wrestling / Columns
Wrestling’s 4Rs: The Right, Wrong and Ridiculous of TNA Impact & WWE Smackdown
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: Jericho Ricardi
IMPACT 10.01.14:
QUICK MATCH RESULTS:
* Samoa Joe def. Austin Aries at 15:00 via Kokina Clutch
* Ethan Carter III def. Eric Young at 7:00 via One-Percenter
* Manik def. Shark Boy at 3:00 via Frog Splash
* MVP def. Mr. Anderson at 6:00 via roll-up
* Havok def. Gail Kim at 5:00 via chokeslam to win the Knockouts Title
THE RIGHT:
Gail Kim Vs. Havok: This was hard to watch, but it worked. It looked like it was intended to be the female version of Brock/Cena, except kept to a mercifully short length. This could have been much better had it been held in front of a larger crowd that were aware of backstage events as they happened, though. A RAW headlined by this match would have been far more memorable because the crowd would have been totally aware of the story being told and reacted accordingly. Regardless, you’d never see a story this fully-realized between female wrestlers, culminating in the main event of the show, on most other wrestling shows. I just wish it could have been more involved with the audience. Havok is one of the best new additions to the show in ages, and she’s believable as a threat not just to the other Knockouts, but to the entire roster if she felt like it. Also, what I had to say in recent weeks about Havok being a great role model for a large contingent of fans – ala Mankind – continues to hold true.
Joe Vs. Aries: The battle between two top-tier guys who recently lost to Lashley was a great way to open the show. On one hand, I feel like they had Aries cash in his title shot way too quickly, but on the other hand, the way it happened was exciting. Joe interrupting Aries before he could even mention Lashley? Good TV. Honorable mention goes to Aries wondering aloud if he should challenge Gail Kim, which sorta put the odd “you can challenge any champion you want” stipulation into perspective.
I’m With Spud: The storyline between Spud and EC3 continues to be one of the best things on the show. Spud is the most sympathetic character in wrestling right now, and whenever he finally snaps and turns on EC3, it’ll blow the roof off. Hopefully he’ll also gain the ability to hit for more than 0 damage at that point, as well. Either way, Spud is much like Havok in that he gives a large contingent of the fans a role model who actually speaks to them. EC3 ridiculing Spud for liking comic books and WATCHING WRESTLING was brilliant.
Eric Young’s Nipplepalooza: As for tonight’s segment… Eric Young being the one to come out and stand up for Spud actually made a ton of sense, since EY was in the “lackey role” himself for a long time. EC3 defeating EY decisively is actually a step up for The One Percenter; EY has a lot of rub to give in the wake of his great world title run earlier this year.
Gimme A Shell Yeah: Shark Boy’s return was a fun surprise, and legitimately made me mark out.
The Storm Cult: The “revolution” continues to grow in size, and they’re looking impressive. If the company continues to exist into 2015, the logical course of action would be to set Storm up as a foil to Bobby Roode again at the top of the card. Only problem is, we still don’t know what the point of this group is. They need a definite identity. What’s their ultimate objective? Are they the Cobra Kai, or are they Aum Shinrikyo?
MVP’s Dickery Squad: The match between Anderson and MVP was the very definition of “mid-card”, but it worked well regardless. MVP and Kenny King are adept at being despicable, and made this compelling. As compelling as anything involving Anderson can be in 2014. For whatever reason, his character has become incredibly stale. Regardless, this was your pure good versus evil match, and it was fine.
puRgatoRy:
MVP’s Dickery Squad II: A segment later, we have MVP speaking for Lashley, despite Lashley not seeming too keen on it. I’m interested to see if this leads to Lashley breaking away from the more assholey members of his trio. Why is this in Purgatory? While Roode’s challenge to Lashley came off well in some ways, it really did seem a little bit too much like he was begging for the shot. Why should Roode get the shot above anyone else? He lost. Now rather than having Lashley move on to another contender, we have Roode basically pushing that he should get a rematch until he does. Didn’t work when Cena did it last month, doesn’t work here. Thing is, I’m all for a Roode/Lashley rematch, but give us a real reason why Roode deserves it.
Tag Team Breakdown: The face-off between the three teams came across as wildly different from their previous interactions. All of the mutual respect between the three face teams seemed to be out the window… at least when it came to the Wolves. Bully Ray called Davey Richards his bitch, Matt Hardy proclaimed that in 20 years no one would remember the Wolves, and so forth. The whole thing was just… odd.
THE wRong:
Bethlehem: While the crowd was lively, you could barely tell because of the tiny size of it. This has to be the smallest crowd Impact has ever aired in front of, and made the old Impact Zone crowd look like WrestleMania. While I found the indie-like atmosphere to be interesting, it’s the kind of thing that just opens the company up for its detractors to laugh at it. Not sure why they taped all of their remaining shows in this same arena when so many better locales are available.
THE RIDICULOUS:
NOTHING
The 411:
Aside from the show-wide storyline between Gail Kim and Havok – and the mere presence of Spud/EC3 – this really came across as a filler episode of Impact. It didn’t help that it looked like an indie show, which sucked a lot of the importance out of the proceedings. A problem with all of TNA’s tapings is that the crowd lacks a big screen with which to see the backstage events as they play out during the show, and as a result the crowd can’t react to story progression anywhere near as well as they’d be able to at, say, a WWE event where everything backstage is visible to the arena audience.Cheap plug time; support this site and this column by sharing it with your homies. Also, support my site Coronajumper.com by reading my recent posts on wrestling videogames, including TNA Impact. Featuring gratuitous Rebel.
Show Rating: 7.8
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
By Daniel Clark
Smackdown 10.03.14
QUICK MATCH RESULTS:
* Dolph Ziggler and Sheamus def. The Miz and Damien Mizdow at 5.31 by pinfall
* Paige def. Alicia Fox at 1.47 by submission
* The Usos def. Slater Gater at 1.55 by pinfall
* Cesaro def. R Truth at 2.13 by pinfall
* Dean Ambrose and John Cena def. Kane and Randy Orton at 11.28 by disqualification
THE RIGHT:
John Cena/Dean Ambrose vs. The Authority: At the moment we are building to John Cena vs. Dean Ambrose and the build for that is going successfully. Both men want to get their hands of Seth Rollins – and obviously – only one of them actually can at one time – so however does not face Rollins next will probably face him in the future. And by doing Cena vs. Ambrose at Hell in the Cell, which seems likely, it stretches out the feud for another month, which with a paucity of main event guys at the moment, is not really a bad thing. Cena’s promo to open the show was very good and shows what he can do when he turns up in super-serious mode without the lame jokes. He makes it clear that he needed the win against Brock Lesnar to prove that he is not done as a competitor, and that he had him beat until Seth Rollins turned up, so he needs to get his revenge on Rollins as his chance to prove he is still the man was taken away from him. Dean Ambrose meanwhile wants to get his revenge on Rollins because he nearly took his career away from him, which is a perfectly legitimate reason for him to want to kick his ass. But, the Authority play a clever game throughout the show and actually come away from it looking pretty smart. Although their comments and revelations about what Cena and Ambrose really said about each other behind their backs was slightly childish, it does enough to spread the seeds of doubt towards their truce, which gets broken more in the main event when Cena abandons Ambrose to chase after Rollins, leaving Ambrose to get beaten down. It is almost like they are tested out Cena in a tweener role here as although he wants to get his revenge on Rollins, leaving Ambrose on his own to do so and not returning until after he got his ass kicked by Kane and Randy Orton is a very heelish thing to do – after Cena’s reaction is one of regret as he realizes what he has done in letting Ambrose down and how that will cost him as Ambrose will no longer trust him. The Authority come out of this looking smart and calculating, while Ambrose is going to be even more hell bent on getting his revenge on Rollins now.
Sheamus/Dolph Ziggler vs. The Miz and Damien Mizdow: The match itself was a pretty good and reasonably hot match – almost like they just skipped straight to the end of what they were doing – and these guys have got some pretty good chemistry now given that they have faced off each other so many times recently. Ziggler gets the win here by pinning Mizdow, but this was all about re-establishing the Miz and Sheamus’ feud, which was done well with the Miz hitting Sheamus with the chair, and then escaping before Sheamus had a chance to get some revenge. You may question why the Miz is moving straight from the IC title to the US title, but Sheamus still has not got in the Brogue Kick to the Miz’s moneymaker that he promised a while ago, so in that sense, you can see him wanting to take him on. Decent little tag match that keeps the anticipation of the Sheamus/Miz up as although Mizdow got kicked, the Miz keeps escaping.
Cesaro vs. R Truth: The match was nothing to speak about really. It happened, Cesaro won cleanly, and everyone moves on. But there was a reason for the match to take place – that being the confrontation that happened before the show – and as result they fought, the right man won the match, and looked good in doing so. It is just little things like giving a reason for a match to happen that help make shows and segments that bit better and seem more important. It took two minutes of ring time, plus a further minute to show why they are fighting, but that is all that was needed really.
puRgatoRy:
Paige vs. Naomi: For a two minute diva match this was quite good, but there is a suspicion that they have ran out of things to do to keep the Paige/AJ angle fresh, but with a lack of other real credible candidates at the moment, they just have to keep on fighting. Paige at least got a dominant and clean win here, which she needed, and avoiding the beating that AJ gave to Alicia, but this feud is running out of steam and fresh ideas.
Big Show’s apology: There was an element here that the apology that the WWE was not in the slightest bit genuine. It’s all very well apologizing for what the Big Show does, but when you show him pulling down the flag over-and-over again through the episode, you are not exactly acting like you are sorry. The Big Show’s apology was fairly well written and he covered himself as a face by saying that his actions were overzealous, did it on purpose to anger Lana and Rusev, and would be mad if someone did it to the US flag. This does set up what should be a fairly decent match between them at Hell in the Cell with Rusev attacking the Big Show with the flagpole afterwards, which makes the Big Show mad and starts a USA chant. Just an average segment really to keep the feud going. I guess if you are American this might work a bit better for you as it actually means it is your nation that they are disrespecting.
THE WRONG:
Wrestling: Before the main event began, there had been about 11 minutes of wrestling in the first 105 minutes of the show. There was just five minutes of wrestling in the first 55 minutes of the show. I know this was an angle and promo heavy show, but a bit more wrestling and fewer of the recaps from Raw that we have already seen would be nice.
The Usos vs. Slater Gater: I wanted to like this, I really did. And to be honest, I am not against the Bunny as a character either. It is just that what I wanted to see was a match happen before all the shenanigans and the dancing with the exotic express and instead they began about 20 seconds into the match and as a result this as a match never began at all. The ending, with the triple splash and then the dancing was fun, but the fact that there was no match at all is disappointing, especially as there was plenty of time available on the show had they chosen to allocate it differently.
THE RIDICULOUS:
NOTHING
The 411:
Last week was a really good episode of Smackdown which was only let down by a lack of a real main event presence on the show. This week, we had that presence – but sacrificed match quality in the process unfortunately.Whereas last week we got four really good matches that all had plenty of time attached to them, this week, we only got two matches that had any time at all – the tag match involving the midcard that was basically the last five minutes of a fifteen minute matches – and the main event that was more of an angle than an actual match. Now if you could combine the best bits of the last two episodes then you would have a great Smackdown episode – what we are more likely to get based on recent experience is a load of short and meaningless matches without any main event appearances.
John Cena against Dean Ambrose against the Authority is the current main angle and with the Authority outsmarting Cena and driving a wedge between his truce with Ambrose, it does look as if they have the upper hand at the moment. Both Cena and Ambrose have legitimate and worthy reasons for wanting to get their revenge on Rollins. Rollins probably does not want to have to face either of them and so the Authority doing their bit to pit them against each other rather than have them working together to take down Rollins is a great piece of strategy. I suspect Cena vs. Ambrose will be announced for Hell in a Cell with a stipulation that the winner faces Rollins later in the night, while the loser is banned from facing him or something like that. It allows Rollins to say he is willing to face one of them – although they would be fatigued – and avoid facing the other.
The Big Show/Rusev flag apology segment also felt like something you would see on Monday Night Raw. It didn’t quite work as well as I suspect they have imagined and the legitimately and sincerity of the apology was slightly diminished by them continually showing the Russian flag being pulled down, but it did add a bit more spice and anger to their feud now that the Big Show feels more disrespected and wants to knock out Rusev again.
The Miz and Damien Mizdow against Sheamus and Dolph Ziggler was also a pretty decent five minute match – although it did feel like the end of a longer match – and the Miz continues to get shots in on Sheamus and at the same time avoid getting his face kicked in, which has to be the logical end game for this feud, but there is an element of this, as well as the AJ and Paige feud or sort of going around in circles as they want to keep them going but have ran out of any fresh ideas.
This show did lack the in-ring product that you would want to see, with only five minutes of wrestling in the first 55 minutes and 11 minutes in the first 105, but it actually felt more like an episode of Raw than an episode of Smackdown, had angles that actually matter in the grand scheme of things and it felt important which for a long time Smackdown has not felt.
If it can keep the main event stars and add last week’s match quality together, Smackdown will be back where it was at the start of the year.
Show Rating: 8.0
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
Giant Baba just executed a high cross on Harley Race.
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