DaveyBoy’s Wrestling Menu – CyberSunday Review, Rookie Feedback + Spirit Squad
Submitted by DaveyBoy on Wednesday, November 8, 2006 at 12:01 AM EST
THE WRESTLING MENU #202
Welcome one and all to the 202nd edition of The Wrestling Menu, the column that is sure to satisfy your taste buds when it comes to discussing all things wrestling.
For those of you who missed it, I had a special weekend edition of 'The Wrestling Menu' that I posted this past Saturday. If you have yet to read that column, you may still do so by clicking on the following link: http://www.lordsofpain.net/news/2006_/articles/1162641818.php
The big news of this week is that the PPV Predictions Master is back! That's right, everyone's favorite Wednesday morning columnist DaveyBoy went 7 from 7 with his predictions for Cyber Sunday! Not only that, but I did a decent job of predicting what the fans would vote in as their optional stipulations or wrestlers, going 5 from 7 in that area (I missed on Kane & Bischoff). After a really ordinary patch late last year & earlier this year with my PPV Predictions, I've slowly been building back into form. And finally, for the first time in probably a couple of years, I go 100%. Self congratulations to me!
But enough of the pats on the back (or is it...) as I didn't actually realize that my previous 2 columns totaled approximately 120 paragraphs!!! That's a few months worth for some columnists that I have covered within the same week. And I wonder why I'm feeling totally wrecked at the moment! Anyway, the moral of this story is that I am going to try my darnedest to keep this column shorter than usual.
I wish myself luck, tell myself to stop writing more of an introduction & say that it is... On with the show.....
APPETIZERS – Rookie Feedback
For those living under a rock, I posted my 2006 Rookie Rankings last Wednesday as part of my milestone 200th edition of 'The Wrestling Menu'. Just in case you are yet to read that column, you may still do so by clicking on the following link: http://www.lordsofpain.net/news/2006_/articles/1162357608.php
To be honest, I was most anticipating the feedback that people had towards the wrestlers I ranked between 3 & 10 last week. As a quick recap, this group was made up of (in order) Idol Stevens, Mike Mizanin, KC James, Johnny Jeter, Elijah Burke, Mike Mondo, Mike Knox & Sylverster Terkay. But in a testament to just how difficult these Rookie Rankings are each year, I can’t say that I received too much opinion about which of those wrestlers should have been ranked higher or lower.
Most readers couldn’t really draw a line through those 8 wrestlers & stated that no-one really stood out as really good or really bad. Sure, I got the occasional “Miz Sucks… Hoorah… How can you rank him #4… Hoorah” email, but apart from that, most readers weren’t willing to take a chance & rate those wrestlers themselves.
Of the readers who did, the main criticism of my rankings was predictably Idol Stevens at #3. This was always going to be the biggest risk, although I think whoever I ranked at #3 may have turned out to be. He may not be great in the ring right now, with a few people correctly stating that his tag-team partner KC James looks more accomplished wrestling-wise, but I rank Stevens higher on things like look, body size & a couple of other intangibles. And just remember last year when quite a few readers couldn’t understand how I ranked Nitro above Mercury! Now you can see the reasons why.
I can’t say that it’s really worth much time discussing feedback that I received for my bottom 11 rankings. Khali, Mitch & Old Man Boogey all had their fans for being ranked dead last, while many also could understand why I had the Gymini (Shane) twins in that position. There were a couple of readers who questioned my low rankings of both members of The Highlanders. That’s fair enough I suppose & I admit if this was 10 years ago, they would have been ranked higher. But over the past couple of years, it’s been nothing short of a miracle if any team lasts 1 year. And I just can’t see a great future for either Rory or Robbie once they split up.
This obviously leaves the 2 rankings at the top of the pecking order; Kenny Doane at #1 & CM Punk at #2. Well, I am glad to say that it was virtually unanimous that these 2 WWE rookies be ranked in the top 2 spots. In fact, many readers went on to state that they were well & truly ahead of anyone else this year, which I have to agree with for the time being. But just like last year with Kennedy & Lashley, opinions were split over who deserved the #1 spot & who should have been the unlucky runner-up.
In fact, it was probably more 50-50 this year & most of that had to do with who has seen CM Punk compete in longer matches while in Ring Of Honor & who hasn’t. Remember that I haven’t. To be honest, I’m still unsure if that would have played a part in my rankings, as I still have my doubts as to whether he will be allowed to showcase his skills to full extent. That, plus the fact that Doane has long-term potential that is arguably the best since Brock Lesnar debuted in the WWE. I probably took the riskier “potential” route this year (arguably opposite to last year), while others decided to go with what they know & say that CM Punk will have the most impact in the medium to long-term. It may end up being much of a muchness, but only time will tell.
MAIN – Cyber Sunday 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: No Mercy '06)
65-69: Good event that was worth the money. [B] (EG: SummerSlam '06)
70-74: Very good. [B+] (EG: Unforgiven '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+]
UMAGA defeated KANE: Kane clearly wins the voting here with 49% & Sandman amazingly voted better than Benoit. In this interesting choice as opener, both men begin to battle evenly with huge blows, attempting to take their opponent off their feet. It's Umaga who does it the first 3 times, initially with a belly to belly suplex. The Samoan Bulldozer remains in control for minutes on end & thankfully shows us occasional his athleticism for such a large man. The momentum finally sways to Kane when Umaga misses a Samoan Spike on the outside & injures his arm up against the ringpost. Kane completely ignores that though & only follows up with elbows & fists to the head... Although the crowd seem to like that. A Umaga Samoan Drop evens things up, but he misses a splash in the corner resulting in Kane heading to the top-rope. Umaga halts his momentum with a thrust to the throat though & follows up with a Samoan Spike for the clean pinfall at the 9 minute mark. Solid big man action, which probably did improve on their 'Unforgiven' bout a little, but ultimately was nothing we haven't seen before. It fortunately wasn't boring & lasted about the right length, while Umaga showed a little more than usual here. But it's hard to rate this high being much more of the same. Match Rating…6
CRYME TYME defeated CHARLIE HAAS / VISCERA, LANCE CADE / TREVOR MURDOCH & THE HIGHLANDERS in a Texas Tornado Match: The Tornado option gained exactly half the votes, with the turmoil option scoring well with 35%. As expected, it's bedlam from the beginning as Cryme Tyme mix it up with Haas & Vis in the ring, while The Highlanders do the same with the rednecks on the outside. A nice double-team splash on Viscera by Cryme Tyme impresses, before The Highlanders clean house & hurl themselves to the outside. Back in the ring, Shad & Vis give us another version of Kane vs Umaga, before Cade & Murdoch hit their finisher on Robbie. But Cryme Tyme clear the ring of the rednecks & steal the pin in a little under 5 minutes. I predicted this would be short, but not that short! Nothing too terrible for the first few minutes, even though it seemed a little too rehearsed & was a touch difficult to follow the action. But the short duration & (more importantly) the lack of any proper closing sequence really hurt this. Passable, but just. Match Rating…5
JEFF HARDY defeated CARLITO to Retain the InterContinental Title: As expected, Carlito dominated the voting with 62% of the vote. A clean hand-shake opens proceedings before the 2 trade pinfall attempts in an interesting, if not totally crisp, sequence. The back & forth action continues until Carlito counters Hardy's patented guardrail run with a dropkick to the gut. Carlito locks in a couple of restholds back in the ring & then a knee to the gut logically leads to a modified bearhug. The restholds continue on for way too long though, in amongst some 2 counts gained by Carlito & some "boring" chants from the crowd! Jeff finally mounts some offense with a DDT & then follows it with a nice Michinoku Driver. This results in a Swanton attempt, which Carlito counters with a pair of knees for a super close 2 count. The same result comes from a springboard senton & moonsault, before a springboard cross body-block misses the target.
Hardy then earns a close 2 count of his own with Whisper In The Wind & then earns the victory at the 13 minute mark after blocking a hurracanrana attempt & hitting his Swanton finisher. Inconsistent bout that started off ok, even though it appeared as if there hadn't been much planning put into the bout. A very ordinary middle portion of the bout screamed out that they were trying to lengthen the match. And while it did lead up to a pretty good extended finishing sequence which included a sufficient amount of nearfalls, it wasn't quite that good (or lengthy) to fully overcome what had come before it. A tough one to rate, but ultimately a clearly disappointing bout as these 2 are capable of much better. Match Rating…6.5
RANDY ORTON & EDGE defeated SHAWN MICHAELS & TRIPLE H: I am shocked that Eric Bischoff gained 60% of the vote to be special guest referee here! DX play some effective games with the crowd before doing their usual mic shtick (if a little more ad-libbed than usual). Michaels & Edge kick things off & it is HBK that is one step ahead with some nice crisp wrestling. Triple H comes in to add more brawn, but a nice Orton dropkick stems the tide, as referee Bischoff pretty much stays in the background with slow consistent counts for both teams. H does get an early hot tag to his partner leading to an HBK flurry of offense, but Orton crotches him on the ring-post to once more sway the momentum to the heels. Randy then adds some nice intensity, while Edge uses the inexperienced ref to annoy Hunter. An Orton mid-match resthold wears down HBK & a nice modified back-breaker leads to an Edge spear that hits nothing but Bischoff!
H then gets the hot tag & cleans house with standard stuff, until eventually getting speared by Edge, who is in turn taken out by a plancha by HBK. Orton then hits HHH with an RKO, but by the time another referee gets to the ring, H kicks out at 2. A 2nd RKO is then blocked & Orton walks right into Sweet Chin Music. But a now conscious Bischoff stops the count, resulting in an Edge chair-shot to HBK & an Orton chair-shot to Triple H, after which Bischoff happily counts the pinfall at the 18 minute mark. For want of a better word, this was so "professionally" performed that it practically overcame rather unimaginative booking where nothing very special happened. The 18 minutes seemed to fly by & despite the obvious difference that 4 men shared the load here, these guys possibly showed why neither participant in the previous bout is a main-eventer just yet. More than sufficiently entertaining & containing more than enough action, this was extremely solid, if nothing that will stick in the memory banks for too long. Match Rating…7.5
LITA defeated MICKIE JAMES in a Divas LumberJack Match to Win the Vacant Women's Title: The LumberJack option claimed 46% of the vote as compared to the No DQ option gaining 40%. Both women throw their opponents out to the LumberJacks to begin the bout, while Mickie establishes equality in the ring by getting the better of the awkward opening sequences. The divas at ringside attempt to get some noise into the bout, but the live crowd predominantly sit silently, while Lita gets on top in the ring. A mid-match sleeperhold by Lita doesn't help, although the reversal by Mickie into a cross arm-breaker was quite impressive. Both women end up on the floor after another sloppy move, but the lumberjacks get them back into the ring soon enough. Yet another messy move follows, resulting in some more lumberjack involvement, that thankfully leads up to Lita hitting the spike DDT for the title win at the 8 minute mark. Disappointing effort that was awkward, messy, uninvolving (mainly due to the lack of success of Mickie's face turn) & seemed over-long. I can't pass it. Match Rating…4.5
RIC FLAIR & 'ROWDY' RODDY PIPER defeated KENNY & MIKEY to Win the World Tag-Team Titles: Piper scored 46% of he vote here, but Rhodes (35%) & Slaughter come out to provide back-up for the veterans. Flair & Kenny put together a decent sequence to begin, but Piper can't keep the momentum going for long once he gets in. The clearly out of shape Roddy actually does well to stay in the ring for so long as the heels isolate him with fairly standard offense. The hot tag to Flair eventually comes when the Squad miss a huge double-team splash. The veteran faces then perform some standard double-team moves before Flair locks in the Figure 4 Leglock, which is broken up Kenny's nice top-rope leg-drop. But a 2nd attempt at the Figure 4 gets the job done for the legends at the 7 minute mark. Well... that wasn't exactly scintillating action! Piper could hardly move at times & I'm just thankful that nothing too embarrassing happened. It was difficult to make this bout seem exciting, although keeping Piper in for so long ruined the chances of that happening. In fact, it wasn't until the aftermath (when Rhodes & Slaughter got involved) where the crowd really came to life. Not horrible, but I can't pass it... take 2. Match Rating…4.5
KING BOOKER defeated THE BIG SHOW & JOHN CENA in a No Disqualification & No Countout Triple-Threat Match to Retain the World HeavyWeight Title: Jim Ross announced the significant addition of the 'No DQ & No Countout' stipulations prior to the bout which was for Booker’s title (that won the vote by a landslide)! Booker tries to make a deal with Cena, but the Raw wrestler responds with a right fist to clear the king from the ring. And he wisely stays out on the floor as The Big Show's huge size predominantly dominates Cena in the ring. The ECW Champ continues the momentum when Booker & Cena swap roles, as the action moves along at the big man's slow pace. His 2 opponents finally realize they must combine their efforts & eventually clothesline TBS out of the ring & use the steel steps to keep him there. Back in the ring, Booker gets 2 counts with a Bookend & Super-Kick, before Cena gets the same result with a belly to belly suplex. Booker then slows things down with a resthold, before Cena misses a top-rope splash that doesn't exactly have Val Venis thinking about changing finishers!
Some decent, if unspectacular, sequences involving countered finishers & nearfalls pick things up a little & get the crowd involved, before Big Show finally rejoins the action & begins to dominate once more with an impressive double suplex & clothesline. The ECW Champ follows up with a chokeslam to Booker & a spear to Cena. Some ringside action takes Show out once more though, as Cena hits his usual flurry of offense on Booker. But it's an interfering Queen Sharmell that gets an F-U before Booker is locked into the STF-U. Keven Federline then runs in & strikes Cena in the back with the World Title. Booker follows up with another title shot & gets the pinfall at the 21 minute mark. Disappointing main-event that hardly featured any 3 man action in it's seemingly overlong duration. The bout moved along at a fairly mundane pace throughout & was topped off by a rather cheap finish that should be a let-down to even those that agree that Federline has a short-term place in the WWE. Not terrible by any means, as there were a few nice sequences scattered here & there, but it definitely didn't work as a whole. Match Rating…6.5
PPV RATING (40.5/70) = 58
Looking at the key, I have basically given 'Cyber Sunday' a 'C' grade & said that it was ‘average‘. I think that grade & comment is right on the mark, as even though some may argue that this event was so bad that it should have failed, there was nothing that was completely horrible on the card. This was more a pay-per-view that will simply fade from memory fairly quickly & probably be remembered for nothing but a couple of veterans winning the World tag-Team Titles in a bout that I couldn’t even justify passing. 3 disappointing title matches (IC, Women’s & World) was seemingly surrounded by filler & not even the solid tag match pitting DX against Orton & Edge could go anywhere near saving this event that I have rated the worst ppv since January! The more I think about it, the more I wonder how this event rated 58. Now to determine what I will be video-taping over this with!
DESSERT – Spirit Squad
From memory (& it is starting to fade to be honest), I haven't really discussed The Spirit Squad in great detail as of yet. But I've made enough mentions of the stable here & there to give readers my rough opinions of the 5 green-clad youngsters annoying the hell out of people on most Monday nights this year. Initially, I liked the idea in principle. While many found it too annoying to bear, I thought the gimmick was on the correct side of that fine line of annoying WWE characters... & it is a fine line as someone like Mike Mizanin is also finding out at present.
What I wasn't comfortable with though was the fact that there were 5 members of The Spirit Squad. That was at least one too many for my liking, with a personal preference for only 3 members. I just couldn't see the point in the quantity & felt that at least one member would be lost in the mix. As it turns out, I suppose I have been proven partially correct on this argument, although I must admit that the fact that there were 5 members didn't affect the team too adversely.
I think the most important aspect coming out of the entire stable was the fact that it gave all 5 youngsters a chance to be promoted from Ohio Valley wrestling on to the main roster of the WWE without having a great deal of pressure placed on them individually. I have always stated that I believe that practically every rookie in the WWE should begin as a member of a tag-team & this 5 man stable was simply an extension of that. It gave all 5 the opportunity to be at least known to the WWE fans, while they acclimatized to everything that is being a WWE superstar (performing, traveling, etc...).
As it turned out though, The Spirit Squad somehow got involved in an upper-midcard feud with D-Generation X. I was a little skeptical of this booking, but while it didn't exactly set the world on fire, I do think that most members of the Squad adapted more than sufficiently. In fact, all but Mitch, but ignore my personal dislike for the most annoying man on the entire WWE roster (yes, even including Miz)!
Along the way, we have seen Kenny's athleticism while hearing how he is only 20 years old. We've seen Mikey's excellent enthusiasm. We've seen Johnny's comedy spots nicely combined with some of his intensity. And we've even seen Nicky break out from his golf-caddy character to show that he may just have some personality to go with that decent technical wrestling ability of his. None of these things have been seen in over-abundance as yet, nor should they be. It's all been gradually done & wisely so.
But now, it does appear that The Spirit Squad will be no more soon. That's actually fair enough by me... sort of. As a 5 man team, I do feel that there time has come. Kenny is the clear standout of the team & deserves to be the one to move into singles competition. Let me make it totally clear that he should not be pushed too fast though. His future could depend on that alone! He should first somehow feud with the Squad, but not for so long that it turns anyone face. He should then fit nicely in just under the midcard for the next few months, before moving in to a genuine midcard position mid next year. The temptation will be to have him be an InterContinental Title contender by WrestleMania. I think that would be moving too fast & he should only battle for that title towards the end of 2007.
Most people think that the other 4 members of the squad should form 2 tag-teams. There is a problem with that; Mitch can't wrestle! I think it's better just keeping them as is for a few months with Mitch as their main mouth-piece (yes, I'm stating he should keep his job… for now)! Then, a few months down the track, either Johnny breaks away as a singles competitor, or Nicky gets given the flick leaving Mikey to tag with the one left over. This way, none of the remaining 4 get much more pressure put on them than they can handle.
I really can't add much more much to my thoughts than that. Conclusion: The Spirit Squad is/was a good idea for a stable to allow some rookies to find their feet on the WWE roster. But just because they have had their first defection, doesn’t mean that can't continue to happen in one form or another & stage by stage.
Ok, well that just about does it for edition #202 of 'The Wrestling Menu'. I hope I'm not starting to show signs of burnout with the sheer quantity of writing that I have done of late. I presume that feedback for my Rookie Rankings should be complete by now, but If you would like to email me feedback concerning Cyber Sunday or The Spirit Squad, you are more than welcome to do so. As always, I will reply to everyone. You can email me on 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=217&page=2
Guess what people? Last Saturday was not a one-off! That's right, I will be back here on LOP some time this Saturday with the first of a 3 part column that will conclude the following Saturday the 18th of November. Hey, I thought I better take advantage of this column-writing roll while I have got some momentum & motivation! So look out for another special weekend edition of 'The Wrestling Menu' this Saturday the 11th. 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*** Photos of BATISTA With His HOT NEW GIRLFRIEND!
- Quick Links -
[Back to LOP] [News Archives] [Results] [Columns] [Forums]
|
|
