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WEEKLY THUMBS

Introduction

Hello wrestling fans and welcome to my new column, “Weekly Thumbs”. I am going to do a top 15 and bottom 10 list every week.  The weekly Thumbs up and thumbs down lists will be located below some of my thoughts on the best and worst matches of the week. I will also give out my regular two awards to best performer of the week and best match. So welcome, sit back, relax and enjoy the ride…

Kelly Kelly and Balls Mahoney vs. Victoria and Kenny Dykstra

This match should have been a train wreck from the get-go but unusually it really worked well.  Kelly hit a lot of her moves and she had a great veteran “Diva” to work off of in Victoria .  A mistake that WWE makes a lot of the time is that they put green female wrestlers in with another green wrestler and they hope they will equal out. The truth is that they need to do more of what they did in this match and put people of the caliber of Victoria with someone a bit green like Kelly.  Balls had the crowd behind him and Dykstra is no slouch.  For some reason he hasn’t got over as a heel or a face, the reason mainly being is that he never gets the chance to speak and so can’t really design a character.  This wasn’t a PPV quality match by any means but it was solid for ECW.

Jamie Noble vs. Chuck Palumbo with a date with McCool on the line

Strictly speaking of the match itself I thought it was the worst of the three contests these two have had and that it sort of fell flat.  However, even though it has been done a million times before the “heel gets the date with the good girl” story line is really good.  Noble is making the feuds he is in go from “ok” to absolutely fantastic.  His comedic timing is wonderful.  Sure, this thing has been done with Chyna, Miss Elisabeth, Sable and Torrie but for the most part it works.  Personally I’d like to see McCool actually enjoy the date eventually and turn heel with Jamie. 

Batista vs. Burke

I don’t see a need for WWE to burry an up and comer like Burke just to have Batista squash someone on the road to Armageddon.  Burke is a bonafide talent that is being misused.  Some might say that by Burke being in this match he gets a rub from a name like Batista.  But because Batista isn’t a strong worker in my opinion, that doesn’t really occur like it would if Burke was in a match with Matt Hardy, Finlay, HHH or Shawn Michaels.  The match itself really needed help because I saw a lot of no-selling in this one.

Umaga vs. Chris Jericho

This to me was by far the best match of RAW.  Jericho is still getting a little rust off I think but these two had a great showing. I figured the ending would include one Mr. Orton so that didn’t surprise me.  Jericho I think should go back to his Walls finisher and leave the new stuff out for a bit.  Umaga hit some nice spots and really is a great wrestler at this point, possibly in the top five of the entire WWE.  This was a non-formulaic (Until the end), quickly contested match and if it had some build up and a better ending could have been PPV quality. 

3D and Devine vs. MCMG and Lethal for the tag straps in a ladder match

I thought this was a fantastic television match.  Many people may have hated this match because of the ending with Ray stealing the tag championships but even that was done brilliantly.  Devine and Lethal are a good 3^rd man and really work well against each other in the ring.  I thought their tables match from this past weekends PPV was phenomenal as well.

The MVP interview of Michael Hayes

This was one of my favorite moments on wrestling television this week.  Hayes worked as a face from a heel perspective and MVP through it down and cashed it in.  I love that they brought up Hayes’ managing the Hardyz in the early days.  Everything made sense except that Mysterio really should have came in to save the Freebird, not wait until MVP’s beat down was done.

***

Match of the week – Chris Jericho vs. Umaga
Superstar of the week – MVP
Promo/Interview of the week – MVP/James Mitchell – (a tie, they were both great)

The Thumbs Up List

#1 – MVP – He is just too sweet on the mike and he is continuing a great angle without the other man in the angle. 
#2 – Umaga – He put on a great match with Chris Jericho and sold like crazy
#3 – Team 3D – Their match this week earned them this spot, they were the best thing on TNA impact and arguably were in the best match at the PPV
#4 – The Motor City Machine Guns, see above and rerinse!
#5 – Eric Young – He was put into the headline event at the PPV and he pulled his weight and then some. He is a fantastic talent
#6 – HHH – His promo this week was off the charts and the stuff about his “Step Father”, while tongue and cheek was delivered really well
#7 – Kane – He had a great match with Edge and did well on ECW too.
#8 – Gail Kim – Her bouts with Awesome Kong have been great, the feud is well established and she is by far the best female competitor in either brand right now.
#9 – The APA – no the bout wasn’t pretty but it was great to see them back and they did exactly what any “Legend” team should do, the promo was funny as well.
#10 – Chris Jericho – he has some ring rust but he is working it out and coming along.
#11 – Edge – it is still great to see him back on TV.  He had a decent match this week and he simply the best heel today.
#12 – Matt Striker – you can hate him all you want, because that is what he is trying to get you to do.  He is the next Bobby Heenan if WWE creative lets him.
#13 – Samoa Joe – He had a heartfelt promo and 2 great matches. Enough said.
#14 – Kevin Nash – he is a lot more grey but he is also really good and he gives a powerbomb like no other.
#15 – Kevin Thorn – He had a solid match this week on ECW but it was against a nobody.  However, his new look, and attitude are fantastic, thumbs UP!

The Thumbs Down List

#1 – The Major Brothers – They are green, green, green and even have a dark green complextion.  They aren’t great in the ring.  They are absolutely horrible on the mike.  Whomever thought these two were going to be the next “Rockers” are insane.
#2 – Batista – He isn’t a great champion.  It amazes me he does buy rates at ppv’s.  He was horrible in his match and worse on the mike.
#3 – Ken Kennedy – I expected so much more from this guy a year ago.  I really thought he was going to be the next Rock, instead MVP took that role.  I am not looking forward to his match with Shawn at the PPV.
#4- Raven – Nothing he does lately impresses me. His character is strange and not in a cool way like that of Golddust or Abdullah the butcher.
#5 – Miz and Morrison – I don’t like them and I don’t think they are making any waves as a top tag team.
#6 – Kurt Angle – His character is tired.  His in ring performances are lackluster.
#7 – Christy Hemme – I can’t stand her and this week she was just even more annoying.
#8 – Don West – Okay, he isn’t a wrestler or a manager but can someone please remove him from my earlobes?
#9 – CM Punk – he is a fantastic wrestler but his promos are abissmal.  I really hope they put the ECW title on someone else soon and flush out his character.
#10 – Great Khali – Finlay has his work cut out for him in a couple weeks.