TNA iMPACT Review - Thursday 29th May 2008

After one of my favourite episodes of iMPACT for some time I was really looking forward to seeing this week’s offering from the TNA crew.

Good Points

Great set up for Kurt Angle vs. AJ Styles

This is the match that myself and I think many of the TNA fans have been looking forward to for some time and we are going to be able to see it at Slammiversary. TNA are building this feud brilliantly with more debate on whether AJ had an affair with Kurt’s wife Karen and AJ getting the beat down two weeks in a row from Kurt, Team 3D and Booker T. This week he didn’t take the beating alone as Christian Cage tried to help him, let’s see next week if anybody else tries to come to his aid.

Push for 3D and Booker T

This little faction is getting a lot of TV and mic time. Even in the twilight of his career Brother Ray is still a great talker on the mic and is a good mouthpiece for the group. Just need to see these guys in more matches as they just seem to be doing a lot of talking and backstage stuff at the moment.

Something for Nash to do

TN have come up with a good little storyline for Nash. No one wants to see him wrestle any more but he still has a part to play. This week he acted as security for Jim Cornette so he could get the spot as Special Enforcer for King of the Mountain which I think is a good move for his career in TNA.

Bad Points

Very little TV time for Samoa Joe

If you missed five minutes of the first segment of iMPACT you missed Samoa Joe this week. They need to start using him more on weekly TV episodes and not just save him for PPV’s. Ok he may not be the best talker but he is a good wrestler and if you are going to put him as your champion you have to give him a fair chunk of TV time every week.

What’s happening with Tomko

One minute it looks like they are going to give him a big push the next he is on a losing streak. This week Tomko did the honours for Christian Cage in the King of the Mountain qualifiers. I think TNA need to start committing one way of the other with Tomko and not do this stop, start approach.

Will Eric hurry up and find Elvis

Now I find Eric Young amusing and there is a place for his out of ring comedy segments in the show. The problem is with Eric’s segments if they aren’t funny which this search for Elvis are then they start to look stupid and out of place. It’s ok doing the wacky stuff but you have to make sure the crowd will find them funny for them to work.

Overall

Not a patch on last week’s show but an entertaining two hours none the less. The build for Kurt vs. AJ has been brilliant and if nothing else this match will have me tuning in to Slammiversary.

WWE Smackdown Review - Friday 30th May 2008

After an entertaining Raw I was hoping this week Smackdown could provide a bit of entertainment. Normally the episodes of Smackdown that are just before the PPV’s are the most exciting ones so I’m normally not disappointed.

Good Points

Great build up for TLC

The build up for the match between Undertaker and Edge was brilliant. With the show kicking off with a great Edge promo on how it was going to be the last time the fans saw the Undertaker on Smackdown which was followed by a great end segment. The end segment saw the family put Undertaker in a coffin just for the lights to go out and for The Undertaker to appear right next to Edge at the top of the ladder.

Building for the future

Was a good move by the writers to start building for after One Night Stand with Batista stating his intentions of going after the heavyweight title after he beats Michaels on Sunday. His match with Hawkins and Ryder was instantly forgettable but at least it saw Batista getting involved with Vickie Guerrero and some of the family.

Jamie Noble

Was involved in some funny backstage segments with MVP and Vickie Guerrero that guy should be given better storylines.

Bad Points

Too Many matches

Normally on an episode of Raw we get five matches tonight on Smackdown we had seven matches. In a two hour show seven matches is far too many it is better to invest time in a smaller number of guys and give them more out of ring time than having seven matches.

Guys in need of something to do

Now I may not be the biggest fan of Chuck Palumbo but WWE need to give him a decent storyline which involve a PPV match and see what happens if they don’t he is just wasting TV time. Other guys that need better things to do are Finlay, Jamie Noble, Big Show, Chavo Guerrero and MVP who isn’t even on the PPV.

Overall

A nice edition of smackdown which managed to keep me entertained and get in the mood for One Night Stand.

WWE Smackdown Review - Friday 2nd May 2008

After the worst Raw in living history I was hoping Smackdown could provide me with some thought out entertainment as well as their usual quality wrestling bouts.

Good Points

Strong Start

The show opened solidly with a Theodore Long announcing that all the Smackdown belts were going to be on the line tonight. Although the intelligent fans know that titles rarely change hands on TV it gets the casual fans and the live audience hyped up.

Start of a new feud

After his feud with Khali, The Big Show has now started a feud with the only remaining monster for him on Smackdown mark Henry. Although I’m not a fan of big man matches it’s nice to see Big Show enforcing his dominance by beating on the other big guys which will then put him in a strong place for main event feuds with smaller guys.

Bad Points

Not enough talking

After recent improvements with Smackdown and them having more non wrestling segments it was back to the old formula of just having match after match. Viewers start changing channels when they aren’t interested by who wins or loses and the only way you make them interested is by giving them a storyline. If they want to keep viewers and attract new viewers they need to find a brand of sports entertainment like they have on Raw but put their own spin on it.

Poor card strength

I went to a Samckdown house show a few backs and was impressed by the strength of the card however if I had pay to be in the audience for this Smackdown taping I would have asked for a refund. We had Finlay fighting a non named jobber, Koslov fighting Colin Delaney a rare appearance by Nunzio and the return of Jesse and Festus going against Edge’s cronies. For a card boasting three title matches it was very weak.

Smackdown ends like Raw with a crazy finish

Ok this wasn’t quite on par with Raw’s worst ending ever but it was still very poor. After building Undertaker for so long they decided to have Vickie Guerrero strip him of the title in a move that no one saw coming and for a stupid reason. The reason given was because his choke hold was illegal and that he was hurting Smackdown stars. It would have made more sense to have Undertaker getting disqualified on a regular basis first because of the choke hold and then get the title taken away. Because this wasn’t built many fans would have missed this so was a very silly out of the blue idea which like Raw I wouldn’t be surprised if it was just cooked up five minutes before the show.

Overall

I’m glad I am going away in a week’s time to escape the current terrible state of WWE booking. I can’t believe both shows were so terribly booked.

WWE Raw Review - 21st April 2008

This week it was time for the much hyped three hour Raw special which was going to feature the return of the King of the Ring tournament but after all it’s hype it wasn’t the King of the Ring we went home talking about.

Good Points

The Presidential Candidates invade Raw

This is one of the classic examples of how far ahead WWE are of TNA. For the last week the wrestling world has been raving about the Kurt Angle vs. Samoa Joe match from Lockdown but this week the whole world including international press and media are talking about what happened on Raw. After Mayweather at Mania WWE are getting just about as many column inches for having the three major presidential candidates appear on video to address the WWE fans. Yes their speeches may have been terrible and corny at best but they’ve got people talking. I think McCain beat everyone hands down with his video message but I still like the line “can you smell what Barack is cooking.”

Solid card

You won’t get a more stacked raw card than this week’s show with a strong list of competitors for KotR and then a main event which featured the eight biggest guys across all brands in the WWE right now. Just the unfortunate thing was that we didn’t know what the card was going to be before the show and a lot of the time during the show we were left wondering what was going to happen next.

Continuing push for Carlito and Marella

Carlito picked up a win against Hardcore Holly to continue their roll and after me mentioning about Santino being out of breath last week it was good to see him standing on the sidelines and then coming in at the end to get on the mic when he wasn’t out of breath. They coined a good phrase for themselves last week referring to themselves as international superstars which we didn’t hear this week but it really needs to be used a lot.

Doing something with the Divas

It was good to see WWE creative team doing something with the divas this week by starting to create two rival factions the face divas who support Mickie James and the heel divas who support Beth Phoenix.

Bad Points

King of the Ring – Waste of time!

You knew by having the KotR on Raw they had already killed off any legitimacy and prestige this tournament once had but you thought they would at least give it a big push on Raw. However it soon came apparent that it wasn’t being treated properly as for the first round after every match you didn’t know who was going to be next. Then as CM Punk progressed to the finals to face William Regal I thought some good would come out of it with a push for CM Punk but no it was Regal who barely wrestles on Raw and who doesn’t need the win who got the result. This final match wasn’t even the main event and there wasn’t even an official crowning ceremony so the tournament in one night went from meaning something to becoming meaningless.

Why three hours

As I always say for three hour shows these should only be done for PPV’s. Expecting a casual TV viewer to watch an entertainment programme on an entertainment channel for three hours is asking a lot. Two hours you can kind of agree with as instead of watching the show in daily thirty minute episodes like most soaps you get it all at once.

Terrible build for Backlash

They should if they were going to use the KotR done it a few weeks away from any PPV. Added to this the time given to the presidential candidates and the cross brand main event which didn’t really help build anything there was very little on the show that got me pumped for Backlash except Batista and HBK who had a showdown in the ring.

Overall

Again WWE has the world talking which is good it just now needs to work on actually entertaining it’s core audience base as the storylines have become very stagnant. If the WWE fail to look after their core audience whilst trying to get new viewers they will never expand as new viewers will just replace long time viewers that are leaving the product.

TNA Impact Review - Thursday 13th March 2008

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

Good Points

Solid Opening

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

Karen Angle back

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

Team 3D win promo of the night

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

Bad Points

TNA Knockouts turning in to WWE Divas

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

LAX first they push them now they don’t

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

Where are Booker T, Robert Roode and Sharmell?

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

Pushing Lethal Lockdown over Angle vs. Samoa Joe

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

Worst mess of an ending to a TV show.

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

WWE Smackdown Review - Friday 7th March 2008

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

Jamie Noble getting a push

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

Batista made to look weak

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

Why are they pushing Festus?

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

Use of female talent

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

Edge

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

TNA Impact Review - Thursday 6th March 2008

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

Tomko

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

Robert Roode

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

Too many parodies and mimics

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

Production

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

Are we excited or ready for the PPV?

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

WWE Raw Review - 3rd March 2008

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

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

Poor Production

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

Use of Super Crazy

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

Finlay / JBL / McMahon feud

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

No TV time for Burchill

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

Now on to the good points

Jeff Hardy

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

Carlito

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

Randy Orton’s push

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

Overall

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

WWE Smackdown Review - Friday 29th February 2008

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

Too many big guys

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

Slow developing feuds

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

Who has Batista annoyed?

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

Larger than life storylines

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

The Edge / Undertaker feud

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

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

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.

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.

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