According to F4W/Wrestling Observer, Batista is going to be out of action for a while with a hamstring tear that may need surgery. This probably throws a wrench into the Wrestlemania plans, but will help freshen up his character which wasn’t really going anywhere. You hate to see someone like him go through another muscle tear with his past injuries, but that’s the price one pays for being so muscular. There’s a reason you don’t see most NFL players with that kind of muscle size.
On a happier note, Trish Stratus returned to Raw last night (for one night only I’m guessing) since the show was in Toronto and teamed with John Cena against Glamarella. She looked great and even though the match wasn’t anything special, the show actually did feel special with her presence. Remember when Raw used to fun like this?
(I’m on the west coast, so this play by play is a bit delayed)
Why, after all these years, are they bringing back the Slammy’s? Well, they need three hours of TV to fill tonight. Why after 5 years away am I blogging Raw again? Eh, I don’t know. I think I just have a heart for nostalgia and while this show won’t be as wacky as the old Slammy’s stuff, I think it will still be fun.
But probably not as fun as this.
For some reason, we have three huge matches that completely overshadow anything that WWE will try and make you pay for this weekend at Armageddon. It’s highly unlikely that we’ll get any clean finishes though.
Maria and Festus (with a tie over his overalls) present the tag team of the year award.
Nominees: Carlito & Primo, Team Priceless, Miz & Morrison, and Cryme Tyme
If Miz & Morrison don’t win, it’s a travesty. And thankfully, they win. Morrison thanks Chuck Norris while Miz thanks Baba Booey.
1. John Morrison vs. CM Punk
This match is one of the semi-finals of the Intercontinental contender tournament. Punk did a cross body to the floor, but Morrison didn’t catch him very well.
Survivor Series is in Boston and guess who is coming back? Yep, John Cena. I bet he still gets booed.
Remember when this show was the Thanksgiving tradition? I remember watching this on Thanksgiving and then they moved it to the Wednesday before Thanksgiving (Hogan vs. Undertaker). The first Survivor Series show was in 1987. My friend Young Randall says he bought the show in 1990 because he remembers Ted DiBiase introducing the Undertaker.
Chris Jericho says that not every story has a happy ending. John Cena’s story is always happy. Until he gets booed.
Good ol’ JR says that CNN reported that Jeff Hardy was found unconscious. He had me for a second until he said he wasn’t sure if Hardy was going to wrestle tonight or not. It sounds like this is a way to get Edge back involved.
1. Shawn Michaels, Cryme Tyme, The Great Khali, and Rey Mysterio vs. JBL, MVP, The Miz, John Morrison, and Kane
Traditional Survivor Series rules here.
MVP yakuza kicked JTG and got the pin.
The Great Khali chopped MVP and then pinned him immediately after. And then he kissed a fat chick. Ok, that’s not until later.
If not for Shawn Michaels and Chris Jericho, I don’t think I would’ve bought the show tonight. Wait, didn’t I say that at the last PPV write-up? Oh well. There’s only one other compelling match, and they’ve done everything they can to ruin that one. Jeff Hardy and Triple H are now fighting to see who gets Kozlov, or something like that. I’m not exactly sure why he’s in the middle of their feud, and don’t really care because they’ve done a terrible job promoting the match. The ladder by itself is more intriguing than this match.
We’re opening up with Matt Hardy vs. Mark Henry. I guess it’s good to get it out of the way early.
Big D is going to send me his thoughts after the matches and I’ll add them after mine. This might be interesting. Our tastes in wrestling are very similar at times, and completely opposite at others.
1. Matt Hardy vs. Mark Henry
Henry took most of the match and it was very slow. The crowd popped for Hardy pulling the Twist Of Fate out of his ass as Henry had him up for a slam. Todd Grisham and Jerry Lawler (I didn’t hear why The Teacher wasn’t doing the color) are trying to sell this as Hardy’s biggest win ever. Hardy keeps his ECW championship.
I wouldn’t usually blog about Raw or Smackdown, but this is the biggest Raw or Smackdown show in a very long time. They’ve done a great job publicizing the event, and you could say they’ve done a better job than promoting the PPV. There are many champion versus champion matches.
But it looks like we’re opening up with an 8 man tag.
1. Jeff Hardy, Rey Mysterio, Fit Finlay, and Batista vs. MVP, JBL, The Brian Kendrick, and Kane
I’m already tired of Gregory Helms’ “I’m just saying,” gimmick by the way.
Let’s hope there’s a lot of MVP and Kendrick for the heel side.
The match wasn’t as exciting as I thought it’d be and it was really long. But the last two minutes were great. Rey Rey made the hot tag to Jeff which lead to everyone getting in the ring and kicking each other out of the ring. Rey hit MVP with the 619 and Jeff hit the swanton for the pin.
Winner: Jeff Hardy, Rey Mysterio, Fit Finlay, and Batista
Big D has you covered with the latest in Florida Championship Wrestling. He wrote the August 28 FCW taping report for the recently merged F4WOnline/Wrestling Observer site. Vladimir Koslov and Beth Phoenix showed up to join in on the fun.
CC-BY-3.0; Released under the GNU Free Documentation License
1. Jeff Hardy vs. MVP
MVP used a few submissions and Hardy sold for a lot of the match. Hardy made his comeback and hit the “Whisper In The Wind”. He went up top for the swanton, but saw Shelton Benjamin come out and jumped on him. He went back to the top and then missed the swanton. MVP hit the “Shining MVP” for the win. Pretty good opener.
Winner: MVP by pin fall
Santino and Beth Phoenix did an interview with Maria where the gist was that Maria couldn’t have Santino anymore because he was all Beth’s. Maria looks awesome.
Every week I will try look at Raw, ECW, TNA, and Smackdown and give my thoughts. These are just my thoughts ladies and gentlemen, just my thoughts.
Random wrestling thoughts for the week of July 21, 2008:
Raw
After all the great work that Chris Jericho and Shawn Michaels did last night, the Raw show opens with Kane and his bag. Great, just great.
It appalls me how much JBL is pushed considering that with his back injury, he’s one of the worst wrestlers in the company. I know he can talk, but if when he gets in the ring, I want to fast forward, what good is that?
What a shitty opening segment.
Paul London is out to face Lance Cade. Where’s London’s big, huge bodyguard? Wait, that’s Brian Kendrick.
It’s the RAW after the Bash as WWE prepares to head towards SummerSlam, their supposed 2nd biggest PPV of the year (I always thought Survivor Series was #2 and SummerSlam was #3, but oh well).
Loved: Unique Open. Batista in the truck with Kevin Dunn watching the tape just screams “WCW Nitro”, and that’s been a lot of the focus with RAW lately. WWE is trying to shoot things from different perspectives and add new “sets” to things rather than stick with the boring formula of match-angle-match-interview-interview-match-angle-match. Thankfully, RAW is bouncing things around.
Hated: Clusterfuck Intro. How many times does WWE have to start a program after a PPV with every top guy coming out and laying claim to the World Title. Granted, it does make the World Title seem important because everybody is chasing it and trying to get it, but it’s been so overdone and played out that it is ridiculous. Guys coming out and talking all the time is boring. Figure out something else WWE!
On a happier note, Trish Stratus returned to Raw last night (for one night only I’m guessing) since the show was in Toronto and teamed with John Cena against Glamarella. She looked great and even though the match wasn’t anything special, the show actually did feel special with her presence. Remember when Raw used to fun like this?
But it looks like we’re opening up with an 8 man tag.
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