House Show/TV tapings random happenings

[air_raid]

JUNE 2009

Some of the old guard finally stand aside for a bit as Hardy vs Punk takes centre stage!

THE MAIN EVENTS - RAW

6th in Pensacola the night before the unusually-early-in-the-month PPV it’s the standard cross brand show and the lineup for the six man is interesting - John Cena, Jeff Hardy & CM Punk vs Randy Orton, Edge & Chris Jericho. Rated-RKO, impossible to keep apart! A European tour throws up some interesting locales - it’s Triple H vs Orton 10th-13th in Helsinki, Prague, Belgrade and Nimes - a 14,000 gate there! The feud continues after Orton gets the belt back 19th in Des Moines, 20th in Moline Hunter and Cena beat Orton and Big Show, 21st in Dubuque it’s the inescapable Randy Orton vs John Cena for the belt.

THE CARDS

John Cena vs The Miz runs in Europe and Des Moines, it’s MVP vs Big Show abroad and in Dubuque, Kofi Kingston vs Matt Hardy for the US title starts in Pensacola and continues on tour. Carlito & Primo vs Cody Rhodes & Ted DiBiase Jr for the tag belts goes every night in Europe too. Maryse vs Mickie James goes most of the month, bizarrely it’s non title a couple of times late month. Goldust vs William Regal takes place in tour and month end it’s Miz vs Goldust (weirdly Miz works this AND Cena in Des Moines), Santino vs The Brian Kendrick and continuation of Sheamus O’Shaunessy vs Jamie Noble.

VARIATIONS 

What a treat for Sheamus in Pensacola - he’s putting over Ricky Steamboat! Also Miz beats MVP and Beth Phoenix & Rosa Mendes beat The Bella Twins. In Des Moines MVP beats Matt to earn a crack at Kofi later, in Moline it’s a three way, in Dubuque Noble has the night off so it’s Kingston vs Hardy vs Sheamus. Mickie has Moline off so Maryse beats Brie Bella.

THE MAIN EVENTS - SMACKDOWN 

13th in Binghamton it’s CM Punk vs Jeff Hardy vs Rey Mysterio, next night in Hershey it’s a Punk and Jeff one on one, 20th in Saginaw it’s Punk vs Hardy vs Edge, 22nd in Valparaiso is cancelled. Bit light on the ground for reports here.

THE CARDS

Matches that happen in both Binghamton and Hershey see Tommy Dreamer vs Jack Swagger for the ECW belt, John Morrison vs Mike Knox in a bit of a step down for JoMo, the incredible novelty of Ricky Steamboat vs Drew McIntyre, and the newly formed Hart Dynasty vs Evan Bourne & The Hurricane. Our women’s match is Melina, Gail Kim & Eve Torres vs Natalya, Layla & Alicia Fox, and Great Khali vs Dolph Ziggler is on all three cards.

VARIATIONS 

Pensacola has a final defence of the ECW gold for Christian against Swagger, Umaga pins R-Truth and Bourne pins Kidd. Y2J defends against Rey in Hershey and JoMo in Saginaw. Other exceptions in Saginaw have Dreamer defend against Christian, McIntyre lose to Fit Finlay, the Harts beat Cryme Tyme, and Truth vs Shelton Benjamin.

TVs

1st in Birmingham Kofi pins MVP clean to win the US title in a sporting babyface match. Next night in Memphis Punk pins Umaga even though they’re about to wrestle on PPV and Edge beats Rey non title though I guess champion vs champion is forgivable. The PPV being packed, with Dreamer winning the ECW title under threat of retirement, Jericho taking the ICT from Rey, the injured Batista winning his first WWE title from Orton in a brief cage match and Jeff winning his first WHC from Edge in a ladder match only to be cashed in on by Punk. Next night in Lafayette Bourne pins Sheamus dark, they injure Dave in the storyline, Legacy beat the Colons non title (oh fuck off) and Triple H returns. Next night in Biloxi they pin the Intercontinental champ for the third broadcast in a row as Y2J loses to Punk. 15th in Charlotte Raw is a cross brand extravaganza with Y2J v Rey and all three big belts contested ; Orton wins a four corners over Cena, HHH and Show to lift the vacant WWE title. Next night in Roanoke the dust has barely settled on Dreamers win and he’s losing non title to Swagger (oh DO fuck off) and the Coliseum Exclusive main has Jeff and Rey beat Y2J & Edge. 22nd in Green Bay Sheamus pins Noble again for the opener, and SmackDown guys wrestle on Raw again. Next night in Milwaukee Punk loses non title to Morrison (ABSOLUTELY FUCK OFF). The Bash is another eventful PPV where Jericho loses the belt back to Rey then unannounced teams with Edge to win the tag belts, Melons drops the Women’s title to the pointless Michelle McCool, Punk retains after a crap DQ on a PPV for the second month in a row and Orton beats Triple H in a triple threat theatre (as coined by WCW) of regular match, falls anywhere and stretcher match. Next night in San Jose they tape two exasperating episodes of Raw - Orton gets pinned by Mark Henry to lose a non title gauntlet match, Kofi loses non title to Bourne, and Maryse is pinned by Gail in a tag meaning all Raws champions are losers. Next night in Fresno Sheamus debuts, Shelton loses to Yoshi Tatsu in HIS debut, and out of four guys they could pin in their tag main it’s of course Dreamer, the champ, pinned by the terminally useless Vladimir Kozlov. On SmackDown they pin heel World Champ Punk in a handicap against the heel tag champs, and Rey loses non title to Kane because apparently “Intercontinental Champion” now means “jobber.” Fuck this company.

DEPARTURE 

Umaga lands a second Wellness violation after previously being caught up in the Signature Pharmacy scandal and lands a second suspension - the company implores him to go to rehab, but he refuses, so he puts Punk over at Extreme Rules then the day after, they let him go. Tragically in December he dies of a heart attack bought on by an overdose of painkillers and somas. Any waste of life is tragic on a human level, but Eddie was a truly exceptional case of wasted talent. Between suspension and injury he lost too much of what could have been his time on top, including a run with Taker when he did his knee, and were he not unable to conquer his demons, he'd definitely have been a World Champion.

[HarmonicGenerator]

Sheamus vs Steamboat and McIntyre vs Steamboat - two matches I didn’t know I wanted to see until now!

[air_raid]

JULY 2009

I lose track of what show some of the wrestlers are meant to be on, and that's not ideal so long after a draft.

THE MAIN EVENTS - RAW

It’s tour time again! John Cena & Triple H vs Randy Orton & Big Show sounds a bit stale but that’s on top 3rd in Auckland and 4th in Sydney, 5th in Brisbane battle royal winner Cena beats Orton by DQ on last, Cena’s off thereafter so HHH beats Orton by DQ 6th-8th in Adelaide, Melbourne and Perth. 17th-19th it’s truly something a bit different in Macon then Aiken and Florence (both South Carolina) - John Cena, Triple H & Mark Henry vs Randy Orton, Cody Rhodes & Ted DiBiase Jr - big Mark being a babyface since his sudden return to Raw. 24th-25th it’s actually TWO cross brand shows the weekend of the PPV in Salisbury and Wildwood, no title match but Cena vs Show no DQ on last. Finally 31st in Newark Hunters off so Cena & Henry beat Legacy in a handicap match.

THE CARDS

Rough tour for MVP, when he doesn’t lose to The Miz he’s pinned by Big Show, his opponent in the South mid-month. It’s usually Kofi Kingston vs William Regal for the US title on tour then a few instances of Kofi vs Regal vs Miz. Mid month Kofi defends against Chavo Guerrero Jr. Long-running series Carlito & Primo vs Cody Rhodes & Ted DiBiase Jr continues even without the tag belts although it’s Cody vs Carlito in singles a couple of times in Oz. After TVs and their on screen split, Primo's getting pinned by Jack Swagger while Carlito gets upset by Santino - I call shenanigans. Overseas it’s either Maryse vs Kelly Kelly for the Women’s belt or Maryse losing non title matches to Mickie James (umm, why??) then mid month Maryse and Alicia Fox beat Mickie and constant threat Gail Kim, before Maryse retains over Mickie both nights in the North East. The tour starts with Goldust vs Chavo, Sheamus vs Jamie Noble and Santino vs The Brian Kendrick, but there are also multiples of Goldust vs Kendrick and Santino vs Sheamus, mid-month Kendrick puts over Evan Bourne.

VARIATIONS 

In Brisbane Triple H vs Show is on the midcard with Cena on last, and its Kofi vs MVP vs Regal. It's then Kofi vs Miz vs Kendrick and Noble vs Regal in Adelaide, Santino vs Chavo in Melbourne, and MVP beats Chavo, Show beats fellow heel and future partner Miz and it’s Cody vs Primo in Perth. In Macon only, Swagger beats Santino and Carlito and Primo actually wrestle each other in the first round of a split I don't remember - of course, Carly puts little brother over. Primo losing to Miz and Carlito losing to MVP only happen in Salisbury, cross brand action in Wildwood has Regal job for Christian, and finally new runs in Newark see Carlito coming up short against Kofi, Primo beating - yes, back - Chris Masters (YES!!), Miz pinning Santino, Bourne pinning Alex Riley and Mickie, Gail and Kelly beating Alicia, Beth Phoenix & Rosa Mendes.

THE MAIN EVENTS - SMACKDOWN 

It’s CM Punk vs Rey Mysterio for the belt 3rd in San Diego so Rey can go for the belt in his back yard, 5th in Honolulu we’re back to Punk vs Jeff Hardy though Rey vs Chris Jericho goes on last refereed by Hawaiian legend Ricky Steamboat. It’s Punk vs Hardy 7th at Budokan Hall and again next night in a No DQ match and 10th in Quezon City (Philippines), 18th-19th in North Charleston and Greenville, and 24th/25th in Salisbury and Wildwood. 31st in Hampton Beach the new champ Hardy is off, so pick a top match from Mysterio vs Dolph Ziggler for the ICT or the deposed Punk actually losing to John Morrison - an incredibly deflating Great Khali vs Kane with a DQ finish is what actually goes on last, extraordinarily.

THE CARDS

Rey Mysterio vs Chris Jericho is still going on for the ICT all over the world. John Morrison vs Shelton Benjamin sounds very much my graps, the Wednesday in Tokyo into mid-month JoMo is with eventual ICT rival Dolph Ziggler, Great Khali vs Ziggler continues on tour then mid-month is a rather more high profile Kane for Khali, in shitty non-finishes. Mark Henry vs Evan Bourne is an odd one to book considering Mark's shown up on Raw and been repositioned as a babyface threat to Orton. Melina & Gail Kim vs Michelle McCool & Alicia Fox goes on tour even though Kim and Fox have been traded to Raw, mid month its Melons & Eve Torres vs Natalya & Katie Lea. Tommy Dreamer vs Christian vs Jack Swagger is a common ECW title match though Dreamer vs Christian one on one happens in North Charleston and Hampton Beach. Cryme Tyme vs Hart Dynasty is added mid month (repeats in Hampton), in the North East Drew McIntyre vs Jimmy Wang Yang (repeats in Hampton).

VARIATIONS

San Diego is fucking crackers - it's Jeff Hardy vs Edge in a hell of a semi main without the belt (unfortunately Edge gets his big injury here) along with Y2J defending the ICT against JoMo, and Drew does another job for Ricky Steamboat, plus Bourne vs Shelton and a unique Dreamer vs Christian vs Swagger vs Henry. Tuesday at Budokan there's Michelle vs Melina as a title defence, and Khali vs Shelton. Wednesday a shuffle all round has Dreamer & Christian beat Henry & Swagger in a tag and Mysterio pin Bourne in a high-flyers dream match, to facilitate Chris Jericho vs "The Dragon" - fucking hell, lucky bastards. North Charleston has Fit Finlay vs William Regal, in Florence it's Finlay vs McIntyre and Dreamer vs Regal vs Christian. In Salisbury it's Dreamer vs Christian vs Regal vs Vladimir Kozlov, in Wildwood Dreamer vs Kozlov for the belt in singles. Finally new runs in Hampton Beach - Michelle vs Eve as a Womens title match and Goldust vs Paul Burchill.

TVs 

I’m going keep the non-title fuckery so you can read dark matches and roster notes separately and skip me whining about booking if desired.

1st in Bakersfield McIntyre pins Yang dark, for Superstars Zack Ryder beats Tyler Reks, and I believe the teaming of Michelle and Layla on SmackDown is their first. 13th in Orlando guest host Seth Green actually wrestles in the main, tagging with Hunter and Cena to do a non-finish with Legacy. 20th in Raleigh Kendrick does a TV job for The King, 21st in Richmond both Ezekiel Jackson and Reks gets wins on ECW as well as Yoshi Tatsu upsetting Regal, Cryme Team beat the Harts dark at Night Of Champions - another eventful show which has Christian take the ECW belt off Dreamer, Mickie finally wrest Raw's Womens belt from Maryse, Y2J and Show become new tag champs, and Jeff get his moment in the sun and win the belt back from Punk. Next night in DC Noble beats Riley dark, Masters returns on Raw to go to a double count-out with MVP, Kendrick promises revenge on Lawler (which he'll never get) then loses to Kofi in mere seconds, and dark Cena & HHH beat Orton & Show yet again. Next night in Baltimore Jesse dons the Slam Master J gimmick to lose to Drew before cameras, and there's a hell of a Coliseum Video main event - Jeff pins Punk inside "the fifteen foot high steel cage!!"

NON-TITLE COMPLAINING

This months champions getting beaten - US Champ Kofi by Big Show 13th (for Superstars), WORLD HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPION Punk 14th by Morrison (SmackDown), ECW champ Dreamer 14th by Kozlov (ECW).

DEPARTURE

Brian Kendrick is let go after those televised jobs, calling time on his second run in the company. One of the most colourful and well-travelled careers of the post-territories era, he'll be back.

[Statto]

Day late, sorry.. 

I was at the Birmingham & Memphis TVs plus Extreme Rules in June 2009. At Raw, Sheamus went over Festus (doing that brief Oddities-esque stable with Hornswoggle & Goldust) dark pre-show.

The pre-show dark match at the Smackdown/ECW taping was Drew McIntyre vs someone, I forget who. I remember it being Drew though for some woman a few rows back repeatedly shouting "you damn dirty Brit!" at him.

Post-show dark match was Edge & Jericho vs Rey & Jeff (I think, maybe Punk) in a tag team cage match - a hastily assembled "house show" cage rather than one lowered from the rafters (although that was used at both Raw & the PPV). Edge & Jericho  did the "one heel does a Flair flop and headbutts the other one in the nuts" spot about 4 or 5 times in the course of the match, then after the match took turns riding a commentary chair down the ramp, as they refused to leave in protest at losing.

After the show I met Teddy Long, Alicia Fox, Gail Kim & Mike Chioda in a bar on Beale Street (a bar in which I'd sit in with the resident band for a night 6 years later, but that's another story). Alicia was very amused to learn that her former protege DJ Gabriel had worked as "Steve Sonic" over here, and Teddy kayfabed me when I asked why he hadn't been on the show - "Well, the GM can sometimes get real busy in the back, playa".

 

[simonworden]

The idea of Umaga Vs Taker in 08 or 09 sounds brilliant. I'd have love to see Umaga take it off him post Punk feud and then be the one to drop it to Jericho for the Mania run. 

 

Umaga was really a career resurgence for the guy behind it after years on the Indies and being part of 3MW. Always surprised me how well a character like that worked in 2006 to 2009. If he was alive today he could have been a great short term opponent or bodyguard type for Roman. 

 

Keep up the great reports Raid, just another 13 or so years to go!

[air_raid]

AUGUST 2009

For the third month out of four we lose a major player. By the way, he happens to spend most of the month as one brand's champion.

THE MAIN EVENTS - RAW

It's still John Cena & Mark Henry vs Randy Orton, Cody Rhodes & Ted DiBiase Jr in a handicap match 1st/2nd in Bethlehem and White Plains, 7th its a massive joint brand show compensating Denver for losing their Raw taping where Randy beats Triple H in a cage match, 8th-9th are the rearranged shows from Loveland and Colorado Springs where its Orton vs Big Show (um, a heel?) for the belt. 14th in Cedar Rapids its Orton vs HHH vs Show, 15th in Peoria Hunter & big Mark vs Cody & Teddy, 16th in Cape Girardeau we're finally back up to the six man - it's then Trips & Cena vs Simply Priceless 28th-30th in Cadillac, Flint and Valparaiso.

THE CARDS

It's Kofi Kingston vs Carlito for the US title week 1 (and Loveland) and mid month, and MVP vs Jack Swagger, becoming Kofi vs MVP vs Carlito and Swagger vs Primo in Colorado inbetween, and Swagger losing a couple to Evan Bourne mid month. Month end its Kofi vs Swagger vs Carlito vs The Miz. A huge Big Show vs Mark Henry in singles goes down in Denver and month end, in between Show vs MVP is then back on in Peoria and Cape Girardeau. Six-woman of Mickie James, Gail Kim & Kelly Kelly vs Beth Phoenix, Rosa Mendes & Alicia Fox is a sandwich month early and late with Mickie & Gail vs Phoenix & Mendes for two weeks in between. It's Primo vs Chris Masters, Miz vs Santino and Bourne vs Alex Riley early month (and Cedar Rapids), Jamie Noble vs Riley (which repeats in Peoria) and Bourne vs Chavo Guerrero Jr in Colorado (that one is back on month end). Mid month its Miz vs Noble, Santino vs Chavo, Primo vs Riley starts in Cape Girardeau and runs month end, where Masters squashes Santino.

VARIATIONS

It's a battle royal to win a title shot won by Show in Loveland, and Henry vs Simply Priceless as a handicap in Colorado Springs. Noble misses Loveland so MVP beats Riley. In Cedar Rapids its Kofi vs Swagger, Santino vs Carlito, Primo vs DiBiase and MVP and Cody have a night off, Peoria its Miz vs Primo.

THE MAIN EVENTS - SMACKDOWN

So, the last month with Jeff holding the belt or indeed on the roster.... he isn't on the road hardly at all. Early month its Rey Mysterio vs Dolph Ziggler for the ICT, and Chris Jericho & Big Show vs Cryme Tyme for the tag belts in Manchester NH and Verona NY. Oh shit, B shows!! 1st and 2nd at our little favourites, South Shore Music Circus and Cape Cod Melody Tent, its CM Punk vs Kane vs Great Khali with a pretend "top contender" stip hanging over them. 3rd in Reading when the rosters combine, it's still on last. 7th in Denver - the champ actually comes to work! Jeff Hardy vs CM Punk in a ladder match is Jeff's final successful defence of any World title in WWE, ever - pretty fucking mind-boggling, that. 8th/9th in Regina and Medicine Hat, its Punk vs Chris Jericho with the stip still there, Y2J obviously playing babyface in Canada. Tragically 10th in Red Deer Jericho's completely unnecessarily booked for Raw even though he's a SmackDown wrestler, to fight Cena, who he isn't feuding with, so its Punk pinning Khali on last. Depressingly 15th-17th in Mankato MN, Sioux City and Lincoln Punk's with John Morrison underneath but Kane vs Khali goes on last in lumberjack matches. What a main event in 2009. 29th-31st we've finally got a decent main event back - CM Punk vs Rey Mysterio for the Big Gold Belt in Ocean City, Johnstown and Canton.

THE CARDS

Kane vs Great Khali continues all month even when not a main event. Sickening. Ricky Steamboat vs Drew McIntyre hits those music halls early month, and and John Morrison vs Mike Knox is back on which continues a very eclectic year for JoMo. Drew works Fit Finlay in Canada, Morrison is back with Dolph Ziggler which resumes month end, Knox losing to Khali. Mid month Ziggler beats R-Truth and Finlay beats Knox. Christian vs William Regal doesn't feel particularly "ECW world title" on those B shows or Red Deer, then in the rest of Canada its Tommy Dreamer in for a three way, mid month we add Shelton Benjamin - might as well call it the European title at this point. Hart Dynasty vs Cryme Tyme is back on in Canada and month end, it's Eve Torres & Maria vs Natalya & Layla on the first week big shows and Melina vs Katie Lea in the music halls, in Canada its Melons & Maria vs Nattie & Layla then Melly & Maria beat The Bella Twins in Red Deer and the week after, there's a mid-month interlude with Cryme Tyme tagging with Eve to beat Harry, Kidd and Nattie in a six-person. Tons of underneath matches - several repeat in Reading or Canada - due to the early month split roster. Arguably the B shows had better undercards - Finlay vs Ezekiel Jackson, Goldust vs Vladimir Kozlov, Dreamer vs Sheamus and Eugene vs Ricky Ortiz (yes, Eugene came back) on the bigger shows, Yoshi Tatsu vs Shelton, Kidd vs Jimmy Wang Yang and Tyler Reks vs Paul Burchill on the B shows. Mid month Kozlov swaps wins(!) with Yang, month end there are two instances of Kozlov, Regal and Jackson beating Dreamer, Reks and Tatsu.

Edge is off with a torn Achilles tendon until January.

VARIATIONS

In Reading the champs are off and Steamboat's done for now so the Harts lose to Cryme Tyme and McIntyre pins Yang. The shuffle in Red Deer has Ziggler pin Dreamer, Cryme Tyme beat Drew & Knox and Finlay pins Kidd. In Ocean City Tyler loses to Sheamus and The Hurricane is in the six man instead, in Canton Knox pins Yang and Sheamus pins Hurricane.

TVs

4th at Nassau Coliseum Slam Master J appears on SmackDown pinning Charlie Haas, Y2J does a pinfall job in a singles to JTG, and Jeff pins Punk largely thanks to help from ringside enforcer Matt Hardy, returning from injury and helping his estranged brother for reasons unspecified. 10th in Calgary Eugene makes his sole TV appearance back, losing a Contract On A Pole match to the Calgary Kid who unmasks as Miz. Next night in Edmonton “ordered by Vince” Jeff loses a handicap to the Harts and is saved from Punk afterwards by Matt. On the ECW taped 18th in Kansas City I feel compelled to point out that after Zack Ryder pins Yoshi he declares on the mic “Woo woo woo, you know it” for what I believe to be the first time. On SmackDown JoMo and the Hardys beat Punk and the Harts when Matt pins Punk. Beth wins a battle royal dark at SummerSlam, the show on which Shawn Michaels returns to the ring and despite some good set up for a run with Morrison, after winning the belt back Punk learns he’s being fed to The Undertaker. Next night in Vegas three dark matches with a real house show feel to them - Noble over Riley, Swagger over Primo and Miz over Santino - on Raw Floyd Mayweather appears helping MVP and Henry beat old enemy Show and Y2J, and not only does Vince wrestle tagging with former enemies DX against Legacy, he actually pins Orton after Cena interferes. Next night in Phoenix it’s Goldust vs Sheamus dark, Punk beats Jeff in their climactic cage match, and a crazy Coluseum bonus borrowed from Raw has Cena and DX beat Legacy. Finally 31st in Detroit Primo beats Riley dark, and the show has a frankly unbelievable triple swerve that Russo would be proud of - guest GM Dusty Rhodes books Cody to challenge for the belt with Cena as the ref, and when match time comes, not only is Legacy all still on the same page and give Cena a kicking, AND Dusty was in on it, after the assault Orton drops the Dream with the RKO, mere minutes after the crowd have processed Dustys betrayal of Cena. I despair.

NON TITLE WHINING

Champions beaten on TV this month - 17/08 Show & Y2J (tag champs) by THE FEUDING Cena & Orton, 24/08 Show & Y2J AGAIN by MVP & Mark Henry, 25/08 Christian (ECW champ) by Regal.

DEPARTURES

Eugene is in and out in no time at all ; they wanted him for wrestling and for coaching but he shows up for TV in less than the shape Vince was expecting so they cancel his deal. I assume they had 14 days to change their mind, like with a DFS sofa. But he's not the big one.

Jeff Hardy has had to sign a short term deal just to wrestle to SummerSlam and subsequent TV after his contract ran out and he’s rejected WWEs new offers because he's burned out and needs time to sort out injuries including to both his knee and his back - right at the peak of his powers having won one title or the other three times and having beaten nearly everyone in the company over the last 18 months including Triple H, Undertaker and Shawn Michaels. Initially it’s not that he wants to wrestle anywhere else so much that the schedule is killing him. Very shortly he'll have more legal problems that will impede a return short term, and by New Year he'll sign a deal with TNA. They'll treat him like the star he is, but his demons will surface again, until eventually he'll clean up and return in 2017 for another run where, in parts, he'll look every bit as good as he was here, at his best.

20 hours ago, Statto said:

Alicia was very amused to learn that her former protege DJ Gabriel had worked as "Steve Sonic" over here

I hope Teddy was in earshot, he heard far dafter monikers working WCW in the early 90s.

20 hours ago, simonworden said:

The idea of Umaga Vs Taker in 08 or 09 sounds brilliant. I'd have love to see Umaga take it off him post Punk feud and then be the one to drop it to Jericho for the Mania

So, the Taker vs Umaga run would have happened if Umaga hadn’t done his PCL in the fall of 2008. That’s when they hastily turned Big Show so Taker had someone to work with even though it had been done to death, in both the Ministry of Darkness AND American Badass periods. The original thinking out the tail end of that run for Mania 25 for Taker, even briefly, I’ve touched on (Hade Vansen, before Triple H declared he looked like he should be mowing lawns for a living), before they landed on Shawn (yes, there’s a reason I mention this), but it’s near impossible to know how or even if Taker was in the first, second or third drafts for the title scene between fall 2009 and Mania 26. So many injuries, suspensions, departures and other issues caused many moving parts. They were utterly convinced they were going to be able to persuade Jeff to stay, it’s fair to surmise Taker vs Punk was a backup plan. When Taker went off they’d written him out, depressingly, at the hands of Show, so it’s possible that they’d have wanted Taker to pursue yet more revenge on his constant enemy (shades of the 21 months it took Taker to get Mark Henry out of his system) - thankfully for Show he’d ended up with Y2J before Taker was needed for Punk, covering for Edge. In a parallel universe the future runs mapped out thus would have been Punk vs Hardy still, Taker vs Show and Edge & Jericho eventually vs DX. Given that, whether Taker would have been booked to beat Punk for the belt it it hadn’t been for “Suitgate” we may never know - but I’ll soon be touching on the original plans for Taker at Mania 26, which for the second year in a row weren’t originally Shawn. The plans for Shawn too, definitely weren’t for Taker.

20 hours ago, simonworden said:

Keep up the great reports Raid, just another 13 or so years to go!

It’s 2015 which I dreaded reaching, where the easy to read list format of historyofwwe dries up for house shows and I have to resort to one tab per show to conflate the results, where the brand split is non existent rendering the reporting of two crews tricky like the A show/B show/double main event formats of old where wrestlers flop back and forth between crews, plus NXT to check separately, plus an astonishing lack of star power providing some real beige sounding cards to sift through. I’ve actually started alternating drafting 2015 onwards with these easier years so to make sure I end up doing them at all!

Edited August 3, 2023 by air_raid

[air_raid]

SEPTEMBER 2009

A month that fascinates me because it's a month that completely cold I threw myself straight back into watching SmackDown and Raw (not ECW, even I have limits) every week after going over 3 years without hardly bothering other than the odd PPV burned onto a CDRW by a mate weeks after the fact. And I was rewarded by what I considered by and large a compelling PPV in Breaking Point. But what did they do on the road?

THE MAIN EVENTS - RAW

4th-6th in Sioux Falls, St Paul and Madison we've got Randy Orton vs John Cena, DQ finish. 12th in Ottawa the night before Breaking Point the usual cross-brand pre-PPV show is a little light on SmackDown representation, main has Cena & Triple H beat Orton & Big Show. 18th-19th they're still in Canada where new WWE Champ Cena is beating Orton in St John then a double shot in Moncton then Halifax. We're then back off to exotic locations with Cena & Triple H vs Orton & Cody Rhodes impromptu after run-ins on Cena vs Orton 23rd in San Salvador and 24th in Guatemala City, 25th in Hidalgo Shawn Michaels and Ted DiBiase Jr join the party as Cena and DX beat all of Legacy, 26th in Guadalajara it's Cena vs Orton for the belt to a finish.

THE CARDS

Triple H vs Cody Rhodes & Ted DiBiase Jr in a handicap match supports Cena vs Orton early month. It's Kofi Kingston vs The Miz vs MVP for the US belt early month, Kofi vs Miz vs Jack Swagger in Canada, where Simply Priceless beat MVP & Mark Henry, then in Mexico we get a revival of MVP vs Miz and Henry pins Swagger a few times both early and in Guadalajara - elsewhere on that tour, its a meaty collision with Chris Masters. Also Evan Bourne vs Chavo Guerrero Jr runs early month, in Canada and three legs of the overseas jaunt. Mickie James & Gail Kim vs Beth Phoenix & Rosa Mendes starts the month, there's two instances of Alicia Fox vs Mendes in Canada, the tour is split between Mickie vs Fox or Mickie vs Phoenix for the belt. Early month it's Sheamus vs Santino and Masters vs Alex Riley. It's Primo vs A-Ri and Masters vs Santino in Canada. Swagger pins Primo in St John and a couple of tour nights month end, when also, Eric Escobar swaps three wins Santino. Oddly Carlito is only booked for two Raw shows after returning from SmackDown's tour of Puerto Rico - in Ottawa and Hildalgo he loses to Bourne.

VARIATIONS

Starting at the top - Shawn Michaels is about and DX vs Simply Priceless is quite the exception in Guadalajara. In San Juan on 4th on a mostly SmackDown show, in the semi main spot befitting the local interest, Primo beats big brother Carlito by submission. Otherwise - in Ottawa Gail teams with The Bella Twins to beat Fox, Jillian Hall & Natalya and Sheamus pins Goldust. In St John a couple of talents get a day off - Gail beats Fox, Bourne is Henry's partner against Legacy, Chavo thus loses to Santino, Masters thus beats Riley. In Hidalgo its MVP pinning Swagger, Miz vs Santino and Primo vs Escobar, in Guadalajara MVP beats Masters and Miz pins Primo.

THE MAIN EVENTS - SMACKDOWN

4th in San Juan (18,000) there's help from Raw - The Undertaker & Triple H beat CM Punk, Cody Rhodes & Ted DiBiase Jr in a handicap. 5th in Arecibo Taker teams with Matt Hardy and Great Khali to beat Punk and tag team champs Big Show & Chris Jericho, 6th in Ponce its Punk vs Taker for the belt with a DQ finish. Punk defending the belt against Mattitude is not a title run I expected 19th/20th in Bangor and Portland, 24th in Madrid and 27th second night in Paris Punk and Taker swap DQ wins, 25th-26th its Taker, Matt and Batista beating Punk and JeriShow in Nice and, err, Paris.

THE CARDS

Batista vs Chris Jericho is pretty huge overseas, Big Show vs Fit Finlay fills in the blanks and Kane vs Matt Hardy is back on at the same time, Kane also is back with Great Khali (ugh) twice in Puerto Rico and beats Finlay in Maine and Nice. John Morrison vs Dolph Ziggler for the ICT is virtually all month. Christian vs Tommy Dreamer vs William Regal vs Shelton Benjamin continues for the ECW belt early month, in Maine Captain Charisma is actually with Zack Ryder (which would make certain parties explode these days). In Europe there are two nights of Christian vs Regal and Goldust vs Ezekiel Jackson and two nights where it's a tag. We have Cryme Tyme vs Hart Dynasty still on in Puerto Rico, Ottawa and Maine. Womens tag in Puerto Rico has Melina & Eve Torres vs Michelle McCool & Natalya then Melons is pinning Layla in Maine, Michelle vs Mels Bells for the belt occurs in San Juan and half the European tour, the other half Melly & Eve beat "LayCool." Matt vs Mike Knox in Puerto Rico is a bit low key for the rest of Matt's month, in Maine Drew McIntyre vs R-Truth and Dreamer & Hurricane vs Vladimir Kozlov & Jackson (ewwwww) are added, on the holiday to Spain and France Drew usually beats Jimmy Wang Yang.

Rey Mysterio is off on a Wellness suspension. "Biggest Little Man" indeed.

VARIATIONS

In San Juan JeriShow vs Harts vs Cryme Tyme occurs on top of the Colons grudge match referred to above. In Arecibo we have Carlito vs Knox and Kane vs Primo. In Ponce the Colons actually reunite against JeriShow for the belts which I don't imagine went smoothly. In Ottawa Khali is back with Ziggler and its just Christian vs Dreamer vs Regal, night one in Paris Finlay beats Drew, Ziggler beats Yang and Morrison actually upsets Kane.

TVs

1st in Cleveland Ziggler pins Yang dark, and before Rey goes off on Wellness suspension he puts Morrison over clean for the ICT in a blinding match after which he endorses the new champ - I considered this a watershed moment for JoMo at the time. Fun fact -  they asked Rey to lose the title to Ziggler at Night Of Champions and again at SummerSlam but he refused because he'd been promised a long reign and it had already been put off due to the hot potato with Jericho. When he had to lose it because of the steroid suspension he insisted on losing it to Morrison because they were mates. That's nice, if it did set Ziggles back a bit. 7th in Chicago is not hugely eventful except the ever selfless Y2J follows last months job to JTG up by getting pinned by MVP. Nothing really interesting happens next night in Rockford. Breaking Point has Bourne vs Chavo as a dark match and was probably the PPV that got me back properly into WWE, with two really compelling matches between Legacy and DX and Orton vs Cena, although I turned it off in disgust when Taker looked to have won the belt easily from Punk in less than 10 minutes, not realizing the match had been restarted until the next day. Next night in Toronto Sheamus vs Jamie Noble, Masters vs Santino and Christian vs Regal ALL happen dark, Batista returns on Raw and when Orton comes out to confront him it's notable how many cheers Randy actually gets, Trish Stratus makes one of her brilliant cameos to team with MVP and Henry to beat Phoenix, Jericho and Show, and Batista drops Orton in a no DQ match on his last match on Raw. Next night in Hamilton, Punk beats Taker dark by DQ. 21st in Little Rock Noble beats Escobar dark and on Raw Lilian Garcia bids her first farewell. Next night in Tulsa Yang pins A-Ri before cameras, 28th in Albany (a good 12,000 gate) Primo beats Escobar and Sheamus pins Tyler Reks, next night in Boston Yang jobs to Knox, and the 10th anniversary episode of Smackers has a couple of cool cross brand tags - Kofi and JoMo vs next challengers Miz & Ziggler, and Cena, Taker and DX beat Punk & Legacy when Orton jobs, definitely not the first time, to the Tombstone.

NON TITLE WHINING 

Beaten this month - SmackDown Women’s Champion Michelle, by Melina, Raw Women’s Champion Mickie, by Phoenix.

DEPARTURES 

Unless we count Lilian I think nobody.

[DavidB6937]

It's so weird that when I read your older stuff there were always things I remembered. But there's so much I've forgotten about this era. Maybe that's a good thing.

[TheScarlettChad]

Can't wait to hear what Shawn's mania plans were if not Taker. 

[air_raid]

OCTOBER 2009

MAIN EVENTS - RAW

10th/ 11th in Terre Haute and Toledo it’s of course still Randy Orton vs John Cena for the WWE title (DQ finish). 16th-18th the same match in Huntsville, Columbus GA and Dothan is interrupted by run-ins and becomes Cena & Triple H vs Cody Rhodes & Ted DiBiase Jr. 24th at State College the night before Bragging Rights Cena, MVP and Mark Henry beat Legacy atop the cross-brand supershow (which only draws 4000).

THE CARDS

MVP & Mark Henry vs Cody Rhodes & Ted DiBiase starts the month and the goodies are actually winning, the week after MVP is back losing to Jack Swagger. US title with Kofi Kingston vs The Miz continues for two weeks either side of the title change. Mickie James vs Beth Phoenix takes place for the Womens belt twice more then (bear with me) the week after its Melina vs Jillian Hall in title rematches (see TVs). Evan Bourne vs Chavo Guerrero Jr continues for two weeks as does Chris Masters vs Santino, it's Swagger vs Primo in Terre Haute and Huntsville, Columbus and Dothan its Primo vs Heath Slater (he's got kids).

VARIATIONS

In Terre Haute its Jamie Noble vs Slater - in Toledo Swagger beats Primo and Noble in a handicap. In Huntsville there's no MVP so as well as beating Primo, Swagger gets added to Miz vs Kofi, plus it's Bourne vs Slater and Chavo wearing a blindfold loses to Hornswoggle. In cross brand matches at State College Noble jobs for Matt Hardy, Miz loses by DQ to John Morrison with neither title at stake and Rosa Mendes tags with Katie Lea to lose to The Bella Twins.

MAIN EVENTS - SMACKDOWN 

10th-12th Taker isn’t there so it’s Rey Mysterio vs CM Punk announced as a top contenders match in Huntington, Bristol TN and Pikeville KY. 15th in Monterrey and 18th in the second night in Mexico City The Undertaker defends the belt against Punk, 16th in Puebla Taker and Batista beat Punk and Kane, 17th at the Sports Palace Taker, Dave and Rey beat Punk, Kane and Chris Jericho.

THE CARDS

Matt Hardy vs Kane is still (back) on. John Morrison vs Dolph Ziggler rolls on for the ICT, then in Mexico Matt is thrown into the mix. Early month we have an ECW six man of Christian, Tommy Dreamer & Hurricane vs William Regal, Ezekiel Jackson & Vladimir Kozlov then in Mexico Christian defends the belt against Regal. Through Mexico its Michelle McCool vs Mickie James (suddenly moved brands) for their Womens title. We have R-Truth vs Drew McIntyre and continuation of the long-running Cryme Tyme vs Hart Dynasty (literally every house show of the month) plus Sheamus vs Shelton Benjamin repping ECW, in Mexico Fit Finlay swaps wins with Drew and Jackson squashes Hurricane.

VARIATIONS

Starting at the top - its Batista & Rey Mysterio vs Chris Jericho & Kane in Monterrey and Ziggler & Kane second night in Mexico City. In Bristol only Raw's Melina (huh?) tags with Eve Torres to beat the Bellas, in Pikeville Savannah (who??) beats Katie Lea. Second night only at Mexico Sports Palace its JoMo vs Matt in singles, Christian vs Jackson, Regal vs Hurricane and they fly Natalya over to add to the Womens title match for the sake of having something different. I'm sure she was worth the plane fare.

TVs

Dark at Hell In A Cell Matt Hardy, who was pinning the champ on TV not long ago, pins Mike Knox. This being the PPV where Punk drops the title to Taker in the midst of the dress code brouhaha and Orton regains the WWE title from Cena. Next night opening with Noble beating Slater and Miz continues his gradual rise up the card by beating Kofi for the US belt. Next night in Trenton Slater jobs for Jimmy Wang Yang. 12th in Indianapolis Noble loses to Primo, Mickie loses the belt to the awful Jillian in barely a minute, then Hall faces and loses the title to the back-from-injury Melina in less than 30 seconds. Why the whole segment time couldnt have been allotted to one match between James and Melons (which still would have clocked in as short) if they were that desperate to get the belt back on Melly escapes me. Maria Menounos actually wrestles (not for the last time) in a six woman tag with Kelly Kelly and Gail Kim against Beth/Mendes/Alicia Fox and real Groundhog Day stuff see Cena and Orton forced to team AGAIN vs Legacy which ends with Randy attacking Cena, as always. Next night in Lexington Rey pins Batista in disputable manner continuing the simmer for their eventual split and dark, Taker pins Punk. 19th in Jacksonville, Miz beats Marty Jannetty in a match booked by guest GM Snoop Dogg as a direct consequence of Miz' comments to JoMo previously about who had been the "Marty Jannetty" of their team. And if you think this would be an ideal booking tactic if they were planning to run Miz vs HBK... you'd be right - they’ll be thinking about Shawn vs Miz for Mania 26 until HBK decides to retire as opposed to just taking April to August off as first thought. Plus Hunter pins Cena in a match you forgot about. Next night in Columbia SC, on ECW Y2J's first selfless job of the month is to former C-Square buddy Christian, SmackDown has Matt, Finlay, Truth and the Harts win a handicap over Ziggler, Drew, Eric Escobar and JTG to replace them (and Shad) in the big teams match at Bragging Rights....  story goes Vince changed it from Jericho, Kane, Cryme Tyme etc to Jericho, Kane, Matt, the Dynasty, Truth and Finlay because he didnt think it stood up to Raw's team. Read into that what you will, given that Ziggler was supposed to have won the ICT by now and Drew will get a well-remembered push as the "chosen one." To be fair, either version looks a bit crap considering DX is on the other side. Also Taker beats Punk in a submission match you forgot. Bragging Rights has a dark match too - Christian beats Paul Burchill, the show on which Cena gets the belt back and Batista turns on Rey. Next in Buffalo Y2J loses ANOTHER TV match (yet again) to Kofi and dark Cena, Kofi and DX beat Legacy and Show. Finally 27th in Rochester Goldust beats Burchill before the show, ref Scott Armstrong is forced to wrestle Punk, and dark Taker pins Punk to retain the belt again.

NON TITLE WHINING

Beaten on TV this month : JeriShow (Tag team champions) by DX.

DEPARTURE

It's got no bearing on road results but it was a massive deal at the time - Shane McMahon steps down as EVP of Global Media. Allegedly unhappy about being supplanted by Hunter as heir apparent, it will be years before he's back on the payroll.

7 hours ago, TheScarlettChad said:

Can't wait to hear what Shawn's mania plans were if not Taker. 

And now you know.

[TheScarlettChad]

1 hour ago, air_raid said:

OCTOBER 2009

MAIN EVENTS - RAW

10th/ 11th in Terre Haute and Toledo it’s of course still Randy Orton vs John Cena for the WWE title (DQ finish). 16th-18th the same match in Huntsville, Columbus GA and Dothan is interrupted by run-ins and becomes Cena & Triple H vs Cody Rhodes & Ted DiBiase Jr. 24th at State College the night before Bragging Rights Cena, MVP and Mark Henry beat Legacy atop the cross-brand supershow (which only draws 4000).

THE CARDS

MVP & Mark Henry vs Cody Rhodes & Ted DiBiase starts the month and the goodies are actually winning, the week after MVP is back losing to Jack Swagger. US title with Kofi Kingston vs The Miz continues for two weeks either side of the title change. Mickie James vs Beth Phoenix takes place for the Womens belt twice more then (bear with me) the week after its Melina vs Jillian Hall in title rematches (see TVs). Evan Bourne vs Chavo Guerrero Jr continues for two weeks as does Chris Masters vs Santino, it's Swagger vs Primo in Terre Haute and Huntsville, Columbus and Dothan its Primo vs Heath Slater (he's got kids).

VARIATIONS

In Terre Haute its Jamie Noble vs Slater - in Toledo Swagger beats Primo and Noble in a handicap. In Huntsville there's no MVP so as well as beating Primo, Swagger gets added to Miz vs Kofi, plus it's Bourne vs Slater and Chavo wearing a blindfold loses to Hornswoggle. In cross brand matches at State College Noble jobs for Matt Hardy, Miz loses by DQ to John Morrison with neither title at stake and Rosa Mendes tags with Katie Lea to lose to The Bella Twins.

MAIN EVENTS - SMACKDOWN 

10th-12th Taker isn’t there so it’s Rey Mysterio vs CM Punk announced as a top contenders match in Huntington, Bristol TN and Pikeville KY. 15th in Monterrey and 18th in the second night in Mexico City The Undertaker defends the belt against Punk, 16th in Puebla Taker and Batista beat Punk and Kane, 17th at the Sports Palace Taker, Dave and Rey beat Punk, Kane and Chris Jericho.

THE CARDS

Matt Hardy vs Kane is still (back) on. John Morrison vs Dolph Ziggler rolls on for the ICT, then in Mexico Matt is thrown into the mix. Early month we have an ECW six man of Christian, Tommy Dreamer & Hurricane vs William Regal, Ezekiel Jackson & Vladimir Kozlov then in Mexico Christian defends the belt against Regal. Through Mexico its Michelle McCool vs Mickie James (suddenly moved brands) for their Womens title. We have R-Truth vs Drew McIntyre and continuation of the long-running Cryme Tyme vs Hart Dynasty (literally every house show of the month) plus Sheamus vs Shelton Benjamin repping ECW, in Mexico Fit Finlay swaps wins with Drew and Jackson squashes Hurricane.

VARIATIONS

Starting at the top - its Batista & Rey Mysterio vs Chris Jericho & Kane in Monterrey and Ziggler & Kane second night in Mexico City. In Bristol only Raw's Melina (huh?) tags with Eve Torres to beat the Bellas, in Pikeville Savannah (who??) beats Katie Lea. Second night only at Mexico Sports Palace its JoMo vs Matt in singles, Christian vs Jackson, Regal vs Hurricane and they fly Natalya over to add to the Womens title match for the sake of having something different. I'm sure she was worth the plane fare.

TVs

Dark at Hell In A Cell Matt Hardy, who was pinning the champ on TV not long ago, pins Mike Knox. This being the PPV where Punk drops the title to Taker in the midst of the dress code brouhaha and Orton regains the WWE title from Cena. Next night opening with Noble beating Slater and Miz continues his gradual rise up the card by beating Kofi for the US belt. Next night in Trenton Slater jobs for Jimmy Wang Yang. 12th in Indianapolis Noble loses to Primo, Mickie loses the belt to the awful Jillian in barely a minute, then Hall faces and loses the title to the back-from-injury Melina in less than 30 seconds. Why the whole segment time couldnt have been allotted to one match between James and Melons (which still would have clocked in as short) if they were that desperate to get the belt back on Melly escapes me. Maria Menounos actually wrestles (not for the last time) in a six woman tag with Kelly Kelly and Gail Kim against Beth/Mendes/Alicia Fox and real Groundhog Day stuff see Cena and Orton forced to team AGAIN vs Legacy which ends with Randy attacking Cena, as always. Next night in Lexington Rey pins Batista in disputable manner continuing the simmer for their eventual split and dark, Taker pins Punk. 19th in Jacksonville, Miz beats Marty Jannetty in a match booked by guest GM Snoop Dogg as a direct consequence of Miz' comments to JoMo previously about who had been the "Marty Jannetty" of their team. And if you think this would be an ideal booking tactic if they were planning to run Miz vs HBK... you'd be right - they’ll be thinking about Shawn vs Miz for Mania 26 until HBK decides to retire as opposed to just taking April to August off as first thought. Plus Hunter pins Cena in a match you forgot about. Next night in Columbia SC, on ECW Y2J's first selfless job of the month is to former C-Square buddy Christian, SmackDown has Matt, Finlay, Truth and the Harts win a handicap over Ziggler, Drew, Eric Escobar and JTG to replace them (and Shad) in the big teams match at Bragging Rights....  story goes Vince changed it from Jericho, Kane, Cryme Tyme etc to Jericho, Kane, Matt, the Dynasty, Truth and Finlay because he didnt think it stood up to Raw's team. Read into that what you will, given that Ziggler was supposed to have won the ICT by now and Drew will get a well-remembered push as the "chosen one." To be fair, either version looks a bit crap considering DX is on the other side. Also Taker beats Punk in a submission match you forgot. Bragging Rights has a dark match too - Christian beats Paul Burchill, the show on which Cena gets the belt back and Batista turns on Rey. Next in Buffalo Y2J loses ANOTHER TV match (yet again) to Kofi and dark Cena, Kofi and DX beat Legacy and Show. Finally 27th in Rochester Goldust beats Burchill before the show, ref Scott Armstrong is forced to wrestle Punk, and dark Taker pins Punk to retain the belt again.

NON TITLE WHINING

Beaten on TV this month : JeriShow (Tag team champions) by DX.

DEPARTURE

It's got no bearing on road results but it was a massive deal at the time - Shane McMahon steps down as EVP of Global Media. Allegedly unhappy about being supplanted by Hunter as heir apparent, it will be years before he's back on the payroll.

And now you know.

Good lord, 2009 Miz vs HBK. 

[air_raid]

NOVEMBER 2009

This is the first time since I started the thread that I refer to a show where no sources list the card nor any reports from the show exist on NEWZ sites posted at the time - but I can tell you what happened simply because fan cam footage exists on YouTube. Don't tell me it doesn't take effort to compile these.

THE MAIN EVENTS - RAW

Can I shock you? It’s tour time. 4th in Dublin (10,000) it’s a frankly conspicuous (battle royal winner) Jack Swagger getting a crack at the WWE title before a proper main event 5th-8th in Glasgow, Newcastle, Minehead Butlins and Liverpool - John Cena, Triple H & Shawn Michaels vs Randy Orton, Cody Rhodes & Ted DiBiase Jr. 10th in Cardiff it’s still the six man, 11th at the O2 (14,000) it’s Cena vs battle royal winner Chris Jericho, next night in the NEC (10,000) it’s the same deal with Big Show, and 13th-14th they sell out two nights at the modest Tony Garnier Hall (6000) in Lyon for first Cena vs battle royal winner Sheamus (huh?) then Cena & DX vs Orton & JeriShow. Back home we return, inevitably, to John Cena vs Randy Orton 28th in Johnson City and 29th in Charlottesville.

THE CARDS

Randy Orton vs Kofi Kingston has started on TV and runs tour nights Legacy isn’t wrestling Cena, likewise it’s often Triple H & Shawn Michaels vs Cody Rhodes & Ted DiBiase Jr. Month end in the States Cody & Ted lose to Hunter & Kofi. It's usually The Miz vs MVP for the US title when Kofi isn't free and Miz vs MVP vs Kofi when he is. Night 2 in Lyon Miz starts defending against Evan Bourne which continues when they get back. Mark Henry vs Chris Masters is a meaty collision, and there are a couple of instances in the shuffle on tour where it's Kofi vs Masters, back home Mark's pinning Jack Swagger. Womens match on tour is either Melina vs Alicia Fox for the belt or a tag where Melons teams with Kelly Kelly or Gail Kim to beat Fox and Jillian Hall. Fuck, the depth just doesn't justify two divisions, does it? Swagger vs Bourne goes on after Swagger finishes his brief flirtation with main event, and usually Santino vs Chavo Guerrero Jr, switching to Bourne vs Chavo as the norm after TVs and thus, Swagger vs Santino. Paul Burchill vs The Hurricane continues a feud started on ECW TV, plus Sheamus vs Primo both on tour and back in the States. Funnily in Dublin and second night in Lyon only, Chavo is forced to wrestle on his knees against Hornswoggle and naturally loses both.

VARIATIONS 

Some big exceptions for the big guns - at the NEC DX tag with Kofi to wrestle Legacy while Y2J is with Bourne, first night in Lyon Shawn & Hunter challenge JeriShow for the belts (DQ finish). CJ also shows up to Liverpool and gets disqualified in a singles with big Mark. Second night in Lyon is Cody & Teddy having a night off from DX - they lose to Henry & MVP. Miz is one on one with Kofi in Cardiff. Sheamus works Bourne in Dublin, MVP in Cardiff and Santino second night in Lyon. Month end has changes for the Women - in Johnson City Melons tags with Eve Torres to beat the returning Maryse & Alicia ; in Charlottesville la Quebecoise tags with Jillian instead. Also in Johnson City Santino upsets the Masterpiece, in Charlottesville he's beating - seriously, who did this guy piss off? - Carlito.

MAIN EVENTS - SMACKDOWN 

It’s The Undertaker vs CM Punk for the belt in a casket match on tour 5th-9th in Frankfurt, Brussels, Dusseldorf, Nottingham and Cardiff then 11th-15th in Stuttgart, Leipzig, Hamburg, Dublin and Belfast. 28th in Upper Marlboro MD Taker's off ; Rey Mysterio vs Chris Jericho goes on last.

THE CARDS

Rey Mysterio vs Batista supports Punk vs Taker on a few shows and actually goes on last in Cardiff. There's recurrences of John Morrison vs Dolph Ziggler for the ICT or post-Sheffield JoMo vs Ziggler vs Matt Hardy, a few other nights Dave’s there it’s Batista vs Rey vs Hardy (Matt actually wins in Düsseldorf), on his nights off it’s often JoMo vs Rey vs Ziggler vs Matt. In both Belfast and Upper Marlboro month end, Ziggler loses to R-Truth. Before TVs Michelle McCool vs Mickie James for the belt usually (but not always) happens after Mickie wins a nightly battle royal, however Katie Lea tags with Mickie in Germany (country of her birth) and Ireland to beat Michelle and Beth Phoenix. In tag action Cryme Tyme vs Hart Dynasty is still going on before TVs (and in Maryland) and at this point they’ve probably forgotten how to wrestle anyone else, also Yoshi Tatsu vs Zack Ryder and Goldust vs Ezekiel Jackson, with Shelton Benjamin & Goldust vs Jackson & Ryder and Truth vs Eric Escobar late month, and Fit Finlay vs Drew McIntyre and Christian vs William Regal for the ECW title on and off throughout.

VARIATIONS

Punk in Upper Marlboro has a fun exception - not only does he do a job to Matt, he comes to the ring wearing the headband of then-girlfriend Beth Phoenix and enters the ring using her characteristic flip over the ropes. And people say he's a miserable git! Overseas Big Dave has a couple of nights off end of tour so Rey wrestles Ziggler in Dublin leaving JoMo with Matt, and Rey challenges buddy Morrison for the ICT in Belfast, again shaking his hand in endorsement afterwards, Matt with Escobar. In Upper Marlboro we start a run of Morrison defending against (battle royal winner) Drew - sightings in the battle royal of both Kane and Great Khali who they didn’t bother taking to Europe. Women’s title exceptions on tour see that contenders battle royal won by Natalya in Düsseldorf and Phoenix in Nottingham. In Upper Marlboro Mickie is back with Beth. In Düsseldorf it’s Christian vs Ryder and Yoshi vs Regal, in Nottingham Christian vs Yoshi and Regal vs Ryder, in Cardiff EVERYONE shuffles with Christian vs Goldust, McIntyre vs Matt and Yoshi & Finlay vs Regal & Jackson, in Dublin the tag is split into two singles so Shelton vs Ryder happens as a one off, in Upper Marlboro Yoshi starts upsetting Vladimir Kozlov and the title match is Christian vs Goldust vs Regal vs Jackson.

TVs

2nd Raw in Worcester Cena is booked to partner an enemy AGAIN in a handicap with Show against Y2J and I don’t even need to tell you the finish, plus Sheamus murders Jamie Noble. 3rd in Providence Escobar pins Tommy Dreamer dark, Vance Archer debuts on ECW, Punks issues with ref Scott Armstrong continue as he’s fast counted down against Truth and dark he’s pinned by Taker again. 9th in Sheffield Masters vs Primo curtain jerks, and after the show Cena & DX beat Orton, Jericho & Show. Night after still in Sheffield, Cryme Tyme beat Mike Knox and Escobar at the start and Taker puts Punk in a casket at the end. 16th they’re at MSG (announced as >20,000 which is frankly bollocks, around 17,000 is still excellent) there’s a Roddy Piper appearance and post their main event tag victory Taker gives Cena a Tombstone because Survivor Series is coming so all the wrestlers suddenly start giving a shit about brand supremacy. At the time many of us will think this means Cena vs Taker for Mania but we’re wrong. Next night in Philly 7500 is awful, Jackson pins Dreamer dark, Hurricane pins Burchill in a mask vs leave ECW match, Punk shows his face on his old brand and pins Christian in a tag, on SmackDown JoMo beats Ziggler 2/3 falls, Mickie pins Layla after which LayCool, now a fully fledged partnership, do their infamous Piggy James bit, and I mention Taker & Kane vs JeriShow only for a phantom turn ; Kane’s inexplicably a face again. Santino beats Chavo dark at Survivors - there are several bits of booking that shape the future direction but the one that always stands out is how Kofi pinning Punk then Orton back to back to become sole survivor in his match SHOULD be a breakout performance, but won’t be. Next night in Hershey Tatsu pins Regal dark and it’s a three hour Raw featuring Jesse Ventura, Maryse returns to TV disguised as Gobbledygooker and attacks Melons, Cena pins Punk in a forgotten match (their first on TV?) and Sheamus becomes top contender out of virtually nowhere. Next night in Bridgeport Burchill loses to Kaval (better known to virtually everyone as Low Ki, there’s Vance Archer debuting on ECW, and a storyline driven SmackDown has Punk introduce Luke Gallows as his stooge and go off on one about the new Jeff Hardy DVD - fuelling rumours of Jeffs return - and Escobar breaks up with Vickie. 29th in Hampton VA Ki pins Burchill again, Trent Beretta & Caylen Croft debut in ECW, Croft you’ll recall from years of dark matches as Chris Cage, Burchill returns under a mask, fooling nobody, to attack Helms, and a hell of a Coliseum Video Exclusive main event has Taker retain in a triple threat over Punk and Batista. Next night in Baltimore (<7000) Masters works face (yes!!) in his dark win over Chavo, and little else that I don’t mention below.

Imagine in Archer and baby Bulldog, WWE having both members of Killer Elite Squad on their books at the same time and not smelling the dollars!

NON TITLE WHINING 

Champions beaten on TV this month : JeriShow (tag champs) by DX (how many times is that??), JeriShow again in three way with Cena & Taker (winners) and DX, Morrison (Intercontinental champion) by McIntyre, Miz (US champ) by Henry.

DEPARTURE

Jamie Noble is "retired" on TV after his beating from Sheamus. Of course, he'll still be used on TV in the hilarious J&J Security during the Authority days, and in a really cool story, will come back to do a proper last match in December 22 in Charleston WV, a couple of hours away from his hometown of Hanover, teaming with Braun Strowman, Ridge Holland and Butch to beat the Usos, Sami Zayn and Solo Sikoa when he pins Zayn with the Gibson Driver.

[air_raid]

DECEMBER 2009

THE MAIN EVENTS - RAW

Before TLC our only shows are 4th-6th in Texarkana, Bossier City and Monroe (a little undercard support from SmackDown), its Triple H vs Randy Orton in falls count anywhere matches - you don't see that stip much. Although "hardcore match" is exactly the same thing in execution. 18th-20th in Mobile, Albany (GA) and Tallahassee, Sheamus vs Mark Henry sounds very midcard for the new midcard WWE Champion though at least the first two shows have HHH vs Big Show no DQ on last and Tallahassee has Shawn Michaels show up so he and Hunter can defend the tag belts against Cody Rhodes & Ted DiBiase Jr on first. Boxing Day in Albany (NY) and 30th in Syracuse (cross brand supershow) its Sheamus vs John Cena (DQ finish) - the latter is notable because while 13,000 at the Carrier Dome isn't spectacular for a football stadium, it's still a great gate for the market where they usually run the War Memorial - a basketball court with a capacity of 7000.

THE CARDS

Kofi Kingston vs Randy Orton repeats in Tallahassee and Albany NY, Orton wins them too. Kofi vs Jack Swagger is one of the higher profile matches of the "supershow" format early month, and Cody Rhodes & Ted DiBiase vs Kane & Matt Hardy cross brand makes little sense given Kane and Matt were JUST feuding and even less if you consider their history. Sheamus vs Evan Bourne does not stand out as the last program a guy has before winning the WWE title, does it? Mid month Swagger loses to Bourne and even more astonishingly Kofi beats Cody & Ted in handicap matches in Mobile and Albany (GA). The Miz vs MVP for the US title runs mid month and after Christmas. Mickie James vs Beth Phoenix continues early month, mid month its Melina, Gail Kim & Kelly Kelly vs Maryse, Eve Torres & Alicia Fox - umm, isn't Eve a babyface still? Santino refs that one. Christian vs William Regal continues for the ECW belt and there's also an 8-man donated of Tommy Dreamer, Goldust, Hurricane & Alex Riley vs Zack Ryder, Vance Archer, Ezekiel Jackson & Chavo Guerrero Jr. Mid month, with a lot of those guys moved to the SmackDown crew, there's a tag of Goldie & Yoshi Tatsu beating new blood Trent Beretta & Caylen Croft. Plus it's Carlito vs Chris Masters and Primo vs A-Ri.

VARIATIONS

Gigantic one offs in Syracuse have Kofi and DX beat Legacy and cross brand, Show loses to eternal rival-or-partner Kane. Plus its Miz vs MVP vs Swagger. In Bossier City the 8-man is split into Chavo over A-Ri and a six man. In Tallahassee Show's with the Masterpiece, which bumps Carlito to losing to Bourne - Swagger has a night off. Albany NY uniquely has Swagger losing to Henry, Masters going over Chavo, Goldust pinning Paul Burchill, Cody & Ted beating Primo & Bourne, and Melons tags with The Bella Twins to beat Maryse, Fox and Katie Lea.

THE MAIN EVENTS - SMACKDOWN

7th in Beaumont there's The Undertaker vs Kane for the belt after Kane wins a battle royal - that's the only matches from the show I can find online. 18th in Miami its Taker vs Batista for the belt plus Rey Mysterio vs CM Punk in two singles, next night in West Palm Beach it's a tag, 21st in Estero (still Flo Rida, never heard of it) Taker & Kane (mates again already) beat Dave, Punk and Luke Gallows in a handicap. 26th-28th its Taker vs Big Dave in Greensboro, Raleigh and Charlotte.

THE CARDS

Rey Mysterio vs CM Punk still has life in Miami and Charlotte - they'll get to face each other at Mania, of course. Drew McIntyre vs John Morrison vs Matt Hardy goes on in West Palm and Charlotte, in Estero, Syracuse and elsewhere in North Carolina its Drew vs JoMo one on one. McIntyre vs Jimmy Wang Yang is what the Japanese would call a "SmackDown offer match" in those early month supershows, for the rest of the month Yang tags with Slam Master J to put over the Hart Dynasty. Kane vs Mike Knox is not what I expected in Greensboro and Charlotte. Dolph Ziggler vs R-Truth has several more rounds with worrying results for the would-be Intercontinental champ. What's up, indeed. Robbed of Ziggler, Truth beats Knox in Miami and Raleigh. Christian vs Zack Ryder for the ECW belt is fresh in Florida, in North Carolina the CLB defends against Ezekiel Jackson. ECW otherwise has Tommy Dreamer vs Vance Archer going on mid month and Hurricane vs Ryder late month. Mickie James, Maria & Savannah vs Beth Phoenix, Michelle McCool & Layla goes down in most of Florida and all of North Carolina - hang on, isn't Beth on Raw??

Additional note, they've turned Vladimir Kozlov face so he's saving Christian from a post match assault from Jackson.

VARIATIONS

The Syracuse show at "The Dome" has a huge bonus of Rey vs Batista falls anywhere. In Miami the fairly workshy Chris Jericho beats Kane then in Raleigh Rey teams with Kane (odd, that) to beat CJ and Punk. Can we talk for a moment about the form of Matt Hardy?? He beats Knox in Estero, beats Punk (not for the first time) in Greensboro and Ziggler in Raleigh. In Miami its Drew vs Matt vs Morrison vs Ziggler for the ICT - Matt doesn't win that one, mind. In Syracuse only, Christian defends against Shelton Benjamin. In Miami Gail Kim is in the six-woman instead of Savannah. I'm lost as to what women are on what show, again.

TVs

4th they tape Tribute To The Troops in Iraq, MVP vs Chris Masters is a big match to go on dark. 7th in Dallas Masters beats Riley before the show, on Raw babyface Kofi pins Orton thanks to a fast count from the ref in revenge for Orton bumping him at Survivors 2003 - what a crock. Dark, Cena & DX beat Orton & JeriShow yet again. Next night in Houston Goldust pins Kaval in the dark opener which feels a bit PCW to me, after tapings Taker pins Punk after the Last Ride. Hilariously at TLC Punk not only isn't on the PPV but does a job to R-Truth before the show. This is the show where DX finally beat JeriShow with the belts actually at stake (in a ladder match - bit harsh on Show who had knee surgery on 24th November), Cena AWFULLY loses the WWE title to Sheamus, pushed too hard too fast, when he falls through a table, Drew wins the ICT from JoMo (not Ziggler, then) and Orton RKOs Kofi straight back to the midcard as though the last four weeks were just a dream. Next night is the Slammys where everyone remembers the awesome performance of HBK in deciding, seemingly spur of the moment, that he needed to challenge Taker for Mania 26. Behind the scenes, prior to Shawn deciding he wanted to finish up, the "chosen one" story for Drew was meant to lead HIM into wrestling Taker at Mania, so they reported. Matches are short and/or crap and having been divorced for hardly any time at all, Cena vs Orton happens for the millionth time on TV this year. Next night in Laredo after about two weeks build only, Hurricane pins and unmasks "The Ripper" revealing Paul Burchill - worth underlining that The Beautiful Nightmare did even less to disguise Katie Lea, which was the point. On SmackDown selfless Dave gets pinned by Rey in a contenders match. 20th in Orlando Shelton pins Tyler Reks in the curtain jerker, Taker vs Rey goes no contest thanks to Batista, then dark Taker pins him for his trouble. 28th in Hartford Vince confirms Bret Hart will host next week's episode (opposite Impact moving to Monday nights live, LULZ), next night at the IZOD Dreamer tapes a loss to Ryder with the "leaves ECW" stip hanging over him and - shock! - this is his last match on the roster, and the Harts and Natalya beat Slam Master J, Yang and Maria in a match that for some reason doesnt make the broadcast.

DEPARTURE

Tommy Dreamer is indeed released from the company in January, although he isn't really retiring and will continue to show up anywhere that will have him - ridiculously TNA will feature him in decent spots in two separate runs and if he didn't look anachronistic enough trying to keep up with AJ Styles, WWE will even have him back in 2015.

[HarmonicGenerator]

Add Burchill to my list of people whose run lasted longer than I remembered. Very vague memories of the Ripper but no recollection he made it into the 2010s.

[Chili]

58 minutes ago, HarmonicGenerator said:

Add Burchill to my list of people whose run lasted longer than I remembered. Very vague memories of the Ripper but no recollection he made it into the 2010s.

Don't hold your breath on seeing his name much more mind.