WWE Raw review 15th February 2008

Now that the hype from No Way Out has died down and because we are still five Raw’s away from Wrestlemania it is now time for the creative team to start working overtime. Normally there is only three or four Raw’s between main events so the creative team have to be sure to pace the feuds right to make sure they reach bubbling point just before Wrestlemania. With the importance of Mania and the extra editions of Raw I was interested to see how the creative team were going to work this one.

For me this Raw will be remembered for a couple of good matches and some terrible booking which was annoying after witnessing a well booked Smackdown last week.

Crazy Booking

There were three booking decisions for me that made no sense and one case of lazy booking. First off we had Jeff Hardy fighting Chris Jericho and if Chris Jericho won he qualified for ‘Money in the Bank’ at Mania. For all of you who watched Raw last week you are not wrong, Jeff Hardy did qualify last week but in a crazy booking idea was put against Chris Jericho. You knew Jericho was going to win as Hardy had nothing to fight for which is stupid booking. It was a much better match than the qualifying matches last week on Raw which I said they needed to do but they souldn't do that at the expense of sensible booking. So well done WWE for listening to me about match quality now sort out the booking. However Jericho’s backstage segment with Regal was very funny and a great moment for long term WWE fans as Jericho joked about things that happened when they last feuded.

Next we had Vince McMahon coming down to the ring to demand an apology from JBL over the beating he gave his illegitimate son. To which JBL informed Vince that he had found out that Hornswoggle was not his son after all. After all the build up they gave the storyline when Hornswoggle was announced as Vince’s son it made no sense to say it was all untrue now with no warning, no hints or no flowing storyline. The only reason they did this was to get a JBL/Finlay/McMahon feud going for Mania when if they just kept the JBL / Jericho feud going which was starting to get hot instead of dropping it with no warning then they wouldn’t be in this position desperately trying to find JBL a storyline.

The final bit of madness came at the end as after John Cena had won the tag match for him and HHH against Randy Orton and Mr. Kennedy for Kennedy just to come back in and deliver his finisher on Cena as the show went off air. All through the show they were building Kennedy with backstage promos where he was telling Randy Orton about how he was going to win ‘Money in the Bank’ and cash his chance in that night at Wrestlemania. When it is Mania time you have to push your main event as the biggest attraction every Raw not have someone who isn’t anywhere near the main event of Mania in a non feud storyline match which is ‘Money in the Bank’ pushed ahead of the main eventers as it devalues your main event.

Lazy Booking

Ric Flair vs. Shawn Michaels was finally officially set up when Flair came in to the ring after HBK’s match to say he wanted to fight Michaels at Wrestlemania. To this HBK said he didn’t want to be the one to retire Flair to which Flair replied he just wanted to have a great match at Wrestlemania to which Shawn agreed to. Now if you didn’t want to fight someone or retire them you wouldn’t have your mind changed in the space of a minute after a couple of lines. All I have to say is very lazy booking.

Again there were some good points though

Stronger Matches

After last week there was an improved level of match quality with Hardy / Jericho being match of the night. The quality was also help by the return of DH Smith a rare appearance by Carlito and a solid main event. The WWE managed to get more out of ring segments and better quality matches which is the mix they needed.

British Invasion

Was great to see Burchill, Katie and Regal in a backstage segment togther after watching DH Smith son of the British Bulldog have his first match back. This was Burchill’s first proper backstage segment so it was great to see although he didn’t get any in ring time this week. They even teased the possibility of him having a match at Wrestlemania so watch this space.

So all in all hat WWE need to do now is really focus in on the feuds, simplify them and apply logic. The match quality has gone back up and the time spent on out of ring segments compared to in ring stuff has become more balanced so it just needs better booking and I am sure we will have an awesome Wrestlemania as they have the matches and the talent to make it a memorable one.

WWE Smackdown Review - Friday 22nd February 2008

I must say I have only recently started watching Smackdown again and I have been quite presently surprised. It may just be that the run up to Wrestlemania is making it more exciting or the show is just better than when I last watched either or I’m not complaining.

There were many things I liked about the show.

Shelton Benjamin – ‘Money in the Bank’ qualifying match

Yes like the qualifying matches on Raw the result of Shelton beating Jimmy Wang Jang was predictable but the match was really good. To build a good ‘Money in the Bank’ that people are interested in they need to make the qualifying matches means something and not just be squash fests which the two qualification matches on Raw were. Smackdown is definitely the wrestling show of the two WWE flagships.

Chuck Palumbo

This guy has the look and the ability to be a headliner but he just needs some better storylines s well as some work on his mic and character skills and he is there. That being said I am enjoying his work and hope he gets used better in the upcoming months.

Edge / Undertaker feud

This was how we kicked off Smackdown and they started the build well. It is the perfect blend for a storyline the cocky loud mouth upstart Edge versus the man who lets his actions speak louder than words the Undertaker. Edge started in the ring on the mic giving out his best insults until in trademark fashion the lights went off and undertaker appeared in the ring which forced Edge to flee the ring. It was just a little teaser and taster but if they keep building every week it needs to be paced right so that the heat is at its highest point at the Smackdown before Mania. Saying this though they should have had more TV time during the show and been the storyline or involved somehow in the main event of the evening.

Rey Mysterio

They did a good job of dealing with his upcoming absence for surgery with using the Big Show under the toolage to put him officially out of action to build Big Show for Floyd Mayweather. The way in which Vickie Guererro got Big Show involved leaves it open for Rey to come back in to a storyline with Vickie when he comes back.

It did have its bad points though.

Too many big Guys

With Kane, Batista, Undertaker and Khali all on one brand is not a good thing especially when they are often booked against each other and some lack considerable talent. Yes a Kane or a Khali are great at working with smaller wrestlers but when they are put in big man matches like they were on Smackdown. When they are pitted against each other their matches are normally very hard to watch.

Commentators

Since the departure of Taz and JBL from Smackdown commentary the commentary has sunk to new lows. The job of the commentators is to help create an exciting atmosphere regardless of how good or bad a match is and get you involved in the show. Unfortunately the commentators on Smackdown are currently having a negative effect on good matches and storylines as just as they can add commentators can also take away. We need a bit more excitement and emotion from them to sell the product.

Too much Wrestling

Yes it is good to make Smackdown different to Raw by having more minutes of wrestling per show but I do think Smackdown need to give a little bit more time to out of ring segments or character developing segments as this would make the matches mean even more and get the fans to react even louder.

But overall like I say much improved from my last viewings of Smackdown.

MyNetworkTV CROWNS WWE ITS NEW PROGRAMMING CHAMP

February 26,2008
Network Is the Exclusive Prime-Time Broadcast Home of
“WWE® SmackDown®” Beginning Fall 2008

NEW YORK – MyNetworkTV and World Wrestling Entertainment® (WWE) have announced a new broadcast television home for “WWE SmackDown,” scheduled to debut in Fall 2008. The announcement was jointly made by MyNetworkTV President, Greg Meidel and WWE Chairman of the Board Vincent K. McMahon.

In making the announcement, Meidel stated, “The momentum at MyNetworkTV continues with this major acquisition. We have demonstrated tremendous growth and this partnership with WWE, the premier sports entertainment franchise in the world is a perfect fit for our viewers, advertisers and affiliates.”

The two-hour television program will be presented weekly on MyNetworkTV. “WWE SmackDown” will feature a star-studded cast of WWE Superstars, including Edge®, Rey Mysterio®, Batista®, MVP™, Kane® and Undertaker®, as well as present all the action, excitement, drama and great athleticism that have made it for nine years one of the most popular programs among males on broadcast television, and one of the top ten English language prime time programs among Hispanic households.

WWE Chairman Vince McMahon added, “We are excited to add MyNetworkTV and its television affiliates to our family of global network partners. We have an unmatched record of delivering ratings success to each and every network partner we’ve worked with in our long and storied history. We fully intend to bring that same level of success to MyNetworkTV.”

About MyNetworkTV
MyNetworkTV is a primetime general entertainment broadcast television network. Reaching over 97% of the country and targeted to Adults 18-49, MyNetworkTV provides its affiliates 12 hours of diverse programming Monday through Saturday, including “Celebrity Exposé,” Langley Productions’ “Jail” and “Street Patrol” and debuting in Spring 2008, “Under One Roof” starring Flavor Flav. For more information, please visit www.mynetworktv.com.

About World Wrestling Entertainment
The WWE produces original weekly programming, 52 weeks per year, distributed domestically, internationally and via WWE.com. WWE programs reach more than 16 million total viewers during the average week. Our domestic cable and broadcast programs include “Monday Night RAW” and “A.M. RAW” on USA Network and “ECW: Extreme Championship Wrestling” on the Sci Fi Channel. WWE’s television programming can also be seen in more than 130 countries around the world on broadcast partners including BSkyB in the UK and Foxtel in Australia.

Additional information on World Wrestling Entertainment Inc. (NYSE: WWE) can be found at wwe.com and corporate.wwe.com. For information on our global activities, go to http://www.wwe.com/worldwide/.

-30-

Media Contacts:
MyNetworkTV -- Jessica Moss, 212-301-3817
MyNetworkTV -- Erica Keane, 212-301-3613
WWE -- Gary Davis, 203-353-5066

Investor Contact:
WWE -- Michael Weitz, 203-352-8642

Trademarks: All WWE programming, talent names, images, likenesses, slogans, wrestling moves, and logos are the exclusive property of World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc. ECW is a trademark of WWE Libraries, Inc. All other trademarks, logos and copyrights are the property of their respective owners.

Forward-Looking Statements: This news release contains forward-looking statements pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, which are subject to various risks and uncertainties. These risks and uncertainties include the conditions of the markets for live events, broadcast television, cable television, pay-per-view, Internet, feature films, entertainment, professional sports, and licensed merchandise; acceptance of the Company's brands, media and merchandise within those markets; uncertainties relating to litigation; risks associated with producing live events both domestically and internationally; uncertainties associated with international markets; risks relating to maintaining and renewing key agreements, including television distribution agreements; and other risks and factors set forth from time to time in Company filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Actual results could differ materially from those currently expected or anticipated. In addition to these risks and uncertainties, our dividend is based on a number of factors, including our liquidity and historical and projected cash flow, strategic plan, our financial results and condition, contractual and legal restrictions on the payment of dividends and such other factors as our board of directors may consider relevant.

TNA Impact Review - Thursday 21st February 2008

TNA proved to this week on Impact that consistency is not their strong point when it comes to booking and creative direction of their shows.

Last week I praised TNA for the unpredictable nature of their show but this week unpredictability proved to be their downfall. Unpredictability only works when it makes sense in the storyline and for the individual characters. When we have swerves and character turns they only work and make sense if there is some build up to it. 

This week Impact kicked off with Kip James turning on BJ James and Bob Armstrong and costing them their chance of winning the tag titles from Styles and Tomko. There was no build up to this and no back story to it, the only thing TNA could do to make sense of it was to give Kip James promo time after the match but this incoherent ramble of a promo did nothing to build this storyline or to explain his actions to the fans.

This aside TNA are starting to push the right talent and about time to. AJ Styles has got a good storyline which may eventually lead to an AJ / Angle feud which would be awesome and would free up Tomko to work with Christian. Booker T was booked in the main event against Angle which may have made no sense but it is good to see Booker being booked in the main event even if it is only on Impact and they used it well to build up his PPV match with Robert Roode. Then finally we had the continuing push of Black Machismo Jay Lethal who again got a good amount of TV time for an in ring segment developing his relationship with Val and building up his character.

It was good to see that the Dudley Boys have moved on to other feuds away from the X-Division championship as I for one can’t wait to see the return of the high flying X-Division style of matches we have come accustom to.

TNA  are trying to make their shows feel different to WWE shows with the handycam style footage of happenings that go on outside the venue like this week it was Karen Angle and AJ Styles on their supposed honeymoon. I’m not too sure if I like this as I am so use to the WWE style of filming outside happenings but I do like to see companies trying to be different and original.

All in all a good show and we now have some more confirmed matches for Destination X with Petey Williams winning a shot at the X-Division title and the Booker T vs. Robert Roode match. This is one area that TNA has to improve on as it needs to get it’s PPV matches and feuds announced and set in stone as early as possible to build a great PPV that people are interested in.

Ticket information for TNA’s First Ever UK tour

America’s fastest growing wrestling promotion TNA will present its hugely anticipated, first ever, UK tour in June of this year. Featuring the top stars from their hit show on Bravo TV, the “UK Impact Tour” will make three stops around the country.

* On Friday June 13th the TNA crew will make their first stop in the North of England when they storm the Liverpool Olympia with their debut UK show. Doors will open at 6pm with a 7pm bell time.

* On Saturday June 14th the boys and girls of Total Non Stop Action Wrestling will be in the Midlands as they tear the house down at the Coventry Skydome for the largest of the three events. Once again doors open at 6pm with a 7pm bell time. Plans are also in place to hold a special TNA Fanfest event during the day in Coventry city centre with more details to follow shortly.

* The whirlwind tour will conclude on Sunday June 15th for TNA’s fans in the South of the country with a special matinee performance at the Brentwood International Centre in Essex. Doors will open at 4pm with a 5pm bell time.

The full list of stars appearing for this tour, along with the matches taking place will be announced exclusively in the Daily Star newspapers, Fighting Talk columns every Friday over the coming months.

Ticket information

Tickets are priced at £65 Gold Ringside, £50 Silver Ringside, £35 Bronze Ringside and then at £25, £20 and £15 for all other seats.

Tickets go on sale on Monday March 10th and are available on line at www.tnawrestling.com or by calling the individual venue box offices on the numbers below:

Liverpool Olympia Box Office: 0151 263 6633

Coventry Skydome Box Office: 02476 630 693

Brentwood International Centre Box Office: 01277 262 616

To keep up to date with all the most recent happenings in TNA and to find out the latest UK tour news, check out the official TNA website at www.tnawrestling.com

Don’t forget that you can watch the latest episodes of TNA “Impact” every Saturday night at 9pm on Bravo.

Raw Review - Monday 18th February 2008

Now as I didn’t want to stay up until 4am to watch Raw live on Sky Sports and as I forgot to set the Sky+ I had to wait until Thursday to watch the fall out from No Way Out.

Now the show in itself was a tight solid show that did what it needed to do but from an entertainment standpoint I didn’t rate it too highly. The important thing was for the show to set the wheels in motion for Wrestlemania which it did but could have been handled a lot better.

One thing to note was the lack of backstage segments in the show with only little bits like Rey Mysertio in the locker rooms with Floyd Mayweather shown with the majority of the action happening in the ring. This is great for the fans in the arena live but from a televisual perspective didn’t make for the most entertaining two hours as it is the skits, vignettes, promos etc that happen behind the curtain or outside of the arena which for me help to build the storyline and character and are thus a very important part of the show.

Lots of things I predicted happened not that you had to be a genius to figure them out. As soon as the show started and Regal announced that John Cena would be facing Randy Orton later on in the night you knew he would win to make it a triple threat for the title at Mania. You knew Floyd Mayweather and Big Show would set up a match for Mania and you knew when Michaels came out to inform everyone of Flair’s Hall of Fame induction that they were building something between them.

Now yes characters and storylines have to make sense and the fans need to be able to follow them, this is how you get viewers tuning back in next week but you need a bit of unpredictability. Yes the Vince Russo era of WCW may have gone too far the other way but when done right the unpredictability factor can make an ok show great. It wasn’t what they set up for Mania which annoyed me but the actual results of the matches on Raw which a three year old could have predicted.

Jeff Hardy beat Snitsky and Kennedy beat Val Venis both winning places in the ‘Money in the Bank’ match at Mania. Now after the push they have been giving Hardy they weren’t going to have him lose and Kennedy wasn’t going to lose to someone who is hardly ever on Raw. If this wasn’t enough Maria had her Playboy shoot at stake if she lost to Beth Phoenix so you knew Maria wasn’t going to lose and you knew newcomer Paul Birchall wasn’t going to lose to Super Crazy as they are currently building his character.

Ok Snitsky isn’t the best wrestler in the world and doesn’t have the best mic skills but to have him beaten by a banged up Jeff Hardy and to book him like they have been doing makes no sense as for him to be able to help build other wrestlers fans have to think that Snitsky has a chance of beating them which they won’t if he is forever booked to lose.

Looking at the first two confirmed competitors for ‘Money in the Bank’ I would like Jeff Hardy to win. He has been on a monster push recently and I think giving Jeff the title shot would be great. With it he could move to Smackdown and could have a great programme with Edge because of the history between his brother Matt and Edge he could get him involved and the storyline would make sense. Also giving him some time as the champion on Smackdown would be a good test for him to see if he could ever be a full time Raw Main Eventer like Cena, Orton and HHH. On the other hand it makes no sense for Kennedy to win it as it will just prove his career is going round in circles. Yes I think he deserves a major title push and he never really got the chance to enjoy his win last year and use his title shot properly but having him win it again I think would be boring and lazy booking.

Now on to my gripe with how they are treating Paul Burchill and Katie Lea. The fans can’t buy in to the storyline or the characters as they are trying to get over a creative storyline but aren’t given any time to do it. They came on to Raw with no build up and without the fans given any warning. The first they knew about them was when the ring announcer announced them no the way to the ring last week. Now last week they were allowed to cut an in ring promo and this week they had a taped promo which played during their match so the fans in the arena were dead. If they are going to give Burchill and Lea five to ten minutes a week on Raw they need to invest some thought and time in to getting them and their storyline across.

So all in all they did the important things right but the WWE need to do more to entertain us.

TNA Impact Review - Thursday 14th February 2008

In all the hoopla surrounding No Way Out I forgot to give you my opinion on last week’s Impact. The weekly wrestling shows which are just before or just after a PPV are usually the best and this episode didn’t fail to disappoint.

The one thing that TNA did well through the two hour show was to give the show an unpredictability factor. The WWE recently asked fans attending live shows to fill out some surveys and the thing that fans mentioned the most was how they liked it when things happen which were unpredictable and that seemed spontaneous.

Throughout the show we had moments of craziness backstage with Kurt trying to sort out his ceremony to renew his wedding vows, Booker T waiting for Bobby Roode to turn up so he could continue their feud and Christian Cage getting knocked out backstage. This was matched by some great in ring segments including Samoa Joe’s contract signing and Kurt Angle’s interference to help his Angle Alliance. Nothing however could top the last segment of the show with Kurt and Karen’s ceremony to renew their wedding vows.

Now wrestling fans across the globe usually hate segments like these that turn wrestling more in to a soap opera and don’t concentrate on the wrestling side of things but I think segments like these are great and really help get the casual TV viewer interested. Yes it may have been cringe worthy, yes the priest must have been the worst actor in the world and yes the storyline is not in the slightest bit believable but it creates a spectacle. If they did things like this every week on the TV shows then they would be highly frustrating but when used correctly they can help make a show entertaining and create some memorable moments. Like in the WWE many of the memorable Raw moments don’t involve any wrestling like Steve Austin and the Beer Truck which everyone remembers.

The thing TNA needs to work on is how to keep the storyline ideas going whilst incorporating matches which fit with the non wrestling segments and to not have too many storylines in one show as I felt the Eric Young segments were unneeded and just took away from everything else which was going on. The one other thing I hate is when promotions put on the same matches that were on their PPV the week after on TV. Yes you need to continue storylines but to put them in another match straight away I feel takes away from their PPV match as they are normally not up to the same standard.

So overall the positives out way the negatives and I thought it was a great show to transition us from Against All odds and get us on the road to Destination X.

No Way Out – The Aftermath

We are now definitely on the road to Wrestlemania after a wild and exciting No Way Out PPV from Las Vegas last night.

If you read my preview before you watched the show you wouldn’t have been shocked by many of the results but there was an awesome little surprise in there and some well executed matches and storylines over the course of the longest running (time duration of show from start to finish) PPV outside of the big four for some time.

So as I thought may happen it now looks almost certain that we are going to see a three way for the title at Wrestlemania with Randy Orton keeping hold of his title and HHH winning the Elimination Chamber. This also means that at last we have a heel defending the title against a face at a Wrestlemania after a couple of years of Cena defending. The good thing with HHH is that even though he is a fan favourite he doesn’t have the face characteristics like Cena so we have three strong and different characters going in to it.

Now the chamber matches were for number one contenders spots but they didn’t mention if they were title shots for Raw or Smackdown or if it was like winning the Rumble when the winner can choose which title to go after. But with what they have building on the Raw side I don’t see HHH switching to face Edge or Undertaker switching to face Orton.

The RAW chamber wasn’t just good for HHH as although no sensible person would think Hardy was ever going to headline Wrestlemania they managed to build him to the point some fans thought he was going to win so that will stand him in good stead for the long term. It also now frees Michaels up to retire Flair at Mania and Chris Jericho to continue his feud with JBL. The only problem with this is that it could mean that we have to see a Hardy / Umaga storyline again which wasn’t the best first time round.

The WWE are now trying to do anything to build Randy Orton as a heel and to try and get people to cheer for Cena. To keep hold of his belt Orton hit the ref to get himself disqualified and the one thing that fans hate more than anything is a cheap finish to a match especially a title fight at a main event. This is what is referred to as cheap heat and to me is lazy booking but like I say at the moment the WWE will do anything to get people on Cena’s side.

As predicted the Smackdown chamber match was on early and was nothing to write home about. Good to see Undertaker going over as I’m looking forward to hopefully seeing him against Edge at Wrestlemania, the only thing is where does this leave Batista?

As predicted Edge went over easy against Rey Mysterio but this was helped by the fact that Rey got injured at a live show a few days prior to the event. Although the match was short and predictable what happened after the match is what everyone is going to be talking about today and watching on YouTube.

After the Edge / Rey Mysterio match the Big Show made his return to the WWE which if you read all the internet forums you would have known that he resigned with the company some weeks ago and if they wanted to involv him in Mania they had to do something with him tonight and do something they did.

Now Mania has been in the past famed for its use of celebrities like Donald Trump and Pamela Anderson well last night we found out which celebrity was going to be making an impact this Wrestlemania and in a move reminiscent of Wrestlemania 14 in 1998 when Mike Tyson got involved the WWE delivered again with boxing champion Floyd Mayweather.

Floyd was in the front row to support Rey Mysterio and after the Big Show beat on the beaten and injured Mysterio Floyd and his entourage jumped the ring. Now all you wrestling geeks will know that the Big Show left the WWE to pursue a career in boxing which didn’t happen for him. So after a stand off Big Show knelt down in front of Floyd so that he was on his level and Floyd delivered four vicious shots to Big Show looking to have broken his nose to be then chased through the crowd by an angry and bloody Big Show who was stopped by Shane McMahon.

Now the storylines and angles that seem to get fans attention are those yjay the fans can’t tell if what is happening is real or not (like the Edge / Matt Hardy feud of 2005) which this angle did brilliantly. Some people think Floyd wasn’t suppose to go that far with his punches but I think it was a well orchestrated idea by the WWE to get fans talking and to get a heated feud between the two. Look for there to be some sort of boxing match between the pair at Wrestlemania.

No Way Out was a great example of why WWE are head and shoulders above TNA at the moment is because of the A-List stars they can get to work with them and the way that they can get even non wrestling fans and the international press talking about what happened on their show.

No Way Out

Luckily for us wrestling fans in the UK No Way Out is one of the last remaining free PPV events we get with our Sky Sports Subscription. No Way Out is the last PPV before Wrestlemania and is usually where any major storyline changes or developments happen which will affect the ‘Grand Daddy of them All.’

The event is set to make history as for the first time ever we have two elimination chamber matches on one PPV. Like how they use to do it with the elimination matches at Survivor Series they will have one Raw and one Smackdown Chamber match.

Because Vince always pushes his Raw brand ahead of Smackdown I am not looking forward to this idea. I think it is just a gimmick to get people to buy the PPV in America and I don’t think we are going to see two great Elimination Chamber matches. I think either the Smackdown Chamber will be booked in such a way as to not upstage the Raw Chamber match or in another scenario they will both be equally ok as to not have one upstage the other.

The problem by having these two Elimination Chamber matches is that there won’t be many other matches as the matches take up so much talent and because none of these are title matches they will take away from the title matches that are also booked on the card.

The reason I think they are doing two chamber matches is because John Cena isn’t ready and fit to carry the weight of headlining a PPV which isn’t one of the big four. With only five to ten minutes of actual wrestling on live TV since the Royal Rumble I don’t see the match going long or being a five star match although many fans would argue when has John Cena ever had a five star match. When Raw went off TV this week we were left with Jeff Hardy beating Shawn Michaels trying to get the fans to believe that he could win this Sunday so the creative team are pushing the chamber above the title match which is a rarity.

Now like I say the whole point of No Way Out is to build for Wrestlemania. For the last two years John Cena has been defending the championship at Wrestlemania where it is widely known that PPVs that draw best with the fans is those that are headlined by a face going against a heel champion. Usually I wouldn’t be surprised to see Randy Orton go over to build a rematch for Wrestlemania but as the winner of the Elimination Chamber is suppose to be getting the title match at Wrestlemania I think John Cena will get the win as there will have been no point in bringing him back to lose, this is of course unless they are going to do an angle on Raw where John Cena goes against the winner of one of the Elimination Chamber matches with the winner of the match getting the shot at the title at Wrestlemania. If this doesn’t happen then the WWE could always turn the title match in to a three way which they have in the past.

On the Smackdown side of the card Edge is defending his title against Rey Mysterio. They have built an interesting if maybe distasteful storyline with Vickie Guerrero and Edge but it has made for good TV. With the amount of time invested in Edge since his comeback and the fact that Rey is not long back from surgery and has already headlined a Wrestlemania I think Edge will be going in to the big one as champion.

The other match of note on the card is Ken Kennedy against Ric Flair in the ongoing if Ric loses a match he is retired storyline. It is obvious that Ric is going to survive until Wrestlemania where he will eventually be retired. Kennedy was rumoured to be the man that was going to get the torch passed to him and the rub of being the one to retire Ric but I don’t seem them doing this match again at Mania. The other rumoured guy to be the one to retire is Shawn Michaels but I think it makes sense for Randy Orton to be the one to do it to solidify his character as the Legend Killer. Ok it would take him out of the main event storyline but in the short term but I think in the long term it would do wonders for his character.

So now on to who I think will win the Elimination Chamber matches.

Raw – WWE are pushing Jeff Hardy hard with his face featuring on the event poster, the title match at Royal Rumble and winning the main event on the last Raw before the PPV but personally I don’t think he is Wrestlemania headliner material. I know he has a lot of supporters and fans backstage though so I wouldn’t rule him completely out. Umaga and Shawn Michaels were in two of the top matches last year and both have seemed on a downwards slide since so I don’t see either of them winning it nor John Bradshaw Layfield who has only just returned to active competition. I would love to see Chris Jericho win it as he hasn’t done much since his return but I think after not featuring in the main event last year at Mania and having not won a Mania main event since Wrestlemania 18 I think it his turn to return to the top.

Smackdown – Smackdown is a bit more obvious to call with three guys those being Finlay, MVP and big Daddy V not having any main event experience on WWE PPV’s I don’t see them being trusted with the ball in a Wrestlemania main event. The Great Kahli’s run with the belt was appalling so now that leaves just undertaker and Batista. These two had more main event matches than hot dinners last year although Undertaker’s title run was cut short through injury last year so they could put him back in the Mania main event but personally I think Batista will get the nod in this one although I would like to see Edge and Undertaker.

The Raw before No Way Out wasn’t the best with Jeff Hardy main eventing where it should have been Cena or an ending which involved all the participants of the Elimination Chamber. On top of this you had Umaga turning on JBL which would have been better done in the Elimination Chamber match itself and not on the Raw before. Hopefully No way Out will make up for it by getting us excited for Wrestlemania.

TNA - Against All Odds 2008

Last weekend TNA (Total Nonstop Action) presented their annual Against All odds on PPV across America. Us unfortunate souls in the UK had to wait until Wednesday for our first chance to see the show on Bravo with an hours worth of adverts thrown in to boot. One thing I will say though is Bravo are getting better at the positioning of their advert breaks so not to annoy wrestling fans too much.

When Bravo first started airing TNA events they would cut in to matches with adverts as regardless of what was happening they would go to adverts every fifteen minutes or so like they would for their standard programming but now they will wait until the match is finished to go to their break. It means now you can have two advert breaks in the space of ten minutes but it beats advert breaks happening during the matches.

Now to the show itself, looking at the card I didn’t think it was as strong as other cards that TNA have put out over the last twelve months but after viewing the event I thought it was one of the strongest outings to date. Instead of going through match by match giving my critiques I am going to now take you through what in my opinion the high points and low points of the event were.

High Points

The TNA Knockouts Division

TNA’s answer to the WWE Divas are a breath of fresh air. Ok the first women’s match on the card Traci Brooks vs. Payton Banks wasn’t the best but it was more than made up for by the Amazing Kong vs. O.D.B match for the Women’s title. What is great about the TNA Knockouts division is that the girls have interesting characters and are given TV time to get interesting storylines across and are putting on some really good matches. In the WWE the girls are very generic and seem to be used just to appease the male audience with the very occasional decent match which since Trish and Lita departed have become even fewer and far between. Women’s wrestling is on the up around the world with all female promotions like Shimmer and Chickfight showcasing some great female wrestlers and TNA are cashing in.

Timing

One very important thing in TNA wrestling events which I feel has been missing is timing. Over my years of watching TNA I have seen a share of good and bad matches but I feel many have suffered from poor timing especially match endings. I have watched many matches thinking it can’t be over yet or I wasn’t expecting that. A good 5 minute, 10 minute or 30 minute match can be ruined by a bad ending. In many cases it has been matches going home to early or just not spending time to build a finish which the crowd are in to and will react to. A poor finish can really affect the standing of the wrestler doing the job and hurt his character going forward. At Against All Odds I thought this was much improved and I really enjoyed the endings to most of the matches on the card.

Another timing issue has been the TNA trademark of making sure every match lasts 8 – 12 minutes with the main event going 20 minutes. Over the years their events have become like clockwork to the point where you have known when a match was going to end before the end happened. In recent events though I have seen slight improvements to this with varied match timings which kept me as a viewer more interested in the event as the viewer wants to be kept on the edge of their seat not knowing when a match is going to end.

Pushing Non Ex-WWE talent

Whenever there is a promotion trying to raise up and take on the WWE their will always be fans who criticise their use of Ex-WWE stars and the way in which they stop young up and coming talent from making a name for themselves. Now I will talk more about this in the low points but here I want to talk about what TNA is doing right.

Christian Cage and Kurt Angle may have been main eventing but it was Black Machismo Jay Lethal who received the biggest push of the night after being put on as the last match before the main event he was pushed strong as almost single handily he beat the team of 3D and Johnny Devine recapturing the TNA X-Division Title in the process. As well as Jay Lethal we had Robert Roode who was in the official semi-main event working against Booker T. To be put in what looks to be an ongoing storyline with a former WWE and WCW champion and the latest addition to the TNA roster is a huge vote of confidence by the TNA board.

Karen Angle

Since Karen Angle (Kurt Angle’s wife) was added to the TNA active roster the entertainment side of the show and the backstage segments have improved ten-fold. Kurt Angle is a great promo guy but it is Karen who has made the backstage and locker room segments entertaining and Kurt’s character work has improved with her addition to the show.

Low Points

Production

The one thing that needs to improve is the camera work and the vision mixing of the show. Wrestling is one of the hardest forms of entertainment to film and produce but the WWE and WCW back in its prime showed how it should be done. Whoever is doing the vision mixing for TNA needs to stop changing cameras every two seconds and needs to stop choosing shots before they are ready. As a viewer we want to escape into the world that is that wrestling show. When a camera is at a wrong angle or moving and zooming whilst they are live it bring us out of that world we are trying to escape into. Another thing the production team need to work on is there crowd shots. Yes if the crowd is reacting get them on camera but if you have a shot of a crowd where half the people in the front row are reacting and half of them out it can spoil the moment.

Video segments, promos and vignettes are another side of production that need to be improved upon. The opening video of the show should be more about setting the theme for the nights show not about promoting specific matches. TNA opening video packages seem to be cluttered and don’t give you a strong idea of a theme for the show to come. Promo videos before each match are an important part of the show for those that are watching on PPV to build their anticipation for the match. The problem I have with TNA promo videos is that they seem to be more about creating an awesome highlight package instead of a video which shows you the history leading up to the match and gets you emotionally involved in the match which is to follow.

Use of Booker T

Booker T is the Chris Jericho of TNA after having a lot invested in to him when he came in he was moved out of the main event picture as quickly as possible. Now the Ex-WWE stars should be used to build TNA stars but it needs to be done in a way that makes sense. It should be guys like Christian Cage that are used to leave Booker T to have a run with Angle whilst he still has that impact so that he is kept strong so he is then in a good position to build TNA stars.

Barbed Wire Massacre

Ok Wrestlemania II made history for being broadcast from multiple arenas but to have one match on a card taped from another arena I think takes away from the show and gets you out of the live environment. Whilst Against All Odds came live from South Carolina Barbed wire Massacre came from the Impact Zone in Florida. The match itself was one of the worst of the night. Judas Mesias still has a lot to prove and I for one am getting bored of Abyss getting booked in random hardcore matches every month. It seems that TNA hype these matches up as near death experiences for the wrestlers which turn out to be terrible matches with a couple of spots. TNA needs to stop booking hardcore matches as spot fests but to book them as solid matches with psychology and spots which make sense.

Use of Samoa Joe

After spending months building Samoa Joe as the top TNA made wrestler to have him in a non wrestling role on a PPV makes no sense and is a waste of talent. To have Samoa Joe not wrestling and to have three out of four of the competitors in the two main events be Ex-WWE stars I think shows very short term thinking.

Conclusion

The most important thing that TNA needed to improve on they have and that’s there timing. No promotion is ever going to have a perfect show, the moment promotions and critics think a show is perfect then they will stop trying to improve or stop expecting better. You will never be able to please every wrestling fan but if you can make that fan care enough to like or dislike part of your show then you are doing a great job.

I for one am enjoying watching the development of TNA and am looking forward to this weeks Impact.

Introduction

Hi Guys

Welcome to 'The Wrestling Project.' This is a new Blog I have set up to discuss the goings on in the crazy and strange world of Professional Wrestling that we all know and love.

Each week I am going to be giving you my views on the PPVs and TV shows of the two major American Wrestling promotions those being WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment) and TNA (Total Nonstop Action). On top of this I am going to be predicting where storylines are leading and telling you my thoughts on how I think the two promotions should be booked.

This Blog has been set up as a project to see if the writers and creative teams behind these two promotions read what is written on the internet and if anything the fans say actually affects the direction they take the company or a storyline in.

Hope you enjoy reading my weekly Blogs and be sure to leave a comment, whether you agree with me or not I want to hear your thoughts.

All the best

Adam Sibley