Falls Count Anywhere

12-13-05, page 3 (TNA PPV and Smackdown!) (TNA Impact and News)

But can he get the ratings out of the Elimination Chamber?

Kurt Angle took on Ric Flair in a nice match that used Kurt’s style more than Ric’s but Ric provided much of the psychology. It wasn’t long enough to be great, but it was almost as good as the match the two had where Flair reintroduced the concept of cheating as a strategy. They both used their submissions and it ended when Flair got decked by Angle’s medals. Angle and Daivari do a bit backstage.

Flair shows up backstage when Edge and Lita come by. This was a good little bit as they made fun of Falir’s recent legal troubles, which got a little attention from the media, but not too much.

Shelton’s turn continued with a backstage bit where Shawn and Shelton faced off and Shelton accused Shawn of being selfish.

I’ve decided that Carlito’s finisher is the Roll-up. He rolled up Shelton to get into the Elimination Chamber Match after Shelton went to eat Carlito’s apple. Lame finish, but the match was pretty good. They’re pushing Shelton by not giving him any wins in big matches. It’s a weird concept, but if done right, it can really get a guy over. I did like this match, and they really need to give Shelton some wins over jobbers with the T-Bone to get that over as a major finisher. Carlito goes into the Elimination Chamber as the guy who’s going to do the job. It wasn’t long enough.

Candice Michelle put her name in as a hopeful for the role of the New GM. She did her GoDaddy dance as the sign of her qualifications. I think she did OK in this segment. I really think she could develop into something interesting.

Shawn Michaels beat Big Show by DQ. I was surprised that this was the first time these two had met in a singles match. It was as good a match as you’ll get out of The Big Show. Typical match: little guy gets an early advantage, then the big guy comes back. They did a little change-up. They had HHH run in and interfere. He’s feuding with Big Show, so he hit HBK with the chair to get Show DQed and have Shawn advance. That was a nice twist and it’s one of the few angles that’s not been overdone. Again, a very short match, but that was for the best.

Even though Chris Masters and Big Viz only went about 3 minutes, they were still massively boring. A negative stars match and Masters advances.

I can't fight it any longer. "Oh, Mickey, you're so fine, you're so fine you blow my mind..."

Trish went to break-up with Mickie James, it would seem, but Mickie told her her story of how she would watch wrestling with her Grandpa and that he died. This put Trish in a position where she couldn’t tell her to stop comin’ ‘round here no more. Mickie then had her match with Victoria and Trish did commentary with Coach riding her (not literally) about being afraid of Mickie James. Victoria did the job after a DDT variation.

Dusty Rhodes seems to be in the running for the General Managership.

They had a Matt Striker promo segment where he called the people stupid and they had him say that he’s going to be our teacher. Nice segment and it’s a gimmick that Striker might be able to make work where Shane Douglas wouldn’t.

The Big Show got a measure of revenge by costing HHH the chance at the Elimination Chamber. This was a hot match that the crowd seemed to love. They were livid when HHH brought in the sledgehammer. After a ref bump, they had Kane and Big Show give H the Double Chokeslam and Show got the ref back up and he counted the shoulders down. A nice twist that’ll lead to a Big Show vs. HHH match that won’t be good, but at least it means that someone other than H will have the belt.

The match where John Cena was blindfolded was kinda funny as Cena used the crowd to tell him where Daivari was. He eventually caught up to him and managed to get the STF-U on Daivari for the tap. Kurt Angle ran in and started beating on the still blind Cena. That ended up having Cena getting the blindfold off and chasing Angle out before giving Daivari the FU. This was short so it wasn’t that bad.

I liked this show a lot as it had a storyline, a couple of surprises and some fun talking. I wish the matches were longer though. Next week is the show from Afghanistan, and those shows are usually pretty good.

That’s all for this week. I’ll be back with more, and the awards are coming up, so if you want to vote for Best Face, Best Heel and FanboyPlanet’s Favorite Wrestler, do it by the 29th!

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Chris Garcia