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Blogs

Mr Wrestling X on WWE

The January Ryback situation.

WWE recently announced that Ryback will receive a title shot (that was originally scheduled for the TLC PPV) on the January 7th episode of Raw. Whether this goes ahead or not, is irrelevant, because there can be only one outcome - CM Punk remains WWE Champion and goes into Royal Rumble to face The Rock.   So where does leave Ryback, arguably WWE's breakout star of 2012? Well, there is still The Shield to consider, the group of NXT outsiders that have made a point of laying waste to Ryback in
Great Lucha

Matches from last year

I'm hopeless at keeping up to date with lucha, so I thought I'd throw out some thoughts on what I watched over the holidays.   Apparently, CMLL had an awful year business-wise. Personally I enjoyed the in-ring product more than I have in years.   Virus vs. Fuego, 10/1 was an excellent, old-school style title match. The matwork wasn't as fluid as classic lucha, but it was similar to IWRG matwork in that both guys seemed to be laying down a challenge. I thought Fuego's bridging spots were
Great Lucha

Emilio Charles, Jr vs. Atlantis

Emilio Charles, Jr vs. Atlantis, NWA World Middleweight Championship, 8/14/92   Emilio Charles, Jr was one of the first luchadores I became a fan of. In fact, it was Dean or one of the other playa's review of the 12/89 Charles/Dandy title match that sparked my interest in lucha in the first place. After I saw that match, I tracked down the rest of their '89 feud, kick starting one of the more satisfying love affairs with any style in my wrestling fandom history. I was shocked to hear of his p
Definitive 2000-2009

December 2007

So I finally finished* 2007 PPV's and big shows. Now I'm finishing 2007 TV surprisingly quick.   So my copy of ROH Unscripted III from 12.1.07 is unwatchable so I had to skip it for now and am actively looking for another source.   TNA Turning Point 12.2.07   Such a bad PPV. The tables match opener was terrible despite having MCMG's and Black Machismo involved. This just strengthened my case that Team 3-D does and has always sucked. Johnny Devine is right there with them.   The K
Definitive 2000-2009

November 2007

Glory By Honor VI: Night 1   Out of the nine matches on the card, I found four to be standard for ROH. Nothing bad, nothing great, but everything was fine.   The top of the class trophy match between Ernie Osiris and Mitch Franklin wasn't good, but I didn't expect more. The other below average was Hero v. McGuinness since Nigel was working hurt. I just think they shouldn't have had the match at all.   The tag titles match (Briscoes v. No Remorse Corps), The Austin Aries v. Danielson
Definitive 2000-2009

October 2007

ROH Survival of the Fittest 10-19-2007   This wasn't a bad show, but compared to the previous three Surivival of the Fittest shows, this was disappointing. The qualifying matches were full of debuting wrestlers such as Karl Anderson, TJ Perkins (debut outside of wrestling as Puma), Human Tornado, and Tony Kozina which, to me didn't make much sense being that it was a tournament designed to elevate full-time talent. None of the above really were impressive although none were outright awful e
Definitive 2000-2009

2000 Wrap-Up/2007 Update

Notes on the last few matches from 2000 that didn't make final cuts.   Triple H v. Chris Benoit - Non-Title Match - WWE Smackdown 2.3.00   Cool that it is Benoit's first official match in the WWE, but this is short and nothing special compared to many other matches within the year.   HHH v. Chris Jericho - RAW 6.12.00   These two had better matches against one another within the year. It's heated and a fun pop with the temporary title change, but nothing "best of" about it.   HHH
Definitive 2000-2009

2000 Post: Part 2

These are all matches from 2000 that were cut after all viewing for the promotions were completed and the reasons why.   ECW   Super Crazy v. Tajiri - Mexican Death Match - ECW on TNN 1.15.00   I went over this in my last post.   CW Anderson v. Tommy Dreamer - I Quit Match 1.7.01   I know this was from the year 2001, but since ECW only ran three shows before going out of business, I went ahead and finished it up. This is actually the only match from 2001 ECW that I thought wort
Definitive 2000-2009

2000 Post: Part 1

After I finalized my North American List for 2000, I thought it would be interesting to look in the Wrestling Observer and see if any matches Dave rated * * * * or higher were missing from my list. Here's what I found.   HHH v. Mick Foley (WWE, 2/27, Hartford) ****1/2   I am a Mick Foley fan, but as much as he fights against the label of "glorified stuntman" it seems that this decade is not something he'd like to reference as part of any kind of defense.   Arguably, the best matches of
Definitive 2000-2009

Synopsis of recent viewing

As of today, I'm about 1/3 of the way through TNA's October 2007 PPV offering, Bound for Glory. Not much in the way of good so far and most of the focus has been on Karen and Kurt Angle's marriage. It doesn't do anything for me in terms of good matches, but man is Karen Angle one beautiful woman.   In WWE land it's Cyber Sunday that is up next. John Cena had just been injured and so the title picture shifted to Randy Orton and Triple H. At No Mercy, HHH won the title from Orton (who was g
Definitive 2000-2009

Modus Operandi

I've always wanted to do, or participate in a "Best of" something in regards to wrestling. The reason(s) I had not is due to lack of time, footage, knowledge, etc (excluding two 80's DVDVR projects I simply had to do). After realizing if I were to do something in that regard myself, then I wouldn't have to deal with any deadlines and could complete it at my own pace. This is what has brought me here, to the decade of the 2000's. I chose it for many reasons which include:   * I've seen 80
Pizza & Piledrivers

WWE SUMMERSLAM (8/19/12)

Santino Marella© Vs. Antonio Cesaro: ★ ¾ Dolph Ziggler Vs. Chris Jericho: ★ ★ ½ Daniel Bryan Vs. Kane: ★ ¾ The Miz© Vs. Rey Mysterio: ★ ★ Sheamus© Vs. Alberto Del Rio: ★ ★ ¾ Kofi Kingston & R-Truth© Vs. The Prime Time Players: ★ ★ ★ ¼ C.M. Punk© Vs. John Cena Vs. The Big Show: ★ ★ ★ ½ Brock Lesnar Vs. Triple H: ★ ★ ★ ★   Cesaro is as strong as an ox & I'm glad to see him win some gold in WWE. The match was built around the Cobra spot, which was kind of ruined by Cesaro k
Pizza & Piledrivers

Why I Watch

I'm going to be completely honest: WWE Monday Night RAW sucks. It's bad television. It has been that way for at least a year, sans one or two moments, which don't make up for the ridiculous amount of time given to us that is just terrible programming but I would argue it has been that way since about 2005.   That being said, the one constant question that comes up over the years is "if it sucks, why do you watch it?" and then people/posters try to make comparisons to other television shows li
Great Lucha

Random CMLL part two

Emilio Charles Jr. vs. Dr. Wagner Jr. (CMLL 2/20/98)   This was rudo contra rudo from what I could gather, but since Emilio was about to turn it was set up to garner him face heat. Broken down Emilio had his moments (as we'll see later), but a match this length was beyond him. He kind of struggled in that '93 hair match against Dandy let alone in a singles match five years later, and while I like Wagner he wasn't a good enough worker to make this interesting. They did all the things you're su
Great Lucha

Random CMLL

Mascara Año 2000, Fuerza Guerrera y Herodes vs. MS-1, El Dandy y Astro de Oro, circa '89   For some reason El Dandy and MS-1 were on the same side here. That didn't last long. Match was pretty much an angle to set up Dandy vs. MS-1 and Mascara Año 2000 vs. Astro de Oro matches. Wouldn't mind seeing that Dandy/MS-1 match if it ever took place.   Satanico, Apolo Dantes y Dr.Wagner Jr vs. The Head Hunters y Emilio Charles Jr., circa '98   This was a lot of fun. Satanico was sporting a ski
Great Lucha

Ultraman, Stuka & Kung Fu vs. Herodes, Masakre & El Satanico

Ultraman, Stuka & Kung Fu vs. Herodes, Masakre & El Satanico, Arena Coliseo 80s   This seemed like an exciting match on paper, but it was very much a houseshow match. That wasn't so bad, however, as there were a couple of good laughs. The first half of the match featured a bunch of physical comedy designed to make the rudos look foolish while the second half was a beatdown where the technicos paid for their cheekiness. I love how rudos from this generation could switch from comedy to
Great Lucha

La Fiera vs. Babe Face

La Fiera vs. Babe Face, hair vs. hair, 8/15/86   This was a good match. It didn't really deliver like a great hair match does, but still worth a look.   The first time I watched it I thought the first two falls were a bit innocuous looking. I always get defensive when people say the first two falls in lucha are nothing falls as most of the time I think they work within the rhythm of a lucha libre match, but with these 80s matches the crowds are so poorly mic'ed that it's difficult to get a
Great Lucha

El Hijo del Santo vs. El Hijo del Solitario vs. Angel Blanco Jr.

El Hijo del Santo vs. El Hijo del Solitario vs. Angel Blanco Jr., Triangular de la Muerte, 3/31/12   There are about three or four handhelds of this available on youtube. The handheld with the best angle is broken down into half a dozen parts. It's also the most complete, from entrances to post match unmasking and celebrations. A couple of the other versions are clipped.   This was fairly typical for a Triangular de la Muerte match. As soon as a three-way match was announced I had an inkli
Great Lucha

El Hijo del Santo & Villano IV vs. El Hijo del Solitario & Angel Blanco Jr., the rematch

El Hijo del Santo & Villano IV vs. El Hijo del Solitario & Angel Blanco Jr., Todo X El Todo La Venganza, 3/23/12   This was nowhere near as good as their first match, but as the middle part in the feud it was still pretty good.   The February tag defied a lot of lucha libre conventions, whereas this was more along the lines of a traditional pre-apuestas match. The rudos milled about drawing heat while the technicos bled, then they switched roles. The rudos didn't care so much abou
Great Lucha

Virus vs. Guerrero Maya Jr.

Virus vs. Guerrero Maya Jr., CMLL World Super Lightweight Championship, 7/6/11   This was a great match. It was almost assuredly the Match of the Year for 2011 and hasn't been topped since.   The early part of the match was a clinic from Virus. There's plenty of matwork where you get a more even contribution from both participants, be it Navarro and Solar, Casas and Panther or even Virus and Valiente, but in terms of carrying a guy this had as much rhythm as any of those match-ups and was
Great Lucha

Blue Panther vs. Negro Casas, hair vs hair

Blue Panther vs. Negro Casas, hair vs hair, CMLL 3/2/12   This was the match that pretty much everyone expected it would be. I won't go into too much detail about it as I assume everyone's seen it by now, but I'll share a few thoughts:   There wasn't any blood and it wasn't a hair match. You're not going to see blood at Arena Mexico, but it's still worth mentioning that it wasn't a hair match. The workers lost their hair but that was about all it had in common with classic lucha. It was a
Great Lucha

Angel Blanco Jr./El Hijo del Solitario vs. El Hijo Del Santo/Villano IV

Angel Blanco Jr./El Hijo del Solitario vs. El Hijo Del Santo/Villano IV, TXT 2/25/12   This was an excellent match and a vintage Santo brawl. I guess the surprising thing about that is that Santo didn't feature prominently. With the focus squarely on El Hijo del Solitario and Villano IV and an excellent performance from Angel Blanco Jr, Santo was left to do his bits. Santo being Santo it was all very crowd pleasing.   The most outstanding thing about the match was the amount of blood. All
Great Lucha

February 2012

Blue Panther vs. Negro Casas, lightning match, CMLL 1/27/12   -- for a lightning match this was extremely good. Ten minutes can either be too short or too long in a lightning match, and many workers struggle to deliver something substantial, but this was as close to a proper match as you'll get with this stip. It wasn't perfect as they couldn't transition into the finish very well and the finish itself was contrived, but what shone through was how good these guys are at keeping things interes

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