Take up thy wrestling boots and walk - AJ, Angle/Booker, Edge, Christian/Flair, more
Submitted by Pt2 on Monday, May 16, 2005 at 7:55 PM EST





Welcome once again to the column that has a price for the million dollar man, Take up thy wrestling boots and walk. I’m the columnist with more title victories over Jeff Jarrett than AJ Styles, Pt2, back once again to talk about Ecuador’s favourite past time, professional wrestling.

Start out with the biggest news of the week: AJ Styles defeated Jeff Jarrett to become the 2 time NWA World Champion. I don’t rag on Jarrett as much as most guys tend to, but seriously, it was time he dropped the belt. And AJ is really the man he needs to be dropping it too. Right now, AJ and Raven were the only guys who COULD have taken it from Jeff without taking a big step backwards, and to get the best out of a Raven win, they need to build that shit for a while. With Dusty, one of AJ’s biggest supporters, standing down from the TNA booking job, it’ll be interesting to see how long AJ can hold onto the gold – but with any luck, it won’t be a short title reign, and Jeff can be used elsewhere on the card for the time being.

Personally, I’d have Jarrett wrestle somebody else, and feed a challenger to AJ to solidify him as world champion, before kicking things off with a big feud. There aren’t many people to challenge AJ and be credible in TNA, so maybe “The Outlaw” or somebody could be fed to Styles, before he takes on Abyss of the Alpha Male in a real rivalry? I don’t know, I haven’t put a great deal of thought into this, but it seems like a decent idea to me. However, I do get the feeling we’ll get more AJ vs. Jarrett instead.

As I write this, we’re about 3 hours away from the RAW broadcast, and after seeing the interaction between Christian and Ric Flair last week, I’m pretty hyped. I’ve been saying it for a while now, Christian has really pulled himself up to being one of the very best in wrestling right now, and the segment last week with the Nature Boy is a classic example of what you get when two uber charismatic performers interact. It’s kind of a shame that we won’t get the match we would have gotten if Flair was in his prime – but this is Ric Flair we are talking about. Even if he isn’t in his prime, he can have a good match with the right person…. And when it comes to having good matches, these past few months, Christian has always been the right person.

From Christian, I’m going to move onto Edge – it seems that I’ll never forget E&C and they’ll always be linked in my mind. Edge is apparently going to get 2 shots at the world champion. That’s exciting eh? No, didn’t think so. Edge may finally be the most entertaining he’s been since the days of Team ECK, but when it comes right down to it, he’s not entertaining enough to justify putting the belt on him – especially not with Benoit, Jericho, Batista, HHH, Shelton Benjamin, Shawn Michaels, Christian, Randy Orton and Kane all on the same roster.

I’m also not sure about putting Edge together with Lita on the show. I suppose it is a decent way to milk real life crowd reaction, but I think we’re veering in towards bad taste there, and throw into that, people are getting tired of it really quickly. While people are supporting Matt Hardy, the support is getting less visible, and the initial hatred seems to be wearing away. And remember, Lita and Edge are not Stephanie McMahon and Triple H – we’re not going to get another McMahon-Helmsley era from these two, because they don’t have the charisma to pull it off.

That being said, I’m not going to be entirely negative on this – While Lita may be forced into a heel role that she will probably struggle to handle, Edge does have a lot of things going for him – while he isn’t ready for the main event yet, he will never get a better chance to prove that he will be than this summer, and I think if he’ll return from a broken neck and go into ladder matches again, I doubt he lacks the hunger.

Smackdown! is a bit of a mixed bag at the minute. Kurt Angle is being handled about as well as Hermann Goering would have handled directing Schindlers List. You’d think that of all people, Kurt Angle wouldn’t need to be in a storyline like the one he is in now. And what happened to Booker T? From one of the brightest stars in the old WCW, to main eventing with the Rock, to a hilarious tag team with Goldust…. And since then, steadily on the decline to the point where his feuds are about “perverted sex”? These two could go, why not just let them wrestle and save the “sex” storylines for people that can’t get heat on their own?

But while I criticise there, I have to give credit to the Smackdown! Writers, because they actually made me get behind John Cena this past week. It’s been a long time since we’ve had a good old fashioned “send the locker-room out to break up the brawl”, and dammit, I kinda missed them. For the first time ever, I even think I’d want Cena to come out with his title intact at the next PPV. As for Guerrero and Mysterio, I’m cautiously optimistic at the moment. Not sure either way, but I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt, for now. And fuck me, can Guerrero cut a promo.

Those of you who live in they Dayton, Ohio area, your going to have the chance to see Matt Hardy, the “Angelic Diablo”, wrestle for Ring of Honor. RoH are advertising Hardy as being on their August 12th show, at the Montgomery county fairgrounds. Opinion seems to be pretty split on the recent Matt promo. Personally, I kinda liked it, though I thought it would have been better if the last minute or so was cut out of it. Either way, once Matt Hardy’s 90 day no compete clause expires, it’s safe bet that he is going to be appearing for many promotions, like RoH and presumably somewhere down the line NWA-TNA, and with the creative freedom these companies will offer him in the ring, he’ll be putting on a fine show.

Last time, I mentioned a new venture that I hoped to be starting out soon. Well, now I can give you a few more details.

Pro wrestling halls of fame have been a source of controversy for some time. Often, many people are left wondering why people have been overlooked, when other, less deserving candidates have been rushed through. Ever wondered why Pete Rose got into the WWE hall of fame ahead of Ted DiBiase, Rick Rude, Curt Hennig, Bret Hart, The British Bulldog and Ricky Steamboat, all former stars of the World wrestling federation.

Well, at www.wrestlingfanshof.co.uk, we’ve decided to try and create a Pro Wrestling hall of fame that reflects what the fans think. Everyone inducted at www.wrestlingfanshof.co.uk will be inducted based on who the fans tell us they want to go in – so nominate your favourite wrestler by e-mailing wrestlingfanshof@gmail.com now!

That should just about do it for this one. We’ve had a lot of interest in YBTB, so hopefully I should be able to start working on a challengers list shortly. All you YBTB junkies, that’ll be back shortly.

If you enjoyed this column, or if you want to tell me I suck, or whatever, you can send feedback to takeupthywrestlingboots@Gmail.com. I reply to mail received.

Until next time, don’t forget to vote for your favourite wrestlers at wrestlingfanshof@Gmail.com, and take care of yourselves.

Pt2.









VIEW NOW: Ringside Fan Pix & Clips from WWE's NO MERCY 2008 PPV! >>>>>>>

• Quick Links -
  [Back to LOP] [News Archives] [Results] [Columns] [Forums]