The Bell To Bell News Report 01.18.09

Welcome back to another edition of the Bell to Bell! This week there’s lots of things to get to as we take a look back at TNA’s first pay-per-view of the year as well as all of the rest of the shows from the past seven days as well as my take on the biggest stories of the week. Stone Cold Steve Austin was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame, Victoria retired and The Wrestler won big at the Golden Globe Awards and that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Sit tight and enjoy the ride as we head into the old time machine to give a re-do to the past week of wrestling! Let’s ring the opening bell!!

Sunday

The Show

TNA Genesis Results:

Six Man Elimination Match: LAX and Eric Young vs. Jimmy Rave, Sonjay Dutt and Kiyoshi – Winner: Hernandez (pinfall, top rope splash on Rave)
X Division Championship Tournament Finals: Chris Sabin vs. Alex Shelley – Winner: Alex Shelley (pinfall, roll-up)
Shane Sewell vs. Sheik Abdul Bashir – Winner: Shane Sewell (pinfall, sunset flip)
TNA Tag Team Championship: Matt Morgan and Abyss vs. Beer Money Inc. vs. Consequences Creed and Jay Lethal (c) – Winners: Beer Money Inc. (pinfall, Roode pins Morgan after belt shot)
Taylor Wilde, ODB and Roxxi vs. The Kong-Tourage (Sojournor Bolt, Raisha Saeed and Rahka Kahn) – Winners: Taylor Wilde, ODB and Roxxi (pinfall, ODB small package on Saeed)
Jeff Jarrett vs. Kurt Angle – Winner: Kurt Angle (pinfall, crucifix reversal)
TNA World Heavyweight Championship: Rhino vs. Sting (c) – Winner: Sting (pinfall, Scorpion Deathdrop)
Mick Foley, AJ Styles and Brother Devon vs. Booker T, Scott Steiner and Cute Kip – Winners: Mick Foley, AJ Styles and Brother Devon (pinfall, Foley DDT on a chair to Steiner)

The first wrestling pay-per-view of 2009 is in the books and there’s a LOT to talk about coming out of this show. I’m not going to hold the makeshift nature of the card against TNA as they were dealing with a ton of injuries and as such had to make some last-minute adjustments that ended up bringing things down a little bit. Mainly, Cute Kip and his involvement in the main event. While he brought more to the table wrestling-wise than Kevin Nash would have, he didn’t fit in with the MEM at all. Doubly so if you look at his recent storyline activity with The Beautiful People. I get that he’s a tag-team legend, and I get that there was practically no one else that could go, but it just ended up feeling like someone farted in church when Kip was introduced. The main event was alright, but it didn’t feel like the main event of a major pay-per-view even after things got hardcore. If they were going to have a match in the main event that wasn’t Rhino/Sting, they should have made a gametime decision to move things around and had Angle/Jarrett close the show.

Speaking of Angle/Jarrett, after months of feuding over the microphone things finally got physical again between the two and the match was a great display of wrestling storytelling mixed with good old-fashioned hatred and violence. Jarrett looked good except for the botch of the dive over the top rope that nearly killed him and Angle was Angle, dragging the match to even greater heights just from sheer will. Both men worked their asses off, the bump that Jarrett took on the Angle slam off of the entrance ramp was insane and the crowd was eating out of the palms of their hands for the entire bout. This was everything that a grudge match should be as it had violence, blood, heart from Jarrett and cheating heelishness from Angle. The finish with Jarrett coming up just a bit short was great as it plays off of the fact that while Jarrett is still good, he’s rusty and he made a miniscule mistake that Angle was able to capitalize on. The post-match angle with Angle beating down Jarrett and Pillmanizing his ankle was great as well as everyone sold it like Jarrett was crippled and it’s going to give him more time on the sidelines before they hit the final pay-off of the trilogy a few months down the road that Jarrett will likely win. Great, great stuff from TNA and an early favorite for Pay-Per-View Match of the Year in the 2009 awards when those roll around.

As if one match over four stars on a pay-per-view wasn’t enough, Alex Shelley and Chris Sabin tore the house down in their match for the X Division Championship. These two put on a match that was reminiscent of the glory days of the X Division and in the end Shelley heeled it up on his partner and earned a well-deserved first run with the X Division strap. This one was great in different ways than Angle/Jarrett as it started out slowly with some chain wrestling and reversal sequences before building to some great highspots. Shelley’s somersault guillotine legdrop was beautiful and the finish was fast and furious with huge moves coming from both men from seemingly every point in the ring. Some people might not like the fact that they were both kicking out of huge moves, but Shelley finally got the win with a roll-up, but it fits into what they were doing with the match and the storyline. Shelley’s shown he’ll do anything to win and that he’s kind of the brains of the operation, and he outsmarted his partner to earn the gold he felt was rightfully his. This was really the only way they could finish the match though because if Shelley gets a clean pin with his finisher or even a clean pin period, there would be no reason to put together another match if the team ends up breaking up down the line. By doing the screwy finish, they sacrifice a little now to get a bigger and better payoff later, which is alright by me.

Things weren’t all good for TNA though as the TNA World Championship match and the surrounding angle was a fine showcase for what ends up going wrong in TNA’s booking most times. They ran a deal where Rhino was “late to the building” and they didn’t know if he’d make it for the main event. He made it ultimately, looking worse for wear after being jumped and beaten up outside the arena before the match. I get that they ran that angle to give a good reason for having Sting’s match run short as most of his dirty work had already been done for him by the mystery attackers, but with so many injuries and changes to the card, they really should have thought twice about it. The match itself wasn’t very good and it raises the question about whether Sting should even be champion at this point as his knees are falling apart and he’s dangerously close to fifty years old. I get that they’re likely trying to make it a huge moment when someone finally pins Sting to end the Mafia’s reign of terror, but they can’t continue to have Sting putting on five minute pay-per-view matches with the belt on the line or it’s going to start making the title seem a lot less valuable. If Sting can’t go, they need to get it off of him and re-write the storyline to let someone from TNA Frontline win the strap and add a new twist to the story.

All in all, this was a very enjoyable pay-per-view as even the matches with injury changes managed to deliver somewhat, there was nothing that was outright objectionable outside of the Knockouts tag, and the show featured two four-star matches. As with most shows that TNA puts together, there was just enough good to keep you hopeful for their future, while adding just enough bad to make you wonder if they’ll ever get it right. It’s frustrating to be sure, but at least they’re finally starting to get some things working and putting on some great matches to boot.

The Stories

— The Wrestler coninued to make news on Sunday night as Mickey Rourke and Bruce Springsteen won Golden Globes for Best Actor in a Drama and Best Original Song respectively. The movie had some serious Oscar buzz before, but now that they’ve managed to pick up two big wins at the Golden Globes, it’s even more likely that they’re going to be looking at Oscar nominations at the very least when those are announced. I have yet to see the film yet, but with the way people are talking this thing could be picking up some statuettes come Oscar night. The acceptance speech with Mickey Rourke and Darren Aronofsky’s interaction raised a few eyebrows, but some of the hardcore wrestling fans were miffed that Rourke seemingly dissed wrestling by not mentioning it during his speech. I’m not going to go that far because it’s not as if Tom Cruise would thank NASCAR for winning for Days of Thunder or that Kevin Costner would have thanked baseball for Bull Durham. I think that this was little more than the over-reaction of some wrestling fans who feel persecuted for their fandom and as such feel like they need to cling to any mainstream acceptance that pops up. If he wins an Oscar I’m sure he’ll have something to say about it, but even if he doesn’t everyone knows what the movie is about from the title alone, so let’s all be rational about this.

— Christy Hemme spoke on her injury, which is two herniated discs in her neck according to her blog post on the subject. She also talked about the medical procedure called Neuro Cranial Realignment that she underwent to fix the damage and I have to say that it doesn’t sound like anything I’d want to subject myself to ever. Hemme had rods jammed up her nose and once up there, balloons were blown up to move bones in her head to help realign her entire body. Apparently it helped Hemme’s scoliosis and lordosis as well, but I have to admit that if I was in her position I would have probably just gone with the potential paralysis or the surgery. At least with the surgery I would have been knocked out and not had people jamming balloons into my skull. Call me a pussy if you must, but I’ll gladly be the pussy without a latex ballon wedged into my frontal lobe thank you very much. There’s

Monday

The Show

Raw Results:

The Miz vs. Rey Mysterio – Winner: Rey Mysterio (pinfall, springboard splash)
WWE Intercontinental Championship: CM Punk vs. William Regal – Winner: William Regal (disqualification, low blow by Punk)
Kane vs. Randy Orton – Winner: Randy Orton (pinfall, dropkick)
Shawn Michaels vs. John Cena – Winner: Shawn Michaels (pinfall, Sweet Chin Music)

Raw seemed to be kickstarted on the road to Wrestlemania as this week was jam-packed with some great material. The biggest story to come out of this past Monday’s edition of Raw was Chris Jericho’s “firing” at the hands of Stephanie McMahon. As for the segment, Jericho’s promo work was as solid as ever and Stephanie actually held her own for a change. Jericho usually chews up anyone he’s in the ring with when it comes to promos, but Stephanie was with him step for step until she got the last laugh at the end by firing him. Jericho’s reaction afterwards was the “oh shit” kind of priceless that you usually see on a Youtube video of some kid setting his kitchen on fire. At least he took it better than he did the last time with the sobbing and the begging and all of that. This seems to be leading into either Jericho coming back after being re-hired by Mr. McMahon, or Jericho taking a little time off and then being brought back or making a surprise return that gets explained away. My guess is that Jericho will get re-hired by McMahon, but that he’ll be put into a match at the Royal Rumble as punishment for acting like such an ass for as long as he has. This way, Vince gets to come back and bring Jericho back with him, while still getting a pop for being harsh on Jericho. I’m not sure who he could choose to stick into that match, but my guess is that he’ll find someone credible. Either that or he’ll just stick Jericho into the match at the Rumble and make it a triple-threat between him, Cena and JBL.

The Intercontinental Championship was on the line again for the second week in a row and for the second week in a row, the finish was total bullshit. This time, Punk hit Regal with a shot in the lower abdomen that was called a “low blow” and that brought about the end of the bout. I can understand that they don’t want to give away Regal/Punk on TV and that despite next week’s “final match” they’re likely trying to save it for the Royal Rumble, but by giving it to us for two straight weeks with horrible finishes they’re essentially rendering the whole Intercontinental Championship Challenger tournament useless. They had the tournament to crown a legitimate contender, not to crown some chump that will be continually outsmarted by Regal. Granted, this could be Regal getting one up on everyone by forcing them into tough matches to weaken the entire batch of challengers before he dogs it and screws over the winner, but it doesn’t seem to be going there. The whole thing with having the match and having it over again seems like they’re just grasping at straws to keep things warmed over until the Rumble or some other adequate blow-off point.

Speaking of keeping things warmed over, the post-match melee after the Kane/Randy Orton bout reeked of warmed over crap. I said previously that all of this stuff with Sim Snuka and Manu was basically a way to keep The Legacy on the front burner while Ted DiBiase was off filming “The Marine 2” and that the group would likely end up being Orton, Rhodes and DiBiase like it was originally. I also said that if that was what happened, the people could turn on them quickly because it would make the last two months seem like a waste. Well sure enough, DiBiase returned with Snuka and Manu as their “back-up” against Rhodes and Orton, but he turned on the two future jobbers and joined up with Orton and Rhodes instead. The crowd was noticeably underwhelmed and the angle went over like a lead balloon. I don’t know if people were confused because of all five guys wearing black tights, but the only way there was no way the crowd could have been deader. This could be rather dangerous because the group had a chance to be something huge, much like Evolution was for Orton when he was trying to gain a foothold. Instead, it looks like it could end up falling flat as the people aren’t going to be willing to re-invest emotionally after being led on a fruitless wild goose chase for the past few weeks.

The main event saw Shawn Michaels and John Cena hook it up one more time. These two have had some great matches, from WrestleMania 23 to their nearly hour-long Raw match that kept people on the edges of their proverbial seats, and this match was no exception. Michaels and Cena have an amazing chemistry and they put it on display here, even with JBL keeping an eye on things at ringside. The match was billed as being Shawn Michaels’ WrestleMania and he sure treated it like it was. I think this was actually a better match than their WrestleMania match was as it didn’t have to live up to the expectations that come with a WrestleMania main event and both men seemed looser for it. They got time to work, the commercials were well-placed to where they didn’t detract from the action too much and in the end we got one of the best Raw main events in a long, long time. I even liked how the finish, with JBL pushing the rope to HBK to save the match before distracting Cena to let Michaels hit Sweet Chin Music, played right into the angle that’s running with HBK and JBL. After feeling a little lukewarm about this angle early on, I’m now a convert. They’ve done the impossible and actually made me interested to see what happens with JBL in his title match at the Royal Rumble, which is likely an afterthought that wouldn’t see JBL pick up the win even if Cena had a stroke.

To finish up with my thoughts on Raw, the WWE announced Stone Cold Steve Austin as the first inductee into this year’s class of the WWE Hall of Fame during the show and that’s a huge announcement, despite the fact that it was partially spoiled on the WWE’s own website before the announcement was made. The video that the company put together for Austin was the best video package that they’ve ever put together for any Hall of Fame inductee ever. There were points that I could literally feel myself getting chills remembering some of those classic moments. Ultimately, I felt sad when it was all over because I realized as I saw the crowds popping huge for Austin with great reactions that those days are gone. The period where Austin was at his peak saw crazy crowds that popped for everything and were full of genuine excitement. These days, the shows feel so bland and sterile compared to those days of the late-90’s wrestling boom and the crowds show that in their listless reactions to most of the happenings from week to week. There are obviously exceptions to the rule, but for the most part the crowds these days sound far less into the product and seem far less excited. One needs look no further than the earlier segment I talked about with The Legacy. Back in the day, the crowd would have been live for DiBiase’s return because it was a major development. These days it just ended up being a flat segment that may have pissed away a heel stable’s momentum. Allow me a moment to turn off my nostalgia machine before I head into Monday’s top stories.

The Stories

— Howard Brody, the former President of the NWA, has a new book coming out later this year called “Swimming with Piranhas: Surviving the Politics of Professional Wrestling”. Outside of the foreword being written by Jim Cornette, which could make the thing worth the price from the outset, the promotional teaser for the book reads as follows.

Exposing wrestling’s inner workings and back-office deal making, this memoir is a hard-hitting firsthand look at the sport from Howard Brody, one of its most controversial promoters. Beginning with how he became involved with professional wrestling and produced his first television program, it then focuses on his time as president of the National Wrestling Alliance and reveals the truth behind the rumors surrounding his departure from the organization. Brody’s relationships with many of wrestling’s most powerful and creative figures—Vince and Linda McMahon, Eric Bischoff, Paul Heyman, Tod Gordon, Antonio Inoki, Hiro Matsuda, the Funks, Dusty Rhodes, Jim Cornette, Jimmy Hart, the Hart family, and Hulk Hogan—are discussed in detail, revealing many little-known details about the behind-the-scenes negotiations involved in booking and promoting shows. From dealing with building and talent managers to working with radio and television stations, Brody explains the nuances of booking promotions, discusses the nature of negotiating and selling wrestling to television networks and sponsors, and divulges fascinating details about many aspects of working in the wrestling business.

This could be an incredibly interesting book as it looks to be less about hatchet jobs and more about the inner-workings of a wrestling promotion from the top down. As much as I love a good shoot book that features guys ripping other guys new assholes, this seems like it’s going to be a different kind of book and one that could end up being far more intriguing. I still have a couple of wrestling books on my wish list like the Bret Hart and Chris Jericho books, but I’m thinking that I’m going to be making sure this book adds onto my list as well as it certainly looks to be as fascinating as the teaser implies.

— Kevin Nash was pulled from the TNA Genesis pay-per-view with a severe staph infection and on Monday, Nash had surgery on the staph infected elbow. It was thought that along with the staph infection, Nash was possibly suffering from blood poisoning due to the complications. The surgery went well and later in the week Nash addressed the rumors that had been swirling about the cause of the infection by going on the record and saying that it was caused by a scrape he suffered on his elbow during the match in Japan as part of Global Impact on January 4th. There had been some reports that Nash had become infected due to some recent tattoo work he had done, but those appear to have been false. Nash blogged on the TNA website that he’s looking to be all healed up and ready to return at the next batch of Impact tapings, though judging from how seriously they treated the situation and how nasty some of the photos on his blog looked, it could be a little bit longer. Say what you will about Nash’s work ethic and his recent work, but no one deserves to have an injury like that and here’s hoping that Nash makes a full recovery and is back kicking ass in a TNA ring before too long. Okay, kicking ass might be a bit of a stretch for Nash since he’d have to lift a boot off of the mat to do it, so let’s just say best wishes “Big Sexy” and come back to hold up that microphone soon.

— Though it’s not official yet, Cowboy Bill Watts appears set to be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame this year at WrestleMania 25 in Houston. Watts is famous for booking the incredibly hot Mid-South promotion in the early 80’s and for his short stint as head of WCW in the early 90’s. Watts also possesses one of the few video libraries that Vince McMahon doesn’t own as Watts still has all of the rights to the old Mid-South/UWF tapes all these years later and has even put out a couple of DVD sets featuring highlights and full matches from those master tapes. While Watts is completely deserving for his work as both a wrestler and as a booker, I’m wondering if this is a situation where Vince is doing this to try to curry favor with Watts to get his hands on those masters as there is a gold mine of stuff there with guys like Ted DiBiase, Steve “Dr. Death” Williams, Jim Duggan and so many more. If this becomes official and Watts is inducted, it would make the WrestleMania 25 DVD that much more of a must-own because lord only knows what will end up coming out of Watts’ mouth with a live microphone, especially with his strong feelings towards Vince.

Tuesday

The Show

ECW on Sci-Fi Results:

DJ Gabriel and Alicia Fox vs. Paul and Katie Lea Burchill – Winners: DJ Gabriel and Alicia Fox (pinfall, Gabriel diving uppercut on Paul Burchill)
The Boogeyman vs. Sammy Savard – Winner: The Boogeyman (pinfall, pumphandle slam)
ECW Championship: Jack Swagger vs. Matt Hardy (c) – Winner: Jack Swagger (pinfall, gutwrench powerbomb)

This one was a two-note show, but what a pair of notes ECW decided to hit. I’m not even going to bother talking about The Boogeyman’s match or the mixed tag because both of those were nothing but time wasted. There’s no need to waste more time on that filler when we can talk about the brand spanking NEW ECW Champion, Jack Swagger! This guy has been biding his time and gaining experience for the past few months in ECW while kind of flying under the radar when it comes to the WWE as a whole. No real exposure on any of the other brands and a quiet build to a title shot led to Swagger actually taking the big silver belt away from Matt Hardy. This has Kurt Angle written all over it as Swagger seems to have the entire package when it comes to the wrestling business. Moving on to the actual match, it was a solid match and one that got enough time to mean something, which doesn’t always happen with ECW. The problem that I had with the match were the commercial breaks, which seemed to suck some of the excitement out of the match for me. Twice it felt like as soon as I got into the match it was taken away for the commercial break. It really disrupted the flow of things and ruined the majority of the match for me. The finish saved it as I was hoping to see Swagger pick up the win to get a chance with the strap, but the match could have been a whole lot better.

Speaking of things that could have been a whole lot better, Todd Grisham’s call of the title win was a disaster. Someone winning a championship on any of the WWE brands should be treated like the biggest deal imaginable instead of an afterthought. Grisham’s call was incredibly pedestrian and forced and it was even more of a bad taste on what should have been a great night for me as a Swagger fan.

Outside of the title change, the only thing worth talking about on Tuesday’s show was Tommy Dreamer’s in-ring promo. First of all, did anyone ever imagine in a hundred years that we’d see Dreamer in a suit? Second of all, Dreamer did a great job in talking and telling a story that people wanted to hear. He might not be the same Dreamer that he’s been in the past, but he cut a promo that would have been worthy of the old-school ECW as it played on emotion, drama, and everything that the original ECW used to great effect. It was refreshing to see the fans letting Tommy speak and that they were actually listening to what he was saying instead of ignoring him or saying “What?” or something stupid like that. Dreamer laid out his five-month plan and I’m guessing that it’s going to end with him getting a title shot and losing to the new champ Swagger at One Night Stand. While this might not be on the level of the Ric Flair work that came before his final matches, it’s still great stuff and should be a fun ride to take for these next few months before Dreamer finally retires. Great stuff from Dreamer and I’m interested to see what they decide to do with him as he’s going to have to back up the strong promo work with a few months of solid matches to make this mean something.

The Stories

— Tuesday saw a bit of a slowdown in news as the only pertinent bit was the continued housecleaning in the former land of Titan. Sgt. Slaughter and Ron Simmons were both released by the WWE, with neither man able to be considered much of a surprise. Whenever the WWE does their mass releases, there’s usually a few surprises and there’s usually a few instances where you wonder “How did these people still have a job?” and Slaughter and Simmons fall into that latter category. Slaughter was mainly working as an agent and made the periodic appearances as an in-ring talent, while Simmons was not working at all in the ring and just stuck around to say “Damn” week after week. While no one deserves to lose their job, neither guy was really contributing anything of note to the company and it comes as no shock that they were let go. With their names, both men should be able to continue to make decent livings on the independent circuit and at signings and things of that nature and I’m sure that a lot of these people that are being released from the behind-the-scenes roles could find themselves back under the WWE’s employ once the economy starts to take an upturn, whenever that ends up being.

Wednesday

The Stories

— Gabe Sapolsky had a new blog show up on the internet on Wednesday and he touched on subjects like The Wrestler, its effect on the mainstream view of wrestling, and his new Kayfabe Commentaries DVD. Basically, Sapolsky talks about how hard it is to see the ROH logos and things on the screen because of how he’s an outsider now and he says that he doesn’t believe that there will be any positive or negative effect from the movie on the company. He believes that because ROH wasn’t promoted like the real ROH is and instead was featured as “the home of the washed up heart attack victim and fast-talking used car salesmen” that investors and sponsors won’t be flocking to ROH’s door any time soon. While I get what he’s saying in terms of the way the promotion comes across in the movie, anyone who sees the movie will likely be interested in what ROH is. I’m not saying that the movie will turn ROH into the WWE overnight, but I’m of the mind that if even one out of ten people that check out the movie check out an ROH show or go to the website (whose address is featured prominently in the film), there will be a boost in viewership and fans of the company. A lot of what Gabe has said lately strikes me as being a bit of sour grapes, merely because if he was still involved with the company I’d wager he’d be feeling a lot differently about the possibilities in the future for ROH after their involvement in the movie.

— The deep roster cuts from the WWE continued on Wednesday as referee Mickey Henson and Matt Capotelli were both released. Henson is not that much of a loss as a referee is a referee is a referee. Sure, Henson had experience and he’s familiar to fans of both WCW and the WWE, but it’s not as if people were buying tickets to shows to see Henson referee (outside of his family that is). I’m sure it’s merely a situation of the WWE cutting people with higher payscales to bring in lower-priced talent, much like the firings in the front office were last week. Cappotelli is a bit more of a surprise though as he was one of the few wrestlers from the Tough Enough series that showed enough potential to possibly make the jump to the main roster. Outside of John Morrison, Cappotelli seemed like he was most destined for success. Unfortunately a brain tumor stood in the way of Cappotelli’s success and he hasn’t seen he inside of a wrestling ring for quite some time. Cappotelli has had brain surgery on the tumor and it was removed completely and he’s currently undergoing chemotherapy while hoping for a return to action. While many may think that the WWE is being cold and callous for releasing Cappotelli at a time like this in his life, the truth of the matter is that outside of a run in OVW in 2005, he’s done nothing for the product and quite frankly I’m surprised he’s still under contract. Once he’s got a clean bill of health and is completely recovered I would expect to see him back with a WWE contract in short oder, but for now I have no problem with him being released as he’s not bringing anything to the table for whatever the amount the WWE was paying him.

Thursday

The Show

TNA Impact Results:

TNA World Heavyweight Championship: Hernandez vs. Sting (c) – Winner: Hernandez (disqualification, Booker-ference)
Match Two: TNA Knockouts Six-Woman Tag Streetfight
Kong-Tourage (Sojournor Bolt, Rahka Kahn and Raisha Saeed) vs. Roxxi, Taylor Wilde and ODB – Winners: Roxxi, Taylor Wilde and ODB (pinfall, Roxxi hits Voodoo Drop on Kahn)
Matt Morgan and Abyss vs. Jay Lethal and Consequences Creed – Winners: Jay Lethal and Consequences Creed (pinfall, Morgan and Abyss miscommunication)
Scott Steiner vs. AJ Styles – Winner: AJ Styles (pinfall, Pele)

Impact this week featured all of the fallout from Genesis as well as some shocking returns as TNA put together one of their better shows as of late, adding to the run of decent shows that they’ve run lately. The biggest developments were the returns of both Brother Ray and “Maple Leaf Muscle” Petey Williams. The former returned to save the Frontline from a beatdown at the hands of the Mafia after the opening bout between Sting and Hernandez. The match itself was nothing special as Sting is still falling apart and Hernandez seems to have completely wasted his Feast or Fired shot with the DQ, but post-match Brother Ray shocked the Impact Zone by showing up to exact his revenge on Kurt Angle. He turned the tide in the beatdown and even managed to put Angle through a table, causing Angle to pull out of the scheduled main event with AJ Styles. While I might not agree with the new look he’s sporting, he showed some fire and that’s a good thing. Team 3-D were getting a little stale and Brother Ray’s break, along with the split of the two men into singles matches should give them some time to freshen up as a team.

The two singles matches or at least the challenges that were made for Against All Odds saw Brother Devon challenge Kurt Angle and Brother Ray challenge Sting for the TNA World Heavyweight Championship. While I get that they’re running with less than 100% of their roster as most of the guys involved in the MEM/Frontline angle and nearly all of TNA’s titleholders are injured, Brother Ray vs. Sting doesn’t make me want to run out to spend thirty bucks on a pay-per-view. We’ll see what happens with their respective matches, but if it’s Ray/Sting and Devon/Angle at the top of the card, things could look pretty bleak for Against All Odds in terms of it following on the strength of Genesis.

The Abyss/Morgan storyline continued as this week Abyss screwed up again and cost them the triple-threat Number One contenders match by powerbombing Jay Lethal onto the prone Morgan, allowing Lethal to pick up the cheap pin. After the match they got in each other’s faces and the standard TNA pull-apart brawl with security followed soon after. I don’t really know where they’re going with this as there’s not a lot of character development that they can do with Abyss, and Morgan’s not going to get much of a rub from a turn and feud with Abyss because Abyss hasn’t been top-level talent in years. I can see this turning into a situation where Abyss and Morgan have a garbage wrestling feud with Morgan doing the same type of damage to Abyss that a million other guys have done. Abyss will plow along doing nothing until the next feud where he endures the “Worst Beating in TNA History” and Morgan will continue to wander aimlessly through the midcard, doing next to nothing of note. I’m sorry if that sounds pessimistic, but I just can’t see this thing ending well, despite them spending so many months building towards it.

The main event saw Scott Steiner step in to replace the injured Kurt Angle to take on AJ Styles and Styles picked up the big win after some well-timed interference from a returning Petey Williams. Williams provides a big boost to the Frontline, as the TNA ranks have been thinning as of late, and it will be fun to see him in the middle of this whole war between the Frontline and the MEM. As for the MEM, they really need to find someone else besides Steiner to fit into the group, or they need to ban him from doing overhead suplexes for the rest of his career. He nearly killed both Hernandez and Styles with botches that left both men skidding across the canvas on their faces. With all of the problems that TNA is having with injuries, the last thing they need is to have two or more of their top stars put out long-term because Steiner doesn’t have the strength to get people over safely anymore. He has plenty of other power moves in his arsenal that he can use that are a lot less dangerous to his fellow wrestlers, so let him use those instead. I cringed both times and felt the same worry that I felt when I saw Brock Lesnar land on his head at WrestleMania XIX.

The summary of the show is like most of what I say about TNA, I feel like they come so close to being a great show but they piss it away with useless segments that end up bringing down the entire show. The first half-hour of the show with the Hernandez/Sting match and the melee that saw Brother Ray return was great stuff. Entertaining and action-packed and full of storyline advancement, it was some of the best TV that TNA could put out focusing on their established talent and their newer stars. Then the wheels came off when they turned around and stuck in a segment with that garbage between The Beautiful People and Sarah Palin. That segment was horrible and ended up killing the entire flow of the show for me. I was incredibly excited by the first half-hour and afterwards it just like finding a hair in the last bite of a delicious meal. You still had the memories of what was good about it, but it felt somewhat tainted. If TNA wants to make gains and be taken seriously as a force in professional wrestling in 2009 they’d be well-advised to cut some of the crap and focus on what’s working for them right now, which is compelling storylines and superior in-ring action.

The Stories

— The on-again, off-again saga of Dos Caras Jr. and his possible contract with the WWE took another turn as Caras announced that he was going to be staying with the EMLL promotion in Mexico and that he’s going to be there for another four years after signing a new contract. Caras said that he didn’t want to have to start over again at the bottom in the WWE, so he decided to stay in Mexico where he is already established as a star. While part of me is happy for Caras that he’ll be getting a steady paycheck, part of me wonders if all of this wasn’t just a ploy on his part to get a little more money out of EMLL. With so much speculation about whether he had signed or not, I’m a little leery of whether or not he actually would have. I’m sure there was probably some interest from the WWE, but I wouldn’t put it past Caras to have gone ahead and embellished things a little bit to play a little hardball with his current employers. Good on him if he did it and it just goes to show that the only one that will look out for you in the wrestling business is yourself.

— It seems to be coming up every single day, but there was another release from the WWE on Thursday as developmental talent Hade Vansen was let go. If you recall, Vansen was the guy that was supposed to be put into a program with The Undertaker as a Fallen Angel Christopher Daniels-style character with a couple of guys for back-up. The back-ups were released when the angle was dropped and Vansen was sent down to developmental, and sure enough Vansen wasn’t far behind them on the unemployment line. It’s certainly a mighty fall to go from possibly working with The Undertaker to being released in a little over a month, and it will be interesting to see how Vansen handles it. He was with developmental for a little under two years, and though one of those years was spent on the injured list with a knee injury, that seems to be about the limit that the WWE is willing to wait for someone to make the jump. I wouldn’t call it a death blow to Vansen’s WWE hopes as there have been guys in the past that have been released and brought back through the developmental, but I’d be lying if I said that I expected him to be back someday soon.

Friday

The Show

Smackdown Results:

Finlay and Matt Hardy vs. Jack Swagger and Mark Henry – Winners: Finlay and Matt Hardy (pinfall, Hardy hits Twist of Fate on Swagger)
THE Brian Kendrick vs. R-Truth – Winner: R-Truth (pinfall, Ax kick)
MVP vs. The Big Show – Winner: MVP (knockout)
Victoria vs. Michelle McCool – Winner: Michelle McCool (pinfall, Face Breaker)

Unfortunately, my hook-up to see Smackdown fell through and as of the deadline I’ve still been unable to see the entire show. You know my policy on talking about shows that I haven’t seen so I won’t go too far in-depth with things, though I’ll touch on some stuff quickly. Victoria had her retirement match on this show and looked like her old self, proving that sometimes it’s best to leave while you’re still on top of your game rather than fading out and looking like a shell of your former self. Good luck to Victoria in everything she chooses to do in the future and thank you for all of your sacrifices and hard work to keep us all entertained. The Divas division will surely miss you, as will Sforcina. I swear I can hear the sobbing all the way from Australia.

The biggest angle on the show was the continuation of Jeff Hardy’s hard luck as this week he took a pyro blast to the face like he was on a Pepsi commercial shoot. The accident itself looked moderately believable as Hardy was in the right place for the pyro blasts and it looked like they could have caught him to cause some injury. The problem I have is that when they choose to do things like this, they end up looking incredibly phony in the end because of how everyone else overacts them. The people in the arena believed it and the people at home who aren’t smart to things believed it because of the way that they sold it, but it all looked a little hokey to me. I really hope this is the last of the “injury/bad luck” angles that we have to sit through because with the WWE’s recent track record with poor taste, I’m almost worried about where they could choose to go with this angle after burning Hardy like they did in this segment.

Sorry again for not having a ton of things to discuss on this edition of Smackdown, but I’d rather miss out on talking about it instead of making things up or trying to pull one over on the readers. There’s nothing more embarrassing than being called on something that you haven’t done and I’d hate to have to try to explain to you guys why I was caught fibbing about a show when I got called on it. I appreciate all of my readers and I respect you guys and wouldn’t insult your intelligence like that. The one thing I can do is assure you that next week I will have a full breakdown of all of the action and angles on Smackdown.

The Stories

— Another day, another release as the WWE announced that they had released fifteen year veteran Bob Holly on Friday. This one came as a bit of a shock as he had managed to survive all of the previous release binges from years ago, but old Sparky finally got to the end of his fuse. There are a lot of people who didn’t like Holly due to his rough treatment of some of the younger wrestlers, but there’s no denying how tough the man was and that he had respect and love for the wrestling business. He fought through numerous injuries including the broken neck at the hands of Brock Lesnar and the horribly nasty gash on his back from the ECW match with Rob Van Dam, and despite being saddled with the horrible gimmick he began his career with, he still managed to stick with the company for as long as he did and he managed to be entertaining in the meantime. I still say that some of the best stuff that he did was back in the day with the 24/7 rule of the Hardcore Championship and his teaming and feuding with Crash. My guess is that this is the end of the line for Holly as I don’t see him being the type to get around on the independent circuit at this stage of his career. If it is, he had way more success than anyone could have ever expected with his early career disasters and he deserves to be commended for it. Not every career is Hall of Fame-worthy, but he also managed to do something he loved for as long as he could so he deserves some credit.

— In advance of TNA’s house show tour throughout the UK, TNA president Dixie Carter conducted an interview with The Sun tabloid. The most interesting piece to come out of that interview was her reaction to the loss of Christian Cage to the WWE.

“I’m very disappointed. I like him as a person as well as a talent. It’s interesting, he was the first big name to jump ship to us and he’s been the first to jump back. I wish him all the best.”

That should put an end to those last few people who were clinging to the hope that this was an angle and that he’d come back to TNA. It is wrestling and you learn to never say never as a wrestling fan, but I would eat my laptop if Christian ended up coming back to TNA and this was all a swerve. After seeing that they’re continuing with the Jeff Hardy mystery attacker nonsense, I’d guess that we’ll be seeing Christian back on Smackdown sooner rather than later. It sets up a fairly good storyline as we will likely see some combination of Edge, Christian and The Hardys working on the top of the card, which could bring about some great matches and some great promo work with a ton of history between all four men. I for one am excited to see Christian back in the WWE and I can’t wait to see him back in the place where he got his biggest break.

Saturday

The Stories

— The main story that crossed the desks at 411 on Saturday was concerning Stone Cold Steve Austin’s induction into the WWE and his desire to have Ric Flair be the man to induct him. WWE is lukewarm to the idea because they don’t want to be handing out free advertising to someone that’s not with the company anymore, but it’s likely that Austin will get what he wants because, well, he’s Austin. It’s thought that the WWE is going to give in and that there’s a silver lining to the cloud because they’re thinking that Flair’s induction last year got big ratings so Flair could increase ratings again this year. It’s laughable to hear the WWE trying to spin this situation so that it ends up being a positive for them as there’s really no positive to be seen. The ratings for this show are going to be big if Austin gets his induction from a pile of turnbuckles, so Flair’s involvement doesn’t really have much of an upside for the WWE. His effect on the ratings is going to be minimal and he’s going to get press like no one’s business out of it. This is a win for Austin and a win for Flair if he is able to ultimately be the man to induct Stone Cold.

— WWE.com released a statement on Jeff Hardy’s condition after the freak “accident” on Smackdown. The statement said that Hardy was in shock after suffering first and second degree burns as a result of the accident. Ugh. I’ve spoken at length about this angle and how much I don’t really like it and this just adds to it. I realize that they couldn’t have him end up unscathed after the pyro went off in his face, but things like this just reek of slapping karma in the face. I’m not saying that Hardy could end up getting burnt or anything, but I wouldn’t be shocked if his run of bad luck in the storylines didn’t lead to something negative happening, either to him or to someone else on the roster. That sounds vague, but there is something to be said about making light of injuries of that nature and tempting fate, especially in a dangerous business like wrestling. I hope this is over with soon so we can get on to better things like a Christian re-debut and an extended feud with Jeff Hardy instead of us seeing him getting hurt on Smackdown every week. Besides, they’re starting to run out of things to do to him anyways.

With that, we’re through another seven days of action and news in the wacky world of professional wrestling. Here’s hoping that the releasing binge in the WWE is finally finished. Next week join me for a look back at seven more days of wrestling news, stories and shows, as well as my quick preview of the one of the WWE’s Big Four PPV’s, the Royal Rumble!! Stay safe and we’ll be back in seven to go Bell to Bell!

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