Falls Count Anywhere

08-30-07

No matter how many fingers you have, keep 'em crossed.

RAW
Well, it kinda sucked and it kinda rocked. It’s hard to put a value on the show when they made so many mistakes, but they did the exact right thing if they’re building to a serious Orton vs. Cena feud for the next few months. I’d almost give them the benefit of the doubt based on the way they built for WrestleMania and the quick turn-around they did to go from a crappy series of shows to some of the best of the last few years.

Let’s start off with Orton in the ring. He points out Cena must have been in church all day because he’d witnessed a miracle when Cena won. Nice bit, that one. He said he wanted a rematch and that brought out Cena who said that he had lost, he was moving down the ladder and that he should wrestle HHH. That was actually a brutal shot at HHH that I’m shocked they let through.

William Regal came out and made Cena-Booker, Orton tried to jump Cena, but he was on to him. This was pretty good and it made the title, the champion and the challenger seem important.

Jeff Hardy and Mr. Kennedy had a match that went to a no contest. This was OK as a thought, but the no-finish wrecked a lot of it. Jeff is fluid again, and it seems like the suspension might have done him some good. I still haven’t figured out if it was drugs or a no-show that got him suspended. Umaga ran in and somewhere along his path to the ring, he lost his face turn and attacked Hardy.

Now, if they were just going to turn him back once Hardy returned, why turn him in the first place. My guess is there was debate about whether or not to bring Hardy back at all and when they chose to bring him back, they returned Umaga to heeldom, where he works better anyhow. Kennedy was pretty good here.

Vince was Carlito’s guest on the Cabana. It was set-up as Vince getting birthday wishes and he said he turned 50. HHH came out and did some crappy comedy about the women that Vince might have knocked up. It was lame. This is why bringing back Vince was a bad idea, even if it was for the sake of ratings.

Kendrick, Cody Rhodes and Paul London beat on Daivari, Shelton and Charlie Haas. Normally, I’d complain when they have Shelton’s team beat, but it was designed to get Rhodes over a little more. They did the face in peril concept with Kendrick getting destroyed by the heels. Cody tagged in and took down Daivari for the win with a Flying Body Press. Rhodes looked pretty good and a six-man team with Kendrick and London ain’t a bad deal. Cryme Tyme came out and did some sales comedy, which brought out Cade and Murdoch. By the way, Trevor Murdoch used to be Trevor Rhodes when he was wrestling for Harley Race. Makes you think…

Long may she burn in Garcia's heart...

Beth Phoenix is so HAWT! I totally think they should build the Diva division around her and her royal hotness. She jumped Maria before the match they were supposed to have started and laid her out with a Fisherman’s Buster. I thought this was an OK thing, as it makes her look a little blood thirsty, but it lacked heat and the way they did it was Victoria about six months ago worked so much better.

Then again, it was nice to not have to watch Maria try and work a match. They’ve done wonders with Candice, while Mickie James has sort of fallen behind. I hope that Beth wins the belt and does what they should have done with Victoria when she got hot for her match against Mickie.

Cena and Booker were having a decent little match where Cena was working really hard and Booker had his ‘well, this is all storyline fodder’ game on and it ended with Randy Orton running in for the DQ. He beat on Cena for a while, then he was about to kick Cena in the head when he went and grabbed Cena’s father out of the crowd and kicked him instead. Now, you see, that was awesome. All the Vince McMahon’s bastard child stuff that took up a lot of time was crap beyond words, but the Orton-Cena dynamic was awesome. I thought that this was the way they should be going and they added fuel to the fire and made it burn. I really wanna see where that goes.

As for Vince’s kid, I really don’t care.

NWA Tourney Bad Luck
Bryan Danielson is probably the best American wrestler not in the WWE or TNA right now. In fact, there are those who would take Bryan over AJ Styles, Chris Daniels and just about anyone else you could name. He was slated to win the NWA title, the one they stripped from TNA a few months ago, when they go to Puerto Rico.

And of course, Danielson scratched his retina and is out.

Brent Albright vs. Adam Pearce is the replacement final and it’ll be a good match, but Danielson is what these guys need. Look for Ring of Honor DVDs if you’ve never seen Danielson work.

That’s all for this week. More on Monday!

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Chris Garcia