Summerslam 2006 some quick thoughts

Rather than go with the usual review and analysis of this year's Summerslam, I thought I would post some random thoughts which occurred to me while getting ready to write this article.

1. There were only 7 matches on the card

2. Of those 7 matches only one of those was a tag team match (and even then, neither team were tag champions).

3. Because there were only 7 matches on the card it meant that there were only 16 people involved in pre-advertised matches on this show.

4. 7 of the 16 men involved were over 40 while 3 of those were over 50.

5. There were 4 part-time wrestlers on the show (a quarter).

6. Of the 16 men on Summerslam only 3 had debuted since the year 2000 (I don't count Chavo, Rey and Booker here who made their WWE debuts in 2001 but had allready been wrestling for many years prior to this in WCW).

7. There were only 3 title matches on the show, despite WWE having 9 championships.

8. The Extreme Rules match for the ECW world title was the second match on the show and was not the most Extreme match on the card, despite being for the championship of Extreme Championship Wrestling.

9. There were no cruiserweights on the show.

10. There were no matches involving women. Not even Divas! (except Lita who was involved in the main event!)

Apart from these minor points this was a pretty good show. There were a lot of fun matches and it made for an entertaining spectacle. Unofrtunately many of the points raised above are indicative of just why WWE is suffering with decreasing pay per view buyrates and ever decreasing TV ratings. Until new stars are made, then it can only get worse for WWE.

Overall verdict: B+

ROH in Broxbourne (8/13), Live report

Ring of Honor concluded it’s UK debut with a sold out show in Broxbourne, Hertfordshire last night (Sunday August 13th). Following on from the previous night’s ‘traditional’ ROH show in Liverpool, this show was built around the idea of a series of international dream matches featuring talent from the UK, Japan and the US.

The show began with tag champ Austin Aries coming to the ring accompanied by tag partner Roderick Strong. With heavily taped ribs, an emotional Aries had to announce to the crowd that he would be unable to compete that evening as a result of broken ribs sustained in the match with the Briscoe Brothers the previous night. As the fans chanted Aries’ name, ROH champion (and Pure champion) Bryan Danielson came to the ring and berated Aries for not having the heart to compete and defend his championship for the UK fans. This led to Roderick Strong standing up to Danielson and challenging him to a match later that evening. After much stalling and crowd abuse, Danielson accepted his challenge and we were set for Danielson vs. Strong IV. While leaving, Danielson was attacked with a kendo stick by Pro Wrestling NOAH star SUWA, laying Danielson out on the floor.

The show officially started with the first ‘International Showcase’ match pitting Pro Wrestling NOAH’s Go Shiosaki against ROH’s BJ Whitmer. Taking a while to get going, this was the stiff, striking contest that you would expect from both men. The crowd was initially subdued, not because the match was dull, more that the UK fans were soaking up their first experience of a live ROH show. Chants were split between Whitmer - who the fans have taken to during the recent ROH vs. CZW feud – and Shiosaki, who I think got most of his chants because the fans enjoyed shouting “Let’s go Go”. After several vicious chops, forearms and head-drop suplexes, Shiosaki got the pin with a moosault, but both men were given strong ovations for a strong opening contest.

Next up was a 3-way pitting the talents of the UK’s best high-flyers. Spud, Johnny Storm and Jody Fleisch all got a strong reception from the fans, many of whom will have seen these three cut their teeth in the UK’s FWA promotion. After the usual high-flying, spot-based action, Storm got the pin on Spud with his wonderwhirl finisher. Although this was a slightly underwhelming match by ROH standards, props must go to Spud for taking a vicious looking powerbomb into the guardrail from Johnny Storm, which earned Storm a “you killed Spud” chant.

With all three men laid out in the ring exhausted, Chris Hero, Claudio Castagnoli and Chad Collyer rushed the ring and began attacking the Brits. Most of the fans were unaware that Hero would be present at the shows and as such he got a very heated reaction with fans throwing toilet roll and rubbish at the invading threesome. Coming to the defence of the British fans that Hero had been mocking on the mic came former Pure Champ Nigel McGuinness and UK legend Robbie Brookside. Challenging the Kings of Wrestling to a tag match, the subsequent 3-on-2 beat down on the Brits was halted by Colt Cabana who sided with McGuinness and Brookside to take on Hero who he had wrestled the night before. The resulting 6-man tag match was one of the highlights of the night, if only for the crowd and the heel’s reaction to it. Several new derogatory chants (far too rude to print here) were introduced to ROH fresh from the local football terraces and Hero, Collyer and Castagnoli over-reacted to every one. After a great back and forth match which saw the heels focus on the veteran Brookside, Nigel McGuinnes secured the pin after a Tower of London DDT and lariat on Chad Collyer. The Brits celebrated in the ring while the Kings of Wrestling, snuck out through the back door. With many fans regarding the ROH vs. CZW feud as over after Cage of Death last month, this was a great way to bring in the Kings of Wrestling to ROH as the tag division could desperately do with some top tier heels now that the Embassy team of Alex Shelley and Jimmy Rave has been put on hold.

Before we could reach intermission, ROH champ Bryan Danielson returned to the ring and challenged SUWA to a match so he could get his revenge for the earlier attack. SUWA charged Danielson and the two brawled around the ring and out into the crowd. At some point here, Danielson’s head was cut open and this led to a much more bloody than usual ROH title match. With two heels battling away, the crowd were split between the two, however Dragon secured the win with a small package in a short, but very hard-hitting encounter. The main point of interest, other than Dragon’s head wound, was the amount of abuse Danielson was taking to his back from SUWA. Would this be an issue in the later title match against the ‘Messiah of the Backbreaker’ Roderick Strong?

Coming back from intermission, it was time for Prince Nana of the Embassy to address the crowd. After making several insulting comments about the ladies of Liverpool who he had spent the previous night partying with (which earned him more cheers than boos) it was time for the UK debut of the ‘Crown Jewel’ Jimmy Rave. Despite Nana’s threats on ROHvideos.com that the throwing of toilet paper would not be accepted, Rave was not going to be given a free ride by the UK fans. Streams of toilet roll, many of them a nice shade of pink pelted the ring and Rave and Nana sold any direct hits like they had been hit by a thunderbolt. Rave’s opponent was the UK’s own Doug Williams, who got a great reception for his ROH return. The subsequent match featured the usual Rave/Nana cheating, combined with Williams’ excruciating looking submission holds. The crowd was also all over Rave and Nana with the Ghanian dictator hamming it up at ringside. Williams earned the pin with a chaos theory and the Embassy were seranaded out of the building with a rendition of ‘na-na-na-na, hey, goodbye’.

With Aries and Strong out of action it was left to the Briscoes, Matt Sydal and Davey Richards to steal the show with their pre-main event tag match – and steal the show they did. If there is a better tag team in wrestling today than the Briscoe Borthers, than I have not seen them. They are so polished and their moves are so well executed that they should be huge stars in this business. It is such a shame that tag team wrestling has become such a dirty word in 2006 because these are two of the best in the world at tag team wrestling. Matt Sydal and Davey Roichards on the other hand are no slouches, with Sydal fresh off a tour of Japan with Dragon Gate and Richards coming of a highly praised match against KENTA at the last ROH show. Another slow-burner, this match was not as high flying as the Briscoes’ match with Sydal and AJ Styles and was not as hard hitting as their encounters with Strong and Aries, however this was as good an example of tag team wrestling as you could ask to see. By uniting Richards and Sydal, it allowed them to use their offence in short bursts, which made them all the more effective. The highlights of the match were an awesome corkscrew suicide dive from Richards and a Matt Sydal moonsault, both to the floor. After numerous near-falls that saw the crowd on their feet for every near three count, the Briscoes’ secured the pinfall on Sydal with a cutthroat suplex/leg drop combination (after eliminating Richards with a Jay driller), however all 4 men earned a standing ovation from the crowd. This is a match that, if put on in front of a US crowd, would earn rave reviews for it’s hard-hitting excellence, so let’s hope that either ROH repeat this match stateside or that, upon the show’s DVD release, it gets the admiration it’s due for being a quite fantastic tag team contest.

With wrestling that good, the main event had a lot to live up to, however the two men involved were more than capable of putting on an awesome main event. With the Strong vs. Danielson matches getting longer and more vicious the more times they face each other, the fans were expecting something special here and with the bell-time for the main event being a surprisingly early 9.00 could it be that we would see a 60 minute draw out of these two?

With Danielson having already wrestled once that evening and sporting a still bleeding head, the two started off at full-pace right from the bell. Whether it was Strong chasing Dragon for slapping him during the early exchanges in the corner or the flurry of chops and forearms that built in ferocity as the match went on, this was every bit as hard-hitting as their previous encounters. It was therefore, something of a surprise to see the match stopped at just over 20 minutes after a flurry of vicious MMA-style elbows from Danielson who subsequently locked in the cattle mutilation to the now unconscious Strong. Although not a classic as the previous three have been, this was certainly a worthy main event and continues the story of Danielson and Strong’s hard-hitting rivalry. The final image of a bloody Danielson (now beelding from his mouth as well as his head) standing over the equally bloodied Strong (who had been cut open above his eye) will surely add another level of competitiveness to this match-up, as well as a level of sporting realism that WWE simply cannot (or perhaps will not) match up to.

Overall verdict: B+
“A fantastic show, albeit slightly short in time and number of matches. Having said that, there was not a poor match on the show and it really showed off to the UK fans just what ROH is all about. Whether it is the hard-hitting action, innovative high-flying and tag team action, or simple good old-fashioned fun wrestling with heels you love to boo and babyfaces you want to cheer, it had the lot. Whether the matches will pass the test of time is unsure, however the two tag matches will certainly warrant another viewing on DVD. In short, ROH did everything they needed to do to send the fans home happy and the news that they will be returning to the UK in March next year will certainly help make up for any short comings this show might have had.”

The return of Jeff Hardy to WWE

So Jeff Hardy is back in WWE. Quelle surprise. The rumours of a Hardy Boyz reunion have been buzzing around the internet ever since he left WWE in 2003. After Matt's departure from WWE last year it looked like TNA might have been the place that it would finally happen. However once Matt showed up on Raw it looked like it was only ever going to be a pipedream. With the Dudleyz/Team 3D and Christian and Jeff Hardy available to them, this could have been one of the matches that would draw people into watch TNA as these guys had some of the best matches from the most profitabel era of the company. Instead, with Jeff returning to WWE, it goes to show that if the money is right Vince and co are still the preferred destination for the majority of wrestlers in the US today - no matter how bad they may end up being treated.

Until Jeff's annoucement today, he has been off the radar ever since he no showed a number of key events for TNA last year. However the general perception was that he was still under contract to TNA or so it seemed. Although this is probably a great move for Jeff, it may not be such a great move for Matt. After suffering in WWE purgatory ever since he returned it looked like he was finally in line for a singles push as a result of his win over Ken Kennedy. However now with brother Jeff back in the company, it looks like a Hardy Boyz reunion is back on the cards. The only thing is, just who the hell will they be facing? In the 4 years since the Hardy Boyz heydays, the tag division has become the red-headed step child of WWE. Whereas once they were major draws, they are now an after though and as a result of poor booking and the wellness program there is only one recognised tag team on Smackdown these days (and only a handful more than that on Raw). Therefore, as great as it is to have Jeff back, it makes you wonder who they will be facing. At least the prospect of the Hardyz vs. London/Kendrick is enough to pique the interest of a cyncial old fan like me. However the Hardyz vs. Shelton Benjamin & Charlie Haas, MNM or even a reunited Edge and Christian or the Dudleyz would have been even better!

You also have to wonder, with Jeff's notorious problems with illegal substances how will he stand up to the new WWE wellness program. For someone who always maintained he never had a drug problem, how will he cope being back on the road around temptation? Not to mention, can the Hardy Boyz get over in a wrestling company where the high-flying moves of old have been reigned in in favour of a 'less is more approach'. It will be an interesting few months for the newly re-formed Hardy duo, but if one thing is certain, the teenage fans who cover themselves in body paint to go to TNA and scream for Jeff will be screaming into their myspace accounts tonight!

When being 'Extreme' is just too extreme for ECW!

Back in the 90s everything was extreme. It was one of those buzzwords that marketing geniuses used to make things sound more edgey and exciting. Want to make something sound more cool, call it Extreme, then it sounds like surfers and snowvoarders and other cool, young, youth-type things. If you want to make it even cooler, then why not remove the 'e' and call them Xtreme - not that's really hip!


However for Extreme Championship Wrestling, they were not relying on a cliche to make their name. In the mid-90s, the former Eastern Championship Wrestling was carving out a niche for itself strewn with broken tables (sometimes on fire), barbed wire and blood by the bucket load. The die-hard ECW fans will always tell you ECW was about more than just blood and guts, however it was the Extreme nature of the product that caught most fans attentions. For all the Guerrero vs. Malenko classics and high flying luchadores, it was the Rotten brothers tearing each other apart in a taipei deathmatch or Sabu and Terry Funk in a no ropes barbed wire match that got the majority of the headlines. However amid all this carnage there was one ever present constant. No matter how 'extreme' things got and how much blood was spilled, there was always a result. It may have not started as being an 'anything goes' promotion, but by the end an ECW wrestler couldn't seem to get DQed if they had gone out the back, picked up there rental car and drove it at their opponent at 60 mph. They would still have been expected to get out, hook the leg and let the ref count the 1-2-3.

So here we are in 2006 and after a brief hiatus, ECW is back. But as ECW fans we muct keep reminding ourselves, this is not the ECW of old. This isn't 1995 and the age of Funk and the Public Enemy, this is 2006 and the age of Vince MacMahon's vision of ECW. As such we have to accept a few changes; Kurt Angle and Big Show are now ECW wrestlers - OK. So is Test - OK? The old ECW stars are just just jobbers and will never win - right - oh, and there will be vampires and zombies - fair enough, I guess it is on Sci Fi. Oh, and we're going to have DQ finishes - now hang on! There really is only so much we can take!!

With the DQ ending of Batista vs. Big Show that now makes for the at FIFTH DQ finish of an ECW match (and two of those were title matches). Gone are the days of a bloody Sabu crawling through barbed wire to pin Terry Funk. This is ECW where you only use weapons when it's 'Extreme Rules' and for that you have to get Vince's permission before you can go and be extreme. After all, if all the matches were 'Extreme Rules' (as they all surely should be if this is Extreme Championship Wrestling) then WWE [un]Creative wouldn't be able to rely on the familliar crutch of DQ finishes for matches where they can't decide who they want to win - or rather who doesn't want to get pinned. Over the past few years, DQ finishes have become second only to ref bumps in my 'Most Hated things about WWE' list and now it is transferring to ECW - which is not a good thing. Sure, there are times when a DQ finish can add to a storyline, just look at Batista vs. Ken Kennedy for a prime example. However when you get screwy DQs every week then they lose all meaning. By building their story's around a 'Code of Honor', Ring of Honor have got to the point where DQs, ref bumps and count outs actually mean something in the context of their storys. For the most part, this is because they only have one or two of each a year. WWE on the other hand have 2 or 3 a week and as such they just become a tired old cliche. Add to this the inconsistency of refereeing as a result of poor storytelling and you have a minefield of inconsistent rule-making where heels won't get DQed for hitting someone in the face with chair, but a babyface will get punished for wearing the wrong colour tights. For those of us with an IQ which is in double figures, you can see why this might be a problem.

So please Vince, make the refs make sense and let the ECW guys do their thing without having to worry about DQs if they gt a little bit too rowdy and put someone through a table or hit someone with a chair. After all, this is what you brought the brand back for, to capitalize on this legacy of blood, barbed wire and brutality. Alas, at the moment you are making them come across like every other half-arsed brand that ever tried to make themselves cool by pretending they take things ' to the Xtreme' - at the end of the day, the fans just see right through it and you can't ever earn back credibility once it's gone, no matter how much money you chuck at the problem.

ECW + CM Punk = Ratings!

CM Punk makes his ECW in-ring debut in a fantastic stiff encounter with Justin Credible. Lots of high impact kicks and strikes, Punk has clearly been swapping tips with his good buddy Samoa Joe. Getting the win with an uranage into the anaconda vice submission hold, Punk was cheered mightily by the New York faithful and was put over like a star. Let's just hope this continues for him.