The Cheers ‘n Jeers of Wrestling 12.08.08: Tribute to the Troops, Armageddon, Final Resolution, Dolph Ziggler and more!

Good afternoon/evening and welcome to Cheers ‘n Jeers of Wrestling! Your usual host Michael O is out of town this week and thus you’re all left with me, Dan Wilcox, as a fill-in. It was me or Lansdell, so think yourselves lucky.

Anyway, there’ll be no major change to the format, other than I don’t do wit too well, so there’ll be a lack of funnily captioned pictures. On the other hand, there’s seems to be a lack of funnily captioned pictures when Michael’s around anyway, so no worries. Emphasis on “funnily.”

On with the cheers…

CHEERS
to (“Hi, I’m…”) Dolph Ziggler, for overcoming the silly gimmick, generic look and awful music to put on a show in the ring and make people take notice. In his debut match on Raw Monday night, he made Batista look silly for the most part and although he came out on the losing, I think that most would agree that this was a very promising debut for Cheerleader Formerly Known as Nicky. I was surprised that Ziggler got in the amount of offence that he did and for a few moments even thought he may pull off an upset (though I was thinking an assisted upset). Still, that apron-assisted bicycle kick was swank as hell and the crowd seem to be into the guy, and creative obviously have plans for him, else he wouldn’t be getting such a prosperous debut. The guy’s failed to overcome 2 silly gimmicks, and this one could have been dead in the water following the Wellness violation, but hes being given a shot and I hope he succeeds, because he’s a talented individual.

JEERS
to whatever dumbass is in charge of booking this Shawn Michaels/JBL feud. They’ve been going along fine in recent weeks and there was already enough reason to book a pay-per-view match between the pair, but now they’ve gone and thrown in this “Shawn’s broke” angle. In theory, it’s fine; there’s a worldwide economic crisis and people are losing their money, jobs and homes because of it. But I don’t think too many people are buying the idea that Michaels, one of the most popular wrestlers in the company, and one of its longest running employees, is out of money. No one buys the idea that Shawn is stupid enough to waste whatever money he does have when he’s got a family. And how exactly is JBL supposed to have found out about Shawn’s money worries. This whole reeks of trying too hard to be topical and relevant, but I just can’t see it working. And here I was thinking they were going somewhere with plans for a Michaels/Morrison feud.

If Shawn really is out of money, he could just go back to his Playgirl-posing days.

MANY BUYS?

CHEERS
to that inspired ending to Raw on Monday night, the vicious beat down of John Cena at the hands of Chris Jericho, Randy Orton and Priceless. That was all kinds of fun to watch. The DDT onto the concrete floor was a fantastic visual and Cena sold it perfectly. And when you thought things couldn’t get any better, Jericho busts out the Lion Tamer – not the Walls, the Lion Tamer. I don’t know if this was the formation of a 4-man stable or not, but I’d have no complaints if it was. Obviously Batista will look to align himself with Cena, likely with Kofi and Punk too, to oppose them, and perhaps that’ll result in the resurrection of the Cena/Batista program in time for Mania. Regardless of where they go from here though, this was a near-perfect segment that should put a lot of heat on the Armageddon title match.

CHEERS
Speaking of Armageddon, muchos cheeros to the card for already having three huge main events, all of which could be great matches. While some disagree with Randy Orton vs. Batista being signed for a non-big four pay-per-view, I think they’ll be able to get a lot of time here and hopefully they’ll have a great match. Orton was one of the best workers in the business before his injury and hopefully he’s at that same level, while Batista is very hit or miss. But it should have that “big fight feel” and I’m sure it’ll deliver. The Triple Threat for the WWE title should be all kinds of awesome. All three are great workers and they should be able to keep a good pace here. Cena vs. Jericho has never disappointed and I have high hopes for this clash – I do fully expect it to be better than their Survivor Series clash though, as I though that match was kind of “bare minimum” considering who was in the ring. With Punk/Regal, Swagger/Hardy and perhaps a final Show/Taker match to be added, Armageddon is shaping to be a top quality pay-per-view. It’s not all good, however…

JEERS
to Armageddon, because every time I see a commercial for it I have to hear the title track from that God awful Chinese Democracy album. Worst album of the year, bar none.

JEERS
to Michael O for neglecting his Cheers ‘n’ Jeers duties to go to a fucking Nine Inch Nails concert. What the fuck?

There’s a shocking picture of Michael O that I’m tempted to use here, but I wouldn’t subject you to it. Look around the site though and you might find it (hint, it’s here.)

JEERS
to TNA Final Resolution for having one of the worst cards in history. At the time of writing, the show is yet to air, but my God, where is the sense in a World Championship being on the line in a damn tag team match? Like the damn title means anything in the context of this feud anyway. And further jeers to the Frontline for recruiting 3D and Rhino. I think those guys are incredibly underrated, but there’s no reason they should be in the Frontline. I know it’s clichéd, but when there’s guys like LAX, Christopher Daniels, the Guns etc on your roster, and you have a new guys vs. old guys type scenario, you don’t fill the new guys team with a bunch of old guys who don’t want to hang with the other old guys. Hopefully 3D complete the predicted double swerve and join the Mafia, allowing room for new Frontline members that would actually make sense as part of the Frontline. And yes, EPIC JEERS to the Feast or Fired bullshit. Hopefully the participants remember that you don’t actually have to win this match to get a briefcase, as you can simply steal someone else’s case weeks later, win them in poker games, buy them off eBay or get them as free gifts inside boxes of cereal.

CHEERS
to the renewal of one of the greatest modern rivalries as tonight on Raw, John Cena goes one-on-one with Edge in a Champion vs. Champion match. In fact, another great modern rivalry is renewed tonight as Batista takes on Triple H. Both matches could be something special, as could the clash between Chris Jericho and Jeff Hardy. While I’m not a fan of 3-hour editions of Raw, if these three matches get plenty of time, this could be an epic edition of Raw.

CHEERS
to “pulling an Adamle!”

*CHEERS* of the Week
to WWE’s Tribute to the Troops. There’s not too much to say here, other than the fact that WWE does this every year is a truly great and a deserved treat for the Troops. You can say what you want about the WWE product, Vince McMahon, John Cena and the rest, but there’s no disputing that this is a class act. Unfortunately, some of you people are too stupid to realize that…

*JEERS* of the Week
to the idiotic 411 readers who force their retarded opinions on those of us who, y’know, aren’t retarded. Expecting intelligence from any more than a handful of wrestling fans at a time is a lot to ask, but the fact that some people were complaining about the card for the Troops show is beyond ridiculous. I wish I could say it was just a minority of wrestling fans who are like this, but I really don’t think it is. You can’t click on any link around here without seeing dozens of sad, pathetic losers in the Comments section trying to get themselves “over” with the other commenters by being controversial or just dumb.

And by the way, since when was two 6-man tag matches featuring the likes of Miz and Morrison, CM Punk, John Cena, Chris Jericho, Jeff Hardy, Rey Mysterio and Randy Orton on a one-hour show a bad card? What the fuck?

Urgh, rant over. I know the people I’m trying to address are likely too ignorant to still be reading anyway.