Falls Count Anywhere

05-23-06

Admit it. You missed me.

SmackDown!
I missed the last couple of weeks. I was busy, so sue me! I did read a lot about it and I found that it sounded like they were building to what looked like a hit or miss typical PPV and they were very busy devaluing Rey Mysterio.

But like I said, I didn’t see it so I don’t know.

NEWS
ECW on Sci-Fi. That’s right, in another attempt to make me happy, my two true loves wrestling and science fiction come together in June when ECW starts showing on Sci-Fi on Tuesdays. I’m excited to see what they do with it and if it works. I’m betting in the short run it’ll do just fine, especially since they’ve got all sorts of people who are begging for it to come back. Sci-Fi is a weird network for it, but I’m happy.

TNA did a 1.1 last week, its highest ever. Incredible that it started so low. Still, it’s building some momentum, it would seem. I haven’t been watching The Ultimate Fighter, mostly because this year’s crop sucks. I did manage to see Sumo: East-West, which is an excellent documentary about Sumo around the world and the rise of the Hawaiians.

Judgment Day
I wasn’t expecting much to come from the Judgment Day PPV this month. It just sounded like they were spinning wheels and not making much sense. Still, when I heard that it would be Finlay vs. Benoit, I was full of hope that maybe they’d give them ten full minutes to give us something good and maybe that would make the PPV worth it.

We opened with MNM vs. Kendrick and London. I’m not as into Spanky and London as I should be, but they’ve been having good matches of late. MNM has been in the dog house a bit lately, so much so that there were plans to pull the title from them at a TV taping first, and later serious discussions of doing it at a house show. Melina’s been getting heat for a relationship she’s had with Batista (though there are lots of folks who claim it is not the case), but she has certainly developed an attitude and was brought before Judge Undertaker who told her to straighten up and fly right. Nitro, who may or may not have broken up with Melina, has been distant in the lockerroom of late and isn’t well liked at all. This meant that the team had to be broken up, because people love Mercury and see big talent there.

The match was good, got more time than I expected and the crowd was really into it. Match ended with the break-up of the team and Spanky getting the pin with a roll-up. The break-up happened after Melina and Company looked great and it’s a shame they’re broken up now. Melina and Nitro are headed to RAW, or so the rumors go.

In the match of the night and one of the best matches in ages, Fit Finlay tapped to Chris Benoit. I’m not kidding; the guys got twenty minutes. That’s as long as many Main Events are nowadays, and they used every second. They built drama and made moves seem important. I’ve never seen a match that was better worked in the old-school European style.

Fit and Benoit worked a great match and Chris went over clean with the Crossface. What more is there to say? I’m sure this will be a match that hardcores will say was brilliant and casuals will say was slow. I loved it and you know where I fall on that line.

Just before the slap...

No one in the world could follow that match with a classic and get real heat. Melina and Jillian Hall had a match that I thought was pretty good considering who they were. Melina and Trish had a good match or two and Jillian…well, she learned how to wrestle and tried here.

Still, you wouldn’t confuse this for the match it followed. Hall got the pin with the Sunset Flip and Kristal, that interview girl, got to beat on Melina too. Later, Melina and Nitro confronted Theodore R. Long in the locker room and Melina slapped him. He then fired them, so they’re off to RAW (or perhaps ECW…)

SuperCrazy turned out to be way over with the fans in Phoenix. Chavo Guerrero, whenever they showed him, was also way over. I wouldn’t expect any less, because other than El Paso, nowhere was as into Eddy as Phoenix. Super Crazy lost to Gregory Helms in a decent match that I thought worked as well as the opener but won’t be nearly as well-remembered because there wasn’t that great post-match. Helms has a strong moveset, but lacks heat for many of his series. They can fix that, but it means getting more TV time and a better persona. Remember, he was way over as Hurricane at one point.

Smart angles can sometimes save terrible wrestlers. Kurt Angle, who is hurt, lost to Mark Henry via count-out in a match that wasn’t that bad and was certainly better than the one they had at the Rumble. Henry ran Kurt into the post and Kurt didn’t make it back in. After the match, Angle destroyed Mark, including giving him the Angle Slam onto a table and putting him in the Anklelock. The post-match made up for the match itself and presented Kurt, who is still hurting, as a threat to the title.

In a bit of booking that makes some sense but not enough to make me want to try it myself, Booker T won King of the Ring beating Bobby Lashley. Now, on one hand you’ve got Lashley, who is a legit future star and who has worked hard at his wrestling and is so much better than when he started that I almost think he was holding back in those days. On the other, you’ve got 40-plus Booker T who has been WCW champ, an IC champ, and has headlined shows and worked great matches with guys like Chris Benoit over the years.

Now, the smart money is giving the win to the guy who is young and almost ready for the big push, but there’s another idea where they give the win to Booker so that Lashley has someone to chase and a purpose and direction, which also has a lot of merit. Lashley worked a very good match, probably the best singles match performance he’s had on PPV. Finlay got involved and hit Lashley with the Irish Stick and Booker got the Axe Kick for the win. Booker put on the crown and sat in the throne (HHH must have loaned it to them for the day) and Lashley speared him right off of it.

While his ex-brother Kane starred in a movie, the Undertaker put up with this.

If ever there was proof that Undertaker should be beloved by folks as a guy who helps put over new talent, the loss he took to The Great Khali is the example.

Basically, Khali did almost nothing but offense, took no bumps, hardly moved and Undertaker let him pin him with one foot. While the match was almost nothing, he did a chop, a kick and then used the single foot of doom to pin him. He’s over as a monster now, but what happens if they need him to do a real match?

Rey Mysterio, despite everyone saying that he was going to drop the belt to JBL, pinned the big guy with a Frog Splash after a 619. The match was good, probably better than the ones they had a year ago, and there were tons of ref bumps and the like to make it look like JBL was going to win like he did over Benoit at Mania. The clean win by Rey rebuilt him a little, but I’m still saying that there’s gonna be a new champ in the soon and unless they see Booker as Champ material, I’m not sure there’s anyone but JBL that they’d go with.

Really good show punctuated by that Finlay-Benoit match.

RAW

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Chris Garcia