WWE Raw Review - 27th October 2008

After a lacklustre Raw last week and a lacklustre Cyber Sunday I was hoping that tonight’s Raw the start of the road to Survivor Series would be the start of an upturn for the WWE.

Good Points

Adamle / Orton Feud

With Orton still not ready to compete yet they have built him a great storyline with Mike Adamle. Orton blames Adamle for getting him stunnered by Steve Austin at Cyber Sunday and has called for Shane and Stephanie McMahon to come to Raw next week to fire him or he will walk. Orton’s mic work was some of the most intense on Raw in recent weeks and I think has put everyone on notice for his upcoming in ring return.

A Great wrestling match

It was so good to see Rey Mysterio against Evan Bourne on Raw, with a couple of more good cruiserweights they could build a division to Rival WCW’s in the late 90s. Hopefully these two will get to go at it again soon.

Santino take another beating

Santino again provided the comedy for the evening continuing on his programme with the WWE legends from last night’s Cyber Sunday. As the legends came out to commentate on his match he threw some good lines at them on the mic and then once again took a beating at their hands but again it was great character development for Santino.

Bad Points

Not buying Batista as champ

I thought tonight proved why they should have kept the belt on Jericho as after Jericho delivered a solid in ring promo it was then left to Batista later on in the show to deliver a weak promo that lacked any kind of intensity. I’m already looking forward to Batista dropping the belt.

More change for change sake

After last night’s title change tonight we had the makeshift partnership of CM Punk and Kofi Kingston winning the tag belts from DiBiase and Rhodes. I thought the WWE were trying to build the second generation stable but this did nothing to help. I think it’s was done because they wanted to give a title to CM Punk and this was hat would have probably happened if CM Punk and Kofu had been voted in to the tag match at Cyber Sunday.

Overall

A big improvement lots going on and the show got back to feeling like an action packed two hours.

WWE Cyber Sunday 2008 Review

With a pretty tepid build up I wasn’t expecting much from Cyber Sunday. I do like the concept behind Cyber Sunday and enjoy the fact that we now have distinct events outside the big four like One Night Stand being a show of hardcore matches and this show having a card full of matches which fans get to vote on but I don’t think the WWE have really delivered on the potential of this event.

Good Points

Evan Bourne on PPV

It was great to see Evan winning the vote to challenge for the ECW title and then put on a brilliant match with Matt Hardy. This was my favourite match on the card and I hope it will be the start of a great push for Evan as I think he would make a good ECW champion or could revitalise a cruiserweight division on Raw or Smackown.

Santino is comedy gold

Santino did a great job with the Honky Tonk man and provided some great comedy moments in his match which saw Piper and Goldust get involved. Santino showed that it’s not about winning or losing it’s about entertaining.

Bad Points

Changing for change sakes

Putting Batista as champion for me just smacked of just making a change for change sake. Now things always need freshening up but that doesn’t mean you have to change the champion to do it. Just as Jericho had established himself as the champion to have him give it up made no sense.

Killing Jeff Hardy

Jeff Hardy as predicted got voted in to the title match against HHH but again he was made to lose clean. The fans love Jeff Hardy and he moves a lot of merchandise but the creative team aren’t ready to trust him with the ball and the Smackdown brand is getting very stale with HHH consistently winning clean against Hardy. To save Hardy’s position they should have had Kozlov coming down and costing him the match so then that would have built a good triple threat match for Survivor Series.

John Cena’s return

The event was used to push John Cena’s return at Survivor Series. Now it makes great sense to promote the next PPV whilst people are watching a PPV but to promote it so heavily that the show you have paid for looks like a commercial for the next PPV is wrong. The most important thing on the PPV should be making the show they are watching the best it can be and not promoting the next PPV. If a PPV is really good people will buy the next one regardless of promotion.

Overall

CM Punk was the main face of the promotion and WWE didn’t even use him and then put on a below standard show with very few highlights was very disappointing. Hopefully things will pick up for Survivor Series with all the promotion they are putting in to it.

After a below standard Raw I was hoping Smackdown could provide some light at the end of a dismal week to get us hyped for Cyber Sunday. With a huge main event I was interested to see what the show was going to be like.

Good Points

Main Event Push

I thought it was great that they made the main event HHH vs. Undertaker as that is a huge match that gets people interested and it provided scope for various run ins as these two are in separate matches at Cyber Sunday. The match was one of the longest Smackdown main events in some time and although the ending was predictable it did what it needed to do for Cyber Sunday.

Use of Primo and Carlito

It’s great to see WWE really pushing this team. Carlito has had to put up with a lot over the last few years but this brother tag team was worth the wait. They scored a good win over Chavo Guerrero and Bam Neeley as well as getting some backstage segments of them goofing around. With these two at the helm Smackdown could have a good tag division again.

Bad Points

Jeff left out in the cold

I think WWE are really trying to get people to vote for Kozlov as they are really going out of their way to push Jeff to one side. Jeff is such a fan favourite I don’t think it matters but this week to open the show he was pedigreed by HHH and then didn’t get involved in the run ins at the end of the main event or have his own match on the card.

Khali Kissing segment

This is cringeworthy TV and a reason why people are scared to tell their friends that they are wrestling fans. I hope this idea gets killed really quickly as at the moment it is just more ammunition for the anti wrestling brigade.

Overall

A much more exciting show than Raw although that wasn’t hard. Had some lulls during the show and maybe had some of the wrongs guys used for matches but the right stuff got pushed and the ending was effective.

WWE Raw Review - 20th October 2008

With one week left to go to Cyber Sunday it was time for the Raw brand to put the final parts in the storylines together for their matches at the PPV.

Good Points

Nice build for Main Event

The creative team did a good job of building Jericho vs. Batista with both getting mic time in the ring and then both of them participating in the evenings main event. Mike Adamle put them both in gauntlet matches which gave the fans a chance to see and predict who they thought would come out on top this Sunday. If you are judging by what happened on Raw you would have to make Batista the favourite this Sunday.

Great Santino Segment

Santino came to the ring to deliver a promo dressed as a mixture of all three of his possible opponents this Sunday at Cyber Sunday. I enjoy Santino’s comedic work so he had me in stitches and although I am no Jim Duggan fan it was good to have him involved in the segment.

Bad Points

The return of Snitsky

Just when you think the WWE have gotten rid of Snitsky as you haven’t seen him for ages he comes back only to be used to lose in a throwaway match. This week it was a loss to Rey Mysterio. So I except to be writing the same sort of comment in a couple of months time.

Cryme Time / 2nd Generation feud

I like this feud but what they did for it on Raw was shocking. Their match was thrown out before it even started as Manu got involved in a three on two beat down which last a couple of minutes and then that was it. Didn’t do anything to inspire or get me interested.

Overall

Not the most exciting Raw ever and really missed Randy Orton and Michaels who I thought would put in an appearance as they are involved in the voting for the main event at Cyber Sunday. Maybe this all a ploy by WWE to make their shows boring so that people crave John Cena’s return more.

WWE Smackdown Review - Friday 17th October 2008

After a fairly poor Raw I was looking forward to see what the Smackdown crew were going to produce this week. With viewing ratings being considerably low even by Smackdown’s standards since the switch to MyNetworkTV would WWE be working hard to get those ratings back.

Good Points

Undertaker on Smackdown

It was good to see Undertaker in ring action this week against Khali. The match kept his feud with the Big Show going nicely as it gave Big Show the chance to interfere only for The Undertaker to get the last laugh. Next week’s main event is Undertaker vs. HHH which could be the biggest main event in Smackdown history and is being hyped as such.

Nice title feud

Slingshotting Kozlov to the top has added some extra spice to the title scene. Now we have Jeff Hardy the fans favourite wanting another crack at the belt but then we have Kolov the guy that the fans hate but seems to be an unstoppable force at the moment.

Bad Points

Kizarny

Two vignettes were played for this new character which reminded me a bit of Michael PS Hayes back in the day. His character a make up wearing either Carnival worker of Carnival enthusiast didn’t do much for me. When I see characters like this it gives me awful memories of WWE in 1992/1993 with characters like Papa Shango an Doink.

Another John Cena video

Ok I understand the WWE promoting John Cena on Raw but we don’t need it on Samckdown as well where he isn’t on the roster. Also WWE seem to be playing the same two videos over and over again. If it was a new video every week I could understand but it is getting a bit repetitive now.

Overall

A great episode of Samckdown two great main event feuds which should deliver at Cyber Sunday, can’t wait for next week’s episode.

TNA Bound for Glory IV 2008 Review

Bound for Glory is TNA’s version of WrestleMania and has been hyped as such by TNA over the last few weeks so I was expecting the best event of the year.

Good Points

Jarrett back on top form

Jeff Jarrett made an awesome in ring return after nearly two years out of action against Angle. The match was well paced told a great story and although predictable at times Foley’s involvement as Special Enforcer added to a great match. Foley helped Jarrett to the win but it was stressed by the commentators that this was Foley’s only contractual obligation which is obviously just part of the storyline so it will be interesting to see where this goes.

Sting wins the gold

After being pushed to the side in recent months it was great to see Sting win the TNA heavyweight title. In recent weeks TNA have been circulating news that Kevin Nash is out of contract with TNA but that didn’t stop him from costing Samoa Joe the title which makes me think this news is just part of the storyline and now Nash and Sting are going to be the leaders of the established stars vs. the TNA originals.

Great Monsters Ball match

The four way tag team title match was great. Although the ending was weak there were some very memorable moments. We had Abyss going through the flaming tables and then unlike what normally happens when the fire dies on impact Abyss was left rolling around afterward still engulfed in flames, I think something went wrong there but it was memorable to watch. Then we had Hernandez going through a table covered in thumbtacks chest first instead of back first which is how wrestlers normally take that bump.

Bad Points

No Wrestlemania

I thought that the second half of the show was awesome but the first half was quite hard to sit through and no Wrestlemania by any means. When WWE do Wrestlemania it has a distinctly different feel to all other PPV’s whereas although this had some good moments felt no different to any other TNA PPV.

Main Event Booking

When you book a show with such a strong under main event match I think you are asking for trouble. With Jarrett’s return against Angle and with Foley as special enforcer it took the shine off which should have been a night we went home remembering Sting. When you have such a strong match which isn’t for the title you need to put it last or book that match so that it is for the Heavyweight Title.

Overall

Although I didn’t finish the show thinking I had seen the most special event of the year I did think it was a really good event. Lots of scope for storyline development and some memorable matches.

WWE Raw Review - 13th October 2008

With Cyber Sunday getting ever closer it was going to be interesting to see what matches and storylines WWE were going to add and work on this week.

Good Points

Good Build for Batista vs. Jericho

They actually did a good job of developing the feud this week. Jericho and Batista were given the chance to pick opponents for each other to face on Raw so Jericho picked Michaels for Batista and Batista picked CM Punk for Jericho putting himself as the referee. I like the Cyber Sunday gimmick for this one with the fans being able to pick the referee as it keeps Michaels involved in the storyline as he is one of the options.

John Cena video

Another John Cena video again this week to keep his name around. I like them as they are doing a good job of trying to show John Cena’s passion for the sport and to win over his detractors although they have to be careful not to over do the videos too much.

Bad Points

Jackass Crew

Now I understand the idea behind getting outside celebrities involved in wrestling storylines to help generate a buzz but I think with Jackass that their popularity is on the decline so they have missed the boat with this one. Also the section they featured in was an absolute mess with everyman and his dog getting involved when it should have just been about developing their feud with Khali.

Poor storyline development

Besides the main event nothing else was really developed on the Raw side of the card for Cyber Sunday Mysterio tagged again with Matt Hardy, JBL wrestled against Charlie Haas and Cryme Time had a throwaway match against the Miz and Morrison.

Overall

As a two hour TV show I don’t think it would have entertained the casual fan. I know Cyber Sunday isn’t a big PPV in the WWE calendar but they still need to do more than what they are doing to hype it and get fans interested.

WWE Raw Review - 6th October 2008

After a good No Mercy it was time to get down to business again and the road towards Cyber Sunday. Would there be any fallout from Jericho and Michaels and what will Batista do now he is number one contender.

Good Points

Chris Jericho

Jericho gave a good in ring promo to kick the show off showing the world how Michaels has permanently disfigured him last night as his injury was well woven in to the storyline. He also put the wheels in motion for his feud with Batista as he was in the receiving end of Spine Buster from the Animal and then as acting GM tried to screw Batista out of his number one contenders spot in which he was unsuccessful.

John Cena videos

It’s been a while since was last saw Cena on our screens so WWE put out two well crafted video segments following his surgery and featuring positive comments about him from fellow wrestlers. Good to see them trying to keep his name out there.

Push for Ted Dibiase

The WWE are really pushing Ted junior as this week he got a singles win against former Intercontinental champion Kofi Kingston. Expect him to be the next Randy Orton within a year.Loss of intensity for Rey and Kane

Bad points

Not much going on

Besides the build for Jericho vs. Batista there really wasn’t much going on. We had a few throwaway matches featuring people that weren’t feuding with each other and a few backstage segments. The content really wasn’t enough to keep the viewer hooked for two hours.

No Heat

After last night’s dramatic end to their match I was expected the heat to be turned up even further on this feud but instead were put in a mix storyline match as Rey tagged with Matt Hardy to go against Kane and Mark Henry.

Overall

Another average Raw. Not enough exciting stuff happening backstage and not enough good matches in the ring. Without Orton being able to wrestle and Cena off the show Raw is really lacking at the moment.

WWE No Mercy Review

After a mixture of good and bad WWE programming as of late it was time for the first of to PPV’s in October for WWE that being No Mercy. The event was largely built around the ladder match between Shawn Michaels and Chris Jericho for the World Heavyweight Title.

Good Points

The ladder match

Although it won’t get down as one of the best ladder matches of all time there were some good bumps in there and some great psychology. There was no way they were going to make Jericho give up the belt a month after he won the belt especially as the last holder before him CM Punk was always seen as a transitional champion.

Triple H vs. Jeff Hardy

This match did a lot to enhance Jeff Hardy although he came up on the losing side of the result again. The lat few minutes of this match really got the fans believing that Jeff could win this and it was only a sneak roll up manoeuvre that got HHH the win. However now it looks like HHH is going to go straight in to a feud with Kozlov so I’m not sure where it leaves Jeff.

Bad Points

It’s getting like TNA

There were some silly endings tonight which came straight out of the TNA book with Rey Mysterio beating Kane by dq after Kane gave him a chairshot when he flew out of the ring in to Kane and Big Show beat The Undertaker following referee stoppage due to Big Show knocking Undertaker unconscious.

Where do we go from here?

With Batista winning a number one contender match what will Michaels do now and now that Kozlov is set up in a feud with HHH what will happen to Hardy? Will Kane continue to feud with Rey Mysterio? It’s good to have a little bit up in the air after a PPV but I feel there are too many top names without storylines at the moment.

Too Many TV like moments

The PPV at times felt a bit like an episode of Raw or Smackdown with in ring promos and mic segemtns involving Orton, JBL, Cryme Time and others. I think at a PPV the only in ring stuff happening should be the matches or things with affect matches with everything else happening backstage.

Overall

The last two matches saved it if it wasn’t for them it would have been an absolute dud of a PPV.

TNA iMPACT Review - Thursday 2nd October 2008

With only two weeks to go until Bound for Glory and with Mick Foley set to make his presence felt in the iMPACT Zone I was looking forward to what TNA had in store this week for us after I missed last week’s episode.

Good Points

Jarrett / Kurt feud

TNA have done orchestrated this perfectly with the help of the UK media especially Simon down at The Sun they have created a great angle. Kurt gave shoot style interviews to The Sun where he claimed he didn’t like TNA and still had respect for Vince at WWE. These comments then got printed and TNA have sewn in to the storyline where Jarrett now takes exception to the comments made about his company and the storyline is coming over as real which makes for entertaining TV.

Foley makes his iMPACT

Ok it wasn’t a great in ring promo that Foley delivered but it got attention and built to the announcement that he was going to be special enforcer for the Angle vs. Jarrett match. Will be interest to see where Foley fits in to this whole new school / old school situation currently going down in TNA.

A new name about to start

TNA produced a really good video teasing the debut of a new character called Suicide who looks really interesting. On the back of it TNA have launched a viral type campaign with a website and everything set up for fans to try and find out who this new guy is.

Bad Points

Samoa Joe pushed to the side

Samoa Joe was left with just a pre-record interview with Tenay and Sting as his involvement this week. Yes Angle vs. Jarrett is huge but it doesn’t mean you completely under sell your title match. I wouldn’t be happy if I was Joe at the moment.

Poor main event

The last match on the card before the final Foley segment was a woman’s tag which featured the Beautiful People vs. ODB and Raka Khan and as the girls aren’t currently in a match at the PPV it made no sense.

Overall

I thought bar the minor exceptions it was a great show and that momentum is starting to build again for TNA.

WWE Smackdown Review - Friday 3rd September 2008

It was a special Smackdown tonight not only was it the last Smackdown before No Mercy but it was also the first Smackdown on the new network and to start with a bang on the new network the card was stacked.

Good Points

Stacked card

The show kicked off with an eight man tag that went half an hour which included Batista, Rey Mysterio, jeff Hardy, JBL and others. Then all through the night we had mix brand matches followed by an awesome champion vs. champion triple threat main event.

Good build for Big Show vs. Undertaker

Undertaker may be having problems with his knee but he has still managed to put on a good package with Big Show. This week Undertaker’s music hit whilst Big Show was in the ring then when Big Show went up the ramp the Undertaker appeared in the ring.

Bad Points

Not much storyline development

Because it was a mixed brand show there was little storyline development besides from Undertaker Big Show which was a shame just before No Mercy.

Use of Kozlov

Kozlov isn’t on the PPV but again he was put over as the top dog after laying out HHH following his main event. It may be that he will get involved at No Mercy but at the moment it makes no sense.

Overall

Match quality was great but there was little in the way of backstage segments and in ring promos so it had a feel of a house show at times.

WWE Raw Review - 29th August 2008

After last week’s 800th episode special of Raw I was looking forward to see what they were going to do with the last Raw before No Mercy. With two big Raw feuds on the PPV it would be interesting to see what they did to hook people to buy the PPV.

Good Points

Good development for JBL / Batista feud

This feud got some great TV time on Raw. To make up for not giving Batista a title push this year as of yet creative are trying to keep him strong and in the focus. Both JBL and Batista landed sucker blows on their No Mercy opponent blindsiding each other after their respective matches. This should be a brutal match at No Mercy.

Second Generation Stable

WWE are building this faction of DiBiase. Rhodes and Manu brilliantly as this week they were all able to compete in one match on the same team in a rare eight man tag on Raw. Not only did they get this but they got good backstage time as they tried to convince Kane to join their group.

Orton kept in the Spotlight

I like what the creative team are doing with this making Orton feud with Adamle as it keeps Orton on TV and it help builds Adamle. Just the question is at the moment when will Randy return to full ring action.

Bad Points

Poor build for main event

Besides the main event match Jericho didn’t get any TV time. When you are building for a PPV the best way to do is through backstage segments, promos and mic time but when the champion isn’t given any of that how is he suppose to get the feud to boiling point. To add to this ad make it worse instead of build Jericho Michaels they decided to bring HHH back and reform DX again for another one night special which overshadowed the actual feud they are suppose to be building.

Too much time for Santino

Now I love Santino, the boy cracks me up but when he is getting more time on the mic at backstage than your main event guys then there is a problem. Although I bet Santino isn’t complaining.

Overall

A decent outing nothing to jump and down about, can’t say I am excited about No Mercy but it is normally the events that you go in with low expectations that turn out to be the good ones.