Killing Time 039: Books and Tangents

Hey, readers. In this episode, we cover several books including Mick Foley’s “The Hardcore Diaries” and Edge’s “Adam Copeland on Edge.”

Wireless, never crashes, and excellent contrast ratios: Books! The Killing Time Crew covers several different books in today’s episode:

Books: subtitles without the pictures (or audio).

File Size: 9.6MB
Duration 20 minutes 56 seconds.
Direct Download: Killing Time 039

What’s that below this line? A full description of the stuff we covered? Crazy.

• “Snow Crash” by Neal Stepenson (Amazon.com Link}
  a possible future where the mafia controls pizza delivery with the main character named “Hero Protagonist”
• Mick Foley’s “The Hardcore Diaries” (Amazon.com Link)
  Follow Mick Foley as he tries to pitch an ECW idea to his boss over at World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE).
• “How to make love like a Porn Star” by Jenna Jameson (Amazon.com Link)
• “A Separate Peace” by John Knowles (Amazon.com Link)
• “Ordinary People” by Judith Guest (Amazon.com)
• Tangent: Poetry Interpretation
• “Adam Copeland on Edge” by Adam Copeland (Amazon.com Link)
• Olivia Munn and the AppleTV

Quick Monday Night Raw Review:

Just got done watching a pretty good Monday Night Raw. The WWE has been doing very well leading up to WrestleMania — they go right back to basics. It’s odd how just creating competition (for a title or the Money in the Bank match) is a great way to create good wrestling matches.

The conflict within Rated RKO was interesting, but you knew that Edge was going to win once you saw the combatants in the Last Chance (Raw Only) Battle Royale. The battle royale match itself was quite good and Edge showed himself to be a very entertaining heel when he won. The match almost definitely cemented the Ric Flair versus Carlito showdown for ‘Mania as well.

The Jeff Hardy vs. Randy Orton match was also a fun preview of the Money in the Bank match. The DQ finish was a nice way of keeping both competitors strong and Hardy’s over the ladder legdrop was quite the sight.

I like the WrestleMania Reversal Matches. Granted, we only had one this episode, but it’s still a great concept.

The HBK-JBL (that’s a lot of initials) encounter was good for what it was — a device to get audio for the spectacular video package that will air right before Raw’s Main Event of HBK vs. Cena.

The Benoit-Cena match was very good and told a story as well. While I was hoping for a DQ finish or something other than Benoit losing cleanly, the ending was well booked with Cena using a take-down to get Benoit in position for the STFU.

The Battle of the Billionaire angle was pretty predictable, but was nonetheless entertaining. Vince’s yelling that he was symbolically shaving the heads of those who booed him was odd and showed that he was a bit demented and strange leading up to the WrestleMania match.

Also, it looks like the end of the Masterlock Challenge. I didn’t think that Masters was going to be successful against another brand’s champion (even if that brand is ECW). Lashley was believable as the first person to break out of Masters’ challenge (although my wife did ask why didn’t anyone just kick their way out – either by kicking low or stomping on Masters’ foot).

Melina’s angle with Ashley was served well via Candice Michelle. Melina’s a bit like the mean popular girl in high school — at least in the way she acts.

Overall, a pretty good show. Great ending with the announcement of the No Way Out rematch of Cena-HBK vs. Batista & Undertaker. Conflicts a plenty in that match.

RAW: Pre-Royal Rumble

I watched most of the show in fast-forward (I had recorded it while I watched 24). Even in fast-forward the show was too long and drawn out.

Raw started out with a bang with a good HBK and Edge promo leading up to a street fight. If Edge wasn’t in this storyline, I probably wouldn’t care about it. The street fight was pretty good with some painful looking spots. It lead up to a Randy Orton run in to save Edge followed by a series of events reminding us that the Royal Rumble was coming up this Sunday. Plenty of people were thrown over the top rope with HBK standing tall after superkicking everybody in sight.

Face champ + Heel boss? I’m pretty sick of this combo. It worked a couple of times, but a change would be nice. The Vince promos must stop. He wanted to read a letter? That is the promo? Bleh. Bleh, I say.

Cena and Coachman (then the tag division, then Umaga) = Yawn.

Joey Mercury loses to another Hardy – why is the injured guy fighting both Hardys? Shouldn’t Nitro have a match since he’s the healthy one? BTW, another thing that has been bugging me as of late — heels always break the rules; they don’t listen to officials. Why is it when a ref tells the heel at ringside that the heel is to leave, the heel actually listens? Why not just flip off the ref and stay at ringside – or hell, just hide under the ring?

I started Monday thinking I would be purchasing the Royal Rumble, but after the go-home edition of Raw my Royal Rumble purchase may be in question.

2006: Reviewing the Year of Wrestling: Part 1.

There are plenty of other articles looking over the past year in wrestling. I’ll be writing a couple of articles about the past year. I’ll look at the year in terms of WWE, TNA, their main event scenes, their undercard, tag team situation and miscellaneous. This will be a multi-part posting considering how long this post could be.

WWE Main Event Scene:

Raw’s WWE Championship scene brought in new main eventers this year. Only three men held the WWE Championship this year: John Cena, Edge, and Rob Van Dam.

Edge has now solidified himself as a believable main event-caliber wrestler. He had some fantastic matches with Cena, but the one match that stands out to me is Edge’s title defense against Ric Flair in a ladder match on Raw. The match was excellent with dangerous spots and showed how badly Edge wanted to keep his WWE Championship. Actually, every WWE Championship match Edge performed in showed how badly Edge wanted to be champion. From good promos to excellent matches, Edge should remain a main eventer (assuming Triple H doesn’t crush him in singles competition).

Rob Van Dam looked to be the new/old face of WWECW. WWE took a chance by having the WWE Championship given to the high flyer at an ECW PPV. WWE’s biggest championship belt rested on the shoulder of RVD. RVD then blew his spot by getting caught on drugs. The ECW and WWE championships were taken from RVD quickly and it looks as though Van Dam will never be a champion again. I expect RVD to go to TNA as soon as his contract is over.

John Cena is the champ and has been quite established as the top face of WWE. I think his ring skills have improved and he does what he can with scripted promos. Raw is stacked with other main event level talent such as HBK, Triple H, Randy Orton, Ric Flair (when necessary), Umaga and Hacksaw Jim Duggan. Okay, I’m kidding about Duggan – just seeing if you were paying attention.

SmackDown!’s World Heavyweight Championship scene was chaotic. Batista vacated his title, Raw’s Kurt Angle filled in as champion (after HBK refused to go over to SmackDown! according to articles online), Rey Mysterio was terribly booked as champion only to lose to the revitalized King Booker. King Booker kept the title with excellent promos, created a stable of wrestlers, but lost the championship to Batista in November. The best thing for the division this year was King Booker. His size and ability allowed him to feud with wrestlers of all sizes and his personality made the fans root for the babyface. Hopefully, he’s solidified himself as a true main eventer after numerous false starts (such as the WrestleMania XIX debacle against Triple H).

SmackDown! needs to position some more main eventers for its championship scene. Finlay’s feud with Batista, involvement in King Booker’s court and his excellent ring work make him a candidate for rising to the main event. Chris Benoit is a main eventer and does not need the U.S. title. Mr. Kennedy has positioned himself at the upper mid-card/lower main event after his excellent feud with Undertaker. If need be, Kane can become a champion with the right push. Mysterio and Undertaker can float around in whatever scene they would like although Taker has more control over his own destiny.

Next Time: I’ll cover either TNA’s main event scene or WWE’s undercard.

SummerSlam 2006 Thoughts

Now I had said I didn’t want to pay for SummerSlam 2006 because the card didn’t seem too great. But then I got caught up in the SummerSlam hype. I actually attended the first SummerSlam with the MegaPowers vs. the Megabucks – so I’m a SummerSlam fan.

They got me to pay up the 40 bucks and I watched the show. Here’s my opinion on it: It was a decent show that was quite fun and set up storylines for a while. Did anyone else notice that every match (except the DX one) had the loser enter the ring first?

The night opened up with Rey vs. Chavo because no other match could open. I enjoyed the match and the two have very good chemistry. Chavo selling of Rey’s offense is believable and the two did not disappoint. I think their No Way Out match was better and no Vicki Guerrero interference would be nice, but all in all a good opener with some nice highspots.

Hogan/Orton was what I expected except for the finish of Hogan going over. It’s not like he needs to protect his spot so I don’t understand why he didn’t job to Orton. Hogan played the crowd excellently and he’s the smartest man in wrestling – I wonder how he would do as a booker (assuming he was no longer an on-air talent).

Show vs. Sabu was alright. I was surprised there was no interference by Paul Heyman or RVD or someone. The two didn’t work together that well and the match was sloppy in parts.

The I Quit match was more hardcore than the ECW match. Some crazy bumps had me cringing for both wrestlers. The match ended abruptly with Mick quitting to save Melina and quite possibly means that the feud will continue.

DX vs. The McMahons (+10): I enjoyed seeing Ken Kennedy getting such offense on DX. It would be nice to see a Kennedy vs. HBK feud since the two can be loudmouths very well. Since Kennedy is such a star on SmackDown! it’s only a matter of time before he is sent to Raw. Anyway, the match portion was weak, but I enjoyed seeing the McMahons using tag-team finishers from the past. I was disappointed they did not use the Midnight Express’ finisher. It also set up a Kane-Umaga feud to give both men direction.

King Bookah vs. Batista: Batista needs some conditioning work since he nearly botched the Batista Bomb. Bookah retains and the feud will continue. That’s good for SmackDown!

Edge vs. John Cena: Cena loses in front of his home crowd so Edge will do the job at Unforgiven in Toronto. I’m glad Edge successfully defended the WWE championship at such a major PPV. It was a good match and I still think that Edge is a great champion. He seems like he could lose any match to any opponent (take a look at his ladder match against Ric Flair or his recent match against Carlito). He draws good heel heat and fans want to see him get his butt kicked in the ring.

BTW: I also liked the interaction between the champions. It makes the two shows really seem like two different promotions.

ECW: Aug. 1, 2006: Meh edition.

Live thoughts on ECW

Last night, I was at the WWE Supershow taping of Raw and SmackDown! I’ll do a posting about my thoughts on that later. I’m watching ECW tonight and so I’ll throw my thoughts down in TextEdit.

Paul Heyman looking for company and no one wants to say hi to him. What a terrible thing. Sabu steps up to Heyman. Sabu speaks live? Faces against the heel boss? Where have I seen this before. WWECW in full effect.

When the hell is CM Punk going to wrestle? I’m tired of these damn promos. Tonight? Alright. I’ve never seen the guy wrestle. He’s got some internet buzz and they’ve got that Killswitch Engage song attached to him (Randy Orton’s theme song for a split second).

Stan “The Man” Lee talking ECW and his “Who wants to be a Superhero.” Cool.

Justin Credible vs. CM Punk
I’m actually paying attention to this match. Let’s see what CM Punk can do in WWECW. The last time I saw Justin Credible, he was getting destroyed by Kurt Angle. Could he be an ECW jobber? Justin Credible’s got a nice moveset. CM Punk is quite good. I’m not sure he’s as great as I’ve read about, but he can be something if the WWECW doesn’t screw this up.

ECW puts over Batista
No one needs to put over Batista. The guy is over and is a legit main eventer.

Wow, the Brooklyn Brawler is on TV, twice in a week? Kurt Angle returns (from what, I’m not sure – rib injury?). Kurt Angle’s reaction at ECW is one of respect. Angle slaps around Brawler – once again, I approve. Quick match. A headbutt lead into the ankle lock. It’s good to see Angle back. I’ve read that Kurt was not happy being demoted to ECW, but he’s a good fit. I hope he enjoys the fan reaction if nothing else.

Batista vs. Show
I’m pretty show Batista didn’t win the championship considering he didn’t have the championship when I saw him on Monday night for the SmackDown! taping. The fans don’t seem to want to watch this match. Could it be that ECW fans don’t want to see two WWE guys fight it out for the ECW championship? Nah. DQ’s on an ECW is like seeing flaming tables on a televised Sunday mass.

Hey, it’s Sabu.
I never thought I’d want to watch Sabu. Then I watched WWECW for the past couple of weeks. That guy is crazy. He’s a draw.

If you want a one word opinion on this episode of ECW: “meh.”