Welcome to the “aren’t you surprised that Umaga’s first words weren’t something against Stan Kroenke?” edition of The Wrestling List.
You knew this was coming. TNA is in the right place at the right time. TNA is jumping on the WWE/Denver Nuggets situation. They already had shows scheduled for Pueblo, Colorado and Cheyenne, Wyoming. The Pueblo show is for May 29 and the Cheyenne show is on May 30. TNA is offering a $10 discount to any fans that show up and present an unused WWE ticket from any of the Colorado canceled shows. They have also invited anyone associated with the Denver Nuggets whether it is players, coaches, broadcasters, and front office staff to the Pueblo show. TNA President, Dixie Carter, had these comments in their press release: "Some of the biggest pro wrestling fans in the nation are in Colorado. It was sad to see the WWE pull out of all their scheduled shows in Colorado recently because of the scheduling conflict with the NBA playoffs. I want everyone in Colorado to know that TNA Wrestling is coming and we hope to see you at our first shows ever in your state. For WWE fans that paid for any of these cancelled events, we are offering you $10 off the purchase of tickets to come see us and enjoy the best fan experience in pro wrestling." I have to give TNA a bunch of credit here. Perfect scenario for them to jump into there.
Tonight’s Raw was what we expected. Vince McMahon ripping on Stan Kroenke. My concern was that it was going to be too much and dominate the show. It wasn’t as dominating as I thought it would be. My thoughts? Ehh. The show overall just wasn’t very exciting. I did notice that Staples Center was empty in the upper levels. That is to be expected considering how late tickets went on sale. The show opened up with E. Stan Kroenke being introduced. Then, out comes a spoof of him and also spoofs in the front row with Jack Nicholson, David Stern, and Lakers owner Jerry Buss. I guess I’ll just go ahead and say Kroenke in recapping this segment even though it was of course a spoof of him. He talks about how he hates WWE and their fans while also talking about how he is sick of being vilified by everyone. He points at the graphic that depicted him with a tail and horns. Vince McMahon’s music hits and he gets a big pop from the Staples Center crowd. Vince says that he is launching a basketball league to compete with the NBA but says it will be a failure cause Kroenke and his crew will run it. Anyway, the segment goes on with Vince making fun of Kroenke’s first name which was what the “E” stood for which was Enos. Vince finishes it by saying that what matters is that the WWE Universe was disrespected and that they don’t take it and push back. Vince shoves him down. Miz arrives saying that he is from the hometown of who the real NBA champions will be and shows his Cleveland/LeBron James jersey. He says that LeBron is awesome just like himself. More trash talking on Cena saying that he’ll run Cena out of town just like Kobe did Shaq. Cena makes his way to the ring but is attacked from behind by Priceless. Batista runs out and helps Cena. He hits spinebusters but then Big Show arrives. Lawler jumps in to help against Show but Show takes care of him quickly. Cena and Batista then double clothesline Show out of the ring. That was how the segment ended. The main event was the ten man tag team match with Legacy teaming with Show and Miz taking on Cena, Batista, MVP, Lawler, and a surprise partner. That partner would be Kennedy who made his Raw return at the end of the Orton/Flair confrontation. The faces wore Lakers jerseys while the heels wore Nuggets jerseys. They had personalized jerseys as well. The Lakers announcer actually introduced the wrestlers like it a basketball game. The match itself was all right. The finish had MVP pinning Rhodes with the playmaker. MVP was then attacked by Dibiase afterwards. Then, we saw finisher after finisher getting hit. Show went for the double chokeslam on Cena and Batista. They reversed it into a suplex with them dropping Show with it. All the face team celebrated the win. The best segment on the show was Flair calling out Randy Orton. Flair was awesome during this segment. Flair came to the ring and called out Orton immediately. Orton walked out saying that he had already lowered himself by hitting a 60 year old man last week and wasn’t going to do it again. Flair yelled at him to do it again. Orton told him how Triple H only kept Flair around cause he felt sorry for him and now Orton felt sorry for him too. Orton told him “it’s over”. That fired up Flair who slapped him and then Orton got on the attack. Punches landing until Batista arrived which sent Orton running. Batista had to keep holding Flair back. In a triple threat match, Kofi Kingston defeated Matt Hardy and William Regal which grants him a US title match next week. Kofi pinned Hardy when he avoided the cast shot attempt and hit the trouble in paradise for the win. MVP was on commentary and he and Kofi talked after the match. MVP said he’d be happy to give Kofi a match. Kelly Kelly got her Divas Championship match against Maryse. The finish had Maryse pounding on Kelly on the announce table. She then shoved Kelly off the back of it as the ref counted. Maryse was going for the countout win but instead the ref DQ’d Maryse for shoving Kelly over the table. Kelly attacked Maryse after the match but Maryse escaped. Santino teamed up with Mickie James and defeated Chavo and Beth Phoenix when Mickie rolled up Beth for the win. The win granted Santino the opportunity to name the stipulation for the match between Santina and Vickie at Extreme Rules. Yeah, ugh!! Santino named it a hogpen match. Goldust and Hornswoggle defeated the team of Kendrick and Festus. The Colons were on commentary. Kendrick was about to hit Festus with a chair after the match while Festus was out of it. Primo surprised Kendrick by ringing the bell and bringing Festus back to attention. Kendrick took off running. Wow, this shows seems worse just by recapping it.
Other notes from Raw. How great was MVP’s line of him saying that he tried to tell everyone that Matt Hardy was no good but no one believed him? That reminded me of Bobby Heenan after Hulk Hogan turned heel and joined the nWo. Heenan went on a rant about how he had been telling everyone for 20 years how lousy of a person Hogan was. Ha ha. Classic heel stuff there. Umm, if Mickie James is in the building, why would you not have her getting involved with Maryse after what she did to her last week??!! Just didn’t make much sense to me. Didn’t The Miz technically become a star in New York considering that was the season of The Real World that he was on? Jim Ross did commentary tonight with Michael Cole since Lawler would be in action. So, suddenly Goldust is doing the stuttering thing again? Wow, did WWE bring that back out of nowhere!!! I thought the DQ finish for Maryse shoving Kelly over the table was lame. Noooooo, I was hoping WWE was done with the Santina stuff. Now, we get a rematch with Santina and Vickie at Extreme Rules. The Santina gimmick needs to go away. Anyone remember the previous hogpen match between Hunter Hearst Helmsley and Henry Godwinn? The promo for the ladder match of Jeff Hardy and Edge is really well produced!! It started to get annoying that Michael Cole kept referencing that Kroenke spoof as if it was the real guy. That Magic Johnson statue outside of Staples Center is awesome!!!
Moving on to Friday Night Smackdown. Edge opened up the show talking about how there is no doubt that he is the face of the brand now with him winning at Judgment Day while Jericho and Punk lost. He ripped on Hardy for a bit and that brought out Teddy Long. Long said that he couldn’t do anything with the referee’s decision since Matt illegally interfered but that he was ordering a rematch at Extreme Rules. Jeff Hardy arrived and wanted a match on Smackdown with the winner picking the stipulation. Edge was mad over Jeff trying to make his own matches. Jeff said that Long had declared Smackdown as the fans’ show so Jeff went into the crowd asking if this match was what they wanted to see. All of them said yes and Long made the match. So, the main event of Smackdown was Edge vs. Hardy with the winner of the match getting to make the stipulation for their match at Extreme Rules. Jeff was still selling that he was rattled from Matt’s cast shot at the PPV. The finish had Jeff hitting the twist of fate. As he climbed to the top rope slowly, Edge got up there. He went for the edgecution which was the same finish from the PPV. Hardy knocked him off to the mat. Hardy jumps and hits the swanton getting the victory. Jeff then said that he would be climbing a ladder to win the World title as their match at Extreme Rules will be a ladder match. Other happenings on Smackdown were John Morrison and Cryme Tyme defeating Shelton Benjamin, Charlie Haas, and Ricky Ortiz when Morrison pinned Haas with the starship pain for the win. Rey Mysterio did an interview with Jim Ross where he talked about his heritage and the ties to the Intercontinental title while also talking about the importance of his mask. Chris Jericho took on CM Punk. The finish had Umaga interfering and attacking Punk with a strap. Umaga had Punk in a tree of woe and then nailed him with the samoan spike. Umaga then SUDDENLY TALKED!! LOL. He said that Punk may think he is hurting now but to wait until their match at Extreme Rules which would be a Samoan strap match. Jericho went to Teddy Long later in the show saying that he had heard Rey’s interview and wanted another match. Long said the match had already been made for Extreme Rules cause Rey had just been in his office. The match at Extreme Rules with Rey and Jericho will be no holds barred. Josh Mathews interviewed Melina which had Alicia Fox interrupting saying that she had a message to deliver from Michelle McCool. The message was to tell Melina that the belt would soon be hers. Melina then told Alicia to deliver a message as well. She said to not send a little girl to do a woman’s job and then slapped Alicia. Michelle McCool defeated Gail Kim to become the number one contender for Melina’s Women’s title. The finish had Alicia Fox as a distraction leading to Michelle getting the advantage back to hit the Styles clash for the win. Dolph Ziggler defeated R Truth. After the match, Khali arrived looking for his revenge. Ziggler backed up to the ring from the ramp and caught a kick from R Truth. As Khali got to him, Ziggler was able to recover and run through the crowd to get away.
Other notes from Smackdown. I liked the build for the Hardy/Edge ladder match with JR pointing out how the two of them were in the first ever tag team ladder match ten years ago and now they will face off in the same kind of match for the World title. Great job JR cause that is a great way to build the match!! Loved that he brought that stat up. How did Ricky Ortiz become a heel??!! He was a face on ECW and suddenly he’s a heel on Smackdown for no reason. If only Teddy Long were Jack Tunney, then he could veto a referee’s decision. Long time fans will get that joke. Wouldn’t it have been hilarious for an Edge head in the crowd to answer no to Hardy when he was asking if fans wanted to see the match. I was trying to think if I would have had the guts to do it if the mic were put up to me and then me say no cause it was unfair to Edge. Ha ha. Have you noticed how WWE and Rey Mysterio completely ignore his WCW run where he lost his mask? Isn’t it funny to hear someone that never talks in English suddenly talk in perfect English? I’m talking about Umaga. I just thought that was funny that WWE suddenly has him talking. It was like with Kane in the late 90’s when he suddenly began talking. After that Rey interview, I thought for sure that we were going to see a mask stipulation in the Rey/Jericho match. I expect the mask is still going to remain a part of their feud somehow. Next week will see Layla and Eve facing off in a match building off of their recent feud.
If you aren’t able to watch Smackdown on Friday nights or record it, you have another great option!! Hulu.com is now posting full episodes of Smackdown. They did just have full episodes of ECW but now WWE and Hulu have come to an agreement for Smackdown. It is definitely the best show of WWE’s right now so give it a view. They are editing it a bit though pulling some things such as not showing the strap shots from Umaga to Punk. They also didn’t show the brawl backstage between Eve and Layla opting to instead show freeze frames with audio. Strange. Anyway, the rest of the show looks great online. http://www.hulu.com/friday-night-smackdown
TNA sent out an announcement on their TNA Mobile text service about three stars appearing at this week’s TNA Impact tapings. One is Raven. The other is Shane Douglas. Victoria has returned and will be wrestling for the company under the name of Lisa Marie Varon.
By the way, the Nuggets defeated the Lakers in Game 4 tonight in Denver by the score of 120 to 101. Series is tied 2-2.
Take care and God bless!!
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Monday, May 25, 2009
Updates On Vince McMahon/WWE vs. Stan Kroenke/Denver Nuggets
Where is Raw being held tonight? The Staples Center in Los Angeles. How did we get to this point? Well, it’s been an interesting story to follow this week. Now, let’s refresh this situation. Raw was scheduled to take place at the Pepsi Center in Denver tonight with the booking being done for this date on August 15, 2008. The Denver Nuggets made the Western Conference Finals to take on the Los Angeles Lakers. The date for Game 4 was made to take place tonight at the Pepsi Center at the same time that Raw was scheduled to take place. Tickets for Raw have been on sale for a while now. The contract for the event taking place at The Pepsi Center was sent to WWE last month and signed. Stan Kroenke owns the Pepsi Center and also the Denver Nuggets. The NBA stayed out of it and left it up to Kroenke and WWE to settle. The bottom line is that Kroenke was in the wrong. WWE had booked the date way in advance and WWE basically got thrown out of the building. The result had Vince McMahon all over the place in the media including ESPN ripping on Kroenke. Vince talked about how they were still going to send their trucks to The Pepsi Center for Raw while also taking shots at Kroenke saying that it was a shame that the Nuggets owner didn’t have enough faith in his team to leave late May possible playoff dates open. Vince has also been appearing on media apperances holding up Lakers gear. To sum it up, Vince is taking every advantage of this situation that he can get.
Now, the updates on the situation. Believe me, this story keeps rolling. There is word that WWE was offered the Denver Coliseum as another alternative. The building holds a significant amount of lesser people. Several buildings across the country offered their venue to host Raw including Madison Square Garden, The Staples Center in Los Angeles, and more. On Wednesday, word started leaking out that WWE was going to move Raw to Staples Center. Word also started leaking about Smackdown being moved as well. WWE announced the move which would have Raw moving to Staples Center in Los Angeles for Raw which is the home arena for the LA Lakers, the Denver Nuggets playoff opponents if you didn’t know that. WWE announced that they would return to Denver on August 7 and run at the Denver Coliseum which was offered as a replacement venue for Raw. The Smackdown taping in Colorado Springs on Tuesday was also moved to Staples Center. The house show scheduled for Loveland on May 24 was also canceled and rescheduled for August 8. Now, The Pepsi Center then got involved in this issuing a statement to the media bashing on Vince McMahon. Kroenke Sports said that Vince had agreed on Tuesday afternoon to move the Raw taping to Sunday at The Pepsi Center. They claim that he changed his mind overnight and were disappointed with the decision. KSE Executive Vice President, Paul Andrews had this comment in the statement: "Despite the propaganda campaign launched by WWE and Chairman Vince McMahon, the KSE team maintained a professional manner throughout this process. We had hoped for, and worked hard toward an amicable resolution - which we verbally had on Tuesday. We understand there will be many disappointed WWE fans in the Denver area. It's unfortunate and disappointing that WWE executives ultimately chose this path. The sensationalism employed by WWE in this instance is not surprising. The amount of publicity and coverage enjoyed by their group over the last few days has clearly become their new business goal instead of finalizing what we thought was a favorable solution and would have ultimately allowed their fans to attend the event." Hold on though, we’re not done by a long shot. LOL. Vince McMahon talked to ESPN’s Sportscenter. He was told about the comments that Kroenke Sports had made to ESPN saying that they were working with WWE on the situation. Vince then said to Sportscenter that Kroenke Sports woulnd’t even talk about a deal unless they could release a joint press release which would have Vince “basically be kissing Kroenke’s behind”. The Pepsi Center announced that they would offer refunds to people that bought tickets getting the refunds at the “original point of purchase”. It should also be noted that these fans will likely not get their extra Ticketmaster charges back. Basically, fans paid for their tickets, did nothing wrong, and are going to lose probably close to $10 a ticket in extra Ticketmaster fees. WWE held a press conference at The Hard Rock Café in New York City announcing the change of venue. Smackdown was moved to Staples Center as well with WWE saying the reasoning being that they couldn’t move their equipment from Los Angeles to Colorado Springs in a day. Vince made these comments to 9News in Denver: “It's really unfortunate because if he were just a regular business man and picked up the phone and said, 'Vince, you know, we're throwing you out but I want to make it right, what can we do?' I never heard from Kroenke, I don't know if anyone else has either, by the way, he's somewhat of a Howard Hughes guy I understand. I think our company has been damaged severely from a financial standpoint and from a psychological standpoint as well. You don't treat people the way Kroenke's management treated us. I'm not a litigious kind of guy, but quite frankly when we have a contract and we have over 10,000 tickets sold and you just say: we're out, and we're not going to do anything for you, you know we're not going to make any restitution. We may pay for your additional expenses, that's it. There could very well be a lawsuit down the road." WWE is going to go full out with this show in Los Angeles to rip on Kroenke and the Nuggets. Vince has said that he will appear on the show and be wrestling Kroenke. Yeah, that screams something bad for that segment. It will be some kind of silly spoof which will likely be just that, silly. The main event announced for Raw continues the five on five basketball theme with John Cena, Batista, MVP, Jerry Lawler, and a “fifth player to be named” taking on Randy Orton, Ted Dibiase, Cody Rhodes, Big Show, and The Miz. The graphic for the show has the face team wearing Lakers jerseys while the heels are in Nuggets jerseys. It gets more interesting though as TMZ got a hold of a press release that the Pepsi Center was wanting to release as their “joint statement”. The press release was written by Kroenke Sports including the statement in it from Vince McMahon. Yeah, they wrote Vince’s statement and sent it to WWE for approval. Here is what the supposed statement from Vince was: "By all accounts, Mr. Kroenke is one of the most respected professional sports team owners in the world, and the professional way he and his staff good-naturedly handled this conflict gives further testament to the type of business leader he is. We look forward to Sunday's WWE event and future events at the Pepsi Center." Vince claims to have never said the statement and it sure is opposite of everything that Vince had to say about Kroenke. Vince said that he was furious over it and that was when he decided to move the event to Staples Center.
So, there is the updates on the story. Interesting, isn’t it? It has been fun to have such a big story and have it be a light hearted type of story. I feel bad for the WWE fans in Denver cause they really got the bad deal out of this whole thing. They were just in the middle of this and Denver should have stuck with their date for Raw when they had commited to it. I expect for us to probably get oversaturated with the Nuggets story on Raw. WWE has gotten a ton of media attention over this whole thing and they have pushed it for all they have.
Now, the updates on the situation. Believe me, this story keeps rolling. There is word that WWE was offered the Denver Coliseum as another alternative. The building holds a significant amount of lesser people. Several buildings across the country offered their venue to host Raw including Madison Square Garden, The Staples Center in Los Angeles, and more. On Wednesday, word started leaking out that WWE was going to move Raw to Staples Center. Word also started leaking about Smackdown being moved as well. WWE announced the move which would have Raw moving to Staples Center in Los Angeles for Raw which is the home arena for the LA Lakers, the Denver Nuggets playoff opponents if you didn’t know that. WWE announced that they would return to Denver on August 7 and run at the Denver Coliseum which was offered as a replacement venue for Raw. The Smackdown taping in Colorado Springs on Tuesday was also moved to Staples Center. The house show scheduled for Loveland on May 24 was also canceled and rescheduled for August 8. Now, The Pepsi Center then got involved in this issuing a statement to the media bashing on Vince McMahon. Kroenke Sports said that Vince had agreed on Tuesday afternoon to move the Raw taping to Sunday at The Pepsi Center. They claim that he changed his mind overnight and were disappointed with the decision. KSE Executive Vice President, Paul Andrews had this comment in the statement: "Despite the propaganda campaign launched by WWE and Chairman Vince McMahon, the KSE team maintained a professional manner throughout this process. We had hoped for, and worked hard toward an amicable resolution - which we verbally had on Tuesday. We understand there will be many disappointed WWE fans in the Denver area. It's unfortunate and disappointing that WWE executives ultimately chose this path. The sensationalism employed by WWE in this instance is not surprising. The amount of publicity and coverage enjoyed by their group over the last few days has clearly become their new business goal instead of finalizing what we thought was a favorable solution and would have ultimately allowed their fans to attend the event." Hold on though, we’re not done by a long shot. LOL. Vince McMahon talked to ESPN’s Sportscenter. He was told about the comments that Kroenke Sports had made to ESPN saying that they were working with WWE on the situation. Vince then said to Sportscenter that Kroenke Sports woulnd’t even talk about a deal unless they could release a joint press release which would have Vince “basically be kissing Kroenke’s behind”. The Pepsi Center announced that they would offer refunds to people that bought tickets getting the refunds at the “original point of purchase”. It should also be noted that these fans will likely not get their extra Ticketmaster charges back. Basically, fans paid for their tickets, did nothing wrong, and are going to lose probably close to $10 a ticket in extra Ticketmaster fees. WWE held a press conference at The Hard Rock Café in New York City announcing the change of venue. Smackdown was moved to Staples Center as well with WWE saying the reasoning being that they couldn’t move their equipment from Los Angeles to Colorado Springs in a day. Vince made these comments to 9News in Denver: “It's really unfortunate because if he were just a regular business man and picked up the phone and said, 'Vince, you know, we're throwing you out but I want to make it right, what can we do?' I never heard from Kroenke, I don't know if anyone else has either, by the way, he's somewhat of a Howard Hughes guy I understand. I think our company has been damaged severely from a financial standpoint and from a psychological standpoint as well. You don't treat people the way Kroenke's management treated us. I'm not a litigious kind of guy, but quite frankly when we have a contract and we have over 10,000 tickets sold and you just say: we're out, and we're not going to do anything for you, you know we're not going to make any restitution. We may pay for your additional expenses, that's it. There could very well be a lawsuit down the road." WWE is going to go full out with this show in Los Angeles to rip on Kroenke and the Nuggets. Vince has said that he will appear on the show and be wrestling Kroenke. Yeah, that screams something bad for that segment. It will be some kind of silly spoof which will likely be just that, silly. The main event announced for Raw continues the five on five basketball theme with John Cena, Batista, MVP, Jerry Lawler, and a “fifth player to be named” taking on Randy Orton, Ted Dibiase, Cody Rhodes, Big Show, and The Miz. The graphic for the show has the face team wearing Lakers jerseys while the heels are in Nuggets jerseys. It gets more interesting though as TMZ got a hold of a press release that the Pepsi Center was wanting to release as their “joint statement”. The press release was written by Kroenke Sports including the statement in it from Vince McMahon. Yeah, they wrote Vince’s statement and sent it to WWE for approval. Here is what the supposed statement from Vince was: "By all accounts, Mr. Kroenke is one of the most respected professional sports team owners in the world, and the professional way he and his staff good-naturedly handled this conflict gives further testament to the type of business leader he is. We look forward to Sunday's WWE event and future events at the Pepsi Center." Vince claims to have never said the statement and it sure is opposite of everything that Vince had to say about Kroenke. Vince said that he was furious over it and that was when he decided to move the event to Staples Center.
So, there is the updates on the story. Interesting, isn’t it? It has been fun to have such a big story and have it be a light hearted type of story. I feel bad for the WWE fans in Denver cause they really got the bad deal out of this whole thing. They were just in the middle of this and Denver should have stuck with their date for Raw when they had commited to it. I expect for us to probably get oversaturated with the Nuggets story on Raw. WWE has gotten a ton of media attention over this whole thing and they have pushed it for all they have.
Monday, May 18, 2009
Vince vs. The Denver Nuggets, Judgment Day Results, Raw, Flair, & More - May 18, 2009
Welcome to the “Vince McMahon vs. the Denver Nuggets” edition of The Wrestling List. Ok, this is just great stuff and hilarious. This is a must read story here and WWE is going to get a lot of mainstream media coverage over this.
Next week's WWE Raw taping and the NBA Playoffs have come to a head in Denver. Raw is scheduled to take place from the Pepsi Center in Denver. However, the Denver Nuggets and LA Lakers are set to square off in game 4 of the Western Conference Finals on the same night at the same time in the same building. From what I can tell, the game was scheduled by the Nuggets even with WWE having already scheduled the date. The situation is being worked on with how to resolve this problem. The NBA won’t change the date of the playoff game but is leaving the situation to being resolved between the facility and WWE. However, WWE is taking all kinds of shots at Kroenke Sports who owns the building and the Nuggets over this thing. WWE has already released a statement on the situation. They said that they have had this date booked for the building since August 15, 2008. Vince had this quote in the statement: “Even though the Denver Nuggets had a strong team this year and were projected to make the playoffs, obviously Nuggets and Pepsi Center owner Stan Kroenke did not have enough faith in his own team to hold the May 25th date for a potential playoff game.” Lots of media have picked up the story. Vince told the Associated Press that they are sending their trucks to the Pepsi Center and they were going to show up. Here are some of the great quotes from Vince that have been all over the media in various articles. Vince took a shot at the owner for scheduling this date for WWE during the playoffs saying “the fans in Denver had a lot more faith in making the playoffs than the owner". Vince was interviewed by a station in Denver where he held up a Lakers hat and jersey supporting them saying that the Nuggets owner had basically thrown them out. There is another building in Denver that could host Raw but it holds less fans and would be a major problem with existing tickets in a different building. My opinion on this is that WWE is completely in the right. They had this date booked back in August and I don’t know what Kroenke was thinking here. The contract was not sent to WWE to sign for the Raw date until last month even with as long ago as the date was booked and tickets have been on sale for a while. As of today, you could still buy tickets for Raw. Vince McMahon was just on ESPNEWS talking about the situation. The person that did the interview of all people was Jonathan Coachman. He just can’t get away from Vince on Monday nights!! Ha ha. Coachman is working for ESPN now in case you didn’t know. Vince said the same things that has been talked about already ripping on Kroenke. Vince said that they are showing up in Denver and that there will just have to be two events in the building that night. The interview concluded with Vince holding up a Kobe jersey that he wanted to present to Stan Kroenke. This is a really light hearted fun story to follow. A lot of times I tend to think that Vince is way too over the top with the media but he has a point here. He is completely right based on everything that I’ve heard so far. I can’t wait to see how this plays out. Just watch WWE get every bit of attention that they can get off of this thing. I hope they do show up with trucks at the Pepsi Center next week even if they do move Raw to another location. Why would you book a playoff game when you know the date is taken?
The doctor of Chris Benoit, Dr. Phil Astin, pleaded guilty to his charges last week after originally pleading not guilty. He was sentenced to ten years in prison and then will have three years of supervision after his release. This will also include 250 hours of community service. Astin's quote on his sentencing was "I take full responsibility. I am sorry I hurt so many lives. I was thinking that I was looking after my patients."
Last night was the WWE Judgment Day PPV. The show opened with Umaga defeating CM Punk with the samoan spike. Christian defeated Swagger to retain the ECW title. Swagger tried to pin Christian with a handful of tights at one point which the referee caught. However, Christian was able to pin Swagger with a handful of tights with the ref not seeing it. John Morrison defeated Shelton Benjamin with the starship pain. The Miz came to the ring and ripped on the Chicago Cubs and Alfonso Soriano who was sitting in the crowd. He challenged Cena once again and claimed hie was now 4-0. Santino Marella made his way out and the two had words back and forth. They ended up throwing punches but The Miz ended up laying out Santino with a DDT. Chavo Guerrero made his way to the ring and hit a frogsplash on to Santino. Rey Mysterio retained the Intercontinental title by defeating Chris Jericho with the 619 and springboard splash for the win. Batista defeated WWE Champion Randy Orton by DQ when Orton slapped the ref so he would be DQ'd. Dibiase and Rhodes attacked Batista. Ric Flair's music hit and he ran to the ring. Flair helped Batista fight off Legacy and then the two hugged after they cleared the ring. John Cena defeated The Big Show after Cena ducked the knockout punch and Cena hitting the attitude adjustment for the win. In the main event, Edge was able to retain the World title against Jeff Hardy. Matt Hardy got involved and nailed Jeff in the back of the head with the cast. Matt then went over the wall where the ref wouldn't see his involvement. The cast shot ended up costing Jeff as he was off balance climbing the ropes. He fell and landed on the ropes. Edge then hit a DDT off the ropes for the win to retain the title.
Tonight’s Raw was in Louisville and, no, they didn’t get thrown out of Freedom Hall in case Rick Pitino wanted to do a charity basketball game or something. Ha ha. Randy Orton opened the show. He talked of how Flair would not want to get involved in his business again. Flair arrived and talked of how Orton was so close to losing that he got himself DQ’d. Flair also told Orton how Batista flew by Orton as being the man to come out of Evolution. Orton talked of how he could beat Batista anytime that he wanted. Flair then said he had talked to Vickie and she was mad at how her main event turned last night out so it would be a rematch between Orton and Batista at Extreme Rules taking place in a steel cage. Orton told Flair to send a message to Batista and then proceeded to pound on Flair. Rhodes and Dibiase were on their way when Batista ran them over from behind down the aisle. Batista couldn’t fight the three on one odds but then Cena ran out and cleared the ring. Vickie made a Cena/Batista vs. Legacy main event match. That match closed the show. Big Show was on his way to the ring to get to Cena. Flair ran by and gave a chair to Cena. Cena nailed Show with a chair repeatedly up the ramp. Flair knocked Rhodes off of the turnbuckle. Batista hit a spear on to Orton to get the pin and win the match. Flair also promised earlier in the show that he was going to call out Orton on Raw next week saying that he may be retired but he can still fight Orton. Other action on Raw. A battle royal was held with the divas with the winner getting a future title shot against Divas champion Maryse. The battle royal had Kelly Kelly, Mickie James, Jillian, Beth and Rosa, and the Bella Twins in it. Maryse was on commentary and the final three in the ring was Mickie, Kelly, and Beth. Kelly eliminated Beth and then she tried to pull Kelly out of the ring. As the ref tried to stop Beth, Maryse got up and sprayed Mickie in the eyes with something. Mickie was laying on the mat holding her eyes. Kelly didn’t see what had happened and walked over kicking Mickie from the ring. Kelly wins and gets a future title shot. MVP retained the US title against Matt Hardy after hitting the playmaker for the win. I liked the interview with Josh talking to Matt earlier. He questioned if the title shot was given from Vickie cause of Matt helping Edge the night before. Matt denied it and called Vickie a fair GM saying she had also taken his loss to Kofi off the record last week. The Miz continued to call out Cena. He came out in Cena gear and entered to Cena’s old “word life” theme song. Miz did his own remix of the song calling it “nerd life”. Cena did not come out and Miz claimed to now be 5-0 against Cena. Lawler entered the ring and talked of how he couldn’t just call anyone out and then claim a win when they don’t show. Lawler said that he would call out Batista right then to prove the point. He said that just cause Batista didn’t show didn’t mean that he had beaten him. Lawler then called out Hogan, Austin, and Sammartino for a three on one match to continue his point. Lawler told Miz to ask Vickie for a match with Cena. Show then arrived saying that he now had a match with Cena at Extreme Rules in a submission match. He told Miz to step aside cause he’d have to wait his turn. Miz said that he’d wait his turn after Cena beat Show and then threw Lawler at Show. Miz took off and then Show decided to make a statement by putting the camel clutch on Lawler leaving him laying. JR would call the rest of the show with Michael Cole to sell the beating by Show. Santino got a win on Chavo. Chavo was embarrassed afterwards and said a match would take place between Santina and Vickie for the Miss WrestleMania crown. Vickie was shown later being very mad at Chavo saying that he didn’t have the authority to do it. The match took place and was made into a no DQ match. Chavo got involved but he was quickly gotten rid of. Regal then hit the ring and took out Santina. Vickie made the pin and won the Miss WrestleMania crown. The Colons got a win on Kendrick and Goldust as Kendrick continues to look for his partner to win the belts with. Kendrick spent the match complaining at Goldust over what he was doing or not doing right. Primo blocked the sliced bread move from Kendrick and then Primo pinned him with a high crossed body. Kendrick blamed Goldust for the loss and slapped him. Goldust started to go after him and then Hornswoggle got in the ring biting and kicking Kendrick.
Other notes from Raw. Wow, what a random tag team of Kendrick and Goldust!!! Did you hear the hometown pop for Jillian when she entered? Louisville girl. It sure is strange seeing Santino working as a face. I’m not sure if I like it or not. We’ll see. I kind of liked that segment with Maryse and Miz backstage. Two very similar characters. Ok, Vickie’s Miss WrestleMania celebration was pretty funny with her dancing and doing the pageant wave.
How long will Ric Flair stay retired? That seems to be the question. He really seems to be getting a major desire to wrestle again. However, Flair keeps talking about the respect that he has for Shawn and for WWE giving him the big farewell that will keep him at his word. He is saying that he wouldn't wrestle unless he got full approval. Flair was quoted as saying "People in Europe are offering me a fortune. I'm tired of signing autographs. I can make more money wrestling. I love the business. I was thinking the other day about the reason why God gave me this health. I don't hurt anywhere. I haven't lost any strength. I'm just like I was 10 years ago. I keep thinking, 'Why am I signing autographs when I can still take backdrops?'
http://www.scrippsnews.com/node/43135
Ric Flair took part in the Nascar All Star Race weekend and was a lot of fun. He was a judge in the burn out challenge and then announced the winner of the fan vote for the All Star race during the pre race introductions.
When I read the stipulation for the TNA Sacrifice PPV main event, my first thought was, yep, that screams Vince Russo. Five million stipulations that no one can remember. It will be Foley vs. Sting vs. Jarrett vs. Angle. Ready for this? Foley will of course lose the TNA title if he is pinned. However, if Angle is pinned then he gives up leadership of the Main Event Mafia. Sting will give up wrestling if he is pinned. Jarrett will leave TNA management if he is pinned. The Sacrifice PPV is this Sunday on PPV.
The WrestleMania 25 DVD will be released in stores tomorrow. I find the extras on it to be disappointing comparing with previous years. The DVD will have the event, the Hall Of Fame ceremony, the bonus tag team title match not seen on the PPV broadcast, and the WrestleMania history moments segments that were shown weeks leading up to the event. Again, if you did not see Shawn vs. Undertaker, you need to see it!! The DVD is worth the price just for that match. One of the best matches that I’ve ever seen in my life!! I don’t throw those comments around lightly so you know that I mean it.
Have a great week!! Take care and God bless!!
Next week's WWE Raw taping and the NBA Playoffs have come to a head in Denver. Raw is scheduled to take place from the Pepsi Center in Denver. However, the Denver Nuggets and LA Lakers are set to square off in game 4 of the Western Conference Finals on the same night at the same time in the same building. From what I can tell, the game was scheduled by the Nuggets even with WWE having already scheduled the date. The situation is being worked on with how to resolve this problem. The NBA won’t change the date of the playoff game but is leaving the situation to being resolved between the facility and WWE. However, WWE is taking all kinds of shots at Kroenke Sports who owns the building and the Nuggets over this thing. WWE has already released a statement on the situation. They said that they have had this date booked for the building since August 15, 2008. Vince had this quote in the statement: “Even though the Denver Nuggets had a strong team this year and were projected to make the playoffs, obviously Nuggets and Pepsi Center owner Stan Kroenke did not have enough faith in his own team to hold the May 25th date for a potential playoff game.” Lots of media have picked up the story. Vince told the Associated Press that they are sending their trucks to the Pepsi Center and they were going to show up. Here are some of the great quotes from Vince that have been all over the media in various articles. Vince took a shot at the owner for scheduling this date for WWE during the playoffs saying “the fans in Denver had a lot more faith in making the playoffs than the owner". Vince was interviewed by a station in Denver where he held up a Lakers hat and jersey supporting them saying that the Nuggets owner had basically thrown them out. There is another building in Denver that could host Raw but it holds less fans and would be a major problem with existing tickets in a different building. My opinion on this is that WWE is completely in the right. They had this date booked back in August and I don’t know what Kroenke was thinking here. The contract was not sent to WWE to sign for the Raw date until last month even with as long ago as the date was booked and tickets have been on sale for a while. As of today, you could still buy tickets for Raw. Vince McMahon was just on ESPNEWS talking about the situation. The person that did the interview of all people was Jonathan Coachman. He just can’t get away from Vince on Monday nights!! Ha ha. Coachman is working for ESPN now in case you didn’t know. Vince said the same things that has been talked about already ripping on Kroenke. Vince said that they are showing up in Denver and that there will just have to be two events in the building that night. The interview concluded with Vince holding up a Kobe jersey that he wanted to present to Stan Kroenke. This is a really light hearted fun story to follow. A lot of times I tend to think that Vince is way too over the top with the media but he has a point here. He is completely right based on everything that I’ve heard so far. I can’t wait to see how this plays out. Just watch WWE get every bit of attention that they can get off of this thing. I hope they do show up with trucks at the Pepsi Center next week even if they do move Raw to another location. Why would you book a playoff game when you know the date is taken?
The doctor of Chris Benoit, Dr. Phil Astin, pleaded guilty to his charges last week after originally pleading not guilty. He was sentenced to ten years in prison and then will have three years of supervision after his release. This will also include 250 hours of community service. Astin's quote on his sentencing was "I take full responsibility. I am sorry I hurt so many lives. I was thinking that I was looking after my patients."
Last night was the WWE Judgment Day PPV. The show opened with Umaga defeating CM Punk with the samoan spike. Christian defeated Swagger to retain the ECW title. Swagger tried to pin Christian with a handful of tights at one point which the referee caught. However, Christian was able to pin Swagger with a handful of tights with the ref not seeing it. John Morrison defeated Shelton Benjamin with the starship pain. The Miz came to the ring and ripped on the Chicago Cubs and Alfonso Soriano who was sitting in the crowd. He challenged Cena once again and claimed hie was now 4-0. Santino Marella made his way out and the two had words back and forth. They ended up throwing punches but The Miz ended up laying out Santino with a DDT. Chavo Guerrero made his way to the ring and hit a frogsplash on to Santino. Rey Mysterio retained the Intercontinental title by defeating Chris Jericho with the 619 and springboard splash for the win. Batista defeated WWE Champion Randy Orton by DQ when Orton slapped the ref so he would be DQ'd. Dibiase and Rhodes attacked Batista. Ric Flair's music hit and he ran to the ring. Flair helped Batista fight off Legacy and then the two hugged after they cleared the ring. John Cena defeated The Big Show after Cena ducked the knockout punch and Cena hitting the attitude adjustment for the win. In the main event, Edge was able to retain the World title against Jeff Hardy. Matt Hardy got involved and nailed Jeff in the back of the head with the cast. Matt then went over the wall where the ref wouldn't see his involvement. The cast shot ended up costing Jeff as he was off balance climbing the ropes. He fell and landed on the ropes. Edge then hit a DDT off the ropes for the win to retain the title.
Tonight’s Raw was in Louisville and, no, they didn’t get thrown out of Freedom Hall in case Rick Pitino wanted to do a charity basketball game or something. Ha ha. Randy Orton opened the show. He talked of how Flair would not want to get involved in his business again. Flair arrived and talked of how Orton was so close to losing that he got himself DQ’d. Flair also told Orton how Batista flew by Orton as being the man to come out of Evolution. Orton talked of how he could beat Batista anytime that he wanted. Flair then said he had talked to Vickie and she was mad at how her main event turned last night out so it would be a rematch between Orton and Batista at Extreme Rules taking place in a steel cage. Orton told Flair to send a message to Batista and then proceeded to pound on Flair. Rhodes and Dibiase were on their way when Batista ran them over from behind down the aisle. Batista couldn’t fight the three on one odds but then Cena ran out and cleared the ring. Vickie made a Cena/Batista vs. Legacy main event match. That match closed the show. Big Show was on his way to the ring to get to Cena. Flair ran by and gave a chair to Cena. Cena nailed Show with a chair repeatedly up the ramp. Flair knocked Rhodes off of the turnbuckle. Batista hit a spear on to Orton to get the pin and win the match. Flair also promised earlier in the show that he was going to call out Orton on Raw next week saying that he may be retired but he can still fight Orton. Other action on Raw. A battle royal was held with the divas with the winner getting a future title shot against Divas champion Maryse. The battle royal had Kelly Kelly, Mickie James, Jillian, Beth and Rosa, and the Bella Twins in it. Maryse was on commentary and the final three in the ring was Mickie, Kelly, and Beth. Kelly eliminated Beth and then she tried to pull Kelly out of the ring. As the ref tried to stop Beth, Maryse got up and sprayed Mickie in the eyes with something. Mickie was laying on the mat holding her eyes. Kelly didn’t see what had happened and walked over kicking Mickie from the ring. Kelly wins and gets a future title shot. MVP retained the US title against Matt Hardy after hitting the playmaker for the win. I liked the interview with Josh talking to Matt earlier. He questioned if the title shot was given from Vickie cause of Matt helping Edge the night before. Matt denied it and called Vickie a fair GM saying she had also taken his loss to Kofi off the record last week. The Miz continued to call out Cena. He came out in Cena gear and entered to Cena’s old “word life” theme song. Miz did his own remix of the song calling it “nerd life”. Cena did not come out and Miz claimed to now be 5-0 against Cena. Lawler entered the ring and talked of how he couldn’t just call anyone out and then claim a win when they don’t show. Lawler said that he would call out Batista right then to prove the point. He said that just cause Batista didn’t show didn’t mean that he had beaten him. Lawler then called out Hogan, Austin, and Sammartino for a three on one match to continue his point. Lawler told Miz to ask Vickie for a match with Cena. Show then arrived saying that he now had a match with Cena at Extreme Rules in a submission match. He told Miz to step aside cause he’d have to wait his turn. Miz said that he’d wait his turn after Cena beat Show and then threw Lawler at Show. Miz took off and then Show decided to make a statement by putting the camel clutch on Lawler leaving him laying. JR would call the rest of the show with Michael Cole to sell the beating by Show. Santino got a win on Chavo. Chavo was embarrassed afterwards and said a match would take place between Santina and Vickie for the Miss WrestleMania crown. Vickie was shown later being very mad at Chavo saying that he didn’t have the authority to do it. The match took place and was made into a no DQ match. Chavo got involved but he was quickly gotten rid of. Regal then hit the ring and took out Santina. Vickie made the pin and won the Miss WrestleMania crown. The Colons got a win on Kendrick and Goldust as Kendrick continues to look for his partner to win the belts with. Kendrick spent the match complaining at Goldust over what he was doing or not doing right. Primo blocked the sliced bread move from Kendrick and then Primo pinned him with a high crossed body. Kendrick blamed Goldust for the loss and slapped him. Goldust started to go after him and then Hornswoggle got in the ring biting and kicking Kendrick.
Other notes from Raw. Wow, what a random tag team of Kendrick and Goldust!!! Did you hear the hometown pop for Jillian when she entered? Louisville girl. It sure is strange seeing Santino working as a face. I’m not sure if I like it or not. We’ll see. I kind of liked that segment with Maryse and Miz backstage. Two very similar characters. Ok, Vickie’s Miss WrestleMania celebration was pretty funny with her dancing and doing the pageant wave.
How long will Ric Flair stay retired? That seems to be the question. He really seems to be getting a major desire to wrestle again. However, Flair keeps talking about the respect that he has for Shawn and for WWE giving him the big farewell that will keep him at his word. He is saying that he wouldn't wrestle unless he got full approval. Flair was quoted as saying "People in Europe are offering me a fortune. I'm tired of signing autographs. I can make more money wrestling. I love the business. I was thinking the other day about the reason why God gave me this health. I don't hurt anywhere. I haven't lost any strength. I'm just like I was 10 years ago. I keep thinking, 'Why am I signing autographs when I can still take backdrops?'
http://www.scrippsnews.com/node/43135
Ric Flair took part in the Nascar All Star Race weekend and was a lot of fun. He was a judge in the burn out challenge and then announced the winner of the fan vote for the All Star race during the pre race introductions.
When I read the stipulation for the TNA Sacrifice PPV main event, my first thought was, yep, that screams Vince Russo. Five million stipulations that no one can remember. It will be Foley vs. Sting vs. Jarrett vs. Angle. Ready for this? Foley will of course lose the TNA title if he is pinned. However, if Angle is pinned then he gives up leadership of the Main Event Mafia. Sting will give up wrestling if he is pinned. Jarrett will leave TNA management if he is pinned. The Sacrifice PPV is this Sunday on PPV.
The WrestleMania 25 DVD will be released in stores tomorrow. I find the extras on it to be disappointing comparing with previous years. The DVD will have the event, the Hall Of Fame ceremony, the bonus tag team title match not seen on the PPV broadcast, and the WrestleMania history moments segments that were shown weeks leading up to the event. Again, if you did not see Shawn vs. Undertaker, you need to see it!! The DVD is worth the price just for that match. One of the best matches that I’ve ever seen in my life!! I don’t throw those comments around lightly so you know that I mean it.
Have a great week!! Take care and God bless!!
Monday, May 11, 2009
Raw, Smackdown, WCW DVD On The Way, Judgment Day Preview - May 11, 2009
Welcome to the “even after the draft, Smackdown is still the better show” edition of The Wrestling List. Better storylines, better matches on Smackdown so far over Raw. Raw has more star power but Smackdown is having the better shows.
Tonight’s Raw centered around the story of Batista and Legacy. It was very much like last week but with a different result. The show opened with Legacy calling out Batista. Orton offered Batista a spot in Legacy saying that he could be his Arn Anderson and be Orton’s enforcer. Batista turned it down saying how much he hated Orton. There was a no contact ruling or no PPV match laid down by Vickie but Batista decided to throw that out saying that Vickie couldn’t cancel the main event of the PPV. Vickie waved the no contact rule and then named the main event of the night. First, it would be Priceless taking on Batista. If Batista won, he got Orton one on one. If Priceless won, it would be three on one against Batista. So, the match takes place with Priceless and Batista. Dibiase distracts the ref and Cody grabs a chair from under the ring. He throws it inside and Batista picks it up. He takes a swing at Cody which the ref sees. DQ happens and Priceless wins. Batista then started hunting Legacy down backstage. Cody disappeared and Orton eventually found him. As he was found, Dibiase was taken out. Orton told Cody to prove his worth and take out Batista. Cody roamed backstage with a pipe but was taken out from behind by Batista. This made the match with Orton one on one. Batista ended up getting DQ’d cause he was repeatedly bashing Orton with a chair including shots on the ankle. He grabbed the steps from outside but then Cody got involved. Dibiase did as well. Batista was able to overcome and took everyone out leaving Orton crawling up the ramp. The final statement was Orton having to move to avoid the steps when Batista threw them from the ring to the floor. In other action. Upon the suggestion of Chavo and Big Show, Vickie put John Cena in an exhibition match against The Miz to prove that he was able to compete against Show on Sunday. Miz did a lot of trash talking but Cena had his eyes on Show who watched at ringside. Cena was more mobile than last week but Miz was in control for a lot of the match. As Cena was close to putting away Miz, Vickie showed up on the screen saying the exhibition match was over and that Cena had shown that he wasn’t ready to compete. Miz took out Cena from behind and then proclaimed he was now 3-0. Show smiled at Cena down on the mat and walked off. MVP hosted the VIP Lounge which was with William Regal. Just trash talking back and forth which was about to get physical when Matt Hardy’s music hit. Hardy continued to complain about his having to wrestle with the injury. Kofi ended up attacking Matt from behind and then Chavo announced what Vickie’s decision was on this. It would now be a tag match with Matt and Regal against Kofi and MVP. The finish had Kofi nailing Matt’s cast and then Matt walked away from the match. MVP hit the playmaker on to Regal for the pin. Mickie James and Kelly Kelly defeated the team of Maryse and Jillian. Mickie countered Maryse’s DDT and then hit her own DDT to pin the Divas champion for the second week in a row. The story of Santina Marella and Beth continued. Beth stayed on offense for most of the match and then Santina won with a small package. Santina then danced all over the ring which was pretty funny. Kendrick defeated Carlito after he rammed Carlito’s shoulder into the post and then rolled him up for the win. Kendrick then claimed he was going to get “the” partner to win the tag team titles with.
Other notes from Raw. Isn’t it kind of funny that Batista is turning into WCW late 90’s Sting of 2009? Easy to fool. That was what I was thinking with all the DQ outsmarting as of late. Maybe WWE has been watching their WCW library. Ha ha. What is up with Michael Cole always having to read personality stuff of the divas during their matches? I almost feel like I’m trying to be set up on a date while I’m watching the match. Is this wrestling or matchmaker.com? Is Vince feeding him that stuff or is it him on his own? I can probably answer that one. No Mickie James vs. Maryse match added to Judgment Day? Hmm, I figured that they would go for it. How impressive was Beth picking up Santino in a press slam and throwing him back in the ring? I don’t even think she struggled!!! Ok, the segment with Santina in Vickie’s office was pretty funny. Well, Cole and Lawler with live mics in the ring doing the rundown of the PPV lineup was well….different. I can’t remember the last time that was done. It almost felt like the 1990’s WWF Free For All shows all over again. All we needed was Todd Pettingil and Sunny. They have got to let Miz continue to do these shooting type promos. His line on more people seeing that match than 12 Rounds was a good one. Miz is going to keep rising up if he keeps being able to do these style of promos against his opponents. What was with Raw ending at 10:02? That is counting a PPV promo at the very end too.
Another fun Smackdown on Friday night. The show opened with Rey Mysterio being introduced by Teddy Long welcoming him back to the show. Chris Jericho interrupted the preceedings saying that he was the face of Smackdown and wanted an apology from Long about the DQ last week pointing out that no one had ever been DQ’d in a fatal four way. He told Rey that he didn’t have a chance of winning anyway. Rey finally had enough and popped him. Rey walked out and Jeff Hardy arrived. Hardy said that if Jericho wanted respect then he would have to beat him. The announcement was made that they would face each other in the main event and if Jericho won, he would be added to the Hardy/Edge match at Judgment Day. Hardy then slapped Jericho to end the segment. Edge went to Long complaining about the fact that his match could now be a three way. Long told Edge that he would be having a rematch with Punk that night on Smackdown but it would be non title. Long did say that he had no control on whether Punk might cash in the MITB after the match like last week. Nice finish with Edge grabbing the ropes to avoid the GTS. Edge then went for the spear and Punk leap frogged over him crashing to the floor. Edge then walked off taking the countout loss. He later pointed out that Punk can’t cash in MITB if he isn’t there. Umaga once again attacked Punk and left him laying in the ring. The Hardy/Jericho match closed the show. Edge did commentary with JR and Grisham. Rey ended up at ringside to watch the match. Jericho threw Hardy on to Edge at the announce table. Edge then got up on the apron and he and Jericho had words. Edge walked off. Jericho put a pin attempt on Hardy but Jericho had his feet on the ropes to help with leverage. Rey pointed it out to the ref and stopped the count. Jericho was furious at Rey’s interference. Jeff hit a modified twist of fate and the swanton to win the match. Jeff walked toward Edge on the ramp staring him down. Rey then hit a springboard on Jericho in the ring. Other action on the show had John Morrison pinning Charlie Haas, accompanied by Shelton Benjamin, following a splitlegged corkscrew moonsault. Morrison called for Shelton to come into the ring afterwards but Shetlon walked out. Mike Knox defeated R Truth following his neckbreaker finish. Michelle McCool defeated Gail Kim who was accompanied by Alicia Fox. Michelle countered Gail’s hurricanrana attempt into a Styles clash for the win. The Great Khali was the surprise opponent for Dolph Ziggler. Ziggler had challenged anyone in the locker room saying that he was going to go through the whole Smackdown roster. Ziggler ended up being DQ’d when he kept pounding on Khali with a chair. Round two of Eve and Layla with Cryme Tyme. This time it was arm wrestling. Eve ended up winning and was again attacked by Layla afterwards like last week.
Other notes from Smackdown. I loved the exchange with JR and Edge. Edge said that he hated whiners and then JR asked him “by the way, how is your wife?” I did think it was funny that JR and Grisham pointed out that Jericho got his way in the opening segment by whining. Wow, WWE breaking out the old World’s Greatest Tag Team music for Haas.
Here is the latest in the saga between WWE and Kurt Angle. The Miami Herald did an article comparing stories between the two on what happened with Angle leaving the company. It definitely gives an inside look at the wellness policy and even Angle’s manager was admitting some wrong things that Kurt had said. WWE definitely looks like the better out of this whole thing for sure now. Here is the article if you want to check it out. Definitely worth a read!! http://www.miamiherald.com/sports/other/story/1026972.html
If you want to see the trailer for the new Macho Man Randy Savage DVD, head over to his website at: http://www.machomadness.com It looks awesome!! Can’t wait for this set to be released!!
WWE is going to be releasing a Rise and Fall Of WCW DVD in the fall. Now, this will be interesting to see. Is this going to be another WWE spin on the company wars where WCW is painted as the big bad bully who stole all of their stars? The Monday Night Wars DVD sure was mostly a one sided view with WWE being the good guys against WCW. I didn’t like that DVD at all cause the story was very one sided on what view they wanted to push. It will be interesting to see who is interviewed for it as Eric Bischoff said on his Twitter account last week that several WCW executives had been asked for interviews with several turning WWE down. Can you imagine what the Russo treatment will be on this DVD? I’m curious to see how they paint Randy Savage. WWE has always bashed Savage for leaving but the fact of the matter is that Savage still wanted to have an in ring career. Vince wanted him to not wrestle anymore and just be an announcer. Savage left and went to WCW where he had many more great years of in ring performances. Will Nitro get its due for being innovative and changing the wrestling landscape? The Rise and Fall of ECW DVD was phenomenal many years ago when it was released and told the story. Was all of it accurate and told down the middle? No, but you can expect that. That ECW DVD biography program was phenomenal with the interviews that they had and stories that were told. I just hope that WWE will tell the story of WCW without constantly making them look like the evil bad guys that tried to put them out of business. I always kind of get annoyed anyway when Vince does that when he put territory after territory out of business in the 80’s by using many of the same tactics. It was interesting during the Monday Night Wars roundtable show on WWE 24/7 that was taped in the last couple of years where it was finally admitted by WWE just how close that Eric Bischoff was to putting them out of business. I really need to do a special Wrestling List about what happened with WCW. Maybe I’ll do it after I watch this DVD in the summer and talk about stuff in the DVD and things that were left out. Yeah, I’ll do that. That will be fun. Can’t wait to view it. Just hoping that we at least get near a fair story on it!!
Ring Of Honor has announced that Lance Storm will be coming out of retirement for a couple of shows on July 24 and 25. Bret Hart will be making an appearance for ROH on July 24 and Ric Flair will be making an appearance on July 25. Huge weekend for ROH.
The WWE Judgment Day PPV is this Sunday night and here is the lineup for it. World Champion Edge defends the title against Jeff Hardy. WWE Champion Randy Orton defends against Batista. John Cena vs. Big Show. ECW Champion Christian defends against Jack Swagger. Intercontinental Champion Rey Mysterio defends against Chris Jericho. CM Punk vs. Umaga.
Have a great week!! Take care and God bless!!
Tonight’s Raw centered around the story of Batista and Legacy. It was very much like last week but with a different result. The show opened with Legacy calling out Batista. Orton offered Batista a spot in Legacy saying that he could be his Arn Anderson and be Orton’s enforcer. Batista turned it down saying how much he hated Orton. There was a no contact ruling or no PPV match laid down by Vickie but Batista decided to throw that out saying that Vickie couldn’t cancel the main event of the PPV. Vickie waved the no contact rule and then named the main event of the night. First, it would be Priceless taking on Batista. If Batista won, he got Orton one on one. If Priceless won, it would be three on one against Batista. So, the match takes place with Priceless and Batista. Dibiase distracts the ref and Cody grabs a chair from under the ring. He throws it inside and Batista picks it up. He takes a swing at Cody which the ref sees. DQ happens and Priceless wins. Batista then started hunting Legacy down backstage. Cody disappeared and Orton eventually found him. As he was found, Dibiase was taken out. Orton told Cody to prove his worth and take out Batista. Cody roamed backstage with a pipe but was taken out from behind by Batista. This made the match with Orton one on one. Batista ended up getting DQ’d cause he was repeatedly bashing Orton with a chair including shots on the ankle. He grabbed the steps from outside but then Cody got involved. Dibiase did as well. Batista was able to overcome and took everyone out leaving Orton crawling up the ramp. The final statement was Orton having to move to avoid the steps when Batista threw them from the ring to the floor. In other action. Upon the suggestion of Chavo and Big Show, Vickie put John Cena in an exhibition match against The Miz to prove that he was able to compete against Show on Sunday. Miz did a lot of trash talking but Cena had his eyes on Show who watched at ringside. Cena was more mobile than last week but Miz was in control for a lot of the match. As Cena was close to putting away Miz, Vickie showed up on the screen saying the exhibition match was over and that Cena had shown that he wasn’t ready to compete. Miz took out Cena from behind and then proclaimed he was now 3-0. Show smiled at Cena down on the mat and walked off. MVP hosted the VIP Lounge which was with William Regal. Just trash talking back and forth which was about to get physical when Matt Hardy’s music hit. Hardy continued to complain about his having to wrestle with the injury. Kofi ended up attacking Matt from behind and then Chavo announced what Vickie’s decision was on this. It would now be a tag match with Matt and Regal against Kofi and MVP. The finish had Kofi nailing Matt’s cast and then Matt walked away from the match. MVP hit the playmaker on to Regal for the pin. Mickie James and Kelly Kelly defeated the team of Maryse and Jillian. Mickie countered Maryse’s DDT and then hit her own DDT to pin the Divas champion for the second week in a row. The story of Santina Marella and Beth continued. Beth stayed on offense for most of the match and then Santina won with a small package. Santina then danced all over the ring which was pretty funny. Kendrick defeated Carlito after he rammed Carlito’s shoulder into the post and then rolled him up for the win. Kendrick then claimed he was going to get “the” partner to win the tag team titles with.
Other notes from Raw. Isn’t it kind of funny that Batista is turning into WCW late 90’s Sting of 2009? Easy to fool. That was what I was thinking with all the DQ outsmarting as of late. Maybe WWE has been watching their WCW library. Ha ha. What is up with Michael Cole always having to read personality stuff of the divas during their matches? I almost feel like I’m trying to be set up on a date while I’m watching the match. Is this wrestling or matchmaker.com? Is Vince feeding him that stuff or is it him on his own? I can probably answer that one. No Mickie James vs. Maryse match added to Judgment Day? Hmm, I figured that they would go for it. How impressive was Beth picking up Santino in a press slam and throwing him back in the ring? I don’t even think she struggled!!! Ok, the segment with Santina in Vickie’s office was pretty funny. Well, Cole and Lawler with live mics in the ring doing the rundown of the PPV lineup was well….different. I can’t remember the last time that was done. It almost felt like the 1990’s WWF Free For All shows all over again. All we needed was Todd Pettingil and Sunny. They have got to let Miz continue to do these shooting type promos. His line on more people seeing that match than 12 Rounds was a good one. Miz is going to keep rising up if he keeps being able to do these style of promos against his opponents. What was with Raw ending at 10:02? That is counting a PPV promo at the very end too.
Another fun Smackdown on Friday night. The show opened with Rey Mysterio being introduced by Teddy Long welcoming him back to the show. Chris Jericho interrupted the preceedings saying that he was the face of Smackdown and wanted an apology from Long about the DQ last week pointing out that no one had ever been DQ’d in a fatal four way. He told Rey that he didn’t have a chance of winning anyway. Rey finally had enough and popped him. Rey walked out and Jeff Hardy arrived. Hardy said that if Jericho wanted respect then he would have to beat him. The announcement was made that they would face each other in the main event and if Jericho won, he would be added to the Hardy/Edge match at Judgment Day. Hardy then slapped Jericho to end the segment. Edge went to Long complaining about the fact that his match could now be a three way. Long told Edge that he would be having a rematch with Punk that night on Smackdown but it would be non title. Long did say that he had no control on whether Punk might cash in the MITB after the match like last week. Nice finish with Edge grabbing the ropes to avoid the GTS. Edge then went for the spear and Punk leap frogged over him crashing to the floor. Edge then walked off taking the countout loss. He later pointed out that Punk can’t cash in MITB if he isn’t there. Umaga once again attacked Punk and left him laying in the ring. The Hardy/Jericho match closed the show. Edge did commentary with JR and Grisham. Rey ended up at ringside to watch the match. Jericho threw Hardy on to Edge at the announce table. Edge then got up on the apron and he and Jericho had words. Edge walked off. Jericho put a pin attempt on Hardy but Jericho had his feet on the ropes to help with leverage. Rey pointed it out to the ref and stopped the count. Jericho was furious at Rey’s interference. Jeff hit a modified twist of fate and the swanton to win the match. Jeff walked toward Edge on the ramp staring him down. Rey then hit a springboard on Jericho in the ring. Other action on the show had John Morrison pinning Charlie Haas, accompanied by Shelton Benjamin, following a splitlegged corkscrew moonsault. Morrison called for Shelton to come into the ring afterwards but Shetlon walked out. Mike Knox defeated R Truth following his neckbreaker finish. Michelle McCool defeated Gail Kim who was accompanied by Alicia Fox. Michelle countered Gail’s hurricanrana attempt into a Styles clash for the win. The Great Khali was the surprise opponent for Dolph Ziggler. Ziggler had challenged anyone in the locker room saying that he was going to go through the whole Smackdown roster. Ziggler ended up being DQ’d when he kept pounding on Khali with a chair. Round two of Eve and Layla with Cryme Tyme. This time it was arm wrestling. Eve ended up winning and was again attacked by Layla afterwards like last week.
Other notes from Smackdown. I loved the exchange with JR and Edge. Edge said that he hated whiners and then JR asked him “by the way, how is your wife?” I did think it was funny that JR and Grisham pointed out that Jericho got his way in the opening segment by whining. Wow, WWE breaking out the old World’s Greatest Tag Team music for Haas.
Here is the latest in the saga between WWE and Kurt Angle. The Miami Herald did an article comparing stories between the two on what happened with Angle leaving the company. It definitely gives an inside look at the wellness policy and even Angle’s manager was admitting some wrong things that Kurt had said. WWE definitely looks like the better out of this whole thing for sure now. Here is the article if you want to check it out. Definitely worth a read!! http://www.miamiherald.com/sports/other/story/1026972.html
If you want to see the trailer for the new Macho Man Randy Savage DVD, head over to his website at: http://www.machomadness.com It looks awesome!! Can’t wait for this set to be released!!
WWE is going to be releasing a Rise and Fall Of WCW DVD in the fall. Now, this will be interesting to see. Is this going to be another WWE spin on the company wars where WCW is painted as the big bad bully who stole all of their stars? The Monday Night Wars DVD sure was mostly a one sided view with WWE being the good guys against WCW. I didn’t like that DVD at all cause the story was very one sided on what view they wanted to push. It will be interesting to see who is interviewed for it as Eric Bischoff said on his Twitter account last week that several WCW executives had been asked for interviews with several turning WWE down. Can you imagine what the Russo treatment will be on this DVD? I’m curious to see how they paint Randy Savage. WWE has always bashed Savage for leaving but the fact of the matter is that Savage still wanted to have an in ring career. Vince wanted him to not wrestle anymore and just be an announcer. Savage left and went to WCW where he had many more great years of in ring performances. Will Nitro get its due for being innovative and changing the wrestling landscape? The Rise and Fall of ECW DVD was phenomenal many years ago when it was released and told the story. Was all of it accurate and told down the middle? No, but you can expect that. That ECW DVD biography program was phenomenal with the interviews that they had and stories that were told. I just hope that WWE will tell the story of WCW without constantly making them look like the evil bad guys that tried to put them out of business. I always kind of get annoyed anyway when Vince does that when he put territory after territory out of business in the 80’s by using many of the same tactics. It was interesting during the Monday Night Wars roundtable show on WWE 24/7 that was taped in the last couple of years where it was finally admitted by WWE just how close that Eric Bischoff was to putting them out of business. I really need to do a special Wrestling List about what happened with WCW. Maybe I’ll do it after I watch this DVD in the summer and talk about stuff in the DVD and things that were left out. Yeah, I’ll do that. That will be fun. Can’t wait to view it. Just hoping that we at least get near a fair story on it!!
Ring Of Honor has announced that Lance Storm will be coming out of retirement for a couple of shows on July 24 and 25. Bret Hart will be making an appearance for ROH on July 24 and Ric Flair will be making an appearance on July 25. Huge weekend for ROH.
The WWE Judgment Day PPV is this Sunday night and here is the lineup for it. World Champion Edge defends the title against Jeff Hardy. WWE Champion Randy Orton defends against Batista. John Cena vs. Big Show. ECW Champion Christian defends against Jack Swagger. Intercontinental Champion Rey Mysterio defends against Chris Jericho. CM Punk vs. Umaga.
Have a great week!! Take care and God bless!!
Monday, May 4, 2009
Raw, Smackdown, & More - May 4, 2009
Welcome to the “please can Orton move on from the McMahon feud” edition of The Wrestling List. I am really tired of the storyline of Orton having to fight McMahons if you can’t already tell. Just ready for something new for him which I guess will be Batista. Hmm, maybe the McMahons isn’t so bad after all. Ha ha.
Sad news to start with. Former WWF and AWA star, Playboy Buddy Rose passed away last week at the age of 56. His passing is due to natural causes and he has been battling diabetes for a while. For me, Rose will be remembered for that great Midnight Rockers feud in the AWA. Everyone also has to remember the WWF blow away diet commercials which have still stood the test of time of greatness.
I knew Smackdown was going to be good on Friday night based on one thing. The show was in Madison Square Garden. The atmosphere there always brings out a good show and Smackdown was an excellent show. The show opened with Chris Jericho saying that the show was different but the result was the same. Smackdown was now his show. That brought out World Champion Edge who mentioned that he beat Cena for the title while Jericho has yet to beat Cena. Edge talked of how it was his show. Before Jericho could really go back at him, CM Punk arrived who reminded Edge of pinning him for the belt using Money In The Bank last year. Jericho ended up walking out as did Edge not wanting to even give Punk the time of day. Punk then told Edge that Teddy Long had given him a match against Edge on Smackdown. It was non title but Punk said that he was going to win with the GTS and then cash in Money In The Bank while he was sleeping and win the title. Jericho was involved in the four way elimination match for the number one contendership against Edge at Judgment Day. Hey, I thought that was supposed to be a scramble match!! Jericho took on Jeff Hardy, Rey Mysterio, and Kane. This was a really fun match. First man eliminated was Kane. Jeff hit a whisper in the wind and swanton on Kane. As Jeff went for the pin, Jericho pulled Jeff out of the ring. Jericho then pinned Kane. Kane did some damage on the way out to Jericho and to Hardy. He went into a rage throwing chairs in the ring. Rey nailed Jericho and hit the 619. As Rey went for the springboard, Jericho nailed Rey with a chair causing a DQ. That left it one on one with Jeff and Rey. What fun action here!! The finish had Rey hitting the 619 and the springboard but Jeff countered it into a sunset flip for the win. Jeff will go on to face Edge at Judgment Day for the World title. Punk and Edge had a good match to close the show. Punk did in fact hit the GTS on Edge and win the match. Punk then told the ref that he was cashing in the Money In The Bank and the announcement was made of the match. However, Umaga ran in and kicked Punk followed by the big swinging slam of his. As Edge went to hit Punk with the briefcase, Hardy made his way to the ring. Jeff hit the twist of fate and swanton on to Edge to end the show. They made sure to point out that the bell never rang to start the match so Punk’s MITB cash in didn’t count. John Morrison took on Shelton Benjamin and ended up winning with the moonlight drive. Later, Morrison and Jericho got into a fight backstage that had to be broken up. MVP was accompanied by The View’s Sherri Sheppard to take on Dolph Ziggler. They have been doing some back and forth promotion with MVP and Sherri. Cryme Tyme hosted a dance off between Layla and Eve. Eve ended up winning and then Layla slapped her. The fight was on from there. It actually wasn’t a bad segment cause the girls are great dancers.
Other notes from Smackdown. Wow, Morrison is a face now. Interesting. I have thoughts on that so keep reading on ahead. How great was Edge’s heel line of walking out in the World’s Most Famous Arena and then naming the Air Canada Center in Toronto and then saying how you realize how better you are than everyone in there? I thought Sherri Sheppard did well in her role with MVP. One of the better performances by a celebrity that they’ve had come in as of late. What happened to the “first time ever on network TV scramble match”? I didn’t dream that up, did I? I cracked up at JR’s line of that he threw his back out just watching the dance off. Boo to Todd Grisham from a Bulls fan for his John Starks reference on the three pointers at MSG.
Tonight’s Raw was just a middle ground show for me tonight. The focus was Shane McMahon and Randy Orton. The show opened with their match which had Shane attacking from the crowd. Shane was about to drop an elbow on to Orton on the table till Rhodes and Dibiase got involved. MVP ran down and helped but was then thrown out after a minute or so. Batista then ran down and cleared the ring. Vickie arrived on the scene saying that her main event was not going to be ruined. She announced the “win and you’re in scenario”. Batista would face Dibiase. MVP would face Cody. The winners of those matches got to be put into the Shane/Orton match. The idea was that it could be two on two or three on one. MVP took on Cody but Regal was at ringside doing commentary. As MVP was set to get back in the ring, Regal took out MVP’s leg and he crashed to the floor. MVP was then counted out. That put Cody with Orton in the main event. Batista took on Dibiase. The finish had Dibiase slapping Batista which infuriated him. Batista pounded on Dibiase in the corner and wouldn’t stop for the ref’s five count. The ref counted five and DQ’d Batista. That meant that all of Legacy would take on Shane in a handicap match. Batista was later shown backstage apologizing over and over to Shane for what had happened. Vickie ended up making a ruling of that no one could get involved in the match threatening Batista with taking away his title match at Judgment Day. The match took place and Shane did get on a roll at the end. Shane went to do what he tried earlier and that was drop the elbow on to Orton on the table. Orton moved and Shane crashed through the table. Rhodes and Dibiase then held Shane’s ankle on to the steps. Orton nailed the ankle with the chair on to the steps. The second damage came when Orton then picked up the top half of the steps and dropped them on Shane’s ankle. The match was over at this point so Batista made his way down. Legacy ran while Batista checked on Shane and was mad that this had happened. Orton then promised Batista that his judgment day was coming. This definitely had to be the end of Shane for a while as the beating was nasty. In other action. Kofi Kingston defeated Matt Hardy, who is still wrestling under protest, after hitting the trouble in paradise kick. Hardy then knocked out Kofi with the cast after the match as Kofi was celebrating the win. Mickie James got a non title win on Divas Champion, Maryse pinning her with a DDT. Solid match. Carlito pinned Kendrick following a backstabber in the corner. The Miz once again called out John Cena. Vickie had earlier told Big Show that Cena was not going to be cleared to wrestle for two weeks but granted Show a match with Cena at Judgment Day. Miz continued to bait Cena and Cena very slowly made his way to the ring. He carefully climbed in the ring and then Show’s music hit. Miz disappeared and Show stepped in. Cena put his fists up but Show proceeded to just pound on a defenseless Cena. Lots of shots to the midsection followed by a STF that left Cena unconscious. We had a singoff between Festus and Jillian hosted by Lawler. Jillian did her usual singing. Then, Festus was in his catatonic state when it was his turn. Lawler rang the bell and Festus went into singing “Tomorrow”. He also won. Umm, yeah.
Other notes from Raw. Wow, major credit to Cena. He sold that injury BIG time tonight. He was so good that I was feeling bad for him. I thought that told a good story of Cena not backing down but that he was just too beaten to defend himself. Mickie gets a win over Maryse!!! Hoping that means good things for Mickie in the future!! Maybe a championship again?? That segment with Santino, Chavo, and Kelly made me wonder if they are turning Santino face. It sure seems like it. Weren’t you just waiting for Larry Zybysco’s return to Monday nights? He was in a commercial for morphoplex. I was waiting for him to tell me about the “new world odor”. I don’t miss him on Monday nights at all. Wow, even Jared The Subway guy got boos from the Raw crowd. Tough crowd. What was with that singing segment with Jillian and Festus??!! That was pointless and the best part was that Lawler said it was happening to top Smackdown’s dance off. Give me the dance off back. The Miz may get turned face with all of those anti-Cena fans with all the comments he has been saying including how the WWE machine formed him to get the kiddies to cheer for him along with him saying that The Rock had rejected all of Cena’s movie scripts. Wow. I like if they keep doing stuff like that with Miz where he just shoots on things like that.
Wow, WWE is apparently pushing John Morrison as a face now. That came out of nowhere. When Shelton made his way to the ring on Smackdown, I assumed they were tagging up. I then thought that Morrison did get laid out by his partner so that could warrant a babyface turn. I mentioned in my thoughts on the draft that this singles run on Smackdown could be a very good thing for Morrison. Could is the wrong word. Will is the better word. I think they should push Morrison huge. He is really good in the ring and has a fun style. The character is one that I was against at the beginning but grew on me. I’ll admit that I was wrong there. Will pushing him as a face work? It very well could. Just depends on how they do it. I do see similarities of him to an early singles heel Shawn Michaels and have for a while. Good character, solid matches. Coming out of a tag team and into a singles push. He’s been a singles star before but I think the time with Miz helped develop that character. We’ll see if Morrison can step up to the plate.
I saved myself another $40 by watching Survivor Series 2008 on WWE 24/7 this weekend. Solid show but nothing really to jump up and down about. The ending of the WWE title match was fun but the rest of the match was terrible. I liked the opener with Team Shawn Michaels against Team JBL. Fun match and good action. Crowd was into it too. Women’s match was all right but nothing really spectacular. Solid match though. Undertaker/Big Show was all right as well. Team Batista against Team Orton had a fun finish with Orton sneaking in the tag and hitting Batista with the RKO to win the match. Crowd popped for the RKO. That triple threat for the WWE title was a mixed bag with most of it being bad. Triple H and Kozlov going one on one for ten minutes or so was just as boring as I had heard that it was. There were chants of “boring” and also “TNA” among others. I found it hilarious how the crowd popped huge for Edge’s music even though they were expecting Hardy. The crowd was dying for some excitement!! Then, there is a huge pop for Hardy attacking Edge. However, Edge is still able to overcome and pins a hurt Triple H for the win and the championship. Good stuff. Cena and Jericho was a fine match. Only thing that hurt it was that it was predictable knowing that Cena was going to win. Yeah, I realize that I watched this on a three month delay so I knew who won but you knew this at the time that Cena was going to win. His comeback in his hometown. That did make for a fun storyline of the match though. That shot that they had of Cena outside the Garden in that promo video looked awesome!! Solid match. Like I said, solid show. I know soiid is getting to be a boring word in this review of it but that is really the only word that comes to mind. The only bad on the show was the ten minutes of Triple H and Kozlov.
Oh good grief. Vince Russo is writing another book and this one is going to be all about his time in WCW which will be released in early 2010. I can sum it up right now with what he’ll say. He’s going to blame the officials, politics, the network, and everyone else besides his ideas for why WCW ended. Of course, there was a lot of factors that went into WCW going out of business but that Russo era of booking was AWFUL!! Let’s put the Nitro Girls in matches and have them wrestle, put the belt on Arquette to get a USA Today front page but lose half of our audience in the process who never came back….and,,,,,,,ok, I’m breathing now and will hold off from the 8,475th Russo rant of mine. I don’t think I could read that book or I might have to be put on blood pressure medicine by the time I finished reading it. Ha ha.
Ric Flair and Rowdy Roddy Piper are going to be sitting down and doing a shoot interview together for Highspots.com. How scary is that and I’m talking SCARY GOOD!! Can you imagine how great that will be if those two get rolling with telling stories??!!
That is all I have for another Monday night. Wishing all of you a great and safe week!! Take care and God bless!!
Sad news to start with. Former WWF and AWA star, Playboy Buddy Rose passed away last week at the age of 56. His passing is due to natural causes and he has been battling diabetes for a while. For me, Rose will be remembered for that great Midnight Rockers feud in the AWA. Everyone also has to remember the WWF blow away diet commercials which have still stood the test of time of greatness.
I knew Smackdown was going to be good on Friday night based on one thing. The show was in Madison Square Garden. The atmosphere there always brings out a good show and Smackdown was an excellent show. The show opened with Chris Jericho saying that the show was different but the result was the same. Smackdown was now his show. That brought out World Champion Edge who mentioned that he beat Cena for the title while Jericho has yet to beat Cena. Edge talked of how it was his show. Before Jericho could really go back at him, CM Punk arrived who reminded Edge of pinning him for the belt using Money In The Bank last year. Jericho ended up walking out as did Edge not wanting to even give Punk the time of day. Punk then told Edge that Teddy Long had given him a match against Edge on Smackdown. It was non title but Punk said that he was going to win with the GTS and then cash in Money In The Bank while he was sleeping and win the title. Jericho was involved in the four way elimination match for the number one contendership against Edge at Judgment Day. Hey, I thought that was supposed to be a scramble match!! Jericho took on Jeff Hardy, Rey Mysterio, and Kane. This was a really fun match. First man eliminated was Kane. Jeff hit a whisper in the wind and swanton on Kane. As Jeff went for the pin, Jericho pulled Jeff out of the ring. Jericho then pinned Kane. Kane did some damage on the way out to Jericho and to Hardy. He went into a rage throwing chairs in the ring. Rey nailed Jericho and hit the 619. As Rey went for the springboard, Jericho nailed Rey with a chair causing a DQ. That left it one on one with Jeff and Rey. What fun action here!! The finish had Rey hitting the 619 and the springboard but Jeff countered it into a sunset flip for the win. Jeff will go on to face Edge at Judgment Day for the World title. Punk and Edge had a good match to close the show. Punk did in fact hit the GTS on Edge and win the match. Punk then told the ref that he was cashing in the Money In The Bank and the announcement was made of the match. However, Umaga ran in and kicked Punk followed by the big swinging slam of his. As Edge went to hit Punk with the briefcase, Hardy made his way to the ring. Jeff hit the twist of fate and swanton on to Edge to end the show. They made sure to point out that the bell never rang to start the match so Punk’s MITB cash in didn’t count. John Morrison took on Shelton Benjamin and ended up winning with the moonlight drive. Later, Morrison and Jericho got into a fight backstage that had to be broken up. MVP was accompanied by The View’s Sherri Sheppard to take on Dolph Ziggler. They have been doing some back and forth promotion with MVP and Sherri. Cryme Tyme hosted a dance off between Layla and Eve. Eve ended up winning and then Layla slapped her. The fight was on from there. It actually wasn’t a bad segment cause the girls are great dancers.
Other notes from Smackdown. Wow, Morrison is a face now. Interesting. I have thoughts on that so keep reading on ahead. How great was Edge’s heel line of walking out in the World’s Most Famous Arena and then naming the Air Canada Center in Toronto and then saying how you realize how better you are than everyone in there? I thought Sherri Sheppard did well in her role with MVP. One of the better performances by a celebrity that they’ve had come in as of late. What happened to the “first time ever on network TV scramble match”? I didn’t dream that up, did I? I cracked up at JR’s line of that he threw his back out just watching the dance off. Boo to Todd Grisham from a Bulls fan for his John Starks reference on the three pointers at MSG.
Tonight’s Raw was just a middle ground show for me tonight. The focus was Shane McMahon and Randy Orton. The show opened with their match which had Shane attacking from the crowd. Shane was about to drop an elbow on to Orton on the table till Rhodes and Dibiase got involved. MVP ran down and helped but was then thrown out after a minute or so. Batista then ran down and cleared the ring. Vickie arrived on the scene saying that her main event was not going to be ruined. She announced the “win and you’re in scenario”. Batista would face Dibiase. MVP would face Cody. The winners of those matches got to be put into the Shane/Orton match. The idea was that it could be two on two or three on one. MVP took on Cody but Regal was at ringside doing commentary. As MVP was set to get back in the ring, Regal took out MVP’s leg and he crashed to the floor. MVP was then counted out. That put Cody with Orton in the main event. Batista took on Dibiase. The finish had Dibiase slapping Batista which infuriated him. Batista pounded on Dibiase in the corner and wouldn’t stop for the ref’s five count. The ref counted five and DQ’d Batista. That meant that all of Legacy would take on Shane in a handicap match. Batista was later shown backstage apologizing over and over to Shane for what had happened. Vickie ended up making a ruling of that no one could get involved in the match threatening Batista with taking away his title match at Judgment Day. The match took place and Shane did get on a roll at the end. Shane went to do what he tried earlier and that was drop the elbow on to Orton on the table. Orton moved and Shane crashed through the table. Rhodes and Dibiase then held Shane’s ankle on to the steps. Orton nailed the ankle with the chair on to the steps. The second damage came when Orton then picked up the top half of the steps and dropped them on Shane’s ankle. The match was over at this point so Batista made his way down. Legacy ran while Batista checked on Shane and was mad that this had happened. Orton then promised Batista that his judgment day was coming. This definitely had to be the end of Shane for a while as the beating was nasty. In other action. Kofi Kingston defeated Matt Hardy, who is still wrestling under protest, after hitting the trouble in paradise kick. Hardy then knocked out Kofi with the cast after the match as Kofi was celebrating the win. Mickie James got a non title win on Divas Champion, Maryse pinning her with a DDT. Solid match. Carlito pinned Kendrick following a backstabber in the corner. The Miz once again called out John Cena. Vickie had earlier told Big Show that Cena was not going to be cleared to wrestle for two weeks but granted Show a match with Cena at Judgment Day. Miz continued to bait Cena and Cena very slowly made his way to the ring. He carefully climbed in the ring and then Show’s music hit. Miz disappeared and Show stepped in. Cena put his fists up but Show proceeded to just pound on a defenseless Cena. Lots of shots to the midsection followed by a STF that left Cena unconscious. We had a singoff between Festus and Jillian hosted by Lawler. Jillian did her usual singing. Then, Festus was in his catatonic state when it was his turn. Lawler rang the bell and Festus went into singing “Tomorrow”. He also won. Umm, yeah.
Other notes from Raw. Wow, major credit to Cena. He sold that injury BIG time tonight. He was so good that I was feeling bad for him. I thought that told a good story of Cena not backing down but that he was just too beaten to defend himself. Mickie gets a win over Maryse!!! Hoping that means good things for Mickie in the future!! Maybe a championship again?? That segment with Santino, Chavo, and Kelly made me wonder if they are turning Santino face. It sure seems like it. Weren’t you just waiting for Larry Zybysco’s return to Monday nights? He was in a commercial for morphoplex. I was waiting for him to tell me about the “new world odor”. I don’t miss him on Monday nights at all. Wow, even Jared The Subway guy got boos from the Raw crowd. Tough crowd. What was with that singing segment with Jillian and Festus??!! That was pointless and the best part was that Lawler said it was happening to top Smackdown’s dance off. Give me the dance off back. The Miz may get turned face with all of those anti-Cena fans with all the comments he has been saying including how the WWE machine formed him to get the kiddies to cheer for him along with him saying that The Rock had rejected all of Cena’s movie scripts. Wow. I like if they keep doing stuff like that with Miz where he just shoots on things like that.
Wow, WWE is apparently pushing John Morrison as a face now. That came out of nowhere. When Shelton made his way to the ring on Smackdown, I assumed they were tagging up. I then thought that Morrison did get laid out by his partner so that could warrant a babyface turn. I mentioned in my thoughts on the draft that this singles run on Smackdown could be a very good thing for Morrison. Could is the wrong word. Will is the better word. I think they should push Morrison huge. He is really good in the ring and has a fun style. The character is one that I was against at the beginning but grew on me. I’ll admit that I was wrong there. Will pushing him as a face work? It very well could. Just depends on how they do it. I do see similarities of him to an early singles heel Shawn Michaels and have for a while. Good character, solid matches. Coming out of a tag team and into a singles push. He’s been a singles star before but I think the time with Miz helped develop that character. We’ll see if Morrison can step up to the plate.
I saved myself another $40 by watching Survivor Series 2008 on WWE 24/7 this weekend. Solid show but nothing really to jump up and down about. The ending of the WWE title match was fun but the rest of the match was terrible. I liked the opener with Team Shawn Michaels against Team JBL. Fun match and good action. Crowd was into it too. Women’s match was all right but nothing really spectacular. Solid match though. Undertaker/Big Show was all right as well. Team Batista against Team Orton had a fun finish with Orton sneaking in the tag and hitting Batista with the RKO to win the match. Crowd popped for the RKO. That triple threat for the WWE title was a mixed bag with most of it being bad. Triple H and Kozlov going one on one for ten minutes or so was just as boring as I had heard that it was. There were chants of “boring” and also “TNA” among others. I found it hilarious how the crowd popped huge for Edge’s music even though they were expecting Hardy. The crowd was dying for some excitement!! Then, there is a huge pop for Hardy attacking Edge. However, Edge is still able to overcome and pins a hurt Triple H for the win and the championship. Good stuff. Cena and Jericho was a fine match. Only thing that hurt it was that it was predictable knowing that Cena was going to win. Yeah, I realize that I watched this on a three month delay so I knew who won but you knew this at the time that Cena was going to win. His comeback in his hometown. That did make for a fun storyline of the match though. That shot that they had of Cena outside the Garden in that promo video looked awesome!! Solid match. Like I said, solid show. I know soiid is getting to be a boring word in this review of it but that is really the only word that comes to mind. The only bad on the show was the ten minutes of Triple H and Kozlov.
Oh good grief. Vince Russo is writing another book and this one is going to be all about his time in WCW which will be released in early 2010. I can sum it up right now with what he’ll say. He’s going to blame the officials, politics, the network, and everyone else besides his ideas for why WCW ended. Of course, there was a lot of factors that went into WCW going out of business but that Russo era of booking was AWFUL!! Let’s put the Nitro Girls in matches and have them wrestle, put the belt on Arquette to get a USA Today front page but lose half of our audience in the process who never came back….and,,,,,,,ok, I’m breathing now and will hold off from the 8,475th Russo rant of mine. I don’t think I could read that book or I might have to be put on blood pressure medicine by the time I finished reading it. Ha ha.
Ric Flair and Rowdy Roddy Piper are going to be sitting down and doing a shoot interview together for Highspots.com. How scary is that and I’m talking SCARY GOOD!! Can you imagine how great that will be if those two get rolling with telling stories??!!
That is all I have for another Monday night. Wishing all of you a great and safe week!! Take care and God bless!!
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