Well I was originally going to do another review of the best Women’s matches of last week. I was all set to praise TNA for their Knockouts Ladder Match, and while I was in the writing process, I stumbled upon the news that TNA released Lisa Marie Varon. She was until today known on TNA as Tara and before that was Victoria back when she working for WWE. That news sort of took the Mickey out of my piece. Maybe if you ask really nice… I might finish writing that entry…maybe not…
Now I wasn’t really going to write about Tara as she didn’t really do anything that week (She might have come out with her on screen boyfriend for his match or she might been featured on Xplosion but I am not certain) but it is the principle. I kind of felt the KO division looked said a couple of weeks ago when Brooke held her “State of the KnockOuts” address. Tara was strangely absent from that as well (foreshadowing?) But TNA has had a couple great women’s matches….Matches that people are talking about…TMZ is talking about these matches… Even WWE seemed to take notice and put more effort into their own women’s division. The ladder match that I was going to write about even drew the highest quarter-hour rating on the July 11th episode of iMPACT! This means that people tuned in just to see that match… probably people that are not the average viewer of TNA. This is what TNA needs if the ever want to beat WWE.
And then they do this. True, Tara is not part of the feud that is exciting everyone, but she is a well know wrestler, one with a large fanbase, and if TNA wants to keep this momentum up then should be giving us more Knockouts not less.
I can’t say I am shocked because TNA has a history of dropping the ball and either misusing someone or under using them. They did to the X division. They were all about the X division. People were buzzing about it. It is almost like they overheard someone going on about the X division and people in charge went…”we don’t want to be known as the place for high flying cruiserweights….” And then TNA practically killed it. They did it to knockouts back in 2007/2008. They were all about the girls. They had two women’s matches a show. People wear talking about TNA as being the place to go to see women’s wrestling. And then like a child with ADD, TNA put the girls on the back burner and focused on Tag Teams. They are all about Tag Teams…until they decided they were not… then Hogan and he crew came over and TNA decided they were all about legends…and then they were not. Then TNA decided to stick to WWE and started their Wrestling Matters campaign… but ditched it so they could have long drawn out talking segments like WWE … Somewhere in between they decided they were hardcore but after a month or two they wussed out.
It just seems like every time TNA has something that could take them to the next level…they sabotage it. Like they want to fail…that they like being in second place. The thing is, I really want to like TNA. In fact back in 2006-mid 2008 I was really into TNA. Maybe I was insane back then, but enjoyed the all the angles. I would read the spoilers and I couldn’t wait to see the program. At the time I felt they were a wrestling alternative to the WWE. When the show went from 1 hour to two hours I thought they were on the verge of something big…that IMHO never quite happened
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Maybe I am being unfair to TNA. Maybe I am just a ranting and raving angry mark. Maybe Tara wanted her release. Maybe I am reading too much into it. While that is a lot of maybes, the truth is even though I generally find TNA’s product frustratingly disappointing, I still think they have a better product than WWE. But that isn’t saying much. That is like asking me to compare 2 glasses of curdled milk then tell you which one tastes better. I should probably think about that Ladder match last week. It was sooo good. Gail won and now has a title shot and that is great news.
The best wrestling match of the week arrived early! I probably should have bought a ticket to Slammiversary when they announced it was in Boston, but TNA has been rather hit an miss for me this year and I was waiting for them to announce the card. I became very excited when Gail Kim was given a match. I become even more excited when TNA announced it was a last Knockout Standing match! I just knew it was going to be good! I really wanted to see it live, but unfortunately while Boston Has decent public transportation, I couldn’t figure out a way to get back to home after the show :( If TNA had announced it earlier I might have been able to get a hotel room, but as it was last minute, I ended up having to watch it on PPV.
Now if you know me, then you know I am a Gail Kim Mark, but I am not marking out when I say that Gail Kim’s match stole the show at the PPV. It was awesome! It was so good, that it I couldn’t concentrate on the next match. It was hard hitting. Both women looked like they wanted to end each other careers. Gail pulled out the flying dragon and applied the figure four on Tarell around the ring post. Taryn got her receipt on Gail by putting Gail in ringpost figure four after Gail went her sideways splash and hit a chair that she wedged in the corner! Both women took huge bumps. The bit were Taryn went for a cross body and Gail countered her with chair was awesome. Taryn at one point tried to spear Gail but Gail got out of the way and Terrell went through the ropes and landed face first on the entrance ramp!
As a Kim Mark I would have preferred Gail to go over, but I can’t say that Taryn winning the match is bad. TNA has done more in building up Taryn Terrell then they have with just about any other Knockout except maybe Gail Kim herself. A lose for Terrell might have killed her momentum, while, Gail is still the big bad of the KO’s and a lose doesn’t change that too much for her.
The rest of the PPV was good as well. It made me very excited for Thursday, which unfortunately was a huge letdown. I was really hoping that TNA would do something with the Knockouts, but I guess TNA creative didn’t expect the match to as incredible as it was.(then agin TNA dropping the ball isn’t anything new. As one show is live and TNA then pretapes the next weeks show right after, I can tell you that things don’t sound too exciting for next week either. No Gail on either show. I am hoping she will be back at the next taping. The question is did this finish the feud? If not where else can it go? Monster’s Ball?
Sunday was a great night for women’s wrestling as not only was there Slammiversary on In Demand PPV, there was also Evolve 22 on iPPV. Evolve featured one of my favorite grapplers, Mia Yim. I have saw Mia Yim in one of her earliest matches and I knew right then that she was headed for greatness and every time I have seen her she has gotten better and better. The match was Mia Yim vs Ivelisse Velez. The match was good. It was a little shy of 10 minutes and had a lot of back and forth action. I think you can still order the replay.
It was a pretty good week because not only did the week start out with Slammiversary and Evolve, but both Oz Academy and Pro Wrestling WAVE had shows this week. Right now my two favorite promotions are WAVE and OZ. WAVE has a weekly ½ hour webshow while Oz has a monthly 2 hour show that airs on GOARA TV!
The main event of WAVE was cosplay tag team match with Kana and Ryo” Aniki” Mizunami vs Yumi Ohka and Mio Shirai. It was a pajama match, in which all the girls had to wrestle in their PJs. Back when WWE RAW was doing their guest host gimmick, every divas match was a costume match catered around whoever was the guest host. Because every match was like that, I don’t think any of the girls enjoyed it, but when it isn’t a regular occurrence, it then becomes rare and special, I think the girls probably enjoy it. It certainly looked like they were having fun with it. Kana is amazing. She can do anything in the ring. While known for her stiff style, and technical wrestling skills, it is interesting to see Kana in a light, fun comedy match. A couple of great comedy spots in the match is where Mio is facing off against Aniki and is brandishing her stuffed cat like a pair of nunchaku and when Kana is wrestling Yumi. Yumi is blocking Kana’s kicks with pillow like someone holding a punching bag during a training session!
I can’t figure out which match stole the show at OZ Academy! Pretty much the entire card was awesome! I wish they hadn’t clipped the 1rst match as I am a big fan everyone involved. If you’re going to shave a match for time constraint then please don’t post the time of the match. If you post graphic stating the match time was 13:09 and the show has only been on the air for 5 minutes then it just makes me feel like I am missing all the good stuff. But other than that it was great.
02. Hikaru Shida vs Mayumi Ozaki - (OZ Academy...by SenorLARIATO The 2 best bouts were Aja Kong vs Ayumi Kurihara and Mayumi Ozaki vs Hikaru Shida. Ozaki vs Shida was just amazing. For those who have never seen OZ before, think ECW but with women. They fight into the crowd every show and this match was no exception. Shida even got busted open! I have always like Hikaru Shida but I didn’t expect this type of match from her. Kurihara vs Kong was incredible as well. Ayumi is sporting new yellow and orange gear. Kong is so big Kurihara was grounded for much of the match, but Ayumi was still able to give Kong the urange several times! This match was very good and very exciting but I liked Ayumi’s Dress Up Wild Fight against Mayumi Ozaki a little more. Both matches are incredible!
Originally that was going to be it for this entry…but I got busy and didn’t upload so I guess I will talk about the following week as well… Well this week wasn’t so hot in my opinion. TNA might have been great at Slammiversary but failed to impress me on iMPACT on the following weeks. Instead of following up on the great action told at Slammiversary, TNA opted instead to continue the Mickie and Velvet angle. One June 6, edition of impact Micke dodged Sky because she was already signed for a match against Taeler Hendrix. It was a decent match but I really wanted to see where they were going with Kim and Terrell. The men’s action was bland as well. The main event between Jeff Hardy and Bully Ray was O-K but it had a lame finish. The next week on iMPACT was worse. They didn’t even have a Knockouts match…just an inring segment between Mickie and Velvet. wouldn’t have been so annoyed by this if there was an actual women’s match on the show as well. I am fine with the building of match. Infact I applaud and approve of the girls not only a storyline, but I want to see action in the ring and it would be nice to see two storylines active at the same time. There was a time when TNA routinely had 2 women’s matches per show. It is not like there is not enough women on the roster to fill 2 segments.
Now I hear this was a big couple of weeks for the WWE Divas. Supposedly there was lots of build to this Sundays Payback PPV and lots of stuff going on in NXT. But I didn’t watch it, so I can’t comment. Given that WWE has done so little with the division in the past couple of years and WWE Diva fans are so starving for something to talk about, the cynic in me, thinks the fans are making mountains out of molehills, but back when Gail and Melina were still in the WWE I so wanted their feud to go over that I read way too much into everything that happened. Although if you ask me, Gail Kim vs Melina was still the best feud in WWE in the year 2011 even if it got no coverage, only played out on HouseShows and Superstars and barely anybody remembers it.
The week was not a total bust because Pro Wrestling Wave delivered as expected. This week started out with a fun comedy match between Ayako Hamada and Kana vs Ranmaru and Apple Miyuki. At one point in the match Ranmaru uses her ninja magic to make Hamada dress up like a school girl. Hamada tags Kana in and Kana has to wrestle wearing an AKB48/school girl outfit. I think Ranmaru might the funniest person in all of puroresu. Is just me or does everytime that Ranmaru says, "Oh My God!"in English do you just burst out laughing!
The match itself is very solid. There is a reason that Kana and Hamada are known as two of the best to come out of Japan. WAVE followed that with Mio Shirai vs Leon. This was a grat high flying match! The last match was another tag match. This time it was Toshi Uematsu and Ran Yu Yu vs Moeka Haruhi and Shibutani Shu. Another solid match, although the 1rst two were my favorites in the program.
I am not certain what lies in store for next week. I know that Pro Wrestling WAVE will be great as it always is. Pro wrestling WAVE can be watched here http://gyao.yahoo.co.jp/p/01034/v00013/ Although you will need to go through a proxy to watch it.
I was going to do this last month…but for some reason I didn’t get around to it…odd since I really didn’t do anything the entire month of January…but I digress… so in no particular order... here is a list of some of the best shows /events that I went to in 2011. As it was the most recent…
TNA Wrestling House Show in Poughkeepsie, NY on 12/30/31
I haven't been to a TNA event since 2008. There were more people at this show than the last ones I was at. In the past at intermission, you had alot more time to talk with the wrestlers that were signing, but this time they rushed you through it (one item per person…although they didn't have a problem if you then went back in line to get a second item signed)like how WWE does a signing. I miss the intimate feel i got from the early house shows of 2007 and 2008 but I guess this is more professional... As this was the last show on the tour... most of the talent left quickly. I don't know if they would have hung out for a while like they did back in 2007-2008. The crowd was very pumped for the show and there was a lot of chanting. This time I sat next to a girl who I sometimes wondered if she really wanted to be a strip club instead of a wrestling show. She spend the majority of the show yelling at the wrestlers to “take it off’ It was kind of funny at 1rst but become less funny as the evening progressed. Still trying to figure out if this was better than my usual “loud fan” experience. Usually I sit near a “smart mark” who does nothing but loudly complain about how awful the show is and how XX wrestler should quit and wrestle for XX company instead of the show we were attending. While she could be annoying… at least this woman seemed to be enjoying the show which I guess makes it a better experance than the so called Smart Mark who does not… But onto the show itself…
* Vik Dalishus beat. Hale Collins in a tryout match. If this were a televised show I would call this a dark match. Didn’t know anyone in the match. Hale Collins was over with the local crowd though…
Pretty fun match to “officially” start the show. Didn’t get any pictures of it.
* Crimson beat Matt Morgan
* TNA Knockout Women’s Champion Gail Kim vs Mickie James
This was the match that I bought a ticket to see and it was a great match! For much of 2010 and 2011 I have had disappointing experiences with the WWE as I often went to s show just to see Gail and WWE wouldn’t put her on the card. So I was thrilled to not only see Gail wrestle but I also get to meet her at the intermission.
AJ Styles beat Bully Ray
I know Bully is the heel and i am supposed to boo him... but there were several kids that ran up to the front row and wouldn't sit down. They were kind of annoying me because I spent good money on my seat and couldn't see the show. Bully Ray yelled at these kids and told them to go back and sit in there assigned seats! My hero LOL.
* James Storm beat Kurt Angle
Another great match. Kurt Angle is simply amazing. Got some heat by tearing up back stage passes. Before the match started James Storm asked if there were many Beer Drinkers in the crowd and shared a bear with some fans. the crowd interaction didn't end there as both wrestler fought all over the arena.
*Garrett Bischoff b. Gunner w/Ric Flair
* TNA Champion Bobby Roode vs Jeff Hardy
Another great match. Roode got a lot of heat on him by announcing that this was not going to be a title match. If you want to see him defend his title, then cough up $40 and buy the PPV. So it would be Roode vs Hardy in a Non-Title match. Lots of good back and forth action. Bobby slammed Jeff to the match. Rhoode got up on the 2nd rope and mocked Hardy, doing the Jeff Hardy taunt. He took to much time making fun of Hardy for when he launched himself off the turnbuckle, Jeff was able to kick Roode in the face. This allowed Jeff to get the pin.
