EXTREME PURORESU

My views on Pro Wrestling from the East and West

Tuesday, June 29, 2004

RAW stacks the deck against Benoit!

RAW kicks off with HHH and Evolution calling out Eugene then spreading propaganda about how they are Eugene's true friends. William Regal comes out to set the record straight, but HHH get Regal to confess to only being Eugene's mentor to get his job back. HHH then gives Eugene an ultimatum that he can either go with Evolution, or with Regal. But before Eugene could decide, GM Bisch comes out and announces William Regal will face Triple H tonight, with the special guest referee being EUGENE! Personally, I'd love to see HHH VS Regal and hopefully this will be a good match.

First match of the night is a rematch from last week, Edge and Chris Jericho VS Batista and Randy Orton. For those who didn't know, Batista KO'd Jericho last week with a wicked clothesline. Interesting how the arena's fire alarm goes off as the match starts. This was an awesome tag match. Ending saw Batista accidentally KILL Orton with a VICIOUS clothesline! Orton was out like a light! Edge then speared Batista and Jericho hit the Lionsault to win the match.

After recapping Kane breaking the news that Lita is pregnant with his child, We see Lita crying in the back about sleeping around to protect Matt and confiding in Stacy again.
Back in the ring and it's surrounded by security as JR does his interview with Kane. Kane says he took out HBK cause he was angry about losing the match to Benoit at Badd Blood. Kane then says he shagged Lita with every intention of getting her pregnant. JR brings up the fact that Lita could be pregnant with Matt Hardy's kid, which sets Kane off on JR till Matt Hardy comes out of nowhere and beat down on Kane! GM Bisch comes out and orders security to remove Hardy from the arena. He then states in the world title main event later, Benoit can ONLY retain the title via submission, whereas Kane can win the title on pinfall, submission, disqualification and count out!

Next up was William Regal VS Triple H with Eugene as the referee. This was a good match until the screwjob ending. Regal totally out WRESTLED HHH, even hitting a sweet Exploder near the end. Flair then distracts Eugene and tosses in some brass knucks to HHH, but Regal knocks down HHH and gets the knucks! Before Regal can use them though, Eugene sees him with it and disqualifies Regal! Eugene turns his back to Regal after the match and HHH knocks Regal into him! Regal decks HHH, but Eugene thinks Regal cheapshotted him and goes wild on Regal! Flair & HHH have to pull Eugene off Regal.

La Resistace VS Rhyno & SGT. SLAUGHTER is next! Rhyno dominates both La Resistance for the opening moments before getting double teamed. Rhyno rallies back makes the hot tag to the Sarge! Slaughter goes to work on both French sympathizers and locks the Cobra Clutch on Conway before it gets broken up by Grenier. Conway hits a DDT on Slaughter, but gets taken down by Rhyno. Grenier knocks Rhyno off the 2nd rope to the floor and La Resistance finish off Sarge with the tandem neckbreaker finisher.

Triple H fires up Eugene backstage about how Kane, Benoit and Regal all made him angry in the past, but now he's a member of Evolution and they will take care of anybody who hurts him from now on.
Three matches are announced for Vengeance:
Randy Orton VS Edge - IC Title
Chris Jericho VS Batista
Triple H VS Winner of Benoit/Kana - World Title
Coach enters GM Bisch's office as Ric Flair leaves thanking Bisch for something. Bisch then tells Coach that while he's away on vacation next week, EUGENE will be interim GM of RAW!

Main event time as Chris Benoit has the decked stacked against him defending the world title against Kane. Benoit can ONLY win by making Kane tap out, whereas Kane can win by ANY means. Story of the match is Benoit trying to lock on various submissions on Kane and Kane trying to get the win by count out. Benoit eventually locks on the Crossface, but Kane powers up and drops Benoit with a Samoan Drop. Kane tries for a Tombstone, but Benoit floats over and hits the triple German on Kane! Benoit hits the diving headbutt and goes for a cover, but the referee wont count. Benpoit goes up top, but Kane catches him! Before Kane could launch Benoit, Benoit instead jumps off and drops Kane's arm over the top rope! Back in the ring, Benoit rams Kane's shoulder into the corner post, followed by a German suplex into the Crossface! Kane tries to escape but Benoit rolls on to his back to singe in the hold and Kane taps out!!!
Post match, Kane attacks Benoit and chokeslams him. Lita then comes down with a big smile on her face. She hands him the title belt and raises his hand! Kane is all smiles himself till Lita low blows him! She goes to hit him with the belt, but he grabs her by the throat and goes for the chokeslam, but lets her down, remembering she could be carrying his child. Kane tells Lita to get out of the ring and as he turns around, Benoit smacks him in the head with the world title belt! Show ends with Benoit celebrating with the world title belt. Great show!

Junior war on 7/3 in Osaka Pro!

New Japan Pro Wrestling will go to war with Osaka Pro's Kishiwada Gurentai faction on 7/3/04 at the Osaka Delfin Arena in the main event of Osaka Pro's Saturday Night Story show. The match will see Jushin Thunder Liger and a team of 3 other as yet named New Japan junior heavyweights face off with Big Boss MA-G-MA, Daio QUALLT, GOA and Black Buffalo as Liger seeks revenge for Gurentai's attack on him during the Best of Super Juniors tour, costing him his place in the finals. Who will Liger select as his partners? And will this settle the score once and for all? This will be a VERY interesting match and hopefully a tape of it will come out!

Monday, June 28, 2004

WWE Great American Bash Results

Fatal Four-Way Elimination US Championship Match
John Cena VS Rob Van Dam VS Rene Dupree VS Booker T

They’re starting off the pay per view with one of the advertised main events?!? Booker hits a spinebuster on Dupree and RVD hits both of them consecutively with the Five Star Frog Spash, but Cena sneaks in a roll-up to eliminate RVD first. Cena hits the FU on Dupree but Booker hits Cena with the Scissors Kick before pinning Dupree. Booker quickly pin Cena, but only gets 2. End sees Cena counter the Scissors Kick into the FU to retain the championship. This wasn’t as good as I thought it would be. The live crowd really didn’t seem to get into it until the end.
Match Rating: **1/2

Cena passes Charlie Haas and Ms. Jackie backstage and they congratulate him. Cena hits on Jackie before moving on. GM Angle then gets on Haas’ case for hanging around the likes of Cena when he used to be Angle’s protégé. Angle tells Haas his match with Luther Reigns is next.
Sable in the hot tub says she’s gonna interview herself. She says later she’ll beat Torrie as she looks best in red, white and blue.

Charlie Haas with Ms. Jackie VS Luther Reigns with Kurt Angle
Reigns is another big muscle head in black thights. Can’t they think of a different wardrobe for these guys? Don’t know if it was suppose to turn out like this, but Angle has red, white and blue on the back of his wheel chair which looks like a French flag! Luther dominates this match from the start. Haas finally comes back with a BIG Exploder but gets 2 on the cover. Hass hits a good German suplex hold on the big man but gets another 2. Hass misses a corner charge and rams his shoulder into the corner post and Reigns gets the win with an impressive modified neckbreaker/reverse DDT. Fans only got into it at the end when Haas made the come back.
Match Rating: **

John Bradshaw Leyfield gives a good promo about how he’s a great American and how he guarantees he’ll win the world championship.

Chavo Guerrero VS Rey Mysterio – Cruiserweight Championship Match
Rey controls the match early targeting Guerrero’s left arm. Chavo finally get the advantage after dropkicking Mysterio off the top to the floor. He then starts working on Rey’s leg. Mysterio hits a big dive out of the ring on Chavo. Both men slug it out on the top rope before they drive each other to the mat. Chavo tries to slingshot Rey into the corner, but Rey springboards off with a dropkick before taking down Chavo again with a headscissors into a side Russian leg sweep. Chavo comes back and hits the Gory Bomb but only gets 2! Rey hits and Enzuguiri and hits the 619, but Chavo catches Rey out of the West Coast Pop into a single leg crab! Rey fights to get to the ropes and break the hold. Chavo goes for the Gory Bomb again, but Mysterio counters into a sunset flip to win the match! This was awesome as they gave the match enough time and both men sold their injuries well.
Match Rating: ***1/2

Torrie Wilson in the hot tub with Spike Dudley, Billy Kidman and Funaki. The three cruisers argue they would have won the cruiserweight title if they were in the title match until Torrie gets up from the tub revealing her stars and stripes bikini. She says she has to go prepare for her match and after she leave, Funaki says “God bless America!” Heh.

Kenzo Suzuki with Hiroko VS Billy Gunn
Gunn does an ugly fisherman’s suplex hold leaving HIS OWN shoulders on the mat. Suzuki hits his iron claw sweep but doesn’t cover him! Instead hits a big knee drop followed by a shoulder nerve claw. Suzuki is moving really SLOW. Suzuki hits (almost) a Shinning Wizard for a 2 count. Gunn comes back with a big tilt a whirl slam. Suzuki hits a low blow when the ref was shoved off by Gunn and finishes Gunn with a weak looking back breaker from the reverse DDT position. This was OK TV quality stuff, but Suzuki needs to speed up his movements.
Match Rating: **

Paul Heyman with a bound and gagged Paul Bearer. Heyman says no one (including the authorities) believes he’s gonna dump the cement on Bearer later on. Heyman rants on how he’s probably gonna dump the cement whether the Undertaker does the right thing or not.

Sable VS Torrie Wilson
Sable dominates, showing some actual wrestling skill! Sable hits a flipping neckbreaker ala Curt Henning and locks on a cross arm chin lock. Torrie comes back with a big suplex and they slug it out before colliding and butting heads. Sable plays possum as Torrie showed some concern for her, and Sable rolls her up and gets the pin as the referee didn’t notice Torrie’s shoulder was WAY off the mat, but Tazz & Michael Cole point it out.
Match Rating: **

Dawn Marie by the hot tub interviews Rene Dupree. Rene says he’ll protest and get a rematch then tries to hit on Dawn before he gets interrupted by the FBI! Nunzio points out he’s got 15inch feet, and you know what they say about guys with big feet (wink wink). Nunzio leaves with Dawn and Johhny Stamboli mocks Dupree’s manhood.

Mordecai VS Hardcore Holly
This was mostly a slugfest. Holly hits a stun gun, but Mordecai smacks heads with Holly as he rebounds off the ropes. They slug it out some more and Holly hits a flying clothesline off the top rope. Holly hits a reverse DDT for a 2 count. Mordecai hits a Sky High for a 2 count. Holly hits his dropkick for another 2. Mordecai counters the Alabama Slam into his crucifix powerbomb, which finally gets the crowd popping as he gets the 3 count. Started slow, but turned into a short spotfest near the end.
Match Rating: *1/2

John “Bradshaw” Leyfield VS Eddie Guerrero – WWE Championship Bullrope Match
That’s a really short rope their using, and shouldn’t this be the MAINEVENT? The rules state that you can only get disqualified if you intentionally untie yourself from the bullrope. This started out really slow until they took it ourside. Eddie whacks JBL senseless with a steel chair and busts him open. Eddie goes to tap the corners and taps 3, till JBL stops his momentum. Eddie again makes 3 corners before JBL clings to the ropes to stop his momentum. JBL comes back with a DDT. Eddie crotches JBL with the bullrope then hits the triple suplex followed by the frog splash! Eddie gets 3 corners before JBL rolls out of the ring to stop his progress. JBL comes back and smacks Eddie with the cowbell before launching him off the top rope onto the Spanish announce table that DOESN’T break! JBL then powerbombs Eddie through the table! Back in the ring and JBL gets 3 corners before Eddie grabs the bottom rope to stop JBL. JBL whacks Eddie with the cowbell again and gets another 3 corners and struggles with Eddie before Eddie hits him low with the cowbell! Guerrero starts whipping at JBL’s back with the bullrope. Eddie goes for the corners, but JBL follows from behind and also hits the corners. JBL hits Eddie with a Lariat at the 3rd. JBL struggles at the 4th, but Eddie jumps in on JBL and tags the corner and wins the match!!!
WAIT A MINUTE! GM Angle comes out and points out when Eddie splashed Bradshaw in the corner to tap the pad, Bradshaw’s back hit the corner FIRST! Meaning JBL hits 4 corners first and is the NEW World Champion! JBL celebrates as the fans could care less and Eddie is distraught. After JBL leaves, the fans give Eddie and standing ovation. He acknowledges the cheers but is clearly depressed at losing the title.
Interesting that Angle never came out when Torrie was pinned with her shoulder clearly off the mat. This started off slow, but got good at the end. The crowd mostly came alive for corner tapping, but could care less Bradshaw won and was almost in total silence for his celebration. How long will his reign last is the question now.
Match Rating: **1/2

The Dudley Boys VS The Undertaker – Concrete Crypt Match
Heyman buries Bearer up to his ankles in cement to test Undertaker’s loyalties. Bubba demands Taker do the right thing and lay down for them. Taker lays down and Bubba get on top, but Taker chokes him! D-Von comes in and gets choke! Heyman distracts Taker before he can follow up and the Dudleys start beating on Taker. Taker comes back and sends them to the outside. Undertaker goes for Old-School, and Paul pulls the lever filling more concrete into the tank. Taker stops his offense and the Dudleys beat on him again. Taker gets the advantage again and goes after Heyman. Heyman says he’ll bury Bearer if he takes a step further. The Dudleys attack Taker from behind and he stumbles forward. Heyman pulls the lever as Taker “took another step forward”, and just as the cement reaches Bearers neck, Bubba pulls the lever down and says Heyman started it, but the Dudleys want to finish the match with Taker. Taker gets beat down a bit before Taker mounts a comeback. Taker hits Old-School on Bubba Ray and tries for the Tombstone on D-Von, but D-Von floats over and hits a low blow. Heyman makes his way to ringside and Taker sits up! Bubba attacks Taker, but gets chokeslammed. Taker then Tombstones D-Von for the win.
Match Rating: **

Heyman goes to pull the lever to dump the cement of Bearer, but a lightning strike comes out of nowhere sending Heyman stumbling back! Taker makes his way to Bearer and salutes Bearer, and then goes to the cement truck. He glares at the lever then tells Bearer he has no choice and to “Rest In Peace” before pulling the lever himself! Show ends with Taker leaving as Paul Bearer gets “buried” in cement.

Overall: So the show ends on a swerve? Can’t wait to see the dumb explanation they give for that one. The overall show was ok. Match of the night was definitely the cruiserweight title match. Bradshaw’s title win was most definitely a sympathy prize, but they played it out well and should be interesting to see how they follow it up.
PPV Rating: **1/2

Sunday, June 27, 2004

Matches added to the Bash

Three more matches have been added to tomorrow's WWE Great American Bash PPV. As I expected, Billy Gunn faces off with Kenzo Suzuki. Below are the other two matches added and my predictions:

Hardcore Holly VS Mordecai
- So it's the guy that hates putting over anyone he doesn't deam as worthy against the new guy that Vince is heavilly into. It'll be interesting to see how this ends. Mordecai wins in around 5 minutes. Not even Michael Hayes can save Holly from losing this one.

Charlie Haas VS Luther Reigns
- Haas' partner gets put on the shelf, so he's left as fodder material for the big guys? A sucker's bet is Luther wins, and that's who I'm going with.

So at the last minute creative thinks up 3 matches to fill out the card. But here's one thing that dissapoints me, WHERE ARE THE OTHER CRUISERWEIGHTS? That Battle Royal on Thursday set up alot of possibilities for matches (London-Nunzio for example). They'll most probably put it on HEAT, but they seriously could have had a big six-man spotfest or something for the pay per view, or the last two guys eliminated (Kidman and Noble) could have been in a match to determine who faces the winner of Mysterio/Chavo on next week's SmackDown. So many possibilities and a CREATIVE TEAM can't think of anything.

Friday, June 25, 2004

Great American Bash PPV Predictions

WWE's first Great American Bash PPV (Shame on them if they think there's will be related in anyway to the original NWA/WCW line of shows just cause they own WCW now) is just around the corner and on the final SmackDown before they PPV they only have FIVE matches announced! Way it go creative team! Guess they aren't really that creative now aren't they? Anyways, here are my predictions for the matches announced up to this point. There either gonna add more meaningless matches at the last minute, or we can pray Rey Mysterio and Chavo Jr go 60 minutes!

Eddie Guerrero VS John Bradshaw Leyfield - WWE Championship Texas Bullrope Match
- Guerrero wins, unless Vince decides to give the title to JBL out of pity for losing his job at CNBC.

John Cena VS Booker T VS Rob Van Dam VS Rene Dupree - US Championship
- This match will probably be after the Concrete Crypt Match, and Angle will send someone to screw Cena out of the title. Or the screwjob could lead to Cena helping Taker later. I say Dupree will pull off the darkhorse win.

Rey Mysterio VS Chavo Guerrero Jr - Cruiserweight Championship
- This will easilly be the best match of the night if not the four way US title match. Rey Mysterio retains the title since there's no one left to help Chavo right now, and hopefully some fresh faces will get their shot after this like maybe Paul London for one.

The Undertaker VS The Dudley Boys - Concrete Crypt Match
- Shouldn't this be more of an angle than a match since if the Undertaker doens't "do the right thing", Paul Bearer gets burried alive in concrete? And will the cops be on stand by to arrest Paul Heyman for attempted murder? John Cena saves Bearer, leaving Undertaker free to whoop the Dudleys, but expect a post match beat down by Mordecai.

Torrie Wilson VS Sable
- This will be short that's for sure. And maybe even the outfits they'll be wearing! Torrie wins, Sable gets stripped to please the guys, then Torrie takes it off herself. The usually cycle.

Billy Gunn VS Kenzo Suzuki
- Yeah, I predict this match is gonna happen and I predict Suzuki wins it.

Spoiling The Illusion

I caught the midnight replay of RAW after I got back from Bintulu. It was an OK show, but we all know there's always something on that 'Spoils The Illusion'!
WWE RAW
- Counting down to Vengeance which is about several weeks away and still no official matches announced! We don't even have a main event yet!
- Is Kane getting a title shot next week because of all the carnage he caused last week? Guess his whinning and complaining paid off. And he still had time to stink up our screens with the dumb pregnancy storyline with Lita and Matt Hardy!
- Isn't it dumb how WWE tries to pass itself off as reality television, yet most of their angles and storylines AREN'T very realistic when most of the time we have peoples confessing all kinds of crap right in front of the camera, and yet no one other than the commentators usually acknowledge it?
- The above also applies to whoever that drag queen was that came out of the crowd to help Victoria. Wouldn't security normaly rush in and escort whoever jumps the barricade out of the building?
- So what does Eric Bischoff's sister think of Bisch calling her son an embarassment to their family? And what kind of mother is she to not warn her own son about Bischoff's intentions? Or does she not even watch her own son on TV every week eventhough it was her son's dream to do so?
- OK, we have a number 1 contenders match, yet Bishoff was still gonna make HHH number 1 contender for intentionally getting himself disqualified had he used the chair on Eugene? Or are they gonna play it out as Benoit got Eugene disqualified for attacking HHH, hence HHH is No.1 contender? I predict Eugene costs Benoit the title at Vengeance, as he blames Benoit for the chair shot and still believes he's helping his 'friend' HHH. You read it here first.

Friday, June 18, 2004

Spoiling The Illusion

WWE Badd Blood
- Boy am I glad to see I'm not the only one who thought the Hell In The Cell match dragged too long. Seriously, I can admire HHH & HBK going the distance, but they just dragged it as they took too long to recover from each other's offense. They could have benefitted from a faster pace too.

WWE RAW
- Obviously the first thing to point out is Kane being all pissed off about not being No.1 Contender anymore since he blew his shot at Badd Blood. It's not the first time it's happened to him so why should he be so angry about it now?
- Why did Kane only attack HBK and not HHH? It would have made all the sense in the world for him to beat up HHH since logically HHH WON the Hell in the Cell match and not HBK. They could have at least have Kane take a shot at HHH before HHH bails and leaves HBK to Kane's wrath. Or maybe they could have had GM Bisch announce first WHO the No.1 contender was?
- The Lita/Kane angle already gets my vote for WORST angle of the year. I don't think we'll see anything else that can top this pile of crap. At least Bradshaw on SmackDown is making more sense story-wise. I could write up a whole column on the crap in this story to point out all the holes in it. Pregnancy angles NEVER work. Except that one time Stephanie McMahon faked it to manipulate HHH. But that was intentional faking! And the pay-off was good! NO GOOD can come from this angle with Lita and Kane.
- OK, I totally LOVED the Highlite Reel segment with Eugene, but COME ON! If Eugene really is HHH's biggest fan, he most probably has seen all the times he's backstabbed people and in general is not a nice person or someone you could trust.

WWE SmackDown
- Great. Bradshaw loses his spot on CNBC and what does WWE do? Take his appology off WWE.com and use it as an angle! Brilliant! On top of that, not ONCE did they mention on air WHY he was no longer working for CNBC. Jealous of his success? YEAH RIGHT!

Thursday, June 17, 2004

WWE RAW Thoughts

Caught the replay of the post Badd Blood edition of RAW and it was really a laid back show to give the workers a chance to rest up after the PPV.

Show starts with Kane destroying GM Bischoff's office after he found out he's no longer no.1 contender. Why is Kane so suprised? It's not the first title shot he's blown and he never complained before.
Back in the ring, JR brings out HBK and HHH and ask them to shake hands to finally end their feud and get on with their lives. Just as they seem about to shake, Bisch comes out and says he's here to announce the new no.1 contender. Kane then comes out and attacks HBK. He stares down HHH, but HHH backs away and leaves Kane to beat the bejesus out of an already injured HBK. Kane sticks HBK's head into a chair and stomps it, causing HBK to spit blood. Officials and medics charge the ring to attend to HBK and this scene gets dragged just too long. Bischoff never announced the no.1 contender by the way, and I'm guessing it was HBK since Kane attacked him instead of HHH who WON the Hell in the Cell match last night...
First match is Matt Hardy & Lita beating Tyson Tomko & Trish Stratus when Lita pinned Trish with her DDT finisher. Nothing special, but way to push the record breaking FIVE TIME Women's champion by having her lose clean to Lita.
HHH meets up with Bisch and asks if he's the no.1 contender. Bisch says next week HHH will be in a no.1 contenders match with EUGENE!
ASTRO cut out the Joe Schmo plug. Thank God.
La Resistance defeated Hurricane & Rosey in a flag match. This was boring and the Grenier's singing of the Canadian national anthem is just HORRIFYING!!! Hurricane deserves so much better than this.
ASTRO cut out the long RAW Diva Search plug. Again, Thank God!
Lita in her locker room looking worried. Zoom out and she's holding a home pregnancy test! Oh the horror of the un-creative Creative Team!
Hour two begins with the Chris Jericho's Highlight Reel and special guest Eugene. I just LOVED this segment with Evolution and HHH playing up being Eugene's friend. William Regal's facial expressions were pure gold! Definately best segment of the night.
Backstage and Stacy Kiebler asks to borrow some elbow pads from Lita. Lita confides in her that she's pregnant (ugh), and to just keep it to herself for the time being.
Next match is Gail Kim & Molly Holly beating Stacy Kiebler & Nidia. Nidia looked good despite her limited mobility thanks to her DOAX inspired enhancements. Gail gets a submission win on Stacy with a move even I'd have trouble describing!
Recap of the Hell in the Cell match from Badd Blood followed by Kane's assault on HBK earlier in the night.
Main Event of the evening sees World Heavyweight Champion Chris Benoit as the sole survivor in a 6-man elimination tag match as he teamed with Edge and Chris Jericho VS Ric Flair, Batista and Randy Orton of Evolution. Batista was the first eliminated after a big aerial assault by the face team and Y2J pinning him after the Lionsault. Flair pinned Y2J next after Orton RKO'd him out of the Walls of Jericho. Orton pinned Edge after another RKO following a low blow. Chris Benoit tapped out Flair with the Crippler Crossface, then tapped out Orton with the Sharpshooter to win an awesome main event match that brought RAW into 25 minute overtime in the US!

Chavo Classic out of WWE
Chavo Guerrero Sr was released by WWE for missing two consecutive house shows this past week. No one was able to get in touch with him during his absence, not even his own son Chavo Jr who had to sub for him on the house shows could contact him. When Chavo Classic showed up for SmackDown tapings, he was informed of his release, and he had no excuse for his absence, shrugging them off like no big deal. Chavo then did the right thing and jobbed the title at the SmackDown tappings. This was another bad WWE decision that came back to bite them on the ass, as they gave the title to someone totally not deserving of it in place of the younger stars on the roster that the Creative Team "have nothing for". And what was Chavo Classic thinking? Many guys would have killed to be in his position and he just shrugged it aside. Chances like that don't come by often especially for guys his age.

Monday, June 14, 2004

Full NOAH Tokyo Dome card announced

The full card for NOAH's 7/10/2004 Tokyo Dome show, titled "Departure", has been announced. The WLW title match noticibly was taken off the card. It's already a packed card with FIVE big title matches, and knowing the way NOAH works, this is gonna be a LONG show!

NOAH "DEPARTURE 2004", 7/10/04 (NTV/G+ LIVE)
TOKYO DOME
1. Mitsuo Momota vs. Haruka Eigen
2. Tamon Honda, Jun Izumida & Tsuyoshi Kikuchi vs. Masao Inoue, Kishin Kawabata & Masashi Aoyagi
3. Kotaro Suzuki & Ricky Marvin vs. Michael Modest & Donovan Morgan
4. Akitoshi Saito & Makoto Hashi vs. Scorpio & Richard Slinger
5. Akira Taue & Takuma Sano vs. Daisuke Ikeda & Mohammed Yone
6. GHC Junior Tag Team Titles - KENTA & Naomichi Marufuji VS Takashi Sugiura & Kendo KaShin
7. GHC Junior Heavyweight Title - Jushin Thunder Liger VS Yoshinobu Kanemaru
8. IWGP Tag Team Titles - Yoshihiro Takayama & Minoru Suzuki VS Takeshi Rikioh & Takeshi Morishima
9. GHC Tag Team Titles - Mitsuharu Misawa & Yoshinari Ogawa VS Keiji Mutoh & Taiyo Kea
10.GHC Heavyweight Title - Kenta Kobashi VS Jun Akiyama

Labels:

WWE Badd Blood PPV report

La Resistance VS Edge & Chris Benoit - Tag Team Titles
Ok opener, but nothing special compared to the brilliant tag bouts they've been putting on for free on RAW these past few weeks. They teased to desention between Edge & Benoit again. Edge almost accidentally speared Benoit again, but this time Edge managed to put on the breaks in time. Benoit manages to lock the Crossface on Grenier when Kane runs in and attacks Benoit and Edge causing a DQ. Kane chokeslams Benoit before ramming his back into the steel steps.
Match Rating: **

Chris Jericho VS Tyson Tomko
Good debut for the big man. Tomko attacked Jericho's bad ribs throughout the match. I think this was also the first match in a long time where Jericho missed the Lionsault but didn't land on his feet. Tomko powers out of several Walls of Jericho attempts before Trish Stratus gets involved but instead she accidently gets knocked off the apron by Tomko! Jericho then picks up the win with his SWEET shinning enzuigiri!
Match Rating: **

Interview with Randy Orton and he goes off on the live crowd for booing him. He decides to go out into the crowd to brag some more about himself and about how he is the definition of true greatness. Shelton Benjamin then comes out and wants their match to start now since both men are there with their gear on. Orton tries to back out but a referee quickly runs in and calls for a bell starting the match!

Randy Orton VS Shelton Benjamin - Intercontinental Title
Very good match betweent the two. Cool spot sees both men slug out,trading punches back and forth puroresu style! Another cool spot was Orton picking Benjamin up in a Canadian backbreaker before dropping Benjamin down in a neckbreaker! Benjamin hits his T-Bone slam but Flair pulls Orton's leg on the ropes right in front of the ref! Benjamin goes after Flair drags him into the ring. The crowd BOOS Benjamin when he locks a figure four on Flair! Several near falls later and Orton steals the win as he rolls through a cross-body off the top and hooks the tights for the win.
Match Rating: ***

Backstage and Lita & Matt Hardy are about to get intimate when GM Bischoff comes in with a platoon of security guards to escort Hardy from the arena on the chance the he might be planning on attacking Kane later (I wonder why? It's not like Matt KNOWS what happened the past few weeks). Hardy leaves when Bisch threatens to have Lita removed from the title match.

Trish Stratus VS Gail Kim VS Victoria VS Lita - Women's Title
This was a entertaining match as all four did good work. Lita got the pin on Trish at one point, but Tomko pulled Lita off by the hair, so the referee ejected him from ringside. Lita hits a reverse Twist of Fate on Trish, but Gail makes the save and locks a stretch muffler on Lita before Victoria makes the save! Gail comes off the ropes and locks on the flying headscissors armlock, but Trish broke it up. Gail slammed Trish and locks on a dragon sleeper before Victoria breaks that up! Lita and Victoria then went at it before colliding and sending Victoria out of the ring. Gail and Lita then go at it and Gail misses a corner charge and Lita hits her sweeping DDT, but Trish rolls up Lita out of nowhere to win the match and become a record FIVE time Women's Champion!
Match Rating: ***

Jonathan Coachman VS Eugene
This was just a comedy match. Coach tried distracting Eugene with a bikini-clad babe with a tray of cookies! Garrison Cade got involved but was accidentally knocked off the apron by Coach! Eugene then hits a Rock Bottom followed by the People's Elbow for the win! Eugene then hit a Stone Cold Stunner on Cade before also giving one to Coach!
Match Rating: *

Kane VS Chris Benoit - World Heavyweight Title
This was alot better than I expected it to be as they kept a good pace going. Kane powered out of Benoit's early attempts at the Crossface and the Sharpshooter. Benoit manages to hit the triple German on Kane, but Kane sits up as Benoit goes up for the swandive, so Benoit gives him THREE MORE Germans before nailing the swandive headbutt! Kane rallies back and connects with the chokeslam! But Benoit kicked out at 2! Benoit then catches Kane off the top rope into the Crossface out of a flying clothesline! Kane powers up, but Benoit switches to Kane's other arm! Benoit then quickly rolls up to get the win and retain the title!
Match Rating: ***1/2

Triple H VS Shawn Michaels - Hell In The Cell Match
Big back and forth match as both men literally try to kill each other. HBK countered a Pedigree with a low blow. HBK missed a Sweet Chin Music and HHH rammed the steel steps into his head. HBK whacks HHH senseless with two HUGE chair shots. HBK gets a LADDER out from under the ring and rams it into HHH's head before driving it several times into his abdomen. HBK counters a Pedigree and slingshots him into the ladder in the corner. HHH sends HBK shoulder first HARD into the corner. HHH gets a TABLE out from under the ring. HBK fights back, sets up HHH on the table and drives him through it with an elbow drop off the ladder! HBK covers but only gets 2! HHH counters Sweet Chin Music with a low blow and nails the Pedigree! HHH covers and only gets 2! Both men struggle to their feet and HBK connects with Sweet Chin Music! HBK slowly crawls over and covers but only gets 2! Both men struggle to their feet again and HHH hits a 2nd Pedigree! They both struggle up to their feet again and HHH hits his 3RD Pedigree and finally manages to get the three count at 47:26 to end the match!!!
Match Rating: ****

Post match, Evolution come out to help HHH back. HBK slowly gets to his feet and gets a standing ovation from the crowd for his efforts as the show ends.

Overall: The main event lived up to the hype big time I guess. Who would ever have though we'd see a 47 minute match in the WWE in this day and age? Match Of The Year? Maybe. Kane/Benoit was also suprisingly better than I expected. I also wished they had given the Women's title match more time. OK show overall.
PPV RATING: ***

Sunday, June 13, 2004

Nagata strikes a grand slam!

Yuji Nagata teamed with long time friend Kendo KaShin to defeat All Japan's Satoshi Kojima and Kaz Hayashi on 6/12/04 to become the NEW All Japan tag team champions. Nagata pinned Kojima with a backdrop hold at 24:17 to win the titles. This makes Nagata the first man to have ever held the IWGP, GHC and All Japan tag titles! Even more interesting was that earlier the same day Nagata wrestled as Lion Maru for a NJPW show before quickly taking a train to make the AJPW event!
The same show saw Triple Crown champion Toshiaki Kawada make a successfull V6 title defense against Jamal, winning by referee stop at 18:01. Genichiro Tenryu and Masanobu Fuchi made their first defence of the All Asia Tag Titles beating Kensuke Sasaki and Katsuhiko Nakajima when Fuchi pinned Nakajima with a cradle at 14:04 after putting Nakajima through "backdrop hell". Taiyo Kea also sealed his place as Mutoh's partner to challenge Misawa & Ogawa for the GHC tag titles at NOAH's Dome Show when he beat Arashi in 14:14 using Misawa's Tiger Driver '91!

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WWE Badd Blood PPV Predictions

Eugene VS Jonathan Coachman
- Eugene wins despite interference from Garrison Cade.

Chris Jericho VS Tyson Tomko
- Tomko wins with help from Trish and the returning Christian.

Victoria VS Gail Kim VS Lita VS Trish Stratus - WWE Women's Title
- If it was one on one, I'd easilly pick Gail to win the title, but since everyone else is now involved I'll go with Victoria retaining before losing it to Gail in a singles match on RAW.

Randy Orton VS Shelton Benjamin - Intercontinental Title
- Despite looking bad this past week on RAW, I can see Benjamin winning the match, but not the title due to outisde interference.

La Resistance VS Chris Benoit & Edge - Tag Team Titles
- With the oh so obvious heel turn of Edge looming on the horizon, expect La Resistance to retain due to another misscomunication between the two challengers.

Chris Benoit VS Kane - World Heavyweight Championship
- Benoit retains to go on to feud with Edge, and Kane goes back to stalking Lita and beating up undercard guys.

Triple H VS Shawn Michaels - Hell In The Cell Match
This definately should be entertaining, and I'll admit it's not gonna be easy to pick a winner. If HHH wins he goes on to continue his never ending World title chase. If HHH loses, He STILL goes on to continue his never ending World title chase. HBK on the other hand would have no one left to feud with if he loses, though he'd probably dissappear for a while before returning later. So I'll pick HHH to win this.

Spoiling The Illusion

WWE has a bad habit of using the two months they have between brand PPVs to build up the main events, but only announce the undercard on the last show before the actual PPV. Like I've mentioned before, the main event of the card is the main selling point of the show, but it's the overall product that will usually gets people to shell out their money. It would also probably help the live attendance numbers if they knew in advance what's on the whole show for the evening. Then again, WWE may also have so little faith in their undercard that they might think announcing the full card in advance might turn off the fans from watching the show. Heck, their using Benoit TWICE on the same PPV.

WWE RAW
- Sure we know Batista is a monster, but for God sakes, Tajiri got in more offense than what Shelton Benjamin got in this past Monday. And Benjamin has a PPV match this Sunday. Despite having Orton cost him the match, WWE seriously could have booked this one alot better to make Benjamin more credible. And why didn't HBK come out to help Benjamin during the post match beat down?
- Johnny Nitro is a trained wrestler, so why was he more nervous about having a match with Eugene than Jonathan Coachman was? And on top of that, he basically got squashed by Eugene.
- I've said it before and I'll say it again, how stupid is it gonna look to have all of us watch it on TV, EXCEPT Matt Hardy who's supposedly sitting at home this week, when Kane met up with Lita, and yet NO ONE is gonna tell him about it next week? How encouraging is it if your own wrestlers don't even watch your product on their down time?

Wednesday, June 09, 2004

Was it worth it, Bradshaw?

For those of you who didn't know, during the WWE's tour of Germany this past week in Munich, John Bradshaw Leyfield decided to be smart and get some cheap heat from the German crowd by immitating the German soldier march and then sticking his arm in the air for the Nazi salute. He got more than he bargained for doing that cheap heat stunt as fans were so offended by it that one of them actually tried to attack him! And if you didn't know, it's ILLEGAL to use the former Hitler salute and Bradshaw could easilly have gotten arrested and outright banned from entering the country for his actions, be it for entertainment purposes or not.
If that wasn't bad enough, upon learning of his actions, CNBC has terminated their relationship with Mr. Leyfield, wanting nothing to do with him whether he was acting or not. Nice going, Einstein! Hope the cheap heat was worth losing your stock analyst career over! That's one thing less you have to brag about now and you'll be lucky if anyone from the corporate world would want your stock advice anymore.

RAW drips Badd Booking

The final RAW before this weekends Badd Blood pay per view was an OK show, but had me shaking my head at some points.

We start off with Stacy Kiebler coming down to announce the deadline for the $250,000 Diva Search. She then demonstrates they need to learn how to enter the and exit the ring several times, great fan service since she was wearing a pink dress, but wouldn't the WWE get more return on their $250,000 by just recruiting a new wrestler instead of giving it to some bimbo they have to train from scratch and risk getting another Jackie Gayda?
Anyways, Gail Kim interupts and we have our first match which sees Gail losing an OK match to Lita after Lita hits a sweeping DDT.
Backstage and GM Bisch announces Coach VS Eugene for Badd Blood. He then puts Johnny Nitro in a match with Eugene for later tonight with the stipulation that if Nitro loses, he's FIRED.
Next up Batista beat Shelton Benjamin in a near squash with his sit out powerbomb after interferance from Orton and Flair. Benjamin seriously didn't get in much offence here. Guess we'll have a new IC champ this Sunday.
Backstage Edge tells Benoit he made a request for a tag title rematch. Some tension arises as Benoit sticks it Edge about getting speared last week. Coach then comes in to inform Benoit he has a handicap match against both members of La Resistance.
Trish Stratus and Tyson Tomko are in the GMs office. Trish states that Lita beat the No.1 contender for the Women's Title, Gail, and that She beat Lita some weeks back. She wants to be no.1 contender, but before Bisch could give his answer, Kane comes in and stares down with Tomko briefly before asking to speak with Bisch in private. I loved the tension during the staredown of the two monsters.
Chris Jericho beat A-Train with the Walls of Jericho. A-Train's first match on RAW since he was traded. Ok match, but the Train has long since been derailed.
HHH comes out and blabs a bit about his match this Sunday with HBK before going up to the sky box for watch the rest of the show. They then play a cool video package highlighting the HBK-HHH feud.
Next match sees tag champions La Resistance defeat World champion Chris Benoit by DQ when Edge runs in and starts cleaning house. This prompts GM Bisch to come out and make their tag title rematch for this Sunday at Badd Blood, meaning Benoit has to work TWICE in one night! Bisch then orders the match to continue, but as a handicap tag match with KANE teaming with La Resistance! End of the match sees Kane get a CLEAN PIN on Benoit with a chokeslam after escaping the Crossface! This was the first time Benoit has been pinned since becoming world champion.
Next up Eugene beat Johnny Nitro in what could be considered a squash as Nitro got next to ZERO offense in on Eugene. Eugene even did a few of the old Junk Yard Dog mannerisms, which was fun to watch and got the crowd going! So Nitro is supposedly fired now.
They announce the Women's title match is now a fatal four way with Victoria defending against Gail Kim, Lita and Trish Stratus.
Backstage Lita is on the phone talking to Matt, and after she hangs up Kane shows up and says it was him that got her into the title match at Badd Blood and that what was going on between them still isn't over. The dumbest angle on the show returns...
Shawn Michaels beat Randy Orton by DQ in a very good main event match when Batista and Flair ran in. HBK took out all 3 of them before running up to the sky box to brawl with HHH to end the show.

Overall, an OK, albeit last minute booked show. WWE has got to learn to stop just building the main events over the course of a month, but only book the mid and undercard a week before the PPV.

Sunday, June 06, 2004

Fujita wins IWGP title!

Kazuyuji Fujita began his 2nd reign as IWGP champion yesterday after defeating Hiroshi Tanahashi in just 11:45 by KO following a series of heavy head kicks. Fujita becomes the 38th champion and now plans to use the original IWGP title belt instead of the current one.
Fujita's first reign as IWGP champion ended in 2002 when he had to forfeit the title due to a leg injury he suffered in the PRIDE Openweight Grand Prix Tournament in a match against Mark Kerr.
Fujita was place in the decision match with Tanahashi after reigning champion Bob Sapp surrendered the title and basically dissapeared after losing to Fujita at the K-1 ROMANEX MMA show.

Mutoh's Partner named
Keiji Mutoh will team with his former BATT disciple, Taiyo Kea, to face Mitsuharu Misawa and Yoshinari Ogawa for the GHC Heavyweight Tag Team Titles at NOAH's 7/10/04 Tokyo Dome event. Will be interesting to see how the match goes as Kea is currently a heel in AJPW, aligned with TAKA Michinoku's gaijin faction. It has also been said Kea's workrate is not what it used to be since returning from injury. So, broken down Mutoh + sub-par Kea + lazy Misawa + even lazier Ogawa = ???
You be the judge come 7/10/2004.

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Saturday, June 05, 2004

Spoiling The Illusion

I did indeed manage to catch a replay of RAW this past week, but wouldn't you know when I tuned in it would be just AFTER the tag title match?!? Geez.

WWE RAW
- Interesting how they made no mention whatsoever about Kane being in Lita's dressing room last week, and no one even bothered to tell Matt about it either after we all saw it on TV, as well as JR & King (and who knows who else backstage) viewing it on the monitors. Someone probably remembered Kane has a World title match in a two weeks and thought it would be better to drop his current storyline to build him up for the match. Too bad they couldn't even get that done right when after weeks of Kane squashing smaller guys in seconds, he suddenly can't even beat Eugene?!? They seriously overprotected Eugene here. There would have been no harm in giving Kane the win here and just destroying him till Benoit made the save. This isn't the first time a referee has been shoved by a wrestler, but to suddenly DQ Kane when Eugene DDT'd him on the chair right in front of the referee just isn't right. And after the match, all of a sudden Kane is unstoppable again? Three words: LACK OF CONSISTANCY.
- Again: I HATE VICTORIA'S NEW ENTRANCE!!! It SO reminds me of Kimberly Page when she aligned herself with Johnny B. Badd in WCW as a dancin' fitness freak. GIMME BACK MY PSYCHO CHICK ALREADY!!!
NWA:TNA
- Seriously, how many of you out there with half a brain DIDN'T expect Jeff Jarrett to win the world title back just as TNA Impact! is about to premiere?
- So for the past several months back, Eric Watts was cheating on his wife in front of the whole world with Goldylocks and no one made any mention of it 'till now???
- Anyone remember the open letter from Vince Russo a few weeks back where he said he was sick of the wrestling business and the politics involved, and was calling it quits? Yeah, that's him STILL on TV every week since he made the "shocking" announcement. Guess his girlfriend dumped him when she found out he was going quit his job to go to catholic school...
WWE SmackDown
- Is Undertaker really a 'Special Attraction'? Is it really worth it to push his appearances as 'rare' in hopes it will up live attendance, TV ratings and PPV buyrates? 'Taker seriously needs to take a look at HHH on RAW and take a cue from him to put over the new blood. And couldn't 'Taker just report Heyman and the Dudley Boys to the cops for kidnapping charges?
- So Arn Anderson pushes to get Hardcore Holly and Billy Gunn on the show at the expense of Rob Van Dam, claiming the two get big pops for their matches? Either old Arn is losing his hearing, or that was some pay-off Bob Holly gave him. And didn't having their match cut from the actual broadcast say it all about what people REALLY think of Holly's matches?
TNA Impact
- Is Chris Harris winning the tag team titles with James Storm for the ump-teenth time a weak consolation prize for not winning the world heavyweight title, and thus ending his big singles push? And can the same be said for A.J. Styles if he wins the X-Division title next week? I can probably understand them doing it to clear the top rung of the ladder so that Jarrett can concentrate on one opponent (Killings or Raven), but does it really have to be Jarrett in the first place as world champion to lead TNA into Impact? Styles VS Killings would have been more interesting as far as match quality goes.

Wednesday, June 02, 2004

Random News and Thoughts

RAW flickers
Though I couldn't catch RAW this week due to the stupid French Tennis Open, from the reports I read off the net, it really wasn't that good a show. The only highpoints being the opening tag title bout and the Benjamin/Orton match. Hopefully I can catch the replay later tonight to see for myself how bad the rest of it went.

Sapp vacates IWGP Title
Bob Sapp has officially ran for the hills with his tail tucked between his legs as he officially vacated New Japan's IWGP Heavyweight title, but not in person! Oh no, the biggest sports figure in Japan instead handed the belt to K-1 and asked them to give the belt back to New Japan before runnng back to America. To say the first half of 2004 has been a roller-coaster for New Japan is an understatement.

Pro Wrestling NOAH news
- Jun Akiyama finally completed his V2 defence of the GHC Hardcore Crown as he defeated Masao Inoue by referee stop on 5/30/04.
- Akiyama scored a big blow to Kobashi yesterday as he choked him out with his front neck lock, now called the "Tarapagani Lock" or "King Crab Lock'. This was related to a bizzare training accident where Kobashi had a nipple bitten off by a crab (?!?). Akiyama & Saito actually lost to Kobashi & Honda, but it didn't stop Akiyama from choking him out.
- On NOAH's big 6/1/04 show, Daisuke Ikeda dethroned long running WLW champion Takeshi Morishima to become the 13th champion, winning with a series of hard kicks to the head at 12:38. The same show was main evented by KENTA & Naomichi Marufuji making their successfull V6 defence of the GHC Jr Tag Titles, beating Kotaro Suzuki & Ricky Marvin in 32:59, Marufuji pinning Suzuki with the Shiranui.
- Word is now going round that Yoshihiro Takayama and Minoru Suzuki will defend the IWGP tag team titles against Takeshi Rikioh and Takeshi Morishima (WILD II) at NOAH's 7/10 Tokyo Dome show. It's a good step in using outside talent to help draw for the show.