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Falls
Count Anywhere
02-21-06
(Thursday Night RAW)
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You've
got a little something on your lip, there...
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SmackDown!
I didn’t see all of it. Sorry, I had a birthday party
to go to.
Rey Mysterio
had a match with Sylvan Grenier and ended up dragging a
really good match. The match was solid, especially since
Rey was great. I think this feud with Orton is only going
to do him good if he ends up winning the title at Mania.
Orlando Jordan
lost fast to The Boogeyman. I love his gimmick. I hate his
wrestling, but he’s got a great gimmick. He ended
up finishing second in Best Gimmick in the Wrestling Observer
Awards and Second in Worst Gimmick in the same awards. Makes
you think…
I saw Gregory
Helms fight Scotty 2 Hotty and it was a solid match. Gregory
Helm’s offense is solid, but his push isn’t
nearly as strong as it should be. Scotty got a lot of offense
that looked good, but Helms looked better. Helms used Jericho’s
old posing cover, which I used to love. Helms won with the
Shining Wizard. The other cruisers came out when Helms started
to take out Scotty. That’s the last I saw of it.
No
Way Out
Watched the PPV on Fast Forward. For a while it was a good
thing, but it ended up that the last part of the PPV was
as good as most of the TNA PPVs when it comes to in-ring
action.
The Boogeyman
beat Simon Dean fast. The crowd was not hot for this at
all. Not in the least. This would be a theme for the night.
Pump Slam won it for Boogeyman.
The Cruisers
had their little battle royal thingee and Helms managed
to retain the title. Lots of fun action in this one, though
it wasn’t very crisp at times. Helms does that Fireman’s
Carry into a Neckbreaker in a way that makes me think that
he’s going to hurt someone some day. Kendrick and
London worked some fast near-falls. Kash and Psicosis work
really well together, which I think may be because they
worked together for a while a couple of years back. Kash
hits his finisher, but SuperCrazy hits a Moonsault to break
up the pin. Kash and SuperCrazy roll out and Helms covers
to win the match. I liked this and the crowd wasn’t
as into it as they should have been.
JBL and Bobby
Lashley had a match that went way long and ended up with
the crowd way against this match. The sad thing is they
have something with Lashley, but they need to book him in
short destructions and not in real matches. True, it did
take Fit FInlay to hit Lashley with an object, but Lashley
shouldn’t be losing right now.
They
brought back Batista and had him talk to the crowd. He got
a nice reaction. He says that he’s coming back and
he’ll win the title. I hope he will.
MNM took on Matt
Hardy and Tatanka. This was a decent match that got the
fast forward because I had better things to do than watching
a match with so little heat for good work. Tatanka gave
Mercury the Samoan Drop while Matt gave Nitro the Twist
of Fate for the win, but not the titles, for some reason.
In the
first of the great matches, Booker T and Chris Benoit had
a really great match. This was better than any of the Best
of Seven series matches. These guys go back and forth so
well. Booker’s forty, but he’s still going strong.
Long sleeper hold section, Benoit eventually gets out of
it with a back suplex. Booker and Benoit exchange chops…a
lot of chops. Not quite NOAH with Kobashi and Sasaki level,
but a lot anyways. Big and pretty superplex by Benoit. There’s
no one who does those better than Benoit. Well, maybe Dynamite
Kid.
After
a while, Benoit manages the Sharpshooter, but after Booker
almost makes the ropes, he changes his pitch up and goes
for the Crossface for the tap and the title. Really good.
In a night with three great matches, this was probably the
second best.
Randy
Orton pinned Rey Mysterio, but not all is as it may seem.
This match had heat that matches its position, but not enough
to justify the path they took to get it. Big time ‘Eddie’
chants. Lots of what you’d expect from these two,
including the Hip Toss by Orton that becomes a Bulldog by
Rey. Randy worked over Rey’s arm, which is an old
WCW Rey vs. Dean Malenko trick.
Lots
going on, and it was so good I didn’t take notes.
Great spot where Randy goes for the RKO, but Rey dropkicks
him instead. Rey goes for a 619, but ends up with Orton
moving, leading Randy to roll-up Rey and put his feet on
the ropes for a pin. I’m betting they’ll end
up doing the Three-Way at Mania and then having him win
the belt. Even if it’s just for a night, it’ll
be a good story.
For
thirty minutes, Undertaker and Kurt Angle had a smart match
which started slow but ended up as a match that felt like
a Main Event Title match. Kurt’s bounced back from
his low last month and UT can still go if given enough of
a reason. Kurt worked on UT’s knee in the early part
of the match. It really didn’t get really good until
UT sent Angle to the outside following a couple of European
Uppercuts. UT worked the neck on the outside. Undertaker
went for a legdrop, but UT’s knee gave on him and
Kurt grabbed an AnkleLock on the outside. They work on the
outside for a bit, but then they get in and UT manages to
get a triangle choke.
They
go to the outside again and it ends up with Angle slamming
‘taker’s face into the barricade. UT comes back,
but Angle manages to give Undertaker the AngleSlam through
the Spanish Announce Table. Wow. The guys are great in there,
easily the best match the two of them have had in the years
they’ve been working together. UT kept going to the
top, and Kurt kept finding a way to thwart him, including
a Belly-To-Belly off the Top!
After
that, the hottest section of any match I’ve seen in
ages begins. Undertaker starts going for Chokeslams, and
the first time Kurt managed to turn it into an AnkleLock!
By this point, I’m thinking about UT’s best
matches ever (Shawn Michaels in Hell in the Cell, his matches
with Bret Hart and Mick Foley) and thinking that this might
be the best of them. Big Chokeslam manages to take Kurt
out for a near fall that looked like it was 2 and 7/8ths.
Taker went for Last Ride and Kurt slid off and turned it
into another AnkleLock! Whoa!
Taker
manages to get to the ropes, but Kurt pulls him to the center
where Taker kicks him off. Angle gets another AnkleLock,
but Taker kicks Angle until he lets go. Undertaker gets
the Triangle Choke and it’s almost like Angle is about
to tap, but then Angle rolls and ends up pinning UT. Holy
Wow! This was better than Samoa Joe vs. Daniels vs. AJ Styles,
not as good as Joe vs. Kobashi, and probably the best UT
match I’ve ever seen. Great, great, great stuff.
RAW
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