WWE Raw Review - 28th April 2008

After a very entertaining and interesting Backlash I was looking forward to see what the fall out would be on Raw. However little did I know that a disaster in booking and a terrible show awaited me.

Good Points

Kennedy is back and already lined up in a feud

After pushing Regal at the KOTR and then not having him on Backlash, Regal was finally put in to a feud with none other than the returning Mr. Kennedy. I am interested to see where this feud goes as although it is a bit down the card for Kennedy after being pushed in to main event status over the last few months.

New feud for Jericho

Was great to see a new feud started between HBK and Jericho after what happened at Backlash. Jericho claimed that HBK feigned his injury in his match against Batista during his Highlight Reel section. The only problem is where does this leave Batista? Unless we have Batista vs. Undertaker for the fiftieth time there is not much out there for him. Although I’m looking forward to the prospect of another HBK vs. Y2J match after their Wrestlemania classic.

Bad Points

JBL goes from hero to zero

After being in the main event at Backlash JBL this week was booked against one of the Highlanders who haven’t been on Raw for many months. The great consistency in the WWE booking at the moment is great. JBL Booked against a Highlander, Cena nowhere to be seen and no match for CM Punk add to this Cody Rhodes beating Marella and you would start to think they are employing five year olds in the WWE creative department.

Crazy Cade and Murdoch

After their most recent defeat against Kendrik and London Trevor Murdoch took it upon himself to stand on top of the announcers table and sing a song. Murdoch doesn’t have a history of singing so for him to do it with no reason was highly bizarre.

Shoddy camerawork

Some of the camerawork this week resembled some of the live TNA programmes. Don’t who they had on cameras this week but whoever they were it wasn’t the best.

No strong HHH promo

After winning the belt at Backlash many were expecting a strong HHH promo to start his reign as champion but instead of being given the chance to do this he was cut off within a few minutes by Randy Orton and then we barely saw him until he got in the ring for the main event.

Worst ending ever

Randy Orton and HHH gave us a good long match compared to many other Raw main events but was ruined by a Vince Russo WCW booking style ending. For no reason whatsoever William Regal ordered the feed to be shut down during the main event so the show went off to darkness with fans watching at home wondering what was going on. It wasn’t like Regal had been threatening to do something like this for some time or that Regal has a history of psychotic episodes. It was like they had no ideas for the finish so at the last minute someone came up with this hairbrain idea.

Overall

Besides a couple of moments of the light the show was the most unusual mess of a show I have witnessed in some time. Big improvements need to made from this terrible outing.

WWE Backlash Review

It’s always a hard job to follow Wrestlemania as the next PPV which normally shows with Backlash. Normally Backlash is an event with a couple of decent matches but not much storyline movement as most of this would have happened at Mania and the WWE wouldn’t want to change direction that quickly. So Backlash is always an event I go in to with low expectations but hope to be surprised by.

Good Points

Matt Hardy wins the US title

Great to see Matt Hardy and MVP kicking off the show and Matt Hardy building on his comeback push with a title victory. It was an obvious result to guess but needed to happen as the US title had been on MVP for far too long. I hope this now frees up MVP for new feuds as he is my talent to watch for this year.

Nice ending to Edge vs. Undertaker match

Again it was obvious that Undertaker was going to hold on to his title but it was nice how they ended the match. The match ended with Undertaker failing to let go of his submission move for long after the bell forcing Edge to be taken out of the ring on a stretcher. Will be interesting to see how they use this in the storyline development.

Finally Triple H is back on top

In a move which should have happened at Mania HHH finally got his title in an unexpected win in the four way elimination main event. This leads me to believe that Orton has either caused problems backstage or has injury problems as it makes no sense to push him at Mania just to drop the belt a month later. I think it is a shame that such a historic moment wasn’t done at Mania where a lot more people would have seen and o have it mean so much more. I’m just glad though that it has happened and I am looking forward to see what happens with HHH as champion.

Bad Points

No Tag title matches

To have two sets of tag champions and have none defended on a PPV is ludicrous. Every PPV should have a tag title match or at least a well built tag match. What is the point of pushing Carlito and Marella or bringing back Cryme Time not to use them on the PPV. The idea of the weekly TV shows is to build for the PPV’s. I think they should unify the tag belts having two separate tag divisions one on Raw and one on Smackdown but with champions who fought challengers from both brands. It’s like on Smackdown what’s the point of having a women’s division with no champion or no chance for them to fight the Raw champion.

Batista losing to Michaels

I’m not a big Batista fan but to keep booking him low down the card or losing in big matches is starting to really effect his position on the roster. I think it would have made more sense for him to win and then trade to raw to face new champion Triple H and have a Raw guy transfer to Smackdown as a new opponent for the Undertaker.

No matches for Regal or CM Punk

After having Regal win the King of the Ring and CM Punk having his biggest push to date it made no sense for these two not to have matches. Again the weekly TV shows are suppose to be used to promote the PPV’s so what’s the time of giving these two major ring time and not have them on the PPV. It’s just a waste of time on the weekly shows.

Overall

Happy about the two title changes and there were a couple of decent matches in there but I think they used the wrong talent. Out of the pool they have they could have made a much better card which made more sense than the one that was on offer.

TNA iMPACT Review - Thursday 24th April 2008

After a hectic week last week on iMPACT I was looking forward to see what was going to happen this week and if it could be just as crazy.

Good Points

Improvements to Sacrifice

Thankfully TNA have seen sense and done what we expected them to and made the title match at Sacrifice a triple threat adding Kurt Angle to the Steiner, Samoa Joe match. They spent a good amount of time on iMPACT building all three guys and having Steiner interfere in the Angle vs. Samoa Joe match was the right move.

Knockouts are interesting again

After some dull weeks before Lockdown TNA are back on a roll with this division with good matches and adding an interesting stipulation to the Knockouts match at Sacrifice which is going to see on Knockout getting their head shaved. This is the first I have heard of something like this happening in a women’s match and after the Britney Spears head shaving incident I think this will get some media attention.

Karen Angle

Good to see her storyline continuing. They need to devote more time to it but what we did see with her and AJ was great. After Angle’s programme with Joe ends it will be good to have the Karen and AJ storyline simmering under to give him something different to do.

Bad Points

Use of Matt Morgan

The show kicked off with Matt Morgan to continue his push by beating on Kip James to open the show. Then he was nowhere to be seen. After his recent push they need to build him in to a good feud for Sacrifice.

Too much Cornette

I love Cornette and have done for years but I think he is overused. It seems every segment ends in a squabble that Cornette has to come out to settle. If Cornette only came out for the big moments it would make his character more important and add gravitas to what was happening.

Christian Cage back down the card

Cage’s slump down the card continues with him being booked in the tag division with Rhino. Now both guy are great but it just seems like these guys have been whacked together as they don’t know what to do with them which is never a good reason to put a storyline together.

Overall

If TNA come manage their talent a bit better they would have an awesome two hour weekly show. The storyline development rate is good and there is enough happening each show to keep the viewer entertained now if they put the right guys in the right positions they will be away.

WWE Smackdown Review - Friday 25th April 2008

After a Raw that will be remembered more for the presidential candidates than for the quality of show I was hoping Smackdown could provide my entertainment this week.

Good Points

More non wrestling segments

I was glad to see lots more talking with segments involving Edge and CMP Punk as well as MVP and Matt Hardy being given time. I thought over all there was a better balance between wrestling and non wrestling segments. The only things thy need to do is break these segments up by not having too much talking in the first hour in the first hour and having more in the last hour.

Push for CM Punk

Was great to see CM Punk after Monday’s incidents where they dropped the ball with him to be put in the match of the night against Edge. Those two were given mic time and time for a decent match. Hope the consistency improves for CM Punk’s push.

Good Recap Video

Was great to se again at the start of the show a video recap of what has been happening over the last few weeks. This should be made mandatory for all TV shows.

Great Ending

The best ending to a Smackdown since before Wrestlemania. Was great to see HBK getting involved and costing Batista his title match against Undertaker with his swet chin music. Was great to see something so important and pivotal to a storyline happening on Smackown.


Bad Points

Use of Vladimir Kozlov

The way they are pushing him by having him beat on no name jobbers is getting rather boring. Yes it may have worked for Goldberg but wrestling has changed a lot since then and I think people are going to get very bored of his winning streak very quickly.

Working of Batista vs. Undertaker

Having this match as a championship match and trying to promote to the fans that the title could change hands was stupid. Most fans with at least 2 IQ knew that they were going to put all the promotional push in to the Undertaker vs. Edge match just to have Undertaker lose a couple of nights before. WWE needs to start treating it’s fans with more intelligence.

Overall

A good solid little Smackdown which got us hyped for Hardy vs. MVP and Batista vs. HBK. Don’t think it did enough to push Undertaker vs. Edge but a marked improvement.

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 17th April 2008

After such a history making PPV that changed the direction of TNA I was excited to see what they were going to do on this week’s iMPACT, how were they going to bring in the new era?

Good Points

Samoa Joe

Although he didn’t wrestle this week on iMPACT he had some great promo time and talked like a champion. Would have liked to see him in the ring but a good start to his title reign none the less.

Unpredictability

This week’s iMPACT saw more title changes than Lockdown. Petey Williams was handed a shot at the X-Division title by Scott Steiner and cashed it in after Lethal’s match with Devine to win the belt. Then the tag titles were made vacant in a crazy chain of events which saw Kaz and Eric Young win the belts only to be stripped of them because Eric Young and Super Eric are two different people well according to Eric Young they are. This was the funniest and most interesting storyline of the night as Jim Cornette tried to get to the bottom of the situation.

Push for Matt Morgan

After months and months of just playing the role of bodyguard for Jim Cornette Matt Morgan is finally being given a push. Matt has the size and look to go far in the business but it will be interesting to see how he uses his push after interjecting himself in to the main event to set up a match with Booker T next week.

Forward Planning

On Raw and Smackdown we normally come in to the show not knowing what matches are going to be on the show unless you visit the website. I personally like it when I know what is going to happen next week and TNA have two awesome matches announced for next week. Next week we have Kurt Angle against Samoa Joe for the TNA heavyweight title and Matt Morgan in his first one on one match against Booker T.

Bad Points

Too much change

If you saw Lockdown, missed iMPACT this week and tuned in the next week you would be completely out of the loop in TNA. Wrestling programmes should be like any weekly series with something interesting happening on every show but not too much that you are out of the loop if you miss one show. TNA gave away too much for free with title changes and the announcement of the title rematch. Yes have big matches on TV shows but don’t make the fans who brought your PPV feel ripped off that they could have watched stuff like this for free. Unpredictability is good but there are other ways than title changes to achieve this.

Scott Steiner already dead and buried

Now I’m not Scott Steiner’s biggest fan but if you are going to have him in a main event of a PPV you have to push him and give him all the chances you can to build it. Instead of using this show to push Steiner as someone who could beat Joe they cut his in ring mic segment with Samoa Joe short so Kurt Angle could come down and get a rematch next week at Impact and after that Steiner was nowhere to be seen. Now all the fans are hyped for next week which will only leave Samoa Joe or Kurt Angle two or so weeks to build for Steiner.

Poor production

Again TNA’s production continues to let them down which makes them look second rate to WWE’s slick production. During a backstage interview with Cage and Rhino the camera was moving so much I thought I was going to get motion sickness. Then to top it off a lot of the backstage audio levels were all over the place. Come on guys these are basic things which aren’t that difficult to get right.

Overall

Well you can’t say that iMPACT was boring this week as it was packed top to bottom with exciting stuff. It kind of reminds me of WCW in a way when they gave so much away for free on Nitro with their TV shows being better than a lot of their PPV’s. TNA thouh are getting people talking and I don’t blame them from trying to keep that momentum going but thy need to find more creative ways of making an entertaining show.

WWE Smackdown Review - Friday 18th April 2008

It was time for the second TV show in a week from the UK as Smackdown like raw came to us from the O2 Arena in London. After a terrible show last week I wasn’t expecting much from this one.

Good Points

Use of Chris Jericho

Ok he may have been mishandled since his return and he may have been bumped in to a non wrestling role as special guest referee for the HBK / Batista match but he is running with it. He is getting good TV time with his Highlight Reel becoming a semi regular segment of Raw and Smackdown. Twice in the space of one week Jericho was left laying as he has now been on the receiving end of both HBK and Batista’s finishers.

Big win for Hornswoggle

Hornswoggle has to go down as the most successful midget in WWE history. After being pushed in to major storylines the fans have really taken to him and this week he registered a big win against Matt Striker.

Using all the big guys in one match.

As you know I’m not a fan of Khali or Mark Henry but the way in which WWE are using those two and Big Show all in the same segment of Smackdown is good to see as it’s not wasting other precious segments and to his credit Big Show is making his feud with Khali a little bit interesting.

Bad Points

No Edge again

For the third week running Edge didn’t have any in ring action which is crazy. After seeing him perform on a house show this week I know he isn’t injured and with backlash just round the corner he needs to be in the ring. This week his involvement was saved to a crazy ending segment.

No Natalya

After two weeks of involvement for the latest WWE Diva Natalya Neidhart she was nowhere to be seen this week. This seems to be the WWE pattern this year with new guys is to use them for a couple of weeks in throw away segment and then not use them for a few weeks.

Crazy ending segment

With a strong main event booked as Batista vs. Undertaker I was really looking forward to seeing these two guys go at it again. They had a nice little match when at the end all hell broke lose with Edge and his team of cronies interfering in the match to make it a no contest. Undertaker and Batista cleaned house to leave a good ending to Smackdown as Edge and his cronies scampered back up the aisle. Instead thy ruined this moment with Vickie Guerrero coming out to announce that next week ordering a title rematch with the winner facing Edge at Backlash. Ending the show on an announcement leaves the audience flat instead of excited which they should be. Add to this it was the most stupid announcement anyway as we already knew Edge was going to be facing the champ at Backlash.

Overall

Again another week goes by of terrible TV. I think I enjoyed the Smackdown House Show I saw more than this.