DaveyBoy’s Wrestling Menu – Raw Review, ECW Review + Angle's Release
Submitted by DaveyBoy on Wednesday, September 6, 2006 at 4:26 AM EST






THE WRESTLING MENU #192

Welcome one and all to the 192nd edition of The Wrestling Menu, the column that is sure to satisfy your taste buds when it comes to discussing all things wrestling.

Before I begin, R.I.P Steve Irwin (aka The Crocodile Hunter). I never watched too much of his tv show & while I know he did some controversial things, he did a lot of great work as well. I'm sure many parents will miss the entertainment that he brought to their children. And while not all of us Aussies share his strong accent (it's the equivalent to a deep south accent for Americans, or comparing the Scottish accent to the English), he did a lot of terrific promotion for this great country that I live in.

My weekly column-writing streak has now hit 11 months! Just 1 month to go to the big 1 year streak… Can I do it? Who knows? But I will sure be trying my hardest. I have my home computer back now (albeit with all the information that I had lost), so I can't see why I can't go the extra month.

I have had the last couple of weeks off work. Didn't really get up to much. Did a couple of things around the house, trained a little for a run I will be doing in about 10 days & got up to date with all things fantasy football. I won the Aussie Rules football fantasy league that I was in this year (that's 2 years in a row), came 2nd & picked up some money in my AFL predictions (pick 'em) this year, and am doing alright in my English Soccer fantasy league.

Hell, I even took the time to participate in my first ever NFL fantasy football draft which was quite fun. How's this for my first 4 picks; L.Tomlinson, C.Johnson, T.Brady & M.Harrison...??? Damn good if you ask me. And I've got decent depth with the likes of T.Green, W.Dunn, T.Jones, D.Foster, R.Smith, K.Johnson & D.Mason!

By the way, speaking of sport, congratulations to Spain for being the World Champions of basketball. No excuses for the USA this time around, as they arguably had the best 3 players in the world playing.

Anyway, onto the wacky world of professional wrestling. I have skipped a pre-written DVD Review & have gone with 2 reviews of sorts today. This is for a couple of reasons; Firstly, because I finally got to see the ECW weekly show for the first time. Secondly, because I must say that I was rather impressed with both Raw & SmackDown last week. Both shows had some genuinely good matches & some good build-up to boot. Let's hope they can continue on this week.

By the way, extra kudos to JBL for his commentary on Mike Mizanin's match last week. I'm not as much of a Miz-hater as most, but JBL's derogatory comments towards him last Friday were hilarious. Quality stuff.

On with the show......


APPETIZERS – ECW Review

Before I begin, please note that the episode of the ECW weekly show that I am speaking of below is not last nights, but the one from Tuesday the 29th of August. We are getting the show on a 3 day delay down under, so that combined with my column-posting day of Wednesday doesn't really give me the opportunity to be very timely. The first thing I should comment on is the overall look of the show. While old-school ECW fans predominantly hate it (mostly to do with the SmackDown audience being present), I feel that the camera angles, seemingly different announce desk positioning, entrance-way & darker lighting do sufficiently separate the brand from Raw & SmackDown. So, being a new fan of the ECW name as such, I have absolutely no problem with the look & feel of the show.

This episode kicks off with RVD vs Hardcore Holly. It was actually a decent 6 minute bout, with RVD making it rather entertaining, if not anything special. Those who read my column loyally will know that I am not at all a fan of Hardcore Holly, but I suppose if he was to fit in anywhere, this would be the brand... As long as he isn't given too big of a push. Not long after this match, we saw 2 backstage promos of sorts featuring Rene Dupree & Shannon Moore. I really don't know what to think of these 2 on the brand. I suppose they both have some potential, but they could both completely bomb as well. I think we need to wait & see with these 2.

Our second match of the night was CM Punk vs Stevie Richards. It was a pretty average 4 minute bout, but I do feel that you could indeed see the potential of CM Punk. He has an interesting style, which if refined appropriately, could work well in the WWE. He also has some similarities with Edge in body stature & the types of moves he can perform, so that could only be a good thing. It was hard to tell how successful a finisher the Anaconda Vice can be. Judging by the ordinary way the camera captured it here, it may have to be scrapped.

The Big Show was out to do a promo around this time & he was mainly hyping up his upcoming interaction with D-Generation X (both on the next weeks show & at the Unforgiven ppv). I know many wrestling fans want all the cross-promotion of the WWE's brands to be scrapped ASAP, but I'm willing to be a little more patient. I think the show needs to maintain constant ratings & the only way to do that at this stage is to have the stars of Raw & SmackDown occasionally present. Of course, this opinion does have the condition that they must continue moving forward in developing the brand's own stars.

Not so much a cross-promotion as a roster swap, Matt Striker comes out & gives us one of his lessons next. I don't know about this move... While I can see it being entertaining in the short-term, that would be about it. The better wrestler to move across would have been Rob Conway. In fact, a potential feud between Conway & CM Punk would be exactly what many old-school ECW fans (as well as some non-ECW fans such as myself) would really enjoy.

Horrible so-called main-event that was promoted as Sabu vs Paul Heyman, but ended up a 4 on 1 match when The Big Show & Heyman's 2 personal security enforcers (reportedly The Basham Brothers) took apart Sabu. Slow & average stuff, until RVD eventually came out & bettered the odds for the faces. But Hardcore Holly has already involved himself in the main-event scene & came out to give RVD an Alabama Slam through a table. TBS then did enough damage for Heyman to get the pinfall. Apparently, Vince McMahon booked this main-event match..... I hope the lower rating told him something, as I definitely did not enjoy it.

Apart from the main-event & the questionable roster additions, I do believe the WWE have to stop confusing some fans with the occasional ECW Rules bouts, as compared to the DQ results in half of the other matches. That's just confusing & annoying, and I don't think the time is there for them to be flip-flopping from one to another! Speaking of time, I think that the show has to remain at 1 hour for now. I could see myself falling asleep or changing the channel if it went to 2 hours at this stage. Maybe it can down the track when the roster adds more depth.

All in all, my first impression of the weekly ECW show was so-so. I can't say that I enjoyed it much more than most episodes of Velocity from earlier in the year (especially if you added CM Punk to Velocity). I'm willing to be patient with it though & I think most wrestling fans should be, as it will take time to build up some wrestlers for the casual fan to care about. Of course, the loss of arguably their #1 guy (Kurt Angle) will really hurt this promotion. I wonder if he will be replaced! I hear Chris Benoit is coming back soon & he probably is the closest thing that the WWE have to Kurt. I would be against the move myself, but it's definitely a thought.


MAIN – Raw Review

Between the opening recap from last week, Edge's monologue from on top of a ladder, the trailer-like highlights package of Edge in TLC matches, and Cena's attack (including an F-U through a table), a great job was done of putting over the importance of the Unforgiven title bout to open this show. Hell, after this, the WWE may even make it the main-event of the pay-per-view ahead of the 5 man Hell In A Cell match!

Nice little dig at last week's press conference with the backstage paint-drying segment. I was initially a little disappointed & surprised to see the Nitro vs Hardy IC Title bout on Raw instead of at the ppv, but this match was just too good to ignore. Despite not doing anything too risky or groundbreaking, these 2 put on a 10+ minute match of ppv quality. The cheap DQ ending gives reason for an Unforgiven rematch & I'm quietly confident these 2 have something up their sleeve to improve on this very good bout.

A couple of nice little backstage segments follow. The Lita & Trish confrontation really added some genuine intensity & importance to their upcoming bout, while it also gave some time to Orton & Carlito, as well as setting up the main-event of the night. The rules of build-up were followed here & it all seemed so easy to pull it off well. Good stuff.

The clearly leaner Chris Masters issues an open challenge next. And if you put your $1 dollar on Super Crazy to answer it, then you deserve to win $1 million. What the hell!?!?!? This is a terrible decision to move Super Crazy over to Raw. Not only had he yet to be fully utilized in SmackDown's cruiserweight division, but he also could have been a very handy addition to the ECW brand. Despite the clean pinfall win over the Masterpiece here, he is more than likely to be buried on Raw eventually. Having said all that, this was an above average television bout that proved to be rather entertaining.

Vince McMahon's entrance theme opens up the 2nd hour of the show & the in-ring segment went rather well. Shane (complete with a terrible tie) & The Big Show spoke well & to the point. Vince unfortunately waffled on about nothing for a little too long, but he was thankfully shut up by the appearance of a intense-looking D-Generation X. I like that idea at this stage of the feud, as it adds something a little different & fits the Hell In A Cell theme better than hijinks & shenanigans.

This was a nice spot to give the feeble Raw tag-team division some time. The Highlanders defeated Murdoch/Cade & Viscera/Haas in a triple-threat #1 Contenders match. The crowd didn't care at all, but it was kept short enough & had a decent pace to it. Robbie gets the pinfall after a rather sick looking sunset-flip/german suplex combination. And by the way, Australian television didn't air the Cryme Tyme vignette. Well, either that or I thought there was an ad for Cops on the tv!

The Nature Boy is in the house next & I was a little interested to see what his next feud would be now that Mick Foley is back off screen. We disappointingly didn't learn of the future plans for Flair though, as he was interrupted by Armando & Umaga, who were then subsequently interrupted by Kane. Sufficient segment, but it didn't really put over the Kane vs Umaga feud in my opinion. Watching Flair do his patented flop after being kissed by Maria was a laugh though.

Vince McMahon vs Triple H is announced backstage as next week's Raw main event. I just hope it's better than Paul Heyman vs Sabu!!!

Our main-event tonight is a 6 person intergender match pitting Edge/Lita/Orton against Cena/Trish/Carlito. Frenetically & entertainingly booked up until the mid-match commercial break with all 6 wrestlers getting a piece of the action. The bout wisely slows down after the break with nice duelling chants for Lita & Trish while the 2 women were squaring off. Carlito plays the face in peril for quite some time, until the match fully breaks down with all 6 getting involved in the action here, there & everywhere. Orton RKO's Trish & then amusingly gives the 'You Cant See Me' hand gesture to the referee as Lita gets the decisive pinfall. Above average tv main event that also did a great job in hyping 3 singles matches at the upcoming ppv event. Good stuff all around.

Wow... following last week's above average episode of Raw, I was really doubtful that the WWE could pull off successive good showings. But they did that & more with this week's episode. While not including anything that's going to stick in the memory one year from now, this was close to what I believe should be the blueprint of a Raw episode. Not only did it have above average matches from top to bottom, but it also built up numerous bouts for the upcoming ppv. In fact, it's going to be hard to build those matches up any more next week! A job very well done & an entertaining night of wrestling. Kudos to all involved.


DESSERT – Kurt Angle

I know I am not as timely on this as I could have been, with a few column-writers already giving us their dollars worth on the subject. But it's better late than never & it's far too big of a topic for me to skip completely. The subject I am speaking of is the WWE releasing Kurt Angle & I think it's fair to say that most professional wrestling fans (including myself) were initially very surprised at this news.

I will cut to the conclusion immediately & say that if the WWE were willing to completely release him (& not just suspend him), then this is the correct decision that they have made. In a recent blog of sorts on his website, Kurt Angle referred to 2 things that bottom line this topic. Firstly, he mentioned that he was on pain killers. Secondly, as exaggerated as it sounded, he mentioned that he has recently suffered further muscular injuries while wrestling.

The 2 facts above combined with his past history of injuries (& rumored history with pain-killers) almost make this a no-brainer of a decision. It's a constant cycle that is plain to see & if it happened to a man who had less commitment (as well as more regard for his own body), then I doubt that we would have seen such a wrestler appear on our television screens for more than 3 months at a time! With Kurt Angle not getting any younger & the injuries mounting up, then maybe 3 months at a time is about the most we can expect from him now had it not been for this release.

I have come to that conclusion not even taking into account his apparent personal problems regarding his wife & children. And I am not at all disregarding those facts, as they should come as priority # 1 in life anyway. But furthermore, if the man's head is not right, then he could become a hazard in the ring anyway. He could very well have taken his aggression out on an opponent, or not been thinking straight & made a blunder which could have caused an injury to an in-ring adversary.

Another fact that I have not mentioned as yet is the rumor that Kurt Angle is still suffering some lingering effects from the neck injury he sustained a few years back. Without even getting into the debate about how wise the short-term surgery that he had for it was, I think it's fair to say that this rumor is true. Anyone that has ever suffered any sort of sports injury knows that it gives them a little trouble every now & then, so I can just imagine how much trouble that would be if it was a body part as important as your neck.

It is for the above fact that I am also going to make the assumption that Kurt Angle has indeed been taking pain-killers at least off & on over the past 3 years or so. If this assumption is indeed true, then it has to worry the WWE in the wake of the Eddie Guerrero (& even William Regal) situation. While I'm certain Kurt felt the need to take the pain-killing drugs to quench his thirst for the job he so loves to take part in, the bottom line is that drugs are drugs & that they will eventually catch up to anyone.

So yes, the WWE have done the right thing here & I would be hopeful enough to suggest that they & Kurt Angle are on good enough terms to think that it is safe enough to release him rather than suspend him. Who knows... There may even be some sort of contract where Angle cannot wrestle for any sort of competition for a certain amount of years, similar to the Brock Lesnar situation.

And what do I expect of the future for Kurt Angle...??? I am quite confident that he can realize the situation he is currently in & do what is best for his own life. And that is to get his private life in order & at the same time take a break from putting his body through the physical stress that it has taken for so long now. I don't think he should even touch a weight for 6 months! And even then, I don't think he should think about returning to the WWE for a further 6 months. I'd be then hopeful that Kurt could think about a WWE return if all is going well & train for a further 6 months for a return around WrestleMania 24 in 2008. But if he isn't ready by then, or ever, then so be it... for the good of the man who has brought us so many memorable moments & matches in the past 5 years.


Ok, so that is it for column #192. Just 8 to go until I reach the big 200. Actually, just on that.. I stated last week that I did not want to do anything big & grandiose for that milestone edition when it comes around. While I am still leaning that way, I may be able to be talked into it if someone suggests a great idea. I think there have already been some suggestions posted over at my feedback thread on the new & improved LOP Forums, so if you want to get your brain moving, or suggest something yourself, please click on the following link: http://www.lopforums.com/showthread.php?t=217

Furthermore, if you would like to comment on any of the 3 topics that I wrote about in my column today, you may do so in the above-mentioned feedback thread or email me on DaveyBoy123@bigpond.com. As per usual, I appreciate all feedback & will also endeavor to reply to every single one of you.

Next week in 'The Wrestling Menu', it's time to predict another WWE pay-per-view. I practically went 100% at SummerSlam (damn disqualification results), so maybe Unforgiven will be the event where I leave no doubt as to my predictions prowess. Furthermore, I may write on a talented WWE midcarder which fans feel is being harshly dealt with booking-wise right now. Other than that, I'm certain there will be enough news in the next week to give me a third topic to write on. As per usual, my column will be posted at the same Wednesday time on the same LOP channel. 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

Exclusive To LordsOfPain.net / WrestlingHeadlines.com










***DIRECT LINK*** The WWE SD & RAW Divas PARTYING in a CLUB! WOW!

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