Chris Sabin vs. Kiyoshi: Sabin wins with the Cradle Shock to advance in the X Division championship. Kiyoshi is alright -- he doesn't delight me or anything, but he seems pretty good. Apparently he's signed a two-year deal.
Hopefully Alex Shelley will beat Eric Young in two weeks and we'll get an all-MCMG match at Genesis.
Abdul Bashir tried to set off Shane Sewell, almost succeeding -- but not quite -- Suicide comes in for the save.
Rough Cut with Beer Money -- best part was James Storm saying that people are jealous of him "because of my good looks, and because I can drink a lot of beer."
AJ Styles and Brother Devon vs. Scott Steiner and Booker T: Brother Devon was out for revenge -- what was cool about this was I don't think Devon did anything other than punches to the head. No clotheslines, no slams -- just punches. He was mad!
This broke down eventually and went no-contest. Devon gets beat down backstage and Kevin Nash and Kurt Angle attack Styles in the ring -- he impressively fights them off for a while. Mick Foley comes out and announces that he's getting back in the ring -- it'll be him, Devon, and Styles vs. Nash, Booker, and Steiner. That sounds awful!
Sojourner Bolt, Raisha Saeed, Rhaka Khan, & Awesome Kong vs. Christy Hemme, Roxxi, Taylor Wilde, & ODB: The faces are wearing holiday outfits -- crowd goes nuts for ODB, of course, who is wearing a sprig of mistletoe on her panties. Ha ha! This is kind of fun, actually, with Wilde hitting a big dive from the turnbuckle to the floor and then pinning Khan with a wacky cradle thing.
Kurt Angle vs. Rhino: Same old, same old. Sting and Jeff Jarrett are seconding. Angle pisses JJ off and he comes in and there's the DQ.
Not much wrestling but an okay show.
--K
(edited by Karlos the Jackal on 26.12.08 2015) Last 5 movies seen: The Leech Woman ** - Hamlet 2 *** - Strange Brew **1/2 - The Five Obstructions n/a - The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian ***
Maaan, I hope AJ and Booker have their carrying boots on at Genesis. Alternatively, I hope we get lots of Foley v. Nash and Foley v. Steiner during that match, just for the sheer horribleness.
"The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now do you begin to understand me?"
Yeah, I don't get that match. The only reason to have Foley is to have him put over somebody that needs it or to do some crazy bump. I don't think Nash, Steiner or even Booker can really do much with Foley. Foley vs. Sting or Kurt would at least have a small possibility of being good. But this match?
I kind of like Devon/AJ as a team though. Let Devon take the beating and let AJ get the hot tag. Still holding out hope that they're saving Daniels for the PPV now that Curry Man is no longer needed, but if he doesn't appear by then I might give up hope.
I sure hope the MCMG wrestle at Genesis and there isn't any dissension. Just a match between two guys that want to win. The winner vs. Homicide could be great with some time too.
Are Joe and Bubba both sitting this one out? That kind of weakens the card a bit.
It boggled my mind that they had the entire Main Event Mafia sell for the out-of-shape, semi-retired Mick Foley. He looked like he was moving at half speed out there.
The main event match: Rhino vs. Angle with Sting and JJ ringside. I know JJ started TNA and I remember clearly how he ruled the roost for years. But it still doesn't feel like this has any bearing on the current TNA roster. It's my anti-Jeff bias, surely. And it's not helped by his oh-so fake punches. But then when Angle pops Road Dogg, and that's supposed to be a significant TNA development, and Devon is avenging Bubba ray, and now Foley is gonna wrestle again ...
No, this is still the island of misfit WWE guys. We need the young guys winning a few here and there, no?
"To be the man, you gotta beat demands." -- The Lovely Mrs. Tracker
I liked the interview segment with Beer Money. I hate to say it, but that was the best part of the show. Yeah, it wasn't a good episode.
The entire Bashir/Sewell situation confuses me. I can understand the idea of Sewell not being able to touch Bashir during a match, or retaliating, thus causing a change in the outcome of said match, but in this case, Bashir showed up after a match was over and got into Sewell's face. Now, in my mind, that'd be okay for retaliation, seeing as though the match was over...but then again, TNA can be a bit absurd.
I'm really liking Eric Young's new attitude, but I'm missing Shark Boy, and I already miss Curry Man. But...if it brings Christopher Daniels back, then I can forgive that.
Originally posted by Karlos the JackalSojourner Bolt, Raisha Saeed, Rhaka Khan, & Awesome Kong vs. Christy Hemme, Roxxi, Taylor Wilde, & ODB: The faces are wearing holiday outfits -- crowd goes nuts for ODB, of course, who is wearing a sprig of mistletoe on her panties. Ha ha! This is kind of fun, actually, with Wilde hitting a big dive from the turnbuckle to the floor and then pinning Khan with a wacky cradle thing.
It only just occurred to me that TNA uses their best female workers as the faces, & WWE uses them as the heels. Interesting how what boils down to workrate vs. "Playboy potential".
I do not want to watch Mick wrestle. He does not need to be involved physically. The only conceivable point to that match I can think of is that Mick does the heel turn they were hinting at in the previous weeks, & joins the MEM. That establishes Foley vs. Jarrett in the management (non-wrestling!!!) realm, & hopefully refocuses on Cornette as the guy trying to juggle everything. I ever-so-much prefer Cornette on air. (All respect to Jeff Jarrett for what he has done, & no disrespect regarding the reason he was gone, but IMO the show was much better without him on air.)
Originally posted by Karlos the JackalSojourner Bolt, Raisha Saeed, Rhaka Khan, & Awesome Kong vs. Christy Hemme, Roxxi, Taylor Wilde, & ODB: The faces are wearing holiday outfits -- crowd goes nuts for ODB, of course, who is wearing a sprig of mistletoe on her panties. Ha ha! This is kind of fun, actually, with Wilde hitting a big dive from the turnbuckle to the floor and then pinning Khan with a wacky cradle thing.
It only just occurred to me that TNA uses their best female workers as the faces, & WWE uses them as the heels. Interesting how what boils down to workrate vs. "Playboy potential".
To be fair that has generally been the WWE approach since the Hogan era, no matter what the gender. Sometimes the good workers eventually became faces, but if you think of any good worker in the WWF, outside of Steamboat, Santana, and the Bulldogs, most good workers tended to be heels.
Originally posted by Karlos the JackalSojourner Bolt, Raisha Saeed, Rhaka Khan, & Awesome Kong vs. Christy Hemme, Roxxi, Taylor Wilde, & ODB: The faces are wearing holiday outfits -- crowd goes nuts for ODB, of course, who is wearing a sprig of mistletoe on her panties. Ha ha! This is kind of fun, actually, with Wilde hitting a big dive from the turnbuckle to the floor and then pinning Khan with a wacky cradle thing.
It only just occurred to me that TNA uses their best female workers as the faces, & WWE uses them as the heels.
Funny, what I notice is that all the faces are white, and all the heels are black except the one in the burqa.
Originally posted by emmaIt only just occurred to me that TNA uses their best female workers as the faces, & WWE uses them as the heels. Interesting how what boils down to workrate vs. "Playboy potential".
I think you may be over-generalizing here. In the current diva roster, there seems to be a pretty even distribution of talent. If you consider Beth Phoenix, Victoria, Natalya, Mickie James, and Melina as the five most talented divas in the ring, you get a 3-2 heel-face distribution. In any case, the current Diva roster has more heels (Beth, Victoria, Nattie, Michelle, Maryse, Katie Lee, Jillian) than they do faces (Kelly Kelly, Mickie, Melina, Maria).
In general, though, WWE seems to buy into the theory that talent with poor workrates tend to have a better chance of getting over if they're faces. I think part of the reason is that the standard WWE "long match" (anything that gets more than five minutes) is generally a heel-dominated match, and thus you'll see that most of WWE's midcard, upper-midcard, and main event heels are technically solid.
Forfeit the game, before somebody else takes you outta the game, and puts your name to shame Cover up your face, you can't run the race The pace is too fast, you just won't last - "Points Of Authority" - Linkin Park
Apparently I wasn't clear in making my original point. Lemme try again: Given that the usual, generalised thinking is that you *need* strong workers in the heel role & that the faces can get away with being less skilled, I find it interesting that TNA goes the opposite direction with their women's division. And it seems to work out really well for them.
That arrangement has to be better for morale in a division that isn't "top tier" ("top money"). And, in the specific case of TNA's women's division, the resulting matches turn out to be pretty good. It seems to be an effective way to arrange, maintain, & develop the talent in that division.
Originally posted by JustinShapiroI'n't their centerpiece best ladywrestler a heel though? One Kong can compensate for the Beautiful People's lack of skillz.
One could argue that their best women's wrestler doesn't even work that often (Melissa/Raesha), but is still a heel.
Available now at necw.tv The acquisition of a DSL line to my home computer has inspired me to watch some internet wrestling, one program of which was NECW...which I HAD seen some time ago (in the episode teens or so) and hadn't been overly impressed.