Clash of the Champions 6: Ragin Cajun
Date: April 2, 1989
Location: Louisiana Superdome, New Orleans, Louisiana
Attendance: 5,300
Commentators: Jim Ross, Michael Hayes

Where do I begin with this one? First and foremost, this is on the same night as Wrestlemania 5 in a final attempt to sabatoge the WWF. The problem was that this ran against Savage vs. Hogan which if my memory is right was either the highest PPV buyrate ever or the second highest. The main event from WCW (NWA but we’ll keep things simple here) is Steamboat vs. Flair II in a 2/3 falls match with Steamboat defending his newly won title. Let’s get to it.

Also, 5,300 people in the Superdome? That place holds over 75,000 for football.

We see a lot of legends at a dinner or something last night. Big names like Muchnik, Thesz, O’Connor, Funk and Funk among others. Jim Herd talks about protecting the integrity of the NWA or some jazz like that. Turner had recently bought the company I think so the NWA’s days were numbered.

Terry Funk will be replacing Hayes for commentary on the main event.

We run down the card through a long video package. Or maybe this is just an opening video in general. This goes on a bit too long.

National anthem.

Midnight Express vs. Samoan Swat Team

Dangerously manages the Samoans here. This is his second team to beat Cornette and run him out of the NWA after the Original Midnight Express lost a loser leaves town match at Chi-Town Rumble. This version of the Samoans would become the Headshrinkers and are Samu and Fatu (Rikishi). It’s Samu vs. Lane to start us off and Samu misses a cross body. Lane’s gets two.

Off to Eaton who hits a missile dropkick and it’s back to Lane who controls. The Midnights are the faces here. Cornette pops Fatu with the tennis racket but doesn’t get caught so we keep going. Fatu comes in for a few seconds and it’s back to Samu again. We get heel miscommunication and the Samoans have a meeting on the floor. Hayes uses Monsoon’s line of saying this is a main event in any arena in the country. Except this one.

Back to Eaton vs. Samu and Eaton out moves him quickly. Samu is like screw this wrestling stuff and starts using power to take over. The Midnights tag in and out quickly. I didn’t even notice Eaton going out. The Midnights cheat but they’re good guys so they can get away with it here. Back to Eaton and this has been all Midnights so far.

The heels finally start cheating like good evil Samoans and Eaton is in trouble in the corner. Off to a chinlock/nerve hold as Eaton is taking a good beating. Fatu hits the kick to the face but it’s in the corner so it doesn’t look as good. Eaton avoids a shot and it’s hot tag to Lane. They double team the Samoans and ram their heads together which starts a fight between the Samoans.

Cornette hits a Samoan (you can’t tell them apart from behind) with the racket and Dangerously pops Lane I believe with his phone, allowing the Samoans to take over on Lane for a bit. Back to the nerve hold which eats up awhile. This is a long match as we’re approaching twenty minutes. Another Fatu superkick gets two. Lane finally avoids a middle rope headbutt and it’s a double tag to bring in Samu and Eaton.

Eaton hammers away but tries a double noggin knocker. Take a guess as to how that goes for him. Just guess. Lane gets back in and everything breaks down. Lane sends Fatu to the floor and the Rocket Launcher hits Samu. Cornette and Heyman get into it on the apron and the phone goes flying. Fatu clocks Eaton with it for the pin.

Rating: C+. This was ok but it wasn’t a classic or anything. The Samoans weren’t nearly as difficult to do anything as Rikishi would become but they were still something different than the Midnights were used to. Also with this being more about the managers than the teams, it became a bit harder to have heat out there. Still though, nothing bad.

Great Muta vs. Steve Casey

Casey is a jobber and Muta is one of the hottest acts in American wrestling at this point. Muta does a trance/meditation thing to start as Hayes makes fun of Oklahoma. Casey shows why he’s a jobber by charging at Muta. You deserve that mist you get you schmuck. Handspring elbow (Muta invented it) hits Casey and we hit the chinlock. Casey goes for the arm for a short arm scissors but Muta gets bored so he kicks Casey in the face.

Casey heads to the floor to clear his head but Gary Hart, Muta’s manager, rolls him back in so that Muta can hit a hard dropkick off the top. JR compares Muta to Sting which would be the feud that made Sting into a great in ring guy to go with his charisma. Muta hooks some freaky leglock and then a nerve hold. Casey tries something else so Muta hits a spin kick to kick Casey’s head off again.

Off to another nerve hold and this is starting to go too long. Casey gets what is probably the highlight of his match by hitting a clothesline to take Muta down. He hits a dropkick but Muta swats the second one away. Casey grabs his foot so Muta hits another SWEET spin kick to send Casey to the floor. A pescado and the handspring elbow on the floor continues the dominance and the Muta Moonsault (a quick one that stays low) ends this slaughter.

Rating: C+. It’s just a long squash but Muta was REALLY good back then. When he got to fight Sting for months on end, it was pure gold because Sting was actually able to keep up with Muta in the ring. As for this though, it was total dominance and Muta’s calmness throughout the match is a really great addition to his character as he knew he was better and didn’t sweat Casey at all, because he had no reason to.

Junkyard Dog vs. Butch Reed

This is an old Mid-South feud and New Orleans was a big Mid-South town so the fans are probably going to be way more into it than they should be. JYD has a band to bring him out. As in tubas and horns and such. It’s a very New Orleans style intro. Reed was in a singles push at this point and was kind of almost maybe sort of considering being put in the Horsemen to the point where he even held up four fingers at one point. That wouldn’t happen of course but he was probably the top candidate for it. He has Hiro Matsuda here though.

JYD takes over to start and Reed is on the floor quickly. Back in and Dog does his all fours headbutts to send Reed right back out. Dog hammers away some more until Reed pounds away to take over. This is almost all kicking and punches. Off to a chinlock by Reed and Dog makes his comeback. Both guys go down off a double clothesline. Reed goes up for his top rope shoulder but Dog gets his foot on the rope. Dog sends Reed into Matsuda and botches a rollup for the pin.

Rating: D. This was so boring that it almost put me to sleep. Ok not really on the sleep thing but it was very dull. It’s your standard 80s kick and punch match which means it wasn’t interesting at all. Reed would go on to form Doom after this though while Dog would flounder for awhile before fading into obscurity.

Bob Orton vs. Dick Murdoch

Ross is way too excited for this match. They start on the mat with Orton firing off some fireman’s carry slams. You might almost say he’s adjusting Murdoch’s attitude. Murdoch puts on an armbar and the old school nature is very clear very quickly. Orton kips up to get out of it. Can his son do that? Dory Funk Jr. and Pat O’Connor are watching from the crowd. Murdoch has a wristlock on again and by that I mean he has it on for awhile.

Now it’s Orton with an armbar. Murdoch is the face here. I didn’t really know that either until Ross mentioned that the fans loved him. We’re still in the arm stuff here. Muchnick, Kiniski, Thesz and I believe Buddy Rogers are at ringside also. Five minutes in and the arm stuff is finally over. Orton pounds away but Murdoch is waking up in the corner. A dropkick puts Orton down and they brawl a bit more. Both try their finishers, but Murdoch has his foot tripped during the brainbuster and Gary Hart (Orton’s manager) holds the foot for the pin. Think of Mania 5 and the finish might sound familiar.

Rating: D. This was boring. The match is just under ten minutes long. 5 were spent in arm holds, 3 were spent brawling and 2 were spent on the finish. That doesn’t make for an interesting match at all. Murdoch and Orton were both old at this point and it was obvious that no one was interested in seeing this match other than maybe a bit for Murdoch.

World Tag Titles: Varsity Club vs. Road Warriors

It’s Rotunda/Williams here and the Warriors have the belts. Hawk vs. Rotunda starts us off. Mike isn’t in a good mood as he lost the TV Title to Sting the day before on TV. Off to Animal who cleans house including a powerslam to Williams. Hawk comes in and doesn’t do as well. I always thought Animal was the better of the two. To prove me right, Animal comes in and runs through both of them again.

The Varsity Club (Williams I think) pulls the top rope down and Animal tumbles to the floor. Off to a bearhug but Animal manages the tag. Teddy Long (referee) doesn’t see it so Hawk has to go out. This is important because at the same time, Rotunda comes in with no tag and Long allows it. Remember that. Williams comes back in and takes the leg out from Animal as JR explains the football strategy at play there.

The beating goes on for awhile longer with Animal getting close but not being able to make the tag. You’ve seen the same thing a million times before. It’s a good thing they’re letting Animal stay in there this long as when Hawk gets tired, he gets bad in a hurry. There’s the hot tag and Hawk cleans house. Everything breaks down and Animal accidentally tosses Long. Doomsday Device hits and Teddy won’t count. Williams comes in and rolls up Hawk and Teddy dives in for the absolute fastest three count you’ll ever see for the title change. His hand didn’t go above his shoulder on any of the counts.

Rating: D+. Pretty dull match here but the ending got Teddy out of being a referee and turned him into a manager. I think he took over the Skyscrapers just after this. The Road Warriors wouldn’t get close to the titles anymore after this and would leave for the WWF about a year later. The Freebirds would get the belts in a little over a month before a team called the Steiner Brothers took them in November.

The Warriors and their manager rant about the cheating.

Ranger Ross vs. Iron Sheik

Ross is a military themed guy and he repels from the ceiling. Sheik does the national anthem bit before the match and then jumps Ross before the bell. Ross gets beaten down and both guys get abdominal stretches. Ross gets a standing Mafia Kick but Rip Morgan, Sheik’s flag bearer, comes in for the DQ. JYD makes the save. This was nothing and I don’t think it led anywhere.

Flair says he’s ready and he’s awesome and all that jazz.

US Tag Titles: Rick Steiner/Eddie Gilbert vs. Kevin Sullivan/Dan Spivey

Steiner and Gilbert are champs here. Sullivan and Spivey are Varsity Club. That would break up later in the year. This is a rematch from yesterday on TV where the Varsity Club won. Oh and Missy Hyatt is with the champions. The challengers jump them to start and Spivey lets Gilbert up at two which even Hayes criticizes. The big beatdown is on and it’s all Varsity Club here.

They’re out on the floor now and Spivey rams Gilbert’s back into the post. Off to Sullivan now which only lasts a bit. A flying clothesline gets two for Spivey. Tree of Woe (not named that) to Gilbert but Sullivan tries it again with the second time failing. Here’s Steiner who beats up Spivey and hooks a belly to belly for two. Everything breaks down and Gilbert pops Sullivan with Missy’s loaded purse for the pin.

Rating: C. It’s really short because we have an hour long main event. This went nowhere because the time killed it but it wasn’t anything all that bad while they were in there. For no given reason (literally) the titles were vacated soon and weren’t won by anyone until a tournament in February, about 9 months later. This was fine.

NWA World Title: Ricky Steamboat vs. Ric Flair

This is 2/3 falls with a 60 minute time limit. As usual, Flair comes out with women while Steamboat has his son and wife. The son is in a dragon costume. The belt looks good on Ricky. Then again that belt looks good on almost anyone. Except Ronnie Garvin but that goes without saying. Flair has the always awesome black robe here. I miss that thing. Terry Funk is on commentary instead of Hayes which is the very beginning of the next world title feud once this ends.

They hit the mat quickly and MAN are they fast down there. Steamboat gets a very hard chop and the fans are buzzing over it. Flair works the arm as they’re going slow to start. The difference between this and Orton vs. Murdoch: this is going to go somewhere else. I have a feeling the other one wouldn’t have if they had 40 minutes to work with. Flair hits the floor and says come out here.

Steamboat grabs a headlock and they chop it out. By that I mean they hit each other so hard you can hear the skin slap every time. Steamboat speeds things up and it’s back to the mat with the headlock. Dropkick gets two for Steamboat. We’re ten minutes in now. The US and TV title matches might be on but we’re not sure. For some reason they were scheduled later. Neither will wind up airing but they’re nothing of note anyway. Sting and Luger both retain over Rip Morgan and Jack Victory respectively.

Back to the mat now and Steamboat controls with a front facelock. Flair tries to fight back but gets chopped down for two. They have a ton of time here so they’re definitely in slow mode. Flair heads to the floor and there’s the Flair Flop outside. We get an explanation of how the other title matches will air on Saturday’s TV show if necessary. I like that and the reason being is they wanted to make sure this gets the full time limit if they need it.

We’re 15 minutes in and they chop away hard. Steamboat puts Flair down with a double shot for two. Flair blocks a splash with knees and goes to work on the ribs. Butterfly suplex gets two. Steamboat keeps kicking out as Flair has a test of strength grip while Steamboat is on the mat. They chop it out but Steamboat misses a dropkick in a nice bit of psychology. Steamboat counters a Figure Four attempt into a small package but Flair reverses into one of his own for the first fall at just shy of twenty minutes.

Back with the second fall after a brief rest period. Steamboat takes over quickly and hits a top rope chop to the head for two. Funk says this is like his brother vs. Brisco. Now that is a compliment. Flair misses his knee drop and Steamboat goes after the other leg. He drops SIXTEEN elbows on it and slaps on the Figure Four (ON THE CORRECT LEG!!!). Flair finally grabs the ropes but he’s in trouble.

Flair avoids another Figure Four but gets caught in a Boston Crab at what sounded like the 25 minute mark. He gets to the rope again but he’s still in big trouble. Flair fires a few shots off but we go down into the backslide reversal spot which I’m sure you all are familiar with. They hit the floor and Steamboat goes into the railing. We’re at thirty minutes now and Flair suplexes Steamboat over the top for two.

Abdominal stretch time by Flair and he even rolls Steamboat up for two while still holding onto it. Steamboat gets beaten on a bit more until Flair goes up top, only to get crotched and superplexed for two. Out of nowhere Steamboat grabs a double chickenwing hold (think the position for the Glam Slam but he holds Flair in place) for a submission to tie us up at a fall apiece.

After a quick break Flair is spent but Steamboat gets poked in the eye so he can’t follow up at the thirty five minute mark. There’s the second Flair Flop in about a minute. They chop it out but Flair grabs….something that we can’t see since the camera angle was really bad for a bit. It was a leg move whatever it was. The Figure Four goes on quickly but Steamboat grabs the ropes even faster.

Steamboat fires back even more chops and Flair gets taken down as he tries to do the Flair Flip in the corner and run up the other corner spot. Flair rolls Steamboat up and puts his feet on the ropes for two. We have twenty minutes left in the time limit. Flair works on the knee even more and there’s the Figure Four. Steamboat taps like crazy but that doesn’t mean anything for a few years.

The hold is finally broken and Flair goes up top again for a cross body for two. Steamboat tries to slam him but can’t hold him due to the leg work. We have 15 minutes left. Steamboat’s cross body gets two as does a sunset flip for the champion. Flair throws on a sleeper which is the logical idea here, although I don’t ever recall it winning a match in this situation.

Steamboat manages to send Flair into the corner and out of the ring to get a break. We hit the 50 minute point as JR makes fun of the WWF by saying they’re not coming out to music and posing. Flair goes after the knee again but Steamboat chops away. Just because irony is fun, Steamboat poses after coming out to music. The NWA doesn’t do that right? The champ lowers his head and Flair pops him in the back and hooks a suplex for no cover.

We have six minutes left and Flair goes up for no apparent reason. After the legally required slam, it’s time for the screwy (but legal) finish. Steamboat goes back to the double chickenwing but his leg gives out. It’s almost like a tiger suplex at this point and Steamboat pops his shoulder up at the last minute to have Flair pinned.

Rating: A. Hard to argue with this one as it wasn’t an iron man match so the time limit was just there to give it a cap on the ending. Everything makes sense and the psychology flows very nicely with both guys having the injuries from earlier in the match come into play later on, especially in the ending. This was great stuff and while you could probably cut out some of it, it’s still good stuff.

HOWEVER, we have an issue. Flair’s foot was in the ropes during the pinfall, meaning we have an unclear finish. Steamboat is in the back and sees it and exactly as you would expect from him, he’s totally calm about it and says Flair has a legit complaint and needs to talk to someone about it. This set up match #3 at Wrestle War which is allegedly the best of the trilogy, although I’ve always liked Chi-Town Rumble best.

Overall Rating: B. When you have a three hour show and one hour of it is spent in a very good match, it’s hard to say this isn’t a good show. The question then is how good is it. The middle of the show isn’t that great but it’s not the worst show you’ll see. Steamboat vs. Flair is always worth seeing, but I think this might be the least interesting of their series, which might be because the title didn’t change. Still though, good old fashioned NWA stuff here before they got silly.

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NXT
Date: October 19, 2011
Location: Mexican Sports Palace, Mexico City, Mexico
Commentators: Jack Korpela, William Regal

Obviously we’re in Mexico now and we only have two people left. The Young suspension may be a blessing in disguise as it might give them an opening to round out this season after the thirty two weeks they’ve had so far. After last week there aren’t any major loose ends that need to be tied up so maybe there’s a means to an end now. Let’s get to it.

We start in the ring….WITH A CHALLENGE??? Striker has a rope and there are flags around the ring ropes (not the one Striker is holding). It’s a capture the flag challenge. There are only O’Neil and Bateman left. This is worth 15 points to really make sure we make the rest of the challenges before this worthless by comparison. They both have on weightlifting belts and there’s a rope attached on their backs. Whoever can get the most flags wins. And after about 15 seconds Bateman jumps Titus and leaves him laying. Titus wins and the main event tonight is Titus/Percy vs. Bateman and whoever Bateman picks.

Tyler Reks vs. Yoshi Tatsu

Hawkins is limping to the rings with Reks. Reks and Hawkins complain about the injury and Reks sounds nothing like his looks would make you expect. Reks overpowers him to start so Tatsu chops away. Yoshi snaps off a spinwheel kick to take over so Reks, being a modern WWE heel, hides. Reks takes over again and the fans don’t seem all that impressed by him.

An O’Connor Roll doesn’t work for Tatsu and Reks works on the back a bit. Tatsu responds by hitting a big kick to the head…and never mind as Reks beats him down all over again. Yoshi dodges a charge and Reks’ shoulder hits the post. That allows Tatsu to go up top for the spinwheel kick and the pin at 4:33.

Rating: C-. Not much of a match here but it was fine. This was very basic as they were keeping things simple, primarily due to there only being about 4 and a half minutes to work with. Tatsu’s new look hasn’t meant much of anything, but at least he’s not talking about an action figure anymore.

Post match Reks and Hawkins beat down Tatsu but the Usos make the save. I smell a 6 man.

AJ has a note in the back when Kaitlyn comes in. It’s from Horny and he says leaving is the best decision he ever made. Kaitlyn says it’s from Maxine. Kaitlyn, who looks a lot worse with light blonde hair, fights Maxine next.

Kaitlyn vs. Maxine

Both of them look good but Kaitlyn looks better with darker hair. She has great legs though. Maxine is in essence in a swimsuit. Here’s your Maxine fact: her aunt is a careless maiden from Guadalajara who is engaged to a one legged Elvis impersonator who does a great version of Blue Suede Shoes. The match is your usual basic stuff here that isn’t very good.

Maxine hooks something like a dragon sleeper but Kaitlyn falls into the ropes. The fans here do not care at all. All Maxine so far but I’d rather look at Kaitlyn in gold so I’m not paying attention to the match here. Kaitlyn takes over with her horrible looking offense. She hits a Bubba Bomb and then a full nelson with her legs to make Maxine tap (with her foot) out at 4:48.

Rating: D. It’s your usual bad Divas match and more proof that AJ was the best choice for the 3rd season winner. Kaitlyn looks great in tight gold shorts and other than that, she’s about as worthless as anyone else you’re going to find on the roster. Not much here overall and the girls just aren’t that good. Granted this is on NXT so it’s not like anyone is watching them.

Video on how insane Raw has been lately and how its been in chaos, even dating back to Punk winning the title at MITB. This eats up like five minutes.

Kidd turns down Bateman to be his partner. Maxine comes up to yell at him for not being here. She leaves and JTG comes up to agree to be his partner. Oh my.

Percy Watson/Titus O’Neil vs. JTG/Derrick Bateman

Bateman vs. Watson gets us going and Watson shows off a bit. We go to the mat with a headlock as Regal explains exactly where the arm is supposed to be for it to hurt the most. Leave it to an old villain to know that. There’s a double tag and JTG gets his head kicked off. That was a nice touch because I don’t like JTG. O’Neil has black and pink on for breast cancer awareness. That’s always cool.

The good guys double team JTG for awhile and rule the ring as we take a break. Back with Bateman hammering away on Watson which doesn’t work all that well for him. They head to the floor and Bateman hits a missile dropkick off the apron which gets two back in the ring. Off to JTG again who hammers away a bit more. A spinning neckbreaker gets two. Watson tries to fight back and the fans react to it.

This match has somehow been going on for ten minutes. It’s one of those matches where nothing has been going on at all but it’s been happening if that makes sense. Titus finally gets the hot tag that we know has been coming for awhile now. Bateman breaks up the pin but misses a top rope cross body. Clash of the Titus ends this at 10:41.

Rating: D+. The match was pretty boring but the problem with it is that it summarizes the main problem that these guys are having anymore: there is no reason at all for these matches to take place. If we’re just waiting around for the end of the show and the matches don’t really count towards records or standings or anything, what’s the point? I mean, how many times can O’Neil pin Bateman before it stops meaning anything? I think that’s the question they’re trying to answer.

Overall Rating: C-. Not a horrible show but at the same time it reiterates the same issue I just went into: this show is chasing its own tail. We’re no closer to finding a winner of this competition than we were two months ago and the only thing that has really changed is that Young is gone and that’s not even because of the show but rather him being Wellnessed. Young will be able to return in about two and a half weeks and he’ll probably be brought back and we’ll be right back where we were two weeks ago. Such is the life of NXT I guess.

Results
Yoshi Tatsu b. Tyler Reks – Top Rope Spinwheel Kick
Kaitlyn b. Maxine – Full Nelson Leglock
Titus O’Neil/Percy Watson b. JTG/Derrick Bateman – Clash of the Titus to Bateman

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Monday Night Raw
Date: October 17, 2011
Location: Mexico Sports Palace, Mexico City, Mexico
Commentators: Michael Cole, Jerry Lawler

It’s the rare taped Raw tonight as this happened on Saturday night in Mexico City. This is a new place for the company and the crowd should be very hot. After about 5 angles were blown off last week, we’re at the go home show for Vengeance which has about 2 matches at the moment. To be fair though you can see a lot of them that just haven’t been announced yet. Let’s get to it.

I got home late tonight so I’m trying to catch up as fast as I can.

After the theme song here’s Johnny Ace to no music. As he comes to the ring we get a quick video from last week with HHH being fired and Vince naming Ace the new GM. He teases Rey returning but he’s in San Diego for rehab and isn’t here tonight. Ace talks about how the Board of Directors have confidence in him and how he was criticized for firing JR on Twitter. With that, he brings out JR.

JR goes to commentary but Ace calls him into the ring. He apologizes to JR and makes fun of his speech impediments. We get a clip from last week which aired during a commercial where Cole led the goodbye song for JR and was booed out of the building. Back live Ace says he wants to settle the differences between Cole and JR, so tonight it’s Alberto/Cole vs. JR/Cena. Cole says he’ll squash JR like refried beans.

Here’s Orton for no apparent reason. Oh ok he has one of those match things.

Randy Orton/Sheamus/John Morrison vs. Mark Henry/Christian/Cody Rhodes

We’re back after a break and Orton vs. Christian starts us off. Oh and Orton vs. Rhodes is official for the PPV. Christian gets beaten down so it’s off to Rhodes vs. Sheamus. That doesn’t go well for Little Dust so here’s Henry. Orton goes after Rhodes on the floor to a huge pop and Rhodes runs away. They run up the ramp and we go to a break. Back with Morrison hammering on Henry and getting dropped with one punch.

It’s 2-2 now and Christian misses a cross body. Morrison hits one of his own for two. Christian loads up the Killswitch but Morrison counters into the C4 for two. Christian goes after the neck that was injured like three months ago and it’s off to Henry again. He drops Morrison with a headbutt and it’s time for the Canadian to work on the neck of Morrison again. John fires off something like a Pele but can’t escape Henry. I guess it’s the gravitational pull.

Off to the bear hug which is as old school of a heel power move as you can get. Morrison tries a tornado DDT but has to settle for a guillotine on the top instead. Morrison shows some intelligence by going around Henry instead of over him, but Christian takes Sheamus off the apron and now they go into the crowd in a brawl. Morrison hits the Flying Chuck or whatever it is but walks into the Slam for the pin at about 12:30.

Rating: C. Well considering this was supposed to be a six man tag and for the most part it was a four man tag and would up being a two man tag, there’s only so high of a grade you can give it. Henry beating Morrison is fine and it gives Henry some of his heat back after getting beaten up by Big Show twice in a row.

Punk vs. Miz later, which is a match that happened under HHH also but is praised for being made by Ace here. Go figure.

Brodus Clay is still coming.

The Bellas come in to hit on Ace and he calls whoever he was talking to back. Ricardo comes in to a reaction and tries to say Alberto is here. Alberto gets a moderate face pop. A lot of Spanish is spoken and the winner of the tag match gets to pick the stipulation of the title match Sunday.

Eve Torres vs. Natalya

Eve gets the title shot Sunday. It’s your basic Divas match and Natalya of course spanks her a bit because that’s what she hates. It’s mocking though so it’s ok I guess? Natalya hammers on her for a bit but Eve hits some kind of spinning takedown and the moonsault for the pin at 2:13. This was nothing.

CM Punk vs. The Miz

Of course there is talking first. Miz talks about how they cost Punk his title shots and then got rid of HHH which Punk couldn’t. Truth says he can’t stand people that run their mouths. Truth and Miz run their mouths more but here’s HHH to even things up. The bell is after the break. Punk takes it to the mat and hooks a chinlock almost immediately but Miz gets a rope, which Truth points out very loudly.

Miz grabs a headlock and the fans loudly boo. Out to the floor and Punk hits a big dive followed by an Eddie Guerrero hilo for two. Truth tries to cheat and HHH goes over for the evil glare. Springboard clothesline gets two for Punk. Miz takes over with his traditionally bland offense. Jerry talks about looking forward to HHH being back in the ring at full force. You mean like he was what, two months ago?

Truth tries to cheat again so this time HHH gets in the ring. You know, because that’s not going to cause more double teaming or anything. How can a Cerebral Assassin be so stupid as a face? Off to a chinlock and Jerry quotes Taylor Swift of all people. Miz gets a kick to the chest for two. Corner clothesline hits and back to the chinlock. Punk tries to fight back with the knee in the corner but Miz gets a boot up.

Miz goes up (?) and jumps into a spinwheel kick to put both guys down. Punk is sent to the floor and the fans are incredibly into this show. Truth hits Punk with the bottle of water and HHH goes after him…and here’s Johnny Ace saying stop the match because HHH has an immigration problem or something. We’ll pay no attention to the fact that he isn’t part of the match I guess. It ended at 8:45.

Ok no it didn’t because we’re back with Miz holding a chinlock on and the match is still going. Can this match make up its mind? Punk starts his comeback and hits a neckbreaker for no cover. Cole’s voice sounds different and sounds like a voiceover. The Macho elbow hits and it’s GTS time. That gets reversed but Punk rolls Miz up for the pin at approximately

Rating: C. This was just ok at best, mainly because Miz is very boring on offense. The elimination of HHH was fine because it was to set up the post match beatdown on Punk which gives them a chance in the match on Sunday. Either way, not much going on here but these two don’t have good matches against each other, which is far too common a thing with Miz.

Post match Miz gets beaten down until referees get them out. Truth gets in another shot after running back in, as does Miz.

Here’s Team Vickie. Vickie yells in Spanish a lot first. She says she’s a Mexican goddess and she’s something about Angelina Jolie. The latest tag title shot for Ziggler and Swagger is announced for the PPV. Dolph plugs the US and calls himself the Heel. There’s a good and simple name. Swags tries to sing the Star Spangled Banner but is about as popular as Volkoff was in the 80s. He yells at the fans instead and here’s the reason he’s here.

Jack Swagger vs. Zack Ryder

Swagger hammers him to start but Ryder gets his knees up and the Rough Ryder ends this at 35 seconds. Literally that’s the whole match.

The heels go after Zack but Mason Ryan makes the save. Why it’s not Air Boom is beyond me but I guess that would make sense. It’s supposed to be Ryan vs. Ziggler but Team Vickie leaves. Ryan calls him back and their match is next.

Mason Ryan vs. Dolph Ziggler

This is joined in progress and Ryan is overpowering him which is expected because Ryan is bigger and stronger. Ryan has an awesome body but his offense and in ring abilities are leaving something to be desired. Vickie slaps Ryan on the floor and he charges back in to beat on Dolph some more. Ryan hammers away in the corner….and it’s a DQ at 2:40. Well that was worthless.

Ryan cleans house afterwards. So let me get this straight: Air Boom is booked to face Team Vickie on Sunday but instead we have two other unrelated guys beat one of the challengers in 35 seconds and then beat the other one so badly he gets disqualified. And people wonder why we say WWE is missing it right now.

Cena is with Ross and Ross isn’t sure if he’s ready to be in a match because it can cost Cena the title match Sunday. Cena says it’s cool because he can handle Del Rio. JR uses bad words about Cole.

In the arena, Cole gets his mic and says he’s going to take care of JR tonight. He says his wife is Mexican so the fans have to like him and he goes to the back.

Back and we hear about Smackdown being long running or something. Josh Matthews is in on commentary now.

We run down the card for Vengeance to fill in some time. Orton vs. Rhodes isn’t for the title I don’t think.

John Cena/Jim Ross vs. Alberto Del Rio/Michael Cole

The announcers start us off and Cole talks a lot of trash until JR clocks him. Off to the wrestlers for a wrestling match. What a concept. Alberto and Cena smirk at each other and speed things up. The fans are booing Cena…I think. Off to a chinlock by the champ and the fans are cheering for Cena. Now it’s Cena with the chinlock as Josh says Cena weighs 251lbs. That means he gained 20 pounds since his entrance.

Del Rio takes over and we’re waiting on the hot tag to Ross it seems. Cole gets some pikes in at Cena and Del Rio gets two. Alberto hits a top rope shot to the head and some kicks. Cena can’t see Alberto. Back to the chinlock and the fans cheer Cena but aren’t really booing Alberto. The Mexican gets a German on the American for two. Cena fires off some stuff but a running enziguri in the corner stops him for two.

Alberto goes up but misses a senton back splash and Cena engages his finishing sequence. Del Rio runs from the AA and tags in Cole. Cena gives him kind of a belly to belly to bring him in and makes the hot tag to JR. Is JR a big deal in Mexico? I mean, wouldn’t he be on the English commentary team which most people in Mexico don’t hear? An AA ends Cole and JR gets the win with an ankle lock at 11:40.

Rating: D+. Man this was boring. The Spanish/English/JR thing is still confusing but again it’s WWE which at the moment is pretty stupid. I wasn’t into this match for the most part because it was just Del Rio vs. Cena and then a screwy ending. Not much to see here and another weak main event from Raw, which is becoming a tradition.

Post match Alberto tries to attack Cena but Cena hits an AA and starts counting. He hits Del Rio with the steps and counts to ten. Last man standing it is.

Overall Rating: D+. I guess they’re just waiting for Rock to come in and save us, but DANG these shows have been boring lately. What even happened here? We have a stipulation added to the main event that isn’t going to mean much. HHH is thrown out of a country that isn’t going to host the PPV so it’s not like that matters. Two matches were added to the PPV but they were nothing special either. I have no idea what the goal was here and the main event was stupid on top of all that. Announcers mean very little and it was way too focused on Cole again tonight. Bad show, but WAY better than last week.

Results
Mark Henry/Christian/Cody Rhodes b. Randy Orton/Sheamus/John Morrison – World’s Strongest Slam to Morrison
Eve Torres b. Natalya – Moonsault
CM Punk b. The Miz – Rollup
Zack Ryder b. Jack Swagger – Rough Ryder
Dolph Ziggler b. Mason Ryan via DQ when Ryan wouldn’t stop beating Ziggler
John Cena/Jim Ross b. Michael Cole/Alberto Del Rio – Ankle lock to Cole

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Bound For Glory 2011
Date: October 16, 2011
Location: Liacouras Center, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Commentators: Mike Tenay, Tazz

It’s the major show of the year for TNA and I can’t say I’m as excited about it as I was for last year’s. It should be good though as we have two major main events. Now that’s part of the problem: one of them is Sting vs. Hogan. They couldn’t have a good match 14 years ago so what are you expecting from them here? Other than that the rest of the show looks pretty solid. Let’s get to it.

The opening video is about exactly what you would expect: a highlight package with everything leading up to the double main event.

The dark match was the tag title match with Mexican America retaining. Well at least the title didn’t change hands on a dark match. To be fair it was streamed free on the website so anyone could see it.

X-Division Title: Brian Kendrick vs. Austin Aries

I’m not sure if I’d have gone with a rematch for Kendrick so soon after Aries too the title from him. They have the garage door style lifting wall for the guys to come through. The fans are way behind Aries here. The crowd looks good here. They fight over a wristlock to start as we get a good feel for the crowd here with the loud Austin Aries chant. Tazz talks about how this crowd isn’t like most and that’s an understatement.

Things speed up a bit as they hit the mat. Aries goes to the floor so Kendrick is like PORKCHOP and dives onto him in a huge spot. Back in Kendrick gets caught in an STO and Aries loads up the Pendulum Elbow which blows the roof off the place. Kendrick counters and hammers away but the fans are all over Brian since this is the ultimate smark town. This could become a problem tonight.

They try what looks to be a rollup but Kendrick falls to the floor. Aries hits a HUGE suicide dive to fire the crowd up even more if that’s possible. Back in Aries tries the brainbuster but Kendrick knees his way out of it. They go up on the ropes but Aries talks to the crowd too much and gets caught in a top rope Sliced Bread for two as Aries grabs the ropes. They head to the apron and Kendrick tries it out there again but gets dropped onto the apron and then the floor. That and the brainbuster in the ring gives Aries the clean pin at 10:27.

Rating: B-. Can’t complain much here band this was what I was expecting for the opener. You can’t ask for much more than a cruiserweight match to start things off, but I’m hoping the show stays hot throughout the rest of the match. The right idea is to have things like this for later on in the show when you need to fire the crowd back up, but in Philly I don’t think it’ll be a problem. Keep that in mind: all rules about crowds are thrown out the window tonight.

The Knockouts are with some kids in the back and Karen comes in and she’s not happy. Oh ok they’re Kurt’s kids. The kids leave and Karen freaks out as always. Karen is refereeing the Knockouts match tonight. That means Madison wins tonight. Traci has to stay in the ring unless Karen is in danger.

We recap RVD vs. Lynn which is over Jerry being jealous or something. It’s Full Metal Mayhem which means TLC with pins. Can’t argue with putting this match on in Philly.

Jerry Lynn vs. Rob Van Dam

Technical stuff to start but they’ve probably got a lot of time. There are only 8 minutes on this card and I can’t imagine that Hogan vs. Sting will break ten minutes. Rob takes over early and tries Rolling Thunder but Lynn pops up with a kick to the face. Tornado DDT is countered but the suplex is as well. The psychology here is solid and we hit a stalemate. They try a cross body over the top and that doesn’t work right, drawing half boos/half silence from the crowd.

We’re on the floor now and Van Dam tries a moonsault off the apron but misses and might have hurt his knee. Lynn brings in a ladder but Rob sends him in and gets a chair. He takes too long though and Jerry hits a baseball slide to send it into the face of Van Dam. Van Dam gets a spinning cross body onto Lynn onto the chair for two. The surfboard dropkick with the chair in the corner gets no cover. Rob does however get a ladder so the crowd is pleased.

The fans chant ECW and the ladder is splashed with Lynn under it for two. The fans never stay silent for long in this city. It’s something I wish you could hear in more cities too. Rob does a springboard moonsault over Lynn which appeared to be intentional. No idea what the point of that was other than to have Lynn hit him with the chair to take over. Lynn misses a senton backsplash onto the ladder and Van Dam takes over again.

Van Daminator misses so Lynn pelts the chair at him. Lynn gets a German for tow and Lynn is down more from it than Rob is. Lynn gets suplexed onto a ladder which is a lot more effective, so I guess American > Germany. Lionsault onto the ladder gets two for Rob. Rob tries one of his rolling moves but Jerry jumps off the middle rope and they collide at the same time. Lynn goes to the floor to get another ladder and I have the same question as Tazz: how many ladders do you need?

The second ladder is put up against the railing and Lynn tries a sunset bomb, resulting in Rob’s head slamming into the railing. FREAKING OW MAN!!! Lynn has a big bump under his eye. Van Daminator gets two. Rob sets up the Van Terminator with a ladder over Lynn’s face and it’s enough for the pin at 13:16. So Lynn can get up from a Van Daminator after two seconds but he can’t move after about 30 seconds of sitting in the corner?

Rating: B. Good match but it’s going to be overrated because it’s Lynn vs. Van Dam. This was more about the weapons and the violence than the whole psychology which was the standard of their old matches. The fans were of course into it because these guys used to be huge in ECW like 10 years ago. It was entertaining though and that’s the point of these matches.

They hug afterwards, meaning I guess it’s cool to cost Van Dam a title shot. I guess he doesn’t seem to mind or whatever.

We recap the triple threat which is all about getting the world title shot or something. It’s the first I’ve heard of that but they’re talking about it which is the right idea. Joe went crazy and hurt Crimson once Joe was mathematically eliminated from the BFG Series so Morgan went after him for being a bully. Hence the triple threat.

Samoa Joe vs. Matt Morgan vs. Crimson

New music for Crimson. I’m not digging it. Joe tries to get both guys to fight each other but they beat him up instead. Joe is wearing red and blue tights while the others are both in white. Morgan’s continue to be way too small for him. Crimson hits the floor against his wishes and Joe takes down Morgan with ease. Crimson tries to steal a pin off a Morgan side slam but just gets one.

The non-Samoans are sent to the floor so Joe tries a huge suicide elbow. Morgan steps to the side so Crimson takes all of it. As Crimson gets up and brawls with Joe, Morgan goes up and dives onto Crimson from the top. Not a good few seconds for the red one there. Back in Crimson suplexes Joe and Morgan tries to steal the pin. We’re into the triple threat formula here and that’s all fine and good.

The non-Samoans slug it out and Morgan takes him down, only for Joe to trip him up and pull him to the floor. Crimson’s leg injury is fine by the way, despite him having it on Impact. Joe loads up the MuscleBuster on Crimson but Morgan comes in to break it up. I’ve never gotten that. Why wouldn’t he let Joe take Crimson out? Anyway Crimson sends Morgan to the floor and Crimson hits the spear on Joe for the pin at 7:15.

Rating: C. Not much here and this was something you could have seen on any Impact. To be fair though, there was no real heat on this match as it was all about pride or whatever. I mean, we have to have the TV Champion fighting Scott Baio in his underwear so we can’t have the TV out there. It’s TNA though so titles mean less and less all the time other than the world title. This was probably going to be the weakest match on the card and it was certainly watchable.

Ray says he needs no introduction and talks about himself anyway. He buries Philadelphia, talking about how he’s never liked it here and he’s used the idiot fans for years to get where he is. This was really needed because Ray would have been the crowd favorite otherwise.

Bully Ray vs. Mr. Anderson

Anderson charges the ring and we start fast. Remember that this is a falls count anywhere match. Anderson tries to control early but Ray kicks his head off and puts Anderson down. Is there a reason why Anderson wears his shirt in his matches anymore? Ray chops him haRD in the corner (not good enough for all caps but decent) as Anderson’s hair is uh….weird. Anderson goes to the floor and takes a sign which has to be loaded. Yep there’s a metal sign in there and Ray goes down in a heap. Dead end sign and it goes over Ray’s head again.

They fight on the floor and a fan throws a beer on Ray. Anderson gets two on the floor and they go up the ramp. Anderson is infinately more entertaining when you let him stop wrestling. Ray reverses a suplex on the stage for two. Ray grabs the mic and talks about New York but Anderson beats him down and says this is Philadelphia. They head into the back and Ray hits a piledriver onto the concrete for two. Anderson gets choked with a red chair.

Back into the arena and they’re near the Spanish announce area. That has to be a copyrighted brawling area. Anderson takes part of the railing away and slides it into the ring but Ray beats him down and sets up a table. There’s another set up on the floor as well. Ray gets backdropped onto the railing and it’s bent.

Anderson goes up and misses the swanton onto the railing, allowing Ray to hit the Bubba Bomb (why is it not the Bully Bomb?) for two. I thought that was the ending. Anderson gets in a trashcan shot and loads Ray up onto the table on the floor. He goes up and channels his inner Jeff Hardy. There’s the huge Swanton BUT THE TABLE DIDN’T BREAK! FREAKING OW MAN!!! A Mic Check onto the table finally ends this at 14:28.

Rating: C+. This is one of those matches that was fun to watch. It wasn’t technically good or anything but if you’re expecting it to be you’re totally missing the point. This was a fun weapons match, although I kind of question having two of them on the same show like they did with Lynn and Van Dam. Decent match here and rather entertaining.

Bischoff is talking to a referee and says it’s a big night. It’s implied that the referee is in Immortal’s pocket. Eric says Hogan has to win and Sting has to be taken out for good. It’s revealed that Jackson James, the referee, is the son of Bischoff. This is treated as a shock by the announcers.

Knockouts Title: Winter vs. Velvet Sky vs. Mickie James vs. Madison Rayne

Karen is referee and Winter is champion. The crowd is WAY into Velvet. Winter is in a coat of some kind and Angelina is in a pink corset. Karen looks good in her referee stuff and Madison gives her the tiara. They have to tag here and it’s Winter vs. Mickie to start. Winter controls early but Mickie snaps off the slick rana in the corner and a neckbreaker puts Winter on the floor.

Madison comes in sans tag and tries to slap Mickie or throw something in her face but it doesn’t work. They’re playing up the Karen factor a lot here as the fix is in or something like that. Mickie goes to the floor and Velvet comes in. I guess it’s lucha tag rules. Velvet hits a bulldog but Karen ties her shoes instead of counting. Velvet and Mickie have to fight but shake hands first.

Both get rollups but Karen won’t count for either of them. The fans are all over this in a hurry. They slug it out for a bit with no real purpose because Karen isn’t going to count. Winter and Madison pull them to the floor and that’s a tag in a way I guess. Madison is in there finally and make that all four are in now. The good girls take over and the fans aren’t going to stick with this much longer.

Mickie vs. Winter at the moment but Mickie won’t cover because there’s no point to it. She beats Winter down but argues with Karen, allowing Angelina to give Winter blood. It gets loaded up but Mickie ducks, sending the blood into Karen’s eyes. I typed that before it happened. There’s the jumping DDT and here’s Traci. Things totally break down and Velvet hits the double underhook X Factor to win the title at 8:45.

Rating: D+. They wanted Velvet winning to be a huge moment and it just wasn’t. There was so much going on here and most of it wasn’t anything we haven’t seen before so this wasn’t much to see. Winter’s second reign was about as worthless as her first but at least there’s the title reign for Velvet which has taken forever to get to. Not the big moment they were looking for though.

Kaz doesn’t know who to cheer for in the I Quit match but he hopes Daniels sees the light after it’s over.

We recap Daniels vs. Styles #4895 which is about Daniels being way too excited about beating him on a fluke and turning heel on him, setting up an I Quit match.

AJ Styles vs. Christopher Daniels

It sounds like new music for both guys. AJ has another new remix. This is I Quit. There’s also no pyro for anyone tonight so far. The guys have the mic here and it’s a brawl to start. Daniels is asking if it’s over about 30 seconds in with a choke on AJ. AJ hooks a bridging Indian Deathlock and Daniels says no. We’re in that place in the match where they’re trying for fast submissions but no one believes it’s happening yet.

AJ hits his leapfrog/drop/dropkick spot and we head to the floor. AJ hits a flip dive and both guys are down. They find a tool box and Daniels tries to stab AJ with a screwdriver. The maiming attempt fails and they fight to the apron where they botch some kind of a suplex move. The screwdriver is stuck in the buckle. AJ has pink on his tights for breast cancer awareness month. Nothing wrong with that.

AJ still won’t quit so Daniels busts out the BME to AJ while he’s on his knees, making it more like Shadows Over Hell (Delirious move). Off to a half crab and of course AJ doesn’t quit. A spin kick is blocked and Daniels gets a backbreaker. There’s no eyeliner on Daniels either which is a weird look. He’s in tights instead of shorts too. It’s chair time and Chris sits down on it with the bar over AJ’s throat. Styles is bleeding over the top of the head, right around his hairline.

Daniels says everything AJ has in TNA will belong to him and he never wanted to hear AJ say I qu….”oh no I’m not saying it.” The fans chant for him to shut up and Daniels lets up for some reason. He looks into the camera and talks to Wendy (AJ’s wife) and says take the kids out of the room because they shouldn’t see their father murdered. Yeah this isn’t overkill at all.

AJ gets fired up and hits the backflip reverse DDT. Styles Clash fails and Daniels misses the BME. He shouts DIE AJ but runs into the Pele and the Clash. So….how does this make Daniels say he quits? AJ picks up the chair but grabs the screwdriver instead. And Daniels quits to avoid the pain ala JBL vs. Cena in 05. He quit at 13:52.

Rating: C. I’m not a fan of these matches because the ending is either the heel giving up after being hurt for a few seconds or giving up before something big happening. I wasn’t into this and the fans weren’t really either. I think they were going for a big ending and emotional moment but it never got to the level they were hoping for.

As AJ is leaving, Daniels jumps him and plants him with Angel’s Wings on the ramp, meaning this is going to continue.

We recap the final two matches on the card but here’s Jeff Jarrett.

He yells about Jeff Hardy and says no one here wants anything to do with Hardy. The fans chant for Hardy as Jarrett buries the city. He calls out Hardy and here he is with new music. They brawl with Hardy only saying a few words and it’s a brawl. This isn’t a match. Security comes out to break it up but Hardy gets free for a bit as happens in most brawls. That happens with both guys more than once. The agents come in and we get a D’lo chant. Hardy is left in the ring and poses to his music.

We recap Hogan vs. Sting. I’m shocked this isn’t the main event. The recap covers like a year and a half which is all about Hogan stealing the company from Dixie and Sting trying to get the control back for Dixie because it’s her’s.

Now the announcers talk about the match and how big it is.

Hulk Hogan vs. Sting

This is a “fight” remember, so Hogan is in an Impact Wrestling shirt and black tights. Dixie Carter is in the audience. If Hogan loses, Sting and Dixie get control of the company. Sting is in his Hogan shirt again. Jackson James, Bischoff’s son, is the referee. Before anything of note happens, Hogan waves out someone and it’s Flair. Dixie isn’t happy. And they lock up. We get a headlock in this “fight”.

Hogan Hulks Up and there goes the bandana. Sting throws off the Hogan shirt too. The fans sound into it so points for that. Hogan puts on a neck crank and we look at Dixie again. It’s in a rest hold so no complaints there. Hogan keeps crotch chopping. All Hogan so far with him sending Sting to the floor so Flair can pound away a bit with chops and a low blow.

All Hulk still as he hammers away on Sting on the floor. There’s some kind of object given to Hogan by Flair and Hulk pounds away with it. Sting is busted and Hogan struts and WOOs. Sting fires back and Hogan is in trouble. He keeps going to the floor to chase Flair and this time gets the object from him. Flair tries to warn Hulk but he can’t get away in time. Hulk is busted.

There’s the splash and down goes Flair. Hogan takes another splash and Hogan is down in the middle of the ring. Here’s the Scorpion and Sting gets it on full. He sits down on it and Hogan taps out right in front of the referee…..and he rings the bell for the submission at 9:49. The fans are not happy….like at all.

Rating: D+. The ending hurt it a lot but the fans were WAY into this. Tis is a fine example of a match where the match wasn’t the important part. However, there was nothing important to see here and the ending didn’t work at all for the most part. Keeping it short was good but Eric’s son wound up meaning almost nothing at all.

Immortal runs out for the beatdown with the chairs and Abyss is watching from behind the stage. Eric sets for a chair shot but his son takes the chair away. Down goes the son and Hulk is getting up. For no apparent reason Hulk turns face and beats up Immortal. Hogan and Sting clean house and Flair takes the brunt of the beating. Bischoff is cowering in the corner.

Hogan and Sting go back to back and stare each other down. They don’t shake hands but Hogan beats up Bischoff. This makes absolutely NO SENSE but the fans are more into it than anything ever in TNA. Hogan says he’s back and kicks Bischoff out of the ring. Hogan and Sting stare it down again and Sting wants Hogan to pose. They play to the crowd and that’s about it.

We recap Roode vs. Angle and I think you know the drill here.

TNA World Title: Bobby Roode vs. Kurt Angle

It’s 10:36 when the bell rings so they have about 20 minutes or so, barring them going right up to the hour. They head to the floor for a few seconds and Angle kicks him low on the way back in. Angle is coming in with a legit hamstring injury. They go to the mat and Angle works on a gutwrench. The fans are all behidn Roode. The American hits a German on the Canadian and make it three of them, getting a two count.

Kurt sets for the moonsault but Roode suplexes him off and Kurt lands on his head. The fans went SILENT after that. Kurt seems to be ok as they slug it out. Roode hits a forearm and some clotheslines to take over. Blockbuster hits for what looked to be three but they’ll call it two. Belly to belly gets two for the champ as does a DDT. Angle Slam is countered into the spinebuster (no pop at all for it) for two.

Angle does the run up the rope suplex for two. They’re really just using signature stuff here instead of a longer match. Roode grabs the Crossface out of nowhere and Kurt can’t reach a rope. Angle teases tapping but he grabs the ankle to escape the hold. Now Roode is in the submission and teases tapping but reverses right back into the Crossface in the middle of the ring. Angle reverses again and is put in the hold on the other arm this time. Kurt rolls through into the Slam for two.

Back to the ankle but Roode kicks him off and hits the spinebuster to still not much of a reaction. The crowd just does not care after the Hogan vs. Sting stuff. Fisherman’s suplex gets two. The dueling chants start up and Kurt hooks the ankle again. Angle Slam is countered into an armdrag as the fans are starting to get into this a bit. Angle gets the referee in between them and kicks Roode low. There’s another Slam and it only gets two again.

Time for more rolling Germans but Roode reverses into the Crossface again, this time on the left arm which is the one that I think it’s been on more often than the right one. Roode’s face is really bad when he’s got these holds on. Kurt’s arm is under the ropes so the hold is broken. Spear gets two for Angle. I’m so over the move I can’t stand it anymore. Angle goes up for something but jumps into the Crossface. Kurt escapes and tries the Slam but Roode tries the Fisherman’s into another Slam and Kurt grabs the rope….for the pin at 14:20. Oh….oh no they can’t be doing this. Roode’s arm was under the ropes too.

Rating: C. The ending cripples this. It wasn’t a classic before that but the ending hurt it more than I can comprehend. The match was so based on having finishers escaped and kicked out of and all that stuff which was the vast majority of the match. Not horrible but man, that ending is actually standing and it’s over. That CRIPPLED things.

Overall Rating: B+. The ending to this show brings it way down. I mean WAY down. There isn’t a truly bad match on the whole card but there isn’t a classic either. Still, it’s a very good show and worth checking out, but the ending to the main event hurt this like nothing else. There was zero point to having Angle go over there and he was helped out by the trainer post match so maybe he was legit hurt. I’m in awe over that ending. The rest of the show was solid though and Hogan’s illogical heel turn is fun stuff. Worth seeing, but prepared to roll your eyes at the main event.

Results
Austin Aries b. Brian Kendrick – Brainbuster
Rob Van Dam b. Jerry Lynn – Van Terminator
Crimson b. Samoa Joe and Matt Morgan – Spear to Joe
Mr. Anderson b. Bully Ray – Mic Check through a table
Velvet Sky b. Winter, Mickie James and Madison Rayne – Sitout facebuster to Rayne
AJ Styles b. Christopher Daniels – Daniels said he quit
Sting b. Hulk Hogan – Scorpion Deathlock
Kurt Angle b. Bobby Roode – Angle Slam

Monday Night Raw
Date: May 14, 2001
Location: US Bank Arena, Cincinnati, Ohio
Attendance: 12,022
Commentators: Jim Ross, Paul Heyman

We’re just one week away from the big tag match but first we have one more show to get through. It’s the go home show for Judgment Day which is pretty much the end of the Two Man Power Trip vs. the Brothers so we’re going to be through that. There isn’t much else here to talk about so let’s get to it.

We open with a video from Smackdown of Taker waiting on Austin all night, including chilling in his locker room and stealing the vest. This includes a clip of Vince hitting Taker in the back with a chair that was in the Smackdown intro for awhile. Kane made his return to make the save.

Here’s Austin to open the show and he gets a solid reaction. They just didn’t want to boo him. Here’s the Game as well. Steph gives her husband a big introduction and isn’t quite that big herself yet. HHH says Kane should have just stayed away, but Kane couldn’t just stay away. For some reason, HHH offers Kane an IC Title match at the PPV in a chain match. HHH wants Kane here now but it’s Austin’s turn to talk.

He says he’ll keep the title and he doesn’t need to jump people from behind like Taker did to him. Austin demands more respect. For some reason, he wants to defend the tag titles against the Brothers. What’s up with the brave heels tonight? Austin says the tall ones won’t do it because they can’t and that draws out Taker.

Taker doesn’t approve of being called a coward and says he’s looking for someone brave enough to fight him. On behalf of Kane, Taker accepts HHH’s challenge which Kane would win. The tag title match is on too. Taker says that Austin said he doesn’t like traps. That means he’s not going to like this then and cue Kane’s fire. Kane pops up out of nowhere and they chase off the champs.

Kurt comes in to see Regal and it’s Kurt vs. Rikishi tonight. If Kurt wins, he gets to pick the kind of match he and Benoit have on Sunday.

Kurt Angle vs. Rikishi

Kurt tries to get behind him and suplex Rikishi and after about two seconds he goes over and hammers away instead. A clothesline puts Angle on the floor and we slug it out on the outside for a bit. Kurt avoids a drop and tries to hammer away but Rikishi is too big. They go into the corner and Rikishi loads up the Stinkface but here’s Regal for the DQ. Angle hits the Slam post match. Regal would beat Rikishi on Sunday where Rikishi would hurt I believe his shoulder and would be out until December. This match was nothing and pretty short.

There are cops on the way to find Taker.

Crash comes up to talk to Molly and he doesn’t like her talking to Spike. These two aren’t good talkers at all. Crash has a Hardcore Title match tonight. He’s only a 12 time champion here and says you can’t trust a Dudley.

Malenko wants to know what’s up with Eddie and Lita/Matt/Jeff. Saturn says Eddie is either with them or against them in the tag match tonight.

Here’s Trish who has music now. She says Vince won’t approve of this. The fans want to see more of her. Maybe they’d like to see more of all the Divas. There’s a new Diva video and here’s a clip of it. Lita and Trish in bikinis is never a bad thing.

The cops are talking to Taker in the locker room. The cop comes out and Taker bolts out the door. After a break the cop says Taker’s wife had a car accident and Taker is being escorted there. And you know that no one has ever lied about something like that in wrestling.

Hardy Boys vs. Perry Saturn/Dean Malenko

Lita is getting ready for a match later so the Hardys are on their own. Jeff and Perry start us off. Whisper in the Wind gets two and it’s off to Dean who cheats a bit. Dean works on the leg for a bit as JR gets the upcoming show announcements in. Everything breaks down and Perry has a chair from somewhere. Eddie steals it from him and the Twist of Fate ends Saturn. This was even shorter than the other match.

Post match Eddie clocks Saturn with the chair and officially turns face. Eddie would be gone from the company by the end of the month and wouldn’t be back for almost a year due to going to rehab and then getting released for a drunk driving arrest.

Austin talks to the cop and asks how Taker took the news. He’s a bit too happy about Taker being gone.

Hardcore Title: Crash vs. Rhyno

Crash speeds things up to start and hits a dive on the floor for two. A top rope trashcan lid shot to the head gets two. Rhyno takes over with a big shot and covers but Spike pops up out of nowhere to put Crash’s foot on the rope. Rhyno gets up and Gores Crash for the quick pin anyway. Crash beats up Spike post match. That was kind of odd.

Kane arrives in gear and Regal says it’s a handicap main event. If Kane doesn’t fight, both he and Taker are fired.

Edge/Christian vs. Chris Benoit/Chris Jericho

Benoit still has Angle’s medals. Jericho vs. Christian to start but it’s off to the Canadian quickly. Oh wait that needs some more doesn’t it? It’s Benoit who beats on Christian for awhile, mainly with chops. Edge comes in and walks into a German from The Canadian. Edge breaks up a Crossface attempt and Christian takes over for a bit. The reverse DDT is countered into another Crossface attempt and another Edge save. I know he carried the team for awhile but this is ridiculous.

Off to Edge legally and they chop it out for a bit. The only one of these four that is still active comes in and chokes away. Edge and Christian didn’t really have any big kind of offensive repertoire at this point so them winning in a way other than cheating or a rollup or the occasional spear was rare. Benoit dives for a tag but Christian makes another save.

Benoit finally gets a hot tag a few seconds later and things speed up a lot. Jericho hooks the Walls on Edge but now Christian makes the save. It’s Conchairto time but they miss, sending the chairs together. Benoit dropkicks the chairs into their faces and here’s Angle to steal his medals back. Jericho hits a Lionsault on Edge for the pin.

Rating: C. Not bad here and it’s really a tuneup for Benoit/Jericho taking the tag titles next Monday. They would be in a tag team turmoil match on Sunday to get the shot. Edge and Christian were on their final legs as a team here because they’ve outgrown the division and have nothing left to prove. It would take Christian years to get over as a singles guy though.

Angle celebrates on the ramp with his medals but Benoit says he hopes Angle finds them sweet, because they’re made of candy. He pulls the real medals out of his tights and says come get them on Sunday.

Post break Angle is still ticked and doesn’t know what he’s going to pick for the stipulations on Sunday.

Jericho talks about how he and Benoit beat Edge and Christian but the evil Canadians jump him and give him a Conchairto.

Here’s Regal who makes it a handicap match later tonight. Didn’t he already do that? Also the chain match is confirmed. Regal vs. Rikishi on Sunday as well. He gets ready to leave and here’s….Grandmaster Sexay? He says Regal needs to chill because Rikishi is cool now. Sexay is very annoying. Regal says he has no idea what Sexay just said and I’m not sure I did either. Sexay wants Regal to dance. He brings in four decent looking girls from ringside to dance with them. The look on Regal’s face is hysterical. Sexay suggests Regal doesn’t like women so Sexay dances with the girls. Regal finally beats him and Rikishi doesn’t save.

Debra is with Austin and is sad about Taker’s wife’s car crash. Austin says it won’t ever happen to her.

We recap the Canadian tag match and Jericho taking the Concharito.

I don’t know why or how, but that transitions into Rock on NBC Dateline.

Lita/Chyna vs. Molly Holly/Ivory

I don’t get that transition either. Ivory is the only heel in this match. Ivory vs. Lita to start us off. Lita does fine for a bit but Chyna won’t tag in. Molly comes in and Lita is kind of in a handicap match here. Molly hits the Molly Go Round but Chyna makes the save. A sloppy Twist of Fate sets up the moonsault for the pin on Molly. More or less a handicap squash.

Austin comes in to see Regal to make sure he understands the main event. He asks Regal if he thinks it’s fair to Kane. Austin demands that it be for the tag titles. Ok then.

Lita says she doesn’t know what Chyna was doing out there but she’ll get her Sunday. Chyna pops up to say that Lita needed to prove something to her. This didn’t mean anything as Chyna destroyed her in like 5 minutes Sunday and wouldn’t be seen again. She also says don’t trust Eddie.

We get a clip from earlier with Taker bolting from the arena.

The Austin racecar is at WWF New York. The driver is there too and doesn’t have much to say.

Stephanie talks to HHH who has a racecar debuting soon. She can’t get excited about it because she can’t stop thinking about the car wreck. HHH and Austin talk about how bad Taker’s wife might be after the wreck.

APA/Test vs. Big Show/Bull Buchanan/Goodfather

Show got a Stinkface on Smackdown at Test’s instruction so there’s your backstory. The good guys beat down Big Show before the RTC gets here. Oh never mind they’re here now. After a brawl we start with Goodfather vs. Faarooq but it’s off to Buchanan quickly. Big Show vs. Test at the PPV. Bradshaw comes in for a bad swinging neckbreaker. This is a rather sloppy match. Lukewarm tag brings in Test who hits a full nelson slam on Goodfather. Big Show comes in and botches a low bridge spot to send himself to the floor. Not that it matters as he hits Test with the steps and Buchanan steals the pin. Another short match.

Kane says this is for Sarah and Taker. He has a chain with them and says it’s for Austin and HHH.

Austin says he feels no remorse.

Tag Titles: Kane vs. Steve Austin/HHH

Kane has the chain with him. He also has a broken arm. They head to the floor quickly and Austin starts in on the arm. It doesn’t look like the champions have to tag. A double clothesline puts the champs down and Austin takes a powerslam. There’s a chokeslam but HHH jumps off the top with a chain shot and it gets thrown out.

Rating: C. No idea what to call this otherwise as it’s barely over three minutes long. The idea here was to get the guys out there and set up the post match beatdown which is kind of pointless since Kane already has a broken arm in the first place but whatever. Either way, not much of a match here but it could have been a lot worse which is the bright spot I guess.

Austin and HHH beat down Kane and Austin says Taker’s wife will be fine. I think the accident was faked by them to beat down Kane.

Overall Rating: B-. This was a pretty weak show but it was a very solid go home show for the PPV. Everything got at least some time which is the right idea for a show such as this. The PPV wound up pretty decent if I remember correctly. We’re still a few months away from entering the Alliance Era so we have that on the horizon. Anyway, good go home show here.

Here’s Judgment Day if you’re interested:

http://forums.wrestlezone.com/showthread.php?p=2877522#post2877522

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It’s the biggest TNA show of the year so I probably should have a thread about it.

My thoughts: I’m cautiously optimistic about the double main event because it should lead to the downfall of Immortal which has been needed for the last few months.  However, this is TNA we’re talking about so do you really expect them to get something this simple right?  I’m hoping for Roode over Angle, but that really does nothing for me.  It’ll be a good match, but it’s not something that brings to mind a classic when I think of it.  Roode feels like a tag wrestler who is hot right now.  This feels like it should be at Against All Odds, not BFG.

As for Hogan vs. Sting…..I’m not getting any hopes up.  It feels like it will be a total disaster.  Hogan has said he’s not taking any bumps in this and in this situation I think he’s telling the truth.  Other than that, I don’t know what to hope for here other than hopefully it’s VERY short.  This is going to be in Philadelphia and the fans are either going to love this or it’ll be as popular as a “no beer” sign on a Saturday night in the south.

Oh and the “no interference” thing in both mains is laughable.

Your thoughts/predictions for any part of the card?

Ring of Honor
Date: October 15, 2011
Location: Frontier Fieldhouse, Chicago Ridge, Illinois
Commentators: Kevin Kelly, Nigel McGuinness

It’s week four of this show and I believe the final episode in this batch of TV tapings. After this the show will be out of the Davis Arena in Louisville for a few weeks which is the home arena of OVW. I’m curious to see how they change things at the next batch of tapings but we have to go through with the original here still. Let’s get to it.

We open with a highlight package of last week’s world title match.

Here’s another video because this is a highlight show right? It’s about the Briscoes and how awesome they are and how much better they are than the All Night Express.

The All Night Express talk about how they’ve fought the Briscoes time after time and get closer to beating them every time.

Briscoe Brothers vs. All Night Express

This is for the #1 contendership. I have no idea which Briscoe is which but it’s Jay according to the announcers. Kenny King and Rhett Titus are the Express. King is the guy from Tough Enough 2. Kenny is sent to the floor quickly and it’s double beatdown time until Titus runs over for the save. This is a big feud with a bunch of hard hitting matches in it. Off to Titus who is getting double teamed now.

We’re into the heat segment here I guess as Titus gets beaten down for awhile. The Tweet of the Week talks about how this is wrestling, not sports entertainment. They head up to the corner where Titus is set for a superplex. He manages to counter into a Snake Eyes onto the buckle and it’s double hot tag. King cleans house with some decent flipping style moves. The Express hits a double team plancha, sending Titus over the top to take out the Briscoes.

A spinebuster by King sets up a double kneedrop off the top for two. A Briscoe hits a falcon arrow on King and the other hits a frog elbow for two. Titus and Mark fight over the announce table as Kenny gets kicked low and a small package by Jay is enough for the pin at 8:07.

Rating: C+. Decent match here but with the weeks of buildup I was expecting a little more than an eight minute match. The match was decent and the Briscoes are flashy enough to have something good going on, but their promos and gimmick gets annoying fast. Not bad here and a pretty entertaining match, but it needed more drama.

Post match the referee asks if Jay kicked him low and he says no. Titus gets up and is beaten down again as we go to a break.

After a break we establish that yes indeed, the clear low blow earlier was in fact a low blow.

Here’s a package on Wrestling’s Greatest Tag Team because why have them wrestle a match when you can talk about how great they are? Both of them list off their amateur accomplishments and it takes up WAY too much time.

After a break, Jim Cornette says neither team is the #1 contenders, making that match totally pointless.

Time for Inside ROH which is about the House of Truth and the possibility of Edwards vs. Richards II. The idea here is that Martini is a manipulator and everyone other than his boys think that. Michael Elgin, the power guy of Martini’s House of Truth Martini says Martini is awesome.

Richards and Edwards say they’re hunters and beating the other will be that next achievement.

Michael Elgin vs. Eddie Edwards

They grapple for a bit and then it’s time to strike each other a lot and no sell all of it! Elgin gets knocked down and then gets a delayed vertical suplex for two. Kelly said it felt like an eternity. It was really more like about 9 seconds but that’s an eternity of selling in this company so I guess that’s acceptable. Edwards snaps off a rana and goes to a half crab which is an Achilles hold according to him.

Lionsault gets two. And there goes the selling as Elgin grabs a spinebuster out of the corner for two as we take a break. Back with, and brace yourself for this, Edwards hammering away with forearms which don’t work as Elgin gets a side slam for two. Edwards fires off two superkicks and a suplex kind of move to put both guys down. Missile dropkick gets two.

Edwards hits a dive on the floor into the barricade and Kelly is overselling this way too strong. They start slugging it out and Kelly starts talking about the website. They actually CUT AWAY TO A GRAPHIC OF A WEB BROWSER TYPING THE WEBSITE’S NAME. I mean, we missed part of the match so we could see how to spell ROHwrestling. WOW. Elgin takes over and they go to the apron. Edwards hits his fourth superkick out there and a double stomp to take over.

Edwards tries his leg trap suplex but gets caught in a buckle bomb. That doesn’t work so well though. Not because it’s not a devastating move, which it was. However, Edwards was up and fine a few seconds later and hitting superkick #5. That lets him hit the Diehard (leg trap suplex which would be a lot more effective if it made sense as Elgin had to work with him to make it work) for the pin at 14:04.

Rating: C-. Not the worst match they’ve ever had but Edwards is more or less a Davey Richards clone with all of the strikes and the no selling and stuff like that. I don’t want to imagine a match betwee them but I think it’s been booked for the main event of the Final Battle show. Not much to see here.

Post match Roderick Strong comes out and gets in Edwards’ face. McGuinness gets in to make the save from the non-attack.

Overall Rating: C. Well it was a little better but at the same time there was nothing interesting here for the most part. It’s nice to see them actually having some stories, but we don’t need to have the 15 minutes of videos to establish these feuds through talking. A third match per show would do wonders for these guys to put it mildly. Not a horrible show but it’s the same uninspired stuff they’ve done for a month now.

Results
Briscoe Brothers b. All Night Express – Small Package
Eddie Edwards b. Michael Elgin – Diehard

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Smackdown
Date: October 14, 2011
Location: American Airlines Center, Dallas, Texas
Commentators: Michael Cole, Booker T, Josh Matthews

We have our main event set for the PPV and in short, this has to be better than Raw. I mean, I don’t think it’s possible for it to actually be worse. Expect one of the final two remaining pushes to go to the PPV and probably more of Cody vs. Orton. Also with this show, allegedly this is the second longest running episodic television show in history or something, so I’ll set the over/under on mentions of that at 7,000. Let’s get to it.

We open with a recap of the events with Show and Henry last week and Show beating up the champ. He has his title shot at Vengeance.

Do you know your enemy? Mine is being told I have to be somewhere at the very last second. Very annoying.

Here’s Teddy to open the show. Johnny Ace comes out too despite having no power on this show. Teddy says that to celebrate tonight, we’re having the largest battle royal in WWE history. The winner will get a title shot at any champion of his choosing tonight on Smackdown.

Battle Royal

There are 41 people in this and I’m not going to bother listing everyone off. Basically if they’re on the active roster, they’re in this. Cody Rhodes is the first person out. I’m really only going to list off people’s names as they’re out and I’ll only list big names. There’s almost no room to move in the ring so it’s almost impossible to see anything or call it. Striker is in there. We’re about two minutes in and only a handful of people are out.

O’Neil and Bateman are gone as is Striker. Booker: “I really thought Striker could do something special in this.” Cole: “Booker you’re an idiot.” Josh: “Everybody in the ring is in Booker’s Fave Five.” We take a break and the ring has cleared out a little bit. Josh says there are 32 people left in this so it’s still bigger than most Rumbles. Regal is gone. I don’t see Big Show out there but I don’t think he was there in the first place.

Morrison goes out with no theatrics and Ziggler is out immediately thereafter. The title match has to be against Henry or Del Rio. Some of the ring has cleared out a bit now and you can see some of the mat. Blue Cara wasn’t in this either for some reason. An Uso is out and we have 27 left. Orton and Punk fight which sounds like a very boring feud at this point. DiBiase and Kidd are out.

After a break we see Bryan tossed. You can see most of the people still in the match at this poitn. Mason Ryan puts out Hawkins and Reks at almost the same time. Miz and Truth have worked together almost the whole time. There go Drew and Gabriel as well as Ryan to get us down to 19. Of all people, Primo is still in there until Punk kicks his head off. We get some minor eliminations (Santino and Riley) before Swagger manages to dump Kofi. Rider is out too and we have about 13 or so.

Otunga is done and so is the other Uso. Sheamus puts out Jackson and is the only one standing. A big old Brogue Kick eliminates Slater to get us down to ten. Black Cara is powerbombed out as Sheamus has put out like 5 in a row. Christian tries a spear but gets caught in a high cross. That doesn’t work and there goes Captain Charisma. Punk puts out Truth but Miz puts out Punk but Sheamus Brogue Kicks Miz to the apron.

Ok so we’re down to Miz, Barrett, Orton, Christian, Swagger and Mahal. As I typed that Christian put Sheamus out. Punk and Truth are brawling on the floor and Orton puts out Barrett and Swagger. Mahal takes and RKO and is gone but Miz sneaks in and almost puts Orton out. They’re the final two. Orton starts up his finishing sequence but both finishers are countered. They go to the apron and slug it out and Orton is sent into the post. He manages to grab an RKO on the apron and wins at 15:50 shown of 19:20. Orton hit also but Miz clearly hit first.

Rating: C. This was a battle royal with a lot of people in it. I know a a lot of people don’t rate them and I find it very hard to do as well. There wasn’t really anything bad here and nothing was all that great either if that makes sense. It’s just a battle royal for the most part and there isn’t anything else to say.

Orton of course picks Henry.

Del Rio and Rodriguez are leaving but Teddy pops up. They say they’re leaving because Henry is defending tonight. Teddy says not so fast because he has to face Sheamus. Non-title I’d assume.

Beth Phoenix vs. Kelly Kelly

Kelly goes nuts to start but gets caught in a backbreaker out of the screaming headscissors. They’re the Sisters of Salvation now. Tornado DDT gets two as Booker says Kelly makes few mistakes in the ring. No wonder Andy hasn’t done anything yet in WWE. Kelly misses a charge and the Glam Slam ends this clean at 1:51. Remember when no one could beat Kelly? I don’t either.

Sin Cara vs. Justin Gabriel

It’s the blue one but in the back the black one jumps him and takes the mask. The black one takes his mask off and puts the blue one on after saying it’s his. Cole explains the backstory of Cara vs. Cara and while it makes sense, I’m not sure how great of a storyline it’s going to be with blue not being able to speak English. Cara (black in blue’s mask) takes over and dropkicks a jumping Gabriel down for two. Justin goes up again but gets dropped one more time and the Swanton ends this at 1:34.

Air Boom is with Teddy and Evan can’t wrestle due to the powerbomb from Swagger. Vickie comes in and demands a tag title match tonight. Teddy says no and here’s Rider to a big pop. He volunteers to replace Bourne and Vickie calls him the Little Woo Woo Woo Boy. The match is made.

Sheamus vs. Alberto Del Rio

Sheamus takes over early and hits the ten forearms to the chest. The fans are counting along with him now too. Alberto gets a shot in to the arm and let the psychology begin. The Codebreaker on the arm gets one. Sheamus fires back and I don’t think this is going to be very long. They’re moving way too fast for it to be a short one. There’s the Irish Curse backbreaker and that name is back on now. Sheamus goes up but Ricardo distracts the referee. Here’s Christian to shove Sheamus off the top and a kick to the head ends Sheamus at 3:55.

Rating: C. Not much here but while it lasted it was pretty good. They were in a rush and it hurt things but they were having a coherent match so it balances out pretty well. I think it’s better that they kept this short as these guys don’t seem like they would have had the best match in the world. This wasn’t bad but it was just kind of ok, which is primarily due to how fast they had to work.

Christian spears Sheamus post match. He gets up so Christian spears him again.

Vickie introduces her guys for the next match.

Kofi Kingston/Zack Ryder vs. Dolph Ziggler/Jack Swagger

Ryder’s music now starts with Woo Woo Woo You Know It. Ryder vs. Swagger to start us off. Off to Ziggler who has a bit more luck. So is it Ryan or Rider that is going to be the #1 contender for Ziggy? Kofi gets the hot tag very quickly and he hits a bunch of dropkicks to take over. He loads up Trouble in Paradise but Ziggler rolls to the floor. Why would you roll to the floor with a member of a team called Air Boom in the ring? Kofi hits a dive to both heels as we take a break.

Back with Kofi in trouble thanks to some commercial interference by Vickie. Kofi takes him down eventually and there’s the hot tag to Rider. They’re flying through this match. The Broski Boot gets two on Ziggler. Rider gets a knee to the face but can’t hit the Rough Rider. Off to the sleeper but Rider sends him into the post shoulder first. Swagger breaks up the tag but when the referee is getting him out, Kofi kicks Dolph’s head off and Rider gets another pin at 7:07 shown of 10:37.

Rating: C-. Where is this going? I mean, they’ve been going on with this thing for weeks now and we’re at the same place: the champs or some variation of them never lose to Swagger and Ziggler (fairly that is) and Rider keeps pinning Ziggler. When are we getting somewhere with this? The match wasn’t that great either.

Sheamus tells another Irish story about Christian and it’s something about a bull being bitten by a troll.

Video on Show vs. Henry.

Smackdown World title: Mark Henry vs. Randy Orton

Henry is in trouble early but just shoves Randy away. Orton gets sent into the railing and his shoulder goes into the post. Henry works on the neck and kind of the shoulder so I can’t complain about that. Orton fights back and Henry just runs him over. An elbow gets two and we take a break. Powerslam gets two when we’re back. A splash gets two. This is really boring so far. A Vader Bomb misses and Orton starts his comeback….and here’s Cody for the DQ at 7:05 shown of 10:35.

Rating: D. This felt like the main event of a weak house show. It just wasn’t interesting and it didn’t do anything at all. I really was bored by this and I didn’t see anything at all in it. Orton gets beaten up and then we have the required run in because that’s how house show matches end right? Bad main event.

Show comes out for the save and chokeslams Henry again to end the show.

Overall Rating: D+. This is by far the weakest Smackdown I’ve seen in months. I mean NOTHING interesting went down here. There’s a big battle royal and the top face wins it. Then the top face has a house show-style main event against a guy he was feuding with a few weeks ago. I have no idea what we gained on this show so just like with any other big milestone show, this was a disappointment.

Results
Randy Orton won a battle royal last eliminating The Miz
Beth Phoenix b. Kelly Kelly – Glam Slam
Sin Cara b. Justin Gabriel – Swanton Bomb
Alberto Del Rip b. Sheamus – Kick to the head
Kofi Kingston/Zack Rider b. Jack Swagger/Dolph Ziggler – Trouble in Paradise to Ziggler
Randy Orton b. Mark Henry via DQ when Cody Rhodes interfered

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Impact Wrestling
Date: October 13, 2011
Location: Knoxville Civic Auditorium, Knoxville, Tennessee
Commentators: Mike Tenay, Tazz

It’s the go home show for Bound For Glory and the card is mostly set I believe. The two big matches have been well built but I can’t say they have the same kind of pop as last year’s show did, at least not for me. I’d expect a final push to the show and a lot of work being done for the importance of how big this show is for TNA. Hogan vs. Sting should get roughly 7 segments. Let’s get to it.

We open with a video about the two main events as you would expect.

Hogan is here.

Angle opens the show and wants to talk to Roode one more time. He talks about how he had Roode fight Fourtune and Roode passed the test. Angle says he’s better than all of Fourtune and he’s the best ever, which he’s going to prove again at BFG. He offers a handshake but Roode grabs the mic again. Roode talks about having heart and says he wants a clean match. They shake hands and say no interference. The lack of hatred and everything being based on respect is really hurting this build for me.

Angle goes to leave but says that tonight it’s Roode vs. Gunner/Jarrett.

RVD, AJ, Daniels and Lynn are all brawling in the back.

The brawl is still going after a break and they’re out on the ramp now. There’s a bell. Ok so it’s a match.

AJ Styles/Rob Van Dam vs. Christopher Daniels/Jerry Lynn

It’s a big brawl to start as Rob is missing. Oh there he is. Things finally get down to Daniels vs. AJ but it’s off to Rob quickly. Rob gets beaten down by some double teaming. Daniels and Lynn have some decent chemistry for a random pairing. Hot tag brings in AJ and he cleans house. We go to the floor and it’s time to dive! AJ hits the springboard forearm back in and loads up the Clash but Daniels escapes. Lynn is back in and takes the Clash for the pin at 5:50.

Rating: C+. This was kind of a crazy match but I think that was the point with the way the match started. It’s a decent match and the dives were pretty good. I’m always a fan of combining two feuds like this as you can build them both fairly well at once and it saves some time for other stuff later. It’s an old booking idea but it works very well and it did so here.

Samoa Joe vs. Matt Morgan

Morgan is all fired up to start and hits a running knee to set up the corner elbows. Joe hammers away with his usual strikes but when he puts Morgan up top, Morgan jumps over him and rolls Joe up for the pin at 2:09. That came out of nowhere.

Post match Joe goes after Morgan’s leg and gets a hold on it until Crimson comes out with a chair to clear the ring. Joe yells about the two of them always ganging up on him. He suggests a three way at the PPV and the non Samoans say ok.

There’s a new Jeff Hardy DVD. I’ll keep quiet on that.

Here’s Mexican America who wants to have Ink Inc out here. The fans chant USA and the tattoo guys talk about the tattoo they gave Anarquia recently. Ink Inc tells them to get out and a brawl breaks out. Mexican America takes over so the tattoo chick from the tattoo parlor comes in for the save. The tag match is made post brawl.

Jesse Sorensen/Brian Kendrick vs. Austin Aries/Kid Kash

The good guys dive out onto the floor to get us going. Kash vs. Sorensen gets us going and Sorensen uses his speed stuff to get going. A McGillicutter gets two. The heels take over quickly and we’re waiting on the hot tag to Kendrick. Kash tries a springboard moonsault and is supposed to hit the knees but hits most of the move instead. There’s the hot tag to Kendrick who cleans a few rooms. He tries Sliced Bread on both heels at once which makes them fight. Sorensen goes into Kash and Aries gets the belt but Kendrick hits a superkick and Sliced Bread for the pin at 4:34.

Rating: C. Not a bad match but the opener did it better. The idea here was to set up the title match and give us a reason to think Kendrick can win. I don’t get the point in having Kash and Aries fight out there but they were trying something I guess. Not a horrible match but it was pretty generic.

Here are the four Knockouts in the title match on Sunday plus Angelina. Madison is brought out with Karen and Traci has to trail behind. Karen talks about how she got them the PPV match because no one else wanted them. She talks about how she’s better than they are and singles out Velvet. They yell a lot and then Traci helps shove Karen down. It’s brawl time and security pulls them apart.

Ray is the enforcer for Anderson vs. Steiner later and says don’t tick him off.

AJ rants about Daniels, saying he ruined the relationship their families have. AJ gets in his truck and says he’s ready for an I Quit match. He shuts the door to his truck and Daniels decks him, tying a cord around Styles’ throat. Daniels lets go saying he wants everyone to hear AJ quit on Sunday.

Scott Steiner vs. Mr. Anderson

Ray is the guest referee. Steiner goes straight at Anderson with the power and a belly to belly gets two. There are the elbows and it’s still all Steiner. Ray is talking trash since he’s very good at it. Anderson grabs a neckbreaker for two. Mic Check hits but he’s in the rope before the referee can raise his hand for one. Anderson takes out Ray but comes back in for a low blow with the referee looking at Steiner as if to say “oh come on” but it’s not a DQ. Here’s Abyss for no apparent reason with Ray’s chain. Steiner holds Anderson up and it hits Steiner but that’s not a DQ. It is however enough for a pin at 4:03.

Rating: D. Am I watching ECW or something? The referee wasn’t bumped or anything. He watched all that happen and was totally cool with all of it. I get that it’s to build to the Abyss face turn eventually but it still was pretty stupid overall. Was there any reason to not have this be a DQ win for Anderson? I mean it’s not like it changes the ending or anything.

Post match Ray yells at Abyss as Immortal runs out. Abyss gets tired of being yelled at so he grabs Ray by the throat. It’s time for the Immortal beatdown and Ray brings in a table. Anderson finally runs out for the save but Ray runs over him and the Bubba Bomb puts Anderson through the table.

Angle comes up to Storm and tries to bring him to the dark side. Storm says he’s talking to Bobby and that’s about it.

Jarrett and Gunner say nothing of note about Bobby.

We run down the BFG card, which looks pretty stacked.

Video on Bobby Roode who is on a roll. Angle talks about how he has the experience and no pressure on him.

Bobby Roode vs. Jeff Jarrett/Gunner

Roode grabs a chair but it gets taken away from him. He fights them off for a bit but the numbers catch up with him pretty quickly. Roode sets for the Blockbuster on Gunner but Jarrett makes the save and the beating continues. After a double suplex Jarrett and Gunner do the Beer Money taunt which ticks Roode off. There’s the Blockbuster to Jeff and Gunner is sent to the floor. Stroke is countered into the spinebuster and the crossface goes on both guys but gets the tap from Gunner at 3:58.

Rating: C. It’s juts a handicap match here and a way for Roode to look good. That’s fine but the whole respect thing isn’t doing much for me as far as the build for the match goes. Not a bad match but it doesn’t really tell us anything that we don’t already know. Not bad but it wasn’t too bad overally.

Immortal comes out for the beatdown and Storm’s save attempt fails. Angle comes out to beat on Roode too but before he can get a hand on him Jeff Hardy runs out for the save. Storm doesn’t like it and Roode isn’t sure if he should shake Jeff’s hand. Eventually he shakes it. Hardy goes to leave but Storm stops him. Storm raises Hardy’s arm and shakes his hand.

Jeff says he’s back. That’s Hardy by the way. Jarrett comes up and yells at Hardy over a lot of things. He says they’ve been friends for a long time and that Jeff is out of chances. Hardy says he’ll be at BFG.

With about 5 minutes left in the show, it’s time for the Hogan/Sting contract signing. Both are in Hogan shirts and Hulk doesn’t want to sign. Sting signs but Hogan isn’t on yet. Ok so he signs it. Hogan stands up and turns over the table. Sting’s yellow shoes are great. Hogan says he’s been watching Sting avoid Hogan for over thirty years. He talks about how Sting could have fought Hogan any time ever and finally gets him here. This is Hogan’s last match but it’s going to be a fight. You need a contract for a fight? Hogan swears no interference and keeps saying gut instead of got.

And here’s Bischoff with a rebuttal. He’s mad about Sting hurting him a few weeks ago and threatens Sting. Sting turns his back and Hogan pops him with a chair and hammers away in the corner. Sting is being choked out as we go off the air.

Overall Rating: B. This was an excellent go home show. Yeah I said it. I’ve made no secret about the fact that I’m less than thrilled with the choices for the double main event and think that Hogan and Sting need to go away instead of taking the main event picture up, but this show built up that and Kurt vs. Roode very well. The whole card got something and having the segments for the main events not really take up all of the show was a hue plus. The pacing was good here too and it made for a great build for BFG, which should be a good show. I’m stunned but this was the best TNA show I’ve seen in longer than I can remember.

Results
AJ Styles/Rob Van Dam b. Christopher Daniels/Jerry Lynn
Matt Morgan b. Samoa Joe – Rollup
Jesse Sorensen/Brian Kendrick b. Austin Aries/Kid Kash – Sliced Bread to Kendrick
Mr. Anderson b. Scott Steiner – Pin after Abyss hit Anderson with a chain
Bobby Roode b. Gunner/Jeff Jarrett – Crossface

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