Spidey on The Simpsons

Hell yeah.

The Million Dollar Man

Wow does this guy still have it on the mic! Easily the most entertaining part of RAW this past Monday. From his opening promo, his confrontation with his son and his hilarious speech about how much he hates Dusty Rhodes you can not argue that the Million Dollar Man was a hit. On top of that he came out with the Million Dollar belt! How sweet is that!

I've been watching bits and pieces of the Macho Man DVD (review coming when I finish it) and the more I see of these older, eccentric characters from the 80's and early 90's the more I miss them. The Million Dollar Man reminded me just how vanilla the majority of these guys are now. Obviously there are exceptions like the phenomenal Santino Marella, but I think a good portion of the roster (on all shows) could try to be a little more over the top with their characters.

New Topics In the Blog

I've been thinking about different things I can write about in this blog that are wrestling related and a few ideas have come to mind.

- DVD reviews
- Wrestling programs other than WWE. ROH and TNA
- Attending live events and posting photos. I'm very interested in attending some NWA On Fire shows and hopefully I will get a chance soon.

If you have any other ideas or anything you would like to see then please let me know. I'm open to new ideas and I am always looking to interact with more wrestling fans out there.

On a side note, I hope The Miz destroys Cena at The Bash.

Best wrestling show?

I asked myself this evening "Which WWE show is the best?". I thought about it for a bit and weighed the pros and cons of each show but came to the conclusion that the best overall show, in my opinion, is ECW.

For a show that is half the length of RAW and Smackdown, it has just as much actual wrestling. Match quality is a big thing for me. I prefer a back and forth match with a variety of holds that is not formulaic. It's difficult not to find a match like that when watching ECW. You will also note the surprising amount of clean finishes for a WWE program. Call me old fashioned but I like seeing those, a significant loss or win is enough motivation for any wrestlers character in my book. Overall you can expect fast paced and interesting matches by a good mix of up and coming talent and seasoned pros. Why wouldn't you enjoy that?

That brings me to my next reason for loving ECW so much, the roster. The young talent on this show is pretty exceptional. You may remember me shitting all over the Hart Dynasty for their name but in the ring they are a boat load of fun to watch. Jack Swagger, already a former champion, is simply impressive. He has excellent mat skills and his size and power are over the top. Evan Bourne is quite possibly the next Rey Mysterio in my opinion, always a blast to watch him perform. In addition to these new guys you have a sound mix of veterans like Christian, Tommy Dreamer and Finlay. They may not be the biggest names in the business but they know how to put on a show and they do it every week.

The announce team is another pro for me. Josh Matthews and Matt Stryker are entertaining to listen to and they provide poignant commentary. Who would have thought such a combination was still a possibility nowadays. I especially love that Matt Stryker is a heel commentator. Finally a commentator helping to put over heel talent! It feels like no one has done that since Bobby Heenan, I know that's not true but it is how I feel.

If you have been missing this show because you don't feel like it's that important or it's lame then I highly suggest you re-think your position on this. Set your DVR or download the weekly episodes. ECW is a strong hour of wrestling that will remind you just what pro wrestling is all about.

Cena has a crappy new shirt!

Get a load of this piece of shit! You too can now demonstrate your love of poorly re-named finishing maneuvers and John Deere tractors all in one shirt!

TRACTORS! What does John Cena's character have to do with this? Nothing! Cena's character is supposed to be "hard" and "from the streets"! The last time I checked there were not a lot of fields that needed tilling in the heart of Compton.

How shitty is the name the Attitude Adjuster? I'll answer that for you, it is epically shitty. Moms say little kids need an attitude adjustment, it's like putting someone in the corner for time out. It's not tough, it's soccer mom jargon.

This shirt and matching hat and sweat bands are bullshit. This is more of the same Cena crap that makes me hate his character so much. He's only around for merchandising.

U Can't See Me? Fuck, I honestly wish I could not!

EXTREME Rules

- For a PPV called Extreme Rules there was not a lot of hardcore elements to the matches. They should have called it Night of Entertaining Gimmick Matches because it was not extreme or even x-treme. Thankfully the ladder match at the end of the show made up for the lack of extremeness that I felt was missing. And yes I know the ECW title match had trashcans and kendo sticks but it didn't do anything for me, mayhaps the days where a kendo stick shot would excite me are gone, it is a sad day.

- How about Tommy Dreamer! I can't say I'm that psyched as I am not a huge Dreamer fan but that does not mean I'm upset either. His title reign will probably be an entertaining one, probably keep defending it until he loses and thus is banished from ECW.

- Jericho and Mysterio put on an excellent match in my opinion and I'm looking forward to this feud continuing. Good call on not showing Mysterio's face, the kids don't need to lose the mystery. It's also nice to see my favorite wrestler increase his IC title record by another win!

- I wasn't sure how the Samoan strap match was going to go this evening. Mostly because I was confused as to what was so Samoan about it. Did the Samoan people become so fond of straps that they named a type of strap after themselves? Then once said strap was claimed they then used it to beat up people by tying it to their wrists and whipping them into things? I think I need to do more research about Samoans because this does not sound right? Anyways... It took me, and the crowd, a bit to get into it but it once it got going I enjoyed myself. They had some good spots and a quality ending, not to mention a helpful graphic which showed you who was winning.

- The hog pen match was cute, my pizza showed up during that match and I wasn't really upset about leaving so I could go get it. I would like to note though that the guy who delivered my pizza looked like a fucking murderer. Seriously, big bald guy, sweaty and a low voice. I was ten seconds away from having my limbs cut off and being left in a ditch tonight.

- The steel cage match was pretty quick, I read afterward Batista is injured...again, so that explains it. I was bummed Batista won the title and by pin fall no less. I really think they should amend the steel cage rules to be that you have to escape, this pinning and submitting crap is weak.

- Submission match was good but I was hoping that Cena might pull out a new submission move, show he has some depth to his mat wrestling. The finish was clever though, albeit Big Shows foot did come undone from the ropes. Overall I think they told a good story and if you were a fan of either guy you were pleased by this match, I would think.

- The ladder match was the reason why I bought this PPV and I was not disappointed. Some pretty big bumps from these two but it looked like Edge took the worst of it for this match. Despite Jeff Hardy's victory I did really like the finish, Jeff standing over Edge while he was stuck in the rungs of the ladder and then leaning down and staring at him as he held the belt smiling was quite an image. In fact you can see it off to the right, how convenient!

- Going into the ladder match I knew Jeff Hardy had not signed a new contract with the WWE. Once I saw him holding the belt I figured he had but then CM Punk comes out and cashes in the money in the bank contract and then I thought well maybe not. This was quite a surprise to me as it was a face screwing a face over for the title. I was hoping that they would not go this route with this MITB contract, picking the bones after a hard fought match, but they did and it was okay but certainly not great. I don't think the crowd really knew what to think and neither did I, all we knew is that CM Punk is world champ and that's that.

All in all it was a good show but I was really hoping for some more over the top hardcore wrestling. This was not really any different from any other WWE PPV in terms of content and certainly not the one night that the WWE goes extreme as Michael Cole mentioned 45 fucking times during the broadcast. Fun show but One Night Stand 1 & 2 it ain't.

Much Ado About Ken Kennedy

Ken Kennedy was recently released by the WWE and if you had seen RAW last week it really was not a big surprise. Numerous injuries and a touch of green with his ring work has cut short what was supposed to be a promising WWE career for the time being.

Keep in mind I'm a big fan of Ken Kennedy. If you don't believe me then check my photos on myspace, you will see one of me in a sports bar yelling "Kennedy!" into my cell phone as if I was the wrestler himself. I loved the gimmick and thought he was fun to watch in the ring but in terms of his release you really have to face the facts.

Wrestlers take bumps, it's a pretty big part of the job. Kennedy was injury prone and it screwed up major story lines on two occasions I can remember. The first being when he was supposed to be revealed as Mr. McMahon's illegitimate son. After months of buildup the big reveal is right around the corner and then whammo he's shelved. Rewrites ensue and instead we get the leprechaun being Vince's kid and not Kennedy. It was kinda funny but really the people, and me, wanted it to be Kennedy. The second was right after he wins the money in the bank contract at Wrestlemania. That's the company saying they want you to be champion at some point, which is quite a vote of confidence. Shortly after he wins it he gets injured and ends up dropping it to Edge. Instead of being champion he ends up being sidelined for months. That is two major opportunities that were blown due to injury right there which caused the WWE to have to do some major re-writes.

Then to make things worse for himself he makes a hell of a blunder in his return match on RAW. Kennedy is revealed as a mystery entrant in the five on five Lakers Vs. Nuggets tag match. Plenty of attention is on this match as it is because it features the top faces and heels on RAW and it is receiving media coverage due to the recent debacle with the Denver Nuggets. Mix in that this is his big return, have him come out and tell Randy Orton off prior to the match while receiving a good pop from the crowd and this should be a slam dunk (pardon the pun) for him. What does he do? He comes out and looks sloppy in the ring and nearly injures Randy Orton's (a.k.a the WWE champ) shoulder and collar bone.

Say what you will about the WWE and Vince but you can only give a guy the ball so many times before enough is enough. At the end of the day it is a business and you need guys who can do what you need to be done.

What's next for Kennedy? Many assume he will head to TNA but for his sake I hope he does not. TNA, in my humble opinion, is quickly becoming a boys club for former WWE stars that stopped drawing crowds. I can only see Kennedy being buried there or given a ridiculous gimmick that weakens his credibility with the fans. Personally I think it would be best for Kennedy to try and work in New Japan and really hone his mat skills and hopefully stay injury free. That way he can become a better wrestler and gain some valuable experience in one of the major wrestling promotions on Earth. If he is successful there I don't see why the WWE wouldn't want him back and then you would assume the sky is the limit.

Kennedy is promising wrestler that has hit a ridiculous amount of road blocks as of late. Hopefully his luck will change in the future and we will see the return of Mr. Kennedy........KENNEDY!