State Of The Titles: Nov 2007

What’s this? The singles titles in WWE are starting to get some prestige back? If November is a sign of things to come then that is definitely the case. The Intercontinental and US titles are in the capable hands of Jeff Hardy and MVP respectably. With the latter just waiting on Matt Hardy to return and his brother in a potentially huge feud with Triple H, there is definite potential as WWE move into the new year. And that’s before we even look at the big three titles:

Randy Orton
It looks like Randy Orton has cleaned up his act and really jumped on the opportunity he was given. Though it feels like he took a dozen super kicks this past month, he ultimately came out looking very strong against Shawn Michaels at Survivor Series. While he won’t ever be flamboyant and brash like The Rock, Chris Jericho etc, he has a manner all of his own that is really starting to come to the surface. While it looks inevitable he will drop the belt to Jericho, I can’t see it happening immediately. He will get plenty of RKO’s in before it does happen.

CM Punk
The Smackdown and ECW roster exchange is just the thing CM Punk needs right now. He has more to offer than what ECW can provide yet ECW badly needs him as their top face, so he’s really been wasting away these past months on the show with an uneventful title run. His mini feud with The Miz and John Morrison hinted at the potential of the new generation of WWE stars though.

Batista
Batista is on a roll right now. Firstly, there was the shock victory against Great Khali to win the heavyweight title, then there was the renewed feud with the Undertaker. Those two have some great chemistry in the ring and they put on some great performances. Now that Edge is back things look even better. I think it would be rash to rush the title off of Batista, but it’s looking increasingly likely he will get screwed out of it by Edge and Vickie Guerrero.

TNA
I thought I would group the TNA titles together because it looks like they have forgotten what a title feud is all about. Angle’s feud with Sting was more about personal issues than about taking the gold and he’s now wasting away time in a feud with The Outsiders who aren’t interested in the title belt either. The X Division provides some potential now that Team 3D have stolen the belt but right now I can’t see it leading to anything special. With Tomko injured that’s the tag division on hiatus too. Come on TNA, let’s see someone step up and have a good old fashioned title chase!

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TNA Impact 25th Oct 2007 Review

In my opinion Impact is currently better than much of what WWE is putting on right now, which does not say much for either company. However, since that great two hour debut show, Impact has been steadily getting worse each week. This week’s edition though, was crazy. So crazy in fact, that I now think TNA creative spend half their time chomping on magic mushroom and Doritos to get their inspiration. To best represent this fact, for this review I am going to mark the action in Crazy Mofo points.

The first match was the Steiners, VKM, LAX and Styles & Tomko. What a crazy match, talk about old school vs nu skool. When Scott Steiner got in the ring he received girly screams from the crowd. Scott is…. sexy? That’s crazy! LAX won after Homicide smacked BG James with a big fat sausage-in-a-sock. Maybe.
Crazy Mofo rating: 4/10

Kurt Angle is desperate to appease Kevin Nash, so he has Karen Angle try it on with him. What was crazy about this was that he turned her down! What was even more crazy was that even if things did get heated Jeremy Borash was going to stick around for the whole performance. Maybe he was hoping to do something useful with his mic for a change! Boom, boom!
Crazy Mofo rating: 5/10

Team 3D came out to interfere in some crappy, thrown together X Division match. Why? Because they can! They want to destroy the X Division apparently, which two years ago might actually have been a big deal. I was pretty pissed off that they ruined Sabin vs Shelley last week, but this particular match had Shark Boy and Havok in so it seemed like fair game to me. Team 3D clearly want to trim the roster back a bit so they have more room for their WWE buddies!
Crazy Mofo rating: 3/10

Kurt Angle and Sting then had their rematch. Kevin Nash comes out and didn’t really do much, but somehow this was still enough to distract Sting causing Kurt to win his title back (cleanly might I add). Mike Tenay screamed “Noooooo!!!” Then Angle flicked the middle finger at Kevin. Then the referees started bitch slapping each other through the entire interval. Then Jim Cornett joins them, waves his arms about and shouts a lot. Finally, Mike Tenay yells at Jim who gives him attitude back. Loud noises!!! Phew, all it was missing was the Benny Hill theme.
Crazy Mofo rating: 9/10

But it gets better. Awesome Kong comes out carrying a picture of Gail Kim in her underwear and then knocks Angel Williams about. That’s not the important part though. Mike Tenay announces that he has an opinion and didn’t appreciate being told off by big boss Jim Cornette so storms off to confront him and tell him that Kurt Angle should be stripped of the title he run cleanly. That left Don West all on his own to commentate. Arghhh!!!!
Crazy Mofo rating: 97/10

Totally random segment backstage where a pissed off Abyss gets slapped about, then has his head trapped in a vice and Black Reign’s rat put on his head like a hat. I’d prefer to see him in an old fashioned top hat personally, but whatever suits him. James Mitchell was more bothered about the mess Abyss made. Get your priorities sorted Mitchell! If all that wasn’t bizarre enough we had Don West give us a running commentary of it. “This is digusting! More loud noises!!!”
Crazy Mofo rating: 7/10

Robert Roode then went up against Junior Fatu. Christian Cage came down with a ladder (he has a window cleaning job on the side) and joined Don West on commentary. This had two advantages. Firstly, he brought out Don West’s medicine so he didn’t get carried away again. Secondly it took the attention away from Rikishi’s fat ass. Cage wants to have a ladder match with him. Can you imagine Rikishi on top of a ladder? That’s a crazy thought right there. What’s more crazy is the guy is actually getting over with the crowd.
Crazy Mofo rating: 8/10

And so we came to the final of this crazy show. Jim Cornette came out to the ring along with his new best buddy, Mike Tenay. He then announces that as the ending to the title match was craziness and crapiness all in one messy package, he was going to reverse the result, give the title to Samoa Joe and start pushing homegrown talent again. I then woke up and realized it was all a dream. Doh.
Crazy Mofo rating: 5/10

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State Of The Titles: Oct 2007

In last month’s State Of The Titles, I said I wasn’t going to talk about Cena anymore while he continued to be champion. Since then he’s gone and got himself injured so I can’t live up to my promise. Damn you again, Cena! Leave your own thoughts on the champions in the comments.

Randy Orton
It’s difficult to have an objective view of Randy, simply because it’s so refreshing to have someone else as champion. The No Mercy feud with Triple H where he was given the title, lost it, then won it back all in one night was a solid way to start off the post Cena reign, though it’s too early to say what direction Randy is going to go in next. Will the Shawn Michaels feud end in another title change? Worryingly, there are rumors Orton may hold the title until Wrestlemania, which in my opinion is the last thing we need after coping with a year long reign. On top of that, does he have the charisma to carry the belt for the next six months?

CM Punk
It’s a shame that having waited for so long for him to become champion, he has had such a lackluster title run. It’s not really his fault admittedly, because what does he have to work with? The Smackdown/ECW roster exchange will be what really determines Punk’s immediate future. If they bring in some faces from SD! to feud over his title, he won’t be required so much on ECW, and hopefully he can start making an impression on the midcard. CM Punk vs Matt Hardy, MVP or Rey Mysterio sound good?

Batista
Erm… what can I say about Batista right now? Looks like we are getting another feud with Undertaker which is sooooo very unoriginal. Edge will be back by Survivor Series too so that’s plenty of opposition for him and will inevitably lead to a triple threat match. Batista is going to get a huge push over the next few months because of his autobiography coming out, which will be an exciting/depressing prospect.

Jeff Hardy
He’s entertaining in a train wreck sort of way, but with the WWE so lacking in depth, the Intercontinental title has really suffered over the last few years, to the point where nobody really cares that much what happens with it. Hopefully a potential feud between him and Mr. Kennedy could really elevate things. Jeff is the fan’s favourite, the reliable guy to carry the Intercontinental title and give it some dignity when nothing else is going on, but who wouldn’t want to see Kennedy getting some gold right now?

Cade & Murdoch/MVP & Matt Hardy
The tag division may potentially be turning a corner again on Raw (how many times have we said that?). The heel Highlanders are actually an interesting prospect now that they are no longer the jokey Scottish stereotypes they debuted as, and hopefully Hardcore Holly and Cody Rhodes will team up too. Of course, they all ultimately need to have good storylines and get booked well which simply isn’t happening right now, so in the meantime we get to listen to Cade & Murdoch doing their quirky commentating. As for the tag division on Smackdown… moving swiftly on….

Regarding MVP and his United States title, it’s been fun for the last few months seeing him and Matt play their little games, but their botched up pizza eating contest at No Mercy was one segment too many. It’s time to let their wrestling do the talking.

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My Thoughts On The First Two Hour TNA Impact

Last night was the first two hour TNA Impact and it was probably the first time in a while that a weekly show has really entertained me. The wrestling was largely great and the show was fast paced from beginning to end (I had my doubts as to whether they could keep the nonstop action going for two straight hours). It wasn’t without its faults admittedly, and the show seemed to be primarily used a chance to showcase the talent and what they could do, but for their first two hour show, they really pulled it off.

The show opened with a slightly cheesy video to showcase that they were now two hours, going on about dedication and commitment to the cause and all that buildup. Yes, it was corny but it pumped me up for the show and really set the tone for the entire event. The first guy to come out was Black Reign. Whaaaaat? I can forgive them that though because Rhino came out and they put on a short, solid match for an opener. It went crazy after Rhino got the pin though so to sum up:

* Raven interfered, accidentally costing Black Reign the win.
* Abyss came out after the match to save Rhino.
* James Mitchell tried (badly) to distract Abyss.
* Havok came out and got a black hole slam for his troubles.
* Lights out! Sting saves the day!!!

Yes it was a clusterfuck, it’s nice to see some things never change. A lot of people hate this side of TNA, but provided they don’t go overboard (at least they let the Rhino match finish before bringing everyone out) I find it makes for an over-the-top show that you feel could descend into chaos at any moment. When you compare that to the rather safe WWE programming it’s good to have a differently paced show to watch. But I’m sure there will be plenty of people who disagree with me on that point 🙂

Another match of note was Team 3D vs Team Pacman. How many ways can they come up with for including Pacman Jones in matches without wrestling? It’s actually becoming entertaining in its own way especially when Brother Ray tried to mock the guy with a football. I’m intrigued to see what they come up with at Bound For Glory. VKM ended up coming out and pounding on Ron Killings before getting chased off by a chair waving Pacman, which was just hilarious to see. Then the Steiners came out!!! They must have been doing something right on this show to have me marking out for all these washed up superstars 🙂

The mainevent was XXX with Christian Cage and AJ Styles vs LAX, Junior Fatu and Samoa Joe. It was technically a tag match but this was TNA, so it naturally ended up being free-for-all. But did I care with all the talent that was on display? Hell no! I think the “this is awesome” (when was the last time you heard that?) chants pretty much summed it up.

As I said at the beginning, this show was primarily about showcasing what is on offer at TNA and I think they used nearly all of their roster here. They had a great 10 man gauntlet match using most of their mid-card wrestlers (Chris Harris, James Storm, Petey Williams, Robert Roode). Unlike WWE right now, I think TNA will really use the extra hour to push those guys and develop their characters.

During the night, they kept showing Angle at Sting’s son’s football match and how he was taunting Sting. It turned out that Kurt wanted to face the old, aggressive Sting at Bound For Glory and was trying to make him snap. The show ended with Kurt beating down his son so I guess he’s going to get his wish. It was a very clever way of heating up their feud without actually doing anything in the ring.

The one big problem with the show was that apart from Sting vs Angle, there were no major storyline advances. The issue is that they have most of the matches for Bound For Glory sorted so we will probably have to wait till the Impact after that PPV to really see what they can offer with two hours. Overall, it was a brilliant, over-the-top show which put most of my doubts to rest. The big challenge will be maintaining the standard of wrestling action over the coming months while building on storylines because they do have the talent to comfortably fill up the time.

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State Of The Titles: Sep 2007

As per usual the latest episode of State Of The Titles is dominated by John Cena, but at least by putting belts on Batista and CM Punk, WWE did some things right this month.

John Cena
Whatever you can say about John Cena the one redeeming quality he has is that despite his limited wrestling abilities he almost always puts on entertaining matches when it matters. He did it against Umaga, he did it against Shawn Michaels. He didn’t do it against Khali but then again, who can? Given his fragile fan support nowadays though, the last thing he wants to do is put on a rubbish match and get himself disqualified like what he did against Randy Orton at Unforgiven. But honestly what does it matter anymore? In fact this is going to be the last time I vent on Cena while he continues to carry that belt around, because it seems the more people boo him the more stubborn Vince becomes about keeping him the champ.

Batista
For the first time in ages WWE genuinely surprised me when Batista won the title. I don’t think many people expected him to win it off Khali, especially considering how many title shots he has lost this year. Regardless of whether Batista sucks or not I do think it was the right decision. Khali has had a long enough run as champion, while Rey has only been back a month and considering how Smackdown is so full of big guys right now, it wouldn’t have been especially convincing.

CM Punk
One story going around is that CM Punk will drop the belt back to John Morrison when he returns from suspension. Unfortunately it seems Vince has finally given up on ECW as anything other than a televised developmental brand. As great as it is to finally see Punk with a belt in WWE it’s currently looking pretty much meaningless when it comes to him getting any significant push. Apart from Elijah Burke though, who else on ECW can he have a feud with that would be up to PPV standard?

Cade & Murdoch/MVP & Matt Hardy
The tag division is officially dead. Again. It seemed for a short while that they had managed to resurrect it, but it was not to be. Triple H squashed what was left of the Raw division because…well, because he can. As good as Cade & Murdoch are, they have been badly used. They have the potentially to be a great heel tag team but instead they are wasting their time on this whole fair-play-when-it-suits-them gimmick. Meanwhile MVP and Matt Hardy, as brilliant as they have been over the last few months, are only tag champions to advance their feud and conveniently tie the belts up while the Smackdown writers ponder how they can rebuild the division.

Kurt Angle
There is something so obvious and predictable about Kurt Angle as TNA champion. Maybe it’s because he’s been so dominant in TNA, or maybe we have just seem him with gold so many times before. The big mistake was having him win the X Division and tag team titles too, as it damaged those respective divisions and they still haven’t recovered. Yes, Kurt is brilliant and he seems revitalized in TNA but he can’t be expected to be as fresh and exciting as he once was. He has had a solid reign, especially with Karen Angle by his side, but I will be glad when he (presumably) drops the belt at Bound For Glory.

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Kurt Angle Returns To Connecticut

This viral video was released recently. It’s meant to be a dig at WWE and I’m sure we could all spend ages looking for the subtle quotes and hidden meanings (“less talk more [total nonstop] action!”). I was rather hoping TNA’s recent bar room brawl match would have been more like this (Gail Kim as the barmaid, hmm?). Anyone actually know the purpose for this video? Personally I think it’s part of a bigger marketing campaign to promote the show in advance of *gasp* going to two hours. In other news the moon landings were faked and the world is really flat!
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TNA: The Remixes

Some people say TNA is a joke. Now they may have a point:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gm52DnwTP7A”>

We Are Wrestling (in no way associated with TNA)

State Of The Titles: Aug 2007

This post is part of a regular series I do on my blog where I give my opinions of the state of the major championship titles. But it’s just my opinion so share your own too 😀

Because WWE is WWE, they have only had two title changes this past month and one of those was forced on them. And tag titles. Who cares about them eh? Meanwhile, TNA has decided to dump all their titles on two guys. Saves on insurance bills I guess…

John Cena
You can’t see me, my time is up! I’d be very surprised if he gets through the next month or so still the champion. It’s been set up perfectly for him to drop the title to Randy Orton who is in turn being groomed to be the returning Triple H’s bitch. You’ve had a good run Cena but you should have dropped it months ago, you’d have to go back to Wrestlemania for his last decent feud. That’s quality booking right there folks.

Great Khali
We go from Edge to this? Any match with Khali is always painful to watch. There are big guys and then there is Khali. Regardless of whether he’s on Raw or Smackdown, because he’s made out to been a super-monster he totally unbalances the roster. He needs to squash everybody otherwise his whole gimmick falls apart. How do you effectively book a guy who can only be beat by an handful of wrestlers like Cena, Undertaker, and – one has to assume – Batista?

John Morrison
I’m starting to warm to this whole new gimmick but he still sucks on the mic. In fact it would be a toss-up between him and Lashley as to who is worse. I’m looking forward to the new “I’m the portal to the infinite, the shaman of sexy!” shirts. Who wouldn’t want to walk around with that blazoned on them… But for the good of all that is ECW, he has to drop the title to CM Punk at Summerslam. What other face does the show have that he can feud with? Tommy Dreamer? Yeah, that’s PPV quality right there.

Kurt Angle and Samoa Joe
Has there ever been so much gold on the line? Their match at Hard Justice will be huge and it doesn’t matter either way who wins out because they are both top performers. Angle’s new cocky gimmick has been hilarious, and Samoa Joe is… well, he’s Samoa Joe! Only potential problem with this feud is it ties up the tag and X Division titles, but it will be interesting to see the fallout from the result of this match.

TNA Victory Road: Share Your Predictions, Thoughts And General Abuse

There is some TNA PPV happening tonight. It’s called Victory Road, you might have heard of it. Here is the lineup:

Kurt Angle and Samoa Joe vs. Team 3D
Ultimate X: Black Machismo vs. Kaz vs. Christopher Daniels vs. Homicide vs. Sonjay Dutt vs. Shark Boy vs. Elix Skipper vs. Puma vs. Senshi vs. Petey Williams
Christian Cage vs. Chris Harris
Sting and Abyss vs A.J. Styles and Tomko
Rhino vs. James Storm
Eric Young and Gail Kim vs. Robert Roode and Ms. Brooks
Jerry Lynn and Bob Backlund vs. Chris Sabin and Alex Shelley

The match of champions looks promising, while the 10 man Ultimate X match looks crazy/ridiculous (you choose) and will be the clusterfuck to end all clusterfucks (don’t be surprised if the ring gets up and runs out of the stadium in protest). They also missed a great opportunity by not having Rhino/James Storm have a bar fight match. As for the rest of the card, I think the head-honchos at TNA have been spending so much time smoking [perfectly legal substances] in a desperate attempt to impress RVD into joining them, that they forgot to create decent build-ups for the rest of the matches. But hey, that’s all just my opinion and who cares about my opinion right? Cough, cough, my predictions, cough.

State Of The Titles: July 2007

This post is part of a regular series I do on my blog. I thought I would post it here too seeing as more people are likely to read/comment on it at PWB. Share the wealth (or lack of) and all that 🙂

The draft has come and gone and very little actually changed in the title scene. At least they stripped Lashley of his ECW title because that was borrrriiinnggg. I am still waiting to have a big rant about the state of every title in WWE but seeing as creative have settled into some sort of middle aged, domesticated bliss when it comes to thinking up storylines I’m just going to stick to the big titles.

Edge
He has finally ditched Batista, which is an impressive achievement considering how many title shots he gets (did Triple H give him an extra special quota of rematches to dip into?). Now it looks like he will feud with Kane, which is a little odd considering I can’t remember the last time he won a match. I mean, losing to a bear hug? Please…. If this feud turns out to be a long one and not just a filler feud before Edge moves onto someone bigger (the more likely option), Kane will win out. It’s ideal title change material for Summerslam.

John Cena
When even the champion looks bored of carrying the title and retaining all the time it should tell you something. But then people say this all the time and he never drops it. They even use Mick Foley to put him over (shame on you all!). The one good thing that came out of the draft was it gave Cena an whole new group of wrestlers to drop the title to. As things stand at the moment, my odds on favorite to take it is Randy Orton but it’s a total guessing game with Cena. Your thoughts?

Johnny Nitro
He has a lot of potential so it is good to see WWE give the title to upcoming talent for a change. It’s just a pity (and a little awkward?) he won it because of the fallout from the Benoit incident. By Summerslam he will drop it to CM Punk though. He may even drop it at Great American Bash but that would be rather unfair on Nitro.

Deuce & Domino/Cade & Murdoch
Not long ago everyone was saying (myself included) that the tag team division was starting to look strong again. However with Raw all about the big five feuding over the title, Smackdown losing two teams, Hardys seemingly back to singles action and London & Kendrick in the doghouse, it looks like we are back to square one. A shame considering both tag team champions are very entertaining (let’s just ignore D&D’s Grease gimmick).