Pro Wrestling Ponderings

It was 12 long years ago that the infamous ” Montreal Screwjob” took place at Survivor Series. On that night a number of forces came together. Because of previous incidents involving championships being thrown in the trash, the financial issues within the WWF, and the looming threat of WCW, Vince McMahon felt he couldn’t allow Bret Hart to walk out of Montreal with his championship belt. Conspiring with a number of other individuals, including the man who would be the biggest benefactor of this screwjob, Bret Hart would be put into his own submission and a bell rang. But there was no submission. This was as real as real could get.

Fans talked for days and days about what really happened. To this day, some think this just has to be a work because nothing like this could ever happen in professional wrestling. Right? I’m not in the business of pointing the finger in one direction, and after reading numerous accounts and listening to numerous perspectives, I think it’s only fair that the blame go around to everyone involved.

To this day, Bret Hart seems to be more remembered for being screwed then the numerous great matches and angles he has in the previous 13 years of his WWF career. Earl Hebner hears the chants throughout every arena he walks into despite the fact he was only preserving his employment by following orders. Vince McMahon, the actual man behind the screwjob, rarely feels any of the heat. In fact, he created a heel character to feud with Steve Austin that would help turn him into a billionaire and the WWE into a major American corporate conglomerate.

The audience has almost completely turned over since this fateful day. Fans who weren’t even born on November 7, 1997 are now enjoying professional wrestling. To them, Vince McMahon is a crazy old man. To them, Shawn Michaels is a religious degenerate. Most importantly, Bret Hart is just a name from the past. Yet 12 years later, the WWE reminded everyone just how petty and immature they can be.

It all started almost innocently with Triple H making reference to the incident in Montreal and saying people can’t get over it. Matt Stryker made reference to an important title change that took place 12 years ago, but he never mentioned what happened. Finally, there was the main event. We all should have seen it coming. Here it was. A submission match in the main event of a Pay-Per-View in Montreal. Hell, the match practically screamed screwjob since there was no possible way either man could get a clean win with “Hell in the Cell’ three weeks away.

So while Triple H makes references to fans not being able to get over what happen, here you have WWE using one of the laziest booking tactics ever. They’ve taken a real life incident, something that dramtically changed the lives of so many involved, ands cheapened it so many times. To “screw” one of their talents, even it’s only an angle, is a disturbing reminder of what happened with Bret Hart. How are the fans of Montreal supposed to get over what happened when they’re constantly being reminded of it?

From Survivor Series 1998 to No Way Out 2003 to now Breaking Point 2009, the WWE has showcased their immaturity by taking a real life incident and turning into another hokey wrestling angle multiple times. Even worse then what WWE has done in the past, they’re not the only guilty parties.

WCW tried to harken back to this incident at Starrcade 1999 and at Bash at the Beach 2000 with Hulk Hogan, Jeff Jarrett, and Vince Russo. TNA, who now employs Earl Hebner, has also played off the incident in Montreal. The most vivid example concerned Christian’s NWA world title victory when the annnouncers speculated about Hebner possibly screwing Christian. A sharpshooter spot only reinforced the fact that TNA was just as small and lazy at WWE. Considering Vince Russo was the booker for much of these spinoffs,  I guess it’s only appropriate.

The solution is to leave what happened in 1997 in 1997. If it is important to look at this incident from a historical perspective, then by all means discuss it. But cut the lazy booking out of this equation. It isn’t fair to the individuals involved, and really most importantly Bret Hart, to simply bring this up whenever there is an itch that needs to be scratched. The WWE has a creative team for a reason. Maybe they could actualy come up with something… I don’t know… creative.

Lucha and Burlesque? I’m always encouraging people to check out their local indy feds, and an event this Friday is no exception. Taking place at the same building that hosted the Dragon Gate Pay-Per-View, Lucha VaVoom comes to the Congress Theater Friday, September 18 at 7:30 PM. If I did not have tickets to Kevin Smith, I know I’d be attending this show if for no other reason then curiosity. You must be over the age of 17 to attend the show.

For more information on the company, check out their website. For information on tickets, check out the Congress Theater website.

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It is now Saturday. Before enjoying the AAW show, I had to sit through seven hours of work. The first few hours move quite quickly as I’m tutoring students and actually earning my paycheck. Then the last two hours hit, and they are the slowest two hours of my entire life. EVER. I FINALLY get to tap out at around 3:45 to head down to Berwyn.

I arrived at the Eagles Club around 5, and there was a very different vibe from the previous show. There seemed to be more excitement, more hustle and bustle, more everything. I got a chance to interview Phil Colvin, The Young Bucks, and Jigsaw. All three were very nice and polite. In fact, everyone up and down AAW deserves a big thank you for allowing yours truly to conduct these interviews and cover the shows. Pro Wrestling Ponderings isn’t a huge name in the industry (as much as we all want it to be) and their hospitality has been great for both sides.

At around 6:45, the doors opened and it was time for the show to begin. After a ho-hum pre-show with what I believed to be a record number of blown spots, Flip Kendrick and Louis Lyndon got “Us vs. Them” officially started. Here are my thoughts on each and a rough star rating. (Results courtesy of www.aawrestling.com)

Faith in Nothing d. Flip Kendrick/Louis Lyndon with a Kudo Krusher on Kendrick- Not a long match by any means but I think it served the purpose of getting the crowd into the show from the get go. Kendrick showed a lot of moves, but it’s hard to tell how good of a wrestler he is. Lyndon showed a bit more personality while Vincent Nothing and Christian Faith showed why they’ll be getting a shot at the tag team titles soon. They have very good chemistry together and are a fast-rising team in the Midwest. **-**1/2

AAW ring announcer and Dragon Gate USA host Kevin Harvey interviewed Shane Hollister, who when last I saw him was getting stapled and burned by Arik Cannon. Nick Brubaker, Danny Daniels, and Ryan Boz came out. Daniels said Brubaker needed a win leading to

Shane Hollister d. Nick Brubaker with a modified Flatliner- Not a whole lot to this match except Shane got a much-needed win after having the bajesus beaten out of him. ½*-*

Knight Wagner/Jordan McEntyre d. Krotch/Juice Robinson when Knight rolled up Juice with a handful of tights- Nikki and the Northstar Express made their presence known. The one thing I will say is Juice and Krotch would make a perfect team. Krotch can take the beatings and do the whole face-in-peril thing while Juice Robinson can come in and do the short bursts of offense. Juice is quite green, but he was able to showcase his skills much better in an atmosphere like this as opposed to wrestling the also green Mason Beck. *-*1/2

Chandler McClure, who’s been banned from AAW but still raising hell, ran in. Jimmy Jacobs then came in and accepted the open challenge for the AAW title. For a match being on fourth on the card, I wasn’t expecting anything really since this was placed on the mid-card. I was thinking a screwjob finish. Instead…

Jimmy Jacobs d. Jay Bradley to win the AAW Heavyweight Title with a top rope senton- Incredible to see a heavyweight title changed in the fourth match. Now sure how I feel about it, but it certainly popped the crowd huge. I actually jumped out of my seat because I was shocked to see the referee count three. A nice moment and the first of two major surprises from one Jimmy Jacobs. The funniest thing about this match was having to tell my friend who’s never been to an AAW show and only follows ROH that Jacobs is a babyface in the company. ***-***1/2

Arik Cannon/Northstar Express d. Gran Akuma/Hallowicked/Jigsaw when Cannon hit Hallowicked with the Glimmering Warlock- Very CHIKARA style match and I loved every second of it. Although I’ve seen team CHIKARA live once before, this felt like seeing them again for the first time all over again. I loved this match a great deal with all the spots and fantastic maneuvers. I also liked the dissention teased between Jigsaw and Akuma. It wasn’t overt, but if you follow both DG and CHIKARA, you could easily pick it out. ***1/2-***3/4

Intermission- Incredibly, the world title didn’t even change before a break. This was very odd.

Shiima Xion d. Johnny Gargano with a roll up- Both of these guys have been in AAW before, but they were both playing heel. I think that’s part of why the crowd wasn’t really into the match. It was passable, but I think the crowd was still shuffling in from intermission, and I think everyone was starting to feel burned out. With a huge title switch and a phenomenal six man tag, it’s easy to see why. With Gargano attacking Xion, I assume there will be a return match down the road. One final note: Nice entrance by Gargano. **3/4-***

Danny Daniels/Ryan Boz d. Zero Gravity- No disrespect intended to any of the workers, but this was the point in which I took a bathroom break. I came back and saw a pretty good little match-up. The problem is that the winning team was never in doubt, and people really wanted to get to the main events by this point. I know I did at least. I think this will play better for me on DVD when I haven’t been up since 7’o’clock in the morning. *1/2-**

Bryan Danielson d. Silas Young with an inside cradle- By inside cradle, I’m sure they mean SMALL PACKAGE since that is what it was. This was a great great great match. If you want to see a match where the loser still comes out looking better, I present this match as example A. Young is someone that I’ve always considered to be underrated, and I assure that’s not just because I interviewed him. Young showed why he deserves more bookings and a main event opportunity in other independent companies. Of course, it’s easy to say that anyone can have a great match with Bryan Danielson because of who he is, but this was one of the better Danielson singles matches I’ve seen this year. It was dramatic. The crowd was molten, and the wrestling was great without turning into a spotfest. This was just a great wrestling battle. ***3/4-****

House of Truth d. The Young Bucks to retain the AAW Tag Titles- I’m perfectly willing to accept the Bucks losing here in the way they did because the object should be to get the heel House of Truth as over as possible before losing the tag team title to a hot babyface team. The problem was that Truth Martini throwing a cigarette in Matt Jackson’s face followed by the subsequent pinfall was how one of the best AAW shows of the year ended. I think it was a bad way to end the show because I think it sent the crowd out on bad note. I think Jacobs ending the night with a world title win would have been perfect because I still think there would have been genuine shock. Plus, you can end the show with Jacobs celebrating an emotional championship victory with the crowd. That is how you cap a show. ***-***1/4

Final Thoughts: I will not say this for every AAW show, but this was a must buy DVD. You’ve got one four star match combined with three other three star matches. You’ve got a wide variety of styles represented on this show. You’ve got stars from CHIKARA and PWG coming into the steal the show. And of course there’s Bryan Danielson having one more great performance to help build another star. If you’ve never bought a show of theirs, then this would be the place to start.

Tomorrow, I discuss Dragon Gate. Expect words like amazing, awesome, and fantastic to be worn out.

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After experiencing a weekend of fun and going to see live wrestling three straight, I figured it was only right to have the return of Ring Around Wrestling take one final look at the weekend that was before simply leaving those memories alone. Instead of actually organizing, I’m just going to illustrate my random thoughts from the entire weekend over these next three days.

- We begin today with a review of “Enter the Dragon.” Since there have been seven million other reviews, I’ll just piggyback off a lot of those with my own thoughts.

BxB Hulk vs. Yamato- Of all the Dragon Gate competitors, I’ve seen these two guys the least amount of times. What struck me the most was just how much the entrance of BxB Hulk makes him seem like a big starl. If I had no idea who anyone on this show was, I’d think BxB Hulk was the biggest star purely because of the dance routine (Oh, and Bobby Dempsey’s sister simply has to be adopted.) . Like everyone else on this show, he was quite talented and showcased a lot of innovative offense. Yamato is the greasiest of the greasy heels and played his part to perfection. I loved this match and it immediately put me in mood to watch a great show. Of course they probably did too much, but this is a six show company that’s trying to market itself as a premium source of professional wrestling. This is how you start something like this off, by having two guys go out and give a four star match. ****

CHIKARA Showcase- I simply loved this match, and I’m not even sucking up to Kevin Ford or Justin Houston here. Mike Quackenbush has to be one of the best trainers in North America because everything here looked very smooth despite the fact that there were eight guys. The timing was down pat, and everyone came out looking like a million bucks. Even someone like Amasis, who did nowhere near the actual work of some of the others, came out looking better because of his charisma. Too many spots to even provide play-by-play and the crowd was so into this match. I know I rip on Philadelphia a lot, but this was definitely the right match for this crowd. They took things to a whole new level. Kevin Ford and myself both have a nickname for the finish of this match. It’s called Gabe’s Apology because Jigsaw got the pinfall win (and got himself added to the roster because of it), and for some fans they got to see him back the way he always should have been, WITH THE MASK ON. And I considered this to be the best match of the night for all those reasons. ****1/4

Dragon Kidvs. Masato Yoshino- Not sure what can be added. This was the match that ended up being the worst of the night. Simply amazing to think that a ***1/2 match could be considered worst anything, but that’s the kind of show this was. I’m not sure what the issue was here, but you just got the sense that these two could have done just a little bit more to elevate their game. I also think this match being pushed and being such a huge rivalry caused too high expectations in the minds of fans. Still, this was a really great match and I think people will eventually fall in love with Dragon Kid if given the chance. He’s like a new version of Rey Mysterio with his moves and execution. The size factor isn’t really that much of an issue, but if they start putting him in with bigger guys, I think he became a lot more sympathetic. The only negative is the language barrier. But for the niche audience that Dragon Gate is trying to draw. it probably won’t be that much of an issue.

The Young Bucks vs. Susumu Yokusuka and CIMA- If the Young Bucks walked into this match as knockoffs of The Rockers and Hardy Boyz, they walked out huge stars. This was clearly a great match, and I loved the dynamic between the teams. There were two big single stars in Yokusuka and CIMA wrestling one of the rising young teams in independent American wrestling. My only critique would have been for the Bucks to face off against bigger heels like they did in Chicago. What saved the Bucks from getting booed out of the building was their prior dates with CHIKARA and Ring of Honor. It just had to be. Philadelphia would crap on guys like this simply because of their look and being “man pretty.” ****

Naruki Doi vs. Shingo- I remember seeing Shingo live in October of 2006 and thinking about how mediocre he seemed to be. Then just seven months later, I was heartbroken that Shingo was leaving the United States to go back to Dragon Gate. He’s one hell of a wrestler, as is Naruki Doi. You’d think I’d have run out of stars by this point, but oh no. This was another four star match, and I think this is the match that showcased just how Dragon Gate is more then almost any of the other matches. This wasn’t just some athletic spotfest. There was at least more of a story involved with this match, and I think some of the narrations earlier on along with the confrontation in a prior match got me more ready for this match. Great main event to cap the show. ****1/4

Other Thoughts- Dawn Marie is a terrible announcer and should never be brought back. I’m sure she’s a very nice person, and I admire her for the work she’s doing with Wrestler’s Rescue, but for a premium wrestling brand to have her as a ring announcer is simply not a great idea. The announcing was alright, but I think we should have seen them live at the arena. I like the introductions where we see the announcers in the arena amidst the crowd going nuts. It also puts faces to the names of the people who are supposed to be the voices of the company. Still, the announcing was passable, and my only recommendation would be to have these guys get more excited about the matches and really focus more on storylines rather then calling moves. I know that sounds WWE-like, but in this case it makes a lot of sense because the action is literally too fast to try and call every move.

Anyone who doesn’t buy this show is pretty much insane. The twenty dollar price tag is a little stiff, but I guarantee you this show is better then anything WWE and TNA will put on the next year. That includes Wrestlemania. As far as in-ring action, this might be the best show ever. To call it the best Pay-Per-View ever is a logical fallacy for the simple fact that there were really no storylines, no title matches, and little historical significance. Still, the show is so good and different from almost anything else in the wrestling business these days that I can’t help but give this show a huge thumbs up.

Tomorrow I’ll discuss AAW and my experience there.

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Here we are just 72 hours away from Summerslam 2009. This is the show with the third longest legacy in the history of the WWF/E. A lot can be said about the build of this year’s show, much of it negative. But here I want to talk about the positives of Summerslam since there have been a number of great matches, good times, and even better memories.

It all began in August of 1988 at Madison Square Garden. The wrestling wasn’t exactly state of the art, but there were two important things that happened which I believe all wrestling fans will remember. The Ultimate Warrior ended the longest Intercontinental championship reign in history by defeating The Honky Tonk Man in 30 seconds. And Elizabeth took her skirt off. Okay, maybe in this era of Divas and the bygone era of Sable, it doesn’t mean a great deal, but back then this was a huge deal since Elizabeth was considered to be the hottest woman in wrestling. After seeing her at this show, it’s hard to disagree.

In the ensuing years, Summerslam has contained some huge moments and amazing matches. Bret Hart, in particular has had some matches that will live on through DVD releases and the magic of home video. It all began at Summerslam 1990 when he won his second tag team championship. The next year he had a ****1/2 with Mr. Perfect to finally claim his first singles championship. In an era where championship belts mean so little, it’s incredible to think that it took Bret Hart EIGHT YEARS TO WIN HIS FIRST.

The next year was losing that same I-C title to Davey Boy Smith. While a loss might not be good for some, this five star classic may have been the reason Bret won the WWF Heavyweight Championship two months later. Bret himself has called it one of his best matches and has talked many times about the amount of work he had to do for this match to turn out so well. For a wrestling fan, this is a must-see match and even if you aren’t a WWE fan these days, I would go out of my way to see just how good Bret was.

Bret would defend the WWE title in one of the best “blue bar” cage matches you’ll ever see against his brother Owen to open the United Center at Summerslam ‘94. This was such an out-of-the-box match that it’s taken me many years to appreciate how good it is. Really, this isn’t about a big bloody epic brawl. This was more an opus, a true battle to see who would escape. In a sense, this was more technically sound because of all the numerous close calls and near escapes involving both men. What they lacked in intensity was made up for in athletic ability. And don’t forget to watch Bret’s promo before this match. This was his best babyface promo in my view.

Despite all the greatness involving Bret Hart, a real tragic moment almost took place at Summerslam ’97. That was the night that Owen Hart piledrove Steve Austin and almost broke his neck. I almost had no comprehension of what was going on at that time because Austin somehow scratched and clawed his way to getting Owen into a cradle. Yes, the cradle sucked, but it showed just what kind of a guy Austin was in the ring. It also changed the course of the business as the piledriver has been essentially banned with very few exceptions from WWE. It also put Austin on a clock and gave him a limited time to be one of the biggest stars in the business.

Austin would main event three of the next four Wrestlemanias. Although it wasn’t the best of matches, Summerslam ’98 may have been the biggest Summerslam of all time. The Undertaker and Austin wrestled many times but under these circumstances and with the show returning to MSG, this has the big fight atmosphere. Stealing the show were two guys who are practically the first names to come to mind when thinking of the best of all time. Triple H and The Rock had a ****1/2 ladder match that set each for future success. Both would see world titles come their way within the next year.

Austin would be involved in a triple threat match the following year with Mankind and Triple H. The two notable aspects of Summerslam ’99 were Austin’s apparent refusal to lose to Triple H and Jesse Ventura, the governor of Minnesota at that time, being the referee. Billy Gunn also got his head shoved up a fat woman’s ass. Yet, I’m sure it’s still better then working for TNA. Least a real star, The Rock, was involved in this debacle.

From a pure wrestling standpoint, you’d be hard-pressed to find a better run of shows then Summerslam 2000-2002. Obviously, the position of the company was radically different each year, but all three shows had some fantastic main events and a lot of really good mid-card action too. It’s amazing how the crap was kept to a minimum. Obviously, the Invasion was a colossal failure in 2001, but we did get a ****1/2 match between Kurt Angle and Steve Austin. Regardless of how badly the Invasion went, this match gave Kurt Angle main event credibility that he didn’t even have when he was the world champion.

Summerslam 2002 may be more notable now then even a year ago because current UFC Heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar wrestled The Rock and won his first WWE championship. Ironically, there was a very UFC-like build to this with an emphasis on each man’s training. I enjoy those videos so much, here’s The Rock’s … and here’s Brock’s. This show also featured the almost improbable return of Shawn Michaels. At that time, I think people were speculating this was a one time match for Shawn to come back and say good-bye. If it had been, I can’t think of a better way to go out. Yet somehow, Michaels is still kicking around six years. Although he’s 44 years old and needs frequent time off, I think all wrestling fans should consider themselves lucky to get more amazing HBK matches. I’ve said this many times before, but these six last years with him involved have been like a gift from the wrestling Gods.

The last five years haven’t exactly been good as we’ve seen Goldberg buried at one show, Randy Orton get an undeserved victory during another, and the biggest dream match WWE had get booked one week before the show last year. Still, this is the Wrestlemania of the summer. It’s got a two decade legacy of hot sizzling action. Yeah, I went there.

Please consider leaving comments or e-mailing us at prowrestlingponderings@gmail.com. Also, if you’re on twitter, please consider following us at twitter.com/pwponderings. Finally, if you’re on facebook, join our group by simply  simple called Pro Wrestling Ponderings. Also, check out prowrestlingponderings.com for bios, streaming podcasts, and other fun stuff. Thanks a lot for all your support.

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Do you remember the first time you saw Monday Night RAW? Anyone who considers themselves a fan of professional wrestling or sports entertainment has to have seen RAW at least once in their life. For me, RAW has been more a habit and way of life moreso then just another television show. When I first became a wrestling fan back in 1995, RAW was among the first shows I started watching regularly. And no matter how bad it got and despite that little Nitro program, I remained loyal to the WWF brand. I sat through the T.L. Hoppers, The Goons, and Vince McMahon’s announcing because in my mind, this was the home team. Of course, it all also helped I was 11 and words like “workrate” and “moveset” entered my vernacular.

Forget the weekends. I love my Monday nights most of all because of what WWF had to offer. I was absolutely engrossed in the storylines involving Steve Austin, Mick Foley, The Rock, and even the real D-Generation X.

Over the last six months, my interest in RAW has eroded. I’d say slowly eroded, but at this point it just seems like I woke up one day and just began hating this program. There are a number of things I’ve grown tired of, three of which are the main eventers and alleged draws of this brand (and also the company).

I don’t know about you but it seems as though Triple H, Randy Orton, and John Cena have wrestled each other 500 times on Pay-Per-Views. I can’t even be made to care about yet another Orton/Cena match when the odds are good they’ll have another match, maybe as soon as September’s “Breaking Point.” And why should I care about Cena winning yet another world championship when’s been the champion so many times already. And who’s going to challenge him for said title? The Miz? Buried six feet under multiple times by Cena. Jack Swagger? Too busy in a mid-card feud with MVP. Big Show? No one wants to see that. That leaves Randy Orton and of course the king of this brand… Triple H.

And how about Triple H? Amazing how a guy could be on Smackdown for a year, yet it still feels like he’s been dominating RAW since the beginning of time. Of course he’s engaged in a rivalry with Ted Dibiase and Cody Rhodes. Since Hunter brought back his little buddy and trusty sidekick Shawn Michaels, you might as well just refer to The Legacy as The Spirit Squad. The group that I once was laughing with… I find myself laughing at. Here are two forty year old man acting like a pair of Looney Tunes. Beavis and Butthead have become Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck. One can only hope Dibiase and Rhodes at least avoid being placed in a crate with the little F-C-W on the side.

As bad as the skits involving yet another reunion of D-X were, the more insulting aspects involved the guest hosts. It’s not that the concept of the hosts have ended up as a complete failure. It’s that the execution has led to some awful editions of the show I once made appointment television.

From Jeremy Piven referring to Summerslam as “Summerfest” to Dr. Ken being as annoying of a human being as you could possibly find , last week might have been rock bottom for this whole host thing. Seth Green was mildly entertaining, but he was only barely taller than the midget who wrestles on RAW Shaquille O’Neal has been the highlight so far in his appearance. That brings us to this week.

Sgt. Slaughter was the latest individual to ride the guest host carousel. I guess they were trying to capitalize on the film G.I. Joe coming out, but WWE was in Canada, making this decision all the more perplexing. Slaughter kept coming out to fool the fans of Canada into believing he was a babyface only to pull the rug from under the fans. It was two hours of WWE saying “Screw you Canada.” After everything that’s happened with the Hart clan and the Benoit tragedy, you’d think the WWE would show the loyal Canadian fans some live. But that would require WWE to care. It would require them to show some decency, to actually show some class in the face of everything that’s happened the last decade.

If there’s one thing WWE has shown, it’s that they don’t care about anyone. Not the workers who kill themselves for the fans. Not their announcers like Jim Ross who they’ve tried to fire multiple times. Not their fans who they make fun of and further insult by putting on crappy RAWs and ripping the fans off by charging 40 dollars for Pay-Per-Views that feature the same five guys over and over again. Summerslam is in some ways another example of this.

As far as the Wrestlemania of the summer goes, we’re ten days away and I feel no emotion towards it. There appear to be a few decent matches, but I just don’t have the confidence in this company to book a solid three hour show. I do know that if RAW continues its’ downward spiral, ESPN’s Monday Night Football will look all the more enticing.

Please consider leaving comments or e-mailing us at prowrestlingponderings@gmail.com. Also, if you’re on twitter, please consider following us at twitter.com/pwponderings. Finally, if you’re on facebook, join our group by simply searching for Pro Wrestling Ponderings.

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You might think lists are cliche and boring. I think they’re a way of doing an easy column when it’s the dog days of summer, and I want to not be inside writing this column. Hey, I love my readers and this side, but Chicago doesn’t get a great deal of nice days. I have to take advantage while I can. So alas, I’m providing my list of the top ten wrestlers entertaining me right now.

10. KENTA

If he was wrestling in the states, this individual might be number one. As it is, I’ve only seen a limited amount of matches from him. His match with Davey Richards is the best match ROH has produced this year. His match with Nigel McGuinness was very good given the context, and he was in a tremendous tag team match in NOAH shortly after the death of Misawa. KENTA’s entertainment value is all in his workrate, which makes him unique to this list.

9. The Colony

Even with the sad departure of Worker Ant, this group has been featured in two of the matches I’ve loved most in 2009. Soldier Ant and Fire Ant are the specific portion of the group I’m including on this list, but I can only imagine what Green and Carpenter Ant can add to one of the best babyface groups in CHIKARA and professional wrestling overall. They are one of the top contenders for the Campeonatos de Parejas, and I’ve enjoyed them so darn much since watching CHIKARA. These guys were actually one of the first groups I noticed back at King of Trios 2008. While the idea of a bunch of guys dressing up as ants might be absurd (Okay, it is.), it fits in perfectly with what CHIKARA is all about. No way would The Colony fit in with ROH or most of the other independent companies in the States, but instead of being generic pale white jobbers, the masks and names give them distinct characters.

8. Kenny Omega

His outings in Ring of Honor haven’t exactly been the best, but everything he touches in PWG  turns to gold. And not a golden shower either. His match with El Generico at Express Written was one of the best mid-card matches I’ve seen in quite some time. His duo with Chuck Taylor has been nothing short of brilliance. I think he’s much better off in PWG because wackiness is far more accepted there as opposed to whatever Ring of Honor is trying to be. If nothing else, Omega has found himself in the middle of the title picture and could possibly have a singles match with Austin Aries before the year is done. He’s basically a new face in major independent wrestling, and while his match quality had varied, he’s at least something very different compared to some of the other individuals you’ll see on an average DVD.

7. Bryan Danielson

If I had done this list in 2007 and 2008, I can almost assure you that American Dragon would have been in the top five. While he’s still one of the best wrestlers in the world, you just get the sense that Danielson is taking it easy and moreso having fun. I’m not accusing him of tanking it by any means or not giving people their money’s worth. It’s just this is a guy who’s seemingly done it all in indepdent wrestling. What else could he possibly have to do? The positive for us as fans is he’s still been in quite a few four star tag team matches. The six main event of Night 2 of King of Trios is just one example. His 45 minute draw with Black as his partner against the Wolves is another. His most unique match of the year candidate took place at DDT4 against The Young Bucks. It wasn’t an exchange of finishers but rather one of the all-time greatest beatdowns you’ll ever see. Even though the Bucks won, they most certainly earned it as Danielson and fellow Hybrid Dolphin Roderick Strong destroyed these young Christian boys.

Danielson did the job in that match just as he tapped out in the finals of King of Trios. He also put over Tyler Black in an excellent match that took place on ROH on HDNet. Danielson is still one of the best in the world and has shown himself to be willing to put younger stars over. He is the very definition of a PROFESSIONAL wrestler, and for that reason will always be one of the best wrestlers in the world.

6 F.I.S.T

Of course, the biggest reason these guys are on this list is because of their match against The Colony. But their work at King of Trios is also a huge reason they’re featured here. They are the best heel group in the business today because they don’t act like cool heels. They act like the biggest douches in the world. They bully people around. They scream with fans. Why? Because they don’t like anyone. They’re the guys in high school who would take your lunch money and stuff you in the locker. The best part is they’d do this with a smile in the face.

Akuma is now in one of the more intruging angles of the year as CHIKARA is about to enter a major feud with Dragon Gate. Akuma also had a great little match with Shadow Phoenix. Chuck Taylor was a part of the big mask vs. hair match, but he’s also on this list for his work in PWG. I guess if I were to rank the F.I.S.T guys, Taylor would be at the top since his PWG work is also included. He and Omega have formed what could quite possibly be the most awesome tag team in the history of wrestling, The Men of Low Moral Fiber. Taylor had a fantastic match with El Generico at “The Gentle Art of Making Enemies” in addition to being in two excellent DDT4 tournament matches. I have absolutely loved Taylor in particular, but Akuma and Icarus have also been excellent compliments in CHIKARA.

5. C.M. Punk

The heel turn that began at Extreme Rules only enhances his value to this list. Of course I have an intense bias toward C.M. Punk. It only makes sense that he’s on the list. Thanks to two months of great promos and really riding the fence between heel and face up until Night of Champions led him to this list. This is a guy who’s been a highly consistent performer on Smackdown since the draft. He’s had some awesome television matches with John Morrison while having two consecutive quality matches on Pay-Per-View with Jeff Hardy. Seeing as how he’s on the brand more suited to letting younger guys excel, Punk should continue to have a solid 2009. If only WWE would stop jobbing him out and just him have the world heavyweight championship for an extended period of time.

4. The Young Bucks

Of course the best tag team of 2009 finds their way on this list. Matt and Nick have brightened up more than one company. Their home company is PWG, where they have been the tag team champions since August of 2008. They’ve had a number of four star matches there with the Machine Guns, Hybrid Dolphins, and even The Men of Low Moral Fiber. In Ring of Honor, they’ve actually been shining lights on some bland HDnet television shows despite the fact they’ve wrestled in two squash matches. They also got to wrestle for CHIKARA and wowed the crowd in two different tag team matches. Nick Jackson was also in the best match of the weekend, but you might have forgotten all about him since it was basically the Generico vs. Kota show. Then there’s Dragon Gate USA.

In the most aniticipated show of the calender year, the Bucks scored a major upset over Dragon Gate icon CIMA and his partner, Yokusuka. They then got on the microphone and said they were the tag team of the present… not the future. They certainly are, and they might be the best tag team in professional wrestling very shortly, if they aren’t already.

3. Davey Richards

Richards is part of a tag team as well and has been one half of the ROH tag team title holders back since April. Eddie Edwards isn’t nearly good enough to be on this list, but Richards has been the MVP of 2009. Not only has been in multiple matches of the years, but his heel persona has only enhanced his value to any company he wrestles for. He’s primarily been in Ring of Honor and Pro Wrestling Guerilla having these great matches. What has made Richards so special is his ability to have great one-on-one matches with guys like KENTA and Tyler Black while also having amazing tag team matches with Kevin Steen and El Generico. That series alone has been a shining light in a rather ho-hum year for Ring of Honor. As a side note, Richards has actually been the Full Impact Pro championship belt, but since their DVDs aren’t being released for whatever reason, this really is just a side note.

If Richards continues to improve and develop, there’s no reason he can’t be the Ring of Honor or PWG world champion in 2010. What there can be no doubt about is he’s going to be one of the biggest names in indepedent wrestling going into the next decade.

2. Austin Aries

There is a fine line between number one and two. So fine that either one of the top two could easily be at the top of the list. So I guess the only thing to is explain the difference. I was as cynical as anyone about Aries turning himself heel. I didn’t see any conceivable way for this to possibly work. Little did I know. Aries changed his gear, changed his hair, and sleazed himself up big time. He’s become Joey Ryan except much better. His in ring work has not been as good, but I attribute that to an overall style change within Ring of Honor. Aries has been an individual that’s become one of the best promos in the sport today. In what I consider to be a major historical note, Aries is also the first two time ROH World Heavyweight Champion in the company’s illustrious two year history. His promo after about his grandmother and tooting his own horn was nothing short of brilliant.

I’ve been a huge Austin Aries fan since even before  I started liking ROH. There was just something about this guy that I even enjoyed in TNA. His evolution as a character has been quite awesome, and I’m excited to see how his title reign goes and if he indeed loses to Tyler Black. Also, is Aries the answer to some of ROH’s financial issues?  If not for these questions, I’d have most certainly ranked him number one.

1. Chris Jericho

What made the Rey Mysterio/Chris Jericho just a little bit more special? Yes, all of the matches were very good or match of the year candidates, but what made the feud was the ability of Chris Jericho on the microphone. His promos are clearly on another planet from everyone else’s in the “WWE Universe.” They don’t sound canned. They don’t sound like a guy reciting lines. They sounds like the honest views of a man who feels he’s been wronged by the fans and WWE management. His ability to cut promos must be enhanced with the use of the thesaurus considering some of the words he’s brought out of mothballs. Or he’s been watching some Nick Bockwinkel tapes.

Jericho is the best part of WWE as evidenced by the fact that he’s holding the Unifed Tag Team titles and appearing on both RAW and Smackdown on a regular basis. I wondered aloud why he would even bother coming back to wrestling, but now I wonder why he isn’t a world champion. His comeback has been more than justified, and I firmly believe that for however long he remains in WWE, he’ll be the MVP.

So there’s my list. Agree? Disagree? Why not leave a comment? Or e-mail me at jcusson07@gmail.com. If I get enough e-mails, I’ll consider doing a mailbag.

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Have you ever had a weekend that made you question whether or not you wanted to continue being wrestling fan? Where you so much stupid garbage that you wanted to sell all those wrestling DVDs you’ve bought over the years. Where you want to desperately find something, anything to do on a Monday night just so you’re not home to see RAW. This is how the last two days have gone for me.

It all began on a cool July Sunday evening. This past weekend, I’d completely ignored professional wrestling in all forms. This did not cause me to ignore my rather nerdish instincts as I was enjoying all six of the Harry Potter films. It all climaxed with seeing the 6th film in a local theater Sunday night. After enjoying the movie and a lovely Prime Rib from Outback, I came home and started following the results of TNA’s July Pay-Per-View, Victory Road.

Coming into this night, I didn’t think TNA could anger me. I never thought I could muster enough energy to care one way or the other about this show. Yet, they found a way. I guess they always find a way.

You might be wondering how not even watching the show could anger me. Simple enough. You open the show with a stupid finish and do a useless title change. You have a guy who can’t even do a simple lock-up in Matt Morgan beat one of the most professional of professional wrestlers in Christopher Daniels. You have Abyss wrestling Dr. Stevie in a usless mid-card match. You have Team 3-D obliterate an entire heel group by themselves.

But see. That’s just the usual TNA crap. Of course, it’s not a single buy, but there really isn’t anything that can cause one to just simply want to quit watching wrestling. Little did I know. Little did anyone else know just what the little engine that couldn’t had in store for us. More on this metaphor later.

Jenna and Sharmell had what has been described as one of the worst wrestling matches in the history of this sport. Two women who are non-workers were allowed to compete… hell, people had to pay them 30 dollars to watch these two women fight. These women had an atrocity of a match while Alex Shelley, Chris Sabin, Jay Lethal, and Homcide sat in the back. I guess they can’t possibly draw the kind of money Survivor Chick can.

Kevin Nash then cut a promo saying all the babyfaces are the same place they were seven years ago. He then proceeds to beat A.J. Styles clean with a chokeslam. Yes folks, Kevin fucking Nash won a championship match clean in the year 2009. I kid you not. If I could put the visual evidence up on this website, I would. I want to hear the justification for this from someone in TNA management. Here you have a guy in Styles who goes out and busts his ass for seven years, who’s been loyal to this company from the beginning, jobbing to someone who helped kill WCW and has an amazing streak of luck when it comes to injuries just before jobbing.

Scott Steiner and Booker T then defeated Beer Money for the TNA Tag Team titles. I guess at this point we were just playing out the string, but here’s another young duo doing the J-O-B to a pair of individuals over the age of 40. Maybe Booker can still make a contribution to this sport, but Steiner has been done for the last 10 years. Beer Money has become one of the most over acts in the company, but the NW… I mean MEM RULZ!

Samoe Joe actually got to beat one of the so-called legends. Of course, this wasn’t without its’ own bit of calamity. Sting either forgot the ending or just plain didn’t want to take the Musclebeater because he was the first of two consecutive top babyfaces to tap clean. Pretending that Sting refused to take the Musclebeater, can you imagine if someone else refused to take Joe’s finisher? They’d be fired before they even got to the back. Now pretending Sting forgot the ending, what does it say about his professionalism that this happened? This man is supposed to be a model for a lot of the young kids to follow, and here is someone well-respecting “blanking out” on a main event match’s ending.

Also, some guy named Tazzzzzzzzzz (I believe that’s the new spelling.) debuted. Apparently, he’s like Paul Bearer in that Joe sees him and immediately can begin not selling anymore.

Kurt Angle had cut a promo earlier saying not to expect a Pay-Per-View quality match when he wrestled Mick Foley. He also said that if any Main Event Mafia member lost, they’d immediately be fired. This promo, recorded very early in the show, assured everyone of the ending of all the matches and thus a waste of their hard-earned money. Of course, it was probably 20,000 die-hards, but that’s still incredibly presumptuous to have Angle cut a promo like that.

Angle of course went on to defeat Mick Foley clean as a whistle with the anklelock, thus completing what some are calling one of the worst shows of all time. Judging by these results, I can almost guarantee the quality of this Pay_Per-View was below much of what even WWE has produced this year. I’m very interested in hearing what our own Zack Danielson has to say about this show. If he tries to justify any of this bullshit, there will be an argument. A long one and a very loud one. I cannot possible justify the existance of this company anymore.

I gave TNA four weeks. They not only squandered their chance but so angered me that I refuse to even watch and review their Pay-Per-View. When I called them “The Little Engine that Couldn’t,” I meant that every time this company has a huge signing or seems to take a step forward, they invent ways to take ten steps backward. They’ve pissed away so many chances. They signed away so much ex-WWE talent. What has it gotten them? A lousy 1.1 every single week. They can’t even defeat FCW on SyFy. They can’t defeat Smackdown, which is on a Friday night. They can barely beat Superstars and A.M. Raw on a weekly basis.

I want to see the wrestlers have jobs and be able to support their families, but how far can you possibly take this? TNA is an eyesore to every person who considers themselves a professional wrestling. This company is a slap in the face every single week it puts out their shitty television show. Every single week Impact airs is another slap to the face of everyone who’s made this wrestling business what it is today. Every single Pay-Per-View that airs robs the 20,000 or so people of cash every month. People, specifically wrestling fans, are so desperate for something, anything to entertain them when it comes to wrestling, that this has become an acceptable form of entertainment. I no longer consider this to be anything but a festering boil that continues to slowly kill the business

If anyone is curious about my thoughts on the Kurt Angle and Global Impact DVDs, please listen to the podcast this week. I’ve wasted enough column space on “The Little Engine that Couldn’t.” As for how to end this column, I can only think of one senetence containing five words. The first two words are a phrase echoed by thousands of ROH and PWG fans over the years as a representation of how they feel their favorite wrestlers have been taken advantage of. The third word joins together the first and second phrase. The fourth and fifth words are exactly how I feel about this company. And I can tell you that this how so many others feel as well.

Fire Russo and fuck TNA.

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Took me an extra day to watch TNA’s Impact from this past Thursday. What has simply amazed me about this program is that feels the same as when I essentially gave up on the show three years ago. There’s too much talking, too much campy humor, and too much former WCW-like feeling attached to it. And if they’re not formerly of WCW, it feels like some WWE guys that I got tired of seeing back in 2003.

There were some decent enough matches. I particularly enjoyed the main event featuring Jeff Jarrett and A.J. Styles vs. Kurt Angle and Samoa Joe. Taking away the stupidity of the stipulation i.e. the world heavyweight championship being on the line, it was a compelling way to end the show. Samoa Joe got to do what he does best and that’s bully people around while beating them up. Kurt Angle remains one of the best workers in professional wrestling even if he looks like an old man with his pseudo beard and little hair on the top of his head.

Unfortunately, Impact never seemed to match the quality of that main event again. I think the worst examples of things that are wrong with TNA took place on the July 8 edition of Impact. Doug Williams and Homicide has themselves a two minute ladder match for a briefcase that much of the audience probably forgot about months ago. I’ve seen ‘Cide and Williams had a borderline four star match at an ROH show back in 2005. While I’m not expecting anything close to that, the least this company could do is give these guys proper time to have a decent little match. Don’t even get me started on ladder aspect to the match.

But of course we had to quickly move on to the latest skit. I don’t even remember what the skit/backstage interview was immediately following this bout, but I know what the worst example was. That would be the latest therapy session between one Abyss and Dr. Stevie. There was of course a time when Abyss was one of the most imposing figures in all of TNA. He was absolutely one of the most dangerous figures in the company and has great matches with a number of wrestlers. Many of them were against A.J. Styles. Now… I don’t even know what to think. He’s a big crazy guy that has a heart of gold? He’s a monster but is in love with the blonde interviewer? This all seems awfully familar. Kane in late 1998 and into 1999? Fitting who the booker was then and who the booker is now in TNA.

The other thing that appalled me was Beer Money against the Motor City Machine Guns. I know that in TNA world, the Machine Guns have accomplished nothing. But if someone in the office were to watch DVDs of their matches from ROH, PWG, and even AAW, they’d find one of the best tag teams that can’t seem to get pushed. Sabin and Shelley are great on their own but their teamwork is fantastic. New Japan Pro Wrestling seems to an understanding of this because they’ve been entrusted them with the IWGP Jr. Heavyweight tag team championships. Of course, Beer Money basically squashed MCMG in preparation for a tag team title match with Booker T and Scott Steiner.

Ah yes, Booker T and Scott Steiner. Two men who were heavyweight champions in the dying days of World Championship Wrestling. Both men are north of 40 and are past their prime. Steiner hasn’t been a good wrestler since he decided his physique was more important then being mobile and having good matches. I have no idea what’s up with Booker T, but he’s developed an accent thats makes himself sounds half-retarded. Booker is a very charismatic wrestler who can go in the ring and seemingly never ages. But it’s of course about rehashing 15 years ago as the reason Steiner and Booker are even together is because they used to each be in successful tag teams back in WCW.

For some inexplicable, TNA also continues to insist on employing Kevin Nash. Despite an ability to get himself hurt at the drop of a time and a noticable habit of receiving these injuries when about to job. Nash is wrestling A.J. Styles for the Legends title. I love how this fake championship that was started by Booker is now actually being defended on Pay-Per-View while the X Division championship is nowhere to be found. Judging by Nash powerbombing AJ and essentially making him look like a jobber, I’m assuming Mr. Styles will actually pick up the victory.

Then there’s Sting and Samoa Joe. The main selling point of this match concerns Samoe Joe’s new advisor debuting. In one of the worst kept secrets in all of professional wrestling, Taz returns. Why TNA needs to employ another non-wrestler is beyond me. Why TNA needs to sign yet another former WWE personality is beyond me. It bothers me so think that these match results mean so little. The selling point is Taz. I could go on and on about this company, but I really just want to cover the main event and call it a night.

The TNA World Championship will be on the line as Kurt Angle takes on Mick Foley. Incredibly, this is the first time these two have had a singles match against each other. Angle has wrestled an incredible number of wrestlers in his ten year career, and he will add Foley to that list. Other then adding Foley to the list of great talents he’s faced, I don’t see the point of this match. The championship is almost superfluous. It’s not about competition or winning the belt itself. It’s not about being the top dog in this company, but about who has the power. How the world title equals this much power is something I’m far too lazy to care about.

I will be watching Victory Road and should have a review up by Monday night. If you’re interested, here is the card according to tnawrestling.com:

TNA WORLD HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH
Mick Foley vs. champion Kurt Angle, leader of The Main Event Mafia

SAMOA JOE’S MYSTERY ADVISOR WILL BE REVEALED
Samoa Joe vs. “The Icon” Sting

TNA LEGENDS CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH
The Main Event Mafia’s Kevin Nash vs. champion “The Phenomenal” AJ Styles

TNA WORLD TAG TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH
The Main Event Mafia’s Scott Steiner & Booker T vs. champions Beer Money, Inc.

TNA KNOCKOUT WOMEN’S CHAMPIONSHIP
Tara vs. Angelina Love

New Japan Tag Team Championship: Team 3D vs. The British Invasion
Sharmell vs. Jenna Morasca
“The Monster” Abyss vs. Dr. Stevie
“The Blueprint” Matt Morgan vs. Daniels

You might notice I haven’t talked very much about the Sharmell vs. Jenna. I’d say there’s a pretty good reason for this. Hope everyone has a good weekend.

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For most of the last week, my DVD player has been infested with TNA DVDs. This week, I will discuss my thoughts on Christian Cage’s DVD, The Best of the X-Division Volume 2, and TNA Wrestling: The 50 Greatest Moments. I’ll be back tomorrow with thoughts on four weeks of Impact and a brief preview of the Pay-Per-View that airs Sunday. Then Monday evening, I’ll post my review of “Victory Road.” Next week Thursday, I’ll finish off my month of TNA watching with thoughts on Kurt Angle’s DVD, TNA Impact in Japan, and my final assessment of the number two promotion in the United States.

For now, let’s examine our first DVD.

TNA: Best of Christian Cage- Nothing like having a DVD out there of a guy who no longer wrestles for TNA, but also wrestles for WWE. Guess that’s bad luck but it’s still very odd to hear Christian talk about his reasons for going to TNA and then understand that he’s now back in WWE at the same spot (if not even lower) then he was in 2005. In all seriousness, the interview with him was excellent and I thought this was the highlight of the DVD. Christian comes off as being very sincere, and it doesn’t feel like he’s blowing smoke up people’s butts when he talks. This guy appears to have his head on straight no matter where he goes. And the fact that he CHOSE to go to TNA when he did was very gutsy.

In watching the matches on the DVD, you can see why Christian eventually decided to go back to WWE. Every match is seemingly jam-packed with typical TNA stupidity. There’s ref bumps. There’s a million run-ins. It gets to the point where the crowd doesn’t even pop for two counts or remotely care about the match because neither one of those two things has happened yet. Christian vs. Jeff Jarrett from “Against All Odds 2006″  illustrates my point perfectly.

This should have been a huge momentous moment. Jeff Jarrett was finally going to lose the TNA championship to a hot babyface. Christian, and make no mistake about it, was the biggest star he’s ever been up to this point. A clean win would have propelled TNA a little bit and put them on the map. Sadly, we got none of that. We had Earl Hebner around to rehash Montreal in 1997 once again. We had run-ins. We had Gail Kim interfereing. Of course, a guitar shot was thrown in for good measure. Yes, Christian won but it really didn’tr mean what it should have because someone in TNA doesn’t think having wrestlers wrestle one-on-one draws. Funny how UFC is drawing with something similar to that concept.

Overall, the Christian DVD is a minor thumbs down. The wrestling is good, and the interview is solid. Sadly, there are a parade of dumb endings that only frustrated me.

Now I didn’t purchase these next two DVDs as part of the big sale on the website. I bought them from FYE for dirt cheap. Since they were TNA related, I figured I might as well review them.

TNA Wrestling: The 50 Greatest Moments- If you had never watched TNA before and wanted to immediately get an indication of this company’s history, this is a great DVD for you. I guess in that sense, this is one of the better DVDs I’ve seen they’veput out. No joke. I actually sat back and just enjoyed what I was watching. Yes, there was of course some stupidity but I’ve come to expect that from TNA. I got to re-live a lot of the great matches, from the first five years and got to re-watch my favorite skit ever.

The “Team 3-D funeral” is so awesome. It’s one of the few cases where having writers helps put something together. No doubt much of what was done was scripted. However, it made sense in context because the performers played their roles to perfection. Even the little touches like Team Canada bringing hockey sticks and James Storm sneaking beer into the proceedings fit this segment so well. I’ve watched this 10 to 15 times and think it’s so awesome. And any DVD that puts over the Chicago White Sox gets some love from me. Thumbs up.

TNA: Best of the X Division Volume 2- The only real issue I have with this DVD is it’s so superfluous. The matches are seemingly picked at random, and there really isn’t any rhyme or reason given to them. I would have appreciated some additional video packages and interviews to help set these up. This DVD also illustrates some of the damage the Joe/Daniels/Styles feud did to the entire division. It created a glass ceiling and a hierarchy that was hard to overcome by the summer of 2006 when none of the three were competing in the X Division anymore.

What should have been the best part of the DVD also turned into a major failure. They spent the first 30 minutes talking about and to Samoa Joe, A.J. Styles, and Christopher Daniels. The problem wasn’t even with the highlights because I don’t think these three are capable of having a bad match. Between the various combinations, I would probably give all of their TNA matches at least 4 stars. The problem was the interviews with all three guys. They came off scripted, cartoonish, and not at all sincere. I’ve seen these guys talk in a lot of formats. This was probably the geekiest and dumbest they’ve ever looked.

I give this show a thumbs in the middle because there’s a ton of great action, but there’s no context and the interviews shown come off very cheesy in my view.

Tomorrow is indeed my look at a month’s worth of Impact. There have been a few good matches, but there were a number of very cringeworthy moments and I’ll tell you why this show hasn’t even come close to making me actually about the current product. There is one major aspect of the program I’m looking forward to tonight. If you want to know what it is, you’ll just have to watch the show tonight.

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As anyone who read my column last week knows, I’m giving TNA an opportunity to wow me. Why? Zack Danielson will be joining Kevin Ford and myself on a future podcast to talk about his trip to Orlando where he’ll be seeing Victory Road and two nights of Impact tapings. Also, I took advantage of their anniversary sale and purchased six DVDs for less than 50 dollars. This week I’m going to discuss three of the DVDs, and I’ll save my Impact thoughts for a special edition of the column next week when I preview Victory Road.

Before we get underway, it’d be far funnier if you read this column while picturing the voice of the voiceover guy from TNA. You know the one. Kinda sounds like James Earl Jones.

Heaven Sent, Hell Bound: The Best of Christopher Daniels- To me, Christopher Daniels is one of the most underrated talents in all of professional wrestling. The problem is TNA underutilizes him and has him doing stupid gimmicks or angles instead of just letting him wrestle. Also, to be fair Ring of Honor didn’t exactly use him correctly during most of 2006 and 2007 either. I knew going about some of the matches getting clipped, but whoever put this together seemingly hacked it together. This was so badly done. Instead of showing a bunch of clipped matches, I would have much rather seen video packages of the smaller ones and show the main matches in their entirity.

The best example I can think of is the way they cut down both cage matches, but showed an entire singles match between James Storm and Daniels. Even worse was that this match had a stupid no-contest finish. It was also silly to include entrances and show the beginnings of matches while cutting out some important stuff in the end. Like the final cage match with Triple X against America’s Most Wanted. The entrances were shown. The feeling out process is shown, but TNA clipped the parts where everyone got busted open.

I also thought it was silly to include a lame squash with Jerrelle Clark, but for seven dollars this was still worth it. I regained a lot of the respect I had for Daniels and gained a new appreciation. This is a guy who’s so smooth in the ring, but he can also bring it in his promos and can have great matches with anyone. If you want to know why Daniels is awesome, buy this DVD. Especially if you can get it for cheap.

History of TNA Wrestling: Year One- If you’re in the mood for high comedy and fiction presented as fact, BUY THIS DOCUMENTARY! Seriously, you’ll gain new respect for the production of WWE after watching this. If not for the actual facts presented then at least for the presenation. Dixie Carter was shown talking at various points, and she went on and on and on. I’m not necessarily blaming her, but I’m blaming the stupid idiots who edited this thing together.

The sincerity of the people talking about how hard everyone worked is not to be doubted, but there seems to be some delusion that the hard has ultimately led them to some great level of success. The reality is they’re still being held on the hand by an energy company. They’re still barely drawing 1,000 people for their live events and have barely left Universal Studios this year for Pay-Per-Views. And while I would never expect them to sell out The Palace of Auburn Hills, drawing 4,000 (roughly half papered according to Meltzer) is not good any way you look at it.

Thankfully, I only purchased this disk to get free shipping. The matches raise this DVD up a bit since it has the first ever X Division title match and the three way ladder match on it as well. Both of these are two of my favorite matches for 2002. The first X Division title match may even be one of my favorite matches ever.

Best of the Tag Teams: Volume 1- This was the best of the three DVDs, although there were still some issues. Instead of showing things in order, they went by different tag teams instead. For example, they showed The Naturals vs. America’s Most Wanted video package at the very beginning, but we didn’t see a match between the two teams until almost halfway into the disk. We also didn’t get to see some of their best matches from the ladder half of 2004 and 2005.

Thanks to some real quality matches involving AMW, Daniels/Styles, and LAX, this is an easy recommend. Oddly enough, this was the first time I’d ever seen the VooDoo Kin Mafia’s antics. I’d almost forgotten about that five minute period when people paid attention to them again for ripping on D-Generation X and challenging them to a fight.

I’ll get into this way more in my assessment of the company, but this made TNA look so second rate. As much as the D-X reunion was horrible and stupid and unfunny, the CREATORS of the group were at least the ones in it. Roaddog and Billy Gunn had nothing to do with the group until Shawn Michaels was out. The difference between D-X and this garbage is huge. D-X was about a rebellion, They actually went to WCW headquarters and to a live event. Not necessarily with permission from the WWF (just go along with it). The Old Age Outlaws as I like call them challenged Hunter and Shawn to a million dollar with permission from the TNA office. Real rebellious there guys.

Next week I’ll look at the Christian Cage and Kurt Angle DVDs, as well as TNA Impact in Japan. I’ll also have my thoughts on four weeks of Impact as well as a preview of Victory Road. Until then, everyone have a safe week, and be sure to check out Pro Wrestling Ponderings for the latest recaps and podcasts.

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