Wrestlemania 24 Review

As the show kicked off the arena was a sight to behold with hundreds of thousands worth of dollars going in to set up one of the most impressive Wrestlemania sets of all time and I was starting to look forward to a Wrestlemania which had potential to be a highly memorable evening.

Here is my match by match run down from last night’s show.

Belfast Brawl: JBL (RAW) Vs. Finlay (SmackDown)

This match as expected was just a glorified hardcore match. They knew they couldn’t do many big spots and bumps because of the Money in the Bank match happening later but both competitors provided us with a solid start. It was good to see Hornswoggle back at Finlay’s side but no Vince McMahon which showed you how much he thought of his own storyline. Highlight of the match was Finlay’s suicide dive in to a trash can lid.

Winner: JBL

Money-in-the-Bank Ladder Match: Mr. Kennedy (RAW) Vs. Shelton Benjamin (ECW) Vs. Chris Jericho (RAW) Vs. Carlito (RAW) Vs. MVP (SmackDown) Vs. Vs. CM Punk (ECW) Vs. John Morrison (ECW)

I thought it was the wrong choice to put this on straight after another gimmick match involving weapons. In a match where we were expecting Jericho, MVP and Kennedy to reign supreme it was Morrison who was doing all the early work. Although some of the spots were the same as last year like the ladder break there was still enough innovative moments to keep us on the edge of our seats. Highlight of the match was the return of Matt Hardy to screw his nemesis MVP out of the match. In a surprising twist it was CM Punk who climbed the ladder to grab the briefcase and the open contract for a title shot. I don’t se CM Punk in a Raw or Smackdown main event so he will cash it in for the ECW title which will devalue this match and was not needed as CM Punk’s standing in ECW means he doesn’t need a contract to get a title shot.

Winner: CM Punk

Battle For Brand Supremacy: Batista (SmackDown) Vs. Umaga (RAW)

This match was the worst on the card. It was slow, boring and sloppy. I expected Batista to put a showing on to prove why he should be in the main event but after some sloppy work it looked like he was trying to get out of there as quickly as he could.

Winner: Batista

ECW Championship Match

We found out that Kane had won the pre-show Battle Royal and was going to be facing Chavo. Well if you blinked you missed this one as Kane beat Chavo in 10 seconds in a match reminiscent of Adam Bomb vs. Earthquake from Wrestlemania 10. Chavo’s entrance takes around two minutes match lasts ten seconds, you got to love it.

Winner: Kane

Career Threatening Match: Ric Flair (SmackDown) Vs. Shawn Michaels (RAW)

On a second viewing this was a really good match. Shawn Michaels worked his ass of to make Flair to look good and took some sick bumps including a moonsault through an announcers table. The submission and mat work was top notch and it was a much better match than I thought Ric Flair would have to end his career although being very predictable. However I though they could have made more of the scene after the match as Flair said his last goodbye.

Winner: Shawn Michaels

BuunyMania Lumberjack match: Maria and Ashley vs. Beth Phoenix and Melina

Luckily a technical fault made this match more memorable than it should have been with the lights going out during the match. The WWE scrambled well to spotlight the ring but in all fairness I was enjoying it more in the dark. If it hadn’t been for Santino, Jerry Lawler and Snoop Dogg all getting involved this match would have been a complete uninspiring waste of time.

Winner: Beth Phoenix and Melina

WWE Championship: Triple Threat: Randy Orton (c) Vs. Triple H Vs. John Cena

After being the most built up match on the WWE’s biggest weekly show it made no sense for this match to be on so early. Having it this early meant we weren’t going to see a big Cena or HHH win as if that was going to be the case they would have had it as the main event but in a triple threat which wasn’t a patch on Wrestlemania 20’s Triple Threat title match I was glad to see the back of it.

Winner: Randy Orton

Wrestler Vs. Boxer: Big Show Vs. Floyd "Money" Mayweather

In a match that many including myself thought was going to be the worst of the night both the Big Show and Floyd Mayweather surprised us both by putting on an excellent, entertaining match. This is probably why we haven’t seen Mayweather a lot on TV because he has been working hard to get this match to be the best it could be. This has to go down as one of the most successful appearances of a celebrity in a wrestling match.

Winner: Floyd Mayweather

World Heavyweight Championship: Title Vs. Streak: Edge (c) Vs. The Undertaker

After just witnessing one undefeated streak remain in tact it was time for The undertaker to put his streak on the line. In a very occurrence of a Smackdown match headlining a joint brand PPV The Undertaker and Edge put on a brilliant match with an edge of your seat ending. Edge through all he had at Undertaker including a camera and his two cronies but regardless of what he tried Undertaker was in no mood to let go of his streak.

Winner: And new World Heavyweight Champion The Undertaker

Overall: In my predictions I only got two wrong and one was a result nobody would of could have predicted so I’m happy with that. I thought the event had lots of memorable moments but not outstanding matches that will be remembered for years to come as classics. I think the WWE could have done more with Flair and the WWE title match but they handled Big Show vs. Mayweather and Undertaker vs. Edge very well which helped Wrestlemania go out with a bang and send the fans home happy.

TNA iMPACT Review - Thursday 27th March 2008

In all the hullabuloo of Wrestlemania week TNA were this week trying to make an impact of their own with a live show instead of a pre-record and the much hyped return of Sting.

Good Points

Go live every week

A live iMPACT had a much better feel to it than their pre-record broadcasts they usually put out every week. I know it’s more risky and more costly to go live but for the viewer it adds an edge to a show. There were a few mistakes with bad camera shots and so forth but the positives far outweighed the negatives.

Unpredictability

The show kicked off with a shot of Booker T and Robert Roode fighting through the crowd. Its an unusual move to a start show mid action but I thought it was different and added an edge to the show. The viewers who were tuning in to the show for the first time may not have been able to follow what was happening to begin with but as it was exciting it will have encouraged them to get in to the show and as it happens the situation was explained straight after through Jim Cornette.

Highlighting a WWE contracted wrestler in the crowd

This was a great move by the TNA to do a shot with a strap over the bottom of one half of the WWE Highlanders tag team who was in the crowd. Although he didn’t wrestle it gave the feel of the Monday Night Wars again when wrestlers showed up on other promotions shows after making the switch.

Great use of Sting

Was a great comeback by Sting strong on the mic and strong in the main event. Was a nice twist to see his return overshadowed by James Storm who interfered after the 8 man Lethal Lockdown warm up match for Team Tomko to lay the beat on Team Cage.

Bad Points

Terrible acting by Karen Angle

I never thought I would have a bad word to say about Karen but this week she got exposed. In a one on one backstage interview with Mike Tenay she put over the fact that her marriage had fallen apart. Getting a storyline like this right is very hard and unfortunately Karen fell in to the over acting category. Karen needs other characters to work off and constructed situations not backstage one on one interviews.

Giving away PPV matches for free

It’s the old WCW trap of giving away PPV matches for free which TNA fell in to this week. They had the Lethal Lockdown match just minus the six sides of steel as the main event. In my opinion once you have a match in place for a PPV you shouldn’t give away that match for free on TV. You should build the feud by getting the competitors to compete against each other but in different ways like they could have broken down the eight man tag in to two tag team matches, that’s what I have would have done.

Booker T – Hot and Cold

The first five minutes of iMPACT was intense with Booker T and Robert Roode fighting through the crowd. Jim Cornette announced a match to take place later on in the evening between the two which turned out to be a first blood match. Before the match Roode cut a promo on how he enjoyed beating on Booker’s wife but instead of adding intensity Booker T then after winning the math proceeded to hit Roode a few more times before the ref dragged him off. If someone had said that about your wife you would normally need security to pull you off. It is hard to maintain intensity for a long period of weeks but they need to wok hard to be consistent.

Knockouts Division getting stale

It’s just seems to be Awesome Kong, O.D.B and Gail Kim just revolving around the same match and the same storyline every week. They need a more entertaining storyline than just a simple we want your title storyline and they need time given to other girls in the division.

Who can understand what TNA are doing with LAX

After one member of LAX losing to Sonjay Dutt last week it was LAX’s turn to beat Steiner, Petey Williams and Raka Khan in a six person tag. So Lax lose to someone who is just there for comedy value but this week beat a team who are on a push and have storyline time it makes no sense.

Overall

Although there were a lot of bad points going live made this an entertaining show and without it would have just been remembered as a booking mess. A combination of going live every week and good booking will get this promotion to where it needs to go.

WWE Smackdown Review - Friday 28th March 2008

Smackdown was the WWE’s last chance to push Wrestlemania to try and get a few more buys for the PPV this Sunday. So I went in expecting the best Smackdown we had seen in some time. I knew that all the major develops would have happened on Raw this week if they were going to happen but I still thought they would pull out all the stops to continue the Wrestlemania buzz.

Good Points

Wrestlemania theme

To get people excited for Wrestlemania a lot of the matches tonight had a Wrestlemania theme with an over the top rope elimination match between some of the competitors who are taking part in the Battle Royal this weekend, an inter-promotional match for Batista and having the Money in the Bank briefcase above the ring for matches featuring wrestlers who were going to star in that match.

Some solid matches

It was up to the stars of ‘Money in the Bank’ to provide the wrestling quality this week for Smackdown as the matches which featured CM Punk vs. John Morrison and Chris Jericho vs. MVP being the highlights of the show.

Undertaker funeral segment

The end segment of Smackdown was a great classic old school Undertaker moment as Edge held a mock funeral for Undertaker’s streak at Wrestlemania which he thinks he is going to end this weekend only for the Undertaker to pop out of the coffin and attack Edge and his clan forcing Vickie Guerrero to expos herself as a fraud by getting up off her wheelchair and making a run for it as the Undertaker cleaned house.

Bad Points

Not enough Raw stars

In the week running up to a PPV where there is a joint brand show and inter-promotional matches happening it is important that Raw stars are on Smackdown and that Smackdown stars are on Raw. The show needed Umaga, Big Show, Floyd Mayweather and others to best develop the buzz before Mania.

Too much wrestling

Regardless of whether the WWE want Smackdown to be the wrestling show or not in the last Smackdown before Mania wrestling isn’t important it’s building the feuds and the hype for Wrestlemania which they didn’t do and if it hadn’t been for their Wrestlmania theme there would have been no build. The best way to develop feuds on TV is through mic time and backstage segments.

Jesse and Festus – Why, why, why?

Again back on Smackdown taking up time when they have no major role in Wrestlemania. The character of Festus has no place in the modern era and unlike the character of Eugene the man playing this character can’t pull this type of character off. If you are to use characters like this you have to use them on Raw as the style of show is more suitable for it.

Another poor Divas segment

It’s turning in to a weekly occurrence on Smackown that you can guarantee there will be some stupid pointless and inappropriate moments with the Divas. This week it was a wet and wild match which was cringeworthy at best and featured Divas who haven’t really got a part to play in Wrestlemania.

Overall

The last episode of Raw and Smackdown have if anything quelled my excitement for Wrestlemania and am now wishing it happened last weekend. Instead of getting us hyped and using the last two shows correctly they have just been treading water.

Wrestlemania 24 - My Predictions

The WWE are branding Wrestlemania 24 as “The Biggest Wrestlemania Under The Sun” making it’s reference to the fact that for the first time it is taking place in Florida and from the open air arena known as The Citrus Bowl. The tagline can’t be making reference to the biggest card or the biggest venue for a Wrestlemania and I highly doubt it will do the biggest amount of Pay Per Views buys so it’s only in Florida they can get away with a tagline like this.

I know we are yet to see what happens on Smackdown this Friday night but as we stand these are my match-by-match predictions for this years’ Wrestlemania starting from the bottom of the card.

ECW Championship Match

What a mess this has been. For many years the WWE have put on an inter-promotional Battle Royal as a dark match before Wrestlemania and chucked in on the DVD extras but this year we were lead to believe that for the first time we would be seeing this on the main show. For once the WWE had come up with an interesting angle for the Battle Royal with the winner facing the ECW champion Chavo Guerrero that same night but now it’s pointless as we will be watching Mania not knowing who is going to be facing Chavo and as we won’t see someone winning the Battle Royal live we won’t care too much for the match. The WWE should have either kept it in the main show or not done it at all and built a proper feud for Chavo against a pre-announced opponent. The WWE have proved Battle Royals work at Wrestlemania like with Wrestlemania 2 and 17 so why they couldn’t just keep it in I don’t know.

Don’t expect much from the match itself, out of the 24 named participants for the Battle Royal your most likely winners are Mark Henry, The Great Khali, Kane, Jamie Noble or Chuck Palumbo. On a side note I can’t believe after being on Raw for three weeks out of six they can’t even give Paul Burchill a spot in the Battle Royal. I expect the creative team to slingshot the winner of the Battle Royal to capture the ECW championship.

Winner: Whoever Chavo faces.

BuunyMania Lumberjack match: Maria and Ashley vs. Beth Phoenix and Melina

Now that Candice Michelle is out of the match it has lost the only shred of a storyline it had with her returning to face Beth Phoenix who put her out of action. Now the only reason for the match is because of Maria’s recent photoshoot. We have hardly seen Ashley on TV as of late and Melina is just there to make up the numbers so this match could be a time to stretch the legs and go to the fridge. The only good thing about the match is that it is a great way to get Snoop Dogg involved in Mania which fits his rap character as he performs the duties as Master of Ceremonies. On a side note I thought the WWE referred to female lumberjack matches as lumberjill matches. For those unfamiliar with this type of match it is where fellow wrestlers surround the ring and throw the competitors back in the ring if they are thrown out.

Winner: Do we care?????????

Battle For Brand Supremacy: Batista (SmackDown) Vs. Umaga (RAW)

Unless they do something big on Smackdown the build up for this one has been rubbish. The only build up we have had is them both squashing opponents on their respective shows and then the odd bit of interference in each other’s matches. This is not going to be the greatest match by any stretch of the imagination so the build up was what was going to get this match over. Last Wrestlemania Batista’s match with Undertaker was down to be one of the worst matches of the night and he managed to make it a good match so hopefully he does the same this year. It just depends how Batista reacts to being booked this far down the card which is the same for Umaga who had one of the main matches last year. I don’t see this being more than a one off match as Batista will want to get back in to the main event scene.

Winner: Batista

Belfast Brawl: JBL (RAW) Vs. Finlay (SmackDown)

This match came about because of the worst change in creative direction I have seen in some time just so they could give JBL a match for Mania. Since then however it has had a strong build up and I have no doubt that this is going to be one of the most intense matches on the card. It is good to see Finlay in a match on Mania where he isn’t just making up the numbers like the Money in the Bank match. Depending on how the WWE want to play it they could have a comedy moment with Hornswoggle returning to get involved in the finish but I hope they don’t as I want this to be an intense encounter. With JBL being the one man heat generating machine I’m sure the fans will be in to this one.

Winner: JBL

Money-in-the-Bank Ladder Match: Mr. Kennedy (RAW) Vs. Shelton Benjamin (ECW) Vs. Chris Jericho (RAW) Vs. Carlito (RAW) Vs. MVP (SmackDown) Vs. Vs. CM Punk (ECW) Vs. John Morrison (ECW)

Normally at Wrestlemania this match is put on early to get the crowd going but in the past many wrestlers have had problems following this match as the fans after witnessing crazy stunts are normally less appreciative of a solid wrestling match. I like traditions and Wrestlemania needs tradition so am glad this match has become an annual event. However with the talent pool being light at the moment it’s hard to have eight or in this years case because of Jeff Hardy seven guys used up in one match as it means either this match suffers or the rest of the card suffers. In my opinion there are three guys there to win it, the rest are just making up numbers with Kennedy, MVP and Chris Jericho being the guys who could win it. Four weeks ago I would have said Kennedy to win it for the second year in a row but after hardly appearing on Raw on recent weeks and with the brilliant MVP / Jericho feud going on I have to side with one of them. Of course this would have all been irrelevant if Jeff Hardy hadn’t got suspended as in my opinion this was his match to win. My only fear for this match is they may be running out of ideas for what they can do with this match as so many spots have already been done.

Winner: Chris Jericho (although I would like them to take a gamble on MVP and give him the push by having him win this match)

Career Threatening Match: Ric Flair (SmackDown) Vs. Shawn Michaels (RAW)

This is a match in which we can forget about the terrible build up and just enjoy it as it is what looks like Flair’s last match. When Flair was out of favour in the WWE last year he said he wanted to end his career at Wrestlemania and this weekend he has his chance. I’m glad they haven’t made too much of a storyline of this one as it should just be about Ric Flair having an athletical encounter against someone he respects and who respects him. Many would argue Flair doesn’t deserve a place on Wrestlemania but for what he has done for and in the business I only think it’s fitting for him to bow out here. I would love for the WWE creative team to pull the rug from under us and have Flair win but I don’t see it happening.

Winner: Shawn Michaels.

Wrestler Vs. Boxer: Big Show Vs. Floyd "Money" Mayweather

I take it back Batista and Umaga this in matter of fact is going to be the worst match. Everyone knew as soon as it was signed that this match was going to be awful but it was going to be the build up which saved it but because of the WWE’s terrible creative direction and planning it didn’t even get a good build up. After the best start to a feud ever with Floyd Mayweather jumping the barrier at No Way Out to legitimately break Big Show’s nose in a planned shoot to get people talking it has dwindled out to a point where I can’t wait for it to be over. This match is going to be like the disaster that was Goldberg vs. Brock Lesnar from Wrestlemania 20 as nobody knows who to cheer or boo as the WWE didn’t book it properly. Floyd’s main involvement has been through video segments rarely appearing in person on Raw and the Big Show has just kept going on about taking Floyds undefeated streak, message to Big Show results of wrestling matches don’t count in the boxing world.

Winner: Floyd Mayweather (The WWE have paid him far too much money and he is far to egotistical to lose)

World Heavyweight Championship: Title Vs. Streak: Edge (c) Vs. The Undertaker

This match has been excellently booked so far although I wait to see the final installment of the build up this Friday. Edge like a good heel champion has thrown obstacles in the way of the Undertaker and escaped every time it looked like he was going to get a beating and then when Edge has attacked it has been in numbers and not by himself. Throughout this The Undertaker has been made to look strong by running down the obstacles and only getting a beating when set upon by a group. I am intrigued by this match to see what the creative team do with it. To build Smackdown and to build Edge to have him taking Undertaker’s legacy would solidify his position as a main eventer and be great long term planning. However I don’t see The Undertaker giving up his streak so I still have to put him odds on. Whatever happens I think Edge will get the best match out of the Undertaker that he has had at Wrestlemania since his match with Triple H at Wrestlemania 17.

Winnter: The Undertaker

WWE Championship: Triple Threat: Randy Orton (c) Vs. Triple H Vs. John Cena

Although the build up to this has been a bit hit and miss this match has the most excitement in my eyes. John Cena and Randy Orton may not be the best wrestling technicians but it’s not about what moves you can or can’t do it’s about how you tell a story which I think these two can do adequately well especially with Triple H there. The thing with this match is that you don’t honestly know who is going to win as you can make a case for all three and that’s what makes it exciting. The reason going to a football match on the weekend or watching it on TV is exciting is anything can happen and you don’t know who is going to win which is exactly what wrestling fans want. They may go to an event supporting their favourite but the reason they get vocal and excited about supporting their favourite is that there is a real chance they could lose so they have to support them in anyway they can.

If WWE are doing their usual safe booking they will put the belt back on Cena as that is probably the reason they rushed him back so early. If the WWE want to do what’s right and take the company in a new direction they will put the belt back on Triple H. Triple H hasn’t won at Mania for some time as he has been involved on the booking committee and the unwritten law of wrestlers booking shows is that you don’t book yourself at the top however he is the most deserving but with one child and another on the way is he going to want a champions schedule? Again if the WWE are thinking long term and really want to build Orton they will have him retain the belt and retain it clean. So there you go three cases why each could win it. I think we will see at least one major title change at Mania and if it is going to happen anywhere I think this is where it will happen.

There is also an outside chance of a Rock appearance at Wrestlemania itself. After John Cena went on my friends Simon and JK’s Wrestlecast at The Sun to say that the Rock annoys him and that he doesn’t give back to the business that made him people are thinking it may all be a work to get Rock on Wrestlemania. Hulk Hogan has before gone to the Hall of Fame the night before and then got involved in Wrestlemania but even that wasn’t the main event so I don’t see it happening here.

Winner: Triple H

WWE Raw Review - 24th March 2008

The Raw before Wrestlemania is always the most important Raw of the year. This is when the wrestlers and the creative team should have created a huge buzz by and the show should do the best ratings of the year. The viewing rating for the Raw before Mania is very important at it affects the number of buys the PPV does. All the feuds should be laid out by now and this episode of Raw should just be a preview of what to expect this weekend. So with this in mind I was really looking forward to see if the WWE delivered.

Good Points

Great Start

The first five minutes of Raw were great as John Cena delivered one of his strongest in ring promos for some time. Whatever you think about Cena he knows how to work the mic and get a crowd going. However after this it became a mess which I will talk about in my bad points section later.

Good time given to Flair and Michaels

After weeks and weeks of little bits Flair and Michaels got a fair chunk of time on Raw for their in ring segment. I think Flair deserves a proper send off this weekend so although I don’t like the build up for this one I enjoyed one last Flair rant and even a history making event as for the first time since TNA used the NWA championship as their title Flair brought it with him to Raw to show his history.

Push for MVP and Carlito

With many people thinking that either Jericho or Kennedy are going to win MITB it was good to see MVP and Carlito beating the team of CM Punk and Chris Jericho. It was also a nice way to get other people from the MITB involved but still keep that Jericho / MVP feud going.

Bad Points

After Cena’s opening promo

The opening segment of Raw turned in to a mess after Cena’s promo as not only did Orton and HHH come down to the ring for a war of words we had Big Show, Umaga and JBL all jumping in there. Now it was funny to hear Umaga talk but at Wrestlemania you need to push your main event ahead of everything else which didn’t happen here. You can make a case for the Big Show to be there but only if it made sense which it didn’t but for JBL and Umaga whose matches are well down the card even below MITB and the Flair possible retirement match I think devalued the main event. This section got none of the feuds over and just felt like a comedy moment.

Big Show / Mayweather feud

This has to be the worst handled feud in recent wrestling history. You have got the big Show trying to be face but not succeeding and then being booked on the heel side of the tag match main event for Raw. On the other side you’ve got Mayweather who is trying to be the cool face but who again not many people like. If this wasn’t bad enough Mayweather has hardly been seen on Raw and was nowhere to be seen on the most important Raw except for video inserts. This started off with what was one of the most memorable moments in WWE history and has just fizzled in to a mess much like there match will be at Wrestlemania. Also slightly on another note Kennedy is suppose to be one of the main stars in the MITB match but ever since the Raw after No Way Out he has hardly wrestled.

Wasting Time

Every moment is precious selling space on the Raw before Mania so what the WWE creative team was doing having Holly for Khali who are both only going to be in the Battle Royal if anything which hasn’t been promoted.

Terrible Ending

Now on the Raw before Mania the person you should be pushing at the close of the show is either the champion or the challenger for the championship. Instead in what can only be described as sentimental booking by WWE Ric Flair made Orton tap from the figure of four winning the big eight man match for his team. I’m all for giving Flair a great send off but you don’t do at the expense of the show as a whole. To have Orton lose clean in the middle of the ring the show before Mania has weakened his position and weakened the main event.

Overall

If this was just your average episode of Raw this would have just been a mess but as it was the Raw before Mania it was an absolute disaster.

WWE Smackdown Review - Friday 21st March 2008

So Friday brought the 2nd to last Smackdown before Mania and a much needed time for them to impress the audience at home as we get closer to Wrestlemania. Here are my thoughts on the good and bad points of this weeks show.

Good Points

The VIP Lounge

Hands down the best part of this weeks show. MVP really raised his game on the mic as he and Jericho took it in turn to poke fun at each other. This is great solid common sense booking by the creative team to build a feud within the ‘Money in the Bank’ match and having the host of ‘The Highlight Reel’ feud with the host of the ‘The VIP Lounge.’ WWE just need to be careful not to forget about the other guys in MITB because if they aren’t spotlighted then the fans are going to think they are just to make up the numbers which may be true but for an entertaining match the fans need to believe that they all have a chance of winning.

Creative direction with Edge

After week upon week of running from the Undertaker and throwing obstacles in his way it was good to see a change of pace with Edge as he didn’t run this week. This week he laid a beating to the Undertaker with the help of his cronies. It will be very interesting to see what thy do next week as they need to b careful not to make the Undertaker look to weak which they are dangerously close to doing but at the same time they can’t afford for Edge to look weak going against such a big star.

Bad Points

Not enough out of ring segments

Smackdown started with a match and then until we got to the VIP Lounge it was pretty much just match after match with little in the way of linking segments. Now yes Smackdown needs to be different to Raw and be the so called ‘Wrestling Show’ but on an entertainment network you need all the backstage and linking segments. The first hour was very much like how wrestling use to be in the 70s and the 80s. Especially with Wrestlemania coming up it didn’t help get us excited for the big one.

No storyline development

Batista and Big Show both looked strong with wins in handicap matches but to both being pushed in the same way on the same show made it look like the writers were short on ideas. This wasn’t the main problem though as the main problems was that the matches didn’t develop their respective storylines. These were matches they should have been working weeks ago not two weeks away from Mania. This was the same with Edge’s match with Funaki but at least he used the Undertaker Tombstone finisher and got involved in his match later on.

The return of Jesse and Festus

Again the tag team scene continues on its downward spiral as the team that makes Cody Rhodes and Bob Holly seem entertaining come back and straight in to a tag title match. And why were they straight in to a tag title match yes that’s right because the only other tag team was getting buried at the hands of Batista.

Overall

Besides a couple of great bits this was wrestling how it use to be slow, boring and stale. This was a show that didn’t fit in the modern entertainment era of wrestling.

TNA Impact Review - Thursday 20th March 2008

Here is my rundown of the good and bad points of this weeks TNA iMPACT.

Good Points

Great out of ring segments

TNA are really doing well with these parts of the show. I like the segments with Mike Tenay when he brings together two feuding wrestlers together to air there grievances. It’s different to what the WWE do and brings in a chat show type element to the show. I’m also loving the rough cuts series they are doing with Kip James and BG James. It’s like having a programme within a programme and bring a reality TV style element to the show.

Building Kurt Angle for Lockdown

TNA are showing how the WWE should be handling the Floyd Mayweather / Big Show build up. Kurt Angle got to showcase his phenomenal amateur wrestling skills with a public workout against some supposed mixed martial artists. They are doing well at trying to create a MMA / Wrestling cross over.

Finally a well worked ending

After weeks of complaining finally TNA booked a proper finish to a show. The show ended with Sting’s music and video hitting as the announcers announced his return and his involvement in team Cage for Lethal Lockdown.

Bad Points

What are they doing to LAX

With tag teams like Eric Young & Kaz, Black Rein & Rellik and Rock & Rave Infection getting pushes they are killing a great tag team in LAX. This week Homicide had to lose to Sonjay Dutt a guy that hardly ever gets a proper match on iMPACT and only segments these days are interrupting or tagging along with Jay Lethal and SoCal Val.

Slow down

After not appearing last week on iMPACT and without any build Booker T kicked off the show with an in ring segment on the mic. Within five minutes Robert Roode had come down to interrupt and James Cornette was down to make a tag team match for Lockdown pitting Booker and Sharmell against Roode and Banks. Then we had Rhino and Cage talking for the first time in months then Rhino telling Cage where he could go to Cage then rescuing him from Tomko and AJ to then Rhino joining team Cage. Fans need fast paced action and need to know what is happening at a PPV ahead of time but for storylines to mean something and for people to buy in to them you can’t build them in five minutes.

No Samoa Joe

Last week Samoa Joe hinted that he wouldn’t be back in the iMPACT Zone until he won the belt from Kurt Angle. If this is true it is going to be very hard to build their match. No matter how good Angle continues to do in his segments in the build up he needs Samoa Joe there to build the feud. However saying this Kurt Angle recently did a podcast for my friends Simon and JK from The Sun Wrestlecast which he did out of character and said the belt needs to be put on Samoa Joe and soon. Yes I think it is good for wrestlers to come out of character for interviews like this with media companies but they shouldn’t be speaking like this about people they are about to go in a storyline with.

To listen to the Wrestlecast go to:

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/sport/wrestling/article908680.ece

Overall

Much improved. TNA seem to be ironing out the little problems put need to keep their eyes on the big issues and storylines. I think TNA are doing well at building a varied entertainment show that would appeal to a wide range of demographics.

WWE Raw Review - 17th March 2008

Two weeks away from Wrestlemania and the last week of Triple Threat Takeover, I was really looking forward to this week’s Raw and it delivered in spades with their best offering for some time. The show with a few minor exceptions was well paced and very entertaining and developed a lot of feuds nicely for Mania.

Good Points

A push for Jericho

With only two episodes of Raw to go before Mania it was great to see him opening the show with his Highlight Reel section. His guest this week was the Big Show and after a good war of words between the two a match was made between them for later on in the show for the Intercontinental title. After being poorly handled since his return I hope they continue his push and that he wins ‘Money in the Bank’ at Mania.

Good storyline development

With a few exceptions all the matches served well to develop storylines for Wrestlemania. Umaga was dominant again beating Kendrik and London, Jericho got himself disqualified to keep the belt but ended up being knocked out after one punch from the big Show and HBK came and made the save for Ric Flair to prevent him getting fired after Flair had asked him not to.

JBL the one man Heat machine

His match with Colin Delaney may have been pointless, you make think he is an idiot and you may think that he wrestling ability is limited at best but one thing JBL can do is work a crowd. His mic and character work as a heel are awesome and after only recently coming back to the active roster he is already one of the most hated heels on Raw.

Great Ending

TNA really need to watch this episode of Raw as they showed how to end a show. An ending of a show should be crazy with lots of things happening like this week’s episode of Raw had but when the cameras go off air the viewers need a definitive image and happening which they got. I thought Cena and Orton’s match against the entire Raw roster was well booked and kept both of them strong whilst still keeping it believable. We also finally ended a Raw with HHH on top after laying the beat on Orton and Cena after their match.

Bad Points

No Mayweather

With Mayweather costing the WWE millions of dollars to bring in you thought they would be getting better use out of him. With this being the match that has got the media attention for Wrestlemania they need him on their weekly shows to get their money’s worth. Now his non appearance may have been because of a contractual reason but if the WWE invested all this cash in him and not to have it put in a contract that he had to be on every Raw before Mania makes no sense.

Two people with the combined age of hundred having a wrestling match on Raw isn’t the best idea.

The Vince McMahon vs. Ric Flair was one of the most shockingly awful matches I have seen on raw and was only saved by HBK in the end. The match looked weak and was very slow. I know they did it to cash in on Vince’s induction on to the Walk of Fame in Hollywood but the match must have left every wrestling fan across the world hiding behind the sofa because of it’s cringeworthyness.

What to do with Santino

Santino Marella was in three segments of Raw this week normally it is main event stars that get this amount of segments in a show. By putting him in a number of segments it’s obvious the WWE like him but they won’t put him in a full blown singles match and is yet to have a proper one on one feud. I fear in a minute he may be the next Taz who came over to be a wrestler but was soon moved to other duties which now see him as a commentator.

Overall

The WWE did the most important things right and built the right matches for mania. Would have liked to have seen Batista on the show to develop his feud with Umaga but at least I got see a minute or so of Burchill. If the WWE just iron out these little issues they could have the best Raw for some time next week.

TNA Impact Review - Thursday 13th March 2008

After a disappointing Destination X TNA had their first iMPACT since the PPV and the first on the road to Lockdown on April 13th. I was interested to see if TNA would get my enthusiasm back for the product and get me excited about Lockdown.

Good Points

Solid Opening

Now as most you know only a fraction of the viewers who watch a weekly wrestling TV show will stump up the money to buy a PPV. Now because of this a lot of fans who tuned in to your product the week before the PPV may not know what happened so to make sense for your TV viewers you have to use your first show back to really convey to the fans what happened and how these happenings have affected the storylines and feuds. So TNA were sensible to use Jim Cornette in the ring to let the fans know what was happening. This lead to him announcing a Lethal Lockdown match for the next PPV and that Christian Cage and Tomko would be captains. This is one heck of a push for Tomko which I did expect but makes the booking team stupid for having him lose the six man match for his team at Destination X.

Karen Angle back

Was great to see Karen Angle back and prove why she is such an important part of the entertainment side of TNA shows. Again she had the most entertaining segment when she confronted Kurt in the ring. She is really helping not only build herself but Kurt’s character to.

Team 3D win promo of the night

Like I said wrestling fans have short memories when it comes to bad matches and Team 3D gave a hilarious backstage segment which seems to have washed away that terrible match at Destination X. Hopefully they can push on from here and leave that disaster behind them.

Bad Points

TNA Knockouts turning in to WWE Divas

Just when the Knockouts division is starting to get some credibility they ruin it by having a stupid segment with Roxy getting a makeover. After one of the worst Knockouts matches since the division started at Destination X followed by this stupid segment TNA really need to be careful no to lose its credibility and its uniqueness.

LAX first they push them now they don’t

After a great PPV win LAX were booked to lose against up and coming tag team the Rock and Rave Infection. TNA had been sensible with LAX with giving them some time away from the main tag team feuds after being pushed hard for some time and now just when you think they have got it right they go and do this.

Where are Booker T, Robert Roode and Sharmell?

After being the semi main event at Destination X and with the return of Sharmell whipping everyone why aren’t they on TV the next week. You had a made storyline there as we wait to see if TNA will take any action over Sharmell’s whipping spree but no they are nowhere to be seen.

Pushing Lethal Lockdown over Angle vs. Samoa Joe

At a PPV your main event should be the heavyweight world title match. There are a few exceptions to this rule like Wrestlemania 18 when Rock vs. Hogan should have been the last match. The main event should be pushed ahead of everything else but this week it was segments to do with the Lethal Lockdown match which kicked off the show and ended the show.

Worst mess of an ending to a TV show.

This one are where TNA need to improve on big time. This week you had a clear ending which should have been 3D interfering to beat on Cage and Nash in their match against Tomko and AJ Styles. This would let us know that 3D were to be Tomko and AJ Styles partners for Lethal Lockdown and that should have been the end shot. Instead we went off air with 3D beating on a reality TV star who was in the audience. The only way this would make one scrap of sense is if this reality TV star is going to be Cage and Nash’s side which I can only hope isn’t the case.

WWE Smackdown Review - Friday 14th March 2008

We are starting to get the business end now with two weeks to go until the biggest show of the year. This is the time for tight well planned out TV shows and shows which entertain the casual fans in order to get as many people talking about it and buying the PPV a possible. So did Smackdown do its job this week in getting us ready for Mania.

Poor Start

Many people will say that the main events and the endings of weekly wrestling shows that are the most important thing but I disagree to me the opening segment of a show is the most important. Unless you are channel surfing the only way you are going to watch the main event is if the opening of the show hooks you. It may be very formulaic but I enjoy seeing a non wrestling segment opening a show to set the scene for the rest of the show. If a show starts with a match which has nothing to do with the rest of the card and if that match is not interesting you are going to be watching with nothing to look forward to and not enjoying what you are currently watching so you are going to switch over. So opening up with a divas segment which had nothing to do with the rest of the card or wasn’t built the previous week on Smackdown was not the right idea.

Building Big Show

They are doing well at building the Big Show as an unbeatable monster this time having him win a handicap match in under five minutes. The problem is now that they are building the Big Show as that unbeatable do we really believe Mayweather can beat him?

Morrison in ‘Money in the Bank’

In a match that made no sense pitting the tag champs against each other Morrison beat The Miz to win a spot in ‘Money in the Bank.’ The match was good for wrestling quality but made no sense, saying this though I am glad to see Morrison in the ‘Money in the Bank’ you know he isn’t going to win it but he could definitely add something to the match. This match just showed you how bad the tag team scene is at the moment in the WWE. The Tag Belts, the US belt and the Intercontinental belt do not change hands often enough for my liking and the reason there are long title reigns for the these belts is that talent is so thin on the ground.

Great Finlay promo

Promo’s in my opinion are just as important as matches for telling storylines and a great promo can really take a feud to another level. Finlay’s promo about Hornswoggle and the JBL situation was superb and should be a lesson for the younger guys in the business on how to cut a promo.

Batista vs. MVP

After being my least favourite match in recent history on Smackdown I wasn’t looking forward to seeing this again. Thankfully the match was a lot better this time and the ending was great with Umaga coming in to set up a win for MVP which gave him a push before ‘Money in the Bank’ and helped develop the feud between Umaga and Batista.

Great main event

If I wasn’t a wrestling fan I may have missed this main event as I would have turned off after the first five minutes. Going back to what I was saying earlier it don’t matter how great a main event is if nobody is watching it’s meaningless. The main event pitted HBK and Flair vs. Edge his two cronies and Chavo Guerrero in a steel cage. The action was great and the ending was superb with the lights going off and Undertaker appearing in the ring causing Edge to once again flee the scene but this time in the process winning the match. The only problem I have is with the HBK / Flair set up for their match. As HBK is inducting Ric Flair in to the Hall of Fame the night before you know they are going to continue to be buddy, buddy up until the match so there is no real excitement of it they are going to fall out or not.

Overall

The show was a good episode of Smackdown. The creative team just need to be careful to make sure that Raw guys don’t get too much time and attention in a Smackdown main event which they managed to do this time but it is a very thin line. This week I enjoyed Smackdonw a lot more than Raw and was happy not to see Jesse or Festus.

TNA Destination X Review

Last Sunday saw TNA putting on their monthly offering but this time not from the Impact zone but from the Scope in Norfolk Virginia. I can’t wait until all TNA PPV’s are done from arenas which aren’t the Impact zone as I think it makes the PPV’s that much more special. Having a PPV from the same venue as your produce TV just gives the show a TV feel and not something special or worth paying money for.

Now going in to this I didn’t think much of the card but it is normally the events where I don’t expect much of the card that I go home enjoying the most so I went in with some hope. So with some hope inside of me this is what I thought of how it all went down.

Opening Video

I thought this was a lot better than TNA’s previous efforts with a simple but effective video. With some of the crazy videos they have put together with random footage and even more random ideas this video looked brilliant. Speaking of videos though they need to improve their videos that they put together to promo individual matches. On these videos they need to cut back on the amount of voiceovers they use and let the footage and the audio from commentators to tell the stories.

Highspots

Highspots have a place on a pay per view card and I think a match with some nice highspots is a good way to kick off a card and TNA did this with the three way tag match. The match was well executed and it was good to see LAX getting the win to re-establish themselves in the tag team scene. However with highspot matches you have to be careful not to over do them and put them back to back which is what we had with Destination X as the three way tag team match followed by the X-Division title match. The matches were that similar that they both featured a release powerbomb which isn’t the most commonly used move.

SoCal Val

The match between Jay Lethal and Petey Williams was instantly forgettable but the match did great things to develop SoCal Val’s character as Jay Lethal’s girlfriend. Being a face character and the partner of a face character she is expected to behave and act in a certain way. What they did at Destination X was interesting though as when Jay Lethal was pushed off the top rope by Scott Steiner and was about to be pinned Val took it upon herself to pull the referee to stop him from making the count. I know good guy wrestlers have done acts like this before but I thought it was interesting for a face female valet to do this.

Eric Young the Superhero

As expected Eric Young made his metamorphosis in to a superhero during his bout tagging with Kaz against Rellik and Black Reign. Now it is good in wrestling for the fans to be able to predict some of the things that are going to happen as people will tune in to see if they were right but I think Eric Young has been poorly handled in this one. Eric Young has been on a huge push over the last year in TNA I thought it would have made more sense in the long run to use this match for Eric young to finally show some courage and stand up against the monsters not to be put in a stupid costume and to then hit the ring with limited or little effect. Now if he turned in to a super hero with a good costume and hit the ring and made a huge impact then it would have at least given him something big to build on.

Fish Market Madness

Ok I like a bit of comedy in a wrestling show but you have to be careful that comedy doesn’t turn to look stupid and cringe worthy which is what happened in this match. I don’t think Team 3D, Curry Man or Fish Boy came out of the match with any credibility left. The great thing with wrestling is that moments like these are soon forgotten in the minds of wrestling fans so this match won’t have any long lasting affects on the combatants.

Knockouts not a knockout this month

Now you know I usually rave about the women’s division but I didn’t think it was up to it’s usual high standard at Destination X. It may just be that my expectations have got too high now with the Knockouts division but I hope they continue to try and raise the bar and not have too many outings like this one.

Robert Roode / Booker T

For a match with so much build and storyline for it only to go ten minutes and for those to be the least intense ten minutes of a strap match I have ever seen is very poor. It wasn’t until after the match that the intensity happened and that was thanks to Traci Brooks selling the lashes she received and then by Sharmell making her comeback b strapping everyone insight from security to James Cornette. Roode and Booker need to take a leaf out of the books of these two women when it comes to intensity.

Rhino vs Cowboy James Storm – Who came up with the idea for Elevation X?

I was not looking forward to this match on the card and it lived up to my low expectations. Normally the thing you can look forward to in these type of matches his a big bump at the end and after some time spent balancing above the ring James Storm finally climbed down as low as he could before he was finally pushed off by Rhino for an unexciting bump.

Does a six man work as a main event?

I for one am not a fan of having tag matches or six ways which aren’t for titles as main events. These type of matches have been used as main events for many TNA events and I don’t think many of them have worked. To get people to buy a PPV you need a strong main event which has a clear storyline and one person people want to see win and one they want to see lose. Now you knew Samoa Joe was going to get the win as they needed to push him for his title shot but to give him a great push they needed to have him pin Kurt Angle to put the thought in the fans mind that he can beat Angle. It made no sense for him to beat Tomko especially with what they could be planning to do with Tomko as this ending just made him look like the weakest link and not a possible future headline star.

Overall

There were no standout moments or standout matches that will live long in the memory. The show was well produced from a TV point of view but now they have that looking good they need to work on the content.

WWE Raw Review - 10th March 2008

It was Wrestlemania Rewind this week with three rematches from Wrestlemania’s gone by. On top of this it was a three hour special so an extra hour for your money this week. Here are my thoughts on this week’s episode, as we get closer to Wrestlemania 24.

Good Points

Finlay’s development

After a not so good start to the feud Finlay did well to put over his character of being pushed over the edge and tormented by the current situation with JBL and Hornswoggle as he laid a beating to Kennedy getting himself disqualified in the process. This feud has the potential to be a very strong and hard hitting contest at Mania.

Strong card

The show had one of the strongest cards a Raw has had in some time. The fans got to see all the top stars from Raw and Smackdown in some matches which have been and some which still are marquee matches. The WWE really push Wrestlemania and the cards of Raw’s before it do tend to be the best of the year to try and entice people to buy the PPV.

Batista getting some time on Raw

After being pushed way down the stack on the Wrestlemania card it was good to see Batista getting some time on Raw to finally start developing his feud with Umaga. The only positive thing to come out of this feud for Batista will be the amount of Raw time he gets out of the feud so it’s good to see him making the most of it.

Jericho’s title win

Ok the Intercontinental Title may not mean anything any more but it was good to see Chris getting his first title since his return. The only problem is to make the title mean something he needs some talent to feud with and there is no good mid card talent out there at the moment. I think Raw should push Burchill as a fed for Jericho as it could have moments reminiscent of Jericho’s brilliant feud with the Regal many years ago.

Bad Points

Why three hours?

Yes having a three hour special makes a show different and seem special for the fans like having a PPV for free but I don’t think it works on TV. Raw is on an entertainment station not a sport station. People tune in expecting a fast paced entertaining TV show but I think having a three hour TV show next to entertainment TV shows which normally last no longer than an hour doesn’t work. Save the three hours for PPV or anniversary specials.

The State of Money in the Bank

With Hardy’s 60 day suspension for drug use this match is really thin on the ground and highlights the weakness of the mid card in WWE. After Hardy’s recent push he was my pick to win and the WWE could have done some interesting stuff with him but now I think it looks like it will be Kennedy getting the win or possibly MVP. On the Raw side I’m not sure who they can add to the match possibly Burchill, Santino Marella or Kane.

Mayweather / Big Show feud

For all the money they are spending on Mayweather they should have spent some time thinking of how to orchestrate a good feud. The reason Mike Tyson worked all those years ago was that he was a bad boy that the fans loved and that he embodied the attitude era. However the fans are indifferent to him and because Big Show isn’t a headlining star he can’t get Mayweather over. This feud had such a great beginning but over he last couple of weeks it has lost all of it’s intrigue and heat.

Overall

When I am eaving Raw looking forward to Finlay vs. JBL at Mania the most you know the WWE creative team aren’t building the headline matches well. The WWE need to sort out the Money in the Bank match quickly and then invest more time and thought in to the headlining matches.

WWE Smackdown Review - Friday 7th March 2008

My expectations weren’t that high leading in to Smackdown this week after last week’s average showing but I was hoping they could put on a better showing than last week.

Jamie Noble getting a push

I am big fan of Noble and loved his backstage stuff and mic work when he first joined the WWE back many years ago when he had Nidia by his side and I also loved his in ring work whilst he was out of the WWE working for promotions like RoH. This week on Smackdown he got two backstage segments which were highly comical and then got the chance to fight Big Show in the development of on of the biggest mania matches. I hope the WWe continue to use Noble a lot better. I don’t think Noble vs. Palumbo is strong enough to be on Mania but I would definitely throw Noble in to the mix for ‘Money in the Bank.’

Batista made to look weak

After booking Batista way down the card for Mania in a strange turn of events this week they had him losing by a very weak count out finish to MVP who doesn’t have a match on Mania yet. I don’t understand the logic of having Batista lose like that when they should be building him as the top star to represent Smackdown. Again I start to wonder who he has annoyed backstage.

Why are they pushing Festus?

Festus continued his push this week getting the win for his team against the Smackdown Tag champs and the ECW champ. Out of all the guys to push in that match Festus wasn’t the one. I find the angle very cringe worthy and I don’t think it has any place in pro wrestling, the sooner it’s dropped the better.

Use of female talent

WWE needs to look at what TNA are doing right now with their Knockouts division. The women could play such a better and bigger part of the WWE and not used for throwaway segments and as part of the show which isn’t suitable for the WWE core audience who regardless of how they try to kid is the 5 – 12 age range.

Edge

Edge started the show strong with a great promo which when he mentioned about ending Undertaker’s Wrestlemania legacy there was a big pop is Edge going to eventually be the heel people love to cheer? I didn’t quite understand the point of him bringing Ric Flair on to the show to interview and then setting up a match between himself and Ric for next week’s Smackdown. Smackdown ended with much of the same as last week but this time it was an official 3 on 1 match with Edge and his two look-alikes battling the Undertaker. Again Edge let his two cronies take the beating to then spear Undertaker to get the win and then get out of there. The WWE needs to do something different with Edge and Undertaker as this is quickly getting boring.

TNA Impact Review - Thursday 6th March 2008

I was expecting big things this week from Impact as it was there last TV show before Destination X. However as usual what I watched was a bit of a mixed bag with some good and bad points.

Tomko

The show opened strong with a good Angle Alliance promo which continued to paint Tomko as an outsider with in the Alliance and getting ready to leave Angle’s group. Then later in the show they built him with a victory over Samoa Joe which is no small thing. Tomko is getting pushed to the moon at the moment, it will be interesting to see what he does when he is given more higher profile single matches.

Robert Roode

Robert is doing a great job getting heat from the fans as he got one of the loudest reactions of the night when the fans booed him out of the building. The only problem then came when he had a pull apart with Booker T as for two people that supposedly hate each other it was one of the least intense pull aparts I have seen in some time.

Too many parodies and mimics

Now I find Jay Lethal’s mimicking of Randy Savage funny and entertaining but the reason it works is that it is different to what everyone else is doing. Now Sharkboy is doing a parody of the Stone Cold character I find myself getting annoyed by both of them. On a weekly TV show you are trying to attract casual non wrestling fans to tune in to your show so you want to give them an entertaining yet easy to understand programme. Even some of mimics may be lost of wrestling fans who have only just got in to wrestling so I think TNA needs to start being a bit more creative.

Production

Again I’m still seeing shots with other cameras in shot. Worse than this I am seeing some of the most non fluid camera movements. First off the vision mixer shouldn’t pick a shot until its ready and then when the cameraman is live they need to learn not to panic and jerk the shot all over the place.

Are we excited or ready for the PPV?

I didn’t think Impact did enough to get us excited about Destination X. The unclear ending the Angle vs. Cage match and the fact the show went off air during mid action I don’t think gave us a clear stand out memory to get us pumped for the weekend. There was too much focus on matches which shouldn’t have been the top highlighted matches. More time should have been given to develop the X-Division title match, Rhino vs. James Storm and Booker T vs. Roode instead of focusing on the women’s title match, the Fish Street Market fight and the monsters tag match.

WWE Raw Review - 3rd March 2008

The anticipation is continuing to grow in the run up to Wrestlemania and I for one am starting to get in to Wrestlemania mood by watching some of the Mania’s from years gone by. I was looking forward to seeing what the WWE was going to do this week with Raw as I sat down for my weekly viewing.

As always there were some good and bad points, I will start with the bad points.

Poor Production

I thought the first in ring segment with Big Show fighting a professional fighter whilst Floyd Mayweather looked on through a live satellite link as he was broadcast on the Raw Titantron. This was a nice idea however was poorly produced as during the introductions of both competitors there were many shots which had other cameramen in shot which is not we are use to with WWE. The when the Big Show got on the mic to talk to Floyd the footage on the screen of Floyd was poorly produced and it looked like it was pre-recorded and not live as he wasn’t really responding to what Big Show was staying as well as just talking over big Show.

Use of Super Crazy

Once one of ECW’s top stars is now used as a jobber every week in other words he loses all his matches and normally in squash style. As Super Crazy is given no promos, no out of ring segments or no coverage from the commentators he reminds me very much of the 80 early 90s style of wrestling where you would have guys like Brooklyn Brawler and Barry Horrowitz who very rarely won a match or had a storyline. Now I’m not saying Super Crazy should be on top of the pile but if you are going to give him TV time and use him you need to do something with him.

Finlay / JBL / McMahon feud

Ok the premise to this feud may be very loose but now they have decided on this direction they need to run with it. They tried to put the feud over by having Finlay and McMahon having an in ring discussion to confirm what JBL had said was true about Hornswoggle being Finlay’s son which was needed. After this though they went to a shot of JBL with Hornswoggle in the worst ever hospital set I have seen on TV. JBL started to put the beat on Hornswoggle and Finlay just stayed in the ring to watch it on the screen. It did a great job of putting JBL over as a heel but took away from Finlay. Finlay was left looking like a stupid, helpless face. Instead of staying in the ring Finlay should have run backstage when he saw what was going on to try and get in a car to get there as soon as possible. Now that would have been sensible storytelling.

No TV time for Burchill

After three weeks of TV time on Raw Paul Burchill and Katie lea were nowhere to be seen this week. When you are developing a new wrestler and character you need to keep them on TV every week it makes no sense for WWE to invest the time in them to then not have them on TV. I know it’s a hard time for them to get established at the moment with everything surrounding Wrestlemania but if you are going to do it you have to commit to it.

Now on to the good points

Jeff Hardy

Jeff Hardy was Chris Jericho’s guest in the return of the Highlight Reel and showed some brilliant character development. Since his feud with Randy Orton he had gone back to just having his regular style matches with no mic or promo time but we got to see more of his developing character today as he hit the twist of fate on fellow face Jericho. We have seen hardy work a character lead feud against a heel but it is good to see him working well feuding with other faces.

Carlito

Was great to see him have a single match on Raw and win a place in the ‘Money in the Bank’ match at Wrestlemania. Two years ago he was in the first match at Wrestlemania last year he was moved to a dark match but now he is in a major match. The WWE need to start re-investing time in him though as he needs more than just the odd match to get his character across.

Randy Orton’s push

The creative team had come up with a great idea to structure the last three Raw’s with a Triple Threat Takeover. Each week before Mania one of the triple threat competitors will have the power to make the main event on Raw. This week it was the turn of Cena who chose to put Orton against Triple H. After the match Cena stormed the ring to hit the F-U on HHH only to be then on the receiving end of an RKO from Orton who left Raw as the last man standing. Triple H and Cena don’t need to be built but it’s Orton that needs to be built to the point where fans don’t think Triple H and Cena will be able to get the belt off him which is starting to be done.

Overall

A very entertaining Raw with lots going on, regardless of the matches and the results as long as the creative team keep it a fast paced show then its going to keep the viewers hooked which is what this show was. I think things are bubbling under at the moment with the pace of build up to Mania which is good as it has got me expecting great things from the next three episodes of Raw which is what the creative team need to do but they just now need to deliver.

Wrestlemania: My Thoughts So Far

As we are now under four weeks away from the “Granddaddy of them all” I thought it was time to give you my thoughts on the way it is shaping up match by match.

Here are my thoughts on the confirmed matches so far and what the WWE could do with them:

Inter-Promotional match – Umaga (Raw) vs. Batista (Smackdown)

I can’t say that I am all that excited about this match because there is now back story to it and the only back story can be made in the next few weeks. These two guys have never feuded before and have no logical reason to fight each other. Last year at Wrestlemania Umaga had a prime match which was given a storyline thanks to the McMahon / Trump feud as there was no real feud between Umaga and his opponent Bobby Lashley. This is also a step down for Batista who last year lost out in his championship defence against the Undertaker. The way Batista has been pushed over the last few years it would make no sense for him to lose the match unless they were planning a Umaga / Batista long term feud.

Money in the Bank

After two great annual ‘Money in the Bank’ matches I didn’t rate last year’s that much. I think this year it will be much better as you have two guys who would make sense to come out as winners. First off is Kennedy, although not my pick the way they have been building him on raw recently it would be a knock to his character for him to come up short. Kennedy is a main eventer in waiting but after his win in this match last year I think winning this match could also damage his standing as it would prove his career is going round in circles. I think from a storyline point of view it would make sense for Jeff Hardy to win and then cash in his slot against Edge on Smackdown where he has a ready made back story thanks to his Brother’s feud with Edge and it would be a good chance experiment with him as champion on Smackdown to see if he is ready to be a regular Raw main eventer.

Big Show vs. Floyd Mayweather

The build up for this has been great as they have made many non or casual wrestling fans that now think this feud is for real in real life. In wresting any match that is pre-advertised will always been a work regardless of how much they make it look like a shoot. Due to the size difference and Floyd’s lack of ring experience I don’t see this being an exciting match by any means but that’s not its job on the card. This match is designed to get non wrestling fans to buy the PPV and it will be the other matches and wrestlers which they will get entertained by. With Floyd’s ego I am sure they have booked him to win against the big Show in this David vs. Goliath attraction.


Ric Flair vs. Shawn Michaels – Retirement match

Last year Ric came out and said he wanted to end his career with a main event match at Wrestlemania after not making the televised card of Wrestlemania 23. When he said this most including myself thought he was crazy and that his ego had got the better of him and not many people could see this happening after he wenton a brief hiatus from our screens. However it may not be a main event but he has has got his Wrestlemania wish. In all fairness I have enjoyed Ric’s run since it was announced that as soon as he lost a match he would be fired. It would be one of wrestling’s great swerves if Ric did beat HBK but for his character I think it is only fitting that he bows out at Wrestlemania. I just hope that the match will be a fitting send off for him.


Edge vs Undertaker

This is a great feud between a young brash fast talker against a member of the old guard who lets his actions speak louder than words. Although last year Batista and Undertaker surprised me with their title fight last year with how good it was I think this match could be even better. Some of Undertaker’s greatest matches of the modern era in my opinion have been his bouts against Shawn Michaels and I think Undertaker is great at working with people that are smaller and that have great athleticism. I would like Edge to win as it would push him and solidify him and his position of champion however with Undertaker’s backstage power and his Wrestlemania record I think it would be a brave move for the creative team to book an Edge win. I want to see this and I think it makes more sense but I am not holding my breath.

Randy Orton vs. HHH vs. John Cena

It has been a couple of years since we last had a triple threat title match at mania and a couple of years since HHH last headlined so I am looking forward to this one. If it was anywhere near as good as the triple threat title match from Wrestlemania 20 I will be happy. Now from a booking point of view it is quite interesting what they could do with this one. If the WWE are playing safe they will put the belt back on Cena as he is supposedly their most popular star. With the push they have been giving him and his rush back from surgery it would make for him to win. However it has been a long time since HHH was champion so I think viewing ratings would go up with HHH as champion. The reason HHH has been away from the title is because he is part of the booking team and it is an unwritten law that when you are booking you don’t book yourself on top but I don’t think anyone would begrudge HHH a title run. The only thing left off Orton’s resume is a win in a world title fight at Wrestlemania but I think the WWE are going to commit to a change of direction on Raw after mania as Orton has now had the belt for some months.

Still to be scheduled

There is still some space on the card to be filled so here are some other matches I think may happen. It has been reported that Matt Hardy is back after a recent appearance at a WWE live event so I would expect to see him re-ignite his feud with MVP for the US championship. With the poor state of the tag division I’m not sure if it is worth putting a match on the card if anything I would do a Raw Champions vs Smackdown Champions match. On top of this there will be a match in the storyline between JBL / McMahon / Hornswoggle and there might be an ECW title match.

Rumours

There are always a lot of rumours around Wrestlemania time some prove to be true but most don’t. Rumour is at the moment is that the Rock could make an appearance. He is going to be at the Hall of Fame inductions the night before and recently John Cena has badmouthed the Rock in the press to throw further fire on this rumour.

Overall

I am looking forward to Mania after a spate of disappointing Mania’s I think there are enough good quality wrestling matches and enough points of interest and possible entertaining moments to make this a memorable event.

WWE Smackdown Review - Friday 29th February 2008

After a well booked Smackdown last week I was looking forward to what the Smackdown creative team and performers had install for us this week. However this excitement didn’t last for long.

Too many big guys

Now last week I talked about Smackdown being heavy of wrestlers around the 300 pound mark or higher but this week it was evident. Now if you have too many big guys the answers is not to put them all in to two matches. First we had Kane & Batista vs. Khali & MVP and then we had Balls Mahoney vs. Big daddy V. Luckily the latter didn’t last long. There is a place on a wrestling show for big guys but they need to be used well and not all booked together.

Slow developing feuds

Now the idea of having a weekly TV show is to develop storylines ready for the next PPV. I know it’s harder at the moment as there are more episodes between No Way Out and Wrestlemania than normal PPV’s but to keep a viewers interest you can’t have a feud treading water. The feud which is suffering at the moment was Chuck Palumbo and Jamies Noble as they had a match which Chuck won but nothing happened in the match to develop the feud so it was a waste of time.

Who has Batista annoyed?

After being in the main event scene for as long as I can remember Batista has now confirmed that he is going to be representing Smackdown in the inter-promotional match at Wrestlemania. With the two title fights, Big Show / Mayweather, Money in the Bank and Falir’s retirement match this match isn’t even on the main event radar. The only good thing for Batista is that this feud could mean him going to Raw shows and Umaga the Raw representative coming to Smackdown shows which will lead to more TV time for Batista.

Larger than life storylines

For me Smackdown has always been a product more designed for young people than Raw with more larger than life characters and storylines. This is why the WWE are trying out the tag team of Jesse and Festus in Smackdown but I for one am not a big fan. Eugene had a similar storyline and he made it work as he endeared himself to the fans but for me Festus is used as a character just to poke fun at which I don’t think is right or fits with the fans base.

The Edge / Undertaker feud

I think the Smackdown creative team are doing a good job with this on the whole. As a great heel Edge will keep on putting stumbling blocks in Undertaker’s way and Undertaker being the face will keep knocking them down. This week it was time for Zack Ryder to be used as a pawn and just as it looked like Undertaker would get his hands on Edge he fled leaving his minions to take a beating. The only thing I would watch if I were the creative team was giving the Undertaker too much mic time as with Edge being such a great talker I think the feud works best if Undertaker lets his actions speak louder than words. The other thing is to not build Edge’s minions as I thought Undertaker’s match with Zack Ryder should have been a match to show Undertaker’s dominance not to build Zack Ryder which it did.

Overall I thought it was a solid show but there wasn’t enough storyline development for my liking.

TNA Impact Review - Thursday 28th February 2008

The show got off to a great start with a backstage segment featuring the continuing breakdown of Karen and Kurt Angle’s marriage. Kurt is really doing well at trying to make himself the top heel in the promotion which is hard for him considering how many fans he has. The first in ring segment was the right storyline to push next which was the Booker T / Robert Roode feud. Unfortunately though after Booker T called Robert out it was Payton banks that made her way down to ringside to slap Booker with Traci Brooks making the save. It was a good idea to build the Booker T can’t hit a woman like Robert Roode side of the storyline but it was poorly executed with the segment leaving the focus on the girls and no Booker & Roode.

I’m loving the 3D weight loss storyline at the moment. At first I was annoyed with their invasion in to the X-Division but now that they are away from the title and playing comedy heels instead of angry heels it works a lot better. Their out of ring segments which follow them trying to lose weight backstage and during the week are hilarious.

The two storylines which I’m not in to at the moment are the Eric Young monsters angle and the James Storm / Rhino feud. I think the Eric young being scared of Rellik and Black Reign storyline could get interesting if he decides to take on a superhero alter-ego but if not done right could look very bad. With the James Storm / Rhino storyline I am not buying James Storm’s work. What should be an intense feud has got too much comedy in it with Storm’s fear of heights and his drinking championship matches whereas Rhino is playing this feud with the intensity its back story deserves.

After the poor start to the continuation to the Booker T / Robert Roode feud it ended well on the night with Robert Roode finally making getting inside the venue. At first this didn’t make any sense as he had been running from Booker T for the last couple of weeks as a villain should so to actually come to the venue made no sense for me. The ending was superb though with Robert Roode handcuffing Booker T and laying a beat down in the ring on him until security broke it up. The only problem with this intense finish is that thy need to continue at this same level of intensity up until their PPV match or this night will be lost.

The main event wasn’t much to write home about. What Nash is doing in a main event I will never know but at least it was a non title bout with Kurt. So overall a solid outing with nothing spectacular for TNA this week.