ROH 07/24

Scott mentioned it Tuesday, and the lineup’s over on PWTorch, but I’ll save you some gunk. – Samoa Joe (c) squashes Colt Cabana [ROH] – Punk/Steel vs Maff/Whitmer [street fight] – Homicide/Rocky Romero vs Briscoes – Doug Williams vs Austin Aries – American Dragon vs John Walters (many others scheduled to appear – I’ll pick … Continue reading “ROH 07/24”

Scott mentioned it Tuesday, and the lineup’s over on PWTorch, but I’ll save you some gunk.

– Samoa Joe (c) squashes Colt Cabana [ROH]
– Punk/Steel vs Maff/Whitmer [street fight]
– Homicide/Rocky Romero vs Briscoes
– Doug Williams vs Austin Aries
– American Dragon vs John Walters

(many others scheduled to appear – I’ll pick out Chad Collyer.)

The people in the US indy scene (so excluding lucha guys and whatever category Ultimo Dragon is in) I’d actually pay to see at this point are American Dragon, Spanky, various combinations of the Havana Brothers and Bobby Quance. There’s a some guys which I’d be eager if not as excited to see, like Collyer and Colt Cabana based on the last time I’ve seen them.

This card has a decent amount of those people…but I’m not enthused about the matchups. I have no particular feelings about John Walters, so I don’t care much about the matchup and it pales in comparision to the NJPW-LA Rocky/Dragon rematch Wisconsin’s getting, which might’ve been enough to get me to go alone.) I dunno that tag match is the Rocky Romero match I’m looking for. And I’ve got the impression that once you’ve seen Samoa Joe kill a mid card guy, the next time he faces one will be an awful lot the same.

I’m not sure what this needs to get me more excited. It’s just not clicking yet.

BTW, I’m sure I’m way overrating Quance and once I get around to seeing more of his work, I’ll be sad. But till then it’s all great.

99% Unrelated: If, as Dave says, the WWE is going to create a Middle Eastern team to annoy me (but surely cause an Iron Sheik return to thrill Tan!), instead of using an Italian guy and Jimmy Snuka’s son, why not use Daivari? He’s already got the gimmick down.

Hector Garza

This story really hasn’t hit the “mainstream” wrestling media, so I’m gonna repeat it, correct a little bit and expand on it from over on the CMLL side. The current main event angle in CMLL led to a six way cage match, with the last man out losing his hair, two weeks ago. Tecnicos/faces Perro … Continue reading “Hector Garza”

This story really hasn’t hit the “mainstream” wrestling media, so I’m gonna repeat it, correct a little bit and expand on it from over on the CMLL side.

The current main event angle in CMLL led to a six way cage match, with the last man out losing his hair, two weeks ago. Tecnicos/faces Perro Aguayo Jr. and Negro Casas were the last two in, and Aguayo took out Casas and fled for safety. This would normally be angle time, but CMLL doesn’t always follow up on things like this. Unrelatedly, in another match on another show, Vampiro broke his leg and will be out for a few months. But he had a top heel spot – part of that cage match – and so they needed a fill in on the rudo side.

Meanwhile, over in AAA, Hector Garza was upset with AAA promoter/sometime TNA persona Antonio Pena, allegedly for keeping Garza’s TNA pay for himself. Since lucha contracts tend to be very fungible/open things in Mexico, Garza jumped to CMLL to fill the spot, taking Vampiro’s spot on the rudo side of a tag match. (Garza ended up abandoning his partners – but helping fellow recent ex-AAA-er Aguayo turn on Negro Casas as well.) Garza’s also said some not so nice things about Pena in the press, after his move.

The point is, Garza, who’s captian of Team Mexico and still listed as such on TNA’s website, is no longer in AAA. (His AAA profile has been pulled.) After CMLL management (repeatedly) no-showed meetings with TNA, TNA’s said it’ll only deal with AAA for any lucha guys. So Hector Garza should be on his way out…

However, there’s another line coming out that Garza’s got his own individual deal, not signed thru AAA, and he’ll be able to keep on working there. And you’d think AAA wouldn’t be happy with that and threaten to pull out if TNA doesn’t honor it’s talent exclusivity agreement. Either way, it’s hard to imagine Garza and AAA co-existing.

Except – there’s been no talk about a possible situation here, except from lucha people in the know about Garza’s jump. I guess it could be fairly possible TNA doesn’t know anything’s up and won’t know anything’s up till all the parties arrive (or don’t arrive) on Wednesday. But I do expect something to come about from this, rather soon.

(There was also an Observer comment about people starting to get the same bad impression from Heavy Metal as they did Juvi. So maybe two members of Team Mexico would have to be changed.)

get you half finished pages here

WWE attendance/ratings numbers by month for 2004. This kinda came up today, so I wanted to mine the data in a little more detail and put it some place I could find it without having to put it together again . Not some place that actually looked good, mind you. Depending on unsupervised boredom, I … Continue reading “get you half finished pages here”

WWE attendance/ratings numbers by month for 2004. This kinda came up today, so I wanted to mine the data in a little more detail and put it some place I could find it without having to put it together again . Not some place that actually looked good, mind you. Depending on unsupervised boredom, I may try and put together the 2003 numbers for some more context.

Other stuff:

It was Edgecator in WithAuthority (wwe card games – your source for move names that haven’t made it on to TV!) and in there, it was treated as a figure four variant. I had a couple decks totally set up around it. I never won, but that was no different than anything else.

Figure four variation my ass, it’s a high-angle STF.
Dude, do you know what the F in STF stands for? Get the F out.

Anyway, if you’ve got a copy of RAW handy, watch how Edge applies the hold: Edge plants his right leg in between Orton’s, makes the 4 with Orton’s legs, and goes to a knee while bending the leg more. If Edge ties the legs up by themselves and turns to grab a facelock of some sort, then it’s an STF. I’d call it a kneeling reverse figure four but lucha’s scarred me from naming these things.

(Video game moves names are horribly inconsistent and not a good source for generic move names.)

I don’t think Batista has actually been announced as from Washington, DC since his injury return, but I think I do remember them mentioning it when he was Dave Batista (w/Ric Flair). Since I’ve got quite a few hometowns up there that’ll never be mentioned, so I’ll probably throw it on there later.

I guess RVD signed? Because Dave said his contract’s last day was the Bash and he’s to be on SmackDown! But then again…

Quick Random RAW Thoughts

I don’t know what was bizarrely more amusing about the long tag match; JR randomly saying Diamond Cutter, Edge bringing back the wacky figure four variant with the dumb name (no, really, an Edge move with a dumb name!), or “he’s a got the heart of a lion”. I bet Edge was telling Orton “between … Continue reading “Quick Random RAW Thoughts”

I don’t know what was bizarrely more amusing about the long tag match; JR randomly saying Diamond Cutter, Edge bringing back the wacky figure four variant with the dumb name (no, really, an Edge move with a dumb name!), or “he’s a got the heart of a lion”. I bet Edge was telling Orton “between the two of us, there’s no way we make it out of our match in one piece.” They should just make it a stretcher match so one’s out there if/when they need it. Crowd should get a billion points for doing the Y 2 J chant with the siren.

How long till the Mitchell column where Eugene is Vince? Eugene as a boss is such a set up for inside jokes, it had to be designed that way.

Grenier was really feeling the anthem tonight. I’m tremendously disappointed we didn’t have a Rhyno and Sgt. Slaughter skit to set up their tag team. Looks like you lost on the tag team finisher name. I was shocked Rhyno and an old man weren’t able to outdo Hurricane and Rosey.

Main event was good but not great.

I wonder if WebMD has anything about “how soon can you do a DNA test on an unborn child?”

Diverticular Disease

info via WebMD, for those dying to know how Vince’s stool is looking right now. The less gory version is he’s not getting enough fiber in his diet, so his intestines have essentially narrowed and things must not feel fun.

info via WebMD, for those dying to know how Vince’s stool is looking right now.

The less gory version is he’s not getting enough fiber in his diet, so his intestines have essentially narrowed and things must not feel fun.

somewhat tougher enough

UFC on Spike TV – Reality TV 20 “athletes” (I’m thinking that means “untrained but look the part”) earn a PPV spot over 13 weeks. Sounds vaguely familar. Unless they’re going to cut in half early on, that’s a lot of people. The show starts airing in Janurary, with taping starting in September. No day/time … Continue reading “somewhat tougher enough”

UFC on Spike TV – Reality TV

20 “athletes” (I’m thinking that means “untrained but look the part”) earn a PPV spot over 13 weeks. Sounds vaguely familar. Unless they’re going to cut in half early on, that’s a lot of people.

The show starts airing in Janurary, with taping starting in September. No day/time is mentioned.

This is one of those things that have been vaguely mentioned by the likes of Dave and Wade so long you’re actually a little surprised to see it in print from someone else.

Spike TV does love to do cross promotion on RAW. Wonder how it’ll work out here.

I don’t think this is the right format to get UFC more interest (best case is curosity buys to see how the winner fares on his first show), but I’d guess their idea is it’s a trial ballon to “prove” UFC themed stuff can get ratings and more importantly advertisers. We’ll see.

Edit: Dave says they’ll be 4 winners out of a cast of “16-20”. If you’ve got have multiple winners, I think the ideal number might be 3; you can build a one on one match on TV, and you still can get “Reality TV Show Winner vs Real UFC Fighter” on the card.

4.5 Earthquake

Right when I started that GAB post, I thought my room started to shake. I thought something must’ve exploded in the garage below or a plane was flying really low overhead (there’s a small airport near here) or something, because it kinda felt like what an earthquake would feel like, but obviously there couldn’t be … Continue reading “4.5 Earthquake”

Right when I started that GAB post, I thought my room started to shake. I thought something must’ve exploded in the garage below or a plane was flying really low overhead (there’s a small airport near here) or something, because it kinda felt like what an earthquake would feel like, but obviously there couldn’t be an earthquake in the Chicago area. I did quickly scan ChiTrib and the gov’s earthquake site and saw nothing, so I figured I just lost my mind for a second there.

Turns out, no. 41 miles away. How completely bizarre. I hope this doesn’t mean the earth is splitting open to swallow us whole, because I’d find that unfortunate.

GAB Quick Thoughts

2 (Rey, Mordecai) for 6 predictions. The early lineup was 2 (sorta) of 8 right, so at least I beat that. Chavo Classic leaving explains why there was no Chavos/Rico/Haas tag team title match. I think they’ve given up on Jindrak – or at least don’t see him as anything more than a background character. … Continue reading “GAB Quick Thoughts”

  • 2 (Rey, Mordecai) for 6 predictions.
  • The early lineup was 2 (sorta) of 8 right, so at least I beat that. Chavo Classic leaving explains why there was no Chavos/Rico/Haas tag team title match. I think they’ve given up on Jindrak – or at least don’t see him as anything more than a background character. The Cena/Booker vs RVD/Rene got smushed into one match, and it might have been better if they hadn’t, just to prevent other stuff from being filler.
  • Bradshaw vs Eddie has been an interesting TV feud – when it has been interesting, it hasn’t been because of any interaction between them, it’s been Eddie doing Eddie things and Bradshaw being ticked off about CNBC. They’d be insane to drag (and I mean DRAG) it out another seven weeks.
  • Knowing that, I’m surprised they didn’t take the US Title off Cena, and maybe they will in the near future. Without doing a title switch on TV, I think the best SD! part of the SummerSlam card is JBL/Cena, Eddie/Undertaker or I guess Mordecai, Undertaker/Heyman or a wrestler stand in. Though I don’t know if Cena should win the big title so soon and I don’t know that he should get another big loss, so there’s a problem.
  • Watch free TV to get the explanation about the PPV ending? They’re stealing from TNA! How rude.
  • Chavo and Rey getting all that time probably is more a result of not wanting to do a lot of time for a lot of stuff on the show. It’s nice to dream. For self-assuming/boring content purposes, I actually grabbed all the SD! show dates from now till SummerSlam to What If a WWE Super J tournament, but I found out there’s a lot of shows, and it’s possible they haven’t announced the last few yet. Plus they like to cancel things. Plus it’s fantasy booking. Plus I haven’t gotten to it.
  • I don’t think there’s anything that happened that people are going to be kicking themselves for not seeing.
  • It probably wasn’t feasible because of HBK’s schedule, but they really should’ve made the HitC PPV the last of this three in four weeks PPV bit. Because I could see someone
  • They should’ve built up the Bull Rope match more than “hey! it’s a object you can hit someone with!” before Sunday. Like, instead of Holly nonsensically beating Jindrak, his arrogance catches up to him and a smaller person catches him by surprise for a three count, then they do a Bull Rope example match the next week, with Jindrak’s power/size giving him a huger than normal advantage because of the gimmick, which plays into Bradshaw/Eddie.
  • I wonder how giving away the show free to military is going to affect the buy rate numbers. The deal is, if you want it for free, you buy it like normal and send your bill in. Does that mean it’ll show up as a buy when they do the numbers?
  • Either way, it’s still going to be the lowest number in some time.

info updated

Updated some of the factoid stuff: US Title History and Cruiserweight Title History reflect GAB results, and RAW and SmackDown! Info pages have gotten the quick once over. Feel free to remind me of corrections in the comments.

Updated some of the factoid stuff: US Title History and Cruiserweight Title History reflect GAB results, and RAW and SmackDown! Info pages have gotten the quick once over. Feel free to remind me of corrections in the comments.

A-Shows

– Scott’s RAW recap is done. It’s slower when the show isn’t fun to watch and full of skits – Feely’s SmackDown! recap is also up. I like the main but can understand why people wouldn’t like that style. They really should’ve brought up the previous Cena/Undertaker stuff, but maybe they don’t want to mention … Continue reading “A-Shows”

– Scott’s RAW recap is done. It’s slower when the show isn’t fun to watch and full of skits
– Feely’s SmackDown! recap is also up. I like the main but can understand why people wouldn’t like that style. They really should’ve brought up the previous Cena/Undertaker stuff, but maybe they don’t want to mention him losing to the Undertaker in the past till he wins in the future? I dunno.
– My Great American Bash predictions are up at the double O. Title match was hard to pick. Someone needs to go back and figure out how often (and how recently) the “last shot in before the PPV = loss” formula’s been right of late. I’m the only person in the world to pick Billy Gunn to win, I think.
– No baseball game previews today. It’s the weekend and I’ve got no time.