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From TheSmartMarks.com TNA Live from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Shelton Benjamin vs. Chris Masters To tell you how bad the wrestling was this week, this was my Match of the Night. Masters works the back most of the match after countering a crossbody with a fall-forward powerslam. Benjamin is able to counter a Masterlock twice, the second time slapping on a sleeper, but Masters low blows him out of the ref�s view and gets it on for the submission. Masters is improving a little in the ring, but I just think Benjamin should be doing more than putting over the rookie. Benjamin didn�t really use much of his arsenal in this one and the crowd was comatose, but still, it was the best match of the night. Rating: 2/10 A smiling Angle leaves Eric Bischoff�s office and officially announces the Angle-Eugene match for Summerslam. Maria is with Rob Conway, who cuts a decent-ish promo before his opponent tonight, Viscera, enters and mocks Conway�s wardrobe. Well, he DOES look pretty stupid, but Viscera isn�t exactly trendy himself. Edge is interviewed and he completely blows Matt Hardy�s promo last week away, calling Matt out on everything. He called his speech last week �pathetic� and notes Matt had six years to propose to Lita, but he didn�t. Matt should be thanking him because he�s getting the biggest reactions of his career because of Edge and is in a main event match (well, upper card anyway) at Summerslam. But it will all end there, Edge vows. He sucks face with Lita as we fade. Rob Conway vs. Viscera That horrible music, make it stop! It would have been nice continuity if we got a shot of Lillian Garcialooking disgusted at Vis but alas. A complete clunker here as the �Con Man� character continues to be DOA. He works Viscera�s knee and gets the win after it buckles on a suplex attempt. The problem with Conway�s character is that A) it is just so incredibly corny and is essentially Buff Bagwell II and B) No one is getting over wrestling Val Venis or Viscera. Trivia: Viscera�s �finisher� is called �Vis-agra�. They aren�t even trying anymore, are they? Rating: DUD Hurricane, Rosey and Stacy Kiebler vs. The Heart Throbs and Victoria This was set up because Victoria attacked Stacy on Heat. They probably should have just kept it on Heat because this was yet another horribly blah match, with the ladies never getting it on in the ring. Stacy distracts The Throbs leading to Rosey and Hurricane tossing them, but Victoria attacks Stacy and rams her into the barrier. Victoria ends up flying off the apron courtesy of Rosey, but gets double teamed by the Throbs and pinned. Your RAW tag team division, ladies and gentlemen. I don�t know why they are even keeping Victoria around anymore; this might have been the first time in 2 months she�s been on RAW. She�s worked well with Trish in the past, so hopefully they will start something on her return. Rating: DUD It�s time for the Highlight Reel with Chris Jericho. His guest this week is Bischoff, whose ass he kisses early and often. He even made a music video to counter Cena�s which is essentially a recap of their feud set to Fozzy�s To Kill A Stranger. Bischoff isn�t happy Cena�s still champion and calls out referee Chad Patton, who made the count after Jericho was taken out. Eric slaps him around and demands an apology, which he receives, but wants to punish him some more so he books him in a match against Jericho. Oh goody. Chris Jericho vs. Chad Patton (Eric Bischoff as referee) Carlito joins us as we return. Essentially 5 minutes of Jericho and Bischoff slapping Patton around and Jericho locking in the Walls with Bischoff letting him suffer some more before eventually calling for the bell. John Cena makes the inevitable save and beats up Carlito, hitting the FU and jawing with Bischoff and Jericho. Rating: DUD Bischoff makes a handicap match for next week with Jericho and Carlito facing Cena. Don�t worry; Cena will win this one too. Diva Search time. Krystal is cut. To show how each deals with �adversity� we see pre-recorded segments where each girl was in the middle of a promo but suddenly gets her face covered in a white substance (a whipped cream pie, you sickos). Yeah, because that happens all the time in WWE. Ashley, who was giving out her phone number (?!), doesn�t take it as well as the other two, which was either real or (more likely) WWE trying to set it up so that Ashley doesn�t win. It all ends next week. Matt Hardy vs. Snitsky Snitsky controls for most of the match and Matt makes the comeback, avoiding a Snitsky boot and hitting a Twist of Fate off the top rope for the pin. Edge attacks Matt for a change and has to be pulled off by security. I really don�t think Matt should be wrestling throwaway matches like this before Summerslam. He should be focused on Edge and Edge alone if they really want to get over the intensity between these two. Matt rushes into Edge�s locker room and the fight continues. John Cena�s new video �Right Now� airs, and it has enough sap to fill three maple trees. I mean, ok, it�s a �lighter� song about respecting your friends and your family and everything, but how many rap videos out there are anything like that? Not exactly the song I�d pick for a video if I want to keep �street cred.� Next week we�ll have Hogan face Angle. Speaking of, here comes Hogan and Shawn Michaels for our main event promo. Jerry Lawler is the moderator. Before they start, Michaels thanks Hogan for taking the time to actually show up in person tonight. Michaels is not jealous of Hogan because nothing Hogan has is envied by him because he knows that �in this ring, you can�t touch me.� Hogan isn�t one of his peers because Hogan�s built his career on �personality and show�, which won�t amount to anything at Summerslam because Hogan�s facing someone that isn�t scared of the �mystique� of Hulkamania. Hogan retorts by calling Michaels �The King of Backstabbing� and drops Bret Hart�s name as an example (of course, Hogan refused to put Bret over after Wrestlemania IX, which was one of the reasons he was turfed, but lets just ignore that) and brings up Michaels �losing his smile.� Hogan basically admits he�s all flash, but he does what he does to entertain the fans unlike Michaels, who is out for himself. �Whatcha gonna do?� blahblah. Michaels answers by kicking Lawler (?), but gets tossed out by Hogan. They trade words (with Michaels demanding Hogan pose) as we fade. Thoughts: That was all Michaels once again. You could definitely hear some cheers for Michaels as he went on. Of course, both these guys are guilty of playing politics in the back and being out for themselves, so decide for yourself who is the face and who is the heel. Final Thoughts: Another crappy RAW, as the stench from Smackdown seems to have come with me. One plus SD has is you at least have the chance to see a good-ish match involving Chris Benoit, Eddie Guerrero or the cruisers. On RAW, Angle only occasionally wrestles and Benjamin continues to be shunted down the card in favor of crappy mid-card wrestling. Feedback: [email protected] © Copyright by TheSmartMarks.com |