Falls Count Anywhere

04-12-05

Let me adjust the tinfoil...

RAW (Well, kinda…)
So, my complex’s cable above 21 went wonky and I could only hear RAW to a degree over the static. I heard that there was some good talking, and the crowd sounded into it, but until Wednesday, I won’t get a chance to actually watch it. On Friday, I’ll give you all my opinions on RAW with sound.

Let me say this, the HHH vs. Hurricane and Rosie match sounded pretty cool, as did having Michaels wrestle Daivari (the picture came back to a degree for the Hassan intro and the start of the Michaels match).

Shelton and Jericho had a nice verbal sparring match that I heard. There didn’t seem to be much crowd reaction until Shelton used the “I can use my fists to make more hits than the last Fozzy album” That’ll be a fun little feud.

I hear that Lita and Kane made out, too. Wow.

NO CABLE?!?

Even without the picture, the Michaels calling for Hogan to be his partner against Daivari and Hassan was great. I got picture back for most of Benoit vs. Christian. This was a solid match and they seem to be building to Edge vs. Benoit again, though they are also talking of moving Edge (and with his Money in the Bank briefcase, they could do it smart too). The picture went out again, but you could tell that the audience was into it.

NEWS
Well, Rhyno was actually released and so was Matt Hardy. The Matt release is an interesting one. He had all the issues with Lita and Edge, so they could have moved him to SmackDown!, but apparently that wouldn’t have solved the problem (there is news of sending Edge that direction being talked about). Dropping him because of the issue with Lita and Edge is shaky because it’s personal issues invading work and ultimately Matt could say he was fired because he broke up with Lita.

Matt has a 90 day non-compete, and there are already those who are reporting that TNA has came to terms with him.

The WWE has responded to the Lesnar Lawsuit, saying that he has no grounds. They make a good case, but the odds are they’ll come up with a plan that either allows Brock to come back or to work Japan.

The Ultimate Fighter Finals
OK, I admit that I was hot and cold on The Ultimate Fighter. I liked the fights for the most part, I hated the Judges’ decisions. Southworth should have gotten the draw against Bonnar, and I thought there were a few other really bad calls. Still, the finals were highly entertaining.

They opened with a lot of footage from throughout the show. Most of the footage was dealing with the Leben/Koschek sitch and other fun things. The fights from the show were OK, and some were downright great. This night just blew everything else away.

Diego Sanchez just beat the hell out of Kenny Florian. He slaughtered him. I like every show to have at least domination, and this was it. I had no question that Diego was going to win, but he also looked better than any other Middleweight fighter I’ve seen in ages. He will do well in the UFC and I am betting he’ll have the Middleweight belt before the end of next year.

The first MMA fight I ever saw was the UFC where Severn ran through the competition before having to tap out to Royce in a great match. The first UFC PPV I went out of my way to see live was the amazing Frank Shamrock vs. Tito Ortiz match in 1999. I watched the Sakuraba vs. Royce Gracie match which went 90 minutes and ended the Gracie myth. Stephen Bonnar vs. Forrest Griffin was a war, an amazing war that I thought was easily the best MMA match I’ve ever seen. These two just left it all in the Octagon. They threw bombs and worked hard on the ground. These two were so perfectly matched.

And the whole way through, all I could think of was the fact that Stephen Bonnar is not in Forrest’s league. He’s got a great look, but he’s not nearly as ring or position smart as Forrest. Forrest worked above himself, but he was a notch below and that’s why he didn’t get the decision. Dana White then said that Bonnar would also be getting a contract, which I understand, but he’ll fare far less well than Griffin will in the Big Pond.

Rich Franklin beat Ken Shamrock in about 2 minutes. He just wailed on him with 19 unanswered blows. 19. Big John McCarthy stepped in and that was that. Ken Shamrock still draws, but he’s not on the level he was in 1994 and 95. Rich Franklin is the next big thing in UFC, probably going to be right at the level of Diego Sanchez when he hits it big.

So, this was a Grand Slam show that will be high on the list for Best Big Show. Another thing that I want to point out was that Team Liddell won both fights. I also pick Liddell in the match with Couture coming up.

The one thing this show does do is sets the UFC in great position to get real TV. They’re solid for another season of The Ultimate Fighter and the FOX specials are likely to continue. The thought that SPIKE might bring them on in some way is there and I am betting that SPIKE might be willing to bring them on since they get a different demographic than wrestling and are considerably cheaper to deal with.

That’s all for today. A better review of the tape of RAW I’ll get tomorrow and news and a look at SmackDown! and a little discussion of what happens next with the UFC.

Talk about today's column in the forums!

Chris Garcia