El-P

Episode 24 RVD vs Sabu was the best thing on the show, a trip to memory lane for the old ECW fan in me. It's striking how most of RVD's stuff looks shoddy compared to Sabu's in term of accuracy. Good little match between the two, the kind of stuff they can do while sleeping. They work one or two interesting spots though, specially the counter to the springboard swinging DDT which looked nice. I really wish Sabu would have been the chosen one to be pushed, but I guess what they gave him was already better than anyone could expect, really. CM Punk vs Test was short and got nowhere fast, ending in a double count out. Punk shouldn't do some of the kick he does, his leg lariat reminded me of Kawada's early stuff, when he was working a bit too much juniorish despite his build. Again, it shows how much opportunity and card placement plays a big role in having good matches, because there's no way CM Punk can't have a much better match with Test than RVD (+ weapons) had. To build the second match for the PPV, which is the following Sunday, we get the Hardys vs Elijah Burke & Sylvester Terkay, who I guess are JTTS. Man, Terkay sure looks like one, with his plain black singlet. He's kinda like the Rip Morgan of ECW. Not particulary good either. I forgot how much Matt's key spots annoyed me. MNM show up, so that's your undercard for the PPV. And then we get an odd main event of Big Show vs Bobby Lashley. I say odd because Show never looked so active and motivated. I guess because he knew Lashley can't do shit so he had to carry the whole match. So he beats up the big hoss who then makes a comeback from nowhere, absolutely no-selling the beating. Lashley is comically bad (that spear, ah ah ah). So, we have a PPV with one undercard match and one main event. What is this ? In Your House ? 2006.11.28 Sabu vs RVD

I guess Matt put it right. They're awful pro-wrestlers.

Is he really a bigger deal than Bret Hart, Jim Cornette or JJ Dillon (edit : or Sammartino !) ? Don't think so. He already did RF, which is beneath everyone at this point. The bullshit detector is needed (as always, but especially there), but this should be pretty entertaining. I will guess the guy he's talking about having pleasure firing is the HTM.

PPV22, and at the risk of sounding like a broken record, this was a one match show again. You have two guesses. So, AJ Styles vs Jerry Lynn was the only saving grace of this stupid promotion. This time they went for a more agressive, brawling style with Kynn bleeding a bit after a DDT on the concrete. They make a lot pf effort not duplicating their matches, and being creative without getting cute or awkward. Major props to those two, whose feud is clearly must-see stuff to me as far as 00's stuff goes. It's not that they deliver a MOTYC every time, I'd call this one very good, but it's the consistency and effort to mix things up, playing off previous matches and familiarity in an organic way. Jeff Jarrett vs Ron Killings was worse than the previous week, with one of the less smooth Eddielenko sequence ever. That's a problem with Jarrett, a lot of his stuff looks uncrisp, flat and harmless. He's probably very safe, but it shows in a bad Lance Storm way, and his tough guy image never worked with me because it doesn't suit his physical skills. Anyway, they do a bunch of cool counters that look way planned ahead, and a not so cool table spot that looked way awkward. Count out, restart, Russo, guitar, swerve, three Stroke (although Killings makes them look better than anyone I have seen) and that's it. A promotion built around Vince Russo as the main heel just won't do it for me. AMW vs Hot Shots was pretty good but never went anywhere as Lee & Slash attacked them again. And afterward, AMW just jumped on Belladonna and threatened to put her in their finisher. Yeah ! Nothing screams babyface more than woman abuse. What else, some crappy indieriffic spotfests in Divine Storm vs The Briscoes (and in case you wonder, Trinity hit a good looking quebrada, while Mark did the stupidest plancha ever, landing on his feet and never even touching his opponent) and Sonny Siaki vs Crimson Dragon (Hammrick in a rather cool outfit), a bad and very boring tag team titme match involving BG James & Curt Hennig, more April nonsense for which I have no time left at this point, Brian Lawler crying then grabbing the ass of a former girlfriend of his father. And of course, a long, drawn out, useless, stupid, shooty-shooty Vince Russo promo talking about old stuff from WWF and WCW. Same kind of shit that was old and stupid in 2000, only even way more irrelevant now. 2002.11.27 AJ Styles vs Jerry Lynn

That's actually the only part that was funny, indeed, especially the fact Hunter put over CM Punk, seeing he was getting loud chants (yeah, about sucking it, it was really sucking the heat of a better guy here, like he did pretty much during his entire career). Micheals was doing the exact same thing with Sunny in 95, when they were both good looking. But yeah, like I said, Micheals, Punk & Nitro was the only good part of it, so Melina gets thrown in too. Thanks. The definite article wasn't necessary though. (damn, I just came back from a course with a hungarian girl, and you make me work *again*)

Sorry but no. "Let's give Finaly a dwarf because ya know, he's Irish", is everything I can't stand about WWE in general. Apart from lucha workers, midgets in wrestling are always annoying as hell, especially when they distract from a super worker like Dave Finlay.

"ECW" matches at Survivor Series 2006 DX & CM Punk & Hardy Boys vs Edge & Randy Orton & Johnny Nitro & Gregory Helms & Mike Knox. Garbage. Mike Knox superkicked right away. The best action involved Micheals, Nitro & CM Punk, but it was just going through the motions. Basically the heels looked like jobbers, including Edge & Orton, which really surprised me. Micheals doing his heartbreak kid gimmick with his scrawny body, balding hair & crooked eye is one hell of a denial case. Highlight were Kelly & Melina's outfits. John Cena & Kane & RVD & Sabu & Lashley vs Umaga & Big Show & Test & MVP & Finlay. Garbage. Umaga DQed right away. Wait, is this going to be the same crap ? Well, not much better indeed. A bunch of flash pins (RVD, Test & Sabu in about one minute), god awful Show vs Kane action. Cena looks clumsy as hell here, but his selling almost makes Big Show looks tolerable for two minutes. Finlay, midget, yaddi yaddi yadda. Those Survivor Series matches were awful, really. The only guy from the ECW brand looking like a future star was CM Punk. Huge reaction from the Philly crowd (who also loved Show vs Kane, so there goes the "most hardcore city in the US") and the nod by Triple H during the neverending (and embarrassing, to be honest) pre-match routine. Lashley is comical. Looked like a horrible PPV BTW.

There we go. PPV21. The one. One match show pretty much again, with Jerry Lynn vs Amazing Red delivering the goods although Red's comebacks during the early part were a little bit rushed to me and short on selling. I thought Lynn almost didn't ground him enough (as opposed to Malenko who would have grounded him way too much), but overall it turned into a very good match thanks to an excellent finishing stretch of big nearfalls and counter-spots, including references to the previous match Red had with AJ Styles. Red lacks the intermediary offense, but he's really turning it up in term of super quick bursting spots à la Rey Jr. And it was interesting to see Lynn work with a smaller guy, which he did very well. The final looked deadly, and Lynn really solidifies his stature as the #1 guy in the company with his latest performances. Meanwhile, AJ Styles was stuck with Chris Hammrick (under a mask) and Jorge Estrada in a clusterfuck of a three-way whose ending was never in doubt anyway, which really makes a whole match about breaking up nearfalls even more pointless. Speaking of pointless, I ffed through the Harris Brothers vs SAT, since it's pretty much a perfect nightmare match to me. AMW vs Brian Lee & Slash was decent, but Lee is Lee, and although it's to the credit of Wolfie D that he reinvented himself, he's rather a generic worker with this gimmick. This time AMW lose it and use the spike on Lee and get DQed. And we get man on woman violence with Storm putting his finisher on Belladonna. Before the match he threatened to "break her neck". What a babyface. And about offensive babyface, BG James said that he was gonna "beat up a faggot" before his match with Lenny. Wow. Seriously ? In 2002 ? And he got cheered for it no less. Before that we had Lenny calling Bruce a "fake homosexual", we had Goldylock say to April that she was disgusting, before actually be all cudly with her after the match and taking her by the hand. Because faggots are bad, but hot lesbian action with two very heterosexual looking hot blondes is always ok for us hetero-trash. This is garbage. Clearly the worst "storyline" of 2002 in this company. The debut of Divine Storm (basically another SAT-like team, all trained together by Mickey Whipreck) was notable only because of Trinity (yeah, the same who manages the FBI in WWECW), who did a moonsault from the top rope to the outside and a hurricanrana off the apron on their opponents EZ Money & Sonny Siaki. And also took a terrific bump from a clothesline, but I guess she had it coming… And of course, Jeff Jarrett vs Ron Killings, in what was quite a decent match for a while. It's funny how much pacing, time and presentation goes a long way into trying to make a title match seem important. Jeremy Borash really killed it with the intros I thought. The dynamic was all bizarre, as Jarrett, after working as a chickenshit heel during the first few minutes, switched to fiery babyface 1/3 into the match basically after a rather pointless figure four spot. The match turned into a bloody brawl, and I just noticed that Killings actually had some excellent punches when he wants to. So Jarrett bleeds his way into the crowd up to an unexpected New Jack table spot. And then, well, it kinda falls apart and gets ridiculous when the referee is actually counting them outside after like five minutes of brawling in the crowd. You know the finish. Mr. Wrestling III, swerve, guitar shot (of fuck, the guitar is back), Jarrett wins the title "not knowing what happened", and the KKK looking like guy reveals himself as, yes, *that* complete idiot. "Hey, it's really like WCW in 2000 now, daddy made me a wrestling company, I won myself the NWA title and my imbecile buddy is back on TV, soon to be unbearable with his shitty shooty-shooty angles and woman-abusing crap and awful performances. Ain't I great ?" 2002.11.20 Jerry Lynn vs Amazing Red

You mean the championship ?

See post above yours. Sano has been good to great for a ridiculous amount of time, both in pro and shoot-style. He's kinda like the 2 Cold Scorpio of Japan (don't ask why, it came from nowhere but I'm sure some familiar with him would understand)

Episode 23. Well, this was better. We get the RVD vs Hardcore Holly rematch, and although it was good, it was not nearly as good as the previous one. Mostly used chairs as far as the extreme rules goes, Holly also using a belt to whip RVD a bit. Much more a "classic" RVD match, which means the early part and the comeback were typical RVD spots without much more to it. ONe strange occurence was Holly almost no-selling the Rolling Thunder with a chair, which was odd. So the best part was Holly getting on top with a nice transition (that anyone could see coming because it was logical) and beating up RVD pretty bad. That was the strongest point of the match in term of pacing and building to a comeback. Too bad the comeback didn't look that good (hey, it's RVD). The Hardy Boys reunited after four years apparently, and semi-squashed the FBI in a solid little tag match. It's sad to see the FBI, who seemed just as good as they were in 2000, in that role. I still dislike some of the Hardys spots, as they were the first ones, along with Edge, introducing those indy-looking like moves that just look a bit awkward for nothing (too many body movements or twists to get to the exact same bump as a basic move for the opponent) in the mainstream. CM Punk vs Twilight Fan was short and pretty much a backdrop so we get Kelly showing up and getting into a batfight with Ariel. CM Punk saves her and they hug, to the dismay of Mike Knox looking on. Well, this is a million times better executed than the god awful Brian Lawler vs April awful storyline in TNA (not hard, I know). But really, what was Andrew Martin was thinking about all this, IRL ? Oh yeah, building toward Big Show vs Bobby Lashley, who squashed Matt Striker. And what's striking about Lashley is how non menacing he looks despite his body. Maybe that's the total lack of charisma and personnality, maybe that's his big round baby face, maybe that's the fact he's a Goldy clone without the intensity. Anyway, this promises to be brutal. 2006.11.21 RVD vs Bob Holly

Episode 22. WWECW in the UK. So this time, CM Punk vs Mike Knox was the match they were supposed to have. Got more time, didn't have to rush things. Knox work on Punk's back was quite solid, as was Punk's selling. Rather crisp action compared to the previous time. I really do like Knox's work with an able opponent. Kelly is bumped accidentaly by Know, and of course Punk is the one looking out for her, so she actively cheers for him. I wonder what Test was thinking about all this… Anyway, this turned out to be really good. Main event was Hardcore Holly vs Bobby Lashley. More good talent coming in I see. Well, it was actually better than Holly's match against Test, although I don't think I can say that Lashley is better than Test, but he's more fun to watch in a big hoss/Goldy clone/trainwreck kinda guy. Considering Lashley's scale of talent (can't even throw a decent clothesline, apparently), this was pretty watchable. Ends with a schmooz and Sabu, CM Punk & RVD all jumping in to save Lashley from a beating by Heyman's guys. I guess they're working some kind of Survivor Series match, but I didn't pay attention to the announcers (Elijah Burke replaced Tazz this week, and wasn't bad). Not much else, as if they really didn't pack much of anything, losing some time at the beginning with a useless segment to introduce Lashley vs Holly, and then with Matt Striker promoting the Elimination Chamber match at the PPV. And a bad Daivari vs Dreamer match ending in a DQ and leading to, I guess, a feud that will without a doubt be extremely useless. Well, at least we didn't get any Big Show main event this time, so that's a plus. 2006.11.14 CM Punk vs Mike Knox.

I thought it was 4-5 years. PPV 20 It's interesting how two guys can have a tremendous serie of matches, then you add an element into the mix, and it totally falls apart. The three-way match has always been a bad idea, and it became more and more apparent with time. It's especially true with modern workers who have some really bad instincts of working for spots and nearfalls instead of building to a climax. So, Jerry Lynn vs AJ Styles is a great pairing, but put them with Kid Kash and it becomes a sloppy clusterfuck with no pace, no dynamic, and totally uninteresting "nearfalls" which really aren't since the entire match consist of spot/nearfalls/kick out or pin break by the third guy. They don't go as much for cute and idiotic stuff as they did in the three way with Lo-Ki, but the level of pure work is also way way below, in part because of Kash who's an horrible sloppy spot monkey (I seem to remember he was better than this in ECW, but maybe I'm wrong). What else, well, a decent brawling match with triple blood between AMW & Brian Lee & Slash, with the new valet Belladona playing a role in AMW finally losing their belt. James Storm already looks like one of the best worker in the company, but Brian Lee is still Brian Lee. The announcers are also extremely annoying trying to sell the idea that Lee & Slash are like robots controlled by the mind of Mitchell. Hum… no. Brian Lee works like good old Brian Lee. Which makes this match one of the best DOA match ever, and a no-so-good PG13 match also. Belladonna rubbing her body with Slash's blood gets point with me, that's the freakiest thing this whole stable ever did. Talking about decenr brawl, Jeff Jarrett vs BG James was just that, for a few minutes before it became a cliché Korakuen Hall like promenade, until they got back in the ring for the predictable finish. Well, James really hasn't impressed me thus far apart from the promos. Stuff no one should watch include SAT vs Rainbow Express, Harris Boys (oh, fuck, they're back already) vs Hot Shots, more Brian Lawler and April nonsense (this time it's obvious she fucks, well, Bruce, in the shower, which allows a nice boob-covered-in-foam shot) and a squash by the returning-but-not-for-long Malice. On the positive side, EZ Money made his debut against Tony Mamaluke. Always liked EZ Money both in ECW and WCW. This was a good little ECW on TNN opener. And thankfuly, Amazing Red vs Jimmy Yang (sporting a classy All Japan jacket), delivered the best match of the show, less spotty than I thought. Red is growing on me, he's really a (way) lesser version of Rey Jr. with a Blitzkrieg outfit, and he brings dynamics in his matches as the undersize super quick and creative guy. Yang was always the best Elvis. 2002.11.13 Amazing Red vs Jimmy Yang

This "promotion" truly is terrible. Episode 22 has a decent CM Punk vs Mike Knox match, but nothing I'd go as far as call "good", because it was too rushed to amount to anything, and was kinda sloppy at times. And yeah, not as good as Sabu vs Thorne as far as complete rush-job goes. Kelly was sent to the back, which makes sense. Apart from that, Daivari squashed Little Guido, which is idiotic since he has nothing to offer (I mean really, no look, no distinct ability, no nothing unique apart from speaking farsi). Yeah, Guido has to bump for Khali too, that's something I really want to see. Tommy Dreamer vs Test was the usual piss poor Test quickie. Elijah Burke & Sylverster Terkay are coming soon. I actually remember Terkay's name from Z1, where he was doing some Brody gimmick. It eluded me that he ever was in WWE. And then an atrocious main event with RVD & Holly vs Big Show & … Paul Heyman. The work sucked, the "storyline" sucked (really, RVD can't do one freaking tag although he succeeded in beating Show twice already in the previous weeks ?) and you could smell the oh-so-not-surprising and Russoesque swerve at the end, with Holly turning on RVD. This whole WWECW stuff in the worst thing Heyman was ever involved with and truly is a black mark on his resume.

Then again, Trip dated Chyna before marrying married to Stephy McMahon. Meanwhile Rusev is dating Lana.

If I were a woman : Rusev. If I were gay : Trip.

Vince's reaction is pretty damn hilarious.

Yep. He looked bloated. PPV19 = one match show. AJ Styles and Jerry Lynn, this time against each other, in yet another terrific match. No gimmicks needed. Played the familiarity well, especially at the beginning and when Lynn tried to do his annoying guillotine spots that was countered (I always love when it happens). They didn't rush things and built to a nice series of nearfalls. I won't go into specifics, but although it's not their absolute best, it's still easily an excellent match. Lynn gets the belt back again. They sure throw this around like a hot potatoe. Rest of the show ? 5 men table match clusterfuck. Bullshit involving the Rainbow Express. A decent AMW vs Brian Lee & Slash match that ended up in a double DQ. A decent beating by bloated Hennig on Jeff Jarrett. A watchable Sonny Siaki vs BJ James semi-final for the 1st challenger tournament (probably the best James has looked thus far, as his selling of the knee injury was fine). But most offensively : Brian Lawler vs Syxx-Pac. During which : April was kissed against her will (that time) by Syxx-Pac, in what basically consists of a sexual assault. April was called a cunt by Brian Lawler after he was all sugary in the pre-match. April was forced to follow Syxx-Pac after he won the match. April got "she's got herpes" and "she's a crack whore" chants led by a fat & ugly white trash woman at ringside. And then Brian has a "heart-attack" and April jumps back at his side. While the announcers basically say that April is the reason of all this trouble. Do I need to say more ? 2002.11.06 AJ Styles vs Jerry Lynn

Episode 21. WWECW is Halloween. And it'll play a part in the show. Best (only good) match of the show is a qualifying match for the Elimination Chamber at December to Dismember, Sabu vs Kevin Thorne. Total sprint, as they weren't given any time, but the action was good and well executed, with some impressive looking spots like Thorne catching Sabu in a short powerbomb or Sabu doing an amazing tornado DDT from a springboard. I like the fact Ariel is active and screaming like Woman or Sherri were. Best Twilight Boy match thus far. We get the debut of, gasp, Daivari with the Great Khali. More quality talent on this show, like it lacked any. Daivari seems to suck just as much as he does these days on LU, but we'll see. Here he squashes poor Shannon Moore. The Sandman canes a clown backstage, because it's Halloween. Return of the Divas, with a costume contest. Well, it was actually pretty well done in that Ariel wore the exact same outfit that she wears everyday, since she's a freak who dresses like it's Halloween all the time. Trinity wears, well, pretty much nothing apart from a yellow crime scene tape over her boobs, so of course she wins. That's also only the third time she appears on this show since the beginning. And the fun part was Kelly Kelly, who actually had a costume, as she dressed up like CM Punk, complete with fake tatoos on her arms and belly. Of course, Mike Knox isn't happy and CM punk comes out to beat his ass, while Kelly just seems half apologetic-half amused. You know, Kelly's character actually grows on me a bit because there's something likeable about her, she looks like a genuine hot 19 year old girl who doesn't see what's the big deal about all of this and just has fun. Which is kinda refreshing. Main event of Big Show & Test vs RVD & Hardcore Holly was pretty bad at first during the long stretch of Test working, then got almost good during the heat on Holly and the finishing stretch after the hot tag, although Big Show did the worst Vader bomb ever (not that he ever did that spot well). So yeah, almost got good for a moment, but the shit finish with Heyman disguised as a gorilla costing RVD the match was really stupid. Ah, those wacky Halloween wrestling shows... 2006.10.31 Sabu vs Kevin Thorne

Hulk's selling was goofy as shit, and the way he registered the shots or bumped was not exactly state of the art selling either. Pretty much. Hogan didn't become a superstar because of the way he sold. He became a superstar because of his charisma, presence, body, promos and over the top act and maneurisms. And because he never lost. As opposed to say, Ricky Morton, or Ricky Steamboat. So of course, when he sold he got the crowd in his hands. But only because he was already Hulk Hogan. The crowd supported him because they wanted him to hulk up. And hulking up is pretty much the worst concept of selling, ever. It's a thousand times worst than any delayed selling if we're being honest. Not to mention hulking up after a finisher, which was Hogan's idea of "compelling". Yeah, it drew shitloads of money, for a while. It still sucked.

The promotion is on its way to Russoification, as showed by most of PPV 18. So we get a tournament to have a n°1 contender for the world title. First match : Ron Harris vs BJ James, with Don Harris as the enforcer referee (supposed to be there for the entire tournament). Shitty gimmick ref job, shitty match, Bullet Bob runs in in the middle of the match to fire Don. Second match : Curt Hennig vs Jeff Jarrett doesn't happen because Jarrett jumped Hennig earlier on and bloodied him badly. Jumps him again on the ramp, chairshots, the Stroke (I can't believe no one ever told Jarrett how awful the move looks), Jarrett wins. Ok, this tournament sucks already. Then we get more Brian Lawler & April nonsense. April is clearly depicted as a manipulative bitch here, after being the victim of an abusive Lawler, but she doesn't get any sympathy from the announcers who make it clear that if Lawler is confused and dangerous, it's "because of her" . Yeah, those hot women are all trash, Russo. Then we get yet another run-in from "Mr. Wrestling III" at the end of Scott Hall vs The Truth, which wasn't good but still better than the Hennig matches. This shitty angle just goes nowhere. And some ff stuff involving Miss TNA & Priscilla in a mixed tag. Not watching this. Kid Kash vs Tony Mamaluke was a bit better than the usual Kash match thanks to Mamaluke working heel and giving the match a semblance of dynamic, but Kash just wants to do spots and can't be bothered to sell. AMW vs the Micheals vs The Hot Spot was a watchable cluster, with a post match beating on AMW by Brian Lee & Slash. That's a match I can look forward to I think. The show was saved again by Jerry Lynn & AJ Styles. The first in a tournament match against Sonny Siaki, this time worked in a much more classic Lynn way, with a focus by Siaki on Lynn's neck and throat after a hot shot spot. The end was a bit anticlimatic, but it was a good match. Siaki needs to drop the Rock clone image though. Styles defended his X-div title against Amazing Red, in what was a very good indieriffic match. Ok, I'm not a big fan of the style to be honest, and some of the sequences at the beginning screamed choregraphed stuff a-la RVD vs Lynn, but Red makes a good undersize underdog and he can be very fun to watch because of his quickness and execution, although he clearly lacks any middle-ground offense in between his big spots. AJ played heel very well (good facials and maneurisms at the right time) and took the time to ground Red and slow down the pace a bit. This guy already showed me a lot in these few first months of TNA, he clearly was the guy holding things together here. 2002.10.30 Jerry Lynn vs Sonny Siaki 2002.10.30 AJ Styles vs Amazing Red

My thoughts exactly. Was a nothing interview. Yeah, not much in term of good stories, although his reactions to the "What's in the bag" game were pretty funny. I didn't think it was that bad honestly especially compared with the ones ICP or Broadus Clay and such). One thing you learn for sure, is that he's samoan. And that Yoko had a three years long title reign.

I'm so tired of this show. Episode 20 was the worse in a long time. It speaks volume of the creative slump this company and even Heyman were when the only idea they had for the main feud at the top was "heel authority". (of course it's even sadder that it's still the case in 2015). So we get RVD vs Big Show in a ladder match to get the contract. Terrible match. Contrived, sloppy as hell, with a bunch of ladder shots we've seen a zillions times, only done badly thanks to Show's ineptness. Seriously, he's just terrible, and putting him in a ladder match makes him look even worse. So, RVD wins because ladder matches are his specialty (which makes Heyman looks like an idiot to begin with). So I guess we get another bad match between those too. Hardcore Holly vs Test was a dull, sloppy affair, that got some "boring" chants. Holly is solid, but he's not a guy who will carry a guy like Test in a straight match. Some terrible looking transitions, and the added cherry on the cake of the awful WWE production which sabotaged the only big spot in the match : after a suplex from the apron to the outside by Holly, cut to commercials, and Test in control in a resthold when they get back. Clap clap clap. Anyway. Not good. Holly still displays zero charisma at this point of his career despite working his best gimmick, and it shows when he's working babyface. CM Punk vs Matt Striker was easily the match of the night, with nice chain wrestling exchange at the beginning and some pretty smooth work on both part (although some high kicks by Punk look kinda odd, in a Mima Shimoda way). I dig Striker's tights and kneepads, always matching his ridiculous argyle sweaters. That's a cool touch. Match got interupted by Mike Knox, but no Kelly Kelly that week. There has been no diva on sight since the Strip Poker episode, maybe they figured they went a little bit too far so they cooled down the sex factor for a while.

Episode 19 More of the same. A CM Punk vs Rene Dupree rematch, same lenght, same result. Dupree looked pretty good again, so maybe I was too harsh on his debut. Test vs Balls Mahoney was watchable, and Sabu squashed Shannon Moore, who's a total jobber, he gets less offense than Barry Horowitz on Wrestling Challenge. The main event was a bad RVD vs Big Show match. Show is even worst than RVD, who at least brings *something* to the table even if it's not good most of the time. Show is just awful. Can't even drop a decent looking elbow, can't sell for shit. This ECW run makes him look like one of the worst big man ever to get a major run anywhere. RVD wins thanks to Holly throwing some wicked chair shots to the head. In 2006. So we get a title match next wekk. Oh, great. The best match of the show was actually Sandman vs Matt Striker in a "singapur cane on a pole" match. Wasn't much, but at least everything made sense : Striker attacks Sandman's right knee to prevent him from getting up the pole, uses a nice throw to send him off the tope rope, gets the cane, gets a few shots in before the miss, Sandman gets his cane back and beats the shit out of Striker until he bleeds and chickenshits out of the ring. For what it was, it was perfectly executed, so yeah, I'd go so far to call it a good match. Especially in this setting where only the main event gets any time. I'm so sick of promo clips of "The Marine" every damn weak too. It's been going on forever. And then, we get a new backstage interviewer, Rebeca DiPietro, who's hot and all. 2006.10.17 Matt Striker vs Sandman

Ah yes, the one and only Lollipop. She was said to be quite popular among the boys. Yeah, that's her, although she didn't had her gimmick that time. She almost saved those two last shows... PPV17 was much better, to the point I thought it would actually be really good in the end, but the last part of the show took it down. Still, AJ Styles vs Syxx-Pac rematch was very good again, this time going for a more all-out style, probably because of the no-DQ stip that wasn't used that much apart from a few spots. Waltman showed again that he's still a crisp worker, and AJ looks better with that kind of opponent than doing over-contrived spots. I kinda fear the Amazing Red match the following week. Finish had the interference of Brian Lawler, as part of the embarrassing April angle, but apart from that week finish, the match was very satisfying. Mortimer Plumbtree was pretty good on color too. Jerry Lynn vs Sonny Siaki showcased another side of Lynn's work, as he put on a selling clinic since the whole match was based around his injured knee. And he was excellent at mounting offense from underneath while still selling. It allowed the otherwise very spotty Siaki to focus his offense with good submissions and knee work. Very solid match and a feather in the cap of Jerry Lynn. As far as solid match went, AMW (finally called as such) vs The Hot Shots was good, beginning with a lot of brawling then settling into a classic tag match. James Storm is the best Bart Gunn ever, and I enjoy the Hot Shot's style and antics, especially Cassidy's (who remind me a bit of a young Shane Douglas or an Eddie Gilbert). They really did a good job building AMW thus far. Scott Hall made his return facing Jeff Jarrett, and this one was also as good as these two can get at this point, and by that I mean much better than most Jarrett's matches in late WCW. Too bad they had to deal with a shit finish (lights going off so Killings can cut a promo and a bunch of run-ins), otherwise this is the second best match they had together in TNA. Jarrett's offense consisted of 90% good looking punches, so people around here should give him a little more credit I think. Apart from that, a cluserfuck of a match involving all the usual suspects, SATs, Kid Kash & Skipper, another bad main event between Truth & Hennig, who looks like he has nothing left in the tank, and the stupid April angle interfering into Brian Lawler vs BJ James (who doesn't look good again), then later advancing in an even more ridiculous segment where Lawler almost cries, then gets convinced by April that Waltman "forced her" to kiss him (Lawler looks like a complete idiot for believing this BTW). So of course, we get the announcer tell us that "it's all April's fault". Yeah, women = bicthes. In another Russoesque moment, we also get woman abuse in a worthless Ace Steel vs Jorge Estrada match, where Priscilla (who I understand is a former Jerry lawler valet/girlfriend) gets pushed around for basically no reason. So yeah, almost a really good episode thanks to four solid to very good matches. 2002.10.23 AJ Styles vs Syxx-Pac 2002.10.23 AMW vs Hot Shots 2002.10.23 Jerry Lynn vs Sonny Siaki