Jessie:
- saw 3 mostly solid wrestling matches on Superstars last week; don't know how you can ask for more than that. Dreamer- Christian had it's slow points and the finish was obviously story but the work was hard. Regal was roughhousing Kofi but the styles meshed particularly well. Regal himself says he's a good TV wrestler and this went in the direction of proving it. Jericho v. Punk has been done a lot over the last 2 years, and it's mostly all good. Some of their stuff looks unfinished and rehearsed, but they always keep it fresh with new spots and great reversals. Some fun escapes pushing towards the end really had me high on this show.
- caught the Furnas/Kroffat v. Sabu/ RVD 30 min. Draw also; it's one of those matches that you used to love and you still want to like but i wouldn't risk my journalistic integrity on it; I'd give it a 5, solidly. The first 15 minutes had some crisp tags and decent tag wrestling, Furnas playing nice powerful heel with Kroffat (who I found out in the Bret book came up with the Ladder Match concept) just busting out loads of nifty moves and spots. I loved RVD and Sabu bumping for them, being complete rag dolls. Last 7 or 8 mins though was a complete slop fest. All 4 men in the ring, going from move to move, all of it off the cuff seemingly, shitty weapon attacks left and right and really terrible moves being pulled off. They tried to do a lot of near falls to keep the drama up but everything was so lazily and haphazardly done it was hard to pull for a big finish. still some fun to be had here.
Brian:
TNA Sacrifice '09 was pretty good, Meltzer said it overachieved, but I felt it pretty much met my moderate expectations. The six-man opener definitely felt like a throwback to the old, wilder days of TNA. It was a lot of fun. The women's "Monster Ball" was largely a joke but I liked the gnarly bump that ended the match where it looked like Daffney wrecked her spine. Stevie Richards' thumbtack bump afterward was a treat. They dropped the ball with the Daniels vs. Suicide match, after a botched match the re-start put the already numb crowd into hibernation. The stretcher match didn't feel like the payoff we'd hoped, and the following Nash vs. Joe match further dug the middle of this show into the ground. Beer Money vs. British Invasion was a step in the right direction, Doug Williams looked motivated for the first time since their debut. I was really looking forward to AJ and Booker, more so than anything else, and felt it was really delivering in a physical bout but a shitty non-finish occurred. The main event was fun, not really good, but entertaining and funny at parts (that it shouldn't be) with highlights being Angle's insanity including a somersault over the announce table onto a seated Foley.
Raw was patently insulting this week. I agree with all of the negative sentiment towards this show, in general, and especially last night's broadcast. The finish to the Maryse match was baffling. They shouldn't have let the fake Jack Nicholson talk in the backstage bit, he sounded more like a D-grade Joe Pesci impersonator. The thing about the main event that was lame for me was the deal with all the guys in jerseys. I get the heat politically with WWE and the Denver incident, but logically, why would any of these guys have any stake and/or interest in wearing jerseys during their match? Like, what's the scripted reasoning? Because McMahon made them? It just seemed incredibly dumb seeing this scathing sociopath Randy Orton in a teal jersey methodically walking to ringside. Out of all the wrestling TV (WWE, TNA, and ROH) I get I'd easily rank Raw at the bottom on my list of interest.
ECW was decent, glad to see Bourne back, and I always enjoy a Henry TV bout. Kozlov, what can they do to save their investment? He's fine in short bursts, but doesn't have the tools to work longer, more story-driven matches yet. The handicap main event was decent, not as strong as what we've come to expect from ECW, but Tommy showing some new found enthusiasm was fun and Christian continues his role of selling better than most in the company. I like the Hart Dynasty and was glad to see them get some mic time pre-match. I've also been watching Tuesday morning's 5+ hour DREAM show from my recently cancelled HDNet channel. It had the first round of the hot topic Super Hulk tournament. Bob Sapp got tapped in less than a minute by Minowaman, Jose Canseco tapped out to punches quickly by the gigantic Hong-Man Choi, Sokoudjou mercilessly beat Jan "The Giant" Norjte, and Mousasi made short work of Mark Hunt. The rest of the show is full of more credible, top-notch fights, including the second-round of their featherweight tournament, and Jason "Mayhem" Miller from MTV's Bully Beatdown in action. ROH on HDNet was good this past weekend, too; Necro took a super sick bump getting suplexed from inside the ring to the concrete and I liked the Danielson interview.
I've been downloading a lot of stuff this week. I got a tag from a recent DDT show with Ibushi and Kenny Omega teaming together, some stuff from the tenth anniversary of Osaka Pro show, and most of the recently posted BattleArts show (including Usuda vs. Yoshikawa, Otsuka vs. Yamamoto, and the main of Sawa and Yano vs. Super Tiger II and WrestlingKO's #1 wrestler of '08 Yuki Ishikawa). Tonight I'll be watching The Ultimate Fighter, some NWA Power Hour '90, and Tiger Mask IV.
Jessie:
I'd have to agree with raw, it was terrible- that whole goldust thing was as insulting as Sarah Palin's bid for Vice President. Way too much time was spent on the Denver thing; McMahon relished the chance to show he'd been the victim, but if shoe was on the other foot, wouldn't have made a peep.
let me know about that Osaka Pro Ann. show- has my curiousity peaked.
also got through Battle for Supremacy last weekend- here's some quick thoughts:
tank- Hagadorn v. Osiris/ Young- no leader, longer than needed to be, Heels looked ridiculous selling flat back bumps for tiny man Osiris
Delirious v. Black- decent back and forth; Blacks' stomping in corner w/ back turned is absurd, why would you turn your back on your opponent for that long
Briscoe v. Albright v. Claudio- suprisingly, i liked this; wasn't stretched out, lots of covers, some really stiff strikes and the flow was well done
Danielson v. Stevens- like both guys a lot, but something was missing here, Stevens is still a rookie and his selling, while done well, lacked real empathy, crowd was hoping Dragon would break his leg, finish was poorly done too
Necro v. Aries- turned into a story line after Necro fell around ringside; really glad i didn't attend this Dayton show
Steen/ Generico v. Jacobs/ Matthews- Steen/ Generico are an excellent team, compliment each other great; Age of were pretty lame. Long winded match with no good high spots that turned into the umpteenth brawl of the show
Roderick v. Hero- liked it more than I thought, still not recommendable. saw some good counter wrestling though, don't buy Hero standing up to Roddy's chops at all
Nigel v. Pearce- main reason we didn't attend this show; match was fine for what it was, 2 heels wrestling for all the gold is a sure fire way to make your crowd care less; Pearce held up his end though, but do you really want mid-level heel kicking out of your champs' finishers? and another brawl after the Dusty finish. As i said, glad i didn't attend this show!
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