Falls Count Anywhere

08-03-04

Will film for food.

RAW
They ran the opening until HHH exerted his creative control and made them stop it. Nice way to expose the business, Trips. Only H could completely change how the show goes. He railed against Eugene, saying that the idiot, dolt and simpleton denied him his title victory. He issued a challenge to Eugene for a fight.

After H did a Stanley Kowalski bit calling out Eugene’s name, William Regal came out and taunted HHH for a bit. I love the fact that Regal called Hunter Sunshine. Regal dropped a little history on us by mentioning that they were a tag team back in WCW. He cut a pretty good promo, but the crowd didn’t really react. Regal got a nice pop when he said that HHH made made an enemy out of Regal. He then got a firey series of lines out that got a good rise from the crowd. They were actually chanting for him a bit.

They eliminated Camille from the Divas. Joy and Amy looked particularly hot.

Farewell, Camille...

Rhyno and Tajiri took on La Resistance in a match that showed that the four of them are hard workers who teem with energy. Tajiri always looks so fluid in the ring. In a really quick match, Tajiri got a pinfall with a sunset flip. They should have given them more time.

Randy Orton did a fine promo in preparation for his match with Benoit. He exudes confidence and kinda reminds me of early 1980s Flair. I wonder why?

They did a long SmackDown! Rebound. It looked good.

They finally had Matt Hardy and Lita agree to get married. It was touching, but Lita looked way buff. She’s hot, perhaps too hot for a pregnant chick.

Rosie took on Tyson Tomko. This was a match that I was dreading, but I do love Rosie’s new outfit. Stacey was out with Rosie and did a standing split. She’s a little hot, but by being a lot flexible, she becomes more hot. God bless her. The match ended swiftly, but let me tell you that it wasn’t bad at all. Not great, but it certainly didn’t feel like an eternity.

I love the SummerSlam commercials. The Tajiri one might be my favorite, though the Chavo Classic one is great too.

The Highlight Reel was Jericho talking to Edge about what he did to him in the Battle Royal last week. The two of them jawed for a while before they started brawling. Edge got the better of Jericho and knocked around the set. They are really teasing Edge’s turn with the Jericho feud, which I fear may turn into a Jericho twist. M. Night Shyamalan has ruined writing in the new century.

HHH started down the ramp, but didn’t get far before Regal jumped him from behind and beat H down on the ramp. He tossed him into the stage, then put him on the announcer’s table. He knocked him around for a while, and then made his way towards the ring. HHH got tossed into the ring steps and after a couple of knees, tossed him into the ring to officially start the match. HHH hit Regal with a set of brass knux. The ending didn’t come off great to the live crowd, as he didn’t make a big deal of putting them on so that the audience didn’t know what was going on. Regal was bleeding as H went under the ring and come up with the sledgehammer. Regal was bleeding really bad. He left a serious puddle in the ring. Regal got the Brass Knux himself, but H hit Regal with the sledge to knock the Brit out. This was a good, short brawl between two guys. Regal was bleeding bad. While Regal was strapped to the gurney, HHH taunted him then tossed it over with Regal still strapped to it.

Marco finds the tracking chip...

Joy gave her 20 second speech. At least I think she did. I was too fixated on her boobs. Amy followed, and she gave a better promo, but I also thought that she looked way hot. Every other girl was pretty much forgettable. Tracie also did an OK promo, but she really doesn’t have the look. If Maria isn’t eliminate next, I’m stunned. Then again, Christy was pretty bad too. Michelle had an awesome belt buckle. At least this week was short.

Kane was backstage with Lita, harassing her, using her as bait to bring Matt Hardy to him so that he could beat him stupid. Kane and Matt have a match at SummerSlam. Lita’s not showing yet. They made the SummerSlam match would be a Winner Marries Lita Match. Well, that’s an interesting stip.

Kane and Maven wrestled in a pretty nondescript match. Maven is pretty good in the ring, but doesn’t have a connection to the crowd. This had almost no heat. Kane won. Maven did some awesomely over the top facial right before Kane chokeslammed him.

Orton, Flair and Batista came out followed, one by one, by Jericho, Benoit and Edge. Edge jawed at Jericho before sliding in and chocking Orton with his shirt. They are doing everything they can to make sure that we know that Edge is turning. Benoit gave Flair a bunch of headbutts followed by Jericho chops. He bounced between them for a while, then went for the FlairFlop. Batista worked a nice segment with Benoit. Chris really does bring out the best in Batista. The match moved pretty well, as these last match of the night matches have been doing of late. The WWE has learned how to do hard-worked Six-man matches. Evolution is a great team. I know I was skeptical, but they’ve turned out to be a great team. Orton was looking really good. He’s improved to the level of a champion, which is good since it’s looking like he’s taking the belt at SummerSlam. Edge and Orton worked when we came back from the commercial, and as always, they are great together. The ending segment is awesome, with guys doin’ big moves back and forth with lot’s of escapes. Benoit gets out of a Figure Four and turns it into a Sharpshooter. Orton catches the RKO on Benoit to get the three count. A really strong match.

The show was probably the best show they’ve done in about a month. I would say that it was better than last week due to the lame stuff they didn’t do with the Divas this week. Speaking of the Divas, it’s obvious that Amy is getting the best reaction of all of them, especially when she turned her bikini bottom into a thong during the swimsuit portion. A solid main event, a really good series of matches and an entertaining show all around.

NEWS
Honestly, I was sick all day, so I didn’t check many of my usual sources. SmackDown! was rated about the same as recent editions last week. The creative team headed down to check out some of the possible feeder federations last week. Vince is really high on John Heidenreich, who has been working very hard on what he does in the ring. It’s still likely that he’ll feud with the Undertaker this fall. JBL is being looked at as a longer term champion. I’d heard that a couple of weeks ago, thought that it was baseless rumor and disregarded it, but more than one reputable website has reported the same thing. Still, I’m not sure that’s a good idea.

FlashBack!
What was the greatest feud of all time? There are a lot of ways to look at it. Which one drew the most money (probably Hogan vs. Andre)? Which one garnered the greatest heat (honestly, I’m thinking either The Freebirds vs. The Von Erichs or Buzz Sawyer vs. Tommy Wildfire Rich)? Which one ran the longest (Easy enough to answer: Sheik vs. Bobo Brazil)? But there is no question in my mind that the one that easily wins "greatest" is Mitsuharu Misawa vs. Kenta Kobashi.

The two of them had been the greatest tag team of the early 1990s. Their feud with Tashiaki Kawada and Akira Taue was legendary, with so many classic matches that it’s hard to say one was the biggest of them all. Misawa and Kobashi became the two biggest stars in All Japan, easily carrying the promotion after the end of the careers of Jumbo Tsuruta and Giant Baba had ended. In 1997, All Japan had their first Dome show on Halloween and the two of them had that year’s Match of the Year. The next year they repeated the feat, something that had never been done before. They had a few matches here and there, but they saved their biggest match for March 1st, 2003.

Hard to top, right to the rock bottom.

The match won the Wrestling Observer Match of the Year for the pair for the third time. They really kicked things into a new level, not like the Hardys, Edge and Christian and The Dudleys did in the late 1990s, but by bringing old school World Championship psychology while using cutting edge wrestling moves. The two of them started pretty slow, working like 1980s matches. Hip tosses, mirror spots, great stuff. They then went to big spots pretty early, with Misawa giving Kobashi a Dangerous Backdrop Driver in the first five minutes. Kobashi landed right on his head. The two of them worked a ton, eventually going out of the ring. Misawa went for a dive to the outside, but he went chin first into the rail and came up bleeding. Another instance where legit blood can add to a match.

At one point, Kobashi gave Misawa a half-nelson suplex on the outside. Then again, Kobashi took a Tiger Suplex, where Both Arms are hooked behind you, from the top of the ramp to the floor. That was insane, but Kobashi has the best developed neck in the history of mankind. I think Farmer Burns, who used to take the Hangman’s Drop, would be amazed. The match featured Misawa doing Lucha moves, like the Elbow Suicide (a dive through the rope to deliver an elbow smash) with Kobashi on the ramp. There were tons of big suplexes and so many near-falls that I couldn’t even start to talk about them, but everything was done with the idea that the match was a struggle between two athletes.

The match ended when Kobashi finally put Misawa up in the Human Torture Rack and then brought him down on his head for the pin. The two of them laid on the mat for a while until they got up and congratulated each other and said that this was the final meeting between them. Great match, one of the best I’ve ever seen. If I see another one of this quality in the next few years, I’ll be shocked.

Then again, I hear that the Kobashi vs. Jun Akiyama match from the Tokyo Dome was almost as good.

That’s all for today. Friday will bring more.

Chris Garcia