Royal Rumble: Well, it was a PPV......

I haven’t written a BLOG is quite some time, between going back to college as a full time student at 40 and a few other things I haven’t really had the time, and to be completely honest neither TNA or WWE have inspired me to do much writing. That is until last night. I’m not inspired in a good way. The WWE fumbled around with the ball, but recovered it with a nice Del Rio win of the Rumble. I’ll tell you I was afraid that they were going to lose it entirely if they managed to let Santino win the Rumble. In a wrestling world that has become dominated once again by Hogan and Bishoff’s ego in one corner and Super Cena and Mega Orton in the other, the world of wrestling has fallen into a sad state. In the PG world of WWE and the R world of TNA things have become almost embarrassing. In the words of Neve Campbell from Scream, “How about some PG-13.” I think that is where the WWE needs to go. Then we can get away from Cena’s poopy jokes, Santino’s silly Cobra, and please, for the love of all that is decent, Hornswaggle.

The WWE needs a good shaking from the ankles. They need a change it’s time to let some of the cream rise to the top. It’s time to truly let the new guys shine. With Edge talking about retiring after his contract is up, everyone being force feed Super Cena, and getting tired of it. The same will happen with Orton as well over time. I’ve helped run a eWrestling Fed for a good handful of years; booking writing and all that jazz. If I had to book the Royal Rumble last night, this is how I would have done it.

I would have started the show with Edge vs Ziggler. I would have had Ziggler wrestle a good clean match, countering Edge at almost every turn, frustrating and pushing Edge further and further to the breaking point. I would have had Ziggler win the match clean, with the Elimination Chamber coming up it would be a good test run for him to see if he can “hold” the title. After the match I would have had Edge close to losing it. Vickie would enter the ring to get in Edge’s face. After a few moments of her tirade Edge would spear her. Then spear Ziggler. This of course would send the fans into cheers. Instead of leaving I would have Edge spear Ziggler once again. Then tease a leave only to return and spear Vickie a few more times until the fans are stunned. Edge would leave with Ziggler cradling Vickie calling for help from the back.

Daniel Bryan and Kim talking in the back is interrupted by the Bella’s. I would have kept this much the way it was instead I would have had Awesome Kong come out and destroy Kim. While Kim is being attended to by Daniel Bryan I would have had the Bella’s running their mouths once again. Awesome Kong would have grown tired of their mouths and attacked them as well eventually leaving everyone laid out with Daniel Bryan looking on stunned.

This would have went right into the Diva’s match. I would have kept the start of this with the Anonymous GM changing the match to a Four way Dance. Screw Eve, the fourth woman would have been Awesome Kong and she would annihilate everyone in the ring to an easy win. Afterward I would have Beth Phoenix come out and the two women fight it out toe to toe.

I didn’t think the Miz versus Orton match was that bad. Actually I would have left it a lot like the way it was. Instead at the end I would have had Miz and Riley approach Punk’s Nexus and have Riley raise his fist in salute to Punk, while he smiles and Miz looks a little confused on what to do.

Now it’s time for the Rumble. CM Punk being the first entrant in the Rumble was a good move, for my plan it fits. I even liked the Corre coming out and eventually the Nexus coming out. It teases the possibility of a feud to come. I even didn’t mind the Anon GM sending them all to the back. Just the Corre coming out was a nice little touch and a lead in for future storylines. Daniel Bryan coming out second was inspired. We get to see a nice little Bryan run of throwing people out. We get to see Punk vs Bryan, I was liking it. Here’s where I would have changed things up. Before the whole Nexus was in the ring I would let the number build a little bit. Have Booker come to the ring throw a few out leaving just him, Punk and Bryan in the ring. Kofi comes out enters the ring, runs around like a fool only for Booker to grab him by the neck and unceremoniously toss him over the top rope to the floor. With Kofi stunned on the floor I would have had Booker eliminate himself and offer a hand to Kofi. Kofi would shrug it off and start toward the back. Booker would shake his head and start walking after him. Then I would have had the Nexus members start to come out over the next handful of entrants until they started dominating. I even would have left it with Khali coming out and Mason coming out after him, but I wouldn’t let Khali eliminate any of the Nexus. When Super Cena came out I would just have the Nexus beat the stuffing out of him repeatedly as new people come out I would have them thrown right out of the ring. I would let Nexus dominate the ring as Punk taunts the crowd more and more. Eventually I would have Nexus eliminate Cena by lifting his limp body up and tossing him from the ring. As Corre members come out I would have them stay on the entrance ramp until all of them have been announced then have them march to the ring where all would be thrown out except Punk and Barrett. Triple H would make a return and brawl with Sheamus until Punk and Barrett flip them over the top rope. My final four would be Wade Barrett, CM Punk, Albert Del Rio, and Orton. The three would beat and humiliate Orton and toss him from the ring, then I would have Punk come out as the winner. By the end of the night I would have Punk be the most hated man in the WWE.


Storylines set up.

1. Vickie and Ziggler go face against a deranged Edge. Edge is better as a heel , it’s just the way it is. He’s too…….smarmy to pull off face very well. I think Vickie and Ziggler could go good as a face duo, with Vickie in charge will Teddy recuperates from his Corre beatdown. I think Excuse Me could go over good as a face chant, much like You Suck did for Kurt Angle when he went face. Besides, there were a fair amount of Ziggler chants during that match.

2. Awesome Kong vs Beth Phoenix. Kong should dominate the women’s division. A Kong/Phoenix fued could be good for the women’s division if it’s done well. Kong’s not that good on the mic, so I would bring in a manager for her, say someone who’s ashamed of the women’s division as it is. Say someone who claims to be the first Diva. That’s right, Sunny. She did have good mic skills.

3. Alex Riley and Miz to Nexus. Riley needs to learn some humility and get away from his Miz Jr. gimmick. Of course over time Miz would try and convince Riley that they should be in charge of Nexus not Punk, which would lead to Riley betraying Miz and a face turn for Miz after they assault him and over the next few weeks he starts striking back at them getting the fans on his side.

4. Rumor is that Booker is coming back as more of an announcer than a wrestler. There is also a rumor that he may manage. Who better for Booker to manage than Kofi Kingston, who needs something to get him away from the kiddie gimmick finishers. Even a small feud between the two before Booker starts to manage him could be good. Booker’s got the skill to do it, if he is himself. Not King Booka, or ghetto Booker as he became at the end of his TNA run. And let’s leave Sharmelle at home. Please.

5. Triple H and Sheamus would continue to get one up on each other all the way up until Wrestlemania for a blow off match for their fued.

6. By mauling Cena, or toying with him like a cat with a mouse Punk would quickly become the most hated man in the WWE. All the kiddies, little girls, and even some of the men would despise him for knocking their hero off his pedestal.

Because you see a long long time ago, the villains in wrestling were hated, they came out on top by any means necessary at the expense of the hero, until finally the you rooted for the hero to win. We don’t have that anymore. In a world of fast editing and video games we’ve become a short attention span society. We want it right now, we don’t want the slow build. We are at the end of an era, Wrestling will not go the way of the dodo bird, but it will get put on the endangered list, unless something changes. Something needs to be done to draw back the ones that have left and still keep the new people around.


What I liked about this year’s Royal Rumble.

1. Sheamus and MacIntyre working together. I think, if WWE wanted they could build a tag team division around these guys. But in Vince’s eyes tag team wrestling is dead. He should see MCMG’s, Beer Money, and Gen Me.

2. I liked Nexus’ run in the rumble, too bad the shot themselves in the foot and let Super Cena end it.

3. I liked the chants for Ziggler and Punk. Of course it led me to thinking Ziggler should go face, and Punk needs to be more hated.

4. I liked Bryan and Punk starting off the rumble. Personally I would have had Bryan last a bit longer.

5. I liked the chants for Diesel, although I’m sure most in attendance had no idea who the hell he was. I did find it amusing that he came out as diesel and not Kevin Nash. So I’m sure this is just a one off.

6. Michael Cole. I love his over the top cheering for the heels and his leaping up and down when Miz won was great.

7. Albert Del Rio winning the rumble. At least they let a young guy get a shot. Of course he’ll lose, but hey.


What I didn’t like about this year’s Royal Rumble.

1. No appearance by Awesome Kong. This was the perfect spot for it to happen.

2. Super Cena eliminating most of Nexus.

3. Mega Orton no selling the face first toss into the ringpost outside the ring and his flailing around like a boneless chicken so he can coil to strike.

4. Khali and Hornswaggle.

5. Santino and his damned Cobra. If they had let him win the rumble I would have never watched wrestling again.

6. Eve winning the women’s championship. Really? REALLY? They had to have handed her the title so that Kong can come take it from her. This shines the light on the WWE’s problem right now. Their big stars are all getting old; Taker, Show, Mysterio, Edge, Trips. It’s time to create new stars, but the WWE refuses to make their big stars look weak. They won’t let Cena, Orton, hell even McCool put over an up and comer.

Over the course of the night the WWE had many opportunities to create some excitement around their product and to set a course of action for the New Year, instead the focused on the kiddies smiling, and the heroes being HEROES. Instead they just fumbled the ball and sadly there is no one to stop them from picking it right back up so they can drop it again.

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.