Falls Count Anywhere

10-25-05

I'm heavily edited.

News
On Saturday, the Crusher, the biggest name in AWA cities like Milwaukee and Indianapolis, passed at the age of 79. I never saw much of the big guy, but I know his legend and he was known around the world as one of Dick the Bruiser’s best partners.
He can be seen in the film The Wrestler from 1974

If you’re looking for a great DVD, buy the Ring of Honor Road to the Title DVD. Great stuff, especially the Low-Ki vs. Amazing Red match which has the fastest opening ever.

SmackDown!
Wow, they kinda delivered a good show, but they gave us a taste of a feud that could be huge…or could kill a brand, and let’s guess which one.

They opened with a video package on Booker’s recent issues with his wife. Then there was a match with Benoit. This was a good match with some heat and a spot that really could have been dangerous. Benoit hit a dive to the outside, but Booker sent him off in another direction so he ended up on the news table. That was awesome. The rest of the match was good and the finish was what you expected, with Sharmell trying to send in a chair, but Benoit saw it and that gave Booker the chance to hit the Scissor Kick for the win. That went over well, admittedly, but still, it’s a weird set up for a strange series of events in a turn…or maybe not. Benoit interrupted the T’s celebrating backstage with his outrage.

They played an Ortons video which was kinda cool. They then showed that Bob Orton had been jumped.

JBL did an interview saying that he had nothing to do with his music playing last week on RAW during Edge’s match. He also cleared Jillian Hall of any wrong-doing as well. He also threatened to bust up Edge’s pretty little face. This was actually a good interview, but it just reminds me that there’s no direction that makes sense on this show except for a feud that requires the participation of the dominant brand.

Matt Hardy debuted by beating Simon Dean. Terrible way to bring him back. They should have found a way to do it with a bit of interest, perhaps even playing off his same return to RAW too, but now, they just bring him back and give him an unimpressive win. Sad.

JBL and Rey Mysterio had a match that wasn’t too bad. Rey started off early with a big Flying Bodypress, but JBL moved, then JBL tried an elbow, but Rey moved and waited on the outside, which was smart. I liked that opening. A bunch of interesting work, and this was probably their best match of late, including Rey hitting a Frankensteiner when JBL tried for a PowerBomb. This led to Edge’s music hitting and he actually came out, speared Rey and then Master sturned up and put him in the MasterLock. Spanky and London ran in (and I just saw a great match between the two of them from 2002 in Ring of Honor that was really amazing) and Master took them out. Masters ran off when Hardcore Holly showed up.

I guess we just saw who will be the level of guy involved in the feud, which will be weak. Interesting angle, but I’m not sure they’ll be able to have SmackDown! make a comeback, because here they looked really bush league.

Vito got his butt beat by Bobby Lashley. I like the way they are pushing him, but I’m not sure he’s got it. Still, they are making him look better than I expected. I also wish they would name his finisher.

They already killed any impact the Luchadores or any of the other new guys will have. They had Palmer introduce the Minis, one of which was dressed as Juan Cenacito, which was kinda cool. They also showed SuperPorky eating pork with no utensils. I love Porky, but they need to make these guys seem important and this didn’t. The Boogeyman then jumped out of a closet and scared Theodore R. Long. Wow…

Sylvan Grenier was checking himself in the mirror and Hardcore Holly inquired why Grenier hadn’t defended SmackDown!. Grenier said that he wasn’t in it for anyone but himself. They brawled until Holly put him through a table with the Alabama Slam. This wasn’t great, but it was the bet thing that Sylvan has been involved in for a while.

Randy Orton and Ken Kennedy took on Big Dave Batista and Eddie Guerrero in a match that wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t great. Eddie attacked Ken Kennedy before he could do his introductions. Nice segment where Kennedy was about to hit the SteamRoller on Guerrero, but Eddie then pushed him away and tried for a Frog Splash but then Kennedy escaped the ring. Nice piece. The Heels…well, the ones who weren’t on the team with Batista, took over on Eddie. The finish was pretty OK, Kennedy went to the top with a chair and Eddie covered Batista, and Kennedy came off and hit Eddie instead for the DQ. The heels, along with Ace Cowboy Bob Orton, then laid a beat down on Batista, but Eddie was incapacitated.

Better than most, but it still feels like SmackDown! has lost its way. They were the best of the brands, but something happened…

TNA Impact and PPV
Let me say this: TNA has been great of late, but they’ve got some issues. Kevin Nash no showed that PPV due to some medical issues that popped up during the Fan Fest. There were some weak things on the TV show before the PPV that just didn’t seem right. I’m hoping that they get it together sometime soon.

On the Saturday TV, Samoa Joe made his debut on TNA Impact and was OK. He took on Elix Skipper in a short match where Joe was dominant. He won with the Muscle Buster into the Rear Naked Choke. The Naturals and America’s Most Wanted had another match in their decade long feud. It wasn’t a bad match, and it ended with America’s Most Wanted winning the Tag Team Titles after Jeff Jarrett interfered. They are so trying to recreated the Four Horsemen, but it really felt like this was just another attempt to make Jarrett look better. I missed most of Bobby Roode vs. Ron ‘The Truth’ Killings. He’s a two-time World Heavyweight Champion and he’s in there with Bobby Roode with no storyline. The Six Man Match with Jarrett, Monty Brown and Abyss beating Jeff Hardy, Lance Hoyt and AJ Styles was OK, though I missed large chunks. The best part was AJ Styles, who is a big star and should be bigger still. He’s one of the best wrestlers in the world, though I’m still certain that The Fallen Angel Christopher Daniels is the best out there.

The PPV had some major issues. The opener was great, and on free tv, with Alex Shelley vs Sonjay Dutt vs. Austin Aries vs. Roderick Strong all giving out a great effort. Aries should be getting a bigger push, and he looked good, especially when he was selling, but Sonjay Dutt was awesome, as always, winning with the DragonRana. This was followed by Samoa Joe beating Jushin Thunder Liger in a match that was good, but too short and not nearly on the level of Joe’s matches with CM Punk or the big Styles-Daniels-Joe match, but not much in the history of wrestling holds up to those. This didn’t make Liger seem like a big deal, which doesn’t make Joe’s win look that important.

A forgettable six man followed with only Apolo’s huge dive to the outside being anywhere near interesting.

Lance Hoyt has some weak punches, but the crowd loves him. He lost to Monty Brown who used the Pounce. Watching the Ultimate Warrior DVD (which I’m not done with yet), I’ve understood that you don’t have to be great in the ring to be a star. Monty looked OK, but Hoyt had most of the offense, which made it weaker. The crowd was hot though, and that can save a match.

I didn’t even finish watching 3 Live Kru vs. Team Canada. Not a good match, really, though it was all about the storyline to bring Kip James and B.G. Armstrong. Not interesting to me, since I don’t care at all about the storyline.

In the greatest match mess-up ever, the Ultimate X, which was a wild and crazy match, had technical issues which included the match being stopped once to repair the X and once for good when Williams caught the X and since he was supposed to win, they just called it. They did some great stuff, especially Sabin and Williams, but the match ended and with all the troubles, they didn’t get over with the finish. Matt Bentley stormed off. People are saying that it reminded them of when Shawn Michaels would be a part of a messed-up finish. The crowd really hated that it went down like that and chanted in various ways their displeasure. Sad, because it was good and with a real finish would have been great.

The Naturals took on America’s Most Wanted and it wasn’t as good as the last one, though at least this one didn’t feel like it was Jarrett trying to build his stable. It didn’t feel special, and maybe I was sorta burned because of the Ultimate X match.

Ok, I admit it, I wasn’t thinking that the match between Rhino, Jeff Hardy, Abyss and Sabu would be any good, but damn if it was REALLY good. Lot’s of spots, some smart work, and really, just a lot of brawling. I didn’t pay too much attention honestly, because even I was getting a little tired just watching this show.

Daniels vs. AJ Styles in an Iron Man Match. They’ve had great matches and this was no exception. They just pulled it all out and it made me feel better about the PPV in general. Probably the best part was the fact that they kept teasing near-falls and didn’t deliver the single pin until Styles got a pin with a couple of seconds left for the win. Really good match. No…GREAT MATCH! Get the replay just for this match. Buy the DVD. Do it!!!

They did a Gauntlet match to see who would get the shot at Jarrett instead of Nash. Rhino won when he threw out Abyss. Samoa Joe had a choke on Styles, who had just done a 30 minute match, but Abyss knocked them out. Crowd was quiet here, mostly due to the wind being taken out of their sails because of the tech problems and just getting a hot 30 minute match. They then had Rhino pin Jarrett clean. I know why they did it, to give the crowd a feeling that it was a special night because they couldn’t deliver the big Nash vs. Jarrett match. There’s some fear that Nash is in really bad shape, but we’ll see. Rhino makes an impressive NWA Heavyweight Champion, but how long will it last?

As TNA’s supposed WrestleMania, this was only OK. The matches were really good, and with the exception of things that shouldn’t have gone wrong, everything came off pretty well. I guess I had higher expectations and I shouldn’t hold it against the show, but still, I didn’t come away feeling like I had just seen a WrestleMania.

RAW
I missed the beginning. I am told that it was Kane vs. Big Show vs. Michaels and that it was better than you would think. I also missed some Stephanie stuff with Coach and Mick Foley and Carlito. At least they are building to the Foley vs. Carlito match, though they are still rushing it pretty seriously. I wish I had this on tape, but sadly, my guy hasn’t been taping RAW lately.

The first thing I saw was Viscera vs. HHH, or so I thought. HHH got his own self jumped by Ric Flair. This was fast and cheap and it basically did what it was supposed to, building interest in a PPV that no one will buy because it’s on a Tuesday. Flair grabbed the mic and said that he wanted H in a cage and he’d tear him up. He then tossed the mic into the audience.

JBL’s limo arrives and Eric Bischoff yells at him for showing up. Edge and Chris Masters were in the ring. Edge said that JBL had finally found his way to the A game, which is a little too true. They jawed a bit and JBL got to use his best asset, his talking, and drew Masters out to the limo. Edge kept talking, but when Masters got to JBL, he told Chris that he had just fallen for the oldest trick in the book. Rey did a Springboard DropKick into Edge’s back. Lita then tried to hit him with the briefcase, but Rey ducked and she ended up taking the 619. This was a hot segment. I was really happy to see how they did this, and I’m hoping they’ll stick with it until they have both sides doing a real feud and not just a small portion.

Mickie James took on Victoria in a match which I thought was better than most of the women’s matches that don’t contain Trish. Victoria had the advantage to start, but Mickie came back. She hit a small package, but Torrie distracted the ref allowing Candace to push them over so that Victoria was on top. Ashley jumped up and pushed Torrie around allowing Trish to come in and reverse them so that Mickie got the pin. I liked this, though having them hold small package for so long was weird.

The WWE just shot itself in the foot by going back to the Attitude era and they did a skit where Vince did an operation that eventually ended up having Vince pull JR’s head out of the fake JR’s ass. It wasn’t funny. They used to do these back in the late 1990s and it worked sometimes, though usually not, but they are going back to it thinking that it will make the show fresh. I don’t think so. It just feels like there’s too much Vince, too much potty humor, too much crap…sorry about that one.

Rosie came out and was supposed to have Hurricane with him. If you don’t go to the website during RAW, you missed that Hurricane turned on Rosie last week. Rosie got mauled by the Tag Team Champs Murdoch and Cade. They did a great spot where, after Rosie had been beat on for a while, Murdoch was outside, pretending to be his partner, and when Rosie tagged him, Murdoch came in and worked him over. Rosie made a bit of a comeback, but he took Hi-Low for the loss. Hurricane, who wants to be called Gregory Helms, was watching from the top of the ramp and did nothing.

Kurt Angle took on John Cena with Mick Foley as the special guest ref. This was a fun match with a lot of interesting stuff going on. Angle basically controls early, though Cena is getting better with his comebacks. After a break, Cena is hurtin’ on the outside until he gets back in and Angle gives him the Snap Suplex. Angle has single-handedly been bringing back the leg scissors after years of being away. He used it to great effect here again.

After a while, Kurt pushes Foley, which leads Foley to push him back, which allows John Cena to get a roll-up for a near fall. Lots of back and forth, with Cena doing some fairly good offense for once. Maybe Kurt brings out the best in him. Then again, Cena had his best match of the year with JBL. Fisherman Suplex by Cena is about to get three when Carlito comes out. Foley knocks him off the apron and Cena takes control. When Cena goes for the FU on Kurt, he is saved by Bisch. Cena puts his hands on Bischoff, which allows Kurt to get the Ankle Lock.

Cena almost makes the ropes, but Bischoff keeps him away and forces his hand to tap. This wasn’t for the belt, so Kurt didn’t win the belt, but he’s got more heat than any challenger in a long time and he’s not facing Cena alone.

Not a great show, but it almost was, if they hadn’t done that stupid JR skit. Still, just the way to cap a week where I was pretty disappointed.

That’s all for this week. Fare thee Well!

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Chris Garcia