Falls Count Anywhere

07-10-06

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

Pirates stole my VCR.

SmackDown in brief.
I only watched about ½ of SmackDown! on my portable TV while I was waiting in line to see Pirates of the Caribbean II: Dead Man’s Party. I thought the flick was a lot of fun.

They opened by showing clips from when Batista was destroyed by Mark Henry and then when Batista said goodbye to the fans while he rested up. It was a good touch, and the Batista stuff probably explains why this was the highest rated episode in a good while.

They started with a battle royal. Now, to tell you about the TV I was watching on, it was Japanese and about the size of a stack of credit cards. It had a rabbit ear, and it got OK reception, but so much of the Battle Royal was in long-shot that I didn’t catch a lot of it.

It seemed like a decent match, at least from the call which was slightly better than usual, but I was hoping that Ken Kennedy would win and that would put him in the title hunt. Such a thing did not happen as he was eliminated by Matt Hardy, who may be starting a feud with Kennedy which would be a nice thing. The ending was Hardy and Regal fighting each other and Booker coming up and tossing them both.

Kristal interviewed Rey Mysterio and he said that he was sorry he couldn’t help Chavo last week since he’d been KOed and then said that he’d finish his business with Henry soon. He then said he could beat King Booker and the 619 was only a moment away. Not a great promo, but it was good to see Rey getting treated like a champ with promo time.

They had Sylvan come out and do his ‘Visit Quebec” bit mostly in French. JBL was hilarious here saying that he hated Canadians, he hated the French and he double hated Sylvan. The gimmick isn’t great, but I like the way he’s doing it.

In a decent match that I did manage to catch, Ken Kennedy beat Super Crazy. It was a pretty good match, especially since Crazy was in there. They do need a little work on Kennedy, since he’s got star written all over him, but the fans usually aren’t into his matches until the finish.

Kristal did a thing where she was complaining about Ashley until she realized that she was on the air. A nice touch to heat a feud that I really don’t care about. She interviewed Tatanka, who said that he was nervous facing the Great Khali, but that it was all about facing his fears. I’m glad they brought him back because he’s doing a fairly good job. I’m betting he’ll be an agent before too long.

Well, Mark Henry looks passionate about it.

After that, they let us in so I missed the rest of the show. I understand that Batista returned and got a great reaction. He challenged Mark Henry who came out and Rey Mysterio was involved somehow too. It sounds like a good thing and I’m waiting until I see the tape to pass judgement.

UFC Blows It!
The latest UFC card was a major disappointment. The fights were boring, the crowd was good, but the whole event was just marred by one slow fight after another. The worst part was they stopped the Shamrock-Ortiz match way too soon. Ortiz had taken Shamrock down and was starting to pound him, but Shamrock was defending right and they stopped it. Not the right decision to make a stop that quickly. The main event, Silvia vs. Arlovsky, was a slow and plodding match that I was really bored with. Slyvia won and kept the title.

The best part of the show had to be the announcement that Wanderlai Silva, Prides’ pride and joy, will be taking on Chuck Liddel, should he win his fight against Babalu. That’s a big deal as it means that Pride, who is really in trouble because they just put on a huge show and there was almost no coverage due to their lack of TV, and UFC are working together.

News and Notes
As I mentioned, RVD is suspended for 30 days and Sabu was fined a grand. Both had court dates pushed back this week. Kurt Angle is also serving a suspension, though there are conflicting reports. It’s likely due to over-use of pain killers, but he’s also hurt and it’s a good way for him to heal up. It explains those jobs a little better, don’t it? WWE.com has been very open about RVD’s suspension and Sabu’s fine, but haven’t mentioned much about Angle.

The Observer is fighting mad that someone posted a thing about Randy Orton being suspended for breaking the drug policy and attributing it to The Observer. Dave Meltzer seldom makes mention of the folks who blatantly steal his info and post it again (I do get a lot of info off of him, but I try to attribute it when I do) and this is the only time I can remember him specifically mentioning a specific article.

Shawn Michaels is unhappy with the DX storyline, and that’s been floating around everywhere, but there’s word that the knee operation he was going to get right after WrestleMania may happen in the next couple of months. The plan was for about six months of DX and then Michaels would slow down. Now, it’s looking like we’ll get an injury angle at SummerSlam.

That’s all for this one. More on Thursday!

Talk about today's column in the forums!

Chris Garcia