Wrestling’s 4R’s 4.29.13: WWE Smackdown & TNA IMPACT Wrestling Reviewed

NOTE FROM JACK: Just wanted to let you all know that I am still abroad for work, and this week’s stuff may be a bit less verbose than you may expect. I do apologize, but the whole real world job is a bitch and I also had to complete my MMA news column as well. Thanks for understanding.

Taryn Terrell defeated Tara: Taryn Terrell defeated Tara in very solid women’s match. Taryn is working hard and improvements from her WWE days are evident, but still, it never hurts to have her work with Gail and then Tara if you think that she will be something important to the division. The basics story was that the veteran knew all the tricks to take and keep control, but that her over confidence cost her in the end.

Chavo and Hernandez defeated Aries and Roode: Chavo and Hernandez defeated Aries and Roode to retain the tag team titles. Daniels and Kazarian were at ringside and were heavily involved in the match, which may have normally upset me, but with Bad Influence trying to get Roode to join them like they did with AJ, it made perfect sense. The match wasn’t their best, due to all of the extracurricular activities at ringside, but damn if it didn’t make me want to see Roode & Aries vs. Bad Influence even more. This was an overall good segment.

Matt Morgan Has a Solution: For the most part I really enjoyed the Matt Morgan interview segment. He has been mocking Hogan for all of his mistakes, and came out to make sure we all knew that. He then came out, stood tall to Hogan and stated that he was the solution that Hogan and TNA needed. He added that he would take care of the problem for Hogan, for a price. That price, the title shot at Slammiversary. Hogan finally spoke noting that he made mistakes and was hoping that Morgan would step up to be the man, but he didn’t, and that Hogan would go to the ring to meet Ray later tonight. He closed it out noting that Andre the Giant never acted like a bitch. Overall good stuff and the first time I actually cared for Morgan in forever.

Velvet Sky defeated Mickie James: Man, this match I felt had a ton of potential on a few levels. And they started out strong too, but unfortunately the match started to fall apart, Velvet forgot to see the knee a lot down the stretch (jumping clotheslines, really?) and it ended on a whimper with the shitty roll up finish where they were all caught up in the ropes. The other thing here is that the crowd has been really into the TNA ladies, and after Mickie getting the title shot and laying out the heel promo, I felt that this week was the perfect time to flip the switch with James. Sky is hurt, James heels it up and wins and celebrates. The next week Velvet calls her out on it, James says it was a misunderstanding in the fire of competition; some heels get involved to set up a tag match. Do the match; the heels work over Sky, she works for the hot tag and James walks away to cement things. TNA really missed the boat here I believe, plus that match was not good.

Sting and Hogan Save the Day: TNA was building to the main event of the show with the Hogan vs. Bully confrontation. Now I know that this is where all of the “put the title on Hogan” trolls come out, but this segment ended up exactly the way I thought it would. Hulk Hogan and Sting saved the day, they cleared the ring of the menace and THEY look like the stars after all of TNA’s faces have been taken out. I am a big fan of TNA, I like it more than most and most weeks feel that they give me a better program than Raw does; but it is shit like this that I feel hurts the product and makes me not want to watch. They likely have a plan and all of that jazz, but after weeks of ass beatings and looking superior, 59-year old Hulk Hogan, 54-year old sting and his 16-year old baseball bat got to stand tall. It didn’t feel fun; it didn’t make me happy, it just made me want to turn the channel.

SHEAMUS VS SHOW:I think they’ve really gotten as much as they can out of these two in the ring together. Another solid match on the show that only vaguely suffered due to the familiarity of it all. It sucks, but seeing the White Noise on Show isn’t surprising anymore. Still, for storyline purposes, this worked. I don’t know if Orton and Show will be going one-on-one come Extreme Rules, but it seems that way, and if that’s the case, Smackdown did the tried and true mixing of matches and their opponents. I loved Henry’s little minor interruption, and Show gave one of the more convincing KO punches.

ORTON AND HENRY: This stems off of the match previously noted, and continued the feuds that all four men are entangled in. Although the match was cut a bit short, there was some interesting developments. I don’t know if Mathews aside was just that, or if it was the planting of a seed for Orton when he claimed Orton didn’t look too happy with the loss due to Sheamus. Whatever it is, it was simple booking that is leading to something.

MEAN DEAN: Ambrose got the main event slot on Smackdown, and deservedly so. Against The Undertaker, no less! The match was short, but the match wasn’t actually as important as the aftermath of said match. The beat down of Taker is one of the bigger coups the group has received as they continue their carnage across both shows. I’m loving what they’re doing here, and if we get a six man at Extreme Rules, I’m going to be pretty damned happy. It’s one of the few moments in wrestling where I don’t know how they’re going to keep me interested, yet they continue to do so.

FANDANGO: They need to be really careful here. Squash matches do not make new superstars (unless you look like you should be squashing wrestlers). It’s nice to see the crowd support for Fandango, but if they keep this up, it will wane.

NO DOLPH: Again? Come on!

YEAR IN REVIEW (PPV) by Csonka:
TOP PPVs:

TOP PPV MATCHES: