This two disc DVD set compiles all four weekly live shows that were performed in the UK during April 2010. This is a poor excuse to release a DVD set and in my opinion is simply the WWE patriotically manipulating the good people who live in the UK.
First question:
Why not just record these shows off the television onto a DVD recorder or VHS player, if you are indeed that desperate to own them?
Second question:
Why include bonus materials that make the public aware of how much better professional wrestling was in the 1980’s?
Disc 1
Anyway, let’s get stuck in. I didn’t remember anything about this Raw apart from David Hasselhoff being the special guest host and upon watching it a second time I realized why.
After the Hoff gets a surprisingly good reception from the hopefully very polite English audience, we move onto our first match, Maurice vs. Eve Torres in a Divas championship match. This match is very average consisting of one high spot in the form of a moonsault which leads to a roll up pin and a championship change. How peculiar, the belt has changed hands on Raw, this is only the first match, this is going to be great. Wrong! Having a Divas championship belt change hands via the curtain jerker of Raw means two things. Firstly, Raw have already done something in which could be construed as exciting, this allows them to deliver the usual average barrage of uninspired acting and three move five minute matches we are all familiar with for the rest of the night. Secondly, no one gives a crap about the Divas belt, not even the bookers, so this is a cheap way of making the audience feel like they have been part of a special Raw. This match gets 5/10 – average crap.
Now it’s time for Showmiz to take centre stage. Dripping in gold and looking more confident than a cock in a fanny fight, the Miz runs his mouth about how Showmiz are the greatest tag team of all time. REALLY? Whose idea was this? Wait a second, here comes Bret, I’m sure he’s got something to say about this. Turns out that Bret reckons the Hart Foundation and the British Bulldogs are the greatest teams of all time, which results in a stipulation match between the Miz and David Hart Smith. I’d have to agree with Bret on this one, but you’ve got to throw in the Rockers as well, they’re number one on my list. Oh yeah Raw and the chaotic stipulation. Basically, if the Miz wins the match, Bret Hart has to publically announce that Showmiz are the greatest tag team of all time, and if Hart Smith wins they get a shot at the gold come Extreme Rules….. but to my surprise the Miz won. How’s that going to work? What made Miz’s victory even stranger was the fact that Hart Smith repeatedly spoke of his father the British Bulldog and how he was watching over him. This seems like an unnecessary slap in the face of the British Bulldog and his family. Right right right, the match, was it good etc? It wasn’t bad actually, there was nothing to shout about, I didn’t gasp from the sheer amount of testicular fortitude being put on display, but the match worked. It was an example of the new breed attempting to incorporate techniques of old into the very predictable WWE formulaic match, containing a lot of old school regular moves that in this day and age are hardly utilized at all. One that immediately springs to mind is the axe handle smash and the various attempts to land it; that was fantastic. The old school angle worked because it was different, it was clear they had thought about doing something to celebrate the teams from back in the day and I respected the idea. This style of match was probably requested by Hart Smith due to the match being held in England where his father would have performed many an axe handle smash. Miz finishes with the Skull Crushing Finale and pins DH Smith after Big Show interfered with that big right hand. I give the match a 7/10 – pretty good, but remember that these scores are only specific to the DVD.
Next up we have promotional video attempting to push Otunga. Why would you want to push Otunga? Isn’t he crap? Vince McMahon has always liked big believable guys who look like superstars and Otunga fits this description perfectly. Unfortunately, more often than not, these superstars can’t actually wrestle and do as little as possible in the ring. In some respects WWE are to blame for this in ring attitude, as they train these guys to wrestle in a way that builds for each of their three or four trademark moves. The time in between these high spots is supposed to be where the story is told and the tension is built, but from guys like Otunga, all I can see is a lot of right hands, clotheslines and stomps. I’ve gone on a bit here but I really don’t like Otunga, if I had to give him a nick name, I think it would be…….the shit list. We then see Batista bully Otunga into getting him a cup of coffee; this was one of the few instances where Batista wasn’t the worst wrestler on the screen.
Evan Bourne vs. Carlito
I’m personally a fan of both of these wrestlers and consequently enjoyed the match; a customer invested in a product, generally enjoys what the product has to offer. Now then, even though Carlito has a lazy and somewhat sloppy style, the strength of his character and the unique way in which he portrays his character, means he gets away with it. I still can’t quite fathom how Carlito was never properly over with the fans, at the time when he was wrestling regularly he was by far my favorite. It comes as a shock that WWE couldn’t utilize this man’s talents, he could have been their next big thing but somehow he continued to drift in and out of nonsensical storylines that no one was interested in. However the contradictory side of the coin says that Carlito’s heart wasn’t 100 percent into his job, but maybe justifiably so, as the lack of TV time Carlito received towards the end of his WWE career was probably a key factor towards the reason why the quality of his matches began to lose that cutting edge they once had (that and the drugs). Evan Bourne is one of my favorites at the minute and I’m happy to say is over with the fans due to getting a nice push and being involved with main event story lines. I’m sure you’re all fully aware of the capabilities of this wrestler so lets get started with the match. The match starts off at a nice pace, we see a tilt a whirl off the ropes and a nice tiger bomb amongst other easy on the eye wrestling moves, unfortunately the commentators have already lost interest and are trying to promote Jack Swaggers angle. A hurricanrana, a vicious hip toss into the turnbuckle, flowing high flying wrestling, this is nice to watch. Carlito tries a top rope backstabber which Evan reverses leaving Carlito at the mercy of his airborne shooting star press. This was a good match and probably one of Carlito’s last whilst part of the WWE, I’ll give this an 8/10.
John Cena vs David Otunga (dream match……..I did a bit of a joke there)
Cena is greeted to very loud reaction but one which is quite clearly a mixture of boos and cheers. This is quite an unusual match because for probably the first time in his career, John Cena finds himself being the experienced veteran, being the ring commander who is quite clearly calling the match. Otunga struggles to hide how he is slightly unsure about certain spots being called and the fact that he is indeed an inexperienced rookie. To Cena’s credit, he attempts to hide Otunga’s inexperience by applying a series of matt holds so that his rookie opponent doesn’t have to do much, which reduces the chances of something going wrong. About these holds……….I’m a harsh critic when it comes to modern WWE, and with Cena as its leader I desperately want to hate him, but he keeps on surprising me. These matt based shoot style wrestling skills he displayed against David Otunga further denied my expectations of him, so maybe I have been too harsh in the past. Cheers and boos exchange lefts and rights throughout the entirety of the match with the schizophrenic crowd unsure whether or not they like Cena. A series of power moves then draws the match to its promotional purpose……the further cementing of Batista and John’s bollocks story line. Not allowing Batista’s interruption to get in the way of his match, John Cena uses the hysterical David Otunga as a means of demonstrating what he is capable of doing to Batista at Extreme Rules, through means of a brutal STF (brutal STF?). With frantic panic written in his eyes, unsure whether or not he will live to see another day, Otunga taps and then taps some more. I wanted to see more of the match, I wanted to see how well John Cena could mask Otunga’s limited ability, but unfortunately wrestling takes a back seat in today’s wrestling shows. I’ll give the match a 6.5/10 and that’s only because of Cena’s unpredictable matt work. Here’s another thing, why did Cena have a match half way through Raw?
Shamus vs. Kofi Kingston
Kofi Kingston looks serious, he definitely means business, I bet he’s got something good to say………and so with fire in his eyes and a belly full of courage, Kofi Kingston raises his microphone and says…….. “I’ve just been speaking to David Hasselhoff, and he said I’m going to get some payback tonight”. And then suddenly David Hasselhoff isn’t a joke of a man from the 1980’s, but a serious booker who Kofi admires. Hahaha, that bit made me laugh, it was all a bit too ridiculous for my liking but the match that followed was actually quite good. The main intention of this match was to put Shamus over as a tough competitor with a bad attitude in order to generate heat for his match against HHH. But in order to make Shamus look good, his opponent had to be a believable challenge and with Kofi getting over somewhat with the fans at this point, what a good opportunity to make him look like a main event contender. The match was pretty good, it had a nice snappy pace to it and although Kofi looked a little bit nervous at times, he definitely got the point across. However, he did Hulk up at one point which put a bit of a downer on the match for me and judging by the luke warm crowd reaction, the audience felt the same way. The match ends with Shamus being DQ’d due to a commentary monitor being used as a weapon and an intense Shamus post match onslaught with this new, already tired heel heat technique. Decent though 7/10.
Carlito and Vladimir then have a little back stage chat about how the people in charge do not give them any serious matches. This seems a little bit odd to me because it isn’t a joke, it isn’t anything relevant to the show, but it is the dirty truth the public aren’t supposed to know about. I don’t see how this could do anything for the wrestlers involved apart from possibly encourage the audience to pity them……… maybe one too many complaints led to an on air punishment, but probably not.
Baywatch babe triple threat gimmick match
All the diva competitors, Santino the referee and David Hasselhoff the lifeguard, run down to the ring in slow motion to kick start this Baywatch packed bag of excitement. The match ends with the Bella Twins winning the match, Santino doing a funny by swallowing a whistle and Hornswoggle saving him. 2/10 – shit.
Batista vs. Randy Orton
And now for our main event! I’m just going to put this out there, this match was almost as bad as the Baywatch match, ha no it wasn’t really that bad. This, like the majority of Orton and for that matter Batista matches, is a typical modern WWE style story match with the star of this story being a DDT off the middle rope. ARGGHH, I’m trying to be nice but I’m really struggling, to be honest I’d completely lost interest at this point. This makes me question whether I actually like professional wrestling at all, but as soon as I turn TNA on I know I love it, so I think I just don’t like Orton vs. Batista matches. Just as Orton looks like he’s going to take it home with an RKO, Jack Swagger appears, and with a gut wrench powerbomb leaves Orton open to a pin in the middle of the ring. Cena then shows his face and begins to beat on Batista in an epic confrontation. The show ends and a little bit of my soul dies.
NXT
This disc also includes the UK episode of WWE NXT, so without going into too much detail, I’ll give you a quick run down.
The show starts off with a talk off where each wrestler is given a subject to boast their mic skills. Wade Barrett won this competition quite convincingly but I found the whole idea a bit lame and was constantly wondering why I was watching it.
Thankfully my patience paid off and I was given a solid match between Wade Barrett and Christian that was probably better than any of the matches on Raw. You see, what you have to take into account here, is that Wade wants to impress the folk in charge and Christian wants to prove that he is better than a wrestler who is labeled a rookie. Christian gets the pin after using the Kill Switch in a very entertaining match up. 8.5/10
We then see Miz showing us how to give an effective yet comical promo using Daniel Bryan as his fall guy.
The next match between Daniel Bryan and William Regal could have been a classic, and although the match was good with some seriously stiff shots, it ended too quickly for my liking. 7/10
Darren Young vs. Luke Gallows was an effective power move match but not to my personal taste. Young gets the win over the pro which suggests possible future plans for him. 6.5/10
The main event is Matt Hardy vs. Carlito, a pro vs. pro match. This match is based around the heavy bruising on Matt Hardy's arm due to an attack by Drew Mcintyre. It’s watchable but seems to plod along a bit. 7/10
EXTRAS : The Rockers vs. The Rougeau Brothers, October 10 1989, UK
The first thing worth mentioning about this match is the promo the Rockers gave before it, I almost pissed my pants:
Mean Gene:
I can’t think, Marty Jannetty, of anyone more all American than you.
Marty Jannetty:
Let me tell you what, rock and roll, strut and stroll, taking care of business, slamming and jamming and we’ve been chasing the Rougeaus all around the world and now we have them in England.
WHAT??????
The match kicks off with a nice double team sequence of a double leap frog and double super kick, and then I remembered why I like wrestling. We unfortunately then see an exchange of athletic show boating between both teams which is undoubtedly a downside to 80’s wrestling, but to their credit they had the fans in the palm of their hand all the way. When the gimmick section of the match finishes the pace quickens to a speed faster than anything on Raw and NXT and it becomes clear that these teams are working very hard to earn their wages. The sheer amount of running around and the frantic movement of the ring ropes causes an in ring picture of chaos, and when combined with the ecstatic cheers bellowing from the crowd, we have a wrestling match. The commentators try desperately hard to justify why the Rockers are trading places in the ring without tagging but there is no need to explain, because the good guys are getting the better of the bad guys. I can’t make sense of my notes at this point because of the excited childish way I have written them but it reads something like this:
Boston crab, into slingshot, into Boston crab, into slingshot, into double team gut buster variation, off the ropes, into abdominal stretch, both teams fantastic, cocky slaps from Raymond, beautiful drop kick, rolling short arm scissors, into pin, Shawn tags but ref didn’t see it (ironic), Shawn ducks a double team attempt and tags Marty.
Marty Jannetty proceeds to clean house but is prematurely interrupted by a Rougeau pile driver. Jimmy Hart’s megaphone is then passed to a Rougeau but is spotted by the ref, this leads to an argument about megaphone politics in the Rougeau corner. Shawn Michaels now has chance to capitalize on the situation by picking up the stray megaphone and smashing it into the head of an unsuspecting Rougeau. 123, the Rockers win to the delight of an hysterical crowd. YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES.
These four men had mastered their craft; they knew exactly how to excite a crowd through professional wrestling. This match was 28 minutes long, the main event of Raw on this DVD is 14 minutes which included two interruptions to plug a PPV and two extravagant ring entrances. Nowadays, it seems that wrestling is taking a back seat to poorly acted story lines, and although promos may not have been the forte of wrestlers in the 1980’s, they did everything they needed to do in the ring.
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