SC Newsletter: 3:16 and Counting

Greetings all wrestling fans,

I don't have a hell of a whole lot to say about this week's fresh offering of pro wrestling programming, and I've been slacking on the production of the Marshall Matters Show lately anyway, so I'm just gonna take these notes and opinions and punch 'em into the website word-style.

Smackdown was a pretty decent wrestling show this week, though the quality content was bookended by dumb shit.  The show opened with BS and Orton cutting promos in the ring, and ended with BS and Orton having a #1 contender's match.  I can't tell you how bad these segments sucked, because I skipped through them.  But there was plenty else in the show to make it worthwhile.
Antonio Cesaro had ANOTHER (the 8th by my count) match against Santino, AGAIN for the title (4th title match, I think), and with the same result AGAIN (Cesaro's won every time).  Not that any of that really matters though, since they generally have good wrestling matches, this week's example being no exception.
Beth Phoenix and Natalya had a noteworthy match.  They had a decent amount of time, and showcased their ability to have a quality match without any dancing or other dumb shit.  With the talented Eve as champ, these two having no-nonsense bouts, and Kelly Kelly being future endeavored, it has been a good week for the Diva's division.  Oh yeah, and Kaitlyn looking hot on Raw, that was good too.
Ryback and Tensai's match on Raw was kind of disappointing, with Ryback not being able to get the huge Tensai over his shoulders.  On Smackdown, the move came off without a hitch and it looked amazing!  Seeing these two guys in the ring together made me feel like a giddy little boy.  Also, it was funny that the smarks didn't know whether to chant "Albert" or "Goldberg", so they just stopped.

Everybody who knows Quarter Marshall knows that Quarter Marshall loves a tournament.  The tag team tourney for the #1 contender's position began on Smackdown, and that also made me a little giddy.  I would've liked to have seen the Usos get a little further than the first round, but at least they had a match on TV, and were putting over a cool team and not The Ascension.

Many months ago, over in the world of TNA, Hogan announced that the TV Title would be defended on every episode of Impact.  D-Von won the belt and defended it weekly for a while, then disappeared.  Turns out his contract had run out, and TNA clumsily allowed this to happen while he was still a champion.  Samoa Joe and Mr. Anderson had a match to crown the new TV champ this week.

Here's to hoping for the re-installment of weekly defenses, and a long and prosperous reign for Joe.
Something unintentionally funny happened on Impact this week.  Hulk Hogan, who supposedly runs the show, and Sting (his BFF) were violently abducted by Aces & 8s in the middle of the show.  What do the rest of staff and roster do?  How do they react?  Well, apparently they're all oblivious to it, the show just goes on without a hitch.  The only explanation I can think of is that even the people who work for TNA don't watch the show.

I haven't mentioned ROH for a few weeks because the TV show has mostly just been replays of Boiling Point matches.

I liked the match between Kassius Ohno and Richie Steamboat on NXT this week.  Too bad Wade Barrett's new gimmick is so similar to Ohno's.  I don't see Ohno getting called up anytime soon.  I do like his hipster glasses thing, though.  It's about time someone used a hipster gimmick!  He should take it all the way, making obscure references to golden age wrestlers and extravagantly worded maneuvers in promos, like "when Maxwell Corneschmidt pioneered the Danish fisherman's buster, it was so ahead of it's time that even he had no idea what he was really doing."  His catchphrase could be "I doubt it."

Saturday Morning Slam has continued its streak as being the most consistently entertaining WWE show going.  Santino and Heath Slater had a fun, goofy match, and the rest of the show was fun as well.  I also watched the new TMNT show this week, which I thought was really cool, so that makes 2 Saturday morning kids' TV shows I'm into.

I didn't like Raw.  Between the over-long in-ring segments with Punk, debate between BS and Sheamus, a general lack of good matches, and Michael Cole dictating the tweets of Larry King, it was a looong three hours.  There were some cool parts, though.
1. Antonio Cesaro picking up and dropping Brodus Clay.  Incredible!
2. The faction of Heath Slater, Jinder Mahal, and Drew McIntyre.  It cracks me up how horrible they are.
3. Wade Barrett telling AJ off backstage.  This was only about a minute long, but it was fantastic.
4. Sheamus vs. Damien Sandow.  A really good match.  Easily the highlight of the program.  Sandow was amazingly crisp and slick, his style and technique are really impressive.  Kudos to Sheamus as well for helping make Sandow look so flawless.
5. I did like the first half of the promo segment between Punk and JR.  It was pretty intense, and I thought JR was the man.  But it went on for too long, and then Ryback staring Punk down and scaring him away might have been the lowest point of the week for me, from any program.  I had a hard time concentrating on the rest of the show, so I'm not even sure if the main event was any good.

My extracurricular of the week was watching the rest of the Ric Flair interview which I'd started a few weeks ago.  We're talking 7 hours of stories, and I really enjoyed it.  I kept it on while doing a bunch of chores, I wasn't just sitting there looking at his talking head that whole time.  I'd recommend it as being a quality production, packed full of information, but I'm not sure if you guys would like it or not.  You might just want to check out the promotional highlights on youtube. (search: Ric Flair interview preview Highspots)

That's my spiel and I'm sticking to it.  QM OUT