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Wrestling’s 4R’s Friday Edition – 11.14.08: Raw and ECW on Sci-Fi Reviewed!
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 11.10.08
SETTING THE STAGE FOR THE NIGHT: After a video that recapped the main event from last week, Raw started off with the FORMER World Heavyweight Champion (and professional choke artist) Batista making his way to the ring, all pissed-off. He told the crowd that he wasn’t out there to whine and cry, which is probably a good thing for Jericho; last time Batista did that, he became World Champion for a week. He wanted to invoke his rematch clause, but Stephanie came onto the ‘Tron, all sharp-dressed woman in black, to tell him it wasn’t going to happen, since it would kind of screw up their main event for Survivor Series and all. She promised Batista a rematch at some point, just not at Survivor Series. Stephanie was uncharacteristically wooden in her little promo; love her or hate her, one thing that you haven’t been able to say about Mrs. Levesque in a long time is that she’s sounded like she’s reading off a teleprompter until tonight. I’m about 50/50 on whether it was intentional—i.e., she was taking on all the sincerity of an Avril Lavigne song about how punk she is—or whether it was just a bad night for her. For Big Dave’s part, he was his usual average self on the mic for his brief promo before Steph cut him off. The Manimal’s never been an amazing talker, but he’s always solid and has some great body language and expressions to back it up; tonight was no different. She said that the with the age of Adamle being over, a new era was coming, and they were clearing out some old business and moving on to bigger and better things. This meant Kane taking on Rey Rey in a No DQ match, and Shawn Michaels taking on Chris Jericho in a Last Man Standing match FOR THE VERY LAST TIME…until they face off again in a month and a half.
After Steph was done, out came Randy Orton. The Crazy Legend-Killer wanted to tell Dave that he had to wait in line if he wanted a title shot, ‘cause after Cena got his shot, Orton wanted his turn. He ripped Big Dave down and brought up Evolution and how he was better than the big guy; that’s why he was kicked out. You just had to love the crowd chanting for the RKO; who’s the fan favorite here? Dave told Randall that history was written by the winner, and that their history showed Dave was better in every possible way. I call shenanigans on that one. They then made Orton vs. Batista for tonight, and somehow I don’t see this ending cleanly. Orton promised that he’d be World Champion longer than eight days, and then escaped a Batista Bomb and scooted out of the ring. This second half came off a little bit better then the first, and while the whole thing wasn’t one of the best opening talky bits we’ve seen in recent history, it was perfectly fine and set up several matches for the night, which is exactly what it should do. Thus, I approve.
GLAMARELLA DRAMA: Beth came backstage to comfort Santino after losing his title, to find the former Greatest Intercontinental Champion Ever despondent over his title loss. He told her that he never should have had to face William Regal tonight; no, that makes no sense, I know. But for Santino’s character it works, and he can get away with those kinds of things due to his persona. Beth tried to make him feel better, and he said that he called Shane McMahon, who took it out on Beth by making a Women’s Title match against Mickie James. Whoops! Beth got pissed and tossed the phone against the wall; Santino’s quivering lip after Beth stormed off was priceless. With Santino losing the belt, you have to wonder how long Glamarella will stay together, and the payoff at least will be fun, so I suppose that’s the upside of the title loss.
JERICHO INTERVIEW TIME!: Following the John Cena tribute of the night—which, by the way, while good, are starting to get repetitive and over-long—Jericho was out to mock him and tell him a couple stories. First was the Batista story, and then the Shawn Michaels story. Jericho did a nice job here of recapping the long-running feud with HBK so that they can finally blow it off tonight, which Jericho did some fine promotion for here. He told Cena to pay close attention because the same thing would happen to him; Jericho’s at the top of his game and Cena’s coming back from injury. This was short and sweet, and got across exactly what it needed to; more quality work from OUR World Champion and Savior.
PRICELESS IS PISSED: As Randy Orton was backstage, Manu and Cody Rhodes showed up to get in his face. Manu proved for the second week in a row that he could speak, and then Cody told Randy that there was no way that they were letting this go. Orton pointed out how Ted was the weak link—frankly, if Cody read the R’s he’d know that, I’ve been saying it all along. The bottom line was that Randy did what Cody and Manu didn’t have the guts to do. Randy then received a bitch-slap from Cody, and Manu got in Randy’s way when he tried to go after Cody. Ballsy move from the kid, and again I say that he really is the keystone to Priceless and the best prospect out of them. We had several moments of INTENSE STAREDOWN TIME, before Orton walked off. This was a nice segment in that it continues the Orton/Priceless situation and moved it forward, and you have to believe Cody’s got some instant damage control done by having the guts to give Orton all five fingers speaking loud and clear. We also have seen more personality out of Manu in the last two weeks then we’ve seen to date, and that’s to the guy’s credit. Good stuff all around.
CHRIS JERICHO vs. SHAWN MICHAELS: They preceded this with an amazing little video recapping Jericho and Shawn’s storied feud; this is of course one of those places the ‘E always has and always will excel at. I’ve never liked the champion coming down first for title matches, and Jericho did so tonight, but it’s a minor gripe that is purely a personal thing I know. Both of these guys were big-time over with the crowd as expected, They started off by getting right into it, which made complete sense considering how much they hate each other. Now, there were a few small things I didn’t like; it always bugs me when they bring out the big spots early on, like HBK’s kippup and going for the elbow drop. I kind of thought that these two took a few too many risks for a television main event; let’s face it, Shawn’s not getting any younger, and an injury to Jericho would be disastrous right now. Outside of that, though, I loved this match. It was two guys who work unbelievably well together and are two of the best in the business taking it to each other for nearly twenty minutes and doing their best to entertain the London crowd. They had a great back-and-forth match that paced itself and kept the crowd interested throughout, and built up to the finale…and kudos to both men for putting on a great show. Now, I didn’t particularly like JBL’s involvement, but it made complete sense in terms of moving Shawn onto that feud, so I can absolutely forgive it, and it’s certainly not enough to drag it down at all. It was a great match to cap off a very lackluster show.
REY MYSTERIO vs. KANE: Rey Rey came out first for the final blow-off feud, sporting yellow-and-black. I don’t know if this was intentional, but it played nicely into Kane’s speech earlier about pulling the wings off flies, because Rey looked like nothing less than a bumblebee here. Out was Kane next, and we got right down to it. Now, I will say that I liked the booking of this match for the most part, as it gave them some time to work a match that play to both men’s strengths and gave the match some really good pacing. Kane and Rey Rey have built up some good chemistry in the ring, and it’s paid off throughout this feud nicely. They also used the No DQ stipulation to great effect by fighting around the ring and having spots like Rey pulling the turnbuckle pad off. That counter into the DDT on the concrete was pretty sweet too. Unfortunately, the botched end at the spot hurt the match, and looked like it may have hurt Rey too. I also am pissed off that Rey won this feud after winning basically every significant match from the start of it. Let me give you booking guys a clue here, all right? The point of a feud, ideally, is to get both guys over. When you put the tiny guy against the monster and have the tiny guy win EVERY single time, the monster gets buried. Sure, I get that Rey needed the cred after some terrible booking in the last couple years and a lot of injuries, but seriously, couldn’t you have thrown the big guy a bone somewhere along the lines of this feud? Poor Mister Jacobs. The match was mostly good, but the way it ended the feud and the botched finish drug it out of the Right for me. Sorry guys.
BATISTA vs. RANDY ORTON CODY RHODES?!?!: Oh, hell. So Batista comes down to the ring and looks ready to go, then out comes Orton. They look just about to get it on, when down comes Cody and Manu, looking ready to rock. Cody had a mic and told Randy that he couldn’t beat Cody, much less the Manimal. However, he was going to beat Big Dave, Now, first off I give a big “F U” to Lawler for laughing in the middle of that; way to sell your talent short. The match was, as probably was expected, a nice short win for Batista. However, for a match that went on only three minutes, I was impressed that they actually gave Cody some good time in control. Cody targeted the knee and had some good moments, and as much as this was a flattening by the Manimal at the end of the match I think this was a rare one of these short matches that actually gave the loser some credibility. They seem to be trying to push Cody into a higher spot and I approve. After the match, Manu ate a spear and Orton and Batista faced off before Randy took off. I don’t like the short match, nor do I like the ‘E’s continuing love of the bait-and-switch, but for what this was, it worked well enough to avoid the thumbs down.
SANTINO MARELLA vs. WILLIAM REGAL: Glamarella came out as a unit for Santino’s scheduled Intercontinental Title match with the hometown boy William Regal; while the Greatest Intercontinental Champion of All The Time was so hyped he paused to kiss Beth’s bicep! He came down to the ring and said he was so confident that he was doing away with the HONK-A-METER!!! Now, I’m sure your heart skipped a beat there, much like mine did, but worry not…in its place, he debuted the HONK-A-PERFECT-MOUNTIE METER!!!! Absolutely tremendous. The combined reign length of the Honky Donky Man, Rodney the Piper and the Mountie was 123 weeks; Santino was at thirteen weeks. This makes him, for the record, a better Intercontinental Champion then Kurt Angle, Stone Cold, and Test combined. Santino was absolutely awesome on this, and you can see that he’s hugely over with the crowd; seriously, when did you EVER expect to hear Santino chants from the crowd? He then quickly turned it around with some cheap heat to trash England, which brought out the King of the Ring with Layla London by his side. Regal was still sporting the bathroom gown, but thankfully, BY THE GODS AND ALL THAT’S HOLY, he got right of the granny suit! It was a nice touch for Lillian Garcia to take the time to announce the match while Santino and Regal were both in the ring, which gave it a feel of importance. Unfortunately, the booking team didn’t seem to give a shit about that as they had Regal CRUSH Santino in thirty seconds. Now, a lot of people are probably very glad that Santino’s lost the belt. I’ll admit that I loved Santino as champion because it gave his character a chance to appear on the mic, and I was hoping it would eventually lead to some legitimacy for the guy. Sadly, they didn’t seem to give a shit about that, as they had Regal demolish him in a match that meant nothing. Santino…sorry bud, I loved the Honk-A-Meter but thanks to the booking squad…
And before anyone asks…no, I obviously didn’t think they were going to keep Santino as champion for the length of Honky’s reign, but I hoped that this would slowly lead to some legitimacy; otherwise, what were they doing? That’s my problem; the booking here was a complete lack of pay-off to the rest of his reign, and for that, I call bullshit. After the match, Regal got interviewed by Vintage Cole and gave a remarkably face-like promo. I’m assuming that’s a one-time thing, but we’ll see. It’s nice to see Regal get a push, but outside that this segment was just terrible, with a bad title switch and a non-match. Not my cup of tea.
D’LO BROWN vs. MIKE KNOX: Wow, did D’Lo get fat already? When he first came back on Raw he was looking pretty fit; tonight he was just a wee bit bloated. His opponent for the night was Mike Knox in his Raw debut; one of these guys has had vignettes over the last few weeks, one of them hasn’t. It’s not hard to call how this will go. This basically amounted to Knox beating the shit out of D’Lo and hitting his finisher for the pinfall. First off, the shortness of the match was, again, retarded; I’ve harped on this before, and you all know the deal by now. Look, I realize that they only have a certain amount of time to fill, but if that’s the case, do less freakin’ filler and cut a match or two to make the remaining ones that much longer and better. I also don’t understand moving Knox to Raw. Do they really need another Snitsky? That’s about the only role I see Knox playing, the wild-man heel who jobs to the stars after a little building up. I don’t know, maybe they have big things planned for him, but based on what I’ve seen from the guy I hope not. He’s not terrible, just bland, and they’ve got far better people to focus on.
BETH PHOENIX vs. MICKIE JAMES: Beth and Santino were still fairly sketchy on their way down to the ring, and watches as Mickie raced her way down looking damn hot. Not “Raid My Tomb” (joke trademark Larry Csonka) hot, but still…dayum. They then went into the match, a clumsy, sloppy affair that barely cleared three minutes. Mickie and Beth always seem to have these sloppy moments of miscommunication early in their matches, and this thing could have been something if it got more time but instead it was just weak sauce. The head-slam spot that ended the match came off looking weak, and this did them no favors. However, the image of Santino twisting his hips with Beth on his shoulders was admittedly amusing. I just wish the match that preceded it was remotely good.
DID YOU KNOW?: No. And I still don’t care. Really, I totally don’t. You can stop with these. Thanks.
As the SmackDown from a few weeks ago with Taker vs. ‘H demonstrated, a great main event does not an entire show make; I present to you exhibit B. While the Priceless/Orton developments were nice, the main event was spot-on and the Glamazon/Santino breakdown started up all right, the rest of the matches were problematic-to-worthless either due to not enough time, iffy booking, off nights or just bad workers. This was another bad show in a worrying downward spiral, and I hope they turn it around soon. At least we didn’t have to hear Jillian sing. Hey, I’m an optimist, what can I say? SHOW RATING: ** |
Comment Time With Jeremy!
Victoria us a jackass (banana and sumo costumes, anybody) much like Santino. At this point, her wins should be flukes because her acting stupid and then beating everyone clean would make her look good but her opponents look bad. I do think she should score some cheap wins and do over-the-top celebrations as she is pretty funny.
Posted By: Guest#9143 (Guest) on November 10, 2008 at 11:33 PM
Is Victoria comedy act at this point? Absolutely. And there’s something very wrong with that. She’s the best woman wrestler on SmackDown, and while I agree that they’ve made her look like a goof, I hate that because I remember how awesome she was when she was…well, the Beth Phoenix role. This is also, incidentally, why I wasn’t too big initially on Beth taking on a comedy-like role, because it ended up being the death knell of Victoria’s credibility, and she deserves better.
Let’s start a 411Mania Main Event Mafia! I’ll join! Who next’s?
Posted By: Batman 23 (Guest) on November 11, 2008 at 03:30 AM
Oh, Batman, I’m afraid to tell you that there’s already a 411Mania Main Event Mafia. I don’t think Larry has your membership card for you, though you’d have to ask him to make sure.
They’re going to need to do a lot of work to make Hardy a heel if he stays in the title hunt. He already gets bigger pops than HHH, so how do you make him hated for being mean to HHH? Even with ‘Taker it’ll be difficult with Hardy being so loved.
My first thought is a simple one, have him attack his brother soon and cost him the title. Instant heel. It’s not like the brands really mean anything anyways 90% of the time.
I’ve never been a HUGE Hardy fan (though I appreciate what he does), but I think a heel turn would be great for him.
Posted By: Bucksinnc (Guest) on November 11, 2008 at 08:24 AM
I agree, they’ll need to do a lot to turn him heel; he’s a perennial fan favorite. I absolutely think they can make him a great “cool” heel if they try. Now, I really don’t want to see him cost Matt the ECW belt, because while it would help his heel turn (if it is indeed intended to be one; I’m not sure yet), I think Matt’s helping give that strap some legitimacy by holding onto it and defending it fairly regularly. I think the best way for Jeff to go full heel, if they want to, would be for him to continue his quest to be extreme and take it out on a very sympathetic fan favorite type, like Rey Rey or the like. Put them in a match, have Jeff be unable to finish the person off and snap, just demolishing the face. It wouldn’t do all the work, but it would really help, especially if Jeff was unrepentant about it later.
“I’d still love to see Edge come out and help Taker at SS to align himself against Vickie, but that’s probably just me.”
I’d actually be okay with this provided it does not lead to a Edge face run.
Also I got to say that I don’t think this past weeks actions are at all intended to turn Jeff Hardy heel. I think it is more a case of him showing frustration for being unable to beat Triple H again, and win the title. Not so much a heel turn, but possibly adding a bit of an edge to Hardy’s character.
Posted By: Toddo (Guest) on November 11, 2008 at 09:50 AM
I’d be okay with an edge to his character too; whatever they do with this change in Jeff’s character I think it’s going to do him a world of good if they follow through and Jeff doesn’t fuck up again. And no, I absolutely agree, no Edge face turn. I like him as a face, but he’s a natural heel like Orton and Y2K and he works best in that capacity.
cage back in the wwe, returning w/ edge, both of them winning the heavyweight titles at the same time, ala guerrero/benoit, would be really nice….
Posted By: mark (Guest) on November 11, 2008 at 02:32 PM
Other then the fact that to give them an Eddie/Valde-noit moment it would mean Edge would have to turn face, I agree. I don’t see Christian holding an ‘E World Title any time soon though, ship-jumping or not. I’d love to, I just don’t think it’s in the cards.
The 4R’s is one of my favorite columns. That being said:
2)Velvet Sky wiggling her sexy ass is greater than John Morrison’s slow-mo’ed hair every single day of the week.
Posted By: Alyaz (Guest) on November 11, 2008 at 06:00 PM
Not saying I don’t like Velvet Sky’s wiggle. It’s simply that something about Morrison’s slow-mo and how Miz even goes along with it that cracks me up. That kind of little touch and dedication to their characters is the sort of thing that impresses me. Thanks for reading!
By: Larry Csonka
ECW 11.11.08:
The Miz, John Morrison and Jack Swagger vs. Tommy Dreamer and Cryme Tyme: I have discussed many times, mostly in regards to PPV the importance of the opening match. But these elements can also work very well on TV. I always say that an opener should have people involved that will pop the crowd, that can deliver some excitement and that are involved in some form of established feud so that the audience will use all of that to make an emotional connection, which is what they want. Well, the crowd always responds to Dreamer, pops for Cryme Tyme and HATES Miz and Morrison, so that’s all good. Cryme Tyme keeps them excited, while Miz and Morrison can add some flash. Dreamer and Swagger are feuding, Cryme Tyme has been feuding with Miz and Morrison and will continue to do so through Survivor Series (TEAM MICHAELS: HBK, Rey Mysterio, Cryme Tyme and The Great Khali vs. TEAM JBL: JBL, Kane, MVP, The Miz and John Morrison) so that all works out well for my theory. They got a bit over 7-minutes after the commercial, I thought that everyone worked hard, looked good and the opener was a very solid match. Morrison got the pin on Dreamer, which I completely agreed with. Miz and Morrison needed a rebound after the loss to DX, they need to keep looking strong and this helps. Overall I have no complaints, as this was a fine way to kick off the show.
FINLAY vs. Matt Hardy: And then we came to the main event. Building off of last week’s TV, where Finlay earned the shot at the ECW Title, he would challenge Matt Hardy this week for the title. I thought that this was a smart plan to book Finlay in the title match in the UK, when you add in the fact that Hardy is over everywhere as well as Finlay in the UK, you just ensured a hot crowd for the match. I will say one thing that nearly turned me off of the whole thing was the fact that they put in TWO commercial breaks. Some are acting like this was some epic and long match, but when you take out the commercial breaks, they only got 12-minutes. There was no need for two breaks here, but it was done because they needed to fill time. I thought that this was a good match, I would go around ***, and not higher due to the breaks hurting the flow. Matt got the win, and is building himself up as a “Bret Hart” style champion. No I am not saying that Hardy is as good as Hart, what I am saying is that Hart was the fighting champion and would often have matches against the respected face, like this match. It goes a long way to build up the champion and the title, which I think they are doing a good job of. I liked the handshake at the end and also loved that they didn’t have Henry come out or any other shenanigans. Sometimes it pays to be simple and let the moment be the moment, and not force anything extra on it. This was a very good TV main event here and helped make the show enjoyable, as usual.
The Mark Henry Squash: With Mark Henry out of the title picture, at least for now, he needed something to do, someone to kill and that was Oliver from Leeds. My friends, there would be no hometown hero overcoming the odds here, this man was going to die. And die he did, Henry took him time, and over the course of 2-minutes destroyed this young man. It was what it was, a Mark Henry squash match. On one hand it is great because it shows how pissed he is about not being in the title match. The post-match interview with Cole, which wasn’t really en interview worked well because Henry had this, “are you fucking asking me about this shit” look on his face. I liked that. Unfortunately while this was all great in theory, it came off as filler and also as something they didn’t need on the show. I think with the call to have Finlay main event and the fact that Bourne is out injured, they weren’t quite sure what to do here. The thing is this, Henry is over as a heel. He is big, scary, and he didn’t NEED this squash. Now I know this guy isn’t popular, but a guy like Ricky Ortiz needed this spot way more than Mark Henry. This is another example of the start and stop booking of a new guy, like I discussed last week.
NONE
NONE
Once again ECW produces a simple, effective and workman style one-hour show. It wasn’t the most exciting show in the world, but it was easy to watch. The opening 6-man match made sense and had the right result. Henry seems to be in limbo but the squash worked well enough. The main event, hurt a bit by commercial breaks, was a very good TV main event and that’s all you can ask. While it threw Henry into limbo, the booking to have Finlay fight for the title in the UK, added with the fact that Hardy is over everywhere ensured a hot crowd for the match, which came off great on TV. Again, it is a simple, effective, workman style show; and it is working for them. The best thing about ECW is that I almost NEVER feel as if I had my intelligence insulted when I am done watching it. This was a very good, but not quite great episode. SHOW RATING: ***¾ |
LARRY: Thanks for those of you that provided me with the “DWI” correction. I obviously heard it wrong, so the correction is appreciated.
From Donners: Those rankings are really useful when it comes to choosing which DVDs to buy. Not that I buy them solely on the ratings here, but they at least highlight the ones to take a look at.
LARRY: Thanks a lot. I do it for a few reasons. First of all it helps people like yourself. Secondly, while not the end all be all, it is a tracker of sorts for when the staff works on the yearend awards. Thirdly it is a tracker for myself for when I do yearend columns. And finally, I just think it is a cool ass feature. Thanks for reading.
From not a mark: Yeah 8.4 for turning point? Don’t get me wrong great show but its not better than lockdown or bound for glory were… good spots though.
LARRY: I liked Lockdown and Bound for Glory, Lockdown had a great moment, but Turning Point to me felt like a much more focused effort with more quality overall on the show. But hey, we all have our opinions, and if you disagree, that’s cool. I do appreciate you reading.
From Tyler: Turning Point & Lockdown scored higher than every WWE PPV this year with the exception of Wrestlemania.
LARRY: I am guessing that you just made an observation and didn’t want a response, but what the hell. Yeah, they did score higher than the other WWE PPV’s. WWE produces SO MUCH product that at times the PPV suffer. But again I will say that overall this has been a much better year for PPV than 2007.
