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Falls Count Anywhere

05-21-04

I'm yawning in technicolor.
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.

Wrong finger to illustrate what's going on with Smackdown.
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.

    Simply the best.

  • 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.

    Chris Garcia

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