Wrestling’s 4R’s 03.14.11: Impact, Superstars & Smackdown Reviewed!

In HD where available…

By: Jeremy Thomas

iMpact! 03.10.11:

QUICK RESULTS:
The Pope def. Samoa Joe [**]
Madison Rayne def. Roxxi [* ¼]
Velvet Sky, Angelina Love & Winter def. Angelina Pivarnick, Rosita & Sarita [¾ *]
Ric Flair def. AJ Styles & Matt Hardy [** ¾]
Ink, Inc. def. Generation Me [** ¼]
Rob Van Dam & Sting def Mr. Anderson & Jeff Hardy [**]

CROWDED TITLE SCENE: TNA Impact opened up with the Stinger coming out to the ring with the TNA Hardyface Title. Really, we can’t even let Sting get rid of the damned thing? At least the face paint makes it make a little more sense with him than with Anderson. Sting cut a pretty standard babyface “thank you” good champion speech, including thanking the fans, giving Jeff his props and such. It was well-delivered, though as I said a bit generic. Then we had Hogan and Bisch come out and Hogan totally made it about Sting and him and Sting’s response was inspired. People might think this was a big problem, with the two old guys seemingly getting ready to feud, but I didn’t have an issue with that because it was simply for the storyline and it allowed Anderson to come out and demand his rematch. Let’s face it, putting Anderson in the ring with Hogan and Sting and allowing him to cut a solid promo that showed he could hang with the big guys. And he did look like he could hang with them.

Then out came the former Hardyface champion, and…he wasn’t quite up to the snuff of the rest of them. It didn’t help that his promo was really short before Rob Van Dam came down and cut a promo on the level of Hardy. So basically, Hogan = Sting = Anderson > Rob Van Dam = Hardy, for those keeping track. This was mostly good and I keep this in the Right; even Hardy and Van Dam were decent, just not up to the work of the big promo guys.

THE POPE vs. SAMOA JOE: This was a simple heat-building match that saw Pope use his chain to great effect. He KO’d Okato with the chain before the match began and then the story of the match was Joe being pissed about that and unleashing punishment, while Pope took advantage of Joe’s anger. As a match, this was pretty decent. Or at least, it was as good as a three and a half minute match can possibly be. I’m pretty tired of these two and three minute matches, but these guys can make a super-short match very watchable. The ending was a wee bit wonky but otherwise I generally enjoyed this, and it wasn’t like it was a feud-ender so I can forgive the short run time individually.

RIC FLAIR & vs. MATT HARDY vs. AJ STYLES: This match was a way to shoehorn Matt and AJ into a match at Victory Road and while I think that this was a blatant throw-together, it worked okay. The promo that Flair cut made no attempt to turn the crowd against him, but they’re in Flair Country so I don’t blame them for doing that. Flair’s promo was good, but more to the point Matt’s promo was pretty good too. He was far more inspired than his ring work has been as of late and it was a bit refreshing to see. Obviously, this was basically a handicap match and the point here was to get AJ over. As a match this was fairly good. I didn’t like the way that it fell into the standard triple threat formula—one guy lays down while the other two have a singles match—but the ring work was good, even from Matt who has been particularly uninspired during his TNA run. Flair once again bled like a sieve, but that neither added nor detracted from the match. Flair bleeding is like Randy Orton RKO’ing someone; you know it’s going to happen when he steps into the ring. This match ran a good ten minutes and it benefitted from that; not as great as it could have been, but still good.

GENERATION ME vs. INK, INC.: One of these teams is getting a Tag Title Shot; the other wasn’t going to win here. Still, they gave this more time than most of the matches and while it wasn’t a huge amount of time, it got enough for them to have more of a match than most in the last couple weeks and it showed. The match was, as you might expect, a solid spotfest of a match. GenMe is great, and I am a bit of a fan of Ink, Inc. They worked well here as opponents and Beer Money was solid at the announcing booth as well. Obviously the winner was never much in doubt but this was far from a squash and it worked well.

MADISON RAYNE vs. ROXXI: This was a continuation of Madison seeking respect from the Knockouts and the fans. She delivered a nice little annoying heel promo, then launched into her open challenge, which was answered by good old Roxxi. Why did this woman never get a title run again? This was a very well-booked match that worked the strength of both women. It was way too short to be worth a hell of a lot though, and this was just a way to put Madison over and remind people that Mickie hates Madison. I could have liked this given more time, but the exceedingly short time frame, less than two minutes, killed its chances at a Right.

PARKING LOT BRAWL: Stop me if you’ve heard this one before. The fact is, you have heard this one before, because they used more or less the exact same sequence early in the Ray/Devon feud. Ray cuts a promo telling his opponent that he’ll see him in the parking lot, said opponent shows up in the parking lot, brawl takes place. This time it had the added wrinkle of Dreamer having just lured Rey out so Devon could beat on him, but the fact remains that we HAVE seen this before. It was a decent enough brawl as far as parking lot brawls go, but otherwise this was déjà vu and the only major plus was Devon getting a chance to show some backbone in beating the crap out of Ray.

MR. ANDERSON & JEFF HARDY vs. STING & ROB VAN DAM: Okay, I will admit that the Anderson/Hardy pairing doesn’t make much sense on the surface. However, when you consider the options it was the best possible combo. Van Dam hates Hardy far more than Anderson, and Sting just took Hardy’s belt. Meanwhile, Anderson is just a wee bit of a tweener and while he hates Hardy, it isn’t inconceivable that they get along, just for the purpose of the match. And the backstage segment spelled that out nicely. The lack of trust was also mentioned between Sting and RVD, which left them on a pretty even playing field. Nothing wrong with that. Having Anderson be the guy who laid out Sting before the match was a nice touch to get him a little more heelish. I don’t think this is a full-fledged turn, and that’s fine; I actually hope not. Anderson is one of those guys who can play a tweener well, and those people are a rare breed.

By the time we got to the match, they only have about five minutes left of the show. The story here was that Sting hadn’t come out after Anderson beat him down and that put RVD in a handicap match against TAG PARTNERS WHO DON’T GET ALONG! As a match this was weak; it was all angle and barely any ring work. But while the match wasn’t great, it wasn’t about that and the storyline was fun. I didn’t love this but it served its purpose.

SIX-KNOCKOUT TAG MATCH: This was preceded by a little run-in in the locker room between the heels and the Beautiful People, after which there was a reinforcement of the Velvet Sky/Winter rivalry. This was okay, though I am not generally a huge fan of these kinds of segments because they tend to get way too bitchy in the group argument and that happened a bit here.

Then we had the match, and I have to say I was dreading this a bit. It was Angelina Pivarnick’s first match and that was not something I was looking forward to. They were in there with some good to great women’s talent though, so this had its chances of succeeding. Instead it erupted into complete chaos and Angelina P. did all the heel in-ring work. That made it a roll-around mess and it didn’t play well at all. The one thing that was nice was some development in the Winter/Velvet thing as they started to get along, so that was cool. Otherwise, this was as bad as I was afraid.

NADA!

By: Tony Acero

Superstars 3.10.11:

QUICK RESULTS
Chris Masters def. Tyler Reks [**]
Zack Ryder def. Vladimir Kozlov [*1/2]
Mark Henry, Great Khali and Natalya def. William Regal, Tyson Kidd and Melina [*]

CHRIS MASTERS vs. TYLER REKS: This match was not as good as it could have been (Only 2 weeks ago we saw something much better), but it had its spots. There’s also the fact that this match has had quite the build to it in that it’s the third match between the two and Masters has won all three. I can easily spot the sameness of the three matches, but I stand by its position in the Right due to the build to it and the growth that both men have been showing the past few weeks…yes, I said Reks is improving.

ZACK RYDER vs. VLADIMIR KOZLOV: I’m so glad Ryder got the win here because he deserves it. He’s great in the ring and did you know he was a former Number One contender? Haha. The match had little in terms of excitement, at least from Kozlov and that’s probably why it’s here in puRgatoRy. Ryder was on point, though as he usually is. I hate the fact that Snooki will be on RAW but if she is, it’s the perfect opportunity to get Ryder back on RAW.

MARK HENRY, THE GREAT KHALI & NATALYA vs. TYSON KIDD, WILLIAM REGAL & MELINA: Any match with Mark Henry and The Great Khali is destined to be in the wRong, even IF William Regal and Tyson Kidd are both in it. It was too short to mean anything and even though the girls started the match off, there were a few sloppy spots from them. Also-and this is minor-I didn’t enjoy the fact that the faces hit their finishers on Kidd after the match. It’s just one of those things that a Face can get away with but a Heel is a bastard for doing.

NOTHING

By: Tony Acero

Smackdown! 3.11.11:

QUICK RESULTS
– Kane def. Wade Barrett [NR]
– Kane and The Big Show def. Wade Barrett and Heath Slater [*1/2]
– Cody Rhodes def. JTG [NR]
– Layla def. Kaitlyn [NR]
– Rey Mysterio def. Drew McIntyre [***]
– Edge and Christian def. Alberto Del Rio and Brodus Clay [**1/2]

OPENING PROMO: Edge on the mic is always hit or miss and I think it’s because he panders to the crowd a bit too much but this was a nice change of pace as he went all serious. I liked his reference of his past telling Del Rio that he has no idea who he is. Then Del Rio came out and made it ten times better. Not to say that Del Rio isn’t a good promo guy, because he is but he was SPOT ON here with words such as “I am the man who sends you home every single week in pain” and “I am the man who’s going to replace your legacy with my Destiny!” Just awesome! THEN, we get the double team of Edge only for Christian to come out for the save and the obvious tag match being made. Just an all around great way to start the show. I also want to congratulate Brodus for getting to the big leagues. It’s like watching your favorite minor leaguer come up.

KANE/SHOW AND THE CORRE: I don’t know for sure if anything is going to lead to this mini battle between the two behemoths, but I like how it all tied in together. The match itself was nothing too extravagant, but anytime Barrett is in the ring, I am thoroughly impressed with him and tonight was no different. I’m sensing a possible tag match coming soon, maybe even at Mania. The build to this entire thing has been solid, even if the matches aren’t four stars.

CODY RHODES: This guy continues to shine week after week! While I didn’t see the point behind the squash match (and why was he still wearing his suit?), Cody has been doing everything in his power to sell the shit out of this match and the storyline accompanying it. He’s doing a great job and deserves a high profile WrestleMania match. It wasn’t too long ago where he was the one in Legacy with little no future, now he’s a shining star on Smackdown while Ted DiBiase is helping Maryse pick out her next purse. I applaud the Dashing One and look forward to the clash at WrestleMania.

SIN CARA IS COMING: Man oh man was this exciting! It appears that the WWE is just as excited as us fans and they showed it with a very simple yet elegant promo displaying how quick he was as well as how shiny his mask is. This was great and I can’t wait to see the man go in the ring. I could only imagine that Rey is excited too as I feel for whatever reason, they’ll place him against Rey first.

REY TAKES ON DREW: This match was more than I expected it to be as it appears Drew is a tad bit angry. I mean, he’s always been the Sinister Scotsman, but there was a fire under his ass this week. Pulling out moves that would make grampa wonder why I’m watching! Rey took a brunt of the pain before picking up the somewhat easy win. I hate when Rey wins like that but I get why they did it. A PPV match with these two would have been great and even though it took a long, long time for Drew to grow on me, as it stands right now I feel he has nowhere to go but up.

TRIPLE H/SHAWN MICHAELS TALK: A lot were wondering how they were going to build this match properly with such short notice and I include myself into that list. I’d say they’re doing a pretty stellar job with each man holding their end of the bargain. What adds so much extra oomph, however, is the addition of the Shawn Michaels videos. He is playing the impartial spectator who is a friend of one man and perhaps envious of the other man. While there are a few minor things I’d do different in this feud (I don’t think they should ignore X7), I think they are doing just fine with the promos, this week included. As an aside, if Triple H wins, I will boycott WWE.

MAIN EVENT GOODNESS: I forgot how much I missed Christian in the ring. Boy is on fire from beginning to end! Seriously, once that bell rang he went to town on Del Rio and Brodus without ever letting up. You know what’s odd? There’s a feeling that comes with nostalgia and I didn’t feel that with Edge and Christian teaming up. Was that just me? Not to say that they had a bad outing, because the match is in the Right for a reason, but it didn’t feel like something my heart missed. Perhaps it’s because they are pretty much different characters now, with Christian being Captain Charisma and Edge being the Rated R Superstar. I guess the old E&C tandem is dead and gone, but that’s not a complaint. They both have the chops and showed it here. Also have to give major props to Brodus who looked like he belonged and was even able to telegraph a Spear, among other things.

INTERVIEW OF THE YEAR: Talk about hyperbole! I was going to put this in the wRong until Cole said something about his colleagues accusing him of setting Cena up and it hit me..that was a setup (Insert Facepalm right here). OF COURSE Cole would want to soften up Cena before the big show! Of course The Miz would tell him to do so and OF COURSE he’d use Swagger to help him in his plot. While I felt it was a bit out of place and I hated Cole screaming in the mic and not making sense (“Show him what it means to talk bad about Michael Cole! Show him what it means to punish him!” What?), I got the reasoning behind it and because of that I’ll stick it right here in limbo.

HEATH SLATER: I only put him here because I give him a lot of crap. I never liked the kid in NXT and he has a horrible finisher. With that being said, he didn’t do too bad in the ring this week and I’ll give him credit for that. Keep it up, Slater.

LAYLA vs. KAITLYN: I get the feeling Kaitlyn was sitting in the back and Vince went up to her with this: “Hey Karyn, you’re from Houston right? Well tell ya what, you’re gonna have a match. Get on out there!” We all know that hometown matches don’t go well and it seemed like this had little point other than to welcome Kaitlyn to that very tradition of being squashed in front of the people you love. Sure, this may lead to something next week and that’s all well and good but the match was also nothing to write about (even though I am). Layla’s neckbreaker was nice, but that’s about it. Kaitlyn was still able to show that she doesn’t have wrestling down completely yet, even in a one minute match which, I honestly feel, even Steve Cook can get done while still being…FLAWLESS!

NOTHING

Until Friday, keep on kickin’ it!

…and remember to stay grounded!