Falls Count Anywhere

09-21-06

I'll be on Interspecies Survivor.

RAW
Well, if there’s such a thing as a place-holder edition of RAW, this was it. There was a lot of actual wrestling, but not much in the way of building to anything smart. Go figure -- the night after they put on one of the better PPVs of the year.

They had Cena come out to louder boos than he’s gotten in a while. It’s the combo of him holding the belt and them being in Montreal. There’s a lot of talk about Cena right now, about the need for him to shut the crowd up somehow. They’re in a no-win situation. If he tells off the crowd, he’ll get booed harder and louder by those who hate him and cheered louder by those who love him, but they could also run the risk of alienating that core section. They could turn him heel, but then they’d lose the bonanza that he brings in as far as Merch goes. He’s also the only one drawing kids and women.

Edge came out and ran down Montreal, which sorta made him a heel for the night. Cade and Murdoch came in to attack and DX made the save. It was an OK segment, the crowd got into it, and not just the hating on Cena part.

Coach did some backstage videos to the McMahons who were recuperating. These were strange, but they kinda worked. Coach brought in Shelton who asked why he wasn’t asked to be the McMahons' partner, saying that it was a racial thing. That’s not the way they should be going with Shelton…it might end up with him in Cryme Tyme.

Umaga beat Kane by DQ. This was nearly as indecisive as their match at the PPV.

This kind of looks like the cover of Action Comics #1

Ric Flair beat Johnny of the Spirit Squad. Johnny is OK. Flair worked a little harder than usual, which is impressive since he doesn’t have to do that to get over. Johnny pulled a page out of Flair’s book and hit a chop block and then put on the Figure Four. Johnny then suplexed Flair back into the ring. He missed the Johnny-go-Round, which allowed Flair to work over the knee. When Flair went for the Figure Four, Johnny small packaged him, but Flair reversed and got the pin. Eh…not too shabby.

Lita talked to Coach’s camera saying that she was sad that Vince got pummeled and that she wanted to talk about the Women’s Title. Mickie James came in and the two of them got in an argument over who deserved the belt. Lita slapped Mickie and that seems to have started the next woman’s feud.

Randy Orton and Johnny Nitro did a little segment where they both said that they were the Future of the WWE. Nitro mentioned that he still had his Intercontinental belt and Randy said that he could take the belt or Melina anytime he wanted. One of these guys has to turn to make this work, and the only real option is Nitro, which sucks since Melina is a great heel and the only way that Nitro works is with Melina, so they really can’t turn him by having Melina go with Randy.

They had Masters, Super Crazy, Carlito and Hardy come out for a Six-Pack Challenge. It was a weird multi-way match, but it was entertaining, even if it was just a collection of high spots. Crazy is a nice touch to matches like these. Hardy hit the Swanton on Masters, but Nitro tossed him and covered Masters himself for the win. This could lead to a very interesting series of mini-feuds leading to a big six-way elimination match. I’d like to see that.

More Cryme Tyme. Honestly, this is awful, won’t draw, can only bring negative criticism from the watch groups. Bad, bad, bad…

Now THAT'S sweet chin music...

Candice Michelle, who is hot, beat Lita, who is also hot. It wasn’t a great match, but the crowd gave it to Lita in French. I had to look up what they were chanting and it was filthy. Candice tries very hard and she didn’t look that bad. Lita worked like the bad ass, which she is pretty good at. Mickie James came out and distracted Lita, allowing Candice to roll her up for the pin.

Michaels, HHH and Cena lost to Edge, Cade and Murdoch in a match that was OK. It got enough time, built in a good direction, but Cade and Murdoch just don’t have the right level of heat and aren’t really getting enough rub to make it work. Still, I was amused by the match. Murdoch was about to hit Michaels with a chair, but Michaels turned it around on him and ended up getting DQed for hitting Murdoch. Cade took the FU and then it was Edge alone with HHH and Michaels. They gave him the Sweet Chin Music and the Pedigree after the match.

Not a great episode, but far from terrible. Just sorta held things over for a week.

NEWS
Nothing too major. There’s a lot of talk about Kurt Angle still. He’s getting more ‘offers’, which are really just interested parties making theoretical plays for Kurt until his no-compete clause expires in February. The big money seems to be coming at him from MMA, and UFC has even thrown its hat in the ring that doesn’t actually exist for another few months. Pride will also make an offer, trying to put together the shoot version of Lesnar-Angle, which would be huge. I’d also expect someone to put an offer for Puder vs. Angle, but I don’t know if that’ll ever happen.

The Boogeyman was fired. That’s a shock though it does make the sudden non-appearance of Boogeyman footage make sense.

That’s all for this week (since I didn’t see ECW) but I’ll have more on Monday!

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Chris Garcia