We here at BoredWrestlingFan.com don’t take ourselves too seriously when it comes to what we do. We approach our articles and reviews with a lighthearted attitude and will often poke fun at wrestlers and wrestling organizations. When I heard about the “Stand up for WWE” campaign, I knew I had to do something. I had to give back to the company who has provided me with countless hours of entertainment since I was just 8 years old. This is my contribution.
Hey guys, I decided to take the night off, and in my absence, twitter user @Punk_Kanellis was kind enough to send us her thoughts on the show. Here they are, enjoy!
Last night on WWE Monday night RAW, comedian Jon Lovitz hosted. You know the night is gonna be corny when a comedian hosts, well anyways, The first match was a Triple Threat Qualifying match. Whoever won would be in the Fatal-Four-Way match next month. The match of course had all the top RAW superstars in it; figures. It went by slow and steady, gaining tension towards the end. Edge won that by spearing Jericho, and then the 3-count. I don’t know about you fans, but I LOVE the Hart Dynasty. They are so powerful, and Natalya plays a great role in it as well. Well, they took on William Regal and Vladimir Kozlov, nothing much to say about this match. The Hart Dynasty won– but wait! Here comes the exciting part! They got attacked by a mystery trio of 2 men and 1 women, we’ll have to wait till next week to see who it was! Jon Lovitz then hosted a “WWE Superstar Search”.. lame to me. Khali and his little “translator” put on a disgusting version of an old song, and then Of course, before Jillian started singing (does that women EVER wrestle?), Lovitz cut her off and pulled someone out of the crowd to do some weird thing with their eyes. Honestly, what happened to World WRESTLING Entertainment? All these acts disgust me, it’s supposed to be wrestling people! Not a reality show! Next up, R-Truth vs. The Miz; this match was actually pretty good. Pretty high impact, back-and-forth action between the two superstars. But, R-Truth came out with the win and told Toledo, Ohio What’s up! Congratulations R-Truth for becoming the New US Champion! Next up, my favorite time of the night, women’s wrestling! These ladies are so talented, I respect them so much. It was Alicia Fox and Maryse vs. the STILL reigning diva’s champion, Eve and Gail Kim. This match was what WWE calls a divas match now-a-days. Maryse wasn’t in the mood to begin with since she failed to re-capture the title from Eve last night, what did make her a little happier is that she rolled up Eve for the win. Short but long segment of new RAW GM Bret Hart assigning the Fatal-Four-Way for next month, the competitors would be John Cena vs. Edge vs. Chris Jericho vs. whoever won this next match, Sheamus vs. Mark Henry. Mark Henry, as always, dominated over Sheamus, but GO FIGURES… Sheamus ended up winning. How do you roll up a man that heavy? I don’t know. Sheamus is also qualified. Bret Hart than got assigned as new RAW GM! Whoo! No more celebs!
Tonight, the very last remnants of a company that I truly loved a decade ago will finally be laid to rest. The letters ECW, which truly meant something to so many wrestling fans before the WWE got it’s hands on them, will finally be put out of their misery at 11:05 PM following a battle for the brand’s championship between two men who never competed in a real ECW match, Christian and Ezekiel Jackson.
Though this contest will be contested under Extreme Rules, it will be nothing like the ECW matches that took place under the watch of Paul Heyman. An independent wrestling promotion that dug and clawed it’s way up from late night showings in the Philadelphia market to become a viable number three (and some would argue number two) promotion in the United States, ECW was a victim of it’s own success. Vince McMahon and Eric Bischoff started to notice ECW, and started to buy up the promotion’s top stars. Heyman couldn’t afford to keep his stars paid and ultimately, ECW closed it’s doors in 2001.
The WWE bought the rights to the promotion, and in 2004 released “The Rise and Fall of ECW” on DVD. The success of that release, and a suggestion from Rob Van Dam, led to a WWE produced ECW Pay Per View titled “One Night Stand” in 2005. Several performers from ECW’s past participated in the event, which was a success for World Wrestling Entertainment. By the time the company put on a followup in 2006, the decision had been made to bring ECW back as a brand of the WWE along with RAW and SmackDown, and at One Night Stand 2006, Rob Van Dam defeated John Cena for the WWE Championship. Two nights later, he was given the ECW Championship on the first edition of ECW on SciFi.
By December, Paul Heyman was released from his World Wrestling Entertainment contract following the failed “December to Dismember” Pay Per View, and from there, the brand started to evolve into what we’ve been seeing on SyFy every Tuesday night, which is a far cry from the gift that Todd Gordon and Paul Heyman gave the world in the mid 90’s. Tonight, the show will air for the last time, and the letters E-C-W will finally be able to R.I.P.
Mark tonight on your calendars. Write it down somewhere and put it somewhere where you won’t lose it. Today is January 4, 2010, and as a wrestling fan, you’re in for what promises to be the biggest night in Sports Entertainment in nearly nine years. TNA Wrestling has finally decided to fire the proverbial first shot at World Wrestling Entertainment, a shot that one Vincent Kennedy McMahon will certainly do everything in his power to fight off.
Back in October, the wrestling world was in shock when Eric Bischoff and Hulk Hogan announced a partnership with TNA President Dixie Carter during a press conference at New York’s Madison Square Garden, a building where the McMahon family and World Wrestling Entertainment has long held a monopoly on the wrestling business. World Championship Wrestling, in it’s entire history, never held an event in the Garden. Neither had the National Wrestling Alliance. MSG was strictly McMahon territory. While TNA hasn’t held an event in the Garden, and likely won’t, just having the press conference in the house that Vince built was huge. It wasn’t as huge as the announcement that followed on TNAWrestling.com – Hulk Hogan was coming to TNA.
Speculation ran wild – no pun intended – as to when Hogan would make his TNA Debut, but during an Ultimate Fighting Championship broadcast on Spike TV, Hogan announced that on January 4th, 2010, TNA would be airing a three hour live edition of iMPACT head to head with WWE’s flagship show, RAW. TNA obviously had huge plans for tonight, but that’s not to say that the WWE hasn’t countered. Rumors originally indicated The Rock would guest host RAW, as he’d arguably been the biggest star in WWE since Hogan’s heyday, but just a few weeks ago the gossip shifted from The Rock to one Bret “Hitman” Hart when RAW Guest Host Dennis Miller indicated that he’d like to see Hart as a future guest host. Last week, McMahon confirmed Hart’s presence for this evening – his first time on a live WWE program in over a dozen years.
Hogan vs. Hart is a long time dream match for wrestling fans, and though the two have never, and given health concerns, likely will never face each other in the ring, tonight they’ll go head to head in a ratings war.
Hulk Hogan is most certainly a bigger name in the world of Sports Entertainment than Bret Hart, but will fans tune in to see him? Do enough people even know that TNA iMPACT – let alone Hulk Hogan – will be on tonight to make any sort of ratings difference?
Whether Hogan’s influence on TNA makes any kind of difference on the product remains to be seen. What changes will be made to the TNA product? What kind of effect will it have on WWE’s stranglehold on the Sports Entertainment audience? Can TNA prove themselves tonight to be a legitimate contender to the WWE throne? I guess we’ll start to find out those answers tonight, as a special 3-hour TNA iMPACT! airs tonight at 8PM EST on Spike TV against WWE RAW at 9PM EST on the USA Network.
If you would have asked me a decade ago what I’d be doing on a typical Monday Night in ten years, I probably would tell you I’d be flipping back and forth between WWF Monday Night RAW and WCW Monday Nitro. Then I’d be looking forward to WCW Thunder on Wednesday and WWF SmackDown on Thursday, then ECW on TNN Friday night.
Fast forward.
Alright, I’ll admit, I still haven’t had a chance to fire up the DVR. I did actually take a moment to read Drowgoddess’s excellent review from last night, and I can give a little more detail of what didn’t make TV. There wasn’t much that I didn’t mention last night, but here’s a few things – and something a little special, a BWF exclusive…
Before his match with Kofi Johns– er… Kingston, rather, Chris Jericho insulted the Buffalo fans and sports teams. The fans chanted “YOU SUCK” at him, but Jericho says “I couldn’t possibly suck, because I’m not from Buffalo.”
Speaking of Buffalo’s sports teams, during the break after Kofi destroyed Orton’s car, while Orton was pouting about it in the ring, one of the Buffalo Bills offered him a tissue from the front row.
Jamie Noble got a little mic time, he said he’s just like the Buffalo Bills, and that when people tell him he’s too small, he points out how Doug Flutie had some NFL success. I guess that was supposed to be an insult, but nobody in Buffalo has given a crap about Doug Flutie since he left.
The opening segment must have been boring. A whole section of the video wall entrance thing fell asleep.
There’s always the joke to be made that Bob Holly should have came back as “Sparky Plugg” for the night with Kyle Busch and Joey Logano hosting, but fear not – Holly was indeed there, as evidenced by this photo:
Those DX glow sticks are $15 at the merch tables. Despite the fact you can buy a package of glow sticks at the Dollar Tree for 1/15 of that cost. Doesn’t stop people from buying them though.
And here’s something very special for you guys. This is EXCLUSIVE to BoredWrestlingFan.com (though, I suppose that it’s property of World Wrestling Entertainment, and it will certainly be removed if I get a letter like the one Hornswoggle got last night). This is the very end of the dark main event of last night’s show!
You expected all week for a Part Deux, but Charlie Sheen beat me to it. This is the War on Everything.
Welcome to the War for another week, here on the BWF network. The only column in the BWF network with it’s own theme song.
WWE programming is still being boycotted unfortunately, which means, that I now declare war on World Wrestling Entertainment. It’s about time, that it gets dragged from this kid-friendly infestation that it’s crawled itself into, and into an era that accommodates the fans that have there during its good and bad days, and the entirety of 1995. Now, the only way to declare war on Vinnie Mac and his kiddie carnival is by heading to the other side of the tracks, and supporting TNA, and ROH. By supporting the opposition, and losing interest in the McMahon family, then Vince will have to resort to what he knows works, and that’s pleasing the fans that supported him for so long. Then, maybe just maybe, the WWE shows a little attitude in his programming and everyone is happy.
My second favourite RAW is WAR match of all time.
Speaking of TNA, they have announced for the first time ever, they are touring my part of the world. Details can found at TNAWrestling.com. All that stands from me and seeing my first wrestling event ever, is the dollars required, and my ability to order decent tickets in time. With that said, I know people reading this have been to a TNA House Show before, so all I’m asking is, what should I expect to pay for tickets etc.?
My favourite RAW is WAR match of all time … Part One.
Let me leave the squared circle for just a moment, and add a few little tidbits to the column.
Why can’t I find NHL 10 on the xbox.com.au website? Does that mean it’s not coming out in Australia?
How do I make it, so it says ‘Click here to continue reading such and such …’? Why can everyone else do it and I can’t?
I’m picking up the Rise and Fall of WCW this week. Do I need to be warned of Buff Bagwell sightings?
What book should I read next? Bret Hart’s, William Regal’s, Batista’s or Andre the Giant’s?
My song of the week.
Are unemployment benefits good for people if you’re having trouble finding new work, even though dealing with the company that provides the services, are a pain in the arse?
Can you tell I’m Australian, because I said arse, instead of ass?
The Survivor Series anthology is coming in November, although it looks like it’s coming in sections of four, rather than the box set the previous three have came in.
My favourite RAW is WAR match of all time … Part Two.
That’s all from the War this week. Stay tuned to BoredWrestlingFan.com throughout the week, and be sure to visit the forums and have your say. This has been the one the call ‘Legend Killer’, telling you, that not only is he Double C, but he wants you to staple gun his genitals to the wall, so we can both have a ball.
An ECW review? On Bored Wrestling Fan? Yes folks, I’m finally back to watching the silver brand of World Wrestling Entertainment on a weekly basis, and for the first time in quite a while, I’m reviewing it!
Wow. BoredWrestlingFan.com is celebrating it’s one year anniversary this Tuesday, June 9th. Normally by this point in a project, I’ve lost all interest and will have not updated in months. BWF is not one of those projects. I still love this site and update it as often as possible, and with the cast of characters I’ve assembled here, we keep this place live nearly every day of the week. But enough about that for now, I’ll devote an article to that on Tuesday.
On to the wrestling news for the week.
The big news still on the radar from last week is the sudden release of Mr. Kennedy as details continue to leak. Word is that Randy Orton complained about Kennedy’s wreckless nature in the ring. The story goes that Mr. McMahon asked other Superstars about it, and they agreed which led to Kennedy’s release. Rumor has it that Kennedy is also now a member of the WWE “do not call” list, which is a very exclusive club.
Almost lost in the mix of Kennedy stories are the injuries that Samoa Joe suffered at a TNA house show sometime in the past week. The former TNA Triple Crown Champion suffered two broken fingers and a torn bicep. The injuries couldn’t come at a worse time for TNA, as they’ve already taped every episode of iMPACT! leading up to Slammiversary, where Joe was set to participate in the King of the Mountain main event. At this point, the only thing yours truly would expect is Joe to be taken out by the Main Event Mafia at the start of the PPV.
Chris Mordetzky, better known as Chris Masters, has apparently re-signed with World Wrestling Entertainment. Maybe he stopped taking steroids and learned how to wrestle, and can actually justify whatever push they give him this time around.
Sting is (allegedly) seriously considering retirement following this year’s Bound For Glory Pay-Per-View. If he does decide to retire, rest assured that he’d probably stay retired, and also bet your house on Sting being inducted in the WWE Hall of Fame no later than 2011.
Hey, speaking of Pay Per Views, WWE’s changed the name of another one. The Great American Bash is now simply known as The Bash. The reasons rumoured for this change include the old name being too WCW sounding, and the fact that if it’s the Great American Bash, you can’t hold it outside of the U.S.
The highlight of this week in wrestling for me was actually watching SmackDown for the first time in over a month. There were a few great matches on there that made me remember why I’m a wrestling fan. Edge vs. Rey Mysterio was a definite match of the year contender in my book.
And since it’s a PPV weekend, here’s my predictions for Xtreme Rules!
Vickie Guerrero vs. Santina Marella: Hog Pen Match
My prediction is this match will suck. For the hell of it, let’s go with Santina regaining her Miss WrestleMania crown.
CM Punk vs. Umaga: Samoan Strap Match
Time for these guys to move on from this random feud. Punk wins.
US Championship – Kofi Kingston vs. Matt Hardy vs. William Regal vs. MVP: four way match
What the hell is extreme about a four way match? Kingston just won the title on Monday, don’t expect that belt to be going anywhere this soon.
Intercontinental Championship – Rey Mysterio vs. Chris Jericho: No Hold’s Barred
Just as long as Zeus doesn’t get involved, we’re good here. Rey Rey will find a way to win. Jericho doesn’t need another IC Title run.
ECW Championship – Christian vs. Jack Swagger vs. Tommy Dreamer: Hardcore match
I know the story here about Dreamer getting one more chance at the ECW Championship, getting a one day extension past today’s original date. I just can’t see him getting the win. Christian retains.
John Cena vs. The Big Show: Submission match
I predict myself falling asleep. Two decidedly non-submission wrestlers in a submission match. Boring. Technical guys like CM Punk and Chris Jericho can get away with submission matches, not power guys like Cena and The Big Show. Anyways, why bother, we all know Cena’s going to win.
WWE Championship – Randy Orton vs. Batista: Steel Cage Match
For crying out loud, what is Batista even doing in a championship match? The guy sucks in the ring, he sucks on the mic, he is NOT championship material. Never was, never will be. I just hope he doesn’t injure Orton, who I’m sure is going over.
World Championship – Edge vs. Jeff Hardy: Ladder Match
Jeff hasn’t re-signed with WWE yet, and they want him to. Hardy goes over, believe it or not.
That’s all for me for now, JT will be around tomorrow with more Random Randomness, and we’ll have some sort of coverage of Extreme Rules – probably not live but it’ll be up sometime before RAW on Monday.
Raven, Kennedy, and Striker – OH MY! Let’s get started.
Monday night on RAW, Mr. Kennedy returned to the WWE after being out for a very long period of time with an injury. What followed was not nearly as surprising – he injured himself in his first match back. The fans at the Staples Center seemed to enjoy his presense, but that wasn’t enough for the WWE to keep wasting their time with MISTEEERRRRRRR INJURY PRONE!
INJURY PRONE!
Kennedy was back for four days before WWE decided to release him from his contract. Do you think that TNA would take him, or is he now resigned to work as MISTEEEERRRRRRR FRY COOK?
5/30/09 UPDATE: Rumor flying around is that Randy Orton had some kind of discussion backstage with Mr. Kennedy following RAW, that Orton has considerable influence in the company, and these factors may have been what led to Mr. Kennedy’s release.
ECW color commentator Matt Striker is the center of controversy this week as alleged nude photos of the school teacher turned professional wrestler began circulating the internet. Internet Wrestling Community pundits are beginning to wonder if this is the sort of thing that could cost Striker his cushy World Wrestling Entertainment job. In my opinion, if Disney kept that High School Musical girl after her nude pics leaked, WWE will certainly keep Striker.
Buff Bagwell did an interview recently where he said he’d work for WWE for free, and if TNA called him, he’d listen. Does this guy seriously think he’s got a shot at WWE again? He was there for all of a week before they fired his ass the first time around.
AOL and Time Warner are set to dissolve their merger after nearly a decade. Could this mean a new wrestling organization under the direction of Ted Turner is now possible?
WWE has now changed the name of the Unforgiven Pay-Per-View event. It’s going to be called “WWE Breaking Point” and is rumored to be a submission themed pay per view. I kind of like the idea, though there aren’t really a whole heck of a lot of submission wrestlers on the roster that I can think of at the moment, so I can’t imagine what the matches would be.
The highlight of my week actually happened on TNA iMPACT! this past Thursday night as my favorite wrestler returned. During a therapy session, Dr. Stevie put Abyss in a straight jacket, prompting Lauren to come to his rescue. Through the crowd emerged a familiar face – RAVEN! The former NWA and ECW Champion took away Dr. Stevie’s kendo stick – and blasted Abyss with it himself! Raven and Dr. Stevie, the former ECW Tag Team Champions reunited with an embrace in the ring. Welcome back, Raven!