Falls Count Anywhere

12-07-04

This time, it's impersonal.

RAW
Chris Jericho started out the evening in the ring, making sure everyone got lei’ed. I hate these lame teenaged bits. This was probably written completely for Jericho, as it didn’t seem like him. Vince came out and said that the match last week was a tie, which brought out HHH.

HHH tried to take the title back, but Vince said that when Bischoff returned, he’d have to make the first decision as to who would get the belt.

Anyone believe that it won’t be HHH? Anyone? Anyone?

Eugene beat the freshly turned Maven in a little match. There was a cool spot where Maven went into the ropes near Regal and tripped himself, blamed Regal and got him booted from ringside. Clever. Eugene hit a Northern Lights Suplex, which I don’t remember him doing before. Maven got DQed, Regal returned to make the save and Maven clocked him with a tag tittle belt. Maybe Maven has what it takes to be a decent heel. The coming weeks will tell the tale.

The Diva limbo contest sucked. Christy Hemme didn’t seem to compete fairly, but she won. Muhammad Hassan then came and said the party was over and he’d debut next week. How can hot women limboing be a losing proposition?

Simon Dean beat Hurricane in a nothing sort of match. Hurricane always looks at least decent, and Dean is a talented guy. Hurricane went for the Shining Wizard, missed and got rolled up.

Randy Orton was doing an interview with the Coach until Edge interrupted, blamed Orton for not giving Edge a singles title match and the two of them faced off a bit until the faces ran in to pull them apart. Edge has very strong heel charisma, much like Orton does. The difference: they’re letting Edge be a heel and not letting Orton. Fools and ratings are soon parted.

Shelton Benjamin pinned Christian in a match where Christian had to wear a Captain Charisma superhero outfit. They had a nice little match where Shelton looked good. Tomko distracted the ref while Christian tried to hit Benjamin with the belt, but Benjamin blocked it. Tomko gave Shelton a big boot which got Christian a two count. Shelton was being set up for an Unprettier, but kicked his way out, turning Christian’s mask so he couldn’t see. Shelton hit the T-Bone for the pin. Solid enough for a night when there really hadn’t been much in the way of wrestling.

Snitsky intimidated Lita. I believe the Golem of Jewish lore would have a better range of emotion. Come to think of it, I’ve never really had a good look inside Snitsky’s mouth…

They keep teasing dissention in the ranks of Evolution, but we know they won’t pull the trigger, so why do it? Though, they did see the reaction that Batista got when he did the swerve, so maybe they’ll try and actually do it, but by that point, the magic will have washed off.

Lita headlines and saves!

Lillian Garcia announced HHH as Former World Heavyweight Champion, which led H to going after her. The match between H-tista and Jericho/Benoit was pretty good, easily the best thing on the show so far. The faces did a lot of working over HHH, which is always fun, though it didn’t get the reaction the WWE would have liked. HHH just doesn’t inspire the crowd to hate him as much as they need right now. The crowd chanted for Flair, which means he’ll never be a face again. Benoit and Jericho worked really hard and HHH got DQed for hitting Benoit with a chair. He then went to hit Jericho, but got Batista instead. After that he laid out Jericho.

The main event went to Trish vs. Lita. That’s right: Trish and Lita were headlining RAW. I’m glad they got the shot and they made a good night of it, having a strong match. They did a nice package about the long-running Lita-Trish feud. We did get a fine moment backstage when Trish called Lita the walking kiss of death, and Lita kissed her. Lesbionics on RAW? Linda must not be fulfilling her duties for poor old Vinny Mac.

The match itself was very fun. Lita went for a dive on Trish, but ended up crashing to the floor. Lita took it hard. Trish bashed Lita with her nose guard. Lita used a Superplex, which I don’t remember her using before. Lita went for a Moonsault, but Trish was ready for her. They did a lot of teasing of finishers, but in the end, Lita hit The Twist of Fate and the Moonsault for the win.

Other than the end, there wasn’t a lot to this show that would make it a must watch. Still, I liked the main event and the faith they put in Lita and Trish.

NEWS
Paul Heyman remains with the WWE, though he has been removed from the writing crew. The word is that it wasn’t anything specific that got him taken off, just that he rubbed Steph and Vince the wrong way.

Before wrestling...

FlashBack!
I’m gonna focus on the ladies of wrestling through the end of the year.

There’s been women’s wrestling in the US since at least the 1920s, and probably earlier. While searching for a copy of Jaws: The Revenge (perhaps the origin of the phrase ‘This time, it’s personal’), I found an old LPWA video on the shelves and decided to give it a watch. It brought back a lot of memories for me of the good old days of ladies' wrestling, including a woman I thought I would never think of again: Reggie Bennett.

In the late 80s and early 1990s, she was wrestling for LPWA, which in a way can be judged to have started the modern wrestling obsession with thongs. They would have several of the more shapely woman wrestlers wrestle in leotard singlets with no leggings, exposing a two full cheeks. Reggie was one of the woman who wore that particular style. Her time in LPWA was marked by not being terribly solid in the ring, though that may have had something to do with the fact that she seldom worked with anyone of talent. After LPWA ran its disastrous Super Ladies Showdown Pay-Per-View, the company folded and Reggie had to find other work. While she took some indy dates stateside (I can remember seeing her at a show in Las Vegas or Laughlin back in the very early 1990s), she headed to Japan.

Must be the suspenders...

Japan had been going through a women’s wrestling revival. All Japan Women’s pro wrestling had been turning out amazing workers for a decade and had spawned a rash of rival groups. One, JWP, signed Reggie almost immediately. They were the second tier, though they had recognizable stars such as Cutie Suzuki and Dynamite Kansei, and Reggie did rather well. In 1994, right at the peak of All Japan Woman’s prosperity, she was signed to come in and work for All Japan with some of the best workers in the world. She had gained a good deal more weight and was frequently teamed with Aja Kong, the big bruiser woman of the fed.

The two did very well, tearing the place up as a pair of brawlers. She appeared on the biggest women’s wrestling show of all-time: The Tokyo Big Egg Universe show at the Tokyo Dome. She put over former Crush Girl Chigusa Nagayo.

Times got hard for AJWPW and she left in 1998 to go to Arsion, where Aja Kong was the top star. She was again used as the big basher heel woman, but by this time her weight had limited her movement. She stopped wrestling in 2000 and has pursued some acting. She had actually done some acting prior to her days as a wrestler, including appearing in Over the Top. She married a Japanese musician and is still living in Japan from what I’ve been able to find. She had a chance to be a big star in the WWF back in 1994, when they still had Aludra Blayze (more on her later) and they were bringing in folks like Aja Kong and Bertha Faye. She would have been great for a feud, but the WWF went looking another way, hoping to find more traditionally hot ladies for their shows.

That’s all for today. I’ll be talking about Medusa Micceli and the AWA Women’s title next time!

Chris Garcia