Terp's Wrestling Blog: Running Review of the WWE Draft
April 13th, 2009
About Running Reviews: Aside from posts that will no doubt contain stunning insight and captivating ideas, I’ll occasionally do a Running Review of a wrestling broadcast. Here is my first, done on April 13th.
When Jim Ross says this is the most pivotal night of the year, I look at myself in the mirror and nod. I do this when I’ve made the right choice. Tonight is the WWE draft, where wrestlers switch brands and with no real off-season for professional wrestling, the fans get the closest thing to a reset…
…I get my first look at Evan Bourne and I’m on board with this guy. The announcers spend most of this match letting me know that if I want to see more of him I need to watch ECW on Tuesdays. Fine, I’ll bite. I flip my DVR to record ECW and am relieved it’s only an hour long….
…First match, first backstage interview, things are looking good. RAW gets U.S. Champion M.V.P and he comes out kinda awkwardly, not on cue at all with his intro music. Maybe that’s his thing. It doesn’t look right and I’m unhappy, as intros and intro music should be taken very, very seriously. (Seriously)…
…Brian Kendrick is wrestling Kane for the next draft pick. I remember loving Kendrick when he debuted and I’m glad to see he’s still around. I also remember how Kane matches are never as cool as his character is. I’m thankful for the squash. Kane wins and RAW drafts Big Show, so he gets to be underutilized on a new channel…
…I get my first look at Jack Swagger and I like it. I know nothing about his All American American gimmick, but I like what I see. Dreading ECW less now. John Cena references actual match records (“you’ve got a couple of wins and you think you’re hot stuff”) which is a good sign. I love when wrestlers wrestle each other for the sake of winning wrestling matches. It makes a lot of sense and I like when my professional wrestling makes sense…
…I’m surprised to see that they changed the Women’s Championship to the Divas championship and then I realize that there are actually two separate titles. My return to wrestling will likely not include this diva bullshit…
…Jack Swagger is putting on an amazing show against John Cena. He loses, but he still gets some rub from Cena. Love this. Love the way Cena looks at Swagger post-match, as if he almost lost. Matt Hardy and HHH are drafted to RAW while Edge ambushes Cena. During my last dark period I secretly kept tabs on Edge. It appears as though the writers are separating Matt and Jeff Hardy, giving me the impression that Wrestlemania actually WAS the end of their plot, but my gut tells me this is a tease…
…The Great Khali beats Santino and he has to (gets to?) kiss him next week? I’m confused. I’m probably not going to look this up…
…The Miz and John Morrison make their entrance with The Miz facing Kofi Kingston in singles action. I already know I like these guys. I haven’t seen a lot of Miz in a non-Real World setting and I haven’t seen Johnny since his debut, but I’m a big fan of the flashy and cocky heels (see: Rick “the Model” Martel; Ted Dibiase; Super Macho Man). I know nothing about Kofi Kingston except that he gets pyro, which means they have something big invested in him. I’ll have to keep one eye out…
…Someone mentions “bromance” and I have to be careful or else this project will be full of complaints about the announcers constantly trying to incorporate popular culture. My wrestling sensors are rusty because while I realize that Miz or Johnny are going to get drafted to RAW after they lose, I don’t see the Miz turn coming. I quickly decide I like it. If the writers are thinking like I am then we’ll get a fun payoff in the form of Miz vs. John Morrison at Backlash…
…Battle Royal time. Has there ever been an amazing battle royal? Is a battle royal on anyone’s top 20 matches list? I’m going to write a “Secrets for a successful Battle Royal” post. Smackdown wins and gets Kane and Jericho in the draft. Both stare at Edge and everybody is tricked into believing that this is intimidating…
…Christian vs. Shelton Benjamin. I love Christian. Once I stayed home on a Saturday night to watch his intro videos on repeat. I pretend like I’m him when I walk into the grocery store. I didn’t realize he was in ECW and all of a sudden I might be more excited about ECW than Smackdown. This is a really good match with another really good clean finish. Some Russian guy gets drafted to ECW and then stares at Christian for thirty minutes while RAW cuts to two different commercial breaks…
…Matt Hardy vs. CM Punk. I like the “Matt-is-a-strategist-and-wants-to-win” angle. I’m happy to see him on RAW, which is clearly the marquee show. Okay. Jeff Hardy interferes and I knew I was wrong. Their feud isn’t finished, the writers are going to squeeze one more match between them, I assume, at Backlash. I’ll bite, but only if we get a good gimmick match out of it…
…The Diva Champion (?) gets drafted to RAW and Women’s Wrestling enthusiasts everywhere are relieved that there won’t be a conflict between the Divas champion and Women’s champion. The only time I want to mention women’s wrestling from here on out is when I’m talking about how much I will not mention it…
…Chris Jericho and Tommy Dreamer compete in another match with a clean finish. Have I mentioned how importantly clean finishes are to a good wrestling product? Predictably, Rey Mysterio is drafted to Smackdown for balance…
…One of my main problems with wrestling these days is the quality of the main events. Both on television and pay-per-view they rarely live up to the hype and usually have little effect on story lines. I’m keeping an open mind though because Shane McMahon is pretty good in the ring. He’s one of the few people who I’ve maintained a high level of interest in watching. Ever since that chair shot he nailed on The Rock at No Way Out in 2000, I’ve been cool with him. I see HHH has the same exact same set of moves he’s always had. He wins the match, and while I don’t mind the ending I’m not surprised. Randy Orton comes out for the post match stare down, and I believe that he is an awful human being. This is good, as he is (I think) the company’s top heel…
…I’m happy with the show. I see some real potential for Backlash and that’s the point, right? To get me interested in buying the pay-per-view? I’ve got $5 on it so far. Two weeks to make up the other $25…
November 5th, 2009 at 12:04 am
i always WWE on cable TV and i am a big wrestler fan ever since i was just a kid
May 24th, 2010 at 12:09 pm
Sumo wrestling is my all time favorite. i always watch it a lot in Japanese channels.—
June 2nd, 2010 at 7:28 am
I’m not saying jack Swagger isn’t big, but he could use a little more gym-time, Dude’s flabby… What about the divas? Divas rock!
September 30th, 2010 at 1:24 am
real wrestling only exists on the olympics, the wrestling on WWE is quite scripted“: