Smackdown Report 12-5-14

We open with a shot of the retired Santino Marella because he's the General Manager for the evening. His office reminds me of Commissioner Mick Foley's in a good way. Following the Raw recap, Dolph Ziggler is here for an Intercontinental Championship match! I will continue to say that Smackdown should be the Intercontinental Title showcase show. Dolph has been having some pretty long matches on TV but this was a bit shorter. I enjoyed it and feel that they can definitely do more. Harper got himself disqualified to keep the title and then went after Ziggler with a ladder but it backfired. Santino came out and announced that at the TLC...S Pay-Per-View, Harper will defend the belt against Dolph in a Ladder Match! First off, adding the S to TLC is stupid, but a Ladder match between these two has the potential to steal the show. 

The remnants of the Authority come to the ring in Seth Rollins, Kane, Big Show and J&J Security. I don't understand why these guys still come out like they have power or something. Seth talks about how he doesn't have to pin John Cena at TLC, just put him through a table like he did on Raw. Big Show throws around the steel steps to prove a point while Kane talks about chairs and Ryback. Santino comes out and makes a tag team main event pitting Erick Rowan and Ryback against Seth Rollins and Big Show. I would be all for Santino as a permanent General Manager. Think of the hilarious skits.

 Tyson Kidd and Cesaro are teaming up again and according to Natayla's Twitter, they could be going by UpperCats, which is one of the greatest things of all time. I like the team but I would love to see Tyson get an Intercontinental Championship run in the future with his new character. They take on The New Day, who seem to be using a Freebird style with their matches as you never know which two you're going up against. This was quite possibly my favorite match of the night, even though it was short, as Kidd and Cesaro took on Kofi and Xavier, who won a game of odds and evens to compete. New Day wins and I'd like to hear some reasoning behind the team of Kidd and Cesaro and not just be a random pairing. As New Day are celebrating, Stardust and Goldust appear on the titantron and cut a promo on them, saying their positive message means nothing to them. Xavier grabs a microphone after they leave and all three of them talk about their unity and how darkness won't take over them. Big E speaks in his preacher voice, which actually makes sense here. I'm all about tag team feuds with promo work and no titles. This should be fresh and damn good.

Dean Ambrose was out next for his first time ever match against the United States Champion, Rusev. He cuts a promo about Bray Wyatt and how he broke the rocking chair on Raw before Rusev and Lana come to the stage. Lana says that Rusev will not be competing because of Jack Swagger attacking him on Raw. Dean says that he tuned them out after she said he wouldn't be competing and told Lana to stop shooting him flirtatious looks. TITTY MASTER! He goes to get Rusev but is attacked by Bray! Bray says "that was her chair" as he pulls out The Undertaker's old steel chair throat attack, but into the steel steps. Ambrose does the stretcher job due to this and it came off very well. I didn't like that an advertised match failed to happen but I liked the build towards TLC.

The Miz and Damien Mizdow are out to talk about Jimmy Uso's issues with him lately. He still claims that he was just trying to help Naomi grow in her career. See, earlier in the night, Naomi received flowers and thought they were from Jimmy but they were apology flowers from Miz. Jimmy came out upset and wanted to get his hands on Miz badly just like on Main Event. Miz compared Naomi to Kim Kardashian, which is probably more insult than compliment. Jey is going to defend his sister-in-law but he falls to the former WWE Champion. Not much, but I prefer the jealous boyfriend angle over Team A wrestling Team B fifteen times.

Look, if the WWE is going to just scratch the entire Bella Twins feud and make them friends for no reason again, then just let them use Nikki's music. Brie comes out to wrestle Naomi and we have to hear the god awful Brie Mode theme music. This could be considered a focal point of Total Divas vs. an afterthought on Total Divas. Nikki was at ringside and AJ Lee was on commentary. Basic stuff as Nikki goes to interfere so AJ stops her, allowing Naomi to win. NXT SEASON THREE STICKS TOGETHER! Brie puts a stupid looking pouty face as AJ leaves.

We move into the main event pitting Seth Rollins and Big Show against Erick Rowan and Ryback. This was only decent at best since Ryback and Erick Rowan aren't very good and I don't have much to say about the match itself. After Kane gets ejected, Ryback pins Seth Rollins with the ShellShock. This is where the issue lies. I don't think that Seth should be eating pins, especially to the likes of Ryback. He lost at Survivor Series, which is fine, but I'm pretty sure he's losing at TLC as well. I hope he can regain his momentum after all of this.

Not the best episode of Smackdown but not the worst. I again enjoyed the majority of the show outside of the main event. The Divas stuff was basic, but I love the idea of the New Day feuding with the Dust Brothers. The Dean Ambrose/Bray Wyatt stuff continues to be at its best on Smackdown and the Harper/Ziggler match built towards TLC well. 6.5/10.

NXT Report 12-4-14

In a cool little treat to start NXT, independent standout Mia Yim faced NXT Women's Champion Charlotte. I enjoyed Mia in SHIMMER but hated that this only got 50 seconds! They could have had a decent little match. While the match was short, the post match stuff made it worth it. Sasha Banks came out and claimed that she has more flair in her pinky than Charlotte and her dad do in their whole bodies. Bayley comes out on a crutch and tells Sasha to "SHUT HER STUPID RATCHET FACE!" Shots fired. Sasha attacks and Charlotte brings her to the ring. A distraction from the other half of Team BAE, Becky Lynch, allowed Sasha to hit the lungblower and raise the title in the air. This has a lot of backstory and I cannot wait for their match next week.

Tag team action followed as the Vaudevillains took on Wesley Blake and Buddy Murphy. While they don't have much story or direction to work with yet, Blake and Murphy are quickly becoming one of my favorite teams to watch. They can straight up go in the ring and showed it again here. It wasn't enough to top the number one contenders though, who beat them in just over four minutes. The best thing would be that right before the match, we got our second Vaudevillains Pictures production, which is something that I loved.

Bull Dempsey would take on Elias Sampson next in a match that lasts twenty seconds. Bull wanted to end this as fast as possible after he came up short in beating Baron Corbin's time two weeks ago. As he was leaving, Corbin came out and won his match in just 12 seconds! While I don't like this many squash matches, I do like that it is a contest between them basically and they seem to be on a collision course. When they do meet eventually, I think that Baron has to go over. He has a much higher upside than Bull.

Our main event followed as Tyson Kidd, with Natalya, teamed with Tyler Breeze to take on Finn Balor and Hideo Itami. I love that Kidd is working with Balor and Itami because it gives them a veteran guy who can go and assist them in working the WWE style. This was the match of the night as Balor is now three for three in damn good performances. After some hard hitting action, he struck Breeze with a sick double stomp and picked up the win. I wish that Breeze had something to do at TakeOver: R Evolution though. He's too good to sit out. After the match, Balor promises to bring something to TakeOver that The Ascension has never seen. I hope to god it's his facepaint.

The final segment of the night was a "face to face" between Adrian Neville and Sami Zayn. Neville came out first and said that he is not conflicted about the match. He is not proud of how he won against Sami last time but he is the kind of guy to do whatever it takes to win, which Sami isn't. Sami will never be NXT Champion because he's too nice. This brings out Sami but before he speaks, Adrian says that he has come to terms with it and will not be responsible for ending Sami. Sami says that he's pissed at Adrian for assuming it will be over. He claims that he's not Adrian's little sister and he's done well for himself. Adrian wants a handshake but Sami declines because he's not too nice and he slaps Adrian. He shouts that Adrian doesn't get to end him and that he will end Adrian's run. Emotional end and fantastic final piece heading into the big show.

While there were three squashes, two of them made sense and the two tag team matches were both enjoyable. The key to this is that as a go home show before a big event, it did it's job perfectly. Sasha/Charlotte, Balor & Itami/Ascension, Vaudevillains/Lucha Dragons and especially Zayn/Neville all got the build they needed. I forgot to mention there was also a phenomenal Kevin Owens vignette and news that Corey Graves has a big announcement to make on the TakeOver Pre-Show. Everything has been built well and Zayn/Neville is my favorite program of the year this side of Ambrose/Rollins. 7.5/10.

Top Ten Thursday: Top Ten TLC PPV Matches

As I've done in recent months, I'm going to be looking at the top ten matches in a certain Pay-Per-View's history. I missed doing it for Survivor Series and I apologize for it but I'm back with it for TLC. TLC has only been a Pay-Per-View since 2009 but it has still produced some damn good matches. Not much in the qualifications here except that the match had to take place on a TLC Pay-Per-View.

10. Divas Tables Match - Natalya and Beth Phoenix vs. Team LayCool

The first and only Divas Tables match in history saw Natalya put her Divas Title on the line with Beth Phoenix as her partner against Team LayCool. Not only does this make the list for its historical value, but it also was very good. Most Divas matches are something that a lot of people, not me though, consider to be bathroom breaks. This was far from that as all four girls worked hard and had great chemistry. They got just under ten minutes and Natalya retained in a fun contest.

9. Intercontinental Championship Ladder Match: Dolph Ziggler (c) vs. Jack Swagger vs. Kofi Kingston

I consider this mach to be a bit of a forgotten classic. Not many people remember this but it was a very good part of what was a very good Pay-Per-View. Dolph Ziggler was shooting up the rankings and on his way to a World Heavyweight Title shot at the Royal Rumble, but he would try and retain his gold here. I believe that Swagger and Kingston were part of a United States Title Triple Threat a few months earlier which is interesting. Regardless, this was a creative match with some cool spots and Dolph surprised me when he retained at the nine minute mark. It would have had a chance to be higher if it got a bit more time.

8. World Heavyweight Championship Chairs Match: Big Show (c) vs. Sheamus

I have never, and will never understand the concept of a Chairs match. Why is it not just a No Disqualifications match? Are other weapons allowed? The Ladder match and the Tables match both make sense but this doesn't. Enough ragging on the stipulation though, as it comes down to the fact that Big Show and Sheamus surprised everyone with their series of very good matches at the tail end of 2012. This was better than their Survivor Series match but not as good as their match at Hell in a Cell. Big Show retained in about 14 minutes, culminating the underrated rivalry.

7. Ladder Match: Dolph Ziggler vs. John Cena

After winning Money in the Bank in 2012, it seemed like Dolph Ziggler was heading towards the biggest run of his career. He would go on to be the sole survivor at the previous month's Survivor Series before moving into a feud with John Cena. The backdrop for this was that Vickie Guerrero, Dolph's manager, forced AJ Lee out of the General Manager spot because of her affair with Cena. Dolph was made to put his Money in the Bank briefcase on the line and got to main event the Pay-Per-View. Both guys did their part and had a very good match, worthy of closing a show. Cena was near victory when AJ Lee turned her back on him, allowing Dolph to retain his briefcase after 23 minutes. This would lead to the wonderful AJ/Dolph partnership and Dolph's eventual thunderous cash in.

6. ECW Championship Ladder Match: Christian (c) vs. Shelton Benjamin

Here's another relatively overlooked contest. In 2009, Christian returned to the WWE but instead of being part of a huge angle with Edge or something like that, he joined the ECW brand. Some people saw it as a letdown but Christian followed with a year or so of some of the best work in his career. He won the ECW Title and was consistently putting on some of the best matches in the company. Shelton Benjamin was in the midst of a solid face run as the "Gold Standard" and they met in a match that both could consider their specialty, the Ladder match. They opened the first ever TLC PPV and set a standard for it with a great 18 minute match that saw Christian retain the title.

5. WWE Tag Team Championship: The Brotherhood (c) vs. The Real Americans vs. Big Show and Rey Mysterio vs. Rybaxel

The lone match from the 2013 event to make this list is the Tag Team Title bout. I don't believe this was even advertised beforehand but it stole the show. See, after winning the Tag Team Titles from The Shield, The Brotherhood basically stole the show with every single title defense. They were amazing and I wish they got a longer run as Champions. Stupid New Age Outlaws. Anyway, this was a great match that shockingly got 22 minuets. The Brotherhood would retain after non-stop fun. Seriously, go see this one if you never have.

4. WWE Championship TLC: CM Punk (c) vs. Alberto Del Rio vs. The Miz

At the 2011 Survivor Series, CM Punk won the WWE Championship from Alberto Del Rio. That fixed a problem that started at SummerSlam when the hottest Superstar in the company dropped the belt. For his first Pay-Per-View, Punk would get to main event a show that didn't feature John Cena, who was basically a healthy scratch. Punk showed an ability to draw on his own as the PPV did well and the main event did even better. I don't think there has ever been another Triple Threat TLC but these guys did it right and Punk kept the gold following an 18 minute match.

3. World Heavyweight Championship TLC: Kane (c) vs. Alberto Del Rio vs. Edge vs. Rey Mysterio

The last match was the only Triple Threat TLC and this is the only Fatal Four Way TLC. Kane had cashed in Money in the Bank to win the World Title in the summer of 2010, leading to a World Title run that was a lot better than people expected. However, he faced a huge challenge here against Edge, Rey Mysterio and hot new star Alberto Del Rio. This is another match that I consider overlooked but it's one of the best TLC matches I've ever seen. Edge would continue to prove his dominance in Ladder style matches, winning his final World Title here. The match went 23 minutes and again, gets some extra points for the historical value.

2. Number One Contender's Ladder Match: John Morrison vs. King Sheamus

This is the only Ladder match in TLC history to not have a title or briefcase hanging from the rafters. Instead, it was a contract for a shot at the WWE Championship. Sheamus had won the WWE Title at this even the year before and was hot off of beating John Morrison to become King of the Ring. Morrison was always hot and cold. He had a great 2009 on Smackdown, before cooling off in 2010. Things would change as he got hot near the end of the year again and won this amazing match. I did not have high expectations going in but these two blew me away in what was probably a top five match of that year. I told you that 2010 was a damn good event.

1. TLC Match: The Shield vs. Ryback and Team Hell No

After their debut at the 2012 Survivor Series, The Shield didn't have their first official match until the following month's TLC Pay-Per-View. They were given a spotlight for sure as they met in the only TLC match on that card. Ryback was still green but he had two of the best possible partners in Daniel Bryan and Kane. They went out in Brooklyn and tore the house down. The Shield won a near 23 minute match that featured big spots and creativity. Seth Rollins took the biggest bump as he was sent flying off of a ladder and through multiple tables. It was the first step for a dominant faction that would go on to win plenty of big PPV matches, steal plenty of shows and become major stars.

Main Event Report 12-2-14

Main Event kicked off with the hometown boy, Jack Swagger. A recap is shown of Rusev's attack on Zeb Colter last night and I don't know how I feel about this feud. We've seen it already. Like three months ago. We all know that Swagger isn't going to end Rusev's undefeated streak, though he does hold a DQ win over the United States Champion. Swagger's opponent was Titus O'Neil. Titus is a guy that I think could be a more valuable asset to the company than he is currently. I didn't like him on NXT Season 2, but he has improved greatly and could be a good guy to have in the mid card or as the muscle of a legit heel tag team. As for the match itself, it was pretty good but relatively short. Swagger wins the Ankle Lock and gains momentum before his eventual United States Title match. He gets interviewed by Renee Young after the match and has the most RIDICULOUS hair.

This Saturday vote for the Slammys on the WWE APP MAGGLE! Interspecies tag team action next as Adam Rose and the Bunny takes on The Dust Brothers. As a grown man, I'm not a fan of the Bunny stuff, but I understand that the kiddies enjoy it. Commentary was actually not bad as they put over both teams and even the New Day. This goes about five minutes and the former WWE Tag Team Champions prevail. After the match, Goldust stomps on the Bunny which makes Stardust laugh. Not terrible, but I prefer the Dust Brothers as faces. Their heel stuff has just been alright. Fandango then defeats R-Truth. I'm not going into detail about this because this "new" Fandango is just as shitty as the original and Rosa Mendes is the worst thing ever.

It is announced that Erick Rowan will face the Big Show at TLC in a Steel Stairs match. What the fuck is that? Are only stairs legal? Is it just a normal No DQ match? Why doesn't it fit the TLC theme? Whatever. The Miz comes out to apologize for the fact that Jimmy Uso took his genuine gesture towards Naomi the wrong way. Jimmy Uso, who is very emotional, attacked relatively quickly. This would be the longest match of the night at nine or so minutes. I'd like to make a few notes. One, Jimmy Uso got to play a more serious and angry side and he did that well. Two, the Miz has been perfect in this new Hollywood character. Three, Damien Mizdow is even better in his role than Miz is! He was the MVP of this as the cameraman was able to catch his stuff and make sure it was a focal point. Damn good close to the show and Jimmy Uso picked up the win in honor of his wife.

A pretty good episode of Main Event. The opener was solid, the tag match was decent, Fandango sucked as always and Jimmy/Miz was fun. Not the greatest hour of wrestling ever, but still an enjoyable one. Main Event has dipped from the B show that it was around the Spring and Summer, but it's still good TV. 6/10.

Raw Report 12-1-14

For the first time in months, Raw didn't open with an Authority promo. Instead, Michael Cole goes to read an e-mail from the Anonymous General Manager, but is interrupted by John Cena. He cuts a very typical Cena promo and says that he is not handing over Raw to a laptop. Seth Rollins and J&J Security come out and they have some banter. The Anonymous GM announces that at TLC, Seth will face Cena in a Tables match and if Cena loses, he won't be the number one contender anymore. I like this and really hope that Seth wins. I don't want Cena/Brock again. Anyway, Seth attacks Cena which leads to a huge melee involving Kane, Ryback, Erick Rowan, Big Show and Dolph Ziggler. It ends with the heels standing tall as Seth and J&J hit the Triple Powerbomb on Cena through a table. JBL calls them Shield 2.0 and I cried a little inside. This was fun and chaotic but took too long in my opinion.

During the commercial break, the Anonymous General Manager announced that Erick Rowan would face Big Show and there would be a six man tag main event pitting Seth Rollins, Kane and Luke Harper against John Cena, Ryback and Dolph Ziggler. We move into a Tag Team Turmoil match to determine new number one contenders. The Dust Brothers open things against New Day. Surprisingly, the former Tag Team Champions get trounced quickly against Kofi and Big E. The next team is the newly formed tandem of Tyson Kidd and Cesaro! I feel like Kidd is glad he wears headphones to the ring so he could avoid Cesaro's awful theme music. They impress me and knock off New Day, which I didn't expect to happen. Kidd and Cesaro would then fall to The Usos, who would also knock off Adam Rose and the Bunny to become number one contenders. This was fun but could have been better. I also expected something new to come out of this, but it's just an Usos/Miz and Mizdow match.

For those wondering, these two things have taken up about 55 minutes of Raw. In the back, Naomi is watching and is happy because her man just earned a Tag Team Title shot. The Miz and Damien Mizdow come up to her and Miz says that her twerking is impressive. He gives her a card because he knows a producer who would like her talents. Mizdow gives her an invisible card because he's great. Mr. McMahon arrives! Erick Rowan is interviewed and apparently is some sort of genius. He makes wine, plays guitar and completed the rubik's cube. His match with Show is short and just builds towards a rematch at TLC because it ends in a DQ. Show tosses steel steps onto him and this did it's job. I will admit that I enjoy Rowan a lot more now than I ever did during his time as a Wyatt.

A recap of the Divas Title feud is shown because tonight, the somehow once again best friend Bella Twins are teaming against AJ Lee and a partner that the fans choose. The next match is supposed to be the "new and improved" but still exactly the same Fandango against Jack Swagger. Swagger never shows and we see that Zeb Colter has been attacked backstage. THAT MAN'S A WAR VETERAN MAGGLE! Fandango wins via forfeit, joining Seth Rollins as the only guys with those kind of wins this year. Returning, Rusev and Lana are out. They brag about Smackdown and imply that Rusev took out Zeb. Swagger runs out and they go at it to loud "USA" chants. Swagger gets the better of him, but I don't see the WWE ending Rusev's streak to a guy that he's already beaten so the feud is just meh.

One half of the WWE Tag Team Champions is out for a match next, and it is the more entertaining half. Damien Mizdow takes on Fernando of Los Matadores and wins with the Figure Four in a short match. The story was Jimmy Uso coming out after the bout and slapping the taste out of Miz's mouth for talking to Naomi earlier. MIZ! YOU GOT KNOCKED THE FUCK OUT! Of course, Damien commits and acts hurt next to Miz. Moving right along, Bray Wyatt takes on R-Truth in a match with a clear outcome. Bray wins and grabs a bunch of ladders and chairs. He cuts one of his trademark promos on Dean, which brings the Lunatic Fringe to the arena. They get into a big brawl and referees have to hold Dean back. Bray's rocking chair is in the ring and Dean decides to destroy it. It's not like The Undertaker's urn so Bray's power doesn't reside in it but it still upsets the man.

The Bella Twins are in the ring and AJ Lee arrives. The WWE Universe has voted and they choose Naomi to be her partner. We get some short "CM Punk" chants and later in the match, some "AJ Lee" chants break out. This was your basic divas affair and AJ Lee pulled out the victory with the Black Widow, making the champion tap. I hope that AJ gets her rematch at TLC and then moves away from the title for a bit. Also, The Bellas being cool with each other is still ABSURDLY STUPID. Mick Foley, dressed as Santa, promotes the WWE Shop along with his daughter Noelle. I feel old. I remember seeing her in the Beyond The Mat movie as a kid.

Paul Heyman is shown at WWE Headquarters and he cuts a promo about Brock Lesnar and his appearances being special. He compares it to Christmas because its unique and shouldn't be done everyday. It was solid but it is the same stuff we've seen a million times from him. Time for the main event, which got a good amount of time. After some great back and forth action, Dolph Ziggler continues his hot streak by countering a Harper powerbomb into a rollup and earning the pin for his team! After the match, a big brawl breaks out and Big Show runs out. Erick Rowan is back out with some steel steps and he goes nuts with them. Show takes the last shot with the steps to close the show as the faces stand tall for the second straight week.

In the end, this wasn't the strongest episode of Raw. The main event was good and the Tag Team Turmoil match was decent. Everything else was fast forward worthy. One thing I would like to note is how much I'm enjoying Luke Harper and Erick Rowan in their current singles roles. I liked them as a team but this has been fun. Anyway, Raw gets a 4.5/10. However, what followed Raw was phenomenal. The Stone Cold Podcast with Mr. McMahon was outstanding. One of the best things the WWE Network has ever aired. Austin hit Vince with tough questions about Macho Man, TNA, CM Punk, Shane McMahon and even the lack of push for Cesaro. I won't go into detail, just go watch it.

My Take on the CM Punk Saga

On January 27th, 2014 I attended Monday Night Raw in Cleveland, Ohio. This was the night after the Royal Rumble and I wanted to see what was next for CM Punk after entering at number one. The show opened with The Authority and Daniel Bryan before the Shield showed up. I expected CM Punk to come out to help Bryan but instead, we got Sheamus and John Cena. I was confused and even more stunned at Punk not showing up at all. However, the following day news broke that CM Punk had quit the WWE. This was hard news for me to take being a big Punk fan. Things kept leaking out with different stories and fans kept expecting Punk to come back at different shows. The March 3rd Raw was held in Chicago and Punk's theme hit to open the broadcast but it was Paul Heyman instead. Then at the Payback Pay-Per-View in Chicago, a Punk return was again kind of expected. It didn't happen. The chants of "CM Punk" has filled arenas since that fateful day in January, with AJ Lee being the biggest victim of them. After months of silence on his end, CM Punk finally spoke on his friend Colt Cabana's Art of Wrestling Podcast. 

During the near two hour sit down interview, CM Punk discusses the reasons why he left. For one, he mentions that Vince McMahon continually set him up to do things that he didn't want to do and would say that he'd "owe him one." Things like working with Ryback, who was called out by Punk as "steroid guy" and "unsafe." Now, I'd like to discuss this for a moment. I understood a lot of where Punk was coming from, but I wasn't a fan of him calling out Ryback. Whether he's unsafe or not, I don't think he should have done that. Anyway, Punk also mentioned that he had been working hurt, which is something that was speculated at the time of his departure. According to him, he was working with banged up knees, a concussion and a lump on his back. One of his biggest issues is with the WWE medical team, who refused to cut what they called a "fatty deposit". After leaving the company, Punk had it checked out by AJ Lee's doctor and they informed him that it was a staph infection and that he could have died from working on it for months.

Something that a lot of people have pointed to is the fact that CM Punk stated that "it's not always about money", but then goes on to discuss the fact that he wanted more money for WrestleMania. Understand this. Punk is saying that happiness is not measured in dollars,

however, you should be compensated for the work you do. He worked one of the "three main events" at WrestleMania 29 against The Undertaker. He, and a lot of other people, myself included, felt that he deserved the WrestleMania main event spot. Punk got paid much less than The Rock, John Cena, Triple H, Brock Lesnar and Undertaker. Don't get me wrong, those guys are bigger draws than Punk, but if you compete in a match of that caliber and you are a proven commodity like Punk, you have every right to want to be paid like a top star. Some people don't feel that way and I understand, but it is how Punk felt and you have to respect that. There was a lot more discussed but the big thing that I want to touch on is how Punk didn't quit. Yes, he left the night after the Rumble but from what he said, it sounded like Vince and Hunter were okay with this. Then, he got a text saying that he was suspended for two months until the night after WrestleMania. Punk then did not hear from anyone until right before his wedding day. The day of his wedding, Punk received a FedEx saying that he was fired. So it sounds like he didn't really quit. Yes, he did walk out but that was okay with the men in charge.

Basically, it all boils down to one thing and that's the fact that we now know Punk's side of the story but we don't know everything. People that are taking his side 100% or bashing him 100% need to know that the truth probably lies somewhere in between his story and whatever Triple H and Vince would have to say if they ever did say something. I do not hate CM Punk for leaving and he does need to take some blame for some things but a lot seems to be on the shoulders of the WWE as well. In the end, we haven't heard everything and it is possible that we never will. To 100% believe either side at this point is unfair to the opposite side. 

Random Network Reviews: ECW Guilty As Charged 2001

ECW Guilty as Charged 2001
January 7th, 2001 – Hammerstein Ballroom in New York City, New York – Attendance: 2,500

“Random Network Reviews” takes us to ECW Guilty as Charged 2001. After doing the historic Bash at the Beach 1996, I get to do another historic show as this would turn out to be the last ever ECW Pay-Per-View. They ran two house shows after this but this was basically it for the company. Around this time I was fully an ECW fan. I had watched from 1996 until this show every week and never missed anything. I had DVDs, action figures, merchandise, and everything you could think of. It was a sad thing to see ECW close but that’s the beauty of the WWE Network.

The real intro video package to this show featured the awesome “Renegades of Funk” song by Rage Against the Machine, but it’s dubbed over with some generic awfulness on the Network. I hate it because this intro video is one of my favorites ever. Cutting to the ring, Joey Style and Joel Gertner welcome everyone to the show. Gertner opens with one of his best rhymes of all time. If you’re going to see nothing else on this show, watch those first few minutes.

Joel Gertner introduces Joey Matthews and Christian York. It’s funny to think that now Joey Matthews is a stooge for The Authority. I loved York and Matthews during this time but they get attacked by Da Baldies during their entrance. Joel Gertner, an advocate for York and Matthews, tries to help but gets taken out too. Da Baldies continue to assault them in the ring with a powerbomb/dropkick combo as Cyrus the Virus comes out. Jerry Lynn also shows up and plants Matthews with the Cradle Piledriver. Cyrus gets a tag and covers Matthews for the three. So I guess that was a legit match.

Winners: Cyrus and Jerry Lynn in 2:41
Can’t really rate this as it wasn’t really a match. It drew a ton of heat though, so it worked in that way. NR

Joey Matthews is bleeding a ton as Jerry Lynn berates him for being a jobber. Lynn calls himself the “Whole Fucking Show”, drawing RVD chants but he doesn’t come out since he’s off filming some terrible B flick. Lynn says he won’t work another match unless it is in the main event and ends the segment by saying “LYNN!” in a weird, deep voice. Now the official ECW intro video plays.

ECW World Tag Team Championship Three Way Dance
Danny Doring and Roadkill (c) vs. Hot Commodity w/ Chris Hamrick and Elektra
Hot Commodity consists of EZ Money and Julio Deniro, which are some pretty cool names I might add. Doring and Deniro start with some decent work highlighted by a superkick from Doring and a T-Bone from Deniro. Money gets the tag and you can see through his pants straight to his thong. Billy Gunn called and wants his gimmick back. The Champions get in their high impact offense including an elbow called the “Panty Dropper Elbow” for two. Julio hits a nice dive outside and Doring hits a sad looking one. Money gets whipped into the guardrail but flips over it and clotheslines Roadkill, which was sweet. Hot Commodity do some double team work back inside as they work over the smaller Doring. They do the awful spot where Money leaps from the top right into a boot from Doring which leads to another ridiculously named Doring move. “WHAM BAM THANK YOU MA’AM!” Roadkill gets the tag and is all like “CHICKENS” before giving EZ Money the biggest wedgie I have ever seen. Julio hits a spin kick that is dubbed the “Jalapeno Popper”. It’s as if ECW knew it was their last night and they wanted to name every move something absurd to get them all in. Hot Commodity’s cheating gets them in trouble and leads to a Boogie Bang to wrap this up.

Winners and Still ECW World Tag Team Champions: Danny Doring and Roadkill in 10:06
No psychology whatsoever. Just guys trying to get in the highest octane offense possible. **1/4

Hot Commodity beat on the faces until generic WWE Network music hits and out comes Nova! I much prefer his real theme, “Intergalactic” by Beastie Boys. It seems like this is a return for Nova as nobody expected him here. This leads to an ECW specialty…THE IMPROMTU MATCH!

Chris Hamrick w/ Elektra vs. Nova
I’ve never really seen Chris Hamrick wrestle but he does hit a springboard dropkick. Nova targets the leg and applies a Figure Four to the “Woos” of the fans until Elektra rakes his eyes. Nova blocks a tornado DDT and hits a face buster. He climbs to the top but again, Elektra gets involved to stop him. Hamrick hits a huge top rope hurricanrana to “Holy Shit” chants. The new “Nasty” Nova, which is just supposed to be a more aggressive side of him, fires away on Hamrick. He hits a big superkick for two and Elektra jumps on him again. He kicks her hand and then the referee takes a bump. THIS IS ECW, REF BUMPS DON’T MATTER DAMMIT! A new referee showed up and it’s Chris Chetti, Nova’s old partner! Lou E. Dangerously comes out too as Chetti pounds on Nova. I guess there was a DQ or something. Spike Dudley comes out as Lou E. Dangerously runs him down for calling himself a Dudley. Lou E claims he would never do that, which is meant to be ironic because he was Sign Guy Dudley. Spike and Chetti brawl until Nova hits a Swanton Bomb on Chetti. He then gets Hamrick with the Kryptonite Krunch and it’s over now. 

Winner: Nova in 7:20
Classic ECW clusterfuck of a match. **

The “King of Old School” Steve Corino is backstage with Jack Victory. Corino mentions how he went from comedy act to Rhino’s manager to taking out Dusty Rhodes to being the ECW Champion. I’ll admit, his run to the top of ECW was something I loved. He is upset that Sandman stole his belt at the last PPV.

I Quit Match
CW Anderson vs. Tommy Dreamer
These two had built a strong rivalry towards the end of ECW and went at each other right at the bell. They spill outside and Dreamer actually hits a slingshot cross body into the ring. You heard me right. Dreamer puts on a Dragon Sleeper but CW doesn’t quit. CW gets the same answer when he applies an armbar variation. Sky High, YOU BETTER RECOGNIZE, from Dreamer right into a Boston Crab as both guys are trying multiple submissions. Because this is ECW, CW gets his arm placed in a steel chair on the post and Dreamer smacks a chair into it. SICK. Dreamer goes under the ring, gets a wrench, puts the ring bell on CW’s head and bangs the wrench into it. LOUD. He then drives the wrench into CW’s bloody head as this got violent real fast. CW drives Dreamer’s knee into an open chair and I don’t like the switch of focus here. Continue the arm work man! Tommy fights back and hits a second rope elbow onto a chair onto CW’s face. Still no quit. Dreamer gets a gift from “Towel Boy” and it has razor wire in it! Towel Boy then uses cookie sheets to wail away on CW, who attacked him on the last PPV. He makes the mistake of going up top and CW hits a Cesaro like stalling second rope suplex. He turns to Tommy and nails a spinebuster on the razor wire! Time for another fecal chant after a CW suplex onto two open chairs. Right on cue, here’s another one for Tommy’s head being in a chair and rammed into the turnbuckle. CW brings a table into the fray because the story of Tommy never quitting has been well built. He rallies with the Spicoli Driver off the top and through the table! In one of the most brutal things I’ve ever seen, Tommy uses part of the table and wraps it around CW’s eyes, pulling back into a submission. CW gives up because that’s just sick.

Winner: Tommy Dreamer in 14:17
That was exactly what I wanted it to be. A brutal match that never slowed down and was classic ECW. ***1/2

Francine is backstage with a giant sandwich. Subtle move ECW. See, Francine was with Justin Credible but her character was that she would only bone Champions. Steve Corino comes in for action but she denies him because he doesn’t have the belt. She says that Justin is with Missy Hyatt, Corino doesn’t believe her but it’s revealed that it is indeed her. And yes, they are blatant about the fact that Missy is banging Justin. Missy bumps into Steve and Jack and disrespects Jack, who she used to manage. Jack is calmed down when he hears that the Giants are winning and he delivers the “High Spot”. He steals the promo yet again.

Three Way Dance
The FBI w/ Big Sal vs. Kid Kash and Super Crazy vs. The Unholy Alliance w/ The Sinister Minister
The fact that he went as Yoshihiro Tajiri in ECW was badass. Kash, Tony Mamaluke and Mikey Whipwreck start and we get a series of moves from all of them. Mikey and Kash botch horribly, so they don’t get a good hand from the crowd. All three guys choose to tag out, with Tajiri getting a huge pop. He kicks Little Guido before he can ever enter, leading to Crazy vs. Tajiri Round 39 or something like that. Guido gets involved but eats a guillotine leg drop, corkscrew moonsault and springboard leg drop from various opponents. We get a trio of submissions as Whipwreck stretches Mamaluke, Crazy puts Guido in the surfboard and Tajiri puts Kash in the Tarantula. Things spill outside, allowing Crazy and Kash to hit back to back dives. The one Kash hit is pretty damn fantastic. Back inside, Big Sal squashes Kash, allowing the FBI to eliminate Kash and Crazy. With this now becoming a regular tag match, Tajiri and Whipwreck shine in their chemistry and teamwork. The FBI are no slouches though and hit a double top rope powerbomb that Mikey kicks out. No help from Tajiri or anything. WHIPPER SNAPPER! It’s where Austin got the move from dammit! Chairs get set up on the second turnbuckles leading to dual snake eyes. The FBI go up top with Mikey and he tries a double Whipper Snapper but it’s countered into a double Fujiwara Armbar! Tajiri breaks it up and the Unholy Alliance nail stereo tiger suplexes to win.

Winners: The Unholy Alliance in 13:31
Fun spotfest that became a good match once it got down to two teams. ***

The Sandman cuts a promo in the back before we go to the ring to see Simon Diamond, Swinger and Dawn Marie. Dawn Marie was on absolute fire here, just smoking hot. Swinger complains that he hasn’t “benefited” from Dawn’s managerial services so he brings out the Blue Boy and Jasmine St. Claire. It’s insane how Blue Meanie lost so much weight, only to put it right back on a few years later. A “Show Your Tits” chant begins, so Swinger starts flexing his pecs. Balls Mahoney and Chilly Willy come out and they all brawl. Rhino shows up and Gores Balls, Simon and Swinger. Dawn Marie gets in and gets Gored too. Chilly gets in his face and they trade shots but he falls victim to a Gore too. Blue Boy gets one too and now it’s Jasmine St. Claire’s turn to get hurt. He takes her to the second rope and piledrives her. JESUS CHRIST! 

ECW World Championship Three Way Tables, Ladder, Chairs and Canes Match
Steve Corino (c) w/ Jack Victory vs. Justin Credible w/ Francine vs. The Sandman
I don’t know why, but the entrances aren’t shown on the WWE Network version of this. A brawl starts this and Corino is first to eat some ladder. Credible drives a ladder onto him while he’s under another ladder as Corino is easily taking the worst of this fight so far. How crazy is it that someone as awful as Sandman is a multi-time World Champion? He climbs but Corino stops him, only for the ladder to fall on him. Credible goes all Terry Funk and airplane spins the ladder. The spots keep coming as Sandman has the ladder driven into his nether regions. He then gets tossed over the top and through a table. Corino and Credible totally whiff on a drop toe hold spot and I’d like to point out that these ladders look incredibly unstable. Credible also goes through a table outside, knee first, which has to hurt. Everyone is back in the ring and nobody is really staying down for long. Corino tries to scale the ladder, clearly sees Justin climbing the turnbuckle and waits to get dropkicked off. Sandman goes through yet another table but gets to his feet nearly instantly. Corino slingshots Credible into a ladder but the former Champion hits That’s Incredible and Francine snaps off the COOCHIECANRANA onto Sandman outside. Sandman again is up quickly and brings a bigger, sturdier ladder in. In a spot stolen from King of the Ring 1999, Credible and Corino are near the top and the belt is raised away from them. They fall off and through a table, allowing Sandman to retrieve the belt.

Winner and New ECW World Champion: The Sandman in 13:20
Decent brawl with some cool spots, but they were sloppy. **

The Sandman celebrates with the belt as Justin Credible and Steve Corino get to their feet. They all shake hands but are interrupted by DA BALDIES! Joey Styles is sure to point out that they are Cyrus’ hired thugs. Corino and Credible fight them to the back and Sandman conveniently sets up a table in the corner. Rhino shows up behind Sandman and he stumbles before Goring Sandman. Rhino grabs a microphone and starts with a “FUCK YOU NEW YORK”! He questions why he’s the TV Champion when this poor company doesn’t even have a TV deal. Ouch. He wants a title shot and threatens the Sandman’s family, so the match is going down.

ECW World Championship
The Sandman (c) vs. Rhino
Rhino picks up Sandman and Gores him through the table for two. Don’t be surprised Rhino, he got up quickly from a bunch of stuff during the previous match. So he sets up a table outside and piledrives Sandman off the apron and through it. He rolls him inside and again only gets two. Seriously? A second piledriver, this one on the broken table finally ends it.

Winner and New ECW World Champion: Rhino in 1:02
Well that got a ton of heat. SQUASH

Cyrus gets in the ring and hypes up Rhino as the Unified World Champion, even though he unified a World and TV Title. He challenges any man in the back, from any company, to take on Rhino. Styles says there is no one left and the theme of Rob Van Dam hits. The building goes NUTS as RVD is who they have chanted for all night. He goes face to face with Rhino who doesn’t back down at all. This should be a World Title match for the ages. Instead, Jerry Lynn attacks and we get that match instead as Rhino exits. 

Jerry Lynn w/ Cyrus vs. Rob Van Dam
It’s rather fitting that the last match in ECW Pay-Per-View history is not only the final chapter of RVD vs. Lynn, but also a match where RVD doesn’t get a World Title shot. A quick series of reversals ends in a standoff and RVD bows to the fans. Joey Styles points out that RVD doesn’t have Bill Alfonso and Lynn has someone in his corner now. I like little things like that from commentary. RVD spends a TON of time showboating. Lynn takes RVD outside and they brawl for a bit, highlighted by an RVD moonsault off the guardrail and his signature corkscrew leg drop. Back inside, RVD hits a gorilla press, moonsault and then a second rope moonsault in basically one swift motion for two, which was impressive as hell. RVD tries another flippy spot but Lynn catches him with a big midair clothesline. They do a good job of playing off of how well they know each other. As they go outside, a bald guy gets too close to the competitors and a “HIT THE BALD GUY” chant breaks out. RVD gets a near fall from Rolling Thunder and remembers that this is ECW, so he gets a chair. He skateboards the chair into Lynn’s face in the corner, so of course, RVD taunts again. Lynn rallies with a sunset flip bomb onto a chair for two. They trade DDT counters and seem to stumble a bit before Lynn gets two again with a German suplex. Despite the big spots, this has been rather dull. After a big kick, RVD misses the Five Star Frog Splash and Lynn rolls him up for two. Cyrus is chased into the ring by Joel Gertner, who plants him with a DDT. That seemed out of place. Lynn brings a chair in, like an idiot, and gets hit with the Van Daminator. HAVE YOU NOT WRESTLED RVD A MILLION TIMES? With no Bill Alfonso, RVD uses Gertner to hold the chair for the Van Terminator. That is enough to finish this.

Winner: Rob Van Dam in 20:25
Nowhere near the level of their 1999 encounters. Not sure if it was RVD being rusty, but this didn’t click. **

Cutting to the back, Justin Credible and Steve Corino inform everyone that they are going to be the New Impact Players because they’re tired of being screwed. They do the trademark pose together and I would’ve liked to see this team play out.

Overall: 5/10 Mediocre. Only two matches on this show are really good. The I Quit match and the Three Way Tag match are damn good. Everything else is passable, though none of it is really bad. RVD and Lynn disappoint, but this is a recommended show, even if it’s mostly for historical purposes. Up next for "Random Network Reviews" looks like it will be WrestleMania IX.

Smackdown Report 11-2814

We open with an edition of MizTV. Damien Mizdow and the Miz have Big Show on as their guest to try and answer some questions about Show knocking out John Cena at Survivor Series, leading to heel turn #654. Miz agreed with Show on most things and Show is not happy with Erick Rowan. Daniel Bryan comes out and is still MASSIVELY over. He is running things again tonight, booking Seth Rollins vs. Ryback, an Intercontinental Title match pitting Luke Harper against Dolph Ziggler and, Rusev will have to defend in a battle royal for not reciting the pledge on Monday. Fun stuff. Miz thinks that Bryan is trying to upstage him so Bryan says that Damien is already doing that. BURN. He puts all three in the battle royal and brings out another participant, Erick Rowan. I prefer an opening like this to Authority promo after Authority promo.

The battle royal for the United States Championship does open the show and features a bunch of people. Let's see, I saw The Usos, Curtis Axel, Rusev, Big Show, Erick Rowan, Miz, Mizdow, Stardust, Goldust, Los Matadores, Slater, The Gator, Adam Rose, Sin Cara, Justin Gabriel, Cesaro and Tyson Kidd. This was your basic battle royal with the highlight being that after Miz was eliminated, Mizdow eliminated himself because he's committed. The final four would come down to Cesaro, Rusev, Swagger and Kidd. I continue to love the shine that Kidd has been getting. Rusev retained after lastly eliminating Swagger. I guess we are going to get Swagger/Rusev again at TLC.

Concessions Kane is working the WWE Shop stand and has a funny little skit with Santino. I would like to see Santino run Raw and Smackdown. He could be Mick Foley like in the comedy department. Bray Wyatt comes out to cut a promo, saying that Dean looked like an angel atop that ladder, but there isn't room for people like he and Dean in heaven. This was a good promo. Bray is either hit or miss, but his delivery is always on point. I hope that he and Dean go nuts at TLC. 

Divas Champion Nikki Bella faced Emma, while Brie was outside with the Divas Title. Why is Brie still accompanying Nikki? Isn't her time as Nikki's assistant up? Emma takes the loss in just about a minute and a half and Nikki gets on the microphone after the match. She claims to be what a real champion looks like and calls AJ pathetic, manipulative and a little girl. AJ makes a run in, so Nikki escapes while AJ brawls with Brie. I'm okay with AJ/Nikki continuing so I could get an actual match between them, but having Brie and Nikki be okay with each other is dumb. They wasted a ton of our time on stupid Jerry Springer like segments, only for them to be okay? I really hope this is all just Brie faking it because if not, it's dumb.

Kane has left his merchandise post and the table is broken. Daniel Bryan needs to understand that Kane is a terribly employee. He fave out free stuff on Raw and now broke his stand today. Time for Seth Rollins vs. Ryback, just a day or so after CM Punk's podcast appearance dropped and he called Ryback "steroid guy" and an unsafe worker. Seth was, of course, with J&J Security. Along with his match against Cesaro a few weeks ago, this would be one of the better Ryback matches ever. Smackdown is known for non-finishes but this one made sense to protect both guys. Kane came out with a chair resulting in a DQ. Ryback and Kane went at it, but Rollins helped swing the momentum to Kane, who laid out Ryback with a chokeslam.

On Raw, it seemed like New Day was going to make their debut on Raw next week, but instead we get it tonight. I'm okay with this, and they looked damn cool. New Day had matching attire and PYRO! They worked a six man tag against Heath Slater, Titus O'Neil and Curtis Axel, because they needed three random lower mid-card guys to go over. The New Day guys are really good friends in real life, which helped them be very crisp in their team up moves. The cheers during their entrance sounded extra dubbed in, but I think they can get over. They worked incredibly well together, everyone got to shine and they won. My only issue is that this is basically the same Kofi that we've seen for years, but at least it should be fun with the other two guys.

Renee Young, in her infinite perfection, interviews Daniel Bryan. He calls Ryback THE Ryback and announcing that at TLC, Kane will meet Ryback in a Chairs match. I'm okay with this feud because it should get Ryback a win over someone who can afford to take the loss. Renee asks if Bryan will be back soon, to which he responded with a loud "YES!" After a Raw recap, Gold and Stardust are shown and they're upset that they're missing the cosmic key. The main event would be the Intercontinental Title match, and I love seeing that title be a focal point, even if it is on Smackdown and not Raw. They fight outside and Dolph superkicks Harper over the announce table, before getting in the ring and earning the countout win. I enjoyed the match, but I felt that the countout win was lame. If Dolph wanted to win the title he would have rolled in and out to break the count. Maybe Seth/Ryback should have ended in countout with Kane pulling Ryback out and this end in a DQ. Regardless, it was a good match.

After the match, Harper attempts to attack Dolph but Dolph ends up with the upper hand and hits the Zig Zag. You know what? I enjoyed that episode of Smackdown. It didn't seem like throwaway stuff. The Nikki Bella/AJ Lee stuff was solid, Seth/Ryback and Dolph/Harper were both really good and I loved seeing New Day. 7.5/10.

NXT Report 11-27-2014

With it being Thanksgiving weekend, I've been busy, so unfortunately you don't get a separate NXT Report today. Instead, I'll link you all to the one I've written for 411mania. It's going to be there weekly, along with some "Random Network Reviews" and I participate in multiple other columns like "Fact or Fiction" and "Wrestler of the Week."

http://411mania.com/wrestling/411s-wwe-nxt-report-11-27-14/