Pro Wrestling Power

Without a doubt, this was Shawn Michaels’ night, and to be honest, with it being the night after Wrestlemania and all, I didn’t see too much of TNA. But I will try to give you my feelings on what I did see from both shows.

Raw was awesome last night. Heck, if it was just the Michaels’ good bye speech at the end of the show surrounded by a bunch of crap, I would still say that, but luckily this show had some other quality stuff on it as well.

Where did this massive push for Jack Swagger come from? First he wins money in the bank and now he’s tagging with Batista against John Cena and Randy Orton? Hey don’t get me wrong, I think the guy has potential, and if it wasn’t for his lisp, he’s actually pretty good on the mic, especially for being a young wrestler. But this all seems a little rushed, as he went from an afterthought and a lower mid carder about a month ago, to qualifying for money in the bank, winning it, and being shoved into the main event scene on the biggest Raw of the year. It’s a good thing he’s a heel, and a pretty decent one, because this would be met with a terrible fan reaction if he was a face.

Christian and Ted Dibiase Jr. had a good short match, but what was really interesting was the post match interaction between Dibiase and his father, the Million Dollar Man. I hope Dibiase Sr. sticks around in an on-camera role and gets into a feud with his son. I’d like to see him manage someone or take on some sort of miscellaneous role. So this looks like the beginning of something interesting.

The women’s match sucked (big surprise).

I loved the whole Bret Hart/Miz promo and the consequent tag match afterwards between ShowMiz and the Hart Dynasty. Nice to see Kidd and Smith get the win too, even if it was by countout. Hopefully this will lead to a tag team championship run by them, with Bret as their manager. Hell, why not bring the Jim the Anvil Neidhart back to mentor them too?

I think Orton just became the biggest face on Raw and maybe in the company with Michaels leaving. I would say Cena still is, but most males above 12 years old don’t like him, if you didn’t happen to notice that. And just in case Vince didn’t notice, a large portion of his audience is still males age 13-40. But then again, little kids and teenage girls buy more merchandise I guess, or at least get their parents to buy them more merchandise. Nevertheless, Orton was the star of the tag team match tonight and he showed that he is way above Cena as an in ring competitor in just a few short minutes. We already know he’s better in every other area already. If he keeps his heel-like edge and stern attitude, Orton could be the guy that sparks the company and creates another hot period for wrestling. That’s probably wishful thinking, but at the very least, he could be the number one guy in a matter of a few months and have the full support of the hardcore fans.

I can’t do the Shawn Michaels speech justice here with my words. You have to YouTube it if you didn’t see it. Hopefully the WWE will put it on the Wrestlemania 26 DVD as a bonus. It was so great, and so emotional. It was real. That’s not something you can say about too many promos in this business, but this was a retirement speech and it was 100% straight talk, from the heart. I’m pretty sure I’ve never heard a better retirement speech in pro wrestling history. So definitely check that out if you missed it or any parts of it.

I couldn’t even flip over to TNA at all from the time he came out until the end of the show, at 11:12 p.m. And I’m usually flipping back and forth constantly, no matter what’s on one show or the other, just to see what’s happening on both shows. But this had me glued to the TV like I haven’t been since Bret Hart came back on January 4, and before that, since Hogan was on Smackdown in 2003.

So this was a very memorable Raw. Almost everything before the Michaels speech was solid, but his good bye sent this Raw from a 7 to about a 9.5 on a scale of 1-10.

I feel sorry for TNA tonight. WWE could have put on a much worse show and still destroyed them in the ratings, but with the focus on Shawn Michaels, TNA not being live and the lack of Hulk Hogan on the show, this could be the biggest landslide victory we ever see in the new Monday night wars. I’m gonna say it’ll be something like 3.8 to 0.7 in favor of Raw. TNA just had no chance tonight, but next week they have a big opportunity to grab some early viewers at 8 p.m.

As far as last night’s show goes, from what I saw, it was pretty good. It seems to me that the production of the show is noticeably better when they tape it as opposed to broadcasting live, but like I’ve said before, you can’t beat that live feeling and it’s worth it to sacrifice some production quality for a while in order to go live.

I’m pissed I missed Hogan doing a Randy Savage imitation while Jay Lethal was in his office. I’ve gotta check that out later.

Matches like Doug Williams and Brian Kendrick vs. Kazarian and Shannon Moore are what’s going to set TNA apart from the WWE in the long run. That’s why these guys and all the other X Division guys need more TV time in the future and prominent roles on pay per view, because there is a segment of fans who are going to tune in just for that. Most of those types of fans are also the ones who are not happy with the WWE product right now too.

I saw the whole Pope segment and I thought it was very entertaining. This guy has something going for him. He gave a good promo and I liked how he knew Desmond Wolfe was coming at him from behind so he disposed of him and then went back to talking to Chelsea.

The Orlando Jordan stuff is troubling to say the least. I hope they think better of this before going too far with it.

People are really getting into this knockouts feud between Daffney and Tara. I’ve made it clear that I think women’s wrestling is a waste but TNA’s girls are a little more talented than the WWE’s. That being said, I still don’t care, and I don’t feel like wasting any more time on it.

I saw a good portion of the AJ Styles vs. Jeff Jarrett match and I was once again impressed with Jarrett’s work. Although it’s nowhere near the quality or importance of Michaels vs. Undertaker from Wrestlemania, obviously, I would like to point out to young wrestlers that matches like these two are what wrestling is supposed to be. These guys can not only work, but they know how to tell a story and Jarrett in particular uses that old school style that’s, how do I say this, much much better than the modern style.

I mentioned Lethal above, but it’s cool to see him finally get some airtime again and grab an upset win over Beer Money in a handicap match. Now that doesn’t look too good for Beer Money, but they need to get Lethal back on the right track. He could be much more than just a Macho Man knockoff.

I like how they are trying to push Wolfe again too, but not at the expense of the number one contender to the TNA title at Lockdown, the Pope.

Mr. Anderson cut another great promo and set up a ladder match with Angle next week on Impact. This is probably TNA’s best feud right now.

The six man steel cage match seemed like a pretty good, short match. Scott Hall has lost a lot of weight and almost looks like he used to. He must have busted his butt to get back into somewhat decent shape. Rob Van Dam provided a cool spot with the elbow on Sean Waltman to get the win.

The Team Hogan vs. Team Flair concept at Lockdown has a chance to go over well with the fans if they do it right. Adding Jeff Jarrett to Hogan’s team, along with Abyss, was a step in the right direction. But the match that will really have to sell that PPV is the world title match between Styles and the Pope. So they have to really set that feud, and the Pope’s push, into fast forward in the next two weeks. As I’ve been saying all along, Lockdown needs to be a success for the short term and long term health of TNA. But I think they are on the right path and they’re going to be ok with the rumored card.

What an exciting and emotional night of wrestling, especially on Raw. Next week, both shows are going to have to compete with the NCAA basketball championship game, Raw with their entire show and TNA with their second hour, but they should be shows that are worth watching, and they still might do rather well in the ratings. Actually, for the first time in a long time, I think a good number of people are getting excited to watch wrestling again each week, and that’s definitely a positive sign going forward for both the WWE and TNA.

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