Falls Count Anywhere

04-19-07

Mine's an LLC.

A Little News
The WWE crew that was in Italy had a scary moment when the charter they were on had its engine catch fire. Luckily they were on the ground when it happened, but still it was scary. A lot of times on the international tours they have plane trouble. There was the flight from India where a lot of the guys thought they were going to crash into the Himalayas, and the England flight where Flair got into a lot of trouble. These things happen.

UFC is in talks with HBO. What it means is unknown, but it might be regular UFC fights on pay-cable, which could be good.

Melina and Nitro are in better standing with the company at the moment. One of the reasons has been Mick Foley standing up for them. It’s interesting that these two are such difficult cases as I’ve talked to folks who’ve worked with Melina and they say she’s a nice girl. Most point out that Nitro probably wouldn’t have half the heat with folks backstage if he wasn’t with Melina.

Kurt Angle was hurt at a house show before the Lockdown PPV. No word on how bad it is. I’ve only seen bits and pieces of the pay-per-view, but the booking was terrible for the blindfold match and the Electrified Cage match, but the Jerry Lynn vs. Christopher Daniels match was even better than I’d been told.

No word on RVD’s contract status. TNA wants him bad, and he’s talked about wanting to go, but the WWE money is so much better and they might make him a star again. The big signpost will be how he’s treated at the ECW PPV.

RAW Notes
Didn’t see the whole thing, but I have to admit that I like these International editions of RAW. The one from 1997, where they had pieces from shows in England and South Africa, was one of the better episodes of the WWF’s down period.

They opened with The Coach who jawed a bit about making Cena vs. Edge and Orton. Then he introduced Mr. McMahon. He talked and brought out Umaga. He called up a ‘fan’ to take on Umaga. The fan’s name was Santino Morella. Strangely, he made it across the causeway without getting shot. He had Umaga on the run with some sloppy offense that the crowd was into. Vince then said it was No Holds Barred and Umaga went on a rampage.

Lashley ran out and hit Umaga three times with a chair and hit a spear. He put Santino on top of Umaga and the pin was counted making Santino the IC Champion. This was strange booking, but the crowd was into it. I want to see where it goes.

The only way Benjamin and Haas seem to be able to get a win is when they face guys who are being seriously de-pushed. This time it was Carlito and Flair. Carlito blew a spot with Haas near the end and Benjamin got the T-Bone for the pin. Carlito wasn’t happy with Flair and Torrie after the match.

The problem here is that Carlito is a big talent and could be a real star given a real push. Look at what he did when he first came in against Cena. That character was cool and the matches weren’t great, but he was working with Cena. Benjamin is an athlete and a half and should be getting a bigger push. Haas is nearly on the same level, though his look isn’t great right now. These are guys who need to move on, go to TNA or even Japan and make bigger names for themselves.

Cena was shown on the screen with Michaels and he got heavily booed. That’s surprising since the Foreign audiences tend to be nicer to Cena.

Johnny Nitro squashed Eugene. There was nothing to it.

They introduced an Italian announcer who hosted the Diva Fashion show. Since they were in Milan, the fashion Mecca, they really blew it by having the girls come out in totally non-fashion clothing. Except for Maria. She looked awesome. She really could have been America’s Next Top Model. Torrie for the win.

Jeff Hardy lost to Lance Cade in a match that Hardy was strongly controlling. Cade’s a big deal and could be a star in many promotions, but he doesn’t have the charisma it takes to make it as a top WWEan. Jeff was going for the Swanton, but Murdoch caught his attention and Cade managed to lift his knees and later win with a Lariet. This wasn’t a bad match, and it does set up Cade and Murdoch for a title challenge.

The last piece I saw was Masters vs. SuperCrazy. The two of them were really over with the Italian crowd. It was weird when the crowd did the Ring of Honor dueling chants for both guys. SuperCrazy did some flying, and Masters wasn’t bad either. Crazy went for some sort of roll-up, but Masters turned it into a Wheelbarrow Suplex for the pin.

That was all I saw before sleep hit me. I hear Cena was booed even more in the main event. The WWE didn’t put on a great show, and the booking has slipped a little, but it was impressive. You can tell they did something right because of the reaction to Crazy and Masters. When guys like that get a strong reaction, you have to think the company did something right.

That’s all for this week. More on Monday!

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Chris Garcia