wrestling / Columns

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

September 22, 2015 | Posted by Pyro Mitchell

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 Pyro Mitchell
Impact 9.16.15

THE Right:
Mahabali Shera vs. Abyss: This was just a quick little squash match for Shera, to make him look good ahead of his impending clash with former mentor James Storm. But it was a reverse squash match in a sense, because Shera took a pretty good beating. Eventually Abyss would say screw the rules and look to use Janice, but he’d end up missing Shera in the corner. Abyss would turn around and get planted by a chokeslam, but that would not be enough to keep the big man down. Storm would then make his way down to the ring with his cowbell in tow, to help out his Revolution teammate. But Storm would miss Shera too and crack Abyss right over the skull, setting up Shera to hit a Sky High for the win. Nice enough little match here, can’t really complain with this one.

EC3/Jeff Hardy/Rockstar Spud Segment: EC3 brought out his personal assistant this week, dressed in a suit with his face plastered all over it. He furthered his humiliation of Hardy by making him do things like telling the fans to stop cheering for him, before Spud came out. The Ultimate Underdog was upset about the way that EC3 was treating Hardy, a legend of the business. He would end up getting hit in the melon with a mic for his efforts, then EC3 would look to leave. As they were, Spud rushed up from behind and tried his hardest to fight. He would eventually be contained by Tyrus and EC3 would then tell Hardy to hit him. After telling Spud he was sorry, Jeff delivers a big right hand right to the head of SPud before leaving with EC3. This was another A+ segment from EC3, again showing off just how much of a heel he can be.

Team TNA vs. Team GFW: This is it, 5 on 5 Lethal Lockdown for control of TNA. Early on we thought it would be 4 on 4 but, after the surprise turn from Eric Young, we learned that EY would be joining on as the 5th member of Team GFW. All night the commentators speculated as to who it might be, if anyone at all. Then the match got started, and it was to be either a surprise or nobody at all. Davey Richards and Sonjay Dutt got things rolling in this one, with Richards having the slight upperhand. Entrant number 2 would be the turncoat himself, Eric Young. Young and Dutt would take turns wailing on Richards before Drew Galloway was introduced to the match. He must’ve really been on fire too, as he made Sonjay Dutt utter the most hilarious pain moan I’ve ever heard from any wrestler. Sadly we only got to see a bit of Galloway’s frenzy, as they went to commercial, and upon their return Brian Myers was in the ring. Team GFW would have their way for a short while, then Lashley’s music hit. He came out and Spear’d everything in sight and totally changed the flow of the match. The TNA guys held on to their advantage for the most part, right up until Team GFW’s muscle made his way to the ring. Chris Mordetzky gave GFW a big advantage that they ran with, and then that snarl would be heard again. Eddie Edwards ran to the ring and instantly made an impact, with his fast and effective skillset. Mix that with the double team moves that he pulls off with Richards, and you’ve got a big addition to this match. Jeff Jarrett would be Team GFW’s final entrant, and he looked decent enough early on. And then it was time for Team TNA’s final entrant, and I was actually quite pleased with the selection. Bram is a very underutilized wrestler that can work with anyone and make it look good. I was thinking that TNA needed somebody that is traditionally a heel to step up for them, and Bram is a perfect choice. Once those weapons came down from the ceiling, the match totally changed again. Team GFW took the upperhand quick, and actually held on for a good while. But TNA would turn things around soon enough, and then single out Jeff Jarrett. Jarrett takes the ass kicking of a lifetime, which was capped off by a big Double Dropkick from The Wolves, while he wore a trash can over his head. Drew Galloway would deliver the deathblow by planting Brian Myers into a trashcan with a Future Shock DDT, and TNA stands tall. This was a great match. It featured great wrestling, good drama, tons of excitement, and a fantastic ending. What a way to end the show!

puRgatoRy:
Jeff Jarrett/Dixie Carter Contract Signing: This was a very different way to open up a wrestling show (I don’t recall ever seeing any show open with a contract signing), but it was another nice change of pace for TNA; they’re showing that they don’t always have to open the show the same way every week. Before any signing happened, Dixie Carter was given time to speak about all that happened that led to this point. She threw her barbs and then Jeff and Karen threw theirs, with both sides signing their respective papers. Then things got weird as the papers that they had both signed were put into briefcases, those to be put in a safe location as said by Jeremy Borash. When Borash refused to let Jarrett walk off with the briefcase he decked him, saying that it was something he’s always wanted to do. Needless to say, this was a pretty awkward segment, but at least they’re trying to change things up week to week. It just didn’t work out very well this week.

Brooke vs. Lei’D Tapa vs. Gail Kim vs. Awesome Kong: This was a fatal four way match, with Brooke’s title up for grabs. Early on it was the Kong/Tapa show, with both women showing off their strength. That would soon turn into a 3 on 1 situation, however, as the TNA girls teamed up to take out the GFW trash. With Tapa taken out, it was now between the three TNA Knockouts, and Kong would end up with the upper hand. Awesome moment alert when Kong went and did a crossbody off the apron onto Tapa. Then it was time to see the Brooke/Gail show, and they didn’t disappoint. After a couple of close calls, Tapa would get involved again and have a nice little battle with Gail Kim. Awesome moment alert again when Kong launched herself off the second rope and nearly splashed the lunch right out of Tapa. Soon enough it would break down to just Gail and Brooke again and, after another few close calls, Gail would counter a Sunset Flip attempt from Brooke into a pin. She would get the 3, and Gail Kim is now a 5 time Knockouts Champion. This was a pretty entertaining match, but its too bad that Brooke lost the title. Another wasted run for her and its just lame, that run could’ve been so much more.

THE wRong:
Nothing

THE Ridiculous:
Nothing

The 411:
Impact this week was awfully good. For a brand that is supposedly on its last legs, they are absolutely on fire right now and I personally don’t think they’re going anywhere. The opening segment, while a tad weird, was still a good change of pace from the normal opening segment. But from there on it was quality programming, that started with Shera/Abyss. Those two had a pretty decent match and, while it wasn’t the longest or most incredible, it did a good job of making Shera look like an actual challenge to James Storm. EC3 delivered another fantastic heel performance, continuing the torment of Jeff Hardy. Spud coming out to stick up for Hardy was ok, but are we really going to see Spud/Carter again? Has he really run out of people to feud with? The Fatal 4 Way for the Knockouts title was a very entertaining match, that featured some very memorable moments, but unfortunately saw Brooke lose her title. Her title run was pretty much wasted, which is pretty lame, but here’s to Gail having a nice run. Then it was time for the big one, the Lethal Lockdown match to determine who would have control of TNA. The two teams looked great, and brought out the absolute best in each other. Team TNA would extinguish Team GFW, with the help of a Future Shock DDT from Drew Galloway, and Dixie Carter has her company. A nice end to another good edition on Impact.

Show Rating: 7.0

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

Pyro Mitchell
Smackdown 9.17.15

THE Right:
Kofi Kingston vs. D-Von: Before the match got going, The New Day came out and grabbed mics. They were there to continue their Save The Tables campaign, and this time they even had a petition. I thought it hilarious that they actually had a bunch of signatures. They’re idea was to ask The Dudley Boyz to sign their petition, saying that if they did then they’d have karma out the butt. The Dudleyz then made their way to the ring, and D-Von took the petition from Kofi. After a very brief once over with Bubba Ray, D-Von snapped the petition board in half and the match was on. The match was really too short to critique, but it prominently featured D-Von. He dominated the entire match, right up until he got rolled up by Kingston. Kofi would grab the tights on the roll up and sneak away with a win. During the match Big E pulled out a table and, after Kofi won, The New Day would run off with the table in tow. This match wasn’t much, but the continued antics of The New Day was great. This one goes in the right just because of all the things that The New Day did outside the match.

Cesaro vs. Big Show: Wow. For a match featuring 2 of WWE’s strongest guys, that just love throwing people around, this was surprisingly a very technical matchup. Big Show was actually focusing his attack on one certain spot of Cesaro, and even applied a submission hold, and Cesaro did the same. The ending came off a devastating KO Punch from The Big Show, but it was certainly hard fought. Do not really agree with Cesaro taking another clean loss, and to Big Show of all people? But the match was still pretty entertaining so I can’t bring myself to put it in Purgatory.

Kevin Owens vs. Dolph Ziggler: This was a relatively random match that ended up being one of the best of the night. Dolph Ziggler got a quick start to the match, but it was Owens that got the early advantage. Owens held onto the reigns of the match for a good while before Ziggler attempted to mount a comeback. He capped that off by drilling Owens with a beautiful DDT, and Ziggler looked as though he had the match won. Owens would kick out though and the match would spill to the outside, where things would take a violent left turn. Owens delivered a nasty fallaway slam into the barricade, then look to get the win by way of a count out. Ziggler would make the count which prompted Owens to return to the outside, to throw Ziggler into a ring post and then into the time keepers area. Ziggler would make the count again though, so Owens would meet him in the ring with a brutal Super Kick. Owens would follow Ziggler out of the ring to inflict more punishment, but then a certain big guy’s music would hit. Ryback succeeds in running off Owens, giving him a win via DQ. This was a very entertaining match and, even though it ended in DQ, was one of the best of the night.

Nikki’s Bella-Bration: This was so bad that it was good. All through the night Team Bella was preparing for the big celebration, Nikki Bella had broken AJ’s record as the longest running Divas Champion. It was all supposed to go so perfectly with stars like Kim Kardashian and Kanye West supposedly showing up, and bottles of wine equal to the amount of days that she’s been champ. But by party time, nobody had arrived. Team PCB would show up just to remind Nikki that she’s pretty much screwed come this Sunday, and make her even more angry. And then Adam Rose showing up for the sole purpose of telling her “You’re party SUCKS” was just hilarious. At that moment I knew I couldn’t put this anywhere but the right. Not that it needed to happen or anything, it was just too entertaining to be put anywhere else.

Dean Ambrose & Roman Reigns vs. Sheamus & Seth Rollins: The old rivals, and former brothers, Ambrose and Rollins got this rolling. But Rollins wouldn’t stay in the ring long, opting to instead tag in Sheamus. The Celtic Warrior had to again take the time to yell at the fans for saying he looks stupid, while his partner watched and laughed at him, before he got to fighting. But upon his return to the match, Dean Ambrose would look to get off to a quick start. He and Reigns do a great job of getting the heel team way off balance, but then the dreaded commercial break comes. Once back, of course, the heel team has control of the match. They do a very good job of keeping Ambrose in the ring, and for a very good while. But eventually Reigns would get his hot tag, and he used it to completely dismantle Rollins. Soon enough Rollins would get the opportunity to tag Sheamus, but The Celtic Warrior drops off the apron to avoid being tagged. Rollins would then grab Sheamus’ MITB briefcase, which caused him to get back up on the apron. As Sheamus tried to pull the case away from Rollins, Seth would tag himself out of the match and run. Sheamus was now legal and left to the wolves, and Ambrose was quick to take advantage. He hits a nice Suicide Dive then tosses Sheamus in the ring, where he runs square into a monstrous Superman Punch from Reigns. Ambrose hits Dirty Deeds to follow it up and the former Shield members have a big win ahead of their battle with The Wyatt Family. Very nice, lengthy match that was pretty fun to watch and featured the right team winning. Can’t really find too much to complain about with this one.

puRgatoRy:
Paige & Becky Lynch vs. Naomi & Sasha Banks: Becky Lynch had a nice start to this match, getting the upperhand on both of her opponents. But Team BAD was quick to get the ball back in their court, and they held the advantage throughout most of the match, as they did a great job of isolating Lynch. The hot tag would eventually be made to Paige, and she came out on fire. After a very short while of dominating, The Anti Diva would get side tracked by her partner and Banks on the outside. The distraction gave Naomi the opportunity to roll up Paige with a Small Package, and the win goes to the Team BAD member. This was an ok match, would’ve liked to see Paige get a little more time to work though.

THE wRong:
Seth Rollins Opening Segment: And we’re back to the good ol Rollins opening talk segment. Rollins came out just to tell us all that he’s going to make history come this Sunday, when he defeats John Cena and Sting in one night. He says that he will break Cena’s spirit, in addition to showing Sting that he is the past. Then he transitions into talking about the main event for the evening, that featured himself and Sheamus taking on Roman Reigns and Dean Ambrose. Sheamus came out to ask if Seth considered him a friend or an enemy. Rollins caps on Sheamus, saying that The WWE Universe isn’t too far off base when they say that Sheamus looks stupid. They go back and forth for a short while before Sheamus threatens Rollins with the MITB briefcase. This segment was ‘meh’ at best. Just another talking segment, this time with Sheamus, and it wasn’t that great.

THE Ridiculous:
NOTHING

The 411:
Smackdown is on a roll right now. Despite starting this show with the same old Seth Rollins routine, they still managed to have a good show. The first match between Team PCB and Team BAD was pretty good, I must admit I was kinda hoping for a solid one on one between two Divas that haven’t really got to fight each other much (like maybe Lynch/Banks), but this was still really enjoyable. Kofi/D-Von wasn’t much of a match really, but I don’t think we were ever really supposed to focus on the match. The antics of The New Day and their Save The Tables campaign is great, and this week it helped them stand out without the help of a match. Cesaro and Show put on a pretty good show, surprisingly showing off their technical sides. Show getting the win might be the wrong way to go, but at least the match was entertaining. Owens/Ziggler put on a fantastic match that, while pretty random, made for one of the very best of the night. The Bella-Bration was hilarious, even though I tried awfully hard to not like it. And the main event featuring Ambrose and Reigns taking on Rollins and Sheamus was very well done, and they put on another great match. Just another solid effort from Smackdown this week, and it was a great excitement builder for this Sunday’s Night of Champions PPV.

Questions or comments? Ya know I love hearing them. So please do sound off in the comments section below. Or if you want me to respond just email me directly and I’ll get back to ya asap. Thanks for reading!

My email – [email protected]

Show Rating: 7.0

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