Falls Count Anywhere

11-19-07

Oh, my ears and whiskers...

You know what? I watched everything I saw of wrestling this weekend off of the internet. I figured out a way to watch the San Jose Strikeforce show, by-passing the 150 mile rule and I managed to see a couple of the matches from the UFC show (and I’m told overall it was an average show) and I watched the Survivor Series matches …in no particular order. The only thing I watched on regular TV was the UFC show from England where Michael Bisping stole a decision and Mirko Cro Cop got his head kicked off.

Let’s look at some of what I saw in no particular order.

First off, I watched Beth Phoenix, Jillian Hall Victoria, Layla (who is still the hottest woman in the WWE and Melina take on Torrie Wilson, Michelle McCool (who is also hot), Maria, Kelly Kelly and Mickie James. There was a sign that this wouldn’t be a pretty match when Melina missed doing her ring entrance. These things happen and she played it off pretty well and just did it again which got a good pop.

The match was a little bit of a mess, but it was short and Mickie kissed Melina and it was FemmSlashFiction worthy! I’m saying that Beth is a fun champ, but she was kinda wasted here. A lot of the girls here realty have no business in the ring, but this was fast and out.

Michael Bisping took on Rashad Evans. I watched the pre-fight promo show the other day and it was made to look like a really good fight. In my eyes going in, I figured that Bisping would take it in a decision of a good fight. Basically, I got a fight that was slow and neither guy showed too much fire. There was Evans who tried towards the end and Bisping who looked like he was trying not to lose a decision, which is a great way to find yourself losing a decision. True, he did come close to mounting something in the last round and a half, but Evans worked harder overall.

I really think they could have gone draw, though Evans did more damage and took Bisping down a few times and that made it look like he was dominating, but really, it could have been a draw. Bisping needs some time off and needs to find a vehicle to rebuild himself. Evans didn’t look like a closer.

The Strikeforce show had a great ending, and a scary scene, Jorge Santiago KOed Sean Salmon with a Jumping Knee. That’s not the story. The match was 24 seconds, with Salmon taking the knee before Santiago got to the ground and laid a really hard punch in on him. Salmon got up, but you could tell that he was in bad shape and he had a seizure. It might not have been an actual seizure, but it was a bad scene. He went out on a stretcher. He’s not a great fighter, Salmon, but I love his heart. He’s one of those guys I really want to see stick around, even if he never becomes a big name.

Cung Le is San Jose’s big MMA star. He was in the Main Event of the Strikeforce show and it was a powerful performance. He always does well in his matches and this was no exception. He was taking on Sam Morgan and it was a match of mostly Morgan trying to work him like a wrestler and Cung coming back with kicks and knees. This was an exciting fight, especially when both guys started to tire. Morgan tried a lot of takedowns, and he got a few, but Cung was kicking.

Cung kicked hard, especially with mixing things up, especially with a few takedowns and clinching knees. Le had probably the best series of kicks with a fine spinning kick and the a Liver Kick that led to Morgan collapsing which allowed Le to get a couple of kicks and then win the whole thing. Really good match and Frank Shamrock did some subtle heeling afterwards talking about how Cung was the second best fighter in San Jose.

Those two will face off at some point and make big money. That’s a fight I wanna see. I really think Frank will take him apart.

Randy Orton took on Shawn Michaels and the match was pretty good, though they worked a lot of MMA-style fighting stuff that didn’t really get over. They worked a bit of old school psychology and that didn’t quite connect either, though I thought it was very smart. I thought Michaels worked harder than he had to, which is a strange thing to say. Ending was RKO when Michaels was about to do the SuperKick, but then remembered that he couldn’t do it because he’d be DQed. Good stuff, worth a viewing, but not the finish of any sort of feud.

The Hell in the Cell was a very strong match with two guys who are the best opponents for each other at this period of time. Those two will never be as good opponents as UT and Mick Foley, or even Taker and Angle (who had some real classics) but they’ll be long remembered.

In a real interesting moment, Undertaker gave Batista the Tombstone and Batista kicked out. That was not normal. That showed what both these guys think of each other. The Undertaker took the Spinebuster and kicked out. These guys were really working and there was blood too. That’s the sign of a good match, guys willing to go all the way to make a match memorable.

Edge was dressed as a cameraman and attacked Undertaker with a camera. It was the perfect way to bring him back. He did the conchairto onto the ring steps, which was a good way to make him a traditional heel. Edge put Batista on top of UT for the pin and the win, bringing up visions of the first Hell in a Cell where Kane debuted and cost Undertaker the win over Michaels in what I thought was the best WWF match I’d ever seen up to that point.

All in all, I saw some great stuff this weekend, and some OK stuff. I would say catch the Cung Le match if you can and the WWE PPV was worthwhile, at least what I saw was worth it. Bisping and Evans weren’t up to snuff, but the next fight I’m interested in is Brock Lesnar’s first UFC fight. That’ll be a good one.

That’s all for this week. I won’t be back from LA until the Tuesday after Thanksgiving, so I’ll be another one for the Thursday after Thanksgiving. Enjoy your holiday and eat well!

Chris Garcia