A belated Merry Christmas to you all, as this week's Two Sheds On TV takes a look at wrestling television programming over the festive period.
WWE
With the Raw crew taking extra time off for Christmas, this week's edition looked back at some of the best moments from the past year, with some great matches and moments. Match wise, Michaels v Benoit v Triple H from Wrestlemania XX will probably go down as the best match from the Raw brand, with the first Shelton Benjamin v Triple H match a close second. As for skits, while I can understand why the Kane/Lita wedding was show, because it was very popular with the fans, why choose the Diva Search as one of the highlights when it was universally panned by both the press and the fans?
Smackdown was also a best of show this week, which meant that once again British fans didn't get to see the action in Iraq, and although I enjoyed looking back on Smackdown's year, I would have preferred to see the Iraqi show.
Mention must also be made of Triple H's appearance on Late Night with Conan O'Brien. Trip was there to discuss his new fitness book, and his role in the new Blade film. The best moment was when he discussed Hulk Hogan's previous achievements in the cinematic world.
American Independents
The TWC Spotlight show was a repeat of the WXW/WWF Yokozuna tribute show. A good show nonetheless, but it would have been good to see a new show. When TWC programme director Sean Herbert announced the Spotlight show, he said that he had tapes from about thirty promotions to show. So far we've seen Irish Whip Wrestling (twice), Reto Mexican Wrestling (twice), WXW (America, twice), WXW (Germany), Dory Funk's !Bang! TV show, and Live Action Wrestling. So hopefully we'll see something new soon.
As TWC Bloodbath advertised a match featuring Necro Butcher v Mad Man Pondo v Corporal Robinson in a thumbtack death match I decided to give the show a wide berth this week.
Sadly, as TWC's current repeats policy means that the indy stuff has all been seen before, there's not much new action on this front.
Japan
This week's action from the Orient came from Eurosport, and K1's show from Saitama last May. An enjoyable MMA show with good performances from the likes of Josh Barnett and Shinzuke Nakemura. But this event is remembered the most for Bob Sapp's crushing first round defeat to Kazayuki Fujita. It was after losing this bout that Sapp relinquished the IWGP title, tucked his tail between his legs and ran back home to America. As you may have guessed I'm still not impressed by Sapp, and it will take a great deal more to get me to jump aboard the Beast's bandwagon.
A light hearted moment once again came from GAEA's Sakura Hirota, who once again did a spot on parody of her opponent, the great Meiko Satomura. You have to wonder what's next for GAEA's clown princess of comedy.
Great Britain
Sadly no new U.K. Round-Up show this week. Maybe Don Charles has been using his free time to learn some new catch phrases.
The FWA Academy profiled the other half of the Mills & James tag-team, Harry Mills. All together a better show than last week. These kind of shows are far better when just one wrestler is profiled.
Probably because it was Christmas Day, World of Sport showed repeats of last week's shows. Nothing new to report here then.
On the subject of British wrestling, if you haven't read my recent review of the FWA's "When Thunder Strikes" show from April 2001, then log onto my website at www.twoshedsreview.com and go to the Show & Video Reviews section.
Supercard Sunday
This week's show was a delight to watch, as we were presented with Ring of Honor's second ever show, the Round Robin Challenge, which among other things saw Low Ki, Christopher Daniels and American Dragon square off in a one-night tournament. This was a great way to look at the early days of this innovative promotion, and one of the best Supercards of recent weeks. TWC may be failing in some aspects, but it's still scoring with it's Supercard shows.
Highlight of the week goes to the Best of Raw, which gave us another look at the classic three way dance from Wrestlemania XX.
Lowlight of the week goes to the lack of new U.K. Round-Up or World of Sport shows, but I'll let them off as it's Christmas time.
And now a new award, Wrestler of the Week. The first award goes to Japanese star Kazayuki Fujita, for his brutal demolition of Bob Sapp during Eurosport's Fight Club show.
That's it for the festive period. I'll be back next week with a look at wrestling on television over the new year period.
WWE
With the Raw crew taking extra time off for Christmas, this week's edition looked back at some of the best moments from the past year, with some great matches and moments. Match wise, Michaels v Benoit v Triple H from Wrestlemania XX will probably go down as the best match from the Raw brand, with the first Shelton Benjamin v Triple H match a close second. As for skits, while I can understand why the Kane/Lita wedding was show, because it was very popular with the fans, why choose the Diva Search as one of the highlights when it was universally panned by both the press and the fans?
Smackdown was also a best of show this week, which meant that once again British fans didn't get to see the action in Iraq, and although I enjoyed looking back on Smackdown's year, I would have preferred to see the Iraqi show.
Mention must also be made of Triple H's appearance on Late Night with Conan O'Brien. Trip was there to discuss his new fitness book, and his role in the new Blade film. The best moment was when he discussed Hulk Hogan's previous achievements in the cinematic world.
American Independents
The TWC Spotlight show was a repeat of the WXW/WWF Yokozuna tribute show. A good show nonetheless, but it would have been good to see a new show. When TWC programme director Sean Herbert announced the Spotlight show, he said that he had tapes from about thirty promotions to show. So far we've seen Irish Whip Wrestling (twice), Reto Mexican Wrestling (twice), WXW (America, twice), WXW (Germany), Dory Funk's !Bang! TV show, and Live Action Wrestling. So hopefully we'll see something new soon.
As TWC Bloodbath advertised a match featuring Necro Butcher v Mad Man Pondo v Corporal Robinson in a thumbtack death match I decided to give the show a wide berth this week.
Sadly, as TWC's current repeats policy means that the indy stuff has all been seen before, there's not much new action on this front.
Japan
This week's action from the Orient came from Eurosport, and K1's show from Saitama last May. An enjoyable MMA show with good performances from the likes of Josh Barnett and Shinzuke Nakemura. But this event is remembered the most for Bob Sapp's crushing first round defeat to Kazayuki Fujita. It was after losing this bout that Sapp relinquished the IWGP title, tucked his tail between his legs and ran back home to America. As you may have guessed I'm still not impressed by Sapp, and it will take a great deal more to get me to jump aboard the Beast's bandwagon.
A light hearted moment once again came from GAEA's Sakura Hirota, who once again did a spot on parody of her opponent, the great Meiko Satomura. You have to wonder what's next for GAEA's clown princess of comedy.
Great Britain
Sadly no new U.K. Round-Up show this week. Maybe Don Charles has been using his free time to learn some new catch phrases.
The FWA Academy profiled the other half of the Mills & James tag-team, Harry Mills. All together a better show than last week. These kind of shows are far better when just one wrestler is profiled.
Probably because it was Christmas Day, World of Sport showed repeats of last week's shows. Nothing new to report here then.
On the subject of British wrestling, if you haven't read my recent review of the FWA's "When Thunder Strikes" show from April 2001, then log onto my website at www.twoshedsreview.com and go to the Show & Video Reviews section.
Supercard Sunday
This week's show was a delight to watch, as we were presented with Ring of Honor's second ever show, the Round Robin Challenge, which among other things saw Low Ki, Christopher Daniels and American Dragon square off in a one-night tournament. This was a great way to look at the early days of this innovative promotion, and one of the best Supercards of recent weeks. TWC may be failing in some aspects, but it's still scoring with it's Supercard shows.
Highlight of the week goes to the Best of Raw, which gave us another look at the classic three way dance from Wrestlemania XX.
Lowlight of the week goes to the lack of new U.K. Round-Up or World of Sport shows, but I'll let them off as it's Christmas time.
And now a new award, Wrestler of the Week. The first award goes to Japanese star Kazayuki Fujita, for his brutal demolition of Bob Sapp during Eurosport's Fight Club show.
That's it for the festive period. I'll be back next week with a look at wrestling on television over the new year period.
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