The Wrestling News Experience: 11.17.08

Monday, November 17th, 2008

From 411Mania’s Canadian offices in Kitchener, Ontario, Canada, this is The Wrestling News Experience, with Stephen Randle!

Good morning, everyone, and welcome to the Experience. I am Stephen Randle, and finally, we get some winter around here. I was starting to believe that whole thing about that inconvenient truth they were talking about.

In other news, Smackdown vs Raw was purchased for the Wii this week. I was going to write a review, but then Wrath of the Lich King was purchased as well. Now I can’t remember the last three days.

Oh, all right, I’ll do the review.

At the end of the report, just so you read the whole thing.

Moving on.

What’s On Tap: 411-Exclusive Raw Preview for November 17th

We’re one week away from Survivor Series, and Raw is still without an official administrator. However, Shane (who should either look into dying his hair or quit dancing like he’s still a young guy) and Stephanie are still hanging around, and for now, it seems that their word is law.

Chris Jericho escaped from Shawn Michaels’ fury again last week, picking up another win over the Heartbreak Kid, but he still must deal with the reality that he will face John Cena at Survivor Series in Cena’s hometown. And, since Cena isn’t expected to be on Raw tonight (because then he might not get the hero’s welcome that he will in Boston), Jericho’s going to have to find another way to prepare for this Sunday.

Plus, CM Punk once again gets his chance for revenge, as he’s got another shot at Randy Orton and his ugly, ugly tattoos tonight. Will Punk actually get satisfaction tonight, or will Orton pull it out? And what will Cody Rhodes and Manu have to say about the outcome? I’m betting it’s a lot.

And two traditional Survivor Series matches are set for the PPV, with Team Michaels facing Team JBL, and Team Batista facing Team Orton. With members spread over all three brands, will we see some familiar members of ECW and Smackdown in the house tonight? And what sort of confrontations will occur between members of all four teams tonight?

Around The Horn

In an attempt to fuel the fires of people who hate it when we talk about news involving people who used to wrestle and now don’t, let’s talk about Brock Lesnar actually managing to succeed in his latest lifelong dream, this time of being UFC Heavyweight champion. Brock scored a convincing victory over UFC legend Randy Couture to win the belt and the top spot in UFC. To vaguely tie this into wrestling, TNA was quick to suck up to Brock and turn his win into self-promotion by congratulating him on their website and simultaneously advertising for his “best buddy” Kurt Angle’s upcoming DVD. WWE is also planning to release a public statement about Brock’s win, and we here at the Experience have scored an advance copy for you:

We here at WWE would like to congratulate that (expletive deleted) Brock Lesnar for finally managing to not (expletive deleted) up his latest attempt at becoming a big star after (expletive deleted) over everyone who put him over in an attempt to make him the next big professional wrestling draw and centerpiece of WWE, and then (expletive deleted) it all away to become a (expletive deleted) football player who couldn’t remember a playbook if it was tattooed on his (expletive deleted). Congratulations, Brock, you (expletive deleted). Can’t wait until you get bored with MMA and decide to try something else.

P.S. Couture, now that people think you’re washed up, give us a call. With your history as an MMA legend, we can make you a big star even if you can’t really fight any more. Hell, it worked for Shamrock.

Actually, I was kidding about the statement, but apparently WWE did release a statement that mocked UFC’s “crap shoot” PPV’s, where having non-scripted matches can result in a lot of quick fights and the need to fill PPV time. Yes, that is true, but then again, UFC’s PPV buys, I believe, are on an upswing, and WWE’s buys are treading water at best.

God, it’s finally happened, I defended UFC. I feel dirty.

Bobby Lashley, another former pro wrestler who gave it up to try MMA, hinted in an interview that he might like to try pro wrestling again in the future. Yeah, I’m sure he’d be welcomed back with open arms. And then he can feud with the returning Randy Savage. Of course, at that point it’ll be pretty hard to run a wrestling promotion, what with the Apocalypse happening and all.

It looks like the unspoken semi-boycott of non-Ontario Canadian WWE visits that began somewhere around that time that Benoit guy…did stuff…is over, as the Winnipeg Sun is reporting that WWE is considering running shows in Calgary and Edmonton once more in 2009. Montreal is also being considered for a fall PPV. Come on, there are people who weren’t even alive in 1997 who can tell you what’s going to happen. The joke’s so obvious, that I can’t even find a starting point.

WWE made some public relations strides last week, as it became public that they came to the rescue of a down-on-their-luck family who had been scammed into purchasing fake WWE tickets, and also had their house burn down earlier this year. Okay, so the house burning down was a bigger problem, but WWE did provide them with ringside seats for the “800th episode celebration” Raw, merchandise, and audiences with several Superstars. Gee, now I hope my tickets are fake. Although I don’t live in a house, so that part’s out.

Bad news for TNA, and more importantly, Midway Games, which was, as I recall, verging on massive losses with the hope that the TNA Impact video game would sell a bunch of copies. This past week, prices of the unpopular title have been slashed in order to move more stock. Midway is reportedly now hoping for their upcoming Mortal Kombat vs DC (aka “we’re out of ideas, so let’s just rip off Marvel vs Capcom with two completely random franchises that don’t really go together”) game to make some serious money when it gets released. Good luck with that.

Hulk Hogan has reportedly sold some of his more popular trademarks to Eric Bischoff. Speculation is that this is to protect his assets from his ongoing divorce, but I suspect it was more likely part of an agreement/bribe to get Bischoff to appear on Celebrity Championship Wrestling.

And before I leave this segment, apparently TNA has legitimately put out an invitation for former Republican running mate/crazy soccer mom (which reminds me, they play soccer in Alaska?) Sarah Palin to appear at the next TNA PPV. Well, it’s not like she wasn’t already a sideshow attraction.

The Injury Bug Bites

Inactive List as of 11.10.08

WWE Raw

– Dolph Ziggler, out 30 days as of October 10th (Wellness violation)
– John Cena, out until Survivor Series as of August 27th (neck)
– Hardcore Holly, out indefinitely (rehab)
– Melina, out indefinitely as of June 23rd (fractured heel)

WWE SmackDown

– Hurricane Helms, out indefinitely as of May 17th, 2007 (neck surgery)
– Mr. Kennedy, out 6 months as of August 4th (dislocated shoulder)
– Umaga, out indefinitely as of August 20th (PCL)

ECW

– Evan Bourne, ECW, out 4-6 weeks (torn deltoid)

TNA

– Kaz, out 4 months as of October 1st (triceps)
– Moose, out 6 months as of July 7th (broken femur)

Transactions

– Christian, TNA, likely will not return to TNA before his contract expires

I don’t know when his contract expires exactly, but if he could show up for the Toronto WWE Supershow at the end of December, he’d probably get the biggest pop of his career since…well, the last time he was in Toronto. And the Mexicools all got fired, so they can’t interrupt for no reason this time.

– Elijah Burke, ECW, released from his contract

– Kenny Dykstra, SD!, released from his contact

– Lena Yada, ECW, released from her contract

Apparently released because WWE signed Gail Kim. Apparently you can have too many hot Asian women. Bayani will be displeased to learn of it.

Who’s Holding Gold

Ah well, the reign of the Honk-a-Meter is over, and back in the hands of someone who can actually wrestle. I mean, seriously, Santino can do his act without also holding onto the secondary title of the brand.

And has there been a title with less point that the Divas belt on Smackdown? Next time, maybe Undertaker should just buy Michelle her own outfit accessories.

WWE

WWE Champion: Triple H
– 204 day reign, defeated former champion Randy Orton, JBL, and John Cena in a Fatal Four-Way Elimination Match on April 27th (Backlash PPV)
– Next title defense: vs Vladimir Kozlov, Survivor Series PPV

World Heavyweight Champion: Chris Jericho
– 14 day reign, defeated Batista in a Steel Cage Match on November 3rd (Raw)
– Next title defense: vs John Cena, Survivor Series PPV

ECW Champion: Matt Hardy
– 70 day reign, defeated former champion Mark Henry, The Miz, Finlay, and Chavo Guerrero in a Scramble Match on September 7th (Unforgiven PPV)

**NEW** WWE Intercontinental Champion: William Regal
– 7 day reign, defeated Santino MArella on November 10th (Raw)

WWE United States Champion: Shelton Benjamin
– 120 day reign, defeated Matt Hardy on July 20th (Great American Bash PPV)

World Tag Team Champions: CM Punk and Kofi Kingston
– 21 day reign, defeated Cody Rhodes and Ted Dibiase on October 28th (Raw)

WWE Tag Team Champions: Carlito and Primo Colon
– 52 day reign, defeated Curt Hawkins and Zach Ryder on September 26th (Smackdown)

WWE Women’s Champion: Beth Phoenix
– 92 day reign, with Santino Marella, defeated Mickie James and Kofi Kingston in a Winner Take All match on August 17th (Summerslam PPV)

WWE Diva’s Champion: Michelle McCool
– 120 day reign, defeated Natalya Neidhart on July 20th to win the newly-created title (Great American Bash PPV)

TNA

TNA Heavyweight Champion: Sting
– 36 day reign, defeated Samoa Joe on October 12th (Bound For Glory PPV)

TNA Tag Team Champions: Beer Money Inc
– 99 day reign, defeated LAX on August 10th (Hard Justice PPV)

**NEW** TNA X-Division Champion: Eric Young
– 4 day reign, defeated Sheik Abdul Bashir on November 10th (Impact)

TNA Knockouts Champion: Awesome Kong
– 25 day reign, defeated Taylor Wilde on October 23rd (Impact)

TNA Legends Champion: Booker T
– 25 day reign, introduced new title on October 23rd (Impact)

Links For Fun And Nonprofit

Westerfield and Prag have the weekend news reports.

Ari has Column of Honor.

Short has The Navigation Log.

The Triple Threat talks Christian and Kozlov.

Rodriguez has For The Record.

Slimmer has Don’t Think Twice.

And Sforcina has Not An Evolution Schematic.

And One To Go On

All right, you asked for it…okay, not really, but you keep complaining that I don’t write long enough columns (and yet not one of those complaints comes with the offer of financial restitution for me doing so), so here you go.

This review is based entirely on the Wii version of SDvsRaw’09. All scores are out of five stars.

Control Scheme: I felt like this deserved special mention, mostly because I got really frustrated with the bastardization of the classic PlayStation controls that I got last year in the PS2 version of ’08. Fortunately, due to the simplicity of the Wii controller, the controls are back to essentially the simple “one button plus a direction” that made me so happy back when the game first came out. Okay, so there’s a lot of “waggling” involved, but that’s why you bought the system with the motion-based controllers in the first place, isn’t it? My main complaint is the loss of control over the direction of your Irish whips, but that’s just a minor issue. ****

Gameplay: The matches are fast, and more importantly, thanks to the simplified controls and ability of the Wii-mote to use motion-sensing, formerly frustrating gimmick matches like climbing out of the steel cage and pulling the briefcase down in a ladder match are much, much easier. I’ve also noticed that the computer doesn’t go counter-happy like it used to, which is a bonus. ***

Graphics: It’s the Wii, so you’re not getting next-gen graphics here. Frankly, some of the wrestlers look pretty bad (Kane being a good example), and the crowd shots are horrible blurry composites. It doesn’t ruin my enjoyment of the game, but it’s definitely a minus of this version. **

Sound: Yep, it has sound. Seriously, it has all the entrance music (except a couple older licensed ones being replace, like Kane’s “Slow Chemical” being changed to his original theme), and the usual array of grunts and fight noises. The announcing and voice acting is better, too, and that’s especially good for the “Road to WrestleMania” mode, when both are very specific to the storyline. Plus, there’s some unique use of the speaker inside the Wii-mote that I really like. I mean, it’s there, you might as well use it. ***

Extras and Unlockables: Legends are gone, probably because of the upcoming Legends of WrestleMania game, but instead you get some pretty interesting choices for unlockable wrestlers, like Ric Flair, Snitsky, and…The Boogeyman. Oh hell yes. Nothing’s too hard to access, either, as you unlock arenas, wrestlers, and other assorted bonuses by completing Road to WrestleMania storylines and completing specific optional objectives during certain matches. I didn’t like or use GM Mode in previous versions, so I don’t miss it like some people seem to. ****

Overall: Definitely an upgrade from last year’s crapfest edition, which I played for ten minutes before giving up. Far and away the best wrestling game on the Wii, which I realize isn’t a long list, but given that they essentially had to start from scratch designing for the Wii, it’s an impressive jump from last year. Maybe for next year, though, we can get the create-a-finisher and Inferno match that every other system got this year? ****

411 will have live coverage of Raw tonight starting at 9 pm EST.

Remember, if you love poker, and are in the Kitchener-Cambridge-Waterloo area, check out Player’s Poker League.

Larry’s in tomorrow, and I’ll be back next week for a very special edition of the Experience. Okay, it’s only a little special, but still, it’s more special than that 800th episode celebration excuse for a 3-hour Raw.

Have a good one, and always be a fan.