Michael's Extreme Review #18
November 9, 2009
Sheffield, England
-Well folks, I haven't even finished watching RAW yet from last night, nor does it seem like a priority at this point. Nonetheless, I am looking forward to a very big card tonight. Plus, I'm going spoiler-free, so I'll be as surprised as you. On a side note, I have a review for last week's show floating around somewhere, but the board went haywire last week. Let's head down to the ring and wrestle.
Much better show this week than last, thanks to a couple of great TV matches to carry things. Frankly I’m not all that interested in the Bryan Danielson “final countdown” tour thing they’re pushing, but then I’m not a huge fan anyway. Quickie thoughts:
- Steen & Generico over Super Smash Brothers was a pretty tremendous tag match for what could have been a much sillier thing. The Smash Bros. are an interesting conceit with the “Player Uno” and “Player Dos” cutesy thing going, but I liked that they just let them have a match and stuff. Good storyline, with Steen and Generico seemingly having an off-night and the newer team trying to take advantage with some high-energy double-teams and good near-falls, but the (relative) veteran team pulls it together and finishes them off. Good stuff, ***1/2
- Chris Hero is interesting for me to watch because I remember his geeky act from ICP’s goofy promotion and now he looks and acts like a real pro wrestler. Not fond of “That Young Knockout Kid” as a nickname that rolls off the tongue, but the elbow thing can get over if you make the fans buy into it, so great. He needed to squash someone more convincingly, but it’s getting there.
- Man, Austin Aries is the king of reinventing his look, isn’t he? I hope it doesn’t bite him in the ass by reducing his star power in the process if people can’t remember who he is.
- Rasche Brown is what it is. If you’re gonna build a TV promotion and not a DVD “great matches only” one, you need the occasional scary black guy to squash people and scowl. You just do.
- American Wolves v. Danielson & Strong was a hell of a deal, actually. Eddie Edwards is nothing, but Davey Richards has IT, a kind of twitchy charisma that just makes him look like a star and draws your eye to him. He’s gonna be something, bet on it. Match was great, an easy **** deal. I really loved the little old-style spot where Strong’s got Edwards in the crab and Danielson is the old-time babyface holding young punk Richards in the sleeper on the apron to keep him from interfering…these are guys who get pro wrestling, ya know?
So yeah, much better effort than last week’s rather dull offering. I still don’t feel like it’s trying to sell me anything because really there’s no PPV and no shows that I as a fan in the middle of nowhere, Canada, could attend, but as a use of an hour, it’s well worth a watch.
Sorry for the bit of an anticlimax to an otherwise entertaining tournament, but it’s a total rout for the Hart Foundation (on both the real and pretend ballots) so there’s no point in dragging things out and someone stuffing the ballot boxes.
Your winners of the first ever Lou Albano Memorial Tag Team tournament (and a shiny trophy to boot): Bret Hart and Jim Neidhart, The Hart Foundation!
This poll of course isn’t anywhere near scientific, but the Harts were as good of contenders as any. They are a rare breed from that era, not only surviving their initial heel push as a team and without the usual breakup angle to make Bret a star, but then coming back together during Bret’s initial singles push and actually becoming bigger stars again as babyfaces. They were both solid workers who could have a good match with nearly anyone, and a great one with many people, and best of all weren’t afraid to work heel when needed, even as babyfaces. Their legacy might have been aided by Bret going on to become one of the biggest stars in the world, but I think people would still remember them even without Bret’s later success.
So thanks to everyone who participated, and a singles tournament of some sort might be next as long as I can be convinced that it won’t be a long and contrived way to come down to the guy who goes Woo against his balding current employer. Because really, we’ve all read PWI and been down that road before, and I want to do something fresher than that.
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