Wrestling’s 4R’s 11.09.07: RETRO Genesis, JBL Brings Hell to Batista and the Undertaker, Angle Dominates TNA, Raw Returns to 1998, Punk Defends the ECW Title and More!

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iMpact 11.01.07:

The Right:

Kong Keeps Killing – If there is one thing that TNA is doing right it is the booking, thus far, of Awesome Kong. She comes in and destroys Gail, the company’s top female face. Has a great showing in the gauntlet and has to be eliminated by numerous people. Gail wins the title and you Kong is in line for the title shot soon. She comes off of the PPV pissed off and ready to kill, and unfortunately for young Talia Madison and Angel Williams, who both happen to be FINE pieces of ass, they were the victim of Kong’s rage. This week she killed Christy Hemme in spectacular fashion. They had a 2-minute match and Kong destroyed her and looks unstoppable. They have done this completely right and I love the TNA women’s division right now. KONG~! Now some people want to know why I think this is good booking as some think it to be bad. It is classic monster booking, only with a woman. Some think that it is killing the division, but I think that after a long feud with Gail, others will have a chance to get back at her. She can’t be unstoppable forever, but for now she is and it s great television. KONG~!

Samoa Joe and Gail Kim vs. Robert Roode and Traci Brooks – Now this was a dandy little match here. Roode and Joe are having problems and feuding, Kim is the ladies champion and Brooks wants the title. This is that simple booking I often talk about and enjoy. When they take two feuds and make one match to move things on, conserve TV time yet still get things over. While the match was short, a little over 5-minutes, they all worked very hard and put on a good match. I really wish that they would have gotten more time. I have to commend Traci Brooks, as she really worked her ass off in the match, maybe one of her best showings. Her and Gail clicked huge, and everything was excellent. After the match Roode berated Brooks for losing the match, which angered Gail and Joe, who came back to the rescue. Joe and Roode brawled big time, and the only problem is that they went to commercial and we got to miss the bulk of the brawl. When they came back we saw that Roode’s fan (RAIN) tried to get involved and got booted from the building. We also saw Joe tossed into the steps and get busted open BIG TIME! He hit the corner of the steps and damn he was sliced open. They continued the brawl and this was great stuff. A big thumbs up from me for this segment.

puRgatory:

TNA Tag Team Title Match: AJ Styles and Tomko © vs. LAX (Homicide y Hernandez) – The “main event” match this week on Impact was Styles and Tomko defending the TNA Tag Team Titles against the #1 contenders LAX. Hernandez endeared himself to me as he wore the GIANT RED X like some BLING to the ring. God bless this man. They match up really well in my eyes as both teams with the classic big man/little man tandem, which works well for them. They had a good match, and the champs got the clean win. Problem time. First of all this is the “main event” match, but they can’t even buy a main event spot because we have talking to do still. Let them end the show please! Would it kill TNA to NOT have some kind of a main event interview segment? Secondly, this is a main event tag title match, and with all of the talking, you’re telling me that they couldn’t get an uninterrupted match? Bullshit. Finally, on their biggest PPV of the year one team wins the titles and one team wins a chance to challenge for them, and they put it on free TV. So we used PPV to build to TV? NO BUYS! Seriously now, this should have built to PPV and then have the match. Instead, we’re going to rush to a program with the Steiner’s. Way to take your time and build.

3D vs. The X-Division – Team 3D made their way to the ring this week. They BERRIED the fans, X-Division, Internet writers and just about anything they could. They had a new “X SUX” shirt, to get their point over. The MCMG’s came out and Shelley was awesome as he got time to shine on the mic like a star, which was awesome. Ray then sent Devon to get the tables, but they weren’t there. Daniels, Senshi and Havok had them. Some goofs ran out, and while the X-Guys got the advantage, again we have issues. It took the MCMG’s, Daniels, Senshi, Sharky, Petey, Havok and Dutt to beat them down. TNA lacked the balls to have Shelley and Sabin take them out and get even. It took eight guys to do the job overall, and that is pathetic. It made 3D look on the disadvantage, which is bad reverse booking. Have some balls TNA and do the RIGHT thing. Hopefully they do so at the PPV, but I am not holding my breath.

The Wrong:

Cage vs. Harris – TNA has wisely dropped Junior Fatu, although it was after unwisely putting him in a tournament, letting him cut damaging promos and making him look important without a contract. Bravo! So they had to recover from this, and decided to place Cage against Chris Harris. They had a match, it was fine and Cage won with a roll up and the ropes. Harris is also playing this whining bitch character now as he complained after the match and in his segment with Angle. Is he going to go heel while Storm goes face? I hope not, because that would suck. The problem here is that they seemed to have ruined Chris Harris. He got NO pop when he came out, and once upon a time he would have been celebrated and cheered by the TNA fans when he came out for a match like this. But he has been treated like such a jobber as of late that they don’t care about him. That’s so sad from a guy that had one of, if not the best TNA match of the year with Storm.

Storm vs. Kaz/Eric Young – If this match was supposed to make Kaz look like a star, it failed and failed miserably. They had a 2-minute match, a 2-minute TOURNAMENT match, with a lame roll up ending. This is crap and did nothing to get Kaz over. Now then after the match we get Eric Young out to the ring with beers so he and Storm can have a random beer-drinking contest. Why? Are they friends? Are they going to be a tag team now? Is Storm going face? I hope not, that would suck. I didn’t get this at all. Maybe we could have killed the beer drinking and had a longer match? Wrestling on a wrestling show, WHAT A CONCEPT~!

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 goal with the 2-hour show. Week 1 had 39-minutes, week two 2 had 29-minutes, and week 3 had 27-minutes. We saw some improvement in week 4 as we jumped up to 33-minutes, and that was good. This week we hit an all time low for the two-hour era, 25-minutes! You know that you have issues when you only have 4:29 of wrestling in the FIRST HOUR! THANK GOD FOR THE SECOND HOUR! ALL THE PROBLEMS ARE SOLVED! WE ARE WRESTLING! Unacceptable.

The Ridiculous:

TO THE BACK~!/ANGLE MANIA – A couple of weeks ago I had this to say: EIGHT SEGMENTS involving Angle and or Nash on this show. EIGHT SEGMENTS! I don’t even want to see EIGHT SEGMENTS with people I am interested in let alone EIGHT SEGMENTS with these guys, specifically because it is leading to a Nash in ring return. Seriously, this show is all A.D.D, the ratings are not growing, they are not doing good buys so instead of making stars they are going to try an rely on a man that has BONED them repeatedly. Maybe we could give the X-Division a few segments so that they could, I don’t know, have a match! Maybe showcase some other talent? They spent EIGHT SEGMENTS on Angle and Nash, they aren’t going to bring in the buys or the ratings. Add into that the fact that the segments aren’t even very entertaining and I can only come to one conclusion…

So why is this here this time? NINE SEGMENTS! They had NINE SEGMENTS of Kurt Angle and his bullshit investigations that, while humorous at times made the world champion look like a complete goof. Once again, I have to say that I don’t even want to see NINE SEGMENTS with people I am interested in let alone NINE SEGMENTS of this bullshit. This dominated the program in a bad way, and seriously, if I have to hear TO THE BACK anymore, it may become a reflex and I may kill people when I hear it. TNA, you’re better than this, stop being the 4th WWE brand and be what you have the ability to be, an alternative.

SmackDown 11.02.07

The Right:

HELL…IN A CELL~! – Smackdown kicked off with Big Dave coming to the ring. He said that he had a rough life, always fighting his who life to be what he dreamed of. Big Dave was indeed a happy panda because he had defeated the Undertaker at Cyber Sunday, which was huge. He admitted that they still had unfinished business, because their series was now even. But he also wanted to know if Taker would have his back tonight in their tag match, as they would battle the Monstrous Team of Mark Henry and Great Khali. Taker appeared, said he would have his back but that he wanted a rematch. Big Dave quickly agreed, and as he left Taker busted out, “HELL…IN A CELL.” So we’re heading towards that, and while this side of the feud hasn’t been on fire, the match does make sense and like their other matches, should be good.

Biscuits and Gravy Continue to Roll! – That’s right, Jesse and Festus continue to roll along in the tag ranks on Smackdown. This week we had some singles action, as Festus would take on Domino. This is good because it is playing off of Deuce and Domino watching then on the monitor and saying that they weren’t a threat. Festus and Domino had a match, it was fine because it was short, the crowd was into it and this was fine stuff. Jesse made sure to keep Deuce from getting involved and this worked to build good tension to the feud. They will eventually be feuding over the tag titles, and I am still entertained by Jesse and Festus. This worked well I thought.

JBL sets up Taker and Batista – The main event this week was Taker and Batista vs. Mark Henry and Great Khali. Taker and Batista controlled a good portion of the match, especially Taker. He has been looking great on this latest return, and when the guy kicks it into gear, there is no doubt of his greatness. The match had some problems, like Henry and Khali not feeding Taker properly on the hot tag, but things went well. As Taker and Batista looked to have things in hand, THE WRESTLING GAWD hit the ring and led the monsters in a beat down of the champion and his challenger. JBL then stated that he may be retired, but he wasn’t dead and both of these guys were paying for putting their hands on him before Cyber Sunday. This came off well, and (SPECULATION) with WM looking to have Taker vs. Edge, HHH vs. Orton, HBK vs. Flair on tap, and Batista vs. Cena was looking likely, JBL could be coming back to face him at WM. We all know that things can and will change, but this angle was good stuff. I only disliked the DQ finish because we’ve been seeing a lot of it lately, but it worked in this instance, but would have meant more in a few weeks ago we didn’t have back-to-back Main Event DQ’s.

puRgatory:

Rey vs. Noble – Now this was a damn fine match, easily the best on the show. They got 9-minutes and went out there to entertain, and that they did. Noble was working extra hard, as he looked very crisp and I thought turned in the better performance. Overall, from just a “match” standpoint, not booking, that it was great stuff. Afterwards, Finlay, who was came out to the ring cut a promo saying that Rey was weak, a loser and a quitter. He also promised to beat Ret next week in their match. Now onto the problem that I have with this match. Yes it was good, yes Noble was awesome and really out performed Rey I thought, but the fact of the matter is that Noble has been booked to job hell and back several times. The three weeks leading to this match he wrestled three times, for a minute each and got jobbed the fuck out to Khali, Batista and Taker. NOW, Rey is booked and treated like a big star for the company, and with that being said Noble should not have been booked as strongly as he was against Rey. Rey is in a big feud with Finlay and should have been booked stronger than he was. And while Noble needed a strong performance, he shouldn’t have gotten one with Rey so soon. So while this was a great match, the booking of it lacked a lot of sense.

The Wrong:

MVP vs. Kane – Smackdown’s wrong’s this week come from a sense of repetition. The first one is Kane vs. MVP. This was set up from the shitty count out finish at Cyber Sunday, and the fact that Matt Hardy hasn’t been allowed to work. I then ask the question, “Why go back to Kane?” He seems more involved with ECW these days, and I would much rather have the wacky Matt/MVP backstage and contest stuff than Kane vs. MVP in the 345th rematch that nobody asked for. So they have a non-title match, which lacks follow up from the count out. Kane, you’d think would have earned another title shot. But he didn’t. They had the match, and I need to say that I did not need to see Kane try to sell that whole time. And the crowd was very non-responsive because they didn’t want to see “The Big Red machine” sell. MVP would miss the Kawada kick, and as Kane was looking to get the win Big Daddy V walked out to distract him. Kane then said fuck you, chokeslammed MVP and pinned him. That’s right, Kane was distracted, but was able to just ignore it and chokeslam and pin MVP, LIKE A JOBBER. MVP was made to look like shit here, and the US Title run of his has been extremely lackluster. Doing jobs like this is not helping him, because Kane isn’t being built for a US Title run, but gets to CLEANLY beat MVP anyway. This sucked on many levels. Big Daddy then beat down Kane after the match, so we have that to look forward to down the line. There’s nothing I enjoy more than watching Kane having the same shitty match with Mark Henry and or Big Daddy V. I hate life.

Kenny vs. Palumbo…Again… – Oh yes, Chuck vs. Kenny Volume 36. Now I understand that they were going to work a Palumbo vs. Masters feud, and now that masters is hurt they had to work something else. I get that, we have to rebook and regroup. Not a problem. But why do we have to go BACK to Palumbo vs. Kenny? They have done it to death and Palumbo has HUMBLED him every time out. Palumbo has beaten this kid and the feud was dead. But now they are going back to it, and it makes no sense because they were taking time to make Palumbo into something that people can care about, but now he is stuck in a rut. In neutral and not going anywhere fast. And the feud WILL continue tonight. And this sucks, because Palumbo is a big guy, has a cool gimmick, the people react to him, he has a hot chick with him and most importantly he is a winner. It was going so well, but they don’t know where the want to go with him, so he will toil where he is on the card. It’s sad actually, as he has worked hard but “WWE Creative seems to have nothing for him.”

The Ridiculous:

Coach vs. Foley – You know, I like a laugh as much as the next guy, when it is done well. That being said I am so over the Coach/Hornswoggle shit. They have been running on it for weeks, and sometimes it is funny, but other times it is painful to watch. They do this wacky stuff on Raw and they keep it there, and that’s fine for the most part. But now we bring the comedy train to Smackdown, and it, it sucked. First of all, we had Foley wrestling the Coach. THE COACH. And Foley needed HELP from Hornswoggle. They did the comedy stuff, but it was so sad watching Foley wrestling Coach, and getting help from a midget. I was just so sad, and t is official that Foley will do anything for money. This was a complete waste of time, I mean, God forbid we use the TV time that we have to build towards Survivor Series, you know, one of the biggest PPV’s of the year! It was just sad…

Raw 11.05.07

So I really have to intro this week with a little shameless self-promotion. Please check out http://www.dewmocracy.com and take a moment to register for and play the on-line game. The game is kind of a neo-Zelda kinda deal and voicing the hero character ostensibly named “Nobody” is none other than yours truly. There are seven levels of the game overall, another level being debuted a week or so at a time, so be sure to return! For brevity’s sake, I’ll provide a link to the Variety story explaining the point of the site and, thus, the game:

It’s a cool concept and I’m happy and proud to have been a part of it, especially when I beat out like ten professional voice-over artists to have been chosen by such a respectable Oscar-winner like Forest Whitaker. Hope you enjoy!

The Right:

Are you ready? – Normally this would have made me reeeeally tired and I’d have complained that this was valuable TV time that could have been spent on better, more constructive, less egomaniacal situations, but, 1) considering that everyone on the Rawster made it onto tonight’s show (with the exception of THE HIGHLANDERS, who are pointless and Brian Kendrick & Paul London, who were kidnapped from SD! and have been absolutely shat upon since moving to Monday, as I predicted) and 2) Raw really only ever centers around six guys anyway, these being two of them, I say whatevz.

The rebirth of DX varied in quality and one’s enjoyment of their shenanigans pretty much depended upon how much one liked DX to begin with. Notwithstanding, what we got tonight was pretty much the best of both sides of DX. The super-sized skit to kick off the show, granted, went waaaaay long, but was absolutely and thoroughly entertaining from start to finish. Horny Bastard McMahon appealing to his half brother-in-law to join the gang was fun (especially the short-arm scissors!), as was the consultation of the run sheet. HBK coming up from under the ring after The Boogeyman pulled him under, complete with worms in his mouth (EW!) was hiLARious, as was Ol’ Smiley saying, “I’m The BOOGEYMAN…and I…wanna join DX…!” Friends of The R’s recall my utter and absolute disdain for Boogey, so for me to find good in anything he does is quite a statement (the fact that such statement could be “I had two martinis at The Abbey before the show” is beside the fact). And only DX could turn Khali face, as they sic him on Coach the party-pooper with a HASSAN CHOP!

Jokes of the night? HHH – “Yes, that’s a midget between my legs.” I’ve always wondered if HHH’s eventual autobiography was going to be titled, “Pedigree of a Champion: I’ve Had the Biggest Heads in the Industry Between My Legs”.

HBK – “I don’t know who writes this crap, but this is the worst debacle since that Katie Vick thing!”
HHH – “No one writes this crap…they’re all on strike.”
That exchange was so gloriously loaded. I don’t know what kind of a laugh the Writer’s Guild strike received elsewhere, but here in LA, it was perfect. All in all, a hell of a fun segment!

DX book ended the show (excluding a forgettable segment featuring Larry’s personal diuretic, Mr. Fat Oily Dancer Guy and a couple of whores from some TV show in the middle) by taking on the team of Randy Orton and Yoo-MAN-ga. I’m not going to start in on how Umaga, the supposed Samoan savage who doesn’t speak a lick of English and barely comprehends the structure of a match can manage without a handler and function so well in a tag environment (hell, I’ve often wondered how a Samoan savage ended up with a grill on his teeth…). This was just a damn fine tag match that managed to both give some closure to the DX thing that was interrupted by HHH’s untimely injury, as well as keep things rolling between HBK and WC Orton. Some may bemoan the fact that DX went over clean, but it makes sense considering where we’ve gone since. Coach has since made the following concessions for their SURVIVOR SERIES rematch for the title: 1) If HBK uses Sweet Chin Music, he’s disqualified; 2) If Orton gets DQ-ed, he loses the belt. Larry’s been quite vocal (and quite rightly) over WWE’s overuse of PPV DQ finishes. THIS is how one uses such DQ finishes to the best advantage; had WWE not been abusing the DQ finish previously, this would be absolutely commendable. HBK winning here could also be an omen that Orton will retain.

Open the can of the ass whip and stomp the mud pie – Holy cow, how awesome has Santino Barella become on the mic?! There’s really not a lot to say about this segment because we all knew what was going to happen and we’ve seen it all before, although the return of the beer truck was surprising. Hey! Anheuser-Busch is one of my company’s longest-standing clients…where were my comp tickets?! This was built well over the weeks and the pay-off was there in spades. Laughs all around and a great advertisement for “The Condemned”. Everybody wins, especially those who’ve always wanted to see Maria soaking wet and the fans opposite the hard camera who got the free beer when the hose kinda stalled. Well done!

One traditional SURVIVOR SERIES match coming up – We had a hell of a nifty inter-brand tag match tonight featuring Jeff Hardy & Rey Mysterio versus Kennedy & Finlay, planting seeds for the upcoming multi-brand traditional SURVIVOR SERIES match. I got money that says HHH survives. These guys all work tremendously well with one another, as proven here. Two solid matches on Raw on a night with two extra long skits…I had a great night to report on my least favorite brand! Friends of The R’s know how irritated I’ve been in the past with respect to blurring the lines of the almighty brand split, but it’s obvious there’s not going to be an end to it, so why bother complaining about it, Right? If we continue to get quality matches like these, fine, whatevz. BTW, I was really impressed with the continuity between Rey and Jeff…does anyone know if they’ve ever tagged together before? I don’t think they have…little help?

Speaking of the other Hardy – What a quality promo video for Jeff Hardy tonight! Larry and I have discussed the proper and improper use of such videos ad nauseam here in The R’s for years, and, for the record, this is the way to go with these things (as opposed to the endless stream of videos featuring Jesse & Festus on SD!…talk about ad nauseam!). I really hope McMahonagement is getting behind Jeff as a main eventer. I’ve been a fan of both Hardys since Kane was throwing them out of the ring when he first debuted, because if a performer can bump as well as they can, there’s likely a lot more going on there if the performer is given an opportunity. Let’s pray Jeff can keep himself Well and see how high his star can rise (prays for simultaneous duel Hardy World Champions!).

Beth Phoenix gets her Glamazon on – Wow, poor Kelly. Beth beat her so bad, she knocked the other Kelly off her. I’m putting this in the Right because the already-slim women’s division has taken a major blow (make your own joke) with the injury to Candice Michelle and they have to be scrambling to keep Beth on TV in a meaningful way. I have to admire Kelly for going in and taking even just a couple moves considering she’s a non-wrestler and I’D be scared to do the same against The Glamazon. It’s a real shame the only other woman who can wrestle on Raw, Jigglin Hall, is also a heel. I wonder if Micelle McCool could pull double-duty and run a quick fill-in program…? BTW, because I’ve been SO hard on Candice Michelle in the past (make your own joke), I really want to commend her commitment to improving her craft as well as her all-out bravery. She’s really come a long way and I hope she’s healing up and well.

It’s all about the Moolah, baby – Speaking of the women’s division, we lost the Queen this week, which saddens me greatly. I remember the days of Rock & Wrestling, where the delightfully disgraceful Lou Albano managed Moolah against Wendy Richter, managed by Cyndi Lauper. Moolah was wonderfully despicable as the untouchable champion, opposite Richter, who was like the unofficial Von Erich sister. Backed by my favorite female singer of the day (Cyndi was my first concert back in the day…freaks unite!), in my world, the women’s title match was the pivotal story that first WrestleMania Sunday afternoon at the Bakersfield Convention Center, viewed on glorious Closed-Circuit TV. Moolah was wonderful then and she has been since. I wish I’d seen more of her early matches, because I know she was one of the toughest women to ever step into a wrestling ring…probably more so than several of the men! It’s always a shame when we lose someone, especially when we lose someone of Moolah’s caliber. If there’s one silver lining, it’s that she lived a long, full life and we didn’t lose her to Wellness issues. And we still have my favorite, Mae Young. We had an ultra-classy video tribute tonight commemorating her career, and that was the Right thing to do. God bless Moolah’s soul.

purgatory:

Sacrificing one for another – Never mind the somewhat cookie-cutter match. Let’s look to the bigger picture. I’m so behind the pairing of Hardcore Holly and Cody Rhodes I don’t even mind that Holly was inexplicably ripped off SD! so that it could happen, because I truly believe in Cody. What bothers me about this situation is that we’re breaking up Lance Cade & Trevor Murdoch in order to get them over, when Cade & Murdoch, a damn fine team, has never really had much time at all in which to shine and reach their fullest potential and the ONLY reason is because of poor booking and poor planning. That’s an absolute shame. Besides, what in the world are these guys going to do on their own? We may see Cade finally ascend to this mock-HBK gimmick, but where does that leave Murdoch? It’s a shame, but let’s hope Cody ascends as a result of all this.

You know how to have saved this segment? – Have “Joey” go nuts and beat the shit out of Snitsky AND Carlito and watch him rise to superstardom. The fans would have marked big time. So I does this mean we get Carlito/Snitsky now? Joy…the saving grace of this segment? It’s brevity.

The wrong:

NADDA~!

The Ridiculous:

Son, this is gonna hurt you more than it hurts me – Is there ANYone who’s gonna buy SURVIVOR SERIES for Khali versus Horny Bastard McMahon? Does anyone even want to SEE this? It’s crap like this that “Ridiculous” exists for.

Why I’m not upset the skits went so long – Because if all they had left in their hat was to humiliate Charlie Haas and Shelton Benjamin in a bodyslamapalooza contest against the most random team ever in Super Crazy and Hacksaw Jim Dullard, then they may as well have given DX another five minutes and spared us the pain. Seriously, the reprehensible misuse of the considerable talent in Raw’s tag division is one of the reasons why I so casually view this show.

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

ECW 11.06.07:

The Right:

Honoring Moolah – All too many times I complain when WWE doesn’t honor people that pass in the business. But I am glad to say that they did the right thing on Raw and then here on ECW. The video tribute was a very well done piece, WWE at it’s finest in the video department. Very classy to be sure, and I am glad that they did it. Good work WWE.

Punk vs. Morrison – I was REALLY tempted to place this in purgatory this week, REALLY tempted. The best description of the match is that is was the Reader’s Digest version of a really good 15-minute match. Basic first minute, short heat segment, hot last three minutes. Reader’s Digest. Miz came out, distracted Morrison and he lost to Punk with a roll up. Now while I hated it being so short, it did server its purpose. WWE.com has announced that Punk will defend the ECW title at Survivor Series against both John Morrison and the Miz. From a booking standpoint it makes sense, Miz did challenge for the title, he and Morrison have a history together and Miz laid it out before the match. It works, and I will be lenient and go right for this.

puRgatory:

Burke vs. Moore – Young Elijah had a match this week, and he got to face Smackdown goof Shannon Moore. They had a match, it went two and a half minutes, Elijah looked great, Moore sold great and Young Elijah got another much needed win to continue his roll. But of course there is always an issue, isn’t there? And that is that the match got no time. They just threw matches out there, using the horrendous 5-match formula that loathe. If you just throw matches out there with no rhyme or reason, and give them no time people won’t care and then no one gets over, and that is never good. While technically there was nothing wrong with the match, constantly running matches for the sake of having matches gets no one anywhere, it’s just stuff, white noise, and that isn’t good.

Noble vs. Nunzio – Much like the above match, this was one where Noble needed a win to start to gain some credibility. After a great showing with Rey last week he dominated Nunzio, who always works hard and has solid matches. Noble got the win he needed, and hopefully this will be the beginning of a roll for him as his character has been outstanding as of late. But of course there is always an issue, isn’t there? And that is that the match got no time. They just threw matches out there, using the horrendous 5-match formula that loathe. If you just throw matches out there with no rhyme or reason, and give them no time people won’t care and then no one gets over, and that is never good. While technically there was nothing wrong with the match, constantly running matches for the sake of having matches gets no one anywhere, it’s just stuff, white noise, and that isn’t good.

Layla vs. Kelly – Now, I will say that this, from a storyline standpoint made sense. The Miz promised to make Kelly’s like a living hell and he admitted that he was the one that booked the match with Beth on Monday. So we’re good there. But having Layla and Kelly having a match is a BAD idea. The match was only a minute was completely shit. Nothing but a catfight, and Layla won with A BODY SLAM. Is this 1950? Granted, it played into the injures from Beth, but come one! Miz and Layla look to add more beat down on her, but Balls made the save. So good storyline continuity here, but horrendous wrestling. I would complain about the lack of time for the match, but the one minute was plenty for me thanks.

The Wrong:

Kane vs. Mark Henry – You know I saw this match on October 26th on Smackdown. I didn’t really like it then. It went 3:00 minutes and Kane beat Henry clean in that time. The baby face won clean, with his finisher in 3:00. I have no need to see this match again. But thanks to ECW, we got it! They had a match, it was basically the same as the last one with the change of it went 4:00 and Henry got DQ’d. he then laid out Kane with the World’s Strongest Slam onto the chair, and this feud MUST CONTINUE~!

The Ridiculous:

The Five Match Formula – Good lord do I hate the five match formula. They just threw matches out there, using the horrendous 5-match formula that loathe. If you just throw matches out there with no rhyme or reason, and give them no time people won’t care and then no one gets over, and that is never good. While technically there was nothing wrong with the match, constantly running matches for the sake of having matches gets no one anywhere, it’s just stuff, white noise, and that isn’t good. If you have been a follower of the R’s you will know that this has been a rant of mine for Impact and ECW in the past. The 5-match formula for a one-hour show doesn’t work. Nothing gets the appropriate time and everything on the show feels rushed as hell. I hate when the one-hour shows try this, it never works and doesn’t add to my enjoyment of the show. FOR SHAME ECW…FOR SHAME!

The VKM defeated The New Movement @ 3:39 via pin (DUD) TRASH of the night!

The Naturals defeated Sonjay Dutt and Jay Lethal @ 8:30 via pin (**)

TNA X-TITLE MATCH: Christopher Daniels defeated Chris Sabin@ 13:29 via pin (***½)

Hoyt and Killings defeated Austin Starr and Alex Shelley @ 11:11 via pin (*)

Christian Cage defeated AJ Styles @ 15:56 via pin (***¾)

NWA TAG TEAM TITLE MATCH: LAX defeated AMW @ 9:28 via pin (**)

NWA TITLE MATCH: Abyss defeated Sting to become the NEW NWA CHAMPION @ 15:30 via DQ (**)

Kurt Angle defeated Samoa Joe @ 13:42 via Submission (****½) MATCH of the night!

The Right:

The Importance of words… – There are times when we cringe at promos, or times that they are fine but we just don’t care about them at all. But then there are times that they really add to the shows and angles and we love them. At the Genesis show there were some damn good promos on the show, so we shall discuss those here.

Later in the show Mitchell again got promo time, he enlightened us that when Sting was on top as a true ICON, he was full of sin and vice and that this never leaves a man, and that is something Sting fears. He told Sting that Abyss represents the inner darkness Sting tries to battle every day, and Abyss will make Sting open up those feelings again and question his inner self and all of his beliefs. He then promised that Sting would gain knowledge and freedom through the defeat and that he would thank embodiment of evil (Mitchell) and Abyss, the next NWA Champion. Tremendous work by Mitchell here who ALWAYS delivers huge on PPV promos, and these set the stage perfectly for what they did later, even if it was Russo-riffic.

Daniels vs. Sabin – The X-Division was damaged very badly through the Nash stuff and it needs rebuilding. Senshi and Sabin had back-to-back great PPV matches. Daniels and Sabin then followed up with another great title match on this show. While the booking leading to the PPV was Russo-riffic in that there were three title changes in 4-weeks, things seem to have settled for now, and that is a good thing. Daniels and Sabin went out there with a plan, and that plan worked. Sabin as a heel is working rather well. The one thing the X-Guys forget is that they have to tone down while a heel, and Sabin did that. The best example was when he teased the big dive, stopped, crawled through the ropes and gave Daniels a double ax smash. Very smart and cocky heel stuff here. Great match and the result worked well as Sabin still looked good after the loss.

AJ vs. Cage – Honestly this is a match I have been looking forward to since Cage joined TNA. I had a feeling that a match between these guys would be a damn good one, and lo and behold it was. While there wasn’t the build many would have wanted, the match delivered the way I expected, even if they looked like they were holding back a little, which is fine. They got close to 16-minutes and went full throttle for most of it. They had great chemistry, continually countered each other and had some great stuff like the super RANA in there, to make it memorable. AJ always seems to deliver on PPV and as I have said, Cage is just on a completely awesome roll since the heel turn. I would love to see a rematch down the line, as I think they could continually deliver in a long-term feud. Great match.

Tough shit Dr. Phil, it looks like we’re having AJ vs. Daniels again! – And those matches lead to this. Some people are complaining that they are looking to go back to AJ vs. Daniels. They think it was overdone and that it doesn’t need done again. While I can see the argument these people have, I think it is fine. These guys will always have a great match, they always deliver and that ALWAYS has a place on the card. They had a great feud when AJ was the face. They had a great three-way feud with Joe and AJ was the face. They ended up teaming together when Daniels became a face and had a great run and feud with AMW and LAX. Now the feud has evolved from hate, to respect and admiration to hate again, but this time AJ will be the heel. I am ok with this. I said it above and will say it again, the X-Division was damaged very badly through the Nash stuff and it needs rebuilding. Senshi and Sabin had back-to-back great PPV matches. Daniels and Sabin then followed up with another great title match. While it is repetitive, AJ and Daniels will deliver again in this feud. To me this is the natural evolution of things, and I for one never get sick of great PPV matches. Daniels, Sabin, AJ and Senshi will probably become the focus in the coming weeks and months. AJ will have to go through Rhino as well I figure, but the division should be back on track and it will be at large to AJ vs. Daniels. They will deliver, I will love it and will eventually make a great compilation DVD from it. Sit back and enjoy kids, it will rock.

Joe vs. Angle – This match totally delivered and was a fantastic match, one I loved. It closed the show on a good note, and also makes you want to see more since Angle refused to answer Joe’s rematch request. I feel that this is a MOTY candidate, not the match of the year, but a strong contender. This was a brutal encounter to be sure and Angle was out there to prove a point that he could still go and he accomplished that. Joe was out there to prove that he could hang with the big dog, and he did that as well. Joe was brutal early on as he slammed Angle head first to the security railing. This continued as Angle was bleeding profusely and eventually took the muscle buster, which Angle survived. Angle went on the attack and got the Angle slam, only for Joe to kick out. They did an Angle/Benoit like reversal of the finisher sequence, which was great, and the crowd was rocking the whole time. Eventually Angle got the ankle lock and grapevine, and in a huge moment Joe tapped. After the match he admitted to tapping to the better man, on that night, and demanded a rematch, which he got no answer for.

Some are saying that this ruins the undefeated streak, that it was wasted and makes TNA look bad because a “WWE” guy beat Joe. In the end, it was flat out a great match, a great atmosphere and a ton of fun. These guys do have a great chemistry already and if they have the rematch, which they will eventually, I think that it can be even better. Some will question having Joe lose here, but the fact is that losing to Kurt Angle is nothing to be ashamed of and Joe was elevated, to the common fan, just by having such a great match with Angle. That is what is important. If they rematch, which I think they are next month, Joe will win and they can separate for a while and have the rubber match when one of them has the title, and then they can have a more extended feud and that will create great matches, and I am always ready for great wrestling.

The wRong:

Where was 3D and Rhino? – So where was Team 3D? The answer is Japan, but that is a problem. Not because they had the booking, but because of how it was played off. They had Douglas and the Naturals cutting a promo before their PPV match. They had a broken table there that read, “TEAM 3D was here.” The thing is that they should have buried Team 3D and said that they beat them down so badly that they couldn’t be here. It was simple and an effective way to put the beating and the Naturals over as dangerous. Instead they had Douglas admit that they had another booking. Yup, Team 3D had better things to do than to gain revenge on the Naturals. Tremendously wrong.

I know Rhino was on the show, but is that really the best they could do for him? Not even a promo regarding his own future? I mean, seriously his only role was to tell Dutt and Lethal to piss off and to play Dr. Phil for AJ and Daniels, because he didn’t want to see them war like he and Cage did. Why does Rhino give a shit? He is a man beast, out for himself and on a losing streak. He should only care about himself I feel, and it came off as odd. Maybe next month we will see Cage and AJ vs. Rhino and Daniels, which wouldn’t be a bad match I suppose.

The Ridiculous:

Killings and Hoyt vs. Shelley and Starr – Yeah this was bad. Let me see if I can explain this simply. You had two guys, Starr and Shelley, showing a ton of charisma and character working a ***** match. On the other side you had two guys, Killings and Hoyt, one with charisma, both of them walking through a -*** star match. Hoyt has shown some signs of being good on some shows, but was horrendous this evening. Killings looked totally uninspired and just there for the pay, which is ironic since they got to win the match. I have never been this bored watching Shelley or Aries/Starr EVER. This was just a bad match that the crowd was almost never into, and rather silent. Bad, just bad.

But it gets worse. They have this match on right after the kick ass X-Title match. Then they have Nash come out there and try to be funny, which he was to a point. But in essence he is just burying the division. That is just so bad, especially after that kick ass title match that helped do so much for the rebuilding of the division. Also the finish of the match, while playing into the angle of dissention and eventual face turn for Shelley, was ludicrous. Shelley hits this great frog splash, and then wants the camera brought to ringside so he can get filmed doing the finish of the match. This is just amazingly stupid, I mean, does he not have TIVO? Were the TV quality cameras there not good enough? Can he not pick up a free copy of the DVD when it comes out? Oh wackiness.

The RUSSO-FN-RIFFIC~~~!:

Debuting factions must war…or…TNA Presents DX-Lite! – Dear lord this is just so, so bad kids. First of all let’s look at the VKM. On one hand they want to create WAR with WWE and then now they are mocking DX. It just feels so desperate and forced. But that is not the major problem here. Kids, let me enlighten you to some “INSIDER” information. When you create a feud, you need to ask yourself two questions. #1, how will this feud be paid off (as in the final result) and #2 will this make money. Those are the two important questions really. Let me answer those questions in regards to this angle. There is no pay off and it will make NO money. It is monumentally stupid, because maybe you should focus on focus on your own show and company. But that is too much to ask.

Here is the other issue, WHY did they have to face the New Movement? Seriously, were Elix Skipper and David Young too busy? Christ Almighty, I mean, can no one else see the stupidity here? The New Movement has just debuted and have been buried back to back. It makes no sense, it lacks logic! Also along this line, this is JUST LIKE DX vs. Spirit Squad. Handicap matches, complete burial included. Horrendous. The ONLY good thing about the whole thing was the angle afterwards where Raven returned in his early 1990’s EVIL VIDEO GAME BOSS gear and proceeded to cane Devine, who jobbed in the match. I loved it because he didn’t speak and just beat him for losing, as this will be a slow build of this new faction.

Robert Roode – You know I said last month that it was ridiculous that they had Roode’s big debut and manager unveiling on the PPV Pre-show. It made him look like a joke, totally not important and was a waste. So they take the time this month to hype him all month, they have him make it into the Fight for the Right tournament, and he even gets to beat Christopher Daniels. And then they go right back to putting him on the pre-show, in essence burying him again. I just don’t see how this shit gets out of the booking meeting.

But maybe we should be glad this wasn’t on PPV, because this was bad. The match wasn’t good. Young looked like he got knocked loopy half way through as they blew some really basic shit late in the match. I have seen a few matches from these guys and they were always fine but this one wasn’t, which surprised me and that is why I think Young got knocked loopy.

Roode won @ 3:50 with the feet on the ropes, but the match was restarted after the fans and Eric pleaded with the ref and then Eric Young then won with his feet on the ropes @ 4:50. In true Russo-riffic fashion Roode yelled at Brooks and teased more dissention playing up on the last time they were on Impact, but that doesn’t make it any better.

Stripping LAX – First of all the match wasn’t that good. It wasn’t bad, but there was a ton of miscommunication in the match and it was a disappointment in the end considering the level of matches LAX have had, and what AMW have done. It just wasn’t good and they lost the crowd. LAX eventually won when Homicide hit Storm with the blowtorch and got the pin. Then Jim Cornette came out and gave a promo saying LAX was EVIL…the heels mind you are evil, and since they were EVIL, Cornette STRIPPED THEM of the tag team titles of the world. The fans HATED this as well. How sad is it when the HEELS get stripped of the titles and the crowd chants BULLSHIT! Let’s think about this, you stripped the heels of the titles for BEING HEELS! This is so dangerous due to LAX being so hot, and is such a Russo move. He loves the title changes because they create BUZZ~! Just a bunch of bullshit really. Maybe LAX can sue Cornette and get a title match in an “Affirmative Action” match, where LAX only needs a 2 count to win. DAMN MEXICANS! Although there is humor in the Evil Foreigners using the US legal system to defend their rights to bash the United States.

If you do not educate and you do not alter the product, you get the NWA Title match – I see what they were trying to do here, but all of the crap with the repel line is what killed it as it took forever. In theory it was a good plan and Mitchell’s promo’s set the stage. He promised that he would make Sting change his ways and turn to the dark side for lack of a better term, and in the end he did. Sting took the bump into the thumbtacks, which was VERY surprising. He hulked up and went wild and tortured Abyss. Sting continually shoved the ref down and in the end, the ref rang the bell for the DQ. They went back to the old DQ rule for title changes, which they have not used in a while and is a nice nod to continuity for the promotion. There is one major problem here though, well more than one considering all of the wild shit they did during the match and there was no DQ for. The biggest problem with this finish is that they have never educated the new fans on and old ones probably had forgotten about the rule. In essence the rule is fine, because you can bring it out once in a blue moon and have a title change without the pin or submission to protect the losing champion. But as I have said, you cannot expect this to work when the fans don’t know about the rule. The last issue is that Abyss was laying in a pile of barbed wire and broken wood, having his ass kicked and laying there with the title. VIVA RUSSO…yeah.

Closing Thoughts:
So, where to start. The under card, some of which had potential, was very under-whelming. The VKM stuff is just DX-lite to a horrible degree, but I like the return of Raven and the potential his new movement could have. The X-Title match picked things up, as Daniels and Sabin had a really strong match. Unfortunately the crowd was deflated by the next match, and Nash while funny continues to bury the seriousness of the X-Division. AJ and Cage delivered in the ring, but once again the after match angle is questionable. The tag title match was a let down in the ring, and the stripping of LAX is a dangerous, and Russo-riffic move. Sting vs. Abyss was solid, but way too Russo-riffic. The title change on a DQ is fine, if you have educated the fans to that rule. Add to that the usual TNA main event and it comes off as totally confusing. The Angle vs. Joe match totally delivered and was a fantastic match, one I loved. It closed the show on a good note, and also makes you want to see more since Angle refused to answer Joe. In the end I will go with a 6.0 out of 10 for the show. While there was a lot of Russo-riffic booking, you had three matches (AJ vs. Cage, Daniels vs. Sabin and Joe vs. Angle) that were just great matches, and made the show worth it to me when it comes to great matches. TNA really needs to make themselves different from WWE, and when they do that they are great. AJ vs. Cage, Daniels vs. Sabin and Joe vs. Angle; all great matches with good stories and matches and angles that were given time are all different from WWE and were outstanding. The other shit was very WWE and well, not done well at all. Hopefully they can see what really worked and start booking toward that instead of all the stupid shit they are doing. Or not.