WWE Smackdown! Special – 11/29/05

1. Booker T vs. Chris Benoit – 7
2. Big Show vs. Rey Mysterio – 5

This was filmed just thirty minutes from my apartment in Cincinnati, OH. This “special” one-hour edition of Smackdown! featured two, for the most part, stellar matches. Benoit and Booker went the distance; Benoit did a suicide dive outside the ring but only connected with the floor in one of my favorite moments, in a tight and satisfying match. There was a lot of stalling and preposterous logic in the Rey versus Big Show match, and any semblance of decency was thrown out when the ending was marred by heavy interference and story.

Wrestling Gold: Vol.1- Busted Open

1 Sherri Martel v. Judy Martin- 2
2 Shawn Michaels v. Ken Johnson- 4
3 Gino Hernandez/ Tully Blanchard v. The Grapplers- 6
4 Gino Hernandez v. Tully Blanchard- 6
5 Bob Orton jr. v. Adrian Adonis- 7
6 Bruiser Brody v. Abdullah the Butcher- 4
7 Larry Zybyszko v. Scott Casey- 4
8 Jerry Lawler v. Bob Sweetan- 2

The majority of this video was highly enjoyable for me. Everything Tully did always had a feeling of high professionalism for me and I found I still enjoy watching his work today. The Orton- Adonis match was the kind of match you don't see ever today. They worked scientific reversals for nearly the whole thing, but what I liked about it is that they each tried to dissect the other, figuring out what was working and what wasn't as the match went on. It was a treat. The Lawler- Sweetan match was pure stalling, and that should have been hard to do seeing as how there is a Zybyszko match on here. I think it's important for all wrestling fans to go back and watch some old matches and old workers to really get a sense of seeing how the business has evolved and what things have stayed the same. I had a good time viewing this. (Editor's Note: There were a couple other matches on this DVD but I accidently broke it before we could finish it. - Bri)

WWE Raw – 10/17/05

1. Big Show vs. Edge - 4
2. Carlito vs. Shawn Michaels - 6
3. Victoria, Candace, and Torri vs. Mickey James, Trish Status, and Ashley - 2
4. 18 Man Battle Royal - 4

Edge and Show should never be allowed in the same ring together again. Carlito and Michaels worked together nicely, but Michaels, playing the face in peril the whole match, never really shined. The women’s match was dog shit, and I’ve already forgot the entire battle royal.

WWE Amargeddeon- 12/15/02

Bonus match: Kurt Angle v. Chris Benoit v. Edge v. Eddie Guerrero- 6
PPV
1 Dudley Boyz v. Lance Storm/ William Regal v. Goldust/ Booker T v. Chris Jericho/ Christian- 3
2 Edge v. A-Train- 5
3 Eddie Guerrero v. Chris Benoit- 6
4 Kane v. Batista- 2
5 Trish Stratus v. Victoria v. Jacqueline- 3
6 Big Show v. Kurt Angle- 4
7 Shawn Michaels v. HHH- 3 Stages of Hell- 3

This show lacked any fire at all. The 4 corners tag was a huge messy mural of bad communication. Edge and Train worked decently for a few minutes until a bad finish brought down the score. Chavo Guerrero interfering in a perfectly good match hurt Eddie v. Benoit. The Kane-Batista affair was ill-prepared and a bad match up; neither man had a clue what to do with the other. The women's was short and uneventful. Angle v. Show had Brock interference, and finally, the main event took garbage wrestling to a new low. This was not the HBK I wanted to see, using a flaming barbed wire board and doing lame trash can spots 2 minutes in. This show was a poor excuse for the world's greatest wrestling company last ppv of the year.

WWE Heat - 11/25/05

1. Carlito vs. Taylor Phoenix - 4
2. Snitsky and Tyson Tomko vs. Brandon T. and Chris Chaos - 4
3. Lance Cade vs. Viscera – 4

This edition of Heat was filmed somewhere in Great Britain, and you can see it most distinctively in the uncharacteristically caustic and wily bumping of Phoenix, Brandon T., and Chaos. The British style of wrestling is just a different breed altogether. Carlito pummels Phoenix for about 5 minutes, and the tag team match is a very quick squash—but the context of the matches, featuring foreign talent, makes them worthwhile. The main event isn’t anything special, as Cade does his best in a negligible performance against Viscera.

HWA War Games 2005

1) Matt Dillenger vs. Rory Fox - 6
2) Danny Daniels vs. “Metalhead” Steve Stone - 2
3) 80-Man Two-Ring Battle Royal - 4
4) Nigel McGuinness & Matt Stryker vs. T.J. Dalton & Tyler Dunning - 4
5) Blindfold Match: Ala Hussein vs. “High IQ” Quinten Lee - 1
6) Four Way HWA Tag Team Title Scramble Match: Ben Kimera & Brian Jennings vs. Ric Byrne & Aaron Williams vs. Brad Smith & Ganger vs. Déjà Vu & Andre Heart - 5
7) Triple Threat Match: Brian Beech vs. Tack vs. Dick Rick - 6
8) War Games Rules Elimination Match: Chad Allegra, Matt Parks, Ryan Stone, Jesse Hyde, & Roger Ruffin (Team NWF) vs. Pepper Parks, Cody Hawk, Crazy J, Matt Dillenger, & Lotus (Team HWA) – 7

This was the third year for HWA’s yearly War Games spectacular. I’ve been to all three shows and this one was by far the best show with the hottest crowd. The first bout of the evening was to determine the fifth member of Team HWA in the main event. Dillenger bled buckets after a vile chair shot right in front of where I was sitting. They set the tone for the night with a solid outing. Daniels vs. Stone was pure crap from some promotion out of Lima. The match sucked ass but the fans were so damn entertaining that I laughed until I cried. The battle royal involved some of the most worthless looking wrestlers, and I’m using that term rather loosely, I’ve ever seen in my life. I almost expected Withers to be in there. Oh … wait, he was … last year, and promptly got his ass handed to him. That being said, the following tag match was basically Stryker and McGuinness taking the rookies to school. By the way, I’ve said this before, the Matt Stryker on this show is the real one and not that goof who shows up on WWE television every week.

The second half of the show kicked off with one of the shittiest blindfold matches in history. Mind you, I’m not the world’s biggest fan on blindfold matches to begin with but this one set the standard for horrific matches. It was so horrific, that I bailed and hit up the concession stand. The scramble match was nothing but a big brawl around the coliseum with Déjà Vu pulling a New Jack and diving off the balcony onto the remaining seven combatants. The triple threat match was probably the best overall match of the evening as all three guys busted their ass. The main event was insanely good this year. Granted the ring action may have not been up to WWE’s or even TNA’s standards, but the crowd of about 150-200 people, were soundly divided over who was the better company. There were people chanting “H-W-A” or “N-W-F”, so naturally I started and “E-C-W” chant.

War Games is usually the biggest show HWA puts on the whole year and if you feel like going to it, you’ll have made the right decision. For $10, you can’t really get much better than this. I’d recommend going to HWAonline.com and shelling out $15 to purchase the War Games 2003 DVD and/or this show when it’s made available. Just avoid the 2004 show at all costs.

TNA Impact – 11/26/05

1. Monty Brown vs. Helvis – 1
2. Chris Sabin vs. AJ Styles – 6
3. Abyss vs. Jeff Hardy – 3
4. Kip James vs. Jeff Jarrett - 4

The opening squash lasts about 30 seconds, and is still a complete waste of your time. Sabin and Styles do what they normally do, and do it well; there seemed to be a little apprehensiveness shown, I chalked it up to them both being so familiar with being the good guy in a match, and not structuring around that. Abyss and Hardy was a disappointment—even their signature spots came off looking repugnant. The main event was a lousy brawl; my opinion is Jarrett likes to do these brawls outside of the ring, because it requires little talent or skill, gets cheap crowd heat, and masks his declining level of work.