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Falls
Count Anywhere
11-05-07
Welcome
to Falls Count Anywhere! My name is Chris and it’s a
sad day...
A
Few SmackDown! Notes
I watched a fair deal of SmackDown! this week and it wasn’t
much more than good. I like the stuff they’re doing
with the top of the card, but really, it’s not enough
to keep me all the way through the show. I really think
it’s time they abandon the brand-split, but I’ve
been saying that for ages, haven’t I?
Once
Edge comes back, it’ll be easy enough to spice up
SD!, but I’m way more worried about the undercard.
They’ve gotten rid of good people, they’ve had
so many injuries and the on-going wellness program issues,
they need one show with a bloated crew than the watered
down stuff they’ve got now.
I thought
that the Jamie Noble vs. Rey Mysterio match was really good
stuff. Slower than most matches between fliers, but it was
very well thought-out for two great workers. The announcing
was even good. The best spot was Rey doing a Headscissors
and turning it into a Fujiwara Armbar. That was a great
spot and I know I’ve seen him do it before, but it
was really good. Jamie was about to do the Double Underhook
Powerbomb, but Rey turned it into a Hurrancanrana and that
was the end.
In a
waste of a segment, they had Mick Foley pin Coach. It was
a waste of Mick and they tied Hornswoggle into it, too.
It was a decent piece of comedy, but not nearly good enough
to make it worthwhile instead of giving more time to good
matches. The Mark Henry/Great Khali vs. Undertaker and Batista
wasn’t good, but it wasn’t a trainwreck either.
They had JBL interfere and they beat down UT and Batista.
The match was never terrible. There was a nice spot where
Batista hit a Spinebuster next to UT’s Chokeslam.
Big
Time Stupid
You know, that Harry Smith has all the tools to be a big
star, just like his daddy. Sadly, he’ll have to wait
30 days until he restarts down that road. He got suspended
for violating the wellness policy. How stupid can you be?
He’s a giant star in the waiting and he goes and gets
nabbed for juicing (or maybe it was street drugs, they didn’t
say, but that would be an even bigger mistake) and he’s
out for another month.
When
will people learn?
Chris
Masters also got 60 days for his second offense against
the Wellness policy. That I can’t fault. The guy really
doesn’t have much else going for him but his body.
There’s
no doubt that guys with the jacked-up bodies do better,
but they also don’t make for good news reports. They
need to get things clean and do it fast. This will probably
be the end of Harry Smith with the WWE as a potential star,
but they also still have TJ Wilson and Nattie Neidhart to
debut and they could bring them up and do the Team Canada
II thing that they’re thinking about. I really want
to see that one.
The
Passing of The Fabulous Moolah
One of the most recognizable faces of the 1980s expansion
era of the WWF has passed away. Lillian Ellison, aka
The Fabulous Moolah, died at the age of 84. She was a great
star in the 1950s and 60s and even in the 70s and 80s, though
then she was more the legend than the Star. It was the first
wrestler’s death I’ve seen noted on Yahoo! News
since Benoit and one of the rare ones that had nothing to
do with drugs.
She
was the booker of the Woman’s Belt for a couple of
decades, which made her one of the few powerful women in
booking during the end of the Territorial system. The WWF
used her all the time and she was a star who often got good
pops. She was used as the heel to make Wendi Richter into
a star. The two of them feuded with Richter using Cyndi
Lauper as her manager, which got them on MTV and made wrestler
hotter than it had ever been. Moolah cheated and she became
a big star to the next generation.
Moolah
never retired, but she slowed down after the pass which
saw her win back the title from Richter (in something of
a double-cross) and then drop it to Velvet MacIntyre, win
it back and then drop it to Sherri Martel. She stayed active
working smaller shows, showing up for special matches once
in a while and basically staying in the public eye to a
degree.
Moolah
and Mae Young became the crazy old broads that Vince would
bring in. Mae was willing to be crazier, but Moolah was
always there. Vince very much cared that Moolah was taken
care of and she was probably the last of the always-employed’s
on the books. She was a piece of the WWF from the start
and she was up until the end.
That’s
all for today. More on Thursday!
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