WrestleMania 26: Bones Made, but no Made Men

Well boys and girls, it's that time of year again, WrestleMania!! Overall I found the event to be rather mediocre compared to previous Manias. Once again the WWE has blown their chance to start the creation of the futures SuperStars.

We were late starting to watch the show, which worked out because I was able to fast forward through Fantasia's brutal National Anthem version. Where oh where is Lilian?

Match One: ShowMiz vs MorTruth

Average match, it wasn't really any better than a RAW match. Nothing special from anyone really. But I did like Morrison's delay on the ropes as he leaned into Show's hamhock sized fist. I didn't expect MorTruth to win, but I expected a better showing. Their first chance to start creating a new star was blown here. Daniel Bryan should have cost ShowMiz the match, furthering the Miz/Bryan storyline. It might have piqued some interest in NXT, with it's dropping ratings, it needs it.

Rating: 2 stars

Match Two: Orton vs DiBiase vs Rhodes

I liked the placement of this match. Something to appease the crowd early. The match starts off like I expected with a gang up on Orton. I was confused by the constant reference to this match as an elimination match, until in Vintage Michael Cole he reminded us that it wasn't an elimination match. Way to be on top of things WWE. Awesome. Attempt two, failed. Once again, putting either DiBiase or Rhodes over Orton on the biggest stage of the WWE would have gone a long way in creating either one of them as a legitimate threat, instead they both get to look weak against the Viper. While Orton will move on, we'll get stuck with a DiBiase/Rhodes feud.

Rating: 2 1/2 stars

Match Three: MITB

Not as much of a clusterfug as I expected, with four too many SuperStars than needed. Some nice high spots, a few blown spots that were recovered. As much as I like Kane, he shouldn't have been in this match, he's too big and everyone knows his time is past. Bourne, Benjamin and MVP shouldn't have been in there either. One a spot monkey, one will never get a shot and the other is still feuding with Miz, supposedly, although that seems dropped. I was expecting McIntyre to win this one as pay off for his "I didn't lose those two matches" storyline, and he is McMahon's chosen one. I was surprised by Swagger's win. I laughed at how long it took him to get the briefcase though. I was thinking well if Swagger cashes in tonight like he claimed he would, at least they would take a step in creating a new big name.

Rating: 3 stars

Match Four: HHH vs Sheamus

I was looking forward to this match. I assumed, and you know what they say about assuming, that HHH would put his training partner Sheamus over by taking a loss. I don't know what I was thinking. Sheamus did look better in this match than he has against any other SuperStar, dominating for the most part. Of course as strong as they made him look, they lost all that momentum with HHH suddenly coming awake from dead weight to hit a pedigree and win the match. Chance three of creating a new name, shot to shit.

Rating: 2 1/2 stars

Match Five: CM Punk vs Mysterio

Again not what I expected. Of course my better half was saying 'Of course Rey wasn't going to win. he wasn't going to join SES', which made it my duty to explain about how it was better storyline wise for Rey to lose so he can sabotage SES from inside. She just smiled at me like I was a retard, 'They will feud as long as the writers want them too'. Le Sigh. The match itself was shorter than it should have been, but there were some nice reversal of moves. Still, I was disappointed in the ending.

Rating: 2 stars (3 stars because of Punk's awesome prematch promo)

Match Six: Bret Hart vs McMahon

Pitiful. What a lame payoff for a lame storyline. First it made Vince look stupid, like he really thought people would fall for the Hart family turning on Bret? Second, everyone knew they were going to turn on Vince, hell the dog came in the room and said 'Do you think people are falling for this shit?' The match was as horrible as I expected it to be. I watched most of the match near tears. I've never been much of a Hitman fan, but to see a once great and well respected performer make a return in such a pitiful, weak shadow of their former self was sad. Just the fact that they had to have someone else do the actual beating on Vince made it more pitiful. Then when it should have ended it kept right on going. Not only was this match pitiful, but it sapped the energy from the crowd for the rest of the night. Hopefully the Hart Dynasty will get a push out of this. At least then something good will have happened.

Rating: 1/2 star

Match Seven: Jericho vs Edge

Decent match up, but I expected a bit more bang for my buck. With the build for this match I expected more stops to be pulled out. Maybe Edge really isn't at a 100%. I was glad to see Jericho pull out the win, he deserves more than a month title reign after carrying both brands for the better part of a year. His talent in the ring, on the mic, and a making faces deserves a length title reign. I liked the spear on the announce tables. Even with the loss it made Edge look strong. Of course, once again a chance was blown to create a new name for the future. Swagger should have come running out, rolled Jericho in the ring and won the title. Perfect chance blown. Again. Again.

Rating 3 1/2 stars

Match Eight: Five on Five Diva Tag match

Why was this added to the card? Why wasn't this the dark match instead of the Battle Royal? Why was this placed so high up on the card? Why was Vicky in the ring? Why did they make me feel like they were more making fun of Eddie than paying homage? No one looked good in this match, well looked good ring skill wise. The diva division is in dire need of a refocus, dedication to wrestling or just dropping it instead making them all valet's.

Rating 1/4 star

Match Nine: Cena vs Batista

Hold on let me get behind a protective shield. Okay. You know this match was so much better than I thought it would be. Maybe it was because we had just seen that horrible Diva's match, I don't know. I thought Batista looked powerful and legitimate, I was surprised that he sold the STF at the end so well. His hand was moving so slow when he tapped out, I thought he was passing out. Cena went through a few "hulk up" moments, but Batista countered them. Cena actually started out the match with mat wrestling. This was the first match of the night that had me actually into the pin attempts. Batista should have won the match in my opinion. One he's been great as a heel the last few weeks, and it's always better for the Face to chase the title. The fans get into it more. Once again, no Swagger and blown chance number 348. Well at least he didn't cash in the MITB and lose to either Cena or Jericho. That would have really sucked.

Rating 3 1/2 stars

Match Ten: Taker vs HBK

This match was no where near as good as last years. Maybe it was because the build up this year was so well done, or maybe because lightning can't strike twice. The match was still the best of the night, but overall it didn't really have to try that hard. I expected there to be more outside objects since there was no DQ or Countout. Not a bad spot through the table and Taker sold the knee injury very well afterwards. Even, Lawler sold it well, making it sound like he was whispering to the other guys that he thought Taker's leg was broke. The match was a solid three star match. It was nothing that wasn't seen before. A lot of kick out of each guys finisher. But the end put it over the top for me. With Taker's look of 'I don't want to do this', telling HBK to stay down, and HBk climbing up Taker's chest, giving him the throat cut sign and slapping him. That one moment gave it a whole nother star. To me it made the match and summed up HBK in doing so. At least they got something right in this WM.

Rating: 4 Stars


Overall: 2 3/4 Stars


Final Thoughts

Once again some guys made bones, but there were no made men. On WWE's biggest stage they once again blew chance after chance to create some new top faces. Orton's still young, as is Punk and Cena. Batista, Jericho and HHH have a few good years left. Edge and Mysterio maybe, but he's injury prone. Taker's on his last legs, as is HBK. The time is now to create the next generation of big names.

DiBiase or Rhodes should have gone over Orton. Especially with a rumored Orton/Christian fued on the horizon. A win for either would have made a fued between the two seem like there was more to it. Now they are both one step away from joining the Job Squad.

Sheamus should have gone over HHH. Sure he looked strong and dominant, but then he looked weak falling for HHH, oh my I'm out of it routine. I really thought that Trips would put him over since they are training partners and what not. I guess nepotism is still alive and well in the WWE.

Sure Swagger won the MITB, but does anyone really see him as a World Champion after burying him for the better part of a year? Really? Really!? McIntyre should have won the MITB. It fits better. McMahon has already called him the chosen one. He was undefeated until a few weeks ago and even that was built into the McMahon's chosen one storyline. Winning the MITB made perfect sense, so of course WWE didn't go that route.

Thank God for Matt Striker. If i were Lawler and Cole I would be asking, why is Striker suddenly announcing with us on PPV's? Lawler and Cole were horrible. At this point I think Striker could do it alone. He can call action, offer up anecdotes about the guys, talk about the moves since he was a wrestler. He is a total package announce wise.

Maybe I graded this WrestleMania hard. I don't know. I expected so much more with this card. I was actually excited about the card this year as opposed to last year where I just wanted to see Taker/HBK I. I felt let down by almost every match ending except for the Taker/HBK match. I'm sure that's not what WWE had in mind for a fans. Then again, I'm not WWE's target Demo. I don't buy merchandise, cheer for who they tell me to cheer for, and I have a sense of story. There were points last night watching the show that I thought, why do I watch, if I'm constantly disappointed with the product? I think this all the time, but like a hard habit, it's hard to break. I've been watching Wrestling for almost 30 years.

One last thing. What the hell is up with the PPV pricing? You know if I was actually paying for matches I wouldn't mind so much. Out of a four hour PPV, we may have had two and a half hours of wrestling. The rest of the time was talking about the Axxess weekend, hall of fame, advertising the next PPV and stupid how we got here segments. Do they really think their fans are idiots? If the bought the fucking PPV they probably know the build up to the damn story.

Man, I wish I was in charge.

Monday Night War Report

So this is the first official week of the New Monday Night Wars. Who will win? Who will lose? Who will fade away?

Before we jump into things, let's just leave the ratings at the door. It's too soon to be calling rating out each week. It's too soon for that to matter. For the opening salvo I'll give Raw a 3.3 rating and Impact a 1.6.

Here's the breakdown. Each week we'll look at four categories, matches, production, segments and announcing. Each category will be graded, then each show will get it's final grade for the week and announced as the winner.


Matches:

Impact: This week week got seven matches. A really good one, Six mediocre.
Raw: This week we got five matches. A really good one, Two bad ones. Two mediocre

Grades: Impact: C+ Raw: D+
Winner: Impact

Production

Impact: Still we are getting the one minute breaks for commercial breaks. The camera men still seem to get lost from time to time.
Raw: If nothing else, you can always count on Raw's production values.

Grades: Impact: C Raw: A
Winner: Raw

Segments

Impact: While most of the segments did include Hogan, they all were part of furthering the storylines.
Raw: Most of the segments furthered the storylines, but they still insist on the guest host filler idiot segments.

Grades: Impact: B Raw: C-
Winner: Impact

Announcing

Impact: Tenay can get on my nerves as can Taz, but they helped sell the action tonight, almost as well as RVD did his beating from Sting.
Raw: Most of the time it seems like Lawler and Cole are talking about something totally different than from whats going on in the ring. At least tonight Lawler didn't call anyone by the wrong name, and unless I missed it, we didn't get a vintage the whole night.

Grades: Impact C+ Raw: D+
Winner: Impact


Final Grades

Impact: C+ Raw C
Winner: Impact - even with my grading giving them three of the categories, Raw's production was almost enough to give Raw the win.


Raw may win the ratings, but this week I give it to Impact.

1-0

The Good, The Bad, and The Rant: RAW

We kick the show off with Undertaker making his way to the ring. He cuts a promo on HBK that started off a little slow but gained steam. HBK came out and things picked up. Both guys took turns cutting promos on each other. Nice way to start the night. The WrestleMania match is now no DQ. I'll give them this they are making it look like Taker has a chance of loosing the match at WM 26.

Match One: Kelly/Kim/Torres v Fox/Lea/Maryse.

SHort match like always, there was nothing of merit, not even looking at the divas. Torres got the pin on Maryse with an armbar. I guess she'll be challenging for the Diva's title next. One thing about the diva division it is predictable. Get a pin on the champ and win the title. Yay.

Hornswagle with Criss Angel, and the Bella Twins. Senseless magic that has nothing and I mean nothing to do with wrestling.

Match Two: ShowMiz vs Morrison/Truth.

Match thrown out after Morrison and Truth left Show laying outside the ring and Miz laying over the ringside barrier. Well they needed to do something to make Morrison and Truth look like they have a chance of winning. Then again WWE is known for giving the Tag TItles to thrown together teams. After all it's not like the titles mean anything. Right Vince?

Cena is interviewed by Josh Mathews. He looks sad, he can't beat Batista, he broke his neck, he took his title. Oh woe as me.

Match Three: Orton v Legacy.

Finally the first match of the night. The match was enjoyable, but I felt like it was a waste. If they are heading toward a Orton v Rhodes v DiBiase match at WrestleMania, shouldn't they get to the Legacy split already? This did nothing for Orton or Legacy. The ending was what had to be. If Orton won it would have weakened Legacy. However I will say that the chance of Orton beating Legacy was more believable than the chance of Jarrett beating Beer Money.

Mathews catches up with Batista who says that he won't interfere in Cena's match and that he wishes Cena good luck. I would have liked it better if Batista didn't say anything like he has the last few weeks and just had the smug smile and looked like he was going to say something.

Triple H comes out and cuts a promo on Sheamus. Sheamus comes out to rebut. Trips cut a great, awesome promo back at Sheamus, proving that Trips is a student of the game like it's claimed and he did learn something from his time with Flair. Sheamus and Trips come to blows with each man exchanging the upper hand. Ends with Sheamus walking away to lick his wounds. I've been a fan of Sheamus since his stiff matches with Golddust on ECW and SuperStars. I hope this match with HHH will finally allow him to put the last few months of paper champion behind him. I think HHH will put him over at WrestleMania.

Santino with Criss Angel. Yay more stupid magic tricks. Although Santino's Ralph Machio comments were great.

Match Four: Bourne vs Regal MITB Qualifier.

Bourne gets the win a quick match.

Now it's time to run down the WM card and plug Austin next week with the contract signing of McMahon and Hart. Even money on Austin ending up the special ref in the match.

Next weeks card is run down with WrestleMania recall matches. Cena vs Show, HHH vs Orton and Jerricho vs HBK. Only looking forward to the HBK/Jerricho match. I've seen the other combinations so much, nothing could make them fresh again.

Criss Angel comes out to announce the Main Event. It seems that's all the Guest hosts have been good for lately. They do stupid humnan tricks backstage, then announce the Main Event. It's a good idea lets keep doing it.

Match Five: John Cena vs McMahon in a gauntlet match.

Kozlov comes out leaves Cena laying and leaves. McMahon goes for the pin, doesn't get it.
McIntyre comes out leaves Cena laying and leaves. McMahon goes for the pin, doesn't get it.
Swagger comes out leaves Cena laying three times and leaves. McMahon doesn't get the pin.
Mark Henry comes out, leaves Cena laying. McMahon doesn't get the pin.
McMahon goes for the time keepers bell, Henry stops him Batista arrives spears Henry. Batista goes after Cena, but is stopped by Kofi. Kofi attacks Batista until he's left laying by a powerbomb. Batista leaves Cena laying and McMahon finally gets the pin.

Batista is left standing over Cena with the lights dim as Raw goes off the air.


The Good

- Never thought I would say this, but Batista. I'm loving Batista's run as a solo heel. He's just egotistical enough, just cocky enough, just angry enough, just quiet enough. He does all of this in the right ammount. Well done, and who ever came up with this heel run, did a great job.
- HHH, HBK, Taker's Promos. Well played by all three.

The Bad

- Worthless segments that do nothing for the story. At. All.
- Only one real wrestling match out of five.
- Divas

The Rant

I've read elsewhere on the Interwebs that both TNA and WWE put out good product tonight. I have to wonder what show did they watch? The WWE segments were awful as were all but the Orton v Legacy match. However the night's promos, except Cena's were awesome. Even Batista's short promo was well done.

The announcing on RAW is so stale. I hope that when JR returns they put him back on Raw and send Cole packing. Maybe when Vince ships him off he'll say, "Vintage McMahon." The guest hosts have gone from stale, to mildewed, to rotten.

The Good, The Bad, and the Rant: Impact

Impact kicks off with Hogan and Abyss making their way to the ring. Abyss is sporting splashes of Hogan's yellow and red. Flair and Styles make their way to the ring both robed and Styles robe has a hood to cover his face, with Phenominal One written across the back.

Match One: Hogan/Abyss vs Flair/Styles

Flair and Styles gain the upper hand and the lights go out. When they return we have Sting in the ring along side Hogan and Abyss. Hogan rips his shirt and Sting beats him with the bat, before attacking Abyss. After a slight pause Styles and Flair join in to bust open Hogan and Abyss. As Flair and Styles are leaving Hogan tells them that this ain't over and they will face eachother again later on tonight in a no DQ match. Your winners Hogan/Abyss by DQ.

Backstage Dixie questions Sting who grabs her by the throat and tells her that he owes her nothing., before walking off.

Styles and Flair are with Borash. Flair cuts a decent promo, that proves when he doesn't go off rambling that even now Flair can cut a promo better than most. Abyss is showing screaming "Why Sting, Why?" SO much for no more sissy Abyss.

After commercial we see Brooke and Hogan's girlfriend clone Brooke (that is kind of creepy, I mean she looks like an older twin of Brooke). Brooke is crying and Clooke is trying to comfort her.

Kazarian is in the ring saying that he will lead the X-Division into the coming war for Monday nights. Daniels comes out and says if anyone will lead the X-Division it will be him since he was X-Division before X-Division was cool. Doug WIlliams comes out proclaiming that the X-Division is alive and well since he's the champ. Bischoff comes out and says that Kazarian is supposed to face Williams at Destination X, but he's changing it to tonight and it's a threeway with Daniels, starting now.

Match Two: Daniels v Kaz v Williams

Decent match with a few nice spots and double pin attempts that I hadn't seen before. It's nice to see the X-Division in a match longer than two minutes showcasing what that branch of TNA can offer. Williams retains after Chaos Theory on Daniels.

Shannon Moore attacks Williams after the match and Bischoff comes back out to inform Williams that he will now be facing Moore at Destination X.

Dixie is with Borash saying that since Sting has re-signed his contract he will have a match tonight, but he won't know his opponent until everyone else does.

Match Three: BP v Tara/Love v Wilde/Sarita for the vacated Knockout Tag Titles.

Ok match, putting BP over with the tag titles that were vacated with the leaving of Awesome Kong. I think Hamada should have been given the chance to choose a new partner, leaving Wilde and Sarita out of the match since the match was really about pushing two storylines they weren't involved in being BP vs Love and Tara vs Dafney. BP win the titles.

The BP are celebrating with Borash and Lacey Von Erich proves that she should be seen and not heard.

The Pope is being interviewed about his upcoming match with Desmond Wolfe. Wolfe attacks his injured heel beating him with a chain before walking off telling him to keep the chains. teehee.

Match Four: RVD v Sting.

RVD comes through the crowd with a heel kick off the top rope catching Sting off guard and gets a quick pin.

While RVD is celebrating Sting attacks with the bat. RVD is hit in the knee, the stomach, back, pretty much everywhere. After doing the job for a returning RVD, this allows Sting to still look strong without hurting RVD's return. Nicely done. Plus, with the attack on Hogan and Abyss, grabbing Dixie, and not attacking RVD and later Hogan with the bat they've managed to move Sting from loved to hated in less than an hour. Well done. Much like Hogan ten years ago, it's time for Sting to finally go heel.

Nash and Young are in the ring with a one time contract for Hall and Waltman for a match at Destination X. Hall and Waltman appear, but say they want another stipulation in the match, that if they win they get TNA contracts. Bischoff pops up on the teletron and agrees, but if they loose they are to go do whatever it is that they do. Bischoff then makes a match right now between Young and Waltman. Even my dead grandmother can see that this is going to end in a swerve at Destination X with Nash throwing the match for Waltman and Hall. The only question is, will it be by sacrificing Eric Young or with a finger poke of doomesque ending? I'm hoping for a sacrifice of Eric Young. Please Gods, no fingerpoke.

Fifth match: Eric Young v Sean Waltman

Short fast paced match that saw Young pull out the win, further inforcing my swerve vision.

The US Army are surrounding the ring and Angle comes out cutting yet another serious promo in a suit. Anderson interupts from backstage, Angle goes after him and beats him toward the ring where he keeps throwing Anderson out to the troops so they could beat on him for a minutes before throwing him back in the ring. Ends with Anderson laid out and Angle smiling on the shoulders of the Army with his warrior metal back.

Jarrett confronts James Storm about being forced into a match and how much Storm owes Jarrett. Storm says he don't owe Jarrett nothing, it's what have you done for me lately and Sorry about your damn luck, which is one of the best catch phrases in TNA.

Match Six. Jarrett vs Beer Money, with Foley as Ref.

Decent showing from Jarrett, which just goes to show that when he doesn't have to worry aobout running the company he can still be the company man. I've always been a fan of Jarrett's. Beer Money gets the win after a pin from Slick who came out to stop Jarrett from using the barbwire bat that Foley had given him.

Scattered through ou tthe night there have been segments of people talking to Hogan about not doing the match tonight, including Brooke, who he promises that tonight is the last time he gets in the ring.

Match Seven: Hogan/Abyss v Flair/Styles

In a matter of second Flair is bleeding and looking like someone that's been attacked in a horror movie. Not a bad match but not great. Hogan/Abyss get the win after an assisted Black Hole Slam from Abyss on Styles.

Hogan and Abyss celebrate before being attacked by Wolfe with a chair. Flair and Styles join the fray until The Pope makes his way in the ring. In short order Wolfe, Flair and Styles gain the upper hand beating Pope, Hogan and Abyss to the mat. Then music hits and Jeff Hardy charges the ring laying out everyone standing, the show goes off with Hardy perched to leap from the top rope.


The Good

-Sting Heel- About time and well played out. Face it Sting has grown stale over the last few years, maybe it's from hangin out in those rafters. Even his turn in MEM, didn't help freshen him up, with his suits, glasses and no makeup. Maybe this will add some flavor to this almost used up stick of gum. I hope so. If he's going to stay around the freshness could help.
-Segments that actual did something for the story. No lucky charms, no magic, no diva pillow fights or Springer segments.

The Bad

-Production- still we have the one minute segments between comercials with guys walking or preparing to walk to the ring. Really we don't need it. There were also a few times where it felt like the camera man was in the way and forgot what he was filming.
-Too Much Hogan- I know the thought is that when Hogan is on the screen rating's spike, and they may even have rating proof to back it up. But seriously we didn't need to see him in three segments and coming out to aid RVD. The only thing that accomplished was to push Sting further along into the hated category for attacking a held back Hogan.



The Rant

Tonight's show title should have been Misdirection. For weeks now we've heard how Hogan was saying he was going heel soon. How he would turn on Abyss. So everyone was expecting it, Hell I was. When Sting came in the ring, I thought well he's going to attack Sting as well. Glad I was wrong. In a short bit of time I grew to love Sting as a heel. It's about time. I just hope he does something with it, and it's not short lived.

After that bit of misdirection it got me to thinking. Has the last few weeks been all misdirection? Have they purposely had shows that weren't that great, with less than fifteen minutes of actual wrestling, just to lure everyone into thinking they wouldn't be much competition for RAW? Look at what we did see tonight. The surprises didn't surprise me. I wasn't shocked by RVD, (I think it was revealed on purpose to lure fans), Moore wasn't a surprise, nor was Hardy, hell between them two and Hardy's girlfriend it was all over twitter that they would be on the show anyway. What surprised me was the use of Daniels and Beer Money. Not just their use, but how they were used. Daniels didn't come out at the prude mad because a "porn star" was on the show, he came out as the egotistical "I'm the reason the X-Division is here" guy he was a few months ago. Beer Money didn't come out as the whinning, "were being held back" tag team they were last week or a few weeks ago, they came out as "sorry about your damn luck" what do we get out of this team they were a few months ago.

I found the show enjoyable and fast paced. Hell we got seven matches, eight if you want to count the Angle/Anderson segment as a lumberjack match. If TNA could just clean up the production, cut some dead weight from the roster, and focus on wrestling this war might just be more than a skirmish. God I hope so.

The Good, te Bad, and the Rant: RAW

Every Raw Episode starts with the same words, "Yes, sir, we promised you a great main event." How many of you think it's time they change those words, since they rarely have a great main event these days. Anyway.

For the last two years the Elimination Chamber matches have thrown everyone for a loop. The unexpected has happened each time. It's a shame to come out of a PPV with so many surprises into a Raw with so few, if any.

We open with Jericho in the ring proud of his newly won World Title, soon to be joined by Edge. Edge, surprise surprise has decided to go after Jericho's titles with his Royal Rumble win. Really, who didn't see this coming? It's only been talked about since the summer. As always Jericho was great on the mic. Match one for Wrestlmania: Edge v Jericho.

Cena comes out trying to look injured and angry. He says he's can be added to the list of people screwed by Vince and he wants his rematch against Batista tonight. Vince comes out with an oh no you don't, because Sheamus has a right to a rematch as well, but Batista won't be defending the title until Wrestlemania. If Cena can beat his opponent tonight he will face Batista, if not Sheamus will, and Cena's opponent is Batista. Cena looks worried, yay.

Maryse v Gail Kim :Divas Championship.

Dud of a match, but it had me wonder if maybe Maryse is unjured somehow. I wonder if that's why the match last night was changed to a tag match. Remember a few months back when Maryse returned and she sort of collapsed on the apron. They played it off as part of the show. I'm thinking maybe there was more to it than that. At one point during the match she collapsed in the corner which led to a silly dive from Gail Kim to a non existent opponent. Maryse and the ref passed a few words then the ref started a slow ten count. When Maryse got to her feet her balance seemed off and we went into a rush ending. I wonder if this is why it's taken so long for the tournament finals to come about. I mean it's been postponed a few times already. I hope this is not something serious, because really I don't want to go through another two months of Diva turmoil.

Now it's time for our guest hosts with Jewel and her twins on display in a god awful drapes pulled from the window looking dress. Jillian tries to sing, Jewl slaps her, Yay guest hosts.

Cody approaches Orton and once again tries to place mistakes at DiBiase's feet. Orton says it was all his fault and to tell DiBiase he's sorry about everything. Orton walks off, DiBiase comes out asks how it went. Rhodes says too well. DiBiase asks if the plan is still on. Rhodes says yes. Finally, after months of building we are getting to the Legacy payoff.

Legacy v Kingston, Bourne and Tsetse fly

DiBiase gets some, Rhodes gets some then Orton gets tagged in and smacks around Kingston. DiBiase and Rhodeds reach for tags, Orton ignores them, then when he gets close Rhodes takes a tag. He starts through the ropes and Orton hits him with a hangman DDT before rolling out of the ring. DiBiase asks why and gets a RKO for his question. Orton walks off leaving Rhodes to take a pin for the team. Looks like the Viper struck before his protege's could.

HBK comes out with more whinning about why he did what he did. The Undertaker interupts. After they both spout on for a few minutes Taker agrees to HBK's match at Wrestlemania, but he wants HBK to put up his career. HBK agrees. Wrestlemania match two HBK v Taker part duex.

MITB Qualifier Christian v Carlito.

No surprise here, but I was hoping that Carlito would pull an upset. Captain Charisma is just not as cool this time around in the WWE as he was before he left for TNA. Christian gets the win and the invite to Wrestlemania.

Look everyone it's time for stupid human tricks featuring the diva's and this weeks guest host. While not as painful as last week's Springer segment, and let's face it at least Eve and Kelly looked great on the bull. Show comes out doing his angry clown impression that he seems to get stuck doing from time to time and KTFO on the bull. Great segment.

ShowMiz vs Mizark and MVP

Lackluster match with a lame injury wrap on Mizark. KTFO on Mizark for the win. That's all this match gets.

The victim of the original Vinnie Mac ScrewJob is inducted into the Hall of Fame. Will wonder's never cease? For those of you who don't know back in the early 80's Richter and Vinne Mac didn't get along. Richter had a match against the Masked Spider. During the match the Spider broke from the match script and pulled Richter into a small pin. The ref one counted and gave the Spider the win. The mask was removed to reveal the Fabulous Moolah. Richter left the WWE that night never speaking to Vince or Moolah again. This was supposedly done over Richter refusing to sign a new contract unless she got more money, Richter claims she was under a five year contract. Who knows the true story. Maybe she'll come back and we can have months of lame segments and stupid stoyline with cars and broken limbs. Oh wait....

Vince, being all heartfelt, invites Bret hart back next week for a fond fairwell like he deserves. Sigh.

Cena comes out ready for Batista. Batista does a cocky slow walk to the ring. Once the match starts Cena charges and Batista sticks his upper body out of the ring. This happens a few more times until Batista plants a fieldgoal kick between Cena's leg getting DQ'd and giving Cena the win. Batista claps for Cena then proceeds to smack him around. Walks off, comes back for more smacking. Walks off and returns for some chair beatdown. Batista is left at the top of the entrance ramp smiling as the fans boo.


The Good

-Batista- I'm not a fan of Batista, but if they keep him like this, not saying much, brutalizing people I could be. I loved the DQ finish and the clap for Cena, classic heel stuff.
- Wrestlemania Matches so fat- Edge v Jericho could be a scorcher. The stakes in the Taker v HBK match couldn't be higher. Batista v Cena even has a nice build to it with Batista finally finding his niche.
- The HBK/Taker promo was excellent. Great song choice and this has to be one of the best video segments in a long long time.

The Bad

-The Guest host segment was once again horrible.
-The Diva's Championship match was sad. Really if Maryse does have an injury wouldn't it have made more sense to drop the belt to Gail Kim, to let Maryse recoup. it looks like a balance injury of some kind, most likely inner ear. That should be taken care of. It's more important than putting the title on the "right person"
-The commentators. It's time for a change. Lawler constantly screws up performers names and calls them someone else, and I'm so friggin tired of vintage this and longest episodic show on TV that. When the pretzels are stale you throw them out and get new ones.

The Rant

Even for it's bad moments this week's RAW proves that they can put out a good show. Why was it a good show? We finally have the destruction of Legacy and even with the DiBiase leak a month or so back we are all wondering who will get turned on and thrown out of Legacy in the end. What could they do to raise the stakes in Taker/HBK II? HBK's career on the line. I mean really that had to do something so that the SMARKS would think that's it's possible for Taker's streak to end. Though personally I hope it doesn't. There are few records that are safe in professional wrestling and this is one that should be gaurded under lock and key. I'm lobing Batista as the new top heel. Going with silent and deadly is the way to go. Well played to whomever came up with it.

Wrestlemania is shaping up to be really great. I'm hoping that if the Sheamus/HHH match does happen, and we all know HHH has to find a way into Wrestlemania, they allow Sheamus to come out on top with a clean victory over Trips. As good as the Elimination Chamber PPV was because of it's surprises, it would have been much better if Sheamus finally got to get the pin on everyone ending with him and Trips as the final two, planting seeds for the Wrestlemania match. Batista vs Cena didn't need a World Title in the mix, it had Bret Hart/McMahon as a catalyst.

For everything that WWE occasionally does right, they blow it somewhere else.

The Good, The Bad, and The Rant: RAW

I've been a little under the weather this week, but as the saying goes better late than never.

RAW was an embarrassment this week. Plain and simple. It was so bad that I deleted it off of the DVR before the youngest could see it, because I didn't trust myself to be nice when he found the show funny, because you know he's a kid and doesn't know any better. Whomever decided that this is the show they would run with a week before a PPV should be shot where they stand, no blindfold, no last cigarrette.

Orton vs Sheamus

Once again we open with a match where the Champion looks weak. Once again he wins by DQ. At the end of the match who looks strong? Randy Orton that's who. Sheamus, Rhodes and DiBiase are all left laying. Travesty of a match, but I hoped you enjoyed it because it's the only match we will see for the first one hour and twenty minutes of the show. That's rignt. You didn't hear me wrong. Well it seems like it anyway, but they throw in the tag match that was so quick I blinked and almost missed it.

Bret Hart comes out and with a heavy Hart (see what I did there?) he says that since Vince won't give him a match, then well he's going back home and won't trouble the WWE Universe again. Then it's a thanks for the guys in the back and a blah blah blah blah. Pretty much the same thing he's said everytime he's in the ring. In the back Bret says goodbye to some of the young guys he's supposedly been helping, both heel and face. It must be a long hall because he's still walking after commercial. Then John Cena joins him. Bret says good bye and hey maybe we'll have lunch sometime. Bret gets in the limo, because all wrestlers get driven around when they come to RAW don't you know, Cena walks off and the worst sounding fake crash in all of TV history happens. And OH my God Bret's leg was caught inthe door, when bimbo blonde backed into the limo. The funny thing is, when Bret talking to Cena about lunch you can see the back up lights are on in the car, so it was already in reverse waiting for Bret to get in the car. Of course it will turn out that Vince is behind it all, and hopefully this was done because Bret really isn't ready or able to wrestle a match. I really hope this is the case, because I couldn't stand to see another Hart die in a WWE ring.

ShowMiz vs MVP and Mizark Henry

MVP and Henry pull the upset so that we can once again see MVP and Henry go after the Unified Tag Titles in an attempt to make Henry seem relevant to the WWE Universe. Much like my TWF colleague I think this would have been better served having Miz drop the US title to MVP.

Next we have the stupidest thing I've seen on WWE since Mae Young gave birth to a hand and Triple Kane made out with Katie Vick. Jerry Springer WWE style. How god awful bad was this segment. Kelly Kelly couldn't stop smiling stupidly through out te entire segment. Badly done, just badly done.

Kofi Kingston vs Ted DiBiase

DiBiase pulls out the dazed victory in a quick match that both lowered Kofi's value and raised DiBiase's by making him look like he can take a beating and still win a match. I swear it's been so long that since they've had to build new talent that they don't know how to do it anymore.

Cena calls out Batista who appears via Satelite.Nothing much is really accomplished, just Cena spouting his usual and Batista telling him that he don't want him in the ring, really. I kind of like Tista as a heel, it's where he's strongest.

Cena vs HHH

Not much of a match until Sheamus comes out and takes out both guys with the super boot. Then he leaves HHH laying with the Celtic Cross (or Razor's Edge, whatever) Once again the only way they make Sheamus look strong is by blindside attack. Pitifull.


The Good

-Khali's sidekick '70's Sideburns guy says "Khali feels the same as the fans here tonight, that this was a Giant waste of time," talking about the Springer segment. That was AWESOME!!
-Yeah, that's all I got.

The Bad

-Once again the build for the young guns. Kofi, DiBiase, Rhodes and Sheamus all looked weak tonight at one time or another. Even though DiBiase and Sheamus got a chance to come out on top, it was still too little, too late.
-Proving that the WWE live in their own little world they talked about them being the No. 1 rated show on cable TV, but they seem to forget that last week they lost to a new episode of iCarly, which was the No.1 cable rated show last week in the real world. How insecure is the WWE that they have to spout the same shit every week for the last ten years since the first Monday Night Wars ended. Every week's it's No,1 Cable show and longest running episodic show on TV. Really no one give a good hot damn.
-Springer Segment, just awful.


The Rant

WIth the announcement that TNA is moving to Monday Nights starting March 8th, I hope that the product the WWE shovels down our collective throat will improve.For months now the shows have been poorly written, the matches not so great, and the same handful of faces are the only ones who get face time. Really, is it so hard to put out five matches in a show and cut back on the stupid segment stuff. You could have one big segment building the main storyline and the other segments building smaller stories rotating through each week.

What happened to the Guest Hosts? Not that I was a fan of the idea, but what happened to Guests Hosts making matches and actually interacting with the product? It seems that each week the Guests host appear later and later in the show and interact less and less with the product. Hopefully the rumors about the Guest host lark ending after Wrestlemania will remain true.

Years ago people were embarrassed to admit that they were wrestling fans, that changed during the Monday Night Wars, but it's gradually getting back to being embarrassing. Things need to change before it's too late.

I could have been a contender: Brian Pillman

Can you remember what you were doing the night Brian Pillman pulled a gun on "Stone Cold" Steve Austin on RAW? I don't know what I was doing or what was going on around me, I just know that Pillman had my full attention. It wasn't always that way.

After a short professional football career Brian Pillman was trained in the infamous Hart Dungeon. Starting his career out as a heel in a tag team with Bruce Hart, Pillman won the Stampede Tag Titles on a few occasions. After the tag team was done he used his then girlfriend Trisa Hayes to potray his sister so he could get over as a face. He would have her at ringside, then when heel wrestlers would mess with her he would come in to rescue her. You may know Triza Hayes as Buelah McGillicutty. Yes, that one.

Moving to the NWA, just before the WCW name change, Pillman would win a variety of singles and tag team titles, including the short lived Light Heavyweight Championship, before going heel and teaming with "Stunning" Steve Austin in the Hollywood Blondes, a name with a storied history, they would win the Tag Team Titles. After losing the titles to Arn Anderson and Paul Roma of the Four Horsemen, Pillman would go face again and fued with Steve Austin. Pillman gradually shifted into a tweener taking on both sides of the fence.

Pillman would team with Arn Anderson against Ric Flair and Sting, which would result in the three attacking sting and reforming the Four Horseman with Chris Benoit. Pillman soon started dressing different and was starting to creat the "Loose Canon" character, which would place him in view of a lot of people. Soon he would no longer be that "Flyin'" Brian guy. He was also one of the first guys to break "Kayfabe" on screen. In a famous match with "I Respect you Strap match" with Kevin Sullivan Pillman would leave the ring and grab a mic screaming out "I respect you booker man!" Thus revealing to the whole world that Keven Sullivan was the WCW booker. Any mention of booker man was cut from subsequent airing's of the match. Not long after that Pillman would leave the ring against Eddie Guerrero and grab Bobby Hennan by the collar causing the infamous "What the fuck are you doing?" from the Brain. Pillman was soon fired from WCW. In Bischoff's auto biograhpy he reveals that the whole thing was a plan for Pillman to go to ECW and develop the "Loose Cannon" character more, get more heat, then return to WCW.

Even though Pillman never stepped in the ring with ECW this time through he was a heat magnet. He went on tirades against Bischoff and WCW, he threatened to "whip out his johnson and piss in the ring", he attacked a planted fan with a fork, he refereed to New Jack and Mustafa's tag team as Nigga's with Attitudes. If Bischoff's claim of sending PIllman to ECW to gain heat were true, then it succeeded and backfired. Pillman was the talk of all three federation and he soon signed with WWF. Before making his first appearnace in the WWF he was in a car accident which left him in a coma for ten days. When he did arrive in WWF he had to use a cane to walk.

Pillman was the first talent to sign an guaranteed contract with the WWF. While he healed from his injuries Pillman worked as a commentator. When he was ready to return to the ring he did so by once again attacking a planted fan at ringside. Back in the ring Pillman aligned himself with the New Hart Foundation; Owen Hart, Bret Hart, Jim Niedhart, and Davey Boy Smith. Pillman would soon fued with "Stone Cold" Steve Austin which led to the infamous gun incident. His next fued was with Golddust over Marlena. Before the fued could be played out Pillman died of a heart condition known as Arteriosclerotic Heart Disease. Drugs and alchohol also contributed to his death. Unknown to Pillman his wife was pregnant at the time of his death. Just recently Pillmans' stepdaughter Lexi was killed in a car accident, she was just starting a wrestling career.

I wonder if Pillman was still around for a few more years if he would have gotten the chance to be World Champ? Would the Monday Night Wars have played out differently with Pillman around? Would the WWF had won the ratings back from WCW sooner wiht Pillman around? Pillman is still one of those guys that people talk about in what if's, much like his friend Owen Hart.

Pillman's career only spanned a total of ten years, seven of those were with WCW, ECW, and the WWF. The last few years of his career his name was on the lips of every wrestling fan. He had managed to do what few wrestlers before him or after him have done, he got our attention, gripped with both hands and refused to let go. He was decent in the ring, not the best, but on a microphone or by his actions he was charismatic like few others. I remember being pissed when he no showed the In Your House PPV for a match against Mick Foley. I remember being shocked the next night when it was announced that he was dead. I remember crying halfway through then ten bell salute.

The Good, The Bad and The Rant : Impact

Before I go into what happened on this week's Impact, I want to discuss reports that Hulk Hogan is a little frustrated backstage because Dixie wants him to push people he doesn't have alot of faith in when it comes to the ring. Report is that Dixie doesn't want to see the TNA originals get buried under the House of Hogan. Yet more proof that Hogan/Bischoff is taking the pulse of the TNA fans with an ovenmitt. If Hogan actually believes that the fans want to see any of the friends of Hogan that he has brought it, except for maybe Anderson. Speaking of people brought in recently, where is Kendrick or Generation Me? I had such high hopes.

Now on to the show.

On the recap of last week we see the Bischoff/Foley confrontation and Bischoff's ultimatum, then we see Hall and Waltman attacking Nash (this still doesn't make sense to me especially with no Nash this week)

Hogan limps his way to the ring with his sad looking NWO slide. You know if Hogan would just come out and talk I think he would go over a lot better, but he always has to add in TNAmaniacs (which doesn't work) and now we have 'This is the "Im" place to be, brother.' (there was another use of "Im" in there as well, le sigh). Eric Young came out to chants of "Overrated", which I don't necessarily agree with. He tells Hogan that he wan't Hall and Waltman in revenge for the attack on Nash. Hogan blows smoke about Yuong being on of the guys that made him want to come to TNA in the first place and if he wants to go after Hall and Waltman to do it away from the Impact Zone. This scene would make better sense if Young actually did something else in the show, and no punching a locker doesn't count.

Match One: Dinero vs Jordan 8 Card Stud Tourney

Not too bad a match. Jordan doesn't look too bad in the ring. But again the outcome was obvious. After defeating Styles last week, TNA would do a diservice to allow Dinero to lose to Jordan again. Then again they are pretty good at two steps forward one step back, just ask Daniels and Beer Money, who are obviously good enough for House Shows, but not TV time.

Jeff Jarrett is in Bischoff's office sucking up and looking as charismatic as drying cement. He tells Bischoff that he's ready to be a team player and maybe he should get one of the two open spots in the 8 Card Stud Tourney. Bischoff say, um no. That's not the bottom of the ladder Jeff. Jarrett walks off dejected. So what are we doing with Jarrett? I think we are all confused. One week he's face, the next two he's hell, the third he's sorry, the forth he agrees to start at the bottom whatever to help TNA, this weeks he's sour puss not heel, not face, hell not ever tweener. Sad.

Match Two: Matt Morgan vs Suicide 8 Card Stud Tourney

Another match with no doubt. There was no wa Suicide would win over Morgan. Slack match.

Foley goes to see Bischoff, again like Jarrett we have the sad puppy Foley agreeing to Bischoff's terms. Bischoff is glad and to show Mick he's cool he puts Mick and Abyss in the final two slots of the 8 Card Stud Tourney and if Mick tries anything funny, then Abyss will have to unmask on the Next Impact. You know, I know that this is all heading toward a Bischoff gets his ending, but the segments aren't strong enough to get there. While Bischoff seems to be enjoying himself, Jarrett and Foley just seem to be going through the motions. Is this how they want it played? I'd rather have Jarrett and Foley bowing under protest at least showing some emotion.

Angle and Anderson are talking with Christy Hemme about them coexisting as a tag team for tonight's match. Angle threatens Anderson with an ankle snap and leaves, but not before coming back into the scene with a second snap. Ah haha the humor, they made fun of Anderson. ahah ahah ahah, hmmm. Angle leaves and an actual mic drops from the sky in a locker room. I guess the mic mysteriously follows Anderson around. This would have been a little more amusing if after Anderson left Hemme looked up to figure out where the mic came from. That might have gotten a chuckle from me, maybe.

After commercial we see Angle telling Eric Young to stay out of the Hall/Waltman mess, that he would take care of it alone. Angle leaves and Young punches a locker room, because even though he is one of the guys Hogan came here for he's only good for tantrums and being treated like a kid not allowed to go outside.

Doug Williams vs Amazing Red.

Red gets his rematch after losing the X Division title last week. Decent match with Red bouncing around the ring like a jumping bean on an energy drink. Williams retains will a rolling german suplex into a pin.

Tara/Angelina Love vs TBP

Mediocre match with TBP getting the win after beating Tara with the ugly stick. I guess these are the only five women that Hogan wants to push. It's been weeks since we've seen any other. Well in ODB's case that's a blessing. Who the hell in TNA actually thought that skank has any ring skill? She disgusted me from day one.

Desmond Wolfe with Hemme backstage. Wolfe goes on about being in the tag team match later, how if anyone crosses him n the match he's ending them. Through the whole interview Hemme smiled like a school girl and it looks like she would need a sponge to get all the wetness.

Wolfe/Hernendez vs Anderson/Angle

Anderson left Angle to take most of the punishment in the match, even giving Angle the short tag on one occassion. The match ended after an Angle slam, Anderson blind tag, throwing Angle to the floor and stealing the pin on Hernendez (Can you tell me out of these four who's not going far in the 8 Card Stud tourney?

Samoa Joe is in the ring, time to build the World Title match. He calls out Styles, who answers with Flair in tow. Nice seesaw promo, until Joe goes too far and Style comes after him Joe gets the upper hand until Flair comes in with the low blow. Joe is left laying in the ring.

Styles is stopped from leaving the building by Bischoff who says that he will be the referee in the Styles'Joe match and he will call it right down the middle. So who thinks that's going to happen.

Hogan stops Angle from going after Hall and Waltman, saying that if it's going to happen it's going to happen in Hogan's house, so he opens the back door so Hall and Waltman can get in. Again where is the constistency? Earlier in the show he said he's wasn't allowing Hall and Waltman in the building and that Young should take care of them away from the Impact Zone, now he's saying the only way it will happen is in the Impact Zone? I'm confused.

Angle is in the ring here comes Hall and Waltman. Angle beats on Waltman as we wait for Grandfather Hall to make it to the ring and he does looking sloppy as hell. Waltman hits Angle with brass knuckles and the two beat on Angle. Hogan's music hits he makes his way to the ring, NWO slide in effect. Kissy fingers Hall and Waltman. Waltman hands him the brass knuckles and Hogan does the "oh Gosh for me" look, then proceeds to hit Hall and Waltman, before tossing the knuckles to Angle as we go off the air.


The Good

- Got to see Wolfe and Dinero in the ring.
- Joe vs Styles
- Amazing Red (I can't wait for an Amazine Red./Kendrick match)
- Flow (Even with five matches and a lot of segments the show flowed pretty well, it didn't seem to drag.

The Bad

- Hall and Waltman. Hall continually looks drunk and out of shape, and what's up with the sweatpants? Only Foley can pull that off and even doesn't do it that well.
- Foley and Jarrett just look like they are going through the motions.
- No Gerneration Me, Beer Money, Daniels, MCMG's.
-Too many segments with the same people. Bischoff was in like four and ANgle was in five. Crazy


The Rant

You know I really don't understand the wrestling business sometimes. When you have the chance to mine from one of the greatest wrestling minds in the business and you choose instead to let Jim Cournette leave and bring in Hogan thinking that he can reinvigorate TNA and bring ratings there is something wrong. Cornette could do more with free reign in the company than Hogan and Bischoff have done with their retread storylines. They say there is nothing new under the sun in wrestling and that may be true. When a storyline starts, nine times out of ten we know where it's going to end, but half the fun is supposed to be in the getting there. My question is when is the fun starting. I'll say that Impact has improved since Hogan and Bishoff have taken over, but it's disregarding what made them stand apart from WWE in the first place, the wrestling.

With a roster of over sixty wrestlers, which is almost as many as the WWE has with four shows (Raw, Smackdown, ECW, and SuperStars) Even before Hogan brought in his handful of cronies the roster was still almost unmanagable. Someone needs to sharpen up the carving knife and trim the fat. There is one thing that Hogan has said that is true, there is talent in TNA they're just being underuttilized.

The sad thing is, it's going to get worse, before it gets better.

RAW: We still can't make our young stars look strong

Tonight's host is yet another Legend that makes taking repeated left turns a sport. "They're athlete's damnit to hell." Yeah, right. Just like I'm an athlete because I yell at the kids like no other. Anyway. DX Break-Up Premonition #1: Hornswaggle is driving the race car (yeah right). Kelly Kelly introduces the guest host, with a voice that sounded like she was vibrating, who knows maybe she had on special underwear. Carl Edwards comes out and to my surprise he can actually string a sentence or two together without stuttering, he seems to know the product, and he genuinely looks happy to be there. Which is more than you can say for most of the other guests hosts who have nothing to do with wrestling have done. Sheamus comes out, Christian comes out and the whole world shouts, "Hey, Sheamus isn't pinning Evan Bourne this week." Christian asks for the match, Edwards grants it.

Sheamus vs Christian

The match started and I was thinking "Well hell, if you are killing ECW anyway, go a head and put the final stake in it's heart and make it a double title match, let Sheamus win that title too, because the winner in the match was never in doubt. Overall the match was decent. Sheamus finally got to have a decent match against a credible opponent (Sorry Bourne). Christian got to get in all of his usually trademark moves, except for the standing-on-the-back-top-rope-pull. Sheamus got the win after a pump kick and a Razor's Edge, I mean Celtic Cross. Sorry Finley, we stole your move's name. The match lends Sheamus a little bit of credibility, but it's at the expense of a dying ECW. Sad that's it's come to this. No respect for the dying.

Winner: Sheamus with his first credible pinfall since winning the title.

DX Break-Up Premonition #2: Shawn says he's sorry for the way he's been acting, but he's got an idea, DX could defend the titles at WrestleMania. HHH says he likes the idea but he's planning on going into WM as World Champ. HBK looks hurt and leaves Trips with a "Oh, it's all about you now?"

Bret's banned from the building and we see Tista lay out Cena again. Oh, how devastating. Does WWE really think their fans are idiots? Anyone who's on the interwebs, knows that after Batista devastatingly laid out Cena he had a "dark" match, that he won. Le Sigh.

Cody and Ted face off. Ted say's I'm better than you. Orton says oh your better than me. Ted doesn't answer, but I know he's thinking, "Weren't you listening, I said better than Cody, der." Orton tells Ted that he gets Cena tonight to back up his words and Cody gets Orton. Cody looks like a wounded puppy.

Unified Tag Team Elimination Three Way Dance o Doom and Gloom.

Really could this match have a longer name? The match overall was great I really enjoyed it, but once again WWE let's a perfect opportunity go just so the main show get's all the goodies, which if you think about doesn't make any sense because it would get the goodies anyway. Tag Champs can go on either show. Anyway Punk and the Straight Edge Society should have one this match, it would have done two things. 1. It would give Punk something more to brag about and come on who's better on the mic at the moment that Punk? B. Punk could have merged the titles together, giving them a temporary name change to the Straight Edge Tag Champs. Thus getting rid of the Unified Tag Title bull. DX Break-Up Premonition #3: HBK makes a stupid tag on Trips, which leads to arguing, which leads to a poorly done double noggin knocker and a pin on HBK. DX loses the title and HBk walks off dejected tossing DX wristbands as he goes. And Just how many of them damn things was he wearing? He pulled them off for like ten minutes. Overall and enjoyable match. I wish SES got their hands on Jarrod. Take this subway boy.

Winner: ShowMiz, couldn't they come up with a better name? Anyway I guess Miz can drop the US Title to MVP now.

Miz Gloats, Show rags on Jerricho and the great tag team name is born. Wee

HBK assails Teddy Long with an amused looking Carlito looking on. Shawn wants a trade to Smackdown and a spot in the Elimination chamber so he can win the title and get to retain the title at WrestleMania. Teddy Long says "I'd love to have ya playa, but pimpin ain't easy, and the Chamber Slots are filled, ya heard?" Or something like that. HBK grabs Teddy Trips breaks it up. Shawn says his career is over, pitches a superkick at Teddy Long and Carlito plays catcher so Long doesn't hit the concrete. So there was a reason Carlito was hanging around looking like a schoolboy witnessing a fight. HHH is like WTF mate? and HBK walks off into the sunset never to be seen again until Smackdown? or Next week one or the other.

Gail Kim vs Jillian Hall

I sneezed and missed the match. Sorry. Maryse gets in the ring plays the nice card, says something assuredly degrading in French and offers a handshake.

Winner: Gail Kim.

The Million Dollar Man is announced as going into the Hall of Fame. It's a nice start to this years HOF class, however I wish they wouldn't do this every year or at least keep the inductees to one or two.

Carl Edwards is comfortable on the mic, so why not use him some more. Santino wants a match with Swagger. Edwards says done and done, your match is on SuperStars. Jarrod gives Santino some stupid Subway card. Santino botches the Subway song, Not necessarily in that order. Kingston comes out, thanks Edwards for not putting him in a match because he could use the rest going into Elimination Chamber, but could you put all of the Elimination guys in matches next week. Yeah, but you just said you could use the time off. I'm confused.

Cody Rhodes vs Randy Orton

Oh Legacy, we hardly knew ye. Orton plays the bully on Cody until Cody slaps his hand away. A fight ensues. Cody gets in some offense, but it's easily thwarted by Orton. Just as Orton is setting up for the RKO, here comes Captain Whitey to Interfere. Cody hits the CrossRhodes (the move looks good visually) and gets the pin.

Winner: Cody. I was surprised that Orton did the Job here, even if it wasn't fully legit.

Edwards once again announcing the "Random" Elimination Chamber participant matches for next week and I have to say, these matches don't seem Random at all. Sheamus vs Orton, where no doubt we will see Sheamus finally get a clean win over Orton. Hey, stop laughting I'm serious. Teddy vs Kofi, which will make Ted look good going into the chamber match. Cena vs HHH, which will no doubt end in a double DQ when Batista comes out and mauls both of them. We have to have McMahon's new henchmen look tough.

DiBiase vs John Cena

Winner: the fans

Cena attacks DiBiase and he is never seen or heard from again. Cena calls out Batista and someone says "Hey, let's build suspense, go to commercial. BRILLIANT!" We come back, no Batista so Cena calls out McMahon who comes out with protection. Cena calls him a punk bitch and McMahon gets in the ring. Jabbering ensues, Cena gets McMahon to accept a match with Bret Hart for WrestleMania, he does. Cena leaves, Hart attacks McMahon, beats up to skinny guards and destroys some stuff. McMahon tells Hart no match because he likes screwing Hart over. Hart poses as we go off.

Despite my sarcasm on first viewing I enjoyed the show. I thought it was one of the better Raw's we've seen in a while. The Guest Host wasn't an idiot, which is surprising considering is job consists of just driving left. I thought the matches had decent length and decent action. On my review viewing I noticed the mistakes more. In a two hour and ten minutes show we only had three good length matches, and two throw aways. The segments didn't seem all that long, so where did the time go?

The Good

-Carl Edwards. He was decent on the mic. Personable, energetic, and he knew the product, plus he didn't screw up anyone's name or event titles.
-Sheamus finally gets a clean pin over a upper level opponent.
-Bret Hart looked better in the ring this week. I actually got excited for about ten seconds.

The Bad
-Sheamus finally gets a clean pin and it's at ECW's expense.
-The Straight Edge Society not winning the Tag Titles.
-WWE once again has a chance to put over it's young talent. It started off well with Sheamus getting a pin, but they blew it in the end with SES not winning, Cody getting a tainted pin on Orton, and DiBiase not even making it into the ring.

In closing, I don't want to get off on a rant here, but I'm amused at how the great interweb reviewers constantly berate Sheamus as a goof, HHH buddy, paper champ and whatever else they can come up with. I like Sheamus, granted the WWE have made him look like a weak champion since before pinning Christian he hasn't had a straight victory over any upper tier talent. Then again we all know that Vince doesn't think Christian is upper tier talent anyway. I don't understand why they put the title on him if they are going to constantly make him look weak, then again they did the same thing with CM Punk the first time he won the title. I like Sheamus' style in the ring. He's stiff, sells decently when he needs to, his moves look strong, he's not bad on the mic, and he is studying at the feet of one of the best students of the game Triple H. Call him brown noser, ass kisser and what ever, but he couldn't pick a better person to learn from. Triple H loves the sport and he learned form the best of them, Ric Flair. As much as WWE talks about creating new stars, they don't want to, because McMahon already has his cash cows and these new guys might not sell as much merchandise and we all know McMahon loves to make money, why else do you think Bret Hart is back on the show? It's not for Bret's closure.

Impact: Tripping Over The Line

Before I get into discussing the show, there is one thing that bothers me about TNA, or maybe it's just what bothers me about the former WWE SuperStars on the roster. Why can't they come up with new gimmicks to go with the name changes? For instance, when The Dudleys came to TNA, they moaned about not being able to say their WWE Trademarked catch phrase, "Get the Tables!', which really is their own fault for not trademarking the phrase themselves, because we all know Vince would so he could sell more shirts. So they solve that delima by having the fans say it for them, BRILLIANT!! Then we have Kurt Angle who can no longer tell us "It's True, It's Damn True" Instead he can tell us that it's "Real". Now we have Mr. Anderson with the exact same gimmick. Granted he's great on the mic, hell he's excellent on the mic, but it was a gimmick seen every week on the WWE. Sometimes you just have to change.

Let's take a look at this weeks matches.

Match One: Mr. Anderson vs Brutus Magnus for the 8 Card Stud Tourney.

Anderson wins in what wasn't a pretty match. The end was never truly in doubt. The only thing that was showcased was that Anderson is as cocky in the ring as he is on the mic. You know if we are getting the honor of watching matches for Tournament Spots or Elimination Chamber Spots, they could at least book matches that would give us a doubt as to who would win, or at least an upset or two, so we are more interested in the matches. OR Maybe it's just me that it irritates.

Match Two: Morgan/Hernandez vs Team 3D

Not a fan of the Dudleys much anymore, but when they go up against a bigger sized team they look their best, their stiff match giving best. The match didn't make the tag team look strong, it was basically a match to push the Dudley/Nasty Pigs feud. The Tag Champs make the save, so they look good and offer handshakes to the Dudley's so we know that both teams are "face"

Match Three: The Squash Match

Really, why is Jesse Neal in the ring? Is he the next generation George South? OR Iron MIke Sharpe? Actually that is wrong of me to compare those two bastion's of Jobberism to this Neal Punk. He doesn't look good in the ring, he just shows his teeth and flexes his neck muscles. Time to send him back to the TNA training fed. Oh, they don't have one? Well bye bye then.

Match Five: Angle vs Tomko 8 Card Stud Tourney

Once again was there ever any doubt as to who would win? Didn't think so. Mediocre match at best. Angle is a bit worn down and needs a light schedule for a while, because he coulldn't carry Tomko to a decent match. I wonder after Tomko botches the third German Suplex by jumping before Angle was ready, if Angle didn't him him with two more as a bit of a payback.

Match Six: Tara vs Angelina Love

I've long been a fan of Tara (Victoria), more so in her crazy days than her "look I have a pet spider" days. Angelina Love is just nice to look at, she seems to wear outfits that show off her long limbs and lengthy torso. Anyway some decent mat wrestling during the match, even if the ending pin was a bit sloppy. BP run in looks like it's pushing for a Love/Tara vs BP match, which I'm sure will have Love rejoining the BP.

Match Seven: Nash vs Foley

This has to be the worst Street Fight, No DQ match that i have ever seen. It was bad, awful, terrible, hell it just plain wasn't good. Suckpac and Stupor Hall make their appearance, through the fans and the opening in the guardrails, because, well Hall would fall on his drunk face if he had to climb over the guardrail. They enter the ring and atack Kevin Nash. Um, what? Ok, yeah, this makes perfect sense.

Match and Segment of the night

Easily the match of the night. After "Jobbing" out to Orlando Jordan a few weeks ago, we get to see Dinero facing the TNA Champ. Nicely executed match. Styles is getting better as the cocksure heel, Flair is a great Manager, Dinero is fast with his hands and feet. This is what TNA does better than WWE, have WRESTLING matches. When they do them right, their matches actually tell stories and they have mat wrestling. It was great to see Dinero get the win over the champ.

Styles and Flair give Dinero the beatdown for having the nerve to defeat the champ. Samoa Joe makes the save. After security break it up we get some mic time for Joe and Flair. Well done, I thought. Joe telling Flair to shut up, Flair going all indignant. So we finally have some build up for the next PPV, besides the Stud Tournament.

Segments

None of them were that good.

There have been some complaints about Joe being a face now and um, when did that happen. I don't see Joe as a face at all. I didn't see him as a heel before. Joe is just Joe, the tweener. He's always done the honor and respect thing. He feels Styles has turned his back on being honorable, so he wants to beat it back into him. Not necessarily a face stance. lol.

So we get two segments with Nash pleading the cases of Suckpac and Stupor Hall so that they can attack him in the ring, because you know that just makes so much sense. I understand that they are friends with Nash, Hogan and Bischoff, but for the love of Lou Thesz, Hall has not looked sober yet and Waltman, just looks like he is phoning it in. Send them on their way.

So Abyss is supposed to be the big Monster of TNA, but we get two segments of him crying over the risk of losing his job. Since they got rid of James Mitchell, he just gets more and more watered down. He could have been their Undertaker, instead he's becoming their Shockmaster

The Good

- No horrible "Comedic Gold" from Ric Flair this week. Have some respect for yourself for god's sake. Stop playing the idiot, you're better than that. You're turning into the sad comedian and disrespecting yourself to do it.
- No Sean Morley, Orlando Jordan. No Nasty Boys in the ring.
- Dinero vs Styles, with the Samoa Joe chaser.
- Foley's Rip on Bischoff.
- No Bubba the LiveSponge. Thank God for small favors.

The Bad

- No X-Division. So the one thing you have that WWE doesn't is a Cruiser division and you decide not to have a single Cruiser match. Yep, Hogan and Bischoff know exactly what the TNA fans want.
- Nasty Boys on my TV
- Taz's rip of Mike Adamle, really was that necessary? He's not even onvolved in wrestling anymore.
- How long are we going to go before Hogan "realizes" that Bischoff is power hungry and a feud breaks out between the two. Every week it's been the same Bischoff up to no good and Hogan oblivious to it.


The Rant

So an improvement on last week, but still I just think that Hogan and Co. have no idea what the TNA fan wants. Hogan's whinning this week about the fan's not understanding how he has to answer to Spike and they want certain things in the program, just doesn't fly. His theory that TNA is throwing stuff at the wall to see what sticks, flies even less. He's the great Hulk Hogan and he thought that just because he rubber stamped his name on the product that rating's would improve, and for the most part they have, but they will start to drop off once again unless something is done.

If I was in charge, I would drop the dead weight and show them the door. I understand that you have to have segments in wrestling today, people are used to it, it's the way things are done now. TNA needs some excitment and right now they aren't getting it. I would solve that problem by losing the stupid minute snippets of people walking to the ring, standing at the Gorilla position, or snippets of ring action. It pisses me off everytime I see it. I would have five matches a night with ten minutes time limits and a final Main Event with Twenty Minutes time limits. The time limits could be used to tell the "stories" as well as segments and the matches would have more of a sense of urgency to them. Having a couple of the matches end a little earlier than the ten minute time limit would trim the matches to an hours worth of time leaving an hour for segments to push storylines. If the matches take up a little more than an hours worth of time so be it. I would have two X-Division matches, one to two Knockout or Tag matches and Two "Heavyweight" matches each week.

They need to go with what brought them to the dance. Let the wrestlers wrestle, stay true to the lie that Hogan told on January forth, if you can't wrestle there's the door.

That's just my opinion, what do I know? Do you disagree, sign up at TWFNews.com and discuss it.

Magnum TA: I could have been a contender

When I was young there was only one wrestling to watch and that was Mid-Atlantic Pro Wrestling. Of course I knew of other wrestling places because of Pro Wrestling Illustrated and The Wrestler, but Mid-Atlantic was the one I got to see all the time. I got to see Blackjack Mulligan when he was still in his prime. I got to see Andre the Giant when he was marketed as "The Eighth Wonder of the World". I got to see the formation of the Four Horsemen. Ric Flair defeating Dusty Rhodes to become NWA World Champion for the first time and to see him lose it to Harley Race at. I got to see the great Roddy Piper Greg Valentine Dog Collar Match and Ric Flair regain the title from Race in a cage match at Starcade '83. And I got to see Terry Allen, Magnum TA.

Most people who didn't follow Mid-Atlantic of Florida Championship Wrestling in the early 80's have no idea who I'm talking about. Starting his career in the last years of the seventies as Terry Allen, it was only after suggestion from Andre the Giant that Allen play up on his passing resemblance to Tom Selleck by changing his name to Magnum, that Magnum TA was born. With a name change came a change of scenery from Florida Championship Wrestling, where he teamed with Dusty Rhodes, journeyman Scott McGee (who even wrestled for the British Wrestling Federation), and Brad Armstrong. He held the North American Heavyweight Title in the Mid-South region before moving onto the Mid-Atlantic region.

In the Mid-Atlantic region Allen became a star. He was a hometown boy to me since he was from the Tidewater Area which was just across the Chesapeake Bay and Bridge Tunnel, so of course everyone cheered him. He first feuded with Chief Wahoo MacDaniels and gained the United States Heavyweight Championship. After a short feud with Kamala, a feud was started with Ric Flair which led to the formation of the Four Horsemen. Ric bought Magnum a tailored suit, which Magnum ripped up in front of Flair. Later during a Ric Flair Interview Allen came to the ring and challenged Flair, putting up $1,000 that Flair couldn't beat him in ten minutes. During the match the Anderson Brother's came out to watch their "cousin" defeat the "rookie" Magnum TA. A few months later Magnum would feud with Four Horsemen member Tully Blanchard which ended in an "I Quit"match. Magnum then would move on to his greatest feud with Nikita Koloff, which ended in a best of seven series for Magnum's United States Heavyweight Title. In the end Nikita would win the series.

In a time where the NWA World Heavyweight Title was decided by all of the NWA regions, Magnum was supposed to win the title from Flair, but before the feud started up again, Terry Allen was severely injured in a car accident which ended his in ring career. After the accident Nikita Koloff was turned "face" because of his respect for the man Magnum TA. There was a cover of Pro Wrestling Illustrated that people still talk about. On the cover is the title of an article with Koloff titled, "I cry for Magnum TA". Koloff would become one of the biggest "face' wrestlers in the company.

I often wondered what would have happened if his career hadn't been cut short. He was extremely popular with the fans. Decent in the ring, not too bad on the mic. In time would he have been mentioned in the same breath as Ric Flair, Dusty Rhodes, Harley Race? Spending his entire career as a "face", how would he have been as a "heel"? Would he ever cut that mullet?

ECW 2.0 Failed, so What's NXT?

After the financial success of The Rise and Fall of ECW and the ECW One Night Stand PPV's Vince McMahon decided to try and milk a dead cow dry. Partnering with the Sci-Fi Channel, ECW was reborn and put before the hungry public, filled with ECW Originals along with the occasional vampire and mummy. An argument could be made that the "New" ECW was destined for failure. The argument could also be made that they never recovered from having their first new Champion, Rob Van Dam (who at the time held both the ECW and WWE Championship) losing the title as punishment for a drug arrest. Their is also an arguement that by sigling out specific matches to be "HardCore" matches, they watered down their product to much to appease the original ECW fans, but most of the performers were too unknown to the typical WWE fan to keep them happy either. Then there is the arguement that by not allowing the "Father" of ECW Paul Heyman free reign the new brand was doomed from the start. There are many more arguements to be made, most of them have valid points, but I'm just writing a BLOG, not a book.

It wasn't too long into the run of the "New" ECW when the Originals started to fade away, the monsters were gone, and in an effort to return the shows rating to the 2.9 ratings the initial airings garnered bigger names started to appear on the show. Big Show, Kane, Chavo, CM Punk, Matt Hardy, and Mark Henry to name a few. Of course the names weren't big enough to detract from RAW or Smackdown. That's not to say that as the show got over it's growing pains that it wasn't good. There were many weeks where the match content far exceeded that of RAW. But as word began leaking that both SciFi and the WWE were unhappy with the product's rating and a change would be coming, the show quickly started lacking in any quality what so ever. It seemed that each show was worse than the one before it.

Looking back it speaks to the nostalgic memories of wrestling fans. As a group we always hope tht lightning can be bottled twice, and we all learn almost everytime that it can't. We all hoped against hope that a. ECW would return to it's former glory and b. that Vince wouldn't screw it up. Really we should have known better, for in the end Vince doesn't have a love for wrestling, he can't or he wouldn't allow such terrible product to see the light of day. Vince doesn't care about the history. All he cares about is money and being the last man standing. The one line from Conan sums up how he feels, "To crush your enemies, to see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentations of their women. ". Yet even after that is done, he's not happy. Look at how he, still almost ten years later still craps on WCW. You think I'm wrong? How many Champions with successful runs in the last ten years had runs in WCW? Two, three, maybe four? How many from ECW? One? Look at how he treated a former TNA World Champion. Christian was sent straight to the C show. He's not happy with crushing his enemies, he wants all trace of them gone, all memories of them tarnished.

So now with the impending demise of ECW I wonder will they be given a decent sendoff or will they just fade away like ash, never to be seen from again. That also begs the question, so what's NXT?

Word is that the new show will focus more on young up and coming talent, with a verteran or two thrown in the mix. (Wonder where Christian ends up, I bet he don't move far) The segments are supposed to have a "conspiratorial slant" whatever the hell that means. Is that even a word? Could this succeed? Maybe, who knows. They have to find a way to introduce new talent to a wider audience than FCW does, to see if the fans will accept them. If NXT becomes an extention of the farm system with FCW being AA and NXT being AAA it could work. Maybe we will finally see Brian Danielson and Low Ki. Maybe we will see Joe Henning and Bret DiBiase. Personally I want to see the Rotundo brothers who look different enough that they could be the new Dudley Brothers.

I think they could have come up with a better name. Something like WWE Evolution or Revolution or Power Plant, for all us old WCW fans.

TNA: We musta took a wrong turn at Albuquerque

Once upon a time there was a big announcement in the WWE's back yard, Madison Square Garden. Hulk Hogan made an announcement that was supposed to change the face of modern wrestling. He had signed, along with Eric Bischoff of course, with TNA. Together they would make TNA the dominate force in Professional Sports Entertainment.

Upon this blockbuster (and I use that term with tongue firmly planted in cheek) announcement I immediately had visions of Hogan's mediocre Australian Wrestling effort come to mind. I saw Flairs, and Nasty Boys, and Anderson's, and Morley's and Jordan's. Then I saw Nash's and Waltman's. Then fading in the distance were the crop of talent already in TNA. I hoped I was wrong and for a minute I believed that I was. I made the one mistake I haven't made since I saw Hogan as a youngster, I believed what he said. I know, you think I would have known better. I listened to Hogan talk about the young guys being the future of the business. I listened to him talk about getting rid of the six sided ring. I listened to him talk about not relying on scripts. I listened to him say that if you can't wrestle and if you can't talk, then you can hit the door, because everyone will earn their spot, brother.

So here we are a month after the grand "Live" debut of Hulk Hogan on Impact. I was happy to see Impact's live rating near a 2.0. I've been happy to see that they have managed to keep some of that initial influx of viewers with the recorded shows on Thursday, they are at a 1.3 which is a 33% improvement over old ratings. I watched the live show, and I told myself, "this isn't like watching WCW in the 90's at all. Nope not one bit". I watched Impact each week, telling myself, "man they are just getting better each week". Then last week I realized that I had been lying to myself. I wanted to see a new Wrestling War so bad that I gave allowances where none should be given. I made the unforgivable mistake of "drinking the Kool-Aid".

Let's take a look at the changes so far. We have Scott Hall and Sean Waltman. Le sigh. Hall looks like he's half drunk or stoned, six of one half a dozen of the other. His speech is slurred and hey yo, I'm delusioned guy. Hoping for one last stand in the limelight. Sean Waltman just looks like slime. Whatever happened to the 1-2-3 Kid? Or better yet, just what the hell happened. Is that what happens when you spend one night in China? (See what I did there?) Then we have Sean Morley and you know everytime he comes to the ring I can just picture the production van screaming to find the one chick in the audience who looks like she likes what she sees before she realizes it's really not that good. Orlando Jordan. Really? I mean, really!? He wasn't that good when he was in the WWE. he wasn't that good before he decided that the reason he was fired was because he was gay. Well he did suck, but in an entirely different way. That brings me to the Nasty Boys. You have got to be kidding me. Nobbs looks like he's about to keel over and who in the wide world of sports believes that he only weights 270 pounds? I don't know the answer to that, but I know the scale will tell you different. Then we have Ken Ander.......oh yeah wait, excuse me, that's Mr. Anderson. You know I was glad that he signed. I miss his mic work, if not his ring work, but really this is the major aquisition you brought in to face Abyss. Dear Lord. Last but not least we have Jeff Hardy and Shannon Moore. Hold on, let me check my notes, well hell, I'm not sure if they've signed the dotted line or not. We haven't seen them since January 4th. No mention of them either. And by the way, where are all of the young talent that Hogan praised as the future of the business? Oh yeah, they are all sitting in the back pissed off or asking for their release. OR their storylines were dropped. OR they're being used to put over Hogan's friends. You know what else has changed? Can anyone tell me where the wrestling went? I've looked for it and it's gone. I don't see it no more. All we see are segments with Bischoff and Hogan.

Against better Judgment I gave Hogan the benifit of the doubt. I thought with him not in the ring, worried about his ego and getting the World Title that he would be true to his word. I should have known better. It's impossible for him. For all his talk at the end of the day it's the same as it ever was for him. It's all about Hogan, his friends, and what you can do to make him look better. I don't understand what he's doing at all. With the talent that's already on the roster, a little tweak at writing, fine tuning the production losing the WCWstyle walking to the ring snippets between commercials and they could have something that would really give WWE a run for their money. It's too bad that Dixie didn't see it, because now it's too late.

Looking at the roster there are sixty three wrestlers on the books. If I woke up tomorrow with more money than I could ever spend I would buy the company and kick Hogan and Co. right out on their collective asses, then I would carve the dead weight. Bye bye, Hall, Waltman, Saggs, Nobbs, Jordan, Morley, Shark Boy, Steiner, Tomko, Raven, Von Erich, Rhino, ODB, Jesse Neal, Terry, Lashley, Bubba, D-Von, Dr. Stevie, Nash, and even Sting.

So my roster would look like this. AJ Styles, Brian Kendrick, Generation Me, Motor City Machine Guns, Beer Money, Eric Young, Abyss, Amazing Red, Suicide, Samoa Joe, Mr. Anderson, Matt Morgan, Jeff Jarrett, Jay Lethal (without the Macho gimmick), Kurt Angle, Kiyoshi, Desmond Wolfe, Daniels, Hernandez, Homicide, Doug Williams, D'Angelo Dinero, Magnus, and Consequences Reed. Then I would go out and work a deal to trade talent with one of the Japan Companies. Bring back Austin Aries and Petey Wiliams and go after the Brisco Brothers. Go after a few of the top Indy guys. I'd go with what brought me to the dance. the X-Division and Wrestling. I'd keep Flair around as a manger and Foley to manage Abyss as a heel. I'd keep the rest of the KnockOuts as well. I don't mind women wrestling, when they actually wrestle. Russo would be gone and I'd bring in Cornette and Heyman.