Merry Christmas, Have Some December To Dismember (2024)

It’s the closest thing to a major Christmas show I could think of. Also, what better way to almost close out the year than with an absolutely horrible show?

December to Dismember
Date: December 3, 2006
Location: James Brown Arena, Augusta, Georgia
Attendance: 4,800
Commentators: Joey Styles, Tazz

So this is more or less considered the standard for worst WWE PPV of all time. There are quite a few reasons for that and I’d say it’s likely true. Number one is Vince McMahon. Heyman was told to run this show and he put together a run sheet and the endings to matches etc.

Since Big Show had made it clear that he was leaving the company as soon as his contract was up two days after the show, the title change was clearly coming. Heyman’s original idea was Punk and Show start the Chamber match and Punk gets Show to tap out inside of four minutes. Punk liked it, Heyman liked it, Show LOVED it, the writers liked it, Vince hated it.

Vince insisted on Lashley getting the belt and a huge celebration ending the show. Heyman said allegedly three or four times that this was going to bomb. It did indeed bomb and guess what happened. Yep, Vince blamed Heyman for the whole thing and Paul quit/was thrown out. The second issue here is that we had seen Survivor Series SEVEN DAYS EARLIER.

Yeah, this is our second PPV in two weeks, so of course the buyrate was through the floor. That was of course Heyman’s fault too. Finally, this was called an ECW show. The problem was it was more or less a really long episode of the TV show with a bit main event. This wasn’t like the TV show now either. This was back when the show was awful and more or less held together with tape and gum every week. Let’s get this over with.

Of course the opening video is all about the Chamber. Oh, it’s an EXTREME Elimination Chamber as the four in pods will all have weapons. Give me a break.

Joey says this show might be infamous. That’s just amusing. He follows this by screwing up and saying there will be a new champion tonight. Thanks for the spoiler Joey.

MNM vs. Hardys

This was an open challenge that was accepted by MNM. Who cares that neither was on ECW at the time? This was one of two matches announced for the show. What does that tell you? MNM beat up the Hardys on Tuesday and that’s all there is to it. Jeff is IC Champion here by the way. Matt and Mercury start us off.

The Hardys are dominating and throw in a spin cycle which is always a cool move. It’s like a double suplex but they spin the other guy around. It’s hard to explain. And now we get the weird part of this: ECW chants by fans that actually think this is a real ECW show. They start a she’s a crack w**** chant at Melina and no one knows how to react to it.

Matt hits splash mountain on Nitro (Morrison) for two. Apparently Melina has herpes. This show really was doomed from the start on this. I didn’t know Scott Armstrong was refereeing this far back. Tazz isn’t helping things either with his idiotic commentary. To be fair though, he could be far more annoying, like that scream from Melina.

Tazz throws in that Cole doesn’t like women. If true, I’m not entirely surprised. In a funny bit, MNM go for the Twist of Fate and Swanton but Matt fights off and gets the hot tag to Jeff. Matt hits a Pescado on Mercury which is more or less caught and reversed to set up the big pile of aerial moves which never gets old.

Jeff misses the Swanton as Mercury pulls Nitro out. This has been pretty good so far. Tazz gets off on the screaming I think. Morrison looks weird with blonde hair. It’s MNM in control now as they beat up Jeff. Yeah Tazz is driving me crazy. Melina gets that same chant again. It amazes me that she was more or less just the sexy valet at this point and became a great worker (by comparison) in just a few years.

They’re being given a lot of time if nothing else as we’re about 15 minutes into this and there seems to be a good amount of time to go in it. Is Tazz supposed to be Jerry Lawler or something? If he is he’s somehow more annoying than Jerry if that’s possible. Jeff gets a Whisper in the Wind out of nowhere to set up the tag to Matt.

In a cool spot, Jeff is tagged back in and goes up. Matt tries to set Mercury up for a powerbomb by handing him to Jeff but Nitro makes the save and then shoves Mercury up to Jeff so he can hit a hurricanrana. That was freaking cool. Nitro accidentally dropkicks Melina and Jeff rolls him up for a LONG two.

Jeff takes the Snapshot but Matt makes the save. This is awesome stuff now. MNM sets for a top rope Snapshot but Matt saves with a double cutter to let Jeff hit a Swanton onto both of them for the pin. By the way, the Snapshot is Nitro holding up the other guy and Mercury hitting an elevated DDT.

Rating: B+. This was very good stuff as they were given a lot of time and it worked very well. This was a way to let MNM look good, even though at the end of the day they weren’t even the best tag team that Morrison was even a part of. Either way this was good stuff and it worked very well. Definitely good, but the show would go all downhill from here.

Van Dam says he’ll win the title tonight.

Matt Striker vs. Balls Mahoney

See what I mean about them not advertising anything? I think you can see why based on this one alone. They had been feuding back in the day and no one cared so let’s have people pay to see the “blowoff” to it. They kept saying that Striker was a former teacher that had to resign but it was never explained why: he got in trouble for going to wrestle at night.

The match tonight is under Striker’s Rules, meaning very strict. There is no eye gouging, no hair pulling, no top rope moves, and no foul language. I didn’t know that Bill Watts booked ECW. Balls comes out to a bad cover of Big Balls. They make jokes about Striker having a picture of himself on his body.

If there has ever been a match that belonged on TV, this is it. It’s ok, but it’s certainly not worth paying anything for. After even more boring stuff, this time mainly arm work from Balls, he hits the Nutcracker Sweet, of course not called that here, to get the win.

Rating: D. Not only was it boring, but this was something people had to pay to see without it being mentioned or advertised. Other than the opener and the main event, that’s the case all around tonight actually. You’re starting to get the idea why this show is considered awful.

Punk is getting ready.

Sabu is hurt and Hardcore Holly is replacing him in the main event. The fans, knowing what’s going on, loudly chant BS at this.

Sylvester Terkay/Elijah Burke vs. F.B.I.

This FBI is Guido and Tony Mamaluke. Burke is the Pope from TNA, and yet, he’s still overrated and more or less worthless. “But KB, he can talk so well!” Well that would bet true if it wasn’t BS. He’s talking now and he’s annoying me already. Now in TNA he’s a modern day Slick and just as annoying.

The only good thing about the FBI is they have Trinity and she looks quite good. Yep, that’s all I’m going to care about here. Terkay is more or less an MMA guy that wrestled. Apparently Tazz needs a cold shower. Can we please get to the end of this show PLEASE? We have a very weak where’s my pizza chant as I feel so sorry for the live fans.

This was a massive slap in the face of all of ECW and its fans, but hey, Vince gets to feel like he killed the freaking place and his delusions of grandeur are fulfilled for one more day right? All is right with the world now. More or less this is a way for Terkay to beat people up. It’s more or less a squash.

Actually screw that: it is a squash. Naturally the ECW guys get destroyed on an ECW show so that the WWE guys can look great. Oh and after the match, Terkay uses a Muscle Buster to get a big TNA chant going. Ok so not big but whatever. Just move on please.

Rating: D-. Screw Vince. This was just dumb. I get that you hate ECW but if you’re going to screw the audience like this, get over yourself Vince.

Sabu is put in an ambulance.

We get an ad for Raw, on an ECW show. This is freaking garbage.

Daivari vs. Tommy Dreamer

Daivari is more commonly known as Sheik Abdul Bashir recently and here he’s known as the manager of the Great Khali. I wonder what’s going to happen here. Dreamer jobbing would be ok I guess. Those poor fans actually think Dreamer has a chance in this. Khali is thrown out. And now no one else cares. It’s Dreamer vs. a tiny guy that never does anything else.

Dreamer gets some of his big spots in to get the crowd going a bit, but naturally as he goes for the DDT, Daivari just rolls him up with the tights for the pin. I hate this show more and more every time. Of course Khali comes out and chokeslams him on the ramp. Tazz is legit ticked off as you can tell.

Rating: W. That stands for who freaking cares anymore. I’m not even an ECW fan and I’m even an ECW critic and this is ticking me off. Tell me one reason why Daivari should have gone over like that here. If you’re going to have Khali destroy him, fine, but have that be the reason to end the freaking match. This is just mindless.

Dreamer takes forever to get up as we’re an hour and 15 minutes into this and we have two matches left, one of which is a mixed tag.

Ad for See No Evil, which is of course, a WWE thing and not an ECW thing.

I actually took a break at this point to watch a bad Disney Channel movie. That’s how annoyed I am with this show.

Heyman gives Hardcore Holly the spot in the main event. The fans pause and then know what’s coming, as Holly gets the spot. I actually can’t understand Holly’s first line as the fans are booing so loudly. This was a freaking atrocity and it’s pathetic that it has to be. The fans are just freaking dead now.

Ariel/Kevin Thorn vs. Kelly/Mike Knox

Kelly dated Knox apparently. Kelly at this point is an exhibitionist and AWFUL. I mean she’s ridiculously bad so we get Knox and Thorn. Knox has no beard at this point and is somehow more worthless than he was before. Oh dang it they’re letting him talk. Oh good Kelly is talking instead. She likes Punk, who gets a chant. That chant didn’t happen though. No one likes Punk. What people want is HARDCORE HOLLY AND TEST!!!

Thorn is a vampire and Ariel is a fortune telling gypsy or something. She would become Salinas in TNA in case you’re more familiar with them. This is a freaking disgrace. I’m glad no one bought it as it makes things seem a bit better. No one cares about this either as since both girls can’t wrestle we more or less have a Knox vs. Thorn match.

And here they are. At least Kelly looks hot. Kelly tries to get the tag to Knox but he leaves. Note: the fans chant for Punk to come make the save. To make sure it’s clear: Punk is WAY over. Sandman makes the save instead which gets a nice pop.

Rating: D-. Kelly looking hot is the only reason this passes. I just want to get to the end of this.

We get a long ad for Armageddon, which was the third PPV in four weeks. WWE was so stupid at this point that I can’t comprehend it.

Some RIDICULOUSLY hot chick named Rebecca interviews Lashley. She can’t talk but she doesn’t need to. It’s mainly about how Lashley has had to put up with a ton of nonsense, more or less confirming that he’ll win tonight, which only Vince wanted to see.

Three of the people in the chamber come to the ring together. We get the same exact video as the one that opened the show. Oh man they knew they had jack. We’re about an hour and a half into the show at this point mind you.

Heyman comes out and talks while saying nothing at all. This is nothing more than trying desperately to fill in time.

ECW World Title: CM Punk vs. Bobby Lashley vs. Test vs. Hardcore Holly vs Big Show vs. Rob Van Dam

Now keep in mind, Punk and Lashley were more or less worthless at this point, so the only two legit main event guys you have in there are RVD who was hated by the company at this point and Show who didn’t care as he was leaving in 48 hours. RVD and Holly start. Remember that as soon as each pod opens up, the person comes out with a weapon which I’ll get to as each pod opens.

Holly is booed out of the building. Naturally Vince will insist that it’s because of how great a heel he is or whatever. So we have to watch Holly and Van Dam for five minutes. Oh joy. The entrances took almost ten minutes mind you. The fans are dead here by the way. We get Rolling Thunder on the cage, which is impressive but we’ve seen it before.

They’ve managed to make the Elimination Chamber boring. That’s just impressive. Note: another Punk chant goes up. I can’t emphasize this enough: PUNK IS OVER. In third is Punk and his chair to a freaking ERUPTION. It’s a shame that he didn’t have a chance to win here. And Van Dam kicks the chair into him so he’s down 30 seconds in.

Ok to be fair, they’re the two most over guys in there so that’s ok I guess. Van Dam is bleeding. Apparently you can get pins outside on the cage now. That’s new I think. Heyman is the evil GM here in case you didn’t know. Punk is getting destroyed by Holly here in case you weren’t sure.

Also Punk would have his first loss in the company to Holly in about a month with the justification being that Holly was the bigger star and should go over. Again: if it’s not Vince’s idea, it’s not a good idea. In fourth is Test with a crowbar. Naturally he nails Punk with it. This is freaking stupid. Test and Hardcore Holly are in THE MAIN EVENT OF A PAY PER VIEW.

The idea here is that the heels are all working together which is completely pointless considering the idea of the match but that can’t be Vince’s idea. Heyman “booked” this remember? And then Van Dam hits this Five Star and Punk is gone. Yep, the most over guy in the match is out first while Test and Holly get to stick around.

Test puts Holly out ten seconds later with a big boot. It was only a two but the referee calls it three. The announcers and fans are confused but since this show isn’t for the fans it doesn’t matter. Van Dam goes up on top of Big Show’s pod but a chair shot puts him down. Test hits a big elbow off the pod…and Van Dam is out. Let’s see. Why is this stupid? Number one, the most over guy left is Big Show.

Second, now THERE’S NO ONE FOR TEST TO FIGHT, so it’s just dead time now. Third, you had freaking TEST beat RVD. We’re still just sitting around after two replays of the elbow and just waiting on ANYTHING to happen. The fans have completely turned on the match at this point and don’t care at all. Thankfully the next guy in is Lashley.

He gets NO pop at all. Heyman’s security try to hold him in the pod, but using the WOODEN table in the pod with him, he breaks the STEEL chains on top of the pod. ARE YOU KIDDING ME??? The table is still in the pod mind you so it’s not like it’s even being used. They keep ramming Test into the Plexiglas to set up Lashley vs. Show.

Yeah, that’s what this whole thing is supposed to end with: the massive showdown between Show and a heavily muscled guy. I know I’ve said it before, but Vince has to have repressed hom*osexual desires towards musclemen. I mean really, is there any doubt of it at this point? The fans HATE this mind you.

A spear puts Test out with a minute and a half left until Show comes out. In other words, we have nothing to do but wait for the time to run out. You might as well quit reading now as you know exactly what’s coming. Show comes in with his barbed wire ball bat and naturally he gets in no offense as it’s ALL Lashley here.

He avoids the chokeslam and they slug it out. Lashley is terrible in the ring at this point mind you, so this is even more torture. And he wins it with a spear. The main event is over two hours and five minutes into the show.

Rating: D-. This was just completely ridiculous for reasons I’ve already gone into. For another thing, SABU, the guy that has somehow made a whole career out of doing stupid stunts in a ring, is left out here in favor of Holly. Are you freaking KIDDING? This was just dumb and nothing more than Vince deciding that he’s smarter than the fans once again.

And that’s it. No seriously, the show which cost 40 dollars started at 8pm and was over at 10:05pm, the last 4 minutes being the celebration by Lashley. Do I even need to insult this?

Overall Rating: I. For incomplete. Where’s the last 45 minutes of this? I know WWE cuts their shows early, but this was inexcusable. Not only does it end 40 minutes early, but there were two matches allegedly worth seeing and the Hardys vs. MNM was the only good thing of it at all. This wasn’t a PPV. It was Vince making sure that ECW died the way he wanted it to.

If Vince would listen once all night, he could have heard the fans BEGGING for this to be Punk but the rookie muscle guy gets it instead. Heyman was of course blamed for the whole thing because while he wrote the show, it was his third one or so and the only reason he went with it was because Vince wouldn’t accept anything.

Like I said, the initial idea was Punk puts Show out in about three minutes and we end with Van Dam, Punk and Lashley (if we have to) in a 20 minute war. Alas, that would have been entertaining though so they went with Lashley being given the hero push so Vince would have nice wet dreams that night. This was an abomination and not a PPV at all.

Get the Hardys/MNM match if you like tag wrestling, but other than that don’t do anything with this show so Vince doesn’t get anything out of it. This was an insult to the fans at best and an ego trip by Vince of epic proportions.

Impact
Date: December 23, 2010
Location: Impact Zone, Orlando, Florida
Commentators: Taz, Mike Tenay
Episode Title: All the Gold is Worth a Fourtune

It’s Christmas time around the Impact Zone so expect a theme to tonight’s show. Tonight we have AJ vs. Williams in an Iron Man Match which most of you likely haven’t heard about prior to this as it was announced on ReAction instead of when the vast audience was, you know, watching. Other than that there hasn’t been anything major announced. Oh and the tag title tournament ends tonight. Let’s get to it.

We open with a recap of the tag match main event from last week where Anderson’s head was all messed up and Rob Terry cost Morgan/Anderson the match.

In the arena here’s Fourtune/Immortal. They really need a name for that whole team. Ok apparently their full name is Immortal and Fourtune is just a part of that. Terry is with them too. This is for the weigh-in for the #1 contenders match. Flair talks about their greatness as is his custom but shifts his attention to Terry.

He’s being offered a job as a bodyguard according to Flair but we hand the mic to Bischoff. Eric talks about how there are doctors here to check both guys and make sure they’re ok for Genesis. Morgan comes out and blows the crowd so far away that they can’t even move. Morgan says this is all a sham and that Bischoff is hitting new lows by having Anderson fight hurt because that’s beyond wrestling.

Eric disagrees and the doctors he has here are going to check Anderson and Morgan tonight. Flair tries to tell Morgan that it’s ok and here comes Mick Foley of all people. He says his career is probably over due to the amount of concussions he’s had. Foley says that if he has anything to say about it, the match doesn’t happen.

Flair says that Foley is a whiny, pathetic human being. He blames Foley for the rise in kids hurting themselves for the sake of violence. They get into their usual wrestler vs. non-wrestler thing. Foley wants to be part of the solution, which Flair says is to kiss up to him. Foley knocks the mic out of Flair’s hand and talks about coming into a morgue to check their brains when they’re dead. Flair says he’ll die in a ring or on top of a wild woman. Ok then.

Bischoff says Foley is here to try to be the hero now that his books and comedy career are failures. Apparently Foley is riding the coattails of people that have to follow Foley now because he set the bar too high with violence.

Cue theme song.

Mike and Taz run down the card which is the stuff I told you about already, plus the tag titles on the line in an 8 man tag with Beer Money/Abyss/Jeff Hardy vs. The Guns/RVD/Morgan. Whichever team wins, their tag team gets the belts.

Back from a break with Jeff Hardy coming to talk to Morgan. This isn’t about either of them but rather about professional wrestling. Basically Jeff asks who are Anderson and Flair to tell Morgan what to do. Jeff tries to get Morgan back to the Dark Side.

It’s time for another Jarrett MMA thing. We do get a Gracie Train here which is sort of funny. Jarrett says he’s tired of all the people in the Impact Zone losing so he’s going to open it up to the professionals. Amazing Red impressed him last week so he’s going to get another shot tonight.

Red comes out and is checked but gets Vaseline or something similar to it in his eyes which screws him up. Jarrett gets an ankle lock on for a long time but Red taps in less than a minute. Red has a brother so next week it’s Jarrett vs. the brother apparently. The fans chant for Angle and Jeff gets scared.

Tara and Rayne talk about the match later on and Tara’s arm is still messed up. Tara wants to make this go by fast to get to a party with Generation Me.

RVD is really excited about getting his hands on Hardy later.

Jeremy Buck vs. Max Buck vs. Kazarian vs. Robbie E

Winner gets Lethal at some point which is probably at Genesis. I’m kind of surprised we’re getting a match this early. We’re only 35 minutes into the show. They had that two week stretch where they got stuff in earlier. Yeah the match is at Genesis. You have to tag in and out here and we start with Gen Me facing off.

Robbie fist pumps on the apron so Gen Me double teams him for awhile. Kaz breaks up a pin attempt on Max which gets two for Robbie. He’s playing spoiler tonight apparently as he keeps breaking up covers. Basically this is Gen Me in a semi tag match where the partners don’t work together.

They dominate for the most part as Kaz hasn’t been in yet, pretty clearly forecasting his victory. They set for More Bang For Your Buck but here comes Kaz. He destroys everyone and hits his reverse Piledriver on Max for the win at 3:30. He and Kaz have a staredown for awhile.

Rating: C. Nothing special here aside from the usual Gen Me spots which are always pretty cool. Kaz was always going to win this and it was about as obvious as you could ask for. It wasn’t bad or anything but for three and a half minutes it’s not like they could really get anything going.

Sarita goes into Velvet’s locker room with a belt and closes the door. SWEET! KNOCKOUT BONDAGE ACTION!

During the break we missed Sarita destroying Velvet with the belt and choking her. Nice job of the cameraman to sit back and watch an assault and attempted strangulation. Sarita keeps yelling about how Angelina won’t always be there to save her, prompting Angelina to bounce in after Sarita left.

Eric and Flair talk about how Immortal is in checkmate because of Dixie and her attorneys and the judge so they need all the belts they can get. They need to live up to Hardy and Flair’s standards.

Kendrick talks to some chick about being lied to and gets a cookie. It looks like a cafeteria or something. Does TNA have any idea where they’re going with all these things or do they just throw random things out there and hope we make sense out of them?

Knockouts Tag Titles: Madison Rayne/Tara vs. Angelina Love

I forgot Madison was champion. That’s just not good at all. Angelina is introduced as being on her own due to Velvet being beaten down. It’s more or less Angelina vs. Madison as Tara can’t go because of her arm. Tara comes in for a few seconds but can’t do much at all due to the injury. She comes in, gets three stomps and a left handed choke and leaves. Not her fault of course but it makes the whole tag title thing a bit of a stretch.

Madison does her head scissors stomp thing and even her shapely form can’t even get the crowd into this. Winter comes down and cleans house as Angelina tags her in. Apparently she’s taking over. A really bad Catatonic (spinning Rock Bottom from a slam position) ends Madison at 4:50.

Rating: D. The crowd was dead for this. For a tag match having a total of three tags is a bit of a stretch. These belts don’t need to exist at all and you can see that more and more often every week. This wasn’t interesting at all and with the roster getting slimmer and slimmer, they need to do something with it soon. Winter will help, but they need more girls and fast.

Back from a break Pope is on the phone and says things need to go down the way he wants it to or things will be bad. Jordan and Young, in a freaking reindeer costume, presents Pope with a donation to the Congregation which is apparently raising money for kids. Pope talks to the person on the phone and says make the deal because he has some more funds.

TV Title: AJ Styles vs. Doug Williams

15 minute Iron Man match here. It’s a technical match to start us off here. They go to the mat with some very nice stuff. In a slick counter, AJ tries to nip up off the mat and Williams just dives on him and grabs a headlock. Williams gets a knee in the corner and we take a break to make sure we don’t see 15 minutes of good wrestling in one sitting.

Back with AJ holding a chinlock on Williams. During the break AJ got the first fall with a Styles Clash. Well of course he did. Not like anyone would want to see a champion get pinned as it happens right? AJ goes into a clock freeze which is smart and puts Williams down on the floor. Would it be too hard to give us a clock?

Ok apparently we have 4 minutes left. With maybe two and a half left they crank it way up and things get good. The springboard forearm is caught in a suplex. AJ’s eyes are awesome as he lays on the mat. Under two minutes now. One minute left as Williams is still down one. Rolling Chaos Theory kills AJ with under thirty seconds left. Both guys are down as the clock runs out.

Rating: B-. Solid stuff here with some psychology thrown in on the side. That’s not something you often get on TV matches today so that’s a definite perk. Seeing about 66% of the match isn’t a good thing really though but it could have been a lot worse. Good match as both guys can work a lot of styles (no pun intended) and it makes for good TV.

We’re going to get a five minute overtime, so of course we take a break.

Back with the overtime having already started. Tornado DDT gets two for Williams almost immediately. Springboard forearm gets two as well. There isn’t much other than laying around in between if you were wondering. Styles Clash is reversed into an Alabama Alsm for two. After some blocked suplexes from both guys the Pele gets two. Over three minutes are done already.

And now we have one minute left, meaning we missed about a minute during a commercial. Still no clock as I guess all the technology resources went to Dixie’s Twitter even though she has no affiliation to the company in storyline terms but still announces all the official business. We get a clock with 30 seconds left and Douglas gets a belly to back off the top but can’t get a cover before the bell rings. I won’t give a rating to the overtime but it was about on the same level as the earlier part if not a bit better.

AJ grabs a mic and says the people want a winner. He wants one more time at Genesis but Doug says no. Who’s the face here again? AJ runs down Williams a bit and Doug gives in and agrees to a match. If Williams wins, AJ has to leave Fourtune. AJ says no but Bischoff comes out and says do it or leave Fourtune, Immortal and TNA.

Team Beer Money has a powwow and Hardy says RVD can come get him.

Anderson will be on the phone next.

Apparently on the phone means a satellite interview. Anderson is cleared to return to the ring at Genesis. This would apparently be his return after the long time since his match last week. Taz and Anderson have a bit of an incident about Anderson not being totally back to full health. Anderson walks off after Tenay asks about proper paperwork.

Team MCMG is ready but Morgan isn’t happy about what Anderson said.

Tag Titles: Beer Money/Jeff Hardy/Abyss vs. Motor City Machine Guns/Matt Morgan/Rob Van Dam

Surprised there wasn’t a commercial before the entrances here. The champions’ team clears the ring and we take a break before the bell. Naturally they lied to us and the bell rang during the break. RVD vs. Storm is the first thing we see when we get back. Morgan comes in to beat on people for awhile. Is there a reason this isn’t a straight up tag title match?

The Guns do their awesome stuff to Roode as their team has controlled throughout so far. Sliced Bread is blocked though and Storm crotched Shelley to take over. Abyss comes in and Shelly, his former tag partner of all things, takes a beating. A few people boo when Hardy comes in. I’d like to see them take the show on the road to see if that would be the case elsewhere.

Hardy spits at RVD and Rob’s attempts to get at him only cause more pain for Shelley. Where’s Hardy to write bad songs about it when you need him? BEER! MONEY! Is that in case they get lost or something? Eye of the Storm is reversed but Hardy stops the tag. We go to ReAction (meaning I should cut off the review right now but whatever) as RVD gets the hot tag and Hardy runs.

Rolling Thunder gets two on Roode. Morgan comes in and hits the footprint on Abyss but goes down to a Twist of Hate. Hardy gets away from RVD again and they go to the floor. Sabin gets a tornado DDT out of nowhere to Roode for the pin to retain at approximately 8:50. JB sounds about as bored and uninterested as you could ask for him to be.

Rating: C+. Pretty fun match but it kind of begs the question of does Beer Money get another title shot at Genesis and if so, why? They just got a shot and they lost it. Why would they receive another one? This was pretty fast paced and formula based but good speed and pacing pulled it through to be pretty solid.

Overall Rating: C-. Not a horrible show at all although nothing really great. The Iron Man match is rather good, annoying times for commercials aside. This was really just a show to build up Genesis and there’s nothing wrong with that. Aside from the Iron Man match though, there were some problems here. The opening match was about as worthless as you could ask for and the women’s match was rather bad. The main event was ok but the booking is kind of a head scratcher. Not a bad show at all, but nothing great either.

Maybe he can get a job as a seasonal elf somewhere?

This surprises me somewhat, but it’s not like he had done anything at all with them. Season 2 of NXT was a pale comparison to Season 1 and Kaval has a fluke win over the IC Champion. This isn’t huge really, but it is kind of surprising.

Thoughts?

Tribute to the Troops 2010
Date: December 22, 2010
Location: Fort Hood, Killeen, Texas
Commentators: Michael Cole, Jerry Lawler

It’s the annual tradition and in this case it’s the two hour version rather than the one hour one that was shown on Saturday. In other words, I know half of the show but not the rest of it, which I’ll throw in if I can. There isn’t much to say about it but so far it’s the best one they’ve done. Let’s get to it.

Expect a lot of “so and so says thanks to the troops” and “so and so performs” tonight.

We open with a clip of President Obama thanking the troops for what they’re doing. He doesn’t actually mention WWE but the idea is there I guess.

We get a quick set of shots of WWE being there for the troops for years.

Battle Royal

Mark Henry, John Morrison, Ezekiel Jackson, Sheamus, Daniel Bryan, Chris Masters, Cody Rhodes, Vladimir Kozlov, Santino Marella, Michael McGillicutty, Husky Harris, Justin Gabriel, David Otunga, Heath Slater, Chavo Guerrero

The commentary is different here as they’re referencing TLC having already happened which hadn’t happened when this first aired. This wasn’t on the first show. They’re getting some big names in there at least. Fifteen guys in there if you don’t want to count. Everyone surrounds Nexus and the beating is on. They’re all run off but not over the top rope so I guess they’re still in?

Sheamus puts out Masters but can’t get rid of Bryan. Nexus is chilling out maxing relaxing all cool and all watching some wrestling out by the ring. Chavo dumps Jackson which surprises me a bit so the ring is kind of empty without Nexus in there. Cobra to everyone and it works on them all, cleaning the ring. And then he goes after Sheamus like an idiot.

Sheamus and Henry have a standoff but HERE THEY COME! I haven’t gotten to write that in a long time. Everyone is still down from the Cobra of all things. The tag champions go out as Nexus is cleaning house. Chavo and Cody are out, leaving Morrison, Bryan, Sheamus and Henry against the black and yellow dudes. They charge with Sheamus chilling in the corner.

Bryan beats up the Wendy’s chick/dude but everyone else has it 2-1. Gabriel vs. Bryan makes the IWC org*sm just a bit but Bryan gets rid of Gabriel. Sheamus kicks Bryan’s head off though and dumps him with ease. Harris takes down Sheamus and the beatdown is on. There goes Otunga as Morrison is doing most of the fighting. Sheamus and Morrison start fighting but Morrison is finally put out by Nexus.

And then Henry awakens, throwing Slater over to leave him, McGillicutty, Harris and Sheamus. Henry beats the tar out of the Nexus guys and throws out Hennig’s son. There goes IRS’ son as well, leaving us with Henry vs. Sheamus. The very white guy beats down Henry for a bit until the POWER OF TEXAS wakes Henry up. In a very impressive display of strength, Henry gorilla presses Sheamus over the top with relative ease. That was scary.

Rating: B-. Battle royals are really hard to grade but this one definitely was good stuff. Nexus trying to be all sneaky fit really well and having the hometown guy winning was a good thing to do here. It’s not like it changes anything so I can’t complain here at all. Better battle royal than most for sure.

Taylor Swift loves the troops.

The Bellas love the troops and are very hot.

Diddy Dirty Money performs I’ll Be Missing You.

After a break, Miss USA is introducing the next match.

Kofi Kingston/Big Show vs. Jack Swagger/Dolph Ziggler

No Vickie this time. This was on the first show. Dolph vs. Show to start us off here. Show stands on his ribs and I think the champion is about to cry. Kofi in now and he and Ziggler do their usual good stuff. King talks about the morale people and gets in a Craig Pittman line: beatings will continue until morale improves.

After Swagger interferes a bit, Kofi gets a SLICK counter of the Fameasser into a powerbomb. Semi-hot tag to Show who gets a sidekick to take down Swagger. He cleans house and Ziggler is thrown into the air. Kofi gets a cross body to put both he and Ziggler on the floor. The chokeslam to Swagger ends this totally clean.

Rating: C. This was fine. It wasn’t anywhere close to the regular tag matches they’ve been having on Smackdown lately but that’s not the point. This was about giving the fans a quick thrill and having Show out there winning is always good as he’s freaking huge which is a treat for the fans. Nothing great, but this was fine.

Trace Adkins performs.

R-Truth vs. Ted DiBiase

Not on the first show. Truth jumps him to start as this is looking one sided so far. This is probably Truth’s last TV appearance for a long while given his recent health issues. Both guys go down off a double clothesline as I think this is going to go fast. Maryse gets on the apron, Eve pulls her down, Dream Street is countered, Axe Kick ends it. This was nothing.

Bella Twins/Natalya/Kelly Kelly vs. Alicia Fox/Melina/Laycool

Not on the first show either. Yep the evil ones are definitely hotter. They’re all in Santa outfits of course. Alicia vs. a Bella starts us off and Cole thinks it’s Nikki. Since Cole is a very stupid man we’ll call her Brie. Melina is working as a heel here to play up the whole turn on Raw two days ago. Kelly comes in and we get the headscissors to show off the underwear under her skirt. She beats the tar out of Michelle before Layla saves. Everyone gets in until Kelly hits K2 to beat Michelle. Another nothing match.

The cast of 30 Rock loves the troops.

Back from a break we see Sherri Sheppard throwing shirts and DVDs out to the troops earlier along with Horny.

George W. Bush thanks the troops.

Diddy Dirty Money performs Coming Home which makes sense at least. The chorus of that is actually pretty awesome.

Lindsay Vonn (Olympic skier) loves the troops.

We get an arm wrestling contest between the commander of the base who is rather wrinkly and he gets…..Kane. Oh dear. The commander whose name is Grimsley gives Kane a chance to back out. Grimsley gets an advantage early on but here comes Kane. The soldiers are of course behind their boss. Edge’s music hits and the distraction lets the General get the win. Nicely done. Spear puts Kane on the floor and Edge shakes the General’s hand. Not on the original show.

Earlier today Cedric the Entertainer came out and did a short routine. It looked like they clipped a bit of it so maybe it was longer. That would make some more sense.

Jimmy Fallon loves the troops. He tells some horrible jokes until Miz pops up behind him and slams him to a big pop. Funny stuff.

Adkins performs Whup a Man. There’s a line in there that says something about you should whip a man if he cusses out a kid. After the song his 9 year old daughter comes out and it’s supposed to be a big emotional moment. Bit contradictory there isn’t it? The second of each performances were on the Saturday show.

The military chief of staff says basic stuff.

John Cena/Rey Mysterio/Randy Orton vs. Alberto Del Rio/Wade Barrett/The Miz

Del Rio has the whole car thing here. This was on the Saturday show too. ERUPTION for Cena. Before we go to break, the cast of the Today Show loves the troops. Miz vs. Cena to start which I have a feeling might be Wrestlemania. Off the Barrett and Orton and you can feel the interesting part of the show dying away almost instantly with those two fighting. Orton gets the elevated DDT to take over but can’t get the RKO.

Rey comes in and things speed up as he hits a Seated Senton to Miz for two. Riley hooks Rey’s foot though and here come the evildoers as we take a break. Back with Barrett hitting a backbreaker on Rey for two. Off to Alberto who tries a sunset flip and gets kicked in the head. Again, that always works if you just give it a try. Rey reverses a top rope suplex and gets a top rope cross body.

Hot tag to Cena and Alberto no puede ver Cena. Everything falls apart and Orton gets the Angle Slam to Miz. Riley pulls him out before the RKO can hit. Barrett takes a backbreaker and it’s 1238 time to Alberto and Barrett. FU to Del Rio and RKO to Barrett with Del Rio getting pinned to end this.

Rating: C. This was what it was. There’s nothing special about it at all and there isn’t supposed to be. As King says, this is about putting smiles on the faces of the troops. There was nothing special here but there wasn’t supposed to be. The ending was IDENTICAL to the ending of the 2008 show which was kind of cool. Nothing terrible at all and it did its job.

Overall Rating: A. This was by far the best of these shows ever as it felt like a combination of a USO show and the Tribute to the Troops. It was fun and the two hours flew by to say the least. The wrestling isn’t the point here but it certainly worked. Very fun show to say the least and it definitely did its job very well. Very good show to cap off a very good week for WWE.

NXT
Date: December 21, 2010
Location: AT&T Center, San Antonio, Texas
Commentators: Todd Grisham, Josh Matthews

It’s week 3 here and I’m pretty sure we’re live here for a change due to the whole confusing thing of Smackdown having to be live tonight due to Christmas Eve. Hopefully it’s decent like the previous two weeks have been but they need to give the characters a chance to develop a bit as they haven’t done that at all for the most part yet. Let’s get to it.

This is starting IMMEDIATELY after Smackdown ended which is a bit of overkill indeed.

The opening video is about the obstacle course last week which wasn’t as bad as I expected it to be.

Theme song is still good.

Here come the rookies as usual. Sorry if I’m a bit off tonight as this isn’t something I want to be doing at the moment. The challenge is a wheelbarrow race and the Soaring Eagle will be inside it. I’m not sure if this is better or worse than Horny.

Curtis goes first and jumps the gun, prolonging the stupidity of this one. His time is 13 seconds. There’s nothing to say about this stuff at all other than some weak jokes from the announcers. Grisham is whining like he has a piece of Cole stuck inside him.

Novak breaks the mark at 12.8.

Brodus gets 13.8 and drops the wheelbarrow, sending the Eagle sprawling to the floor.

O’Brian is next and sets the new mark at 12.7. This is REALLY boring if you can’t get that.

Saxton wants to warm up and puts on a black glove to get a time of 12.5.

Bateman is last and ties it. Please….no.

We do it again and Bateman throws a flag on the ground that he got from….somewhere. Saxton doesn’t CROSS THE LINE as that has to be a rib of some sort. Never mind he did as they keep saying it over and over. GET ON WITH THIS. Bateman goes again and wins this STUPID segment that went on way too long. He gets two points.

Novak vs. Curtis and a six person tag later.

Jacob Novak vs. Johnny Curtis

JTG is subbing for R-Truth here. Dolph yells at Novak as he sends Curtis to the floor. Dolph is in a tie so we talk about that more than anything else. We hit a chinlock as we talk about hitting on Vickie. This match is really, really dull. This whole season has had dull characters. Ziggler gets in a cheap shot to Curtis and Novak adds in a big boot to end it at 5:00. Vickie is watching and smiling.

Rating: D+. The match was fine from an in ring perspective, but WOW I could not care less about these two guys. Neither are interesting in the slightest and neither are the majority of these rookies. This wasn’t a terrible match, but I could not wait to get to the end of it which is never a good thing at all.

Profile on Bateman who was on Heat once. He says he’s Man-Tastic and has the most charisma.

There’s a Divas calendar. The PG is slowly slipping away actually. Just little things like that or a bit more swearing. It’s barely noticeable but it’s helping somewhat.

Profile on O’Brian who looks like a rat and was an outcast. Yes we get it he has a weird looking face. He says it’s time for the Rattitude Era. I hate this guy already.

Bateman and Bryan are training more as Bateman reads the WWE Champion book which appears to be upside down to him. There’s a trivia challenge tonight which should be fun.

Trivia challenge time but there’s a twist. There will be a category named and you go down the line with each person naming something/someone that fits said category. First up is Undertaker Wrestlemania opponents. Shawn Michaels being mentioned gets the big hometown pop. They don’t go on until people are eliminated, as in once 6 are named we move on to a new category.

Second up is King of the Ring winners. Owen Hart is mentioned on TV actually. Bateman goes with Billy Gunn. We go through this again due to no one being eliminated yet. Brodus Clay is the first one out as he thinks Diesel was King. New category is Wrestlemania host cities. Conor says Pee Wee Herman. That isn’t a typo. Saxton reminds me of Token on the news anchors episode of South Park.

We stay with it as they’re running low on cities. No one has said LA yet surprisingly. Curtis is out as he can’t think of anything. New category is any WWE PPV in 2010. Saxton repeats Survivor Series and he’s out. Final two are Bateman and Novak. Their category is WWE Champions. BATEMAN TRAINED FOR THIS! Hogan reference. Novak says Miz and gets buzzed for no apparent reason and we keep going. Novak freezes somehow and can’t get Cena in time, giving Bateman the win.

We go to the back where Conor comes in to see Alberto as per his request. They get into a semi spat which goes nowhere. Conor wants some of the cheese Alberto is eating. HEY, MAYBE YOU SHOULD PUSH THE FACT THAT HE LOOKS LIKE A RAT MORE!!! YOU’RE BEING TOO SUBTLE!!!

Ted DiBiase/Maryse/Brodus Clay vs. Byron Saxton/Chris Masters/???

There’s a guest/mystery Diva here to team with Masters and Saxton. And there’s no real intrigue/suspense as it’s Natalya. Gender vs. gender here as usual. Those who I’d prefer to see topless start us off. Natalya outsmarts her to start and the beating/screaming begins. Off to the rookies now and Saxton can’t hurt Brodus. Clay sends him to the floor as we take a break.

Back with some not hot Saxton on DiBiase action. Masters comes in and it’s pro vs. pro. Is Clay a face or a heel? I’m not sure. Masters hammers away on the fat man until Saxton comes back in. Clay gets a somewhat awkward looking cover for two. It’s hard to describe but he looked odd laying down on Saxton. No one will tag in for Saxton as his bravado is costing him.

DiBiase gets a dropkick for no cover. Oh apparently Saxton wouldn’t tag out so here’s Masters. Powerslam gets two. Dream Street is countered and Masters gets a spinebuster. Brodus beats on Masters in the corner and Maryse adds a slap. Back to the girls and it’s a catfight. The pros go outside to break them up and it’s up to the rookies. Powerslam ends Saxton but a Vader Bomb misses and Saxton gets the pin. I forgot to check the clock but it ran about 12:00.

Rating: C-. Not a terrible match I guess and it worked ok as it was supposed to. Getting a 12 minute match on NXT is a nice touch for a change and at least Brodus, one of the only decent rookies, was featured. This redeems Saxton a bit which I guess is your storyline advancement for the week. Decent enough match I guess.

Overall Rating: D+. Definitely the weakest show of the season so far but I think a lot of that can be attributed to having three straight hours of TV tonight which is WAY too much, especially with this being the stuff we ended on. The trivia stuff was ok but it would have been nice to have it be more actual trivia. The show wasn’t horrible, but it’s the weakest so far.

Smackdown

Date: December 21, 2010
Location: AT&T Center, San Antonio, Texas
Commentators: Michael Cole, Josh Matthews, Matt Striker

It’s the beginning of Edge’s tenth title reign which doesn’t have much of a ring to it when you think about it. I think they’ll probably set up Del Rio vs. Edge at the Rumble but we’ll find out. This is on Tuesday for the first time as they didn’t want to have Smackdown on Christmas Eve which makes sense to say the least. This should be a good show but it’ll be fun to see it live. Let’s get to it.

Oh and NXT is on at 11 so I’ll have that up as soon as it finishes as usual.

Edge will address the crowd tonight.

Randy Orton vs. The Miz

Dang jerking the curtain this fast? How the mighty have fallen. You can figure out which one I’m talking about. I was thinking the GM would make Miz vs. Lawler tonight but this is probably a better option on all fronts. Orton goes OFF on Miz to start, beating the tar out of him on the floor. Riley is of course here also.

Miz gets a guillotine clothesline over the top to take over and a boot to a seated Viper gets two. Orton comes back and looks like he wants the RKO but settles for a powerslam. They’re kind of flying through this. Elevated DDT is blocked but Orton lands on the apron. Riley interferes and here comes Miz again. We take a break with Orton ramming into the steps and holding his arm.

Back with Miz holding a chinlock on the Viper which is reversed while the TVPG logo is still in the corner. Miz goes up but is crotched as we’re talking about Money in the Bank for no apparent reason. Suplex from the middle rope puts the champion down for two. This match is getting some time as we’re past ten minutes already.

They slug it out with Orton hammering him down in the corner so he can stomp a mudhole (he does the two fists in the air pose on the corner now, he stomps people in the corner, he uses a quick strike finisher and he’s named after a snake. He reminds me someone but I just can’t place it. I’ve got it: The Rougeau Brothers) in the champion. Miz fights back with a Reality Check for two.

Orton sets for his powerbomb which I guess along with the Angle Slam are his new signature moves now but Riley’s distraction interrupts it. Clothesline in the corner and a DDT gets both a smile from me (it’s my favorite move) and a two count. The Finale and the RKO are both countered as Miz gets a backslide for two.

There’s the elevated DDT and Orton sets for the RKO. Riley gets up AGAIN and there’s the RKO, but Riley runs in for the DQ at approximately 11:00 shown of 14:42. This was a lot longer than I expected but was still good. We’re not done yet as Orton sets for the Punt. Riley comes in at the last second and runs into an RKO for his troubles.

Rating: B-. This was much better than I was expecting. Miz held his own but escapes again. For people that complain about making him look weak, have you ever seen a Miz match? When has he EVER been a dominant guy? He’s a heel. He’s not supposed to look all awesome (no pun intended) and get a perfect win. He escapes with the title and can still point to it and say look what I’ve still got.

I don’t get why so many people complain about heels not looking strong. Heels have been doing it for years and only recently have I heard them get heat for it. What’s going to be more annoying/evil, which is what a heel is supposed to be: a guy that is all big and bad, or a guy that you want to see get his beating and finally lose, ala Honky Tonk Man back in the 80s? He was an incredible heel and never once looked dominant. Heck how often did Flair look dominant against a big name? He almost always cheated to win and he’s praised for it.

Show is still Santa and he and Rosa are giving out action figures. Blast it Hornswoggle is an elf. Can’t we just look at the hotness that is Rosa?

Back with the aforementioned three throwing out presents and DVDs and such. There’s a Christmas setup in the ring complete with a small tree, milk and cookies and presents. Oh wait that tree is bigger than I thought as it was positioned kind of weird. Show breaks the chair as he sits on it.

Show sits in another chair (still taller than Horny) and reads a WWE version of Night Before Christmas. It’s about TLC which is a nice little thing actually. “Santa now must leave before it’s too late. Go out and get the Knucklehead DVD….IT’S GREAT!” Cole whines about it of course and they throw out more presents….with no heel attack. I’m surprised indeed. Oh I knew it. Here’s Cody who takes out Horny and the Christmas stuff.

Back with a recap of the Cena segment last night which was absolutely hilarious. To the people that thought it was childish, get the sticks out of your head and have a bit of fun. The handicap is still later.

Beth says she’s glad she’s not hurt from the SICK fall she took at the PPV. Santino and Vlad come in and the Italian/Canadian/Russian depending on which company he’s in wants to know how she’s doing. For old time’s sake he requests a lip lock and more or less snaps his fingers, making Kozlov produce some mistletoe.

Tamina isn’t an issue as she’s on Raw and this is Smackdown. Santino is a player! Santino puckers up and closes his eyes, so Beth grabs Vlad and kisses him. The look on his face is hilarious as his eyes bug out. Santino sees the lipstick on his lips after Beth leaves and says it’s like they just kissed as he had kissed Beth before. Funny stuff indeed.

Santino Marella vs. Chavo Guerrero

They’re going to reair this show Friday which makes this airing make more sense. Smart to offer a reairing of this later but to not try to go against Christmas Eve. Santino uses his Sambo stuff to start but Chavo uses basic wrestling to take over again. Santino comes back but the headbutt eats knees. Chavo does Eddie’s dance and Three Amigos have Marella in trouble. Third is blocked though and it’s Cobra time, ending it at 3:00. Basic little match to fill in some time.

Back from a break and it’s time for Edge to address Smackdown. I can’t imagine this won’t be interrupted by Alberto to set up the Rumble match. He talks about how all the insanity with Paul and Kane is now worth it because he now has his world title back. Edge talks about how he’s worked his entire career to get here and has accomplished all the goals he’s set for himself.

Kane comes out a bit to my surprise and says no one wants to hear this story. Edge more or less says shut up and challenges Kane to a world title match RIGHT NOW. Kane….turns it down? He wants it to be under his own rules and he’ll get the title back. PLEASE don’t let that be the Rumble match.

Rey/Kofi vs. Alberto/Swagger later.

Back with a video on Big Zeke who is awesome to look at to put it mildly. He’s coming soon even though I was pretty sure he was supposed to be on here.

Drew McIntyre vs. Kaval

Drew gets a decent face pop actually. Drew jumps him before the bell and Kaval is barely able to get up. A big boot and the Future Shock end this in 28 seconds. Well that was abrupt. Maybe Kaval’s ankle isn’t healed up yet.

We look at Tribute to the Troops, which was rather good. Not sure if it’ll be the same as a 2 hour show but it should be solid still.

Jack Swagger/Alberto Del Rio vs. Kofi Kingston/Rey Mysterio

This should be pretty good as the tag match last week was rather awesome indeed. Back and we see everyone not named Alberto’s entrance as his had already happened. Rey vs. Alberto to start us off as Swagger still has his t-shirt on for some reason. He goes after Kofi before the match really gets going and Alberto gets to jump Rey. OH SNAP Alberto goes for the mask and we saw Rey’s face!

Rey fights him off and here’s Kofi. Rey and Kofi clean house and the bad guys are both sent to the floor. Stereo dives have Swagger and Alberto reeling as we take a break. Swagger was holding his arm and it didn’t look too good. Back with Alberto holding a chinlock on Rey. That double dive was pretty sweet as they show it again in slow motion and from a second angle from facing the stage. Striker: take two hits and pass it on.

Swagger comes in and hits his Vader Bomb as his arm looks just fine. Bearhug goes on Rey for a bit but even with some kicks Rey can’t get a tag out. He does however get one after sending Swagger into the buckle. Big crossbody and dropkick to bring Kofi in but he runs into boots in the corner and a big boot takes him down.

The announcers say Alberto will be a future world champion but they’re not sure about Kofi. Interesting debate topic indeed. Kofi takes Swagger down after a long beatdown and both Spanish speakers comes in and Rey shows off a lot with a tornado DDT after a bunch of spins and flips. BIG swinging kick to the head gets two for Rey. SICK tilt-a-whirl backbreaker gets two for Alberto.

Rey gets a dropkick to the back to set up Alberto for the 619 but Swagger gets a blind tag to lay out Rey for a close two. Kofi has apparently been swallowed by the Earth as Rey gets out of the gutwrench powerbomb. It’s almost a double 619 but Alberto gets out of the way. Trouble in Paradise out of nowhere kills Swagger and the springboard splash ends this at 13:40.

Rating: B. Smackdown has this tag team thing DOWN lately as this was another good one. Also it’s nice to see some tag matches without the team having like two matches and instantly becoming the #1 contenders for the titles. This was really fun and that double dive with the alternate camera shot is awesome stuff. Good match again and a big pickup for this kind of lackluster show.

Drew comes up to Kelly and says he’s sorry for last week and acting weird. She says he wasn’t weird and he says that he’d never hurt her. She seems a bit receptive this time.

Dolph helps Vickie stretch for her match which is a fairly pointless scene.

Kane/Del Rio vs. Edge/Rey next week. That should be good, although on New Year’s Eve the ratings are going to TANK.

Dolph Ziggler/Vickie Guerrero vs. John Cena

Vickie is in her EXCUSE ME tights. She’s all whiny to Dolph as they wait for Cena to come out. Vickie tries to get to Cena immediately but Dolph holds her back. They have to tag here. Dolph beats him down and then Vickie tags herself in to stand on John’s head so he lifts her off the ground by bench pressing her. Keep in mind she’s standing upright and her feet were on his face and he simply lifted her off from his back. That is SCARY strength.

Back to Ziggles who hammers away and hits a jumping elbow like Sting always used to miss. Loud Vickie Sucks chant as Cena can’t get the FU and Dolph hits a DDT for two. It’s the standard formula for these kinds of matches: the heel destroys the good guy while the weaker heel hangs out on the apron and steals a shot here or there.

To the floor where Dolph eats steps after Cena blocks the same kind of shot. Yep it’s an overrun while NXT is being advertised as starting now. Back in and Cena gets a suplex to put Dolph down and they slug it out. Ziggler finally figures out a counter to the shoulder blocks. After years of studying mystical scrolls, consulting various monks and reaching near nirvana…….he ducks and lets Cena crash to the floor.

The dueling chants begin as Vickie gets some kicks in on the floor. Vickie distracts again and Ziggler gets a chinlock before that cool Stunner kind of move. He sets for a Downward Spiral and then jumps to drop into a Stunner. Vickie tags herself in AGAIN and misses a splash.

Dolph back in and the ancient scrolls fail him as Cena initiates his ending sequence. Vickie can’t see him apparently. Ziggler counters the FU and hits a Fameasser for a close two. This is getting more time than I expected it to by far. Ziggler goes for another but Cena steps to the side for the STF but Vickie saves. Cena kisses her hard and the FU ends it at 13:30.

Rating: B-. Another good match here but it was never really in doubt. It was all to set up the post match stuff which I’ll get to here in a minute. Ziggler has gotten one heck of a rub from Cena in the last two nights and it’s made him look great. He’s quite good on his own but this has been a nice bonus for him. Good match but no classic or anything.

Post match Cena goes for an FU on Vickie but punk runs in for more chair shots and leaves. Cena getting up in pain ends the show.

Overall Rating: C+. This was ok and had a lot of wrestling on it, but it came off like an episode of Raw with Smackdown guest starring. That’s not a good thing as they had a great chance to give Smackdown some extra exposure but we didn’t really get that here at all. This was rather wrestling heavy with over 45 minutes of action in two hours which is solid for any show. It was good, but definitely a step down from Smackdown’s usual stuff. Still decent though.

Added some stuff today as you can see. On the main page there are a few menus now such as recent comments, categories and so on which should make things a bit easier to understand and make the place a bit easier to navigate. If nothing else you can check and see if any of the previous 10 comments are about something you posted in so you can check for replies etc.

Hope this helps.

Monday Night Raw
Date: December 20, 2010
Location: Frank Erwin Center, Austin, Texas
Commentators: Michael Cole, CM Punk, Jerry Lawler

After last night’s AWESOME TLC, we begin the Road to the Royal Rumble and ultimately the Road to Wrestlemania with tonight’s episode of Raw. We have Miz vs. Morrison at the Rumble for the Raw World Title which is amazing when you consider where they were a mere two years ago. But remember, WWE doesn’t elevate people right? Let’s get to it.

We open with Miz coming to the ring as STILL WWE Champion! There’s no Cole on commentary here. Miz says that you better get used to hearing people saying STILL WWE Champion about him. Miz is ROCKING that suit by the way. Suddenly the lights dim and we get something close to a gong. No way….

Nah it’s Riley with bandages and chains around him as the Ghost of Christmas Past to show him the error of his ways. The first clip is of him beating Lawler which Miz says was impressive. Gong and lights go down again and Cole is the Ghost of Christmas Present. And he quotes™ that although his actions last night were vintage™, he needs to change. Miz says nah because the actions of a champion are defined by one statement: he is STILL WWE Champion. He’s a bit fixated on that no?

Miz gives us a Christmas card picture as he holds up the title and the lights/gong go off again and DEMON CHILD pops up on the screen. Her mouth moves and says Miz needs to change or Morrison will take his title. This is awesome by the way, but I’m sure people will b**** and complain because it’s “childish” or something like that. Miz disagrees again and does his catchphrase but is cut off by a very sweaty Morrison.

He says that that was really stupid, even for Miz. Morrison says that he’s getting a title shot soon and that he’s beaten Miz in the past, he can beat him in the present, and he will beat him in the future. Simple but effective line. Miz says really a lot and Riley jumps Morrison. Cue Sheamus and it’s on again. Sheamus hits John’s knee in a nice bit of continuity and Morrison is down. Lawler DRILLS Riley who goes down in a heap.

Mail and we’re going to get Miz vs. his ghosts tonight in a 6 man tag. Riley/Miz/Sheamus vs. Morrison/Lawler/Orton. That should be fine, as long as it doesn’t lead to more Orton vs. Sheamus. Miz holds up the title and gets drilled by the emerging Orton.

Clip from the end of the PPV with Barrett being “buried”. Cena addresses the Cenation tonight.

Cole is on commentary now, as is Natalya for the following match.

Melina vs. Alicia Fox vs. Eve Torres

Winner gets Natalya at a later date. Melina has a bit of a haircut. I could look at Eve in those gold shorts all day. Natalya puts her arm around Lawler which is odd. There really isn’t a leader in this for the most part but Eve is down for the most part. Melina tries a headsdissors out of the corner but gets caught in a powerbomb by Alicia for two.

Standing moonsault by Eve gets two on Alicia. She tries to go up but Melina charges into her and is acting all aggressive here. Eve and Alicia set for a Doomsday Device on Melina but she rolls through with a victory roll as Eve’s cross body misses for the pin at 3:15. Pretty slick ending.

Rating: C+. Short match but it was energetic throughout. The powerbomb was very nice and the ending was another thought out one. They’ve been doing better at that recently and it’s making the shows better. Fun match and it sets up the post match stuff right here, which was needed.

Post match Natalya goes into the ring to congratulate Melina but gets slapped instead. Looks like a heel turn which is probably a good thing.

The Bellas are talking about some guy when Bryan comes up and they walk him to the ring arm in arm in arm.

Daniel Bryan vs. William Regal

The IWC just collectively org*smed. To the shock of no one we start with a lot of technical based stuff with no one really being able to control. Bryan rapid fire kicks in the corner and backflips off the top. He runs into a running forearm/elbow for two for Regal. Regal gets a side headlock/Cravate on the mat and hammers away for two.

This is a rather physical match with them hammering away with European uppercuts and the boo/yay thing begins. Bryan starts winning it but Regal blocks and we hit the mat. Regal Stretch can’t go on though so Regal wants a butterfly suplex instead. That can’t connect either and Bryan reverses into the LeBell Lock for the tap out at 4:33.

Rating: B-. I liked this for the style of it as both guys hammered away on each other but neither could pull it off until the very end. Allegedly Regal is considering retirement so going out against your best student (he trained Bryan) is certainly a nice way for him to go out if he’s leaving soon. Good match with a very different style than we’re used to recently.

Post match Regal applauds a bit and Bryan points at him. The Bellas celebrate with Bryan and one kisses him on the cheek. The other spins him around and kisses him on the lips. The other is like oh no you didn’t and kisses him even harder. Not bad Bryan.

Back from a break with Morrison getting ready. Orton pops up and says they’re partners tonight and if Miz loses the title to Morrison, Orton will come after the new champion. Orton says don’t trust him.

Santino is getting a massage from Tamina who is walking on his back. Maryse comes in and says that now Tamina has a plan B. Maryse gets on his back also and Santino is in pain after Vlad and Ted take the girls away.

Mark Henry and Gail are talking about how nice it is with Nexus gone. Vickie and Dolph come up and she says EXCUSE ME so Henry says maybe he was wrong. Was there a point to this at all?

Santino Marella/Tamina vs. Maryse/Ted DiBiase

Tamina actually looks like a girl here. It’s hard to believe but it’s true. Tamina has to crack Santino’s back to get him able to move. Santino and Ted start us off with Santino threatening the Cobra but uses the fake out to flip Ted over in a nice move. Nice dropkick puts him down though and the evildoer takes over. Ted goes for his clothesline move but Santino does the splits to get out of harm’s way.

He hits his flying salute headbutt and loads up the Cobra but Maryse is tagged in before he can hit it. He can’t use it on Maryse though due to the rules but he can’t get it to stop going. Maryse turns his hand around, causing the Cobra to hit Santino! Tamina comes in and throws the WORST SUPERKICK EVER which misses by a good six inches to put Maryse down. Superfly splash ends it at 3:00. No rating as it was mainly just the guys fighting but the splash was awesome.

Cena (Eruption for seeing him) is coming to the ring and a guy gives him flowers for some reason. He gives them to a female stagehand and steals he coffee! What a jerk our hero is!

After a break here’s Cena who is REALLY happy. He says that for the first time in 6 months there’s no Nexus on Raw! He hugs a guy with a WE HATE CENA sign. Cena says he feels like singing and dancing so we get the Dougie and what I’m assuming was the opening of the University of Texas theme song.

Cena shows us footage from TLC last night where all the chairs fell on Barrett from three camera angles and once in slow motion. That was still awesome whether you think it was or not. Cena invokes the Shamwow and the Snuggie for no apparent reason. Last night he got to every member of Nexus so now Cena can focus on the more important things, like winning the Rumble. Punk wasn’t happy with the chair thing at all.

Instead here are Vickie and Dolph. Vickie keeps trying to say that Cena isn’t the only one that won a match last night but she keeps getting booed out of the building. Cena dies laughing and even Vickie starts laughing at it. AWESOME crowd tonight. This goes on for like three minutes until Cena has to tell them to be quiet so they can talk. Even that doesn’t work so Vickie just has to talk over them.

What we learn after a LONG time is that Dolph is still champion and we have a clip from Vickie. It’s from last week where Vickie made fun of King losing the title and then Lawler making fun of her figure. It turns into Lawler and Cena ripping on Vickie back and forth. It’s really stupid but the crowd is cracking me up.

Mail makes the match you would expect it to make, and it’s happening RIGHT NOW! AFTER THIS COMMERCIAL! Absolutely hilarious segment and one of the funniest things on Raw in as long as I can remember.

John Cena vs. Dolph Ziggler

The bell rings as we get back which is a nice touch. Ziggler stomps away as apparently Dolph wants revenge. This should be a pretty good match actually and it’s a good sign to see Ziggler getting ring time with the big boys instead of fighting Kofi all the time. Cena takes over for a bit but misses a charge and hits the corner rather hard.

Factor for two as we take a break. Back with Cena hammering away at Dolph. Side slam marks Cena’s 7^th move.

They ram heads and both men are down. Dolph gets a Downward Spiral Stunner for two. Nice move. Big dropkick gets two and here comes Cena as he initiates his ending sequence. Five Knuckle Shuffle hits but Ziggler avoids the FU and tries for the sleeper. John blocks and the STF….doesn’t end this as Vickie has the referee.

Ziggler gets a Fameasser which is apparently now called the Zig Zag for a long two. There goes the buckle at the hands on the blonde, meaning he’ll be going into it. It’s just a diversion though as Dolph goes for the belt. FU is the counter to end this at 13:15. Nice long match here.

Rating: B-. Nice match here as they got some time here with Ziggler getting a chance to rub elbows with the big boys and gets to look pretty good doing it. He’s one of the best heels on the roster and him getting ring time against a prominent guy is the best thing for him at this point. Nice match here and it got good time.

Post match Punk runs into the ring and drills Cena with a chair. OH HELL YES!!!!!

Back from a break and Josh asks Punk why he did that. Punk says all Cena understands is aggression and he was giving him a taste of his own medicine after what he did to Barrett. Punk drives away.

Jerry is getting ready for the main event and looks pretty good for a guy that is 61. Sheamus comes up and says he’s the real king and that tonight Lawler is done. LONG LIVE THE KING.

Vickie is going off on Ziggler. He’s challenging Cena to a rematch tomorrow on Smackdown which Vickie makes a handicap match with her in it also. Oh dear.

The Miz/Alex Riley/Sheamus vs. Randy Orton/Jerry Lawler/John Morrison

It’s 10:35 and this is starting already? Riley’s briefcase is just a normal one now so maybe people can quit complaining about him holding it a bit. We take a break after Miz and Riley’s entrances. Back with some clips of Miz on Jimmy Fallon’s show with the title. Lawler gets a nice reaction. Orton gets a BIG pop. He’s doing the Austin rope pose now. I guess using a move similar to Austin’s and being names after a snake weren’t enough similarities.

Josh Matthews is on commentary for the main event. Riley and Orton start us off. Big pop for Lawler as he comes in and he manages a dropkick. It sucked but he tried at least. Cole complains about Lawler doing too many things on Raw lately. The irony there slays me. Orton comes in to fight Miz and the champion runs to bring in Sheamus which stops Orton in his tracks as we take a break.

Back with Sheamus working on Lawler and getting two off an unseen move. Morrison comes in and SELLS THE KNEE from last night as he reverses an Irish Curse. Flash Kick takes Sheamus down but a quick interference from Riley stops Starship Pain. Sheamus works on the knee as the fans chant for Morrison.

Miz goes to cannonball down onto the knee but Morrison kicks him to the floor. The champion makes the save to stop the tag though and here’s Sheamus again. A big kick can’t get Morrison out of trouble as Sheamus goes right back to the knee. Half Crab by the pale one until Orton makes the save. Tags in to Orton and Miz and the crowd wakes WAY up.

Powerslam and Angle Slams take down Miz. Elevated DDT has the champion reeling but it only gets two as Sheamus saves. Morrison takes the Irishman to the floor as Orton sets for the RKO. Riley takes it instead as Miz gets a big boot to Orton. Lawler tags himse in and pulls the strap down. Miz goes for the Finale on him but Orton sneaks in with an RKO and Lawler pins Miz at approximately 13:00.

Rating: C. Not bad here with a fun main event to end this. Lawler winning was a nice touch there as it’s a feel good moment to end the show. I would have gone with Morrison pinning Miz to further the setup for their title match but this works too. It was a decent little main event tag match and we got two thirteen minute matches tonight. That’s a rarity for Raw and it worked rather well.

title I’d assume. Orton goes for a powerbomb on Riley but Miz saves and runs.

lite show from last week. They have six weeks until the Rumble so it’s more than ok to have a fun show like this one where things weren’t as serious as they have been recently.

Cena vs. Punk sounds great and there was no Nexus for at least a week so maybe they really are on the verge of death. I liked this show a lot as it offered a little something for everyone. Very good show and I’m looking forward to Smackdown tomorrow.