Falls Count Anywhere

10-23-06

But no wiser.

Very brief SmackDown! words
I didn’t watch SD! this week, though I understand that it was a pretty good show. I just didn’t get the tape. The highlight seems to be Rey vs. Chavo in the I Quit match. It sounded like a really good match (and I’m hoping to find it on the web somewhere) and the finish allows Rey to get some much needed knee surgery.

The classic heel punishing the opponent’s knee with a chair until he submits is a good ending, especially if they’re serious about making Chavo a real bad ass, as I’ve heard the plans are leaning towards.

PRIDE
I actually watched parts of the first US Pride show from Las Vegas. Really good show with a great atmosphere. They really managed to bring the Tokyo Dome attitude to Las Vegas. I was so pleased to see it do so well, but the real indicators will come when they announce the numbers in the coming weeks.

The matches I watched were all at least fairly entertaining. Robbie Lawler, a really underrated guy, won his match against Joey Villasenor. It was fast and Lawler has a chance to become a real star in the US because he’s charismatic, has been at the whole MMA thing for ages and can fight. The high knee he used was rad.

"Garcia didn't watch?"

Kaz Nakamura beat Travis Galbraith, which we all knew would happen, but Galbraith did really well. He put up a good fight. The Phil Baroni vs. Yosuke Nishijima fight was OK, with Baroni controlling it. He’s the real deal too and I think he’ll be a bigger star in the coming year.

Wanna talk about dullsville? Dan Henderson beat Vitor Belfort. I never understood why folks are so into Vitor. The match was very dull. Butterbean just destroyed Sean O’Haire with punches when Sean went for a takedown.

Josh Barnett, who will also be very big and is one of those fighters who can just flat-out go, beat Pawel Nastula in a very good fight. It was a strong struggle and I think that Nastula was very much helped with his performance. This was thinking man’s MMA.

I didn’t see the Kevin Randleman fight, but he lost to Mauricio Shogun. I love Randleman, but if the word inconsistent is in the dictionary, it’s cross-referenced with Kevin’s name. I saw the beating that Coleman took at the hands of Fedor Emelianenko and I have to say it was disturbing looking at the man after that match. He’s just so bad ass. Coleman did a promo afterwards.

The show was really good, though I’ll wait until I see a full tape of it to say for sure.

TNA
I’m getting more and more excited about TNA due to the arrival of Angle and the fact that they seem to understand that Samoa Joe is the future. This makes me happy and it seems that TNA has something of a future, which we couldn’t have said as certainly a year ago.

They did a Kevin Nash Open Gauntlet challenge which wasn’t bad at all, and it had some nice spots, but it was really just a way to power through an many X-Division guys as possible. All sorts of people in it but it didn’t really add up to much from my point of view. They gave the win to Austin Star, which is a very good choice as he’s awesome. Still, I think they’re wasting Petey Williams.

In a Four Corners Tag match, Team 3D took on The Naturals, America’s Most Wanted and The James Gang. This was very short and fast and it seemed like they just wanted to get through it so they’d have more time for the big angles. A 3D ended it after about 8 minutes.

So far, I’m underwhelmed at the way they’ve presented some of their best workers.

Monster’s Ball was another match with multiple contestants, but it was much better than the previous two from where I’m sitting. Where you have Samoa Joe, Abyss, Raven and Runt with Jake Roberts as Ref, you’re gonna get good results. They all ganged up on Joe at the start, throwing him out of the ring. Lot’s of good brawling and weapons use. Raven went through tables, which is always good to see. Everyone took big bumps. This got more than ten minutes, but I’d have liked to have seen maybe five more minutes. Joe delivered the sickest spot. He gave Abyss a Senton while the big man was on the tacks. Brutal. Jake DDTed Raven and then Joe gave him the MuscleBuster for the win. Good stuff.

Larry Zbyzko lost the loser must retire match to Eric Young. It was awful.

We got the first PPV look at what will be the hottest program in wrestling come 2007. Kurt Angle came out to talk with Jim Cornette and while he said all the right things, he challenged Joe, who came out and the two of them brawled. This was a hot angle and I’m thinking that it’ll set the record for TNA buys when they deliver…if they wait until at least February and build to it.

Chris Sabin took on Senshi (who is really Low Ki, I mean seriously) and while I didn’t get to see all of it, it was good. I love Sabin and Senshi is just tough as nails and awesome. Shockingly, Sabin won this with a roll-up. I’m going to have to rewatch this since I think it was a really good match with excellent timing for both guys.

There was a streetfight between Rhino and Christian Cage. I wasn’t that impressed. As much as I like both guys, it just didn’t have the heat or fire that I’ve have liked. I mean, as for spots that I can say ruled, there was an awesome RhinoDriver through a table to the floor, but other than that and the Unprettier on the broken table, there wasn’t a lot memorable about the match. The ending was a weaker one. Christian piled stuff on top of Rhino and bashed it with a chair. That’s lame.

There was a Six-Sides of Steel match with Chris Daniels and AJ Styles against LAX. This was the hot match I’d been waiting for all night. There was just so much goin’ on and so many huge spots. Homicide is just amazing, and he works so well with Daniels and Styles. Little things, like a Hip Toss off the top, can go a long way. There was blood and there was brawling and there was flying all over the place. There was a lot of stuff done on the top of the cage, which was dangerous as hell. AJ was going for the Styles Clash, but Hernandez just about killed him with a clothesline. The Gringo Killer ended up giving LAX the win and the belts. Great match.

I really think that giving Sting the World Title was an interesting choice, but more importantly, it got the belt off of Jeff Jarrett. The match was nice to see, especially with Sting not doing the brooding Crow Sting so much as a hybrid of new and old Sting.

The match was pretty good. Sting works really hard, which is awesome since he’s something like 48 years old. Kurt played a big role. When the ref was about to count both guys out, Kurt, who had been the special enforcer, gave him an AngleSlam and then took over as ref. They did a Tombstone reversal spot where Double J ended up taking it and it looked like he was a little low when Sting gave it to him. That’ll hurt for a while.

Double J managed to get the AnkleLock on Sting, but Kurt Angle looked at him like he was a kid playing. The end was what you’d expect. Jeff made like El Cabong and Sting no sold it, got the Scorpion Deathlock and the win for the title.

I’d say after the first two matches it really took off.

That’s all for today. I’ll be back on Thursday and then I’m off for a week.

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Chris Garcia