wrestling / Columns

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

May 4, 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 4.30.15

QUICK MATCH RESULTS:
* Roman Reigns def. Kane at 11.01 by countout
* Damien Sandow def. Curtis Axel at 2.28 by pinfall
* Ryback def. Luke Harper at 8.10 by pinfall
* Tyson Kidd and Cesaro def. The New Day at 10.44 by disqualification
* Nikki Bella def. Cameron at 3.58 by pinfall
* Seth Rollins def. Dean Ambrose at 14.49 by pinfall

THE Right:
Ryback vs. Luke Harper: These two put on a pretty decent TV match and Ryback looked good in the ring in one of his better recent performances. Harper, now having lost to Dean Ambrose, continues to drift fairly aimlessly around the midcard, but Ryback, now does appear to have some direction with this feud with Bray Wyatt, although it is still in the early stages and Bray’s reasons for attacking him still don’t make any sense. We had a good match between these two, but Ryback, who needed the win, picked it up with the Shellshock, but after the match, the lights go out and Bray attacks him as he does. A solid start to the feud although some direction and reason will soon be needed.

The New Day vs. Tyson Kidd and Cesaro: These two teams put together a really good match and kept the anticipation high for another match between them eventually at the next PPV. The story told is that Kidd and Cesaro where probably the better team and where about to get the match won when the sheer numbers of the New Day intervened and caused the DQ to save their titles. It furthers the heel turn of the New Day by them actually doing something dislikeable and something that adds to the heat that they are getting, as for all their talk and bluster, they still cannot win matches on their own. I’m looking forward to another match between these teams and although the DQ finish was a bit cheap, it needed to happen.

puRgatoRy:
Roman Reigns vs. Kane: Reigns kicks off the show with an incredibly bland and meaningless promo where he says he is in a fight but will bring it to Randy Orton and Seth Rollins, before he is interrupting by Kane, who was goaded by Rollins into being like he was 20 years ago and doing something, and so we have a match between Kane and Reigns. The match itself between them was actually quite a good match and one of the better efforts in singles action from Kane lately, and ends when Kane rolls away when Reigns was for the spear and then walks out on the match. If you are going to eventually pull the trigger and do Rollins vs. Kane, then it is very helpful for Kane’s credibility that he can hang with Reigns and give him a good match. On the other hand, Reigns is fighting for the WWE title and it doesn’t exactly make him look good that he cannot beat Kane cleanly and decisively. It seems that rather than rebuilding up Reigns, they are protecting Kane.

Nikki Bella vs. Cameron: The match gets set up as Cameron was bitching about the Bellas backstage, only for Nikki to come and overhear what she was saying, and so a match gets set up and takes place, and although it wasn’t a particularly good one, at least Nikki did what she should be doing as the champion and won the match. On one hand this did at least make some sense as you have a heel talking smack about a face, they then have a match, and the face gets their revenge by beating them. On the other hand, there is literally no reason or logic for why the Bellas are suddenly faces or why we should like them, and no one has ever cared about Cameron, which meant the crowd for the match was completely dead.

Seth Rollins vs. Dean Ambrose: For what was the hottest feud in the company last night that had a justified Hell in a Cell match, it shows how far Ambrose has fallen that he is jobbing to Rollins clean in a throwaway Smackdown match. It was a bit like they were wrestling in each other in second gear and sort of going through the motions as the match was okay without really being anything special and was a sideshow to the main event that was building up the tension between Kane and Rollins for a match that no-one wants to really see take place. At least Rollins did do what he said he would by saying he doesn’t need anyone to win the match as he did sort of win it on his own, and for once, he can back up his words. Post match there is an attack on Ambrose, but Roman Reigns makes the save and they stand tall. It was a solid main event but seems to be building towards matches that aren’t taking place…

THE wRong:
Damien Sandow vs. Curtis Axel: Having finished being ‘Mizdow’, the hope would have been the Damien Sandow could have continued that momentum and been a good solid midcard act at worst, but instead, he has gone back to being a comedy figure at the bottom of the card and is back to the imitation gimmick that was going nowhere until they got lucky with Mizdow. Imitating the announcer was mildly amusing but I’m sure will soon get old. The match was fairly inoffensive and Sandow got the win, but I’m not sure he’s heading in the right direction, as Axel and his comedy gimmick shows.

THE Ridiculous:
NOTHING

The 411:

Having watched this episode without any prior knowledge of the storylines, you would swear blind that Seth Rollins was set to defend the WWE title against Kane very soon, and not in a triple threat match with Randy Orton and Roman Reigns. And that is a problem, as rather than building up to a title match that is happening, we are building to a hypothetical match that may happen down the line that in reality no-one wants to see take place.

The show started with Rollins and Kane arguing backstage and Rollins telling Kane that he has become irrelevant, which led to Kane interrupting Roman Reigns’ promo for a match. But instead of the number one contender destroying a man who second earlier had been told he was past it, the match was all about protecting Kane so a future match rather than making Reigns look good.

And the same happened in the main event as Dean Ambrose, a man that the crowd are itching to get behind and are desperate to see be put on the same level as his former Shield colleagues, was sacrificed in a throwaway main event so that there could be some more tension between Rollins and Kane. The story between Rollins and Kane is actually not that bad and is being presented quite well on screen – it’s just that it is a story that the audience by and large does not want to see – so rather than giving the fans what they want, they are forcing something that is never going to work, as honestly, who wants to see Kane challenging for the WWE title in 2015?
We did get some good matches though on Smackdown, with the Kane/Reigns and Rollins/Ambrose matches being solid, and Ryback/Harper and New Day/Kidd-Cesaro matches being good and furthering the feuds, particularly with the New Day having to use the numbers game to keep the title and further the antagonism they are giving to the crowd, and Bray Wyatt continuing to be all mysterious and attacking Ryback for no real reason.

We also saw Damien Sandow pick up another win and continue his new gimmick, while Nikki Bella got a win over Cameron to get revenge for her smacktalking about her, even if her face turn makes no sense.

This was a pretty solid episode of Smackdown with four good matches and some good angle progression and some advancement in the stories that are being told. It’s just that the stories being told are not the ones we want to see.

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

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By Jericho Ricardi
Impact 5.01.15

* The Hardys and Davey Richards def. The Revolution (Abyss, Manik, Koya) via Swanton Bomb (on Abyss) @10:00
* Kenny King def. Rockstar Spud, Tigre Uno, and Mark Andrews @8:00 in a ladder match to win the X-Division title
* Taryn Terrell def. Brooke Tessmacher via Taryn Cutter @7:00 to retain the Knockouts Title
* Drew Galloway def. Low Ki via Future Shock DDT @7:00
* Eric Young def. Kurt Angle in a non-title stretcher match @13:00

THE RIGHT:
Starting with a bang: The opening six-man was a fun brawl and started the show on an entertaining note right off the bat. Every Impact should start with a match in progress like this, because it gives the show energy right from the get-go. It’s sure as hell better than an extended, boring promo for twenty minutes. We also got some angle advancement in the form of James Storm being disappointed with Abyss. There’s trickle-down dissention in the Revolution.

New Color Commentator Al Snow: Good choice for Taz’s replacement. He works well with Matthews and gives the show a different mood. Looking forward to more shows with the Snow/Matthews team, and I hope Al uses this opportunity to get back at Mick Foley for the years of jokes.

Beat The Streak: Mr. Anderson hasn’t been particularly well-used for the past couple years, but this feud with EC3 is making him interesting and relevant again. Even though the winner of the feud isn’t particularly in doubt, they match up well together. This feud is a good way to keep EC3 occupied until his inevitable world title feud, and I’m really liking their segments on these recent Impacts.

Tigre Uno’s streamers: These had an international flavor and added a lot to his initial presentation, making him seem like a remotely big deal for once. Sometimes it’s the little things that make a difference.

X-Division ladder match: This was a good contest, with some high-flying maneuvers. I fully expected Rockstar Spud to retain, and having Kenny King win was an interesting surprise. I’m happy to see Kenny King finally win a singles title and get some sort of recognition on his own. Unfortunately his win was tainted, but it has the potential to finally elevate King in some sort of discernable way. Looking forward to seeing Spud chase after him. On the other hand, Spud as X-Division champion was compelling and had the potential to be a very interesting run. It feels like they didn’t scratch the surface of the potential it had. Hopefully he forges an alliance with The Rising and continues to pursue Kenny King; otherwise I could see Spud ending up in limbo. As for King, I’d like to see this be the beginning of him slowly usurping MVP as the leader of the BDC. I can’t see a hothead like Kenny King continuing to act like a lackey while he’s holding a title.

Heel Taryn is insanely hot: When she covered Brooke, I think I went through puberty again. Also, good to see her emphatically win a match with her finisher this week; I mentioned last week (and many times before) that I’d like to see her use her finisher as much as possible. It has the potential to be the most over finisher in women’s wrestling right now, but that requires consistency.

Rising Ki: It’s good that Drew Galloway was able to regain his composure after the coronary-inducing hotness of Taryn in time to come out for his match. While I’m no fan of “on a pole” stipulations, this was a good brawl. The DDT that ended the match looked totally brutal, hope Ki’s okay. As far as being a formidable wrestler goes, Drew Galloway has the goods. Glad to see him getting a chance to shine, but I hope his Rising stablemates get similar opportunities to excel. Eli Drake, in particular, has tons of potential.

The Mickie James soap opera: This is good TV, though I continue to wonder what James Storm is after. Magnus’ jealousy sorta makes him look like the jerk in this situation, but he (and we) know that his suspicion of Storm is well-founded. I can’t help but feel like this, and everything Magnus does, would have more weight if it weren’t for his completely detrimental several-month heel run a year ago. Magnus is better as a solid good guy, but that heel run has given him an aura of “jerk” that he has yet to get rid of. On the other hand, this segment had Mickie James in yoga pants. A+, 10/10.

Kurt Angle Vs. Eric Young: Normally, a champion losing a non-title match will land a segment firmly in the “wrong” category. However, in this case, it nailed all of the things that make such an event okay: A) It advanced an ongoing feud, B) The guy scoring the win actually cares about the title, and C) The win wasn’t decisive and did nothing to diminish the champion. Eric Young managing to subdue Kurt Angle long enough to put him on a stretcher didn’t hurt Angle at all, and I’m glad that EY didn’t just lose cleanly as I expected. This feud deserves to continue and I hope they carry it all the way to Slammiversary. Will Lashley and Aries figure into it? Time will tell.

puRgatoRy:
NOTHING

THE wRong:
The “hardcore” theme was a relatively minor aspect of the show: For a special hardcore-themed episode of Impact, this show felt like it a fairly standard episode of Impact. Not sure if this is because they didn’t play up the hardcore stuff enough or because your standard Impact has too many hardcore stipulation matches already. Either way, this show didn’t seem particularly special in any sense, and these “event” Impacts definitely should. Hopefully next week’s live show will have more of a feeling of importance.

The Fan-Poll: I dunno, it just seems kinda ridiculous to have the vote be between Falls Count Anywhere and an arm-wrestling match. They could have seized this opportunity to give people some more interesting choices than that. Though honestly, I’m pretty much reaching to find anything wrong with the show.

THE Ridiculous:
NOTHING

The 411:

This was a good show that hit all the right notes. Nothing extraordinary or must-see, but nothing bad either. It advanced all of the important current storylines, Taryn continued to be unbelievably hot, EC3 continued to be awesome, and Kenny King now has something to do. They’re putting on a very good show these days, and anyone who still thinks Impact sucks probably hasn’t watched it for over a year.

Speaking of a year, it has been 52 weeks since I started doing the Impact 4Rs. I started on May 8th 2014 and it’s only fitting that I end my run on the final week of that calendar year. It has been a fun endeavor and I look forward to seeing what my successor brings to the table, whoever that ends up being. Thanks for reading, and especially thanks for commenting. I might turn up again in terms of Impact coverage on the site, and in the meantime you can check out my daily retro video game blogging at Coronajumper.com.

The final thing I want to say here is a wish, in case the right people are reading:

I’d like to see the Knockouts Title main eventing shows. It’s at the level right now where they could put Taryn’s matches on last and no one would bat an eye. Just do that on weeks when Kurt Angle isn’t defending the world title. Right now we have the two titles repeatedly overlapping each other in their defenses. As a result we have Taryn’s match always going second-to-last like she’s CM Punk during his world title reign. I say have her main event shows where the world title isn’t represented, and cut promos on the weeks when the world title is in play. The Knockouts title is effectively the secondary title of the company right now and could actually be elevated to being on the same level as the men’s world title. Mark my words: Treated right, the title (and Taryn) can draw.

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: 7.7

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 986th edition is over…

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