Instant Feedback: Da Muddaship!

I have to say, tonight's RAW was pretty good. It's not because I have a sick obsession with impersonating Dusty Rhodes either (although I do), but things clicked better tonight. It wasn't a complete show; the women's BR was awful, drizzling shits, and we're still being subjected to what is in contention for the worst feud of all-time, Chavo vs. Hornswoggle. Plus, I was a bit iffy on a couple of the DX references. But then again, the fourth wall hasn't existed since Vince Russo tore it down in 1998. While I'd like for them not to piss on the ashes so blatantly, well, you can't force the genie back into the bottle I suppose. Plus, the SantinoMaster stuff was awesome, and anything that gets Arn Anderson even 30 seconds of face time on TV is okay in my book.

What really brought out the quality in the show though was the focus on wrestling and letting the wrestlers be the ones to entertain. Even in the DX skits, it was three active wrestlers and two retired legends riffing on their roles in the business and just being organic. It was the most entertaining I've seen Trips or HBK since they've reunited. That's the DX I want to see, not the two sad middle-aged men pretending they're 16 again.

The wrestling action, BR and the Hornswoggle match aside, was decent to good. I thought the match of the night was Mickie James against Beth Phoenix. Not surprising, as these two women have amazing in-ring chemistry with each other. They're by far the best two women wrestlers in the company. It's a shame the crowd was dead for it. I don't know the reason; perhaps it's because it followed a hot US Championship match, maybe they don't care about Beth anymore (which would suck for a Glamazon mark such as myself), but it didn't seem to respond to anything until the finish.

The other thing that impressed me was the finish to the Big Show/Henry match. It's like they read my post about protection from last week. That finish did more to build tension for the upcoming match than any run-in could have. It kept Henry strong by having Show needing to expose the turnbuckle, but it put over Big Show's KTFO punch by having him floor Henry with it, even after the shenanigans.

Also, the beatdown at the end was really good. Honestly, I don't know where they're going with the tension in Legacy, but it has the potential to be something good. I don't know. I don't feel like myself. Maybe it's the lack of sleep talking, but I'm not filled to the brim with bile over RAW this week. I'm not getting my hopes up, because they've followed up good RAWs with shit the next week plenty of times. Inconsistency is the name of the game. However, I'll take this week in stride and enjoy it while the memory lasts.

The Best Moves of All-Time: Shining Wizard

Let's get the week started off with one of the all-time classic signature strikes in puroresu history. Keiji Mutoh is one of Japan's most iconic performers, still going strong today at age 46. His career could be divided into two distinct parts, the first as the face-painted, mist-spewing Great Muta and the second, the considerably bare-faced Mutoh. Either way, he's left an indelible mark on the wrestling industry, both overseas and here in America, and part of that legacy includes the Shining Wizard. Here it is being performed on two men, one of them being Mitsuharu Misawa:

I'm not the only one who liked the MVP promo from SummerSlam

Jim Ross loved it as well. Here's what he had to say:

Loved it. It was reality based and it was a memorized fictional account of an imaginary scenario. Wish we could hear more of the same and if we did MVP might become a big star.

Not sure if he means MVP hasn't been delivering before that or whether hasn't been given the chance, but I totally agree that more of the same from Mr. Porter would help in getting him over. Of course, I can't think of a person who's had a better year on the stick than MVP except for Austin Aries. He's cut at least three or four different promos that have knocked my socks off.

Anyway, it's good to hear that someone in the company sees things the way that I do as well. JR may not have the clout he once had, and his time with the company may be ticking away (his contract is up soon, and there are people who think that he ain't gonna renew), but still, Ross has to have some influence left. Hopefully, more than a few people in the 'E see things his way, because MVP is a legit star in the making.

Friday Five: Ted DiBiase

A little different path this time around, a whole Friday Five dedicated to one wrestler, the Million Dollar Man himself:

1. What was your favorite Ted DiBiase match?

2. Why do you think DiBiase never held the WWF World Championship?

3. Aside from John Cena, what wrestler today would have had the best feud with 1987 Ted DiBiase?

4. Is this DiBiase's year for the WWE HOF?

5. Do you think Ted Jr. will surpass his father?

Quick Hits: Electric Boogaloo.... hits

Two huge, huge items in the QH for this edition.

- Rey Mysterio suspended for Wellness. Holy mother-effing shit, that's a huge, huge suspension, the biggest since Jeff Hardy was sidelined last year in the middle of the then-biggest push of his life. For them to suspend a sitting Champion, especially one pushed as hard as Mysterio has been since winning the title, is a stark contrast to the way some other companies operate. I wonder how they're going to handle switching the title over. The logical choice would be to have Dolph Ziggler beat him, but who knows at this point. That's not really the important part of the story.

- Quack's second and final Chikara appearance is set, and while I was partially right with my hunch, I was partially wrong too. September 13th, Nashua, NH, Hiding in Plain Sight



Even more awesome than I could have ever imagined. My God, I wish I could be there now.

Quick Hits: Escape from the Planet of Quick Hits

- Very interesting Tweet from Chikara's Twitter page today. It seems that the Final Countdown Tour will not be limited to just ROH, PWG and DragonGate USA now. The questions now become "When?", "Where?", "Against whom?" and "How fast will SmartMark Video get the order from Holzerman for the show it takes place?" As for the third question, the "very special" part makes the opponent seem almost academic: Mike Quackenbush. However, other people have floated the idea of perhaps Eddie Kingston or Jorge Rivera, both of which would have their own name caché to them. All three would be primo matches though, although the one I'd love to see most is Dragon/Quack.

- Courtesy of F4W Online, it seems Nick Dinsmore getting canned (and yes, Dinsmore got canned, the rumor of Eugene being canned by Dinsmore staying on was debunked) was because he showed up overweight. Part of me wants to say it was his own fault, but at the same time, part of me is sort of raging right now Dinsmore didn't look like a total fatass in his one RAW appearance. I don't know, it's not like Dinsmore was going to be a major player on camera anyway. Still, I find it utterly interesting that he's good friends with Randy Orton and that Orton's pull got the 'E to give him a second chance.

- Remember when Vince McMahon called the Cirque de Soliel troup "gay" during the opening segment of RAW? You didn't? Well, GLAAD did and they're not pleased. Honestly, I hope Vince doesn't apologize for it because not everything deserves an apology. However, he is trying to rebrand the company into something more "kid-friendly", and I don't think stirring up conversation about homosexuality and its merits and demerits is something that should be considered kid faire. Neither is a oiled-up dancing fat guy, but that's just one man's opinion.

The Dusty Finish

The Dusty Finish. It is usually defined as a screwjob finish preceded by a referee bump, but it has come to represent any kind of screwy finish. As you can tell by the name, it's inexorably linked to da Dweem himself, Dusty Rhodes, but Vince Russo has come to use it as a crutch himself as well. It raises the ire of most Internet wrestling fans, and while wrestling's most recent spike happened during the era when the schmozz finish was at its most prominent, some argue that it's partly what's keeping casuals from flocking back.

Personally, I don't like the Dusty finish all that much, as it can ruin a great wrestling match that deserves a clean finish for hte effort both guys put into it. For examples, please refer to the 4/20 Jericho/Cena match and the Orton/MVP match on the first RAW he appeared on. In shorter matches it's better, but that's like saying getting kicked in the head is preferable to being booted in the nutsac.

Still, there are times when the Dusty finish is applicable, mainly in a feud between two guys in very disparate positions on the card, like the recent Miz/Cena feud. It should usually be employed in cases where the two guys shouldn't be booked together in the first place, for guys that both need protection. It should be sparingly used, maybe once a month AT THE VERY MOST in any given promotion, and it should only be used in a situation where it will make a loss mean something.

Yes, a "loss meaning something". It seems to be clichéd to say that because by definition every loss does mean something - it means you have one in the L column. Beyond that superficiality, there's a difference between John Cena getting a pinfall victory in a tag match over Cody Rhodes and, say, Jack Swagger getting a clean pinfall victory over Cena somewhere down the line in 12-to-18 months. The former loss is insignificant, but the latter one is a star-building moment and something not insignificant for a guy like Cena who doesn't and quite frankly shouldn't be losing a whole lot.

So how would a Dusty finish make losing a match seem important? Well, let's start with an example of the complete opposite. Monday Night RAW, JeriShow taking on MVP and Mark Henry. MVP was down on the mat, and Floyd Mayweather gave him brass knuckles to use against the heel team behind the ref's back. So basically, they pushed the face team, the team that the fans are supposed to get behind in the new "kid-friendly" era of the WWE as cheaters, in a first-time meeting with another team.

How is it done right? Well, rarely. I can't think of a concrete example, just a theoretical one going back to Miz and Cena, where Miz wins a match under dubious conditions and holds it over Cena until the inevitable rematch where Cena wins clean. Still, there are better ways to book a feud like that without messing with the integrity of the matches.

The sad reality of it all is that we've been conditioned to think that the screwjob finish and the swerve and all the other extraenous bullshit is going to happen. Think you're above it because you're "smart" and not a lemming? Think again. It happens to us all. The other day, I was watching Smackdown's main event, the six-man tag where the Hardy Boys reunited, and all I could think was that Matt was just going to waffle Jeff after the match was over. I had to stop and say to myself "Russo isn't booking this crap anymore, Russo isn't booking this crap anymore" and everything turned out okay, but still, the thought runs through my head every time I see a match between two guys who aren't programmed against each other, or every time I see a situation where someone could turn on the other guy, I think that the worst will happen.

All of this stems from the idea that everyone needs to be protected. That idea is ludicrous. Even from the crowd that screams for midcarders to be elevated at a much brisker pace than the WWE is doing it, the individuals among that camp will have their own opinions as to who has worth and who doesn't, and only by sheer chance does any given list from any given person agree with the one that Vince and Co. have in their hands at any given moment. Regardless of whom we think should be protected, there are those who shouldn't get that luxury all the time. Yet, that's what the Dusty finish tries to do, especially when used excessively. When you try to protect everyone, you protect no one. No wins will be seen as legitimate, so who cares about matches each week? No one advances, no one gets put over, it's a cycle of meh.

The art of real protection seems to be lost anymore, or at least only given to a scant few individuals, some of whom need it but some of whom really don't. It involves count-outs, disqualifications, tag team matches of varying participants and time-limit draws among others (The last item coming from a guy who booed every time a time limit was mentioned at Young Lions Cup Night Three might seem funny, but hey, it worked in Rocky, didn't it?). It involves a modicum of creativity in booking without resorting to shenanigans in the leadership positions. It involves thinking things through instead of just sending out Heel X to hit Face Y while the ref isn't looking.

Granted, the WWE has been using some of those methods of creative match booking. There have been a lot of count-outs lately, most of them being intentional because the guy facing Mark Henry just doesn't want to take it anymore, and they've been enforcing the castigo excesivo rule a lot (although using it as a crutch sometimes). Still, the amount of blatant Dusty finishes is a bit disturbing. Don't even get me started on TNA either, since they have the guy the finish would be renamed after booking things right now.

Honestly, I could live with it if it happened rarely and if it happened in a way that made sense and enhanced the story being told rather than just for no reason whatsoever, but truth be told, if I never saw a Dusty finish again, I'd die a happy man.

Claudio Castagnoli Is Full of Awesome and Win

If the reports are true and Bryan Danielson going to the WWE is only the first in a more extensive talent raid by the 'E of ROH, then they'd be stupid not to take Double C, the Very European Superstar, Claudio Castagnoli with one of their next moves. He's a great wrestler, but that part can only get you so far in being noticed by Vince and his fellows at Titan Towers. What should get him a job with the company, though, is his charisma and mic ability. Just watch this excerpt from the latest ROH Video Wire:



Yes, there is a verbal flub in there, but this guy's material and delivery are golden. The best is when he tells Tyler Black to go back to Iowa and cut himself. Teehee. I can say, I have a budding mancrush going here.

From the Archives: Albert... err, Giant Bernard vs. Hirooki Goto

I tried looking for a good match to put in here from KoppoKick's suggestions, but every search came up like three Dr. Eggmans/Robotniks in the slot machine in Casino Night Zone in Sonic 2. While I wait for someone to post any kind of decent footage on the streaming video sites for those matches, here's something to tide you guys over. I post at the Chikara Fan forums, and they have a Running Match of the Year candidate thread going on over there. Poster Drittsekk's list contained a good smattering of puroresu, one such match featuring Giant Bernard, aka Albert from WWF/E fame. It's the final from the New Japan Cup that happened 3/22 of this year.

Just from watching the entrances and the introductions, Goto looks like the kind of guy who carries himself like a superstar, like a guy who can crossover to America and star without having to learn a word of English. Bernard has this look on his face like he's ready to murder someone, that someone being Goto. I can already sense a good match coming up.

I don't want to say too much about this one. I was a bit verbose about the previous install, but that's because more people have seen that match than not, and I wanted to put some commentary on it. This one, I think it'll speak for itself. I wouldn't put it on my shortlist for MOTY candidates, but it's quality, and it shows a side of Giant Bernard that he didn't get to show as Albert. Granted, the styles are different, and GB is probably a lot more comfortable working overseas, but it's just interesting to see the contrast in styles between work in two different feds by the same guy.

Part 1:


Part 2:


Part 3:

Instant Feedback: RAW Is Strangely Entrancing

First off, thanks to everyone who helped kick off the LiveBlog experiment. Sorry for not being on the ball for that, and I was the reason for the lag on some of the comments being posted. Especially sorry to commenter Paulie, who missed out completely and probably signed off after I got around to okaying his comment. I will do better next time! As for next time, I'm not sure when that will be... perhaps the DragonGate USA PPV that's taping in Chicago? Probably before then too, perhaps for the LeBron James RAW, which according to Da Meltz, is all but booked.

Anyway, maybe it was the company in the LiveBlog, but I had fun with RAW tonight even with how bad it came off. The beginning was self-serving, and really, anything involving DX to me seemed unfunny. Still, two things really stood out to me as improvements. One was that they're really making a push to make the Tag Team Championships main-event caliber titles. It started at the Shaq RAW, where Cryme Tyme headlined RAW and then segued into a primo build towards a challenge at the PPV. Now, you've got Mark Henry and MVP actively looking to challenge for the Championships. While I can't say I'm a fan of how it went down, it's still nice to see the belts treated as such. There really aren't a lot of face teams outside of Cryme Tyme, so it'll be hard to get actual tag teams mixed into the fray, but they've ramped up the credibility build for Legacy and the Hart Dynasty as well as CT.

Second is what seems to be the end of the worst feud of the year, Hornswoggle and Chavo Guerrero. As a bonus, it looks like Chavo is going to get the honor of making Evan Bourne look good. Honestly, if I had to see Chavo make someone look good, 11 times out of 10 I'd rather it be Bourne. Let's face it, Chavo's worth right now is as jobber-to-the-up-and-comers, and while his skills have diminished over the years, he can still help accentuate Bourne's strengths in the ring, moreso than shortish matches against Jack Swagger ever would. Even if it's just a prolonged series of Superstars matches, it's okay in my book.

I've become resigned to the fact that RAW will forever be the spankrag for Vince McMahon to try his variety show bullshit. There will always be good wrestling on it, and that's a tradeoff I'm willing to make. Maybe that's how I should view every RAW from now on.

(PS, isn't it funny that on the same day that the LA Times runs an article on how family friendly the company is becoming that they open the show with a fat guy in a thong dancing around? Yeah, thought so.)

RAW Is LiveBlog

Testing this. Feel free to join in!

Quick Hits: Special 200th Post Extravaganza Quick Hits!

- According to a source very close to him, Bryan Danielson would have been the guy that Brian Kendrick would have settled on as a tag partner had he not been future endeavored. He also said that William Regal wants to work with Danielson and Johnny Ace made the decision after getting rave reports from three of the WWE's scouts. Wow, I didn't know they had scouts anymore! Danielson has also said in the past that he didn't want to do a developmental deal and would sign only if he could go straight to TV. Given Danielson's ring-readiness, I don't see how that could be an issue.

- Also according to several news outlets, the fan who ran in and tried to choke out the ref last night wasn't a deranged fan, but WWE developmental talent Brett DiBiase. Yes, from that DiBiase family. It could have had me fooled, since the announcers all went deathly silent when he ran in, and John Cena sold it like an idiot fan. Either they weren't in on it, or it was a sublime sell job by all parties involved. Either way, it's still the only part of that match that was enjoyable to me.

- The locally announced main event for tonight's RAW is Cena and DX against Legacy, which makes sense. Thanks to F4W Online for that nugget.

Instant Feedback: SummerFest a Hit

It's not often I get the chance to spring for a PPV event, WWE or otherwise. I almost didn't order SummerFestSlam because I was pissed off at the way RAW ended, but I told myself that there were other matches on the card that were going to deliver, and that really, Cena/Orton wouldn't be a bad match anyway. Well, I'm glad I ordered, but I was wrong about the Cena/Orton match. It was overbooked and awful. All the false finishes and restarts just felt tacked on, and if it weren't for the idiot fan running in, I wouldn't have enjoyed the match at all.

Aside from that, the Kane/Khali match, the Hollywood ass-kissing and the criminally short amount of time given to the only ECW match on the card, SummerSlam was well worth the money shelled out for it. Let's start from the top, Rey Mysterio and Dolph Ziggler. They participated in what I called a MOTY-candidate match on Smackdown, the six-man with Cryme Tyme and JeriShow, and then days later, they went and topped it. The match brought the house down and had me marking out at several different occasions, mostly due to Ziggler. He had a sick dropkick counter to a springboard into the ring and a nice stiff running Rocker Dropper on Mysterio, although the rana ReyRey used to get the finish was pretty sweet too. Mysterio isn't the king of the ranas for nothing.

MVP and Swagger went on next, and while the match was shortish, it was good. It was the win that MVP needed to take the next step, but the biggest starmaking point for this was pre-match, when Porter cut the promo of his life. Seriously, I felt chills hearing him cut that. Is there a reason why he's still paying dues and not in a program with Orton right now?

The tag matches were good to great. The Unified Tag Title match was notable mainly for the revamped theme for the Champs and for the finish, where Show KTFO'd JTG and allowed Jericho to get the pin. Good, standard fare. Meanwhile, the DX/Legacy match was an absolute show-stealer, competing with Ziggler/Mysterio for match of the night. It almost had to be though, as DX's unfunny and tired antics were putting a slight damper on things. Their entrance was overboard, but hey, I guess the crowd loved it. Still, I have to give it up to Triple H here. Even though his team got the win, he and Michaels made Legacy look like a million bucks, like a true threat. The match showed that, and I think when Legacy makes their run at the tag titles, people will take them more seriously now.

Finally, onto the show closer... wow. That was what a TLC match should be. It was insane spot after sick bump after awesome move for a straight 20 minutes. Punk and Hardy brought their A-games, and although I wasn't surprised at the big Swanton off the ladder through the ECW announce table, I was still awed by it. I liked how it segued into the finish as well, with Hardy in his last WWE match for the time being fighting out of the stretcher and making one last gasp. If they had ended the PPV with Punk standing victorious over a fallen Hardy, it would have been awesome, but the way they reintroduced the Undertaker in that spot was phenomenal. You had to send the crowd home happy, and that's how you went about doing it especially if your two heel Champions were going to retain.

This felt like a big show. Even though the build was lacking in some departments, I felt like the WWE delivered on giving the paying audience a satisfying viewing experience, and even though it didn't have the fake pomp that they give to WrestleMania, it felt like a huge event. I felt the way I felt watching it back in 1992, when WWF PPVs had that mystique around them, which is a feat given the way the game has changed over that period of 17 years. I'll give it three-and-a-half stars out of five, and I think if you didn't order it this time around that it's definitely worth buying on either the replay or on DVD.

Holy Crap, Danielson to the WWE

SummerSlam review forthcoming, but holy crap, this is huge news, straight from the horse's mouth. Bryan Danielson is on his way to the WWE. Wow, big move, although there are several caveats. If Danielson is allowed to keep his name, his persona and mannerisms and is allowed to work in a style comparable to his indie style, albeit toned down, it might work. Danielson might be a little white-bread for the WWE audience, but he does have a sense of charisma where he can get over in such a way like Bret Hart did at first.

IF they give him a stupid name and generic him up, then it might not have a chance. If they change him up and give him a good name and persona like they did for Matt "Evan Bourne" Sydal, it could be good. I could see him coming in masked and working under the name "American Dragon". Either way, it's a coup for the WWE and a huge, huge loss for indie wrestling. Hopefully, he makes good like his brethern Sydal and CM Punk have been for the last couple of years.

Quickie SummerSlam Preview

I'm on my way to go watch SummerSlam, but here's a quick preview about what I think will happen. For one, I think it's a foregone conclusion that CM Punk is walking out of there with the World Heavyweight Championship. Jeff Hardy has handed in his notice and he'll be outta here to sit and think about butterflies or pop pills or whatever he's taking time off to do. If Punk doesn't win tonight, he'll probably win on a cheapie at the next Smackdown tapings, and that's only if they're planning on having Orton retain and want one of the World Title-level matches to end on a high note.

I can't really forecast the WWE Championship match because I think Randy Orton and John Cena both have a fair shot at winning. I don't have clairvoyance into how the WWE's booking plans are being laid out for the next PPV, but I can definitely see Orton/HBK as the main for the next one, which is a good enough WWE title match to carry either Punk/Morrison or Punk/Matt Hardy on the Smackdown side. That is assuming that Undertaker doesn't challenge Punk right away on coming back or if his comeback gets delayed further.

I totally expect DX to win after all the heat Legacy has gotten in the build, but I'm okay with it as long as it's not a glorified squash match. The IC and Tag titles are hard to telegraph, since they really haven't been following the "whoever gets last heat on TV is jobbing at the PPV" formula all the time. If I were booking, I'd have the heels walk out with titles in both scenarios, especially in the IC level, since they need another top-level face and Mysterio can fill it. I don't think they're strapping Regal tonight either, but that's just my hunch. As for Swagger/MVP, I really don't care who wins, since this could be the match of the night.

AS for Khali/Kane... well, I'm sure I'll have to pee at some point.

That Match Ruled!

The reason why I keep watching WWE programming even though RAW can be infuriating week in and week out is that all six hours of WWE programming have the potential to have PPV-quality wrestling. RAW had a really fun Miz/Bourne match and a pretty good US Title match between Carlito and Kofi Kingston. ECW always has good wrestling, even when Tyler Reks is in there slopping it up. Although Smackdown has Khali and Kane on the roster, they have top-notch wrestling all the time as well. When you have a roster with the Hardy Boys, CM Punk, John Morrison, Mike Knox, Charlie Haas, Finlay, the Hart Dynasty, Cryme Tyme, Rey Mysterio, Dolph Ziggler, Undertaker and of course, Chris Jericho, it's hard to have consistently bad wrestling on Friday nights.

This week's edition was no exception. The main event featuring the newly reunited Hardys and Morrison taking on Punk and the Harts was a really good go-home main event to help promote SummerSlam. Knox/Finlay was a fun brawl as well, although I really hate how the WWE is leaning on the castigo excesivo/5-count DQ finish anymore. However, the real show-stealer was the show opener. Jericho, Ziggler and The Big Show teamed up to take on Mysterio and Cryme Tyme, a match that previewed two big-time SummerSlam title matches.

I don't know what it was about this match that made it so good to me. Maybe it was the amazing tag team synergy showed by not only Cryme Tyme between themselves but with ReyRey too. Maybe it was Big Show cockily kicking JTG while he was down. Maybe it was the closing sequence where Show KTFO'd Mysterio and Ziggler picked the bones. Maybe it was a combination of everything. Either way, it was a match that belonged on a PPV and that the viewing audience at home was treated to for free.

For someone who doesn't have the money to throw around to buy every PPV, it's a treat to see that caliber of wrestling on a weekly basis. It's not new, either. Jericho/Cena in London, MVP/Orton on RAW, any number of the Jericho/Mysterio matches on Friday nights this summer and even going back pre-WrestleMania, Primo/Miz and the second Swagger/Christian match on ECW were all matches that felt like they were ripped from PPV telecasts and put on free TV. Even if the out-of-match shenanigans are sub-par, I can't fault a company that does in-ring action as well as the WWE does.

Of course, no one's going to confuse the WWE for NJPW, Pro Wrestling NOAH or even PWG or ROH. The style is toned down a lot, even if the German suplex and even moves like the Ranhei are trickling into matches nowadays. However, where head-dropping and death-defying moves are lacking, the company more than makes up for in supreme pacing, psychology and fluidity and cleanness. These guys are among the best in the world at what they do, and TNA could take a lesson on how to let their world-class athletes show what they're made of, both on free TV and on PPV.

AJ Styles *shakes head*

I honestly don't know who is booking AJ Styles, who has been booking or writing for him or who has come up with this prolonged character arc for him to be this low-confidence sadsack, but whoever it is needs to be dragged out into a back alley and shot. Okay, okay, maybe not that severe, but what I'm seeing every time I watch Impact with the one homegrown guy they have who could and should be at the top of the card is just painful to watch.

I know that not all wrestlers should have the same character, and it could be construed as refreshing that Styles is exhibiting some humility, but there's a fine line between "some humility" and "totally submarining your own character". This is the same guy who said he wasn't good enough to lead Team TNA and deferred to Triple J, Jeff Jarrett. Now, he comes out and says that he never quit in his life, and then proceeds to quit wrestling? And the only reason he pulls back is because Sting has to talk him off the ledge? I guess all that's left is for Mick Foley to exert dominion over him.

That being said, I'm glad that Sting is willing to pass the torch here, but I wish that they'd do it some other way, a way that puts both Styles and Sting over in the process throughout the process, not one that makes Styles look like a sniveling baby. He deserves better. Right now, he's the only guy who has all the tools to carry a company as the top star in TNA aside from Kurt Angle.

And add that to the fact that now, they're pushing Matt Morgan into a main event program against Angle, and it's enough to make your head spin. Granted, they're in the right direction. If Sting really does retire and pass the torch of the big-time main event face to AJ Styles, it's worth it. If they pull the collective triggers on Eric Young, Christopher Daniels, Hernandez and Samoa Joe to join Angle in the main event ranks, it'll be worth sitting through Morgan not follow through on clotheslines, telegraphing near falls and lunking his way through matches.

Let's hope they seize the opportunity instead of putting guys like Styles in situations where they seem like whiners instead of winners.

Friday Five: Wrestling DVDs

In honor of the Rise and Fall of WCW DVD coming out on Tuesday, a Friday Five about wrestling DVDs!

1. Which fed's DVDs do you enjoy the most?

2. If you buy WWE DVDs, what attracts you most to them, the subject matter, the documentary portion or the matches?

3. Do you the WWE telegraph Randy Savage going into the WWE Hall of Fame by releasing his DVD set this year?

4. Pick one DVD that you would recommend to someone who's never bought a wrestling DVD before.

5. Which wrestler who doesn't have a DVD devoted to them out now deserves one the most?

Ten Wrestlers - An Exercise

Here's your assignment:

Today, TNA, WWE, ROH and every independant wrestling company in North America goes bankrupt and has to disband. You've got a shit-ton of cash and you want to start your own wrestling company. USA is happy to give you RAW's old time slot, and you have your choice of whom you want booking. So now, you need wrestlers to fill the roster.

Who are the first ten guys that you'd go out of your way to sign?

Overall Philosophy: I'm building a fed that emphasizes athleticism, good wrestling psychology and storytelling inside the ring. Size doesn't matter; I want to try and obliterate the WWE-image that only the biggest, most statuesque guys could be wrestling superstars. Talent counts more than body type.

I also want guys who can entertain with and without the mic outside the ring, both in serious and comedic storylines and spots. I want the wrestlers to be the show, not GMs, not celebrities, not announcers, but the wrestlers. These are the ten that I think will give me that edge right out of the gate.

Here are mine:

John Cena - There's no denying that the guy is one of the biggest stars in wrestling today. A lot of my problems with him stem from poor booking, not ability. He's an ideal anchor for my new wrestling company.

Chris Jericho - C'mon, you didn't think I'd start a wrestling company and not hire him? He's the most awesome all-around performer this decade, and he'd have been a lock for Wrestler of the Aughts if he didn't take time off. He has great chemistry with Cena as a top heel.

CM Punk - After three years of waiting as a generic but charismatic babyface, Punk's busted out as the hottest heel on any major brand or promotion right now. Of course he's the perfect fit for the fed.

AJ Styles - Free from the storylines and writing that make him look like a chump, I plan to make him look like a Champ. He's got the raw athleticism and good knowledge of how to work to become a top-level main event face. He also has good cocky charisma that can be amped up to arrogant to play a heel if needed or refined into swagger to help him play to the crowd as a face.

Austin Aries - As if I didn't have enough mouthy top-level heels, Aries comes aboard for the near future. If you've ever heard this guy cut a promo, you'd know why. He's the perfect guy to be the Napoleonic cult-like leader for the big heel stable.

Mike Knox - Most of hte tall monsters that Vince has brought in over the years have been dreadful. Knox is one of the exceptions. He has the monster credibility, plus a knack for cutting quirky, creepy promos and a suprisingly agile and diverse working style.

Edge - This is probably my diciest pick with his injury history, but when he's healthy, Edge can bring the goods as a smarmy, opportunistic heel douchebag. The upside is that he can play the face role too, albeit the loner role suits him best if he's being cheered.

Christian - I always thought he was the more charismatic of the two when he and Edge teamed together. He's a natural face and has been carrying ECW crowds ever since he came back. He'd definitely be in the mix in my new company.

Jack SWAGGAH~! - He's a big part of the future of wrestling. He has everything - look, charisma, ability. His lisp is noticeable, but not earth-shatteringly bad. I'll take him and run with him for years and years to come.

El Generico - The last one on the list is a guy who connects with every crowd I see him wrestle. For a guy who doesn't promo at all in English, he naturally draws people to cheer for him with his expressive taunts and gestures and his high-energy style of work. Consider him my investment for the future on the face side.

From the Archives: The Rock (c) vs. Triple H, WWF Intercontinental Title Ladder Match

This one's probably not gonna be up much longer because of copyright stuff, so get a gander quickly. This one has been chosen for a couple of reasons. One, SummerSlam is right around the corner, and why not prepare by viewing one of the most highly regarded matches from the event of all-time? Two, back when I asked for requests, commenter "I'm Not Your Buddy, Pal" wanted to see some of the WWF's midcard scene, specifically the Intercontinental and Hardcore Championships. I've actually never seen this match before now, so it was a good eye opener.

It starts off with the DX theme being performed live for Triple H's entrance. Not a bad performance at all. I always liked the original DX theme. For as much as I hate Trips, since forming DX, he's always had great theme songs. Rock comes out with Mark Henry. If you would have told me back then that Mark Henry would develop into one of the best wrestlers in the WWE today, I'd have probably slapped you in the face and said you were crazy. My, how perceptions change.

Match starts out very quickly, which seemed to be indicative of the Russo booking. Teased finishers and signature moves are out in the open within the first couple of minutes. Rock tosses Trips out of the ring and goes for the ladder, but Trips intercepts him. The process is repeated vice versa with interspersed brawling. It's funny how symmetrical the WWF/E's booking can be in big matches. It's much more noticeable towards the end, especially with telegraphing blocked or kicked-out-of finishers, but in Part 1, it's there. You have Rocky going for the ladder and Trips decking him from behind, and then a few minutes later, the process is reversed almost to a tee.

A few tasty nuggets from Part 1 include a much younger-sounding Jim Ross shilling the Superstar Line and the ubiquitous-in-1998 "Rocky sucks!" chant. Oh you fans you, you didn't know what you had with The Great One, who for my money became the best wrestler the company had by 2000. That's right, better than Angle, better than Benoit, better than Austin, better than Guerrero. Better than Jericho.

Part 1 ends with Trips taking a mid-level bump into the ladder (mid-level as far as ladder matches go anyway) and we're into the meat of the match which actually has a lot of Rock on offense. It's amazing how good he looks, how crisp his shots and how fluid his motions are. The way he's working Trips' injured leg is amazing. I always thought that the "Rocky can't wrestle" wrap was because he was sloppy, but it doesn't show here. Just goes to show that some people don't appreciate a match with fewer than 5 "moves" in it.

I have to say that Trips is bumping and selling like a champ here too. He goes out of his way to make it look believable, and some of the stuff he took, especially the kneebreaker on the ladder at around 5:10 of Part 2, was made by his reactions. I've always said that I didn't begrudge Trips a main event spot period, because even without banging Steph, I thought he had the potential to make it.

Alright, into the home stretch we come, and it's time for the big spots. Baseball slide with the ladder from Trips to Rock. People's Elbow on the ladder. Rock Bottom. Pedigree. All the big spots. It's shaping up to be a great ending, but predictably with the Russo era, there has to be shenanigans with the finish. Henry throws powder in Trips' eyes, and then Chyna low-blowing Rock off the ladder leads directly to the finish. I know it was the style of the time, but I still don't care for it. I mean, it's not as bad as the Jericho/Cena finish from the 4/20 RAW, where Edge caused the blatant DQ, but it still gives a little bit of the wrestling blue balls. I mean, the story of the match is that Triple H fought valiantly and intelligently against the arrogant blue-chip Champion. I would have liked a clean finish there.

Still, this holds up as a great match. There's minimal interference before the finish. As stated before, Rock on offense and Trips bumping and selling make this match. Trips shows off what makes him the Cerebral Assassin better than any amount of overselling that JR could do for him ever would, and JR and King call a good match. Finally, it harkens back to a time when the Intercontinental Championship and the midcard actually meant something. Even in the days of Russo Crash-TVing everything up, you could tell that he at least cared about what happened sub the main event.

Moral of the story, it ain't perfect, but what is? Fantastic match. Enjoy it now, because it may not be here for that much longer!

Part 1:


Part 2:


Part 3:

Kurt Angle's Side of the Story

Here it is

There are two sides to every story. After hearing this, maybe the vitriol against Angle was too harsh. Do I believe every word of it? No. Do I still think he's batshit crazy? Yes. However, do I think my reaction and the Internet's reaction to him was a bit out of line? Yes, if only because Trenesha Biggers seems to be just as at fault as Angle is in the situation at the very least. Wrestling is a fucked-up business, people. It still doesn't change the fact that Angle is a Benoit waiting to happen, and above anything else, the judgment of characters he associates himself with should be scrutinized.

Pictures from YLC!

162 in all from Nights 2 and 3

These pics were taken by friend of the blog, Zia-saurus Hiltey. She got some really, really cool shots. Take a look. Here's one of my favorites. It's UltraMantis Black staring down the gift box delivered to him after taking the fall against Team FIST:

ROH, PWG, RVD... OMG?

Big indie news

A little slow on the uptake for this, my bad. Better late than never though...

ROH is invading Los Angeles for the WrestleReunion event. They'll be having a joint show with PWG, and Rob Van Dam will be on the card as well. If you're an indie wrestling fan, this is all huge news. I'll have more on this as it develops, but damn, I'm jealous of all those fans out there in Cali.

The Best Moves of All-Time: Steiner Screwdriver

Back before Scott Steiner took enough steroids to to turn a fieldmouse into a wolverine, he was one of the elite workers, tag or otherwise, in the world. He had excellent mobility, good crispness and stiffness in his movements and an all-American look that most babyfaces in the late '80s/early '90s would have killed for. While he and his brother Rick made most of their notoriety in the States in WCW and the WWF, winning titles and feuding memorably with the likes of Money, Inc. and the Freebirds, they traveled to Japan more than a few times as well, which is where this gem comes from. The Steiner Screwdriver, a suplex lift into a sitout tombstone piledriver. While the Frankensteiner was the move that put Scott on the map stateside, this is probably his ultimate move. Watch in awe:

Quick Hits: Son of Quick Hits

- Per F4W Online, MVP vs. Jack Swagger has been added to SummerSlam. Hey, I guess it wasn't such a pipe dream after all, eh? Now maybe if I wish even harder, they'll add Sheamus/Goldust as well.

- A correction from the Don West post last night, his removal from the broadcast booth was less a demotion and more a "promotion". Whatever. Taz replaced him at the TV tapings. Maybe he can make Mike Tenay seem more palatable like he did for Michael Cole.

- Per Dot Net, TNA and Spike finalized a contract extension for three years. Good for them. If Spike is happy with the slop they've been putting out for the last few months, imagine how ecstatic they'll be when TNA turns the corner.

Oh Yeah, Don West Got Demoted

Via Dot Net via the site that shall never be directly linked here

Don West out of the TNA broadcast booth, now in charge of shilling merch. Good move depending on who replaces him. Taz and Kevin Nash are good choices, although the latter seems unlikely given that he just won the Legends Championship.

Instant Feedback: I Know How This Show Sucked This Summer

Let's get the positives out of the way, as there were few. Freddie Prinze, Jr. wasn't atrocious. In fact, he was good, way better than Piven at putting over the product and showing that he genuinely cared about it, and he stayed out of the way for the most part, which was great. When he was on, he was effective. The first two matches they had were pretty good too. And while they telegraphed a DX win on Sunday with that beatdown, it was still awesome.

That being said, it was an awful show, as awful a show as you could put on as a go-home show before a PPV. Let's see, an almost complete replay of the awful DX reunion comedy skit from last week? Check. A Pretty Butterfly Title Match that ended on a whiffed kick and weak elbow from two wrestlers who are capable of far better? Check. The unreal and inexplicable continuation of the Hornswoggle/Chavo feud that should have been for the live crowd only from jump, replete with a movie reference almost 20years too late? Check. A lumberjack tag match short two lumberjacks? Check. Cena standing tall again with the announcers acting utterly surprised that he was standing tall? Check. Ooh, but I forgot, they were unpredictable and will have "water cooler talk" with Macaulay Culkin appearing. Wow, I'm just so impressed.

Okay, the last one before the sarcastic jab at Culkin is defensible, at least the first part. Cena and Orton standing in defiant glare of each other is a perfectly fine way to end the show. However, I think that I found out the main reason why I hate the Cena-as-Superman stuff so much. It's really not so much that Cena is booked as Superman. I can take that if it's balanced out by competition elsewhere. Again, Cena's a good wrestler and an ambassador for the sport, so he gets a lot of leeway here. However, it's that the announcers always act so utterly shocked that he overcomes the odds week in and week out. I mean, come on now, fucking wise up. Don't act so surprised when "he beats the odds" because he's been doing it for a few years now. Maybe the odds were never against him. Maybe acknowledge that he's one of the best the industry has ever seen and that the fans love him because they recognize his greatness, not because they want to see him play underdog.

Honestly, if I were on the fence about the PPV, I probably wouldn't order. If I didn't know the PPV was on Sunday, I might still not know since they did very little in the way of really driving the show home outside of the beatdown from Legacy to DX. Luckily for them, I'm more in the favor of ordering it, with Punk/Hardy, Ziggler/Mysterio, Christian/Regal and the Tag Title match on the card, with the prospect of Swagger/MVP and Sheamus/Goldust (a pipe dream I know for both) possibly being added as well. Still though, as far as go-home shows, this screamed more "go home and don't watch our product" instead of "go-home towards the PPV".

And they can't blame it on Prinze either. Maybe on top of luring in the "casuals" that they so desperately desire with these guest hosts, they should think about putting on a good show to keep people watching week after week.

Follow up on Jerry Lynn

Straight from the horse's mouth... err, feed?

Jerry Lynn suffered a stinger on a spike piledriver from Kenny King and Rhett Titus. Ouch. Not good. Hopefully, Lynn isn't out for too long, since he's become a big part of ROH, but neck health isn't something to play around with.

Dot Net: RAW Guest Host News!

Both news items courtesy of Dot Net

Potential future hosts
Steph talks about how long the gimmick will last

If they plan on going through this until WM, then they do need to have a long list. However, some of those names are just beyond fucking hopeless. Ashlee Simpson? Pete Wentz? The Osbournes? Rachael Ray? Teriyaki Jesus on a stick, those are horrible names. Again, some of those names would work in potentially bringing in viewers in the target demographics, like LeBron James and Danny DeVito (presumably as a package deal with the rest of The Gang from It's Always Sunny), and some of them might work on an ironic level as long as they come in as if to make fun of themselves (Al Sharpton, looking in your direction).

I still think they should use the big-time celebrities for landmark shows (3 hour or no commercial breaks) or for go-home shows before PPVs and intersperse the rest with WWE HoFers (DUSTY RHODES! FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, GET THE DWEEM ON THERE!) and other people who have history with the fed, like Floyd Mayweather, Lawerence Taylor, Mike Tyson and yes, even Pete Rose.

Quick Hits

- Fire Ant didn't go to the hospital yesterday and doesn't appear to have any major injuries from his nasty bump onto the guardrail yesterday (which BENT THE FREAKING GUARDRAIL I CAN'T STRESS THIS ENOUGH). This is great news for Chikara, who already lost Lince Dorado for a month due to injury. (thanks to Zia-saurus for that tip)

- Although many news outlets are reporting Mike Adamle will be the guest host for next week's RAW, there are rumblings that Floyd Mayweather will host the show from Vegas next week. In my opinion, Mayweather is the far better option. Speaking of guest hosts, I can only wonder how long it'll be before Lawrence Taylor is hosting too. Not that he'd be a bad choice actually, certainly better than ZZ Top or Sgt. Slaughter in Canada.

- ETA: While Eugene was future endeavored this past week, apparently, the guy who plays him, Nick Dinsmore, hasn't. He's still with the company. I guess that's a way to kill off a character. Whether Dinsmore will remain backstage as a trainer or be repackaged as an on-air wrestler/personality will remain to be seen, but I'm glad to see them dissociating him from that character.

- According to ROH on HDNet's Twitter/Facebook feed, Jerry Lynn was injured at TV tapings this weekend. It didn't specify severity or type, but I'll keep you posted.

- Speaking of ROH, their HDNet show moves to Monday tonight at 8 PM EDT. I won't be able to see it (must switch to FiOS NOW~!), but if it's from one of the tapings I attended two months ago, it'll be a good view.

Way to Show 'Em, TNA!

Twenty-four hours after he was arrested for stalking his current (or is it ex-?) girlfriend, Trenesha Biggers, and for driving with a suspended license, Kurt Angle was punished by TNA by being allowed to keep his TNA World Championship. Yeah, sorry if it's hard for me to hide my sarcasm, but that's a bigger joke than anything this sorry excuse for a wrestling company has done in the last year, whether it be having one broken down old geezer defeat another broken down old geezer for the World Title while several able bodied young potential franchise players were running around going all emo about how they couldn't live up to Jeff Jarrett's standards or threatening people with knives after painting dicks on their faces. A bigger joke than all the "__________ on a Pole" matches they've run. A bigger joke than the 2349823th rehash of the nWo storyline, even more watered down than the last rehash.

Any other company would have at the very least taken the title off of him. You could have argued that it was a lose-lose-lose situation, given that his challengers were one of the aforementioned broken down old geezers (Sting) and possibly the worst wrestler in the company (Matt Morgan), but at this point, I'd have taken either one of them over a potential Benoit situation by doing nothing with Angle. TNA shows that they clearly don't care about their wrestlers, because if they did, they would have taken Angle off the show and mandated rehab, therapy, counseling, SOMETHING that would curb this at-risk behavior that he's been showing his entire fucking career.

From here on in, it will be very difficult to take this company seriously. Wrestling isn't an industry notorious for loving care shown to its performers. However, at least the WWE has a Wellness Program in place (a paper tiger you could argue, but still more than TNA does) and actually disciplines its wrestlers for fucking up legally. Until TNA imitates the WWE in this regard instead of just for the in-ring product, it'll remain a joke.

Chikara: Young Lions Cup VII Night Three

Wow.

That's the short one-word review. Now, the more verbose one :) With ROH, Dragon Gate USA, JAPW, CZW and a host of other indie feds that populate the area and show their wares in the Philadelphia area, to say Chikara is the best at what they do, or at the very least most entertaining, among them is high praise. High praise that is deserved. After two nights in Easton for the prelims of the tournament, the fed came down to The Arena for the finals in a jam-packed card featuring a lot of awesome tag team action on the undercard, as well as a mini-estrellas match and the latest in the blood-feud saga of Claudio Castagnioli and Eddie Kingston. I went to the event with faithful blog reader Sean McLaughlin, and we took our seats right next to the entrance from the back.

Before the show, Lince Dorado was sitting at the merch table. I asked him if he was wrestling tonight, and it turns out he shredded a ligament in his knee from the night before taking a Spanish Fly from Arik Cannon. Tough injury. Lince was a real cool guy and a great conversation. I hope he gets better soon.

Louden Noxious kicked the event off and we were on our way. Trios action started the night with Dasher Hatfield (the newest alter ego of Create-a-Wrestler), Yellow Dog and Player Uno taking on KC "Cloudy" Day, Tim Donst and Hydra. This was an extremely fun opener that had me rolling at several points, mostly due to the antics of Yellow Dog and Hatfield. YD had a dog mask on and a tail and came to the ring with a chew toy, which was used for great comic effect. Hatfield, an old-timey baseball gimmick, played up the baseball schtick perfectly. They got the win, and afterwards, Donst went apeshit and turned heel, suplexing Hydra, Cloudy and YD.

Next match was the Northstar Express taking on Brodie Lee and Grizzly Redwood. Fun tag match, the NSE was really over, although I wasn't all that much into them. The Roughnecks got the win off a Doomsday Device looking move where instead of a lariat, Redwood hits a Polish hammer to the chest.

Next up is a four-way elimination tag team match. Halcon Guerrero and Chiva VI, the Colony (Soldier and Green Ants), Delirious and UltraMantis Black and Team FIST (Gran Akuma and Icarus) were the competitors. Chiva was clearly the most over guy in the match and the most fun as well. He wears a goat mask and is a huge soccer fan, bringing a ball to the ring with him. At one point, he goaded ref Bryce Remsburg into yellow-carding Icarus and then lining up for a free kick (which he turned into an enzugiri). Sadly, the Mexicans were the first team out, followed by the Colony. Two rudo teams to finish the match, who'da thunk it? Anyway, Team FIST got the win on a rollup. After the match, UMB and Delirious got delivered a white gift box from some guy coming from the entrance from the street. It had a note, which UMB didn't read, but it caused him to head for the hills. Must have been in conjunction with the Eye of Tyr angle they're running right now.

After that was our last match of the first half of the show, the mini-estrella match between Pierrothito and Mascarita Dorada. Pierrothito is probably the world's tallest midget, because he was as tall or a little taller than Grizzly Redwood, and he was really thick too. Dorada was more of what you think of when you think Mexican midget wrestler. He was dressed up like the white Power Ranger. Fun, fun match. Pierrothito played up the Puerto Rican heritage angle, which one other guy in the crowd connected with. Other than him, everyone in the audience was solidly behind Dorada. A lot of arm drags, a lot of flying, a lot of cool submissions, and Dorada won with cool pinning combo.

Intermission was next. I bought myself a Jigsaw mask. Here's the photographic evidence:



It's a bit snug, but it fits. Ophidian, still recuperating from his broken arm, was slithering about the arena during this time with his Campeon de Parajas title belt in tow. I saw him and a young girl exchanging hisses and jeers respectively, so I went over to him and said "Hey, it's not nice to hiss at a young girl like that". He replied "JIGSAW! What happened to you?" That statement had both me and Sean rolling. Lince and Ophidian weren't the only guys available throughout the night. That's one of the things I love about Chikara. The roster is so accessible and friendly, rudo or tecnico.

First match back from break is the tag match, Frightmare and luchador Turbo taking on Mike Quackenbush and Jorge Rivera. I'll tell you what, Rivera is spry for his age. He was more than keeping up with his counterparts in there, who were on point as well. Spot of the match was Quack holding up Turbo for Skayde to hit him, only for Turbo to duck and hit Quack. Rivera profusely apologized afterwards to our amusement. Quack got the duke after hitting Turbo with two variants of the Quackendriver.

Next match, Claudio Castagnioli vs. Eddie Kingston in their long-running feud. Zia-saurus Hiltey, who was there snapping pictures ringside, very cool gig, said that this was the match she was least looking forward to because they're usually boring together. I shrugged it off, but she was right. The beginning and end of the match were both slow, although there was some good action in the middle, really good high-impact moves and some slick exchanges. I can't help but thinking that the end was Botchamania worthy though. Kingston hit Claudio with the Backfist to the Future (URAKEN~!) and a Saitoplex and Claudio rolled out of the ring, where he was being counted out. At around fifteen, Kingston went for a tope on Claudio but fanned on it, and Claudio rolled back into the ring at nineteen. Normally, I thought that the count would be broken and reset for Kingston, but I guess I was wrong, because ref Nick Papageorgio continued the count and counted Kingston out after one second outside the ring.

As was the case with the DGUSA card one month prior, the second-to-last tag match stole the show. This time, it was a three-way Trios match, or a Golden Triangle Triple Threat match. Team one consisted of Fire Ant, Hallowicked and Arik Cannon. Team two was Chuck Taylor, Stigma and Vin Gerard. Team three was the Future Is Now stable, or Jigsaw, Equinox and Helios. This was a frantic and frenetic match with spots going a mile a minute. At one point, six of the nine competitors were locked up in a mass submission hold-o-rama, and towards the end it became Finisher-mania. The funniest part of the match, though, was when everyone started trading bodyslams in the beginning, and Taylor stopped short from one slam and walked into one from referee Bryce Remsburg! After that, all nine competitors cornered the senior ref as most of us in the crowd were laughing our asses off.

There was a scary spot about midway through the match. Fire Ant went for a tope con hilo into a pile of guys on the outside, but he overshot and landed flush on the guardrail. Normally, you don't think anything of those kinds of spots since they happen with the frequency, but when Ant got up, the guardrail was bent.

I repeat, he bent the fucking guardrail. Ouch.

Ant did take a few more bumps and finished the match, but he looked worse for the wear. I hope he's okay. No need to lose another wrestler to injury in the same weekend. Match ended with a SUPAAAAH FISHERMAN-BUSTAAAAAHH~! from Hallowicked on Stigma for the pin. After the match, the two tecnico teams were celebrating in the ring, and they invited Taylor and the two members of the UnStable to come back in. They did, and the tecnicos offered their hands, but the rudo team pulled back at the last second much to the dismay of the crowd.

Last match was for the 2009-10 Young Lions Cup, and it was another pretty good match between Colin Delaney (who's main evented BOTH Chikara events I've seen live... bastard!) and Player Dos. Delaney had a lion's share of the offense, peppering in a lot of WWE spots, including the Five Knuckle Shuffle and the Twist of Fate, complete with his own sarcastic deliveries. Dos got some offense near the end, and in another Botchamania moment, he flubbed a split-legged moonsault badly. It was so bad, the crowd that was solidly behind him started booing him. Still, Dos won, and when he did, the arena exploded in congratulation.

In closing, it was a pretty good show. The wrestlers are super-engaging, the comedy was excellent and so was the wrestling. If you're in the New England area, New Hampshire and West Springfield, MA, go see them when they come up. It is the best value in wrestling, the most bang for your buck.

Haha

In honor of Kurt Angle getting arrested yesterday.



Courtesy of poster Fitz27 of the Chikara fan boards

Joe, Daniels and AJ

Once upon a time, TNA had promise and future. Their X-Division prominently featured three guys who were indie darlings blossoming before our eyes into legitimate wrestling superstars. Samoa Joe, Christopher Daniels and AJ Styles were making that division hot, almost as hot as the World Title division. In fact, it had gotten to the point where a three-way match involving those three had headlined a PPV. For a company with an identity crisis, these were three guys who could forge an image for TNA to last well into the next decade.

Then, something happened. Who knows if it was Jeff Jarrett who lost faith, or whether bringing in Kurt Angle put stars in everybody's eyes and blinded the brass from the stars they had budding and turned them to the fading lights of guys like Sting, Booker T and Kevin Nash. And so it continued until Jarrett started to shack up with Angle's ex-wife while they were in the middle of a custody dispute.

So, with Jarrett, his cronies and his good ol' boys club mentality out the window, there's a fresh start on the horizon for the company. In the last set of tapings, they seem to have been making good on that. Hernandez, the British Invasion, Eric Young and *shudder* Matt Morgan are all getting good faith pushes and getting a big part of the spotlight in addition to the established stars. But what about Daniels, Joe and AJ?

On the most previous Impact, the go-home show before Hard Justice, Daniels was nowhere to be seen. He's being shunted into the insane X-Division clusterfuck match. Joe wasn't on the program until the end of the show, when the Main Event Mafia came out to congratulate Morgan for winning the title shot. In the middle of the show, they had Taz cut a promo about how Joe disappointed him and let him and himself down. He talked about how Joe was going to turn a "negative into a positive".

Meanwhile, AJ was up against Morgan AJ kept telling Sting how he keeps letting people down and how he's going to make it up to him by beating Morgan in the third and deciding match in their best-of-three series. Then, you have the announcers putting over how many matches AJ's been losing and about how if he lost, it'd be a confidence shatterer. Well, AJ lost, and lost clean.

For three talented and charismatic guys, to see how far they've all fallen in the esteem of management is a tragedy. They're passed off in kayfabe as afterthoughts, put in current programs based on them losing and being inadequate while other guys get protected. It's a damn shame, especially in the case of AJ, who is a potential franchise guy. While I say on this blog all the time that heat is elastic, some guys can just be so ruined that it would take a LOOOT of rehab to get a guy back to a level where fans are hot for him. If not in TNA though, where should the guys go?

The WWE is the knee-jerk answer, but with the state of things over there, it might not be the best choice for all of them. The WWE has a size fetish, so Daniels is out right away unless he'd want to work cruiser matches and end up like Jamie Noble. Same with AJ, since he's even smaller than CM Punk. Samoa Joe has said he didn't want to work the stereotypical Samoan gimmick, and so far, aside from The Rock, they've given that to every Samoan who's stepped foot in the ring for them at some point. Plus, they'll have their names changed, because God forbid the WWE push someone who isn't their own "product".

Still though, there would be hope if they went there. They're pushing Evan Bourne despite his lack of size, and both Daniels can bring the excitement. Joe is big enough and with rep from the right people (Punk, Bourne, etc.), maybe he can be able to come in as is instead of being shunted into a lame gimmick.

ROH is another option, since all three are alumni and now have TV. The fed is looking to move up, and names that are both familiar to their audiences and to the audiences they're looking to court would be good for them. However, their big problem would be money. TNA may not be on par with the WWE, but they do bring in a lot more revenue than a fledgling company like ROH would.

Of course, when speculating on all of this, we have to realize one thing. The way we see wrestlers isn't necessarily the way they see themselves. While we have a way of looking at things hypercritically, a lot of times, they're happy with the paycheck and the chance to go out and prove that they deserve a push. Do AJ, Daniels and Joe have input in their angles and characters? Maybe they do and maybe they don't. Are they happy with the money, schedule and retention of their name and character elements? Maybe, maybe not.

However, as a fan, it's hard to sit here and watch them waste away when they could be doing so much more and entertaining much more than they are with their limitations. Yes, it's great that Hernandez and Young are getting pushes (not Morgan... Morgan fucking sucks), but it feels like they gave up on those guys that made shivers go up everyone's spines when they were coming up in the X-Division. I want to see them shine, we all do, but where can they do it? Hopefully, TNA sees the error and when whoever comes in to book comes in, they start by doing right by AJ Styles, Samoa Joe and Christopher Daniels.

Kurt Angle Arrested

From F4W Online via ABC/WPXI

Oh Kurt, you stupid son of a bitch you. The sad thing is, I still have $10 that he keeps the strap tomorrow night at Hard Justice.

Friday Five: Masks!

In honor of Chikara's Young Lions Cup this weekend, this Friday Five is all about masked wrestlers and masks!

1. What is/was your favorite mask design?

2. Does being a full-time masked wrestler work for someone who isn't a luchador in this day and age?

3. How do you feel about Rey Mysterio re-donning the mask coming to the WWE after losing it in WCW?

4. What unmasked wrestler today would benefit most from putting a mask on and reinventing himself?

5. Who is/are your favorite masked wrestler(s) of all-time?

Source: Jarrett Officially Out

Courtesy of Marcus Cygy, a former TNA insider

Huge news. I can't see Jarrett coming back to work for TNA now that he doesn't own it, has been seen as "management" by everyone in the back and will have so many political rivals that he won't know who to trust. Unless either he or Vince McMahon swallow their respective prides, Jarrett's done when it comes to major American wrestling. All of it over a co-worker's ex-wife. It boggles the mind, people.

From the Archives: Your Requests

Is there a match you wanted to see featured on From the Archives? Is there something that you wanted me to see and wanted to share with the world? An unknown wrestler or fed? Or do you want to see more of your favorite wrestler? Well, here's your chance. I'm opening up the request line for everyone to submit what they want to see in the future out of FtA.

It's basically a free form user feedback form. You tell me what you want to see, be it more of a certain style, a specific fed, a certain wrestler, a distinct time period, whatever. If you want to see more Ric Flair, I'll do more Ric Flair. If you want me to look at 1986 UWF, then you got it. If you want to see a RVD/Jerry Lynn match, I'll do my best to find it on one of the streaming video sites and break it down.

Don't be shy, speak up. I'll be willing to watch anything and share it with the world, because good wrestling knows no boundaries.

From the Archives: Keiji Mutoh (c) vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi

Wow, two FtAs in two days. The world is ending! Next thing you know, the e-wrestling blog will get updated. Heh.

Anyway, this FtA is sort of inspired by the PWI 500. Looking in the top 10, there were two names which I was not familiar with at all: Hiroshi Tanahashi and Ultimo Guerrero. I wanted to get acquainted with both of them since they are among the best in the world today kayfabe-wise, and I wanted to see if both were the real deal. Since my foreign wrestling tendencies lie to the Far East more than South of the Border, I went with Tanahashi first.

This match comes from NJPW's WrestleKingdom III, where Tanahashi challenges Keiji Mutoh for the IGPW Heavyweight Championship. Dated 1/4/09, it's the second FtA to come from this calendar year. The user has disabled embedding, so you're gonna have to go to Youtube for this match:

• Part 1
• Part 2
• Part 3
• Part 4

A lot of part 1 is the feeling out process. A lot of chain wrestling, a lot of counters, a lot of light submissions. Business really starts to pick up around the end of part 1, where Tanahashi takes control, but the big spot of the early match happens around 2:10 on part 2, where the legendary Mutoh hits a dragon screw on Tanahashi from off the apron. Then a minute later, he hits another dragon screw in another precarious position. Friggin' sweet.

In fact, there are a lot of dragon screws from both guys in the first half or so of the match, a lot of working the leg. Both guys are selling the leg before long, and it's a running theme in the match. It's still there even as the match progresses into the third act and the big moves are being bandied about. One thing I was sort of baffled by was how far the Shining Wizard has fallen. Mutoh breaks it out several times and it doesn't put Tanahashi away.

Anyway, despite a Botchamania moment from Mutoh towards the end, it's still a fine match, and Tanahashi shows me he has the chops to be counted among the best in the world. I'll be interested to follow him and perhaps put some more of his material right here.

LINKS!: Including Chikara for Beginners

Here are some links for you today. Not all of them will be wrestling related, but I hope you find all of them interesting no less:

• Chikara for Beginners - A cool, concise read for people who want a good starting point for the premiere American lucha libre fed. A must-read for anyone going to their first show this weekend, just to get a taste as to what's going on.


• Chikara Podcast-a-Go-Go - Speaking of Chikara, here's their latest weekly podcast, which also features some must know knowledge, some cool clips from King of Trios Night One (which I attended!) and apperances by blog faves El Generico and Austin Aries


• Blake Norton's Site - This guy vlogs about RAW weekly it looks like. Check out his review of Monday's show.


• State Flag Send-ups - A look at state flags if they really represented what those states were about


• Rick Pitino pays for abortions - Yeah, nothing like a seedy sex scandal to spice up college basketball's offseason, eh? And I thought John Calipari would have been the one to get caught up in something like that

Cena's a Good Guy, Pt. 23423

Per F4WOnline

Turns out that the WWE gave the Calgary crowd two nights ago a carrot after the cameras stopped rolling.

-- Also, and this is awesome, after WWE spent the entire show burying Canada they had Cena go out after the cameras stopped rolling and cut a long promo putting Bret Hart over as an awesome guy.

Of course, it's John Cena doing the mop-up work, but that's to be expected. From all accounts, Cena's a hell of a guy and as I've pointed out on here before, he is all about the fans. You can just notice it in how he carries himself inside the ring, out of it and even out of character. It's what makes criticizing his in-ring character so hard to do. Most people tire of the Superman schtick, but Cena does so much to try and make up for it, so it's a push. That's why I had to go and retract saying he was "dead to me" the day after I made the claim. Cena can never be dead to me.

Of course, they could have done a lot better by having Cena or even one of the Canadians waylay Sarge after the show, but at least they did right by the crowd in the end. Just goes to show that you can send the live crowd home happy all the time without jeopardizing a build or a heel's on-camera heat.

The PWI 500 and You

Pro Wrestling Illustrated, one of the longest running wrestling publications and one of the few ones that still operate under the guise of kayfabe, even in the era of information overload and the emergence of the "smart fan", released its annual ranking of professional wrestlers culled from the thousands around the world, the PWI 500. Triple H was ranked number one this year, beating out Chris Jericho at number two. Even when they barely face off against each other, Trips always finds a way to make Jericho job to him ;)

Anyway, here's the list, linked from the Chikara forums rather than from a regular webpage because I can't find it on a regular webpage. I'm not gonna post it directly here because it would be super tl;dr, even under a cut. I don't want to discuss it in too much detail because the criteria are mostly in character and don't explore impact of guys who job and guys who don't wrestle all that much, while overrating title reigns and win-loss record. Regardless, people still like to argue the list, whether it's on point or whether it's not.

Anyway, even if you don't agree with the methodology or the order, you have to respect the amount of work and detail that goes into ranking all these wrestlers. Bill Apter and Co. at least show due diligence even if they're still marketing the mag to people who are apt to believe that wrestling's outcomes aren't predetermined. I have to respect that, and I couldn't even begin to put together a top 50 as comprehensive as his top 500 let alone my own 500 list. There is so much that a wrestling journalism hobbyist such as myself doesn't have the time to follow let alone digest.

That being said, I don't think my top 10 would look drastically different. I'd put Jericho at the top, because I think he's been the WWE's MVP for the time-frame involved. Triple H isn't a bad choice at number one all things considered, but I'd probably put him behind Jericho and John Cena. The only really glaring name in the top 10 that I see is Sting, and mainly because he was the beneficiary of really generous booking. He didn't really wrestle on Impacts because he was hurt, but they kept finding ways to keep the strap on him at PPVs. I think 9's high for him out of principle alone, but that's just me. I guess if you use PWI's criteria, he's deserving.

From the Archives: 2 Cold Scorpio vs. Chris Benoit... FROM NORTH KOREA??

This time on From the Archives, I wanted to feature 2 Cold Scorpio. One of the most underrated talents from the '90s, Scorpio made an impact everywhere he went, even in the WWF if just for the sheer sucktitude of the Flash Funk gimmick he was saddled with. Ugh. I looked for matches, but when I came across, this one, I had to watch it. While I didn't want to make a habit of featuring Chris Benoit, I couldn't pass this opportunity up. How often do you get to see a match from North Korea of all places? Wow. Apparently, WCW and NJPW held a joint PPV event in Pyongyang in 1995, which was one of the first and only big cards held in the Communist stronghold.

The match itself is a bit short, as it was the curtain jerker on the PPV telecast. It gets about seven minutes, but it's a good seven. On the mic are two guys I don't know and a young Mike Tenay, who actually doesn't suck too badly in this clip. The beginning of the match is a lot of chain wrestling and NJPW Jr. heavy counters and flips, and it kinda progresses quickly to the finish. Again, it's a short match, but as a testament to both wrestlers, they do a lot in the time alloted. Check it out:

Two Matches Added to the DGUSA Chicago Card

Straight from the Dragon's mouth

Brian Kendrick was officially announced for the card last week. Today, his opponent is revealed, and it's none other than CIMA. This confirms the speculation that has been rampant since Kendrick's addition to the card last week as well as the hopes of everyone hoping for this match to happen.

Also predictably added to the card is the Masato Yoshino/Dragon Kid rematch from the Philly card. Chicagoland readers, I'm telling you that this match was one of the highlights of the card, probably the second best match after the CIMA/Yokosuka vs. Young Bucks match. They should tear the house down. Add those two matches in with Naruki Doi/Bryan Danielson, Davey Richards/Shingo and Mike Quackenbush and Jigsaw/Gran Akuma and YAMATO, and this is shaping up to be even better than the Philly card. I'm jealous.

Great Moments in Ball-busting, or Michael Cole Finally Makes a Funny

Lost in all the lame comedy and tired booking clichés last night, Michael Cole actually had a really funny line last night. When they were answering the trivia question on whom Sgt. Slaughter beat for his first (and only) WWE Championship, Jerry Lawler replied that he thought that Slaughter beat Randy Savage, to which Cole replied "Best color man in the business". Not only was it a nice, friendly dig at Lawler, it was inadvertantly a nod to RAW's past, when Savage was the first color commentator for the WWE's flagship show.

Add that to Triple H's subtle digs at Batista and Ric Flair last week, and I'm starting to sense a lot of smart-assedness creeping into things. That's a good thing, seeing as guys like to bust each other's balls and wrestling is the quintessential guy show. I wish that they'd move the humor more into that direction from this weaksauce sitcom bullshit. Derive laughs from busting balls and from legit comic relief guys like Santino. It'd make the show that much better.

Instant Feedback: RAW is a Failed UPN Sitcom, Pt. 2

Yeah, I thought I was watching a really awful and bland sitcom again. Seriously, that? Yeah.

Instead of focusing on the obviously bad comedy and the beyond trite and tired HBK/HHH vignettes, I'm gonna focus on the ending. It was basically the same kind of match that Jericho and Cena had in London on Mary Jane Day, but shorter, not as good and with Orton instead of Edge interfering to cause the DQ. However, there were some interesting dynamics going on with Orton, and not just because they were in Canada.

I don't know whether it was because the RKO looked so awesome or whether the crowd really was turned by the Jericho pre-match promo or whether they really were into the surprise dream teaming of Cena and Orton, but I noticed a really huge pop for the combo FU/RKO at the end of that match. They were jeering Orton all night long, so it wasn't the typical Canadian contrarianism.

This wasn't the first time that Orton got some face poppage. He was getting cheers immediately post-Rumble, which were put on the kibosh when they saddled him with the awful, awful "I've got a mental illness and will threaten to cancel WrestleMania" material to keep him heel. Leave it to a savvy Canadian crowd to bring the cheers back.

Honestly, I don't know why they just don't run with Orton as a face now. Triple H is far better heel. Jericho and Show are both great heel foils for Orton, especially Jericho, whom I think would have great matches with a face Orton. Plus, it could give them some leeway to maybe turn Cena heel... nah, that'll never happen, especially with Jeff Hardy possibly taking time off. But hey, it's good to get the rest of the Internet to simultaneously hemmhorage for one fleeting moment, amirite?

The endgame of the show tonight wasn't enough to make me forget Jillian Hall and bait-and-switch on Bret Hart and the stupid vignettes in "Texas" and the contract on a pole match and all the other really, really bad comedy, but it was good if almost by accident, just to show the WWE that maybe they have a franchise face waiting in the wings who is utterly miscast as a "classic heel". Of course, having to sit through another tired booking mechanism (opponents teaming together before their big match) but whatever. At least we get Morrison/Punk III on Smackdown this week.

Show vs. Shaq - lulz

From F4W Online

According to Alvarez, Meltzer and crew, the WWE is kicking around the idea of putting Shaquille O'Neal and the Big Show in a match as a blow-off to their hostilities on RAW two weeks ago. In the grand tradition of the stupidity of wrestling promoters, they want to give that away on free TV rather than put it on PPV. Nevermind the fact that even if the Cavs would allow Shaq to work a wrestling match that it'd be a bad idea to have your 7'3" monster do another high-profile job to a non-wrestler, but if you're going to do it, then spike a freaking buyrate with it. Make people pay money to see it. Who knows, maybe you could get more than the usual suspects to buy whatever minor PPV that's going to happen between SummerSlam and Survivor Series.

In an aside, I wonder what the thought process in Titan Towers is re: Show. I mean, I hope they're at least paying him well enough, because for a guy who should be built up as THE be-all, end-all for big wrestlers, he's the one that too often has to job to the Akebonos and Floyd Mayweathers of the world. I don't know if that's because that's what he wants, or whether he just grits his teeth and does it because management turns to him whenever a sideshow attraction comes along. Nevermind that he can't even seem to beat John Cena either. I mean... who can the Big Show beat in kayfabe? Midcarders it seems. Oh, and Undertaker, but he's out with an injury.

All that being said, Show is high-profile right now, appearing on both shows and is a part of one of the more effective main event tag team mash-ups in recent memory. I still get the feeling that he and Chris Jericho haven't completely gelled yet, but I like the direction. Again, for all the bitching and whining about card position, it's fairly easy to put someone back in the spotlight and book them credibly. They seem to be doing that with Show, but they have to follow through, and right now, that may mean keeping him away from Shaq. Since they won't do that though (and honestly, I don't know if I could blame Vince and Co. right now), I hope that they at least try and make a buck off it and put the fuckin' match on PPV.

ETA: UFC 101 set the PA combat sport record for gate with $3.55M and will probably make a shitload more in PPV buys... and the WWE wants to put a potential Shaq/Show match on free TV. This is why wrestling promoters are innately stupid.

Say No to Drugs!

For years and years, Truth and the anti-drug people have been paying good money to buy advertising space on WWE programming. Of all the annoying trends of commercials on WWE programming, those are the worst, especially Truth. They're allowed to badmouth and smear a perfectly legal product on television, one that is not legally allowed to fight back with advertising of their own. I mean, I'd never smoke cigarettes and would never recommend that people do, but it's not illegal, and in my opinion, cigarettes are at the very worst on the same par as alcohol, and that's allowed TV advertising.

That being said, I wonder if they feel like they're getting their money's worth, especially now that the top heel on Smackdown, and the most effective heel in the company, bar none, right now is CM Punk, a guy who says "Just say no" to a chorus of boos, a guy who chides a crowd for smoking with the crowd jeering lustily in response. And honestly, it couldn't have happened to a better set of sponsors.

I do find it a bit short-sighted that the WWE would put a heel directly in opposition to sponsors like that. I mean, it would have been like them having a Col. Sanders look-alike come out during the commercial free RAW and berate everyone for not eating his Kentucky Grilled Chicken, and then mentioning Popeye's or Church's to a rousing applause. However, I can't say that I'm not enjoying this.

As I've said before, I lean libertarian in my views on politics, and like many people of my ilk, I believe that drugs should not be illegal and that people should be allowed to choose whether they want to use them or not. I also believe in free enterprise and that if a product is perfectly legal, then it should not be restricted by any governmental in how it can advertise. Yeah, I know, Big Tobacco should hardly be looked upon as a sympathetic figure, but the fact that these assholes from Truth are allowed to smear them when they're not allowed to fight back with advertising, well, it smacks to me of kicking an old man when he's down after having tripped over the curb.

That's one of the reasons why CM Punk's rise as the straight edge preacher has made me feel so moist and gooey inside. He's coercing millions and millions of people to let out their truest feelings about substance use in the open, flying in the face of these people who want to flood the commercial airwaves with their propaganda. And while the WWE shouldn't be in the practice of pissing off advertisers, well, I for one would welcome more Stacker-2 Five Hour Energy commercials on RAW if it mean the Truth and the anti-drug commercials would go away.

Again, I don't advocate that America become a nation of junkies, and if I had a kid watching, he or she would be forced to be CM Punk fans (and not just because CM Punk is so awesome that he's listed in Roget's Thesaurus under the synonyms section). However, I do think that personal choice and responsibility with said choice are far more important values to hammer home than substance abstinence.

Friday Five: The Hart Family

The WWE will be in Calgary Monday night, and while their guest host for RAW doesn't fit the mold for what Calgary is all about in terms of the industry, this Friday Five will.

1. Who is the best graduate of the Dungeon ever, in your opinion, of course?

2. What was Bret Hart's best match ever?

3. If Owen Hart were still alive today, what would he be doing right now?

4. Where do you see the Hart Dynasty heading?

5. Will there be another family as influential as the Harts to come up on the wrestling scene ever again?

More Kendricky Goodness

Per Gabe Sapolsky's Facebook, Brian Kendrick will be wrestling at the DGUSA show in Chicago. No opponent yet, but given that roster, it won't matter. THe match will be good.

I'm thinking all of this is leading up to me ordering this one on PPV.

Colt Cabana + Chikara = Profit

According to poster Alan4L from the Chikara Fan Forums, Colt Cabana had some kind words for Chikara on his recent Figure Four Radio appearance, saying he follows the podcasts all the time and that he'd be an awesome fit for the fed. I'd be more than inclined to agree with this assessment. Cabana's quirky wrestling style and proclivity towards comedic wrestling makes him a perfect fit for Chikara, even if for a one-off appearance.

The only thing is that he might carry a steep price tag, even for a one-off. I think it'd be well worth the cost, but in this economy, a niche fed like Chikara can't be spending a ton of money on bringing talent in when it can entertain and entertain well with the cheaper guys they have right now. Still, it's nice to dream, and Cabana in Chikara is definitely a dream scenario worth exploring.

WWE still cleans up with the old geezer crowd

From F4WOnline

The ratings report for last week are in, and even though the WWE now caters to kids, it still gets watched by us old folks:

In last week's cable ratings, USA was No. 1 with a 2.7 prime time average to 1.8 for TNT. Syfy was No. 14 at 0.9 and Spike was No. 22 at 0.7. Raw was No. 4 and No. 5 behind The Closer (5.4), Burn Notice (4.7) and Royal Pains (4.5). It was also No. 4 and No. 5 in 18-34 and No. 2 and No. 3 in 18-49.

Imagine that, RAW did better when the demographic was expanded to include 35-49 year olds. That means the WWE is still bringing in the older people as well as the young kids who dress up like Jeff Hardy. Maybe that means that maybe they should be building new main eventers as well as giving Hardy and John Cena the wins that these 12 year olds supposedly want to see all the time and nothing else?

From the Archives: Mike Quackenbush vs. Super Dragon

I know I promised lucha libre, but I'm gonna admit that I tried watching an El Hijo del Santo vs. Negro Casas hair vs. mask match two weeks ago. I wanted to like it, but I just couldn't get into it enough to make it past the first fall. I don't know what to say here, but maybe there are other lucha matches that might be a more approachable introduction? Some help out here?

Anyway, this edition of From the Archives is at least slightly germane to lucha libre, in that it features the founder and owner of the American Northeast's premiere lucha libre federation, Chikara. Yes, this match features "Lightning" Mike Quackenbush taking on SoCal indie legend Super Dragon. This match is from Revolution Pro Wrestling's Revolution J 2002 card, and it's the only time the two icons of the underground ever met. Quack is doing just fine right now, again entrepreneuring and competing in Chikara, while also touring other feds, most notably DragonGate USA. Dragon... not so much. He got a concussion against Kevin Steen and El Generico on a PWG card in 2008 and hasn't wrestled since. Rumors say he's finito, which would be a shame.

Anyway, the video quality on this really isn't all that great, but it's not totally shitacular either. You get one angle, but it catches all the action clearly. A lot of mat wrestling and submissions going on early, which segue into the end with some attempted high-flying moves, big strikes and the closing sequences, which see a few pretty neat moves culminating in a pretty cool combination of moves to finish Quack off - German suplex to blue thunder bomb to Memphis piledriver. Enjoy!

Brian Kendrick Lands on His Feet

From the horse's mouth

PWG, aka, the West Coast's answer to ROH, will be Brian Kendrick's first work since being future endeavored by the WWE, and believe you me, it's gonna be a good match. He's taking on Bryan Danielson. Since I can't really justify heading out to Reseda for a wrestling event, I may just have to get this card on DVD, since it's looking to be pretty stacked. Hero/Strong, the Young Bucks on the card, Generico/Taylor... should be sweet.

How exciting is it to be a Danielson fan, by the way? The match with Kendrick, and then he'll be taking on Naruki Doi at the Chicago DragonGate USA card. They don't call him the best wrestler in the world for nothing.

A good read from the F4W site, plus coming down

From F4W

This was a guest spot written by Gary Mehaffy on blown angles. Pretty good read, but this one section really hits home re: last night with Miz/Cena. After the jump, the passage that describes it:

After the jump...

Miz/Cena (2009)

A good while ago in a column, I wrote how I felt Miz had potential to be a truly annoying top level heel. I got emails agreeing with me, but I got more disagreeing with me and detailing how John Morrison was much better. If you see what I wrote at the time, I never once tried to say that Miz was a better in ring competitor than Morrison, far from it (how could I?) – but what I did say was that Miz had all the attributes needed to succeed. All he needed was, when they split, a sustained push.

Then the strangest thing happened. They split on the WWE draft show and Miz ended being drafted to Raw. Step 1 in the plan, I thought. The he began grandstanding about facing Cena (a la Jericho & Goldberg in WCW). Step 2. This is great, I thought.

And the crowd caught on to it and wanted to see Cena beat Miz up. Step 3. Game, set and match Miz. Or not quite……

After claiming several (bogus) victories over John Cena they finally squared off at The Great Amer….sorry, The Bash. All things considered, Miz was reckoned to be the winner of the match (somehow) or at least lose it after looking strong and come back after Cena. But no, Miz was squashed like no other. There was no mistaking who was the main eventer (Cena) and who was the wannabe (Miz).

WHAT A WASTE VINCE! CAN YOU SEE THIS CLEARLY ENOUGH?

Why when someone starts to connect with the masses would you cut him off at the knees? Why when it looks like we could get a fresh face at the top of the card is he sent packing? Why give us the same old, same old over and over? Why not plan for the future? Why?

When no one gets behind any of your wrestlers don’t blame them, blame the useless booking they’ve faced!

To make it worse, over the weeks since The Bash, Miz has been on Cena’s case several more times, and with what result? Getting treated like the red headed step child. Even on this week’s Raw, with a stipulation that made it blindingly obvious that Miz would win due (probably) to Orton’s interference, as he was at ringside, what happens? He loses, with all of the heels standing watching him! Miz is therefore banned from Raw, the Staples Centre and SummerFest. WHAT?

If this was to show how everyone on Raw hated Miz then it would make sense, but it wasn’t. All it did was lead to a Piven/Dr. Ken angle with Cena.

I’m hoping that Miz ends up feuding with Morrison on SmackDown but what message does it send to the rest of the roster? Work hard, develop a character that connects with the audience and for what reason? None. Because the main eventers that have been seemingly main eventing since 1976 will make sure that they make the money while you scrimp and save. Yea, the WWE really is one big happy family.

I don’t know, maybe all of the wasted angles were mistakes. Or maybe egos dictated that things happen a certain way.

Vince, when your buy rates are down and you wonder why, don’t look too far. When you (or heaven help us, HHH or Stephanie) give the roster another pep talk about creating an opportunity and talking to creative, forget it. When you wonder why audiences generally don’t give new comers a chance, don’t.

As I said above, the more things change the more they stay the same. And people say TNA rely on recycled WWE talent……….

Rant over.

This is the idea that I point to when people say that the WWE is fine because it's making money. There was a time when the WWE made a lot more money and had a lot more people watching. Of course, wrestling is cyclical, but there could have been places where hubris and stagnation have stunted guys who could have been stars to stem the tide.

Miz is one of those guys. Notice that I say "is" and not "was". I'm not one of hte sky is falling guys, well, at least not anymore I'm not. Over the years, even if I wasn't watching the product, I was following it and seeing guys that Triple H mowed down in his path to jamming himself down everyone's throats as a Hogan/Rock/Austin level superstar get over and become big names, over names, moneymaking names. Rob Van Dam, Booker T and most recently, Chris Jericho recovered to become bigtime players in the wrestling world. Miz isn't a lost cause, but he needs rehab. He needs to get away from RAW and from Cena and get into a good midcard program where he can credibly throw his weight around and build himself back up.

Still, the opportunity was there, and the WWE squandered it. I was admittedly hard on Cena last night, and at this point, who knows if he's becoming Triple H or if this is just another case of Creative catering to kids and ignoring the demographics that the WWE still prides itself on getting, that being males aged 18-34. Males of that age only have so much disposable income and so much free time to devote, and there are a lot of things out there for the target demographic to latch onto. There's baseball, MMA, muscle cars, football (which directly competes with RAW for four months out of the year, mind you), porn, drinking and hanging out, other TV shows... I mean there are six hours of original WWE programming a week, and two of them on prime time on Monday on the highest-rated cable network. That's more than enough time to cater to all the demographics that the WWE wants to bring in.

I'm not advocating that Cena jobs to everyone and everything that moves. I've also come off the Cena haterade from last night, and while I'm still pissed at the circumstances, hey, Cena is entertaining, he's a good wrestler and a good sport. Still, if Cena were to job 3 times out of 15 PPV appearances a year, then he's still winning enough times to warrant his spot as a perpetual contender to the WWE or World Championship. That's a fact. Those three losses then become so important for the guy scoring them. Furthermore, any losses that Cena suffers on free TV become so important, even if they're dubious, which is something that Miz would have benefitted from. Miz is the kind of character who will scrimp and sneak and skulk and take every advantage he could, no matter how dubious and claim that he did it all by himself. He has the charisma to back it up, and he truly has the sort of character that would make a crowd want to scream for his blood.

So why not play to that and build up a feud where Miz keeps getting cheapies on Cena until SummerFestSlam, when Cena defeats him in competitive match that shows that maybe Miz is for real, but decisively enough so that there's no doubt Cena is doling out comeuppance? I know, I know, broken record, I've said this on here at least twice before. But it bears repeating. It's far better to have more strong characters than weak characters.

People don't lose charisma unless they're so weak-minded as to turtle up at adversity. Hopefully, Miz isn't one of those people and can rebound, but at the same time, it also sucks that, as Mehaffy is saying, that his hard work and his legit connection with the crowd is getting him jobs, carrying bags for a Diva with a worse W/L than him and a ticket off RAW and onto one of the "lesser" shows.

It is frustrating being a wrestling fan sometimes, especially one that doesn't "turn the brain off" when watching and actually views with a critical eye. Be thankful that there are really cool alternatives out there if you live in the Northeast, and that you can at least get the Chikara or ROH experience through DVD and Youtube.