Falls Count Anywhere

02-08-07

After all, it was you and me.

Wrestle Society X Rating for Friday was a 0.5. That doesn’t sound very good, but it’s .1 higher than the previous week. That’s a good number. The one issue is how does showing the new episode 4 days before it’s scheduled to air affect the Tuesday rating? Last week’s was a 1.0, which is a great rating, and if they can keep it above a .7 there’s no reason to think that they can’t do it like that once in a while, but the odds are eventually it will start to hurt the Tuesday ratings.

RAW
We opened up with The Undertaker coming out. He got a great reaction. He usually does, but this was even better than usual because it was live. That brought out all the Champs: Cena, Lashley and Batista.

If you look at Lashley and Batista, you’ll see that while they were once on par with one another in the physique department, now Batista is much smaller. The Undertaker made it official that he’d be fighting Batista, which I think is the wrong choice as they should be having Cena in the Main Event. Michaels came out and said that since UT had made his choice, that Cena needed an opponent. That brought out both Edge and Randy Orton to say they deserved the show. Vince set up a three-way between them to settle the matter. After that, Undertaker kept staring down Batista and then gave him a ChokeSlam. Interesting opening.

Chris Masters teamed with the World’s Greatest Tag Team (one of these things is not like the others…) to face Cryme Tyme and Carlito. Carlito worked harder here than he often does. JTG is a little smaller than a lot of guys and that allowed Haas to toss him in a beautiful Overhead Belly-to-Belly Suplex. Carlito came in and hit a Double Springboard Elbow! That was awesome! Masters went for the Masterlock on Carlito, but he got out. Carlito rolled up Haas, but Shelton hit a BlockBuster and that allowed Haas to pin Carlito. Good stuff.

Vince said that Trump would be showing up next week. It did not get a very positive response. Vince got great heel heat earlier for saying that he wasn’t going to be dropping money from the ceiling.

Umaga destroyed Balls. It was all a part of the ‘Vince Hates ECW’ angle. I’m not impressed.

Super Crazy and Johnny Nitro had a fast match. I love the Melina entrance, even when Johnny Nitro stands in the way. They’ve never given them full reign to do all the stuff they did in OVW, but they’re slowly getting over. Mickie James came out with SuperCrazy. It was a short match. Nitro had the advantage until Mickie James tripped him. That allowed Crazy to get some offense. Crazy went to the top for a Moonsault, but Nitro ran up after him going for a BackSuperplex. Crazy elbowed him a few times and then used the Moonsault to get the pin.

She's trying the "put up your dukes" ploy?

They followed that up with Melina and Mickie James having a match. It was a sloppy match. James isn’t the type of wrestler you want out there with someone who isn’t really a wrestler. You put her in there with Victoria (and book Victoria to look like a Bad Ass), and you might get a good match. She’s got charisma, but she’s not a good worker.

Jeff Hardy beat Ric Flair to hold on to the IC Title. At one point, they played up a landing and had Flair work over the leg. Hardy still managed to get the Whisper in the Wind and The Twist of Fate, but Flair moved when Jeff went for the Swanton. Flair stomped him a little and went for the Figure Four, but Hardy small packaged him and that ended up being the finish. Good stuff.

Kenny Dykstra lost to Bobby Lashley. This was a boring match.

Ric Flair is the man. He ran into Carlito and Torrie who were leaving before the Main Event. He said that Carlito was a guy without passion and that he’d never make it because he was leaving before the Main Event. It was a great verbal beat-down and the crowd got it, too. It was a great promo and I’m really hoping that this is the legit start of a push for my man Carlito.

In a great match, Shawn Michaels won the shot at John Cena at WrestleMania by beating Randy Orton and Edge. This was such a good TV match that it made me forget about the lousy TV matches I’ve watched of late. The guys worked really hard and told a good story. The Randy-Edge dynamic really pays off in matches like these. There was a lot of escaping finishers early. Edge went for a Spear, but Randy leapfrogged him. Edge was about to get the RKO and he weaseled out. Michaels twice had to pull up on Sweet Chin Music. Just great stuff.

Edge hit Orton with a Spear when he was going for Michaels. Michaels then managed to hit the Sweet Chin Music on Edge and pinned Orton for the win. That brought out Batista and Undertaker to the stage and Michaels and Cena stared them down from the ring. Really good ending.

The WWE’s on something of a roll. Money’s being made and people are talking about it again. I’m seriously thinking that John Cena is the man who’s making it all happen. He’s everywhere on the shows, gets OK ratings and even has a funny Subway commercial. He’ll never get Hogan-type respect because he’ll never draw like Hogan (at least not for a decade or so), but he’s a star who is really helping them turn things around.

You already heard about Wrestle Society X on Thursday, so go and read that! I was far more interested in watching the Soapbox Derby Episode of The Simpsons and the rerun of Wrestle Society X than I was in slogging through another ECW show. So sue me!

I’m off until next Thursday (I’m goin’ to Texas!) so I’ll see ya then!

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Chris Garcia