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.
Showing posts with label Paul's Columns. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Paul's Columns. Show all posts
Thursday, November 16, 2006
Monday, November 13, 2006
One Year On
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.
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.
Thursday, October 26, 2006
KISS TNA
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.
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.
Saturday, October 14, 2006
The Benoit Suprise
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?
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?
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