGAIN!! This time, Chavo was blindfolded. He went for the frog splash but Hornswoggle was long gone at that point watching him miss the move from the apron. Hornswoggle hit the tadpole splash for the win.
Other notes from Raw. Was anyone else wanting to hear a song off of the Shaq Diesel CD for Shaq’s entrance? Maybe to “I’m Outstanding”. Did you hear Lawler call Shaq a 15 time MVP? Umm, no. LOL. That would be quite the accomplishment though!! I think he was going for 15 time All Star. Ok, since when can you get DQ’d for knocking the interfering person off the apron? How often does that happen? Plus, if he hits you, you win by DQ. Rarely is there a DQ for hitting someone that tries to get involved unless they punch back. Just a weird booking thing that got on my nerves a bit tonight. Who is the person that continues to punish us with Hornswoggle vs. Chavo matches every week? Make it stop. Wow, they didn’t even repackage Masters. I thought for sure that they would. Well, Big Show’s new gear is going to take some getting used to. It reminds me of a combination of Andre The Giant’s old Colossal Connection gear and Earthquake’s early 90’s gear. Lots of Shaq segments including him playing scrabble with Santino which included all the words that included the word Shaq in it. He played b-ball with Hornswoggle on a mini goal saying that they went to high school together. Hornswoggle bricked the dunk. Speaking of that segment, they had Cole leave the announce booth just so he could go and say Shaqalicious and offer a fist bump??!! LOL. Who was playing NBA Jam backstage and fed the boomshackalaka line to Michael Cole when Shaq knocked Show down from the ring??!!
Jeremy Piven will be the guest host next week on Raw.
The advertising is out for SummerSlam and Shawn Michaels is being advertsied so take that for what you will.
Ring Of Honor will be moving their HD Net show to Monday nights beginning August 17. The show will air at 7pm central time with them looking to get a viewer boost from fans waiting for WWE Raw to go on the air. I say sure, give it a shot. Sounds like a plan to me.
The 1988 Great American Bash PPV was the fan vote winner for July and is currently airing on WWE 24/7 Classics On Demand. I always remember this being a great show. This was the one of the many Lex Luger was that close to beating Ric Flair for the title moments. If they black and white over the finish of this match, I will be annoyed since it is crucial to the finish of it.
I watched the Patriotism themed episode of The Legends Of Wrestling roundtable show over the weekend. Really fun show. The subject was talking about wrestlers and angles centered around patriotism over the years. Some more good Iron Sheik stories. Interesting that Michael Hayes put the blame of a lot of heel angles not working now on the talent saying that they are afraid to get major heat. They all talked about how back in the day if you caused a riot, that was a good night. Sgt. Slaughter told a couple of really good stories talking about meeting two presidents. One was President Reagan while he was in office and being invited to a function. The other was Nixon who was out of office when he met him on an airplane. They were really great stories!!
Here is the preview for August programming on WWE 24/7 Classics On Demand. I am really liking the lineup for this upcoming month. The theme for the month is "Heatwave". Big Ones airing include WCW Beach Blast 1992, WWF Saturday Night's Main Event (January 4, 1986), WWF The Big Event (Hogan vs. Orndorff), and WWE Backlash 2009. Old School house shows include: Los Angeles (July 15, 1988) and St. Louis (August 10, 1984). TV classics: NWA (December 1986-January 1987), ECW (November 1996), World Class (May 1985), Prime Time Wrestling (April 1988), Monday Night Wars (Raw and Nitro - January 1998), Monday Night Wars: The Beginning (Raw and Nitro from November 1995), Mid-Atlantic (December 1981). The Hall Of Fame will focus on The Blackjacks. Shorties will all be matches from SummerSlam over the years. The Viva Las Divas special will be airing which was a WWE DVD release years ago. The fan voting for August will be between SummerSlam 1988, 1990, and 1995. I would vote for either SummerSlam 1988 or 1990. 1995 was a one match show with Shawn and Razor in their ladder rematch. I'm going to vote for 1988 as I haven't seen a complete version of that show since the night that it aired live on PPV. The Coliseum Video release was cut down to 2 hours of course.
That is it for this week. Have a great week!! Take care and God bless!!
Custom Search
Monday, July 27, 2009
Monday, July 20, 2009
Raw/Smackdown Thoughts, WWE 24/7 Editing, Night Of Champions Preview, & More - July 20, 2009
Welcome to the “did that Mickie James interview segment with Josh Mathews scream retro 1980’s WWF Superstars Saturday mornings or what?” edition of The Wrestling List.
Tonight’s Raw was “guest hosted” by ZZ Top. Yeah, that wasn’t near as entertaining as Seth Green last week. The main event was John Cena teaming with Triple H against all three members of Legacy. Orton went for the punt on Cena but he avoided it. Cena then rolled up Orton to get the pin. Cena and Triple H then shook hands after the match. In other action. Kofi Kingston, MVP, and Primo defeated the team of Jack Swagger, Carlito, and Big Show. Primo and Carlito did go at it for a bit in the match. Show accidentally speared Carlito and then Kofi took Show out of the ring. Primo then pinned Carlito with a springboard legdrop. Show then came back into the ring and attacked everyone including Swagger. Show picked Kofi up by one hand and lifted him into the ring and left him laying. Mark Henry got his rematch with Chris Jericho. Jericho ended up nailing Henry with a couple chair shots on the floor causing the DQ. Henry caught the third attempt and shoved Jericho over the table. The fight ended up in the ring again and Jericho’s codebreaker attempt was countered into the world’s strongest slam. Later, Jericho ran into Priceless as he left the building. They mocked him over having to find a partner and the beating that he taken. Jericho then messed with their heads leaving them worried about who he might choose for Sunday. Mickie James was interviewed by Josh Mathews. Good promo by Mickie where she talked about how the only win that Maryse had on her was a silly swimsuit match. Miz interrupted ripping on Mickie and talking big on Maryse. Mickie hit him with a line of that she had scored a pinfall on Maryse while Miz hasn’t been able to score at all. Maryse then walked up on the set and sprayed Mickie in the eyes with some sort of spray leaving Mickie hurting. The ZZ Top legs match took place with Alicia Fox and Rosa Mendes getting a win on Kelly Kelly and Gail Kim when Alicia pinned Kelly despite her legs being in the ropes. Jerry Lawler took on Brian Kendrick and defeated him with a punch. Yep, the punch took out Kendrick. A sharp dressed man match took place with Hornswoggle against Chavo Guerrero. It was a ZZ Top theme named tuxedo match. Chavo ended up with a tux where the pants were sewed together making him have a hard time moving. Hornswoggle got the win. Santino Marella hung out performing with ZZ Top backstage all night including him wearing a beard. The segments were just kind of ehhh.
Other notes from Raw. Wow, did anyone have flashbacks to Superstars and Wrestling Challenge from the 80’s watching Josh Mathews interview Mickie James on the podium? That brought back memories. Yeah, I don’t think that fans of the Jim Cornette/Paul E. Dangerously tuxedo match from the 1989 Great American Bash have anything to be concerned about with tonight’s tuxedo match topping that one. LOL. Not a chance. By the way, that 1989 match has to be the best tuxedo match of all time. So, WWE is now selling advertising of matches now. Dave and Busters were the sponsor of the six man tag team match with the logo being on the screen at times including for the match graphics.
Last week’s Smackdown had a main event of Jeff Hardy and Rey Mysterio taking on Chris Jericho and Dolph Ziggler. CM Punk was on commentary. Earlier in the night, Punk and Hardy had words over their different lifestyle choices with Punk taking shots at Hardy’s. The finish of this match had Hardy throwing Jericho toward Punk. Punk moved and then shoved Jericho into Hardy knocking Hardy into the steps. That caused the DQ. Jericho then hooked on the walls of Jericho on Hardy as Punk looked on. John Morrison got a pinfall victory on CM Punk earlier in the night. Morrison offered a handshake after the match but Punk didn’t accept it and walked out. Edge was interviewed about his surgery. He talked of his accomplishments and how he always rose above challenges. However, he said that he wasn’t sure he’d be able to come back from this one and said that his career might be over. He said that this was the hardest injury to come back from and he was going to fight to come back. Jericho walked to the ring stopping the interview up on the screen. Jericho said that he was tired of hearing Edge sounding pathetic and that Edge didn’t care about WWE or about him. Jericho said that Edge’s only accomplishments were a bunch of injuries while he had never been injured. Edge was annoyed throughout much of Jericho’s comments and then said that he didn’t need the attack on his character or his accomplishments but said he will use those words as motivation to come back. Edge said he will prove everyone wrong when he returns. The Hart Dynasty won a six person tag match against Cryme Tyme and Eve when Natalya pinned Eve following a nasty spinning clothesline. Kane defeated R Truth when Truth jumped off the top turnbuckle only to catch a boot in the face from Kane leading to the win for Kane. Khali arrived afterwards and Kane was hit from behind by Truth. Kane did make it out of there before Khali got to him though. Layla came to the ring in a Dwayne Wade jersey dancing for the Miami crowd. She has a NBA championship ring as being part of the team as a dancer. Ricky Ortiz made his way to the ring with rally towels giving her inspiration for the dance. She wasn’t having any of it. I thought this segment was kind of odd cause Layla has been a heel.
Shaquille O’Neal will be the “guest host” of Raw next week. Ok, this should be fun. Shaq is a long time fan and it should be good.
WWE is stepping things up for SummerSlam adding a Fan Axxess to the weekend. Axxess has always just been done for WrestleMania but now SummerSlam will get one as well. I’m all for it as I think fans need to have extra stuff like that to attend especially when SummerSlam is such a huge event.
Taz finally debuted last night for TNA at the Victory Road PPV. This wasn’t a surprise to anyone that has been following the storyline. He got involved in the Sting/Samoa Joe match. The Main Event Mafia held all the titles at the end of the night last night. Well, except for the X-Division title which wasn’t defended.
Bobby Lashley was interviewed on ESPN Radio last week by Brandon Tierney where he announced that he has signed with TNA.
Big win for Brock Lesnar at UFC 100. He defeated Frank Mir to become the undisputed UFC champion in the second round by TKO. Afterwards, he stirred some controversy by telling the fans they were number one. Brings back memories of WrestleMania XX, doesn’t it? LOL. He ripped on the fans too when he was interviewed and UFC sponsors. Lesnar is really getting all kinds of attention in UFC and the PPV was said to do something around 1.2 million buys. That is a BIG number.
Guns N’ Roses song for Seth Green’s entrance from last week didn’t make it to WWE AM Raw on Saturday night. The song was replaced by some generic music. Guess they didn’t want to pay the money for it twice.
The editing on WWE 24/7 Classics On Demand is starting to get to be too much. I get that they are marketing more toward kids again but the editing on blood is too much. What am I talking about? I’m sure you’ve seen clips on TV on current WWE programming where they’ll be replaying an attack or something that resulted in blood. The screen goes black and white so they don’t show the blood. They are now doing this on WWE 24/7 Classic On Demand. Old footage has been edited to go black and white when showing a bloody camera angle of a match. I have noticed this happening from time to time but my breaking point with it was that they did this on the 1989 Great American Bash that is currently airing on the service. There are parts of the Flair/Funk match where the screen goes black and white to not show the blood. This is ridiculous. They were marketing to kids when I was little at the time when this match happened. I never thought anything of it. It is wrestling. What do you expect? It happens. Here is my problem with it as I just say if there is something in a show On Demand that had a big amount of blood, put a graphic at the beginning to warn of it. They do it with the ECW shows mentioning viewer discretion in watching it. Why don’t you do that with the others as well instead of going black and white and ruining the original footage? I’m big on wanting to leave original footage as it is. I want to see old shows in their original form. I don’t like music edits but I, of course, understand why they have to be done. However, I don’t understand why music is ok in one show but it is edited in another one. That’s a different story though. Turning moments of matches to black and white is very annoying. Put up a viewer discretion graphic and let the footage go.
The PPV name changing continues. Cyber Sunday changed to Annihilation and then back to Cyber Sunday. Now, it has been changed to WWE Bragging Rights.
The WWE Night Of Champions PPV is this Sunday night and here is the lineup. Randy Orton defends the WWE title against Triple H and John Cena. CM Punk defends the World title against Jeff Hardy. Intercontinental Champion Rey Mysterio defends against Dolph Ziggler. ECW Champion Tommy Dreamer defends against Christian. Unified Tag Team Champion Chris Jericho will pick a partner and they’ll defend the belts against Ted Dibiase and Cody Rhodes. Maryse defends the Divas championship against Mickie James. Six pack challenge for the US title with Kofi Kingston defending against Big Show, Carlito, Jack Swagger, MVP, and The Miz.
Have a great week!! Take care and God bless!!!
Tonight’s Raw was “guest hosted” by ZZ Top. Yeah, that wasn’t near as entertaining as Seth Green last week. The main event was John Cena teaming with Triple H against all three members of Legacy. Orton went for the punt on Cena but he avoided it. Cena then rolled up Orton to get the pin. Cena and Triple H then shook hands after the match. In other action. Kofi Kingston, MVP, and Primo defeated the team of Jack Swagger, Carlito, and Big Show. Primo and Carlito did go at it for a bit in the match. Show accidentally speared Carlito and then Kofi took Show out of the ring. Primo then pinned Carlito with a springboard legdrop. Show then came back into the ring and attacked everyone including Swagger. Show picked Kofi up by one hand and lifted him into the ring and left him laying. Mark Henry got his rematch with Chris Jericho. Jericho ended up nailing Henry with a couple chair shots on the floor causing the DQ. Henry caught the third attempt and shoved Jericho over the table. The fight ended up in the ring again and Jericho’s codebreaker attempt was countered into the world’s strongest slam. Later, Jericho ran into Priceless as he left the building. They mocked him over having to find a partner and the beating that he taken. Jericho then messed with their heads leaving them worried about who he might choose for Sunday. Mickie James was interviewed by Josh Mathews. Good promo by Mickie where she talked about how the only win that Maryse had on her was a silly swimsuit match. Miz interrupted ripping on Mickie and talking big on Maryse. Mickie hit him with a line of that she had scored a pinfall on Maryse while Miz hasn’t been able to score at all. Maryse then walked up on the set and sprayed Mickie in the eyes with some sort of spray leaving Mickie hurting. The ZZ Top legs match took place with Alicia Fox and Rosa Mendes getting a win on Kelly Kelly and Gail Kim when Alicia pinned Kelly despite her legs being in the ropes. Jerry Lawler took on Brian Kendrick and defeated him with a punch. Yep, the punch took out Kendrick. A sharp dressed man match took place with Hornswoggle against Chavo Guerrero. It was a ZZ Top theme named tuxedo match. Chavo ended up with a tux where the pants were sewed together making him have a hard time moving. Hornswoggle got the win. Santino Marella hung out performing with ZZ Top backstage all night including him wearing a beard. The segments were just kind of ehhh.
Other notes from Raw. Wow, did anyone have flashbacks to Superstars and Wrestling Challenge from the 80’s watching Josh Mathews interview Mickie James on the podium? That brought back memories. Yeah, I don’t think that fans of the Jim Cornette/Paul E. Dangerously tuxedo match from the 1989 Great American Bash have anything to be concerned about with tonight’s tuxedo match topping that one. LOL. Not a chance. By the way, that 1989 match has to be the best tuxedo match of all time. So, WWE is now selling advertising of matches now. Dave and Busters were the sponsor of the six man tag team match with the logo being on the screen at times including for the match graphics.
Last week’s Smackdown had a main event of Jeff Hardy and Rey Mysterio taking on Chris Jericho and Dolph Ziggler. CM Punk was on commentary. Earlier in the night, Punk and Hardy had words over their different lifestyle choices with Punk taking shots at Hardy’s. The finish of this match had Hardy throwing Jericho toward Punk. Punk moved and then shoved Jericho into Hardy knocking Hardy into the steps. That caused the DQ. Jericho then hooked on the walls of Jericho on Hardy as Punk looked on. John Morrison got a pinfall victory on CM Punk earlier in the night. Morrison offered a handshake after the match but Punk didn’t accept it and walked out. Edge was interviewed about his surgery. He talked of his accomplishments and how he always rose above challenges. However, he said that he wasn’t sure he’d be able to come back from this one and said that his career might be over. He said that this was the hardest injury to come back from and he was going to fight to come back. Jericho walked to the ring stopping the interview up on the screen. Jericho said that he was tired of hearing Edge sounding pathetic and that Edge didn’t care about WWE or about him. Jericho said that Edge’s only accomplishments were a bunch of injuries while he had never been injured. Edge was annoyed throughout much of Jericho’s comments and then said that he didn’t need the attack on his character or his accomplishments but said he will use those words as motivation to come back. Edge said he will prove everyone wrong when he returns. The Hart Dynasty won a six person tag match against Cryme Tyme and Eve when Natalya pinned Eve following a nasty spinning clothesline. Kane defeated R Truth when Truth jumped off the top turnbuckle only to catch a boot in the face from Kane leading to the win for Kane. Khali arrived afterwards and Kane was hit from behind by Truth. Kane did make it out of there before Khali got to him though. Layla came to the ring in a Dwayne Wade jersey dancing for the Miami crowd. She has a NBA championship ring as being part of the team as a dancer. Ricky Ortiz made his way to the ring with rally towels giving her inspiration for the dance. She wasn’t having any of it. I thought this segment was kind of odd cause Layla has been a heel.
Shaquille O’Neal will be the “guest host” of Raw next week. Ok, this should be fun. Shaq is a long time fan and it should be good.
WWE is stepping things up for SummerSlam adding a Fan Axxess to the weekend. Axxess has always just been done for WrestleMania but now SummerSlam will get one as well. I’m all for it as I think fans need to have extra stuff like that to attend especially when SummerSlam is such a huge event.
Taz finally debuted last night for TNA at the Victory Road PPV. This wasn’t a surprise to anyone that has been following the storyline. He got involved in the Sting/Samoa Joe match. The Main Event Mafia held all the titles at the end of the night last night. Well, except for the X-Division title which wasn’t defended.
Bobby Lashley was interviewed on ESPN Radio last week by Brandon Tierney where he announced that he has signed with TNA.
Big win for Brock Lesnar at UFC 100. He defeated Frank Mir to become the undisputed UFC champion in the second round by TKO. Afterwards, he stirred some controversy by telling the fans they were number one. Brings back memories of WrestleMania XX, doesn’t it? LOL. He ripped on the fans too when he was interviewed and UFC sponsors. Lesnar is really getting all kinds of attention in UFC and the PPV was said to do something around 1.2 million buys. That is a BIG number.
Guns N’ Roses song for Seth Green’s entrance from last week didn’t make it to WWE AM Raw on Saturday night. The song was replaced by some generic music. Guess they didn’t want to pay the money for it twice.
The editing on WWE 24/7 Classics On Demand is starting to get to be too much. I get that they are marketing more toward kids again but the editing on blood is too much. What am I talking about? I’m sure you’ve seen clips on TV on current WWE programming where they’ll be replaying an attack or something that resulted in blood. The screen goes black and white so they don’t show the blood. They are now doing this on WWE 24/7 Classic On Demand. Old footage has been edited to go black and white when showing a bloody camera angle of a match. I have noticed this happening from time to time but my breaking point with it was that they did this on the 1989 Great American Bash that is currently airing on the service. There are parts of the Flair/Funk match where the screen goes black and white to not show the blood. This is ridiculous. They were marketing to kids when I was little at the time when this match happened. I never thought anything of it. It is wrestling. What do you expect? It happens. Here is my problem with it as I just say if there is something in a show On Demand that had a big amount of blood, put a graphic at the beginning to warn of it. They do it with the ECW shows mentioning viewer discretion in watching it. Why don’t you do that with the others as well instead of going black and white and ruining the original footage? I’m big on wanting to leave original footage as it is. I want to see old shows in their original form. I don’t like music edits but I, of course, understand why they have to be done. However, I don’t understand why music is ok in one show but it is edited in another one. That’s a different story though. Turning moments of matches to black and white is very annoying. Put up a viewer discretion graphic and let the footage go.
The PPV name changing continues. Cyber Sunday changed to Annihilation and then back to Cyber Sunday. Now, it has been changed to WWE Bragging Rights.
The WWE Night Of Champions PPV is this Sunday night and here is the lineup. Randy Orton defends the WWE title against Triple H and John Cena. CM Punk defends the World title against Jeff Hardy. Intercontinental Champion Rey Mysterio defends against Dolph Ziggler. ECW Champion Tommy Dreamer defends against Christian. Unified Tag Team Champion Chris Jericho will pick a partner and they’ll defend the belts against Ted Dibiase and Cody Rhodes. Maryse defends the Divas championship against Mickie James. Six pack challenge for the US title with Kofi Kingston defending against Big Show, Carlito, Jack Swagger, MVP, and The Miz.
Have a great week!! Take care and God bless!!!
Monday, July 13, 2009
Raw & Smackdown Thoughts & More - July 13, 2009
Welcome to the “that has to be the biggest babyface reaction that I can remember a celebrity getting in quite some time” edition of The Wrestling List.
Here is the recap of last week's Smackdown. Rey Mysterio defended the Intercontinental title against Chris Jericho. It took up the last half hour of the show. Rey won with the 619 and splash. After the match, Edge showed up and was about to go for Rey. Rey saw him and avoided him. As Rey backed up the aisle, he was hit from behind by Dolph Ziggler. Dolph attacked him and then threw him to Edge for a spear. Edge set up Jericho to hit the codebreaker on Rey. Edge and Jericho left leaving Dolph to land another move on Rey to make his impact. Earlier in the night, Dolph had gotten a win on John Morrison with a hand full of tights. Jeff Hardy and CM Punk continued their war of words. Hardy opened the show talking about how he was upset that Punk didn't check on him with his eye injury last week. He pointed out that it was almost like Punk thinks he was faking it but that his eye injury was just as bad as Punk's. Hardy took on Kane following his comments. As Hardy was going for the swanton, Punk's music hit. Hardy was distracted on the top rope watching Punk which gave time for Kane to grab Hardy. He chokeslammed Hardy off the top rope for the win. Later in the night, Punk wrestled The Great Khali with Jeff on commentary. Punk showed Hardy his prescription eye medication to prove the injury while continuing to talk about the difference in their lifestyles. Hardy eventually got up to confront him but then Khali's music hit to start the match. As the match went on, Khali hit the Punjabi plunge. Kane's music hit and he walked out with a chair. Singh threw a chair to Khali and the two faced off with chairs. Kane dropped his momentarily which led to Khali doing the same. Kane then hit Khali with the chair. On the next attempt, Khali punched the chair out of Kane's hands. Kane tried to beg off from th e chair but Khali hit him with it anyway which then led to Kane leaving the ring. Melina and Eve defeated Michelle McCool and Layla. Melina landed a shot on Michelle on the apron. Layla went to nail Melina from behind but Melina moved. Layla ended up catching Michelle with it. Melina then rolled up Layla for the win. Michelle attacked Melina after the match and the fight went to the floor. Melina got back on offense clotheslining Michelle into the crowd. The two would fight more around ringside before Michelle bailed out of there. The Hart Dynasty evened up with Cryme Tyme this week by defeating them. Natalya was the distraction getting the attention of JTG. The Hart Dynasty then hit the high/low on Shad for the win. Other happenings on the show had Maria and Dolph apparently becoming a new romance. R Truth is now doing a new comedy type character that was just kind of out of nowhere. I guess WWE is trying to come up with something to freshen up the character a bit.
Tonight’s Raw was all about the guest host of the week, Seth Green. I really enjoyed him as guest host. The fans loved him. I’m a Seth Green fan anyway and it’s nice to see a celebrity who is a fan get to be involved in such a role. Triple H opened the show and introduced Seth Green as the guest host. Seth started making matches and they promoted his new Robot Chicken episode which will feature Triple H. They started running down Randy Orton which brought him out. Triple H and Orton talked some trash back and forth. Orton was sick of Seth already but Seth made a six man tag main event. Seth Green teaming with Triple H and John Cena against Legacy. Funny segment later where Seth was in his office looking very nervous. Cena and Triple H walked in trying to pump him up a bit. They then started to argue with each other. The decision was then made to quit arguing cause they both knew that “Seth was going to get killed anyway”. Seth had really good timing tonight in every segment that he was in. The main event took place. Seth did get tagged into the match. Cena held Cody while Seth landed a punch. Seth started to show boat until he realized that Cody had recovered. Seth ran around the ring with Cody right behind him. Triple H then hid and nailed Cody with a clothesline. The finish had Triple H going for the pedigree but Priceless stopped it. Cena stopped the double team. Orton hit a RKO to Triple H and went for the pin. Seth jumped in and broke the count. Orton went for Seth and had him down in the corner. He went for the punt but Cena tackled him to stop it. Legacy all piled on Cena and went to grab a chair. The chair was countered by Triple H grabbing the sledgehammer. He swung around a bunch and then took a wild swing which almost landed on Cena. The two stopped and just looked at each other. Things were all right between them and the two posed with Seth. BIG Seth chants during this match. Other action had Chris Jericho talking about how he had put a clause in the contract allowing him to pick a new tag team partner for Night Of Champions and allowing him to remain tag team champions. His reasoning was that he knew Edge was injury prone and put that in the contract adding that Edge was the weak link of the team. Mark Henry came to the ring and Jericho thought that Henry would be his tag partner but Henry was there to wrestle him instead. He ripped Jericho’s clothes off of him and then Seth made the match official between them. Jericho had words with Seth earlier in the night which was the reason why Jericho was put in the match. Henry put a beating on Jericho and then Jericho bailed taking the countout loss. Jack Swagger defeated MVP after hitting him with the gut wrench power bomb. Maryse, Alicia, and Rosa defeated Mickie, Kelly, and Gail in a swimsuit six diva match. Maryse put Mickie into the post and then hit a DDT for the win. The story was pushing how Maryse was finally able to beat Mickie James. Primo called out Carlito over what occurred last week but instead got The Miz. The two went at it in a match. Carlito’s music hit and Carlito then caused a distraction. Miz nailed a knee to the back of Primo and the reality check for the win. After the match, Carlito kicked Primo and spit an apple in his face. Hornswoggle defeated Chavo Guerrero in a match where Seth had ruled that Chavo had to wrestle with one arm tied behind his back. Hornswoggle pinned Chavo with a small package with the story being that he couldn’t kick out due to his arm being tied. Big Show took on Evan Bourne with Kofi at ringside doing commentary. Show nailed a NASTY spear on Bourne which had Bourne landing on his neck. Show then hooked the camel clutch for the win but wouldn’t let go of the hold. Kofi got in the ring and stopped it. Show was knocked from the ring. It was announced that ZZ Top will be the guest host for Raw next week.
Other notes from Raw. Like I said, I thought Seth Green was fanastic tonight. That Robot Chicken episode looked really funny. It is a funny show if you’ve never seen it especially the Star Wars episodes. Did I really hear Buffy The Vampire Slayer get a plug on Raw? Loved that!! How much did it cost WWE to get to use Welcome To The Jungle for Seth Green’s theme music? I thought the action figure segment was funny with Santino imitating himself running off The Iron Sheik. Then, the Trish Stratus figure walked in and he made out with her. It was really funny. Why does WWE always have to book the quicker guys against the big monsters to where they can’t work like they should be able to? What a bummer to see the Edge surgery footage knowing that he is out for a while.
Edge had surgery done last week as expected and will be out of action for several months. He is going to be missed big time!!
Ted Dibiase has gotten rave reviews for his appearance last week as the “guest host” of Raw. He was great and his promos were great as well. He just made everything look so easy. The roster and the entire WWE needs to look at what he was able to do and take notes.
Ricky Steamboat wrestled recently overseas against Chris Jericho at a house show. Isn’t it amazing just how good that Steamboat is after retirement? Some guys just never lose it. The fans over there got a treat for sure.
The WWE: Allied Powers – The World’s Greatest Tag Teams DVD will be released in stores tomorrow. I’ll get a preview lineup in next week’s List. It is a strong one though.
I mentioned last week about the WWE name changes for PPV’s. Well, WWE brought the Cyber Sunday name back instead of Annihilation and have it back on their schedule. That is until today. WWE has now changed the name to WWE Bragging Rights. They are really having trouble picking a name.
Jerry Lawler is once again talking about throwing his hat into the political ring. He is considering running for Mayor of Memphis. He has run before back in 1999 and lost to who is the current Mayor of Memphis. The current Mayor is about to retire.
Have a great week!! Take care and God bless!!
Here is the recap of last week's Smackdown. Rey Mysterio defended the Intercontinental title against Chris Jericho. It took up the last half hour of the show. Rey won with the 619 and splash. After the match, Edge showed up and was about to go for Rey. Rey saw him and avoided him. As Rey backed up the aisle, he was hit from behind by Dolph Ziggler. Dolph attacked him and then threw him to Edge for a spear. Edge set up Jericho to hit the codebreaker on Rey. Edge and Jericho left leaving Dolph to land another move on Rey to make his impact. Earlier in the night, Dolph had gotten a win on John Morrison with a hand full of tights. Jeff Hardy and CM Punk continued their war of words. Hardy opened the show talking about how he was upset that Punk didn't check on him with his eye injury last week. He pointed out that it was almost like Punk thinks he was faking it but that his eye injury was just as bad as Punk's. Hardy took on Kane following his comments. As Hardy was going for the swanton, Punk's music hit. Hardy was distracted on the top rope watching Punk which gave time for Kane to grab Hardy. He chokeslammed Hardy off the top rope for the win. Later in the night, Punk wrestled The Great Khali with Jeff on commentary. Punk showed Hardy his prescription eye medication to prove the injury while continuing to talk about the difference in their lifestyles. Hardy eventually got up to confront him but then Khali's music hit to start the match. As the match went on, Khali hit the Punjabi plunge. Kane's music hit and he walked out with a chair. Singh threw a chair to Khali and the two faced off with chairs. Kane dropped his momentarily which led to Khali doing the same. Kane then hit Khali with the chair. On the next attempt, Khali punched the chair out of Kane's hands. Kane tried to beg off from th e chair but Khali hit him with it anyway which then led to Kane leaving the ring. Melina and Eve defeated Michelle McCool and Layla. Melina landed a shot on Michelle on the apron. Layla went to nail Melina from behind but Melina moved. Layla ended up catching Michelle with it. Melina then rolled up Layla for the win. Michelle attacked Melina after the match and the fight went to the floor. Melina got back on offense clotheslining Michelle into the crowd. The two would fight more around ringside before Michelle bailed out of there. The Hart Dynasty evened up with Cryme Tyme this week by defeating them. Natalya was the distraction getting the attention of JTG. The Hart Dynasty then hit the high/low on Shad for the win. Other happenings on the show had Maria and Dolph apparently becoming a new romance. R Truth is now doing a new comedy type character that was just kind of out of nowhere. I guess WWE is trying to come up with something to freshen up the character a bit.
Tonight’s Raw was all about the guest host of the week, Seth Green. I really enjoyed him as guest host. The fans loved him. I’m a Seth Green fan anyway and it’s nice to see a celebrity who is a fan get to be involved in such a role. Triple H opened the show and introduced Seth Green as the guest host. Seth started making matches and they promoted his new Robot Chicken episode which will feature Triple H. They started running down Randy Orton which brought him out. Triple H and Orton talked some trash back and forth. Orton was sick of Seth already but Seth made a six man tag main event. Seth Green teaming with Triple H and John Cena against Legacy. Funny segment later where Seth was in his office looking very nervous. Cena and Triple H walked in trying to pump him up a bit. They then started to argue with each other. The decision was then made to quit arguing cause they both knew that “Seth was going to get killed anyway”. Seth had really good timing tonight in every segment that he was in. The main event took place. Seth did get tagged into the match. Cena held Cody while Seth landed a punch. Seth started to show boat until he realized that Cody had recovered. Seth ran around the ring with Cody right behind him. Triple H then hid and nailed Cody with a clothesline. The finish had Triple H going for the pedigree but Priceless stopped it. Cena stopped the double team. Orton hit a RKO to Triple H and went for the pin. Seth jumped in and broke the count. Orton went for Seth and had him down in the corner. He went for the punt but Cena tackled him to stop it. Legacy all piled on Cena and went to grab a chair. The chair was countered by Triple H grabbing the sledgehammer. He swung around a bunch and then took a wild swing which almost landed on Cena. The two stopped and just looked at each other. Things were all right between them and the two posed with Seth. BIG Seth chants during this match. Other action had Chris Jericho talking about how he had put a clause in the contract allowing him to pick a new tag team partner for Night Of Champions and allowing him to remain tag team champions. His reasoning was that he knew Edge was injury prone and put that in the contract adding that Edge was the weak link of the team. Mark Henry came to the ring and Jericho thought that Henry would be his tag partner but Henry was there to wrestle him instead. He ripped Jericho’s clothes off of him and then Seth made the match official between them. Jericho had words with Seth earlier in the night which was the reason why Jericho was put in the match. Henry put a beating on Jericho and then Jericho bailed taking the countout loss. Jack Swagger defeated MVP after hitting him with the gut wrench power bomb. Maryse, Alicia, and Rosa defeated Mickie, Kelly, and Gail in a swimsuit six diva match. Maryse put Mickie into the post and then hit a DDT for the win. The story was pushing how Maryse was finally able to beat Mickie James. Primo called out Carlito over what occurred last week but instead got The Miz. The two went at it in a match. Carlito’s music hit and Carlito then caused a distraction. Miz nailed a knee to the back of Primo and the reality check for the win. After the match, Carlito kicked Primo and spit an apple in his face. Hornswoggle defeated Chavo Guerrero in a match where Seth had ruled that Chavo had to wrestle with one arm tied behind his back. Hornswoggle pinned Chavo with a small package with the story being that he couldn’t kick out due to his arm being tied. Big Show took on Evan Bourne with Kofi at ringside doing commentary. Show nailed a NASTY spear on Bourne which had Bourne landing on his neck. Show then hooked the camel clutch for the win but wouldn’t let go of the hold. Kofi got in the ring and stopped it. Show was knocked from the ring. It was announced that ZZ Top will be the guest host for Raw next week.
Other notes from Raw. Like I said, I thought Seth Green was fanastic tonight. That Robot Chicken episode looked really funny. It is a funny show if you’ve never seen it especially the Star Wars episodes. Did I really hear Buffy The Vampire Slayer get a plug on Raw? Loved that!! How much did it cost WWE to get to use Welcome To The Jungle for Seth Green’s theme music? I thought the action figure segment was funny with Santino imitating himself running off The Iron Sheik. Then, the Trish Stratus figure walked in and he made out with her. It was really funny. Why does WWE always have to book the quicker guys against the big monsters to where they can’t work like they should be able to? What a bummer to see the Edge surgery footage knowing that he is out for a while.
Edge had surgery done last week as expected and will be out of action for several months. He is going to be missed big time!!
Ted Dibiase has gotten rave reviews for his appearance last week as the “guest host” of Raw. He was great and his promos were great as well. He just made everything look so easy. The roster and the entire WWE needs to look at what he was able to do and take notes.
Ricky Steamboat wrestled recently overseas against Chris Jericho at a house show. Isn’t it amazing just how good that Steamboat is after retirement? Some guys just never lose it. The fans over there got a treat for sure.
The WWE: Allied Powers – The World’s Greatest Tag Teams DVD will be released in stores tomorrow. I’ll get a preview lineup in next week’s List. It is a strong one though.
I mentioned last week about the WWE name changes for PPV’s. Well, WWE brought the Cyber Sunday name back instead of Annihilation and have it back on their schedule. That is until today. WWE has now changed the name to WWE Bragging Rights. They are really having trouble picking a name.
Jerry Lawler is once again talking about throwing his hat into the political ring. He is considering running for Mayor of Memphis. He has run before back in 1999 and lost to who is the current Mayor of Memphis. The current Mayor is about to retire.
Have a great week!! Take care and God bless!!
Saturday, July 11, 2009
Macho Madness: The Randy Savage Ultimate Collection Review - July 11, 2009
WWE recently released Macho Madness: The Randy Savage Ultimate Collection and I have gotten it all watched. I’ll go in depth about what is on each disc including any edits that I noticed from the original footage. I have been a Randy Savage fan since I started watching wrestling over twenty years ago. When I heard that WWE was FINALLY going to release this long talked about Randy Savage set, I knew that I had to pick it up. There is of course no biography type program and there is no Randy Savage involvement in it or any interviews. This is a collection of matches hosted by Matt Striker and Maria. I thought they did a good job of hosting it. Striker is a long time fan so he was able to add a lot of details to the building of the matches that we were about to see. Maria was also fun and played well off of Striker. Miss Elizabeth is of course featured a lot in this DVD set. You can’t think about Randy Savage without thinking about Elizabeth. The two of them will forever be united in wrestling history. I often think that if Savage goes into the Hall Of Fame (if McMahon and Savage can work out what ever differences that they have) that Elizabeth should go into the Hall Of Fame in the same year. Same year but induct them separately. The DVD covers Savage’s career from 1985 up to 1999 spanning from WWE to WCW. I had seen most of the stuff on this DVD set but there were three matches that I hadn’t seen. Big kudos to WWE for putting a couple of rare matches on the set along with the usual matches that we see on these sets.
Disc one starts with his early career in WWE and runs from 1985-1988. Savage’s WWE debut is shown which is against Rick McGraw at Madison Square Garden. This is a must see match as Savage was a heat magnet on his first night. He was doing a lot of talking while getting stuff thrown at him. He had a drink hurled at him at one point that got Savage over to the rail to confront the fan. Just a great debut and you just knew this guy was going to be big. The introduction of Elizabeth as Savage’s manager is shown. You’ll remember that there was a major competition between the managers at the time to get Savage but then he named Elizabeth as the manager. Next is a nice bonus for all of us fans that have loved the Savage/Steamboat match from WrestleMania III. They give us a rarely seen match which is one that I had never seen as it was Steamboat vs. Savage from Boston Garden in 1986. I just loved seeing a different Savage/Steamboat match. Fun match and the crowd was loving it. You know that there has to be Hogan/Savage matches on this set and I’m glad that a match from 1985 was put on this set which took place from MSG. Because of their feud later on getting so much attention, their matches from the mid 80’s are often overlooked. Their matches had a ton of heat cause Savage was such a big heel even so early in his WWE run. Hogan was red hot at that time and you had the usual moments of Savage hiding behind Elizabeth. One moment had Hogan picking Elizabeth up and then putting her to the side. I have always enjoyed the Hogan/Savage matches from 1985-1986 so this was a real treat to have on this set. Savage’s Intercontinental championship win is featured on this disc with the match against Tito Santana from Boston Garden. I’ve seen this match many times over the years but it is still fun to watch with the controversial finish involving referee Danny Davis. Ok, I admit that I’ve never been really big into watching Bruno Sammartino matches but his match against Savage on this first disc was a match that I really enjoyed. Nothing against Bruno obviously but I just liked other wrestlers instead. The Boston Garden crowd was big time behind Bruno. Like I said, WrestleMania III is there with Savage and Steamboat which is still one of the best matches in WrestleMania history. Just an incredible match that inspired many of the current talent of wrestlers to get where they are in the business. Savage’s face turn was after that which led us up to 1988 with Savage trying to recapture the Intercontinental title against The Honky Tonk Man. Savage faced him on The Main Event in February 1988 which was on the same show as the Hogan/Andre WrestleMania III rematch. That show did a HUGE rating. It had been a while since I had seen this Savage/Honky Tonk Man match and it was a lot of fun. Crowd was fantastic during this!!! Disc one finishes off with the Ted Dibiase feud. Speaking of the Dibiase feud, I would have liked to have seen the Saturday Night’s Main Event match with Savage and Dibiase added to this set as it helped set up where the story would go leading into WrestleMania IV. The DVD picks up at WrestleMania IV showing highlights of Savage’s first three victories in the championship tournament. We see the Dibiase match in the finals which is still fantastic to me to watch. I have seen WrestleMania IV so many times, especially when I was a kid, that I can recall a ton of the commentary. Andre accompanied Dibiase to ringside and Savage calls for reinforcements. Elizabeth is sent back and she returns with Hogan to even up the odds. Savage wins his first WWE championship by winning the tournament. I was thrilled of the match that followed on this set as they put a cage match with Dibiase from that summer of 1988 on there. This is a rarely seen match as well and one that I haven’t seen in many years. They had some great cage matches. I had completely forgotten about the fan that climbed the cage trying to get Virgil to quit interfering!! That was a funny moment. Another funny moment was Superstar Billy Graham on commentary saying that he had told Elizabeth that she needed to eat more and get bigger. My first thought was how would that go over saying something like that??!!! What a goofy comment. LOL. You never could go wrong with Savage/Dibiase matches especially from that time period.
Disc two covers 1988-1992 with a lot of classics with them being matches that are commonly featured on DVD sets. The disc opens with the first SummerSlam as The Megapowers took on The Megabucks. This match has a good memory with me cause it was the first PPV that I ever got live. What I loved seeing at the end was what I often talk about with the building of feuds way in advance. They planted that little seed of trouble with Hogan and Savage at the end of the match. The DVD moves right on to WrestleMania V where The Megapowers exploded. They do a quick overview focusing on the troubles of The Megapowers mostly showing the 1989 Royal Rumble where Savage got eliminated along with others at the time by Hogan. The elimination isn’t actually shown but they show the words being said afterwards. Of course, The Main Event special on NBC is shown as that was where the heel turn by Savage happened. Never forget watching that on TV when it aired!! One negative on this was that I would have liked to have seen some of Savage’s segments where he dissected moments from the past year on how Hogan had turned on him and working on stealing Elizabeth from him. Those were really good segments and I haven’t seen them in years. Too bad that at least one couldn’t be added as an extra. Also, the Saturday Night’s Main Event segment wasn’t shown where Elizabeth made her decision on whose corner that she would be in. Savage/Hogan from WrestleMania V is one of my favorite matches in WrestleMania history. Big one year build for this match from WrestleMania IV right up to V. The match delivered and then we go into the talk of Savage winning the right to be called King. They unfortunately don’t show footage of the match where Savage beat Duggan or don’t show the coronation either. However, the coronation is shown on the extras which I’ll get to momentarily. The Hogan/Savage rematch from The Main Event NBC special is included on this set from February 1990. Originally, Mike Tyson was set to be the special enforcer for this match but Buster Douglas knocked out Tyson just before this was set to happen. Douglas was put into the spot instead. I’ve always liked this match and thought it was fun. WrestleMania VI and VII are covered next. First, the mixed tag of Savage and Sherri against Dusty Rhodes and Sapphire with Elizabeth in their corner. Very fun match. Fun booking. WrestleMania VII was the career match between Savage and The Ultimate Warrior. You’ll remember that a couple of months earlier that Savage had cost Warrior the championship against Sgt. Slaughter. This match has always been a thorn in my side with Savage and Warrior so it was interesting to watch it again. Me and my friends often joke and get annoyed with the fact that Savage hit FIVE big elbow drops on the Warrior which should have been career ending but Warrior kicks out. We just always thought it was ridiculous from a story point of view. The finish of this match makes it all worthwhile and I LOVED seeing the reunion of Savage and Elizabeth again. It really was a HUGE moment and it provided the face turn for Savage. Classic, classic moment which had fans in the crowd crying. The wedding of Savage and Elizabeth is covered and is also an extra. The wedding reception provided the storyline of how the nasty feud with Savage and Jake The Snake Roberts got going. Who can ever forget the feud that Savage and Roberts had? The feud started while Savage was “retired” due to his loss and he had to battle to get reinstated. One of the more scarier moments in wrestling that I remember watching as a kid was when Jake had the cobra biting Savage. It still isn’t that fun to watch now. LOL. This led to their match at the This Tuesday In Texas PPV. I always loved the start of the match with Savage running down the aisle and nailing Jake from behind cause that is how logic would be that you wouldn’t be waiting for ring introductions if he did that to you. It had been a while since I had seen this match too so it was fun to get refreshed on this match. The story was the post match though with Jake continuing to assault Savage while Elizabeth begged and pleaded for him to stop. Interesting that the match stops before Jake hit Elizabeth and I wonder if they left it off of there due to the targeting kids deal that they are back to now. Disc two concludes with Savage and Flair going at it at WrestleMania VIII for the championship. She was mine before she was yours. That is what I always think when I remember back at this match. Great match!! Savage’s second reign as champion happens at the Hoosier Dome in Indianapolis as he defeats Flair. Lots of wild action in this one.
Disc three picks up in 1992 and carries into his WCW career with the matches finishing in 1999. A couple of real treats right off the bat on this disc. When I saw Savage vs. Shawn Michaels from the UK in 1992 listed on the set, I thought it would be the match from the Coliseum Video release that I had seen. When Elizabeth was introduced with Savage, I perked up realizing that I had never seen this match. This was a lot of fun and much better than their other match I had seen. Really fun finish to the match. Next was another rarity that is great for history’s sake. Savage teams up with Bret Hart taking on Shawn Michaels and Ric Flair. Wow is all that can be said for this one. Loved this match as well. Two matches in a row that I hadn’t seen. Loving that!! The last match from Savage’s WWE run that is shown on this set is him taking on Yokozuna for the title from Raw in February 1994. I have to mention something on commentary that just made me laugh. Savage is walking to the ring and Vince McMahon says on commentary that Savage was, no doubt, Hall Of Fame bound. Just kind of ironic considering that Savage is asked about every year when it comes to Hall Of Fame nominees. That bad blood between the two just doesn’t make that seem guaranteed now. We move on to his WCW career from here as Striker and Maria discuss the Monday Night Wars. We pick up with Savage taking on Flair from WCW Bash At The Beach 1995. This was one of the better matches of their feud in my opinion and I liked the outside venue for the match. Another Savage/Flair match after this one from WCW Monday Nitro in February 1996 which features another Savage championship win. I had forgotten that this was the match where Savage won the belt until I neared the finish of it. Savage vs. Diamond Dallas Page was one of the best feuds in WCW in the late 90’s. The build was great and their matches delivered. This DVD has the match from the 1997 Great American Bash shown on it. I loved watching this one again. I have no idea how long it has been since I had seen this one. Brutal falls count anywhere match with the action all over the building. I had to laugh at Dusty Rhodes on commentary yelling for DDP to use the BBQ pit. LOL. Last match on the set skips ahead to Savage’s return to WCW in 1999 where he teamed with Sid Vicious to take on Kevin Nash and Sting with the WCW title being on the line. If anyone pinned Nash, they could win the title. Savage did win the WCW title again and this was the match where they teased that Gorgeous George had had enough of Savage and went with Nash. I had forgotten just how physically involved in matches that Team Madness used to be. Team Madness was of course George, Medusa, and Miss Madness, who would later go on to be Molly Holly.
DVD extras. Lots to be had. The wedding of Savage and Elizabeth from SummerSlam 1991 is shown including the pre-wedding music video. Piper going off on Heenan at the beginning of the wedding telling him to keep quiet and not ruin it is great stuff. Elizabeth’s managerial debut from 1985 is shown along with many interview segments. Definitely check out the Savage interviews. So many of them feature some funny stuff with Savage, Elizabeth, and Mean Gene. Most of them are from 1985-1987. However, there is one of the old “the following announcement has been paid for by the New World Order” black and white promos which features Savage and Elizabeth. I always liked the style of those promos especially when they first started doing them in 1996. The one extra that I liked to see for sure was the Macho King Randy Savage coronation ceremony from Superstars back in 1989. I bet that I have not seen this since it has aired. I never could find it on a Coliseum Video release back in the day or it was put on a video that the local video stores didn’t get. I didn’t remember that Dibiase was the one that gave Savage the scepter. Glad to have that footage in my hands now.
What has been edited from its original form? Anything with the letters WWF being said obviously has the audio drop out but it doesn’t happen very often. I can only think of twice. There is a spot at the beginning of the WrestleMania V match where a whole line that Gorilla said about the “WWF” championship is just removed. If you didn’t know it was there, you wouldn’t even realize it was gone so that was a nice edit. Quite a bit of music replacements. Hogan’s music is of course changed in their match from 1985 and changed to Real American. The Flair music replacement was puzzling to me. In the WrestleMania VIII match, his music is changed to his current theme song. However, during the Savage/Hart vs. Flair/Michaels match, Flair’s original music is back in there. Dusty Rhodes’s “common man” theme song is replaced for WrestleMania VI which hurt the match some especially with the dancing at the end. That generic music that they replaced it with just didn’t work. I’m curious as to why they didn’t use it since they have started using the music again. The Buster Douglas theme music has been replaced for his entrance during The Main Event match with Savage and Hogan. The Vanna White entrance music from WrestleMania IV was replaced but we just hear about ten seconds of it anyway for the introductions.
Ok, I think it is safe to assume that we’ll probably see another Randy Savage set released in the future. Hopefully, Savage and WWE can come together and do a biography style release and include more matches. I just thought I’d go over some matches that I’d like to see included on a future set. I would love to see the match where The Megapowers formed on Saturday Night’s Main Event where Elizabeth pulled Hogan to the ring to save Savage. The bottom line is that I’d love to see more matches featured from Savage’s first championship reign in 1988. Maybe some SNME matches. How about some more rare Hogan/Savage matches? Some of their rematches from 1989. Another match from 1985 or 1986. Savage vs. DDP from Halloween Havoc 1997. Savage vs. Duggan where Savage wins the right to be named King. Savage winning the World War 3 battle royal to win the WCW championship in 1995. Yeah, it’s a long match and I don’t remember just how good that the match was but it would be something for history’s sake with Savage’s title win. Maybe put the heel turn on there with Savage turning on Hogan from The Main Event in 1989. Definitely show some of the Savage promos from 1989 leading up to WrestleMania V where he uses the footage to prove his point of how Hogan had done him wrong. Savage vs. Dibiase from Saturday Night’s Main Event in March 1988. Something from the Savage/George The Animal Steele feud. You could use the Saturday Night’s Main Event match where the winner would get Elizabeth or maybe find a different match from that feud. There are really a lot of choices to go with but my preference of time period would be between 1985 and 1989.
So there you go. There are my thoughts on the Randy Savage DVD set. It really is well done and I enjoyed it a lot. Yeah, I had seen most of these matches many times but they were a lot of fun to watch again and it made me feel like a kid again. I was happy to see three matches though that I had never seen which was the Savage/Steamboat match from Boston Garden in 1986, Savage vs. Michaels from the UK in 1992, and Savage/Hart vs. Michaels/Flair from 1992. I’m just glad that this set finally got released after years and years of talk about it. Savage is one of my all time favorites and it was amazing how he could be such a good face and a good heel. He could do either role with ease. If you’re a Savage and/or Elizabeth fan, you’ll want to pick up this set. Elizabeth was such a big part of his career and it shows on this set. She was what class was all about with her appearance and style. She opened a lot of doors for women in wrestling and she deserves to be in the Hall Of Fame one day. The Savage DVD set gets a big thumbs up from me!!
Disc one starts with his early career in WWE and runs from 1985-1988. Savage’s WWE debut is shown which is against Rick McGraw at Madison Square Garden. This is a must see match as Savage was a heat magnet on his first night. He was doing a lot of talking while getting stuff thrown at him. He had a drink hurled at him at one point that got Savage over to the rail to confront the fan. Just a great debut and you just knew this guy was going to be big. The introduction of Elizabeth as Savage’s manager is shown. You’ll remember that there was a major competition between the managers at the time to get Savage but then he named Elizabeth as the manager. Next is a nice bonus for all of us fans that have loved the Savage/Steamboat match from WrestleMania III. They give us a rarely seen match which is one that I had never seen as it was Steamboat vs. Savage from Boston Garden in 1986. I just loved seeing a different Savage/Steamboat match. Fun match and the crowd was loving it. You know that there has to be Hogan/Savage matches on this set and I’m glad that a match from 1985 was put on this set which took place from MSG. Because of their feud later on getting so much attention, their matches from the mid 80’s are often overlooked. Their matches had a ton of heat cause Savage was such a big heel even so early in his WWE run. Hogan was red hot at that time and you had the usual moments of Savage hiding behind Elizabeth. One moment had Hogan picking Elizabeth up and then putting her to the side. I have always enjoyed the Hogan/Savage matches from 1985-1986 so this was a real treat to have on this set. Savage’s Intercontinental championship win is featured on this disc with the match against Tito Santana from Boston Garden. I’ve seen this match many times over the years but it is still fun to watch with the controversial finish involving referee Danny Davis. Ok, I admit that I’ve never been really big into watching Bruno Sammartino matches but his match against Savage on this first disc was a match that I really enjoyed. Nothing against Bruno obviously but I just liked other wrestlers instead. The Boston Garden crowd was big time behind Bruno. Like I said, WrestleMania III is there with Savage and Steamboat which is still one of the best matches in WrestleMania history. Just an incredible match that inspired many of the current talent of wrestlers to get where they are in the business. Savage’s face turn was after that which led us up to 1988 with Savage trying to recapture the Intercontinental title against The Honky Tonk Man. Savage faced him on The Main Event in February 1988 which was on the same show as the Hogan/Andre WrestleMania III rematch. That show did a HUGE rating. It had been a while since I had seen this Savage/Honky Tonk Man match and it was a lot of fun. Crowd was fantastic during this!!! Disc one finishes off with the Ted Dibiase feud. Speaking of the Dibiase feud, I would have liked to have seen the Saturday Night’s Main Event match with Savage and Dibiase added to this set as it helped set up where the story would go leading into WrestleMania IV. The DVD picks up at WrestleMania IV showing highlights of Savage’s first three victories in the championship tournament. We see the Dibiase match in the finals which is still fantastic to me to watch. I have seen WrestleMania IV so many times, especially when I was a kid, that I can recall a ton of the commentary. Andre accompanied Dibiase to ringside and Savage calls for reinforcements. Elizabeth is sent back and she returns with Hogan to even up the odds. Savage wins his first WWE championship by winning the tournament. I was thrilled of the match that followed on this set as they put a cage match with Dibiase from that summer of 1988 on there. This is a rarely seen match as well and one that I haven’t seen in many years. They had some great cage matches. I had completely forgotten about the fan that climbed the cage trying to get Virgil to quit interfering!! That was a funny moment. Another funny moment was Superstar Billy Graham on commentary saying that he had told Elizabeth that she needed to eat more and get bigger. My first thought was how would that go over saying something like that??!!! What a goofy comment. LOL. You never could go wrong with Savage/Dibiase matches especially from that time period.
Disc two covers 1988-1992 with a lot of classics with them being matches that are commonly featured on DVD sets. The disc opens with the first SummerSlam as The Megapowers took on The Megabucks. This match has a good memory with me cause it was the first PPV that I ever got live. What I loved seeing at the end was what I often talk about with the building of feuds way in advance. They planted that little seed of trouble with Hogan and Savage at the end of the match. The DVD moves right on to WrestleMania V where The Megapowers exploded. They do a quick overview focusing on the troubles of The Megapowers mostly showing the 1989 Royal Rumble where Savage got eliminated along with others at the time by Hogan. The elimination isn’t actually shown but they show the words being said afterwards. Of course, The Main Event special on NBC is shown as that was where the heel turn by Savage happened. Never forget watching that on TV when it aired!! One negative on this was that I would have liked to have seen some of Savage’s segments where he dissected moments from the past year on how Hogan had turned on him and working on stealing Elizabeth from him. Those were really good segments and I haven’t seen them in years. Too bad that at least one couldn’t be added as an extra. Also, the Saturday Night’s Main Event segment wasn’t shown where Elizabeth made her decision on whose corner that she would be in. Savage/Hogan from WrestleMania V is one of my favorite matches in WrestleMania history. Big one year build for this match from WrestleMania IV right up to V. The match delivered and then we go into the talk of Savage winning the right to be called King. They unfortunately don’t show footage of the match where Savage beat Duggan or don’t show the coronation either. However, the coronation is shown on the extras which I’ll get to momentarily. The Hogan/Savage rematch from The Main Event NBC special is included on this set from February 1990. Originally, Mike Tyson was set to be the special enforcer for this match but Buster Douglas knocked out Tyson just before this was set to happen. Douglas was put into the spot instead. I’ve always liked this match and thought it was fun. WrestleMania VI and VII are covered next. First, the mixed tag of Savage and Sherri against Dusty Rhodes and Sapphire with Elizabeth in their corner. Very fun match. Fun booking. WrestleMania VII was the career match between Savage and The Ultimate Warrior. You’ll remember that a couple of months earlier that Savage had cost Warrior the championship against Sgt. Slaughter. This match has always been a thorn in my side with Savage and Warrior so it was interesting to watch it again. Me and my friends often joke and get annoyed with the fact that Savage hit FIVE big elbow drops on the Warrior which should have been career ending but Warrior kicks out. We just always thought it was ridiculous from a story point of view. The finish of this match makes it all worthwhile and I LOVED seeing the reunion of Savage and Elizabeth again. It really was a HUGE moment and it provided the face turn for Savage. Classic, classic moment which had fans in the crowd crying. The wedding of Savage and Elizabeth is covered and is also an extra. The wedding reception provided the storyline of how the nasty feud with Savage and Jake The Snake Roberts got going. Who can ever forget the feud that Savage and Roberts had? The feud started while Savage was “retired” due to his loss and he had to battle to get reinstated. One of the more scarier moments in wrestling that I remember watching as a kid was when Jake had the cobra biting Savage. It still isn’t that fun to watch now. LOL. This led to their match at the This Tuesday In Texas PPV. I always loved the start of the match with Savage running down the aisle and nailing Jake from behind cause that is how logic would be that you wouldn’t be waiting for ring introductions if he did that to you. It had been a while since I had seen this match too so it was fun to get refreshed on this match. The story was the post match though with Jake continuing to assault Savage while Elizabeth begged and pleaded for him to stop. Interesting that the match stops before Jake hit Elizabeth and I wonder if they left it off of there due to the targeting kids deal that they are back to now. Disc two concludes with Savage and Flair going at it at WrestleMania VIII for the championship. She was mine before she was yours. That is what I always think when I remember back at this match. Great match!! Savage’s second reign as champion happens at the Hoosier Dome in Indianapolis as he defeats Flair. Lots of wild action in this one.
Disc three picks up in 1992 and carries into his WCW career with the matches finishing in 1999. A couple of real treats right off the bat on this disc. When I saw Savage vs. Shawn Michaels from the UK in 1992 listed on the set, I thought it would be the match from the Coliseum Video release that I had seen. When Elizabeth was introduced with Savage, I perked up realizing that I had never seen this match. This was a lot of fun and much better than their other match I had seen. Really fun finish to the match. Next was another rarity that is great for history’s sake. Savage teams up with Bret Hart taking on Shawn Michaels and Ric Flair. Wow is all that can be said for this one. Loved this match as well. Two matches in a row that I hadn’t seen. Loving that!! The last match from Savage’s WWE run that is shown on this set is him taking on Yokozuna for the title from Raw in February 1994. I have to mention something on commentary that just made me laugh. Savage is walking to the ring and Vince McMahon says on commentary that Savage was, no doubt, Hall Of Fame bound. Just kind of ironic considering that Savage is asked about every year when it comes to Hall Of Fame nominees. That bad blood between the two just doesn’t make that seem guaranteed now. We move on to his WCW career from here as Striker and Maria discuss the Monday Night Wars. We pick up with Savage taking on Flair from WCW Bash At The Beach 1995. This was one of the better matches of their feud in my opinion and I liked the outside venue for the match. Another Savage/Flair match after this one from WCW Monday Nitro in February 1996 which features another Savage championship win. I had forgotten that this was the match where Savage won the belt until I neared the finish of it. Savage vs. Diamond Dallas Page was one of the best feuds in WCW in the late 90’s. The build was great and their matches delivered. This DVD has the match from the 1997 Great American Bash shown on it. I loved watching this one again. I have no idea how long it has been since I had seen this one. Brutal falls count anywhere match with the action all over the building. I had to laugh at Dusty Rhodes on commentary yelling for DDP to use the BBQ pit. LOL. Last match on the set skips ahead to Savage’s return to WCW in 1999 where he teamed with Sid Vicious to take on Kevin Nash and Sting with the WCW title being on the line. If anyone pinned Nash, they could win the title. Savage did win the WCW title again and this was the match where they teased that Gorgeous George had had enough of Savage and went with Nash. I had forgotten just how physically involved in matches that Team Madness used to be. Team Madness was of course George, Medusa, and Miss Madness, who would later go on to be Molly Holly.
DVD extras. Lots to be had. The wedding of Savage and Elizabeth from SummerSlam 1991 is shown including the pre-wedding music video. Piper going off on Heenan at the beginning of the wedding telling him to keep quiet and not ruin it is great stuff. Elizabeth’s managerial debut from 1985 is shown along with many interview segments. Definitely check out the Savage interviews. So many of them feature some funny stuff with Savage, Elizabeth, and Mean Gene. Most of them are from 1985-1987. However, there is one of the old “the following announcement has been paid for by the New World Order” black and white promos which features Savage and Elizabeth. I always liked the style of those promos especially when they first started doing them in 1996. The one extra that I liked to see for sure was the Macho King Randy Savage coronation ceremony from Superstars back in 1989. I bet that I have not seen this since it has aired. I never could find it on a Coliseum Video release back in the day or it was put on a video that the local video stores didn’t get. I didn’t remember that Dibiase was the one that gave Savage the scepter. Glad to have that footage in my hands now.
What has been edited from its original form? Anything with the letters WWF being said obviously has the audio drop out but it doesn’t happen very often. I can only think of twice. There is a spot at the beginning of the WrestleMania V match where a whole line that Gorilla said about the “WWF” championship is just removed. If you didn’t know it was there, you wouldn’t even realize it was gone so that was a nice edit. Quite a bit of music replacements. Hogan’s music is of course changed in their match from 1985 and changed to Real American. The Flair music replacement was puzzling to me. In the WrestleMania VIII match, his music is changed to his current theme song. However, during the Savage/Hart vs. Flair/Michaels match, Flair’s original music is back in there. Dusty Rhodes’s “common man” theme song is replaced for WrestleMania VI which hurt the match some especially with the dancing at the end. That generic music that they replaced it with just didn’t work. I’m curious as to why they didn’t use it since they have started using the music again. The Buster Douglas theme music has been replaced for his entrance during The Main Event match with Savage and Hogan. The Vanna White entrance music from WrestleMania IV was replaced but we just hear about ten seconds of it anyway for the introductions.
Ok, I think it is safe to assume that we’ll probably see another Randy Savage set released in the future. Hopefully, Savage and WWE can come together and do a biography style release and include more matches. I just thought I’d go over some matches that I’d like to see included on a future set. I would love to see the match where The Megapowers formed on Saturday Night’s Main Event where Elizabeth pulled Hogan to the ring to save Savage. The bottom line is that I’d love to see more matches featured from Savage’s first championship reign in 1988. Maybe some SNME matches. How about some more rare Hogan/Savage matches? Some of their rematches from 1989. Another match from 1985 or 1986. Savage vs. DDP from Halloween Havoc 1997. Savage vs. Duggan where Savage wins the right to be named King. Savage winning the World War 3 battle royal to win the WCW championship in 1995. Yeah, it’s a long match and I don’t remember just how good that the match was but it would be something for history’s sake with Savage’s title win. Maybe put the heel turn on there with Savage turning on Hogan from The Main Event in 1989. Definitely show some of the Savage promos from 1989 leading up to WrestleMania V where he uses the footage to prove his point of how Hogan had done him wrong. Savage vs. Dibiase from Saturday Night’s Main Event in March 1988. Something from the Savage/George The Animal Steele feud. You could use the Saturday Night’s Main Event match where the winner would get Elizabeth or maybe find a different match from that feud. There are really a lot of choices to go with but my preference of time period would be between 1985 and 1989.
So there you go. There are my thoughts on the Randy Savage DVD set. It really is well done and I enjoyed it a lot. Yeah, I had seen most of these matches many times but they were a lot of fun to watch again and it made me feel like a kid again. I was happy to see three matches though that I had never seen which was the Savage/Steamboat match from Boston Garden in 1986, Savage vs. Michaels from the UK in 1992, and Savage/Hart vs. Michaels/Flair from 1992. I’m just glad that this set finally got released after years and years of talk about it. Savage is one of my all time favorites and it was amazing how he could be such a good face and a good heel. He could do either role with ease. If you’re a Savage and/or Elizabeth fan, you’ll want to pick up this set. Elizabeth was such a big part of his career and it shows on this set. She was what class was all about with her appearance and style. She opened a lot of doors for women in wrestling and she deserves to be in the Hall Of Fame one day. The Savage DVD set gets a big thumbs up from me!!
Monday, July 6, 2009
Million Dollar Man Returns, Raw/Smackdown Thoughts, & More - July 6, 2009
Welcome to the “Million Dollar Man returns!!” edition of The Wrestling List.
Smackdown continued to tell the story of the Jeff Hardy/CM Punk feud. Fun stuff in this one. Punk was introduced at the beginning of the show where he gave his side of the story on the Bash match. Punk talked about how he was actually the one that was almost robbed due to his foot being under the ropes with the ref not seeing it. He pointed out that everyone makes mistakes and that the ref caught it. Punk said that his eye was clearly damaged and that he couldn’t see which is why he nailed the referee. Punk pointed out that he doesn’t take short cuts inside or outside of the ring but said that nothing excused Hardy for his actions after the match. Punk had heard that Jeff wanted a rematch which was fine with him but he wanted an apology for what happened after the match. Teddy Long made his way to the ring saying that he didn’t know if Punk took the cheap way out or not but announced a rematch for Night Of Champions between the two. Punk was quick to say that was fine with him and no problem but he wanted his apology. Long then made the match for the main event of Smackdown with Hardy and Punk taking on new Unified tag champs, Edge and Jericho. Jeff arrived and immediately started off with Punk saying that he didn’t want to hear any more excuses. Hardy said that he knew Punk was clear on what he was doing at the PPV and did apologize….for what he was going to do to him at Night Of Champions. Shoving started and Long got between them. Punk then told Hardy that they needed to be on the same page for their match later on. That match took place and Hardy and Punk teamed well for a while. Then, Punk started holding his eye as the match went along and would walk down the apron every time that Hardy would go to tag. It was very reminiscent for me of Martel walking off from Santana at WrestleMania 5 as far as the style of it. Hardy eventually ran and tagged Punk in with a hard slap. Punk would later go for a tag and Hardy pulled up just at the last moment grabbing his eye and fell onto the floor. It was one of the biggest oversells that you’ve ever seen. Ha ha. Punk went for the GTS but Edge made a blind tag in. He hit the spear on Punk and made the pin. It was very much like the tag title finish at the Bash. Hardy then went to Punk complaining about his eye and that was why he couldn’t tag in. The story was that Hardy was of course faking and getting even with Punk which he revealed on his way up the ramp. Solid match. In other action, Kane defeated Rey Mysterio. Rey hit the 619 but Kane caught the springboard attempt and finished him off with a chokeslam. As Kane went to do more damage after the match, Khali arrived with a chair. Kane took off through the crowd to get away from Khali.. Cryme Tyme defeated The Hart Dynasty when Shad pinned Smith. The finish had JTG interfering from the outside helping his team get the win with the ref’s back turned. Melina and Maria defeated Michelle McCool and Layla when Melina pinned Layla with the split legdrop. Melina looked really strong on offense when she got the hot tag at the end. Michelle continued to taunt Melina with the Women’s title. Dolph Ziggler defeated R Truth. Finlay defeated Ricky Ortiz with the celtic cross. This week’s Smackdown will be an Intercontinental championship rematch with Rey Mysterio defending against Chris Jericho.
Fun episode of Raw tonight which centered around the “guest host” for the week which was The Million Dollar Man Ted Dibiase. The whole story seemed to be that Legacy would be in good shape this week with Dibiase Jr’s dad in charge. Well, that didn’t turn out to be true. Dibiase opened the show with Priceless with him. He said that he had been told that there could be no title defenses before Night Of Champions but that he was going to have some fun tonight. Priceless vs. Edge and Jericho for the tag team titles was set for Night Of Champions. Dibiase talked to Cody Rhodes about how they all agreed that Mark Henry should be taught a lesson about what happened last week. However, Dibiase informed Cody that he would be the one to do it setting a match tonight with Cody and Henry. Yeah, Cody wasn’t thrilled about that one. Dibiase then turned and talked to his son. Dibiase talked of the history between Orton and his son and how he felt that Orton was holding him back. He said that he knew that his son could beat Orton and set the match for tonight as well. Yeah, Jr. was stunned and not happy either. Orton later talked to Priceless as they were all frustrated. Orton said something to the effects of that Dibiase Jr. losing to Orton wouldn’t accomplish anything which Dibiase Jr. took offense to. Cody went to Dibiase later and tried to buy his way out of the match with Henry. Dibiase said that he had the right idea but not the right amount of money. Ha ha. He went on to talk about how much that he couldn’t stand Cody’s dad, Dusty Rhodes. Dibiase said that he was everything that he couldn’t stand in life with being the common man. He threatened Cody with having to wear polka dots if he lost. The match with Henry and Cody took place with Henry dominating. The match didn’t go long as Henry hit the slam and then Cody bailed. Cody took the countout loss. The match with Orton and Dibiase Jr. took place and was a solid one. Orton was frustrated asking Jr. over and over why he was doing this match. Jr. started getting in some offense and had Orton reeling. Jr. countered the RKO into a backslide and got a close count. The finish had Jr. going for the dreamstreet only for it to be countered into a RKO. Orton gets the win. He gave a nod to Jr. which seemed to be respect as that was what the announcers were putting over. However, Jr. had a look of anger on his face. Back in the locker room, Jr. went to confront his dad. Dibiase talked to his son about how he gained a lot of respect but Jr. said that his dad had set him up to fail while adding that his dad had to have the spotlight again. Jr. ended up slapping his dad really hard and left while saying “thanks dad”. The tournament final to decide who would face Orton at Night Of Champions took place with Cena vs. Triple H. Crowd was split on this one and the finish had Priceless getting involved. They attacked both Cena and Triple H. When the bell rang, they bailed. Orton got on the mic knowing that it was a double DQ. The plan was that the attack would lead to the DQ causing him not to have an opponent for Night Of Champions. Dibiase returned and stood on the stage to say something different. Dibiase said that it was true that there was no winner but there was also no loser. Night Of Champions is now a triple threat with Orton having to defend against Cena and Triple H for the WWE title. In other action, Edge and Jericho took on The Colons. The finish had Carlito getting knocked off of the apron after Primo moved to avoid his opponent but the opponent caught Carlito. So, Carlito tried to get back in the ring. That caused the distraction and Jericho hit the codebreaker on Primo followed by an Edge spear for the win. After the match, Carlito attacked Primo throwing him into the post. He then threw him around ringside including firing him over the announce table. There goes that tag team. Mickie James and Gail Kim teamed up to take on the team of Maryse and Alicia Fox. Solid match. Gail Kim looked really good on offense. The back and forth one upping that Maryse and Mickie were doing with each other was fun. Finish had Gail Kim pinning the Divas champion clean in the middle of the ring. Mickie and Maryse continued to have words after the match with Maryse mocking her with the championship. The VIP Lounge segment was MVP hosting Jack Swagger. The whole story of this thing was MVP getting on his case for not being a man last week. Swagger commented on MVP’s troubled past. MVP stood up to him and then Swagger backed down saying that he didn’t fight people below him or criminals. MVP then had a good line of saying that Swagger didn’t fight anyone since getting to Raw. Evan Bourne defeated Kofi Kingston in a quick match hitting the airbourne for the win. Big Show then made his way to the ring to attack Kofi. Bourne tried to help Kofi but Show destroyed both of them.
Other notes from Raw. How great was The Million Dollar Man tonight??!! He seemed like he was having the most fun that he has had in years on TV. Just how stiff was that slap from son to dad anyway? WOW. I loved hearing Dibiase talk about how he wrote a check to get the guest host duty while also carrying the Million Dollar Belt. I figured that the Colons were about to split up and it just seemed like a matter of time before they would feud with one another. Gail Kim looked really strong in her Raw debut. I still love the trash talking going on between Mickie James and Maryse. It’s fun. Did anyone not see that Night Of Champions match becoming a triple threat match?
Matt Hardy has written a My Space blog on his injury and it is a nasty one. You can read all about it here at this link: http://blogs.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendId=152686889&blogId=498850621
I did laugh at the editing that WWE did with that video package of the Raw main event from last week which aired on Smackdown. You might remember that both Cole and Lawler called the RKO off the turnbuckle on to Bourne a “running bulldog”. In the video package, they added them saying RKO to it. I thought that was funny. How did both of them miss that being a RKO? They even repeated running bulldog when they called the replays.
I’m into watching the second disc of the Randy Savage DVD set. I am having a fun time watching this DVD. I’ll have a full review of it when I finish it. I’ll say already that if you’re a Savage fan, you won’t be disappointed with it.
If you watched ECW last week, you saw a lot of new talent. It was talent being moved up to the main roster from FCW.
WWE has changed the name to two of their PPV’s later this year. No Mercy appears to be gone and it has been changed to what appears to be a Cell themed PPV. The Cyber Sunday name is also gone for the PPV later that month in October and is now called WWE Annihilation.
Torrie Wilson commented on the disappointment of her return at WrestleMania. I completely agree with her comments as I thought it was done really poorly. They didn’t even get introduced so you didn’t even get a clear look at the returning women. That could have been a lot of fun and ended up being a huge disappointment. Here is the link to the interview that The Baltimore Sun did: http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/sports/wrestling/blog/2009/07/qa_with_torrie_wilson_3.html
I watched the 2009 Royal Rumble over the weekend on WWE 24/7 Classics On Demand. I really enjoyed this show. The Rumble match was a lot of fun as it always is. Lots of good action in it and it was fast paced. I just liked the booking for it all around. Great to see Rob Van Dam’s surprise appearance and the crowd went nuts for it. Randy Orton got the win of course and I thought it was well done at the end with how his win happened. I was ready for sure to see the Matt Hardy heel turn and the crowd was just standing stunned. Loved how JR and Tazz just stepped out and didn’t say much instead letting the picture tell the story. It really was funny to hear the crowd chanting “we want Christian” at the beginning of the match cause that’s what we all thought on where the story of the feud was going. I was one of them but loved the idea of a Matt heel turn. Cena and JBL was just kind of there for me. JBL matches just mostly bore me so the real story of the match was to watch for Shawn Michaels’ involvement. When the ref went down, all eyes went to Shawn. He climbed up on the apron and the crowd went nuts. Big pop on the superkick to JBL and then the pop was louder on the superkick to Cena. I really liked the women’s title match with Melina and Beth Phoenix. This was the much talked about spot where Beth bent Melina back kicking her in the head with her own foot. What a cool spot. Matt Hardy and Swagger opened the show and was a solid match. Like I said, this was a fun show and I’d recommend it to anyone wondering whether to check it out. You can never go wrong with the Rumble match and it didn’t disappoint.
Have a great week!! Hope everyone had a great and safe 4th of July. Take care and God bless!!
Smackdown continued to tell the story of the Jeff Hardy/CM Punk feud. Fun stuff in this one. Punk was introduced at the beginning of the show where he gave his side of the story on the Bash match. Punk talked about how he was actually the one that was almost robbed due to his foot being under the ropes with the ref not seeing it. He pointed out that everyone makes mistakes and that the ref caught it. Punk said that his eye was clearly damaged and that he couldn’t see which is why he nailed the referee. Punk pointed out that he doesn’t take short cuts inside or outside of the ring but said that nothing excused Hardy for his actions after the match. Punk had heard that Jeff wanted a rematch which was fine with him but he wanted an apology for what happened after the match. Teddy Long made his way to the ring saying that he didn’t know if Punk took the cheap way out or not but announced a rematch for Night Of Champions between the two. Punk was quick to say that was fine with him and no problem but he wanted his apology. Long then made the match for the main event of Smackdown with Hardy and Punk taking on new Unified tag champs, Edge and Jericho. Jeff arrived and immediately started off with Punk saying that he didn’t want to hear any more excuses. Hardy said that he knew Punk was clear on what he was doing at the PPV and did apologize….for what he was going to do to him at Night Of Champions. Shoving started and Long got between them. Punk then told Hardy that they needed to be on the same page for their match later on. That match took place and Hardy and Punk teamed well for a while. Then, Punk started holding his eye as the match went along and would walk down the apron every time that Hardy would go to tag. It was very reminiscent for me of Martel walking off from Santana at WrestleMania 5 as far as the style of it. Hardy eventually ran and tagged Punk in with a hard slap. Punk would later go for a tag and Hardy pulled up just at the last moment grabbing his eye and fell onto the floor. It was one of the biggest oversells that you’ve ever seen. Ha ha. Punk went for the GTS but Edge made a blind tag in. He hit the spear on Punk and made the pin. It was very much like the tag title finish at the Bash. Hardy then went to Punk complaining about his eye and that was why he couldn’t tag in. The story was that Hardy was of course faking and getting even with Punk which he revealed on his way up the ramp. Solid match. In other action, Kane defeated Rey Mysterio. Rey hit the 619 but Kane caught the springboard attempt and finished him off with a chokeslam. As Kane went to do more damage after the match, Khali arrived with a chair. Kane took off through the crowd to get away from Khali.. Cryme Tyme defeated The Hart Dynasty when Shad pinned Smith. The finish had JTG interfering from the outside helping his team get the win with the ref’s back turned. Melina and Maria defeated Michelle McCool and Layla when Melina pinned Layla with the split legdrop. Melina looked really strong on offense when she got the hot tag at the end. Michelle continued to taunt Melina with the Women’s title. Dolph Ziggler defeated R Truth. Finlay defeated Ricky Ortiz with the celtic cross. This week’s Smackdown will be an Intercontinental championship rematch with Rey Mysterio defending against Chris Jericho.
Fun episode of Raw tonight which centered around the “guest host” for the week which was The Million Dollar Man Ted Dibiase. The whole story seemed to be that Legacy would be in good shape this week with Dibiase Jr’s dad in charge. Well, that didn’t turn out to be true. Dibiase opened the show with Priceless with him. He said that he had been told that there could be no title defenses before Night Of Champions but that he was going to have some fun tonight. Priceless vs. Edge and Jericho for the tag team titles was set for Night Of Champions. Dibiase talked to Cody Rhodes about how they all agreed that Mark Henry should be taught a lesson about what happened last week. However, Dibiase informed Cody that he would be the one to do it setting a match tonight with Cody and Henry. Yeah, Cody wasn’t thrilled about that one. Dibiase then turned and talked to his son. Dibiase talked of the history between Orton and his son and how he felt that Orton was holding him back. He said that he knew that his son could beat Orton and set the match for tonight as well. Yeah, Jr. was stunned and not happy either. Orton later talked to Priceless as they were all frustrated. Orton said something to the effects of that Dibiase Jr. losing to Orton wouldn’t accomplish anything which Dibiase Jr. took offense to. Cody went to Dibiase later and tried to buy his way out of the match with Henry. Dibiase said that he had the right idea but not the right amount of money. Ha ha. He went on to talk about how much that he couldn’t stand Cody’s dad, Dusty Rhodes. Dibiase said that he was everything that he couldn’t stand in life with being the common man. He threatened Cody with having to wear polka dots if he lost. The match with Henry and Cody took place with Henry dominating. The match didn’t go long as Henry hit the slam and then Cody bailed. Cody took the countout loss. The match with Orton and Dibiase Jr. took place and was a solid one. Orton was frustrated asking Jr. over and over why he was doing this match. Jr. started getting in some offense and had Orton reeling. Jr. countered the RKO into a backslide and got a close count. The finish had Jr. going for the dreamstreet only for it to be countered into a RKO. Orton gets the win. He gave a nod to Jr. which seemed to be respect as that was what the announcers were putting over. However, Jr. had a look of anger on his face. Back in the locker room, Jr. went to confront his dad. Dibiase talked to his son about how he gained a lot of respect but Jr. said that his dad had set him up to fail while adding that his dad had to have the spotlight again. Jr. ended up slapping his dad really hard and left while saying “thanks dad”. The tournament final to decide who would face Orton at Night Of Champions took place with Cena vs. Triple H. Crowd was split on this one and the finish had Priceless getting involved. They attacked both Cena and Triple H. When the bell rang, they bailed. Orton got on the mic knowing that it was a double DQ. The plan was that the attack would lead to the DQ causing him not to have an opponent for Night Of Champions. Dibiase returned and stood on the stage to say something different. Dibiase said that it was true that there was no winner but there was also no loser. Night Of Champions is now a triple threat with Orton having to defend against Cena and Triple H for the WWE title. In other action, Edge and Jericho took on The Colons. The finish had Carlito getting knocked off of the apron after Primo moved to avoid his opponent but the opponent caught Carlito. So, Carlito tried to get back in the ring. That caused the distraction and Jericho hit the codebreaker on Primo followed by an Edge spear for the win. After the match, Carlito attacked Primo throwing him into the post. He then threw him around ringside including firing him over the announce table. There goes that tag team. Mickie James and Gail Kim teamed up to take on the team of Maryse and Alicia Fox. Solid match. Gail Kim looked really good on offense. The back and forth one upping that Maryse and Mickie were doing with each other was fun. Finish had Gail Kim pinning the Divas champion clean in the middle of the ring. Mickie and Maryse continued to have words after the match with Maryse mocking her with the championship. The VIP Lounge segment was MVP hosting Jack Swagger. The whole story of this thing was MVP getting on his case for not being a man last week. Swagger commented on MVP’s troubled past. MVP stood up to him and then Swagger backed down saying that he didn’t fight people below him or criminals. MVP then had a good line of saying that Swagger didn’t fight anyone since getting to Raw. Evan Bourne defeated Kofi Kingston in a quick match hitting the airbourne for the win. Big Show then made his way to the ring to attack Kofi. Bourne tried to help Kofi but Show destroyed both of them.
Other notes from Raw. How great was The Million Dollar Man tonight??!! He seemed like he was having the most fun that he has had in years on TV. Just how stiff was that slap from son to dad anyway? WOW. I loved hearing Dibiase talk about how he wrote a check to get the guest host duty while also carrying the Million Dollar Belt. I figured that the Colons were about to split up and it just seemed like a matter of time before they would feud with one another. Gail Kim looked really strong in her Raw debut. I still love the trash talking going on between Mickie James and Maryse. It’s fun. Did anyone not see that Night Of Champions match becoming a triple threat match?
Matt Hardy has written a My Space blog on his injury and it is a nasty one. You can read all about it here at this link: http://blogs.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendId=152686889&blogId=498850621
I did laugh at the editing that WWE did with that video package of the Raw main event from last week which aired on Smackdown. You might remember that both Cole and Lawler called the RKO off the turnbuckle on to Bourne a “running bulldog”. In the video package, they added them saying RKO to it. I thought that was funny. How did both of them miss that being a RKO? They even repeated running bulldog when they called the replays.
I’m into watching the second disc of the Randy Savage DVD set. I am having a fun time watching this DVD. I’ll have a full review of it when I finish it. I’ll say already that if you’re a Savage fan, you won’t be disappointed with it.
If you watched ECW last week, you saw a lot of new talent. It was talent being moved up to the main roster from FCW.
WWE has changed the name to two of their PPV’s later this year. No Mercy appears to be gone and it has been changed to what appears to be a Cell themed PPV. The Cyber Sunday name is also gone for the PPV later that month in October and is now called WWE Annihilation.
Torrie Wilson commented on the disappointment of her return at WrestleMania. I completely agree with her comments as I thought it was done really poorly. They didn’t even get introduced so you didn’t even get a clear look at the returning women. That could have been a lot of fun and ended up being a huge disappointment. Here is the link to the interview that The Baltimore Sun did: http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/sports/wrestling/blog/2009/07/qa_with_torrie_wilson_3.html
I watched the 2009 Royal Rumble over the weekend on WWE 24/7 Classics On Demand. I really enjoyed this show. The Rumble match was a lot of fun as it always is. Lots of good action in it and it was fast paced. I just liked the booking for it all around. Great to see Rob Van Dam’s surprise appearance and the crowd went nuts for it. Randy Orton got the win of course and I thought it was well done at the end with how his win happened. I was ready for sure to see the Matt Hardy heel turn and the crowd was just standing stunned. Loved how JR and Tazz just stepped out and didn’t say much instead letting the picture tell the story. It really was funny to hear the crowd chanting “we want Christian” at the beginning of the match cause that’s what we all thought on where the story of the feud was going. I was one of them but loved the idea of a Matt heel turn. Cena and JBL was just kind of there for me. JBL matches just mostly bore me so the real story of the match was to watch for Shawn Michaels’ involvement. When the ref went down, all eyes went to Shawn. He climbed up on the apron and the crowd went nuts. Big pop on the superkick to JBL and then the pop was louder on the superkick to Cena. I really liked the women’s title match with Melina and Beth Phoenix. This was the much talked about spot where Beth bent Melina back kicking her in the head with her own foot. What a cool spot. Matt Hardy and Swagger opened the show and was a solid match. Like I said, this was a fun show and I’d recommend it to anyone wondering whether to check it out. You can never go wrong with the Rumble match and it didn’t disappoint.
Have a great week!! Hope everyone had a great and safe 4th of July. Take care and God bless!!
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Bash Results, WWE Makes Roster Moves, WWE 24/7 July Preview, & More - June 30, 2009
Welcome to the “whew, that news of a trade had me concerned that WWE was going to mess up the best WWE show of the week, Smackdown” edition of The Wrestling List.
WWE did a “trade” last night which was explained in storyline by that Donald Trump made the deal before he left. They didn’t name all of the names on Raw but it was up on WWE.com today. Here are the talent moves. Raw is getting this talent: Gail Kim, Alicia Fox, Jack Swagger, Evan Bourne, and Mark Henry. Smackdown gets: Matt Hardy, Finlay, and The Hart Dynasty of David Hart Smith, Tyson Kidd, and Natalya. ECW gets: Shelton Benjamin, Goldust, William Regal, and The Bellas. Some interesting moves. I’ll go in depth on it after my Raw thoughts.
Sunday was the WWE Bash PPV. Here are the results of the show. The show opened with the ECW championship scramble match with Dreamer defending against Christian, Finlay, Henry, and Swagger. Dreamer ended up getting the pin near the end which had him retain the ECW title. Rey Mysterio defeated Chris Jericho in the title vs. mask match with Rey winning the Intercontinental title. Rey’s mask got pulled off but he had a second mask on underneath it. Rey hit the 619 and springboard for the win. Dolph Ziggler was next against The Great Khali in the no countout match. Kane got involved in the match and nailed Khali with a chair. As Kane walked off, Ziggler rolled in and got the pin on Khali. Next was the Unified tag team title match with The Colons defending against Priceless. As the match started, Teddy Long announced another opponent. Vince McMahon had put Long on notice for needing to step up his job performance and make some big moves. So, Edge and Jericho were put into this match. The finish had Edge making a tag that Carlito didn’t see. Carlito nailed Cody with the backstabber but the referee wouldn’t count cause Cody wasn’t the legal man. Edge then stepped in and hit a spear on Carlito to win the match and the tag team titles. Michelle McCool defeated Melina to win the Women’s title making Michelle the first woman to hold both the Women’s and Divas titles. She won the match with the Styles Clash. Next was CM Punk defending the World title against Jeff Hardy. Hardy hit the swanton and got the three count from the ref but Punk had his foot under the bottom rope. Hardy’s music was playing but the ref caught his mistake. He got the match going again which Hardy was very unhappy about. Punk went for the GTS but Hardy caught him with an elbow to stop the move. Punk was laying down covering his eye. The ref stopped Hardy so he could check on Punk. Punk then kicked the ref in the back which caused a DQ. The story was Punk saying that he couldn’t see and that the kick was accidental with him expecting the kick to land on Hardy. Hardy yelled at Punk that he had done it on purpose. Hardy then went on the attack on Punk frustrated over what Punk had done. Referees had to pull Hardy back. John Cena defeated The Miz after tapping to the STF. The main event was for the WWE title in the Three Stages match. Orton won the regular match which was the first fall when Triple H was DQ’d for hitting Orton with a chair. Triple H continued the assault with the chair which then started the second fall which was falls count anywhere. Triple H hit a pedigree on Orton on the floor to tie up the match. Last was the stretcher match in the third fall. The finish had Priceless getting involved. Triple H went for the sledgehammer and nailed Priceless with it. Orton then nailed Triple H with the metal piece off of the place where Triple H had the sledgehammer hidden. Orton then rolled Triple H across the line and won the match to retain the WWE title.
Getting to last night’s Raw. I thought this was a solid show. Vince McMahon opened the show and said that there was a 15 man trade with the storyline being that it was completed by Donald Trump before he quit. Also, McMahon announced that the weekly guest host or GM would happen. This week’s was Batista. Batista hit the ring and announced a four man tournament to set the challenger for Orton at Night Of Champions with Triple H taking on MVP and then John Cena taking on The Miz. Batista said that he wasn’t going to do this guest host deal when it was offered because he didn’t want to come back till he could wrestle. He was then told that he could have complete power and knew he could make Orton’s life miserable for a night so that was when he accepted it from Vince. Legacy arrived and Orton brought up the point of what was going to stop them from finishing the job on Batista? Batista then pointed out that he could fire all of them if they even looked at him wrong. He then said that Orton would be facing three of the newly acquired Raw talent from the trade in a three on one gauntlet match. Batista later told Orton that if Priceless interfered, they would be fired on the spot. So, Orton finishes the show with the gauntlet match. These were all surprises as we had yet to hear the names of the new Raw stars. His first opponent was Evan Bourne. The finish of that had Bourne going for his big finish and then Orton nailed the ropes knocking him off of the turnbuckle. Orton then hit a RKO as he pulled Bourne from the turnbuckle. That finished Bourne. Orton’s next opponent was former ECW champion, Jack Swagger. This finish had Swagger stepping on to the apron and taking a countout. Orton wins. Swagger got on the mic saying that he wanted to make a big impression on his first night on Raw and had always liked Orton. He stuck his hand out to Orton and Orton shook it. Swagger walked out. Orton’s last opponent was Mark Henry. Orton’s face was funny when he realized it was Henry. Henry got on the mic and said that he also wanted to make a good impression on his first night on Raw. He stepped out on the apron as well looking like he would take a countout. Henry then laughed and stepped back in the ring. Orton went to his knees begging and then Henry picked him straight up by his neck. The finish had Orton’s RKO attempt being countered by sending Orton to the ropes. Henry then hit the world’s strongest slam to get the pinfall on Orton. Wow, they put Henry over big by having him pin the champ. Moving on to the Night Of Champions tournament. Triple H against MVP was first with Triple H getting the win following the pedigree. John Cena and Miz was solid with Miz actually dominating most of the match. I thought Miz looked really good on offense and he had a lot of fans with him on every move he was hitting. The finish had Cena making the big comeback and hitting the legdrop off the top followed by the STF for the submission win. It will be Triple H vs. Cena next week with the winner moving on to face Orton at Night Of Champions for the belt. Chris Jericho and Edge took on The Colons in a rematch for the tag team titles. Edge and Jericho talked before the match with Edge saying he had went to Jericho about forming a united front to take over WWE. The finish was cool with Jericho and Primo battling on the floor. As Carlito was ready to hit the bottom rope for a move, Jericho shoved Primo into the rope on the floor. Carlito missed the rope and then Edge hit the spear for the win. The Colons argued a bit after the match. A fatal four way women’s match was held to determine the challenger for Maryse’s Divas title at Night Of Champions. This was a fun match!! Mickie James vs. Kelly Kelly vs. Beth Phoenix vs. Rosa Mendes. Funny moment with Beth turning on Rosa as Beth was on a mission to win. Mickie took out Beth with a kick which sent Beth crashing off of the steps. Mickie then hit the DDT on Rosa to score the win. Mickie then faced off with Maryse who had been doing commentary during the match. Kofi Kingston and Big Show battled to a double countout. Show took the fight to the floor. Kofi ended up knocking Show into the post but neither could beat the count. Show left very frustrated.
Other notes from Raw. It was announced that The Million Dollar Man, Ted Dibiase will be the guest GM next week on Raw. Ok, someone explain this to me. Didn’t Cole and Lawler make this big deal for weeks about The Colons being able to jump brands as long as they were champions but then saying that if they got beat, the new champs would be locked on their brand? Ok, so what happened to that? Suddenly, Edge and Jericho can jump brands too. That was just kind of bizarre. Was I the only one that heard Cole and Lawler say that Triple H had to wrestle twice on Raw? When I heard that, I thought that meant that the finals were going to be on this show too. I wasn’t the only one that heard that, was I? Did Lawler also really call the RKO on Bourne a running bulldog??!! Isn’t there just something funny about Teddy Long being put on “probation” by Vince McMahon due to job performance? Yeah, sorry that your show is so good that we’re putting you on probation. LOL. I loved the old school ECW-esque move with the women all having holds on each other. Very fun. Then, the charge by Beth into all three other women into the corner was cool to follow it. Like I said, I really liked the women’s match. Miz looked solid on offense against Cena and the announcers were putting it over with how shocked that they were with how Miz was dominating.
When this 15 person trade came up, my first thought was, oh no, Smackdown is going to get destroyed since it has been so good. So, I got some good relief after seeing the news of who was being moved. ECW on the other hand got destroyed. That was a show that has gotten a lot of good feedback in recent months. Good in ring action for sure on the show. Raw got some new stars. As far as individual moves, Matt Hardy is the one that I’m the most happy about cause I have been critical of how badly he has been used since being moved to Raw. He got lost in the mix quickly and having him back on Smackdown should be a good thing for Hardy and for the fans watching. I’m happy about seeing the Hart Dynasty on Smackdown. I think they could really shine being on that brand. I’m curious to see what things will be in store for the ECW guys moved over to Raw with Henry, Swagger, and Bourne. I am concerned that they will get lost in the mix too. Although, giving Henry a win on the WWE champion was a big deal. I’m interested to see what they do with Gail Kim on Raw. She is a nice addition and I’m surprised that she didn’t do more on Smackdown. Alicia Fox? Well, they didn’t keep her and Michelle together long. As far as the talent moved to ECW, well, Shelton will be a good pickup. I’m just not sure what there is left to do with Goldust, Regal, and the Bellas. Like I said, the real winner for me is Matt Hardy getting moved off of Raw.
The main event for this week’s Smackdown is Unified tag team champions, Edge and Chris Jericho taking on CM Punk and Jeff Hardy.
Some flags went up a couple of weeks ago when WWE posted that they were looking for a ring announcer preferably female with a good singing voice. Doesn’t that sound like what they have with Lillian Garcia??!!! It got a lot of speculation going that Lillian might be on her way out of the company. Lillian posted a blog over the weekend which talked of the rumors: Lillian did confirm that she is leaving and you can read her comments at this link: http://www.lilliangarcia.com
This is a bummer to hear cause I think she has become such a great ring announcer over the years. She really has become the voice of Raw with ring announcing. It has been nice having a ring announcer with such a strong voice as well. If you haven’t heard her sing the national anthem before a live show in an arena, you don’t know what you’re missing. I have heard her sing it live several times and it just sends chills through you!! Her greatest moment in WWE will probably always be the Smackdown after September 11, 2001. She did an INCREDIBLE singing of the national anthem to open the show. Talk about getting chills and getting you all pumped up after such a horrible week.
Here is the preview for the July programming on WWE 24/7 Classics On Demand. The theme for the month is “Superstars and Stripes Forever. Big Ones airing include WCW Great American Bash 1989 (GREAT, GREAT, GREAT show, Flair vs. Funk, Sting vs. Muta, Steamboat vs. Luger, WarGames, and more), WWF SummerSlam 1993 (Luger vs. Yokozuna), WWE No Way Out 2009. Old School house shows airing include MSG (12/31/91 – Hogan vs. Flair – the Rematch) and Boston Garden (1/11/86). TV Classics continue to air in order including ECW (October 1996), NWA (December 1986), Monday Night Wars (January 1998), World Class (July 1983), Prime Time Wrestling (April 1988), Mid-Atlantic (December 1981), Monday Night Wars: The Beginning (October 1995). A couple of Film Room shows will air which will be on Harley Race and then one with the WWWF vs. NWA. A couple of Coliseum Video releases will air including Hulk Hogan: Real American and also Hacksaw Jim Duggan. Also airing will the recently released Life and Times of Mr. Perfect DVD. It should be just the biography portion of the DVD obviously which I am really looking forward to watching. I’ve been wanting to see it for a while but have got to where I save my money on DVD’s as well waiting for them to air on 24/7 (with the exception obviously being the Randy Savage DVD). The shorties for the month should be a lot of fun. All of them are US title matches which span from NWA/WCW to WWE. That isn’t just the US Heavyweight title but also includes the US Tag Team titles from the NWA which includes The Midnight Express vs. The Fantastics. That is great stuff!! Shorties should be really fun to watch. Hall of Fame profile will be on Tony Atlas. This should be a really fun month of WWE 24/7 Classics On Demand. Lots of good stuff to see.
There were live reports last week saying that WWE was taking Randy Savage signs from fans in attendance at the TV shows. Kind of strange especially when they just released that DVD. Also, John Cena threw his hat into the crowd last week and a fan threw it back at the ring. The fan was ejected from the building. WOW, that is just dumb.
Torrie Wilson has made the final four on I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here on NBC.
So, Samoa Joe is now a heel in TNA and joined up with the Main Event Mafia? Sigh. It is so frustrating with how TNA has just ruined this guy. He was the hottest thing in wrestling a few years ago. If I could have picked one guy to watch matches of besides Shawn Michaels, I would have picked Samoa Joe. He was just incredible to watch. It’s just been awful to watch how the company has creatively ruined him.
That is all I have for this week’s Wrestling List. Wishing you all a great week!! Take care and God bless!!
WWE did a “trade” last night which was explained in storyline by that Donald Trump made the deal before he left. They didn’t name all of the names on Raw but it was up on WWE.com today. Here are the talent moves. Raw is getting this talent: Gail Kim, Alicia Fox, Jack Swagger, Evan Bourne, and Mark Henry. Smackdown gets: Matt Hardy, Finlay, and The Hart Dynasty of David Hart Smith, Tyson Kidd, and Natalya. ECW gets: Shelton Benjamin, Goldust, William Regal, and The Bellas. Some interesting moves. I’ll go in depth on it after my Raw thoughts.
Sunday was the WWE Bash PPV. Here are the results of the show. The show opened with the ECW championship scramble match with Dreamer defending against Christian, Finlay, Henry, and Swagger. Dreamer ended up getting the pin near the end which had him retain the ECW title. Rey Mysterio defeated Chris Jericho in the title vs. mask match with Rey winning the Intercontinental title. Rey’s mask got pulled off but he had a second mask on underneath it. Rey hit the 619 and springboard for the win. Dolph Ziggler was next against The Great Khali in the no countout match. Kane got involved in the match and nailed Khali with a chair. As Kane walked off, Ziggler rolled in and got the pin on Khali. Next was the Unified tag team title match with The Colons defending against Priceless. As the match started, Teddy Long announced another opponent. Vince McMahon had put Long on notice for needing to step up his job performance and make some big moves. So, Edge and Jericho were put into this match. The finish had Edge making a tag that Carlito didn’t see. Carlito nailed Cody with the backstabber but the referee wouldn’t count cause Cody wasn’t the legal man. Edge then stepped in and hit a spear on Carlito to win the match and the tag team titles. Michelle McCool defeated Melina to win the Women’s title making Michelle the first woman to hold both the Women’s and Divas titles. She won the match with the Styles Clash. Next was CM Punk defending the World title against Jeff Hardy. Hardy hit the swanton and got the three count from the ref but Punk had his foot under the bottom rope. Hardy’s music was playing but the ref caught his mistake. He got the match going again which Hardy was very unhappy about. Punk went for the GTS but Hardy caught him with an elbow to stop the move. Punk was laying down covering his eye. The ref stopped Hardy so he could check on Punk. Punk then kicked the ref in the back which caused a DQ. The story was Punk saying that he couldn’t see and that the kick was accidental with him expecting the kick to land on Hardy. Hardy yelled at Punk that he had done it on purpose. Hardy then went on the attack on Punk frustrated over what Punk had done. Referees had to pull Hardy back. John Cena defeated The Miz after tapping to the STF. The main event was for the WWE title in the Three Stages match. Orton won the regular match which was the first fall when Triple H was DQ’d for hitting Orton with a chair. Triple H continued the assault with the chair which then started the second fall which was falls count anywhere. Triple H hit a pedigree on Orton on the floor to tie up the match. Last was the stretcher match in the third fall. The finish had Priceless getting involved. Triple H went for the sledgehammer and nailed Priceless with it. Orton then nailed Triple H with the metal piece off of the place where Triple H had the sledgehammer hidden. Orton then rolled Triple H across the line and won the match to retain the WWE title.
Getting to last night’s Raw. I thought this was a solid show. Vince McMahon opened the show and said that there was a 15 man trade with the storyline being that it was completed by Donald Trump before he quit. Also, McMahon announced that the weekly guest host or GM would happen. This week’s was Batista. Batista hit the ring and announced a four man tournament to set the challenger for Orton at Night Of Champions with Triple H taking on MVP and then John Cena taking on The Miz. Batista said that he wasn’t going to do this guest host deal when it was offered because he didn’t want to come back till he could wrestle. He was then told that he could have complete power and knew he could make Orton’s life miserable for a night so that was when he accepted it from Vince. Legacy arrived and Orton brought up the point of what was going to stop them from finishing the job on Batista? Batista then pointed out that he could fire all of them if they even looked at him wrong. He then said that Orton would be facing three of the newly acquired Raw talent from the trade in a three on one gauntlet match. Batista later told Orton that if Priceless interfered, they would be fired on the spot. So, Orton finishes the show with the gauntlet match. These were all surprises as we had yet to hear the names of the new Raw stars. His first opponent was Evan Bourne. The finish of that had Bourne going for his big finish and then Orton nailed the ropes knocking him off of the turnbuckle. Orton then hit a RKO as he pulled Bourne from the turnbuckle. That finished Bourne. Orton’s next opponent was former ECW champion, Jack Swagger. This finish had Swagger stepping on to the apron and taking a countout. Orton wins. Swagger got on the mic saying that he wanted to make a big impression on his first night on Raw and had always liked Orton. He stuck his hand out to Orton and Orton shook it. Swagger walked out. Orton’s last opponent was Mark Henry. Orton’s face was funny when he realized it was Henry. Henry got on the mic and said that he also wanted to make a good impression on his first night on Raw. He stepped out on the apron as well looking like he would take a countout. Henry then laughed and stepped back in the ring. Orton went to his knees begging and then Henry picked him straight up by his neck. The finish had Orton’s RKO attempt being countered by sending Orton to the ropes. Henry then hit the world’s strongest slam to get the pinfall on Orton. Wow, they put Henry over big by having him pin the champ. Moving on to the Night Of Champions tournament. Triple H against MVP was first with Triple H getting the win following the pedigree. John Cena and Miz was solid with Miz actually dominating most of the match. I thought Miz looked really good on offense and he had a lot of fans with him on every move he was hitting. The finish had Cena making the big comeback and hitting the legdrop off the top followed by the STF for the submission win. It will be Triple H vs. Cena next week with the winner moving on to face Orton at Night Of Champions for the belt. Chris Jericho and Edge took on The Colons in a rematch for the tag team titles. Edge and Jericho talked before the match with Edge saying he had went to Jericho about forming a united front to take over WWE. The finish was cool with Jericho and Primo battling on the floor. As Carlito was ready to hit the bottom rope for a move, Jericho shoved Primo into the rope on the floor. Carlito missed the rope and then Edge hit the spear for the win. The Colons argued a bit after the match. A fatal four way women’s match was held to determine the challenger for Maryse’s Divas title at Night Of Champions. This was a fun match!! Mickie James vs. Kelly Kelly vs. Beth Phoenix vs. Rosa Mendes. Funny moment with Beth turning on Rosa as Beth was on a mission to win. Mickie took out Beth with a kick which sent Beth crashing off of the steps. Mickie then hit the DDT on Rosa to score the win. Mickie then faced off with Maryse who had been doing commentary during the match. Kofi Kingston and Big Show battled to a double countout. Show took the fight to the floor. Kofi ended up knocking Show into the post but neither could beat the count. Show left very frustrated.
Other notes from Raw. It was announced that The Million Dollar Man, Ted Dibiase will be the guest GM next week on Raw. Ok, someone explain this to me. Didn’t Cole and Lawler make this big deal for weeks about The Colons being able to jump brands as long as they were champions but then saying that if they got beat, the new champs would be locked on their brand? Ok, so what happened to that? Suddenly, Edge and Jericho can jump brands too. That was just kind of bizarre. Was I the only one that heard Cole and Lawler say that Triple H had to wrestle twice on Raw? When I heard that, I thought that meant that the finals were going to be on this show too. I wasn’t the only one that heard that, was I? Did Lawler also really call the RKO on Bourne a running bulldog??!! Isn’t there just something funny about Teddy Long being put on “probation” by Vince McMahon due to job performance? Yeah, sorry that your show is so good that we’re putting you on probation. LOL. I loved the old school ECW-esque move with the women all having holds on each other. Very fun. Then, the charge by Beth into all three other women into the corner was cool to follow it. Like I said, I really liked the women’s match. Miz looked solid on offense against Cena and the announcers were putting it over with how shocked that they were with how Miz was dominating.
When this 15 person trade came up, my first thought was, oh no, Smackdown is going to get destroyed since it has been so good. So, I got some good relief after seeing the news of who was being moved. ECW on the other hand got destroyed. That was a show that has gotten a lot of good feedback in recent months. Good in ring action for sure on the show. Raw got some new stars. As far as individual moves, Matt Hardy is the one that I’m the most happy about cause I have been critical of how badly he has been used since being moved to Raw. He got lost in the mix quickly and having him back on Smackdown should be a good thing for Hardy and for the fans watching. I’m happy about seeing the Hart Dynasty on Smackdown. I think they could really shine being on that brand. I’m curious to see what things will be in store for the ECW guys moved over to Raw with Henry, Swagger, and Bourne. I am concerned that they will get lost in the mix too. Although, giving Henry a win on the WWE champion was a big deal. I’m interested to see what they do with Gail Kim on Raw. She is a nice addition and I’m surprised that she didn’t do more on Smackdown. Alicia Fox? Well, they didn’t keep her and Michelle together long. As far as the talent moved to ECW, well, Shelton will be a good pickup. I’m just not sure what there is left to do with Goldust, Regal, and the Bellas. Like I said, the real winner for me is Matt Hardy getting moved off of Raw.
The main event for this week’s Smackdown is Unified tag team champions, Edge and Chris Jericho taking on CM Punk and Jeff Hardy.
Some flags went up a couple of weeks ago when WWE posted that they were looking for a ring announcer preferably female with a good singing voice. Doesn’t that sound like what they have with Lillian Garcia??!!! It got a lot of speculation going that Lillian might be on her way out of the company. Lillian posted a blog over the weekend which talked of the rumors: Lillian did confirm that she is leaving and you can read her comments at this link: http://www.lilliangarcia.com
This is a bummer to hear cause I think she has become such a great ring announcer over the years. She really has become the voice of Raw with ring announcing. It has been nice having a ring announcer with such a strong voice as well. If you haven’t heard her sing the national anthem before a live show in an arena, you don’t know what you’re missing. I have heard her sing it live several times and it just sends chills through you!! Her greatest moment in WWE will probably always be the Smackdown after September 11, 2001. She did an INCREDIBLE singing of the national anthem to open the show. Talk about getting chills and getting you all pumped up after such a horrible week.
Here is the preview for the July programming on WWE 24/7 Classics On Demand. The theme for the month is “Superstars and Stripes Forever. Big Ones airing include WCW Great American Bash 1989 (GREAT, GREAT, GREAT show, Flair vs. Funk, Sting vs. Muta, Steamboat vs. Luger, WarGames, and more), WWF SummerSlam 1993 (Luger vs. Yokozuna), WWE No Way Out 2009. Old School house shows airing include MSG (12/31/91 – Hogan vs. Flair – the Rematch) and Boston Garden (1/11/86). TV Classics continue to air in order including ECW (October 1996), NWA (December 1986), Monday Night Wars (January 1998), World Class (July 1983), Prime Time Wrestling (April 1988), Mid-Atlantic (December 1981), Monday Night Wars: The Beginning (October 1995). A couple of Film Room shows will air which will be on Harley Race and then one with the WWWF vs. NWA. A couple of Coliseum Video releases will air including Hulk Hogan: Real American and also Hacksaw Jim Duggan. Also airing will the recently released Life and Times of Mr. Perfect DVD. It should be just the biography portion of the DVD obviously which I am really looking forward to watching. I’ve been wanting to see it for a while but have got to where I save my money on DVD’s as well waiting for them to air on 24/7 (with the exception obviously being the Randy Savage DVD). The shorties for the month should be a lot of fun. All of them are US title matches which span from NWA/WCW to WWE. That isn’t just the US Heavyweight title but also includes the US Tag Team titles from the NWA which includes The Midnight Express vs. The Fantastics. That is great stuff!! Shorties should be really fun to watch. Hall of Fame profile will be on Tony Atlas. This should be a really fun month of WWE 24/7 Classics On Demand. Lots of good stuff to see.
There were live reports last week saying that WWE was taking Randy Savage signs from fans in attendance at the TV shows. Kind of strange especially when they just released that DVD. Also, John Cena threw his hat into the crowd last week and a fan threw it back at the ring. The fan was ejected from the building. WOW, that is just dumb.
Torrie Wilson has made the final four on I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here on NBC.
So, Samoa Joe is now a heel in TNA and joined up with the Main Event Mafia? Sigh. It is so frustrating with how TNA has just ruined this guy. He was the hottest thing in wrestling a few years ago. If I could have picked one guy to watch matches of besides Shawn Michaels, I would have picked Samoa Joe. He was just incredible to watch. It’s just been awful to watch how the company has creatively ruined him.
That is all I have for this week’s Wrestling List. Wishing you all a great week!! Take care and God bless!!
Monday, June 22, 2009
Commercial Free Edition Of Raw, Smackdown Remains Must See TV - June 22, 2009
Welcome to the “I’m not selling Vince, I’m not selling Vince, I love these fans Vince, Double my money? Sold” edition of The Wrestling List.
Another Smackdown. Another great show. Nothing but love for Michael Hayes. This show just has logic all over it along with great action. The show opened with Josh Mathews talking to Jeff Hardy and CM Punk in the ring. I liked the segment with Punk telling Hardy that there is no rule in the contract that he couldn’t cash in on him while adding that he didn’t steal the title. They both agreed that they live a different lifestyle while Hardy said he would win the title on Sunday. The opening match had Hardy taking on Chris Jericho. This was a very fun and creative finish. Rey Mysterio got involved and hit a rana on Jericho on the floor which sent Jericho into the post. Where did Rey come from? He was sitting in the front row with others dressed like him. It was great!! Very much a play off of Jericho hiding in the crowd weeks ago. Jericho got counted out with Hardy getting the win. Jericho complained to the ref after the match but then Hardy hit the twist of fate and swanton. Rey Mysterio would see action at the end of the night against CM Punk. Rey and Jericho did set up their match stipulation for The Bash with the title vs. mask match. Jericho did commentary on this match and he was in GREAT form. I love how Jericho keeps saying how great Rey is and how great Rey can be . Jericho just wants to set him free from the mask to make him greater. Great line from Jericho when JR asked if his attack on Rey was cowardly? Jericho responded saying that it was strategy and called it the art of war. Punk threw Rey to the floor at one point. Jericho jumped up and threw Rey into the post. The announcers went at Jericho over what he had done with Jericho asking them if they really thought he was just there to talk to them. He was there to get even. I thought that was a great verbal exchange. Rey barely beat the count back into the ring. Punk hit the GTS for the win. Hardy ran out pointing out the Jericho attack to the ref. Then, Hardy got mad at Punk over taking advantage of the situation while Punk had a look of that he did what he had to do. Edge and John Morrison did battle in a really fun match!! Lots of near falls and they were really putting over how Morrison was so close to getting the huge win. Story of this match was Edge damaging Morrison’s ribs early on which was a disadvantage to him throughout. Yeah, logic!!!! Morrison missed his finisher and then Edge hit a spear to win the match. Haas, Benjamin, and Ricky “I’m a heel now” Ortiz lost to the team of R Truth and Cryme Tyme when Truth pinned Shelton with a corkscrew elbow. Melina defeated Alicia Fox with Michelle at ringside. Melina won with the sunset flip slam. Michelle landed a kick on Melina after the match. She then bashed Melina’s head into the announce table while talking of how she was going to win the title. Khali was once again outsmarted by Dolph Ziggler. Ziggler brought a chair inside the ring and threw it at Khali. Khali punched it to the mat and Ziggler fell to the mat. The ref didn’t see this but turned to see Khali having the chair in his hand. The ref called for the DQ while Ziggler faked that he had been hit with the chair.
Well, that was fast. Donald Trump was one and done in this storyline. Tonight’s Raw was the commercial free episode which was the first time that it has been done in seventeen years of Raw. Overall, I thought it was a good show. Trump opened the show promoting what he was going to do which also included him giving refunds for ticket holders in the arena. Later in the show, Trump announced that there would be nothing as far as a GM announcement. Instead, there would be a guest celebrity GM every week. Vince McMahon arrived to the ring area after being downgraded big time by Trump backstage including his office being moved to the men’s room. Vince was mad at the free stuff that Trump was doing saying that Trump was going to put him out of business in six months with this progress. Trump went on to say that he had paid a big amount for Raw and that he could do whatever he wanted with it. He went on to say that he had a ton of offers from people wanting to buy Raw for double what he paid for adding that he could sell it at any point. Vince then started to see that he had been played and began throwing offers at Trump to buy Raw back. Vince offered him the original price and a percentage increase getting up to 75%. Trump wouldn’t budge saying that he loved the fans and wasn’t selling. Then, Vince offered him double which is the offers of what Trump said he was getting. Trump then caved immediately and agreed to the sell. I thought that was just bizarre with how quickly that happened. Vince buys back Raw and tells Trump that he is fired. Trump slaps Vince and then some security gets in the ring to make sure Vince didn’t retaliate. So, there you have it. The Vince/Trump storyline is over after one week. Randy Orton defended the WWE title against Triple H in the last man standing match. I thought the match was a solid one. Lots of big spots including a RKO on the table, a backdrop on the table by Triple H, a monitor to the head of Orton, and more. They worked their way up the ramp. I should point out that one story told in the match was Triple H getting his knee and leg worked on by Orton from early on. They ended up battling beside the stage. Triple H grabbed a ladder. He went to hit Orton with it like a battering ram but Orton ducked with the ladder nailing a crew guy. They played up how Orton didn’t care anything about the crew guy and grabbing the ladder to do more damage. Orton used the ladder on Triple H’s knee and then stomped the ladder with his leg in it. Orton went for a RKO off of the ladder but Triple H shoved him off of it. Triple H nailed the pedigree. The ref made the ten count but Triple H couldn’t even get to his feet after hitting the move. No winner and Orton retains the title. Later, Triple H attacked Orton as Orton was leaving the arena which was the ending of the show tonight. Fun six man tag from Smackdown that I would have liked to see given more time. Rey Mysterio, Jeff Hardy, and The Great Khali defeated the team of Edge, Chris Jericho, and Dolph Ziggler. Lots of fun spots. The finish had Jeff pinning Ziggler with the swanton. CM Punk was on commentary and walked in the ring. He raised Hardy’s arm but Hardy pulled away when he realized who it was. John Cena and The Miz had a talking segment early in the show where Cena dished back at Miz for his recent comments. Cena took on Big Show in the last match of the night. Cena had the STF on when Miz arrived. Cena let go of it to go after Miz. Cena picked up Show for the adjustment but Miz shoved Show on Cena. Show gets the pin and then Miz stood over Cena. Cody Rhodes defeated Primo Colon. Primo hit a crossed body but Cody rolled through and hooked the tights to score the pin. Mickie James and The Bellas defeated Maryse, Beth Phoenix, and Rosa Mendes when Mickie pinned Rosa with a superkick. She blew a kiss at Maryse after the pinfall continuing the whole storyline of Maryse ducking Mickie James for title matches.
Other notes from Raw. I couldn’t have been the only one that kept waiting for a commercial all night long. It was just instinct to expect it at the usual commercial points of the show. In the six man tag, everyone was diving out of the ring and I was waiting for the commercial. Ok, the KFC chicken? If everyone was so hungry, why weren’t they eating the chicken? I thought that was kind of goofy. I did think it was funny to watch Punk looking at the chicken while he was talking about the match. At least Punk asked if they could eat it!! Cole just kept talking about how big his appetite was with that chicken nearby. So, did anyone eat it? Good idea for WWE to get some advertising though with the commercial free show. Trump did announce at the press conference earlier today about the free ticket deal. Anyone else hoping that the Santina Marella firing holds true? I’m sick of Santina. Did you see Donald Trump Jr. in the front row watching the last man standing match? The Cena/Chicago Cubs segment was fun. I noticed this last week but didn’t say anything about it while others did say something. I wasn’t crazy about the countdown clock to the title match last week or tonight. It just kind of ruins the show portion of it when you know that a match is going to end at a certain point. From a logic point of view, how do you know when a match is going to be over? How do you know that the match before the title match won’t go longer? I thought about that last week but it didn’t bother me as much as it did others.
Several media outlets reported the Donald Trump buying Raw storyline as fact last week. That is twice that WWE has done that to the media over the last year. You might remember that several media outlets picked up the Jeff Hardy unconsicious in a hotel room story which was the storyline that teased an Edge attack but eventually turned into the Matt Hardy heel turn. You have to know that these media outlets that report these stories as fact get such mud on their face for it.
I thought I would take some time to discuss the out of nowhere face/heel turns that WWE did when the draft happened. Some have done ok, others have been in the middle, while others have stopped their momentum completely. First, Santino’s sudden face turn. This has been a terrible thing. He was much better as a heel. Santino has almost gotten to be boring in recent weeks. How does that happen??!! John Morrison. The jury is still out on this one but it still has promise. Morrison is going to be a star for sure. It is just a matter of if he can get over as a face or if he is a better heel. MVP. This has been bad. He suddenly turned face and was moved to Raw. I can’t decide whether his downturn has been from the face turn or if it is the move to Raw. Actually, I think it is both. He’s a better heel and getting lost in the shuffle on Raw hasn’t helped. Ricky Ortiz. Who knows? I thought it was funny the first week that he was acting like a jerk on Smackdown. My first thought was so I guess he is suddenly a heel now since the draft happened? The only turn that is at all working so far is Morrison. The rest have either been bad or fans just don’t care. The Santino turn has completely stopped his momentum. Santina didn’t help either.
The Bash PPV is this Sunday on PPV. Here is the lineup for it. Randy Orton defends the WWE title against Triple H in a two out of three falls match. The first fall will be a regular match, second fall will be falls count anywhere, and the third fall will be a stretcher match. CM Punk defends the World title against Jeff Hardy. Intercontinental champion Chris Jericho defends against Rey Mysterio which also has Rey’s mask on the line. The ECW title will be defended in a scramble match when Tommy Dreamer defends against Christian, Jack Swagger, Mark Henry, and Finlay. John Cena vs. The Miz. Tag Team champions, The Colons defend against Dibiase and Rhodes. Melina defends the Women’s title against Michelle McCool.
That is it for this week. Wishing all of you a great week!! Take care and God bless!!
Another Smackdown. Another great show. Nothing but love for Michael Hayes. This show just has logic all over it along with great action. The show opened with Josh Mathews talking to Jeff Hardy and CM Punk in the ring. I liked the segment with Punk telling Hardy that there is no rule in the contract that he couldn’t cash in on him while adding that he didn’t steal the title. They both agreed that they live a different lifestyle while Hardy said he would win the title on Sunday. The opening match had Hardy taking on Chris Jericho. This was a very fun and creative finish. Rey Mysterio got involved and hit a rana on Jericho on the floor which sent Jericho into the post. Where did Rey come from? He was sitting in the front row with others dressed like him. It was great!! Very much a play off of Jericho hiding in the crowd weeks ago. Jericho got counted out with Hardy getting the win. Jericho complained to the ref after the match but then Hardy hit the twist of fate and swanton. Rey Mysterio would see action at the end of the night against CM Punk. Rey and Jericho did set up their match stipulation for The Bash with the title vs. mask match. Jericho did commentary on this match and he was in GREAT form. I love how Jericho keeps saying how great Rey is and how great Rey can be . Jericho just wants to set him free from the mask to make him greater. Great line from Jericho when JR asked if his attack on Rey was cowardly? Jericho responded saying that it was strategy and called it the art of war. Punk threw Rey to the floor at one point. Jericho jumped up and threw Rey into the post. The announcers went at Jericho over what he had done with Jericho asking them if they really thought he was just there to talk to them. He was there to get even. I thought that was a great verbal exchange. Rey barely beat the count back into the ring. Punk hit the GTS for the win. Hardy ran out pointing out the Jericho attack to the ref. Then, Hardy got mad at Punk over taking advantage of the situation while Punk had a look of that he did what he had to do. Edge and John Morrison did battle in a really fun match!! Lots of near falls and they were really putting over how Morrison was so close to getting the huge win. Story of this match was Edge damaging Morrison’s ribs early on which was a disadvantage to him throughout. Yeah, logic!!!! Morrison missed his finisher and then Edge hit a spear to win the match. Haas, Benjamin, and Ricky “I’m a heel now” Ortiz lost to the team of R Truth and Cryme Tyme when Truth pinned Shelton with a corkscrew elbow. Melina defeated Alicia Fox with Michelle at ringside. Melina won with the sunset flip slam. Michelle landed a kick on Melina after the match. She then bashed Melina’s head into the announce table while talking of how she was going to win the title. Khali was once again outsmarted by Dolph Ziggler. Ziggler brought a chair inside the ring and threw it at Khali. Khali punched it to the mat and Ziggler fell to the mat. The ref didn’t see this but turned to see Khali having the chair in his hand. The ref called for the DQ while Ziggler faked that he had been hit with the chair.
Well, that was fast. Donald Trump was one and done in this storyline. Tonight’s Raw was the commercial free episode which was the first time that it has been done in seventeen years of Raw. Overall, I thought it was a good show. Trump opened the show promoting what he was going to do which also included him giving refunds for ticket holders in the arena. Later in the show, Trump announced that there would be nothing as far as a GM announcement. Instead, there would be a guest celebrity GM every week. Vince McMahon arrived to the ring area after being downgraded big time by Trump backstage including his office being moved to the men’s room. Vince was mad at the free stuff that Trump was doing saying that Trump was going to put him out of business in six months with this progress. Trump went on to say that he had paid a big amount for Raw and that he could do whatever he wanted with it. He went on to say that he had a ton of offers from people wanting to buy Raw for double what he paid for adding that he could sell it at any point. Vince then started to see that he had been played and began throwing offers at Trump to buy Raw back. Vince offered him the original price and a percentage increase getting up to 75%. Trump wouldn’t budge saying that he loved the fans and wasn’t selling. Then, Vince offered him double which is the offers of what Trump said he was getting. Trump then caved immediately and agreed to the sell. I thought that was just bizarre with how quickly that happened. Vince buys back Raw and tells Trump that he is fired. Trump slaps Vince and then some security gets in the ring to make sure Vince didn’t retaliate. So, there you have it. The Vince/Trump storyline is over after one week. Randy Orton defended the WWE title against Triple H in the last man standing match. I thought the match was a solid one. Lots of big spots including a RKO on the table, a backdrop on the table by Triple H, a monitor to the head of Orton, and more. They worked their way up the ramp. I should point out that one story told in the match was Triple H getting his knee and leg worked on by Orton from early on. They ended up battling beside the stage. Triple H grabbed a ladder. He went to hit Orton with it like a battering ram but Orton ducked with the ladder nailing a crew guy. They played up how Orton didn’t care anything about the crew guy and grabbing the ladder to do more damage. Orton used the ladder on Triple H’s knee and then stomped the ladder with his leg in it. Orton went for a RKO off of the ladder but Triple H shoved him off of it. Triple H nailed the pedigree. The ref made the ten count but Triple H couldn’t even get to his feet after hitting the move. No winner and Orton retains the title. Later, Triple H attacked Orton as Orton was leaving the arena which was the ending of the show tonight. Fun six man tag from Smackdown that I would have liked to see given more time. Rey Mysterio, Jeff Hardy, and The Great Khali defeated the team of Edge, Chris Jericho, and Dolph Ziggler. Lots of fun spots. The finish had Jeff pinning Ziggler with the swanton. CM Punk was on commentary and walked in the ring. He raised Hardy’s arm but Hardy pulled away when he realized who it was. John Cena and The Miz had a talking segment early in the show where Cena dished back at Miz for his recent comments. Cena took on Big Show in the last match of the night. Cena had the STF on when Miz arrived. Cena let go of it to go after Miz. Cena picked up Show for the adjustment but Miz shoved Show on Cena. Show gets the pin and then Miz stood over Cena. Cody Rhodes defeated Primo Colon. Primo hit a crossed body but Cody rolled through and hooked the tights to score the pin. Mickie James and The Bellas defeated Maryse, Beth Phoenix, and Rosa Mendes when Mickie pinned Rosa with a superkick. She blew a kiss at Maryse after the pinfall continuing the whole storyline of Maryse ducking Mickie James for title matches.
Other notes from Raw. I couldn’t have been the only one that kept waiting for a commercial all night long. It was just instinct to expect it at the usual commercial points of the show. In the six man tag, everyone was diving out of the ring and I was waiting for the commercial. Ok, the KFC chicken? If everyone was so hungry, why weren’t they eating the chicken? I thought that was kind of goofy. I did think it was funny to watch Punk looking at the chicken while he was talking about the match. At least Punk asked if they could eat it!! Cole just kept talking about how big his appetite was with that chicken nearby. So, did anyone eat it? Good idea for WWE to get some advertising though with the commercial free show. Trump did announce at the press conference earlier today about the free ticket deal. Anyone else hoping that the Santina Marella firing holds true? I’m sick of Santina. Did you see Donald Trump Jr. in the front row watching the last man standing match? The Cena/Chicago Cubs segment was fun. I noticed this last week but didn’t say anything about it while others did say something. I wasn’t crazy about the countdown clock to the title match last week or tonight. It just kind of ruins the show portion of it when you know that a match is going to end at a certain point. From a logic point of view, how do you know when a match is going to be over? How do you know that the match before the title match won’t go longer? I thought about that last week but it didn’t bother me as much as it did others.
Several media outlets reported the Donald Trump buying Raw storyline as fact last week. That is twice that WWE has done that to the media over the last year. You might remember that several media outlets picked up the Jeff Hardy unconsicious in a hotel room story which was the storyline that teased an Edge attack but eventually turned into the Matt Hardy heel turn. You have to know that these media outlets that report these stories as fact get such mud on their face for it.
I thought I would take some time to discuss the out of nowhere face/heel turns that WWE did when the draft happened. Some have done ok, others have been in the middle, while others have stopped their momentum completely. First, Santino’s sudden face turn. This has been a terrible thing. He was much better as a heel. Santino has almost gotten to be boring in recent weeks. How does that happen??!! John Morrison. The jury is still out on this one but it still has promise. Morrison is going to be a star for sure. It is just a matter of if he can get over as a face or if he is a better heel. MVP. This has been bad. He suddenly turned face and was moved to Raw. I can’t decide whether his downturn has been from the face turn or if it is the move to Raw. Actually, I think it is both. He’s a better heel and getting lost in the shuffle on Raw hasn’t helped. Ricky Ortiz. Who knows? I thought it was funny the first week that he was acting like a jerk on Smackdown. My first thought was so I guess he is suddenly a heel now since the draft happened? The only turn that is at all working so far is Morrison. The rest have either been bad or fans just don’t care. The Santino turn has completely stopped his momentum. Santina didn’t help either.
The Bash PPV is this Sunday on PPV. Here is the lineup for it. Randy Orton defends the WWE title against Triple H in a two out of three falls match. The first fall will be a regular match, second fall will be falls count anywhere, and the third fall will be a stretcher match. CM Punk defends the World title against Jeff Hardy. Intercontinental champion Chris Jericho defends against Rey Mysterio which also has Rey’s mask on the line. The ECW title will be defended in a scramble match when Tommy Dreamer defends against Christian, Jack Swagger, Mark Henry, and Finlay. John Cena vs. The Miz. Tag Team champions, The Colons defend against Dibiase and Rhodes. Melina defends the Women’s title against Michelle McCool.
That is it for this week. Wishing all of you a great week!! Take care and God bless!!
Monday, June 15, 2009
Three Hour Raw - New WWE Champ & New Owner, Smackdown, & More - June 15, 2009
Welcome to the “how fitting of a line was it for Vince McMahon to say that Donald Trump has lost his marbles when I’m thinking at the same time that Vince has lost his!!!” edition of The Wrestling List.
News for the week. WWE News: Raw will be going commercial free next week on USA Network. WWE is saying that Batista will be out for four months after having surgery on his torn tendon in his left bicep. Umaga’s release is a wellness policy violation deal. WWE posted the following on their website about his release: As reported on WWE.com on Monday, June 8, 2009, WWE Superstar Umaga (Edward Fatu) has been released from his World Wrestling Entertainment contract. However, consistent with the practice of announcing wellness policy violations, it should be noted that Umaga's termination was due to his second violation of the WWE Wellness Program and his subsequent refusal to attend a rehabilitation facility. Vickie Guerrero has asked for her release from WWE to spend more time with her family. That is why she was written off of TV last week.
Smackdown opened up with the new World champion, CM Punk. He talked of the rumblings of how he had robbed Hardy of the title but pointed out how people didn’t see it that way last year when he did the same thing to Edge. He went on to talk about how it doesn’t make him a bad guy for doing what you’re supposed to do with the Money In The Bank cash in. Punk talked of how he had never been someone to do the popular thing and did what was best for him. Punk talked of bringing honor and respect back to the World title. Jeff Hardy arrived and said he wasn’t there to complain because it wasn’t his style. Hardy said that Punk earned the Money In The Bank win but didn’t earn the World title. Punk said that when Hardy made the ladder match that he knew that it was his night to cash it in and it just happened that Hardy was the one that won the match. Hardy talked of how Punk was selfish and wondered if he even cared about his fans. Hardy wanted his rematch but so did another guy as Edge made his way to the ring. Punk and Hardy both agreed that Edge didn’t deserve in the argument cause he lost it to begin with. Lots of back and forth on who should get the rematch with Edge pointing out how Punk wants to be him so badly. Hardy ended up punching Edge and then hit a twist of fate and swanton on to Punk. Teddy Long made his way to the ring announcing a number one contender’s match as the main event with the winner moving on to face Punk for the title on the special three hour Raw. So, Edge and Hardy closed the show and Punk was on commentary for the match. Interesting that JR was on Punk’s side saying that he did what he was supposed to do with having that kind of advantage with Money In The Bank saying it was too bad if fans didn’t understand that. The end of the match had Hardy and Edge battling on the floor. Edge threw Hardy on to Punk. As Edge got in the ring, Punk went after Edge for retaliation. That caused the DQ and Hardy was DQ’d. As Punk was punching Edge, Hardy went after Punk. Hardy hit the twist of fate to Edge but it opened an opportunity for Punk to hit the GTS on Hardy. Controversy over the finish since Hardy didn’t have anything to do with it to get himself DQ’d and Teddy Long arrived again making Monday’s match a triple threat match for the title. Other happenings on the show had CM Punk defeating Chris Jericho with the GTS after Jericho had complained to Long about wanting in the title picture. Before the match, Jericho pointed out how he set Rey free by removing the mask so he wouldn’t have to hide anymore. John Morrison and R Truth defeated Benjamin and Haas when Morrison pinned Haas with the starship pain. Michelle McCool and Layla defeated Melina and Eve when Michelle pinned Melina with the Styles clash. Yeah, I’m still calling it that. Ha ha. Dolph Ziggler defeated The Great Khali by countout. Ziggler was running from Khali on the outside of the ring and then grabbed Singh. He used Singh as a shield and then threw him to Khali. Ziggler was watching the count and jumped in right before the ten count to get the outsmarting win.
Tonight’s three hour edition of Raw was called the 3 For All. For the most part, I liked the show. Lots of good action tonight. Now, the one storyline idea really got on my nerves and left me thinking that Vince had lost his mind but I’ll get to that in a minute. The fatal four way match was set up to decide the WWE championship. Randy Orton vs. John Cena vs. Triple H vs. Big Show. Really good match. Triple H hit the pedigree on Big Show. Cena jumped in and hit the attitude adjustment on Triple H. Cena went to pin Big Show but he kicked out. Orton then jumped in and threw Cena into the post. Orton hit a RKO on to Big Show and got the pin to win back the WWE championship. His fifth title win. The other big story of the show was Vince McMahon’s announcement. Before the WWE title match, Vince said he had made a big decision and that was selling Raw to a new owner. He mentioned that he had a history with the person but that it was an offer that he couldn’t pass up. He made his way to the ring to announce the new owner of Raw. Who would it be? My obvious thought was that it would be Ric Flair especially with them in Charlotte. I wasn’t really into that though cause we’ve been there and done that with Flair in charge. Then, Vince announced the new owner of Raw and it was really making me want Flair instead. Donald Trump. Yes, you heard me right. Donald Trump is the new owner of Raw. Trump appeared on the big screen with a big speech about what he was going to do for Raw that Vince never had. Trump said that his first act for Raw was to go commercial free next week. Yeah, no surprise there as that news was out last week. Vince said that Trump had lost his marbles with wanting to do that. Trump said that he would be on Raw next week with Vince saying that he would give his farewell speech next week as well due to him being so emotional tonight. Vince did say that he was in charge tonight and named the ten man battle royal to decide who would face Orton at The Bash. The ten man battle royal took place at the ending of the show which included Priceless, MVP, Matt Hardy, William Regal, Big Show, Miz, Kofi Kingston, Triple H, and John Cena. Show started doing some damage but then had everyone gang up on him to throw him out. Miz hid under the ring for a lot of the match. The final four, in the ring anyway, was Priceless, Cena, and Triple H. Cena dumped out Dibiase but then thought he dumped out Rhodes as well. Triple H took out Rhodes. Miz then reappeared in the ring and ran at both Cena and Triple H. They ducked him and Miz went to the floor eliminated. Triple H then dumped out Cena and won the match. He will go on to face Orton at The Bash. Orton had watched the match from the stage. Trump then appeared on the screen saying that The Bash would happen early as Triple H would face Orton in a last man standing match on Raw next week. CM Punk defended the World title against Jeff Hardy and Edge in the triple threat match. Very fun match. Punk had earlier continued his talk of how everyone loved what he did last year when he did it to Edge but that suddenly fans are mad at him cause he did it to Hardy. I liked the story of the finish. Edge dumped Punk over the turnbuckle sending Punk’s knee crashing into the steps. Officials checked on Punk with his knee. Hardy hit the whisper in the wind on Edge but Punk dove in desperately to break the count up. Hardy jumped out and pounded on Punk’s knee trying to keep him from getting involved again. Hardy then hit a twist of fate and swanton on Edge. Punk then pulled Hardy out of the ring on the pin attempt and put Hardy into the steps. Punk then dove in the ring and pinned Edge to retain the title. I really liked that finish. Teddy Long showed up and announced that Punk would defend the World title against Hardy at The Bash. Punk and Hardy both had agreeable faces on their faces and approved. Tommy Dreamer retained the ECW title against Christian. The story of the match was Christian landing awkwardly on his ankle. Tommy took advantage of it winning with a small package while Christian was battling the ankle. Chris Jericho retained the Intercontinental title against Rey Mysterio in a very fun match that opened the show. Rey went for the springboard and Jericho caught him and messed with his mask. As Rey was trying to keep it on, Jericho hit the codebreaker to win the match. Mickie James defeated Rosa Mendes as Maryse watched from ringside. Mickie won with a DDT and gave a big stare at Maryse. She called for Maryse to get in the ring. Maryse got up on the apron and did her pose. Mickie went after her and Maryse bailed while laughing. The Colons defeated The Hart Dynasty by DQ after Priceless interfered. They were on commentary and attacked Carlito after he hit the backstabber on Smith which was about to result in the pin. Priceless then cleared the ring of The Colons.
Other notes from Raw. What are you thinking Vince? I had to get online and get some immediate feedback from fans when Trump was announced as the owner. The feedback was mostly negative with some saying to give it a chance. I don’t know. I’m not feeling this at all and the live crowd just seemed really disinterested too. I am not into this at all. It just seemed like a major buzzkill to me especially after how good the first hour had been. The rest of the show was mostly solid too. This one segment was what was the big buzzkill. Wow, was it ever obvious that the Trump segment was pre taped or what??!! Interesting that they actually started the WWE title match during the end of the first hour which usually does a bad rating. One thing I wondered while watching Raw tonight was wondering if Vince had his hands on any of the Smackdown stuff or not or if Hayes had full control? Well, does anyone really have full control but you know what I mean. I really liked the finish to the World title match because it made logical sense. Welcome to the world of Smackdown where logic seems to happen. First time that I’ve seen the Hart Dynasty in action which I’ve looked forward to but just would have liked to have seen more out of them. Priceless already has another new theme. I wasn’t a fan of their second theme which was the rockier version from their original. It is always impressive to watch Cena pick up Big Show. Just amazing. I like Punk’s reasoning for Money In The Bank cause…..it makes sense!! What is great is that it isn’t really a heel line. He’s right. Everyone loved it last year when he did it to Edge but boo him now that he did it to Hardy. Good crowd tonight. I thought they were hot about all night. Well, except for the one segment where no one was into and you know what that was.
Ring Of Honor will not be doing PPV’s in the future. The PPV that is currently airing will be the last which is Take No Prisoners.
Mick Foley said on his recent My Space blog that he is writing his fourth autobiography. It will be entitled “Crossing The Line”.
Victoria has commented on why she left WWE and joined TNA. Interesting read which makes it sound like that she just wasn’t happy in WWE.
http://blogs.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendId=117278735&blogId=494150451
Announced for this Friday on Smackdown is CM Punk vs. Rey Mysterio. Jeff Hardy vs. Chris Jericho. Again, if you aren’t watching Smackdown, you really need to be!!
WWE 24/7 Classics On Demand will be airing the NWA Great American Bash 1989 next month. If you’ve never seen this show, you really need to see it. It is often argued as the greatest PPV of all time. I know I’d rank it top five EASILY!! Flair’s comeback match against Terry Funk after Funk had injured Flair with the attack on him at Wrestle War 1989. Sting vs. The Great Muta for the TV title. Ricky Steamboat vs. Lex Luger. Wargames. Just an awesome show!!
Have a great weekend!! Take care and God bless!!
News for the week. WWE News: Raw will be going commercial free next week on USA Network. WWE is saying that Batista will be out for four months after having surgery on his torn tendon in his left bicep. Umaga’s release is a wellness policy violation deal. WWE posted the following on their website about his release: As reported on WWE.com on Monday, June 8, 2009, WWE Superstar Umaga (Edward Fatu) has been released from his World Wrestling Entertainment contract. However, consistent with the practice of announcing wellness policy violations, it should be noted that Umaga's termination was due to his second violation of the WWE Wellness Program and his subsequent refusal to attend a rehabilitation facility. Vickie Guerrero has asked for her release from WWE to spend more time with her family. That is why she was written off of TV last week.
Smackdown opened up with the new World champion, CM Punk. He talked of the rumblings of how he had robbed Hardy of the title but pointed out how people didn’t see it that way last year when he did the same thing to Edge. He went on to talk about how it doesn’t make him a bad guy for doing what you’re supposed to do with the Money In The Bank cash in. Punk talked of how he had never been someone to do the popular thing and did what was best for him. Punk talked of bringing honor and respect back to the World title. Jeff Hardy arrived and said he wasn’t there to complain because it wasn’t his style. Hardy said that Punk earned the Money In The Bank win but didn’t earn the World title. Punk said that when Hardy made the ladder match that he knew that it was his night to cash it in and it just happened that Hardy was the one that won the match. Hardy talked of how Punk was selfish and wondered if he even cared about his fans. Hardy wanted his rematch but so did another guy as Edge made his way to the ring. Punk and Hardy both agreed that Edge didn’t deserve in the argument cause he lost it to begin with. Lots of back and forth on who should get the rematch with Edge pointing out how Punk wants to be him so badly. Hardy ended up punching Edge and then hit a twist of fate and swanton on to Punk. Teddy Long made his way to the ring announcing a number one contender’s match as the main event with the winner moving on to face Punk for the title on the special three hour Raw. So, Edge and Hardy closed the show and Punk was on commentary for the match. Interesting that JR was on Punk’s side saying that he did what he was supposed to do with having that kind of advantage with Money In The Bank saying it was too bad if fans didn’t understand that. The end of the match had Hardy and Edge battling on the floor. Edge threw Hardy on to Punk. As Edge got in the ring, Punk went after Edge for retaliation. That caused the DQ and Hardy was DQ’d. As Punk was punching Edge, Hardy went after Punk. Hardy hit the twist of fate to Edge but it opened an opportunity for Punk to hit the GTS on Hardy. Controversy over the finish since Hardy didn’t have anything to do with it to get himself DQ’d and Teddy Long arrived again making Monday’s match a triple threat match for the title. Other happenings on the show had CM Punk defeating Chris Jericho with the GTS after Jericho had complained to Long about wanting in the title picture. Before the match, Jericho pointed out how he set Rey free by removing the mask so he wouldn’t have to hide anymore. John Morrison and R Truth defeated Benjamin and Haas when Morrison pinned Haas with the starship pain. Michelle McCool and Layla defeated Melina and Eve when Michelle pinned Melina with the Styles clash. Yeah, I’m still calling it that. Ha ha. Dolph Ziggler defeated The Great Khali by countout. Ziggler was running from Khali on the outside of the ring and then grabbed Singh. He used Singh as a shield and then threw him to Khali. Ziggler was watching the count and jumped in right before the ten count to get the outsmarting win.
Tonight’s three hour edition of Raw was called the 3 For All. For the most part, I liked the show. Lots of good action tonight. Now, the one storyline idea really got on my nerves and left me thinking that Vince had lost his mind but I’ll get to that in a minute. The fatal four way match was set up to decide the WWE championship. Randy Orton vs. John Cena vs. Triple H vs. Big Show. Really good match. Triple H hit the pedigree on Big Show. Cena jumped in and hit the attitude adjustment on Triple H. Cena went to pin Big Show but he kicked out. Orton then jumped in and threw Cena into the post. Orton hit a RKO on to Big Show and got the pin to win back the WWE championship. His fifth title win. The other big story of the show was Vince McMahon’s announcement. Before the WWE title match, Vince said he had made a big decision and that was selling Raw to a new owner. He mentioned that he had a history with the person but that it was an offer that he couldn’t pass up. He made his way to the ring to announce the new owner of Raw. Who would it be? My obvious thought was that it would be Ric Flair especially with them in Charlotte. I wasn’t really into that though cause we’ve been there and done that with Flair in charge. Then, Vince announced the new owner of Raw and it was really making me want Flair instead. Donald Trump. Yes, you heard me right. Donald Trump is the new owner of Raw. Trump appeared on the big screen with a big speech about what he was going to do for Raw that Vince never had. Trump said that his first act for Raw was to go commercial free next week. Yeah, no surprise there as that news was out last week. Vince said that Trump had lost his marbles with wanting to do that. Trump said that he would be on Raw next week with Vince saying that he would give his farewell speech next week as well due to him being so emotional tonight. Vince did say that he was in charge tonight and named the ten man battle royal to decide who would face Orton at The Bash. The ten man battle royal took place at the ending of the show which included Priceless, MVP, Matt Hardy, William Regal, Big Show, Miz, Kofi Kingston, Triple H, and John Cena. Show started doing some damage but then had everyone gang up on him to throw him out. Miz hid under the ring for a lot of the match. The final four, in the ring anyway, was Priceless, Cena, and Triple H. Cena dumped out Dibiase but then thought he dumped out Rhodes as well. Triple H took out Rhodes. Miz then reappeared in the ring and ran at both Cena and Triple H. They ducked him and Miz went to the floor eliminated. Triple H then dumped out Cena and won the match. He will go on to face Orton at The Bash. Orton had watched the match from the stage. Trump then appeared on the screen saying that The Bash would happen early as Triple H would face Orton in a last man standing match on Raw next week. CM Punk defended the World title against Jeff Hardy and Edge in the triple threat match. Very fun match. Punk had earlier continued his talk of how everyone loved what he did last year when he did it to Edge but that suddenly fans are mad at him cause he did it to Hardy. I liked the story of the finish. Edge dumped Punk over the turnbuckle sending Punk’s knee crashing into the steps. Officials checked on Punk with his knee. Hardy hit the whisper in the wind on Edge but Punk dove in desperately to break the count up. Hardy jumped out and pounded on Punk’s knee trying to keep him from getting involved again. Hardy then hit a twist of fate and swanton on Edge. Punk then pulled Hardy out of the ring on the pin attempt and put Hardy into the steps. Punk then dove in the ring and pinned Edge to retain the title. I really liked that finish. Teddy Long showed up and announced that Punk would defend the World title against Hardy at The Bash. Punk and Hardy both had agreeable faces on their faces and approved. Tommy Dreamer retained the ECW title against Christian. The story of the match was Christian landing awkwardly on his ankle. Tommy took advantage of it winning with a small package while Christian was battling the ankle. Chris Jericho retained the Intercontinental title against Rey Mysterio in a very fun match that opened the show. Rey went for the springboard and Jericho caught him and messed with his mask. As Rey was trying to keep it on, Jericho hit the codebreaker to win the match. Mickie James defeated Rosa Mendes as Maryse watched from ringside. Mickie won with a DDT and gave a big stare at Maryse. She called for Maryse to get in the ring. Maryse got up on the apron and did her pose. Mickie went after her and Maryse bailed while laughing. The Colons defeated The Hart Dynasty by DQ after Priceless interfered. They were on commentary and attacked Carlito after he hit the backstabber on Smith which was about to result in the pin. Priceless then cleared the ring of The Colons.
Other notes from Raw. What are you thinking Vince? I had to get online and get some immediate feedback from fans when Trump was announced as the owner. The feedback was mostly negative with some saying to give it a chance. I don’t know. I’m not feeling this at all and the live crowd just seemed really disinterested too. I am not into this at all. It just seemed like a major buzzkill to me especially after how good the first hour had been. The rest of the show was mostly solid too. This one segment was what was the big buzzkill. Wow, was it ever obvious that the Trump segment was pre taped or what??!! Interesting that they actually started the WWE title match during the end of the first hour which usually does a bad rating. One thing I wondered while watching Raw tonight was wondering if Vince had his hands on any of the Smackdown stuff or not or if Hayes had full control? Well, does anyone really have full control but you know what I mean. I really liked the finish to the World title match because it made logical sense. Welcome to the world of Smackdown where logic seems to happen. First time that I’ve seen the Hart Dynasty in action which I’ve looked forward to but just would have liked to have seen more out of them. Priceless already has another new theme. I wasn’t a fan of their second theme which was the rockier version from their original. It is always impressive to watch Cena pick up Big Show. Just amazing. I like Punk’s reasoning for Money In The Bank cause…..it makes sense!! What is great is that it isn’t really a heel line. He’s right. Everyone loved it last year when he did it to Edge but boo him now that he did it to Hardy. Good crowd tonight. I thought they were hot about all night. Well, except for the one segment where no one was into and you know what that was.
Ring Of Honor will not be doing PPV’s in the future. The PPV that is currently airing will be the last which is Take No Prisoners.
Mick Foley said on his recent My Space blog that he is writing his fourth autobiography. It will be entitled “Crossing The Line”.
Victoria has commented on why she left WWE and joined TNA. Interesting read which makes it sound like that she just wasn’t happy in WWE.
http://blogs.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendId=117278735&blogId=494150451
Announced for this Friday on Smackdown is CM Punk vs. Rey Mysterio. Jeff Hardy vs. Chris Jericho. Again, if you aren’t watching Smackdown, you really need to be!!
WWE 24/7 Classics On Demand will be airing the NWA Great American Bash 1989 next month. If you’ve never seen this show, you really need to see it. It is often argued as the greatest PPV of all time. I know I’d rank it top five EASILY!! Flair’s comeback match against Terry Funk after Funk had injured Flair with the attack on him at Wrestle War 1989. Sting vs. The Great Muta for the TV title. Ricky Steamboat vs. Lex Luger. Wargames. Just an awesome show!!
Have a great weekend!! Take care and God bless!!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)