TNA Remix Episode 5 -

Bruno Sammartino VS Giant Baba 2

Bruno Sammartino VS Giant Baba 1

ROH Video Wire 10/12/07

Why do we have three brands again?

I think everyone can agree that World Wrestling Entertainment is not having a good year by any means. After business had been on the rise for most of 2006 and early 2007, there have been many bumps in the road that have hurt the promotion. The most severe has to be the Benoit family tragedy, which hit the wrestling industry in general, and has brought attention to the drug problems in wrestling to congress. WWE is not making things any easier for themselves, and I will explain why.

I ask the question "Why do we have three brands anyway?" I have explored the stupidity that WWE incorporates when it comes to their three brands in past entries, but this is a subject that continues to bug me. Let's take a look at some problems they have had recently, and how the brand split should have helped them but didn't.

For starters, at the beginning of the summer, the WWE was running an elaborate "Who killed Mr. McMahon" angle. They were betting on this to be a big ratings draw, so they played out aspects of the angle on ECW and Smackdown as well, despite this being a Raw-centric angle. The problem was that this angle ate up so much time on ECW and Smackdown, that their own angles and roster were pushed to the side. Then the Benoit murders occurred and it became clear that it would be unwise to continue such an angle in this light. Good thing this was a Raw angle, so that only Raw will be hurt and the other two shows can continue on smoothly. Oh wait, the death angle swallowed ECW and Smackdown whole, they need regrouping too! What should have been an issue of replanning the next month of Raw's turned into an issue of replanning all three brands. This should not have happened.

Vince waited for a few weeks before returning to Raw. He quickly wrapped up the death angle, briefly explaining that he faked his own death to see how his family would react. On the same show, it was revealed that Vince had an illigitimate child. Another high profile Raw angle was born!

Oh, but wait! This angle ALSO spilled over to ECW and Smackdown. Vince and Coach started visiting all the brands in search of the illigitimate child, and the angle was now consuming ECW and Smackdown's angles as well! I suppose this is good and all, since absolutely nothing could happen to disrupt this angle... except that there was. The common understanding across the internet community is that the bastard son was going to be Mr. Kennedy, which would have been a great way to elevate him up the WWE ladder. This angle was going to make a new main event star, one that would likely take the WWE Championship and become a strong heel heading into Wrestlemania 24. It would have worked, except that a lengthy list of WWE superstars were busted of having been customers of an online steroid ring. This list decimated all three brands, as John Morrison, King Booker, Umaga, and Mr. Kennedy were included on the bust. So now, not only was the prime candidate for the bastard son role in need of a suspension, but so were many of the alternative ideas.

Once again, a high profile angle that engulfed all the shows had been disrupted greatly. WWE tried to salvage the situation by having the bastard son turn out to be Hornswoggle, so they could run a comedy angle rather than have it be an out-right flop by having the son turn out to be some unover midcarder that would not work in the main events. Again, this is something that should have only hurt Raw, but it hurt Smackdown as well. Hornswoggle was the Cruiserweight Champion, and had been associated with Finlay and feuding with Jamie Noble. Since he's been a McMahon, Hornswoggle has been cut off from both almost completely.

The hits just keep coming for WWE, as now the WWE Champion, John Cena, is hurt and needs 6-12 months to recover. Now there is a huge void at the top, and the No Mercy main event is up in the air. How can this be? Are there not two other brands besides Raw? Surely, Smackdown has a main event worth headlining? Oh wait, the Smackdown main event is Batista vs. Khali in a Punjabi prison match. This match has disaster all over it, when it was booked it was assumed that Cena/Orton III would be the main selling point of the show. Nevermind. Okay, so how about that ECW brand? Do they have a main event worth headlining No Mercy? Actually, they have CM Punk, who is doing the best he can with what they give him, against Big Daddy V. Never heard of Big Daddy V? He used to go by the name, Viscera. Yes, that Viscera. The unover, worthless, slug of a 90's burnout who has somehow managed to keep a job in WWE for the past three years. But this is typical of the ECW brand. On the last pay-per-view, Unforgiven, the ECW title match opened the show, and the challenger didn't even get a televised entrance. The ECW title is below midcard status now.

What makes matters even worse about the John Cena situation is that again this is something that should only be hurting Raw. But it isn't. The WWE is making sure that if Raw goes down, all the other brands go down with it. They've been heavily addressing how screwed they are over Cena on both ECW and Smackdown this past week. Lovely.

So, with three brands, isn't there some way that these problems could have been avoided? The death and bastard son angles should have stayed on Raw. There is no reason why ECW or Smackdown had to get involved. They would have acknowledged the loss of Mr. McMahon, but did we really need an episode of Smackdown where all the feuds were thrown to the side in favor of interbrand "tribute" matches? Then when the bastard son angle started, it should have been stated that the son was a Raw superstar, leaving the other two brands out. This is not a case of boosting the other shows because they have the aftermath of Raw's "grand" events. I don't see the Teddy Long heart attack incident all over Raw and ECW (aside from Smackdown rebounds, etc). If the same thing had happened to an authority figure on Raw, an entire episode of Smackdown would have been devoted to it.

In the case of John Cena's injury, the time used recapping it and fearing what the solution would be, they should have turned up the heat on ECW and Smackdown. They needed to let CM Punk cut a kick-ass promo over how he would step up as ECW champion and make No Mercy a night to remember. They should have allowed Tommy Dreamer to get the title shot instead of Viscera. There is invested emotional interest in Dreamer, because he's an original who just wants to be the ECW champion again. That would have been appealing, and the most credible ECW main event in months. On Smackdown, they should have tried harder to put Batista over as a mighty world champion. Instead, it was the same old shit.

So there you have it. There are three brands, but it seems that every storyline disruption on Raw has to hurt the other two. And at the same time, they keep Smackdown and ECW in such ruins that they cannot rely on them to step up when something goes wrong on Raw. If this is really how they plan on running the company, then it's time to just unify the roster again. Do Raw and Smackdown, and turn ECW into Velocity (keep Heat on WWE.com) with the same roster. It wouldn't look that much different now. Book a CM Punk/Batista/WWE Champion triple threat match where the winner gets all the titles and unify them at once. Either do this, or start being smart with the brand extension. WWE has had five years now to get it right, and they haven't, so something needs to change.

Ring of Honor: October 5th Live Report

Ring of Honor made their return to Boston on Friday, October 5th 2007. Once again, the Reggie Lewis Track and Field Center at Roxbury Community College was the host. This is a fine venue, I must say, despite the rough neighborhood.

This show was coming off the heels of August's Death Before Dishonor V Night 1 show. With the tremendous quality of that event, expectations were running high. The crowd turnout was a bit down, as there was a big Red Sox game in progress the same night.

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Preshow:

Bryan Fury defeated "Sugarfoot" Alex Payne.

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Handsome Johnny defeated "Sexiest Man Alive" Rhett Titus.

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Neither preshow match was overly noteworthy, which is to be expected.

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Main Show:

Adam Pearce and Brent Albright defeated Erick Stevens and Matt Cross. This was an excellent opener, as it was solid tag team wrestling with no fancy gimmick. Cross played a convincing face in peril and Stevens got one of the hottest tags I've seen in a LONG time as a result. This was a pleasant surprise, ***1/4.

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BJ Whitmer defeated Delirious. This one did not click at all. If they are going to keep booking Delirious into blood feuds, he needs to start acting like he really wants to hurt his enemy. Whitmer won in anticlimatic fashion, even after taking a series of "Chaos Effects" from Delirious, **.

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The Age of the Fall (Jimmy Jacobs, Tyler Black, and Lacey) cut a promo in the ring, and were attacked by Jay Briscoe. They brawled out into the hallway and back into the dressing room area. As a result, Black did not participate in the scheduled four-way and the following triple threat took place instead:

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Nigel McGuinness defeated Hallowicked, and El Generico. This was a lot of fun, Nigel and Generico were very over with the crowd. Hallowicked did not do anything overly impressive, which is a shame because this was his Boston ROH debut. Nigel hit at least seven lariats during the match, and was able to pin Hallowicked while Generico was recovering on the floor. ***

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Claudio Castagnoli defeated Chris Hero in an overly long match up. By this point, any real heat between Hero and Castagnoli is gone. The antics of Larry Sweeney, Sara Del Rey, and Bobby Dempsey at ringside were humorous, but felt a bit distracting once Hero stopped goofing around had started really wrestling Claudio. I've been told the match went about 20 minutes, but it felt like 30, **3/4.

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Jay Briscoe and Necro Butcher brawled into the gym. They fought their way around the crowd, with Butcher burying Jay with chairs at one point. Once it hit the ring, it became an "anything goes" match. Lots of sick chair bumps, with Necro Butcher picking up the win (after Jimmy Jacobs got involved again). Mark Briscoe hobbled out on his crutches to try and make the save, but the Age of the Fall took him out and carried him out of the building. What happened after was complete nonsense, as Jay took the time to cut a short promo and fight with a fan at ringside, rather than show concern for his brother who was just KIDNAPPED! I hope Mark kicks his ass for this later.

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Intermission:

I wandered around for a bit and saw some wrestlers in the hallway (Kevin Steen was being especially nice to fans looking for autographs). I went to the merch stand and chatted with Sara Del Rey again, and had her sign another DVD for me. She is really representing SHIMMER well.

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Jimmy Jacobs and Tyler Black squashed Ernie Osiris and Mitch Franklin. Afterwards, Jay Briscoe attacked them yet again, and he was not selling any of the punishment that Necro Butcher dished out to him earlier.

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Austin Aries defeated Bryan Danielson in an excellent match. Aries busted out some technical wrestling chops that we haven't seen from him in a long while. They took their time to tell a nice story, and built to the trademark high spots. Aries managed to out wrestle Danielson and make him tap out. ****

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Jack Evans, Jigsaw, and Ruckus defeated Roderick Strong, Davey Richards, and Rocky Romero in a scramble tag match. If you enjoy spot-fests (which I tend to do) then you would like this one. Evans, Jigsaw, and Ruckus, collectively known as The Vulture Squad, meshed very well as a team. Jigsaw stands out from the others as he wears a masked and has some off-beat goof charm, but his ring work qualifies him for the group. Solid spot-fest, and I look forward to seeing more of the Vulture Squad later, ***1/2.

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Takeshi Morishima defeated Kevin Steen to retain the ROH World Championship. It took this match several minutes before it started to click. The early going was some uninspiring brawling that failed to achieve any flow. Then Steen went for the sharpshooter, and things picked up from there. Lots of near falls, with Steen coming painfully close to winning the belt on several occasions. So basically, this is a repeat of Morishima's last two Boston title defenses. Again, Morishima managed to hulk up and hit a single backdrop driver for the victory. **3/4

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So all in all, this show was a few steps below what I've come to expect from ROH Boston shows. There was some nonsensical booking and a few matches failed to deliver. There was also an odd mix of effort, as the roster wanted to put on a great show but at the same time seemed to be saving themselves for tonight's pay-per-view taping. But, if you noticed my star ratings, most of the matches were in the *** region and the Aries/Danielson match lived up to my high expectations, so I was a happy wrestling fan once again. I look forward to ROH's return to Boston on January 11, 2008.