DaveyBoy's Wrestling Menu #175 - Backlash, Raw, SD, Velocity, ECW, RVD vs Rey + More
Submitted by DaveyBoy on Wednesday, May 10, 2006 at 7:24 AM EST






THE WRESTLING MENU #175

Welcome one and all to the 175th edition of The Wrestling Menu, the column that is sure to satisfy your taste buds when it comes to discussing all things wrestling.

I am such a sucker for punishment; I have just had the busiest week… I had a DVD review all ready to go… I even had 3 brief topics to choose from to add to the DVD review. But no! What does DaveyBoy do? He takes all 3 of those topics & attempts to make an entire column out of them! Oh well, I suppose this is a milestone column of sorts!

I’m unsure how this will come off actually, as it’s more like an extended ‘Odds & Ends’ column than anything else. Oh well, I deserve to rant every now & then, while I am still (sort of) sticking to my 3 topic structure. I’m actually hoping this column will be a little shorter than usual, but how many times have I said that before!

On with the show…..


APPETIZERS

Backlash Feedback

Holy Cow… Did I get some mixed feedback on my review of the Backlash pay-per-view! Did any 2 people share identical opinions on this event, because it doesn’t seem like it? I rated the PPV 65 out of 100 on my PPV Ratings system. That was identical to my rating of WrestleMania 22. Some people agreed with the rating, some people felt I over-rated it, while others thought the ppv should have failed!

So let’s break it down into a bit more detail; The funny thing is that the Carlito vs Masters opener came through relatively unscathed. Most felt it was around about the 7 out of 10 mark & a handy opening match to a ppv without being anything special. I well & truly failed the Umaga vs Flair bout, so (while the rating varied a little) the conclusion was pretty much the same. While most people had no problems with me simply passing the women’s title bout which was severely hindered by Trish Stratus’ shoulder injury.

But this is where it gets dicey; There was a huge variation in the ratings & opinion given to me for the Shelton Benjamin vs Rob Van Dam match. I got everything from a 6 to a perfect 10! I almost found the median with my rating of 8.5. Those that rated it more harshly found something to dislike about one or both of the competitors. On the Shelton Benjamin side of things, a few people had major issues of his slowing the bout down with restholds & work as a heel. I did as well, but not to an extent that would drag the rating down so much. While the usual RVD criticisms popped up. Conversely, rating it anything above a 9 was also going too far for my liking.

The majority of my readers not only felt that a 5 out of 10 rating for the Kane vs Big Show match was too high, but they went on to state that it was way too high! In fact, “worst ppv match ever” was a thought by at least 3 of my readers! I couldn’t see that myself. Don’t get me wrong, I thought about failing it myself & have no problems with anyone that did. But it was better than a 1 out of 10 rating in my opinion. The ending was admittedly ridiculous, if not stupid. It was just a matter of whether you liked the big man match that preceded it. While it was nothing special, I felt it was passable.

Most disagreed with my opinion that Vince & Shane vs HBK & God was better than the similar WrestleMania 22 bout. I am definitely sticking by my opinion from last week though. Those that rated this bout lower than I did all seemed to be caught up in another ridiculous storyline & not find any of the God stuff remotely funny. I think it’s fair to say that they may have been too distracted to properly grade the actual bout.

Even my 6 out of 10 rating for the Matt Striker & Eugene segment copped a lot of flak. Again, poor ending seemed to override anything that came before. I really think Striker did a good job. It wasn’t anything too memorable or side-splitting, but served it’s purpose & wasn’t bad at all.

Fortunately, most agreed with me on my main event rating & comments. Some weren’t sure that it was better than the WrestleMania 22 main-event, but that’s neither here nor there when isolating this terrific bout. Personally, I would go as far as saying that I thought this bout was better than anything on the WrestleMania 22 card!


MAIN

Raw, ECW, SmackDown & Velocity

These will not be reviews. Just a few thoughts from each show that I’d like to bring up…

RAW

I’m actually going to include the past 2 episodes of Raw in my thoughts here, as there were enough notable occurrences to come out of the May-1 show.

- One of the things that has had people talking lately was the Joey Styles speech. Many people were surprised that the WWE went this route. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a little either. But when you think about it, it made the most sense. Firstly, some of what he said had already been mentioned on wwe.com, so it’s not as if he was completely revealing something new. But more importantly, it was the best way to get him off Raw & on to the upcoming ECW brand. I’m not sure there could have been a better way to make the transition than doing what was done. And the speech came off well to, so well done to all involved.

- Furthermore, I have liked the methodical build towards the ECW pay-per-view & brand return. It’s not over the top, but has had more than enough impact to be successful… so far! The Mick Foley heel turn makes it even a little more interesting, as does any potential involvement from Edge.

- I’ve pretty much always been neither here nor there on my opinion of Triple H. I don’t think I’m bandwagon jumping if I state that I enjoyed his work at Backlash immensely & got a real kick out of his work as the special guest referee in the main event on May-1. His mannerisms were spot on & genuinely had me laughing out loud. And even if D-X was never mentioned again (fat chance), I also liked HHH & HBK pausing at the top of the entrance ramp in the same bout. The closing crotch chop from this week’s episode went down pretty well also.

- Speaking of pauses, I liked the RVD & John Cena one as well. Despite what I wrote last week (& what is written in the ‘Dessert’ section of today’s column), I still do feel that RVD vs Cena is the favorite to headline the ECW ppv. But even if that doesn’t occur, this type of hint makes the payoff all that much better!

- I have half-seriously predicted that we would start seeing “Free Kenny” signs in the crowd soon. But in all seriousness, no matter what you think of The Spirit Squad, it is an excellent vehicle to bring along such a talented young rookie as Ken Doane. He has handled himself well enough in 2 main-event matches over the past fortnight & the WWE would be foolish to push him to the moon this early on in what will hopefully be a long & successful career.

- I can’t wait until May-20 so we can move on from all this May-19 stuff. There better be a payoff with this, because it’s already reached overkill. Hey, because I reside in Australia, do I pretend to be hearing “NEVER” when the voices come on? Because I doubt some B grade horror movie with no-name actors is going to get a theater run down here!

SMACKDOWN

- There has been a mixed reaction to the opening promo between JBL & Rey Mysterio. Some thought that JBL put Rey down a little too much. While I can see that point of view, I actually didn’t mind the promo & JBL’s intentions. I think that he was pretty successful in getting the crowd to support Rey as an individual, not as an underdog champion & not as a friend of Eddie Guerrero. I think this is required at this stage of his title reign & JBL’s heel actions were warranted here. Of course, any positives drawn from the promo were ridiculously wasted away when Mark Henry cleanly pinned Rey in the main event. How hard would it have been to have a ref bump & JBL knock Rey out for the pinfall victory to Henry?

- Another segment which received a mixed reaction but I liked was the non-match between MnM & London/Kendrick. After some great bouts together, it may actually be the clever booking of a non-match which makes the fans care about the entertaining faces. Sometimes, this type of booking is required in order for talented wrestlers to show their skill in the ring down the track.

- Man, was that a dropkick & a half that Super Crazy pulled out!?!?!? But then The Great Khali had to come out & end the match. Why do it in a number 1 contenders bout when it could have been done in the filler tag match (Gymini vs Scotty/Funaki) that took place on the same show?

VELOCITY

- I was very disappointed a couple of weeks back when Paul Burchill wasn’t booked for an appearance on the SmackDown that emanated from London-England. There was just no excuse for that! I can forgive it this week though as I like the idea of pairing him up with a female valet (Shelly) & Velocity is the best place to test the duo out. This could work for Burchill, especially if Shelly is decent on the mic. Let’s hope so because this guy is talented & has a lot of potential. Of course, then the WWE book him to lose to Road Warrior Animal! WTF!?!?!?

- Nice little bout between Gregory Helms & Mike Altiri (aka Mikey Batts). First time I have seen this former TNA wrestler & it’s difficult to look past his lack of size upon first sight. Apart from that he looked ok, but I need to see him a little more before fully commenting. As per usual, Helms got to experiment more than he does on the main show. He even hit an odd variation of his infamous VertaBreaker, before going finisher crazy with the Shining Wizard & move formerly known as The Eye of the Hurricane.

- Apparently Bobby Lashley beat some jobber. It either wasn’t aired or I was flipping channels at the time. Wish I did the same for the Matt Hardy vs Orlando Jordan main-event. Nothing really special there. If the draft lottery is to take place this year, OJ needs to get to Raw quick!

HEAT

- The last time I watched this show was late last year. It’s never any good & if the ECW brand didn’t match up so well with the SmackDown roster, I would have been praying that Velocity remained & Heat bit the dust.


DESSERT - RVD vs Rey?

If you have yet to read my column from last week where I state that I believe the best match-up for Rob Van Dam at the ECW pay-per-view would be John Bradshaw Layfield, then you may still do so by clicking on the following link: http://www.lordsofpain.net/news/2006/articles/1146661176.php

In writing that column topic & presenting the argument for my case, I was so tunnel-visioned in my approach that I completely forgot that there was a third option. Now obvious, that is Rob Van Dam vs Rey Mysterio for the World HeavyWeight Title. And boy… Did I get enough emails reminding me that I had completely left that option out of the equation.

And I shouldn’t have disregarded that option for quite a few reasons. Firstly, it would probably result in the best quality bout of the 3 match-ups. While I do feel there would be some doubt that they could carry each other to a classic, I would be confident they would put together an entertaining match that would probably rate about an 8 – 8.5 out of 10. There would have to be doubts concerning Cena or JBL getting to that level against an opponent such as RVD.

The other factor that backs up the argument for Rey vs RVD is that they both have wrestled in ECW. Rey doesn’t have a great deal of history there, but it is at least something. But even considering those points & a couple of minor other ones, I still feel that it is the least possible option. And that’s coming from someone who has always said that match quality is probably the most important thing to consider when booking such an important match!

The major reason why I am (for want of a better word) against RVD vs Rey is the fact that it wouldn’t sell as well as the other 2 match-ups. I know some people think exactly the opposite as ECW fans want 2 ECW wrestlers in the main event. But that is short-sighted & isn’t looking at the bigger picture. Those same fans would still probably pay to see RVD kick Cena/JBL’s a$$, while the sheer interest factor of how Cena/JBL will be greeted at the event will improve buyrates.

Furthermore, I am of the old school & tend to look at all other options before considering a face vs face match. The dynamic could work at an ECW event, as their crowds often paid due respect to a bout where both men (regardless of being a face or a heel) put on a great show. But, to put it bluntly, unless they are likely to pull out a perfect 10 classic, then what’s the point? I think I would prefer the fun of seeing a rabid crowd ripping a heel (& I’m counting Cena as a heel for these purposes) & cheering RVD to a title win like there was no tomorrow!

In a related topic, I was asked a very good & interesting question in my feedback thread in the LOP Forums. Instead of putting the answer here, I will provide a link to the thread after stating the question. Everyone can view the thread, so don’t worry if you are not a member of the forums. If you are a member there, then feel free to chime in, ask any other questions of me or suggest possible column topics.

The question was asked of me by none other than senior LOP columnist Mr.Tito. He asks: Given that RVD is a Raw wrestler, wouldn’t it cheapen his ECW victory if he won the SmackDown title instead of the Raw title….???

To read my response, please click on the following link & scroll up or down to post #172: http://www.lopforums.com/showthread.php?p=331821#post331821


Ok, that brings to a close edition #175 of 'The Wrestling Menu. I hope you enjoyed the slight change in format. Try not to bombard me with opinions on every single topic I spoke about today, as there were far too many. But if something did stand out & you feel like getting it off your chest, then you know where I am. You know that I will reply to all feedback. My e-mail address is DaveyBoy123@bigpond.com

Or alternately, if you are an LOPForums member, you may also leave feedback there, by clicking on the following link: http://www.lopforums.com/showthread.php?t=4889

Next Wednesday in 'The Wrestling Menu', I will have my predictions for SmackDown's 'Judgment Day' pay-per-view. And it's been pretty much exactly 6 months since my last poll, so I think it's time for another one of those. Other than that, I'm certain something else will come to me. So look out for that column same Wednesday time & same LOP channel next week. Until then, this is DaveyBoy signing off & asking you to remember that dinner is best served in 3 courses.


DaveyBoy's Wrestling Menu. 2002-2006

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