DaveyBoy’s Wrestling Menu – GABash Review, 2000 Comparison + Rhino’s Tirade
Submitted by DaveyBoy on Wednesday, July 26, 2006 at 3:00 AM EST






THE WRESTLING MENU #186

Welcome one and all to the 186th edition of The Wrestling Menu, the column that is sure to satisfy your taste buds when it comes to discussing all things wrestling.

Man, this writing & posting a column offsite is tricky business, I can assure you of that. But I thought I’d try & use it to my advantage & write a little more off the cuff, so to speak. By virtual necessity as well, I think I may attempt to shorten my columns to what was originally intended. I recall my original planned structure being a 25 paragraph column consisting of a 1-5-10-8-1 format. That is, a 1 paragraph introduction, 5 paragraph ‘Appetizers’ topic, etc… However, what has usually eventuated is about a 30-33 paragraph column! So let’s see how I go in shortening this bugger down.

Congratulations must go out to my 3 newest colleagues here on the LOP main page. If you haven’t had a chance as yet, find some time to read the writings of RIPBossman, Big Brother & Boss Foxx. And while you’re at it, send them along some feedback. I clearly recall feedback from readers being a key ingredient to improving my column after the initial 2-3 months of my writing here.

And while I am on the congratulatory theme, I must pass on my congrats to Triple H & Stephanie on the arrival of their baby daughter Aurora. I can only hope that it gives them less trouble than our cat which happens to share the same name!

Just a little disclaimer before I get into this particular column. Edition #186 may come off to some as overly negative towards NWA-TNA. Please don’t take it completely as such. It’s more the specific topics I have chosen to write about today, which I may be a little negative towards. On the whole, I enjoy the variety that the TNA product presents. Whether that lasts or not is arguable, but I’m not completely disregarding the quality of the promotion at this point in time.

Ok, I’ve already failed in shortening the introduction of my column, so let’s see how I go with the ‘Appetizers’ section…..


APPETIZERS – 2000 Comparison

I didn’t do much this past weekend. I have no computer to stuff around on & my footy team played on Friday night. Instead of taking the time to do something meaningful, I decided to just potter (read: move around or remain stationary with no real purpose) around the house & get some rest. It’s good to recharge the batteries every now & then. Part of the pottering process is choosing the correct pottering clothes. I basically have a rack of these which predominantly include old tracksuit pants & t-shirts in the winter months. And they get chosen from top to bottom, with anything just being washed heading to the bottom of the pile.

Yes, this is heading somewhere folks. The t-shirt at the top of the pile was my souvenir WCW tour t-shirt from the year 2000. This is when WCW came out to Australia for (I think) the first time ever & taped an episode of Nitro in my hometown of Melbourne. I went for 2 t-shirts on the night; A great Sting top, where his face is made up of colorful scorpions & the customary souvenir tour t-shirt, which (for whatever reason) had ended up in my pottering pile of clothes. What struck me most about this t-shirt in July of 2006 were the 5 wrestlers that adorned the front of it. It makes me think whether or not professional wrestling has advanced or not.

The 5 men on the front of the t-shirt were Bill Goldberg, Sting, Booker T, Kevin Nash & Jeff Jarrett! Just think about that for a while, as the t-shirt was made pretty much exactly 6 years ago. That’s a fair few years ago & I’d hazard a guess that many people reading this very column right now were not even watching professional wrestling at the time. And when you consider the (flawed) argument that TNA has pretty much simply replaced WCW as the alternative to the WWE, then I feel that this is at least an interesting discussion topic.

Two of the men on the t-shirt are basically your top 2 wrestlers in (arguably) the 2nd most prestigious wrestling promotion in the world! Jeff Jarrett is your current NWA-TNA World HeavyWeight Champion & Sting is the number 1 contender for the same title. Kevin Nash currently plays a secondary role in the same promotion due to his recent schedule being filled with rehabilitation from injuries & acting in movies. Over in the WWE, Booker T is currently the World HeavyWeight Champion. And even if that title hasn’t been treated as well as it should have been of late, it still must be highly regarded. That leaves Bill Goldberg who would arguably be main-eventing in TNA if he & the promotion could reach an amicable agreement on contractual terms.

It’s true to say that we can’t read a great deal into all of this. But, on the other hand, a good debating team could easily make a decent argument that the phrase “The more things change, the more things stay the same” very much holds true in the world of professional wrestling. This could lead into a whole range of other topics including wrestlers protecting their roster spots, promotions not willing to take too many risks & the cyclical nature of wrestling. These are all topics best left for another column at another time.

Of course, there could also be a good argument debated against the above in that the current WWE Champion was merely a tag-team wrestler in the year 2000. His #1 contender had not even started his WWE career. While the mere fact that the 2nd & third largest promotions in North America (WCW & ECW) both went out of business! Maybe the better phrase to use here is; Some things may change, but others will always stay the same”. For the loyal professional wrestling fan, it’s viewing what changes & what doesn’t that is the fun part!


MAIN – G.A.Bash Review

For those that cannot recall my previous PPV review columns, this is the key that explains what the final PPV Rating means:

<50: Ask for a refund for not only your money, but also your time. [F] (Armageddon '04)
50-54: Mediocre & disappointing. [D] (EG: Royal Rumble '06)
55-59: Average. [C] (EG: New Years Revolution '06)
60-64: Worth A Watch. [C+] (EG: Vengeance '06)
65-69: Good event that was worth the money. [B] (EG: One Night Stand '06)
70-74: Very good. [B+] (EG: No Way Out '06)
75-79: Make sure you add this ppv to your video or dvd collection. [A] (EG: One Night Stand '05)
80+ : Make sure that the video or dvd is locked in a safe & cannot be erased. Memorable. [A+]

PAUL LONDON & BRIAN KENDRICK defeated KID KASH & JAMIE NOBLE to retain the WWE Tag-Team Championships: Correct choice as opener despite not garnering the usual opening pop. Good beginning to the bout with Kash getting the better of both opponents by various means. The face champs eventually worked their way on top though and, to my surprise, controlled almost 5 minutes of action. This was a good booking decision as it kept the action moving at a good pace. The spots were good, but correctly not over the top, with the highlight being simultaneous suicide dives to the outside. The turning point came when London was dropkicked to the outside while trying to skin the cat, but even when the heels took control, the faces would continue to fight back to ensure the crowd didn’t remain too quiet.

Surprisingly, it was London who was isolated in the ring & it was Kendrick that got the eventual hot tag which brought the crowd to its feet. The bout broke down from there as all 4 men were involved in some good & entertaining action that resulted in the champs retaining at the 14 minute mark with a sunset-flip/dropsault combination. Well-structured & entertaining opener that put the face champs over very well, despite London not being at his crisp best. I would have preferred the heels were given more chance to show their original offensive repertoire, but it didn’t hurt a great deal & I’m really hoping this feud continues. Match Rating… 7.5

FINLAY defeated WILLIAM REGAL to Retain the United States Title: Before the match, Teddy Long came out & explained that Lashley could not compete due to “elevated liver enzymes”. The crowd didn’t like that & neither did Lashley who came out to say that he was fine. Finlay & Regal then came out & were forced to do battle by Long. While these 2 have had some strong bouts in the 90’s, this is 2006 & this was always going to be difficult for the live crowd to take. While some beg to differ, I believe that Regal has lost a few steps from his best days, although his style does mesh well enough with Finaly here. The obvious problem was that the crowd didn’t really care much for either wrestler, and this is where Little Ba$tard proved invaluable with more comedic appearances than usual. The predictable combination of brawling, mat-wrestling & submission holds went on a little too long & ended up with Finlay (& Ba$tard) using Regal’s boot to gain the pinfall at the 13 minute mark. Nothing too boring, but hard to get involved in. Match Rating… 6

GREGORY HELMS defeated MATT HARDY: Here comes the filler as the Carolina boys go at it. At least this filler has the potential to be good, despite the low chances that both of these will go at it full tilt. Hardy begins at a decent pace & throws in some Hurricane mocking to light a fire under Helms’ a$$. Some good back & forth action follows, but ends when Helms goes to a long resthold. Thankfully, a top-rope swinging neckbreaker wakes all of us up. After a few failed pin attempts, Helms goes back to resthold city to once more stall the momentum. Some more decent back & forth action ensues, but it all seems to be going through the motions for these two. Hardy surprisingly kicks out of a Shining Wizard kick that connected, but only got a 2 count with a subsequent moonsault. And, as per the rest of the match, the bout ends anti-climactically (following that good sequence) with a rollup at the 12 minute mark. Pretty good, but I think it’s fair to say that the 2006 WWE have handcuffed these 2 too much. They had the time & even the planned spots, but both men looked to be moving at half pace & could never continue the momentum that they started on more than one occasion. Match Rating… 6

THE UNDERTAKER defeated THE BIG SHOW in a Punjabi Prison Match: After an attack backstage, Teddy Long changes this match to include The Big Show instead of The Great Khali. Ummm, why didn’t TBS just walk away? But instead, he heads to the ring & cries! The Punjabi Prison is basically 2 bamboo cages (one up against the ring & the other a few yards back) which the victorious wrestler had to escape from. Big Show attacks before the bell even sounds, as the match kicks off at a decent & intense pace no matter who was in control. It all comes to a grinding halt though when ‘Taker attempts to climb out of the first cage. This is despite the fact that there are 4 doors on the first cage which either combatant can crawl out of upon request to a referee! A bit of the usual cage action splits 2 failed attempts to leave the cage & then TBS busts ‘Taker open with a shot to an exposed turnbuckle. Unfortunately, this slows the pace of the bout down to a painful slog until we’re all awoken by a ‘Taker superplex at the 15 minute mark. The phenom takes advantage by escaping the first cage, but Big Show soon follows.

Big Show then locks The Undertaker back in the first cage (hooray, some logic), as he slowly climbs the second & final cage. But the dead man soon climbs out & we are back on equal footing. A couple of rather soft looking table spots later leads up to the disappointing finale where ‘Taker leaps from the cage, only to be caught by The Big Show, who basically falls over in a fallaway slam type of motion to break open the outer cage & throw/stumble The Undertaker to victory at the 21 minute mark. Like all new gimmick matches, this bout held enough interest for the most part. It definitely wouldn’t have been better with Khali involved, but I can’t help but still feel robbed of the advertised match-up. The bout itself was rather silly & nothing special, but it wasn’t anything horrible either, despite the disappointing finish. These 2 didn’t use the cage structures as well as they could have & I can see this gimmick being used for a future Sabu match in ECW. Tough to rate… Match Rating… 6.5

ASHLEY MASSARO defeated JILLIAN HALL, MICHELLE McCOOL & KRYSTAL MARSHALL in a Fourway Bra & Panties Match: For the most part, Ashley pairs up against Krystal, while Jillian & Michelle do battle against each other. It pretty much is these 4 stumbling around in & outside of the ring trying to undress their opponent. For some reason, Jillian isn’t allowed to wrestle, while Michelle & (especially) Krystal try hard for no real result. I still think that Ashley is useless, but she steals the win after practically doing nothing for 5 minutes. Even that was probably a little too long & I think I’ve now officially seen one too many B & P matches. I don’t see the point anymore. Match Rating… 3

KEN KENNEDY defeated BATISTA by Disqualification: Batista doesn’t allow Kennedy to do his usual mic shtick before the bout & dominates the early going both in & outside of the ring. Kennedy gets rather badly busted open in that early onslaught & the ‘Flair effect’ is very much present in his bleached blonde hair. Surprisingly, an eye-rake results in a prolonged period of offense for Kennedy & he thankfully brings enough intensity & variety to make us care. The dreaded resthold does eventually come & it’s a precursor to Batista losing the plot & going all animalistic on Kennedy, resulting in the unpredictable DQ loss at the 9 minute mark, when Batista wouldn’t let go of a chokehold. Wow… I didn’t expect that result! Not too bad of a match actually, as it was pretty even & had a decent intensity & story about it. Too simplistic to be anything special, the DQ win strangely seems to help the story of the bout. Match Rating… 6.5

KING BOOKER T defeated REY MYSTERIO to Win the World HeavyWeight Title: “Eddie” chants from the live crowd greet Rey to begin the bout, as he uses his pace to first avoid Booker’s offense & then get some shots in himself. Each time Booker works his way on top, Rey effectively uses that pace with a touch of high-flying to regain the advantage. That is, until he walks into a big superkick at the 6 minute mark. This results in Booker taking control for minutes on end with a much slower pace obviously becoming prevalent. Queen Sharmell is sent to the back after being caught interfering at the 10 minute mark, and this seems to energize Mysterio who kicks into a higher gear once more with an impressive array of offense. During one of these moves, referee Nick Patrick is knocked out of the ring & a frog splash by Rey goes uncounted. Booker then goes for a chair, but Rey uses it to hit a Van Daminator, which prompts Chavo Guerrero to come out & predictably turn on Rey (with a huge chair shot) to give Booker the title win at the 17 minute mark.

Successful main-event match which was pretty much all Rey Mysterio, as he put in probably his best performance of his title reign, if not this year. He showed his impressive repertoire of offense in keeping the bout moving along at a cracking pace, without pulling out any super special spot. The action wasn’t always the crispest & I think Booker could have used Rey’s size to make his own offense look a little better, but all in all this was very effective & very entertaining. If only Rey’s entire title reign could have been booked like this & not just his last night as champion. Match Rating… 8.5

PPV RATING (44/70) = 63

Looking at the key, I have basically given the 2006 version of 'The Great American Bash' a 'C+' grade & said that it was ‘worth a watch‘. I can’t say that I was expecting even this high of a rating, especially with 3 of the 5 advertised matches being (disappointingly) changed in some way. But I have to state that I agree with this rating & comment. This wasn’t an event that will stick in the memory for very long, as it had no “great” bout & more relied on a consistent effort all around. But it did show that even filler bouts can be effective if given the appropriate time. Now if the WWE can only use their resources to make the fans care about some of the matches before they begin, this would help the undercard & midcard immeasurably as they took to the ring. All things considered, this was solid & booked well.


DESSERT – Rhino’s Tirade

Before I even begin here, I’m going to apologize if I am spelling Rhino incorrectly. I can’t recall how it was spelt at Slammiversary and, to be honest, I don’t really care. I’m going with the ‘I” as opposed to the ‘Y’ because from memory, the WWE changed the initial spelling to using the ‘y’ when he came across in approximately 2001. And I’m guessing if the WWE changed the spelling of the name, then TNA would want to change it back (if they were not legally obliged to do so in the fist place).

But it’s irrelevant because as far as I’m concerned, Rhino is still the same overrated & limited wrestler that he has always been. But it seems that the man & character has gotten himself some decent publicity of late by bashing the WWE, and more specifically its treatment of a returning ECW brand. I figured that this topic was worth writing about seeing as though I have had a few emails over the past fortnight asking me my opinion on Rhino’s on-air tirade.

I must be honest & state that most of the emails have been more to do with a possible initial step towards some sort of advanced competition between TNA & the WWE. But I’m going to keep away from that topic for now, mainly because (even if this was one of the first steps) I think we are still a long way away from seeing anything even remotely resembling the Monday Night Wars of the mid to late 1990’s between WCW & the WWE. You only have to look at the most recent North American television ratings as some proof of that.

But the topic which I am sticking to today is that of the man delivering the tirade & why. And here comes another disclaimer: I am in no way bashing Rhino personally here. As far as I know, he may not even entirely support what he is saying. It could very well be TNA scripting the entire speeches as a way to (a) kickstart competition between them & the WWE, (b) create some controversy to gain extra ratings, (c) push Rhino, and/or (d) a combination, or all, of the above.

I actually think point (d) is the truth here. TNA most probably feel that the tirades that Rhino has gone on over the past couple of weeks can do a little bit of (a), (b) & (c). But while most wrestling fans may feel that (a) & (b) are paramount, I’m not at all so sure. In fact, I actually believe that it is point (c) that may be at the forefront of this all. Regardless of whether or not this idea came from TNA management or Rhino himself, I feel that the major reason for all of this is that Rhino currently needs a push.

I have never been backwards in coming forward & stating that I have never been the biggest fan of Rhino, but think about it: Wasn’t this the guy who was NWA-TNA World Champion some time last year? And wasn’t this the same guy who wrestled at the second to last pay-per-view against a rookie & his manager in an undercard bout? Rhino is/was heading nowhere fast. It’s even arguable that he was dropping faster down the card than anyone over the past decade or so. Personally, I feel that was Rhino’s perfect position on the card, but as a promotion that erroneously pushed the man to a World Title reign so recently, I agree that it is in TNA’s best interests to not let him plunge so far so soon.

I just don’t see anything special in Rhino that many others are seeing. His offense is limited to a few decent looking suplexes & the usual punches & kicks. It’s all topped off by his finisher which is pretty good, but nothing too spectacular (& heavily reliant on commentators to put it over). In fact, when looking at what I have just written, I would think that Rhino should have done well in the WWE. And yet, I can only think of one above average match (against Chris Jericho) throughout his entire tenure there. Yes, some of that can be put down to WWE booking, but nowhere near all of it.

For mine, Rhino was heavily overpushed to a World Title reign by TNA. Hell, most people have forgotten that he even had a title reign. His fall from grace in the subsequent time has been very predictable in my opinion. I would almost go so far as saying that TNA simply let him drop to where he naturally belonged, while they concentrated on getting over others such as Christian Cage & Samoa Joe. When they realized how far Rhino had dropped, they decided to do something about it & allowed/agreed for him to spew out his latest tirades aimed at the WWE. And while we’re at giving him a push, let’s throw him in the ring with arguably the hottest talent that TNA have right now; Samoa Joe. Don’t worry if it doesn’t make sense or the fact they are both faces!

Finally, the reason that I feel proves that this is all an angle to give Rhino a push; Despite the fact that Rhino was the last ECW Champion & has that reason to sound off at the WWE, don’t you think that this entire angle would be a whole lot more effective & entertaining if it was coming from Team 3D (aka The Dudley Boyz)…??? I know they’ve taken their shots in the past, but it’s been more ‘tip of the iceberg’ stuff, rather than the direct opportunity that Rhino has just had. Oh well, good luck to Rhino in proving me wrong. I actually hope he does so… But I wouldn’t bet on it.


Well, it was a little bit shorter. Maybe this is a week by week proposition. Anyway, I hope it was worth all the effort & you enjoyed reading it. My computer problems are very much still occurring & this has left me with limited access to my email. I should be able to view them, but replying may be a little trickier. Still, if you feel the need to email feedback concerning The Bash, TNA and/or Rhino’s tirade, my e-mail address is DaveyBoy123@bigpond.com. But if you are an LOP Forums member, it would be much appreciated if you could leave feedback on my thread at http://www.lopforums.com/showthread.php?t=4889

Who knows if I will be able to post a column next Wednesday. If I do, it’s most likely to be a DVD Review of some kind. I had one pre-written, but that is most probably lost. I will either re-write that one or review a DVD that I am planning on watching this coming weekend. If you do see a column, it will be at the same Wednesday time on the same LOP channel. Until whenever, 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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***DIRECT LINK*** Photos of Triple H & Stephanie's HUGE MANSION in the Woods!

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