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Pro's from the Palace (#188) - Palace Report - WWE, TNA, ROH & more |
» Reported by Mike Siciliano of WrestleView.com
» On Friday, June 22, 2007 at 7:42 PM EST
I thought about hitting you all with a Palace report before this weekend, where I'll have the picks for the Night of Champions, as well as a review and results from Wrestling Superstars Unleashed at the Deer Park Community Center on Long Island. Busy weekend for yours truly, so let's do the pre-cursor to the busy weekend with a plethora of thoughts to parouse.
Wow, big words. Am I an english teacher?
First, I picked up TNA's Destination X 2007, specifically to watch the Elevation X match between AJ Styles and Rhino. I read the reviews, but I wanted to see it for myself. The reviews were right. I hope and pray to anyone that will listen that if they decide to do that match again, they have it a little more stable for the competitors to wage war. Because Rhino looked scared to death, and AJ, although he didn't look it, had to be frightened out of his mind, especially when he finally took the dive. I'm sorry, but I don't care how many years you've taken bumps, when you take a bump from that height, it's gonna smart, and it's gonna smart something awful. One thing to also say about this show, props to the Ghetto Brawl match between LAX and 3D. I liked the involvement of all the other members of D'Von's brotherhood and the Latino Nation. It's that type of chaos that I feed off of, and I would love to see more.
Speaking of 3D, I was asked by my friend Patrick to comment on Victory Road's Main Event, for all the titles, Kurt Angle & Samoa Joe, the World Champ and X Champ respectively, vs. the TNA Tag Champs, 3D, with all the belts on the line. I remember seeing someone mention that ECW did this type of stip back in the mid 90's. I need someone to refresh my memory on that one, because I wasn't following EC Dub back then. What I can tell you on this match though is this.
Joke.
The MATCH ITSELF is fine, let's go to war, Angle and Joe as a tag team after six plus months of beating each other to a pulp? I love it. Lace up the boots, and let's go. Especially with the tag belts on the line, it conjures up memories of when AJ & Abyss won the tag titles, and how Abyss nearly killed AJ every time they came out as champions. It's definitely workable with just the tag belts on the line.
But when you count the fact that either Ray or Devon could technically win the World or X Divsion titles, it makes this match completely set up for a bull-S ending and a no contest. I'm sorry, no offense to 3D, but there is no way on the face of God's Green Earth that TNA is going to put their new singles titles on these guys. They're not X Division, not even close, on both parts, and neither of them have done any, if at all singles wrestling since coming on TNA's show, and from that, the travesty that would be in place if either Ray or Devon was a singles champion would be astronomical.
Ok. Last point on the TNA Victory Road main event, is how bad are they treating the pure X Division wrestlers? Jay Lethal, a man who took on a gimmick that was at the beginning, repulsive, and now, after a proper endorsement, and work by Lethal, has turned in to one of the best faces on the roster, finally wins the big one, and wins the X Title at the Five Year Show, and TNA rewards him with a two day reign so that Joe can come in and take Lethal's spot in the main event for the Pay Per View. As far as I can say, that's just plain awful. Of course there is a ton more marquis value in Angle & Joe teaming up then Angle & Lethal, but the facts still stand. Jay Lethal should have been given a chance to take the ball and run with it, not have the ball stolen from him because of a dumb creative idea for the next pay per view's main event.
Moving on, how much of an exclaimation point is needed about the general feeling of the WWE fans about the McMahon storyline than reading a report today that WWE contacted Jericho about returning, and Jericho wants no part of the company now because he has been "turned off" at the state of the product right now due to this angle. I've had people come to me in email and ask me, Why don't you sound this way about the Undertaker, Kane, and all the actions they've done in the past? And the answer to their question is, I don't know. Perhaps it's because their characters are more 'fantasy' based, and doubtful that you would see a 7 foot undertaker or a 7 foot guy breathing fire like Kane, while McMahon, although bigger than life as we all know, does sound like a quintessential backstabbing bastard boss that any Tom, Dick, Jane, or Harry could be suffering under. In simpler terms, the McMahon angle looks too much like real life. The others that have been mentioned to me were too fake to be believable. This one was believable. It obviously was because it still has the world talking. What it has done though for this fan of the talent first and the product second, is it's made me sick every day I have to read about it.
But, I digress, and I'm gonna move on, and why, because I can.
I suffered through Raw last week to see where the new teams and new personnel were going to fall in to place, and the only thing that hits me like a ton of bricks now is seeing Sandman on Raw chase Carlito out of the building. I mean, really, is WWE going to let this guy do run ins like that on the flagship show? I said six months before Sandman is shown the door. Make that six weeks. If USA is pressuring WWE for ratings, which forced their hand in to the McMahon mess, they're going to take one look at this guy on the A show for the brand, and say, get rid of him fast. End of story.
Some people bashed how London and Kendrick beat up Haas & Benjamin as quickly as they did on television. Personally, I found no difficulty with it. The WGTT has become glorified jobbers, which is wrong in all sense of the word, but they have been, and the fact that Londrick was able to dispatch them relatively easily should not have been too difficult to expect. I'm looking forward to seeing London and Kendrick face off with Cade & Murdoch. However, it would be nice if London could keep his mouth shut. I read the stories how he was almost fired for leaking information about Ashley to people who published it online. Isn't that common sense?
Because of Stephanie's atrocious "acting" last monday, I didn't even watch ECW, but I am glad to see Benoit vs. Punk for the ECW title come sunday night. Personally, I'll go on a limb and say that'll steal the show, and probably force my hand to buy the DVD when it comes out, just to see either Benoit become World champ again, or CM Punk, the first ROH guy I ever saw live, hold his second world title. As weird as it was having Lashley stripped so soon after re-gaining it, this is by far and away the best thing for ECW. Either man can run with the brand on his shoulders, and take it to hopefully a new level. I'll make a prediction now and say Benoit will win the title, but expect this rivalry to grow by leaps and bounds. Yes, I am a CM Punk mark, but I am picking Benoit because right now, I have to believe ECW wants an established star as their champion, and although Punk has a core cult following, he's not fully established. Yet.
I'm not even sure I'm going to watch Smackdown tonight because of the announcements that Teddy Long and this 'investigator' make during the show. I'll probably amuse myself by playing "This Means War II", my latest ROH collection addition on DVD, and as of now, the last Long Island show ever, unless a miracle happens. I watched Delirious vs. Colt Cabana from that show, (hysterical match, but can we have the commentators shut up, because half the fun is listening to Delirious and Cabana banter) and I swear to you, ladies and gentlemen, if WWE doesn't use Colt Cabana properly, I am going to lose my lunch. Cabana can comedy a match as good as anyone, and during his run with Homicide, he can go to war with anyone. They have a diamond in the rough in the fullest extent in OVW right now, and I want to see him on the main stage soon, preferably in ECW with his buddy Punk reuniting the Second City Saints.
From emails, some ideas that need to be published. First off, in response to Hardcore Holly being drafted to Smackdown, my friend Johannes S. from NYC suggested a tag team of Hardcore Holly and the Irishman Finlay. I thought that was absolute pure brilliance. We all know we can't get truly Hardcore on WWE programming but, damn, that would be one intense team, and I'd love to see both of those men slap Deuce & Domino around like a couple of greased up b****es.
And one other, a friend of mine, Dave in Australia, mentioned that perhaps the Sandman going to Raw was or could be infringed with the McMahon angle. Sandman could find himself "implicated" in the whodunit? probe, and from there, perhaps sentenced to "life in jail" with no sense of parole as a punishment, and a perfect write off from WWE programming. Perhaps this move to Raw was to give Sandman a little pop before his eventual exit from the company? I know it's far fetched, but its creative, and I liked it, so I said I would put it up there for all to see. So here it is. Debate it. :)
Moving forward, I am fortunate enough tomorrow night to go to Wrestling Superstars Unleashed in Deer Park. I'll make the main show, I am going to miss the pre-show, but I am extremely interested in some of the combatants that will be performing there. Specifically, the six way match and seeing Human Tornado in person should be quite a treat. I definitely will be posting results and a full review of the show up here soon afterwards.
I'd like to share a brief email from a friend of mine, who I think shares the opinions of the "majority" of my readers about the current state of WWE television.
From my friend Randy Brown.
I'm really thrilled that as a birthday present this year, RAW will be another 3 hour show. I'm also really thrilled that the Mr. McMahon death storyline is still going on. Because I just cannot get enough of the footage. Unfortunately, sarcasm doesn't read well in an e-mail, so this is where I tell you that I'm being very sarcastic with my first three sentences.
As a birthday present to myself, I'm turning the TV off, and not watching RAW. Which I don't do. I may not catch any of the other programs in a given week, ECW, Smackdown, or Impact, but I always watch RAW. And as if we haven't seen enough of it already, we're devoting 3 hours of time to this horrible storyline. It's on par with the past few McMahon-centric stories, Vs. God, and the Battle of the Billionaires. Either tasteless or boring. I just wonder how much longer we have to be subjected to this story. And if it is to boost ratings, like NBC has evidently asked for, this cannot be the answer.
Maybe the draft was.
Now, look, and I know I'm supposed to go on to other things, AND I'M SUPPOSED TO SOUND POSITIVE, but I was parousing my emails for some topics, and I liked this one, so it needed to be brought out there. I don't discount a lot of the things Vince McMahon has done for pro wrestling. And I don't discount that eventually, I'll be back, just like the majority of us will. Maybe this is exactly what WWE wanted, maybe they wanted guys like me to complain, and have everyone else yell back at me, and then turn around and watch the show to see what happens next. I don't know. But, the facts are plain on pad and paper. Maybe they are being talked about, but why would you want anyone to speak about your product like my friend Randy did?
Makes no sense to me.
As far as positive. You want positive. Here. I was very pleased to receive the DVDs I got today, and have enioyed watching the portions of Destination X and This Means War II up to now. It's kind of funny. TNA has been under the gun so badly, but their product from what I saw so far on DX, was OK. No, Elevation X was not the winner they had anticipated, but it definitely hooked in the casual schlub to buy their product, prime example being the author of this ramble.
There, was I positive enough?
Few things to close up. I want to thank everybody for sending in their emails on the topics recently, Shawn Michaels off television, Rob Van Dam off television, the Vince mess, and the draft. I'm pretty sure I'm not going to be able to publish everything, as I should try and move forward with the column. Please rest assured that I thank you for your thoughts and creativity, and humbly invite you to email me anytime. I'm always up for a debate on the sport.
Secondly, I believe my myspace is finally back on line. I was able to post a couple of blogs this weekend, and I will try to return the column there with this piece today. I'll post the link to it here, and hopefully, it'll return to activity like it was before. If it flops on me again, I am moving my blog to livejournal. I'll announce it here if it happens, but at the request of a lot of my friends at myspace, I am trying to keep that page alive.
And lastly, thanks a ton for reading my work. Whether you like it or not, I am grateful you took the time out of your days to check out my thoughts. I hope you continue to do so. As I approach 200 columns, I offer this for an email topic for you guys. I'd like to know what you'd like me to do for my 200th. Is there a special topic idea you'd like to me to try? Any idea will be considered. Let me know what you think, ok?
Let's close out.
Click here to send me an email.
Click here for my myspace.
Thank you.
NOTE: The views and opinions of this piece reflect those of the author solely, and not those of the administration of Wrestleview.com
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