wrestling / Columns
Wrestling’s 4R’s Tuesday Edition 01.27.09: TNA Impact, WWE Smackdown and the 2009 Royal Rumble 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 any PPV’s, while my partner in crime Jeremy Thomas discusses WWE Smackdown. The column will run again on Friday’s, covering WWE Raw, with Jeremy Thomas as well as ECW on Sci-Fi by myself. 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.
SUNDAY IS THE DAY!
In HD where available…
By: Larry Csonka
iMpact! 01.22.09:
THE MEM SPEAKS/TEAM 3D SPEAKS FROM JAPAN: While I am not the biggest fan of adding 3D to the PPV main event, I really enjoyed the MEM interview segment this week. Angle was trying to lay down the law, when Cornette made the four-way title match. Angle said that there was no way that he and Sting would take these matches, when Sting chimed in, “Excuse me, mister…um…godfather, I’ll speak for myself.” Cornette made the title match, and the slight disagreement between Sting and Angle id perfect is setting the stage for Angle to take the title, and eliminate Sting from the MEM, which has been coming, and will also allow him to rehab his knee injuries, as well as come back down the line as the hero. This all worked out well in my opinion. This was then followed by an interview with Team 3D, “From Japan,” where TNA put over their IWGP title victory. They did a good job of making this feel live, with the fake audio difficulties, and Team 3D’s surprise that they were now in a title match. Again, it doesn’t exactly thrill me, but it was done well.
BOOKER SPEAKS TO REFEREE SHANE/MAPLE LEAF MUSCLE LAYS DOWN THE LAW/Scott Steiner and Booker T w/Sharmell vs. Eric Young and Petey Williams: After the X-Division Title match, Sharmell had told Shane Sewell to come and meet with Booker. The meeting was all about Booker wanting an advantage in the tag match later on, basically telling Sewell that they need someone to do some clean up for them. Sewell didn’t seem to want any part of this, but Booker felt that they had an understanding. Petey followed this up with a really solid and emotional promo. You could tell that he was pissed and really, hurt that Steiner turned on him, and it was simple. We were boys, you turned on me and left me for dead, I’m back and I will kill you bitch. It worked. The elimination tag match wasn’t a great match, but it was a great angle. They got Young out, and their plan was coming to life as they got the two on one against Petey. I felt that this was well done because it took a massive beat down on Petey for them to finally be done with him, and while the MEM didn’t NEED the win, this was done right because it got sympathy for Petey. Also, they have furthered the Booker vs. Sewell angle, which began the previous week. These two will battle at the PPV, and that’s not the worst idea in the world.
THE BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE ARE BACK!: While it took a lot of shit to get here, the Beautiful People were back this week, and they were back with a vengeance. Lauren was having a little talk with “Sarah Palin” about the trick she helped pull on the Beautiful People, and she was rather proud of herself. But the Beautiful People took this time to get REVENGE! They beat the shit out of poor Dafney, I mean, they whooped her ass gang style. This was a tremendous beat down, and the Beautiful People look to be back on track. At least, I hope so…
AJ vs. ANGLE: The main event of the show was the match that was supposed to main event the previous week, AJ Styles vs. Kurt Angle. But when Angle met a table, that match was called off. So this week we finally get the match, and just to add something fun, they added the table stipulation. This was AJ Styles vs. Kurt Angle, and while only about 9-minutes after the commercial, it was a damn fine match. Kurt walked away with the clean and decisive victory, which I feel will lead to him winning the title at AAO’s. It also gets him a win back over AJ, which was coming sometime, but AJ had plenty of offense and looked great, he just got caught. The beat down was prefect, as they mentioned that Joe was out, 3D was in Japan, Foley was in the UK and Petey was beaten down. This was a string way to end the show.
X-DIVISION TITLE MATCH: The show kicked off with the X-Division title on the line as Alex Shelley defended the title against Chris Sabin, Sheik Bashir and Sonjay Dutt. Overall this was a fine opening match, with all four guys working hard, and smart booking to keep Shelley limited as he is still working through an injury. Shelley would retain the title with a good old roll up variation for the win. The roll up IS the most deadliest finisher in TNA today. It was fun, but it felt WAY too rushed. Would it really kill them to give these guys some time on TV so that they could actually put some stuff together instead of having to run balls to the wall because they only have a few minutes.
MORGAN AND ABBY MAKE UP/FIRST BLOOD: Matt Morgan and “ABBY” came to the ring for a heart to heart segment. Matt was sorry for losing his temper, and he wanted them to be the BESTEST OF PALS~! They made therapy jokes, they were all happy, the crowd went “AWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW” at times and I think that we ALL knew that Morgan was about to beat the shit out of ABBY. The first blood match followed, and it was all there as follow up for the Morgan and Abby interview. It wasn’t bad, and it gives beer Money another tainted victory, which they are making a living off of. Roode and Storm continue to be a great tag team, and they seem to be able to work with anyone, which is a sign that they are a good team. The break up was just way too predictable. The interview before hand was so over the top and the crowd knew it. BUT, it needed to happen. They were going to get the titles and Morgan as a face has been extremely boring. Hopefully the heel turn will give him new life, because God knows Abyss will take an extreme beating for him. Seriously, between all of the abuse he takes and now being called “Abby,” this fucker wants to be an Abdullah the Butcher figure in the worst way. Rock on if that’s the legacy you want dude.
ROUGH CUTS: Sojourner Bolt: Dear TNA,
Once again I have to say that you seem to have some major issues with portraying your heels and faces accurately. Please stop running rough cuts segments for the heels. I ask this because you do too good of a job producing these segments, and when they are done, they make me like the heel. I want to support the heel and even cheer them. Others feel this way as well. That’s not right. Please use the segment to further hype some of the faces on the roster that really need it, maybe ones that don’t get the TV time they need, maybe if we get their personalities over more, people will cheer them. It’s just some advice I thought I’d share.
Hugs and kisses,
Larry
ODB vs. SO JO: While this made sense as far as building the upcoming title match between Kong and ODB, overall this came off as a waste. They had a match, it was ok, it lasted 2-minutes as we got the DQ ending as the KONGTOURAGE beat the shit out of ODB. It just felt…blah. With Kong injured, and likely taking time off VERY soon, what they should have done is have ODB beat the KONGTOURAGE. This week So Jo, next week Khan and then Saeed. She takes them on each week, she beats them but gets the beat down after the match. And then at the PPV, the KONGTOURAGE is BANNED from ringside, ODB gets the win that the crowd has wanted, Kong takes time off to get surgery and heal up, SIMPLE!
GIMMICK MADNESS!: I wanted to keep this separate from the matches, because I didn’t want to drag everything down due to this. This is another case of TNA not being able to help itself, they just HAVE to overbook the TV show. What am I talking about? This:
* X-DIVISION TITLE MATCH
* ELIMINATION TAG MATCH
* FIRST BLOOD MATCH
* TABLES MATCH
It is a constant problem with TNA, they keep giving away matches that if announced or built to could help their ratings or PPV buy rates. What do the have to gain by having these matches with NO advance advertising? And NO, their website does not count. Now the title match isn’t so bad, because they tend to pop out random title matches. Although I will argue that constantly throwing out short, multi-man matches for the title tends to devalue it. I could also give the tables match a break, because it makes sense coming off of last week. But the elimination tag comes out of nowhere, and doesn’t really make a ton of sense with only it being 2 on 2. Yes they played it well, but why are we just tossing gimmick matches out there with no build? The Abyss and Morgan split was also this week, and that came out of the first blood match. Why did they have a first blood match booked? FUCK IF I KNOW! TNA HATES MONEY AND VIEWERS! The gimmick match is continually devalued in wrestling, and TNA does their fair share to help with that. Constantly throwing these kinds of matches on free TV with NO build is stupid. Take your time, make them mean something, and then, and ONLY then if you actually want to give something like this away on TV, THEN do it. This is really the kind of shit that makes my head hurt.
| The 411
A better show than last week. They actually had some good wrestling, and overall the show felt focused. While far from perfect in the execution, I enjoyed the show and they that they are on the right track as they build to Against All Odds. As a reminder, I will be going by the 411 scale. Also, PPV rankings can and will likely change through out the year: 0 – 0.9: Torture SHOW RATING: 7.0 of 10 |
By: Jeremy “NOT LARRY CSONKA” Thomas
WWE SmackDown 1.23.09
EDGE STEALS SNITSKY’S GIG: After a brief intro by Tazz and J.R. confirming that “foul play” was at hand in the pyrotechnics last week—for the record, duh—Edge made his way down to the ring, hated as always. Edge looked confounded and proceeded to announce that he had nothing to do with what happened to Jeff. He told us that he admired Day-Glo for agreeing to defend the title at the Rumble, even though it was the biggest mistake of his life. Bigger than the drugs and the not insuring his house? Okay, if you say so. Edge gave a great heat-grabbing interview that did exactly what a hype promo should do; it advanced feuds and storylines, put himself over, put his opponent over and got the crowd into it. He didn’t get too long before Matt Hardy came out to attack ol’ Rated-R to a huge pop and chased him through the crowd. This was short and to the point, didn’t overstay its welcome, got the crowd pumped for the show to come and played into the match to come later that night. Plus, Matt didn’t have to talk, which is good because while he’s not always terrible, he’d look like a hack against Edge. In short, this was everything you could want in an opening talkie bit.
SHELTON BENJAMIN vs. THE UNDERTAKER: This was a continuation of their little mini-feud moving toward the Rumble. Shelton was already in the ring looking aggressive and ready to go. Points to him for once again showing absolutely no fear as the Dead Man came down to the ring. A lot of guys have faced off against Taker and few have looked at him with as little apprehension as Shelton has; that he was able to do it a second time after their first match a couple weeks ago is a point to the creative team for letting him continue his character like that. This started off a lot faster than their first match and then settled down into something really good. I actually enjoyed this better then the first one for a couple reasons. One, the action seemed plotted out more effectively and they didn’t devolve into rest-holds nearly as much. Second, the offense was very back-and-forth and this one seemed less about Shelton being able to hang with Taker and more about whether he was actually going to win. He came out of this match looking incredibly strong; our favorite wrestling zombie that’s never jobbed for Sandman is one of the few guys that it’s very easy to look good in defeat against and that’s exactly what’s happening to Goldilocks here. He blocked a lot of Taker’s signature offense and even hung with him a little in the pugilistic moments of the match. Seriously, who called Shelton countering the choke slam with a single-arm DDT? The end of the match worked just fine with Shelton getting frustrated and letting Taker lock in the Devil’s Gate out of nowhere. This gave Shelton credibility and Undertaker some momentum heading into the Rumble, and kicked some ass on top of it. If this is going to lead to an elevation of Shelton I’m all for it.
JEFF INTERVIEW: J.R. had a sit-down conversation with Jeff Hardy to provide the first hour main event. They recapped Jeff’s pyro incident from the week before, then launched into the interview itself. Jeff said that the incident wasn’t an attack, it was intentional, and the hit and run was an attack as well. Jeff pointed the finger at Edge, the obvious choice, and said that his mistakes are where he’s learning and getting better. This was a great chance for Jeff to create a compelling moment in this feud; the sit-down interview segments have been what launched many a career into the stratosphere. I’ve been critical of Jeff’s talking ability for a long time, even though he has improving; this was another step in the right direction. All his improvement to date has been while he was in a near-frenzy, and it’s very easy to convey emotion when you’re practically yelling. Jeff was softer-spoken here, he didn’t lose his shit but he still carried off the emotion really well. Kudos to the champ for making the most of this opportunity.
MATT HARDY vs. EDGE: The crowd was really hot for this one as both men made their ways down to the ring; there will always be money in Matt vs. Edge. They got right into it from the beginning; no lock-ups or headlocks, they just started beating the crap out of each other, which is exactly how they should be. They’ve had better matches together before to be sure, but that doesn’t take anything away from this one, which was a nicely intense, fast-paced brawl. They busted out a couple weapons and used them just enough to be effective without overdoing it. The ending worked out well enough for me, with Jack Swagger and Mark Henry coming down to take Matt out so Edge could get the pin. I would have liked to see it just be Swagger to get him more of a rub without the big guy, but that’s a very minor complaint. All in all, good stuff here that accomplished a lot, all in one match.
MIZ & MORRISON vs. THE COLONS: This was the battle between tag team champions. The Raw champs came out first with the greatest entrance in professional wrestling today, followed by Primo and Carlito. This was solid action from beginning to end; the Colons are just getting better and better as a team, and of course MnM 2.0 always work together well. They had some good back-and-forth stuff and got some good double-team moves in against each other, tossing some fun spots in along the way like Miz’s bulldog against the turnbuckle. The Colons each had their moments of hot tags and the match got a lot of good time in order to let them really go in there. Carlito did some good stuff off his hot tag at the end and the sequence of near-falls was nicely done, with MnM 2.0 getting the win thanks to Miz’s sneaky blind tag. This was a nice little showcase for the tag teams and it was great to see that occasionally the ‘E remembers that they do have the division.
CHAVO IS A MEXICAN WARRIOR!!! RAAAAH:! Chavo was out in the ring, complaining about how ‘H and all us fans were calling him a gofer and a joke. Well, if the shoe fits Chavito…he didn’t seem to think it did, though. He proclaimed himself a Mexican Warrior and said he was proud to do anything his Aunt Vickie asked of him. Um…no offense dude, but doesn’t that make you a gofer? Anyway, the gist of this was that he wanted to bitch at Khali for the whole naked pictures thing. This brought the Punjabi Playboy out for a match. As you might expect, the end result was a match that was too short, completely one-sided on behalf of Khali, and frankly sucked pretty hard. Khali threw Chavo around until he missed a big boot and then took a few punches before he flattened the Gofer Warrior. This was what it was, and what it was wasn’t very much. Say that five times fast.
THE BELLAS vs. MICHELLE & NATALYA: Before this match started, Maryse made her way to the ring in an outfit that made me love black and red as a combo even more then I already did. We got a recap of Maryse’s Butterfly Title win as she joined J.R. and Lawler on commentary. She did a more or less tolerable job on commentary; hardly great, but she didn’t fall on her face either. As a match goes…well, this really wasn’t one. We got a little opening scuffle stuff until Maria came down and attacked Michelle for the DQ. The point here was to get Maria over as the plucky face, and it worked all right as the crowd popped pretty nice for her and Nattie and Michelle teaming up to take her out seemed okay. There wasn’t much to this segment but it did its job well enough I guess.
‘H vs. VLADIMIR KOZLOV (AND BIG SHOW): This was continuing the H-Man/Vick feud, stemming off ‘H’s helping MVP break his losing streak last week. As Kozlov came down to the ring, it was nice to see that they’re qualifying his undefeated streak finally with “never lost by either pin or submission.” See, you can be honest and still put your talent over; funny concept, eh? Of course, mention was made of his “unblemished record” after, so I shouldn’t put too much stock into it. The Game came down next and after his super-entrance they got right into it. What they had wasn’t too bad; I’ve never been a big fan of the way ‘H and Kozlov work in the ring, but this was the start of something potentially very decent. Of course, it wasn’t long before Vickie the Chipmunk down and got the crowd riled up with her catchphrase, then tossed the Big Show into the match. One thing that really disappointed me here was Kozlov’s apparent joy at this change. Kozlov’s always been a heel, sure…but he’s always been more of a “machine” sort of heel. He’s never seemed to be the type who would appreciate taking the easy way out, and that just seemed like a slight betrayal of his character no matter how cool the twisted grin on his face was. The point of this, of course, was to put ‘H over in the fight against all odds—whoops, wrong company, but you get the idea. This was pretty much unnecessary, as we all know ‘H is the SmackDown Superman. He of course hung in nicely against the duo but eventually went down to the numbers advantage. This was far from great, and was really barely even good. Show and ‘H did the heavy lifting in terms of workrate and it really didn’t do anyone except the Game any favors. Far from the best match of the show, though it wasn’t exactly terrible either.
MAN UP!: Edge ended up backstage after his little brawl with Matt, and he was complaining to Vickie about how Matt was out of control, then started asking for more security. Vickie was having none of it though, and told Edge he’d be facing Matt in a No DQ match. The story here was that Vick was suspecting that Edge was behind the attacks of Jeff, and she told him to “man…up.” That set of ellipses is on purpose by the way. This is exactly what I was talking about in the Right about someone looking like a hack on the mike against Edge. Against someone else Vick sounds more-or-less okay. She clearly needs to improve, but she’s not horrible. When Edge is emoting his ass off though, she sounds cheap and stilted by comparison. I also don’t get why Vickie would be upset that Edge was attacking Jeff; car accidents and pyro isn’t that far off from some of the fucked up things she’s done as GM. Edge storyline segments are normally good; this was outside that norm.
VIDEO KILLED THE WRESTLING STAR: Now, I’ve sang the praises of the ‘E’s production team in putting all these videos together before, and I will again. There are few companies in the entertainment business, if any, who can do what the ‘E does with their promotional videos. That said, it was overload this week. We had a Jeff Hardy recap video before the theme, the HBK/JBL storyline recap, the “UMAGA RETURNING!” video, the Kozlov training regime, the kudos bit for The Wrestler, the promo for Behind Enemy Lines: Columbia, the Raw Recap…did I miss anything? Probably. Anyway, that’s a hell of a lot of time taken up during a two-hour show, and while the videos were well put-together, it was just too many. I realize it was in order to hard-sell the Pay-Per-View, so I’ll probably only complain about this the one time here. Hopefully, because there is too much of a good thing in this instance.
DID YOU KNOW?: Nope. And, as always, I don’t care.
| The 411
Another good show leading into the Rumble, the whole point of this was to hard-sell the Pay-Per-View and they did that really well. The Edge/Hardy storyline moved along nicely and we had a few good matches. Sure, there’s room for improvement, but we’ve had a lot worse shows before so I can’t complain overly. SHOW RATING: *** |
Comment Time with Jeremy!
From Guest#5960
Orton fanboys are so cute. You all jizz yourselves over him. Cute.
As opposed to whoever you like and jizz yourself over. I love the title “fanboy;” it’s supposed to be a derogatory term, but I frankly wear it with pride. It means I’m a fan of someone, and you know what? We’re all fans of someone. I’m a Joss Whedon fanboy, a Shawn Michaels fanboy, an Orton fanboy, a Watchmen fanboy, Heroes, Dexter…the list goes on and on. You’re a fanboy too, Mr. Guest, even if you don’t want to admit it. Need some tissues for when whoever you’re a fan of shows up on-screen?
From Zack D.:
A 4 star Raw? Bull SHIT!
This Raw only had like 15 min. of wrestling on it people. When TNA does that, you people bitch about it. When WWE does this, your fine with it.
Im really starting to think 411 is totally biased towards WWE.
Hello Zack D. I’m Jeremy Thomas. Larry’s the guy who complains about TNA only having 15 minutes of wrestling. Of course, TNA is the company that sells itself as the “wrestling alternative” where the ‘E’s trying to sell itself as entertainment, not even sports entertainment anymore. It’s all about what the company is selling itself as and the image that it’s promoting. Regardless, I find your bias comment amusing. Everyone always thinks we’re biased when we don’t agree with them. graves9 thinks we’re WWE-biased like you. K-Money thinks we’re indy-biased. There’s a whole host of people who call us TNA-biased. Bottom line…failing to agree with you doesn’t indicate a bias of any kind. Thank you, come again.
From Hmmm:
DID YOU KNOW?: Nope. And, as always, I don’t care.
I beg to differ. You make reference to this EVERY SINGLE week. You obviously DO care, fatty, or you wouldn’t keep bleeting on about it.
Two corrections in your post. First off, I’m 5’11” and 145 pounds, which is a good deal underweight, not overweight. The correct insult would be ‘Skeletor’ or ‘scrawny bitch’ or what-have-you. Second, the “Did You Know” segment is a permanent part of my template; thus it takes no effort for me to leave it in. Only when they don’t do the damned bumper do I have to care enough to put any effort into that particular part. Thanks for reading!
From Brad B:
Jeremy Thomas: You’re WAY off on the new Priceless theme music being better. It’s awful! The original fit their personas so much more. It’s like saying Orton’s lame, good guy “Nothing you can say” garbage is better than the SWANK theme he has now.
Hopefully, this is just a one-time thing and they change it back.
I beg to differ, I think the new one is more reminiscent of the ominous feel “Voices” has and thus fits them better as Orton associates. Clearly, it’s not a one-time deal as seen at the Rumble, so I guess we might as well get used to it.
By: Larry Csonka
WWE RYAL RUMBLE 2009: 01.25.09:
ECW TITLE MATCH: Jack SWAGGA defeated Matt Hardy via pin @ 10:00 {**¾}
WWE WOMEN’S TITLE MATCH: Melina defeated Beth Phoenix to become the NEW WWE WOMEN’S CHAMPION via pin @ 6:00 {*½}
WORLD TITLE MATCH: John Cena defeated JBL via pin @ 16:00 {**¾}
WWE TITLE MATCH: Edge defeated Jeff Hardy to become the NEW WWE CHAMPION via pin @ 20:00 {***¾}
ROYAL RUMBLE MATCH: Randy Orton won the Royal Rumble, last eliminating HHH {***¾}
ECW TITLE MATCH : As I have stated, the opener to a PPV is important. You have to have guys that the people care about, and preferably with a strong story heading into the match. Matt is always over big with the crowds, SWAGGA is over well as a heel, and the story is the title rematch, so we had the proper ingredients. They again had a good match, with SWAGGA working smartly. Unlike a lot of guys brought up, SWAGGA has been able to work smartly and very believably, which is part of the reason he has gotten over so well. Add into that the fact that he is working with an established star who is selling the offense well, and it just works. In the end this was a good opener. It had the story, it had hard work by both, they got the time and the finish again was good because SWAGGA gets over like he deserves the title, and it also left you with the disappointed Matt, which worked to play into the turn later in the show. This was a good way to kick off the night.
WORLD TITLE MATCH: Heading into the match they properly played with our minds, as JBL stated to HBK that if he won the title, that he would not only pay HBK all of the money promised to him THAT NIGHT, but that he would release HBK from his contract. Not only that, he said that he would get HBK into the Rumble match, which could lead to HBK facing the WRESTLING GOD at WrestleMania. We also had Taker appear and basically tell HBK to do the right thing, setting the stage for the possible Taker vs. HBK match at the big show. As for the match, it wasn’t bad, but it also wasn’t a memorable wrestling outing. But what carried it was the story of the bout. They played it perfectly to get to the moment everyone was waiting for. HBK dropped JBL and then Cena with the superkick and bailed after placing JBL on top of Cena. Unfortunately for JBL, Cena would overcome the odds and get the win. After setting the stage, they pulled the good kind of swerve, and they didn’t end it early and take the easy road. I will be curious to see where they go from here. Overall this was good stuff.
WWE TITLE MATCH: Unfortunately with Vickie Guerrero making the match a no-DQ match at the beginning, I was 100% sure that Jeff would be losing the title. The only question was, would it be a returning Christian, or a betrayal from brother Matt. I will say though that with the announcement of no-DQ, this did allow Jeff and Edge all of the extras, the gimmicks and tricks to play with, and that helped the match, which I felt was a very good one. Chavo had come to the ring with Edge, and his whole purpose was to take the big bump for Edge through a table. I have to say that I thought Jeff may die as he jumped from the ladder, it left out from under him, but thankfully he still was able to land on Chavo and put him through the table. That could have been very scary. Jeff and Edge had a really good and long match, as they still have that chemistry that helped make both men in the tag ranks. Vickie broke up what looked to have been a sure pin, and this brought out Matt, and I think we all then knew what was coming. Matt had a chair, but went for another, a she talked Jeff into a CONCHAIRTON for Edge. Jeff, being stupid, listened to his greasy haired brother and ate a chair shot for his trouble. Edge would cover and won the title (NEFARIOUS MEANS) while Matt stood there, just staring at his brother. I felt that the commentary team did a great job of putting over the “shock” of Matt’s actions, it played well off of the opening match, and in the end worked out well. I will say that I expected a bit more reaction from the turn, more heat on Matt really, but it was enough. I am not the biggest fan of the Matt vs. Jeff angle as we head forward, but I am willing to give it a chance. All I ask for is a change of look for Matt, along with the attitude change to come. More V-1 please. I will admit that the first feud failed, BUT, they are more seasoned wrestlers, they are older, smarter and are stars. It is a rehash of Owen vs. Bret. It has a chance, but history is not their friend here.
ROYAL RUMBLE MATCH: In my opinion, the Rumble was a bit of a mixed bag. Don’t get me wrong; it was good, just not great. While part of me liked that they didn’t have a ton of quick and bullshit eliminations, there were times where there were just too many guys in the ring, just standing around and also getting in the way. When that happens, it is NOT a good thing. But there was also a lot to love about the Rumble:
But yeah, this was a good and fun close to the show. Orton winning is the right call, no doubt about it to me. We had good spacing of stars for the right pops, lots of great saves, and the perfect execution of the Legacy angle through out the match, which allowed HHH to look strong while also making Orton out to look like a genius leader was what carried the match. As I talk about the match I seem to like it more, its funny how those things work out. But I will say that it was a little predictable, due to the lack of viable winners in the field.
WWE WOMEN’S TITLE MATCH : The ladies title was second up on the show, and I had some high hopes for the match. They have shown that they have some chemistry, and they had some decent build heading into the match. Overall this match was a fine little match. They worked very, and this was much different than most DIVAS matches. They definitely worked in some SHIIMMER-LIKE spots, especially the MsChif style self kicks to the head spot with Melina. The change in style and new to WWE fans spots they used were refreshing, but unfortunately I feel that people are allowing that to pull the wool over their eyes. While innovative at times, that doesn’t erase the miscommunication they had. There were some rough spots in there, and they can’t be ignored. Melina got the win off of the neat finish and is the new champion, thusly paying off her return angle well. But the rough spots and fact that they were rushed I feel (only getting 6-minutes) hurt the match. This was a good effort by both, but lacked in the end.
NOTHING
NOTHING
| The 411
This is a good PPV in that there was NOTHING bad on the show. Strong opener, the ladies match was fine, good WWE and World Title matches (and the angles going out give you a lot to talk about) and the Rumble match was also good, and adds to the angle they began Monday with Orton and the McMahons. A strong show, but it lacked a “great match” to really put it over the top. There was nothing to make you feel like you HAD to see it wrestling wise. While Genesis and Rising Above had those big matches, Genesis has some shit on it and the main events did not deliver on that show. Fortunately the overall quality of this show was strong enough to have you walk away feeling that you watched a good show. As a reminder, I will be going by the 411 scale. Also, PPV rankings can and will likely change through out the year: 0 – 0.9: Torture SHOW RATING: 7.25 |
–ROH RISING ABOVE {8.0}
–WWE ROYAL RUMBLE {7.25}
–TNA GENESIS {7.0}
–[ROH RISING ABOVE] – ROH WORLD TITLE MATCH: Nigel McGuinness © vs. Bryan Danielson (****½)
–[ROH RISING ABOVE] – I QUIT MATCH: Jimmy Jacobs vs. Austin Aries (****¼)
–[TNA GENESIS] – Kurt Angle defeated Jeff Jarrett (****¼)
–[TNA GENESIS] – X-Division Title Match: Alex Shelley defeated Chris Sabin (****¼)
–[WWE ROYAL RUMBLE] – THE ROYAL RUMBLE MATCH (***¾)
–[WWE ROYAL RUMBLE] – WWE TITLE MATCH: Edge defeated Jeff Hardy (***¾)
Not every PPV will have one, it just depends on who I think steps up and deserves some extra recognition.
–[TNA GENESIS] Sabin, Shelley, Angle and Jarrett – Rocking The House
–[ROH RISING ABOVE] – Danielson and McGuinness – Defining the ROH World Title
–[WWE ROYAL RUMBLE] – RVD – The Joke Pays Off
And I’m out of here!
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