Falls Count Anywhere

08-05-03

I have a stalactite mohawk.

Welcome to Falls Count Anywhere! My name is Chris and I'm a Jukebox Hero with stars in my eyes.

RAW
OK, I am glad that Shane is back, even though there is too much McMahon on the air right now. I'll take Shane over Vince or Steph any day. The challenge was done OK, but really, they're not building the way they should be. Then again, with what they've decided to go with for the main event of SummerSlam, it makes a little sense.

The Dudleys and La Resistance had a match that didn't suck. I didn't care for the ending, but it wasn't awful. The Dudleys are in need of something to pull them back up. Bring in another brawling team and let them rumble. Reunite the Gangstas. Or the Eliminators. Or what about some former FMW guys?

The Australia tour seemed to go very well in the package they showed. Things like this help to give a positive impression of the company. They should tape a show overseas sometime. It worked for the European Championship final back in 1997; it could work again!

Well, Steiner sucks. The match with Randy Orton was not good, but Orton throws a hell of a dropkick. The best part of the match was Coach saying that JR will be back soon. No more Coach! Orton is going to be a star, but he's not able to carry Scott Steiner yet.

Man, are they still trying this Superhero In Training? I do like Christian mocking Rooseveldt, and I do like the swoosh leave still, but I want it to end.

The Bischoff work backstage was fairly good too, but they could have used that time to build a match another couple of minutes.

The rewind to WrestleManias past are a nice touch. I remember watching Jeff come off that ladder on PPV and saying that he had just killed himself. Man, it was huge.

Hurricane vs. Christian was a little awkward. They both hit their spots, but it just seemed odd to me. Rosie in make-up sucked. That swinging sidewalk slam was A-MAZING!

HHH is on the mic. I like his mic work of late, and his work during the entrance alone was enough to get him over in my book again. I should mention here that Lillian Garcia looked extra tasty this week. The match was not what it should have been. It should have been Flair getting destroyed, but they give Flair a little respect and it kills Goldberg's effectiveness. If they wanted to do this, they should have just had Evolution jump him before the match. That wouldn't have made him look as weak.

Making the Main Event of SummerSlam an Elimination Chamber is a good and bad thing. The splitting of the focus will weaken the draw, though they have the SmackDown! main to build around. The good is that it's a strong gimmick and will help get it over further if they can put on a strong match.

By October, Bisch and Shane will be dating.

Hey, Pat Croce is back on. He's got a lot of personality, and he has sold me on SlamBall. The beat down that interrupted him sucked.

Trish looked great. Molly had an OK match with Trish. This wasn't great, but it was OK. I love the fact that they are calling Trish's backbridge a Matrix Move. The D lives! Victoria looked hot giving Trish her brutal finisher on the outside. Gail did her turn, though I am not thinking that she turned heel, more like she turned Tweener.

Lance Storm and Goldust had a little heart to heart. This was actually entertaining. I like these little things.

RvD. Chris Jericho. This was a solid match where Jericho got a good reaction and RVD looked better than usual. That Suplex to the outside was Awesome. Jericho builds his matches so well, and RVD had stiff kicks working which added to the match. Nice near falls towards the end. Good heat. RVD got a pin that I didn't expect. Jericho did a fine little interview. Wow, hair vs. Hair match! We don't get many of those.

Why in the BLUE HELL is Bisch doing his kicking practice to open? That is not good TV! Having Kane sell even a little for Shane is a bad thing. The toss he gave to send Shane into the ringpost was awesome. Shane is a trooper. The tombstone by Kane was brutal too. They need to keep Shane out for a while to sell the tombstone or it will all be for naught. The ending pin and the post-match got no reaction.

The show was just sorta there. I wasn't deeply hooked, and the ending did not leave me terribly interested in seeing future editions. They better work up to the Elimination Chamber match if they wanna get the buy rate up. I am pretty much certain that the rating for this show will be a little down from the big numbers they have been doing.

Well, he's no Gobbledy-Gooker...

FlashBack!
Let's look at a character that killed a career. Terry Taylor was a star for Bill Watts' Mid-South Promotion back in the early and mid-1980s. He was a great worker. I can remember seeing a few of his matches against the likes of Flair and Ted DiBiase. He was North American Champion for a while, a belt that may be the largest in history, and included a medal with it as well. After Mid-South became the UWF, Taylor was UWF TV Champ, and had great matches against all sorts of guys, like Shane Douglas, Steve Williams and a few other folks. When the UWF was bought by Turner, Terry came in and had a nice run with Nikita Koloff, and a few others.

Then Terry went to the WWF.

He had at least a few matches as Terry Taylor. I can remember a couple of them, but they get erased by the memory of the Red Rooster. The gimmick was that he had a red streak in his blonde hair, and he did it up like a Mohawk. He did a rooster call. I am not making this up.

The Red Rooster was pushed as a middle of the card babyface for the kids to enjoy. He was put in matches with the Brooklyn Brawler, which are not the way to get good matches out on TV. Portrayed as a rookie, he was given Bobby Heenan to handle his managerial duties. He would stop right after giving a signature move and then look to The Brain and get rolled up from behind for his troubles. They split and Red Rooster had his feud, but never got any heat except for the classic "We hate this!" heat that the WWF got sometimes back then. They changed his gimmick, but he was killed forever to anyone who saw him.

Terry Taylor would have done better to retire, but he left the WWF and went back to the WCW to work as Terrance Taylor in the York Foundation under Alexandra York (Teri Runnels). He never managed to get very far again.

He retired at the age of forty, after years of injuries had slowed him down. He ended up working as an agent for both the WCW and WWF/E over the years, having strong influence on the booking, as I seemed to remember his jumping between the two feds being made a big deal.

You can see why folks complain about gimmicks that are stupid. They can actually kill a career dead.

Anyhoo, that's all for today. More on Friday.

Chris Garcia