Survivor Series 2009, November 22, 2009, Verizon Center, Washington, DC

Announcers: Michael Cole, Jerry Lawler, & Matt Striker

Opening Match: US Champion The Miz (Captain), Dolph Ziggler, Jack Swagger, Drew McIntyre, & Sheamus vs. IC Champion John Morrison (Captain), Evan Bourne, Fit Finlay, Matt Hardy, & Shelton Benjamin

Bourne and Swagger start off with Bourne using speed to get a rollup for 2.  Swagger gets a suplex and tags Ziggler who hits the jumping neck snap for 1.  Cool looking inverted slam gets 2, and then he gets another 2 off some elbows.  He and Swagger trade off again and Ziggler gets Bourne in a half crab.  Bourne kicks him off and gets a rana for 2.  He follows with a high knee and tags Hardy.  They hit a double elbow from the 2^nd rope.  Hardy hits the Side Effect, then tags Bourne who hits the Air Bourne shooting star press for the 3 count to eliminate Ziggler at 3:59.  No time to celebrate though as in comes Drew McIntyre and he hits the double arm DDT to finish Bourne off at 4:12.  Finlay is in next and he takes McIntyre down with the Finlay Roll.  McIntyre avoids a second one and tags Sheamus which sets up the big showdown between the Irishmen.  That lasts almost no time at all as Miz provides a brief distraction and Sheamus hits the big boot for the pin at 5:14.  Hardy comes in and fares a bit better, but then his Side Effect is blocked and he takes a powerslam for 1.  Sheamus drops some elbows and gets a 2 count, then tags Miz.  Miz controls with a slam and legdrop, and then hooks a rear chinlock.  Hardy fires out but then takes a neckbreaker for 2.  Miz goes to a front facelock, which Hardy escapes as well, and follows up with a Russian legsweep.  Miz tags Swagger, who cuts Hardy off from making the tag.  He controls for a bit before Hardy finally escapes and tags Morrison.  Morrison comes in hot with a dropkick and knee for 2.  He corner whip is reversed and he goes down, but Swagger misses the pump splash.  Miz tries to provide the distraction again, but to no avail as Morrison still connects with a springboard kick.  The cover draws everyone in and in the melee, Scott Armstrong takes a knee to the back of the head from Sheamus.  He stays down and they would later announce him has having suffered a concussion.  But it’s a big break for Justin King as he gets to step in and save the day.  After everyone is cleared out, Morrison takes Swagger down and connects with Starship Pain for the pin at 12:09.  Miz jumps him, nailing a clothesline in the corner and a double ax off the top for 2.  Benjamin takes a blind tag and surprises Miz with a rollup for 2.  He then hits a back suplex.  Stinger Splash follows and then a Northern Lights suplex gets 2.  Corner whip sees him run into a boot though, but he follows by getting his own boot up on Miz’s charge.  German suplex gets 2 and he sets up a neckbreaker, but Sheamus nails him to break it up.  Miz follows with the Skull Crushing Finale to end Benjamin’s night at 14:59.  Hardy comes back in as McIntyre gets the tag.  Hardy nails a couple of clotheslines for 2 and a headbutt, but he misses a charge.  He still hits a neckbreaker though and follows with the 2^nd rope legdrop for 2.  He hits another neckbreaker and goes up, but after a distraction by Sheamus, he misses a moonsault.  McIntyre gets the double arm DDT for the 3 count at 17:11.  This leaves Morrison one on three, and the odds take over quickly.  He gets caught by McIntyre and then Sheamus gets the tag and pounds away.  Tag to Miz who’s in with some kicks.  Morrison comes back with a dropkick, but Miz tags right away to Sheamus.  He hits a clothesline and runs Morrison to the corner where the partners beat on him while he distracts the ref.  Morrison tries fighting back and goes for a springboard move, but gets nailed coming down.  Sheamus the hits the Razor’s Edge, and that’s it for Morrison at 20:55.  Survivors: The Mix, Sheamus, and Drew McIntyre.  Obviously the heel team has the guys they want to protect and build up so it makes sense for them to win.  Ziggler and Swagger, who were seemingly the pet projects a few months ago, appear to have been shuffled downwards, only being used as token eliminations for the face team here.  I have to say that I’m not confident about a main event push for Sheamus, but I guess we’ll find out next month at TLC as he’s getting thrown right in there with John Cena.  **1/2

Next we get a dumb segment with team Kofi as they reassure Christian there’s nothing awkward about him being the only white guy on the team.  Christian of course manages to make it awkward by the end by rapping about it.  Just a dumb segment that does nothing to make me care about any of the guys, or the match they have coming up, but someone must have thought it was hilarious, I guess.

Rey Mysterio vs. Dave Batista

After the big turn by Batista last month, the feud comes to a head here in Batista’s hometown, which means he’s the crowd favourite regardless.  Definitely an example of poor planning there.  Mysterio starts off going for the knee, and quickly sets up a 619, but Batista rolls out.   Batista drags him to the floor and runs him to the apron.  Back in, Mysterio kicks him and tries a springboard, but Batista ducks it and nails a clothesline.  Mysterio keeps managing to escape Batista’s power moves and clips the knee for 2.  He sets up the 619 again, but Batista catches him.  He sets up the Batista Bomb, but Mysterio takes him to the floor with a rana.  Mysterio follows with a baseball slide and then leaps at him off the apron.  Batista then just starts no selling and beats Mysterio up.  Mysterio knees him coming in and hits a 619 to the back to set up the regular version, which also hits.  After the springboard press hits, he goes up and does the Eddie Guerrero dance to big boos prior to hitting knees on a frog splash.  Batista then gets him with a spear and spinebuster.  Batista Bomb follows, but rather then cover, he hits another, and then another before the ref stops it at 6:49.  Batista is not done though as he comes in with a chair.  The crowd wants him to kill Mysterio, which is probably not the reaction they were going for.  He teases doing nothing for a bit, but then ends up dropping Mysterio with a spinebuster on the chair.  Mysterio does a stretcher job and so begins yet another period of surgery and rehab for him.  *1/2

Randy Orton lets his team know that they’ve failed to live up to his expectations so far, and that they’d better come through tonight.  Punk stands up to him in a tease of dissention, but nothing comes of it.  At least this segment focused on the match and the issues between the guys rather then lame comedy.

Randy Orton (Captain), CM Punk, William Regal, Cody Rhodes, & Ted Dibiase vs. Kofi Kingston (Captain), MVP, Mark Henry, ECW Champion Christian, & R-Truth

Orton and Henry are in first with Henry whipping him to the corner and nailing a clothesline.  He takes shots at the entire heel team and then puts Orton in a bearhug, but Legacy comes in and breaks it up.  That sets up an RKO and Henry is done at 0:53.  MVP comes in as Rhodes gets the tag.  Rhodes gets MVP to the corner and they go to work with Dibiase, Regal, and then Punk all getting tagged in in succession.  Punk stays in and works him over a bit longer, but soon gets tossed away and MVP tags Truth.  These guys have an issue going so they get some heat.  Truth gets a hiptoss and then flips over him on a corner whip.  However, Rhodes distracts him and Punk takes advantage to nail the GTS for the pin at 3:14.  Christian comes in and rolls him up for 2.  He nails a forearm off the ropes for 1 before Punk knees him.  After a slam he tags Dibiase who comes in with a double stomp off the 2^nd rope for 2.  He follows with a powerslam for another 2.  He tries hooking the Dream, but can’t get it.  Christian counters to a Killswitch, which Dibiase in turn counters to a catapult to the buckle.  Christian comes back out with a kick and then a sunset flip gets 3 at 5:04.  Is Dibiase being shuffled down too?  His issues with Orton have pretty much disappeared and here he’s just beaten like an afterthought five minutes in.  Regal comes in for Team Orton while Christian tags Kofi who comes in with a dropkick, some punches in the corner, and an uppercut for 2.  He’s not really getting a superstar reaction though so expect them to give up on him any time now.  Corner whip is reversed with Kofi leaping back off the ropes, but Regal moves and Kofi hits the mat.  Tag to Rhodes, who drops a knee before tagging back to Regal.  Kofi fires back and tags MVP who comes right in with a big boot on Regal for 3 at 6:51.  Rhodes comes in off the top with a bodypress, but MVP rolls through for 2.  He then gets a suplex for another 2.  Tag Christian, whose tornado DDT is blocked and Rhodes kicks him down for 2.  To a bodyscissors, but Christian gets on top of him for 2 and forces a break.  Rhodes then clotheslines him for 2 and tags Orton.  Orton is in with a dropkick for 2 and works Christian over for a bit before tagging Rhodes back in.  Kneedrop by Rhodes misses and that allows a tag to MVP.  He’s in with multiple clotheslines and a facebuster.  He goes Ballin’ but Orton then distracts him and he takes the Cross Rhodes for the pin at 10:11.  Kofi immediately rolls him up for 2 and then tags Christian who comes in with a shot off the top.  Tag back to Kofi who gets a springboard double ax handle for 2, followed by a snapmare and splash for another 2.  Tag to Christian, on whom Rhodes is able to briefly take advantage, but he then quickly falls victim to the Killswitch and is pinned at 11:36.  See, now unlike his partner, Rhodes at least got to job to the guy’s finisher, and not only that he also got an elimination before being eliminated himself.  I don’t understand.  Orton comes in next and works Christian over.  He drops a knee and then takes a cheap shot at Kofi.  Christian gets a cradle for 2 and then Punk provides the distraction to set up the RKO, but Christian counters to the Killswitch.  He covers, but Punk saves at 2.  Christian beats him up and tosses him, but then misses a charge on Orton and takes an RKO for the 3 count at 13:27.  Kofi is in as the last member of his team, but Orton wants nothing to do with him and tags out to Punk.  After this Orton actually goes as far as not even standing on the apron for the entire time Punk and Kofi go at it.  Kofi wins a slugfest which leads to them trying and missing the finishers.  Kofi does get a dropkick and the SOS for 2.  He misses a splash in the corner though and Punk works him over with knees and kicks.  Kick to the back gets 2 and then he uses a headscissors.  Kofi escapes, but ends up charging into a powerslam.  Now Punk goes to a bodyscissors forcing me to note that his moveset in this segment would have Gorilla Monsoon impressed.  Kofi elbows his way out, but a splash hits knees.  Punk gets him with a superplex for 2, followed by the running knee.  He goes for a bulldog, but that gets countered to a back suplex.  Kofi goes up, and after fighting Punk off a couple of times, he gets a crossbody for 2.  He follows with a dropkick and clothesline, and then hits the Boom Drop.  Orton distracts him which allows Punk a rollup, but Kofi rolls through and gets the 3 count at 20:42.  Orton is immediately in, but Kofi is aware and catches him with Trouble In Paradise which gets another 3 count at 20:50.  Survivor: Kofi Kingston.  So the story is that Kofi beat two former World Champions in an incredibly short span of time.  Really good match here, but as noted Kofi is not quite to the superstar level of reaction yet.  If they keep it up, he may get there, but it’s gonna take some time.  ***1/2

World Heavyweight Championship Match: The Undertaker vs. Chris Jericho vs. The Big Show

Obviously the theme of our two Title matches tonight is that the Champion is defending in a Triple Threat Match against both members of a regular tag team.  Jericho and Show have teased some dissention leading up to this, but none the les they start right off with a double team on Taker.  Show nails a clothesline and then Jericho clotheslines Taker to the floor.  Taker lands on his feet though and drags Jericho out, ramming him to the barrier in the process.  Show slowly follows, but gets nailed as well, but then Taker misses a charge at Jericho and hits the barrier.  They set Taker up for the Big Right Hand, but Show opts to nail him in the gut for some reason.  Why would you do that when he’s wide open like he was?  Jericho follows up with a mic shot and then they get Taker in the ring for more double teaming.  Show goes to whip Jericho into Taker, but Taker moves and Jericho hits the post.  Now Taker takes over with a flying clothesline on Show and a couple of bodyblocks on Jericho.  He follows with Snake Eyes, but now Show drags him back to the floor.  Taker manages to send him to the post anyways while Jericho then springboards right into a fist from Taker.  He sets up Old School, but Jericho crotches him.  After a couple of tries, he gets a superplex for 2.  Lionsault hits knees, but he’s unhurt and goes for the Walls instead.  He gets it on and Taker struggles for quite awhile before Show comes in and breaks it in the first sign that it’s everyone for themselves here.  Show then chokeslams Jericho, and goes to do the same thing to Taker, but Taker counters to a DDT.  Jericho sneaks over and gets covers on both guys for 2.  They all slug away now until Show and Taker grab each other by the throat.  Jericho grabs the physical representation of the Championship and goes to nail Taker, but he ducks and Show takes the shot instead.  The announcers play up that Jericho may have intentionally nailed Show, but if that’s what they were going for it didn’t look like it at all as Taker clearly pulled Show forward into it and there was no hesitation by Jericho.  Taker then takes Jericho down with a big boot for 2.  He stomps Show to the floor and sets up the Last Ride on Jericho, but Jericho has the, oh screw it, the belt and clocks Taker on the upswing.  That gets a couple of two counts which frustrates Jericho.  He goes for a Tombstone, for no conceivable reason other than so Taker can reverse it to his own, which sure enough happens, but Show comes in and knocks Taker out with the Big Right Hand.  Show covers, but Jericho saves at 2.  Jericho then covers, but Show breaks that one up at 2 as well.  Now Jericho goes for the Codebreaker on Show, but it’s blocked and Show hits the BRH on him to put him out.  He then goes for the chokeslam on Taker, but Taker hooks him in the Hell’s Gates and that gets the submission to retain at 13:39.  Not a bad match, but not that great either.  Undertaker is seemingly going on to face Batista, while any issues between Jericho and Show are set aside as they are currently announced to defend the Titles against DX at TLC.  **1/2

We get a promo by the survivors of Team Miz as they put themselves over.  Now this was good stuff.  No stupid comedy or anything.  They just came out and talked about what they’ve done and what they’re going to do next.  Was that hard?  The writers must have been on vacation for something like this to slip by.  Either that or they spent all their time working on Christian’s rap.

Women’s Champion Michelle McCool (Captain), Layla, Beth Phoenix, Jillian Hall, & Alicia Fox vs. Mickie James (Captain), Gail Kim, Kelly Kelly, Eve, & Divas Champion Melina

Ok, here we go with the token women’s match, which is bound to be bad, but they’ve spent all night talking about “tradition” and that’s as long running of a tradition as any in this company I guess so it makes sense.  Kelly and Layla are in first and they trade some shots with Kelly then hitting two clotheslines and a legdrop for 3 at 1:16.  Michelle and Gail go next with Gail hitting a dropkick and getting a rollup for 1.  Michelle then gets her with the Styles Clash for 3 at 2:05.  Eve tries a rollup for 1 and then Michelle tags Jillian who drops an elbow for 2.  She gets a hairtoss and then Eve misses a dropkick and Jillian covers for 2.  She goes for the handspring elbow but gets kicked in the back and Eve comes off the top rope with a sunset flip for 3 at 3:35.  Beth is in and immediately hits Eve with the Glam Slam for the pin at 3:52, which is followed by Kelly also taking a Glam Slam for another elimination at 4:09.  Mickie is in next, hitting a dropkick and then pinning Beth with a crucifix at 4:44.  This is rather brisk so far.  That’s not a bad thing though.  Beth nails her after the fact which lets Alicia Fox sneaks in for the cover and get a 1 count.  Alicia then gets a Northern Lights suplex for another 1.  They get backed to the corner and Mickie kicks her off, and then hits a top rope Thesz press for the 3 count at 6:25.  Michelle comes in and pounds Mickie, dropping a knee and a leg for 2.  They trade some shots, but Michelle is able to cut her off from making the tag.  She stomps Mickie down and gets a 2 count, but this time Mickie gets away and tags Melina.  Melina is in with a spear and she pounds away.  She gets a spin kick, followed by a rope straddle and faceplant for 2.  She does her “Matrix” avoiding of a big boot, but Michelle ends up dropping her anyways.  She hits a belly to belly suplex for 2 and then sets up a powerbomb, but Melina rolls through and gets the 3 count at 10:39.  Survivors: Mickie James and Melina.  Nothing more to say here.  ½*

Main Event, WWE Championship Match: John Cena vs. Triple H vs. Shawn Michaels

So like the earlier Title match we again have the Champ against a tag team, but in this case Shawn Superkicks HHH right off the bat and puts him out of the ring.  This gets a big positive reaction from the crowd by the way.  Even Cena seems stunned by this course of action.  So now he and Shawn go one on one with Shawn hitting a neckbreaker, followed by a Thesz press.  Corner whip is reversed and Cena nails a bulldog off of it.  Suplex gets 2 for Cena.  He sets up the Attitude Adjustment, but Shawn counters it to a DDT for 2.  Shawn then clips the leg and hooks the figure four.  Cena eventually reverses and Shawn breaks the hold.  Cena goes for the shoulderblocks, but misses the second one and goes to the floor.  Shawn nails a dive and then preps the announce table, but takes too long and is set up for the AA again.  But finally, after about five minutes, HHH has recovered from that Superkick and makes the save, but only because he wants to put Shawn though the table himself, which he does with a spinebuster.  He then gets Cena in the ring and hits him with another spinebuster for 2.  After working Cena over a bit, he gets 2 off a corner whip and a neckbreaker.  He sets up for the Pedigree, but Cena blocks and catapults him to the buckle.  HHH comes out of there though with a clothesline for 2.  Cena gets sent off, but connects with a shoulderblock.  He follows with a second one and then hits the Protobomb.  Five Knuckle Shuffle hits and sets up the AA, but now Shawn makes the save, sending Cena to the post.  Now we have a DX showdown, but HHH has to stop and toss Cena for good measure and that allows Shawn to hit him with an inverted atomic drop.  Irish whip is reversed and HHH hits the high knee.  He then gets the facebuster, but Shawn comes back with a clothesline.  He kips up, but is right into a HHH spinebuster.  Shawn then backdrops out of a Pedigree attempt and goes up, but Cena is there to crotch him.  Cena now goes up for the legdrop on HHH, but that misses.  Shawn is up top again, and comes off with the elbow on Cena.  HHH tosses Shawn, but quickly gets hooked in the STF by Cena.  Shawn makes it back to save though by hooking a crossface on Cena, who powers to his feet, then drops Shawn and puts him in the STF.  Shawn makes the ropes, and after they break, he gets Cena with the Superkick.  He hits another on HHH as well, but HHH falls on top of Cena and the ref counts, but Cena kicks out at 2.  The crowd was convinced that was the finish.  Cena then hits HHH with an Attitude Adjustment.  Both Shawn and Cena crawl to make the cover on HHH and the there at the same time, but HHH kicks out at 2 anyways.  Another Superkick is blocked by Cena and then Shawn goes for a piledriver on HHH.  HHH backdrops Shawn to avoid it, but he lands right on Cena’s shoulders.  Shawn slips off and hits another Superkick on HHH, but turns right into an Attitude Adjustment.  Cena opts to cover HHH instead, but still gets the 3 count to retain at 21:14.  Really good stuff here, but then I would expect nothing less with these guys as they’ve all done so many main event three ways that they could probably put one on in their sleep.  Cena will have a bigger challenge next month as he gets to face Sheamus, who is completely untested in a big match environment, so we’ll see what kind of miracle working abilities he’s got.  As mentioned earlier, DX goes on to what will probably be the real main event of TLC to face Jericho and Show for the Unified Tag Team Titles.  For this match, it squeaks ahead to take match of the night honours at ****.

Final Thoughts: If this year’s WWE PPV’s could be summed up in one phrase, I think it would be “Solid, but completely unremarkable”.  From an in ring perspective, they rarely put on a bad show and this was certainly no exception, but there’s just nothing there that’s gonna make you remember this show even a few months down the line.  The Divas match was the lowlight, but that’s to be expected, and Mysterio/Batista wasn’t that good, but it worked for the story they were telling so it’s forgivable.  Main Event was the big highlight, although it suffers from the dreaded Same Old Match Syndrome.  Thankfully they do appear to be legitimately addressing that issue, although it will take time to see if they’re doing it with the right guys.  As for Survivor Series, I can’t say it was a bad show overall.  In fact, it gets a Thumbs Up, but the truth is that if you missed it, it’s not a big deal which is becoming more and more of the trend.

Esta noche en WWE RAW, se anunció el match que se esperaba desde el regreso de DX: Enfrentar a Jerishow

Y lo harán por los campeonatos unificados de parejas en un match TLC dentro del PPV del mismo nombre (Ya saben las redundancias de WWE)

• TLC Match: Unified WWE Tag Team Championship: Chris Jericho & The Big Show © vs. D-Generation X (Triple H & Shawn Michaels)

dx wwe survivor series idea girl consulting

I got to watch WWE last night at the theater and it was loads of fun!

I’ve posted the matches and results for WWE Survivor Series on Witty Woman Today.

It was interesting sitting in a room full of guys and being the ONLY girl there!

I was having fun watching the response to the wrestlers coming out.

They booed John Cena, Randy Orton and just about everyone except Chris Jericho.

Chris_Jericho is cheered on wwe survivor series 2009 in the theatre

They didn’t react to Kofi Kingston, but I did!

kofi-kingston-champion-wwe survivor series 2009 keeps his title

I made sure to cheer and boo when I felt like it.

In fact I’d cheer and boo the same guy just for the fun of it.

They were being noisy and annoying, so I decided to join in the fun.

Needless to say I don’t know if we’ll go back to a theatre to watch the match.

We had a yap box sitting beside us who decided to ask a question everytime a new wrestler came out.

I told Harry next time I go, if buddy shows up, I’ll have a roll of duct tape ready for him with his name on it.

I’ll simply say, talk and you wear it.

And that will solve his motor mouth problem.

Had I been sitting on the end of the row I would have asked the guy to kindly be quiet or move elsewhere.

He joined in with our party, and none of us really like him.

But no one had the guts to tell him so.

And I was down on the other end filling my face with nachos and cheese.

You know that’s the worst thing about going to the movies a few times a week.

Don’t bother eating supper.

Because as soon as someone sits beside you with food, you get hungry too.

I think they put subliminal messages on the screen too.

wwe-survivor-series-2009 idea girl consulting

sheamus_oshaunessy wwe survivor series idea girl consulting

Sheamus Oshaunessy- The guys have nicknamed you Casper, because you’re as white as a ghost!

jesse-ventura1-wwe-raw-nov-23-2009-thanksgiving-idea-girl-consulting

I watched WWE Survivor Series last night and it was full of some really good fights.

It’s been awhile since I saw a PPV that I really liked!

Last month’s was pretty good too, but Survivor Series was the best so far this year.

At least I think so, they did a lot of different matches and really shook things up.

I hate the fact that DX broke up though.

I loved watching Kolby Kingston kick Randy Orton’s a**.

To see more of Govenor Jesse Ventura visit youtube TheAlexJonesChannel

The 2009 edition of WWE Survivor Series is in the books. The biggest story coming out of the event is the continuing of Kofi Kingston’s ascent to the RAW main-event. After several “career making” moments on RAW, the young Kingston found himself in a two-on-one situation against two former champions in CM Punk and Randy Orton. Against the odds, Kofi single handily defeated Punk and then Orton to become the sole survivor for his team in what is without a doubt the biggest win of his career. Kofi is riding a huge wave of momentum, and the fans are getting behind him in a big way. If WWE continues to play it right with Kofi, we could be watching the next big superstar develop before our eyes.

WWE played it predictably with John Cena retaining the title. I would have much preferred Shawn Michaels win the championship one more time, but hey, at least I got my wish of him superkicking Hunter (although I’m sure it won’t lead to a feud between the two, since Hunter isn’t a bitch like Batista). We’ll have more on this event tomorrow, with the debut of a brand new column series.

Anyway, the results are already posted individually, but you can hit the jump to view the complete results right here on this one post. Tomorrow, we debut Winners and Losers (Survivor Series Edition), so check back tomorrow for that.

- Team Miz def. Team Morrison (Miz, Sheamus & McIntyre survive)
- Batista def. Rey Mysterio
- Team Kofi def. Team Orton (Kofi is the sole survivor)
- The Undertaker def. Big Show and Chris Jericho (World Championship Match)
- Team Mickie def. Team Michelle (Mickie James & Melina survive)
- John Cena def. Shawn Michaels and Triple H (WWE Championship Match)

Don’t forget to check out and register (free, obviously) at HeelZone.com, the official message board of the HeelZone Blog. Join our community today.

Match #4: The Undertaker def. Big Show and Chris Jericho to retain the World Heavyweight Championship

Undertaker won by making Big Show tap out to Hells Gate

UP NEXT: Team Mickie James vs. Team Michelle McCool

Drama’s Smackdown Report 11/20/09

Friday Night Smackdown!
November 20, 2009
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Todd Grisham and Matt Striker

OPENING ANIMATION

Todd welcomes us to Philadelphia, and tonight the Brothers of Destruction reunite as Kane & the World Heavyweight Champion Undertaker faces the Unified Tag Team Champions, Jeri-Show. However right now we UNLEASH…THE ANIMAL.

Batista vs. Matt Hardy

Batista comes out with his new entrance…no pyro…no smiles…no nothing. Matt Hardy’s a pretty good guy to have in the ring with Batista, as he has credibility and takes a pretty good beating. Although honestly Batista should go on a real big time jobber squash, ala Sid in 1992. Just show up on the other shows and start creaming guys. He drops Hardy with 3 straight spinebusters, then the Demon Bomb for the win. WINNER: Batista (Grade: 1.5)

-We go back to last week and the contract signing between Rey and Batista, where Rey flipped the table onto Batista, then Batista flipped out. We go backstage and Josh Matthews tries to talk to Batista, but he cuts him off and says Rey made 3 major mistakes. 1) He cost Batista the World Title, 2) He signed the Hold Harmless agreement, and 3) He embarrassed him last week. Well at Survivor Series, Batista says he will take care of Rey Mysterio, with no remorse and no holding back.

COMMERCIAL BREAK

-We return with a video montage of the Brothers of Destruction. It’s amazing how much they pump this up considering their matches are always a workrate-starved trainwreck. We then go backstage with Teddy Long, who’s interrupted by Vicky Guerrero and Eric Escobar. Vicky gives him crap about teaming the Brothers of Destruction tonight, that it will wreck the main event at Survivor Series. She’s also mad that her boyfriend Eric Escobar hasn’t been on the show. Vicky says there’s no wonder Teddy’s on probation. Teddy’s about to throw them out when Mr. McMahon comes into the office. He’s also perturbed that the Brothers of Destruction are teaming tonight and can ruin the main event of Survivor Series. So having said that, Vince decides to have Vicky Guerrero as Smackdown’s consultant to help Teddy with the show. Vince leaves and Vicky dances and screams in celebration. Ok, this idea completely sucks. No offense to the great Eddie Guerrero, but without Edge she is so damn annoying.

Drew McIntyre vs. Finlay

We go back the last few weeks and Drew’s beatdowns of Finlay. Drew takes the mike and says Finlay’s more like a crying old lady than a fighter. Pretty stiff match as Finlay’s really throwing potatoes out there. It’s a pretty short, as McIntyre takes control and hits the big DDT for the win. Not much more to say. WINNER: Drew McIntyre (Grade: 1.5)

COMMERCIAL BREAK

Out comes CM Punk our straight edge superstar. In the ring is a table with 3 upside down buckets with X’s on them. Punk says tonight he’s going to do for the WWE Universe what should have been done a long time ago. Punk says everyone must recover, and the first step is a confession. He says everyone must admit that they have a problem. He says everyone must stand or touch the TV at home and admit that they’re all addicts. Everyone is in denial and can’t admit their problems to anyone. Punk says he’s here to teach everyone how to survive. He lifts the first bucket and it’s a carton of cigarettes. Punk says no one cares that inhaling cigarette smoke is poisonous and they might as well throw their lungs in the garbage. Tonight Punk will throw the cigarettes in the garbage because that’s how they survive. That’s how straight edge lives. Under the second bucket is a bottle of pills. Punk says this helps weak people hide pain, suffering and cowardess. So these are going in the garbage too. Next is a bottle of whiskey. Punk says this is the worst of them all. Alcoholics are nothing more than weaklings who live in a cloud because they don’t want to admit reality or their own lives. He pours the whiskey in the garbage can. Suddenly R-Truth comes out. He goes “WHAT’S UP” to the crowd, then tells Punk that this is wrong and he doesn’t like him. Truth kicks Punk in the gut, then drops him with a DDT and pours all the crap in the garbage can all over Punk. Then Truth nails Punk in the gut with the garbage can. This is a good feud as its pushing R-Truth to the forefront and CM Punk is staying warm till his next Title feud.

Intercontinental Championship
Two out of Three Falls match
John Morrison © vs. Dolph Ziggler

This is Ziggler’s chance to show he’s a legit in-ring guy and not some 5 minute hump with blonde hair. Morrison gets the first fall with Starship Pain. A few minutes later Ziggler gets the second fall with his “Zig-Zag” finisher. See this is what sucks about TV matches. This should have been paced much better and really let these two guys wrestle for 20 minutes, eat up the middle of the show. The third fall is pretty good, but 2 out of 3 falls matches can’t be rushed. Some really good action during the last fall, and Morrison hits Starship Pain to finish it. Great match, but rushed. Let these guys go 20 minutes and show that Ziggler is the real thing. WINNER: John Morrison (Grade 2.5)

COMMERCIAL BREAK (Including a promo for the new Hulk Hogan DVD)

Mickie James vs. Layla

The match is nothing, as Mickie takes her out in about a minute. WINNER: Mickie James (Grade: 0)

-After the match Michelle McCool does a skit where she calls Mickie a pig. Actually pretty rough stuff and Mickie cries as she walks down the aisle.

Rey Mysterio vs. Tyson Kidd

Batista is at the broadcast table and he’s not said a word to anybody. The match is pretty good and Tyson Kidd needs more singles matches to give himself an identity. It ends quick as Kidd is thrown to the floor, then Batista gets up and throws Kidd to the barricade. WINNER: Tyson Kidd by disqualification (Grade: 1.5)

-Rey then hits a West Coast Pop on Batista through the broadcast table. Batista chases him around but can’t catch him. We go backstage and Jeri-show is talking. Jericho says they must work as a team. Big Show says he’s looking ahead to Survivor Series and becoming the World Heavyweight Champion. Jericho says that selfishness will lead to their downfall tonight. Big Show says tonight will be fine, as Show has tagged with both guys and knows how they tick. Show asks Jericho if he’s scared. Jericho says he’s not scared of Big Show nor is he intimidated by the Undertaker. Show leaves…then the lights go out. Jericho starts freaking out, then the lights come back on and its Show with the light switch. He says…point proven. Jericho’s scared. We then go back to Monday night to the awesome Raw at WWE’s Home Office…Madison Square Garden. That video montage was awesome…and they should make a DVD honoring….”The Garden.”

Unified Tag Team Champions Jeri-Show vs. Brothers of Destruction

Cool intro for Taker & Kane with the symbols on fire. Jericho will likely eat up most of the action here, as he’s getting pounded by both brothers. Kane becomes face in peril for a while but eventually Taker & Kane lay Big Show on the broadcast table and try a double chokeslam but Jericho breaks it up. Jericho is chokeslammed by Kane, but Big Show stops Taker from Tombstoning Jericho and Show chokeslams him. Big Show helps Jericho up and Jericho hits the Codebreaker. Jericho then takes the World Title belt and leaves. With that we’re out. This go home episode was ok, but with Vicky back on and no Edge, the future is bleak. WINNER: No Contest (Grade: 2)

WWE presents the 2009 Survivor Series tonight on pay-per-view, featuring two championship triple threat matches, three traditional Survivor Series elimination matches and a singles encounter between two former best friends. Survivor Series is usually one of my favorite events of the year, and this one definitely has the potential to be quite good.

Hit the jump for my preview/prediction for the annual event.

The match I’m most looking forward too may be quite surprising to a lot folks, but I have high hopes for the Team Morrison vs. Team Miz elimination match. With the possible exception of the Motor City Machine Guns, John Morrison and The Miz were my favorite tag team of the past couple of years, and I think both men have grown from that team to become great singles competitors. This match, to me, is the match of the future. What I mean by that is that I can see most of the guys in it main-eventing in the next few years.

Team Morrison is loaded with Shelton Benjamin, Evan Bourne, Matt Hardy and Finlay. Benjamin is high on my list of WWE favorites, he’s a tremendous wrestler and can easily be a show stealer. He’s not the most entertaining guy, but based on wrestling ability alone, he’s got World Champion written all over him to me. The same goes for John Morrison, who really is on my short list for WWE breakout performer of the year. He is excitement. Evan Bourne is a terrific wrestler himself. These three alone make this a fantastic team, having solid veterans like Hardy and Finlay are just the icing on the cake.

As much as I like Team Morrison, I think Team Miz is definitely more “where the future lies”. This team features surefire future main-eventers all over the place, all young and hungry and looking for a breakout night. Dolph Ziggler leads the pack in my eyes, which is surprising considering this is a guy who I see a lot of Mr. Perfect in (for those of you who don’t know, Perfect is my all-time favorite wrestler). He’s followed closely by Jack Swagger, who the only thing that could possibly hold him back is his promo ability. Swagger is a natural, and he’s as solid as they come. Meanwhile The Miz has matured into a well-rounded wrestler and a very entertainer character, a far cry from when he first debuted. He’s a heat magnet, and in a good way. Sheamus and McIntyre are the noobs of the team, and actually two guys that I have grown to like (I see a ton of potential in both, especially McIntyre).

If this match gets the time it deserves, then it could be a show stealer. My prediction: Team Morrison

Kofi Kingston had a breakout moment a few weeks ago when he destroyed Randy Orton’s stock car. He had a star making moment Monday night on RAW. He’s definitely riding a wave of momentum and is on the brink of being elevated to that next level. His team isn’t all that impressive though, even though I like MVP and Christian. I don’t care for Henry or R-Truth, so I would like to see them get eliminated pretty quickly. Win or lose, Kofi needs to be the sole survivor for his team, and he needs to come out of it looking like a million bucks (which can still happen in defeat).

Randy Orton’s team on the other hand is stacked with the Viper himself, Ted DiBiase, Cody Rhodes, the veteran William Regal and my current favorite, CM Punk. This is a top notch team. Ideally, I’d like to see DiBiase turn, but with the current push of Kofi, that doesn’t need to happen and I assume it won’t happen on this night. I’m going to predict a win for Team Orton, and I’m hoping that Orton, DiBiase and Punk all survive,

There’s a women’s elimination tag match that doesn’t involve Katie Lea, hence it’s a match I don’t care about. I’ll go with Team Michelle though, because it has Beth Phoenix.

In another match I don’t care about, Batista battles Rey Mysterio. It would make no sense for Batista to lose, so I’ll pick him.

The two championship triple threat matches are both interesting for the same reason; a babyface champion is defending the title against two tag-team partners. So you have a WWE or World Championship being dangled between partners, which obviously can create some tension in the ranks. If Shawn Michaels were to super kick Triple H, I’d be extremely happy. I’d be even more happy if that super kick led to the break up of DX, with a heel Michaels against a face Hunter. It won’t happen of course, but I’d definitely mark out for it. Superman (John Cena) will retain the title here, although I’d love to see Michaels with it.

Chris Jericho and Big Show, tag team champions, battling one another and Undertaker for his World Championship, is probably the more interesting of the match ups. I could easily see this one going all three ways. Chris Jericho is without a doubt the best all around performer in WWE today, he’s really on top of his game and there’s simply no one better right now. Jericho, especially with his current character, would make a wonderful champion, and he’s my hope to win it. Big Show is probably due a reign as champ, and I can’t say I’d be opposed to a short term deal for him, but I don’t think it’ll happen tonight. My pick will go with the champion retaining, Undertaker getting the win after Jericho gets tangled up with Big Show.

Cue Jericho berating Big Show and whining because he didn’t let him win the title when they’re suppose to be friends, even though both men were challenging for the title. Oh, sorry, I was just thinking how absolutely shitty the Batista heel turn has been.

Survivor Series is LIVE tonight on pay-per-view at 7pm CST. If you don’t have PPV, or simply won’t be watching, join us for live coverage of the event tonight.

UPDATE: LIVE results are currently ongoing, visit the home page and refresh it for the latest updates.

The following results come from WWE.com’s Greg Adkins. I’ll have the HeelZone RAW Rundown posted tomorrow sometime.

QUICK RESULTS:

- United States Champion The Miz def. MVP
- Santino Marella def. Chavo Guerrero
- Divas Champion Melina def. Alicia Fox in a Lumberjill Match
- Jack Swagger def. Evan Bourne
- WWE Champion John Cena & World Heavyweight Champion The Undertaker def. Triple H & Shawn Michaels and Unified Tag Team Champions Chris Jericho & Big Show in a Non-Title Match

NEW YORK – “Live from New York … it’s Monday Night Raw!”

That was how Raw’s special guest host, none other than “Rowdy” Roddy Piper, officially kicked off the broadcast from a place he knows well, The World’s Most Famous Arena, Madison Square Garden. And boy, the WWE Hall of Famer sure wasn’t kidding.

WWE Champion John Cena & World Heavyweight Champion The Undertaker def. Triple H & Shawn Michaels and Unified Tag Team Champions Chris Jericho & Big Show in a Non-Title Match
Madison Square Garden has been witness to some of WWE’s most amazing Superstars throughout its storied history: Hulk Hogan, Andre the Giant and Jimmy “Superfly” Snuka to name but a few. Rare, nonetheless, seems the time when such legends converge at once. That was inarguably the case, however, as WWE Champion John Cena teamed with World Heavyweight Champion The Undertaker against Triple H & Shawn Michaels and Unified Tag Team Champions Chris Jericho & Big Show in a Triple Threat Tag Team Match.

Looming large in the subtext was Survivor Series, during which The Champ will face The Game and HBK in a Triple Threat Match while The Phenom must battle Jericho and Show in a three-man affair. Tonight, though, all six Superstars would compete in one colossal clash.

In the end, the two World Champions would prevail when Cena secured the victory for his team. As if to let the WWE Universe know that he needs no assistance, The Deadman suddenly turned on his partner and Tombstoned Cena, leaving the WWE Champion razed and confused.

Raw’s special guest host for next week will be Jesse Ventura
He’s taken control of the ring, the announcer’s mic and even the state of Minnesota. And next week, it’ll be time for Jesse Ventura to take over as special guest host when he drops by for a three-hour Raw Thanksgiving special.

“Rowdy” Roddy Piper challenged Mr. McMahon to a street fight; Randy Orton attacked, Kofi Kingston rushed to the rescue
Raw’s special guest host, “Rowdy” Roddy Piper, has beaten cancer and cheated death on numerous occasions. One mountain he hasn’t climbed, though, is tackling Mr. McMahon in a street fight, which is why the plaid maniac challenged The Chairman to such a battle earlier in the evening.

As Piper waited in vain for Mr. McMahon to show, Randy Orton emerged, wanting a fight of his own. The Viper attacked the WWE Hall of Famer and had him on the ropes when Kofi Kingston charged into the melee. The respective Survivor Series captains of Team Kofi and Team Orton share a resentment-fueled history, which includes Kofi trashing Orton’s customized NASCAR automobile and slapping him across the face – twice! The two scuffled outside of the ring, trading blows amongst the WWE faithful. The action intensified when Kofi slammed Orton across the head, opening up a nasty gash and leaving The Viper lying hurt atop a table. The dreadlocked dynamo then climbed atop a railing and hit a Boom Drop onto Orton, severing the table into two and leaving his nemesis in gut-wrenching pain.

Jack Swagger def. Evan Bourne
Jack Swagger – rarely has a name seemed more fitting. The cocky collegiate All-American wrestler appeared to lose a bit of bluster last week when he dropped a match to high-flying Evan Bourne. In their rematch this week, Swagger wasn’t about to allow his strut to be stripped. He grounded Bourne’s aerial assault and proved that he will be a force to contend with when he joins Team Miz this Sunday at Survivor Series against Bourne and Team Morrison.

Sheamus attacked Jerry “The King” Lawler
His Irish temper has already claimed one victim, Jamie Noble, who retired last week after suffering a severe beating at the hands of The Celtic Warrior. This week, Sheamus issued an open challenge to the Raw roster, which no one accepted. Apparently, in a need to satiate his wicked ways, the Irishman attacked Raw’s timekeeper and then went after ring announcer Jerry “The King” Lawler, leaving the WWE Hall of Famer lying motionless.

Divas Champion Melina def. Alicia Fox in a Lumberjill Match
Judah Friedlander never had it so good. The 30 Rock actor and comedian was honored as special guest ring announcer for the match between Divas Champion Melina and Alicia Fox. Friedlander announced that the bout would be a Divas Championship Lumberjill Match then happily looked on from ringside.

While Fox has showcased amazing resilience in recent weeks, Melina’s gutsy performance proved too much as the Latina lovely retained the golden butterfly. Apparently, a few of the Divas disapproved and the entire ring was covered with sexy, smart and powerful women clashing with one another.

Santino Marella def. Chavo Guerrero ; Triple H Pedigreed Hornswoggle
The week prior, Chavo Guerrero wanted to fight Santino Marella, but, thanks to a misunderstanding, he ended up battling boxing great Ricky Hatton and getting knocked out by the special guest host. This week, he got his wish. Instead of trampling The Italian Stallion, however, the self-proclaimed “Mexican Warrior” fell short when Hornswoggle distracted him.

While the leprechaun, clad in DX gear, disappeared under the ring, the real DX emerged to quell rumors and settle matters once and for all. Triple H and Shawn Michaels informed the crowd that they will indeed fight one another at Survivor Series in their Triple Threat Match with WWE Champion John Cena, but that competition will not be their undoing as a team. They also called out a reluctant Hornswoggle to, as they put it, include him in DX. When the little guy showed up wearing neon green and performing DX chops, though, he suffered a damning Pedigree at the hands of Triple H in an extreme effort at thwarting the little imitator once and for all.

United States Champion The Miz def. MVP
With his smarmy tone and taunting smirk, United States Champion The Miz makes it oh-so-easy to dislike him. Which is why it’s too bad the guy just keeps winning. This week, he defended his title against MVP and emerged victorious, despite The Franchise Playa having The View’s Sherri Shepherd cheering him from ringside. The bout may prove to be a primer for when Miz leads his team this Sunday against Intercontinental Champion John Morrison, also the captain of his team, in a Traditional Survivor Series Elimination Tag Team Match.

“Rowdy” Roddy Piper opens Raw
Before greeting the WWE Universe to another edition of Raw, the WWE Hall of Famer welcomed New York actor Luis Guzman, who has had memorable roles in Boogie Nights and Traffic and can be seen in the upcoming comedy Old Dogs. Piper announced that the two would be joined by a Guzman favorite, Iron Chef Bobby Flay. Unfortunately for the Puerto Rican actor, a mix-up produced not the Iron Chef but The Iron Sheik.

After telling Piper that his favorite WWE moment from The Garden involved Hulk Hogan, Sheik flipped his head dress, rambling angrily and mimicking beating up on Hulk with a pair of action figures.

With that, the WWE Universe welcomed another wild and crazy edition of Raw to The Garden, complete with a rockin’ new opening theme song compliments of Nickelback.

Monday Night Raw 11/16/09
Madison Square Garden
New York, NY
Announcers: Michael Cole & Jerry Lawler

- We open the show backstage where Roddy Piper is sitting inside Piper’s Pit. He is back and he has Luis Guzman with him in the Pit. They pimp Guzman’s upcoming movie before Piper goes into a random rant about how he destroyed Mr. T. As a treat, Piper flew in the Iron Chef Bobby Flay…actually it is just Iron Sheik, not the Iron Chef. Luis brings up Hulk Hogan and Sheik goes off on a rant about that jabroni. Sheik has old school LJN figures and has his replica beat on the Hogan figure. The Bella Twins come in and all five of them do a SNL style opening to send us to our new animation and theme music. We then head inside the World’s Most Famous Arena, Madison Square Garden where the NYC fans are revved up and ready to go. Cole and King run down the card as we head to the ring for our opening contest.

1) Miz vs. MVP for the United States Championship

Miz makes his way through the sweet old school entrance way that we are rocking tonight. Miz has the mic and says the people have chosen to hate him before even uttering a word. He gives MY World Series Champion New York Yankees a plug…before tearing them down a bit, using the lame “they bought a championship” excuse. Miz is drowned out by a “Let’s Go Yankees” chant as the Garden is flat out rocking tonight. He didn’t have to buy his US Title because he earned it and he will prove it tonight. MVP makes his way out to a great pop as he is sporting a Yankee hat. He gives it to his girl Sherri Shepherd, who is at ringside. MVP starts hot and dominates Miz, eventually knocking him to the floor. MVP tosses him back in but Miz catches him with a boot to the knee and then spikes his head into the ring post. MVP fired his way back into things and was able to drop the Ballin’ Elbow. Miz avoided the Playmaker but MVP got a good near fall off a big boot. Miz would regain control with a boot to the gut and then pick up the win with the SCF in a peppy opener. MVP loses again but Miz needs these quality TV title defenses. They kept the crowd into it as well. Nice match. Miz d. MVP with the Skull Crushing Finale; Grade: 1.5

- Miz takes off with his belt as we hit a break.

- Our Sonic Slam of the Week takes us back to last week when Ricky Hatton knocked out Chavo Guerrero. We then head back inside MSG for our next match.

2) Chavo Guerrero vs. Santino Marella

Chavo hits the ring first and then is followed by Santino, who is rocking a Rangers sweater. He takes that off to reveal a Giants jersey, then a Knicks jersey, then a Jets jersey, then a Mets jersey, then a Phillies jersey and finally a Derek Jeter Yankee jersey! Chavo wants to fight and Santino obliges. Chavo hits the Three Amigos and tries to go for the Frog Splash but Santino keeps rolling around the ring. Chavo keeps climbing every corner, but Santino just rolls all around. Degenerate Horny comes out to run interference, allowing Santino to roll Chavo up for the win. Well that was pure comedy and not much else. Marella d. Guerrero with a roll up; Grade: 0

- And the bell has barely stopped echoing before DX makes their way out to the ring to a big pop. Hunter puts over MSG and the DX Army. They wanted to come out, have some fun and sell some merchandise but it isn’t going to happen. Shawn says they aren’t coming out here to let us know that the DX book is out on WWEShop.com right now. Shawn tosses a copy to Sherri Shepherd as Hunter says they are here to talk about the Big Fat Elephant in the room…and not the Big Show…but the triple threat match this Sunday. Hunter says they are on the same page and will not implode or turn on each other. They have come to terms that only one of them can be champion and the only thing that matters is that the belt comes to DX. Shawn now wants to move on to another small piece of business and that involves a member of the Leprechaun community. Hunter says he has been warned but keeps wearing the DX merchandise that he did not pay for. Hunter tells him to come out now and they will consider letting him join DX. Horny pops out from under the ring and is very excited. He crotch chops his way around the ring until Hunter makes him stop. They have Horny line up to do the Suck It catchphrase, but Hunter stops in the middle, kicks Horny and drops him with a Pedigree. They tell Horny to Suck It and leave him lying there and I just have no idea where this is all heading. Hunter and Shawn reach under the ring and pull out a mini stretcher that is tagged with the DX logo. They load Horny on it and carry him to the back as we go to break.

- We are back and getting a quick look at last segment once more. Hunter’s goofy smile before dropping the Pedigree was pretty funny. Cole and King then pimp Jay-Z’s newest CD. They put over MSG and intro a great WWE in MSG History video package set to “Empire State of Mind”, highlighting all the big moments. That was an awesome piece of business. Cole talks about our main event before we head backstage. Piper is prancing around the Pit when he is joined Chris Jericho. Jericho says all guest hosts have disrespected him, and Piper is included in that group. He makes fun of Jericho’s hair and then brings in Chris Masters. He cues up “Boom, Boom, Boom” by the Black Eyed Peas and Masters does his dancing pec act for us. The Bellas are all about that as well. Masters, the Bellas and Piper all take off as Jericho glares angrily. Back in the arena, we see that the two Black Eyed Peas that are not Will.I.Am. or Fergie are in the house before heading to break.

- Back from break, Justin Roberts brings out Judah Friedlander from 30 Rock with a crazy over the top introduction. He will be the guest ring announcer for our next match.

3) Melina vs. Alicia Fox in a Lumberjill match for the Divas Championship

Melina is out first and is ready to defend her title. Alicia is out next and we are good to go. Alicia wants Judah to announce her as the new champion. Judah refuses because he only came out here to watch Melina’s entrance. And he also has to announce that this is now a Lumberjill match. All the Divas involved the Survivor Series bout head out and surround the ring. We get some standard Diva action mixed with the usual Lumberjill antics around the ring. Melina hits a nice flapjack but Alicia countered with a stiff tilt-a-whirl backbreaker for two. Melina eventually hits the Last Call for the win. Melina d. Alicia with the Last Call; Grade: 1

- After the bell, Michelle comes in and jumps Melina to trigger a big brawl. The face team wins out and Judah hops in the ring to celebrate as well. Cole tells us that Piper’s Pit will be next after this break.

- We are back from break as Cole plugs Survivor Series week on WWE.com. He then announces the USA/WWE TV deal to renew the Raw contract through 2014. And with that, the great “Rowdy” Roddy Piper makes his way into the arena amidst the all too familiar sounds of bagpipes. Piper thanks the fans for his recurring MSG standing ovations. He made his career on not being nice and only New Yorkers would put up with that. He is a NY orphan child. He embarrassed Cyndi Lauper in this ring, but she did a good job of that herself as well. He took on the biggest legends of the ring right here like Captain Lou, Bruno, Andre and Hogan and if they messed with Hot Rod they end up bald or dead. He loves them all, mainly the dead ones and not the bald ones. He takes credit for Hogan’s baldness and says he couldn’t resist the jab. He has one more dirty rotten nasty job to do before he checks out and that is one more match…against Vince McMahon! He knows that Vince is a big fan of his because when he did Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel, he got fired right here in MSG afterwards. He knows Vince is here and he barely has to goad the boss before he struts out to the ring. Vince rags on Piper’s dye job and he tells Piper that the most heinous thing he has done in MSG was show up tonight. He rips on Piper’s arms, legs and knees and his catcher’s mitt face. The only thing that hasn’t dried up and withered away is Piper’s kilt. Vince’s forefathers would be ashamed of him if he soiled his hands with Piper here in MSG. Vince calls Piper “Father Time” after Piper makes fun of Vince’s suit and gray hair. Vince is on a roll tonight and says he has always looked better than his opponents and he has beaten all the big stars. Unless there is better competition in his future, Vince is officially retired from ring action. Piper calls him a coward for backing out of a fight. He has 7,000 matches and 30 car crashes and he is not sane. He has been electrocuted, gone down in a plane and beaten cancer and he can beat Vince too. Piper doesn’t want the match on PPV or at Wrestlemania because he wants Vince to come down and fight later tonight. Piper will retire him officially if they fight tonight. Piper heads off as Vince looks around and we head to break.

- As an aside, Jesse Ventura will host next week’s three hour Raw Thanksgiving special.

- We are back and King is wondering if Vince will accept Piper’s challenge. We then head back to the ring for our next bout. Sheamus makes his way down the aisle as we get clips of his destruction of Jamie Noble from two weeks ago. Cole tells us that Noble has officially retired. Sheamus introduces himself and says he has been on Raw for four weeks and has already retired one wrestler. He issues an open challenge to anyone in the back. Nobody answers the call so he heads to ringside and grabs timekeeper Mark Yeaton. He wipes him out with a kneelift and then tosses him across the announce table and onto the floor. Now the King drops his headset and goes to check on Yeaton but Sheamus kills him with a big boot to the head. Sheamus leaves as Cole and some officials check on the King and Yeaton. We get a replay of the brutality and then see King being helped to the back as we take a break.

- We are back and Matt Striker has joined Cole at ringside. They run down the Survivor Series card for us, as we are just six days away. We then head back to the ring for our next match.

4) Evan Bourne vs. Jack Swagger

Air Bourne hits the ring as he is set to take on his archrival, Jack Swagger. As Swagger heads to the ring, we take a quick break. When we return, we see that Swagger has overpowered Bourne to take control. The crowd continues to be lively, so kudos to them. Bourne tries to comeback but Swagger just drills him with a big clothesline from behind. Bourne finally uses his quick strike offense to get on track and pick up some near falls. Swagger catches Bourne on a moonsault attempt, stampedes him into the corner and then plants him with the gutwrench suplex for the nice win. This could have been much better, but was just too short. I hope they get an extended sequence on Sunday. Swagger d. Bourne with the gutwrench suplex; Grade: 1

- Swagger celebrates as we cut backstage to see Piper walking before we head off to break.

- We are back from break and the bagpipes are blaring again as Roddy Piper is in the ring. Piper is looking pretty good I must say. And it looks like Piper’s challenge will be answered, but it won’t be by Vince McMahon, because we are being joined by Randy Orton. Orton doesn’t know if McMahon is coming out, but he knows that Piper has a big problem because Orton is here. The crowd is chanting for Orton. Randy can’t think of a better way to relieve stress than to put Piper down. Orton kicks Piper but Piper fires back with a right hand. Orton kicks him again and then clubs him down. He stomps away at Roddy as Striker eulogizes Hot Rod. This show improved immediately upon Striker taking over for Lawler. Before Orton can punt Piper, Kofi Kingston hits the ring and hammers away at Orton. Orton slithers away and heads to the back, but Kofi goes out after him. Piper cheers Kofi on as he takes it to Randy. Kofi tosses him into the fans and follows him with a flurry of fists. Orton is able to ram Kofi into a cheer but Kofi fights back and runs Orton into the barricade. The fight has evened out as they trade blows. Orton sends Kofi back to ringside and starts to stomp on Kofi’s midsection. Orton tosses him back into the ring and slingshots him throat first into the bottom rope. Kofi is on his stomach and Orton lines up for the punt. Orton charges but Kofi pops up and hits Orton with a cross body. He hammers away until Orton bails to the floor. Kofi follows him out again and they continue to brawl around ringside. Kofi throws Orton back over the barricade but Orton meets him with a boot. They are clubbing on each other as a gaggle of officials breaks things up. That doesn’t last long as Orton breaks free and the fight starts up again. The officials hold Orton back again and that allows Kofi to dive onto him. They keep slugging away at each other and end up in the second level of seats above the tech area. Kofi runs him into the railing and then flips him over it and down to the tech area. Kofi grabs a steel lift and smacks Orton across the head with it. Orton is sliced open and it looks like it may be hardway. The crowd is chanting for Kofi as he hops back up to the second level. He climbs on the barricade and is about to launch onto the prone Orton but the officials stop him before he can leap. Kofi breaks free and charges back to the barricade. He leaps high into the air and puts Orton through a table with a great looking Boomdrop. Kofi is over like rover, boys. Orton is left broken on the table. Kofi stands tall and his music fires up as the crowd cheers him on. That was a great brawl and Kofi has taken the ball and run crazy with it.

- We are back and Matt Striker is thanking Nickelback for the new Raw theme song. We then head backstage where John Cena is standing alone. He does the usual promo, plugging New York, discussing the upcoming main event and putting over the Undertaker. He talks about Survivor Series as well, calling his match a handicap match. A PA walks over and hands Cena a note. He throws it down and says it changes everything. He clarifies that it is a triple threat match and not a handicap match. Cena rants on some more about the match Sunday and then heads off as we hit the ring.

5) Chris Jericho & Big Show vs. Shawn Michaels & Triple H vs. John Cena & Undertaker in a non title match

Big Show and Chris Jericho are out first but first we are taking one last break. As we return, Cole reminds us that Ventura will be the guest host next week and Striker breaks out a good Jesse imitation. DX is out next, followed by Cena and finally Undertaker, who gets the big druid entrance and classic “Undertaker” MSG chant. Taker gets a big time pop, natch. We are well into the over run here and the match hasn’t even started yet. Cena, Jericho and Michaels start things off but Jericho quickly tags in Show. Shawn obliges and tags Hunter so Cena tags in Taker too. Taker and Hunter turn their attention to Show and start double teaming him. Hunter hits a facebuster and Taker clotheslines Show to the floor. We get some vintage Hunter and Taker until Shawn is tagged in. He and Taker stare each other down before going at it. Show makes his way back in and spears Taker before clubbing Michaels down as well. He tags in Jericho who picks apart Michaels before hooking the Walls. Taker breaks that up but Cena tags himself in from behind before Taker can do anything. All six men tag in and out and the flow is pretty good here as the star power is just oozing from the ring. Show plants Cena and Hunter with a double chokeslam in a cool spot. Taker comes in and hits Show with a big clothesline. He knocks Show to the floor but Show whips him into the barricade. Jericho nearly steals a victory but only gets two. Hunter is able to tag Shawn and he hits Jericho with the vintage Michaels moveset. Shawn cues up the band on Cena but Cena ducks it and takes Shawn down with a shoulderblock. He hits the five knuckle shuffle and hoists Shawn up for the AA but Hunter reaches in and tags Shawn’s back. Hunter rolls through Cena and Jericho but Show stops him with a headbutt. Shawn drills Show with SCM, but Jericho catches him with the codebreaker. Taker drops Jericho with a chokeslam, but he gets knocked to the floor. Cena comes in and hits Triple H with the AA for the win. That was a wild little brawl and the crowd was rocking the whole time. Cena & Undertaker d. Show & Jericho and Triple H & Michaels when Cena pins Triple H with the Attitude Adjustment; Grade: 2.5

- Taker comes back in and plants Cena with a Tombstone. Taker stands tall in the ring as we fade out. This was a really fun show tonight that was aided by the fresh MSG look, different entrance and smoking hot crowd. Piper was awesome as always and the show just flowed well from beginning to end. The Kofi/Orton brawl was great stuff as well as Orton has just done everything he can to help elevate Kofi. See you next week for the three hour Raw Thanksgiving special and the Body will be in the house!

Final Grade: B+

Drama’s Smackdown Report 11/13/09
Friday Night Smackdown!
Sheffield, United Kingdom
Your Hosts: Todd Grisham and Matt Striker

OPENING ANIMATION

The Grish & the Teacher welcome us to Sheffield and Friday Night Smackdown from across the Pond!  Tonight history will be made as for the first time in WWE history, World Heavyweight Champion Undertaker takes on Chris Jericho, we’ll have the contract signing for Rey Mysterio & Batista at Survivor Series, and John Morrison will defend the Intercontinental Title against Dolph Ziggler!  First we have the Straight Edge former Champion to kick the show off.

CM Punk vs. R-Truth

Punk takes the mike and says look what’s become of the UK.  This country ruled half the planet, and now the Brits are just as pathetic as Americans.  They can pretend they’re not drinking at the pubs or smoking fancy cigarettes or chewing tobacco.  He calls the Brits weak minded and they have no heart.  Punk says they’re decomposing as he speaks, accusing him of being preachy.  These Britons need the Straight Edge to get their life in order, and aspire to be as great as he is.  He says he’s absolutely better than everyone else, and he’s perfect in every way.  He says he’s filed a former complaint against referee Scott Armstrong for what happened last week with the fast count, and he’ll beat R-Truth tonight and at Survivor Series.  Both these guys will be at the Survivor Series as R-Truth will be on Kofi Kingston’s team and CM Punk will be on Randy Orton’s team.  Truth grabs the mike and says he wants to file a report against Punk for being a man.  He won’t keep talkin, he’ll just entertain and shut him up.  Truth says he tells other people about their lives and how Punk covers up his own deficiencies.  Then he does the Whatsup and we’re off.  Pretty good match, well paced as Punk was using some solid moves, like the Indian Death Lock.  Punk however used some chicanery as he uses the rope for leverage to get the 3 count.  Some say Punk might be getting punished a bit for that Undertaker nonsense a couple months ago, but he’s taking it in stride.  WINNER: CM Punk (Grade: 2)

-Todd & Striker pimp Rey Mysterio’s new book: Behind the Mask.  Then we go backstage where Mickie James & Layla have words as Mickie calls her Scary Spice again.

COMMERCIAL BREAK

Mickie James vs. Natalya

Decent little match as I’m trying to notice if Mickie’s getting better in the ring and getting out of her slump.  She seems to have lost a little weight as many thought she got a little chunky.  During the match Michelle McCool and Layla come out and start chopping up Mickie’s clothes with a pair of scissors.  That gives Natalya a chance to ratchet up the Sharpshooter and win the match.  WINNER: Natalya (Grade: 2)

-We see the opening of tix for Wrestlemania XXVI in Phoenix and they interview some people in line.  They say tix are on sale, but I’m not sure if there are many left.

COMMERCIAL BREAK

-Josh Matthews is backstage with the IC Champ, John Morrison.  Morrison says he feels great, he’s the Friday Night Delight.  He’s human, but he’ll take care of Dolph Ziggler tonight.

Drew McIntyre vs. Finlay

Drew has a mic and the Scotsman says 2 weeks ago he left Finlay in the ring because he wasn’t worthy.  Tonight we’ll see if Finlay will like to fight him.  This is a legit European rivalry between Scotland and Northern Ireland.  They start grappling but Finlay starts clubbing and beating McIntyre down.  I like the feud as it gives Finlay another young guy to work with and McIntyre gets some credibility.  They continue clubbing each other and Scott Armstrong calls for the bell.  WINNER: Double Disqualification (Grade: 1.5)

-Finlay goes after McIntyre with the Shillelagh but Drew Mac boots him then grabs the Shillelagh and cracks Finlay with it.  He leaves the ring, then comes back, grabs the Irish fighting stick and whacks Finlay in the ribs.

COMMERCIAL BREAK

-Striker’s in the ring and we’re about to have the contract signing for Batista vs. Rey Mysterio for Survivor Series.  Rey comes to the ring first, followed by Batista.  Batista tries to make small talk, but Rey will have nothing of it.  Batista signs, then Rey signs.  Batista takes the mike and says he wants Rey to sign a “hold harmless” agreement, meaning that Batista can’t be sued for what he does to Rey at Survivor Series.  Rey says no and Batista says he’s a coward and is hiding behind his mask.  If he doesn’t sign this he will snap his neck right there.  So Rey signs it, but says the intimidation won’t work, and Batista will be the one embarrassed.  With that Rey flips the table over on Batista, runs over it and leaves the ring.  Batista snaps and starts breaking the chairs.

COMMERCIAL BREAK

Intercontinental Championship: John Morrison © vs. Dolph Ziggler

Good trivia question:  Striker says the Intercontinental Title changed hands 3 times in England.  Think about it as we go along and I’ll give the answer at the end of the column.  They grapple back and forth early.  Ziggler actually dictated the action early but Morrison punched his way out of it.  They go back and forth and Ziggler tried the Randy Savage “legs on the corner rope” pin but the ref caught him.  At one point both guys were on the middle turnbuckle and both guys hit the floor hard.  Crowd’s kind of quiet tonight, come on you Brits.  Both guys end up getting counted out, and that doesn’t make the crowd happy.  Lame ending to the match, which wasn’t that great anyway.  WINNER: Double Countout (Grade: 2)

COMMERCIAL BREAK

Beth Phoenix vs. Lisa Taylor

I like the way that they’re rebuilding Beth Phoenix into a hot killer again once she went back on the show.  Nothing fancy, another squash as she hits the Glam Slam for the win.  WINNER: Beth Phoenix (Grade: .5)

-Josh Matthews is backstage with Chris Jericho.  He asks Josh about the Deadman, and Jericho says he’s not the Deadman.  He’s just a man.  All the plebians and parasites have believed he is immortal.  Well he’s hot, and tonight Jericho’s going to prove it.  He’ll defeat the Undertaker tonight, and he’ll defeat the Undertaker at Survivor Series and become the World Heavyweight Champion.

COMMERCIAL BREAK

-We’ve just been announced that next week John Morrison & Dolph Ziggler will have another Intercontinental Title match, but it will be 2 out of 3 falls.

Chris Jericho vs. World Heavyweight Champion Undertaker

I thought this was going to be some schmozz to protect the match for a later date, but no they actually wrestle.  Jericho takes the early beating, as Taker works the left arm over.  Jericho stops Old School to change momentum as they go to commercial.  They go back and forth after that.  The crowd’s not really in this match either, and this match would have pulled this show out of C- range.  The pace is ok but there’s no special feel here to this match.  Taker kicked out of the Codebreaker, but Jericho then reversed the Chokelslam into the Walls of Jericho.  The drama is building (no pun intended) but the crowd is still kind of out of it.  Taker then reverses into Hell’s Gate and Jericho taps out.  Eh, I thought that was a waste of a first match between the two.  WINNER: Undertaker (Grade: 2)

-Big Show comes to the ring and the Unified Tag Champs start beating Taker down, but suddenly Kane comes out and helps big brother out.  Backstage Vince McMahon talks to Teddy Long on the phone, and proposes that The Brothers of Destruction face Jeri-Show on next week’s Smackdown  Teddy apparently is under the weather, and Vince nicely points out that he’s still on probation.  Overall a match-dominated show which was fine, but the matches were ordinary and the crowd was too flat to save them.

FINAL GRADE: C-

PS:  The answer to the trivia question, as to the three IC Title changes in England are:

- British Bulldog defeats Bret Hart, 8/29/92
- Jeff Hardy defeats Johnny Nitro, 11/13/06
- William Regal defeats Santino Marella, 11/10/08.

Backlash 1999
April, 25th, 1999
Providence Rhode Island
Host: Jerry Lawler and Jim Ross

Opening Match: Mideon & The Acolytes vs. The Brood.

Brood was a part of the Ministry, but Christian chickened out and told Shamrock where Stephanie was. They start some basic brawling early on. Christian gets the hot tag and gets two off an Inverted DDT. The Brood hits a pair of moves. Christian gets a close near fall off a Tornado DDT on Bradshaw.Christian goes for 10 punches in a corner, but Bradshaw hits a stiff powerbomb. The brawl goes to the floor where Viscera attacks Christian from behind. Back in, JBL hits the closeline from hell. ONE-TWO-THREE @ 10:20. The brood showed potential here of being something great down the stretch. JBL was in an ass kicking mood for some reason tonight. Mideon really held this match down, though. * ¾

• The Undertaker gives the Ministry a pep talk.

Hardcore Title: Hardcore Holly vs. Al Snow.
They brawl around the ring. Holly hits Al Snow with a water jug and bust him wide open.They brawl back down where Snow uses some kung-fu with the hockey stick. Al sets up a table, but that allows Holly to recuperate and drill him with the hockey stick. Al pops up; then hits Hollywith a cookie sheet shot. They brawl to the back where Holly has a kitchen sink. Snow breaks the sink with the fire hose, which made Holly drop it. Outside the area, Snow gets tossed into a dumpster. ONE-TWO-NO. Snow hiptosses him onto a car below the production truck, but only gets two. They fight back to the ring, and Snow nails him with a pan. Al sets up for a table spot, but Holly gets up and nails him with the pan. Holly hits a super-plex through the table. The ref starts counting for no reason. Holly covers him at nine, but only gets a 2. Al Snow crawls over and hides head under him. They both get up. Al Snow nails Holly with head for the win @ 15:20. Some decent stuff, but the pace was way too plodding and slow at times. Some spots and parts of the match felt way to contrived; like when they do all these huge spot and end the match with Holly losing by getting hit with head. That would be like Neo killing Agent Smith with a toothpick after they dodged bullets in the Matrix. * ¾

• · Michael Cole gets a word with new Hardcore Champ, Al Snow. This all takes place in the bathroom.

Intercontinental Title: The Godfather (w/Hoes) vs. Goldust (w/Blue Meanie).

Meanie distracts the Godfather long enough for Goldust to jump him from behind. Meanie beats up Godfather outside. He sneaks Goldust some powder, but it backfires and gets knocked into Goldust face. Meanie gets involved, but Goldust can’t see so he attackes Meanie. The Ho Train followed by the DVD @ 5:22. A typical non-believable, contrived midcard 1999 match; Russo loved these. The hoes were more over than anyone in the ring. *

#1 Contender’s Match: The New Age Outlaws vs. Jeff Jarrett & Owen Hart (w/Debra.)

I really feel bad for Owen Hart at this time. With all the stuff going on with his brother, and the way WWE booked him in the Attitude Era. Ugh. He was so much better than the way they treated him, and steps and steps better than the sub-par midcard talent they had. Owen would have blended in nicely and been able to show off some of the good stuff he was capable of if he was around for one more year. Road Dog dodges a Jarrett splash on the ropes and back-slides him for two. Owen nails Road Dog with a leg lariat. Jarrett and Road Dogg collide airborne. Billy gets the hot tag and cleans some house; then gets a powerbomb on Jarrett, but only gets two. Debra gets up on the apron. Owen goes for the Sharpshooter, but Billy instead hits the Fameasser for the win @ 10:34. Solid formula tag match with a good finish. Too bad we didn’t see much of those in this era. ** 1/4

Boiler Room Brawl: The Big Show vs. Mankind.

This is Mankind getting payback on Big Show from WM. Both guys are babyfaces in the match. Big show walks into the boiler room, and looks massive. Mankind dominates early on, but Big Show won’t fall. Show puts Mick in the shopping cart and wheels him into equipment stuff. Mankind turns and drills a glass plate over Show’s head that cuts Show open. Mankind gets a ladder and tries to get something on top of the roof. Show grabs him and chokeslams him through some nearby tables with glass on them.Foley’s hand his bleeding; hard way I assume. Show slams him on a cart; then wheels him into a pile of medal pieces. Mankind knocks off the faucet to one of the pipes that shoots steam into Show’s face. Show walks away selling the steam. Mankind throws Big Show into pipes. Mankind gets out of the boiler room at @ 7:34. Instantly after the match, Test and Big Bossman attack Mankind. Show makes the save and beats up both of them. Bossman runs away, and leaves Test with Mankind. Mankind pulls out Mr. Socko, and applies it on Test. A pretty neat, well thought out brawl that doesn’t get lost in time. Everything was done nicely, and made sense. Foley showed the reason why he is the hardcore legend and Big Show looked good, also. The finish could have been a better, but then if Big Show got too hurt than it would have been unrealistic for him to make the save. ***

Triple H (w/Chyna) vs. X-Pac.

HHH has his old music and the old paints. This rivalry started at WM when HHH and Chyna reunited at WM, but double crossed X-Pac. Since we all know Russo uses Wrestlemania to build up the smaller shows *sigh*. HHH dominates most of the match. X-Pac by accident hits the referee with a dropkick, so there’s no one to count when he hits the X-Factor. Chyna sneaks in, and hits X-Pac with a reverse DDT; then puts Hunter on top of X-Pac. Kane comes out to get revenge on Chyna. Kane hits a chokeslam on HHH and Chyna. He puts them both in the corners. X-Pac pops up and hits the Broncobuster on Helmsley, and Chyna, but as he is hitting the Broncobuster on Chyna, HHH recovers and nails the pedigree @ 21:20 Wow that was really, really, really long. The match would have been okay if it was cut into half, but they had a 10 minute match and dragged it out to 20 minutes. HHH dominated way too much of this match and X-Pac didn’t look credible at all. This match gets tons of praise, but I couldn’t get too much into this. I will go ** ½ more so for the quantity than quality.

The Undertaker (w/Paul Bearer) vs. Ken Shamrock.

Undertaker had been stalking the McMahons for no reasons at this. Shamrock was Vince’s helper in this story line.Shamrock goes after Taker’s leg early. He stomps Taker’s leg on the ringsteps, trying to break it.  Shamrock works over Undertaker, but ‘Taker hits a backbreaker with the same leg that Shamrock worked over the whole match. Taker hits a legdrop, but Shamrock grabs the leg and counters into a leglock. Crowd is dead silent. Shamrock nails an elbow, and then a flying knee but runs into a big boot. ONE-TWO-THRE-No. Earl stops the pinfall because Shamrock never kicks out.Undertaker puts Shamrock on his shoulders, but Shamrock counters into an ankle lock.  Bradshaw wants to play some baseball, so he brings a bat with him. Shamrock releases the hold and tries to hit him. That allows Taker to retaliate and pick Shamrock up for the chokeslam. Shamrock rolls into a cross armlock but lets go of the move and goes after Paul Bearer. Shamrock attempts to pick up the Undertaker, but Taker counters into a Tombstone for the win @ 18:47. At this time, Undertaker didn’t have that flax MMA wrestling style that Shamrock was using. So, these two just didn’t click in the ring. There was some good strategy on Shamrock’s behalf of trying to eliminate one of Undertaker’s legs, but the leg work became pointless because Undertaker did everything he would have done on two strong legs. I guess that is just his deadman powers. This match also had way too much interference; I didn’t understand why they wanted to protect Shamrock so much against Undertaker. It wasn’t like they had something big planed for Shammy down the road. He was just a glorified midcarder, and stayed one as one until he left WWF. These two styles never meshed in 1999, but it would be a “dream match” if we ever got to see it in 2007 or so. *

• Vince McMahon kisses Stephanie and puts her in a limo surrounded by guards to keep her safe. Can we please have some days of our lives playing in the back round?

WWF Heavyweight Title: Steve Austin vs. The Rock; Shane McMahon is the special referee. (No holds barred)

The story in Austin wanted his old belt back. Rock threw Austin off the bridge with the belt. But Rock kept the title and fooled us all. Vince was in a war with Undertaker, so Shane was running Corporation. So, Shane wants to screw Austin out of the title by being the ref. He also adds the stipulation of if Austin touches him, Austin will be dq. Austin runs to the ring, and they start going at it. Austin starts to get the upper hand, but Shane pulls him off. They brawl up to the entertance way, and uses objects to throw them into. Back to the other side, Rock gives Austin a Rock Bottom through the Spanish announce table. He stars doing some commentary. Rock grabs the cameraman’s camera, and starts filming Austin. Rock shows the crowd on the camera, but when he turns around—Austin is flipping him off, and then hits a Stunner. Awesome spot, just awesome. In the ring, Rock hits the Rock Bottom, but he can’t cover. Shane puts Rock on top of Austin. ONE-TWO-THRE-NO! Rock picks Austin up and Shane goes to clock him with the belt. Austin ducks and Rock oversells it to death. Austin hits the Stunner, but Shane refuses to count. Shane gives Austin the finger and runs away. Austin goes after Shane, and here comes Vince with Earl Hebner and the Smoking Skull Belt. Shane talks some trash to his daddy, and gets nailed by the title from Vince. Rock hits Austin with the other belt. ONE-TWO-THRE-NO! Vince almost has a heart attack from that near fall. Austin gets back up; kick to the gut, and then a Stunner. Rock doesn’t fall, so Austin nails him with the belt. ONE-TWO-THREE. Austin retains @ 17:10. Unlike others, I find Austin-Rock matches overrated at times, but I actually find this match pretty underrated. It had great intensity, non stop action, good drama, and great brawling. I would say this is their second best match together and just slightly behind the WM-17 match. This is when Russo booking works at its best. The interference, biased ref, and other shenanigans added more drama into the match and most importantly made sense. Austin is one of my favorite wrestlers, but I love how people complain that Cena overcomes the odds all the time yet they never complain about Austin, though. Anyways, it was a great match. *** ¾

• Outside at the limo, the Ministry comes out and approaches the limo. The security guards tell the driver to take off.  Stephanie is upset that the driver forgot about her Dad. But little does she know the driver is the Undertaker. Undertaker asks her the famous quote; “Where to, Stephanie.” As Vince McMahon is celebrating not aware of what is happening.

Going Home: Much like most things in WWF 1999, this was a mix-bag. The show had its ups and had its downs. The wrestling for the most part was good, but the booking in some aspects was terrible. The matches that needed more time didn’t get enough—and the matches that didn’t need a lot of time got tons of time. It is really mind-boggling to me that they actually thought it was a good idea to invest more time into X-Pac-HHH and Undertaker-Shamrock rather than the mainevent. I will go ahead and give this show a mild recommendation, but be sure to try and skip Undertaker- Shamrock because it will make you want to crave your eyes out. Other than that most of the stuff is watchable for the most part.

Thumbs in the Middle.



Survivor Series Matches

Team Kingston vs. Team Orton

Team Mickie vs. Team Michelle

Team Morrison vs. Team Miz

Rey Mysterio vs. Batista

Shawn Michaels vs. Triple H vs. John Cena – Title Triple Threat match

Jericho vs. Big Show vs. Undertaker World Heavyweight Title Triple Threat Match

How will a pulp result? of these matches

WWE en Dinner Impossible de The Food Network

Este miércoles, Luchadores y Divas WWE estarán en el show Dinner Impossible de The Food Network
Durante el show, el chef Robert Irvine y un equipo de estrellas WWE, tendrán que hacer una comida VIP para 300 personas, relacionadas a los movimientos especiales de cada luchador, en sólo 9 horas

Participarán Stephanie McMahon, Big Show, The Miz, Santino Marella, Gail Kim y Jim Ross

Monday Night Raw 11/9/09
Sheffield Arena
Sheffield, England
Announcers: Michael Cole & Jerry Lawler

- We start this week’s show with a recap of last week’s goings on involving JeriShow, DX and John Cena. We then hit our opening animation before heading inside the Sheffield Arena where we are on tape from Jolly Ol’ England! Michael Cole welcomes us to Raw as we are just a scant two weeks away from Survivor Series. And right out of the gate, Justin Roberts brings out tonight’s Guest Host: Ricky Hatton. He makes his way out, escorted by the Bella Twins, natch. The crowd welcomes him warmly as Cole and King put him over a bit. Hatton welcomes us to Raw and talks about his memories in Sheffield. We even get some clips of his title unification match from a few years and 75 pounds ago. He talks a bit more about his excitement before he is rudely interrupted by JeriShow. They are looking super swank as always as they strut down to the ring with smiles on their faces. Show gets right up to Hatton and stares down at him, saying his breakfast was bigger than Hatton is. Show isn’t impressed with Hatton’s credentials and asks him to leave the ring. Hatton wants to why Show has to act like this because he is a big fan of WWE and Big Show. Well, he loves when Show got knocked out at Wrestlemania anyway. Show says he wants to give Hatton a free shot, just like he did for Mayweather. The difference is that Show gets to knock Hatton out after he takes his swing. Show awaits but Hatton says he needs a ladder to take up the challenge. Show drops to his knees and offers the shot again. Hatton is about to strike but Jericho cuts him off and calls him “little man”. Jericho doesn’t want Show to get embarrassed by another lowlife boxer. They get into a little argument about their upcoming triple threat match at Survivor Series. Show calls Jericho “Napoleon” and says he will be walking out as the new Champion at Survivor Series. Hatton has had enough and he wants to see JeriShow defending their tag team titles against DX. Jericho rips on Hatton, the British fans and the Royal Family. Hatton says he can’t understand a word Jericho is saying and asks him to speak English. Jericho calls him a “punch drunk” but Hatton says Jericho is just a guy with a bad haircut. They circle around Hatton until DX heads to the ring to save Ricky. Hunter asks JeriShow why they keep messing with the Guest Hosts when they always end up getting embarrassed. He says Hatton was ten seconds away from knocking both of them out before DX came out. The crowd chants for Ricky as Hunter thanks him for the match tonight. Shawn wants to throw down right now instead of later. Show disrobes as Jericho hits the deck. Show shakes his fists a bit before quickly turning around and leaving the ring. JeriShow head up the aisle as Hatton and DX play to the crowd and we head off to break.

- The Ratchet & Clank Slam of the Week takes us to last week’s Diva Battle Royal, which was won by Alicia Fox. Back live, we head to the ring for our opening match.

1) Kelly vs. Alicia Fox

Kelly makes her way out first and she is joined by Gail Kim, her partner at the upcoming Survivor Series. Alicia is out next and she is accompanied by Jillian. Cole tells us that Alicia will get her title match next week on Raw, live from MSG. Kelly takes Alicia down and hammers away at her. Alicia drives her into the middle rope and then spikes her into the mat face first for two. Melina is watching the match backstage as she preps for the title match next week. Alicia clotheslines Kelly and then she spikes her into the mat again. Alicia hooks a rear chinlock but Kelly works out of it. She lands a clothesline and a face plant and then follows with a headscissors takeover for two. Kelly hits a Rocker Dropper and gets another near fall. Kelly goes for another headscissors takeover but Alicia hot shots her across the top rope. Alicia follows with a big scissors kick for the win. Alicia d. Kelly with a scissors kick; Grade: .5

- Alicia mocks Kelly as Cole takes us to a special Wrestlemania ticket sale video package. Backstage, Ricky Hatton and his son are walking the walls and greeting various people, including John Cena. After an unintelligible exchange, the Hattons head off as we go to break.

- We are back and the King is thanking Art of Dying for the Survivor Series theme song “Get Thru This”. Cole then takes back to last week when Sheamus made his Raw debut by destroying Jamie Noble. King tells us that Noble is contemplating retirement after that beating.

2) Sheamus vs. British Jobber

As Sheamus hits the ring, we find out that he will be on Miz’s team at Survivor Series. Sheamus has the mic and takes credit for ending Noble’s career last week. They lock up off the bell and Sheamus just clubs the jobber down. He clubs away at him and beats him viciously all around the ring. He crushes him with the Urinage backbreaker and then drills him with a stiff kick. He hoists the jobber up and drops with a Crucifix Powerbomb for the win. I am so pumped that move is finally back! Sheamus keeps on rolling. I hope they give him the Bad News Brown treatment at the PPV and have him walk out on his team. Sheamus d. Jobber with a Crucifix Powerbomb; Grade: 1

- Sheamus celebrates his destruction as we take a break.

- We are back from break and Cole is pimping the Survivor Series section of WWE.com. They then show us some stills of the Hatton Health & Fitness Center in Hyde. Backstage, the Bellas are chatting up Ricky, giving him a chance to promote himself. I don’t have an idea about anything he is saying, sadly. The Bellas as Ricky for some darts lessons but Santino Marella interrupts, dressed in some interesting boxing garb. Apparently he is “Ricky Fatton”. Santino says that British ladies love fat guys with bad teeth. Chavo now comes in for more of our weekly hijinks. Chavo says he won the Cinco Dart Mayo competition three years in a row and wants to show off a bit. Chavo grabs a dart but misses badly. Hatton steps up and drills a bulls-eye. Chavo shrugs it off and challenges Santino to a match. Hatton steps in and says he wants to see boxer vs. wrestler so he will take on Chavo tonight. The crowd likes that one. Chavo storms off as Santino offers to be in Hatton’s corner.

Elsewhere, Josh Matthews is with Miz. Miz reminds us that he defeated John Morrison at Bragging Rights and claims he will do it again at Survivor Series. He puts over his team, calling them the future of WWE. Before he can finish, Jack Swagger comes in to chat. Swagger reminds us that he is still undefeated, per his promise from five weeks ago. They argue a bit more until Swagger heads of and we hit a break.

3) Evan Bourne vs. Jack Swagger

We are back from break and Evan Bourne is heading down to the ring for our next bout. Swagger is out next and is oozing confidence. Swagger picks up Bourne off the bell and slams him down the mat. Swagger spikes Bourne down and then hits a Vader Bomb. Swagger hooks a surfboard submission as the crowd rallies Bourne. Swagger buries a shoulder to Bourne’s gut but he eats a knee on a follow up attempt. Bourne takes Swagger down for two. He roll Swagger up and gets another near fall. Bourne kicks away at Swagger but jack clubs him back down. Swagger hoists Bourne up but he rides Swagger down with knees to the face. Swagger kicks Bourne down as Miz’s music fires up and the captain heads down to the ring. Swagger hits a Urinage but he allows Bourne to roll to the apron. Bourne blocks a suplex and kicks Swagger in the face. Bourne heads up top and hits a beautiful Air Bourne for the win! Swagger’s streak is dead. Bourne picks up a nice win in another good match between these two. Bourne d. Swagger with Air Bourne; Grade: 2

- Miz reminds Swagger that he is the team captain at Survivor Series and not Swagger. Jack stares at Miz as we take a break.

- When we return, we see some clips of two weeks ago when Kyle Busch and Joey Logano showed off their WWE race cars. We then get highlights of them racing said cars this past weekend. Busch won the race as well and showed off his WWE Championship belt post race. Back in the arena, the VIP Lounge is set up and MVP and Mark Henry are chilling inside it. MVP welcomes us to the show and Mark Henry brings out their guest, Kofi Kingston, with a great introduction. MVP also tells us that Kingston is the captain of their Survivor Series team. Kofi hits the ring and is all smiles. Kofi puts over MVP and Henry a bit before MVP tells the tale of Kofi destroying Orton’s car. Henry then takes us to clips from last week when Kofi, MVP and Henry defeated Legacy. Kofi says that is only a taste of what is to come at Survivor Series. MVP has Henry pop a bottle of champagne so they can raise a toast to Kofi. Before they can drink up, Legacy stalks down to the ring. They try to get into the VIP Lounge, but the security guard stands in their way. Orton stares him down until he opens the rope and lets them in. All six men stare each down until Orton starts to speak. He says Henry, MVP and Kofi are low class street thugs. Henry stole a victory last week, MVP is the definition of a common criminal and Kofi should be in jail after destroying Randy’s car. The only reason Orton hasn’t put Kofi down yet is so he can embarrass him at the PPV. Cody calls MVP “Montel” and rips on the VIP Lounge. Ted makes fun of the pleather couches and cheap champagne. He also tells MVP that his bank account is larger, but MVP clarifies that it is his dad’s account. Orton says Legacy belongs in the ring while Henry, Kofi and MVP belong in the hood where they came from. An intense stare down rages on as we take a break.

4) Mark Henry vs. Randy Orton

When we return from break, the match is already underway. They circle around each other until Orton grabs a side headlock. Henry plants him with a shoulderblock but Orton kicks his knee and trips him into the middle buckle. Orton stomps away at Henry and then hammers away in the corner. Henry hooks a bear hug but Orton slugs free. Henry knocks him back to the mat and gets two. Henry misses an elbow drop and Orton lands some boots to the arms and legs. He follows with a leaping kneedrop for two. Orton keeps putting the boots to Henry before hooking a front facelock. Orton gets a near fall and then drops some more knees to the face. Orton hooks a chinlock as the crowd stirs a bit. Cole tells us that MVP and DiBiase will wrestle on Superstars this week. Henry fights up and slams Orton to the mat for two. They trade some right hands before Henry plants Orton with a clothesline. Orton bails to the corner and Henry splashes him. He lands a series of headbutts as Orton is staggering in the corner. Henry drops his head down on a whip and Orton goes for a sunset flip. Henry fights it and pulls Orton up by his throat but Orton slinks free and hits the RKO for the win. That was a basic match that had a neat finish. Orton gets a much needed win there too. Orton d. Henry with the RKO; Grade: 1.5

- Kofi comes in to check on Henry but Orton comes in get in his face. Kofi fights him off and Legacy bails as we take a break.

- As we return, Cole tells us that the new Raw theme will debut next week. It is entitled “Burn it to the Ground” and is performed by Nickelback. Sigh.

5) Chavo Guerrero vs. Ricky Hatton in a Boxer vs. Wrestler Mixed Martial Arts match

And with that, Chavo Guerrero is making his way down to the ring. Lawler talks about his boxer vs. wrestler match with Leon Spinks back in the day. Hatton is out next, wearing his boxing gear and a sombrero to mock Chavo. This is Hatton’s first match since May. Justin Roberts gives us the big match introductions and runs down the rules. Hatton gets a big hometown pop and apparently only weighs slightly over 140 pounds and Lawler is as incredulous about that one as I am. Chavo bails to the apron to start, avoiding the charging Hatton. The crowd is serenading Hatton as he eggs them on. Hatton peppers Chavo with some jabs in the corner but Chavo quickly rolls out to the floor. Chavo comes back and takes Hatton down, but Ricky escapes and both men get back up. Chavo catches him with a kick and clubs on his back. Chavo tries to take him down but Hatton smacks him with a big right hand. Chavo can’t beat the count and Hatton wins the match via knock out. Hatton d. Guerrero via knockout; Grade: 0

- Hatton greets his fans around ringside as we go to break.

- Back live, Cole and King run down the Survivor Series card as the show is just two weeks away. Backstage, John Cena is talking to Hornswoggle, who is still wearing the DX gear. Cena warns him to stop wearing it or he will lose a lot of money in court. Horny runs off as DX comes in looking for him but Cena tells them to focus on their match tonight instead of finding Horny. They discuss Survivor Series as Hunter gets a funny “Tweeting” joke in, not that there’s anything wrong with that. Michaels says that Cena is distracting them and playing the old shell game in hiding the Leprechaun. Cena calls the “whimsical Leprechaun” Horny back in and he is now wearing Cena gear this time. After DX takes off, Horny rips off the Cena shirt and hat to reveal the DX merch. He laughs and crotch chops as we take a break. That was a funny little segment.

- We are back and Cole takes us back to last week to see clips of the Osbournes taking Raw for a ride on the crazy train. I could watch Chris Masters’ performance art presentation of Crazy Train all day long. Not that there’s anything wrong that. Back live, Cole tells us that Roddy Piper will be in the house next week as he hosts Raw from MSG! We are then joined by John Cena who gets a big split reaction, as is the norm. Cena hops in on commentary as it is main event time.

6) Shawn Michaels & Triple H vs. Chris Jericho & Big Show in a non title match

JeriShow is out first as Cole reminds us that Jericho will take on Undertaker on Smackdown. It is the first ever one on one match for those two, so check it out. DX is out next and they get a jolly good pop. Cena is so much better when he just speaks like a normal human being as he is doing on commentary right now. Jericho and Michaels kick things off as Chris puts him down with a shoulderblock. Michaels comes back with a chop and then tags in Hunter. He runs Jericho into the corner but eats a boot on a charge. Jericho slugs away and follows with some boots to the gut. Hunter ducks a clothesline and lands a high knee. Hunter takes Jericho down and slingshots him over the top to the floor as we take our final break. When we come back, Jericho drills Michaels with a kick to the face before tagging in Show. Michaels dropkicks Show’s knee but can only get a one count. Michaels leaps onto Show but Show spikes him back to the mat with a headbutt. Show walks across Michaels and tags in Jericho. Cena is proving some good insight about the upcoming triple threat match on commentary. Jericho tags in Show, who clubs Michaels across the back to maintain control. Michaels is able to crawl over and tag in Hunter. He hits a facebreaker and goes for the Pedigree but Show backdrops out of it. He nails Hunter with a spear and beats on him a bit before tagging Jericho back in. Jericho hooks a modified sleeper as Hunter fights to his feet. Jericho takes Hunter down and gets two. The crowd is pretty much dead at this point which is surprising. Jericho tags in Show and they give Hunter the wishbone treatment. Show stands on Hunter’s back as Cena’s commentary continues to be the best part of the match. Show hits a big splash and gets two. Show grabs a reverse bear hug and then releases it and lands some hard right hands to the gut. He tags in Jericho but Hunter starts to fire back a bit. Jericho regains control but Hunter catches him with a spinebuster. Hunter crawls over and tags Shawn. He hits all the Vintage Michaels maneuvers on Jericho, taking out Show in the process. Shawn tunes up the band but Jericho ducks it and takes Shawn down. Shawn avoids the Walls but Show splashes him from behind. Show swings at Michaels, but he ducks and Show cracks Jericho with a big right hand. Hunter takes Show out and Michaels covers Jericho for the win. This was totally paint by numbers and pretty heatless. Michaels & Triple H d. Jericho & Show when Michaels pins Jericho after a Show punch to the head; Grade: 2

- As DX regroups in the ring, Justin Roberts tells us that next week’s main event will see DX battle JeriShow and Cena & Undertaker in a triple threat match! Taker appears to a huge pop. He stands on the ramp and all six men stare each other down as we fade out. This was a solid enough show tonight and I will say that it was very focused throughout. Hatton was fine in the role but he was hard to understand. The crowd was pretty flat and wasn’t nearly as hot as past British crowds. Still, we got some really good PPV build and a couple of decent matches mixed in. Next week’s show brings us home to New York City as Raw will emanate live from Madison Square Garden. See you then!

Final Grade: C-

This month sees the broadcast of the 23^rd annual Survivor Series, the WWE’s second longest serving pay per view. Over the years the Survivor Series has played host to a tremendous amount of excitement, drama and controversy, including some of the most memorable moments in the promotion’s history. Part of the event’s appeal, of course, is rooted in its unique themed matches, the elimination tag matches that the show was originally all about. Teams of four or five battle each other, with wrestlers eliminated by pinfall or submission until one team is entirely eliminated, leaving the survivors victorious. Indeed, the first five Survivor Series’ consisted solely of such matches, although the fifth featured a novel twist whereby the survivors of all the undercard matches formed two teams for one final elimination tag match. Since then, the traditional Survivor Series matches have varied in popularity, sometimes making up the bulk of the card, sometimes reduced to only one match. Only twice, in 1998 and 2002, has a Survivor Series taken place with no elimination tag matches at all on the card.

The first Survivor Series was designed to follow up on the success of Wrestlemania III, earlier that year. After the enormous success of Hulk Hogan’s clash with Andre the Giant, it only made sense to continue that story and so the main event was set as Hogan’s team vs Andre’s team. With King Kong Bundy and The One Man Gang on his side, Andre’s team was certainly intimidating in size. In the event they would prove too much for the good guys. The first Survivor Series was also notable for the inclusion of a ten-team match, where two teams composed of five tag teams fought each other. In this match, since each individual was a member of a tag team, the winning team still only had to score five pinfalls to win; once a man was eliminated, his tag team partner was eliminated as well.

One of the most important legacies of the Survivor Series came at the fourth event, in 1990, when The Undertaker made his WWE debut. Introduced as part of Ted DiBiase’s Million Dollar Team, ‘Taker made an immediate impact, eliminating not only Koko B.Ware but also opposing team captain Dusty Rhodes. ‘Taker himself was only eliminated by count-out when he continued to stalk Rhodes up the ramp after eliminating him. While Undertaker’s debut remains part of WWE folklore, however, most WWE fans would probably rather forget that this show also saw the introduction of The Gobbledy-Gooker! For those of you fortunate enough to have missed this, this was poor Hector Guerrero dressed in a novelty turkey costume. In the build-up to the show, a huge egg had been shown on WWE programming, with announcers frequently wondering what was in it. The moment when the egg hatched was quite possibly the biggest anti-climax in wrestling history!

1992 saw the first casket match in WWE history, while 1994 featured a guest appearance by Chuck Norris. However, by far the most notorious event in the history of the entire WWE, never mind the Survivor Series, was the 1997 event. This, of course, was the event that included the Montreal screw-job, which in all honesty has been written about more than enough already. This was obviously one of the most pivotal moments in the history of professional wrestling and it also signified a new identity for Survivor Series itself. The following year saw the first time that Survivor Series did not feature any elimination tag matches. In order to maintain the “survival” theme, a single elimination tournament called the Deadly Game was held to crown a new WWE champion. In the final match, The Rock defeated Mankind in a re-creation of the previous year’s screw-job. It was the first evidence of a (possibly rather unhealthy) fixation with Montreal on the part of Vince McMahon.

The 1999 event was most notable for the hit-and-run attack on Steve Austin, which led to The Big Show’s championship win later that night. After two screw-jobs and one case of what was basically attempted murder, Survivor Series had acquired the reputation of a pay per view where something bad always happened. The following year, this theme was played up heavily by the announce team in the run-up to the show, particularly as Steve Austin was back and gunning for revenge on Triple H, who had earlier been unmasked as the man behind the previous year’s hit-and-run. Late on in the show Triple H got into a car, apparently intending to run Austin down again, only for Austin to pick the car up with a crane and drop it from a considerable height. Once again, something terrible had happened at the Survivor Series.

This new identity was short-lived, however. The 2001 Survivor Series became the climax of the disappointing WCW/ECW Invasion angle. The one and only traditional elimination match here was the Winner Take All match in which Vince’s Team WWE took on Shane & Stephanie’s Team Alliance. Although the storyline as a whole had been a great disappointment, taken in isolation this was an extremely enjoyable match. However, with the waning use of traditional Survivor Series match-ups and the fact that storylines like the invasion weren’t around every year, Survivor Series seemed to be in danger of becoming just another pay per view, differentiated from the other monthly shows only by its name. 2002 saw another show without elimination tag matches, although the first use of the elimination chamber kept something of the “survival” theme running.

Since then, the elimination chamber has been moved to No Way Out and the traditional matches have been reinstated, with between one and three of them taking place at every Survivor Series since 2003. This year, it will be interesting to see if the concept is maintained. As yet, only three matches have been confirmed for the show that will take place on the 22^nd of November. John Cena will defend his WWE Championship against Triple H and Shawn Michaels in a Triple Threat match, while The Undertaker defends his World Heavyweight Championship against Chris Jericho and The Big Show in another Triple Threat. The hook here is that both champions are defending their titles against teams in matches that are supposedly every man for himself. The other match is Batista versus Rey Mysterio, continuing the feud that began at Bragging Rights.

With so few matches set, it’s hard to make predictions. I’m going to back Cena to come out on top in Raw’s main event but not with any great confidence. Mainly, I think that the Raw title picture needs some stability after the way Orton and Cena have been swapping the belt around, so that’s why I’m tipping the champ to retain. I’d love to see Shawn turn heel in this one, as that would really shake things up on Raw but I just don’t see it happening. I’m also tipping Undertaker to retain his title, although I’m not sure how this will affect Jericho and Big Show’s run as Unified Tag Champions. If ‘Taker does lose, I expect it Show to be the guy who takes it. His deal with Teddy Long to get this title shot could all play into the Vince versus The Undertaker angle that seems to be slowly brewing on Smackdown.

As for Batista, he has to win over Rey or, failing that, give him the beating of a lifetime. Batista’s heel turn seems to have really worked well thus far, so it would make no sense to shut down his momentum this quickly. What else can we expect? I’m guessing that Kofi Kingston leads a team against Randy Orton. Another Intercontinental Title shot seems to be on the horizon for Dolph Ziggler but I wonder if we will also see a Team Ziggler vs Team Morrison bout this time around. Michelle McCool is assembling a team to face a team led by Mickie James. This one will be somewhat bizarre if the teams include women from both Raw and Smackdown, since the two brands were at each other’s throats just last month, but could be fun, as long as the WWE restrict it to the women who can actually wrestle. Beyond that, who knows? That would be six matches, which might well be enough, but it really would be nice for ECW to get on this card. I’d say Team Christian versus Team Regal would be a match well worth making.

No need to delay – let’s keep this thing rolling.

• WWF Intercontinental Champion Chris Benoit vs. Chris Jericho – Ladder Match (Royal Rumble 2001)
  

Matt: Once again, the ladder match gets reinvented. These two rethought what Shawn and Razor did with ladders in 1-on-1 matches and then centered their already established offensive moves around the ladder. It’s quite amazing how well this worked with so many different moves from both men. Ladder matches have been done to death during this decade, but I don’t think there’s been one quite as good since (as far as singles matches go) that didn’t rely solely on insane falls and super dangerous high spots like this one. From my view, we’re talking ****¾ territory.

Justin: The rivalry from 2000 was the hook in this slugfest and these two great athletes went out there and tore the house down. The whole match was just super stiff as these two beat on each other with their fists and the ladder. The chair shot on the Benoit tope was just nasty and adds to the legend of this match. Another sick spot was the top rope leg sweep using the ladder. The Walls on top the ladder was also impressive and was the big spot of the match. After a weak last few months of 2000, Jericho was quickly elevated back into the upper midcard with this bout. These two really stepped it up, showed off their chemistry and came up with some innovative new spots in this match, and that mixed in with the sheer brutality helped make it an instant classic.

Scott: No surprise about this match. The more stipulations you add, the better this matchup gets. It’s tough to argue whenever these two get together that you’re going to have at least a 3.5 match and that’s if both are totally off. I always like the dynamic when Benoit was the heel, and Jericho was the face. Benoit took the violence meter to the next level in this match, but when Jericho put the Walls on him on top of the ladder, that’s when you knew this became a classic.

• Steve Austin vs. Triple H – 3 Stages of Hell (No Way Out 2001)
  

Matt: You talk about a way to finally end a feud. This was the first of its kind in the WWF where each fall is a different type of match. The first fall was a standard match, the second fall was a street fight, and the final fall was a cage match. How in the world could you possibly take this feud any higher? Somebody had to go when this was over. Everything worked well in this match and they pulled off the different gimmick matches effortlessly. Much like WrestleMania x8 where the main events were backwards, this should have closed the PPV instead of the world title match. But hindsight is 20/20 and all that. An easy ***** affair in my opinion with both guys busting their butts for 40 exciting minutes in one of the greatest rivalries of all-time.

Justin: The buildup here had been well detailed and this was a highly anticipated showdown. Triple H had put Austin on the shelf for the year. Austin got some revenge a year later when he nearly killed the Game with a forklift. Since then, both men had cost the other World title matches, so things were at a boiling point heading into what was expected to be a brutal battle. The crowd was amped right from the entrances and there was a definite buzz in the arena for this one. This was the match that officially signaled to everyone that the real Stone Cold was now back in the house and he was ready to go balls to the wall. The first fall is a nice dichotomy to what would come, as the two men trade holds and work body parts to try and wear the other down for the more vicious falls still to come. After the first two falls, JR pointed out that Hunter had won Austin’s type of match and vice versa. At that point, the match was a classic, but there was still more to come as the cage lowered. Both men were ravaged and bloodied and just tried to outlast the other inside the steel. Triple H would barely eek out the win, and it was somewhat of an upset at the time, as Austin was heading to the main event of WrestleMania. The match was wonderfully done and was loaded with drama and excitement. This was just a masterpiece between two of the best. The match showed that Triple H was still one of the top dogs in the WWF and proved that Steve Austin was back in a big way.

Scott: Words cannot describe how much I love this match. It honestly goes down VERY close to Savage/Steamboat as my favorite match of all time. Two guys who know everything about how to produce a main event match with every ingredient possible. One of the few matches that felt like a title match without a title. Both men brought 100% of the hate and the violence to the match, and it anchored what was one of the greatest PPV’s in WWE history. I recommend this match to anyone and everyone.

• WWF World Tag Team Champions The Dudley Boyz vs. Edge & Christian vs. The Hardy Boyz – TLC II (WrestleMania X-Seven)
  

Matt: Apparently these six just love hurting themselves and one another. Spike Dudley, Rhyno, and Lita all make appearances in this one. Being the most instrumental in the match, Rhyno assists his buddies Edge and Christian to help them regain tag team gold for their seventh reign in one year. The highlight of the match has to be Edge bringing Jeff down as he’s hanging off the belts with the spear. It’s a moment few hardcore fans will forget. While you’d think after a match like this, E&C would get a lengthy reign, but nope. Nearly three weeks later, they get stomped out by the Brothers of Destruction and never really recover as a team. PLEASE BRING THEM BACK, WWE! Another ***** match for 2001.

Justin: The three top teams over the past 12 months square off again on the biggest stage of the wrestling world. Rhyno, Spike and Lita would all eventually hit the ring and play a role in the bout, and I liked that as it added some chaos and excitement to an already great match. After a brutal war, Rhyno would hit the ring and prop Edge on his shoulders and carry him up to the belts, allowing E&C to retain their precious tag titles. The match was an all out war and in a way appropriately capped the glory run that these teams experienced over the last 16 months. They would continue to see success, but this sort of brings an end to their intense rivalry that has warred on from show to show. One year ago, these six men put this type of battle on the map and here they perfected it with another crazy classic.

Scott: Yet another chapter to the war between these three teams. One of many matches at one of the greatest WrestleManias of all time, this one was different because it didn’t have to carry the show as much as their first match the previous year. More great violence, more high-flying maneuvers. Edge & Christian cement their legacy with another big win over their rivals in another violent encounter in front of 68,000 fans.

• WWF World Champion The Rock vs. Steve Austin – No-DQ Match (WrestleMania X-Seven)
  

Matt: I know it’s a commentator’s cliché, but now THIS is a main event anywhere in the world. In a sold-out Astrodome, the two biggest names of the day arguably at the peak of their popularity fight tooth and nail for thirty minutes. They trade Stunners, they trade Rock Bottoms, and then the impossible happens when Vince McMahon heads out to ringside. What is he going to do? He breaks up the pin on Austin after the Peoples Elbow! Now they start beating the Rock down with chairshots, but he refuses to quit! Austin opens up a can of chairshots all over Rock until finally the man is completely out and finished for the 1-2-3. Quite the dramatic finish and while the crowd thought Vince had turned good, there’s no way you could cheer for the guy who just killed the Rock with a barrage of chairshots. That’s not a hero. However, they cheer Austin anyway. Just an unbelievable moment in wrestling history ends the PPV as Austin and Vince share a beer together. It’s about ****¼ for me.

Justin: Who better to battle at the end of the biggest show of the modern era than Stone Cold and the Rock? The whole story heading in here is Austin’s obsession and desperation to become champion. Ever since he was taken out in 1999, Austin has been away from his belt and he was starting to crack. I liked how Austin is visibly frustrated throughout the match. I actually think they could have made his heel turn a bit more effective and subtle. The two men would bust out the bloody Sharpshooter spot from WrestleMania XIII and the crowd just goes nuts for it, but Austin was able to survive. I dug Austin’s desperation here as he, and the announcers, added a lot of importance to the championship by putting over how Austin needed it to live. I never cared for the finish here with Vince standing in the ring over Austin as he just beat on Rock with a chair. It helped advance Austin’s paranoid personality, but just took away from an epic match and moment. I really think they should have had Vince “accidentally” help Austin win the belt at WrestleMania, but still had Austin walk out a face with the top belt. His pop would have been stronger and it would have been a better moment to close out the show. Then, they could still do a cage match the next night on Raw, and that is where you have Austin and Vince officially join forces and complete the heel turn. I think that would have been more subtle and effective and not compromised what had been an all time classic. With a stronger ending, this was a perfect match for the time frame, but that ending bugs me enough to knock it down a peg. It is still a fantastic brawl with tremendous heat and commentary, thus putting it at the top of the list of greatest WrestleMania main events.

Scott: I really liked their title match two years earlier at WrestleMania XV. This one was amped up even more due to two things: the No DQ stipulation, and the fact that both men were big over faces going in. Obviously being in the heart of Texas, Austin was way more over which made the eventual heel turn maybe half work. The match itself is incredible and was a fitting capper to one of the greatest WrestleManias of all time.

• WWF World Tag Team Champions Steve Austin & Triple H vs. Chris Benoit & Chris Jericho (Raw is War 5/21/01)
  

Matt: I remember this match like it was yesterday. This was good TV as Ric Flair might call it. Benoit and Jericho were my favorites at the time and to see them hang in there with the perennial main events as though they were equals was absolutely incredible. Like Scott said, everybody remembers this for Triple H’s first quad tear (and still finished the match!), but I remember it well for the satisfaction of seeing Benoit and Jericho finally putting one over not only on just the 2-Man Power Trip, but for every wrestler who said Benoit and Jericho weren’t good enough for the main event. And now that every combination from the main eventers in the Attitude Era had been burned out, this paved the way for some new future main eventers for the WWF. Easily a ****½ match in my book.

Justin: At the time, this fantastic tag match seemed to be a passing of the torch of sorts. Benoit & Jericho were the internet darlings that had been held down since the dawn of time. They were finally getting their chance to step up and run with the big boys, and that was to start with a decisive title win over the two top dogs in the company. The match was thrilling throughout and Triple H’s gruesome quad tear and subsequent gut wrenching Walls of Jericho only add to its legend. Jericho & Benoit take the titles from the Power Trip and it finally felt like the dawning of a new era. Unfortunately, it wouldn’t last very long.

Scott: One of Raw’s gems from 2001. Of course this match will be remember for the ripping of Triple H’s quad that kept him out for the rest of the year. Otherwise this match is pretty awesome. The San Jose crowd was off the charts for this one, which is rare considering California wrestling crowds are usually pretty weak. Great match, even if my favorite guy was lost for 8 months.

• WWF World Tag Team Champions Chris Benoit & Chris Jericho vs. The Dudley Boyz vs. Edge & Christian vs. The Hardy Boyz – TLC III (Smackdown 5/24/01)
  

Matt: During this summer, Benoit and Jericho were my heroes. Seeing them run things on the babyface side was incredible. This was their punishment for taking the tag gold from Vince’s boys and they would pay a heavy price. For those who care about that sort of thing, this was the first TLC match and one of the few ladder matches ever on free TV at this point. And just like TLC matches promise, this was another wild and crazy affair with Benoit leaving the match injured half-way into it. When it looked like their tag title reign would be cut extremely short, Benoit toughed it out and returned to the match to pick up the storied victory for him and Jericho. One of three excellent MOTYC TV matches in ten days. At least ****½.

Justin: This is a tough one for me. On one hand, it was another thrilling, violent and reckless affair. On the other hand, it was proof that WWF was starting to panic a bit and was running their workhorses into the ground because of it. The same week in which they won the tag titles, Jericho & Benoit were forced to go right back out and battle in a crazy trainwreck for a taped TV show. While I am all for providing big time matches on TV, this one just smacked of excess. Many of the guys that went all out in these types of matches would end up with some hardcore injuries, and it was during this stretch that they were run out there at a crazy pace. With all that said, this is a hell of a match as they all smacked each other senseless and put on a dramatic bout for the SD fans. Jericho & Benoit would keep their belts, but Benoit would pay dearly in the weeks to come.

Scott: From 2001-03, its possible Smackdown was the better show than Raw. This was a main reason for it. It was very rare for Raw to have great matches like this. They had their share, but it always seemed like Smackdown put together the better matches, even if Raw had the star power. This match is not watched as much as the other TLC’s because those others are on PPV, but get the WWE Ladder Match DVD and you can really enjoy it.

• WWF World Champion Steve Austin vs. Chris Benoit (Smackdown 5/31/01)
  

Matt: The match of TEN THOUSAND GERMAN SUPLEXES! That’s a little exaggerated, but still Austin took a lot of them in this match. Benoit gets his big chance to wow his hometown fans and boy does he. Just when it looks like Benoit has the edge with the Crippler Crossface, Vince comes out and takes a bunch of chairshots from Benoit. That’s all the distraction Austin needs as he schoolboys him up with a handful of tights for the victory. Kind of a lame finish to an otherwise awesome match. Something like ****½ here.

Justin: The mega push of Chris Benoit continued here as he and Austin tore each other apart in front of Benoit’s hometown fans. They would just wreck each other with German suplexes as the battle wore on. The crowd was off the hook here and it looked like Benoit was going to steal the title, but Austin would be the one to steal the victory after interference from Mr. McMahon. Benoit was proving he could hang with the top of the card stars, but a major injury would derail him at his peak.

Scott: Most definitely one of Smackdown’s forgotten matches and again because of what happened to Chris Benoit you will never see this match again unless you taped that Smackdown episode. I remember watching this match at home while recovering from Strep Throat, and it made me smile, even it if it hurt to do it. Austin was going all out as the heel champion and this was Benoit’s first legit shot as a babyface in WWE. They worked great together and minus the screwy ending, it would be almost perfect.

• WWF World Champion Steve Austin vs. Kurt Angle (SummerSlam 2001)
  

Matt: With Benoit gone to get his neck fused, Jericho slipped back into the upper mid-card, and the Rock just now returning after the filming of the Scorpion King, Kurt Angle arises as the top babyface to defend the WWF against the WCW/ECW Alliance. I reviewed this match for the Kurt Angle mixtape and I had forgotten just how hard fought this match was. Lots of German suplexes and drama over the anklelock. Another bad DQ ending, but it worked out for Angle so he could have a title win in his hometown of Pittsburgh the next month at Unforgiven. As I said in the review, just an unbelievably awesome match on a string of ****½ matches.

Justin: After months of tension and jealousy, Austin and Angle finally squared off for the World title and for brand pride. Angle would get his share of suplexes in as he punishes Austin with seven straight Germans. After a super stiff Austin superplex, Angle would even kick out of multiple stunners, which was impressive and pushed the crowd over the edge. Austin would get desperate and bloody Angle with a nasty beating on the floor as he just hammered him with fists and bashing his head into the ring post repeatedly. Austin would also kill him with a suplex on the floor, but Angle was booked like a warrior here and he would hit a nasty belly to belly on the floor as well. After each man kicked out of the others finisher one more time, Austin’s desperation was too much and he smacked the ref. That drew Nick Patrick out and he calls for the BS DQ on Austin to save his title. The flurry at the end was pretty good even though the finish was a bit weak. In retrospect, it works out fine as furthering Austin’s paranoid character and building to a rematch the next month. This was a great bloody war between two men in their prime busting their asses to put on a great match. The crowd was rocking the whole way through and Angle was made out to be a beast. Before this show, it was yet to be seen if Angle could be a top level face, but his match proved he had what it took to connect with the fans.

Scott: This match was fun because of the chaos factor of the California crowd and the fact that it was the first time in his career that Kurt Angle was a legit babyface. I honestly wasn’t crazy about all the ref bumps, which kind of takes the grade down a little for me, but The emotion for this match is off the charts as you can see Angle, with dried blood on his face, completely beside himself that he should be WWF Champ, and the Alliance screwed him. A much needed rematch is coming. This was an awesome job by both men who played their roles perfectly and put together the match of the night.

• World Heavyweight Champion The Rock vs. Chris Jericho (No Mercy 2001)
  

Matt: If I’m not mistaken, this is the only time during the thick of the InVasion angle where two WWF wrestlers really feuded with one another. Not to mention this was a big match for Jericho that seemed to catapult him as the first guy to become the “undisputed” champion. For some reason during the match, they had people believing Jericho had joined the Alliance with Stephanie McMahon-Helmsley coming out and sliding a chair in the ring, but that never went anywhere. All the same, excellent back and forth match with loads of drama. Like I said, a huge match for Jericho at least for the time being until Rock won the belt right back a few weeks later on Raw leading up to Survivor Series. Around ****-****¼ for me.

Justin: After years of being held down in both promotions despite being consistently over, Chris Jericho finally wins the big win and takes home his first World title. The story is clear from the start: can Jericho win the big match. Both men were pretty over here, but Rock out pops him in the entrances. However, as the match wore on, the crowd actually started turning towards Jericho and turning against the Rock. The coolest part of the match was the tons of flash bulbs going off as the two men first stared each other down and that actually continued throughout the bout. The atmosphere gave the contest a big match feel as did the commentary. The hottest near fall of the match would come when Jericho hit a Rock Bottom and Lionsault in succession. It was a great tease, because it was one of those moments where you assume he isn’t winning if he didn’t win there. Rock would fire back with a Rock Bottom on the announce table and, as the crowd started backing Jericho, Rock started acting a bit more heelish, which shows just what a pro he was. Jericho would come close again as he hit an awesome reversal by avoiding the People’s Elbow and turning Rock into the Walls of Jericho. That should have been the ending right there and Jericho would have been put over even stronger, but instead the actual finish ends up being a bit weaker. Stephanie McMahon-Helmsley would end up running in and inadvertently costing Rock the match when she tossed a chair in the ring. Rock took her out, but Jericho dropped him on the chair for the upset win. The crux of the continuation of the feud was Rock putting some doubt in Jericho’s mind about if he could have won cleanly or if he needed a chair to get it done. This was a great match and these two would actually put on even better ones in the coming months, including a couple of weeks later on Raw.

Scott: This was the match of the night as both men bring their all, particularly Jericho. once again proves doubters wrong and goes all out in a really great match with someone who everyone thought was a better wrestler than him. Maybe technically he is better than Rock, but unlike other main eventers throughout history he and Steve Austin did a great job of meshing with their opponent’s style to make the match better.

• The Rock, Chris Jericho, Undertaker, Kane, and the Big Show vs. Steve Austin, Kurt Angle, Rob Van Dam, Booker T, and Shane McMahon – 5-on-5 Elimination Match (Survivor Series 2001)
  

Matt: Kind of a personal favorite for me. I’ve only been to one live WWE PPV and this was it. In a sort of “SCREW YOU” to Greensboro and the history behind that town, Vince decided that this was where he wanted to hammer the final nail in the coffin of WCW. You know what, good for him. The crowd was electric, all the stars were here, and it was just incredible to sit back and watch all this take place right in front of you. Also in a rare moment, I got to see Rock/Austin trade some stuff which didn’t happen except for on the BIG shows. Cool match and definitely an important match for wrestling history – even though WCW was technically declared dead eight months earlier. With all that star power, it couldn’t possibly have been bad. I’d say it was around ****.

Justin: After six months of battling, the Invasion all came down to one match filled with the top five guys from each side. Well, nine and Shane McMahon but Shane definitely busts his ass to fit in here. To add to the angle, Heyman does get a good, and accurate, rant in on Vince about his predatory ways when he comes to other promotions. Rock and Austin started it off right out of the gate and the crowd was digging it. RVD was booked strong throughout once again but Jericho eliminated him in a continuation of the huge push he was currently receiving. As Austin and Rock battled at the end, the big shocker occurred when Jericho snapped and let a personal vendetta blind him as he slid in the ring and pasted Rock with a chair. The crowd went absolutely berserk but Rock was able to stay alive. We then got another swerve when Kurt Angle returned, took out Austin and gave Rock and Team WWF the win. The Alliance would be no more and Vince came out to celebrate his win. Rock was now clearly positioned as the top gun in the company and he had a ready-made feud with Jericho. The way I understood it was that Angle was sent undercover by Vince to help screw up the Alliance. So, with that said, I thought it was fairly logical and not just a series of haphazard turns. The whole thing becomes a bit clearer the next night when Angle is repositioned as Vince’s top guy for helping save the WWF. It would be a key part of Angle’s heel turn as well as the crowd still boos him and he takes umbrage since he was the self proclaimed savior of the WWF. With all that said, I really enjoyed the match as the stakes were high and everyone delivered. The crowd was rocking and all ten guys busted it to deliver a fun match.

Scott: This match is laid out like most matches that are 45 minutes long: The first 10 minutes are exciting, the middle 30 minutes are quite slow, and the last 5 minutes are off the charts. As exciting as this match was, due to all the logic holes in the storyline, it takes away some of the juice of the match. Really the end with Austin/Rock carries the match in general.

And that’s all for now. Let us know what you think and maybe some picks that we missed that you enjoyed! Next Saturday, we will unveil another ten matches from the year 2002! Don’t miss it!

Canal 52MX

Este es un comunicado que nos reenvía el compañero “The Original King of Wrestling”, ustedes juzguen:

Las estrellas de Raw: John Cena, Melina, Big Show, Kelly Kelly, Triple H, entre otros, iluminarán la pantalla del Canal 52MX, con toda la adrenalina que sólo la WWE ofrece en cada show.

Canal 52MX se convirtió en la plataforma de la WWE entre el público mexicano, principalmente de las marcas Raw y Smackdown. Durante años nuestro auditorio ha sido testigo del dolor, de los retos, conquistas, fracasos, amor y odio que cada una de las estrellas del cuadrilátero de la WWE ha vivido en cada una de sus batallas. Así como la llegada de hermosas Divas que conquistarán a la audiencia masculina.

El 07 de noviembre volverá a escribirse una nueva historia para la fanaticada de la mejor lucha del mundo y el canal 52MX. Todos los sábados a las 10:30 y 17:30 h. te invitamos a vivir una experiencia única con una doble función: Raw y Experience por el mismo boleto, Por lo tanto así queda la programación:

Sábado 7 de noviembre de 2009

CANAL 52 MX
Cable: 232 | MASTV: 56 | Dish: 202
10:30 WWE Raw
12:30 WWE Experience

La más abarcadora cobertura de todo el acontecer en la WWE!
13:30 Fútbol Americano Femenil en Lencería
15:00 WCL World Combat League
16:00 CMLL: Guerreros del Ring

Los mejores exponentes del Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre.
17:00 Slamball
17:30 WWE Raw
19:30 WWE Experience

La más abarcadora cobertura de todo el acontecer en la WWE!
20:30 Ras de Lona

El primer noticiero oficial del Consejo Mundial de la Lucha Libre.

Domingo 8 de noviembre de 2009

CANAL 52 MX
Cable: 232 | MASTV: 56 | Dish: 202
10:30 CMLL: Guerreros del Ring

Los mejores exponentes del Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre.
11:30 TNA Impact
13:30 Ras de Lona El primer noticiero oficial del Consejo Mundial de la Lucha Libre.
14:00 King of the Cage El desarrollo de las artes martiales mixtas

ATTE. EDUARDO HC “THE ORIGINAL KING OF WRESTLING SINCE 1990″

February 14, 1999
Live from Memphis, Tenn.
Host:  Michael “The Viper” Cole and Jerry “four-percent of votes” Lawler

Opening Match: Goldust vs. Bluedust.

Blue Meanie came into WWF right away imitating and costing Goldust his matches. Goldust hits a spinebuster. Bluedust weirdly shags Goldust’s leg. Lawler calls Blue Meanie a ECW reject, which is very moronic, but typical of Lawler. He was trying to insult Meany and ECW, but he insulted WWF. By calling him an ECW “reject”, he is admitting  that WWF picks up the scum in ECW. So, what does that make ECW, better than WWF? That’s brainless Lawler for you. Meany goes for a moonsault, but misses. Goldust finishes this off with Curtain Call @ 3:10. Goldust gives him Shattered Dreams after the match. What a waste of talent and opportunity in Goldust. Goldust had a great edgy and mysterious character that could have worked beautifully in this era, but they decided to keep him a glorified midcarder. If Goldust’s character and Dustin Rhodes ring work merged together, he could have been something much, much bigger than he was. Not a good match by any means, but at least it did its job of setting the tone for the loud crowd. ¼*

Vacant Hardcore Title: Al Snow vs. Hardcore Holly.

Starts out like a typical WWF hardcore title match as they head out into the streets. They do some more typical garbage brawling outside. They both go into the river. Holly raps up Snow into some cage-fencing, and Al Snow can’t kick out of the pin @ 9:58 I quite possibly enjoyed this when I saw it live, but since this formula has repeated itself over and over again, I couldn’t really get into this at all. Holly was surprisingly over, though. * 1/2

The Big Bossman vs. Mideon

Did they really think these two heels would actually interest the crowd? Bossman works over Mideon early on, but misses a chairshot (because chairs are legal in DQ matches in Russo and Ferreras’ world, sometimes) In the ring, they do some more boring stuff; then a huge boring chant breaks out. Bossman nails the Bossman Slam for the three @ 6:21. After the match ends, The Ministry does a beat down on the Bossman. The Undertaker slowly makes his way down, and watches the beat down on Bossman. Bossman gets carried out of the area, and this was later set up the Hell in the Cell everyone loves. Awful match. -***

WWF Tag Team Titles: Owen Hart & Jeff Jarrett (w/Debra) vs. Mark Henry & D-Lo Brown (w/Ivory).

In early on, Henry and Brown obliterate Hart and Jarrett. Debra distracts “Big Sexual Chocolate” with her vanilla. Jarrett hits the stroke on D-Lo. Lawler and Cole find it original to make fun of Bret Hart two years later.  Heels work over the faces, until D-lo gets the hot tag. Henry goes rage on the heels. D-Lo nails a spinebuster on JJ. He goes up for the Lo-Down, but Debra distracts him. Owen hits Henry in the knee with a guitar, and then JJ locks in the figure-four leglock to secure the win @ 9:33. It felt like they all were in auto-pilot, and no one really wanted to do anything really significant in the ring. There also was no structure in the match ever. Why not just make it a tornado tag if both men are legal in the ring even if there is no legal tag? This era was so inconsistent when it came to rules. * 1/2

Intercontinental Title: Ken Shamrock vs. Val Venis (w/Ryan Shamrock) Special Ref: Billy Gunn.

This feud would get really weird as Shamrock would later on date his “sister” in shoot life. You already know how much I hate this feud because of them overshadowing the title completely over a storyline that would be more compatible for Sex in the City. Shamrock goes rage in the ring, but Val attacks him before he can. Shamrock comes back and nails DDT, but Gunn won’t count. They hit each other with moves. Shamrock puts in the anklelock, but Ryan helps Val get to the ropes. Shamrock flips out on her and they have some words. Shamrock then goes back in, but Venis rolls him up and gets a quick count from Billy Gunn @ 15:37. Talk about backwards booking, Shamrock is the heel, but has to overcome the odds of his sister, Val and the screwy ref, ohhhhh-kay… The wrestling, in the match, wasn’t that good, either. *

Triple H & X-Pac vs. Kane & Chyna (w/Shane McMahon).
Chyna was in her heel turn and joined the Coporate Ministry. Kane beats down on X-Pac. Hunter gets a hot tag and hits Chyna like she is a chap. X-Pac fights with Kane outside. HHH hits Chyna with his high knee. Kane pulls down the ropes, and HHH flipped out, and then trade blows. Shane jumps in and attacks X-Pac. Kane breaks up a Pedigree with the chokeslam. He drags Chyna on HHH, and I see it matters who is legal in this match—the irony. Match ends @ 14:45. It was really funny to see Chyna actually get a win over HHH, even if it was a decade ago, but we all know how HHH isn’t one who likes to put over someone he doesn’t really have to. This was a decent, structured tag match. Some good action throughout the match, and seemingly I never got ever bored with it. Best match of the night to this point. ** ¼

WWF Heavyweight Title, Last Man Standing: Mankind vs. The Rock.
Mankind turns away from Rocky so Rock takes an advantage and attacks him. Outside, Rock gets whipped into the entrance structure. Rock heals, and hits a DDT through the announce table.Mankind sets up the Rock on the announce table, but Rock counters to a backdrop. Mick awakes and gives him the Mandible Claw. Rock gets up at 8 and hits a DDT, which knocks out Mankind down for 8, also. Both start hitting each other with chairs, and then eventually knock each other out @ 21:20. The ending was very unsatisfying because of the “MUST BE A WINNER” concept of the match. But these two just had great chemistry together, and could make anything work. Not as violent as their “I Quit” match, but defiantly effective. Too bad the finish didn’t feel precise. ***

Cage Match: Steve Austin v. Vince McMahon.

Vince Mcmahon won the Rumble by basically screwing Austin out of the match, and this was suppose to be the blow off of the feud, but we all know how that went. Austin stars beating Vince to death near the announce table—and chokes him out with a cord. They fight up the stairs. Austin tosses him back to ringside and does a beat down on him on aisle, then back to the ring again. Vince tries to climb into the cage and Austin keeps Vince climbing the cage and Austin knocking him backwards into the table. Vince takes a bump, and hurts himself! Later on, Vince tries escaping, but Austin nonchalantly catches him, drops him back in, and then sends him into the cage. Vince is now bleeding. Austin is now exiting the cage, but Vince gives Austin the two gun salute, which makes Austin come back in. Austin comes back in and beat down on Vince, and then hits a Stunner. But wait, who is that? It’s the Giant from WCW!  Paul attacks Austin and chokeslams him through the cage, but does it so hard—it opens and allows Austin to win @ 7:32. Pretty much a one sided squash match with a few obstacles in the way—that extended the match a little more. There was only so much stuff you could do in order to make it sensible—so it made the match kind of booked against the wall. The attack from Paul later would become gradually forgetting, so an overall horrible and pointless debut for Paul. The finish also kind of made Austin look like a chump rather than a badass. **

Going Home: Even if I desperately wanted to recommend this show for some biased reason, it would nearly be impossible to do so. The booking was abysmal, and the wrestling varied from dreadful, very bad, bad, and to two matches worth watching. Everything on this show felt like a let down; from the booking, matches, effort, and all the way to the opening video package. This show was not good at all, but if you, really want to see it, please watch just the three last matches because the under-card will make you want to punch babies.  But despite these bad shows, they still remained hot as hell over the course of this year, so they were still doing magical things even though the wrestling never reflected it.

Thumbs Down.

Creo que las preocupaciones de WWE sobre las declaraciones de la Superestrellas en su respectivas cuentas de Facebook o Twitter, están apunto de dar mas que un dolor de cabeza. En esta ocasión Nikki Bella publico en su Facebook que Rob Dyrdek de MTV’s Fantasy Factory.

Rob y Big Black podrían ser los próximos anfitriones de RAW en el futuro.

]]> http://superluchas.net/2009/11/05/wwe-cambia-el-rol-big-show-en-la-pelicula-%e2%80%9cknucklehead%e2%80%9d-por-un-peleador-de-mma/ Thu, 05 Nov 2009 16:34:26 +0000 r23d http://superluchas.net/2009/11/05/wwe-cambia-el-rol-big-show-en-la-pelicula-%e2%80%9cknucklehead%e2%80%9d-por-un-peleador-de-mma/

Big Show en la cinta "Knucklehead" / Photo by Molera Hardin

Si bien se pensó que la película Big Show “Knucklehead” trataba sobre un luchador, ahora parece que la película ha sido cambiada por un pelador de combate de “MMA”.

“Escrita por Tom Sullivan & Bear Aderhold y Adam Rifkin,” Knucklehead “sigue el camino y aventuras de un trío de inadaptados – un gigante ingenuo huérfano de la iglesia convertido en un peleador  aficionado, Walter Krunk (Big Show), Un ex campeón de artes marciales mixtas convertido en manager, Eddie Sullivan (Mark Feuerstein), y una asitente de la iglesia convertida en chaperona, Mary O’Connor (Melora Hardin) – peleando para logar un lugar dentro del torneo Pro-Am de artes marciales mixtas en Nueva Orleans. “

Fuente: CineCineCine.com

March 28, 1999
Live from Philadelphia, PA.
Your hosts: Michael Cole and Jerry Lawler

WWF Hardcore Title: Billy Gunn vs. Hardcore Holly vs. Al Snow (w/Head).
Holly is insanely over at this time with the crowd. Holly suplexes Snow on the outside. Snow beats down them with a hockey stick. Gunn thumps him with a food-tray and then breaks a stick over Holly’s back. Snow goes low on him with the broomstick and does some kung-fu stuff. Snow nails Holly with a broomstick and beats up Gunn. Al takes Head and nails both guys. He places up a table in the corner. Holly sends Snow through the table. Gunn hits Snow on the chair with his finisher. As Gunn is pinning Snow, Holly nails him with a chair, and pins Snow himself @ 7:06. Defiantly not a masterpiece, but had some fun spots and got the crowd into it. Not the worst way to start off the PPV,but not the best either. It was funny that everyone who held the hardcore title, which had no credibility, got over immensely with the crowd. * ½

• Highlights are shown from Tag Team Battle Royal hyping up the next match.

WWF Tag Team Titles: Owen Hart & Jeff Jarrett (w/Debra) vs. Test & D’Lo Brown (w/Ivory).

The Tag Titles here meant less than they did now, and they wouldn’t pick up until Edge, Christian and the Hardy Boys came along. D’Lo goes for the Powerbomb, but Owen comes off the top and missile dropkicks him. Jarrett rolls into a jackknife for the win @ 3:58. Four minutes for a tagteam match on Wrestlemania!? Give me a break. At least they tried to pack as much as they can in such little time they had, but they couldn’t do that much in four minutes. * ¼

• People give their opinion on the Butterbean vs. Bart Gunn match, as they try to hype it up.

Brawl For All: Butterbean vs. Bart Gunn.

Butterbean catches him with a solid right and stubbles him. He tilts in and knocks Gunn down. Gunn says he’s alright, but Butterbean moves in and nails him with a right cross @ 0:35. Well that’s one way to get a famous person on the show;however, it still sucked.  N/R

Winner Referee’s the Main Event: Paul Wight vs. Mankind.

This was around the time where they couldn’t think of a name for Paul, but then they finally came up with Big Show, and it stuck with him. Show misses a swing. Mankind puts Mr. Socko in. Show starts fighting out of it, but Mankind keeps the hold in. Show finally picks him up and squashes him down to the canvas.  On the outside of the ring, Show hits Foley with a chair. Big Show then beats up Mankind in the ring, and eventually draws a DQ @ 6:50. Vince McMahon comes out pissed, and he starts yelling at Big Show for ruining the plain; then Vince pimp slaps Big Show, and then Big Show levels him. Vince wants to have Big Show the ref because he wants to give Austin a disadvantage, but Big Show screws the plain up. The match would have been better placed on Raw rather than the number one PPV of the year. Also, am I the only one who finds it funny that this beatdown put Mankind out of action, but his fiercer beat downs didn’t? ¼*

• Backstage, Vince wants Big Show to be arrested.

WWF Intercontinental Title, Four Corners: Road Dogg vs. Val Venis vs. Goldust (w/the Blue Meanie & Ryan Shamrock) vs. Ken Shamrock.

Ryan wounded up screwing Val, Billy Gunn, and Golddust to irate Shamrock, whore! Shamrock and Dogg start out the match. RD hits a dropkick and tags in Golddust. Golddust strikes away and throws Shamrock in Val’s corner. Val tags in and attacks Shamrock.Road Dog counters a Northern-Light and gets the Shake, Rattle, and Roll. Shamrock puts in the anklelock, but Val makes it to the ropes. They take it to the outside, and fight up the walkway where they both get counted out. Road Dog and Goldust are left. Shamrock obliterates them. Ryan by mistake grabs Golddust’s ankle, costing him. He gets a powerslam, but Road Dog rolls through it @ 9:47. No story, no structure and zero-percent of psychology; a bunch of spots thrown into one match with no flow. *

Kane vs. Triple H.

A San Diego Chicken comes out and goes after Kane. It turns out to be Pete Rose, but Kane gives him a TombStone, and it is enough distraction for Triple H to sneak behind and lowblow Kane. Kane tosses HHH away after some punches. Triple H sends him to the floor, but Kane lands on his feet, and pulls HHH out. Hunter irish-whips him into the steps.  Triple H gets him over and slams his face on the announce table. Kane nails H’s ribs into the ring-post. In the ring, Kane throws Hunter to the turnbuckle. Chyna then makes her way down to the ring. Hunter gets out of a Tombstone. Kane charges with the steel steps, but Hunter kicks them back in his face. Hunter trips him,and Kane goes face first into the steps. Triple H lariats him over the top. He goes for the Pedigree on the ring steps, but Kane backdrops him. Kane gets the chokeslam, and Chyna gets up on the apron with a chair. Kane turns him back and whack! SWERVE!  Kane wins by dq @ 11:30. HHH and Chyna start doing a beat down on Kane and DX lives on. Couldn’t Chyna have turned on Kane, and still gave us a real finish; seriously, who wants to see a DQ finish on Wrestlemania? Nothing reached 2^nd gear in this match up; kind of felt like both wrestlers were on auto-pilot.  It is amazing how much HHH would improve over the course of this year. ¾*

WWF Women’s Title: Sable vs. Tori.

Sable gets on the mic, and whoever thought it was a good idea for her to talk should have been fired. Tori wrestles her down and punches her in the face. Tori nails her with a sunset flip. Tori accidentally takes out the referee. Tori mingles out of the Sablebomb and goes for her own—but Nicole Bass press slams her. Sable finishes Tori with the Sablebomb at 5:06. This is not even the worse match of the night. -*

European Title: Shane McMahon (w/Test) vs. X-Pac.

Shane avoids the Broncobuster and runs. Test illegal attacks X-Pac from behind and puts him groin first in the ring post. Shane gets pimp slaps X-Pac around. He misses the Corporate Elbow, but Test distracts the ref while Shane gives X-Pac a low blow. Shane takes Test’s belt and beats up X-Pac. Shane to the top, but X-Pac dropkicks him on the top rope. Test takes X-Pac to the outside, but the Pac dodges him. X-Pac kicks the poop out of Shane and nails the Broncobuster. Test gets in and levels him with the belt. Shane misses the Broncobuster. X-Pac nails a spinning wheel kick on Test; followed by the Broncobuster on Test. Triple H runs down and pulls Test out. Chyna distracts the ref long enough, but HHH turns on X-Pac. Shane covers and gets the win at 8:41. The Corporation beats down X-Pac, but Kane makes the save. Shocking swerve by HHH; at least at the time. It was surprising to see of all the matches in the mid-card; this was the best one out of all of them. It would have been better with less overbooking, less inconsistency of the rules and more time. But overall, it was still a solid match, which felt like a breath of fresh air compared to the other crap on this show. ** ½

Hell in the Cell: Undertaker (w/Paul Bearer) vs. Big Bossman.

They trade blows, and Taker gets a near-fall off a clothesline. Bossman comes back with a neckbreaker. Taker starts beating him down. Taker jolts him into the cell’s post. Bossman ties Taker up with chains and hits him with his nightstick. The cuffs snap and Taker falls down. Taker gets busted open. Taker hits him with a chairshot. Taker rams Bossman into the cell. Taker hits a flying clothesline for only 2.Taker goes up but can’t hit the Ropewalk forearm because the Cell in too small. Bossman takes the advantage and crotches him on the rope. Taker comes back with the Tombstone Piledriver for the three @ 9:46. Heel vs. Heel barely ever works because the fans don’t know who to cheer for or to boo, so it usually ends up being a dead and a not very interesting crowd. Not only did that take place, the match was awful also. Not the worse match I have ever seen, not even Taker’s worse match I have ever seen, but still pretty damn bad. -***

WWF Heavyweight Title, No DQ: The Rock vs. Stone Cold Steve Austin.

Jim Ross replaces Michael Cole and commissioner Shawn  Michaels removes Vince McMahon as ref. Austin and Rock brawl in the crowd, which. They fight to the staging area where Austin throws him into the railing. Austin tries a piledriver, but Rock backdrops him.Austin comes back and stomps a mudpile in the nuts. Austin strangles him with an extension cord and whips Rock into the entrance sign. Back near the announce tables, Rock gives him a water spot. Austin Snake Eyes him on the ring barrier, and follows by an elbow through the Spanish table. Back in, Rock hits a Rock Bottom. ONE-TWO-THR—NO! Rock gets a chair, but Austin takes it away from him. Austin hits the referee with the chair on accident. Austin blocks a chair shot, but can’t hit the Stunner. Rock beats on him with the chair. Tim White comes in. ONE-TWO-NO. Rock puts in a chinlock. Austin fights out of the chin lock but runs into a Samoan Drop for 2. Rock takes the ref out with a Rock Bottom. Rock turns around right into the Stunner! Rock does his overselling on the Stunner. Earl Hebner is the new ref. ONE, TWO, THRE-NO! Vince McMahon comes down and distracts Austin. McMahon nails Earl Hebner and joins the Rock in beating down Austin. Mankind comes out and throws Vince out of the ring. Austin gets two off a schoolboy, but hits a Thez Press. Rock regroups with the Rock Bottom. The Corporate Elbow misses, and Austin counters another Rock Bottom to the Stunner. ONE-TWO THREE! Austin wins @ 16:51. The typical Russo overbooking works here as this match is very fun. Not on par with their matches to come such as WM-17 and 19, but a great effort here. Some noticeable flaws in the match, and an obvious botch, but it didn’t make this less exciting. The match really didn’t have a dull moment, which it good, but I could have gone without the typical Attitude Era crowd brawling. The final sequence was really put together well, and created some good drama. One of the best matches of WWF in 1999, but that’s not really saying much. *** ½

Going Home: This is what happens when you allow Russo to book a Wrestlemania; it turns out to be one of the worse ones up to date. 2 out of 10 of the matches are above bad, and everything else basically is garbage. Wrestlemania should be about wrestling, mostly. Of course you can have your actors, famous people, and all the other entertainment stuff, but Wrestlemania is you’re “A” show, and you should build previous shows up for this one. In this case, Russo used this show to build up angles for the future, and for the show. Wrestlemania shouldn’t be based on storylines and angles; it should be focused on the wrestling. Raw is where you mostly focus on angles and storylines. It is pretty much 101 booking that you use TV shows to build up PPV. Russo still to this day does not understand that concept, and TNA’s buyrates are that low for that reason.

Two Thumbs Way Down.