wrestling / Columns

My Take On 05.18.10: Sacrifice and Mercury Rising

May 18, 2010 | Posted by Larry Csonka

WELCOME
Welcome back to another edition of My Take On! I’m Larry Csonka and yes, I have passed my most recent round on Olympic style drug testing. Lord knows what I will do when John “Straight Edge” Meehan leaves, but we’ll figure that out when the time comes. The check is in the mail John. Before I get into the column, I want to thank the people that took the time to read and email me regarding my Remembering The Igloo article last week. That was an article I really wanted to write since the arena was such an important place in the early part of my life. Some people emailed me stories they had of the building, and that was cool to share in those other memories. I also had a few people write and ask about why I never took the time to write about when other buildings have closed. Quite simply, the article was about my journey as a fan in THAT arena. Besides some small venue shows, and the dives I worked in, the Igloo was my MECCA of wrestling. Any article on another building would have been simply a historical piece with no personal reference. But again, thanks for those that took the time to read, whether you enjoyed it or not. Let’s talk PPV…

DG: USA MERCURY RISING

Dragon Gate USA presented their most recent PPV on Friday, titled Mercury Rising, and once again, they delivered a strong show. It wasn’t a perfect show or their best, but a solid opener, very good co-main event and great main event carried the show. In my opinion there were two disappointments. The first was that there was no continuation of the DGUSA vs. CHIKARA angle they seemed to have been building too. That has been a good part of the shows, and something that linked them all together, and that just wasn’t here this time. I won’t discuss upcoming PPV spoilers, but I hope that they get back on track with the angle. I feel that it has been very well done thus far, and still believe that they could build to a CHIKARA vs. DG themed PPV. The second was the Londrick vs. Evans and Jacobs match. I know that there was a last minute change, but the fact that London was not in ring shape really hurt things.

Outside of the main events, I feel that the biggest positive was the rise of young Jon Moxley. First of all his match with Tommy Dreamer was a fine change of pace. Many say out of place on the show, but again, I liked the change Dreamer worked hard on his RESPECT THE INDIEZ TOUR, and Moxley looked good. And I have to say, I know a lot of newer fans do not like Tommy Dreamer, because they only saw his WWE stuff, but his Indy work as of late has been good. He is putting over companies and his opponents, he is getting in better shape, he seems to have found his passion again and is working very hard. Plus the guy is over big time at all of the shows, which is good for him financially and good for the companies that bring him in. Anyway, this also helped set up the new Kamikaze USA stable, featuring Moxley, along with Dragon Gate stars Shingo and YAMATO. This is good because it adds a level of importance to Moxley, and also gives an English speaking vice to the Japanese talent, which is needed. I can hear the comments now saying “who” in regards to Moxley and the CHIKARA stuff, but that’s the nature of the beast. This was another good show from the company, which is staying consistent and providing the goods for this wrestling fan.

TNA BACK TO THURSDAYS

Since some have asked, and I am not writing the weekly columns anymore, I will drop some quick thoughts on TNA and the Monday night experiment. Simply put, I said in December it was a mistake and that proved to be correct. I said the Monday night wars 2.0 would fail because while they had talent, the company had shit for brand recognition. The reason WCW worked when they challenged was that they picked up the right guys at the right time and had brand recognition through wrestling being on TBS @ 6:05PM for years. TNA simply id not have that branding, and trying to go to battle with the WWE MACHINE was not the right move at this time. TNA has no branding, they are poor at promotion and basically everything they are bad at, through ignorance or inexperience, are things that WWE is GREAT at. Sure they have great in ring talent, but combining the things I discussed with poor writing, panic booking and giving away too much shit on free TV and they were not going to succeed. Right now is where the guy comes into the column and says “TNA DOESN’T FOCUS ON PPV BUSNESS.” Of course they don’t focus on PPV business, they barely have any to speak of. Bottom line, they can survive with a 1.0 rating, if they get back there. Spike is happy, they are selling the show overseas, and that helps. But they wasted a LOT of money going live every other week. Combined with adding RVD, Hogan, Hardy, Bischoff, Flair and others to the roster and they wasted a LOT of money. So much money that “major cuts” are said to be coming for the company. Daniels was cut due to having a big contract, they dropped Creed, Tara is leaving, Kong was dropped over money issues, and many others have been rumored to be cut soon. By the way, who in he FUCK thought it was a good idea to sign Christy Hemme for $175,000 a year? No offense to her, if she can get it for standing there and doing about jack shit each week good on her, but man, really? Now is the time to focus on TNA. Forget discussing WWE, forget the bullshit and make some changes. Change up creative, try to book episodic TV and hope that you can convert the audience that you have from free TV watchers to PPV buyers. People joke about Joe vs. Angle doing the best PPV numbers at between 65,000 and 70,000, they mock it and they think it is funny. What is sad is that they are averaging around 20,000 buys IF that high these days. Do if we booked better TV, made people care and then got then interested in PPV, wouldn’t it be better to average 50,000 on PPV and MAKE money instead of averaging 20,000 and LOSING money? For as much as I love this company, I hate it just as much at times. Things that make you go “Hmmmmmmmmmm?”

TNA SACRIFICE

-So lets discuss Sacrifice with some match-by-match blurbs..

#1 Contenders Match: Beer Money vs. Team 3D vs. The Motor City Machineguns {***¼}: This was a good choice for the opener. While I hate that they keep playing hot potato with Guns and the #1 contenders deal, but the match was good. Everyone played their roles right, they didn’t do the shit where they tag in other teams, which I hate, they did blind tags and only tagged their partner. The Guns got the win, and I hope that it leads to their title win, which is long overdue. They also did not go the predictable route with 3D winning.

TNA Global Title Match: Rob Terry © vs. Orlando Jordan {DUD}: I have to say, I am not going to hate on the guys like most will, but I have to say this. Rob Terry is in a VERY bad place. He has the look, but he is not at the level for the push that they want to give him. He tires, but the match was just not good at all, and went WAY too long. Unfortunately, this feud will continue.

TNA X-Division Title Match: Kazarian © vs. Douglas Williams {**½}: This is one of those matches that would have gotten a better rating if they were in front of a crowd that cared, but they weren’t and when the crowd is generally dead, it does hurt the rating. I liked the beginning where Kaz was trying to beat Williams at his own game, which eventually pissed off Williams, who took control. The crowd wasn’t digging it, and when Kaz was making his comeback, they weren’t really reacting. But they just kept doing what they had planed, and that is the issue. When they aren’t reacting to what you have planned, you just have to change shit up. But they didn’t. Technically this was a “good” match, and again, in front of another crowd, it would have came off better. Williams won with the CHAOS THEORY to regain his title.

Career vs. TNA Knockouts Title Match: Tara vs. Madison Rayne © {*½}: Overall not a bad match, but also not that good. They went in there with some good ideas, but lack of crowd heat and some execution errors hurt the match. I did like that The BP were sent to the back and that Rayne got the clean win. They at least booked the match right. And hey, they tried.

TNA Tag Team Title Match: The Band (Scott Hall and Kevin Nash) © vs. Ink Inc. (Jesse Neal and Shannon Moore) {DUD}: This was also not good. Nash and Hall are so slow, and with the promos earlier in the evening, you KNEW that Young was getting involved and that brother ray would also get involved. The Band retains, Ray turned on his boy, and the Guns now go after he Band while 3D feud with Ink Inc. The plus side is that Jesse Neal works really hard and is getting better, but this was not a match to feature him in. Also, do we REALLY need another 3D turn?

Chelsea vs. The Ring: Desmond Wolfe vs. Abyss {*½}: Besides the stipulation being insanely stupid, this match was a BAD idea due to the clash of styles. Sometimes the clash can result in good things, and Abyss can work a regular, non-garbage match, but he did not mesh with Desmond at ALL. They tried, but it just didn’t work. Abyss wins and as of Thursday, gets control of Chelsea for 30-days. Wacky vignettes will be coming our way!

Jeff Hardy vs. Mr. Anderson {**¾}: This had all of the ingredients to be a good to great match, but it underachieved. Besides some lack of chemistry, which they did overcome, the one thing that took away completely from the match was Anderson’s pre-match promo. In the promo, he did the deal where he referred to himself as an asshole, and that HIS fans were “Anderson’s Assholes.” While humorous, this promo really ended up biting them in the ass. This led to the match being dominated by “I’m an asshole”, “he’s an asshole,” “you’re an asshole,” and “Mr. Asshole” chants. Again, while humorous, no one really cared about the match that was happening. Overall a solid outing with the clean finish, which was good, but it could have been better, and in hindsight, they must really be regretting the promo he cut, because it only hurt the match.

Jeff Jarrett vs. Sting {N-R}: This was all angle, which was both good and bad. They shot to the back where Sting was beating down Jarrett. I dug this, because the beat down angle was going to be better than the match they would have had, unfortunately, it didn’t work as well as they could have hoped. The crowd really didn’t care about this as they should have, considering the FOUNDER OF TNA was being destroyed. Secondly, having them do “a match” was stupid. The ref should not have ordered them to get into the ring, he should have called for help and left it at the angle. People are not buying Sting as a heel, he doesn’t want to be a heel, and at one point, Mike Tenay said, “none of it makes sense” in reference to Sting’s heel turn. No shit Mike, no shit. And thanks to Hulk Hogan to coming out 10-minutes too late for the save. Good work buddy. Seriously, the founder of the company is getting DESTROYED, BLOODIED, HIS ARM DISLOCATED and no one comes to help him? Right idea, bad execution in my opinion. Unfortunately that is a common thread with TNA, they often have the right idea, but do not execute it properly, which is a shame.

TNA World Title Match: RVD © vs. AJ Styles {***¾}: So it was up to AJ and RVD to save the show, and while they had a good match, they didn’t have that show saving match that they needed. They had a really good 25-minute match, and it was different than you would expect. They didn’t throw everything against the wall and overall I enjoyed it. Flair was tossed from ringside at one point, which led to him doing commentary, which was actually fun. Towards the end he tried to get involved, only for Jay Lethal to come out to stop him. While I am glad that they didn’t do the run in finish, I also feel that this took away from the main event as they focused n them for almost a minute. RVD got he clean win, and from here we will go onto Slammiversary.

Score: 5.9 – That may be generous. No recommendation to order. The show was just not anything special. The crowd wasn’t into shit, they were into amusing themselves, the opening tag was good, main event was good, Hardy vs. Anderson and Kaz vs. Williams were OK, and the rest you can forget.

Change you can believe in!

LARRY’S PPV and TV RANKINGS THUS FAR FOR 2010
Rankings may change through out the year upon a second, third, tenth, one hundredth viewing…

2010’s TOP PPVs:

–DG USA Freedom Gate {8.5}

–DG USA Mercury Rising {7.9}
–WWE WRESTLEMANIA XXVI {7.7}
–DG USA Fearless {7.5}
–TNA LOCKDOWN {7.1}
–WWE EXTREME RULES {7.0}

–TNA AGAINST ALL ODDS {6.9}
–WWE ROYAL RUMBLE {6.8}
–WWE ELIMINATION CHAMBER {6.7}

–TNA SACRIFICE {5.9}
–TNA Destination X {5.5}
–TNA GENESIS {5.0}

2010 TOP PPV Matches:

–CAREER vs. STREAK: The Undertaker vs. Shawn Michaels (WWE WrestleMania XX VI) {****¾}

–WARRIORS (CIMA, Dragon Kid and Gamma) vs. WORLD-1 (BxB Hulk, Naruki Doi and Masato Yoshino) (DG USA Mercury Rising) {****½}
–Masato Yoshino and Naruki Doi defeated Dragon Kid and Shingo Takagi (DG USA Freedom Gate) {****½}
–ROH TAG TEAM TITLE MATCH: The Kings of Wrestling vs. The Briscoe Brothers (ROH Big Bang I-PPV) {****½ }

–TNA WORLD TITLE MATCH: AJ Styles vs. Kurt Angle (TNA Genesis) {****¼}
–CAGE MATCH: Mr. Anderson vs. Kurt Angle (TNA Lockdown) {****¼}
–YAMATO defeated Davey Richards (DG USA Freedom Gate) {****¼}

–Open The Dream Gate Title Match: YAMATO © vs. Susumu Yokosuka (DG USA Mercury Rising) {****}
–Last Man Standing World Title Match: Batista vs. John Cena (WWE Extreme Rules) {****}
–The Smackdown Elimination Chamber (WWE Elimination Chamber) {****}
–The Royal Rumble Match (The Royal Rumble Match) {****}
–ROH WORLD TITLE MATCH: Tyler Black vs. Austin Aries vs. Roderick Strong (ROH Big Bang I-PPV) {****}

–TNA TITLE MATCH: AJ Styles vs. RVD (TNA Sacrifice) {***¾}
–TNA TITLE MATCH: AJ Styles vs. Samoa Joe (TNA Against All Odds) {***¾}
–Ultimate X Match: The Motor City Machine Guns (Sabin and Shelley) vs. Generation Me (Max and Jeremy) (Destination X) {***¾}
–FIP TITLE MATCH: Masaaki Mochizuki © vs. Davey Richards (DG USA Fearless) {***¾}
–ELIMINATION TAG TEAM MATCH: Naruki Doi and Masato Yoshino vs. Young Bucks vs. Shingo and YAMATO (DG USA Fearless) {***¾}
–WWE TITLE MATCH: John Cena vs. Batista (WWE WrestleMania XXVI) {***¾}

–Davey Richards vs. Kenny King (ROH Big Bang I-PPV) {***½}
–OPEN THE FREEDOM GATE TITLE MATCH: BxB Hulk © vs. Dragon Kid (DG USA Fearless) {***½}
–OPEN THE FREEDON GATE TITLE MATCH: Elimination Rules: BxB Hulk defeated Cima, Akuma and Yamato (DG USA Freedom Gate) {***½}
–Ladder Match: Kazarian vs. Daniels vs. Amazing Red vs. Brian Kendrick (Destination X) {***½}
–Desmond Wolfe vs. Pope D’Angelo Dinero (TNA Genesis) {***½}
–TNA WORLD TITLE MATCH: AJ Styles vs. Pope D’Angelo Dinero (TNA Lockdown) {***½}
–CM Punk vs. Rey Mysterio (WWE Extreme Rules) {***½}
–WORLD TITLE MATCH: The Undertaker vs. Rey Mysterio (WWE Royal Rumble) {***½}
–WORLD TITLE MATCH: Edge vs. Chris Jericho (WWE WrestleMania XXVI) {***½}
–MONEY IN THE BANK: Christian vs. Dolph Ziggler vs. Kane vs. Shelton Benjamin vs. Jack Swagger vs. MVP vs. Evan Bourne vs. Matt Hardy vs. Drew McIntyre vs. Kofi Kingston (WWE WrestleMania XXVI) {***½}

2010’s PPV MVPs:
Not every PPV will have one, it just depends on who I think steps up and deserves some extra recognition.

–TNA GENESIS – Kurt Angle and AJ Styles: Delivering Once Again
–DG USA FREEDOM GATE – BxB Hulk: Double Duty To Become The Champion
–WWE ROYAL RUMBLE – Edge: He’s Back!
–TNA AGAINST ALL ODDS – Pope D’Angelo Dinero – Pope Is Pimpin!
–WWE ELIMINATION CHAMBER – Undertaker – Through Hell Fire and Brimstone…literally…
–DG USA FEARLESS – Davey Richards – Constantly Delivering
–TNA DESTINATION X – Kazarian – Rules The X-Division Gimmicks
–WWE WRESTLEMANIA XXVI – Undertaker and Shawn Michaels – They Did It…Again
–TNA LOCKDOWN – Kurt Angle – Cannot Be Killed By Conventional Weaponry
–DG USA MERCURY RISING – CIMA, Dragon Kid, Gamma, BxB Hulk, Naruki Doi and Masato Yoshino – Main Event Greatness

2010’s TOP TV Matches:
I will update as often as needed. I sometimes get behind on programming, so there may be delays.

–ROH TV TITLE MATCH: Davey Richards vs. Eddie Edwards (ROH ON HDNET 04.26.10) {****½}

–The Young Bucks vs. The American Wolves (ROH ON HDNET 02.08.10) {****¼}

–World Title Match: Jack Swagger © vs. Edge vs. Chris Jericho (WWE Smackdown 04.16.10) {****}
–Jay & Mark Briscoe © vs. The Young Bucks (ROH on HDNet 2.25.10) ****
–CM Punk vs. Rey Mysterio (WWE Smackdown 02.12.10) {****}
–TNA World Title Match: AJ Styles vs. Kurt Angle (TNA IMPACT 1.04.10) {****}

–Christian vs. Edge (WWE Raw 5.17.10) {***¾}
–Ladder Match: Kurt Angle vs. Mr. Anderson (TNA Impact 4.05.10) {***¾}
–AJ Styles vs. Jeff Jarrett (TNA Impact 3.29.10) {***¾}
–Davey Richards vs. Roderick Strong (ROH ON HDNET 1.04.10) {***¾}

–Christian vs. Kofi Kingston (WWE Smackdown 5.14.10) {***½}
–Christian vs. Cody Rhodes (WWE Smackdown 5.07.10) {***½}
–Jeff Hardy vs. RVD (TNA Impact 4.19.10) {***½}
–Shannon Moore vs. Kazarian (TNA Impact 4.12.10) {***½}
–RVD and Jeff Hardy vs. Beer Money (TNA Impact 3.22.10) {***½}
–Kevin Steen vs. Eddie Edwards (ROH on HDNet 4.12.10) {***½}
–Rey Mysterio vs. Tyson Kidd (WWE Superstars 3.25.10) {***½}
–El Generico vs. Kenny King (ROH on HDNet 3.08.10) {***½}
–Shawn Michaels vs. Rey Mysterio (WWE Smackdown 1.29.10) {***½}
–Colt Cabana and Tyler Black vs. Austin Aries and Kenny King (ROH on HDNet 1.18.10) {***½}
–Mark Briscoe vs. Jay Briscoe (ROH on HDNet 1.18.10) {***½}
–WWE Unified Tag Team Title Match: DX vs. Jeri-Show (WWE RAW 1.04.10) {***½}

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Two Words In Closing