Back - Quick Hits

So guys this is not one of the entries where I comment at length on the shows I've seen or updates I've read on Raw/ECW/SD that I missed last week, or any of that; it's 9pm, and I just got in from a much needed week's vacation that I enjoyed, and I'm thrilled (basically) to be catching up on my wrestling news. Too much to talk about all of it in detail though, so I'm going to be all over the map in this entry to touch on the basics of the last week, and will be back in full swing next week with my reax to Raw and hopefully the other programs, In This Very Ring along with my very capable cohost and dear husband Ari, and my comments on the wrestling news as it goes on. The major events of this week however:

• I must start with my condolences to the family of Walter "Killer" Kowalski who died this week at the age of 81. As well as being one of the best villains in the sport himself, he is perhaps even better known for having trained some true luminaries in the sport - most notable Triple H. His family made the difficult decision last week to take him off of life support after months in a nursing home due to knee problems, and a recent heart attack. My thoughts are with the Kowalskis at this time. He will be missed.
• John Cena out indefinitely with a neck injury: John Cena had neck surgery this week and will be off WWE programming for the forseeable future. He has been replaced in the Raw Championship Scramble by Rey Mysterio Jr. Also on Raw, Shawn Michaels returned and has a match with Chris Jericho at Unforgiven.
• ECW will also be having a championship scramble, featuring Mark Henry defending his title vs. Matt Hardy, the Miz, Chavo Guerrero, and Finlay. NOW I believe the Championship Scramble setup is overkill - three of them? I suppose at twenty minutes each that kills an hour of show time before you even factor in entrances ... but the wrestlers will have to go above and beyond to keep an interest in a format we will see three times throughout the night. I don't doubt they can do it, given the participants in all three matches - it will just be interesting to see how. I also certainly hope this is a night where they space the title matches out over the card, instead of stacking them at the end.
• And Smackdown? It doesn't sound like it was its strongest offering in recent months - the show is suffering without Edge, and Vicki Guerrero plays an unlikeable victim in trying to avoid the Undertaker's wrath. Good wrestling on the program, with Triple H facing Shelton Benjamin and Jeff Hardy vs. MVP, but weak follow-up to key storylines - bring back Edge!
  
• In legal news: Mick Foley denies having completed any done deals with TNA, despite PW Torch's Wade Keller breaking the news that he had; also, WWE's lawyer, in an unusual move, discusses their defense to the independent contractor status - that it has always been in place, that these wrestlers agreed to that status and are only challenging it now while not under contract, and the IRS has never questioned the status through the years of its existence in wrestling. Perhaps more telling than Jerry McDevitt outlining WWE's case is the fact he is commenting publicly at all, given WWE's penchant to NOT comment on legal issues until cases have been dealt with.

And those are your quick hits (I suppose not so quick when put all together though) - tune in tomorrow night (Tuesday at the latest as usual) for your Raw reactions right here ... In This Very Ring. Take care!

Smackdown Thoughts

My reactions as promised to SD are not many-fold; mainly some disappointment and some pleasant surprise. My main disappointment is the lack of Edge on the program. I understand he took a beating from Undertaker at Summerslam and went to 'hell' when he was dropped through the ring, literally, into a fiery pit. But he's been the strongest performer on the show of late, and to have him take a sabbatical right now - howsoever appropriate according to storyline, is perhaps not the best judgement call WWE could have made.

Pleasant surprises, though, include just about everything about the Championship Scramble. Vicki Guerrero took a better crack at explaining the rules of the Scramble match than Mike Adamle did, and I have to say I have gone from an all-time low opinion of this concept - on Tuesday, when I was under the impression that the title could change hands ad-nauseum through the 20 minutes of the match, and then found out Smackdown was doing the same kind of match on Raw and thinking this was all WAY too much - to being at least cool with it.

Mainly, the title doesn't pass around with the pinfalls, but the last person to score a win in the match becomes the next champion - so you won't have, for example, Brian Kendrick becoming champion for two minutes on the way to a thirteenth (or fourteenth?) title reign for Triple H - which I thought this was a cheap excuse to create. This gives a great chance, for example, to give a young, solid midcarder like Kendrick a neat little sneak win over a main eventer like Triple H, or even MVP or Jeff Hardy, without giving him a title reign, which like him as I do, he isn't deserving of just yet.

I'm also thrilled with the names of the SD Scramble entrants - Brian Kendrick, Shelton Benjamin, Jeff Hardy, MVP and Triple H should put on an awesome match that contrasts well with the Raw bruisers (and CM Punk) in the Scramble on the Raw side. I'm still skeptical about having two of the same kind of match on the card, but hey it worked for the Elimination Chamber, and now that I'm less dubious about the match setup, it should actually be entertaining. And having the qualifiers for the Scramble to unify SD with WRESTLING, instead of the (however-well-executed) La Familia storyline, was great. Another awesome offering from the SD side, way to go.

Also - award for interaction of the night:

Ken Dykstra: "My name is Kenny ..." (interrupted with a Triple H wallop)
Triple H: "Hi Kenny." (walks away)

Classic.

ITVR broadcasts - See you in September

Hi guys - so we ended up out with friends again tonight and are going on vacation this weekend so not the best time to sit and take the time to broadcast an hour long show, then take the hour it takes to upload and post it. I think it's fair to say we're on vacation this week and next after a fairly successful relaunch (only one hiccup, on an operation we're running on a shoestring from home, not too shabbeh). So stay tuned this weekend for my thoughts on Smackdown, and the news of the week, next week I'll try to post at least once, and we'll be back cooking fulltime on Labour Day. So some regular posting this weekend, sporadic until Labour Day, and then we'll be back to our regular schedule - including our next ITVR broadcast Wednesday, September 3. So stay tuned for that and thanks for your patience and support as I know this blog's quality has dropped over the summer with holidays and busy-ness. Stay tuned! :D

ITVR ...

Hi guys - I posted a message about the ITVR broadcast yesterday being cancelled due to a last minute day trip I ended up taking, and getting back from later than planned, but it accidentally ended up on my other blog (doh!). Anyway, though, the delay, in a way, turns out well, as we will not be broadcasting next week, because we will be going away on vacation. So if we broadcast a bit late this week, it won't be so long between broadcasts! Look for this week's ITVR to go up tomorrow night a couple hours after Smackdown, so we can talk about Summerslam, Raw, and SD all in one shabang, and wrap up the week in wrestling. So say that will be by around midnight EDT - we hope to see you there ... in this very ring!

Raw Thoughts

So I actually got to this today! Go me! :D

Yesterday's Raw had some real high points - it was actually mostly a solid show. I want to preface this piece with that thought right now because I'm going to get kinda negative here, and I want to make sure it's clear that there weren't a LOT of low moments or missed notes - it's just that the missed notes were REALLY unpleasant to experience, and took away from what could have been a solid show. Similar to my vibe from Summerslam, it felt like Raw was running and had the potential to run on all 8 cylinders, and would get up some good steam, and then backfire. Examples:

• They got it right that John Cena and JBL needed strong wins over strong opponents last night to stay at the top of the card and justify their inclusion in the Championship Scramble match (more later) at Unforgiven. But JBL beat a guy in Jamie Noble who they'd given a nice little program with Layla and William Regal to, and then the ref screwed up the ending (he had to ... I mean, slap the mat once for a three-count and then end the match on ref stoppage? why not just slap the two-three?), and John Cena defeated tag team champions Cody Rhodes and Ted Dibiase Jr. singlehandedly. Now don't get me wrong - they didn't do this as poorly as they could have, and they gave Rhodes and Dibiase some offense, which was good. But one guy should very, VERY VERY rarely, beat two (only if they are TRUE jobbers or one or both are injured or there was interference), and certainly not earn a clean and clear win over the very talented up-and-coming tag team champions. What do those belts mean, then, if they can get defeated by a singles non-champ?
• In fact none of the champs were treated with a whole lot of respect. Coming off of one of the bigger victories of his championship reign, CM Punk loses clean in his hometown centre-ring to Chris Jericho. Not to knock the match - it was the best of the night, and here's the thing - I think I even get the logic here. In WWE's mind, the reasons for and results of this are: Jericho's the hot new heel, they want him in the title scene, he now has a compelling case for at LEAST getting added to the Championship Scramble, and with a couple guys now who have wins over CM Punk (Jericho and Batista) in that match, it plays into what WWE perceives as the allure of the underdog champion going into a lion's den which he can't possibly escape - if he does, he earns the cred he needs, and if he doesn't he will have fought valiantly, and it doesn't look bad on Punk. But getting pinned in the middle of the ring to create this storyline DOES look bad on Punk. They should have had Jericho defeat say Batista or Cena and then say he has as much a right to be in it as they. Not handed him their already-vulnerable champ (and add to the vulnerability of the title itself, for that matter) on a platter. And don't even get me started on the comedy act which is Santino Marella ... :P Funny, yes. IC champ? Uh ... enjoying Glamarella though. :)
  
• The Championship Scramble: I will give them that this is innovative. It's also risky. With the title belt already a bit cheapened by being perceived as not being on WWE's biggest star, it can only be besmirched further by risking being handed around potentially several times in 20 minutes. Think, in theory anyone in that match could accomplish in 20 minutes what it took people like Hulk Hogan, Ric Flair, Shawn Michaels or Bret Hart years to do - become a multi-time world champion. John Cena won 3 world titles in three years - say he wins it three times in this match. He's halfway to catching up with Triple H, and he's wrestled not even half as long. Not right. This is all in how they play it, and I'm afraid even the theoretical possibilities make the title seem like a relay baton or football being passed around. It makes me nervous.
  
• I'm also afraid it's an opportunity to pull the plug on the Punk experiment without actually having him beaten. WWE does not have the courage of their convictions lately - when they made CM Punk their champ, either have him as a transitional champion, in which case he should no longer be the beltholder, or REALLY get behind him. And if you're going to have him lose at Unforgiven, have him REALLY lose, not just fall back into the pack but not really damaged in case you need to call him up again. It's like we all KNEW John Cena would win last night because he lost to Batista - can't we just have people 'lose' anymore, and come out on the short end and have to earn their way back over time?
• One compliment on this vein though: they acknowledged the Championship Scramble as the McMahon children's idea. Given it fits right into Mike Adamle's gimmick match affinity, it would have been the easiest thing to pawn this off as an Adamle Original - that way if it works, well it's another case of the know-nothing hack stumbling into a decent idea, and if it doesn't, there's a lap to throw the garbage in. With the McMahons taking onscreen responsibility for this match, they are also taking perceived responsibility for this match in real life ... which is brave, given it could be crap.

Again though, strong overall show. Punk-Jericho and even Cena-Rhodes/Dibiase were solid matches, even though I wasn't a fan of the finishes; Kane had one of his better promos in awhile, although apparently I'm the main one who was a fan of it; Jericho's promo at the start was gold, and I'm glad Shawn Michaels didn't appear, so he can continue to play the face who's more concerned about his family, rather than 'seeing his name on the marquee', or the very un-Christian-like 'revenge'. This feud, which is already bordering on 4-5 months now, just earned another 2-3 month shelf life imho, with this one old-school 'Major Happening' angle. I mean, when was the last time a simple punch elicited that kind of reaction from a wrestling audience? Gold. Pure gold. That neither of these men has a championship belt right now is beyond me ...

And I think that's it - as if it weren't more than enough! Be sure to tune in to hear those thoughts (and Ari's reaction to them) and more tomorrow night on our podcast, right here ... In This Very Ring. :) Take care y'all.

Summerslam Thoughts

So sorry I didn't get this up last night, or get hubby to do it - we both were up a long time yesterday, and out in the fresh air, by the time Summerslam ended we were both pretty tired and it was definitely bedtime.

That said - this show was definitely not the weakest offering I've seen from the WWE - the last two matches in particular were standouts, and Cena-Batista was better than I had any expectation of it being. I was quite annoyed with how Matt Hardy vs. Mark Henry ended - I'm not one of the one-track mind that DQ finishes are patently unacceptable on PPV if done right and if they fit into the storyline - which a schmozzy ending in this match would have, to prolong the feud - but 10 seconds, barely, into a match? Boo!

I was sorry to see CM Punk get hurt, and there were a few sloppy-ish spots like that over the night where I had to wonder if maybe the boys partied a bit too hard on Saturday night - Jeff Hardy vs. MVP was good, but not the 3- or 4-star match I'd have expected to come out of the solid work they've done with each other leading into SS. But nothing that really took away from this being a decent PPV that exceeded the WWE's poor hype machine leading into it. Even H-Khali was decent, which it had no right to be.

Match of the night with no equivocation goes to the Hell in a Cell, where a reinvigorated Undertaker and a rejuvenated Edge character did tremendous battle - never thought an HIAC could be so entertaining without blood, but good job boys. Segment of the night - there were a couple strong ones and I give credit to Santina Marella, Beth Phoenix and Maria Kanellis for making me laugh - but Shawn and Rebecca Michaels and Chris Jericho were far and away the most compelling thing to watch until the main event. Props to Rebecca for her involvement in this angle, props to both men for their performance and I can't wait to see what comes of this on Raw tonight. We've said for awhile that SD has been the more entertaining show - tonight's Raw, with a hurt but victorious CM Punk, a cleanly pinned Cena and back on track Batista, and the Jericho-Michaels angle to be furthered, should be one of their strongest shows amongst a series of fairly strong performances.

Bottom line: Summerslam felt like a beginning in a lot of ways, rather than a finish, but I don't mind that as it will be interesting to see where everything goes. Tune in tomorrow for my Raw thoughts, and as always, remember to tune in Wednesday for Ari and I to go more in depth on Summerslam and Raw, and all the backstage news of the week right here at 10pm on our podcast ... In This Very Ring!

You Think You Know Me ...

I just want to throw my two cents in that Edge has been better than ever these last 3 weeks or so on SD! I didn't get to watch Smackdown last night - we got home too late for the first airing, and were asleep by the replay - but from what I've heard of his performance, and what I've seen since his promo and beatdown on Mick Foley (and for that matter, his angle with Vicki and La Familia before that), I'm definitely looking forward to HIAC ... and to more great Adam Copeland goodness in coming weeks. The fire that was lit under his butt and began his ascent into the orbit of the WWE Universe, is now going to skyrocket him to the next level I think and this is easily the best-built match on the Summerslam card - and as UT hasn't appeared on TV at all to hype the match, only one person is responsible for that.

On this day, I see clearly
Everything has come to light

GO EDGE! :D

Oh also - nice to see Kenny Dykstra back. Hope to see more of him in the future, he's as much a bright up-and-comer as Cody Rhodes or Ted Dibiase Jr is. It sounds overall like SD was a great show - the only thing I've seen questioned that I would agree with (I think - again, barring seeing how it played out) is there were two post-match brawls between Summerslam opponents which resulted in the faces coming out on top (Jeff Hardy got the last laugh on MVP, and Triple H bested the Great Khali and his interpreter Ranjin Singh) - as Jason Powell points out, then what's the incentive for us to watch these matches? If the usual payoff is to see the villain 'get theirs', and they already have ... what's left?

Oh well - good enough matches this doesn't ruin watching SS tomorrow night for me by any stretch ... just some odd booking. Meh. Anyway - this was mainly to sing the praises of Edge's performance these last few weeks, and mention I didn't catch SD but will of course catch the Summerslam PPV tomorrow and comment on it - again, haven't decided if it will be in audio form or written, but check for that shortly after the show either way. And meanwhile - enjoy the weekend all, it's one of the last ones of the summer (as indicated by, well, Summerslam being tomorrow lol). Cheers!