The Wrestling Thread

[DomDom]

Here is my wrestling match of the year list so far. I've still to see some of the apparently great TV matches that have happened recently so this is very much an incomplete list.

The Undertaker vs. Shawn Michaels - WWE Wrestlemania XXV ( ***** )

Katsuhiko Nakajima vs. KENTA - Kensuke Office 11/02 ( ***** )

Chris Jericho vs. Rey Mysterio - WWE The Bash 2009 ( ****3/4 )

KENTA vs. Davey Richards - ROH Supercard of Honor IV ( ****3/4 )

Nigel McGuinness vs. Bryan Danielson - ROH Rising Above 2009 ( ****3/4 )

John Cena vs. Edge, Last Man Standing Match - WWE Backlash 2009 ( ****1/2 )

Tyler Black vs. Bryan Danielson - ROH 25/08/2009 ( ****1/2 )

Edge vs. The Big Show vs. Vladimir Kozlov vs. Jeff Hardy vs. Triple H vs. The Undertaker, Elimination Chamber - WWE No Way Out ( ****1/2 )

Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi - NJPW 15/02 ( ****1/2 )

Chris Jericho vs. Rey Mysterio, No Holds Barred Match - WWE Extreme Rules 2009 ( ****1/4 )

X-Division King of the Mountain Match - TNA Slammiversary 2009 ( ****1/4 )

Katsuhiko Nakajima vs. Go Shiozaki - Kensuke Office 28/06/2009 ( ****1/4 )

John Morrison vs. Jeff Hardy - WWE Smackdown 31/07/2009 ( ****1/4 )

Masato Tanaka vs. Yuji Nagata - NJPW 04/01 ( ****1/4 )

Minoru vs. Kaz Hayashi - AJPW ( ****1/4 )

Katsuhiko Nakajima vs. KENTA - Pro Wrestling NOAH 01/03 ( ****1/4 )

Jimmy Jacobs vs. Austin Aries, I Quit Match - ROH Rising Above ( ****1/4 )

Tyler Black vs. Bryan Danielson - ROH on HDTV 25/04/2008 ( **** )

The American Wolves vs. El Generico and Kevin Steen, Tables Are Legal - ROH on HDNet ( **** )

KENTA and Extreme Tiger vs. Teddy Hart and Jack Evans vs. Joe Lider and Nicho El Millonario, Ladder Match - AAA 31/01 ( **** )

John Morrison vs. Evan Bourne - ECW on Sci-Fi 14/04/2008 ( **** )

Chris Jericho vs. Rey Mysterio - WWE RAW 15/06 ( **** )

Vin Gerard vs. Jimmy Olsen, Ladder Match - CHIKARA Revelation X ( **** )

CM Punk vs. John Morrison - WWE Smackdown 17/07/2009 ( **** )

Alex Shelley vs. Chris Sabin vs. Jay Lethal vs. Consequences Creed vs. Suicide, Ultimate X Match - TNA Destination X ( **** )

Chris Sabin vs. Alex Shelley - TNA Genesis ( **** )

CM Punk vs. Jeff Hardy - WWE Night of Champions ( **** )

Sanshiro Takagi vs. Kota Ibushi - DDT 22/02 ( **** )

Thumbtack Jack vs. Danny Havoc, Panes of Glass Match - CZW Total Havoc 2009 ( **** )

Jack Swagger vs. Christian - ECW on Sci-Fi ( ***3/4 )

RAW Elimination Chamber - WWE No Way Out ( ***3/4 )

The Big Show vs. Triple H, Last Man Standing Match - WWE Smackdown ( ***3/4 )

ECW Scramble Match - WWE The Bash 2009 ( ***3/4 )

Shelton Benjamin vs. Christian - ECW on SyFy 14/07/2009 ( ***3/4 )

MsChif vs. Sara Del Ray - ROH Rising Above ( ***3/4 )

Randy Orton vs. John Cena vs. Triple H - WWE Night of Champions ( ***3/4 )

Beer Money Inc. vs. Lethal Consequences - TNA Against All Odds ( ***3/4 )

Jack Swagger vs. Matt Hardy - ECW on Sci-Fi ( ***1/2 )

Chris Jericho vs. Rey Mysterio - WWE Judgement Day 2009 ( ***1/2 )

Randy Orton vs. The Big Show vs. John Cena vs. Triple H - WWE RAW 15/06 ( ***1/2 )

Edge vs. Kofi Kingston - WWE Smackdown 13/03 ( ***1/2 )

Jay Briscoe vs. Nigel McGuinness - ROH on HDNet 28/03 ( ***1/2 )

Eric Young and Petey Williams vs. Beer Money Inc. - TNA Impact ( ***1/2 )

Chris Hero, Go Shiozaki and Davey Richards vs. Ace Steel, Roderick Strong and Brent Albright - ROH Rising Above ( ***1/2 )

[DomDom]

The Calgary Kid is awesome.

[Shuggie_Murray7]

Ahhhh the old Bret Hart swerve whenever they are in Canada.

[DomDom]

Sgt. Slaughter is single handedly saving this show

[DomDom]

WWE Wrestlemania 2000

Is this the only ever Wrestlemania to be promoted using the year rather than the number ?

The Big Bossman and Bull Buchanan vs. The Godfather and D'Lo Brown

Ice T does his song from the "Aggression" album for the entrance of The Godfather and D'Lo Brown. The song is absolutely rank rotten. The Godfather was a one man catchphrase machine at this time. Bossman and Bull aren't quite getting the same fanfare here. No nonsense here. This wasn't shabby. It just wasn't that great either. D'Lo made The Godfather look rather silly because of how late he tagged out for the hot tag. Bull Buchanan looked impressive here, even if he was never in the ring for long. Not bad opener, but probably not wisest choice. *1/2

15 Minute Hardcore Battle Royal

This is just about as chaotic a match as you can possibly book. Super moment as Funaki wins the belt and then does a runner, causing everyone in the match and the refs to go after him. Then you have Tazz totally no-selling a stomp from Hardcore Holly for four seconds before suddenly realising that it happened. There is also the major timing problem at the end of the match that completely screwed the ending of the match. I could remember this being decent but outside of a couple of brutal spots, this match really wasn't very good and had all sorts of problems. *

T & A vs. Al Snow and Steve Blackman

Head Cheese ! Chester McCheeserton makes an appearance here, and this leads to some hilarity when Steve Blackman wipes him out with the Bicycle Kick. T & A were over big time, mainly because of their manager, the one and only Trish Stratus. The match just didn't seem to follow any sort of plan. An absolute mess of a match and the fans couldn't have cared any less as a result. The fans did pop for Snow's Asai Moonsault, but that was about it for the positives of this match. DUD

The Dudley Boys © vs. Edge and Christian vs. The Hardy Boys, Ladder Match - WWE World Tag Team Championships

Here is the match that really set the TLC ball rolling. Every bit as good as the TLC Matches that would follow, and if I had to pick between the matches, this would probably be the one I'd say is the best. Absolute insanity from start to finish. The stuff with the ladders was mental enough but then they brought the tables into the match and, like promised, they took the ladder match to the next level. Another 2000 show and another absolute classic of a match. *****

Terri Runnels vs. The Kat - Catfight

The first person to throw their opponent out of the ring and to the floor will be the winner. Val Venis is going to be the referee for this bad boy. JR warns me not to rate this using the star system. I'll be the one to make that decision thanks very much. This match was incredibly short, but still managed to be incredibly horrible, and I think that gives me good reason to show off my first ever negative stars match, thanks to the match being senseless and terrible. I feel sort of bad about it since we get to see Terri's ass, but I'm sticking with it. -**

We plug "Wrestlemania 2001" next. I wonder if that show was any good or not ...

Eddie Guerrero, Dean Malenko and Perry Saturn vs. Chyna and Too Cool

You could already tell that Eddie Guerrero was being groomed for some big things at this point, as he was becoming the main focal point of the Radicals now that Benoit was out doing other things. Could they not have had some sort of Eddie/Chyna match here ? The rest of the people had absolutely no place in the match whatsoever. I get the impression they were only there to give them something to do at Wrestlemania. A dull match as they were just passing time untill the finish. **

Kurt Angle © vs. Chris Benoit vs. Chris Jericho - WWE Intercontinental and European Championships

This is a two fall match. Fall one is for the Intercontinental Championship and fall two for the European Championship. Pretty good that Angle didn't lose any fall but did manage to lose both titles. The action in this match flew along really well for the first fall with all sorts of cool counters and big moves and Kurt Angle was especially good here. The second fall was a bit clunky which brings the quality of the match down a bit, but there was enough drama to keep the viewers interested. If this was Angle from about a year later, this probably would have broken 4*. ***1/4

X-Pac and Road Dogg vs. Rikishi and Kane

Road Dogg was completely acting the babyface and getting the pops from the crowd even though he was in the heel team. Thankfully, the fans hate X-Pac enough to get away with that. This match was too short to really judge. The guys in the match are good enough to get a decent match together and the six person could have probably done with a couple of minutes shaved off to add to this. Could say the same for the main event as well. N/A

After the match, Pete Rose and Kane have an altercation. Guess how it ends ?

Triple H © vs. The Big Show vs. Mick Foley vs. The Rock - WWE World Heavyweight Championship

Aaaahhhhh, the McMahon family circus comes to Wrestlemania. A McMahon in every corner, which sounds ridiculous because it is. I guess they needed something special to distract from the idiocy of having both 1) Mick Foley return a month after "retiring" and 2) a four way main eventing Wrestlemania. When Show went out and we were left with HHH/Rock/Foley, the match was absolutely brilliant. I'd have loved to have seen a triple threat match with these guys, because Foley wasn't even close to being past his prime at that point. The McMahon stuff was made all the more pathetic by the ending. The match was incredibly dramatic and under-rated as a result. A worthy main event of Wrestlemania, even if the surrounding storylines were terrible. ****

OVERALL

********

This doesn't really feel like a Wrestlemania at times. Only during the main event was there a real big match feel. Not that there wasn't other good stuff going on here. The ladder match is essential viewing and the triple threat is decent enough for repeat viewing, but there was also cases of matches being completely thrown together which is bad for a Wrestlemania. The main event and Ladder Match make this another essential for the year 2000 though.

[YER SISTERS YER MAW]

That was a peach of an RKO that Jericho took, could easily have lead to a bad neck injury. Eugene and the Calgary Kid.lol

[DA Baracus]

2000 may have been the best year for WWF PPVs. I recall Backlash 2000 was decent but had an immense main event with Austin annihilating everyone with a steel chair and the Rock winning. Absolutely massive pops when Austin comes out and when the Rock wins the title. And a great build up to it as well if I recall. That's one thing the WWF has always been at is the videos before these sorts of matches that wrap up everything that has lead to it. The Rock was just incredibley over here and HHH was probably at his peak as well.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Wu6lngrL8o

Forgot to add, the match features a tremense double Rock Bottom through the Spanish announcers table! What's even better is Vince's face after it. Utterly hilarious stuff!

Edited August 11, 2009 by DA Baracus

[DomDom]

The first part of 2000 was a golden era of WWE booking. Of course, Backlash also has a true "see it to believe it" ending to one of the matches.

You also had the amazing Judgement Day and Fully Loaded PPVs soon after, with King of the Ring providing a rare deadspot.

[Shuggie_Murray7]

Royal Rumble 2000 is one of my all time favourite PPV's.

[DomDom]

WWE Backlash 2000

Here we see the AWESOME Backlash set with the big swinging things.

Edge and Christian vs. X-Pac and Road Dogg

Debra, totally steamin', comes out to be the the ring announcer for this one. Edge and Christian were well and truly on the way to a heel turn here, as they started using the ringbell an awful lot to win matches. Not the most original way of doing things, but certainly effective for some time. This was some top quality formula tag team action here. Some of the stuff that Edge and Christian were coming out with was beyond awesome and innovative for the time. ***1/2

Dean Malenko © vs. Scotty 2 Hotty - WWE Light-Heavyweight Championship

JR : Scotty scores with his worm !

The King : What ?!?!

This is a match I've covered before and I have no problems with watching this one over and over again as it is easily the highlight of Scotty's career. This match features one of the most flat out fantastic finishes to a match you will EVER see. It's one of the moments in wrestling that you can watch over and over again and think to yourself "HOLY FUCKING SHIT !!!" every time you see it. If you ever want to see 15,000 people all scream "OOOOHHH !!" and holding their heads at the same time, watch this one. Scotty's dodgy selling aside, this was some top notch action. ***3/4

Bull Buchanan and The Big Bossman vs. The APA

Oh dear, I forgot about this one. JR will be foaming at the mouth in the prospect of these big "hosses" getting it on. I think it's very telling that when Bull Buchanan is in the ring, there is quite a bit of actual wrestling going on and most of it is enjoyable, yet when The Big Bossman is in there, it's mostly just a lot of brawling and it's not very entertaining brawling either. Lets give points for the Bull sections, and another awesome ending to a match on this show. *

Crash Holly © vs. Tazz vs. Jeff Hardy vs. Matt Hardy vs. Perry Saturn vs. Hardcore Holly - Hardcore Title Invitational

Crash needs to be pinned, or someone needs to be pinned Crash to win the match. The Hardys alone in this match add a new dimension to thing and make things much more interesting. There was also a wee bit less chaos thanks to less guys than the Wrestlemania match, allowing this one to at least build some sort of story. Crash Holly takes the sort of beating that wrestlers should be given a raise for, as he got the shit kicked out of him by five guys. Proof that one of these crazy hardcore matches could work if it was just booked right. ***

In a great little sidenote, Crash Holly wins the match, and The Hardy Boys music gets played.

Kurt Angle vs. The Big Show

The Big Show decided that he was going to have a bit of fun for the first time in a while, and for this match, he decided to work as The Showster, his own version of Hulk Hogan. I'm tempted to give this match full marks for entertainment value alone as The Big Show is absolutely perfect in his role. This is a squash match though and I'm going to rate it as such, but this is the very definition of essential viewing and another example of everything WWE touching turning to gold. The fans were absolutely all over all of this. N/A

Smashing Pumpkins, no surprise seeing as Billy Corgan is a mammoth wrestling fan, are at ringside for this show.

The Dudley Boys vs. T & A

Trish Stratus certainly was playing with fire, as she spent all of the time basically teasing Bubba Ray Dudley. Trish is looking absolutely sensational here. This is what you call a perfectly acceptable tag team match. The action wasn't terribly exciting or anything but both teams are competant enough by this time that they could put together a good one. **1/2

Trish goes through a table for good measure.

Eddie Guerrero © vs. Essa Rios - WWE European Championship

This came around mainly because of the interference of Chyna and Lita in previous matches, so they don't like each other. Lita wasn't even close to being a wrestler at this point, so they had the men wrestling. Interesting match, as they have a fast match but they blow loads of moves, so slow things down drastically and keep things clean and then mesh well enough to get things going good again down the stretch. Once we get into things, this is a hell of a match with both guys pretty much doing every big high flying move in their arsenal. It takes too long to get going though, so it won't be hitting my "Match of 2000" list unfortunately. **3/4

Chris Benoit vs. Chris Jericho

By this time, people forgot that Benoit was part of the Radicals because Benoit spent most of his fued with Jericho on his own. Awesome fued this was too, but I haven't seen the matches in a while, so I hope they aged well. This match has certainly aged well as both men put on a fantastic two sided match before all of the shenanigans kicked in. They were pulling out stuff that you don't see today as they worked a sort of quasi-AJPW style match. A breath of fresh air no matter what era you're watching. Super match. ****

Triple H © vs. The Rock - WWE World Heavyweight Championship

Shane McMahon is the special guest referee. Steve Austin is due to make his return as the special enforcer, but hasn't been seen for the entire show. Vince is also at ringside causing all sorts of bother of The Rock. It's the year 2000, so of course, you're going to see an absolute classic of a match. This time it's the turn of The Rock and Triple H, with Triple H pulling out his third amazing main event of the year. They paid off storyline after storyline in one foul swoop in what has to be seen as a masterclass of wrestling overbooking and storytelling. Just get the popcorn, grab a beer, sit back and enjoy this one. *****

OVERALL

*******

How can you not love this PPV ? That main event alone is worth enough to call this one of the best, and then you have Scotty/Malenko and Benoit/Jericho to help things along with some other fun stuff on the undercard. One of the great PPVs of the 00s.

COMING SOON : WWE Judgement Day 2000. The Rock vs. Triple H - Iron Man Match. They keep bringing the awesome.

[DA Baracus]

Ah that Iron Man match at Judgement Day! A quality encounter with

the inevitable HBK swerve. Also amusing is that it took the fans a while to

register that it actually was the Undertaker as this his return and the start of

his 'American Badass' run.

And in case you're wondering, I used spoilers just in case someone hasn't seen it, even though it was over nine years ago.

Edited August 13, 2009 by DA Baracus

[stuart.]

Everyone remembering the Justin Lee Collins training to become a wrestler thing on Sky 1 just now?

Looks good.

[The Naitch]

Yep, I fair enjoyed that - 'JLC does...' has always been his best vehicle. The darts one he done last year was also very good.

[gav-ffc]

Everyone remembering the Justin Lee Collins training to become a wrestler thing on Sky 1 just now?

Looks good.

The dumbells in his garage are the same as mine

[Parscelona]

Anyone watch Smackdown this week?

After Jeff Hardy was defeated by the Hart Dynasty, Punk came out to attack Hardy however John Morrison came out to try and save Hardy from the beatdown which made sense as he's a face. Yet, when both men were down Matt Hardy came out and attacked Punk and the Hart Dynasty, saving Morrison and even more weirdly Jeff in the process!

Surely this has to be a swerve for Summerslam?, Matt Hardy wanted to end Jeff's career before and with CM Punk having the chance to do so at Summerslam, Matt will help CM Punk?! However if this is the start of a Matt Hardy face turn then that makes his fued with Jeff completely pointless. It just goes to show that without Jeff, Matt Hardy is nothing.

On a side note, it's always great when the WWE are in Canada as at least the crowd are pumped up for all the shows!

[DomDom]

It just goes to show that without Jeff, Matt Hardy is nothing.

I thought we knew that already ?

[YER SISTERS YER MAW]

Aw FFS! How many times are we going to see a Matt Hardy's heal/face turn. Yawn! I hope it's a ploy for Jeff to lose the title. Ever cloud and that....

[RussellV1]

I thought we knew that already ?

[Shuggie_Murray7]

Anyone watch Smackdown this week?

After Jeff Hardy was defeated by the Hart Dynasty, Punk came out to attack Hardy however John Morrison came out to try and save Hardy from the beatdown which made sense as he's a face. Yet, when both men were down Matt Hardy came out and attacked Punk and the Hart Dynasty, saving Morrison and even more weirdly Jeff in the process!

Surely this has to be a swerve for Summerslam?, Matt Hardy wanted to end Jeff's career before and with CM Punk having the chance to do so at Summerslam, Matt will help CM Punk?! However if this is the start of a Matt Hardy face turn then that makes his fued with Jeff completely pointless. It just goes to show that without Jeff, Matt Hardy is nothing.

On a side note, it's always great when the WWE are in Canada as at least the crowd are pumped up for all the shows!

We all know that it is a strong possibility that Jaff may leave after SummerSlam. They will probably keeps this up til then. If Jeff leaves Matt will stay face. If Jeff stays, then as you say it will most likely be a swerve. It seems like the only logical explanation............Yet it doesn't sound like WWE to use logic .

[RussellV1]

From PWInsider.com:

"TNA champion Kurt Angle was arrested this morning after a female TNA star he was involved in, who had an active order of protection against him spotted Angle following her while she was at a Starbucks this morning.

According to a source at the Robsinson Township, PA police department, Angle was pulled over after the woman he allegedly stalked called police. The TNA champion was found carrying 'a capped syringe and two vials of Human Growth Hormone Hygetropin' in his car. Angle claimed he had a valid prescription for the HGH

Angle has been charged with driving with a suspended license (stemming from his refusal to take a breathalyzer test during his DUI arrest last year, which is an automatic suspension), illegal possession of the HGH), breaking an order of protection and harassment."

He is scheduled to be in the main event of TNA's Hard Justice pay-per-view event tomorrow.