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Wrestling’s 4R’s Monday Edition 3.22.10: ROH, Superstars and SmackDown Reviewed!
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In HD where available…
By: Aaron Hubbard
ROH on HDNet 3.15.10:
QUICK RESULTS:
TV Title Tournament Quarter Final: Eddie Edwards def. Colt Cabana [**3/4]
Kyle O’Reilly def. Tony Kozina [**]
TV Title Tournament Quarter Final: Davey Richards def. Delirious [***1/4]
SHAWN DAIVARI – WRESTLING MARTYR: My words can not do this promo justice, so here is the transcript from my review of the show: “As Jim Cornette just stated to everybody, my name is Shawn Daivari. And if you’ll pardon me for a second,” he takes his turban and cloak off “so I can get rid of this Taliban rigandi and stand before you as something no hillbilly wrestling promoter could ever see me as before.” “USA!” chants start up. Cornette: “Obviously we believe in freedom of speech here Mr. Daivari in Ring of Honor, they’re allowed to say what they want.” “I want the camera-man to get a nice, tight shot of this face so even the deaf and dumb can read my lips. I am NOT a Sheik. I am NOT a terrorist. I am a PROFESSIONAL WRESTLER! And the reason I’ve been able to walk away from guaranteed money is because I can afford to. Now unlike every ingrate American would want you to believe, that a man with my skin and my facial features and my look has money ties to the oil industry in the Middle East, I have money because I’ve earned it! For the last ten years I’ve been wrestling full time, for the last five years on primetime television. I’ve never missed a show, a loop, a tour, taken time off for injuries, been bumped, bruised, cut, scratched, I will die a MARTYR for professional wrestling!” Probably the best promo in the history of the show, and it blurred the line between work and shoot sometimes. I was literally in awe of this and I clapped several times. It should probably also be noted that Cornette’s body language in reaction to it helped put it over. Easily the best thing on this show, and if Daivari never does anything else in his career, he can be proud of this promo.
TV TOURNEY: EDWARDS VS. CABANA: Our opening match was a TV Tournament quarter-final between Eddie Edwards and Colt Cabana. The match was solid, had good psychology and it all led to the finish. I’m not entirely sold on Steve Corino’s interference given the eventual booking of the rest of the tournament, as it kind of makes Eddie’s win look like a fluke. Really, beating Cabana should never look like a fluke; that’s not a knock on the guy, he’s entertaining and a good wrestler, but he is over regardless of his win-loss record. This sets up Edwards vs. Kevin Steen, which is a match I’m looking forward to so that I can see how Eddie adapts to playing babyface. Perfectly good opener and no real complaints.
BIG BANG PROMOTION: On April 3rd, ROH will have it’s second live internet PPV, “The Big Bang”, which also happens to be their debut in Charlotte, North Carolina (WOO!). The main event is ROH World Champion Tyler Black’s first title defense, as he takes on former champion Austin Aries and #1 Contender Roderick Strong in a triple-threat match. This match has MOTYC written all over it, and if it weren’t for Wrestlemania robbing my wallet (well, at least that show looks great) I’d gladly pay the $15 to watch this. This show was heavy on hype for this show (take notes TNA), which is a smart thing since they don’t have another episode until after that show. We got promos from all three guys and a well-made video package that set everything up, which closed the show out. They have got me HYPED for this show, which is very difficult considering it’s Wrestlemania season, so good job ROH!
TV TOURNEY – RICHARDS VS. DELIRIOUS: This was our main event, one that I was looking forward to, because I’m a huge fan of both guys. Davey Richards is one of the best in the world right now and Delirious knows how to make people look good, so I figured they would deliver a great main event that really put over Richards as an awesome wrestler while making Delirious look tough for surviving his kicks and fighting hard before submitting to the Kimura Armbar. That was the basic idea behind this match, and it was good, but it failed in the execution. Why? It lost it’s sense of reality in the finishing stretch. The Chemical Imbalance II should only be kicked out of on very special occasions, like, when Delirious is challenging the World Champion. The Bizarro Driver was right there for them to used, but no. The backdrop driver and Cobra-Clutch Suplex were also thrown out for no real reason, and the finish was the stupid Tombstone to set up the Kimura spot that ranks amongst the worst finishing combos ever. I liked how Davey switched to a cross armbreaker for the finish, and the rest was good, but this devolved into precisely what WWE Sheep think ROH is: two guys throwing out hard-hitting moves with no psychology or attempt to tell a story.
KOZINA VS. O’REILLY We got a big match up between two of ROH’s jobbers. Kyle O’Reilly had a good showing against Chris Hero a few weeks ago and I mentioned that he should get a second look, and Kozina looked solid. The match was a good exhibition of the two guys, but having a competitive match with another jobber doesn’t really do you any favors. This is the kind of thing you put on the pre-show, not on television. In order for O’Reilly to get over, he’s going to have to get a competitive match with a heel who’s over but isn’t taken too seriously, like Joey Ryan or Rhett Titus, and get an upset. Beating Kozina does him no favors.
BRISCOES PROMO: Sometimes these two give good, intense promos, but the confidance, cheesy lines, and reminding us that they’ve beat The Kings of Wrestling four or five times really grated my nerves. The Kings of Wrestling RULE and are probably going to be better now than they were then; there’s no reason to bury them heading into the big show. Nothing about this was entertaining or served a purpose.
NOTHING OF NOTE.
| The 411
Overall, this was a good show with three solid matches and an EXCELLENT promo from Shawn Daivari. A perfectly acceptable way to spend forty-five or so minutes on Youtube, but I won’t recommend it too highly. If you can, check on the Daivari promo, because it was fantastic, but the rest of the show isn’t must-see. Thumbs up. And, in what should be good news for the poor wittle thumb-scrollers, ROH takes a backseat to Basketball for tonight and next week, so I’ll see you in two weeks. SHOW RATING: 6.5 |
By: Steve Cook
Superstars 3.20.10:
QUICK RESULTS:
Kane d. Shelton Benjamin (**¾)
Bella Twins d. Jillian & Katie Lea (*½)
Christian, Mark Henry & Yoshi Tatsu d. William Regal, Zack Ryder & Jack Swagger (***½)
KANE vs. SHELTON BENJAMIN: I can’t say I was expecting too much out of this battle…Shelton’s last couple of outings haven’t been so great, and Kane is Kane. People love the guy, but I never expect anything from him in a wrestling match. So when they had a really damn good match that got a pretty good amount of time I was quite surprised. Shelton busting out the split-legged moonsault to the floor was pretty choice. I’ve never understood why Shelton gets so much flack from certain segments of the IWC. Yeah, he’s not a good talker and sometimes he gets a little too spot happy, but I don’t think there’s a better athlete in WWE than Shelton Benjamin right now. His push will probably never equal his athletic ability, but it’s guys like Shelton that let WWE say “Yeah, we’re all about sports entertainment, but we’ve also got some great performers that can do that wrestling stuff.” Really good babyface vs. babyface match here that helped promote the Money in the Bank match at WrestleMania.
CHRISTIAN, HENRY & TATSU vs. REGAL, RYDER & SWAGGER: One thing I especially enjoy about watching Lucha Libre is that they love to book six-man tag team matches. Singles and tag team matches are fun, but it’s nice to see the dynamic of three babyfaces taking on three dastardly heels. I wouldn’t say either of these trios are as great as the Freebirds or the Von Erichs, but I really liked each pairing. On one team you’ve got a skinny Canadian, a large African-American and a tiny Japanese dude. The other features a British nobleman, a Jersey douchebag and an Oklahoman jock. You’d have to work pretty hard to find groups of three people with less in common character-wise, but at the end of the day each trio has the same goals and that’s why their team works. The good guys are all friendly, likeable peeps, and the bad guys are each despicable in their own special way. It also helps that all of the people in this match are really good at what they do. Christian is on another level these days and his awesomeness almost goes without saying, but Henry & Tatsu also made good contributions to the match and the Brotherhood of Evil Men with Regal, Ryder & Swagger all did good work when they were in or out of the ring. I like Regal associating with young bad guy wrestlers…Big Zeke made great strides under Master William, and it’d serve Ryder & Swagger well to listen to one of wrestling’s most learned and sinister minds. This was all good stuff.
Nothing.
Nothing.
BELLA TWINS vs. JILLIAN & KATIE LEA: Jillian, who hails from Louisville, Kentucky. was bringing the Cardinal love all decked out in red, and fellow OVW alum Katie Lea also dressed for the occasion.
Unfortunately, they were wrestling the California Golden Bellas. Natives of Whales’ Vagina, their family was in attendance to see them represent for their home state against the athletically superior and far more hyped representatives of Louisville. Many thought that Jillian & Katie would win, even though their record this season hasn’t been all that great and they don’t seem to work very well as a team. Their senior leadership also has to be questioned, as Jillian hasn’t really improved in the past four years and can have a good match or a bad match on any given night. As for Katie, she’s a good young player but she doesn’t get enough playing time and I agree with all of the message board people that say they should play her more instead of giving Kelly Kelly all the PT.
Despite all of this, people picked Jillian & Katie to emerge victorious. What happened?
Well…
I think there may have been some shady officiating.
You know, it’s too bad Hidden Highlights went away, because this entire match was one. It wasn’t as good as the other two matches on the show, but by Diva match standards it was perfectly acceptable. I still maintain it’s ridiculous because the good guys lost. Evil will always triumph because good is dumb. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to cry into my Louisville blanket.
| The 411
We got a pretty good showing from Superstars this week, as they went back to the three match formula that results in more better wrestling. It was nothing that will have any effect on WrestleMania or anything in WWE’s future, but it was an enjoyable 26 minutes or so. The actual match time wasn’t that much more than last week’s, but the time was better allocated and allowed the wrestlers to do the thing that they do. SHOW RATING: 7.5 |
By: Jeremy Thomas
WWE SmackDown 03.21.10
QUICK RESULTS:
Dolph Ziggler & Jack Swagger d. MVP & Matt Hardy [* ¾]
Beth Phoenix & Tiffany d. Michelle McCool & Layla [**]
R-Truth & John Morrison d. The Hart Dynasty [* ½]
Luke Gallows d. Rey Mysterio [** ¾]
The Undertaker killed Drew McIntyre [*]
FAMILY PHOTO TIME WITH CM PUNK: SmackDown kicked off this week with the a recap of best part of last week: the CM Punk Birthday Party for Aaliyah. Rey Rey then walked down to the ring and got a mic, looking like he was in anything but a celebratory mood. The crowd gave Rey a brief chant before Rey got on the mic and talked about Aaliyah crying had kept him up all week. He mentioned how he’s been beaten around and such but never had a situation that crossed the line like this. Two words, little guy: Dominic Guerrero. He then demanded a street fight at ‘Mania and said he wanted to teach Punk a lesson: never mess with another man’s family. This was a good, solid opening from Rey, who isn’t always gold on the mic but has done a pretty good job during this feud with Punk.
Of course, Rey Rey’s demand brought out OUR Straight Edge Savior, and he decided to stay up on the ramp. Punk talked about how he understood how Rey Rey felt, since he was shown to be a coward. He told Rey Rey that hatred was the path to the Dark Side (okay, not literally, but parallels can be made). Rey Rey said Punk wasn’t even human; he was a monster. He started to walk up the ramp, but Punk warned Rey that if he laid a finger on him, the ‘Mania match was off. Then, just to be even more of a dick, Punk showed off pictures of the Aaliyah birthday party to show how he couild save Rey and make him the father his family needed. So the stipulation was set: if Rey Rey beat Luke tonight, he got his street fight. Otherwise, the stakes were if Rey lost at ‘Mania, he would join the Straight Edge Society. Nice little stip, and a good little promo here from both men to start the crowd off hot. The best part of this, honestly, was Rey’s tormented and furious facial reactions. Props to both men here.
MICHELLE McCOOL & LAYLA vs. BETH PHOENIX & TIFFANY: I just have to say that the Glamazon in her outfit and Tiffany in her purple cheerleading-like bit looked very odd as a team. That being said, I was fairly hopeful for this match because the competitors weren’t terrible. But that doesn’t always mean a great match, as many SmackDown diva matches have shown. As a match, it wasn’t too much to talk about but it certainly wasn’t bad. They didn’t get it off to a great start as Beth went to an airplane spin and Tiffany hit a sloppy crossbody on Layla, but it picked up once Tiffany was on the losing side of the beating. The match could have been a hell of a lot better, but I’m not going to complain and the stuff with Beth and Michelle was pretty good. Beth got the hot tag and cleaned house, then we had a brief back and forth between Michelle and Beth before the Glam Slam sealed the win. Nice to see the apparent new challenger get a pin on Michelle to look strong.
After the match, Vickie came out and screamed for Tiffany to leave so Beth could apologize. Beth got on the mic and said she had already apologized, but Vickie wanted some humiliation. Beth apologized, but it still wasn’t enough. She told Beth that next week, it was a match between Beth and Vickie. Oh boy. That should be fun. Anyone else see a Vince/Cena situation? Yeah, that’s pretty obvious. But hey, this match gets a minor Right by being a perfectly tolerable Diva’s Match.
THE CUTTING EDGE: Midway through the show, he had Edge come down to the ring to continue the battle of the Wrestling Talk Shows with the Cutting Edge. They replayed what happened last week on the Highlight Reel and then Edge got on the mic to start talking. He said he was returning the favor from last week’s show invite and then introduced the champion. Jericho came down with his NXT rookie Wade Barrett. Edge made a prom joke off of Barrett’s flower, and then launched into a promo about how they’ve been trying to one-up each other in this chess game up toward ‘Mania. He said he was going to Spear Jericho without saying it, and instead Jericho did. He said that there was so much more than the Spear, and ran down his accolades, busted out the “best I am” line, and then mentioned the pressure of WrestleMania as well as the fact that Edge may not yet be 100%. Jericho talked about the Achilles tendon and what a serious injury it was, which set Edge off. He got in his awesome “just this side of over the top” voice and said that he may well not be 100% yet, nobody knows. He told Jericho to make his move, and when he didn’t Edge did it instead. The numbers game was too much for him and the two men had the best of Rated-R for the moment. Edge battled back before being distracted by spearing Wade allowed Jericho to hit the Codebreaker. There was a stomp to the Achillies’ tendon and a mocking “spear” before this segment ended. This was a good, solid way to even the odds a bit, and these two finally feel like they’re on even ground now. Good work by both men and the whole thing kept the feud building.
REY MYSTERIO vs. LUKE GALLOWS: Of course, this match was set up earlier in the show and was the match to determine the stipulations of Punk & Rey Rey’s ‘Mania match. Gallows had Punk and Serena by his side of course, and apparently he has his own theme music now. It’s not too bad, I suppose. The story of this match was Rey’s aggression against Luke, which helped sell how angry he was with the Society over last week. He started off strong, but Luke fought back with some decent power offense, then came outside and hit a nasty face slam onto the railing. Rey got in just at the ten-count, and then had to battle back from a bear hug; from this point is was largely a standard Rey vs. Big Man match, but it was executed quite well. Gallows looked impressive in there against Rey and could well be one of the better big men in the WWE right now. Rey almost had the win, but Punk and Serena got involved and Luke got the pin to send Rey to ‘Mania with his independence on the line. I could actually see him losing at ‘Mania and being forced into the Society, until Extreme Rules where they do a match putting Rey’s mask on the line. Rey losing it at the end on Luke was awesome, too.
MVP & MATT HARDY vs. JACK SWAGGER & DOLPH ZIGGLER: To start off with…awesome continuity nod by putting Matt and Montel together here as a tag team. Remember when that partnership/feud was going on? Good times. This was a Money in the Bank preview match, and was a smart choice for the opening match of the show as all four men can go here when they’re motivated. As a match goes this was more or less decent; the guys didn’t go off the charts or anything, but they worked well together. The match was shorter than I would have liked from these four and I didn’t feel like the match got off the ground the way it could have, but what we got was tolerable and the end part with Dolph grabbing the ladder and snagging the Money in the Bank suitcase was a nice touch. I wouldn’t call Dolph anything close to a favorite here, but it’s nice to build some credibility for him as a contender.
THE HART DYNASTY vs. R-TRUTH & JOHN MORRISON: Yeah, I was worried about this match for obvious reasons. One of these teams is on their way to ‘Mania for a Title match, and the other team hasn’t beaten anyone not named Cryme Tyme in forever. The point here was to put the faces over strong as a team to give them momentum on the way to ‘Mania. Honestly, I don’t think they did a great job with that. The Harts controlled almost the entire match, then one tag was made, Truth hit the Lie Detector and the match was over. This didn’t make them credible, it just meant that Truth has a tough finisher. The match was so short that it was essentially meaningless, and it didn’t do enough for the ‘Mania challengers to justify burying the Harts like that. I don’t MIND that the Harts lost the way they did, but it netted no real benefit.
DREW McINTYRE vs. THE UNDERTAKER: Early in the show, Drew showed up backstage where Teddy Long was on the phone. Teddy got off the line and told Drew that he was impressed to see he was still “technically” undefeated. He then ran down his losses while being undefeated—only in the WWE, people—and then said that he was going to put that undefeated streak on the line against someone else who had a streak. Drew tried to play the McMahon card, but it was to no avail; Vince was apparently skippering the Sexy Bitch or something, ’cause he wasn’t answering his phone. So it was Drew against the Dead Man, to the Intercontinental Champion’s disdain.
This match was the main event match, and Taker got his entrance first; it was so the Dead Man could get the big pop, but it also may have been a nice little touch to the idea that the champion should enter second, even in non-title matches. This settled the debate of who has the slower walk to the ring, though…it’s the Undertaker by two seconds, 1:14 to 1:12 (for TV matches, obviously). Yes, I count strange things, I know. As for the match, well…thanks for playing, Mr. McIntyre. This was a flat-out squash, with Drew hitting a powerslam and a couple punches, which was frankly far more than I expected but was still nothing. Taker flattened the Intercontinental Champion in a couple of minutes, and while a loss to Taker rarely hurts someone’s credibility, this did Drew absolutely no favors. You may not like the guy, but you have to agree that if Vince is going to push the guy then he needs to…you know. PUSH him. After the match we had HBK come out, and the two exchanged finisher counters on the ramp before Shawn hit the superkick. I guess Drew can say he loosened the jar lid, metaphorically.
DID YOU KNOW?: Nope. And, as always, I don’t care.
WORD UP: Yes, I still hate this segment. It serves no purpose other than to get Cryme Tyme on-screen. It’s not getting them over with the crowd any, all it is doing is wasting time. This week’s Word was “Show Down.” Apparently, it’s both the Webster’s meaning and something involving Slim Jim’s. I don’t care. And I didn’t care about this.
| The 411
This show was far from “Must-See WWE.” The wrestling was all pretty ignorable at best, with the exception of Rey and Gallows which was pretty good, and the only non-match segments that did any good was the one built around the same feud and the Cutting Edge one. The rest of the show made the build to ‘Mania a stale one at best and in the end, this wasn’t an abysmal SmackDown, but was nowhere near the usual quality. SHOW RATING: 5.5 |
Someone (that would be me) wanted to watch Destination X tonight, so sadly, there are no comments this week. We’ll have ’em back Friday though!
Until Friday, keep on kickin’ it!
~456~
