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Falls
Count Anywhere
01-03-03
Welcome
to the first edition of Falls Count Anywhere. My name is Chris
and tonight, ladies drink free!
Raw
This week with the holidays upon us, Scrooge McMahon finds
it in his heart to give the boys the week off. In their place,
we're treated to a Year in Review. I like these, as they entertain
and are a good point for people to catch up on what they missed.
But as always, some good stuff was left out.
No mention
of the Benoit vs Angle Feud, nothing from the RVD vs Guerrero
Ladder Match, no Elimination Chamber, and the Los Guerreros/Edge
+ Rey/Angle + Benoit feud was covered only with singles matches.
That said, most of what they did show was great, with highlights
of top matches.
Some matches
don't work in highlight format, like Eddie vs Edge: the No
DQ match, since they told a match-long story that got lost
in the edit. Other times, it worked, as a five minute version
of the Kurt Angle vs Rey Misterio match from Summerslam both
told the full story and showed the entire opening minute,
which I believe to be the best of any match in WWE history.
What I
expected to be there was there: Rock and Hogan from WrestleMania
(great atmosphere, with Rock making Hogan look great), Brock
Lesner vs Rock (The crowd turning on Rock was minimized in
the cut), the Tables, Ladders and Chairs match from RAW (The
least good TLC match featuring a Hardy) and the Michaels vs
HHH match from SummerSlam, my match of the year, brilliantly
edited with Jim Ross' continuous (and brilliant) commentary
over various highlights of Michaels taking a beating.
What I
liked the most was the one thing that blind-sided me: the
inclusion of footage from the famous Owen Hart Memorial Raw
in 1999. It still gets me misty-eyed, as it was the single
most emotional moment in the history of wrestling for me.
All in
all, if you taped it, watch it. The retrospective is really
good and shows the WWE did some good stuff this year. If only
the live shows were this solid...
SmackDown!
Live from Albuquerque, NM, SmackDown was a mixed bag, but
it ended up more positive than negative. The big negative
had to be the wedding. While Dawn Marie played her part to
perfection, and the suit that Al Wilson came out in was GREAT,
there was no pay-off. Imagine if Raven or Tommy Dreamer had
come out and destroyed the set-up, saying that they're not
getting TV time because of this.
Bam, big
pop, things go away for a while.
The John
Cena vs Rikishi match was also weak. I would have loved Cena's
gimmick in 1997, but now it just feels played out. The Bill
DeMott vs Chuck Polumbo match was tight, with both guys laying
in some stiff shots, but ultimately not entertaining. I love
DeMott on Tough Enough, but I just don't think that entitles
him to a high profile spot on SmackDown.
The good
ranged from little things to big matches. Eddie Guererro continued
his streak as my favorite wrestler by having a fine match
with Billy Kidman. The match was interrupted in the middle
by John Cena and B2, who came out to rap some pretty brutal
anti-Mexican stuff at Eddie, the best use of Cena's gimmick
so far. When the match started up again, it got really good
until Cena hit Eddie with the chain to set up their feud.
I have mixed feelings on that one, as Cena is not at Eddie's
level. But if Guererro can pull a decent program out of him,
then he may stand a chance in the future.
Team Angle
may well be in the fight for Tag Team of the Year if they
are kept together. Angle is a great mouthpiece, and gave a
great interview to get these guys over with the crowd. They
worked a fine match with Benoit and Edge, and have the look
that can get them places.
Paul E
with Big Show against Brock is another good part of the story
of Paul E making Brock jump through hoops before he gets his
title shot. The bleeding from the chair shot was a happy accident,
and the whole thing came off well.
The little
things were fun, too. Al Wilson's suit, when it stayed on,
just showed how out of touch he was, and Billy Kidman's imitation
was hilarious. The Tale of the Tape before the Main Event,
and Brock wrestling without cleaning the blood off from the
previous segment, just added an element of importance to a
match that was a basic, one-sided affair. The SmackDown crew
does these things right, where RAW hasn't had these great
little moments.
Again,
a little of both, but the good kept me entertained.
News
You've probably heard that the WWE is in serious negotiations
with Goldberg to bring him in for WrestleMania against Rock.
It would be big, but it would have been huge at 2002's
Mania. It could put out a great match too, as Goldberg has
been known to work above himself on a big stage, and Rock...well,
he's the Rock. Expect the final word on this about a month
before Mania, since they are only looking for a short-term
deal at the moment.
Stone
Cold is coming back, probably about the time they seriously
start building for Mania, or so everyone is saying. Hogan
will be back, at least once the WWE gives in to his demands
to book his own programs.
Austin
is important, as he'd add an important ingredient to RAW.
Hogan? Well, he'd be most useful putting guys over, but he
specifically doesn't want to do that, so he's best left on
the shelf.
Flashback
Every week I'll be doing one of two special features, either
a Flashback, talking about some of the great matches, moments,
and workers in the history of wrestling, or Must Own!, where
I'll recommend a wrestling video, available through Amazon,
that you need to start a serious collection. The first Flashback
came to mind because of the Owen moment on Raw, and is one
of the highlights of Raw's history.
Not long
ago, Joker and I went through my tape collection, looking
for tapes of Flair in cage matches. I must have taped over
the 6 hours of Flair I had made with Raw shows from late 1996
and early 1997. The most interesting show on the tape was
the International RAW, from March 7, 1997. I fast-forwarded
through most of the show, which bounced between matches taped
in Berlin, Germany, and studio stuff with Austin from the
US, until I got to the end, where the main event happened
to be the finals of the original European Title tournament
between tag team champions Owen Hart and Davey Boy Smith.
The first
thing both we noted was we were watching a match between dead
men, as Owen died in 1999, and Davey Boy in 2002. Everyone
raved about this match back in the day, but I hadn't watched
it since. I am so glad I rewatched it, as it may now be the
best example of what I miss in wrestling.
You see,
Owen was amazing in the ring. He could make a headlock and
armbar series, the basis of most wrestling pre-1990, into
an exciting chain of moves, and had matches that were great,
even without the huge bumps that everyone associates with
good matches today.
Davey
Boy was a very versatile wrestler, until he roided up and
broke down in 1999-2000. He could mix styles, from brawling,
to sweet science, to throwing power moves, or selling like
a maniac.
The two
worked for a strange German crowd in a style that we almost
never saw in the states: straight scientific. Not chairs,
no tables, no death-defying highspots, just wrestling, fluid
and crisp, with hardly a missed move. I was amazed at how
much like Angle vs Benoit this was, with the exchanges on
the ground, but also how much they could do if they didn't
worry about pleasing today's fans and just had a straight
wrestling match.
The way
they told the story, with a solid, slow build, just blows
away anything you'll see on RAW today. There were great moments:
Owen busting out a beautiful German suplex, Davey Boy ending
a reversal segment with a Tombstone Piledriver, and the finish
just showed the genius of these two. A tribute to Owen's famous
WrestleMania X win over his brother Bret, it featured Davey
Boy sitting down on Owen after reversing a victory roll.
I can't
rave about the work enough, and there was energy in the crowd
that added so much. I'd love to see the WWE release tapes
of Owen and Davey Boy matches, with proceeds going to their
families. Politically, I doubt it would ever happen. But those
would be on the top of my watch pile for a long time.
See ya
next week, with news, rumors, reviews, and a flashback to
the Golden Age of Caged Fury.
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