SmackDown!
I didn’t see it. I’ve been reading about it and it seems that they’re really in trouble, The Mark Henry trying to rip open the cage was edited so that it wasn’t the embarrassment that it was in person. They’re pushing Mark as the next challenger for Batista, which won’t draw as people were laughing at him at the end of the angle and he’s never been a big deal when he’s been pushed. He’s had exactly one good match that I can think of (against Angle) and he hasn’t had a good angle since the Mae Young thing, which sucked at times but was funny at times.

As far as the rest of the show, I didn’t see it, but I hear that the Benoit vs. Randy Orton match was pretty good. The JBL vs. Matt Hardy Falls Count Anywhere Match was too fast but pretty good for what it was. They are also pushing a Boogeyman vs. JBL feud, which is among the worst ideas they’ve had in years. They had a nice rematch between Kid Kash and Juventud that I did get to see part of. I think Kid Kash could be a big deal if given the right push. Juvy was fired this week too, though the other MexiCools are still around and there are actually plans for them, which is good.

There’s another great thing that happened: Ken Kennedy is back and did some announcing, which is great. He’s a talent and even though he’s hurt, he can still be a figure. They did the same thing with Randy Orton and it worked to get him over when he came back.

Overall, I’m hearing that it was a show that was poorly booked.

I run Boogeyman pictures because I just can't believe the bit. The guy at right looks ridiculously happy.

TNA Impact
The show opened with Team 3D(udleys) taking on Buck Quatermaine and Lex Lovett. This was basically a squash. The most notable thing was that D-Von came out without a shirt and I never noticed that he was really ripped. They worked over the jobbers and then won with the 3D. They got the mic and they said that they won all the Tag Titles and they’d trade them all for the NWA titles. Nice touch. Their mention of the WWE Tag Titles got good boos. TNA is really trying to use the old ECW formula and it seems to be working.

They had various wrestlers talking about Sting and how much he meant to them. They started with Sonjay Dutt, but they had guys like Chris Sabin talk too. They also had a thing where they had Jarrett and his cadre of friends in the back and Scott D’Amore came out and said that he had a letter from Jacky Gayda and that he peeked. Gail Kim got upset. They then set up them making fun of Sting.

Apolo and Homicide took on The Naturals and got DQed. This was lame, though it did set up a feud for The Naturals, it also just sucked.

Ron Killings took on Bobby Roode. This ended fast with a roll-up for Killings. I was in the bathroom for most of the match itself. They then have Scott D’Amore say they want another match, and Killings rolls him up again as he goes for the Hockey Stick. They then call for another match and Roode jumps him when Killings chases Scott. Roode wins with the Northern Lariat.

Austin Aries, Roderick Strong & Alex Shelley vs. Christopher Daniels, AJ Styles & Chris Sabin met in a great match. These guys are so solid and it’s obvious that they should be the ones carrying the promotion and not Jarrett and his hangers-on. AJ is the top draw, especially in sales of DVDs, but Daniels is such a great worker, as is Aries. And Shelley. And Strong. And Sabini. OK, they’re all great. This match was the best TV match TNA has done ever and this was as good, if not better, than any of the Shelton vs. Angle and/or Michaels matches. Lots of fast action, tons of big moves and dives. Shelley ended it with a Flip Diamond Cutter off of the Ropes. Wow.

They then did the worst skit in ages. They basically have Jarrett’s flunkies come out dressed as Sting from various eras. I hated it. Luckily, they had Christian come out and that led to Team 3D and Rhino came out and that led to a brawl. A good ending, but the prelude to the brawl was suck.

WWE’s New Years Revolution
I managed to catch that great promo from the amazing Kurt Angle. Basically, they’re giving up and turning him face…sort of. He said that he could talk about anything, make fun of anyone and the people would still cheer him. That actually got cheers. They may be getting an idea of how to effectively use Kurt now that he’s in this period of his career.

They had Ric Flair and Edge meet in a bloody match. The match was OK, pretty basic because Flair, as good as he is at what he does, just can’t really go anymore at the pace the crowd wants. Ric put Lita, who interfered a bit, in the figure four and Edge hit Ric with the Briefcase for the DQ. They gotta get the IC Belt off of Flair, and now that they’ve turned Benjamin mostly they can give it to him.

Kind of reminds me of prom night.

Mickie James lost to Trish Stratus with the Chick Kick. This was a basic match, slightly better than most women’s matches. They obviously plan on this going on as they had a promo bit later when Mickie was hitting on Trish. Well, there have been far worse women’s angles.

Jerry Lawler took on Gregory Helms. The crowd could have cared less that there was a match going on. There was a time when Lawler coming out for a match would mean at least a better than average pop no matter where they were. The match moved well, mostly because it was Lawler laying out the match. Gregory Helms managed to get himself crotched and The King Fist Dropped him to a win. That got something of a pop, but really, this match was dead. They didn’t build it, and with another couple of weeks this could have been a nice little feud.

OK, it’s time to say it: HHH sucks when he has no motivation. He put out no effort when Big Show blew up badly. This match was slow, terrible, and just kinda sucked. HHH might have at least tried to do something, but he had no reason to because he doesn’t have the belt.

It may also have something to do with the fact that Stephanie is preggers. That’s right, Little H is on the way! There’s talk about Steph leaving the writing team in a few months for a while while she has her baby.

They had a Shelton vs. Viscera match. Shelton managed to win. Wow. This was followed by Ashley winning the Bra and Panties Gauntlet match that really sucked. At least Ashley also stripped to her B&P after the match. She’s hot. This was nice eye-candy.

They had the Big Elimination Chamber match which I thought was really good, though nowhere near enough to make this a show worth watching. John Cena was booed hard. He didn’t look happy and it was also obvious that they weren’t going to be giving him the win here. HBK and Cena open and they go at it really well. Cena’s not much in the ring, but Michaels brought it, better than recently. Carlito is the next in and he attacks Cena and gets a BIG reaction. Then he gives Shawn a plancha. Carlito looked really good here. Not great, but solid.

Angle comes in and gets big heat. He’s the face! There was no way they could avoid it so they decided that he’d be a face, at least in this match. And, not long into the Angle tenure, HBK hits the Sweet Chin Music and pins Angle. WHAT? Why IN THE HELL did they not have Angle stick around for at least another ten minutes. If he’s hurting, that’s understandable, but they needed to give him more time.

This kind of reminds me of prom night, too...

Really, after Angle getting pinned, this match bogged down. It was good, but really, the crowd was out of it and turned on Cena because it was obvious that he was going to the end. If there was one thing that this match managed to do, it was give a series of big pins to Carlito. After having jobbed a lot the last few months, including some very good matches, he got to pin Kane, HBK and Masters. Carlito, who the crowd kinda got behind, was pinned by Cena with a roll-up. Wow, what a bad ending, though they decided to give Cena a meaningless win while Carlito was the star. I was happy with the match, I really was, but it was a bad PPV.

Oh, and it wasn’t over. Vince came out and said that no one could leave because there was another match. Edge had his Money in the Bank Title Shot. He got his match and Cena was all bloodied up and Edge beat on him a bit. Gave him a Spear, but then Cena kicked out and Edge did it again and finally got the pin. Wow, they did that in 1993 with Hogan and Yokozuna and it kinda worked there, but they had a much hotter heel to go to than Edge. Still, I think Edge isn’t a bad choice and they had to do something about Cena’s reactions of late. Angle should be pushed as a face, but they won’t do that either. Still, they can move forward with an untested draw as champ after having taken the belt off of a proven draw. Let’s see what happens.

Injury News
Batista tore his triceps on a house show. He was working hurt. Now he’s going to have to take time off and they’re going to have to get the belt off of him. They’ve done too much damage to Randy Orton over the last few weeks to make him work. No clue what they’ll do.