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.

RAW: Pathetic is, as Pathetic does.

Before I go over this week's Raw, I just wanted to say that listening to Lawler and Cole I realized how great it was to have Matt Striker help out at the Royal Rumble.

So we start the show off with the "R" Rated Superstar Edge. It was nice to see him back. He is one of my current favorites, along with Jerricho, CM Punk, Sheamus and the Miz (God, who thought I would ever say that?). I know reports are for Edge coming back as a Face, but I hope not. Some guys are just not good at being "good". Edge, Orton and Jerricho are on that list. After Edge's tirade against Jerricho and talk of who he should face at Wrestlemania, Sheamus comes out. Then it was time for WWE's favorite new game, "Let's make the champ look weak". Sheamus is left laying in the ring, motionless. I know what you are all thinking, "Hey, man this happens to Cena all the time before a match against someone". And that there is the key, this isn't before a match up with Edge. This is just another example of WWE putting over an established star at the expense of the "Young Buck" Champion.

So the matches tonight are all for the Elimination Chamber PPV. Looking at the matches there was really only one surprise, but then again, it wasn't a big one. I thought the Shatner segments were well done and funny. Especially him singing the WWE Entrance Music. I thought HHH was good in his segment, made light of himself. HBK, still brooding around. Unless he goes full out heel with this, it's going to get boring quick. Hey, look everyone it's the wimmins talking about how great a match they are going to have for the Diva's Championship. It's a match so great that no one will get to see it, because it didn't happen. So, um, what was the point of the segment? Hell with the length of most wimmins matches they could have not had the segment and had the match instead.

Match One: Cena vs Rhodes

I expected this to be a Squash Ala Cena, but pleasantly we got Rhodes putting on some decent offense, even though you, me, and my Siberian Husky all knew Cena was going to win. When the participants of this match was announced there was no doubt Cena would win.

Match Two: HHH vs Swagger

Once again there was no doubt the outcome, none...at...all. I was wondering is it just me or has HHH changed recently. He seems more willing to put guys over a little bit, does he see his time coming to an end at least in the ring? For example, in the Rumble match Trips took a lot of "finishers" from the younger guys in the match, even a Pedigree counter. It gave the younger guys a chance to look good and put little twinges of doubt into the outcome. Of course those twinges didn't last long. In this match with Swagger he did it again. For the most part Swagger dominated this match up. Of course Trips did pull out the "babyface" win.

Match Three: Orton vs HBK

I was a little surprised at this match for about half a second then I realized of course this is how it had to be. Either this way or HHH vs HBK, and of course Trips went last match. To keep HBK's half crazy angry heel turn he had to lose this match and it had to look like he was going to win. I've said it once and I'll say it again, it HBK goes full heel with this is will be good, if he goes halfassed face with it, it will be boring. I mean come on let's face it really he can go full blown face because we all know that after WM, he will be gone for a few months.

Match Four: DiBiase vs Henry

This was the only match that I wasn't sure of who would pull out the win. Of course there has been talk of DiBiase getting a bit of a push, a leaked DiBiase sans Legacy post on WWE.com, but it's been dragging ass to get here. So I was giving DiBiase a 30% chance of winning here. I thought DiBiase looked good. I like the older school approach of singling out a body part to work on. It's a little in ring storytelling that you don't see much of anymore and that's mainly because the idiots in the audience will start chanting "boring" because they are either young or stupid, either way they don't know any better.

Match Five: Big Show vs Kofi

Again there was no doubt as to the winner. Big Show is just, well, he's just too Big for the Elimination Chamber match. I thought this match was bad. Kofi is not strong enough to carry Show. Well, not really carry, but Show needs someone that can make him look good so he can make them look good. And WWE's new resident spot blowing monkey isn't the one. I watched him blow at least three moves in this match up alone. Plus, the eye poke ending was worse than almost any Dusty finish. I guess that was the only way to give Kofi a win and still make Show look strong. I didn't like Show adamant "it was a mistake" It gives him another reason to be angry.

So for the Elimination Chamber PPV, in just three weeks as we were constantly reminded during the show, we get three Usual Suspects, and two Wild Cards. I think if I was booking it, I would have had Cena and Trips lose. I know WWE is thinking PPV buys, but they could have put Cena, Trips and HBK in some type of match at Elimination Chamber for buys and given the young guys a chance to shine.

You know I've never been that big of a Bret Hart fan. Now I appreciate his former in ring skills, the storytelling and generalship, but I feel that Owen Hart is the one who got the charisma. Let's face it what Vince said was correct. Bret definitely has no charisma. For the last million years I've grown tired of Bret's whining about the wrestling world being against him. Whining about Montreal, whining about Goldbergs kick. Maybe he had reason to do so in the past, but sometimes you have to let shit go or you just become a bitter shell of what you once were. If he wants to whine about something it should be the mistake he made of going to WCW so he could just be buried under the boot of the NWO.

So with half of a heavy heart I watched as Bret Hart limped to the ring. I watched as he did his pose with a left hand that could barely move. I watched him give Vinnie Mac what for and then he started talking about not wanting to be pathetic. The only thought that went through my mind when he attacked Vince, could hardly move his foot to attempt a Sharpshooter, and how sad he looked when Batista was holding him, was that he looked pathetic. There are other ways this storyline could be done. Managing the Hart Dynasty would have been great. Or having the Board of Directors make him the General Manger of RAW, thus getting rid of the stupid Guest Hosts.

The Good

-It was nice to see a good amount of matches that were of decent length. No real squashes, even if the results were never in doubt.
-MVP attacking the Miz. I'm liking this feud a lot. They are building it very well. Nice verbal sparring a few weeks ago, Miz constantly coming out on top, the Royal Rumble match which gave the Miz the win, then the attack on Raw by MVP. A nice slow build that will end with the inevitable, MVP United States Champion.
-Only a few seconds of Hornswaggle and no comedy bits, other than Shattners, which were well done.

The Bad

-Michael Cole and Jerry Lawler. Cole is just irritating and Lawler just sucks now. I mean really Cody Rhodes looks so much like Orton that you can't get his name right? It's bad that you make the mistake once, but to do it constantly in one form or another it pitiful. Come on Jerry it's time to take you out behind the barn. What? No, that's not a shotgun.
-The Wimmins segment, there was no need for it, at all.
-Bret Hart's beat down. I really don't know who's to blame here. Hart for agreeing to it, or Vince for making a broken down shell of his former self wrestler look even more broken down. I was never his biggest fan, but just like when I see Ric Flair it makes me sad. Heroes aren't supposed to get old.

It's Still Real To Me, Damnit!

So Sunday night I was watching the Royal Rumble with the youngest and he looks over at me with that look on his face that we all know. That questioning, uncertain look. Then he asked the question, "Wrestling is fake, right?" Then I had to go about explaining how yes the outcomes are determined, and their is fake things that happen, the wrestlers do still get injured. I had to explain about pulled punches, open fist punches, stomp punches, jumping for a suplex or bodyslam. I had to explain the art of landing flat on yuor back, the head hold on the bodyslam. Then Morrison did his Starship Pain move and he said to me, "How can that not be real?" So I slowed it down and showed him that while the move looked good, Morrison did not infact make contact with McIntyre. Then there were questions bout blood, "Is it ketchup?"

Do you remember when it was all so real to you that you couldn't believe it was fake until you were beat up side the head with it? Then when you started to believe that it was fake, some one older would put you in the figure four or cobra clutch and show you that is was indeed real. I mean who could argue with the pain. Right?

Even now knowing that it's fake, I still get caught up in the good matches. The seesaw of momentum, the occasional thrown punch or kick that looks just a bit too real. I wince at the chair shots, table breaks, and I hold my breath at the leaps from tall ladders. In the end, isn't that was professional wrestling is supposed to do? Make us suspend our disbelief. Make us accept what we know to be false?

I've grown further and further away from the backstage segments, the silly storylines. I hold my head in disbelief at people cheering the sight of Hornswaggle and Master's dancing tits. Is this what my wrestling has become? A joke to keep the kids entertained? Will I have to wait until this current group of fans ages another ten years before the next cycle of better scripts come along?

Now I spend most of my wrestling viewing hours waiting for the good matches. Waiting for AJ Styles, Kurt Angle, Nigel McGuiness, Shelton Benjamin, John Morrison, CM Punk and Chris Jerricho to grace my screen. Hell I even wait for Sheamus. I like his style. The singling out of body parts, the stiff clothes lines and kicks.

So now I wonder will he still see wrestling as real. Even though the blinders have been messed with, are they still somewhat intact? I hope they are, so he can still enjoy it, until he's old enough to be taught about in ring story telling, the psychology of a good promo. I just hope that when he's finally old enough for those next lessons, that they still exist in the ring.

Once Great, Now Tarnished.

"The Nature Boy" Ric Flair. A name once synonymous with Wrestling Greatness, quickly becoming synonymous with Wrestling Sadness. Almost two years ago when Ric Flair lost his retirement match against Shawn Michaels at Wrestlemania XXIV, I was glad to see him bow out, even if he was at least a good ten years past his prime. The goodbye ceremony the night after was the way a true legend in the sport should go out, while maybe not on top anymore, he did enjoy one last decent storyline, a reunion of the Four Horsemen, and heartfelt good byes. What more could a legend want?

Recently with Ric Flair's return to TNA it made me think back fondly and not so fondly on my favorite wrestler, Richard Morgan Fliehr, the "Nature Boy" Ric Flair. When I was young I watched wrestling and cheered the good guys, the "faces". Blackjack Mulligan, Roddy Piper, Dusty Rhodes, Paul Jones, "The Mighty" Igor, and Rufus R. Jones. I remember cheering on Piper's Pit as he went up against the House of Humperdink. I remember feeling betrayed when Paul Jones went bad, went "heel" to become "Number One" Paul Jones. When I finally started to get into wrestling Ric Flair was the first wrestler that I really got into. Heel, face, it didn't matter, Ric Flair was the man.

The guy to the left looks nothing like the Ric Flair we all know. Hell, he looks nothing like the Ric Flair I originally cheered. Trained by the Vachon Brothers and later Verne Gagne, Ric Flair started out at nearly 300 pounds, but he was charismatic and had lots of endurance regardless of his size. In the AWA he would first fued with two long running rivals, Dusty Rhodes and Wahoo McDaniels.

Shortly after leaving the AWA, moving on to Jim Crocket's Mid-Atlantic Wrestling he would win the TV Championship and not long after his career would be threatened by a plane crash that broke Flair's back in three places. After being told that he would never wrestle again he returned to the ring, just six months after the crash. The plane crash could be credited with giving us the "Nature Boy" we would all come to know. After his injuries he was forced to change his power brawling style to a more technical style that he would keep for the remainder of his career. Flair would go on to hold the United States Championship five times over the next three years, but it was in 1978 that Flair hit Main Event status once he began refering to himself as "The Nature Boy" inciting a fued with the original "Nature Boy" Buddy Rogers, who put Flair over in the encounter.

In the early eighties Flair would hold his first of sixteen, or twenty-one depending on who you ask, World Titles. From that point on there was no looking back as Flair fought every big name in the industry at the time, with a few exceptions. In 1985, Ole and Arn Anderson, with their "cousin" Ric Flair, Tully Blanchard, and manager J.J. Dillion would forever change things with the formation of the Four Horsemen. This is where I really started to get into Ric Flair. I loved the Horsemen and to me the ultimate incarnation of this group was Flair, Arn Anderson, Tully Blanchard and Barry Windham. In late 1988 Flair would embark on a series of matches with Ricky Steamboat that many people consider his greatest matches ever. This led to a fued with Terry Funk that was brutal and violent. Flair then went on to fued with Sting and a match at the first Clash of the Champions that I consider one of both men's best matches.

Shortly after Flair left for the WWF for the first time and while he always held a special place for me, I don't think I ever looked at him the same way again. I wasn't into the WWF at that time. I thought they were cartoony and childish, I always remembered Hogan's Rocking Wrestling cartoon and that was the first thing that popped in my head. Even when Flair returned to the WCW things just weren't the same. Before long he started to go on long wild tangent filled promos that often left me confused at the end of them. He started dropping elbows on the empty ring and he could no longer perform his patented flip over the corner post run down the apron climb up the other side for a high risk manuever but get flipped to the mat instead routine. Every time he did that move you held out hope that just once he would actually be able to get away with that move, and every once in a while he did.

When Vince McMahon bought out the WCW and Flair returned as a part owner of the company, I was happy because by that time, that was where Flair should have been. It was time for him to move out of the ring, into a General Manager or Management role. When he joined Evolution I was hoping it would be as a Manager for the group. I want to have my memories of Flair on top. I wanted to remember him with the big gold belt around his waist, being the man.

This is the Ric Flair that I choose to remember. Top of his game, promos like no other, taking every opponent to the limit. Instead, with every passing year my memories became more and more tarnished as I watched this true legend of the sport start to waste away. Even though Hogan and Piper are near his age they both look well younger because they, unlike Flair, took time off from the sport. They allowed their bodies to rest. I see Ric Flair and it breaks my heart that either he loves the sport so much that he can't walk away, or he owes so much money to repay loans and alimony that he has to wrestle. It won't be long and he will be just like Terry Funk, staying in the game well past his prime, not knowing when to walk away and it will be too late.

It almost makes me feel like crying.

Building the (Im)Perfect Beast

While watching the Royal Rumble last night I noticed something about a handful of the new young bucks within the WWE. Let's look at four of them; Drew McIntyre, Jack Swagger, Kofi Kingston, and Sheamus


First Jack Swagger. At first glance his build up seems correct. He started out in FCW where he won the Florida Heavyweight Championship, then went on to become the Undisputed FCW Heavyweight Champion. He held the title for 216 days until losing to Sheamus. Upon moving to ECW as a heel he made a gradual glide up the rankings while fueding with ECW Original Tommy Dreamer. After that it was a fued with ECW Heavyweight Champion Matt Hardy leading to Hardy's defeat. Swagger would then lose to Christian before moving to the RAW brand and it's there that his correct build up failed. Upon arriving at RAW he made an unsucessful attempt to atract Randy Orton's attention to join Legacy. Then it was a fued with MVP, a failed attempt to gain the United States Championship from Kofi Kingston, a promise not to lose another match until he gained the United States Championship, a win streak that lasted only a few weeks and a gradual slide back down the ladder.



Second Kofi Kingston. Kingston started his run in ECW with an undefeated singles streak that ended with his fued with Shelton Benjamin (who in my mind is one of the best in ring workers WWE has, but alas he never gets the push he deserves). Kingston then moved to RAW where he defeated Chris Jerricho to become the Intercontinental Champion. Now his build up seems to be going along fine. A nice little fued leading to a clean pin over an estrablished Upper Carder in Jerricho. After losing the title to Santino (of all people) Kingston would go on to win the Tag Titles with CM Punk against fellow up and comers Ted DiBiase and Cody Rhodes. They would lose the titles to Miz and Morrison. Kingston would then win a spot in the Elimination Chamber and this is where he starts to slide down the ladder. Not even making that match after an attack by Edge, Kingston then would move back up the ladder a little to win the United States Championship. This would lead to a fued with Randy Orton and a rumor that Kofi was moving into the Upper Card. The fued would see Kofi never getting a victory over Orton in a single's match. This would lead to Kofi saying he should be in a threeway dance to decide the number one contender to the World Heavyweight Title because he hadn't defeated anyone, but deserved a shot. What did this get him? Yep, that's right another pin at the hands of Orton and a slide back down the ladder.



Third Sheamus. After a Heavyweight Title reign in FCW and a slow meandering through FCW Sheamus was called up to ECW where he would have a fued with Goldust which led to an impressive serious of stiff, brutal matches. In the middle of a fued with Shelton Benjiman, which also led to some stiff matches Sheamus was sent to Raw. Sheamus would then "retire" Jaime Noble, attack Jerry Lawler, be apart of the Miz's winning team at Survivor series, then win the "Break Through" Battle Royal to become the Number One Contender for the WWE World Title. Sheamus would then go on to defeat John Cena in a Table's match to win the World Title. Now on paper this seems like a great build up. A couple decent well recieved fueds, known for brutality, "retiring" a wrestler, and become the Champ in a few short months. However, since winning the title Sheamus has had no clean pinfall's over any Upper Card Talent. No clean win's over John Cena or more recently Randy Orton. Sure after winning by DQ or Countout and looking weak for most of the matches he ends up the one standing over his fallen opponent it makes him look weak that he can't get a pin over the Top Tier Talent. Will this change or will he soon slide right back down the ladder?



Finally, Drew McIntyre. After a Tag Team Championship reign and Florida Heavyweight Championship reign McIntyre was moved up to Smackdown. McIntyre's first Smackdown fued would be against the "Over with the fans" R-Truth. McIntyre constantly attacked R-Truth backstage leaving him laying each time. Vince McMahon called McIntyre a future World Champion. The fued with R-Truth ended in a quick match at Hell In A Cell. Next a fued with stiff Fit Finley would end in similar fashion. McIntrye would then go on to be a part of the Miz's winning team at Survivor Series. This would lead to a fued with Intercontinental Champion Morrison where McIntyre would win after Vince McMahon guaraunteed a victory for McIntyre. So far McIntryre's build up has been done correctly. Fueds ending with handidly defeating his opponents. Vinnie Mac backing him up. Dominant match against a champion. But I have to wonder looking at the other young guns on my list how long will it be before he too starts to slide down the ladder?



I just don't understand the mentality of the WWE. They know that they need to build new stars for the future, but they constantly shoot the new stars they are trying to create in the foot. Why do they do this, or is it the people with stroke who do it? Case in point the recent botched move by Kingston that had Orton shaking his head and cursing Kingston for his foul up. Did Orton use his "stroke" to push Kingston back down? Are Orton and Cena using their "stroke" to keep Sheamus from looking like Upper Tier Talent, by not allowing him clean pins over them? When they decide to move McIntyre toward a World Title I think it will go better because the people on Smackdown aren't as selfish. I can easily see Jerricho, Punk, or Edge putting a young gun over. While I can't say the same of Cena, Orton, or HBK doing the same. I can't even see HHH putting Sheamus over and he's the one who pushed for Sheamus, supposedly.