Last night was Survivor Series and I don’t think I felt the hate that others did. I thought the first hour was pretty good (sans Super Dave reminding us this was his 10-year anniversary with the company). I was surprised with the 10-man tag match. I thought Orton was winning all along and instead, Rhodes and Barrett were made to look strong. I hated the way that Sheamus was eliminated. And I really hated the way Sin Cara was eliminated. He is getting a push and a build that any wrestler would KILL for. And he does nothing but piss on it with his attitude, ego, wellness violations and an in-ring style that makes Mason Ryan look like Ric Flair. I know accidents happen, but you really should be able to not mess up as much as he does. Right now, he’s not ready from an in-ring standpoint for the wrestling fundraiser at the VFW, much less the national stage of the WWE.

Sorry for my Sin Cara tangent. I know I was able to go grocery shopping, rotate my tires and read “Of Mice and Men” in the time it took Big Show to get to the top rope and do a Savage elbow. But it was am incredible moment. I dare say that was the “Holy s***” moment of the year from WWE. And of course, the CM Punk moment with Howard Finkel announcing him as new champion was indescribable. I also thought Miz and Truth didn’t look weak against Cena & Rock. Rock has never minded trying to make a new star. There were some moments I could have lived without, mostly involving Super Dave Osborne, David Otunga and Matista, the Walking Wellness Violation.

Raw opened as it should have. CM Punk, The Champ, walking to the ring. Punk is just money on the mic. Then Super Dave Osborne killed the atmosphere. CM Punk went off on him. Punk can draw a good segment even out of Super Dave. The fans do not want Super Dave on tv.

They showed footage of The Rock cutting a promo and the crowd chanting “We Want Ryder.” Wow. They introduced Zack Ryder and the crowd chanted like he was Stone Cold in 1997. As Ricardo Rodriguez came out to the ring, Zack Ryder grabbed the mic and said “Woo woo woo. You know it.” I’m not sure how I feel about this. Two of my favorite personalities going after each other. It was a quick match. Alberto Del Rio destroyed him. I get what the WWE was trying to do here. Getting heel heat on ADR by him beating Ryder. But instead of heat, it just killed the crowd.

Then came out my Team Pasty White idol, Sheamus. He got Jack Swagger. Their match was pretty good. They are both two very good athletes, so if they feud, the matches should be really good. Jack Swagger just makes me mad. And it has nothing to do with the person. I think that if he were in Ring of Honor, he’d be champ. He looks so uncomfortable being a character.

Kevin Nash cut a promo. Nobody cares about Kevin Nash. Kevin Nash doesn’t induce heel heat. He doesn’t induce any heat. The only thing worse than a hated wrestler is a wrestler people don’t care about. That’s exactly what Nash is.

Cody Rhodes squashed Santino Marella. Even Michael Cole said, “Thanks for coming, Santino.” The commentary was a lot better tonight. Cody Rhodes threw a glass of water at his half-brother’s former tag team partner. I like that they’re planning on using Booker T to create talent.

Dolph really is the unsung hero of the WWE. It was really probably the biggest match on Raw this year. I feel bad that I couldn’t write more detail, but it was great.

Good video package for Kane.

Big Show cut a really decent promo. Very short.

Divas are now being forced to pimp video games. Poor things. Beth looked very boobalicious in that outfit. Sorry, you put that out there, I’m going to look. Sorry, Alicia & AJ.

We then got Wade Barrett squashing Kofi Kingston. Then Randy Orton came out. Kofi Kingston looks lower than Curt Hawkins after this match. But Kofi ended up getting some offense at him.

John Cena talked or something. Then Miz and R-Truth came out. They sounded well. Cena sounded like a 10-year-old trying to rile up the other kids on the playground. He tried to stir up crap between Miz and Truth.

For an hour and a half, this was a really good Raw. And then Cena happened and Awesome Truth were dissolved because… ? I think the ending alone makes it a bad Raw.

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Welcome back to another classic encounter in Calgary’s rich past. This time around we will take a look at a young “cocky” wrestler by the name of B.G. Holliday as he takes on a young Chris Benoit. Holliday never became an international super star like Benoit did, he would never become multi time world champion in the major federations. However, he was a  talented grappler and had one important thing that many of the famous wrestler’s lacked in this promotion. He had absolutely great mic skills, he had the gift of gab. While legends such as Bret Hart, Chris Benoit & The Dynamite Kid may have been some of the greatest technical wrestlers of all time, most Stampede stars were not great on the microphone, especially early in their careers. And this is where  Holliday really shined. His mic skills, even at this early stage of his young wrestling career, were some of the best in the territory and he reminded me very much of Chris Jericho in both his wrestling and his mic skills. A cocky Jonathan Holliday quickly became “the man that fans loved to hate” in the territory. Interestingly, Holliday was involved in some of the “darker moments” of Stampedes history. This was a time when the promotions business side became less well run by its promoters and as a result wrestlers were leaving for bigger organizations with bigger wallets. There is a story that the Dynamite Kid, after returning from the WWF injured, broken and addicted to drugs,became  jealous of Holliday’s quick success in Calgary, wanted to run him out of town and bad mouth him in the industry. If this famous story was an exaggeration of real events I can not tell you, however there are great stories of a back ally fight in Calgary on electric avenue between the former British Bulldog and Holiday over drugs, jealousy, and pay days that needed to be settled. Other events are rumored to have taken place between the two, but as they are both unconfirmed and very illegal, I shall not get into them. Just realise that both men left Canada soon after, and it was not because they didn’t like the cold weather! Enjoy the match and I will return with another “ring- a ding-dong -dandy” next week!

Coming off the heels of a monumentally awesome birthday I return refreshed and rejuvenated or maybe it’s just the coffee.  Thanks to all who wished me a a happy birthday if it was on here facebook, twitter, or google+ (yeah I actually got one on there).   Now to get back on track and see what’s going on in the world of whatever: (more…)

Welcome, it’s your once regular but could now only be described as freelance writer for BWF back again, with another random column. This time, I’ve been looking back to the past as I do, and it got me thinking.. what if someone got revenge on another, by doing the same thing, that the original person done in the first place, rather than just beating them in a match?

If that intro makes no sense, it’s because I could not word the intro. The idea was there, but when it came time to write a suitable intro the the piece.. nothing. So that was the best I could come up with.. anyways, to try and explain the intro.

Big Show gets revenge on the Big Bossman for towing Big Show’s daddy’s coffin away during the funeral.

As we all know, leading up to the Survivor Series PPV of 1999, the Big Show, lost his father. This allowed the number one contender, the Big Bossman, to take advantage of the situation. After reading out a poem degrading the Big Show’s father, he then persuaded the Big Show’s mother to admit that the Big Show was an illegitimate child or bastard. But the most memorable moment of this feud, occured on the 11/11/99 edition of WWF SmackDown!, in which the Big Bossman, interrupting the funeral of the Big Show’s father, towed the casket away in his police car, with the Big Show trying to stop it. Now, these two would compete at the Survivor Series, in which the Big Show defeated the Big Bossman, Prince Albert, Mideon and Viscera in a 4-1 Survivor Series. The feud would continue to Armageddon, in which the Big Show finally got his revenge on the Big Bossman, by defeating him in a one-on-one match, even though Prince Albert tried to intefere on the Bissman’s behalf, only to be treated to a trip through the Spanish Announce table, courtesy of the Big Show.

In 2004.. the Big Bossman passed away of a heart attack at age 41.

What if the storyline read.. the Big Show wanted the ultimate revenge. Five long years after the Big Bossman towed the Big Show’s father’s casket away from the burial site to god knows where (Where did the Big Bossman take that casket.. maybe that’s another column), the Big Show gets revenge by towing the Big Bossman’s casket away from his family, during the burial process, thus finally getting revenge on the man who ruined his life five years earlier. In 2004, the Big Show wasn’t really seen on WWE television, until Septembe, when he interfered in a Kurt Angle/Eddie Guerrero Lumberjack match.

Rumour has it, that if A-Train, Prince Albert’s new persona, was not injured on the June 21, 2004 edition of WWE Raw, that the Big Show and Albert would feud, and that the Big Show would in fact tow the casket of the Big Bossman, A-Train’s running buddy at the time. However, at the time, the Big Bossman had not passed, and the Big Show returned to feud with Kurt Angle. However, when the Bossman did pass away September 22 of that year, the WWE were so angry, that they fired A-Train on November 1, and the whole revenge feud was dropped.

And that my friends, is the reason why people get revenge by winning matches in the wrestling business, and not by other means.

Well since there is a new episode on tonight here in JTland, I’d figure I would get up a review before this weeks aired so here it is: (more…)

Wow, today was really long. Getting called back to the night job after getting home made things unnessarily longer, so getting to Smackdown so late is not bode well for my FFW button. Nonetheless, I have been enjoying this program over all other programs (barring ROH), and it is the go home show before Survivor Series… so let’s hop to it, shall we?
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Since I’m past the date of due, I decided after watching Impact Wrestling a day late to just run through what I liked and what really irritated the hell out of me.  Why you ask? Because after treading around for hours for a site to view it from I watched what could be only described as a shitty attempt at booking and story. The backstage segments felt just sadly inserted into the show where it looked as if Steve Borden (Sting minus makeup) Ninja vanished into a locker room only after seconds earlier talking to Matt Morgan and Crimson and convincing them to take on Mexican America. And lets not forget watching James Storm trek through the back looking for his assailant in one asinine confrontation after another.

Lurking like a ninja in the dark.

But before I spill all my guts about this travesty lets look at how the show starts.

Show opens with Turning Point main event between Roode and Styles in which Roode wins via heel win. (For those not in the know he rolled up AJ and held the tights.) Roode comes out talking down to the rest of Fortune. Making sure everyone knows he was the leader and carried the rest of the group, but that now he had to scrap them off his boots. He tells Storm that he needs to get out of his shadow which of course prompts Storm to come out he makes the obligatory comments about being a redneck cowboy and calling Roode a jackass and a dumbass in the same sentence. Not making that up.  Making his way to the ring security intervenes. Skipping ahead AJ comes out and attacks Bobby. Later after Sting comes out and makes a 30 minute Iron Man Match; Roode attacks Dixie and eventually Styles again who comes to the rescue before security separates him from the owner of the company.

Where is security when the owner of the company is being assaulted? They came quick for Storm but not for Dixie? Anyway this does very little for Roode’s heel heat which would actually have worked with a simple “Roode attacked Storm to get out of facing him for a second time” But no. We have the Cowboy come out and accuse Roode only to be told by his two faced former partner that oh no I didn’t attack you. And he buys it. Its good to know that Pritchard is filtering Russo to such wonderful success.

And another thing what is up with the in ring brawl with security who for some reason can’t seem to successfully separate people. Gives me migraines of Hardy/Jarrett.

Sting confronts Roode for shoving Dixie. Roode who now goes from Balboa back to his money heel promises to have his lawyer(s) plural sue Sting if he touches him. Consistency is a wonderful lost art.

Devon (who is out of shape and obviously going to job for the television title)- ugh- His kids and the Pope all come to the ring like a wonderful same sex couple. Because Devon’s wife has all but vanished ninja style. But I digress they are all coming to give cannon fodder to Robbie E and Rob Terry, I’m having flashbacks to Disco Inferno and not in a good way. Long story short Devon dominates before the Pope is knocked out by Rob T, leading to Devon’s kids coming to his aid. This of course distracts Devon who is rolled up and losses the match.

And I thought Pritchard killed this story.

Tag Match with Austin Aries (who is one of the bright spots of Impact) Kash vs Sorenson (who is slowly forming a personality??!!) With Kendrick who could of easily been replaced by Xima Ion very easily.  Typical heel disruption causes Kash to eat a crossroads for the faces to win.

Aries leaves and the match loses 50 cool points which is the only cool points it had to begin with.

Karen gives Gail the night off. Sends brown nose Madison out to take care of Velvet. Pointless Storm search leads to Anderson who is playing Madden when he should be playing a new TNA Impact game if we ever get one on par with WWE’ 12. Any who pointless stare down and posturing leads to Storm unplugging the game.

10 woman Knockout Elimination match-Velvet who is out first faces Rosita. Bell rings and 5 seconds later Sky hits the impact buster for the pin. Next its Tessmacher who gets a bull dog and waltzes out 3 minutes later. Angelina follows she pins Velvet with trunk assistance. Love gets taken out by Mickie James shortly after. Mickie then faces…Sarita, boy this should be a good match especially after she reverses the implant ddt but a minute later she is taken down with what looks like a funky version of a implant ddt. Next is Tara but a couple minutes later she is out with a DDT. Winter’s next, spin kick and out. ODB comes out and gets a solid reaction from the crowd. After some scuffle she is taken down with a top rope lou thesz press. After a tantrum where she takes out Mickie with an F5 maneuver which lays out James. Madison comes to the ring to crickets taking her time and I do mean she goes at a turtle pace before sliding into the ring for the pin only to be rolled up. Mickie wins. Yeah this was sad filler.

Sarita versus Mickie; Sarita in the main event; The whole damn match!

At this point I start to tune out as I see Storm confront Bully Ray who tries to get him into Immortal. Jeff Hardy has a confrontation with the Jarretts (specifically Karen Jarrett) which drags on way to long to be entertaining. Karen who looked so lost before and after Jeff Jarrett entered the ring is just a sign that she needs to be taken off television or put into OVW to sharpen her skills.

Where sub par talent goes.....to hopefully never return

So the makeshift tag team of Crimson Blueprint takes down Mexican America after only one night together while Ink INC with the addition of Von Erie aka Toxxin could not do. Bullsh…….

Garrett beats Gunner with a Mickie style DDT. That was the main event by the way.

Finally we have Storm. Who came out to accuse AJ of attacking him, seen as he has now been given two shots against Roode. Fight breaks out before Kazarian comes to the ring to break it up. Because that is all Kaz can do is break up bitch fights with team mates instead of the feud he should of had with Jarrett. But I digress again because who knows what is going on back in the writing room.

When Kaz meets a storyline

Kurt who was lurking under the ring comes out as Storm leaves. He attacks and shoves Storm back into the ring admitting it was him. This of course is followed by that crappy Impact Music of Doom. And I vomited.

I’m trying to find a place to start with this and it’s just not happening. So forgive me for being a little disjointed in starting here. I have my favorite promos. Anything that comes out of Mick Foley’s or Ric Flair’s mouth. I remember Al Snow cutting a promo in the ECW days before a big match that was so quiet and to the point and great. There was Roddy Piper at Halloween Havoc in 1996. And of course there was CM Punk’s “The Promo” where I couldn’t sleep that night because I couldn’t decide if it was a work or not. Guys could make you hate them with a short 5-minute promo like Owen Hart, Jerry Lawler or Bubba Ray Dudley. Or the guys who could have you eating out of their hand like Jake “The Snake”, The Rock or Dusty Rhodes.

This week, a great promo joined the ranks of the best ever. Eddie Kingston cut a promo that is probably the best of the year. And that’s on a year where you had CM Punk’s “The Promo,” CM Punk honoring Gregory Iron at AAW and HHH-Taker stare-down when both made their returns at the same time building up Wrestlemania. (I wrote a Facebook status after that where I said “Cut the promo. And if necessary, use words.”)

After Punk’s “The Promo,” a lot of the Internet Wrestling Community (IWC) used the phrase “talking people into the building. ” This Eddie Kingston promo does exactly that. Around Money in the Bank, there were so many great promos on Raw, not just from Punk. John Cena also cut some good promos during that time. He didn’t sound like the 10-year-old trying to get the other 10-year-olds on his side at the playground. He sounded legitimate and that he believed what he was saying. But some nights he just sounds like he’s reciting lines.

When I hear that Eddie Kingston promo, I hear something I don’t hear very often on WWE television… passion. And I’m not saying that John Cena doesn’t have any passion. I see that passion when he walks out to the ring every time. But I just don’t hear his passion through his promos. You can only believe somebody’s else’s thoughts so much. Even the great actors-Kevin Spacey, Robert DeNiro, Meryl Streep, Susan Sarandon-you can tell when they are playing a role and when they are not in character. The problem is that too many times, John Cena sounds like the guy you see on The Marine and not the athlete you go for on your local sports team, which is who he should be.

What I would love is for WWE to bring back the passion. Stop scripting stuff for the boys to say. I’m ok with rehearsing, but let them say what they want. After you watch this Eddie Kingston promo, you can’t live without seeing High Noon. When was the last time we wanted to see a WWE pay-per-view that much?

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Joe, Drow, JT, and G all gathered round the old roundtable to discuss the 2011 edition of Survivor Series.  We also revealed a huge site announcement during the podcast, so be sure to listen for that.  If I seem to hesitate mid-sentence at some point during this, it’s because my wife handed me my old keys that I haven’t seen in like 6 months.  Download it below (right click save as).

survivor-series-roundtable

Tonight was a 3-hour Raw with The Rock or something.

It began with the Michael Cole challenge. There was a really awful arm wrestling. Then we got to see JR dance. Is there anything they won’t do to him? At this point, Jim Ross needs to tell the WWE to go f*** themselves. Then the final thing was a weighing contest. Then we are saved by CM Punk who rips into Michael Cole. Finally we have the sanest man in wrestling. Johnny Ace makes a match and Eddie Kingston dies inside. CM Punk is RP McMurphy in the insane asylum.

Mick Foley came out of a limo.

We had a pretty decent tag match. Cody Rhodes and Hunico versus Sin Cara and Kofi Kingston. It was a good solid match. The funniest part was that she had to leave the room because she was on the phone and she got distracted because she likes Sin Cara.

The Rock arrived. My wife’s heart fluttered.

Santino pimped the WWE new video game with Zack Ryder.

Vickie Guerrero walked out. Dolph Ziggler would be the new member of Team Barrett.

The Walking Wellness Violation Mason Ryan took on Dolph Ziggler. Vickie interfered and Dolph was dq’d. As Vickie and Dolph ran, John Morrison threw him back in the ring for some roid rage.

Mick Foley got to do the “Woo woo woo, you know it” thing with Zack Ryder. Then he walked out before the adoring crowd. Foley wants people to cheer John Cena. Then Foley invites John Cena to the ring. They went back to This is Your Life? Foley is one of my favorite all time on the mic. (Punk, Funk, Heyman, Dusty, Flair) Why did they have to have to do something so unoriginal? It was fun seeing Bull Buchanan. Then they brought out John Cena, Sr. I will never complain about Bob Orton Sr. after seeing that travesty.

We got Jack Swagger getting mugged by Sheamus. It wasn’t that bad of a match. Swagger now is my cue to play Civilization IV.

The Bellas would rather have Alberto Del Rio than Zack Ryder.

There was a video package of Kelly Kelly’s photo shoot. Due to me not being 12, I could care less.

Kelly Kelly pinned Nattie Neidhart in record time. Alicia Fox looked really hot in her dress. But don’t worry, AJ, you’re still the center of my Divas universe.

Super Dave and ADR argue about something. Matt Striker is standing by with R-Truth and Miz. I think Miz was just wearing random outfits that didn’t matter whether they matched or not.

As Punk was walking out to the ring, ADR attacked him. Ugh, why is Punk walking around by himself?

Alberto Del Rio walks out and I just gotta say Ricardo Rodriguez is one of my favorite things on WWE TV. We had ADR/Henry vs. Big Show/Punk. Punk apparently had some spinach or something. He came out and wanted ADR. This made me intrigued with this match for the first time ever. I thought they had some pretty decent things going on in this match. Big Show-Henry was no Chikara action, but I am looking forward to this match. ADR won and then put Punk in the arm breaker. Big Show came to his rescue. Decent build-up.

Santino Marella came out and cut a cute promo. Then Kevin Nash came out; everybody died inside except Jim Cornette. At least it wasn’t a big name he destroyed.

Michael Cole was doing the video game hard sell and my wife the nurse pointed out he wasn’t even wearing his sling right.

Looks like they’re serious about Wade Barrett again. It was a decent match, but it was SO predictable.

Then The Rock came out and rambled. Fortunately for us, with The Rock, it never seems like rambling. Then Miz and Truth came out and held their own against The Rock, and then John Cena came out. They forgot the TV-PG part for a minute. It was just ok for me.

I didn’t entirely hate this Raw. The first segment made me want to close my eyes and dream of Chikara. But it went better as time went on. I’m thinking “thumbs in the middle.”

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