Linda's Thoughts - SD/Impact Both Winners

Posted by Linda Robin on 08/28/04 at 04:25 AM

Oh I’m really happy to be doing this column tonight. I just got done watching Impact and wow what an improvement from last week. I can’t say enough about this show. And last night’s Smackdown? I have one word for that show – SUPERB! I will get to that show in a little bit, but now it’s time to talk about one hell of an edition of Impact.

As I said Impact was so damn good today. Last week I bitched about it a lot, but today it was like watching
the super shows from weeks ago. The first match started with Chris Harris vs. Chris Daniels. This was a great opening
match and one where the fans really got into it the more they match went on. Like AJ Styles, TNA was also extremely
Fortunate to grab Daniels. And Harris? He’s right up there as well, just one hell of a good match. It went the full 10
minutes without a winner. And it was so damn good that even Larry Zbyszko found it hard to name the winner.
And he announced that on Wednesday it will be Triple X vs. The Naturals vs. America’s Most Wanted. The next
match again really appealed to me, it was The Amazing Red, Chris Sabin and Sonjay Dutt vs. Eddie Villia, John McChesney and Cassidy O’Reilly. Now I’m not familiar with O’Reilly and McChesney, but with Red, Sabin and Dutt in there you just new this was a can’t miss match. So far Impact is doing one of things it should be doing showcasing some of their very bright talent. Impacts Team Canada is far more enjoyable to watch then La Resistance ever was. While Dusty Rhodes popping up on every show doesn’t appeal to me his feud with Scott D’Amore and the rest of Team Canada gets a passing grade as far as I’m concerned. The pre match was more the focus then the match itself. Dusty gave a few of his bionic elbows out to

Scott and the guys which brought out Russo. He had Rhodes escorted out. Now the match consisted of Bobby Roode, Johnny Devine, Eric Young, and Petey Williams the X Division champion w/coach Scott D’amore. They took on Rod Steel, Bruce Steele, Mikey Batts and Jerrelle Clark. This match really never took place due to the Rhodes stuff so I can’t really comment on it, but I had no problem with this. All of
it was short enough so it’s not like it just dragged on. Abyss took on Sonny Siaki and again short but an okay match. I think what is really being done here is Abyss’s days seem to be numbered with Goldilocks. Let’s face it Abyss is no Alex Shelley and he is starting to look like he’s almost out of the picture. I’m just waiting for Abyss to eat Goldilocks up and spit her right out. Jeff Jarrett again showed up squashed Frankie Capone and that’s the end of that. Impact ended on a positive note. My guy Kazarian accompanied by Michael Shane and Tracey facing off against Jeff Hardy. I don’t know about you but I really would have liked to have seen this go on a lot longer. Now maybe I’m way off here and believe me it’s possible, but Hardy didn’t seem to be really in this match. His moves came off rather weak, so weak that there were times that Kazarian had to put a little extra into making Hardy look like he was definitely a threat. But that’s okay, because Impact totally won me over. I look forward to next weeks show.

This is so weird I put on Smackdown last night and I saw wrestling. Yeah 5 wrestling matches. I guess I’m not used to watching more than two matches when it comes to WWE programming. Hmm that’s my little dig dealing with Raw’s two match show this past Monday. Smackdown not only had five matches but the show was excellent. There are so few negatives to talk about but I’m just going to take the show in order and just go right into it.

What a super way to open the show with Eddie Guerrero being duped by Kurt Angle. Eddie was out to get Angle after last weeks show when Kurt covered Eddie’s low rider with paint. No wonder Eddie took Kurt up on his challenge to meet him in the parking lot. And as they came together Kurt several times told Eddie not to touch his car. Naturally that just made Eddie want to destroy it that much more and that’s just what Eddie did. As this was going on Kurt and Luther Reigns drove off in another car and Theodore Long came out with security. Long was in agony after seeing “his” car ruined by Eddie. Eddie had no idea that Angle lied. Long had Eddie taken out by security. It was a fun opening segment and Long’s anguish over his damaged car was quite enjoyable. Long so far is proving to be a good GM for the show. I have no complaints at all about him.

The first match of the show was Kenzo Suzuki vs. Rob Van Dam. This match was good only because of the hard work RVD put into it. I’m sorry but Kenzo doesn’t do it for me in the ring at all. While the man makes some interesting facial expressions, and seems to the some humor his wrestling lacks a lot. As I said last week, RVD would have to carry Suzuki’s ass during this feud and that’s just what he did. I’m glad Rob won but I wasn’t glad to see Renee Dupree come out and team up with Kenzo against RVD once the match ended. Dupree has definitely worn out his welcome with me. For all you JBL fans that had confidence in him and I responded by saying you have to be kidding me, I must bow to your feet. Well that’s a little dramatic but I love the guy. Maybe not as the WWE champion but when it comes to humor his character has just progressed so well. It’s like now I can’t wait to watch him on Smackdown. And last night he didn’t let me down. When Teddy was almost crying over his car the limo pulled up with Bradshaw and Orlando Jordan, whom by the way with JBL is doing a nice job, I’m okay with Jordan as well. Anyway JBL comes out of the limo with the neck brace, the halo and the chest protector and his still griping over what Taker did to him. The more JBL kept complaining the angrier an already angry Long got and made a title match with JBL vs. Undertaker. Of course JBL’s “health” wouldn’t allow that. So Long put Orlando in the match instead and if Jordan won the title stayed with JBL, should Taker win Taker is the new champion. Sure this was ridiculous. But for those that don’t read the spoilers it certainly seemed that Taker was a shoe in for the victory.

The next match was Billy Kidman vs. Chavo, Jr. I don’t know how many of you read that Chavo was believed to be seriously hurt after Kidman did the Shooting Star Press. As you could see it looked like Kidman’s knee landed right on Chavo’s forehead. And as soon as that happened Chavo’s body went stiff. You could see that Billy looked quiet concerned. All of this was quite eerie to see and the latest reports are that he’s doing good it was a concussion but his injury wasn’t as serious as they first thought. Thank God for that. The match was done very well up until that ending. Noble and London in the corner of each of their tag team partners added to this match. This was the start of some excellent matches to come. Now we are back to the parking lot and Angle and Reigns come back and Angle tries to play “dumb” with Long acting like he didn’t know what happened. Ah but Long was wise and knew Angle was full of BS. This got very funny when Angle then said no big deal the car was probably owned my some crew member and he and Luther started to make fun of the car. Good stuff here. Long then informed them that this was his car and Angle then got his punishment. Next week it’s going to be a 2 out of 3 falls match against Eddie Guerrero. How cool is that going to be to watch? But there was more he was given a match with Rey Mysterio later in the show. Kurt bitched about it not being fair, but Teddy wasn’t giving in. Luther got his too as he was leaving to go with Kurt Long put him on clean up duty since he was in it with Kurt. Naturally Luther was livid. Again Smackdown is coming off strong in and out of the ring.

Now it’s the Second of the Best of Five Series. John Cena with one win so far and Booker go at it. I thought this was a far better match than what we saw at Summer Slam. Both of these guys seemed to be into this totally. Book won, of course he cheated by putting his feet on the rope, but he won. This definitely came off entertaining and now the series is tied 1-1 with the next match happening in Australia where the Smackdown crew is this weekend. Okay I don’t know about you but this next segment didn’t do a thing for me. Yeah my guy Paul Heyman was in the ring being interviewed by Josh Matthews. And Heyman was his usual outstanding self by talking about how the last time we saw him he was on his knees begging for Taker’s forgiveness. But now he has backup and guard dog and out comes Heindenreich. Now I found Brock’s appearance threatening, I find Batista’s appearance threatening, Kane and Big Show look threatening, but Heindenreich doesn’t fit that “threatening” mode. Why? Because watching him attack Josh Matthews is nothing more than another big guy over powering a smaller guy so no I’m not jumping on the Heindenreich wagon as of now.

The match of the night? It was Rey Mysterio and Kurt Angle giving the fans one outstanding performance. Man this was great. I love watching Rey and Kurt as opponents. Kurt again looked fantastic and Rey was just as terrific. It’s so good to have Kurt back where he belongs and that’s in the ring. Kurt beat Rey but Rey put up a great fight. This was definitely a must see match! Before the main event JBL was at it again. In the locker-room with Jordan JBL did all he could to try to uplift a very nervous Jordan about defeating Taker. This was a riot. First JBL with a smile asked Orlando how many main events he’s been in. When Jordan said none, JBL’s smile disappeared so fast his facial expressions were great. So then JBL comes back with well then you are fresh, he tried to make things better. And then when Jordan said wearing the champion belt would make him more confident a reluctant JBL gave in told him to be the champion he is and then added, “Don’t forget to bring my belt back.” When Jordan left JBL said he was screwed. This by far was one of the funniest and best segments of the night. And the main event wasn’t bad. Jordan did a nice job out there, JBL manage to stick his two cents into the match and Taker came through as well. Taker won on a DQ thanks to JBL’s interference. I have to say what I liked better than this match was when JBL retrieved his title and turned and he was face to face with Taker. I loved this, and then Taker took off JBL’S gear and proceeded to take care of him end the show with Taker giving JBL a nice and deserving choke slam what more could you ask for. As I said this was one fantastic show. My real beef? Michael Cole. He was so out of control with his high pitched yelling that I really wish they would try to find a replacement for him. These last two weeks he’s been back to being just plain horrible. And I want to end with Carlito Caribbean Cool. Carlito seems to have charisma but as of late these ads mean nothing to me. Let’s see what he has once he shows up and wrestles.

Okay I will be back on Sunday but I’m not quite sure what I will talk about. There is one thing about a-would-be diva that is in a little bit of trouble. But I’ll keep you in suspense for a couple of days. Now this has nothing to do with wrestling but I’m so excited that I just wanted to share this with you. Tomorrow night I’m going to see Metallica. I have that same feeling like when I go to a WWE live show that’s how hyped I am. And like wrestling I got into Metallica just a few years ago thanks to my son. I’m going with my son and his girlfriend. I will be a metal head for a night, oh those poor kids!

Email lvaccarp@hotmail.com

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