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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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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Something pretty amazing happened this past Saturday. As I looked around my room and perused my DVD collection, I realized that I was basically caught up. Everything up to Double Feature II for Ring of Honor was watched. I had completed CHIKARA and PWG weeks ago. It was at this time that remembered a sale TNA was holding in honor of its’ 7th anniversary. A number of TNA DVDs were put on sale for just seven dollars. PLUS, you could get free shipping if you spent over 40 dollars. Being a DVD whore, I bought six TNA DVDs. I was ready to CROSS THE LINE.

Zack Danielson is one of the fine writers for “Pro Wrestling Ponderings.” He reviews WWE Superstars and TNA Impact. He is a die-hard TNA fan who is one of the people on this little internet that actually enjoys the product. Later on this month, he’ll be heading down to Orlando for the “Victory Road” Pay-Per-View and two of the three Impact tapings to held later in the week.

Having all these TNA DVDs to watch combined with Zack going to TNA live, I’ve decided to CROSS THE LINE in a big way. For the next month, I am going to give TNA one final chance. I am going to watch the television shows, the DVDs I purchased and watch Victory Road. The next three weeks of “Ring Around Wrestling” will detail my efforts to survive a month of TNA. I will also review “Victory Road.” This will all be in preparation for Zack Danielson’s first ever podcast as he will most likely join Kevin Ford and myself.

This is TNA’s chance. I actually gave them an opportunity the night of their very first show on June 19, 2002. This show… what a mess. It was so disorganized. Mike Tenay, Don West, and Ed Ferrara had zero chemistry and were talking all over each other the whole night. The Gauntlet for the Gold was an awfully terrible way to declare a new NWA champion. Not to mention they put the belt on Ken Shamrock (and his ridiculous sideburns). I stuck with them the next week cause there really wasn’t a whole lot else to watch
during the summer.

It was in week 2 that I discovered A.J. Styles. Of course, independent wrestling fans Ring of Honor fans had long ago discovered him, but he wrestled in a match that should have been the basis for everything TNA was built on. It was Psychosis, Jerry Lynn, Low Ki, and Styles had one of the most incredible matches I’d ever seen up to that point. Even now, it’s still quite memorable and one of my favorite matches.

I was in and out of following the product over the next couple years. Having Vince Russo return to an on camera role, having too many title switches, and having Jeff Jarrett as the long term NWA champion, did not exactly hold my interest. Then TNA lost all their television and became the must-see company.

It was in the summer of 2005 when TNA lost their deal with Fox Sports Net. They had long ago given up on weekly Pay-Per-View, but were now were without a television outlet. Jeff Jarrett all of a sudden lost the NWA championship. The X Division was emphasized more than ever as Samoa Joe made his TNA debut. Christopher Daniels was in the midst of his six month title reign. Austin Aries, Sonjay Dutt, Matt Sydal, Roderick Strong, and Alex Shelley also came in to stengthen TNA and the X Division.

From the summer of 2005 until the spring of 2006, TNA put on its’ best shows ever. There were great matches with Styles, Daniels, and Joe in various forms. Perhaps their finest match, maybe the best match in the history of the company, took place at Unbreakable. It was a three way dance and many fans and experts (including Dave Meltzer) have given the match five stars. TNA was so good at this point that a group of friends and I were ordering the shows.

The Vince Russo signed up once again to book, and TNA has been dying a slow painful death. Impact is more of a parody of a wrestling show with a lot of once legendary performers acting more like circus monkeys then real professional wrestlers.

Regardless of the last seven years, this is an opportunity for TNA to wow me, to get me to watch their television program on a weekly basis. One more chance. Don’t screw it up.

Next week, I’ll be providing mini-reviews of at least two of the DVDs and talk briefly about Impact from this week.

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