~Last week on Smackdown, The Undertaker successfully defended the World Heavyweight Title against Batista, Edge beats CM Punk, MVP appears on Smackdown as the US champion for the last time, Natalya beats Cherry and Vladimir Kozlov claims another victim. Here's what went down this week:
-WWE Tag Team Champions, John Morrison & The Miz defend their titles against Jimmy Wang Yang & Shannon Moore.
-Vladimir Kozlov destroys Colin Delaney.
-Natalya & Victoria beat Michelle McCool & Cherry.
-Mark Henry roughs up Nunzio for the second time in two weeks. The first was on the 4/22 edition of ECW.
-Big Show tells Henry to pick on someone his own size.
-Matt Hardy successfully defends the WWE United States Title against MVP in a rematch from Backlash.
-Batista, fresh off his loss to Shawn Michaels at Backlash , is in the ring with Smackdown color commentator, Mick Foley, and he says that he hopes for Shawn's sake that he actually hurt himself during their match and was not faking it because if he's not hurt, he will be. Them's fightin' words!
-Zach Ryder & Curt Hawkins defeat Jesse & Festus.
-Finlay, with aid from his son, Hornswoggle, beats some guy named Julio Dinero.
-The Undertaker was supposed to defend the World Heavyweight Title against The Great Khali but Smackdown General Manager, Vickie Guerrero, comes out, with her boyfriend, Edge, and cancels the match. She says that The Undertaker's new submission finisher, dubbed "that move", is actually an illegal choke thus the matches that he's won using "that move", including his World Heavyweight Title win against Edge at Wrestlemania and the rematch at Backlash , have been thrown out and he is stripped of the title.
-The Great Khali goes to take the belt away from The Undertaker...
-...but he get caught in "that move". Edge's buddies, Zach Ryder & Curt Hawkins sneak in the ring while Khali is being choked out and take the World Heavyweight Title anyway.
Wow, I did not see The Undertaker losing the World Heavyweight Title like this. I think I'm sensing a little pattern here with WWE, it seems that they are really pushing these cliffhanger endings, and I'm certainly a fan of them.
Speaking of patterns, I hope this isn't the beginning of Jesse & Festus getting buried week in and week out. Festus loss a match to The Undertaker a few weeks back and this week, him and Jesse loss to Edge's friends. Hopefully, they'll get back on the right track next week.
I find it funny that Big Show is telling Mark Henry to pick on someone his own size but almost two months ago, Show was talking about ending the career of Floyd Mayweather, who is nowhere near the size of the Big Show.
I am digging these segments with Vladimir Kozlov. He is quickly becoming one of my Smackdown favorites.
-ROH Tag Team Champions, The Briscoes defeat Austin Aries & Kota Ibushi Austin Aries.
-Jimmy Jacobs & Tyler Black (The Age of the Fall) defeat Alex Shelley & Chris Sabin (The Motor City Machineguns).
Ring of Honor Results - 4/19/08 Chicago Ridge, Illinois -Austin Aries defeats Silas Young.
-Necro Butcher beats Alex Sugarfoot Payne & Mitch Franklin.
-Claudio Castagnoli & Pelle Primeau defeat Brent Albright & Adam Pearce.
-Mschif defeats Lacey, Daizee Haze and Ashley Lane in a 4-way match.
-Chris Hero beats Delirous.
-Chris Sabin & Alex Shelley beat ROH Tag Team Champions, The Briscoes, in a non-title match.
-Kota Ibushi defeats El Generico
-Zach Gowen, Tyler Black & Joey Matthews defeat Jack Evans, Ruckus & Jigsaw
-ROH World Champion, Nigel McGuinness successfully defends his title against Kevin Steen.
The first thing that jumps out at me after reading these results are that Kota Ibushi and the Motor City Machineguns picking up wins. Since debuting last week, Ibushi has been racking up the losses and Sabin & Shelley, TNA regulars, haven't won a match in god-knows how long. The machineguns seemed to have tied up their series with the Briscoes at 1-1 with a win in Chicago and the Briscoes winning their match last year . Who knows when the third match is coming.
All signs are pointing towards a potential Nigel McGuinness vs. Claudio Castagnoli feud/match. McGuinness told Castagnoli in the last ROH Videowire that if he helped him win his match against Kevin Steen & El Generico in Detroit, then he could earn a ROH World Title shot on May 10 in NYC. I'm sure the match will probably be good and all but I just don't see Claudio Castagnoli as ROH champ, I just don't see it.
Necro Butcher just seemed to be kicking ass all weekend.
~This week's episode starts with Batista as a guest on WWE Intercontinental Champion, Chris Jericho's talk show, The Highlight Reel. Jericho talks some trash about Shawn Michaels, Batista's opponent at Backlash, WWE's upcoming PPV, and then Jericho talks some trash about Batista.
-That doesn't work out too well for Chris Jericho.
-WWE United States Champion, MVP, beats Tommy Dreamer in a non-title match.
-Hornswoggle beats Matt Striker. [*Note* That pic is pretty funny]
-Chavo Guerrero defeats Jaime Noble
-Then Chavo's new bodyguard, the "One-Man Fence" Bam Neely beats down Jaime Noble.
-Guess who's happy now.
-So, Mark Henry is getting handled by Big Show.
-But then The Great Khali, who had his peace offerings rejected by Show last week, comes down to the ring and lays Big Show out.
-Cherry picks up a win over Victoria.
-Vladimir Kozlov (and his spotlight) runs over some guy for the third week in a row. No pic for this one.
-World Heavyweight Champion, The Undertaker and Batista are in the middle of a non-title match but then Edge and Chavo Guerrero interfere.
-Batista takes out Chavo.
-Taker takes out Edge.
-The match ends in a countout and Smackdown General Manager, Vickie Guerrero, announces that The Undertaker and Batista will have a rematch next week with the World Heavyweight Title on the line.
No Jesse or Festus this week, which sucks.
Batista and The Undertaker have a bit of history together steming from last year and WWE showed a pretty good video montage covering everything, which I thought was cool.
I'm digging the slow build to the Batista/Shawn Michaels match and I'm also digging Jericho's role as the annoying instigator throughout this feud. I hope this feud continues in some shape or form after Backlash (hopefully Michaels vs. Jericho) because it's pretty damn entertaining.
I'm also starting to get into the whole Vladimir Kozlov gimmick, spotlight and all. However, all that screaming kind of gets on my nerves.
Match of the Night, in my opinion, was Chavo Guerrero vs. Jamie Noble. I really enjoyed that match.
~The show starts with The Great Khali in the ring surrounded by several dancers from India for a "Punjabi Peace Offering" to the Big Show, whose been punking him out these last few weeks.
-Big Show comes down to the ring and Khali "offers" him water from the Ganges River, a bottle of India's "finest" scotch, a live chicken and a goat.
-Show doesn't like the gifts and lays out Khali with a punch. He's so ungrateful.
-WWE Tag Team Champions, The Miz & John Morrison and Shannon Moore & Jimmy Wang Yang have a do-over from last week's match. Only this time, The Great Khali doesn't interfere and the tag champs pick up the win.
-Finlay's son, Hornswoggle hits Striker with the "tadpole" splash from the top rope. Why? Just because he can.
-Victoria comes down to the ring with the woman who jumped Michelle McCool last week and introduces the woman as her "new best friend", Natalya Neidhart.
-Victoria ends up beating Michelle McCool in a match thanks to distraction from her "new best friend".
-Shawn Michaels and Batista have yet another verbal confrontation in the ring. Michaels acts as if he's gonna hit Batista with the Superkick but ends up getting out of the ring before Batista can respond.
-Vladimir Kozlov (with aid from his spotlight) demolishes some guy.
-Matt Hardy beats Chuck Palumbo.
-WWE United States Champion, MVP, reminds Hardy, who holds the gold.
-World Heavyweight Champion, The Undertaker, defeats Festus in a non-title match.
Ha ha ha. Punjabi peace offering? "Big Show, this is a chicken. So you can always have eggs and you'll never go hungry, because we know you like to eat." Ha ha ha.
-I thought the women's match was pretty decent. Short, but pretty decent. Also, Natalya Neidhart's voice sounds funny to me.
I'm really digging the slow build of the Batista/Shawn Michaels feud and I'm really interested in how their match at Backlash is gonna turn out.
Vladimir Kozlov has got to have the most boring entrance in the history of pro wrestling. He strolls to the ring to the theme of a spotlight.
I wanna know who the "genius" was that thought it would be a good idea to have Festus, who is an up-and-coming star being built up as an "unstoppable monster", put him in a match with The Undertaker and have him get beat. How unstoppable is he now? Granted, Festus got loads of offense in and he wasn't completely walked all over by 'Taker but still, WWE has a bunch of people they aren't doing anything with who they could have fed to the World Heavyweight Champ besides Festus.
TNA Lockdown PPV Preview ~TNA's latest PPV event, Lockdown, is happening later tonight in Lowell, Massachusetts. This event is rather unique because every single match on the card is taking place in a steel cage.
TNA World Heavyweight Championship Match -Kurt Angle (champion) vs. Samoa Joe
Lethal Lockdown Match -Team Cage (Christian Cage, Sting, Kevin Nash, Rhino & Matt Morgan) vs. Team Tomko (Tomko, AJ Styles, Team 3D & James Storm)
Xscape Match for the TNA X Division Championship -"Black Machismo" Jay Lethal (champion) vs. Curry Man vs. Sonjay Dutt vs. Johnny Devine vs. Shark Boy vs. Consequences Creed
Mixed Tag Team Match -Booker T & Sharmell vs. Robert Roode & Payton Banks
-BG James vs. Kip James
"Cuffed in the Cage" (I honestly have no idea what that means) -Alex Shelley & Chris Sabin (The Motor City Machineguns) vs. Homicide y Hernandez (LAX) vs. Scott Steiner & Petey Williams vs. Lance Hoyt & Jimmy Rave (The Rock'n'Rave Infection) vs. ("SUPER")Eric Young & Kaz vs. Black Reign & Rellik.
Women's Tag Match -TNA Women's Champion Awesome Kong & Raisha Saeed vs. Gail Kim & ODB.
"Queen of the Cage" Match -Angelina Love vs. Velvet Sky vs. Salinas vs. Rhaka Khan vs. Traci Brooks vs. Christy Hemme vs. Jacqueline vs. Roxxi Laveaux.
I'm pumped for the Angle/Joe match. They've had about four matches in the past and all of them were solid, so I'm expecting them to raise the bar a little higher in this one. Plus, it seems they are going to work a style of match that leans more towards MMA than pro wrestling, so I'm very interested in how that turns out.
Lethal Lockdown looks ok but I'm not too excited about it. The same goes for the BG James vs. Kip James match. The build towards that match has been, in my opinion, great but I doubt the match is gonna be anything special.
"Cuffed in a cage" on paper looks like a diaster waiting to happen with all the people being crammed into a cage but it does have HERNANDEZ~!, the machineguns, Mr. Canadian Destroyer himself and "SUPER" Eric, so maybe it won't be so bad.
Curry Man~!
I think the women's tag match featuring Awesome Kong, ODB, Gail Kim and Raisha Saeed could possibly steal the show. I'm calling it now.
TNA Video Game Trailer
~Over the weekend, Midway games released the official trailer for TNA's first video game, "TNA Impact" (yep, just like their weekly tv show).
I thought the trailer looked pretty good. Yet, don't they all.
4/11 & 4/12 ROH Results
~Ring of Honor held two shows over the weekend, here's what went down:
Ring of Honor Results - 4/11/08 Boston, Massachusetts
-Erick Stevens wins the four corner survival match over Roderick Strong, Rocky Romero and El Generico and earns the right to face ROH World Champion, Nigel McGuinness in the main event for the Title.
-Jason Blade defeats Michael Nakazawa
-Eddie Edwards defeats Jigsaw and after the match Eddie Edwards signs with Larry Sweeney's "Sweet and Sour Inc."
-Jack Evans and Ruckus (The Vulture Squad) defeat The Briscoes.
-Claudio Castagnoli,Delirious and Pelle Primeau beat Larry Sweeney, Chris Hero and Brent Albright.
-Davey Richards beats Kota Ibushi.
-Nigel McGuiness retains his title against Erick Stevens.
-Kevin Steen defeats Necro Butcher in a Boston Street Fight.
Ring of Honor Results - 4/12/08 Edison, New Jersey
-El Generico defeats Jack Evans.
-Jigsaw defeats Mitch Franklin.
-Chris Hero kicks Bobby Dempsey out of Sweet & Sour Inc.
-Eddie Edwards and Chris Hero defeat Erick Stevens and Pelle Primeau.
-Brent Albright defeats Delirious.
-Necro Butcher defeats FIP Champion, Roderick Strong, in a non-title match.
-Claudio Castagnoli defeats Kota Ibushi with the Ricola Bomb.
-ROH World Champion, Nigel McGuiness retains the ROH World Title over Kevin Steen
-Jay & Mark Briscoe win the ROH World Tag Team Titles from Davey Richards & Rocky Romero.
Just like I predicted, Steen won his brawl with Necro but lost his title match with Nigel McGuinness. I think he'll hover around the ROH World Title picture some more though.
I did not see The Briscoes winning the tag belts coming. I thought they were gonna let Richards & Romero run with the belts a little longer and I saw The Vulture Squad, not the Briscoes, eventually beating them for the belts. Speaking of the Vulture Squad, they happened to pick up a win over the new ROH tag champs on the night before they won the titles. I'm smelling a future title shot for the Vulture Squad.
Kota Ibushi seemed to have gotten squashed the entire weekend, but I think he'll be back soon and should rack up a couple wins here and there.
