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.

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.

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