Falls Count Anywhere

08-14-06

Falls Count Anywhere runs on Mondays and Thursdays -- finally back on track!

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SmackDown!
I missed everything but the Diva Search, which I found on YouTube. It was awful, but it was nice to see Luke Perry working again. Layla was the only one who got any real cheers when they were having the audience ‘vote’, but she was booed during the Talent Show.

The whole Diva Search thing is crap, it really is. As much as I like Layla, I’m hoping this thing ends quietly.

And other than that, I didn’t get to see any of it. I hear that King Booker was really hilarious and he’s been carrying things well with his whole new identity. I also understand that Vickie Guerrero is being used as a regular part of the Rey-Chavo feud, which I’m not sure how I feel about. Of course it’s nice to know that she’s getting paid for it, but it’s also another example of how the WWE is exploiting (though that might be a little harsh) the whole Eddie thing.

TNA Hard Justice.
OK, can anyone name another Pay-Per-View that was interrupted by a fire? The closest I can come up with was in Puerto Rico when the ring caught fire during a Carlos Colon fire match with TNT. I think the same thing happened in FMW in Japan with the Sheik too.

While Eric Young and Johnny Devine wrestled, a cable caused a fire on the roof. Young still got the win, but it’ll be remembered for the fire more than anything. In fact, you could say that about the entire PPV.

They had to clear the arena and played a bunch of stuff while they had the fire department check the building. They cancelled the Number One Contenders tag match since they lost about 20 minutes of PPV time.

Chris Sabin will get a shot at Senshe because he pinned Alex Shelley. This was a good little match that opened with a Lucha-style segment where neither could get the upperhand. I half-expected Sabin to jump up and raise his hand and the horns to blow from the crowd. Then I remembered that they were in Orlando and not Arena Mexico, so I got back to the match.

Sabin mocked Kevin Nash, who was at ringside, and that allowed Shelley to take advantage. In the end, Nash tossed a chair in for Shelley, but he had it kicked into his face and then Sabin hit CradleShock for the win. Good stuff.

Concrete or wrestler's skull?

Abyss beat Brother Runt (aka Matt Hyson aka Spike Dudley) in a match that was just brutal. Runt had his moments, but you could tell that this was going to end poorly. Runt got ground into the tacks that Abyss spread and then had his head stomped while it was one ht tacks. It was just awful to see it happening, but I could not look away. Abyss hit the Black Hole Slam for the win. Runt had tacks all over him and I just plain felt sorry for him. Raven and Abyss did a staredown after.

I’m not against the occasional thumbtack match, but not on a PPV where it means almost nothing. Hyson’s a good performer and they could have done without it, but they think that’s the only way to compete with the WWE is to out-brawl them. Sadly, I’ll far more remember Ric Flair getting tossed into them than Brother Runt.

In a wild, wide-ranging match, Samoa Joe beat Monty Brown and Rhino in Falls Count Anywhere. Rhino did a dive out onto Brown and then Joe followed with his Forearm through the ropes. Lots of good brawling, and a little bit of sloppy brawling, but this was overall pretty good and really wild.

Brown hit a Butterfly Suplex on the ramp! Rhino and Joe work really well together, especially in a segment where Joe ended up taking a Spinebuster on a chair. Brutal. Lots of table work, some of which seemed a little too forced, but the result was a great spectacle and a good match.

Gail Kim beat Sirelda. I made Split-Pea Soup.

Senshe beat Petey Williams and Jay Lethal in a good match, though not one that I’m likely to remember in a month. Williams and Senshe kicked a lot. There was a ton of great stuff here from all three. Williams should be X-Division Champ, but I don’t think he’ll get the chance anytime soon. Lethal hit a pretty Northern Lights Suplex and when Williams went for a Canadian Destroyer, Lethal turned it into a German for a near fall.

The finish was exactly what I expected: Williams hit the Destroyer, but Senshe kicked him a couple of times and then pinned Lethal. It was good and I liked it, but I wanted a little more. Maybe I’m just like my mother, she’s never satisfied…(Sorry, I had to drop a Prince ref)

In a match that was very good, though not quite great, The Fallen Angel Chris Daniels and AJ Styles beat LAX members Hotstuff Hernandez and Homicide. They did the slap and punch and Hurrancanrana spot with Homicide and Daniels. Homicide does a great Tope and he used it here with Styles which sent them both into the railing. It looked great! Daniels and Homicide went outside and Hernandez hit them with a bodyblock from the ring. That allowed AJ to do a Shooting Star press onto all three of them!

When mimes go bad...

The action got real good at this point with the Tower of Doom from LAX, finishers left and right and then eventually they managed to hit the tackle-legsweep thingee that I know there’s a name for but can’t remember it. That gave the champs the win. Good stuff, but it seemed like everyone sorta pulled back a little so it wasn’t the spectacle you’d want from the best workers in the world…and LAX.

Jarrett beat Sting. That’s all wrong, but I understand why they went that way. This was a very typical match from these guys. It went to ringside and since Christian Cage and Scott Steiner were there, they played a big role, too. When Christian would go to help, one of the refs would hold him up so that Steiner could interfere. This was just lazy booking as far as I’m concerned.

This was an OK match, but after while, you knew that Christian was going to turn on Sting and allow Jarrett to keep his precious title. It happened when Cage nailed Sting with the guitar and put Jarrett on top. The crowd threw bottles and stuff into the ring. This was far from the best turn of this kind ever, but I really think they’d have been better off finding a way to get the belt off of Jarrett and onto someone who can draw.

That’s all for this edition. I’ll be back on Thursday with More!!!

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Chris Garcia