Unforgiven poster

The sight of HHH coming out dressed like Conan the Barbarian at Wrestlemania 22 is one of the funniest things i have ever seen. However it seems that someone in WWE's art department doesn't agree and it looks like they are giving the barbarian king another go - first he's the king of kings, then the bionic man, now he's Conan Jr! There really is nothing more that can be said about this!

Orton vs. Cena for Summerslam

It's been one of the 'dream matches' for WWE for years, and now they seem to have finally gone ahead and booked it (although I'm pretty sure it's not a first-time encounter). It's been 3 years since Orton was last main eventing a Summerslam and it's been a long journey for him (with many ups and downs along the way), however with business the way it is, then pulling the trigger on this big-time match can only be a good thing. It also means that Summerslam has a quality main event match which they can build around and should certainly provide a strong marquee match for the show - certainly better than Umaga vs. the Jackass crew which appears to have been scrubbed with rumours that Johnny Knoxville has pulled out of doing appearances for WWE.

WWE Great American Bash 2007

The more everything changes, the more it stays the same I guess! At a time when the business is under more scrutiny than ever before, I guess it make sense that John Cena, the articulate, polished performer is the company's figurehead (not the inarticulate, muscled up Bobby Lashley). However it does beg the question of just who the hell is ever going to beat Cena for the belt?! At least with Lashley it seemed like it might be at risk, however after another lacklustre Great Amercian Bash, the only thing that has changed is that a midget has won the Cruiserweight title - if only the title meant something so I could get annoyed about this, but I can't!

CM Punk does the Vans Warped tour

Proof, if ever it was needed, that CM Punk can be a huge crossover star for WWE. Working as a backstage reporter for Fuse TV covering the Vans Warped Tour, Punk gets to hang out with loads of punk bands, as well a interview one of his heros, Brian Baker from Minor Threat/Bad Religion.

TNA Victory Road 2007 aftermath

If you need proof of just why having a match of champions was stupid, then this grab from TNA's website should tell you all you need to know. As great as it is that Joe won, you now have one man holding a championship that is supposed to be for two people! Vince Russo's attitude that 'a title is just a prop to tell stories' is in full effect in TNA once again. So much for actual teams like LAX, Team 3D or the Murder City Machine Guns! (Not to mention the complete lack of any focus for the X Division once again!).

Johnny Nitro/John Morrison

I wish I knew why they decided to change Johnny Nitro's name to John Morrison, but I just can't figure it out. WWE has a long history of changing guys name when they come up from Developmental to the main roster (Prototype became John Cena, Leviathon became Batista), however Johnny Nitro seemed to be one of the few exceptions. However now that he is ECW champion, they have decided to change his name from Nitro, to Morrison. NOw, I'm all for reallism in wrestling, however isn't one of the important things in pro-wrestling to be larger than life?! Steve Austin never got anywhere until he was Stone Cold. Dwayne Johnson never got anywhere until he became the Rock, so why change Johnny Nitro (a perfectly acceptable name) to John Morrison?! It sounds like the singer from a bad Doors covers band. Let's just hope his match against CM Punk at this month's Great American Bash isn't a cheap imitation of their last match from Judgment Day.

ROH Respect Is Earned PPV

A really fun show that really showcases the ROH product.

TNA Victory Road this Sunday

I have to admit, it's been quite nice to have had a week without a pay-per-view to worry about watching. Unfortunately, these summer months are often a difficult sell for wrestling fans as other things tend to take priority over spending 3 hours watching a wrestling show and I think this apathy may well affect the success of TNA's Victory Road which is this Sunday.

However it's not just the weather that is causing apathy among fans, the erratic quality of TNA's booking is also not helping. On paper, the show looks pretty average, with only a handful of matches with any real interest. The main event is a prime example of this, as it is packed with star power yet the cack-handed build has taken away a lot of the match's lustre. Not to mention the fact that Team 3D just don't seem believable as main eventers in 2007. As for the undercard, I am sure it will be entertaining, however with Ultimate X thrown on the show with little or no build and matches like Cage vs. Harris and Storm vs. Rhino which seem to have been put together at the last minute, I am again, struggling to get excited about the issues between these guys (which for the most I don't know about as I missed the last 2 episodes of Impact.

ROH Battle of St Paul

One of the key's to success in ROH has always been the way they cycle in and cycle out talent. (A matter of neccessity for a company that is low on the food chain in the wrestling world.) It helps give the company a very old school, territorial feel to it as a mix of new guys and established indie names can be brought into ROH whenever is neccessary and they can occupy a number of different places on the card. It also means that the roster is kept fresh and the same feuds are not recycled ad infinitum.

A case in point is this show from St Paul Minnesota, which sees the ROH debuts of 4 talents from the Chikara promotion, most notably indie legend Mike Quackenbush. Quack is one of those 'indie darlings' who the ROH faithful have been clamouring to be brought in for years. Along with Chris Hero, Super Dragon and Necro Butcher he is probably the biggest name out there not to be used in ROH, however just as those 3 all appeared as part of the ROH vs. CZW feud last year, so it has finally come for Quack to make his debut - not bad for a guy who's over 30!

Alas the debut of Quack is one of the few highlights in yet another average ROH show. The stable feud between the NRC and Resilience continues, as does Morishima's dominant reign as world champ - this time taking on former world champ Austin Aries. Roderick Strong has a very solid FIP title match with Chris Daniels, the Briscoes dominate a tag team 'Ultimate Endurnace match', but the rest of the card is very forgettable.

Overall verdict: C+
"Nothing particularly bad with the show, however nothing that stands out enough to say 'you must buy this DVD'."

Wrestling look-a-likes pt1

I was watching the men's final at wimbledon this afternoone and couldn't help wonder at how much chipmunk faced, perrennial runner-up, Rafael Nadal, looks remarkably like Smackdown's most over superstar, Matt Hardy. What do you think?

ROH Good Times Great Memories DVD

Wrestling witch hunt

The media's treatment of the Benoit tragedy has, inevitably, looked towards the more salacious elemtns of the story. However as facts begin to emerge, it is difficult to seprate the relevant ones from those intended to grab headlines. A case in point is this article from the Sun online . It claims that over 104 wrestlers have died in the last 10 years - sensational stuff. Now we all know that a higher than average percentage of wrestlers have died young, but is it really that high?

Well, let's look at the facts they claim. Of those 104 only [b]40[/b] were full-time workers in North American - that's less than half! However, they go on to claim that only a quarter have ever worked for WWE - so that's just over 20. Now, obviosuly this is an alarmingly high number, however is this just drug related deaths? Or just steroid deaths? No, this will have included accidents (like Owen Hart) and murders/suicides, like the Benoits. So when you look at those figures, are they actually any higher than other high profile sports or even Hollywood?

TNA= Total Non-stop 3-ways

Oh Vince Russo, your booking is so predictable. If you're not sticking things on poles or creating matches with convoluted stipulations that no-one understand, you're relying on 3-ways to get over the fact you can't decide (or perhaps won't decide) which of your stars gets to take the pinfall!

Last week on Impact saw the ridiculous rush-booking of Samoe joe becoming X-Division champion and this week saw Kurt Angle take on Christian Cage and Rhino. There's more 3-way action in TNA these days than on most late night cable porn. The X Division match the week before was a cop-out and a hotshot angle straight out of the Russo playbook. However this week's world title match was from just the same playbook, just from a completely different section. Although this felt like a pay-per view match (and it was certainly booked in the crazy way that TNA lke their pay per view matches to be) this was actually the perfect TV world title match. OK, so it was over-booked nonsese with a million and one run-ins and about 18 different angles interjecting themselves, but this is a TV match and that is what TV matches should be all about. From this one 40+ minute match, TNA have set-up their main event as well as 2 or 3 undercard matches, all the while making a great episode of television along the way Oh, and perhaps more importantly, the only people who had to pay to watch this are the TNA executives who finance the show!). Fortunately the crazy angles were backed up by the usual high standard of work from the TNA roster, and just like John Cena vs. Shawn Michaels from a couple of months ago, this format of a longer match on TV has the potential to not only create a buzz of interest about an increasingly stale product, but also to create a potential match of the year candidate for TNA - something they have thus far, failed to do on pay-per-view in 2007.

A tale of two TV shows

You would have thought, that with all the fuss that is going on in the media about steroids and the Benoit tragedy, that WWE would do their best to prove size does not matter in the WWE. But then you have Bobby Lashley win the Beat the Clock challenge on Raw and win a title match against John Cena at the Great American Bash. Of all the people they could have as their new main event superstar and they chose Lashley the muscle boy!!

The push of Lashley has been something of a strange one, as he the powers that be clearly see something in him as a future superstar. I first saw Lashley in OVW when Paul Heyman was booking it, however he often played second fiddle to the stronger workers like CM Punk, Brnet Labright, Ken Doane, Johnny Jeter and Aaron Stevens. However because he has the look of a WWE wrestler, he was brought up to the main roster with barely 6 months in developmental and in the subsequent 2 years he has been US Champ, ECW Champ and I would bet that by the end of the year he will be WWE Champ as well. As a result of this lightening quick elevation to the big time, I can't see why the fans won't turn on him in the same way that they turned on Cena. At least Cena had the rapping gimmick to back him up, but what has Lashley got?! He is hard-hitting but soft-spoken - big deal!! That doesn't mean he has a personality or will sell any pay-per-views. The only thing going for him in the eyes of many fans is that at least he is not John Cena, so perhaps that will keep him safe for a couple of months!

On the flipside though, ECW continues to focus on the CM Punk vs. Johnny Nitro feud and be a showcase for the young talent it has on it's roster. IN many ways it's like watching the aforementioned OVW shows of Paul Heyman from 2 years ago, and there is nothing at all wrong with that. After nearly a year, it seems WWE have finally worked out just what ECW should be (and the good news is, it's worth watching!!)

Summerslam poster

Is it just me, or wasn't Jackass popular like, 5 years ago?! Nothing like riding the wave of modern pop-culture! Hopefully this will be better than Jackass in TNA and Steve-o's legendary appearance on Raw that saw him get stiffed by Umaga - then again, maybe the latter wouldn't be too bad after all?!

A great looking poster though! Summerslam has the potential to be a really good show this year.

ROH Fighting Spirit

OK, it's time I make a confession. I just don't get what the appeal of Takeshi Morishima is. I've seen a handful of his match now (both in ROH and NOAH) and he is just a fat guy with girl's hair who hits people quite hard. Perhaps it's because I don't get puro, or perhaps it's just that I've been watching too much WWE this month, but I am not enjoying his world title reign and I am not enjoying ROH as a result. For a while now, his match against Nigel McGuinness has been seen as his best match in ROH to date, however I think this did nothing for either men and, despite having that 'big match feel' did very little to make this who into anything more than another average ROH outing.

A week is a long time in wrestling...

It's been a week now since the world of wrestling was turned on it's head by the Benoit family tragedy in Atlanta. As the days have passed, more and more details have come out and it has made it increasingly difficult to know how to react to this tragic event.

The 3 hour Raw that was shown this time last week has both added poinancy as well as a darker centre as fans come to terms with the fact that their hero was not what they seemed. As the tabloid press search for more and more lurid stories to fill their pages, the fans are searching for answers beyond the headlines that scream tales of steroid induced rage. Was it concussions? Was it infidelity? Was it Daniel's genetic condition Fragile X? We'll never know.

We all know deep down that our heros are not as pure and innocent as they may seem, they are real people afterll. However we seperate the real world from the world of wrestling and it helps us cope. But that is all well and good when it comes to someone failing a drug test, however how do you deal with a man killing his wife and sun and then himself? At least when Eddie died there was just cause and fans could honor his legacy, however with Benoit his in-ring legacy is now irrelevant as he will forever be known as the man who killed his wife and son (just as Owen Hart is 'the guy who died in the ring'). Looking back on one of the most glittering careers in wrestling, all of a sudden isn't so pleasurable and matches which were once must-sees become morbid curiositys featuring a man who no-one ever really knew what he was capable of until the end.

ROH This Means War 2 DVD

The ROH World champion is of vital importance for Ring of Honor wrestling. Not only is he the figurehead for the company, but also the focal point for whatever style of wrestling the promotion wishes to showcase. For example when Samoa Joe and Low-ki were champs, it was all about great workrate and stiff kicks. When Bryan Danielson help the belt it was all about long, technical matches. Now we have Takeshi Morishima as ROH Champ then we see the Puro influences begin to come through in the ROH product and nothing could be more evident of this than that dream partner tag match which main events this show.

The British duo of Nigel McGuinnes and Doug Williams (both Pro Wrestling NOAH regulars) take on the ROH champ Takeshi Morishima and NOAH new boy, Chris Hero. As is so often the case, this match was about continuing issues from previous shows (McGuinnes vs. Hero) but also preparing for the next night's show and the world title match of Morishima vs. McGuinness. Unfortunately, this also gives the show a feeling of treading water. Although the match itself was a lot of fun (featuring some incredibly smarky moments where Hero would use the siuganture moves of NOAH stars like Misawa, Marufuji and Kenta), it never really got out of 2nd gear as all 4 men were clearly saving themselves for the next night's show.

Unfortunately the under-card did not offer the kind of blow-away match which often saves a show like this. Although Delirious and Colt Cabana have a rematch of their FYF:Finale comedy and Claudio and Jay Briscoe have a surprisingly enjoyable match (which sets up a future tag title shot for DOuble CC), there is very little that stands out on this show and makes it a must-see. The major angle coming out of this show involves the continuation of the faction warfare rivalry between Austin Aries new group The Resilliance (named at this show) and Roderick Strong's No Remorse Corps. This is the show that sees FIP stand-out Erick Stevens join Aries and M-Dogg Matt Cross, however it does make the group any more succesful as this storyline continues to be remarkably one-sided thus far. The 6-man tag which comes on before the main event is another fine match, but again feels like a step along the road of a longer journey rather than an essential moment to savour.

Overall verdict: C+"Nothing wrongf with this show, but nothing must-see either. Perhaps best recommended for completists only, however there are some good matches on here for those who want to take a chance on it"