The Bell To Bell News Report 04.19.09

Sunday

The Stories

— Wow, this hasn’t happened very often if ever. With no WWE news leading into the draft and TNA on the down low heading into Lockdown, nothing worth mentioning came up on Sunday’s scan of the news. Usually the mid-week is the absolute dregs and when I find it hard to come up with some stories to write about, but this week we kick it off with a big fat load of nothing. Drink it all in, people.

Monday

The Show

Monday Night Raw Results:

Rey Mysterio vs. Evan Bourne – Winner: Rey Mysterio (pinfall, springboard top rope splash)
Kane vs. THE Brian Kendrick – Winner: Kane (pinfall, chokeslam)
Michelle McCool, Natalya, and Maryse vs. Mickie James, Kelly Kelly, and Melina – Winners: Michelle McCool, Natalya and Maryse (pinfall, Michelle’s big boot on Mickie)
John Cena vs. Jack Swagger – Winner: John Cena (submission, STF)
Santino Marella vs. The Great Khali – Winner: The Great Khali (pinfall, giant chop)
The Miz vs. Kofi Kingston – Winner: Kofi Kingston (disqualification, Morrison-ference)
Fifteen Man Tri-Branded Battle Royal: Team Raw: Montel Vontavious Porter, JTG, Shad Gaspard, Mike Knox, & The Big Show vs. Team ECW: Tyson Kidd, Paul Burchill, Finlay, Mark Henry, & Ricky Ortiz vs. Team Smackdown: Edge, Chavo Guerrero, R-Truth, Carlito, & Primo Colon – Winner: Edge (eliminates Big Show last)
Christian vs. Shelton Benjamin – Winner: Christian (pinfall, Killswitch)
CM Punk vs. Matt Hardy – Winner: Matt Hardy (disqualification, Jeff-ference)
Chris Jericho vs. Tommy Dreamer – Winner: Chris Jericho (pinfall, Codebreaker)
Handicap Match: Cody Rhodes and Ted DiBiase vs. Triple H, Shane McMahon and Batista – Winners: Triple H, Shane McMahon and Batista (pinfall, HHH Pedigree on DiBiase)

Raw was wrestling-heavy this week as the three-hour edition featured matches upon matches with draft picks on the line. Despite none of the matches getting a ton of time, there were some quality bouts in the show including the champion vs. champion match between Jack Swagger and John Cena. While it was entirely predictable that Cena was going to win, Swagger did a lot to elevate himself during the match as well. He was step for step with Cena and even got to showcase his mic skills a little bit before the match began. Considering that there are rumors that some people in the WWE are down on him after his performance against Finlay at No Way Out, the timing could not have been any better for Swagger to step up and deliver. I would expect him to spend the next year on ECW getting a little bit more seasoning before he moves onto one of the big two brands and begins his WWE career in earnest. A solid match between the two champions and a nice little appetizer for what we can expect to see in the future from Swagger.

While I understand the need to have the matches be short because of the format of the draft and the need to have all of the picks competed over, it was still disappointing in spots, especially when it came to a match like Christian and Shelton Benjamin. Benjamin has grown leaps and bounds since Christian’s last stint in the WWE and these two did a great job with the amount of time that they were given. I can’t possibly suggest that this was a great match because there was no way for them to build to a great match in such a short amount of time, but if they ever happen to have an extended program the possibility is there for them to pull out a great match. Both guys have the athletic ability and the in-ring psychology to have the people in the palm of their hands and with Benjamin’s burgeoning mic skills, the build could be solid as well. Kudos to these two for doing the best with what they were given and double kudos to Christian for winning the only draft pick that ECW would pick up on the night.

The main event featuring a three-on-two handicap match between Shane McMahon, Triple H and Batista and Priceless was nowhere near what it should have been and was a bit of a drag on the way that they are trying to currently build to this match at Backlash. The faces controlled for much of the match, burying whatever credibility that Legacy had been able to build up in the past few weeks. Priceless got their chance to hold their own in the middle of the match, but this was basically the three faces taking over and kicking ass. When you take that into consideration, as well as the fact that they partially gave away their PPV main event and add in the fact that it went against the norm as the faces had the advantage, it ended up being a rather underwhelming main event. Hopefully Orton will help get some of the heat back into this one with his confrontation with Triple H next Monday because so far, it’s seeming like a disaster in the making for Backlash.

Despite the Draft taking up much of the focus, this show still suffered from the same problems that all of the WWE’s three-hour shows tend to suffer from. By the time the three hours were over, I felt a little drained and worn-out and almost like it was too much. While there wasn’t as much wasted time as there has been in some of the previous three-hour Raw shows, this was still a case of overkill. As much as USA likes the three-hour Raw’s, it would be a much better idea to have a two-hour show run over by fifteen minutes than to have a three-hour show stretching to be entertaining for one hundred and eighty minutes.

The Stories

Guess he’s done working Tuesdays…

— Monday saw the WWE’s annual Draft and after breaking down the show in the segment before, I’ll take a quick look at how the draft actually played out now. Here’s the full list of draftees as well as where they’re headed.

WWE US Champion MVP: Drafted from Smackdown to Raw
The Big Show: Drafted from Smackdown to Raw
WWE Women’s Champion Melina: Drafted from Raw to Smackdown
Matt Hardy: Drafted from Smackdown to Raw
WWE Champion HHH: Drafted from Smackdown to Raw
Mr. Money in the Bank CM Punk: Drafted from Raw to Smackdown
The Miz: Drafted from ECW to Raw
Kane: Drafted from Raw to Smackdown
Chris Jericho: Drafted from Raw to Smackdown
Vladimir Kozlov: Drafted from Smackdown to ECW
WWE Diva’s Champion Maryse: Drafted from Smackdown to Raw
WWE IC Champion Rey Mysterio: Drafted from to Smackdown

The first thing that jumps out on the list is how many champions switched brands in a seemingly “random” draft. Both main title belts are on Raw now, meaning that it’s likely only a matter of time until one of the champions loses to put a title over on Smackdown. As for talent, Raw is the home of the stars again as big names like The Big Show and Triple H came over, as well as up-and-comers like MVP and Matt Hardy, who have the chance to become even bigger stars on the WWE’s flagship program. Smackdown picked up some talent of their own and while they may not be “name” stars, they’re certainly going to make Friday nights a lot more entertaining as we have CM Punk and Chris Jericho heading to Smackdown along with the ultra-popular Rey Mysterio, who returns to his Smackdown roots after an underwhelming stint on Raw. Jericho on Smackdown will be something to behold as now there is a strong heel on both brands (Orton being the Raw heel). It should be fun for Jericho as well and seeing a possible feud with The Undertaker could be great television. ECW didn’t get much of anything either way as the lost The Miz and gained Vladimir Kozlov. This is actually pretty good for them as the team of Miz and Morrison had seemingly run their course and were going to be split up anyhow. ECW keeps the bigger star of the team in Morrison, Miz gets a chance to get a bit more seasoning on Raw (hopefully), and Kozlov moves into the Land of Extreme as a guy that has main event experience in the past. As I said in my appearance in this week’s Fact or Fiction, the draft set up Raw as the brand with the stars, Smackdown as the place where rising stars get their chance with a handful of well-established names and ECW is where talent can develop under the watchful eye of a few veterans before moving to one of the two bigger brands. I have no problem with that per se, but when the WWE tries to present all three brands as equal and then distributes talent in this way with the Draft, it seems a little disingenuous.

— The WWE sent out the following press release, trumpeting the success of WrestleMania weekend this year;

STAMFORD, Conn., Apr 13, 2009 (BUSINESS WIRE) — With $52 million in gross sales, the 25th Anniversary of WrestleMania(R) set a record for the highest grossing one-day entertainment event in 2009. The pop culture extravaganza, held in Houston, TX on April 5th, tops the 2009 highest grossing movie opening day record — $30 million opening night of Fast and the Furious and the 2008 highest grossing single-day stadium concert — Madonna’s $6.1 million Sticky & Sweet concert in Dolphin Stadium — combined.

The milestone event generated an estimated $43 million in worldwide gross Pay-Per-View revenue and packed Houston’s Reliant Stadium with 72,744 fans from all 50 states, 24 countries and 7 Canadian provinces, surpassing the attendance at Super Bowl XLIII in Tampa this past February. Combined with WWE’s Sunday fanfest, WrestleMania Axxess, the sell-out crowd grossed more than $7.4 million in ticket sales and an additional $1.5 million in merchandise sales.

Following the 25th Anniversary of WrestleMania, World Wrestling Entertainment’s website, WWE.com, garnered a record-breaking 105 million page views, including staggering one day totals of 2.7 million unique visitors, and nearly 2 million video streams. For the three days surrounding The 25th Anniversary of WrestleMania, WWE.com’s page views totaled 166,239,115.

And the money machine just keeps humming along. Congratulations to the WWE for continuing to make their chedda in a time when a lot of places are having trouble staying afloat. It speaks to how well the WWE can market their product to the fanbase and also how loyal the fanbase is to the company to be able to pull something like this off. Of course, the whole idea of them having the largest one-day gross will go by the wayside once the summer movie season starts and the blockbusters are causing cash register meltdowns nationwide but that’s another point for another day. The WWE is able to bask in their afterglow and I’m sure they’ll be basking for a while. Don’t expect this to be the last you hear about it because when something this good happens in Titan-land, they make sure that even the Martians know about it.

Sadly, he’s pointing to the door that he just walked out of…

— Moving over to ROH there were a couple of tidbits coming out of the company on Monday that were worth passing on to you. Firstly, Larry Sweeney is likely done with the company until he is able to handle his personal issues according to some of the backstage buzz. While it’s too bad that the company loses a performer of Sweeney’s skills, I do hope that he’s able to get himself together personally and that he’s able to come back to the company guns blazing once he does. Wrestling is a tough business on people with personal issues or personality disorders and I would hate to see Sweeney become another statistic because he had to find a chemical way to deal with it while on the road. There’s also some news on the announcer front as Mike Hogewood and Dave Prazak were in attendance at last week’s ROH on HDNet tapings and it looks like Hogewood was doing some homework. Reports had him being there to study the matches and moves, including having a large binder full of notes, facts and move names for various performers. This is a fantastic idea as for the first week Hogewood wasn’t as terrible as I expected, but since then he’s regressed a bit into just using cliches and raising his voice a lot. It conveys a lot of excitement, but unfortunately not a lot of information and by having a couple of cram sessions like this at the TV tapings, Hogewood could improve himself exponentially, which is a very good thing. I’ve liked the ROH show thus far, and with Hogewood turning into a legit play-by-play man one day, it could only get better.

— Also from the land of Honor, the working relationship between Dragon Gate and Ring of Honor is over after a messy little public dispute that saw Dragon Gate’s Cima accuse Ring of Honor of stiffing the Japanese promotion over payment of ROH stars that appeared at a Dragon Gate event in September of 2008. Ring of Honor fired back with their own statement, claiming that Cima’s statement was completely false and that their promises to pay talent along with their airfares had been fulfilled. ROH fired back by suggesting that it was Cima and Dragon Gate who dropped the ball on an agreement, without specifying what it was, and that they will no longer do any business with Dragon Gate. It’s a shame to see it come to that because the Dragon Gate stars in ROH were a breath of fresh air when they would periodically appear on the ROH shows in the States. In a case like this where it’s one company’s word against another it’s always difficult to try to figure out where the truth lies and my guess is that it would be somewhere in between the two statements and that this is more of a battle for public face than a battle over money. Both companies may be smaller and not making millions of dollars, but I’m sure that the money owed or not owed isn’t as life or death as Dragon Gate made it out to be. I’m also sure that the agreement that wasn’t lived up to by Dragon Gate isn’t something that couldn’t be easily resolved. What the fans end up left with is a pissing contest that means that the fans are the only ones who come out on the short end of this.

Tuesday

The Show

ECW on Sci-Fi Results:

John Morrison vs. Evan Bourne – Winner: John Morrison (pinfall, top rope Moonlight Drive)
Vladimir Kozlov vs. David Florea – Winner: Vladimir Kozlov (pinfall, chokebomb)
Triple Threat Elimination Chase Match: Christian vs. Finlay vs. Tommy Dreamer – Winner: Finlay (pinfall, Celtic Cross on Tommy Dreamer)

ECW came out of the previous night’s WWE Draft on fire with a great show that featured some quality wrestling action with some of the biggest stars left in the land of Extreme. Right after the opening pyro we went right into the first match of the night with John Morrison taking on Evan Bourne. This was an important match for Morrison as it was his first singles match since the break-up of Mizorrison during Raw. He needed to set the tone for what to expect from his next singles run in ECW and I think that he did a fantastic job of it. He and Bourne absolutely tore the house down from the opening bell to the finish and while I don’t think it’s a Free TV MOTY candidate like I’ve seen a lot of people around the IWC saying, it was still a fantastic match that featured real wrestling in the WWE, something that doesn’t happen very often. The great thing about a hot match like this is that it wasn’t just Morrison who gained from this bout, but Bourne gained a ton of credibility by going step for step and move for move with a former ECW Champion. It also showed that Bourne has the ability to have a solid match without relying strictly on highspots as the majority of the match was mat-based and hard-hitting with the odd bit of flying thrown in since it’s Bourne’s signature. Tremendous job from both men and if this is what we can expect from the new ECW, sign me up for more because this was an absolute showcase from two of the WWE’s rising stars.

There’s not much that needs to be said about the Kozlov match as it was pretty much a straight forward squash to give Kozlov the same kind of start he had on Smackdown that led to him becoming a WWE Championship challenger. If Florea had been smart he would have worn brown shorts instead of those aqua numbers he decided on because Kozlov beat the shit out of him, plain and simple. Nothing that hasn’t been seen before and something that probably won’t be seen again for about six more weeks before Kozlov ends up in a program with someone. By the way, would it kill anyone to give Kozlov some subtitles when he cuts promos so those of us who don’t speak marble-mouth can understand what the hell he’s trying to say? The only sad thing for me is that Eee-Zee-Double doesn’t have the same hilarious ring as Double-Double-Eee used to have.

Moving on to the night’s main event, the chase for the ECW Championship continued as after last week’s fatal-four way we were down to triple threat action. As I said last week, you had to figure that Dreamer was going to come up short because he’s a couple of months away from his self-imposed deadline and it’s likely that the angle will close out with him losing his final chance at ECW glory before heading into retirement. The only thing that I am surprised about is that Dreamer actually survived through the first week as he’s been little more than a JTTS lately. I have to say that it was a decent match, but nothing special and there were actually some continuity problems as well as we saw guys breaking up pinfalls in a match where the big deal was the man who lost, not the man who won. That’s something that’s a small thing, but took away from my enjoyment of the match a little bit as it seemed as if the participants themselves were a little confused on the rules. In the end the right guy lost, but this felt a little more like guys going through the motions than guys trying to pull out all the stops to become the number one contender. A bit of a disappointing end to the show based on how strong the first twenty minutes were and this is definitely a case of a show starting out gangbusters before wheezing across the finish line.

The Stories

“It’ll just be me and the cockroaches….”

— The big deal on Tuesday night on TV wasn’t the ECW program, despite the strong match, but rather the E:60 feature on ESPN that saw Vince McMahon as the focal point of the program. The piece was rather well done and instead of most pieces that seem to try to villify wrestling or McMahon himself this one as rather even handed. It went back into his youth where he was physically and mentally abused by his stepfather, his eventual meeting with Vince McMahon Sr., his biological father, Vince’s takeover of the company and destruction of the territorial system, as well as a look into the inner-workings of the company on a day to day basis. As to be expected with any national feature on professional wrestling, the Benoit incident was discussed, but I think that Vince handled it well and spoke from his heart when he called it the darkest day in wrestling. To me the funniest part of the feature was when Vince stated that he doesn’t see himself dying because it’s not a part of his plan. If there was ever a statement that completely embodied Vince’s philosophy that would be it. He’s so focused on his business and running the company that even Death is going to have to take a number. All in all, there wasn’t a lot of new ground covered or even a lot of information that causal fans wouldn’t know, but it was still refreshing to see a piece that wasn’t all gossip-rag material and sensationalism.

— Tuesday saw an announcement that ECW would be moving back to its old timeslot of 10pm EST after trying to make a go of it for the past few months an hour earlier at 9 pm EST. The ratings fell a little bit with the change to the earlier time so it looks like this is a move based on trying to squeeze a couple of extra points out of the switch back to the old time slot. It makes more sense as there is likely more of a market for the show at 10pm EST on the Sci-Fi channel and there will be less competition with some of the bigger primetime shows that air during the 9 o’clock hour. I don’t think the show will ever be back to the ratings it was drawing in during the first year when RVD and some of the other ECW originals were helping draw people in to see rising stars like CM Punk, but the move to the later timeslot will likely help at least a little bit. Makes you wonder why they tried to move it in the first place.

Wednesday

The Stories

“DRAFTED………………………………………………………………………Drafted….”

— The biggest story on Wednesday was the WWE Supplemental Draft, which took place on WWE.com and featured twenty-four superstars trading brands. Here’s the full rundown of who went where on Wednesday afternoon with what I think of the moves coming right after.

Ken Kennedy: Drafted from Smackdown to Raw
Shad Gaspard: Drafted from Raw to Smackdown
Alicia Fox: Drafted from ECW to Smackdown
One Half of the Unified Tag Team Champions Primo Colon: Drafted from Smackdown to Raw
Mike Knox: Drafted from Raw to Smackdown
Ezekiel Jackson: Drafted from Smackdown to ECW
Nikki Bella: Drafted from Smackdown to Raw
Candice Michelle: Drafted from Raw to Smackdown
Zack Ryder: Drafted from Smackdown to ECW
Chavo Guerrero: Drafted from Smackdown to Raw
Ricky Ortiz: Drafted from ECW to Smackdown
Layla: Drafted from Raw to Smackdown
Hornswoggle: Drafted from ECW to Raw
DH Smith: Drafted from Smackdown to ECW
John Morrison: Drafted from ECW to Smackdown
One Half of the Unified Tag Team Champions Carlito Colon: Drafted from Smackdown to Raw
Natalya: Drafted from Smackdown to ECW
Festus: Drafted from Smackdown to Raw
JTG: Drafted from Raw to Smackdown
Dolph Ziggler: Drafted from Raw to Smackdown
THE Brian Kendrick: Drafted from Smackdown to Raw
Charlie Haas: Drafted from Raw to Smackdown
Hurricane Helms: Drafted from Smackdown to ECW
Brie Bella: Drafted from Smackdown to Raw

This draft was much like the original draft on Monday where the biggest stars went to Raw. Ken Kennedy and the Unified Tag Team Champions The Colons are now a part of the Monday Night roster, while Smackdown picked up people like Charlie Haas, Cryme Tyme and Ricky Ortiz. ECW came out the loser as they lost John Morrison to Smackdown in what could end up being a crucial pick as ECW loses one of their biggest draws and one of their most athletic performers. I do like some of the moves for ECW like DH Smith and Natalya, who will get to hopefully reunite with their former Stampede Bulldog friend Tyson Kidd (TJ Wilson). With as much as the brands have been melded a lot of these people will likely find themselves confined to their main brands as the cross-brand action seems to stick within the upper card. That being said there are some interesting chances for crossover in cases like Morrison and The Colons in the future.

Be on the lookout for Hulk’s new book “I Can Totally Sympathize If You Did It”…

— From the “How Can We Miss You If You Won’t Go Away” Dept., Hulk Hogan continued to make news this past Wednesday, though I bet he’s wishing he didn’t. Hogan conducted an interview with the New York Post and made a statement that said that he totally understood OJ Simpson and that he could have turned everything that has happened to him into a crime scene because he lives next to a huge house he can’t go into and sees a 19-year old that’s dating his wife driving his Escalade. Suffice to say, the shit hit the fan and Hogan’s PR flack tried to diffuse the comments stating that Hogan wasn’t condoning the actions, but rather venting his frustration at the situation. While I don’t fault the Hulkster for feeling the way that he does in terms of being frustrated at his life being in the shambles it’s been in the past year, there are better ways to vent it than by pseudo-threatening your ex-wife. I can only imagine what’s going to come next in the massive fall from grace that Hogan has endured and I’m honestly kind of frightened at the prospect of what could come next.

— After the messy situation between ROH and Dragon Gate broke earlier this week, an announcement was made on Wednesday that Dragon Gate USA has been launched with former Ring of Honor booker Gabe Sapolsky implemented as Vice President of the company. There will be two offices in the United States with Sapolsky in charge of the Philadelphia office while company President Satoshi Oji will run the office in Houston. With a roster that most ROH fans will know including guys like Cima, Naruki Doi, and Shingo. I’ve seen a little bit of Dragon Gate action when they were part of the ROH shows and there’s some great wrestling talent there. With Sapolsky in charge of one of the offices and likely helping in the booking process it’s likely that the product will be top-notch in terms of storylines. Whether there will be any fallout from their divorce from ROH that sees that company’s fans not follow the new Dragon Gate USA venture will remain to be seen, but if there is a problem in that regard, expect to see Dragon Gate attempt to make nice with ROH soon enough.

Thursday

The Shows

WWE Superstars Results:

The Undertaker vs. Matt Hardy – Winner: The Undertaker (count-out)
Elimination Chase Final: Christian vs. Finlay – Winner: Christian (pinfall, Killswitch)
Shane McMahon vs. Cody Rhodes – Winner: Cody Rhodes (disqualification, chairshot)

Thursday’s have a new look and have gotten just a little bit busier for the Bell to Bell as WWE Superstars made its debut on WGN America as the first new episode of the classic syndicated program to air since August of 2001. This week the WWE pulled out all the stops in the debut episode, featuring huge matches from all three brands. The format of the show is to feature one match from each of the WWE’s three brands every week and while this week saw main event level talent in every match, I suspect that future weeks will see guys in the mid-card and lower getting some TV time as they are essentially choked out of being on their respective brand’s programming by the top stars. The show started out huge with Matt Hardy, formerly of Smackdown and currently of Raw, taking on Smackdown’s phenom, The Undertaker in the Dead Man’s first match since the WrestleMania XXV show-stealer against Shawn Michaels. The match itself was a solid piece of work and actually helped to give Matt Hardy’s main event-level push some gravitas as he was able to withstand the early flurry from Taker to actually get in some offense and seem somewhere near the same level. Granted, the finish made Hardy look a little weak, but it also plays into his new heel persona as well so I can’t gripe over that. The post-match with Jeff Hardy forcing Matt back into the ring to take his beating like a man was a nice touch too as it helped further a storyline that might need a little help with the Hardys being on different brands these days.

The ECW Championship Chase final took place on this episode of Superstars as well with Christian pinning Finlay to earn his chance at Jack Swagger’s title at Backlash. Given that there were two veterans in there with Christian and Finlay, along with the fact that both men have been involved in great matches on ECW’s weekly program, that they only got six minutes was a disgrace, especially when you consider that the main event featuring a non-wrestler got over twice as much time. Way to continue burying ECW by making it seem like the weakest of the three brands. I’m not saying that they have to try to pretend that all three brands are equal because they’re clearly not, I’m just saying that if you treat ECW as nothing more than a third wheel, the fans will pick up on it and react the same way. These guys did the best they could with the time they were given, but you can’t do much with less than ten minutes no matter how much experience you have. The good thing about this match happening on Superstars is that it at least gives one week of ECW’s show and possibly Superstars to help build towards the ECW Championship match at Backlash so there’s at least a little bit of a chance to re-heat the program between Christian and Swagger.

As would be expected on a show that features a match with Shane McMahon and is a part of the Raw brand, Shane-o-Mac’s bout with Cody Rhodes was the main event of the evening. Quite the drop in quality from the beginning of the card to the end, huh? It wasn’t as bad as matches with Shane McMahon can tend to be sometimes, but it wasn’t anything spectacular and was definitely something that could have done the same amount with less time to give some to Finlay/Christian. It was back and forth and was mildly entertaining, especially the part where Rhodes was mocking McMahon’s jabs and dancing which was hilarious and the first bit of personality I’ve seen from Rhodes yet. Unfortunately, the ending of the match and the show fell just a little bit short (no pun intended). Shane set Cody up for the Shane Terminator after getting DQ’d for waffling Cody with a chair. I don’t know if it’s all of the years of big bumps or just Shane getting up there in years, but he missed the mark by quite a bit on this one, seeming to hurt himself when he jammed his tailbone into the canvas. On top of it, it looked like he barely hit the trash can and probably hurt himself worse than he hurt Rhodes with the move.

TNA Impact Results:

Chris Sabin vs. Homicide vs. Naito – Winner: Homicide (pinfall, second rope 187 on Naito)
Taylor Wilde, Raisha Saeed and Awesome Kong vs. The Beautiful People – Winners: Taylor Wilde, Raisha Saeed and Awesome Kong (pinfall, Kong’s Implant Buster on Love)
ODB and Cody Deaner vs. Abyss and Daffney – Winners: Abyss and Daffney (pinfall, Abyss’ Black Hole Slam on Deaner)
Christopher Daniels vs. Kurt Angle – Winner: Kurt Angle (pinfall, double-pin spot)

Thursday was the big go-home show for this Sunday’s Lockdown pay-per-view and it was honestly one of the better episodes of Impact I’ve seen in a long time. They DRASTICALLY cut down on the crap that tends to invade the weekly show and had a lot of compelling segments while actually…building towards the show (GASP!) and featuring the return of one of the most popular TNA stars ever, “The Fallen Angel” Christopher Daniels. Daniels was introduced as the fourth member of Team Jarrett for Lethal Lockdown and took on Kurt Angle in the main event of the show to determine which team would have the one-man advantage in the Lethal Lockdown match. Daniels looked fantastic and he and Angle had a great TV main event in a match that was possibly the TNA Free TV MOTY so far. The finish was a little iffy with the double-pin/Dusty Finish deal, but it served two purposes that were for the greater good so I’ll allow it. First off, it gave the heel team the one-man advantage for the main event on Sunday, which is exactly the way it should be. From the birth of War Games, the heel advantage has been the built-in heat machine that has helped make the match so great. Having that on Sunday will help drive the fans into a frenzy up to the lowering of the roof. Secondly, it allowed for the continued tease of Jeff Jarrett’s possible heel turn, though I don’t see how when he just made the decision that the video replay showed was the right call. While the Jarrett heel turn will probably turn out to be a bit of a red herring, it will add even another layer of intrigue to the match because a Jarrett turn could really solidify the old guard vs. new guard feel that has been missing from the Frontline/MEM feud in the past couple of months.

The other big main event match between Sting and Mick Foley got the hard sell as well as Mick interviewed Cactus Jack in the center of the ring in what was ten minutes of uncomfortable yet compelling television that was a fantastic way to finish the build for the match. As I said during the Impact report, there’s no way that the match will be able to live up to the build that they’ve put into it in the past few weeks, but this is going to be something that will help take some of the sting (pardon the pun again), out of the fact that this might be a pretty terrible match. Foley’s promo work focused primarily on Cactus Jack’s scorn for the clown-like cariacature that Mick Foley has become and Jack trying to goad Foley into the same type of bloodlust that made Jack a legend on two continents. The point of the interview where Foley (as Jack) began punching himself in the face until he drew his own blood, was creepy and yet so right for someone who is trying to get into the mindset of crazy, blood-drenched violence heading into the biggest cage match of his career against one of his biggest adversaries pre-WWF. Sting addressed Foley, called him crazy and Foley attacked Sting from behind, going further off the deep end and exercising his power by playing random entrance music while beating Sting with kicks and a chair-assisted elbowdrop. He finished off with Sting’s music as he finished pummeling the TNA Champion and promised that he’s going to tear Sting apart. Promo gold from two veterans (mainly Foley). This was definitely a way for them to sell the match and put it over huge and they accomplished that goal.

The other big angle to help sell the pay-per-view came with Beer Money absolutely laying waste to Brother Runt and Balls Mahoney. Balls and Runt had showed up because “they had an indy show in the area” and wanted to wish Team 3D luck heading into their World Tag Team Domination match at Lockdown. Roode and Storm completely destroyed them, bloodying both men with chairshots and driving little Runt through a table with a super-powerbomb. Team 3D eventually made the save but not before the damage was done and they turned the match into a Philadelphia streetfight. Unfortunately by doing so they completely ruin the gimmick of the all-cage match pay-per-view as they have to leave the cage door open to allow for them to get ahold of the various plunder that makes a streetfight what it is. I appreciate that they’re trying to change things up a little bit so everything on the card doesn’t just feel like a regular old cage match, burning out the crowd, but this ends up completely devaluing the cage and probably does more harm than good. For a match of this magnitude, I would have preferred that it was just a straight tag match that had the odd cage spot thrown in but I can understand why they feel like they have to do this after building up how bloodthirsty the fans in Philadelphia are. WIth this not having been officially announced as an “Off the Wagon” match, I would love to see Beer Money get the win here because the heat for them would be molten, especially if they found some underhanded way to pull off the victory.

All things considered, this was a very strong episode of Impact and if they can put on more shows like this and less shows like they have in the previous two weeks, they could really begin to turn things around creatively and have a product that could likely help improve the ratings even more than they have already improved.

The Stories

Silly Eric, things can ALWAYS get worse…

— The only story that really got any traction on Thursday was the press release that saw the announcement that the Eric Young/Danny Bonaduce match that has been hyped for weeks in the Philadelphia area will take place on the PPV pre-show rather than on the actual show itself. This was a topic during the Fact or Fiction this week and I thought that it was a much better idea to have this on the pre-show as its own comedy nonsense rather than having it on the main show sucking time away from the matches that actually mean something to the company like Lethal Lockdown and the TNA World Championship match. Also, the pre-show allows for Young to be able to recover from a possible loss if he’s unfortuntate enough to drop the match to Bonaduce without too much effort. It will be seen by a lot less people than it would if it was on the actual pay-per-view and while people have said that it won’t take much effort to rebuild Young out of this win or lose, that’s far from the truth. Young has been built up and torn down so many times it’s hard for fans to get behind any efforts made to give him a serious push because they’re unsure if it’s going to be snatched away in favor of more comedy. Young deserves better than this because he could be a solid upper mid-card or lower main event level talent if he was just given a chance to be himself rather than some goofy sidekick or saddled with gimmick after gimmick.

Friday

The Show

Friday Night Smackdown Results:

Jeff Hardy vs. The Big Show – Winner: The Big Show (pinfall, KO punch)
Maryse vs. Gail Kim – Winner: Gail Kim (pinfall, Sole Food)
R-Truth vs. John Morrison – Winner: John Morrison (pinfall, Moonlight Drive)
The Undertaker vs. Shelton Benjamin – Winner: The Undertaker (pinfall, Tombstone piledriver)
MVP vs. Dolph Ziggler – Winner: Dolph Ziggler (pinfall, roll-up with handful of tights)
Batista vs. Ted DiBiase – Winner: Batista (pinfall, Batista Bomb)

Smackdown’s first effort after the Draft was a rather spirited affair that featured plenty of in-ring action along with a couple of big developments heading into the Backlash PPV. The show started with The Big Show taking on Jeff Hardy in what was Show’s swan song as part of the Smackdown roster. The match itself was alright, though the real action took place post-match as Matt Hardy attacked his knocked-out brother and delivered a vicious beating, taunting Jeff all the while. He finished off with the one-foot in the chest cocky pose that had the fans giving him a megaton of heat. Despite being on seperate shows, a post-match beatdown like this served a great purpose in making sure the feud stays on the front burner, as did the segment later in the show with Matt in GM Teddy Long’s office. Long made the match between Matt and Jeff an “I Quit” match, which ups the ante even further from the Extreme Rules match at WrestleMania and the stretcher match from last week. Here’s hoping that Jeff picks up the win and manages to get Matt so angry at the loss that we end up with this feud as a Hell in the Cell because for once there is a blood feud between that actually deserves that kind of blow-off and it’s between brothers no less. Great work from Matt throughout the entire show and he’s showing that he is really beginning to blossom as a top-level main event star.

On the in-ring front, this week saw another solid match-up between Shelton Benjamin and The Undertaker. The psychology of this one was top notch as for the first time in what seems like forever, Benjamin is being treated as a main event threat and he actually got some solid offensive moments in on Taker. I hope that he’s able to possibly get a big win over him eventually to further solidify his status because after multiple false starts the time is now to make Benjamin a star. He’s slowly starting to progress with his microphone work and his in-ring work and psychology is still top-notch. By letting Benjamin counter out of the chokeslam and even attempt his own version of the Tombstone, it was nearly as good as a win and will only make the eventual win over Taker that much more important. If Benjamin was to pick up a win over The Undertaker now like he did over Triple H a few years back, it could easily be written off as a fluke. If he’s able to get a big win after spending week after week getting closer and closer to the Deadman, it could only be considered a legitimate win which could send Benjamin to a whole new plateau.

The main event saw Batista make his return to in-ring action after a lengthy layoff against Ted DiBiase. After Shane McMahon took out Cody Rhodes on Superstars and Triple H and Randy Orton had their face-to-face confrontation earlier in this edition of Smackdown, the only member of Legacy left for “The Animal” was DiBIase. The match was pretty much what you would think it would be as Batista wrestled the power game while DiBiase tried to hit and run to avoid getting swallowed up. DiBiase actually made a very solid accounting of himself in this one and while you knew he wasn’t going to get the win in Batista’s return match, he still brought a great effort and elevated himself in the loss. After the back and forth of the early-going, Batista hit all of his greatest hits (spinebuster, spear, Batista Bomb) and picked up the win meaning that after all of their success this week, the table is set for Legacy to get their heat back next week heading into the PPV. Prepare to see some beatdowns all throughout WWE TV next week as Legacy will likely not take the defeats from this week lying down.

The Stories

You can’t spell Tazz without T n’ A now can you?

— Earlier in the week Tazz announced that he would be making a statement on Friday regarding his decision to leave the Smackdown announce position and what his future could hold. Friday came and so did the statement, touching on his wrestling career in ECW and WWE, as well as covering some of the reports that came out during the time he left. According to Tazz himself, there is no burnout and he is more inspired and motivated than he has been in his career and there is no chance of him wrestling in the future. He brought up his offer to work WrestleMania for free as a thank you to the company while also talking about how well he was treated by Vince, Stephanie and the rest of the backstage crew on his way out of the company. He closed out by saying that he’s been in wrestling for twenty-three years and he doesn’t plan on going away anytime soon. He finished off with this statement that got the IWC buzzing a bit;

“I plan to make an impact real soon in this, the ultimate in businesses and keep it’s honor….lol….sorry for crossing the line with my sophomoric humor! Survive if I let you.”

Now, with TNA promising two former World Champions at their Lockdown PPV on Sunday night, it’s definitely within the realm of possibility that Tazz has signed with TNA. If he has, I would guess that it’s to send Don West off to another on-camera responsibility to take over the color spot next to Mike Tenay. I don’t know how I would feel about that, but it would be something to hear Tazz on TNA TV. In my opinion, this is a lot like Chris Jericho’s rib on the internet a while back when his site had him in front of a TNA logo, setting off a firestorm of speculation about a possible Y2Jump to the Orlando-based company. After the secrecy of TNA trying to protect the identity of the two former Champions, I would be surprised to see them allow Tazz to leak the information in the way he did two days before the PPV. Tazz may end up in TNA at some point, but I would be rather surprised if he showed up on Sunday night.

—

That crashing sound you hear the day that this show finally airs will be the sound of a million TV’s throwing themselves off of their entertainment stands so they don’t have to be subjected to having to show this crap. It looks like Hee Haw with less comedic timing and more silicon.

Saturday

The Show

ROH on HDNet Results:

Necro Butcher vs. Jimmy Jacobs – Winner: Necro Butcher (disqualification, Brodie Lee-ference)
Sami Callahan vs. Eddie Kingston – Winner: Eddie Kingston (pinfall, spinning back fist)
Bobby Dempsey vs. Orange Cassidey – Winner: Bobby Dempsey (pinfall, Death Valley Driver)
Rhett Titus and Kenny King vs. Cheech and Cloudy – Winners: Rhett Titus (pinfall, Doomsday Blockbuster Powerbomb)
Claudio Castagnoli vs. Brent Albright – Winner: Claudio Castagnoli (pinfall, rope-assisted victory roll)

Unfortunately because of my duties as main play-by-play recapper for MMA events over at Nokaut, I was unable to catch this week’s edition of ROH on HDNet in time for it to be fit into the column. I apologize for missing out on the program and I completely assure you that NEXT WEEK, ROH will return. I’ve been keeping up with the shows and watching them afterwards, they just aren’t able to fit into the column in time with my other obligations.

The Stories

Sad but true….they probably can’t even give them away….

— Some bad news heading into the Lockdown pay-per-view for TNA tonight as it is being reported that they are heavily papering the crowd for the show tomorrow, even going so far as to give free tickets to the readers of the forums at Outsports.com. This is unfortunate for them as it means that ticket sales have ended up being rather sluggish for a pay-per-view that is one of the crown jewels of their year and features two of the bigger matches that they’ve promoted in some time as well as the IWGP influence with the Tag Titles and Jr. Tag Titles being defended in the United States. There’s no word on if there are any other websites that are offering the free ticket promotion, but it is likely that there are a few of them. Considering how popular TNA house shows have been near their home base, you have to wonder if they are stretching themselves to thin by booking nationally or if they are just over-pricing the tickets for their pay-per-view shows. If you can sell 2,000 tickets at 20 bucks a pop, it may be a bit of a hit financially, but it’s still money coming into your pocket that you won’t see if you have to paper the crowd because your tickets weren’t worth $40 or $50 for the casual fans. I’ll be interested to see how the arena looks tonight and whether there are a lot of empty seats visible despite the papering effort. I hope they can fill the building or close to it because the workers of TNA deserve to get the chance to work in front of a big crowd rather than a half-empty arena.

— With that negative news out of the way, let’s get to my quickie preview for the Lockdown show, featuring a night full of matches in the Six Sides of Steel. There are a few good matches on the card and a couple that look like they could be duds, but all in all TNA has done a solid job putting this show together. Let’s take a look at some of the main matches. Due to time constraints I will just give my picks for the matches without doing much elaborating.

Doomsday Chamber of Blood Match: Abyss vs. Matt Morgan – Winner: Abyss
IWGP Jr. Tag Title Match: Team No Limit vs. LAX vs. The Motor City Machine Guns (C) – Winners: The Motor City Machine Guns
IWGP and TNA World Tag Team Championship: Team 3D vs. Beer Money Inc. – Winners: Team 3D
X-Scape Match for the X-Division Championship: Jay Lethal vs. Sheik Abdul Bashir vs. Consequences Creed vs. Kiyoshi vs. Suicide (C) – Winner: Suicide
Lethal Lockdown: Team Jarrett vs. Main Event Mafia – Winners: Team Jarrett
TNA World Heavyweight Championship: Mick Foley vs. Sting (C) – Winner: Sting

That does it for another edition of the Bell to Bell. Check back in next week for my thoughts on TNA Impact, the new-look WWE, my beloved Red Wings and a whole lot more. With that, in the words of the immortal Ed Whalen, in the mean time and in between time, I’ll see you all back here next time for a weekend-licious edition of the Bell to Bell. Enjoy the Stanley Cup Playoffs everyone!

If you’re a fan of MMA, be sure to check out Nokaut.com for more of my work.