Ringside Review

By Trevor Potter

January 22, 2007 – January 28, 2007

RAW

The program starts out with a mention of Bam Bam Bigelow’s passing which is a classy way to pay tribute to fallen wrestlers who have given us so much of themselves over the years. This storyline has been re-hashed so many times before but they continue to go with it. The boss, in this case The Coach, has it out for the champion John Cena and forces him to run the gauntlet against seemingly insurmountable odds. This is a little reminiscent of The Rock and Stone Cold back in the late Attitude Era days. Just when we think John Cena has taken care of all comers out comes The Great Khali who starts to clear house and gets cheered in the process. Since when has Khali gotten face cheers? Umaga then comes out and proceeds to put Cena through a table possibly “rupturing his spleen”. Poor Cena. First he gets stabbed in the kidney a few years back and now a ruptured spleen. From a storyline standpoint Umaga takes the advantage heading into the Rumble. Raw included a Divas tag team match. There seems to be at least one divas match on Raw as of late. At least they’re letting the women wrestle and not let the division fall by the wayside. The main event featured Edge vs HBK in a street fight. The intensity level of the DX vs Rated RKO feud has grown stronger and stronger over the past few weeks and this match was no exception. This was a great match with lots of excitement and intensity as you could by the crowd reaction. The match was given a decent amount of time and had a twist at the end when Orton came in to RKO Shawn before he threw Edge out of ring.  It kind of reminded me of the Triple H vs Shawn Michaels street fight from SummerSlam 2002. Rated RKO looks like they’re in for a split up. If WWE does decide to split them up who will they be dropping the titles to? The whole Donald Trump thing is just for mainstream press which they will get if it all pans out.

ECW

This week’s show featured a 5 person battle royal. The wrestlers who were in the match were good performers so this could have been a quality match but it ended up being pretty weak. During the match Sabu was wrestling Dreamer and I thought that would be a solid feud for the current ECW but I doubt that would happen because it wouldn’t push the New Breed of wrestlers in any way shape or form. Then we had Kelly Kelly, Layla & new ECW Diva Brooke come out to the ring and dance. At least back in the day the Nitro Girls were all in sync. The silence of the crowd during this segment is comment enough. Marquis Cor Von gets another match this week against Jobber #2. It might be nice for The Alpha Male to get an opponent that WWE fans actually know. He’ll continue to get a push and end up in title contention soon enough. The main event for ECW was actually the Royal Rumble title match except this was a non-title match. The match ends with Lashley getting a clean pin over Test. That right there was your Rumble match. They could have at the very least ended the match in a DQ or something to further hype the Rumble match. Horrible writing because if you just gave us the ECW title match for the Rumble and it ended in a clean pin by the champion then what is my motivation for wanting to see the exact same match but on a PPV? This year will be the first Mania that will feature WWE with 3 brands meaning ECW wrestlers will be competing on the show. Of course the ECW title will be on the line at Wrestlemania but will ECW even get another match besides that? Well if SummerSlam, Survivor Series and the Royal Rumble are any indications then the answer is simply NO. There is however the Money in the Bank ladder match at Mania which has traditionally involved 6 superstars. With 3 brands now it seems fair that 2 superstars from each brand get to compete in the match. I’d love to see Sabu & CM Punk in the mix. RVD is another option here as well but he won last year’s match.

TNA

The Angle / Samoa Joe feud is still on going and has lasted for quite a while now. I don’t necessarily see this as a bad thing since most memorable feuds in wrestling history have stretched over long periods of time. We finally learned what Abyss has been hiding all of these years. He shot his father in the back 3 times and put him in a coma in an apparent murder attempt. Why not? It gives Abyss some back-story and is meant to help us understand why he is the monster that he is today. Abyss is TNA’s Undertaker and he is a great character for the company. He only held the belt for a short time but he did hold the NWA belt which gives him great credibility. This should lead to some intense stipulation matches between Sting & Abyss in the coming months. Raven’s group Seretonin is made up of some great X-Division stars that currently have the whole Clockwork Orange gimmick going on right now. This is another storyline that has followed Raven from organization to organization but this one works even if it means wearing a cod piece. AJ & Rhino are still going at it which will mean another match at Against All Odds hopefully with an interesting stipulation added. I think AJ is much better as a face. It just seems like he’s trying to hard to be a heel. He’s an amazing athlete though and either way his matches are almost always enjoyable to watch. Borash & Eric Young hanging out together at 4AM? To quote the Hurricane, “What’s Up Wit’ Dat?” Eric Young is hysterical though. We finally get some pure X-Division wrestling this week in a 4-Way match featuring 2 of the 3 founders of the X-Division. Its great to see Jerry Lynn back in the ring. If you’ve never seen the early days of the X-Division I suggest you check it out. The main event featured Christian Cage vs The Fallen Angel in a non-title match. If this match hadn’t of had any interference it could have been great. Instead there was interference by Tomko & Joe but it was still a good match though. With only a one hour timeslot TNA really has to push the pace of the show and the storyline progression to build for PPVs. A few more clean finishes without interference would be welcome. After all that was the original appeal of Ring of Honor and look at how far they’ve come over the years. TNA closes each show with a Video Recap to the “Adrenaline Rush” song. The video recaps are a great way to close out the show and remind you of everything that happened that week in TNA.

SMACKDOWN

We start out Smackdown with a champion vs champion match in Batista vs Gregory Helms. You might expect this to be a squash match for Batista but it turned out to be a pretty good match with Helms getting most the offense the entire match. This is an example of good writing for Smackdown. They didn’t just bury Cruiserweight Champion against Batista but instead allowed him to hold his own while still putting over Batista. Next we had Benoit vs The Miz. The best thing about the Miz’s matches is JBL’s commentary. I get the feeling that’s legitimately what JBL thinks of the Miz. If you ever watched the original Real World’s then you can at least appreciate how much of a fan The Miz is of wrestling and that he’s living out his dream every time he steps into that ring. Smackdown’s newest tag team Deuce & Domino get another match this week against jobbers # 3 & 4. You wouldn’t expect Snuka’s kid to look like the Fonz or be doing the Hand Jive but if those characters help these 2 wrestlers get over with the fans than more power to them. Their Valet / Manager / Sister / Girlfriend Cherri was actually wearing the old school roller skates to the ring. I think that’s a first. They do have a pretty cool, high-impact finisher though. We then have a 6 person tag with MNM going over to push their upcoming Royal Rumble match against the Hardyz. MVP and Kane try to set each other on fire….again. MVP’s inflatable 2 A Days high school entrance seems a little absurd to me but its something different to set him apart. The 6-person Battle Royal was suddenly interrupted when the lights when out. Lights hit and there’s the Undertaker to clear house. Taker dominates with lots of energy and looking better than he has quite a while. Taker ends up accidentally nailing Batista with the big boot after trying to hit Kennedy. This is more good writing on Smackdown’s part. Batista vs Undertaker is coming and they’re slowing making the fans want it.

ROYAL RUMBLE

MNM vs The Hardy Boyz seems to be a quality match that was given an appropriate amount of time. Solid PPV match with good storyline behind it. ECW title match featuring Lashley defending against Test already happened last Tuesday and yet still managed to suck even worse by Test literally walking out of the match. ECW writers have to seriously just sit down and brainstorm on how to get themselves out of this situation that ECW is in right now. I know they have to meet with Vince’s approval on everything but it just seems like their ears are shut to the outside world while they’re stuck in that wrestling insiders bubble oblivious to everything around them. Batista vs Kennedy was a quality match with Batista getting the clean pin. Cena also came out on top defeating Umaga in the Last Man Standing match. Both of these matches were also given good time which a World Championship match on a PPV should be given. The Rumble is always exciting. The 4 real contenders to win the Rumble were exacting who ended up in the final four – Edge, Orton, Shawn Michaels & Taker. This is an exciting final four because even if you read the internet and think you know who they’re going to have win you never really can be sure. Despite being in his hometown Shawn Michaels still got eliminated with Taker winning his first Royal Rumble. I was surprised that Taker won because Taker / Batista for Mania was already in the works and he really didn’t need the Rumble win for that match to happen. On the Raw side we still have Shawn Michaels, Randy Orton & Edge all as possible contenders for a title shot at Wrestlemania. My pick would be Shawn to face Cena one on one but that would leave Edge and Orton on the outs. You could turn one of them face and have them fight each other at Mania but I highly doubt that would happen. It’d be good though. There’s still 2 full months before the biggest event in sports entertainment of the year so anything can happen.

- Trevor Potter

Email:  [email protected]