On an episode of Raw in which the King of the Ring tournament was held, it was only fitting that the main event of the royal-themed show featured “The King.”

Jerry Lawler received what was billed as his first-ever shot at the WWE title – on his 61st birthday, no less – as he took on newly crowned champion The Miz in a TLC match.

The unlikely opponents put together a very entertaining match that was the highlight of the three-hour show Monday night. Lawler – who was never the most athletic performer but has always known how to tell a story in the ring – had the crowd believing that he was going to pull the upset.

Thanks to Michael Cole, however, that didn’t happen. Cole’s heel character was taken to another level, as he physically interfered in a match for the first time. He prevented Lawler from climbing the ladder just as it appeared that Lawler was on the verge of winning the championship.

Lawler decked him for that, but the damage was done. Miz went on to retain the title after he knocked Lawler off the ladder by smashing him in the head with the championship belt that was suspended above the ring.

It will be interesting to see how Lawler and Cole co-exist at the announce table going forward. It’s starting to seem more and more likely that Cole will eventually be revealed as the anonymous Raw general manager.

As for the King of the Ring tournament – which was won by Sheamus – it was fine overall and the final match between Sheamus and John Morrison was good, but the whole thing was very predictable. After the brackets were announced early in the show, I wrote down how I thought the tournament would play out, and the only thing I got wrong was the Ezekiel Jackson-Drew McIntyre double count-out (I had Jackson winning).

Other thoughts on Monday’s show:

Any John Cena detractors who were hoping to get a little break from him during his firing story line have to be disappointed. WWE obviously has decided that it’s more important to have its top star on the show rather than selling the firing angle even the slightest bit. As he promised on Twitter, Cena showed up during the broadcast with a ticket for a ringside seat. His distraction caused WWE tag team champions Justin Gabriel and Heath Slater to lose a non-title match to Mark Henry and Yoshi Tatsu, and then after the match, Cena gave Slater an Attitude Adjustment through the announce table. Cena also took out Michael McGillicutty and Justin Gabriel in separate backstage attacks. So if it’s this easy for one man to take down The Nexus, why didn’t Cena or someone else do it months ago? ...

Since Cena said during his farewell speech last week that he was going to spend more time with his family now that he’s out of a job, doesn’t the fact that he never really left make him look like a jerk? ...

Juan Cena – John Cena’s Mexican cousin – did not make an appearance on Raw. Juan Cena (John Cena under a mask) has been booked to take John Cena’s place in matches at house shows during the firing angle. My guess is that Juan Cena will strictly be a house show gimmick and not become a TV character. ...

I liked Wade Barrett saying that he saw through Cena’s plan and he wasn’t going to have him reinstated just so The Nexus could get their hands on him. If Barrett sticks to his word on that, it will be interesting to see what scenario WWE comes up with for Cena to get his job back. ...

Morrison didn’t win the KOTR, but he did look strong in defeat and show a lot of heart. Not only did he go into the final against Sheamus with an “injured” shoulder, but he also wrestled one more match than Sheamus, who received a bye into the finals thanks to the Jackson-McIntyre double countout. ...

I’m guessing that the “King of Kings” Triple H will be back anytime now to confront King Sheamus. ...

CM Punk was a little rough on commentary this week, especially after Lawler left the announce table and it was just Punk and Cole. Cole, by the way, had a good line after Punk referred to himself as “a wrestler.” Cole corrected him and said that Punk was “a superstar.” ...

Punk got in a few more verbal jabs at Alex Riley for his recent arrest on a DUI charge, and then Riley himself referenced it. When talking about having a celebration for The Miz becoming WWE champion, Riley said something along the lines of everyone knowing that he’s not afraid of partying. I don’t really mind if Punk, in the role of an irreverent commentator, takes a shot at Riley over the incident, but Riley making light of his DUI charge is ill-advised and in bad taste. ...

The opening KOTR match that saw Alberto Del Rio defeat Daniel Bryan was good. Bryan’s suicide dive has become like Ric Flair’s leap off the top rope – it never works. After Bryan crashed into the barricade on the dive through the ropes and sold a shoulder injury, Punk said, “He does that every week.” ...

In the other KOTR first-round matches, Morrison got a nice win over Cody Rhodes, and Sheamus beat Kofi Kingston in a decent match. I liked the finish in the latter bout, as Sheamus caught Kingston with the Brogue Kick as Kingston was coming off the top rope. The Jackson-McIntyre match didn’t even last three minutes before it ended in a double countout. ...

Del Rio wasn’t hurt by his loss to Morrison in the semifinals, as he had control of the match and only lost because of Rey Mysterio’s distraction. By the way, that was a nice shiner on Del Rio’s ring announcer, Ricardo Rodriguez, who was popped in the eye by The Big Show on Smackdown Friday. ...

The Miz – whose pinstripe suit and hoodie made for an interesting look – cut a good promo and the verbal exchange between him and Lawler was well done. ...

Why does it always seem that Gail Kim never gets tagged in during the Divas tag matches? It’s got to be a rib on her at this point. ...

I have to agree with Punk on Tamina’s ring attire. What was that? ...

It looks as if Ted DiBiase and Maryse may be splitting up as an act, which might not be a bad thing. They never developed any chemistry together. ...

Miss USA handled the ring announcing duties for the Sheamus-Morrison match. She definitely shouldn’t give up her day job – whatever that may be.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 9:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (61)
        

The more Edge torments Kane and Paul Bearer, the more I feel like I’m the one being tortured by having to sit through these lame segments.

On Friday night’s Smackdown, Edge’s cat-and-mouse game with Kane continued, as Edge kept teasing that he was going to return Bearer to Kane, but the show ended with Bearer still being held captive.

In a segment at the top of the show that really dragged, Edge made Kane repeatedly ask him to release Bearer. “That wasn’t very polite,” Edge said after Kane asked the first time. “I didn’t hear the magic word.” So Kane gritted his teeth and said “please.” Edge still didn’t like his tone, so Kane then asked more politely.

At that point I was the one saying “please,” as in, “Please, for the good of the game, let’s move on.”

These shenanigans went on throughout the show, climaxing with a sight gag in the parking lot, where Edge had Bearer bound in a wheelchair. When Kane made it out to the parking lot, he found a Bearer dummy in the wheelchair, and then Edge ran over it with his car (the real Bearer was tied up in the back seat).

Edge sped off in the car, so The Abduction of Paul Bearer story line will be continued for another week.

Oh, please.

Other thoughts on Friday’s show:

The highlight of the show was the King of the Ring qualifying match in which Kofi Kingston defeated Jack Swagger. These two put together an entertaining match that went nearly 20 minutes and could have gone either way. The last few minutes were especially good. ...

The three other KOTR qualifiers were OK, but none came close to the level of Kingston-Swagger. Along with Kingston, Alberto Del Rio (who defeated The Big Show by countout), Drew McIntyre (who defeated MVP) and Cody Rhodes (who defeated Rey Mysterio – with an assist from Del Rio) will represent Smackdown in the KOTR tournament, which takes place on a three-hour episode of Raw on Monday. Sheamus, John Morrison, Ezekiel Jackson and Daniel Bryan are the Raw competitors participating in the tournament. I think either Del Rio or Sheamus will win it, but Morrison winning wouldn’t surprise me either. ...

Del Rio gaining a dubious countout victory over The Big Show thanks to interference by his personal ring announcer, Ricardo Rodriguez, was an effective way to get heel heat on him. ...

After defeating McIntyre on last week’s show, MVP lost to him this week with a spot in the KOTR on the line, so the story line of MVP’s misfortune continues. ...

The Rhodes-Mysterio match wasn’t bad, but you knew the second that Del Rio came out to do commentary on the match that Rhodes was going over because of interference from Del Rio. ...

Kelly Kelly pinning Michelle McCool was a pleasant surprise. ...

Bearer called the fans “bastards” several times. In today’s PG WWE, that’s pushing the envelope. ...

Hornswoggle “killing” Swagger’s eagle mascot with a bow and arrow and preparing to make dinner out of him was beyond silly, but I’m all for it if it means the mascot is done as a character. Now if only someone would take a bow and arrow to the leprechaun. ...

Where were Dolph Ziggler and Vickie Guerrero this week?

Posted by Kevin Eck at 11:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (29)
        

Perhaps it was just the tryptophan kicking in after I partook in my family’s Thanksgiving feast, but I found myself struggling to stay focused during Thursday night’s TNA Impact.

The show wasn’t bad, but nothing particularly noteworthy happened until the spillover into Reaction, when “former” TNA president Dixie Carter showed up as Eric Bischoff’s invited guest at the Immortal/Fortune Thanksgiving celebration.

Carter did not come empty-handed, as she served Hulk Hogan and Bischoff with a court injunction that prevents Hogan from signing any new talent. So that’s the first step in Carter seeking to regain control of her company.

“Until this is resolved, your duties are over,” Carter told Hogan. “I’ll see you guys in court.”

On a side note, there was an amusing exchange during the segment when Hogan was telling Carter how well things have been going in her absence. “Have you looked at the numbers lately?” he asked. Carter cringed and said, “Yeah, I have.” Ouch. And that’s a shoot, brother!

Other thoughts on Thursday’s show:

The eight-man elimination tag match that pitted Matt Morgan, “The Pope” D’Angelo Dinero, Samoa Joe and Douglas Williams against Fortune wasn’t anything special, but it did further establish Morgan as a top-level babyface. The match came down to Morgan against A.J. Styles and Robert Roode, and just as Morgan was about to finish them off, Jeff Hardy attacked him from behind. …

The video of Jeff Jarrett applying MMA holds to a bunch of little kids in a karate class was pretty funny. Jarrett continues to be my favorite performer in TNA at the moment. He can be intense and get serious heel heat, but he also has the ability to pull off comedy bits such as this. I also loved him smashing Jesse Neal over the head with his guitar while the referee was incapacitated, and then applying a rear naked choke onto the already unconscious Neal for the win. …

Question: How do you get Rhino ready for a feud with Rob Van Dam, who clearly is a bigger star than him? Answer (if you’re Vince Russo): Have Rhino lose to Tommy Dreamer, of course. You can’t make this stuff up. I’m convinced more than ever that Dreamer has naked pictures of somebody in TNA. …

I had high hopes for the Brother Ray-Brother Devon feud, but so far I’m just not feeling it. Ray cut a promo that would have been acceptable if he was in a program with some other wrestler, but this is his “brother” that he just turned on. The emotion isn’t there the way it should be. …

The impromptu match between Madison Rayne and Sarita was a cluster. It was filled with weak-looking offense and sloppy transitions before Sarita got the pin out of nowhere with a rollup. This was an odd match-up to begin with, as Rayne and Sarita are both heels. Of the two, Sarita was acting more like a babyface, so perhaps she is turning (again). …

I felt like I was watching a bad horror B-movie when Winter saved Angelina Love during the backstage brawl between all of the Knockouts and shrieked, “Leave her! She’s with me now!” At least we now know that other people can see Winter and she isn’t just a figment of Love’s imagination. …

Could someone please explain to me what the point is of having Ric Flair chug Smirnoff Ice every week? I’m sure Russo and the boys find it entertaining, but how does it get heel heat on Flair? …

Is there a reason why Eric Young was dressed as a waiter during the Thanksgiving dinner scenes with Immortal and Fortune? ...

A couple quick thoughts on Reaction: Samoa Joe was very good on this show. He does much better when he speaks about how bad he is and what he’s going to do to his opponents rather than screaming about it. … Stevie Richards, when talking about the scary-looking spot on Impact two weeks ago when Styles dropped him on his neck while delivering the Styles Clash, said: “That wasn’t a planned, protected spot.” Ugh. Thanks for telling us on a wrestling show that everything we just watched was a work. TNA has come up with an innovative concept in Reaction, but there’s a way to add an element of realism to the story lines without the lame “the business is a work but now I’m shooting” gimmick that was passé a decade ago.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 1:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (14)
        

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Posted by Kevin Eck at 4:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (17)
        

• On the same night in which A.J. destroyed her two competitors in a WWE trivia contest and then combined with Naomi to have a terrific match, she was eliminated from NXT Season 3. Throughout this season I had Naomi and Kaitlyn ranked Nos. 1 and 2, respectively, but I was still a little surprised to see A.J. sent home instead of Kaitlyn (the crowd booed A.J.’s elimination). A.J. is a far better worker than Kaitlyn and clearly is a huge wrestling fan, but Kaitlyn has the angle with Vickie Guerrero and Dolph Ziggler going for her as well as a certain “it” factor. Despite A.J’s elimination on Tuesday night’s show, I have little doubt that she will end up on either Raw or Smackdown at some point.

• The A.J.-Naomi match (which A.J. won) was one of the better women’s matches in WWE in some time.

• The Nikki Bella-Kaitlyn match wasn’t bad at all. Nikki, who won the match, continues to make strides in the ring. Kaitlyn, while still very green, is getting better.

• While I normally enjoy the humorous commentary of Michael Cole and Josh Matthews on NXT, it was pretty annoying when they were talking over the trivia contest.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 9:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)
        

When John Cena was “fired” for his actions at the Survivor Series pay-per-view Sunday night, two questions immediately came to mind: How long will Cena really be off TV (if he is off at all) and what angle will WWE come up with to reinstate him?

Based on what happened on Raw Monday night and something that Cena posted on his Twitter page, I think I might have some idea of where things are headed.

After delivering his farewell speech on Raw and leaving the building, Cena returned later in the show during the Randy Orton-Wade Barrett match and broke up Barrett’s pin attempt just as Barrett seemed to be on the verge of beating Orton for the WWE title.

Cena posted the following on Twitter today:

“Sorry I ran back in ring but I told Mr. Barrett that if he keeps taking short cuts it will come back to haunt him. Just got tix for Raw in Philly. Can only hope he makes more short cuts.”

So it looks as if Cena will continue to show up on Raw and be a thorn in Barrett’s side, which I’m guessing will lead to a frustrated Barrett demanding that Cena be reinstated so that he can get his hands on him.

Another scenario I thought about after Survivor Series ended was for Cena to sell the firing angle by being off TV for the next couple months and then make a surprise return in the Royal Rumble match. It would then be revealed the next night on Raw that WWE chairman Vince McMahon had come out of his coma and reinstated Cena as a way of getting back at The Nexus for injuring him.

On a side note, WWE moved Cena’s bio on wwe.com from the Raw Superstars page to the Alumni section, which is nice attention to detail. However, in an example of poor attention to detail, a commercial for the Dec. 29 house show in Baltimore that aired locally during Raw was still advertising that Cena, Orton, Barrett and The Miz would participate in a fatal four-way steel cage main event.

WWE photo

Posted by Kevin Eck at 11:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (131)
        

WWE just proved that the old saying “you get what you pay for” doesn’t always hold up.

One night after viewers shelled out $45 (or $55 for HD) for a Survivor Series pay-per-view that failed to deliver a major plot twist, Monday’s Raw – which you can see on basic cable – proved to be must-see TV.

A compelling show with a hot crowd climaxed with The Miz cashing in his Money in the Bank briefcase and winning the WWE title by defeating a banged-up Randy Orton, who had just successfully defended his championship against Wade Barrett in a Survivor Series rematch.

As soon as The Nexus jumped Orton on his way to the ring prior to face Barrett and injured his knee, I – and I’m guessing many other viewers – knew immediately that this was going to be The Miz’s night.

After Barrett hit Wasteland on Orton and made the cover, the recently fired John Cena – who earlier in the show gave his farewell speech and was shown leaving the building – suddenly appeared and pulled the referee out of the ring before he could complete the three count. Orton then hit the RKO on Barrett for the win.

It was still a couple minutes before the top of the hour, however, so if anyone at that point was surprised at what happened next, shame on you. Orton’s music abruptly stopped, The Miz’s music played and the impromptu match was on.

This wasn’t one of those Money in the Bank title changes in which the champion is basically unconscious when the challenger cashes in. Orton was selling his knee big time, but he still was able to put up a fight for a few minutes. He even got in some offense and was setting up for the RKO, but The Miz countered and hit the Skull-Crushing Finale for the victory.

The Miz seemed legitimately choked up after being awarded the belt, and who could blame him? When The Miz started in WWE, no one – and I mean no one, whether it was fans, wrestling pundits (including me) or his fellow WWE performers – believed he was world championship material, and probably very few even thought he could make it as a mid-carder in WWE.

The Miz endured hazing from veterans and go-away heat from fans, but he just kept working hard and he remained focused on his goal of becoming a big-time player in WWE. On Monday night, all that hard work and perseverance paid off.

Other thoughts on Monday’s show:

This was a memorable episode even before The Miz won the WWE title, thanks largely to Cena’s excellent farewell speech. Even though we all know that this wasn’t really the last we’ve seen of Cena, his emotion seemed so genuine – especially when talking about how much he loves the business and the sacrifices that he’s made as far as being away from his family – that you couldn’t help but sympathize with him. Cena asking all of the women and children to chant “Let’s go Cena” and the guys to chant “Cena sucks” was a nice touch and it made for an almost surreal moment. …

CM Punk is a welcomed addition to the announce team. Punk, who is out of action because of a glute injury, has a sarcastic wit and irreverent sense of humor that should keep both Michael Cole and Jerry Lawler on their toes. When Alex Riley, who was arrested and charged with DUI last week, came out for his match against Ezekiel Jackson, Punk said, “He’s going to get in the ring with Zeke? Is he under the influence or something?” …

Barrett got major heel heat when he came out for a promo at the top of the show. He and the rest of The Nexus were also loudly booed when they jumped Orton before the main event. …

Barrett doing Cena’s “You can’t see me” hand gesture as Cena was walking out of the building was a nice touch. …

There were four qualifying matches for the King of the Ring tournament, which takes place on next Monday’s three-hour Raw (there will also be four qualifying matches on Friday’s Smackdown). This is shaping up to be a pretty good tournament, with Jackson, Sheamus, Daniel Bryan and John Morrison representing Raw. …

Sheamus and R-Truth had a good match and the crowd was into it. I was glad to see R-Truth (accompanied by the lovely Eve) come out to “What’s Up?” again. It appears WWE realized that “Crunk” junk wasn’t getting over. …

Riley announcing that he was taking The Miz’s place against Jackson because his mentor had suffered a panic attack backstage was another clue that The Miz was going to play a major role in the show later on. …

Jackson was slapping hands with fans on the way to the ring for his match against Riley and smiling and playing to the crowd after his win, so apparently he is a babyface. Before this show, I wasn’t sure which side of the fence he was on. …

The Morrison-Tyson Kidd match was fun while it lasted. It was a solid win for Morrison coming off his upset of Sheamus at Survivor Series, and Kidd looked good in defeat. Before the match, Morrison was showing talking backstage with Melina, who gave him a playful slap on his backslide. Perhaps WWE is putting this real-life couple back together onscreen. …

One night after Bryan and Ted DiBiase Jr. had a strong back-and-forth match at Survivor Series, Bryan made surprisingly quick work of him (less than two minutes) in their rematch. So much for rehabilitating DiBiase’s character. I wonder if Cena’s farewell speech going long (Cena remarked that he went over his allotted time) took time away from Bryan and DiBiase. …

The Bella Twins were all over Bryan, so apparently WWE is going to portray him as this nerdy guy all the chicks are hot for. It could work. …

New WWE Divas champion Natalya got a nice win over Alicia Fox. By the way, what was with Fox ripping out some of Natalya’s hair extensions? …

So the Santino Marella-Tamina story line hasn’t been forgotten after all. This should be fun. …

Trivia question: Who is the only wrestler to appear on last Thursday’s TNA Impact and Monday’s Raw? Answer: Teddy Stigma, a star with Maryland Championship Wrestling and currently a student at Team 3D’s wrestling academy. Stigma was one of the guys doing the MMA exhibition with Jeff Jarrett on Impact, and he played the security guard on Raw who wouldn’t allow LayCool in the building.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 12:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (49)
        

Fallout from the Mobbies; the voice of authority chimes in; Baltimore Sun bloggers make Pro Wrestling Illustrated and more.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 9:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: Ring Posts Xtra episodes
        

The build-up for the main event of Sunday night’s Survivior Series pay-per-view was so well done that you really had the feeling that something big was going to happen.

Unfortunately, it didn’t.

John Cena didn’t turn heel. Wade Barrett didn’t win the WWE title. The Miz didn’t cash in his Money in the Bank briefcase. And neither R-Truth nor David Otunga got involved.

The big swerve was that the scenario that seemed the unlikeliest – WWE champion Randy Orton retaining his championship, thus causing Cena to be fired – was the one that happened.

The problem is that everyone knows that Cena isn’t really going anywhere, so the payoff to this elaborate story line is a stipulation that isn’t going to be honored.

I suppose I’ll have to reserve final judgment until seeing what happens on Raw tonight, to seems to me that WWE missed an opportunity to really shake things up and create a buzz.

Overall, this was an OK pay-per-view. There were some good matches but none that were off the charts.

Here is a match-by-match look at the show:

WWE champion Randy Orton defeated Wade Barrett (15:16): Just as he promised, special referee John Cena called the match right down the middle. There was never even a tease that Cena was going to double-cross Orton, except for a split second at the finish. Frustrated that Cena was not counting faster on his pin attempts, Barrett shoved Cena, who responded by shoving Barrett back. That allowed Orton to catch Barrett with an RKO. Orton made the cover and Cena counted one, two (pause) three. The Nexus hit the ring, but Cena and Orton managed to fight them off. Cena then grabbed the WWE championship belt, stared at it for a few seconds and then presented it to Orton. The two longtime rivals briefly hugged, as Orton gave a nod to Cena for calling the match fairly. Cena looked sad as he said his goodbyes to the fans, who gave him a nice ovation for his “farewell.”

World heavyweight champion Kane and Edge wrestled to a draw (12:49): The crowd was dead for most of this match, and I can’t say I blame them. It was slow-paced and consisted mostly of punches and kicks. The quality of Smackdown world title matches has definitely gone down since Kane won the championship. After Edge hit a Spear on Kane, he went for a cover, but his shoulders were also on the mat as the referee counted three. Edge’s music began playing and he was announced as the new champion, but then the referee explained that since both men’s shoulders were on the mat, the match is a draw and the champion retains the title. It was fitting that such a dull match would have an such an unsatisfying finish. This presumably sets up a rematch at next month’s TLC pay-per-view. If that is the case, I would expect that match to be a lot more entertaining because of tables, ladders and chairs gimmick.

Survivor Series elimination match: Rey Mysterio, The Big Show, Kofi Kingston, MVP and Chris Masters defeated Alberto Del Rio, Jack Swagger, Cody Rhodes, Drew McIntyre and Tyler Reks (18:11): Since the show was in Miami, hometown favorite MVP got a huge pop. Unfortunately, he was the first one eliminated. At 5:35, Del Rio tripped MVP while he was attempting a suplex on McIntyre. McIntyre landed on top of MVP, and Del Rio held onto MVP’s legs so that he couldn’t kick out of the pin. After Del Rio eliminated Masters with the cross arm-breaker, he began taunting Big Show and doing these tremendous facial expressions. Big Show responded by knocking him out with one punch. Del Rio, who was not the legal man in the match at that point, was carried to the back. It eventually came down to Mysterio and Big Show against Swagger and McIntyre, and the two fan favorites worked together to eliminate the heels and emerge as survivors. This was an entertaining match, and WWE found a way for Del Rio to be taken out of the bout without taking a fall. (The order of elimination is below).

U.S. champion Daniel Bryan defeated Ted DiBiase Jr. (9:56): These two got the show off to a hot start. DiBiase was more aggressive than usual (a point that was brought up several times in commentary) and he also had a stubbly beard going to give him a bit of an edgier look. That’s good, because DiBiase’s career has been going nowhere and he needs to reinvent himself to some extent. At about the 5:30 mark, Bryan landed awkwardly on a suicide dive and began favoring his shoulder; it was unclear whether he was selling or legitimately injured. Around nine minutes into the action, Bryan delivered an awesome belly-to-back suplex off the top rope for a near fall. The finishing sequence saw DiBiase counter the LeBell Lock by catapulting Bryan into the turnbuckles and then rolling him up, but Bryan rolled through, secured the LeBell Lock and forced DiBiase to tap out. This was a good win for Bryan and a solid showing for DiBiase, who gained more from this loss than he would have from a victory over someone like Goldust. After the match, The Miz (accompanied by Alex Riley) hit Bryan from behind with The Money in the Bank briefcase and proceeded to cut a promo teasing that he would cash in his title shot before the night was over.

Intercontinental champion Dolph Ziggler defeated Kaval (9:35): This wasn’t smooth all the way through but it was a solid back-and-forth match overall. Around the 5:30 mark, Kaval nailed Ziggler with a brutal-looking stiff kick to the face that bloodied Ziggler’s nose. There was a nice sequence around 6:45, as Kaval went for a spectacular Phoenix Splash, but Ziggler moved. Kaval, however, landed on his feet and got a near fall on a back slide. Ziggler then landed the Zig Zag but only got a two count. About a minute later, Kaval hit an Enziguri off the top for another near fall. After a series of roll-ups and reversals, Ziggler got on top of Kaval and held his tights to get the three count. Kaval looked strong in defeat.

John Morrison defeated Sheamus (11:12): This was the most surprising result of the night, as Morrison scored his biggest victory in quite a while. These two put together an entertaining, hard-hitting match that pitted Morrison’s acrobatics against Sheamus’ power moves. After Sheamus missed a Brogue Kick and got tied up in the ropes, Morrison nailed him with a Flying Chuck and a running knee strike for the victory. It will be interesting to see if this win propels Morrison up the card or if Sheamus ends up getting his win back right away.

WWE tag team champions Justin Gabriel and Heath Slater defeated Santino Marella and Vladimir Kozlov (5:09): This was pretty much what you would expect. As Marella was preparing to unleash the Cobra, the other Nexus members outside the ring distracted him, and that allowed Slater to hit his jumping neckbreaker finisher for the win.

Natalya defeated WWE Divas co-champions LayCool to win the title (3:35): Michelle McCool and Layla took advantage of the numbers game early, but after they accidentally knocked heads, Natalya applied the Sharpshooter to McCool, who tapped out. LayCool attacked the new champion after the match, and the returning Beth Phoenix came out to make the save. Phoenix hit the Glam Slam on Layla and then celebrated with Natalya. I’m glad to see Natalya get the belt and it’s great to have Phoenix back. It’s time for LayCool (specifically McCool) to drop out of the title scene for a while, but I’m not holding my breath on that happening.

Team Mysterio vs. Team Del Rio order of elimination:

• McIntyre (TDR) pinned MVP (TM), 5:35

• Del Rio (TDR) forced Masters (TM) to submit, 6:43

• Big Show (TM) pinned Rhodes (TDR), 10:57

• Kingston (TM) pinned Reks (TDR), 15:08

• Swagger (TDR) forced Kingston (TM) to submit, 15:54

• Mysterio (TM) pinned Swagger (TDR), 17:33

• Big Show (TM) pinned McIntyre (TDR), 18:11

Posted by Kevin Eck at 2:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (29)
        

Predictions for tonight’s WWE pay-per-view:

WWE champion Randy Orton vs. Wade Barrett (special guest referee: John Cena): WWE has done an outstanding job of creating drama for this match. The stipulation is that Cena will be free of The Nexus if Barrett wins the title, but Cena will be fired if Orton retains. I’d love to see WWE make the bold decision to turn Cena heel tonight, but I don’t think it’s going to happen. The more likely scenario is that Cena calls the match down the middle, but some type of interference takes place that he doesn’t see and he has no choice but to make the three count for Barrett. It wouldn’t surprise me to see David Otunga and/or R-Truth get involved. There also is a possibility of The Miz – who doesn’t have a match tonight – cashing in his Money in the Bank briefcase and walking out of Survivor Series with the WWE title. Either way, I don’t see Orton retaining the championship.

World heavyweight champion Kane vs. Edge: My guess is that Edge wins the match by disqualification, thus setting up a rematch at next month’s Tables, Ladders and Chairs pay-per-view.

Survivor Series elimination match (Rey Mysterio, The Big Show, Kofi Kingston, MVP and Chris Masters vs. Alberto Del Rio, Jack Swagger, Cody Rhodes, Drew McIntyre and Tyler Reks): As much as I would like to see Del Rio emerge as the sole survivor, I just have a feeling that Mysterio’s side will prevail.

U.S. champion Daniel Bryan vs. Ted DiBiase Jr.: CM Punk was in line for a title program with Bryan, but his injury opened up the spot for DiBiase, who had been stuck in a bottom-of-the card feud with Goldust. This should be a good match, although I can’t imagine that WWE would take the belt off Bryan at this point.

Intercontinental champion Dolph Ziggler vs. Kaval: Much like the Bryan-DiBiase match-up, I expect a well-worked match and the champion to retain.

John Morrison vs. Sheamus: The most entertaining aspect of the build-up to this match has been Santino Marella’s involvement, but there probably won’t be any funny business tonight. This has the potential to be the best match on the show. I feel pretty confident that Sheamus will win.

WWE tag team champions Justin Gabriel and Heath Slater vs. Santino Marella and Vladimir Kozlov: I know that some people already consider the WWE tag team title to be a joke, but putting the belts on the comedic duo of Marella and Kozlov would remove all doubt. It won’t happen. Gabriel and Slater retain.

WWE Divas co-champions LayCool vs. Natalya in a handicap match: This is the third straight pay-per-view in which Natalya has challenged for the title, and I’m going with the old adage about the third time being the charm. Michelle McCool and Layla will get their signals crossed and a double-team move will backfire, allowing Natalya to overcome the odds and win the title. That will lead to the break-up of LayCool and a feud between McCool and Layla. Or is that just wishful thinking?

Posted by Kevin Eck at 5:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (14)
        

I’m a big fan of Edge as a performer and I’m glad to see him getting a shot at the world heavyweight title at the Survivor Series pay-per-view, but the buildup for his match against Kane Sunday went from so-so to so bad on Friday night’s Smackdown.

When Smackdown ended last week, Edge had kidnapped Paul Bearer and taken off with him. On Friday’s show, we saw that a bound-and-gagged Bearer was still being held hostage by Edge.

Keep in mind that last week’s show took place in England and Friday’s show was held in Richmond, Va. So we’re supposed to believe that Edge was able to hold the bulbous, creepy-looking manager against his will while going through the airport, boarding a plane and flying overseas. Mae Young giving birth to a hand is more plausible than that scenario.

Beyond the ridiculous nature of the story line, the scenes with Edge tormenting Bearer just weren’t very entertaining. After watching Edge play dodge ball with Bearer’s head (I guess unprotected soccer ball shots to the head are not banned in WWE) and pour food all over him, I began to feel sorry for Bearer.

To top it all off, we saw Kane – the big, bad monster – break down and cry like a baby after seeing what Edge was doing to his “father.” Perhaps the real reason he was crying was because he was involved in such an awful angle.

Other thoughts on Friday’s show:

Kaval finally got his first victory since joining the Smackdown roster, as he upset Intercontinental champion Dolph Ziggler in a short but entertaining non-title match. Kaval, who by virtue of winning NXT Season 2 earned a pay-per-view title shot against a champion of his choosing, then announced that he wanted to face Ziggler at Survivor Series. The Ziggler-Kaval match will probably be good, but why wouldn’t Kaval want a shot at the world title instead of a secondary championship? ...

It was a strong night for MVP. He did a very nice job on the mic in a verbal exchange with Alberto Del Rio, and then he defeated Drew McIntyre in a good match. ...

When MVP interrupted Del Rio’s promo and challenged him to a match, Del Rio turned him down, but then said that he can face McIntyre instead. Right on cue, McIntyre’s music hit and he walked down the entrance ramp. So how did Del Rio and McIntyre know that MVP was going to come out and issue the challenge? ...

Cody Rhodes and Kofi Kingston had perhaps the best match of the night. Rhodes winning was a bit of an upset, but I think the main reason he was given the victory was because WWE wanted the series of singles matches between Rey Mysterio’s Survivor Series team and Del Rio’s team to be tied heading into the advertised main event of Mysterio versus Del Rio. ...

I was disappointed that the Mysterio-Del Rio match was turned into a battle royal shortly after it started. The battle royal – which saw The Big Show and Mysterio emerge as the survivors – didn’t do a whole lot for me. ...

LayCool’s win over Natalya and Kelly Kelly came out of nowhere a little over a minute into the match. It took a double-team move for Michelle McCool and Layla to pin Natalya, so the story heading into their handicap match at Survivor Series is that Natalya can beat them one-on-one but not when the odds are stacked against her. ...

It was nice to see Jack Swagger get a convincing win over Chris Masters – not that there was really any doubt that he would. ...

Matt Striker said that legendary Mexican stars such Dos Caras may look down on Del Rio because of his attitude. For those who didn’t get the inside reference, Dos Caras is Del Rio’s father, and Del Rio wrestled under a mask as Dos Caras Jr. before signing with WWE.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 1:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (11)
        

Sean “X-Pac” Waltman will be signing autographs at Steel Cage Memorabilia, located at the Plaza Flea Market in Dundalk, Sunday between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m.

For more information, click here.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 7:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
        

If you have been missing just-released former WWE Diva Tiffany, there’s good news: You can get an eyeful of her at newsstands.

Tiffany (real name Taryn Terrell), who has not been on WWE TV for more than three months and was released by the company Friday, posted the following on her Twitter page:

“You can catch me in Playboy’s Special Edition ‘Big Boobs, Hot Buns’ on newsstands now!”

Catchy title, huh?

By the way, the photos of Terrell were from shoots she did with Playboy prior to signing with WWE.

WWE photo

Posted by Kevin Eck at 6:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)
        

Jeff Jarrett showed once again on TNA Impact Thursday night why he has been the company’s most compelling heel since his turn at last month’s Bound for Glory pay-per-view.

Jarrett’s turn clicked right from the start because his motivation for doing so and his subsequent promos were believable. On Thursday’s program, Jarrett showed a lot of intensity in a backstage segment in which he berated and slapped ring announcer Jeremy Borash, and then he did an MMA demonstration in the ring that led to him chickening out of a physical confrontation with Samoa Joe.

The live crowd chanted “boring” during the MMA bit, which featured Jarrett demonstrating MMA moves on six unknowns, but I thought it was an effective way to get heat since he was bullying the young guys and mocking Joe. It appears that TNA is setting up a submission match between Jarrett and Joe at the Final Resolution pay-per-view on Dec. 5.

Jarrett’s inevitable program with Kurt Angle most likely will get underway after that. During the MMA exhibition, Jarrett once again made a veiled reference to his marriage to Angle’s ex-wife, Karen. As he was about to apply a rear naked choke, he said he was more familiar with the “naked rear choke on you know who in the bedroom.”

Other thoughts on Thursday’s show:

This episode was better than last week’s largely because Eric Bischoff was not on at all and Hulk Hogan was on very little. As I said last week, I think Bischoff is a great performer, but he has been overexposed and it was refreshing to see a show without him. ...

One of the highlights of the show was the match in which Mickie James defeated Angelina Love to become the No. 1 contender for Madison Rayne’s TNA Knockouts title. Even though James winning was predictable, the match still delivered. ...

Matt Morgan’s win over Ric Flair was far from a great match, but it was entertaining for the most part. I really could have done without seeing Flair bleed all over the place again, but Morgan looked like a star, and that’s the most important thing. ...

By virtue of his victory, Morgan now gets to choose who the special referee will be for his match against TNA world champion Jeff Hardy at Final Resolution. My head is going to explode if Morgan selects Jackson James -- the young referee whose mistake during the Morgan-Hardy match at the Turning Point pay-per-view earlier this month cost Morgan the title – and James intentionally screws Morgan and reveals his true identity as Bischoff’s son, Garrett. ...

The Hardy-Raven match in which Raven’s career was on the line was decent, although we all knew that Raven was losing. ...

The video package on Hardy that opened the show was very well done. ...

The Morgan-Flair verbal confrontation that set up their match later in the show was good, but did I actually hear Flair say that he had sex with Zenyatta the horse? ...

Douglas Williams turned babyface after he refused to participate in Fortune’s attack on Morgan, so Fortune is down to four members. ...

Brother Ray cut a good heel promo, although I’ve come to expect great ones, not good ones, from him. In talking about Brother Devon, he made the old “I’m the Shawn Michaels, you’re the Marty Jannetty” analogy. That’s become a cliché. ...

The Abyss-Shannon Moore casket match was pretty good as far as the action, but I wouldn’t have booked it the way it went down. No offense to Moore, but Abyss is supposed to be an unstoppable monster, and I think the match was far too competitive before “The Pope” D’Angelo Dinero got involved and caused it to be ruled a no-contest. ...

Is there anybody who didn’t know that Dinero was going to be inside the casket when Abyss opened it up? By the way, it’s silly enough when The Undertaker does the bit where he appears in the casket out of nowhere, but at least in the story line he is supposed to have supernatural powers. Does TNA want us to believe that Dinero is some type of magician or something? Hopefully there’s a rational explanation for Dinero’s hocus pocus, because we all know that Hogan doesn’t want any “fake wrestling story lines” like the ones in “that company up North.” ...

Speaking of hocus pocus, Winter again popped in on Love, only this time she didn’t appear in a mirror. ...

Rhino showed good intensity on the mic during his exchange with Tommy Dreamer. ...

The eight-person tag match in which Generation Me, Robbie E. and Cookie defeated The Motor City Machine Guns, Jay Lethal and Velvet Sky wasn’t bad. ...

One of the guys in the ring with Jarrett for the MMA exhibition was Maryland Championship Wrestling’s own Teddy Stigma. ...

Some thoughts on Reaction: TNA tried something new with Reaction this week, as instead of a show of nothing but talking, there was an empty arena match between The Motor City Machine Guns and Generation Me. In an effort to get people to watch Reaction, TNA set the match up on Impact and then hyped it throughout the show. The “match” was intense and hard-hitting and I liked the fact that it was different, but it had some flaws. Because of the dim lighting, the action was hard to follow at times and the fight went on a bit too long. Plus, Mike Tenay and Tazz doing commentary during parts of made it seem less real. Generation Me dished out and absorbed a lot of punishment, so they gained some needed “street cred.” ... Raven delivered a good farewell performance as he talked about having to leave TNA. His best days in the ring are clearly behind him, but Raven is still an interesting character. It’s a shame there isn’t some kind of role for him in TNA. ... Hogan used the word “kayfabe” and the phrase “it’s a work.” He also talked about “fake belts” when referencing guys “who brag about winning 34 tag team titles” (an obvious shot at Team 3D, which seemed kind of random). The insider talk is so counterproductive. I suppose the idea is that by using that language it comes off like a shoot, but of course all it really does is hit you over the head that the business is a work, thus making it difficult to suspend your disbelief. And before anyone brings it up, no, Michael Cole and Josh Matthews dropping insider terms on NXT isn’t just as bad. They’re doing it on an online-only show that few people watch and the company obviously has given up on.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 2:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (20)
        

• Yes, I watched WWE Superstars Thursday night. Why? Well, I had read somewhere that CM Punk did commentary on a couple of the matches, and there was no way I was going to miss that. He didn’t disappoint. Punk’s witticisms and sarcastic comments were hilarious, and dorky play-by-play announcer Scott Stanford was an easy target.

• Speaking of Stanford, he really comes across as the Ron Burgundy of pro wrestling announcers. I haven’t figured out whether he’s playing a character or if he’s really as clueless about the wrestling business as he seems. You would think WWE would have learned after the Mike Adamle debacle. By the way, Stanford’s Mean Gene Oklerlund impression was worse than any of the impressions I have done on Ring Posts Xtra.

• One final thought on Stanford: He called Punk “a real fan favorite” when Punk came out to join him on commentary. It’s true that the crowd popped for Punk, but someone should smarten up Stanford to the fact that heels usually aren’t referred to as fan favorites.

• The video package that focused on the John Cena/Nexus saga and the no-win situation that Cena will be in at Sunday’s Survivor Series pay-per-view was fantastic.

• It was nice to see the women in the main event, as Gail Kim and Melina defeated Alicia Fox and Maryse in an entertaining match.

• Curt Hawkins and Trent Barreta – who, unlike their recent tag team partners, survived the latest round of cuts – had a good match. I was a little surprised to see Barreta get the win.

• During the Barreta-Hawkins match, Todd Grisham said that Hawkins was trained by Shawn Michaels. That was news to me as well as Matt Striker, who said: “Was he? I dispute that.” That was pretty embarrassing for Grisham.

• The Yoshi Tatsu-Primo match (won by Tatsu) was decent. I can’t tell you if the Chavo Guerrero-JTG match (won by Guerrero) was decent; I fast-forwarded through it. Hey, I’m a busy guy.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 9:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (7)
        

WWE announced today that it has released the following performers: Shad Gaspard, Luke Gallows, Vance Archer, Caylen Croft, Tiffany and Jillian Hall.

The writing was on the wall for most of them, although I am a little surprised that WWE has given up on Gaspard. Because of his impressive size, I always thought that he had a decent shot to make it as a singles wrestler, but after Cryme Tyme split up earlier this year, Gaspard’s push as a singles heel was quickly aborted and he was sent back to the Florida Championship Wrestling developmental territory.

Once the Straight Edge Society was disbanded, Gallows’ future was in jeopardy. In the case of Archer and Croft, it’s interesting that they were let go while their tag team partners – Curt Hawkins and Trent Barreta, respectively – were spared.

Tiffany has been off WWE TV ever since a well-publicized domestic disturbance between her and her husband, Drew McIntyre, in August. It had been reported – although never officially announced by WWE – that she had been suspended because of the situation. In September, she was cleared of assault charges stemming from the incident.

The release of Hall is somewhat surprising in light of the fact that she appeared to be transitioning into a new role with the company. Hall, who has long been near the bottom in the Divas pecking order, was taken off TV and sent to FCW to become a trainer last month.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 7:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (16)
        

I conducted a phone interview Thursday with WWE star Wade Barrett, who will face WWE champion Randy Orton in the main event of the Survivor Series pay-per-view Sunday.

Less than a year ago you were wrestling in Florida Championship Wrestling. Now you’re main-eventing WWE pay-per-views with the likes of John Cena and Randy Orton. Can you describe what these past nine months or so have been like for you?

It has been obviously a very crazy few months. I think I debuted at the end of January or beginning of February this year on WWE. What most people don’t realize is that for pretty much the best part of a year prior to my debut, I’d actually been out injured in FCW. So I wasn’t even wrestling in FCW, I was out on the injured reserve list. I’d had a very big surgery where I tore my lat muscle off. So I really went from almost doing nothing – I was basically a commentator in FCW for most of that time on the TV show – to going on to WWE TV with just a very few matches sort of as a warm-up after I got back from my injury. So the last two years really, it’s been a huge step up for me. It’s been a great experience. I feel lucky every day that I’m up there at the moment and I’m obviously having a great time. The fact that things have gone so well – one year ago if someone had told me I’d be main-eventing Survivor Series this year with Randy Orton I would never have believed it. But it’s amazing that I’ve got here now and it’s a great feeling. I’m really looking forward to the show.

How have Cena and Orton – two of the biggest star in the business – been to work with?

They’re two very different people. I’d say Cena is probably a lot more approachable than Randy. He’s probably somebody I was able to connect with a lot sooner than I did with Randy. I think their on-air personas are very similar to what they’re like in real life in that respect. Randy’s a lot colder. But both guys have been great to work with. It’s been an incredible experience working with them and I’ve learned a lot just from working with them. They are two of the very best in the industry I wouldn’t say just now but of all time. For someone like me coming in with obviously my lack of experience at the top level, it’s been great to work with the best from the word go. Obviously the better the guy I’m working with the more I’m going to learn, so I’ve been very lucky in that respect.

Speaking of learning from guys, Chris Jericho was your on-screen pro on NXT. Was there any real mentoring going on with Jericho and you behind the scenes?

Yeah, definitely. I’d say to this day he’s probably my first point of contact if I’ve got any questions or stuff that I want to know about in the company or if I want critiques on anything that I’m doing. I’ve got a few people I would go to, including William Regal and Goldust as well – he’s been very helpful. But I’d say Chris Jericho is my No. 1 sort of influence and mentor to this day.

Have you or any of the other guys from NXT who are in The Nexus sensed any resentment in the locker room from guys who have been around for years and not received the super push that you’re getting?

Yeah, one hundred percent. I think we felt it a little more when we first came up for NXT. I think people saw that we were young guys, we’re in good shape and we’ve got a lot of potential. I think a lot of guys before they knew us were certainly worried about us being there, and probably some guys didn’t want us around. But I think over time with our attitudes and our hard work we’ve won a lot of people over. In general now it’s pretty harmonious in the locker room. There’s always going to be one or two guys who feel that they should be getting the push that you’re getting or should be getting the spot that you’ve got, but to be honest with you, they’re definitely in the minority. It’s something that WWE has pretty much stamped out in this day and age. I believe from reading books and hearing stories of the past the politicking and things like that were commonplace, but in general nowadays from what I understand it’s probably the most harmonious locker room it’s ever been.

When NXT first began, who do you view as your biggest threat as far as winning the competition?

I think from Day One I realized that Daniel Bryan was going to be a huge threat, purely based on the fact that I knew the pros were voting – it wasn’t a fan-based system or anything like that – and I knew that the pros all had a lot of respect for Daniel Bryan and what he had accomplished on the independent scene. So I think he had a bit of a head start on the majority of us because the pros had all heard of Daniel Bryan and seen his matches before and they respected him from that point of view. The rest of us were complete nobodies to the pros and as far as they were concerned we were just a bunch of green guys who were just showing up and hoping to do well. So I knew immediately because the pros had that affinity for Daniel Bryan that he was going to be the one that I would have to beat. I think the fact that he got eliminated from the show, from then on I had pretty much no doubt in my mind that I was going to win it.

You came up through the U.K. independent scene. What was it like to go back to Manchester recently as one of the top guys in WWE?

It was a very strange experience. I was half-expecting the crowd there to be cheering me, being the hometown guy, and I think I got an initial cheer and then that rapidly changed into boos, which I’m far more used to. It was cool going back there. I had my family come and watch me while we were on the tour. On the tour we covered towns like Birmingham, Cardiff, Nottingham, London, and I had various friends and family come and watch me. The last time most of them had come to watch me I was wrestling in front of maybe 200 people in small community centers and things like that with very low budget, low glamour, that sort of thing. So it’s been a huge difference to them. I think they all thought I was pretty crazy when I was wrestling on the independent scene, because I come from a good education background, I had a good career in recruitment going on, so to suddenly step down and being doing independent shows across the U.K, I think they thought I was crazy. But now it’s good to have them see me and see that the hard work and sacrifices all paid off and I’m at the top with WWE now.

You have history with Sheamus and Drew McIntyre. When the three of you were wrestling on the independents together, is making it in WWE something you all talked about? Secondly, would you like to work a program someday with those guys?

I met Sheamus and Drew I think it was in early 2006. We started doing a lot of shows together out in Ireland and across the U.K. The thing about the three of us was that I knew immediately that we were all standout guys, mainly based on our height. We were way bigger than any of the guys in the U.K. and we all looked good, we all worked out, which was quite rare for the U.K. at the time. Most of the independent wrestlers didn’t even lift weights or anything like that, so I knew that we looked like stars compared to everyone else. But I thought the problem at that time was the fact that with WWE there had never been that many foreign guys in the company at any one time. They always tended to have maybe one Englishman like a William Regal or going back further they just had The British Bulldog when I was a kid. So I thought it was going to be very difficult that all three of us would get signed. I thought maybe one of us might get signed and one of us may get a shot with WWE if we were lucky. I certainly never expected all three of us to get there. Sheamus, on the other hand, I remember him talking to us back in probably 2006 when we were still on the independent scene, he was very confident that one day all three of us were going to get there. So he predicted it.

In terms of working a program with those guys, I would love to. The problem is at the moment all three of us are guys that the crowd generally doesn’t like, so I don’t know how many people would want to see a Sheamus versus Wade Barrett match or a Wade Barrett against Drew McIntyre match being that the crowd is going to hate both guys in the match. But I could see one day certainly with Sheamus the fans really getting behind him. He’s got a very unique look and a good style as well. I think one day he’s definitely going to be a crowd favorite, and when that happens, I definitely look to lock horns with him and see where we can go.

You impressed people with your mic skills pretty much from the beginning since you’ve been on WWE television. Is that gift of gab something that just comes naturally for you or is it something that you’ve had to work at over the years?

I think that it’s definitely something that comes quite naturally to me, but it’s mainly due to my background. I’ve done a lot of work with recruitment, which involved me giving sales pitches and things like that and spending a lot of time on the phone selling my services to people. I think my skills on the mic come from that – just the fact that I basically had to pitch to some of the top directors at some of the biggest companies in the U.K. and try to win their business. I learned a speaking style from doing that for years – projecting confidence and being strongly spoken and being able to get my ideas across to a guy like a major director or a financial director of one of the biggest companies in England. You need to sound confident at all times, and I think the fact that I did that certainly helps my microphone style and my promo skills. And also I was the commentator with FCW like I said for a long time while I was out injured in 2009 – I think that helped as well. I was on the mic for three hours every week while we were filming our shows, and I was basically giving an on-the-fly promo for three hours in character. Aside from that, I’ve always had a good voice. I’m lucky that I have a deep, strong voice naturally, and the rest of it I just worked on as far as confidence and projecting myself.

What’s the best piece of advice you’ve been given in the business and who gave it to you?

The very best piece of advice I’ve been given I probably can’t tell you because it’s not PG-rated [laughs]. But I suppose Chris Jericho has definitely given me a good piece of advice in that when I started in NXT he told me that I couldn’t just be strong in one area of what I do. I couldn’t just be good on the mic. I needed to be good on the mic; I needed to be good in the ring; I need to be good in my presentation; my ring attire need to look good, my appearance. Everything about me needed to be the best. I couldn’t be weak in any area because you’re only as good as your weakest aspect. So that’s something that I’ve been very conscious of and I know where my weak points are and what I’ve got to work on – and I also know what my strengths are. So that’s probably the best piece of advice that I’ve been given.

Photo courtesy of WWE

Posted by Kevin Eck at 1:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (23)
Categories: Q&As
        

WWE presents the 24th annual Survivor Series pay-per-view this Sunday. Survivor Series is WWE’s second-oldest pay-per-view (trailing only WrestleMania) and has featured a number of memorable moments over the years.

Here’s a look at 10 of them:

1990: The Undertaker debuts

A macabre, menacing figure was unveiled as the mystery member of Ted DiBiase’s Million Dollar Team, which took on Dusty Rhodes’ Dream Team in an eight-man tag team elimination match.

The Undertaker – who, ironically, was billed at the time as Cain The Undertaker – made an immediate impact. Seemingly impervious to pain, he eliminated Koko B. Ware just 1 minute, 39 seconds into the match, and later pinned the legendary Rhodes. The Undertaker continued to assault “The American Dream” outside the ring and was counted out. Nevertheless, “The Phenom” had arrived and WWE would never be the same.

1990: WWF lays an egg with Gobbledy Gooker

There was another notable debut that night. But while The Undertaker went on to become one of pro wrestling’s all-time greats, the other newcomer – The Gobbledy Gooker – instantly became one of the most absurd wrestling characters of all time.

In the weeks leading up to Survivor Series, a giant egg was shown on WWF television and it was announced that it would hatch at the pay-per-view. Speculation ran rampant about the contents of the egg. Most fans believed some big-name wrestler from another promotion was going to pop out of it. It turned out to be a guy in a bizarre-looking turkey costume (this was back when Survivor Series was always held on Thanksgiving night).

The live crowd didn’t know what to make of the surreal scene of announcer Mean Gene Oklerlund and the Gobbledy Gooker dancing in the ring. I think most viewers were waiting for the person in the costume to reveal their identity, but it never happened. After all the hype, the big surprise really was just a guy dressed up as a turkey. The character was dropped immediately after Survivor Series. On a side note, Hector Guerrero of the famous Guerrero wrestling family was The Gobbledy Gooker.

1991: The Undertaker wins his first world title

One year after his impressive debut, The Undertaker defeated Hulk Hogan to become WWF champion. The “Dead Man” got an assist from longtime NWA/WCW star Ric Flair, who had recently made his WWF debut.

In an unprecedented move, an immediate re-match between The Undertaker and Hogan was signed for a pay-per-view dubbed Tuesday in Texas five days later. Hogan regained the title at that show, but due to the controversial finish, the title was then held up. That set the stage for the Royal Rumble pay-per-view two months later, where Flair won the vacant championship in the Rumble match.

1992: Bret Hart, Shawn Michaels prove bigger isn’t necessarily better

The era of muscled-up big men and larger-than-life characters dominating the WWF title picture officially came to an end, as WWF champion Bret Hart and Intercontinental champion Shawn Michaels – two former tag-team stars who were considered small by WWF standards – wrestled each other in the main event.

Five years later at the 1997 Survivor Series, these two would engage in perhaps the most controversial match in wrestling history. On this night, however, Hart and Michaels simply put on a fantastic match. After nearly 30 minutes of action – far longer than the typical Hulk Hogan or Ultimate Warrior title match – Hart retained the title by forcing Michaels to submit to The Sharpshooter.

1994: Bob Backlund becomes champion again

Something happened on this night that showed why people in wrestling always use the “never say never” line. Bob Backlund, the WWF champion from 1978 to 1983 and the whitest of all white meat babyfaces, had left the company on bad terms in 1984. Just the fact that he was back in the WWF 10 years later was surprising enough, but it was downright shocking that the soft-spoken All-American boy had become a bitter, maniacal heel.

Nearly 11 years after losing the WWF title to The Iron Sheik – which led to the birth of Hulkamania – Backlund regained the championship from Bret Hart in a 35-minute “Throw in the Towel” match. As Backlund had Hart trapped in his Crossface Chicken Wing submission hold, Hart’s mother, who was seated ringside, threw in the towel after Bret’s estranged brother, Owen, pleaded with her to do so.

1996: “Rocky sucks!”

In another era, good-looking newcomer Rocky Maivia – a third-generation star with a wide smile – would have been a big success as a babyface. However, Maivia came along just as the Attitude Era was getting underway, and foul-mouthed anti-heroes such as “Stone Cold” Steve Austin had replaced cookie-cutter good guys such as Maivia.

The WWF still tried to make Maivia an overnight star, and he made his debut at Survivor Series as part of a babyface team in an eight-man tag team elimination match. It came down to Maivia against Crush and Goldust, and he went on to pin both of them to emerge as the sole survivor.

The fans, however, had no love for Maivia and they resented him being shoved down their throats. He eventually turned heel and the rest is history.

1997: The Montreal Screwjob

At this point, what else can be said about it?

1998: The Rock becomes the Corporate Champion

In a one-night tournament to crown a new WWF champion (the title had been vacated due to a disputed finish in a triple threat match between Steve Austin, The Undertaker and Kane), The Rock – who had recently turned babyface – stunned the wrestling world by conspiring with Vince and Shane McMahon to double-cross Mankind in the finals and win his first world title.

This time, the fans were chanting “Rocky sucks!” because he was an awesome heel, not because he was an over-pushed, smiling babyface.

2001: Failed invasion

The Invasion story line climaxed with a “winner takes all” 10-man elimination tag team match. In the end, the WWF team of The Rock, The Undertaker, Chris Jericho, The Big Show and Kane defeated The Alliance squad of Steve Austin, Kurt Angle, Shane McMahon, Booker T. and Rob Van Dam.

The Invasion angle is remembered as one of the most disappointing programs in modern wrestling history. After Vince McMahon had purchased WCW, fans were salivating at the prospect of a WWF versus WCW feud, but a look at the Alliance team shows why it failed. The only members of the team who came from WCW or ECW were Booker T. and Rob Van Dam. No one bought Austin, Angle or Shane McMahon as “outsiders.”

2002: Shawn Michaels makes history in Elimination Chamber

The first Elimination Chamber match took place on this show, as world heavyweight champion Triple H defended the title against Shawn Michaels, Chris Jericho, Rob Van Dam, Booker T. and Kane.

It came down to friends-turned-enemies Triple H and Michaels. “The Heartbreak Kid” – who had returned to the ring three months earlier after more than four years on the sidelines – prevailed to become a four-time world champion. It would prove to be his last world title reign.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 11:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (15)
        

TNA will make its debut in Maryland early next year with house shows in Upper Marlboro and Hagerstown.

TNA plays The Show Place Arena in Upper Marlboro on Jan. 15, and The Maryland Theatre in Hagerstown on Jan. 16.

Among those scheduled to appear at both events are: Mr. Anderson, Jeff Jarrett. A.J. Styles, Abyss, The Motor City Machine Guns, “The Pope” D’Angelo Dinero and Kazarian.

Tickets for the Upper Marlboro show go on sale Friday at www.ticketmaster.com, and tickets for the Hagerstown show go on sale Friday at www.mdtheatre.org.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 7:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (8)
        

• We’re down to the final three, as Aksana was eliminated on Tuesday night’s episode of NXT. I was surprised she lasted as long as she did. Seven weeks ago, I ranked the original six rookies based on their potential to make it as a WWE Diva, and I had Aksana last. The top three on my list – Naomi, Kaitlyn and A.J. – are the three who remain.

• There were two singles matches involving the four rookies and – believe it or not – both of them were decent. Naomi defeated Kaitlyn, and A.J. beat Aksana. Naomi once again showed that she is by far the most athletic of the bunch. A.J.’s impressive flexibility was on display, as Aksana put her in a modified Camel Clutch in which A.J.’s feet were nearly touching the top of her head.

• When it was revealed that Aksana had been eliminated, she pretended to faint. Then she said “somebody make mistake” and that she was going to “Mr. McMahon’s office and write a letter to re-vote.” On her way up the ramp, her “husband” Goldust served her with divorce papers.

• After Aksana was eliminated, Michael Cole said, “Well, there goes the only entertainment left on the show.” Yes, Aksana did love to “entertainment us.”

• Cole’s commentary throughout the show was absolutely hilarious. At one point, he turned his back on what was going on in the ring and began chatting with some fans at ringside. He also held up signs during the program that said: “Stop the pain,” “I hate NXT” and “Eliminate me.”

• When Josh Matthews confronted Cole about some of his comments, Cole shot back by saying, “What are you going to do, be the typical babyface announcer?”

• In one of the competitions, the rookies had to guess how their pros would complete the following sentence: When I first saw my rookie, I thought she was (blank). For the muscular Kaitlyn, Vickie Guerrero answered, “A man.” That was funny.

• There was a “Diss the Divas” segment, in which each rookie had a minute to cut a promo on the other competitors. Naomi’s promo was easily the best, and the audience selected her as the winner. Aksana’s broken English and gibberish was so bad it was good – well, almost. A.J.’s promo fell flat. Cole was chanting “boring” during it and the crowd booed her. It’s funny how the announcers keep saying every week how much the fans love A.J., but I recall her being booed on more than just this occasion. Kaitlyn started to cut a decent promo, but Aksana attacked her and she never got to finish it. “This is a mess. This is a train wreck,” Kaitlyn said.

• Nikki Bella cut a heel promo on the rookies that wasn’t bad. Alicia Fox, however, was terrible on the mic when she tried to do the same.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 9:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (10)
        

WWE’s Alex Riley was arrested in Tampa, Fla., early this morning and charged with driving under the influence, according to TMZ.com.

Riley (real name Kevin Kiley) was released several hours later after posting a $500 bond.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 5:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (10)
        

For those who have asked about the legality of WWE using the old block WWF logo on Old School Raw Monday night, the answer is that the company is only prohibited from using the Attitude Era scratch logo.

As the result of losing a court battle with the World Wildlife Fund eight years ago, the wrestling company was no longer permitted to use the scratch logo or the WWF initials (hence the name change to WWE).

However, the block WWF logo – which the company was no longer using at the time of the legal dispute – and the “World Wrestling Federation” name can be used by WWE when referencing history.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 3:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (19)
        

For a guy like me who has been watching pro wrestling since the mid-70s, WWE’s three-hour-plus Old School Raw on Monday night was a lot of fun.

It was very cool to see production features from the past as well as old sets and theme music. Even the padded barricades of today were replaced by the old metal guardrails.

It was nice that so many “legends” returned as well, although that aspect didn’t feel quite as special since most of them have made cameo appearances over the years.

Not every segment involving the old school stars was a home run (I didn’t really need to see The Brooklyn Brawler and Harvey Wippleman, for example), although the final segment – a Piper’s Pit with Roddy Piper, John Cena, Wade Barrett and Randy Orton – was fantastic.

I was a huge Piper mark back in the day, but his occasional appearances in WWE over the past several years have been underwhelming for the most part. Instead of doing another comedic, rambling promo this time, however, Piper was focused and dead serious during his verbal exchanges with Cena and Barrett. All three guys delivered strong performances on the mic.

Piper put over the importance of the WWE title – noting that guys such as him, Ricky Steamboat, Ted DiBiase, Jimmy Snuka and “Mr. Perfect” Curt Hennig never won it – and stressed to Cena that if he didn’t “do the right thing” when he referees the title match between champion Orton and Barrett at Sunday’s Survivor Series pay-per-view, he would be spitting in the faces of all of the legends. Piper also told Barrett that if he allows Cena to hand him the championship, he won’t be a champion, he’ll be a joke.

Things got physical after Orton showed up. Orton attacked Barrett, but Cena saved The Nexus leader by stepping between the two. The segment concluded with Cena – who vowed to call Sunday’s match down the middle – delivering Attitude Adjustments to both Barrett and Orton.

WWE did an excellent job of creating more interest in the Orton-Barrett match and the ongoing Cena/Nexus/Orton saga, and it managed to do so by tying in an old school star in a way that didn’t feel forced.

Other thoughts on Monday’s show:

One of the highlights was Jim Ross making a surprise appearance and sitting in on commentary with Jerry Lawler and Michael Cole during the well-worked Daniel Bryan-Jack Swagger match. It’s always a pleasure to hear J.R. call a match. The fact that he isn’t part of the announcing team any longer is definitely the viewing audience’s loss. As for Cole, I know that he has go-away heat with a lot of fans, but I find him to be an entertaining heel. I thought it was hilarious the way he was mocking Ross throughout the match. ...

Another funny segment was Mae Young’s confrontation with LayCool. The octogenarian referred to them as “bitches” and “sluts.” Attitude is back! ...

Speaking of which, I was surprised to see Mark Henry doing his non-PG “Sexual Chocolate” gimmick for this episode. The crowd popped for it and was chanting “Chocolate” during Henry’s match against Dolph Ziggler. Well, the match was in Hershey, Pa., so perhaps that explains it. ...

The Ziggler-Henry match – won by Ziggler – was solid. During the match, Cole asked Lawler which old-school wrestler he would compare Henry to. Lawler said Bruno Sammartino. Well, Bruno was a strongman, so I can see that, but my first thought was Ken Patera, wrestling’s original “World’s Strongest Man” and a competitive weightlifter like Henry. ...

I was glad to see Barrett finally demanded that Cena put on a Nexus t-shirt, although it’s a little late in the game now – which Barrett actually acknowledged. ...

The Hart Dynasty finally split up. Tyson Kidd ended up being the one who turned heel, as he abandoned David Hart Smith during their loss to WWE tag team champions Justin Gabriel and Heath Slater. I’m interested to see what plans WWE has in store for the talented Kidd. ...

It was awesome that Howard Finkel got to handle some of the ring announcing. I just wish he would have done it for the entire show. Finkel having words with Wippleman was a nice touch, as those two were on-screen rivals back in the day. ...

Another nice touch was having the late Lord Alfred Hayes’ voice on the “promotional consideration” spot, and then having a Hayes impersonator list the sponsors. ...

The Iron Sheik appeared to miss his cue during his segment with Nikolai Volkoff, Santino Marella and Vladimir Kozlov. Once The Sheik began cutting a promo on Hulk Hogan, it sounded as if WWE cut his mic. ...

Marella and Kozlov are now the No. 1 contenders to the tag team title, thanks to their win over Jimmy and Jey Uso. The Usos seemed to be gaining some momentum recently, so this result surprised me. ...

Just wondering: Whatever happened to the Santino-Tamina story line? ...

When “The Doctor of Style” Slick came out I got the feeling that not many in the crowd knew who he was. Tito Santana didn’t get much of a reaction either. ...

It was odd that Santana -- who always worked as a babyface in WWE -- introduced the heel Alberto Del Rio. Speaking of Del Rio, it was a nice treat to have him on Raw. He defeated Sgt. Slaughter, who didn’t do a whole lot in the ring, but he certainly didn’t embarrass himself. ...

George “The Animal” Steele doing his signature move (eating the stuffing from the turnbuckle) during the Kofi Kingston-David Otunga match brought a smile to my face. Steele’s random appearance played a role in the finish, as Kingston slammed Otunga’s head into the exposed turnbuckle en route to the victory. ...

I liked how The Miz was able to weasel his way out of a proposed match with Cena and have Alex Riley take his place. Cena versus Miz is a match that should be teased and built up before WWE delivers it. ...

The loss of CM Punk to injury apparently has created an opportunity for Ted DiBiase Jr. DiBiase attacked Bryan after the U.S. champion’s win over Swagger, so he is likely taking Punk’s place in a title program with Bryan. Earlier in the show, the Million Dollar belt story line came to an abrupt conclusion, as Goldust returned the belt to its “rightful owner,” Ted DiBiase Sr., who in turn offered the belt back to his son. However, the younger DiBiase said that he was tired of hand-me-downs and that he had his sights set on bigger things. That story line wasn’t clicking, so dropping it is a good idea. ...

The backstage segment with Dusty Rhodes (wearing a blonde wig), DiBiase Sr., Irwin R. Schyster, Hacksaw Jim Duggan, Tatanka, Kelly Kelly and Aksana dancing to Rhodes’ old entrance music was corny but still somewhat amusing. Rhodes was disguised as Aksana’s mother (you read that correctly) to lure Aksana into a trap. Kelly Kelly dropped a large net on her and Rhodes took the Million Dollar belt from her. Once the music started and everyone began dancing, Aksana – still under the net – danced, too. ...

The match between Barrett and R-Truth was decent. WWE wisely booked Barrett to go over clean to give him momentum heading into Survivor Series. ...

Cole on R-Truth’s entrance: “Well, at least there was Eve.” Amen to that.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 10:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (58)
        

Presenting a "dramatic recreation" of an interview I conducted years ago with Vince Russo, looking at some memorable moments from past Survivor Series pay-per-views and discussing a couple DX reunions that have been making headlines.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 12:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (14)
Categories: Ring Posts Xtra episodes
        

The results of The Mobbies – baltimoresun.com’s online voting contest recognizing Maryland’s best blogs – are in, and Ring Posts came up just short.

In the category for Best Baltimore Sun blog, Ring Posts finished second out of 21 blogs.
Congratulations to Richard Gorelick, The Baltimore Sun’s restaurant critic and the author of the Dining@Large blog, on his victory. He ran a strong campaign -- and hey, who doesn't love food?

A special thanks to all of you who stood up and voted for Ring Posts. We may have fallen short of our goal of victory, but the pro wrestling community sent a clear message to the elitists that we are a force to be reckoned with.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 3:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (10)
        

After a long hiatus, the Ring Posts Comment of the Week has returned.

Why now, you ask? Well, because a reader who goes by name theorangechimp had me laughing out loud with the comment he (or she) posted in response to the entry "Hulk Hogan reportedly getting married."

That comment has inspired me to consider making Comment of the Week a regular feature again.

Here's what theorangechimp had to say:

This is a huge swerve.

Anyone still watching shoots themselves out of frustration.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 8:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (15)
Categories: Comment of the week
        

Longtime TNA star Eric Young, who missed the last set of TNA television tapings after his contract expired, has worked out a new deal with the company.

Young wasted no time getting back on the road, as he wrestled at TNA house shows in Tennesse and Georgia over the weekend.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 1:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)
        

As an MVP fan, I should know better than to ever get my hopes up when it comes to WWE giving him a major push.

After watching Friday night’s Smackdown, however, I think there just might be cause for optimism. I also wouldn’t be surprised if MVP turns heel in the near future.

In a match that told an intriguing story, MVP came up just short in his bid to win the Intercontinental title from Dolph Ziggler.

At one point in the match, MVP had Ziggler pinned, but the referee was distracted, and that gave Ziggler a chance to recover. It was pointed out in commentary that having “bad luck” has been the story of MVP’s career.

Ziggler ended up getting the victory when the referee made the three count despite MVP getting his foot on the rope. Ziggler pulled MVP’s foot off the rope before the referee ever saw it.

Moments earlier, when MVP was making a pinning attempt, Ziggler got his foot on the rope at the last second, and the referee did happen to see that.

After the match was over, the camera lingered a bit on a frustrated MVP.

Judging by how the match was laid out, my guess is that MVP’s frustration is going to continue to build until he finally snaps and goes back to being a heel.

He has shown in the past that he can be an effective bad guy, and a change in attitude could be just what MVP needs to become a more valuable player on Smackdown.

Other thoughts on Friday’s show:

WWE didn’t do much to build up the Survivor Series pay-per-view. The event takes place next Sunday, but only three matches have been announced: WWE champion Randy Orton versus Wade Barrett; world heavyweight champion Kane versus Edge; and Divas co-champions LayCool versus Natalya in a handicap match. …

Ziggler and MVP had the best match on the show, but the Alberto Del Rio-Kofi Kingston and Natalya-Layla matches also were good. …

Del Rio got a big win by forcing Kingston to tap out. Rey Mysterio made a run-in at the end to keep his feud with Del Rio going. …

Natalya, who scored a clean victory over Layla, has really shined during her program with LayCool. She may not have the exact Diva look that WWE wants for its women, but Natalya can work – and she’s pretty darn attractive, too, in my opinion. …

The Edge-David Otunga lumberjack match wasn’t bad, although it was predictable. The stipulation was that if Otunga didn’t win, he would be out of The Nexus. As I expected, Kane interfered and cost Edge the match. …

Speaking of predictable, when Paul Bearer was discovered missing, it was pretty obvious that Edge had done something to him. It also was no surprise that a distraction by Edge led to Kane losing his non-title match against The Big Show. …

So far, I’m lukewarm on the Edge-Kane program. …

The opening segment with Edge and The Nexus was underwhelming, and even an appearance by the great Vickie Guerrero didn’t make it much more interesting. …

I was looking forward to the rest of the show after Guerrero announced that Smackdown general manager Teddy Long had been detrained at Customs and she was running things in his absence. However, Guerrero was not featured at all after the first segment. Too bad. …

The Cody Rhodes segment in which he cut a promo on the British audience for its bad oral hygiene was really corny, but I thought Rhodes overcame the so-so material and pulled it off. …

I was surprised to see Goldust as one of the lumberjacks during the Edge-Otunga match. Isn’t he on the Raw roster?

Posted by Kevin Eck at 12:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (24)
        

Old school came a little earlier than expected.

WWE is set to present Old School Raw this Monday -- a special episode featuring wrestling stars from the ’80s and ’90s – but while the long talking segment with Immortal that opened Thursday night’s TNA Impact was going on, I felt like I was watching Old School WCW Nitro.

TNA has often been compared to late ’90s WCW in terms of some of its talent and booking style, but I really felt as if I was seeing a recreation of an nWo segment at the beginning of Impact.

A gang of “cool heels” who have staged a hostile takeover of the company filling the ring? Check. A smarmy Eric Bischoff thumping his chest and sarcastically telling the crowd how much he “loves each and every one of you?” Check. Hulk Hogan wearing black and cutting a heel promo? Check (he even comes out to the old nWo music). Throwing a title belt in a trash can? Check.

It’s all incredibly disappointing for the many wrestling fans who are starved for an alternative to WWE. Those fans want something different, but I don’t think turning back the clock 13 years is what they had in mind.

They want something new and fresh, and yet another version of a Bischoff/Hogan-led nWo is beyond old and stale. It seems that the current regime just isn’t capable of coming up with an original story line.

It’s also a real shame that TNA has so many guys that appear to have breakout star potential, yet they are playing second fiddle to a couple of 50-something non-wrestlers who are stuck in 1997.

Bischoff is a great performer, but he is becoming overexposed. As for Hogan, I have long thought that he is good in small doses but that his act gets tired when he’s on TV every week. However, even with Hogan keeping somewhat of a low profile as of late, I wasn’t happy to see him on my TV screen Thursday night.

Other thoughts on Thursday’s show:

“The Pope” D’Angelo Dinero was the star of the show. As the opening segment with Immortal was dying a slow death, Dinero came out and did his best to save it. He also showed a lot of intensity throughout the night in his confrontations with Bischoff and Abyss. It felt like a real assault when Dinero was beating up Bischoff backstage. Bischoff played his role well as the guy with a big mouth who becomes a whimpering coward when confronted one-on-one. When Dinero told him to “talk like The Pope” and Bischoff nervously said “shizzle” or other something along those lines, I laughed out loud. ...

I still don’t get why Dinero is pushing around a casket. By the way, it was pretty silly when Abyss and Bischoff crashed the casket (with Dinero inside) into the stage platform. How much could that have really hurt Dinero? ...

The story line with Bischoff, Matt Morgan and rookie referee Jackson James – who in reality is Bischoff’s son, Garrett – didn’t make much sense. Bischoff was mad at James for messing up the three-count when Morgan had TNA world champion Jeff Hardy pinned at last Sunday’s Turning point pay-per-view, even though it saved Hardy’s title. Bischoff said the reason he was upset about it was because everyone was going to blame him for trying to screw over Morgan. Since when has Bischoff cared about anything like that? Then Morgan – the guy who was robbed out of the title by an incompetent referee – not only defended the ref, but he demanded that James referee his handicap match against Beer Money and Douglas Williams later that night. The stipulation in that match was that Morgan would get another title shot at Hardy if he won. During that bout, Beer Money decided to walk out on Williams, leaving him easy prey for Morgan. So Bischoff wanted Morgan to get another shot? My head hurts. ...

Morgan looked like a star in the handicap match. I’d love to see TNA pull the trigger and go all the way with him. ...

Then angle with Hardy attacking Morgan at the end of the match was well done. While Morgan was distracted by looking up at the video screen, which had Hardy on it talking about Morgan not knowing the difference between reality and fiction, Hardy jumped him from behind and laid him out. ...

Yep, after the newly retired Team 3D said an emotional goodbye to the fans, Brother Ray turned on Brother Devon. That’s one of those Vince Russo swerves that a lot of people saw coming, so in actuality, the only way it would have been a swerve was if Team 3D really did take a final bow before heading off into the sunset. With that being said, however, I think a Team 3D feud could be good, and the promos should be amazing. Brother Ray is a tremendous heel. By the way, who gets custody of Brother Runt? ...

In yet another swerve, Rhino turned on Rob Van Dam, which proved that the late Kurt Cobain was right: Just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean they aren’t after you. With the dissolution of EV 2.0, I’m glad to see that Rhino is not going to be joining Sabu and Raven on the future-endeavored list. ...

Why was Tommy Dreamer spitting water at Rhino when he confronted him after Rhino’s attack on RVD? I can’t blame Rhino for smashing Dreamer with a chair after Dreamer expectorated all over his face. ...

RVD executed the most amazing monkey flips I have ever seen during his match against Kazarian. ...

TNA has put together a strong core of babyfaces to oppose Immortal and Fortune. When the roster is at full strength, the babyface side has Kurt Angle, RVD, Mr. Anderson, Morgan, Dinero and Samoa Joe. That’s a lot more impressive than the Front Line that went against The Main Event Mafia. ...

After losing to Jeff Jarrett at Turning Point, Samoa Joe needed a convincing victory, and he got it in a handicap match against Gunner and Murphy. When Jarrett attacked Joe after the match, Angle made the save. I can’t wait until Jarrett finishes up with Joe and his program with Angle is in full swing. ...

The look on Mike Tenay’s face when Bischoff was yelling at him was so awesome that I rewound my tape and watched it a second time. Yes, I said “tape.” ...

It’s pretty hard to make a Jay Lethal match boring, but TNA pulled it off. The clunky mixed tag match in which Robbie E. and Cookie defeated Lethal and Taylor Wilde was plain awful. I felt bad for Lethal for having to be involved in such garbage. I also felt bad for Robbie E. and Cookie for being saddled with such lame gimmicks. I didn’t feel bad for Wilde, though. As much of a debacle as that match was, at least it got her back on TV. ...

Moments before the mixed tag, Cookie said backstage that she wasn’t a wrestler but that she was from Jersey and she can fight. Then when the match was about to start, she acted like she wanted no part of being in the ring. Sometimes TNA can screw up even the simplest of things. ...

A.J. Styles and Stevie Richards had a decent match, but the modified Styles Clash that Styles hit on Richards looked really unsafe. Instead of Richards landing flat, he was dropped on his neck. The worst part is I think that was a planned spot and not a mistake, as the story line was that Styles was trying to injure Richards’ neck. If I was Richards, I would have never agreed to take that move no matter how much trust I had in Styles to protect me. ...

Hogan said during his promo that he has been away “taking care of the next big thing for Immortal.” If he’s talking about Matt Hardy, I think he’s overstating it a bit. ...

I read a comment in which someone said that the new TNA world title belt that Hogan presented to Hardy after throwing the old belt in a trash can looked like the WWE Divas title belt. I can see that, but to me, it really looks like a cross between the Divas belt (because of the shape and design) and a belt that appears as if it was custom-made for Rey Mysterio (because of the masked face in the front, which I guess is supposed to be Hardy in his face paint). ...

Some thoughts on Reaction: Hogan was really annoying on this show. He said that the wrestlers needed to “get over or get out” and that they’d better “draw money and put asses in seats.” OK, so why is The Shore getting a push? Come to think of it, if drawing money and selling tickets is required to stay employed, TNA is about to fire its entire roster. Hogan also said that the wrestlers in TNA who can’t cut it can “go up North with a bunch of fake wrestlers and fake story lines.” Ugh. ... Speaking of The Shore, judging by what Lethal was saying (that he needed a woman to combat Cookie who was as nasty as she is), it seems like a certainty that TNA is setting up a mixed tag match pitting Robbie E. and Cookie against Lethal and Jwoww. Double-ugh. ... Brother Ray got over with me when he verbally assaulted Jason Hervey – who made his first appearance in front of the camera in TNA – and shoved him against the wall for asking stupid questions. Hervey, the former “Wonder Years” actor and Bischoff’s longtime business partner, is the unseen interviewer during backstage segments. It was ridiculous that the sawed-off former child star actually stood up to Ray and mouthed off to him. ... When Dreamer pulled up his shirt to show the bruises he received from Rhino’s chair shot, he also revealed his ample love handles, which were actually more disgusting than the bruises.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 5:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (43)
        

Officials in Orlando, Fla., are preparing a bid to build the WWE Hall of Fame in their city, according to a report in The Orlando Sentinel.

WWE began inducting pro wrestling figures into its Hall of Fame in 1993, although there has never been an actual building for it.

The story said that WWE has solicited proposals for the project from multiple cities. The company wants to put the Hall of Fame in a place that attracts a lot of tourists.

To read the article, click here

Posted by Kevin Eck at 9:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)
        

Thanks to the Ring Posts Universe, Ring Posts has made a surge in the voting for Best Baltimore Sun blog in baltimoresun.com's poll.

Victory is within our grasp, but there's still work to be done. The poll closes in an hour (5 p.m. eastern) and you can still vote here under The Baltimore Sun category at the bottom of the page, even if you have already voted previously.

Thank you for your support.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 3:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)
        

Longtime TNA star Eric Young has left the company, as has Raven and TNA Knockout Lacey Von Erich.

Young and TNA could not come to terms on a new contract, but are still in talks, according to pwinsider.com.

I have long thought that Young was talented but just misused. He shined when he was given an opportunity to be a serious character instead of a comedy figure.

Raven was written out of the story line at the recent Impact tapings. His departure is not a surprise, as the EV 2.0 angle seems to has run its course. Fellow former ECW star Sabu finished up with TNA last week.

Von Erich posted the following on her Twitter page earlier this evening:

“I decided to respectfully leave TNA today. I want to try new things, like be a sports host or something :) Love ya'll!”

It was very obvious that LVE just wasn’t very good in the ring, although she was very nice to look at. The real question is: With LVE gone, who will teach Miss Tessmacher how to wrestle?

Posted by Kevin Eck at 7:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (13)
        

Hulk Hogan has applied for a marriage license in Florida for him and his fianceé Jennifer McDaniel, according to TMZ.com.

The report said that Hogan wants the couple to be married by a “spiritual guru based out of L.A.”
After his messing divorce from Linda, I have just two words for The Hulkster:

Pre-nup, brother.

With pro wrestling’s history of entertaining televised weddings – and TNA’s penchant for reality-based story lines – perhaps Hogan, 57, and McDaniel, 35,will tie the knot on TNA Impact, with Linda and her twenty-something boyfriend crashing it.

That would surely spike the ratings a heck of a lot more than Jwoww.

Associated Press photo

Posted by Kevin Eck at 5:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)
        

Like Chris Jericho, I would never ever think of shamelessly pandering to all you gelatinous parasites (and I mean that in the nicest way).

However, I just wanted to alert everyone that Ring Posts is in the running for Best Baltimore Sun blog in the Mobbie Awards on baltimoresun.com. In fact, Ring Posts actually has a legitimate shot to win.

You can vote for Ring Posts here under The Baltimore Sun category at the bottom of the page. There isn’t much time left – the voting ends this Friday at 5 p.m. Eastern.

This is an opportunity for everyone in the Ring Posts Universe to show all the elitists that turn down their noses at you the pro wrestling fan and the pro wrestling business that you are proud of who you are and you will not be silenced. Stand up and be counted!

Thank you.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 1:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (7)
        

There’s no doubt that comedy is in the eye of the beholder. For example, some people found Pee-Wee Herman’s segment on Raw last week to be humorous, while I thought it was horrible.

On the other hand, I’m guessing that there are some who didn’t care for the tea party segment with Santino Marella, Sheamus and Vladimir Kozlov on Raw Monday night, but I thought it was very funny. In fact, it was the best segment on the show in my opinion, but, admittedly, it wasn’t a great episode.

The premise was that Marella was trying to smooth things over with Sheamus by inviting him to an in-ring tea party. I started laughing the second I saw Marella and Kozlov walking to the ring dressed as proper British gentleman (the show took place in Manchester, England).

Marella’s comic timing was perfect as he nervously tried to make friends with Sheamus but kept sticking his foot in his mouth. Kozlov – who looked a lot like the Patrick Macnee character in the 1960s TV series “The Avengers” – only had a couple lines, but his deadpan delivery was so spot-on that a “Kozlov” chant actually broke out. Sheamus also played his role well. I think having him in a program with Marella has actually helped him connect with the audience more than his run as a main-eventer did.

This all led to a match between Marella and Sheamus. Marella played the role usually reserved for chicken heels, as he stalled most of the way before begging off and hitting a low blow right in front of the referee. Even though he lost by disqualification, Marella did his big over-the-top-celebration, but Sheamus recovered and laid him out. John Morrison then came out and made the save.

Who knew the set-up for an eventual Sheamus-Morrison match could be so entertaining?

Other thoughts on Monday’s show:

The 10-man tag team main event – which saw The Nexus (Wade Barrett, Justin Gabriel, Heath Slater, Michael McGillicutty and Husky Harris) defeat Randy Orton, Daniel Bryan, The Miz, R-Truth and Mark Henry – was decent. Special referee John Cena made the three count when Barrett pinned Orton. What Cena didn’t see was that The Miz and Alex Riley attacked Orton to set up the pin. So not only did this advance the Cena-Nexus-Orton story line, but it also planted the seed for an Orton-Miz program. ...

The subplot with David Otunga looks like it will be coming to a head soon. Barrett told Otunga that he will be wrestling Edge on Smackdown Friday, and if he loses, he will be out of The Nexus. That should be interesting (I have a feeling that Kane will show up and cost Edge the match), although I’m not sure how Barrett has the authority to book matches on Smackdown. ...

As expected, the Cena-Otunga match was pretty much a squash. Otunga is getting better in the ring, although he really wasn’t asked to do a whole lot here. ...

Barrett got more of a mixed reaction in his hometown than I expected. I figured he would have gotten a babyface pop, but there seemed to be as many jeers as cheers. Orton, on the other hand, got a huge pop. ...

The Goldust-Ted DiBiase Jr. match (which was won by Goldust) wasn’t bad, but it didn’t have much heat. In an interesting twist, after Maryse grabbed The Million Dollar belt at ringside, Aksana came out, took the belt from Maryse and ran off with it. ...

During The Hart Dynasty’s loss to the Usos, Tyson Kidd did an awesome somersault plancha into a huracanrana on the floor. I’m ready for Kidd and David Hart Smith to break up and start feuding already. ...

As much as I love the WWE Divas, I actually hate soccer more, so the soccer-themed six-woman tag match that saw The Bellas and Eve Torres defeat Maryse, Alicia Fox and Tamina didn’t do much for me. Fox’s downward spiral continued as she again did the job.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 11:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (34)
        

Here are the results from TNA’s Turning Point pay-per-view Sunday night and my thoughts on the booking:

TNA world champion Jeff Hardy defeated Matt Morgan: Morgan, a late Plan B for this match after Mr. Anderson was sidelined with a concussion, had virtually no momentum coming in and there was little chance of new champion Hardy not succeeding in his first title defense. At least Morgan was put over strong in defeat, and I think his time will come eventually. It took three Twist of Hates (the new name for Hardy’s finisher) to beat him. At one point, Morgan hit the Carbon Footprint and covered Hardy, but the referee stopped counting at two even though Hardy did not kick out. Not sure what that was all about, but it sounds like a screw-up.

Jeff Jarrett defeated Samoa Joe: With the help of a nightstick and outside interference from TNA security guys Gunnar and Murphy, Jarrett choked out Joe for the win. I know some in the Internet Wrestling Community are ticked off that Joe didn’t go over in this match, but I think Jarrett winning was pretty obvious, as TNA is clearly building to a Jarrett-Kurt Angle match. The only way I thought Joe would win was if Angle would have shown up and distracted Jarrett.

Abyss defeated “The Pope” D’Angelo Dinero in a lumberjack match: The lumberjacks were members of Pope’s “congregation,” which was an entourage that included his brother. Of course Pope’s people – including his own brother – turned on him and cost him the match. Vintage Russo.

TNA world tag team champions The Motor City Machine Guns defeated Team 3D: It’s no surprise that many are calling this the best match of the night by far. This was billed as Team 3D’s retirement match, and for those expecting Team 3D to either turn heel or turn on one another, it didn’t happen. The Guns won clean and the two teams hugged after the match. TNA did the right thing by giving the Guns – the top tag team in the business today – a victory over one of the most successful teams of all time. As far as where Team 3D goes from here, I still think that Brother Ray will turn on Brother Devon and they will have a singles program.

Fortune (A.J. Styles, Beer Money, Kazarian and Douglas Williams) defeated EV 2.0 (Raven, Rhino, Stevie Richards, Sabu and Brian Kendrick): The stipulation was that a member of EV 2.0 would be fired if the team lost, and Sabu ended up doing the job and losing his job. That wasn’t a shock, as it was reported last week that Sabu had been told by TNA officials that the company had no plans for him after this match. For those keeping score, the Immortal/Fortune factions went a combined 4-0 on this show, which makes sense from a booking standpoint. The heels have to maintain the upper hand for a while before the babyfaces make a comeback.

Rob Van Dam defeated Tommy Dreamer: RVD has lost a lot of steam as a top babyface. He’s gone from being TNA world champion to wrestling Dreamer in a match that no one cared about. Being portrayed as a paranoid guy who is easily manipulated by Eric Bischoff hasn’t done RVD any favors either. After the match, RVD and Dreamer buried the hatchet.

Mickie James and Tara wrestled to a double disqualification: This was more of a brawl than a wrestling match, and the non-finish keeps the feud going. Even though Madison Rayne is the Knockouts champion, it’s pretty clear that James and Tara are the stars of the division.

Robbie E. defeated TNA X Division champion Jay Lethal to win the title: The Shore gimmick has go-away heat, so of course the TNA creative team decided to ignore the fans’ vocal disdain for the act and the poor ratings for Shore segments and put the belt on Robbie E. I have this horrible feeling that this is leading to a mixed tag match pitting Robbie E. and Cookie against Lethal and Jwoww.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 8:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (26)
        

Discussing Old School Raw, recalling a wild interview with The Iron Sheik and looking at TNA's ban on unprotected chair shots to the head. There's also a call to action for the Ring Posts Universe and more bad impressions.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 6:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (16)
Categories: Ring Posts Xtra episodes
        

You just knew something was up when the advertised main event for Friday night’s Smackdown of Edge versus Alberto Del Rio went on first instead of last.

After about 13 minutes of action in what was a very good match between the two, The Nexus – led by David Otunga and minus Wade Barrett and John Cena – suddenly stormed the ring and took out both Edge and Del Rio.

That led to Smackdown stars The Big Show, Kane and Rey Mysterio making the save, and a 10-man tag match pitting The Nexus against the Smackdown contingent was booked for later in the show.

I liked the Nexus angle, as it brought an air of unpredictability to the show and also advanced story lines on both Raw and Smackdown.

It was made clear later that Barrett was not aware of Nexus’ Smackdown invasion plan, as it was noted that he had left early for the WWE’s tour of the U.K. Otunga said that the group wanted to prove that The Nexus was about more than just Barrett and Cena.

I’m guessing Barrett isn’t going to be too happy about all of this, especially since The Nexus ended up losing the 10-man tag match. As for Cena, it made sense that he wasn’t with the group because he only has to take orders from Barrett, not Otunga or anyone else.

Meanwhile, Edge continued to be booked strong as he heads into his match with world heavyweight champion Kane at the Survivor Series pay-per-view on Nov. 21. In the 10-man tag match, Edge first speared Kane, and then speared Otunga for the win.

Del Rio’s self-centered heel persona was played up during the match, as he abandoned his team after being inadvertently bumped off the ring apron by The Big Show.

Other thoughts on Friday’s show:

The one thing I didn’t like about the Nexus-Team Smackdown angle was the fact that Kane was a part of it. It seemed out of character that he would care enough about defending Smackdown to fight alongside the brand’s top babyfaces. It was explained in commentary that, as the world champion, Smackdown is Kane’s show and he was defending his turf, but it still seemed like a bit of a stretch. It did allow for the confrontation at the end of the match between Kane and Edge, but the same thing could have been accomplished with Kane doing a run-in. The other weird thing about Kane fighting against The Nexus is that it was The Nexus who helped him win the Buried Alive match against The Undertaker at last month’s Bragging Rights pay-per-view. At least the announcers acknowledged that point in commentary rather than ignoring it. I guess it will all be explained at some point. ...

Before The Nexus interrupted the Edge-Del Rio match, I was thinking that Del Rio was going to pull the upset, thus setting him up as No. 1 contender if Edge won the title from Kane. ...

The reason Mysterio was attacked by The Nexus backstage and replaced by Kofi Kingston in the 10-man tag match is because Mysterio reportedly has an inner ear infection. ...

The Vickie Guerrero-Kaitlyn match – which Guerrero won when she pinned Kaitlyn with her feet on the ropes – was awful, but I actually thought it was so bad that it was entertaining. Considering the fact that Guerrero isn’t a wrestler and Kaitlyn is extremely green, I didn’t expect much going in. That was a heck of a slap that Guerrero gave Kaitlyn, though. ...

As bad as the Guerrero-Kaitlyn match was, I didn’t like Michael Cole and the other announcers ripping it the way they did. It’s one thing to do that type of sarcastic commentary on a show that no one watches such as NXT, but it’s just not smart to denigrate your own product on Smackdown. In similar situations, Jim Ross would simply say that the match was “bowling shoe ugly,” which acknowledged that the match wasn’t good without totally burying the product. ...

The triple threat match that saw MVP defeat Drew McIntyre and Cody Rhodes to earn an Intercontinental title shot against Dolph Ziggler on next week’s show was entertaining. MVP had new entrance music (which was pretty good), so perhaps he’ll be getting a renewed push. Of course I have thought that a number of times before, and the glass ceiling always ends up crashing down on MVP’s head. ...

After losing three consecutive matches to Daniel Bryan, Ziggler needed a convincing win, and he got it over JTG. ...

I like Tyler Rek’s Burning Hammer finisher. Rek’s current heel persona works better for him than the babyface persona he had when he first made it to TV. ...

Is it just me, or has Husky Harris gotten even huskier as of late? I’m begging him to get some new ring gear.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 5:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (24)
        

A show-long angle on Thursday night’s TNA Impact ended with Matt Morgan taking the injured Mr. Anderson’s place against TNA world champion Jeff Hardy in the main event of Sunday’s Turning Point pay-per-view.

Eric Bischoff, dressed in his karate outfit, opened the program by announcing that the only way Anderson would keep his title shot against Hardy is if he could first beat Bischoff on this show.

After it was teased throughout the evening that Anderson – who is out of action due to a concussion – might actually make it to the Impact Zone to face Bischoff, Morgan made a dramatic entrance in the final segment. He delivered a Carbon Footprint to Bischoff, pinned him and then signed the open contract to face Hardy on Sunday.

I liked the angle, but the combination of TNA only having two weeks to transform Morgan from the heel enforcer of Fortune into a top-level babyface and the fact that he and Hardy have no heat with one another makes this match a tough sell as a pay-per-view main event.

Other thoughts on Thursday’s show:

It seems really odd for Hardy, the world champion, to only appear via taped vignettes on the final two shows before a pay-per-view. ...

Samoa Joe busting through the entrance ramp to attack Jeff Jarrett was something I didn’t see coming. ...

With Jarrett constantly mentioning Kurt Angle in his promos, it sure seems as if Angle is going to get involved in the match between Jarrett and Joe on Sunday. ...

During Jarrett’s promo, he said that he didn’t sell out by aligning with Bischoff and Hulk Hogan, he bought in. That’s a great line. Too bad Hardy already used it three weeks ago. ...

The three-way match for the TNA TV title that saw champion A.J. Styles defeat Rob Van Dam and Rhino was disappointing. It only went about five minutes and wasn’t anywhere near as good as it could have been. ...

A match between a paranoid RVD and fellow former ECW star Tommy Dreamer was announced for Turning Point. How is it that Dreamer gets to work with top talents such as Styles and RVD every month on pay-per-view? ...

I liked the mutual respect deal with Team 3D and The Motor City Machine Guns, but the more these guys smiled at each other and exchanged compliments, the more convinced I became that at Turning Point either Team 3D is turning heel or Brother Ray is turning on Brother Devon. ...

The six-person tag team match in which Ink Inc. and Mickie James defeated Generation Me and Tara was entertaining. ...

Eric Young and Orlando Jordan in couples counseling was not entertaining. At all. ...

After Abyss attacked some more “fans,” it was announced that he will face “The Pope” D’Angelo Dinero at Turning Point in a match in which fans will be lumberjacks. My guess is that the lumberjacks will all be plants. ...

The Sarita-Velvet Sky match (which Sarita won) was only fair at best, and that’s because Sky just couldn’t keep up with the more talented Sarita. ...

Bickering announcers can either be funny or annoying. In the case of Mike Tenay and Taz, it’s the latter. ...

The match between Fortune members Kazarian and Douglas Williams was good while it lasted. Williams – who lost after being thrown into James Storm, who was standing on the ring apron for some reason – appears to be doing a slow-burn babyface turn. ...

When Ric Flair sat in on commentary during the Kazarian-Williams match, he had a lollipop in his mouth. I thought that was Jordan’s gimmick.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 1:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (19)
        

• I watched WWE Superstars for the first time in two months on Thursday night, and it wasn’t a bad show by the normal standards of the program. The best match was between Jack Swagger and Kaval. Kaval got in a lot of offense and had some nice near falls before ultimately tapping out to the ankle lock after outside interference from Swagger’s Eagle (how silly does that sound?). I’m hoping that Kaval always coming up just short in his matches will eventually lead to him scoring a big victory and receiving a push.

• In the main event, The Usos defeated Mark Henry in a handicap match. This was fine for what it was. The Usos used outside interference from Tamina to get the victory. I’m just glad they didn’t lose.

• Gail Kim and Alicia Fox had a good match, which Kim won. Every time Kim wins a match I think that she’s finally going to get a push, but it never happens. As for Fox, her win-loss record has been less than impressive as of late.

• Luke Gallows beat Vance Archer in a hard-hitting big man match. At first I thought it was a heel versus heel match, but the commentary seemed to indicate that Gallows was a babyface, and after the match was over, Gallows played to the crowd.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 9:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)
        

It turns out that the stories about Hulk Hogan flashing his “junk” were just a bunch of bunk.

Hogan has posted video evidence that refutes online reports that he flashed his genitals during a video to promote the Def Jam Rapstar game while his 22-year-old daughter, Brooke, was in the room.

In the original video, Hulk and Brooke are playing the video game, and then Hogan turns to the camera and appears to expose himself (his crotch area was censored).

In the uncensored video, it’s clear that Hogan was wearing underwear, so he was not hangin’ and bangin’ after all.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 7:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (8)
        

• I didn’t bother to watch WWE NXT the past two weeks, but there was no way that I was going to miss Tuesday’s episode. Why? Because the show featured the marriage of Goldust and Aksana, of course. WWE televised weddings are always must-see train wrecks. I’m glad that I decided to tune in (or, more accurately, log on), because the show also included appearances by Dusty Rhodes and “The Million Dollar Man” Ted DiBiase, a story line development in the Dolph Ziggler-Vickie Guerrero-Kaitlyn love triangle, and an elimination.

• The wedding had multiple swerves. First, the minister refused to go through with the ceremony because he was bought off by Ted DiBiase Jr. Rhodes then said that he knew something like this would happen, and he brought out Ted DiBiase Sr., who is an ordained minister, to marry the couple. After Goldust and Aksana said “I do,” however, she slapped her new husband in the face and walked off.

• The elder DiBiase got a big pop when he came out. It made sense that he would stick it to his son since the last time we saw them on camera together they were not getting along.

• There were some funny moments during the wedding, including the minister badly flubbing his lines. At one point, Josh Matthews said to Michael Cole, “You know this isn’t a real wedding, right?” Cole replied: “It’s fake? No!”

• Maxine was voted off, so we are down to four (A.J., Aksana, Kaitlyn and Naomi). Maxine’s elimination was no surprise, and you could see it on her face right before the announcement that she knew she was getting the boot. She was perhaps the worst in-ring performer of the bunch, but she was well-spoken and had a heel presence. It wouldn’t shock me if she ended up on Raw or Smackdown at some point.

• After Maxine was eliminated, Cole, whose every word all night was dripping with sarcasm, said: “Oh, that’s good. Eliminate the hottest one. Smart.”

• A.J. and Primo kept looking for a place backstage where they could talk in private, as it appeared that she was about to reveal that she had feelings for him. They ended up discovering Ziggler and Kaitlyn making out. Guerrero saw this unfold on the video screen and she stormed backstage to confront them. Lo and behold, two guys just happened to be walking by with a huge wedding cake, which of course ended up in Guerrero’s face. It will be interesting to see what happens with Ziggler and Guerrero on Smackdown Friday.

• The show opened with a kissing contest. Cody Rhodes was the judge (he replaced Hornswoggle after Maxine refused to kiss the little guy – more on that below) and he was the star of the segment. Before kissing each girl he would do something such as apply lip gloss to himself, shoot some breath spray into the girl’s mouth or file her nails. He declared A.J. the winner after she jumped on top of him while kissing him.

• Maxine and Hornswoggle were found making out backstage, which made no sense since she wouldn’t kiss him in the contest and has never liked him. Oh well, good for him.

• There actually was a match on the show, as Kelly Kelly defeated Alicia Fox in a short, fast-paced contest.

• Cole and Matthews are funny together on commentary, but Matthews’ giggling every time Cole makes a joke gets really annoying after awhile.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 3:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (11)
        

Monday’s episode of Raw was peculiar to say the least.

For starters, creepy Pee-Wee Herman was the guest star, and former WWE Diva Lita made a random cameo in a backstage segment. The most bizarre thing on the show, however, was a comedy sketch involving Vince and Stephanie McMahon, actor Freddie Prinze Jr. and the voice of Triple H.

In the sketch, Vince was in a coma and Prinze (who reportedly is once again working on the WWE creative team) was his doctor. Vince abruptly snapped out of his comatose state when Prinze mentioned that Vince’s wife, Linda, had spent $50 million on her Senate bid. Vince was wearing a bunch of Linda McMahon stickers on his hospital gown. When he got out of bed to go to the bathroom, he had a campaign poster of Richard Blumenthal (Linda’s Democratic opponent) covering his buttocks.

Suddenly, WWE cut to a shot of Stephanie sitting up in bed and saying that she just had a weird dream about her father coming out of his coma. Triple H (who supposedly was lying next to her under the covers but was not shown), said that Vince was indeed “brain dead” and still in a coma.

On Election Eve, WWE just couldn’t resist doing a politically themed skit. While some of the interaction between Vince and Prinze was funny, I could have done without having this on the show.

As for Herman, I have never found him to be the least bit funny, so I thought his long segment with The Miz and The Big Show (who was dressed in a Pee-Wee Herman outfit) was absolutely awful. Overall, this was a sub-par episode.

Other thoughts on Monday’s show:

The main event, which saw Randy Orton and R-Truth defeat Wade Barrett and David Otunga with John Cena as the referee, was good from a story line perspective, but it wasn’t much of a match. Cena called the match down the middle, but he did not see the heels make a legal tag and that allowed Orton – who was not the legal man – to hit an RKO on Otunga, who was covered by R-Truth for the win. ...

The way R-Truth stooged on Cena to Orton almost makes me think that R-Truth is turning heel. ...

I liked the Daniel Bryan-Ted DiBiase Jr. match, which was won by Bryan. The crowd was very into Bryan. ...

I was glad to see The Miz not have to job to The Big Show. Miz got in a decent amount of offense before losing by disqualification for using the Money in the Bank briefcase. By the way, why was Smackdown’s Big Show on Raw in the first place? ...

Lita showing up unannounced was a pleasant surprise. ...

Santino Marella was hilarious on the mic when he was trying to talk Sheamus out of destroying him. ...

I find Sheamus much better-suited for his current mid-card role than his previous role as a world champion and pay-per-view headliner. ...

New WWE tag team champions Justin Gabriel and Heath Slater gained some credibility with their victory over former champions The Hart Dynasty. ...

Tyson Kidd and David Hart Smith continue to not get along, but the way their inevitable split is being booked isn’t doing either of them any favors. ...

Ezekiel Jackson was impressive in his quick squash of Zack Ryder. I have long believed that Jackson has potential as a powerhouse, regardless of whether he’s a babyface or a heel. As for Ryder, well, at least he is still employed. ...

I don’t think the WWE brass gets it that LayCool mostly has go-away heat. ...

WWE ran a video package featuring former Raw guest hosts talking about what a positive experience hosting the show was. Among them was Dennis Miller, who said that people shouldn’t denigrate wrestling. That was hilarious coming from him, because I sure got the impression that he felt wrestling was beneath him when he hosted the Slammy Awards last year.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 10:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (37)
        

CNN and Fox News have projected Democrat Richard Blumenthal to defeat Republican Linda McMahon, the former WWE CEO, in the Connecticut Senate race.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 8:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (12)
        

CM Punk has suffered a hip injury and reportedly will out of action for three months.

According to pwinsider.com, the WWE creative team was told that Punk will be unable to wrestle for three months because of the injury, but that they should come up with ideas for him to be on TV in a non-wrestling role.

The injury reportedly occurred during the seven-on-seven elimination match at the Bragging Rights pay-per-view on Oct. 24 when Punk took a bump on a DDT from Edge.

This is a tough break because Punk’s character has been reinvigorated since his recent move from Smackdown to Raw. Punk appeared to be on the verge of beginning a highly anticipated program with U.S. champion Daniel Bryan.

Punk has been entertaining when given opportunities to sit in on commentary as of late, so perhaps that would be a way to keep him on TV. Another thought would be to have him host a weekly interview segment on Raw.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 6:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (8)
        

In the latest – and hopefully final – twist – to a story that has become increasingly ridiculous, the U.S. Department of Justice sent a letter to WWE’s lawyer Monday stating that WWE’s plan to distribute WWE clothing to voters near certain polling places in Connecticut today is a violation of federal law.

WWE responded by issuing a news release that said, “Under this ambiguous threat of legal action by the U.S. Department of Justice, WWE has reluctantly decided not to give away WWE merchandise near select polling stations.”

WWE had previously announced that it was going to give away the merchandise to celebrate the rescinding of Connecticut Secretary of State Susan Bysiewicz’s directive that poll workers could ask voters wearing WWE merchandise to cover it up before voting.

Bysiewicz, a Democrat, said that wearing the merchandise could be interpreted as campaigning for former WWE CEO Linda McMahon, the Republican Senate candidate. Campaigning – which includes wearing political paraphernalia – within 75 feet of polling places is illegal in the state.

I thought Bysiewicz’s initial decision was an example of politics winning out over common sense, and I was glad to see her reverse it (after WWE CEO Vince McMahon filed a lawsuit, of course).

However, I also thought WWE was taking things a step too far with the merchandise giveaway. I believe WWE knew that such a stunt would generate a reaction from the Justice Department, and that would allow the company to once again portray itself as the victim.

“This is clearly heavy-handed bullying from big government and would appear to be desperate political activity in closely contested elections in Connecticut,” Vince McMahon said in a news release.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 5:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)
        

Here is the premiere edition of "RIng Posts Xtra," baltimoresun.com's weekly pro wrestling show, hosted by yours truly.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 3:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (40)
Categories: Ring Posts Xtra episodes