Spoiling the Illusion #5

Just because RAW couldn’t keep my attention for long this week, doesn’t mean I didn’t find anything that spoiled the illusion of pro-wrestling for me.
- My biggest gripe this week is how Jerry Lawler REALLY pissed me off when he said Trish Stratus “got what she deserved” cause she “wouldn’t play ball” with Christian. Every week on RAW were forced to listen to the King rave about Trish’s “puppies”, and now that his favorite puppy supplier almost gets decapitated by a stiff-ass lariat and almost broken in half by the Walls of Jericho, he supports the beating all the way? Maybe King was supporting Christian’s actions cause Chris was doing something King probably wishes he could do to all the women who turn his old-ass down when he tries to ask them out? This whole stupid segment once again glorifies how the WWE supports brutality against women, and that the Divas are nothing more than sex objects to Lawler.
- I have a problem with Foley’s explanation that nobody came to help him last week because the boys lost respect for him when he walked out on his match with Randy Orton last December. That doesn’t explain why Sheriff Austin wouldn’t come out to help since his “job” is to “enforce the law”. And it was Austin himself who asked (or should I say “ordered”) Foley to come back and face Orton back at the Royal Rumble. And now that we know he can’t depend on anyone in the back, he’ll have to go get ‘outside’ help (wink wink) There’s also the way Foley was selling his beating last week like it was the worst beating of his life. For those of us who know Foley’s history, we all know he’s taken worst beatings than that.

NWA:TNA
Vince Russo found religion?!? Nuff said.

WWE SmackDown!
Both Kurt Angle and Brock Lesner seened to give valid reasons for their recent actions. Kurt Angle has always followed his beliefs whether it makes him a heel or a face. Heck, most of the time he turns heel, it almost always has something to do with his opponent's character, Eddie Guerrero's case being his preaching of Lying, Cheating and Stealing! Logically, Angle has a point. But I don't agree with the way he pushed how all drug abusers will always be nothing more than drug addicts. Comments like that can easily make alot of enemies in the 'real' world. And if I were Angle, I'd avoid visiting any suburbs for a while.
I was seriously wondering what the heck Brock Lesner was doing on RAW this past week, and was pleasantly suprised by the reason he gave. He simply blames Austin for giving Goldberg a ticket to No Way Out where 'Berg attacked him and cost him his world title. Simple but effective.


Other News of the week
Tenzan's uphill battle
Hiroyoshi Tenzan's career has been on one heck of a roller coaster ride, highlighted by his current IWGP title reign. Question is, how long can he hold on to the title? His first defence this coming March will be against Pancrase star Minoru Suzuki, who beat Tenzan and Osamu Nishimura for the IWGP tag team titles with his partner Yoshihiro Takayama. And if he gets past Suzuki, he than has to face one of New Japan's greatest champions, Kensuke Sasaki. Many still question if Tenzan would have beaten Sasaki in the IWGP Title Tournament if it were not for the distraction of Shinya Makabe.
If Tenzan does indeed manage to scrape by Sasaki, then his greatest singles challenge is yet to come in the possibility of defending the IWGP title against the biggest name in Japanese MMA, Bob Sapp! The talk now is that the winner of the upcoming K-1 MMA fight on 3/14 between Sapp and Blue Wolf's brother, Dolgolsuren Sumibayazul (Ain't that a mouth full!), would be the number one contender to face the IWGP champion at New Japan's next Tokyo Dome show.
The way I see, if New Japan is to continue building Tenzan as a legitimate champion, HE HAS TO WIN THESE THREE DEFENCES!

Teddy Hart's ego trip
I was quite impressed the first time I saw Teddy Hart wrestle on NWATNA a few weeks back during the Super-X tournament. Now, however, the young Hart has been known to throw his weight around just because of his name value. It's been reported how he's tried to sell himself as a 'loose cannon' and simply must get his way. He has heat with ROH, and even got into a fight earlier this week at TNA tapings with CM Punk. And he faked a knee injury later on. Hart is doing all he can to get noticed in the wrestling world, though not in a good way. He so wants in to the WWE, but I'm guessing he wouldn't last long there with the attitude he has.

Big gaijin names for HUSTLE-2
Zero-One's 3/7 big HUSTLE-2 show is bringing in alot of foreign talent to work the show. It's rumoured their trying to get The Outsiders (Scott Hall and Kevin Nash) to work a tag match against Satoshi Kojima and Shinjiro Ohtani. If they do get the Outsiders, don't expect this match to be pretty. Alot of ex-ECW talent is also being booked, as well as the return of Nathan Jones. Zero-One is also trying to push a new gaijin worker called Monster Joe, but better known as Canada's own Juggernaut.
Current card for HUSTLE-2:
- Masato Tanaka VS The Gladiator VS Sabu VS Justin Credible VS Tetsuhiro Kuroda (I say dump Kuroda and replace him with an ex-ECW worker!)
- The Predator VS Dan Bobish
- Leonardo Spanky, Latin Lover & Kaz Hayashi VS Low-Ki, Homicide & Kintaro Kanemura (I still wonder when the heck Kanemura ever became a Jr. heavyweight?!?)
- Shinjiro Ohtani & Satoshi Kojima VS TBA (Possibly Scott Hall & Kevin Nash)
- Naoya Ogawa VS Giant Silva
- Shinya Hashimoto & X (Possibly Toshiaki Kawada) VS Mark Coleman & Kevin Randleman
- Dusty Rhodes, Steve Corino & CW Anderson are also booked to appear on the show.

Rikioh No.1 Contender for GHC Title
NOAH's Takeshi Rikioh scored probably the biggest win of his singles career when he beat Akira Taue in just under eight minutes (!) with a lariat in a No.1 Contender's match on 2/26. He will now go on to face NOAH's unstopable GHC champion, Kenta Kobashi, on 3/6 at the Nippon Budokan. Also on the card for that big show is Jushin Liger's V2 defence of the GHC Jr Title against Makoto Hashi and Misawa & Ogawa defend the GHC tag titles against Daisuke Ikeda & Mohammed Yone