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Doesn’t Candice Michelle look like friggin’ plastic in that picture? 

I actually have grown to like the concept of this pay-per-view over the years, and this used to be the only way you could see guys from different brands working with each other on the same show. I guess there’s still some debate as to whether or not the voting is rigged or not, but it’s a night of mindless fun that doesn’t really have an effect on the overall course of storylines and such, so I guess you either like it or you don’t. I’d like to see them utilize that gimmick on the weekly shows too.

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TNA went on the road again for their WrestleMania event of the year. Meh.

In other news, some local indy wrestling personalities threatened to sue me last week for some statements I made on a local wrestling hotline and web site. After everything was settled, I agreed to discontinue appearing on that hotline and web site and pretty much discontinue my involvement with the local independent wrestling scene.

People love it when you mock WWE and TNA, because it doesn’t directly affect them. When you turn that same attention toward the people in your own community, they can’t take the heat. That’s about all I’ll say on the matter.

I’m actually glad. When I wrote that piece on Chris Benoit earlier in the year, I seriously considered ignoring pro wrestling, because the business is dirty, cutthroat, and it chews up people and spits them out. Why I reconsidered… I don’t know. I guess it was just weird to stop paying attention. I do know that I pay less attention than I used to, and I really only have time to read results and that’s about it.

So, anyway, sorry about the delay in getting this up from last week. I was just kind of absorbed in some other endeavors.

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Results from Gerweck.net 

John Cena’s hurt, so we get a new champion. Meanwhile, Randy Orton has to wash his hands after handling bird poop in that picture.

The show opened with Vince McMahon and his part-time girlfriend William Regal headed to the ring. McMahon immediately crowned Randy Orton as the new WWE Champion while the crowd chanted “Y2J” in a vote of confidence. Orton went to the ring to select a challenger, but Triple H interrupted instead. He wanted a title match, Vince gave in, and that match started the show (!?!?)

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By all reports, this was a pretty bad show. We shall see…

ECW World Champion CM Punk retained over Elijah Burke. This was a slow-to-decent opener, but it again shows what a third-rate brand the company believes them to be. The only match ECW gets on any show is the title match, and even then, it’s never really that “extreme”, and it’s never contested at the end of the show with the other major titles. I know that Jim Ross keeps saying over on his blog that we’ll never see the “old” ECW again, but the problem is that very few people are interested in this “new” ECW they’re trying to foist upon us. No one in the crowd seemed interested in this match, and that’s pretty sad considering CM Punk is fairly over with the fans. Punk won with a rolling cradle.

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Results from Gerweck.net 

Did you know that TNA had a show last week? Neither did I…

Pacman Jones & Ron Killings defeated Kurt Angle & Sting to become TNA World Tag Team Champions in the first of Kurt Angle’s three title defenses. Pacman didn’t wrestle, naturally, but he did tag out at the beginning and got the winning pin. Karen Angle slapped Sting but pretended that he slapped her instead. Angle got ticked and hit the Angle Slam on Sting, which allowed Pacman to get the win. Eh, I guess it’s not like the David Arquette episode, but it seemed like a letdown for all the stock they’ve put into Pacman Jones. They promised him a belt too. Their loss.

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I’ve had this DVD for a while, but because we were birthing babies last week and this week, I had to put it on the back burner. 

I reviewed this show after it occurred live in July. After watching it again on DVD, most of what I said still holds true. Matt Hardy/MVP was an excellent opening match. The Women’s Title match was actually longer than I thought (but still good). Rhodes vs. Orton was actually pretty good given that the old man was working on a bum leg. Cena vs. Lashley was a great match that was limited by the fact that you couldn’t get emotionally invested in a feud built around respect. It might sound good and make for happy endings, but you need a disturbance in there to really get people to care about the feud.

My main issue with this release are the lousy extras that come with it. You basically get two promos, and that’s it. One extra is the John Cena/Bobby Lashley contract signing from Raw where King Booker and Mr. Kennedy ran in. The other extra is Edge’s Mardi Gras celebration on Smackdown before he had to surrender the World Championship. Couldn’t we have gotten a match or two instead? What about the battle royal where the Great Khali won the title? What about the promo where Edge actually had to surrender the title? What about the tag match that ensued from the Raw contract signing? What about anything from ECW? Whoever is choosing these extras fell asleep at the wheel for this release.

The DVD is okay if you’re just expecting a decent wrestling show, but that’s about all you’ll get out of it.

Big Congrats from the Shotgun Family to The Russ and Mrs. The Russ! They’re now proud parents for a second time with the birth of Sydney Elizabeth last night. Mom, Sydney, The Russ, and big sister Maddie are all doing fine.

Now . . .sleep while you can, Russ!!

Results from gerweck.net

You know, I guess I’ve paid so little attention to WWE lately that I really didn’t know too many of the matches going in besides the main events, but I guess the hard sell for the show was the mystique of the return of both Rey Mysterio and Triple H. Other than that, I knew there were a couple of title matches, and that was about it.

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For those of you too cheap and/or lazy to call me long distance at 317-592-9401, here is my hotline commentary from last week’s Indy Wrestleline Tuesday report on Option 2.

Make sure to call tomorrow to hear me rant and rave about a bunch of local Indy indy guys that you’ve probably never heard of. At least it will be funny…

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Results from Gerweck.net.

By the way, if you want to hear The Russ, I’m going to start doing weekly updates again on The Indy Wrestleline. Call (317)592-9401 and press option 2 for “The Way I See It” every Tuesday afternoon. I’ll have some thoughts on there today about TNA and Pacman Jones.

They opened the show with a few video packages. The last one ended with a Pacman Jones highlight reel from the media hoopla over the past week. Jones apparently arrived at the building gun-free, so the element of danger has been minimized. Maybe they’ll start a fire on the roof again instead…

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Apparently TNA is using the same method to book pay-per-views now as WWE does. Yesterday, they had three matches announced on their web site. After last night’s Impact, it’s up to eight now, and the show’s on Sunday. Way to build the excitement there…

Anyway, there will be a TNA roundtable here next week to talk about some of the insane things TNA is doing lately around hiring Pacman Jones and practically giving Kurt Angle a wife-beater gimmick in spite of the Chris Benoit deal and how they are pretty much openly flaunting their dissatisfaction with Spike TV and Viacom. Come back and check it out.

By the way, Pacman Jones is supposed to be there on Sunday, and one hopes that there is a metal detector at the door so he doesn’t unload his Glock into the crowd or something. Maybe that’s the incentive for having the guy show up: “Come to TNA tonight, and you might see someone get capped and strippers get ‘rained’ on.”

So anyway, let’s get to the matches…

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Results from gerweck.net

Another whole lotta nothin’…

WWE U.S. Champion Montel Vontavious Porter retained over Matt Hardy. One of Chris Benoit’s great professional accomplishments before he did what he did was getting MVP ready for the big time. Pairing him with Hardy could only help him here. A decent opener with good action. MVP went over with the Playmaker.

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A week late and a dollar short, as my old man used to say. Let’s just get this over with quickly…

Christopher Daniels won the 10-man Ultimate X match to become #1 X-Division Contender. The opening part of the match was an Elevation X match, where if you were thrown out over the top rope before all ten men entered the ring (at 1-minute intervals), you were eliminated. You know, I don’t even think that AWA’s Team Challenge came up with the complicated rules that TNA uses sometimes. So, before Senshi came in at #10, Puma, Petey Williams, Shark Boy, and Sonjay Cabdriver got eliminated. So, now it’s a 6-man match before it even got started… nice false advertising there. Anyway, the only big spot after all that was Frankie Kazarian hitting a Diamond Cutter on Daniels off the top rope. The focus of the match was basically to hit Daniels with as many cars as possible while still allowing him to win the match. After the match, I guess Daniels, Elix Skipper, and Senshi reunited as XXX, and I’m pretty sure no one cared.

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It’s just me this week, because I wasn’t prepared and I didn’t tell anybody we were doing this, so let me just get right to it.

Rhino vs. Cowboy James Storm

This will probably be a good match, but you know Storm will win. My problem is the use of the alcoholism storyline so soon after the Benoit murders. On one hand, Rhino has looked like the sympathetic character by frankly discussing his issues with the bottle. On the other hand, it’s tacky and unoriginal. We all remember Jerry Lawler dumping a bottle of Jack Daniels all over Jake Roberts’ face. Same thing here.

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Here’s an idea: O.G. is Oscar Gutierrez, AKA Rey Mysterio, who already got exposed by Sports Illustrated last year.

From: Gerweck.net

As previously reported, Dr. Phil Astin of Carrollton, GA was indicted on Monday for improperly prescribing various controll substances in 2004 and 2005 to two patients with the initials “O.G.” and “M.J.” Bob Ryder of 1wrestling.com is reporting that the individual listed by “M.J.” may be a former WCW/WWE wrestler. According to the report, “O.G.” may be a current WWE superstar.

We may be only at the tip of the iceberg with this scandal, folks.