Wednesday 28 January 2009

WWE Raw Review - Monday 26th January 2009

After what was in my opinion one of the best Rumble’s for some years we are now truly on the road to Wrestlemania. What was going to happen on the first Raw after the Rumble. Was Orton going to get fired and what as JBL going to do about HBK’s actions at the Rumble.

Good Points

Shane o Mac is back


Was brilliant to see Shane back on Raw to defend his dad’s honour and attack Randy Orton. It was as Shane had flipped and wanted to kill Orton for what he had one which made for some great television. It would be good if they could build a feud between these two for No Way Out which will set Orton up nicely for Mania.

Mickey Rourke going to Wrestlemania


After the staggering success of the film “The Wrestler” Mickey Rourke is going to make art imitate life or will it be art imitating art when he squares off against Chris Jericho at mania. This was a big announcement on Raw and is a great sideway move for Jericho to get him in a big fight but not involved in the championship.

Push for Kofi


After doing nothing since his tag team title run Kofi is going to be given another push as he gets involved his first main event at a PPV after winning the right to be in the Elimination Chamber match announced for No Way Out. Will be interesting to see how he does.

Bad Points

Randy Orton’s reasoning


The end of Shane beating up Orton made up for a dire start to Raw but boy did it start dire. Randy Orton gave his reasoning for beating up Vince as him suffering from IED Intermittent Explosive Disorder. Surely anyone in wrestling could use this as a defence or reasoning for doing anything. It would have made more sense for him to be non apologetic for his actions but just solely use some contractual reasons for not being able to fire him.

Cena way down the pecking order

After playing second fiddle to JBL and Michaels in the build up to his Rumble match, Cena this week was only used in one segment and that was his match which was used to further the JBL and HBK storyline.

Overall


An exciting episode of Raw which kept me enthralled from start to finish. A great way to start the road to Mania I just hope the shows can continue to get better and better on the run to Mania.

Monday 26 January 2009

WWE Royal Rumble Review 2009

Following on from TNA’s Genesis earlier this month this weekend it was WWE’s turn to put on their first PPV of the year that being their annual Royal Rumble. I always think that the Royal Rumble is a great event to start the year off with as it is an exciting event which is truly different from any other PPV of the year.

Good Points

The Swerve


Was great to see Matt Hardy swerving his brother and costing him the title after cracking him with a steel chair. For weeks and weeks the fans on the internet had been predicting the return of Christian to cost Hardy the title but this was a great twist. This storyline will give them the chance to wrestle each other at Mania if played right which is probably what they have been dreaming about for some time.

It’s not over

HBK played his role brilliantly in the JBL / Cena title fight. After a poor match he laid out both JBL and Cena but left JBL on top to get what he thought would be the win. It wasn’t to be though as Cena kicked out and went on to win the match but now where does this leave HBK? Whose side is he really on?

The Rumble match

I will get on to some of the bad points surrounding the Rumble match later but there was some great stuff happening in there. RVD’s return for the Rumble match was brilliant and a surprise to many, the pacing was good, they really built the ring up well and let a handful of wrestlers really have some great moments in there.

Bad Points

Too predictable


After weeks on the blog saying that they weren’t building anyone for the Rumble match the first few minutes of the broadcast was dedicated to it with a video package which featured a heck of a lot of Orton and surprise, surprise Orton went on to win it. I think anyone that couldn’t spot that Orton was going to win it is blind, normally the match is great because you aren’t sure one hundred percent who is going to win.

Botching a match

Melina and Beth Phoenix showed us some really innovative spots and really tried to push the envelope but by doing this they botched quite a few moves. If they had just toned it down a little bit they could have had a really good match which came across crisp but instead you were worrying if one of them picked the other up if they were going to drop them by accident or not.

Overall

For Storyline development it was a superb show with four great matches already in the pipeline for Wrestlemania if they follow through properly on what they have started here. It was that good I will forgive the obvious ending to the Rumble match as at least with Orton it will now build some interesting storylines.

Sunday 25 January 2009

TNA iMPACT Review - Thursday 22nd January 2009

TNA are currently in the UK touring but before they crossed the pond they managed to film enough episodes of iMPACT to keep the loyal TNA fans happy.

Good Points

A great main event


I will never get bored of seeing AJ Styles and Kurt Angle go at it. This is a main event worthy of any wrestling show and applaud TNA for making it happen as many times as they have over the last year.

Storyline Progression


Is nice to see TNA progressing the Main Event Mafia storyline with Angle now proclaiming that they will cause the end of TNA. I think this storyline has the scope to run and run I just hope it doesn’t turn in to the NOW for the 21st century.

Bad Points

Telegraphing Storylines


This week on iMPACT they ran a storyline where Matt Morgan made up with Abyss and apologised for all his wrong doings only to then beat Abyss up with a chair in a match against Beer Money. The way they over did the in ring segment with Abyss and Morgan meant even a non wrestling fan could have seen what was coming.

Let the storylines dictate the matches


iMPACT started this week with the announcers telling the fans the big matches that were lined up for the show. In a TV wrestling show it should be through storylines and on screen talent that we find out what is happening. For me matches just lose intensity and my interest if every week it is the announcers just announcing them at the beginning of the show.

Segment order


Again this week I counted up five non wrestling segments in a row which went for about thirty minutes. This was after an opening match which had no build. Start the show off with something that builds the rest of the show not a throwaway match which does nothing only for you to have to wait thirty minutes to see another.

Overall


TNA have the wrestlers, the image and good ideas but without some clear direction and properly thought out storylines they ar going to continue in this same cycle.

Saturday 24 January 2009

WWE Smackdown Review - Friday 23rd January 2009

With it being the last Smackdown before the Rumble it was time for the Smackdown crew to hype the Royal Rumble as much as possible but did they manage to get the fans excited about it.

Good Points

Edge doing his best


Edge is doing his best without the champion on the show to build their match at the Rumble with him still maintaining that he had nothing to do with all the incidents that have happened to Jeff Hardy. He then did the only thing he could do without Jeff there and that was wrestle his brother as Matt came to stand up for his brother.

Great Tag Team match

Was great to see both sets of tag champs Miz/Morrison and Carlito/Primo go at it. These two teams are the tag team division for the whole of the WWE and I wouldn’t mind seeing them go at it on a PPV.

Bad Points

Use of Jeff Hardy


Jeff hasn’t wrestled on Smackdown for age and has barely appeared in the arena. This week they did a pre-recorded interview with Jeff which I think would have made more sense to do in the ring. I know they are trying to do something different with Jeff but if the fans can’t see him they are not going to be able to get behind him.

The Triple H storyline

This week HHH ended up wrestling Kozlov and the Big Show in a handicap match after a streak of upsetting the odds he lost. However because there was no build up on the show for the match it had no heat whatsoever and had diddly squat to do with the PPV. Your last segment before a PPV should always be about promoting a match at the PPV which this show didn’t do.

Overall

Like Raw no promotion for the actual Rumble match itself but to add to it Smackdown have a poorly developed build for their title fight. My reckoning is that we may see the return of Christian at the Rumble as the man behind all these attacks to Hardy but we will have to wait and see.

Tuesday 20 January 2009

WWE Raw Review - 19th January 2009

With one week to go until the Royal Rumble and with Vince’s return to Raw tonights show looked on paper as if it was going to be a hot show but could WWE deliver.

Good Points

HBK Speaks


During the contract signing between Cena and JBL it was great to see HBK take the mic and verbalise his frustrations with his situation and with it has probably won back some of the fans sympathy. This should have been done a lot longer ago but at least it was done. I just hope that he doesn’t overshadow the match at the Rumble but I guess he will either cost Cena the title and go full on heel or do a swerve on JBL.

CM Punk new IC Champion

Was great to see a brilliant wrestling match to end the Regal / CM Punk series and to see Punk with a belt he truly deserves. I think he can elevate the Intercontinental title and it is a title he can be given a proper run with unlike the Heavyweight title. Hopefully this will bring an upturn in the Raw mid card.

Bad Points

Silly Storylines overshadow important ones


With it being one week to the Rumble the important storyline should be the title feud but no this week it was Jericho begging for his job back which he eventually got. Then it was Orton’s turn to come down to the ring to meet with Vince McMahon to demand an apology to which Vince didn’t take kindly to. So the upshot of this was Orton attacking McMahon to end a far fetched storyline and to end Vince’s first night back. If you are going to do silly things like this wait until after the Rumble.

No build for the Rumble match

There was no real build or mention of the rumble match on Raw. Nobody came out to deliver a promo saying that they could win the rumble and no one seemed to care about it which will only devalue the event.

Overall


Didn’t do what the show should have done which was to promote Cena/JBL and the Rumble match instead we were greeted by crazy booking.

WWE Raw Review - 19th January 2009

With one week to go until the Royal Rumble and with Vince’s return to Raw tonights show looked on paper as if it was going to be a hot show but could WWE deliver.

Good Points

HBK Speaks


During the contract signing between Cena and JBL it was great to see HBK take the mic and verbalise his frustrations with his situation and with it has probably won back some of the fans sympathy. This should have been done a lot longer ago but at least it was done. I just hope that he doesn’t overshadow the match at the Rumble but I guess he will either cost Cena the title and go full on heel or do a swerve on JBL.

CM Punk new IC Champion

Was great to see a brilliant wrestling match to end the Regal / CM Punk series and to see Punk with a belt he truly deserves. I think he can elevate the Intercontinental title and it is a title he can be given a proper run with unlike the Heavyweight title. Hopefully this will bring an upturn in the Raw mid card.

Bad Points

Silly Storylines overshadow important ones


With it being one week to Mania the important storyline should be the title feud but no this week it was Jericho begging for his job back which he eventually got. Then it was Orton’s turn to come down to the ring to meet with Vince McMahon to demand an apology to which Vince didn’t take kindly to. So the upshot of this was Orton attacking McMahon to end a far fetched storyline and to end Vince’s first night back. If you are going to do silly things like this wait until after the Rumble.

No build for the Rumble match

There was no real build or mention of the rumble match on Raw. Nobody came out to deliver a promo saying that they could win the rumble and no one seemed to care about it which will only devalue the event.

Overall


Didn’t do what the show should have done which was to promote Cena/JBL and the Rumble match instead we were greeted by crazy booking.

Friday 16 January 2009

WWE Smackdown Review - Friday 16th January 2009

I have recently been reading news on ratings success for Smackdown but as of late I have found the show has been some what lacking at times but as always I go in to every show with optimism that it can prove me wrong.

Good Points

Good build for Triple H


The creative team are building Triple H’s feud with Vickie quite well as she keeps setting obstacles that he has to overcome before he gets to the rumble. This week MVP had to fight for him in a last man standing match against the Big Show and if MVP lost Triple H would lose his spot at the Rumble. Expect more hurdles for Trip H to jump over next week.

Jack Swagger on Smackdown

A lot of internet wrestling fans are saying this guy is one to watch. After winning the ECW title this week he followed up with a tag appearance on Smackdown. Was hard to judge him in the match but I look forward to seeing him at the Rumble.

Bad Points

Weak card


I counted only four matches on the show and neither featured a Smackdown champion. On top of this the three main stars HHH, Edge and Jeff Hardy did not compete. If Smackdown wants to compete with raw it has to have the guys wrestling on a regular basis.

Stupid Jeff Hardy storyline


After the hotel and the hit and run this week the show went of air with Jeff Hardy getting caught with some misfiring pyrotechnics during his ring entrance and having to be stretchered to the back. The Jeff storyline is like car crash but in the wrong way. Storylines which try to push that it is real and when it involves the so called suffering or personal problems of someone it always ends up badly.

Overall

A poor show with only one good thing going for it. I don’t know whether the viewers are watching the same programme as me if the ratings are actually going up.

Thursday 15 January 2009

TNA Genesis 2009 Review

TNA Genesis kicked off the 2009 Wrestling PPV season this past weekend with a card which featured what they were calling a triple main event. The preparation and the build for the event had been hampered by the festive season but TNA had to forget about all that and show us an insight in to what 2009 is going to be like for TNA.

Good Points

Angle vs. Jarrett


These two put on another brutal match which left both the other main event matches in the shade. The match had been well built over the past few months and it more than delivered. In a match in which Jarrett said he couldn’t lose he was beaten in the idle of the ring by the bully Angle who reclaimed some pride after losing to Jarrett in their first encounter.

Shelley vs Sabin


These two put on a match of the night effort. Everyone going in to the match was unsure of whether they would actually fight each other due to their tag team partnership or if they would have a trick up their sleeve but to theirs and creative teams credit they put on a superb match. The ending spoiled the match for me with Shelley getting the cheap win but I understand why creative team needed to do it to develop the storyline.

Bad Points

Missing in Action


There were some big changes to the card that had been advertised and pushed over the last few weeks. Christy Hemme was injured during training so her match against Kong was scrapped, Nash was in hospital so he was out of the six man tag and then to top it all off they decided to run a storyline in which Rhino was late getting to the building after being beaten up by MEM earlier in the day. All this meant that we had an unannounced six man tag to kick off the show and that Kip James was bizarrely added to the six man main event.

Ordering of the card

To have a six man tag match with no major champion or challenger as the final match of the night ahead of the actual title match and the feud with the biggest stars in Angle/Jarrett made no sense whatsoever. All they managed to do was downgrade the title, take away from Angle / Jarrett and show how weak the MEM / Frontline factions are as D’Von, Kip James and Scott Steiner should be nowhere near a main event.

Overall

The show exposed TNA’s weakness at the moment which is having too many guys at the top that shouldn’t be there. If you are going to push MEM and the Frontline storyline which I think they should then they need to use the top guns to do it and not have a match where AJ Styles is the only credible performer in there.

Wednesday 14 January 2009

WWE Raw Review - Monday 12th January 2009

With two weeks before the Rumble it was time for WWE to go in to over drive pushing it’s only match on the card at the moment for the Royal Rumble whilst the return of Vince McMahon next week was left hanging over the heads of all on Raw.

Good Points

Cena HBK


They built the main event for Raw brilliantly through out the show with JBL telling HBK that tonight was his Wrestlemania and then some brilliant promos by Cena showing how much he respected HBK as every good guy should. These two then went on to put a brilliant main event to close out Raw with HBK getting the win in the non tile match leaving Cena laying in the ring for JBL to laud over.

Regal / CM Punk series

This week Regal managed to con the ref in to believing that CM Punk had hit him with a low blow to get him disqualified. Stephanie wasn’t having any of it though as she announced that there would be a third match which be no DQ next week. I just hope they finish off the series with a great match as they have built the storyline well they just now need the pay off of a great match.

Bad Points

Jericho is fired


The big shcker on Raw was Steph firing Jericho. This was done within the first half hour of the show when only after a few weeks of slight fallings out Steph fire her in the ring and then Jericho wasn’t seen for the rest of the show. I know this is just to set up a storyline for Vince’s return but it could have been handled so much better. Steph isn’t put across as an irrational character so it made no sense for her to fire Jericho for no reason.

Silly swerves

Raw saw the return of Ted DiBiase who looked to be returning to back up Madu and Sim in a scuffle with Orton and Cody Rhodes however Dibiase swerved them and then joined the team of Orton and Rhodes. DiBiase was put on the shelf in the storyline because he was kicked in the head by Orton so the swerve makes no sense. Swerves are great but there has to be a reason to them. Hopefully Dibiase will be given mic time next week and a decent reason in the storyline why he did what he did.

JBL not in action

In the run up to the Rumble we should be seeing square offs and coming togethers between JBL andd Cena but we haven’t seen any of it. The fans are more interested in what HBK is up to and what he is going to do rather than worrying about the two guys actually in the main event.

Overall

Quite simply a mess, the creative team needs to really refine it’s storylines and really think hard about which ones it should be pushing.

Saturday 10 January 2009

TNA iMPACT Review - Thursday 8th January 2009

After missing the last few iMPACT’s and with Genesis this weekend I was interested to see how TNA would build the matches in one night for the PPV.

Good Points

A show of emotion


Was great to see the emotion shown by Jarrett and Angle. TNA really pushed the Jarrett story hard with BG James taking up the fight for his friend against the bully Kurt Angle which lead to Jarrett having to make the save as Angle and the MEM tried to destroy his friend. Can’t wait to see this match at Genesis.

Build for the six man


There was some great build for the six man tag match as D-Von and AJ came together to fight for TNA and to have the back of Jarrett. The show of solidarity was added to by Foley’s impassioned promo as the show went off the air.

Unpredictability

We had the Shane the referee getting fired and then rehired as a wrestler, we had the debut of a new Knockout and new tag team champions as Creed & Lethal cashed in their shot. Not it can be a doubled edge sword which I will talk about it the bad points but I was happy with two of the unpredictable things than happened.

Bad Points

No Push for the title match

The Sting / Rhino match was only hyped by a few minutes on the mic by Sting which was underplayed as it came off the back of a killer Angle promo. This has the potential to win the award for the worst built title match in wrestling history which only devalues the TNA title.

Structure


TNA need to work on their structure I counted six non wrestling segments in a row at one point three of which were backstage interviews. Yes a TV show needs to have lots of non wrestling segments but you need to intersperse them not have them all in one chunk.

Title change before the main event

TNA had been pushing Matt Morgan/Abyss vs. Beer Money as the tag title match for some time and done a great feud between these pairings only on the iMPACT before the PPV to have Beer Money lose the belts to Creed and Lethal and for them then to turn the match in to a triple threat at the PPV. If a title match is advertised for a PPV don’t change the champions on the show before.

Overall

A mixed bag of crazy and inspired booking. I just hope for TNA’s sake that Jarrett vs Angle delivers.

WWE Smackdown Review - Friday 9th January 2009

After missing the last couple of Smackdown’s I was looking forward to seeing what was going down on Friday nights.

Good Points

Good Push for HHH /. Big Show feud


It was great to see HHH wrestling three times on one show in Triple Jeopardy which Vickie Guererro had put him in. It also served well to intensify his feud with Big Show as after his first two matches he had to face Big Show in a last man standing match which he eventually lost but only after being beaten down in his matches before so it keeps both of them strong.

Good Wrestling show

With a rare Undertaker match on Smakcdown alongside HHH’s three outings and a tag title match which saw Carlito and Primo defending the belts it was a good night of action.

MVP just can’t get any luck

Love what they are doing with MVP at the moment it go that bad for him this week that during his VIP section with Mr, Kennedy as his guest his furniture was repossessed and he was then chased from the ring by the Boogeyman. This guy just can’t buy a break but MVP is playing the role well and there was even an MVP chant going throughout the segment so I must not be the only one.

Bad Points

Latest crazy Jeff Hardy storyline


Following the hotel incident before Survivor Series this week we had the storyline of Jeff being the victim of a hit and run accident which forced him to miss the show. Instead they showed alleged footage of the incident and a pre-recorded interview. When will the WWE ever realise that no one believes these stories no matter how much you want the fans to buy in to them.

Random matches


Was great to see Undertaker back but his match with Shelton Benjamin served no purpose. The tag title match developed nobody and the women’s match had more of a storyline than all of them put together which is saying some thing.

No Edge or Jeff in ring


With the Rumble only a few weeks away to have both Edge and Jeff not competing makes no sense. They are suppose to be pushing this feud not coming up with crazy creative ideas.

Overall

I know Smackdown is aimed at a younger audience to Raw but that doesn’t mean the WWE need to insult the fans intelligence.

Wednesday 7 January 2009

WWE Raw Review - 5th January 2009

After taking a break from reviewing WWE and TNA over the Christmas break Monday saw me getting back in the swing as I watched my first show of 2009 WWE Raw. In usual style below are my good points and bad points of this week’s episode.

Good Points

Great storyline development for JBL and HBK


The show kicked off with a great video package recapping the history of the JBL / HBK partnership and then when the action got to the ring they continued to give it a push. HBK unwillingly bowed to JBL’s commands including having him not compete in the Rumble match. However he is still torn with doing the right thing as in the main event he was paired with John Cena against Jericho and Orton and did not do as JBL instructed him to do in taking Cena out he did the right thing and helped his team to get the victory.

Heels getting pushed

Orton is being put over as a bully by forcing members of the second generation to win matches in order to stay in the faction whilst Jericho is acting like the world is against him. The HBK storyline is good for Jericho at the moment as he gets to get on the mic and say how he was right last year for calling HBK a hypocrite but yet the fans still wont get behind him.

Vince is coming back

It was announced by Chris Jericho to Stephanie McMahon that her dad is coming to Raw. After Stephanie has been running Raw for some weeks now it will be interesting to see how impressed or disappointed her Dad will be and what they are going to do with Vince after the storyline stage collapse of last year.

Bad Points

Too many Heels


Because fans are turning on HBK now and because he is aligned with a heel it only leaves Cena left as a true face in the main event scene. Even in the lower card outside of CM Punk, Rey Mysterio and Kofi Kingston you are struggling to see a lot of faces. To add to this they were all beaten which doesn’t help.

Poor Continuity


At the moment we have two storylines that could be big on Raw but just seem to come and go those being the Rey Mysterio / Mike Knox story line and the Kane / Kelly Kelly storyline. Because these storylines are on and off they lose their intensity and viewer interest.

Overall

As the first show of the year it wasn’t too bad but can’t say I am really looking forward to a Royal Rumble headlined by Cena vs. JBL.