50. Jack Swagger
49. Jeff Hardy
48. Max Buck
47. Edge
46. Shawn Michaels
45. Jeremy Buck
44. CM Punk
43. Eddie Edwards
42. The Miz
41. Sheamus
40. Jay Briscoe
39. Kaz Hayashi
38. James Storm
37. Roderick Strong
36. Mark Briscoe
35. Togi Makabe
34. Robert Roode
33. Satoshi Kojima
32. YAMATO
31. Kenny Omega
30. Kevin Steen
29. Christian
28. Daisuke Sekimoto
27. Claudio Castagnoli
26. Daniel Bryan
25. PAC
24. Chris Hero
23. Chris Jericho
22. Naruki Doi
21. El Generico
20. KENTA
19. Randy Orton
18. Kota Ibushi
17. AJ Styles
16. BXB Hulk
15. Rey Mysterio
14. Hirooki Goto
13. CIMA
12. Shinsuke Nakamura
11. Alex Shelley
10. Seth Rollins (Tyler Black)
09. Chris Sabin
08. Naomichi Marufuji
07. Go Shiozaki
06. Shingo Takagi
05. Takashi Sugiura
04. Prince Devitt
03. Hiroshi Tanahashi
02. Davey Richards
01. Kurt Angle
Saturday, 18 December 2010
Friday, 17 December 2010
Japanese Platinum Vol.1 DVD Review By Shaun Nichols
Roderick Strong & Eddie Edwards vs KENTA & Atsushi Aoki ***3/4
Apollo 55 vs Golden Lovers ****1/2
Satoshi Kojima vs Hiroshi Tanahashi ****
Mentallo vs Masato Tanaka vs Akira Shoji **
Roderick Strong & Eddie Edwards vs KENTA & Atsushi Aoki ****1/4
KENTA & Atsushi Aoki vs Koji Kanemoto & Tiger Mask IV ****
This is probably the first WLH Japanese Platinum collection that Stu's put out for probably 8 or 9 years and all the matches featured are from this year with 4 of them taking place in either October or November.
We start with Noah and a match from the NTV Cup which is a tounament for junior tag teams and this is a match from the first night in Block A. Match starts pretty standard until Edwards tries a cheap shot on KENTA who's stood in the corner, KENTA basically just kicks the shit out of him on the floor. This enables KENTA and Aoki to get the heat on Eddie for a few minutes, loads of stiff kicks and forearms with Eddie getting the occasional flurry until he's able to make the hot tag to Roderick. Unfortunately for the ROH boys, Roddy doesn't have much more luck than Eddie and the NOAH team remain firmly in charge. They hit a double stomp/frog splash combo on Strong for a close two count. Aoki uses a cross armbreaker for an attempted submission, KENTA uses a running knee and a STF on Edwards. Eddie responds with a backpack bomb and a sharpshooter on KENTA, he maintains momentum with a huracanrana off the top followed by a powerbomb for a close two count. We're now getting very close to the 30 minute time limit however following yet more double teaming it's Eddie Edwards that picks up a major victory for the team by nailing KENTA with a brainbuster for the pin.
Moving onto NJPW and Apollo 55 defending their IWGP Jr tag titles against DDT's Golden Lovers, over the years there have been far more inter-promotion matches with groups happy to push outside wrestlers as serious threats to the promtion's titles. The champions start by working on Kenny Omega's arm but they are not able to maintain control and it's the challengers use of double teams that enable them to get the heat on Devitt. Omega uses a torture rack on Devitt but an unfortunate miscue allows the hot tag to Taguchi. Taguchi with a DDT on the apron on Ibushi, Prince Devitt hits a suicide dive on both Golden Lovers. Moments later both Omega & Ibushi hit somersault dives to the outside. Kota Ibushi hits his awesome double moonsault on Devitt for a 2 count and then uses what I can only describe as a somersault kick on Devitt when he was on the top rope. Devitt responds with a huge suplex on Ibushi followed by a double stomp off the top. All four men trade stiff kicks as match builds to it's conclusion. Champs think they've retained when the nail Ibushi with the Black Hole Vacation for an insane two count. We are to have new champs though when Ibushi puts Devitt away with a twisting somersault splash for the titles.
Staying with NJPW but going back to August and the final of the G1 Climax tournament, with freelancer Kojima returning in style to battle NJPW star Tanahashi. It was Tanahashi that dominates the opening few minutes working on Kojima's injured left arm. Eventually Kojima makes a comback working over Tanahashi's right knee again for about five minutes. He uses a sharpshooter and a single leg boston crab among other things. Tanahashi responds with a running rolling dive to the floor, but Kojima is back in charge after using a spinebuster and then catching Tanahashi on the top rope with a stiff lariat. Tanahashi manages to go back to working over Kojima's left arm but hits nothing but Kojima's knees when he goes for a splash off the top. He does get a couple of two counts on Kojima with a roll up and then a falcon arrow. Another splash to Kojima hits but a third misses its target again. As we head to the finish Kojima hits a brainbuster but Tanahashi stays in it with a tiger suplex. Kojima though is not to be denied and claims the win with two big lariats for the elusive pinfall.
Moving on to Tajiri's SMASH promotion and their second show from April, this is a hardcore match in the spirit of FMW in style. It also features an heavily wrapped baseball bat which is encased in barbed wire. Tanaka & Shoji start by brawling on the floor, Mentallo sees the bat and for little reason ignores it in favour off a twisting press off the top. Tanaka makes first use of the bat with a very safe swing onto Mentallo and then drops it. Mentallo hits back with moonsault off a chair onto Tanaka but as to wait for a fan to sit on the chair to steady hit. Shoji seems to be in the match to be completely beaten up and also to bleed. Tanaka dives off a balcony and puts Shoji through a table. Mentallo his Tanaka with a huracanrana, we then see Tanaka use part of the broken table to give Shoji a number of unprotected headshots, Shoji then hulks up. We get a double samoan drop from Shoji where Tanaka basically just climbs on Mentallo's back and Shoji falls backwards. Mentallo hits a falcon arrow on Shoji, lays the forgotten baseball on him and then hits a moonsault for the win. All three did work hard but this still wasn't very good.
We had back to NOAH and the final of the NTV cup, match starts slowly with some nice matwork. KENTA and Edwards then trade stiff forearms and the next few minutes are dominated by stiff chops, kicks and forearms. Edwards manages to gain the upper hand by hitting Aoki with a double stomp, a number of frequent tags by the ROH team keeps Aoki on the defensive. However a miscue by Edwards and Strong allows KENTA to make the hot tag. He manages to get a couple of two counts on Eddie but he can't maintain control of the match and Strong catches him in the stronghold and then uses one of his thousand modified backbreakers for a two count. The stars of this match are Edwards and Aoki though and they get the majority of the time in the ring with Strong & KENTA playing the minor roles. Aoki uses a fantastic rolling northern suplex on Edwards for 2. KENTA does hit Strong with the GTS but the ROH champ manages to roll to the floor. Fittingly it was Aoki who got the win after hitting Edwards with a folding suplex for the three count.
That win meant that KENTA & Aoki got to challenge Koji Kanemoto and Tiger Mask IV on 23/11 for the GHC Jr tag titles. Fans were hopeful that the home team challengers could reclaim the crowd and were red hot to see KENTA and Kanemoto go to war, Kanemoto is just fantastic as the outsider taunting the fans. KENTA gets first advantage with stiff kicks on Kanemoto. Kanemoto returns stiff kicks and forearms on Aoki but to a good crowd reaction manages to walk through it. Tiger Mask hits Aoki with a tombstone piledriver but again that does little to slow Aoki down. Aoki does miss a missile dropkick though. Moments later and KENTA & Kanemoto are taking turns in kicking each other in the face and offering face washes in the corner. Kanemoto really starts to mock the NOAH fans, KENTA misses a GTS and gets caught in an anklelock. Having survived, he then gets dragon screw leg whipped by Tiger Mask followed by a tiger driver for a two count. The challengers build steam by double teaming Tiger although the champions restore control when Kanemoto hits a moonsault on Aoki. Moments later he hooks Aoki with the anklelock and dsepite his best efforts he has to tap when KENTA is unable to make the save. Afterwards KENTA walks off leaving Aoki which indicates that he's turning heel. Kanemoto is obviously having a lot of fun with the result being that NOAH are lining up Aoki and the returning Marufuji as the next challengers which should be awesome.
=
Apollo 55 vs Golden Lovers ****1/2
Satoshi Kojima vs Hiroshi Tanahashi ****
Mentallo vs Masato Tanaka vs Akira Shoji **
Roderick Strong & Eddie Edwards vs KENTA & Atsushi Aoki ****1/4
KENTA & Atsushi Aoki vs Koji Kanemoto & Tiger Mask IV ****
This is probably the first WLH Japanese Platinum collection that Stu's put out for probably 8 or 9 years and all the matches featured are from this year with 4 of them taking place in either October or November.
We start with Noah and a match from the NTV Cup which is a tounament for junior tag teams and this is a match from the first night in Block A. Match starts pretty standard until Edwards tries a cheap shot on KENTA who's stood in the corner, KENTA basically just kicks the shit out of him on the floor. This enables KENTA and Aoki to get the heat on Eddie for a few minutes, loads of stiff kicks and forearms with Eddie getting the occasional flurry until he's able to make the hot tag to Roderick. Unfortunately for the ROH boys, Roddy doesn't have much more luck than Eddie and the NOAH team remain firmly in charge. They hit a double stomp/frog splash combo on Strong for a close two count. Aoki uses a cross armbreaker for an attempted submission, KENTA uses a running knee and a STF on Edwards. Eddie responds with a backpack bomb and a sharpshooter on KENTA, he maintains momentum with a huracanrana off the top followed by a powerbomb for a close two count. We're now getting very close to the 30 minute time limit however following yet more double teaming it's Eddie Edwards that picks up a major victory for the team by nailing KENTA with a brainbuster for the pin.
Moving onto NJPW and Apollo 55 defending their IWGP Jr tag titles against DDT's Golden Lovers, over the years there have been far more inter-promotion matches with groups happy to push outside wrestlers as serious threats to the promtion's titles. The champions start by working on Kenny Omega's arm but they are not able to maintain control and it's the challengers use of double teams that enable them to get the heat on Devitt. Omega uses a torture rack on Devitt but an unfortunate miscue allows the hot tag to Taguchi. Taguchi with a DDT on the apron on Ibushi, Prince Devitt hits a suicide dive on both Golden Lovers. Moments later both Omega & Ibushi hit somersault dives to the outside. Kota Ibushi hits his awesome double moonsault on Devitt for a 2 count and then uses what I can only describe as a somersault kick on Devitt when he was on the top rope. Devitt responds with a huge suplex on Ibushi followed by a double stomp off the top. All four men trade stiff kicks as match builds to it's conclusion. Champs think they've retained when the nail Ibushi with the Black Hole Vacation for an insane two count. We are to have new champs though when Ibushi puts Devitt away with a twisting somersault splash for the titles.
Staying with NJPW but going back to August and the final of the G1 Climax tournament, with freelancer Kojima returning in style to battle NJPW star Tanahashi. It was Tanahashi that dominates the opening few minutes working on Kojima's injured left arm. Eventually Kojima makes a comback working over Tanahashi's right knee again for about five minutes. He uses a sharpshooter and a single leg boston crab among other things. Tanahashi responds with a running rolling dive to the floor, but Kojima is back in charge after using a spinebuster and then catching Tanahashi on the top rope with a stiff lariat. Tanahashi manages to go back to working over Kojima's left arm but hits nothing but Kojima's knees when he goes for a splash off the top. He does get a couple of two counts on Kojima with a roll up and then a falcon arrow. Another splash to Kojima hits but a third misses its target again. As we head to the finish Kojima hits a brainbuster but Tanahashi stays in it with a tiger suplex. Kojima though is not to be denied and claims the win with two big lariats for the elusive pinfall.
Moving on to Tajiri's SMASH promotion and their second show from April, this is a hardcore match in the spirit of FMW in style. It also features an heavily wrapped baseball bat which is encased in barbed wire. Tanaka & Shoji start by brawling on the floor, Mentallo sees the bat and for little reason ignores it in favour off a twisting press off the top. Tanaka makes first use of the bat with a very safe swing onto Mentallo and then drops it. Mentallo hits back with moonsault off a chair onto Tanaka but as to wait for a fan to sit on the chair to steady hit. Shoji seems to be in the match to be completely beaten up and also to bleed. Tanaka dives off a balcony and puts Shoji through a table. Mentallo his Tanaka with a huracanrana, we then see Tanaka use part of the broken table to give Shoji a number of unprotected headshots, Shoji then hulks up. We get a double samoan drop from Shoji where Tanaka basically just climbs on Mentallo's back and Shoji falls backwards. Mentallo hits a falcon arrow on Shoji, lays the forgotten baseball on him and then hits a moonsault for the win. All three did work hard but this still wasn't very good.
We had back to NOAH and the final of the NTV cup, match starts slowly with some nice matwork. KENTA and Edwards then trade stiff forearms and the next few minutes are dominated by stiff chops, kicks and forearms. Edwards manages to gain the upper hand by hitting Aoki with a double stomp, a number of frequent tags by the ROH team keeps Aoki on the defensive. However a miscue by Edwards and Strong allows KENTA to make the hot tag. He manages to get a couple of two counts on Eddie but he can't maintain control of the match and Strong catches him in the stronghold and then uses one of his thousand modified backbreakers for a two count. The stars of this match are Edwards and Aoki though and they get the majority of the time in the ring with Strong & KENTA playing the minor roles. Aoki uses a fantastic rolling northern suplex on Edwards for 2. KENTA does hit Strong with the GTS but the ROH champ manages to roll to the floor. Fittingly it was Aoki who got the win after hitting Edwards with a folding suplex for the three count.
That win meant that KENTA & Aoki got to challenge Koji Kanemoto and Tiger Mask IV on 23/11 for the GHC Jr tag titles. Fans were hopeful that the home team challengers could reclaim the crowd and were red hot to see KENTA and Kanemoto go to war, Kanemoto is just fantastic as the outsider taunting the fans. KENTA gets first advantage with stiff kicks on Kanemoto. Kanemoto returns stiff kicks and forearms on Aoki but to a good crowd reaction manages to walk through it. Tiger Mask hits Aoki with a tombstone piledriver but again that does little to slow Aoki down. Aoki does miss a missile dropkick though. Moments later and KENTA & Kanemoto are taking turns in kicking each other in the face and offering face washes in the corner. Kanemoto really starts to mock the NOAH fans, KENTA misses a GTS and gets caught in an anklelock. Having survived, he then gets dragon screw leg whipped by Tiger Mask followed by a tiger driver for a two count. The challengers build steam by double teaming Tiger although the champions restore control when Kanemoto hits a moonsault on Aoki. Moments later he hooks Aoki with the anklelock and dsepite his best efforts he has to tap when KENTA is unable to make the save. Afterwards KENTA walks off leaving Aoki which indicates that he's turning heel. Kanemoto is obviously having a lot of fun with the result being that NOAH are lining up Aoki and the returning Marufuji as the next challengers which should be awesome.
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Monday, 13 December 2010
DVD Recomendations By Shaun Nichols
DVD Recommendations AKA Things You Have to Buy.
In an effort to bring you as much quality wrestling releases as possible, allow me to point you in the direction of the following titles. These DVD's are either discs that I would encourage any fan to watch or shows that have pretty much had universal praise. So here goes..
Breaking the Code: Behind the Walls of Chris Jericho - Well it seemed to take forever but the WWE finally released a suitably fitting 3 disc set in honour of the great man. Disc one has a very enjoyable documentary which if you like his band you'll enjoy even more than I did and a number of really good extras including a hilarious argument between Chris and an old man at a TV taping. Discs two and three are filled with some of his best matches throughout his career which are dominated by his WCW and WWE matches, the matches are generally well selected. It really is a damn fine set for any Jericholic.
ROH Death Before Dishonor VIII - This was the very well received iPPV from June which took place in Toronto. It's main evented by a genuine MOTY contender between then ROH champion Tyler Black defending against Davey Richards, every review of this match as given it ****1/2 or higher and it really does have great fan reaction in the last several minutes. It's by no means a one match card and also features the first 1 on 1 between Steen and Generico, the latest installment between the Kings of Wrestling vs The Briscoes and a somewhat dream match between Kenny Omega vs Christopher Daniels. A show you simply can't go wrong with.
PWG Seven - There have been several outstanding PWG shows this year, the best of which is arguably this. This features two serious MOTY contenders and they only wrestle in front of a few hundred fans. Main event is an insane 3 way for the tag belts with El Generico & Paul London defending against the Young Bucks & Cutler Brothers and is just ridiculously entertaining. Davey Richards defends the PWG world title against Chris Hero, Scott Lost as his emotional retirement match, Bryan Danielson faces Roderick Strong and we also get Chris Sabin vs Akira Tozawa from Dragon Gate. Another awesome show.
PWG BOLA 2010 Nights 1 & 2 - The famed 'Battle of Los Angeles' returns, see the breakthrough performance of Ricochet against Claudio Castagnoli, the continued brilliance of Chris Hero. The match that Bryan Alvarez of Wrestling Observer fame said was the best match he'd seen live all year which was Hero vs Tozawa on Night 2. To cap it off you get the most unpopular winner of any BOLA tournament, two really fun nights and one fantastic event.
DGUSA Enter the Dragon (1st Anniversary) - Due to PPV restrictions with Danielson returning to the WWE, DGUSA couldn't show his match against Shingo on the PPV airing so they had to wait until they released the DVD. Let's just say that it was well worth the wait and was just as good as you would imagine that it would be. Also on the show was an 8 man elimination, BxB Hulk defending his title against Mochizuki and a very fun 4 way featuring Ricochet, Adam Cole, Chuck Taylor and Arik Cannon. If you get the 2 disc set you'll also see two very good Bryan Danielson matches from FIP from 2005.
There really was some very good stuff in 2010 it's just that not a lot of it was in the WWE or TNA. In a few days I should have an indepth review of the latest WLH DVD compilation - Japanese Platinum 'Rebirth' Volume 1 which features among the matches the Tokyo Sports Awards Match of the Year winner Golden Lovers (Omega & Ibushi) vs Apollo 55 (Devitt & Taguchi) from October.
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In an effort to bring you as much quality wrestling releases as possible, allow me to point you in the direction of the following titles. These DVD's are either discs that I would encourage any fan to watch or shows that have pretty much had universal praise. So here goes..
Breaking the Code: Behind the Walls of Chris Jericho - Well it seemed to take forever but the WWE finally released a suitably fitting 3 disc set in honour of the great man. Disc one has a very enjoyable documentary which if you like his band you'll enjoy even more than I did and a number of really good extras including a hilarious argument between Chris and an old man at a TV taping. Discs two and three are filled with some of his best matches throughout his career which are dominated by his WCW and WWE matches, the matches are generally well selected. It really is a damn fine set for any Jericholic.
ROH Death Before Dishonor VIII - This was the very well received iPPV from June which took place in Toronto. It's main evented by a genuine MOTY contender between then ROH champion Tyler Black defending against Davey Richards, every review of this match as given it ****1/2 or higher and it really does have great fan reaction in the last several minutes. It's by no means a one match card and also features the first 1 on 1 between Steen and Generico, the latest installment between the Kings of Wrestling vs The Briscoes and a somewhat dream match between Kenny Omega vs Christopher Daniels. A show you simply can't go wrong with.
PWG Seven - There have been several outstanding PWG shows this year, the best of which is arguably this. This features two serious MOTY contenders and they only wrestle in front of a few hundred fans. Main event is an insane 3 way for the tag belts with El Generico & Paul London defending against the Young Bucks & Cutler Brothers and is just ridiculously entertaining. Davey Richards defends the PWG world title against Chris Hero, Scott Lost as his emotional retirement match, Bryan Danielson faces Roderick Strong and we also get Chris Sabin vs Akira Tozawa from Dragon Gate. Another awesome show.
PWG BOLA 2010 Nights 1 & 2 - The famed 'Battle of Los Angeles' returns, see the breakthrough performance of Ricochet against Claudio Castagnoli, the continued brilliance of Chris Hero. The match that Bryan Alvarez of Wrestling Observer fame said was the best match he'd seen live all year which was Hero vs Tozawa on Night 2. To cap it off you get the most unpopular winner of any BOLA tournament, two really fun nights and one fantastic event.
DGUSA Enter the Dragon (1st Anniversary) - Due to PPV restrictions with Danielson returning to the WWE, DGUSA couldn't show his match against Shingo on the PPV airing so they had to wait until they released the DVD. Let's just say that it was well worth the wait and was just as good as you would imagine that it would be. Also on the show was an 8 man elimination, BxB Hulk defending his title against Mochizuki and a very fun 4 way featuring Ricochet, Adam Cole, Chuck Taylor and Arik Cannon. If you get the 2 disc set you'll also see two very good Bryan Danielson matches from FIP from 2005.
There really was some very good stuff in 2010 it's just that not a lot of it was in the WWE or TNA. In a few days I should have an indepth review of the latest WLH DVD compilation - Japanese Platinum 'Rebirth' Volume 1 which features among the matches the Tokyo Sports Awards Match of the Year winner Golden Lovers (Omega & Ibushi) vs Apollo 55 (Devitt & Taguchi) from October.
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Sunday, 5 December 2010
Ultimate Fighter Finale Review By Shaun Nichols
This was the finale of the 12th series of the Ultimate Fighter and will be headlined by Jonathan Brookins who was the most impressive fighter of the series so far and who has used the rear naked choke to gain his victories against the number one pick of the series Michael Jordan. Jordan so far hasn't come across that well, he's won all his fights by decision. So going in, Brookins appears to be the favourite.
Show opens with Leonard Garcia facing Nam Phan, Phan reached the semi finals before losing to Jordan in the Ultimate Fighter and has now dropped down to featherweight. Following the UFC-WEC merger this is the first featherweight fight in UFC history for those of you that like your history trivia. Garcia is far more aggressive but is quite reckless, Phan is more measured and as a result is probably more effective. Opening round is very close and could have gone either way. Second round also is all about stand up rather than takedowns, Phan is very dominant in this round and arguably took it 10-8. Garcia starts final round really fast but as usual starts to tire half way through the round. Final round is similar to first round in that Phan is more effective but Garcia comes across as the aggressor. Phan should still the round. Judges are split, one judge gives it 30-27 to Phan however the other two judges score it 29-28 to Garcia. Phan is suitably shocked and the announcers and fans aren't too far behind. Garcia admits that Phan won the fight and offers to fight him again.
Up next is a fairly boring fight between Rick Story and Johnny Hendricks, problem was that the opening fight on the show was pretty exciting despite the poor decision. These fighters unfortunately cancelled one another out. Story wins first two rounds by being more aggressive, Hendricks manages to score the odd takedown but nevers manages to do a lot with it and maintain control for any period of time. Hendricks does have more success in the last round but doesn't do enough damage to win the round by more than a 10-9 margin. Story wins 29-28 across the board.
Two other fighters from the current Ultimate Fighter series are up next, both Cody McKenzie and Aaron Wilkinson reached the quarter finals. This is not a great fight as McKenzie traps Wilkinson with a modified version of the guillotine half way through the first round.
Demian Maia is up next against the winner of the Ultimate Fighter 3 in Kendall Grove. Maia is by far the better wrestler and completely dominates the opening two rounds. He doesn't seem to have any problems getting past Groves defence securing a number of takedowns. He doesn't seem especially bothered about the last round which Groves barely wins. Maia is given 29-28 decision on all three scorecards.
We know see interviews with GSP and Koscheck for next weeks UFC 124 PPV. Koscheck surprisingly doesn't try and be a heel only smirking when GSP is answering a question. To summarize Koscheck says that he's a much improved all round fighter from their first fight in 2007 and that GSP shouldn't underestimate him. GSP responds by saying that once he beats Koscheck for a second time, he won't fight him again and that he'll be looking forward to the next chapter of his career.
In our co-main event Stephan Bonnar who won the inaugaral Ultimate Fighter faces Croatia's Igor Pakrajac. Bonnar was very impressive here and comfortably won all three rounds. Pakrajac did occasionally look dangerous striking however Bonnar was able to regularly secure takedowns and maintain controls. Both fighters had a point deducted for illegal knees and punches respectively. So Bonnar settles for a 29-26 win across the board.
This leaves us with the finale, Michael Johnson surprisingly dominates the first round. It's fought completely standing up and he's a far better striker the Brookins who as to take a number of decent punches to the face. Brookins needs a completely different strategy or he's definitely losing. Fortunately for him he's able to do so and quickly secures a takedown. As a wrestler he is more skilled than Johnson and seems to have no problems in keeping control. This means that going into the final round it could easily go either way and is dependent on the round being fought standing up or wrestling on the mat. Brookins gets the takedown but with Johnson being against the cage he's not able to do a lot of damage. Standing back up it's advantage back to Johnson however Brookins does near the end hit another takedown and throws a few punches. It's not a big final round for Brookins but he's done enough to win the final round and therefore the fight 29-28 on all three scorecards to become the winner of the 12th series of Ultimate Fighter.
Show opens with Leonard Garcia facing Nam Phan, Phan reached the semi finals before losing to Jordan in the Ultimate Fighter and has now dropped down to featherweight. Following the UFC-WEC merger this is the first featherweight fight in UFC history for those of you that like your history trivia. Garcia is far more aggressive but is quite reckless, Phan is more measured and as a result is probably more effective. Opening round is very close and could have gone either way. Second round also is all about stand up rather than takedowns, Phan is very dominant in this round and arguably took it 10-8. Garcia starts final round really fast but as usual starts to tire half way through the round. Final round is similar to first round in that Phan is more effective but Garcia comes across as the aggressor. Phan should still the round. Judges are split, one judge gives it 30-27 to Phan however the other two judges score it 29-28 to Garcia. Phan is suitably shocked and the announcers and fans aren't too far behind. Garcia admits that Phan won the fight and offers to fight him again.
Up next is a fairly boring fight between Rick Story and Johnny Hendricks, problem was that the opening fight on the show was pretty exciting despite the poor decision. These fighters unfortunately cancelled one another out. Story wins first two rounds by being more aggressive, Hendricks manages to score the odd takedown but nevers manages to do a lot with it and maintain control for any period of time. Hendricks does have more success in the last round but doesn't do enough damage to win the round by more than a 10-9 margin. Story wins 29-28 across the board.
Two other fighters from the current Ultimate Fighter series are up next, both Cody McKenzie and Aaron Wilkinson reached the quarter finals. This is not a great fight as McKenzie traps Wilkinson with a modified version of the guillotine half way through the first round.
Demian Maia is up next against the winner of the Ultimate Fighter 3 in Kendall Grove. Maia is by far the better wrestler and completely dominates the opening two rounds. He doesn't seem to have any problems getting past Groves defence securing a number of takedowns. He doesn't seem especially bothered about the last round which Groves barely wins. Maia is given 29-28 decision on all three scorecards.
We know see interviews with GSP and Koscheck for next weeks UFC 124 PPV. Koscheck surprisingly doesn't try and be a heel only smirking when GSP is answering a question. To summarize Koscheck says that he's a much improved all round fighter from their first fight in 2007 and that GSP shouldn't underestimate him. GSP responds by saying that once he beats Koscheck for a second time, he won't fight him again and that he'll be looking forward to the next chapter of his career.
In our co-main event Stephan Bonnar who won the inaugaral Ultimate Fighter faces Croatia's Igor Pakrajac. Bonnar was very impressive here and comfortably won all three rounds. Pakrajac did occasionally look dangerous striking however Bonnar was able to regularly secure takedowns and maintain controls. Both fighters had a point deducted for illegal knees and punches respectively. So Bonnar settles for a 29-26 win across the board.
This leaves us with the finale, Michael Johnson surprisingly dominates the first round. It's fought completely standing up and he's a far better striker the Brookins who as to take a number of decent punches to the face. Brookins needs a completely different strategy or he's definitely losing. Fortunately for him he's able to do so and quickly secures a takedown. As a wrestler he is more skilled than Johnson and seems to have no problems in keeping control. This means that going into the final round it could easily go either way and is dependent on the round being fought standing up or wrestling on the mat. Brookins gets the takedown but with Johnson being against the cage he's not able to do a lot of damage. Standing back up it's advantage back to Johnson however Brookins does near the end hit another takedown and throws a few punches. It's not a big final round for Brookins but he's done enough to win the final round and therefore the fight 29-28 on all three scorecards to become the winner of the 12th series of Ultimate Fighter.
Friday, 3 December 2010
Is The Return of Triple H Close?
This past Monday night on WWE RAW, Sheamus won the King of The Ring tournament, could this mean the return of the 'King of Kings' Triple H is close?
The current WWE product is rather poor, the current champion is The Miz and I have blogged elsewhere about my feelings on this. John cena has been in an angle with Nexus which the last action saw Cena 'fired' from the WWE but yet, he is advertised still on houseshows and is appearing under the moniker of Juan Cena - John Cena's Mexican cousin. Randy Orton, the man beaten by The Miz for the WWE title, is advertised as The Miz's oppenent on the next PPV but I am hearing Orton is now out injured. Talking of injuries, over on the Smack Down brand, The Undertaker is out injured and WWE hope he'll be fit for Wrestle Mania.
Sheamus has had a decent run in the WWE, they had the faith to put the strap on him and now they have given him the King of The Ring win so hopefully there are big things ahead for the Irish man and this could mean a feud with Triple H if and when he returns. I think, a return of Triple H is needed.
Signing off, Stuart Rodgers
http://twitter.com/WLH_Stu
The current WWE product is rather poor, the current champion is The Miz and I have blogged elsewhere about my feelings on this. John cena has been in an angle with Nexus which the last action saw Cena 'fired' from the WWE but yet, he is advertised still on houseshows and is appearing under the moniker of Juan Cena - John Cena's Mexican cousin. Randy Orton, the man beaten by The Miz for the WWE title, is advertised as The Miz's oppenent on the next PPV but I am hearing Orton is now out injured. Talking of injuries, over on the Smack Down brand, The Undertaker is out injured and WWE hope he'll be fit for Wrestle Mania.
Sheamus has had a decent run in the WWE, they had the faith to put the strap on him and now they have given him the King of The Ring win so hopefully there are big things ahead for the Irish man and this could mean a feud with Triple H if and when he returns. I think, a return of Triple H is needed.
Signing off, Stuart Rodgers
http://twitter.com/WLH_Stu
How to Kill PPV Business By Shaun Nichols
This year's Survivor Series would have left anyone who bought the show wondering why they actually wasted their money by ordering the PPV. The following nights Raw would only have confirmed the feeling that they should have spent their money on something else. The Survivor Series was solely pushed on the idea that John Cena would either be fired or that he would screw Randy Orton out of the world title. Randy Orton was so concerned about the threat of Wade Barrett that he'll barely mentioned him in any of his promos instead the big focus was on Cena. R-Truth appeared weekly in the run-up to the PPV to let Orton know that he didn't think that he could trust Cena while maintaining that he was John Cena's friend. Strange definition of a friend that is.
An awesome Roddy Piper promo on the go home show should ensure that the PPV did a decent number, Cena also promised that whatever happened he would give Barrett a severe beating at the PPV after the main event. Did fans order the PPV to see Cena get his revenge and kick Barrett's ass? Of course some fans did. Did Cena follow through? No, why do something on PPV that people have paid good money for when you can delay 24 hours and let people see it for free.
What we also didn't see was Wade Barrett firing John Cena at the PPV nor did we see on Raw. Supposedly it may have happened over a drink in the bar or maybe over pancakes the following day's breakfast for all we know. The final tease for the PPV was that the Miz who wasn't booked to wrestle on the show would cash the MITB briefcase at the Survivor Series. Again this was held back until the following days Raw. So on PPV fans didn't see Cena attack Barrett, Miz cash the case in or see Cena fired. Fans watching Raw did see Miz cash the briefase and win the title, Cena attacking Barrett to stop Wade winning the title. So out of the PPV or Raw which event was the most memorable? The answer of case was Raw. Another question worth asking is if fans that ordered the Survivor Series felt that gave value for money and if they felt that Cena's 'Free or Fired' stipulation was adhereed to? The clear answer is no.
A lot of fans really liked Cena's 'farewell' promo on 22/11 Raw and as a standalone promo it was very good. Even fans that don't have anytime for Cena would have to admit getting the fans to do duelling chants of 'Let's go Cena' and 'Cena sucks' was pretty cool. Maybe in 2011 fans could start a 'Fuck you Cena' chant as 'Cena sucks' as now being turned into a babyface chant to some degree. The main cloud hanging over this promo is that absolutely no one in the crowd was buying that Cena was actually fired. Cameras panned frantically looking for fans who were upset. They found nothing. Cena then switched to saying how he had missed major family events and he was looking forward to going home. Still nobody was buying it especially when Cena walked backstage and gave Randy Orton a 'goodbye' hug. Less than an hour later he was back screwing Barrett in a world title re-match. To see how fans can react to what they see all you had to do was wait approximately five minutes to see the hatred in the face of the Linda Blair girl in the crowd when Miz won the title.
Since then Cena appeared on the following weeks Raw attacking a number of Nexus members and will turn up no doubt on next weeks TV. Despite the fact that in storyline he's no longer employed by the company as CM Punk at least tried to remind us on commentary. From a consistancy point of view this is really bad, as on the 22/11 edition of Raw Laycool (employed by the company but on the Smackdown brand) were not allowed into the building in a skit because they were not on a list of Raw talent. A week later Cena wanders through and attacks WWE employees from a common sense perspective it is pure stupidity and explains why stipulations do not draw for the WWE and why they should not draw. The company chooses to never deliver and follow through on those stipulations and as a result they really don't deserve to have fans paying $50 dollars expecting to get a pay off to a major storyline that doesn't come.
An awesome Roddy Piper promo on the go home show should ensure that the PPV did a decent number, Cena also promised that whatever happened he would give Barrett a severe beating at the PPV after the main event. Did fans order the PPV to see Cena get his revenge and kick Barrett's ass? Of course some fans did. Did Cena follow through? No, why do something on PPV that people have paid good money for when you can delay 24 hours and let people see it for free.
What we also didn't see was Wade Barrett firing John Cena at the PPV nor did we see on Raw. Supposedly it may have happened over a drink in the bar or maybe over pancakes the following day's breakfast for all we know. The final tease for the PPV was that the Miz who wasn't booked to wrestle on the show would cash the MITB briefcase at the Survivor Series. Again this was held back until the following days Raw. So on PPV fans didn't see Cena attack Barrett, Miz cash the case in or see Cena fired. Fans watching Raw did see Miz cash the briefase and win the title, Cena attacking Barrett to stop Wade winning the title. So out of the PPV or Raw which event was the most memorable? The answer of case was Raw. Another question worth asking is if fans that ordered the Survivor Series felt that gave value for money and if they felt that Cena's 'Free or Fired' stipulation was adhereed to? The clear answer is no.
A lot of fans really liked Cena's 'farewell' promo on 22/11 Raw and as a standalone promo it was very good. Even fans that don't have anytime for Cena would have to admit getting the fans to do duelling chants of 'Let's go Cena' and 'Cena sucks' was pretty cool. Maybe in 2011 fans could start a 'Fuck you Cena' chant as 'Cena sucks' as now being turned into a babyface chant to some degree. The main cloud hanging over this promo is that absolutely no one in the crowd was buying that Cena was actually fired. Cameras panned frantically looking for fans who were upset. They found nothing. Cena then switched to saying how he had missed major family events and he was looking forward to going home. Still nobody was buying it especially when Cena walked backstage and gave Randy Orton a 'goodbye' hug. Less than an hour later he was back screwing Barrett in a world title re-match. To see how fans can react to what they see all you had to do was wait approximately five minutes to see the hatred in the face of the Linda Blair girl in the crowd when Miz won the title.
Since then Cena appeared on the following weeks Raw attacking a number of Nexus members and will turn up no doubt on next weeks TV. Despite the fact that in storyline he's no longer employed by the company as CM Punk at least tried to remind us on commentary. From a consistancy point of view this is really bad, as on the 22/11 edition of Raw Laycool (employed by the company but on the Smackdown brand) were not allowed into the building in a skit because they were not on a list of Raw talent. A week later Cena wanders through and attacks WWE employees from a common sense perspective it is pure stupidity and explains why stipulations do not draw for the WWE and why they should not draw. The company chooses to never deliver and follow through on those stipulations and as a result they really don't deserve to have fans paying $50 dollars expecting to get a pay off to a major storyline that doesn't come.
Thursday, 25 November 2010
The Miz - WWE Champion, Is He Made of The Right Stuff?
So The Miz finally cashed in his contract that he won in the Money In The Bank match at the WWE's first MITB PPV on July 18th 2010. On WWE RAW this past Monday the 22nd November, following a win over NEXUS leader Wade Barrett, WWE champion Randy Orton was faced with the task of facing The Miz whose time had finally been chosen by the office for the title. Now, the point of this blog for me is to try and put my views across that I don't think The Miz is WWE title material.
Since The Miz won the title I have been have some discussions on twitter with my good friends @TheRealJeffPeck and @Brettley916 with me basically saying the same thing. Both guys are saying I am wrong, Brett saying it is 'absurd' for me to state that and Jeff said 'whether you like him or not u got to give the guy credit, he's worked from the bottom and reached the top, great story'. Now, while I don't disagree The Miz has come along way in his WWE career I must say I don't think he is has enough star power or the 'it' factor to lead the RAW brand. I know there are a lot of fans who are very pleased The Miz has the strap but I imagine, there is as many who think like myself. We know pro-wrestling is a work and although Daniel Bryan is the darling of the internet 'smart' fans none moreso than me, when they had The Miz drop the US title I thought at the time that WWE can't think too much of him with them dropping the strap to Bryan because I don't think many of the other 'top' guys in the WWE would of been put in that position.
I am sure this blog will get some negative remarks but I hope it also gets some approval from the fans out there who think like myself about The Miz.
Signing off, Stuart Rodgers
Since The Miz won the title I have been have some discussions on twitter with my good friends @TheRealJeffPeck and @Brettley916 with me basically saying the same thing. Both guys are saying I am wrong, Brett saying it is 'absurd' for me to state that and Jeff said 'whether you like him or not u got to give the guy credit, he's worked from the bottom and reached the top, great story'. Now, while I don't disagree The Miz has come along way in his WWE career I must say I don't think he is has enough star power or the 'it' factor to lead the RAW brand. I know there are a lot of fans who are very pleased The Miz has the strap but I imagine, there is as many who think like myself. We know pro-wrestling is a work and although Daniel Bryan is the darling of the internet 'smart' fans none moreso than me, when they had The Miz drop the US title I thought at the time that WWE can't think too much of him with them dropping the strap to Bryan because I don't think many of the other 'top' guys in the WWE would of been put in that position.
I am sure this blog will get some negative remarks but I hope it also gets some approval from the fans out there who think like myself about The Miz.
Signing off, Stuart Rodgers
Sunday, 21 November 2010
Random Thoughts For Saturday 20th November, Bret Hart, Wrestling figures & UFC 123
The day started with me heading off to the NEC in Birmingham for the Memorabilia Show. The plan was have a look around maybe get some wrestling merchandise and maybe get to meet Bret Hart. Memorabilia was also the venue for the the FWA's European Uprising show. I got to the show and had only been in there 5 minutes when I got to a stall ran by a guy who has been doing the show for years selling wrestling figures and other wrestling related stuff. And the guy, Kev, asked me to help out on his stall as he has the headache of dealing with the Bret Hart signing because he was responsible of bringing him over to the UK. He had family members and friends helping out but Kev said to them he wanted me to help as I knew about figures LOL. I know you're probably bored now, I just wanted to mention this as it led me to an awful lot of rushing about around this quite big stall. I didn't get to see any other stall as I was stuck selling figures. Anyway, the finally got a bit slower on the stall so was able to get a picture with Bret, the only pic Bret took with anyone on his side of the table which was good. No idea why but I can't add pictures to this blog page anymore so the pic is available to see on my facebook page if you are a friend of mine on there, add me if you're not.
The FWA show was in full effect, I could hear it going on in the background and I did have a ringside seat reserved thanks to my good friend James Shaw. I finally got to my seat during the third match from the end. This match was The heel stable of The Agenda (Rees, Dave Moralez & Joel Redman) vs. The Resistance of Nick Riley, Bubblegum & Sha Samuels. I have not been following FWA, didn't really know any of the matches leading into the show apart from what was scheduled as the 2 last matches. As I wasn't following what was going on, I was surprised to see Joel Redmond as a heel, just wanted to add that in. The Agenda got the win by the way, as I said, I only got to see the ending of the match but it was a decent six man tag from what I saw. The semi main even was supposed to be 'Wonderkid' Jonny Storm against fellow Birmingham boy 'Rockstar' Spud but earlier on in the show from what I was told, Spud came out cut a promo and said he was unable to wrestle due to an injury. This was a shame really, this was a match I was looking forward too and the added ingredient to this match was the fact it was a ladder match nd at stake in a briefcase above the ring was a contract and whoever grabbed that briefcase and obtained the contract would have ownership of the gimmick 'Wonderkid'. As Spud was injured, he had someone take his place in the match and this was Axl Rage as the two were about to start the match, out came the 'Showstealer' Nathan Cruz and he said he thought he should be in the match and he gave his reasons for thinking so. So the match was agreed and it was set a 3 way match. Spud took a spot on commentary in place of Greg 'The Truth' Lambert. I won't go spot for spot for what happened in the match but it was full of good highspots and overall action with Storm getting the case and ripping up the contract while sat on top of the ladder. Shame Spud wasn't in the match but I am sure that will come soon enough. It was a very good match though and Rage & Cruz held their own in there with the excellent 'Wonderkid' Jonny Storm.
And now for the main event, out first came the special guest referee Alex Shane then came the challenger Leroy Kincaide soon followed by the leader of The Agenda FWA World Heavyweight champion 'The Guv'nor' Martin Stone. I told James sitting next to me that the first time I saw Stone & Kincaide they were both 'bodyguards' for one Alex Shane some years ago. Anyway, the internet has been rife with rumours that Stone has signed a developmental contract with the WWE and this led me to believe that the title was bound to change hands. The match was very hard hitting, Alex played a great role of an impartial referee and the match was very two and fro but after 15 minutes or so, Shane got bumped outside the ring another ref came out to take over the match but eventually Shane made it back into the ring with the other ref bumped as Kincaide was preparing to hit Stone with some sort of move but Shane hit him with a big boot to the face, he then ordered Stone to cover Kincaide and called for another ref to come out, one did and Shane told him to count the pin and sensibly the ref told Shane he was the ref but he screamed at him "I want you to count the pin" this took place and Martin Stone is still the FWA heavyweight champion. Alex Shane took the microphone and went into a tirade about what has happened and what will happen in the future. He was joined in the ring by Stone and The Agenda aswell as Greg Lambert in his black leather gloves. As he now joined The Agenda but changed the name to The Illumanati and all the guys posed in the ring making a hand sign resembling a diamond, this is the symbol of The Illumanati.
Overall, I was impressed with what I saw by the FWA and would like to say here, well done guys great wrestling and great storylines. Looks good for the future.
UFC 123 was also this weekend early hours of Sunday morning, the main event was Quinton 'Rampage' Jackson vs. Lyoto Machida but before this was UFC Hall of Famer Matt Hughes vs. 'The Prodigy' BJ Penn. Now anyone who knows me will know I have no time for Penn, he is a good MMA figher, I might go as far to say great, known for being the first non Brazillian fighter to get a black belt in Jiu-Jitsu but he naused me out following his loss to GSP because he accused GSP of having oil on his body so was unable to put his submission holds on him - BITCH!! Anyway, I thought Hughes was a bit over the hill I thought. I was so hoping I was wrong but I wasn't and Penn exploded out of the blocks and knocked out in a mere 21 seconds.
Onto the main event, this was close to call before the fight and it actually was. Rampage was the aggressor in the fight but still for me there was no out and out winner for connecting kicks, punches or submisson attempts. I have been having discussions about this on twitter and I have been told Rampage was a clear winner by my friend Brett but even if Rampage did shave it I wouldn't say the result was clear.
As always, please post any comments and I'll be happy to answer.
Sigining off, Stuart Rodgers.
The FWA show was in full effect, I could hear it going on in the background and I did have a ringside seat reserved thanks to my good friend James Shaw. I finally got to my seat during the third match from the end. This match was The heel stable of The Agenda (Rees, Dave Moralez & Joel Redman) vs. The Resistance of Nick Riley, Bubblegum & Sha Samuels. I have not been following FWA, didn't really know any of the matches leading into the show apart from what was scheduled as the 2 last matches. As I wasn't following what was going on, I was surprised to see Joel Redmond as a heel, just wanted to add that in. The Agenda got the win by the way, as I said, I only got to see the ending of the match but it was a decent six man tag from what I saw. The semi main even was supposed to be 'Wonderkid' Jonny Storm against fellow Birmingham boy 'Rockstar' Spud but earlier on in the show from what I was told, Spud came out cut a promo and said he was unable to wrestle due to an injury. This was a shame really, this was a match I was looking forward too and the added ingredient to this match was the fact it was a ladder match nd at stake in a briefcase above the ring was a contract and whoever grabbed that briefcase and obtained the contract would have ownership of the gimmick 'Wonderkid'. As Spud was injured, he had someone take his place in the match and this was Axl Rage as the two were about to start the match, out came the 'Showstealer' Nathan Cruz and he said he thought he should be in the match and he gave his reasons for thinking so. So the match was agreed and it was set a 3 way match. Spud took a spot on commentary in place of Greg 'The Truth' Lambert. I won't go spot for spot for what happened in the match but it was full of good highspots and overall action with Storm getting the case and ripping up the contract while sat on top of the ladder. Shame Spud wasn't in the match but I am sure that will come soon enough. It was a very good match though and Rage & Cruz held their own in there with the excellent 'Wonderkid' Jonny Storm.
And now for the main event, out first came the special guest referee Alex Shane then came the challenger Leroy Kincaide soon followed by the leader of The Agenda FWA World Heavyweight champion 'The Guv'nor' Martin Stone. I told James sitting next to me that the first time I saw Stone & Kincaide they were both 'bodyguards' for one Alex Shane some years ago. Anyway, the internet has been rife with rumours that Stone has signed a developmental contract with the WWE and this led me to believe that the title was bound to change hands. The match was very hard hitting, Alex played a great role of an impartial referee and the match was very two and fro but after 15 minutes or so, Shane got bumped outside the ring another ref came out to take over the match but eventually Shane made it back into the ring with the other ref bumped as Kincaide was preparing to hit Stone with some sort of move but Shane hit him with a big boot to the face, he then ordered Stone to cover Kincaide and called for another ref to come out, one did and Shane told him to count the pin and sensibly the ref told Shane he was the ref but he screamed at him "I want you to count the pin" this took place and Martin Stone is still the FWA heavyweight champion. Alex Shane took the microphone and went into a tirade about what has happened and what will happen in the future. He was joined in the ring by Stone and The Agenda aswell as Greg Lambert in his black leather gloves. As he now joined The Agenda but changed the name to The Illumanati and all the guys posed in the ring making a hand sign resembling a diamond, this is the symbol of The Illumanati.
Overall, I was impressed with what I saw by the FWA and would like to say here, well done guys great wrestling and great storylines. Looks good for the future.
UFC 123 was also this weekend early hours of Sunday morning, the main event was Quinton 'Rampage' Jackson vs. Lyoto Machida but before this was UFC Hall of Famer Matt Hughes vs. 'The Prodigy' BJ Penn. Now anyone who knows me will know I have no time for Penn, he is a good MMA figher, I might go as far to say great, known for being the first non Brazillian fighter to get a black belt in Jiu-Jitsu but he naused me out following his loss to GSP because he accused GSP of having oil on his body so was unable to put his submission holds on him - BITCH!! Anyway, I thought Hughes was a bit over the hill I thought. I was so hoping I was wrong but I wasn't and Penn exploded out of the blocks and knocked out in a mere 21 seconds.
Onto the main event, this was close to call before the fight and it actually was. Rampage was the aggressor in the fight but still for me there was no out and out winner for connecting kicks, punches or submisson attempts. I have been having discussions about this on twitter and I have been told Rampage was a clear winner by my friend Brett but even if Rampage did shave it I wouldn't say the result was clear.
As always, please post any comments and I'll be happy to answer.
Sigining off, Stuart Rodgers.
Thursday, 18 November 2010
The Still Real to Us Show: Episode #40 – 11/18/10
On this episode of The Still Real to Us Show: ”The Champ” Jeff Peck and "The Real Classic" Brandon Freeman kick off the show by giving their thoughts on OLD SCHOOL RAW from this past Monday Night! They discussed whether they liked or disliked the show, what were some PROS & CONS from the show and if we will ever see it return in the WWE again! The guys then break down the TOP 50 SUPERSTARS OF ALL-TIME list the WWE put together and give their thoughts on the complete list! Finally the guys wrap up the show by giving their PREDICTIONS for this Sunday's SURVIVOR SERIES PAY-PER-VIEW!
Download the Podcast – HERE!
Download the Podcast – HERE!
Monday, 15 November 2010
Old School Raw - Pretty Much A Letdown
Just finished watching WWE's Old school RAW. For weeks the internet has been full of speculation of who may of turned up on the RAW show tonight, there wasn't much love for the same old guys they have used in the past. Many people including myself, wanted some 'fresh' legends or past stars that haven't been used before for this type of gig. Some of the legends were confirmed before the show and a lot were speculated. We knew WWE would used a lot of their agents and Mike 'IRS' Rotundo, Steve 'Brooklyn Brawler' Lombardi & Arn Anderson were used along with Ted Dibease, The Iron Sheik, Nikolai Volkoff, 'Hacksaw' Jim Duggan & more. No one appeared I was really surprised to see except maybe Slick but he was just a manager back in the day.
I think, myself and others hoping for stars such as The Rock, Steve Austin & Shawn Michaels were really just clutching at straws. I think they (WWE) really wanted old school as opposed to stuff from the 'Attitude' era which was when the WWE/WWF was interesting. There was not many high points from the show for me, a person who struggles with WWE at the best of time. Some of the old school skits I enjoyed were the Mae Young angle with Laycool just because it was so cringe worthy. I also got a laugh out of the backstage skit with the Diease Sr. & Jnr. IRS and of course, the Rhodes family, Dusty, Cody & Goldust, the bit that made me laugh actually was at the end of it when Dusty had the music queued up and began to dance.
In closing, I don't really care much for the current WWE product and I thought I'd record then watch this because of the old school gimmick but for me, overall it was pretty much a letdown.
Please leave your comments if you agree or disagree.
Signing out, Stuart Rodgers
I think, myself and others hoping for stars such as The Rock, Steve Austin & Shawn Michaels were really just clutching at straws. I think they (WWE) really wanted old school as opposed to stuff from the 'Attitude' era which was when the WWE/WWF was interesting. There was not many high points from the show for me, a person who struggles with WWE at the best of time. Some of the old school skits I enjoyed were the Mae Young angle with Laycool just because it was so cringe worthy. I also got a laugh out of the backstage skit with the Diease Sr. & Jnr. IRS and of course, the Rhodes family, Dusty, Cody & Goldust, the bit that made me laugh actually was at the end of it when Dusty had the music queued up and began to dance.
In closing, I don't really care much for the current WWE product and I thought I'd record then watch this because of the old school gimmick but for me, overall it was pretty much a letdown.
Please leave your comments if you agree or disagree.
Signing out, Stuart Rodgers
Thursday, 11 November 2010
WWE Highest Flyers DVD Review By Shaun Nichols
WWE Highest Flyers - Disc 1 DVD Review By Shaun Nichols
Ricky Steamboat vs. Brian Pillman ***1/4
Evan Bourne vs. Zack Ryder **1/4
Jimmy Snuka vs. Samu **
Juventud Guerrera, Hector Garza & Lizmark Jr vs. Psychosis, La Parka & Villiano IV ***3/4
Shelton Benjamin vs. Shawn Michaels ****
Ultimo Dragon vs. Rey Mysterio ***3/4
Eddie Guerrero vs. Dean Malenko ****1/4
Extras
Ultimo Dragon vs. Psychosis ***1/4
Chavo Guerrero vs. Jamie Noble *3/4
This is the first of three discs and this release is hosted by Josh Matthews who indicates that this is some kind of unofficial countdown of the best high flyers. Before the disc starts you get the usual trailers which were the Jericho dvd which is excellent, details of a new Cena dvd which looks pretty good if you're a fan and finally the Big Show's film Knucklehead which looks horrendous.
We start with a quick package on Steamboat and then onto his Halloween Havoc 1992 match against Pillman, Pillman had recently turned heel but it was before he joined up with Steve Austin to form the Hollywood Blonds. Match was very well worked and told a very simple and straight forward story. That being that Steamboat was able to outwrestle Pillman, until much to Brian's amusement he had to resort to cheating to take control. What we didn't get is any high flying, surely that would be the point? Steamboat wins coming off the top and pinning Pillman with a sunset flip. Come on guys we could have got the legendary crossbody finish. Also interesting is that Jesse Ventura's commentary was removed so we had Jim Ross going solo.
Next wrestler highlighted is Evan Bourne, the quick 60 second packages are very well done. Shockingly we get a match from Superstars (the WWE C show) against Zack Ryder which was fine for what it was but again very little in high flying. What is clear is that WWE fans really like Bourne as a talent and you have to wonder why the WWE have so far refused to use him to the best of his ability. In the only high flying move of the match Bourne gets the win with the 450. He also demonstrates the move in a skycam segment which sounds interesting but really isn't.
Back to the time machine and we head to 1984 and onto Jimmy Snuka. His match against Samu (called Somoan #3 in this) was very basic especially when Samu was on offence. Come the big comeback, our commentators Gorilla Monsoon & Pat Patterson go crazy putting over Snuka and to be fair the fans react big as well. Again we don't get the finish you would expect as Snuka gets the win with a crossbody and not the Superfly splash as I was expecting.
A fantastic package showcasing WCW Cruiserweights is next, followed by a Lucha Libre 6 man tag from WCW Bash at the Beach 1997. Some fans and the unique WCW commentary team, Mike Tenay apart don't really know what to make of this. Psychology isn't a factor at all and the match follows the usual Mexican formula of the technicos outsmarting the rudos who make a fine job of bumping into one another in a form that the Three Stooges would have enjoyed. We did get a lot of crazy dives and the match is very fast paced and also very enjoyable. The rudos come unstuck when they substitute Villiano V for Villaino IV when Hector Garza hits a standing moonsault for the win.
It's the Shelton Benjamin package next and then we see the match that should have made him a big star which was his match against Shawn Michaels in the Goldrush tournament from Raw in May 2005. Like many Shawn Michaels's matches this told a very clear story which was that in the early stages HBK was being out-wrestled and out-thought by his younger opponent. This works to such an extent that the fans really get into this match and start buying the close falls and teased finishes. Then to top off this really good matches we get arguably the greatest finish to a match seen on Raw. Benjamin attacks with a springboard only for HBK to nail him absolutely perfectly with his superkick for the win. An excellent match.
In the spotlight next is Ultimo Dragon and his J-Crown title defence against Rey Mysterio from World War 3 in 1996. I always enjoy watching Dragon wrestle but never understood why apart from the fact he was Japanese that he was lumbered with Sonny Onoo as his manager. He wrestles such a clean babyface style it doesn't work having a heel manager in his corner. This tells the story of Dragon using his superior mat wrestling to control Mysterio for long periods of time which keeps the crowd a little bit quiet. From the ten minute mark we start to see Rey's big comebacks which are slick reversals and great dives. However it's not enough to stop the champion retaining his titles.
The last wrestler featured on Disc 1 is Eddie Guerrero and of all the matches they could have featured they chose a mat wrestling classic from ECW in 1995 when Guerrero and Malenko were battling over the TV title with Eddie defending in Dean's hometown of Tampa. Fans were surprisingly quiet for a lot of this and I was surprised to see a fan sitting opposite the hard camera wearing a builders hard yellow hat for absolutely no reason. This was a superb wrestling encounter but again you don't really see much high flying, you get the odd dropkick, headscissor takedown and Eddie hits a frog splash for a close two count. There's a good spot where both wrestlers end up on the floor and a fan this being ECW offers Eddie a chair to use which Eddie reacts angrily to, I found this really funny. Malenko gets the win with a roll up after a series of reversals. Eddie takes this well and presents Dean with the TV title before he suckers him a short arm clothesline to keep the feud going. Really good stuff.
Each disc gets extras and Disc 1 we get to enjoy a solid Ultimo Dragon match against Psychosis from Uncensored 1997 which no doubt one match of the night because Uncensored PPV's always tended to be awful. We also see a six minute match featuring Chavo beating Jamie Noble with the frog splash from a Smackdown taping in the UK from 2008 in a typical TV match. There was a funny sign saying that Wenger needs Batista, as what I'm not sure of. There is also a 90 second feature called Flight Turbulence where you see wrestlers taking big bumps such as Brock nearly breaking his neck at Wrestlemania after screwing up a 450, Undertaker falling into a pile of tables, Kurt Angle's classic moonsault miss in the cage against Benoit and the Foley dive off the HITC and onto the commentators table. It finishes with the message that we should not try this at home.
Disc one certainly presents a strange selection of matches and the first three I felt were missed opportunities, the worst of which was the match choice for Evan Bourne which beggars belief. Surely they could have chosen his PPV match against Jericho this year would have been far better. Some matches like Guerrero-Malenko I'm really pleased that they featured but would not describe it as anything remotely built as a high flying wrestling match. However it is still a very entertaining disc overall and I'm looking forward to watching the other two discs which I will also review shortly.
WWE Highest Flyers - Disc 2 DVD Review By Shaun Nichols
Chris Jericho vs. Ultimo Dragon ****
1-2-3 Kid vs. Hakushi ***1/2
John Morrison vs. Tyson Kidd ***1/4
Edge & Christian vs. Dudley Boys vs. Hardy Boys ****1/2
Super Crazy vs. Tajiri vs. Little Guido ***1/4
Brian Pillman vs. Alex Wright ***3/4
Great Muta vs. Sting ***
Rob Van Dam vs. Jerry Lynn ***1/4
Extras
Hardy Boys vs. Kaientai **
Disc 2 starts with Chris Jericho defending the WCW Cruiserweight title at Bash at the Beach 1997, this is your typical babyface vs babyface match with Dragon especially being in excellent form. Jericho keeps himself in the match with a number of springboard moves. Mike Tenay on commentary discusses Jericho's previous matches with Dragon for the WAR promotion a few years earlier. Match really does pick up in the last few minutes and the fans react pretty big when Jericho successfully retains.
Moving over to the WWF and a look at the 1-2-3 Kid and then his match at Summerslam 1995 against Hakushi, I was a big fan of Hakushi when he signed with the WWF in 1994 and although he was never allowed to do his full repertoire due to infringing on other wrestlers gimmicks most noticably his awesome rope walking spot which made Undertaker look like an amateur. So I'm thrilled to see a rare Hakushi match on a WWE compilation. Match is unlike anything else in the promotion at this time because they were definitely behind the times when it came to high flying fast paced action. Hakushi wins after catching the Kid with a powerbomb after the Kid was using a springboard.
Next comes John Morrison and shockingly a second Superstars match on this compilation, this is from July 2009 so Tyson is playing heel with the rest of the Hart Dynasty running interference for him. This again is pretty standard fare and seems like a missed opprtunity to find a better match for Morrison who athletically is very gifted though this match also indicates that he's not particularly over with the fans.
Moving onto to the tag teams we get a decent video highlighting among others the Rock 'n' Roll Express, the Killer Bees and the Rockers. The match we get to showcase tag team wrestling is the ladder match from Wrestlemania 16. This is chock full of frankly insane dives, carefully orchestrated ladder and table spots that builds and builds to more dangerous spots. What's really interesting to note is that Edge is rarely involved in the major highspots of the match. Jeff Hardy and Bubba Dudley are easily the craziest people involved. With Hardy writing himself in history with his ridiculous senton off a very high ladder onto Dudley who was laid on a table. Fans live went mad for this and I really enjoyed it for what it is a slice of car crash wrestling. Which took ladder matches to the next stage in regards to what reckless moves the fans would see.
Up next is the insane luchadore Super Crazy and the match is the three way from ECW One Night Stand in 2005, we also see the full range of FBI members including JT Smith while the Sinister Minister and Mikey Whipwreck are supporting Tajiri. Loads of stiff kicks and reversals until Crazy lands the first big move with a moonsault from the balcony with all members of the FBI acting as his safety net. While this is going on Mikey hits Guido with a Whippersnapper and Tajiri gets the pin. Crazy back in the ring secures victory with another moonsault. Fans really liked this and I think this is partly down to nostalgia of seeing everyone including as I said Smith who hadn't been a part of ECW since the mid 1990's.
Brian Pillman's match with Alex Wright is very strange, a lot of it is very good. Some parts are horrible including Pillman's attempt at a crossbow which Wright equalised using a dreadful attempt at a surfboard. Bobby Heenan helps tremendously on commentary basically burying not only both wrestlers, his co-commentator Tony Schiavone and the fans in attendance. Wright wins when he blocks a Pillman sunset flip for the surprise pinfall.
Shock of the compilation is next when NJPW's Great Muta is next to be featured. The match against Sting comes from the WCW Japan Supershow in March 1991. Within the first 30 seconds we get Muta's patented handspring elbow and an attempted moonsault. Muta though is gimmick over the wrestler though he's still entertaining to watch. Sting goes someway in matching him in the ring as well. Unfortunately we get a cheap finish when Muta uses the dreaded mist and then a crossbody for the win. Sting immediately attacks him afterwards to get his heat back.
When you think of RVD vs. Jerry Lynn, which match are you thinking of? Either of the two ECW PPV matches? No, before there was WWE Superstars there was Sunday Night Heat and this is where we go to from August 2001 in a pretty decent ten minute match. I can't lie they should have picked a different RVD match although at least this doesn't have the legendary RVD posing or Bill Alfonso and his whistle. Match features everything you would expect including the impressive five star frog splash from RVD for the win.
This discs extra is a 4 minute TV match from Sunday Night Heat on the pre-game show of Breakdown 1998 PPV, this is about as good as you can get for a match with such a short time frame and it's always really fun to see Men's Teoih wrestling.
The second disc is also very entertaining with the standout match being the ladder match from Wrestlemania 16 but there is nothing on this disc that could be considered even average. Match choices could always be better, with Disc 2's RVD match being the one that should have been replaced with something else. If they wanted RVD vs. Lynn there were far better options available. Disc 3 features among others Shawn Michaels, Jeff Hardy, Taka Michinoku and saving the best until last Rey Mysterio.
WWE Highest Flyers - Disc 3 DVD Review By Shaun Nichols
Shawn Michaels vs. Vader ***1/2
2 Cold Scorpio vs. Sabu ****
Kofi Kingston vs. Christian ***3/4
Taka Michinoku vs. Pantera ***1/2
Lita vs. Trish Stratus **
Sabu vs. Rob Van Dam ***1/2
Jeff Hardy vs. Umaga ***1/4
Rey Mysterio vs. Eddie Guerrero *****
Extras
Juventud Guerrera vs. Billy Kidman ***3/4
Disc 3 starts with a look at Shawn Michaels and his WWF title defence against Vader at Summerslam 1996. At the time this was considered to have been a bit of a disappointment but time as not treated this match badly at all. After the initial HBK flurry it's Vader that takes control for the majority of the match. Shawn makes short lived comebacks which every time lasts a little bit longer than the last one. Vader initially wins by count out after dropping Shawn on the guard rail. Jim Cornette as Vader's manager then demands that Shawn agrees to restart the match. Shawn agrees to this and the match runs for another few minutes until Cornette tries to interfere and Shawn uses his tennis racket on both Cornette and Vader. This causes the DQ finish but Cornette again demands that the match should continue. Shawn agrees again and Vader looks to have the match won until he fluffs a moonsault attempt and HBK immediately hits a moonsault press for the win. Considering the match restarts twice the fans are surprisingly into this. Cornette also must have broke a world record for the using the word 'stinking' into a wrestling promo.
Next is Scorpio who because his WWF run was so uneventful in his highlight package we get a lot of ECW clips and Scorpio dancing including a clip of Vince dancing. His match is against Sabu at Cyberslam 96 for the ECW TV title, this is all action from start to finish. Within the first sixty seconds Sabu has used a chair and hit two dives, one of which was into the crowd. Match was full of insane dives and never showed any signs of slowing down. The highlight was Sabu doing his running jump from a chair onto the top rope and then doing a somersault onto a table located in the third row. Fans went crazy for it and then started to worry that he was seriously hurt but fortunately he wasn't. Scorpio kept his side of things by hitting a 450 splash and his tumbleweed legdrop. Match ended in a excellent 30 minute draw.
Kofi's 2010 match against Christian where the winner was supposed to win the IC title is the next match. Although Kofi can be pretty exciting to watch he does mistime a lot of moves in a match. This means that a lot of his matches that should be good end up as average. However Christian fortunately as the ability to get the best out of the majority of his opponents. Both guys wrestle as upstanding babyfaces and the fans react great to this. This as to be Kofi's best WWE match by a mile at this stage and is the best match that the WWE could have picked for Kingston.
The WWE then openly admitted that they were slow to pick up on the popularity of WCW cruiserweights. However they did have the very talented Taka Michinoku as their first lightweight champion. His main rival was Brian Christopher who popped by to do commentary with his old man. Hence much entertainment from Jim Ross telling Jerry Lawler to keep his son in line. At this time they were still not open that Lawler and Christopher were related. Match was absolutely fine but the commentary was top draw, after Taka wins with the michinoku driver it's time for the Lawler family to attack the champ. One dive to the floor from Taka and he's able to make a safe getaway while JR puts him over like a true star.
What was not entertaining was Lita, the positives were that at least the fans wanted to see the girls wrestle and I had forgot how great Trish was a heel. Lita hits a suicide dive which nearly causes her to break her neck and then to win the womens title she hits a nice moonsault for the pin. This really shouldn't have featured especially not on disc 3.
One of the great ECW rivalries was Sabu-RVD with the added intrigue being that both men were being managed by Bill Alfonso, it turns out that he doesn't turn on either man but RVD still kicks him into apparent unconsciousness. Match is all big dives, dropkicks and slingshot offence in front of a rabid ECW fans. Match was good but nothing amazing.
In an attempt to show Jeff Hardy how much the WWE Universe love him he features in the number two position. Strangely they show a cage match against Umaga from the run up to his WWE title match at the 2008 Royal Rumble against Randy Orton. Orton turns up to cheer on the Somoan Bulldozer. Umaga dominates most of the match including backdropping Hardy into the cage and then splashing Jeff into the cage moments later. Jeff makes his comeback with a twist of fate. He then climbs the cage to escape which Orton tries to block, Hardy then changes his mind and hits whisper in the wind from the top of the cage onto Umaga for the win. Visually the finish was very good and I'll give Orton a lot of credit for his performance on the outside.
Finally we get the match we've all been waiting for even though if you've got the Rey DVD set you will already have it. It's the Title vs. Mask classic against Eddie from Halloween Havoc 1997. Eddie as the classic heel is absolutely outstanding and they work the match slightly differently from what you would normally expect to see. From the start Eddie completely outwrestles Rey, which the commentary team put down to Rey having the pressure of possibly losing his mask. Rey does get the odd and always high flying moments of offence before Eddie once again cuts him off. Like the HBK match, everytime Rey gets a hope spot it lasts a little bit longer. It takes approx ten minutes before the match gets even closer to being a 50-50 match as they start trading big moves and setting up false finishes. Finish comes when Eddie is about to nail Rey with a Razors Edge from the middle rope, one huracanrana reversal into a pin and we get a new champion. This match is absolutely fantastic is fittingly saved until the end.
The extra is another very entertaining WCW cruiserweights this time from the World War 3 PPV from 1998 between champion Juvi and Billy Kidman. This PPV was the one where they had three rings and both guys take full advantage of extra options of springboard offence that they can deliver. Fans really liked it as well and reacted to Billy Kidman's title triumph.
Overall Thoughts
I do think that as a compilation it really is an excellent effort. Sure there are matches that should not have made the cut or wrestlers that should have had other matches chosen for them the main examples would be Evan Bourne, RVD and Jeff Hardy. There are also a few real hidden gems that would never have featured on any other WWE compilation. These included matches that featured Hakushi, Taka and a superb mat classic between Guerrero and Malenko. The only wrestler that I really objected to being featured was Lita who moonsault apart as very little to offer. But this takes up only ten minutes. I would easily recommend the Highest Flyers set as extras apart I've only rated three matches out all three discs less than *** stars.
Ricky Steamboat vs. Brian Pillman ***1/4
Evan Bourne vs. Zack Ryder **1/4
Jimmy Snuka vs. Samu **
Juventud Guerrera, Hector Garza & Lizmark Jr vs. Psychosis, La Parka & Villiano IV ***3/4
Shelton Benjamin vs. Shawn Michaels ****
Ultimo Dragon vs. Rey Mysterio ***3/4
Eddie Guerrero vs. Dean Malenko ****1/4
Extras
Ultimo Dragon vs. Psychosis ***1/4
Chavo Guerrero vs. Jamie Noble *3/4
This is the first of three discs and this release is hosted by Josh Matthews who indicates that this is some kind of unofficial countdown of the best high flyers. Before the disc starts you get the usual trailers which were the Jericho dvd which is excellent, details of a new Cena dvd which looks pretty good if you're a fan and finally the Big Show's film Knucklehead which looks horrendous.
We start with a quick package on Steamboat and then onto his Halloween Havoc 1992 match against Pillman, Pillman had recently turned heel but it was before he joined up with Steve Austin to form the Hollywood Blonds. Match was very well worked and told a very simple and straight forward story. That being that Steamboat was able to outwrestle Pillman, until much to Brian's amusement he had to resort to cheating to take control. What we didn't get is any high flying, surely that would be the point? Steamboat wins coming off the top and pinning Pillman with a sunset flip. Come on guys we could have got the legendary crossbody finish. Also interesting is that Jesse Ventura's commentary was removed so we had Jim Ross going solo.
Next wrestler highlighted is Evan Bourne, the quick 60 second packages are very well done. Shockingly we get a match from Superstars (the WWE C show) against Zack Ryder which was fine for what it was but again very little in high flying. What is clear is that WWE fans really like Bourne as a talent and you have to wonder why the WWE have so far refused to use him to the best of his ability. In the only high flying move of the match Bourne gets the win with the 450. He also demonstrates the move in a skycam segment which sounds interesting but really isn't.
Back to the time machine and we head to 1984 and onto Jimmy Snuka. His match against Samu (called Somoan #3 in this) was very basic especially when Samu was on offence. Come the big comeback, our commentators Gorilla Monsoon & Pat Patterson go crazy putting over Snuka and to be fair the fans react big as well. Again we don't get the finish you would expect as Snuka gets the win with a crossbody and not the Superfly splash as I was expecting.
A fantastic package showcasing WCW Cruiserweights is next, followed by a Lucha Libre 6 man tag from WCW Bash at the Beach 1997. Some fans and the unique WCW commentary team, Mike Tenay apart don't really know what to make of this. Psychology isn't a factor at all and the match follows the usual Mexican formula of the technicos outsmarting the rudos who make a fine job of bumping into one another in a form that the Three Stooges would have enjoyed. We did get a lot of crazy dives and the match is very fast paced and also very enjoyable. The rudos come unstuck when they substitute Villiano V for Villaino IV when Hector Garza hits a standing moonsault for the win.
It's the Shelton Benjamin package next and then we see the match that should have made him a big star which was his match against Shawn Michaels in the Goldrush tournament from Raw in May 2005. Like many Shawn Michaels's matches this told a very clear story which was that in the early stages HBK was being out-wrestled and out-thought by his younger opponent. This works to such an extent that the fans really get into this match and start buying the close falls and teased finishes. Then to top off this really good matches we get arguably the greatest finish to a match seen on Raw. Benjamin attacks with a springboard only for HBK to nail him absolutely perfectly with his superkick for the win. An excellent match.
In the spotlight next is Ultimo Dragon and his J-Crown title defence against Rey Mysterio from World War 3 in 1996. I always enjoy watching Dragon wrestle but never understood why apart from the fact he was Japanese that he was lumbered with Sonny Onoo as his manager. He wrestles such a clean babyface style it doesn't work having a heel manager in his corner. This tells the story of Dragon using his superior mat wrestling to control Mysterio for long periods of time which keeps the crowd a little bit quiet. From the ten minute mark we start to see Rey's big comebacks which are slick reversals and great dives. However it's not enough to stop the champion retaining his titles.
The last wrestler featured on Disc 1 is Eddie Guerrero and of all the matches they could have featured they chose a mat wrestling classic from ECW in 1995 when Guerrero and Malenko were battling over the TV title with Eddie defending in Dean's hometown of Tampa. Fans were surprisingly quiet for a lot of this and I was surprised to see a fan sitting opposite the hard camera wearing a builders hard yellow hat for absolutely no reason. This was a superb wrestling encounter but again you don't really see much high flying, you get the odd dropkick, headscissor takedown and Eddie hits a frog splash for a close two count. There's a good spot where both wrestlers end up on the floor and a fan this being ECW offers Eddie a chair to use which Eddie reacts angrily to, I found this really funny. Malenko gets the win with a roll up after a series of reversals. Eddie takes this well and presents Dean with the TV title before he suckers him a short arm clothesline to keep the feud going. Really good stuff.
Each disc gets extras and Disc 1 we get to enjoy a solid Ultimo Dragon match against Psychosis from Uncensored 1997 which no doubt one match of the night because Uncensored PPV's always tended to be awful. We also see a six minute match featuring Chavo beating Jamie Noble with the frog splash from a Smackdown taping in the UK from 2008 in a typical TV match. There was a funny sign saying that Wenger needs Batista, as what I'm not sure of. There is also a 90 second feature called Flight Turbulence where you see wrestlers taking big bumps such as Brock nearly breaking his neck at Wrestlemania after screwing up a 450, Undertaker falling into a pile of tables, Kurt Angle's classic moonsault miss in the cage against Benoit and the Foley dive off the HITC and onto the commentators table. It finishes with the message that we should not try this at home.
Disc one certainly presents a strange selection of matches and the first three I felt were missed opportunities, the worst of which was the match choice for Evan Bourne which beggars belief. Surely they could have chosen his PPV match against Jericho this year would have been far better. Some matches like Guerrero-Malenko I'm really pleased that they featured but would not describe it as anything remotely built as a high flying wrestling match. However it is still a very entertaining disc overall and I'm looking forward to watching the other two discs which I will also review shortly.
WWE Highest Flyers - Disc 2 DVD Review By Shaun Nichols
Chris Jericho vs. Ultimo Dragon ****
1-2-3 Kid vs. Hakushi ***1/2
John Morrison vs. Tyson Kidd ***1/4
Edge & Christian vs. Dudley Boys vs. Hardy Boys ****1/2
Super Crazy vs. Tajiri vs. Little Guido ***1/4
Brian Pillman vs. Alex Wright ***3/4
Great Muta vs. Sting ***
Rob Van Dam vs. Jerry Lynn ***1/4
Extras
Hardy Boys vs. Kaientai **
Disc 2 starts with Chris Jericho defending the WCW Cruiserweight title at Bash at the Beach 1997, this is your typical babyface vs babyface match with Dragon especially being in excellent form. Jericho keeps himself in the match with a number of springboard moves. Mike Tenay on commentary discusses Jericho's previous matches with Dragon for the WAR promotion a few years earlier. Match really does pick up in the last few minutes and the fans react pretty big when Jericho successfully retains.
Moving over to the WWF and a look at the 1-2-3 Kid and then his match at Summerslam 1995 against Hakushi, I was a big fan of Hakushi when he signed with the WWF in 1994 and although he was never allowed to do his full repertoire due to infringing on other wrestlers gimmicks most noticably his awesome rope walking spot which made Undertaker look like an amateur. So I'm thrilled to see a rare Hakushi match on a WWE compilation. Match is unlike anything else in the promotion at this time because they were definitely behind the times when it came to high flying fast paced action. Hakushi wins after catching the Kid with a powerbomb after the Kid was using a springboard.
Next comes John Morrison and shockingly a second Superstars match on this compilation, this is from July 2009 so Tyson is playing heel with the rest of the Hart Dynasty running interference for him. This again is pretty standard fare and seems like a missed opprtunity to find a better match for Morrison who athletically is very gifted though this match also indicates that he's not particularly over with the fans.
Moving onto to the tag teams we get a decent video highlighting among others the Rock 'n' Roll Express, the Killer Bees and the Rockers. The match we get to showcase tag team wrestling is the ladder match from Wrestlemania 16. This is chock full of frankly insane dives, carefully orchestrated ladder and table spots that builds and builds to more dangerous spots. What's really interesting to note is that Edge is rarely involved in the major highspots of the match. Jeff Hardy and Bubba Dudley are easily the craziest people involved. With Hardy writing himself in history with his ridiculous senton off a very high ladder onto Dudley who was laid on a table. Fans live went mad for this and I really enjoyed it for what it is a slice of car crash wrestling. Which took ladder matches to the next stage in regards to what reckless moves the fans would see.
Up next is the insane luchadore Super Crazy and the match is the three way from ECW One Night Stand in 2005, we also see the full range of FBI members including JT Smith while the Sinister Minister and Mikey Whipwreck are supporting Tajiri. Loads of stiff kicks and reversals until Crazy lands the first big move with a moonsault from the balcony with all members of the FBI acting as his safety net. While this is going on Mikey hits Guido with a Whippersnapper and Tajiri gets the pin. Crazy back in the ring secures victory with another moonsault. Fans really liked this and I think this is partly down to nostalgia of seeing everyone including as I said Smith who hadn't been a part of ECW since the mid 1990's.
Brian Pillman's match with Alex Wright is very strange, a lot of it is very good. Some parts are horrible including Pillman's attempt at a crossbow which Wright equalised using a dreadful attempt at a surfboard. Bobby Heenan helps tremendously on commentary basically burying not only both wrestlers, his co-commentator Tony Schiavone and the fans in attendance. Wright wins when he blocks a Pillman sunset flip for the surprise pinfall.
Shock of the compilation is next when NJPW's Great Muta is next to be featured. The match against Sting comes from the WCW Japan Supershow in March 1991. Within the first 30 seconds we get Muta's patented handspring elbow and an attempted moonsault. Muta though is gimmick over the wrestler though he's still entertaining to watch. Sting goes someway in matching him in the ring as well. Unfortunately we get a cheap finish when Muta uses the dreaded mist and then a crossbody for the win. Sting immediately attacks him afterwards to get his heat back.
When you think of RVD vs. Jerry Lynn, which match are you thinking of? Either of the two ECW PPV matches? No, before there was WWE Superstars there was Sunday Night Heat and this is where we go to from August 2001 in a pretty decent ten minute match. I can't lie they should have picked a different RVD match although at least this doesn't have the legendary RVD posing or Bill Alfonso and his whistle. Match features everything you would expect including the impressive five star frog splash from RVD for the win.
This discs extra is a 4 minute TV match from Sunday Night Heat on the pre-game show of Breakdown 1998 PPV, this is about as good as you can get for a match with such a short time frame and it's always really fun to see Men's Teoih wrestling.
The second disc is also very entertaining with the standout match being the ladder match from Wrestlemania 16 but there is nothing on this disc that could be considered even average. Match choices could always be better, with Disc 2's RVD match being the one that should have been replaced with something else. If they wanted RVD vs. Lynn there were far better options available. Disc 3 features among others Shawn Michaels, Jeff Hardy, Taka Michinoku and saving the best until last Rey Mysterio.
WWE Highest Flyers - Disc 3 DVD Review By Shaun Nichols
Shawn Michaels vs. Vader ***1/2
2 Cold Scorpio vs. Sabu ****
Kofi Kingston vs. Christian ***3/4
Taka Michinoku vs. Pantera ***1/2
Lita vs. Trish Stratus **
Sabu vs. Rob Van Dam ***1/2
Jeff Hardy vs. Umaga ***1/4
Rey Mysterio vs. Eddie Guerrero *****
Extras
Juventud Guerrera vs. Billy Kidman ***3/4
Disc 3 starts with a look at Shawn Michaels and his WWF title defence against Vader at Summerslam 1996. At the time this was considered to have been a bit of a disappointment but time as not treated this match badly at all. After the initial HBK flurry it's Vader that takes control for the majority of the match. Shawn makes short lived comebacks which every time lasts a little bit longer than the last one. Vader initially wins by count out after dropping Shawn on the guard rail. Jim Cornette as Vader's manager then demands that Shawn agrees to restart the match. Shawn agrees to this and the match runs for another few minutes until Cornette tries to interfere and Shawn uses his tennis racket on both Cornette and Vader. This causes the DQ finish but Cornette again demands that the match should continue. Shawn agrees again and Vader looks to have the match won until he fluffs a moonsault attempt and HBK immediately hits a moonsault press for the win. Considering the match restarts twice the fans are surprisingly into this. Cornette also must have broke a world record for the using the word 'stinking' into a wrestling promo.
Next is Scorpio who because his WWF run was so uneventful in his highlight package we get a lot of ECW clips and Scorpio dancing including a clip of Vince dancing. His match is against Sabu at Cyberslam 96 for the ECW TV title, this is all action from start to finish. Within the first sixty seconds Sabu has used a chair and hit two dives, one of which was into the crowd. Match was full of insane dives and never showed any signs of slowing down. The highlight was Sabu doing his running jump from a chair onto the top rope and then doing a somersault onto a table located in the third row. Fans went crazy for it and then started to worry that he was seriously hurt but fortunately he wasn't. Scorpio kept his side of things by hitting a 450 splash and his tumbleweed legdrop. Match ended in a excellent 30 minute draw.
Kofi's 2010 match against Christian where the winner was supposed to win the IC title is the next match. Although Kofi can be pretty exciting to watch he does mistime a lot of moves in a match. This means that a lot of his matches that should be good end up as average. However Christian fortunately as the ability to get the best out of the majority of his opponents. Both guys wrestle as upstanding babyfaces and the fans react great to this. This as to be Kofi's best WWE match by a mile at this stage and is the best match that the WWE could have picked for Kingston.
The WWE then openly admitted that they were slow to pick up on the popularity of WCW cruiserweights. However they did have the very talented Taka Michinoku as their first lightweight champion. His main rival was Brian Christopher who popped by to do commentary with his old man. Hence much entertainment from Jim Ross telling Jerry Lawler to keep his son in line. At this time they were still not open that Lawler and Christopher were related. Match was absolutely fine but the commentary was top draw, after Taka wins with the michinoku driver it's time for the Lawler family to attack the champ. One dive to the floor from Taka and he's able to make a safe getaway while JR puts him over like a true star.
What was not entertaining was Lita, the positives were that at least the fans wanted to see the girls wrestle and I had forgot how great Trish was a heel. Lita hits a suicide dive which nearly causes her to break her neck and then to win the womens title she hits a nice moonsault for the pin. This really shouldn't have featured especially not on disc 3.
One of the great ECW rivalries was Sabu-RVD with the added intrigue being that both men were being managed by Bill Alfonso, it turns out that he doesn't turn on either man but RVD still kicks him into apparent unconsciousness. Match is all big dives, dropkicks and slingshot offence in front of a rabid ECW fans. Match was good but nothing amazing.
In an attempt to show Jeff Hardy how much the WWE Universe love him he features in the number two position. Strangely they show a cage match against Umaga from the run up to his WWE title match at the 2008 Royal Rumble against Randy Orton. Orton turns up to cheer on the Somoan Bulldozer. Umaga dominates most of the match including backdropping Hardy into the cage and then splashing Jeff into the cage moments later. Jeff makes his comeback with a twist of fate. He then climbs the cage to escape which Orton tries to block, Hardy then changes his mind and hits whisper in the wind from the top of the cage onto Umaga for the win. Visually the finish was very good and I'll give Orton a lot of credit for his performance on the outside.
Finally we get the match we've all been waiting for even though if you've got the Rey DVD set you will already have it. It's the Title vs. Mask classic against Eddie from Halloween Havoc 1997. Eddie as the classic heel is absolutely outstanding and they work the match slightly differently from what you would normally expect to see. From the start Eddie completely outwrestles Rey, which the commentary team put down to Rey having the pressure of possibly losing his mask. Rey does get the odd and always high flying moments of offence before Eddie once again cuts him off. Like the HBK match, everytime Rey gets a hope spot it lasts a little bit longer. It takes approx ten minutes before the match gets even closer to being a 50-50 match as they start trading big moves and setting up false finishes. Finish comes when Eddie is about to nail Rey with a Razors Edge from the middle rope, one huracanrana reversal into a pin and we get a new champion. This match is absolutely fantastic is fittingly saved until the end.
The extra is another very entertaining WCW cruiserweights this time from the World War 3 PPV from 1998 between champion Juvi and Billy Kidman. This PPV was the one where they had three rings and both guys take full advantage of extra options of springboard offence that they can deliver. Fans really liked it as well and reacted to Billy Kidman's title triumph.
Overall Thoughts
I do think that as a compilation it really is an excellent effort. Sure there are matches that should not have made the cut or wrestlers that should have had other matches chosen for them the main examples would be Evan Bourne, RVD and Jeff Hardy. There are also a few real hidden gems that would never have featured on any other WWE compilation. These included matches that featured Hakushi, Taka and a superb mat classic between Guerrero and Malenko. The only wrestler that I really objected to being featured was Lita who moonsault apart as very little to offer. But this takes up only ten minutes. I would easily recommend the Highest Flyers set as extras apart I've only rated three matches out all three discs less than *** stars.
Sunday, 7 November 2010
Indy Wrestling: Have the Best Days Gone?
Recently I was listening to the Still Real To Us podcast Jeff & Eric got onto Indy wrestling and the state of it in the current climate. In the early 2000's indy wrestling was at it's best, groups like IWA-MS, ECWA, PWG, JAPW etc. would have excellent shows then in 2002 Ring of Honor was born and for fans of wrestling as opposed to the sports entertainment that is offered by the WWE this was great. I have to agree with some of what was said, the indies of today are just not up to scratch but for me what hurts the indy promotions is the lack of top tier indy talent. This is not to be confused with former WWE/WCW stars coming in but the fact of indy groups don't have out and out 'must see' wrestlers now as the top indy stars from the mid 2000's are now in WWE or TNA, workers like Samoa Joe, CM Punk, AJ Styles, Bryan Danielson & Low-Ki (Kaval in WWE). One that spent a few years away was Homicide but he is now back on the indies and with ROH. Other than ROH, the major player on the scene is Dragon Gate USA who themselves have put some great shows on. The other groups still run shows but just don't have the shows they once did. Out of the others that are left, PWG are probably the best. I myself don't watch the CHIKARA promotion but I am told it's different yet very good.
I really hope independant wrestling can pick up because I think it's a must for the business not to feed WWE & TNA but to give the fans who are disillusioned with those companies something to watch.
Signing off, Stuart Rodgers
I really hope independant wrestling can pick up because I think it's a must for the business not to feed WWE & TNA but to give the fans who are disillusioned with those companies something to watch.
Signing off, Stuart Rodgers
Wrestlemania XXVII - Direction Unknown By Shaun Nichols
What a difference a year makes, Wrestlemania this year from Phoenix clearly had a lot of forward planning to it. This time last year the show was already starting to build and matches were becoming clear. Undertaker vs Shawn, Bret vs Vince, Cena vs Batista and Edge vs Jericho were all virtual locks by the end of 2009.
As a result of that the WWE were able to book strong and clear programmes and as the weeks rolled by they added Punk vs Mysterio, the breakup of Legacy, Triple H vs Sheamus and Money in the Bank. The build up of arguably the top three matches which were Shawn-Taker, Cena-Batista and Bret-Vince were all excellent and it still surprises me that that the show had less than 500,000 buys. Don't get me wrong it still comfortably beat the combined total of TNA's last 20 PPV's.
This year there seems to be no real idea of where the WWE are going for Wrestlemania at Atlanta. The fun and games with Undertaker having a wildly overhyped confrontation with Brock at UFC 121 might have got a lot of press but leads absolutely nowhere. I'm sure Brock would love the opportunity to earn approx $2 million for basically very little work. However lets not kid ourselves there is no chance that UFC President Dana White would ever allow Brock to appear on the WWE's biggest show of the year when he is still under an exclusive UFC contract. So with Undertaker vs Brock out of the question, the early front runners for Wrestlemania XXVII are Undertaker (if he can make the show due to his injuries) vs Wade Barrett or even less appealing Kane. Also at this stage John Cena vs Randy Orton because that's one match that we haven't seen enough of.
It is over four months away and there is plenty of time for new feuds to be built. However I feel that it is very telling that there seems to be no clear direction as to what the future holds or that there is no major programmes that can grab hold of my interest for an extended period of time. I am finding the WWE fairly hard work to get excited about and as a result I would not have any interest in purchasing a WWE PPV as I would not consider it value for money. Wrestlemania 26 was a show that I was happy to order and overall I felt that although it wasn't a classic show it did provide enough entertainment. I certainly do not have the same confidence about next years big show.
As a result of that the WWE were able to book strong and clear programmes and as the weeks rolled by they added Punk vs Mysterio, the breakup of Legacy, Triple H vs Sheamus and Money in the Bank. The build up of arguably the top three matches which were Shawn-Taker, Cena-Batista and Bret-Vince were all excellent and it still surprises me that that the show had less than 500,000 buys. Don't get me wrong it still comfortably beat the combined total of TNA's last 20 PPV's.
This year there seems to be no real idea of where the WWE are going for Wrestlemania at Atlanta. The fun and games with Undertaker having a wildly overhyped confrontation with Brock at UFC 121 might have got a lot of press but leads absolutely nowhere. I'm sure Brock would love the opportunity to earn approx $2 million for basically very little work. However lets not kid ourselves there is no chance that UFC President Dana White would ever allow Brock to appear on the WWE's biggest show of the year when he is still under an exclusive UFC contract. So with Undertaker vs Brock out of the question, the early front runners for Wrestlemania XXVII are Undertaker (if he can make the show due to his injuries) vs Wade Barrett or even less appealing Kane. Also at this stage John Cena vs Randy Orton because that's one match that we haven't seen enough of.
It is over four months away and there is plenty of time for new feuds to be built. However I feel that it is very telling that there seems to be no clear direction as to what the future holds or that there is no major programmes that can grab hold of my interest for an extended period of time. I am finding the WWE fairly hard work to get excited about and as a result I would not have any interest in purchasing a WWE PPV as I would not consider it value for money. Wrestlemania 26 was a show that I was happy to order and overall I felt that although it wasn't a classic show it did provide enough entertainment. I certainly do not have the same confidence about next years big show.
Thursday, 4 November 2010
The Still Real To Us Podcast (4/11/10)
On this episode of The Still Real to Us Show: ”The Champ” Jeff Peck and Eric Gargiulo start off this week's program by discussing the new MONEY MANAGER in TNA wrestling! We discuss who The NEW money manager is and what it means for the FUTURE of TNA! The guys then look at the state of INDEPENDENT WRESTLING, how it is different from 10 years ago, where we see Independent wrestling in 5 years and MORE! We then wrap up this week's show by discussing the RAMIFICATIONS of LINDA MCMAHON's failed SENATE run, what it means for the WWE and if the MCMAHON FAMILY may have opened up PANDORA's BOX!
Download the Podcast – HERE!
Download the Podcast – HERE!
Wednesday, 3 November 2010
WWE Highest Flyers Disc 3 DVD Review By Shaun Nichols
WWE Highest Flyers - Disc 3
Shawn Michaels vs. Vader ***1/2
2 Cold Scorpio vs. Sabu ****
Kofi Kingston vs. Christian ***3/4
Taka Michinoku vs. Pantera ***1/2
Lita vs. Trish Stratus **
Sabu vs. Rob Van Dam ***1/2
Jeff Hardy vs. Umaga ***1/4
Rey Mysterio vs. Eddie Guerrero *****
Extras
Juventud Guerrera vs. Billy Kidman ***3/4
Disc 3 starts with a look at Shawn Michaels and his WWF title defence against Vader at Summerslam 1996. At the time this was considered to have been a bit of a disappointment but time as not treated this match badly at all. After the initial HBK flurry it's Vader that takes control for the majority of the match. Shawn makes short lived comebacks which every time lasts a little bit longer than the last one. Vader initially wins by count out after dropping Shawn on the guard rail. Jim Cornette as Vader's manager then demands that Shawn agrees to restart the match. Shawn agrees to this and the match runs for another few minutes until Cornette tries to interfere and Shawn uses his tennis racket on both Cornette and Vader. This causes the DQ finish but Cornette again demands that the match should continue. Shawn agrees again and Vader looks to have the match won until he fluffs a moonsault attempt and HBK immediately hits a moonsault press for the win. Considering the match restarts twice the fans are surprisingly into this. Cornette also must have broke a world record for the using the word 'stinking' into a wrestling promo.
Next is Scorpio who because his WWF run was so uneventful in his highlight package we get a lot of ECW clips and Scorpio dancing including a clip of Vince dancing. His match is against Sabu at Cyberslam 96 for the ECW TV title, this is all action from start to finish. Within the first sixty seconds Sabu has used a chair and hit two dives, one of which was into the crowd. Match was full of insane dives and never showed any signs of slowing down. The highlight was Sabu doing his running jump from a chair onto the top rope and then doing a somersault onto a table located in the third row. Fans went crazy for it and then started to worry that he was seriously hurt but fortunately he wasn't. Scorpio kept his side of things by hitting a 450 splash and his tumbleweed legdrop. Match ended in a excellent 30 minute draw.
Kofi's 2010 match against Christian where the winner was supposed to win the IC title is the next match. Although Kofi can be pretty exciting to watch he does mistime a lot of moves in a match. This means that a lot of his matches that should be good end up as average. However Christian fortunately as the ability to get the best out of the majority of his opponents. Both guys wrestle as upstanding babyfaces and the fans react great to this. This as to be Kofi's best WWE match by a mile at this stage and is the best match that the WWE could have picked for Kingston.
The WWE then openly admitted that they were slow to pick up on the popularity of WCW cruiserweights. However they did have the very talented Taka Michinoku as their first lightweight champion. His main rival was Brian Christopher who popped by to do commentary with his old man. Hence much entertainment from Jim Ross telling Jerry Lawler to keep his son in line. At this time they were still not open that Lawler and Christopher were related. Match was absolutely fine but the commentary was top draw, after Taka wins with the michinoku driver it's time for the Lawler family to attack the champ. One dive to the floor from Taka and he's able to make a safe getaway while JR puts him over like a true star.
What was not entertaining was Lita, the positives were that at least the fans wanted to see the girls wrestle and I had forgot how great Trish was a heel. Lita hits a suicide dive which nearly causes her to break her neck and then to win the womens title she hits a nice moonsault for the pin. This really shouldn't have featured especially not on disc 3.
One of the great ECW rivalries was Sabu-RVD with the added intrigue being that both men were being managed by Bill Alfonso, it turns out that he doesn't turn on either man but RVD still kicks him into apparent unconsciousness. Match is all big dives, dropkicks and slingshot offence in front of a rabid ECW fans. Match was good but nothing amazing.
In an attempt to show Jeff Hardy how much the WWE Universe love him he features in the number two position. Strangely they show a cage match against Umaga from the run up to his WWE title match at the 2008 Royal Rumble against Randy Orton. Orton turns up to cheer on the Somoan Bulldozer. Umaga dominates most of the match including backdropping Hardy into the cage and then splashing Jeff into the cage moments later. Jeff makes his comeback with a twist of fate. He then climbs the cage to escape which Orton tries to block, Hardy then changes his mind and hits whisper in the wind from the top of the cage onto Umaga for the win. Visually the finish was very good and I'll give Orton a lot of credit for his performance on the outside.
Finally we get the match we've all been waiting for even though if you've got the Rey DVD set you will already have it. It's the Title vs. Mask classic against Eddie from Halloween Havoc 1997. Eddie as the classic heel is absolutely outstanding and they work the match slightly differently from what you would normally expect to see. From the start Eddie completely outwrestles Rey, which the commentary team put down to Rey having the pressure of possibly losing his mask. Rey does get the odd and always high flying moments of offence before Eddie once again cuts him off. Like the HBK match, everytime Rey gets a hope spot it lasts a little bit longer. It takes approx ten minutes before the match gets even closer to being a 50-50 match as they start trading big moves and setting up false finishes. Finish comes when Eddie is about to nail Rey with a Razors Edge from the middle rope, one huracanrana reversal into a pin and we get a new champion. This match is absolutely fantastic is fittingly saved until the end.
The extra is another very entertaining WCW cruiserweights this time from the World War 3 PPV from 1998 between champion Juvi and Billy Kidman. This PPV was the one where they had three rings and both guys take full advantage of extra options of springboard offence that they can deliver. Fans really liked it as well and reacted to Billy Kidman's title triumph.
Overall Thoughts
I do think that as a compilation it really is an excellent effort. Sure there are matches that should not have made the cut or wrestlers that should have had other matches chosen for them the main examples would be Evan Bourne, RVD and Jeff Hardy. There are also a few real hidden gems that would never have featured on any other WWE compilation. These included matches that featured Hakushi, Taka and a superb mat classic between Guerrero and Malenko. The only wrestler that I really objected to being featured was Lita who moonsault apart as very little to offer. But this takes up only ten minutes. I would easily recommend the Highest Flyers set as extras apart I've only rated three matches out all three discs less than *** stars.
=
Shawn Michaels vs. Vader ***1/2
2 Cold Scorpio vs. Sabu ****
Kofi Kingston vs. Christian ***3/4
Taka Michinoku vs. Pantera ***1/2
Lita vs. Trish Stratus **
Sabu vs. Rob Van Dam ***1/2
Jeff Hardy vs. Umaga ***1/4
Rey Mysterio vs. Eddie Guerrero *****
Extras
Juventud Guerrera vs. Billy Kidman ***3/4
Disc 3 starts with a look at Shawn Michaels and his WWF title defence against Vader at Summerslam 1996. At the time this was considered to have been a bit of a disappointment but time as not treated this match badly at all. After the initial HBK flurry it's Vader that takes control for the majority of the match. Shawn makes short lived comebacks which every time lasts a little bit longer than the last one. Vader initially wins by count out after dropping Shawn on the guard rail. Jim Cornette as Vader's manager then demands that Shawn agrees to restart the match. Shawn agrees to this and the match runs for another few minutes until Cornette tries to interfere and Shawn uses his tennis racket on both Cornette and Vader. This causes the DQ finish but Cornette again demands that the match should continue. Shawn agrees again and Vader looks to have the match won until he fluffs a moonsault attempt and HBK immediately hits a moonsault press for the win. Considering the match restarts twice the fans are surprisingly into this. Cornette also must have broke a world record for the using the word 'stinking' into a wrestling promo.
Next is Scorpio who because his WWF run was so uneventful in his highlight package we get a lot of ECW clips and Scorpio dancing including a clip of Vince dancing. His match is against Sabu at Cyberslam 96 for the ECW TV title, this is all action from start to finish. Within the first sixty seconds Sabu has used a chair and hit two dives, one of which was into the crowd. Match was full of insane dives and never showed any signs of slowing down. The highlight was Sabu doing his running jump from a chair onto the top rope and then doing a somersault onto a table located in the third row. Fans went crazy for it and then started to worry that he was seriously hurt but fortunately he wasn't. Scorpio kept his side of things by hitting a 450 splash and his tumbleweed legdrop. Match ended in a excellent 30 minute draw.
Kofi's 2010 match against Christian where the winner was supposed to win the IC title is the next match. Although Kofi can be pretty exciting to watch he does mistime a lot of moves in a match. This means that a lot of his matches that should be good end up as average. However Christian fortunately as the ability to get the best out of the majority of his opponents. Both guys wrestle as upstanding babyfaces and the fans react great to this. This as to be Kofi's best WWE match by a mile at this stage and is the best match that the WWE could have picked for Kingston.
The WWE then openly admitted that they were slow to pick up on the popularity of WCW cruiserweights. However they did have the very talented Taka Michinoku as their first lightweight champion. His main rival was Brian Christopher who popped by to do commentary with his old man. Hence much entertainment from Jim Ross telling Jerry Lawler to keep his son in line. At this time they were still not open that Lawler and Christopher were related. Match was absolutely fine but the commentary was top draw, after Taka wins with the michinoku driver it's time for the Lawler family to attack the champ. One dive to the floor from Taka and he's able to make a safe getaway while JR puts him over like a true star.
What was not entertaining was Lita, the positives were that at least the fans wanted to see the girls wrestle and I had forgot how great Trish was a heel. Lita hits a suicide dive which nearly causes her to break her neck and then to win the womens title she hits a nice moonsault for the pin. This really shouldn't have featured especially not on disc 3.
One of the great ECW rivalries was Sabu-RVD with the added intrigue being that both men were being managed by Bill Alfonso, it turns out that he doesn't turn on either man but RVD still kicks him into apparent unconsciousness. Match is all big dives, dropkicks and slingshot offence in front of a rabid ECW fans. Match was good but nothing amazing.
In an attempt to show Jeff Hardy how much the WWE Universe love him he features in the number two position. Strangely they show a cage match against Umaga from the run up to his WWE title match at the 2008 Royal Rumble against Randy Orton. Orton turns up to cheer on the Somoan Bulldozer. Umaga dominates most of the match including backdropping Hardy into the cage and then splashing Jeff into the cage moments later. Jeff makes his comeback with a twist of fate. He then climbs the cage to escape which Orton tries to block, Hardy then changes his mind and hits whisper in the wind from the top of the cage onto Umaga for the win. Visually the finish was very good and I'll give Orton a lot of credit for his performance on the outside.
Finally we get the match we've all been waiting for even though if you've got the Rey DVD set you will already have it. It's the Title vs. Mask classic against Eddie from Halloween Havoc 1997. Eddie as the classic heel is absolutely outstanding and they work the match slightly differently from what you would normally expect to see. From the start Eddie completely outwrestles Rey, which the commentary team put down to Rey having the pressure of possibly losing his mask. Rey does get the odd and always high flying moments of offence before Eddie once again cuts him off. Like the HBK match, everytime Rey gets a hope spot it lasts a little bit longer. It takes approx ten minutes before the match gets even closer to being a 50-50 match as they start trading big moves and setting up false finishes. Finish comes when Eddie is about to nail Rey with a Razors Edge from the middle rope, one huracanrana reversal into a pin and we get a new champion. This match is absolutely fantastic is fittingly saved until the end.
The extra is another very entertaining WCW cruiserweights this time from the World War 3 PPV from 1998 between champion Juvi and Billy Kidman. This PPV was the one where they had three rings and both guys take full advantage of extra options of springboard offence that they can deliver. Fans really liked it as well and reacted to Billy Kidman's title triumph.
Overall Thoughts
I do think that as a compilation it really is an excellent effort. Sure there are matches that should not have made the cut or wrestlers that should have had other matches chosen for them the main examples would be Evan Bourne, RVD and Jeff Hardy. There are also a few real hidden gems that would never have featured on any other WWE compilation. These included matches that featured Hakushi, Taka and a superb mat classic between Guerrero and Malenko. The only wrestler that I really objected to being featured was Lita who moonsault apart as very little to offer. But this takes up only ten minutes. I would easily recommend the Highest Flyers set as extras apart I've only rated three matches out all three discs less than *** stars.
=
Sunday, 31 October 2010
Great News About The Drop Kick Radio Wrestling Show
It has been going live every Thursday for a while now but from Sunday November 7th 2011 it will fill the void left by the Ministry of Slam show, yes, DKR will be LIVE on a Sunday night for the forseeable future. These guys (Martyn & Jeremy) who run this show put a helluva lot of work into it so please give it a listen every sunday over at http://dropkickradio.com where you can also join the chat room when the show is on the air. Go to the site now for archives of previous shows to see what to expect.
Saturday, 30 October 2010
WWE Highest Flyers - Disc 2 DVD Review By Shaun Nichols
Chris Jericho vs. Ultimo Dragon ****
1-2-3 Kid vs. Hakushi ***1/2
John Morrison vs. Tyson Kidd ***1/4
Edge & Christian vs. Dudley Boys vs. Hardy Boys ****1/2
Super Crazy vs. Tajiri vs. Little Guido ***1/4
Brian Pillman vs. Alex Wright ***3/4
Great Muta vs. Sting ***
Rob Van Dam vs. Jerry Lynn ***1/4
Extras
Hardy Boys vs. Kaientai **
Disc 2 starts with Chris Jericho defending the WCW Cruiserweight title at Bash at the Beach 1997, this is your typical babyface vs babyface match with Dragon especially being in excellent form. Jericho keeps himself in the match with a number of springboard moves. Mike Tenay on commentary discusses Jericho's previous matches with Dragon for the WAR promotion a few years earlier. Match really does pick up in the last few minutes and the fans react pretty big when Jericho successfully retains.
Moving over to the WWF and a look at the 1-2-3 Kid and then his match at Summerslam 1995 against Hakushi, I was a big fan of Hakushi when he signed with the WWF in 1994 and although he was never allowed to do his full repertoire due to infringing on other wrestlers gimmicks most noticably his awesome rope walking spot which made Undertaker look like an amateur. So I'm thrilled to see a rare Hakushi match on a WWE compilation. Match is unlike anything else in the promotion at this time because they were definitely behind the times when it came to high flying fast paced action. Hakushi wins after catching the Kid with a powerbomb after the Kid was using a springboard.
Next comes John Morrison and shockingly a second Superstars match on this compilation, this is from July 2009 so Tyson is playing heel with the rest of the Hart Dynasty running interference for him. This again is pretty standard fare and seems like a missed opprtunity to find a better match for Morrison who athletically is very gifted though this match also indicates that he's not particularly over with the fans.
Moving onto to the tag teams we get a decent video highlighting among others the Rock 'n' Roll Express, the Killer Bees and the Rockers. The match we get to showcase tag team wrestling is the ladder match from Wrestlemania 16. This is chock full of frankly insane dives, carefully orchestrated ladder and table spots that builds and builds to more dangerous spots. What's really interesting to note is that Edge is rarely involved in the major highspots of the match. Jeff Hardy and Bubba Dudley are easily the craziest people involved. With Hardy writing himself in history with his ridiculous senton off a very high ladder onto Dudley who was laid on a table. Fans live went mad for this and I really enjoyed it for what it is a slice of car crash wrestling. Which took ladder matches to the next stage in regards to what reckless moves the fans would see.
Up next is the insane luchadore Super Crazy and the match is the three way from ECW One Night Stand in 2005, we also see the full range of FBI members including JT Smith while the Sinister Minister and Mikey Whipwreck are supporting Tajiri. Loads of stiff kicks and reversals until Crazy lands the first big move with a moonsault from the balcony with all members of the FBI acting as his safety net. While this is going on Mikey hits Guido with a Whippersnapper and Tajiri gets the pin. Crazy back in the ring secures victory with another moonsault. Fans really liked this and I think this is partly down to nostalgia of seeing everyone including as I said Smith who hadn't been a part of ECW since the mid 1990's.
Brian Pillman's match with Alex Wright is very strange, a lot of it is very good. Some parts are horrible including Pillman's attempt at a crossbow which Wright equalised using a dreadful attempt at a surfboard. Bobby Heenan helps tremendously on commentary basically burying not only both wrestlers, his co-commentator Tony Schiavone and the fans in attendance. Wright wins when he blocks a Pillman sunset flip for the surprise pinfall.
Shock of the compilation is next when NJPW's Great Muta is next to be featured. The match against Sting comes from the WCW Japan Supershow in March 1991. Within the first 30 seconds we get Muta's patented handspring elbow and an attempted moonsault. Muta though is gimmick over the wrestler though he's still entertaining to watch. Sting goes someway in matching him in the ring as well. Unfortunately we get a cheap finish when Muta uses the dreaded mist and then a crossbody for the win. Sting immediately attacks him afterwards to get his heat back.
When you think of RVD vs. Jerry Lynn, which match are you thinking of? Either of the two ECW PPV matches? No, before there was WWE Superstars there was Sunday Night Heat and this is where we go to from August 2001 in a pretty decent ten minute match. I can't lie they should have picked a different RVD match although at least this doesn't have the legendary RVD posing or Bill Alfonso and his whistle. Match features everything you would expect including the impressive five star frog splash from RVD for the win.
This discs extra is a 4 minute TV match from Sunday Night Heat on the pre-game show of Breakdown 1998 PPV, this is about as good as you can get for a match with such a short time frame and it's always really fun to see Men's Teoih wrestling.
The second disc is also very entertaining with the standout match being the ladder match from Wrestlemania 16 but there is nothing on this disc that could be considered even average. Match choices could always be better, with Disc 2's RVD match being the one that should have been replaced with something else. If they wanted RVD vs. Lynn there were far better options available. Disc 3 features among others Shawn Michaels, Jeff Hardy, Taka Michinoku and saving the best until last Rey Mysterio.
=
1-2-3 Kid vs. Hakushi ***1/2
John Morrison vs. Tyson Kidd ***1/4
Edge & Christian vs. Dudley Boys vs. Hardy Boys ****1/2
Super Crazy vs. Tajiri vs. Little Guido ***1/4
Brian Pillman vs. Alex Wright ***3/4
Great Muta vs. Sting ***
Rob Van Dam vs. Jerry Lynn ***1/4
Extras
Hardy Boys vs. Kaientai **
Disc 2 starts with Chris Jericho defending the WCW Cruiserweight title at Bash at the Beach 1997, this is your typical babyface vs babyface match with Dragon especially being in excellent form. Jericho keeps himself in the match with a number of springboard moves. Mike Tenay on commentary discusses Jericho's previous matches with Dragon for the WAR promotion a few years earlier. Match really does pick up in the last few minutes and the fans react pretty big when Jericho successfully retains.
Moving over to the WWF and a look at the 1-2-3 Kid and then his match at Summerslam 1995 against Hakushi, I was a big fan of Hakushi when he signed with the WWF in 1994 and although he was never allowed to do his full repertoire due to infringing on other wrestlers gimmicks most noticably his awesome rope walking spot which made Undertaker look like an amateur. So I'm thrilled to see a rare Hakushi match on a WWE compilation. Match is unlike anything else in the promotion at this time because they were definitely behind the times when it came to high flying fast paced action. Hakushi wins after catching the Kid with a powerbomb after the Kid was using a springboard.
Next comes John Morrison and shockingly a second Superstars match on this compilation, this is from July 2009 so Tyson is playing heel with the rest of the Hart Dynasty running interference for him. This again is pretty standard fare and seems like a missed opprtunity to find a better match for Morrison who athletically is very gifted though this match also indicates that he's not particularly over with the fans.
Moving onto to the tag teams we get a decent video highlighting among others the Rock 'n' Roll Express, the Killer Bees and the Rockers. The match we get to showcase tag team wrestling is the ladder match from Wrestlemania 16. This is chock full of frankly insane dives, carefully orchestrated ladder and table spots that builds and builds to more dangerous spots. What's really interesting to note is that Edge is rarely involved in the major highspots of the match. Jeff Hardy and Bubba Dudley are easily the craziest people involved. With Hardy writing himself in history with his ridiculous senton off a very high ladder onto Dudley who was laid on a table. Fans live went mad for this and I really enjoyed it for what it is a slice of car crash wrestling. Which took ladder matches to the next stage in regards to what reckless moves the fans would see.
Up next is the insane luchadore Super Crazy and the match is the three way from ECW One Night Stand in 2005, we also see the full range of FBI members including JT Smith while the Sinister Minister and Mikey Whipwreck are supporting Tajiri. Loads of stiff kicks and reversals until Crazy lands the first big move with a moonsault from the balcony with all members of the FBI acting as his safety net. While this is going on Mikey hits Guido with a Whippersnapper and Tajiri gets the pin. Crazy back in the ring secures victory with another moonsault. Fans really liked this and I think this is partly down to nostalgia of seeing everyone including as I said Smith who hadn't been a part of ECW since the mid 1990's.
Brian Pillman's match with Alex Wright is very strange, a lot of it is very good. Some parts are horrible including Pillman's attempt at a crossbow which Wright equalised using a dreadful attempt at a surfboard. Bobby Heenan helps tremendously on commentary basically burying not only both wrestlers, his co-commentator Tony Schiavone and the fans in attendance. Wright wins when he blocks a Pillman sunset flip for the surprise pinfall.
Shock of the compilation is next when NJPW's Great Muta is next to be featured. The match against Sting comes from the WCW Japan Supershow in March 1991. Within the first 30 seconds we get Muta's patented handspring elbow and an attempted moonsault. Muta though is gimmick over the wrestler though he's still entertaining to watch. Sting goes someway in matching him in the ring as well. Unfortunately we get a cheap finish when Muta uses the dreaded mist and then a crossbody for the win. Sting immediately attacks him afterwards to get his heat back.
When you think of RVD vs. Jerry Lynn, which match are you thinking of? Either of the two ECW PPV matches? No, before there was WWE Superstars there was Sunday Night Heat and this is where we go to from August 2001 in a pretty decent ten minute match. I can't lie they should have picked a different RVD match although at least this doesn't have the legendary RVD posing or Bill Alfonso and his whistle. Match features everything you would expect including the impressive five star frog splash from RVD for the win.
This discs extra is a 4 minute TV match from Sunday Night Heat on the pre-game show of Breakdown 1998 PPV, this is about as good as you can get for a match with such a short time frame and it's always really fun to see Men's Teoih wrestling.
The second disc is also very entertaining with the standout match being the ladder match from Wrestlemania 16 but there is nothing on this disc that could be considered even average. Match choices could always be better, with Disc 2's RVD match being the one that should have been replaced with something else. If they wanted RVD vs. Lynn there were far better options available. Disc 3 features among others Shawn Michaels, Jeff Hardy, Taka Michinoku and saving the best until last Rey Mysterio.
=
Monday, 25 October 2010
N£O Takes A Look At Ziggler vs. Daniel Bryan From Bragging Rights
NEO'S JOY OF AN OUTSTANDING BRAGGING RIGHTS 1ST MATCH - 25/10/2010
Bragging rights kicked off, with 23 minutes of pure wrestling genius.
Daniel Bryan versus Dolph Ziggler was class 'A' wrestling, both of these men left it all in the ring, and Ziggler took so many good shots from Bryan it was almost difficult to watch or understand at what point they were ever going to end this great competition.
This was quite amazing, I have been watching wrestling for over 30 years and I have to say that after watching this match FIVE times over, it is one of the best matches I have seen in a long, long time. Bryan was electric..... And Ziggler was just as good...
WWE sold the buried alive match in a long promo, but we were later to find out that this wasn't actually the main event it was destined to be Randy Orton versus Wade Barrett. The night kicked off with Vicky Guerrero saying as she usually does, "Excuse me!!!" to the usual boos and hisses.
Dolph, looking ripped and strangely 'perfect' physically as he normally does (and slightly over tanned in this writer's opinion) was looking like he meant business and Bryan came down to that stupid music which just does not suit him in this opinion of this writer as I have said before. Then there was a lock-up and we were treated to 10 min of back and forth action up which one point Bryan jumped over Guerrero and flew through the air off the side of the ring and hit Ziggler with a flying knee that really looked like that it would sting of in the morning and also brilliantly Ziggler kicked out quite a few times at the start of the match, then rolled out of the ring to let us all know that he was actually intimidated by Bryan, who acknowledged the crowd support...
Danielson actually got loads of crowd pops on many occasions, in fact we were also treated to "Let's Go Bryan!!" chants which rang through the arena very loudly.
Vicky screamed from ringside throughout the whole match and some of the commentary that King and Michael Cole gave while she was doing it was actually quite funny and for once,Matt Striker was getting on with King and it was all quite hilarious which added a good side to this outstanding competition, and quite a few of the kicks that Bryan delivered to Ziggler looked absolutely eye watering and I am very, very impressed with the way Ziggler carried on throughout this match - his conditioning is amazing,
That flying knee I just can't get over - I must have watched it at least 10 times in slow motion.......
The crowd reactions to some of these amazing athletes's moves just made for an exciting start to Bragging Rights.
Both of these athletes, came up with moves that we haven't seen in WWE before or for a long time..... Dolph Ziggler, using his amateur wrestling background skills, showed off a few simple moves like firemen's carries that were very impressive indeed and quick as you like!!!
Bryan however, had the most of the going and flew across the ring a few times with great style and finesse. This one spot was interesting to say the least.... Bryan went to back suplex Ziggler off the top rope after cleverly evading a supeplex himself, but Ziggler turned it into a splash mid-air and both athletes fell to the mat from at least 12 or 13 foot in the air... Ziggler went for the cover, but Bryan then twisted his hips and turned into a cover of hids own for 2 3/4 count. This was typical of the whole contest, and we were also treated to lots of different submissions, close pinfall combinations, high impact kicks, excitement, jaw breaking shocks and high-speed action that never seem to end!
A great showing by both competitors, and I guarantee that the booking team and the writers of the McMahons will put these two in the ring together even though they are on different shows.
WE HAVE TO SEE THEM AT IT AGAIN!!!!! A definite contender for match of the year....
For wrestling's Last Hope this is N£O signing out - 25/10/2010
Bragging rights kicked off, with 23 minutes of pure wrestling genius.
Daniel Bryan versus Dolph Ziggler was class 'A' wrestling, both of these men left it all in the ring, and Ziggler took so many good shots from Bryan it was almost difficult to watch or understand at what point they were ever going to end this great competition.
This was quite amazing, I have been watching wrestling for over 30 years and I have to say that after watching this match FIVE times over, it is one of the best matches I have seen in a long, long time. Bryan was electric..... And Ziggler was just as good...
WWE sold the buried alive match in a long promo, but we were later to find out that this wasn't actually the main event it was destined to be Randy Orton versus Wade Barrett. The night kicked off with Vicky Guerrero saying as she usually does, "Excuse me!!!" to the usual boos and hisses.
Dolph, looking ripped and strangely 'perfect' physically as he normally does (and slightly over tanned in this writer's opinion) was looking like he meant business and Bryan came down to that stupid music which just does not suit him in this opinion of this writer as I have said before. Then there was a lock-up and we were treated to 10 min of back and forth action up which one point Bryan jumped over Guerrero and flew through the air off the side of the ring and hit Ziggler with a flying knee that really looked like that it would sting of in the morning and also brilliantly Ziggler kicked out quite a few times at the start of the match, then rolled out of the ring to let us all know that he was actually intimidated by Bryan, who acknowledged the crowd support...
Danielson actually got loads of crowd pops on many occasions, in fact we were also treated to "Let's Go Bryan!!" chants which rang through the arena very loudly.
Vicky screamed from ringside throughout the whole match and some of the commentary that King and Michael Cole gave while she was doing it was actually quite funny and for once,Matt Striker was getting on with King and it was all quite hilarious which added a good side to this outstanding competition, and quite a few of the kicks that Bryan delivered to Ziggler looked absolutely eye watering and I am very, very impressed with the way Ziggler carried on throughout this match - his conditioning is amazing,
That flying knee I just can't get over - I must have watched it at least 10 times in slow motion.......
The crowd reactions to some of these amazing athletes's moves just made for an exciting start to Bragging Rights.
Both of these athletes, came up with moves that we haven't seen in WWE before or for a long time..... Dolph Ziggler, using his amateur wrestling background skills, showed off a few simple moves like firemen's carries that were very impressive indeed and quick as you like!!!
Bryan however, had the most of the going and flew across the ring a few times with great style and finesse. This one spot was interesting to say the least.... Bryan went to back suplex Ziggler off the top rope after cleverly evading a supeplex himself, but Ziggler turned it into a splash mid-air and both athletes fell to the mat from at least 12 or 13 foot in the air... Ziggler went for the cover, but Bryan then twisted his hips and turned into a cover of hids own for 2 3/4 count. This was typical of the whole contest, and we were also treated to lots of different submissions, close pinfall combinations, high impact kicks, excitement, jaw breaking shocks and high-speed action that never seem to end!
A great showing by both competitors, and I guarantee that the booking team and the writers of the McMahons will put these two in the ring together even though they are on different shows.
WE HAVE TO SEE THEM AT IT AGAIN!!!!! A definite contender for match of the year....
For wrestling's Last Hope this is N£O signing out - 25/10/2010
WWE Highest Flyers - Disc 1 Review By Shaun Nichols
Ricky Steamboat vs. Brian Pillman ***1/4
Evan Bourne vs. Zack Ryder **1/4
Jimmy Snuka vs. Samu **
Juventud Guerrera, Hector Garza & Lizmark Jr vs. Psychosis, La Parka & Villiano IV ***3/4
Shelton Benjamin vs. Shawn Michaels ****
Ultimo Dragon vs. Rey Mysterio ***3/4
Eddie Guerrero vs. Dean Malenko ****1/4
Extras
Ultimo Dragon vs. Psychosis ***1/4
Chavo Guerrero vs. Jamie Noble *3/4
This is the first of three discs and this release is hosted by Josh Matthews who indicates that this is some kind of unofficial countdown of the best high flyers. Before the disc starts you get the usual trailers which were the Jericho dvd which is excellent, details of a new Cena dvd which looks pretty good if you're a fan and finally the Big Show's film Knucklehead which looks horrendous.
We start with a quick package on Steamboat and then onto his Halloween Havoc 1992 match against Pillman, Pillman had recently turned heel but it was before he joined up with Steve Austin to form the Hollywood Blonds. Match was very well worked and told a very simple and straight forward story. That being that Steamboat was able to outwrestle Pillman, until much to Brian's amusement he had to resort to cheating to take control. What we didn't get is any high flying, surely that would be the point? Steamboat wins coming off the top and pinning Pillman with a sunset flip. Come on guys we could have got the legendary crossbody finish. Also interesting is that Jesse Ventura's commentary was removed so we had Jim Ross going solo.
Next wrestler highlighted is Evan Bourne, the quick 60 second packages are very well done. Shockingly we get a match from Superstars (the WWE C show) against Zack Ryder which was fine for what it was but again very little in high flying. What is clear is that WWE fans really like Bourne as a talent and you have to wonder why the WWE have so far refused to use him to the best of his ability. In the only high flying move of the match Bourne gets the win with the 450. He also demonstrates the move in a skycam segment which sounds interesting but really isn't.
Back to the time machine and we head to 1984 and onto Jimmy Snuka. His match against Samu (called Somoan #3 in this) was very basic especially when Samu was on offence. Come the big comeback, our commentators Gorilla Monsoon & Pat Patterson go crazy putting over Snuka and to be fair the fans react big as well. Again we don't get the finish you would expect as Snuka gets the win with a crossbody and not the Superfly splash as I was expecting.
A fantastic package showcasing WCW Cruiserweights is next, followed by a Lucha Libre 6 man tag from WCW Bash at the Beach 1997. Some fans and the unique WCW commentary team, Mike Tenay apart don't really know what to make of this. Psychology isn't a factor at all and the match follows the usual Mexican formula of the technicos outsmarting the rudos who make a fine job of bumping into one another in a form that the Three Stooges would have enjoyed. We did get a lot of crazy dives and the match is very fast paced and also very enjoyable. The rudos come unstuck when they substitute Villiano V for Villaino IV when Hector Garza hits a standing moonsault for the win.
It's the Shelton Benjamin package next and then we see the match that should have made him a big star which was his match against Shawn Michaels in the Goldrush tournament from Raw in May 2005. Like many Shawn Michaels's matches this told a very clear story which was that in the early stages HBK was being out-wrestled and out-thought by his younger opponent. This works to such an extent that the fans really get into this match and start buying the close falls and teased finishes. Then to top off this really good matches we get arguably the greatest finish to a match seen on Raw. Benjamin attacks with a springboard only for HBK to nail him absolutely perfectly with his superkick for the win. An excellent match.
In the spotlight next is Ultimo Dragon and his J-Crown title defence against Rey Mysterio from World War 3 in 1996. I always enjoy watching Dragon wrestle but never understood why apart from the fact he was Japanese that he was lumbered with Sonny Onoo as his manager. He wrestles such a clean babyface style it doesn't work having a heel manager in his corner. This tells the story of Dragon using his superior mat wrestling to control Mysterio for long periods of time which keeps the crowd a little bit quiet. From the ten minute mark we start to see Rey's big comebacks which are slick reversals and great dives. However it's not enough to stop the champion retaining his titles.
The last wrestler featured on Disc 1 is Eddie Guerrero and of all the matches they could have featured they chose a mat wrestling classic from ECW in 1995 when Guerrero and Malenko were battling over the TV title with Eddie defending in Dean's hometown of Tampa. Fans were surprisingly quiet for a lot of this and I was surprised to see a fan sitting opposite the hard camera wearing a builders hard yellow hat for absolutely no reason. This was a superb wrestling encounter but again you don't really see much high flying, you get the odd dropkick, headscissor takedown and Eddie hits a frog splash for a close two count. There's a good spot where both wrestlers end up on the floor and a fan this being ECW offers Eddie a chair to use which Eddie reacts angrily to, I found this really funny. Malenko gets the win with a roll up after a series of reversals. Eddie takes this well and presents Dean with the TV title before he suckers him a short arm clothesline to keep the feud going. Really good stuff.
Each disc gets extras and Disc 1 we get to enjoy a solid Ultimo Dragon match against Psychosis from Uncensored 1997 which no doubt one match of the night because Uncensored PPV's always tended to be awful. We also see a six minute match featuring Chavo beating Jamie Noble with the frog splash from a Smackdown taping in the UK from 2008 in a typical TV match. There was a funny sign saying that Wenger needs Batista, as what I'm not sure of. There is also a 90 second feature called Flight Turbulence where you see wrestlers taking big bumps such as Brock nearly breaking his neck at Wrestlemania after screwing up a 450, Undertaker falling into a pile of tables, Kurt Angle's classic moonsault miss in the cage against Benoit and the Foley dive off the HITC and onto the commentators table. It finishes with the message that we should not try this at home.
Disc one certainly presents a strange selection of matches and the first three I felt were missed opportunities, the worst of which was the match choice for Evan Bourne which beggars belief. Surely they could have chosen his PPV match against Jericho this year would have been far better. Some matches like Guerrero-Malenko I'm really pleased that they featured but would not describe it as anything remotely built as a high flying wrestling match. However it is still a very entertaining disc overall and I'm looking forward to watching the other two discs which I will also review shortly.
Evan Bourne vs. Zack Ryder **1/4
Jimmy Snuka vs. Samu **
Juventud Guerrera, Hector Garza & Lizmark Jr vs. Psychosis, La Parka & Villiano IV ***3/4
Shelton Benjamin vs. Shawn Michaels ****
Ultimo Dragon vs. Rey Mysterio ***3/4
Eddie Guerrero vs. Dean Malenko ****1/4
Extras
Ultimo Dragon vs. Psychosis ***1/4
Chavo Guerrero vs. Jamie Noble *3/4
This is the first of three discs and this release is hosted by Josh Matthews who indicates that this is some kind of unofficial countdown of the best high flyers. Before the disc starts you get the usual trailers which were the Jericho dvd which is excellent, details of a new Cena dvd which looks pretty good if you're a fan and finally the Big Show's film Knucklehead which looks horrendous.
We start with a quick package on Steamboat and then onto his Halloween Havoc 1992 match against Pillman, Pillman had recently turned heel but it was before he joined up with Steve Austin to form the Hollywood Blonds. Match was very well worked and told a very simple and straight forward story. That being that Steamboat was able to outwrestle Pillman, until much to Brian's amusement he had to resort to cheating to take control. What we didn't get is any high flying, surely that would be the point? Steamboat wins coming off the top and pinning Pillman with a sunset flip. Come on guys we could have got the legendary crossbody finish. Also interesting is that Jesse Ventura's commentary was removed so we had Jim Ross going solo.
Next wrestler highlighted is Evan Bourne, the quick 60 second packages are very well done. Shockingly we get a match from Superstars (the WWE C show) against Zack Ryder which was fine for what it was but again very little in high flying. What is clear is that WWE fans really like Bourne as a talent and you have to wonder why the WWE have so far refused to use him to the best of his ability. In the only high flying move of the match Bourne gets the win with the 450. He also demonstrates the move in a skycam segment which sounds interesting but really isn't.
Back to the time machine and we head to 1984 and onto Jimmy Snuka. His match against Samu (called Somoan #3 in this) was very basic especially when Samu was on offence. Come the big comeback, our commentators Gorilla Monsoon & Pat Patterson go crazy putting over Snuka and to be fair the fans react big as well. Again we don't get the finish you would expect as Snuka gets the win with a crossbody and not the Superfly splash as I was expecting.
A fantastic package showcasing WCW Cruiserweights is next, followed by a Lucha Libre 6 man tag from WCW Bash at the Beach 1997. Some fans and the unique WCW commentary team, Mike Tenay apart don't really know what to make of this. Psychology isn't a factor at all and the match follows the usual Mexican formula of the technicos outsmarting the rudos who make a fine job of bumping into one another in a form that the Three Stooges would have enjoyed. We did get a lot of crazy dives and the match is very fast paced and also very enjoyable. The rudos come unstuck when they substitute Villiano V for Villaino IV when Hector Garza hits a standing moonsault for the win.
It's the Shelton Benjamin package next and then we see the match that should have made him a big star which was his match against Shawn Michaels in the Goldrush tournament from Raw in May 2005. Like many Shawn Michaels's matches this told a very clear story which was that in the early stages HBK was being out-wrestled and out-thought by his younger opponent. This works to such an extent that the fans really get into this match and start buying the close falls and teased finishes. Then to top off this really good matches we get arguably the greatest finish to a match seen on Raw. Benjamin attacks with a springboard only for HBK to nail him absolutely perfectly with his superkick for the win. An excellent match.
In the spotlight next is Ultimo Dragon and his J-Crown title defence against Rey Mysterio from World War 3 in 1996. I always enjoy watching Dragon wrestle but never understood why apart from the fact he was Japanese that he was lumbered with Sonny Onoo as his manager. He wrestles such a clean babyface style it doesn't work having a heel manager in his corner. This tells the story of Dragon using his superior mat wrestling to control Mysterio for long periods of time which keeps the crowd a little bit quiet. From the ten minute mark we start to see Rey's big comebacks which are slick reversals and great dives. However it's not enough to stop the champion retaining his titles.
The last wrestler featured on Disc 1 is Eddie Guerrero and of all the matches they could have featured they chose a mat wrestling classic from ECW in 1995 when Guerrero and Malenko were battling over the TV title with Eddie defending in Dean's hometown of Tampa. Fans were surprisingly quiet for a lot of this and I was surprised to see a fan sitting opposite the hard camera wearing a builders hard yellow hat for absolutely no reason. This was a superb wrestling encounter but again you don't really see much high flying, you get the odd dropkick, headscissor takedown and Eddie hits a frog splash for a close two count. There's a good spot where both wrestlers end up on the floor and a fan this being ECW offers Eddie a chair to use which Eddie reacts angrily to, I found this really funny. Malenko gets the win with a roll up after a series of reversals. Eddie takes this well and presents Dean with the TV title before he suckers him a short arm clothesline to keep the feud going. Really good stuff.
Each disc gets extras and Disc 1 we get to enjoy a solid Ultimo Dragon match against Psychosis from Uncensored 1997 which no doubt one match of the night because Uncensored PPV's always tended to be awful. We also see a six minute match featuring Chavo beating Jamie Noble with the frog splash from a Smackdown taping in the UK from 2008 in a typical TV match. There was a funny sign saying that Wenger needs Batista, as what I'm not sure of. There is also a 90 second feature called Flight Turbulence where you see wrestlers taking big bumps such as Brock nearly breaking his neck at Wrestlemania after screwing up a 450, Undertaker falling into a pile of tables, Kurt Angle's classic moonsault miss in the cage against Benoit and the Foley dive off the HITC and onto the commentators table. It finishes with the message that we should not try this at home.
Disc one certainly presents a strange selection of matches and the first three I felt were missed opportunities, the worst of which was the match choice for Evan Bourne which beggars belief. Surely they could have chosen his PPV match against Jericho this year would have been far better. Some matches like Guerrero-Malenko I'm really pleased that they featured but would not describe it as anything remotely built as a high flying wrestling match. However it is still a very entertaining disc overall and I'm looking forward to watching the other two discs which I will also review shortly.
Tuesday, 19 October 2010
Quick RAW Review For 18/10/10 By N£O
Hello wrestling fans Neo here, again.
Wanted to give you my thoughts and views on Monday night RAW.
The first surprising thing about the Calgary RAW, was usually especially at pay-per-view events the crowd in Canada can be very hostile towards....well everyone.
But I found the new excitement in the Canadian crowd was quite refreshing, as they seem to be behind all the stars who usually get booed in Canada.
We started off with Cole surprisingly having to take a back seat as a Babyface sort of commentator because Theodore Long was coming down to take charge of RAW and proceeded to remove the laptop which gets the e-mails from the general manager.
Big show and then the Smack Down roster from the Bragging Rights team proceeded to come down and take charge of our RAW ring.
As the WWE website report details it, Theodore Long was leading the charge, but really he was just following script, although this was good stuff and I was already hooked.
Obviously, I knew that this was going to happen, leading up to Bragging Rights and with the sale of the Smack Down vs Raw game on the horizon, we wouldn't expect anything less.
But this was a good RAW, in fact In the Words of Mike Mizano this was an Awesome Raw.
Soon after I watched the show, I checked the American forums, and they described this as the invasion, I wouldn't describe it quite as an invasion but it certainly was a takeover.
There was blue everywhere, and the usual plants in the audience with the signs were quite obvious by the way that the production team cut to them almost on cue.
Then Cole, as usual started coming in his pants because that Miz came out to challenge the 7 foot monstor SD Captain, although we found out later he got slightly more than he bargained for.......
RAW's team is eclectic mix of heels / superheroes / Babyface's and super Babyface's and the surprising introduction (and I must admit this writer did not see this coming) Ezekiel Jackson's return who looks pretty impressive not so much in the ring, but physically certainly looks like he could be one of Vince's big dominating superstars!
Big Show then challenged his opposite number (Miz) to a match later on at the end of the show which you just knew was gonna turn into an all-out brawl but Teddy Long had a surprise up his sleeve for us and it was an enjoyable one.
With bragging rights not that far away the whole thing - in fact the whole broadcast was a Blue versus Red showdown and I really don't mind this because I am a big fan of the Smack Down vs RAW console series games, and enjoy them thoroughly with my five-year-old son who has created his own character on 2010 for the Xbox and takes great pride in doing his 619 that he is added to it on my character Daddy Taker!
The show was all about blue versus red so we were subjected to maybe an hour of time fillers, which was still entertaining.
They have now lined Daniel Bryan up seemingly, with the Intercontinental Champion Dolph Ziggler in a match that now has been announced for Bragging Rights officially. Again, repeating myself as I have done about four or five times in this article, obviously the blue versus red matchup is classic for the Bragging Rights pay per view that we are becoming accustomed to, but the added incentive for us is that Daniel Bryan, a very talented and hard-working athlete is being pitched against one of the WWE poster childs and throw Vicky Guerrero into the mix and I'm looking forward to this one very, very, very much. Having watched Bryan live on many occasions in the UK and ROH I would love to see this man go all the way as he is a thoroughly nice guy who has been nothing but informative and nice to me at fan based signing visits I have met him on.
Although, I find it hard to believe that the WWE will let the US champion beat the Intercontinental Champion at a pay-per-view.
Finally after lots of different comedy skits throughout the show, and promos where we see Wade Barrett embarrassing Cena in front of a laughing and joking Nexus team we got the mini main event before the end of the show where Orton and Cena were pitted against Harris and McGillicutty. I am undecided on McGillicutty not because of his heritage, far from it - but because I just don't think he has the charisma or the skill to live up to his family name albeit that he hasn't actually got his family name.... Which is strange?
Husky Harris however is a prospect I am looking forward to seeing developed, if he gets the chance. I like the monica that he is a tank with a Ferrari engine, and I think he has some skills for a big fat kind of Samoan Joe type character which I think behind-the-scenes they are hoping to create maybe down the line....
Anyway Orton and Cena really did make quick work of the two 'rookies', and the actual ending where the Attitude Adjustment and the RKO were delivered was quite entertaining and got a big pops from the crowd.
The only point of interest apart from the well timed choreographed action was the ending after the match when Barrett was clearly upset with Cena and instructed all of his fellow Nexus team members to attack Orton which they did eventually after Orton tried to fight back as his character always would do.
The pack of jackals overpowered Orton and beat him right down and then Barrett strangely ordered Cena to deliver the 'AA' to Orton, (and remember
Cena will be in the corner of Barrett for their championship match at Bragging Rights) but then decided to stop and in some symbolic way then transferred Orton's lifeless carcus to the shoulders of Barrett and Barrett delivered Wasteland which didn't look that impressive and let's be honest Wasteland is about as impressive finishing move as attitude adjustment isn't!!!
Don't really want to tell you about Gold Dust beating Zach Ryder while Ted Dibiase looked on and tried to get his $$$ belt back, although I am slightly happy that finally The Gold One is getting a little bit of recognition from the commentary team as Michael Cole seemed genuinely excited that Dusty Rhodes' son was getting a mini push, although I think the reason he is getting the mini push, is because HE IS Dusty Rhodes' son.
Onto the main event, even before the Miz versus the giant captain versus Capt match could get into action, Teddy Long again stamped his authority by telling us that it was now going to be, (as all the rest of the rosters from both shows were at ringside in a lumberjack position) we should have a battle royale which the Calgary crowd seemed to love and so did I.
The battle royale lasted longer than I thought it would and for a while no-one was eliminated, but one by one the stars who really don't matter in this big face off @ Bragging Rights went out bit by bit, even mysterio, who arguably is one of the biggest pulling stars in the WWE went out well before the end... Edge got ankle locked by Swagger outside the ring and took himself out of camera shot through good 2 min while Big Show and Edge eliminated the Awesome team captain and Sheamus with a couple of good timed spears and clotheslines.
Yes folks, smack down won the battle royale leading up to bragging rights and now holds a 2 nil lead over smack down in the Bragging Rights buildup as they did win last year's pay-per-view.
Who will win on Sunday night/Monday morning...????? This writer cannot wait to find out!
For WRESTLING'S LAST HOPE this is N£O reporting.......peace out - 19/10/2010
Wanted to give you my thoughts and views on Monday night RAW.
The first surprising thing about the Calgary RAW, was usually especially at pay-per-view events the crowd in Canada can be very hostile towards....well everyone.
But I found the new excitement in the Canadian crowd was quite refreshing, as they seem to be behind all the stars who usually get booed in Canada.
We started off with Cole surprisingly having to take a back seat as a Babyface sort of commentator because Theodore Long was coming down to take charge of RAW and proceeded to remove the laptop which gets the e-mails from the general manager.
Big show and then the Smack Down roster from the Bragging Rights team proceeded to come down and take charge of our RAW ring.
As the WWE website report details it, Theodore Long was leading the charge, but really he was just following script, although this was good stuff and I was already hooked.
Obviously, I knew that this was going to happen, leading up to Bragging Rights and with the sale of the Smack Down vs Raw game on the horizon, we wouldn't expect anything less.
But this was a good RAW, in fact In the Words of Mike Mizano this was an Awesome Raw.
Soon after I watched the show, I checked the American forums, and they described this as the invasion, I wouldn't describe it quite as an invasion but it certainly was a takeover.
There was blue everywhere, and the usual plants in the audience with the signs were quite obvious by the way that the production team cut to them almost on cue.
Then Cole, as usual started coming in his pants because that Miz came out to challenge the 7 foot monstor SD Captain, although we found out later he got slightly more than he bargained for.......
RAW's team is eclectic mix of heels / superheroes / Babyface's and super Babyface's and the surprising introduction (and I must admit this writer did not see this coming) Ezekiel Jackson's return who looks pretty impressive not so much in the ring, but physically certainly looks like he could be one of Vince's big dominating superstars!
Big Show then challenged his opposite number (Miz) to a match later on at the end of the show which you just knew was gonna turn into an all-out brawl but Teddy Long had a surprise up his sleeve for us and it was an enjoyable one.
With bragging rights not that far away the whole thing - in fact the whole broadcast was a Blue versus Red showdown and I really don't mind this because I am a big fan of the Smack Down vs RAW console series games, and enjoy them thoroughly with my five-year-old son who has created his own character on 2010 for the Xbox and takes great pride in doing his 619 that he is added to it on my character Daddy Taker!
The show was all about blue versus red so we were subjected to maybe an hour of time fillers, which was still entertaining.
They have now lined Daniel Bryan up seemingly, with the Intercontinental Champion Dolph Ziggler in a match that now has been announced for Bragging Rights officially. Again, repeating myself as I have done about four or five times in this article, obviously the blue versus red matchup is classic for the Bragging Rights pay per view that we are becoming accustomed to, but the added incentive for us is that Daniel Bryan, a very talented and hard-working athlete is being pitched against one of the WWE poster childs and throw Vicky Guerrero into the mix and I'm looking forward to this one very, very, very much. Having watched Bryan live on many occasions in the UK and ROH I would love to see this man go all the way as he is a thoroughly nice guy who has been nothing but informative and nice to me at fan based signing visits I have met him on.
Although, I find it hard to believe that the WWE will let the US champion beat the Intercontinental Champion at a pay-per-view.
Finally after lots of different comedy skits throughout the show, and promos where we see Wade Barrett embarrassing Cena in front of a laughing and joking Nexus team we got the mini main event before the end of the show where Orton and Cena were pitted against Harris and McGillicutty. I am undecided on McGillicutty not because of his heritage, far from it - but because I just don't think he has the charisma or the skill to live up to his family name albeit that he hasn't actually got his family name.... Which is strange?
Husky Harris however is a prospect I am looking forward to seeing developed, if he gets the chance. I like the monica that he is a tank with a Ferrari engine, and I think he has some skills for a big fat kind of Samoan Joe type character which I think behind-the-scenes they are hoping to create maybe down the line....
Anyway Orton and Cena really did make quick work of the two 'rookies', and the actual ending where the Attitude Adjustment and the RKO were delivered was quite entertaining and got a big pops from the crowd.
The only point of interest apart from the well timed choreographed action was the ending after the match when Barrett was clearly upset with Cena and instructed all of his fellow Nexus team members to attack Orton which they did eventually after Orton tried to fight back as his character always would do.
The pack of jackals overpowered Orton and beat him right down and then Barrett strangely ordered Cena to deliver the 'AA' to Orton, (and remember
Cena will be in the corner of Barrett for their championship match at Bragging Rights) but then decided to stop and in some symbolic way then transferred Orton's lifeless carcus to the shoulders of Barrett and Barrett delivered Wasteland which didn't look that impressive and let's be honest Wasteland is about as impressive finishing move as attitude adjustment isn't!!!
Don't really want to tell you about Gold Dust beating Zach Ryder while Ted Dibiase looked on and tried to get his $$$ belt back, although I am slightly happy that finally The Gold One is getting a little bit of recognition from the commentary team as Michael Cole seemed genuinely excited that Dusty Rhodes' son was getting a mini push, although I think the reason he is getting the mini push, is because HE IS Dusty Rhodes' son.
Onto the main event, even before the Miz versus the giant captain versus Capt match could get into action, Teddy Long again stamped his authority by telling us that it was now going to be, (as all the rest of the rosters from both shows were at ringside in a lumberjack position) we should have a battle royale which the Calgary crowd seemed to love and so did I.
The battle royale lasted longer than I thought it would and for a while no-one was eliminated, but one by one the stars who really don't matter in this big face off @ Bragging Rights went out bit by bit, even mysterio, who arguably is one of the biggest pulling stars in the WWE went out well before the end... Edge got ankle locked by Swagger outside the ring and took himself out of camera shot through good 2 min while Big Show and Edge eliminated the Awesome team captain and Sheamus with a couple of good timed spears and clotheslines.
Yes folks, smack down won the battle royale leading up to bragging rights and now holds a 2 nil lead over smack down in the Bragging Rights buildup as they did win last year's pay-per-view.
Who will win on Sunday night/Monday morning...????? This writer cannot wait to find out!
For WRESTLING'S LAST HOPE this is N£O reporting.......peace out - 19/10/2010
Friday, 15 October 2010
Shows You Should See By Shaun Nichols
Shows You Should See: PWG Guerrre Sans Frontieres 4/9/2009
The Cutler Brothers (Brandon & Dustin Cutler) & Charles Mercury vs. Los Luchas (Phoenix Star & Zokre) & Malachi Jackson vs. Johnny Goodtime, Shane Haste & Jermome "LTP" Robinson **3/4
Candice LeRae vs. Christina Von Eerie *1/4
Human Tornado vs. Scott Lost **1/2
Karl Anderson vs. Roderick Strong ***1/4
Naruki Doi vs. Joey Ryan ***
El Generico vs. Shingo Takagi ****1/4
Brian Kendrick & The Young Bucks vs. CIMA & Motor City Machine Guns ****
Chris Hero vs Bryan Danielson ****1/2
This show as been described as the 2009 Indy show of the year, and whether that is accuarate or not is surely up for for debate but what you can't argue with is that this is a really great show. Unlike a lot of independent shows PWG are fully aware of the issues of setting up a card and appreciate that that a card should build upwards.
The card starts with with a 3 way tag match which allows a number of their local wrestlers to feature on this show, there isn't a great deal of psychology in this match but what there is a number of big moves, one after the other. And while you can criticise that they did too much what they did do is set the card up in the best way possible. Fans really did love this move and it was a very entertaining way to kick off one of the best shows of 2009.
Next we have the debut of Christina Van Eeerie in PWG, who is still there by the way. I've seen a number of reports about this match from people that really liked this, fans at the show seemed perfectly happy with this as well by the well. I however have been a fan of AJW in the 1990's and have seen the greatest womens wrestling matches that have ever been seen. As a result I can call this as it was, it wasn't horrendous but had nothing to recommend it. LaRae wins in the end.
Matches continue quick and fast, PWG DVD's don't show the ring entrances which means things flow as well as they can. Scott Last also didn't wait for the ring introductions before attacking Tornado. As long established PWG stars the fans really enjoyed this and so did I for the short time it featured. This was booked as a typical 8 minute match and that's exactly what they delivered.
The first match that was given over 10 minutes was ROH's Roderick Strong against the equally stiff Karl Anderson, for those not aware of Karl Anderson and what he can bring to the table, the easy comparison is to Strong's ROH feud with Erick Stevens. Full of stiff kicks, forearms and chops the match did successfully build to its conclusion and was completely different from anything we had seen so far.
The first Dragon Gate star of the evening was Naruki Doi battling the 'Sleazy One' and while it was an absolutely fine encounter, as a big Doi fan I did expect more from this match. Fans were very appreciative from what they saw but the matches that were yet to come would surely illustrate what was to follow.
What didn't disappoint any wrestling fans was Shingo facing the greatest babyface of the independent scene: El Generico, fans were sad when they saw Shingo without his mullet. This was quickly forgotten especially when Generico dived from the ringside area through the ropes to the other side of the ring and Shingo caught him and dumped him. Generico is so awesome as the babyface that you can't help feel for him that the fans were struggling with their desire to cheer Shingo. This saw numerous big moves and ridiculous close falls until Shingo finally put Generico with a second Made in Japan (Last Falconry)
Speaking of dream matches was the semi main event and a welcome return for CIMA & Machine Guns, throughout the early minutes of this the babyfaces dominated every stage of the encounter. Rather than switching to an extended period of having the heels get the heat on one of their opponents, they decided to trade the advantage one way and then the other. The finale saw all six man hitting all manner of big moves and making the save to the extent that I thought I was watching classic NJPW from the late 1990's.
The main event delivers on a completely different level, the challenger Danielson is wrestling in his last PWG match before he left for the WWE, the champion Hero has held the title over 12 months. Fans completely fell in love with this match. Story is worked that the champ Hero is trying to prove that he rather than Danielson is the best in the world. Chris Hero is that good the fans are doing duelling chants saying that Hero sucks followed by Let's go Hero chants. You'll also see the largest number of elbows thrown by Hero than probably in other match. Fans end up trying to distract the ref when Danielson looks like he will be counted out. The main event goes a very enjoyable 40 minutes plus to end one of the best indy shows you could see in 2009 or any other year.
PWG realised that they should build this card up, by the time we see Doi vs. Ryan we have only just got past the one hour mark. They realise that they have three fantastic matches to end the show and that they want want those matches to be the important matches of the show. I've often wrote about shows struggling with pacing the show and as a result the show doesn't come off as well as it should have done PWG completely avoids this. All three matches deliver great matches, they are also delivered in three completely different ways and as a result all three matches come away as memorable in their own right. In short this is one show that you should go out of your way to see.
The Cutler Brothers (Brandon & Dustin Cutler) & Charles Mercury vs. Los Luchas (Phoenix Star & Zokre) & Malachi Jackson vs. Johnny Goodtime, Shane Haste & Jermome "LTP" Robinson **3/4
Candice LeRae vs. Christina Von Eerie *1/4
Human Tornado vs. Scott Lost **1/2
Karl Anderson vs. Roderick Strong ***1/4
Naruki Doi vs. Joey Ryan ***
El Generico vs. Shingo Takagi ****1/4
Brian Kendrick & The Young Bucks vs. CIMA & Motor City Machine Guns ****
Chris Hero vs Bryan Danielson ****1/2
This show as been described as the 2009 Indy show of the year, and whether that is accuarate or not is surely up for for debate but what you can't argue with is that this is a really great show. Unlike a lot of independent shows PWG are fully aware of the issues of setting up a card and appreciate that that a card should build upwards.
The card starts with with a 3 way tag match which allows a number of their local wrestlers to feature on this show, there isn't a great deal of psychology in this match but what there is a number of big moves, one after the other. And while you can criticise that they did too much what they did do is set the card up in the best way possible. Fans really did love this move and it was a very entertaining way to kick off one of the best shows of 2009.
Next we have the debut of Christina Van Eeerie in PWG, who is still there by the way. I've seen a number of reports about this match from people that really liked this, fans at the show seemed perfectly happy with this as well by the well. I however have been a fan of AJW in the 1990's and have seen the greatest womens wrestling matches that have ever been seen. As a result I can call this as it was, it wasn't horrendous but had nothing to recommend it. LaRae wins in the end.
Matches continue quick and fast, PWG DVD's don't show the ring entrances which means things flow as well as they can. Scott Last also didn't wait for the ring introductions before attacking Tornado. As long established PWG stars the fans really enjoyed this and so did I for the short time it featured. This was booked as a typical 8 minute match and that's exactly what they delivered.
The first match that was given over 10 minutes was ROH's Roderick Strong against the equally stiff Karl Anderson, for those not aware of Karl Anderson and what he can bring to the table, the easy comparison is to Strong's ROH feud with Erick Stevens. Full of stiff kicks, forearms and chops the match did successfully build to its conclusion and was completely different from anything we had seen so far.
The first Dragon Gate star of the evening was Naruki Doi battling the 'Sleazy One' and while it was an absolutely fine encounter, as a big Doi fan I did expect more from this match. Fans were very appreciative from what they saw but the matches that were yet to come would surely illustrate what was to follow.
What didn't disappoint any wrestling fans was Shingo facing the greatest babyface of the independent scene: El Generico, fans were sad when they saw Shingo without his mullet. This was quickly forgotten especially when Generico dived from the ringside area through the ropes to the other side of the ring and Shingo caught him and dumped him. Generico is so awesome as the babyface that you can't help feel for him that the fans were struggling with their desire to cheer Shingo. This saw numerous big moves and ridiculous close falls until Shingo finally put Generico with a second Made in Japan (Last Falconry)
Speaking of dream matches was the semi main event and a welcome return for CIMA & Machine Guns, throughout the early minutes of this the babyfaces dominated every stage of the encounter. Rather than switching to an extended period of having the heels get the heat on one of their opponents, they decided to trade the advantage one way and then the other. The finale saw all six man hitting all manner of big moves and making the save to the extent that I thought I was watching classic NJPW from the late 1990's.
The main event delivers on a completely different level, the challenger Danielson is wrestling in his last PWG match before he left for the WWE, the champion Hero has held the title over 12 months. Fans completely fell in love with this match. Story is worked that the champ Hero is trying to prove that he rather than Danielson is the best in the world. Chris Hero is that good the fans are doing duelling chants saying that Hero sucks followed by Let's go Hero chants. You'll also see the largest number of elbows thrown by Hero than probably in other match. Fans end up trying to distract the ref when Danielson looks like he will be counted out. The main event goes a very enjoyable 40 minutes plus to end one of the best indy shows you could see in 2009 or any other year.
PWG realised that they should build this card up, by the time we see Doi vs. Ryan we have only just got past the one hour mark. They realise that they have three fantastic matches to end the show and that they want want those matches to be the important matches of the show. I've often wrote about shows struggling with pacing the show and as a result the show doesn't come off as well as it should have done PWG completely avoids this. All three matches deliver great matches, they are also delivered in three completely different ways and as a result all three matches come away as memorable in their own right. In short this is one show that you should go out of your way to see.
Bound For Confusion.... Captain Obvious looks at TNA's latest PPV offering
After Bound For Glory, many of the TNA fans were left asking one simple question......"What the hell?"
After weeks and weeks of being promised the arrival of "THEY", fans were hoping for something that would be groundbreaking and change the landscape of wrestling. Could it be a group of new performers or the return of someone old? What was this group going to do that could hopefully spark a new excitement in the company and hopefully propel them more towards the number one spot and help slow this painful downward spiral they have been on since the arrival of the Hogan-Bischoff regime. Instead we were granted the "privilege" of seeing the next installment of a wannabe NWO style group.
TNA has more talent on their roster than any other professional wrestling company in the world. They have a great blend of in-ring workers and guys who can cut promos. They have the best collection of female wrestlers in the world also. Yet, time after time, we as fans are let down with the fake promises of something different and innovative. We don't want the same old recycled storyline of 1996 and the redesigns of groups that are better left to memories of days gone by. We want to see some of the younger stars get a chance to shine on their own accord and not be left to swallow the crumbs of the guys who should have been off screen years ago.
If you want to see what TNA should be all about, then just go back and watch the very first match at BFG. The Motor City Machine Guns and Generation Me showed a glimpse of what tag team wrestling should be all about. They had a solid storyline leading into the show. The did great mic work leading up to it further selling the storyline. Then they went out and put on an amazing match to finalize the angle. They were innovative with their moves and that alone was almost worth the entire PPV price. The rest of the show was solid with old and young performers alike putting on solid matches. Even EV2.0 (the worst stable name since The Oddities) even worked a solid match despite their age limitations.
Then came the main debacle; the triple threat match between Jeff Hardy, Kurt Angle, and Mr. Anderson. Why this match had to be the debut of "They" still baffles me. Hardy and Angle had done back to back great matches and adding in the ever improving Mr. Anderson would have been a great match. But what we got was the mind numbingly slow return of Hollywood Hogan and crew in tow. Then we had Jeff Hardy turn his back on his legions of tween age fans and attacked Angle and Anderson. The only upside to this is with Bischoff and Hogan as the mouthpieces for this group, I won't have to listen to Jeff cut a promo for a while.
The confusion now comes due to the fact that we already have one heel stable with faction that TNA has spent the better part of 6 months building up. Now, are they relegated to mid-card status to make way for "They" (OK, "They" is officially the worst faction name ever). Do guys like AJ Styles and Matt Morgan get pushed back again for The Double Jeffs. Or do we see another rehashed storyline and watch these groups merge into one giant conglomerate reminiscent of the NWO when it had like 400 people in it. And who do we have to stand up to this Wal-Mart heel group. DO we get the return of rafter hiding Sting? Does Mr. Anderson become the savior of TNA? Does EV 2.0 pull out another series of matches when most of them are so broken down they are duct taped and glued together just to make it through a show? Or is now the time to make Samoa Joe the franchise of this company and put him on a one man crusade to vanquish the evil that is "They"? Only time will tell, but for TNA, time may be running out.
"Captain Obvious" Sam Dent
You can find the Captain on facebook at Facebook.com/TheCaptainObvious and be sure to check out his wrestling company New Era Wrestling at wheelhouseradio.activeboard.com
After weeks and weeks of being promised the arrival of "THEY", fans were hoping for something that would be groundbreaking and change the landscape of wrestling. Could it be a group of new performers or the return of someone old? What was this group going to do that could hopefully spark a new excitement in the company and hopefully propel them more towards the number one spot and help slow this painful downward spiral they have been on since the arrival of the Hogan-Bischoff regime. Instead we were granted the "privilege" of seeing the next installment of a wannabe NWO style group.
TNA has more talent on their roster than any other professional wrestling company in the world. They have a great blend of in-ring workers and guys who can cut promos. They have the best collection of female wrestlers in the world also. Yet, time after time, we as fans are let down with the fake promises of something different and innovative. We don't want the same old recycled storyline of 1996 and the redesigns of groups that are better left to memories of days gone by. We want to see some of the younger stars get a chance to shine on their own accord and not be left to swallow the crumbs of the guys who should have been off screen years ago.
If you want to see what TNA should be all about, then just go back and watch the very first match at BFG. The Motor City Machine Guns and Generation Me showed a glimpse of what tag team wrestling should be all about. They had a solid storyline leading into the show. The did great mic work leading up to it further selling the storyline. Then they went out and put on an amazing match to finalize the angle. They were innovative with their moves and that alone was almost worth the entire PPV price. The rest of the show was solid with old and young performers alike putting on solid matches. Even EV2.0 (the worst stable name since The Oddities) even worked a solid match despite their age limitations.
Then came the main debacle; the triple threat match between Jeff Hardy, Kurt Angle, and Mr. Anderson. Why this match had to be the debut of "They" still baffles me. Hardy and Angle had done back to back great matches and adding in the ever improving Mr. Anderson would have been a great match. But what we got was the mind numbingly slow return of Hollywood Hogan and crew in tow. Then we had Jeff Hardy turn his back on his legions of tween age fans and attacked Angle and Anderson. The only upside to this is with Bischoff and Hogan as the mouthpieces for this group, I won't have to listen to Jeff cut a promo for a while.
The confusion now comes due to the fact that we already have one heel stable with faction that TNA has spent the better part of 6 months building up. Now, are they relegated to mid-card status to make way for "They" (OK, "They" is officially the worst faction name ever). Do guys like AJ Styles and Matt Morgan get pushed back again for The Double Jeffs. Or do we see another rehashed storyline and watch these groups merge into one giant conglomerate reminiscent of the NWO when it had like 400 people in it. And who do we have to stand up to this Wal-Mart heel group. DO we get the return of rafter hiding Sting? Does Mr. Anderson become the savior of TNA? Does EV 2.0 pull out another series of matches when most of them are so broken down they are duct taped and glued together just to make it through a show? Or is now the time to make Samoa Joe the franchise of this company and put him on a one man crusade to vanquish the evil that is "They"? Only time will tell, but for TNA, time may be running out.
"Captain Obvious" Sam Dent
You can find the Captain on facebook at Facebook.com/TheCaptainObvious and be sure to check out his wrestling company New Era Wrestling at wheelhouseradio.activeboard.com
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