WEEKLY THUMBS
By Joel C Croyle on 3/15/2008 11:16 AM
This was an odd week for wrestling fans in my opinion and a hard week to decide which way the “thumbs” were going to fly. But I think in the end I made my points clear. Up in the “Farve4Ever” state of Wisconsin , we’ve had the worst weather in the history of the state this winter, but it seems to be going away…so I want to wish everyone a good weekend…on to my thoughts of this week’s programming.
Smackdown:
Ric Flair, Edge, Chavo, Michaels, and The Edge Heads really put on a show to finish off the TV program. When I heard Chavo was being inserted I really thought it was going to be a beat down angle but the “good guys” came back and did their thing. It was excellent booking and if it is Flairs’ last cage match then it was a great performance. The UT run-in didn’t bother me as it probably did some others, it was done well. What is really interesting to note here is that in that Ring you basically had a wrestler from every ten years Flair (70’s), Michaels (80’s), Edge (90’s) and Hawkins and Ryder (2000’s). It was like seeing the ultimate passing of the torch. Smackdown had some excellent other matches on it (Batista/MVP) but I really need to get something off my chest with this brand…
I am so sick and tired of the burying of good up and coming wrestlers and what they did this week went absolutely too far. Last week Jamie Noble (Smackdown’s and possibly WWE’s best mike guy since the Rock) gets pummeled by Big Show, but at least Noble gets a bit of offense. This week he (Show) destroys the best tag team in the WWE right now of Yang and Moore . But of course the train wreck doesn’t stop there. Later in the show right around the inane “Money Mayweather Entertainment” vignette Cole says something to the effect (not a direct quote) of “you saw what big show did to the tag team specialists Yang and Moore, he acted like they were nothing”. So now we see them destroyed and just to add a cherry on top we get Cole recapping it and destroying their careers. You’d think it would at least stop there but of course not…when setting up the Kane/Noble vs. Khali/Palumbo match Cole and Coach are at it again. (Another non direct Quote) “How is Chavo going to prepare for Wrestlemania? All Four of these men are in the battle royal and he could get anybody of the 24 men…Khali, Kane or even Palumbo.” Hmm….Do you notice a strange omission here? Where is Noble’s name? The guy who is 4 and 2 against Palumbo, the guy who has survived Khali, Show and Vicki Guerrero? Could he not win it? Could he not be the next ECW champion? I mean, lets really be honest here WWE creative....most people would much rather see Noble Vs. Chavo then almost any of the other possibilities spilling out of that tag match. Okay, rant over now. Great job to all the entertainers who worked their buts off for another edition of the show. Oh, and P.S., I understand Cole is no longer working WWE.com…maybe that’s true, maybe it isn’t. If it is though, then I think it is really time they just bag Coach and Cole all together…I am pretty sure Tazz and Styles are free on Friday Nights.
Smackdown: Thumbs in the Middle
Raw:
Well, the circumstances surrounding the new Intercontinental Title Holder are unfortunate. However, Hardy vs. Y2J was an excellent match that for those who didn’t know what was going on behind the scenes (Like me, I didn’t read about Jeff till later in the week) it was a special moment because it was unexpected. Undertaker vs. Henry was what I figured it would be, a chance to put UT over more before Mania and short. The melee between “Money’s” boys and the WWE guys was fantastic. Shoot or not, I finally got interested in this angle and Wrestlemania 24. Shane has some serious grapefruits you ask me. Finlay beating down Kennedy was interesting. I had gone to the Madison , Wisconsin House show and reported on it for this site on last Saturday. I said then that Kennedy limped out of the arena with what looked like a legitimate injury. He hasn’t been taken off the MITB match yet, but I wonder if the Finlay thing was really an injury angle? The other matches were really good as well and I enjoyed Raw more than anything else this week. I loved the Wrestlemania recaps and rematches.
Raw: Big Thumbs Up
TNA
This was a very even show for the most part. It had some misses but it had a lot of good action as well. It was a much better outing than last week’s edition of Impact. They did some good set up for Lockdown, especially with Joe and Angle and Tomko and Cage. I really dug the little backstage thing between Rhino and Cage as they both played their parts perfectly. I thought the knockout match between Kim and Velvet Sky was great and just another reason that TNA has the best women’s division in the world today. I hated that they used the Motor City Machineguns to put over Rellik and Reign just so Super Eric Young could come in and save the day. There was no reason to use a great team like the MCMG to do this angle (See Smackdown’s rant…rinse…repeat). The best match of the week was Kurt Angle vs. Kaz. It doesn’t happen quite often, but it seems that when these two get together, there is chemistry. Chemistry, something apparently the Angle family is lacking these days…Tomko and Styles can’t get along, Karen and Kurt are separating…Jeez if I wanted to see this crap I’d watch General Hospital (quite frankly my wife watches it so I sometimes see it and it is usually better in the storyline department than TNA…that is scary). Jim Cornette was great in the promo with team 3D. I loved his line about moving to Kansas to grow corn, which was hilarious.
TNA: Thumbs up
ECW
I like that we started with an “extreme rules” match. This reminded me a lot of the old ECW and it was nice to see. I really like Colin Delaney all of a sudden. The Miz and John Morrison have been great tag team champions and this match helped to solidify that. The “Helmet to the nads” section of the bout was especially entertaining. Delany’s Tornado DDT attempt was reminiscent of a young Spike Dudley, it really took me back. It was also really great to see Armando Estrada. I think he is an amazing talent that has been misused by WWE for a very long time now. Deuce and Kofi had a nice go at it, but I still am not all that impressed with Kofi. CM Punk did a nice job putting over the MITB match at WM. The Maria package that ran with her in Chicago doing autographs was a really nice package that I hadn’t seen until I watched ECW on the internet this morning, it was one of the best I’ve seen in a bit. If I have said it once I’ve said it a thousand times, do something with Jesse and Festus because they are fantastic and showed it against Burke (who is also good) on Ecw this week. I liked Shelton being on guest commentary; it made sense with him being in all the MITB matches he’s been in. BDV vs. Punk is what I expected, a squash with the “upset” victory by Punk. ECW was fair this week all around and showing a lot of promise for the future.
ECW: Thumbs in the middle
Weekly Thumbs Awards:
Thumbs up male performer of the week – Y2J
Thumbs up tag team of the week – The Edge Heads (Hawkins and Ryder)
Thumbs up match of the week – Kaz vs. Angle
Thumbs up Promo/Angle of the week – Jimmy Cornette and Team 3D
Thumbs up female performer of the week – Velvet Sky
Weekly Thumbs Overall Performance List
#1 – Velvet Sky
#2 –Y2J
#3 – Ric Flair
#4 – Edge
#5 – The Edge Heads
#7 – Kurt Angle
#8 – Kaz
#9 – Shawn Michaels
#10 – Finlay
