7/30 Smackdown: “What We Have Learned”

These are some of the things- good, bad, and ugly- that the Smackdown universe learned this past Friday from the show:

E.V.2 on your TV, too!: TNA Impact 7/29/10

In case you were wondering when WWE’s legal crew would smack down TNA for spouting off their trademarked ECW name, you have found your answer.  So instead, the leaders of Extreme started off Impact by talking about lawyers and changing their name to E. Version 2. And the group started the night off by sweeping away nearly three months of build by having Brother Ray getting over being a dick and joining up.  And back tracking to revert to the status quo would be the ultimate message of the night.

So at the least appropriate moment possible, when E.v2.0 was united in the ring (minus Rob Van Dam), out came Hulk Hogan and all ECW enthusiasts became nauseous as he sang their praises and they nodded approvingly.  This brought out Abyss, who warned that “they” did not like this ECW reunion and he would have to stop it.  Tommy Dreamer took the opportunity to challenge Abyss to a match.

After a brief Rob Van Dam attack on Abyss to save Eric Bischoff (more on that later), out came Tommy and they had their EXTREME match in which neither man bled (shocking) and Tommy resumed his duties of getting pinned by everyone.  As Abyss prepared to use his nail board on the fallen Dreamer, E.v2.0 member Raven entered to make the save. And just as I began questioning the logic of Raven saving Dreamer (if you’re familiar with their history, you would have too) Raven Evenflow DDT’d Dreamer into a chair. That part was awesome. Raven licking the face of the fallen Dreamer? Not so much.

Rest of the show after the jump.

Another One Bites The Dust – NXT 7/27/10

I missed the first 12 minutes but it was apparently an Open Mic segment for the Rookies to make their last plea to the WWE Universe (or at least those who hadn’t voted) to keep them in the competition in one minute.

I assume Alex Riley, Percy Watson and Michael McGuillicutty did great. While Husky Harris and Lucky Cannon made their respective overly heel and face promos. Eli Cottonwood and Kaval are toss ups but I from Michael Cole’s reactions later in the night it sounded like it was bad. Also Matt Striker probably cut one of them off for going too long. It’s kinda his thing on this show.

As for the elimination at the end of the night, Eli Cottonwood was sent packing. After a moment to soak up what had happened he went crazy and attacked all the other Rookies. They fought him back and on his way out shoved his Pro John Morrison.

After some Rookie reactions to the new poll, Riley and McG got into a scuffle and Cottonwood return to finish what he started minutes earlier. Mustache!

As for the rest of the show...

Dissent in the Ranks: Raw 7/26/10

The major focus of this week’s episode of Raw was the 7-on-7, Raw versus Nexus match at Summerslam.  The problem’s for Team Raw started immediately, as Chris Jericho was upset that Cena was referring to them as his team.  Cena gets frustrated and tells Jericho that he can claim the team if he wants to.  He doesn’t care, he just wants to beat Nexus.  Jericho informs Cena that he doesn’t consider Nexus to be the only threat to WWE.  Jericho has seen Cena have his way with the company, and plans to do something about it after dealing with the Nexus.  The GM sends a message saying that they will tag together tonight.

More dissension occurred backstage as Edge was talking to Ted DiBiase, about how he, instead of The Great Khali should be on the team.  Edge insults Khali, and is over heard by Khali’s manager.  Later on, Khali confronts Edge and challenges him to a match.  The match doesn’t last very long before Nexus interferes.  Edge abandons Khali, but Nexus doesn’t attack him, instead lets him leave.  During the John Morrison/ DiBiase match, R-Truth was at ringside, offering his support.  After initially saving Morrison by disrupting an illegal pin attempt by DiBiase, Morrison runs into R-Truth, allowing DiBiase to get the win.  Morrison and Truth argue after the match.

In the main event, it was Cena and Jericho versus Sheamus and the Miz.  Sheamus and Miz were paired up because Miz had once again tried to cash in on an unconscious Sheamus, only to be interrupted by Randy Orton.  Both teams were working fairly well together, until Jericho hit Cena with a Codebreaker, allowing Miz to get the pinfall.  After the match, Jericho tried to put Cena into the Wall of Jericho, but Cena countered and got Jericho into the STF.  Khali comes out and tries to separate the two.  Eventually, the entire team, minus Bret Hart, are in the ring, arguing with each other, while still trying to separate other arguments.

Rest of the show

• Randy Orton def. Jey Uso by pinfall. Pretty much a squash.  Sheamus was at ringside, and tried to attack Orton, but missed.  Orton hit Sheamus with an RKO, leading to The Miz’s arrival mentioned earlier.
• The Nexus def. Mark Henry, Evan Bourne, Hart Dynasty, Yoshi Tatsu, Jerry Lawler & Goldust. This was an elimination squash match.  Essentially, this match was to show how unified The Nexus is.
• Alicia Fox def. Brie Bella by pinfall. Another squash match.  After the match, Fox took out Jillian Hall to stop her from singing any more.

Closing Thoughts

I like the arguing amongst Team Raw, but the ending of the show was a bit lame and forced.  Everyone was arguing with everyone, but also trying to break up the arguments.  It just didn’t make much sense.  Have them brawl a bit, have one person that’s not arguing with anyone and is trying to break up all of the arguments, or have Nexus come in, and just destroy the arguing people.  I expect Hart to come back next week, and be the voice that unifies Team Raw.

• I also wonder how long they’re going to keep up the “Miz cashes in every week” thing going.  Soon, they’ll run out of reasons for him to change his mind, and it’s going to get stale.
• Alicia Fox taking out Jillian to keep her from signing isn’t really a heel thing to do.  It was a favor to the fans.

The ‘C’ stands for ‘Crying’: TNA Impact 7/22/10

The brawl to end last week’s Impact was a much-talked about event. The former ECW guys finally did something and the show ended with Dixie Carter dropping the somewhat baffling news that she had invited them to Impact (despite the fact that four of them already worked there). This week, Impact closed its episode with a lengthy segment in which Dixie brought the four out and explained just what she was doing. And the whole thing went to hell.

If you’re going to try to do an ECW revival, you probably want some violence. Barbed wire, chairs, weapons, kendo sticks. After all, the group has the likes of Rhino, Mick Foley, Raven and Tommy Dreamer in it. You want fast-paced action that can outrun common sense in the spirit of entertainment. What you probably don’t want is a blubbering Tommy Dreamer begging Dixie to give ECW a chance to rebuild its legacy while choking back tears as the others stand by silently nodding.

Three guesses which one TNA gave. 

Explaining that their presence was not an invasion, but rather a chance to once more show what ECW had been, Tommy Dreamer got his request for one show, and then Impact went off the air with Dreamer hugging Dixie. Because nothing screams extreme quite like hugging. 

As for the rest of the show… 

Obstacle Course V.2 – NXT 7/20/10

The night opened with MVP’s VIP Lounge with guest Percy Watson. The two hashed out their feelings about Watson trying to make an impact at MVP’s expense last week on the Showtime Percy Watson Show. After settling on mutual respect and a sincere apology from Watson the two squashed their differences.

Then out came “Dashing” Cody Rhodes and his Rookie Husky Harris. After Matt Striker asked each pairing to say why the WWE Universe should vote for them (Striker did this throughout the night with each pairing) he announced a tag match between the two teams.

At the close of the night we got the new NXT Obstacle Course. It wrapped around the ring only consisting of a tire section, 3 wall hurdles, 10 push-ups, a balance beam and cart push up the ramp across the finish line. Matt Striker was shown running it early in 41.5 seconds. Michael McGuillicutty won the challenge and immunity from next week’s elimination with I think 26.3 seconds. It should be noted McG won mostly because he went first and was the only one the refs didn’t stress running the course properly.

As for the rest of the show…

Battle Lines: Raw 7/19/10

The show kicked off with a triple threat match between Randy Orton, Chris Jericho, and Edge.  In what was a surprisingly long match for Raw (20 minutes), Randy Orton was able to get the win after hitting both Jericho and Edge with RKOs.  After a commercial break, Jericho and Edge are arguing in the ring when The Nexus comes out.  To the delight of Jericho, they all gang up on Edge.  After The Nexus is done, Jericho jumps in and puts Edge into the Walls of Jericho, until he realizes that The Nexus is standing around him, menacingly.  They then attack Jericho and leave him unconscious in the ring.

After a pessimistic speech earlier in the show, at the end of the show, Cena comes out to the ring to speak with The Nexus.  He offers them truce, but they decline, saying that they don’t want their to be peace.  Instead, they want Cena to join them.  Cena can’t do that, and starts to leave.  He stops and says that he tried to let The Nexus off the hook, but he recommits to taking them down, and now has a team to do it at Summerslam.  That team consists of himself, Edge, Jericho, John Morrison, R-Truth, The Great Khali, and Bret Hart.  The 7 of them run down to the ring, and The Nexus runs out through the crowd.

Rest of the show.

• Eve def. Maryse by pinfall. Maryse’s foot was on the bottom rope, but the ref did not see it as he counted the 3-count.  Ted DiBiase, who was at ringside, came into argue with the ref, but Morrison came out and attacked DiBiase.
• Sheamus def. Evan Bourne by pinfall. Pre-match, Sheamus was gloating about how he had beaten Cena for a third time, and that he was going to be champion for a long time.  The Miz came out and reminded Sheamus of his Money in the Bank win.  The GM put Sheamus into a match with Bourne.  Eventually, Sheamus was able to pin Bourne.  Miz runs in and attacks Sheamus, hitting the Skull-crushing Finale onto the briefcase.  The Miz tries to cash in, but R-Truth runs out to attack The Miz before the match could officially start.
• Santino Marella & Vladmir Koslov def. William Regal and Zach Ryder by pinfall. Again, Koslov causes most of the damage, and Santino gets the pin on Ryder.  Post-match, Santino dances around to the amusement of Koslov.
• Wade Barrett def. Mark Henry by pinfall. This match was a back and forth brawl.  Mark Henry climbed to the middle rope, but Barrett was able to pick him off the ropes, and slam him with his finisher, before completely losing his balance.

Closing Thoughts

Wow, WWE certainly didn’t waste any time in setting up their main storylines for Summerslam.  We are going to get Orton versus Sheamus for the title, and Cena’s army going up against The Nexus.  The Sheamus/Orton feud doesn’t really interest me, but the Cena/Nexus one does.  I like that Cena has surrounded himself with people who have held a title at some point.  Yes, remember that Khali was a World Champion.  And sure, Hart can’t be much of a physical factor, but he adds some weight behind the feud.  His presence, along with Jericho and Edge, add importance to this feud.  The easiest way to build up a credible threat is to have the opposing group of guys take the threat seriously.

• I don’t think they should have had Eve win by bad officiating.  It doesn’t look good for the face.
• Still amused by the pairing of Koslov and Marella, but not sure how much longer that will last.
• Last night was a good example of how nice a show can be when you don’t have to devote time to whatever the guest host is there to plug.
• The Miz trying to cash in then getting interrupted was alright, but if they do that too many times, it’s just going to remind people of Punk’s attempts to cash in last year.

Money in the Bank 2010

Steel Cage match for the WWE Championship
Sheamus def. John Cena to retain the WWE Championship
Of course, The Nexus came out to interfere in the match.  Cena confronted Justin Gabriel at the top of the cage, then through him off.  As he continued to climb down from the cage, Cena was halted by other members of The Nexus.  Sheamus climbed down the other side of the cage, and after fighting off Heath Slater, is able to make it to the floor and get the win.  Other members of The Nexus chase off after Sheamus as he runs through the crowd.  Cena gets angry, and attacks Darren Young and Michael Tarver.  Cena knocks out Tarver, and takes his Nexus arm band.

This was an okay match.  Nothing particularly remarkable happened, but nothing bad happened either.  Sheamus retaining was a bit of a surprise to me at first, but really, it shouldn’t have been.  Keeping the title off of Cena allows for him to focus on his feud with The Nexus, and the title can be part of a different feud.  Not sure why Cena only took Tarver’s arm band, and not Young’s as well.

World Championship Match
Rey Mysterio def. Jack Swagger by pinfall to retain the WWE Championship; Kane def. Rey by pinfall to win the WWE Championship
Swagger had the upper hand for most of the match, with Rey only getting sporadic bursts of offense.  When Swagger wasn’t focusing on Mysterio’s injured ankle, he was using brute force.  Swagger seemingly had Mysterio put away after two of his middle rope body splashes, but Mysterio was ultimately able to defeat Swagger with a West Coast Pop.  Post match, Swagger came to attack Mysterio, but Kane came out for the save.  After chasing Swagger away, Kane came back out to cash in the Money in the Bank contract he had won earlier in the night.  After a chokeslam and a tombstone piledriver, Kane was victorious.

This was a good match.  Swagger was menacing, and Mysterio can pull off an injury and dramatic comeback.  I had expected Rey to win this match, but I did not expect the Money in the Bank winner to cash in on Mysterio.  it was great to see Kane win the title again.  This has been long overdue.

Raw Money in the Bank Ladder Match
Miz wins
I was expecting this match to be good, and was not disappointed.  There were too many spots to try to describe.  My personal favorite of the match was when Evan Bourne delivered a Shooting Star Press onto Randy Orton, right after Orton had hit someone with an RKO.  Bourne, Jericho, Edge, and Orton each looked like they were going to win the match at one point.  I didn’t think Miz would actually win this, but seeing him go on the ego trip of being able to get a title shot anytime he wants to should be interesting.

Smackdown Money in the Bank Match
Kane wins
I’ll admit that I did not have high hopes for this match, but was pleasantly surprised by how good this match was.  Matt Hardy and Christian largely controlled the pace of the match, but they do have more experience than anyone else in the match.  Kofi had some nice spots in the match.  Big Show had some good moments, including my favorite of Big Show getting buried under a pile of ladders, and Ziggler and Kofi.  Kane had many good moments, including throwing Cody Rhodes into one of the armored cars.  I had thought that McIntyre would win, but was thrilled that Kane won, and later cashed in to win the World title.

Tag Team Title Match
The Hart Dynasty def. The Usos by submission
Adequate is the best way to describe this match.  It was someone where between my pessimistic expectations and optimistic hope.  The Usos looked like they had the win after hitting the Alley-Us on Tyson Kidd, but ultimately Smith was able to put Jimmy in the Sharpshooter, forcing him to tap out.

WWE Women’s Title Match
Layla defeats Kelly Kelly by pinfall to retain the title
This match was exactly what I thought it’d be, and that’s not good.  Kelly came close to winning after hitting the K2, but McCool tried to put Layla’s foot on the rope, but failed, and luckily Layla was able to get her other foot on the rope in time.  There was an outside altercation between a weird looking Tiffany and McCool, which distracted Kelly, allowing Layla to win with a roll-up.

Divas Championship Match
Alicia Fox defeated Eve by pinfall to retain the title
This match was surprisingly good.  It had nice pacing, and no botched moves.  In the end, Alicia Fox won with a Scissors Kick.

Closing Thoughts
Overall, I’m glad I saw this pay-per-view.  I think the WWE comes out of this event in a good position heading into Summerslam.  The major questions coming out of this are who will be challenging for the titles now.  Theoretically, Cena and Swagger should not be challenging for the titles after this.  One would think that Rey will invoke his rematch clause, unless they write him out with an injury.

Preview: Money in the Bank 2010

This is the newest of WWE’s gimmick pay-per-views.  The “Money in the Bank” ladder match debuted at Wrestlemania 21, and has since been one of the more entertaining staples of Wrestlemania.  Today, that changes with two more “Money in the Bank” ladder matches happening, one for each brand.  But they are not the only thing happening at this pay-per-view.  We also get five title matches.

Steel Cage Match for the WWE Championship
Sheamus (c) vs. John Cena (c)
This feud was restarted before last month’s Fatal Fourway, and had continued due to Sheamus’ win, with the help of some outside interference from The Nexus.  Since then, their feud has largely centered around their interactions with The Nexus.  Cena has stayed firmly against The Nexus.  Sheamus, however, has wavered back and forth.  One week he’s with Cena, then he’s apathetic, then he’s with again.  But, if The Nexus interferes tonight, what will Sheamus do?

This match is taking place in a steel cage, theoretically to keep The Nexus out, but this isn’t a Hell in a Cell match.  It is possible for The Nexus to either climb into the cage, or simply go through the door.  I would be more surprised if Nexus did not interfere in this match.  The question is will they take a side in the match, or just create mass chaos.

I see Cena winning this match simply because I can’t see Sheamus being the champion heading into Summerslam.  Of course, there is the chance that Sheamus wins the match, and does not leave as champion.  This is the Money in the Bank pay-per-view.  Granted no winner has ever cashed in the night of  winning, that’s at Wrestlemania.  A champion deserves to celebrate their victory at the biggest show of the year.  However, this is no Wrestlemania.  So, I either see Cena leaving as champion, or Sheamus winning the match, but then getting beat by the Money in the bank winner.

World Championship Match
Rey Mysterio (c) vs. Jack Swagger
Rey Mysterio took the place of The Undertaker in the Smackdown fatal fourway match at last month’s Fatal Fourway.  Amidst the chaos of Kane’s “investigation” into who took out his brother, Mysterio took the opportunity and picked up the win.  Immediately, Swagger invoked his rematch clause, and challenged Mysterio to a match at Money in the Bank.

Since that challenge, Swagger has been ankle-locking everyone.  Well, everyone being Big Show and Mysterio.  One of those ankle-locking encounters included Swagger dragging Mysterio from the trainer’s room, down a hallway and out to the ring for all to see.  This past week, Mysterio was able to get a bit of revenge on Swagger, but delivering a 619 to him while he had Kane in the ankle lock, allowing Kane to hit Swagger with a chokeslam.

Part of me expects Swagger to regain the title, but I do have some doubts.  Rey would make more sense and be the bigger name heading into Summerslam.  Also, in the Smackdown Money in the Bank match, there isn’t really a main event guy that I can see winning the match, and taking the title into Summerslam.  Big Show is main event, but I can’t really see him being the winner.

Raw Money in the Bank Ladder Match
Randy Orton vs. John Morrison vs. Mark Henry vs. Evan Bourne vs. Ted DiBiase vs. Chris Jericho vs. Edge vs. The Miz
There have been 3 separate feuds that have been going on during the set up for this match.  The Miz was feuding with R-Truth, until a surprise attack by Miz injured R-Truth.  Mark Henry was brought in to replace R-Truth.  John Morrison and Ted DiBiase have also been having a small feud going on.

The bigger feud has involved the remaining four individuals.  Before this match was set up, Bourne and Jericho have had a bit of a feud going, and Edge and Orton have had a feud going.  But in the build up for this match, they’ve combined those feuds.  In a tag match pitting Orton and Bourne against Jericho and Edge, Edge betrays Jericho, Bourne got the win, and then Orton RKOed him.  Last episode, there was another brawl featuring the four of them.

I expect the winner to come from this main event feud, and am going to go out on a limb and say that Bourne will win this.  He has been given quite a push recently, and people with far less momentum have won Money in the Bank in the past.  But regardless of who wins, with the talent in this match, it has the potential to be one of the better ladder matches in the WWE.

The Big TNA Brawl of Ought-10

Normally this is where I’d post my review to the previous episode of Impact, giving amusing commentary and insulting banter about the often inept writing of the company.  But let’s get serious here.  You really only want to hear about the brawl that closed out the show, don’t you?  So let’s talk about that.

For the uninformed, last night’s Impact closed with Abyss looking to use his nail bat thing on TNA champion Rob Van Dam, which brought the so-called “Former ECW Four” of Tommy Dreamer, Raven, Rhino and Stevie Richards into the ring.  Seriously, that’s what Mike Tenay called them.  The four began beating on Abyss which brought out help from the back, which sparked a big brawl.  (Taz commented that the four didn’t even work there.  Uh, Rhino, Raven and Stevie Richards all have been with TNA for quite a while.)  But of course when I say help from the back, I mean random guys two at a time.  And when I say random, I mean pudgy security guards, referees, guys that you had no idea were with the company (D’Lo Brown and Al Snow?) and basically anyone who might have still had their tights on.  So you had the likes of Desmond Wolfe and D’Angelo Dinero coming in to stand up for Abyss (let that logic sink in).  Finally, since over a dozen guys were brawling in a stage set up for specifically that purpose, two (2) cops came in to try to do something.  Good try, there.

And when the logic sets in, you realize that this brawl was one big mess.  First off, it’s not like the ECW guys were sending a message to TNA.  They were trying to prevent their friend Rob Van Dam from getting hit by a horrible weapon from the biggest monster of the company.  From that point, they were simply defending themselves.  Of course, we were supposed to make more of it when former ECW guys like Al Snow and Brother Devon began attacking the security, but you had to look very closely to deduce that since the commentators barely touched on it.  There were so many people in the ring wearing normal clothes that it became difficult to see what the four ECW guys were doing.

So then, at the end of all of it, Jeff Jarrett (who has no pull in the company anymore, if you recall) comes out as a moderator of sorts, which brings a distraught Dixie Carter to come from the crowd and reveal that she invited them, much to the surprise of everyone…who was fighting on both sides.

This whole thing was one huge mess.  If nothing else, it shows the stupidity of Dixie Carter.  Had she invited Tommy Dreamer to Impact, you’d think she have told someone.  ANYONE.  He’s been showing up for over a month now.  And what did she invite him to do?  Sit in the crowd and watch the show?  Attack Abyss?  Stop “they”?  Wouldn’t it be easier if he was backstage and not sitting in the crowd?  And why all the silence?  I should mention that Mick Foley showed up on the stage to spark this whole thing, even though he was “fired” back when Eric Bischoff was still a bad guy.  But he was quickly lost in the shuffle, so it hardly matters.

This whole thing is simple.  The crowd thing was to build up intrigue, and then the brawl was done because big brawls with a bunch of random people looks important.  All big storylines have big brawls.  But four guys against a third of the TNA locker room?  It shouldn’t have even come close.  This whole thing was a mess.

Rest of the TNA recap when I get around to watching the rest of the show.