Falls Count Anywhere

11-29-05, page 3 (Wrestling Before Thanksgiving) (Smackdown!)

It's time for some new angles...

Benoit and Booker started their series, which sounded like a good match. I’m hoping it gets over and that the matches are good. Everyone is talking about the brutality of the Flair vs. HHH match. It went 27 minutes and was kinda slow according to most folks that I’ve talked to. Trish held on to the woman’s title over Melina, and it was said to be the best woman’s match in a while. Angle vs. Cena was supposedly an OK match, because of Angle, who was the most over face on the show.

The direction seemed to take a positive when they debuted Edge’s new segment, The Cutting Edge. They had Dmitri Young come on and Edge made fun of him and the Tigers and they ended it with Edge saying he was going to be like GM and Ford and leave Detroit. The idea of giving Edge a talk show thingee might be over-done, but if he gets a chance, I’m sure he’ll be the biggest heel on RAW who isn’t in the McMahon family.

Bad direction again as they had Bischoff and Teddy Long fight. The Boogeyman gave Bisch the PumphandleSlam to give Long the win. The elimination match seems to have been good, but the ending with Orton getting the win and having UT return in the casket, which was on fire, wasn’t right for the night. I understand that they have to get Orton more over so he can take the title, and giving SmackDown! the win made sense since they are the weaker brand, but they’d have been better off getting over a guy like Lashley instead of Orton. I’ll do more notes after I’ve seen the tape.

RAW
I thought this was a really good show. There was some good wrestling, they went a long way towards rebuilding John Cena as some guy that the main audience can root for and not just the kids and ladies, and they had a couple of smart booking choices.

They had Bischoff call out all the RAW SuperStars, but no one came. It turned out that Vince came out and told Bisch that he said none of the RAWster had to come out. Nice way to show Vince flexing his muscles on and off camera. He said that Bisch had failed him. Vince said that Eric had to set a goal and achieve it tonight, or he’d be fired. He chose getting the belt off of Cena. I liked this segment.

No reference to this in the column, but come ON...

Shawn Michaels and Carlito had a match that I really enjoyed. It was long, and Carlito worked hard, actually doing most of the offense in the match and playing old-time mean heel, which is a good role for him.

He worked on Shawn’s leg, so when he went for Sweet Chin Music, he collapsed. Nice booking there. He finally hit it and got the pin on Carlito. This was a good match with a smart story and both guys look better coming out of it.

Kurt Angle complained to Bischoff about the Survivor Series, and he said he wanted the WWE title. Maria then asked Bisch if he thought he’d be fired, so he put her in a match with Kurt Angle.

The match was interesting as they had Daivari take out Referee Chad Patton so that he’d be Kurt’s ref. Kurt took the mic and said that he was a competitor and that he wouldn’t hurt Maria. He then said that he’d like to give her a hug, which she did, only to take the AngleSlam. This really raised Maria in my eyes because she took it like a champ.

Cena ran in and brawled with Angle a bit before Masters ran in. They set up Angle vs. Cena vs. Masters in a Triple Threat Submissions match, and Joey Styles played up that Cena did have a submission move. Hmmmmm…..

Backstage, in the segment of the night to me, they had Shane face off with Eric Bischoff. Bisch said that Shane was a member of the lucky sperm club. Nice. Shane went off and pushed Bischoff against the wall. Hot segment.

Shelton Benjamin lost to Trevor Murdoch in a match that really wasn’t very good. I think that they’ve shelved Cade for some reason (coughNewDrugPolicycough) and they’re trying to push Murdoch. Shelton always tries hard in matches where he’s losing, including doing a clothesline from the top rope to the floor. The guy may as well start thinking about going to TNA where he’d be huge. The WWE has shown that they don’t really want to push him for whatever reason. Joey Styles played this up as an upset and that kinda made it OK.

I don't know why, but I hear banjo music...

HHH came out and said that Ric Flair should stay down and not come back. He also said that he got Flair the best hospital care you could get. Big Show came out and faced H down and he smartly left. This could get interesting. Show and Kane then beat Tomko and Snitsky. IT wasn’t much of a match, but they had a storyline and they followed it logically.

John Cena won the Triple Threat with a Step-over Toehold Face lock, better known as the STF on Masters. This match went really fast, but it was smartly worked and Angle carried a good deal of the action. Masters and Angle started out working together, but then they started in-fighting. Masters got Angle in the Masterlock and Kurt had to wait until Cena made the save. Cena got caught in it later, and Angle saved him and put Masters in the Anklelock.

Cena finished things when Angle brought a chair in while Masters had Cena held. Cena kicked the chair into Angle’s face, which sent him out of the ring as he dropped the chair. Cena then got the chair and hit Master’s leg with it. This got a good pop and the guys seem to like him more. He got a big pop when he got the STF win.

All in all, a good show, and a strong cap to a spotty two weeks.

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Chris Garcia