~Last week on ECW, Mike Knox acts like a sore loser towards Tommy Dreamer, Kofi Kingston continues to rack up wins, Mike Adamle continues to stink up the joint with his horrible play-by-play skills, No Layla El and Kane gets jumped by Chavo and friends. Here's what went down this week:
-Kofi Kingston beats Shelton Benjamin for the second week in a row.
-Mike Knox defeats Tommy Dreamer.
-Matt Striker holds his talk show segment, "Matt Striker's Classroom" and this week's guest is the new Smackdown Color Commentator, Mick Foley. Striker immediately starts talking trash to Foley.
-However, Foley's not having it and hits Striker with the Mandible Claw.
-CM Punk wins his match against Chuck Palumbo by disqualification and gets laid out after the match by Palumbo.
-ECW commentators, Mike Adamle and Tazz, randomly leave the broadcast area and head backstage.
-Chavo Guerrero and his bodyguard, Bam Neely, beat ECW Champion, Kane, in a 2-on-1 handicap match.
Who the hell is Mike Knox?
Having both Mike Adamle and Tazz leave the broadcasting area was just...weird. I'm honestly not even sure if it was a work or not because when Adamle first left, Tazz kept asking him where he was going and then he was awkwardly silent...or maybe that's just acting 101. You be the judge.
I was really hoping for a feud between Shelton Benjamin and Kofi Kingston but instead it seems like Kofi is just going to bury him every single week. Come on, Kofi can lose at least one match to Shelton.
Mike Adamle's announcing skills are just bad, period.
ECW was really missing something this week...I think it was Layla El. Luckily, my ECW results post won't be Layla-free. Now my post is complete.
~Last week on Raw, there was loads of Backlash hype, "Hillary Clinton" and "Barack Obama" got destroyed by Umaga and Raw General Manager William Regal won the King of the Ring Tournament.
-The brand spanking new WWE champion, Triple H, comes down to the ring and announces that the "Age of Orton" is over.
-The former champ, Randy Orton, cuts HHH's celebration short and comes down to the ring. Orton tells the new champ that he is going to use his rematch clause at WWE's next PPV, Judgment Day. Eventually, Orton changes his mind and says he wants his rematch that night.
-WWE Women's Champion, Mickie James, Maria, Ashley, Michelle McCool, Kelly Kelly & Cherry beat Beth Phoenix, Victoria, Natalya, Melina, Jillian & Layla in a Backlash rematch.
-JBL runs over Robbie McAllister aka the guy who got caught at the TNA show in March. JBL calls out John Cena after the match.
-Paul London & Brian Kendrick defeat Lance Cade & Trevor Murdoch.
-Paul Birchill & Katie Lea beat Super Crazy in a 2-on-1 intergender handicap.
-Raw GM William Regal is officially coronated as King of the Ring after winning the tournament on Raw last week. He says that since he is Raw GM and King of the Ring, he is now the most powerful man in WWE.
-The Highlight Reel is up next and host, Chris Jericho, presents Shawn Michaels with the "Best Actor in Sports Entertainment" award for his "performance" at Backlash.
-Triple H and Randy Orton have their WWE Title rematch but halfway through the match, Raw GM William Regal goes to the production crew and says he felt disrespected by the WWE fans during his coronation, so he tells them to take the show off the air. So the show suddenly ends without a conclusion to the HHH/Orton match.
I thought that ending was just crazy. It was a good cliffhanger and I'm actually excited to see how this plays out next week.
Poor, poor Robbie McAllister.
I really wish Randy Orton was still WWE champion. This isn't because I think HHH sucks as champ but I was really getting into the whole "Age of Orton" thing and I felt like as soon as it was introduced, the "Age of Orton" ended and he lost the belt.
I'm a big fan of Kennedy and I have high hopes for his feud with William Regal. I'm also still pretty skeptical of having William Regal as King of the Ring but he is a solid talent so maybe he'll grow on me.
~Last night, WWE's April PPV event, Backlash, took place in Baltimore, Maryland. Here's what went down.
-The show starts off on the right foot with Mick Foley being announced as the new Smackdown color commentator. He replaces Jonathan Coachman. Woo-hoo.
-Matt Hardy defeats MVP to become the new WWE United States Champion.
-Kane leaves Chavo Guerrero for dead and retains the ECW Championship.
-WWE Champion, Randy Orton, reminds everyone that they are living in the "Age of Orton" and that the WWE Title is going to stay with him after Backlash.
-Big Show beats The Great Khali.
-Shawn Michaels fakes a knee injury during his match with Batista. Then, Batista gets suckered into Sweet Chin Music and loses the match to Michaels.
-Beth Phoenix pins Ashley to get the win for her team in the 12-Diva tag match.
-The Undertaker kills Edge to retain the World Heavyweight Title.
-Triple H is the last man standing and beats JBL, John Cena and Randy Orton to become the new WWE champion.
-Randy Orton is put on suicide watch.
Foley was AWESOME on commentary! No dead air. No awkward pauses. Insightful analysis. Mick Foley, where have you been these last few months for Smackdown?
Speaking of commentary, Mike Adamle wasn't bad tonight. However, he did mess up the name of the referee in the only match he called that night (Kane vs. Chavo), which I thought was kind of funny.
I really liked the finish to the Matt Hardy/MVP match. It really was a solid opener and a big win for Hardy.
The finish to the Michaels/Batista match was pretty sweet as well. Michaels is such a good seller, I can never tell when he's really hurt and when he isn't. Batista = Silly Rabbit.
My girl, Layla El, was looking good, as usual, in the 12 Diva tag match.
They are selling the new gogoplata finisher The Undertaker does as certain death for anyone who happens to get caught in it. I prefer 'Taker's old finisher, the Tombstone Piledriver, but I can respect the fact that Undertaker wants to upgrade his moveset every once in a while.
Ha ha ha. Khali chop?
Overall, I thought Backlash was a solid show. I enjoyed all the matches, some way more than others, but I enjoyed all the matches. Plus, the addition of Mick Foley to the Smackdown commentary team was great. My only beef was the fact that loads of people were cut from the show like CM Punk (minus a three second cameo), Shelton Benjamin, John Morrison & The Miz, Santino Marella, Umaga, Finlay, Carlito, Festus, Jonathan Coachman (just kidding with that one) and that's all I can think of at the moment, but that was my only minor problem with the show.
Lately, there seems to be more of a MMA influence in pro wrestling. For example, a few weeks back, Samoa Joe and Kurt Angle, for a large part of their match at Lockdown, used MMA-based offense like low kicks and ground and pound, The Undertaker uses a gogoplata as a finisher and I think ROH's Davey Richards uses a kimura as a submission finisher. What do you all think of this?
Here's an example:
Do you think pro wrestling should include more elements of MMA, if so, what? Or should MMA and wrestling just stay seperate?
"I hate Taker using the Gogo I absolutely hate it.
It's one of the toughest submissions in [Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu] and can only be achieved if you are well versed in the rubber guard and are able to catch an opponent.
While Taker may enjoy mma he should have used a much more realistic finisher that someone his size could easily pull off like an anaconda or a triangle, not one of the toughest submissions the gogo."
"I dont think Wrestling should do MMA but rather do a Japanese style influence its hard hitting without the rules of MMA and i think these could work better than Wrestling trying to do things that there not."
-Jay M. Punkster (Wrestling Clique)
"When you say "MMA" people automatically make the association of "MMA = real fighting," because it is. And if MMA is real fighting, then what is pro wrestling? So, at no point in time should pro wrestling ever acknowledge the existance of the sport of Mixed Martial Arts. Doing so immediately draws attention to the fact that pro wrestling is "fake," and destorys kayfabe, the viewers suspension of disbelief, and sometimes even the fourth wall. Anyone who ever says "MMA" on a pro wrestling telecast should be shot.
Having said that, it wouldn't hurt pro wrestling in general include more realism and be a bit more respectable. In fact in my opinion the more realism the better. If I had my way there would never be a closed fist punch on a WWE televast ever again, sleeper holds would be sold as devestatingly effective and finish matches, and there would never be a phantom strike again either because I think that if you're going to hit somebody in pro wrestling then you should hit 'em. I don't think full blown shoot style is really necessary (although I love it), but like, even just watered down punishment style would be nice. That would improve the quality of WWE's wrestling by about 700%. Hahaha.
But yeah, pro wrestling should stay faaaar the fuck away from MMA.
Although, on the flip side of the coin, MMA and it's fans need to recognise that MMA's roots are in pro wrestling and pay pro wrestling some fucking respect for a change, because the organised MMA we see today is just shoot pro wrestling.
And for the record, the Kimura and gogoplata aren't MMA based offense, they're Jiu Jitsu based offense. MMA has no native techniques because it's not a martial art, it's a sport comprised of many different competitors who utilise many martial arts. Labelling a Kimura lock as "MMA based offense" or as an "MMA technique" because it's utilised in MMA sometimes is like calling a regular punch "MMA based offense" just because MMA fighters throw punches."
"I personally like the odd MMA move injected here and there - gives wrestling a different feel to it and freshen up the product a bit. I like taker's Gogo hold - just not during the match itself. If it was built up as a move outside of matches - like orton's punt to the head - it would be fine. but by applying it during the match, his shoulders are on the mat and should technically be counted as a pin, much like the surfboard hold."
-aaron (Wrestling Clique)
"Also in the way [The Undertaker] applies [the gogoplata] it's an illegal choke."
~Last week on Smackdown, The Undertaker and Batista fought to a no-contest, Big Show got laid out by The Great Khali, Cherry upset Victoria and MVP beat Tommy Dreamer. This week's episode is headlined by The Undertaker vs. Batista rematch for the World Heavyweight Title.
-The show starts with "La Familia" (Edge, Chavo Guerrero, Smackdown General Manager, Vickie Guerrero, Bam Neely, Zach Ryder, Curt Hawkins and Teddy Long). Edge says he'll be the new World Heavyweight Champion after he wins his match at Backlash and he says Chavo Guerrero will beat Kane to be the new ECW Champion.
-Randomly, CM Punk comes out and reminds everyone that he holds the Money in the Bank briefcase, meaning he can receive a world title shot whenever he wants within the next year. GM Guerrero announces that it'll be Edge vs. CM Punk later that night.
-Shannon Moore picks up a win over The Miz.
-Natalya runs through Cherry.
-Matt Hardy and WWE US Champion, MVP, have a confrontation before their match at Backlash. Hardy says he's gonna win the belt and MVP doesn't like that.
-So, MVP hits Hardy in the face with the belt. Take That!
-Edge defeats CM Punk.
-Vladimir Kozlov beats on some chump.
-Shawn Michaels, who has a match against Batista at Backlash, interferes in his match against The Undertaker.
-This leads to The Undertaker winning the match and retaining the World Heavyweight Title.
John Morrison was on commentary during the Miz/Shannon Moore match and he had some pretty funny lines. They should replace Coach and put Morrison in instead.
Cherry still has horrible theme music.
Speaking of Cherry, she got completely handled by Natalya this week. In my opinion, Natalya had a solid in-ring debut and I'm excited to see more matches featuring her.
Although the Big Show/Great Khali match at Backlash will probably be pure garbage, there was a pretty good highlight video of the Show/Khali feud shown. I think this is going to be way better than the actual match.
That was a solid segment with MVP and Matt Hardy! I know Hardy's gonna take that title though.
Vladimir Kozlov is the man!.
The last 5 minutes of the Edge/CM Punk match was just awesome. The crowd was so into it. I think it was the match of the night.
WWE Backlash Preview ~WWE's latest PPV event, Backlash, is gonna take place later tonight. Here's the announced card:
WWE Title Fatal Four Way Match Randy Orton (champion) vs. Triple H vs. John Cena vs. JBL
World Heavyweight Championship Match The Undertaker (champion) vs. Edge
ECW Championship Match Kane (champion) vs. Chavo Guerrero
Batista vs. Shawn Michaels Special Guest Referee: Chris Jericho
Big Show vs. The Great Khali
WWE United States Championship Match MVP (champion) vs. Matt Hardy
12-Diva Tag Team Match WWE Women's Champion Mickie James, Maria, Ashley, Michelle McCool, Cherry & Kelly Kelly vs. Beth Phoenix, Melina, Jillian, Layla, Victoria & Natalya
Right off the bat, I'm looking forward to the Michaels/Batista match because Shawn Michaels can make anyone look good in a match and because I wanna see what Chris Jericho is going to do.
Of all the title matches going on, the only title switch I see is in the US Title match between MVP and Matt Hardy. I don't think MVP really even needs the belt anymore, because I think he's still a strong performer and has enough credibility without the gold around his waist. At this point, I think Hardy needs it more, especially since he is just coming back from an injury.
I'm interested to see how Randy Orton retains the WWE title this time. I know that it's possible that he could lose, but I'm digging the "Age of Orton" and I think he'll get a decent run with the title, maybe at least until August.
I'm also interested to see just how bad Big Show vs. Great Khali is going to be.
More Screwups with Mike Adamle ~Once again I would like to point out that I am optimistic about Mike Adamle improving as a play-by-play "analyst" on ECW, but these videos highlighting all his mistakes are just too funny to me. Here's all his screwups from the latest episode of ECW.
