Falls Count Anywhere

06-29-06

Falls Count Anywhere will now be runs on Mondays and Thursdays -- more wrestling means more Garcia...

The Awesomest Flying F.

RAW
Well, I was turned off by RAW’s middle section, what is really the most important section of the show.

It opened with Mickie James defeating Trish. It wasn’t a bad match, though I’d be hard pressed to call it very good. It was short and Trish was on offense early, until Mickie attacked the shoulder and then hit the Implant DDT for the win. Not a great opener, but at least they kept the women working on TV.

Melina then came out and said that Trish was old news and she was the new top Diva. This was an obviously scripted promo because she forgot what she was supposed to do and it looked bad. Trish attacked, but Nitro grabbed her and Carlito made the save. Interesting…maybe

Umaga beat Kamala bad. It was a squash.

Torrie Wilson came out and unveiled the new cover of RAW Magazine. Edge came out and said that if he didn’t get his match with the Champ, he was going to be leaving the show. Then he left through the crowd and ended up taking his t-shirt from a concession stand. Edge was really good and if this is the start of the REAL Edge push that leads him to becoming the next HHH, then it’s a good thing.

Cena then did a great promo. I’m not sure what to say about Cena right now. He’s been great on the mic, he’s worked his ass off and even though it hasn’t led to great matches, and he’s just been good since he lost the title. I’m not sure what’ll happen when he gets it back.

Lance Cade and Trevor Murdoch beat Val Venis and Viscera. Charlie Haas coming out and kissing Lillian Garcia allowed Cade and Haas to hit the High-Low. I like that they’ve given Haas something to do, but I’m not a big fan of the guy they’re programming him with.

They played Brooke Hogan’s music video and Randy Orton was all smiles over it. I’m guessing they’re subtly building to Hogan-Orton at some point.

It killed at the last family reunion, though.

The bogging down of the show happened when DX did the imitation spot where they pretended to be Vince and Shane. This wasn’t very funny to me, though H did a good Vince. DX really needs a Chyna. They need that third force behind them to make things work. This went on forever and it ended up with the Spirit Squad and the McMahons getting hosed with waste. Lame and you could hear a pin drop at points during the bit.

Then again, people got into the Stand Back thing that Vince did back in 1986.

Ric Flair did a great interview from his home saying that he was right all along about Mick Foley and that he was just a glorified stuntman. This was a great Flair interview, the type they didn’t let him do for a good long while. They’re really trying with this one and I hope the feud goes on for another little while.

Kane lost to Randy Orton after the Fake Kane came out and Orton used the distraction to hit the RKO. Kane then beat Fake Kane up, giving him several chokeslams including one on the top of the ramp and just destroyed him before taking his mask and sending him away. Oddly, I get the feeling that this feud isn’t over and we’ll be told that there was someone behind it all.

A No Contest between RVD and John Cena means that the belt stays with the ECW Champ. RVD was mostly heel, at least in reaction, and wrestled a solid ECW style. Lots of flying, including a somersault plancha onto Cena. Cena took over when RVD trued to use a chair, but when he went for an FU, RVD escaped and hit a Spinning Heel Kick and then a German Suplex and a Split-legged Moonsault. Edge ran in and Speared both guys, causing the No Contest.

This was a show that made Edge into something bigger and will hopefully end up with Edge becoming champ and main star. But boy, is DX being overplayed.

ECW
The show opened with Sabu taking on Roadkill. Good to see the big guy back. I always liked Roadkill and here he was fine in with the hardest working man in ECW. The big spot was the Arabian Facebuster through a table and Sabu put on the Camel Clutch, but Roadkill wouldn’t tap. He then hit him with a chair a couple of times and used the chair for the Camel Clutch to get the win. He was a little sloppier here than he has been, but Sabu is a tough guy and at well-passed 40, he’s going to get a little looser. He was pretty cut up in this one, but the crowd loved it.

"Yes! YES! SALT MY FRIES!!!"

Tommy Dreamer called out the Big Show and asked him to beat him up because it makes Tommy respect him more. Show did just that. Weird.

Kurt Angle did one of the best promos in ages talking about being a failure because he hasn’t held a belt since April 2nd. There was so much intensity in the promo that it completely sold the match with RVD that was coming up. Sadly, though the promo made him into a killer, the booking did far less for him.

Mike Knox and Danny Doring had a match that was OK, though truncated by booking. Kelly was with Knox and started playing to one of the plants in the crowd, which led Knox to push him down. Knox won with an awesome version of The Downward Spiral. Kelly then did her dance again and Knox again stopped it.

Sandman beat on a male stripper. Whoopee.

Edge came and took a seat with Lita. RVD and Kurt Angle had a very good match.

These two are the ones that ECW should be built around, and the dumb thing is that by having them meet in this match, one of them had to do the job, and with the ECW concept, they had to do it more or less clean. It was obvious that Kurt would be pinned, but they should have found a way to do it that didn’t devalue Kurt (like the time that Taz pinned himself while Sabu was in the Tazmission).

RVD pulls out the dreaded "Treasure Troll" move...

They worked mat at first and that’s where Kurt is God! After a few moments, RVd got a lead with a Monkey Flip but when he went up top, he got pushed off. Kurt hit a German and a Overhead Belly-to-Belly. There’s still no one who is as good at those suplexes as Kurt. A load of brawling followed.

The finish was Kurt going for an AngleSlam and RVD turning it into a DDT and then hitting the Five Star Frog Splash for the clean as PineSol pin. That really did hurt Kurt, as his gimmick requires him to be nearly unbeatable, but it was a great win for RVD and Kurt’s had to recover from worse in his career.

The show was good, with two good matches, and it’s obvious that the biggest stars are Sabu, who the crowd connects with the best, RVD, who is pushed the best, Kurt, who is the only WWE guy who feels like an ECW guy, and Sandman for his comedy bits. I’d like to see them push some of the young guys, and it looks like Knox is going to be the first one to get a push, and I’d like to see them get further away from RAW.

That’s all for this week. More next time.

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Chris Garcia