TNA: The Whole F’N Show

Today I’m going to give you guys a little recap of this past Thursday’s TNA. Along with some of my predictions for the future.

The night started off with a match between Olympic gold medalist Kurt Angle and The Phenomenal AJ Styles. The match began at a quick pace with AJ jumping the bell and attacking Kurt. They really seem to be pushing AJ as a heel. However some of the heat I think he gained from the bell jump was quickly undone by Taz pointing out AJ’s new tattoo. AJ’s new ink features his initials and the birth dates of his three children. Gee, nothing says EVIL RUTHLESS HEEL like the commentary staff pointing out how much you love your children.
That little flub aside it was very good match. It was fast passed and very technical. Just what you’d expect from two of the worlds top wrestlers. Angle even managed to hit a moonsault form the middle rope onto a standing AJ Styles. It was very back and forth with a ton of near falls, but in the end Kurt locked in the Ankle Lock and it was just too much for the Phenomenal one to take. Kurt wins via submission and moves up the ranking system another slot.


The second match of the night was Angelina Love getting another shot the TNA Knockouts champion Madison Rayne. This was standard women’s match. I’m sorry, but the Knockouts division has been on a vicious decline since Gale Kim and Awesome Kong parted ways with TNA. Angelina picked up the win to become a five time Knockouts champ.

Match three was a triple threat featuring Mr. Anderson (Anderson) vs. “The Black Pope” D'Angelo Dinero vs. The Blueprint Matt Morgan.
This match went by very quickly. And while I enjoyed it, it was for the most part forgettable. Which is unfortunate considering the talent that was in the match. In the end Anderson (Anderson) hit The Pope with the Mic Check. While going for the cover Matt jumped back in the ring, kicked him off and stole the win.
Like I said this was for the most part forgettable. Just another triple threat match that really felt like it’s soul purpose was to fill some time.
While I’m on the topic of this match can someone please explain to me the appeal of Mr. Anderson (Anderson)? He is wildly popular, you could hardly hear the him for the crowd during his introduction. I just don’t see it. He’s ok in the ring, nothing to write home home about though. Is it because he’s such a good talker? Is it because he comes off as crass and the masses like it? I’d love to hear your opinion on the matter my dear readers.

Jeff Hardy had an open challenge to anyone in the back. I can only assume that this match was originally booked to be Hardy taking on Samoa Joe but it was nixed after Joe got suspended for childlike behavior.
So there in the ring stands the Charismatic Enigma waiting to see who he will face. Out walks his long time friend, The Prince Of Punk himself, Shannon Moore. Shannon tells Jeff that he shouldn’t be shocked and that he wanted to prove to the world that he can go toe to toe with one of greatest. I’m was pretty pumped for this as soon as Shannon’s music hit. I love seeing guys who are long time friends wrestle. The matches are always superb. Good friends just trust each other and this leads to great matches. HHH and Shawn Michaels have put on some killer matches and they’re very close, the same can be said with Jeff and his brother Matt. Good friends equals great matches.
This was a pretty fast paced bout. They booked it to make Shannon look pretty strong against Jeff. He even counted Jeff’s first Swanton Bomb attempt by getting his knees up at the last moment. When all was said and done though Hardy hit the Twist Of Fate then followed it up with a Swanton Bomb for the three count. After the math Jeff and Shannon hugged and Jeff raised Moore’s hand.

The fifth match of the night was the one that I had book looking forward to the most. The Motor City Machineguns vs. Beer Money Incorporated in a two out of three falls match for the TNA Tag Team Titles.
This was the fifth and final match in their best of five series. Beer Money snaked wins for the first two via some well placed beer bottles to the back of the MMG’s heads, then the Guns picked up the second two victories. (One in a cage match and the second in an Ultimate X.)
This has been a very intense rivalry. Taz even compared it the OSU/Michigan college football feud.
Both Beer Money and the Machineguns were in top form for this contest. The crowd was fired up and ready to see this series come to a head. James Storm and Chris Sabin started the match. It was full of quick tags and killer high spots. MMG are probably the best tandem move wrestler’s in the history of the sport. They’re quickness and agility make them second to none in this quick-paced tag style. They really played up the speed vs. power aspect of this match. While Sabin or Shelly were able to knock down Storm or Roode it would often take several fast moves and momentum. Conversely either member of Beer Money could take down a member of MMG in one hard hitting maneuver. In my opinion this really added to the drama of the match. They went for sometime before the first fall was awarded to Beer Money following them hitting the DWI (Drinking While Investing). There was moer back and forth from the two teams and after not too much time had passed the Machineguns were able to tie up after pinning Roode. So now the stage was set, one pin to one pin. What followed was and emotional display of tag team wrestling. Both sets of men, were clearly exhausted from this match. As a viewer you yourself were feeling fatigued. There were many near falls. MMG hit James Storm with Skull and Bones. But Storm kicked out at the two. The Guns picked him back, the entire crown was on their feet, screaming at the top of their lungs as Sabin held Storm up in the neck breaker and Shelly dove off of the top rope to land a second Skull and Bones. Sabin went for the cover and got the win. Ladies and gentlemen, you’re TNA Tag Team Champions: Chris Sabin and Alex Shelly, The Motor City Machineguns.
This was the greatest tag match I think I’ve ever seen. This match needs to be placed in contention for PWI’s match of the year for sure. After the match MMG celebrated with a display of pyro both in the ring and on the ramp.


The main event of the evening was Rob Van Dam defending his World Heavyweight Title against the Monster Abyss in a Stairway to Janice match. Eric Bischoff was the guest referee. This was essentially a ladder match with pinfalls allowed. They wrestlers could try to retrieve Janice (a 2x4 with nails in it) from were it hung above the ring if they so chose, but it wasn’t needed to win. This was a pretty standard hardcore/extreme style match. A lot of really cool high spots with RVD doing what he does best. Flips, kicks and dives from the top. And it featured Abyss doing what he does best… Falling into crap. When all was said and done RVD was able to retain the title after hitting the Five Star Frog Splash.

After the match Hulk Hogan came out and cut a promo about how great the EV 2.0 (ECW) guys were and how they raised the bar. He brought out the old school hardcore guys for one last curtain call in the ring. Dreamer gave a little speech and the lights blacked out. When they came back on Mick Foley had been knocked out. Once your attention moved away from Mick on the ground you saw AJ Styles, Kaz, Beer Money, and Matt Morgan. All with weapons, and all beating the living daylights out of EV2.0. It took me a moment to process, but these men are all members of Ric Flair’s new group Fortune. What followed was a vicious beating. All of the Hardcore Originals were bloodied, cut, stomped, and brought to a point near unconsciousness. During the melee Abyss drug RVD away, with Janice in his other hand. By the time the camera crew caught up with them in back it appeared as though Abyss had used his “girl” to maim RVD. He was standing over a battered and blood covered world champion just shouting. It looked a scene from a horror flick. The last shot of Rob just lying there, broken and twitching.


It thought this was a completely unexpected turn. For months Abyss has been saying that “They” are coming… Was he speaking of Ric Flair’s Fortune this entire time? Only time will tell, but it appears to be the case. I think that in the long run this will be good for business. They’re using some of the old talent to hook in some extra viewers. While doing that the people new to TNA will see great young talent like AJ and Beer Money and if all goes well, will get hooked on the product. In the coming weeks I’m sure we’ll see this feud unfold and in the end I hope to see Fortune standing tall over EV2.0.


Until Next time this Switchblade saying- Win if you can, lose if you must, but always cheat.

NXT... Someone is going home

This week’s edition of WWE NXT opened with Michael Cole and Josh Mathews punching one of those boxing machines from a state fair. You know, the ones that tell you how hard you hit it? At any rate Cole was all decked out in lots of WWE merchandise including a Miz t-shirt and a Cena headband. He did a Lebron James style powder throw then punched the machine. Josh Mathews was quick to follow and out punched Cole. It was revealed that this would be tonight’s competition for the NXT contestants and that the winner would be featured on Raw the following Monday.
The only two things that is really worth mentioning from this segment are that Alex Riley won, and that Kaval opted to kick it instead of punching. I think that this was important because it sets him apart from the group and reminds the viewer of his speed and that his style of fighting is quite different. As I said, “The Varsity Villain” Alex Riley won the contest and will be featured on Raw this Monday.

There was a six man tag match featuring “Showtime” Percy Watson, Kaval, and Lucky Cannon, taking on Husky Harris, Alex Riley, and Michael McGillicutty. As far as six man tags go this was pretty good. The announce team repeatedly refereed to Percy Watson simple as “Showtime” really trying to push his gimmick and get him over. Kaval got a ton of shine and actually got the pinfall over McGillicutty after landing a double foot stomp from the top rope. This was McGillicutty’s first loss to a fellow rookie.

Also featured this night was a singles match between The Miz and John Morrison. It was a very well done match with several great high spots from Morrison. Corkscrew dives, a standing shooting star press, and lots of great kicks. The Miz is really getting pushed hard now. As well he should. He’s quickly becoming one of the top heels on Raw, and is the current United States Champion. Not to mention he is holding a Money in the Bank briefcase (which entitles him to a world title match ANYTIME he wants it). After a good bit of back and forth The Miz hit Morrison with the Skull-Crushing Finale and picked up another win.

The final segment of the night was the elimination ceremony. Before they announced who would be going home the men were asked who they think should be eliminated. Half of them answered that Lucky should be; stating that he’d made no impact, didn’t belong there, and hadn’t even won a match. With that being said, here is the breakdown of NXT rankings.

1. Kaval
2. Michael McGillicutty
3. “Showtime” Percy Watson
4. Husky Harris
5. Alex Riley
And the man that is going home, Lucky Cannon.

It was also announced that next Tuesday night on NXT there will be a double elimination. All in all it wasn’t a bad show, I enjoyed it quite a lot. I’m not at all surprised that Lucky was sent packing. He is just so… forgettable. Nothing about him stuck out.

Don’t forget to tune in to TNA tonight for their free on tv PPV featuring the final match in the series of five between The Motor City Machineguns and Beer Money!





Until next time this is Switchblade saying- Win if you can, lose if you must, but always cheat.

Farewell HBK

It has been far too long since I’ve made an update my dear readers. But guess what? To quote the old entrance theme of one Eric Bischoff: “I’m back, and better than ever". I’ve got a lot of plans to improve this blog and move it into the future. I’m hoping to update this blog several times a week. I think that I’m going to have a lot to discuss. I’m talking about results, predictions, reviews of shows/books/games/etc, articles on a range of wrestling related topics, some guest bloggers, and a few surprises as well. With that being said, let’s get this on the road- hope you enjoy it!


So today I would like to talk a little bit about the following: the retirement of Shawn Michaels, tag teams, and some miscellaneous news and bits. No reviews today, however, as I didn’t take notes on last night’s Raw.




As all of you are undoubtedly aware this past March at WrestleMania 26 the Heart Break Kid, the Icon, The Showstopper, the Main Event, Mr. WrestleMania himself, retired after placing his career against the undefeated streak of The Undertaker. Now, anyone that knows me is fully aware that I am a HUGE fan of Shawn Michaels. It was a little difficult for me to watch the man I’ve idolized since I was child drop away from the lime light and retire, but I’m proud of him for walking away when he thought he should. It seems that very few men in the industry get to walk away on their own terms. More often than not an injury or some backstage politics are what force them from the business. This was the case with HBK back in 1998 when a back injury forced him to leave. He was absent from in-ring action until 2002. Upon returning, he had many great matches and feuds with such workers as HHH, Chris Jericho, Kurt Angle, and many others. It was a treat to get to see The Heart Break Kid in action for another 8 years. In that 8 year span he has won Pro Wrestling Illustrated’s Match Of The Year award 6 times, bringing his career total to an even 10. He has circled the globe and entertained millions of fans with charisma and in-ring skills. For that I say thank you. Thank you Shawn for all of the years of great work. I’m very happy that you were able to leave on your own terms. I hope that you enjoy retirement and the time with your family. As an added note, if you would like to know what HBK is up to, you can check out his brand new website www.theshawnmichaels.com. You can see his youtube videos, check out his facebook, and even follow him on twitter.



Tag teams. I’ve mentioned this before but I felt that it needed to be restated. Tag teams were once regarded very highly in professional wrestling. They were important, and often the focus of match cards. Back in the day of the NWA, the tag team champions were at many times billed above the world heavyweight champion. So what happened? Why have tag teams seemingly fallen to the wayside? Do the fans not care? Does management think they aren’t marketable? It’s hard to say. I believe it to be a combination of things. The focus has been slowly moved away from teams over the past few years. The tag team titles (until very recently in WWE) have been devalued by having teams job out to singles competitors and by not having long runs on actual teams. It has seemed to me that over the past couple of years teams have been created simply by slamming two singles guys together. Sometimes it works, but more often than not it simply feels like creative had nothing else to do with the two.
This is starting to change as there are several teams now entering the WWE that are in fact true tag teams. You have The Hart Dynasty, The Usos, and The Dude Busters, just to name a few. I can only hope that this trend continues as their tag team division is rebuilt. Having big names hold the titles over the past year has certainly helped this cause. Those teams didn’t make sense at times, such as the pairing of Chris Jericho and The Big Show, but I think it’s helped bring a little prestige back to the belts. Before retiring, Shawn Michaels and HHH had one more run as DX and captured the titles for a time.
Some people work better as tag team wrestlers. That is a simple fact. And there should be no shame in that. Bob “Hardcore” Holly was much stronger when part of a team. The Dudley Boys while in WWE were terrible when split apart. Billy Gunn and The Road Dogg Jesse James were never as popular or as successful when not teaming up. Does anyone know what even happened to The Killer Bees? (Seriously, what happened to those guys?)
So why do they get split up? I’ve wondered this for a very long time. I figure they get bored, or maybe they think that they can achieve more solo. I’d be crazy to say that there haven’t been men that started as a tag wrestler and blew up working in singles matches. Shawn Michaels was part of the Rockers, Steve Austin was one half of The Hollywood Blondes, Jeff Hardy spent years tagging with his brother Matt, and I of course must mention Edge in this. Some people can make it on their own. And then when the teams reunite for something, it makes it seem very special. But that doesn’t fix the problem; it adds to it.
They can’t just cram people together at random for the short term. Tag teams are not short term investments. You need some career teams to build divisions around. That’s how it was for the Road Warriors. You can’t hear Hawk’s name without hearing Animal’s or vice versa. When you think of Bubba Ray Dudley (Brother Ray in TNA) you immediately think of D-Von Dudley (Brother Devon in TNA). I think that it’s getting that way for men like Alex Shelly and Chris Sabin who together are the Motor City Machineguns.
Now that I’ve brought up The MCMG I can say this. TNA is doing tag team wrestling right. Their tag division is the best thing about their show. Currently the Machineguns are locked in a best of five series with Beer Money Incorporated. The first four matches have gone by, all of them great. The series is tied at 2 and 2. This coming Thursday on TNA Impact, match 5 will take place. The winners will not only win the series but the tag team titles as well. In addition to such fantastic pairings as The Motor City Machineguns and Beer Money, TNA has many other great teams: Team 3-D (formerly The Dudley Boyz, and without question the most decorated team in history), Ink Inc. (a teaming of Shannon Moore and Jesse Neal, a personal favorite of my girlfriend), and the high flying Generation Me. Hell, if they play their cards right, I’m pretty certain they could land “The Worlds Greatest Tag Team” Shelton Benjamin and Charlie Haas, seeing as they’re both free agents right now and teaming once again in the indies.
Tag team wrestling can sometimes offer much more than a singles match can. It can be more dynamic. Hot tags, the two men always having one another’s backs, and seeming to know what the other is thinking without so much as a head nod. You have four guys in the ring doing what they love to do. Two sets of people working in tandem to entertain and wow a crowd. Tag teams will always be apart of wrestling, I just hope that they aren’t thrown on the back burner. It looks like the two big promotions are heading a direction where tagging is viewed as important to the show, and I hope this trend continues.


Just a couple of news stories I thought I’d bring up quickly. Samoa Joe of TNA has been suspended for 30 days after bursting into the production truck during a taping. It appears that he was upset about how he’s been booked as well as the ending of his match with Jeff Hardy.
Also it looks like Ring Of Honor word champion Tyler Black has signed a developmental deal with WWE.

Until next time this is Switchblade saying- Win if you can, lose if you must, but always cheat.

Hello dear readers.

Today, I would like to mention the sad news that last week we lost one of the greats. Captain Lou Albano. He past away on October 14th at the age of 76. For those of you who are younger and didn't see Lou, he was one of the GREATEST managers in the history of the sport. Through out his 42 year career he led 15 different tag teams and four singles competitors to championship gold. I never did see him wrestle a match, that was before my time, but I saw him come to the ring and guide many wrestlers when I was child. He was a wonderful man, an actor (he was Mario on the TV series after all), and he will be missed. Rest in peace Captain.

Terms Repost...

So, after I updated yesterday I thought that since it had been so long since I updated I may need to refresh everyone on some terms that I will/have used. I know that not everyone knows all of the odd words associated with pro wrestling, so I thought that I’d repost this. Please, if I’ve missed anything that any of you can think of let me know and I’ll update the list.

Face/Babyface: Good Guy
Heel: Bad Guy
Worker: A wrestler
Pop: Good Crowd reaction
Heat: A good crowd reaction for a heel I.E. booing
Over: A wrestler who is popular as a heel or face
Finish: The End of a match
Stick: A microphone
Rat: The Wrestling version of a groupie
Booker: The man/woman/people that decide how that match will go
Smart Fan: Someone who knows the inner working of Pro Wrestling
Mark: Someone who thinks wrestling is real
Marking Out: Giving the reaction that it is real, even smart fans tend to do this.

Getting Color: To bleed in a match.

Kayfabe: Something that is scripted and part of a story.

Hard Camera: The camera that stays facing the ring at all times.

Curtain: The area separating the backstage from the entrance way.

Gorilla Position: The spot right behind the curtain where a wrestler waits to make his/her entrance.

Broadway: When wrestlers wrestle for the entire time limit of a match.

Cutting a Promo: When the wrestler speaks to/at someone or the crowd.

That’s all of the terms I can think of for now, as I said if you can think of more let me know and I’ll update the list. For now this is TTP saying: win if you can, lose if you must, but always cheat.

I'm Back!!!

Hello once more, my dear readers. It has been a very long time since I’ve updated this blog with my thoughts on professional wrestling. I do indeed apologize for the length of time that has passed since last I updated. Well OVER a year. Again I’m sorry for that. So this entry is going to be a little all over the place. Just some loose thoughts on things, then next time, I’ll make a more coherent, structured posting.

Ok. First thing I want to discuss is the Jeff Hardy situation. For those of you who do not know, the younger of the Hardy Boys had quite a great year. He was pretty much the most popular face on the roster, and had multiple world title wins. He was on fire. He was getting life back on track. He was clean (after MANY fights with drug abuse), getting married and building a new house. I was actually proud of Jeff. I always thought that he was given far too many chances for his mistakes, but the was very popular. That’s just the way business is done. At any rate, he announced that he wanted to take some time off and decided to not renew his contract with WWE. He dropped the title to CM punk, and went off on his way. I figured that he’d be gone for may six months to a year then return to a hero’s welcome. I doubt that will happen now.

On September 11, 2009 Hardy was arrested on charges of trafficking in controlled prescription pills and possession of anabolic steroids, after a search of his house yielded 262 Vicodin prescription pills, 180 soma prescription pills, 555 milliliters of anabolic steroids, a residual amount of powder cocaine, and drug paraphernalia. This could indeed spell the end of his career. Some of the pending charges could put him away for serious amounts of time. Like YEARS in a federal prison. We won’t actually know whether or not he’ll face charges until Novemeber.

Look. I do not know why he had the drugs. And that is indeed A LOT of drugs. If they get him with intent to sell, he’s screwed. If those were all for his personal use, then I’m very worried for him. Regardless, the only response I can muster is this…

WHAT THE HELL JEFF???

Next thing I’d like to talk about a little bit is the Raw situation. Now, I know that you’re wondering what I mean. Do I mean the fact that virtually no new talent is being pushed? Well yes there is that. Do I mean how this whole PG thing is killing me?? There is that as well. Do I mean the guest host thing? Yeah, there is that. So lets talk about this.

So, there is a small issue of little new talent being made on Raw. Now, do not get me wrong. This IS not happening on Smackdown. They’re working on it. Up until this past Sunday the champ there was CM Punk (the decided to put the title on Undertaker again, for what reason I’ve no idea). Anyway, the rumor is that upon returning from his hiatus Shawn Michaels walked back into Raw and asked “Who’s been pushed since I’ve been gone?” and nobody could answer.

This is a problem. There are a lot of big names on Raw right now. HHH, John Cena, HBK, Randy Orton, and Big Show just to name a few. Now, Orton and Cena have years left. They’re both young and don’t really have a laundry list of niggling injuries. But how many more times can we see Cena vs Orton? They work great matches together, don’t get me wrong there. However, it is getting stale. I don’t think that HHH is going to be around for anymore than 3 or 4 more years. His legs are pretty jacked up. Shawn, rumor has it, is going to retire this year at WrestleMania. Big Show hasn’t been considered for a title run for a long time as far as I know.

So, who is on the roster that could be put over?

The Miz. Now I know that a lot you people don’t really like the “Reality TV Star” turned wrestler, but you know what??? You’re not supposed to. He’s heel. If you hate him, that is great. It just means he is doing his job. They finaly put the a singles title on him this week. He was allowed to win the United States title from Kofi Kingston. The Miz has improved a lot over the past year. He has the potential to be one the top heels. Is he the greatest wrestler of all time? Of course not. But neither is John Cena. Miz can work the mic, he has charisma, and knows how to work a crowd. To quote him, he is The Miz, and he is AWESOME!!!

MVP. I think that MVP could very well be made to be main event. He’s a little older, but he got a late start in the biz. He didn’t really start until after he got out of prison. He can talk, we can go in the ring, and can get great heat. He could have a short run in his future, and I think that he could do good business as champ.

Kofi Kingston. They’ve been doing well with Kofi. He had a great run with the U.S. Title and I think will work some great matches with The Miz chasing him for the belt. I do not however think Kofi is main even caliber. He’s just too small. It’s sad but true. I just don’t see him making it past mid-card. It could happen, little guys have made it up there before. Shawn Michaels, Rey ( still don’t think he should have been given the world title and think he only won it because Eddie Guerrero died), to name a couple. But they’re few and far between.

Jack Swagger. The “All American, American” appears like he’s being seasoned for a main event run. He’s huge, lanky as hell, but very tall. He could go to bulk up a bit, but god help me, he has talent. His in ring work is superb, and he’s good on the stick. (He’s got a hell of a lisp, but so did Dustie Rhodes.)

Ted DiBiase Jr. What can I say? He’s got everything his father had. He can work the ring, the mic, and has a great look. Loads of personality and probably well over a decade of wrestling ahead of him. When he is split from Cody Rhodes, he will blow up. I’m saying now that with in 18 months, Ted Jr will be the world champion.

PG Rating. Hmmm… Now I understand why. Make the little kids watch, hook in a new generation of fans. Not a bad idea. Just a little problem. Those little kids don’t pay for PPVs and merch. They’re children, they don’t have money. Now I know that making it PG will make their parents be more accepting of wrestling and thus buy the things for their kids. But still. Most of the fans are my age. We saw the Attitude Era (which was often vulgar just for the sake of it). I can live without a ton of fowl language, and you can make the skits less risque’. That is all fine and dandy. But to try to make this less violent??? This is wrestling. It’s going to be violent. I’m not saying that every match should be a blood bath, but getting a little “color” in a match is often a part of the story that the wrestlers tell in the ring. It makes sense. People are still watching, but they’re going to go elsewhere for the more “hardcore” wrestling. TNA (which is getting so good) is picking up the slack a bit in that respect. The point is, WWE is PG now, and I wonder how long it will last. Before Vince has to push the boundaries of censorship once again.

This guest host of Raw crap has to stop. Nine times out of ten it does not work well for the show when it’s a non-wrestler. There are a couple that went well. Shaq did great as the guest host, but he LOVES wrestling. Can we please just have a GM again? I mean come on. I need a new job, I can do it. Vince, I can be free every Monday night if you need me to be. Hell I can start this week!

Sorry this has been such a long post readers. I’ll be back soon with more of my thoughts, and reports on the various shows. I’m going to try to update more than once a week from now on. So, until next time this is TTP saying: Win if you can, lose if you must, but always cheat!

Tag Teams, Factions, and Vince Russo... Oh My!!!

As promised today I'll be discussing a little bit of what I think could help out Pro Wrestling. Let's dive right in!

Alright, well first off I want to talk about tag teams. They used to be such a HUGE part of the wrestling scene, but now they're kind of just on the back burner. There were great teams back in the day, and I think that both promotions (WWE and TNA) are trying to fix the tag divisions. Over on Raw the WWE has several tag teams on the show. Cody Rhodes and Bob Holly are the champs on there. Santino, and Carlito are the new number one contenders. Also you have great teams such as London and Kendrick, Cade and Murdock (who I think are breaking up as a team), and of course the returning Cryme Tyme. They need teams, who are TEAMS. There is no shame in being a wrestler who doesn't compete in singles matches. I think that mey be the problem. WWE thinks that tag teams aren't marketable. Which isn't true. Remember the Dudleys (Now Team 3-D in TNA), or The Hardy Boys (when they were a team)??? I mean they sold tons of merch.

Team 3-D, now that I brought them up, are one of the best teams in the world. I think that they are the only team to EVER win titles in every major promotion. They won them in ECW, WWE, WCW, and TNA (when it was still the NWA). They still have in the ring. Yeah, they're a little bit bigger than they used to be, but hey, the guys can still work well. TNA uses them alright, they had an interesting angel with the Motor City Machine Guns (a great team as well). TNA, also has some great teams going for them other then the two mentioned. They have LAX (The Latin American Exchange), The Rock N' Rave Infection, and they were teaming Jay Lethal “The Black Machismo” with Sanjay Dutt, but they haven't used them for a while.

They had AMW (America's Most Wanted), which as I understand were a really good team. THe team was split up so both men could pursue singles. This hapens a lot, but what happens 85% of the time is that one of the team member sky-rockets to the top and the other flounders and vanishes. Thats how it went with AMW. James Storm is doing great. I think that he could be a world champ with in two years. He's a great worker and has lots of charisma. Way back when, when they split up The Rockers, Shawn Michaels went to the top and Marty Janetty kind of dropped out. Thats how it goes. Every once and while both men do well. Matt and Jeff Hardy both do very good. (Matt should be a the world champion on Smackdown, but thats whole different blog entry.)

The point is, BOTH promotions need to keep teams as teams. Tag Team wrestling can be great. The way the matches are worked can be so different, the psychology is totaly different.

Ok, so next in line is the topic of Factions. I want to make this clear, a faction is a team of 3 or more wrestlers of the same sex. Three dudes, or three chicks. NOT a tag team with a manager. There aren't ANY now. Factions are great. Hey remember the NWO? Or how about the Ministry Of Darkness? Or D-X when the were a team? The late 90's were full of them. I think that was part of why Pro Wrestling was sooooooooooooooooooooo popular then. What was the big faction? The friggin' Spirit Squad? TNA has had a few in the last few years. LAX was three people, they used to have XXX, the had Three Live Crew among others. WWE hasn't had many as of late. The did the New Breed vs the ECW Originals, which was great. Frankly it was one of the best things the new ECW has done. A few years back WWE had Evolution (Randy Orton, Dave Batista, HHH, and Ric Flair). That group MADE Randy Orton the main eventer that he is. Also the spliting of the group helped to make Batista as big as he is too. (I mean big as in main event, not size 'roids made him big in size) Factions help people. Now, I can not talk about factions with out throwing out some props to the Four Horsemen. They were the first big one. Ric Flair, Tully Blanchard, Arn Anderson, Ole Anderson, and J.J. Dillon (as manager).

The last thing I think they could do to help wrestling a lot... Three words. FIRE. VINCE. RUSSO.

Alrighty, now on to the Raw report for this week. This week the were in England. Now last year at the Raw from England Shawn Michaels and John Cena had a rematch (non-title). They wrestled for over 50 minutes. The match was voted match of the year in PWI (Pro Wrestling Illustrated). So, would Raw be as good this year??? Sadly, no. It was a great show, with many solid matches and segments, but no Match of the year.

HBK and Y2J Chris Jericho had a wonderful opening segment. He accused Shawn of loving himslef more than anything, that he was a phony, and that Shawn has the idea to make Flair retire. For those statements, HBK hit Chirs with Sweet Chin Music.

The first match was for the right to be number one contender for the tag titles.
Santino & Carlito vs London and Kendrick.
This was a great match. Both teams did very well, but Carlito hit London with the Back Stabber for the finsih. Look for Santino and Carlito to win the tag titles soon.

Women's Championship Match
Mickie James vs "The Glamazon" Beth Pheonix
WWE hasn't had a great womens match in a while. Monday, they did. Mickie and Beth are two of the best female workers around today. They aren't just pretty faces in tights, these two chicks can go. They worked a very physical match. And Mickie pulled out a win via Victory Roll to become the new WWE Women's Champ. YEA MICKIE!!!

The next match was pretty much a sleeper. It featured JTG from Cryme Tyme taking on Trevor Murdock of Cade & Murdock.
It was alright. JTG got the win. The only thing this match really did was further the angel that will split Cade and Murdock up.

At some point in the night Y2J went to Raw GM William Regal and asked to be put in HBK and Batista's match at Backlash. Willy made him the special guest ref. Jericho said no, that he wanted to wrestle. Willy said that he could wreslte Umaga that night and defend his I.C. title.

Ok, now its time for the 10:00 main evnt.
Raw GM William Regal vs WWE Champion Randy Orton.
It was very cool to see William be cheered in his home country. He came out to his face music, the crowd was very hot during the entire match. They were chanting Regal's name for much of the match. William was on offense for probably 80% of the match, but in the end Orton was able to hit the RKO for the win.

Umaga vs I.C. Champion Chris Jericho
Good god this match was great. Umaga can really work if he has a good ring general in there with him. It was intense, it was physical, and it told a good story. There were lots of near finishes, but in the end Y2J was able to win via a roll up with his feet on the ropes! That's right kids, Jericho was wrestling the match like a heel would. He was also getting great heel heat during his words with Shawn. I think Jericho will be a full heel very soon.

Paul B vs Jim Duggan. Paul won in like 45 seconds.

The main event was HHH vs JBL.

Nice match between two power housed. HHH won via DQ when Orton jumped him. After the match HHH got hit with The Close Line From Hell, and the RKO. The set up to punt HHH but as Orton ran in to punt him JBL hit Randy with The Close Line From Hell. Then with JBL holding the WWE Title above his head Raw went off the air.

I haven't watched ECW yet, no report on it yet. This is TTP saying: Win if you can, lose if you must, but always cheat.