Raw: Sept. 25th Partial Blackout Edition

Results from WWE.com:

Jeff Hardy def. Shelton Benjamin
Carlito & Super Crazy def. Chris Masters & Randy Orton
D-Generation X vs. Lance Cade & Trevor Murdoch (Double DQ; Gauntlet Match, Part Three)
Kane def. Intercontinental Champion Johnny Nitro (DQ)
Ric Flair def. World Tag Team Champion Mikey
D-Generation X def. The Highlanders (Gauntlet Match, Part One)
D-Generation X def. Charlie Haas & Viscera (Gauntlet Match, Part Two)
Lita def. Candice Michelle (Women’s Championship Tournament Match)
John Cena def. Lita (Cena had one arm tied behind his back)

Did anyone else like the way Raw looked with the spotlighted ring and the darkened arena? It made Raw look more like an old time wrestling or boxing event.

That looks like a lot of wrestling, but 3 of those matches are the DX gauntlet matches. The gauntlet matches show the lack of tag teams in the WWE since they had the unusual face vs. face match up of DX vs. The Highlanders.

I was interested a lot of the matches now that I look over the match results. Shelton Benjamin was actually wrestling on Raw and had a very decent match with Jeff Hardy. Hopefully, Benjamin won’t be a one-note “I’m being held back because of my race” character. I had read that Haas and Benjamin will be teaming up on house shows – maybe the WWE will have Haas remind Benjamin that the two of them were most successful when they were a tag team and reunite as the World’s Greatest Tag Team. Once again, I’d like to add my twist. The two should also have a rivalry to become Intercontinental Champion once they take the WWE World Tag Team Championships.

The Kane vs. Nitro match was good for storyline purposes. The Kane vs. Umaga feud continues. I was more interested in the Women’s Championship Tournament (the fact there is one). I had thrown the idea out there that all WWE women should be eligible for this tournament including the SmackDown! talent. So I’ll throw that idea out there again – open the tournament to all WWE women.

Cena vs. Edge’s girl. The Cena and Edge main event feud continues. I’ve got nothing against this feud. I’m not sure how it can keep going beyond next week’s steel cage WWE Championship match (unless Edge becomes champion next Monday, wins a #1 contender’s tournament or wins Money in the Bank again). I don’t know who the next main-event level heel is beyond Edge. Randy Orton is occupied with Carlito and the two of them have ties to the Intercontinental Championship picture. Who is the next main event heel for Cena? A cross promotion feud with King Booker after the long beat-down? BTW – doesn’t Cena have any friends backstage to save him when something happens to him? Not even a Raw vs. SmackDown rationale to the saving of Cena? Just Cena getting his butt kicked so people will watch him on Friday Night SmackDown then watch him on MadTV.

Not a bad show. I’d give it 4 sugar cubes out of a flarnak. What? I don’t have a rating system? And flarnak is a made up word? So long, kids.

Angle to TNA

Holy flurkin’ snit.

Kurt Angle has jumped to TNA. Now I have to start watching Impact again. TNA has a golden opportunity here. Angle is already a huge star. All TNA has to do is ride that. Angle could make TNA a legitimate competitor to the WWE. If he signed over there, what’s to stop other top WWE names?

TNA has to play this carefully. This could be their one chance to get a major superstar in the business and get people to switch to TNA from the WWE. Maybe with Angle’s jump, Chris Jericho isn’t far behind.

I am a bit shocked that Angle would burn his WWE bridge like this. Hopefully, TNA is protective of Angle and will not let him kill himself in the ring. The schedule should be less rigorous and could be advantageous.

There may just be a new wrestling war.

Taimak Interview

Hey, kids.

A head’s up on my side-project: the Killing Time Podcast. For those of you who don’t know, I host a podcast called “Killing Time.” It’s an entertainment review podcast dedicated to finding entertainment that does not suck.

Last weekend my co-host, J.B., and I interviewed the one and only, Taimak. He is best known as the star of the cult classic movie, “Berry Gordy’s The Last Dragon.” The interview went very well and is quite amusing.

The interview will be posted as a podcast in the coming weeks (pending approval).

Kurt Angle to participate in MMA?

Various websites have suggested that Kurt Angle may participate in Mixed Martial Arts (“MMA”). Generally, I haven’t been that interested in MMA. I’ve seen some UFC stuff (after it was cleaned up), but I didn’t become a fan.

Pro Wrestling or Sports Entertainment or whatever you want to call it has succeeded because of storylines. Some of the greatest matches have excellent storylines around them with the characters having some kind of conflict.

In the world of MMA, there isn’t this kind of fabricated storyline system.

Whether Kurt Angle can jump from Olympic Gold Medalist Wrestler to Professional Wrestler to Shoot Fighter is a very intriguing proposition. If he succeeds, it may bring a layer of toughness to the “fake sport” of pro wrestling. If he fails, it will just reinforce the idea that wrestlers are not athletes.

Kurt Angle vs. Brock Lesnar in a true shoot fight could generate serious money for whatever promotion could put that together. This kind of match could pull hardcore wrestling fans away from pro wrestling. I know I want to see who would win such a match.

Angle would be a very high profile competitor in the world of MMA. Unfortunately, I think that if he joins a true competitive sport that he could be killed in the ring. Angle has yet to get proper treatment for his neck. In pro wrestling, your opponent is supposed to take care of you. In MMA, that’s not going to happen. By the way, when I say “killed,” I mean it in the literal sense.

The idea of Angle in MMA is interesting, but it probably won’t happen. Kurt Angle wanted to be known as the greatest Pro Wrestler ever. Why would he switch from pro wrestler to shoot fighter? Arguably, he could be a professional fighter who wrestles. He would have to add a strike-based arsenal to go with his takedowns to succeed. If anyone has the determination to succeed – it’s Kurt Angle.

Whatever he chooses to do, good luck to him.

Killing Time Episode 009: Dick DeBartolo Interview Part 002

Gadgets, Game Shows and More. Dick and I.A. Yap it up about Lots of things.

Direct Download: Episode 009
Having trouble getting the episode? Go to KillingTime.TV

More Gadgets:

Shower Head with a Generator and LEDs

Messages on Wheels

LEDs on Hubcaps – only $12500 (US).
Bikes – Hokey Spokes
Listen to IA find things on webpages
The Red Phone – the $500 Rotary Cell Phone

Blowfly: Mosquitos wake you up.
TV Screens in the Urinals
$400 Wooden Knobs for your billion dollar amplifier

Entertainment Gadgets -

Dick’s HDTV and Time Warner Cable
HDMI cables
Component vs. HDMI vs. Composite vs. RF

Availabot

Dick’s favorite gadgets:

Westclox Nap Timer
SlingBox – SlingBox for Mac it’s in Beta. SlingBox Scoop?

Game Shows:

Dick makes up a game show on the spot
How Dick got into writing for game shows
Dick Saves the Match Game
The Selling of Concentration (game show)

MAD

MAD Magazine Hires young Dick DeBartolo – nevermind the alarm
How you can get hired by MAD – they’re open for submissions
The Origin of the Fight Segment
KillingTime.TV
Studying for the Bar Exam
Berry Gordy’s the Last Dragon and the Taimak Interview
Stealing traffic from the DGW

Raw: Sept. 4th Edition

Tonight’s Raw had that “Raw before the PPV” feel.

The show opened with the WWE Champion, Edge, doing an excellent heel promo with a snazzy trailer video to put himself over. The segment was interrupted by John Cena who caught Edge (who jumped off a ladder) then FU’ed Edge through a table. Good promo, good segment, great intensity.

Jeff Hardy and his “Watching Paint Dry” Segment was quite good. It’s a bit of a stretch to set up a joke, but it was alright. The Hardy/Nitro match was way better than I expected. I think Hardy did an admirable job carrying Nitro. Nitro also unveiled some new moves like a standing moonsault and a nifty backbreaker-neckbreaker combo. I fully expect Jeff Hardy to win the IC championship at Unforgiven, btw.

There was some tag team stuff and the continuation of the DX/McMahons + Big Show storyline. I didn’t care for much of the DX stuff, but at least there was a tag team match with tag team moves being used.

The shock of the night was seeing a former SmackDown! Cruiserweight and ECW alum go over the WWE homegrown. I’m talking about the Super Crazy vs. Chris Masters match. It was a decent match and Super Crazy showed everyone the prettiest moonsault in the business.

It looks like Trish is going to go out as champion at Unforgiven – that’s the right thing to do. Additionally, that will bring uncertainty to the championship picture. Could there be a women’s championship tournament maybe open to all WWE divas (including SmackDown!)?

The main event for next week’s Raw is Vince vs. Triple H. I don’t know if that will push buyrates up or not. I thought Vince was shooting when he said he wanted to main event at MSG and now he will. Let’s hope that it will be the last time the 61 year old does this.

A six person tag match? Once again, seems like a device to use right before the PPV. It looks like Carlito is getting some passion out of Randy Orton. Orton is back to a more aggressive style (like when he was challenging for the IC championship a while back). Edge does a fantastic job selling for Carlito and just about anyone he is in the ring with. Here’s hoping he wins at Unforgiven so he’ll be an unsufferable bastard for weeks to come.

Did anyone else find it interesting to see Cena and Orton wrestle? Those two are supposed to be the future of the business (even though Cena is the present) and will probably end up headlining a WrestleMania one day.

Orton gets the win by RKO’ing Trish. The finish was a good way of protecting everyone.

All in all, a pretty good show. Surprisingly solid.

Nitro and Melina: The Greatest Promo Ever?

Last Monday night on Raw, the world witnessed an event of epic proportions. That event was the Johnny Nitro and Melina press conference promo.

The promo reminded me of that infamous Jackie Gayda & Chris Nowinski vs. Bradshaw & Trish Stratus. Watching both, I felt a sense of amazement. I could not believe my senses. I was truly witnessing history. This could be the worst promo I have ever seen in my years of watching professional wrestling.

At first, I was intrigued with the idea of a press conference segment. Hey, that’s new – maybe WWE Creative saw that podium sitting in the truck and thought, “Hey! Let’s mix the paparazzi with the podium. It’s a (dramatic pause) press (pause) conference! Yes!”

Then Nitro started talking. I couldn’t tell if what he was saying was scripted or not. I hope to all that is good that the promo was not scripted. Perhaps the WWE sent young Johnny out there with some bullet points. He rambled on without direction for a while. I sat there confused. What exactly was the point of this promo?

Then Melina got on the mic. Melina can talk – she just sounds like a snotty cheerleader. Then it happened. Nitro sucked the promo-power right from Melina. Melina was also without direction, babbling, rambling, stumbling, bumbling, and other words.

The announcers even were questioning the promo – but not in that storyline kind of “What is going on here?” – way. JR wondered aloud. What was the point of this “press conference?”

Eventually, the promo was over and the world continued. Since even JR was trashing the thing, maybe the WWE will actually figure out some things from the greatest promo ever.

Promo-time is a good thing. It gives the wrestlers time to create a character. Promos by people who need practice are best left for the studio or house shows (hey, the wrestlers practice matches there. Why let them try out material on the road?). Studio promos benefit from editing magic. And if a guy can’t really talk – do one of two things. Approach One: Get them an old-school manager. Johnny can’t talk? Set him up with Armando. Approach Two: nWo editing. The nWo promos were cutting edge with weird camera angles, etc. Just cut together a bunch of clips of scripted lines as a single promo (maybe a voice over of training or action clips) and the wrestler gets over without looking like a fool.

The NM press conference could have been a nice little video segment. Here’s how I would re-tool it. They could take questions from the press or fans – fake e-mails or something. Hell, if the WWE is smart, they could spin this into some kind of rambling podcast or video segment that airs on WWE.com, iTunes and Raw.

Truly, this was the greatest promo ever. And by great, I don’t mean good – great also means: “being such in an extreme or notable degree.” Thanks, dictionary.com.