Falls Count Anywhere

06-24-05

Last chance, ladies...

SmackDown!
The show was built around hyping a Rey Mysterio vs. Eddie Guerrero match, so they opened with a video package about the two of them. It was pretty good and it built to the match nicely.

Randy Orton came out and did the Legend Killer Promo that he’s so good at. It wasn’t his best, but after a while, the crazy light flicker happened and then UT’s victory over Orton showed on the TitanTron. This led to the lights coming back on and Undertaker being in the ring. Orton high-tailed it out of there, and one of those cool in-door lightning bolts struck next to Randy. That was cool.

MNM’s Mercury took on Heidenreich in a bad match. MNM’s entrance is still really good, though they could play it up even more. Melina is also the hottest woman on SmackDown! whose first name isn’t Joy. The match was going along and as payback for last week, Michelle McCool came out and attacked Melina. This got a little heat, unlike the match.

With the ref trying to separate Michelle and Melina, Nitro got in the ring and Superkicked Heidenreich, allowing Mercury to get the win. MNM will be huge stars if Melina keeps her head and doesn’t let all the diva stuff get to her. Backstage, she complained about ‘...that second-string diva’ attacking her and made a match with McCool for next week.

JBL went to Theodore R. Long and said that he should make him champion. Teddy said that he’d have an announcement on that later in the show. This was a good idea, but they simply should have had Teddy say something like “I’m working on the situation and I’ll have an answer next week” and then have Batista debut. They’ve made good moves, but they should make it about the GMs actually getting people to sign instead of just making it seem like random luck.

Actually, that IS kind of cool...

Chavo Guerrero and Paul London were having an OK match when Mexicool (who on the writing staff is obsessed with the word Cool?) debuted, riding what they called their Mexican Limo, a riding mower. They attacked Chavo and Paul London both, and they got an OK reaction, but the gimmick is they are there to take over the Cruiserweight division. They own the right to the LWO, why don’t they use it?

JBL came out and cut a good promo that was a bit too long. It was like a HHH promo without the intensity. Booker and Benoit and Big Show came out and there was a great line where Big Show said that they could either have a Fatal Fourway for the belt, or Show, Benoit and Booker could have a Triple Threat after they beat the hell out of JBL. Nice line. This brought out Teddy Long who said that there would be a 5 way match with the four guys in the ring plus The Undertaker. Then Muhammad Hassan’s music hit and he and Daivari came out and started ranting. Teddy added him to the match, and all the guys beat on Hassan. This led Teddy to make a match between Hassan and Big Show.

The Hassan/Big Show match wasn’t good, but they did manage to get Hassan Ref bump, attempted interference from Matt Morgan and a chair shot all allowed Hassan to get the win.

Rey Mysterio did a great interview talking about attacking Eddie and how he was out of control. He said it was a side of himself he didn’t know was there. Eddie said that Rey doesn’t know what he’s capable of. The match between the two of them was really good, though they’ve had better. In fact, I doubt they’ll ever be able to recapture the magic they had at Halloween Havoc ’97. That was just too perfect.

Rey tried to make it fast and Eddie simply slowed it down, rolling out of the ring and taking breaks. It’s a good storyline. Rey hit a plancha early in the proceedings. Let’s of great back and forth, with Eddie working a brilliant heel style. He’s got an idea of how to work like a heel and here it worked. He did a Full Nelson with his back to the ref, allowing him to turn it into a choke. Nice touch. After Triple Verticals, Eddie missed the Frog Splash, which allowed Rey to hit the 619 and then the Springboard Dropkick for the win. The crowd was way into the match and I’m a big fan myself.

NEWS
Not too much. It’s been said that Trinity has given her notice to TNA and will be in WWE before too long. This, along with CM Punk giving in and heading for OVW to work his way into WWE, makes WWE’s future look a little brighter. From what I’ve heard, they are also interested in Tracy Brooks. These may be happening because TNA is in danger of extinction. If there is no TV soon, and the PPVs stay at their current low-levels, petty much everyone thinks that they’ll fold. That is one of the reasons you hear folks talking about with the signing of Samoa Joe. If TNA goes under, they won’t be able to enforce his contract, so he’ll be free and have a fanbase that will follow him. Nice thought.

There is a lot of talk about Matt Hardy. The tease on Monday with his music was seen by many as a shot at a wounded man, but many have noted that the WWE seems to be on a grabbing movement and could have signed an agreement to bring Matt back for a big feud with Edge. There’s no question how much heat that would have, and it’s known that Matt has a signing at the same time as the PPV this Sunday, but there hasn’t been any mention of what he’s up to on Monday!

Preview of Vengeance
There is no question that Vengeance will be hugely over-shadowed and outsold by One Night Stand. HHH will not be happy when his latest main event comes in under 350k buys. It’ll be lucky to do 275k. Overall, the show is pretty stacked with matches and some of them could be real good. Then again, these same matches could be real bad.

Let the beating begin!

Victoria and Christy will have a match and I’m very interested. They’ve turned Victoria into a stone cold (pun intended) killer with no remorse. She’s also gotten great reactions for beating on Christy. Christy is a terrible wrestler and should never be in the ring. If they just give in and have Victoria beat the living crap out of Christy, you know, have her take a ton of big moves and beat on her with chairs, and then have Christy manage a small package to win, that could work. The crowd will turn on this fast if Christy is allowed too much offense. Still, I’m betting Christy gets the win and Victoria gets the moral victory by beating her stupid.

The IC Championship match will be interesting. There’s a big plus to having Carlito around, as he can talk, has a great gimmick and isn’t bad in the ring. Shelton is great in the ring and is very athletic. Carlito is injury-prone and Benjamin’s style is very physical. If they keep it safe, they’ll have a really good match. If Carlito gets hurt, this one is doomed. Still, I’m looking forward to it and hope that it will feature Carlito going over with another of his sneaky wins while at the same time giving Benjamin a lot of room to shine.

Kurt Angle vs. Shawn Michaels has a lot to stand up to. They had a great match at WrestleMania, perhaps the best match of the year and maybe the best WrestleMania match since Austin vs. Bret in 1997. Kurt walked out on top of that one and I don’t think there’s any way that Shawn wouldn’t get his win back here. This should be exceptional, if they give it enough time and if the guys’ injuries allow them to have a great match. Every time anyone questions how many top-rate matches these guys have left, they come back with another legendary performance. I’d say that this will go 15 minutes and take the cake for match of the night. I’ll also figure that Kurt and Shawn will take it slow to start and then unleash big moves at the end. Shawn wins with the Superkick, though it should end up open enough that the two can have a third match with some sort of stipulation (I Quit, 2 of 3, Falls Count Anywhere, etc) so that they can draw with a bloody brawl as well as with great wrestling.

Kane vs. Edge will obviously end with Edge getting a squeaker win, but beyond that I don’t know. I’m looking forward to Lita getting involved, and likely taking the Tombstone in a post-match.

The WWE Title match is interesting from a number of angles. Christian had been building for a match with Cena when folks thought that Christian was going to end up on RAW. Jericho recently turned and has some heat for his act, which is basically the same as Andy Kaufman’s old ‘I’m from Hollywood’ gimmick. Cena is hot, probably the top draw the WWE has right now. Christian is a great worker who has had good matches, but usually with other good workers. Jericho has had many great matches, including some with terrible workers. Cena is a bad worker, though he has a couple of good spots. There’s no way they are going to have him drop his belt now. I imagine it’ll end with some kind of Jericho costing Christian the win spot which allows Cena to hit the FU for the win. This could be ugly, or it could be great. Time will probably be short for them.

This is the main event that has little to no chance of success due to a number of issues. A lot of folks know that Batista is headed for SmackDown!. A lot of folks know that he’s headed there with the belt. Logically, there’s little chance of The Game winning the belt since they’ve staked a lot on Batista as champion and his reign still has legs.

That’s why I’m going out on a limb and saying that HHH is going to win the match and the belt then jump to SmackDown!.

The WWE has proven that they listen to the net ramblings of crazies like me and Rick Scaia and Arnie Katz and others. We’re all saying that Batista will go to SmackDown! With the belt and make everything right again. Except the real issue with SmackDown! is the lack of a top heel as well as the lack of a belt. Having HHH win it and then be the final pick has the potential to fix both those gaps. Sadly, I think that they could do far worse things than have H make the move with the belt, but that would also devalue Batista so badly that he’d just about have to beat Cena fast to keep any heat and there’s a match that will totally suck and Cena, the top draw right now, can’t afford a loss like that. The WWE’s business is turning a corner and they have a chance to fix one show (SD!) at the cost of the other (RAW). I’m saying HHH wins.

That’s all I’ve got for this week. On Tuesday, there’ll be more!

Talk about today's column in the forums!

Chris Garcia