Falls Count Anywhere

12-21-07

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News and Notes
A couple of things happened that I haven’t covered in recent editions that I thought were worth mentioning. The first being Steroid and Drug suspensions in MMA. Sean Sherk was stripped of his UFC title because California upheld his suspension, though they lowered the length to six months instead of one year. That’s OK-ish, but it still doesn’t clear him and there are people who legitimately say that he should get off because he never took anabolics and provided a complete list of supplements he was taking and several of them had shown up in the investigation where they tested supplements and found unlisted steroids. Go figure. Testing is becoming an even bigger deal now with the Mitchell Report out. There are probably going to be big changes.

There’s a great interview with Sunny, aka Tammy Sytch, on wrestlingobserver.com. She has a lot to say, explains where she’s at in her life, and says some harsh, though probably true, words about Missy Hyatt.

Matt Hardy should be back next week.

There’s no word on RVD coming back. He’s got an offer on the table, but has said that he’s enjoying his time off. There’s word that he’s looking to get some acting gigs, which would probably work out to him getting about one TV guest spot a year. Look what Stacy Kiebler’s done since she left wrestling.

The Fifth Annual Christopher J. Garcia Awards for Outstanding Achievement in the Field of Wrestling Excellence will come out next week, but without the Fan Awards section, since I folded my mailing list, and that’s where 90% of the votes had been coming from. I will still be doing the other awards, with this year’s categories being The Trish Stratus Woman of the Year, Tag Team of the Year, Best Wrestling Show of the Year, Best on Interviews, MMA Fighter of the Year, Most Misused Wrestler of the Year (and that will be a competitive category), Best Finisher, Best MMA Match, Match of the Year, MMA Fighter of the Year and Wrestler of the Year. I’ll also do the year end wrap-up.

Who invited the Spice Girls?

RAW
I didn’t watch it all, but there was some good stuff. The opener was a woman’s match with Mickie James (7 out of 10 for hot), Michelle McCool (8 out of 10), Kelly Kelly (I give her a 6) and Maria (7.5 out of ten) beating Layla (9 out of 10), Jillian Hall (8 out of 10), Melina (9.5 out of ten, down from 10 out of 10 a year ago) and Victoria (8 out of 10). It was a Santa's Little Helper match and it was basically an excuse for trampy Christmas outfits. This was a really weak match. They had some real talent, and Mickie and Victoria did a lot of the actual wrestling, but mostly it was a match for women who are meh at best.

Vince came to the ring and Jeff Hardy came out and compared him to Saddam. That’s not a good idea. Vince took a seat in the corner and HHH came out to get him to leave, but that’s where I left for a while. I had stuff to do and didn’t get back until after the start of the Ric Flair promo that I thought was pretty good.

They had Flair fight Umaga with the First Loss and Flair Retires stip still in effect. Umaga controlled early, but Flair got some licks in. They had Umaga dive at Flair, but he went into the rail and Flair got back into the ring to win via countout. It’s better if Flair wins by pinfall, but I like the fact that they’re building to a logical finish.

Jericho and JBL tried to explain their feud. It was much simpler when we were just supposed to accept that the guys just hated each other. You didn’t need much to justify a feud in the 1980s, just something had to happen, they’d have a match and that’d be that. You needed far more of a reason to keep things going, something like ramming a guy’s face into a barbell or hit the commissioner with a baseball bat. Basically Jericho said that JBL was a cry-baby and that JBL was coming to RAW to prove that he was a Wrestling God. Interesting…

Santino and Carlito beat Kendrick and London. Remember that Most Misused, London and Kendrick could be in contention. This was booked kinda smart, with London and Kendrick teaming together to get the better of Carlito and Santino, but they eventually had Santino provide a distraction and Carlito hit the BackStabber for the pin. After the match, Santino made me laugh by saying that their team was the perfect combination of an Italian and a Colombian!

Jeff Hardy is getting the biggest push of his career. I’m glad to see it, one because it means that he’d fought through enough of his demons to get a push like this and them not having the fear of him no-showing, and also because he’s getting to the point where the Dynamite Kid syndrome might kick in and he wouldn’t be able to do anything.

He teamed with Shawn Michaels to take on Orton and Kennedy. They did tandem dives early on. The heels got some offense too, which is a good thing as both Shawn and Jeff can sell, and Shawn came in with a Hot Tag and made the ring his own. Beating on Shawn is one of the must certain ways to get good heat today. Orton and Jeff exchanged escapes from their finishers and then Jeff hit the Twist of Fate and the Swanton to pin Orton clean in the middle. That’s a shocker and a good one. The match was very strong and they’re doing a great job with Jeff.

That’s all for this week. More next Thursday!

Chris Garcia