Incredible

This is by far the best work/shoot promo I’ve ever heard.  CM Punk is incredible and it will be a shame if the WWE lets him get away from them.  This is flat out amazing.

And TNA – I know you try to make the “real” things happen.  THIS is how it is done.

Chris Benoit shown in new WCW DVD

WWE’s recent Very Best of WCW Nitro DVD is a must-see for any fan of WCW from 1995 through its demise in 2001.  It features many of the crucial moments of WCW, especially some of the highlights of the nWo (back when it was good) including the backstage attack in which Rey Mysterio got lawn-darted into the production truck.

But what really struck me about it was as I was watching a tag team match between Hollywood Hogan and Randy Savage against Ric Flair and Arn Anderson, suddenly there was someone I hadn’t seen in a WWE production in four years.

 

The commentary seemed to cut out to avoid his name being used, but there he was right in the ring.  Chris Benoit footage was being shown.  I nodded approvingly – despite the horrors of his final days I still remember the Chris Benoit I had been such a big fan of for over a decade.  It seemed that WWE was finally able to show archive footage of Benoit’s career.  (Also of note, his wife Nancy in her ring persona Woman was in Ric Flair’s corner for that match).

But then I saw something that shocked me.  The Four Horseman reunion of September 1998 was there, uncut, in its entirety.  Arn Anderson saying that Benoit had come to him.  No name missing from the audio.  Then the introductions were there and out came Benoit, front and center with his music playing and everything.  I was amazed and quite pleased.

Benoit will never be in the WWE Hall of Fame.  There will never be a retrospective of his life and career because it cannot be separated from the choices he made at the end of it.  But wrestling history that he was a part of can be used and can be shown without drawing attention to him.  A Wrestlemania box set can have the main event of WrestleMania XX in it.  It happened.  Maybe cut the celebration at the end, but put the match in.  The WrestleMania 2000 match between Benoit, Kurt Angle and Chris Jericho?  Let the match be shown.  Don’t call attention to Benoit – don’t let the focus fall solely on him and it can be brought back into the record books.

This DVD set looks to be the first step on being able to preserve wrestling history without the holes caused by the Benoit tragedy.  And I am happy to be able to see that.

Dissecting the Wrestlemania XXVII Corpse

…because the 2011 version of Wrestlemania was just like a corpse: dead. Lifeless, semi-dull, bloated- it was not a pretty site to behold, at times. Let’s take this mass of matches apart and see what we find, shall we?

Not Impressed… So Far

Only 2 weeks away from the grandest spectacle in wrestling. No, I’m not talking about *that promotion with Tazz and Mike Tenay as commentators* (I’m not even mentioning the name until the Nelson’s self-imposed coverage exile is up)… I’m talking about Wrestlemania! There’s only one problem with this year’s version:

I’m not really impressed with the card.

A word on Jeff Hardy and Victory Road

The general thought amongst the 1/8th Nelson is that we, the very non-Catholic writers, have decided to give up TNA for Lent, with the hopes that come Easter, the company will have either gotten better or I will have gotten my hate-filled spite out of my system enough to resume my weekly heckling.  I have not watched last week’s Impact or, for the most part, Sunday’s Victory Road.  Hell, I wasn’t even aware that the PPV was on Sunday.  It’s been a good week for me.

But upon hearing about what happened in the main event title match between newly crowned champion Sting and his predecessor Jeff Hardy, I feel like even religious fasting can’t really justify not touching upon this one.  Four Hail Marys for me, I suppose.

For those of you who haven’t heard it yet, the title match between Sting and Hardy wasn’t exactly one for the ages.  In fact, it’s actually really hard to classify it as a match.  The match barely went a minute and a half before Sting landed the match’s only wrestling move, the Scorpion Death Drop, and pinned Hardy in front of a shocked crowd.  Actually, shocked wasn’t really the word I’d use here.  Pissed off is more like it.  But at least since it was at the Impact Zone they didn’t get charged admission to get in.  Not like those saps that shilled out $35 to see the thing on PPV.

PPV Preview: WWE Elimination Chamber 2011

Here we are at the lone pit-stop on the Road to WrestleMania.  Try to get some souvenirs from when it was called No Way Out if you please.  To make nice with the rest of the WWE’s gimmick-based PPVs, this one has been tooled around the massive Elimination Chamber match.  Introduced years ago by Eric Bischoff, the Elimination Chamber is a mix of a battle royal and the old War Games match in which six guys are in the ring with two starting and the other four held in cages on the four corners of the ring.  At regular intervals, they are released int0 the match, with anyone being able to be eliminated by pinfall or submission at any time.

With the WWE split into two brands, this PPV has become essential in deciding the main event for WrestleMania for the brand that doesn’t feature the Royal Rumble winner.  Once Elimination Chamber is done, the card for the biggest show of the year is essentially set.  So let’s run down the card!

ELIMINATION CHAMBER MATCH FOR #1 CONTENDER AT WRESTLEMANIA
John Cena vs. John Morrison vs. R-Truth vs. Randy Orton vs. King Sheamus vs. CM Punk
Since Alberto Del Rio won the Royal Rumble, Raw needs a challenger for the WWE Championship to be decided in the Elimination Chamber.  Raw held a series of qualifier matches for the event and this is what they got.  Since their announcements, CM Punk has been leading his Nexus forces to attack the other participants and weaken them up, so all involved likely want a piece of Punk before all else.

But as for a prediction – I’d say the  safe bet is for John Cena to take the Raw Elimination Chamber and drift straight into a title match against the Miz at WrestleMania.  All signs seem to be pointing towards that inevitability – the Rock even targeted both Cena and the Miz specifically during his return promo.  Look for Randy Orton and CM Punk to increase their feud in the process.  Do you who’s not going to win?  R-Truth.

 

The lessons THEY have taught

Depending on who you ask, last week’s Impact reveal that the new THEY were actually Fortune may or may not have been a last-minute change from the original plan of reuniting the Main Event Mafia.  If you ask me, not only does the evidence point to the return of the MEM, but it also makes very little storyline sense that TNA would have gotten to the point they did with Fortune in mind.  Perhaps it wasn’t Booker T they had in mind, but they obviously were planning something else.

If one ignores that the turn makes next to no sense based on the evidence since Fortune and Immortal united, TNA certainly does seem to be in a better place now that Fortune has turned.  The likes of A.J. Styles, Kazarian, and Beer Money fighting against the very people who sank WCW a decade ago to preserve TNA is an interesting storyline that those few TNA faithful have likely been waiting for.  After all, the crowd chanted ‘We Want Six Sides’ for a reason.

But let’s pretend that this turn hadn’t happened.  Let’s say that none of the supposed plans had fallen through and last Wednesday we saw the return of Booker T, Kevin Nash and Sting to rejoin Kurt Angle and Scott Steiner, as the staff of TNA had likely been hoping for.  Let’s say TNA hadn’t found out what booking an angle before getting the needed talent under contract could do the hard way and everything had worked out.  With the plan coming together, TNA would have found itself heading towards a whole new lesson they’d need to learn the hard way.

Who are THEY?

Note: I am aware that this week’s Impact has already been taped and that the results are available online.  For the sake of discussion, please don’t bring up spoilers for the matter.

TNA has a big episode of Impact this Thursday, with weeks of build culminating.  Dixie Carter has promised a verdict on her court case.  Eric Bischoff has promised the return of Hulk Hogan.  Jeff Hardy gets his rematch against new TNA champion Mr. Anderson.  But perhaps most noteworthy is the promise from Crimson and Kurt Angle that a new THEY will be arriving on the scene to destroy Immortal’s hold on the company.  To whet the fan’s appetite, Scott Steiner appeared at the end of last week’s Impact to save Kurt Angle, Matt Morgan and Crimson from an Immortal beating, decked out in his fancy suit. 

The hints would suggest that THEY would be the returning Main Event Mafia, the stable that dominated TNA in 2008 and 2009.  Kevin Nash and Sting left the scene after the last THEY were revealed, so it would make sense to have them back to fight the new battle.  Booker T had been missing since before Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff arrived on the scene, but he was still a core member of the group.  It was the obvious occurence and looked to add a bright new chapter to the Immortal saga.

But then the Royal Rumble happened.

For those unaware, both Booker T and Kevin Nash (as Diesel) returned to the WWE to participate in the Royal Rumble match on Sunday.  Neither man appeared on last night’s Raw, but it’s most certain that if they signed any kind of deal that would let them be in a WWE PPV, they most likely would not be allowed to appear on TNA television the very same week.  It’s that kind of prevention that is a lasting effect of the Monday Night Wars between WWE and WCW.

So without Nash and Booker, what does that mean for THEY?  Even if Sting returned, he is not a THEY, and alone he lacks the dynamic that this angle seems to be building for.  A stable of Kurt Angle, Scott Steiner, Matt Morgan, Crimson and Sting would be something to behold, but really how far could they go against the 44 members of Immortal?  Beyond Sting, I really can’t think of anyone else that would be a surprise return to fit the role.  The big names in the business are with one of the companies or retired, and I highly doubt TNA would ever land a Chris Jericho or Batista.

So who will THEY be?  I suppose we’ll just have to watch Impact to find out.

Preview: WWE Royal Rumble 2011

It’s finally here!  The Royal Rumble is my absolute FAVORITE PPV of the year.  The co-writers of this blog will tell you that I won’t shut up about the damn thing.  Finally!

Like it needs to be said, the Royal Rumble is the beginning of the “Road to WrestleMania” that will continue until the big event itself in April.  The event is highlighted by its namesake match, a gauntlet-style battle royal in which two men start in the ring and an additional one comes out at fixed intervals (usually 90 seconds) until all participants have entered.  At that point, the last person still in the ring wins a main event title shot for either brand’s championship at WrestleMania.

But you already knew that, didn’t you?  Let’s run down the card.

WWE Championship Match
The Miz (c) (w/Alex Riley) vs. Randy Orton
After defeating John Morrison, who won a title shot at last month’s TLC, the Miz thought he would have smooth sailing through the Royal Rumble.  Not so, said the anonymous GM of Raw, who set up a triple threat steel cage match between Randy Orton, King Sheamus and Wade Barrett.  The match was more noteworthy in that it featured CM Punk costing Barrett his leadership of Nexus (and subsequently his spot on the Raw roster), but it still led Orton to take the win and the title shot.

This is the second straight PPV title shot for Orton, who is still looking to reclaim the WWE title which was taken from him when The Miz cashed in his Money in the Bank briefcase after Orton suffered a beating at the hands of the Nexus.  Miz managed to pull out a win by using his apprentice Alex Riley to knock Orton from the ring apron through a table to cost him the match.  This match features no such stipulations, so if Miz wants to retain his belt, he’ll have to pin Orton or make him submit.

Or get himself disqualified, which is what I have a sneaky suspicion is exactly what he’s going to do.  Don’t be surprised if whomever doesn’t win the title shows up in the Rumble match.

Royal Rumble participants – chances of victory

As of this writing, WWE.com has announced 28 names who will officially be participating in the Royal Rumble – 19 from Raw and 9 from Smackdown.  While there are some obvious choices yet unnamed – such as Kane, Big Show and Kofi Kingston – these are the ones officially named, and thus these are the ones we’ll be covering.

Though we still have two episodes – one of Supertstars and Smackdown – to go before the Rumble itself, today we’ll be going through the list of participants and gauging their possible chances for victory and a shot at the main event of WrestleManis XXVII.

FAVORITES (MORE THAN A SAFE BET TO CLAIM VICTORY)

CM Punk (Raw)
CM Punk has been riding a wave of momentum since taking over the Nexus, and he’s held the main event spot before, so it’s likely that he may have earned his spot to take the Rumble.  The problem here is that Raw’s champion, The Miz, is a pretty heavy heel and it’s unlikely to be a bash of the baddies to headline the biggest show of the year.  Though a lot can change between January and April, so there’s a chance that the scene my shift to favor a Punk challenge.  The February PPV Elimination Chamber’s scene-changer will be a running theme here.

John Cena (Raw)
This one should really go without saying.  John Cena is the face of the WWE and he will most certainly have a prominent role in WrestleMania.  But challenging for the WWE Championship?  He’s as good of a bet as anyone and a feud between him and the Miz would certainly be a good one.  But of course anyone looking for a storyline of their own has an excellent starting point with eliminating Cena.  Anyway, he’s THE favorite, as he is with any other match he’s in.

Rey Mysterio (Smackdown)
One of the top three babyfaces on Smackdown, Rey has claimed Rumble victory before and even went the entire distance to do so, setting the record for longest Royal performance in 2006.  Like Punk above, Rey Mysterio’s problem comes with that he’s not a fitting challenger should the champion remain the same through ‘Mania.  Rey’s currently in a feud against Alberto Del Rio, whom will quite possibly cause his elimination.  But until Kane or Big Show get announced, Rey’s Smackdown’s safest bet to bring home the win.