WWE New Year's Revolution

So I stayed up until 4am to watch this feast of sport entertainment last night.

One of the highlights was undoubtedly John Cena (legend) retaining his title by beating the previously undefeated Samoan warrior, Umaga, against all the odds. Umaga is an absolute beast and he pounded Cena for the whole bout. It was just sheer guts, will and bravery that kept Cena going and he somehow managed to pull it off. Incredible scenes in downtown Kansas City at the end.

The tag team title fight was even better. After Team Rated RKO had battered the defenseless 57 year-old Ric Flair, mentor of D Generation X, on Raw a few weeks back Triple and Shawn Michaels said this fight wasn’t going to be about winning the title. Instead it was personal and it was war.

Michaels knocked the referee out with a forearm smash and then himself and Triple H clobbered the fook out of Edge and Orton with steel chairs for ages. There was pools of blood all over the ring. Then Triple H ripped the cover off the commentary table to reveal a concrete base. Then he lifted up the battered and bloodied Orton and did The Pedigree on him onto the concrete! 8)

Then the Latino commentators were at another table beside Jerry ‘The King’ Lawler and Jim Ross. Michaels placed Edge on their table. climbed up on to the top rope and landed a flying elbow drop on Edge from about 20 feet. Incredible it was. Edge went through the table and there a massive pool of blood on the ground.

Sure D Generation X were disqualified for Michaels’ blow on the ref but as he and Triple H dismissively picked up the belts and fired them on top of the motionless Edge and Orton we all knew who the real winners were. Wonderful stuff. :wink:

A website to check out (possibly moreso for the lads):

www.wwedivas.com

Just got around to watching last Monday night’s Raw there tonight. A cracking bout between Shawn Michaels and Edge and I think with Triple H having done his knee in during the tag team bout at New Year’s Revolution The HeartBreak Kid is going to make another push to win the world title.

With Triple H in hospital after his knee operation (I still can’t believe he managed to do the pedigree on Orton after ripping his cruciate) Michaels battered Team Rated RKO in a handicap match last week. Edge stood back and watched as HBK did the ‘conchairto’ on Orton so this week it was just singles between HBK and Edge. In the end Orton turned up and did the RKO on Michaels and Edge pinned him. Orton then turned on Edge for not standing by him last week and threw him out of the ring. Michaels then roused himself and gave sweet chin music to Orton - incredible scenes.

So there’s a load of stuff up in the air now. How long will Triple H be out for? Are Team Rated RKO going to split up? Will Michaels now fully concentrate on getting the singles title? The winner of the 30 man, over the top rope, Battle Royal gets a title shot so I think it’s all set up for HBK to win this on Sunday.

Thank fook it’s not clashing with the SuperBowl.

Scott ‘Bam Bam’ Bigelow died last week. I loved this guy as a kid. Raw was dedicated to him last night. I was reading about him on wikipedia there and he had a tough later life.

Ar dheis De go raibh a anam dilis.

Bam Bam one of the best big guys. He could do moonsaults and dropkicks which was quite a feat for a man of his size. Plus the flying headbutt as good as Benoits. Worked better as a bad guy.

Taker won the rumble. A tad predictable as he never won it before and now goes in against Batista at Mania for the belt. Cant see him losing his streak to a nobody like him.

[quote=“The best there is”]Taker won the rumble. A tad predictable as he never won it before and now goes in against Batista at Mania for the belt. Cant see him losing his streak to a nobody like him.
[/quote]

Fook. I’m surprised by that. For the last couple of years it looked like he was just a ‘staff’ wrestler. He was always missing out on title shots, losing to the likes of Mr Kennedy and always being the victim of cheating etc.

I thinks hes been rewarded with one last title run before he retires. Plus theres nobody else new that could challenge Batista. I expect him to beat Batista. Theres no way I can see him lose.

I see he eliminated Shawn Michaels last. Gutted for Michaels. Along with Bret Hart he’s my favourite all-time wrestler. It was in his home town arena too. Apparently he gave the Undertaker sweet chin music and then went to do it a 2nd time and the Undertaker caught his leg and fooked him over the ropes. I much prefer Raw to Smackdown so disappointed Michaels didn’t do it.

Cena beat Umaga in the last man standing match. A brutal contest apparently.

Just watched this week’s Raw and ECW there.

Mr McMahon announced a tag team title bout between Michaels/Cena and Orton/Edge. The champ and HBK won the title from Orton and Edge. Cena did the FU on Orton and pinned him.

Earlier Michaels had pronounced he wanted to challenge Cena for the title at Wrestlemania if The Undertaker didn’t want to take up his option of challenging for it.

After winning Royal Rumble The Undertaker can challenge Cena, the Raw champion, Batista, the Smackdown champion, or Bobby Lashley, the ECW champion. Because The Undertaker does his wrestling with the Smackdown franchise it was presumed he’d take on Batista.

But as Cena and Michaels were celebrating in the ring The Undertaker appeared! Then I thought he was going to challenge Cena.

That was until I watched ECW later when Lashley beat Test in a repeat of their bout at the Royal Rumble. As he was holding the belt aloft the lights went off and when they came back on The Undertaker was standing beside him in the ring! Amazing scenes! We don’t know who The 'Taker’s gonna take on now.

The way things are going Orton and Edge are going to split up and I can see them fighting each other at Wrestlemania. I still hope Michaels gets the shot at Cena - that would be a corker.

Results:

Raw:
Cena/Michaels beat Team Rated RKO (Orton/Edge) by pinfall
The Great Khali beat Jeff Hardy by count out (Hardy retains Intercontinental title)
Umaga beat Val Venis by pinfall
Malina beat Maria by pinfall (she’s now number 1 contender for the womes’s championship)
Carlito/Super Crazy beat The Masterpiece/Kenny Dykstra by pinfall
The World’s Greatest Tag Team beat Crime Tyme by pinfall

ECW:
Bobby Lashley beat Test by pinfall
Hardcore Holley beat Rob Van Damme by pinfall (huge shock)

A wonderful night’s wrestling all in all.

Mr McMahon turned up on Smackdown on Friday and ordered Michaels and Cena to fight The Undertaker and Batista in a tag team bout.

It’s on Feb 18th at 1am and is not pay-per-view.

A wonderful edition of Raw there.

At the start Donald Trump came out to the ring and challenged Mr McMahon to a ‘Bald Billionaire’ match at Wrestlemania (1 April). Each of them nominate a representative and the winner shaves the other guy’s hair off. Superb stuff.

Results:

Mixed tag: Johnny Nitro/Melina beat SuperCrazy/Mickey James (Melina pinned Mickey James)
Singles: The Great Khali beat Eugene (by pinfall after only a minute or two)
Singles: Jeff Hardy beat The Masterpiece (broke out of the Master Lock to pin Chris Masters and retain his Intercontinental title)
Singles: ‘The Nature Boy’ Ric Flair beat Carlito (by pinfall after earlier criticising Carlito’s casual attitude - they shook hands backstage though)

Then Rowdy Roddy Piper made an appearance after overcoming his cancer scare and introduced the legendary Dusty Rhodes who will be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame at Wrestlemania. However, the Samoan Bulldozer, Umaga, turned up and caused carnage. How fooking dare he treat 2 wrestling legends like that. It was shameful behaviour.

Then, finally, there was the main event. An 8 man tag match between John Cena, Shawn Michaels, The Undertaker and Batista against Edge, Randy Orton, Mr Kennedy and MVP. This match was all the more inrtiguing because not only are Michaels and Cena taking on The Undertaker and Baptista in a tag team bout at No Way Out on Sunday (Sky Sports 1 at 1am) but Michaels is fighting Cena at Wrestlemania for the WWE Championship and The Undertaker is taking on Batista for the World Heavyweight Championship.

After a classic bout, The Undertaker was about to put Orton away but Michaels tagged himself in. You could tell The Dead Man was raging but Michaels flew off the top rope and elbow dropped The Legend Killer. As he was about to pin Orton all the other lads came haring into the ring and in the melee Michaels was fired into The Undertaker and knocked him out of the ring accidentally. Orton then threw Michaels off the rope but Michaels ducked under the attempted clothesline and connected with sweet chin music and pinned him. Meanwhile, The Undertaker thought Michaels had intentionally knocked him out of the ring and Michaels was receiving the crowd’s adulation he came up behind him and choke slammed him into the canvass. Cena came in then and attacked The Undertaker only for Batista to reappear from behind before nailing him with the Batista Bomb. So after winning the bout as a foursome it ended up with the 2 Smackdown guys, The Undertaker and Batista, disposing of their 2 Raw colleagues, Michaels and Cena.

The good news is Michaels and Cena only have to wait until Sunday night at No Way Out to get their revenge. I, for one, cannot fooking wait.

Watched Smackdown earlier. The Undertaker and Batista beat Edge and Orton but then Michaels and Cena came out and got revenge for Raw the other night. Cena FU’ed Batista and Michaels gave The Dead Man sweet chin music twice.

Quality start to No Way Out. Matt and Jeff Hardy and Chris Benoit beat Mercury, Johnny Nitro and MVP.

Gregory Helms just lost his Cruiserweight title there in an open fight with a different wrestler coming in after the previous one was pinned. Scotty 2 Hotty pinned Daivari first then Helms was next in and disposed of Scotty. Then he pinned Funaki and Shannon Moore before Jimmy Wang Yang upset the champion. Wang Yang then pinned Jamie Noble and thought he’d won the title but the last entrant was Chavo Guerrero and he beat Wang Yang to claim the Cruiserweight title for the 6th time.

Fighting Irishman Dave Finlay and Little Bastard beat The Boogie Man and The Little Boogie Man in the mixed tag match there. While Boogie Man chased Little Bastard out of the ring Finlay hit Little Boogie Man with his shillelagh and pinned him.

Kane’s just after beating King Booker there now.

London and Kendrick defending their tag team belts against Duece and Domino now.

Was too emotional to post at the end last night so apologies to people who stayed up waiting for updates.

Let’s get the other stuff out of the way first. London and Kendrick retained their title after surviving quite a beating from Deuce and Domino.

Then Bobby Lashley got disqualified against Mr Kennedy but still retained his ECW World Heavyweight title. While the ref was disorientated after getting hit Mr Kennedy brought a steel chair into the ring but Lashley overpowered him and beat the fook out of him with it. The ref eventually roused himself and disqualified Lashley.

And then the main event. What can you say about this? A cracking contest that ebbed and flowed and then ebbed some more before The Dead Man was all set to mop things up. He’d just given Snake Eyes to Michaels and had choke slammed Cena to the canvass. As he went to pin Cena he was attacked by his partner, Batista. The Animal gave him a spine buster in revenge for The Undertaker attacking him on Raw a few weeks back when he announced that he was challenging Batista for The World Heavyweight Championship at Wrestlemania. As Batista said at the time ‘Revenge will be a bitch’ and so it was for The Phenom.

Michaels dragged himself to his feet and as The Dead Man did likewise, The Heart Break Kid delivered sweet chin music to The Undertaker’s chin. He stumbled backwards into the waiting arms of Cena who threw him up over his back and gave The Dead Man the most deadliest of FU’s. All the time Batista was looking on from the outside as his partner was pinned by Cena.

The Champ and Michaels celebrated in the ring before Batista came back in, waved his title belt in The Undertaker’s face and stood menacingly over him. There was literally No Way Out for The Dead Man.

Awesome stuff.

Raw report:

Mr McMahon came out to the arena and after much posturing announced that The Samoan Bulldozer, Umaga, would be his representative in the ‘Bald Billionaire’ match at Wrestlemania. Donald Trump is announcing his representative on Raw next week. I’d love if Dusty Rhodes came out of retirement after Umaga attacked him last week. I await with baited breath.

Umaga then battered Jeff Hardy and finished him off with the Samoan Spike to become the new Intercontinental Champion.

Last week’s singles rivals Ric Flair and Carlito teamed up to beat Trevor Murdoch and Lance Kade in what was a very efficient performance. We can expect to see these two tagging together in the future.

Edge beat ECW’s Rob Van Dam in a high octane, high quality encounter after outside interference from Randy Orton as RVD was about to finish Edge with the Five Star Frog Splash. Edge got up to his feet then and Speared RVD before getting the 1-2-3 count. This was a ‘Money In The Bank’ qualifier match for Wrestlemania.

Melina then defeated Mickie James to wrestle (did you get it?) the Women’s Title away from her before The Great Khali quickly and ruthlessly disposed of The Highlanders in a handicap match.

The main event was a non-title match between John Cena and Randy Orton. Cena was about to give Orton the FU when Edge came in and attacked him. Orton was disqualified but the 2 boys were all set to beat the crap out of The Champ with a steel chair until The Heartbreak Kid came haring into the squared circle and battered the two of them with the chair. Like he said, he’s got Cena’s back up until Wrestlemania (1 April) because he needs him to stay fit so he can have that title shot at him.

Next week Cena/Michaels defend their tag team belts against Edge/Orton on Raw.

It was also announced that Curt Hennig aka ‘Mr. Perfect’ will be inducted into the Hall of Fame the evening before Wrestlemania. It’s a nice posthumous honour after his sad passing in 2003.

Stayed in on Friday night to watch Smackdown.

It was in San Diego, home town of former World Heavyweight Champion, Rey Mysterio, who’s currently out with a torn cruciate ligament.

He was introduced to his home fans and hobbled out to give them an update on his injury when Mr McMahon and Umaga came out and attacked the defenseless Mysterio. Absolutely disgraceful scenes.

I was wondering then who Donald Trump would nominate to take on Mr McMahon’s representative, Umaga, in the Bald Billionaire match at Wrestlemania. I even speculated that Mysterio might make a miraculous recovery from injury to get revenge on the Samoan Bulldozer.

Anyway, Donald Trump made his announcement live on Raw last night. It will be ECW Champion, Bobby Lashley, who’s got the task of taming Umaga. Lashley ran out and battered Umaga last night when it was announced. Incredible scenes.

Smackdown is very poor compared to Raw. Think wrestling has had its day really as nothing wil match up to either the days of:

  1. Hulk Hogan, British Bulldog, Papa Shango, Ultimate Warrior, Macho Man, Bret Hart, Million Dollar Man, Brutus Beefcake et al.

or

  1. Stonecold, The Rock, HHH, Shawn Michaels et al.

I actually disagree. I think the standard is really excellent at the moment.

I idolise Michaels whilst admitting he is a veteran and I love Cena’s street-fighting instincts. Die Generation X with Michaels and Triple H always pull out the stops. There are other quality technical wrestlers out there like Edge and Randy Orton along with the high flyers like The Hardys and Rob Van Dam (by the way I have stolen the RVD chant and applied it to my own name and use it in a pub setting). There are also some excellent wrestlers in the ‘big man’ mould like Bobby Lashley and Umaga, both of whom do some incredible moves.

I do agree that Smackdown’s nowhere near as good as Raw. Smackdown predominantly has big bruisers like Kane, King Booker, Batista and The Undertaker whereas Raw has a much better mix of styles and characterisations.

I really like the mix between Raw, Smackdown and ECW lately too though. Some of the inter-brand bouts have been top class.

A veritable feast of wrestling last night between Raw and ECW. Thursday has become my favourite night of the week.

Report:

Jeff Hardy beat Shelton Benjamin in a Money In The Bank qualifier for Wrestlemania 23 to start Raw off. He finished him with The Side Effect followed by The Swan Tom Bomb from the top rope.

Next up Johnny Nitro was scheduled to fight Super Crazy (‘I am Super. I am Crazy. I am Super Crazy’) Nitro was still absolutely raging over losing his MITB qualifier to CM Punk last week and before Super Crazy had reached the ring to begin the match he slid out under the ropes and met him with a baseball slide type kick to the head. He then proceeded to pummel Super Crazy before the bout had officially begun. After knocking the Mad Mexican out he just walked off backstage.

Melina then defeated Maria in a Women’s Non-Title match up. Maria tried to get the champion with a Bronco Buster but Melina blocked it with her foot before rolling Maria up for the 1-2-3 count. She’s defending the title against previous champion, Mickey James, in a falls count anywhere match on Raw next week.

As alluded to earlier in the week, Bobby Lashley, the ECW World Heavyweight Champion, was announced as Donald Trump’s representative to take on Mr McMahon’s, Umaga, in the Bald Billionaire match at Wrestlemania. McMahon came out with Umaga and was posturing in front of the crowd, telling them what he was gonna do to Trump’s hair when Donald appeared on the big screen, told him to shut up and introduced Lashley as his man. Bobby roared into the ring then and after an initial stand-off Umaga hit him with a cheap shot. Lashley then flew back at him and they had a massive brawl in and outside the ring as at least 20 security personnel and referees tried to break it up. Awesome stuff. What a fight this will be at ‘The Big Dance’.

Then The Great Khali was undertaking the Master Lock Challenge - nobody’s ever broken out of Chris Masters’ Master Lock but Masters couldn’t even get his arms around the shoulders of the big brute from India - when Kane, from Smackdown, came haring into the ring. Last week The Great Khali interfered in a MITB qualifier between Kane and King Booker. He pounded Kane allowing King Booker to take the win and so The Big Red Destroyer was hell bent on revenge. He hit Khali with some big right hands, knocking him towards the ropes before sending him over the top with a clothesline. Expect these two animals to face off at Wrestlemania.

Jerry ‘The King’ Lawler was then announced as the 3rd inductee into the Class of 2007 Hall of Fame following in the footsteps of Dusty Rhodes and the late, great ‘Mr Perfect’ Curt Hennig.

Before the main event we had Carlito continuing his fine recent form by defeating Kenny Dykstra by virtue of a quality Back Cracker to get the ‘W’. His attitude has improved no end since the legendary ‘Nature Boy’ Ric Flair questioned his passion and desire on Raw a few weeks back.

Then the main event - tag team titles on the line as John Cena and Shawn Michaels defended the belts against Team Rated RKO, Edge and Randy Orton. Initially this was meant to kick the show off and Michaels and Cena were in the ring when Edge and Orton appeared on the big screen. With Michaels challenging Cena for the WWE Championship at Wrestlemania Team Rated RKO sought to put some doubt in the champ’s mind about whether he could trust his partner.

They showed a montage of Michaels turning on his tag team partners going down through the years and it was brought back some smashing memories. From attacking Marty Janetti and firing him head-first through a window on Brutus ‘The Barber’ Beefcake’s Barber Shop in 1992 right up to 2005 when he knocked Hulk Hogan out with a Super Kick as they were celebrating a victory together, all the incidents were there. They told Cena to think about this and they’d see them in the ring later.

And my oh my what a bout it was. There’s too many things to mention but there was a great moment where Cena had thrown Edge over the top ropes and turned around just as Michaels was lining up Orton for the Super Kick. Orton ducked leaving Cena to catch Michaels’ boot as it was about to smack him in the face. There was a moment where it looked like they would turn on each other but their opponents resurfaced to attack both of them. Edge was battering Cena and Orton went outside and got one of the belts to attack Michaels with. Michaels wrestled the belt off him and knocked him to the ground before lashing Edge in the back with it before throwing the belt into Orton’s hands as he groggily got to his feet. Edge hazily turned around to see Orton standing there with the belt and presumed his partner had attacked him. Edge got into a huff and walked out of the ring with Orton pleading his innocence. As Orton turned around he was met with Sweet Chin Music as Michaels connected beautifully with the Super Kick to the chin. Orton stumbled backwards into the waiting arms of The Champ and Cena gratefully lifted him up before finishing him off with The FU for the 1-2-3 count.

The crowd went absolutely ballistic and as both men raised each other’s hand aloft I couldn’t help get a little bit wet thinking about their fight at Wrestlemania (midnight in April 1 - party in my gaff).

I fooking love wrestling. It has become my life.

And so on to ECW the next night.

Mr McMahon had left Raw incredulous at the cheek of Bobby Lashley to even dare challenge him and vowed to make his life a misery. He turned up the next night on ECW where Lashley was due to defend his title against Hardcore Holly in a steel cage match but added a ridiculous stipulation - if Lashley didn’t win within 5 minutes then Holly would become the champion.

But before that we had another Money In The Bank qualifier for Wrestlemania between ECW’s Sabu and Smackdown’s Mr Kennedy. This fight was held under Extreme Rules with no disqualifications or count outs. In effect it was anything goes. Tables, chairs and all sorts were used but in the end Mr Kennedy earned the victory after DDT’ing Sabu onto the wooden table and getting the fall.

There are now 5 confirmed participants in the MITB match at Wrestlemania; Edge and Jeff Hardy from Raw, King Booker and Mr Kennedy from Smackdown and CM Punk from ECW. 3 more superstars will gain entry in qualifiers over the next week or so.

For those of you who don’t know the MITB match involves a brief case containing a contract hanging from the roof of the arena. The winner is the first man to get the briefcase in his hands and the contract guarantees the victor one shot at the world title any time within a year of the MITB match. It’s a spectacular match because it involves superb moves off ladders and tables as each wrestler strives to climb to the top and get the case. It’s always a highlight of Wrestlemania and it’s importance can be proven by virtue of the fact that the last two winners of the MITB match up, Edge and Rob Van Dam, went on to win the title after using their shot.

Then the main even between Lashley and Hardcore Holly. Lashley was well on top early doors as he sought to get the job done within the timeframe set down by Mr McMahon. However, Umaga then appeared outside the cage and distracted the champ allowing Holly to gain the upper hand. Umaga then threw a steel chair up over the cage and into the ring to Holly but Lashley blocked his strike, proceeded to relentlessly batter the challenger with the chair before finishing him off with the running slam that he does so expertly. He beat the clock by about 30 seconds.

Umaga was going mental outside the ring and Lashley stood there facing him down through the cage. Then he strode back to the ropes on the far side and just ran at the cage, straight in Umaga’s direction at full speed. Lashley is a fooking beast and literally went straight through the side of the cage with both himself and the steel railings landing on top of The Samoan Bulldozer. Umaga was trapped under the cage and Lashley was in bits on top of it.

He had made his point though.

This road to Wrestlemania must be one of the best in the history of wrestling.