air_raid

Vader was meant to be on The Hulkamaniacs at War Games, if you can imagine that.

In fairness the tv was always loaded with squash matches.

The tapings also included Davey saying if he didnt win his next World title match, he would never challenge for it again. The announced Richards v Cabana for 9YAS. Prince Nana unveiled his new Embassy featuring Ciampa as the crown jewel.

The Top Prospect tournament is a decent way to introduce new faces even though it was bleeding obvious Bennett would win from his interactions with Daniels. Bennett had words with Steve Corino, who had been saying all along that O'Reilly would win, then attacked him.

Corino also put over Generico saying he was in for big things this year after what he went through the last year with Steen. Generico also gave "fist bumps" to King and Titus after helping them clear out the Kings, which the ROHbots have interpreted as officially marking the ANE face turn.

On the subject of dark matches/house shows :

WWE (Raw) @ Augusta, GA - James Brown Arena - January 7, 2011

R-Truth pinned Alberto Del Rio with the scissors kick

That's a disgrace.

Todays results :

(1) The Bravado Brothers beat Bobby Dempsey & Grizzly Redwood.

(2) Kyle O'Reilly pinned Michael Elgin with a cradle.

(3) Mike Bennett pinned Andy Ridge after a half nelson slam.

(4) Davey Richards beat Tony Kozina by stoppage.

(5) Roderick Strong won a four-corners over Homicide, El Generico and Jay Briscoe, pinning Briscoe after a brainbuster from Generico.

(6) Rhett Titus pinned Adam Cole.

(7) Colt Cabana beat Caleb Konley with an inverted crab.

(8) World Television Champion Chris Daniels pinned Kenny King after Abgel's Wings.

(9) Tomasso Ciampa pinned Mike Sydal after a powerbomb onto the knees.

(10) Mike Bennett pinned Kyle O'Reilly after a half nelson slam.

(11) Davey Richards & The Briscoes beat Roderick Strong, Chris Hero & Claudio Castagnoli, Richards making Strong submit with a reverse figure four with ankle lock.

Last match was apparently 30 minutes-ish and quality.

Fuck it, the Final Battle PPV was less than a tenner and there was more really exciting action than any WWE PPV I'd watched for ages. I just dont seem to care about most of their guys anymore, or who wins the matches. I'll get both ROH's PPVs probably.

I'll still get WrestleMania admittedly. C'mon, it's WrestleMania.

Oh and I didnt see these posted so here are the taping results from last night.

(1) El Generico & Colt Cabana beat The Bravado Brothers, Generico pinning Harlem after a brainbuster.

(2) Steve Corino pinned Devon Storm with an abdominal stretch pin.

(3) Marker Dillinger vs Mark Sterling went to a no-contest when Michael Elgin interfered.

(4) Homicide pinned Mark Briscoe after a top rope Ace Crusher.

(5) Kyle O'Reilly beat Jonathan Gresham with a triangle hold with elbow strikes.

(6) Michael Elgin pinned Bobby Dempsey after a powerbomb.

(7) World Television Champion Chris Daniels pinned Devon Storm after the Best Moonsault Ever.

(8) Andy Ridge pinned Grizzly Redwood after a superkick when Redwood jumped off the top rope.

(9) Mike Bennett pinned Adam Cole after a half nelson slam.

(10) Claudio Castagnoli pinned Rhett Titus after a big boot.

(11) Kenny King pinned Chris Hero with a jacknife pin.

I thought his match with Benoit on an early 98 Nitro was a very good match, faster paced and exciting with a clear "face v heel" dynamic as opposed to their respectful babyface methodical technical masterpiece at the Kemper Area.

I personally would recommend a look at the DDP match from World War 3 1998 and the match with Booker T from an early 99 Nitro.

I'd say the match with Rey from the Eddy tribute Raw is worth watching. His world title match with Benoit in 2004. I was told the match where he Cena relieve Rated RKO of the tag straps was good, although I didnt see it. I quite enjoyed his rematch of sorts with heel Shelton Benjamin from early 2006. He had a good match with Jeff Hardy in 2003 during the teased Jeff turn.

Bumclass, to the best of my recollection it was Monsoon & Heenan more often than not on Prime Time 91-92.

Sponsored by Atmosphere, the video board game?

As long as Crush vs Repo Man got done, I'm sure everyone would have went home happy.

Well, apart from Repo himself.

Incidentally my tape of Summerslam "taped off Sky" seems to have a ten minute ad break where that match should be. Seriously, Repo is in the ring, Vince says something to the effect of "we'll be right back!" then when it comes back seemingly forever later, they are hyping the next match.

Yeah, the cock ups were stunning. In last month's Undertaker article it refers to Undertaker not really getting back on form after his return at WMXX and that would happen until "almost a year later at No Way Out 2004" referencing his match with Kurt Angle. OK, we all spot that the match in question was at No Way Out 2006, but even if you excuse that as a slip of a keystroke, said show was almost 2 years later, so its two errors for the price of one.

Post-match, Homicide asked Generico for handshake and then hit him with a CopKilla!!!

Can't see that being too popular. Why have Homicide do something so heelish when he is about to challenge Roddy - a heel - for the belt? Or am I just old-fashioned?

I know what you mean, even if the main event is 40 minutes strong, and EVEN if Mark pinning Daniels leads to a shot at the tv title, it all comes across a bit inconsequential.

Pity really that with Final Battle in December and the Anniversary show in February or March usually providing focal points to book end by closing some rivalries or starting new ones, they dont ever think to start with a bang and come out of the tracks in a new year strong by starting something up. I'd love the first show of the year to feature a big faction forming, or an upset that starts one guy breaking out and announcing his quest to bring home the title, or a shocking return or tag team reuniting or SOMETHING that says "here's whats new and exciting about the new year."

Maybe everyone wants breaking in gently after too many mince pies, I dunno.

QUICK RESULTS FROM TONIGHT

14/01/11 * Champions VS All-Stars * Richmond, VA

(1) Chris Daniels pinned Roderick Strong with a roll up in a non-title match.

(2) Andy Ridge & Grizzly Redwood beat The Bravado Brothers, Ridge pinning Lance Bravado after a superkick.

(3) Mike Bennett pinned Adam Cole after a half-nelson slam.

(4) Homicide pinned Rhett Titus after a brainbuster.

(5) Steve Corino pinned Kaleb Conley.

(6) Colt Cabana pinned Caprice Coleman.

(7) Kenny King pinned Kyle O'Reilly after a high angle back suplex.

(8) Davey Richards, El Generico & The Briscoes beat Roderick Strong, Chris Daniels, Chris Hero & Claudio Castagnoli, Mark Briscoe pinning Daniels after a flying elbowdrop.

Having read the whole mag today, I was pleased that it had plenty of titbits that I didnt know, even though I assume a lot of fans do know them (Hardys as the jesters at King of the Ring 95, allegations as to how Tommy Rich "earned" his NWA title reign and so on).

I'll let my colleague buy it next month and if I enjoy it as much as this months, Ill buy it every month thereafter.

And 96 mate (Goldustt taking from Razor)

In terms of anticipation for FB 07 you couldnt be more right. Reason being the card was raped by the PPV being recorded the night before. On Rising Above we were promised the blow offs to Hero/Claudio and Danielson/Morishima, as well as (personally) the more attractive World title singles match of Nigel v Aries. The PPV even had a tag title defence so its not as though Final Battle even had that to hold over the Rising Above card. I understand in a way trying to make each card seem important - one because its a PPV, the other because "it's Final Battle," but they really could have held a strong card on the friday night without damaging the "real" bigger matches, and had Final Battle BE the pay per view next night, consisting of :

Nigel VS Aries

Danielson VS Morishima

Claudio VS Hero

Briscoes VS AOTF

Strong VS Stevens

FB'07 does stand out somewhat as "yeah, we kind of ignored this in favour of the PPV."

The other bit of the mag I found time to read was the Bret interview, and I was impressed no punches were pulled - mentioning Julie's comments about his "double life" and his inability to perform to his old standard as opposed to asking the "easy" questions.

Bought todays at work but aside from the Final Battle article, didnt get chance to read it yet. As a ROHbot, it was nice to see the coverage, but it needed tightening up.

Must admit the retrospective on past Final Battles read as though it was written by someone who had read the results of the shows but not actually watched them.

* Describing Danielson v Low Ki from FB'04 as a "pro wrestling wet dream" - not really, they never seemed to get above 2nd gear and it had a really shitty non finish.

* Criticizing FB'07 for not having a stand out headline main event - truly it should have been pointed out that there was a four-way world title match scheduled that was only cancelled because the champion (Nigel) was concussed the night before at the PPV taping.

* Saying FB'07 was instantly forgettable (or words to that effect) is simply rubbish. Any serious ROH fan who watched that show saw the Briscoes record-setting tag team title reign terminated by the Age of the Fall in a great match with a cracking finish, which the NYC crowd responded to with some of the loudest boos I've ever heard. I will NEVER forget that, never mind "instantly."

Moreover some of the editorial needed tweaking. Saying the fanbase has thought of Davey Richards as potentially the next world champion for "several years" raised my eyebrow, and making reference to Jay Lethal vs Weapon of Mask Destruction 2 in an article with heavy focus on Kevin Steen v El Generico, it might have been worth mentioning that the Weapon in question was Generico, to illustrate how far he has come.

Just one man's opinion.

My mate swears by it and is trying to get me to buy it over PS. I had a read and some articles were decent and I might have ignored some of the glaring SPAG errors, but when I read a whole article devoted to "Flair = entertaining," they lost me a little. I'm firmly in the "Flair = embarrassment" camp. But that's a can of worms I have little to no desire of opening here.

Must admit the slightly more positive editorial in respect to some of the WWE tv/ppv write ups was refreshing in terms of "this was a good match," I found myself pining for PS' acerbic "this angle/storyline is shit/illogical because" jazz.

P.S. I am aware of the irony of decrying someone else's grammar in a post where I begin a sentence with a conjunction, so don't even bother pointing that out.

Flaming_June's extraordinary self-congratulatory fit in the '5 Things I Hate' probably earned him some late attention.

The "turning music up" / "I boxed for ten years" / "I know famous people" / "I'm really intelligent" stuff is probably what most remember, but let's not forget the audacity of this and personally the following gem sealed it for me :

About 90% of men cheat anyway, and a good amount have out of control egos.

I really did think King was destined to be tv champ, they made him look a player on the early HDnet shows. But yeah, Kings should make ANE into their bitches. I think playing the underdogs in their title shot might be a way of turning them face. But I agree that if they are around long enough, Wrestling's Greatest Tag Team should dethrone the Kings. Probably destined to be named "Dethroned 2" the card they lose on...

JohnCena

JRsBBQ

WWEDanielBryan

findevan

IAmJericho

CMPunk

ShawnMichaels_

RealJackSwagger

RandyOrton

milanmiracle

RealKingRegal

That can get you started, you'll find loads more just looking at who retweets them, who they are following etc.

"The Game" played at the end of the Jan 8th Raw in 2001 where he returned and beat fuck out of Austin with his sledgie, at the end of Austin's title match with Kurt Angle. He hadnt been on tv since Armageddon, selling his injuries.

Do all of the roh fans hate Adam Pearce as a booker and if so what was wrong with him

Suddenly there were a slew of screwy/non-finishes and an element of bait 'n' switch. His first weekend at the helm saw a marked increase in outside interference, an unnecessary walk-out/turn in a thrown-together tag team, and two non-finishes including one in a World title match.

The weekend after he booked a no contest ending in a match that could only end by referee 10 count and an advertised World title triangle match was changed on the night to non-title.

For a lot of fans it was an uphill struggle from there. Personally I'll echo what Davey says, I'll always be grateful to Pearce for giving the Wolves a chance to run with the ball.

I did really enjoy Supercard of Honor, but if push comes to shove I'd rather watch Better Than Our Best, both for the quality of the show - Homicide/Cabana feud ender, great Danielson vs Storm match - and the fact that while most of SOH is great, I honestly feel Danielson v Strong is a waste of an hour. Lots of stalling, no drama til the last ten seconds, 55 minute extended squash.

"The error returned was:

One or all of your search keywords were below 4 characters or you searched for words which are not allowed,"

Is there any chance this restriction on the search function might be removed to enable easier searching for threads where the title includes for instance "WWE," "TNA" or "ROH?"