This is truly a shame. I had read a bit about Rhyno and something having gone down over WrestleMania weekend, but I try not to read about or get into the wrestler's personal lives. It's their business and they should have their lives. My best wishes to Rhyno.
HOWEVER, the Matt situation is a different ball of wax. Again, I don't like discussing personal lives, but it plays into this. If you follow any wrestling news, you know it came out recently that Lita was cheating on Matt with Edge. I guess we see who the WWE has sided with on this one. Edge is a great worker and I like watching him on TV, but it was like sticking a knife in Matt's back with this. I assume when you travel with folks for years and years you at least get to be acquaintances, if not friends. While Lita should have had the guts to tell Matt to his face if things were not working and they should both move on, Edge didn't help the situation. Matt was most likely let go so there wouldn't be "an issue" in the back. I hope she's happy. I also hope that fans of the Hardy Boys will turn on her now. Last word on this; (open sarcasm) it's nice to see that the WWE has their priorities straight: they let two good workers go and keep on the semi-talented female wrestler. Lita is just lucky she didn't do Playboy yet...cause I bet she would have been dumped too if they still couldn't make a mint on her posing nude. (close sarcasm).
I'll be attending the SmackDown taping here in Chicago on the 12th. We already know two matches for it:
- Eddie Guerrero vs. Kurt Angle in the WWE Championship Number One Contender's Tournament
- John Cena & The Big Show vs. JBL & Orlando Jordan (I assume this the "house crowd" match)
For those out of the wrestling loop, a "house crowd" match is the match they do after the live show or taping for the live crowd so they have something special for coming to the show. I'll try to have a non-spoiler match list up on Wednesday. If not, have a good week.
Monday, April 11, 2005
Wednesday, April 06, 2005
GrzeTim Books... - Wrestlemaina XXI
Well, time to see how I did:
Match 1 - Eddie Guerrero vs. Rey Mysterio - I called the opener, so that's something...Rey won with a quick huricanrana rollup for the win. A good match, but not a good way to start my booking career - 0 / 1
Match 2 - Money In The Bank Ladder Match - Again, still in my order. Edge wins after knocking Chris Benoit off the ladder with a chair shot. An excellent match and it gets be back on track - 1 /2
In Ring - Eugene comes down and is talking about WrestleMaina. Hassan and Daivari come down and beat him down. Out comes HULK HOGAN for the save. Hulk is one of those guys I never thought I'd see wrestle live twice here in Chicago once I was old enough to go to the live shows. Hulk clears the ring and poses for the crowd. Good times.
Match 3 - Randy Orton vs. Undertaker - I blew the order on this one. Undertaker wins after reversing Orton out of an attempted Tombstone into one of his own - 2/3
Match 4 - Women's Title - Trish Stratus(c) vs. Christy Hemme - This match, in my opinion, was too close with Trish selling too much for Christy. Trish gets the win after a Chick Kick. Trish gets even more heat back the next night on Raw by dropping Christy and Lita again. More good times - 3/4
Match 5 - Kurt Angle vs. Shawn Michaels - Kurt wins via tap out with the Ankle Lock? WOW. An excellent match and most likely a shoe-in for Match of the Year - 4/5
Piper's Pit - The normal stuff from Piper and Austin. I LOVED Piper ribbing the crowd for the "WHAT?" chats. Carlito makes the mistake of coming down and gets a thumb to the eye and a stunner for his trouble. Austin and Piper then break out the beer. Piper gets a stunner as well.
Match 5 - Sumo Match - Big Show vs. Akebono - They took the ropes off for this one. Akebono wins with a ring out. Show did rather well and even lifted Akebono of his feet at a point. Sadly, the image of Big Show in that outfit will be burned into my eyes for all time. 4/6 (Marked as a loss for me, I made no prediction)
Match 6 - WWE Championship - JBL(c) vs. John Cena - Cena wins CLEAN with an FU after ducking JBL's Clothesline From Hell. Not the best match, but gets the job done. New champ on SmackDown and they come here to Chicago in a few weeks, woo hoo! - 5/7
In Ring - Hall of Fame Class of 2005
Match 7 - World Heavyweight Championship - Triple H(c) vs. Batista - Batista wins with a spine buster and a Batista-bomb. Triple H was in control till he hit the post after a Batista slingshot on the outside. For the 2nd year in a row, both show's champs are faces leaving WM (Benoit on Raw and Eddie on SmackDown). - 5/8
Final score - 5/8 or 63% - Not bad for my first attempt at booking. Check back later in the month for my Backlash predictions and in a few weeks for my review of the SmackDown taping here from Chicago.
I also hope to have some more movie reviews and general posts. Keep your eyes open.
Take care.
Match 1 - Eddie Guerrero vs. Rey Mysterio - I called the opener, so that's something...Rey won with a quick huricanrana rollup for the win. A good match, but not a good way to start my booking career - 0 / 1
Match 2 - Money In The Bank Ladder Match - Again, still in my order. Edge wins after knocking Chris Benoit off the ladder with a chair shot. An excellent match and it gets be back on track - 1 /2
In Ring - Eugene comes down and is talking about WrestleMaina. Hassan and Daivari come down and beat him down. Out comes HULK HOGAN for the save. Hulk is one of those guys I never thought I'd see wrestle live twice here in Chicago once I was old enough to go to the live shows. Hulk clears the ring and poses for the crowd. Good times.
Match 3 - Randy Orton vs. Undertaker - I blew the order on this one. Undertaker wins after reversing Orton out of an attempted Tombstone into one of his own - 2/3
Match 4 - Women's Title - Trish Stratus(c) vs. Christy Hemme - This match, in my opinion, was too close with Trish selling too much for Christy. Trish gets the win after a Chick Kick. Trish gets even more heat back the next night on Raw by dropping Christy and Lita again. More good times - 3/4
Match 5 - Kurt Angle vs. Shawn Michaels - Kurt wins via tap out with the Ankle Lock? WOW. An excellent match and most likely a shoe-in for Match of the Year - 4/5
Piper's Pit - The normal stuff from Piper and Austin. I LOVED Piper ribbing the crowd for the "WHAT?" chats. Carlito makes the mistake of coming down and gets a thumb to the eye and a stunner for his trouble. Austin and Piper then break out the beer. Piper gets a stunner as well.
Match 5 - Sumo Match - Big Show vs. Akebono - They took the ropes off for this one. Akebono wins with a ring out. Show did rather well and even lifted Akebono of his feet at a point. Sadly, the image of Big Show in that outfit will be burned into my eyes for all time. 4/6 (Marked as a loss for me, I made no prediction)
Match 6 - WWE Championship - JBL(c) vs. John Cena - Cena wins CLEAN with an FU after ducking JBL's Clothesline From Hell. Not the best match, but gets the job done. New champ on SmackDown and they come here to Chicago in a few weeks, woo hoo! - 5/7
In Ring - Hall of Fame Class of 2005
Match 7 - World Heavyweight Championship - Triple H(c) vs. Batista - Batista wins with a spine buster and a Batista-bomb. Triple H was in control till he hit the post after a Batista slingshot on the outside. For the 2nd year in a row, both show's champs are faces leaving WM (Benoit on Raw and Eddie on SmackDown). - 5/8
Final score - 5/8 or 63% - Not bad for my first attempt at booking. Check back later in the month for my Backlash predictions and in a few weeks for my review of the SmackDown taping here from Chicago.
I also hope to have some more movie reviews and general posts. Keep your eyes open.
Take care.
Friday, April 01, 2005
WrestleMaina Weekend
Yes, it's that time of year again...WrestleMania! The card is actually shaping up to be good. So, I'll start my new item with "the grand-daddy of em all" WrestleMaina. GrzeTim Books...WrestleMania 21 - WrestleMaina Goes Hollywood - Sunday, April 3, 2005
- Eddie Guerrero vs. Rey Mysterio - There are a few matches on the card that can fit the "1st Match". I would guess it will either be this or the Women's Title...but I would hope they save the titles for higher in the card. Eddie and Rey have had a few good matches on SmackDown over the past few weeks...and I expect the same here. If given 15-25 minutes, these two could be one of the many matches to steal the show. This is also one of the matches that can have a nasty swerve in it...either man could turn heel and throw the crowd for a loop. Winner - Eddie Guerrero via a rollup with a handful of tights out of a reversed Rey move.
- Money In The Bank Ladder Match - Again, I would like this to be higher in the card, but the titles SHOULD be the top billing. This match can go a lot of different ways and can be a sign of how the Raw title match is going to go. The piece of this that makes it hard to call is the fact that the contract is valid for a year, which means they could have a heel win and keep the belt on Triple H and have a machine 6 months down the line based off this contract. Just DO NOT use the title match within the next two weeks...that will destroy the whole thing. This is a tough call...Winner - Edge
- Kurt Angle vs. Shawn Michaels - This is one of the many matches on the card that the WWE has done a WONDERFUL job to promote. It's like an old-school feud that was going for months and months and is going to be settled at the PPV. I know, regardless of how this comes out, one or the other will move shows and continue the feud, but just to see these two rip it up for 25+ minutes (I hope) will be worth it. So many hard picks in this...Winner - Kurt Angle via a rollup reversal and some help from the ropes.
- Sumo Match - Big Show vs. Akebono - I wasn't sure what they were going for with this till I saw Akebono "wrestle" on Thursday's SmackDown. I don't know if they are going to have them really sumo or if they are going to have a planned ending. This match scares me and reminds me of when they had Butterbean fight Bart Gunn in a boxing match. After Bart Gunn had beat the tar out of many WWE stars in boxing matches, Butterbean knocked him out with a few punches. Not surprising, Bart Gunn disappeared soon after. Big Show is toted by WWE as "the biggest athlete in the world". If Akebono defeats him, it could take a lot of air out of Big Show's sails. Winner - Depends on if it's a real sumo match
- Piper's Pit - This should get interesting...both Steve Austin and Roddy Piper are "colorful" characters to say the least and neither wants to be made a fool of. What I see happening here is that Austin and Piper will go back and forth on the mics and when it's about to come to blows, Hassan will come out and jabber on about how he isn't on the card, but these two "has beens" are. For his efforts, he'll get smacked by Piper and a Stunner from Austin. Austin and Piper will then partake in the beer and the fans will be cheering. What a wonderful world...
- Women's Title - Trish Stratus(c) vs. Christy Hemme - Now, I have no problem with the WWE hiring women who are, for lack of a better term, eye candy. After all these years, we still get a "we want puppies" chat during a women's match. I recall when they did the Diva Search, they turned women away cause while they were nice looking, they and a more developed wrestling background and "we aren't looking for wrestlers in this contest". Then, six months later, they turn around and put Christy, a minimally trained wrestler who had her first "match" just a few weeks ago in a six-person tag, against the Women's Champ at the biggest show of the year. I have to cry foul. They had a decent Women's Division a while ago with Trish, Victoria, Lita, Jazz, Molly, Gail Kim, and Ivory. It seems that Ivory is going to do commentary now, which is a shame since she was a great wrestler. They let Jazz and Gail go. Lita is hurt AGAIN. So, we're down to Trish, Molly, and Victoria. So, what do we do? We squash Victoria and have a NON-wrestler dodge her finisher and pin her CLEAN. To quote a famous movie "I feel like I'm taking crazy pills here!". As I said before, I have no issue with the non-wrestling ladies of the WWE. They have a place in the show, but it is NOT this high on the WrestleMania card facing the Women's Champ. If they put that belt on Christy, not only is it a slap in the face to all the other women wrestlers in the company, it's a slap in the face to the fans. Trish has busted her butt to make the Women's Division mean something again; it would be a shame to have this happen. Winner - Trish Stratus via royal beatdown of Christy (I hope)
- Randy Orton vs. Undertaker - Another match that has been built up rather well. The most interesting part of this feud was how the crowd reaction has changed for Orton. From the moment he challenged Undertaker, the crowd has turned on him a little more and a little more. The straw that broke the camel's back was when he gave Stacy the RKO. Instant heel, just add water. I have also loved how he (not the character, the man) has reacted to the fans turning on him. You can see he expected the fans to at least split as they did with Hogan vs. Rock. I had said to a few people on Tuesday that if Orton showed up and laid Taker out with an RKO and Taker did not sit up right out of it, that Orton didn't have a shot in hell. Well, that's what happened. I see a decent match with some type of setup for Orton to go out for the shoulder work he needs done. Winner - Undertaker (13-0) via the Tombstone
- WWE Championship - JBL(c) vs. John Cena - Yet another match with good buildup. The fact that they couldn't touch each other over the past few weeks will make seeing them lock up even more exciting. They had some great steam going after last week, but the lame, recycled arrest angle took some of the fire out of this one. I'd look to see the Bashams and/or Orlando Jordan get involved and maybe even be the reason JBL loses the title. Winner - John Cena via FU
- World Heavyweight Championship - Triple H(c) vs. Batista - This feud has been building for a while and while most people would expect it to hit its peak here, I don't think it will. First off, the events of the contract signing were many weeks ago and after that, this got slow. I think they ran out of things to do over the past few weeks. Also, the placement of this match is one I question. While I feel that the title match with the winner of the Rumble SHOULD be the top match (thus the Main Event) my prediction contradicts the "send them home happy" idea. Winner - Triple H via Pedigree - My logic on this is that I expect Batista to somehow get a rematch for Backlash, where he will win the title.
I didn't pick an easy PPV to start with, but hopefully I'll set the tone here. Come back Monday for my breakdown of the events of the PPV and to see how I did.
- Eddie Guerrero vs. Rey Mysterio - There are a few matches on the card that can fit the "1st Match". I would guess it will either be this or the Women's Title...but I would hope they save the titles for higher in the card. Eddie and Rey have had a few good matches on SmackDown over the past few weeks...and I expect the same here. If given 15-25 minutes, these two could be one of the many matches to steal the show. This is also one of the matches that can have a nasty swerve in it...either man could turn heel and throw the crowd for a loop. Winner - Eddie Guerrero via a rollup with a handful of tights out of a reversed Rey move.
- Money In The Bank Ladder Match - Again, I would like this to be higher in the card, but the titles SHOULD be the top billing. This match can go a lot of different ways and can be a sign of how the Raw title match is going to go. The piece of this that makes it hard to call is the fact that the contract is valid for a year, which means they could have a heel win and keep the belt on Triple H and have a machine 6 months down the line based off this contract. Just DO NOT use the title match within the next two weeks...that will destroy the whole thing. This is a tough call...Winner - Edge
- Kurt Angle vs. Shawn Michaels - This is one of the many matches on the card that the WWE has done a WONDERFUL job to promote. It's like an old-school feud that was going for months and months and is going to be settled at the PPV. I know, regardless of how this comes out, one or the other will move shows and continue the feud, but just to see these two rip it up for 25+ minutes (I hope) will be worth it. So many hard picks in this...Winner - Kurt Angle via a rollup reversal and some help from the ropes.
- Sumo Match - Big Show vs. Akebono - I wasn't sure what they were going for with this till I saw Akebono "wrestle" on Thursday's SmackDown. I don't know if they are going to have them really sumo or if they are going to have a planned ending. This match scares me and reminds me of when they had Butterbean fight Bart Gunn in a boxing match. After Bart Gunn had beat the tar out of many WWE stars in boxing matches, Butterbean knocked him out with a few punches. Not surprising, Bart Gunn disappeared soon after. Big Show is toted by WWE as "the biggest athlete in the world". If Akebono defeats him, it could take a lot of air out of Big Show's sails. Winner - Depends on if it's a real sumo match
- Piper's Pit - This should get interesting...both Steve Austin and Roddy Piper are "colorful" characters to say the least and neither wants to be made a fool of. What I see happening here is that Austin and Piper will go back and forth on the mics and when it's about to come to blows, Hassan will come out and jabber on about how he isn't on the card, but these two "has beens" are. For his efforts, he'll get smacked by Piper and a Stunner from Austin. Austin and Piper will then partake in the beer and the fans will be cheering. What a wonderful world...
- Women's Title - Trish Stratus(c) vs. Christy Hemme - Now, I have no problem with the WWE hiring women who are, for lack of a better term, eye candy. After all these years, we still get a "we want puppies" chat during a women's match. I recall when they did the Diva Search, they turned women away cause while they were nice looking, they and a more developed wrestling background and "we aren't looking for wrestlers in this contest". Then, six months later, they turn around and put Christy, a minimally trained wrestler who had her first "match" just a few weeks ago in a six-person tag, against the Women's Champ at the biggest show of the year. I have to cry foul. They had a decent Women's Division a while ago with Trish, Victoria, Lita, Jazz, Molly, Gail Kim, and Ivory. It seems that Ivory is going to do commentary now, which is a shame since she was a great wrestler. They let Jazz and Gail go. Lita is hurt AGAIN. So, we're down to Trish, Molly, and Victoria. So, what do we do? We squash Victoria and have a NON-wrestler dodge her finisher and pin her CLEAN. To quote a famous movie "I feel like I'm taking crazy pills here!". As I said before, I have no issue with the non-wrestling ladies of the WWE. They have a place in the show, but it is NOT this high on the WrestleMania card facing the Women's Champ. If they put that belt on Christy, not only is it a slap in the face to all the other women wrestlers in the company, it's a slap in the face to the fans. Trish has busted her butt to make the Women's Division mean something again; it would be a shame to have this happen. Winner - Trish Stratus via royal beatdown of Christy (I hope)
- Randy Orton vs. Undertaker - Another match that has been built up rather well. The most interesting part of this feud was how the crowd reaction has changed for Orton. From the moment he challenged Undertaker, the crowd has turned on him a little more and a little more. The straw that broke the camel's back was when he gave Stacy the RKO. Instant heel, just add water. I have also loved how he (not the character, the man) has reacted to the fans turning on him. You can see he expected the fans to at least split as they did with Hogan vs. Rock. I had said to a few people on Tuesday that if Orton showed up and laid Taker out with an RKO and Taker did not sit up right out of it, that Orton didn't have a shot in hell. Well, that's what happened. I see a decent match with some type of setup for Orton to go out for the shoulder work he needs done. Winner - Undertaker (13-0) via the Tombstone
- WWE Championship - JBL(c) vs. John Cena - Yet another match with good buildup. The fact that they couldn't touch each other over the past few weeks will make seeing them lock up even more exciting. They had some great steam going after last week, but the lame, recycled arrest angle took some of the fire out of this one. I'd look to see the Bashams and/or Orlando Jordan get involved and maybe even be the reason JBL loses the title. Winner - John Cena via FU
- World Heavyweight Championship - Triple H(c) vs. Batista - This feud has been building for a while and while most people would expect it to hit its peak here, I don't think it will. First off, the events of the contract signing were many weeks ago and after that, this got slow. I think they ran out of things to do over the past few weeks. Also, the placement of this match is one I question. While I feel that the title match with the winner of the Rumble SHOULD be the top match (thus the Main Event) my prediction contradicts the "send them home happy" idea. Winner - Triple H via Pedigree - My logic on this is that I expect Batista to somehow get a rematch for Backlash, where he will win the title.
I didn't pick an easy PPV to start with, but hopefully I'll set the tone here. Come back Monday for my breakdown of the events of the PPV and to see how I did.
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