| Ehren is as happy as yumi to be here |
|
Raw, Smackdown, and TNA's Anniversary Show Review
A little mid-week column for all you cpsent readers out there. I think for the summer, I will write columns on Monday, Wednesday night, and Friday. I'd like for all the other guys to try and get on a consistent basis too if all possible. Hey by the way check out Landon's column and Tom's if you haven't had the chance yet. They are both good reads. Now onto some stuff.
Raw
Its sad when a Raw is better then a PPV but yet that is what happened this past week. Bad Blood was a disaster I thought, but Monday's Raw I believe was stellar. Some highlights were:
Randy Orton's Push- I for one have not been the biggest Orton supporter other then his mic work. His in-ring work still needs some work, but the WWE did their best in trying to make a new start Monday night. The fans want to boo, Orton so we now have a new over heel the WWE fans can get into. His match with Maven wasn't great, but I believe if he can stay healthy we are about to see some good things from him.
Kane's Push- Finally we may get to see Kane being used in a more domintating way. Now HHH is going to win for sure, but I expect the ratings next week to be very high. Its going to be because of Kane too and not HHH. The WWE should be running commercials right now promoting this match-up. Mark Jindrak will probably cost Kane the match, but the time has come for Kane's character to be tweaked a little and this should do it.
Foley- His interaction with Orton was very good. He put over the importance of being a superstar and what it takes to become one. Very well done.
On the Down Side......
In Ring Work- I wish the WWE would give me some better matches to work with. There hasn't been much wrestling lately on WWE programming in-ring wise. To me that has hurt the product alot. The fans pay to see wrestling, mixed in with a show. Not a show mixed in with wrestling.
Rico- I was glad when they decided to branch Rico off of 3 Minute Warning, but this gimmick is worse then his old one. Putting him with Jackie, who by the way was scorching hot on Monday, is a good fit but the whole "Raining Rico" is the gayest thing ever. No pun intended.
Booker T/Goldberg vs Jericho/Christian- Now stay with me on this one. I just found this to be pointless. They only did the match so Booker could get some heat back and to me it didn't do the trick. If they wanted to do that so bad, then they should have done an IC rematch instead of this. All four guys looked worn out to me.
Lance Storm- How much more does he need to be buried?
Ivory- Okay now someone needs to start explaining to me why she keeps beating Jazz every week. Trish can't pin Jazz if her life depended on it, Ivory can't beat Trish, so where does this make sense.
Austin- He in a way is begining to bore me. The whole Austin/Bischoff is getting old very quickly.
Overall this was a good show. Raw next week looks to be a hot, hot, hot show. Let's hope they don't blow it.
Smackdown
Now I haven't seen Smackdown yet, I will do that when it airs on Thursday, but by reading the spoilers it sounds like an old episode of Raw. What I mean by that is, it looks bland, rushed, and all over the place.
Benoit vs Rhyno in the 1st round?- Why would you book this for a first round match up. I guess the finals are going to be Benoit vs Cena, or something like that. Either way, Benoit remains so underused. Reports say the fans were not into this match. Its a shame.
Rey Jr. vs Kanyon- I have no idea why they would do this match up. They should have done Rey vs Shannon Moore or something. Kanyon could be used in other ways as well.
Billy Gunn- I see his squashed Noble. Perhaps Gunn should have wrestled Kanyon. Billy is so interesting. He is always over but he always bombs. I can't see this push being any different. Rumor has it, that he may be the next U.S. Champ. I am bitting my nails with great anticipation. (sarcasim)
Ultimo debuts next week- Hell Yes!!!!!!! Now use him right.
APA returns- Whoopie Doo!
The whole Angle/Lesnar/Show deal- Smackdown has a problem all ready. You want to know what it is. They don't have their main event for Vengence booked out in the open to the public yet. They are wasting great promotional time by letting Brock fool around with the Slop Show.
Next week- We get Piper/OHaire vs Tajiri and Eddie. You know who better win this one. We also get Mr. America/Angle/Brock vs Benjamin/Haas/Show. Now they need to start preparing for Vengence on this show. Ultimo debuts. I think we know what will be the best part of the show.
NWA TNA
We watched NWA TNA's 1 Year Anniversary Show tonight over JD's. JD was going to tape it but ran out of tape. How do you run out of tape for a PPV? Before the show started I predicted this would be better then Bad Blood. I was right. Below are the results of the show by Dave Meltzer of wrestlingobserver.com. In black are Dave's comments. In red are mine.
1. D-Lo Brown & Frankie Kazarian & Sandman beat Sonny Siaki & David Young & Don Harris in 3:53 when Brown pinned Young after a frog splash. Kazarian did a Japanese Ocean Cyclone suplex (called Back to the future) and the announcers gave him a big verbal push. Sandman was mainly smoking with the ringsiders and was never in the match. Nothing wrong with it, but rushed like you wouldn't believe. Post match saw Siaki DDT Sandman to set up their match next week. Mike Sanders & Ron Harris came out to make it 5-on-3 until Sting and Jeff Jarrett made the save with bat and guitar. Place went nuts for Sting, so Jeff got the rub. Standing next to Sting, nobody booed Jeff all night so that worked. Jarrett laid out poor Young with a guitar shot.
First thing that I am thinking is that they need to not let Harris and Sandman in the ring. For the most part they did just that. Kazarian is a worker that I have seen on numerous of times and each time the Antonio Banderas look-a-like has looked good. Dlo is an underused guy in this promotion who deserves better then to be in this match. The match was good for an opener. Sonny Siaki seems to be getting better week in and week out. When he isn't stuck wrestling guys like Jorge Estrada, he delivers pretty well. David Young has a wicked Spine Buster but he has about as much charisma as Dean Malenko and Lance Storm together. Next week will be a huge test for Sonny, as he battles Sandman in a hard 10 match.
Vince Russo came out for a 20+ minute segment. The heel fans were cheering him pretty good and the rest of the fans weren't paying much attention to him. He tried to make it North vs. South with all the inbred and toothless jokes. He said how the fans weren't loyal because Jeff did everything for them and they booed Jeff anyway. He said that A.J. Styles was better that Shawn Michaels, Bret Hart and Sting. Uh, it's not 1997 anymore. Styles didn't dress like a star and looks so small next to Russo. Bad look of the two together, but Russo did realize it as when Styles was the focus, he walked away as opposed to staying next to him to emphasize how small Styles is. Mike Tenay was in the corner waiting to pounce on everyone, but just verbally wailed away at Styles about turning his back and going with scum. Russo said that life is all about screwing who you have to screw to get to the top. I hope those of you in wrestling school heed those words. D-Lo Brown came out to confront Styles. Russo took all the credit for Brown's career, saying Vince McMahon never cared about him and thought he was nothing but mid-card, and Russo was the one who made him a star. Brown decked Russo, and this was so funny, Russo then took Brown down with a double-leg (seriously, is there anything sillier?) and Styles did the Austin stomp all over him. Raven came out as a total face to confront Russo, but Shane Douglas was all over him and laid him out with a belly-to-belly. Fans were chanting "Triple Threat."
Is this promo still going on. I am glad they gave AJ the belt, but he looked lost as could be delivering this promo. The fans wanted to cheer him cause over the past few weeks they have been so tired of Jarrett. The crowd was into DLo as well, but what about those Triple Threat chants. Hey Folks the Triple threat won't work unless Douglas is the champ. The leader can't be a second tier guy and since AJ is champ, Douglas is second tier. Okay for what it was.
Tracy and Veronica were mad because the NWA board decreed women can no longer wrestle men. But they have a plan.
C.M. Punk is now a heel Raven wanting to be with him. However, the Gathering, Julio & Alexis were all depressed because they didn't know if there even was still a gathering.
CM Punk is a waste I believe. In MLW he is fueding with Raven and he is nothing special. Both of these promos lacked, and were pointless.
2. Chris Sabin beat Paul London in 7:53 with his fisherman buster to retain the X title. London did a shooting star off the apron. Sabin did a tornillo dive. London did this head scissors DDT spot. Actually this match was filled with one good move after another and the people were really into it. London is still green on transitions but his athletic spots are awesome. Punk came out and sat in the corner like Raven. London did a shooting star, but it wound up with Punk giving London a DDT to set up Sabin's finisher.
This match was very good. They didn't miss any spots, and the crowd stayed hot. London has a beautiful shooting star that makes you say "Billy Who". Sabin the past few weeks has looked very good. Seems as if London will stay around a few weeks and fued with Punk. That could be okay. I think this was the match of the night in my opinion. Great action all around. Check out London this Saturday night on Velocity against Matt Hardy. He jobs out but he may get some good offense in.
New Jack did a funny promo about his match. Kid Kash then talked to Abyss, who was locked in a cage, asking him for help later. Abyss doesn't have a name yet, as Kash just called him "scary dude."
I have to say New Jack was very funny in his promo. He and Shark Boy have this great comedic connection. Kid Kash on the other hand sucks. I am sorry for all you ECW marks but Kid Kash, along with the whole Goldylocks/Watts storyline is the most boring segments on TNA.
3. New Jack beat Mike Sanders in the hard 10 semi in 5:33 when Shark Boy gave New Jack a Hulk hand and he punched Sanders with it and Sanders fell through the table. New Jack did a posing routine after. All the hard 10 matches come off like a waste of time, but the weapons shots were stiff and this was better than some of the previous ones.
It wasn't all that good, but it wasn't supposed to be. Sanders looked like he was half-assing everything, and New Jack is just a brawler so basically you had a brawler vs a half-asser. I agree with Dave, it was better then most hard 10's I have seen.
JB did a video of Trinity that made her come across as more of a star than everything they've done with her combined up to this point.
To me Trinity is nothing to look at and is god awful inring. If they wanted to do a video on someone they should have done it on Desire. Too bad she got hurt last week.
4. Justin Credible pinned Jerry Lynn using the ropes in 2:43. Super disappointing. Nothing wrong with what they did, but ridiculously rushed and people chanted "bullshit" when it was over. They continued to brawl after the match. Credible looks so much smaller than in his "major league" days.
I can't believe this was only about 3 minutes long. Justin actually was looking good in there too against Lynn. The pull apart brawl afterwards look horrid but while they were in the ring it wasn't that bad.
B.G. James pretended to be Mike Tenay interviewing Killings & Konnan. I love Konnan's interviews and his delivery was smooth, but this attempt at comedy fell so flat. James would ask Killings about how to make fried chicken and Konnan about if the Taco bell dog was stuck up. At least a short waste of time.
Very funny segment. Since Road Dogg weighs about 300lbs now this was a perfect fit for him. I always find Konnan funny on the mic for some reason.
5. Kenzo Suzuki NC Perry Saturn in 4:35. They traded big moves but it was very sloppy. Politics prevented a finish. Well, we called that one (they, in fact, had this booked as a clean finish). Credible and Lynn both ran-in. Crowd didn't care enough to chant "bullshit" but this was terrible.
Dave was completely right on this one.
6. Christopher Daniels & Elix Skipper beat Chris Harris & James Storm in 7:03 when Skipper KO'd Harris after a belt shot. Very good match, but way rushed. They were trading near falls from the 3:00 mark, doing all the Raw style near falls, like ref pulled out, belt shot, everyone was doing finishers. Low Ki was there and got involved setting up the finish. Crowd was into it and it was still the best match on the show but it was a sprint instead of a match.
This is one of the bigger fueds that NWA has had over the past year. Both of these teams are good and this was a very good and hot match. These teams just click when it comes to having good matches against each other. Next weeks steel cage rematch should see the titles switch hands. Daniels said in a pre-match promo that he was going to Japan for a few weeks coming up. So that means they will be losing the belts. Damn it! Nothing against Harris and Storm, but XXX just rock. The match next week may be the best the promotion has ever had.
Jerry Jarrett did his first interview on the one year anniversary. He acknowledged a lot of bumps in the road. This appeared to be done to set up Russo attacking him because he talked about Russo having an unhealthy obsession and not reacting well to failure.
The never ending promo.
Erik Watts came out as an interviewer and said that the famous Eric was coming soon. Wow, we're back to that. He called out Kid Kash. Kash bragged about how he loves to beat up Southern women. The size difference here was comical. Kash came up to Watts' stomach. Watts went to choke slam him but suddenly he saw on the video wall that Abyss had Goldy locked in a cage and was cutting off her hair (well, extensions) with scissors. Watts ran to the back where Kash jumped him. This was deemed so important that they cut away and never acknowledged anything about it again.
The never ending fued
7. Jarrett & Sting beat Waltman & Styles in 11:49. Waltman's gear never arrived, so he did the match in his clothes. This match delivered. Crowd saw Sting as a superstar. He did the scorpion, scorpion death drop and stinger splash. Styles superkicked ref Rudy Charles so no ref when Jarrett gave Styles the stroke. Russo hit Jarrett with a shot with a baseball bat, but Raven ran in but before he could do any damage, Douglas was back in. Second stroke on Styles but no ref. Finally Charles got in and Styles kicked out. Then Jarrett used a stroke off the middle rope for the pin. Russo then hit Jarrett again with the bat. Sting then hit Russo with a bat shot. Russo rolled out of the ring, not selling it one bit. Raven and Jarrett went nose-to-nose but Sting played peacemaker and show ended with all three raising their hands together.
I thought the match fell just a little short but the fans were way into Sting. They should probably put the belt on him, and I mean soon. Do you remember how fast HHH lost to Hogan after Hulkamania's rebirth? Well the WWE did that because they had to capitalize while Hogan was hot. The same with TNA. They need to capitalize while Sting is hot. The match was okay. Waltman did wrestle in his street clothes and we had Russo doing his usual Russo antics. AJ looked good and Sting did as well. AJ just still doesn't look like a champion to me. Not bad.
Thats it for today. Check out cpsent.com.
Ehren
A Little Mat Talk For Ya
Back to the tasks at hand here today. I still want to send out my thoughts and prayers to the Ferrell family, and especially to my little nephew who is still battling for everything he has up in Louisville. Hopefully I will get to come see you soon.
Raw Notes
I must say I enjoyed Raw last night. I didn't have a chance to watch it until about 11 last night, due to work but I thought it was a solid effort by the WWE. There were some Bites (hits) and Gums (misses). Here they are:
Bites
The Crowd- Wow were they ever rocking last night. There is never a better crowd then what is in Canada. Canadian fans know how to pop and go crazy.
Booker T vs Lance Storm- This was the best match of the night. The Canadian crowd was into Booker until they found out he was wrestling Storm. Nothing beats the reaction the sharpshooter gets in Canada. Match was a little short but it was pretty darn good.
Scott Steiner- I talked to Tom this morning and we agree that Steiner has been doing a hell of a job lately. Maybe it was all HHH a few months back.
Christian- The new people's champ has done a good job as of late. I don't know where the fued with Goldberg is going but hey its fun at least. Should be interesting to see how much Christian can carry Goldberg next week in the cage.
Austin- He was the show last night. The crowd was hot for him, and his sarcastic tirades were right on time. I wish they fans would have gotten behind the Austin/Goldberg segment a little more. Wish Austin would have stunned him. I am glad he didn't bring the Dudleys back last night. I wish they'd go to Smackdown. Its about time for a trade.
Gums
IC Title Battle Royal- I like the fact that they brought back the belt. A tournament I think would have been better. So far since only former IC champs can be in it, from the Raw side, you have RVD, Kane, Jericho, Michaels, Chrisitan, Goldust, and Morely. Thats a short list of people. Rumor has it Billy Gunn may be in it. He is a former IC Champ and he is to be on the Raw side upon his return.
Kevin Nash- Isn't it something to see how the supposedly top face other then Austin and Goldberg, got booed out the building.
Trish vs Jazz- Not bad but seen it too much.
RVD/Kane- I am not liking them as a team right now. They just bore the daylights out of me. RVD is terrible right now.
La Resistance- Lord................It's Raining Men. When their promos aired I thought they were going to be built as bad ass french guys. Now they are Billy and Chuck II. WWE should have went with the Ludwig Von Borga routine with these guys.
Lets hope Smackdown delivers this week. WWE needs some good programming.
MLW Notes
I caught Christopher Daniels vs Fuego Guerrerro (Red) vs Super Crazy last night. That match was hot. I really enjoy MLW. Right now they are beefing up a show that happens this Friday. I expect next Monday's show to be very good. If you can check out MLW on the Sunshine Network.
Tapes Coming
Yesterday I placed an order with Alfredo from Wrestleholics.com. Alfredo is just the man when it comes to tapes. Here is what I got coming.
Toryumon "El Numero Uno 2003" PPV 4/22/03
Toryumon 4/5/03
Best of Rey Misterio Jr.: 2001-2002 Matches
New Japan Battle Zone Space II 11/23/92
K-1 "Grand Prix in Saitama" 3/30/03
K-1 "Beast" 4/6/03
Best of Dynamite Kid Version 2.0
These tapes should be in within the next week or so. Alfredo is very fast at sending them out. I am really looking forward to the El Numero Uno show. It features Ultimo Dragon, Cima, Yossino, Dragon Kid, Suwa, and Horiguchi. The finals features CIMA vs. Genki Horiguchi, in what should be a very good.
The New Japan Battle Zone Space II 11/23/92 features Chono vs Scott Steiner. Steiner and Chono both were very good in 92. Jushin Liger/Takayuki Iizuka vs. Chris Benoit/Dean Malenko is also on the tape, and Ohtani vs Nagata as well. I think Nagata has gotten better as the years have gone by though.
Thats it for today. Check us out at www.cpsent.com .
The GDawg
Yep, I saw it live and......................
I can honestly say I am totally worn out this morning. My students are looking at me like "Geez he must have got plastered." Nope never drank a thing just tired as can be. I was at Raw last night live from the Gaylord Arena in downtown Nashville. I sat on the floor in the third row facing the titan tron. Yeah I know......good seats huh.
When arriving the ever-so observant I was looked amongst the crowd. I noticed that our entire left side was tarped and blocked off for camera's. Then I looked directly behind me and saw the entire top section tarped as well. Didn't Meltzer say this was a sellout. Yeah right.
The opening contest, which I am not sure if this will be on heat or not, because Coach and Lita weren't out yet, was a face Justin Credible (yes I said that) teaming with Charlie Haas vs Red Dog and Seven. The crowd was a little into Haas but could care less about anyone else in the match. Charlie looked decent, but nothing compared to him and his brother as a team. Red Dog looks like a Saturn reject and Seven just didn't have it to me. Credible and Haas got the victory after Haas did a version of the El Paso Lasso. Decent.
Next was Mark Jindrak vs Mike Owens (I believe that is what his name was). Crowd did not budge at all. Jindrak let his hair grow out some. He looked to be in great shape. He still does not have it though. Owens was terrible. I mean terrible. Jindrak won.
Raven vs some guy with HS on his trunks. The guy got a decent reaction because he was from Nashville. Sorry I couldn't pick up the name but the mic didn't sound good during the intros. The kid sort of looked like a young Shane Douglas I thought. He had some potential but they botched the near finish. Raven won with the even flow.
Molly Holly battled Jackie next. I know I was shocked too because I have never seen this match before. Geez. I went about as well as you could expect. Molly wins.
The King of Heat Steven Richards defeated Johnny Stamboli in the final match for heat. Johnny is huge up close. The Brooklyn Brawler and Harvey Wimpleman came out to scout Johnny. They sat about 3 yards from me. Typical heat match. Nothing to impressive.
Then it happened....................Raw began.
No Sir Re Bob we don't need no Raw Theme music or fancy pyro hear in Nashville, just bring HHH out ASAP. He must have been in the back just itching to come out. I heard next week HHH's theme entrance video will air to open up Raw instead of the regular Raw package. Ha!
Well finally we got an explanation as to why he is on top of the world. He is "Untouchable". Where was Elliot Ness when you need him? About the whole Kane video package............The crowd in the arena was laughing. They were laughing like I was in the wrong way. We were all like "Are you serious? I can not believe they are doing this shit." It was so funny because we were like okay they have totally lost their minds and thank god Smackdown in on Thursday. It was in such horrible taste. My cell phone began ringing like crazy though during this. Weird.
Best match of the night was Booker/Dust/Trish vs Jericho/Christian/Victoria. Jericho nailed Trish with that clothesline. Yes, Booker was the most over guy in the building other then HHH when he first came out. I really hope they get Booker and Jericho going. The fans want to see it. Both backstage vignettes were good as well.
I can't believe they traded Big Show. Now thats not because I care about him wrestling but that just ruined my RVD vs Big Show match. He was pretty over as well. I hope they are not going to do a Show vs Brock match. Wonder who he got traded for? I'd like for it to be Chuck Palumbo honestly. His match with Brock on Smackdown was very solid and is my surprise match of the year. I think they could do something with him on Raw. Heard it will be Hugh Morris though.
Did I ever mention Jeff Hardy is on crack?
When Bischoff came out and said the Elimination Chamber would be at Survivor Series, they crowd was silent and looked at Bischoff like "Uh so Eric are you going to explain to us what the hell this is." My thought was "Wow HHH found a way to job the title without having to actually job." I'd like it to be maybe a WCW War Games type match. Hell if know, because it just messed up my entire Survivor Series card.
Batista is going to be huge. Mark it down. Dlo was all ready in the ring when Batista's video aired. The crowd thought Batista was coming out and the place really lit up. Then they noticed he wasn't and you heard a moan. Dlo got a good reaction as usual. Stacy looked hot as ever. JD should be happy, because Nash's brother won a match.
At least when the Duds won their match it looked like I was going to be right on one match for SS. Lance in trunks. I was stunned. I had never seen him wrestle in trunks before. He and Regal look like they could be a good team.
During the night they also showed a Divas video. It was good to watch. They aired the new Desire video that had Cena, Rey, and some of the other people mixed in with the old. They also aired that Kid Rock WWE video. Rock, Bret, Owen, Austin, HHH, and Hogan all got good pops. For some reason they aired a Scorpion King preview. We also got to see Lilian's new video. The song was okay, but not my style.
I should have some good photos from the event. I met Lilian after the show went off the air, and snapped what should be a good photo of her. Overall I'd give it a thumbs in the middle. I wasn't expecting a knockout show anyways. The Kane angle was just bad, but being there live always adds something to a show.
Other Junk
Steelers- Oh yeah baby, here we come. We got Baltimore and Atlanta next so maybe we can get our record to 5-3. Not a bad little turn around.
Tomorrow- I really plan on doing the Western Conference Preview tomorrow. Sorry I have not had the time I'd have liked to get that up.
BCS- How is Washington State ranked above Michigan. Michigan lost to Notre Dame who is 3 in the BCS while Washington State lost to Ohio State. Dumb fools. Give me a playoff brackett please. Notre Dame could fall to Florida State so there they go, and Ohio State has Michigan and Penn State left. Watch out for Virgina Tech.
JD- It was weird for you not to be at wrestling with us. Maybe the next time they come around you can go. 3rd Row Seats though dawg. Sorry.
Signs- There were some good signs there last night. There was "Pete Rose framed Kane", "Kane sees (with a line through sees) screws dead people", and the classic "Signs are stupid".
Thats it for today! Email me and tell me what you think at gdawgcpw@hotmail.com . Take care all of you.
Much Love Always,
The Dawg
I want a feel of Jill
No MercyHello again from the offices of Grangertown City Hall. I did a whole lot better picking No Mercy last night then I did picking football yesterday, thats for sure. I went 5-2 on No Mercy. I would have went 6-2, but I did not Noble and Tajiri were going to wrestle. Overall I thought it was a decent show. The fans were tough. At times they'd be hot and others they would just be cold as could be. Match by match breakdown:
Lesnar def. Undertaker- Much better then I thought it would be. These two beat the tar out of each other. Brock carried most of the match, bumping around like a mad man. Taker's broken hand helped tell a good story and he sold quite a bit for Brock. This match was brutal. Taker did perhaps one of the best blade jobs in WWE history. It was definitely better then Austin at Mania 13. Blood was spewing everywhere. This hell and the cell is memorable because its the first other then Kane vs Austin on Raw, that did not feature a huge bump. It was just two guys out in the ring busting their tails off and telling a good story. Glad to see Taker job clean too. Now onto bigger and better things for Brock. One of the top 10 matches of the WWE I'd say this year.
Trish def. Victoria- I was disappointed in this match. After their solid contest on Raw, they totally went downhill in this one. Trish winning was a little surprise for me. I thought they would put the belt on Victoria. Real sloppy exchanges in this match.
HHH def. Kane- Surprise Surprise, HHH won. Not that good of a match but not that bad either. The first 10 minutes were boring and a little sloppy, but toward the end, it picked up steam. This fued will probably continue.
RVD def. Ric Flair- My mom was sitting there saying "This match is awful" just about the whole time it was on. It wasn't awful. These two just don't gel together at all. I can't believe there were some idiots on the net saying this was going to be the sleeper of the night........Well I guess it was if you think about it, because I almost fell asleep watching it. RVD going over clean was important, so I guess this match served its purpose.
Jamie Noble def. Tajiri- What is it with fans not appreciating cruisers. This was a good solid contest which to the point it aired, was the best match of the night. The two had good transistions, and work really well together. Jamie Noble is the man right now. I don't know how people can not get into his character. Maybe the fans didn't care because Tajiri had just turned the week before. Good match.
Angle/Benoit def. Edge/Rey- Match of the year. Give them the trophy now unless the WWE has something better coming. You want to talk about a tag team match that had it all. Wow. My satelite went out three times for a total of 2 minutes and I was so outraged because this match was just so awesome. Lucky for me it went out during rest holds. Just when the tempo picked up and you thought they were going to the finish, they would switch it on you and slow it right back down and build up for another finish. This match is worth buying the PPV alone. Angle/Benoit should have won, and I am glad they won clean. As long as these two have the belts, there should always be a least good tag matchs. MOTY for sure.
Jericho/Christian def. Booker/Dust- Another good solid tag match. The crowd was into Booker big time. I was really impressed by the way Jericho recovered from the second rope blowing out. None of the men lost their cool, they just went on without it. Jericho avoided Booker the majority of the match which was supposed to happen to help build their fued. Not MOTY but good.
Torrie def. Dawn- Other then Dawn's outfit, this match sucked. They even did the old ECW cat fight.
Other No Mercy Notes
Tazz and Cole- Does anyone want to disagree that they are actually WWE's #1 announce team? Excellent job guys.
Los Guerrero's- Eddie's vignette in the back with Benoit was funny. I was surprised they did not get involved during the tag match.
Big Show- Lord please don't be giving him a push.
IC Title History- Good to see they redid it. Good to see Lance, Rikishi, Dlo, Jeff Hardy, Val, Godfather, and Test reigns being acknowledged.
Opening- Loved seeing Kane and Taker sitting together and Kane looking at Taker and saying "So how was your week". Great.
Raw
Raw tonight is live from the Gaylord Arena in beautiful downtown Nashville. Your's truly will be making his way down to the action tonight with my good friend Joe Sale. I really don't know what to expect for tonight. I figure Booker vs Christian, Kane vs maybe Flair, and something to maybe set up Big Show vs RVD. I know sounds sucky huh. I will have an in depth report tomorrow.
Survivor Series
Me and Mox sat last night and came up with our Survivor Series card so here it is. Lets see how me and Mox do by the time it comes around.
Main Event- HHH vs Kane- Mask vs Title Match
WWE Undisputed Title- Brock vs Edge
Smackdown Tag Straps- Angle/Benoit vs Los Guerreros
Rey Mysterio vs Matt Hardy
Big Show vs RVD
Booker vs Jericho
World Tag Straps- Dudleys (champs) vs Rosie and Jamal
That is our card so we shall see what the WWE does.
Other Stuff
JD and Kelly- They are set to come home today with Reid so lets hope everything is going well for them.
Fantasy- Geez only I would start Tommy Maddox over Michael Vick this week. What a idiot.
Union County Braves- You guys got two games left. You gonna win a game?
Tom- Angels hanging tough. Need to start walking Bonds though.
On a serious note- This week my dad will have angioplasty done on his heart. If they find blockage they will do immediate emergency surgery. If any of you guys are religious and pray, your thoughts and prayer will be welcomed.
Thats it for today! Email me and tell me what you think at gdawgcpw@hotmail.com . Take care all of you.
Much Love Always,
The Dawg
Is Jill Tough Enough?
What a night last night? I taped Smackdown and have not had the chance to watch it yet. I was at the hospital with JD and Kelly. It was really good to see everyone there, and to see the joy a child can bring to others. Okay enough of the mushy stuff onto business.
Tough Enough 3
Man I love this show. Its about 10 times better then Raw! What does that tell you about Raw? Anyways last night's show was great. This season will probably be really competitive. Last year coming in I thought Jackie and Jake would win. This season the only competitor that I see that may be a favorite is Jill for the women. She is the girl who met Jonah in the bar. She has a very attractive face on her, minus the wisdom teeth scars. Ha. Jonah is a big boy. I don't think his endurance will hold out however. They also chose to focus in on Chad some. His face looks old. I mean he looks like a 40 year old. That may hurt him. I thought the blonde headed guy that looked like Kenny Chaos looked like he had some potential. I believe his name is Matt. Eric looks tough as well, but I will say Matt wins the guys. I don't think Nick or Scott have a chance. The highlight of the show was provided by Wendell. Man what a loser. This guy makes Daryll look like a pro. He had no drive in him at all. All he could do was say "I am the best in this ring, and I do want this". Guess what slick you never made it to the ring. You got the boot before the end of the first day of tryouts. I though Al Snow was going to rip him apart. Bill DeMott is really going to get over here. He is coming across almost better then Tazz ever did on the show. Looked to be in good shape as well. Prediction- Jill and Matt win Tough Enough 3
No Mercy Predictions
They gave me a horrible card to work with so just bare with me as I go through these picks.
Brock vs Taker- Brock wins! Brock Wins! He should totally destroy the Taker toward the end of the match. I don't want a fluke finish I want a convincing Brock win here. I don't think I want Brock on top of the cell. Matt Hardy will probably take the big bump in this one. I pray this ends this angle and the fued. Prediction- Lesnar
HHH vs Kane- This is another fued I hope ends soon. I mean soon. Kane totally blew chunks on the mic the other night in his explanation and HHH is so boring when he talks. I don't think I can take another night of them two fueding. The storyline sucks, and is very distasteful. Until HHH loses a match, I will stick with him. Prediction-HHH
Trish vs Victoria- I am actually looking forward to this match The two have worked well the past few weeks on television. I'd go ahead and give Victoria the belt here. She is a fresh face and she looks like she can whip some serious butt. Trish losing would not hurt her any. The fans still like her. Earth to Trish....do me a favor.....blade. Please blade. I am begging for a women to blade. Prediction-Victoria
Benoit/Angle vs Rey/Edge- Match of the night unless Taker gets thrown from the cell. Ha! How could this match be bad? These four guys are four of the best in the world. Its a shame they are all bunched up in a tag match. They should have took Rey out and put Eddy in here and done a four corner elimination match for the #1 contenders spot. That would have been perhaps a match of the year candidate for sure. They could have swung Rey vs Noble or Rey vs Matt Hardy. Should get about 20 minutes. I will say Angle/Benoit, because they need to try Edge vs Brock next. Prediction-Angle/Benoit with Los Guerreros interferring at some point.
Torrie vs Dawn Marie- I can't believe this is on the card. Repeat this to yourself 20 times. Prediction- Dawn Marie when Torrie's dad turns on his daughter.
RVD vs Ric Flair- You talk about contrast in styles. This match may be and probably will be a total disaster. Should probably be kept around 8 mintues. I really don't know what this match does for either of the guys. RVD should get the win here. No need and burying one of Raw's top faces. Prediction- RVD
Jericho/Christian vs Booker/Dust- This may be the sleeper match of the night. All four guys can go, and I really like both teams chemistry. The pay off will be watching Booker and Jericho going toe-to-toe here. If Booker and Goldust are to lose this match then Goldust should get pinned. No need in Booker getting pinned again. I'd like to see Booker and Jericho in a singles match but I will settle for this I guess. Prediction- Jericho and Christian
Thats it just 7 matches. I think they should do two matches on heat or add another to the card. The heat match I'd go with Chavo/Eddy vs Kidman/Moore with the winner getting tag title shots at Survivor Series. They could also go with Noble vs Tajiri. If you look on the Raw side you got Bubba/Jeff Hardy/Spike/Dreamer/Rosey and Jamal/DLo/Regal/Lance Storm/Test/Rico/Big Show/Chris Harvard that you could maybe get a match together with some of these guys.
Other Stuff
GDawgs vs Brahma Bulls- Me and JD square off this week in Fantasy Football. He knocked me out of the playoffs last year so I hope to get some sort of revenge this week.
Expos- Hey baseball said you may play some of your home games in Puerto Rico or Portland. That may help you guy's get more exposure. They should still go to Washington.
CBS- You guys better come up with a free fantasy basketball or I am gonna get mad.
NWA TNA- From reading recaps of their shows, could they be any worse.
Thats it for today! Email me and tell me what you think at gdawgcpw@hotmail.com . Take care all of you.
Much Love Always,
The Dawg
Am I supposed to Boo Kane Now?
I know I said I wouldn't write about Raw until Wednesday probably but I went ahead and did it after Raw was over. Thought I should get it out of the way.
I said it was either going to be a disaster or really good. It was neither. It was INTERESTING. Geez, lets break it down for you.
TLC 5- Damn it JR can't you even remember how many TLC's there were. True you did not name the first one TLC until it was over but come on. I can not believe they took a commercial break in the middle of it. Look dumb asses if you know you have one last commercial left, then take the SOB during one of those dumb ass backstage vingettes. Now about the match. It was sloppy and I am greatly surprised someone isn't dead. Christian and Jericho deserve raises. I don't know how many times Christian was calling spots, and Jericho was moving ladders out of the way or holding a ladder or doing something so somebody would not get killed. I guess the match was good for Raw. If it didn't spark ratings don't do one again on there. There is no need in 7 of your guys killing themselves for nothing. What I thought was funny is that you had 6 guys kill there careers anyway because all 6 of them couldn't beat Kane. I guess its good for Kane though.
Kane- So if he murdered somebody am I suppose to cheer for him now? Me and Mox are thinking some girl was getting her wisdom teeth cut out and Kane overdosed her with novacaine. See HHH said it happened 10 years ago so that would put it around the Isaac Yankem DDS term. Wonder if Lawler knew about it?
HHH- Hey what makes us cheer him and Rikishi? They tried to kill Stone Cold, and HHH even tried to paralyze Shawn. People need to get their morals right. I can not believe HHH was in a blind fold match. To top that off it was against DLo. Talk about killing DLo. At least HHH had to cheat to win. What a champ.
Booker- Take it easy on going into that cage. Hey at least you were over. Thank goodness they are giving you Jericho. Finally something is going right. Lets hope Big Show doesn't come down and chokeslam them both during the match.
Batista- Someone new is coming to Raw all right. Hey and he is better then Randy Orton.
Al Snow- What a shocker. I never thought he would be on Raw tonight, thats for sure. At least Al was over.
Raw Roullette Matches- Well I liked the concept and some of the matches were fun. They should have tried this for a PPV. Might have sparked some buy rates. Thought the Godfather was on Smackdown too.
Jamal/Rosie/Rico-Where were you guys? Did you guys get put on Heat all ready?
Hurricane- You won the tag straps now they ever going to let you do anything else?
Anyone notice- JR plugged Lawler as being a former AWA champ but never mentioned USWA once?
Tourymon vs T2P- I got that tape out of the way today. Some good stuff on this for sure. Three matches that really stood out were Suwa vs Touro Owashi, Dragon Kid vs Darkness Dragon, and Cima and the crew vs Milano Collection Crew. I thought the Suwa vs Owashi match was right behind Angle vs Edge for the best match I had seen this year. That was until they did a WWE no finish booking. Totally pissed me off. Cima and Crazy Max are gods. That is all I got to say about that match and Dragon Kid is still impressive to me. This tape also featured an exhibition match between Ultimo Dragon and Masaaki Mochizuki. Masaaki is gonna to be their future. He really looked good. On the bad side was Disco Inferno. He teamed with Latin Lover and Magnum Tokyo. Disco looked horrible. He looked badly roided too.
Braves- Least they made it that far. I am not going to down them my team finished horrible.
JD- The tape should be at the store today.
If I- If I don't write for a couple of days that means something happened with my tests that weren't good. JD will surely let you guys know if that is the case. Hopefully we will find out something positive and everything will be okay.
Thats it for today! Email me and tell me what you think at gdawgcpw@hotmail.com . Take care all of you.
Much Love Always,
The Dawg
|
Whose Hot and whose Not
I am going to try and do this once a month or so. This will be my Ten Who Are Hot, and 10 Who Are Not. I may add people from Japan or Mexico if I see fit. I have been really trying to catch EMLL lately so don't be surprised if some of them pop up soon. Okay in no particular order, lets tell you Who is Hot. 1) Brock Lesnar- I am very impressed by him, and if his mic skills improve you are without a doubt looking at a great talent for years to come. He is still very young and has such an upside that it is scary. The WWE has kept him from doing the shooting star press, which I figure they should save against Angle at Mania, but couldn't you imagine the reaction he would get when he busts that out. Right now he is unable to draw the big bucks, but in time he should be the #1 guy in the company that people will want to come and see. He should go over convincingly over the Taker in Hell in the Cell at No Mercy. 2) Chris Jericho- Consistent on the mic, and after the performance with Kane he deserves to be on my list. Here lately he is always lost in the shuffle. A good solid fued against Booker T should keep him going. There is absolutely no way these two should have a bad match, or fued. Hopefully WWE will find a better direction for Jericho in the next few months. HHH being on Raw and unification of titles, hurts Jericho. There are also not a lot of guys for Jerciho to fued with. You have HHH, Booker, RVD, and Kane to be honest. Maybe the brand extension will end before Mania and they can give me Rey vs Jericho for that. 3) Trish Stratus- Not only is she Hot, but in the ring she has really come into her own as of late. Takes bumps like crazy and I think she carries the womens division. I know Mox will say Molly is still the best but Molly is getting fatter and her skills look to be breaking down. Trish continues to improve. All the womens division needs is about 5 more women wrestlers. Not Stacy or Torrie being converted into wrestlers. Right now there is a Women's Super 8 Tourney going on. Maybe the WWE should go scout. 4) Booker T- Of course you knew I was going to say Booker. Hey he still remains the most entertaining thing on Raw to me. I can see a lot of good stuff coming out of a Jericho fued. He should be in Kane's spot at No Mercy. For some reason the killed him in his hometown the other night. He must have beat HHH at Mania 18 for Gamecube or something before they went on air. 5) Jamie Noble- He does not get any credit. His gimmick is one that I totally love right now, and I think he plays it off very well. They need to go ahead and turn Tajiri face again if they aren't going to fued Jamie with Rey. Jamie is something the WWE needed a long time ago. He along with Malenko, Chavo, and Ultimo can slow it down and do some nice mat work for cruisers. 6) Tazz- Hey a broadcaster made the list. That is simply because he is improving. A year ago he was horrible and him and Cole were not worth listening too. Now he and Cole may be the best broadcast team in the WWE. He even calls moves right. And Tazz would never call the UnAmericans the Unforgivens. (ala Ross at Unforgiven.) 7) Eddy Guerrero- He put on a hell of a performance at Unforgiven and the following Smackdown. He is the Rodney Dangerfield of wrestling "He gets no respect". He should be considered a major threat to Smackdown competitors. I honestly believe he and Chavo should be tag champs instead of Angle and Benoit. Could you imagine how great that tag match could be. 8) Matt Hardy- Thank God he got away from his brother. If it wasn't that obvious before he was the better Hardy maybe people are seeing it now. I like the whole Matt Hardy Version 1 stuff. I never thought that he would be wrestling the Taker on a weekly basis but it works for me. I'd throw him at Rey or Edge next. 9) Kurt Angle- The man that is about to be teaming with the man. He and Benoit are just so dominant in the ring. No one should have a bad match against these two as a team. Should have Taker's spot right now but the WWE tends to always hold Kurt down it seems. Should and I mean Should main event against Lesnar at Mania. 10) Christ Benoit- The man who is teaming with the man. Yes I just said that above but its true. I really don't think the WWE will ever put him back in the main event. Its sad but its just the way I feel. Fueds with Edge and Rey Jr. could do him some good. They would no doubt be excellent matches I'd assume. He has really come back from his neck injury with no problems. And those 10 Who Aren't 1) RVD- Slowly going down after the past few months. I just can't seem to get into him the same way I did a few months back. Trish threw better forearms then him the other night. People want to see him pushed but I say for the time being, keep him and Dreamer tagging. 2) Christian- Has done nothing without Edge. Unable to carry Orton the other night to a decent match, and has been unable to do mostly anything in recent months. Christian still possesses good mic skills that does help him. Lets face it, the UnAmerican angle really sucked. 3) Lance Storm- I guess I could say the same for all of the members of the UnAmericans. He like Christian was unable to carry Orton, and I expect Canadians to be able to do that. Ha! I don't know but Lance needs something new and fresh. Its kind of hard with him because his personality is about like Blackman's use to be. Still a good wrestler but needs to pick it up. 4) Jeff Hardy- Get help. Seriously. You are the sloppiest guy in the fed right now and RVD is on the roster. I don't know if you got drug problems, emotional problems, or physical problems but you are having problems period in the ring. 5) Randy Orton- Not his fault the WWE is pushing him down our throats, but kid if you are given the ball, don't drop it. Plain and simple. I hope you end up proving me wrong after your heel turn soon, and start having good matches. Until then your as cold as ice to me. 6) Jamal and Rosie- Its not that they are bad, its just they are not living up to the hype so far. They both could lose some weight, that is for sure. Again it may be the WWE pushing people before they are ready. 3 minutes is getting a little old as well. 7) John Cena- Where have you gone? I watched your match with DVon the other night on Velocity and I believe you were single handly killing the crowd. You are going be a very good wrestler one day, but with that comes consistency. It doesn't matter if you are wrestling Angle, Benoit, or DVon you have to work harder. 8) Heat- The best thing about heat is Dlo, Raven, and Benjamin. Everyone else needs to go on. Spike, Credible, Richards, and The Bull right now you guys do nothing for me. They also seem to be moving Shelton to Smackdown. WWE gives us the same matches every week. The only reason why people are watching is because the want to see Raw highlights. Give me some good matches and that should change. Why not use Rosie, Jamal, Rico, Big Show, Lance, Christian, Test, Dreamer, RVD, Regal, Nowinski, and Bubba on there. Working twice in one night could do some of these guys some good. 9) EMLL- How dare you clip 10 minutes out of Shocker/Vampior vs Ultimo Guerrero and Rey Buccanero. That clipped 10 minutes killed that match. Plus you didn't even show Negro Casas vs Tarzan Boy. C'Mon guys. 10) Sean O'Haire- Do you get hurt every week? I am serious, no wonder they keep sending you to OVW. A pulled muscle here and a tear there. Geez, are you related Saturn? Other stuff Playoffs- I think the baseball playoffs have been pretty good so far. Can't believe the Big Unit got rocked like that. Tom your Angels scare me to death. They remind me of the Cubs. You never know if they can hold a lead. Christina Aguilerria- If you have not seen the "Dirty" video, please do. It has to be the baddest videos out. Bad as in awesome. I'd get dirty with her anytime. Tommy Maddox- Okay Mr. XFL MVP, here is the ball, you deserve it, don't drop it. High Spots- I can't believe you guys shut down the message board. JD and Kelly- Just a few more weeks. Wow, or should I say Goo Goo. Playing guys. Horton- ????????? Thats how I feel most of the time when your name or something comes up. My Health- Hmmm the doctor says my liver or diabeties. Sucks either way. I guess if I got to choose, lets go diabeties. Thats it for today! Email me and tell me what you think gdawgcpw@hotmail.com <mailto:gdawgcpw@hotmail.com> . Take care all of you. Much Love Always, The Dawg |
Raw Thoughts.
About Last Week
I didn't want to come back and write so soon. I am still dealing with the issues that I had last week, but I feel like I need to rant on a few things, and I hope some of you want to hear me rant. Hopefully in the next week or so, everything will be cleared up. Plus in all honesty, I wrote cause I am bored.
So lets get to some topics. Lets start of with Raw. The Good, the Bad, and the Oh Yeah, MNF is On.
The Good
Jericho vs Kane- This was a PPV quality match that Raw needed. The two went about 20 minutes and other then the damn commercial break, I thought it may have been the Raw Match of the Year so far. I know people loved the RVD vs Eddy ladder, but I thought Jericho busted his ass of in this match. It was a good solid wrestling contest and the fans were into it. Had some good psychology I thought with Jericho working on the leg, and they really didn't blow any spots. Kane also worked very hard, and while I wish Booker would have gotten this shot, I guess Kane will do.
Kane vs HHH match- I must say this will be way better then Bubba vs Hunter. The only problem with the match is that they are going to kill the IC strap. So far they have unified the hardcore title and the IC, and now they are going to kill one of the most prestigious titles in the history of the WWE/WWF. Of course we may some lame finish in the match. I don't know if this will do better buy rates or not. A card that has Brock vs Taker, Kane vs HHH, and a possible yes it does look like it will happen, Booker T vs Jericho match sounds like an iffy card.
Trish vs Victoria- I must say this was a pleasant surprise. You know I have said many times that I want to see more women wrestlers if they are actually going to do a division. Last night was one of the stiffest women's matches in WWE history I thought. It was about as close to a Japanese Woman's match I have seen so far. I wanted to see Trish blade. I don't know why but I thought the chair shot was beautiful and I thought it would have been awesome to have seen her blade. I DO HOPE these two wrestle at No Mercy. I think when these two work stiff it makes for a more exciting match. Victoria has a good future.
Raw Roulette- Now either this is gonna be great or this is going to be a disaster. I remember the old Spin the Wheel Make the Deal in WCW and at times that blew and at times it was okay. Here is the catch. The wheel will have to be RIGGED. Here is why. You can book matches like Stacy vs Trish, or Orton vs Test, RVD vs Flair, or Kane/Hurricane vs Jamal and Rosie (all I just made up except for the Stacy vs Trish match), but you can't spin the wheel and it not be rigged and expect them to perform in certain matches. Example: You are not going to have Stacy and Trish in the ring waiting for their match stipulations, and it land on a ladder match. See my point. Now there are some match stipulations I'd like to see. I'd like to see a solid cage match, How about a Tables, Ladders, and Canes Match, and how about a loser goes to OVW match. Who would I have in those matches? Okay lets book it. I'd go in the Cage HHH and Flair vs Hurricane and Kane. That match should add some heat to the Kane vs HHH match. The new TLC match should be RVD/Bubba/Dreamer vs Rico/Jamal/Rosie, and the loser goes to OVW match Jeff Hardy vs Randy Orton. Both are horrible right now. Then build for Booker vs Jericho, make Stacy vs Trish a bra and panties, and have Victoria lay them both out. Could be good, or a disaster like I said.
The Bad
MNF puns- Why did they bring up MNF that much? All it made me want to do was check on the score of the game. I know MNF is hurting their ratings, but not as much as they are hurting their own.
UnAmerican Split- It doesn't bother me to see them split. Its just I don't know who became the face and who is the heel.
Jeff Hardy vs Big Show- Don't I write this about every week. Didn't Big Show look retarded at the end of the match. Please let this be over between these two.
Lita- Glad to see she is okay, but does she not know how to get out of the ring when three guys got her cornered up against the ropes. Duh!
The Booking of Booker- They killed him in his hometown. Why didn't they let Goldust get pinned. They didn't even let him come out to his music. Horrible job guys. Thank goodness he got some of his dignity back later in the night with Jericho.
Oh Yeah MNF is On
Randy Orton- The kid is terrible. Not only that but the WWE put him over Lance and Christian last night in a total of 5 minutes or so. Then they air this god awful video of him, talking about how he is a legend in the making. This is so Rock 96. Only problem is Rock turned it around, I don't see Orton doing it. Please quit shoving him down my throat. Yes I do see a heel turn soon.
PWI 500
Oh man.............if you ever needed proof of ECW marks its right in the PWI 500.
RVD as #1-If you buy the magazine it tells you why they put the wrestlers where they are. Under Rob it says he almost beat the Taker, he almost did this and that. Only wins he had was an IC win at Mania, and one against Eddy. He also teamed with the Rock to win a match. That was it. They gave him the #1 for that. Now if you went by PWI logic, which is basically they rank the wrestlers on their push, Taker should have been number one. He beat everyone he wrestled this year. Including RVD. See the problem here. If not hold up check out some of these other rankings by former ECW stars.
Tajiri #23- Hey I love Tajiri but he lost almost all year long. He jobbed to Albert, Hardcore Holly, and lost to Hurricane, Kidman, and lost tag matches too. Tajiri is a good wrestler but he didn't do much. Ranked above- Jeff Jarrett, Hurricane, and Kojima
Raven #62- It had to be those 122 Hardcore Title wins at house shows. Or his great heat performance against Steven Richards. Ranked above- Rey Buccanero, Goldust, and Tokyo Magnum.
Tommy Dreamer #78- Like Tajiri I like Tommy. He works very hard night in and night out. Like Raven however I didn't know beating Richards could do so much. Ranked above- Kaz Hayashi, American Dragon, Tenzan, and Blue Panther.
Steven Richards #93, Justin Credible #95, and Perry Saturn #135- The Heat superstars got ranked way too high. Neither of them has had a significant win all year. Well Richards beat Matt Hardy, but nothing else. Hell Saturn didn't wrestle the entire year. They are ranked above-Hardcore Holly, Steve Corino, Juvi, DLo, Great Sasuke, Chavo Guerrero Jr., Dragon Kid, Shelton Benjamin, Satanico, and Perro Aguyao Jr.
Heat
I just read where the Hurricane jobbed to Steven Richards. Somebody must have been reading PWI.
Smackdown
I heard they are gonna have a tag tournament on Smackdown to crown Smackdown tag champs. Give the belts to Eddy and Chavo. Thats all I got to say. Don't blow this one WWE and give them to Billy and Chuck.
I'd Like to See
I sat last night and during Raw I thought. The WWE should have a new PPV. Bring back the Crockett Tag Memorial. If they don't want to call it that call it the Owen Hart Tag Memorial or something. I think it would be a solid PPV or hell even if it was for one night. I think it would be fun to watch different guys team up. You could have sixteen teams. I won't list all the teams but you could put HHH/Jericho or HHH/Flair, Eddy/Chavo, Rey/Edge, Rikishi/Cena, Jamal/Rosie, Booker/Goldust, Unamericans, RVD/Dreamer, Billy/Chuck, Noble/Tajiri, Hurricane/Kane, and Bubba/Spike. That is 12 teams right there. I don't know just an idea.
Ultimo Dragon and Hulk Hogan
Heard that WWE looks to bring Dragon in sometime around 2003. That should be a good move especially from the training aspect. Can you imagine being trained by him and Malenko. Wow. Sources say that Hogan is able to get out of his contract now if he wants. I don't know where he fits in the WWE. He may want to try and take that clause and go. Sorry Brutha.
WWE Releases Talent
This week WWE released Mike Awesome, Horace Hogan, and Shawn Stasiak this past week. Can't say it was a bad move. None of them have done a thing in the WWE. I'd say release Credible and Saturn next.
Some Tapes
I am about to receive the Tourymon vs T2P show from Sept. 18. People are raving about this show, and it does have the return of the Ultimo Dragon on this tape. Also in that order is EMLL Volume 10 which should be great. For you old school fans. I am also getting AWA Championship Wrestling Volume 1. The tape features Nick Bonkwinkel vs Curt Henning for the AWA Championship. Tom you might like this tape. Also features old Shawn Michaels footage.
Best Wishes to Jenni
Understand Jenni Grattan who has wrote for us before, has been having some problems that has kept her from appearing on our site. We wish Jenni the best. Hope every thing gets better. Jenni wrestles independently in Canada, and we hope things go well for her. Whenever you would like to write something again Jenni, just send it along.
Stuff From Around The Way
Cubs-They fired Kimm and said they were not going to pick up McGriff's 7 million dollar contract. If McGriff wanted to resign for about 3-4 million I'd offer him that. Time for a clean up in Chicago. There is no reason why they can't have a solid squad next year. They have the money, so do it.
Steelers- Finally they won a game. Yes Kordell got benched, but they have said they are going to start him this week. I don't know if that is a good idea or not. Sometimes you got to go with who is hot and who is not needs to sit. Lets see how Kordell responds this week.
Rams-Wow, what a shocker. Looks like everyone has them figured out. They will probably drop to 0-6 because the 49ers and Raiders are next.
Fantasy Football-Man what a disappointment Moss and Owens have been for me fantasy wise.
Mox's site-Things are also heating up at purotapes.tripod.com as well. Mox's message board has been getting some action as of late.
Thats it for today! Man did I blab or what. Email me and tell me what you think gdawgcpw@hotmail.com . Take care all of you.
Much Love Always,
The Dawg
Unforgiven Thoughts
I went 6-3 last night on my pics. I was wrong on the HHH/RVD, Brock/Taker cause I said Brock would win and they did the lame finish, and I missed Angle/Benoit.
Coming into the main event the show was really lacking anything spectacular. None of the matches were awful, but it was just really slow paced it seemed.
Match of the Night
I am gonna say Eddy vs Edge. The crowd got really into it. I am glad to see Eddy go over because he is one of the best in the world today. Angle vs Benoit is second. I missed most of it because I was up and down.
Worst Match
Trish vs Molly wins this. I just can't get into watching these two wrestle a hundred times in a row. Brock vs Taker almost got this one just because of the booking.
The Booking
Man how bad could the main event have been booking wise. I am really into Lesnar right now and I think he has SUPERSTAR all over him. To date the WWE had done a good job pushing him. They had him beat the Rock and destroy Hogan. Then they had the Undertaker absolutely kill him last night after the match. They say that the finish was changed numerous of times on Sunday, with the Taker refusing to get pinned. See its guys like you Taker that nobody can get over. You and your buddy HHH need to get a damn life. There is no way in hell you should have complained about jobbing to Brock. None. I guess we get the rematch now. Well I hope it is in a Hell in the Cell and Brock F5's your ass off of it. Brock will always be just the next big thing until guys like you hang it up.
Other PPV Notes
If I see Booker or Kane mess with the UnAmericans again I am going to go off.
I believe they will go HHH vs Kane, RVD vs Flair, and Booker vs Jericho for No Mercy. That should be followed up with the Smackdown card of I guess Taker vs Lesnar ugh, Eddy vs Rey Mysterio, Angle vs Benoit. They may through Edge in that mix. It would be nice to see an Angle vs Edge vs Benoit #1 contender match. UnAmericans vs Rosie and Jamal I can see maybe.
PWI 500
Well its out and I see RVD was #1. I will comment on this on Wednesday. I will just say that.
Fellas
Another good weekend all around. Good to see everybody.
Thats it for today. Email me and tell me what you think.
Take care and much love,
The Dawg
My Booking of Unforgiven
Unforgiven is this Sunday and unlike the past two PPV's it doesn't look to be that solid of a card. There is still speculation on whether some matches will honestly take place. Those being Rey vs Noble and a Eddy vs Edge rematch. So that leaves us with these matches:
Lesnar vs Taker
HHH vs RVD
Jericho vs Flair
Angle vs Benoit
Unamericans vs Booker/Dust/Kane/Buh Buh
Island Boyz vs Billy and Chuck
Doesn't sound to tempting does it. Well I decided to book my own card. These are the matches I would have worked toward right after Summerslam right up to Unforgiven.
Undisputed Title
Brock Lesnar vs Taker- I know this will not generate good buy rates but there is a reason I choose this match. Lesnar has just beat the Rock and Hogan so to throw him at somebody like Edge or RVD I see being pointless. I think the fans would think the Undertaker has a better shot at dethrowning Lesnar then either one of them. So I will go with this as the main event. Sometimes the Taker surprises you with his performances. I don't know if he will do it this time or not.
No World Title
HHH vs Booker T- The night after Summerslam they really could have launched this fued. Booker could have stood up for his fellow Texan in Michaels. Plus HHH was accusing Booker for Michaels' accident just a few weeks before. Booker is ready to be elevated and deserves to be in a match of this caliber. I am also saying there is no Raw champion. That belt is pointless.
IC Strap
Jericho vs RVD- I know I am gonna catch some grief from this one. We have seen this match 40 times, but if I booked, it wouldn't have been on Raw 12 weeks straight. These two don't disappoint when they are together. Yes they get sloppy sometime but I think if they built it up over a months time instead of giving it to us every week, it would have been fine.
Tag Straps
UnAmericans vs Buh Buh and Dreamer- Yeah I know what a team right. But why not? Dreamer works hard and I can see this match being good, because all four guys will work hard. It wouldn't hurt for them to give Dreamer the chance on PPV. The crowd should be hot cause they will want tables, and they love Dreamer's cane.
Edge vs Benoit-This could have been a match of the year candidate waiting to happen. Edge has turned it on this year and Benoit always delivers 24/7. This is one match we know would have been good to great if given the chance to shine on the PPV.
Cruiser Turmoil
Noble vs Kidman vs Hurricane vs Tajiri vs Funaki vs Moore vs Chavo vs Rey Mysterio- This would go just like how the old tag turmoils would go. It would start with two people and the winner goes on to face whoever comes out next. This could be really awesome. You could have Noble get a fluke win over Mysterio to set up next months fued.
Jeff Hardy vs Kane- There is a reason I got this match on here. I would like to see Jeff turn psycho and crazy and just want to fight Kane. It would be sloppy as can be, but hey why not try it.
Eddy vs Rikishi- Two guys that work hard and are always being forgotten. If they gave this match about 6-7 minutes the fans would stay with it, and would enjoy it. Rikishi hasn't been on PPV in forever it seems. Reward guys who work hard.
Thats it for today. Email me and tell me what you think.
gdawgcpw@hotmail.com
Take care and much love,
The Dawg
|
Vacation 101
MAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Am I jet-lagged. Sad part is I have to get over it, because I got both jobs to work today, and it looks like a 13 hour workday. Why do I work two jobs again?
I must admit it was great to get away this past week. The weather down in Orlando was beautiful. Well it was hot as hell but when it rained, it rained for about 30 minutes and was around 5:30 and 6. Only rained twice however. Flying after Sept. 11, some people may have been scared but both flights were smooth and no problems were detected at anytime. We stayed at the Villas of Summerset. All I can say is Wow. Fellas we will be making a trip back. We had an entire 3 bedroom house, awesome and beautiful for $99 a night.
When we arrived on Thursday we basically just relaxed and checked things out. Friday was Disney World all day. It was fun watching my niece. She will be four in October and claims Peter Pan is her boyfriend, so it was great to see her enjoy herself. Road Space Mountain. WOOOOO. (Ric Flair, get it wrestling freaks). They also had a really good simulated ride called Alien Terror. It was one of those rides that plays with your mind. It was very well done. Splash Mountain was pretty good as well, and yes I even rode........the dreaded..............Its a Small World. Sometimes and if you rode this you would know, dying can't be that bad.
Friday night we ventured on down to City Walk at Universal Studios. Wow that place is amazing. Clubs, Restaurants, and attractions galore. Just a really great time. We ate at Jimmy Buffett's, which I had the cutest waitress uh......uh.....well hit on me. And she can make a mean balloon animal and hat boy. J/K to all the ladies who may get mad over that. NBA City was really nice, and expensive. Hard Rock was extroidanary. Stone Temple Pilots were playing there. Could hear them but didn't check them out. They had a Motown Cafe and Club, City Jazz Club, Planet Groove, and Bob Marley's Club. All were exciting.
On Saturday I got to see my aunt, uncle, and cousin for the first time in five years. My cousin stayed around for about a whole 2 hours then split. Nice to see her. Caught the Notre Dame vs Michigan game as well. I am not taking anything away from Notre Dame, they played well, but that one Touchdown should not have counted. Michigan should be 3-0, not 2-1. Found time on Saturday to take my niece down to Cocco Beach, Florida. She wanted to see the ocean so my sister and her boyfriend Tony made the hour trip to see that she did. Saturday night me and the party crew goofed off while my parents hung out with my aunt and uncle.
Sunday we ate at Ruby Tuesday's and I swear Matt Hardy was my waiter. Total look-a-like. Went shopping all day. I racked up on winter junk why I was down there. Its out of season down there and everything that had a long sleeve on it, including sweaters, jackets, T-shirts, and pants as well was about 12 buck as piece. Yeah even jackets homeboys. If I bought the same stuff here it would have been $40 bucks each at least. Went to Old Town that night. Its a good place to go and look. They got about 75 shops, and a amusement park as well. Went to a card store and picked up a Mark Prior, Hee Seop Choi, Corey Patterson, and Juan Cruz rookie cards. Plus got a pack of football, basketball, and baseball. Got very good cards. Went back to the villa after that, and well................damn you Steelers.
Yesterday was a rough day. Had to go back home, and had so much I wanted to do before we left. I got to shop, and tour a little more. We flew out of Orlando at 4 and was back in Nashville at 4:45. Yes the time switched so do the math. I returned home around 8:30 and began to watch Raw. So here we go.........
Raw
I was in a hurry to get home and watch Raw, but when I sat down and watched how it was progressing I became really tired and bored. Its sort of a reoccuring pattern these days. Lets disect this shall we.
Rico vs Flair- I missed the first 30 minutes but I came in when Flair was set to take on Rico. Now people have stated today it was awful for Flair to job to Rico. Why? Is Flair almost done? Yes. Is Rico about to start his career and deserve a shot at getting over? Yes. So what is wrong with it? Nothing.
Unamericans vs Dudleys- I liked this match up and after watching it, I thought they should have done it at the PPV. All four guys worked hard, and I thought the match went over well. Spike please stop, you are gonna die. So who is finally going to take down the Unamericans?
Kane vs Regal-Nothing special. They gave us an eight-man for the PPV. All I got to say is.....Why? That is totally wasting Booker and Kane. Totally. It should have been Booker vs Jericho and Kane vs Test. But oh no. We get Flair vs Jericho.
Jericho vs RVD-I agree with the Torch. This is like the 17 meeting between these two this year. God ol'mighty. Jericho has to be looking for a dentist. Rob was so stiff last night. I did not like the match because I was bored with these two. I know they wanted to give Jericho the belt, but it was bad to have Rob TAP OUT. If he got knocked out or hit with a chair, thats different. Bad booking.
Booker T vs Test-Crowd was hot in this one. I was surprised. Booker is the most underused guy in the company. Other then the blown spot at the begining I liked it.
3 minute Challenge- They could have left this match off the PPV. I would love to see Stephs bare ass on TV. As would I like to see her in lesbain action. So go whoever.
HHH vs Jeff Hardy- I honestly felt bad for HHH. Jeff Hardy was a disaster. He missed everything. I mean everything. He should be fired for that performance. What is it with the sleeper? Why not just use the heart punch?
Other stuff
Steelers- Your D sucks, pick it up. Yes Kordell is not the greatest, but I will stick by my team.
Cubs-Starting lineup should be Bellhorn at 2nd, Gonzalez at Short, McGriff at 1st, Choi at 3rd, Patterson, Alou, and Sosa, and anybody but Hundley catching. There that should end your controversy.
Tom- Sure I will come to Cali to celebrate our birthdays anytime. Just as soon as you win that lottery bud and pay for it. Ha!
Ralphie- Thanks for calling on my birthday. I was surprised and it was greatly appreciated.
Horton- Thanks. For........making me feel great. All sarcasim baby.
Beercanna-A youth minister? Talk about your switch-a-roos. Anyways good luck man.
A note to life and to those people mentioned a few weeks back- Guess who almost has there life back on track? Me. Guess who almost is ready to stand back on his own two feet? Me. Just one more piece to the puzzle needs to be complete. By the end of the month I hope to have it. So then I will say.....Whose the Mayor who runs the town, and doesn't give a damn because from that day forward no one is gonna bring him down? ME!
Thats it for today. Email me at my new address and tell me what you think.
Take care and much love,
The Dawg
|
RAW thoughts
Let me breathe and try to focus for a minute. Words really can't express the way I felt after watching Raw early this morning. I mean around 1 am early too. I am going to introduce a new feature to my columns called Life Lines. The winner of the Life Lines for each segment (if there are any) are people or things that saved and made the match or segment worth watching.
They start the show off with Kane and Bradshaw vs the Unamericans for the tag team titles. Right off the bat, Bradshaw bores the living hell out of me with his "I love America" crap. At this time I am scared that they are actually going to give the belts to Bradshaw and them, for the whole 9/11 deal. That move would totally piss me off, because if they were going to give it to another team it should be Booker and Goldust not Bradshaw and Kane. The match went too long, with too many USA chants. Lance tried to carry it as much as he could but the math was awful. Life Line- William Regal. I give the nod to Regal because him jumping to the Unamericans is a great move. No one ever said you had to be Canadian just an Unamerican. He will allow them to get more heel heat, and he adds to mic work for the group. Excellent move.
HLA was promised to us. I knew 3 minutes was going to be involved. While that one girl did have some nice cheeks on her, I hated the segment. The dark haired girl took a stiff ass kick to the belly. Life Line-Dark Haired girl. She took a bump, and had nice cheeks. Another awful segment though.
We also got another womens match. I am sick and tired of these. Until the WWE has about 12 actual women wrestlers on the roster, I don't want to see this. I get tired of Trish and Stacy (not looking at them), or Trish and Molly or Stacy and Terri. What is the point? There was not really a life line for this. I know Trish works hard, but womens wrestling in the WWE is just pointless.
Then next we got boring interviews with HHH and Jericho in the back. Nothing saved those either. Buh Buh stuck his nose in HHH's business. You know what is the deal with Buh Buh Dudley being the toughest guy on the Raw roster. HE SUCKS. Why in the world are they using him? They make it like HHH is scared of him. Why? Buh Buh has never beaten anyone. They are making HHH look like a punk, and if he is supposed to be the game then the game must be "Pin the tail on the P#ssy". Sorry folks. No life line either.
Next up on Raw we got about 6 minutes of Buh vs Steven Richards. I thought Heyman was booking Smackdown. I must be wrong. By this point folks I am wanting to cry my eyes out. They did some false finishes and the powerbomb at the end was good, but it was all to predictable. Life Line- a three count and a commercial. Thats right the best part of this was when the match was over and they went to commerical. Just don't understand why matches are on TV if they don't set up nothing.
Good little segment in the back with Nowinski and Regal. Regal is such a good talker, and Nowinski interacts well with his style. Good segment. Life Line-Regal again.
Nowinski then goes to the ring and cracks on Iowa for awhile. Tommy Dreamer comes down and the two of them get into a fight. The fans love singapore canes. As soon as the fans got into Nowinski's beating, they stopped the confrontation. Geez!
We got to play the game next. His opponent was Spike Dudley. Oh yeah Spike has done a lot to be considered a threat to HHH. The match wasn't bad, but its because HHH got to play with Spike and toss him around. HHH had to beg in the back for this match to be written onto the show. Just when you think you have seen it all. On Sept. 9 2002 I saw HHH win with a sleeper hold. Yes I said a sleeper hold. Now HHH has 7 moves in his bag of tricks. Watch out Malenko. HHH on has 993 more to go. Need I even mention HHH being scared of Buh Buh again after the match. Life Line-none.
After that we get an interview with the worst guy in the history of interviews, Jeff Hardy. He can't even make sense when he talks and his eyes are always drifting away like you know someone is around or something is about to happen because he is looking at them before he is supposed to. He told Bischoff he was gonna be extreme. Why don't you try and be good on the mic? Or better yet why don't you get some new moves?
Big Show was shown talking to Johnny the Bull next. Did not know they were buds? Must have missed something there. Pointless interview.
Finally after almost an hour and a half the Book has come back to Raw. The fans reacted well as soon as they saw his face on the titan tron. Once again the mic chemistry between Booker and Goldust shined. Goldust was hilarious. I about fell out in the floor when he asked Kane what about those Oakland A's. Then they ruined the segment with Bradshaw coming in. Shoot me in the face. Luckily Booker got it back on track and got the fans back with his "Can you dig it Sucka". Life line- Booker and Goldust.
The dynamic duo was up against Test and Regal next. The match went about 6 minutes with a lame ass DQ finish. Isn't there better ways to use Booker, Goldust, and Kane then this. They are three of your best face wrestlers on Raw. Life Line-Crowd loves those Spinaroonis.
Then the whole HLA thing went down. You can read above for that.
Finally we got Jericho vs RVD vs Jeff Hardy vs Big Show. For the number one contenders match. Let me get this straight, Big Show and Jeff Hardy are possible number one contenders for the world title. Hmmmm. Lets see, over the past few weeks, Jeff Hardy had beat uh.........uh..........uh............no one. The Big Show on the other hand he has been red hot. He has beat..........uh.......uh...........uh.......hmmm. No one either. Everyone knew RVD was going to win. Everybody knew. You want to give me a four-way elimination match that may rival ECW's classic four-way between Jericho vs Shane Douglas vs Pitt Bull 2 vs Scorpio, then do it. Don't give me this lame ass line-up. The match should have been RVD vs Jericho vs Booker T vs either Kane, Test, or yes even Tommy Dreamer. I did like how Jericho made the ref think Show hit him with the chair. That was classic. Jeff Hardy is just pitiful I think. RVD and Jericho gave us good near falls, and then boom the expected happened. What kills me is that HHH is scared of RVD as well. Life Line-Jericho and RVD. I thought they did a good job in the match. Plus another life line to the writing team for getting Big Show out so quick.
What we learned tonight:
RVD is the number one contender for the World Title.
HHH is scared of Buh Buh Dudley and RVD.
Regal has joined the Unamericans, where he should have been all along.
Booker and Goldust still are the most entertaining five minutes on Raw.
Jericho may be with the Big Show next in a fued. I know it will blow goats. I feel it coming though.
No one in the back cares that Jamal and Rosie kill everyone. Even Jeff Hardy and the Big Show who have both been destroyed by them, don't care.
Bet HHH is scared of them too.
Most importantly we learned that the WWE sucks.
We also learned why Mox and I love EMLL.
Other stuff
Steelers- Could you guys please play some D in the secondary?
Sammy Sosa-He said maybe the Cubs should get rid of him. I say................maybe you are right. Better give me some talent for him though.
Expos-I read some place that MLB is debating on whether or not to move the Expos out of Montreal. I think they should. I also read a great idea this one guy had. He said the Expos for the next season should be called just the Expos and play in about 4 different cities. That way MLB can decide which city would want them, treat them with respect, and get behind them. Then they would decide at the end of the next season which team gets them. I still say Washington D.C. should get them. Daniel Snyder could do wonders with them.
Horton- Quit being mad at me. I don't know what to tell you. I am sure you will come up with something.
Vacation- I will be out of town from Thursday till Tuesday. I am flying to Orlando on Thursday for a well needed relaxation and vacation with the family. My birthday is on Friday as well so this also will be a little birthday gift, I guess you could say. If anyone needs me you know my cell. I will be able to be reached, so just call it. Especially if something happens that I need to know somebody better call. Also if you just want to wish me a happy birthday on Friday that would be cool. I will be at Disney World on that day. JD and Tom will take care of the site. I have no worries about that. I don't know if I will write an article tomorrow or not. So until I return.....later playas.
Thats it for today. Email me at my new address and tell me what you think.
Take care and much love,
The Dawg
|
A few things really quick before I get off on my rant for today.
Thanks- Troy, JD, Big Stew, Beercanna, and everyone else for a kick ass Saturday night.
NFL- What an awesome first week.
Horton- You are bad. You know what I mean, baby. Is that better?
Mox- Sorry about not getting around to those tapes. I was really worn out this weekend.
Business at Hand
Tom sort of sparked this rant of mine today. Its not a bad rant or nothing on Tom, but he made me sit down and thank about Raw. Lets face it, Raw is not that good anymore. Week after week, Smackdown has the better shows. Its not like Raw doesn't have the ability to have a good to solid show every week, they just don't. So with that being said I decided to disect Raw a little, and perhaps offer some solutions.
Focus Point of Raw
Right now just like every other thing, HHH is the main focal point of WWE programming. He is not the Undisputed Champion but yet he gets more publicity on WWE programming then Lesnar. To me it is okay if someone who is not the champion is the focal point going into a ppv.
Example:In 1996 going into Survivor Series the main focal point was the return of Bret Hart vs Stone Cold Steve Austin. Psycho Sid was wrestling Shawn Michaels for the world title but no one really cared about that because the buildup to Bret and Austin was just so good. That entire fued may go down as the fued that turned the WWE around.
So the WWE decides to make Lesnar an exclusive to Smackdown which I thought was a very good idea. I would have done the same thing, then have HHH really mad and want to jump ships to Smackdown but Steph would not sign him. With that being said HHH would just have to settle wrestling other guys, and not worry about titles or nothing like that for a long time. Then six months from now or so Vince would return and say the winner of a match between HHH and lets say HBK would get a shot at Lesnars belt and have a chance to bring it to Raw.
See that would give us time to not have HHH thrown down our throats. He can job and help try and get guys over such as Jericho (which HHH never does), Booker T, or RVD. Losing to them would not matter because in six months HHH would get his shot, anyway so he should not care about losing to those other guys. Plus he does the WWE a favor and makes guys like Jericho, Booker, and RVD look strong.
But what did they do? They gave him a damn belt where he can just never lose it. RVD will be squashed at Unforgiven. No doubt about it. Then who will be next? Booker yep squashed, Jericho squashed, maybe Edge get brought over.....guess what he gets squashed too. The only person HHH would lose to would be Nash I'd say, and he is still months away.
No one cares about HHH. No one. You can hear a pin drop during his promos. The Raw brand really adores RVD, Booker T, and Kane. They love to boo Jericho, the Unamericans, and Bischoff. That is it. Will HHH ever admit he is lost in the fan acceptance shuffle? Who knows.
Storylines, Character Development, and Fueds
Is there any storylines on Raw? Think about it, other then Jericho thinking Flair is old, and HHH saying he is that damn good, Bischoff getting bored and calling for 3 minutes, and the Unamericans wanting to burn the flag every week there is nothing.
For Pete's sake, how many times does Buh Buh Dudley have to be in a intergender tag match against Nowinski or Regal. You are talking about total channel changers. Alot of people were praising what Buh Buh said to HHH, but Buh Buh sucks. He works hard but he sucks. Not bad on the mic, but he SUCKS. Hope everyone understands Buh Buh sucks. His character is a lame ass tough guy that no one cares about.
You want to know who should have gotten Buh Buh's spot on Raw talking trash to HHH. Goldust. It would have been a hundred times better. He could have started off acting silly then HHH make a crack on him, and he goes into Dustin Rhodes mode. He could have talked about how his dad held that title, and how HHH does not deserve it. Dustin is a hell of a worker that deserves to be on Raw and not Heat against Steven Richards. Plus the fans like him.
At least the Unamericans are getting used. Lance is too good of a worker never to be on TV. The gimmick is about to become majorly boring though. If threaten to burn the American Flag each week it will really become old quick. Here is a thought. How about having Lance, Test, and Christian in the back talking about how tonight no matter what they were going to burn the American flag. Show them putting it in a bag and into a trash can. They walk away for about a minute or so, and have a guy like Shelton Benjamin come up on the can. He is a Collegiate All American. Have Shelton switch the American Flag with the Canadian Flag. When the Unamericans come out to the ring and burn it, you can show on the Titan Tron Shelton switching the flags, and the Unamericans would have a fit, because they realized they just burnt their own flag. (they don't have to actually burn a flag but they can make it look like it). Then Shelton can come out waiving the American Flag, and he would be huge over with the fans.
After then Lance and Christian could challenge him, and Shelton could say can I get a partner and you guys put up those straps. They are like go ahead choose whoever. Then you can have one of two choices. Either the music you hear will say "Your messing with the real deal now", or "Can you dig it Sucka". Either way the fans would react very well. Plus if its DLo they just got him back on Raw, and you can have Shelton and them go over. They could lose them on the next PPV, but hey you introduced the fans to Shelton and brought DLo back to Raw.
Just a few thoughts for you guys.
Thats it for today. Email me at my new address and tell me what you think.
Take care and much love,
The Dawg |
Once again, back to the basics. I have not had the opportunity to watch Smackdown yet. I will probably get to see it tomorrow sometime, or late tonight. With my work schedule this weekend. I may not find time.
Last night the crew assembled at JDs for a good time. Too bad those Giants couldn't hold off those 49ers. JD's would have been fired up on his birthday.
As you have noticed on the homepage, we are handing out the "hardware" I guess you could say for the mid year. Though not all ballotts are in yet, I thought today I would give my awards. Yes Mox I know Shocker is the man, but I try to focus on U.S. for these things. Calm down.
Here we go:
Wrestler of Mid Year
Kurt Angle- I give it to Kurt because he is the most consistent on the roster, and doesn't get the credit he deserves. I think he has done a hell of a job this year so far, and he will no doubt continue. Close second for me was Edge. If he didn't get hurt I may have went with him.
Tag Team
Booker T and Goldust- The tag team specialist days are gone so I went with the team who I thought worked the hardest in the ring, and provided me with the most entertainment.
PPV of Mid Year
Summerslam- Top to bottom solid. I would take Vengeance second.
Fresh Face of the Mid Year
Lesnar- They took him from Fresh Face to world champ. Started off real slow however I thought. Last few matches have been solid. He will be a force to reckon with for years to come in this sport. John Cena gets second.
Match of the Mid Year
Kurt Angle vs Edge at Backlash- I expected this match to be good, but not this good. These two tore it up everytime they stepped in the ring this year. A lot of people will disagree but this was the best. Runner-up Angle vs Edge Judgement Day.
Biggest Disappointment
Austin-Never saw this coming, which makes it to me such a big deal. The WWE was not giving him what he deserved, but still you got to stay strong. Plus the whole hitting Debra was out of line. Like everyone else I hope he comes back, but if not Oh well.
Most Underused
Booker T- Hands down. This went from being booed out of the building to perhaps the top face on Raw and gets nothing for it. He does try his hardest night in and night out. Should be fueding with HHH or Jericho.
Pleasant Surprise
Tie Goldust and Edge- Let me explain. Last year, I thought Edge was one of the most overrated guys in the company. This year, he worked his ass off and won me over. His fued with Jericho and Angle made him a star, and his in ring work I think has blossomed. I never thought Goldust would be back in the WWE. Dustin has always been a good in ring performer who can adjust to different styles. His comedic skits this year were priceless. Needs a bigger push too.
Most Overused
Jeff Hardy- I just think the kid is terrible. He is broken down and sloppy as can be. He has not changed his style one bit. Should be on heat at this point.
Diva of Mid Year
Trish- Her in ring has improved, and she always gives it her all. Still over too. Took some nice bumps this year as well.
Best Talker of Mid Year
Rock- Had a lot of funny skits, and still gets the crowd into everything he says. A few times this year he has come off stale but the promo he cut the night Austin left was priceless. Runner up Angle.
Best Fued
Angle vs Edge- Just terrific in every since of the word. Angle won the first match, and helped put Edge over in the second. Thats what needs to be done. Nothing was better or probably will be better this year.
Biggest Story in Wrestling
Austin-Read above for biggest disappointments.
Best Programming
Smackdown- They brought new talent and mixed them well with the old. Thats all I ask for. All of their main events hardly ever disappointed. Rey vs Chavo and Rey vs Tajiri were both solid as well. Smackdown rules.
Best Wrestler not in WWE
Shocker- Draws big in Mexico and is one hell of a performer.
Best Tag Team not in WWE
Rey Buccanero and Ultimo Guerrero- Folks there is no better team in the world. If you haven't seen them get a tape. I love these guys, especially when they team with Tarzan Boy. I will agree with Mox, I think EMLL is the best promotion in the world.
Hall of Fame
My picks- My picks for the Hall are Lou Thesz, El Santo, Ultimo Guerrero, Harley Race, Terry Gordy, Verne Gagne, and the Great Muta. We will have to wait and see what everyone says before we know. Tom waiting on you bud.
Other Junk
NFL- I wanna give out some NFL predictions before I get into the season and people say I jumped on Somebodies band wagon. I will go with the Steelers (of course) over Tampa Bay in the Super Bowl. I know, I know, Kordell will joke but got to stick with my boys. MVP: Peyton Manning
Offensive Rookie of the Year- Ashley Lelie-WR Denver
Defensive Rookie of the Year- Roy Williams-Safety Dallas
Chyna- Anyone else hoping Yuji kills her?
Happy Birthday- To the Jive Turkey on Sept. 7
Beercanna- I feel you Joe. Just don't let it get you down. Stand and fight. Your day will come.
Take care and much love,
As promised, here is your better late then never Raw report. Sometimes you just got to put family first and I thought that was a good way for me to show my appreciation to my sister. Onto Raw:
HHH- I thought this guy was a heel. Yet when they gave him the title the fans were eating him up. Then he opened his mouth and you could hear a pin drop. I wish they would have made Flair vs HHH with the winner to get the belt, instead of HHH being awarded it. Either way I knew HHH was gonna win, but you know. I will give him credit. He did not look that bad in the ring on Monday. When all is said and done are we actually gonna believe that Nash, Hall, and Shawn was the one's in the back who were running things, or was HHH the entire time?
Flair- A legend but at times I want him badly to just quit.
RVD- And your next contestant to job to HHH and not get elevated is.....R-V-D. Poor guy. When he made the save for Flair I thought the roof was going to blow off. Looked good in the ring as well. Didn't hurt nobody.
Booker T- The guy is on a roll right now with the fans, and you give him Regal who Booker couldn't really adjust to his style. I was glad to see Booker go over, but give him Jericho and quit with this nonsense.
Bradshaw and Kane- I've seen it all now. I don't want to see no more either. Screw them give me Duggan and Slaughter, or the return of the Patriot. Joke people.
Lance Storm- I just think he rocks on the mic right now.
Crash-What will Raw do now? Give me a break.
Tommy Dreamer- Thanks for blasting that waste of money.
Tag Table Match- The in ring work wasn't that good but I found this match entertaining. I laughed a few times during it.
Pillow Match- Boy was the King funny or what. What a perv though.
|
|
Summerslam thoughts
I went a total of 7-5 on predictions this weekend. An even 4-4 mark for Summerslam followed by a Louisville win in the Little League, Henderson's demolishing of Union County, and my fantasy team being better then Tom's. Tom not winning the lottery hurt me in the loss column. What a let down Tom! Now onto the Slam:
E
Overall- I was very pleased with SS. Of course when you book that strong of a card, its hard not to be good. I don't know if I would put it above Vengence or not, but after I watch it for the second time I will let you know. All of the matches were solid I thought. Some of the finishes were a bit shocking to me, and nothing more then the "Lets Go Lesnar" chants. I was not prepared for that.
Angle vs Rey- It was different seeing Angle in the opener. I remember when his music hit, me and the boys just looked at each other. We were sort of expecting Edge vs Eddy. They both did a good job complimenting the others style. Rey didn't blow one spot, but the ending got botched. That was Angle's fault though. With RVD going to Smackdown probably, I'd say Angle vs RVD could be next. Rey will probably drop off to Noble or Eddy. Either one of those will be good. As far as match only, this was the best on the night.
Jericho vs Flair- Surprise, Surprise. I never thought Flair would win. Never. Shows what I know. The observer stated this would set up Flair vs Jericho for Raw tonight. Why do they do that? WCW did that all the time and I hated it then.Their match wasn't that bad. It was slower paced, but Jericho worked hard to make it a solid contest. Just weird booking though.
Booker T/Dust vs UnAmericans- Well the crowd was way into Booker. Give him a good single fued please. All four men worked hard, but it kind of dragged I thought. It wasn't a bad match at all, and I found it good. The crowd was wanting Booker and Dust to win. WWE should have noticed that and done it.
Taker vs Test- No way Taker was jobbing. Maybe the worst match of the night by default. Who would have thought you would hear people chanting USA during an Undertaker match.
Eddy vs Edge- Good ring psychology in this match. Cole and Tazz got this match over I thought with their play-by-play. Eddy just can't win a match. Edge will probably go for Benoit next. I really didn't think Edge was as over as he has been in recent months. Somebody please kill the Latino Heat gimmick. Please.
Benoit vs RVD- Crowd died a little in this match. If they slowed it down the fans went to sleep. They were expecting I guess a more faster pace match. I thought the match was hard hitting and was very good. Not a 4 or 5 star match but a 3 at least. RVD will be going to Smackdown for sure,which means Kane will probably go to Raw.
HBK vs HHH- No matter what happens from here on out. I will always remember Shawn on top of the ladder looking acrossed the crowd, pounding his chest, and saying he loved the fans before dropping the elbow. That to me was the moment of Summerslam. The match was boring early on but the last 10 minutes was worth watching. The whole time you were just like "Shawn is not going to do that, or O Man he did it." Him winning doesn't hurt HHH any either. A match worth watching for sure. If this was it....Thank You Shawn. Brock vs Rock- The finish was not surprising but the fans were. They were chanting Rocky sucks almost the entire match. I guess people were getting at Rocky for leaving. The match was interesting. It wasn't the best match on the card, but it delivered. Most of the credit needs to be given to the fans. They are the ones who made this match. They should maybe think about turning Lesnar. We will have to see what happens tonight I guess.mail me guys and tell me what you think. ehrenschaffter@hotmail.com
That is it for today. Much love
First things first. A special thanks to Mox for the I guess the "Brand Extension". CPW and Puro are basically fam anyway. He plugs us, and we do the same. So onto business.
If you haven't seen the poll up on cpwtapes.tripod.com, it states "Who should the WWE sign or resign next." As of right now, Bill Goldberg is winning the poll, but I have decided to take a little in depth look at those on the poll and tell you who should be signed in my opinion. I'd like for the other fella's to do the same if they have time.
Jeff Jarrett- The Chosen One went from beating up women in his last WWE stint to calling people Slap Nuts on Nitro. I have seen Jeff Jarrett wrestle now for over 14 years at least. I remember watching him, Jerry Lawler, Manny Fernandez, Marty Jannetty, Shawn Michaels, Billy Jack Funk, Austin Idol, Bill Dundee, Eddie Gilbert, and Tommy Rich come to the Union County High School for wrestling events. He never really grew on me much until his little fued with Chyna. I enjoyed watching Jarrett during that span maybe more then anyone else. He got that whole angle over and made a name for himself in the process. Then came the night he hit Buff with the guitar. Man did I love him then, cause Buff is not the Stuff. Jarrett worked very hard in WCW. The problem was that after Benoit, Malenko, and Eddy left there wasn't really anyone that could handle his style to have an excellent match. They tried Booker T, and yes they did have some good matches, but nothing as to what could have been. Fueds with Hogan and Sid aren't going to do nothing for ones career. So what would Jarrett bring to the WWE? Well one thing is experience and hard work. He has been around the business for a long time and understands how things work. Also name recognition. He is someone that the fans will believe in right away. Also Jarrett can give you a quality match. A fued with Edge, Angle, Rock, Taker, HHH, Benoit, Guerrero, or Rey would be very good to watch. Well except for HHH cause he would deliver a 40 minute promo on how Jarrett left the company before.
Scott Steiner- Without a doubt in the early 90's one of the most misused talents in wrestling. He was just an amazing worker and athlete. The thing about Scott was that he just didn't have a look the fans cared about. Then out of no where comes Big Poppa Pump. He just looked to me like a bad m'f. Steiner is a real tough guy in and outside of the ring. He is not afraid to hit a camera man, a fan, or any other wrestler for that matter. While I believe he was being billed as the top heel in WCW, he never really was. Fans liked him, and hated Jarrett way more. Age and injuries are taking their toll on Big Poppa Pump. Though he says he is roid free, you know deep down most of his problems are from that. He may be what the WWE is looking for. Vince has always loved big strong guys. A fued with the Rock, Taker, Kane, or HHH is what he would probably get first. I don't think it would be HHH because he would want to go over Steiner, same for Taker. Kane may be the scape goat at first. Like Jarrett, Steiner gives you a name to put on a PPV. Its just whether or not the WWE wants to take a chance on a now decent performer with injuries.
Jerry Lynn- A great performer in the ring with absolutely no mic skills or in-ring personality to go along with it. I remember watching Lynn winning the Light Heavyweight title, and the fans reacting nicely. Then came the dreaded injury bug, and no one cared anymore about Jerry Lynn in the WWE. Lynn could go to any Indy promotion in the US and be a star. NWA TNA has been a good home for him lately. If you are wanting a wrestler who will no doubt give you good matches night in and night out on the poll, Lynn may be your guy. He could have 4 star matches with Benoit, Guerrero, maybe RVD still, Edge, Tajiri, Kidman, Noble, or Rey Jr. If the WWE took time out to work with his mic skills and developed a character for him, Lynn could be a major player in the mid card for a long time.
Ken Shamrock- The so-called World's Most Dangerous Man had a decent run in the WWE before. He won Tag Gold and the IC strap. Shamrock is one of those performers who can get totally boooed out of the building and can get cheered graciously if he was to turn face the very next night. I really don't believe there is money in Shamrock now. Without a doubt he is probably the worst wrestler on the list. The only fueds I could see him getting would be Angle or Lesnar. Anything else the WWE could give him would make him just lost in the shuffle.
Brian Christopher- Don't he wish he never went to Canada? Well Christopher was not and never will be a star in the WWE. Yes I know Too Cool was over but c'mon they made no impact except for elevating Rikishi. I really believe that NWA TNA, Major League Wrestling, or Ring of Honor should be his home for a long time. Christopher does have some skill but the last time I really saw a good match from him was when Taka was carrying his ass. We may see him back because of Daddy, but it would just be a waste of money. There is no need in bringing in people unless you are wanting them to contribute in a certain division or to be a major player.
Goldberg- Hmmm! I may take a different look at this then other poeple. I really believe for the main event, money making fued, with a potential awesome PPV buyrate, Goldberg is the one you should go after. Goldberg vs the Rock would be huge, but if they bring Goldberg in, they better go get Austin, because that is the fued I believe people will really want to see. The main problems with Goldberg are this: He is coming off an injury, and he has not wrestled in about two years. Before then he was a name, but was just about as bad as Shamrock was in the ring. When Goldberg could wrestle he didn't protect his opponents the way he should. Ala Bret Hart and many others. Saying that Austin was to come back, do you put him with Goldberg who is really stiff, knowing Austin has two bad knees and a bad neck, HHH is recovering from a torn quad and a hurt arm, Benoit is recovering from a neck injury, Angle seems to get concussions and stuff a lot, and plain and simple Rock is too valuable to hurt. He will have to ton down his rough housing style I think in order for him not just get over with the fans, but with the boys in the back. The other problem with Goldberg is, How long will he stay. If the WWE signed him I'd make sure I put somewhere where Goldberg had to wrestle for them for at least the next 2 years or he loses all money in the contract. His asking price is gonna be scary so the WWE needs to protect their investments. Just a little something for them to think of before they decide "Who's Next".
Low Ki- If you are a fan of the Indy circuit then you definitely know this guy. I believe he works for like 5 federations right now. He is a champion in all 5. I have about 6 Low Ki matches on tape, thanks to Mox, and this kid is a major question mark for me. He can go, but he is really spotty. The WWE gave him some time on Jakked one night and Christian squashed him. He did look good in there with Christian but just seemed to be out of place. To me his style is to much like Tajiri and he wouldn't be able to switch it. The only place he could have a home in the WWE is the cruiser division, and lets face it, the wrestlers who are there now struggle to get over. Jamie Noble, Tajiri, and Chavo Jr are way better then Low Ki, and they hardly get no reaction. Low Ki's 2000 version of the Karate Kid would not get him over in the WWE.
Ron Killings AKA KKwick- Get Rowdy. Hey you got to love that back in the day. This one guy I was shocked when the WWE let go. When he was a heel he got over. When he was a face he got over. If put into a tag team with Dlo or someone back in the day he may have gotten to stay around. The thing about Killings is he was green, but had charisma. That is what NWA saw and they are using that. I have not seen Killings in the ring for sometime, and I hope to catch him tonight against Monty Brown on NWA TNA. If he was brought back I think he would be a solid addition the the lower mid card or tag ranks. I believe he is too heavy for Cruiser. The main thing about Killings is this. He is young and his asking price wouldn't be much at all, but he wouldn't draw or bring help develop a long term fued I don't think.
SATs- The spottiest tag team I have ever seen. They make everything into a spot. If you haven't seen them for real, a punch is a spot to them. One of the weakest divisions in the WWE is the tag division. The WWE has added the Unamericans, Booker and Goldust, and the Island Boys to a depleted divsion over the past few months. The Hardys are split up, and the Duds are too. Edge and Christian should never get back together so are the SATs the answer? I think the WWE fans would like them but they are dangerous. Like Killings the asking price for them would be really low. There are better teams that the WWE could put together. They have 3 Count on the wrong damn show. What is the point in tagging people if they can't win a belt. Yikes. Maybe the WWE should look at the SATs and send them to OVW first. If they develop bring them up, if not oh well.
Elix Skipper- Primetime baby. Hey I like Elix. I thought the WWE should not have let him or Romeo go, because I believed they could have been brought in as a tag team. Skipper was just getting into groove whenever WCW shut down. He has been on NWA TNA lately. I have heard his matches have been okay to poor. I don't know whether its the compitition or him. They could try bringing him into the cruiser division. The fans will give him heat for sure. He has charisma which is a plus. I just don't believe we will see Elix in Primetime in the near future.
So who should it be- Drum Role Please...................... As much as I hate to say it..............Jeff Jarrett. Ha you thought I was going to say Goldberg. I look at it like this. I love wrestling. I love watching great matches, great fueds, and to be entertained. I can see Jarrett doing that better then anyone else on the card. Now if they brought in Steiner or Goldberg, I wouldn't be mad. I'd just go with Jarrett.
Email me guys and tell me what you think. ehrenschaffter@hotmail.com
That is it for today. Much love
The Dawg
|
