2010 in the WWE - Gain vs. Loss

The year 2010 draws to a close and now we actually have some time to review at least part of what happened in Wrestling in general and in the WWE in particular over the course of the year. What I did here is a list (or two lists) of what wrestlers joined the company this year and what were released or left on their own accord. It's just a little list who we will miss in 2011 and who of the new guys could be a big star next year.

Gain (31)

Bret Hart, Alberto del Rio, Trent Baretta, Joey Mercury, The Uso Brothers and Tamina, Edge and Melina, plus NXT season 1, 2 and 3 a.k.a. Daniel Bryan, Wade Barrett, David Otunga, Justin Gabriel, Heath Slater, Darren Young, Michael Tarver, Skip Sheffield, Kaval, Alex Riley, Michel McGillicutty, Husky Harris, Percy Wattson, Eli Cottonwood, Lucky Cannon, Titus O'Neil, AJ, Aksana, Maxine, Kaitlyn, Naomi and Jamie 

Bret Hart - January grazed us with the return of Bret Hart after more than 12 year of absence from the WWE/F. It's good to have him back, even if he can't wrestle anymore ...the match with Vince McMahon was still embarrassing as hell (for both parties).

Alberto del Rio - I can't appreciate him as much as most others do. To me the guy just has nothing special at all about him plus I really think his gimmick is damn boring. But yeah, they need a new guy for the Mexicans when Rey Mysterio retires so I can tolerate him.

The Uso Brothers and Tamina - Seriously, when they suddenly appeard to attack the Hart Dynasty and no one knew them they were kinda cool. The bad thing was that WWE decided to definitely drop the Tag Team Division at that point so Tamina is now the girlfriend of Santino and the brothers are aren't seen on TV anymore. 

Edge - He could have had the comeback of the year when he entered and won the Royal Rumble this year but somewhere along the way he became a tweener, then he had no storyline and when Creative finally gave him a real one it was that shit with Kane. Really, it's not his fault.  

Wade Barrett - The leader of the Nexus sure made a big impact on Raw in 2010. At the beginning of NXT he practically was a nobody and now he is/was the leader of this years most prominent stable ...plus, aside from Daniel Bryan who is luckily out of Nexus, he is so far the only Nexus who can stand on his own as a performer.

Alex Riley - You could call him the "winner" of NXT season 2, since Kaval is now released and he is the only of the former rookies who regulary does have matches on Raw. The problem is just that he always loses and is currently best known for getting caught driving under the influence.

Daniel Bryan - The American Dragon provided for the biggest uproar in the IWC in 2010. It got as far as entire arenas chanting "Daniel Bryan" even when Cena and the Nexus were in the ring. In the end you could say that the fans won this battle even if they lost the war on so many other wrestlers. It's good to have one of the best current wrestlers back in WWE, if only for some awesome matches every so often.

Loss (34)

Aloisia, Batista, Carlito, Caylen Croft, Charlie Haas, Chris Jericho, Daniel Bryan, Eric Escobar, Gregory Helms, Jillian Hall, Jimmy Wang Yang, Katie Lea, Kung Fu Naki, Luke Gallows, Maria, Matt Hardy, Mickie James, Mike Knox, MVP, Paul Burch, Savannah, Serena, Shad Gaspard, Slam Master J, Shawn Michaels, Shelton Benjamin, Tiffany, Tommy Dreamer, Tony Atlas, Vance Archer and former NXT rookies - I cringed writing rookies here, believe me - Daniel Bryan, Jamie and Kaval

Aloisia - The woman was released before she'd even had the chance to compete in NXT season 3 because some x-rated photos of her showed up on the internet. What can you say? ...I mean it isn't like there is any Diva who hasn't at least a few nude/half-nude pictures out there - it's almost an application criterion of some sort these days. 

Batista - He thought that the PG area sucked and that it wasn't the environment he wanted to work in. It was his decision so I won't mourn after him. Some he has MMA deal, some say he hasn't and he indead recently announced that he now has a deal with Strikforce. If this is what makes him happy let him go with it. 

Carlito - Another member of the future endeavoured club though it was really his own fault. We can just hope that he get's over his addiction to painkillers and that there will be no consequential damage to his body. 

Chris Jericho - That one hurt. Jericho thought it was time to go and you have to respect that. If we're lucky he does what he did before and comes back better than ever sometime next year. I want him to, but honestly I don't think he will. The guy seems to enjoy his life without wrestling too much at the moment. It's a pitty but personal happiness always comes before the job.

Luke Gallows - I still haven't found a good reason to why they released him. He wasn't a bad worker and if they would just have kept the Straight Edge Society he could still have a job. Poor guy with bad luck. 

Matt Hardy - If you asked a fan what the biggest release in the WWE in 2010 was, about everyone would name Matt Hardy. He made goddamn show out of the whole thing, including videos from eating grapes on Youtube and telling some story about having a split personality. In the end however he got what he wanted when WWE eventually released him. Most think that he'll be in TNA as soon as his 90-days-no-compete-clause expires.

Mickie James - She apparently had heat on her backstage for attitude issues, she wasn't as thin as WWE likes their girls to be and she wanted to do a country music CD outside the company - what is never a good idea if you want to be on the good side of management. 

Serena - Another victim of the Straight Edge Society. She was fired because she "didn't live her gimmick". Don't get me wrong, if she was drunk during work or didn't do her job because of alcohol problems I would have released her too, but getting fired for not living your damn gimmick in 2010 - where every kid above 10 knows that the sport is fake - is just a sign of plain stupidity from the company.

Shawn Michaels - HBK, The Showstopper, The Headliner, Mr. Wrestlemania... he was one of the, if not the, best in the business. After so many years he earned his right to go and finally spend some time with his family. Best wishes to him. 

Tiffany - Nothing much to say about that. The woman was dumb enough to attack her husband while on tour with the WWE so I don't feel sorry for her release. 

Kaval - I already wrote about that one. Releasing Kaval because they had no storyline for him was just one of those facepalm-moments you had with the WWE in 2010. He is a superb worker however and I don't think that he will have problems finding a job next year.


*Copyright by Adam-On-The-Edge Photo Gallery for the picture of Edge winning the Royal Rumble

12/27/10 Raw - live

It's the last Raw of the year, but that doesn't necessarily have to be a good thing. One reason is that the weather is currently going crazy in about half the world as we all know pretty well. I mean hell, there are blizzards in New York, 3 hour car rides suddenly take 7 hours and counting and I'm even having 1 feet of snow over here in Germany - what in itself is a miracle considering that the last time we had snow at Christmas was... well, I've never seen snow on Christmas before.

We start off the show with John Cena out first. He starts saying that last weeks excitement obviously carried on to tonight. Let's see if he's right... a fan in the back is holding a "Mizgirl owns Cena" sign. We get a recap of CM Punk attacking Cena last week and of course Cena jokes about it when he declares that it was his fault for knocking over Punk's Pepsi and making him angry. He calls out Punk who obliges and gives a great heel-performance as ever what get's him a fat "You suck" chant from the crowd. They continue bantering and Cena's jokes just aren't funny to me, sorry. Punk is great thought, it's good to have him here now that CJ is gone.

Line of the night by CM Punk to John Cena: "You are not funny." 

They end the segment with CM Punk promising great things coming for tonight and the announcement of Randy Orton vs. Sheamus for later on. Nothing new here.

Next up are Ted DiBiase with Maryse against Santino with Tamina. Who's with me when I predict a huge girls brawl on the outside? Sorry, we don't even get there. Santino wins in no time and we see him giving Tamina a Christmas present: a litte Cobra.

We get a backstage segment with the Miz and Alex Riley. Nothing new here with the both of them talking about how Riley will crush Morrison in their match later on (does anybody still believe this little speach?). Morrison comes in to interrupt them and his promo is actually fairly good. They decide that if the loses, he will no longer be Nr. 1 contender - there is your de-push, Mr. Morrison. That match is up next, so he'll be gone from the big stage faster than he came, sorry JoMo.

Miz is, of course, at ringside, while Morrison and Riley go at each other and, of course, it doesn't take long for the WWE Champ to interfere on Riley's behalf when he dragges Morrison down from the ring ropes. The referee saw it but isn't really doing anything ...what was that about a disqualification because someone threw a shoe in? ...but yeah, we're not supposed to remember that. Anyway... justin.tv decides to be a bitch today and not let me see the finish of this but word is that Morrison actually won.

Now get a lot of backstage parts again. Riley is bitching around, Punk wants "the great moment" to be picture perfect and annoys the camermen and they make poor Tyson Kidd really be jealous on Daniel Bryan on behalf of the Bella twins. And no, I'm not saying anything more about that, because it's the end of the years and I want to be nice to the WWE for once. Randy Orton is last when he tells something about the "impressive" year he had in 2010 (to me it wasn't, because Miz' years was impressive, but whatever).

Following up his Mark Henry vs. Tyson Kidd (with the bodyguard whose name I always forget). This match is like Undertaker vs. Rey Mysterio, only that Rey and Taker provide a way better show. Like every match so far it is short and Mark Henry comes out as the winner. Tyson's bodyguard however doesn't like that fact very much and tries taking on Henry - he is actually a few inches taller than Cool-Aid - but falls victim to the World's Strongest Slam.

And now "the Champ is here" (you know who I'm talking about) and Riley is caring the usless briefacase again. Cole doesn't forget to hammer home that we'll see Miz defend his title next week on Raw in a "Falls Count Anywhere" match against John Morrison because Riley didn't do his job - does he anything else but driving under the infulence these days?

Miz tells the crowd repeatedly that "Noboy compares to me in the WWE" and they repeatedly answer with a very loud "What?" that goes on while HE continues talking that he is the best. He does the usual stuff, bashing Jerry Lawler a bit and making fun of him until the King himself comes out (though not in wrestling gear) and steps in the ring with him. The crowd appreciates it big deal with a loud "Jerry" chant.

Practically it's Miz beating down on the King now with Michael Cole jizzing in his pants about the Miz winning "the match" - and it really isn't much of a match, because Lawlers offenence is few and far between. Alex Riley tries to add his own two cents too and Yosh Matthews is about the only sane person in there until Morrison decides it's time for him to try and save the day. Everyone is around the ring now with Riley & Miz against Morrison & Lawler. The King manages to kick Miz out of the ring and since the referee is actually looking this time Riley can't do nothing but watch while his boss is counted out. That's the win for Lawler.

Sheamus vs. Randy Orton will be next with CM Punk's great surprise obviously coming at the end - I get to think that I might like whatever he'll doing. Backstage Punk talks to Sheamus about how Cena always makes jokes about people that aren't funny and instead humiliating for the person being made fun of. Sheamus agrees and they part ways.

And they actually manage to fit a Diva's match in there... Nattie is on commentary and it still isn't worth watching - no Divas match is. It's a tag team match actually with Gail Kim and Eve vs. Alicia Fox and Melina and of course the Lady with the unbearable screaching music wins.

After that there is actually another match that is most likely under five minutes with Daniel Bryan winning over Zack Ryder. Seriously, those two guys are good, they could have provided some great action in a longer match if Creative had just cut one of the other three-minute-gigs... but they didn't and so we directly rush into Michael Cole getting another e-mail (after more than 1:30 hours!) that is disturbed by Miz doing a sneak attack on Jerry Lawler. Uuh, Mizzy is in a bad mood and Jerry get's to feel that temper really close up. Outch! Even Cole is not down with that, and if that doesn't telly ou something...

Well, next up is the match I'm not interested to see: The Viper vs. The King of the Ring (what isn't the same as a King of Kings, mind you). Damn, they're stealing time in which CM Punk could talk! What a waste. The match was quite good actually, it's just my fault for not caring... Orton wins.

Now everyone is waiting for CM Punk but out comes John Cena to call out Punk (don't search for the logic). The only problem is that it isn't Punk coming out but Nexus and they do what they did best in 2010: beat up John Cena. Because well, he could have been a Nexus member and declined again. So they beat down on him, leave in the ring ...and finally, at 11 sharp comes out CM Punk to give a GTS to John Cena. Punk ogles with the steel chair but in the end decides to just sit down on it. Looking down at the more or less liveless Cena he finally sees it... the Nexus armband John didn't want to have... and Punk takes it, puts it on, and I guess Nexus has a new boss now. Great ending to an otherwise average show.

Star of the night: CM Punk

Question of the night: Is Nexus now Straight Edge?

Kaval got future endeavoured

Today I came home in the middle of the night wanting to watch the final 20 or so minutes of Raw and to write a review/some thoughts on the show ...well, then I had to read that Kaval has no job anymore and decided I won't finish watching this show because it'll leave me either a) angrier as I currently am (and that is not an easy thing to accomplish) or b) wanting to vomit on my keyboard.

I'm usually not a person who occupies herself very much with what goes on outside of the ring if it isn't Chris Jericho related, but that just perfectly sums up all the crap that WWE did this year. You could even say that this last act of the year shows the mentality of the WWE better than anything else could have, because, really, this was as unnecessary as it gets.

Word is that Kaval might have actually wanted to leave the company because they couldn't provide him any storyline at all and the only thing he seemed to do on a constant basis was lose. I totally understand that he doesn't want to work in this environment but I don't understand why Creative didn't do something about it. Hell, there are guys out of NXT 1 and 2 running around Raw who obviously don't earn the contract they have and can't wrestle half as good as Kaval!

But yeah, that obviously is was the WWE does this days: fire the guys who actually can work and keep the idiots and play-boy bunnies who can't. The only people who seem to have an assured job are Trips (because he married Sephanie), Cena (golden boy), Orton (golden boy II), Rey Mysterio (Mexican + high flyer) and The Undertaker (because firing him would be... well, suicide).

They got rid of people like Luke Gallows - I've never even heard of a reason why they fired him - Serena - because he didn't live her gimmick in a time where everyone over 12 knows that the sport is fake - MVP - who could've been damn good but couldn't be bothered anymore after years of virtually doing nothing - and Bryan Danielson who only was resigned because the "Daniel Bryan"-chants were the loudest thing heard on every Raw for over a month.

One the other hand people like the Great Khali, R-Truth and JTG still have a job and (in two of those three cases) even get regular air-time on Raw ...and I'm not even mentioning the likes of McGillicutty, Darren Young ... etc. 

All in all you probably noticed that this whole thing pisses me off one many levels. I genuinely hope that this is what will kill the monopoly the company currently has in the business at some point - because the WWE seems to do everything they can to be hated by the fans. So hell, let them continue. I'm not spending one Cent for their product ...it just isn't worth it when they let you down three times of four.

12/6/10 Raw

The opening segment starts with as recap from last weeks Raw which I didn't watch. It was admittidly very strange to see Cole and King in the ring while Punk was on commentary when it's usually vice versa, but at least it looked like fun. CM punk and Jerry Lawler are on commentary and the show starts with Punk congratulating the King to a round of applause when Cole interrupts with "Can I have your attention please?" Isn't it a bit early even for a GM-mail? Yup it is, and therefore Cole for once talks his own shit.

I have to say it: Cole get's more heat than most midcard wrestlers do! For once the WWE actually gets someone over and it has to be an announcer of all people. Sigh. Worst (or best, depending how you see it) about it: Cole is actually good in that segment!

Aynway, Cole obviously doesn't regret "how he feels about the Miz" and is not going to apologize. I'm really hurt now. But it doesn't stop there as Cole compares Miz to his son and CM Punk makes a sound in his throat that resembles absolutely how I feel about this piece of information. Cole says he was caught up in the emotion of the moment last week (for like five times or so) and in the end admits it was a mistake, though he obviously still doesn't want to say he's sorry. Lawler sees this as his cue to join his colleague in the ring and "finish what he started". Go for it, Lawler!

As you probably expected, Cole screams at the King to "wait,wait,wait." while Punk simply mumbles that he won't stop him - this guy is so hilarious on commentary, really. The King indeed stops while Michael Cole seems to have some kind of sudden inspiration. He says what happened last week was as much Lawler's fault as it was his - I don't have to mention that the audience doesn't like it. Going there comes my second "Gag!" moment of the night, when Cole says to Lawler that they are "Broadcast jourmalists". They are supposed to report the news, not make them and that is what King did last week. Cole thinks he stole Miz's moment and therefore it's he who owns and oppology but Jerry obviously disagrees.

That said the King makes his way to the ring to do what every wrestling fan wanted to do at least once this year: give Cole a good, well deserved beating. But they get interrupted by the latop before anything happens. Since Cole his in the ring and King halfway there, Punk makes his way to announce the bad news. You see him walking up to the podium and know that that's gonna be a lot of fun hilarious - and it is.

Of course the GM has to riun the fun that is about to ensure between Cole and Lawler. He does not allow the beating and wants them to shake hands. I don't have to mention that the king isn't happy about this aoutcome of things, but steps into the ring none the less and eventually, relucantly, shakes Cole's hand ...and won't let go. He says that he knows that no physicality between them is allowed, but somebody else wants to have a word with him. Cue for the voices.

Cole is like "holy shit, please no." but he should have thought about that before, because the Viper is on his way to the ring and the King still doesn't let go of his hand. You're in deep shit, cole. To sum it up, Randy tells him that he is not angry with him or Miz, but he wants his championship back. Tonight.

Of course the word championship brings Miz to the scene, Riley on his tail. Miz tells the world that the GM told (when? how? why? ...okay, just forget I asked) that because of his match last week he won't have to defend his title until the TLC PPV. Orton uses this an opportunity to remind the Miz that it took seven guys to beat him up before their match for Mike to win... and no, he doesn't need to look a Riley, because he doesn't even count as one.

They instead set up a match between A. Riley and Orton for tonight. But Miz doesn't have to be so confident, because injured knee or not, there is still one thing Randy Orton can do... he RKOs Michal Cole, who stumbled at him from behind. Huge pop. Go Randy!

After the break we have Josh Matthews join the announcement crew behind the desk. Rumors have it that Vince wants a three man team at least for Raw, so it's no real surprise here. The three of them decide that they're all buddies and we go on the macth between Ted DiBiase and Maryse & Daniel Bryan and a Bella twin. Yes, you heard right, the Bella is about to be in an actual wrestling match plus she and her sister apparently got a storyline fighting about Daniel Bryan. Urgh.

Err... yeah, the match was a match. There was about one good minute at the beginning with Danielson and DiBiase ... then the Divas came in. Chaos ensures after that, the Bellas do a little "twin magic" (original CM Punk) and Team Amercian Dragon wins. That's everything there is to say about it.

The announcers promise an interview with Wade Barrett from his hotel next but Wade isn't there and so they have to put up with David Otunga. He answers two questions and basically doesn't say anything before room service knocks on the door. The food is late and cold and growling at the poor hotel clerk that he won't pay any of this, Otunga kicks him out. There's another knock ... and it's our ever-grinning friend John Cnea. He has a field day with another Nexus member (I think it's Harries) who comes to Otungas aid while said man runs for his life. Cena's not amused.

Next match is the former Hart Dynasty against each other. The pink and black is gone in favor of white on both DHS and Tyson Kidd, who brings his new bodyguard with him to the match. Hart looks small against this man, and he's 6'6'' so I think you can imagine what a monster the guy is. Anyway, the match is over rather fast, probably five minutes or less, and Kidd wins. I heard that they had a longer match on Superstars last week that was really great, so look for that if you want some Hart Dynasty action.

We get to see a little beatdown of David Hart Smith by the new bodyguard and then switch into the locker room of Nexus. Heath and Gabriel (?) are nearly pissing their pants because Cena could ambush them ...well, anywhere he wants to. Husky is still out from what Cena did to him a few minutes ago (aha, so that was really him) and McGillicutty isn't off any better. Wade Barrett tries to calm them down the moment Otunga storms in to ask if they saw what happened at the hotel (of course they did). While the Tag Champions walk out for the match the other two remain behind and talk about how Barrett wants to call out Cena after the match.

So of course the Fatal 4-Way match for the Tag Belts Titles is next. First we see Santino and Kozlov coming down the ramp, followed by the Usos - they still exist? Haven't seen them since... I don't even know how long - and Yoshi Tatsu and Mark Henry. The last team entering are of course the champs who are booded quite a bit by the crowd.

The match is, as expected, not that great, but the commentators make it more than up. When the Uso's try to decide who to tag in, CM Punk argues with Josh Matthews why you can't have the Uso's and the Bella's together in a mixed Tag Team match until Lawler reminds them that there is still a match going on in the ring. Hilarious stuff.

Against my prediction, the Uso's get a lot of action while the team of Tatsu and Henry is eliminated first. They do some pretty good combo attacks until Kozlov tags in for Slater and clears the ring. It's down to two teams now and the numbers aren't good for Team Nexus at first. But they manage to turn the thing around rather fast and beat down on both Kozlov, Santino and again Kozlov. When Santino is tagged in a second time however, Justin Gabriel is on the receiving end of the blows. Then suddely the whole arena screams and it is - you knew it - John Cena, who distracts Gabriel just enough for Santino to hit the Cobra. That's the finish and we have two new Tga Team Champs, ladies and gentleman.

After Kozlov, Santino and Tamina (don't ask) celebrated their victory it's time for the coronation of the new King of the Ring: Sheamus. Of course he has to brag about how he is the King now and how he ended the career of Triple H, the King of the Kings. He goes to tell another tale about an Irish king who was respected and feared but fell in the end and talks about how this will never happen to him.

John Morrison came in to interrupt him shortly after this, but that's about all I know about that part of the show ... that's the problem with watching on Youtube: if you're too late the vids are blocked. Sorry dear readers, but I'm only human and in this case I was too slow.

I reinsert when the Miz and Alex Riley come down to the match between Riley and Randy Orton, who is already in the ring. They start the match and as expected Riley is working on Ortons knee form the moment the bell rings. The whole thing isn't exactly a match because Miz runs into the ring after not even three minutes and gives a Scrull Crashing Finale to the Viper. Orton is down, the bell rings and the official match is over.

That however never stopped the Miz before and - oh wonder - it doesn't stop him this time around. He wants to show Orton exactly what match they'll have at TLC and pulls out a table from under the ring. After he sets it up in the ring, Miz goes for another SCF through the table but the Viper counters and the Champ only just manages to avoids crashing into the table and bails the arena with Riley still laid out cold.

Now Randy Orton turns his head and sees that there are only three things in the ring: him, a table and Alex Riley. So everyone guess what will happen next ... yep, it is Riley through the table while Miz looks on and is clearly not pleased with the situation.

They clear the ring somewhere along the break and when we're back Wade Barrett makes his way down the ramp to Nexus' music. He tells the audience that he thought of Cena as a man of his word, but he obviously isn't, because the stipulation for their match was free or fired and Cena is still showing up on Raw. Cena can beat the rest fo Nexus up as much as he wants, but Barrett is the only one who can get him his contract back. So the Nexus leader calls out John Cena who actually complies and makes his way through the crowd into the ring.

On cue Nexus (or what remains of them after Cena's first round of beating) comes out and Barrett threatens Cena that if he makes so much as wrong move, they will come down and beat him - if you'd be allowed to use logic on a WWE product I would ask why Cena should be scared by five men coming for him when they needed eight to subdue him the first time, but since logic is forbidden around here... anyway, Barrett makes clear that he will never rehire Cena and that his plan of beating Nexus won't work - his problem is just that Cena is very content with beeing fired ... and making the lifes of Nexus a living hell.

Cena basically tells Barrett that he is in a lose-lose situation: If he rehires him, he will compet for the WWE Championship again and if he doesn't Cena'll just buy a ticket every week and ruin the lifes of the Nexus members. Plus, if Cena is rehired, he may stop his attacks on the rest of Nexus, but not those on Barrett himself.

At this point, Barrett looses it and orders his guard dogs the rest of Nexus to come down the ramp and destroy Cena. Problem is ... they don't. Worse, they one after another, turn around and leave the arena until the Nexus leader and his worst nightmare are alone in the ring. Long story short: We end with John Cena celebrating after he beat Wade Barrett and then chased him out of the arena.

Sign(s) of the day

What do this two signs together want to tell me? Whatever it is, it's hilarious.

PS: I know this acrticle was too long and I apologize. The next will be shorter - or I'll just go back to collection of random thoughts.

King of the Ring

We all know that there we will be a 3-hour Raw next week, and not any other Raw but the "Comeback" of King of the Ring. The response of the internet community regarding the show is every good so far and many people have high expectations for what will happen. Of course as fans we all want to see a lot of good wrestling and a worthy winner of the tournament.

After Smackdown the final eight participants are out now and since I won't be there next week to review the show due to what you can call an involuntary vacation, I'm going to do a preview/forecast today. There will be four matches in the Quaterfinals, two in the Semifinals and one final match. Since I think it will be one Smackdown wrestler against one guy from Raw a time, that's how I did the Quaterfinals.

The participants for the first four matches were chosen randomly by random.org (great site) so I didn't have a say in these. After that the winner of match 1 is up against the winner of match 2 and the winners of 3 and 4 will also face each other.

Participants: Sheamus, John Morrison, Ezekiel Jackson, Daniel Bryan & Cody Rhodes, Kofi Kingston, Alberto Del Rio, Drew McIntyre

Quaterfinals

Cody Rhodes vs. Sheamus
This is a close call. Cody Rhodes got A new gimmick as "The Dashing One" and someone in Creative/Management/wherever is obviously high on him, but Sheamus got pushed down our throats quite a lot in the beginning of the year. They hype about him obviously settled down now that 2010 draws to a close, but he is still one of the mayor players on Raw. I say he wins simply because I think the Irishman his better champion material than Rhodes - even if we're only talking about King of the Ring.

Kofi Kingston vs. John Morrison
That's one interesting match I'd say. These guys have similiar styles what could make this match either very good or very bad, also depending on the time they get to tell some nice story. Oh, and they are both faces, so the reality of this match happening is pretty slim - it would more likely be Rhodes vs. Morrison and Kingston vs. the resident ghost ...but hey, the match-up wasn't my decision to make. I'm going with Morrison as the winner by the way. He needs the push he needs the push more than Kofi Kingston, not least because he is on Raw where the percentage of main eventers is denser than on Smackdown. On the blue brand there are simply a lot more mid-carders and it's easier to not get burried.

Ezekiel Jackson vs. Alberto Del Rio
Err... squash? I think that pretty much sums this one up. Ezekiel has gotten something that can be called a push in WWE standarts, but Alberto Del Rio got the push, so Jacksons chance of winning is about zero. Bad luck on Big Zeke's side, but Del Rio definitely has this match in the bag.

Drew McIntyre vs. Daniel Bryan
Let's be honest here: Daniel Bryan doesn't need to be King of the Ring. That probably sounds hard, but he is as over with the WWE audience as someone like him can be. People will cheer for him no matter if he wins the tournament or not. McIntyre on the other hand isn't that over (I dare say no midcarder is as over as Bryan) and the closest the got to a title in a while was the Tag Team Championship with Rhodes - and we all know that those titles mean shit these days. But whoever wins against Danielson automatically looks like a better wrestler, so he wins this one to lose in the later rounds.


Semifinals

Sheamus vs. John Morrison
At least now we have standart heal vs. face matches again. It's the human jar of Mayonnaise against JoMo and it's not like we haven't seen this match-up before - doesn't mean it can't be interesting. Their other match was pretty good and there is no reason this can't be too. Morrison needs to be one of the top guys in this tournament way more than Sheamus and that's the only reason the wins this thing.

Alberto Del Rio vs. Daniel Bryan
Like I said before, Bryan in my opinion is only in this tournament to make other wrestlers look good (and we all know that he can definitely do that). So if there is someone WWE wants to look good at any rate it's Alberto Del Rio. That will probably be the longest match of the night, even longer than the final one. It'll probably be the best match, too. Del Rio obviously wins.


Finals

John Morrison vs. Alberto Del Rio
Last match of the night is Morrison vs. Alberto Del Rio and I honestly didn't think it would end like this, but whatever... I don't like Del Rio, his character is like long dead fish to me: tastes like crap and stinks to high heaven. The only thing I want to do when I see this guy is lock him an Michael Cole up in a room together and hope that they kill each other simultaneously. But this is about wrestling (or at least it should be) and even if I hate Alberto Del Rio I can't deny that many love him. So yeah, he wins because he is high with the higher ups. Sorry Morrison, but former Dos Caras Jr. is our new King of the Ring 2010.

11/22/10 Raw

Kate is back on Raw after several weeks of absence and I bring good news with me. The Miz is our new WWE Champion and at least I can say that I'm very pleased with this outcome. The guy earned his win ... anyway, on to this weeks Raw with a nice wallpaper (created by Modified Cravate from Chikara Fans).

Did someone beside me notice the irony of Nexus leader Wade Barrett telling the world that Cena being the ref in his match "wasn't fair"? You beat Cena*cough* seven on one *cough* and talk about unfair now? But hey, the audience was really into it, so his speach probably gained more heat than this guys got ever before. And it was hilarious watching how Barrett was booed whenever he started with "last night".

Two weeks no Wrestling and what I didn't miss was the laptop ordering guys around 6:24 in the show. There are things that never change...

CM Punk on commentary. Yeeees.

There was some shameless pandering of WM XXVII by the WWE after one commercial. But hey, they need to do it. The pre-sale of Wrestlemania tickets hasn't been that bad in years (I don't remember the actual number), so they obviously have to do something about it. WWE of course could just as well do something about their product, but we all know that that's the last they think about. 

Sheamus vs. R-Truth was an okay match. For some reason I didn't really enjoy it, but there were some good spots in there and it took a while actually. At least they gave the guys some time to tell a little story.
After that we got a LayCool segment. I don't like them. Most people watching wrestling don't like them for various reasons, but at least I stilll laughed. If I were Nataly I'd said that I didn't know them too. 

...and can someone please tell me what the reason was for this Santino-segment? 

Ezekiel Jackson vs. the Miz aka Riley was next (Random info: Ezekiel was a prophet in the Old Testament, there is even a Book of Eezekiel). And yeah, I typed that sentence before Riley walked out to Miz music. How did I know? Foreshadowing? Riley is a punshing bag by the way ... but hey, now he is the Champ's punshing bag. There are worse positions to be in on RAW. Plus he got arrested for DUI (that's how you call it, right?) so the guy can be lucky that he still has a job. Wrestlers have been fired for less. 

Ezekiel punched A-Ry (how do you write this stupid nickname?) right into oblivion - see you again the next time Miz doesn't want to get his ass handed to him, Riley.

Cena came in. The audience went nuts. My dad screamed "Quiet this noise down!". I loled.  

Joke aside - I could actually like this angle if Cena is really off for a few months now. But since we all know WWE, he'll be back in about three weeks and that just makes it crappy booking. But yeah, his promo was still good, there was a lot of emotion behind it (a wrestler crying on TV is still pretty rare). And the chant-war was brilliant, by the way. You saw that Cenat totally enjoyed doing this. The guy actually can be funny after all. I even would've chanted "Let's go Cena" along for this one time. So we just have to see what's gonna happen with him in future, I pressume. 

Like I said, the whole thing was done pretty well ... until Cena walked out of the building in his ring gear, for
God's sake ... but yeah, what did I expect from WWE? 

CM Punk on commentary is so gold. "Bree Bella is a 4.", tell the world how it really is, Punk. The match between Bryan and DiBiase was on the good side but way too short. I didn't watch Suvrivor Series so I can't compare it to that match, but you saw that they're both good workers. I mean Ted DiBiase can wrestle. The shitty storyline isn't his fault ...and does Bryan win every match with the Le Belle Lock?

Now we got the mandatory Divas match what led me to the question "How many Divas are left in the WWE?" Natalya, because she is third generation (first 3rd generation women's wrestler to be exact), Beth Phoenix because she too can wrestle, the Bella twins because they apparently look hot on the arm of some guest host and LayCool because Michelle's surename is McTaker. Any else? Okay, Eve and Maryse who belong to R-Truth and DiBiase respectively ...and Alicia Fox who can do nothing. Jillian got fired apparently. 

Damn, I needed like 10 minutes to name them all - and I think I'm still missing some of them ... doesn't matter anyway. Natalya won obviously. Follow-up: Jep, I forgot Melina. Happens. 

Alicia Fox is a 9.8 when the Bella is a 4. Seriously Punk? Give Maryse the 9.8 or Michelle for all I care but Alicia... urghh. The guy is lucky that none of his (ex-)girlfriends was in that ring. I wonder what Beth Phoenix would've done to him if he'd given her a 6 or something like that.

Tyson Kidd has is own opening intro titantron now. He is the heel of the team... right? Useless breackup of a good Tag Team - that's what I call this. HIs opponent for tonight was John Morrison by the way (with a beard which at least makes him look like a man.) The grey shirt and brown coat didn't fit but that's a woman's opinion so you can just ignore this piece of information. Kidd did some good old Jericho-screaming here. No "Ask him!" or "Stupid man!" of course, because no one who isn't Jericho is allowed to say that. Morrison won with a Starship Pain that didn't really connect - nothing new here. 

Randy Orton came out next followed by the lot of the Nexus who beat him up a bit and injured his left knee (why do I even write that it was the left knee? It's not like we're in Mexico...). After that he wasn't in the condition to walk, aka stuck in a kind of handicap match. Barrett squarrled a little with the ref before the actual match and the ref just told him something along the line of "It's my decision ,bastard. No fuck off."

Orton shouted at said ref to "Ring the bell" after he fussed around a little and he did as the still-Champ told him. Barrett got beaten by a Viper with only one leg (get it?) for a short time here, what in itself was hilarious, but then got some momentum behind him when he started to further work on Ortons injured knee. Then we had one bad announcer plus one announcer turned bad plus CM Punk all talking at the same time while Barrett and the Viper exchanged blows back and forth. It was a little confusing to watch, I have to admit.

Finally we get to the point where Orton was down and Barrett went for the pin. He won? Duh, wrong. John Cena appeared from out of nowhere, grabbed the ref from behind, dragged him outside the ring and then delivered an Attitute Adjustment (AA in whatever language Cole speaks) to the englishman which in turn allowed Randy Orton to give the Nexus leader an RKO. 

Now, why was John Cena back after said his goodbye to the fans not even what, an hour ago? If you seriously ask yourself that question, you're using logic on a WWE product - let me tell you to never do this, because the WWE product alsways wins. If you want to see logic, go do some math ... and that dear readers, is what I called "crappy booking" some lines further up in this article. 

Oh, and ... Karma is a bitch, Barrett. Cena told you.

If you think it was over now... you're dead wrong, because suddenly "I Came To Play" played and there came the Miz (witch Alex Riley) to cash in his Money in the Bank briefcase. There was a short brawl, Randy went for the RKO which Miz counterd into the Skull Crushing Finale. 1, 2, 3. Yeeeees. The Miz is your new WWE Champion.

Punk said "I have been there" and I remeber reading somewhere that The Miz is to Randy Orton what CM Punk was to Jeff Hardy... only that I do not begrudge the Miz for cashing in and winning like I did with Punk.

They showed Miz and Riley celebrating and the sad/angry faces of some kids and a handful women. Would I've been there you would've seen a blondie with a big fat grin on her face by the way ;) Congratulations to The Miz for winning his first big title. It most likely won't be his last.

End of show, end of article. Kate over and out.

Sign T-Shirt of the day

Because this girl obviously put a lot of efford into that shirt.

Fire

It's 3:27 am CET as I start writing this.

The firefighters are currently packing up their tubes and check if the building isn't in danger of collapsing. It most likely isn't but they'll have to tear it down none the less. The five fire trucks will be gone in about half an hour and my neighbors can now go back into their house.

Today was the 2nd time in 3 years that I had to call the firefighter because a building was burning. I can argue that it fortunately isn't my house this time but my neighbors', but believe me that there is not that big of a difference. Standing in front of a house and watching greyish-back clouds of smoke come out of the windows before they shatter and the fire starts leaking out of the black holes they left is something I never want to do again in my life.

So I plead all of you:

If you smell smoke, look after what is going on.

If you are not sure, still do an emergency call.

Don't be scared about doing the wrong thing - most of my neighbors thought there were drunken teenagers on the street when they heard the explosion and didn't do anything because they were affraid.

If you're inside a house that is burning, keep your head down. The smoke will be hot and therefore relatively close to the ceiling (at first) - keep out of it and try not to inhale it. Most victims of fires don't die from actual burning but pass away in their sleep because they suffocate from the smoke before they have time to wake up.

Don't try to save anything! You can take your cell with you, but that's about it. Leave everything other behind. It isn't wort dying for! Don't run inside to save some expensive painting or money (at least the ash of Euros can be traced in a burnt building). You can buy a new couch, a new TV, a new computer... but you can't revive your grandmother who died in the flames because she wanted to rescue her savings from the burning house.

If you do an emergency call: Where? What? How big is it? How many people are hurt / in danger?

It is important for the firefighters to know what is burning. Is it a chimney on fire, a camp fire out of control, a burning shop etc. It helps if you can tell them how big the fire is, if other houses are in danger of getting set on fire and how many people are in the building. If they have to go in that's the most important thing, to prevent that someone is left behind by the rescuers.

Call 112, 911, 900 or whatever the number is in your country. Save people by doing the right thing and turn your electronic equipment off instead of turning it on standby at nights.

If you don't, you may end like me: Standing here even after the last firefighter and policeman is gone, still looking at the half burned building only to make sure that it really isn't burning anymore.

10/25/10 Raw

Yesterday we got to see another episode of Monday Night Raw and I doing the review here, but before we come to this I have to say somethign about the whole Cena-Nexus that bugged we for a while now:

When you talk about John Cena nowadays (since he joined Nexus to be exact) the correct term when reffering to him should be CeNexusBitch. Why CeNexusBitch? The Ce of course comes from John Cena, while the Nexus part obviously states that he is now a member of The Nexus. Bitch because that is what he currently is: he bitch of Wade Barrett, who has to do everything Barrett says (therefore the absolutely exact term would be CeNexusWadesBitch but I am simply too lazy to type a name that long).

Fittingly Nexus started off this show. They came down to the ring with Wade Barrett in the front while Cena keept his distance and walked behind the group. He and Otunga are the new Tag Team Champions since Bragging Rights - even if Cena did most of the work and Otunga simply "was along for the ride" as Lawler put it. I loved how Barrett was treating Cena here, ordering him around with so much as a wink of his finger. John Cena plays the defiant part rather well, too.

"Why on earth would the Nexus help Kane?" that's what I wanted to know since I first learnt what happened at Bragging Rights, but Wade Barrett told the audience that this is none of their business and he won't say anything about it - that is WWEs way of telling us that they won't tell anything because they simply have no idea how to explain this.

After an "I quote" 8:04 minutes into the show, Miachel Cole only mentinos the words "Randy Orton" and the girsl start shrieking immediately. At least half of the 6 Million female viewers Raw claims to have every week watch the show only to see a half-naked Randy Orton. I'd vouch for that.

When Barrett announced that it would be Nexus versus Nexus for the Tag Team Belts I was like: "What the f***?!" but he saw the light in the end and told David Otunga to be a good boy and lie down for his stable. He complained but did as he was told in the end, thus giving the titles to Heath Slater and Justin Gabriel. It was a clever choice to not have them fight each other, because it would hav destroyed some of their strength as a group if they had done it.

"Excuse me!" screams echoed through the building and we all knew who was coming in next. Vickie claimed that Danile Bryans victory over Doplh Ziggler was illegal (doesn't she always?) and that there would be a rematch right now. I was fine with that, because after their match on Sunday night how could I not want a rematch? CM Punk joined the party before the bell rang and sat down at ringside beside Lawler to give us some comments on the match.

What exactly did Bryan do there in the beginning of the match? Is there even a name for it? That back arch honestly looked nothing short of a-ma-zing, the guy is super flexible and knows how to show it off in the best ways. Althought the crowd was about dead at his entrance Daniel Bryan really got them hyped up throughout the match. I have to say that the guy can sell a punch like few others. Ziggler hit him in the chin and he literally dropped like dead weight.

Through the whole match Vickie at ringside did the one thing she is absolutely perfect at: screaming like a bitch. She screamed even more when Dolph Ziggler lost, but the ref had nothing of it and declared Bryan the winner. We saw CM Punk on his feet, applauding with that certain look on his face that screamed "Feud!" but who am I to complain about a future feud between the American Dragon and Mr. Straight Edge?

We went backstage after that for about 2 minutes of guest host talk that I don't regrett having skipped. Still backstage there was another CeNexusBitch-Wade Barrett episode but hey, they work well together. Currently it is the first time since ... well, ever that I like John Cena's acting. Yes, it is predictable, but that doesn't mean that it is not good.

I clearly didn't miss them but it was time for the women's match then, apparently. It was LayCool vs. Mellina and Gail Kim. I didn't watch it. LayCool won, I just know it - there were two good female wrestlers in the ring against LayCool, so there was no chance in hell that they'd win. That's the truth when you talk about WWE women's division.

Next up was a little Miz-time. I usually like his promos and this one wasn't bad but still kind of ... boring. He talked about the loss of Team Raw and how they would've won with seven Mizes on the team. He is the Miz and people watch Raw because of him (what I can't deny). Suddenly there came Eve and I was stunned to say the least. She walked to the ring, she got a mic and she started talking - that's when I started to ask myself if I was really watching Raw here. Oh, and she bashed the Miz. Eve said Miz is ugly (what I can deny) and immediately Alex Riley jumped to help out his best buddy idol (not so secret) man-crush lover former NXT-pro - way to start the bromance ... and who gave R-Truth a mic, dammit? Big no-go here.

The GM told to ring the bell and the match was on with R-Truth vs. the Miz. Of course everyone knew that R-Truth had no chance in hell winning here but most of us just tried to pretend that they didn't know. The most interesting thing going on was the sidekick/valet/lover brawl outside the ring when Eve slaped Alex Riley right across the face after he attacked Truth behind the refs back. I don't have to mention that the crowd poped huge for this ... and why is Cole calling Alex Riley "A. Riy"? That sounds so damn stupid my ears hurt.

Our guest host who's name I fortunately never will know talked another 4 minutes which I strictly skipped. That's 6 minutes for the country music star already. If you count the 2 minutes of Sheamus vs. Santino Marella and another 3 minutes of Divas trash that's 11 minutes of crap so far. But, I dare say this: I kinda liked the Stand up for WWE clip. Some of the wrestlers really sounded like they meant what they said (Riley, Miz, Show). Personally I'm not exactly a fan of the campaign but i can understand why the WWE does it.

Another Nexus segment followed. Husky Harris and Michel McGillicutty finally got their N-shirts today - I won't ly, I honestly think that Joe Henning has no charisma at all and that there are people earning this spot way more than him, but let's just see what he does with it. Harris in an okay guy and moves rather fast for his size. David Otunga decided that he's still in Nexus, but that wasn't much of a choice for him.

CeNexusBitch entered the ring for the main event next with Wade Barrett on his tail and then the voices filled the arean. Cena and Orton met in the ring with Barrett standing in Cena's corner and later at ringside to give instructions.

The match felt strange to me. I always liked Cena vs. Orton, because no matter what people say, these two men can work great matches together. Heel Orton vs. face Cena was always good, because (at least in my mind) they have chemistry in the ring (something I never saw between Sheamus and Randy). I'm just not used to CeNexusBitch (who has to take orders from the heels) fighting face Randy Orton. Even writing that seems wrong somehow.

They had a good match but like I said it felt strange. Randy Orton was always the heel in a match with Cena, because no one can be more of a face than John Cena, it's as simple as that. The Viper has that whole sneaky from behind thing going for him and you can't deny that feels heelish no matter what.

Barrett medled a little, but Cena told him to stay out of his match and he actually did. Cena looked really pissed by the way when he screamed at his "boss". The finnish was predictable but at least helped to further the storyline between Nexus and John Cena. Contrary to the last few Pay-per-Views Survivor Series actually get's a build up here.

Over all it was one of the better shows of the year. There was only a small amount of crap and the matches were good with Bryan/Ziggler, R-Truth/Miz and Cena/Orton as main event. I'll need at least a year until a match between John Cena and Randy Orton will feel special to me again, but they still delivered a solid performance. I also like that there are storylines that lead into the next PPV and that it hopefully won't have some crappy last-minutes-we-have-to-fill-time matches.

Sign of the day

It's always nice when someone bashes the Miz. I like him, but some of those signs are hilarious.

Bragging Rights Preview

Today is the 24th of October, 2010. Forty-nine years ago Dave Meltzer, infamous editor of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, was born, nearly thirty-two years ago Straight Edge wrestler CM Punk came into the world (October 26th, 1978) and two years ago another "Bloody Friday" occured, with the world's stock exchange experiencing the worst decline in their history. The third of those facts is most likely only important to people who want to pursue a career as stock speculator and the creators of "Wall Street" while the other two may be interesting or one or two wrestling fans.

Okay, I'm getting to the point now. There it is:

In less then nine hours WWEs second Bragging Rights Pay-per-View will be held in Minneapolis, but first I want to add my two sentences on last Monday's Raw. I watched only the first twenty minutes or so but that was enough for me to decide that I didn't like the show. Teddy Long arguing with a laptop was not entertaining and the same can be said for the whole thing with the trophy. The crowd was understandably dead for the thing and when Miz talked about "that trophy and all Bragging Rights that accompany it" I was like: "What Bragging Rights?!"

Ezekiel Jackson is on Team Raw and I assume that's the equivalent of having Tyler Reks in the Smackdown Team. I have never seen any of them but okay, give the guys some screen time... Sudden Inspiration: Hornswoggle is the mascot for Team Smackdown, so is Alex Riley the mascot of Team Raw? Anyway, the big ? of Monday night was CM Punk with dark hair because he changed the color from dark to bleach blonde to dark in about three days.

Hilarious moment I have to add: Ater Miz and Big Show agreed on their one-on-one match, Team Raw retreated back up the ramp and what did we see in the ring? Swagger running around making the eagle.It was too good to be trues.

Bragging Rights: I don't like the concept of Bragging Rights, because like so many others I 1.) think that having three Pay-per-views in thirty-five (35) days is nothing short of plain stupid by WWE Management - 2.) Having Smackdown and Raw fight each other for two weeks of the year when their members are best buddies the remaining fifty is so dumb it has to hurt some people physically - and 3.) There are no f***ing Bragging Rights to win at this damn show!

I could go on and on about what I don't like about this PPV but essentially it will always be one of those three points. So that's all I have to say in the matter. We have a Daniel Bryan match in there and one that involves CeNexus - let's just hope that they deliver a good show ... because that's as good as Bragging Rights will get.


My predictions for who'll win at Bragging Rights: 

Wade Barrett (with John Cena) will win against Randy Orton. If it was Orton on Barret one-on-one Randy ortonw ould clearly win this one, but with Cena there it will be a win for Team Nexus. Orton will look strong because Barrett has to cheat for the win plus it will advance the CeNexus storyline.

Team Raw will beat Team Smackdown. Smackdown won last year so the "bigger show" has to win this time. This will promote the push of the Miz even further and get him closer to main event level.

Natalya will get the pin over Michelle McCool or Layla. I picked her at Hell in a Cell and I'm picking her again for Bragging Rights. The woman has earned this title - even if it isn't worth shit.

Daniel Bryan over Dolph Ziggler. Bryan lost two weeks in a row to Sheamus so I think he deserves that win ... and I'm not really high on Ziggler, to be fair.

Kane (with Paul Bearer) will burry the Undertaker alive, because we all know that Taker needs surgery on his shoulder better earlier than later. This feud brings money, so it will continue for a while.

Like for Hell in a Cell there are five matches announced. I was 4/5 at HiaC so let's see if I can pull that again. Have fun watching everyone, that's it from me for today.

Match of the Year (Update 10/16/10)

Here is the the updated list for my voting for the Match of the Year. The matches removed form the list will be listed below, matches printed bolt are still in (2nd round) and matches printed italic are newly added to the list.

My candidates for MotY thus far

Shawn Michaels vs. The Undertaker at Wrestlemania XXVI (3/28/10)
Chris Jericho vs. Evan Bourne at WWE Fatal 4-Way (6/20/10)
Motor City Machine Guns vs. Beer Money Inc. at TNA The Whole F'n Show (8/12/10)
The Miz vs. Daniel Bryan at WWE Night of Champions (9/19/10)
Motor City Machine Guns vs. Generation Me at TNA Impact somwhere before No Surrender (9/5/10)


Other candidates for MotY
TV matches
2/12 SD - CM Punk vs. Rey Mysterio
2/23 NXT - Chris Jericho vs. Daniel Bryan
4/26 RAW - Chris Jericho vs. Christian
5/17 RAW - Edge vs. Christian
8/09 RAW - The Miz vs. Evan Bourne
8/23 RAW - The Miz vs. John Cena

PPV matches
Motor City Machine Guns vs. Generation Me at TNA Destination X (3/21/10)
John Cena vs. Batista at Wrestlemania XXVI (3/28/10)
John Cena vs. Batista at WWE Extreme Rules (4/25/10)
CM Punk vs. Rey Mysterio at WWE Extreme Rules (4/25/10)
CM Punk vs. Rey Mysterio at WWE Over the Limit (5/23/10)
Motor City Machine Guns vs. Beer Money Inc. at TNA Victory Road (7/11/10)
D-Generation X vs. JeriShow at WWE TLC (12/13/09)
Daniel Bryam vs. John Morrison vs. The Miz at WWE Hell in a Cell (10/3/10)
Motor City Machine Guns vs. Generation Me at TNA Bound for Glory (10/10/10)


Matches that are Out
Rey Mysterio vs. The Undertaker at WWE Royal Rumble (1/31/10)
2/07 FCW - Daniel Bryan vs. Kaval
4/19 RAW - The Undertaker vs. Jack Swagger


PS: I have the sinking feeling that there are too many matches and too less time for this contest, but I hope I'll get it done by the end of the year nonetheless.

Match of the Year

Welcome to the next round of my Match of the Year column. This time I am going to review a FCW match between Kaval and Daniel Bryan and a match that was on Raw earlier this year between The Undertaker and Jack Swagger. The matches were picked randomly, feel free to post your opinion on them.


Kaval vs. Daniel Bryan at 2/07 FCW (ca. 9:00)

A match between Kaval and Daniel Bryan on FCW and people were surprised that it was good. Seriously, if it had been a match between Low Ki and Bryan Danielson on ROH everyone would have been surprised if it was bad. That said it was a good match. Wade Barrett was on commentary and did his job well, you really noticed how good of a talker he is there.

I was pleasantly surprised that the commentators actually aknowledged the fact that Kaval and Bryan had matches, lots of them, before they met on FCW. WWE never does it because admitting that their "performers" have a history past the company is an absolute no-go - they still casually advertise Mick Foley's new book and therefore TNA but that seems to be completely another story.

The match had had some great technical elements and both Kaval and Bryan showed some very innovative moves here. Daniel Bryan displayed incredible flexibility, especially when he did a back arch on his toes with Kaval pretty much sitting on his chest. Doing that needs a lot of strength in the legs and abs, let me assure you of that.

Furthermore we had a really nice spot when Bryan jumped from the turnbuckle on Kaval on the floor and Kaval got his feet up to hit Danielson in the chest/shoulder area. That lucked like it hurt a lot which also has something to do with the great selling Bryan did. The guy can sell like Jericho, Bourne and Shawn Michaels, and Michaels could virtually sell anything.

Over all there was a high display of flexibility from Daniel Bryan and some good looking, high flying, offense from Kaval who did a few great kicks combined with fast movements. Kaval wins the match with a Ghetto Stomp - the move is known as the "Warrior's Way" in WWE but I for the love of God can't memorize that name.

My opinion: These two guys showed that they are indeed "two of the best technical wrestlers in the world" as Wade Barrett so nicely pointed out. They however could have done better with a larger audience that could have gotten behind the match. This way it lacked the feeling that would have made it big otherwise.

Rating: ***1/4

MotY: Out. It was a good match for what it was, but no Match of the Year.

The Undertaker vs. Jack Swagger at 4/19 RAW (ca. 15:00)

The Undertaker and Jack Swagger played a nice story here. The young champion Swagger thinks he can take down the famous Undertaker, who is 18-0 at Wrestlemania. The crowd is behind Taker of course, chanting for him throughout the the match. "Swagger, you don't wanna get into a punching contest with the Undertaker.", truth said by Cole here.

Somewhere shortly after the start they were oustide the ring for a while, where Taker sent Swagger face first into the steel steps, who in return sent him shoulder first into the turnbuckle. Swagger continued to work on the Undertakers legs during the whole match, trying to slow him down. Taker of course had none of it and responded with his fists, an Old School and the mandatory Legdrop - Cole for once was actually right when he called that move ~VINTAGE.

At one point both of them were in the ring and exchanging blows and the crowd really marked out whenever Taker hit a punch on Swagger - that was probably a better reaction than Cena ever got. After that the Undertaker dominated the match, beating down on his younger opponent, but Swagger managed to break the count at 2. Pissed off, Taker teased the Chokeslam, but Jack Swagger actually fought out and was rewarded with a big boot to the face.

Swagger was on the offense for a shot time after that, even getting a near fall. He went for a jump from the ropes but was caught and ate a Chokeslam right away. Taker was really selling the leg after that, limping through the ring while Swagger was still on the floor. But it didn't help the then World Heavyweight Champion much, because Taker hit a Tombstone righter afterwards... and because Swagger is no Shawn Michaels he didn't kick out of that one - that's the win for the Undertaker. Hasta la vista, Jack Swagger.

My opinion: Anyone who thought that Jack Swagger would win here clearly never saw an Undertaker match. But it was still okay. They had some nice back and forth action and both man could show their offense. Taker sold the leg pretty well and the match had a good pace, too. It helped a lot that the crowd was so into it, because that sure gave the match a vibe that the Kaval vs. Bryan one didn't poses.

Rating: **1/2 - **3/4

MotY: Out. They delivered a solid performance, but it was nowhere near MotY.

10/11/10 Raw

First of all: This episode of raw was no spotfest, partly a botchfest and an absolute signfest. Never heard of that? I haven't either. But there was actually a forest of signs in the crowd, plus most of them were really good too (it's rare that I have to choose between two pics for the sign of the day, but for this show I saved nine).

Did I mention that I absolutely hate it that Cena is still wearing the purple crap? ... I did now and I could rant about it all day long. Honestly, he is a part of Nexus and you can barely see his armband under his t-shirt plus he still has his own entrance theme... that's utter bullshit!

Jericho is gone and it seems like Miz tries to be our new savior. I worship him as long as he shuts Cena up every time someone gives him a mic.

I am woman. That said I am allowed to say the following: Alex Riley looked better than The Miz today. The silver outfit just didn't fit him at all. That's obviously not his color, so please go back to something black with a blue/purple tie Creative. (And Miz' birthday was on friday by the way.) I however like Riley as the sidekick of the Miz, these guys have really good chemistry - a little too much at times, to be exact. 

There was a very good and very loud "What?!" chant when Cole quoted the GM. It was the first in about seven or so weeks that you didn't actually see the paper on the laptop.

Barrett lecturing Cena is always funny to watch. I assume it's because usually there is no one who tells John Cena what he has to do and gets away with it without being squashed in the process.

Count with me:
Ted DiBiase vs. R-Truth
John Morrison vs. Tyson Kidd
Santino Marella vs. Zack Ryder
Justin Gabriel vs. Randy Orton
Daniel Bryan vs, Sheamus
Evan Bourne vs. CM Punk
The Miz vs. John Cena

No, your eyes aren't playing trick on you, there were really seven (7) matches on the cared. And, astonishing as it was, the Seattle crowd was really into all of them. They cheered for the faces, booed the heels and brought on some really nice chants throughout the night.

The match between Morrison and Kidd was really good and could have been a lot longer, especially if you consider how much time Gabriel and Orton got. Apropos Justin Gabriel vs. Randy Orton - it was no spotfest, but a real botchfest. Why did they get eleven minutes and Jomo/Kidd only three? ...oh, and Randy Orton is the WWE Champion. I really forgot about that for a second - no joke!

Interlude: Whoever you are, anonymous guy holding that "Ask him" sign ... I love you! xD

Daniel Bryan really got one hell of a reaction from the crowd. It was to be expected, because Washington is his homestate, but they had some great "Let's go Bryan!" chants. Bryan and Sheamus had a very solid match, Danielson did a lot of his signature moves and the crowd poped for all of them. He lost but looked good throughout the match. Sheamus did a great running Irish Backbreaker.

Some may think of this as unnecessary information, but the font on Bryans boots isn't some crappy make up thing, but the actual Kanji for dragon. Compare for yourselves: 龍 (ryû) and

Evan Bourne lost to CM Punk, but that's because he is going out with a shoulder injury. Rumor has it that he has to undergo surgery and will be off for several months. So it's rather logical to let him lose to Punk who needed this win after Big Show wiped the floor with him on Smackdown so many times. As expected their match was one of the best of the whole evening.

Divas interlude: Natalya talked, then LayCool came in and I went out.

You can't let tweener Cole comment a match between John Cena and the Miz. One moment he is hyping Miz and the next he is hyping John Cena - it simply doesn't work and irritates the viewers more than anything else. It was admittedly to be expected that the match would be no DQ but really, who does still think that Creative would let anyone win clean over Cena if they can prevent it? Yeah right, you know it.

There was really a party going on in the ring at the main event. Riley interferred, Husky Harris and Michael McGilicutty showed up to beat Cena for a little bit and Barrett didn't miss out his chance to pummel him some more - verbally at least. I am a sucker for the whole Barrett/Cena storyline, because someone actually shuts John Cena up and (for the time being) gets away with it. Let's hope that there will be a lot more of Barrett tormenting Cena in the next few weeks - they not only have great chemistry, but also make for an entertaining storyline.

I liked this episode of Raw better than most, mostly because there were more matches and less stupid talk and guets hosts in it. Yes, the matches weren't all great but we got some really good action and that's more than Raw offers it's audience usually.

Sign of the day

There were so many ... let's see if someone finds the one in this picture that had me lol like crazy.

And here are the best of the others:

I hope you enjoy them as much as I did - I love the Jericho quote!

TNA Bound for Glory

The Motor City Machine Guns and Generation Me did a really great opening match.

That said, the PPV sucked.

Jeff Hardy turned heel.

Kevin Nash is retiring after the next episode of Impact.

And that was all you needed to know.


PS: Sunday was the 10/10/10 - 101010 binary code - that gives forty-two in decimal numbers (if you are an ITler you most likely laughed about that).

10/04/10 RAW

It's Raw time again. They'll have to start building feuds for Barrgging Rights this episode because it is in ... another three weeks (?). Nobody get's how Vince McMahon can be so dumb as to hold three Pay-per-View in forty-six (46) day but I'm done ranting about it. I won't buy any of them anyway, so why bother?

The crowd reaction to Barrett was medicore at times, he got a few "You suck!" chants but nothing big. Then it was time for Cena and what happened ... he wore no Nexus gear! Damn you, CeNexus! A Nexus armband an that's it - what shit is WWE trying to pull here? Argh, that really pisses me off! Cena looks like a big, lost child by the way, his too big shirt and jean shorts don't help in the matter either. It's the best acting I've seen from John Cena in a long time, though.

That's what I wanted to see ... and what I got to see. Disappointing.

When Cena had to team up with Tarver it was clear that he wouldn't help him win the match, but he again showed a nice defiant behavior that even had me grin a little at times. After Tarvers did the job he acted somewhat heelish with the way he beat him down. There was one spot where the camera was pointed so that you couldn't see his eyes. It gave him that certain "Viper look" - listen to the voices John!

The GMs decision that Cena has to obey Barrett was necssary because otherwise he would've destroyed them in two or three weeks.

I skipped the Divas match and the Legendary plus Jackass 3D advertisement in favor of some food and was back in time for the interview with John Cena (should've skipped that one too, but whatever). Josh Matthews had a point though when he said, "You are either Nexus or ... you're fired."

Daniel Bryan can sell a beating, we already know that, but was that beat down from Sheamus really necessary? ...of course it wasn't. There are enough jobbers out there who could've done the job.

"And Michael Cole, you have been the personification of stupidity since 1997." that was clearly the line of the day. That's why you have to love Edge. And because of, "Why am I arguing with a computer? We’ve gone from Stone Cold Stunning Mr. McMahon on Raw to Edge arguing with a computer!" of course. It's the same as Jericho's classic "Of course you have an e-mail!" "Just shut up and read it!". I already miss the man.

The segment with the Miz, Alex Riley and Edge was about the most entertaining part of the evening. Edge owned Miz (and Riley), by the way - "But he is awesome ... at tapping out to Daniel Bryan."

Afterwards Miz dragged Riley out of the arena like he was his baby - and suddenly Edge's reference wasn't that far-fetched anymore.

I skipped about another seven minutes of Divas and Ted/Maryse/Knoxville highschool storyline, but was right back for the piece with them and Goldust. It was mildly entertaining at least. Okay, the thing with the belt was hilarious. Give it to Goldust, the guy may be a freak, but he is a freak who can be funny.

Cena coming out with Nexus for the Battle Royal gave the whole thing a nice touch. He played his role well when he stood guard dog for Barrett during the whole match and walked out for him at the end.

All in all it was an okay show. They actually got me interested in the CeNexus storyline (if only because of the possibility of Cena turning heel). Let's see what they make of it next week.

After Hell in a Cell

Hell in a Cell took place last night and the reviews so far tell me that it was a fairly good Pay-per-View. I most likely won't watch it until the end of the week because even yukou, tudou and friends aren't that fast with uploading WWE stuff, but I'll share some of my thoughts about the PPV with you here.

Bryan Danielson Daniel Bryan vs. The Miz vs. John Morrison was the opening match (different reviewers have very different opinions about that) and everyone agrees that it was good match. What else did you expect? Danielson is a first class worker, Morrison showed that he can wrestle without botching his finisher in the last few weeks and Miz can have **** matches with the right people (Danielson).

I didn't, don't and never will care about any match between Randy Orton and Sheamus. It supposedly was a solid match but this guys just don't have it in my opinion. They could throw each other from the cage and I still couldn't care less - whatever people say about Orton vs. Cena, at least they had chemistry in the ring!

Alberto Del Rio was on that PPV. To me he has no charisma, is annyoing as hell (in a "fuck-you-I'd-rather-see-Christian-vs-McIntyre-for-the-513th-time-than-have-you-talking" way) and also incredible overrated. Have we seen a really good match from him so far? Have we seen a really good promo from him so far? Is he anything special? No, no, and again - NO.

Edge apparently was the face in his match with Swagger and in a beatdown with him and Alberto Del Rio. That's a bad idea. Edge does not work as a face, we've seen it earlier this year. They'd rather turn CM Punk - because yes, he is better as a heel than as a face, but as a face he is still better than about 90% of the employees of WWE.

Who agrees with me that Edge won't apologize to the GM tonight?

Barrett and Cena seems to have been a better match than expected. Barret kicked out of the STF, what is a miracle in itself. I'm actually seeing forward to watching this.

John Cena joined the Nexus after he lost the match - and WWE's website is promising that Cena will show up tonight in full Nexus gear! I so wanna see that. No grape ape anymore!

I guarantee that today's Raw will have a higher rating than last weeks show. Children and women (grow up, girls!) all around the world are freaking out because Cena had to join "the bad guys", if that doesn't mean ratings what does?

There was a women's match. The better wrestler won. She didn't get the title. Enough said.

Paul Bearer turned on the Undertaker like many people here on the Internet predicted. It was a wise move and better than having Taker wipe the floor with Kane after he won the last Pay-per-View match they had. Kane has rarely had that much momentum.

I predicted 4/5 of five matches right. Natalya won, didn't get the title however. Cena lost via interference from outside (not clean) and - like I predicted - didn't turn heel.


PS: Creative finally saw a light at the end of the tunnel - The Miz is no longer wearing white. Bryan's new ring gear looks nice, though.