Falls Count Anywhere

08-31-06

I smuggled a Hugo.

RAW
OK, I missed RAW. I’ve pieced together parts of it from the web and I’m not impressed. Johnny Nitro and Melina had a segment that was really really bad. They were getting booed out of the joint. It’s not like those two aren’t over. Melina certainly is and Nitro is coming around. They just need a real push.

The DX-McMahon feud is still going and is now obviously merely an exercise in ego. Honestly they need to come up with some way out of this and then let Shane stay a TV personality and let Vince go away. They set up the Hell in a Cell with The McMahons and Big Show vs. DX. That’ll be interesting.

NEWS
Kurt Angle is no longer a WWE wrestler. The company basically let him go, though the public word is that it’s a mutual decision. He’s been messed up for a while. He requires massive amounts of painkillers to work, has personal issues including a divorce from his wife (who is now pregnant) and is just plain tired. There’s no way to really see what’s next for Kurt, but the company had said that they were afraid that he might end up another casualty. That word has it that the suspension was for testing far too high for painkillers that were prescribed.

The impact of Kurt Angle on the business is almost impossible to measure. He was easily the best performer for much of the last half-decade and probably the best promo guy for much of that time. He was a natural, an amazing talent, and could have been the greatest of all-time if he’d come around a decade earlier and worked a slightly less damaging style. He would have been a natural NWA champ.

Leaving with class.

He left on very good terms and will probably take a good long break, perhaps permanently and get some work done on his neck and his personal life. It’s probably for the best, but don’t think that he’ll never be back. The rumors of a TNA jump are completely false, though Joe vs. Angle would be a classic.

ECW
Paul Heyman did a fairly perfect promo saying that ECW was his life and that he never wanted to wrestle. This was a great way for Heyman to present himself and it came off very well.

Hardcore Holly, who I think will fit right in with ECW since he can brawl and wrestle, beat RVD via DQ. Seriously, this has to stop. They need to let ECW be ECW at least a little and with all these DQs, it just can’t happen. The match was pretty good, with Holly looking sharp and RVD going through the motion in a very good way. The stupid DQ finish put this in the weak section, though.

Show did an interview where he challenged DX. There’s no way ECW will ever be seen as anything more than RAW-lite unless they stop doing these stupid challenges across promotions. I can’t say that Show hasn’t been made to looking tougher than he has since he started doing the comedy stuff about five years ago, but he’s still not the guy you want to hold the belt.

They aired another Shannon Moore clip. I really hope he does well and a feud with CM Punk might be interesting.

Speaking of Punk, he beat Stevie Richards in a fun segment. They talked a lot about Punk’s martial arts background, which is considerable from what I understand. He mixed styles so fluidly that I really hope he gets a chance to take on guys like Benoit (who should return in a few months) and London and Moore. Nice Double Underhook into a Backbreaker. Uranage into an Anaconda Vice for the win.

He's got better chalk skills than Garcia...

Matt Striker is a talented guy. He’s not got WWE-level charisma, but he has a good character and really gets folks to hate him. He put down Sandman’s drinking and that led to Sandman coming out. Striker then beat Sandman with the chalkboard and a stapler and bloodied him up.

They said they’d let Kurt go and were very classy about it. It’s a shame, but it was nice that they said goodbye.

Paul Heyman pinned Sabu clean with the Shooting Star Press. Ok…that was a lie, but Paul did win after interference from everyone and their mother. Security attacked Sabu but he managed to fight them off with a chair. Heyman was about to get it from Sabu and Show moved in, but took a DDT from Sabu. RVD ran in and hit Show with the Van Daminator. Sabu did manage to give Heyman a Arabian Facebuster, but when he was about to put Paul through a table, Show came out as did Hardcore Holly. Good to see him getting pushed. Show gave Sabu a Backbreaker and that allowed Heyman to win. Good way to end things and a pretty hot little match.

Not the perfect show, as the booking remains suspect in many areas, but there was entertainment to be had.

That’s all for this week. I’ll be back on Monday with more

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Chris Garcia