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Posts Tagged ‘WWE’

Just saw Judgment Day and the Shawn Michaels-Chris Jericho match had to be the “highlight reel” match of the night for me, personally. I recognized what they were trying to replicate right away, which is one of those action-filled, tons of near-falls type of matches like the classic Flair-Steamboat match, or the equally-classic WrestleMania 3 Savage-Steamboat match of years gone by.

The great thing is they told a great storyline in the ring through wrestling and ring psychology, rather than a series of high spots, so classic fans like myself can appreciate it as a tribute to the way wrestlnig was done in the pre-WrestleMania era. The old AWA standby champ, Nick Bockwinkle, was one of the best at this style of match, and Michaels was around in the latter days of the AWA, so he knew Bockwinkle, at least in passing. Jericho, a student of the game, wasn’t wrestling yet back then, but as I recall, when he was the Undisputed WWE champ, his style of “heel champ” had a distinct Nick Bockwinkle tribute feel to it.

So if you missed the PPV, bubba, stretch out on your foam mattress and buy the replay, because that was one match worth the price of viewing, for sure. The two title matches (Orton v. Triple H and Edge v. Taker) were also top-notch efforts by the top talents from both brands.

Randy Orton’s old entrance music was catchy, immediately recognizable and fun; much like the car crash sounds that trigger Mick Foley’s entrance, the shattering glass that triggers Stone Cold Steve Austin’s entrance, or the “You Think You Know Me” whisper that precedes Edge’s theme song, Orton had a terrific entrance theme.

But, of course, WWE is planning on releasing another soundtrack soon, so away they go with changing up some of the wrestler’s theme songs and Orton is the latest victim of a very bad new theme song that will have Raw’s top heel running for the nearest self defense products from all the catcalls it will earn him… and not in a good way.

My vote is to dump Orton’s new theme song immediately, and go back to the standard right away. Much like some of the awful theme song changes they’ve tried to foist on Triple H and Undertaker over the years, this one just is not an improvement. It’s generic and forgettable and needs to disappear. Some entrance themes, like HBK’s, simply never ought to change.

I hate to say it, but I’m already bored with the whole King Regal bit. While it made for a nice shocking moment the first time Regal ended Raw early, mid-match, the whole ongoing bit of turning out the ring lights and stopping good promos and good matches (while the bad ones seem to still go on uninterrupted) has quickly worn thin.

Regal’s power trip is about as intriguing as a natural acne treatment video to a senior citizen, and it’s ruining important moments in the Raw broadcast. The most blatent example of this from last night’s Raw was when Regal shut down the first promo Jeff Hardy has cut since returning from a two-month suspension related to the WWE’s Wellness Policy.

That was an important moment in re-establishing Hardy’s character, so having it cut off was more than just an angle; it cheated the crowd. Wherever this is headed with Regal, it needs to be over soon, since this is not creating the good type of “nasty villain” heat, but is actually resulting in viewer apathy, since it seems like any time a promo or match gets interesting, they pull the “Regal cuts the power” angle.

Drop it, fast, Vince!

Mrs. Foley’s baby boy is back in the WWE; this time, he’s not promoting a book or taking chairshots to put some young superstar over. Instead, Mick is the new SmackDown color commentator, filling in a role that has been in turmoil since JBL un-retired and returned to the wrestling ring as an in-ring competitor.

You don’t have to worry about going through laptop rental to get a glimpse of Foley anymore, as he is on-air two hours a week on the WWE Smackdown broadcast. Foley’s role as SmackDown commentator is an unexpected turn; the company has tried out Mike Adamle, among others, in that role, all to mixed reviews.

But Foley is legit on color commentary, and brings with him a fan base that may boost SmackDown’s ratings a notch. He has remained on Raw’s roster of “retired superstars” for the past several years and whenever he’s done a one-week cameo, it has been on that broadcast that he has appeared.

Although I’d hoped Foley would return as an announcer one day, I always kind of expected it would be on Raw; his presence on SmackDown immediately makes that broadcast, despite its under-talented roster, more intriguing.

WWE star Chris Jericho deserves more than the minor spotlight he’s receiving on Monday Night Raw so far. His cross-brand fued with MVP was hot, but Jericho is someone who deserves a bit more of a shot at a title that’s not of the USA/International variety.

As a veteran, Jericho exemplifies good mic skills combined with an electrifying personality and decent, if not exactly spectacular, matt skills. Sure, he’s no John Cena, but the best thing the company could do right now is rest Cena from the main event spotlight and rebuild his character in a way that might reduce the booing. Sort of like the effect of keepnig the blinds closed during the nasty winter months so that when you open them again in the spring, you appreciate the sunshine and the look of the outside a bit more than you did before.

Meanwhile, with Triple H the current champion, he needs some fresh faces to challenge him and Triple H-Jericho is a fued that hasn’t been overplayed much; in fact, the two have rarely been opponents. Here’s hoping someone with some sense finally gives Jericho an extended push instead of having him get slapped around as part of other wrestlers’ fueds in The Highlight Reel.

Talk about trying to RAM a screwjob down our throats? While I was thrilled to see the King of the Ring return a couple weeks ago, and on a free Raw broadcast, no less, I was vastly disappointed with the booking.

While King of the Ring has often been used to anoint the WWE’s next big heel, all it was used for this time around was to further the career of a well-past-his-prime wrestler and Raw general manager, William Regal. Regal didn’t need the King of the Ring crown to get over with the crowd; he’s been around long enough that he’s as over as he’s going to get.

Of all the possible endings for the latest edition of the King of the Ring event, giving the crown to William Regal after stacking the events and matchups in his own favor, was perhaps the worst of all possible endings, save except for an ending that would have put the crown on Hacksaw Jim Duggan.

Did anyone catch Lawler’s opening blunder? It was typical but still kind of amusing when he exclaimed, “Everyone here is erect — electrifyed by…” Amusing bit; maybe Lawler needs a dose or two of Orovo, though.

The PPV lead off with two of the best wrestlers still on the Smackdown brand; Matt Hardy versus MVP. Hardy’s an old hand in WWE terms, but a solid worker now in his solo career; and MVP is a solid up-and-comer with a gimmick that won’t get in the way of him someday reaching the top of a future PPV card. Good match to represent the Smackdown brand.

Mick Foley was less than great, though, filling in for Coach, calling Matt Hardy, Matt Hardly. Hardy’s surprising win over MVP was a fun and thrilling finish, but doesn’t really take much shine off MVP’s rising star, even though it put the US Title on Hardy. However, I suspect MVP is being groomed to move up and take on Undertaker soon for the World Heavyweight Championship, so getting the US Title off him was a necessary move.

Next up was Kane vs. Chavo Guerrero for the ECW Title. Kane’s a completely uninspiring champion and Guerrero’s no better an option, so this made for a really boring match. Giving this match over 10 minutes to play out really cut against Kane’s dominating title win at WrestleMania, in which he bested the same opponent in well under a minute. Whatever. Vince, mend fences with Paul Heyman and make ECW matter again. Please.

Now it’s back to the SmackDown-Raw cross-brand match up with Raw’s Big Show taking on SmackDown’s Great Khali. Two giants is always a fun concept match, and these are two of the biggest men in the pro ring today. It’s also a smart match for WWE to use to advance Show’s return after the high-profile boxer vs. wrestler match at WrestleMania, when Show took on Floyd Mayweather.

The “battle of the head-butts” was a rather boring way to start the match, and the crowd wasn’t loving it, to be sure. There was even a “BO-RING” chant gong at one point. Khali was allowed to dominate most of the six-minute-or-so match, with Show pulling off only a couple really successful moves; a bodyslam, which he blew on his first attempt; and a reversal out of a chokeslam for a chokeslam of his own. Typical big-man matchup, but Show was given the win after jobbing to the under-160-pound Floyd Mayweather at WrestleMania last month.

The Batista-HBK match, with Chris Jericho as the special guest referee, was the first real stamp of Raw on the Backlash PPV, since both HBK and Jericho are Raw guys and most of this storyline played out on Raw. This match was a great antidote to Show-Khali, as it was a much higher-energy, faster-paced match.

It was nice to see this match get over 25 minutes of ring-time to develop, although the ending was unexpected; Michaels came down wrong on a move and seemed to get a real knee injury, but then unexpectedly got up and delivered a Superkick with the injured knee being the support leg for the Superkick move. If this is a real knee injury, that was am impressive moment on Michaels’ part; if it was a sell-job, Michaels did great at playing possum. Either way, it was good to see Michaels get the best of the overrated Batista.

The 10-woman diva tag match was quick fun, which is all one could expect of a non-title women’s match, since not all the women are of equal ring-skill. At least it game Mickie James a nice spotlight.

The Undertaker-Edge match was next, with Taker defending the title he won at WrestleMania, against the same opponent from whom he won it. The rubber match concept is great for fued-building, but SmackDown’s not doing itself any favors by not injecting fresh blood into the title picture. Taker’s always reliable and Edge is an electrifying, polarizing personality, but more faces are needed at the top. Hopefully, MVP will soon be added to the mix, now that his US Title isn’t in the way. Having Taker win the rematch in virtually the same way he won the title intially pretty much puts a cap on their rivalry for a while and should open a path for new opponents to face off with Taker. Nice 12-minute or so match, not counting the entrances.

Finally, it was main event time and it’s a good one; a four-way match with elimination rules, one of my favorite stips since it doesn’t take one fluke pinfall to end it. Triple H, Orton, Cena and JBL makes for a rock-solid main event and fortunately, even though this PPV was Smackdown-heavy, it was this Raw-branded match that was given the top spot for a change, and deservedly so.

The 30 minutes given to the match to develop was terrific, and the match lived up to expectations for me. With four of the top workers in the biz in the same match, there was no weak spot, really. Cena brought the most energy to the match, fighting hard and fast and clean to show both his desire and momentum. He earned the first elimination, forcing JBL to tap out.

So it was a disappointment when Orton entered immediately afterward, delivered a kick to the head and speedily sent Cena packing for another night. That left just Orton and Triple H to settle things one-on-one, which was disappointing, since I wanted to see more three-corner action before we got to the second elimination.

Oh well.

As we all know by now, after earning his legitimacy with a WrestleMania win, WWE ended Orton’s reign with an entertaining, but fairly predictable title change to Triple H. HHH has been working hard and patiently since his return from injury, and the victory makes him a 12-time champion, which helps push him toward Flair territory (16 times).

With the summer PPV season upon us, I expect Triple H will reign at least through SummerSlam, but by then it should be up for grabs as the company starts to map out its road to next spring’s WrestleMania. All in all, not a bad PPV.

Some of the most famous pro wrestling bloggers really get some advantages the rest of us do not, like being asked to do sports radio interviews whenever something big or controversial happens in the world of Vincent Kennedy McMahon. Though I never gave it a lot of thought until recently, I’ve come to realize that having my own business card might not be such a bad idea.

So I hopped over to LogoYes.com to try out their free logo design and business card creation tool, just to get a rough idea. I didn’t expect much more than that – a rough idea. That’s where I was wrong; with the flexibility of their online tools and just a bit of creativity, I came up with a look I really like, and it only took maybe 10-15 minutes, mostly because I’m fairly fussy and kept adjusting stuff.

With plenty of clip art available and three main styles of clip art to choose from, I was able to come up with a design that not only goes well with the new look I adopted for ProWrestlingViews.com when I was hunting down and customizing the new template last night, but I think if I had the money to order a set, I probably would have, right then and there. The card looks sharp, I think, and would present a pretty impressive professional image.

Of course, I kept my address off the version I’m posting online for … well, privacy reasons, naturally. But if I placed an order, it would be relatively easy to correct that. Now if only I could figure out how to develop a custom blog template around the sharp logo I designed at LogoYes.com, I’d really be in business!

With the firing of Joey Styles as the play-by-play announcer of ECW, Vince McMahon has effectively severed one of the last ties to the upstart rebel promotion Tod Gordon and Paul Heyman started about 15 years ago. His replacement, Mike Adamle, formerly best known as the announcer of the original American Gladiators, is a wrestling newbie whose inexperience hurt the ECW telecast this week, and could very well doom the promotion in the ratings.

Perhaps there were good reasons behind the scenes for letting Styles go, including a price tag issue brought up by the company’s budgeting software. Who knows? But for anyone who was holding out any vestige of hope that ECW could rebound and recapture its former glory, the last spark of hope was snuffed out with Styles’ dismissal.

Last Monday’s Raw broadcast had one of the best women’s title matches on display in a long time. Champion Beth Phoenix and challenger Mickie James put on a long, roughly seven-minute contest that was surprisingly physical. The payoff came when the imposing Phoenix felt victim to the fast-moving James’ quickness for a surprise win and a title change.

In all honesty, though, the victory is somewhat pyhrric, given that Phoenix was given the title almost immediately upon entering the WWE and was never established well as a character on TV broadcasts. Her title reign was long but rather empty as a result, and putting the title on James gives the fans of WWE a performer who has established an appealing persona, as well as a record of working hard in the ring.

Truth be told, though, this is a match that would have been better-suited to WrestleMania, rather than a Raw broadcast; but the women’s division is currently a bit morose, given too often to sex-appeal matches at PPV, rather than athletic title matches like the one one Raw last Monday.

Perhaps a rematch for grudge purposes will be worked up for a future festool PPV. Give James and Phoenix some time to cut promos against each other and a 12-minute spot to do real ring work, rather than bra-and-panties crap, and you’d have a very watchable WWE Women’s Title match for a future PPV.

Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson reappeared at the WWE Hall of Fame induction ceremony, his first appearance on a WWE broadcast in possibly a year, and if early indications are accurate, it may be his last appearance for quite some time.

The Rock, now a big-time movie star, owes his current fame and success largely to the exposure of his early WWE career. However, at the event intended to honor his father and grandfather for the time they spent in WWE, The Rock apparently presented himself, both on-stage and backstage, as above everyone else he used to work with.

His Hall of Fame induction speech ran exceptionally long, and was primarily a comedy routine making fun of and belittling current WWE stars, none of whom he warned ahead of time about the jokes he had planned. His comments on his father and grandfather were, by comparison, brief and lacking in much detail or heart.

The Rock did not attend WrestleMania, showed up just in time for his speech, and left immediately after it was over, blowing off nearly all the WWE personalities with whom he used to be close, including pal Stone Cold Steve Austin.

The Rock’s bad behavior drew much ire from the current roster of WWE personalities, and is a good indicator that the next time the WWE and The Rock cross paths, it may be a couple decades down the line, when it is The Rock himself who is being inducted. Fans offering up everything from their life’s savings to their bathroom faucets in trade for Dwayne Johnson to make a return to the WWE ring may be placing their hopes in an extreme unlikelihood.

As a conept, and even to some degree in execution, last Monday Night Raw’s main event, pitting John Cena and Randy Orton against the entire Raw roster, was a fun challenge. My only complaint is the brief amount of time given for the match to develop and play out. It needed another 10 minutes, at least, to really deliver a great ring psychology payoff.

Still, the concept, delivered by Triple H as the third part of the “triple threat takeover” of Raw, part of promoting the triple-threat main event title match at WrestleMania between Orton, Cena and Triple H, is a fascinating one, and ought to be tried again sometime with more airtime given to the match. It played out like a fine bottle of Riedel, but was all-too brief.

About the only way to improve on it, in fact, would be to somehow have Jeff Hardy be one of the principals involved in facing the entire Raw roster; few people deliver better in-ring psychology in their matches than Jeff Hardy.