Best Of 2010: End Of Year Awards

So, it's the end of the year already and that means it's time to review 2010 and all that it brought to our television screens in terms of pro-wrestling.

Match Of The Year

The Undertaker vs. Shawn Michaels; Wrestlemania.

Was it ever going to be any other match? I was expecting this match to be a let-down to be quite honest, as I was of the belief that it couldn't possibly reach the dazzling heights of the previous year's sublime encounter -- but how wrong I was. This was the highlight of this past year's Mania (and arguably the only one).

Feud Of The Year

El Generico and Kevin Steen; ROH

Best example of a feud between a former face-heel tandem since MVP and Matt Hardy's heated and entertaining rivalry a few years back. Only better. Exemplary of some of the fantastic wrestling that ROH consistently produced this year, despite losing the services of Brian Danielson before 2010 began in earnest.

They not only set the bar this year -- they took the bar, and bludgeoned each other with it.

Honourable mentions include Shawn Michaels-Undertaker, The Miz-Brian Danielson, and CM Punk-Rey Mysterio.

Promo Of The Year

CM Punk singing Happy Birthday to Mysterio's daughter; Smackdown

This was pure gold. I don't know anyoe who saw this promo that didn't love it. Now that Punk is recovering from his injury, I hope to see plenty more like it.

The Miz's post-match promo following his MITB victory definitely deserves an honourable mention, of course.

Show Of The Year

ROH on HDNet

WWE Monday Night Raw had its ups and downs, Smackdown became very stale, while TNA iMPACT just got plain wacky with the arrival of Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff on January 4. ROH, meanwhile, rolled out some awesome wrestling on their new show on HDNet. Probably the best match they aired during 2010 was the tag team street fight between Colt Cobana & El Generico and Kevin Steen & Steve Corino. This bout was of PPV quality, but the nice folks at ROH have more than enough quality to go around for HDNet. Hopefully Delirious, as a booker, can help the company prosper in 2011.

PPV Of The Year

Money In The Bank

The standard answer for this award year in, year out is WrestleMania, with Royal Rumble as a close runner-up. This year's Mania, however, was the pits. It really set the standard for the year, and the only standout PPV in 2010 was MITB, which saw The Miz break the glass ceiling, Jack Swagger holding his own against Rey Mysterio, and Kane's turn on Mysterio and subsequent cash-in of his MITB briefcase. Certainly more entertaining than some of the other tripe that WWE and TNA have produced in 2010. ROH's Glory By Honor and Final Battle also deserve honourable mentions, of course.

Superstar Of The Year

The Miz 

While WWE gave the corresponding Slammy to John Cena, I don't think anyone had a better year than The Miz. Entered the year as US Champion, became the first superstar ever to hold both the US and Tag Titles at the same time, was the most entertaining Pro on NXT and helped put Rookie Daniel Bryan over big time, won the MITB Ladder match and cashed it in just a few short weeks ago against Randy Orton on Raw, where he won his first WWE Championship. No one, and I mean NO ONE would have predicted such a stellar year for the former reality TV star. At the very least, nobody even believed he would surpass his former tag-team partner John Morrison in such a short space of time.

I would also attribute a tiny part of Miz's success to the departure of Dave Batista in May. Batista was by far the best heel character up until that point, and Mizanin may not have received his opportunity so soon had there not been a void in that main event spot. I expect Miz to excel in the coming year But we all know about pro-wrestling and expectations. . .

What's Going Down on TUA!

Unfortunately, I was not able to post an article on Monday on last week's wrestling in my column over at ProWrestlingPonderings.Com. Life has been hectic these days with college and various assignments that I have been obligated to put ahead of everything else, not to mention Class Rep Training and helping out with the organisation and mobilisation in IADT of the National Student March on November 3, so I can only apologise wholeheartedly to Jerome Cusson of PWP and all of our readers. I will certainly do my best in future to be as reliable as possble. 
 

In order to make up for my apparent absenteeism on PWP, I will do a quick round up of WWE on television from last week (Oct. 11-17) right here and now! There wasn't a whole lot to talk about, but we'll see how it contributes to the lead-in to Bragging Rights.

The #1 Contender, Cena, The Miz and Team Raw Captaincy

Last week's Raw opened up John Cena on the mic. He was talking about being in Nexus and the difficult position that puts him in in relation to his fans. At this point in time, The Miz interrupts and mocks Cena. He says that as Team Captain for Raw, he won't choose his team members based on their personality, so he is willing tolet Cena join the side. Cena replies that he should be captain instead. Another interruption happens at this point in the shape of Wade Barrett, who tells Cena he will be in his corner for the BR main event against Randy Orton instead. We are then greeted to the sound of the Anonymous General Manager's email tone coming from Michael Cole's laptop. He shoots down Barrett and books Cena in a match with Miz for the team's captaincy as part of a series of matches to determine what superstars it will comprise of.

The contest, which was later made a No DQ match for the main event, was a relatively good bout won by The Miz after interruption from Husky Harris and Michael McGillicutty. This should be a huge ego boost for The Miz after what happened at Summerslam, and it should be played as such on-screen. It could even be used by Creative as a reason for Team Raw's loss at the PPV, assuming they do lose, of course (although I think it'd be fair to say that Team Smackdown are the likely winners at this point).

The best bit of this match, the night and this angle so far had to be the segment between Cena and Barrett after the encounter. Harris and Barrett teamed up on Cena, before Barrett jumped in, who was nearly hit by his latest recruit. The Englishman proceeded to cut his best promo ever and villified Cena and made him look weak and cowardly. It was fantastic. Barrett ended the segment with, "until next week... you can't see me!" This guy is the real deal.

 Team Raw

As mentioned, a series of matches to determine Team Raw took place during last week's episode. The team is as follows: R-Truth, CM Punk, Santino Marella, John Morrison, Sheamus and The Miz (c). That leaves room for one more competitor -- Triple H mayhaps? Probably not, but hopefully the seventh member will bring more to the table that Santino. . .

 Team Smackdown

The team is as follows: Big Show (c), Rey Mysterio, Alberto Del Rio, Kofi Kingston, Jack Swagger, Edge and Tyler Reks. The last name on that list made his debut on SD last week with a win against Kaval. They really don't know what to do with the winner of NXT Season 2.

 The Family Of Destruction

So, the feud between Kane and The Undertaker, which has been on-off for over 13 years, is still going strong. Well, erm, not sure about 'strong', but it's still going nonetheless. The rivalry continued with another spooky, slightly over-the-top promo from Kane, reflecting the over-the-top of all these characters, including Paul Bearer.

Long story short, Kane and his father challenged Taker to a Buried Alive match at Bragging Rights, which would be for the title yet again, of course. Undi' came out and demonstrated that his powers had seemingly returned to him! He went after Kane and Bearer, who ran off before being frightened by a bolt of lightning that had been summoned by the Phenom. Mildly interesting.

That brings my review of the week to a close and I hope you enjoyed it, even though not a whole happened. Don't forget to check out my column over at PWP, where normal business shall resume next week :)

Dying A Slow Death

I will give you three guesses as to what this entry is dedicated to. . .

Ever since Season 3 of NXT began, I have been considering just not writing about it anymore in my weekly column over at ProWrestlingPonderings.com. The all-female roster is dreadful. The challenges and obstacle courses make for terrible television. The actual wrestling is no better and the promos are painfully cringe worthy. Worst of all (depending on your point of view I suppose), this ridiculous excuse for a show won't even be on the air shortly. With Smackdown moving back to Syfy at the beginning of October, the network has decided there is no need to keep both shows on board, thus it is dumping NXT in favour of WWE's B-show. You couldn't make up a worst array of reasons not to write about, let alone watch, this crap.

And yet, when I finally forced myself to watch an entire episode of NXT this week, I realised how fascinating it actually is when you break it down. I found there was too much to talk about for my relatively small PWP article. As I said, the show is being pulled from tv and is believed to be moving to an Internet-only format before long. That means only four weeks of a twelve-week season will actually be aired on television, which has essentially lead to near-to-nobody caring about it, including the commentators.

This week's episode began with a recap of the previous week's show, which ended with Michael Cole walking out and just leaving the commentary team, primarily because it was a "joke." From this point on, they were openly admitting that NXT was pure muck. Josh Matthews was alone on the announce desk before he was joined by none other than CM Punk in a tweed jacket, who almost immediately described the show as a "car crash." Pure muck was somehow turned into pure gold momentarily:

The whole thing was incredibly surreal. For the majority of that hour, I couldn't believe I was watching a wrestling show. Yet, for all its craptacular insufferability, it made for great television. I gained far more enjoyment from watching this God awful laughing stock than I ever did watching the usual boring stuff they generally stick on NXT. It would appear that terrible beats mediocre anyday.

Read My New Column at ProWrestlingPonderings.Com!

That's right -- it's finally here!

Head over to ProWrestlingPonderings.Com and find my new weekly column, What's Going Down, there each and every Monday morning.

In my brand spanking new column, I'll be giving you the lowdown on the week in WWE on television. I will be covering all three shows -- Raw, Smackdown and NXT -- and giving you my view on where the E are going right and wrong these days.

 Click here to read my first article for the website! 

And don't forget to check out Ryan Rozanski's review of TNA No Surrender as well.

Smackdown! Results And Review (03-09-2010)

Here are the results from this evening's Friday Night Smackdown!:

• 
  
  Alberto Del Rio opens the show with a fiesta in the ring. A recap of his beat-down of Rey Mysterio from the previous week is shown on the titantron and Alberto claims that he is celebrating the "removal of Rey from the WWE." He proposes a toast to himself, because he is "rich.. handsome.. powerful.. I'm everything!" At this point, he is interrupted by Christian, of all people. He jokes that Del Rio is JBL ("Juan Bradshaw Layfield") and Enrique Iglesias. A bit of casual racism never did anyone harm sure. Then Captain Charisma gets serious (is it even possible to take him serious anymore?) and it looks as if a fight is about to ensue. However, Del Rio leaves the ring and says there will be "another time and another place, but you're going to pay." Christian is then ambushed by Drew McIntyre, who he is due to face next. Alberto empties a bottle of champagne over The Instant Classic.

• 
  
  During the break, Drew throws Christian into the steel ringsteps. The Canadian goes ahead with the match nonetheless. In the most impressive bit of the bout, Christian jumped off the middle turnbuckle towards Drew, but the Sinister Scotsman reversed it into a tilt-the-whirl backbreaker. At around the four minute mark, Drew reversed the Killswitch into a gutbuster, yet Christian gained the win with a roll-up -- without hitting the ringpost once!

• 
  
  This is followed by Michelle McCool versus Kelly Kelly. Matt Striker and Todd Grisham are joined by Layla, who is very hyper on commentary. She's excited about the possibility of becoming Unified Divas/Womens Champion apparently. McCool wins with the Faithbreaker (or AJ Styles' finishing move, the Styles Clash) after just over two minutes.

• 
  
  After the break, we see Hornswoggle in Teddy Long's office with a psychiatrist. The leprechaun has electrodes placed on his temples. According to the psychiatrist, this is the last solution to get him to speak. Unsurprisingly, Hornswoggle rejects the electro-shock therapy, instead sticking a electrode on the doctor's forehead. Teddy and Hornswoggle scuttle away, while smoke rise from beneath the doc. This angle is stupid and isn't going anywhere. Remind me not to acknowledge it next time. . .

• 
  
  Following the ad break, Chris Masters is in the ring. Vickie Guerrero introduces Dolph Ziggler. I had seen these have a decent match before on Superstars, so I expected this to be at least a competent outing for the both of them. Dolph hit a nice neckbreaker on Masters on the ropes at one point. For the finish, Masters went for the Masterlock, but it was reversed very nicely when Dolph leaped up onto the corner and landed backwards. He then won with the Zig-Zag in just under three minutes.

• 
  
  Big Show then comes out for his 2-on-1 handicap tag match with CM Punk and Luke Gallows from the Straight Edge Society, who are joined by the injured Joey Mercury at ringside. Still no explanation on-screen for Serena's release from the company, and I somehow doubt we will ever get one. The match proceeds a bit like a game of cat and mouse, with the SES trying to avoid Show at all costs. With`a good bit of the action moving outside the ring, Gallows was able to knock down the 400-pound giant with one blow to the back of the head. In the finishing sequence, Punk is knocked off the apron, Show does a reverse electric chair on Gallows and gets the win via submission after slapping on a rear-naked choke. Punk, is seething at this point, loses his cool and gives Gallows a GTS. He leaves the ring in anger and falls to his knees at the stage. It looks as if the SES's days are numbered. . .

• 
  
  Next we have the VIP Lounge with special guest host Jack Swagger, who won the right to host it after defeating MVP a week earlier in the Jack Swagger Sr Invitational. Swagger's guest is his father, who is sitting in a wheelchair in the ring with a neck brace on (showing the effects of Kane's Tombstone Piledriver several weeks earlier presumably). He says he is proud of his son, despite being left to be hit with the aforementioned move on a previous episode of Smackdown. Jack does some push-ups for his dad, who counts two for every one at some point after ten push-ups. MVP interrupts and says that it is still his VIP Lounge and that there are "renovations" to be done. He subsequently starts throwing trophies and furniture around. MVP then goes for Swagger, who uses his dad as a human shield. Jack pretty much hurls his father out of the chair towards MVP and runs out f the ring. Jack Swagger Sr is then left to Porter, who lands the ballin' elbow drop on him. What jerks.

• 
  
  Matt Hardy comes out next and looks as if he can barely walk. Cody Rhodes enters with a mic and insults Matt about his appearance. He says that "my Grooming Tips are for people like... you fatty!" and points to a group of kids in the front row, probably not realising who he was about to point at. He resumes insulting Hardy and shows him the mirror on the back of his jacket. He says he sees "Matt Hardy Version.. done!" This whole spot lasts about three minutes. There was probably no need for it to go on that long. When the match finally does start, it lasts about five minutes. Cody gains the pinfall after Hardy hurts his leg and pounces with Crossroads (or is it CrossRhodes?).

• 
  
  In the last segment of the night, we finally get to hear Kane's "Major Announcement." Kane's entrance music and pyro come on, but is nowhere to be seen.  We hear him laughing and find that he is actually on the titantron. He talks about the "final chapter" and the "end of the Undertaker's existence." Heavy stuff. He then goes on to announce that he'll defend his World Heavyweight Title against Taker at Night Of Champions to almost no crowd reaction. He laughs menacingly and says he has "longed for (his) powers" and casket is brought ringside by druids. As the camera gets a shot of it, Undi's graphics begin to appear, but it is just a swerve as Kane emerges from within. There is even more laughing as Kane claims that Taker is now in his shadow. He talks about his brother's weakness and how his "powers" now belong to him. The Big Red Machine repeatedly says that "nothing can stop me!", but just at that moment, the Phenom's music hits. Taker enters the ring and makes a move for Kane, but the lights go out and he has disappeared once they come back on. Upon opening the casket, Taker finds that it is empty. We are once again greeted to the sight of Kane on the tron. He says that they are known as "the Brothers Of Destruction, but after Night Of Champions you will be the brother that I destroyed." The show closes with Kane's pyro and music.

All in all, not a bad Smackdown. I didn't think there was a single bad match on the card and, even though they are trying to stretch out the Taker-Kane feud each week with segments that can feel a bit forced at times, it was a pretty solid episode. Definitely a world away from this week's Monday Night Raw.

Why Cody Rhodes Is So Dashing

Cody Rhodes

In a previous blog post, Making New Ground. Sort Of, I wrote that under the wings of Randy Orton the members of Legacy - Cody Rhodes and Ted DiBiase - didn't make much, if any, ground during the time of that particular stable. That's undoubtedly a miserable failure if one of your main eventers can't elevate two mid-card wrestlers -- when it's specifically what he's supposed to be doing! What was the point of Legacy in the first place if it did nothing for the younger guys involved?

Cody as a member of Legacy

It was Randy Orton who eventually went over at Wrestlemania 26 in a Triple Threat match between himself and his former protegés. But when the feud ended there, the beaten men were back at square one. It was now completely up to them to try and elevate themselves up to the upper-mid-card or main event level.

Ted DiBiase stayed on Raw and found it hard getting a push at the best of times. On one episode, he was totally jobbed out by John Cena, who showed the second-generation superstar absolutely no respect. It was the low point of his post-Mania solo run. In an effort to put his career back on track, he resurrected the Million Dollar Man persona that his father used to such great effect in the eighties. It's not a great sign when you have to resort to a gimmick that your dad employed several years ago. . .

Cody, on the other hand, didn't seem to be going anywhere either, at first. He was moved to Smackdown! in the WWE Draft and then paired with a Rookie, Husky Harris, on NXT. It was apparent that he was not high priority for Creative.

In need of a push in the right direction, Cody revealed his brand new disposition:

I must admit, I love this new side of Cody. It's unleashed something in him that we're only beginning to see. He's brash, confident, cocky and tremendously suave on-screen right now. In my opinion, a lot of the best stuff in pro-wrestling is the really simple stuff. Cody's personality is simple: he's a good-looking guy and he knows it. There's nothing that a crowd finds more boo-inducing than someone who likes to tell you how good he is while insulting the viewers at the same time. The same goes for someone who continually tells you how handsome and "dashing" he is, and then says the opposite about his audience. Rhodes has just about perfected it really, and generates a great deal of heat on SD! now. The real test will be to stick him on Raw, and if he can make it work there, then he will have synched it.

I just hope he can continue to be as entertaining in his promos as he has been over the past two months:

His character has also been moulded effectively in a number of ways as well. Most notably, there's the mirror beneath the titantron that he uses for his entrance...

...and, of course, his fantastic Grooming Tips that we've been seeing for the past six or so weeks on SD!

Considering how SD! was practically pillaged in the aforementioned Draft, Cody Rhodes is one of the best things on display every Friday night. Even better is the fact that he's getting a bit of a push at the moment. He recently defeated both Matt Hardy and Christian in consecutive weeks and it now appears that he'll be in a mini-feud involving them, himself and Drew McIntyre. Hopefully that will go somewhere, but with the "sinister Scotsman" involved, Gods only knows if it will go anywhere at all.

As I said earlier, Cody has also been appearing on NXT, where he was mentoring his Rookie Husky Harris until he was eliminated just over two weeks ago. In my estimation, Rhodes has been one of the best Pros in the show's entirety, perhaps only bettered by The Miz, which is understandable once you consider the roll that Mr.MITB has been on this year. He's shot some amusing and entertaining promos on this Tuesday night programme, including this one: 

I always got the feeling on NXT that Cody did the best job at trying to put his Rookie over, aside from maybe LayCool (Michelle McCool and Layla) and their great work with Kaval. I think that's partly evidenced in his reaction (or overreaction, depending on how you look at it) to Husky's elimination. And Cody is still going great on the show without Harris, cutting another good promo last week and won in a decent, if long, match against MVP.

It certainly looks as if the son of Dusty Rhodes and brother of Dustin "Goldust" Runnels is finally getting somewhere. Let's just hope he can stay. . . dashing!

Wham, Bam, Summerslam!

Summerslam took place on 15 August in Los Angeles

Up until the August 9 edition of Monday Night Raw, only three matches had been booked for Summerslam (SS), one of WWE's Big Four pay-per-views. It just goes to show that three weeks is far too short a time to promote such a high profile event. It also points to slack booking, which we've been seeing from WWE in recent times and saw throughout this PPV.

The Intercontinental Championship match between Dolph Ziggler and challenger Kofi Kingston was the curtain jerker. Kofi was trying to regain a title that he had only lost 9 days previously -- did anyone really believe that he was going to win? Answer: no. WWE made the same mistake at Fatal 4 Way. The Miz defended the US Title against R-Truth, whom he had just defeated for the belt on that week's Raw. Needless to say, Mike Mizanin retained on that occasion. I bring this up because you need to give fans a reason to buy a PPV in every match, not just the top two or three on the card.

On top of that, this match was just stale if you had seen any of their other bouts over the past month. So, why couldn't they just wait until SS to put the belt on Ziggler? There was a simple answer to that, as we were to find out. The match was reaching its climax when Kofi missed with Trouble In Paradise and Dolph slapped on the Sleeper Hold. At that moment, Nexus came out of nowhere, attacking them both. The faction of NXT Season 1 Rookies, in trying to make another impact in yet another 7-on-1 beat down, caused this encounter to end in a no contest. . .

Nexus gangs up on Kofi

Following that was the Divas Championship match between Melina and Alecia Fox. This was better than their dour meeting on last week's Raw, but it's too bad that not too many people care that Melina won her first title since returning from an injury that kept her out for a year. The celebrations were interrupted by the self-professed co-Women's Champions, Layla and Michelle McCool, who proceeded to hand her a harsh beating. Alecia will surely be handed a rematch, but a feud between the new Divas champion and the entertaining Laycool could be appealing. Then again, this is the WWE Diva's division, so let's not get our hopes up. . .

Melina

Next up was the 3-on-1 handicap match between the Straight Edge Society (SES) and the Big Show, which was hastily put together the week of the PPV. Once again, just more sloppy booking. I liked the match itself, but at the same time, there was no real reason for it to be on this card other than to fill time.

Show looked dominant from the beginning, before the SES ganged up on him and took the advantage. Inevitably, the World's Largest Athlete gained the double pin over Joey Mercury and Luke Gallows as CM Punk scuttled away from the ring with Serena. All im all, nothing special, but I did like it all the same.

It will be intriguing to see where Punk and the SES go from here. In all their time together they haven't done a whole lot other than shave a few peoples' heads. In recent promos, the Straight Edge Superstar has looked fantastic, but he hasn't been able to take his three cronies anywhere above where they already were. In the context of this match though, CM Punk played the cowardly heel masterfully I thought. This would set up a defection from the SES by it's members quite nicely in my estimation, with the possibility of a Punk-Gallows rivalry or something along those lines. I quite like the sound of that idea, but that begs the question, what do you do with Serena, Gallows and Mercury after then? I guess that's a bridge we'll have to cross when we reach it. . .

Big Show -- Paul White has been great as a face so far

The midway point of the night was marked by two promos, the first of which greeted us to the sight of Kane standing by an empty coffin. He was soon joined by Sheamus, who is continuing to show more and more confidence on-screen.

That was followed by The Miz in the ring, who cut a fantastic promo over his decision to join Team WWE for the main event or not. All I can say is, go look it up and watch it for yourself -- well worth seeing. I did think he was going to turn down the offer, the typical heel thing to do, but it set up the angle for the Daniel Bryan return later on in the show perfectly. . .

The Miz

In last week's article, "Making New Ground. Sort of.", I wrote that both Randy Orton and Sheamus needed a good match in their fight for the WWE Championship, but that Sheamus also badly needed a clean win here. If we look at his title matches, his first reign was won via an accidental fall through the table by John Cena, his Royal Rumble clash with Orton ended in a DQ, he regained the title at Fatal 4 Way after a run-in from The Nexus and retained it at Money In The Bank in almost identical circumstances. Add to that list a DQ loss to The Viper at SS.

Now, if you're trying to push a fresh, new champion as fearsome and powerful in the ring, then the last thing you do is hand him an unimpressive record such as the one I just listed. I was even enjoying this match up until the point where Sheamus shoved the ref when attempting to bring a chair in. He got an RKO on the announce table for his troubles, of course. I don't see The Celtic Warrior retaining the belt at Night Of Champion and I don't envisage anyone else believing he can either. If he can't get a win over an established headliner (such as Triple H, with whom he is expected to feud with in the near future), then he may slip away from being a fixture in the main event level altogether. . .

Sheamus -- Laoch (see trunks) is the Irish for "hero"

Possibly one of the most anticipated matches of the night was the World Heavyweight Championship contest between the holder Kane and Rey Mysterio, who was striving to prove his innocence (although I'm not sure how winning a match would do that). Once again, this was another good, solid bout that was marred by bad booking.

Rey competed well for the most part against the Big Red Machine, so in desperation Kane turned to the casket. On the first attempt, he failed to close the lid on Rey, who looked as if he would eventually find a way to overcome the odds. For once, however, the WWE's Biggest Little Man couldn't find a way past a devastating Chokeslam. The clean pin and the ease with which it was picked up was surprising, but just in case you had forgotten, Kane drilled this big win home with a further Chokeslam as well as a Tombstone Piledriver.

Naturally, Kane went back to the casket once more, only to find The Undertaker inside. Taker looked at his brother, before turning to Rey. At this point, we thought he was singling out the masked man, as he said, 'did you ever hear of "an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth?' Before.. before I make things right.. why? Why'd you do it, Rey?" Mysterio's response was inaudible, unfortunately, but it was all a swerve anyway -- The Phenom swung around and stared menacingly at Kane. He slapped a choke on his apparent attacker, but was hit back and ended up on the receiving end of a Tombstone.

Much like everything else on this PPV, there were good and bad things about this particular angle. First off, I doubt anyone was truly surprised by The Undertaker's return -- one way or another, he was coming back at SS. The way WWE went about it was slightly confusing though. Why did Taker confront Rey in the manner he did if he wasn't the attacker? Was it just for the swerve or did Rey have something to do with it after all? I guess we'll find out more on Smackdown! this coming Friday.

It was also important to make Kane look superior in the way they did. People have to believe that he can beat his brother, as he has been made to look inferior in past feuds, but above all else it's believable -- having just awoken from a storyline coma (notice how he staggers out of the casket), Taker would be susceptible to any competitor, not just a monster heel. There was nothing particularly special about this match or the events immediately after it.

Taker and Kane partake in a choking war

Aaaaand your main event!
The heavily hyped 7-on-7 elimination tag team match between Team WWE (as advertised -- John Cena, Bret Hart, Edge, Chris Jericho, John Morrison, R-Truth and an unconfirmed seventh member) and The Nexus (Wade Barrett, Justin Gabriel, David Otunga, Skip Sheffield, Heath Slater, Darren Young and Michael Tarver).

After his awesome promo earlier in the night, it had looked as if The Miz was certain to be that seventh member. But just as Team WWE had made their way to ringside with Miz in the wings in anticipation, John Cena brought out Daniel Bryan in one of those very rare moments in pro wrestling these days -- something that you simply don't see coming.

Cue huge pop, melee in the ring and a crossface from Bryan on Young, thus forcing a submission in the early moments of the 14-man crunch match. The American Dragon didn't reenter the squared circle until Team WWE were down to just himself and Cena, but when he did, he absolutely kicked ass until The Miz ran in and hit him with the briefcase. It's amazing that Michael Cole continues to bury him on commentary. This was a performance good enough to win even the harshest critics over, so to continue on insisting that AmDrag "got lucky" in this bout, that all his in-ring capabilities were conjured up by the Internet and that he is a "dweeb" and a "twerp" is incredibly baffling. Perhaps taking the US title off of his former Pro would change Cole's mind...?

In the final sequence, John Cena was left in a two-on-one situation against Gabriel and Barrett. Gabriel went for the win with his ever-impressive 450 Splash, but Cena moved out of harm's way and subsequently pinned the South African, which looked weak. So did the finish, however, when Barrett tapped out to the NPSTF (No Pressure Stepover Toehold Footlock). All in all, a fairly entertaining match where arguably it's only downfall was in the ending.

This PPV was stuck in an unfotunate pattern. On the whole it was an enjoyable event with good matches. However, nearly all of those matches were marred by sloppy or poor finishes. As I wrote before, the viewer needs a reason in every single match to buy the PPV.

"This Is Awesome" -- Daniel Bryan Returns!

S.S 2010 Part 10, S.S 2010 Part 12 and S.S 2010 Part 13

Uploaded by WWEKingHD. - Discover the latest sports and extreme videos.

You know, it was talked about during the past few weeks about how awesome it would be for Brian "Daniel Bryan" Danielson to make his return at Summerslam as the seventh member of Team WWE in the 7-on-7 main event contest. But not for one second did anyone believe that would happen. In fact, one person called into Smart Wrestling Fan on Tuesday, suggesting that Daniel Bryan would be in the elimination tag match instead of The Miz, thus turning Bryan into a massive face and creating a great feud. Even that particular caller, though, admitted that WWE Creative would never go for that.

However, when Cena revealed that Bryan would be partaking in the main event, I think everyone was in disbelief at what we were witnessing. The American Dragon made the first elimination early on when he made Darren Young submit with a crossface. He remained on the apron for the majority of the match, but when he finally re-entered the fray, it took me back to his ROH days. This truly was awesome while it lasted.

And the great thing about it was, unlike the Kane-Undertaker-casket angle, this was completely unexpected. I even read the other day that Danielson was booked to be on an indie card at the end of September, so seeing him back this early was surprising to say the least.

This should have been the point where Michael Cole stops burying him on commentary once and for all by the way. At a certain point, it stops being amusing and entertaining, and becomes plain annoying.

Either way, things are looking good for the American Dragon Brian Danielson.
Welcome back Daniel Bryan.

Superstars Scrapheap

First off, anybody out there actually watch Superstars?

*crickets followed by tumbleweed*

Right so, on with the article then. . .

I noticed lately that the ratings for the show in question has been getting lower and lower every week, bit by bit. Of course, I ended up coming to the conclusion that Superstars has become just like Heat and Velocity before it.

What set it apart from those now defunct shows is that, at first, storylines with mid-carders such as Dolph Ziggler were teased out in the ring. Now that isn't the case anymore, but at least it gave people half a reason to tune in. Superstars is also more concentrated on the actual matches, whereas Heat was more of a Raw highlight show with meaningless matches in between that usually involved low carders like Val Venis or just complete jobbers who we'd never see again. Notwithstanding that, Chris Jericho has appeared on it several times as well.

The choice of commentators is also different. Whereas they used to put the likes of Todd Grisham, Josh Matthews, Jonathan Coachman (remember him?) and Jack Korpela (oh god) on the announce desk, WWE actually puts Michael Cole, Jerry Lawler and Matt Striker on commentary for this Thursday night programme. It's only a small thing, but it does matter to wrestling fans.

So on the basis of that evidence, it would seem as if WWE did put some stock in it at the beginning. But when I tune into it on Friday evenings (when it airs in Ireland) I don't get the feeling that anyone cares about this slot anymore (that is, of course, if anybody cared about it in the first place).

In all honesty, it's a bit of a black hole for any talent who are unfortunate enough to end up on it these days. Many of the wrestlers who now appear on Superstars, seem to be perpetually affixed to it. Chris Masters, for instance, returned a few short months ago to Raw, but ever since has wrestled solely on Superstars. Maybe that's a bad example, because I actually don't want Masters anywhere near my television screen to begin with.

If we take, say, Chavo Guerrero, who has been out of the loop since his feud with Rey Mysterio really. In the last month or two, however, Chavo has been missing from Smackdown! and is now on a "winning streak" on Superstars according to Grisham. I actually like Chavo, I've always been a fan of his. I've watched a few matches he had back in WCW and I think WWE have really missed the ball with this guy. He's so good, and yet he hasn't been used in the right way on so many occasions. I just don't see how the Santino and Kozlov double act makes it onto Raw, supposedly your flagship wrestling show for the week, when Chavo should at least have a good spot on Smackdown! instead of doing this crap.

Just as we see weekly in NXT, where Rookies are made to do idiotic tasks, it is yet another example of WWE misusing their talent.

Making New Ground. Sort Of.

Summerslam, the first Big Four pay-per-view in the lead-up to WrestleMania, is this weekend and there's one match in particular that I am very curious to see. . .

And before you ask: NO, it's not the Team WWE versus Team Nexus 7-on-7 main event I'm speaking of. Rather, it's the WWE Championship bout between Sheamus and Randy Orton that I'm looking forward to.

As you may remember, these two faced off for the same title at Royal Rumble in a lacklustre match-up. Back then these two men were on different paths to the ones they are on now.

Firstly, Orton was still a heel! Quite hard to believe it was such a short time ago. Secondly, he still had The Legacy tagging along with him. Thirdly, this was Sheamus's first title reign, so he was extremely green both in the ring and on the mic. 

Looking back, and it's very easy to be wise after the event, but I think it was fairly obvious at the time that Orton wouldn't be taking the title off The Celtic Warrior on this particular night. We all knew that the triumvirate he had with Cody Rhodes and Ted DiBiase Jr. was nearing an end, so what sense would it have made to put the title on him so close to 'Mania? He certainly didn't elevate Rhodes and DiBiase to main event level, so there was never going to be a face-off between the three for the championship. It's never a good sign for what should be a big match when one can work out the finish with relative ease.

And lo' and behold, Sheamus won via disqualification after Rhodes attacked him.





The idea here, of course, was to speed up the division between Orton, Rhodes and DiBiase, while keeping the belt on the Irishman. Now, I've no problem with trying to progress an on-screen storyline, but I was seriously pissed off at the time with how WWE went about it in this instance. I don't think anyone buys a PPV to watch crappy finishes to headline contests such as these. It did nothing to generate heat with the audience for the Legacy feud and it certainly didn't give Sheamus any credibility as a champion, despite his squashing of the Viper afterwards. All I could think was, "this has transitional champ written ALL OVER IT."

Subsequently, Sheamus dropped the title to John Cena at Elimination Chamber,thus setting up a feud with Triple H, while Legacy finally split from Orton in the same match.

Sheamus lost to Trippers at WM, and while he eventually beat The Game at Extreme Rules, a win on the 'Grandest Stage Of 'Em All' would have given him the push of a lifetime -- nothing builds up a character quite like a victory over an established superstar at 'Mania. The Triple Threat match on the same card was enjoyable, as Orton gained the win by pinfall, but it wasn't the kind of ending that this rivalry deserved. Not looking great for these supposed main eventers so.

Fast forward five months, Sheamus holds the WWE Championship once again and Orton has since turned face. So, what's changed in the meantime? What's the difference between then and now?

Well, it would definitely seem as if Sheamus has grown in confidence as well as stature in the intervening months. He's become a lot smoother in the ring than he used to be and can now create genuine heat from the audience. He has undoubtedly improved since his first title reign in my estimation.

Orton, on the other hand, has been treading on new ground -- he's been living life as a fully fledged babyface! This was unthinkable after the ill-fated face turn following his split from the super heel faction Evolution. The lesson learned from that storyline was to keep The Legend Killer a bad guy -- until now.

There were many sceptics who predicted that he would not be able to cut it as a so-called good guy, that he was just too hateable to make it work. And truth be told, he did struggle to connect with the fans at first and I felt this would end up much like Edge's short lived face turn earlier on this year. Over the past few weeks, however, he's been receiving huge pops from the crowd each and every time he steps into the ring. I reckon it would be fair to say that he hasn't been this over in quite a while. As a face, it would seem, Randy is loved by the fans.

But what does all this mean for their encounter this coming Sunday?

It's been asserted by other writers I've read and podcasters that I've listened to, that Sheamus is simply keeping the belt warm for Triple H, who will no doubt be looking for revenge after being attacked by The Celtic Warrior at Extreme Rules. If this is the case, I imagine the Irishman will gain the victory here, but it all hangs on the finish for me. If it ends in a non-finish or another DQ, it could potentially ruin a perfectly good contest. Hopefully it won't come to that.

My best case scenario is that Sheamus wins cleanly. Ultimately, though, these two guys need to have a good match. This PPV and their year almost depend on it.

Podcast Of The Week: Smart Wrestling Fan

Welcome to podcast number three in the POTW series!

If you've been following this column, you'll know that it is usually found on my main blog, The Novelty Act, but this week I wanted to do something a little different and, considering the content, felt it deserved to be posted on The Unfinished Article.

As the mere existence of this particular blog will suggest, I'm a big wrestling fan. Unfortunately, it's not terribly easy to follow pro wrestling in Ireland unless you have Sky Digital, which I don't. Instead I must catch up on the week's WWE action every Sunday morning on Sky1 or watch it illegally on the Internet. That's where the AWARD WINNING Smart Wrestling Fan comes in. . .

SWF is a weekly wrestling review show that airs every Tuesday and subsequently podcasted on Wednesday. The show is hosted by "Smart" Joe Negron and Max Laughton, who is affectionately known to listeners as The Dshban. Notwithstanding that, Dshban co-hosts the show all the way from Australia. Even more incredible in my mind is the fact that he's only 18, a mere two months older than myself!

Dshban meets Layla at a WWE signing in Australia

Joe Negron and his other hobby -- video games.

I had never been one for wrestling podcasts until I found SWF. For months before then, I had been a subscriber to the CHIKARA Podcast-A-Go-Go, which is how I came across Joe Negron's SWF, but that was about it. You see, most wrestling podcasts are far shorter (SWF is usually an incredible three hours long) and rather than run through all of the week's action from each show in full, they tend to skim through the finer details. SWF, on the other hand, covers each show on their programme, from NXT to Raw and even TNA iMPACT! They even covered Chris Jericho's game show, Downfall, while it was on the air and towards the end of each show there is a brief recap on the week's Ring Of Honor.

Joe and Dshban don't just cover the week in pro wrestling though -- they cover it with considerable proficiency, which is why it's considered one of the best podcasts around by their fans and separates it from many other ones as well. They know their wrestling, that's for sure, but they also don't enter the obnoxious smarky territory that can be a real turn-off for the casual listener. They're not afraid to give their opinions either, as can be seen by this clip where Joe criticises TNA:

That extract is from a slightly old episode sans Dshban, but it is Joe at his best -- himself and Dshban are not afraid to tell it as it is, and they certainly don't shy away from criticising TNA. Of course, it is argued that they let each other go a bit too far with their antics, but I think that's a matter of opinion. I, for one, find it amusing and enjoyable.

So beloved of SWF are their fans, that they go to great lengths for one of their favourite shows. Some of them make one-off or weekly donations in order to keep the show running from week to week. . .

. . . some fans create fantastic artwork in dedication to the show. . .

. . . some fans even go as far as composing songs!

These creative fans have made such an emotional investment in SWF, because it is simply one of the most enlightening (as enlightening as pro wrestling can be) and entertaining podcasts around! Three hours can be a bit much for even the best of us, but it definitely grows on you as you begin to listen in on a weekly basis. Like I said before, I never was one for wrestling podcasts/radio shows. But now, whenever I finish one episode, I want to be able to download the next one right away!

And if you just so happen to be a big fan of SWF, then you can help out the show while looking good at the same time by purchasing some merchandise at Café Press.

You can also help the show by buying items from Joe's Crazy Auction Store (ebay) or his Amazon wishlist.


iTunes Description:

Joe Negron and Dshban discuss the week in Pro Wrestling. WWE, TNA, ROH and MORE.

Joe Negron and Dshban bring you show number 267 of the AWARD WINNING Smart Wrestling Fan Wrestling Review Show. Monday Night RAW, Friday Night Smackdown, TNA Impact, NXT, Lucha Libre USA, Ring of Honor, Mr. Mutant Larry's Song, and lots more!

 
If you want to find out even more about Smart Wrestling Fan there are plenty of places for you look. Their official website is brilliant and there are plenty of links there too, of course. Undoubtedly, they have a fan page on Facebook, so you can join up there and take part in the forums. Join SWF on Stickam as well, which is where the show is broadcast live every Tuesday.
 
 

 
 Related Podcasts:

Chikara Podcast-A-Go-Go
Smart Video Game Fan
Pro Wrestling Ponderings
Angry Marks
A Wiggly World 
We Talk Games
Pro Wrestling Report
Off The Ropes

You're Either Nexus Or Against Us

On June 7th we were greeted to the terrifying image of Michael Tarver in a mask at ringside, just before he and the other NXT rookies stormed the ring as a Cena-CM Punk match was reaching its climax on Monday night Raw. Lead by Season 1 winner Wade Barrett, the eight-man group lay waste to everything in sight -- the wrestlers, the announcers, the timekeeper, the ring and Justin Roberts' necktie. . .

No one could believe their eyes at what had just transpired. It was the must-see segment of the week for wrestling fans (in what was an otherwise dour episode of Raw).

Unfortunately, everyone's eyes were turned to a different story over the coming days as news of Daniel Bryan's (Bryan Danielson) release filtered through. Danielson was fired after the aforementioned necktie incident (which you can read more about on The Unfinished Article in the post titled The Bryan Danielson Saga). In my opinion, getting fired is not such a bad thing for the American Dragon. Firstly, he will be rehired sometime in the near future once this whole thing blows off, he's too good not to be. Secondly, he's far better off without the Nexus. Apart from Wade Barrett, all of the members are jobbers and need this storyline to elevate them to a certain degree. Danielson on the other hand does not.

Now, back to the Nexus.

On the following week's Raw, Wade Barrett explained that his newly-formed faction were seeking contracts to join the main roster. But why was Wade leading them in their search for WWE stardom? He had already secured a contract and a guaranteed title shot after all. The answer is simple: loyalty, apparently. They had all previously made a pact to stick together no matter who won.

There was a lot of speculation among smarks on who was the driver at the end of that clip, but it seems inconsequential now several weeks later. The Nexus would continue these beat downs routinely, including this one on Vince McMahon of all people:

This kind of scene repeated itself at the PPV Fatal 4-Way. The Nexus interrupted the main event, a WWE Championship match between John Cena, Sheamus, Randy Orton and Edge, which allowed the Celtic Warrior to cheekily take the title for a second time.

The Nexus were at it again at Money At The Bank, when it was all but a given that they would intrude upon the apparently impenetrable steel cage match between Sheamus and Cena. So, not only was it no surprise that they interfered with yet another main event on a PPV, but it also led to a very crappy finish. The Rookies, if you can still call them that, prevented Cena from climbing down off the cage before the Irishman could in what was a very frustrating end to the best WWE PPV in a long time.

It's hard to see where The Nexus are going at this point. In truth, a lot of their angles and promos have been the best thing on WWE television in quite a while, especially in the absence of the likes of Triple H, The Undertaker and the recently retired Shawn Michaels, but at the same time some of those angles and promos haven't been so good (I'm perhaps being a tad unfair in that regard -- you can say the same thing about any wrestler after all). We are continually reminded on-screen about Nexus' "bigger picture," but you get the feeling that that's just codeword for "Creative haven't written that part of the script yet."

I think I speak for everyone when I say that we all want to see Nexus achieve something tangible, not something forgettable. The faction already has a natural born winner and main eventer in the shape of Wade Barrett as it's leader, and it's also acted as a vehicle for successfully moving the NXT jobbers onto the main roster. WWE now needs to let the group push on, but can it do that when they put them in overbooked matches like that at the upcoming Summerslam? (If you haven't the booking yet, it's a seven-on-seven match between The Nexus versus John Cena's team, which includes The Great Khali and Bret Hart. . .)

With any luck, Summerslam will be another stepping stone for this band of youngsters. If not, it could mean a continuation of  the low ratings and PPV buys that we've seen of late.