Greetings all,
The Marshall Matters Show will be off the air for the rest of the month, as the production supervisor and the mix artist have eloped and won't be coming back until January. In the meantime, those of us remaining in SCN Canada will be putting together S. C. Newsletters just like the good old days of October. Unfortunately, the mix artist was also our picture editor, so these posts will be drably unillustrated. Please bear with us.
SMACKDOWN
...started with Cody Rhodes taking Booker T's place at the announce table after beating him up. I had to wonder if he was going to be using his normal voice or that affected shaky voice that he uses for most of his promos. Thankfully, he kept the theatrics to a minimum, but the real kudos goes to Josh Matthews who had the responsibility of keeping Cody and Cole on topic and talking about what was going on in the ring.
In the first match-up Wade Barrett took out Ezekial Jackson with a Black Hole Slam, which Cody called a Lost Man Slam, which sounds cool. Barrett used the same move again later on Randy Orton during Orton's main event match with Dolph Ziggler. The finish of this match was awesome- and who doesn't love a countdown clock on the screen during a pro wrestling match?
But stealing the show: ma man, Daniel Bryan. He delivered an incendiary promo in Michael Cole's direction, taking advantage of all of that uptapped heat that I talked about last week. This was a red-hot, awesome segment that seemed to me to once again demonstrate that DBD isn't only Mr. Match of the Night, but also The Man overall. He is on a hell of a roll both match-wise and promo-wise, and has been the best thing about pro wrestling for the past two months.
IMPACT and FINAL RESOLUTION
I might've just been in a good mood this week when I watched Impact, but I actually enjoyed it. There were some good promos and some good matches,and was a good overall show that set up Sunday's PPV pretty well. I didn't get the chance to watch the PPV start to finish, I only had time to skim through it. It looked like a solid show with a series of quality matches, even if plots and feuds were undercooked or dull. All titles were retained, and it didn't come off feeling like anything important happened, especially if this week's Impact features the same feuds being drawn out, as is usually the case. The only stipulation which will have an effect on this weeks show with certainty was the stip that if Jeff Jarrett lost to Jeff Hardy, either he or Karen would be fired from TNA. Jarrett did lose, and the decision on who will be leaving will be announced by Sting on Thursday. My guess is that Karen isn't going anywhere. If it happens that the feuds that led into this PPV are "settled", and they use this week to shuffle up the guys a bit, I think it would be a good thing. I'm looking forward to seeing where they go from here, and trying to be optimistic.
ROH
I'm bummed that I won't be able to watch ROH in the next few weeks as they lead up to their big iPPV Final Battle later in the month. When I get back home I'm going to go back and watch them all before I watch F.B. It's not like the show's been phenomenal, it's been decent but not outstanding, but I do feel like they've been doing a good job of building up to the PPV with a few of their key storylines. The highlight of this last show was a stellar match and promo by the Young Bucks, who are milking their business rep as being disrespectful punks.
SUPERSTARS
Evan Bourne had his first match since coming off WWE probation with a loss against Epico, which makes (as-yet-unnamed-Puerto-Rican-faction) two for two in singles competition against the members of Air Boom. Epico's finisher is the Backstabber, which was Carlito's finisher; Carlito being Primo's previous tag partner. Deja vu?
RAW
I digitally taped Raw off my In-laws' TV, and watched it this morning. It missed the first few minutes, so the first thing I saw was some Slammy award being contested in the ring between Cole and JR in a "rap off". Lately I've been getting nervous when JR is out because he's been degraded so much, and he seemed to be getting set up for just such an occasion, but he seemed to be having a really good time, and didn't even seem to care that he couldn't remember the words to his rap song, or that he had a tough time getting vertical after his JR-a-roonie.
Barrett had an awesome entrance, cutting a killer promo like a pro on his way down to the ring. Road Dogg was excellent to see on TV, and clearly hasn't lost his way with words that made him one of my favorite Attitude Era personalities. The Pipebomb video package was hilarious, and CM Punk's acceptance speech with the Johnny Ace video was even funnier. Kelly Kelly, whose nomination video was the only of the Divas' which didn't feature a wrestling move, won the generic, meaningless Divas award. Incidentally, the presenter for the Divas award,Lita, was arrested for DUI last week, and she might look good on TV, but her mugshot was horrific.
I really liked the idea to have a 4-way contest to see who could trend most during a match. The match itself was kind of awkward, but it did have some great spots, including the finish. Jerry Lawler announced the winner with a sealed envelope, which took some of the credibility out of the idea that the award was decided within the last 10 minutes. I have a feeling that the Superstar of the Year award could have been a similar fix, but it's all good because the right guys got their recognition.
Christian's speech was really funny, but the Game Changer award was a bogus excuse for John Cena to come out and kinda/kinda not rip on The Rock. The big tag match set up the main event of TLC really well, as well as add fuel to the fire of Orton and Barrett's feud. Gene Okerlund is the second legend (after the Iron Sheik) to be revealed as being involved with Legends House. Jinder Mahal showed up to get kicked in the face by smilin' Sheamus.
I've been thinking a lot lately about the Royal Rumble. Who'll be favored to win by then, what the overall tone will be like, but most of all who will be making a surprise appearance/return. Rey Mysterio was at the top of my list of guys I'd have loved to see come back like that, so I was a little disappointed that he came back to deliver a Slammy award, but I wasn't so disappointed that I didn't get really happy and excited that he was presenting the biggest award of the night.
There was another one of those rad, cryptic videos touting the coming of somebody or somebodies on January 2nd. My guess that it'd be a female was wrong, as this video featured a monologue by a boy saying something along the lines that there would be a woman that would signal the coming of the man. I guess that'll mean that a duo will be coming in, the female half of which will be kind of a manager, and the guy will be the wrestler. These videos are really different for the WWE, and I love them. I wonder if it won't be a comeback, as many people are expecting, but a brand new face. Can't wait to find out.
Of course, the buildup for Kane's return came to fruition at the end of Raw! Didn't see that coming. Kane's over-the-mask mask looked like a brushed metal version of Jeff Hardy's new mask thing. If you didn't know about that, look it up. Anyway, The new Kane look is extremely cool from the neck up. The jury is still out on the tights, I've gotta see them in normal lighting. And how did he grow that much hair so quickly? When he first came out I was convinced he was somebody else because I didn't think that hair could possibly be his. Maybe it's just a really convincing wig. Speculation.
Thanks for joining me for this week's work shoot run-at-the-mouth review. Check back soon for my own recap of the pro wrestling highlights of 2011.
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