THE TWO SHEDS REVIEW by Julian Radbourne
E-mail: julian@twoshedsreview.com
Website: www.twoshedsreview.com

With this year’s Survivor Series just a few days away, I’m going to carry on with the tradition I stared a while back by reviewing a past big four show, by going back in time twenty-one years to the very first Survivor Series, held on Thanksgiving Day in 1987. The legendary team of Gorilla Monsoon and Jesse “The Body” Ventura are behind the microphone for this one.

The show begins with the Honkytonk Man’s team, featuring “King” Harley Race, Hercules, “Dangerous” Danny Davis, and “Outlaw” Ron Bass, against “Macho Man” Randy Savage’s team of Ricky “The Dragon” Steamboat, Brutus “The Barber” Beefcake, Jake “The Snake” Roberts, and “Hacksaw” Jim Duggan. Even though I’ve never seen this show before, this match immediately brought back fond memories of some of the stars I watched and enjoyed all those years ago. The action here was top notch from start to finish, and even though there were some cuts, it didn’t spoil my enjoyment. In the end it came down to three-on-one, Savage, Roberts and Steamboat against Honkytonk, and after the Intercontinental Champion took a ton of punishment, he bolted for the door, getting counted out in the process and giving the victory to Savage’s team.

Match two saw the women in action, with The Glamour Girls, Dawn Marie, Donna Christianello and Sensational Sherri taking on Velvet McIntyre, Rockin’ Robin, The Jumping Bomb Angels and Fabulous Moolah. It made for a refreshing change to hear two commentators that didn’t constantly refer to the women’s vital statistics. Comparing the women’s action here to that of the current Divas division would be, as the old Bobby Heenan saying goes, like comparing ice cream to horse manure. The action here was terrific, with Sherri the standout in this match. My one criticism of this match would be about messrs Monsoon and Ventura, who didn’t do their research this well, especially as they didn’t seem to know the individual names of the Jumping Bomb Angels, which was particularly vexing as they were the second best thing in this match. Eventually it got down to the two tag-teams, the Angels against the Glamour Girls, with the Japanese team taking out Judy Martin and Leilani Kai in quick succession. Two good matches in a row here guys!

Then it’s on to the tag-team Survivor Series match, with Demolition, The New Dream Team, The Islanders, The Hart Foundation, and The Bolsheviks against The British Bulldogs, The Young Stallions, The Rougeaus, The Killer Bees, and Strike Force. The rules for this match were slightly different - if one member of a team got eliminated, then their partner had to go as well. Now, this is another example of how different the WWE of today is, and mainly because the WWE tag-team division of today is so damn poor. There’s ten great teams in this match, going all out in a great display to achieve victory, and it was a joy to behold, although it was hard to see what was going on at times because there were so many men involved in this one (which is why they used a camera crane for the same match the following year). There’s no real standout performances here, because each and every performance here is great. Two teams came out on top on this one, as B. Brian Blair, doing the old switcheroo with the mask on, pinned Tama of the Islanders to win the match, leaving the Killer Bees and the Stallions as the survivors.

Main event time, with Andre the Giant’s team, “Ravishing” Rick Rude, King Kong Bundy, “The Natural” Butch Reed, and the One Man Gang, against Hulk Hogan’s team, Bam Bam Bigelow, Ken Patera, “The Rock” Don Muraco, and “Mr. Wonderful” Paul Orndorff. The crowd went absolutely wild during this one, which wasn’t surprising because this was at the height of Hulkamania. As with the previous matches, this one was filled with great action from start to finish, with the main focus being on the return of the Giant after Hogan defeated him at Wrestlemania III. It was kind of awe aspiring to see Andre, the Gang and Bundy on the same team, three of the best big men professional wrestling has ever seen. There were some really good performances in this one, particularly from Bigelow, although Andre, whose health problems were starting to take their toll on him by this stage of his career, spent a great deal of the match on the ring apron. Surprisingly, Hogan wasn’t the sole survivor here, as he was counted out while brawling with Bundy and the Gang, leaving Bigelow against the three evil behemoths. Bam Bam managed to take out Bundy after a slingshot splash over the top rope, and the Gang after the big man missed a top rope splash, but he couldn’t defeat Andre, who took Bigelow out after a double under hook suplex. Things didn’t end there though, as Hogan returned to the ring to clobber the Giant and chase him away. Well, I suppose you couldn’t end a WWF pay-per-view in those days without a Hogan pose down, could you?

In conclusion - this is actually the first time I’ve seen this show, and I wasn’t disappointed. Although some would consider these particular matches to be somewhat overlong, I enjoyed them immensely, and from start to finish, I wasn’t disappointed. The action was good, and it was also good to see some of the greats of wrestling’s past in action again, and as this is available as a tagged classic here (along with the 1988 Survivor Series, which I’ll review next year) in Britain (and probably via a torrent somewhere), I recommend that you try and see this show for yourselves, because, if, like me, you’re an old school kind of guy, you won’t be disappointed.

Read more • 0 Comments

THE TWO SHEDS REVIEW by Julian Radbourne
E-mail: julian@twoshedsreview.com
Website: www.twoshedsreview.com

It’s being touted as the biggest fight in UFC history, as former WWE Champion Brock Lesnar faces the challenge of the returning Randy Couture, with the World Heavyweight title on the line. That is what’s in store as I take a look at UFC 91: Couture v Lesnar, shown live here in Britain on Setanta Sports, with Joe Rogan and Mike Goldberg handling the commentary side of things.

The show begins in the middleweight division, with Nate Quarry and Demian Maia. A quick one to start with. Maia went for a shoot early, which didn’t quite come off at first, but it wasn’t long before the Brazilian was in the mount position. Quarry then rolled over, allowing Maia to take his back. Quarry did his best to stop Maia applying the choke, but it wasn’t long before the rear naked choke was synched in, with Quarry tapping instantly. A very good performance from the Brazilian here.

Then it’s up to the big boys, as former title challenger Gabriel Gonzaga faces Josh Hendricks in the heavyweight division. Things began quickly as both men tried for a clinch. Gonzaga then took things down to the mat briefly, before the clinch attempts continued. Gonzaga then connected with a couple of good knees in the clinch, before a big right hand sent Hendricks crashing to the mat. He followed this up with one punch as Hendricks was on his side before the referee stepped in. A powerful display from the Brazilian native, taking only sixty-one seconds to despatch the debutant.

The third fight saw welterweights Matt Brown and Ryan Thomas in action. Round one saw Thomas connect with a couple of kicks, with Brown responding with a couple of good shots that staggered Thomas a little. A bit of grappling followed, until the fight went down to the ground with Thomas on top, delivering a few good blows of his own. A clinch up against the cage followed as both fighters jockeyed for position, until Thomas took the fight to the ground again, and again, it didn’t stay there for long. Back on their feet, Thomas’ under hooks meant that he was pulling him around like a rag doll, and a short time later he scored with another take down, taking the guard position. Brown quickly went for a triangle choke, which ultimately went nowhere, before he went for an armbar, which went the same way as the triangle. Thomas then got back into Brown’s half-guard, but Brown was far from a passive fighter here, looking to stay as much on the offensive as he was on the defensive, so much so that it wasn’t long before he took Thomas’ guard. This was beginning to look like a great back-and-forth battle as after a few seconds on their feet Thomas took it back down to the mat, with Brown going for another triangle as the round came to an end.

Round two, and Thomas soon went for a take down which Brown easily avoided, although he was successful at the second attempt. Immediately, Brown went for the armbar, with Thomas trying to break out by lifting Thomas up and slamming him twice. But that didn’t work, and it wasn’t long before Brown had the armbar synched in completely, forcing Thomas to tap out instantly. A good old fashioned back-and-forth battle here, with two very good performances.

More welterweight action followed, with Dustin Hazelett taking on Tamdan McCrory. The fight began with McCrory swinging away early on with a good combination, with Hazelett replying with a big kick that sent McCrory down briefly. The action then slowed down a little, until a Hazelett connected with a big right that had McCrory on the back foot. The action then slowed down a little again, until McCrory grabbed a leg and they went down to the mat, and began working for alma platas and arm bars, which led to Hazelett trapping McCrory’s arm, and a short time later, Hazelett twisted a little, and McCrory tapped. A very interesting fight, with some quiet moments, but a good example of submission fighting at the end.

Then it’s down to the lightweights, with Jeremy Stephens facing Rafael Dos Anjos. Round one began with the feeling out process, with both fighters trying to gauge the distance with kicks and punches. Dos Anjos was the first to try for the take down, which Stephens was easily able to defend against, before the fighters got into a clinch up against the cage, with Stephens determined to keep the fight upright, and Dos Anjos determined to take the fight down. Dos Anjos soon got the take down he wanted, taking Stephens’ back before taking the guard. Stephens’ plan was obvious as he kept trying to push himself up against the cage, before he decided to try for a guillotine which went nowhere. Dos Anjos then kept transitioning from side guard to north/south, and back to side guard, before getting into the half guard. Stephens then managed to escape and get into his opponent’s guard, but it wasn’t long before Dos Anjos locked in the alma plata, taking Stephen’s back as the round came to an end.

Round two, and the feeling out process began again, with Stephens determined to keep the fight upright, connecting with some good right hands, kicks and knees. But Dos Anjos was a match for him at times, before going for another take down, moving his man up against the fence before slamming him down. Stephens was holding on to an arm, but not for long, as Dos Anjos soon took Stephens’ back and synched the hooks in, before switching to a body triangle, going for the rear naked choke. But Stephens was able to escape, and almost went straight into a Dos Anjos armbar before getting into his opponent’s guard, and going for the ground and pound. Dos Anjos continued to try and work as Stephens broke off his attack to connect with a few blows.

Round three, and after both fighters tested the water a little, Stephens connected with a right uppercut that knocked Dos Anjos down. He then went in for the kill, got in another couple of shots, before the referee stepped in and called a halt to the proceedings. To say that this was a good fight would be an understatement.

Main event time #1, with Kenny Florian facing Joe Stevenson in the lightweight division. It began with both fighters connecting to get things going, before Florian scored with a big knee. But Stevenson constantly had Florian on the back foot until he grabbed a leg and got the take down, with Florian getting back up immediately. Stevenson continued with his take down attempt, with the attempted slam ending up with Florian on his backside. Kenflo would eventually work his was loose, returning to the centre of the cage. But once again Florian was on the back foot most of the time, with Stevenson continually going forward, until Florian got a take down of his own, taking Stevenson’s guard. Both guys worked well, until Florian got the mount, unleashed with the ground and pound, and then took Stevenson’s back, synching in the rear naked choke. Stevenson resisted for a few seconds, before the inevitable tap out. A good little fight here, and another example of how good Florian is getting as he earned a title shot against B.J. Penn.

Main event time #2, with Brock Lesnar challenging Randy Couture for the UFC Heavyweight title in what many are labelling as the biggest MMA fight of the year. Round one, and the clinch began early, with Lesnar getting in quickly with a couple of good knees. The following clinch up against the cage saw both men jockeying for position, before they returned to the centre of the cage when Couture connected with a strong right. After a few shots were exchanged, Lesnar then went for a take down, defended well by the champion, until Lesnar was able to slam him down and get into the half guard. Couture soon got out, and after grabbing one leg almost took Lesnar’s back, before the former wrestler escaped and got into the champion’s half guard again, connecting with a some heavy blows along the way. But once again it wasn’t long before Couture was able to get up again and engage in another clinch against the cage, trying to get a take down of his own as the round came to an end.

Round two saw both fighters swinging, with a Lesnar elbow rocking Couture slightly, before another clinch against the cage, connecting with a knee to the mid-section. Lesnar soon powered his way out and connected with a knee of his own before they started trading blows in the middle again, with a cut opening up above Lesnar’s right eye. Couture then returned to the clinch against the cage as he attempted to wear Lesnar down so he could attempt the take down. But as this went nowhere, they returned to the middle of the cage, where Lesnar connected with a right hand to the temple that knocked the champion down. Lesnar went in for the kill, unleashing the ground and pound, and with Couture offering no defence to this onslaught, the referee stepped in and stopped the fight, meaning that the UFC had a new heavyweight champion in the former of former WWE Champion Brock Lesnar. A very good performance from Lesnar, who once again proved his doubters wrong against the legend that is Randy Couture.

So with a load of time to spare, it’s on to some of the undercard stuff, beginning with lightweight action between Jorge Gurgel and Aaron Riley. Round one saw the fighters trading early as they moved around the cage, and a few moments later Riley caught Gurgel with an inadvertent low kick. After a brief rest period the fight re-started with both fighters swinging again, both of them connecting with good shots. This was basically how the fight went on for the next few moments, both fighters getting off good combinations for the rest of the round.

Round two, and the fighters continued where they’d left off in the previous round. Each fighter had their moment, with Riley intent on turning the fight into an all-out brawl, and Gurgel failing to rise to the bait. But as time went on Riley began to get the upper hand, and when the fight went to the ground Riley tried for the ground and pound, while Gurgel would later favour the up-kick. It wasn’t long before Gurgel got back to his feet, and the fight returned to type. Gurgel looked a little unsteady on his feet after Riley’s ground and pound, and began to walk right into Riley’s trap by brawling with him. But as the round came to an end Gurgel scored with a take down.

Round three began with the fighters trading offence again, trading kicks and blows as each man looked for an opening, with Riley once again looking the more accomplished fighter, especially as he stunned Gurgel with a head kick that left his opponent staggered. Gurgel countered with a clinch up against the cage, which Riley answered with a couple of knees. Gurgel was now visibly slowing as Riley continued to connect with some good blows. A few moments later Gurgel slipped, and Riley again went for the ground and pound in the guard. Gurgel was able to get back to his feet, but his immediate take down attempts failed, with the second resulting in a brief clinch against the cage. Gurgel’s third attempted take down saw Riley almost take his back, and the fight ended with Riley scoring with a high head kick. So with the fight going the distance, it was down to the judges to decide the outcome as they gave the unanimous decision to Riley, and rightfully so.

Another lightweight fight followed, with Alvin Robinson facing Mark Bocek. The first round saw the fighters swinging early, with Bocek going for a clinch and Robinson pulling guard to take the fight to the mat. Both fighters worked well as they looked for an opening, with Bocek transitioning well, but failing to take Robinson’s back, giving the guard to his opponent. But as Robinson tried to get to his feet, Bocek’s feet took him back down again. Bocek then worked the most, attempting to control Robinson and he laid in the knees and the elbows, before trying to go for the mount from side control, eventually settling for the guard. Robinson now seemed very much on the defensive as Bocek was able to transition at will, moving to north south and going for an arm triangle choke, with Robinson only surviving because the round came to an end.

Round two began in the same way as the first, before Robinson went for the take down, with Bocek defending by flipping him over and putting Robinson on his back, taking his guard and quickly moving to side control, where he continued with the tactics he’d used in the last round. Bocek then went for a guillotine from the mount, before returning to north/south and going for another arm triangle choke. This didn’t work, so Bocek re-took side control, soon moving back to full mount, then taking Robinson’s back, synching in the body lock, and unleashing with countless blows, constantly looking for the rear naked choke. But then, for the first time in the round, Robinson went on the offence, and although Bocek went for an alma plata, Robinson took Bocek’s back. It didn’t last long though as Bocek ended the round in the half guard.

Round three, and it wasn’t long before Bocek slammed Robinson again, taking the guard. It was obvious by now that Bocek was simply out-classing Robinson as Bocek was able to transition at will. Robinson tried to escape, but Bocek was soon able to re-exert control. Bocek soon went for an arm triangle, but Robinson was able to escape. Bocek soon took Robinson’s back and unleashed with the ground and pound, and although Robinson was able to flip back round, the ground and pound continued. Mere seconds later Bocek regained control of Robinson’s back, and after synching in the rear naked choke, Robinson had no choice but to tap. By far the most technical fight of the evening with Bocek putting in an outstanding performance.

In conclusion - I know I say this each and every time, but this was a hell of a card. There wasn’t one bad fight here, and even though Brock Lesnar’s victory of Randy Couture was probably the most dramatic fight of the night, by far the best fight of the night was Mark Bocek’s victory over Alvin Robinson, a great example of mixed martial arts action at it’s finest, and one of the most technical fights I’ve ever seen.

But now all UFC fans will be looking forward to next month, with the second part of the heavyweight title jigsaw being put into place.

Read more • 0 Comments

Friday’s Smackdown was really one of the best shows that I have seen in a few weeks. Jeff Hardy was the definite star of the show, but there were so many other stars and segments that I can honestly say I liked a lot. I did notice that the Manchester crowd again wasn’t as great as they usually are, but they still had their moments. Listen I am so excited to talk about Smackdown and the new Jeff Hardy.

What a cool opening we got. The show started with a casket in the ring, lights out and Taker’s voice telling Big Show that he is the punisher of darkness, and then the casket opened and the Undertaker sat up. This was a different and really nice way to get things going, but things continued to rock when all of a sudden we hear Jeff Hardy and then he appears on the screen in a very dark area with makeup on his face, which is very similar to that of the Joker’s. Now this was kind of eerie and creepy but oh so good. In a rather dark mood Hardy showed how angry and frustrated he has become and that he was tired of apologizing all of the time. And he promised Taker that their match would be extreme and that Undertaker would rest in peace. This was just a hell of a segment thanks to both Taker and Jeff Hardy, and it definitely got the show off to a very good start.

I absolutely loved the opening match with Matt Hardy taking on Shelton Benjamin. Anytime I can see these two in the ring go against each other is a thrill for me. This match was not only solid, but even with a knee injury which Hardy got during a house show in Europe he was still able to give his all. And along with one of the best in the Shelton Benjamin we got a hell of a match. This is what all three brands need to give the fans, solid matches like this one. This match is what fans tune in for; well at least most fans look for something like this. This was so entertaining, and lengthy. Plus there was no cheap finish or interference. You know I have seen ECW do this type of match I want to say more often than Raw or Smackdown as of late, but Raw and Smackdown every now and then pop with a major match that we can all sink our teeth in.

The next math was okay, but kind of short, and I’m talking about Carlito vs. The Brian Kendrick. I have always thought Carlito was a good wrestler, but I think his negative attitude with the company started to show whenever he was on TV. I really don’t know if Vince and Carlito have a better relationship now, but I think having him team up with his brother Primo is a way to get him back on track. Carlito I think could go a long way if he improves his attitude. Also while I’m on the Carlito subject I have to say I like Primo. He has personality, he can move in the ring and I think for the most part he seems very comfortable on the mic. Unfortunately even though the Colon brothers are the tag team champs, they don’t have one credible tag team to feud with. Well isn’t that typical Vince. I don’t know why he even has a tag team division. I noticed that I have kind of gone off the subject of the Kendrick/Carlito match. As I said it was a good match, and the more I see The Brian the more I just get a kick out of the cocky little bastard.

I say this all of the time, contract signings basically do nothing for me, but I didn’t mind the Kozlov/Triple H signing because of the way it ended. I did laugh when Hunter said that it was like the United Nations in the ring, with Russia and Mexico being represented and then the fat jokes started coming about Vicki. The only one that made me laugh was Hunter saying that Vickie was from Bulgegaria. Yeah that one I found funny. However I thought once Triple H did a nice job when he turned serious and mentioned how Kozlov’s nerves were boiling up inside because this guy never main evented. Hunter went on to say they he has main evented pay per views with the title on the line. Just listening to Triple H and looking at Kozlov react turned this into a decent segment, but it was when Jeff Hardy showed up on the top rope and put Kozlov through the table that this segment really shined. Hardy as I said was the star of the show and he wasn’t done yet.

MVP lost another one to Funaki thanks to Khali’s distraction. You know this thing with Kung Funaki really leaves me ice cold. All of a sudden he’s getting a push with a weak gimmick, go figure. I guess I still want to believe that MVP is going to come back from the dead and be what he was over a year ago. I expect MVP and Helms to feud once Helms returns, but yes this was one of the weak spots on Smackdown. And from there Khali and the Kiss Kam took place. There’s not much I can say about this because we have seen this week after week, but this time Khali got away without a kiss, and a laid out MVP not only got kissed by the fan, but MVP and the fan rolled around the ring as well. I guess you could say all of that had me laughing. But week after week I keep saying they need to move on with Khali. Okay the next match that I really didn’t pay attention too was Michelle McCool vs. Maria. Not only am I not in love with these two women anymore, but also the whole Festus/Jesse teddy bear thing was just crap. So add this to the list of very weak segments. But you know what? Two bad segments out of two-hours isn’t bad at all. And thankfully both segments were very short.

Finally the main event was just off the charts with Taker vs. Jeff Hardy. You know I see a pattern here. Are you ready? The Triple H/Jeff Hardy feud was very good, the Undertaker/Big show feud, was not so hot. But the Undertaker/Hardy mini feud in just one night was excellent, and the Kozlov/Triple H feud is rather lifeless. What a difference it makes when you put Hardy in there and remove the big guy. Anyway this was an awesome main event probably because Taker and Hardy work so well together. I was so envious of the live crowd that they got to see this in person. We got chairs, and ladders, plus interference from Big Show which all worked so well. After Hardy’s victory he ran backstage and Vickie said if he beats Triple H next week he will be added to the Kozlov/Triple H match at Survivor Series. Well you have to give it to Hardy, Taker, and many others for making this Smackdown so worth watching.

Tomorrow Raw is back here in the states and remember it’s the last Raw before next week’s pay per view. I would imagine that we will see the McMahon siblings, as well as more from HBK/JBL and Batista and Orton. Hey do you think we are going to get another new video about John Cena? I mean in the last several weeks we have gotten a new one. Maybe they can make a video with President elect Obama and Joe Biden singing Cena’s praises. Okay you can tell I am being very sarcastic. But the string of new videos each week about Cena has been too much for me. I might get into that more next week with my predictions. I will now leave you with a reader’s request. He would like to know of anyone who has the midnight express theme, not the movie but for the tag team from WCW? You can email him at ksong8923@msn.com.

Email lindarobin3@yahoo.com

Read more • 0 Comments

THE TWO SHEDS REVIEW by Julian Radbourne
E-mail: julian@twoshedsreview.com
Website: www.twoshedsrevew.com

It’s multi-man match madness again, and this time we’ve got a feud between the veterans and the up-and-comers, as A.J. Styles challenges Sting for the World title at TNA’s latest pay-per-view offering, Turning Point, shown here in Britain on a three day delay on Bravo 2. It’s the usual broadcast team calling the shots, Mike Tenay and Don West.

X Division action kicks off the show, in a multi-man match to determine the rankings, featuring Consequences Creed, Sonjay Dutt, Petey Williams, Jimmy Rave, Volador, Eric Young, Doug Williams, Hiroshi Tanahashi, Homicide and Jay Lethal. Thankfully, to win this one the wrestlers don’t have to climb through a hole in the top of the cage of through hoops or anything like that. It’s basically like a tag-team elimination match, fought under Lucha Libre rules, with the winner getting a shot at the X Division title. Now I’ve got that long-winded explanation out of the way, it’s on to the action, and it’s very good action, and although it’s a multi-man match, it’s a very good example of what the X Division is all about. Impressive performances throughout, with Doug Williams (naturally) and the Mexican Volador stealing the limelight early on, and after a slew of eliminations, including Homicide taking himself out by overshooting his dive through the ropes, it got down to Young and Lethal, with Young getting the win with a bridging suplex. A good match to start the show with, and, hopefully, we won’t have to put up with Super Eric anymore.

Then it’s on to women’s action, with Knockout Champion Awesome Kong and Raisha Saeed, accompanied by Rhaka Khan, taking on Roxxi and Taylor Wilde. Now, I know I’ve said this countless times before, but this match is a good example of how much better the Knockouts are than their Diva counterparts. There were a couple of moments that almost went into the sloppy zone, but overall it was a damn good match. Kong was, if you can pardon the pun, awesome as always, and the other three Knockouts also did their part to make this match enjoyable, with Taylor getting the win for her team with a bridging back suplex.

Grudge match time next, with X Division Champion Sheik Abdul Bashir facing Rhino in a non-title match. Once again Bashir’s opponent is introduced by a former American serviceman, so I guess they’re still going with the anti-American angle here. Now, while the action in this one was good, it was kind of spoiled by the unannounced appearance of Scott Hall and the Insane Clown Posse in the front row, as both the wrestlers in the ring and the fans turned their attention away from the match and onto them, so I hope whoever let them do this got a severe telling off. As for the rest of the match, it was as good as it was before the unwanted visitors arrived, with both guys looking good, Bashir spitting in the referee’s face, and Rhino scoring with a slightly dodgy looking gore. Now if they’d only got rid of the clowns and the piss-head, then this could have been a hell of a lot better.

The action continues with the first title match of the evening, with Beer Money Inc, James Storm and Robert Roode, accompanied by Jacqueline, defending the TNA Tag-Team titles against the Motor City Machine Guns, Chris Sabin and Alex Shelley. It’s about time Shelley and Sabin got the title shot. This was another example of something that TNA does better than their main rivals. While this may not have been the best tag-team match I’ve ever seen, it was certainly a good example of what a good tag-team match should be, between two established teams who seem to view the titles they’re competing for as extremely important, and not just as a stepping stone to singles success. Sabin and Shelley showed just why they were voted TNA’s top tag-team last year, and I think I’ve said it before that Roode and Storm are also coming into their own as the heel tag-team you’d love to see lose. These teams looked like they were made for each other, and I haven’t seen the Guns look this good as a team since their feud to save the X Division from Team 3-D. Sadly, they didn’t get the job done. As Sabin rolled Roode up, Storm came back into the ring and spat beer into his eyes, giving the champions the chance they needed as they took Sabin out with their suplex/power bomb combination to get the title retaining pin to win a good match. One final point though - did Scott Hall remain at ringside in the hope that he’d be able to get a few brews of James Storm?

The title action continues with Booker T, accompanied by Sharmell, defends his new Legends title against Christian Cage, with the stipulation that if Cage loses, he has to join the Main Event Mafia. Sadly, it seems that Booker’s faux English accent and his lavish cloaks have returned, so now he’s a king without a throne. A good back-and-forth encounter between the two veterans, nothing to flashy but enough to hold my attention, with Booker once again proving that he’s better as a heel, with Cage the perfect foil for his antics, as he attempted to escape the clutches of the new evil faction. This was one of those matches were you really couldn’t tell who was going to win, until the end, that is, until Booker got the pin, after reversing Cage’s roll-up attempt with a roll-up of his own to get the win, welcoming Cage to his group afterwards. Good stuff.

Then it’s on to the falls count anywhere match, with Kurt Angle facing Abyss. If you were expecting a technical classic here, you would have been disappointed. This was nothing more than a fight, and a damn good one at that, that took in the entire Impact Zone, including the monthly brawl through the fans. Well, that’s become a staple part of the show now, hasn’t it? Angle once again proved (haven’t I used this sort of line already) that he’s one of the top men in the game, and Abyss proved that he’s one of the top big men, as they were able to put together a brawl that had the fans in the palms of their hands from beginning to end. It was your classic big man v smaller man brawl, with Angle going all out to destroy the monster, and wondering what he can do to put him away after throwing everything at him. Eventually the Olympian did find a way of defeating the monster. After climbing up a scaffold platform to escape the onslaught, Abyss followed him up there, and was about to press slam him through the Spanish announcer’s table (boy, that hasn’t been done before) when Angle countered and pushed him off the platform and through the table. A great way to end a hell of a contest.

Revenge time next, with Samoa Joe taking on the man who cost him the TNA title, Kevin Nash. I really didn’t have high hopes for this one, but I have to admit it was better than I thought it would be. Joe was, as always, Joe, one of the best wrestlers on the planet at the moment, and Nash was his usual, slow, plodding, methodical self. There were a couple of times when he didn’t look too good, but given the onset of time and countless knee operations I suppose that’s understandable. So while it was enjoyable to watch, it wasn’t a classic that will be remembered. Joe played the “will not die” role to perfection, as several head shots onto an unprotected turnbuckle and two power bombs from Nash failed to take him down, and when Joe tried to lock in an armbar, the referee got accidentally clobbered, and when he came to, Nash got the pin with a roll-up and an assist from the ropes. A lot better than I thought it would be.

Main event time, with A.J. Styles challenging Sting for the TNA World title. This was a back-and-forth encounter in this proverbial battle of the generations, and I was a little surprised early on that Styles matched Sting in wrestling holds, rather than using his high-flying arsenal. It was during this that I realised just what sort of match we were going to get, entertaining, slow to start, but one that picked up the pace as it moved towards the end. As usual, both guys put in solid performances, but this is another one of those matches that will probably be forgotten in a couple of years. No title change here. After hitting the spiral tap from the top rope, Styles was distracted by Kurt Angle and Booker T just as he was about to go for the second spiral tap. This gave Sting the chance he needed, rolling up Styles to get the title retaining pin, with his fellow Main Event Mafia members coming down to the ring to celebrate with the champion. A good, solid match, but not really worthy of a main event.

In conclusion - now take a look back through the matches of this card - apart from the X Division rankings match and the Angle/Abyss falls count anywhere brawl, all the other matches were just normal, run of the mill matches, without overblown gimmicks, and that was what made Turning Point a very good and very enjoyable show. There wasn’t one bad match here, proving that you don’t have to have guys taking crazy bumps all the time throughout the entire show. I really hope that TNA learn from this, and maybe we’ll get more and more shows like this.

Oh, and one last message for the TNA powers that be - if Scott Hall turns up again, please don’t give the guy a ringside seat! Wrestlers should only be seated at ringside if they’re going to be involved in the show somehow. A very unprofessional act on his part could have ruined the show. Let this be a lesson to you.

Read more • 0 Comments

Right off the bat with the exception of three segments that really put the crowd to sleep Monday’s Raw in Manchester, England was quite good. While I didn’t feel that the crowd was as good as they normally are, all in all the show had a nice feeling to it, yet I wonder why certain segments were even on TV. Let me get to those segments first and then I will just rave about the rest of the show. Well I won’t rave about it but I do have some very positive things to say about certain matches and promos.

I have to add Stephanie to my list of segments that I didn’t like. Listen she’s a beautiful woman, but I hate it when she does the “CLASSY” McMahon act. I always thought she was at her best when she played Hunter’s sidekick back in the McMahon/Helmsley era. Her character wasn’t over the top. In fact with Triple H at the forefront, Steph played her part perfectly. She added just enough, but as I said it was over done. But when you put her out their on her own, it’s like watching the female version of Vince. I like her, I have nothing against her, but I do not want to see this side of her, because trust me it’s going to get old real fast. I am not saying she ruined the opening segment, because she didn’t, and that’s thanks to Batista and Orton the real stars of that segment. Stephanie needs to have someone to play off of. Last week when she interacted with Shane she was fine, she does so much better when she’s not out there on her own. Okay enough of Stephanie.

While I didn’t mind seeing Santino lose his title to William Regal, I could not believe that the match was under a minute long. The loss I could see because let’s face it Santino hasn’t had a credible opponent in a very long time. I definitely wouldn’t mind seeing Regal defend that title week after week. But having Santino lose it in about 35 seconds tells me that Santino was born to talk and not wrestle. The best thing they could do for Marella is to let him manage and do the mic work for a guy or even a woman that just can’t cut it on the mic. For the first time in a few weeks I thought Santino’s mic work was funny, because he’s been in kind of a rut lately. So the Regal win was fine with me, but the match was an absolute dud. Also I noticed the crowd was Santino crazy, and as one of my friends pointed out to me, that lasted until Santino called Italy the best country in Europe. Regal got a good reaction, but not the reaction that I thought he would get. I guess you could say this whole segment was odd.

I would love to know why D’Lo was brought back. Other than a few good matches against Santino, they have done nothing with him. And things just got worse when they threw Mike Knox against him and he played the jobber. I certainly would have waited a while before I threw Knox out there. He received no reaction at all. I like this guy, but I don’t think most of the fans are ready for the push Knox seems to be getting. And finally they build up this match with Randy Orton vs. Batista, a match that you could see was a crowd pleaser and out of the blue Cody Rhodes takes over and claims that he can beat Big Dave. What the hell? You talk about a crowd killer. Plus this crowd that went more for Santino then Regal, also booed the hell out of Batista when he opened the show. So now you have the fans looking forward to the Orton/Batista match with the live crowd probably cheering the hell out of Orton, and they get stuck with Rhodes taking on Batista. Just when you think things are going well, Vince pulls the plug and throws crap out there and that’s what he did with the three segments that I just mentioned. That’s it, enough of my complaining; I am going to save the best parts for last. Sure the rest of the show might not have been outstanding, but for some reason I was okay with the rest of Raw. Granted I could have done without another Kane vs. Rey Mysterio match, but Monday’s No DQ match was okay, but I’m glad that this was the last one on one match that these two are going to have against each other. I didn’t mind the backstage segment with Cody Rhodes and Randy Orton. I found it to be better than the Rhodes/Batista match. However, Manu still doesn’t fit with Rhodes and Ted DiBiase. He’s not making any impact at all when he’s on TV. Mickie James vs. Beth Phoenix was a decent match, but like everything else on the show it wasn’t outstanding. But at least it was nice to see Mickie for a change because it seems like Vince has put her on the back burner again.


I guess for the most part the show was mediocre but the following really did it for me. I said this already, but I thought Batista and Randy Orton did an awesome job opening the show. Batista came off so much better this week than last week. He seemed much more focused, and Orton did an excellent job trying to run things. You know maybe it was because it was two former Evolution members that appealed to me, or maybe it was just the fact that this is something we really haven’t seen. So thumbs up to Randy and Dave for really setting up the show. I absolutely loved Chris Jericho’s promo. It wasn’t whiney and it was too long, but man it was to the point. He got his digs in about what he had done to Shawn Michaels, about how he beat Batista last week and what’s in store for the returning John Cena. This was Jericho at his best. And the highlight without a doubt was the Last Man Standing match with Jericho vs. Shawn Michaels. What a way to end one of the hottest feuds of the year on Raw. I thought this was an excellent match to give us on free TV and I even like JBL’s run in. Everything worked in this match. And after the show, WWE.com posted a new match for the Survivor Series. JBL’s team vs. HBK’s team. JBL has the Miz, Morrison, Kane and MVP vs. Michael’s team consisting of Khali, Cryme Tyme and Rey Mysterio. The reason that I am mentioning this is because I would much rather have this type of match than HBK vs. JBL. So I am cool with the team vs. team match.

I don’t know what it was but this show definitely worked for me even with all its flaws. It’s funny because I didn’t realize that there were so many, but maybe it was just having it in Manchester that won me over. I’m looking forward to Smackdown and yes I did read the spoilers and the show sounds pretty good, but of course reading it is never the same as watching it. By the way I’m sure most of you know that WWE released Elijah Burke, Kenny Dykstra, Lena Yada this week. Last week they released Chuck Palumbo and Paul London, and supposedly more releases are going to take place. Plus there is a major rumor that Christian is returning to the WWE. I wouldn’t mind seeing him return, but supposedly TNA and Christian are still trying to get something going. Okay I plan on returning over the weekend with my Smackdown thoughts and again if I’m not there it’s just because of all the work going on here. For instance today my Internet was out again, but thankfully after a few hours we got it back. So I hopefully I will be back over the weekend.

Email lindarobin3@yahoo.com

Read more • 0 Comments

THE TWO SHEDS REVIEW by Julian Radbourne
E-mail: julian@twoshedsreview.com
Website: www.twoshedsreview.com

This coming Saturday Brock Lesnar will undertake the biggest challenge of his athletic career. Having already attained superstar status in the professional wrestling world, he’ll be looking to attain the same status in the mixed martial arts world when he attempts to dethrone current UFC Heavyweight Champion Randy Couture. So what better time is there to take a look at his MMA debut against Min Soo Kim on the DVD release of K-1’s Dynamite USA, held at the prestigious Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. Handling commentary for this one is probably the best play-by-play guy in MMA, Mauro Ranallo, Jay Glazer, and another former pro wrestling superstar, Bill Goldberg.

The main feature disc begins with former NFL star Johnnie Morton, making his MMA debut, and Bernard Ackah in the heavyweight division. This one was quick. Morton immediately began to swing for the trees, scoring with the take down seconds later, with Ackah getting straight back up immediately. Then Ackah connected with a big right hand and knocked Morton out cold, with the referee stopping the fight immediately, with Morton carried from the ring on a stretcher. Explosive stuff from the African, getting the win in just 38 seconds.

Up to the really big guys next, the super-heavyweights, with Mighty Mo taking on Ruben “Warpath” Villareal. Another quick fight, which began in the same way as the previous fight, with both fighters exchanging blows before going into a clinch up against the ropes. When this went nowhere, they began to exchange blows again. Mo connected with a left hook, and with Warpath tripping over the ropes, he was soon down on the mat. Mo took the opportunity by taking Warpath’s back, finishing him off with a left hand to the face. That was it for Warpath, as the referee called a halt to proceedings, awarding the victory to Mo via strikes. I’m not really sure how to rate this one, but because Warpath’s downfall came because he tripped over the bottom rope, it’s a good example of why a cage is sometime better than the ring.

Then it’s down to the light-heavyweight division with Melvin Manhoef and Dong-Sik Yoon. This was originally meant to be the second fight on the show, but a backstage disagreement over ankle strapping saw Yoon originally pull out of the fight, before quickly changing his mind. So with that short explanation out of the way, let’s get back to business. The first round began with the feeling out process, and it wasn’t long before Manhoef went to work, unleashing with the big shots that sent Yoon to the ground. They soon got back to their feet, with Yoon stopping the assault by going for a clinch, before taking Manhoef down to the ground and into his guard. An armbar attempt failed, and saw Manhoef send down another barrage of blows, which Yoon, again, stopped with another clinch, eventually taking Manhoef down and gaining side control, soon getting the full mount. Yoon then connected with a series of blows, trying to set up for an armbar, which he almost synched in. The Dutchman’s response was to unload once more, before he almost fell out of the ring.

Round two began slowly, with each fighter looking for an opening. Yoon soon got the takedown from a clinch, soon gaining full mount and going for the ground and pound, before quickly taking Manhoef’s back, then quickly synching in an armbar. There was nowhere the Dutchman could go as he tapped out immediately. An amazing, action packed, back and forth fight.

Then it’s on to a bonus fight, with Britain’s Brad Pickett facing Hideo Tokoro in the lightweight division. It began with both fighters testing the waters as it were, with Pickett connecting with one shot that caught Tokoro unawares a little. Tokoro then got the take down, which was followed by a couple of quick transitions, and a Tokoro armbar attempt. An overhand right saw Tokoro go over, and when both men got to the mat the Japanese star went for another submission, this time a heel hook. More grappling followed until Pickett got into the half guard. But this didn’t do anything for him, as Tokoro soon succeeded with his second armbar attempt, with the Brit tapping almost immediately. Another fight with some great action. Just a shame that my fellow Brit didn’t get the win!

Main event time #1 in the middleweight division, the battle of the legends, with Kazushi Sakuraba facing Royce Gracie. This was the one I was really looking forward to. Round one began with the feeling out process, testing each other with feigning kicks, before a right hand from Sakuraba sent Gracie down to the mat. After a skirmish on the mat. Sakuraba got back to his feet, while Gracie stayed on the floor, intent on kicking Sakuraba’s legs, who responded with a few kicks of his own. After a few moments Sakuraba went down to the mat, and as both men grappled for position, they soon got back up to their feet in a clinch against the ropes. Sakuraba then failed with his throw attempt, before both fighters returned to the centre of the ring as the first round came to an end.

Round two began in the same way as the first, until Sakuraba went for a take down that was well defended by Gracie. The Brazilian began to mix up his strikes and kicks, until both fighters got into a clinch in the ropes, with Gracie using knees and kicks to attack Sakuraba’s right leg. But when the action stopped, the referee separated them. Back in the middle of the ring Sakuraba went for a take down that Gracie was able to defend, only for Sakuraba to unleash a series of blows and knees against him. Another clinch against the ropes followed, which continued until the end of the round.

Round three saw the same beginning, with both fighters exchanging kicks and, until Gracie pulled Sakuraba into his guard, looking for a submission. But Sakuraba defended well, stopping Gracie’s attempts, until he took the fight back up, with both fighters still looking for a submission. But then the action along the ropes stagnated a little, until Gracie unloaded with a series of shots to Sakuraba’s head. Then the clinch returned, this time in one of the corners, but the lack of activity saw the referee call for a break. As the fight entered the last thirty seconds, both fighters exchanged blows, before going to the ground in the final few seconds with Sakuraba attempting an armbar. So with the fight going the three round distance, it went down to the judges decision, with all three scoring in favour of Royce Gracie. A very good fight here, although some of the fans in attendance clearly didn’t understand what was going on half the time, and given Gracie’s victory, it’s a shame that it was tarnished by his failed drug’s test afterwards.

Main event time #2 in the heavyweight division, with the debuting Brock Lesnar facing Min Soo Kim, a late replacement for the giant Hong Man Choi. This one was quick. Lesnar took Kim down early, and immediately went for the ground and pound, even though Kim was trying to smother him. This was the only defence that Kim seemed to offer, and as Lesnar continued to pound away, Kim tapped. While there wasn’t much to look at it this fight, Lesnar’s power was more than apparent, as it seemed as it Kim had totally underestimated him.

But that’s not all as far as fighting action goes, because as well as the K-1 fights, there’s a few EliteXC fights here with their own separate show in the same venue. This segment begins with heavyweights, as Tim Persey faces Jonathan Wiezorek. Round one began slowly, until Persey came rushing forward into a clinch, which took them to the ropes. This resulted in a stalemate, with the referee rightfully separating them. This only resulted in another, and this saw a little more action as Wiezorek scored with an inadvertent low blow. Persey only took a short rest period, and when the fight re-started he rocked Wiezorek with a big left, sending him to the mat before taking the guard, and while Wiezorek looked to go for a submission, Persey looked for the knockout blow. Wiezorek looked to be winning the battle as first he went for a kimura and then went for a straight armbar. Persey retaliated with a big blow, and with thirty seconds to go in the fight Wiezorek got the take down.

Round two, and Persey unloaded with a couple of shots before Wiezorek got the body lock and took his man down, taking Persey’s back and going for the ground and pound. Persey offered no defence to this onslaught, and it wasn’t long before the referee stepped in and stopped the fight. Good stuff here, the kind of back and forth fight I, and probably millions of others, really like.

Fight two sees welterweight action, with Jake Shields taking on Ido Pariente. The beginning saw Shields test the waters with a kick, before taking Pariente down to the mat. Shields then easily transitioned into the full guard, going for the ground and pound. Pariente tried to buck his hips to escape, but this tactic had little effect. Shields then took Pariente’s back, synching in the rear naked choke. Pariente resisted for a moment, but eventually tapped. A dominating performance from Shields, and an impressive one as well.

There’s also two more bonus fights on this disc, lightweight action with J.Z. Calvancanti facing Nam Phan, and Katsuhiko Takada taking on Isaiah Hill. But that’s not the end of the extras - there’s two more discs worth of them, including special countdown shows, special features on some of the fighters, training session footage, interviews and the complete opening ceremony.

In conclusion - this is a very enjoyable show. I was a little disappointed that some of the fights didn’t last long, but then again that’s the unpredictable nature of the mixed martial arts business, and you can’t have long, drawn-out classics all the time, can you? All the fighters featured on this collection put in good showings. As for Lesnar’s MMA debut, he did a good job here, and it’s interesting to see how far he’s come in such a short space of time.

Production wise, commentators Ranallo, Goldberg and Glazer did a great job of calling the action. However, I’m not sure about the choice of venue for this show. The L.A. Coliseum may have been good for Olympics and big American football games, but there just didn’t seem to be much of an atmosphere for an MMA show, and if I was the head of K-1’s MMA arm, and I wanted to hold a debut show in America, I would have chosen a smaller venue.

But if my only criticism of this show is the choice of venue, then it must have been a good show.

K-1 Dynamite USA is available to buy online at www.mmauniverse.com.

Read more • 0 Comments

I don’t know where to begin. I kind of feel like this column is going to be close to what I said about Smackdown last week. The show wasn’t outstanding, but it wasn’t bad either. Smackdown Friday night was a decent show but I feel like Smackdown could and should be a lot better. There is one feud that is doing nothing for the show, and another feud that isn’t exactly helping Smackdown either. But even with those two angles Smackdown focused on one star and that focus was just what the show needed. Without me going through the whole show let me tell you what is kind of putting me too sleep and what kept me wide awake. Also I want to mention some other parts of Smackdown that I liked and certain segments that made me wonder who is coming up with this stuff? You’ll see what I mean.

I still cannot get into the Big Show/Taker feud. Yes they had a fantastic match at Cyber Sunday, but when they are Smackdown the feud goes nowhere. This main feud has been basically putting me to sleep week after week. I find it all boring. In my opinion Big Show and Taker do not click and because of that I just can’t get excited about watching these two. Plus I am baffled that they had Big Show come out before the Taker vs. Kozlov number one contender match and challenge Taker to another Casket Match at Survivor Series. First, how did Big Show know that Taker would lose and be free to face him at the pay per view? And second, we just had a below average casket match last week with the Undertaker vs. Chavo. So why in the hell would I want to see another one, especially on a pay per view. Yeah, the sooner Big Show and Taker end this feud the happier I will be.

And Triple H now facing Kozlov kind of leaves me flat as well. I don’t know maybe they should have had Kozlov face some credible opponents instead of Funaki, Shannon Moore and other guys in that category. I’m having somewhat of a problem seeing Kozlov in such a high profiled match. And in all honesty it’s not a match that I feel deserves my money in two weeks. I might not be giving Vladimir enough credit, and I’m not intentionally trying to make nothing out of Kozlov, but I am not feeling any kind of star power with him and because of that this matchup for the WWE title is leaving me kind of cold. It’s sad because Smackdown is focusing on these two angles, and believe me it’s not making Smackdown a must see show. And maybe I’m in the minority but the Kozlov vs. Taker match did nothing for me. I read some reviews where they said the match was solid, or it was excellent. I sure didn’t feel that way and the Orlando, Florida crowd didn’t exactly seem into it either. This is just another case where BIG rules as far as Vince McMahon goes, and that’s the reason for the Kozlov push. There have been plenty of rumors that it would not be a big surprise should Kozlov beat Hunter and become the new WWE champion at the Survivor Series. Now in the past I would have said no way is he going to win, but if they could give Khali the title believe me a Kozlov reign is not out of the question.

I promise I have some nice things to say about the show, but let me just get out the other parts that I don’t get. For instance they build up R. Truth for weeks and weeks with very solid vignettes. Then they bring him in and the crowd is eating out of his hands, not only because of what they have seen to get us ready for him, but because he comes out in the crowd, rapping and getting them to react. And while all this is coming off really well they have this very good feud going on between R Truth and Shelton Benjamin. And for a few more weeks we get mic work from Benjamin and all is looking good. And then it all starts to go the opposite way. These two are stuck on WWE.com in a U.S. title match before Cyber Sunday starts. And they weren’t on Smackdown last week, but this past Friday night there’s no mic work from the U.S. champ and even though R. Truth does his thing in the crowd it all seemed rather lackluster during the match and after. It just felt no importance was put on what was going on in the ring. Again it’s so typical of McMahon. He pushes the new guys that the crowds are into and then with a snap of the finger all the hype starts dying down fast. I have a bad feeling that it’s going to happen to Evan Bourne and even The Brian Kendrick. So while the Benjamin vs. Truth match was decent I guess I just wanted more.

While this is probably very petty on my part I was so turned off with the backstage segment with Michelle McCool and Eve. Since when did McCool become such a wrestling Goddess? Creative had MICHELLE telling Eve what she needs to have to make it in this business. I didn’t know that this woman was such a veteran and expert when it comes to wrestling. I just couldn’t believe what I was hearing. Now the part where McCool was knocking Maria I didn’t mind because that was her way of attacking her friend and hopefully turning heel soon. So part of McCool’s segment was okay the other part was just ridiculous. And here I go repeating myself again, but I still get a kick out of Khali and his actions during the Kiss Kam, but what I don’t get a kick out of are the women that they keep bringing into the ring. Could Vince be more demeaning week after week by leaving the hot young girls out and bringing in women that are the total opposite? I wish Vince could move on and do something with class. Oh wait that’s not going to happen I’m talking about Vince McMahon.

Okay so as you can see I have plenty to say about what bothered me on Smackdown, but here’s what I liked. Okay while the losing streak that MVP has been on seems so wrong, in many ways this could be a good thing, because finally I see MVP back in a storyline dealing with his streak. It was nice to have the VIP Lounge on again, and hear him talk, and even though we all knew the streak would continue when he had to face Khali, it’s that losing streak that is now being talked about by GM Vickie Guerrero and I liked it that MVP also kept acknowledging what’s been happening to him. Maybe a couple of weeks ago I would have made this streak one of my major negatives of the show, but right now I think things are going to turn around and MVP will be back to being one of the main guys on the show. Finally we got Bri Bella’s twin out in the open. I thought it was kind of cute how Victoria pulled Bri’s hands from under the ring, and on the other side Natalya pulled her legs. Bri looked like a Stretch Armstrong doll. And finally the other twin came out and now the heel Diva’s stupidity can disappear. I thought Vickie was again on her game Friday night, and that is because just like last week she had very little to do with Big Show. And Friday night the little that she had with him was Vickie insulting Show, and she did that so well. I didn’t mind Jimmy Wang Yang vs. Ezekiel, but I would have much preferred another match with The Brian vs. Yang. Of course Yang didn’t stand a chance, but with Kendrick right there watching and then adding to Yang’s loss by hitting The Kendrick on him this segment really worked for me. Of course I’m saving the best for last. Let me start with Jeff Hardy and Triple H vs. The Miz and Morrison. This match was a good match with Hardy the doing most of the work against Miz and Morrison. Friday’s show was not centered on the WWE champion Triple H which was absolutely fine; it was centered on JEFF HARDY. And that was a really good thing. Instead of Hardy just kind of taking a step or two back from the title picture thank God creative now has Jeff Hardy so desperate to go after that title that he will do anything extreme to impress Vickie. I absolutely loved watching Vickie and Jeff Hardy talking and Hardy pleading for another title shot, and Vickie throwing insult after insult by telling Hardy he’s better in tag team matches. That’s when Hardy promised she would see the EXTREME side of him.

And that started by going after Miz and Morrison with chair shots while the match was going on. Okay granted chair shots aren’t extreme, but in Hardy’s case this was a side of Jeff we haven’t seen. I liked the stare down Hunter gave Hardy at the end, it was like what in the hell did you do that for, you cost us a win. This was the start of more to come with Jeff Extreme Hardy. Hardy again talked to Vickie about that title shot, but she told him she already had a deal with Kozlov. But that answer wasn’t going to stop Jeff Hardy. While the main event was going on, Hardy made his final appearance. Taker had Kozlov in the Devil’s Triangle; Hardy ran out and started beating Kozlov with a chair, which gave Kozlov the win due to a DQ. Hardy didn’t leave Taker out; he also got a nice chair shot as well. And once Taker sat up Hardy ran out of the ring right into Vickie’s office and told her he did something that Kozlov couldn’t do, he took Taker out. And because of that Vickie made Taker vs. Jeff Hardy in an Extreme Rules match for next week’s show. Smackdown was Hardy. I really believe that Vince hasn’t given up on Hardy; he is just taking it slow with him because of things from the past. I’m stoked over this and because of the Hardy angle I would say Smackdown even with all my complaining was a good show.

Okay tomorrow Raw will be taped in Manchester, England, and with just two weeks to go before Survivor Series I’m sure we might get another match or two made for that show. Look for Shawn Michaels to get stuck with JBL and have a match at that pay per view. And who knows with HBK in there this could be one of JBL’s best feuds of all time. We know that John Cena will be facing World Champion Chris Jericho, but I’m wondering if Batista vs. Randy Orton will take place in two weeks. Maybe we will find that out tomorrow night. I will be back on Tuesday or Wednesday with my Raw thoughts and I when they are in England the crowd is usually off the charts so that could really put Raw over the top.

Email lindarobin3@yahoo.com

Read more • 0 Comments

THE TWO SHEDS REVIEW by Julian Radbourne
E-mail: julian@twoshedsreview.com
Website: www.twoshedsreview.com

This edition of The Two Sheds Review sees us making a return to Japan, to take a look at the DVD release of Pro Wrestling NOAH’s first show of 2007, First Navigation, headlined by Mitsuhara Misawa defending the GHC Heavyweight title against Takeshi Morishima, and available to buy online via A-Merchandise. Commentary, in English, for this one is handled by Ken Hiriyama and Wally Yamaguchi.

The show begins with tag-team action, with Kentaro Shiga, Yoshinobu Kanemaru and Dakota facing Muhammad Yone, Taiji Ishimori, and Atsushi Aoki. It’s the usual good solid start for a NOAH show, with great technical wrestling mixed in with some high spots, and a comedy moment or two regarding the hair of Shiga and Yone. There’s just something about Yone in particular that makes him so damn watchable, and I’m not just talking about his afro. In fact mention must also be made of American star Dakota. Harley Race’s student looked really good in this one. The end - after plenty of false finishes between Kanemaru and Aoki, Kanemaru got the pin after a spinning suplex. Great stuff, but then again I’ve already said that!

Match two sees Tamon Honda, Junji Izumida and Tsuyoshi Kikuchi take on Akitoshi Saito, Masao Inoue and Kishin Kawabata. Slightly slower paced than the first match, mainly because all of the wrestlers in this one are firmly in the heavyweight division. Good to start off with, with some great hard-hitting stuff, but later on it got a bit messy, and that was thanks to Honda. As the match went on he clearly looked tired, and it was most evident when he was whipped into the corners and in his selling. Whether this was intentional or not I don’t know. Thankfully, when he tagged out things got a lot better again, and Kikuchi and Izumida were able to pick up the slack a little. In the end it was Inoue who got the victory for his team, picking up the pin with a side roll cradle. Mixed bag here.

Singles action followed, with Akira Taue taking on Makoto Hashi. This one began before the bell sounded, and to say that it had a certain intensity about it would not be an understatement. From the way that they were going it made you think that they weren’t exactly fond of each other, and it’s all of this put together that made this match compelling viewing. Hashi tried to take Taue apart, and looked like he was going to get the win with his powerful head butts, but just when he was about to go for his modified fisherman’s suplex for a second time, Taue reversed and scored the pin with that simplest of moves, the small package. It may not have lasted that long, but it was still that good.

Then it’s on to Britain’s Doug Williams and Nigel McGuinness, as they go up against Yoshinari Ogawa and Shuhei Taniguchi. As always, the two Brits put in a good, solid performance, but then again, that’s always what you get with Williams and McGuinness. Ogawa and Taniguchi were great foils for them. The Brits’ team work was great, even though they suffered a breakdown in communications a couple of times, but this didn’t stop them getting the win, with Williams pinning Taniguchi with what we Brits call his chaos theory, but what NOAH calls the roll-through German suplex. It’s still a bloody good move whatever you call it!

More singles action follows, with Takuma Sano and Takashi Sugiura. Technical wrestling is the order of the day for this one, and even though it’s quite slow paced, that’s okay, because you don’t need to go at a thousand miles an hour to put on a good match. It kind of reminds me of an old style British rules match with a few MMA stylings mixed in. There was also a fair amount of drama here, especially as Sano tried to take Sagiura out with multiple double foot stomps from the top rope, one of them while Sagiura was on the arena floor, which resulted in him almost losing by count out. A ton of false finishes follows, with Sano getting the win after he knocked Sugiura out with a series of kicks. You know, I could watch this kind of match all day.

The singles matches continue with Jun Akiyama taking on Go Shiozaki. When I saw that this match was on this DVD I immediately thought that it would be something. These two tore at each other before the opening bell, before Akiyama began to heavily punish Shiozaki’s injured right arm. The attack was so intense that whenever Shiozaki tried to use the arm against Akiyama it had little to no effect - at first, because as the match went on he was able to use his arm more and more, although Akiyama would always counter a Shiozaki move by returning to the injured limb. In the end Akiyama was finally able to counter Shiozaki’s never say die resistance by taking him down with a second exploder suplex. This was an extremely compelling match, with a great storyline that just made you root for the injured underdog.

The first title match of the evening follows, with the Briscoes defending their GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag-Team Championship against Kotaro Suzuki and Ricky Marvin. Lasting nearly thirty minutes, this was a perfect example of tag-team wrestling at it’s finest. Once again Jay and Mark Briscoe show just why they’re considered one of the best tag-teams in the world today, and Suzuki and Marvin showed tremendous team-work and ability as well. This was the sort of match you just couldn’t take your eyes off, it was that good. The end, and I was kind of disappointed when it did, saw Suzuki win the match for his team with the blue destiny move, with an assist from his partner. Hell of a match.

Next, the final six man match, with Takeshi Rikioh, Naomichi Marufuji and KENTA taking on SUWA, Minoru Suzuki and Yoshihiro Takayama. The mixture of heavyweight and light-heavyweight wrestlers made for an interesting match. If such a match had taken place on a certain American company’s show, then the smaller guys would have been treated like jobbers. But here the smaller guys were treated as equals, and that’s why this match worked. We had some great hard-hitting action, high spots, and even a couple of comedy moments as well, but it didn’t have the ending I was expecting. In the final moments, SUWA, apparently in his last NOAH grabbed a big blue plastic box from somewhere and started clobbering everyone, including his own team-mates. This resulted in a five-on-one attack on him, with Suzuki and Takayama eventually leaving him to the mercy of their opponents, and ended with KENTA finishing him off and getting the pin after the go 2 sleep. A very good match, with a very interesting finish.

Main event time, with Mitsuhara Misawa defending the GHC Heavyweight title Takeshi Morishima. A great way to end the show, pitting the youth and superior power of Morishima against the wily veteran that is Misawa. Morishima used his size advantage to simply overpower Misawa, which included a power bomb and a DDT on the arena floor, and it seemed that no matter what Misawa tried, he just couldn’t do anything to keep the younger man down. Eventually, though, the champion’s experience came through, and after a series of heavy blows and an almost botched tiger driver, Misawa took Morishima down with a running elbow smash to get the title retaining pin. This may not have been the best match on the show, but it was still damn good.

The only extra to speak of here is a brief interview with Doug Williams and Nigel McGuinness and a look behind the scenes.

In conclusion - by now you should be able to tell that I really enjoyed this release. Aside from Tamon Honda’s fading performance early on every match here made sense and served it’s purpose, which was what made this release such great viewing. As I said during my last NOAH review, the English commentary of Ken Hiriyama and Wally Yamaguchi is a great help on these releases, and once again, if you’ve never seen a Pro Wrestling NOAH show, or you’ve never seen one with English commentary, then I would suggest getting these DVDs. As the old saying goes, you won’t be disappointed.

With thanks to Mark Sloan for supplying a copy of this release. Pro Wrestling NOAH First Navigation 2007 can be purchased online by visiting www.a-merchandise.co.uk.

Read more • 0 Comments

Maybe three hours of Raw was a little too much, but for the most part I enjoyed the show. I have a lot of very positive things to say about Monday’s show and a few not so nice things to say about certain segments. Before I get into Raw, I just want to update you on what’s going on with our house. Major work got started on Friday and it’s kind of busy here. Yesterday our Internet was on and off from late afternoon until early evening. That’s why I’m doing this column today. So That’s why I’m doing this column today if you don’t see anything from me over the weekend, or even early next week, it will be because of the work going on here. Now let’s get on to the three hour Raw and the segments that should never have been put on TV.

Sure I’m talking about that hideous dancing segment with Fu Naki, Hornswoggle, Boogeyman, Goldust, Dusty Rhodes, Jesse and Festus, Sgt. Slaughter, Lillian, and Michael Cole. This was beyond embarrassing. It was like being at a local wrestling show and watching a bunch of fans just dancing to waste time. This was so bad, so amateurish. I expect more from WWE. If this is Vince’s way of being child friendly then fine, do these kind of horrible segments during commercial breaks, do it for the live crowd not for the rest of us. Words can’t even describe what was going through my mind when I watching this. Also I was not pleased with the 16 Diva Tag Match. I get a kick out of Mae Young and anytime she’s on Raw I look forward to seeing her. And I did this week too, but to have her take out the heels and especially the very tough Beth Phoenix was just ridiculous. They could have used Mae in some other way without making Beth Phoenix, Maryse, Layla, Victoria, Lena, Katie Lea, Jillian Hall and Natalya Neidart look worthless and weak. These two segments were by far the worst of the night.

But there are a few other items that didn’t quite sit right with me. Like CM Punk’s match against Randy Orton. This could have been a hot feud, had it been built up right, but instead it was rushed. This match could have been gold but unfortunately that wasn’t the case. This match lasted about two and a half minutes and Punk the former World Champion and now current Tag team champ was made to look like just another guy on the roster whom was thrown in to give Randy Orton someone to beat. This was Orton’s first match since his injury back in the summer and it should have really been set up as something major and it wasn’t. So I guess you can say this was another disappointment for me. The eight-man Battle Royal was nothing special but it did two things. It gave William Regal the win and he meets Santino next week in his homeland, England for the I.C. title. And we saw Ted DiBiase throw over his buddies, Cody Rhodes and Manu. In fact it looked like DiBiase was going to face Santino, until Regal returned and tossed him over the rope. I found it weird that DiBiase got as far as he did, and then it was DiBiase later on during the Orton/Punk match that interfered and took Orton out, only to receive an RKO from Orton. So of course I’m wondering if Team Priceless is splitting up and DiBiase is going out on his own. So anything dealing with Ted DiBiase definitely had me interested Monday night.

I really liked the opening with Randy Orton and the opening match with the Hardy’s vs. The Brian Kendrick and MVP. Orton came off well Monday night especially during this segment by demanding that Stephanie and Shane come out and decide who stays, Orton or Mike Adamle. Orton refused to leave until they made the decision so he stuck around and watched the first match. As I said I enjoyed watching these four and even though it was another loss for MVP, and believe me I expected it, this was nice way to start things off.

Before I forget I thought the highlight videos from the past years of Raw were done very well. It was nice to see some things that I missed, and other highlights that I did see, but it was nice seeing them again. By the way, I was there live for the Rock/Hogan encounter and I was there live when John Cena made his debut against Kurt Angle at Smackdown. So seeing the footage brought back some nice memories. Okay now back to Orton and his ultimatum. Shane McMahon came out and I have to say I thought Shane did an awesome job Monday night. I’m not a Shane fan but he sure stepped up this week and every time he was on camera I thought he came off well. This segment with Orton, Shane and Mike Adamle was one of the main highlights of the night. Adamle’s resignation was something that needed to happen. His character never really took off and I figured if anything he was going to get “fired” so having him resign I think played out better than firing him. This was a very solid segment and of course I think most of us started wondering just who the next GM would be.

Vladimir Kozlov has made it big. Because Monday night he appeared on Raw against Brett the Hitman Haas. Okay I didn’t put this in my negative section because I have to say that Haas really had Bret Hart’s mannerisms down well. However the crowd wasn’t exactly into his character this week. I think if they are going to continue to have Haas come out as a WWE star it has to be someone to mock, that seems to get the crowd going. Of course this was a quick one, like if you blinked you would miss it. Kozlov gave Haas a head butt and that was it. Okay so maybe this kind of goes in the negative part of my column. Kane and Mark Henry vs. Rey Mysterio and Kofi Kingston was okay, but again it’s what happened once the match ended. We saw Rey taking a beating from Kane, and that brought out The Great Khali to save Rey. I really like Khali the face; it’s something that should have been done a long time ago. ARE YOU READY? Hey the DX segment rocked, that’s right I said it ROCKED. I thought Hunter and Shawn Michaels material was funnier than ever. The jokes about Triple H’s nose and HBK’s lack of hair came off so well. I re-watched this and laughed as hard as I did the first time. And as far as their match against the Miz and Morrison goes? It was a good match, a match that I knew DX would win, and I don’t believe for a minute that the loss hurt the Miz and Morrison at all.

I have to admit when JBL came in to talk to Shane McMahon about becoming GM I got excited. I don’t think it’s going to happen, but for a long time I have been saying keep JBL out of the ring and make him the GM. That would be a perfect role for him. Now after his talk with Shane, JBL vs. Taker was next and this again was a very fast match, and to be honest with you the match was nothing it’s what happened toward the end of the match that I found very cool and very interesting. I’m talking about JBL walking away from Taker and HBK coming from behind and tossing JBL back in the ring. And then Taker Tombstoned JBL for the win. And now for the cool part. Once the match was over, Taker just stared at Shawn Michaels. And Michaels stared right back at Taker. I would love to see Taker vs. HBK at Wrestlemania 25, and those stares are giving me hope that that match could happen.

There was a lot of interaction between a face Shane and his sister heel Stephanie. I am guessing that Stephanie will take the GM spot and I’m also starting to think that Steph maybe was behind the accident that Vince had. She definitely came off like she has an agenda and that agenda has no room for her dear brother. This family angle could give Raw another good meaty storyline, like what we had with Chris Jericho and Shawn Michaels. And speaking of Jericho I never in a million years thought he would beat Batista and become the WWE champion again. And you know what, as much as I would have loved Batista to remain champ, the only reason why I am okay with the switch is because it was done on Raw and not a pay per view. I think every now and then a main title change on Smackdown, Raw and ECW is a nice change of pace. The cage match was okay, but I think we are starting to get too many of cage matches. This wasn’t one of the best but it was still good. And as I said Jericho’s victory was a shock, but a pleasant shock if that makes sense.

I know I complained quite a bit, but really most of Raw was good and worth watching. We got the start of a possible McMahon feud; we have a new champion facing John Cena at Survivor Series. Randy Orton is back in the ring, and Team Priceless could be a thing of the past. There’s a lot going on and if creative follows through this could really help Raw. I will end with the following. I listened to one of the hotline reports and they say that the reason Jericho won was because they want to save Cena and Batista for WM. And I just read that Super Crazy was released. Well there’s no surprise there because he hasn’t been given anything good for a long time. Okay hopefully I will be back over the weekend with my thoughts on Smackdown. And remember it’s Taker vs. Kozlov for the number one contender for the WWE title.

Email lindarobin3@yahoo.com

Read more • 0 Comments

THE TWO SHEDS REVIEW by Julian Radbourne
E-mail: julian@twoshedsreview.com
Website: www.twoshedsreview.com

It’s Britain’s answer to The Ultimate Fighter, and I haven’t seen any of the episodes. In fact I didn’t even know that the live final was being shown until I checked the digital television guide to see if there was live boxing on Nuts TV. So this past Saturday, after a near two hour power cut, I tuned into the aforementioned Nuts TV for the live final of Cage Rage’s Fighting Hurts, or as some others would call it, Cage Rage Contenders 11, held at The Troxy in London.

The show begins in the light-heavyweight division, with Peter Bowen taking on Carl Lawrence. No feeling out process for these two debutants in the first round. Bowen swung a little, and Lawrence tried to get a guillotine straight away, but with that going nowhere, he took Bowen down. Quick transitions followed, with Bowen getting into the top position. Both guys worked well, each getting the advantage at one point or another. As the round entered it’s final minute, Lawrence was in the guard, trying to look for an opening.

Round two began with both fighters trading blows, before it quickly went back down to the mat with Bowen trying to synch in a guillotine, which like Lawrence’s in the previous round, came to nothing. The pace really began to slow down early on, and it told as the referee stood the fighters up when nothing was achieved on the ground. When it went back to the stand-up, the fatigue was there for all to see as they tried to land a shot or two. A second trip to the mat resulted in a second order to stand back up. This round was certainly lacking the intensity of the first. Everything about it was so much poorer, as both fighters just looked too tired to fight. But after the referee stood them up for a third time, Bowen got his second wind, knocking Lawrence down with a big right hand, before finishing off his bloodied opponent with the ground and pound, and with Lawrence offering nothing in return, the referee stepped in and called a halt to proceedings. Definitely the proverbial game of two halves, an explosive first round and a somewhat sloppy second round, before Bowen sucked it in and connected with the big blow.

Then it was down to the middleweight division, with Steve Dossett facing Brett Bassett. Round one, and Dossett immediately tested the waters with a couple of snapping low kicks. Bassett responded with a couple of rights as both fighters began to weigh each other up. But then Dossett scored a knockdown, and quickly got into the guard position, looking for the ground and pound, while Bassett responded with a triangle choke, a move which proved successful, as Dossett tapped within seconds of the choke being applied. A very good fight here, even though it was a little short.

Right down to the featherweight division next, with Davin Byfield against Giorgio Andrews. No feeling out process in the first round as the fighters quickly went down to the mat, with quick transitions that saw them quickly return to their feet before engaging in a clinch that took them around the cage, and Andrews soon getting the take down. But Byfield was soon able to get back to his feet, if only for a few seconds as Andrews took it back down to the mat and took side mount, before moving into half guard, with Byfield doing all he could to defend his position. It certainly was interesting to watch as Byfield once again escaped, only for Andrews to return the fight to the ground. As the round went into it’s last minute, Byfield finally went onto the offensive, getting into Andrew’s guard, only for Andrews to reverse the situation, get into the mount position, before taking Byfield’s back and synching in the rear naked choke. There was only one thing that Byfield could do, and that was tap. An extremely good performance from Andrews in this one, dominating for the most part.

Welterweight action follows, with Steve Elliot taking on Richard Griffin. Round one saw the fighters trade early, until Elliot slammed Griffin down with authority. After some quick work on the ground the fighters returned to their feet briefly, until Elliot took the fight back down to the mat. Griffin tried for a guillotine that came to nothing, which was followed by Elliot taking side control momentarily. Seconds later they returned to their feet, and a knee strike from Griffin inadvertently caught Elliot south of the border. After a brief rest period, the fighters began to exchange again, before going back down to the mat, with Elliot looking for the knee bar and then the heel hook. Griffin then went for the ground and pound, before Elliot reversed into the guard position, transitioning into an armbar attempt, which Griffin defended with more ground and pound. After Griffin freed his arm, he upped his ground and pound, and Griffin looked in trouble for a while until the bell saved him.

Round two began with Elliot showing the effects of Griffin’s attack. Griffin went on the offence from the get go, and he was soon in the guard and going for the ground and pound again. All Elliot could do was defend, until he went for another armbar and quickly got back into Griffin’s guard, going for the ground and pound of his own. But Griffin was able to reverse the move himself, getting into Elliot’s guard, only to find himself in another Elliot armbar attempt. Griffin was able to escape, but immediately found himself in a side choke attempt, which also failed. So with Griffin again returning to the guard position, he again went for the ground and pound, but looked tired in doing so. This gave Elliot the chance he needed, locking in a kimura, with Griffin tapping immediately. This was one of those fights you just couldn’t take your eyes off, a back and forth affair good enough to be on a main Cage Rage card, so maybe we’ll get to see these two against each other on the main stage soon.

On to the lightweight division next, with Sami Berik facing Afnan Saeed. Round one and Berik began to tease Saeed immediately, switching stances as he came forward. But seconds later the fight went down to the mat, with Saeed taking the guard. But they soon returned to their feet, and Berik’s quick fists staggered Saeed, and the fight soon went back downstairs, but a quick return to their feet saw Berik connect with a big left hook which knocked Saeed senseless, but didn’t sent him down, still on his feet but leaning against the cage, but clearly unconscious. Berik hit him with a right, but when he realised that Saeed was out of hit, he immediately apologised to the referee, who called an halt to proceedings straight away. Good little fight here, with Berik’s performance a good one.

Main event time, the Fighting Hurts final, a light-heavyweight fight with Leigh Alliss and Dyson Roberts. The first round began with the fighters exchanging blows, with Roberts favouring the low kick. The exchanges continued for a while, until Alliss’ right hand got the better of Roberts, who responded immediately with a take down, quickly going into side mount. Alliss soon reversed the position, and went for a guillotine, which went to nowhere. Then it was Roberts’ turn to try a guillotine, which Alliss defended by slamming his opponent down. More transitioning followed, with Roberts going for another guillotine. Both fighters remained busy on the ground, but not enough for the referee, who stood the fighters up, and in the last thirty seconds Alliss’ boxing credentials showed again as he connected with a couple of good shots, with Roberts coming back with a take down.

Round two, and both fighters began to swing for the trees again. Alliss got a good shot on Roberts, who responded with another takedown, taking the mount position, and then transitioning with another guillotine. But it wasn’t long before Alliss took the guard, with Roberts responding with an armbar attempt. More work on the ground followed, but it wasn’t enough as the referee stood them up. Back on their feet both fighters began trading blows again, but Roberts’ subsequent shoot was well defended by Alliss, who took control on the ground before going for the ground and pound. All Roberts seemed to be able to do was to hold on and wait for the end of the round.

Round three, and with the fighters clearly looking tired, Alliss once again showed his superior striking ability. Roberts went for a take down, and once again Alliss defended, soon taking Roberts’ back, synching in a rear naked choke which Roberts tapped out to almost immediately. This was an extraordinary fight, with Roberts looking good early on, and Alliss coming back strongly, showing that he’s not just a good striker, but he can work on the ground as well.

In conclusion - having suffered a tremendous blow following the demise of their American partner Elite XC, Cage Rage put on a very enjoyable show. Every fight on the televised card was good, with the Fighting Hurts final probably the fight of the night.

But although the fights were good, the same couldn’t be said of the broadcast itself. While the announcers and the presenters did a good job, some aspects of the show did leave a little to be desired. While the previous shows, held at Wembley Arena, were well put together, there just seems to be something missing from their new venue, The Troxy. The atmosphere there is a lot different, and do we really need Dave O’Donnell or O.J. Borg interviewing drunk punters and fighters who aren’t on the card? I think not. And let’s not forget the technical problems as well.

So in all - good fights, but they need to return to their old production values, as well as returning to a venue like Wembley Arena.

Read more • 1 Comments

I have to give Raw the edge over Smackdown this week, but that doesn’t mean that I didn’t like Smackdown. There was a lot that I liked about the show and only a few things that I didn’t care for. I thought the Smackdown crowd was somewhat dead through out the show while the Raw group just about came alive for everything. But enough of me comparing the two shows. Before I get into Smackdown, I wanted to mention the Evan Bourne item. I don’t know how many of you read that Bourne injured his ankle during the six-man tag team match this past Tuesday night. If you recorded it you can see exactly where his ankle bent under and I feel his pain because that’s what my ankle did when I fell down the stairs two years ago, and let me tell you it HURT. It looks like surgery will not be needed, but he could be out for 4 months. I don’t think ECW will start losing their momentum, but I think they will feel somewhat of a void without him. Okay now let me get on to Smackdown

This is the first time really since Vickie and Edge split that Vickie played her role so well. The opening with sicko Vickie came off really good, Especially since it was a Halloween show. Her promo was quite wicked and creepy and I was so happy to see Vickie and Big Show away from each other. I don’t feel either one is doing the other any favors. Vickie held her own Friday night and even her eerie laugh at the end came off fine. If I had to grade Vickie she would definitely get an A+ from me. But Big Show still isn’t winning me over. I didn’t hate his opening promo but I did exactly like it either, however I will give it to Show for constantly selling the injury that he received from Taker and Cyber Sunday buy constantly rubbing his neck. So all in all Smackdown started on the right foot.

My match of the night was The Miz and Morrison vs. Carlito and Primo. This was a hot match, but my only complaint was, why not end this match with a no contest? It kind of bothered me that the Colon brothers, the tag team champs did the job. I know it was done to make Miz/Morrison look strong going into their match against DX tomorrow on Raw. But it still made the current tag team champions look weak in comparison. So a very good match, but a loss that I wasn’t too thrilled about. I did not like he Magician segment with the magician (duh), Maria, Jesse and Festus. Again I understand it was to push the show for the network, but for me it was a time waster. The next match ended way too fast, and I’m talking about The Brian Kendrick vs. John Wayne Yang. Man if Vince would have made this a lot longer than a couple of minutes it could have been the top match of the night. Had this gone longer it really would have show cased The Brian and Yang’s talents. But the little we got really came off well.

I’m not sure what to say about the Kiss Kam with Khali and his mouthpiece Ranjin Singh. I think Singh has been awesome on the mic and I really like watching this Khali as a face. But I don’t know how much longer we can keep watching this Kiss Kam stuff. They need to progress this angle. I don’t know exactly how they can move on but week after week of the same thing is not going to help Khali. With that said I will say one more time I like the smiley Khali and bringing him out with this Kiss Kam is a good way to keep him from wrestling without being off TV. You know there was another hot match, and maybe I should have made this one my match of the night. I’m talking about The Hardy’s and Rey Mysterio vs. MVP, Kane and Mark Henry. Hey you talk about a fast paced match, well this was it. Along with the Miz/Morrison match this gave Smackdown two very solid matches of the night. Unfortunately MVP jobbed again, and unless this is going to become a major storyline about MVP consistently losing, I would say the losing streak is really pissing off a number of MVP’s fans. If I were Vince I would seriously think about what this is doing to the fans and maybe reconsider making him the jobber of Smackdown.

So Jeff Hardy is out, and Kozlov is in, well at least this Friday night he was. The confrontation between Kozlov and Triple H finally happened and it came off okay. I wouldn’t say that this was a hell of a segment because it wasn’t but this was one time when the San Diego fans really popped. As soon as Triple H started comparing the Rocky lV movie to their situation the crowd started chanting USA. As I said this was a fair segment, and maybe I’m not raving about it because I’m not sure I’m ready for Kozlov going after the title. I have a feeling Kozlov will beat Taker next week for the number one contendership. The next match was with Brie Bella, Michelle McCool and Maria vs. Natalya, Victoria and Maryse. I enjoyed this one maybe because Victoria came out in her banana costume and gave it her all. I am really enjoying Maryse week after week, I think she’s a hell of a heel and the only two that leave me somewhat cold are Maria and McCool. I think McCool needs to turn heel because as a face her acting has gotten worse and worse. And Maria? I think Maria lost it for me when her Playboy cover came out. She went from playing a funny airhead to becoming a serious “brilliant” woman and I don’t like it. I miss her old character very much. But this was a good match and I’m sure it’s only a matter of time before we get Maria going after the Women’s title against the heel champion, McCool.

The main event wasn’t much. I remember last year when Chavo vs. Undertaker took place. And I thought that was a pretty damn good match. This wasn’t much and I found it odd that Chavo got so much offense on Taker. And of course Big Show ran in and went after Taker. All this main event was about was continuing the Show/Taker feud. So while Chavo and Taker did nothing for me I definitely liked things once Big Show got in there. If we can get another pay per view match with Show and Taker like their Cyber Sunday match, then I say let the feud continue.

So a good Smackdown, not a great one but a good one and I am now ready for tomorrow’s three hour Raw. Not only are we getting Batista vs. Jericho in a Steel Cage match, but also Stephanie and Shane will be there as well as the DX taking on Miz and Morrison. Since the show will be three hours long Vince has a chance to give the fans some very strong matches. Let’s hope we get three hours of EXCELLENT viewing.

Email lindarobin3@yahoo.com

Read more • 0 Comments

It’s not often when Raw is a better show than the pay per view that was on the night before but that’s exactly what happened last night. Now don’t get me wrong I really liked Cyber Sunday, but last night’s Raw was the best show that I’ve seen in weeks, maybe months. The Tucson Arizona crowd added so much to the show, and that’s one of the things that’s been missing for a long time, a good loud interactive crowd. For my part, Raw was just about flawless, notice I said just about. Of course it wasn’t perfect but it was close enough for me to want to rave about it. But first let me quickly say a few words about Cyber Sunday. As I said I liked the show very much even though I totally bombed with my predictions. Seriously let me tell you the best matches of the night and a segment on the show that was beyond pathetic. But first I have one major complaint.

Now mind you I’m being over dramatic here, so just go with it. How dare they put the U.S. title match on WWE.com, and give Shelton Benjamin’s and R. Truth’s time to that miserable Diva Halloween costume contest. Why couldn’t they put that on WWE.com and let the fans watch these two wrestle. This match only lasted a few minutes, and in my opinion it was a total insult not only to Benjamin, Truth and the fans, but also to that title. Vince should have not only allowed this match TV time, but this match should have been given more than 4 minutes. When I think of that diva segment, plus all the time that was given in intervals to show each diva saying a few things about her costume I want to just scream because it was all as waste of time. Ah but that wasn’t the worst segment, oh it was close but the worst was Santino vs. The Honky Tonk man. Not only was this not humorous, the match ended in a minute because of interference by Beth Phoenix. Now I’m glad it ended so fast, but this should never have even happened. This was not Santino at his best and even this should have been on WWE.com instead of the U.S. Title.
With that all said, the opening No Holds Barred match with Kane vs. Rey was good, in fact I liked it more than I thought I would. I really liked the Evan Bourne vs. Matt Hardy match. I thought Bourne really shined, well I did until I saw what he did last night against Rey Mysterio and if he shined Sunday night, well then he blinded me with how much he shined in that match, but I will get into that when I talk about Raw. But back to Cyber Sunday I was really surprised that the Miz and Morrison vs. Cryme Tyme beat out Punk/Kingston vs. Team Priceless. This match was good, but by no means a pay per view quality match. My match of the night? Oh that’s an easy one, it was the Last Man Standing match with Taker vs. Big Show. This was one of the matches that I didn’t want to see this because I figured it would just go on and on, but from the time this started it was non stop action and I have to say Show and Taker really gave their all. This was so much better than their No Mercy match. This was one very hot match. My second favorite of the night was the rematch with Jeff Hardy vs. Triple H. While this match wasn’t as excellent as THEIR No Mercy match this was right up there. I have said this before but these two have excellent chemistry and I really will miss these two going at it. I know many are upset about Hardy losing again, but like one of the main site journalist keeps saying, there is no way Vince is going to give Jeff a title not with all his baggage. I would imagine if Hardy can stay clean in time this guy is going to get that title.

Finally the main event with Batista vs. Chris Jericho and Steve Austin as the special ref started out slow and it was kind of lackluster. But once things started going and we got run-ins from Shawn Michaels, JBL and Randy Orton things definitely picked up. I think the shocker for me was Jericho losing to Batista. Believe me that loss I never saw coming and to be honest with you the Batista win added something this match. So this was another very good pay per view and as I said an even better Raw followed.

You know what? I’m not even going to say anything negative about Raw. I thought the opening with Mr. Pouty, Chris Jericho was very good. He didn’t say much last night but his face said it all about his loss to Batista at Cyber Sunday. I even liked Randy Orton bitching about being stunned by Stone Cold Sunday night. And that stunner pissed him off so much that he looked into the camera and gave Stephanie and Shane an ultimatum that either they fire Adamle or he GOES. Orton came off well last night. After Orton insulted Mike Adamle, Adamle slapped Randy in the face. It was a weak slap, but what the hell, it served its purpose. Is it possible that the McMahon’s will fire Adamle next week? I am going to say no, but then again look at my predictions and you’ll know not to listen to me. But it was a good opener, which was followed by the match I thought we would see at Cyber Sunday. CM and Kofi vs. Team Priceless and yes this match was priceless. This is where the fans really showed their support. This was one cool match. And if I was surprised the night before with Batista’s win you could say I was just as surprised to see the belts leave Cody Rhodes and Ted DiBiase. When Punk and Kingston won the crowd reaction was outstanding. That’s one of the things that Raw has been missing for awhile along with solid wrestling. But we sure got plenty of both last night.

While the segment with Santino again did nothing for me, I will say I got a kick out of Charlie Haas coming out like Beth Phoenix. He was only on a short time but he had her actions down fairly well especially the way he puckered his lips. Oh yes the famous Glamazon pucker. Really this was all about bringing Piper, Goldust and Honky Tonk man, and sitting them at the announce table, which was fine with me, but as far as Santino goes? It’s time to give him a credible opponent. Batista’s short promo with Michael Cole was nothing special, he was a little too relaxed for me. I’m a big fan of his, but I needed just a tiny bit more ANIMAL in him last night. The women’s tag team match with Mickie, Candice and Kelly vs. Jillian, Katie Lea and Layla was done very well, and I have to say this again, Kelly Kelly continues to amaze me in the ring.

And of course THE match of the night was Rey Mysterio vs. Evan Bourne. This was a five star match for sure. And it’s about time that we got a match like this on Raw. This wasn’t rushed and the chemistry between these two were off the charts. Bourne brought back the Rey Mysterio that we all love to watch, and Rey really showcased Bourne to the fans. This was a fantastic match and a hard worked match. AND I loved this so much that when Kane and Mark Henry came out and attacked these guys I liked it I had absolutely no problem bringing these two big guys in. If anyone missed this look for it on You Tube, it’s a MUST SEE. So it’s a go, DX will be facing The Miz And Morrison next Monday night. I never got a column out last week but I got a kick out of M&M saying ARE YOU 50? I though that was a riot and of course being the DX fan that I am, I can’t wait to watch this match next week. I am guessing that we might get DX on ECW tonight since Morrison and Miz will be mocking them. This could turn out not only to be a good mini feud.

And finally the main event with Jericho and JBL vs. Batista was okay, but nothing great and I think that’s because before this took place JBL attacked Shawn Michaels backstage which meant that Michaels was not able to take part in the match. Now this was entertaining to watch but I was looking forward to Batista and Michaels being in there together. The only thing that totally came off stupid was when HBK finally came out, he got tagged in and he went after JBL but the ref tossed him out because he didn’t see the tag. But what really came off badly was once Batista pinned JBL and Jericho walked up the ramp, HBK comes in and kept checking on Batista. I couldn’t understand why Michaels wouldn’t go right to JBL and beat the crap out of him. So the ending was poorly booked but other than that this was a good match and I know I keep saying this but this was one very good show.

Wow I sure said a lot, I will return over the weekend with my Halloween Smackdown thoughts. Did I tell you what I’m wearing for Halloween? I’m going as a 54 year old mother and wife. Not only am I great at predicting matches but also I’m also very creative. I will now leave you guys with a reader’s request. He would like to know where he could find a link or a file with Ric Flair's Hall of Fame speech where he mentioned Chris Benoit's name when he talked about the Four Horsemen. You can email him at GrimReeper2185@aol.com

Email lindarobin3@yahoo.com

Read more • 2 Comments

THE TWO SHEDS REVIEW by Julian Radbourne
E-mail: julian@twoshedsreview.com
Website: www.twoshedsreview.com

It’s the time of the year when WWE goes interactive - well, sort of (see the rant at the end), as they ask their fans to choose stipulation and match types with Cyber Sunday, shown live on Sky Sports here in Britain.

The show begins with Rey Mysterio and Kane renewing their rivalry - the stipulation - no holds barred with 39 per cent of the vote. An enjoyable start to the show, and another good David v Goliath type of battle, with the Big Red Machine simply overpowering Mysterio, who countered with his superior speed and aerial ability. Not much weapons use though, even though this was a no holds barred match. Mysterio came out on top after his 619/top rope splash combination. I’m left to wonder though how much longer this rivalry can go on, enjoyable as it is.

Match two is the fist title match of the evening, with Matt Hardy defending the ECW title against Evan Bourne, with 69 per cent, so thankfully no Mark Henry this month. This is the first time I’ve seen Bourne in action, so this is a new experience for me. The guy really impressed me in this outing with the mega-over Hardy, and in a way he kind of reminded me of a younger version of the Hardy Boys. There were a couple of moments that weren’t exactly well executed (Bourne’s attempted leg sweep on Hardy), but overall it was a good match, a real back-and-forth affair with plenty of false finishes, and Hardy taking Bourne out with the twist of fate at the second attempt. Boy was this good.

Tag-team action follows, with Cryme Tyme v The Miz and John Morrison getting 38 per cent. This was another example of great tag-team wrestling, featuring two teams which have a great chemistry with each other. I’m finally beginning to warm to the Miz, and it’s all down to his team with Morrison, and Cryme Tyme have always had good matches in them. A good match with both members of Tyme getting double-teamed, a mass brawl towards the end, and Morrison taking Shad out with his midnight ride to get the win. If only WWE gave us more tag-teams like these two.

More title action follows, with Santino Marella, accompanied by Beth Phoenix, defending the Intercontinental title against the Honkytonk Man, with 35 per cent. Much jaw-jacking to begin with, followed by Honky challenging Marella to a dancing contest, which ended with the champion clobbering the challenger. The match itself didn’t actually last that long, as Marella was disqualified when Beth tripped Honky as he came off the ropes, which only served to enrage the champion. But as he went to leave, he was stopped by the other two wrestlers in the vote, Goldust and Roddy Piper. All three veterans proceeded to take him out, which proved to be more entertaining than the match itself.

Another rivalry is renewed next, with the Undertaker taking on the Big Show - the stipulation - last man standing with 49 per cent. Before the match begins Jim Ross tells us that a win can be obtained via pin or submission. I’m guessing here that Vince was shouting down his ear about this error, before telling Taz to tell the fans the correct rules. Once again the two big men put on another good battle. It’s not pretty, no rest holds here as these two tried to beat the hell out of each other, with their fists, heads, and anything else they could get their hands on. Even the ECW announcers table took a beating, when Show choke slammed Undertaker from the barricade. This wasn’t enough to put the dead man away, and neither did Show’s big right hand. In fact it was the Undertaker who managed to beat the ten count. After surviving a chair shot, he synched in his choke hold submission, and even though Show tapped, the match didn’t end. It was only after the big man was counted out that the Undertaker was declared the victor. A very good match, with two outstanding performances from those concerned.

Then it’s on to the Diva Halloween costume thing, with Mickie James winning for her Lara Croft costume. Needless to say there was the inevitable cat fight afterwards. Just what purpose this served I fail to see.

Main event time #1, with Triple H defending the WWE title against Jeff Hardy with 57 per cent. After their last singles match, this one had a lot to live up to. They just about managed it. Some good, solid wrestling throughout this one, and the chemistry between these two is increasing all the time. As good as Triple H was here, you couldn’t help but hope that Hardy would finally get that win and the title. But sadly it was not to be. The twist of fate and the senton couldn’t put him the Game away, who retained the title by stopping what was probably going to be a third senton from the top rope, stopping that move and dragging him from the top rope to finish it with the pedigree. You know, I could watch these two go at it all day, and I still wouldn’t be disappointed.

Main event time #2, with Chris Jericho defending the World title against Batista, with Steve Austin as special referee with 74 per cent. Jericho looked a worried man going into this one, having spent the evening trying to get various people to take out Batista, getting the no answer all the time, and the choice of special referee didn’t do much for his mood either. As far as match quality goes, well, I just couldn’t get into this one. Technically it was fine, with a good storyline and good execution, but after the excitement of the previous match this one just didn’t do it for me. Austin did a good job as referee, only really getting involved a couple of times early on, until he got accidentally clobbered by Batista when Jericho ducked out of the way. This brought Shawn Michaels, one of the other special referees in the vote, down to the ring after Jericho took Batista down with the code breaker. Michaels, for obvious reasons, didn’t administer the count, and it looked like Michaels would make the final count after Batista speared Jericho. But this didn’t happen because JBL came down and pulled Michaels out of the ring. Then, as Austin was slowly getting back in, third choice referee Randy Orton came down, only to get stunned by Austin, and after all of this went on, Batista took Jericho out with the Batista bomb, and with Austin making the three count, we had a new world champion. As I said, it was okay, but were all the run-ins from the other referees and JBL really necessary?

In conclusion - I really enjoyed WWE’s latest attempt at making their new universe more interactive. The matches ranged from good to great, although there were a couple of moments where I was left scratching my head a little. However (and this is the rant I promised earlier), by only allowing fans to vote mainly by text, those WWE fans outside North America were more or less alienated, having had their voices taken away. This for me diminishes the entire concept of the event, and it was done just so WWE could make a bit more cash. Asking their fans to pay for text voting as well as the pay-per-view is going a bit far in my opinion.

The WWE now ram the concept of their “universe” down our throats, trying to make us feel like a part of a worldwide community, but they ignored a big part of that universe with Cyber Sunday.

Read more • 1 Comments

THE TWO SHEDS REVIEW by Julian Radbourne
E-mail: julian@twoshedsreview.com
Website: www.twoshedsreview.com

So can Anderson Silva once again prove he’s the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world? Or will Patrick Cote upset the apple cart and take his title? Well, that’s what I intend to find out by once again tuning into the world of the Ultimate Fighting Championship, as, just one week after UFC 89, UFC 90: Silva v Cote, makes it way to a live showing on Setanta Sports here in Britain. As always the hosts for the evening are Mike Goldberg and Joe Rogan.

The broadcast begins with action from the lightweight division, with former champion Sean Sherk taking on Tyson Griffin. Round one began with the fighters looking for an opening, and Sherk soon found it, taking Griffin down and quickly taking his back. But then Griffin got to his feet, walked across the cage, and proceeded to throw Sherk down to the mat. It wasn’t long before Sherk took Griffin down again, but after Griffin got to his feet, nothing much happened, so the fight returned to the centre of the cage where the fighters engaged in a punching battle. Some good shots followed, but as Griffin went for a take down, Sherk got control, quickly taking his opponent’s back again, but nothing really came of it, and as the clocked tick down towards the end of the round both me scored with some great punches.

Round two, and Griffin began the round with a