wrestling / Columns

Wrestling’s 4Rs: The Right, Wrong and Ridiculous of Impact & Smackdown

April 27, 2015 | Posted by Daniel Clark

How the 4Rs of wRestling Work!
Here is a quick explanation of the 4R’s. The column will run TWO times a week. We will group our feelings on the shows in various categories: The Right, the wRong and the Ridiculous. The Right is stuff that worked very well: a great promo, a great match and so on. PuRgatoRy is a section between the right and wrong. It shows equal traits from both sides that cannot be ignored and needs discussed. It is not a bad place per say, as things can get remedied or go the wrong way the very next week. The wRong is what it sounds like: bad matches, bad or boring promos and so on. The Ridiculous is stuff that had no right on TV: Stupid angles and so on. And there is always a possibility of a 5th R, which is as bad as they come. This column is supposed to be analytical, and at the right time very critical of the shows, it was the whole reason it was created. This is not a “mark” column, nor a “smark” column, our goal is to analyze the show from many different fronts, reward the good and call out the bad. We will not apologize for our opinions, they are as they are, whether positive or negative.



By Daniel Clark
Smackdown 4.23.15

QUICK MATCH RESULTS:
* Neville and Dolph Ziggler def. Sheamus and Bad News Barrett at 9.09 by pinfall
* Naomi def. Natalya at 2.30 by pinfall
* Ryback def. Rusev at 6.20 by disqualification
* Kofi Kingston def. Cesaro at 1.29 by pinfall
* Roman Reigns and Dean Ambrose def. Seth Rollins and Luke Harper at 13.20 by pinfall

THE Right:
Rusev vs. Ryback: Rusev cut a promo before the match talking about how violent and dangerous the Russian chain is, and he backed up his words at the end of the match when he attacked Ryback with it. The match between them was pretty good and even though they both have their limitations in the ring, particularly Ryback in that respect, they worked around them and put on a good little ‘power’ match. Rusev, despite losing the match by DQ, stays strong, as he chose to get himself DQed by attacking Ryback with the chain to prove a point and make a statement to John Cena, and by battering Ryback and then locking in the accolade with it, he showed how dangerous the chain is, just like he said he would do at the start of the segment. A good match and a good build to Extreme Rules.

Dolph Ziggler/Neville vs. Sheamus/Bad News Barrett: These four men put on an entertaining and high quality match which told the story of Sheamus and BNB trying to beat up the underdogs and prove that they never win, but Ziggler and Neville fighting back and proving that they can hang with them. Neville has been treated as a serious player for the last few weeks with him hanging in the ring with the likes of Sheamus, but it was good for him to actually pick up a win for once and prove that he can win matches. As always, these guys delivered in the ring, and the match was great, but the ending with BNB losing and being pinned cleanly, not so….

Roman Reigns/Dean Ambrose vs. Seth Rollins/Luke Harper: The main event tag team match was a really high quality encounter and a great way to end the show. The Shield continue to have so much chemistry between them when they step into the ring and it once again showed here, and Harper stepped up as well and played his part in making this enjoyable. What really helped to make the match was that it had plenty of near falls and moments where you felt the match would end, and particularly when Ambrose made the dive off the top rope to take out all the heels, it looked for all the world like it would end in a double countout, or when Kane threw Rollins back in the ring, a win for Rollins. But instead, the match went on, and Ambrose tagged in Reigns who speared Rollins for the win. Looking at the men involved, it seemed certain that Harper was going to take the fall in the match. The match was really good and a great ending to the show, but Rollins, being pinned clean, just days before a title defense….

puRgatoRy:
The opening talky segment: This was just a long winded way of getting to a tag team match and was no different from any opening segment on Smackdown for the last few weeks. Seth Rollins comes out and says he doesn’t need anyone’s help to beat Randy Orton, especially not Kane. This of course leads to Kane coming out and telling him he could be his best friend or worst nightmare at Extreme Rules, and then with HHH not there tonight, shows his authority by booking a match against Rollins and telling him to lay down for him. Rollins managed to strike the right balance between refusing to do what Kane said and realizing that for his own sake he should suck it up and take the loss and it will help him on Sunday and didn’t come off as weak as he could have done, but when he decides to lie down, Kane tells him he is just messing, but then books him in a match with Dean Ambrose. Ambrose comes out, but is attacked by Luke Harper, only for Roman Reigns to make the save. An awfully long winded way of getting to a tag team match and what was really furthered here is the distrust between Seth Rollins and Kane, which although was reasonably entertaining, cannot lead to anything that we want to see, as a feud between them is not a good idea.

Naomi vs. Natalya: The divas match was fine and with Naomi now challenging for the title at Extreme Rules, she got the clean and decisive victory that she needed ahead of that match. She also seems to be embracing the heel role she is now in and seems far more comfortable in this position as well. That said, the divas division is still a bit of a mess with the face/heel alignment with no faces around at all for anyone to cheer for.

Prime Time Players talk: The trash talking about the other teams from the Prime Time Players was a bit hit and miss in terms of what worked, with some of the jokes just not being funny at all, but it did at least have a point to it which was that by running down all the teams and saying that they are better than them, they are next in line to be the tag champs. The next step for them though will be to prove that they can back up what they are saying in the ring.

Kofi Kingston vs. Cesaro: The New Day continue their heel turn with another over-the-top and disingenuous promo with them saying that there is a plague in the WWE with their not being enough clapping and positivity, which they are going to fix. The match, as it was, though, was too short to really amount to anything, and having a 90 second match hurts more than helps the feud between them, and short matches between people who are feuding never make any sense. That said, the momentum of the New Day continues and gives them further reason to be a legit contender to the titles.

THE wRong:
Bray Wyatt talks: Once again Bray Wyatt cuts a rather ambiguous promo where he talks about exposing someone for the weak link that they are as the fear runs through them, but the problem is that no-one has the faintest idea what or whom he is talking about. It is fine to have a little mystery to begin with but he has been cutting the same promo for a few weeks now and there is not even the slightest hint as to who he may be targeting and as a result, why should the audience care about what he is saying if they don’t know and can’t guess who it is about. The rumour is he is feuding with Ryback next, but even knowing that doesn’t help, as nothing he is saying seems applicable to the Big Guy.

THE Ridiculous:
Champions lose clean: Seth Rollins is the WWE champion. So why the hell is he being pinned cleanly in throwaway tag team matches on Smackdown days before he defends the title on a PPV when the man he is feuding with and facing at Extreme Rules is not involved in the match and he has a tag team partner who is involved in a throwaway midcard feud? Anyone understand that decision? It makes Rollins look like a weak champion and Reigns pinning him doesn’t really mean a lot to him either, as we already understand that he is on his level and can beat him. And although BNB is not a champion, heading into a title match with Daniel Bryan having lost back-to-back matches cleanly hardly makes him look like the most viable contender to the belt.

The 411:

This was a much better episode of Smackdown than has been produced in recent weeks but as still let down by the same faults that have been all too common. The show begins with a rambly-talky segment that leads to their being a tag team main event, champions lose matches cleanly, and you come away from the episode wondering what, if anything, important has happened.

The opening segment, which as always, was a promo, and more than anything seemed to serve as a vehicle to push a potential feud between Seth Rollins and Kane, which is not something that the audience particularly want to see happen, and given that Rollins is set to face Randy Orton at Extreme Rules, and has a feud with Roman Reigns to come naturally after the way he won the title, and never really had a definitive ending to his feud with Dean Ambrose, to push him towards Kane can only backfire and helps no-one. All it did was set up a tag team match, with although was a very good match, then had an equally bizarre ending with Reigns pinning Rollins cleanly, which is hardly the best way to make him look like a champion.

The same strange booking occurred in the match between Bad News Barrett and Sheamus against Dolph Ziggler and Neville, with BNB taking a clean pinfall when he needs to be protected ahead of his title match with Daniel Bryan on Sunday. That said, if Bryan is unable to compete and has to forfeit the belt, the fact Neville has a win over BNB means that it would make sense for the two of them to have a match at Extreme Rules, but that booking decision relies on a man being unable to wrestle. The match though was good.

The Rusev/Ryback match was one of the better things on the show as Rusev cut a promo saying how dangerous and vicious the Russia chain is and then at the end of a good match, demonstrated what he was saying by the beatdown he put on Ryback, attacking him with the chain and then locking in the accolade on him. It showed that Rusev can back up his words and that with the chain, he is a threat to take back John Cena’s title.

The rest of the show did help to build towards Extreme Rules with Naomi, now officially the challenger to the divas title, picking up a win, and Kofi Kingston keeping the momentum of the New Day rolling by beating Cesaro, although it was in a match that at 90 seconds long was way too short to mean anything and hurt the feud. Bray Wyatt also talked some more, but again, said nothing specific and still gives you no idea who the hell he is talking about.
Ahead of Extreme Rules, this was a perfectly fine episode of Smackdown, but no more than that. It did have three decent matches but with one ending in a DQ and the other two having guys needlessly take a pinfall, the booking remains questionable.

Smackdown at the moment just seems to be a show that exists and takes place rather than a show where something happens. This episode though was effective enough but won’t be remembered this time next week.

Show Rating: 6.9

As a reminder, I will be going by the 411 scale…

0 – 0.9: Torture
1 – 1.9: Extremely Horrendous
2 – 2.9: Very Bad
3 – 3.9: Bad
4 – 4.9: Poor
5 – 5.9: Not So Good
6 – 6.9: Average
7 – 7.9: Good
8 – 8.9:Very Good
9 – 9.9: Amazing
10: Virtually Perfect

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By Jericho Ricardi
Impact 4.24.15

* Brooke def. Madison Rayne, Angelina Love, and Gail Kim @ 6:45 via pin (Faceplant)
* Mica def. Kenny King @ 5:00 via pin (Samoan Drop)
* Laura Dennis def. Jade @ 3:50 via DQ
* Davey Richards def. Manik @ 5:43 via pin (Creeping Death)
* Taryn Terrell def. Awesome Kong @ 5:13 via pin (Powerbomb Through A Table)

THE RIGHT:
EC3 2015: Just end the column right now, segment of the year, pop some champagne. The backstage vignette gets a Right just for Brodus hanging out in the background with the balloons. The following promo by EC3 was brilliant. I spent years wanting to see a well-done “One Percenter” heel in wrestling, finally got my wish, and now he’s reaching full bloom as he takes on the role of entitled politician. With EC3 as champion, we will see a sharp drop in the amount of unmotivated, lazy millennials. The guy gets it.

Eric Young is the president of…something: I’d like to know what the deal is with EY’s jacket. Regardless, I’m enjoying this feud between him and Kurt Angle, and the opening promo between the two was good. Young looks as strong right now as he ever has (including his title reign) and has fallen into an interesting role as a sort of tweener for the main event scene. The interruption from A-Double was also noteworthy, with Aries pointing out that EY can’t be trusted and staking his own claim on the title. If the plan isn’t to have Kurt Angle carry the title until EC3 is ready, I wouldn’t mind seeing a Young/Aries one-on-one feud over the title. I thought we’d get that last year, but it didn’t pan out. From a pure wrestling standpoint it’d be excellent.

Knockouts #1 Contender Four-way: I wasn’t too keen on this match at first, as I find four-ways to be discombobulated for the most part, but it got surprisingly good. The submission hold chain was one of the more memorable Knockouts moments that TNA has had in a WHILE now, and was a great usage of the four-way aspect of the match.

The Rising promo: This was excellent, with a perfect color scheme, BGM, and mood. More of these promos (with a bit more to say) could become a good part of the show. Let these guys rail about all kinds of stuff that affects “the common man” during these vignettes and we’ll be onto something. The Rising is seriously the most exciting thing on the show right now due to their newness and general aggression. They’re old-school “honorable faces” through and through, with a good foil in BDC. I wouldn’t mind seeing them get a Shield-push and run through the roster over the next year.

Dollhouse Debut: The Dollhouse are interesting, a truly unhinged duo with good theme music. However, what really got me interested in this segment was Cherry Bomb (who they inexplicably renamed, bad move). I’ve never seen her work before, but she’s pretty awesome and a much-needed new face for the Knockouts division. Given that the match ended in a DQ, I’m guessing this wasn’t the last we’ve seen of her, luckily. …the Dollhouse were okay too, but they’re weirdly uncomfortable to watch. Maybe that’s the point. More Cherry Bomb though.

Mickie and Magnus James: This was a good segment with some emotional highs and lows. I thought it’d just be a retirement speech, but instead it led to some great work from James Storm. I’m intrigued to see where this goes and how it leads to the Magnus/Storm feud that I suspect is on the horizon. If Magnus still has the tag team briefcase, this may well be some sort of a ploy by Storm to get a hold of it. If I’m not mistaken, it’s the one remaining un-cashed FoF briefcase.

Taryn Vs. Kong: They did a good job setting this up and giving it the “big fight feel”. I just wish it had gone on last. I like that they’re making a thing out of Taryn’s title reign closing in on Gail Kim’s record; I’ve been waiting for them to talk about that, since Taryn has been champion for a while now and Gail is sorta her nemesis. I’d like to see them build towards Gail being Taryn’s final challenge to break the record; that’s the kind of women’s match that could probably sell a PPV, given the right stakes. Taryn winning and then continuing to set the record week by week will be compelling TV with her as a heel. As for Taryn and Kong, they put on a good match that hit all the right notes…aside from the ending. Supplemental Right for Taryn looking even hotter than usual with those weird thigh-tassels.

puRgatoRy:
The ending of Taryn Vs. Kong: I wasn’t a fan of Taryn needing to cheat to defeat Kong, even if it was a heel turn. The new ladies delivered the world’s weakest kendo shots, as well. I wasn’t impressed with them, and I also wasn’t crazy about Taryn’s personality completely changing on a dime. They could have been building it up the past few weeks with Taryn showing frustration at not being able to deal with Kong, becoming increasingly heelish. This was just so out of nowhere. That said, from an in-the-moment perspective I liked the heel turn, and Evil Taryn instantly became even hotter than Regular Taryn, so they got my attention. This also gives The Dollhouse something to do. Hopefully Taryn adopts their music to go with her dramatic transformation. In summation: The change was good, the storytelling wasn’t. I know they can do better on that front.

Manik Vs. The Wolf: This match was okay, but it was just…there. Didn’t seem to serve too much purpose, nor was it particularly interesting. I’m not saying it was bad, but it was too short to get going or be of any particular consequence. If this leads to Davey Richards: Singles Title Contender, then that’s cool. But as things were, the match was a bit tiring and pointless. I know both guys can do better than this when allowed to, as they’ve demonstrated against each other on the indies. Also, Manik has a pretty substantial fanbase for a guy who never actually wins on Impact.

The Title Match That Wasn’t: I’ll get into this a bit more in the next section, but I don’t know why the Aries/Angle match had to go on last. Doesn’t compute for me. Regardless, the segment was good and served a purpose, with EY making his presence felt and preventing Aries from cashing in. The stage is now set for a three-way feud, much like what we got heading into last year’s Slammiversary, only with the roles switched around and Angle replacing Lashley. EY continues to look like a huge threat, Aries is more sympathetic than he has been in a long time, and Angle is the pillar holding everything up. However, if this match wasn’t actually going to happen and we were just getting a beatdown, it shouldn’t have gone on last. On that note, we get the one real issue with the show…

THE wRong:
Taryn Vs. Kong should have been the main event: The show was compelling as a women-only show; Angle/Aries (or Angle/Young if we’re sticking to the surprise factor) could have been a good hook for next week. As it was, I felt like having the dudes main event took away from the knockouts title match and broke the show’s equilibrium up. It wasn’t even a match, to boot. And why was it necessary to have so many guys on the “night of Knockouts”? I know the Knockouts roster is thin right now, but they could have had two singles matches (or a three-match mini-tournament) instead of the four-way and kept the show an actual Knockouts showcase that way.

A lack of finishers: Did anyone besides Davey actually win a match with a finisher tonight? Mica signaled for one, but ended up winning the match with something else. Taryn pinned Kong off a table bump. Davey pinned Manik with a finisher, so there’s that. I used to complain about this quite a bit because finishers are an important part of wrestling and should be emphasized over random roll-ups and transition moves as endings, but TNA got much better about it for a while. Maybe that’s why this stood out so much about this show, TNA is normally much better about this. Remember to emphasize finishers! There’s no reason why they couldn’t have Kong kick out of the table slam to everyone’s shock, only to barely get to her feet and stumble right into a Taryn Cutter.

Laura Dennis’ Name: Call her Cherry Bomb. Seriously. The crowd knows her, clearly, as they were chanting for her. The name is on her tights. Just call her that. Laura Dennis is so generic as a pro wrestling name that I just watched the show and already forgot what it was. Even if that’s her real name… just no.

THE Ridiculous:
NOTHING

The 411:

The first half of this show was, quite frankly, kind of boring. However, as Impact tends to do, it got fired up in the second half and gave us some really good TV that I enjoyed a lot. I’d say the show started getting good with the Mickie James promo, dipped again for Davey/Manik, then got really good for the rest. The EC3 promo is WELL worth checking out, even if you don’t watch the rest of the show; the Taryn heel turn, the ending, and James Storm’s fired-up promo are also worth checking out. All in all, they did a good job with this one and I have no real complaints. I’m eagerly awaiting Evil Taryn, to say the least; I’ve been a big Taryn fan for a while, and turning her into a hyper-sexual villain has a TON of potential on a TV-14 program.

Sidenote: I really don’t like the Impact Zone. I miss TNA road shows. The London shows last month were awesome. The Impact Zone crowd can sometimes be great (episode before last, for instance) but for the most part the place just looks beneath TNA. Jokes here. But seriously, the venue adds a lot to a product. WWE RAW may be awful most weeks, but the big arena legitimizes it regardless. Impact or Lucha Underground could be excellent shows, but they’re emanating from these tiny places that don’t “look legit” to the common man. Alas, there isn’t much that can be done about this at the moment, in either case.

I want to note here that May 1 is going to be my last Impact 4Rs. I started on May 8 last year, and May 1 will complete a full year of Impact recapping for me. It’s a fun gig, but I’m ready to move onto something else. This also means that I’m looking for a replacement, so if any regular readers are interested in taking over, let me know. It’s your chance to put your own spin on Impact, be it positive or negative or somewhere in-between depending on the week. In my case, tune in next Monday for the final episode.

Cheap plug time; support this site and this column by sharing it with your homies. Also, support my site Coronajumper.com by reading my musings on video games, including TNA Impact for the PS2/PS3. Featuring gratuitous Rebel.

Show Rating: 7.5

As a reminder, I will be going by the 411 scale…

0 – 0.9: Torture
1 – 1.9: Extremely Horrendous
2 – 2.9: Very Bad
3 – 3.9: Bad
4 – 4.9: Poor
5 – 5.9: Not So Good
6 – 6.9: Average
7 – 7.9: Good
8 – 8.9:Very Good
9 – 9.9: Amazing
10: Virtually Perfect

The 984th edition is over…

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