Jessie:
- making my way through Raw- caught the brilliant V1 against Antonio Banks last night and i'm a little sick of all the Mattitude haters out there. Got someone saying he's bloated and can't work, guy's put together more solid performances than almost any other guy, night in, night out on the roster for a good chunk of his career- which is what 10 years or so in the E! Match was fine, not a lot of time, but like they acknowledge their long standing feud- liked the very first tie up, MVP seemed so smooth and in control like 2nd nature.
- also caught something from the "old ECW" as Tommy Dreamer put it to Brian at the airport, Doug Furnas v. RVD wearing some henious trunks that looked like it was ripped from wall in a Ponderosa dining room in it's heday. Furnas got mean on some spots, but the majority was a big disappointment; i liked that the match seemed off the cuff, as they were just coming up with spots, but most of it was sloppier than some of the rehab snatch James' scored last year. RVD got his ass bumped off too.
Brian:
I got back from my vacation last night. I immediately started downloading stuff. First off, the debut of StrikeForce’s “Challengers” show—basically a “secondary” show to begin building up fresh talent and upcoming challengers. A novel concept. Next on my download queue is NOAH/Marufuji Produce #2 which looks tantalizing, including Akiyama/KENTA versus Go/Hashi, as well as Misawa, Kobashi, Morishima, etc. in action. I also want to get Kensuke Office “Take the Chance Vol. #1” which recently popped up online and has a cool six-man main with the unbelievable team of TAKA, Don Fuji, and Mochizuki.
I started working on things from my DVR last night. Last week’s Superstars was good—I really enjoyed Benjamin vs. Mysterio and Henry vs. Christian. I thought the following night’s SmackDown! wasn’t bad, either; especially considering the “thrown together” nature of last-minute booking due to Rey’s bum limb. I was intrigued by Jericho vs. Edge. Personally, I love Edge’s facials.
I watched Inside MMA, this week’s panel wasn’t the strongest, but “Stitch” the “one more round” guy was on and interesting, as well as two MMA journalists who were knowledgeable enough. Good highlights, as always, and discussion including some chatter about the Evans vs. Machida fight this weekend, especially how Machida has never lost a round in his entire career. I’ve got last week’s MFC show from Canada featuring Bobby Lashley’s third career fight, as well as the debut of the new M-1 show that I’m ridiculously stoked about to watch. M-1 is basically a dozen or so countries represented by teams of fighters competing in a 28-episode series of bone-crushing slams, strikes, and submissions. Fedor is coaching Team Imperial from Russia and they’re returning champions. The first episode is them versus South Korea and I’ll be cueing it up during lunch.
I started Impact! this morning, enjoy crazily goofy Foley, but thought Daniels was too expressionless in the opener against Sabin, a fault of his that I can’t overlook. I get a chuckle out of the animosity between Booker T and Nash’s respective women and their subsequent reactions to it. I will finish this tonight and watch last week’s Ultimate Fighter and ROH on HDNet.
I downloaded an HD version of WWE Judgment Day ’09 and will be watching it in the next night or two, and then I can get caught up on all of the following TV over the weekend. Other than that, I finished ROH Full Force and will be passing it on to Jessie, and next I’ll be tackling the second-half of the NJPW show I’ve started reviewing and will get that posted later this week. I’m going to try to knock out at least another couple episodes from my first stack of WCW Power Hour ’90 this weekend, too; as well as finally succumbing and watching the one-hour Bockwinkel vs. Hennig bout.
Jessie:
whoa dude, i knew you saw a lot, but i had no idea! seriously wish we had the HD Net channel at my house, or just plain HD TV in general because is there anything more primal or fun than two guys punching and hurting each other? it's the backbone of our nation. really wanted to see meatslab Lashley work some guillotines too.
how was Full Force, since I know nothing about it, but will def. check it out.
Love how you're "ridiculously stoked" to see that new MMA competition show, which sounds pretty neat actually. Like a souped up version of IFL, im' guessing.
Went to start a very plain titled "Best of Furnas & LaFon" last night, seriously praying for thier All Japan run, but found it was merely a collection of uninspired American work. Pity. Although it has the match against Sabu/RVD, with a 32 min. Runtime i remember from my teenage years; no way it will live up to my memory but am looking forward to reliving it.
glad your back man, missed some good old in depth discussion on the finer points of Dustin Rhodes career and laughing at bad Japanese hardcore, hopefully we can get together soon and do such things. And I think Edge is on an upswing- thought his 2008 was pretty stagnant, but possibly the LMS with Cena "revitalized" him, as Vman would say.
Brian:
HDNet is pretty incredible—it’s changed my life. Wrestling is my original love but I have a ton of respect and interest in MMA now, too. Besides some of the stuff I mentioned earlier, they also air all of the big Japanese shows from DREAM, Sengoku, K-1, etc. so there’s always cool events to look ahead to.
That ROH show was called Full Circle now that I think about it. The other title was from FIP—my bad. I’m reviewing the opener featuring southern boys Damian Wayne and Chris Escobar in tag action for an upcoming “Burger Kang” compilation post. Aries debuted his nutty new character at this show and his overselling is incredible. He makes this face after he loses that just cracked me up. He’s bumping like a mid-‘90’s Michaels who just watched a slapstick comedy marathon. The main of McGuiness vs. Black was good, but allegedly, their match the following night (which I’ve got that show to watch next) was superior.
There are some similarities to M-1 and IFL for sure. I’ll be wearing my old IFL t-shirt while watching possibly. American Furnas and Lafon? Is that ECW and WWF? I’d prefer their Japan run, too.
You now I’m always up for discussing the finer aspects of Alex Wright’s offense and listing my favorite Kaz Hayashi bouts.
Adam:
ECW from 5/19: Really fun show. I dig the Christian/Swagger feud and that gnarly bump Christian took off the ramp had a very odd landing. Speaking of Christian, his match with Burchill was fun. I love Katie Lea ... she's so into her character. Zach Ryder isn't doing a thing for me right now but over time, he may develop into something good. Koslov did another promo in Russian, why don't they have him wrestle in the army uniform? The main was really physical. Finlay's vocal selling was tremendous and really put Smith's submission holds over. The entire match was just unabashed physicality. Smith looked good, compared to the last time he was on TV, and Finlay's stiff clotheslines are always exceptional. The skull-cracking shot Smith gave Finlay with Natalya's boot was fantastic. Love the remixed Hart Foundation music.
ROH TV from 5/16: Started off strong with Claudio and Albright. Really enjoyed Albright's hard work in the match. Thought the tease with the same finish from their first match was an interesting touch. Dark City Fight Club is just great and the punishing double-team moves they do these scrubs on TV are just wonderful. The "buzz words" segments are stupid. It's corny and forced and really needs to stop now. It makes the wrestlers seem like they're talking to second graders. Hogewood said one of the single greatest lines in television history at the finish of the Jay Briscoe match, and I quote, "It's time to man up and slap the porpoise." Umm, ok. Let's file that under the Mike Adamle category. The main was decent with some teases of King and Titus pulling out the upset. Steen as a tag is great but under no circumstances should they let him wrestle as a single. Any personality he has is taken away by Generico's absence. The post-match table spot was ridiculous, with Richards taking most of the break. The four-way in a few weeks should be fun.
Raw from 5/18: Was rolling along at a pretty good pace until the bullshit with Vickie and Santina. I'm not sure where that program is going but I want it to hit a brick wall faster than Joe Pesci did in Home Alone. The diva battle royal was really awful. I was yearning for a Mickie/Maryse match to come out of it but alas we get Maryse/Kelly, which should still be decent. The Chavo/Santino match did nothing to excite me and served only as a purpose to set up the bullshit later on in the night. Not sure where they're going with Kendrick, should be interesting to watch though. I really hate The Miz, always have, although the Cena stuff is getting him over. Lawler using Bruno Sammartino as an example was funny until Big Show came down and beat up Lawler. Not sure why that was necessary. Always enjoy an MVP/Hardy match ... would've liked for it to been a bit longer. Main event was good, althought I'm not sure how the Batista feud right now is getting any heat. They're hinting at a Flair return but why now instead of at Mania against Jericho?
Upcoming: Starting the monster known as Wrestlerock 86 with a run time of some where near four hours. Finish my Superclash II review. Plus, starting in on the Power Hour (finally) tomorrow, and I'll find time to squeeze in Lockdown and a re-watch of Backlash. More goodness from Saturday Night 1995 as well.
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