I am The Eggman

2005-12-13T07:13:00.001-12:00

I was a part of LCSHockey. Beat that.

10.27.05 - The triumphant return 0.1

2005-10-26T13:52:00.000-12:00

Its been a while since I posted here.

NHL is back, wrestling sucks more than usual. Thankfully there are some great shows coming out from over there to watch.

What's being downloaded to my computer now and then...

(In no particular order)
Lost.hdtv-lol
Prison.Break.hdtv-lol
My.Name.Is.Earl.hdtv-lol
Invasion.hdtv-lol
The.Today.Show.dsrip-xvid
Battlestar.Galactica.hdtv-lol
Everybody.Hates.Chris.hdtv-lol
NHL.Games.hdtv-lol
Saturday.Night.Live.hdtv-lol

Its hard keeping an alternate view of the world when 95% of the shows shown are American.
Americana is eviler* than Richard Channing.

*Eviler= Dubya speak...

(Actually, I'm okay with America, just not the cabal ruining it...)

This blog has been all about rasslin before but since that sucks so bad right now I'm expanding it to...er...uhm...NHL too?

And Politics.

*I love Sweden more than any other country on this planet. TM

I'm not really that good a writer.

06.17.05 - E-C-DUB!! E-C-DUB!! E-C-DUB!!

2005-06-17T08:06:00.000-12:00

[NOTE: I wrote this while sitting on a computer that used Linux. Something weird happened and you have to reload the blog a few times for the whole review to appear. I sent an email to blogspot.com and they are working on it. Or so they say.]

Welcome back Mr Eggman?

It's been a while now since I've posted my thoughts on wrestling. Mainly because I've been bored to hell with RAW and Smackdown and wrestling in general. I still watch it though, since habits are hard to break. Why do I start posting again? Well, One Night Stand brought back something I've missed lately, a newfound love for wrestling.

Who imagined wrestling could still be this good? Sunday Nights One Night Stand PPV was truly one of the better PPV's I've seen. Ever. (EVAR~!?) Maybe not so much in terms of quality matches, but more of the fact that it was something completely different from what I've been watching the last two years. Something fresh and something that felt truly unique.

I'll leave the negativity behind today because after watch One Night Stand I don't want to be negative ever again. I'm thinking of quitting wrestling altogether now since I doubt RAW or Smackdown can top what we've just seen. I want to go out with a bang. Something I should've done after Wrestlemania, which I really really liked. I'm sure you've read about a 1000 reviews already, so I'll skip the actual review and just give you my random thoughts on the PPV.

THE CROWD: Talk about a wild crowd! I've watched the PPV seven times since sunday. (I know I'm sad and I have too much time on my hand, but I still get goosebumps watching them blow the roof of singing along to Enter Sandman. That's probably the biggest memory I have from this PPV. It was pure magic.

The singalong is bigger than wrestling. Its about our generation being fed up with our mundane lives in general. Especially when it comes to the music industry. If you were a teen in the time of The Black Album, Nirvana, Green Day, Soundgarden, Pearl Jam, Pantera, The Samshing Pumpkins etc you can't help but think that todays music sucks acne. (For fucks sake, The Breeders Cannonball was the most played song on radio for a year! Can you imagine something like that today? I didn't think so.) It's about a generation that never got to finish what they started. Mariah Carey and Boyz To Men came up the charts too quickly to make sure the little rebellious attitude we thought we were apart of would never again come back. Hearing the fans scream on top of their lungs for just one more time was way bigger than wrestling for me.

Match Ratings:

Lance Storm vs Chris Jericho: EEE

Tajiri vs Little Guido vs Super Crazy: EEE

Psicosis vs Rey Mysterio: EEE

Chris Benoit vs Eddie Guerrero: EE 1/2

Mike Awesome vs Masato Tanaka: EEEE

Tommy Dreamer & Sandman vs The Dudleys: EEE

Match of The Night:
Mike Awesome vs Masato Tanaka
Not so much as it was the best WRESTLING match, but it was a great clusterfuck of mistimed spots and holy-shit moments. I'd never seen Mike Awesome before and he impressed the hell out of me. Although I'm glad I never got to experience my first actual in-ring death men he leaped on top of Tanaka to finish the match. His feet touched the toprope and he fell face first. But he made the cover and got the pin. (My money is still on Gene Snitsky to be the first man I see die in the ring. His death will be due to steroid abuse though, although he's gotten smaller as of late so lets all hope he's somehow less juiced up than before. Although not likely.)

04.25.05 - My return to blogging! But no rasslin this time

2005-04-24T21:19:00.000-12:00

Well, hello again. It's been about a month since I last posted. I've stayed away from posting because quite frankly Wrestling sucked the life out of me.

I so wanted to have Wrestlemania 21 as my last memory of the current WWE for a while, but I just had to watch the following RAW. But I turned it of in disgust when HHH's music hit.

Although I've been watching the last couple of RAW's I'm not that bothered to care enough to make a post about it. Therefore this Blog will no longer be known as the Wrestleblog, but simply my blog.

Whenever I feel like blogging about rasslin' I'll do so.

[**] I'm waiting for my Sharp V902 to arrive today or tomorrow. I've been a good customer at Vodafone so they offered me one "free of charge"* (*For 100 swedish kronor a mopnth -roughly 7.80GBP, 1,3USD, 2 Big Value Mac Meals- ) for 12 months along with a new kind of tariff. which will be way cheaper for me btw! =)

[**] I keep wondering what all the fuss about Chelsea is? Don't they know there's only one team that rules supreme in London?

Q.P FUCKING R!

thats right! =P It's just footieball mates. Keep them hatemails to yourselves...

BTW, blogspot kinda sucks. I'm trying to get my livejournal.com blog warking but I'm too dumb to get their system.

03.29.05 - Raw Is Crap Review

2005-03-29T03:55:00.000-12:00

RAW IS CRAP!

Go back to your regular lives. There is nothing to see here. The WWE are incapable of delivering even a remotely satisfying conclusion to their biggest moneyangle in years! After tonights pathetic showing of an episode, I am seriously considering taking time of from watching wrestling.

Show Rating: E-

03.29.05 - RAW Review

2005-03-29T03:49:00.000-12:00

RAW IS CRAP!

Go back to your regular lives. There is nothing to see here. The WWE are incapable of delivering even a remotely satisfying conclusion to their biggest moneyangle in years! After tonights pathetic showing of an episode, I am seriously considering taking time of from watching wrestling.

Show Rating: E-

03.28.05 - Heat Review

2005-03-28T09:34:00.000-12:00

I watched Sunday Heat today and I was surprised how much I liked it. I occasionally watch Velocity now and then but that show does nothing for me. Among other things I hate the way they treat Josh Matthews on that show. Josh Matthews represents all of us fans who arent wrestlers. I consider myself a regular person when it comes to the physique of a man.

My body is in no way built like a wrestler. I have too many bags of chips and cheese balls in my system to ever become a rassler. I look more like Todd Grisham or Josh Matthews. I though Michael Cole was in the same category as us, but since seeing the Taxi Driver spoof I sadly realize that he is now one of them.

Anyway... Josh Matthews constantly gets bashed all over the place by Bill DeMott and the new Romero guy. Although I've only seen one show with those two so that might have changed. I'll try to catch the next episode to get another opinion of that.

But I watched Heat and I was pleasantly surprised actually. The Coach and Todd Grisham did commentary and I had no problem with them. Coach was actually very funny as the cocky ladiesman who looks down on evertbody else and thinks they are loosers, when in fact we all look down on him because he IS the real looser.

And Todd Grisham did his job by giving good commentary and giving us facts about the wrestlers without making himself the centerpiece of the commentary. If they work out this good everyweek I wouldn't have a problem with them doing commentary for the main shows down the road.

Now my opinion of Heat is that this is what a B-show should be like. This is how you use the concept of a B-show. RAW ans Smackdown should both be considered A-shows giving us the best of the best. They should let the new guys or the underused guys a chance to learn their crafts on these two shows (Heat and Velocity) instead of putting them on Smackdown right away. Recently I've had a lot of beef with Chris Masters, but he actually worked out ok here on Heat when he wrestled a local wrestler, or if he wrestles another wrestler that's not as "established" as, lets say Steven Richards! Most wrestling fans like Richards too much to have him squashed (and subsequently have his nose broken) by such a green guy like Masters on RAW. Yes, I know what you are thinking but by judging from the crowds at RAW they actually do like him more than you think. It's the same with Val Venis. He was way over with the Birmingham crowd tonight when he wrestled the future of sports entertainment, Gene Snitsky.

He actually recieved a standing ovation by the hot crowd when he walked down the ramp....

Gene Snitsky defeated Val Venis
A surprisingly good match with Snitsky involved. Good back and forth action with Venis dominating most of the match. Venis hit a few clotheslines and a leg drop from the second rope to great reactions from the crowd. Venis started bleeding from the head for no apparent reason really as I missed what caused it. It wasn't a mistimed boot to the face by Snitsky that caused, I swear! The match ended with Venis hitting a flying clothesline from the top rope. Snitsky tried a pumphandle slam but Venis hit what I think is called a Urinagi Suplex. Snitsky then hit a big boot to the face of Venis and did something that resembles an inverted DDT for the win.
Match Rating: EE

Chris Masters defeated Russell Simpson
A very short match that was preceeded by MAsters cutting an ok promo where he stated that he was better built than Ahnuld (I'm da govenor of California!) and smarter than Einstein.
Masters hit a catapult sending Simpsons neck into the middle ropes and a few kicks to the head. Then he hit Simpson with the Polish Hammer and then applied the Master Lock (Now a WWE registered trademark) for the easy win.
Match Rating: EE-

The score of two E's is mainly because I´was pleasantly surprised he didn't stink the joint up. He cut a good promo before and didn't injure his opponent so I'll give him the benefit of the doubt if they keep him mostly on Heat and an occasional RAW appearance until he's ready to join Evolution or getting into a feud with whatever babyface is The heavyweight Champion at the time. Hey, don't tell me it's not impossible because I know Vince jerks of once in a while, and Masers is the kind of guy that has him touching himself when he hears or sees them. (Allegedly of course).

The Hurricane defeated Biohazard
Once again, if they give time to their lower midcarders once in a while, and give them opponents not named HHH or Batista, so you actually think they have a chance of putting on a good match
it can work. This match was a prime example. We all know The Hurricane can wrestle but when he is on RAW he is either squashed by HHH or Maven or Snitsky. And we all know he will never beat any of them since they are higher up on Vince's jerkoff scale. But put on Heat and give him 6 minutes and we appreciate him more. At least I do. Biohazard looked very green and you could tell he wasn't up to par as a WWE wrestler just yet. Hurricane won ehn he hit a big clothesline and then went up top with a cross body for the win.
Match Rating: E+

Next up it's the Heat Main Event: Hassan vs Rhyno. Is Rhyno still alive? Apparently so.

Mohammad Hassan defeated Rhyno
Man, I get pumped up whenever I hear the Manbeasts music. It used to mean that we were in for some ass kicking Rhynostyle. Hassan entered the ring first and got booed like crazy. Rhyno ran down and got a huge ovation! It was a Jericho-like ovation. A huge USA chant to start of the match. They locked up a lot in the beginning of the match. This was a very boring match, but when put together with a less known wrestler it showed that Hassan looked more comfortable. It seems that Hassans greenness has much to do with him being nervous as fuck. I know I would be. He actually showed he had a move or two in this match. Or more importantly, he knew how to pull them of. Rhyno got most of the offense before Hassan hit his STO. He then applied the Camel Clutch for a tapout win.
Match rating: E+

Show Rating: EE+

How I grade shows:
E = Mediocre Show
EE = Average Show
EEE = Good Show
EEEE = Great Show
EEEEE = Excellent Show

03.27.05 - Bischoff Interview & WWE News

2005-03-27T06:00:00.000-12:00

ERIC BISHOFF INTERVIEW:

Credit: Pittsburghlive.com.

An interesting interview with Eric BIshoff was posted at Pittsburghlive.com today. He talks about his days running WCW and is definitely worth reading.

Excerpt 1:

"These days, everything about Eric Bischoff is different.

He traded his black-and-white New World Order leather jacket for more professional business attire. His trademark, jet-black coiffure is gone, replaced by a buzzcut that shows off his distinguished gray hair.

In 2005, Bischoff is a changed man. He not only altered his wardrobe and shorned his locks but also dismissed the immaturity and lack of perspective that propped him up as a wrestling genius but also labeled him as short-sighted.

"When I look back at WCW, the only thing I regret is that I wasn't mature enough to reflect and appreciate what was happening," Bischoff said. "

Excerpt 2:

"The former president of WCW swept the company off its feet in 1994 and immediately ushered in monumental changes. His vision transformed WCW from a fledgling, southern-based promotion into a sports entertainment powerhouse that eventually overtook the king of professional wrestling, Vince McMahon.

"I was getting phone calls from Turner executives and occassionally Ted himself, saying 'That a boy.' Going from a third-string announcer to president of the company was extremely gratifying," Bischoff said.

But not long after such innovative concepts as Monday Night "Nitro" and the nWo, Bischoff's vision became cloudy.

His once mighty swagger -- the one that tried desperately to put WWE out of business -- became more of a detriment than an asset. Even the company's top star and Bischoff's good friend, Hulk Hogan, tried to intercede. "

WWE NEWS:

STING CONFIRMS HE HELD RECENT TALKS WITH WWE: Sting was interviewed by "The Daily News" promoting his recent movie "Sting: Moment of Truth". He revealed that he has been in talks with the WWE. "It is true that we have spoken recently." According to the article they (he and the WWE) disagree about the WWE's adult oriented storylines. Sting is a born again christian and doesn't think he would be a good rolemodel for kids if he were to sing a contract with the current product.

Excerpt:

"Borden (Stings real name), in the city for this week's Christian Films Festival to help promote his new movie, "Sting: Moment of Truth," was on a collision course with his own demise. And at that time, he was only in his 30s.

"The amazing thing is we've lost about 40 guys to drugs and alcohol," said Borden, explaining the circumstances of life on the road in professional wrestling, which ultimately led to his "Moment of Truth."

"I'm not saying every wrestler is on drugs or alcohol, but there's just so much out there. I truly believe I was on my way."

He was on the road, 320 nights a year, subjecting his body nightly — sometimes twice a day — to wild falls, swinging metal chairs, leaps and crashing tumbles. "A human superball," he says.

Borden turned to those pain killers and muscle relaxants to ease the pain. Drug testing at that time within Ted Turner's World Championship Wrestling was "a joke."

The physical strain grew emotional. His wife, Sue, at home with his two sons, Garrett and Steven, wondered where her husband's heart lay.

"Really, it was amazing. I'm at the top of my game, and I was a ticking time bomb ready to go off," said Borden.

All that changed in 1998."

Credit: Ecnnews.com.

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CARLITO RETURNS TO THE RING: Carlito Caribbean Cool will be wrestling his brother Eddie Colon at a WWC show tonight (Actually it was yesterday) in Caguas, Puerto Rico. It would appear that Carlito is ready to go, so it will be interesting to see when WWE has him make his in-ring return on Smackdown.

KENZO & HIROKO GONE AND BACK AGAIN: Kenzo Suzuki and Hiroko's bios were taken of WWE's Smackdown webpage according to PWinsider.com. But a couple of hours after it was reported they were put back again. Pretty lame report don't you think? Was it necessary to even report this?

Credit: Pwinsider.com.

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Warning! warning! Wiewing this page WILL lead to temporary blindness! Proceed at your own risk!

Thanks for reading.

03.26.05 - WWE News

2005-03-26T06:03:00.000-12:00

Hello once again to my daily blog. Yesterday I wrote that you would get a special treat since this blog celebrates 30 straight days of posts. But I've just been to busy to write a real column. Sorry about that. And some people pointed out that by me making a big deal out of if would point out that I have no life... I think I have a life. I hope I have a life. I think it's more of using up half of my dinner break by updating the Blog.

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WWE NEWS

WrestleMania Week Events.

Credit: WWE.com.

WWE has announced their plans for public events in California during WrestleMania 21 Week which takes place all this week.

Tuesday, March 29, 7-9 p.m. Shelton Benjamin and Candice will be signing autographs at Game Rush@Blockbuster located at 1130A Sepulveda Boulevard in Manhattan Beach.

Thursday, March 31, 12 p.m. Be sure to be at Hollywood Blvd. (between Highland and Orange), adjacent to Hollywood and Highland Center) for a free preview of WrestleMania 21, including exhibition matches.

Thursday, March 31, 4-6 p.m. Edge and Maria will be signing autographs at Game Rush@Blockbuster located at 8813 S. Sepulveda Boulevard, Westchester.

Thursday, March 31, from 7:30 p.m. until 11 p.m., the House of Blues on Sunset will host the THQ Superstar Challenge, which features WWE Superstars Randy Orton, Shelton Benjamin, Christian, Matt Hardy, Lita, Kane, Stacy Keibler, JBL, Batista, Miss Jackie, Hurricane, Rob Van Dam, John Cena, Jonathan Coachman, Kurt Angle, Big Show and Trish Stratus competing against one another in a WrestleMania21 Xbox Tournament. Tickets for this event can be obtained from House of Blues or through Ticketmaster.

Thursday, March 31, 7-9 p.m. Rey Mysterio and Michelle McCool will be signing autographs at the Toys R Us located at 2905 Los Feliz Boulevard in Glendale.

Friday, April 1, 4-6 p.m. Booker T and Rochelle will be signing autographs at Game Rush@Blockbuster located at 21841 Hawthorne Boulevard in Torrance.

Friday, April 1, 4-6 p.m. Rob Van Dam and Stacy Keibler will be signing autographs at the Tower Records located at Sherman Oaks Galleria on 15301 Ventura Boulevard in Sherman Oaks.

Friday, April 1, 7-9 p.m. Eddie Guerrero will be signing autographs at the Toys R Us located at 14705 Oceangate Avenue in Hawthorne.

Saturday, April 2, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Chris Jericho will be signing autographs at the Toys R Us located at 11136 Jefferson Boulevard in Culver City.

Saturday, April 2, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Theodore Long and Hardcore Holly will be signing autographs at the Team LA Store located at the STAPLES Center, 1111 S. Figueroa Street in Los Angeles.

Saturday, April 2, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. John Cena will be signing autographs at Game Rush@Blockbuster located at 9201 Venice Boulevard in West Los Angeles.

-----------------------------------

Credit: Prowrestlingheadlines.com.

BIG SHOW AND THE JEEP: "I attended the SmackDown tapings last night here in Memphis, TN and just thought i'd let you in on something that will most likely get edited out of SD Thursday night! The show starts with a Big Show interview in the ring with Tazz and Luther Reigns drives out a Jeep Wrangler and goes on to say that he can flip it over, so he tries and tries to no avail. Big show beats his ass, then as he's leaving the ringside area, he turns and looks at the Jeep, and we're all screaming telling Show to do it! Big show rockes the Jeep back and forth and back and forth, but cannot flip it!! We cheer him on, so he tries again, but to no avail, at this point he is sweating! So he very visibly get's pissed, and takes his hand and bashes the front winshield of the jeep and leaves...commercial break... after about a minute, Big Show comes BACK out, tries again, almost does it, but fails AGAIN!! Then he points to his head, as if to say I have an idea, calls someone out from the back, who is a stagehand that has a rolling car jack!! The guy jacks up the passenger rear side of the jeep (so it will be very easy to flip) and the camera's now record, showing the big show "strain" and push the jeep over. When they resumed the show, on the screens it showed the "moments ago" clip showing the big show push the jeep over, but not showing anything else!

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Credit: Pwtorch Newsletter, article from Lordsofpain.net.

EDGE'S SLASHED TIRE UPDATE: There is a rumor going around backstage that at a recent house show, Edge's rental car tires were slashed. Although no one is blaming Matt Hardy or even insinuating he's happy about what happened, it is possible that a Hardy fan saw Edge driving the car and decided to do something in retalliation for the Lita situation.

Edge and Lita are doing their best to downplay their relationship backstage, which is helping to avoid animosity, but wrestlers still strongly support Hardy. One wrestler said, “Edge broke up a tight, serious relationship. Edge and Matt were good friends. They’re all in the business. Even in the regular world you don’t do that. You’d have to give it a year or two minimum before moving in on a friend’s ex after they break up, but you don’t move in a friend’s current girlfriend.”

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03.25.05 - Smackdown Review

2005-03-25T10:09:00.000-12:00

This was truly the worst episode of Smackdown I have ever seen. A total of 17 minutes of wrestling, were 4 minutes was a catfight between Dawn Marie & Michelle McCool.

The rest was just yapping and matches interrupted by The Undertaker... I guess you could tell that Vince McMahon was back behind the scenes. Everything on the show swwmed to be included to satisfy Vince's warped sense of what wrestling fans want to see.

As much as this is a bad thing, I must say that it makes me optimistic for the future if Stephanie and Hunter are left in charge. Lately, the shows (both RAW and Smackdoen) has gotten better. Slowly but surely they have improved in the absence of Vince McMahon.

Then he supposedly shows up backstage for RAW and we get a stinker of a show. Two stinkers actually.

But there were a few positives, but only a few.

The best thing with this show was Kurt Angle mocking Shawn Michaels by dressing up as him and mimmicking his entrance to perfection. You really have to see it to understand it as my describing it will not do it justice. Let's just say It was 100% Shawn Michaels, except it was Kurt. Truly something that will be remembered for years to come. He brought out Sensational Sherri and they sang their own version of Shawn Michales "Sexy Boy" theme song.

The second was Carlito coming out as an Elvis lookalike. That had me laughing really hard. I even laughed as I watched it a second time. That was truly hilarious. Carlito really is the man. And I noticed that he doesn't wear the sling around his shoulder anymore. May we hope that he will return to the ring shortly? That would be cool...

Sorry, I had to write that.

As a side note Carlito hitting Funaki in the head with a guitar was a nice touch. Someone needs to beat some sense into Funaki for continuing to play the "I am a stupid japanese" stereotype that he plays. You all know that he speaks very good english don't you? Well he does, but he plays the stupid (and naive) Japanese person because thats what Vince whants him to do.

So in that sense, I guess the guitar to Akios face can be considered a plus.

Third was that instead of having Guerrero vs Mysterio at Wrestlemania as a Heel vs Face match, they did it as a match invloving to athletes who respect each other. That's better than to have Guerrero as a heel because he will never be booed. He is way to over for that. And how fucking stupid isn't it that the fact that these two guys weren't planned to be used at Wrestlemania! That is why Vince McMahon is a big fat idiot! (Rush Limbaugh joke). Everything points to the fact that he knows nothing of the real world these days.

I have never really critized Stephanie McMahon for her creative vision since my critique of the WWE Creative ultiamtely falls on Vince since everything is filtered through him (Source: Every single WWE wrestler for the last 30 years). But now when he injured his quads and with Stephanie taking over I at leas see that if given enough time to mature in the role (roles?) then a Stephanie McMahon lead Creative team might not be a 100% disaster, only 75%...

BUt that doesn't mean that I am jumping on the Stephanie bandwagon here. NO way. Fuck that. The WWE is still in a mess when it comes to delivering a solid product week in and week out. I am just saying that with Stephanie in charge of creative instead of Vince things looker better...

So. Kurt, Carlito and Mexicans. Cool

The rest of the show sucked. To much talking and why waste even a second of the next to last show before Wrestlemania with a McCool/Dawn Marie catfight? They should have us excited about the granddaddy of them all but this show did nothing to make me excited. I'm looking forward to the show, but not in a "Tonight I'm getting laid after a night out on town" kind of way.

The rest of the show. Not cool.

Show rating: E

How I grade shows:
E = Mediocre Show
EE = Average Show
EEE = Good Show
EEEE = Great Show
EEEEE = Excellent Show

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WWE NEWS:

Credit: WWE.com.

WHO WILL BE INDUCTING THIS YEARS HALL OF FAMERS: WWE has announced the following people will be inducting the Hall of Famers this year: Sylvester Stallone will be inducting Hulk Hogan, Chris Jericho will induct Roddy Piper, Jim Ross will induct Nikolai Volkoff, Jerry Lawler will induct Jimmy Hart, Bobby Heenan will induct Paul Orndorff, Randy Orton will induct Bob Orton, and Sgt. Slaughter will induct Iron Sheik.

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SMACKDOWN RATING: Last night's edition of Smackdown did a 3.7 overnight broadcast rating, with a six share. That is up from last weeks 3.2 rating. The final numbers should be in during the day.

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Tomorrow is actually my one month anniversary of consecutive posts. One month in a row. Thank's for reading.

03.24.05 - WWE News

2005-03-24T09:49:00.000-12:00

Credit: 1wrestling.com.

RECAP OF RVD INTERVIEW ON THE GERWECK REPORT: Van Dam said his knee rehab is going well. He said it was his firstsurgery, and expected to be back in action probably around August.

- Van Dam stated he went through a stage he called acceptance when helearned of the severity of his knee injury. He realized he would missa number of important dates including Wrestlemania. Van Dam said hisknee had been pretty in bad shape for almost four years.

- "They definitely can," said Van Dam when asked if WWE can do ECWjustice by promoting a one night ECW PPV.

- Van Dam said he isn't frustrated he never got the ECW title, andfelt he evaluated the ECW Television to the same level as the worldtitle.

- Van Dam would like WWE to bring back the Hardcore title.- He said he feels the frustration of the fans in his lack of push astop tier star in World Wrestling Entertainment.

- "I don't want to fit in," stated Van Dam when asked about thecriticism of not wrestling the WWE ring style. "To tell you the truth,I'm not a fan of a lot other wrestlers work," said Van Dam.

- Van Dam said he would love the payday of being the world heavyweight champion.

- "I'm pleased," said RVD when asked about the sales of the Rob Van Dam DVD.Van Dam says he sees the RVD action figures fly off the shelves.

- "You better believe RVD is writing a book," stated Rob Van Dam. RVDsaid he would probably hold off writing the book until the end of hiscareer.

- He put over Dory Funk Jr. and his wife Marti as his friends. RVD islooking forward to being a guest instructor at Funk's camp thisweekend.

- Van Dam said he never wants to become a booker. If he bookedhimself, RVD said he would give himself more time with the mic andbring back the Hardcore title.- Van Dam expects WWE to promote annual ECW pay-per-views.

- Van Dam said he preferred wrestling on "Raw" because it's a liveshow. But now he prefers "Smackdown."

- He said that he is helping to hype Wrestlemania, including havingWWE superstars come to his comic book store to sign autographs.

- When asked about Bret Hart being at his store during Wrestlemaniaweekend and the possibility of the "Hitman" being at Wrestlemania, RVDsaid Hart hasn't told him either way but that Van Dam doesn't expectthe rumors to be true.

- Van Dam admitted he explored all options when he re-signed with WWElast year. He said going elsewhere would be a huge step backwards.

- RVD said he doesn't see himself as a future hall of famer.

The exclusive 20-minute interview can be heard on options #2 and #3 onthe Gerweck Report hotline. Steve Gerweck is webmaster ofwww.gerweck.net

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Credit: Lordsofpain.net via Wrestlingobserver.com.

--- FORMER ECW STARS COME OUT OF RETIREMENT: Both Lance Storm and Tommy Dreamer came out of retirement at last night's OVW taping to prepare for the upcoming ECW PPV. Storm teamed with MNM to take on Tommy Dreamer and The Dudleys.Via his website, Lance Storm has consistently been hinting at a desire to work the ECW show and it seems this could be the start of a plan to get in shape for the show.

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SHANNON MOORE UPDATE: Credit: Lordsofpain.net via Lafayetteville.com.

Wrestler injured in collision after event
By Melissa WillettStaff writer

Wrestler Shannon Moore was hurt Sunday morning in a wreck in Spring Lake. The wreck happened about 2:30 a.m. on Bragg Boulevard, Spring Lake Police Chief A.C. Brown said.Moore, of Moore County, works for Connecticut-based World Wrestling Entertainment.

Moore, 25, was headed north on Bragg Boulevard when a car struck him head-on, Brown said. The other driver, Dale Fellows, was traveling south in the northbound lane, lawmen said.Brown did not have further details about the wreck.

There was some confusion over whether Spring Lake police or Fort Bragg military police were handling the accident and charges in the case, Brown said.

As of Wednesday afternoon, a Fort Bragg spokeswoman said, Spring Lake was handling the charges and the accident report. No charges had been filed against Fellows as of Wednesday afternoon.

Gary Davis, a WWE spokesman, said Moore was hurt in the wreck. He said he was taken to Cape Fear Valley Medical Center, where he was treated and released. Davis said he suffered minor injuries but had no broken bones. "He's at home recuperating and doing well," Davis said.

Moore was on his way home to Moore County when the wreck happened, Davis said. He had been with friends at the WWE "Raw!" show at the Crown Arena before the accident. Moore was expected to take part in Wrestlemania 21 in Los Angeles next weekend, Davis said, but that is uncertain now."

Usually all of the talent comes out and we'll take his situation day by day," Davis said. "It depends on if he feels up to it and can travel."

Staff writer Melissa Willett can be reached at willettm@fayettevillenc.com or at 486-3574.

-------------------------

Credit: Pwinsider.com.

ROH BOOTLEGGERS BEWARE: While over in Great Britain last week, Ring of Honor hired law firm Wragge & Co to assist them with cracking down on bootlegging of their material in Great Britain. They are asking fans to email nick_cunningham@wragge.com with details on those selling ROH copyrighted material.

(Wether I should beware since I am bootlegging newsstories was until this time unknown. For further comments I ask all enquiries be handled by my Attorney...)

--------------------------

I should be back to regularly updating my blog after the weekend. To much work is killing me right now. I'll be back with my thoughts on Wrestlemania so far, my prefered WWE Draft picks and why Randy Orton will be a great heel when he returns from shoulder Injury after Wrestlemania.

03.23.05 - WWE News

2005-03-23T11:47:00.000-12:00

Credit: Lordsofpain.net.

WWE CREATIVE TEAM MEMBER LEAVES: After only a month, former soap opera writer Wendy Fissman has left the WWE creative team. It was apparent that Fissman didn't fit into WWE's way of running things, and has subsequently been released. The consensus is that if a somebody without a deep lover of wrestling joins the team, it is unlikely to work out. WWE want to bring new members to the team and are holding meetings for applicants during the week.

CHAVO GUERRERO INJURY: Chavo Guerrero Jr. is unable to wrestle at the moment due to a fractured bone in his eye, and is not listed for any upcoming events for the next month.

RANDY ORTON INJURY: As reported, Randy Orton is also off the post Mania cards due to a shoulder injury. WWE are hoping that his injury won't take a turn for the worse, and he'll be in good condition to face Undertaker at WrestleMania.

-----------------------------------------

Credit: Wrestlinginc.com

EDGE SLASHED TIRE: As we noted over the weekend, Matt Hardy showed up with long time friend and SmackDown! star Shannon Moore at the RAW house show in Fayetteville, NC this past weekend. We're told the two did not cross paths during the night but a number of the boys have said Edge's tires on his rental car were slashed in the parking lot. This is the same night Shannon was involved in a car accident where Matt Hardy had been following him home. More as we get it.

ROH/WWE AGREEMENT: We're told that some sort of agreement has been reached by the WWE and ROH where lower name talent that isn't booked or pushed a lot in the WWE can come in to ROH and work a few shows here and there such is the case with Steven Richards who was on the last ROH show and is booked for two upcoming ROH shows.

-----------------------------------------

Too much work to catch up on, so very little in the form of a column today. Hopefully I should be back into full writing mode after the weekends. Thanks for reading.

03.22.05 - Raw Review

2005-03-22T11:22:00.000-12:00

Welcome to my blog. I call myself the Eggman and this is my Raw Review. Since last week I have decided to do the Eggs'N'Bacon segments for both Raw and Smackdown as a separate column on Saturdays or Sundays. I haven't really decided which day I will post them. Check back either day for more info on that.

This weeks Raw comes from Birmingham, Alabama.

The show starts with the Showstoppa' walking to the ring. What is this? Two weeks in a row now that Triple H hasn't opened up the show? That automatically makes me more interested in watching the show.

Shawn Michaels defeated Rob Conway in a decent singles match. Jim Ross does a good job of mentioning that La Resistance has a grudge against Shawn Michales and Marty Jannetty for losing to them last week. Conway put up a good match and it would be interesting to see him go at it as a singles wrestler.
Match Rating: EE+

Next up we saw a great promo/video package detailing Kurt Angles life and WWF/E career. It finishjed of with Kurt applying the Anklelock to some of the most famous superstars ever to enter a WWF/E ring. Stone Cold, The Rock, Brock, Lesnar, Goldberg, Booker T and Goldust (what?) among others. Of course, Triple H was absent since they have never ever been in a match together. Isn't that right? Of course it is, the WWF/E says so... It's amazing that he's only been with the WWE since 1999. He has accomplished so much in his career, and he will surely be remembered as one of the all time greats. This served as a great way to remind us of what is at stake when these to meet at Wrestlemania. Although I think they should skip calling Shawn Michaels Mr Wrestlemania. Who calls him that? He has only headlined 2 Wrestlemanias if my memory serves me correct.

We are then told that Sylvester Stallone will induct Hulk Hogan into the Hall Of Fame! Adriaaaan! Adriaaaan! Is this supposed to make me want to watch the Hall Of Fame ceremony more?

Christy Hemme & Tajiri &William Regal defeated Maven & Simon Dean & Molly Holly
A very short and rather boring six way tag team match. Regal, Tajiri, Maven and Simon Dean recieved no reaction whatsoever from the crowd, which was hot all night. That's what happens when the tag team champs defend their titles on Velocity. Christy got the pin when she hit the Twist of Fate on Molly Holly. This match gave us all just a little hope that Christy vs Trish won't totally blow as Christy looked ok in the ring.
Match Rating: E+

During ring intros, The King came in his pants as they showed ribboned-off photos from Christy Hemmes Playboy spread. Trish made her way to the ring but had no impact on the match as Christy got the clean win.

Then we had one of the most boring promos I've had the privelege of watching. Triple H made his way to the ring and sat on a folding chair in the middle of the ring. He talked about how underappreciated he is, and how great he is for the business and how Orton and Batista were made into starts by Evolution. This promo went on for 15+ minutes! 15 minutes when it only got interesting in the last four minutes because that's when he mentioned Batista and Wrestlemania. Before that he even managed to put down JBL.

Imagine if they had cut this promo by ten minutes in length, and either shown one more match pr shown two or three short backstage segments to further advance other storylines in need of airtime. I guess he had to take back all the lost time since he wasn't given any promo time last week.

Edge & Christian (w Tyson Tomko) defeated Shelton Benjamin & Chris Jericho
The best match of the night. The highlight being when Shelton Benjamin did an awesome flip dive over the top rope onto all the heels who were regrouping at ringside.
Match Rating: EEE

Chris Benoit defeated Tyson Tomko
Too short to amount to anything. Benoit immediately hit Tomko with two German suplexes and a flying headbutt from the top rope. Tomko hit a few punches and missed him a kick to the face.
Benoit applied the crippler crossface for a win.
Match Rating: E

Batista defeated Kane
Match Rating: EE-

Show rating: EE

03.21.05 - Staying spoiler Free for Raw, Shelton Benjamin Interview. top 10 all time draws

2005-03-21T10:47:00.000-12:00

WWE NEWS:

Credit: Thesun.co.uk.

EVER wondered who the most successful headliner in WWE history is?

Well Dave Meltzer at The Wrestling Observer has had a go at working it out.

He's gone right back to 1956 - when the federation was named the WWWF and owned by Vince McMahon's dad - and ranked the 40 biggest money draws.

Dave awards a sliding points scale for headlining record-breaking shows, WrestleManias, Shea Stadium events, other PPVs and, before they lost much of their meaning in 1995, Maddison Square Garden (MSG) shows. Bonus marks were given for sell-outs or strong buy rates.

On that basis, here are the Top 10 main eventers to ever work for the WWWF/WWF/WWE:

10. Superstar Billy Graham - Sold out 19 of his 20 MSG main events as a heel.

9. Pedro Morales - Headlined every show from 1971-73.

8. Argentina Rocca - The federation's biggest draw of the 1950s.

7. Undertaker - Lots of main events in his 14 years.

6. The Rock - Would have been higher if it wasn't for acting.

5. Triple H - Has main evented for the last seven years.

4. Steve Austin - Probably the top all-time money-maker but career too short to head this list.

3. Bob Backlund - Main star from 1978-83 and a few times afterwards.

2. Hulk Hogan - The man who made the company a success on PPV.

1. Bruno Sammartino - Headlined virtually every MSG show from May 1963-January 1971 and December 1973-May 1997.

----------------------------------------

Shelton Benjamin Interview:

A very good interview by The Wrestling Crew over at Thesun.co.uk.

Excerpt:

"I was involved in a lot of bad things," he revealed.

"I wasn't in a gang but I ran with a crew that got into a lot of trouble - some were drug dealers, one guy sold guns and that sort of thing.

"I was born into that lifestyle, it wasn't a case of me going out and finding it.

"These were people in my family and in my community. This was the norm for me.

"I always knew I could do something better with myself and wanted to improve my situation. I was never satisfied with what was around me.

"But for a while I had no idea what kind of options I had – then Coach Donlick came along.

"He was the first guy to actually take me by the hand, show me places and explain things to me.

"He gave me a life's philosophy – 'work hard now so you can live better later'."

03.20.05 . WWE News

2005-03-20T10:51:00.000-12:00

WWE NEWS:

MARTY JANNETTY SIGNS WITH THE WWE:
--- WWE officially signed Marty Jannetty to a contract, with the belief that Jannetty will be appearing on the RAW brand. No further details are available. Credit: Lordsofpain.net.

WWE CONFIRMS ECW ONE NIGHT STAND PPV SCHEDULED FOR JUNE
--- Dish Network customers recieved this WWE PPV Calendar:

Wrestlemania 21 - 04/03/2005
Backlash - 05/01/2005
ECW One Night Stand - 06/12/2005
Vengeance - 06/26/2005
The Great American Bash - 07/24/2005
Summerslam - 08/21/2005
Unforgiven - 09/18/2005
No Mercy - 10/09/2005
Taboo Tuesday - 11/01/2005
Survivor Series - 11/27/2005
Armagedon - 12/18/2005
New Years Revolution - 01/08/2006
Royal Rumble - 01/29/2006
No Way Out - 02/19/2006

Credit: PWinsider.com

RAW RATING: 3.8
--- RAW posted a 3.8 cable TV rating (3.2 milion homes)on Spike TV Monday.
CSI, which airs Monday through Friday from 8-9 PM usually does ratings in the low 3s but probably brings in equal of not higher ad revenues for the network. That is why Spike TV was willing to walk away from WWE programming.

Spike could easily do a 8-11 PM CSI block with CSI, CSI: Miami, and CSI: NY and make more money than they do with WWE programming.

With all the other cable networks now passing on WWE programming, I have to wonder why USA Network would offer WWE one penny more than Spike TV was paying. WWE now has no leverage in their negotiations with USA...except maybe "classic episodes" of the WBF and XFL :)

Source: 1wrestling.com

SMACKDOWN RATING: 3.2
--- UPN finished 5th for the night again this week, with Smackdown pulling a 3.2 composite rating (3.4 million homes) based on Fast National data compiled by Nielsen Media Research.
UPN finished behind NBC, CBS, ABC, and Fox. Source: 1wrestling.com

CARLITO HEADS BACK TO PUERTO RICO:

--- Carlito Caribbean Cool is headed back to Puerto Rico on 3/26 to work the WWC show at the Juan Loubriel Stadium in Bayamon. He is also scheduled to work the 3/27 show.

RAW NOTES:

--- The current plan is for the Shane Twins to debut on Raw after Wrestlemania.
--- ROH regular John Walters was paid $250 to be squashed by Chris Masters on Raw.

03.19.05 - RAW & Smackdown Eggs'N'Bacon

2005-03-19T07:36:00.000-12:00

RAW EGGS'N'BACON:

This has been a great week of WWE programming. Both the RAW and Smackdown shows were top notch shows. One has to wonder why they can't create shows like these on a weekly basis? All they've really done is give the undercard a bit more focus and added one or two backstage segments per show. It can't really be that hard now can it?

EGGS (POSITIVES):

JAKE THE SNAKE/RANDY ORTON PROMO:
Although he looked more like Jake & The Fatman, it was nonethless great seeing Jake The Snake again. He looked like hell but he could still cut a promo better that most of the current superstars. When he gave Orton his clothesline I marked out for the second time that night, as I thought we were going to see the DDT. The first beeing when he walked out of course. We never got to see the DDT but I'm glad we didn't....

RANDY ORTONS RETURN TO BEING A LEGEND KILLER:
...because in all honestly, he was there to put Randy Orton over. And he sure did that. In just one night Randy Orton went from cheesy babyface to cocky heel once again. Amazingly, they pulled it of very well. I'm not alone in thinking this since the majority of the websites I've read gave their thumbs up to him being a heel again. When they turned him they did the ultimate mistake in not letting the audience turn him by themselves.

MARTY JANNETTY:
It was great to see Marty Jannetty looking well and in shape. The last time I had seen him was on the RFShoot-interview. (From when I don't know but it was a while back) In the interview he was clearly under the influence of somesort of substance. He was incoherent and seemed somewhat paranoid. Npw he looked dignified, to quote Wde Keller of PWtorch.com fame. I hope he gets a second chance with the WWE, although if that is the case please make him a midcarder and not samone who they over push.

THE ROCKERS REUNION:
It was great, and very sad, that two wrestlers in their early forties gave us the best tag team match in a long long time. One thing this points out is the lack of tag teams with actual gimmicks and not just wresler A & wrestler B put together. Both guys looked good in the ring. It wasn't a great match by any means but it was more than sufficient.

HHH vs BENOIT MATCH:
From the 03.15.05 RAW review: "This was a really good match, where predictably HHH got his win against Benoit. Isn't it quite odd that it's always about how Hunter's never pinned someone? They never make a big deal about Rosey or even Edge never having won against Triple H. Ok, he might have but still it's all about Triple H having to beat anyone. Which I guess he has. But this win was better than when Triple H beat Shelton Benjamin for the first time on the Beat The Clock episode of Raw. That was just a total waste of a good storyline. Surprisingly this match was given an appropiate amount of time and even more surprisingly HHH cheated to win. He lowblowed Benoit to set up The Pedigree for the win. A cheap victory was nice since it gives somewhat of a better rub to Benoit than a clean pin would have. Maybe the Commnder In Chief really respects Benoit? Anyway a very good match where both wrestlers sold like crazy. Great spot when Benoit gave HHH twelve German suplexes spread out over three instances."

ANGLE/CHRISTY/MCMAHON WRESTLEMANIA COMMERCIAL:
This promo was by far the best of the Wrestlemania commercials. Angle looked hilarious with hair and a (fake?) beard. Linda McMahon gave us the best acting performance of her career.

BACON (NEGATIVES):

BATISTA/SNITSKY MAIN EVENT:
For once a Bacon portion of Raw without HHH. Although I admit I'd rather have him in this section than the man of all men, Batista. I am truly amazed at how they've managed to mishandle his push.

SMACKDOWN EGGS'N'BACON:

EGGS (POSITIVES):

MARTY JANNETTY vs KURT ANGLE MATCH:
A very good wrestling match between these two. This was an interesting match as it was a rather old-school WRESTLING match. Although I think it went maybe five or six minutes too long it was nonetheless a top notch match that was the best match of the night. I was rather sceptical as I though it would be a squash match but man was I smiling after the match. If they use JAnnetty wisely he could be an addition to the Smackdown roster. I don't think he should go to Raw because on Smackdown he could try to get a lot of the younger guys over, and if he doesn't exemplify good workmanship then I don't know what does.

ANGLE/CHRISTY/MCMAHON WRESTLEMANIA SPOOF:
This one deserves to be on both shows positives. This promo was by far the best of the Wrestlemania commercials. Angle looked hilarious with hair and a (fake?) beard. Linda McMahon gave us the best acting performance of her career.

CHAVO/EDDIE GUERRERO PROMO:
Welcome back Chavo. You should stick eith the heel bandana allt the time. Good backstage prome where Chavo played mindgames on uncle Eddie. Good to see that the WWE acknowledges the fact that last year Eddie Guerrero was the man who held the gold. He said that Rey Mysterio was holding him down. This planted doubt in the mind of Eddie which ended the main event in a great but very subtle way.

THE ENDING OF THE MAIN EVENT:
Everything was looking good for the tag-team champs until the final sequence of the match. Eddie pulled of a superb tree-amigos and when for the frog splash when Rey Mysterio gave The aformentioned Basham a leg drop from the top rope and went for the pin. After the match rey hugged Eddie who hugged him back, but with a "What the fuck did you just do?"-kind of a look on his face. Great way to make Eddie & Rey square of at Wrestlemania. Lets just hope they don't turn Eddie full fledged heel, but they keep this a match of honour between these two.

JBL/JOHN CENA PROMO:

BILLY KIDMAN/PAUL LONDON MATCH:

BACON (NEGATIVES):

ORTON/UNDERTAKER CONTRACT SIGNING:

THE WHEREABOUTS OF LUTHER REIGNS:

HEIDENREICH'S PROMO

WHAT HAPPENED TO THE CHAIN GANG?:

03.18.05 - Smackdown Review

2005-03-18T10:12:00.000-12:00

I have to admit that Blogspot screwed up my Smackdown review today, and for once I didnt copy before I hit the publish-post button. My bad. I'll still post a very less detailed review though. For more info on all the matches, read the RAW & Smackdown Eggs And Bacon tomorrow. From ow on I'll post a Eggs'N'Bacon column every saturday instead of after each show.

1. Kurt Angle defeated Marty Jannetty
A very good old school type match with lots of old school wrestling moves. A couple of minutes long at more than 23 minutes but it had lots of believable nearfalls for a very good comeback match for Jannetty.
Match Grade: EEE

2. Booker T defeated Luther Reigns
Very slow and boring match. Where are they going eith Luther? Last week he was squashed by Jindrak who wasn't even on the show this week and they have him swuashed again this week? Booker seems to be going through the motions right now since he's being set up for a feud with Heidenreich. Heidenreich joined Cole & Tazz for commentary but never uttered a word. After the match he read a poem about love and brothers.
Match Grade: E+

3. Paul London defeated Billy Kidman
Solid but short match which London won after hitting his 450 degree splash.
Match Grade: EE

4. Rey Mysterio & Eddie Guerrero & John Cena defeated JBL & The Bashams
Good six man main event with a good ending where Rey Mysterio stole Eddies pin after Eddie had hit the tree amigos on one of the Bashams. Eddie gave Rey a very confused look after the bell had rang. Earlier Chavo had played the instigator in planting seeds of doubt in uncle Eddies head.
Match Grade: EE+

----------------------------

A good show this week with the Jannetty/Angle match as the highlight. Not as good as Raw but it was still probably the best Smackdown since I can remember. For the first time it felt like a Road to Wrestlemania show where most of the actiona and storylines had a connection to the grandaddy of them all. Chavo continues to play the agitator between Rey and Eddie, and the end of the main event where Rey stole Eddies pin was done to perfection. JBL calling John Cena's mother all sorts of things was great and the stipulation that Cena can't touch JBL until Wrestlemania adds another layer to their already good feud. Carlito having to work during his absence is still a great comedic thing to do. Him swuirting ketchup on that kid was funny and him spitting a hit dog in the face of the fan who pointed out that he was just a kid was humourous (sp).

Show rating: EEE-

How I grade shows:
E = Mediocre Show
EE = Average Show
EEE = Good Show
EEEE = Great Show
EEEEE = Excellent Show

03.17.05 - The Rock/TNA, Psicosis, Smackdown Preview, ROTS Trailer

2005-03-17T11:14:00.000-12:00

Star Wars Revenge Of The Sith Trailer
Today I downloaded a fullscreen version of the new Star Wars trailer. Man it fucking rocks!
This looks like it will be THE Star Wars movie. The grandaddy of them all if you will...

I've been a huge Star Wars for as long as I can remember. Rather embarrasingly I have five versions of the original trilogy, four on VHS and the DVD-version as well as The Phantom Menace and Attack Of The Clones on DVD. I think I've read most of the novels up until The New Jedi Order. I love all movies, even Episodes I and II. They are in my opinion a great place to escape sometimes like no other movies can do for me.

I know a lot of people hate the new movies but to me all five movies are worthy of EEEEE grades.

Anyway, I can't describe how much I think Revenge Of The Sith will rock jabroni-ass. It's the one I think all Star Wars fans have been waiting for. I have managed to stay 100% spoiler free for this one and I have noticed how easier it has been these last two years when it comes to waiting for May 19th. When I spoiled myself for the last two films I sometimes couldn't stand the wait. But this time It occured to me today that its just over two months until ROTS premieres.

After watching the trailer about 15 times today I can't take it anymore. These two months will be unbearable. I just wish I could go to bed tonight and tomorrow it would be May 19th and the world would be a better place. But since I never really figured out how to bend time when I wanted to be a scientist as a kid I just have to wait for it like everybody else.

I haven't read that much about wrestling today, understandably, but there are still stuff to report about. So, enough of The Star Wars and on with the wrestling...

The Rock will NOT, I repeat NOT, sign with the WWE
A lot of sites are reporting it as a fact already that The Rock might sign with TNA. He won't. THats as exaggerated a rumor as the one where people reported that Ric Flair was almost fired for his virgin remarks at MSG last year. That rumor started with a "source" saying that he, the source that is, thought he might be fired on the spot. I think George W. Bush's brain will shortcircuit someday but that doesn't make it a fact. Actually thats more of me hoping it will, if it hasn't already. Lets face it, the man ain't no Einstein... Anyway, here's what's being said about The Rock:

"Jeff Jarrett and TNA have sent out feelers to The Rock about him appearing for TNA in the future. Believe it or not, word is that the Rock has been "receptive to the idea" but didn't want to start serious talks until his promotional tour for "Be Cool" ended.

Obviously this looks to be a serious longshot for TNA, but one that could have a dramatic impact on the entire business if they could somehow land the Rock for a few appearances.
Another obvious thing to keep in mind is that the Rock is no longer under WWE contract but has already made it known that he would like to sign a new deal. With that being said, he could be using TNA as leverage to get WWE's attention (something they haven't been giving him much of lately). "

Credit: Wrestlinginc.com.

------------------------------------

Psicosis signs with WWE:
It has been confirmed that former WCW high-flier Psicosis has been signed to a WWE contract.A press release sent out by the Lucha VaVOOM promotion confirmed the rumor that Psicosis was on the verge on joining WWE.

Credit: PWInsider.com.

------------------------------------

Smackdown preview (non spoiler):

Taped for tonight on Smackdown:

- John Bradshaw Layfield, Doug & Danny Basham vs. John Cena, Eddie Guerrero & Rey Mysterio.

- Kurt Angle vs. Marty Jannetty.

- Billy Kidman vs. Paul London.

- Luther Reigns vs. Booker T

- Randy Orton-Undertaker Wrestlemania contract signing.

- Also appearing on the show: Theodore R. Long, Heidenreich, The Big Show, Chavo Guerrero, and Orlando Jordan.

------------------------------------

That's it for today. Thanks for reading.

20 days and counting... (Only 9178 days left until Mr Tito's record is broken).

03:16:05 - Eggman 3:16, TNA, ECW & WWE News

2005-03-16T10:26:00.000-12:00

Sorry about the confusion regarding last nights post. I wrongfully dated it 03.16.05 instead of 03.15.05. Thanks for pointing that out. Today its 3:16...

I'm still marking out about the fact that I witnessed Jake The Snake Roberts and MArty Jannetty on RAW last night. That was awesome. And I'm still thinking about Jeff Hardy's brutal spot in his match against Abyss, which I totally marked out for. That's three mark out moments in under two days. Oh, It's great to be a wrestling fan again!

News:

-- Raw did a 3.8 rting last night, down from 4.1 last week. The 4.0 and 4.1 ratings usually occur when something major is about to happen, such as the Batista contract signing which drew a 4.6 rating ehn it happened two weeks ago.

----------------------------

-- TNA has decided to cut their production budget even more, so last night they filmed 3 episodes of TNA Impact. According to several sites these matches has been announced for their Ultimate Lockdown PPV:

X Division championship:
Champion "Fallen Angel" Christopher Daniels vs "Primetime" Elix Skipper

Six Sides of Steel Cage match:
Diamond Dallas Page, Kevin Nash and Syxx Pac vs. The Outlaw, "Alpha Male" Monty Brown and Jeff Jarrett

Six Sides of Steel Cage match:
AJ Styles vs Abyss

Dustin Rhodes vs Bobby Roode (w/Scott D’amore)

Sorry TNA, but I'm less and less interested in your PPV's. Although I thought Destination X was definitely worth a EEE+ grade, which meant I thought it was well worth purchasing, there's way to much focus on the old has-beens. Waht the fuck are $5000-a-night (supposedly) wrestlers Diamond Dallas Page, Kevin Nash, Sean Waltman & The Outlaw doing in a steel cage match? They have no business being in PPV main events. (I don't consider Jeff Jarrett to be in this category since I think he's doing an ok job. But being TNA Champion for 9 months and to only do an OK just isn't cutting it.) Why arent Chrsitopher Daniels or Americas MOst Wanted or Team Canada taking their places in the cagè? DDP, Kevin Nash and Billy Gunn should be filler material just like Dustin Rhodes and Raven are. If they could only get it through their heads that most of the people watching their PPV's aren't in it for the old washed up has-beens?

----------------------------

--- Axl Rotten confirmed for the ECW PPV. Credit: AxlRottenOnline.com
"It is my pleasure to announce, that AXL ROTTEN was recently contacted by Tommy Dreamer (on behalf of World Wrestling Entertainment) to be a part of the WWE's ECW One Night Stand pay-per-view. AXL has graciously excepted the offer, and will be appearing the aforementioned June 12th, 2005 event.

For my information on AXL appearing for this pay-per-view, or any and all of your AXL ROTTEN wrestling needs, please visit AXL's new online home at AxlRottenOnline.com "

That's what, three wrestlers confirmed for the WWECW PPV? Little Guido, Axl Rotten and some other guy. I can't remember who he was. Honestly, I can't! Way to go The Franchise Shane Douglas for putting together your Extreme Hardcore Homecoming Show. (They can't use the name ECW because those initials are trademarked by the WWE).

Actually there are a few more: Credit to the ever informative PWinsider.com website for this compilation:

Talent Under WWE Contract Available for PPV:
Chris Benoit
Simon Dean (aka Nova in ECW)
Tommy Dreamer
Spike Dudley
The Dudley Boyz
Eddie Guerrero
Paul Heyman
Chris JerichoLita (aka Miss Congeniality in ECW)
Dean Malenko
Dawn Marie
Rey Mysterio
Rhyno
Nunzio (aka Little Guido in ECW)
Steven Richards
Al Snow
Lance Storm
Yoshihiro Tajiri
Tazz
Rob Van Dam

Outside Talent Contacted & Announced and/or Expected to Appear:
Axl Rotten
Bill Alfonso
Jason
Justin Credible
Masato Tanaka
Referee John Finnegan
Referee Mike Kehner
Referee Jim Molineaux
Sabu
The Sandman
Tony Mamaluke
Tracy Smothers

Additional Talent Contacted but not Confirmed:
Joey Styles

Talent Contacted via TNA, but Not Expected to Appear:
Raven
Shane Douglas
Kid Kash
Jerry Lynn

Credit to 1wrestling.com for this article:

Pwinsider.com reported that WWE has signed former ECW World Champions, Justin Credible and Masato Tanka for the ECW: One Night Stand pay-per-view on June 12 from New York City.

Justin Credible and his former manager, "The Sexiest Man on Earth" Jason, will also be at Shane Douglas' Extreme Reunion/Hardcore Homecoming two nights earlier on Friday June 10 at the former ECW Arena in South Philadelphia.

As I reported here on 1wrestling.com yesterday, Don "Cyrus" Callis and I will be reforming our announcing team to call Shane Douglas' show for DVD release. We will be calling the show live to tape at the Arena.

----------------------------

--- WWE's in house attorney has sent cease and desist letters to several people involved in Shane Douglas' show requesting that they do not use the initials "ECW", a trademark they own in promoting the show, which they have not.

They have also requested that the word "Extreme" not be used at all despite the fact that their trademark specifically reads:

Word Mark: EXTREME CHAMPIONSHIP WRESTLING

Goods and Services IC 041. US 100 101 107. G & S:Entertainment services, namely, the production and exhibition of professional wrestling events rendered through the media of television and providing wrestling news and information via a global computer network
Owner (APPLICANT): World Wrestling Federation Entertainment, Inc. CORPORATION DELAWARE 1241 East Main Street Stamford CONNECTICUT 06902

Disclaimer: NO CLAIM IS MADE TO THE EXCLUSIVE RIGHT TO USE "EXTREME" and "WRESTLING" APART FROM THE MARK AS SHOWN (EXTREME CHAMPIONSHIP WRESTLING)

03.15.05 - Raw Review, Jake The Snake is back!

2005-03-15T11:12:00.000-12:00

Wow, what an excellent episode of Raw this week. Pretty much an A show from top to bottom. Look what happens when 60 minutes isn’t devoted to the main storyline. This week the show focused more on the WWE than on HHH & Batista.

We are live from Atlanta, Georgia this week.

The show started with an excellent highlight reel where Chris Jericho had Randy Orton on as a guest. Orton came out to a mix of cheers and boos. To everyone’s surprise Jake The Snake Roberts showed up! Man I marked big time. He looked more like Jake And The Fatman, but I don’t care! It’s Jake The Snake! He looked very rough, but he pulled of a great promo with Orton about how he thinks he’s way over his head when it comes to breaking The Undertakers undefeated record at Wrestlemania. He’s still better on the mic than many of the current superstars. They argued and Roberts clotheslined Orton to the mat. He set up the DDT (which the crowd loved as they chanted DDT, DDT, DDT loudly) but Orton intercepted with a stunner. The crowd was hot all night and they were behind Roberts 100%. It’s great to see that they are turning Orton heel again. And who would’ve thought that Jake The Snake of all people was the one to help him turn. An awesome way to open the show, instead of a 15 minute HHH “I am the greatest wrestler alive” speech.

1. Kane defeated Kane & Tyson Tomko:
First match was Christian & Tyson Tonko vs Kane in a handicap match. A short match that I guess had it's purpose in a way to show that Kane is still a monster (yeah right!) and that Christian is still a chicken shit. I don't really know, but Christian ran up the ramp midway through the match leaving Tomko to fend for himself. A short but effective way to also remind us that a ladder is a useful weapon, as Kane cut Tomko up bigtime around his eyes when he hit him with the ladder after the match was won.
Match Rating: EE

--- Backstage Ric Flair gives Gene Snitsky a pep talk because he's facing Batista tonight. Man is Snitsky juiced up on steroids. It's not even funny. He has pimples like freckles all over his body. This is really not funny. He needs to calm down with his steroid use. He's getting bigger and bigger to fast. I hope my first death in the ring won't involve his heart exploding.

--- Trish is training Christy Hemme backstage. Lita of all people? They are getting ready for Christys match against Trish. Tajiri and Regal show up. Tajiri want's a copy of Playboy signed, and Regal reminds us that Tajiri only reads it for the articles. Funny line! Regal is one of the better guys when it comes to being comedic. He got kicked in the nuts by Christy when she mistimed a kick intended for a punching bag.

--- Mark out moment number two as Shawn Michaels welcomed back Marty Jannetty to the locker room! And tonight they were having a Rockers reunion! Marty looked to be in great shape and must've turned his life around. The last time I saw him was during a RF Shoot interview and then he clearly had withdrawal symptoms. It's great to see him look that good.

2. Shelton Benjamin defeated Edge.
A solid match between these two soon-to-be Ladder Match participants. Edge played his heel persona really well tonight. Great final few minutes as Benjamin showed awesome athleticism and high flying ability. The Ladder Match could really be the breakthrough match for Benjamin.
Match Rating: EEE -

3. The Rockers defeated La Resistance
I don't care about the grade being unrealistic. I was a huge Rocker when I was a kid and when their music hit this was even more of a mark moment than when Jake The Snake showed up.
Jannetty wrestled in vintage rockers gear. The match was ok, but Jannetty really didn't look out of place in a WWE wrestling ring today. He could still do good dropkicks and suplexes and flying elbows. The crowd chanted "Marty Marty!" and it felt like he was truly touched at hearing those chants. When Jannetty hit Grenier with a dropkick Ross uttered the line of the night when he said: "That canvas is not covered in barbecue sauce, it can't taste good." HAHAHA. Great stuff Jim Ross.
Match Rating: EEEE+ (Sentimental grade)

--- Flair gave Hunter a pep talk backstage reminding him that it was a year ago to the day that he tapped out to Benoit at Wrestlemania. Hunter said he got the message, enough already.

--- Maria interviewed Trish about Lita training Christy. Trish said she's going to hire Hannibal Lecter as her trainer because "I'm going to eat Christy alive." Then she kicked Maria into a bunch of trashcans. Apparently she got an orgasm out of it because it sure sounded like it.

--- Time for another pep talk from Flair. This time it's one for Snitsky. Again. His head looks like a pea compared to his torso and upper body. Even his normally huge chin is barely noticeable anymore. STOP WITH THE JUICE SNITSKY! PLEASE! Batista interfered and told a worked up Flair that we will take away Triple H's Championship at Wrestlemania. Batista got the loudest pop of the night when they showed him. It's good to see that even after failing miserably with this storyline DFB is still way over with the crowds. Man did Flair break a sweat during this promo! When he took of his jacket he was sweatier than most wrestlers get after a match.

4. Triple H defeated Chris Benoit
A really good match, where predictably HHH got his win against Benoit. Isn't it quite odd that it's always about how Hunter's never pinned someone? They never make a big deal about Rosey or even Edge never having won against Triple H. Ok, he might have but still it's all about Triple H having to beat anyone. Which I guess he has. But this win was better than when Triple H beat Shelton Benjamin for the first time on the Beat The Clock episode of Raw. That was just a total waste of a good storyline. Surprisingly this match was given an appropiate amount of time and even more surprisingly HHH cheated to win. He lowblowed Benoit to set up The Pedigree for the win. A cheap victory was nice since it gives somewhat of a better rub to Benoit than a clean pin would have. Maybe the Commnder In Chief really respects Benoit? Anyway a very good match where both wrestlers sold like crazy. Great spot when Benoit gave HHH twelve German suplexes spread out over three instances.
Match Rating: EEE+

--- Kurt Angle and Christy Hemme did a "When Harry Met Sally" spoof which was fucking hilarious! ROTFLMAO moment when I first saw Kurt as Billy Crystal. I couldn't wait to se who would play the one who said: I'll have what she's having at the end and I laughed when it was revealed it was Linda McMahon. HAHAHAHAHA! Really, that one was awesome.

--- Ross and Lawler went over the WrestleMania matches when Muhammad Hassan and Khosrow Daivari interrupted. Hassan complained about not being part of WrestleMania. He said since he's never been pinned on Raw (not the same as being undefeated is it?) its as ridiculous as an unbeaten team not making the NCA Finals. Or tournament I can't remember. Forgive me for not knowing the collegiate system. Lawler said "Hassan should do us all a favor and pull his lip over his head and swallow."

--- Christy made Lita promise she'll show her how to beat the bitch." Then Lita ran into Snitsky
who told her that after he beats Batista, he will ll finish what he started with her. Lita looked worried.

5. Batista defeated Gene Snitsky via DQ.
A horribly executed main event. It amazes me how they've totally screwed up their main storyline. It's not even a blip on the radar anymore. They continue to book Batista in the wrong kind of matches. First it's Flair, then Snitsky and next week it's Kane in a pick your poison match. Unfortunately there aren't any smaller heel wrestlers besides Edge who can carry him through a match. Maybe that's why Jericho is growing out his beard? He always has a beard when he's a heel. The match was horrendous. Batista's Goldberg like body language isn't winning anyone over. He should go back to being the old Batista who had a cool and calm demenour whenever he wrestled. And the DQ ending was truly shitty. Are you telling me that the next big WWE Superstar can't pin Gene Snitsky cleanly? No wonder they are screwing this up. It's a good thing that their other storylines are carrying the torch right now. Because I am not bothered by this storyline, which is a shame. Because this storyline has been the best thing going for ages. But now I'm more interested in tuning in to Smackdown to see Jannetty wrestle Kurt Angle.
Match Rating: E+

----------------------------

A very very good show which could've earned a full grade had they not booked the main event horrendously. I remember the WWE being about the WWE, and not just two or three superstars in an era they named Attitude. If they keep up giving more wrestlers tv-time they could be heading in the right direction. Excellent way to remind people of the past with Jake The Snake and Marty Jeannetty showing up. Although Jake was there solely to put Orton over I don't see anything wrong with that. Why sjouldn't he? The crowd response he got showed that no matter what Orton did he will always be the man. The Orton heel turn is going as planned and I start to dig him more already. I'm a hypocrite I know but It's better for everyone this way. I just hope they use his dad in a good way at Wrestlemania as I wrote a couple of days ago. That would be awesome. The ladder match is given a good amount of time and the Michaels/Angle feud is the most intersting feud heading into to Wrestlemania, followed by Orton/Undertaker at a close second.

Show Rating: EEEE

How I grade shows:
E = Mediocre Show
EE = Average Show
EEE = Good Show
EEEE = Great Show
EEEEE = Excellent Show

03.14.05 - TNA Destination X Review

2005-03-14T01:42:00.000-12:00

We are live from Orlando, Florida...

Great opening sequence that equals anything the WWE has produced lately. Classical music of to slowmotion images of all the wrestlers participating into tonights event.

By far the best vignette I've seen from TNA.

Team Canada defeated 3 Live Kru &

Good fast paced opener. Lots of believable high spots and with some comedic spots which didn't feel like was out of place. The was let down by the rather abrupt ending which had Bobby Roode hit Konnan with an elbow to the head. After the match Konnan & BG James played on the eventual heel turn of BG James later on.

Match Rating: EE +
I predicted: Team Canada

-- Backstage with Dusty Rhodes and Tracy And Trinity. Johnny Fairplay wants another chance. He begs for a second chance to which Rhodes replies: "Woa! Like a bordello in New Orleans. Get up from there, son." I thought that was funny. But I don't watch Impact so maybe he says stuff like that all the time. Rhodes gives Fairplay three hours to find two wrestlers to sign to a contract. That would leave Fairplay 'til about 20 minutes after the PPV is over...

Chase Stevens
Chris Candido & The Naturals defeated

03.13.05 - TNA Destination X Predictions

2005-03-13T11:07:00.000-12:00

Destination X is upon us in just a few hours. Here are my picks:

NWA WORLD HEAVYWEIGHT TITLE MATCH - RINGSIDE REVENGE!
Champion Jeff Jarrett vs. Diamond Dallas Page
My pick: Jeff Jarrett

THE ULTIMATE X MATCH CHALLENGE FOR THE X TITLE!
Champion AJ Styles vs. The Fallen Angel Christopher Daniels vs. Ron "The Truth" Killings vs. "Primetime" Elix Skipper
My pick: AJ Styles

NO DQ, FIRST BLOOD MATCH Payback:
Kevin Nash vs. The Outlaw
My pick: No one

FALLS COUNT ANYWHERE
Jeff Hardy vs. Abyss
My pick: Abyss

BULLROPE MATCH
Dustin Rhodes vs. Raven
My pick: Dustin Rhodes

CHALLENGE MATCH
The Alpha Male Monty Brown vs. Trytan
My pick: The Alpha Male

TEAM TRACI vs. TEAM TRINITY
Phi Delta Slam vs. The Disciples of Destruction
My pick: Phi Delta Slam

America's Most Wanted, BG James and Konnan of 3Live Kru vs. Team Canada
My pick: Team Canada

PRESHOW MATCHES:
The Naturals and Chris Candido vs. Michael, Buck Quartermain and Lex Lovett
My pick: Naturals & Candido

Kid Kash and Lance Hoyt vs. Cassidy Riley and Jerrelle Clark
My pick: Kash & Hoyt

03.12.05 - Randy Orton please kick the shit out of your dad at Wrestlemania

2005-03-12T04:22:00.000-12:00

Welcome to my column. I am the Eggman, goo goo g’joob g’goo goo g’joob.

Before I start this column, I’d like to point out that I do take this forum seriously. My last “column” was entitled The SHOCKING truth about Hardy/Lita/Edge! were I simply wrote that we people need to get a life. Things like these happen and we should deal with it. It was intended as a funny reminder that we need to take certain things less seriously. I never meant to be disrespectful to anyone and I hope that my previous attempts at writing columns show this to be the case. I truly think that this forum is the best forum there is when it comes to thoughtful and inspirational columns. I’d like to thank the moderators and all the contributors for making this the first site I visit whenever I log on.

Little did I know that it would be my most read “column” to date, and also the one which garnered the most replies. Most of you who replied didn’t appreciate it at all, and someone even called me the ultimate of insults, a douchebag. Please, that was uncalled for. We all know that Gene Snitsky is the douchebag of all douchebags, and he is someone I don’t want to be associated with. Sure, I’m a fan of watching him wrestle, but only because I have this morbid desire to witness my first ever death inside a wrestling ring. Don’t you just cringe whenever he hits someone with a big boot to the face or whenever he applies a poorly executed pumphandle slam?

I for one am glad he wasn’t included in the 6-way ladder match at Wrestlemania. It's been rumoured that he was considered for a spot but after seeing him in various matches they decided he wasn’t up for it. Can you imagine the serious injuries he could have caused with a ladder? For once the WWE did something correct, although the jury is still out on giving Kane a shot at the briefcase.

Enough of this and on with the main subject…

---------------

Randy Orton, please kick the shit out of your dad at Wrestlemania!

Dear Mr Randy Orton.

I am writing you this letter because I know I can help you develop your character into one of the great heels of our time. Yes, the great heel of our time. I know that both you and the WWE prefer to keep the Orton character as a babyface, but I’m also certain that you are aware that it isn’t working right now. Everyday since your Evolution buddies turned on you you have received less and less of a crowd reaction. People just aren’t buying you suddenly being this good guy when you spent the last year and a half kicking the shit out of everyone who dared stand up to you. You had a pretty good thing going with being the cocky Legend Killer. It got to the point were we were more and more amused by your antics and some of us even started to cheer you. Then, for the sake of unpredictability your face turn was rushed and we just didn’t give a damn anymore.

Instead we cared more and more for Batista since it’s a known fact by now that those who achieve the greatest success are those who let themselves get turned by the fans, not the other way around. Then you get pushed down our throat instead of us choking ourselves.

I don't need to explain these events as I’m sure you and everyone else are aware of this. Before I start I’d like to tell you that you can take full credit for this idea. The next time you meet with Vince, tell him this was your own idea. Because let's face it, we all know he would never accept an idea that a fan came up with. That would mean they had to cater to the fans, and that’s just not the way the WWE conduct business. To them that’s not what it’s all about is it?

The solution to your problems is simple. After your dad has been inducted into the Hall of Fame, you need to call him out to the ring to congratulate him. Once there you simply need to kick the living shit out of him. And I’m not talking about a lame RKO like the one you gave Eric Bischoff the other week, I’m talking about the beating of a lifetime. I am sure your dad can take still take a few bumps since he’s still looking good. Maybe you could go through all of your previous accomplishments by beating him with the American flag (Sgt Slaughter), a guitar (The Honky Tonk Man) and a barbed wire baseball bat (Mick Foley). The bloodier you leave him the better.

You can proclaim yourself a true Legend Killer by standing over the fallen legend that used to be your dad. This way you will have created a moment that will be talked about for years to come. I mean come on, we are still talking about the time Kane killed Pete Rose and that wasn’t really that fun to begin with. For the sake of continuity, you can just claim that the multiple concussions you sustained earlier made you aware of your true self.

If you go about it this way it will lend more credibility to your rumored victory against The Undertaker later that night. As of now you are just an immature brat who likes to take a dump inside a diva's travelbags and pour Bloody Marys over another.

Also, this way we can start to cheer for you whenever we feel you deserve it. This way we can turn you ourselves as we did The Rock, whom you have tried to emulate ever since your turn.

Because in the end, that’s what it’s all about. It’s all about the fans, and how we pay for it.

Yours sincerely, The Eggman

PS. Skip trying to be The Rock, you are not in his league.

---------------

Thanks for reading.

15 days and counting...

03.11.05 - Smackdown Eggs'N'Bacon

2005-03-11T09:51:00.000-12:00

Eggs (positives) :

KURT ANGLE ATOP A LADDER:

JBL DESTROYING THE US (BLING BLING) BELT:

CARLITO COOL/THEODORE LONG:

Bacon (negatives) :

THE ENTIRE SHOW:

THE MATCHES:

HEIDENREICH'S PUNCHES:
It's bad enough that 80% of Heidenreich's arsenal consists of punches, but it's even worse when 99% of those punches look extremely weak.

Booker T defeated Heidenreich
A very dull big man brawl. Lots of punches and restholds. Poor Booker T, I bet he's not motivated at all right now.
Match Rating: E

Mark Jindrak defeated Luther Reigns
Surprisingly, this match didn't stink up the joint. Rather short, but fast paced and decently intense. The main problem though is that it was a predictable textbook 80's style match, were you knew everything before it happened. Jindrak has probably done better the last couple of weeks than he has in his whole career. He still has a long way to go but at least now you see a miniscule chance that he could turn out to be a decent wrestler.
Match Rating: EE-

Mysterio & Guerrero defeated JBL & Orlando Jordan via DQ
A decent match that should have been much better due to the participants of the match. It had the same predictability that the Jindrak/Reigns match suffered from. The ending could have been way more over with the crowds had Cena not FU'd Long earlier.
Match Rating: EE

Show Rating: E+

03.10.05 - SnitskyMania!

2005-03-10T10:20:00.000-12:00

It is now confirmed that Snitsky was considered for the 6-way ladder match at Wrestlemania.

I guess that's probably why they had Snitsky wrestle Benjamin for three straight weeks on Raw. Too bad his matches were shorter than when The Ultimate Warrior used to squash jobbers on Wrestling Challenge.

Of course, the big loveable douchebag shouldn't be let near a ladder. Hey, some argue that he shouldn't even be let near a ring. Most people hate him but I'm not one of them.

Sure, he's no Benoit or Angle or even a Batista, but admit it. You like the big cuddly guy don't you? You are just like me. You get som weird kick out of watching his matches thinking that the next big boot to someones face will be the one that finally kills a guy on Live TV. You're still probably angry at the WWF for not ever Showing Owen Harts (RIP) death at Over The Edge'99.

You just love those things don't you? I know you do, there's no denying it. I can see it in your soul. (And I could probably eat your children If I want to, but that's not me. I'll leave that up to Mike Tyson...oh and Mike Keenan. )

But seriously (no not really) compared to the three other main douchebags that can't wrestle on either Raw on Smackdown, he's the one who I think has shown more improvement than most.

I'm talking about the big three, Snitsky, Heidenreich and Kane.

Whaaa? How dare you even utter the name Kane next to Heidenrape (hahaha, I did a funny) and Gene Snitsky?

Well, go back to the Undertaker/Heidenreich match at the Royal Rumble. AS you probably know by now Snitsky and Kane interrupted. When Snitsky and Heidenreich did a double suplex on the Taker, you could see the difference in talent right there. It was like it was a one man suplex by two people. The Taker almost landed on his side because all the force came from Snitsky. Whenever a 7 feet tall man kan suplex another man of equal height I'm impressed.

And he even tried an elbow of the top rope a few weeks ago! When was the last time you saw Kane or Heidenriech or even The Undertaker do that? NO, I'm not comparing Snitsky to The Taker. I'm not THAT stoopid.

I'm putting Kane into this category as of late because he's just a puncher now, and then one kick and a chokeslam. And what's up with him being a babyface?

To quote Rick Moranis as Dark Helmet in Spaceballs: The Movie: Come on!

Remember when Kane was cool? Nah, me neither...I get to riled up to even talk about it.
And I'm not blaming Kane "Glen Jacobs" himself! No man! He's probably the most loyal wrestler the WWE has ever had, not to name the most recognizable. Even my girlfriend knows who he is. And she hates wrestling more than I hate Dubya Bush. Yes, I blame EVERYTHING on Dubya, even the high price on Papayas at my local supermarket. He must've invaded whatever country that controls the worlds Papayamarket in the name of Liberty and Freedom and Operation Iraqi Liberation Quest For Whatever.

I could honestly go on all night and 'til next autumn on how much I hate Dubya, but I won't. I'll save it for my memoirs called: I'll Go For Snitsky For A Hundred Please...

Back to Snitsky. I think he's more entertaining than Heidenreich and Kane. Yes, he's so juiced up on Steroids that I'm sure hell pop like a ripe pimple someday in the ring. He tries to go for a dropkick...Bang...and then just Mushy goo (what am I seven?) all over the ring. Yeeuuu. I would order the PPV replay to see that.

And he can cut a wicked promo, there's no denying that. What I'm trying to say is he's a fluke thing that caught on because he wasn't shoved down our throats. He just goofed, kicked a baby into the audience and walked a stroller to the ring while constantly saying: It's not my fault.

Oh, and he wants to have gay sex with Heidenrape. Now that's a Gay Porn movie that would sell! Y Snitsky Does Heidy Y anyone?

Hey, it's 2005! Don't be a Hardcore Holly and live in the eighties.

So, as Ive totally lost anyone who's reading this I might as well just end it right here. I'm always bad at ending these things. I don't even think I can write that well anyway. But an A+ for the effort? No?

Until next time. Thanks for reading.

13 straight days and counting....

03.09.05 - ECW PPV, Bret Hart DVD update & more

2005-03-09T09:16:00.000-12:00

ECW One Night Stand

Paul Heyman has been reinstated on the current WWE roster. He's been gone a few months now since he apparently listened in on a conference phone call that he wasn't supposed to listen to.

According to Pwinsider.com he's now down in Ohio Valley Wrestling helping the rookies with their promo skills. I knew he'd be reinstated someday ever since the Rise And Fall of ECW DVD shattered all sales records when it comes to WWE DVD's. Some are saying that Heyman will at least be brought back as a consultant for the PPV. Whatever ego Vince McMahon has against the entire world, if he doesn't let Heyman run the show I take back everything I've ever said about him being a good businessman.

This means that there will be an ECW PPV that will fail miserably because it has to be a watered down WWE product. The PPV called ECW: One Night Stand is alrady running into trouble. Shane Douglas is putting together a separate ECW Reunion Show at the old ECW Arena in Philadelphia just two days prior to the WWE PPV. According to Wrestling-news.com former stars such as Sabu, Raven and Sandman are already confirmed for the Douglas show.

At first, WWE had the stance that whichever wrestler appeared on "their" show wasn't allowed to show up for Douglas's show, but they changed their stance dramatically yesterday when word leaked that they had offered several wrestlers $5000 if they turned down Douglas's show. Thankfully they got turned down. It's rumored that one of the wrestlers was Sandman.

Sabu was the only wrestler allowed to work both shows because of his hardtimes recently.

But I guess they realised that people outside the company aren't that hig on joining his Kiss my ass club. In the real world everybody sees Vince McMahon as a joke and a hypocrite for ruining the business. That is until he opens his checkbook and then it's all smiles. (Re: The Pipers Pit at Wrestlemania. Enough said on that subject. ) But it's nice to see that at least some are staying true to their roots. Once again credit to Wrestling-news.com for reporting this.

Now I'm not that big of a ECW fan, I've just recently become obsessed with it since watching the awesome RVD DVD, but from what I've seen I definitely would've been a total fan of theirs.

That's why I think thee WWE should just skip this whole One Night Stand because what it will do is show the world that nowadays most wrestlers are 5 years older and out of shape. It's like when I watched Beyond The Mat and cringed when I saw what a crackhead Jake The Snake was. That totally destroyed whatever happy memories I had of Jake The Snake. Jake was da man! Now he fears da man because he can't keep his hands away from drugs.

We all know how Raven looks and wrestles today, and I guess he's in better shape than most of the other wrestlers that aren't currently employed with either WWE or NWA. (Rhyno, The Dudleys, Spike Dudley, RVD, Nunzio, Steven Richards) MAven has to keep in somewhat shape since he's wrestling once every second week for TNA. HAHAHA. I kid, of course he has seen better days. Look at him now. He's what 50?

Screwed: The Bret Hart Story

I got a good laugh when I read that the WWE will release a DVD called Screwed: The Bret Hart Story. I hope they are pulling a fast one on us and what they are really working on is the long overdue Greatest Hits DVD of his. If it isn't, then I hope it's an honest look at the events like The Rise And Fall of ECW and The Monday Night War. But if it's really going to be a DVD about the Montreal screwjob, I fear it will be a sanitized version to counter the truth that was covered in the documentary Wrestling With Shadows.

Nevertheless, World Wrestling Entertainment Home Video will soon release a 2 DVD set entitled "Screwed: The Bret Hart Story."

Also...

The Ultimate Warrior DVD

The WWE also announced that they will release a two disc DVD of the Ultimate Warriors greatest matches. I doubt they'll be ablo to fill the two discs with enough material since the total combined time of all The Ultimate Warriors matches total something like 67 minutes... Run to the ring, no sell some punches, a gorilla press and then his finisher. End of match thank you very much.

I guess they could fill the other 200 minutes with some of his scary shit promos he had when he returned to the WWE in 1996 (i believe?). Those were just weird and sometimes outright scary.

Thanks for reading.

For feedback, send mail to comegetsomehell@hotmail.com
Title your email BLOG FEEDBACK

12 straight days and counting...

03.08.05 - Raw Review

2005-03-08T11:03:00.000-12:00

Show rating: EE
Tonights show was average at best. It did have some good wrestling here and there, but nothing worth mentioning. For the first time since prior to the locker room revolt last year, this was a show that seemed to have no purpose at all. Not even the HHH/Batista feud was noticeable tonight. Talk about scewing up the supposedly biggest money angle in years. And it amazes me how it's happened so fast. It's only been two weeks since Batista's turn and already it's as interesting as a rerun of The Golden Girls. Actually, Bea Arthur makes me laugh so I'd say it's not even as interesting.

Eggs (positives) :

GOOD WRESTLING:
We got two good matches in Benoit vs. Benjamin and Jericho vs. Edge. I just wish they would have divided the time between them a little better. Edge vs Jericho got 15 minutes while Benoit vs Benjamin only got 5. The Edge/Jericho match kind of just stalled up until the ten minute mark, while Benoit/Benjamin was one of the best short matches I've seen for a long time. When Benoit jumped between the ropes and crashed into the ladder face first, I said holy shit to myself ehile watching...

RANDY ORTONS EVENTUAL HEEL TURN:
The Randy Orton promo had a good ending to it. They are hinting a heel turn with him again which I like. Ever since he turned face I've lost interest in his character. I don't hate it, it's just that I don't really care as much as when he was The Legend Killer. I hope they go for it and turn him, because they've surely hinted at it lately. Not just the concussion angle, but the way he's toned down his entrance and the fact he does his old pose again. And if they play on the incredible heat he got from the crowd, they could actually pull it of without him losing any credibility. Now If they could only go all out and use the angle I described a few days ago, that would be awesome. What better way to make people hate him than having him beat up a Hall of Famer. And I'm not talking about Hulk Hogan.

CHRISTY HEMME/LITA/TRISH STORYLINE:
Now I'm not totally put off by the fact that Trish will face Christy at Wrestlemania. Again, something I wrote in another column a few days back. I pondered the fact that what if this storyline was given the green light because Christy had shown improvement by being trained to wrestle. Her Twist of Fate on Trish didn't look all that bad. I'm still not judging her before I've seen her wrestle, although I fear it might be a total bust. But at least they've given us hope that it won't. Cool that they found a way to incorporate Lita into the storyline as well. Her showing up totally surprised me.

THE MONEY IN THE BANK LADDER MATCH:
A nice touch to the 6-way aldder match. By having the winner beeing guaranteed a title shot it could add to a good storyline at a later date. If they show patience and not have the winner wrestle the champion a week after Wrestlemania then this could be good.

THE THREE AMIGOS:
I really laughed when Ric Flair said that they were the three amigos. He, Triple H and The Sledgehammer. The crowd thought so to. As they say on the internet, ROTFLMAO!

Bacon (Negatives) :

RAW/BATISTA STORYLINE: As I said earlier. They've totally screwed this storyline up. BAtista still get's enough pops that it's still salvageable, but they better act fast because there's not a lot of time. Leave Batista as the coolheaded monster he used to be. He's show that he's a master at being subtle. That would work better than the current mix of Goldberg & The Ultimate Warrior. Maybe they should just rename him The BaGoldImate Warrior?

KANE IN THE 6-WAY LADDER MATCH: Rumor has it that Matt Hardy and Gene Snitsky were being considered as the sixth man in this match. The current real life situation probably cost Matt Hardy his place, and management doesn't think Snitsky is ready yet. Which he isn't. Don't put that man near a ladder, because then he would definitely kill someone. But I don't think Kane was the right choice. He's stiffer than Torrie Wilsons "acting" right now. Although he did show off two new moves in his match against Christian, I think he's a really odd fit.

And I have this bad feeling that Kane will triumph, thus setting up the secondary feud with newly crowned World Champion Batista after Wrestlemania. The main event feud would of course center around Triple H. Now it's a 5-WAY AND A KANE LADDER MATCH. Please let me be wrong here.

CHRISTIAN BEING SQUASHED:
Being squashed by Kane? Couldn't they have had Tomko cause a DQ instead? Christian deserves better than this. I hope they keep him away from the world championship until after Triple H retires, but he deserves better than this. He always delivers.

Matches:

Triple H defeated Rosey
Match Rating: E

Kane defeated Christian
Match Rating: E+

Edge defeated Chris Jericho
Match Rating: EE+

Chris Benoit defeated Shelton Benjamin
Match Rating: EE+

Batista defeated Ric Flair
Match Rating: E

If you have something to say about this column, please e-mail me at comegetsomehell@hotmail.com Please write EGG FEEDBACK as a subject.

How I grade matches:

= Stinker
E = Below average match
EE = Average match
EEE = Better than good match
EEEE = Great match
EEEEE = Classic Match

How I grade shows:

E = Mediocre Show
EE = Average Show
EEE = Good Show
EEEE = Great Show
EEEEE = Excellent Show

03.07.05 - RAW Preview & Random Thoughts

2005-03-07T11:05:00.000-12:00

RAW Preview

Tonight Raw comes from Flair country. I can't say I'm really that interested. I'm more interested in Smackdown right now. Last weeks episode has really grown on me. Especially the ending with JBL doing the "You cant see me" pose. That was funny stuff.

I actually didn't expect JBL or the cabinet to show up since I had read spoilers about an Orlando Jordan face turn. Guess it's good to be surprised once in awhile watching wrestling?

Last week on RAW, we were once again treated to the same old bullshit Triple H stuff. Triple H starts the show, and Triple H ends the show. Well not in person but in spirit. It's all about the Game and it always will be.

Did anyone but me notice how the RAW Rebound on Smackdown was so centered on Triple H, and not Batista? We had something like 15 good closeups on Hunter, but only four or five average close ups on Batista. WTF? Only reason I want to watch Raw is because of Batista's rise to the top. I was hoping that Batista would be different, that his character will be built up so that it can last past Backlash, or Summerslam. But the WWE has totally screwed up. This storyline has had some awesome moments, and everybody's been behind Batista all the time. For months we've been watching and having a great time. (At least I have). Then when it finally comes down to it they have him, among other stupid things, praise Triple H? Thats not something to in your fucking breakout promo! We know that Mr. Levesque-McMahon supposedly is the best in the business. We have had that shoved down our throats for the last five years. But now I'm angry that he honks 15 minutes of my precious tv-time every week to constantly try to convince us of that fact.

It's so obvious that Triple H needs constant reassurance that he IS good. He must be the most insecure person ever! Well you are not the greatest, you never will be. You will be remembered as someone who was very good, but not the greatest. You are slow and juiced up. It's come to the point where I honestly prefer a Juiced up Snitsky before a juiced up Triple H. At least Snitsky is something we haven't seen before.

I know Snitsky is green as fuck, and I definitely wouldn't want to see him wrestle in a PPV main event. But honestly, I don't want to watch Triple H in a main event either. But is anyone really thinking that Batista isn't just another one of Triple H's pet projects he can run over on his way to winning most titles in a career? Imagine If they kept Batista and Triple H apart after Wrestlemania. Imagine if they saved their rematch for Summerslam or even Survivor Series. Imagine Batista feuding against anyone BUT Triple H. But we all know Batista's title reign will be deemed secondary when Hunter starts feuding with Rosey or William Regal.

Imagine a Draft were Triple H and JBL switched places. I know It'll never happen, but one can dream can't he? Imagine having JBL becoming the top heel on Raw. That would be awesome IMO. He could feud with Batista for a couple of months. At least JBL would be wise enough to put Batista over with his promos like he does with John Cena. Something Triple H would never do.

Regarding JBL/Cena, I know I wrote about their feud a few days ago and saying I didn't like it because it had barely been mentioned that they hate each other. These feuds need to be built up more properly. But since the WWE fucked up the HHH/Batista storyline last week I can't say I'm bothered. Lay on The Smackdown! And these two has done such a great job in such a short amount time that I admit I was wrong. That feud could be great. Having JBL do the You can't see me move after OJ won the title had me laughing. Very funny stuff. To bad the creative teams can't come up with better storylines for everyone on their respective rosters. That's one of the things I miss from yesteryear when there were interesting feuds for more wrestlers than just the main eventers. That's one of the biggest problems today IMO, that when it comes to PPV's the only matches we really care about are the main events. No Way Out being a very good example were they only had one or two matches until the show before the big event.

BTW, a lot of people are saying that they are dissapointed that Angle didn't cost Michaels the victory in the Streetfight against Edge. I don't agree. The match was such a great match that it would have been tainted had someone ruined the match. It was awesome. Actually, it's in my opinion tied with Randy Orton vs Christian for WWE Match of the year so far. That's definitley a plus in my book.

Wrestlemania so far...

Wrestlemania is starting to look really good. The Kurt Angle Shawn Michaels feud could be great, and I'm intrigued at what Orton/Undertaker will give us. If they plan on having him break The Takers undefeated streak, Orton needs to be a heel Legend Killer again... (More on that some other day on how I think the WWE should go about turning Orton heel again).

The 6-way ladder match will be awesome, and I'm actually looking forward to whatever Big Show vs Akebono will become. Call me whatever but I'm looking forward to a match like that.
It's a celebrity match that is intended for the japanese market as he's apparently very popular there. A lot of people say it's a guaranteed piss-break, but in all honestly I take piss-breaks whenever I want nowadays when watching wrestling.

It looks like the ladder match will be for the Intercontinental championship so I guess Snitsky & Benjamin won't be feuding. To bad, but I guess it's better this way.

03.06.05 - TNA PPV's are going downhill

2005-03-06T10:02:00.000-12:00

TNA has given us some great PPV's since they gave us one a month. Victory Road gave us an excellent 20-Man X-Division Gauntlet, probably the greatest Cage Match in years between Triple X and America’s Most Wanted and AJ Styles v. Petey Williams for the X-Division championship.

Turning Point gave us Petey Williams vs Chris Sabin for the X Division Title, Sonjay Dutt, Hector Garza, and Sonny Siaki vs Kid Kash, Frankie Kazarian and Michael Shane and AJ Styles, Jeff Hardy (and the Macho Man I guess) Vs The Kings of Wrestling.

Final Resolution gave us America's Most Wanted v. Team Canada for the Tag-Team belts, The Ultimate X Match for the X Title featuring Petey Williams vs AJ Styles & Chris Sabin, Kid Kash vs Dustin Rhodes and Monty Brown v. Jeff Jarrett.

Then Against All Odds gave us the excellent 30-minute match between AJ. Styles and Christopher Daniels and the better than expected title match between Double J and Kevin Nash.

In between these excellent matches were watchable matches with Elix Skipper, 3 Live Krue, Team Canada, Frankie Kazarian & Michael Shane and Jeff Hardy and Abyss and Monty Brown.

These wrestlers are why most people are watching TNA PPV's. Unfortunately it's gone downhill every single PPV. More and more former WCW and WWF wrestlers have been brought in. The latest addition is of course The Outlaw, or Billy Gunn as we know him. Before him it was Macho Man, Dustin Rhodes and DDP.

Take a look at the card for Destination X so far, with only a week to go, and ask yourself what is wrong with it:

THE ULTIMATE X MATCH CHALLENGE: AJ Styles vs Kid Kash

NWA WORLD HEAVYWEIGHT TITLE MATCH: Jeff Jarrett vs. Diamond Dallas Page

NO DISQUALIFICATION Anything Goes: Kevin Nash vs. The Outlaw

FALLS COUNT ANYWHERE: Jeff Hardy vs. Abyss

BULLROPE MATCH: Dustin Rhodes vs. Raven

CHALLENGE MATCH: The Alpha Male vs. Trytan

TEAM TRACI vs. TEAM TRINITY MATCH: Phi Delta Slam vs. The Disciples of Destruction

Everything's wrong with it! Besides the Ultimate X match and the Challenge match, its just a clusterfuck of old washed up WCW/WWF midcarders. Why do DDP, Kevin Nash, Billy Gunn, Dustin Rhodes and Raven feature on this PPV so far? (And Chris Candido will probably feature in The Ultimate X match? WTF TNA?) Yet Lance Hoyt, Christopher Daniels, Elixir Skipper, AMW, Team Canada to name only but a few aren't even on the card with only one week to go.

(Since the cello last month, I'm giving Jeff Jarett the benefit of the doubt and one last chance).

Ok, The Ultimate X Match is now a A MUST SEE MATCH because of Kid Kash getting in on the action. Kid Kash in my opinion is the most entertaining wrestler TNA has right now. He's a great worker, and he cuts great promos. Why he isn't given a shot at seriously winning the Heavyweight title is to me a disgrace.

I guess Jeff Hardy vs Abyss will be watchable, although I think last months match between the two was grossly overrated, and the Monty Brown vs Trytan match will be interesting only due to the fact it gives me a chance to laugh my ass off If Trytan sucks in the ring. Yes I know, I'm pessimistic. Deal with it. But the rest of the card is mediocre at the very best. Jeff Jarrett needs to drop the title soon, although that's not what NWA is all about. The National Wrestling Alliance is about 56 years of History and Tradition. They still use the concept of a title ranking for their champion and no1 contender. This is the current ranking taken from nwawrestling.com. Prepare for some fucked up reading.

NWA WORLD HEAVYWEIGHT DIVISION

Champion: Jeff Jarrett

1. Jeff Hardy

2. Alpha Male

3. Ron Killings

4. Spyder

5. Vance Nevada

6. Lex Lovett

7. Raven

8. Ricky Murdoch

9. AJ Styles

10. JT Wolfen

I guess when you are given a title shot, you are scratched from the list, because DDP and Kevin Nash is nowhere to be found. Jeff HArdy the No1 contender? I wonder what they base these rankings on?

I guess that kills of my notion that The Abyss should win it huh. Imagine 56 years of tradition were Abyss ushers in a new era.

Honestly, I don't know. I'm ranting here. This will probably be my last PPV I watch unless they start to hype some of the newer and more unique wrestlers they have on their roster.

03.05.05 - The SHOCKING truth about Hardy/Lita/Edge!

2005-03-05T08:21:00.000-12:00

The truth is, people need to get a life. Things happen, deal with it. It’s as simple as that.

Thanks for reading.

03.04.05 - Smackdown Eggs'N'Bacon

2005-03-04T05:51:00.000-12:00

Smackdown Eggs'N'Bacon

Eggs (Positives):

THE OPENING MINUTES: Smackdown might not have that many things going for them right now, but one thing they do have is that they know how to keep you from immediately swithching channel. By having John Cena, the good guy open up the show it gives you that important feeling of joy to begin with. John Cena represents the good in the fight against evil. It makes you feel right of the bat. It's not like that other show

JBL: I don't know how or when it happened, But I love JBL. I didn't like him at all to begin with, I thought it was horrendous to have Eddie Guerrero loose the title so soon. JBL just didn't do it for me at first, Just a couple of monthe prior he'd been Bradshaw the anti-hero. The beer drinker and the hellraiser. But as the list of title defenses grew longer, he's really grown on me.
Right now, I don't want JBL to lose the title at Wrestlemania. I know John Cena is Ûber over with the fans right now, and that he's the future of this company. But the WWE will miss the boat once again by not having Cena chase the belt longer. Should Cena win the title at Wrestlemania, they've only feuded for barely two months.

CARLITO'S SKIT: Carlito not nowing how to shovel snow was pure gold. Really funny stuff. I'm impressed with Carlito's humor and comedic timing. He carries himself well as the cocky kid. And he doesn't seem to mind being made to look like a fool.

DAWN MARIE SELLING TO MICHELLE McCOOL: Gotta give respect to Dawn Marie for selling those awful elbows from Michelle McCool. Even though it looked horrendous, she did actually sell McCools punches and elbows like they were chops delivered by Chris Benoit.

BIG SHOW vs AKIBONO: I'd pay to see that.

Bacon (Negatives):

BAD TIMING FOR A SALES PITCH: Talk about bad timing. The first time they showed us how to order tickets for Judgement Day was during the Booker T-Heidenreich match.

MICHELLE McCOOLS WRESTLING ABILITY: Is it too much to ask for the WWE to at least give the divas some sort of prematch training? Michelle McCool looked awful out there, truly awful. If they can't wrestle, don't put them in the ring. As simple as that. Of course, should that have been company policy half the roster should be unemployed. (Allow me to exaggerate to get my point across).

DAWN MARIE JOBBING TO MICHELLE McCOOL: See above.

WHAT'S UP WITH CHAVO?: Is he a heel or is he a babyface? You have him go from being a great heel to babyface to feud with Billy Kidman, then turn him semi-heel for an eventual feud with The Ultimate Paul London, and now he's a being greeted as a bro' backstage by Mysterio?
You need to decide what to do with Chavo now! *

RAW REBOUND IS ALL ABOUT THE GAME: The Raw rebound was all about the game. Way to go, I'm officially not that interested in the Batista/HHH feud anymore. Good job in blowing it three weeks by having Hunter constantly putting Batista in his place. They've screwed up just about everything they could with this storyline. I'm more interested in just about any other match that's on the Wrestlemania card right now. It started with HHH, and ended with HHH. Aren't we supposed to be cheering for Batista? Isn't he supposed to look like the stronger one?
What's great about JBL, is that he's a heel's heel. He's the bad guy, without ever looking for sympathy from the crowds or the viewers. Simple as that. Triple H on the other hand has all the characteristics of a babyface, yet we are supposed to hate him? Those are some major mindfucks on the viewers. It's still all about the game.

HULK HOGAN NOT THE GREATEST OF ALL TIME: It's sad to see that the politics of Triple H has forced the announcers to be reserved when it comes to calling Hulk Hogan what he is.
That is being the Greatest Of All Time. Say what you will about his lack of wrestling ability, or that he's supposedly a backstage cancer, but without Hulk Hogan and Hulkamania there probably wouldn't be a WWE today. He was way bigger globally than Stone Cold or The Rock ever was is or ever will be. Oh, and a guy by the name of Paul Levesque-McMahon considers himself the greatest of all time. Don't fuck with the soon-to-be-boss...

****07

****08

****09

Smackdown matches:

Rey Mysterio & Eddie Guerrero defeated Mark Jindrak/Luther Reigns
Match Rating: EE -

Heidenreich defeated Booker T via DQ
Match Rating: E -

Big Show &amp;amp;amp; Michelle McCool defeated Dawn Marie & Rene Duprée
Match Rating: N/A

Orlando Jordan defeated John Cena
Match Rating: EE

Exchange of the night:

Tazz: I wanna see the Big Show tickle...
Cole: You are a sicko, tickle who?
Tazz: Actually let me refrase that. I wanted The Big Show to do the French dance thing.

* I'm just playing the mark...

03.03.05 - RVD DVD Review

2005-03-03T06:47:00.000-12:00

Its time for my first DVD Review...

So, I finally got around to see the Rob Van Dam One Of A Kind DVD. And let me tell you, it was excellent. I was not a big wrestling fan during the ECW era, so I missed out on all the hoopla that surrounded ECW and ultimately, the Monday Night War.

My Image of Rob Van Dam is formed right around The Invasion 2001 PPV which got me back into wrestling on an semiregular basis. I viewed Rob Van Dam right now as a wrestler with a unique style, although I sometimes couldn't understand why everybody thought he was grossly underused. I've always thought he was underused, but never grossly that.

But after watching this Muddyfucking excellent DVD release, I now sing the choirsong of the Church of Grossly underused. We are changing the name to The Church of The Criminally Neglected Saint Van Dam. Watching all of his early ECW matches was just insane! Talk about taking someone who's green and letting him roll with it. It also showed me what a truly unique style of wrestling the ECW incoroprated into their whole Image. While it's not the great technical style of wrestling that we all love to watch today, (Irony, what I meant to say was Fuck you Hunter!) The matches had a great flow to them. It's hard for me to describe, since I'm not fully grasping the English language yet. I can only describe it as the kind of flow you love whenever Mick Foley piuts on a Royal Rumble Streetfight or A Backlash Hardcore Match. That kind of great flow.

I am definitely getting my hands on some ECW PPV's now to watch, because this I like a lot. I know it's sad of me to say this since all you ECW fans will probably stop reading right now. "How can you review a Rob Van Dam DVD without knowing what the whole ECW phenomenon stood for?" Well I guess I can't really, but I do know that the matches put on this DVD were just awesome, and If they've neglected to put on some matches that you thought were better, well great for ECW then because the I don't see how they can get more brutal than this. (I am of course talking about RVD ECW matches, not any old ECW match. I've seen a few of the more extreme ECW matches and they are just scary. Like watching Snitsky Powerslam somebody. Now that's scary.

The matches on the DVD are as follows:

vs. Pat Rose (WCW Saturday Night 01/23/93)
vs. Scotty Flamingo (WCW Worldwide 02/08/93)
vs. Axl Rotten (ECW Hardcore TV 01/05/96)
vs. Sabu (ECW Hostile City Showdown 04/20/96)
vs. Sabu (ECW Hardcore Heaven 06/22/96)
Sabu & RVD vs. The Eliminators (ECW Crossing The Line 02/01/97)
vs. Lance Storm (ECW Barely Legal 04/13/97)
vs. Jeff Hardy (Raw 05/12/97)
vs. Tommy Dreamer (ECW November 2 Remember 11/30/97)
vs. Bam Bam Bigelow (ECW Hardcore TV 04/04/98)
vs. Jerry Lynn (ECW Living Dangerously 03/21/99)
vs. Balls Mahoney (ECW Anarchy Rulz 09/16/99)
vs. Jerry Lynn (ECW Guilty as Charged 01/07/01)
vs. Jeff Hardy (WWE Invasion 07/22/01)
vs. Chris Jericho (WWE King of the Ring 06/23/02)
vs. Christian (Raw 09/29/03)

The 5 matches that stand out the most are Sabu & RVD vs. The Eliminators at ECW Crossing The Line, RVD vs. Bam Bam Bigelow on ECW Hardcore TV, RVD vs. Jerry Lynn at ECW Living Dangerously, RVD vs Jerry Lynn at ECW Guilty as Charged and vs Christian on Raw.

I'm sure these matches are hand picked by Vince to rewrite history, so If anyone know of any better matches with RVD please drop me a line or two. I'd love to se them, because right now I want to watch ECW again and again and again...

Inbetween matches are RVD's comments on his whereabouts at the moment, and ehat the macthes meant to him. The commentary is awesome, as it's the first time I've actually seen a personality to RVD other thatn the Stoner dude we see on Smackdown.

DVD Rating: EEEE

Excellent buy, or download if you do those things, that I truly recommend. I am now even more disgusted at the new style of wrestling we see every week (Fuck you again Hunter!). Although I guess you can't blame the new style completely (Fuck you again Hunter!) since he's been around longer than when they implemented it. Although the RVD vs Christian ladder match on RAW was truly insane, I still liked the ECW matches better since they had more unpredictability hanging over them. Great production values and loads of DVD extras.

Thank's for reading. I am the Eggman. (Actually I'm not an Egg, but you all knew that.)

Feedback is appreciated. Please use the words BLOG FEEDBACK as the subject line, or they will be thrashed. comegetsomehell@hotmail.com

03.02.05 - News & Random thoughts

2005-03-02T04:31:00.000-12:00

Nothing too meaty today. Just a few thoughts and some news scoured from the net.

1. RAW Rating: 4.1

Raw drew a 4.1 rating, up from last week's 4.0. Every quarter hour was 4.0 or above but one. It began with a 4.0 and peaked at a 4.5 for quarter five for the Batista's promo with the Triple H and Ric Flair run-in. Then it dropped back down to 4.0 the final three quarters, but then peaked at a 4.6 for the overrun. Credit: Pwtorch.com

2. Mike Powell IS a pussy and Fuck The FCC

From yesterdays RAW Review column:

"Something fucked up occurred during the Street Fight. It happened just before Michaels got busted open. A guy held up two signs, one that said “Mike Powell is a pussy” and another that said “Fuck The FCC”. (Michael K. Powell is the chairman of the FCC ). A minute later a guy runs full speed towards them and yanks the signs from his hands. When we return we see that people in the front row are looking anywhere but the ring. Just before the million dollar kneelift by Michaels you can see they are being escorted away by arena security. That’s fucked up. I love whenever people create some sort of controversy, taking matters into their own hands. (But in this case there really wasn’t any such thing as a controversy, it’s something called freedom of expression )."

Gimme more of these things. People need to learn the truth, that Mike Powell IS a pussy and that you really should Fuck with the FCC every chance you get. They sure fuck with all of you, which ultimately means they fuck with the rest of the world since Americana culture is all over the world. And you know what they say: Hollywood sells Californication.

For all of you who doesn't know who Mike Powell is, he's the chairman of the FCC. And the son of Colin Powell. He has done a lot of things to make your already lousy media environment even worse. Do a Google search on him and you'll se what I mean.

3. Wrestlemania card thus far (SPOILERS!):

The card for Wrestlemania is shaping up to be an ok one. Not all matches are confirmed but it seems likely that's were the currents are leading them. Highlight to read.

JBL vs John Cena for the WWE Title
Batista vs Triple H for the WCW Title
Kurt Angle vs Shawn Michaels
Randy Orton vs The Undertaker
6-way ladder match
Eddie Guerrero vs Rey Mysterio
Luther Reigns vs Mark Jindrak
Shelton Benjamin vs Gene Snitsky
Chavo Guerrero vs Paul London
Booker T vs Heidenreich
Trish Stratus vs Chrusty Hemme

4. Ten theme songs playing on my Mp3-player right now:

John Bradhsaw Layfield - Longhorn
Shawn Michaels - Sexyboy
Brock Lesnar - The Next Big Thing
Theodore Long - Mack Militant
Christian - At Last
Undertaker - Dark Side
Degeneration X - Break It Down
The Oddities - Freak Show
Gangrel - The Brood
Batista's Theme

5. Give us a Bret Hart Greatest Matches DVD Now!

Further comments not necessary.

6. Please give us a 6-way TLC match!

I hope the 6-way ladder match that Jericho hinted at will be a full-blown TLC match. How about having Jericho & Jeff Hardy vs Edge & Christian vs Regal & Tajiri or whoever the current tag team champions are at the time. I would pay to see that. More so for seeing wrestlers who have never participated in such matches before. Of course, should one of the teams be The Dudleys, fuck whoever hasn't been in one of these matches before. TLC-mania rules! But one can only dream. Apparently Shelton Benjamin will be part of this match, and maybe even Chris Benoit at the expense of Regal/Tajiri and The Dudleys. What bugs me the most about this is that this will probably lead to the one match I'm looking forward to the most wont happen, Shelton Benjamin vs Gene Snitsky.

7. Me singing the theme song to The Golden Girls:

Thank you for being a friend
Traveled down the road and back again
Your heart is true your a pal and a confidant.

And if you threw a party
Invited everyone you ever knew
You would see the biggest gift would be from me
And the card attached would say thank you for being a friend.

We Swedes love them reruns of The Golden Girls...

8. Motorhead will perform at Wrestlemania

It's been confirmed that Motorhead will perform Triple H's theme song at Wrestlemania. Hopefully they'll also play Batista's kick ass song.

9. Fuck the MPAA!
Yeah, you heard me. Fuck Motion Picture Association of America. They are hiding overseas DVD sales in hopes that it will bolster their claims that "Hollywood loses $3.5 billion every year, almost all of it overseas, to the sale of illegally copied films, mainly on bootleg DVD's and their cheaper Asian equivalent, video compact discs (VCD's). " Notice how they fail to mention the threat of movies being downloaded from filesharing programs. That's something they know is minimal still. It's like taping a video of your friend. They still make their money from sales. The thing is that their revenues aren't dwindling, they are steadily rising. What buggs them is that through other venues movie watching is actually rising tenfolds thanks to the Internet & filesharing programs. Most of the people, me included, download films and watch them. The thing what they fail to mention is that for my part I still purchase one or two DVD's a month, as I have always done. It's just that I watch a hell of a lot more movies than I used. I say the more power to the people the better. And I work in the kind of business that would be affected by declining movie sales, but the business is booming like it always has.

For a good read on the MPAA situation, go here: http://www.hackingnetflix.com/netflix/2005/02/mpaa_hiding_ove.html

10. Hacksaw Jim Duggan is doing great.

I listened to a great Jim Duggan interview today. Hacksaw's doing great! He's been working some indy events these days but the main thing he's involved in is a new real estate venture called the "DDC," Duggan Development Company.

To listen to this interview go to www.wrestlingepicenter.com, or download it at this url: http://www.wrestlingepicenter.com/shows/HacksawVolkoff/hv.rm

Yeah, that's right. You right klick and then save as. You are not your grandpa, you should know these things by now.

03.01.05 - Raw Is All About The Game

2005-03-01T10:55:00.000-12:00

A good rebound episode of Raw this week. Not great but an above average effort. And who would’ve thought that what made this show good wasn’t the Batista/HHH storyline. What made it good was that for the first time in ages, other storylines were given a chance to develop. Last week, in my opinion, was one of the worst Raw’s since the locker room revolt before last years Survivor Series. It seemed to me and a lot of others that the climax of the whole Batista/HHH storyline left a lot to be desired. First, let’s get the minor Evolution storyline out of the way. (Yes, it truly feels that way to me now, I’m not looking forward to this as much as I was only three or four weeks ago. Call me pessimistic or whatever but the WWE is even worse of without Vince McMahon being backstage “acting” like a dictator).

I can’t say I was too pleased when they opened the show with HHH walking to the ring. I truly felt disgusted when he walked to the ring. Then it felt like it was truly all about The Game. It was his show and the only thing that matters is him breaking Ric Flair’s title reign.

The amount of Batista signs in the audience was truly breathtaking! Raw is Batista, Batista the next champ, Batista=Game Over,. 34 days and counting…, Batista got game. It gives one the hope that maybe, just maybe the fans will force the corporate entity known as the WWE to cater to us.

Italics: Triple H gave us an intense promo, where he put over Batista again and again by asking the audience if they though Batista would beat him at Wrestlemania. Then Batista’s music hit to a huge thunderous ovation.

One could only hope to be so lucky… Reality check. It’s not gonna happen! Instead they give us… The Hurricane? He gets killed by being thrown face first into the steel steps, then Pedigreed onto the steel ramp.

Instead of something truly interesting, like perhaps try to recreate recreating the whole Steve Austin era to perfection. You know, where Vince or Shane or whoever the heel was at time opened up almost every show. Then Austin’s music hit, he would talk some trash and drink a few beers and flip the finger to a huge ovation. This would set the tone for the rest of the show at least when it came to audience participation. The shows back then always started on a high, that way the eventual low of the show seemed more acceptable to everyone because they had been happy for most of the show. Now It’s gotten to the point where you know Triple H is going to hog the spotlight for too long, and somehow walk out stronger by the end of the show.

Later in the show, when Batista finally shows up, it’s backstage! Sure he gets a loud pop, but it’s nowhere near the pop a superstar gets when his music hit’s unannounced. And then we see that Triple H watched him from a monitor in the locker room. This time all the nervousness is gone from his character. This time he seems to be in charge of the situation. This is what makes me believe Batista will be nothing more than some random guy for Hunter to conquer on his way to delusional immortality.

And then instead of having Batista walk to the ring, he has to get introduced by someone? I can’t believe it! By having Ross introduce him, the magic is gone. I know I’m repeating myself here, but It’s such a huge crowd-killer not to have what is perceived as the biggest and hottest superstar today receive a simple huge pop! I’m sorry if I sound overly pessimistic today, but I just can’t help it. In a matter of three weeks they’ve really ruined this storyline. Maybe there’s hope after all, Wrestlemania is still 33 days away.

Ok, now that I’ve gotten that out of my system, let’s continue on with the rest of the show.

1.Chris Benoit vs Muhammad Hassan

Benoit dominated this match early on with his usual high intensity. Hassan still looks green, but there’s still room for improvement. I so much want Hassan to work out. The heat he got from the audience was greater than Triple H got. He is truly booed by the Americans. I know I will never understand from an American standpoint where all the boos come from, but as a Swede I enjoy watching him get booed like no one has for a long time. Hassan regained the momentum when Benoit chased Daivari at ringside, hitting him with a clothesline. Back in the ring the ref got bumped and Hassan was given the ring bell. Something Benoit didn’t see as he gave Hassan a German suplex. He then hit the top rope headbutt. I think the point of this was to have Benoit smash his head into the ring bell, but he didn’t even come close. Looks like a botched finish to me. A few seconds of no one knowing what to occurred, only to be broken by a mule kick to Benoit in front of the ref prompted a DQ. Hassan looked visibly upset afterwards, perhaps at the botched finish. Benoit wins by DQ.

Match rating: EE

Ok match, nothing more. I’m still not really sure if the ending was planned, or if the DQ finish was called from the back.

-- Hulk Hogan was announced as another inductee into the hall of fame. I sort of thought that was cool since I didn’t know that was coming. I guess it sometimes pays off not to read spoilers beforehand.

2. Gene Snitsky vs Shelton Benjamin.

What is this, Christmas already? Snitsky vs Benjamin three shows in a row? I’m amused by this weird matchup. Snitsky showed some new manoeuvres this time around, by accident I should point out. He tried his finisher bodyslam thing but almost botched it, which would’ve resulted in a broken neck. I don’t know what it is I like about Snitsky. I guess it’s a combination of many things. One of the reasons might be, as where it looks like Paul London might kill himself someday with one of his insane stunts it looks like Snitsky might kill someone else one day. Shelton won the match with a weird DDT out of nowhere, and a very impressive T-Bone.

Match rating: EE

Short but fun match, mostly because of Snitsky.

3. Chris Masters vs Unnamed ROH pure wrestling champion.

Squash match. They didn’t even say the unnamed ROH pure wrestling champion’s name on air. The most interesting thing about this match was beforehand when they showed images of Richards broken nose and broken collarbone before.
Masters won with his full nelson finisher.

Match rating: None

Let’s move on. I’m still not sold on Masters. I wan’t to point out that I hold no grudge against Chris Masters. The blame rests fully on the shoulders of the WWE.

4. Chris Jericho vs Maven

It’s time for another squash match. Maven must have really done something bad to get this kind of treatment. Jericho took control of this match early on with some kicks and punches. Jericho hit a springboard dropkick to knock Maven outside the ring. Back in the ring Maven blocked a bulldog by Jericho, but got hung up in the ropes by Jericho. Maven started a comeback, but eventually lost the match when Jericho made him tap out to the Walls of Jericho. After the match Jericho grabbed the microphone and said something cryptic about how he and five other superstars wanted in on what was shaping up to be the greatest Wrestlemania of all time. And that it would involve a steel ladder.

Match Rating: EE

This match played out better than I expected. Maven wasn’t squashed, which I think is good since he definitely has potential as a heel, and Jericho looked sharper than last week. Of course, last weeks match had more to do with Simon Dean being sloppy than Jericho. And whenever they hint about a ladder match, I get exited. Could it be perhaps that this six man match will have Jericho, maybe an Ege & Christian reunion, Regal & Tajiri and perhaps the return of Matt Hardy in a TLC match? Probably not, but it doesn’t seem too impossible given
that WWE has been more eager to push some more hardcore matches so far this year.

Christy Hemme walked to the ring and revealed the cover of her Playboy issue. All I could think of was the headline next to her: Uday Hussein’s plot against Saddam. What plot did Uday have against Saddam? I guess I have to buy the magazine to find out…You know, for the articles that is. Trish interrupted and called her bad things. She Chick-kicked Christy in the head and spraypainted the word Slut on Christy’s back. I guess this means Trish Stratus vs Christy Hemme at Wrestlemania. Hooray! I won’t judge this storyline until it’s over. What if they only gave the go ahead on this storyline because Christy has shown great improvement in training? What if she’ll give us a good performance?

Who am I kidding, this angle sucks… (Get it? Angle? Sucks? You will by the time this review is finished) .

--- Backstage Randy Orton and “Superstar” Billy Graham talk about Hulk Hogan being inducted into the hall of fame. Graham told Orton that Wrestlemania should be his chance to become someone really unique. Orton said that was exactly what he was going to do. He then tossed an issue of the latest Smackdown magazine with The Undertaker onto a table. The audience cheered for this. I guess this means that Taker/kane vs Snitsky/Heidenreich is definitely off! Maybe this will be a good year whgen it comes to the WWE after all.

Something truly unique would be Randy Orton beating the shit out of his father as he’s being inducted into the Hall of Fame. Remember where you read it first should that event take place.

5. Shawn Michaels vs Edge

Here we go, another lame gimmick match like the Kane/Snitsky hardcore match, or their cage match a feew weeks ago… But wait! This match turned out to be an excellent TV main event.
Both Edge & Michaels wrestled in street clothes. They started the match by brawling into the crowds. Edge brought a chair into the ring, which he DDT’d Michaels onto. Michaels bled like crazy. Edge dominated this match as Michaels face was completely covered in blood. Michaels brought out a ladder from under the ring which brought out a big cheer from the audience. Michaels hit Edge with a charchot to the head. Edge tried to retaliate by hitting Michaels with a kendo stick, but it backfired. Michaels later on hit a top rope elbow onto Edge’s “Psychotic torso.” Whatever that means? It made me laugh. The match ended when Edge grabbed a chair and went psychotic, but missed. Edge speared Michaels but he kicked out. Edge couldn’t believe it and started pulling his own hair. He tried to spear Michaels again but missed, and Micheals hit him with a superkick and got the cover.

Something fucked up occurred during the Street Fight. It happened just before Michaels got busted open. A guy held up two signs, one that said “Mike Powell is a pussy” and another that said “Fuck The FCC”. (Michael K. Powell is the chairman of the FCC ). A minute later a guy runs full speed towards them and yanks the signs from his hands. When we return we see that people in the front row are looking anywhere but the ring. Just before the million dollar kneelift by Michaels you can see they are being escorted away by arena security. That’s fucked up. I love whenever people create some sort of controversy, taking matters into their own hands. (But in this case there really wasn’t any such thing as a controversy, it’s something called freedom of expression ).

Match Rating: EEEE

A really brutal street fight. I guess it’s true that whenever Michaels wrestles in jeans and boots, it’s a match to remember. Whenever Michaels bleeds to the point where you think it’s to much he always makes it really believable. Both Edge and Michaels were sharp, and they both scored many believable nearfalls.

After the match, Kurt Angle jumped out of the crowd and gave Michaels an Angle slam. He said that as far as your challenge is concerned, I accept. The crowd chanted “You Suck!”
Security guards came down and Angle jumped back into the crowd with a smile on his face.

Show Rating: EEE

An EEE rating means that the show was good. It definitely delivered, but short on being an excellent episode. The whole Batista Triple H interaction was a big disappointment. Had they delivered in that area, this show would have definitely gotten an EEEE rating. But I’m glad that the rest of the storylines for Wrestlemania delivered. Some decent matches, and a very good backstage segment between Randy Orton and “Superstar” Billy Graham. Hopefully the Batista triple H storyline will stay off the radar for a week or two, to let the rest of the roster shine through a bit more. Having Angle end the show was very good. To bad I get this bad feeling that Raw is still about The Game, and not Batista. Triple H is so good at delivering promos that his opponents really suffer. He needs to cut back on the intensity a notch or two, so that he gets down to their level. It won’t hurt him a bit, since we all know what he can do. We’ve seen it for a good five years now.

02.28.05 – Watching KOTR '98 live

2005-02-28T07:33:00.000-12:00

I have just uncovered a goldmine. I found my old computer yesterday and as I looked through it I found a lot of old diaries I had written. It brought back a lot of memories I had somehow forgotten. It’s amazing how you sometimes forget things completely, yet when you are reminded of them it’s like they occurred only yesterday. The diary that stands out the most is the one called: My hiatus from Wrestling. It is written in Swedish, but I’ll translate it for you.

Before I do that let me fill you in on where my life had taken me at this point. I lived in London at the time working as a video editor for the BBC. I was nineteen at the time, and dropped everything I had going for me in Sweden to work at what at the time was my dream job. I went there to edit a nature documentary about the birds of Africa done by none other than Sir. David Attenborough. It eventually evolved into the now famous The Life of Birds. I never got around to editing it because a screw up at African airport led to five months of filmed material being erased by faulty x-ray machines. This catastrophe led to the whole project being delayed for seven months. I was already contracted by the BBC at this time to work as a logger, a guy who looked through all material that had been filmed and made endless notes on every single shot. This was necessary for the online-editors to know their way around the material. Since the production of the project was shelved indefinitely at the time, I was assigned to work as an editor for BBC World until the newly filmed material was ready.

I had a blast working with the news department, as I have always been interested in politics.

Since leaving Sweden, I had lost contact with many of my childhood friends. I basically worked 10-12 hours a day (about 5 more than I had to) and not everybody had Internet back then. I know it boggles the mind, but It’s actually true.

At this time in my life I had lost contact with my childhood friend. The same guy I described in my last column, the guy I watched wrestling with every Saturday afternoon. We went to different schools and with new friends we sort of grew apart. No animosity or anything, it’s just sometimes inevitable. Anyway, one day in January or February of 1998 we got in touch via email, and we decided that it would be cool if he could spend the summer here in London.

I remember that summer as a very good summer. I had a job that paid well, and my childhood friend and I became good friends again. One evening we were at home watching some movie on Sky Movies when we saw an ad for King Of The Ring. It was the WWF, and it was next!

Wow, we thought. We haven’t watched wrestling in a long time. Let’s watch it and see if we like it. Little did we know that we were about to see one of the most famous matches in the history of the WWF.

As we watched the PPV we realised that the days of Yokozuna, Vader, Bret Hart, Lex Luger
And Tatanka were long gone. Now we saw the likes of The Headbangers, Kaientai, Ken Shamrock, The Rock, X-Pac and the New Age Outlaws wrestle each other. I can’t say we were impressed, other than we liked this guy called The Rock. Little did we know he would become one of the most famous wrestlers of all time. But we knew that The Undertaker was facing a guy named Mankind later on in something called The Hell in A Cell.

This is a translation of what I wrote about The Hell In A Cell match on July 1st 1998:

I cannot believe what we watched last night. We watched wrestling again for the first time in a while. It was just brutal! There was a match involving the Undertaker and Mick Foley wrestling as the character Mankind. They were in a match called Hell In A Cell. A huge steel cage with a roof surrounded the whole ring. And the match started by both wrestlers climbing to the top of the cage. They started hitting each other with chairs, and the THE UNDERTAKER THREW HIM OF THE FUCKING CAGE! Me and X (2005: I’m withholding his name) couldn’t believe our fucking eyes. We were stunned. We just sipped on our beers in silence. That must’ve been at least 20 feet to the ground. He landed on his back. As we watched the replays in silence, we were amazed at how eerily beautiful he fell. Like a cat falling off a roof, he turned around just before he hit the table so he landed on his back. The weird thing is that people were cheering this on. They were vicious. They smelled the blood, I felt a little uncomfortable with the whole situation. He looked dead as he laid there.

We broke our silence when a familiar face, two actually, came down. Terry Funk! And Sgt. Slaughter!! Are they still wrestling?? They must be 50 years old by now!! Damn his chin is still huge!! Here's to him not having plastic surgery!

Doctors and all sorts of people were attending to Mankind. I watched the replay today (and recorded it! Yay! I’m a bootlegger!! Stupid british people and their fear of copyright theft) and the weird thing is that The Undertaker was standing on top of the cage all along. He looked spooked, like he thought he had killed the man. Anyways, Mankind or Mick Foley as his real name is (I spent all day on the Net reading about him, he’s a sick dude. A bumpster someone called him. He's been in all kinds of fucked up matches) was taken to the back. We thought the match was over by now. BUT NO!! HE WALKED BACK TO THE RING AND CLIMBED THE CAGE ONCE AGAIN!!! Fucking unbelievable!

And then It appeared like the cage roof collapsed or something, because he was thrown through the cage! He landed hard and now we really though he was dead. His body twisted like the human body can’t twist. It was disgusting. I really thought he died there and then. X told me, shall we turn it off? I said If you want to. He said no. I didn’t want to turn it off either.

The match continued, and as if that wasn’t bad enough! HE PULLED OUT A BAG OF FUCKING THUMBTACKS! And got thrown aon it several times, and The Undertaker finally won the match by doing his finisher STRAIGHT ON THE THUMBTACKS!! My god! That was a brutal match.

And when the match was over, Mankind refused to be taken out on a stretcher! He walked back out of the arena. After the match I went outside and lit up a cigarette. Or as the british say: Lit up a fag. My god they are depraved individuals over here. Light a gay person on fire??? WTF? As I smoked it I felt like I’d just witnessed something traumatic in my life. Holy shit, that was the most brutal thing I have ever seen. When we watched the last match X said: Good luck trying to wrestle after something like this. Apparently The undertaker has a brother and his name is Kane. He looked cool with his mask on, and he was huge! Probably taller than The Undertaker. Wrestling has come a long way since we last watched it. I don't know If I like it though. Over and Out Stout.

There you have it. As I said, that was a translation of what I had written. When I read it all the memories come back and I honestly remember it like it was just a few weeks ago. I spent another six months in London before the working conditions at the BBC made me go back to Sweden. The Attenborough documentary got delayed again and again and I got more and more delusional when it came to working with the news. To much censorship, which I hate. And a boss who honestly, he was just a dumb hoss. He managed to alienate the entire crew, whom half resigned in protest. But they got their jobs back, I went back to Sweden. I didn’t watch much wrestling after that for another three years. I missed the whole Austin era. Something that I guess I regret a bit today. But how was I supposed to know? I got hooked again watching the Invasion PPV and I’ve been watching it on and off ever since. Mostly on since last summer when I totally marked after having seen Eddie Guerrero do a frogsplash from the top of the cage against JBL. I believe this was the rematch right after he had lost the belt at The Great American Bash. Since then I've seen every episode of Raw and Smackdown as well as every PPV since then.

02.27.05 - The Million Dollar Man

2005-02-27T22:35:00.000-12:00

As a kid growing up, I was hooked on wrestling. Here in Sweden it was shown at 2pm on Saturday afternoons on Sky One. Cable in Sweden at this time consisted of two channels. Sky One and The Super Channel. They showed shows such as Thundercats, Action Force (G.I Joe, I guess the europeans thought "What the hell is a G.I Joe?"), Transformers, Bionic Woman and The A-Team to name a few. I loved all of those shows, but they paled in comparison to my love for wrestling.

Me and my best friends always watched it at his home, since very few had cable back then. He did and we were so happy.

One of my strongest wrestling memories is when Andre The Giant beat Hulk Hogan for the WWF World Championship. I remember how shocked we were when Andre pinned Hogan. We just couldn’t believe it. We even did our own re-enactment of the events right after. I became Andre The Giant and my friend became Hulk Hogan. For fifteen minutes we had our own wrestling match in his living room. Goodness prevailed and he pinned me. Hulk Hogan became the unstoppable force once again. That’s all it took for us as kids to feel good about ourselves again.

I also remember how outraged we became when it turned out that The Million Dollar Man Ted DiBiase had bought the victory. We hated him even more after this. I remember how much I always hated Ted DiBiase. He was such a crook waving all his money around. At that time he was the ultimate villain, namely the ultra greedy capitalist. Back then greedy people were bad people. It was as simple as that. Nowadays greedy people are somehow portrayed as good people, but deep inside our hearts we still know they are bad people,

Ever wonder why The Million Dollar man was such a great heel? Why everybody hated him? I think it has a lot to do with the fact that people know deep down what makes a good person versus what makes a really bad person. We are our best as a human race when we make ourselves and people around us laugh, when we do good deeds towards ourselves and our friends. The human soul is at rest when we are good in our hearts. When money becomes our sole purpose in life we suffer. Money brings out greed in us. It always has, and it always will. I think it’s as simple as that. We thrive on being around our friends and our family, we thrive on doing nice things for one another.

Whenever The Million Dollar man told us that everybody had a price, we just hated his guts because I guess deep down inside we knew our spirits could not be bought/broken. And then he had the testicular fortitude to make Hulk Hogan loose his Championship? What a bastard!

Because whether you like Hulk Hogan or not, he was the unbeatable hero to everyone who watched wrestling back then. He was the good that always prevailed. If you say that you didn’t like him back then, you have probably just forgotten. You have forgotten some of your inner child. It’s like saying you didn’t like The Phantom Menace because you thought it was just a tad bit too childish. Come on now, we all know that Star Wars was aimed at the kids. We were all kids when we watched them the first time around, and those of you who say that have forgotten a part of your childhood. As simple as that. (I’ll add the words in my opinion just in case).

Of course, Ted DiBiase was one of the better wrestlers of that era too. He was probably in the top three when it came to talent and work ethic. I remember thinking along those lines even though I was only eight or nine years old. You knew he could wrestle, that just made it even more satisfying when he lost.

I wish I could find someway to finish this column with a clever ending, but I just can’t. This whole thing didn’t take me more than twenty minutes to write. I’ll just leave it at that. I just love it whenever I get a chance to write something that comes from the heart. I guess that’s what makes a great columnist. I am not by the way, I just love wrestling and like to write in general. But considering the fact I can hardly speak Swedish, I still have some more to learn. But we learn as we go along. The day you say you know it all, is the day you stop living. I appreciate all the feedback I've been given. Rome wan't built in a day, so I'll gradually improve...I hope.

02.26.05 - Raw - Batista's turn

2005-02-26T22:53:00.000-12:00

Hello again. Third time I'm using this blog. Today I’ll have review Raw and offer some thoughts on Batista vs Triple H at Wrestlemania. I've been on a trip to Finland, so I haven't seen Smackdown yet. I'm going to watch it now. I'll try to post a review of that show today, or maybe tomorrow. If it's tomorrow then I'll skip the review and just offer some thoughts on it.

I want to point out that I’ll probably write something every other day from now on. Some are columns like this one, and some are shorter and can’t really be considered columns. Be sure to check out the forum, and my blog every now and then at my blog.

Raw Review

Raw starts off with a killer promo, where they have Batista looking like he’s had the advantage over Triple H all along. I’m truly amazed at some of the promo’s the WWE-F deliver again and again. I noticed that they’ve updated much of the footage
during the opening vignette. Hassan has been added, and Dwayne “Rock” Johnson’s footage has been replaced with footage of Batista.

1. Trish Stratus vs Molly Holly vs Victoria

Trish sported a black eye she got during a house show. Whenever Lawler and Ross shoots it like this, she could have gotten it anywhere really. (Maybe she went down, and somehow missed and almost poked her eye out?). Victoria’s new image blows, as she’s getting jiggy with it instead of getting wacko with it. Bring back the crazy Victoria we all love. She and Molly went at it most of the match. Trish won the match after Victoria hit a brutal Widow’s Peak on Molly, but got yanked out of the ring by Trish who got the cover and the win.

Match rating: EE

Fast paced, high energy match.

--- Triple H and Flair were backstage talking about tonight’s contract signing. Batista hasn’t showed up yet and Triple H is worried.

--- Christy Hemme and Candice are interrupted by Trish. Candice laughed at Trish being insulted by Christy, and got slapped for it. Christy speared Trish into a wall.

2. Chris Jericho vs Simon Dean

Simon Dean insulted the audience as Jericho’s music starts. Jericho hit his signature moves and eventually wins with he Walls of Jericho.

Match Rating: E

Simon Dean looked really sloppy. He missed a few spots, which Jericho was none to pleased about. Maybe Dean doesn’t bring anything to the industry anymore. I liked him in ECW, but let’s face it. That was a long time ago. Maybe it’s time to end his gimmick right now?

--- Bischoff and Long talk backstage. Long talked about Batista’s presence at No Way Out and how it indicated that he was bound for Smackdown. Shawn Michaels entered and asked Teddy Long to give Kurt Angle a message. He’s challenging him to a match at Wrestlemania.

3. Kane vs Tyson Tomko

Big guys have better match when big guys wrestling athletic person. I not understand why I cheer for now babyface Kane? Confusing like much.

Match Rating: E

Still not sold on Kane as good guy. Tomko talk with microphone before match, but my writing review of match in bad English make more sense than him.

--- A limousine is shown backstage. Flair thinks it’s Batista, but it’s The Masterpiece Chris Masters. He’s adopted Nature Boy Buddy Rodgers cocky attitude. He introduces himself to The Nature Boy Ric Flair and tells him that he should watch his match. He might learn a thing or two. Flair looks bewildered.

--- Mohammad Hassan and Shawn Daivari drop by for a cup of coffee. As they enter the ring I notice that quite a few in the audience stand up and cheer. The producer quickly change to another camera. I guess that’s what you get when you have a show with educated university students in the crowds. Hassan is once again a hypocrite by unfairly judging people for unfairly judging him.

Chris Benoit comes out and challenges Hassan to a match, just to shut him up. Hassan accepts, just not this week. Benoit attacked him, but Hassan & Daivari attack him. Hassan applies the camel clutch. They leave Benoit in pain.

I noticed someone waving a sign that said Go Home. Go home to what? Michigan? What’s your point? I understand the USA chants, because that implies that the people like their own country. Nothing wrong with that. But by waving a sign that implies that someone of Arab descent go back to their own country? That’s the racism he’s talking about. You just add fuel to his fire. Now I know that it’s a role, but when it comes to racism someone who shows those tendencies are usually sincere. Unfortunately ).

4. Randy Orton & Shawn Michaels vs Edge & Christian

Orton and Christian start things off. At around the fifteen minute mark all men brawled in the ring. Orton went for an RKO but Edge shoved him into the ref. Edge then speared Orton, but got hit with a forearm by Michaels. The showstopper bodyslammed Christian in the middle of the ring, and hit him with an impressive top rope elbow.
He set up the Sweet Chin Music but Edge hit his legs as he stomped the mat.
Edge and Christian grabbed some chairs and went for the Conchairto, but Michaels ducked. Orton punched Edge over the top rope, and Michaels superkicked Christian for the win.

Match rating: EE+

Good tag team match. The best match of the night, but only by default. Some nice nostalgia with the Conchairto, and for the second week in a row Christian and Orton show great chemistry. It’d be great if Orton and Christian could feud, because Christian is probably one of the best, if not the best worker in the WWF-E right now.

WWF-E, here’s a tip from the Eggman. If you want people to like randy Orton better than they do now, have him tone down his body language a notch or two. Everything from his entrance to his Ritalin induced flapping of the arms makes me not like you for pushing him the wrong way. Last week he casually walked out to his music and that gave his persona a whole lot more believability. As of now, Christian gets more sympathy out of me when he walks to the ring.

--- Michaels is about to be interviewed by Maria when Edge spears him from behind. Edge knocks Michaels down and yells at him. Then he spears him again, this time into some electric equipments. He lays down next to him and asks him how it feels, very intensely and scary. Edge is getting weirder and weirder, and I like it a lot.

5. Chris Masters vs Stevie Richards

Masters hit Richards with a shoulder block, a bodyslam, a hit to the face (which apparently broke his nose) and then applied a full nelson for the victory. All in under two minutes.

Match rating: E –

Man, what a stinker of a debut. When compared to Deans debut, this sucked. And that say’s a lot! Once again piss poor judgement on McMahons part. This guy looks like another victim of whatever weird sexual fantasy McMahon has for big guys with no talent. This totally killed the crowd. No one cared. Think of the impromptu match between Tomko and Richards at Unforgiven ´04. That’s not cool.

6. Gene Snitsky vs Shelton Benjamin

Benjamin enters the match more intense than he ever has. He wants to avenge Snitskys chair shot from their previous match. They start the match by exchanging blows. Mid match they went to the floor where Benjamin speared Snitsky. They went back to the ring and Snitsky DDT’d Shelton. He hit him with some kicks and a sidewalk slam for a two count. Shelton fought back with some kicks and punches and a Stinger splash. He got hit in the back though, and Snitsky went outside to get a chair. Shelton countered with a baseball slide. Back inside the ring Shelton got DQ’d by hitting Snitsky with a vicious, and I do mean vicious chair shot
to the head. Shelton raised the chair as he stood on top of Snitsky.

Match rating: EE –

Now, this is a feud I’m looking forward to. Snitsky showed last week that he’s at least willing to add a few more moves to his repertoire. This is also the match I referred to in reviewing the Kane vs Tomko match. Last weeks match surprised me a lot, since it surpassed my expectations. They showed better than average chemistry for two such contrasting styles.

--- Flair and Triple H are in the locker room backstage waiting for Batista. Triple H spills his guts that it was he who got the Smackdown footage shown on Raw, and that it was so hard to get a white limousine with stupid horns to make Batista think it was JBL who tried to run him over. Flair looked flabbergasted upon hearing this, since he’s probably getting a bit senile with age. Then HHH said that Batista isn’t smart enough to make the right decision for himself, so he’s only ensuring that he goes to Smackdown. The cameraman slowly walks backward, and we see Batista standing outside the locker room, listening to the whole conversation. Huge pop for Batista. Too bad they just gave away the ending in advance. To bad they cheapened the whole angle just when you thought they could do no wrong.

Bischoff and Long enter the ring. Batista is introduced as the winner of the 2005 Royal Rumble. (Finally, it only took them three weeks to fully acknowledge that, followed by his music for the cheap, but massive, pop). Both Bischoff and Long convince Dave why he should sign with their respective brand.

HHH then feels left out, and takes to long to remind Batista that this will be historical if he goes to Smackdown. They will truly rule the industry then. Batista tells Hunter he’s known what he would do for a long time. He throws the Raw contract and give s Flair and Hunter a thumbs up, then turned it upside down . The crowd cheered. He then threw Flair out of the ring and Batista bombed Triple H through a table.

The show ended with Batista holding the WCW, er I mean the World Championship belt in his hands.

Show rating: EE

An EE rating means that I think the show was average at best. Quite honestly, it was one of the worst Raw’s since before The Survivor Series. The matches were mostly below par, and the backstage segments were quite boring, except for the Edge/Michaels fight. I would've given it an E+ if it weren't for the Batista storyline. But I would've given it an even higher grade had they not given away the ending beforehand. Even though I knew what the outcome would be, I still had a little doubt as to what he was going to do. They've done a good job of planting little seeds of doubt in my mind, at least a tiny tiny seed. I think the audience would've popped even more at the thumbs down had Batista maybe shown some unseen footage whne he was in the ring.

Raw Eggs (positives) and Bacons (negatives)

Eggs:

THE THUMBS DOWN BY BATISTA: The thumbs down was the moment of the night in my opinion. Great subtle facial expressions by Batista.

RANDY ORTON/CHRISTIAN CHEMISTRY: For the second week in a row, these two guys showed that they have great chemistry. Hopefully they’ll get into a feud before Orton’s rumoured heel turn.

WOMENS TRIPLE THREAT MATCH: I was pleasantly surprised by their match. I had nothing negative to say about it at all. It wasn’t grat, but it wasn’t bad. Actuallt it was the second best match of the night…by default.

SNITSKY/BENJAMIN FEUD BUILD-UP: Could turn out to be a sleeper hit when it comes to Feud of the year voting.

Bacon:

GIVING AWAY THE ENDING BEFOREHAND: It figures, fifteen minutes before the storyline of the year comes to fruition, they somehow manage to deflate many months of excellent work.

THE END SHOT: To me, it totally ruined the expected moment of seeing Batista finally raise the belt at Wrestlemania. Now I know what it’ll look like. I know It’ll look awesome, but then it will have been the second time. Not that truly magical first moment.

CHRIS MASTERS DEBUT: He’s no masterpiece. He’s more the bad crayon sketch your three year old sister gave you for christmas. I know it’s easy to pick on guys that fit into the new breed of WWF-E wrestlers where looks go before talent, but he really looked awful. No charisma and no talent at all. But I don’t blame Masters though, because If I were in his shoes I’d do exactly the same thing. If the WWE-E said to me,

WWF-E Hey, we like your look and your personality. Want to wrestle for us on live tv every week? We’ll pay you a lot.

ME: But I don’t know how to wrestle.

WWF-E: That’s ok. We’ll cover that up by having our announcers call you awesome over and over again.

ME: But…

WWF-E: Well it’s settled then.

ME: But…

WWF-E: Get out of my office you filthy puke.

ME: Yes Mrs. McMahon.

The responsibility ultimately falls on the WWF-E. They are the ones calling the shots. Blame them for making bad decisions, not the wrestlers.

Thanks for reading.

02.21.05 - No Way Out Review

2005-02-21T06:45:00.000-12:00

Wow! Did No Way Out deliver or what? Definitely worth my money! Judging by this PPV, I'll order every single PPV the rest of the year. A pure classic!

Not.

Rey Mysterio & Eddie Guerrero defeated The Bashams.
A very good opening match. It surpassed my expectations. My initial reaction upon hearing Mysterios music was: Oh great, they couldn’t have opened the show with another match? The lyrical poetry of “Who’s that jumping up the sky” has opened Smackdown the last year and a half now. I got a sense of horrible deja-vu. Can’t say I was looking forward to this very much. But I was pleasantly surprised by the match. Some fun spots with Eddie Guerrero tying the tagropes together, so he got some extra length when it came to tagging Mysterio. Unfortunately the ref noticed it. Good finish to the match. At first Eddie grabbed one of the belt to bring it in to the ring with im. Mysterio objected and didn't want Eddie to cheat at first. The Bashams switched places in the ring, but Eddie saw it. He went to the top roped and just flipped to the mat. The Basham in the ring thought he missed a frog splash. When the referee was occupied, Rey tossed the belt to Guerrero. Eddie then hit whichever Basham was in the ring in the head with it and Eddie scored the pin. Pretty average first half, but a very good second half.

Match rating: EEE -

First time I can remember that the tag team belts changed hands at a PPV. I predicted The Bashams, and on any other night I would've been dissapointed but not tonight. I guess this will lead to a mini-feud with Mysterio and Guerrero? Because he is turning heel right? Or maybe, the WWE realises what everyone else realises: You can't turn Eddie heel.

---Next was a backstage segment between Teddy Long and Carlito. Triple C brought a woman who pretended to be married to someone on the board of directors. She said she was impressed with what she'd seen so far. A funny bit when Long said: Fo shizzle' (I can't spell it) and Carlito said: Shizzle and all that Chisel stuff. Made me laugh.

At this point the PPV was above my expectations. Next came the diva thing. I can’t believe what I am about to write, but this time around the Diva stuff actually didn’t make me wanna fast forward to the next match. Now, when it comes to this whole diva stuff, I’d like to point out that I dislike almost every part of it. But by having Dawn Marie and Torrie Wilson do commentary next to Cole & Tazz, it did something that I’ve been missing from Smackdown ever since around when Heyman was removed. It provided character development. At least now we got to hear the personalities of Dawn and Torrie. Sure, Torrie is still as charismatic as a fridge and Dawn Marie is an abysmal actor at best, but at least they said something. It gave their characters a bit of life. And at least now I know what their names are.

Booker T defeats Heidenreich via DQ.
This match totally killed the crowd. A few punches thrown by Heidenreich, a few kicks by and a Spinaroonie by Booker T. And a few lame elbows by both men. Nothing much. Heidenreich hit Booker with a chair to the throat. The refree rang the bell.

Match rating: E

Whatever momentum the WWE had gained with the opening tag match, and to a certain degree the Diva segment, (I can't believe I just typed that) was vertainly lost by the time this match was over.

---Awesome backstage segment after the match. First, by having Hass, Holly & Hotty (HHH?) congratulating Eddie & Rey on their victory it does the same thing to these underused wrestlers as it does for the divas. It gives them personalities. It doesn’t have to be much, but by having them for just a few seconds really gives them so much more depth.

Then having Eddie Guerrero verbally pass the torch to Cena was awesome. His speech on what it means to headline Wrestlemania to wrestlers was one of the things I remember most from this PPV. And the applause heard from the audience showed that they were touched by his speech.

Chavo Guerrero over Funaki, Spike Dudley, Shannon Moore, Akio and The Texas Tornado Paul London.
My oh my, what a total waste of 9 minutes. To many eliminations in the first 4 minutes, and none of them believable at all. They didn't mean anything. Although it was a decent effort up until Akio somehow gets eliminated by not making it to his feet at the count of ten. Since when has someone ever been eliminated that way? That left London and Guerrero. London started a comeback by yelling stuff, but got no response whatsoever. Chavo then won with a simple rollup while grabbing the ropes. Really lousy booking.

Match rating: EE -

The crowd was eerily silent for this match. Not one of the wrestlers got a reaction when they entered the arena. London was dressed like the Texas Tornado, or maybe the Ultimate Warrior...Pretty weird stuff. As I noted in my preview, it's more of putting down the Cruiserweights now so everyone adapts to the new style.

Next up is part two of the Rookie Diva segment. Forget what I wrote earlier. This time around, it seemed like a total waste of time. No reaction from the crowd whatsoever. I fast forwarded.

--- A good interview by JBL backstage. He's really pushing that he's some kind of wrestling god. Intense promo that had me interested, until they zoomed in on his face. By then you could see he was reading his promo off screen. That made me think, how often has he been reading off screen?

Undertaker defeated Luther Reigns.
Blah blah blah. How do they do it? How do they manage to kill a guys momentum so fast? Your typical Undertaker match where he buries his opponents. Not much to tell really.

Match rating: E -

Reigns showed no interest whatsoever in this match. Jindrak at least controlled part of his match with Taker on Smackdown. Crowd was dead silent yet again when Taker did his post-match tongue thing.

--- Joy Giovanni won a swimsuit competition. Forgive me for writing that I thought maybe Divas had a place in wrestling earlier. Blah blah blah.

John Cena defeated Kurt Angle
The best match of the night. It even woke up the crowd who had really been quiet all night.
Basic stuff to begin with, a lot of mat holds. Some stuff outside as Cena clotheslined Angle on to the announcers' table. Good back and forth action, with Cena scoring some near falls. At around the ten minute mark Angle avoided an FU. Angle applied the Anklelock which Cena kicked out of. Impressively, Cena went to the top rope and hit a legdrop on to Angles neck. It's been a while since I saw Cena work the top rope. (It's also been a long times since Cena's had a good opponent to wrestle). Cena hit an FU and almost won the match, but Angle kicked out. Angle then worked Cenas ankle for a few minutes. Cena looked like he was a beat man, but reversed an Anklelock into an FU and scored the pin. Pretty mixed reaction from the crowd, but the majority of them were members of the chain gang.

Match rating: EEE

No interference from Michaels, which makes sense since Cena needed to win this match cleanly.
IMO Cena needs some work in the ring, but he's winning me over more and more with his matches against Angle and Booker T last week. I still think that JBL should retain the title at Wrestlemania and have Cena chase the belt for a few months. That would breathe new life into Smackdowns man event scene.

JBL defeats The Big Show
A pretty average big man match. A lot of punches and headbutts and kicks. Both men bled a lot, but it wasn't really motivated. The best part of this match was the end. Although very overbooked it was really entertaining. Big Show chokeslammed JBL through the ring, leaving him in a bloody mess. Show then yanked open the cage door, and stepped on to the arena floor. The crowd was stunned, probably not even sure if they wanted Big Show to win. He raised his hands and the announcer said: Here is your winner, and still WWE Champion. JBL!

The replay showed JBL crawling to the floor from underneath the ring. I laughed at that bit.
JBL managed to win yet again.

Match rating: EE +

After the match the ring was raised. Big Show hit JBL, and Orlando Jordan and The Bashmans stormed the ring. Cue Batistas music, a huge pop and Batista coming to the aid of the Big Show.
Batista clears the ring. A bloodied JBL is intercepted by Cena who spinebustered the champ through some monitors. The show ended with Cena and Batista giving each other intense stares.

PPV rating: EE -
No Way Out was in my opinion pretty bad. It was average at best, and it sucked on many occasions. It was saved somewhat by the opening tag bout, Angle vs Cena and the end of the Cage match. But those moments are no way near the showstealers that TNA bring us. Every single TNA PPV has had at least one match that was worth the purchase alone. No Way Out had none of those matches.

I went 3 for 2 in my predictions for No Way Out.

Since I didn't know if Booker T vs Heidenreich was official, I decided not to predict that. I was wrong in thinking that The Bashams would retain, and that Akio would win the Cruiserweight belt. I wasn't that far off on Akio, but nonetheless I was wrong.

---Thanks for reading again. I am no where near being a good columnist, but hopefully I'll get there some day. I'm enjoying it so far.

02.20.05 - No Way Out Predictions

2005-02-20T10:41:00.000-12:00

Welcome to my Wrestling column. Hopefully I'll be able to update this as often as I can. I will try to give you a personal and foreign view on the American wrestling scene. Today its sunday, and No Way Out is just a few hours away.

I live in Sweden, where they show Raw and Smackdown on a three week delay. That sucks big time. And it's edited versions of both shows. Thankfully I have both TSN and Sky Sports/Sky Box Office at work. And the guys working night usually records it for me. So I will post reviews and thoughts on Raw, Smackdown and PPV's a day later than most columnists on the internet do. But they say those who wait for something good...well, they wait to long.

I don't know if that's an english saying, but we say something along the lines here in sweden. I'd like to point out that I am swedish so take my english for what it is. Also, I enjoy wrestling very much. I'm not your typical smartass Internet know-it-all who knows everything that goes on backstage. I try to enjoy watching wrestling for what it is. I still mark out sometimes because I don't read the spoilers beforehand.

Anyway, enough about me, lets get on with it.

My No Way Out 2005 predictions:

Funaki vs. Akio vs. Chavo Guerrero vs. Paul London vs. Shannon Moore vs. Spike Dudley (WWE Cruiserweight Title): You mean to tell me there's still a cruiserweight division on Smackdown? well who would've figured? Me, I love cruiserweights. That's a big reason I watch Smackdown. Or used to anyway. I don't know what beef McMahon has with cruiserweights, but It's obvious someone did something to him. Maybe a painful childhood memory? Whatever it is I'm thankful I get to see them. Hopefully it will be a "Lets-see-how-many-ways-Paul-London-can- kill-himself-bumpfest."... The outcome of the match? Hmm. I would love for London to end up the champion, but It'd be bigger if he captured it at Wrestlemania. So I'll predict a heel champion. I'll go out on a limb and pick Akio, because he and London have had some good matches on Velocity. But, I am aware that there are many posts that say: MAJOR SPOILER for No Way Out. I don't read spoilers beforehand so. But I guess the Dudleys have to come back someday. If they do, I guess it's only logical that they help their brother... But my pick for now is Akio.

The Basham Brothers vs. Rey Mysterio & Eddie Guerrero (Smackdown Tag Titles):
Please, don't have Eddie Guerrero turn heel! Please! Remember the chants he got at the Rumble? It's like Benoit at the '03 Rumble. Eddie is by far the most over wrestler on Smackdown. It's been rumored that he will turn heel in this match, or at least lay the groundworks for an eventual turn at WM. On to the match, I pick: the Bashams will retain. I like the Bashams for the simple reason that they are an actual tag-team. Not just two random wrestlers put together. Don't know how, but the Bashams will win. Maybe from outside interference, which somehow Eddie will miss and think Mysterio caused it...something...Did I mention my english isn't the best?

Undertaker vs. Luther Reigns: Wow! Luther Reigns has rally gotten my attention the last two weeks. After that intense promo two weeks ago, I dig the man. But then wwe-creative fucks up as usual and have him wimp out after being scared by the dead man. Talk about killing someones momentum. But that's more standard than unusual when it comes to the WWE.
My pick...who else? I can't remember the last time when Taker was pinned cleanly.

(Number One Contenders' Match) John Cena vs. Kurt Angle: This could be the match of the night. But first I must point out that it hurts me to see Angle in such obvious pain. He's always gesturing like his arm is numb during matches. His neck must be killing him. I hope it's just that bad because Angle is postponing surgery. I hope surgery will fix that, and that it's not permanent. I know that Cena will win this match. Well I don't know that, but since it's obvious that they are going for an Angle-Michaels...angle? come Wrestlemania, it all points to Cena winning this match. My pick: Cena, with help from The Showstoppa'.

JBL vs. Big Show (WWE Title – Barbed Wire Steel Cage) : So, Batista will be at No Way Out. In what capacity I don't know, but you all probably know. It must be boring knowing beforehand by reading the spoilers? Try to relax a bit, and enjoy wrestling for what it is. Sports Entertainment! Just kidding, I hate that name too. Don't you just hate the World Wildlife Fund for winning back the rights to THEIR own name? I know it's for a good cause, and they were first. But a part of me feels like they've stolen a big part of my childhood. I't used to be THE federation. What the world was watching...

Oh yeah, the cage match. Honestly, this match just doesn't do it for me. And I LOVE cage matches. I love the mystique of the cage matches. I always have since watching Hogan battle Orndorff on an episode of Saturdays Night Main Event when I was very little. Whenever there's a cage match looming on the horizon I tend to enjoy it more than an average match. But I don't know about this match. Something just isn't clicking. Maybe it's the participants. I have nothing against JBL or the Big Show. I like them. They are by no means my favourite rasslers, but they aren't bad or anything like that. JBL has really carried Smackdown on his shoulders the last couple of months, and The Big Show since hi's return has looked really good. BUt them together? I actually fault The Big Show for this. I know JBL is a brawler and a bleeder. But Big Show and his head-butts? I don't know. I realize this has nothing to do with the match itself, so I'll just get on with it... My pick: JBL. Having him lose the belt to The Big Show would ruin any kind of momentum (if any) Smackdown has. I'm not even sure I think it's such a good idea to have Cena (if he wins tonight) beat JBL at Wrestlemania. I think there is more interest if Cena has to chase the belt for a while. Just like they should have kept Savage chasing Flair in '92 a bit longer. And IMHO, I like JBL as a champ better than Cena right now. But in a few months it might be another story.

If Cena can become the Cena that delivered a kick-ass promo to Angles face on Smackdown, then a few months of that attitude will make Cena a kick-ass babyface champ. Gay Michael Cole "jokes" (and I use that term loosely) isn't even funny. It's just rednecky... The world has changed since the eighties. Deal with it. Life moves on.

Hopefully there will be a few more matches added to the card. It's been rumored (or maybe even confirmed) that Booker T will face Heiden-Heidenreich. I won't speculate on that becuse I don't know if it will even happen.

A thought on the Royal Rumble finish.

I can’t for the love of Skittles™ understand how they could possibly run out of time. It’s the WWF-E we’re talking about. They’ve been in the PPV business for 20+ years. They should’ve planned it out. It boggles the mind how they actually mess up things like this. The Rumble match would’ve been truly classic had Batista & Cena interacted more than a botched FU and a Batista Bomb. A big pile of bacon to the WWF-E.

Something else...

*Anyone notice that Triple H is now also a five time, five time, five time, five time, five time WCW Champion?

* Daivari and Hassan. I can’t help it, but I secretly cheer these guys on. Anyone with an open eye can see that Arab-americans are going through rough times these days. Ever been to an airport lately? I swear I could see an Arabic-looking aisle at customs last time I visited. Khosrow is irritating the hell out of me, but I love hearing him speak in his native language. I have no idea what he’s saying, and I don’t want to know. I fantasise that he insults the guy in the front row’s grandmother, or tells the world he likes Ravioli. Whatever he says, keep it foreign. I don’t want to know. It adds to the “mystique”. I also loved it when he totally DESTROYED J.R and Lawler a couple of weeks ago by saying: “We are as American as apple-pie…”

*“Love it or leave it” That’s fascism. Pure fascism. Believe me, it is…

TNA Against All Odds Quick recap-review:

Primetime Elix Skipper vs. Petey Williams EE

Michael Shane & Kazarian vs. BG James & Jeff Hammond
E

Dustin Rhodes vs. Raven
E

A.M.W. vs. Kid Kash & Lance Hoyt
EE +

Abyss vs. Jeff Hardy
EE

Team Canada vs DDP & Monty Brown
EE

AJ Styles vs Christopher Daniels
EEEE

Jeff Jarret vs Kevin Nash
EE +

Overall grade:
EEE –

How I grade matches:

= Stinker
E = Below average match
EE = Average match
EEE = Very good match
EEEE = Great match
EEEEE = Classic Match

Thank's for reading. I will be back tomorrow with my No Way Out Review. This thing is all new to me, so I'll probably change the format once in a while, se what feels best.

Yours truly, The Eggman