Another year has come to an end and so, inevibaly, it becomes time to start scatching your metaphorical beard and start contemplating just what were the best matches of 2006.
It's been a far from vintage year for WWE as they have focused increasingly on entertainment over great wrestling. This year has been more about DX and Big Dick Johnson than 5 star matches and as a reulst, even Wrestlemania was a decidely lacklustre affair. Not even the arrival of the new ECW brand could rescue the in-ring content from mediocrity and by the end of 2006 we ended up with three almost identical brands putting out below average wrestling. Great young in-ring workers like CM Punk, Shelton Benjmain, Chaarlie Haas, Carlito and even more established names like Super Crazy and Gregory Helms have languished on the outskirts while muscled up mnsters like Chris Masters, Test, Bobby Lashley and the Great Khali have been given the spot light. As such, there are only two matches on my list from WWE, one featuring two veterans having a classic wrestling match just to prove that they still had it in them and one spot-fest featuring several young-guns who would not be given the chance to succeed in any other environment as they are too small to be anything more than novelty acts.
In 2005, TNA became a major player in the world of professional wrestling with a series of amazing matches between Samoa Joe, AJ Styles and Christopher Daniels. Although the company has retaiend much of the momentum these matches gave them, TNA has again relied on those three men to carry the workload for TNA. The tag team of Styles/Daniels helped carry the company over the summer, while Joe has been a prominent player, albeit it in a greatly restricted role since his move to the heavyweight division. 2006 has also seen the continued influx of former WWE names as well as the arrival of Vince Russo into creative that has moved the product away from it's strong in-ring work ethic that was a highlight of those early pay per views. Although the product has improved greatly, it is alarmingly close to WWE in style and content and as such the logic holes that come with sports enterteinment have creeped back into TNA damaging a lot of potentially great match-ups, for example the first Angle vs. Joe match which many thought would be a shoe-in for match of the year.
Which leaves us with just ROH and the indies consider and thank god they are there as this has been the year ROH became the high water mark for professional wrestling in the US (and beyond!). After a strong 2004 and an outstanding 2005, ROH managed to do the unthinkable and actually improved in 2006. The title reign of Bryan Danielson went from stregth to strength, the ROH vs. CZW feud made independent wrestling exciting again and the tag title reign of Austin Aries and Roderick Strong helped revitalize the mid-card as well as giving ROH another main event option to help elevate some of their below average shows into must-sees. Add to this the arrival of Kenta from Japan for an extended run, the Dragongate stars at the Wrestlemania triple shot, the shows in the UK, the road of Homicide, the return of the Briscoes and development of young talent like Matt Sydal and Davey Richards and ROH is looking stronger than ever for 2007.
So here it is, my definitive list of matches of the year for 2006:
1. Brian Kendrick & Paul London vs. MNM vs. the Hardy Boyz vs. William Regal & Dave Taylor (WWE Armageddon)
2. Austin Aries & Roderick Strong vs. Jay & Mark Briscoe (ROH Unified)
3. Bryan Danielson vs. Nigel McGuinnes (ROH Unified)
4. Team ROH vs. Team CZW (Death Before Dishonor IV)
5. LAX vs. Styles/Daniels - Ultimate X (TNA No Surrender)
6. Americas Most Wanted vs. Styles/Daniels (TNA Slammiversary)
7. Roderick Strong & Jack Evans vs. the Briscoes (ROH Best in the World)
8. Blood Generation vs. Do Fixer (ROH Supercard of Honor)
9. Undertaker vs. Kurt Angle (WWE No Way Out)
10. Samoa Joe vs. Scott Steiner (TNA Slammiversary)
Wednesday, December 27, 2006
Thursday, December 21, 2006
WWE Armageddon
And so ends the five weeks of five consecutive wrestling pay per views. They've varied from good (TNA Genesis and Turning Point) to OK (Survivor Series) to the downright awful (December to Dismember) so it can hardly be a surprise that expectations were low for Armageddon. Holding a show so close to Chrsitmas was always going to be a problem, however adding to that the lacklustre state of WWE creative that won't allow a brand to plan any further ahead than the next pay-per-view (even if that show is for another brand) and you can't help but be sceptical. The line-up ahead of the show was also far from fantastic and showed just how the Smackdown brand is aching for star power that they had to draft in John Cena to help boost the buyrate. However in the end, it was an unanounced surprise match that most people will remember this show for and one that, if they had anounced it ahead of the show would more likely have generated some actual interest in the show, but I guess that isn't WWE's way in 2006.The 4 team ladder match that the fans were given as a 'reward' for battling through all these shows was such a refreshing breath of fresh air that it could well be set to gate crash many peoples match of the year lists. The tag title match between London/Kendrick and Regal/Taylor looked to be match of the night on paper, however the addition of a ladder and the Hardy Boyz and MNM made this a real throwback to the year 2000 when Edge, Christian, the Hardyz and the Dudleyz were having innovative match after innovative match. If anything, this match really reminded you just what is missing from WWE in 2006 - excitement, danger and all out insane action!! This fact could not be emphasised more than by Joey Matthews mangled face after the botched ladder spot, that reminds fans that this is still dangerous and although unfortunate, gave this match an element of reallism that has been missing from so many other contrived gimmick matches where people are supposed to believe implausible injuries.
The abundance of gimmick matches in the Monday Night Wars has certainly devalued the significance of many match stipulations, however the lacklustre quality of many of those matches also helped. This 8-way ladder match though, reminded fans that, if done right, these kind of matches can be just as exhilrating and exciting as they used to be and, at the end of the day, most hardcore wrestling fans want to see high-paced athletic action, not bad comedy skits and tasteless angles.. This match was built fantastically around getting over all the participants in it and did a great job and no-one came out of this match any worse off for losing and that is what great wrestling is all about. London and Kendrick got the deserved win and proved that they are capable of hanging with more established teams. The MNM and Hardyz reunions, which were supposed to last for only a few shows, have given WWE a breath of fresh air and really proved that tag teams can be relevant in 2006. But let's not forget Regal and Taylor, who's roles were perfect as the whiley veterans who attempted to thwart the high-flying youngsters. In many ways, these two should have been the weak link that showed up the ludicrous nature of these kind of matches, but instead they were the glue that held the match together as the youngsters went from spot to spot. The bit where they threw the ladders out of the ring because they didn;t want to get involved in that kind of match was a really nice touch, while the moment when they were apprehensive about finally having to climb the ladder really gave the match some personality, and dare is say it, some depth.
Quite simply put, in this one match you had more emotion and drama than WWE have managed in 6 months of TV and pay per views. After this, the rest of the card was of secondary importance, but fortunately it was far from poor. Although nothing was as spectacular as the ladder match there were some fun wrestling matches (Helms vs. Wang and Benoit vs. Guerrero) and a very good Undertaker vs. Ken Kennedy match that will have definitely sent the fans home happy. The main event of Booker and Finlay vs. Cena and Batista was a filer match at best with none of the participants really clicking, but when you have had a phenomenal match on the undercard you can forgive a lot, even this average main event, as you have more than got your money's worth from the show. Let's just hope WWE acknowledge the fans response to these 4 teams and we don't see them return to mid-card purgatory when the new year begins.
Overall verdict: C+ for th show, A+ for the ladder match
"An above average show that seemed doomed to failure before it started, however it was rescued by 6 young athletes giving 150% and 2 whiley veterans knowing how to put a great match together. Worth getting hold of for the ladder match, but the rest of the card is far from poor and this is probably one of the better top-to-bottom shows WWE has put on this year."
Saturday, December 02, 2006
TNA Genesis 2006
Hype is a curious thing. Without it, nothing would be special and everything would be just as important as everything else. Unfortunately for the wrestling business, hype is a very neccessary evil. Without it, no-one would buy the ridiculous number of wrestling pay per views, DVDs or merchadise and the wrestlers would be back working in bingo halls and circus tents. Unfortunately, when the month of November and December features 5 consecutive weeks of pay-per-views, you can't really blame TNA for hyping up the long anticipated match between Samoa Joe and Kurt Angle as being anything but 'the dream match of the decade'. After all, this is Kurt Angle who has had classic matches with just about anyone who is anyone in the wrestling world and he is going against Samoa Joe, the man who has had more 5 star matches in the last 3 years than anyone else in North America. On paper, this had classic written all over it, unfortunately when something is hyped to this degree, then it has to be something out of this world to even begin to live up to it. However, when you add in the idiosyncarcies of the wrestling business, then you begin to learn that there is no such thing as a sure thing and so instead of delvering a classic match for the ages, TNA delvered a confusing mess of a match that managed to do more damage than it did good, not only to one of it's top stars, but also to the rest of the show as a whole.
Forget all the talk of whether TNA should have held off on doing Samoa Joe vs. Kurt Angle until a later date, the build for this match had been fantastic. Unlike WWE where many of it's shows are forgettable, meaingless shows, this was a marquee match and was the focal point of the show. In fact, it was so focussed on, that you could argue it made the world championship match play second fiddle to it, however that is not something I have a priblem with and so I won't go into that at this point. At the end of the day, TNA needed to strike while the iron was hot with Kurt Angle and a match with Samoa Joe was the, wihtout a doubt, the match that most fans wanted to see. The probelsm was, with these two atheletes the hype got out of control. Would this be as good as Angle vs. Benoit from the Royal Rumble '03 or would it be as good as Joe vs. Kobashi from New York in 2005? In the minds of the fans it would be better, and so we get back to the subject of hype. Looking back, this match could never reallistically live up to the expecatiotns that the fans had placed upon it. However it could still have been a fantastic contest but,u nfortunately, TNA failed to capitalize on this buzz and in the end devliered a mediocre match that, rather than establish Joe and Angle as the next epic feud, made Joe look second-rate to a 'real' superstar like Kurt Angle. Not only did Angle make Joe tap (a first for TNA), but he ended his 18 month undefeated streak and all this in just over 15 minutes. Hardly an epic battle on the same level as Flair vs. Steamboat or even Joe vs. CM Punk. Now I know that not every great match has to last 30+ minutes. God knows, that is something I have been critical of ROH for doing. However, for a match of this much importance it could have gone a damn site longer. It's not even like it went at full pace for those 15 minutes as there was a riduclous amount of stalling at the beginning when Angle was outside the ring. The fact this caused Angle to be busted open, surely could have been used as away to put Joe over. However instead we got the bloody and battered Angle, making Joe tap after kicking out of the muscl-buster and escaping the choke. So there it is, after 18 months, the great saviour of TNA has been out wrestled by a WWE guy in his first match. The anlge afterwqards where Joe was refused the rematch seems to have been some kind of failed attempt to turn Joe face at long last and turn Angle heel and set up a rematch, however what really is the point? Angle complrehensively out wrestled Joe and made him look bush league compared to tghe guys in WWE. In the last year, Joe has gone from the centrepiece of the company thanks to his matches with Styles and Dnaiels, to a guy who's only clean pay per view win in the last year has been against an ageing Scott Steiner and against Jeff Jarrett (and even that was in a gimmick match where he had to be helped out by the fans). So much for TNA builidng the company around him. I guess that old WCW mentality still lives on abnd the moegrown guys are only as a big a star as the next guy to jump ship from the opposition.
As for the undercard, it was another consistentyly strong show with some poor matches that were soon eclipsed by some really good work. For every VKM vs. Kazrain, Maverick Matt and JOhnny Devine, there was a Chris Daniels vs. Chris Sabin or a Christian Cage vs. AJ Styles which were both excellent and a darn sight better than the disappointing main event. LAX and AMW had a fun brawl, however they failed to capture the excitement of AMW vs. Styles and Daniels, however it was the first matchg in their feud and with any lucxk this should develop into something really good as LAX are one of the hottest acts in the company right now (and if you need convincing of that, then check out the response they get when Jim Cornette threatens to strip them of the tag titles. I've not heard a crowd shift allegances quicker and they turn on Cornette in an instant).
Last but by no means least, I feel I should comment briefly on the NWA title match. For tyhe most part, this was another entertaining brawl, with Sting and Abyss seeming to work well togetherl. The only bones of contetniotn I had were with the spot where Sting hung Abyss by his feet in order to beat him with the bat and of course, the final result which I fgound very confusing. As far as the 'pinata' spot, it was completely ridcilous and was one of those moments which really showqed how 'fake' the wrestling business can be. Sure, do it at the end of the match wqhere the guy is beaten down and not going to put up a fight. However don;t do it in the middle of a amnatch where it takes 5 minutes to get it set up. Plus, why was he being so careful, surely if he wanted to hurt Abyss he would have hosited him up and dropped him down on his hgead!! As for the result, well, as cute an idea as it was, it reeked of Vince Russo and that is not a good thing. Why Sting got DQ-ed for shoving the ref when he had used thumbtacks and hoisted Abyss up on a rope I don't know. However it must have been an accumulaive thing as it was Sting who used the thumbtacks (even if he didn't bring them into the ring) and it was Sting who hoisted Abyss up while outside the ring. The problem is something that is rife within wrestling right now, and that is consistentcy. If this is going to get a DQ this week, then why have we not seen referees enforce the rules more in the past and will we see them enforce the same rules in teh future. Jeff Jarrett got away with as much referee abuse as Sting and he remained as NWA champ for months. Also, would it have hurt for them to do a little anagle ahead of this where te referees were told to execute more authrotiy, so at least this could have made a bit of sense. The same could also be said of the 'titles can change hand on a DQ'. Admittedly, that would have completely telegraphed the result of the match, but at least it would have made sense!!
Overall verdict: B-
"A decent show that failed to live up to the pre-show hype. Still a damn sight better than the majority of WWE shows thanks to the high standard of in-ring work, but the goofy booking of the main events pout a serious dampener on what should have been a blow-away event."
Forget all the talk of whether TNA should have held off on doing Samoa Joe vs. Kurt Angle until a later date, the build for this match had been fantastic. Unlike WWE where many of it's shows are forgettable, meaingless shows, this was a marquee match and was the focal point of the show. In fact, it was so focussed on, that you could argue it made the world championship match play second fiddle to it, however that is not something I have a priblem with and so I won't go into that at this point. At the end of the day, TNA needed to strike while the iron was hot with Kurt Angle and a match with Samoa Joe was the, wihtout a doubt, the match that most fans wanted to see. The probelsm was, with these two atheletes the hype got out of control. Would this be as good as Angle vs. Benoit from the Royal Rumble '03 or would it be as good as Joe vs. Kobashi from New York in 2005? In the minds of the fans it would be better, and so we get back to the subject of hype. Looking back, this match could never reallistically live up to the expecatiotns that the fans had placed upon it. However it could still have been a fantastic contest but,u nfortunately, TNA failed to capitalize on this buzz and in the end devliered a mediocre match that, rather than establish Joe and Angle as the next epic feud, made Joe look second-rate to a 'real' superstar like Kurt Angle. Not only did Angle make Joe tap (a first for TNA), but he ended his 18 month undefeated streak and all this in just over 15 minutes. Hardly an epic battle on the same level as Flair vs. Steamboat or even Joe vs. CM Punk. Now I know that not every great match has to last 30+ minutes. God knows, that is something I have been critical of ROH for doing. However, for a match of this much importance it could have gone a damn site longer. It's not even like it went at full pace for those 15 minutes as there was a riduclous amount of stalling at the beginning when Angle was outside the ring. The fact this caused Angle to be busted open, surely could have been used as away to put Joe over. However instead we got the bloody and battered Angle, making Joe tap after kicking out of the muscl-buster and escaping the choke. So there it is, after 18 months, the great saviour of TNA has been out wrestled by a WWE guy in his first match. The anlge afterwqards where Joe was refused the rematch seems to have been some kind of failed attempt to turn Joe face at long last and turn Angle heel and set up a rematch, however what really is the point? Angle complrehensively out wrestled Joe and made him look bush league compared to tghe guys in WWE. In the last year, Joe has gone from the centrepiece of the company thanks to his matches with Styles and Dnaiels, to a guy who's only clean pay per view win in the last year has been against an ageing Scott Steiner and against Jeff Jarrett (and even that was in a gimmick match where he had to be helped out by the fans). So much for TNA builidng the company around him. I guess that old WCW mentality still lives on abnd the moegrown guys are only as a big a star as the next guy to jump ship from the opposition.
As for the undercard, it was another consistentyly strong show with some poor matches that were soon eclipsed by some really good work. For every VKM vs. Kazrain, Maverick Matt and JOhnny Devine, there was a Chris Daniels vs. Chris Sabin or a Christian Cage vs. AJ Styles which were both excellent and a darn sight better than the disappointing main event. LAX and AMW had a fun brawl, however they failed to capture the excitement of AMW vs. Styles and Daniels, however it was the first matchg in their feud and with any lucxk this should develop into something really good as LAX are one of the hottest acts in the company right now (and if you need convincing of that, then check out the response they get when Jim Cornette threatens to strip them of the tag titles. I've not heard a crowd shift allegances quicker and they turn on Cornette in an instant).
Last but by no means least, I feel I should comment briefly on the NWA title match. For tyhe most part, this was another entertaining brawl, with Sting and Abyss seeming to work well togetherl. The only bones of contetniotn I had were with the spot where Sting hung Abyss by his feet in order to beat him with the bat and of course, the final result which I fgound very confusing. As far as the 'pinata' spot, it was completely ridcilous and was one of those moments which really showqed how 'fake' the wrestling business can be. Sure, do it at the end of the match wqhere the guy is beaten down and not going to put up a fight. However don;t do it in the middle of a amnatch where it takes 5 minutes to get it set up. Plus, why was he being so careful, surely if he wanted to hurt Abyss he would have hosited him up and dropped him down on his hgead!! As for the result, well, as cute an idea as it was, it reeked of Vince Russo and that is not a good thing. Why Sting got DQ-ed for shoving the ref when he had used thumbtacks and hoisted Abyss up on a rope I don't know. However it must have been an accumulaive thing as it was Sting who used the thumbtacks (even if he didn't bring them into the ring) and it was Sting who hoisted Abyss up while outside the ring. The problem is something that is rife within wrestling right now, and that is consistentcy. If this is going to get a DQ this week, then why have we not seen referees enforce the rules more in the past and will we see them enforce the same rules in teh future. Jeff Jarrett got away with as much referee abuse as Sting and he remained as NWA champ for months. Also, would it have hurt for them to do a little anagle ahead of this where te referees were told to execute more authrotiy, so at least this could have made a bit of sense. The same could also be said of the 'titles can change hand on a DQ'. Admittedly, that would have completely telegraphed the result of the match, but at least it would have made sense!!
Overall verdict: B-
"A decent show that failed to live up to the pre-show hype. Still a damn sight better than the majority of WWE shows thanks to the high standard of in-ring work, but the goofy booking of the main events pout a serious dampener on what should have been a blow-away event."
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