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Submitted by Wevv Mang on Monday, October 16, 2006 at 1:47 PM EST
Ridin’ With The Bossman – ECW House Show Thoughts, and The Week In Wrestling My alarm goes off at 5:30 AM. I jump out of bed and hit the snooze. Three more snoozes, and I’m finally up. One hot shower later, and I get dressed. I head out the door at 6:45. Still not quite awake, but it’s actually chilly at that time in Arizona. I hop in the car, and let it warm up. I hit the road and thank the lazy bastard who forgot to close the gates to my apartment complex. That’s ten speed bumps I don't have to deal with. I think to myself, I’ll make good time. Weekend traffic is light. So, I’m about to hit I-10 and finally turn on the radio. Infomercial, Infomercial, ah, sport talk. I better set my teams this weekend. Fucking Donte Stallworth and his fucking hamstring. Bobby Engram and his fucking thyroid. I just picked that guy up! Bastard. Wait, why are they talking about kick-off times like they’re going to happen today? Wait. What day is it? Oh shit. It’s SUNDAY! Ah hell. Son of a bitch! Mother F– ooo. Waffle House. Well, since I’m up…. Greetings! Welcome to another edition of Ridin’ With The Bossman! It’s been that kind of week. I better get that promotion. Any way, it’s been a slow week in wrestling, when it comes to news. Nothing really new to talk about. Oh, there was one tidbit that cracked me up. WWE and Vince McMahon apologized for accidental nudity. Accidental MALE nudity. That’s funny. Oh yes, I went to the ECW House show in Phoenix this Sunday Evening, and will be using that experience for OAW. But until then, let’s take a look at the week in wrestling. WWE TV – The Series Raw Recap courtesy of Chad Matthews We get a new opening sequence for Raw. I like it. All the announcers for ECW, Raw, and Smackdown are there. Hey, that must mean that JBL has to work twice in one week. That’s a contract violation! Oh, wait, Smackdown is taped. Nevermind. Cena, Show, and Booker All the brand champions start the show in the middle of the ring, each says they are the best. We then compare movie work. Cena has the Marine, bombing this weekend at the theatre near you. Show has the Waterboy. A great movie. Booker has..Ready to Rumble, a classic. Not in the blockbuster sense, but a classic wrestling movie. Not that good, but good enough. It ends in a brawl and matches are made to showcase the champions. Not bad, could have been better, but not horrible. Teddy, Coach, and Paul E. A nice segment between the three. Each put over their brand as the best. It would be a running skit all show long. Umaga vs Kane Well, Kane is retiring soon, and one thing he did say he wanted to do was to team up with the Undertaker again. So, it was pretty clear who would be winning. The match was brutal, and pretty good, but rather short. Armando had this long narrow box, and pulled out what looked like a dildo, but was actually a cigar. And Monica Lewinski was promptly traumatized. Or really excited. Sometimes it’s hard to tell. Anyway, like I said, a brutal, yet short match, and Kane lost. Tangent So, Kane is off to Smackdown. Not a bad place for Kane to wind up, seeing as how he has wrestled and jobbed to just about everybody on Raw. Smackdown does offer Kane some new opponents, and well, if Undertaker needs to have a big feud, Kane is right there. And Kane has jobbed countless times to Taker, so, he might actually get a clean pin out of Taker. Kane on Smackdown does present a lot of potential, other than Taker. Kane versus Batista and Bobby Lashley presents a good match up. Batista does need some one to work with, and going heel would be a good thing for him. Lashley does need to learn how to work a good big man match, and Kane would be an excellent teacher. Kane versus Booker T and Finlay would be pretty good as well, especially against Finlay. Finlay does have some great innovative techniques. Kane and Benoit would be good as well. Bottom line, Kane on Smackdown is a good thing. In theory at least. DX Spot I have to say, this was a damn good skit. I really liked the apology line, and frankly, it was true. They did do all those things. And H justifying the actions was solid. The tag division has been crushed. Again. And it was DX that did it. Coach was doing well, and on this show, he did so again. I also loved the cheap plugs. Big Show vs Jeff Hardy It was champion vs champion, ECW vs IC, and that usually means trouble. However, this time, it was done well. Jeff got to hit his spots, and Big Show made it look like he pulled a win out of nowhere. Big Show can sell. A quick and decisive ending, with Big Show hitting his two finishers polished off Hardy. Show then got to beat up Nitro as a bonus. Pretty damn good. DX vs Cade and Murdoch Well, DX started things off on the mic. They used JR’s Gamecock suggestion. It was going pretty well, until H went overboard on the dick jokes. What can I say? H loves dicks. A lot. HBK set him up perfectly, with the line “ a lot riding on Cocky”. Subtle, funny, and plenty of room to not upset the censor. H then picked it up and promptly beat it into the ground. For three minutes H used every dick joke he could think of, and H does have plenty of dick jokes. He must spend a lot of time on it. You could say that H thinks about dicks all the time. For a guy trying to say that Vince loves cocks, H seems to be the one obsessed with male genitalia. Thank god the match finally got underway, as H had pretty much killed the crowd. Piped in crowd noise and crowd shots of when they came out do not count. The match was a squash, but one with style. HBK went all out. Benoit vs Shelton Benjamin Shelton talked about being repressed by the Man, and how he wanted to wrestle in his home state. Benoit came out and it was over quick. The match was quickly paced as well, and if given some more time, would have been a real treat. Benoit won, in case you were wondering. Backstage with Teddy and friends. I love the banter between Heyman and Teddy. Those guys work great together. Rey, Batista, and Lashley vs Regal, Finlay, and Chavo Not a match little match. Decent amount of time, but could have used more. It was a nice touch to get Chavo involved in this match, as he’s going to need to be facing some one after Rey goes and gets that surgery. Which should be soon. Chavo got triple teamed at the end. Old Biddies They come out and wave and then…. cut! Welcome back buddy. You may not have cut H off before he destroyed a good bit, but you made up for it with this one. Thanks. Melina vs Torrie Hey! Torrie gets some camera time! Good for her and good for us. It was a lumberjack match, so, all the chicks get some time. Not bad, not bad at all. Melina got the pin though. Booker vs RVD Good match. Those two work well together. Way too short, but good for what we got. Sharmell interferes and Booker gets the win. Cryme Tyme They got a chick and are using her to work out. Not that way! Jeez, I know I was expecting Steph to do something crazy, but Cryme Tyme just used her as a barbell. Mitch Speaks And says he sucks. Way to go buddy, make yourself interesting. Well, he’s got some friends who will help him beat Flair. Yeah, I believe you. Coach and Friends Another great skit. I have to say, they are really doing a good job of hyping all the brands. Vince shows up and makes plans for Cyber Sunday. Champion vs Champion vs Champion. Nice. Very nice. And this was Vince’s only appearance and the only appearance by a McMahon period. Truly shocking. Mitch vs Ric Flair Flair brings out the road agents and even brings out Double A. Flair wins in record time. Way to go Spirit Squad. Cutting Edge Edge brings out his guest and it’s Randy Orton. Edge proposes to Randy (Not that way! Yeesh, I know there was only a few minutes left, but I repeat, there was no sign of Steph). Edge asks to team up with Randy to take on DX. Pretty strong segment, with a weak tag line from Randy “It’s Over!”. Still, that can be worked on, and the team of Edge and Randy Orton should, I repeat, should, be enough to challenge DX. Hell, they should win more often than they loose, but then again, it’s H. Still, this team has tremendous potential, and should be solid. Wait and see, I know, but still, it gets my hopes up. Cena vs Undertaker Well, a heck of match-up. Seriously. The match was solid, I’ll say that. Until the run-ins started, and then it went downhill fast. I should have expected them, but eh. Booker, Kennedy, Big Show, Teddy Long’s grandma got involved, so did the cameramen, Howard Finkel, Mae Young, CHRIS DEJOSEPHS, everyone and anyone came out, to end the show on a low point. Seriously. Oh, it wasn’t the worst thing ever, but after three hours of solid entertainment, something had to give I guess. It does set up Cyber Sunday, but that’s weeks away. November 5 to be precise. Plenty of time to push that. Let fans think about it for a while, instead of setting everything in stone on camera. And since that was the end of the show, time to talk about the show as a whole. It was damn good in my opinion. I was cringing, thinking about all the things that could go wrong, and well, nothing did. Everything was solid. The show was tight when it came to timing, with only a few lapses. The matches were short, and well, there was no real reason they had to be, but they did work in all three shows. Come to think of it, this show felt like a Saturday Night Main Event, only better. All the shows got to brag, and none were buried. Which is good. Smackdown came out the better I think. However, there was one real down point and it was the announcing to blame. Tazz went off on JBL. That was unprofessional. Shoot, work, whatever, that didn't need to happen and shouldn't have happened on the air, while a match was going on. While I found it funny that JBL was asking to call a match, since that is something he rarely, if ever, actually does, it was still unnecessary. In fact, JBL was on his best behavior and kept plugging Smackdown, and saying how good they were. This show made one thing clear. WWE has a plan. Three big shows, this one included. Family Reunion, Cyber Sunday and then on to Survivor Series. A clear game plan of where they want to go. Get all three brands involved, it was just a matter of how, and now, that seems to have been laid out. Champions first, and then teams for Survivor Series. Well-done WWE. The only thing I have to worry about is the timing of events, and the never-ending desire to get creepy. Hopefully, that can be kept in check. ECW Recap Courtesy of Eddie Martin The show that brings you Extreme Strip Poker. I was curious how they were going to do it, and looking forward to it. WWE wastes little time, jumping right into it. Balls Mahoney will be the dealer, and he immediately lets the viewers know that poker is out the window, and instead, the game will be lowest card strips. He introduces the Divas taking part. Trinity, Kristal, Maria, Kelly, Candace, and Smashley, I mean Ashley. The action is taking place on a set, not live in the arena. Good. Balls deals the cards, and Ashley is the first to loose. Looks like it will be a running bit. CM Punk vs Renee Dupree Starts off pretty good. But then a weird thing happens. The screen divides right down the middle and the poker game is going on. While the match happens. That’s horrible. So, we get Tazz and Styles trying to call a match, while strip poker is being played. Tangent What the? I was trying to watch the match, and instead I get chitchat between Balls and the girls. And it kept happening all show long. Not a good move. There was no reason for it either. Yes, the card game was going to take a lot of time to get the chicks naked. But putting it on during the show weakens both the game and the matches. I was surprised, thought I shouldn't have been. Kevin Thorne vs Tommy Dreamer Why isn't Ariel getting naked? Well, it was a good match, once again ruined by the card game. Dreamer ended Thorne’s undefeated streak as well. Well, it had to end sometime. Poker Kristal looses and throws her shoes at Balls, who says he likes it rough. After a break, we’re back at the game and the talk turns to men. Kristal asks Kelly what is up with her and CM Punk. Best moment of the night, because Maria is sitting right next to her, and does one of those turns and puts her head on her hand and just stares at Kelly, giving her one of those looks that mean trouble. Kelly suddenly looks nervous, and with good reason. See, Maria and Punk are a couple in real life. That made me laugh Kelly then looses her hand and gets totally naked. Nice. RVD, Sabu, and Sandman vs Big Show, Striker, and Test Pretty good match, from what I could see of it. It was hard with chicks getting naked. Nice action, in the game and in the ring, and some good spots. Sabu and RVD work great together. They were long time partners in tag matches and have worked against each other as well. End came with a brawl, and Sandman getting the pin on Big Show. I think. Poker Finale It ends in a naked catfight and Balls thanking Vince for this gig. Naked Catfight. I just like typing that. Well, that was the show. On it’s own, the Poker game was solid. Balls did a great job as host. Like a Mick Foley, only with more piercing. But the banter was good. The chicks were hot, and it came off as fun. The biggest complaint I have is that they found a way to make hot chicks suck. Way to go WWE. Putting the skits on during matches really killed the matches, and the game. There was plenty of time to use the game as bumpers for the matches. Heck, there weren’t any backstage segments, just a long plug for Hardcore Holly, and that could have been done on Smackdown or Raw. The object of the Game was to get the chicks naked, and cutting down on the banter would have done that. Also, the WWE website could have helped extend the time of the game. A little cross promotion never hurt anyone. In fact, the game segments are already on the website. The game was going to take a lot of time, and the show is only an hour long, and the matches still have to happen. A six-man tag took care of most of the stars, and three matches is not a lot. Still, with a little planning, it might not have been necessary to try and force the segments onto the show. Smackdown Recap info courtesy of Rudi Pavani No Mercy highlights open the show. Kennedy Speaks Kennedy says he beat the Undertaker. Some how. But that he needs more. He wants to keep his win streak going. Out comes Benoit. Benoit vs Kennedy US Championship on the line. Oh yeah, Kennedy is the champion. Well, this match got plenty of time. And it was solid. Great to see Benoit back. In his first match on Smackdown, Benoit beats Kennedy when Undertaker shows up and distracts Kennedy. Your new US Champion is Chris Benoit. Booker and Teddy There’s a #1 Contender’s Triple Threat Match tonight, featuring Lashley, Batista, and Finlay. Booker is upset by this. Vito vs Regal Vito wins. Vince then comes out and apologizes for the match and for Vito. Who keeps flashing the crowd. Lashley Speaks And it’s good. He has the quiet strength down. Not everyone needs to yell their promos, and Lashley is one of those types. The more mic time he gets, the more comfortable he hopefully becomes. MVP He’s got a big entrance, with mist, and music. MVP then speaks and says he’s got no competition. The crowd then turns on him. Nice. Long then shows up and says he does have an opponent for MVP. Kane then comes out and beats the crap out of him. Damn. MVP is getting his ass kicked and manages to escape after raking the eyes of Kane. Well, I’m not sure what to make of it. Kane has better things to do than work a program with MVP. Seriously. Let MVP work with Jimmy Yang or with Rene Dupree. Jamie Noble vs Rey Mysterio Or Jamie Noble. Pretty solid match, as Jamie is a good wrestler and Rey is excellent. However Chavo and Vicki come out and provide constant cut aways from the match. It’s not enough to keep Rey from winning. Chavo Speaks Well, Chavo can speak, and he does make it interesting. Until Vicki speaks and brings up Eddie. Good grief. Just let it go WWE. Oh, and we also get a match. An “I Quit” match between Chavo and Rey. I thought Chavo already quit? Kendrick, London, and Jimmy Yang vs Sylvan, Idol Stevens, and K.C. James Not a bad match, and with the chicks at ringside, Smashley with the Hooliganz and Michelle McCool with the Teacher’s Pets, it means eventual interference. Match was too short though. Surprisingly, Yang gets the pin. Nice. Finlay and Batista Speak Separately, but they say the same things, just in different ways. Both want to win the title. Batista vs Finlay vs Lashley Good match. The announcing of JBL took away from it, but it was a better match on mute. Lots of action, and good reversals. Lil’ Bastard showed up, and cost Lashley his chance. He also provided a distraction, but Batista countered and won the thing. Interesting. So, that means that Booker and Batista will finally happen one on one. A good show. Structured and moving towards Cyber Sunday. Again, JBL is just terrible on the mic. He was better, but he slipped at the end. Oh, and Vito was on the show, and that lowers the whole thing. I have no idea what the final plan is for Vito, nor do I really care. I haven’t missed him on my TV. Well, a decent week of TV. Raw showed that there is a plan, and so far it looks good. Smackdown is getting is still on track, and if they can chill JBL out, maybe when he’s on their plane, the show might actually get better. Friday nights are still weak compared to the rest of the week, and all it will take to get the top spot is something good. Hell, just moving up to #3 will be a huge accomplishment. One last though on this weeks show. Raw felt like a SNME. But, the time slot made a huge difference. A three-hour event that didn't slow down. I kept looking at the clock to see how much time was left, since the show seemed to end every hour on a high note. Still, there’s going to be another SNME sometime soon. They have a contract with NBC for several shows, and there’s only been two that I can recall off the top of my head. I’m sure they’ll try to fit in two before the end of the year, and well, it would be a good lead in to Cyber Sunday, and as an after match show for Survivor Series. Just trying to figure out where to put them. I’m just mentioning SNME since the format of two shows has been expanded to three now. And it works fine. Over-Analyzing Wrestling Today’s Topic: ECW, West Coast Style A few years ago, I went to an ECW PPV in Chicago. The “Anarchy Rulz” PPV in Villa Park, September 19, 1999. It was one of the best shows I’d ever seen. The card for that show was: - Lance Storm pinned Jerry Lynn (16:38) - Jazz defeated Tom Marquez (0:58) by Disqualification. - Chris Chetti and Nova fought to a No Contest with Simon Diamond and Tony DeVito (3:52) - Three Way Dance: Yoshihiro Tajiri defeated Super Crazy and Little Guido (14:38) in a "three way dance." Crazy pinned Guido (9:18). Tajiri pinned Crazy (14:38) - My All time favorite match - Justin Credible pinned Sabu (14:06) - World Heavyweight Title Match (Three Way Dance): Mike Awesome defeated Taz and Masato Tanaka (13:48) in a "three way dance" to win the title. Tanaka and Awesome pinned Taz (2:01). Awesome pinned Tanaka (13:48). - Tazz’s last match in ECW, before going to WWE. - World Tag Team Title Match: Tommy Dreamer and Raven defeated Steve Corino and Jack Victory (3:24) when Dreamer pinned Corino and Raven pinned Victory to retain the tag team titles - World Television Title Match: Rob Van Dam pinned Balls Mahoney (19:39) to retain the title. - A farewell party for Tazz. Seven Years later, and I got to see a live ECW show again. This show wasn’t a PPV, or even a TV taping. Just a house show. In a part of the country ECW had never been in before. This time around, I got: - Balls Mahoney defeating Shannon Moore - Paul Heyman’s Personal Security AKA the Bashams defeating Little Guido and Tony Mamaluke AKA the FBI - Stevie Richards defeating Eric Perez (I have no idea who the guy was) - Tommy Dreamer and The Sandman defeating Matt Striker and Rene Dupree - A beer bash. - Trinity beating Kelly Kelly and Divas Search Contestant Rebecca (Who looked really hot, better than Kelly, in my opinion) in a Beauty Contest - C.M Punk beating Mike Knoxx – Best match on the show. - RVD and Sabu defeating Kevin Thorne (W/Ariel) and Test - Mick Foley – In the crowd. He was just there and they announcer never made mention of him. I have no idea what he was doing there. Maybe he was going overseas with the crew. Best lines of the night where when the crowd started chanting at Test “You love cock”. It was funny seeing Kevin Thorne holding in his laughter. You know, he was trying to be all serious at first, and keeping no expression on his face, but his cheeks were bulging and his eyes were bugging out from trying not to laugh. Especially when he looked at RVD, who was just smiling. Test tried to put the crowd down with his great insider dig” You're the ones buying the Divas magazine and I’m the one nailing them.” Yeah, you really showed us. Response from crowd” Test is Gay”. Test fears Patterson. Also, Ted DiBiase was in plain sight all night long. It looked like he was taking notes on the matches. Interesting. Big difference. I mean, other than being in another town, in another state, and seven years apart. The show as still excellent, but more than just the factors listed above made it different. Anarchy Rulz was held in a smaller venue, that had 6,000 people attend. The Celebrity Theatre can hold about 2000 people. The Odium in Chicago was more of a traditional seating arrangement. The Celebrity is circular. In other words, the ring is right in the middle, on a raised platform, with hardly any space between the front row and the edge of the stage. So, not backdrops, sets. It puts you right up close to the action. For example, I was about twenty feet away from the ring, and I was in row 9. The attitude was also different. Back then, the fans were rabid. This time, it was only a few loud fans, who just shouted out random crap. Back then, the chants were well defined and known. I blame the Internet. The show this time around had a big WWE feel. Big Show wasn’t there, and it was announced ahead of time, and I did hear some people disappointed by that fact. Of course, back in the day, WWE was the enemy. Still, for the amount of ECW regulars on this show, five out of seven, it didn't come across as an ECW show. Correction, as an old school ECW show. That’s not a bad thing, it’s just different. More than just ECW is several years older. The fans from that time period are older too. Going in, I knew the show was going to be different. It was the venue itself that really drove that point home. It was small. There was no room to do out of the ring brawling, and weapons and blood would most likely have to go. It was too close to the crowd. You really don't want to be getting some wrestlers blood on the paying customers. Especially since the audience had a lot of young kids in it. Close to the ring. I heard plenty of radio stations giving away tickets on Saturday and Friday. The Celerity Theatre has been around for 40 years in Phoenix. So, maybe people knew what the venue was going to be like. Still, the place was packed once the show got rolling. In 1999, ECW was at it’s peak. In 2006, ECW just came back, and interest is waning. Not to a huge degree, but it’s eased off from the debut frenzy. It still has legs, and is doing just fine. ECW has spent the last few months going up and down the East Coast, and from reports, the house show attendance has not been good. I’ve heard a lot of people say that ECW is an East Coast thing. Like how TNA is a Southern thing. I never really understood that. The East Coast was saturate with ECW, and ECW like federations. ROH, and so forth constantly tour the East Coast. They can survive there, but when it comes to the West Coast, I rarely hear anything other than Lucha. Oh sure, there are Indy feds out here, and some of them are doing well. ECW faced some stiff competition. There’s the first Monday Night Football game in years today. Tickets for that sold out in about an hour. Plenty of hype for that, all over the place. Phoenix also always has something going on. It’s a tourist town. Just about every other person you meet is from somewhere else. The number of Pittsburg Steelers jerseys at the show can testify to that. However, the fall and winter are good times to hold a wrestling show. ECW finally came to Phoenix. And with stiff competing events, they managed to draw a full house. Oh, probably about half the people paid for their tickets, but they still came. With barely any advertising. For a house show. Minus some big names like Big Show, Paul Heyman, a guest star from Raw or Smackdown. What could it mean? That if an ECW house show can do well, then maybe, TNA might want to consider moving out West and testing the waters. That’s it for today. Sorry the column is late. So much stuff to do this weekend. House Show, Bears coming to town, and work is just kicking my ass. I have no random thoughts to throw in here, so it’s quick plugs and I’m gone. Go Bears! QUICK PLUGS! LOP FORUMS New and Improved! The latest Sports, Entertainment news! What are you waiting for? LOP COLUMNS FORUM THE MOVIE BAR! Great place for reviews of DVD's, Music, and special video clips. Your one stop review spot. THE PROJECT LIVES! A creative site for creative people. Be sure to check out the forums! LOP'S PWA E-FED. Best E-Fed on the net. Period. That's all for this week. Thanks for Readin' and Thanks For Ridin' Wevv Mang mrwevv@mac.com - PLEASE LABEL ALL EMAIL AS FEEDBACK. THANK YOU. OH MY GOD! Some of the Hottest Kelly Kelly Pix Ever!
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