Falls Count Anywhere

10-19-04

I'm having myself a California Adventure...

RAW
Kung-fu grip Eric (with Action Gi) came out and called Eugene to join him. They talked for a minute and then Eric had Eugene face Gene Snitsky. The Chicago crowd was way into Eugene, and the heat for this match was good.

I like Snitsky. He’s not a muscle-bound stiff, but you can tell he’s still pretty green. Snitsky got the pin with the Sidewalk Slam, and Regal came out and brawled with Snitsky a bit after the match. Hot way to start the show.

They did a three-way debate between Shawn Michaels, Edge and Chris Benoit. This was OK, but they kept pressing that there would be no physical contact allowed, and of course, it ended in physical contact. Go figure. Edge said that it was a crime that he hadn’t gotten a title shot yet, which is true. Benoit said that he had made HHH and Shawn Michaels both tap out, which is also true. Shawn Michaels was cocky as ever, and that hubris may have been what brought about his fall.

Just like sisters...

Six Women. One ring. A tag match for the ages! Well, not quite, but Nidia, Stacey and Victoria had a fairly decent match against Gail Kim, Molly Holly and Trish Stratus. The heel worked over Stacey’s legs, and she sold it pretty well. Stacey eventually made the tag to Victoria, who hit the Widow’s Peak on Gail for the pin. Good stuff.

Lita was backstage and she confronted Gene Snitsky. This was interesting, as he said that it wasn’t his fault she lost the baby, and she attacked him. He sold it even more than he sold for Eugene! He grabbed her after a bit and said that at Taboo Tuesday, Kane was gonna lose like she lost her baby. Good line.

They showed Randy Orton on the Jimmy Kimmel show. Randy came off good, and they joked about Flair’s age. (They really need to have Flair become a full-time manager. It’s what’s right for business.) Flair and Batista then beat Orton and Jericho in a match that wasn’t great, but we saw Flair get a better face reaction than Orton. Still, Orton’s reaction was pretty good; certainly it’s getting better, but Flair is in need of going face…and retiring from the ring. Nice ending, as Flair had the Figure Four on after Batista clotheslined Jericho while he had Flair in the Walls of Jericho. Jericho lifted his shoulder to avoid the pin, but he tapped out a little bit later. Smart booking, but Jericho really should have been given a win going in to a title defense.

Vince McMahon came out, presumably to take about the voting for Taboo Tuesday that had just opened up. Vince was interrupted by Christian, who wanted his support and gave Vinny a hug. Tajiri came out and called Christian and liar and also gave Vince a hug. Rhyno came out, as did the Coach, saying that he was the Michael Jordan of RAW. I’m fairly certain Michael is rolling over in his pile of endorsement cheques at that thought. Hurricane came out and said that every other choice but him was lame, and then Shelton Benjamin joined them and before he could get his line out, Vinny Mac set up a six-man elimination match.

Vince joined JR and The King on announcing, bringing back memories of the early 1990s for me. Tajiri eliminated Hurricane far too quickly, as he really didn’t get to show off his stuff. Rhyno eliminated Tajiri and the Coach with a Gore, which happened right before Christian got the Unprettier on Rhyno for the pin. Christian and Shelton then worked for a bit, including doing a great spinning kick segment. You’d think guys would learn not to spin him around after catching his foot. Shelton also used a brutal version of a neckbreaker over his knee. Shelton got the Spinning Powerslam for the pin. He took the mic and Vince said that Shelton had Vince’s endorsement. Shelton said he didn’t care what Vinny thought, the only thing that matters is that he impresses the people. He got a good pop for it too. Nice little short segments that added up to a fair amount of interest and shows that they are thinking of Shelton as a future big name star. Of course, I think he’s turning heel soon since they did the “I’m doin’ it for the fans” bit.

Yep. It's Taboob Tuesday...

Carmella and Christy talked about their Taboo Tuesday match. Personally, the match I would vote for is the “Loser and Winner Leave the WWF and get replaced by Amy Weber and Joy” match, but that may be a little high concept. The highlight of the night, was Christy planting a tender kiss on Lillian Garcia. Yeah, that’s it. Now smell her a little.

Edge beat Shawn Michaels and Chris Benoit in a really strong match that saw Michaels tear his meniscus. They worked every spot very smartly, with Edge playing the heel, Shawn playing the face and Chris just being the guy who wanted to win. Michaels hit a flying forearm, but the first sign of his injury was when he couldn’t nip-up. In a strange coincidence, Benoit had Edge in the Sharpshooter, which is called the Scorpion everywhere else in the world, and Michaels kicked him in the face, just like Akira Maeda did for real in a match against Riki Choshu in Japan in the 1980s. Benoit went for a Crossface on Edge, but then changed it into a roll-up. Edge reversed it, held the tights and got the win. Very smart booking.

The Michaels injury is bad. The Edge turn has been building for so long that they are gonna have to do something huge to make it official. This entire episode sold the PPV in every way possible. My guess is that they’ll do OK numbers.

NEWS
Well, there’s not been too much, save for the fact that the WWE is thinking of moving off of Spike TV, there’s real movement happening within the WWE’s writing department, and that TNA might be in serious trouble.

I’ll start with the boys in Connecticut and their TV sitch. The deal with Viacom ends in 2005, September, I believe. The WWE has been sending out feelers, mostly in hopes of landing on another network. The leading other network that they are looking at is USA. This would be their return to the network where they were for almost 20 years. USA is doing well in the ratings, and the folks in charge actually seem to want RAW back. I think this would be the best thing for them, as a new network and a new direction might help bring things back into focus. Spike would have a chance, as they do have a built-in match best offer clause. There are ways around it, like the one they used to trump USA who said that they had matched Viacom’s offer, but since Viacom could roll in a book deal, USA couldn’t match it. This will be developing over the next few months.

The writing issue is much different. There are tales told of a major shake-up about to drop and that Dave Lagana, head writer of SmackDown! is about to dropped in favor of one of Stephanie’s boys. Everyone knows that he’s being groomed, but he’s not done that well in the pieces he’s contributed so far. One of Lagana’s downfalls, it seems, is that Brian Gerwirtz and Michael Hayes have both been giving suggestions that Vince doesn’t like. That said, I think they’ve been doing a great job with Kidman, and that has all the fingerprints of Lagana’s booking. No one is sure when it’s gonna happen, but it’ll be pretty soon.

TNA Impact was going to be starting on TSN in the homeworld of Miss Kate Kelton, Canada! There was a snag; they wanted to put it on Monday nights. That’s RAW’s night. There were a ton of angry responses from the good people at the WWE and it looks like the result will be no TNA on TSN. How bad does this hurt TNA? Pretty bad, as wrestling gets much better coverage up there and the possibility of running profitable shows in Toronto and Montreal is pretty much cut off. They are in need of every revenue stream they can get.

Daniel Puder, one of the eight guys chosen to compete on Tough Enough, is an Alumni of Monta Vista High School, which is one of several South Bay schools with strong ties to the Fanboy Planet staff. He also has done some cage fighting, was a CCS wrestling champion, and coached wrestling at Wilcox High School, where most of the older generation of my family attended. He’s got a good look.

FlashBack!
What’s the worst gimmick ever? There were a slew of them in the mid-1990s. There are some that were terrible gimmicks, but they worked well, like Duke the Dumpster Droese, or that were obviously awful and didn’t last long enough to matter, like the Marineer, BattleCat or Xanta Klaus. My favourite of the bad gimmicks goes to a guy who had been around for a good long while and who certainly deserved better.

Oops...wrong Goon...

The guy had been known as Wild Bill Irwin for more than a decade. He was one half of the Lone Riders, along with Scott Irwin. Scott died in the late 1980s, leaving Bill to work for himself. He wasn’t half-bad, though he had many of the same problems that guys of the 1980s had during the 1990s. By 1996, he wasn’t working any of the big areas, and Vince McMahon came calling.

Vince was in the middle of bringing a bunch of guys in with various gimmicks. There was Alex Porteau, a former Global Wrestling Light Heavyweight Champ, as the Pug, Tracy Smothers as Billy Jo Floyd, and of course, there was this idea to do a hockey player who was booted out of hockey so he took up wrestling. That was the gimmick they gave to Bill Irwin.

The execution of the gimmick portion was just about flawless. They had him come out in hockey grab, pads and all, and a set of wrestling boots that were raised so as to resemble hockey skates. He, of course, carried a hockey stick. He took off his helmet and left the stick outside the ring, but he kept the gloves on. Once the bell rang, he threw down the gloves and started pummeling his opponent.

Can you see how that would get repetitive?

He was only around for a couple of months, working maybe 20 matches on TV. I seem to remember him getting squashed by the Undertaker as a way to get him the hell out of the WWF. The concept was awful, though they did a good job outfitting him. It was that point in the WWF’s history that someone, likely Vince, could tell that they needed to changed things and started pushing guys like Austin as characters instead of gimmicks. Bill Irwin’s career was pretty much over after that, though he did tour indies as The Goon. He showed up in the Gimmick Battle Royal at WrestleMania 18, though I can’t say what’s happened to him since.

That’s all for this week. More later!

Chris Garcia