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Falls
Count Anywhere
05-21-04
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I'm
yawning in technicolor.
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Welcome to Falls Count Anywhere! My name
is Chris and I’m in a bit of pain…
SmackDown!
(Note: I have the stomach flu. It makes watching SmackDown!
more difficult. That said, between fits of bathroom breaks
and siding into sleep, I managed to digest most of UPN’s
Thursday Night offering. Let me say this: it was a fair
show, and having written the rest of this column before
it got really bad, please forgive me for the brevity of
the following…)
SmackDown!
was odd. Even though I couldn’t get to all of the
show, I did get the sense of what they were doing and found
things that I liked and things that I thought were odd.
I had read a report on the internet that Vince McMahon is
looking at SD! as a breeding ground for extreme gimmicks.
It showed on this show featuring Booker talking about his
FooFoo Dust and Mordecai having a match…or more aptly,
an entrance and a squash.
The
thing I liked about SmackDown! in 2002 was that it was the
wrestling show. For the most part, that is now not the case.
That said, there were good things. The way they are trying
to intro Kenzo Suzuki is much better than Hirohito. The
gimmick might have worked, but they would have had to kiss
Japan goodbye.
The
opening segment with Eddie Guerrero talking about the blood
and the match with Layfield was strong. I like the characters,
even if the fans have not fully bought JBL. The Kurt stuff
is getting a little repetitive, but it still works, due
to his charisma. The feud’s going to continue, and
that might be a good thing. If they can make Layfield into
a solid heel, the feuds he pulls after Guerrero will be
better. The medical check before the match was a nice touch,
and the way they ended the match with Eddie getting pinned
after going into “shock” was a nice touch. It
was fun. Rey was a bump machine and RVD was good. I love
the ‘what the hell is this’ look that Layfield
uses anytime something happens.
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Wrong
finger to illustrate what's going on with Smackdown.
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The Mordecai and the Booker T matches were
squashes. That was the best I can say about them. They should
build these guys with these kind of matches and then unleash
them on real feuds. The Mordecai character is OK, but he’s
got a hell of an entrance. Akio took one of his clotheslines
with that amazingly fast flip bump. The teaming of Akio
and Kidman was a little weird. Funaki is a strong announcer.
I love his bits. The fact that he has a character is great
makes him able to job anytime and not really lose his heat.
The Cena vs. Dupree match was a slight blur,
but what I managed to see was solid, though nowhere near
the level of the match at Judgment Day. They are working
Dupree right, but Cena looks to have plateaued. He’s
not going forward, but he is still connected to the fans.
They need to give him a real top of the card push. That
would, of course, require a real heel.
The whole show played out, but there were
some major sections that weren’t memorable, and there
was a lack of major forward momentum. They need to work
that out and make it a progressing storyline instead of
just a show that plays off the heat of the recent PPV.
NEWS
Jerry Jarrett, Memphis legend and TNA promoter, was rushed
to the hospital before the show on Wednesday for an elevated
heart rate. He is still in hospital, though he’s improving.
RAW was back up this week to a 4.0. Thank
God.
This
week, The National Enquirer has a piece on Hulk Hogan and
his Palatial estate.
Sting has made noise about wanting to get
into the WWE. The reason is probably money, but you never
know. I imagine he and Shawn Michaels would have a lot to
talk about. I’m still not sold on the concept that
having Sting, a perennial face, added to the mix would help
anything.
There’s word that folks backstage
aren’t happy with Shawn Michaels. This is nothing
new.
FlashBack!
Ric Flair is one of, if not THE, all-time greatest wrestlers.
I recently found one of my tapes of old Flair matches and
gave it a watch. Here, for your amusement, is my list of
My Personal Top Ten Ric Flair Matches.
10) Ric Flair vs. Ricky Steamboat from the
Meadowlands, 1984- This might be the first time I ever realized
that Flair was just amazing. The match was really good,
especially when Steamboat got a chance to sell, which was
his strong suit. I actually enjoy this one more than the
better matches that were the highlight of wrestling 1989.
There was a certain air of the future when these two tied
up back in the old days.
9) Ric Flair vs. Mike Jackson from the TBS studio in Atlanta.
I told ya’ll all about Mike here
and I can say that this is truly the best match ever to take
place in the TBS studios.
8) Flair
vs. Sting at the first Clash of the Champions- I talked
all about this match here
so don’t make me type it again.
7) Ric Flair vs. Shawn Michaels from Prime
Time Wrestling 1992- Flair was in his legendary WWF run
and he took on Shawn Michaels. Michaels wasn’t yet
a major star, as I believe it was one of the last times
that he was wrestling as a part of the Rockers, but the
two had a real good match that featured Shawn doing a plancha
onto a cameraman!
6) RODDY PIPER, BUDDY ROSE & BRETT SAWYER
v RIP OLIVER, ED WISKOWSKI & THE ASSASSIN- This match
was Piper’s return to Portland after his surgeries
on his thumb. This is a wonderful match that is pretty hard
to find. I remember seeing it for the first time in the
early 1990s and just being blowed away.
5) Flair vs. HHH from RAW last year- Emotional
and well-thought out, this is likely the last truly great
match in the man’s career. Of course, now that I’ve
said that, he’ll have another classic.
4) Flair / Arn Anderson / Tully Blanchard
/ Lex Luger / JJ Dillion vs. Dusty Rhodes, Nikita Koloff
/ The Road Warriors and Paul Ellering in the first War Games
/ The Match Beyond- What a classic match (which was also
the subject of my first FlashBack) and one of my personal
Flair faves for his perfect selling.
3) Flair vs. Terry Funk from Troy, New York,
1989- This was the match most responsibe for ECW and all
the hard core brawls of the 1990s. Terry was at his peak,
after having been over it for about 5 years, and Flair was
amazing.
2) Flair vs. Kerry Von Erich- The famous
match where Michaels Hayes was the ref and Terry Gordy slammed
the door on Von Erich’s head to start the Von Erich
vs. Freebird feud. Amazing even 20 years later.
1) Easily the one that I could watch over and over again without
pause: Flair vs. Curt Hennig in the Loser Leaves the WWF match
from an early RAW in 1993. I missed most of the early RAWs,
but this one I saw all the way through. It was the first match
that I can remember that went through more than commercial
break. Flair was on his way out, but they put together this
fantastic match that just blew me through the wall. Great
stuff.
That’s all for this week. More next.
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