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Wrestling’s 4R’s Friday Edition – 10.10.08: RETRO TNA Bound for Glory, The Young Guns of ECW, Cyber Sunday Build and More!
How the 4R’s of wRestling Work!
Here is a quick explanation of the 4R’s. The column will run TWO times a week. On Tuesdays I will discuss TNA Impact and WWE Smackdown. Also, if there is a PPV, that will be covered in this column as well. The column will run again on Friday’s, covering WWE Raw (with Jeremy Thomas) as well as ECW on Sci-Fi. If there is a PPV that weekend, I will also run the RETRO R’s of the show from the year before as well as address some comments when time permits. I will group my 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 need 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, Diva searches and so on. And there is always a possibility of a 5th R, which is as bad as they come, unless you are TNA. They have a special R all of their own, the 6th R; the Russo-FN-Riffic~! 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, my goal is to analyze the show from many different fronts, reward the good and call out the bad. I will not apologize for my opinions, they are as they are, whether positive or negative.
By: Jeremy Thomas
Raw 10.06.08
GM JERICHO: OUR World Heavyweight Champion, Savior and Sharp-Dressed Man Chris Jericho came out to start off Raw, sporting a swank suit and a hell of a nasty bruise on his mouth from his confrontation with Shawn Michaels at No Mercy. All I can say is, wow that bruise looked nasty. I’m talking Paris Hilton milking a cow nasty. Jericho (who, for the record, was as over as he’s ever been) didn’t start out by gloating about his victory over HBK though…no, instead he came out to announce that he was the acting General Manager on Raw, by virtue of Mike Adamle being in “a high-profile meeting” with Shane-O and Steph. I will admit, I kind of like the idea of the World Champion being the General Manager in the GM’s absence, precedent or not. I doubt that they’ll hold to it with any sense of continuity—this IS the ‘E, after all—but really, it does make sense from a kayfabe standpoint, and when you’ve got a talker like Jericho in that position, then why the hell not? What else are they gonna do, take a loser screw-up announcer and put him in the spot? …oh, wait.
Once that was out of the way, Jericho decided to move on to boasting about the Ladder Match. Jericho sold the effects of the match well, as well as his war wounds, which with the broken tooth made Paris Hilton milking a cow look downright attractive. He did a good job putting Michaels over for accomplishing his goal of disfiguring the champ, and then turned it around and built himself up. The man is so incredibly good at how to build a feud and deliver a promo; there’s no question by this point that he’s one of the promo men of all-time, and with Vince’s desire to improve the talent pool’s acting skills, I think it’s high time that Jericho, Michaels, and others became mentors to the younger guys in terms of mike work. The hell with Freddie Michelle Gellar, here’s your acting coach right here. Jericho dismissed Shawn and booked him against Cade, saying he was done with him. This gave Batista his opening, and out he came, to a major-league pop. Now, don’t get me wrong, I acknowledge that Batista is very over with the crowds, but they seemed a fair amount louder tonight…I can’t help but think that part of that pop is simply because Big Dave is facing off with Jericho and getting a crowd reaction boost-by-proxy. It does seem to be that the big guy’s been motivated by his title match push, because he gave a better promo then he has in a while. It was short, to the point, and well delivered. The only flaw from Big Dave was that the last line wasn’t delivered a little rushed, and without the “oomph” it needed. If you’re going to steal from Principal Vernon, you’d damn well better get it right, Dave. Still, that little quibble aside, this did everything an opening segment needed to do; it set the stage and mood for the rest of the show, booked a main event for the show, started the build for the next pay-per-view main event, built everyone involved up, and got the crowd super-hot. You can’t ask for anything better than that.
KOFI KINGSTON vs. TED DIBIASE: This was the second half of the standard “feuding tag team faces off in singles matches,” building off Cody vs. CM Punk from a couple of weeks ago. DiBiase came out with his Priceless stablemates, while poor Kofi was set to be all alone…but no! Out came CM Punk to make sure the odds were even…or even-er, at least. The match started off pretty well, with Kofi getting some good leaping offense early on until Ted took control and forced Kofi slowed it down. Ted was good as well; he’s not as flashy, but his technique is looking more and sounder every week. He got the win after Cody provided some distraction to even up the singles matches for this feud. I’m really liking how they’re working this; Kingston is really building some credibility in this feud, and its also remarkably built Priceless up as well. While the match was short, it didn’t feel as short as a three minute match can, and that’s a credit to the guys involved. They’re being smart and building this feud up well, and I can’t help but think that the pay-off is gonna be really nice.
KANE & MARK HENRY vs. REY MYSTERIO & MATT HARDY: Following a brief appearance by Mr. “Hi, I’m Dolph Ziggler” getting no-sold by the heels backstage—which is still an absolutely retarded way to build up a new wrestler by the way—we went into this match. ECW Talent Exchange for the win! They had a good amount of time for this match, and while the match wasn’t anything truly exceptional, it was fun and had some great crowd-pleasing moments while selling the feuds nicely…particularly Kane vs. Rey. Kane is still one of the best big men in the U.S. when he’s motivated, and he’s actually looked motivated for this feud. Meanwhile, they’ve become masterful at utilizing Henry in a way that doesn’t expose his weaknesses. Couldn’t they have done this…I don’t know, ten or so years ago? Just a thought. The ending actually came across pretty well, with Henry using Rey Rey as a lawn dart to knock Matt off the ropes into the choke slam, and it put the right people over, since Matt and Rey Rey were the winners of their matches at No Mercy. I could complain about the ECW Champion losing on Raw, but it’s not exactly jobbing for Matt to lose to a former ECW Champion in Kane, and they came off protected thanks to the lawn darting.
BATISTA vs. JBL, PART TWO: Jericho booked Batista vs. JBL to defend Big Dave’s newly-won #1 Contendership due to the spine buster Dave gave our GM-For-The-Night. And to stack the odds, he had himself as referee…but wait, there’s more! We had a special guest timekeeper in William Regal. Then out came…no, wait! There’s more! Randy Orton was a special guest commentator! I loved the way Lillian sold the frustration of “Okay, now there’s another stipulation.” It was a nice touch that shows just how good Lillian can be. Sure, they were ripping off Austin vs. Vince and the Stooges. But they did it pretty well, so I’m not complaining. Orton did a good job as commentating, using the “less as more” approach…something four other men could pay a little attention to (see below), and Jericho had all the mannerisms of a heel referee down. And while I’m not going to say that JBL vs. Batista was a classic match, it was fairly good and did everything it needed to do. Batista looked motivated, and he got fairly big props by this match and Jericho doing his heel stuff—refusing to count the pin, helping JBL, tripping Batista, and so on. One could complain that any credibility JBL had was destroyed by all the blatant need for help and STILL not beating Big Dave, but let’s be honest…when it comes to in-ring, JBL has no credibility anyway. The end spot was really fun, with Batista spearing both JBL and Jericho and Adamle sending down a referee to finish the match and call a clean Batista pin. And then of course, Adamle announced that Jericho was taking on Batista in a special guest referee match at Cyber Sunday. Now, I can have a couple problems with the Cyber Sunday fan options (see below again), but for this segment, everything worked, and compared to last week’s ridiculous main event it was a huge turn-around. Jeremy approves.
SHAWN MICHAELS vs. LANCE CADE: Oh come on, no one really doubted the outcome of this match. The only question was how much of a rub Cade was going to get in this match. It was a nice move for them to recap and point out Cade’s win over Shawn a couple of weeks ago on Raw, as any time you point out that someone got the three-count on the Showstopper, you’re boosting their credibility a little. Cade started off strong in this match, which was actually a smarter way to build him up then having Shawn start out strong and having Cade slow him down. It really would have been nice to let Cade get some more offense before Shawn went all psycho with the chair, because just having him come back out of the blue and obliterate Cade with those chair shots hurt any building up the previous two and a half minutes tried to do. Ultimately, this did a great job of putting over Shawn’s vicious-psycho look he’s straying into and made a nominal effort of giving Cade some offense, but it was too short and too sudden of a switch of momentum to quite work the way they wanted it to.
JAMIE NOBLE & MICKIE JAMES vs. GLAMARELLA: Before this match, William Regal and Layla ended up down at ringside to watch with their noses in the air. Hey, if it keeps Regal in a suit and not that granny’s swimsuit of a single, I’m a happy camper. I’m really kind of digging on Mickie and Jamie as a mixed tag team; they work fairly well together and while you would think Jamie’s comedy gimmick would be a serious clash with Mickie’s more natural one, it doesn’t seem that way with the two of them. Beth and Santino came out next, which was nice—they are the champions in this match after all, even if it’s not a title match of any kind—and Beth had her ‘do especially tight, which worked in an odd sort of way. Santino got on the mike and frankly had one of the worst promos he’s done in a while. Listen, Santino. You’re a hell of a natural comedic heel. You can earn the crowd’s hat all on your own—you don’t need to resort to the cheapest heat known to man by making fun of the town for their sports team (or in this case, lack of one). What’s more, we got to hear Santino rely on the tired tactic instead of another edition of the incredible HONK-A-METER! Oh, hell no. Get back to what works for you, Santino, because you’re better than that. As for the match, it was actually fairly good…what there was of it. This was a match that never got a chance to get off the ground due to the shortness, and that’s a shame because Santino and Jamie were working well with each other, and Mickie and Beth (for the thirty seconds they were in) were sharp. These short little matches don’t do it for me, particularly when it’s not supposed to be a squash. I will say that I actually didn’t mind the distraction into a roll-up because Noble, unlike Deuce and others, is someone who actually needs protection considering he’s in an actual feud. But the rest of it just wasn’t enough to qualify as good, and the stupid cheap heat segment drug it down that much further.
SHAWN IS SUPER SERIOUS!!: T-Grish was backstage with Shawn Michaels, asking him his thoughts on having to face Lance Cade tonight. First of all, it was nice to see Shawn drop the wise-cracking attitude that he had last week and go back to being the pissed-off, semi-psychotic guy we’ve seen in the most recent leg of his feud with Jericho. It’s sure as hell not an exaggeration to say that he played it a little over-the-top though. He started off good, and it did build nicely from quiet and pissed up to a fevered pitch. But this was a remarkably hammy performance from a guy who’s been giving some killer promos as of late. Shawn did what he needed to do in terms of verbally selling his banged-up state from the night before, but this was one of those situations were less would have been more, and he sure as hell didn’t need to go all Tom Cruise overact-y on us. It was maddeningly close to self-caricature, and considering HBK is capable of much better, I was disappointed.
CYBER SUNDAY BUILD: A lot has been said about Cyber Sunday and the interactive nature of the match. I will go on record to say I don’t think it’s ever been rigged, but it really does irritate me that they put in their obvious choices in order to push the fans that way. Look at Santino’s Intercontinental Title defense at the Pay-Per-View. His choices are: Rowdy Roddy Piper, who while perennially over and funny isn’t a great choice—and everyone knows it; Goldust who…well, just no; or Honky-Tonk Man. Hmm, Santino’s been running the HONK-A-METER!! for several weeks now, comparing himself to the Honky-Donky Man. Who could they POSSIBLE be pushing here? Same with the special guest referee for the World Title match; although it might be a bit closer between Orton and Michaels, and Austin will always get votes, it completely makes sense at this point to vote Shawn. I’d be happier with Cyber Sunday if it were really, truly fan-decided, but I’ll take what I can get, I guess…
KHALI-KISS CAM (Did I REALLY just type that?!?!?): All right, folks, quick! You have a giant East Indian who is an absolute monster in the ring without speaking skills. You don’t have any feuds going with him. Do you:
a) hold off on using him and let him rest up until next month,
b) feud him with an up-and-comer who can carry him to a good match,
c) put him over a legend in a short-term feud to pass the time and build him up, or
d) turn him into a comedy act and let him fuck around with the damned Kiss-Cam?
If you answered D, you can probably get work for the ‘E as a writer. Which means I can sue you when you accidentally use one of my ideas in a storyline. Okay, so there are some laughs that can be had by Johnny Knoxville asking about the size of Khali’s manhood. Sure, I can go with that, and I’m not opposed to the idea of Khali showing a humorous side of some sort. But there is no fucking reason that this thing had to take up five minutes of time when there could have been extra time added to the 2-3 minute matches. Also, Khali’s a SmackDown superstar. If they want him to be a joke character for a segment, they should keep it to SmackDown and keep it the hell of my Monday show.
JILLIAN vs. KELLY KELLY KELLY/MIZ & MORRISON vs. CRYME TIME: Following the Kiss-Cam crap, we had Jillian Hall in the ring, promising us a song from her favorite artist Kurt Cobain. She then proceeded to give a rendition of “Smells Like Teen Spirit” which, if Kurt hadn’t committed suicide already, would have been sure to make him get his whole head in front of the shotgun. But you know what? I would have taken an entire rendition of Never mind before I had to listen to another five seconds of MnM 2.0 and Cryme Tyme going at each other at the announcing table. Okay, they’ve got a fun little feud going with their dueling Online shows. But you couldn’t hear a damn thing of what was even going on…it was absolute verbal chaos going on. Cole and Lawler were almost pathetic in trying to bring them under control, and the saddest part was that in the meantime, there was actually a moderately good women’s match Triple K was more-or-less on, and Jillian was solid as usual. The match ended with a Triple K win, but you could barely tell because of the four morons shouting over each other on the mikes. It pisses me off, because they make actual efforts to build the women’s division, and then they let Shad, JTG, Miz and Morrison essentially BURY the action in the ring. And as we all know, Miz & Morrison have done this before; they should never, EVER be allowed near the announce booth again. Fuck you four.
By: Larry Csonka
ECW 10.07.08:
CM Punk, Evan Bourne, Ricky Ortiz, and Kofi Kingston vs. The Miz and John Morrison, Ted Dibiase and Cody Rhodes: ECW did a good job of putting on an interesting main event this week. Miz and Morrison have had issues with Bourne and Ortiz, so that pairing is natural. Punk and Kofi have been battling the second-generation stars (Rhodes and DiBiase) so that made sense. With Punk and Kofi being ECW alumni, they gave the hook on Raw and over all I liked the booking leading to the main event match this week. It is simple, it makes sense and again it is a good example of episodic TV, and we all know how I love that. I only wish that they could have had more time, because I really enjoyed the match. For the most part WWE does well when they put on 6-8-man TV matches like this, and this was another example of that. Without the commercial they got a solid amount of time, about 8-minutes, and again they could have used more, but they delivered. I thought everyone got to look good at different times, and I even liked the ending. Punk has looked pretty good against DiBiase and Rhodes, and they got another knock on him as DiBiase stunned Punk off the ropes, which allowed Morrison to get a much needed victory with the Moonlight Drive. This was a damn fine little main event here to close out another pretty enjoyable episode of ECW on Sci-Fi.
THE BOOGEY MAN IS COMING BACK…Hooray?: With the video package we got on ECW this week, the news is that the BOOGEY MAN is coming back! But the important question is, will BOOGEY MAN CITO returning? In all seriousness I almost forgot that the man was still under a contract. But after I thought about it, it makes sense. They were working to plug the 31 Nights of Halloween deal or what not for Sci-Fi, hence the costumes from Teddy and Tiffany, and the return of the Boogey Man actually makes sense for that. They can do all kinds of wacky shit with him, hell they may even run another MONSTER BASH/MATCH/MASH deal again this year; he’d fit in perfectly. With that being said, I do have concerns. I just do NOT see any future with the guy. Let me defend myself there. He is OLD, he is VERY injury prone, he is NOT good in the ring and he doesn’t help the brand at all. This is a brand being built around young and fresh talent (Bourne, Morrison, Miz, Swagger, Ortiz), with a mix of established stars (Finlay, Hardy, Dreamer, Henry). He just doesn’t fit into that mix, so while he will likely be some fun during the Halloween season, I don’t see any good coming from him after that.
Finlay (with Hornswoggle) and Tommy Dreamer vs. Mike Knox and Jack Swagger: We opened up ECW this week with a fine tag team match. Finlay and Knox have had issues, and Jack Swagger has been a thorn is Dreamer’s side over the last few weeks. Add in that Knox defeated Dreamer last week, and this is another important ingredient to the recipe. It is simple and makes sense, episodic TV people, we like this. Finlay and Dreamer are always over, even with Dreamer being a glorified job guy these days, which is important; especially considering that they seem high on Jack Swagger. Even with the commercial break they got a decent amount of time for the opener, they all seemed to work hard and I do not have many complaints. I said not many, but I have some. I think the loss hurts Knox here. He has already lost to Finlay, and really I think that the heels should have taken the win here. While Swagger didn’t take the pin here, I feel a win for the heels does more good than the result we saw here. This was good opening action that played off of previous weeks, but the result left something to be desired in my opinion.
Mark Henry vs. Jaime Noble: After a hilarious meeting backstage, which was made awesome by Jamie Noble (and Tiffany’s costume), we were given this gem; Mark Henry vs. Jamie Noble. They had a strong 4-minute bout that made Henry look dominant after the PPV loss to Hardy. Noble is always game, and did his best to make Henry look good, but I wish that they could have found someone else for Henry to defeat here. Noble took the loss Monday, and another loss here doesn’t exactly make him look good as he seems to be going into a feud with Regal. As mentioned the match was fine, I really have no complaints about it. My problem comes with the fact that we are not done with Mark Henry vs. Matt Hardy. Matt wins the title, he puts up with Henry saying that he wasn’t the real champion because he was never defeated. Matt then steps up, works a very smart match at No Mercy and EARNS the title, beating Mark Henry clean in a surprisingly good match. But now it feels as if it is dragging on. And to be honest it isn’t so much that we’re in for more Henry vs. Hardy, it’s the fact that they haven’t built up another challenger to the title. I suppose that Knox could have been up for the role as a “monster challenger” for Hardy to beat, but after losing to Finlay and then losing again in tonight’s tag bout, that’s out the window. While the shows have been solid, this is one area that they are lacking in.
NONE:
NONE:
The Matches:
ULTIMATE X: LAX defeated XXX @ 12:00 ***½
FIGHT FOR THE RIGHT: Eric Young defeated Robert Roode @ 11:55 via pin **
TAG TEAM TITLE MATCH: AJ and Tomko defeated Team Pacman to become the NEW CHAMPIONS @ 9:00 via pin **½
TNA X-DIVISION TITLE MATCH: Black Machismo Jay Lethal defeated Christopher Daniels @ 11:05 via pin ***
TABLES MATCH: The Steiner Brothers defeated Team 3D @ 12:45 via table *½ TRASH OF THE NIGHT~!
KNOCKOUTS GAUNTLET: Gail Kim defeated Roxxi to become the FIRST WOMEN’S CHAMPION @ 12:25 via pin *½
Samoa Joe defeated Christian Cage @ 15:45 via submission **** MATCH OF THE NIGHT~!
MONSTER’S BALL: Abyss defeated Raven, Black Reign and Rhino @ 9:30 via pin **
TNA WORLD TITLE MATCH: STING defeated Kurt Angle to become the NEW TNA WORLD CHAMPION @ 18:35 via pin ***½
ULTIMATE X – The show opened in huge fashion with TNA’s innovative Ultimate X match. While the build was suspect, they took two historically over teams, that were former tag team champions and put them against each other to crown #1 contenders for the tag team titles. At times I question TNA’s use of gimmick matches, but when it comes to the biggest show of the year you need to pull out all of the stops in order to try and deliver the goods. And deliver they did. While Ultimate X is traditionally an “X-Division” match, Hernandez has done and continues to do well in the match. He put in another stellar performance, and while I am not calling for a singles run for him anytime soon, the man should be appreciated for his efforts. They went balls to the wall for 12-minutes and this was one hell of an opener. The ATL crowd responded perfectly, and for a new audience were into it as if they were the Impact Zone crowd, making it all the better. Everyone delivered big time, and while not the best Ultimate X match ever it got the crowd on their feet and excited for the entire show. I have no complaints here and seeing LAX back into the tag title mix makes me a happy lad.
THE TAG TEAM TITLE MATCH – While some will cry bait and switch, I for one am glad that TNA got a substitute for Pacman. On the biggest show of the year you don’t need a guy in there that cannot wrestle in the match, especially a match for the titles. Team Pacman debuted new member “Consequences” Creed who is a fantastic man. He came out dressed like Apollo Creed in Rocky IV and played the part well. If that wasn’t enough, the man delivered. He is an unknown as no one seems to have a clue who he is, but he stepped onto PPV, on TNA’s biggest sow of the year and was not phased one bit. He hung with AJ Styles like he had worked with him before and added to the match. I would have no problem with them keeping him around after this to tag with Killings and for an eventual X-Division run. The match was good and the crowd was into it big time. I hated them doing the “making it rain” spot again, because really, do you want to glorify an action that led to a man being shot and paralyzed for life? The good news is that the titles are on people that should have them and now we can hopefully move on from the Pacman abortion. AJ and Tomko are fun as hell together and them facing off with LAX will be fun as hell.
EDIT: I have been informed that “Consequences” Creed is none other than Austin Creed. He works for NWA Anarchy in Georgia.
THE X-DIVISION TITLE MATCH – Going into the match I feel that Jay Lethal was booked poorly. He got the huge win over Angle, was made to look a goof later that same night and then lost clean to Daniels the very next night at the tapings. So they had a lot to overcome here. Again the crowd was very into the match and both guys worked very, very hard. They didn’t do the plain formula and both guys ended up looking great by the work that they did. In the end Jay finally got the win he needed. He didn’t get a fluky win, he looked great and the Lethal Combo off the 2nd rope was great and led more importantly to a clean win for Jay. He looked great, it was a very good match and I have no complaints here. This went a long way to repair a lot of the damage that has been done to Jay and the big face win on the big show is always gratifying to the fans that pay to see that. While this is not a classic match, or one you’ll vividly remember a week from now, it was just what the doctor ordered for young Jay, and losing doesn’t hurt Daniels at all. This was good stuff.
JOE vs. CAGE – Joe vs. Cage have had very good matches in the past, so that part I wasn’t worried about. What I think about everyone was worried about was the crap ending and or SWERVE by Morgan. And with TNA’s booking past you cannot blame people for being worried about that. Also you have the fact that every time Joe is on the cusp of the next big step, they find a way to stop that. But with all of that said I am happy to say TNA went in the right direction here. First of all they had a great match. Cage and Joe have tremendous chemistry together and Cage ups him game in there with Joe, he goes to another level that a lot of people don’t think he can get to, but he does. They worked hard, the match was smooth and told a good story and Joe came away with the big win, a CLEAN win. The best part was that Morgan had no actual part in the match. Tomko and AJ got involved and Morgan chased them away and kept them from getting involved. He did his job and they didn’t pull a swerve for the sake of swerving us, especially since we all would have seen that coming. Sometimes the real swerve is not swerving at all. In the end Joe made the comeback, got the muscle buster and the choke and cog the clean win over Cage; thus ending his streak of not getting pinned or submitted. I feel they should have made a bigger deal about it, but that’s TNA for you with their 9-matches and Nash/Angle Family Drama. This was another damn fine match between these two guys, as they always deliver. Good show gentlemen.
THE WORLD TITLE MATCH – While the build to Sting vs. Angle wasn’t the way a lot of us would have done it, the basis of the match: Icon Sting vs. Olympian Angle in the city they both became stars was a good hook. Some people thought Sting was a mistake for TNA, but for two years he has worked hard and as I have mentioned on several occasions he has morphed into a Terry Funk in ECW type role with TNA. When it came to the match, the first 15-minutes were absolutely tremendous. Sting for a man near 49 was working probably harder than at anytime in his TNA run and Angle was in Angle mode, and it worked. Clean wrestling, constantly building the drama and it all made sense. Of course TNA could not help themselves as they had Karen run out to be taken out, two ref bumps and Kevin FN Nash get involved, who looked like and moved about as well as Kenny Rogers. During this all Angle tried a 450 SPLASH, yes you read that right. He looked unsure up top and then hit the move, KINDA. He rotated well, but it was more of a 450 KNEE DROP than a 450 SPLASH. Dude, I appreciate you trying to do different things and all, but you about Brock Lesnar’d yourself. Stick with what works and don’t hurt the guys your in the ring with. I mean, you were all off balance and looked like an Indy goof. Finally Angle got the bat and went to nail Sting and he did because he swung before Sting was ready to catch it. This busted Sting open, but I will say played into the Superman ending well as a bloodied Sting nailed Angle and Nash, got the death drop and the pin to a big pop. A lot of the time I trash endings like this, especially in TNA. There are times when this stuff can work and this time I think it did. Don’t get me wrong, they DID NOT NEED TO DO IT. But what was different here is that the face actually overcame the odds and took the win. That is why this works here, in the past TNA would do all of this shit and the heel would still retain and we were to think that it was ok because the face got screwed. But then the face would never get revenge, just ask Monty Brown. But Sting overcame the odds and on the biggest show of the year the fans went home happy with the big baby face win. And really, that’s the way it should be. But this kind of thing works ONCE. When you go back to using it every month, prepared to be trashes.
KNOCKOUTS GAUNTLET – We had the first ever TNA women’s champion crowned at Bound for Glory, and while I am all for crowning the champion here, I wish that we wouldn’t have had the gauntlet to do it. But what can you do? The Gauntlet was actually booked pretty well, but seemed very rushed. They did the right things and made the right people look good. Kong was a force and showed why she gets so much hype. Having her eliminated by 5 women was the way to get rid of her and we saw way too much of her that’s for sure after that. We got down to Roxxi and Kim, which was expected after Kong was gone and they worked hard and had a fun, but short encounter. Gail wins with the Kryptonite Krunch and we got the huge baby face win for the first champion, which I approve of. I have to say that besides Kong and Gail, ODB actually stood out rather well in the match. She looked strong and if they decide to keep her I feel she could be a string addition to the roster of ladies. The main problem they had was that it was the second gauntlet like match on the show. They never should have had the FFTR deal on this show, because building a TV Tournament on PPV is beyond ridiculous. Too much repetitive booking can really hurt a show. They need to stop doing things like that, because people notice. Christi noticed, especially when they did the Andre spot with Fatu and Kong, and we saw much more of her than we needed too. They need to stop the repetition, because if they didn’t do the FFTR deal, this one may have come off more important. Also, I hate when they get to the final 2 and refuse to do more than 2-minuites or so of a match. Add to this that production misses 3-4 eliminations and that is why it is here. Finally, while Gail got SOME time to celebrate with the new title, I feel they could have made it a bigger deal and SHOULD have due to her being the first ever TNA Women’s Champion. Over all not bad, just some logistical issues that bugged me. If you haven’t noticed, Christi disagrees with me.
MONSTERS BALL – The Monster’s Ball has become a TNA tradition at Bound for Glory, and I am all about them establishing traditions at their shows. This time around we had Rhino, Abyss, Raven and Black Reign in this match. Well, these are the perfect men to use in this kind of plunder filled match. Abyss is willing to sacrifice his body for the company, which is sad when you think about it and the push he hasn’t gotten. Rhino is in flux right now, so this works, Reign sucks and needs gimmicks to cover that up and Raven a true wildcard these days. They had a fine outing, not up to the standard of past Monster’s Ball matches, but not bad either. Raven earned my respect and apologies in this match and if you listen to the podcast you will hear my apology to Raven. He looked good and was the MVP of this particular match, including the bump into the tacks and glass SANS SHIRT. Good show dude, I am very glad to be wrong this time. It was what it was thought. It was a hardcore plunder match. It was also hurt because they basically gave the match away on Impact, so why did I need to pay to see virtually the same match with a dive spot added? TNA is their own worst enemy, because the guys do what they are asked and work hard but are usually hurt by the poor booking of the shows. But they worked hard, the crowd seemed to like it and stayed involved and that is always good. But with it basically given away Thursday it seemed like nothing more than filler, and the biggest show of the year shouldn’t need filler.
TABLES MATCH – It’s funny, some people have stated that they feel I have been too hard on this match. And while I gave this the trash of the night, in no way was this horrible, but when compared to other things I just wasn’t feeling the match. I must say again that I am amazed at what Rick and Scott are able to do at their ages. They are producing and the feud as a whole has been great with passable matches and great mic work and angle beat downs. The match was a TNA formula as they began brawling in the crowds for what seemed like a long time. They did some fun stuff like Scott taking beers from fans and spitting it on Ray and such. They worked hard and took the bumps, but it just wasn’t that good. The ATL crowd was hot for it though and were very forgiving of everything since Rick and Scott are Gods to them. The MCMG’s coming out seemed out of place, although t since 3D beat them down before it did make sense. Add that they are from Michigan and would IDOLIZE Rick and Scott and you could see why they would offer to help. The table bumps were good, they did work hard but in comparison to the tag title match and later Monster’s Ball where there was more plunder, this match falls in the middle of those previously mentioned ones. Again nothing horrible, but in comparison the worst of the night.
NASH – And now this is where I bitch about Kevin Nash and how stupid TNA is. For months we have seen him play the therapist role for Kurt Angle. Sitting around and collecting $5000 a taping being a total goof. We get endless segments with he and Angle, which sure can be funny but in no way are making people watch the shows or order the PPV’s. He gets so much more air time as opposed to people that need it and that is a sad, sad thing when you think about it. Now add onto it all that they have been foreshadowing the return to the ring for Nash and it is beyond stupid. This is a man in his 40’s that has had over a dozen operations PER KNEE and is barely mobile. This is a man that REPEATEDLY bowed out of matches, big matches when he was to do the J-O-B; whether it was a mystery heart attack or a big box of toys took him by surprise. He continually fucks this company in the ass and they are stupid enough to continually use him and will again put him in the main event scene. The only thing an in ring return of Kevin Nash will accomplish is…
FIGHT FOR THE RIGHT – We had the return of the fight for the right battle royal deal at Bound for Glory. First of all a match like this has no business on the biggest show of the year, it is just there to get people on the show and that is bullshit. So they have the match and the beginning of this match is beyond idiotic as they fight to get into the ring, and half of them stand around looking like a goof. But out of the 16, 8 will make it into the ring to be the finalists of this clusterfuck of a tournament. So they look like goofs, and ten they fight to get in and it comes down to Harris and Storm to be the 8th man, and Harris doesn’t get in and stands there looking like a complete jobber, like Sharkboy’s retarded cowboy friend. Great booking of a guy that had one of TNA’s best matches of the year. So we now get to the eight guys, and the deal here is that as you get eliminated you get seeded for four tournament matches. In the end Eric Young wins this match, and what does he win? #1 seed! For what? A TV TOURNAMENT! Word of advice, you do NOT use PPV to SELL TV! Jesus and people wonder why you don’t make money! My question is, when you get to the final eight, why wouldn’t you just bail out? You already are in the tournament, no need to bust your ass. Eric Young’s win was a fun baby face win, he will lose to Storm because he beat him in the mini-gauntlet on Impact and won this, so that will happen. I will also say that this was not NEARLY as bad as the first incarnation of this match. But come on, using the BIGGEST SHOW OF THE YEAR to hype a TV tournament? That will only accomplish one thing…
TNA’s TV product has been beyond frustrating this past year. The PPV has toned down a lot from mush see shows to pretty good shows with the guys busting their asses and poor booking holding them back. This show was a pleasant turn around over all I thought. The opener was hot, while the booking getting there is suspect the guys delivered. The FFTR deal is what it was, bad, the tag titles needed to change hands and did in a good match and Creed had one hell of a first showing. Jay Lethal, who had been subject to horrible booking got to look like a champion tonight in a good match with Daniels, while the tables match was what it was, with the “hot-lanta” crowd being very forgiving. Gail Kim becomes the first TNA Women’s Champion in a good baby face moment for the show, ala Lethal winning as well and people like that stuff. Samoa Joe finally got the big win over Cage in what was an excellent match, those men have clicked and they deliver. There was no “enforcer turn on the face” deal, he just did his job for once and that was good. The Monster’s Ball is what it is, not that this is a bad thing because there is an audience for it. Sting and Angle delivered a great main event match and if you can get past all of the bullshit at the end, Sting stood tall and they ended the big show with the happy face moment.
Overall I will go with a 7.75 out of 10 and a very strong recommendation to order the show. While there were some moments that TNA just could not resist, the overall is very good and it makes this show TNA’s best of the year. It was almost as if they wanted to apologize for Hard Justice and the shitty TV shows. If they would have dropped the reverse battle royal shit, the Nash stuff and extended a few matches and celebration times this would have been an 8.0 or above easily.
And I’m out of here!
…5…
