The Shoot #43
December 15, 2009
By: Joshua Piedra of WrestleView.com
-The First Shot-
Hello everyone and welcome to your 43rd edition of The Shoot. Before I get into the column this week, this is going to be part one of a six part column. Now, before you scratch your heads and wonder what topic I have that I could possibly have to stretch over six columns, let me throw out a little disclaimer.
As you remember from about six months ago, Wrestleview.com’s resident teacher, Anthony ?Mr. V? Valvo did the 2009 Mid-Year Awards. Now Mr. V has taken on the role I did with my Armchair Booker Series and is doing the huge 32-Man Tournament? which, I urge you to check out round one and get your stuff in for round two.
I agreed a while back to help lighten his workload of special columns and I decided to do the 2009 Year End Awards. I?ll explain how all of this works in a bit.. but before we do that, let’s hit the Quick Shots!
-Quick Shots-
Booker T’s return to the WWE seems to have died faster than last night’s Raw crowd. According to the news source, all talks between WWE and Booker T have become stagnant to the point there just might not be any interest in bringing him back. This kind of puts Booker in limbo at the moment since he left TNA thinking that the WWE would take him back, but that obviously will not be the case. I guess Booker can still look after his students in Texas.
Mickie James is actually working on a country album. Mickie recently signed with Kent Wells, a well-known Nashville producer (obviously not too well known since I have no idea who this person is? but then again, I?m not a country boy? I?m a japanophile) that has worked with people such as Neil McCoy and Dolly Parton. She?ll be flexing her vocal cords for a Spring 2010 release and honestly, again, I?m not a country fan, but I?d be willing to check it out just to see how she sounds behind a recording microphone? then I?ll immediately follow it up with some JAM Project, FLOW, and Abingdon Boys School.
Hulk Hogan opened his rusted jaw and placed his near-to-fall-off foot into his mouth once again by speculating on Vince McMahon’s reaction to him signing with TNA Wrestling. He believes that Vince hasn?t ?responded favorably? because they ran a press conference in WWE’s hallowed ground of Madison Square Garden. Well? Hogan actually DOES have a point in the fact that they did run a conference in MSG, which is sacred ground to Vince McMahon, but I highly doubt that Vince McMahon is too worried about TNA running head to head with Monday Night Raw. Vince is already holding back his major storylines for Royal Rumble until the January 4th edition of Raw. Knowing Vince, he’s not doing this to save people from turning the channel to TNA? he’s more or less doing this to send a message to TNA that they can?t touch them and they will crush them in the ratings. All I can say is that January 4th has me hyped for Raw more than ever.
-The Semi-Big Shot: 2009 Year End Awards: The Nominations-
As I mentioned at the top of the column, I am taking the reins here for Mr. V’s 2009 Year End Awards column to help lighten his workload. If you missed his Mid-Year Awards, what this column and the ones to follow will do is look at wrestlers and wrestling from WWE, TNA, ROH, and Japan. I am going to add my little twist on it by splitting them into sections, which is why there will be six columns spanning this entire event. The column schedule is as follows:
12/15/2009 (This Column) Nomination Categories for Ring of Honor
12/22/2009 ? Voting results for the Ring of Honor and nominations for TNA
12/29/2009 ? Voting results for TNA and nominations for WWE
1/5/2009 ? Voting results for WWE and nominations for Japan
1/12/2009 ? Voting results for Japan and nominations for Overall Awards
1/17/2009 ? Voting results for the Overall Awards and conclusion
Just keep in mind that all deadlines will be Sunday nights 11pm EST. So the first deadline to get your votes in is this Sunday, December 20, 2009. Nominations are open to all readers as well as wrestleview.com staff. I will advertise this on my Twitter and Facebook accounts as well to help spread the word and I would appreciate it if you all would do to ensure that this becomes a great success.
So basically how this works is I am going to list an award, and you, the readers and/or staff, basically, send me an E-Mail with your pick. Whoever gets the most picks will end up winning the award. This is all opinion based, unlike the Oscars, or Grammys, etc, where the nominations are pre-determined. You, the readers, have complete control over who you should vote for.
With that being said, let’s hit up the Ring of Honor award categories.
ROH Wrestler of the Year:
ROH Tag Team of the Year:
ROH Storyline of the Year:
ROH Match of the Year:
ROH Show of the Year:
Best ROH Singles Champion of the Year:
Best ROH Tag Team Champions of the Year:
Best ROH Finisher of 2009:
Best ROH Moment of 2009:
Most Shocking ROH Moment of 2009:
There are your award categories for ROH. Send all of your nominations aka votes to syscrash2002@hotmail.com
This does make The Big Shot rather short this week, but once the votes come in along with thoughts and whatnot, these columns will get a little more meaty? Luckily, if you want more substance, we can always see how I did with WWE TLC predictions! Come on? you know you want to!
-One Extra Round: WWE TLC Prediction Results-
Randy Orton vs. Kofi Kingston
WINNER: Randy Orton
PICK: Randy Orton
1-0
Thoughts: This one was one of two ?give me? predictions on this card. If WWE was going to build any kind of major feud out of this, Randy would had to have gone over, which he has done. The match itself was actually pretty good? I enjoyed it, at least.
WWE Women’s Championship
Michelle McCool (c) vs. Mickie James
WINNER: Michelle McCool
PICK: Mickie James
1-1
Thoughts: I fast forwarded through this match because I had no desire to watch it. Again, women’s matches for me are a coin flip. If I were Two-Face? I?d be dead right now.
WWE Intercontinental Championship
John Morrison (c) vs. Drew McIntyre
WINNER: Drew McIntyre
PICK: John Morrison
1-2
Thoughts: In the predictions post on Wrestleview, I wanted to go with Drew. I had a feeling that WWE would pull the upset here, but something told me it was too soon and I went with Morrison. I thought Drew would lose and go on a nutso rampage and get a rematch for Royal Rumble an capture the title on one of WWE’s bigger PPVs? guess WWE creative doesn?t think the way I do.
TLC Match for the WWE Unified Tag Team Championship
JeriShow (Chris Jericho and Big Show)(c’s) vs. Degeneration X (Shawn Michaels and HHH)
WINNER: DX
PICK: DX
2-2
Thoughts: This one wasn?t really a ?give me? prediction, because this one could have really gone either way. I just had a feeling that WWE wasn?t done with DX so I went with the assumption that in order to keep them fresh, they would need a run with the belts and that is exactly what happened. If Jerishow (coined it here long before WWE, btw) won the belts, then I could have said that this run for DX would be done since they were getting pretty stale.
Ladder Match for the ECW Championship
Christian (c) vs. Shelton Benjamin
WINNER: Christian
PICK: Christian
3-2
Thoughts: Like I said, Shelton doesn?t deserve the ECW title.. or any title for that matter. He’s just a spot monkey that can?t talk and shouldn?t be the figurehead of a brand. I still think it?ll be a while before anyone un-seats Christian on ECW unless William Regal gets tossed back into the mix with an official title match.
Chair Match for the World Heavyweight Championship
The Undertaker (c) vs. Batista
WINNER: The Undertaker
PICK: The Undertaker
4-2
Thoughts: This was the other ?give me? prediction. I believe The Undertaker will hold the title until Royal Rumble or Elimination Chamber. Having Taker as Champion at Wrestlemania 26 would be too obvious if they were to go with Undertaker vs Shawn Michaels II. I have a feeling he will drop the belt within the next two months. As for the match itself? it wasn?t as good as their Wrestlemania match, but it was still decent.
Tables Match for the WWE Championship
John Cena (c) vs. Sheamus
WINNER: Sheamus
PICK: John Cena
4-3
Thoughts: Wow? that’s all I can say? just wow. No one really could see this one coming. Everyone looked past Sheamus as just another body to add to Cena’s pile, but the WWE pulled a major shocker on the world and I have to say that it was a very bold move indeed. I don?t know what makes Sheamus the guy to put the belt on, but all I can say is that we will have to see where they go from here.
-Culture Shock-
After losing two weeks in a row, my Patriots finally get a win over the Carolina Panthers. My most profound apologies to my friend Dan, but?. YOU LOST! YOU LOST! YOU LOST! YOU LOST YOUUUU LOOOOOOOOOOOOSSSSSSSSSSST!
By the way?. DAN YOU LOST.
After reading the latest Naruto manga chapter, I was kind of blown away by Danzo’s arm. I thought that Madara was going to blow his world in half, but lo and behold, he offered Danzo as a gift to Sasuke. Let’s see how the Mangekyo Sharingan fares against a mechanical arm with twelve sharingans in it. All I know is, I can?t wait until Thursday!
After watching 11eyes? I know that I am going to have to pick up the manga and continue reading the series. I really really hope that this comes back for a second season, but with the way things are going, I think this is just going to be 12 episodes and then it?ll be done. I can?t stress this enough.. if you love anime, this is a must see.
Umineko no Naku Koro ni (When the Seagulls Cry) finishes up next week, but I?ve been lost on this plot since about 2 months ago.I know the sister series (When the Cicada’s Cry) was confusion, but all pulled together in the end, but this one? well.. it’s the end, and it hasn?t pulled all together yet. I hope they pull some strings and get the puzzle pieces in alignment soon otherwise I fear that this series will end in a Deus Ex Machina situation. All I can say is? Umineko wasn?t as good as Higurashi. Shooting a rich guy through the skull with a magical arrow cannot beat whipping your grandmother in front of your sister while she’s in a wheel chair and already dead. Just saying.
-The Final Shot-
That’s going to do it for me this week. If you would like to submit anything as far as column feedback, wrestling discussion, culture shock topics, anything? you can do so by using any of the methods below.
E-Mail: syscrash2002@hotmail.com
Twitter: http://twitter.com/itoshinojjp
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/joshuapiedra
Until next week?
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