Wrestling’s 4R’s Monday Edition 11.29.10: ROH, Superstars, Impact & SmackDown Reviewed!

In HD where available…

By: Aaron Hubbard

ROH on HDNet 11.22.10:

QUICK RESULTS:
Colt Cabana def. Erick Stevens [**1/2]
Sara Del Ray and Daizee Haze battled to a draw [**3/4]
Davey Richards def. Shawn Daivari [***1/4]

RICHARDS vs. DAIVARI: Other than the outstanding promo he cut on his debut, Daivari has been a disappointment in Ring of Honor, getting thrown in the Embassy and becoming largely another body in their pointless wars. This was probably the best Daivari match I’ve ever seen, and it’s no surprise given he was in there with the most consistently awesome American wrestler. Davey doesn’t deserve all the credit though; Daivari brought his effort and the crowd was uncharacteristically hot for the match. They worked a good, solid match with an obvious result, as the uncrowned Ring of Honor Champion presses forward towards Final Battle.

READING THE FINE PRINT: The major angle on this show was the contract signing for The Kings of Wrestling against The Briscoe Brothers at Final Battle. Hagadorn, Cornette and Hero did a good job of establishing the character of The Kings; they don’t give title shots, but have no problem fighting people in non-title matches. Nobody beats them, so nobody deserves title shots. It’s elitist and arrogant, but they back it up, so you can’t really argue with them. The Briscoes don’t want title shots anyway though; their way with The Kings is personal. They worked in a lot of legal BS that the crowd surprisingly popped for, and in the end Cornette and the Briscoes got one over on them by conning Hagadorn into agreeing to a six-man match with The Briscoes and their dad. Jay put over his dad as somebody who’s whupped his ass his entire life, so imagine what he’ll do with Hagadorn. Good segment.

STEEN IS PSYCHO, CORINO ISN’T CONFIDANT: Steve Corino came on this show and did what he does best; put over Kevin Steen and sell the angles with his great promo work. He said that Steen is the future of ROH and he’s not happy that he’s put his career on the line against El Generico. Steen is crazy, he’s inconsolable, so Corino is imploring Generico to let him talk some sense into him. A good promo that ended on the fantastic shot of Kevin Steen sulking in a corner, wearing Generico’s mask.

WOMEN GO BROADWAY: Sara Del Ray and Daizee Haze wrestled each other in a ten-minute draw on this show. Prazak and Hogewood put over their talent and said they were working on bringing more competition in. While this was better than the average WWE Diva match or the average TNA Knockout match, I couldn’t help but be disappointed. Part of it is knowing how talented these two women are and knowing they were capable of putting on a much better match, even in ten minutes. Part of it is that the crowd just does not seem to give a crap. Good intentions, but the execution is iffy and the audience ain’t listening.

CABANA vs. STEVENS: You know, I like Colt Cabana, and I love Erick Stevens. But a “random Colt Cabana” match does nothing for me anymore, and Erick Stevens has just become very, very bland in the last couple of years. It’s not like he doesn’t have the talent; this guy used to put on MOTYCs with Roderick Strong. It’s not like he isn’t trying; he’s dedicated to heeling it up and he’s trimmed down to become a better athlete. But the fans and management have given up on him. So as I watched, all I could think of was “Why is this happening?” Oh a TV Title Shot? Hope Cabana vs. Edwards is solid then.

NOTHING OF NOTE.

By: Jeremy Thomas

iMpact! 11.25.10:

QUICK RESULTS:
Tommy Dreamer def. Rhino [** ¼]
Sarita def. Madison Rayne [* ½]
Jeff Jarrett def. Jesse Neal [* ¾]
Team Morgan def. Fourtune by DQ [***]

LAST STREET FIGHT: What the hell does “The Last Street Fight” mean? I don’t get it. Anyway, this was probably one of the better performances we’ve seen from Dreamer in a little while. He and Rhino worked very nicely with each other in this Hardcore Match and they played the gimmick out well. When TNA does things like this which separate it from WWE, I’m a happy camper. I’m certainly not going to call this a Five-Star Classic or anything, but they went out there, sold the emotion and wrestled a match that was booked well around their general limitations. And admittedly I am a bit of a Dreamer mark, so that didn’t hurt. This was perfectly sufficient for what they needed to kick off the show and give a strong opening match. The promo by Dreamer after the fact sold the emotion well, and had Dreamer trying to play the good man ready to reconcile, which of course made Rhino’s attack that much stronger booed. It set up the PPV match nicely and I was down with this.

GENERATION ME vs. MCMG’s: This was not a full match and it is by no means getting a star rating because we only saw edited highlights with Taz and Tenay talking in their serious tones. This looked like it was a killer and interesting match, and it made me more interested to actually pay attention to Reaction. I imagine that was their goal and it accomplished that well and sold the PPV match decently. Can’t argue with that; this was good use of the amount of time it got.

FOURTUNE vs. MORGAN, WILLIAMS, JOE & POPE: Earlier in the show, Morgan and Williams did some recruiting and Joe and Pope ended up on the faces’ side, at least for the night. They were nice, short segments that didn’t waste time and did exactly what they needed. When we got to the match at the main event, I was definitely looking forward to it and for the most part they didn’t disappoint. The first elimination came a bit overly fast with Storm eliminated after barely a couple of minutes, but that was fine because they let it slow down a bit after. The men involved in this match turned it on to really provide a solid main event and they had me interested and generally enjoying it throughout. This is what TNA does so correctly—delivering in the ring with their wrestling talent and I dug the effort everyone put into the match. The only weirdness involving the match came in the booking. Joe and Pope elimination each other by brawling their way out of the arena was a little off, but it made sense with the way it played out and it certainly helped put the faces over, something that TNA sometimes forgets to do when they have a strong heel group. In the end this got Morgan over strongly as the main event face again as he survived AJ and Roode, only to get taken down by Jeff and win by DQ. I would have liked to see a less predictable finish, but it played into the angle well and that’s all I needed.

A VERY SPECIAL TNA THANKSGIVING: Impact kicked off with Immortal celebrating Thanksgiving. After Abyss quieted everything down, Bisch gave some praise to everyone and Hogan seemed to agree—until the Bisch said that he wanted Dixie Carter to be invited to dinner. That didn’t sit well with anyone, not even waiter Eric Young. This continued throughout the night. Early in the show Bischoff made the big intro—and Jeff Hardy showed up. Wow, a bait and switch…I’m shocked. You know, I have to say…Jeff’s promos are getting a little Warrior-esque, don’t you think? I mean, he’s trying to be metaphysical and creepy and that’s all good, but the promos are getting a little bit TOO wacky and over the top. We learned what everyone was thankful for before Jarrett showed off his new promotional video of teaching martial arts to kids. If you haven’t seen it, you have to:

That right there is brilliant. You gotta love the way Jarrett played it straight which made it just that much funnier, and the kids were utilized to their best ability. The kid naming “Kurt Ankle” as the man who perfected the Ankle Lock was adorable, too. They sold the segment nicely throughout the show and I was intrigued with how this was going to play out.

Of course, all this led into the main event segment (or the curtain-jerking segment on Reaction, if you prefer), which was Dixie’s appearance. The false civility between Immortal and Dixie was kind of fun and I thought they worked off each other nicely. Bischoff joking about how she loves to tweet was cute. Dixie then decided to show Immortal up by using Hogan’s apparent signing of new talent as him overstepping his bounds, and with the TNA Board and a family friend of a judge on her side she got an injunction against them. I know some people probably think that this is silly drama that takes the focus off the talent, but it isn’t at all. We had a seventeen minute match as our main event, this is a way to have Hogan and Bischoff involved while the in-ring talent does their thing, and that’s fine with me. It’s certainly no worse than years of McMahonagement power struggles in WWE. I dug this as a whole and was surprised to find out that I did, because I was expecting disaster but it worked nicely.

MATTY MATTY SAY WHAT?: After the show’s theme, the Blueprint made his way down to the crowd and snagged a microphone on the way. This was a pretty tolerable promo by Morgan. He was a tiny bit stilted at times in this promo, but otherwise it was fine and it got across what it needed to as far as getting the crowd solidly behind him and against Jeff. Morgan teased at revealing the referee on and off until Douglas Williams came out and said he wanted to be the referee. Williams’ promo was actually pretty damned decent. Morgan was smart here though and was all “Mmm, maybe, but we’ll see.” I’d certainly be a bit suspicious about someone who just turned in TNA offering to get involved in my World Title match. The turnback ratio is high there.

This promo also set up the main event, as Fourtune came out and it turned into an eight-man elimination. Let me say that while I enjoyed the making of the main event—and no, I didn’t at all mind that a Survivor Series-style elimination match was TNA’s main event because if WWE isn’t going to take the match style seriously, TNA should have full license to take advantage—I HATED Kazarian’s promo. Matty, Matty, Chicken Patty? Greenprint? DNA of TNA is DOA? Kaz is capable of better than that and his promo was so cringe-inducing that it dragged an otherwise good opening segment down into puRgatoRy.

MADISON RAYNE vs. SARITA: Apparently, Madison was pissed that Sarita attacked Madison at some point during the whole Knockout brawl because she came down with a ref and screamed for Sarita to come out. Short but nice promo by Madison, and this led into a non-title match between the two. The Knockouts have been raising the bar as of late, but this wasn’t one of the best examples of that. It was a decent enough match but it just didn’t have the same fluidity that the women’s matches on TNA have had lately. There were some spots that seemed a bit choreographed, and Madison was definitely lagging behind here. Sarita got the pinfall, and I’m always down for Sarita wins but this wasn’t as good as I’d hoped.

JESSE NEAL vs. JEFF JARRETT: This was an “MMA Match,” aka a Submission Match, and was intended to get Jarrett over as a guy with some legit MMA skills. As Jesse came down, it was noted by the announcers because he would be tough to submit because he survived the USS Cole bombing. Don’t really see how that plays in, but okay. I don’t generally dig MMA-style matches in pro wrestling, but this played out well enough. They kept it a nice mix of wrestling and MMA; my only problem was how they decided that Neal needed to be protected in the loss here. I know the point is to continue Jarrett’s “sneaky dick heel” gimmick, but he should be beating Neal cleanly to promote his Final Resolution match. It didn’t kill the match, it just left it a wee bit lacking.

BROTHER RAY TESTIFIES: So last week, Ray came out and talked about why he attacked Devon and that Ray was the star, not Devon. This week, it was time for Ray to turn completely on the fans. He trashed the fans by insulting their intelligence and then showed a video of Devon being on the receiving end of a bunch of offense followed by a video of himself being on the giving end of an equal amount of offense. This video was more of a treading water moment as it just reinforced last week’s stuff. That was fine, but I think they should have advanced the angle. Ray’s already over as a heel, they don’t need to solidify that and treading water is never what you want to do with feuds. The promo work was solid, but I wanted advancement of the angle and instead I got more of the same.

KNOCKOUT WTF-NESS: This whole segment started off with Velvet Sky losing her shit over turkey and holding up her action figure in front of the caterer. I don’t know what that was supposed to mean, but Flair showed up and said that the guys could use some eye candy if they wanted some food. Mickie tried to play nice, but Velvet was apparently more interested in acting like a six-year-old and as more and more people showed up, Mickie started brawling with Tara. I enjoyed seeing the girls unleashing on each other, but this whole thing was pretty goofy as far as a set-up. This also featured the first “seen by everyone” appearance by Winter, which precludes the idea that she’s Angelina’s alternate personality. Too bad, that could have been fun. Also, Katie…you TOTALLY overplayed that. I’m just saying. This could have been fun if it had been kept to basics, but it just didn’t accomplish what it needed to.

Nada.

By: Chad Nevett

Superstars 11.25.10:

QUICK RESULTS
– Curt Hawkins defeated Trent Barreta [*1/2]
– Santino & Kozlov defeated Zack Ryder & Primo [**]
– Mark Henry defeated the Usos in a 2-on-1 Handicap Match [*1/2]

NOTHING

SANTINO & KOZLOV vs. ZACK RYDER & PRIMO: The Raw portion of the show began with a little bit of comedy as Zack Ryder and Primo both got into the spirit of a Santino/Kozlov match. Ryder is basically a comedy jobber already, so it wasn’t a stretch for him to get thrown by Kozlov and, immediately, want out of the ring. Primo went with it, demanding that Santino get tagged in and both men oversold how taxing their initial lock-ups were. From there, it went into standard tag match mode with Santino acting as the whipping boy, but it worked. Primo and Ryder played their parts well and, when Kozlov was finally tagged in, he was a wrecking machine until Santino was left with Primo to deliver the Cobra and the pin. A light, entertaining match that dragged a bit in the middle.

2-ON-1 HANDICAP MATCH – THE USOS vs. MARK HENRY: The continuing Henry/Uso feud led to a rematch of their Handicap Match from a few weeks back. This time, it was all Henry with brief bits of offense from the Usos that went nowhere. Henry just dominated these guys and that was surprisingly entertaining. Not sure I’d have one of your still-in-existence tag teams get beat like this, but Henry manhandling the two at the end, stacking them up before delivering a splash on both and, then, the World’s Strongest Slam for the win? That was good. Henry gets his win back and the Usos have a reason to want revenge.

CURT HAWKINS vs. TRENT BARRETA: In a rematch from last week, we got this snoozer of a match to take anyone to dreamland who hadn’t succumbed to a turkey coma. Last week, the focus was more on Barreta’s energetic performance; this week, it was on Hawkins’s boring offense and Barreta doing the odd move that looked like it was going to seriously injure himself or his opponent. A Head Scissors early on by Barreta had Hawkins land horribly. There were some amusing parts like Hawkins mocking Barreta for not being on his level (remember that Barreta won last week and Hawkins almost exclusively wrestles on Superstars). Hawkins did impress towards the end with a pretty cool-looking move that involved flipping his opponent over and slamming him. It would have made for a wonderful finish to the match, but it just kept on going for an unnecessary minute or two more before Hawkins won via Swinging Neckbreaker. Next week, of course, will be the rubber match. Something to look forward to.

NOTHING

By: Steve Cook

WWE SmackDown 11.12.10

QUICK RESULTS:
Kofi Kingston d. Jack Swagger (***)
Alberto Del Rio d. Big Show (**)
Drew McIntyre d. MVP (***)
Kelly Kelly d. Michelle McCool (¼*)
Dashing Cody Rhodes d. Rey Mysterio (***)

KOFI KINGSTON vs. JACK SWAGGER: Interesting clash of styles here. Swagger dominated most of the match, which made Kofi’s flippy type stuff more important when he hit it later on. The potential in Jack Swagger is pretty scary…he doesn’t quite have it all together yet, but he looks like a guy who should be one of the top stars in WWE in the next couple of years. Kofi is hit or miss, but he’s a pretty good seller and managed to hit most of his stuff this week. Could we see Triple K after Raw?

ALBERTO DEL RIO vs. BIG SHOW: King Alberto must happen. I don’t care if Ricardo Rodriguez has to take the finisher of every last one of ADR’s opponents, Del Rio must become the King of the Ring. His selling of Big Show’s offense in this match was top-notch, and his attempts to do things to Big Show were quite entertaining.

DREW McINTYRE vs. MVP: I liked this a lot better than their match from last week. Drew has been going to the Anderson school of working over a body part, and MVP did a great job of selling the arm, which led to his downfall in the match. We also got the return of McIntyre’s full entrance, which was much appreciated by this correspondent.

DASHING CODY RHODES vs. REY MYSTERIO: Rey looked decent enough in his return from injury, and his feud with one Alberto Del Rio continues to develop. Will Rey end up costing the Essence of Excellence the crown he rightfully deserves? I wouldn’t be surprised if he did. Almost forgotten in the background of the Rey/Alberto issue is the continued education of Dashing Cody Rhodes. Rhodes continued his hot streak with this showing. I enjoyed how he had Tony Chimel hold his jacket so he could check his face. I don’t know how far DCR will go in the tourney, but a victory over Rey Mysterio is a pretty good feather to have in his cap.

KELLY KELLY vs. MICHELLE McCOOL: I liked almost everything about this segment. LayCool’s promo prior to their match was their usual “OMG THESE PEOPLE SUCK” promo, which is all right. Beth Phoenix’s comeback to Smackdown after the match was good. The only thing keeping this from the “Right” section was the actual match itself, which was shorter than a Manu Bumb one sentence e-mail about how much women suck. Other than that, it was a decent piece of business.

RIP SWAGGER SOARING EAGLE: Oh, I hope PETA was on the phone right after they witnessed this insanity. The poor eagle had been berated by Jack Swagger for no reason, and then he decided he needed a drink to drown his sorrows in. Most of us have been berated by loved ones and had to drown our sorrows in drink, so we feel his pain. Hornswoggle, a known animal hater, had no sympathy for our favorite eagle since the Scott High Eagle and shot him with an arrow! As JR would say: ‘HE KILLED HIM!” I thought WWE didn’t do murder! Rosa Mendes should have done something to stop this mess, but she just stood by and let that little bastard commit an atrocity the likes of which we’ve never seen. If the last episode of Seinfeld is any indication, we can lock her up under the Good Samaritan Law.

It took me about a minute to figure out that was Rosa Mendes. I thought it was Eve Torres at first, but then I remembered she was on Raw. Then I figured “Oh, that doesn’t matter.” Then I noticed her face was a little different and thought “Huh, did Rosa change her hair color? That’s probably a good idea, we’ve got enough blondes running around this company as it is.” Am I the only person who had this problem?

PAUL BEARER IN BONDAGE PART 3 I hate to pull a JT and copy and paste the same stuff every week, but it’s kind of getting to the point where I might have to with this feud that serves as a blight on what is otherwise a fine evening of wrestling. I continue to be dismayed that Edge has abandoned his quest to rid WWE of all stupidity and is now partaking in it himself. On the bright side, Paul Bearer screaming about how much he hates everybody keeps you from feeling sorry for him. Usually when people get kidnapped you’re supposed to feel sorry for them (unless you‘re watching one of those fetish flicks that Csonka likes), but they’ve managed to keep Kane & Bearer from being sympathetic characters. Of course, this whole thing is still ridiculous.

Until Friday, keep on kickin’ it!

…and remember to stay grounded!