Superstar Sleeze

CM Punk vs Rey Mysterio - Extreme Rules 2010 CM Punk's Hair Only I hate one-sided American wager matches. Why isn't this Mask vs Hair? At Mania, if Rey lost he would have to join SES. At Over The Limit (Under Arrest), it was SES vs Hair, which is better but come on we want a Mask vs Hair Match. I enjoyed the Mania match and naturally with more time this is better, but they didn't exactly knock it out of the park either. I was a little bummed they went straight to the heat segment with Punk just beating down Mysterio. You get some hope spots here and there like Rey Rey rolling through his bellyflop bump to the floor. Punk stymies this with a big powerslam in the ring and then Rey takes his bellyflop bump. Typical grinding heat segment focused on the ribs. Punk does the Eddie senton splash and a Gory Special, which I dug. Punk goes for G2S and it is finish run time. Rey blows an armdrag to send Punk into the ropes. Serena grabs Rey's foot. The ref tosses the SES. This is textbook Pro Wrestling 101, just nothing mind-blowing here. I thought this next part was the best part of the match. Riding the wave of momentum following the SES being kicked out, Rey hits a wicked baseball slide to the back of Punk's neck and then a Asai Moonsault. That's what I am talking about! Shine on you, crazy diamond! Drops the Dime for a two count, good nearfall. Punk hits an anti-airRey dropkick to the bad ribs. G2S vs 619 counters. 619 is the one that connects first. A Masked Man distracts the ref with a chair and while the ref is tending to the chair, the Masked Man (later revealed to be a shaven Joey Mercury) hits a reverse powerbomb on Rey. Punk collects Rey and hits the Go 2 Sleep to win the match and save his hair. Perfectly serviceable match with a great finish to set up the grand finale at the next PPV. To me, it just never got to that next level. Lets see what they have in store for the blowoff. ***1/2

CM Punk vs Rey Mysterio - WrestleMania XXVI "With integrity & sobriety for all." - CM Punk, I remember this match being way too short, but hot damn if they don't pack a lot of goodness in this match. They do a great job establishing the numbers game early with the Straight Edge Society around the ring, but Mysterio always being one step ahead of Punk. Punk slams him into the steps for a good transition. Great Punk counters into nearfalls such as the Rey armdrag that is turned into a powerslam. Great dueling finisher run up with the 619 vs G2S. Rey sends Punk into Gallows and frees him up for the 619 and Drop A Dime. Hyper-compressed, but there is definitely chemistry and with more time to flesh out the match a great match is in them. ***

Triple H vs Sheamus - WrestleMania XXVI I don't know why I have always been intrigued by this match. It was a very ho hum match with a shitty finish. Sheamus had just dropped the championship after that out of nowhere win in December of 2009. This program signaled that he would be staying in the main event. Lots of rookie vs veteran and career-making victory vs career-destroying loss on commentary. The match itself was nothing great. A little disrespect early turned into a pretty respectable match. HHH went for Pedigree early and a Figure-4 to pop the crowd. Sheamus threw into the steps. Grinds on HHH. HHH hits his usual comeback moves: High Knee, Facebuster, Spinebuster. Sheamus mixes in his big spots. Brogue Kick->kick out got a decent HHH chant going. Sheamus hits another Brogue, but HHH no sells it and hits a Pedigree. HHH sucks. Skip this match.

Takahiro Oba & Takeshi Ono vs Kengo Mashimo & Manabu Suraga - FUTEN 5/30/10 This won Japanese Match of the Year according to polling from Ditch. I am not super familiar with any of these guys. Mashimo has a very distinctive look so I know I have seen him in the past. I have seen Ono in at least one match against Ikeda. First Half: Definitely more comedy than in BattlArts here. Oba brings the laughs. Ono has the MMA gimmick but plays along with Oba's antics. Everybody looked very solid. This is shot similarly to BatBat so very tight. I thought Oba's toehold on Suraga was good when he tried for a chokehold. Ono/Oba busted out a Spike Piledriver on Mashimo. Love the Spike Piledriver. They do a fun spot where Oba & Ono are both trapped in armbars, but Oba scoots over and kicks Sugara in the head to the break the hold. I like Mashimo throwing Oba into Ono when head him in a chokehold. I am liking individual spots, but do not feel a sense of an overarching narrative. Second Half: I should have guessed Oba would use an Airplane Spin it fits his character very well. I cant take Oba seriously. I think that is the point because the crowd is always giggling when he is doing shit, but I thought it was to the detriment of the match. Ono gets a hot tag but is immediately eating German Suplexes, one nasty one into the buckles. Suruga gets a Scorpion Deathlock but Oba saves in "hilarious" fashion. Mashimo keeps Oba at bay while the shooters shoot. It was great last 3-4 minutes of stand up where they did a great job incorporating exhaustion in their selling and offense. I just couldn't bring myself to get super invested because I didnt know who they were and they did not establishing why I should care about them in the beginning of the match. I loved all the BattlArts from 2008 and there has been some great FUTEN from 2010, but I think this is a bit overrated. Oba's comedy hurt the match more than it helped it. It is a great collection of spots and a good finish run, but not a great complete match. ***1/2

Fujita Jr Hayato vs Kenny Omega - NJPW BOSJ 2010 Not even Omega's stupid antics could ruin the glory of Fujita Jr Hayato. I will admit that I did flip off Kenny Omega on the computer screen when he kicked out at one from Fujita's classic uppercut knee. What an ass! This is shot like it is straight out of FUTEN, which badly exposes Omega, but makes Fujita look like a pro. Fujita was absolutely drilling Omega with strikes and those throws hot damn. I will say Omega wrestled 50% of the match pretty straight throwing back some hard strikes. But then other 50% was his classic gymnastics bullshit. Hayato actually accommodated him instead of saying Fuck You and kicking him in the head. There was a glorious Scissors Kick from Fujita that totally blew Omega away. Hayato was just hurling his body at Omega. I am so glad he won by Uppercut Knee and showed up Kenny Omega. Great Hayato performance. ***1/2

I was live at last night's show in Worcester, MA. Great match like you all said. How was the crowd? I was in a heavily pro-Jeff Hardy section. People actually booed Bryan, kids were chanting No! and one girl said she did not like Bryan. There were a lot of Jeff Hardy chants throughout the arena. The YES! did not feel as explosive as it did in Providence last month (Styles/Bryan vs Rusev Day). Chinks in the armor? I popped huge for the finish because the prospect of Joe vs Bryan is so mouth-watering.

Kurt Angle vs Jeff Hardy - TNA Victory Road 2012 For the record, Angle is a heel because his son is a big Jeff Hardy fan & Kurt doesn't approve of his lifestyle. This is Jeff Harry's redemption tour after the previous years debacle against Sting. Pretty basic match. Angle is a heel and gets outwrestled. I get the psychology but don't agree with it. Angle uses a hard elbow & eyerake to control. Hardy keeps him off balance with head scissors and baseball slide. Transition suck as expected. Only good one is Hardy going into railing hard leads to a short,tepid heat segment. The finish run is just them blending their spots together. Each one hits a spot, misses their follow up spot and the opponent takes over. I do appreciate that they had decency to at least put a missed spot in the middle to break up the My turn, your turn. I thought they did a great job to make Jeff earn the Swanson Bomb. It took him three tries to hit it and that's where the drama was. I appreciate that over 8 million Anklelocks. Hardy nails the 3rd one and I mean nails it. Finish is lame Angle gets an Oklahoma Roll and grabs ropes. The Swanson Bomb was built to be a game ended but Angle still had the wherewithal to get a pin out of it. Really undercuts the previous work. Super basic match. It is Angle & Hardy doing their spots. It was decent.

Kurt Angle vs Jeff Hardy vs TNA No Surrender 2010 I was intrigued by this match because it is a 30 minute draw. I have no idea what these two could do to possibly fill 30 minutes. Conventional thought is to go long with either an extended shine or extended felling out process and a long heat segment, but with these who knows. Neither is a ring general or regarded as a PHD wrestling psychologist. A little context going into the match both wrestlers are babyfaces. This is the semi-finals of the TNA World Championship Tournament. Abyss beat the living shit out of RVD as part of the Immortal storyline to force the vacancy. This also being face vs face added to the intrigue. First 20 minutes of the match: I was not let down. Totally divergent structure. They were hitting finishers SEVEN minutes into a THIRTY minute match. God bless them! Transitions in this match were of course piss poor, but there were some great spots. I love when wrestlers that normally don't powerbomb, powerbomb. Don't ask me why but I mark out for that. Angle hits a WICKED POWERBOMB on Hardy about 2-3 minutes into the match to take command. Like I said they were switching off at will. They were throwing out their set up spots. Hardy hit a Twist of Fate, missed the Swanton and Angle hit an Olympic Slam. SEVEN MINUTES INTO THE MATCH! WOW! Hardy hit a tremendous Swanton to the outside. Great spot. They do a good job milking it, but bothers me that Angle hits the next move. Angle misses the Moonsault. At least they are missing moves. That helps. Hardy hits a Swanton 1-2-NO! SECOND SWANTON! 1-2-NO! These are massive bombs. THIRD SWANTON EATS KNEES! Angle gets an Olympic Slam for two. Goes the Anklelock. There is apparently 15 minutes left, but feels like I am one minute away from a finish. I am so curious what will happen in the next 15 minutes. Ahhhhhh I see what they did. It is a twenty minute time limit. The last 5 minutes is just Ankleock reversals and long Anklelock followed by the draw. They did a great job not telegraphing the draw. It is NOT smart wrestling by any means, but it was an entertaining bomb-throwing match. Here comes the Bisch. Five More Minutes: Bisch says Five More Minutes. Angle is relentless on the Ankle and actuals works it over. Hardy pushes him off. Good Hardy selling here. They have actually managed to manufacture some drama with Hardy's ankle being fucked but Angle cant put him away. Hardy goes up top but is too slow. Angle hits a super duper Olympic Slam. Cant capitalize. Angle takes a crazy flip bump over the top rope to the floor. They are milking this all the way. Double clothesline knocks both out. Time expires. Bisch says we must have a winner. Well then why did you put a fucking time limit on it then shithead. Stupid booking aside, I am getting into this. Last Five Minutes: Strong finish here. Angle is relentless, lots of heavy blows. Misses a charge in the corner. Hardy slams his head into the steps a bunch and draws blood. They do the Boston Crab spot so Angle can be Austin with the blood squirting out of his head. Angle grabs the Anglelock and time expires again. In a smart move, Bischoff does NOT declare this a draw. Instead due to the cut, he is ruling it a No Contest, which saves the illogic of it being a time limit draw after two restarts. Impressive. I thought this was very similar to Okada/Omega I match. Lots of bombs, no transitions and lots of milking the clock by laying around. This actually sucked me in more because of Hardy's injured ankle and the interesting ways they kept him in the match and the bloody Angle was good too. I would say this is a hair better. ***1/2

TNA World Tag Team Champions Motor City Machine Guns vs Generation Me - TNA Final Resolution 2010 Full Metal Mayhem (TLC) Taz's concern over these guys being able to balance on the "tippy top" of the ladder was the best part of this match. This did not do much for me. I liked their previous two PPV outings. I hate to poo poo a match where so much stuff looks painful, but I thought this was boring with long stretches of nothing happening. I thought the spots were pretty ok. Nothing really grabbed me. Shit like Sabin holding Matt Jackson in a wheelbarrow position, Shelley throwing a chair, Matt catching it and Matt holding it for Shelley to do a backstabber but to his front is such a huge turn off. It was just a lot of spots like that. Honestly, the most interesting spot was the dragon leg screw on Matt Jackson inside the ladder. That actually looked violent. The rest was very meh. Thumbs down!

Jeff Jarrett vs Kurt Angle - TNA Against All Odds 2011 The promos and video package before this match are excellent. If Kurt Angle wins, he will gain custody of his children from Jeff & Karen Jarrett, but if Jarrett wins Angle has to give away Karen during their wrestling wedding, which I remember being excellent. Angle was great as a stoic badass keeping his poise, but you knew there was a burning rage inside. Jarrett is great as the smarmy prick new husband. Karen seemed pretty worried when Jeff put up her kids like that, but Daddy Jeff has got this. I know these two have an incredible match together (I think that's from their 2009 feud), but this was not it. Incredibly bland. The only time there was heat was when Angle when outside and unloaded on Jarrett with punches, Karen slaps so he punches Jeff harder. I mean that was terrific. There rest was just as basic as you can get. Angle drives his shoulder into the post because Jarrett moves has to be the lamest transition ever. Basic heat segment. Angle run up the ropes suplex. Angle hits suplexes. Jarrett goes for the Stroke. Karen distracts the ref during the Olympic Slam; Jeff low blow. Angle recovers. Ref bump. Karen backrake and Jeff clobbers him. Jeff goes for the chair. Angle recovers and Angle lock and drags Karen in. Karen provides another distraction and Jarrett hits him with a chair for two. It is all very basic without any gusto. The finish is wicked lame. Angle goes for a Anklelock out of a sunset flip and Jarrett just sits down on it. I mean low blow, Super Stroke and a chair shot and that's what gets him the win? Great storyline, but color me unimpressed.

Jeff Jarrett vs Kurt Angle - TNA Genesis 2011 You knew with Jarrett marrying Angle's ex-wife, Karen in the summer of 2010 that this was just a feud waiting to explode. I loved this feud and was one the last things that kept me watching TNA in 2011. We get a great recap that was the Double J Double M A Exhibition. Jarrett does not know if his submission victory over Samoa Joe was the greatest of his wrestling career, but he knows it was the greatest of his MMA career. LOL! Angle takes up Jarrett's open challenge. Three 2 minute rounds. Perfect stuff. Jarrett is a coward. Angle is just playing with his food, Angle has no reason to be super pissed at Jarrett as the whole Karen thing has not been revealed on TV yet, but it has been alluded to. He wants to humiliate him and show him up. He invite him into guard and gives him his leg to shoot on. Angle takes him down at will and rolls into great submissions. Angle looked so great on the mat you wished this is how he wrestled all the time. I love Jarrett's goons psyching him up in between rounds with "Gold Medals mean nuthin!". Jarrett is saved by the bell both times from submission. He rubs a foreign substance into Kurt's eyes in the third round triggering the DQ and then bloodies him with punches. Great angle! Jarrett declares he is retiring from MMA. Awesome! This was a great way to up the ante. Jarrett was shown up completely and he reacted by bloodying Angle so this becomes a full grudge feud and Angle will out to kick ass and soon Karen Jarrett will be added. Love it! Good shit.

Jeff Jarrett vs Samoa Joe - TNA Final Resolution 2010 Submission Match This is during Jeff Jarrett's glorious MMA gimmick where he was doing the Double J Double M A Exhibitions. Easily the best thing on TNA in this timeframe. Jarrett was actually positioned for a super heel run and you could argue he was the number one heel in TNA through the first half of 2011 not too shabby for 'ol Double J. He was aligned with heel Hogan/Bischoff and would be feuding with Angel soon. I thought this could have been funner at times. More Jarrett cowardice would have been entertaining. He was thoroughly dominated by Joe as should be expected. Joe was attacked before the match by his goons and Tonya Harding'd. I liked that Joe was having trouble with his leg so he just sat down and invited Jarrett to enter his guard. He gobbled Jarrett right up. Jarrett only offense was to pick the leg and wrap it around the post. He got a anklelock, but once Joe broke free it was all Joe. Joe looked good, but part of it was he had to keep selling his leg so it was not a full-speed Joe ass-whuppin. Jarrett tapped twice for Joe both outside the ring to protect Joe. The goons ran interference. Double J got a hold of the leg and Anklelock to send a message to Angle to win the match. Perfectly good wrestling, but it could have been more if Jarrett went full Memphis and just made a total ass out of himself. ***

TNA World Tag Team Champions Motor City Machine Guns vs Generation Me - Bound for Glory 2010 I don't have too much to add to my previous review from their September match. The Bucks turning heel created a better transition into the heat segment when they hit a Super DDT off the top rope. That was a very good turning point and played off their attack. It also helped with the babyface shine as Shelley was using more stinging chops and the Guns were really dominating the Bucks with high octane strikes. Ultimately the match devolved into a spotfest. I liked the previous match better because there was more traditional wrestling and only two minutes of spotfest wrestling. Here it was seven minutes of spotfest. Some really good ones that I enjoyed but it lacked the stickiness of good, solid wrestling. I am always a big fan of 450 splashes and we got beautiful ones from the Bucks. Sabin hit a ridiculous Release German from the top rope that eliminated one of the Bucks and the other Buck ate the finish. Strong opener exactly what you want on your biggest PPV to get the crowd rocking. ****

TNA World Tag Team Champions Motor City Machine Guns vs Generation Me - No Surrender 2010 I quite liked this. It was actually pretty damn good traditional tag before breaking down into a spotfest. The Young Bucks went by Max & Jeremy Buck of Generation Me, but I am going to call them Matt & Nick Jackson because I have no clue which one is Max and which one is Jeremy. At the time, the Young Bucks were still babyfaces. The opening shine was great. Shelley was on fire with the chain wrestling busting out the Rocking Horse was quite the treat. I thought Sabin & Matt had a good babyface stalemate. Loved the old school armwork at the beginning by the Young Bucks only it was more violent than the 80s because they were coming off those ropes hard. I really liked how the Machine Guns used to double teams to re-establish control, but then how Nick Jackson used Sabin against Shelley. Sabin was going to be a springboard for Shelley, but Nick jumped off Sabin first hit the crossbody and tagged in his brother. Nice touches like that made me a fan of this match. Good heel heat segment on Alex Shelley's neck with a ton of pin attempts and great selling by Shelley and good focus by the brothers. Sabin was a good house of fire, lots of pep in his step. Shelley has a great suicide dive. My favorite spot of the match was Shelly driving a Buck who had him in a front facelock into the other Buck that was covering Sabin. That's a great use of that spot that I don't have ever seen before! SUPERKICK PARTY! The Bucks come out on the losing end and Machine Guns hit their finish to win. Post-match the Bucks turn heel and DDT Shelley on the floor on his injured neck. I thought it was a well-executed old school tag team match that was updated for 2010. Some really nice spots that had a good twist and good finish run. Interesting to see what happens with the Bucks as full-on heels. ****

TNA World Tag Team Champions Motor City Machine Guns vs Beer Money - TNA Impact 8/12/10 Two Out of Three Falls What ever happened to Alex Shelley? I actually liked him in Paparazzi Productions with Big Sexy. Chris Sabin looks like everybody I went to college with (I went to the University of Michigan Go Blue! Sabin is especially Michigan-looking). Man I have not watched James Storm in forever, I always had a soft spot for him. I wonder if you yell "Beer" at Bobby Roode to this day if his reflex is to just yell back "Money!" First Fall: This is super fun! I liked the stalemate between Storm/Sabin early. They were in the midst of a Best of Five Series and this was the rubber match so I liked that. I liked Storm and Roode cheating early. I liked the Guns the controlling with double teams. I liked Roode tripping Sabin from the outside and the nasty head kick by Storm. I liked Shelley's hot tag and the way he fought through Beer Money and had to earn his offense. I liked the big dives to the outside by the Guns. I liked the finish with Beer Money overwhelming with three big moves to win the fall and go up 1-0. In short, I liked this fall! Second Fall: I did not like that there was no rest period. I did not like that Beer Money did not go for more covers. I did not like that they played with their food. I did not like that they chose to celebrate "Beer!" "Money!" and Shelley tagged out. I did not like the neckbreaker finish that the Motor City Machine Guns this fall to tie it up. In short, I did not like this fall! Third Fall: I liked that Beer Money was already outside the ring before the bell rang again. I liked Roode tripping Sabin on the apron to level the playing field immediately. I liked Roode getting in over the dive train because that is unexpected. I mean imagine HHH doing a dive to the outside. I liked the spotfest finish run. Roode's sell of Sabin's DDT was terrific. I liked the nonstop layout and that Machine Guns were for the most part the ones doing the offense. I liked Storm superkicking Roode. I do not like the Machine Guns' finish, but whatever it is 2010 there will be some wacky moves. It is a fun spotfest. Every card should have these. I smiled a lot during it. ***3/4

TNA World Heavyweight Champion Rob Van Dam vs AJ Styles - Sacrifice 2010 AJ defended in March against Abyss at Destination X and in April against D'Angelo Dinero (Elijah Burke) at Lockdown. If I remember correctly Hogan/Bischoff were babyfaces and aligned with Abyss against the heel Fortune Faction of AJ Styles & Ric Flair. Dinero was actually pretty pushed pretty heavily in the first third of the year. He main evented the February PPV beating Mr. Anderson to earn his title shot at Lockdown. I didn't skip those matches on purpose. I just couldn't find them. I loved AJ vs Abyss in 2005 and would have loved to seen what they could have done with each other five years later and with the face/heel roles reversed. So now to this match, RVD debuted as a Hogan crony based on their ties to Hogan's Celebrity Championship Wrestling. He won title on Impact after Lockdown and I actually like that move. A title change on TV to a hot debuting star can really spark the TV and a promotion. This is AJ's rematch. I didn't have high expectations for this because at the end of the day RVD is not that good. He is good in individual spots. As always no one sells a DDT better than RVD and I thought his sell of AJ's dropkick was absolutely perfect. However, there are so many times where selling to RVD just means to stand and not move. It reminded me of 1998 Crow Sting. There was no register. It was not that he was no selling. No selling is a type of selling. This was not that. He just was not selling. This match also was worked with heavy heat on RVD so large chunks revolved around RVD's shitty selling. Interestingly, the thing that I usually find annoying about RVD, ridiculously contrived spots, was kept to a minimum! The only spot that looked stupid was AJ being crotched on the ropes and then RVD doing a thrust kick. That only looked bad because RVD hesitated a lot and made AJ look silly waiting there. Some AJ spots I enjoyed: AJ checking his dental work after a stiff thrust kick, AJ's going into orbit on a monkey flip, AJ's Pele looked great. There was a great RVD leg scissors takedown into a rollup that I marked out for. Again, with AJ and this bear mentioning is how he builds his finish runs. It is not finishers-> kickouts. It is can the person hit a finisher and then win. We see RVD miss the Five Star Frogsplash in the middle of the match. We see AJ get countered on Styles Clash and miss the Springboard 450. The drama is not in the kickout, but if the move can be hit. Way more interesting! After the missed Springboard 450, Flair comes down the aisleway. Jay Lethal attacks and traps him in the Figure-4. I LOVE the Lethal/Flair promo segment so I will forgive this. RVD hits the Five Star Frogsplash sending AJ back into the midcard. Nothing bad, but nothing super awesome. Basic story of Face shine->Heel heat->Finish. RVD had plenty of hope spots to keep it interesting and AJ rules at offense. I probably wont remember this in a couple months, but this gets points for a smart finish build that I outlined two paragraphs ago. ***1/2

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=hVU0MW-IGrM The GOAT Impersonation segment in wrestling history. Lethal's Flair is amazing. The Four Horsemen took a dump in the ring is an all time great line. Flair's reactions are priceless. The end with Lethal talking about being a Sixty Minute Man & it being a whole lot easier to jump on than jump off coupled with Flair's reactions makes this not only one of the best promo segments in TNA history (probably the best) but one of the best all time.

TNA World Champion AJ Styles vs Samoa Joe - Against All Odds 2010 These two are such a joy to watch together. Unfortunately there were 5 minutes from the middle missing in the version I was watching but they were well on their way to get a great match. -AJ is so versatile. Here he is rocking it as a chickenshit heel. It gives this great matchup a fresh new dynamic. Pin balling off of Joe on shoulder tackles. -Joe usually plays the subtle heel, stoic badass. Here he is playing to the crowd getting them rocking with punches and kicks that look great. -AJ gets the dragon leg whip and begins working the leg. Joe kicks him out on a Figure-4 -Joe overcomes the pain. FLYING JOE! Wipes out AJ! -Joe still favoring the leg. AJ pokes him in the eye. AJ is such a good striker. He is good at beating the shit out of his opponent. He is smaller than Joe but he hits him so hard. At one point Joe chops him so hard that AJ falls on his ass. God, I love these two. -AJ falls off the top and that's where the cut is. -We rejoin during Joe's comeback solid lariats. Big kicks. AJ starts mixing in his big spots like Springboard Elbow and Quebrada into Inverted DDT. Joe hits a Sleeper Suplex when AJ won't go down to the Kokina Clutch. Love it. -Joe hits Musclebuster. Flair pulls Bischoff out. Oh yeah Bischoff is a babyface and the ref to prevent Flair's interference. He decks Flair now that's weird Face/Heel dynamic. -Bischoff misses the cover. Pele->Styles Clash->Wicked Slow Three makes Joe look like a chump. Great match! New interesting dynamic and hard hitting execution. It was exciting watching Joe roar back against AJ. Finish stretch was the usual hot meld of these two. Could have done without the Bischoff BS. Missing 5 minutes ~****

This is the age old singer-songwriter vs singer debate that has raged forever in music. Singer only: I think it takes nothing away from Elvis that he never wrote a song in his entire life. Elvis, in my opinion and in others, is still considered the greatest male singer of all time. He still had to execute the vision of the songwriters. Everyone knows what Elvis sounds like. Songwriter: But songwriters should get a shoutout too. I am a huge fan of Max Martin. He had 9 straight years with a number one single from 2008-2016, with last year being the first year without a number one. If you pay attention, you can pick out a Max Martin song because of the big chorus, the driving rhythm guitar and power drums that drive the dance aesthetic. Having worked with Katy Perry, Kelly Clarkson, Britney Spears, & Taylor Swift, you can hear how he transformed these larger than life personalities with his writing style, but also adapted his paradigm to their personality. I think his greatest achievement was working with the thinner voice of Taylor Swift and still managing to create catchy pop music without forcing her into his style of big choruses. Singer-Songwriter: I have massive respect for those people that can write music and sing it, but lets face the Beatles caused a lot of people that shouldn't be writing songs to write songs. I think there is an unfair emphasis that you have to both write and execute in order to be considered great. I am afraid that in this new era of wrestling where the Singer-Songwriters are disappearing and we will have Singers that execute a Songwriters' vision that the new Singers will be unfairly penalized. Elvis is still the GOAT. The wrestlers of today can still be great. I love a good layout and a good narrative but it still needs to be executed with energy, urgency and feel. I got into debates with Matt D over Demolition. Demolition matches have great layouts! It is undeniable. The matches however bore me to death. A great layout or a great Songwriter does not necessarily beget great wrestling. It is a combination of layout and work that begets great wrestling. Thus the workers still have to work.

Um Dave is congratulating them...thinks they could have run a bigger building...Dave also pointed out that 50 tickets are on StubHub as opposed to the 2000 for Mania the day after. This doesn't seem to be a Scalpers problem.

TNA World Champion AJ Styles vs Kurt Angle - Genesis 2010 Historically Kurt Angle is AJ Styles' worst opponent because it ends up being a Angle video game instead of a wrestling bout. Context this is right when Hogan, Bischoff & Flair came in for the reboot. Right before this TNA was on one of their hot streaks with AJ, Daniels & Joe tearing down the house. AJ & Angle are both faces. -Loved the opening chain wrestling. It was tight & intense. AJ came to play. Good covers. -I bring it up a lot but people don't talk enough about how damn good AJ's strikes are. Best striker of the 21st Century. Those bone-crushing elbows are Misawa-like. -AJ had such a great intense demeanor. His execution is par excellence. Backbreaker looked so crisp. -A good transition! In an Angle match, what! AJ looks to follow to the outside but Angle moves and slams him into the apron. -Angle did a great job with his Suplex-hold-Suplex heat segment. Catching his breathe while leaning on AJ to set up his next Suplex. AJ sold those suplexes but was fighting out of the holds. Creating energy. I like the double cross body as a leveling the playing field spot. -This is a face vs face match that feels very Japanese. It is just two pros looking to win the match. No subtle heeling but here comes The Nature Boy. -AJ hits a swan dive to the floor and it is very claustrophobic out there with the railing right up against ringside. AJ hits the springboard firearm. He is rolling. -I thought what this finish run did really well is build around the Styles Clash. AJ has always been very good about making his finish the centerpiece of the match. You will see him attempt it three times. After the springboard forearm, Pele Kick, from the top rope. Each time Angle has a different counter. The tension becomes can Styles hit the Styles Clash rather than Will Angle kick out. That is much more productive tension. -The symmetry was great as always in an AJ match. AJ belly flopped on a springboard 450 (Angle moved way too soon). AJ had counters for the Angle Slam like Angle had for Styles Clash. They each stole the others finish for nearfalls, which while great symmetry I didn't like the spots. -This is TNA so the actual finish sucked. AJ was going for his home run: Spiral Tap. Angle races up ropes & hits Angle Slam. 1-2-NO! Good nearfall. Angle ankle lock with grapevine! Flair pulls out the ref. AJ taps. Angle is pissed. Flair throws in the belt and AJ whacks him and wins. What the fuck was that finish? Wouldn't it make a lot more sense if AJ hit the Styles Clash which he was trying to hit all match and have Angle kick out. Now he has impetus to cheat. He threw out his best shot and now needs to do something underhanded to win the match. So he asks Flair for help. This way the whole time was face vs face and this feels so forced and tacked. AJ lost fair & square. Why the hell did Flair wait for the finish? I hate that convenient timing! Instead Flair tries to help earlier but AJ hits or tells him no but once the Styles Clash doesn't work he changes his mind. Cmon this is not that hard!!! Finish left a real bad taste in my mouth but everything before that was great work and the most enjoyable AJ vs Angle match I've seen. ***1/2

AJ Styles vs Christopher Daniels Final Resolution 2012 -This is being billed as the last AJ vs Daniels match and might actually be. Super underrated feud. These two has insane chemistry. -It will be interesting to see where they go from the violent, hate-filled brawl they did about six months ago -Daniels does a great Owen Hart celebrating every shoulder tackle -Daniels closing the gap so Style can't pop off his early match drop kick is great. -Styles countering the hip toss and then nailing his dropkick is even better. Styles may be the greatest babyface ever at control segments which is incredibly hard. -Love the symmetry of their matches with each taking an apron bump. -AJ sells the hell out of his back. Daniels Suplex slams him on steel steps. Good Daniels heat segment on the back. -AJ starts firing off great strikes. Cross body and they whack heads. AJ instantly cut above the eye. Nasty! -AJ keeps on going. Springboard elbow but the cut is bothering him. Loses control to Daniels who hits some of his bigger highspots. AJ gets the Pele. That headshot is the prelude to the Styles Clash -After some rigamarole STYLES CLASH! 1-2-NO! -Top rope Styles Clash, nasty rana spikes AJ on his head. Daniels hits a Styles Clash for a cold three count. They did a classic face vs heel match. I think they did a great job not as great as their other classics but both are excellent in their roles. I know AJ wins all their matches so it was weird to see Daniels go over especially in the last match ever. The finish was anticlimactic no one reacted because I don't think anyone expected that as the finish. Still thought everything built well the accidental blood was sick and raised the stakes. Seek out their other matches but this is a solid caper. ****

AJ Styles vs Christopher Daniels - Destination X 2012 Last Man Standing Another match forgotten in the treasure trove of TNA wrestling. TNA is/was a shitty promotion, but you cant have all that pure talent on their roster and not being putting out hidden gems even if the booking is dog shit. I think that's why TNA is the promotion with the most to offer in the way of hidden gems because there is always they matches forgotten and overlooked because of how toxic the promotion is. An incredible, old school, hate filled brawl to the finish. There were no carwreck spots, no big budget action movie stunts. Just two men that hated each other and wanted to punch each other in the face. If you are like me and just want to watch two bloody men tee off on each other then this is your match. If Daniels could have just wrestled AJ his entire career he would be an all-time great. These two just light each other from jump. I have talked about AJ's punches before and how good they look and on top of that the sound they make. Just a great sound. Daniels was no slouch himself. The punch he catches AJ with to open his heat segment. Was incredible. He popped him good. What a sell by AJ! Selling a single punch like that is just so meaningful. Kudos to put men for putting over the violence. Because as good as the punching was the selling of the punching was what was making this. Another good thing about this match is they did not go for a lot of "nearfalls" meaning not a lot of false ten counts. The urnage on the chair was vicious and warranted the count, but other than that it was just heavy blows. Notice all the shots are to the head. Love the double juice. I like using the stage as the final grounds. It is a place that everyone in the arena can see so you keep crowd attention and heat up. The Kaz interference felt cheap at the time, but it was a good "nearfall" for Daniels. The actual finish was a great climax. AJ shoves Daniels into Kaz knocking him off the ramp. AJ is selling so great with his jelly legs. Hits a Styles Clash from the ramp through a table on the floor! Great Holy Shit spot to end it. I still think their best match is Final Resolution 2009, but these two are gold together. They very rarely have a bad match. More often than not their matches are Match of the Year Contenders. This is a rivalry that should be lauded more. What a throwback to the brawls of yesteryear when it was about punching, selling and blood. ****1/2

TNA World Tag Team Champions Christopher Daniels & Frankie Kazarian vs AJ Styles & Kurt Angle - TNA Slammiversary 2012 Less said about the buildup the better. It involves Daniels & Kaz lording over AJ's head that they have proof that AJ & Dixie are sleeping together. Dixie's shoot husband throws a punch at AJ. I don't know what the fuck this all was. I don't know how this becomes the Claire Lynch storyline. I have no idea why Angle is AJ's partner because they wrestled each other the previous month. Good news that the silly angle does not impact the match at all. Pretty stellar tag team match. I think what they match does most effectively is put face heat on the babyfaces! Imagine that! The cool highspots are designed for the babyfaces and it is the babyfaces that are popping the crowd. Now the crowd chants "TNA!" and "This is awesome!", but hey baby steps. AJ looked well Phenomenal in this. Great babyface shine. I liked how Kaz made him earn his opening dropkicking by dropping into an Oklahoma Roll on the drop down, but AJ connects with two dropkicks. Great spot by AJ sliding under the guardrail and hitting a springboard elbow. AJ was great in the FIP wrenching his leg in the top rope, selling well and Daniels/Kaz did a great job with double teams reminiscent of the Midnights. Once Angle gets tagged in this is a super hot spotfest. I have no problem with a spotfest. If you are going to do it, commit. That's what these guys did. Kaz is the best ever at taking German Suplexes. Wow! That Double German on Daniels & Kaz was great as was the double Inverted DDT/DDT by AJ. Two big spots that popped the crowd for the babyfaces. The heels had their cutoffs but they never hit their big moves because they are heels and heels are NOT as good as babyfaces. The Holy Shit Spot of the match that you need to stop what you are doing and watch this match is AJ Styles' Springboard Shooting Star Press to a standing Daniels outside the ring. Absolutely perfect impact! Angle taps Kaz in the Anglelock immediately after for the feel-good win. Excellently laid out spotfest that made the babyfaces look like a million bucks and climaxed at maximum heat! ****

Bingo!