Detailed Evolve 1 DVD Review

Backstage Segment:
Davey Richards/Kota Ibushi Training for Match

I don’t think there is a whole lot to be said about these segments. Davey Richards is certainly no actor, but that’s not what people pay to see him do. If you buy this DVD for the quality of the acting instead of the wrestling, you’ve come to the wrong place.

Match 1:
Kyle O’Riley vs. Bobby Fish

Bobby Fish has a good amount of experience in both the United States indy circuit and Japan, including in ring of Honor, Chikara, and NOAH. In fact, his nickname is “big in Japan”. While he has not yet held any titles, his in-ring work is solid and his style incorporates a good mix of Japanese Puroresu and Lucha Libre Styles, as well as Catch as Catch Can.

While Kyle O’Riley is stilla fair newcomer to the wrestling business, Davey Richards had a pretty big hand in his training, and anybody trained by Davey has got to have something to offer the business.

O’Riley vs. Fish was a solid match. It certainly seemed to get the crowd’s juices flowing and prepare them for a night of awesome indy action. Both men showed off an impressive array of maneuvers from stiff strong-style forearms and kicks, to springboards. Despite Bobby’s best efforts, O’Riley was able to connect with a combination rope assisted tornado DDT into a brainbuster for the win. It was a very impressive finishing spot, and was executed well.
Match 2:
Cheech vs. Chuck Taylor

Cheech has wrestled in the indys for several years now, having one of his most notable matches with his friend and tag team partner Cloudy at the CZW Cage of Death 7 show a few years back. The team of Cheech and Cloudy—sometimes referred to as Up in Smoke—has wrestled recently in Ring of Honor against the Dark City Fight club (also featured on this show) The Young bucks, and the House of Truth. While Cheech is not the largest of athletes, he is very impressive at times.

Chuck Taylor has been around since about 2003. He has held several titles, all in IWA Mid South )the promotion owned and runned by former ECW wrestler Ian rotten). Taylor has beaten “Mr. Insanity” toby Klein to win the IWA-MS Heavyweight title, Mickie Nuckles (who was scheduled to wrestle in the second season of the short lived Wrestling society X promotion on MTV) to win the IWA-MS Women’s Title, and Brandon Thomaselli to win the IWA-MS Junior Heavyweight Title. His finishers include the Awful Waffle and the Omega Driver.

Minus one sloppy spot from Cheech, this was a good match. It was nothing spectacular, but entertaining enough. It seemed that the crowds had a mixed reaction to chuck Taylor. Some liked him and some hated him, but Cheech didn’t get a whole lot of attention one way or the other. Chuck Taylor reversed Cheech into an awful Waffle for the win.

Afterwards Chuck Taylor cut a short promo about how he was not formally invited to participate in Evolve’s singles division and about how somebody in the Evolve office must not like him very much. It was most likely to set up a future angle between Chuck and whoever Gabe Sapolski picks for chuck to compete with—which will most likely be Ricochet.

Match 3:
Ricochet vs. “the Anarchist” Arik Cannon

Ricochet—known as the “Future of Flight”--made his professional wrestling debut in 2004. His small size makes it possible for him to perform a range of high-flying maneuvers, including his well-known double rotation moonsault. His most notable fued has been a long-time one with Chuck Taylor in IWA-MS, as well as other promotions. He has also wrestled under the name Helios in Chikara, and won the 5th Young Lions Cup under that moniker.

“the Anarchist” Arik Cannon has been in wrestling since approximately 2004. He has wrestled for and held titles in numerous independent wrestling promotions including chikara and IWA-MS, as well as being part of the short-lived Wrestling Society X as the tag team partner of “viscious” vic Grimes. He has also been part of the Kings of Wrestling faction in Chikara with Chris Hero and Claudio Castagnoli, which led him to win the 2006 Chikara Tag Grand Prix with Claudio as his partner. He also won the Chikara 4th Young Lions Cup and held the IWA-MS Heavyweight title. Recently, he has been wrestling some shows for Ring of Honor.

This match showed a great contrast of styles. Ricochet is an extremely impressive high flyer, while Cannon has a great submission and ground game. Cannon hit many of his signature spots in the match, including the swinging neckbreaker, Exploder suplex (into the turnbuckle), and even the Total Anarchy, but ricochet was able to pick up the win with a 630 splash from the top rope.

After the match Chuck Taylor, long-time rival of Ricochet, came out to challenge Ricochet to “one more match”. Ricochet accepted with no hesitation.

Match 4:
The Dark City Fight Club (John Davis and Corey Chavis) vs. Aeroform (Louis Lindon and Flip Kendrick)

The Dark City Fight Club is a fairly recently formed tag team consisting of John Davis, who has wrestled in indy promotions including USACW and ROH, and Corey Chavis. Chavis has most recently teamed with Davis in Ring of Honor, but has also wrestled some job matches and dark matches in TNA a few years back as well.

Aeroform is also a recently formed tag team. They do not have much of a list of accomplishments up to this point. They have wrestled in both Chikara and CZW. Flip Kendrick has wrestled some singles matches in Jersey All Pro Wrestling as well. I was unable to find any further information about Louis Lindon.

This was a match much like the one that came before it. There was a great contrast not only of styles, but of sizes between DCFC and Aeroform. This was my first time seeing either Kendrick or Lindon wrestle. They were impressive and I will certainly be looking for more footage of them. DCFC worked as a finely-tuned machine in this match, much as I have seen them work in Ring of Honor. There could be a bright future for these two if tag team wrestling ever again becomes a priority of corporate wrestling. For most of the match, DCFC had control, tossing around Kendrick and Lindon like rag dolls. The boys from Aeroform were able to get in some pretty impressive spots. The match did a lot to reinforce the dominance of DCFC, while introducing the fans to Aeroform and putting them over as underdogs. DCFC came out with the win after they hit their double team Project Mayhem finisher.

Match 5:
Mercedes Martinez vs. Mya

Mya is a newcomer to the professional wrestling world, and I was unable to find any information about her.

Mercedes Martinez was train by former ECW star Jason Knight. She broke into the business in the New England area. She has held numerous independent titles including the WXW Women’sTitle, WXW Cruiserweight Title, and the GMW Women’s title. She was also the first NECW Women’s Champion and first ever NECW North American Women’s Champion. She is the current WSU (Women Superstars Uncensored( World Champion.

This match was a planned squash, designed to showcase the skills and dominance of Martinez. Hopefully they will bring in some more formidable female (or even male) talent to face her in the future. She has previously had fueds with Sumie Sakai, Nikki Roxx (Roxie LaVeaux), and Sara Del Ray. It would be great to see Gabe bring in any of those women to face her in the future. I think Mickie Knuckles or MsChif would also be a good choice of competitors to put Martinez in the ring with.

Mercedes Martinez dominated this match, slinging Mya around like she was nothing. She picked up the easy win with her Fisherman Buster finisher.

Afterward, Martinez cut a promo saying that Evolve was not just a mens’ promotion and that she was there to evolve. She isn’t that good on the mic, but her in-ring work is really all I care about, and that makes up for her lack of mic skills. After all, this isn’t WWE.

Match 6:
Brad Allen vs. Silas Young

Brad Allen hails from North Carolina. He was trained Both in the CWF and FCW promotions. FCW is now the WWE’s developmental federation and Allen was once under developmental contract with WWE. I have a fuzzy recollection of him being released from such a contract a while back. He has also been known as Brad Attitude and “Campus Legend” Brad Allen (in FCW). Allen has held the FCW Tag Titles with Nick nemith as wellas the FIP (Full Impact Pro) Florida Heritage Title. He has also wrestled a couple matches in Ring of Honor, including one against Austin Aries.

Silas Young hails from Milwaukee (the same area as Austin Aries). He has previously held the NWA Wisconsin Heavyweight Title. He has wrestled throughout the Midwest, pitting himself against stars like Jerry Lynn, Jimmy Jacobs, and Ace Steel. Most recently Young has wrestled in Ring of Honor. He is known for his impressive Finlay Roll into Headstand Moonsault finisher.

This match was one of my favorite on the DVD. Silas Young reminds me very much of Austin Aries in his brash in-ring attitude. I have seen some of his previous work, including some of his matches on the Ring of Honor television program, but this was my favorite of all those matches. While I had never before seen Brad Allen wrestle (this was his first outing in the Northeast) and am skeptical of WWE developmental talents that have not had an extensive indy background, he impressed me very much. Brad Allen is not a small man, but shows a great deal of agility and skill in high-flying maneuvers. He hit a very impressive corkscrew crossbody maneuver off the top rope during this match. He also showed that he can hit hard. While he has apparently had no Japanese experience, he and Young incorporated some Japanese style into this match as well. Young was impressive as always. Allen picked up the win with his Attitude Adjustment finisher (not to be confused with the finisher of John Cena that bares the same name). It speaks a lot about Gabe Sapolski’s opinion of Allen that he was booked to beat Silas Young not only in his first match in Evolve, but his first match ever in the Northeast region.

Post-match, Brad Allen expressed his gratitude to Gabe and the fans for giving him the opportunity to come and wrestle in the Northeast. He also challenged Chris Hero to a match at the next event, stating that he wanted to be one of the big guys in Evolve, and that he knew he would have to beat a big name to do so.

Match 7:
Jimmy Jacobs vs. Ken Doan

Jimmy Jacobs is truly an independent wrestling superstar, thanks mainly to his work in Ring of Honor. He has also wrestled with former tag partner Tyler Black both in WSX—as the emo team of DIFH (Doing It For Her)--and ROH—in the Age of the Fall faction with Necro butcher, Delirious, and later Brody Lee. He has had notable fueds with both Colt Cabana (one that culminated in a brutal Street Fight) and with his former tag partner Tyler Black, as well as Austin Aries. He has held numerous titles throughout the independent wrestling world, most notably the PWG and ROH Tag Team Titles.

Ken Doan may be known better as Kenny Dykstra, fromer member of WWE’s Spirit Squad. He is the son of referee Jack Doan. Doan has been favorably compared to Triple H. This makes sense, since both men were trained by the legendary Killer Kawalski. He has held only two titles in his career but one of those was the WWE Tag Team Titles (in tandum with the other members of the Spirit Squad) and the other is the OVW Television title. Doan’s size and skill make him a great talent for any promotion to have on their roster.

I liked this match very much, though the fans did not seem all that impressed. I was very impressed with Doan’s heel work here. He wrestled a very slow-paced, technical style of match. The fans heckled him mercilessly for it, but instead of kicking it up, he played heel hard and just kept wrestling that way. Jimmy Jacobs got all of the pop in this match, hitting many of his signature maneuvers, including his rope assisted double stomp/legdrop spot. The match ended controversially. Doan hit a gigantic legdrop off the top but then cheated to get the pin. Tommy Dreamer (who I was not surprised to see, as he is a personal friend of Evolve and Dragon Gate USA booker Gabe Sapolski)came out from the backstage and made the referee aware of what Doan had done. The ref ordered the match restarted and Jacobs was able to slap on his End Time (guillotine choke) finisher to make Doan tap out.

Afterward Tommy cut a prime face promo and got a great pop. Jacobs interrupted him and tore into him verbally, saying that Dreamer had embarrassed himself by crying on national television (of course referring to his farewell address on the final ECW broadcast) and also calling Dreamer a washed-up has-been. The un kindest cut came when Jacobs compared Dreamer to guys like Hogan and flair. Tommy took unkindly to Jacobs remarks and lit his ass up. The short brawl ended in Dreamer hitting his patented DDT and the crowd loving every second of it.

Match 8:
Johnny Gargano vs. Chris Dickenson

Johnny Gargano has competed in several indy federations over the last few years. The list includes CZW as well as Josh Prohibition’s Pro Wrestling Ohio promotion.

Chris Dickenson has wrestled in Jersey All Pro Wrestling

This match was primarily striking based. The two wrestlers traded some wicked shots, including a kick to Gargano’s face that made me cringe. The match also featured some well-placed technical and high-flying spots, including a huge springboard elbowdrop by Dickenson and a Lawndart into the second turnbuckle by Gargano. The match ended when Gargano hit a full nelson into a Flatliner, a move that he calls the Hurts Donit.

Match 9:
TJP vs. Minenori Sawa

T.J. Perkins is still young but he is a veteran of the wrestling business. He began wrestling at age 15 and was later picked up by the New Japan Los Angeles dojo with his friends Ricky Reyes and Rocky Romero, as well as Bryan Danielson. While in Japan, he adopted the moniker of Puma, which he used later in TNA. Since his debut, Perkins has wrestled in numerous federations including EWF (Empire Wrestling Federation), NJPW (New Japan Pro Wrestling), MLW (Major League Wrestling), WSX (Wrestling Society X), PWG (Pro Wrestling Guerilla), ROH (Ring of Honor), and TNA (as Puma). He has held titles including the EWF Tag Titles, NWA Heritage Championship, and the UWA Canadian championship. Pro Wrestling Illustrated also ranked him #179 in their Topp 500 best singles wrestlers of the year in 2005.

I found it difficult to find information about Minenori Sawa. I do know that he has wrestled in the National Wrestling Alliance in the United States, and obviously in Japan as well.

While T.J. Perkins’ style is based more around ground and submission wrestling, he slugged it out pretty well in this match against Sawa. There were two particular spots that stood out to me in this match. One was a T.J. Perkins Northern Lights Suplex into a Cross Armbreaker. The other was a wicked punch by Sawa, followed up bya kick to Sawa’s face by Perkins, which led to both men falling on their faces. It was one of those spots that you see and just can’t help but love. My only criticism of this match is that the ending was a bit anticlimactic. Sawa made Perkins tap out to an octopus hold, but it just didn’t seem to be set up properly.

Match 10:
Team Frightning (“Lightning” Mike Quackenbush, Hallowicked, and Frightmare) vs. Akuma’s Army )Gran Akuma, Brody Lee, And Icarus)

“Lightning” Mike Quackenbush is a seasoned veteran of the pro wrestling game. Mike has held numerous titles including the IWA-MS Heavyweight Title, the PWE (Pro Wrestling Entertainment) Heavyweight title, NWA Junior Heavyweight Title (defeating Tiger Mask), CZW Junior Heavyweight Title, and others. He is the owner of Chikara.

Hallowicked is in the eighth year of his career as a professional wrestler, but has held only one title to date, the NAWF (North American Wrestling Federation) Tag Titles. He has also been winner of the Chikara Young Lions Cup and Tag Grand Prix tournaments. He was trained by some great names in Mike Quackenbush, Wreckless Youth, and Chris Hero. He also has a variety of impressive moves including a moonsault double stomp and his Graveyard Smash finisher, which is a Fisherman Lift into a Sitout Spinebuster.

Frightmare has just over one year of pro experience. He has competed in both CZW and Chikara in that year. His list of innovative maneuvers includes a Standing Moonsault into a Double Kneedrop.

Gran Akuma is one of the top heels in Chikara. He was trained by Mike Quackenbush and premiered in 2002. Since then he has captured the PWE and Chikara Tag Titles with his partner Icarus.

Icarus is the long-time tag partner of Gran Akuma. Like his partner, he was also trained at the Chikara camp.

“Big Rig” Brody lee is a 6’5, 280 pound monster. He has been NWA Empire Heavyweight Champion, NWA Upstate Heavyweight Champion, and NWA Upstate Tag Champion. He has been part of the Age of the Fall faction in Ring of Honor, as well as part of the faction CloudLee (with Cloudy) and The Miracle Ultraviolence Connection in CZW.

Chikara always does a great job of showcasing a great cross of Puroresu and Lucha Libre styles in their matches. This match was no exception to that rule. Each man was able to hit one or more of their signature spots, including a Black Tornado Slam by Quackenbush, a Standing Moonsault/Double Knee Combo
By Frightmare, and a Venus Palm Strike by Quackenbush. There was plenty of flying in this match as well. Quackenbush did a great job in his first match back after yet another back surgery. He did not hold back, executing both a top rope Swanton bomb and a Tope Con Hilo over the ropes to the floor. Hallowicked was able to pick up the victory with his Graveyard Smash finisher.

My only complaint here is that I would like to see any one of these guys do some wrestling outside of the Chikara ranks. I think that Quackenbush is an excellent singles wrestler in addition to his perfection of the tag team wrestling craft, and that he should be going up against some big name guys like Austin Aries or Chris hero.

Match 11:
Davey Richards vs. Kota Ibushi

Davey Richards was the most talked about independent wrestler of the year 2009, and for damn good reason. Davey was trained by Tony Cozina and premiered in 2004. He has wrestled extensively in Japan and in the United States, with promotions like PWG and ROH. Davey is the three time PWG Tag Champion, 2 time ROH Tag Champion (once with Rocky Romero and once with Eddie Edwards), and winner of PWG’s Battle of Los Angeles 2006 tournament. In the last year Davey has had a series of incredible matches with Kota Ibushi in Japan, not to mention his great tag work with Eddie Edwards in ROH. He has established himself as a true top competitor in the independent circuit, and undoubtedly a future star.

Kota Ibushi is a top contender in the Japanese DDT promotion. He has also wrestled for Big Japan Wrestling and more recently gained mainstream exposure by wrestling for Pro Wrestling NOAH. He has also toured the United States wrestling for ROH and Chikara. Ibushi also wrestled in New Japan Pro Wrestling’s 2009 super Juniors tournament, losing to Prince Devitt (who went on to win the tournament). Ibushi has tagged with the likes of Naomichi Marifuji and Austin Aries. Ibushi’s finishers include the golden Star Bomb and the amazing Golden Star Press (a spiral 630 degree senton off the top rope).He also employs the golden Star Press ’07 (a springboard into a spiral 450 degree splash). Ibushi won the 2009 Rey de Voladores tournament in Chikara. He has been the DDT Openweight Champion, a DDT Tag Champion with Kenny Omega (using the double 450 splash maneuver they termed the Golden Shower to get the win), the DDT Ironman Heavymetalweight Champion, Independent Junior Heavyweight Champion, and IMGP (International Muscle Grand Prix) Heavyweight Champion.

I cannot say enough about this match. It is undoubtedly the best singles wrestling match I have seen in a very long time. There are reasons people in the United States and Japan are talking about Davey Richards and Kota Ibushi. This match is one of those reasons. The match featured an amazing mix of flying, submission, technical wrestling, and striking. Both wrestlers hit many of their signature spots: Richards with the Alarm Clock and DR Driver, and Ibushi with his Bridging Evasion Kick and Somersault Moonsault Kick. Davey hit an amazing German Suplex off the top rope as well. I could go on listing spots all night if I wanted to. The bottom line is that these two men put on a better match in front of 400 people than many high paid professional wrestlers put on in front of 40,000.

Final Thoughts:

While the asthetics of this show were lacking, I thought it was a solid first outing for Evolve. The lighting was poor, the entrance music was generic, and the mic kept cutting out during people’s promos, but the work done in the ring made up for things like that. I was not looking for a glitzy WWE style show anyway. What I was expecting was hard-hitting indy action, and that’s what I got. Gabe Sapolski has done a great job of putting together a roster of young and talented Professional wrestlers )not sports entertainers).

Unfortunately he lost Davey Richards when Davey was offered and signed an exclusive contract with ROH. I wonder if the backstage bigshots in ROH (the former employers of Gabe Sapolski) offered Davey the contract just to spite Gabe. It wouldn’t surprise me. The fact is though, Davey Richards is the most talked about indy talen of the last year and it was smart business for ROH to lock him down. It was also smart business for Davey to take the contract.

I am definitely going to be keeping up with Evolve’s DVD releases in the future. Evolve 2: Hero vs. Hidaka wil definitely be joining my DVD collection sometime soon.

References

Arik Cannon
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arik_Cannon

Brody Lee
http://indywrestling.wikia.com/wiki/Brodie_Lee

Kota Ibushi
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kota_Ibushi

Ricochet
http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Ricochet_(wrestler)

T.J. Perkins
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T.J._Perkins

All Other Wrestlers
http://www.onlineworldofwrestling.com

Why Does Styles Stay Loyal?

On this week’s TNA Impact broadcast, we saw “The Whole F’n Show” Rob Van Dam beat A.J. Styles for the TNA World Heavyweight Title. While I am not going to say that RVD is unworthy of the belt, I am going to question the timing of such a move.

Rob Van Dam has been in TNA for all of two months now, if that long. Yes, he is a veteran of the wrestling business, and he is a former world champion—not that his one title reign really counts for that much since he got screwed out of it anyway. Well, Styles is also a former World Champion, Tag Chhampion, X Division Champion. A.J. Styles is also an eight year veteran and loyal employee of the TNA brand. So why is it that without any fued, any publicity, any respect for him as a champion, the backstage geniuses in TNA took the strap off of him?

In TNA, in the last three to four years, I’m not sure there is another wrestler who is as damn good as Styles that has been treated with such casual disrespect by the bookers and creative staff. Christopher Daniels is up there pretty high, but not at the Styles level. It is taken for granted in TNA that A.J. Styles will grin and sell any crappy angle they toss him into. Do we all remember when Styles was Kurt Angle’s bitch? How about his crush on Karen Angle—as if she had any friggin business being on Impact to begin with.

Even Styles himself finally got pissed off at Vince Russo and complained about how poorly he was being booked as the TNA Champion. I, for the life of me, cannot understand why the hell A.J. Styles continues to be loyal to a company that has strayed so far from it’s original style and purpose. I cannot see why he continues to grin and put up with the garbage he is asked to do. I don’t see any career benefit for him to stay in a company that does nothing but bitch him around.

While I am also unenamored with the WWE product as of late, I will admit that the opportunities in WWE may be greater for Styles than the ones he is being given—or rather not being given—in TNA. A.J. does not need Ric Flair as a sidekick to get him over. Styles is already over, and he’s a better wrestler than Flair could have ever hoped to be in his prime. Maybe he doesn’t have the Nature Boy strut or the level of mic skills that the Nature Boy does, but he is far from bad on the mic. He’s better than a lot of guys in TNA as far as mic skills go. Let’s count them: Matt Morgan, Abyss, Jay Lethal, alex Shelley, Chris Sabin. Do I need to continue?

Another point I’d like to make is that RVD apparently thinks he’s too big to be wrestling guys from TNA. Last year in a radio interview, RVD wondered how people could possibly want to see him wrestle guys like Christopher Daniels after he was wrestling and beating guys like Booker T and Triple H. Here’s a newsflash. Those guys are old news. Yes, they are respected veterans, and rightfully so, but the future is coming. The wrestling business has to evolve, just like any other business. You can’t stay on top forever, so why not try to give a push to somebody who deserves their shot. Terry Funk did it for years.

I understand that RVD has always been openly arrogant about his skills in the ring, and ten years ago he could do that and get away with it. For the last three years however, RVD has been picking and choosing where and when he wants to wrestle, which is certainly a privilege of being as big a name as RVD is. The fans—or rather the marks—haven’t seen him unless they are “smart marks” and follow him on the internet and in Europe and Japan. I suppose that’s part of the reason he can just come back and be handed a belt after so little effort or time in a company he has never previously worked for.

My view is that if you’re going to be the champion, you need to put in more of a full schedule than the one RVD is signed to, and you’re matches need to be of a better quality than Van Dam’s have been up to this point in TNA. Much like the Dudleys—or Team 3D if you prefer—he looks a bit complacent in the wrestling ring, but if you’ve seen any of the matches he’s been wrestling in Europe or Japan, that shouldn’t be a surprise to you. Also, he’s not doing any house shows at all. Does it make any sense to be doing house shows all over the country and not having your World Heavyweight Champion at any of them? Of course it doesn’t.

I don’t think I’d be anywhere near as pissed about this if Styles hadn’t been bitched around so much in the past few years, and if the TNA braintrust had given RVD and Styles a well publicized and well-planned fued that culminated in RVD beating A.J. Styles. As it stands, I hope like hell that Styles is going to get more time in the ring with RVD to show that he is every bit as good as RVD. This is a dream fued for any wrestling purist such as myself and for it to be a one shot deal would be not only a disappointment to the fans, it would be a blatant show of disrespect to A.J. Styles. It would be another instance of TNA disregarding and mistreating guys that have been with them and stood behind them for years now, but that’s something that TNA has gotten extremely good at in the last couple years, so it wouldn’t be at all surprising.

Kevin Kelly Wants to Punch Drug Abusers in the Face?

In a recent addition of his blog, current ROH announcer and former WWE announcer Kevin Kelly (that’s right, the ugly hermaphrodite himself) had some extremely harsh things to say about drug abusers in the wrestling business, and drug abusers in general. Kevin mentioned that he had been watching an episode of Intervention on A&E (marvelous name dropping by the way Kevin) and said of the subject of the episode, “I didn’t feel sorry for her. I wanted to punch her in the face.” I sincerely hope I’m not the first person to say to Kevin Kelly, what the holy freaking Christ is wrong with you? He went on to say that anyone who abuses drugs “needs a kick in the ass and a push in the right direction.” While it is true that drug abuse is inherently negative and that people who fall into such a cycle do sometimes need a strong push in the right direction, saying that you want to punch them in the mouth is far beyond callous.

Let’s examine the state of the wrestling business and see if we can better understand the drug problem that has made itself evident in the media over the last few years. Maybe we can come up with something a bit more critical as a solution other than punching random people in the face like some sort of self-righteous idiot.

The wrestling business, despite the ignorant assumptions of the uninformed, is real in that these guys do get hurt. They take bumps and they get injured. That part of the business is absolutely not fake. I don’t think Vince McMahon is sitting in his ocfice chair in Stanford and saying, “Let’s put our biggest star on the injured list for nine months with a fake leg injury. Let’s do it for posterity, and maybe to liven things up a bit.” Folks, if you’re dumb enough to think that these guys “know how to fall”, then maybe somebody should drop you on your head a few times on top of a sheet of plywood covered in a scant inch of canvas, and see how you come out. I’ll bet it won’t be too fun.

All digressions aside, the wrestling business has a high incidence of injuries, and severe ones at that. In the wrestling business it is not uncommon to see torn ACLs, torn PCLs, torn tendons, shattered bones, broken backs, broken necks, even ruptured testicles—just ask tommy Dreamer about that one. It’s true that these guys get paid pretty well for their troubles, but money itself does not relieve pain. What does relieve pain you ask. Well according to just about every doctor practicing in our great country, pills relieve pain. What’s the first thing they do when you go to the ER experiencing sever back pain, sever neck pain, severe leg pain, severe abdominal cramps, severe rectal bleeding? They send you home with a bottle full of painkillers. Of course people are going to get hooked on them. Doctors hand the damn things out like they were M&Ms on Halloween for Christ sakes.

With that being said, let’s acknowledge the fact that there is no system set up for wrestlers after they get let go from one of the big companies. If you get fired from WWE or TNA, and you don’t get hired by the other company, what do you do? You take bookings in the indy feds, and the indy feds can’t afford to pay the kind of money that WWE or TNA does. So when you get injured, if you don’t have private insurance, which is expensive even for somebody who’s making a decent salary, you’re screwed. So you go to the ER and instead of getting some good long-term kind of solution to your pain, you get painkillers, because that’s the only kind of treatment you can afford with no pension or retirement benefits.

Now let’s get into this a bit more personally. As far as Kevin Kelly is concerned, I think what he said was incredibly sanctimonious. This is obviously a man who has no sympathy for another human being struggling with addiction. What I have found is that people that say the sort of things that Kevin Kelly said have almost never been in that situation. It’s easy for you to condemn others when you’ve never walked in their shoes. Addiction is not something that is easily combated. The people that kick addiction cold turkey are very rare. Hell, people who kick addiction with councelling are pretty rare as well. Oh yeah, councelling is another thing that the big two don’t offer to their employees.

So since Kevin Kelly can’t constructively express his disgust or disapproval for drug users, and can’t seem to manage to find any sympathy for them either, I won’t bother to express my contempt for his blatant ignorance constructively. I’d like to punch Kevin Kelly in his face and then stick a heroine needle in his arm so he can get a chance to understand just how screwed these people can be. Kevin Kelly, you’re an idiot. You should take some time and put forth some effort to express your feelings in some sort of intelligent manner, and maybe people wouldn’t think that wrestlers, wrestling fans, and anyone associated with the wrestling business are morons like you.

The Reaction to TNA Reaction

Last week, I read on a wrestling news site that TNA president Dixie Carter—a person in charge of a wrestling company that knows jack about wrestling—had announced the premiere of a new TNA program on Monday nights to run consecutively with Impact. I believe the ridiculous tag line had something to say about “diving into the combustable backstage world of TNA wrestling.” That’s not an exact quote, but it’s close enough for government work.

In essence, TNA Reaction is a reality show, and I’m sure it’s just as scripted rigged, and pointless as every other “reality based” show on television right now. Why don’t they just call it Survivor TNA or Big Brother TNA Edition?

What TNA president Dixie Carter, Hulk Hogan, and the incomparable Eric Bischoff must be hoping this show will do is fool the blatant marks of TNA into feeling like they aren’t blatant marks. I’m sure I am not the only person that has noticed that Hogan and Bischoff have been showcasing some backstage discussion on Impact about who’s “getting over with the fans” and who’s “good for business”. Okay guys, Christopher Daniels was good for business. He was a solid wrestler with a wide range of maneuvers and a legitimate talent for in-ring and promo work, unlike the seven foot two inch tall man with one liquid ounce of brain matter that’s getting pushed as being good enough to take out Hernandez, otherwise known as Matt Morgan.

While there may be some prepubescent children, oblivious teens, and clueless forty year old men watching TNA that will buy this TNA Reaction crap, I—as an educated mark—will not. Call me pretentious. Say I’m no different than any other mark out there if you like, but the reality is, I know when I’m being condescended toward and when my intelligence as a paying fan of professional wrestling is being insulted. These backstage and boardroom jackasses ought to remember that if I stop paing to see their product, they start losing money. There is no wrestling business without the fans, and if you piss the fans off, your business goes down the old crapper.

Apparently, I’m not the only person who is turned off by TNA Reaction. At the very least, there are a lot of other people who just don’t care The first ever installment of TNA’s new show did a 0.3 rating. Which brings me to the ultimate point of this entry.

How the hell does TNA expect to compete with WWE, even with WWE’s newer less tolerable product, when they put crap like this on TV opposite Monday Night Raw? How do they expect to build up new stars, or rejuvenate the careers of old stars when they fire solid workers like Christopher Daniels? Most importantly, what in the blue hell (thank you Dwayne Johnson) was Bob Carter thinking when he put his Hollywood Hannah Montana promoting daughter in charge of the everyday workeigs of a freakingprofessional wrestling company? The wrestling gods (and I most certainly do not mean JBL) need to save us from this utter garbage that we are forced to watch on the national scale right now.

New WWE Stable on the Way

I read recently that WWE is considering putting together a new stable. With the breakup of Legacy—and wasn’t it about time—Randy Orton, Cody
Rhodes, and Ted DiBiase Jr. all have openings for new storylines. What I read is that WWE is considering forming a stable called the Fortunate Sons. The stable will be headed by Ted DiBiase Jr. and comprised of his younger brother Brett DiBiase and Joe Hennig (son of Curt Hennig), who are both currently working with each other in a well-regarded fued in the FCW developmental federation. Of Course, this idea raises a few points with me.

First, what about Cody Rhodes? It is my opinion—and feel free to disagree if you like—that Cody Rhodes may be the best wrestler out of the three men that formerly comprised Legacy. Randy Orton is no prize these days. He may be one of WWe’s top stars but the guyh is made of glass. Randy Orton’s in-ring style has noticeably changed in the past year or so since he returned from his shoulder injury. He spends less time in the rin wrestling and more time slinking around outside the ring jawing with the crowd. His matches are rarely exciting or entertaining anymore. And let’s not forget to mention the fact that the guy is an asshole in the backstage and in his personal life.

Ted DiBiase Jr. may be a very sound technical wrestler, but again, Cody Rhodes has him beat. DiBiase is solid in the ring, but not always very exciting and his promos tend to be long, labored, and downright boring. Which of course raises my second question, why have DiBiase head the faction? Honestly, if I have to endure him getting major promo time, I may shoot myself. He might actually be more boring on the mic than the “new and improved” chris Jericho, and Jericho makes me want to pour acid into my ears lately.

So here’s what’s going on. Randy Orton will be shoved into another high card or main event storyline with another wrestler equally as boring as him, probably John Cena. Ted DiBiase will end up heading the Fortunate Sons and cody Rhodes will get screwed over by the whole deal. This is yet again an example of WWE’s flat out incompetence in managing their roster. Talented guys like Cody Rhodes, Matt Hardy, MVP, and so many others get tossed into mid-card or low-card stories usually meant to push somebody else who’s on their way up, and old geezers and marginally talented hacks get all the damn attention.

Huge Talent, Horrible Booking

All right, it’s been a long ass hiatus. No doubt about that. To be quite frank, I’m not sure that the wrestling business, as far as the big two go, is even worth writing about now that I have the time again.

Today’s topic is, surprise surprise, bad booking. This time let’s talk about bad booking in WWE, since almost all booking in TNA sucks, we won’t even bother with them.

A few months ago, WWE signed Bryan Danielson, the self-proclaimed and very arguably “best wrestler in the world”. After he had signed his contract, it was made known that Danielson would be skipping the developmental FCW federation and going straight onto main WWE programming. I assumed that Smackdown would be a good fit for Danielson. He’s not exactly young, but his style of wrestling fits better with the style of Smackdown, which feels a bit more young than that of Monday night Raw’s cavalcade of old geezers. But no, that wasn’t their choice. Instead they let Danielson sit at home and collect a paycheck. Well, more accurately they let him train at Randy Cotour’s dojo in Las Vegas and collect his paycheck. When the word finally came around that Danielson was to show up on WWE programming, I was extremely excited. And then there was NXT.

Let’s digress to talk a bit about NXt right now. NXt is made up of a bunch of guyhs who have little to no experience under their belts, and it shows. I’m not sure who half these guys are. They sure as hell haven’t had any kind of tenure in the indies. The only established wrestler, and multiple time champion, is Bryan Danielson. These other guys aren’t even in his league. Yet David Otunga gets better friggin booking than Danielson because he’s dating Jennifer Hudson, and Vince wants to get her to work with WWE on some horrible Hollywood angle. What’s friggin new. WWE hasn’t been about wrestling for quite some time now.

So, up to this point, I don’t believe Danielson—or Daniel Bryan if you prefer—has even won a match on NXT. Hell, he hasn’t even gotten enough time in the ring to have a decent match, with the exclusion of his debut against Chris Jericho. So here’s a guy that’s wrestled and defeated guys like Jushin Liger, Takeshi Morishima, Nigel McGuinness (who isn’t being booked a whole hell of a lot better than Danielson is right now), CM Punk, and about a thousand other great guys, yet he’s being booked as a total loser.

Am I the only one who’s feeling the outrage here. Shaimus has the fraggin World Heavyweight Title and Bryan Danielson is losing every match. Shaimus is boring as hell. He’s not fun to watch, and he’s not a very damn good wrestler either. But still, he’s the push that Danielson deserves.

All I want, is for once, just once, to have the bookers in WWE get their heads out of their fat lazy asses.

Pro Wrestling Tragedy

As seems so frequent in the past few years, the world of professional wrestling has lost another great performer. The founder of Pro Wrestling NOAH and former Tiger Mask II, Mitsuharu Misawa has died today. He died this morning. What is currently apparent is that Misawa collapsed in a match yesterday after receiving a suplex. The suspected cause of death is a heart attack.