Wrestling’s 4R’s 10.19.07: ECW Woes, Impact Builds for Bound for Glory, Orton x3 on Raw, Taker Dominates the Tag Ranks, Looks to Challenge for the World Title and More!

iMpact 10.11.07:

The Right:

KONG KILLS – It is rare that I say something was absolutely perfect on a show, but, this in fact was awesome. First of all while I normally complain about too many people in a segment, this one was done well. They needed to introduce some of the newer ladies to the TV audience, so they trotted them out to ringside. Gail Kim was brought out to the ring for the match and then, then the awesomeness began. AWESOME KONG made her TNA debut, and it was not only awesome but was perfect. She came to the ring looking like Vader and the cameras shots of al the chicks looking completely freaked out sold her before she even got into the ring. When she did get into the ring she utterly destroyed Gail Kim, the top lady in the company, and did so with no bullshit and in a clean fashion. Again the reactions of the ladies were awesome as all but one looked totally freaked. Veteran Jackie Moore didn’t look freaked out, but impressed at what she saw and respectfully clapped at the awesomeness of Kong. A great segment and a great debut, I have no problems here.

Roode vs. Williams – Again this was a short match, but it was fine for the time we got. Roode and Petey work very well together after years together in Team Canada as partners and now as adversaries. Roode is coming along great as a heel and you can see that each and every week. In the end Roode got the win, and afterwards beat Petey down. Roode and Brooks continued to have issues as Roode demanded she slap Petey around, but she refused. This led to KAZ making an appearance to continue the story between the three, it was simple and it worked. Again I say that sometimes the simplest ideas can work the best. Less is more and all.

Junior Fatu and LAX (Hernandez and Homicide) vs. Kurt Angle and Team 3D (Ray and Devon) – The main event this week again was a good match. I have one quick complaint in that I want to know why 3D was involved in the match. Booking wise LAX should have been replaced with the Steiner’s or 3D should have been replaced by XXX. To me, and maybe just me, that would have made much more sense, especially in trying to hype and sell the PPV. That being said this makes back-to-back weeks where we had a very good main event. Not as good as the previous week’s, but very good nonetheless. Angle got the win, and as Champion looked strong heading into the PPV. You can’t ask for much more than that.

puRgatory:

Machismo vs. Havoc – This week Black Machismo got some TV time that didn’t involve him getting killed by Team 3D. No, instead this week young Black Machismo got to look like the X-Division champion this week, which is a nice change from the horrible booking that has followed him. He faced off with Havoc in a non-title match, which I didn’t like because if the champion is going to win he should be a title match. He’s the face; you want him to look like a fighting champion not a bitch. So some more bad booking follows here. He and Havoc had a fine, but very short match. The match was fine, they both looked good and Machismo gets the Lethal Combo and Elbow Drop for the win. After the match, Christopher Daniels, who was at ringside for the match grabbed the belt, talked some smack and then threw the belt to him. Some build to their match, which hasn’t been there but was needed. Better than previous weeks but it still could have been much better.

Sting and Angle: Better, not Great, but Better – While I still do not like the way that they went about building Sting vs. Angle, I will say that this week’s stuff seemed a lot better than the previous week. Not enough for me to totally praise it and proclaim it a right, but better. At the beginning of the show Angle was wearing the football jersey of Sting’s son Garrett. This was more of his attempt to get the old Sting to come out. Sting did appear on the video screen and told Angle that the game would be on HIS time, not Angle’s. Right then “Sting” dropped from the rafters and Angle got the ankle lock, but it was a dummy. After this we saw Nash meeting with Sting, and while I do NOT want to see Nash in the ring I actually like the way that they are foreshadowing the return to the ring. I wish that they would have done it with someone like Jarrett, who can go, but the story is sound. Nash tried to convince Sting that he doesn’t want to be a thug, but also admitted that he would do the same in Sting’s shoes. This led to Nash and Angle arguing and Nash saying that he was done helping him. The show closed with Sting, dressed as one of the LATINO NATION attacked Angle after some TOMFOOLERY in the big screen. He beat Angle down and slapped the scorpion death lock on Angle and the show closed with Sting in control. This was a good and strong ending to the show, so as I said overall better, but not great.

Chattin’ with the Champ – And this brings us to “Chattin’ with the Champ,” aka The Peep Show. That is what people will think anyway, I know I did. The good news is that they were doing some really strong mic work in this segment, it was great to see them get the time to do that without hurting the whole show. Joe was great as he called AJ “Woody form Cheers” and “Hillbilly Isaac.” That’s good shit right there. They ended us toasting to their match this weekend, and then we got the big brawl. Morgan came out to keep things even, and it looked as if Joe was going to dominate Cage. But in the end it was another cliché Piper/Snuka segment with the coconut, and that’s lame as hell. Pretty string stuff, but the usual lameness keeps it from being a big right.

The Wrong:

Pacing and timing – Let’s have a refresher for reference:

I still feel that they need to offer up as close to as much wrestling time as there are commercials. There are 18-20 minutes of commercials per episode of Impact. So hence forth as I have said, I feel that there should be around 15-18-minutes of wrestling action per week, minimum on Impact. I think that is an important thing. They need to show enough wrestling to make people want to buy a PPV. No one buys a show based off of 2-minute matches, run ins and no finishes. And I would suggest I am right, look at TNA’s buyrates.

So that being said I think that 35-40-minutes a week of wrestling should be the new goal with the 2-hour show. Roughly equal to the commercial time. Last week’s debut clocked in at 39-minutes or so, and I was happy with that. But this week, we dropped back to 29-minutes of action. Sorry guys, but that’s not going to cut it. Give us what you promise us, and play off the 56 backstage segments with Angle, Nash and the wife. For those that wonder why I am constantly on this and don’t pick on Raw about the same thing, it is actually really simple. Well, WWE sells a lot of PPV and TNA doesn’t. TNA has also proclaimed time and time again that they are the alternative to WWE and that, “We are Wrestling.” Well if you are the wrestling show you should be showcasing a lot more wrestling than Raw, which had about 27-minutes this week.

The Ridiculous:

Team Pacman vs. XXX – I don’t have a lot to say here, but I will say FUCK THING SHIT. First of all having XXX lose here was idiotic because they were headed into the #1 contender’s Ultimate X Match. Some times you’ll book and have a team lose only to win the big match, but that didn’t happen either so in hindsight it looks even worse. Pacman didn’t wrestle again, XXX looked like shit and TNA decides to insult our intelligence as Pacman “made it rain.” Someone explain to me how an action that led to a nightclub shooting and the paralyzing of a man is funny and I’ll laugh with you. I hate the entire Team Pacman thing and it has hurt the company much more than helped.

NO DQ MATCH: Raven and Black Reign w/Rat and Black Box vs. Rhino and Abyss – For the most part this match was fine, nothing wrong with it, a TV hardcore match. But the reason why the match is here is because of the booking idiocy that controls TNA. At Bound for Glory these four men were to be involved in the traditional Monster’s Ball match, which is a hardcore plunder festival of pain to say the least. So what do you do? Give virtually the same match away on free TV of course! Who the hell thought that this was a good idea? So they have the match, they use a ton of plunder and the finish, the finish sees Abyss take a DDT…INTO THUMBTACKS. FACE FIRST. He sits up and has tacks in his face and is bleeding and I ask the question, “After seeing this, why would you pay to see it on PPV?”

SmackDown 10.12.07

I am deeply saddened by the WWE departure of Booker and Sharmell. Of course, we in the IWC often deal in supposition, therefore, bear in mind none of the following reasons for their departure are steeped in fact. However, it’s my belief that, and yes, I’m gonna bitch about this again, we have the draft to blame in large part for this royal exodus. Whether or not reports to the effect that Booker was vehemently against being traded to Raw were correct, the plausibility of such being true stands to reason, if not for being demoted from World Champion material to being placed in Triple H’s crosshairs to his misuse/being lost in the shuffle (ask Brian Kendrick and Paul London about that) can likely attest. Of course, he was more than diplomatic on his website earlier this week when discussing reasons for his and Sharmell’s departure, but it truly does appear that Booker has a lot of pokers in the proverbial fire other than an active career in WWE, and let us not forget that it was heavily rumored long before his World Title run that he had been contemplating retirement.

LONG LIVE THE KING AND QUEEN!

The Right:

A full-throttle Masterlock – Predictably, Chuck Palumbo was out for revenge tonight over Chris Masters’ post-match attack last week into what was a hot little opening match. These guys size up well against one another and have strength and agility enough to throw one another around in pretty impressive fashion. Masters really had some hot, hot heat (shout to a fave band of mine) in Detroit (hi, JT!), which is a good sign, unless, of course, it’s the dreaded XPac heat, which I really was questioning till the post-match Masterlock when fans at ringside vehemently chanted “Chuck! Chuck! Chuck!”, encouraging in vain the biker to break the hold.

At first, I questioned pitting these two against one another so casually, and especially with giving Palumbo the clean win in four minutes. However, although Palumbo has managed to score a victory over Masters, he did so by capitalizing on a mistake with a roll-up; the question remains, can he hook Masters in Full Throttle? True, a win is a win, but this is the quality of booking that makes a finisher special. We cheered when Steve Austin won a match, but it was The Stunner that earned the pop. Plus, Masters’ post-bout attack keeps the feud alive and, furthermore, proves he can make Palumbo his bitch with the Masterlock…but can he manage to pull off the win…? This is using both men to their best advantage and is starting out to be a HELL of a lot better than I ever would have given a program between these two for being. I just hope they don’t jump to having Masters go after Michelle McCool or the bike…those are great booking tools that should be saved till later on, when Palumbo is more established. To waste those angles on what really is an establishment feud would be a mistake.

Pavlov’s favorite tag team – Jesse & Festus continued to impress this week against a pair of jobbers. I love the dichotomy inherent in their individual styles and am again reminded of an old favorite team of mine, Danny Doring & Roadkill. I can’t wait to see how they stack up against some real competition and am anxious to see what happens with them!

Speaking of tag teams… – Hold onto your…well, whatever it is you prefer to hold onto; I have more praise for Deuce & Domino. One of the things I hate the most about them is their inexplicable, idiotic ‘50s greaser gimmick. I mean, I hated The Fonz as a kid, so you can imagine. However, the completely obnoxious overacting with which they played such gimmick in the early months has mellowed quite well into a much more natural delivery, especially in Domino’s respect, which amazes me, as he’s by far the lesser talented of the two in the ring. I expected a follow up promo whereby Deuce & Domino, Jamie Noble in tow, confronted Vickie Guerrero regarding Noble’s claims with respect to Jimmy Wang Yang, but, unless I missed something, no such doing, which is odd, but that was no fault of Lenny & Squiggy. For Foley’s sake, we just might have something evolving here!

Welcome Anastacia Rose – Holy shit! It’s Anastacia! Many of you may already be familiar with Anastacia as a contestant on “The Search for the Next Pussycat Doll”. I, however, know her from karaoke! She had become a regular at the weekly karaoke I’ve been frequenting about as long as I’ve been living in LA. She does a damn good version of Fergie’s “London Bridge”! Check her out: http://www.myspace.com/therealanastacia and yes, that’s her singing! Look out, Lillian! Well done, Anastacia!

puRgatory:

World Title #1 Contender named tonight – Yeah, or not. So we had a fine little match between reliable in-ring performers Rey Mysterio and Finlay. Okay, cool. But these veterans become so enthralled in beating the shit out of one another, they forget to pay attention to the referee and manage to both be disqualified? LAME. This was just another arbitrary way to get both me on the show and to set up The Undertaker as the REAL #1 Contender. And don’t get me wRong, I LOVE this notion of Taker returning to claim HIS WT, because, considering the circumstances under which he lost it, he certainly deserves a shot to reclaim it. One must assume some great PPV main events are on the way, because Taker/Batista was a damn solid series, and this time, because Batista’s months-long road back to regaining the WT he never lost has JUST come to an end. Both men are focused and deserving and work well with one another. Let’s just hope the TV build is better this time than last…and could we find some actual meaning for Finlay and Rey in the meantime, please?

Taker and Kane are giving it away – …cuz they sure as hell aren’t selling. Don’t get me wRong, I totally dig The Brothers Ginger, and, yes, it stands to reason they’d dominate any team opposing them, but this was just a little Ridiculous. I’m not hating on THE BROTHERS because they beat the shit out of my boys Matt Hardy and MVP, that’s not the case. My problem is that the WWETTCs shouldn’t have their asses handed to them the way they did tonight, no matter who they happen to be. The only factor really keeping this out of a lower categorization this week is the ramifications this massacre could and likely will have on the MVP and Hardy saga. Because it was basically MVP who got the Champs stuck in this scenario in the first place, as well as very possibly sabotaging their chances of winning after he selfishly tagged himself in following Matt’s Twist Of Fate on Kane, Matt has a legit gripe against his partner and, this could be the beginning of the end for their tag run, which, of course, will lead to the big payoff of Matt ultimately taking the UST. I must express concern, though, over Taker & Kane being the team to dethrone them, as there’s absolutely no one who stands the proverbial snowball’s chance in hell against them, considering the inexperience of every other team on he roster. However, back to the opening point, if they aren’t the ones to take the straps, we’ve just done a LOT to show exactly where our WWETTCs stand in the overall pecking order, gold notwithstanding, and that seems like a mistake to me.

Noble pays for figuring out Vickie’s scheme – I found it interesting that we’d be allowed to have someone, in this case, Jamie Noble, call Vickie out on her evil little machination in conjunction with Kristal Marshall to usurp Teddy Long’s place as SD!’s General Manager. In the worst case, this was just a way to get Khali on the show and remain looking dominant following his failure to recapture the WT. At its best is Vickie making it appear that she truly is on the up and up before she starts letting out her inner bitch. Still again, we’re in wait-and-see mode with respect to how this all plays out. On the plus side, though, Noble sold Khali’s vice grip amazingly…he looked like that guy at the end of “Raiders Of The Ark” when his head deflates.

Anybody else notice when Michael Cole said, “I smell a fish”, the camera cut to Cherry…? – I’m not sure how to take the situation with Deuce & Domino and Jimmy Wang Yang. As for the match itself, Deuce kicked the living shit out of The Wanger for talking head about Cherry, but JWY managed one offensive move, landing his gorgeous moonsault, and got the three? That’s cool for JWY, but it’s also kinda lame. Of course, Lenny & Squiggy got their heat back with the Crack Em In The Mouth, and that’s fine, even logical, because, it stands to reason Domino would want to get a piece of JWY for disrespecting his sister. However, before the match even took place, Jamie Noble admitted he’d framed JWY to the General Manager, and yet she still allowed him to go to slaughter. Is this Vickie being a bitch, or a big hole in the story?

Michael Cole was excited for some “young action” – Tonight saw the WWE-TV debut of Scottish rookie Drew McIntyre against Brett Major. On the good, hooking up McIntyre with Dave Taylor gives the kid automatic heat and credibility. Hopefully the rumors surrounding long-lost Paul Burchill eventually being brought back up will come to fruition and we can have another tag team! (Hell, I say hook up Finlay into the gang, too!) Unfortunately, this segment did little more than get the kid’s face on TV because the two-and-a-half minute match did little to showcase much of either of these guys, thus making it nearly impossible to comment either here or there about the ability of either performer. I’m not too sure where they’re going with the whole duel citizenship angle, either, but I’ll certainly reserve comment till I see something worth discussing one way or another, but I’ve got my fingers crossed! But please…PLEASE…no Roddy Piper…PLEEEEASE.

The wRong:

Yo quiero subtitles – WTF was that promo Rey did with Anastacia?! Aside from the Drama 101 pacing and delivery, half of it was in Spanish. That’s a really good way to turn a face performer, alienate the fans by delivering a promo in another language. And what was with his voice? Was there a helium leak backstage at The Joe…? Sorry, I really like Rey, and I’ll gladly take this back if they are, indeed, turning him, but as it stands, this seriously just fell apart.

The Ridiculous:

NADDA~!

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

RAW 10.15.07:

The Right:

Shawn Michaels: Texas Ranger – Michaels continued his comeback here, cutting a very intense promo with Todd Grisham before kicking the crap out of Randy Orton for the second week in a row. The promo was excellent work and much like Jake Roberts in the past, Michaels got his point across and you could feel his hatred without him having to yell and scream at the top of his lungs. The intensity and the delivery were great and I had to chuckle when with his new unshaven look, which reminded me of Randy Couture, he proclaimed himself as “Back In The Saddle Again”, which of course was Randy’s entrance music for his big comeback fight this past March. This Shawn Michaels is a welcome change from the fun-loving DX member he was when he left the show and is the most entertaining to me that he’s been since his tweener turn on Hogan a couple of years ago.

Back In The U.K. – I loves me some international crowds. They add so much to the product everytime the WWE takes their shows across the ocean. They were into everything for the entire night, even that Hornswoggle monstrosity I’ll get to later, and they have an energy that most North American crowds can’t match. The wrestlers tend to feed off of that energy and really bust ass everytime they’re over there.

Mid-card feuds??? – I as much as anyone am shocked to say that about the WWE, especially at this point, but on Raw there were at least two mid-card feuds and storylines advanced, and whenever the mid-card actually has a purpose instead of just “Let’s throw these two guys out there for three minutes.” Randy is a happy, happy boy. Marella and Venis continued their program with a nice little match that saw Marella ~CHEAT TO WIN~, and Cody Rhodes continued his quest for respect against Hardcore Holly, coming closer but still losing to Holly in the end. If they can keep giving the guys like Rhodes and Marella things to do against quality veterans, they should hopefully be able to learn and grow and eventually move up the card to be stars, as opposed to someone like Shelton Benjamin, who got his big star-making turn against HHH, only to be mired in pointless feuds until they stuck him back with Charlie Haas.

PuRgatory:

You-Manga – They really tried with Umaga this week, and I liked the idea of him showing all three options for the upcoming match with Triple H, as well as the viciousness of his attacks on the poor sap he was wailing on. I especially enjoyed when he spiked the ever-loving shit out of him and the camera closed in on the thumb with said sap’s “blood” smeared all over it. It would have been a great way to put over Umaga as the monster he was before his Wellness Vacation. BUT…try as I might, I couldn’t get behind it because I know it’s just a build that will more than likely lead to Triple H getting the duke again, pushing Umaga further down the totem pole when earlier this year he was putting on an early candidate for MOTY against John Cena. There was right tonight, there will probably end up being wrong when the match happens at Cyber Sunday, and that’s why it’s here.

The Wrong:

Could I Get A Couple MORE Non-finishes Please? – I get that they have to keep everybody strong leading into Cyber Sunday, but this is the same thing that ended up happening last year. The open-ended booking serves to do little but make everyone look bad. Every match involving the main event for CS was under nine minutes, with two of them clocking well under five, and they all ended in DQ’s for one reason or another. At least when it was Taboo Tuesday and there was the only the pretense of fan participation, the storylines had a little more direction. They generally knew how the “vote” was going to go down and would book accordingly. Now, everything stays in limbo until the night of the PPV when the results are announced and they end up shooting themselves in the foot repeatedly trying to make everyone look like a viable main eventer. Plus if my memory serves this would be your first Orton vs. Kennedy singles match. Way to waste one of your future main events in three and a half minutes to build to a shitty PPV no one will buy. I swear if I could figure out a way to steal it from him I think Larry’s We Hate Money sign would be appropriate here.

We Have A Women’s Division? – Candice and Jillian get a minute to have a match, and Jillian gets three to make fun of Lillian Garica’s performance from last week and put on her own horrible rendition of a Spice Girls ditty. Why did they even bother with the match? It added nothing to the show and don’t even get me started on Candice’s skipping CD, I mean entrance music. I wish they would have done what TNA did and raid Shimmer and some Indies for some actual talent for their women’s division instead of just pumping their current Divas so full of silicone they could caulk a tub but alas, it’s the WWE and Vince’s needs have to be met. And of course you know for Vince, much like his good friend Jim Hellwig before him, it’s all about the…

We Have A TAG Division Too?? – Again London and Kendrick, Kendrick specifically this time, do the J-O-B, and they have to be feeling like an old favorite song of mine from a Canadian band called Sloan “Nothing Left To Make Me Want To Stay”. They go from a yearlong reign as tag champs on Friday nights to getting punked out by Triple H and losing week after week to two of the retarded extras from Braveheart. Cade and Murdoch were entertaining on the commentary as they usually are, but they have to have someone compelling to work against and the Highlanders ain’t it. Quick name me five tag teams on Raw….I’ll wait. Which is my point exactly, as there are basically none except for these three teams, and if you’re building one to challenge for the titles it will inevitably be at the expense of the other and once it’s time for the other team’s program with the champs, how can they even remotely be considered credible when they were jobbed out in their previous feud? I would LOVE to see Londrick head on to TNA once they’re done being completely devalued on Raw, as an extended feud between them and the Motor City Machine Guns makes me feel all tingly in my pants in a way that only women usually can. By the way, I have a special message for London and Kendrick…

Dear Hooliganz,

You guys are….

SCREWED.
Fondest Regards,
Randy

P.S. Larry, please don’t sue my ass for gimmick infringement.

The Ridiculous:

Horny and the Coach – I get it, it’s supposed to be funny that Hornswaggle keeps making Coach look like a horse’s ass, but really when has Coach needed help with that? I thank the Lord that no one I’m friends with was with me watching the show because I would have hated to explain that little segment with the explosion and not had my friends laugh at me (more than they already do), and ask me if I needed a diaper change before my cartoons came back on. The Bossman (no, not THAT Bossman) said it best in his Raw Report. “Coach chases Hornswoggle under the ring, and then gets a BIG RED BOX ala LOONY TUNES with the “pump handled detonator.” Coach says he has had it, and pushes it and nothing happens. Coach checks under the ring, Hornswoggle is out, pushes the pump and we get wacky effects, smoke from under the ring and Hornswoggle dances to his music. Coach comes out from under the ring and looks like Wile E. Coyote, SUPER GENIUS. This segment sponsored by ACME, blowing shit up for 78-years.” Are you SHITTING ME? This is what the great creative minds have come up with to slow the bleeding on Raw’s sinking ratings? This thing had some potential when they announced Hornswaggle as being the Bastard McMahon, but since then it has gone downhill FAST. Sad how what was supposed to be “the storyline of the summer” ends up being little more than filler in the end.

That’s it for me and the 4 R’s of Raw this week, I’d like to thank Larry for the opportunity to fill-in for him and for giving me a chance to write about a show I’ve been watching since I was 14. Enjoy the rest of the R’s everybody!!

ECW 10.16.07:

There are times, rare times, when I decide that writing in the R’s format is not the best way to cover a show. This may happen for various reasons, but with the announced ECW/Smackdown Merger and all of the news surrounding that I have decided to use some free form today.

Everyone is talking like the sky is falling for ECW, but the truth is that the sky has been falling for a long time. The sky started falling when they cut ECW only house shows and combined them with Smackdown, all the way back near the beginning of the resurrection of the brand. It was this lack of dedication on WWE’s part that was the first sign that they were not fully behind the ECW venture.

At the beginning they were constantly using Raw and Smackdown talent on the shows. I didn’t particularly like that, but felt that they were doing that so that they could establish the newer talent underneath. And that made sense because you would have this wave of new talent, along with RVD, Big Show, Angle and the ECW Originals. But Angle was fired, Show quit and RVD left when his contract was up. Hardcore Holly was there and did fine, but can only do so much because he was Hardcore Holly. Benoit was brought over to the brand, but he went crazy and killed his family and himself.

They did give ECW “some rub” when Lashley was the champion. He got to be in the hue WrestleMania angle, but the title was never showcased and the show suffered as it was only another hour to build up the WrestleMania match. They missed a golden opportunity there. They lost RVD, Angle, Show, Holly, Benoit, Lashley, Test (to a MUCH lesser degree) Sabu and Sandman.

Who did they get in return? The Miz and John Morrison. Now I think Morrison is great and has done a damn good job in ECW, but look at who they had and who they lost and it is not fair. WWE never gave two shits about them. And people wonder why the ratings have been cut IN HALF. From over 2.4 to a 1.2. They lost all of that talent, and not only did they not give them anyone else but the talent that was there was never cultivated, built up and made to look important. Sorry to say that Kevin the Vampire isn’t putting the asses in seats; mainly because his name is Kevin. Talk about neutered, they took Ariel away because she got pissed at Big Dave since they were fucking and she loss a job and Kevin loses the hook in his gimmick, and he stayed the same, he did nothing to change and they did nothing to help him.

WWE failed with the ECW brand. While I don’t think making the show “exactly like the old ECW” was the answer, there was a lot of good in the old ECW they could have incorporated to help the show. But they didn’t want ECW version 2, they wanted WWECW; and that is what they got. They ended up with a stagnant third brand that resembles a developmental system than a real show. And the real shame of this is that for months ECW was the best booked show on TV, from an episodic TV standpoint. Everything was simple, well laid out, not insulting and I always liked watching the show. Over the last few weeks it hasn’t been nearly as good, but they had the writing, they just didn’t have the talent and support. Instead of cultivating new talent and trying to be creative, they are going for the easy out and a band-aid. Maybe if they were more careful in the beginning and actually thought a lot of this out they wouldn’t be in this situation.

Now the merger does make sense from the standpoint that they already travel together. But what I fear is that they are ready to combine the rosters. You’ll notice that the Cruiserweight title hasn’t been addressed in a while, well, the ECW could be replacing that on the show, and why not, it has been treated about as good. I believe it was Byers that said they could do something cool at Summerslam with an ECW vs. SD Survivor Series Bout, and I would be all for that; although they could have done it anyway.

But let’s discuss this week’s show. I think we’ll stay free form and just talk like we are, it’s a nice change I think. The show started off in the cliché WWE fashion. One man comes out and decides he should get the title shot, man #2 comes out to refute this fact and finally man #3 comes out to refute both facts. The men were Morrison, Miz and Big Daddy, and while it does help push Cyber Sunday I wish they could do something different. They argued and Punk came out to be wacky and make fun of them, and then announced his tag team partner Kane. Now I know that they did this for the merger deal, but I want to know why did it have to be a handicap match and WHY didn’t they involve Balls Mahoney, who is, you know, feuding with Miz! I suppose that would have made too much sense. They had a match, the people with the disadvantage won as always making the handicap stipulation useless and everyone seemed happy. Fine match, nothing great, but it was good.

We then got to see the Miz and Morrison arguing over them both being losers. Morrison wanted a match, Miz refused but then sucker punched him and accepted. Thanks for flying the whole crew over guys. We then moved to Balls discussing his love of Kelly Kelly, who then appeared and asked Balls out. Balls accepted and was happy. Now to me, if Balls was in that opening tag and gets a win (or is on the winning team) then he looks like a winner. Kelly has more reason to want to be win him, especially when the Miz lost. It makes sense to me! I guess that’s the problem.

From there we saw a meeting with Vicky Guerrero and Armando backstage. They were discussing the new business merger. Vicky said not only did she bring Kane for the show, but a tag team as well. Jesse and Festus! That is the face of a true tag team competitor. They went out with their awesome theme music and faced off with Nunzio and…Young Elijah. Wow, how the mighty has fallen. One year after being named the new face of ECW BY VINCE HIMSELF, to being CM Punk’s personal job bitch to jobbing in tag squashes on TV. It’s another case of a guy that they looked to do something with but then stopped for whatever reason. Fun squash match, but poor Burke.

The Miz and Morrison had their match, which was the main event of the night. They only went three minutes before Big Daddy came out and beat them down, apparently they want you to vote for him. It was really a throw away, but the show did do good things to hype Cyber Sunday and their one match. In the end I am still upset that instead of working hard the whole time with this and cultivating stars that they are going this route. But really, they have no one to blame but themselves. Thanks for putting up with the free form this wee, and hopefully we shoot back to the regular R’s format next week for the show.

I must say that I ordered this show with not a great deal of expectations but they DELIVERED! Has there ever been an entire PPV in the history of wrestling where baby faces won every match? Not only that but except for the main event the booking was simple yet effective. The entire ppv was a massive breath of fresh air thanks to the clean finishes and a complete lack of Russo-nomics.

Match Of The Night: Tie: LAX/XXX and Joe/Cage. I really think that the match with Cage will be a huge step in Joe regaining some of the momentum I feel that he lost in his feud with Angle. Kudos to a great wrestling match from TNA with a CLEAN FINISH! Big props to LAX and XXX for the red-hot opener. I think Hernandez is a huge star in the making. Elix’s cross body from the top of the structure was INSANE!

Trash of The Night: Team 3-D vs. Steiner Brothers. Obviously the Steiner’s best years are way behind them and Team 3-D’s rehashed table gimmick is like a set of tires with 100,00 miles on them. Rinse, wash repeat. If Team 3-D wants their releases I say give it to them.

My thoughts on the rest of the ppv in general.

LAX/XXX A great spotfest: All 4 guys busted their asses and had the night off to a hot start. ***1/2

Fight For The Right: Personally I think the entire concept is pretty stupid but it gave a lot of guys who’ve been with TNA a chance to show off some of their trademark moves. **

Tag Title Match: The improvement of Tomko in TNA has been very surprising. He and AJ mesh well as a team and were able to produce a solid match with Killings and Creed. ***

X-Division Match: The usual solid match from these 2. I was surprised that XXX didn’t attempt to assist Daniels. The finish felt like it was out of nowhere but it was a good match nonetheless. **1/2

Tables Match: Trash of the Night ½*

Knockouts Gauntlet: I think the Fight for The Right would be far better served with this concept. The right woman went over. Surely the WWE is kicking themselves for letting a talent like Gail Kim go so easily? *1/2

Samoa Joe vs. Christian Cage: Just an absolute all around great wrestling match. I think this match will help Joe as he hopefully moves back into the World title picture. ****1/4

Monster’s Ball Match: About as good as can be expected I guess. Black Reign sucks in the ring but his ring music is SWANK. Some good spots mixed in but nothing we haven’t seen before. **

World Title Match: Kurt Angle/Sting: Finally the Russo booking rears its ugly head. I just hope this doesn’t lead to Nash returning to the ring. **1/2

Overall I’d give the show an 8/10. One of the best TNA ppv’s I have personally seen and it definitely had the feeling of being an alternative to the WWE. Which is how I think they should have been booked from the very beginning!

From Andy –

As you know, I usually write some extremely negative stuff, and I am honestly shocked that I am going to make this next statement. Bound for Glory was booked and wrestled excellently. Quickly running down the card from the beginning, LAX looks to be getting back into the tag picture after falling off the planet. This is fantastic as they are a vital component of the great 2006 TNA tag team scene. Eric Young wins the battle royal, good news for him as they appear to be trying to finally use some of the fantastic groundswell of support he has in the Impact Zone. Real tag team champions, nuff said. Lethal gets a strong and meaningful title defense to further build his credibility as something other than a prop to be beaten in promos. Big payoff to the Steiners/3D feud was actually some exciting and hard working action. Using Gail as the first woman’s champ is a nice touch, since she is over in the Impact zone, an established character, and can work with Kong quite nicely. Joe gets the super win by ending Christian’s undefeated streak. I think this was important for Joe to gain back some clout, but some may question if CC was better off winning now that Sting has the title. Monster’s Ball has Abyss going over nicely. Although I would have liked Rhino to not only gore Dustin, but gore him back into 1997 (this may not be possible, I will have to check). Finally we have the grand finale main event. This is where I take great issue with the show. A well wrestled, if overbooked affair, this featured so much interference that I am unsure who the original competitors were. Every segment with Angle is becoming a waste of time, as we establish people to obviously swerve on PPV each month. This was a glorified handicap match, and the outcome was absurd, making Sting look totally invincible. Did Nash book this? Were they trying to make up for his misuse during the NWO angle? The good news after all of this is that we have lots of new champs, some #1 contenders, and great potential to launch into the 2-hour era running. After saying that, I am now very afraid.

From Manu

ya know what kinda symbolizes TNAs screw-ups (and I say this as a bigger TNA fan than WWE fan)? Abyss. They spent all the time building him up in the main event, even gave him the title, and now where is he? fighting Goldust and Raven (and I’m a fan of raven), and teaming up with rhino (another guy they put at the top, and let fall through the cracks).

Another thing that gets me is that i don’t always know who the faces are and who the heels are. Team Pacman are heels, yet they fought XXX, also heels. And are going to fight Tomko and AJ, also heels. Motor City Machine Guns are heels (right?), and yet they were holding back the Steiner brothers, who are faces.

I’m a BIG fan of shades of gray, but….this isn’t shades of gray.

Also – Sabin and Shelley should be on the ppv. LAX vs. XXX vs. MCMG would be an AWESOME match, not to mention the ultimate X stipulation. it would more than make up for Pacman being on ppv and a champ.

From John –

I agree that TNA really put on a great ppv this past Sunday. Your
write-up was right on the money (as usual) but I do feel the need to
comment , First, the “Fight for the Right Battle Royal”, while I truly
loathed having to watch another Young/Roode match-up, I salute TNA for
being a little daring with their booking. My wife and I will do our own
predictions before every ppv ( I only called the Main Event right, going
1-8 in my predictions, ouch) and I was primed for a Harris/Storm
showdown as I feel their is still a lot of mileage left in their feud. I
thought it was refreshing to have some unexpected things happen like
having Harris not qualify (but I think that is still a step up from
having to do a program with Black Reign) and having Storm and Rik-oops
Fatu Jr get eliminated so quickly added some unpredictability to the
match (which was still better then I thought it would have been). But,
again, I admit to bellowing an audible moan when I saw who the last two
were, very glad to see Eric Young win.

I would have to say that the match that impressed me the most was the
Knockouts Gauntlet. I had figured Kong would win, as she is definitely
the most intimidating woman wrestler I’ve ever seen and I could not
imagine the “let’s all team up and take out the biggest person” approach
would work. Figuring Kong would just manhandle everyone (which she still
did) and we would have a heel Knockout champ. But having Gail Kim win
was the best decision (which sadly is why I didn’t think they would go
for it, know what I mean?) as she has been on Impact the most and is
probably the most polished performer. She now has a stable of opponents
to fight, would be cool if she had to defend her title against them in
the order they were eliminated to build for a Kong/Kim match. What also
impressed me was that while the woman performers weren’t given a lot of
TV time to set themselves apart, they still seemed like /individuals/,
and not the cookie cutter diva du joir the WWE puts out. I also admit to
marking a little when I thought Christy Hemme got hurt.

The crowd was hot, the matches were great and unlike the WWE PPV’s, I
was actually a little afraid that the show would run long, instead of
having it end a half hour early. A great PPV for TNA, especially if they
are trying to build Bound for Glory as their “World Series” PPV.

Thanks for the fun read.

TNA BOUND FOR GLORY PODCAST~!

We are back for another podcast adventure! This time it was the TNA Bound for Glory show, their biggest show of the year. We’ll discuss the new tag team champions, the first ever Women’s Champion, the new TNA World Champion and some damn fine matches, including Joe vs. Cage. We’ll also touch on the usually stupidity with run ins and why TNA gives Kevin Nash so many chances. Also the fact that we saw more of Kong than anyone ever anticipated! From their we’ll move onto DEAR CHIRSTI as well as stories of myself scoring the phone numbers of bridesmaids at a wedding this weekend! An hour of fun just for you!

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