WRestling’s 3R’s 2.16.07: RetRo No Way Out, Raw Takes Off, TNA I WANT WRESTLING, WSX Continues to be Wild, The Miz is Killed and more!

iMpact 2.08.06:

The Right:

Building Sting vs. Abyss – I have said that while the point of the angle (Abyss shooting his father) is too over the top for me, the rest of the feud has been really, good, especially the build from week to week and the promos from Sting and Mitchell. Last week Impact kicked off with Abyss killing young Chase Stevens. Sting then appeared wearing the Abyss mask he stole and accepted the challenge, but said that later in the show he and Abyss would have a confrontation. Sting would come down to the ring and lower the little cell they would use in the match at the PPV. Mitchell was already in the cage, beat to hell and that brought out Abyss. Sting held his own for a bit; until the monster got control of the battle. Mitchell then chokes Sting from inside the cage, and Abyss took his head off with a chair. A solid segment that added good heat to the hyped PPV match, so good stuff here.

Cage and AJ/More from Daniels – I think that not only did AJ Styles and Christian Cage have good weeks on the mic, but I also think that they had some excellent interaction this past week on Impact. AJ is really into the cocky heel role right now and I actually think that this has helped him finally get over his talking deficiency. He has just been on lately, this week was great as he said it was about time Angle and Joe got to his and Cage’s level. He mocked Angle saying that at age 26 Angle was only a one time gold medallist, while he was a Triple Crown champion…twice! He made fun of Joe being Samoan saying, what does that mean, you have a hard head? Just some funny stuff from AJ and thankfully he is finally delivering on the mic, which is a great thing to see; especially from someone who has watched AJ for about 5 years now. Cage then joined AJ for the interview and was just Christian with remarks like, “I like you style” and so on and said that he and AJ are the premiere athletes. Good stuff as they worked well together in the promo, and Cage put over AJ well to fans that may not have a clue who the hell AJ is. Over all this was good work from these guys.

And while I am talking about promos, I really am enjoying the video packages for Christopher Daniels. Hopefully this will mean good things for him as well as a big return to the “Fallen Angel” character. With Abyss and Sting about to face off in a “Last Rites” match, maybe Daniels and Sting will be next to feud, which could be really fun.

puRgatory:

Base-brawl Stuff – I understand why they had to shoot the angle here. They are hoping that the baseball players will help with rating and more importantly buy rates. They didn’t take up a lot of time, and overall it wasn’t that bad. But there were problems to me. Since he was there, they talked New York Yankee Johnny Damon into being a part of the angle on TV as he nailed Torborg with a chair. That’s all fine, but the fact is he was on screen for 10-seconds with no hype and they had no plans for having him be a part of the PPV.

The wRong:

PCS Stuff – Yeah I still get a laugh out of Nash and them, they are pretty funny segments, but now we have to ask the question, “How is this helping Dutt and Lethal?” They are doing basically nothing, they aren’t over any more then they were when this began. Shelley is still stuck in this as well as he barely wrestles anymore. I think they want to help these guys and give them personalities, but jumping on a pogo stick, joking about circumcisions and makeovers while only allowing them to wrestle for three-minutes at most isn’t the way to do it.

Announcing AJ vs. Rhino – I don’t understand waiting until three days before a PPV to announce this match. This match is a match that can sell some buys, and it a feud that continued. They knew it would continue, so why not announce it earlier than they did? I just don’t get it. They have been feuding, their last match was inconclusive, they have been brawling on TV and trying to kill each other. Some will say that it was assumed that they would have a match, but when you are trying to sell a product, you don’t assume that the fans will guess that card. I mean really, they could have announced it last week when AJ dressed up as Raven and has some build instead of trying to make us do guess work. This was poor planning I think.

The Ridiculous:

Hemme vs. VKM – So yeah, this continued this week, unfortunately. It seems as if they really want you to like Hemme because they have made Kip into the most chauvinistic asshole on the face of the planet. In the end though the fans really don’t care. They hate these segments, they chant we want wrestling and it is taking time that you know, we could use to focus on the important angles and or heaven forbid…WRESTLING!

Team 3D…SO STUPID – Team 3D is officially the stupidest tag team EVER! Let us Tarintino back to last year’s Against All Odds PPV. They were screwed by AMW and Team Canada in their tag team title match. They then went on Impact and said that the fans could VOTE…THE FANS could decide if they went after their tag title rematch, or for revenge against AMW. The fans voted revenge and they once again went away from the titles. Back to life…back to reality in 2007. They get screwed at Final Resolution because of drunken Spike/Runt/Unless ass-face and then rematch with LAX on Impact, which they lose due to Moody Jack. LAX owns them. LAX the goes on the offensive and attacks Ray’s family, his uncle exactly, in his place of business. So 3D is PISSED off at the tag team champs. They want to hurt them…they want revenge and they want respect, so they challenge them to the little Italy street fight, non-title. Why? Because, it isn’t about the title, it is about revenge and respect. Right. You see this is why they come off as stupid. They have let themselves be derailed yet again. For a team that proclaims that they want the NWA Titles SO BAD to complete their legacy, they are quick to be thrown off the track. At one point I liked the booking of this, not giving them the titles right away, but now they have stretched it out too long and when they do finally with the titles, while still an impressive career accomplishment, it won’t mean as much as it could have I feel.

THE RUSSO-FN-RIFFIC~~~!:

I WANT WRESTLING! – Yes it is this argument again, but if you are sick of it, tough shit. This is a wrestling show, the company says that they are wrestling. They have 40-minutes of show to work with, so it is not out of line to expect 15-minutes of wrestling a week; 20 would be gravy. What did we get this past week? 6-Minutes and 19-seconds. That is IT…6-Minutes and 19-seconds. There was one 40-second squash match, so that frees up about 5-Minutes and 25 seconds. Angle and Joe faced off with Cage and Styles and they only got 3½ minutes, four of the biggest stars in the company only get 3½ minutes in the main event of the go home show for a PPV. That is just sad. The other match was a 6’man match that got a little over 2-minutes. As I said, this is the go home show for the PPV and you only invest 6-Minutes and 19-seconds into the wrestling aspect of the show, which means that roughly 34-minutes of the show was talking and angle driven. That also means that there was 18-19 minutes of commercials, nearly 3-times the amount of commercials as to wrestling. That is a scary and horrific stat. The sad thing is it has been going down for weeks now, yet when I point it out I am the bad guy. Sorry kids, bitch at the guy booking the show about it, not me.

SmackDown 2.09.06

I’m kinda excited. Brian Kendrick and Paul London are doing a personal appearance this Saturday at Universal Citywalk! Thing is, though, only 200 people are going to be allowed to queue up, so I’ll hafta get there waaaaaay early to even have a shot and I’m wondering if I wanna spend all day in a line…perhaps I could score a sack in the interim…? Being totally faded with Bert (I named my iPod Bert…just came to me) might make the day a lot more fun, chillin in the sun behind my rock star sunglasses watching the hotties go by…Should things work out, I’ll ask Larrold to post a pic with the champs and me! Wish me luck! Oh, and if you’re in the LA area, come hang with me in line! I’ll be the hot guy in the red A+F shirt. We’ll talk shit about The Boogeyman and whatnot…hahaha. Hey, maybe we can talk THE HOOLIGANS into jumping to TNA…?

The Right:

Kennedy hits it strong again – Another good showing here by Kennedy against the World Champion Batista. Now before eyes get to rolling and people think I’m hating on Taker, considering the manner in which I lambasted his program with Kennedy, there was a difference, and a difference in which we should all be aware. It seems that McMahonagement equates things thusly: Kennedy hanging yet losing repeatedly to Taker is the equivalent of dominating the World Champion and losing. Gives one a sense of perspective, doesn’t it? No wonder Taker’s swiping the belt April 1st.

Anyway, this is a great example of how a losing effort can actually be an elevation in the big picture, because Kennedy has absolutely nothing for which to be ashamed either here or at the RUMBLE. All this means is that he’s not in position to snag the title…yet…but that he’s being groomed for such an honor down the road. It is just THIS I mean when I complain WWE needs to be more forward-minded…

Keep the train a-rollin – As with the Matt Hardy/Gregory Helms program, story aside, I could be quite pleased to watch Hardy and Joey Mercury battle one another every week…must be a North Carolinian thing…? Another great little battle here tonight with both guys getting in some solid offense. One has to wonder where we’re going, however, considering the recent report that Vince McMahon has decided to keep Johnny Nitro and Merc and THE HARDYS separate and on their own brands…? (Hmm, funny, I recall someone else having that idea quite awhile ago…) Regardless, I think they’d have to work pretty hard to mess up this feud. It’s just the kind I like to see, simple and personal with a couple of top notch performers who are very well acquainted with one another’s similar styles. We saw Merc get the sneaky junk roll up, allowing him to look good, without having a real clear decision, leaving room for Hardy to redeem himself ultimately. Looking forward to watching this one progress!

purgatory:

Too drunk to be scared – All Right, I’m going easy on this for a start, mainly because it’s my sincerest hope that Finlay ends up kicking the living shit out of The Boogeyman during the course of this program. It appears to me that there are some top-of-the-card matches for which McMahonagement cares and are crafting together, and the farther down the card one looks, people just seem to be thrown together in arbitrary fashion, this being one of them (that goes for Kane/Booker, as well, both of whom deserve better). The most optimistic I can be is that these performers are all getting on the big money card…hopefully Boogey will ask JBL for some sound stock advice, invest well and get the hell out of the ring where he belongs. After Finlay kicks the living shit out of him.

Jigglin Hall gets her time to shine – I’m not sure exactly what amuses me so greatly about this current story involving Jigglin Hall (maybe it’s the apparent intended dig on Brooke Hogan…I thought I was just joking last week!), but I laugh my ass off and I think it’s a product of the fact that everyone involved appears to really be having fun with this talent versus boobies program. The downside? Taking PPV time away from the actual in-ring performers so that Kristal Marshall can impress the fans who paid $40 to watch her spin plates in a bad wig.

In a related story, Kristal’s BFF Vickie Mooooorrero wasn’t on the show this week, as she was off filming another Carl’s Jr. commercial…this time, she has a guy on either side of her, shaking her.

The wRong:

Are you still dying, darling? – I couldn’t resist quoting the title of one of my favorite Siouxsie & The Banshees b-sides when opening a discussion on Daivari’s return to Friday nights and his apparent subsequent role in facing Gregory Helms. Just as I had hopes of McMahonagement mercy-killing the dead CruiserWeight Title, here’s Daivari back to prevent us from pulling a plug that needs badly to be yanked. Believe me, I am a HUGE fan of CW action, but not the neutered WWE style and, oh yeah, an actual roster would be nice. On top of that, I most certainly do NOT share Larry’s admiration for Daivari’s in-ring ability. For as little as I’ve actually seen him perform, I’ve noticed blown spots and sloppy work and wonder if perhaps it’s just me or if Larry’s dwelling more on Daivari’s pre-WWE work…? Granted, Helms is a solid hand in the ring capable of so much more than he’s allowed to display in a WWE ring, so the matches themselves will likely be fine.

Furthermore, one wonders if anyone will be turned face…? Helms has made his name since dropping the Hurricane gimmick on being a fantastic heel, it seems to me a waste to throw that out just so we can have a program over a dead belt with someone they have no idea how utilize in Daivari. And I don’t know how one would go about turning Daivari, all things considered, face Right now…

And because he said it as well I ever could, I’ll quote him from his SD! recap:

If you ever wanted proof that the WWE has no clue what they’re doing with the mid card long-term, just look at Daivari, who followed Kurt Angle to Smackdown, left him for Mark Henry, left him for the Great Khali, followed Khali to ECW for about a month, and the WWE broke them up to send Khali to Raw and Daivari back to Smackdown. Clearly, they had no idea what to do with them when they sent them to ECW and were just hoping that someone would eventually come up with something. Since no one ever did…well, here you go.

Oh, yeah, and by the way, Daivari, nice abs. Sticking yourself in the asshole with a needle again or just traveling with Chris Masters…? Wellness, indeed.

Okay, I’ve kinda had it here – All Right, we knew it was coming, but I was hoping we’d stave this off awhile. I am officially a hater of Deuce –n-Domino. I was predisposed to hating this team as a result of their gimmick, which I’ve already gone on record as disliking quite staunchly and, in their defense, they don’t appear to be as bad in the ring as preliminary reports led me to believe. HOWEVER, Ralph and Potsie have absolutely NO business at ALL being allowed to so dominate WWETTCs Brian Kendrick and Paul London. If they swipe the belts at NO WAY OUT, I’m gonna be one pissed-off analyst.

The Ridiculous:

And so much for Operation: Rebuild The Miz – Look, it’s not that I hate Taker. I don’t. It’s not that I’m sporting bone for Mike Mizanin. I’m not. But what the hell was the point of the last two weeks in The Miz’ regard just to needlessly sacrifice him to Taker here tonight? Isn’t that why we employ Sylvan? This assraping didn’t do crap for Taker on his road to the title. Oh, Taker can beat down The Miz? Insert “Drawn Together” ahhhDUUUUUUUHHHHH here. What this effectively did, though, was re-apply the big, red stamp across The Miz’ forehead that says “BITCH”. It seemed to me that we were looking to give the fella a chance since, you know, we employ him and all, but there I went thinking in logical fashion again. Shame on me.

Mister Continuity is back…and he’s pissed – Okay, so what happened to Gregory Helms’ attempt to blossom out of the CW ranks? Have we now effectively simply out and out stated that a real wrestler can’t hang with the likes of those ring generals Batista and Boogey, so know your role and go play with Daivari? Man, that’s Vince for ya…just as soon as you start risking reaching for a thread of hope…

Oh, and my best wishes to Chris Benoit on his jump to TNA. He’s always been a favorite of mine, and…wait, what? You say he still works for WWE? And he’s the United States Champion? Get the fuck outta here! You’ve gotta be shitting me! I mean, if they had a living legend like Chris fucking Benoit *and* he was a titleholder, CERTAINLY he’d, you know, be on the show, especially this close to WrestleMania…? *Walks away grumbling under my breath*

Remember people, show Geoff some love by emailing him here: [email protected]

Raw 2.15/18.07:

Raw was moved to Thursday this week, and since this column goes upon Friday’s I have decided that it won’t be covered right now. What I plan on doing is adding it into next week’s column and that should give us a pretty mega column. Thanks for understanding kids, and have fun reading the rest of the stuff!

ECW on Sci-Fi!: 2.13.07:

The Right:

The Lashley Video Series – I didn’t get to discuss this last week, since I didn’t cover ECW, but I feel I should this week. I really like the personality piece of Lashley they are running. I feel that pieces like this are a very useful tool to help fans make a connection to the wrestler. I have said in the past that TNA should utilize this more. They use them from time to time, but not enough. Anyway, Lashley is their top dog and they want the people to feel a connection and like him and I think that this will do that. The man has an impressive background and letting people into that past makes that personal connection. This is good stuff here, and I really hope that they do more of these for guys like Marcus Cor Van and or Elijah Burke, who had legit sports backgrounds.

puRgatory:

Lashley vs. Holly – ECW kicked off this week with a rematch from the previous week with Holly challenging Lashley for the ECW title, but this time under extreme rules. I was not excited going into the match, I will freely admit to this, but in the end I feel that it was a damn fine match. It wasn’t as boring as most Lashley matches, and I feel a lot better than their match last week. Maybe it was the use of the gimmicks, or the fact that both guys stepped it up, but it was just better. Holly keeps getting a lot of shit, but the fact is that his ECW run has been solid stuff and he is not dogging it in the ring and has been a good asset to have. Overall this was a fine match and I liked it.

But there are some issues here. First of all it is the same match we saw last week. It is more treadmill booking. Also we saw the same basic finish, Lashley winning clean. I mean, there was no real need for the rematch since he defeated him clean last week. Now Lashley has defeated Test and Holly repeated times, so where does the champ go from here? RVD, Sandman, Dreamer, Sabu, Cor Van, Burke, Thorn and Striker are all in the Old vs. New ECW feud, so they are out. Punk is on the treadmill again and in the doghouse, so he is out. Is it going to be Snitsky? I mean is that the best they can do to lead into Mania? If so, how sad.

The ECW Originals vs. The New Breed – This week was the continuance of the New ECW vs. the Old ECW. The ay they did it this week was to have two-tag team matches featuring the 8-men in the angle. First we had Cor Van and Thorn vs. Dreamer and Sandman. I will say that the Old ECW tag teams were perfect, but I would have loved to see Cor Van and Burke team, CHARISMA out the ass kids. But these four men had a solid match, and the New Breed looked like world beaters early on, and Cor Van about killed Dreamer off of a great pounce, which they still are not calling, idiots. Sandman almost dies on a Heiniken-Can-Rana, but all was well. The New Breed got the win through nefarious means, ala last week.

The main event was RVD and Sabu vs. Striker and Burke. Match was ok, Burke has a ton of charisma and potential, I don’t dig Striker’s in ring that much but he does a lot well outside the ring, including nailing Krystal. Anyway, fine stuff but they totally jacked the finish as Burke was supposed to make it look like he tripped Sabu, instead it looked like shit. That being said, the New Breed picks up the win by being smarter than the old ECW guys, no nefarious means, they were smarter. Yes, the new ECW is smarter than the old ECW.

And therein lies the problem I have thus far, even though it has mostly been through shenanigans and nefarious means, the “New ECW,” Vince’s ECW is always winning thus far, which makes the OLD ECW look like shit. It is just like the Invasion, you own it all jack ass, both side have to be able to win to create interest and credibility. They had the New Breed screw the old guard last week big time, they needed to get some revenge this week and got none, which is not good booking in my opinion.

The wRong:

Back to the treadmill with you Punk! – So CM Punk has been in some limbo lately. Wins over people he was beating easily weeks ago have become struggles, and a once impressive record is now marked by losses to Holly (not that bad) and Striker (BAD.) They seem to have lost interest in him and while I was hoping for some kind of booking resurgence for him, it was back to the treadmill for young Mr. Punk this week. We had a blast from the past as he fought old nemesis Mike Knox. This was every Punk vs. Knox encounter you have seen already, Knox is Knox and Punk got the pretty decisive win in about 3-minutes. I have no clue what they will do with Punk from here, I just hope it is something. They also has Snitsky kill him after the match, so they have no clue what to do with Punk. Snitsky is randomly killing people, that makes him championship material I bet…oy. I think Hayhurst hit it well in that the sides should battle for the allegiance of Punk and get him involved. But that might be good and we can’t have that.

The Ridiculous:

NADDA~! –

So I have decided to just discuss the show as it is and then I will most likely award an “R” to what I have discussed. It is basically the same, yet a little different, much like WSX is to wrestling fans. So I figured, why not give it a different treatment than the other shows.

–Vampiro: I dug the Vampiro promo this week. Very Raven-esque in a good way I feel. The “baptizing” of the title ad himself in blood was cool, and really fits into his gothic and odd character.

–MATT CLASSIC: The video promo for Matt Classic was nothing but awesomeness! I mean, how do you not love this gimmick? From the WX peoples, “A throwback to the old school wrestlers of the 1950s and 60s, this ring technician is out to prove that high flying, death defying moves aren’t the only way too win a wrestling match. Classically trained in the catch-as-catch-can method of the mat sport and sculpted from Mt. Olympus like a Grecian god his full body slam and deadly judo chop don’t even scratch the surface of his wrestling repertoire. Beware! He will make you his human pretzel. He’s here to put on a veritable wrestling clinic. America, do not adjust your viewing screens!”

Signature Moves: The Claw, Abdominal Stretch, JUDO CHOP
Favorite Moves: Bodyslam, Airplane Spin, Heart Punch

THIS IS THE GREATEST GIMMICK EVER! I put the full support of the CsonkaMania Empire behind Matt Classic! This is the biggest right ever!

–Jack Evans: I am really enjoying having Jack Evans on TV. He is fun and very exciting. My only complaint is that the matches with him have been SO short. I don’t want a technical masterpiece, because we won’t get it here in WSX, but a 4-5 minute match would be something good to have from him, instead of 2-minutes or so. This really isn’t a wrong, more of a personal request for more of the Prince of Parkland!

–The Trailer Park Boys vs. The Filth and the Fury: This was just some wild shit kids. Cross and Hart are a fun team that will just do all kinds of wild shit and that is fine for what WSX is. The Canadian Destroyer 2.0 that Hart unleashed was SICK. Once again, I want more time for the matches, but I suppose being left wanting more is a good thing. Fun stuff.

–Editing: A quick note here. I was very critical of the editing of the early episodes of WSX. This week was VERY much improved, less obvious edits and less odd camera cuts. Hopefully the first two episodes were a learning curve and they continue to improve there.

–Tables, Ladders and Cerveza: They are definitely giving the people what ECW isn’t, it is not pretty as it resembles XPW more, but there are people that want that and they are getting it here. Aguilera moves well for a big guy and it is nice to see some stuff from him. He was once a highly touted developmental guy that never got to show why he was. It was what it was, and people will either love or hate it, but it was fun for the time given.

–Overall: Week #3 is in the books. We kicked off with wild, non-stop tag team action with Hart and Cross doing a bunch of wild shit, and that is the way to kick the show off. Evans is still really fun to watch, I just wish we got a bit more of a complete match with him, but in the 30-minute format that will be hard. As for the TLC match, it is what people wanted from ECW but aren’t getting, so it has its purpose. One last thing I have to say. The explosions and such are fine, but not if used every week and especially in the first match. Built up to it please. Overall another wild show in 30-minutes. It obviously is not for everyone, as there are people who will either love and or hate it. I am somewhere in the middle as there are things I love and things I hate, but it is never boring.

Match Results:

Match #6 – World Title Match: Kurt Angle defeated the Undertaker @ 29:35 via pin ****¼

The Right:

Angle vs. Taker – This match summed up the PPV perfectly. It could either be really bad or really good. Really bad because Taker is getting old, wrestling less and in theory has nothing to prove. Angle is slowly falling apart and just went through the hell of trying to work with Mark Henry. That is a recipe for disaster there folks. But, Taker and Angle have worked together very well in the past, but that was a few years ago so really, who honestly knew what we would get?

The match itself started rather slow, not bad slow, but slow to build to a long match, to set things up. Some people hate Taker and his Psuedo-MMA deal, but in the right match, say with someone like Angle it plays perfectly in my opinion. These guys busted their asses in hopes of having a classic. Angle himself has said he feels he and Taker could have one, and while this wasn’t a “classic” in my opinion, it was an excellent match and way beyond expectations. They worked some sweet reversals, and built to a great climax. Taker really was on his game as he was in good shape and didn’t seem totally tired as one would expect. In the end there is very little to complain about.

I kinda wasn’t cool with how they played the ending. It was simple really; Angle was in the triangle and then flipped into a jackknife pin and wins. But then they have the announcers act like Taker may have won, why? Cause Taker can’t lose perfectly clean. It’s a fact of life folks; they have to make it seem almost controversial instead of straight forward. Taker losing to anyone, especially Kurt Angle doesn’t hurt him in anyway. They almost did to many reversals, which in a way weakened Angle a bit, but considering that this is how Taker is always booker, I can’t complain too much. Other than that, it was a really good match, Taker’s best singles match in I can’t remember how long.

Booker vs. Benoit – Good stuff here. I am not too keen on the title change already, but I feel that is because they will have Boogey vs. Booker at WM and they don’t want the title on the line there, and I agree. I was a bit cold on the beginning with the Booker T fake forfeiting the title and all. Too much repetition with the storyline Booker T injuries. In reality Booker was still injured, and not 100%. I give him credit as he busted his ass in the match, and Benoit turned it up to cover for him. In the end what we got was a really good match. That being said, I do not want to see another Booker vs. Benoit match for a long, long time. They may be good matches, but I have seen all that I want to see.

Cruiserweight Sudden Death: The Match – This was a good way to open up the show. It almost seems that they have an idea of what to do here. Helms tried to stay away most of the match, as this was first pin wins the title. He played his role great, until he was caught and they all beat his ass. They did some fun stuff here, almost like the handcuffs got taken off. Kendrick/London vs. Mexicools spots were particularly entertaining in this match, and made me want them not in this match but in a 3-way tag with MNM. Anyway, lots of wacky Cruiser moves here, and Helms got the sneaky pin at the end to keep the title and then he ran away from them all. Great opener, but I had some issues, which are addressed below.

Orton vs. Rey: I think they did something good after the match too! – So here we have it, the match with a story-line I personally dislike. Before the match Rey had a moment with Chavo and Vicki and promised victory. First of all, I was glad to see that they were not brought ringside. To me that took some focus off of “Eddie” and put it on Rey, which is what they needed to do in my opinion. They have intentional or not made Eddie the #1 face on Smackdown. Finally they have moved that to Rey.

The match was good, not quite as good as Booker vs. Benoit, but it was good. Orton tossed little Rey around, Rey did what Rey does and makes his wacky lucha-lite comebacks and people started to eat it up. Randy won as heels do, by cheating like a bitch. After the match they played up Rey’s distress. They didn’t so much focus on Eddie, again this is good. They had him do the walk of shame in front of the baby faces, and when he got to Chavo and Vicki, again, it was about Rey. Chavo told him to pick up his chin and that he did his best. I liked this, and hopefully now they will just focus on Rey and his quest. I think they way they did this they left it open for a triple threat at WrestleMania, and that is cool with me in the long run. Just please take this chance to drop all of the Eddie stuff.

The wRong:

Chapter 4: Jobbing Your Tag Team Champions to a Tossed Together Team and Mystery Partners Suck! – I didn’t have many issues with this PPV overall, but I did have some. Ok, Tatanka was a shitty mystery partner. Sure he is in better shape, but he’s still Tatanka…in 2006. He seemed out of place and on a double team move about dropped Nitro on his head, not cool. So I didn’t dig that aspect of the match.

Secondly, Tatanka and Matt “I’ve been jobbing to everyone not named Simon Dean” Hardy beat the tag team champions. Why? Why do they do this? They take two guys, toss them together and then job your tag team champs, which have been so damaged over the last year that it isn’t even funny. You know, unlike Raw, Smackdown has some fucking tag teams! Of course, it isn’t like any of them have been built up at all, but they could have given one of these teams the rub here instead of a tossed together team. This kind of booking makes no sense to me, especially when you have teams like London and Kendrick and The Mexicools doing nothing but cruiserweight clusters.

The Ridiculous:

Cruiserweight Sudden Death: The Concept – While I really enjoyed the Cruiser match here at No Way Out, I hated the concept of actually having this match. It just seems so damn repetitive. Last month they had a cluster match and last year they had one of these deals on the same PPV (which if it was a conscious effort to make it a tradition that would be fine, but we know it’s not so fuck it.) Now besides the fact that it is repetitive booking, it shows that they have no clue what to do with these guys. They make the big switch to Helms, and then they can’t effectively book a singles feud. So we have this cluster match, Helms vs. The World and Helms wins. So basically, he just beat every Cruiserweight on the roster (Noble wasn’t there) already. Why? He now has no feuds really. He beat them all. This proves that they have no direction for the Cruisers still, which is a shame. So much talent on screen, so little backstage. And is it a rule that they can’t go more than 10-minutes? I watched this PPV and the moment it started I told JT, “9-minutes…trust me.” It went about 9 ½, sometimes I hate being right.

Closing thoughts:
I was very much like a few of the other writers here. I felt this PPV could be good, but had an equal chance of being bad. Thankfully after the shit parade that was the Royal Rumble this show delivered. Good to great matches, and only one of them was “blah” to me, but it wasn’t horrible or anything. The Cruiserweights actually got some time again on PPV, which is good but they are playing games with MNM again. Overall though this was a good PPV effort, I actually didn’t feel like I was ripped off and that is a good thing. They really needed a strong rebound after the Rumble and I think that this was it. I’ll go thumbs up here, and get the reply for a fun night of wrestling, good work WWE.

-Best Match: World Title Match: Kurt Angle defeated the Undertaker @ 29:35 via pin ****¼
-Worst Match: Tatanka and Matt Hardy defeated MNM @ 11:25 via pin *¾
-Score: 7.0

Reader Rant Time:

From Adam Nelson on Impact –

Between the Prison Yard match and the chain match (NOW WITH MORE POLE!!!!!!) 😉 the “Fire Russo” sign will be making it’s debut this Sunday. I was really hoping for some time for the main event, then they had that pointless segment with the baseball idiots, and what’s up with having a commercial that late in the show anyways?

From Johnny Kinard –

I must make a few comments about the 2/2 Smackdown. First off, I have a problem with the “Main Event segment”. Okay, so first the World Heavyweight Champion Batista comes out and demands that the Undertaker gives him an answer about whom he wants to face at WrestleMania. So instead of Taker, we get John Cena, poster boy for the entire WWE, come out to the ring. He wants to same thing as Batista; to find out what Taker going to do about Mania. So far, everything makes sense as the two champs want to know whom their opponent at WrestleMania going to be. According to logic, the next person to come to the ring should be Bobby Lashley, the ECW champ. The next person to come out is the Undertaker. The Undertaker stares down both World champs like he wanted to do something. At this point, it should be apparent from a logical standpoint that Lashley would be the next person to find out. However, that doesn’t happen. Instead, we’re treated to the presence of Shawn Michaels, whom wants Taker to put his title shot on the line against him in a match. Before Undertaker gets the chance to tell him that if Michaels wanted a title match at Mania, he should’ve won the Royal Rumble, VINCE MCMAHON himself makes an appearance on Smackdown. I don’t think he came on Smackdown since it moved to the CW network. Anyway, Vince makes the main event for No Way Out, which is a Smackdown exclusive PPV, basically a Raw versus Smackdown tag match. And that’s it.

Okay, first and foremost, where in the fresh hell was Lashley? He has a puck card thrown to him at the end of his match, and come Friday, when the other World champions are in the ring wanting to know where the Undertaker wants to go, he’s nowhere to be found. This conveys two possible responses from a viewer. One, that Bobby Lashley doesn’t care about where the Undertaker wants to go or if he decides to come to ECW. Or two, that Lashley is chicken and hopes by not showing up on Smackdown, he doesn’t provoke the Deadman onto wanting to fight him.

Secondly, what’s up with Vince showing up on Smackdown? The man hasn’t been on the show for over a year, and all of a sudden shows up. I wonder if it could be because there are Raw superstars on the “B-show”? Anyway, Vince makes a tag match for the next PPV, which is a Smackdown-exclusive PPV. My question (besides the obvious one about how come Raw-only PPV almost NEVER have stars from the other brand) is that what is this match suppose to accomplish? It would have been nice if the match had a stip that states exactly whom Undertaker had to face. It’s like they’re having RAW stars there simply to encourage PPV buy rates.

The Dunce/Domino match: The match in and of itself I had no problem with. My beef is that they only fought two no-name teams before getting a shot against the Tag champs. Is the Smackdown tag ranks that depleted? Shouldn’t the duo have fought and defeated two established Superstars first? Shit, they could’ve fought KC James and Idol Stevens (speaking, of which, what the hell happen those guys?) and whooped their asses to help build up the team. Another thing about D&D, are they suppose to be heels or faces? I mean, they never cheated in the three matches that they won nor badmouthed the fans in anyway. Sure they treated backstage personnel badly, but Shawn Michaels superkicked Todd Grisham for no damn reason and Michaels is one of the top baby faces on RAW.

The final complaint is the foreshadowing of a Finlay/Boogeyman encounter. WHY??!!? It was okay whenever Boogey mess around with a nobody like the Miz, but why Finlay. The nice thing about the encounter is that Boogeyman attacked only Little Bastard. If there’s any justice in this world, their match at No Way Out will be a two-minute ass-kicking of the Boogeyman courtesy of Finlay.

For more interesting information on wrestling, check out Bryan Alvarez and Figure Four Weekly Online, Mike Campbell over at SPLASH MOUNTAIN and Dr. Keith Lipinski over at f4w~!

Thanks for joining us, PEACE!