Behind The Angle

2007-03-04T19:10:00.000Z

ROH in Liverpool Night 1

03/03/2007

So this is the second ROH event I’ve attended and this show had a lot to live up to given we had McGuiness/Danielson Pure and World title unification match. On paper the card seems very good and I’m sure the crowd will be hot so it should make for a good show.

Doors open at five so I figured if I get there for quarter to I’ll be queuing for twenty minutes max. Quarter to six we started moving and by five to six I was inside. It’s a damn good job it wasn’t raining and the entertainment of a couple of kids wrestling and having a football match with a lucozade bottle made the hour pass by pretty quickly. They say queuing is the Great British pastime; I can see why that’s true because there was no problems whatsoever with people trying to push in, this is very unlike Disneyworld where non-Brits don’t get the concept of a queue.

Once inside I was able to get a couple of pints (in plastic cups) down me and after chatting to a few fellow fans half six rolled round and it was bell time. So I took my very good third row seat and waited for the action to start,

Davey Richards vs Homicide
Davey came out first to a decent reaction but the notorious 187 blew his reaction out of the water. They had a decent opening match which consisted of both guys doing a lot of moves on each other. Homicide did a dive into the crowd (opening match!) to a big pop. This was not the most technically sound match in the world but the crowd were really behind Homicide and Julius Smokes comedy, including after a young lad if he had a knife on him, made it a pretty entertaining match. Homicide won after hitting the Cop Killah.

Shimmer Special Attraction Match: Sarah Del Ray vs Alison Danger
Why do the words ‘special attraction’ put sadness into the hearts of wrestling fans? With no offence to the women, they tried very hard, but nobody came to see this. Yes, we clapped at the appropriate times and remained in our seats rather than taking a toilet break but nobody gave a crap about this. Sarah won.

Colt Cabana & BJ Whitmer vs Jimmy Jacobs & Jimmy Rave
One name does not fit and it was abundantly clear. Colt is miles ahead of the three other guys in this match. It started off with crowd brawling and Colt throwing Jacobs into the rail and then BJ giving his a powerbomb onto it. That was absolutely stupidly ridiculous by young Jimmy. They then did the most annoying thing in wrestling history; after a brawl it turned into a regular tag match. I hate that. The heels had the heat on BJ and the highlight was Colt screaming “stretch” when BJ was in their corner. Eventually he got the hot tag and Colt did a double wacky comeback but it wasn’t enough as Jacobs was able to pin BJ to ensue victory for Team Jimmy. It wasn’t the best of matches but the crowd love Colt and he delivered so you certainly can’t fault him for that.

2 out of 3 Falls: Matt Sydal vs Delerious
I’ve had a go at Sydal before for being the most generic babyface ever but my god has he turned that to his favour. He’s now a great cocky heel who has that ‘why don’t you love me?’ type of face. This was a really good match and the crowd were totally into both guys although Delerious was the guy they loved. Sydal was doing some old school heel spots like using Delerious’ ribbon things to choke him and then claming it was part of his own attire. Sydal won the first fall with a low blow and roll up and Delerious evened things up tapping Matt. It went back and forth through the final fall until Sydal was able to hit the Sydal press for the three. I though this would be a total spotfest with my opinion on Matt Sydal but he managed to flip my thoughts 180 degrees and I look forward more from him.

We got a brief interval where two more beers were consumed and more chat with a crazy Fin ensued. After the interval two British women wrestlers, Jetter and Eden Black, got in the ring and tried to cut an American promo challenging the two Shimmer girls to a match the next night.

FIP ‘World’ Title: Pac vs Roderick Strong
Apparently now the FIP title has been defended in two countries it is a world title. I guess to most the UK and the US are the only countries in the world. I thought these two did a really good job considering they got the death spot. The crowd were well into Pac and into Strong’s chops. Pac did a crazy twisting dive off the apron to the outside and this was the factor of getting the crowd into it. After this they mainly did spots and nearfalls with Strong retaining the belt (surprise, surprise) with the Gibson driver. Post match Strong put Pac in a boston crab but Delerious hit the ring and chased off Roddy. The crowd chanted “bring back Pac” to try and send a message to Gabe.

ROH World Tag Team Title Match: The Briscoes vs Naruki Doi & Shingo
This was one of those matches where all guys worked really hard (meaning they beat the snot out of each other) but the lack of psychology meant I didn’t really enjoy the match that much. But, that said the crowd were really into it with loads of “this is awesome” chants. I think the tag style I like is very old school and these guys didn’t really adhere to it but that said the atmosphere was really good and it great to experience that. The crowd went wild for the title change and after the match there Jay challenged Mark to a match the next night as they had some aggression to take out.

Samoa Joe vs Nigel McGuiness
Boy oh boy oh boy was this great. The crowd loved Nigel when he came out but the tide soon turned to Joe’s favour when he hit the ring. The heat was amazing and they had a really good match. It was one of those matches where nobody has the heat for too long and they both kept on doing awesome comebacks in each other. Eventually Joe hit a muscle buster on Nigel to the apron (it looked awesome) and the crowd went wild. Referees came down and carried Nigel to the back but Joe called him a ‘pussy’ prompting Nigel to hit the ring and hit Joe as hard as humanly possible. This was the turning point as the crowd got behind Nigel and Joe beat the fuck out of him. Nigel kicked out a muscle buster at two and got a great nearfall himself with a rollup. But it was all too much as Joe made the Londoner tap. After the match Joe put over ROH and Nigel telling him the company is in his hands and he’s glad he’s leaving it with a guy like him.

After the show whilst waiting for my lift Colt Cabana came out and I asked him where Matt was tonight but apparently he was doing push ups in the garage and couldn’t make the show. Delerious also came out in his mask which was pretty cool but he did speak English to me.

Overall this was a great show. I think any show live, with a great crowd like this makes a show really enjoyable. Some of the matches weren’t great and were spot fests but they certainly weren’t horrible and the crowd was into everything. Unfortunately, I can’t make the Sunday night show, but I wish I could. Was it better than Unified then? I don’t know. Last time we had an awesome main event and an alright undercard but the experience was great. This time we had a great main event and a very good undercard and the experience was really good so I have to say as an event yes, but nothing can touch Dragon/McGuiness from last time. Sorry.

WWE No Way Out Review

2007-02-20T21:17:00.001Z

18^th February 2007

The ladder match has been pulled but the build for the main event has been great. I’m not expecting the best show in the world but I expect something big from the main event.

Chris Benoit & The Hardys vs MVP & MNM

I guess if you’re promised a PPV payoff it’s unfair to go back on it so the Hardys and MNM meet again in six man action. Good guys run wild early on until Jeff gets cut off and the heels get the heat. Nitro and Mercury are really good and MVP isn’t too bad given his lack of experience. Eventually Jeff gets the tag to Matt (this won’t be the hot tag as Benoit is the comeback king) and just as he starts his comeback he gets cut off. Another heat segment followed a hot tag to Benoit. Benoit goes crazy hitting a double german on Mercury and Nitro, Cole (who seems to be loosing his voice) screams he has never seen the spot despite calling the mania three way from last year where Angle, Rey and Orton did the same spot. Matt hits the twist of fate on Mercury and Jeff follows it with a swanton followed by a headbutt from Benoit for two as MVP breaks it up. Crossface on MVP broken up by Mercury who gets one of his own for his trouble for the tap out. A very good opener for the show. They seem to be going with MVP and Benoit for mania and I expect the Hardys/MNM feud to culminate in ladder match.

Vickie Guerrero tells Krystal she has an opportunity coming her way straight from words memorised earlier in the day.

Cruiserweight Open

The rules are simple, two guys start, you win, you continue. Raw’s Scotty Too Hotty is out first and Daviari will join him to open the battle. After a couple of minutes of Daivari offence Scotty hits the worm and gets the victory. The cruiserweight champ is out next and pins Scotty straight away with a his new weird looking finisher. Funaki charges the ring but gets booted in the face by Helms and after some good offence hits a cross body but the rule of being able to role through and always get a three count works for Helms as he continues in the gauntlet. Shannon Moore is out next who I haven’t seen for yonks and does a cool hurricarana spot on the outside but Helms pins him with the new finisher again. It’s Smackdown’s resident redneck next who after a brief battle manages to roll up Helms for the pin. We have a new cruiserweight champion ladies and gentlemen. Before leaving Helms hits the eye of the hurricane on Yang allowing Jamie Noble to go to work on him. Noble takes Yang up for a superplex whilst shouting “what’s my name” to which ONE fan replies “Jamie Noble” ( I know it’s not that funny written down) but Yang manages to push him off and hit a moonsault for the three. “Here is you winner and new… Ooooh Chavo!” I guess Chavo is a surprise entrant (I’m sure he was announced in the week) and he goes straight to work on Yang. Chavo hits the three amigos and Cole screams about it being disrespectful, JBL argues that he can do what he wants considering he’s a Guerrero as they invented the three amigos and camel clutch. Chavo goes up for the frog splash to which Cole says Eddie invented that so Chavo shouldn’t be doing it, he missed the frog splash and Yang climbs the turnbuckle for a moonsault but misses allowing Chavo to hit the frog splash to the back to win the match and the title. The whole match was pretty good (at least as good as a match of this style can be) but I have to say I was surprised that Helms lost. I guess with Vickie’s “opportunity” the two things are linked. Definitely a disappointing way for Helms to loose his belt though.

John Cena cuts a promo saying he’s going to work alongside Shawn tonight and worry about Wrestlemania later.

Finlay & Little Bastard vs Boogeyman and Little Boogeyman

Match of the year potential in this one. Boogeyman beats on Finlay and tags in his mini who jumps on Finlay but little bastard comes in and distracts big Boogey. This allows to Finaly to kick little Boogey in the face. We then see Finlay apply hold to the mini. This is awesome! Remember when Finlay beat up the whole junior division on Smackdown? That was great. Little Bastard runs away and Boogeyman chases him allowing Finlay to use the shelleleigh to pick up the pin on the mini Boogey. Finlay’s performance and the fact he had no problem beating up the little guy in this match means it gets a thumbs up from me.

Shawn Michaels cuts a promo and tells us he has Cena’s back.

Kane vs King Booker

This is god damn boring. Kane wins clean with the chokeslam.

Batista cuts the worst of the three promos saying he’s not scared of anything.

WWE Tag Team Championship: Brian Kendrick & Paul London vs Deuce & Domino

Deuce and Domino get the heat on London forever and it’s pretty boring. Eventually London gets the hot tag to Spanky who after a mediocre come back hits rolls up one of the heels after they try the doomsday device for the win.

ECW Championship: Bobby Lashley vs Ken Kennedy

Kennedy cuts a horrible generic heel promo but is interrupted by Lashley who said something I didn’t catch then hits Lashley with the weakest punch ever. Lashley makes hi entrance but gets cut off by Kennedy on the ramp straight away. A brief bit of brawling in the aisle is followed by your usual boring Kennedy offence. Lashley eventually gets a comeback but Kennedy tries to hit him with a chair behinds the refs back. After connecting Lashley grabs it and hits Kennedy for the DQ. Why have a match of this length if this is all that’s going to happen? Where’s this going? Boring, boring match.

Diva Talent Search

I’m still searching.

Shawn Michaels & John Cena vs Batista & Undertaker

All four guys tag in and out early on until Smackdown get the heat on Raw. Shawn Michaels is absolutely awesome as the babyface being beaten on. Batista actually looks pretty good, in the same way he looks good when he’s in their with Finlay; he’s in there with someone good. Shawn teases the tag forever and finally gets it and Cena runs wild. He teases the FU on Dave but Taker’s boot ensures it doesn’t happen. Dave teases the Batista Bomb on Cena but a HBK shop block stops that one. This allows Raw to get the heat. God damn Shawn Michaels is an awesome heel (funny that isn’t it) and even Cena does a little stomp on the apron to get some heel heat. Dave gets the tag to Taker and a huge comeback ensues. Taker has both Cena and Shawn prime for a chokeslam but tosses Shawn to Dave for a spinebuster. Taker and Dave pose but Batista nails Taker with a spinebuster! Dave leaves the ring and a superkick into an FU allow the Raw main event to win. Post match Dave stands over Taker’s body with the title in hand. This was a really good match mainly thanks to the awesome Shawn Michaels, but the twist played out really well.

Overall four of the matches turned out to be good and the main event was really good so I’d say this is a definite thumbs up show. I don’t know if Batista is going full fledged heel but this was a great move. I was waiting for Shawn to kick Cena in the chin but it was the other team that disintegrated. Great booking for a decent show.

6.5/10

ROH Weekend Of Champions Night 1 Review

2007-02-15T21:54:00.000Z

28/04/2006
It's night one of the so called weekend of champions. The ROH/CZW war continues and all three champions are defending their belts, should be a good show.

Jimmy Jacobs vs Colt Cabana

They start out with comedy but Jacobs turns it nasty by pulling Colt into the ring post. The basics of the match are that Colt is awesome and if Jimmy Jacobs didn’t have pink tights he’d be instantly forgettable. Colt wins meaning Lacey is going to sack off young Jimmy.

Colt is still in the ring and Jim Cornette with Ace Steel come to the ring to ask for his help in the war with CZW. Colt initially rejects saying he needs to concentrate on learning how to wrestle as his defeat to Danielson at the last show means he’s only opening show material. He then changes his mind, brands Claudio as a traitor and vows to win the war for ROH.

Jay Fury & Spud vs Irish Airborne

Spud (the better looking, younger and cleaner Spike Dudley) is making his debut here in ROH and his main act is a few spinny high spots whilst screaming a lot the rest of the time. It actually turned out to be a decent little match with Irish Airborne getting the victory and seemingly a push in this company.

Super Dragon runs from the emergency exit and attacks an ROH ring crew dude; legging it before the ROH army get to him.

Nigel McGuiness cuts a fun little promo saying he’ll beat Daniels tonight and Danielson tomorrow night proving he’s the best wrestler in the world. I really like his promos because he cuts them as an Englishman, not an Englishman trying to do an American promo.

Jimmy Rave w/Daizee Haize vs Delirious

My god this match is boring. Jimmy Rave is so boring when he’s on offence. I love Delirious but even he can’t save this match. Fifteen minutes ticks over on the clock and we reach a time limit draw. Thank god it wasn’t an hour time limit.

ROH Pure Championship: Nigel McGuiness vs Christopher Daniels

No Alison Danger with the fallen angel tonight as he challenges Nigel for the pure title. They have a fine little match and I love Nigel as a heel, he was doing all of Danielson’s spots here to setup their match tomorrow; awesome. Nigel and Daniels brawl outside and Nigel gets the win by throwing the photographer into Daniels at nineteen meaning he can’t meet the twenty count. The crowd chant bullshit but this is goof heat not bad heat. I love Nigel.

ROH World Championship: “American Dragon” Bryan Danielson vs Jimmy Yang

Yang isn’t a redneck tonight and is wearing the same white tights he wore at Wrestlemania 20. Watching this match makes you realise that Danielson is actually very small, smaller than Yang. I guess that’s why WWE isn’t begging him to come in and it’s the reason I hope he doesn’t ever go. Selfish I know. They have another good little match, it’s not the main event so it doesn’t matter too much but Yang is a decent worker and what they do is fine. Danielson eventually wins with a crossface chickenwing Bob Backlund would be proud of.

ROG Tag Team Championship: Roderick Strong & Austin Aries vs Matt Sydal & Samoa Joe

Yes Sydal teams with Joe. The story is Sydal wants a title in ROH and is in a competitive rivalry with Generation Next. Last week he had AJ as his partner and this week it’s Joe. The match starts off pretty boring as the man of a thousand moves Matt Sydal does a lot of his moves. Eventually Team Sydal turn kind of heel and get the heat. Sydal is a bad heel, he handles the moves where Joe handles the psychology. Eventually Aries gets the hot tag to Strong and a short comeback ensues. Now it’s Aries and Strong’s turn to get the heat. Sydal is much better at selling as the babyface in distress and Aries and Strong are pretty good on offence. We get another hot tag and Joe cleans house until he’s taken out and a bunch of nearfalls happen in the ring with Aries, Strong and Sydal. Joe makes a second comeback and they get a damn good nearfall with a standing moonsault by Sydal. But Joe gets taken out again and the half nelson backbreaker – 450 combo put out Sydal. In the end this turned out to be a damn good little match.

Joe is in the ring alone and calls out CZW. Necro Butcher obliges and they start to brawl. Super Dragon and Nate Webb hit the ring to make it three on one to CZW but Colt Cabana and Ace steel even things up. Joe drags Necro to the back only to be tied up by Webb meaning he’s out of the brawl. Claudio hits the ring to give further advantage to CZW but BJ Whitmer broken neck and all cleans house with a chair and Adam Pearce evens things up. A mass brawl ensues with tons of crowd brawling and Pearce giving Nate a piledriver on the concrete. Back in the ring Necro slams Ace on a chair and covers him for a two count! THIS IS A MATCH? It would appear so who are the competitors? I guess Necro and Nate are and it appears Super Dragon and BJ are as another two count happens between these two. Is BJ booked in this match considering he’s meant to be out with a broken neck? At least they’re not doing a normal tag match now like they would in TNA. Super Dragon, Claudio and BJ tease a spot where Dragon will break BJ’s neck with a chair that Claudio holds in place. Ace breaks it up once and Colt the second time but they eventually hit it and it doesn’t actually look that brutal. Claudio picks up BJ and hits him with Joe’s muscle buster for the pin setting up their match tomorrow. CZW win again.

Overall this show was pretty damn good, especially the second half. For the second show on the trot they’ve done the brawl in the main event and it works. It’s one big fight with guys doing spots and taking crazy bumps but the heat is off the charts. The booking is prefect throughout this whole card; Nigel winning to face Danielson in a title for title match, Sydal just missing out again and CZW winning so we want to see ROH kick their arses. Good, good stuff and I’m looking forward to watching night 2.

7/10

ROH The 100th Show Review

2007-02-06T10:33:00.000Z

So Ring of Honor reaches it's 100th show and Philadelphia will be the place that gets to witness it. This is the place where I've decided to watch these shows in order, I've seen a load of ROH shows but always random shows and considering how great the booking is in ROH it's a shame not to watch them in order. So, here we go:

Christopher Daniels defeated Claudio Castagnoli
Certainly not a great match but not a bad little opener. The key here is that Daniels finally shook his opponents hand after the match. When ROH first began there was months of angles based on the fact that Daniels wouldn't shake hands therefore disrespecting the code of honor. Notice whose hand he shook and who he showed respect to; this will be important later.

Four Corners Match: Delerious defeated Jimmy Jacobs, Jimmy Rave and Jimmy Yang
Your usual ROH four way with high spots galore and tons of nearfalls. Delerious makes me laugh so much for doing stupid things liek running round the ring and scaring his opponents. The story here is that if Jimmy Jacobs won Lacey (his girlfriend?) would strip naked but he didn't want her to so as he had the win he broke the cover and Delerious jumped in and got the win.

ROH Tag Title Match: Austin Aries & Roderick Strong defeated Homicide & Ricky Reyes
Short but told a good little story. Homicide lost to Colt Cabana at the last show and failed to win this match so is getting pissed at ROH. This is the key here.

ROH World Title Match: Bryan Danielson defeated Colt Cabana
In fact he beat him in four minutes. They did the usual chain wrestling like they would for an hour long match but Danielson rolled him up and pinned him. This was done to teach the ROH fans that matches can end quickly and to send Cabana down to the bottom of the card and have to work his way up to another title shot (which sometime down the road he will get). Colt was angry backstage.

Top of the Class Trophy Match: Derrick Dempsey defeated Pelle Primuea
Two students from the ROH school have a battle. It's a decent little match to have after intermission when the crowd really isn't ready for anything big. Primuea is very small and needs to attend the solarium. Dempsey won with a spinebuster into a bridge for the pin.

After the match Bryan Danielson comes out and takes the piss out of the CZW fans giving the ROH fans things to chant at them such as "you're going to get your fucking head kicked in." I love Dragon. When he finally stops getting heckled with the air horn ("I hate guys who think they're cool blowing air horns") he says as head trainer and ROH World Champion he believes he runs the place, but he's going to be a fighting champion. Because he beat Colt in four minutes he's going to defend the title again against somebody who son in the first half of the show. It's not going to be Danielson, Aries or Strong because he's already beaten them so it's...

ROH World Title Match: Bryan Danielson vs Delirious
This was a very good match with Delerious selling his arse off for Dragon and Dragon just being Dragon. Danielson went after the mask and when Delerious used Danielson's aeroplane spin Danielson picked him up and threw him into the ring post in a nasty looking bump. Delerious kept making the ropes on cattle mutulation and after a great babyface comeback Danielson locked it in again, but Delerious was able to make the ropes, again. So Dragon layed in the forearms leading to a ref stoppage. Delerious looked great here with his mask ripped and bloodied up and the crowd were still cheering him as he left the ring.

The Briscoes vs AJ Styles & Matt Sydal
Decent little tag match with the Briscoes getting the heat on Sydal. After the hot tag to Styles and few high spots Sydal is eventually pinned by Jay courtesy of the Jay driller.

Jim Cornette comes to ring backed up by Adam Pearce and his baseball bat. CZW's John Zandig is out and a great debate ensues. Well not really. Cornette owns Zandig putting over ROH and Philadelphia to loud cheers and trashing CZW with a passion. Zandig tries to take shots at Cornette taking the piss out of Smokey Mountain but he just hasn't got the skill. This was a little bit of fun but it was only to get the crowd riled up for the six man 'tag' match next up. Zandig calls his CZW crew to the ring but Joe and BJ appear on the ramp leading to...

ROH vs CZW: Samoa Joe, Adam Pearce & BJ Whitmer vs Necro Butcher, Chris Hero & Super Dragon
The best way to describe this match is guys doing shit. Lots of shit. My god was it messy. It starts with a huge brawl outside the ring with chairs being used by everyone and people being thrown into the barriers. If this was TNA after ten minutes of brawling all the guys would have got on the apron and had a normal tag match. Luckily this is ROH so the brawl just lasted forever. Pearce get busted open big time by Necro (who I'm sure is just a dude of the street with no training whatsoever) and Super Dragon did a reverse brainbuster on BJ off the turbcukle through a table to the floor. This looked terrifying. The finish came when Zandig interfered beating up Joe. The ROH referee said this was a DQ as in ROH not intereference is allowed but the CZW referee said this was under CZW rules so it didn't matter. Claudio (told you the handshake would mean something) hit the ring to even up the sides but turned his back on ROH and nailed Joe with a boot eventually allwoing Chris Hero to pick up the pin and get the win for CZW. The CZW crew scatter and Joe gets on the mic and warns them the war has only just started.

In terms of pure wrestling this wasn't the best ROH show you'll ever see. But in terms of storytelling and great angles this was a fun show. There were no classic matches but the main event did a great job in setting up the ROH CZW war and the storytelling leading up to this is the key in making the show great.

6/10

January Clearout

2007-01-21T11:51:00.000Z

As Christmas takes it's toll on our bank accounts meaning January can be a slow and boring month as we have no money to do anything it's good to know that evil billionaires face the same problems. This past week has seen no less than 18 WWE contracts have been terminated. Releasing wrestlers is a common occurance in the company but why so many at this time? I think it's just a case of trimming the fat and getting rid of the people who aren't any use plus it opens up spots for some OVW guys to step up and make their mark in the big time. Let's look at the casulaties:

Sylvester Terkay - Arguably the most untalented of the knock out tap out connection so he's the one who gets the chop. With ECW house shows being cancelled there's no need for a huge roster and with no tag teams in ECW there was really no need for him to be around much longer.

CW Anderson - Christopher as he became known in his latest WWE run is one of the many ECW originals who gets the chop as the ECW roster is thinned out.

Jazz - Yes she was back with company. I remember seeing her in the ill-fated WWE vs ECW show back before the ECW PPV in June and apart from that I can't recall seeing her on TV at all. With no women's division on ECW and no need to have one Jazz is a goner.

Rodeny Mack - Jazz's husband is gone as well. I didn't even see him at all during this latest run.

Tony Mamaluke - The trimming of the ECW roster sees one half of the FBI hit the bricks. No loss.

Doug and Danny Basham - The Bashams are two guys who had rave reviews out of OVW but when they got called up were nothing more than two dudes who won the tag belts. This is another case of creative having nothing for them and letting them go rather than keeping two decent workers around to do jobs here and there. Both got little starts after they spilt in 2005 with Doug moving to Raw and getting a new gimmick but with injuries and the like and the lack of any decent tag division the Bashams are gone.

Al Snow - This is a surprising one on the surface but this simply releases him from his ECW duties, Al will be sticking around in his current OVW role.

The Gymini - An untalented tag team who made it on to TV for about three weeks before being pulled. No use them sticking around.

Gangrel - He was still employed. This is probably a case of a dude sitting at home being paid and somebody looked at the roster saw his name and decided to send him his release.

Also gone are Bill DeMott, Seth Skyfire, Jack Bull, Ryan Reeves, Mike Taylor, Tracy Taylor (his wife), Johnny Suede and Tony Santarelli all from OVW or Deep South. DeMott is the former Hugh Morris who was under fire from the office as his general behaviour towards the trainees was appaling so it's no surprise to see him gone. As for the others; I have no comment as I know nothing about them.

So the fat has been trimmed and costs have been cut. I'm sure there'll be some new signing in the very near future (Ace Steel who played Donald Trump is heavily rumoured to sign), a few people will be called up to the roster and this time next year eighteen more guys will be released.

Cena/Umaga Tonight

2007-01-07T20:10:00.000Z

I don't think I've looked forward to a match this long in a hell of a long time. Yes as a match it isn't going to be a five star classic with 72 different types of armbars being used by each competitor but it's a match that WWE fonally has me excited about. The beauty of it is it's so simple. Nobody has pinned (or even come close to pinning) Umaga since he debuted and Cena has been unstoppable for nearly two years so when these two forces collide and make the gesture that they want to kill one another - it creates interest in a fight. Who would have thought?

New ROH Champ

2006-12-24T20:10:00.000Z

Bryan Danielson's 15 month reign as ROH Champion has come to an end thanks to the man who calls himself Homicide! It remains to be seen if ROH will go with the TNA star as their long term champion or if somebody else will step up to make a name for themselves. This is pretty big news (if you like ROH) as title changes are very rare and the belt in ROH is of upmost importance.

ROH Unified DVD Review

2006-12-23T20:11:00.000Z

I just watched this show on DVD and it was almost as good as it was live. The main event rocked the world with Danielson and Nigel beating the crap out of each other. Nigel's bumps on the ringpost must have given him a concussion or something; my god he headbutted it so hard. Diving into the crowd isn't generally recomended but somehow ROH manage to get away with and Bryan Danielson's awesomeness allow him to do anything he wants in the world.

Colt Cabana continues to be great and this night was no exception scaring Spud at every opportunity in the four corners match. Matt Sydal has the potential to be really great, his spots are awesome but improving how he uses them will make him even better. Plus he's a sound guy after chatting to him at the show so he deserves some recongnition.

Roderick Strong and Austin Aries defenidng the world tag belts against the Briscoes was an awesome match live but seemed to have something missing on the DVD. All four guys are really really good but they're not going to last much longer if they continue to do half the stuff they did here. Chopping each other as hard as they can and being dropped on your head isn't exactly a carrer prolonging activity.

All the other matches on the card were pretty decent undercard matches with Colt doing double duty going against Chris Hero, Robbie Brookside defending his FWA belt in a match that was far better on DVD than it came across live and Davey Richards defeating Jimmy Rave in a match that was good but had far too many near falls.

Overall this show was awesome live and this trnasferred to DVD. You have to love the unification match simply for the passion from both men and the tag title match is excellent. ROH's first event outside the US had to be considered a success and that's why they're coming back!

Joe vs Angle Tonight

2006-11-19T20:57:00.000Z

Potentially the biggest match in wresting this year is tonight with Kurt Angle taking on Samoa Joe at TNA's Genesis PPV. The fact that I really can't say anything about it shows TNA problem; I have no clue what is going on and for a man that follows this business very closely in terms of backstage goings on and reading show reports it's a really bad thing.

It has the potential to be the hottest TNA angle of all time but it cries the inherent problem of TNA PPVs; they'll be great to watch but nobody will know this because nobody has bought it. If they wanted to capatalise on the signing of Angle this is the time to do it but the 1.0 rating from Thursday's prime time special shows that no person actually knows about TNA. Unfortunatly it's a problem that lies in the hand of TNA themselves.

This match will be great. But who will care?

Monty Brown Signs With WWE

2006-11-16T20:56:00.000Z

As expected Monty Brown has signed with WWE. He's a good talker and showed promise in TNA but the fact he was working three dates a month held him back from progressing. On the road with WWE working four times a week with the likes of Finlay, Regal and Benoit will do him the world of good and we could see something out of Monty.

I Went To Smackdown (CAUTION SPOLIERS IF YOU'VE NOT SEEN SMACKDOWN)

2006-11-16T20:44:00.000Z

And it was a fine fine show. So you can see the show for yourselves; so I'll give you a bit of info about the live show.

Chris Benoit is the best wrestler in the world. The crowd were so into his match and for a guy who doesn't really get any promo time it goes to show what work rate can do for you. Regal is exactly the same. Regal is so good that over half of the crowd booed him (in his home country). Indy guys need to watch him work and see how he sells and builds to his spots.

The crowd were into Big Dave the most out of anybody there and he did the celebration at the end of the show and shook everybody's hands (I gave him a slap on the chest) and the crowd were mad for him. He looked good in the ring and the crowd errupted to the hot tag. This guy is winning the belt at Survivor Series.

Funaki was the first babyace out and got a huge pop and a even a chant. KC James doesn't actually look that bad. Maybe it was just me.

Seeing the Undertaker live was pretty cool. He didn't do the long entrance so I hope he's going back to the more human (and realistic) gimmick.

Mr Kennedy is over huge but his promo on the screen got booed after a couple of minutes because he's so boring when his promos go over the 60 second mark.

Michael Cole got in the ring and got some people to do football chants. This guy is such a goof trying to tell us he was watching the football at the weekend. Don't make me laugh. JBL was well over. I was sat right by him and every so often we got a JBL chant going. I tries to get a Michael Cole chant going but nobody joined in. Surprisingly.

As always I had a great time at the show. The matches certainly anywhere near the ROH level earlier in the year but the atmosphere and the laughs made it a fun show. There's no TV from the UK in April and only three house shows so I think that's it for me until next year but ROH are back in Liverpool soon. Yay.

Raw is Boring (Again)

2006-11-16T20:28:00.001Z

I'm sorry to say it but it totally was. The whole DX thing is really boring me and although their stuff with the bounty was mildly funny (tell that to Chris Masters) it's doing nothing for me in terms of 'wow I can't wait for DX to turn up next week!'

Cena and Umaga wasn't bad for the three minutes it was on but I like the fact they're doing an angle for Survivor Series.

Jeff Hardy won back the IC Title. Most people have moaned that it switched hands but I like it. It's only a secondary title and as long as it's switching on a semi-regular basis most people will remeber there is a belt.

Jerry Lawler is the man at taking the masterlock, it even got over. It's shame three minutes later Masters was destroyed (by Hunter shock horror) and Todd was in the booth for the rest of the night.

Why couldn't Edge and Orton beat Piper and Flair decislvely for the tag belts. Just put Flair in there selling for ten minutes, hot tag to Piper, heels screw the faces and get the tag. Putting the belts on 'Rated RKO' (what a shit name) is a good thing as they obviosuly look better as tag team champs but having them have to beat a guy who won't wrestle for another twelve months (hopefully) and a guy who can be beaten week after week after week but still be over. They're meant to be the top heels; do something to show me you are.

Overall I was glad I had tickets for Smackdown and not this show.

One Year On

2006-11-13T10:34:00.000Z

I'm sure this isn't the first story you've read regarding the death of Eddie Guerrero twelve months ago. I'm sure it won't be the last and that's a testament to the life of Eddie and his impact on the wrestling world. But what has been the impact of his death on the wrestling world? In storyline terms it has been shitty. In terms of Smackdown it has been shitty. But what about the problem of drugs abuse in wrestling? I want to take a look:

Not long after this tragic event Vince McMahon gathered the roster in the locker room and announced drug testing would begin to take place. The policy wasn't implemented until April of this year, but giving WWE their due it has been very thorough and in my humble opinion has been very successful.

Straight after the announcement we saw a number of guys loose quite a bit of muscle including Chris Masters, Batista, Rey Mysterio and most noticebly Kurt Angle. Six months later after the official testing began we've seen a number of people taken from the road due to the various issues with pills. Joey Matthews and Chris Masters have been to rehab, Kurt Angle and Rob Van Dam both recieved 30-day suspensions for their violation of the policy and Super Crazy disappered for a while to. Randy Orton completed an almost 60-day suspension for smoking something other than tabacco. Going by these numbers and the level of guys affected it seems the policy has worked, at least to a degree.

However there has been a few other violations that have seemilngly gone unpunished. Sabu was in the car with RVD when they were both arrested for possesing weed. Only RVD was suspended. Bobby Lashley and the Great Khali were pulled from the Great American Bash pay-per-view in July for elevated liver enzymes, a common side effect from taking steroid pills. They were only pulled on the day of the pay-per-view and this wasn't announced before people bought it. They were also back on the road within a week.

The biggest casualty of the policy has been Kurt Angle. Suspended for thirty and being told to go to rehab wouldn't stop Angle from taking his pain killers. Based on the fact that he may well die very soon WWE released him. Minutes later TNA were on the phone wanting to negotiate. It's that external factor that killed the policy last time round. WCW were simply picking up the firees and putting them on their show; with no drug testing. The fact is this will always be true. Angle certainly isn't making as much money in TNA as he was in WWE but he is Kurt Angle and wants to compete. As long as there is somewhere to compete he will compete. Unfortunalty Eddie's death won't save Angle's life.

For the most part however, I believe that the impementation of the policy has had resounding benefits. Angle is an anomoly, a guy who will work wherever he can work. But most of the roster is smartened up to the fact that WWE will remain for a long time their biggest pay day so sticking to their rules keep the cheques coming in. There will be those who flounder those rules and will continue to get away with it, I'm sure in later life they will feel the affect of this themselves but the drug policy has mostly had great affects on the whole of the roster and if anything good has come from the death of Eddie, this is it.

Survivor Series Card

2006-11-11T15:18:00.000Z

If you haven't been on WWE.com and lets face who hasn't they've been announcing matches all week for Survivor Series and so far it's looking pretty damn cool. They've scrapped the triple threat survivor match between Raw, ECW and Smackdown and have mixed the teams up and upto now we have THREE traditional Survicor Series matches.

DX, CM Punk, Jeff Hardy & Matt Hardy vs Randy Orton, Edge, Mike Knox, Gregory Helms & Johhny Nitro. Punk and the men who said he couldn't work on the same team? One name does not fit here: Mike Knox?

John Cena, Bobby Lashley, Kane, Sabu & Rob Van Dam vs Umaga, Finlay, Big Show, Test & Finlay. This is going to be great.

Ric Flair, Roddy Piper, Sergant Slaughter & Dusty Rhodes w/Arn Anderson vs The Spirit Squad w/Mitch. Yay the Spirit Squad are going to get squashed.

Chris Benoit vs Chavo Guerrero. A fine match for the undercard.

The build for the PPV hasn't been existent so far but I guarnatee this PPV will be great. I'll post my prediction nearer to the date.

Cena Is Raw

2006-11-10T16:43:00.000Z

Nothing was more apparent than statement on Raw this week. When he popped up in Umaga's beating of Maria segment (not a bad little way to get heat I suppose) the crowd went wild and Cena cut an awesome promo which was the highlight of the show.

The rest of the show was hit and miss. From what I remeber the first hour was good, the second bad and the main event was fun for what it was. I wasn't a fan of the fat stripper; that's what you get from beating Vince in the voting Bischoff.

Like I said, the first hour with the Eugene and Hacksaw segment (ratings), the Cena stuff and Hardy vs Nitro along with the opening segment were all fun but the second half with Shelton, Carlito, Masters, Lita and Mickie (the same gimmick on the same show great!) all sucked.

The reason no matches were announced for Survivor Series is because they're doing announcing the matches on the Internet given that 14.4 million (different) people visited for the voting last week. They believe they're owen hype. That's why Raw was all about Bischoff and not promoting Survivor Series. Two weeks to promote but the card is shaping up to be very nice. More about that later.

Cyber Sunday Sucked

2006-11-07T11:47:00.000Z

I had very little interest in this show going in and usually this leads to a good show (No Way Out, Judgment Day) but this show sucked.

Umaga vs Kane was a match I didn't want to see againand we got it again. A shocklingly high number of people voted for Kane, I don't get it. Their match wasn't terrible but it certainly wasn't worth paying for.

The texas tornado tag match was exactly what you'd expect; a cluster that Cryme Tyme won.

Carlito won the vote (as predicted) and wrestled a shitty match with Jeff Hardy. Carlito wrestled as the heel and didn't do much of the horrible high flying (he looks far better as a heel but still sucks). Hardy went over clean in a competitive match so it looks like Carlito is off to ECW.

Bischoff got voted in in a landslide. This would have been a great moment to see Vince's face. It took Orton and Edge forever to get the heat on DX and Hunter kicking out of an RKO was pointless in a tag match that was fourth on the card. The result finally went thr right way though. Overall n under par performance from the people involved in the match, it was mianly Orton and Hunter who pissed me off so when they pair off I hope Edge goes with Shawn. The sgment where Shawn was superkicking dudes in the hall was the highlight of the whole show.

Lita and Mickie wrestled in the lumberjill match and my god this match fucking blew. Lita won.

Flair and Piper won the tag belts! Yay. The Spirit Squad are splitting up! Roddy Peiper hasn't seen the sun since 1987!

The main event was what you'd expect from a triple threat with the people involved. Booker's title was on the line and he won so I doubt we'll hear about that victory considering they wanted Cena's belt on the line. K-Fed's apperance and interferance made perfect sense and allowed King Booker to become the champion of champions.

Overall it was a boring show with no brightspots except from the DX backstage deal. Faarooq made another appearnce but it has lost all it's comedy value by now. They were pushing that 14 million people voted. 14 million votes were cast, not by 14 million people. I reckon with seven stips to vote on and each person voting for each stip once it gives 2 million. Once people voting twice is taken into account I think a fair estimate is around 1.5 million. Not bad but certainly not great. Story of the show really.

Smackdown Happened on Friday

2006-11-07T11:40:00.000Z

Considering Michael Cole opened the show with "we're 48 hours removed from Cyber Sunday" boy did Smackdown do a shitty job in promoting the PPV. The key angle in the show was that Big Dave was protecting Booker (and thus the title he wanted back). Apparently guys from ECW and Raw were attempting to take out Booker (I heard no mention of this angle ever before this night) and I believe four goons turned up at the end of the night but I have no clue who they are. The show's clsoing angle with Batista and Finlay made little sense as it was promotion for next week rather than a show on Sunday. Yes it's a Raw PPV but they've been doing a ton of build on Smackdown so why not for one more night?

Michael Cole's commentary is starting to really piss me off. In the London/Kendrick tag match it was obvious someone was in his ear saying "get London and Kendrick over, they're exciting and fun to watch" so Cole said "boy London & Kendrick are fun to watch!"

Tatanka's new look and his reading from a script on his head had to be one of the highlights of this boring show. Then again Jimmy Wang Yang was on the show and that can only be a damn good thing. Cole's continuance is saying that Yang is a red neck is grating me, do you not get the joke?

Cyber Sunday Preview

2006-11-04T12:46:00.000Z

Cyber Sunday continues the tradition of bad build for PPVs with me caring about no match but Ric Flair and Dusty Rhodes vs a team that didn't even appear on Raw last week.

Women's Championship - Lita vs Mickie James
This has to be a submission match. Has to be. Other than that Lita is probably going over with Mickie winning the title before Lita leaves at the end of November.

Umaga vs Benoit/Sandman/Kane
I hope Benoit gets voted in to see a Benoit match. Sandman winning would be funny as hell as Umaga vs Sandman in an impromptu match would suck so bad it would be great. I don't want to see Kane/Umaga part 34 so don't bother voting for him. Either way Umaga wins.

World Tag Team Championship - Ric Flair & Dusty Rhodes/Roddy Piper/Sergant Slaughter vs Spirit Squad
For comedy and nostalgia value Dusty must win this vote but Piper would be good to. Slaughter I don't really care for. Spirit Squad are splitting and we're going to have new tag belts which thse boys will make seem important because it's Ric motherfucking Flair and Dusty fucking Rhodes.

Intercontiental Championship - Jeff Hardy vs Johnny Nitro/Carlito/Shelton Benjaman
Carlito unfortunatley is winning the vote, Shelton would provide the better match (we've seen Nitro/Hardy a million times) but Hardy has to retain.

DX vs Edge & Randy Orton - Special Referee Vince McMahon/Eric Bischoff/Coach
Vince will be the ref but I want Bischoff hust to piss him off. I beg for the heels to go over and actually make this feud worth while but it seems they're intent on having DX beat everybody so it wouldn't surprise me if they won this one.

Champion of Champions Match for the World Championship/WWE Championship/ECW Championship - King Booker vs John Cena vs Big Show
Booker's title will be on the line and that's great because it basically means Booker has to win and I'm sure they'd rather have Cena or Show win over Booker. Unless they put the belt on Cena for the interpromational angle going into Survivor Series allowing them to have Cena on Smackdown every week.

Apparently there's some four way tag match as well. Cryme Tyme win.

I'm sure when all is said and done this PPV will be decent with a few good matches BUT the key problem is my (and most others) interest in it is absolutley nil.

Raw Sucked

2006-11-04T12:37:00.000Z

As a go home show for a PPV, a show that is meant to make you fo holy fuck I can't wait for DX to kick those damn dasterdly heels arses Raw freaking blew.

The ideal way to sell a PPV is for the heels (with a two on one advantage with chairs) to beat up the babyface in distress thus we pay to see the babyface(s) get their revange on Sunday. Of course the babyface was Hunter so he gets by the special ref stipulation and thr two on one with wepaons situation so on Sunday you're paying to see him do the same with his buddy HBK. Great job.

So the champions of champions match is Sunday. Raw vs Smackdown vs ECW's world champion, the first time ever they will be taking each other one (well they've been doing stupid interactions for weeks but nevermind). This is a historical moment. One brand could be left with no world champion and one brand could have two world title belts. So how do they promote this match? A stand off every week until you finally can't wait for them to scrap? Or how about killer promos on each other explaining how great and superior they are? Or how about telling stupid jokes and on the final push have one of the guys beat up a former (shitty) announcer. One of those three options stand out as sucking. Guess which one they went with.

Sure as hell I can't wait for Cyber Sunday! The women's submission match is going to be a classic.

KISS TNA

2006-10-26T20:59:00.000+01:00

Watching TNA's Bound For Glory Pay-Per-View one thing was clear; Keep It Simple, Stupid.

A card full of gimmick matches blended into one another and the result is the same as it is always; TNA have a huge roster of guys and you got to see every single one of them. However you don't care about any of them.

You don't need a fancy looking video package for every match on the card. When you do play a video package for three matches then they seem important and the crowd will get into them. We don't need a five minute explaination of the Monsters Ball or a throw away four corners tag match. Show us the match, have a good match and warm up the crowd for the reason we paid for the show.

If you're main event is going to be a typical Jeff Jarret vs Sting match in 2006 then don't load your card with spot fests and gimmicks. Everything has been done before the main event so the crowd will be silent in a high-spot free match.

I'm not even going to review every match on the card because in all honestly the THREE hardcore matches wore the crap out of me. I wanted to see men exchanging arm drags not high-spots. The battle royale was fun but shouldn't have been first on the card and no angle was played out after Austin Starr's victory. Monsters Ball was a throw away as was the four-way tag match in which AMW didn't care about. Eric Young vs Larry was what you'd expect but took away from the main event stipulation and Eric Young couldn't beat a man three times his age clean.

Christian vs Rhyno was a street fight which started in the back and ended up an in ring spot fest. Not good. The X-Title match was easily the best match on the card and is an example of what the undercard should be doing in TNA right now. The tag team cage match was very good but isn't a cage match no rules? So why was it a traditonal tag match where foreign objects weren't allowed? The main event sucked up until the last thirty seconds which was awesome. Jarrett clocked Sting with the guitar, the crowd thought they were getting the usual bullshit but Sting roared, the crowd went mad and the deathlock was applied and Sting was the new champion.

Of course the focus was on the fact that Jarrett lost the belt not that Sting had won it. Overall it was disapointing PPV with only two decent macthes all in all. The future looks good (at least next month) with Joe and Angle and Sting and Christian. We'll see if TNA fuck this one up like they did with this PPV.

Verdict: Could have been more.

TNA Pay-Per-View Tonight

2006-10-22T20:24:00.000+01:00

TNA's PPV from outside of the Impact Zone comes tonight and there isn't much of a buzz for the show. I'm predicting the same buyrate as usual. Mainly because of the horrible push to the main event, and the general everybody on TV Impact shows.

Angle debuted on Thursday in the zone and squared off with Joe and bearing in mind Joe is in a completley different match than Angle so this generated no buys. He's a special guest enforcer tonight so I can see Joe making his presence felt in the match, setting up a program with Sting (Sting's winning the belt), winning the belt and setting up the match with Angle.

The story of this whole PPV is not pushing the main event but pushing every single match so nobody cares about any match and therefore the pay-per-view. The Angle situation is somewhat intruiging but not enough to sell the PPV to people outside of the TNA fans. Two hot wrestlers in a match that seems important will sell PPVs (see UFC) not the chance that Kurt Angle might do something.

Smackdown Thoughts

2006-10-22T20:06:00.000+01:00

This weeks Smackdown seemed to be a huge show on paper but after I'd finished watching it felt somewhat empty. The main event was built as something huge but it was another swerve that takes away from the title match. When Big Dave finally gets his belt back it isn't going to mean as much if we're getting the match virtually every week. I didn't predict a finish with Cena and Big Show at ringside but I didn't think they'd make such a hige deal out of the match only to go the shitty finish. Big Dave looked terrible.

Rey/Chavo was a great match and for a purley selfish reason I was disapointed with Rey loosing as it means he won't be coming to Manchester in a couple of weeks. He does need knee surgery and hasn't had a break for the four years he's been with the company so he deserves it. I'm thinking they might go with Benoit/Chavo for the next month or so or Chavo's victory isn't going to mean anything if they don't do anything with him.

Where was Benoit? Where was Lashley?

I love William Regal. I like Taylor . These two in a tag team will be great. It seems they're sending them the way of Paul London and Spanky which I have no problem with at all.

Kane vs MVP could be the worst feud of the year. That is discounting Kennedy/Undertaker. Taker kills everybody, doesn't give anybody a chance to get over (ask Helms) and ultimatley this isn't doing anything for young Ken Kennedy.

I have no interest in Terkay and the dress wearing freak (he's just a guy who wears a dress - that's it).

Vince's Reaction To Ken vs Tito

2006-10-18T22:15:00.001+01:00

OK so Ken/Tito does a fucking ridiculously great rating. Bigger than any Raw main event ever. Bigger than anything on Spike ever. Vince's reaction was hilarious, he asked for his team to come up with ideas for when he signed Shamrock. Fortunatley Paul Heyman was on hand to explain that the rating was so huge because it was a feud that had been built and built, promoted and promoted and people wanted to see them... FIGHT!

Judging by this reaction I thought he might take note but then I saw Raw on Monday and I realised he's Vince McMahon.

Raw Is Random

2006-10-18T17:28:00.000+01:00

What a random episode of Raw aired this week. K-Fed, DX, Jackass - bizzare.

The opening segment was great for the time that Orton and Edge were on their own. As soon as Hunter came out and treated us to nob gags and some new gay jokes it went downhill. UFC is doing huge buyrates for all its pay-per-views and how many feuds are based on the fact that one man is saying the other is gay?

The huge announcement for the champions of champions match is that we get to the vote for the winner. Well they're not going to do a title change are they? They need the winner of the voting to be Show or Cena because Booker has no chance going over if the booking is left to the Vince. I think Big Show has started bowling Monday nights since he went to ECW; that shirt was not a shirt worn by a world champion.

Cryme Tyme debuted and beat the competition. It finally looks like the Spirit Squad are breaking up resulting in three of them being released in the next six months and Johnny and Kenny probably heading to Smackdown. Cryme Tyme will be over for a couple of weeks, they'll win the belts and nobody will give a shit afterwards. Their segment with Booker was great although it was mainly Booker.

Why did Jeff have to defend his title in a four way? Isn't that seen as really bad when the champ has to? Masters got pinned. Again.

Carlito was on this show for the sake of being on the show.

K-Fed was damn good. He didn't try and get himself over but got Nitro and Cena over. A good celebrity appearance as opposed to the Jackass boys who wouldn't sell for Umaga. Umaga is going to be so dead if they continue to have him hanging around the lower mid-card. If they're going to push him as an undefeated monster then the main event is the logical place for him. They won't put him in that position though so someday he's going to disappear and never be seen again.

WWE shit all over TNA by getting the Jackass guys. The X-division goofs have been doing the gimmick for months and WWE gets the appearance of the actual goofs.

The women's title tournament continues. YAY!

The main event was a decent for a Raw main event. Orton got injured which is why the match was somewhat short. The problem lies in the fact that Hunter won even after Orton cheated so now we're supposed to pay to see Hunter win again.

Overall a random show that did little to build anything for the future or get you excited about Cyber Sunday but was entertaining overall.

Jericho to TNA

2006-10-15T19:41:00.000+01:00

Well his band Fozzy anyhow. Not live though. A music video. On pay-per-view. This is a huge announcement and huge news for TNA (apparently). Add this to the annoucement that Bobby Roode is announcing his manager on said show I can't wait for the show! What's it called again?

If anybody out there thinks that Jericho is going to TNA then they're kidding themselves. Jericho is a smart guy and knows money lies with WWE. Signing with TNA cuts ties with Vince and for a guy like Jericho that could be carrer suicide. Jericho to TNA? Nuh uh. His music video is the closest TNA are getting to Y2J.

Smackdown Continues a Role of Good Shows

2006-10-14T18:43:00.000+01:00

I was actaully interested in watching Smackdown this week and it delivered. Smackdown has (nearly) always been the better show in terms of wrestling with Eddie, Benoit, Rey and Angle all been staples of the show and now with Finaly and Regal in the mix the wrestling can not be faulted.

Watching Chris Benoit pummel the shit out of Mr Kennedy was great.The finish wasn't too bad, Benoit couldn't beat Kennedy clean so this was the next big thing. The difference between Kennedy and Benoit on offence is world apart. One's awesome the other is pretty boring. I don't need to tell who you. Benoit winning the US title is only a good thing, the belt is wasted in the Taker feud so it makes sense to put it on Benoit who always makes it feel like a damn important belt.

Regal vs Vito was a decent match, mainly because William Regal is great. I don't think Regal ever wins but as long as he is on my TV every week I have no problem with this whatsoever and it doesn't take away from his credibility because he is that damn good.

MVP still sucks and putting him with Kane is hardly going to light the world on fire (pardon the pun) but they need something for both guys to do so they've stuck them together. I thought Kane was taking time off but obviously not.

Jamie Noble on TV in singles action is another great novelty. His match with Rey was a good little TV match, these guys can have awesome matches but the point was to put Rey over and they did that here. I thought the idea was for Rey to go off and have his surgery after No Mercy, they could be doing that angle next week with the 'I Quit' match. Rey is advertised for Survivor Series though so you never know.

Jimmy Wang Yang is the man. A decent little six-man here.

The main event was another good TV match. Booker T on commentary still rules. For a TV triple threat there wasn't anyhting else they could have done better or worse so this was a good little match. Batista going over makes sense as Finlay is a heel and Lashley isn't the number one guy at the moment (despite being better than Big Dave who looked a little rough tonight). Cena and Big Show are at Smackdown next week so I predict a no contest in the main event setting up the Cyber Sunday main event. Add the Rey/Chavo match to that and next week should be entertaining.

The Benoit Suprise

2006-10-14T14:47:00.000+01:00

All over the world of the wondeful Internet message boards I've been readin how the return of Chris Benoit should have been more hyped. Yes it might have sold some pay-per-views and Benoit could have been out over in such a way that he is next contender to the world title but, isn't it nice to be surprised by something?

As 'inside' fans we know everything that's going on and the majority of the time we find it hard to actually be pleasantly surprised with what goes on in this business. The return of my favourite wrestler Chris Benoit made me happy. It was a nice surprise for those who bought a pay-per-view where the bright spots were few and far between. His return didn't sell any pay-per-views but can't we just be happy for once?

The Biggest Raw Ever

2006-10-11T08:21:00.000+01:00

Not quite.

It was a good show with the interpromotional rivalries etc. but it's the story of WWE no building towards anything that highlights the flaws in this show. Just like the WWE vs ECW special a couple of months ago (remember that?) this showhad little promotion. People knew it was on but didn't have much of a reason to watch it outside of the advertised Kane/Umaga match.

The opening segment was good seeing all three champions in the ring but went off on a bit of a tangent talking about the films. Booker T's reference to Ready to Rumble made me smile though. Cena's English accent ruled. These three are going at it in a triple threat at Cyber Sunday. They're desperate to prove that PPV is a hit. They were always told that a Tuesday PPV wouldn't work so last year they stacked the card with the return of Austin and Foley. This year they've moved it and are putting a pretty big match on top.

Kane got beat so is loosing Raw. He was backstage at the Smackdown tapings so work it out.

The backstage interactions between the three GMs was brilliant. Even the Super Crazy segment.

The women's match sucked. This title is doomed. They might as well have a fans vote at the PPV to decide the champion, it would mean more.

DX vs Cade & Murdoch was typical of the whole of DX's run - burying the competition. It looks like they're getting a real feud in Edge & Orton. I predict a tag match followed by two singles matches which I have no problem with at all as Edge and Michaels work very well together. Hunter and Orton have yet to prove themselves but a good angle could change this.

Big Show beat Jeff Hardy. Where was Matt to make the save?

Didn't we see Booker vs RVD like last week? At least the King won.

Chris Benoit is fucking amazing. Poor Shelton.

Bickering between commentary teams can get annoying but when JBL is involved I have no problem with it at all.

The Smackdown six-man made me laugh my head off. Firstly Rey got caught in the apron by Finlay and disappeared and the heels beat him whilst in the apron. That made me laugh for some reason. Secondly Rey got fully dragged under the ring by the midget. Thirdly Cole called the midget the little bastard and JBL commented he may have parents so call him a troll. Classic. The match was good as well. Look like Rey is sticking around until Survivor Series.

Mitch vs Flair was one hell of an awesome segment. I'll always mark for Dibase. When joined by IRS I mark even more.

The main event was actually pretty fun. I don't think anybody expected a clean finish but for what it was it was good.

Overall a thumbs up show. Plenty of build to Cyber Sunday, good backstage segments and good wrestling for TV.

Johnny Ace fires the wrong guy

2006-10-07T22:44:00.000+01:00

If John Lauranitis' inadequecy in the role of head of talent relations isn't in question then it is now. Remeber when MARTY Jannety got resigned (again) last month? And the Boogeyman (MARTY Wright) got fired? Well it seems that Jannety went AWOL (a la Justin Credible) and was supposed to get fired. Lauranitis fired him, or so he thought. Lauranitas fired Marty Wright not Marty Jannety!

Don't worry all has been resolved. The Boogeyman has been resigned and Marty Jannety is out the door again for the 433rd time in his career.

Check back around next year's Wrestlemania for Marty's next apperance and subsequent rehiring.

No Mercy Preview

2006-10-07T18:37:00.000+01:00

World Heavyweight Championship
King Booker (c) vs Finlay vs Bobby Lashley vs Big Dave Batista
The original plan was supposed to be Big Dave vs Booker for the title but given that Big Dave has been terrible since his return it was switched to Lashely/Booker and Batista was thrown with Finlay to help him regain his step. Now it has been decided Lashley isn't a draw so the two matches have been added together.

King Booker's reign on Smackdown has been the best thing going in recent weeks so I hope it doesn't come to an end. Changing the title in a fatal four way is ridiculous in my opinion. You make money by building big feuds not throwing four guys in a ring. The match could be pretty decent as Finlay and Booker are both great, Lashley is looking better month on month and although Big Dave looks horrible he may have to step us his game. I'm expecting a King Booker victory.

Ken Kennedy vs The Undertaker
A terrible fued that makes no sense whatsoever. Taker wins.

Note: At this point I'm having to look at wwe.com to find out the rest of the card.

Who Loves Eddie More - Falls Count Anywhere
Chavo Geurrero vs Rey Mysterio
Another bad feud although as always the match will be decent. This is Rey's last match for a while as he heads off for knee surgery so I'm picking Chavo by default.

WWE Tag Team Championship
Paul London & Brian Kendrick vs KC James & Idol Stevens
Another one of those nobody really cares about this match but should be OK given London and Kendrick are involved. If the geeks in masks don't win the tag titles are dead.

MVP vs ????
MVP debuts in the ring. I'll give WWE their due here, they've built up a special attraction in this guy. There's no news as of yet about his opponent but I'd expect Sylvan or Tatanka to be top of the list.

Matt Hardy vs Gregory Helms
I've liked what they've done with these two, the only problem is nobody cares. It makes sense for the babyface to go over but as the babyface is Matt Hardy and Matt Hardy will not die putting over Helms is the better option.

On paper this looks like a shitty PPV but I'm sure as with all Smackdown PPVs it will be pretty good.

Raw thought it was in a war

2006-10-07T11:49:00.000+01:00

Well I've got roundto watching Raw and it was a pretty good episode. Granted without the sweet main event it would have blown big time but considering the main should be the best thing on the show it was no problem at all. The show was given the big time feel because of UFC on the other channel. Apparently UFC sucked so efforts were wasted but I'm not complaining.

John Cena and Edge work really well together. I wasn't a big fan of their matches at the start of the year but since they've been feuding this time around they've been great together. The interferance had to happen with it being on free TV and I've got no problem with it at all because it's promoting feuds for the next Raw PPV.

Carlito and Orton has to continue. Their matches are OK but it's not like I'm thinking I can't wait for Carlito to finally beat Orton. I'm waiting for the fued to end.

What about the angle for Kane and Umaga? I missed it to. Next week's show has Kane vs Umaga in a Kane leaves Raw for a brief while match. If you didn't know he's taking a break from the business.

Snitsky still has a job.

The DX malarcy with Coach backstage was too hockey for my liking. It went on too long and was trying to be too serious so as a wacky skit it failed. Although the Chris Masters 'how to loose fifty pounds in four weeks' deal was great. He's fired.

Does Bischoff just hang around at Raw tapings? I thought he got fired.

Men in cheerleader outfits is not funny and is so 1997. That's why this was put in there. DX aren't cool anymore they're just goofs.

We have a new IC champion in Jeff Hardy. I have no problem with this whatsoever because somehow Hardy and Nitro have been having some great matches and by the looks of things this feud is continuing.

Overall this was a good episode of Raw that built to a great main event and I always enjoy a Raw that follows that formula.

Smackdown Gets Hayes

2006-10-03T12:04:00.000+01:00

Michael PS Hayes has been announced as the new head writer of Smackdown. This could potentially be really good news as firstly Smackdown has sucked lately so anybody new booking is at least going to give it a different direction. Secondly Hayes is old school. He's a guy from World Class who made feuds last months on end drawing thousands of fans every week. In the world of sports entertainment it is unusual to see somebody in the business be head writer as the tendancy is for hollywood writers to get the jobs. Seeing an old school guy with the book could be a turn in the right direction for the b show.

Of course if he does well he's going to Raw.

Well ECW Sucked

2006-10-02T20:11:00.000+01:00

I finally got around to watching last weeks ECW and my god did it blow. RVD and Bob Holly wrestled a boring hardcore match. RVD is really off these days and Bob Holly has never ever been over and nobody has ever cared about him and they're not going to do now.

The main event was terrible. Big Show can be carried to decent matches. Sandman cannot carry people to decent matches. Putting these two in the ring was asking for trouble and exposed both of their key weaknesses.

Next week I'm reading the report and seeing if the show's any good before I bother taping it. I never do that so doing so is really showing something about the product.

Just Smackdown go now, although I doubt that can be as bad.

To Watch or Not To Watch?

2006-09-30T19:20:00.000+01:00

That is the question.

Do I bother with this week's Smackdown or not? I know the main is the six-man and I'm a big fan of six-mans but they'll be more Vito, Sylvan, Tatanka, MVP, Burke rubbish that anooys me so much.

I'll fast forward through it I think. Mind I haven't even watched ECW yet.

Kashing Out

2006-09-27T21:48:00.000+01:00

WWE released Kid Kash today. No word yet as to why but he was one of the guys who caused problems back in July at the now infamous Great American Bash pay-per-view. It's a shame because at least he was getting TV time as part of the Pitbulls with Jamie Noble and the tag divison seemed to be having something done with it. I'm sure there will be more to come.

BTA Exclusive: How to get to the 'A' Show

2006-09-27T18:42:00.000+01:00

Randy Orton, Super Crazy and Johnny Nitro have all managed to jump to Raw over the past three months and the transistion has been great for all three guys. Recently Smackdown superstar Mr Kennedy has asked his general manager for a transfer to Raw. However his move was turned down. So, we at the Behind The Angle have caught up with the three men who have managed the jump to get advice on how to make it to the 'A' show.

"I was a dick. I got too big for my boots and thought I was a star. I pissed everybody off in the lockeroom and then started on the dope," Orton said, "pretty soon after I was suspended. The first guy you know? The first guy to be suspended under the wellness policy" he says with a smile. "I thought I'd have to return to the dreaded Smackdown but with Kurt in ECW there was nobody with me to work with. Hogan was looking to work with me but didn't want to go on Smackdown so I was shipped to Raw and I'm still there!" It seems Orton being a tosser and defying a policy intended to get the business clean earned Randy his promotion.

Current Intercontinental Champion Johnny Nitro's story follows a similar line; "Me and Melina sort of got it on. All the guys were jeaulous of me for banging the hottest chick on the show so they hated me and they hated Melina." It was at Judgment Day that Nitro's worries came to ahead; "I was teaming with Joey and we'd been tag champs for months but at Judgment Day these little geeks in masks beat us for the titles. Well, I say beat us, they beat Joey." Soon after Nitro and his sidekick Melina was kicked off Smackdown. "The next week I was on Raw! I couldn't believe my luck. Everybody hated me on Smackdown so I moved to Raw and got a bug singles push!"

Super Crazy's story is rather different. He was involved in the scandalous Great American Bash fiasco in which a number of Smackdown stars were suspended after the results of the lastest round of drug testing came through. Unfortunatly Crazy was unable to comment as his English is non-existent (according to commentator John Bradshaw Layfield). The broken English we could understand seemed to say that he was rewarded for trying to get bigger and not be a crusierweight any longer. One source inside WWE made the comment that when Crazy showed he could be more than a small guy he was instantly moved to Raw.

Three success stories in this business and fellow Smackdown stars can do the same by getting heat or taking 'supplements'. BTA hopes that in the future more stars find their way to the number one show in sports entertainment just like these three guys.

Raw Thoughts

2006-09-27T09:59:00.000+01:00

This was a boring episode of Raw this week. Again nothing happened it was just match after match for no point at all.

The opening segment bored the hell out of me to the point where I actually started doing my washing whilst it was on. We get Cena's funny but does he have to do the ridiculous Lita jokes every single week. They do nothing to get you interested in Cena, Edge or Lita and consequently do nothing for pay-per-view buyrates.

Oh yeah there's a tournament for the women's title. I didn't know anything about it and it's already being portrayed as a joke so there you go.

The main event was no holds barred but Edge is barred from interfering so effectivley a hold is barred. There was some promotion for Smackdown! Oh my god! "You rap scallion." Great.

Kane vs Nitro was perfectly fine for what it was meant to be and in Kane/Umaga they're building a feud! That's right there's a reason to the matches.

How loud was Carlito's pop? Far louder than he ever deserves. Masters got jobbed out again. Orton/Carlito continues on.

For the second week in a row, Flair on TV is always good and Flair winning on TV is even better. I have know clue where this is going unless Flair beats every member of the squad over the next three weeks.

The DX gauntlet was OK. The problem with this is that no teams are over. When they used to do these type of things with the Hardys, Dudleys, Edge and Christian, the Outlaws etc. it used to work because the teams were over. These days nobody cares because they're beating nobodys. All I can gather is that DX are now feuding with Cade and Murdoch. Again I would have no problem with this if Cade and Murdoch had done anyhting for the past ten months.

Bishoff's apperance is a one time deal to promote his book. At the moment there are no plans to bring him back but then again plans change all the time. What he said was pretty much true though if you think about it.

The Raw reunion show should be good and is a setup for the Survivor Series PPV where it has been announced it will be Raw vs Smackdown vs ECW. I'll talk more about that later.

Overall: A boring show that really did nothing for me and didn't get me excited in anything they're doing at the moment.

The Big Announcement - Angle To TNA

2006-09-25T21:03:00.000+01:00

Well it has happened. Some said it was inevitable and some said it would never happen but Kurt Angle has signed for TNA. This was the last night's big announcement at the PPV last night (I'll post my thoughts on the show later).

Many thought (and Kurt hinted) he'd be doing some MMA (this is still possible as his TNA contract in non-exclusive) but he's sticking to what he knows at least at the moment. This could be the first sign of the end or at least the revision of WWE's drug testing policy. They had a policy back in the nineties but guys like Scott Hall failed on numerous occasions and eventually found themselves employment in WCW. The same situation could develop here with a number of undercard guys getting caught but getting a job with TNA where drug testing doesn't exist.

The ethical implications of TNA show this buisness for what it really is. TNA have gone out and hired a man whose drug problems have been documented and known by everybody out there. Angle refused to go into rehab and got fired. Without rehab the likelihood is he is still a heavy user of pain medication. TNA know this and have willingly employed the former WWE Champion.

On the flip side TNA could well be the best move for Kurt Angle. With the tapings currently as they are Angle could well work only 3 shows per month (two tapings where he'd probably only wrestle once and a PPV match) and still make a decent amount of money. It will be nowhere near the amount in WWE ($1m guaranteed) but when travel expenses, car rental and hotel costs are taken into account along with his health, as long as Angle wants to wrestle, TNA could be his best option.

Angle's impact could be negligable for TNA. Ever since debuting on Spike they've kept the same audience encouraging nobody new to watch the show. Angle, despite being awesome, is not a mainstream star and may not be a guy who is going to increase the viewership of Impact. The one thing this deal has done is put Kurt Angle and TNA as a major focal point in the wrestling business; something TNA has failed to do thus far. What it will do for the all important PPV buy is a different story.

Where Angle fits on the roster is another question. TNA's habit of having a huge main event scene, a huge mid-card and a huge undercard means that Kurt Angle could be another face in a crowd of people they're trying to get over this nobody gets over. Hopefully not. Hopefully Angle will make them realise that they need stars and not everybody can be a star. I will certainly be watching Angle in TNA but Jarrett and his chums could easily drop the ball with their biggest aquistion to date.

TNA No Surrender Mini Preview

2006-09-24T19:19:00.000+01:00

TNA present another show from Orlando tonight. Here's the card:

Fans Revenge Match - Samoa Joe vs. Jeff Jarrett
This will be an interesting one to say the least. Firstly there are going to be marks at ringside strapping the shit out of Jarrett and there's every chance he's going to retaliate. Secondly Joe has to go over because he's Joe and Jarrett has to go over because he's headlining the biggest PPV in TNA history next month.

NWA World Tag Team Titles - Ultimate X match - Latin American Xchange vs. Christopher Daniels & AJ Styles
This has the potential to be great. They've worked together in the past very well and all four are that good they can really make something out of this Ultimate X.

X-Division Title - Sen She vs. Chris Sabin
I'm sure this will be a good little match but I'm bored of workrate.

Rhino vs. Christian Cage
First match of the heel Christian TNA era so he has to win. This will be a good match and I hope it will get the ball rolling for Mr Cage.

Triple Chance Tag Team Battle Royal - AMW, The James Gang, The Naturals, The Paparazzi , Diamonds In The Rough, Bentley & Kazarian, The Truth & Lance Hoyt, Shark Boy & Norman Smiley
A desperate attempt to get everybody on the roster on the PPV so inevitably everybody will forget about this crazy match with it's crazy rules and nobody will get over.

Abyss vs. Raven vs. Brother Runt
And this match is happening because?

Petey Williams vs. Jay Lethal
Another good but instantly forgettable match.

Don't forget the BIG ANNOUNCEMENT of a new timeslot!

He Swerved You

2006-09-22T19:53:00.000+01:00

After qutting the wrestling business forever six months ago the saviour of WWE and WCW (don't believe me? Just ask him) is back in the rasslin business. Mr Vince Russo has returned to the TNA booking committee.

This is going to be fun. I'm sure they'll be plenty of non sensical crazy booking over on Impact and may will be complaining about it. But, this might be the shot in the arm this business needs.

This isn't TNA's big announcment on Sunday night at the PPV. It's expected to be a new timeslot. Once again we've been told it's the biggest announcement ever that will change wrestling history. Just like every other announcement I really don't think it will be that big.

ECW Thoughts

2006-09-22T15:06:00.000+01:00

This show was saved by King Booker. How great is he? In fact I'm making an extra effort to watch Smackdown this week.

The opener made no sense whatsoever. Sandman fell and bumped his head and had to leave the match? I thought he was a fucking hard case. He's a wuss as far as I'm concerned. If they were going to do a DQ finish why not have Sandman come in and nail everybody with cains rather than the Test psuhing the ref finish they did?

How long was Sabu on the apron for? He can't do shit.

CM Punk is starting to get over with the fans. I have to admit he is with me as well. I like what they're doing with him at the moment. All I ask though is give him a character. Saying he doesn't drink, smoke or take drugs just makes him boring. It doesn't impress me one bit.

He's a vampire called Kevin wrestling a man named Balls. That's all I have to say about this shitty segment.

The main was a decent match considering the participants but does Bob Holly really have to be a focal point of the show. He hasn't been over for ten years and he's not about to start getting over now.

Raw Thoughts

2006-09-22T14:55:00.000+01:00

What a total nothing show this was. Nothing happened. No challenges were issued. Nothing of note happened. DX continued their thing. Cena continued his thing. As did everybody else on the roster.

The main event was a fine little match, I'd be quite happy with a six-man tag every single week on Raw as a talent showcase you really can't go wrong with it. Plus Cade and Murdoch were involved and I think that these two have great characters and seeing them in that role makes a refreshing change.

The six-way for the IC belt was simply put one big cluster with a decent finish. It basically sets Hardy up as the number one contender for the title and I have no problem with this whatsoever.

Masters does has been back four weeks and has done three jobs in a row. I have a feeling he's out the door pretty soon without that masterpiece physique.

Lita and Mickie argiung for the belt doesn't interest me one bit. It's leading to Looser Leaves Town at Cyber Sunday when Lita does the jobski on the way out and Mickie wins the vacant belt.

Is it me or has Candace improved dramatically?

Kane and Umaga continuing their problem is OK as I happen to quite like what they're doing. The idea was for Umaga to be in the main event at Unforgiven (a la Brock Lesnar circa 2002) with him beating Hunter, Shawn and Cena in a space of a few weeks but as usual they shit themselves about an unproven commodity being on top so his momentum was lost pretty quicky.

Ric Flair on my TV is always great. Ric Flair winning on my TV is fantastic.

The opening segment went far too long and Edge turning on the Montreal crowd was a good way to get him heat but they still hated Cena (and Shawn and Hunter for that matter).

Overall not the worst show in the world with nothing horrible going down. The problem is nothing happened. If you missed a week of TV then don't worry because you're not behind on anything.

I'm The Boogeyman But I Won't Be Coming To Get Ya

2006-09-21T09:02:00.000+01:00

"WWE has come to terms on the release of Boogeyman (Marty Wright) as of today 9/20/06. We wish Marty the best in all future endeavors." - From WWE.com

It's ture ladies and gentlemen. Please do not upset yourselves as The Boogeyman has gone from WWE. He was meant to be coming back to the ECW brand but for whatever reason (they saw sense) he won't be returning now.

It's a shame because Marty Wright actually had his teeth done like that to play the character and I'm sure all the red makeup isn't easy to get off. I'm sure they'll be much work for him on the indy scene but for now The Boogeyman will remain as another of those legends like Giant Gonzalez and Kamala.

Unforgiven Thoughts

2006-09-20T12:19:00.000+01:00

This show can be summed up in one word. Boring.

Intercontinental Title - Jeff Hardy vs Johnny Nitro
This was fine to start with when Hardy was doing all his usual stuff at the start but Nitro's heat was boring as hell. Hardy's comeback was good as always and they did some decent nearfalls. They had me a few times at least. Jeff would have won the belt if they hadn't had been doing the two title changes later in the show.

Kane vs Umaga
Short and sweet. I love watching two big men pound the shit out of each other and this is what this was. Nothing special but Kane made Umaga look really good. The shitty ending means this is going to continue.

World Tag Team Championship - Spirit Squad (Kenny & Mikey) vs The Highlanders
Pretty boring match to be honest. Spirit Squad won with the usual antics. Again I'd expected a title change but the two they did later were more important than this.

Hell In A Cell - DX vs McMahons & Big Show
Nothing match. No big bumps. No awesome spots. Usual raking the face against cage spot (the brand new cage I should admit) a million times, plenty if chairs and a sledgehammer in use. A cluster like you'd expect. DX won when Hunter laid waste to Vince. This has to be the end.

Women's Championship - Trish Stratus vs Lita
The usual Trish/Lita match but the crowd were hot for young Miss Stratus. Fun match whilst it lasted with a great finish (Trish used the sharpshooter). Trish got the send off she deserves. The video package before this match was great. Maybe if they'd done something like this on Raw over the last few weeks this might have actually got over.

Carltio vs Randy Orton
Orton cut a nothing promo before the match. Thankfully Carlito didn't get the opportunity. Boring match, apart from the finish where Orton hit an RKO after Carlito went for a flying thingy madgicy. Pushing like Orton can hit the RKO out of anywhere worked two years ago. As soon as he started teasing it it sucked. Hopefully they're going back to the old way.

WWE Championship - TLC Match - John Cena vs Edge
Great heat. They loved Edge and hated Cena, although there was some Cena love. Easily the best match of the show. Not the best TLC ever but it was decent. They did some fun spots and did them very well through teasing them before they actually did them so when somebody did get put through the table the crowd popped. RVD and Sabu take note please. Awesome finish with Cena hitting a super-duper FU off the ladder through two tables and grabbing the belt.

Overall a boring show that was saved from disaster by the reaction to Trish and the main event.

BTA Exclusive: Sandman Quits Smoking

2006-09-17T19:34:00.000+01:00

Since the rebirth of ECW the extremist simply know as 'The Sandman' has given up his smoking habit. His trait for years was a cigarette in one hand and a lager in the other but for the last couple of months he has kept away from the cigs.

Behind The Angle spoke to the rebel last week regarding the issue: "I quit. I quit to give the new ECW a more wholesome image. I'd been doing the whole smoking and drinking routine for years but the smoking was taking its toll on me. I was getting blown up in my matches and I figured kicking the cigs would soon banish that. Plus we've been working some big arenas compared to the old days and making my entrance is getting longer and longer each week, my healthy lungs allow me to get all the way to the ring without feeling even a little breathless."

The Sandman couldn't be more right as his matches since the return of ECW have been hailed as classics. Like all quitters the ECW star has found himself on the end of a few 'extreme' mood swings. Such incidents involving a priest, a school teacher and a zombie have seen Sandman use his singapore cain to deal with the cravings; "Every so often I snap. The cravings get too much and somebody in the ring annoys me and I see red."

Life is going great for the ECW mainstay since he has kicked the dreaded weed and an episode of Monday Night Raw confirmed this; "I was flicking and came across this show called 'Raw'. There was this really cool guy running around doing crazy stuff called Triple H. A dastardly man planted some Cubans in his locker room and the police found out. The funny thing is the cool guy [Triple H] doesn't even smoke! If a guy who is too cool for school like him doesn't smoke then why do I need to?"

Return of the Mack

2006-09-16T11:59:00.000+01:00

In the most bizzare news of the week WWE have signed four new amazing talents. The first being Rodney Mack. You know Rodney Mack who in 2003 was so over with the audience and was an absolute workhouse? The second is Marty Jannety. You know the troubled Marty who was fired twice in the last two years and after his latest one was told he's never coming back? Henry Godwin, one half if the the infamous Godwins and Brad Armstrong.

It's really great news that WWE are looking for that next big thing by signing a load of 'veterans' who will probably be out of the door by this time next year.

Unforgiven Preview

2006-09-15T09:03:00.000+01:00

They're pulling out all the stops for this show with two gimmick matches on the same card. On paper it's a fine little card but in practice things are pretty cold as it seems impossible to actually care about any of these matches.

Kane vs Umaga
If booked correctly then this could be good a la Goldberg and Steiner but if they try to do a technical match then things will get boring pretty quickly. If they play a game of oneupmanship with each trying to out power the other and Umaga does his usual stuff then this will be fun. I've enjoyed the build for this match and actually somewhat care about it. Expect an Umaga victory as the Samoan Bulldozer continues his winning streak.

World Tag Team Titles - Spirit Squad vs The Highlanders
The Spirit Squad are breaking up (they got blamed for the fact that ratings didn't boom when DX returned) so The Highlanders have to win. They won't get an angle though they'll just hold the tag belts until Cryme Tyme get given them.

Intercontinental Championship - Johnny Nitro vs Jeff Hardy
Nitro is one of the best characters on Raw and the initial pops for Hardy are making him seem worthy of the position. Their match on Raw a couple of weeks ago on Raw was decent and this won't be any worse. As for who wins; flip a coin.

Women's Championship - Trish Stratus vs Lita
Trish is so made up this is her last match. No more bumps, no more injuries just the bliss of married life. We're in Trish's hometown and it's her final match with her most famous rival and it could be a hell of an emotional experience. Given the video package on Monday they're making a big deal out of this which in all honesty Trish deserves. If it were me booking I'd give Trish the belt and let her keep it as women's wrestling on Raw isn't exactly great but as she's leaving it makes sense for her to put over somebody else who's leaving a month down the line.

Randy Orton vs Carlito
Cold as the artic. Orton wins and challenges Cena for the belt next month. If Carlito wins I'll kill myself.

Hell In a Cell - DX vs The McMahons & Big Show
Remeber when Hell in a Cell was the culmination of great feuds between two guys who fucking hated one another? Not the case here. Shane-O may take a crazy bump (Shawn can't, Hunter won't, Vince would break every bone in his body and Show is tall) but that will be the only highlight of this match. Shawn may do an injury angle and take some time off after this. DX will win. Again. In fact they'll probably pin the Big Show.

TLC Match for the WWE Championship - Edge vs John Cena
We're in Edge's hometown in Edge's speciality match (so he gets beat). The crowd are going to be insane for this. At Summerslam 2004 they were anti-Edge but considering Edge has been great over the last year or so they have to be behind the home-town boy. The crowd will make this match awesome. I hope. Both guys want to stay on top so I'm expecting them to do some crazy shit, but a slower paced match would be ideal letting them build to some good spots. Edge should have this match won at some point so he continues to look credible and say he's been screwed. Cena's not going to the C show to he's winning.

Writing about this show has made me gain more interest in the show which is a better job than WWE are doing (or TNA) at this moment in time.

Raw Thoughts

2006-09-14T08:57:00.000+01:00

Raw sucked. Well it was OK if it was just a Raw building towards a PPV, but it wasn't. It was the final Raw before Sunday's Unforgiven PPV so it's meant to make you excited about the PPV and ensure you spend your cash on Sunday night. This show failed in a big way.

Cena/Edge was the hottest feud on the show and judging my the MSG crowd Cena is the hottest thing on the show. Therefore he was thrown in a six-man tag (that was a decent match none the less) with five other guys who are having a match at the PPV. No, he wasn't given a shit-hot promo to cut vowing to win the WWE Title in a match he had never competed in he was in a seemingly random match where he beat Johnny Nitro. By the way Johnny Nitro isn't his opponent on Sunday.

Edge burying Smackdown makes me chuckle at how WWE treat that brand.

Did you notice how they played up the Orton/Cena thing from last week with Orton giving the 'you can't see me' gesture to Cena? I'm thinking Cena's winning and starting his feud with the Legend Killer. Rewarded for failing the drugs test. Again.

Jeff Hardy's reaction to Nitro kicking his painting was THE best thing on this show, "hey man my painting" as if it was a masterful piece of work that he'd spent hours on.

Remember when Nitro was getting heat on Smackdown so he got moved to Raw and got a push?

Carlito and Orton is so cold I think that WWE have realised it's not selling any PPVs so they've just sacked off promoting it.

From this show the match I'm most interested in is Kane/Umaga. Openign the show with this was great. This two men slugging out actually making it look like they had a point to prove was awesome. Umaga's suplex to Kane was fantastic. This match will probably suck but if booked right could be a hell of a lot of fun.

Vince thinks his angle is shit hot. It's not. I have no desire to see this match whatsoever. Cade and Murdoch beating on DX was cool and they should have left it at that but Vince had to have his no heat main event that did nothing for this crappy feud. I still don't know why their feuding. Email me if you know.

Trish had her last Raw matched and embraced with Mickie. Remeber when Mickie was a phsyco stalking Trish? Now she's a babyface for now reason.

Chris Masters and Super Crazy had to have another match and Super Crazy and Super Crazy won. I'd expect these two to have a match at the PPV. Remeber these two got a whole segment to build up their match and did a better job in doing so than anybody else in the six-man tag.

Remeber when Super Crazy got suspended for failing a drugs test. Then he got moved to Raw and got a little push. Is there a recurring theme here?

The Highlander deal with Roddy Piper was one of the most entertaining things on the show. Piper on the stick reminds you how inept most of the roster are today.

All in all this would have been a fine episode of Raw two weeks ago but when you're pushing a PPV this isn't the show you need.

A Change in Policy

2006-09-13T14:45:00.001+01:00

Remeber when Raw and ECW were drug tested the other week and for some reason everybody passed? Well they didn't.

The policy has changed in that to eliminate any future events that went down at the not so Great American Bash and to aviod having to rewrite storylines (what storylines?) guys aren't being taken off TV for failing the tests. They aren't working house shows (where they make a good amount of their money) and they're aren't being paid any of their downside guarantee for hwoever long their suspension is. However, they are still working TV and being paid expenses (hotel, flights, car etc.).

The people who failed were Randy Orton (yes the same Randy Orton who got caught in April, suspended for 60 days and retunred to the A show) and Balls Mahoney. The fact that a man named Balls failed a drugs test should come as a shock to nobody.

How long before we get another ammendment? We'll see when Hunter gets busted.

Jarret vs Joe - Too Late

2006-09-13T08:41:00.000+01:00

This is going to be one hell of crazy match. Fans are at ringside and are allowed to strap the shit out of Jarret. Surely there has to be worked element to this because if a fan really doesn't like Double J they could really do him some harm.

Once again, the NWA Title won't be defened on the PPV which really annoys me as TNA seem to do it all the time. The boat has been missed (or at least delayed) who three months ago was a star. Steiner did an awesome job in making him look like one (and even Jarret played a role) and it looked as if he was steam rolling through to the NWA belt. In true TNA style his momentum was halted when they decided that going with their half a million dollar investment in Sting was the right way to go.

Joe subsequently was pushed down the pecking order and although his matches with Rhyno have been good it certainly seems as if he's buying his time. Putting him in the main event now is a little strange as in reality it's supposed to be a payback to Jarret but Rhyno is now the most over babyface in the company because of Joe's stalled momentum.

Joe has to beat Jarrett at the PPV to setup a title match in the future and setup Joe's run as the company's top star. TNA had a star on their hands but have faffed about and lost momentum with him. His match against Jarrett has to change this.

If Jarrett wins all hope for TNA has gone out of the window.

ECW is Raw

2006-09-12T19:21:00.000+01:00

Ok. I know it's late but I've only just watched ECW because my interest going into the show was pretty small.

BINGO!

The opener with RVD and Sabu vs Test and Mike Knox was a great match. The spots were well worked in, not all of the spots were fucked up and thr result went the right way. All I ask is where was Heyman or Holly who had a vested interest in both men last week?

The main event was OK for what it was. It obvious promotion for the PPV on Sunday rather than pushing ECW angles but at this point in time that's absolutley fine. DX standing tall makes sense in the fact that faces need to be kept strong but we need to see a reason for them fighting at the PPV which at the moment is seemingly lacking. DX standing tall at the end of the ECW made me laugh at how far ECW has moved away from the original product.

CM Punk slapping Shannon Moore was funny.

I have one question for the vampire. Which in fact is my only interest in him. Why is he called Kevin? Could there be a plainer name for a vampire.

The Sandman/Striker thing is alright for what it is. They're holding the pay off of Sandman caining the shit out of the teacher and that's fine.

Overall the show was OK with a good opener and an OK main event all that was in between was pretty much filler.

Question of the week: Why do they never refer to ECW history? Surely it would add some legitmecy to the promotion.

X-Pac, the nWo and Kanyon

2006-09-11T08:56:00.000+01:00

The deal with X-Pac is that his apperance at the house show on Friday was a one time thing. He is currently working with the MTV promotion which is set to start and Vampiro's RXLL which debuted last week. Despite Vince wanting to rewind to 1998 it seems that young Sean Waltman isn't part of the plan. Then again, Vince's plans change by the half hour so you never know.

Kanyon's apperance was off his own back. In order to stick it to Vince he bought a ticket for the show, made some signs at home and turned up to the show. This man is so desperate for a job anywhere and is trying to get the Internet on his side. Sorry kid it just ain't working.

As for the nWo they're not coming in. Nash is trying to get himself back into the company but Nash's drawing days are well behind him and is workrate days never were so I'd be surprised if Vince wanted him back. The nWo angle has been discussed and shot down many a time and it probably won't happen. As I said before about Vince's plans, you never know.

DX vs nWo

2006-09-09T17:58:00.000+01:00

If you've been looking around the net for the last twenty-four hours I'm sure you'll have seen the rumours of a possible DX vs nWo feud.

The rumours span from a Raw house show report which claimed X-Pac turned up to the show and celebrated in the ring with Hunter and Shawn after they beat Cade and Murdoch. Interestingly Chris Kanyon allegedly 'invaded' and it was unsure if he was supposed to be there or not. Hunter said "who invited Kanyon" over the house mic, so if this happened I'm guessing it's a work.

X-Pac has been both a member of DX and the nWo (as has HBK). Kevin Nash is finished with TNA (he never did the job to Sabin) and Hall has allegedly cleaned himself up (lol). They could do some sort of story where X-Pac rejoins with DX but then turns on them bringing in the nWo leading to a short program between them. It would have to be short considering what happened last time Hall and Nash were brought in. Nash stepped off the bus and tore a quad and Hall was gone within six weeks for the usual Scott Hall behaviour.

In the short-term this feud could draw as it's two of the biggest stables in the history of pro-wrestling coming together and battling one and other. In the long-term it's not going to be the thing to pick business up. Business picks up through new stars (Edge, Cena, Orton) not through reunion tours (ask WCW).

Of course I could have just written all the above for little reason at all. The report could be fake and I don't think Vince is stupid enough to bring the nWo back. Then again with Hunter and Shawn in his ear and their good buddys looking for work the nWo could be back on a screen near you.

Is Ric Flair the coolest man on earth?

2006-09-08T09:26:00.000+01:00

Yes.

Raw Thoughts

2006-09-07T08:45:00.000+01:00

What a fine episode of Raw aired on Monday night. From top to bottom it was a good show with plenty of angles being shot for Unforgiven and for the first time in forever all the matches booked for the show have been determined with two weeks to go.

Edge's opening promo was really good. I like it when he's out there without Lita as the heat is actually on him rather than her. A great start to the show and the fact I really want to see this match means the job has been done. I'm interested because they're really pushing the Cena going to Smackdown angle so I have to say that Cena wins because I can't see him going to Smackdown when he's Raw's top babyface and WWE's biggest star.

Remember when Edge went for neck surgery and he said he couldn't work any more of the TLC style matches? This will be his fourth since he has returned.

The DX stuff was kept to a bare minimum this week which is fine by me. Seeing Hunter and Shawn do what they did makes me happy as rather than doing their stupid antics they actually looked like they wanted to fight and that's what will sell the PPV. I haven't seen ECW yet so can't comment on the angle shot there on Tuesday.

In big news Super Crazy (the cruiserweight) returned to WWE on the Raw brand. The brand which has no cruiserweight division. Then again, does Smackdown? His shock win over Chris Masters made me laugh as John Cena couldn't beat Masters last week. This either means Crazy is getting a mini-push, Masters has pissed someone off or Masters is going to destroy Crazy next week.

Jeff Hardy vs Johnny Nitro was actually a really good match. I laughed at how they alluded to Nitro's press conference being boring (like watching paint dry actually). This ended exactly the way it should have done with Jeff looking like he can win the belt and Nitro looking like a dip shit heel. If people believe the challenger has a chance of winning the belt then they may just buy the PPV.

The Highlanders are now number one contenders for the tag belts and get the shot at Unforgiven. There's no interest in this feud from anybody and the number one contender's match was another example of how weak the tag division is. Maybe Cryme Tyme can sort it out. They look cool.

If Trish wins the belt at Unforgiven is the women's division done for? I would say she can't loose in her home town but this is WWE after all and burying people in their home town is what they do best.

Speaking of which is Ric Flair the greatest man to have ever lived? The Flair flop was absolutley great this evening.

I'm interested in Umaga vs Kane. Shock horror. See what booking can do?

The main event was solid and was a decent TV match. The crowd were rabid for Cena and I thought the only thing they did wrong was not do the hot tag. Cena just came into the ring rather than getting the big pop for the babyface team come back.

The only feud I don't have any interest in is Carlito/Orton. They did well together tonight but nothing that made me go "wow I want to see a singles match between these two guys!"

Overall it was a really good show from top to bottom. Nothing on the show was bad and nothing was fantastic; it was just a solid show that built angles for the PPV, ie the job of the TV show. It's an example of how if you book things correctly and get people interested in the feuds that are going on and keep the bullshit to a minimum you'll get a good TV show. The Atlanta crowd were hot and really added to the show tonight.

I've just had a thought. Maybe Cena is going to Smackdown. The plan is to get Smackdown rocking again on the new network. Maybe moving Cena there is a way of getting the viewership up?

Breaking News: Psicosis Still With WWE

2006-09-07T08:30:00.000+01:00

Contarary to reports posted on the Behind The Angle blog yesterday Psicosis is still emplyed by World Wrestling Entertainment. It was Juventud Guerrera who was released in December.

There has been an outbreak of hysteria amongst the Internet Wrestling Community at the thought of Psicosis not being employed by the Stamford based company.

Paul Robson, author of the blog commented: "It was a mistake. The Mexicools all came in together and as Psicosis hasn't been seen for a while I got confused between the two. I apologise to any fans who I may have upset."

Smackdown vs Raw 2007 Roster

2006-09-05T12:30:00.000+01:00

The latest roster for Smackdown series has been released and courtesy of IGN.com, I have it in my grasp:

Batista
JBL
Randy Orton
The Big Show
Jillian Hall
Rey Mysterio
Bobby Lashley
Joey Mercury
Ric Flair
The Boogeyman
John Cena
Rob Van Dam
Booker T
Johnny Nitro
Shawn Michaels
Candice Michelle
Kane
Shelton Benjamin
Carlito
Ken Kennedy
Snitsky
Chavo Guerrero
Kid Kash
Super Crazy
Chris Benoit
Kurt Angle
Torrie Wilson
Chris Masters
Lance Cade
Trevor Murdoch
Daivari
Lita
Triple H
Edge
Mark Henry
Trish Stratus
Eugene
Matt Hardy
Umaga
Finley
Melina
The Undertaker
The Great Khali
Mickie James
Viscera
Gregory Helms
Paul Burchill
Vito
Hardcore Holly
Psicosis
William Regal

There's nothing really shocking on there and everybody you'd expect to be in is in. Finlay, Umaga, Khali, MNM, Cade, Murdoch and Burchill are nice additions. I wonder if big Vito will be wearing his trademark dress? It's also interesting that Psicosis is on there considering he left the company last December.

I love all the games in this series so if anything else of interest comes up I'll post it here. I'm looking froward to this one though.

Hardy vs Nitro for the belt

2006-09-04T21:07:00.000+01:00

Tonight's Raw promises Jeff Hardy vs Johnny Nitro for the IC Title. This could be a fun match or could end up being a complete disaster.

That's the only match announced so far but I'm sure Cena and Edge will get five minutes to push their match and then Vince and DX will get thirty to plug theirs. Pays to be owners.

As always my complete thoughts on Raw will be posted as soon as I get round to watching it.

The Myth of the Cruiserweight Title

2006-09-04T12:33:00.000+01:00

I'm sick of hearing that the WWF Lightheavweight and WCW Crusierweight Titles were unified at Summerslam 2001. Mainly because they weren't. It was X-Pac (WWF) vs Tajiri (WCW) in a title-for-title match-up not a unification match.

X-Pac won the match and won both belts. A couple of weeks later X-Pac dropped the WCW belt to Kidman on either Raw or Smackdown (around that time there were so many titles and so many title changes it's hard to remeber. He didn't frop the WWF belt though.

Around this time he was injured and he disappeared from TV. Mick Foley as commissioner alluded to this in his promo when he booked the tag title and US/IC title unification matches for Survivor Series. He stated he wanted to unify the lightheavyweight and crusierweight belts but "nobody knows where X-Pac is".

In December 2001 WWF simply adopted the WCW belt renaming it the WWF Cruiserweight Title.

When X-Pac returned in April 2002 he was still Lightheavyweight Champion. He defended the title on a few house shows but never carried the belt on TV. Soon after he returned the belt was dropped all together and the cruiserweights became exclusive to Smackdown.

Next time you hear (or say) the belts were unified then recite this tale and bust the myth that still exists to this very day.

New United States Champion... Champion

2006-09-04T10:21:00.000+01:00

For those of you who don't watch Smackdown (and I can't blame you) Mr Kennedy won the US bet in a triple threat involving Finlay and Lashley.

I love Finlay so I'm disapointed at this but the plan seems to be that Lashley is getting screwed out of the belt all the time so I'd expect him to go on and chase Kennedy.

This could be a disaster. Lashley has been working with Finlay to bring him up to the next level. When he's working with Finlay Blaster looks really good but when he's in the ring with anybody else he always seems a step behind. Working with the green Ken Kennedy won't exactly sort this out.

Kennedy should make a good champion and his promo ability could add some credibility to the belt and to Smackdown.

Guilty Your Honour

2006-09-03T20:49:00.000+01:00

ECW mainstays Rob Van Dam and Sabu pleaded guilty to their drug charges from June. Both men have escaped with fines and a slap on the wrist.

I'm positive this will stop both men from doing anything like this again.

Take Note Vince, UFC Have Really Got Something Here

2006-08-31T21:27:00.000+01:00

I'm not a huge fan of MMA (I prefer my sports fake) but as I follow the wrestling business it's hard not to see the rise in popularity of UFC.

UFC gets less viewers than WWE (in America, not always in the UK) but is doing huge numbers on their PPV show. December's PPV which will see Chuck Liddell take on Tito Ortiz (the man may I add) and buy rates are estimated at 1,250,000!

Vince never reached that. Bischoff never reached that. Heyman certainly never reached that. TNA? Don't make me laugh!

Estimations state that UFC through the promotion of two key matches on each show are encouraging 25% of their audience to part with their money for a PPV. WWE is currently persuading around 5% of their audience to buy their PPVs.

Considering WWE can actually determine the outcome of their matches and create stars themselves, they're doing a really bad job at it. UFC on the otherhand are creating their stars and doing a fantastic job of it.

By pushing two matches on a card and making us care about them UFC is doing a great job. WWE on the other hand are stuck on a treadmill pounding out the same old stale stuff week after week. It's hard to care about anything right now in that company as rather than making us care, stuff just happens.

WWE haven't realesed PPV numbers since May. Let me tell you, there's a very good reason for this: UFC are whipping they're arse.

Take note Vince. Please.

Raw Thoughts

2006-08-30T22:09:00.000+01:00

Raw was somewhat disapointing this week. They had two angles that were pretty hot last week in Cena/Edge and Foley/Melina but they didn't really do anything with them this week. For some reason the McMahon (Helmsleys) are all over this show. Can't think why.

Cena and Edge, despite being a feud over the most important title in wrestling today got nothing on this show. TLC was announced for Unforgiven and at least they actually did an angle for the match rather than the usual announcment.

Chris Masters has been to rehab if you couldn't tell. the contrast between his body in his video and in real life was a stark contrast.

The most boring feud on the planet continued with the McMahons and DX. Shane had the best line of the show "you guys need to grow up." You can say that again. The main event was decent for the time it got and seeing Finlay and Regal on a decent show is always good. They're really pushing the boat at at Unforgiven with hell in a cell and TLC. It makes sense to finish this feud in the cage but it's going to be one big cluster. Adding Big Show isn't going to really make this any better but at least it's different. It makes me laugh how the ECW Champion is the guy to help the McMahons becuase everybody else on Raw sucks.

Did you know that Vince likes cock? Get some new material.

Nitro was decent on the mic. We've not had chance to hear him do much talking at all so this effort was pretty good. They needed to address the Foley situation and this was a fine way of doing it. I don't know if Foley will return to feud with Nitro or if this was just a way of turning Foley face before his next apperance. On another note Jeff Hardy vs Johnny Nitro could be fun if booked right.

Carlito continued his feud with Orton. They're doing an angle at least but both guys are cold at the moment. Talking of Carlito he is very pissed off at the moment as he felt he was reaching the main event but now he's stuck in a love storyline with Trish. Hate to say it Carlito but I hope you're not in many more main events.

Trish is retiring. It has now been announced so we all know how September's PPV goes. Great work booking team.

Mickie is a babyface now? Storyline development.

Spirit Squad are still tag champs if you didn't know. They also main evented a PPV two months ago.

There was a lot of references to wwe.com made on this show. Maybe they now understand not every fan goes on that site.

Let me know what you thought of Raw or anyhting else going in the world of wrestling by emailing me at: mailto:robsonmania@yahoo.co.uk

The Kurt Freakin Angle Story

2006-08-30T10:14:00.000+01:00

OK, WWE.com is shit. They want to be the news site for wrestling but, they can't decide if they're going to be inside or kayfabulous. They've reported that Angle left on mutual terms with WWE and he has had three injuries all sustained in one match with RVD. Not true.

The story goes pretty similar to what I wrote on Saturday when I heard. Angle came back from his thirty-day suspension without having made any effort to get off the pills. Last week he met with Vince he told him to go to rehab. Kurt refused. Kurt was released.

The fact of the matter is that Angle has a huge downside guarantee in his contract which sees him take home $1m guaranteed. He could have gone into rehab and taken as much time off as he wanted and recieved his pay. Plus as Vince does in these situations I'm pretty sure the cost of the rehab program would have been paid for by WWE.

However, the problem lies in Kurt Angle. Angle doesn't believe he has a problem (locker room reports say he is completely messed up) so won't go to rehab, guaranteed deal or not.

WWE have done the same deal in which they did with Eddie Guerrero; released him for his own good. The only problem is that Kurt Angle is a mahcine. He wrestled in the Olympics with serious neck problems and in the main event of Wrestlemania under the likelihood of paralysis or even death. There's a story which Angle tells in his book regading the death of his father. His Dad worked on a construction site and fell from some beams. He got up, walked to hospital where he was told he'd broken his neck, arm and leg. He later died in hospital. The day Kurt found out he played football and played the best game of his career.

See where he gets it from?

The sad fact is that Kurt Angle won't stop. Kurt Angle is a machine. In 90-days time I'd bet that Kurt Angle isn't in rehab. I bet that Kurt Angle will be signing on the dotted line with TNA. TNA are desperate for stars and Angle is a recognisable star. Most importantly for Angle, TNA don't drug test. The obvious fall in salary won't mean a thing to Kurt as long as he can compete.

The sad fact is that WWE's release of Kurt Angle is supposed to be for his own good. It's supposed to be for him to clean up his life and get himself sorted out. The first step Angle has to take is admit he has a problem. Here lies the first stumbling block. He won't. Whether Angle is employed or not, the likelihood is this is all ending in tragedy.

Prove me wrong Kurt. I beg you.

Unforgiven Plans Looking Good

2006-08-29T12:15:00.000+01:00

As far as we know the Raw plans for Unforgiven will see Edge and Cena on top in a TLC match. I'm perfectly happy with that as I'm liking Cena in his current spot and Edge is great as champion.

Last weeks Raw looked like DX vs Vince and Shane was to continue (boring) and I haven't watched this weeks episode so can't comment on proccedings until tonight. If the plan is to keep Hunter and Shawn together for the forseeable future then they're going to be pretty much stuck. It's not even like they can go after the tag belts as they've destroyed the Spirit Squad that many times it's gotten boring and there are no other teams on Raw who are worth the feud. They can continue working together on TV no problem but they need to be doing something different. If Edge retains after Unforgiven I'd like to see him work with Shawn again as they've had good matches in the past and working with Shawn will only add to Edge's credibility.

As for other matches on the card it looks like Kane vs Umaga, Spirit Squad vs Highlanders, Carlito vs Orton and Hardy vs Nitro. Looking like a great PPV hey?

I'll have more to talk about tommorow when I've been able to watch Raw.

More than meets the eye

2006-08-28T20:59:00.003+01:00

There seems to be far more to Kurt Angle's release than what WWE.com is letting us into. It's obvious that Angle has been asked to sort his problems with pain pills out but he has refused to do so but there is talk of there being a lot more to it.

There have been reports that Kurt has been very vocal in the ECW locker room about matches, both his own and others. Apparently this was common with him on Smackdown, but because he was Kurt fucking Angle nobody cared. However as there are a number of new faces in the ECW lockeroom a number of comments have been made about his practices.

Although obviosuly this isn't grounds for a firing it could well be one of the reasons why Angle has gone.

When I get my copy of the Observer and Figure Four I'll post more about the situation and what I think.

KURT ANGLE RELEASED

2006-08-26T10:11:00.000+01:00

In a huge story, WWE.com has announced that WWE have officially released Kurt Angle. This is a huge shock to me and everybody out there.

Angle has had may documented issues with prescription drugs and has only recently returned from a 30-day suspension. It was well-known that upon his return he was still relying on the medication and had done little to help himself.

WWE took him from TV last week and he didn't appear at Summerslam or on this weeks episode of ECW. Last night he was released.

It would seem that WWE are releasing Kurt Angle for his own good (much like they did with Eddie Guerrero in 2001) as competing in the ring is becoming more and more dangerous for the olympic gold medalist. This is a drastic decision by WWE as Kurt Angle could well be (and probably will be) picked up by TNA and make apperances in other indy feds.

Obviously Kurt wouldn't be making as much money as his WWE deal but the fewer dates could be a god send to him. Of course this could have been done to send a shock to Angle and get him to clean himself up. It's a course of action which worked with Eddie Guerrero and William Regal but Angle is a very stubborn character and has been forthcoming in accepting help in the past.

Vince McMahon has given many a second chance (see Hardy, Jeff) and I'm sure Kurt Angle will be given the smae treatment as everybody else. The question lies on whether Kurt Angle will allow himself to be given a second chance.

I'll be following this story very closley so please keep checking back for more news and thoughts on the situation.

Email me yout thoughts here.

Three new divas signed... don't ask me who

2006-08-25T11:12:00.000+01:00

After whatsaface won the diva search some more have now been signed. In fact three more have been signed. I don't know which ones and to be honest I don't really care.

Here's the problem with the current crop of divas: they're just too normal. Every single one of them is hot but, it's nothing I couldn't see by taking a walk into my town centre. The divas used to be over because they were something special. They used to have personsality and be sexy, they used to be untouchable.

I know that when I turned on my TV I would see not a girl but a woman. A woman who was untouchable, a woman who I wouldn't be able to pull in a thousand years; a Sable, a Debra, a Miss Elizabeth. These days if I wanted an Ashley I could walk down the street and happily chat away to a 'girl next door' with no worries at all.

Look at the example of Trish Stratus. When she first came on the scene in 2000 she was untouchable. She wore her short skirts and cowboy hats and I would have given anything to be with her. These days she comes to the ring in jeans and a top, probably what she's had on all day. I'd still give my back teeth to be with her but she doesn't have that x factor any longer.

These women used to be something out of this world, now they're nameless faces. Good luck to the three new divas. See you at the dole office in twelve months.

Too Cool v2

2006-08-24T11:22:00.001+01:00

With DX back, Jeff Hardy returning and even Tatanka being a permanent fixture on the Smackdown roster WWE are attempting to return to the glory days of old. Accoriding to the Observer Too Cool are going to be revived. Rikishi and Grandmaster Sexay will both be brought back and TNA star Ron Killings (who has asked for his release) is thought to be on the verge of signing to join the stable.

Will Too Cool be able to dance their way back into the hearts of today's young wrestling fans? I have to admit to liking Too Cool back in 2000 and they could freshen up a very boring Smackdown. They're not going to set the place alight but they could be fun for a while at least.

In an unrealted note, Attitude era favourite and former European Champion Mideon will not be returning to the company.

Raw Thoughts

2006-08-24T08:36:00.000+01:00

Raw was pretty decent this week. The Edge/Cena feud is really hotting up. This is the side of Cena which many people have been begging for all throughout his run last year. It's good to see what he can do when he is chasing and Edge is such a great heel that Cena looks like a star.

Jeff Hardy's return was rather random and they've put him over strong in his almost-win over Edge (although the finish was messed up). This has been done with Hardy before in his matches with Hunter in 2001 and Taker in 2002. The problem lies in the fact that they don't do anything with him after that. He could easyily move into a program with Johnny Nitro over the IC belt and out some fresh energy into the stale Carlito, Shelton, Nitro mid-card.

It never ends. The DX/McMahon feud must continue and it must continue with an angle that was actually shot weeks ago. With both Vince and Hunter involved in this angle it must of course be billed as the main event of every show, but it certainly doesn't deserve to be there. The faces won on Sunday so why do they need to carry on tormenting the heels? Give me a reason why DX are doing this to the McMahons and it might interest me a little.

What makes it OK to not let the live (5,000 people) crowd know you've been broken but allow four million people at home to know?

Foley's face turn was probably a good thing because as good a heel as he is, crowds weren't booing him because he is Mick Foley. Whether he'll be off TV now or whether an angle will be made of the Melina betrayl we will have to wait and see.

It looks like Randy Orton will be moving from Hulk Hogan, arugably the biggest star in wrestling history to Carlito arguably the most unmotivated guy on the roster. Yay.

If Orton pinned Flair decisivley how can the ref reverse the decision to a Flair win? Surely the match should have been restarted?

The Spirit Squad are being jobbed out. They were beaten last week by Eugene and Hacksaw, were anhilated by DX (again) at Summerslam and the Highlanders beat them on Monday. They're not even getting an entrance these days so it looks like they're finished on Raw possibly after Unforgiven when they loose tag belts, or possibly even sooner.

Kane is going to be feuding with Umaga. The Samoan Bulldozer has to go over in this one.

Despite both women leaving the company it looks like Trish will take on Lita for the Women's title in the near future (it has to be in the very near future). Trish is slated to leave in September when she gets married so may take on Lita in a loser leaves town match with Lita going over. Lita is scheduled until November time so I'd expect a similar deal with her around that time. Of course both women may just disappear from TV such is the usual course WWE take.

Overall the show was decent with Edge and Cena grabbing all the right strings to move their feud along. The DX stuff is getting stale but a few more angles are being pursued and that can't be a bad thing.

Looking for a Loan?

2006-08-23T11:38:00.000+01:00

If you're looking to raise a bit of cash then why not borrow from the Nature Boy himself?

Ric Flair Finance is the single greatest website I think I have ever seen.

Money advice from a guy who spent more than he made for the first twenty years of his carrer and is taking bumps every night at sixty years of age to pay off the tax man. WOOOOO!

ECW PPV Named

2006-08-23T11:22:00.000+01:00

The much anticipated (ha) December ECW PPV has been officially announced and officially named. What is it to be called? DECEMBER TO DISMEMBER! You get it right? November To Remember so this is December To... you get it. The PPV takes place from the Augusta-Richmond Civic Center in Augusta, Georgia on December 3rd. Mark it on your calenders kids.

Summerslam Results

2006-08-22T08:39:00.000+01:00

I watched the first three matches on the Summerslam PPV last night and upto now I have to say it's shaping up to be a good PPV.

For the love of Eddie - Rey Mysterio vs Chavo Guerrero
Very good opener for the first part of the match. Like I said; Chavo is really good when he is in there with a Rey Mysterio. Plenty of high flying, plenty of good comebacks from Rey but the only problem is the angle. The crowd didn't really know what to think and how to react so it never got the reaction it could have done had this angle been based around Chavo's jealousy of Rey winning the World Title, not Eddie. The interference of Vickie Guerrero really took away from what would have been a solid match if they weren't fighting over the love of a dead man.

ECW Championship - Sabu vs Big Show
What you'd expect. Nothing stand out just Sabu bumping all over the place and Big Show being a giant. In usual Sabu mode he botched a few spots and was generally sloppy, I love it when Styles andTazz try and cover for him. The finish was good with Big Show chokeslamming Sabu through the table set up on the steps.

Hulk Hogan vs Randy Orton
Surprising that this match was where it was on the card. Then again it was the way it should be; there's no way Hogan and Orton could have gone twenty minutes. Usual Hogan (and Orton match) with Hogan overpowering Orton and Randy having to revert to the knee to get any heat. Hogan was well protected taking only two minor bumps (RKO and dropick) and considering he'll get the biggest payoff of the evening he's obviously done alright for himself. There's two ways that this can go now a) Orton gets a rematch, they build up a good angle (possibly involving Brooke) and Orton pins Hogan or b) the feud ends, Orton plays up that he beat Hogan and makes the audience believe that he did and is on his level of stardom. Whichever way they go the feud has to elevate Orton rather than inflate Hogan's ego.

Right, I've watched the rest of Summerslam and to be honest it was quite a boring show.

I Quit Match - Mick Foley vs Ric Flair
This match was somewhat disapointing, I was expecting a classic but in reality it was just another match. The stuff they did to each other was pretty brutal and looked really good but it just felt like a spot-fest. I liked the way they ended the match and Flair demanded to carry on showing his hatred for Foley but the finish was somewhat undecisive. I plead for these two legends to given thirty minutes on the next Raw PPV and let them have the classic they deserve.

World Heavyweight Championship - King Booker vs Big Dave Batista
Batista has lost two steps since being out for eight months and his confidence has gone since the Hammerstein Incident the other week. It's a shame because when he was working with Eddie last year he was just starting to look really good. Batista couldn't do anything right tonight, he botched a spinebuster having to drop Booker on the ropes instead, nearly dropped him on his head doing a jackhammer and needed some assistance in getting Booker up for the Batista bomb. Booker tired his hardest and looked good for the most part but Dave couldn't get anything out of the big man. The finish was fine although I would have thought of something more imaginative than the Sharmell interferance. Putting the belt on Big Dave at this stage would be monsterous considering his in-ring and the fact that Booker is the best thing on Smackdown at the moment.

DX vs The McMahons
I liked the 10 man 'beatdown' on DX at the start of the match at least it makes it more realistic that the heels can get the heat on one man. Pretty well booked in the fact that Vince and Shane weren't in there too long and the match didn't go too long. I liked the finish but the match itself wasn't anything to write home about. This feud should end right here. I doubt it will, but it should.

WWE Championship - John Cena vs Edge w/Lita
Surprisingly good. They got the crowd into the comebacks and near falls at the end of the match. Both men worked very hard and this was the best match these two have had together. The crowd would have popped huge had Cena won the belt but it was right for business keeping the title on Edge allowing him to go into the next PPV in his hometown as champ.

Overall, I wasn't impressed with this PPV. It was decent but it could have been a lot better than it was with some creative booking before the actual show allowing the crowd to get into it a bit more. Cena/Edge was the best match on the card and Rey/Chavo would have been close behind if it wasn't for the bullshit finish.

TNA Pictures

2006-08-21T20:24:00.000+01:00

I went to Flordia last month and happened to stumble upon a little promotion called TNA. You might not have heard of them because they aren't having much impact (get it - impact) on the wrestling world. But I went there and it was pretty good. The hardcore fans think they're so smart but in reality they know jack shit. The Impact Zone is tiny, holding only like 800 people and the part behind the camera is actually empty. They do a fine job of hiding how small this place is on TV.

It was a fun night and I saw Joe, Christian, Steiner (me love me some Scotty), JJ, Sting, Rhyno, Monty Brown, AJ, Daniels and the rest of the TNA crew. There weren't any particularly stand out matches although Joe and Rhyno had a fun little brawl. Speaking of Rhyno, in that crowd he is the most over guy; even more so than Joe which surprised the hell out of me. Eric Young is also over as hell. Mainly because he has personality unlike everybody else on the roster.

Having been to the show, it's obvious TNA's problem is that they are simply not making a name for themselves. They have no stars, no main eventers, just one big huge mid-card where everybody is on the same level. Some clever booking, a few big name signings, moving out of Orlando (at least for PPVs) and a shit hot character (JOE!) could see TNA make some Impact!

Here's some pictures from the tapings:

Joe challenges Rhyno.

Rhyno and Joe brawl.

Joe has to be pulled back from the man beast.

Showtime teams with the New Age Ou... sorry The James Gang.

The new tag champs make their way to the ring.

Me and legendary manager Jimmy Hart.

End of an era... kind of

2006-08-21T10:04:00.000+01:00

At twenty episodes, I'm saying goodbye to the podcast. With little time to post anything of decent proportions, I'm bowing out. It's been fun doing it and I thank everybody who has taken the time to email me in the past with their thoughts and comments.

I'm hoping to continue to post on the blog with a few pieces that I'm going to get around to writing, so please continue to check back on a regular basis to read them. I'm a frequent poster over on The Oratory, one of the best message boards regarding wrestling out there and I'll be posting my columns in their forum. You can contact me through there (paul_robson is my user name), my emailing me: robsonmania@yahoo.co.uk.

If you're after wrestling podcasts may I recommend to you f4wonlie.com home of the Figure Four Weekly Newsletter. Death of WCW (awesome book) author Bryan Alvarez hosts a daily radio show with guests such as Dave Meltzer, Homicide, Lance Storm, Mike Tenay and a whole host of others and you get the weekly newsletter for only $6.95 per month.

Thanks for all the contributions and positive feedback I've recieved and I hope you all enjoyed the ride.

Paul

Summerslam Lineup

2006-08-20T10:32:00.000+01:00

Summerslam airs tonight on PPV (for those of you who may have forgotten), the card:

Rey Mysterio vs Chavo Guerrero
I'm sure this will be a fine match as Rey is awesome and Chavo can be good when working with a Rey Mysterio. The problem lies in the fact that I don't give two shits about the match.

World Championship - Booker T vs Batista
Another bad feud with no substance to it at all. Ideally Booker T wins via screwiness allowing Bid Dave to chase him to No Mercy. Therefore expect Batista to get his belt back.

Randy Orton vs Hulk Hogan
This could have sold the PPV. Instead a terrible build up has made this match very cold indeed. Who wants to see a match based on the fact Hogan 'beat up' fake Hogan. Further lazy booking by WWE. A Hogan win is the only answer here.

ECW Championship - Sabu vs Big Show
Could be really good or dire depending if extreme rules are in play. Expect Big Show to win and have RVD chase him to ECW PPV.

I Quit Match - Mick Foley vs Ric Flair
The BEST thing on this show. This will be great. The build has been really good for this one and is easily the hottest angle on the show. Unlike the Hogan/Orton match neither guy wants to win! Foley think Flair is god and Flair doesn't need the win. Considering both guys have legitamate heat, they're both being really nice about this. I predict a Flair win as he is the babyface.

DX vs The McMahons
What are they feuding about again? Nothing. Cold, cold, cold. DX win.

WWE Championship - Edge vs John Cena
Got hot too late to sell a huge number of PPVs. Edge and Cena are the hottest guys on Raw for the younger market, but they've been pushed behind DX in the pecking order. Should be a solid encounter where Edge needs to screw Cena out of the title, a nice long chase for Cena will sell some future PPVs. However, as we're in Cena's hometown, expect Cena to win and Edge to regain next month under TLC rules.

The PPV is typical of WWE booking, a solid card on paper but going into it the feeling is very lukewarm. In reality, this could be booked as one of the hottest cards of recent times but bad build and some of the time even a lack of build have caused me not to care. When it's over, I'm sure it will have been a good PPV but if I was a casual fan I'd be saving my money.

ROH in Liverpool

2006-08-13T12:06:00.000+01:00

I went to see Ring of Honor in Liverpool last night and my god what a show it was. People rave about ROH and how good it is; now I understand why. It was a solid card from top to bottom with stand out performances from Colt Cabana, Matt Sydel and Davey Richards.

Austin Aries and Roderick Strong put their tag belts on the line in a tremendous match against the Briscoes. This was awesome. Best match of the night has to go to Bryan Danielson vs Nigel McGuiness in a Pure vs World Championship match. Danielson is a great heel and McGuiness' comeback after getting his face smashed into the ring post five times and beating the twenty count was one of the greatest live moments I've witnessed. Danielson eventually won when the Londoner passed out winning the Pure title from McGuiness.

All I can say is, buy the DVD!

Behind The Angle #2: Three Random Letters

2006-06-26T11:10:00.000+01:00

When the ECW relaunch was announced a mere two months ago there was much speculation regarding what the product would look like. The ECW hardcore and many traditionalists expected Extreme Championship Wrestling of the later half of the 90s, but from the word go it was obvious this wouldn't and even couldn't be the case.

The signings of a handful of ECW alumni such as everyone's favourite uncle Sandman, the dude whose gimmick it is to get stiffed with a steel chair Balls Mahoney and don't worry about him jobbing to Angle because it's only Justin Credible. Plus the out of retirement to do the job to Big Show Tommy Dreamer and the pulled from the depth of the Raw mid-card Rob Van Dam, have all given some legitamacy to the name 'ECW' but anybody expecting this to be ECW, well I told you from the start, you're wrong.

ECW died. ECW failed. For it's niche hardcore, fanatical audience it was the best thing going, it was the bee's knees, it was the holy grail. But for the millions of other of wrestling fans who were watching WWF and WCW the three letters synonomous with hardcore meant as much as Rey's world title reign.

Vince McMahon was made a hell of a lot of money from the ECW name. The Rise and Fall of ECW DVD, last year's One Night Stand and the various angles the ECW name has played a part of in the last decade has added to Vince's fortune. In doing so, he has been very clever, using the positives of the old ECW to boost his own empire. In relaunching the new ECW he has again been very clever. He has recognised that the old ECW died, therefore if the new version were to succeed things had to change. It had to appeal to a wider audience, it couldn't be as politically incorrect (because of the wider audience and the time of rebellion has passed) and it couldn't carry on where things left off five years ago.

So when we watch ECW, taped in front of a WWE Smackdown audience, we are not watching ECW from five years ago. We are watching an ECW whose goal is to sell pay-per-views in their thousands, an ECW whose job it is to stand along side Raw and Smackdown as a third brand of sports entertainment. That's why we're seeing Kurt Angle and Big Show as ECW's top stars, because they have that main stream appeal and name recognition. Throw Justin Credible in that position and you're heading towards a brick wall. That's why we've seen both John Cena and Edge on both ECW shows; they give WWE fans a reason to tune in on Tuesday nights as well as Monday nights. The Zomibe and Macho Libre may well disgust the fanatical fan but from people I've spoken to and the emails I've recieved, people love to see the Sandman beating the living shit out of them. It's booking to your strengths, and that's what they're doing.

If you're an ECW moaner then look at it like this; the new ECW could be called anything, it just happens to be called 'ECW' which ironically is the name of a promotion run by an evil genius from a bingo hall. This new ECW has nothing to do with the old ECW, the only thing it shares is it's name. At the end of the day, this is basically what the complaints are about. If this new brand wasn't called ECW, but three other random letters, I'm sure the mood would be very different and there would be nothing but praise for the new promotion. But throw three recognisable characters in there and the mood has been very much downbeat. Lighten up, you might even enjoy it.

ECW lover? ECW hater? Let me know what you think: paul@behindtheangle.com

PS. One thing I do know, Kelly sucks. Trust me. I know.

The ECW Championship?

2006-06-05T11:18:00.000+01:00

ECW One Night Stand returns on Sunday evening and both of WWE's world championships will be on the line. ECW's own Rob Van Dam challenges John Cena and in a match announced on Frdiay Night Smackdown, Rey Mysterio will defend against ECW legend Sabu.

Paul Heyman was alluding to the fact that at least one of the belts will switch and a new 'ECW Champion' will be crowned. For that reason I don't think any titles will be changing hands, but contreversial decisions may lead to ECW recognising one of their men as world champion thus creating their title.

As I've said before this deal has gone through at super speed so there are no plans and nothing is set in stone. In reality, anything can happen!

ECW Draft Picks

2006-05-31T15:44:00.000+01:00

Friday's Smackdown saw Paul Heyman make a mention on WWE TV regarding the return of ECW as a full time brand and on Raw, Heyman announced he was allowed two draft picks to take with him. From Raw it was Mr Monday Night himself RVD, and from Smackdown? Well the result was somewhat surprising. After Friday's Smackdown many beleived Matt Hardy would be heading to Heyman's new vision, but on Monday none other than Kurt Angle burst through the curtain and revealed himself as Heyman's Smackdown draft pick.

The pick has shocked many including myself and it'll be interesting to see how Angle is used over in ECW. If a feud does indeed take place between WWE and ECW, I wouldn't be surprised to see Angle as a WWE mole in the ECW camp. Only time will tell how things will turn out.

Thoughts on the return of ECW? Email me!

Relive the original ECW One Night Stand

Judgment Day Impresses

2006-05-25T12:19:00.000+01:00

Smackdown's latest pay-per-view Judgment Day turned out to be a damn good show. This follows the trend of Smackdown and TNA pay-per-views this year; they're good shows but nobody's buying them due to poor build and poor booking. It's ironic really, because the booking of the show couldn't have been better. Every result was the right thing to do, nobody got too much time and even the Undertaker lost clean as a whistle!

Full Judgment Day Results:

Paul London & Brian Kendrick defeated MNM for the WWE Tag Team Titles

Jillian Hall defeated Melina

Chris Benoit defeated Fit Finlay

Booker T defeated Bobby Lashley to become King of the Ring 2006

Gregory Helms defeated Super crazy to retain the WWE Cruiserweight Championship (of the world)

Great Khali defeated The Undertaker

Mark Henry defeated Kurt Angle via disqualification

Rey Mysterio defeated JBL to retain the World Haevyweight Championship

Judgment Day Lineup

2006-05-21T11:46:00.000+01:00

Smackdown's Judgment Day takes place tonight and it could be a disaster or a decent show depending on what happens on the show. The lineup:

World Heavyweight Championship
Rey Mysterio vs JBL

Fit Finlay vs Chris Benoit

King of the Ring Final
Booker T vs Bobby Lashley

WWE Tag Team Championship
MNM vs Paul London & Brian Kendrick

Jillian Hall vs Melina

Undertaker vs Great Khali

Kurt Angle vs Mark Henry

Let me know what you think of the show by emailing me: paul@behindtheangle.com.

Behind The Angle Column #1: To Bury Champion, Belt and Audience

2006-05-19T10:56:00.000+01:00

At the rumble I marked hard. At Wrestlemania I marked even harder but Smackdown has left me with a bitter taste in my mouth for the past few weeks. Of course I’m talking about the ultimate underdog Rey Mysterio. The Rey experiment (at this moment in time) has failed, ratings have dropped, Judgment Day will probably do less buys than No Way Out and the fastest growing market in America is tuning out on Friday nights. Why has this happened, and why shouldn’t it have happened?

As soon as Rey arrived in Stanford he was treated differently than every other cruiserweight. WWE is the land of the giant genetic freaks but there’s something about Rey which has allowed him to stand out from the rest of the cruiserweights. His instant push into the upper mid-card tearing it up with Benoit, Angle, Eddie and Edge in 2002 showed Rey was thought of as different by the bookers. They knew he had talent and wanted to exploit this. The topic of Rey being world champion is something which has come and gone over the last few years, but last summer, all of a sudden, it seemed a damn good idea.

It was a good idea because it was a simple idea. Rey Mysterio is possibly the easiest person to book for in the whole of the company. He’s smaller than virtually every guy in the company, he’s over as hell and the fans truly believe he can beat anybody and has been booked in a way that he looks like he can beat anybody. He is the ultimate underdog. Clichéd it may be, but it’s true and it works. Going into Wrestlemania the build was simple. You take a heel champion, for example Randy Orton. You take Rey Mysterio and book a match for the world title at Wrestlemania. You have Orton goad Rey all the way about the fact that he’s too small, had never performed at the highest level and most of all couldn’t beat him. You have Rey prove he is worthy of being there, nearly beating Orton in various tags but Orton always worming his way out of a loss. Then finally, at Wrestlemania one million people by a pay-per-view to finally see Rey win the belt, the roof comes off the place and everybody goes home happy.

It’s simple, but not every story has to be complex to be good. When WWE seemed to catch on to the idea this would work they booked Rey to go from number two in the royal rumble and go all the way to win the damn thing. The pop was huge, fans were excited, and finally Rey would get his chance to become world champion. A growing Latino audience would be delighted as would every single fan out there who bought Rey as a legitimate title contender.

Of course, it got fucked up. Rey only won the rumble because of help from beyond the grave. It was pushed upon us that Rey’s victory was total fluke. Rather than having Rey come out there and prove it wasn’t fluke and build him up further as number one contender, they had him, they had him, hold on. They had him virtually admit it!

After loosing his title shot to Orton at No Way Out the dream looked to be over for one Rey Mysterio. That was until booking decisions changed and Rey was put in the main event at Wrestlemania. So what angle did they use to get him in there? Did they build him up and make him look strong by beating a monster? Did they have him perform an impossible feat and get to the main event? Sadly no. The angle was Teddy Long felt sorry for him and put him in the main event. Rey was pushed as a charity case who got into the Wrestlemania main event through sympathy.

It seemed like sense was finally reached when they put the belt on Rey. His win got a good reaction and him as champion was something new. It was also something exciting. Everybody believes that Rey can beat anybody (OK Undertaker excluded), but they also believe anybody can beat Rey. Having a champion who can loose his belt at any given time can make for some very interesting television. The Smackdown off the back off Wrestlemania put him in a world title against Randy Orton. The theory worked as many people were questioning if WWE were going to do the switch here putting the belt on Orton. It later came out that Orton was going to be suspended so it made sense for him to put Rey over in a very good match. One thing should be made clear though. It wasn’t the main event. Oh no, the main event was the debut of The Great Khali (incidentally a seven foot three genetic freak). The confidence shown in Rey was seen from the word go.

The next week was even better when Rey was kept off television and actually worked a dark match! The new world champion, the new face of Smackdown, the guy to take the company to a whole new audience wrestled a dark match. Since that Rey has been destroyed on television. Admitting he was about to tap to Angle, Mark Henry not killing him only by request of JBL, The Great Khali eating him for breakfast and today is May 19th so work out who he’s going to be facing. Secondly guess what they result’s going to be.

Rey’s been buried beyond belief and has taken the belt with him. The fact is, Rey’s the easiest guy on the roster to book for. The Judgment Day build could be simple. JBL is bigger than Rey and believes Rey to be easy pickings. Rey proves otherwise and at the pay-per-view they have a fight. It’s not going to set the world on fire, but it keeps Rey and the belt strong. It might not add a million viewers, but you’re loyal fan base is continuing to watch and buy pay-per-views. Rey hasn’t been even been made to look like he can win on Sunday. He looks like a joke champion, Smackdown looks like a joke and nobody’s going to tune in on Sunday to potentially see Rey Mysterio have the shit kicked out of him.

I don’t know whose idea it was to book Rey this way. I don’t know if they thought it was a good idea or if they simply hate Rey. All I know is that they’ve taken a new, exciting and most importantly simple to book storyline and fucked it up. One of the basic rules of booking is play to your talent’s strengths. Rey’s strengths aren’t brawling, they aren’t promos and they aren’t getting beaten up every week. Rey’s strengths are good matches, crazy, innovative moves and being the ultimate underdog. If JBL wins the belt this Sunday, what’s he going to have done? He’ll have won a nothing belt from a nothing champion and we’ll have another tune out title reign from the self-proclaimed wrestling god. The sad thing is, it could have all been a completely different (simple) story.

Comments? Email me: paul@behindtheangle.com.

Finlay/Benoit added to Judgment Day

2006-05-15T20:31:00.000+01:00

After their awesome match on Smackdown and now both men have been eliminated from the King of the Ring tournament, Chris Benoit and Fit Finaly have nothing to do. Thank God. Michael Cole announced in the press conference today that the powers that be have thrown them together in a match at Judgment Day on Sunday. I've got no problem with this at all and I'm sure we'll see another classic on an otherwise shambles of a pay-per-view.

Episode 13 is now up, use the link on the right hand side of the page to download it.

Tazz to ECW?

2006-05-15T10:19:00.000+01:00

For those of you who watched Friday's Smackdown you may have noticed the (scripted) tension between Tazz and his 'broadcast colleague' Michael Cole. With Joey Styles already heading for the ECW announce booth, Paul Heyman and Tazz have been the two names banded about to be his right hand man. With Heyman in charge of booking it's likely he'll need to be hands on so Tazz is the next best candidate for the job. Hints were dropped on Friday and soon we could see the former human wrecking machine leave the Smackdown booth and become more extreme. Where this leaves the state of Smackdown's announce team in undertermined. Hold on, Coach isn't up to anything, or is he?

Regal/Benoit on Velocity

2006-05-13T19:36:00.000+01:00

After Benoit and Finaly had an awesome match on Smackdown last week, Benoit's on Velocity this week but not to worry as he's going toe to toe with Regal. Be sure to check this out because as always it's great.

Click here to watch it online or if you to are 'geographically blocked' then you can watch in on Sky Sports 3 probably anytime as Velocity seems to be on about 453 times a week.

The latest podcast, episode 13, is up with all the news on the ECW return and Finlay's sidekick. Use the link on the right to download it.

Foley to turn?

2006-05-08T20:29:00.000+01:00

Mick Foley will take on Edge in a Wrestlemania rematch on tonight's Raw. Their Wrestlemania match stole the show but tonight's match might not even take place once Raw hits the airwaves. It's been reported that Foley is all set to turn heel, potentially heading an invasion along with Joey Styles (who turned last week) and numerous other ECW lifers.

This could be a very interesting situation which should be hotting up over the next few weeks.

Remember to stay tuned to Behind The Angle for all the lastest news, views and information on ECW!

Raw Road Report

2006-04-25T22:20:00.000+01:00

We set off at 5am for the plane and with no cars on the road Manchester was only fifteen minutes away. After checking in involving a bizarre experience with a stag party which contained roughly forty men dressed as various characters such as Scooby Doo, Buzz Lightyear, Sylvester, a Pink Lady (of Grease fame) everything went smoothly. A fine plane ride ensued and the luggage came off the carousel as soon as we stepped off the plane. There was a little wait until the final leg of the journey occurred on the train but a Jeremy Clarkson book ensured it flew by. The train journey couldn’t have gone smoother; fine connections and perfectly on time, everything was going swimmingly. It was a half mile from the station to the hotel and thanks to the huge landmark that is Wembley stadium it was no problem to find. Of course we arrived there far too early and couldn’t check in for another two and a half hours, or so I thought until they said we could check in right away!

So everything had gone perfectly, surely something else must be go wrong? The show’s cancelled? We’ve lost the tickets? Hunter’s water bottle hits me clean on the head on knocks me out? Well luckily nothing that extreme happened more a case of a disappearing Asda. I looked on the internet where the Asda website informed me that there was a store 0 miles from the hotel. From that I expected to step outside of my hotel and step into the store. Incorrect. So I decided to take a walk around the stadium. A bunch of people were hanging around all with wrestling t-shirts on, I got chatting to a few of them about who’d turned up and who they’d seen. I have to say this is the greatest part of the trip, the fan interaction. As a wrestling fan, I am totally a minority in fact I know nobody who watches wrestling (at least on a semi-regular basis) anymore so attending these shows and having the opportunity to interact with like-minded people is great.

It turned out that Big Show and Viscera had made an appearance in the canteen (no surprises there) and Joey Styles had also got himself some lunch. Talk of the hunger reminded me that I was in fact very hungry and as I could see the big Asda sign in the distance I headed off for my sandwich… until I nearly reaches ‘Asda’ and it turned out it wasn’t Asda at all it was some stupid green store (no clue what the name is). Turning to my left Asda was visible and this time I can guarantee it was Asda. Finding it was another matter; after heading towards it, the four green letters faded out of view. After half an hour of searching I finally found it and got my food. Why I am writing this? You want the wrestling don’t you? Yes.

It turned out that I missed seeing Flair and King enter but I got my sandwich so everybody’s happy. It came to Raw and although the actual TV show didn’t seem that good, from where I was standing it was awesome. This is my third event of been to and the atmosphere was never as good as this before the show started. Wooooos, Eddie chants and we want God chants, Cena sucks and Cena rules chants prevailed through the arena until Lillian made her way to ring. Some bloke behind me was in love with Lillian and he let it be known throughout the show, unfortunately she never acknowledged it once. She sang the national anthem greater than the England football team has ever sung it before and announced it was time for Heat.

Surprisingly, Big Show was out first to a huge pop (half because he’s Show, half because he was the first guy out). Show is over huge with kids, they love the guy, I suppose it’s the fact that he’s seven foot and looks like he’d kill anybody in sight, take note Vince tough guys work. He faced two jobbers, one of which was German so he got huge heat. The crowd were totally into this as Show took his time to dismantle them, finishing one of them off with a chokeslam where he nearly dropped one guy mid-air. This was a fine opening match that the crowd were into, really perking them up for the rest of the night. This is the way to open a show; an over face winning. Simple.

Lance Cade was the second named guy out of the evening to little reaction as he took on Eugene who was over huge. This was a basic comedy match including Eugene putting on Cade’s hat, hulking up and hitting the Rock bottom. Cade eventually won with the Sweet (I’m guessing that’s what it called as when he did it with Murdoch it was the Sweet and Sour and I presume he’s the sweet guy of the pair). Again another decent match for the live audience with the crowd totally into Eugene.

Goldust & Snitsky teamed for the next match against two jobbers. It was mainly built around comedy spots including Snitsky’s foot fetish where he tried to get his opponents shoe off. A portion of the crowd laughed, but I don’t think that many of them actually got it. Team Bizarre eventually won with some sweet looking German suplex by Snitsky. Sweet looking and Snitsky in the same sentence, there’s something you never thought you’d read. This was probably the match on the card the crowd were least into.

Murdoch versus Kane was the main event with Kane going over in no time with the chokeslam. The crowd were totally into Kane for the same reason they were into Big Show; he’s a well known ass kicker. It was interesting to see that Kane was still wrestling as a babyface here despite his turn on Show last week. The crowd chanted May 19^th at Kane but he gave no reaction to it at all. Another good squash to get the crowd ready for Raw which was next.

Coach came out to loads of heat, Styles came out to no reaction and any attempts at an ECW chant were ignored but Lawler got a huge reaction and plenty of Jerry chants. The Edge/Hunter/Cena saga was comedy gold. Hunter was damn funny with his ripping on Edge and this was apparent amongst the older members of the crowd. The crowd went mad for Hunter and his King of King’s music is awesome live. Plenty of bowing down to him and Triple H chants ensued. When Cena’s music hit the place went crazy; 75% hating him and 25% loving him. It was interesting to see that it wasn’t just kids who loved Cena, plenty of older teenagers and lads in their twenties were chanting for him. The segment went over well with the crowd all in all.

The six-man went over well with huge pops for RVD, Carlito and Shelton. RVD is over huge amongst everyone and there was a lad in the place in front of us who was on his feet all match chanting RVD doing the thumbs, he must have been knackered by the end of the match. Carlito got plenty of chants and Shelton got a good pop. I liked what they did with Carlito by not having him tag in straight away as he has history with RVD. A video or a segment would have been better here highlighting this rather than the Matt Striker heel heat that was attempted to be gained on the Unlimited segment that aired previous. The segments on the show didn’t seem to go over particularly well with the crowd who spent to it talking, can’t blame them really.

Maria did kiss cam which went down well and the two girls kissing got over huge. Fortunately this would not be the only time we’d see Maria that evening. Yay. Kane and Big Show made their Raw appearance in a backstage segment which got a good reaction and more May 19^th chants from the crowd. Most people were asking what the hell May 19^th was, I had no explanation except marketing.

Shane versus Shawn didn’t get a particularly good reaction during the match but got huge pops for Shawn and Vince’s entrances. The elbow through the table went over huge and Vince almost got booed out of the building by the live fans.

Umaga is pretty over. A section of the crowd were chanting his name but I was chanting we want Flair and when Flair finally made his appearance the crowd went wild. They didn’t really know what to chant or say, it was just excitement. The nature boy has still got it with the crowd totally into his chops and thousands of woos coming from all around.

The Trish/Mickie segment fell flat on its face after Trish did the interrupting thing. There was little noise from the crowd as nobody really seemed to care that much which is a shame because actually I like this storyline. They should have a fine match on Sunday.

The main event was awesome. Duelling chants including Fuck You Cena being busted out again and massive pops for Hunter lead to an awesome main event match. The Spirit Sqaud are awesome at just being the Spirit Squad and the crowd loved to hate them. After the cameras stopped rolling Cena got on the mic and commented on the number of DX fans in the house. He asked those who supported Triple H to make themselves known and it was damn loud. He then asked for the Chain Gang to let themselves be known and my god the roof nearly came off the place. The figures seem to flip round and when the heels were quiet the Chain Gang was so loud. Cena pushed the Backlash PPV (it’s free over here John) saying that it was going to be a moment in WWE history when a man comes down to the ring with a sledgehammer in his hand and leaves with a sledgehammer up his ass.

The crowd were awesome for this show, especially during the Cena segements as they totally ate it up. I love the atmosphere that’s created with the two sets of fans for and against the same guy, it makes the show so awesome. It may not have come off well on TV but as a live experience this was just great.

After the show I headed to the place where the wrestlers were leaving and there was quite a crowd there. Security were getting upset because people were looking (yes looking) over the barrier, they really were up their own arses (all but two who’ll I’ll talk about tomorrow). Through the window that looked over the car park I saw Flair and about a hundered backstage guys. This was a really good part of the night because there were a large number of kids outside and women who all loved Cena. As a person who loves to hate Cena I exploited this to the max. An ambulance came out and some kid asked his Dad who was in it; I responded with Cena saying he’s been attacked with a sledgehammer by Triple H. The boys face nearly fell off the end of the earth. I’m not that cruel so I told him I was joking by the way. Somebody drove past in the car with The Time Is Now playing at full blast, I started shouting turn it down and Cena sucks and I got a torrent of abuse from everybody there, but it was all good banter. Like I said before I think this is what is really good about these events.

Eventually RVD came out and gave his wristbands to a couple of fans. This is why RVD is over, he loves the fans so the fans love him. He’s the only guy who came out and I thought that was pretty cool. The coach went past at about midnight with everybody on it. The curtains were shut but Snitsky, Hunter and Victoria had left there’s open so we could see them. A chase ensued with 50 rabid wrestling fans were running after the coaches. We were hoping they were staying nearby but it turned out they weren’t as they sailed off into the night sky, well sailed off through the traffic lights so we lost them.

Overall this was a great experience. A really fun show, mainly due to the awesome atmosphere and meeting some cool people after the show. Shout outs to everybody I spoke to; sorry I tend not to do names (I can never remember them) including the Irish dude who’d traveled over, the guy who didn’t want RVD as champion and all the women and children that got annoyed with me.

I’ll be back with the Smackdown report on Saturday (because I don’t want to spoil it for anyone), don’t forget to download Friday’s podcast with this road report and a big Backlash preview and potentially a Lockdown review.

A Great Weekend in London

2006-04-24T20:36:00.000+01:00

I'm back from my trip to London to watch Raw and Smackdown from the Wembley arena. The crowd was awesome both nights and I really hope that this comes across on TV. Raw airs tonight so make sure you check it out.

I'll be posting a full report including my meeting with RVD, Paul Burchill's mother, a run in with Booker T and Mark Henry's love child and bloke who looked like Austin, oh and all the news from the show themselves!

Part 1 should be up on Friday covering Raw and I'll put part 2 covering Smackdown up on Monday to aviod any potential spoilers. A full column will also be up in the next couple of days. In the meantime here's a few photos from the event:

Triple H makes his entrance for the main event on Raw.

Rey Mysterio arrives in London for his World Heavyweight Championship match.

Robson's Raw Thoughts 19th April 2006

2006-04-19T13:00:00.000+01:00

Joey Styles welcomes us to Raw as we’re joined by none other than the chairman of the board Vincent K McMahon. Will Mr McMahon go to hell? That’s what he’s asking us; Vince hopes that he has offended us by last weeks church going actions. Vince claims he’s not going to hell, why? Because he ended up where he is now, somewhere in St Louis, cheap heat right there. Vince is now setting up his own religion; McMahonism! I want in! He is the “lord, master and god of all sports-entertainment”, you’re right there. We’re all followers because we buy tickets, nice to know. We’re treated to the McMahonism version of Michelangelo’s Sistine chapel and Vince at the last supper, aren’t religious undertones just great? No? “Boring! Boring!” - the crowd have got this right. Tonight we’re all allowed to convert to McMahonism, we can be disciples of McMahonism, but Shawn Michaels isn’t converting; until Backlash that is, when he falls at the feet of the boss. Vince asks to be struck down if he’s lying. Nothing. What about a sign? Nothing. The god of McMahonism promises victory and wham eat some sweet chin music Vinnie. Shawn back to the ring and gives Vince the DX crotch chop!

Nice little segment here, nice to see Shawn actually get something in on Vince after months of getting screwed. Vince doesn’t half love himself, but the Shawn attack was cool.

Triple H sees Vince backstage and tells Vince to lay off the god stuff, and books Edge and Cena against Hunter, I smell a swerve.

Rob Conway’s in the ring and he’s had enough if being a punching bag. The next person to disrespect him will be dealt with… boom! Kane’s makes is way to the ring and kicks the shit out of Conway. Unfortunately this week we can’t hear what Kane’s thinking, maybe that’ll come later in the evening. The announcers refer to the voices, could they hear them too? Chokelsam 1-2-3. Kane grabs Lillian, but here comes Show, I love Show in a tracksuit. Show gets the chokeslam this week and now two spots have been blown away for nothing. If you didn’t know, Kane’s film is out May 19^th.

We get a package of the Chavo quitting the business, wise move my friend, wise move. JR returns to Raw for the first time since he was ‘fired’ as he interviews Chavo. Chavo says his decision was done in haste, but he let Eddie and everyone down by loosing to Shelton Benjaman and he feels he has made the right decision. Chavo is a damn good interview and a damn fine worker, hopefully they’ll continue to use him. Chavo says it’s all he has ever wanted but he has let down his family. JR says Eddie would be disappointed in Chavo quitting, but Chavo still sees it as the right idea and his wrestling career has come to an end. I like this storyline, as long as they don’t do something stupid with the Eddie reference a la Smackdown.

We’re informed that Lillian has gone to the back after the trauma suffered thanks to Kane, so we’re treated to Coach as ring announcer, unfortunately he’ll be doing colour as well. Shelton’s out first for his match. If RVD wins, Shelton gets MITB shot at Backlash and if he looses he puts the IC belt on the line. His opponent is Charlie Hass! History folks and they’re referencing it! A few nice spots, with Hass flipping over the rope but Shelton making him land on his knee. Shelton focuses on the back whipping him into the steps and hitting a scoop slam on the floor. It’s chin lock time, man this annoys me, you’re working on the back, use a move which hurts the back! At least Hass looks a little different from when we last saw him and he’s no longer just a guy in tights. Crowd even starts chanting for Charlie! Shelton hits rolling thunder, totally mocking RVD, at least they’re doing something to further that feud, Shelton’s looking good in there as is Hass. The mocking continues as he goes for five star, but Shelton misses, Hass roles him up and 1-2-3! Hass wins! It’s Shelton vs RVD at Backlash for the IC Title. Shelton’s IC Champ by the way.

Vince is pissed backstage and Osama (I can’t spell nor remember hi name) and tells us he has convereted and he’s happy to donate Umaga and it will be Umaga going up against Shawn tonight. Shelton comes in begging for help and now he wants to convert, mainly so he doesn’t have to defend the title at the PPV. Vince says he likes people on his knees before him, therefore he’s going to help Shelton.

Umaga’s out first with Osama followed by HBK Shawn Michaels. They’re really pushing the religious part of the McMahon/Michaels feud and it doesn’t appeal to me at all. This is the top of the hour match by the way. One minute in and we’re joined by Vince at ringside as Umaga has control of Shawn on the outside. Vince takes a seat and a mic and sits at ringside. Shawn’s making Umaga look pretty damn good, put him the ring with anyone else and I think he’s going to suck. Shawn goes for the usual HBK comeback and hits two forearms to take Umaga down, flying elbow but Vince stops sweet chin music and Umaga manages to regain control, he begins to decimate Shawn and gets himself disqualified. Vince tells them to leave as he’s going to finish of Michaels himself. Vince ties HBK up in the ropes and grabs the chair he was sat on until god intervenes! God, in the form of a pyro from the ring post stops Vince entering the ring, then a huge one on the ramp. Don’t insult my intelligence Vince come on.

A video package is shown of Austin/Rock from April 1999. This does nothing except make you realise what’s missing from today’s product.

Matt Striker doesn’t agree as he’s out for his classroom segment. He says his students could tell him what happened on Raw, bet they couldn’t these days. He insults the St Louis crowd, calling them thick etc. “School is cool” is Striker’s new motto but it seems Carlito doesn’t agree and he knows what cool is. Striker has stolen Carlito’s apple and Carlito lets us know that he was more concerned with being cool than doing well at school. He once spat apple in his teacher’s face and became cool, he threatens to do the same to Striker but Striker says he’s going to beat down Carlito. Carlito spits anyway but Masters interrupts and hits the Masterlock on Carlito.

RVD’s out with his modified briefcase for a handicap match with the tag champs, everyone’s favourites the Spirit Squad. It’s five on one and if RVD looses he has to defend the MITB against Shelton at Backlash (as well as the IC Title being on the line). Johnny hits the leg drop and pins RVD after some initial fighting off by RVD. Thanks to Shelton’s conversion, it’s MITB vs IC Title at Backlash.

Maria interviews Trish (as Mickie) and she lets us know that Mickie (as Trish) has a surprise waiting for her in the ring.

Trish comes out (as Mickie) to Mickie’s music and invites Mickie (as Trish) for her present. This is bizarre but I like it. Mickie is freaked out and doesn’t want the present. Some dude is tied up and it’s Jack from the other week, you’ll be pleased to know he has now split up with Trish. Trish tells Mickie that if she was Trish she’d care about Jack, but if not she wouldn’t. I don’t get it, but Mickie does as she tells Trish to get her hands of Jack and attacks her, Trish comes back and leaves the ring. Mickie smacks Jack for cheating on her. This is whacky as hell. Poor poor Jack, he’s just an innocent bystander in all of this.

Edge and Lita are joined by Hunter backstage and Edge tells Hunter he’s getting pinned tonight (I doubt it), Hunter tells Edge that Cena is going to stab him in the back. Hunter tries to get Edge to hate Cena and get them fighting in their match later.

May 19^th continues to be pushed. Wow. See No Evil.

Backlash card is the triple threat, the holy tag match, RVD vs Shelton, Carlito vs Masters, Mickie vs Trish and Big Show vs Kane. Shaping up to be a nice PPV, it won’t be the greatest of all time, but there should be a few solid matches on there.

Main event time as Edge is out first with Lita. Hunter’s out second and Cena’s the last man out. Mixed reaction to Cena, despite King trying to tell us otherwise. Crowd mostly in Cena’s favour but there are a number of boos which are quite audible. Triple H hits the crotch chop, second of the evening, take note guys. Boos tend to be more audible now as Cena does his comeback but still 50% cheers. Yes, the crowd reaction is better than the match. Edge tags himself in and takes out his partner as Edge and Hunter go at it. Hunter gets all the offence in but Cena comes in and takes it to both guys. Boos become audible (as opposed to when the two heels were in the ring), ref bump and Hunter goes for sledgie. Takes it to Cena but Edge gets a spear and pins the game. Wow, didn’t see that coming at all. All three guys are actually looking strong going into this match and that’s something of a rarity.

Robson's Raw Thoughts

2006-02-08T21:09:00.000Z

This weeks Raw has come under some criticism, but I for one really enjoyed the show. Of course what's been dubbed the Triple H Invitational began, and four OK matches came out of it. Kane/Masters was alright for a four minute match. I'm a huge mark for Masters and it was fun to see them tease their finishers on each other. The finish made Kane look retarded, but pretty much everything does.

Triple H/Flair was no where near the level of their previous encounters. Flair looked about 80 and was two steps behind Hunter all night. A poorly delivered pedigree and Trips advanced to the next round (surprise, surprise!). Show and Shawn wrestled next... no here's Vince. The Shelton switch was a good idea to continue the Vince/Shawn storyline and considering Shawn is off after Wrestlemania, this could be something of a goodbye to HBK. Show pinned Shelton with ease, but Mamma got scared and had a heart attack. I don't know where this is going, but Mamma can carry it off because she generally rules.

RVD and Carltio were up next and again, nothing amazing but nothing that went too long and made you loose interest. Carlito hit some crazy looking dive out of nowhere, but a Van Daminator and 5* later and Carlito's Wrestlemania main event chance was over.

Edge looked good in his promo tonight. Next week is Edge's last chance to prove himself as top heel, before he moves on to his Foley feud. I feel bad for him because now Hunter's going back on his throne his opportunties at the belt will be few and far between. Maybe a move to Smackdown maybe in order the R Rated Superstar. The main event, like the rest of the show was exactly what it should have been. Six minutes of bliss. It looks like Lita and Edge are going their seperate ways very soon, apparently Lita is keen to get back into the wrestling side of things. She does feel uncomfortable in her role, and she has worked well as Edge's sidekick, but leaving him won't do him any harm.

The Trish/Ashely/Mickie saga continued and Mickie got pinned, declared her love for Trish... as a friend and met Trish's rather plain date. If he could pull Trish, any man with a pulse has a chance. I can't wait for the Chick Kick to the head. This story is good, but the wrestling sure does suck.

Raw comes to us on Thursday next week, with a title match as its main event. There won't be a title change, but I'm expecting for Edge to have the belt won in a clean manner, only for Foley to be distracted (perhaps by Lita), allowing Cena to retain and setting up an Edge/Foley feud for Mania. I'm looking forward to this. Foley's always great on promo, and Edge can be good when he's been a cocky bastard. This has a lot of potential. I wouldn't expect anything great from next week, as Raw's not in its usual spot, there'll be an expected rating drop. Oh yeah, Triple H wins.

On a side note, the podcast starts next week!

A Right Royal Kurfuffle

2006-02-04T19:11:00.000Z

Well, in the words of Little Britain's Lou, this last weeks Royal Rumble was somewhat of a 'right kerfuffle.

The opener, in which Kid Kash lost his Cruiserweight Title, was somwhat of a mess. The only positive, saw Gregory Helms pick up the belt, and a switch to Smackdown seems eminent for the superhero, which is a good thing. I'm hoping for a Noble/Helms feud over the belt, but as they weight less that 250 pounds, I'm not getting my hopes up.

For a good story, the women's matches over the last four months have been dreadful. Mickie/Ashley was no different. All I can say is, I can't wait for Trish to kick Mickie square in the head.

JBL/Boogeyman was exactly what it had to be. I'm not a fan of this wrestlecrap at all, but at least they're booking it properly. As soon as Boogey gets pinned he's a gonner, but why is JBL getting jobbed to this dude? He's a former WWE Champion and doesn't need this shit to deal with. If Boogey's not gone by Wrestlemania, I'll be a very sad man.

The rumble was up next, and I really enjoyed it. There were some cool things in there like the elimination of Kane and Show, Lashley's dominator to the Big Red Monster and Tatanka's return (!). Of course, Mysterio winning it was the best thing the company could have done, but it seems they're going to blow it by handing Orton the shot at Angle's belt in Chicago.

Edge/Cena was terrible. I presumed Cena was going over, but begged for Edge to hold onto the belt. It seems Vince wants to go with his original plans and have Cena hold the belt going into Wrestlemania, although a good proportion of the fan base would rather see him chasing it. It was a horrible match, with moves thrown together and then a Cena comeback. I can't work out why Cena's using the STFU. Why doesn't he just pin them after the FU? All it's done is further push Edge's credibility down.

When I thought things couldn't get any worse, the world's strongest man made his way to the ring, and single handedly pulled a boring match out of Kurt Angle. Yes, 'boring' and 'Angle' in the same sentence. Henry showed that he's good at being a brick wall against Rey, but against no one else. At least the result went the right way by having Angle retain.

Then Mean Mark came down, signalled for the belt, did some crazy shit and made the ring collapse. Marvellous.

Sorry for being so negative today. I was hoping to not be negative in doing this podcast, but today has not been a good week to start.

Stay tuned for the first episode of the podcast coming very soon!