Match of the Month: December

WCW debuted Shane Douglas and Johnny Ace as tag team of skateboarders known as The Dynamic Dudes. Since neither Ace nor Douglas knew how to skateboard, the fans saw through the gimmick and refused to buy into it. Jim Cornette, who was managing The Midnight Express (Bobby Eaton and Stan Lane) at the time, decided to manage the duo to help them get over. When Eaton and Lane did not approve, they forced a match between the two teams with Cornette remaining neutral at ringside. He ended up turning on Douglas and Ace and the teams feuded for a couple of months. The Cornette turn was to have established The Dynamic Dudes as a top babyface tag team, but the turn backfired and made The Midnight Express more popular than they already were.







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I'm not dead

Man, ECW is still way better than TNA. I don't mean to be the typical antagonist, but I had a hard time watching TNA Thursday night. Here's what I got: Jim Cornette has some announcements that will change the face of wrestling, it involves Samoa Joe, Sting, and Kurt Angle, and they'll wrestle each other tonight? No? I've heard that's the format the TV tends to follow every week. I believe there was seven minutes of combined wrestling time on this show.

I've always been a fan who leans more towards the wrestling side rather than the entertainment side, so ECW's Tuesday night show was a real treat. They had the ECW World Title on a pedestal at ringside, with each participant in the tournament walking by, looking at it, touching it, the entire time the commentators are putting over how important the championship is. I loved it.

Last night, I saw a fantastic Matt Hardy-Finlay match. Is anyone more ready for a main event run than Matt Hardy? I can remember his feud with Rey Mysterio carrying the show a few years back and no one has looked better in recent memory. I thought Jeff's return would hamper Matt, but it really made both of them superstars again. Here's to hoping Matt gets a nice, long main event run. And isn't it perfect timing that Edge is the World Champion on his brand?

Wrestling for me, personally, has been going well. I've opened my own company, Pro Wrestling Dynasty (http://www.myspace.com/pwdynasty) and I've been keeping busy with shows all over Florida and Georgia. You can check out my own MySpace @ myspace.com/daronsmythe.

I miss ya buddy. More on This Story...

TNA: Wasted Opportunity

Wasted Opportunity. That is what TNA should have called Impact last night. Now don't get me wrong, I thought Impact was very good last night, one of the best of the year thus far. TNA did a lot of things right last night. Most importantly they got the wrestling right. Yeah, there were three crap finishes but the matches before the finishes were actually really good. The promos didn't run on too long and were funny and entertaining while advancing the story lines but they primarily focused on the wrestling.

But they missed an opportunity to do something which just isn't done much anymore. They missed the chance to have a major title change hands on prime time television. For too long now, both in the WWE and TNA, title changes have been reserved for pay-per view events. Yeah, every once in a while a belt changes hands but it doesn't happen often and when it does the fed plays down the title change. Last night TNA had a great opportunity to do something special and advance the storyline going into the Sacrifice PPV. Yet they screwed the pooch.

Do I think Sting should be holding the number one contender's slot when it is pretty apparent they want him working with the younger guys to help them get over? No. But they made their bed at Lockdown by having him get the win, so why not advance your storyline in a positive manner? I mean they set it up perfectly. Angle and Sting attempt to settle their differences the old fashioned way. Christian and gang interferes, brutalizing Angle. Cornette then books the title match for the main event that very night.

By having Sting win the belt on Impact would turn some heads. But instead they take the well worn path and have Angle interfere allowing Christian to keep the belt. This sets up their triple threat match for Sacrifice, which leaked only a couple of days after Lockdown. But if Sting had won the title the triple threat match could still have been had and I think it would have been much better. Bear with me a moment longer and let's say Sting won the title. Sting offers Angle the title shot based on the events from Impact. Christian complains he should get his rematch. And poof, there is your triple threat match and it comes off of a nice gesture to the fans as well but instead we get more of the same. What a waste.

On a side note, the man who boils my blood, Jeff Jarrett got his largest crowd pop in years when he came out to help Eric Young and the guitar shot on Ms. Brooks was priceless. If they plan on having Double J work with the younger stars, much like their plan for Sting, then I think even I may be able to stomach him. More on This Story...

From the Vault: The Flair/Foley Nightmare

8/01/06: Mick Foley has the creative leeway to say pretty much whatever he wants, as evidenced by his promo a few years ago where if you don't hold a title in the WWE, there is something wrong with you, said in ring on Raw.

Foley's current promo's do irreversable career damage to Flair. Flair doesn't get less old, broke down, or washed up when this feud is over.

The problem?

Flair is the babyface.

Foley is putting himself back over hard at the expense of the angle and at the expense of what's left of Flair's career. Why does this make him the best promo guy ever?

Foley has had some entertaining nights on the stick, I will not deny. However, to call him the best of all time is irresponsible. You think Foley is the only one that can come up with good shit to say nowadays? No. He's just one of the only ones left with the ok to say it.

When he essentially shot on Flair, Flair was left in the ring like a wounded dog. The next week, Foley used that vulnerability against Flair. Why was Flair only able to come up with Fat Boy? I dunno that he had any idea the verbal assault that he was about to receive.

And to be honest, half of wrestling fans are not internet smarks. Just because Foley's book is a best seller doesn't mean every wrestling fan read it. I know guys that go to WWE shows TODAY that think they will see Austin and the Rock.

Shoot promos get over with a certain audience, but because you are allowed to make them and it satiates the Internet Wrestling Community, that doesn't make you a great talker.

Great talkers are the guys that used the stick to get them somewhere in the business.

Hogan
Flair
HBK
Austin
The Rock
Triple H

Hell, then you had the guys that said absolutely nothing that ever made sense, but people listened:

Warrior
Savage
Sid
Vader
Dusty Rhodes

Then on top of that, you have the guys that could just flat out talk. Talk about wrestling, talk about matches, and make you care.

Rick Rude
Jake Roberts
Ted Dibiase
Curt Hennig

Then you had the managers:

Cornette
Heenan

Who did more to get the story and the emotion where it needed to be than those guys?

I think Foley stomps on his ability to cut promos every week nowadays, because he cut some of the best ever, but now he is simply a patsy of the internet, and in every promo he cuts, I hear him begging for the internet's approval. Foley has never had any self-esteem in the business, because he knows deep down that his stunts did get him to the top.

He is truly one of the all time greats, but the more he begs for our acceptance, the more he brings himself off the pedestal and back on our level.

I think that it's a telling sign for the current state of the product when last night's verbal showdown between Flair and Foley is so critically acclaimed.

Foley again flip-flops and puts under Flair. Flair is incoherent and babbly. I much prefer the limousine riding, jet flying cocky son of a bitch to this crazy heart attack having old man.

It seems when Flair and Foley and Funk for that matter are out there, they have a general outline, but ALWAYS forget where the hell they are going. Flair will start yelling and screaming just to make sure someone is saying something. Foley appears to be waiting for the cue that never comes. Finally Flair remembers, oh Melina.

That sets off the Foley family man comments 5 minutes after they should have originally come.

Don't get me wrong, they are two of the best. I mean that. I just don't see last night as the magic moment that many others seem to.

I think they are two men who believe their own hype. Foley is tearing down Flair's legacy, but Flair is doing business and actually building Foley's further.

I am happy that they are getting fans into their future encounter, but am worried when the talent that the WWE actually needs to propel them into the future is losing time to very long and often multiple promo segments between Flair and Foley.

These aren't classic promos by old standards. They are just way above the low bar set by current superstars.

The fact that Foley ever referred to anyone in the industry as an "imaginary badass" exposes the business. It was cool to hear Flair tout legends that normally don't get their due on WWE TV, but that a good promo does not make.

We all will have our differing opinions. My personal opinion is that if this promo is at any other time when the business is up, and if any of those other great talkers we mentioned are anywhere insight, we look at this as being long, unfocused, and probably a 6 or 7 out of 10.

At points, Flair seemed like a deer in the headlights. Luckily he has his crazy old man act to fall back on.

At one time, diamonds were forever, and so was Ric Flair. This program with Foley has shown that perhaps Flair's time is running short. More on This Story...