Ringside Review

By Trevor Potter

January 29, 2007 – February 3, 2007

RAW

This week is Mr. McMahon’s Fan Appreciation week and he started out by giving us a Tag Team Championship Match between Rated RKO vs Cena & Shawn Michaels as the main event. The first match of the night is Cryme Tyme vs The World’s Greatest Tag Team. The tag team division on Raw seems to be going strong with plenty of available teams on the brand. Why does Haas have cornrows? My thinking is that Jackie just had too much free time on her hands and got bored. Haas just doesn’t seem to have the charisma to be on his own so getting back with Shelton is the best thing for him right now. Decent match with the WGTT picking up the win.

Next we have a #1 contenders match for the women’s championship featuring Melina vs Maria. Horrible match with botched moves all over the place. This match was basically a showcase of how green Maria is in the ring. You do have to give her credit for trying and getting in the ring. She was just trying to rush her way through each move. My suggestion would be a little less time on the Kiss Cam and a little more in ring training. The women’s title is always on the line at Wrestlemania so we’ll see if they hold off of Mickie James vs Melina for then or if they rush it. Melina did debut a cool new finisher in the match and with the recent departures of Trish & Lita she could be the next face of the women’s division.

Umaga had a squash match against Val Venis. Were does Umaga go from here? He will most likely get a match at Mania. An Intercontinental title run might be a good place for Umaga in the upcoming year. Trump finally made his first appearance to promote his Wrestlemania feud with Vince. This whole segment really dragged on but having it rain real money in an arena is pretty cool. Carlito & Super Crazy had some good chemisty as a tag team when they faced off against Kenny & Chris Masters. Kenny’s got great potential and he’ll slowly get better.

The IC title was on the line as Jeff Hardy faced The Great Khali. This match ended in a countout with Khali winning. This match was pretty pointless as it didn’t put Hardy over and Khali looked ridiculous just standing there with his hands in the air waiting for the referee to count to ten. Khali really needs a manager to be his mouthpiece again much like Estrada is for Umaga.

The main event was for the WWE Tag Team Championship with Rated RKO defending against John Cena & Shawn Michaels. The past few weeks it looked like Rated RKO was headed for a break-up and they ended up dropping the titles to Cena & Shawn Michaels. The tension between Cena & HBK continues to build but Undertaker still might be thrown into the mix. You never know if WWE is reanalyzing the whole Batista / Undertaker match.

ECW

Vince McMahon makes his first appearance in ECW wearing a god awful 70’s leisure suit. Throughout the show he keeps encountering some of the few ECW originals that are left. The first match of the night is CM Punk vs Matt Striker. Punk is great and Striker is actually a decent wrestler who pulls out some cool moves from time to time. This match however received very little crowd reaction one way or the other. Here’s a crazy idea. Instead of having random matches how about trying to build a few feuds and storylines to make fans care and show some interest.

Our next match was RVD vs Hardcore Holly. This match went on for a long time with Holly picking up the clean win. Here’s the logic behind Holly’s win. RVD is most likely headed to TNA and won’t resign to WWE so why not bury him before he leaves so he’ll have less star power when he gets to TNA. Wrestling fans are sick of all the ridiculous politics that go on behind the scenes. A lot of the times its not just how talented you are or your work rate but its who you know and who you’re friends with. But then again that’s how the real world works too. It’ll always be like that so we as fans just have to learn to deal with it. RVD vs Jerry Lynn in TNA could be an amazing feud to revive from the old ECW days. Personally I’m looking forward to it. Extreme Expose – girls I’m begging you to at least practice to get in sync.

Vince gets in the ring and starts a new storyline of the ECW Originals vs The New Breed. At least this is an attempt to come up with something creative in ECW. It’s a little reminiscent of WCW’s last ditch effort of The Millionare’s Club vs The New Blood but let’s give it a chance and see where it goes. Lashley vs Test 3. Why? Just why? I couldn’t even sit through this match for a 3^rd time and ended up just Tivo-ing through it in about 2 minutes. Why does Test deserve another title shot after walking out on a title match at a major PPV? It doesn’t make any logical sense from any viewpoint. You have to feel for Taz & Joey Styles who are trying their best to make matches like these appear exciting. Remember when ECW had Extreme Rules matches? Vince is making them a rarity so that when they do happen they are something special. I understand the reasoning behind it but honestly tell me what is Extreme about ECW these days?

WRESTLING SOCIETY X

This was the premiere episode of WSX and it’s only a 30 minute show so it’s understandably very fast paced. There was really no introduction into the company and the whole setting seems like you’re in a skate park. The first match was Jack Evans vs Matt Sydel. Jack Evans it is simply amazing watching him move around in and out of the ring. Some of the greatest actual wrestling out there is on the independent scene and WSX gives these indy wrestlers a chance to showcase their skills. Great opening match for the new company with Jack Evans getting the victory.

We then had a 10-Man Royal Rumble Ladder Match with 2 WSX contracts on the line. This match was basically a spot fest for the ADD MTV generation. I suppose to fans out there who’ve never seen this style of wrestling before then its something new and worth checking out. If you really want to see some crazy hardcore wrestling check out dvds from XPW and FMW. I wouldn’t be surprised to see a death match in WSX sometime in the future. 6-Pac & Vampiro take the contracts and will fight each other next week to crown the first WSX champion. Most of the talent in WSX is not well known to mainstream wrestling fans which is why these two were chosen to wrestle for the title. Overall the premiere episode garnered a 1.0 rating which is great by MTV standards. It is an alternative wrestling style to anything televised right now so we’ll have to wait and see how things turn out for the company.

TNA

The first match of the night is a 5 Corner X Division Match. Finally TNA is starting to showcase their X-Division except the end of the match was ridiculous to say the least. Chris Sabin dressed up as an old man complete with depends costs Jerry Lynn the victory in the match. Yes we get the Sabin thinks Jerry Lynn is past his prime but dressing up as an old man is an unnecessary angle. LAX attack the uncle of Team 3D to try and build some tension between the two teams. Will this be the match that Team 3D finally captures the tag team gold in TNA? It’s bound to happen eventually. There’s a great mid-card feud developing between Robert Roode & Eric Young with Miss Brooks caught in the middle. You just can’t help but root for Eric Young and he is way over with the fans. Abyss & Sting will be having a Prison Yard match at Against All Odds. Has potential so lets give a chance and see what they do with it. The main event was suppose to be AJ Styles vs Samoa Joe but the match was basically over by the time the bell rang because of interference. Joe ends up attacking Christian to prove that he’s not the consultant. Angle vs Christian is coming up and they really need to keep the title on Christian. The NWA title has been shifted around too frequently lately and needs to stay on one person for a while. According to Kurt Angle he would love to see the following three free agents in TNA: Hulk Hogan, Big Show & Chris Jericho. Angle, Dixie & the Panda Energy money train could make any of these three a possibility.

SMACKDOWN

Recently there’s been a lot of shots taken at the Smackdown GM Theodore Long, mostly by JBL & Vicky Guerrero. Are these two possibly looking to fill that GM spot themselves? Vicky is up to something but I’m not sure what yet. Possibly becoming a manager for a new talent in the upcoming weeks? We’ll probably find out at No Way Out. The new tag team of Deuce & Domino actually defeated the tag team champions London & Kendrick in a non-title match this week. I’m guessing the Smackdown tag team division is a little sparse right now so they’re really pushing this new team to get a feud going probably for the No Way Out PPV. I really hope that they don’t have London & Kendrick drop the tag titles to these new comers. Deuce and Domino seem like a decent tag team and all but they are nowhere near title contention range.

Booker T received the key to the city of his hometown Houston, Texas. He gives his usual over the top, elongated royal speech only to be interrupted by Kane. This match will obviously happen at No Way Out but will it continue on to Wrestlemania? Both of these guys will obviously be on the show and need opponents so it would make sense to continue there feud through Mania. Kennedy defeated Vito this week and then complained to Teddy Long asking for a rematch against Batista which he was granted next week. That should be good as long as there’s no interference which seems to be running rampant in every brand / organization these days.  Joey Mercury caused Matt Hardy a match with The Miz this week so look for these two to also have a match at No Way Out.

Lets see how much star power we can get in the ring at one time. We had John Cena, Shawn Michaels, Batista & The Undertaker all being addressed by Mr. McMahon to close out the show this week. Vinny Mac announced that at No Way Out it would be Cena & HBK vs Batista & Undertaker. Pretty solid main event for a PPV and this probably means that we won’t find out who the Undertaker will choose to fight at Wrestlemania until at least No Way Out. There’s pretty much Undertaker vs Batista / Cena vs HBK or Undertaker vs Cena / Batista vs HBK unless you somehow want to throw Edge & Orton into the mix somewhere along the line. Remember that both the Undertaker & Edge’s winning streaks will be on the line at Wrestlemania.

Trevor Potter

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