Falls Count Anywhere

01-24-06 (Smackdown)

Buy me! Buy me!

There’s word that The Big Cat, Ernie Ladd is going in for surgery, though I’m not sure if it’s related to the cancer he beat a year or so back.

RAW
I didn’t get to pay as much attention as I should be paying due to dealing with the remains of my week-long illness, but I thought there were some good things going on.

They opened up with an Edge trailer pushing him hard. In a way, this reminds me of the time they were pushing HHH hard as champion. This seems to be working faster, though I’m sure there’s still a bunch of fans who don’t buy into Edge yet.

They had Kane wrestle Carlito. They’re obviously having Carlito as the next big heel because they only gave Kane a DQ win over Carlito, which is rare nowadays. It wasn’t a long match, but it was OK. Carlito could be the future if they keep booking him strong like they have been. He needs to make a strong run at the Rumble.

There was a very good and long match between Shawn Michaels and Shelton Benjamin. Their match last year was better, mostly because Michaels wasn’t as hurt as he obviously is at present. They did a great spot playing off the finish from their other RAW match where they had Shelton springboard off the top and Shawn went for a SuperKick, but this time, Shelton caught him and did the WhipKick. Nice!

Lots of great stuff here, enough to make me pay attention through all the tissues and NyQuil. Benjamin did all his stuff, and the two of them ended up on the top with Shawn going for a SuperPlex, but Shelton sent him to the outside. Just a strong match. Shelton did a leap up to the top rope as Shawn was getting ready for the Flying Elbow and gave him a Snap SuperPlex. That was really cool.

Sadly, the whole Shelton’s Mama thing is not going to make him the star he should be at this point. There was real heat here too, which is a very good sign, and the crowd seemed to build as the match went on, which a lot of folks will take to mean that the two of them understand how to ‘work Main Event." Everyone knew that about Shawn but Shelton was always said to not understand that concept.

This just seems ...wrong...

I missed the Coach vs. Jerry Lawler. Team Spirit came out, which I really wanted to see. I love the Team Spirit (Male Cheerleader Team) concept, but I don’t think it’ll work for the guys with the crowd.

Big Show threw out a bunch of glorified jobbers (Gregory Helms, Lance Cade and Rob Conway) in a match where if any of them had managed to eliminate Show they’d have gotten into the Rumble. Why do that gimmick and not slightly elevate one of those guys? They all have some talent. They could all use the win, even if it’s just pushing him out over the top. It was a waste. They need to cut Helms and either cut or push Conway.

HHH did a promo saying that he was through doing favors for guys and wouldn’t be teaming with Edge. This may be making the first signs of HHH vs. Edge at Mania with H winning. He said that it was all about him now. Like we didn’t already know that.

A fast main event of Edge with Chris Masters losing to Flair and Cena. They must have given up on Masters mostly in favor of Carlito because he was obviously in the match simply to do the job. Simple finish that was a little transparent. Masters got the MasterLock, but Flair chopblocked him and that allowed Cena to get the STFU for the submission.

They’ve held on to the concept that good shows will help draw interest to Edge, which is not a bad way to do it. They’ve given Shelton a dumb gimmick, but they’re having him do really good matches. I hope this works out in the end.

That’s all for this week. Now I go and try to get better.

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Chris Garcia