Linda's Thoughts - What A Great Week!

Posted by Linda Robin on 07/24/04 at 04:39 AM

Impact and Smackdown ended my week on a very high note. This is one of those columns I just can’t wait to write. Naturally I will start with Impact and finish with Smack down. This has been one of the best weeks for wrestling fans, starting with Raw and ending with Impact.


I’m slow I admit it; see today I realized that Impact is the show that sets up TNA’s big Wednesday’s pay per view so beautifully. If I wasn’t so cheap I would love to see next week’s show. The line up looks amazing. And as amazing as it looks I just can’t see dishing out $10.00. But that’s okay because I saw some amazing matches today on Impact. AJ Styles opened up the show with a super match against Jerelle Clark. Damn this was good. I don’t recall seeing Clark before and let me tell you I was very impressed with him. But AJ? He’s just like magic in the ring. What a performance he put on. This match definitely set the tone for what was to come.
I might not like Goldilocks, but Alex Shelley and Abyss definitely get my approval. I can’t tell you how much I enjoyed watching them take on Abismo Negro and Aguila. Of course Mr. Aguila will always be Essa Rios too me. But this was a typical good Impact match, by that I mean fast moving, some high flying moves and chemistry. It seems like the majority of matches that are seen on Impact come off so well because there seems to be great chemistry amongst the workers. There have been very few matches since I’ve been watching where a match comes off bad because the wrestlers just don’t work well against each other. Now that kind of fits with Monty Brown basically beating the hell out of Antonio Banks. I know that Brown is being pushed hard to challenge Jeff Jarrett for the title. But Brown hasn’t done a thing for me so far and this was my worst match of the show. And no it wasn’t a disaster I just didn’t see much to this one.

Now Sonjay Dutt, Chris Sabin, Mikey Batts, and Red vs. Team Canada (Petey Williams, Johnny Devine, Bobby Rude and Eric Young) W/ Scott D’Amore was OUTSTANDING! The timing by each guy was great and when I saw Dutt, Sabin, Batts and Amazing Red hit hurricaranas at the same time against Team Canada my mouth just hung open. What a fantastic match, and again this match just proved that TNA has some super young talent and because of that talent Impact comes off better and better each week. It was a treat seeing Raven work a match today against Romeo. Poor Romeo he didn’t have a chance. Raven came out to prove a point, and that was to let Sabu know that Raven has arrived. Sabu then came out and Raven slapped Sabu. Sabu retaliated by jumping on Raven and then the two went at it. I have to say I sure liked watching these two even though it was short. It was also nice seeing Jeff Jarrett and Shark Boy in the main event. Now I’m not a big Jarrett fan and I really hate to hear him talk, but wrestling on Impact definitely agrees with me. Shark Boy and Jarrett really got the fans going, as well as the announcers. Jarrett went crazy with chair shots and Shark Boy made a quick comeback by jumping onto Jarrett and biting him. This was one great brawl. But wait there was more, Jeff Hardy shows up after being called out by Jarrett. Let’s see Shark Boy gets up but goes right back down thanks to a guitar shot to the head. Hardy comes into the ring and the King of the Mountain and Hardy go at it. And finally Monty Brown takes out Jeff. Impact won me over again; I have yet to watch a show that wasn’t just about perfect.

And speaking of perfect, no Smackdown wasn’t but it was damn good. Let me start off by saying I thought Kurt Angle hogged the show last night. However I will let it slide because each segment he was in and to do with a firing and those firings led to a very good final segment between Angle and Vince McMahon. I will get into more of Vince and Kurt in a little bit. I will touch briefly on the matches because there are two out of ring segments that I want to spend a little more time talking about. Smackdown like Impact opened the show with an awesome match, Spike Dudley vs. Chavo Guerrero vs. Jamie Noble. The winner faces Rey Mysterio next week for the Cruiserweight Title. Spike won but really all the fans won because Noble, Chavo and Spike gave their all and again showed why Smackdown needs to focus more on this division. Bubba Ray Dudley defeated Billy Kidman in another strong match. I love it that they are putting Kidman and Paul London on weekly and I’m just hoping that they keep the belts after they put them on line next week against The Dudley’s. Another Dudley also had a cruiserweight for an opponent, Rey Mysterio. This was just what you would expect with Rey in there. He definitely kept D-Von on his toes and this was another pleasant one to watch. Finally, John Cena vs. Luther Reigns was my least favorite. Again not a horrible match but Luther seems just a little stiff out there and I definitely didn’t feel any chemistry at all. But all in all Smackdown delivered with their matches.

Some of the negatives not only included too much Kurt, but John Cena’s rap about Luther was not one of his best. The diva’s Torrie, Dawn, Jackie and Sable did a poor job begging Kurt for a shot on TV. The commercial with Paul Heyman trying real hard to make us care about John Heindenreich did NOTHING for me at all. But none of these things ruined the show for me because John Bradshaw Layfield, Undertaker, Kurt Angle and Vince McMahon gave Smackdown that old feeling. You know that feeling that when the show is over not only did you love the ending, but you can’t wait until next week’s show. Last night Smackdown made me feel like the veterans were shining and that the show finally had some direction. Unlike Raw, two matches were made for Summerslam last night. Taker vs. JBL and Kurt Angle vs. Eddie Guerrero. While I thought JBL wrestling a jobber was lame JBL was outstanding with his mic work again and his interaction with Taker. When Taker faced JBL in the ring and challenged him to a Summerslam match, JBL’s reply was a quick it can’t happen because JBL’s opponent will be Shannon Moore. Oh yeah this was good and Taker ending things by chokeslamming Bradshaw just capped things off.

And finally Vince McMahon coming out to a fantastic reaction from the Philadelphia fans was a pleasant surprise. And when Vince fired Kurt for lying about his injury Angle reacted like the Angle of old. A weasel but a cowardly weasel. He was the Kurt Angle that added so much to any show he was on. Oh yes Smackdown had a feeling a very positive feeling and boy I sure hope that it’s going to continue.

Email lvaccarp@hotmail.com





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