Sunday 1 August 2004

28th July-1st August 2004

Wednesday, 28th July, 2004:

A late start this week because of my commitments to a certain wrestling company. My first viewing this week is of TNA's weekly show, putting the NWA's finest against their Mexican counterparts from AAA.

What was an exciting format and tournament was for me spoiled by the segments involving Jeff Jarrett and his quest to discover who the new Director of Authority was. Jarrett's interuption of Team AAA's celebrations detracted not obnly from the tournament but from the show as a whole.

Thursday, 29th July, 2004:

A lazy hot day gave me the opportunity to catch up on this week's Shoot Interview with Steve Corino.

It turned out to be better than I thought. Corino's views and stories of his time in the business were very interesting, and I find myself looking forward to part two of this interview.

A few hours later and it was time for my weekly dose of Frontier Wrestling Alliance action. While I don't want to sound like I'm kissing up to my paymasters here (although I'm still waiting for my first pay cheque), Greg Lambert is certainly showing signs of improvement these days, although he's not in the Jim Cornette league yet.

But the real reason I wanted to watch this show was the match between Doug Williams and D'Lo Brown. This match had received mixed reviews from those in attendance, and it if it was as bad as people say, all I can say is that the editing team did a fine job here. To me, it didn't look that bad.

With nothing else to watch, I stayed tuned to TWC for CZW's Fake You TV. I wished I hadn't. It was show filled with idiots and morons being slammed through light tubes and televisions. One match involved a stipulation that to win you had to staple thirteen ten dollar bills to your opponent.

This was not wrestling. In fact, to me this sort of trash is only a few degrees above backyard wrestling. People criticise the WWE a great deal these days, but I'd rather watch Vince McMahon's product than some of the crap CZW promotes as wrestling.

The strange thing is, compared to CZW, I actually enjoyed what 3PW were showing tonight.

Friday, 30th July, 2004;

It seems that the Bagpipe Report may have turned a corner. Four weeks into it's run, I tuned in thirty minutes into the show, and I was impressed.

Blake Norton seemed far more comfortable this weeek than he has done in previous weeks, and this week's studio guest, A.J. Styles, unlike Doug Williams and Mo Chatra, seemed really comfortable in front of the camera. An all together improved outing this week.

Following the Bagpipe, we had an example of how bigger isn't always better. During this week's New Japan show, we were treated to a six-man tag featuring the Machine team, representing the anti-New Japan Makai Club.

Super Strong Machine, a twenty year veteran of the grappling game, was the star of his team, showing a great deal of skill. I can't say the same for his partners though, Big New Machine and Big Dumb Machine.

At first, I thought the seven foot tall Big New was in fact Big Lazy himself, Kevin Nash. But the fact that this guy could actually walk around the ring without injuring himself made me think otherwise.

The really big man of the team really left a lot to be desired. He was slow, plodding, and showed a very limited amount of skill. In short (perhaps the wrong phrase to use here) this man clearly didn't belong in the ring.

You have to wonder what Hiroyoshi Tenzen, who had lost the IWGP title just seven weeks before, had done to deserve being put in the ring with an abmination like this.

Of course, I must make mention of the shoot-style contest between Josh Barnett and my main MMA man, Ken Shamrock. Great to see the world's most dangerous man in the ring again.

Then it was on to Raw, and the much-hyped Iron Man match between Chris Benoit and Triple H. But before were were forced to endure the next stage of the Raw Diva Contest. Despite the fact that we're being fed a bevy of gorgeous beauties, I can't get into this. I have to admit the segment involving the wannabes chatting up Kamala was funny at times.

When we finally got to the match intself, my overall view was that while the match itself was good, it's not the best Iron Man match I've seen. Last year's Smackdown encounter between Lesnar and Angle just shaded it in my opinion.

But the return of Eugene was handled quite well. For a while it looked as if Triple H was going to walk away with the title for the ninth time, but thankfully, he didn't. It now means that we can look forward to two new pay-per-view matches at Summerslam. Chris Benoit v Randy Orton promises to be a belter.

Saturday, 31st July, 2004:

It seems that I've spent the past few days watching old WWF stars on television. Last night I saw Ken Shamrock & Haku on the New Japan show. Then we saw Kamala on Raw. This afternoon saw an appearance by a man most fans of my age will remember only as a second-string WWF announcer, Judo Al Hayes.

I have to admit I had never made any attempt to find out about Al's previous wrestling career, but it was good to see him in action.

Later we saw a man finally win a title he should have been given years ago.

For the greater part of his WWE career, Spike Dudley has been little more than a punching bag. Apart from a brief reign as a tag-team champion with Tazz, and a brief non pay-per-vioew feud with then champion Steve Austin, LSD has always been cast in the role of the underdog, when he was literally crying out for a slot in the Cruiserweight division.

His transfer from Raw to Smackdown looked like he would finally get his chance to shine alongside wrestlers of a similiar stature, and after a stop-star kind of career, Spike's finally made it, defeating Rey Mysterio, albeit with a little help from his brothers, for the WWE Cruiserweight title.

Could it be that Little Spike has finally found his niche. I really hope so., as I would like to see a re-match with Mysterio soon, one that will hopefully come to a natural conclusion without the aid of a certain tag team.

Sunday, 1st August, 2004;

It's Supercard Sunday time again, as this week we're presented with IWA Mid-South's Simply The Best 5, from this past April.

I was a little disappointed with the last IWA Supercard, but as I'm always willing to give something a second chance, I sat down in front of my television in eager anticipation.

This show was okay. Not the best show I've seen, but okay, with a couple of good matches involving TNA regulars, with A.J. Styles going up against Matt Sydal, and the masked Delirious squaring off against Mr. Reliability, Jerry Lynn.

I have to admit forming a rye smile during the final match of the show, a tables match featuring Wifebeater and Corporal Robinsons. Robinson's attempts to slam Wifebeater through what seemed to be an unbreakable table certainly made for interesting viewing. It just goes to show that not everything goes to plan.

Highlight of the Week - Spike Dudley finally winning the title he should have won years ago.

Lowlight of the Week - Combat Zone Wrestling. This wasn't wrestling, it was glorified, unlicensed stuntwork.

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