Falls Count Anywhere

11-12-04

The Gift of the Garcia.

SmackDown!
I skipped Tough Enough, save for ten seconds or so while Dawn Marie was wearing her white outfit. Seriously, the original Tough Enough worked because of the reality of the situations. This one sucks because they’ve brought it to the ring instead of leaving it in the gym. Taking thirty minutes of show time to do a real Tough Enough in the same vein as the original would be a far better idea.

We were treated to a fun little tag match between the teams of Rey Mysterio and Chavito Guerrero against Spike Dudley and Billy Kidman. The crowd responded well and they worked their different styles so well. Spike’s offense is some of my favorite in wrestling right now. And his facial hair is right up there, too. Billy Kidman’s heel turn is working, and he should continue doing the Shooting Star as a killer move. Look what it did to the Piledriver in Mexico. Chavo got a drop toehold on Spike, landing him on the ropes. This allowed Rey to get a 619 followed by Chavo giving Kidman a plancha, allowing Rey to get the pin with the splash off the top rope. Good stuff with very strong crowd response.

Orlando Jordan and Josh Matthews continued their feud for another week. I think Matthews could turn into a decent Cruiserweight. They had an interview and Matthews got his chin split. The match was pretty meh, until the low blow by Matthews that set up Booker T to hit the Scissors Kick while the ref was tied up with JBL.

Eddie Guerrero and RVD took on Luther Reigns and Mark Jindraik in a match that the crowd got into quite a bit. There’s a lot of heat left in Eddie. The crowd was really into him. The match wasn’t that good, but they worked at a smart pace and they hit good spots. I liked the Stereo Frog Splashes. RVD is getting more and more consistent, though when he is a little off, he’s a lot off.

JBL is a great talker. He really is. Under different circumstances, when they could actually have taken their time in building him instead of having their hand forced, JBL could have been a great heel champion. He is 1984’s best heel, only working today. He gave a good interview saying that if he doesn’t beat Booker T, he’ll leave SmackDown forever. RAW, get ready for a new star to arise!

Heidenrich and Heyman went after Tazz. Maybe, after too many years of not havin him around, we’ll get the Human Suplex Machine back in the ring. This was a pretty lame angle, but Heidenreich and Undertaker did face off for a moment before it just ended. Huh? Why not have them fight a little here?

Big Show and Kurt Angle fought until Kurt got DQed and the smoz started with all the guys on the Survivor Series teams, with Eddie’s guys getting laid out.

I’m interested in the matches that SmackDown! has for us on Sunday, and this show did it’s job.

NEWS
Not much. No one else has been fired, save for one mid-level writer. There’s been a push to have Daniel Puder removed from Tough Enough because of the Angle stuff. Angle is being said to think that he should removed for not doing business. Angle probably should have tapped, but the quick thinking ref stopped the match by saying Puder’s shoulders were down. A lot of folks say that the WWE should have tried to make an angle out of it, but there’s no way that Angle could have come out of it looking good.

Survivor Series Thoughts
The first thing is that this Survivor Series isn’t going to do any business. I’m terrified for the numbers that are gonna come back considering that Taboo Tuesday did a sub .40 number last month.

The match that I am most interested in is the Fatal Fourway between Rey Mysterio, Spike Dudley, Billy Kidman and Chavo Guerrero for Spike’s Cruiserweight title. This should be an interesting match, especially since these four know each other so very well. There’s a storyline waiting to be resolved between Billy Kidman and Chavito, so I’m not going to pick either of them. My money is on Spike retaining. Should be a good one, if they give it enough time.

We’ve got a fine match with Big Show, Eddie Guerrero, RVD and John Cena taking on Kurt Angle, Mark Jindraik, Luther Reigns and Carlito Caribbean Cool in Survivor Series rules. This should be good, as there are a lot of working shoes and guys who know how to be carried. Here’s a little thought: They’ll do another injury angle with Cena. Eddie is hot right now, especially since he’s finally looking like he’s back on track after having his push derailed. There’s no way that Team Angle wins…unless they do a thing to get Carlito Caribbean Cool over by having him beat three guys or something. I think Eddie will survive.

The underneath singles matches are all kinda bland. Christian and Shelton should be a good match, but the build hasn’t been there long enough. Shelton wins. Heidenreich loses to Undertaker, as if there was any question, and Trish beats Lita with help from Snitsky, which should actually get him some real, lasting heat.

HHH, Snitsky, Batista and Edge are going to beat Orton, Benoit, Jericho and Maven. They’ll take advantage of the stips to keep Orton from getting any revenge at Hunter until he wins the Royal Rumble. This match could he great, but they need to book it very smartly, which hasn’t exactly been happening lately.

JBL vs. Booker T. Pretty much everyone thinks that this is where JBL is finally stripped of the title. I’m going the other way. Vince loves JBL and he’s got some heat. Still, I’d rather see him lose, but I just can’t believe that they’d make the exact right move at this point.

That’s all for this week. Next week will feature a wrap-up and a look at Wendi Richter!

Chris Garcia