It looks like Vince McMahon has been watching Smackdown lately because last night’s Raw was more about wrestling than talk. I thought it was a good show, not a great show but a good one. I received many emails that thought this was one hell of show. I won’t go that far but I did like Raw and the Fort Wayne Indiana fans were good, they definitely came through. I found very little that didn’t appeal to me so I’ll start with those items first.
I had a problem with one man last night and that was Coach. Now if you read my columns you know I love this guy, he plays a terrific heel. When they put him with JR and Jerry Lawler it seemed weird at first but then he blended in very well. When they fired JR, the first Raw that Coach did wasn’t exactly a thumbs up. The second week, Coach was better and I was okay with him. But last night Coach seemed to talk an awful lot and maybe because I was already for Joey Styles to call the show, Coach being the lead announcer didn’t sit well with me. I can’t tell you how disappointed I was that Styles really didn’t get to work just with Lawler. Joey Styles is the guy that’s going to make things exciting as long as JR is out. And if this three man team is going to continue Styles needs to be the lead announcer, not Coach. So I’m hoping that next week we get a lot more Styles on the mic.
The only match that I didn’t car for was Gregory Helms vs. Rosey. Believe me it wasn’t awful and it didn’t ruin the show, but they are going to have to build up Helms a lot more for me to be interested in him. I think it was time for his Hurricane gimmick to come to an end, but it means nothing if they don’t use this guy, and I have a feeling that very soon Helms and Rosey will be on Heat, A LOT. So those were the only two things that didn’t work for me the rest of the show was entertaining. It started with most of the WWE superstars standing around the ring waiting for their fearless leader Eric Bischoff to make one very important announcement. Eric had a few announcements concerning the Survivor Series. One was that it would be Triple H vs. Ric Flair in a Last Man Standing Match, and Kurt Angle vs. John Cena for the WWE title. And then he made the big Survivor Series match with Raw vs. Smackdown. The Raw captain is Shawn Michaels and Kane and Big Show will be a part of the team. Eric needed two more participants and put up a challenge to see who would step up. That’s when Carlito jumped at the opportunity.
I was floored to see Shelton Benjamin on Raw; I figured he became a permanent fixture on Heat. Hell Shelton even got to talk. He reminded Carlito that he lost his match at Taboo Tuesday. Shelton said that the Raw team needed him. And Eric made a match between Benjamin vs. Carlito with the winner being part of the Raw team. While all this was going on, Cade and Murdoch wanted a rematch with Kane and Big Show. This would be a Hardcore match, and Helms wanted Rosey since Rosey held Helms back for two years. One of my favorite parts to this was when Mickie James jumped on the rope and in that hyper way that she has told everyone that they should give a round of applause to Trish Stratus for winning the Fulfill Your Fantasy Battle Royal. I loved this because as excited as she was, Eric Bischoff basically just blew off her comments. It was done perfectly. The ending of this segment was kind of a surprise. Eric wanted Edge and Lita to come into the ring. And I was thrilled that Eric gave Edge hell for not being in last week’s Taboo Tuesday match. He replayed the video with Edge putting down Raw and the fans. Edge got his punishment for ditching the match. This week on Smackdown it’s a street fight with Edge against Batista. Naturally Edge and Lita were upset. This was a good opening and I liked the way it set things up for the Survivor Series.
Carlito vs. Shelton Benjamin really came off well. I thought Carlito showed a lot and Benjamin well I think we all know what he can do in the ring. It’s nice to see this kind of wrestling on Raw, it seems like Raw has been missing meaningful matches like this for awhile. Carlito won, which didn’t surprise me and now he’s been added to the Raw team. Now, I’m just waiting for Trish to beat the crap out of her number one fan Mickie James. There was one backstage segment with the two of them and Trish was ready to straighten James out, but Mickie of course took over the conversation and Trish wasn’t able to talk to her. The match with Mickie and Trish vs. Victoria and Candice was okay. Let’s face it Candice isn’t there for her wrestling, but I will say she tries and she really cracked me up. Get it? Cracked me up? Oh I think you know what I mean. Victoria and Candice won and it looks like this feud will just keep going on a little longer. I have to say I really enjoy Big Show and Kane together, talk about instant chemistry, well they have it. The Hardcore match against Cade and Murdoch entertained me. Sure it wasn’t HARDCORE but it was good enough to win me over. The next segment kind of made me feel bad. Kurt Angle coming out and lashing out at the fans for chanting You Suck was clever yet a little sad. Kurt gave the fans another chance and said that he would come out again and they better not chant, but they did. Angle was furious for that chant because Angle told them the sacrifices he’s made to give the fans his all. That’s when he talked about his three neck surgeries, about how he never got to see his daughter’s first steps or hear her first words and what really hit me was when he said that his wife left him. And that is so true, they are separated and I read that she wanted him to retire because of his neck and he just didn’t want to give up wrestling. This was a very strong and a very real promo by Kurt.
The fans refused to stop the chants so Kurt informed them that the main event with Angle and Chris Masters vs. Shawn Michaels and John Cena wasn’t going to happen, and Angle left, and left angry. After the break Bischoff begged Angle not to leave, but Kurt was going. After pleading for a few seconds Kurt told Bisch that he would only stay if Eric got the crowd to stop the chant and if there is a special ref for the match and Eric granted Kurt his two wishes. However before that main event Triple H came out to watch Ric Flair defend his I.C. title against Rob Conway. Hunter just sat in a very comfy chair and took the whole match in. One of the best lines of the night came from Lillian Garcia. Flairs introduction not only mentioned the usual statistics but one little item was added and that was “Flair is the man that beat Triple H at Taboo Tuesday.” Oh my God, Hunter stood up in a rage. I could not help but laugh with that line being tossed in there. The match was okay it didn’t go on long because Hunter made his way to the ring with a chain. I guess he couldn’t find his sledgehammer. He attacked Flair but Flair was able to fight back and a brawl took place. I thought this was done well and I really would like to have maybe just a little more time focused on this feud, but again it worked very well last night.
Before the main event there was this small yet interesting segment with Lita trying her best to talk Eric Bischoff out of making Edge go to Smackdown. She tried so hard that she opened her shirt up but Eric didn’t seem that interested. Bischoff told Lita to leave and as she’s leaving he called her a slut. See I would have thought that Eric would have loved Lita coming on to him. But that wasn’t the case, and I liked it. Last night Eric was better than he’s been in a while. I thought his character was the way it should be, he was in control. He had a good night last night, and that could be due to the fact that there were no McMahon’s on, so he came off like a GM.
And now for the main event, which I really liked. Eric kept his promise and every time the You Suck chants took place we got them bleeped out. I think most of us were surprised to see that the special ref was Daivari. I have to say when I heard the music I thought for a quick second that Hassan was back, but it was Daivari. I know that he’s been working in OVW but I didn’t expect to see him this soon. So Daivari was the ref and he was right with Masters and Angle. The match at first was a little slow and little stop and go because Daivari kept interfering and making Shawn Michaels and John Cena’s life miserable by not playing fair. But the match picked up and it was a good tag team match. Angle and Masters got the win on a DQ, because HBK took the chair that Masters had planned to use. It pays to get your own ref in a match. After the match Michaels got even. Masters was hit with Shawn’s Sweet Chin music. Unfortunately Angle got a hold of Michaels and clotheslined him over the top rope and the unbiased ref, Daivari slammed Cena on his back with a chair.
As I said it was a good match and a good show, and now I’m looking forward to Smackdown and the Batista/Edge Street Fight. The rumors are that Edge will be taken out of action by Batista. Supposedly Edge needs surgery for his torn pec and that’s why the match was made. Smackdown has improved greatly so I can’t wait to watch it. Okay I’ll be back at the end of the week so make sure you check out my column. Funk’s Corner – Prepare for WWE Tryouts – Press Release from the Funking Conservatory
Two Funking Conservatory athletes, Chris “The Bambi Killer” Raaber and Erich Schwartz have been selected for tryouts for WWE in England on Saturday December 17th. (Both are pictured on our home page at www.dory-funk.com) They are also featured with interviews on WWE’s web site.
WWE is holding additional tryouts in America. Their schedule is as follows:
Saturday, Dec. 17 – Daytona Beach, FL(Application cut-off date 12/2/05)
Wednesday, Dec. 28 – Pittsburgh, PA(Application cut-off date 12/16/05)
Thursday, Dec. 29 – Buffalo, NY(Application cut-off date 12/16/05)
Saturday, Feb. 18 – Nassau, NY(Application cut-off date 2/03/06
If you are really serious about trying out for WWE you need to apply properly and supply photos and a video tape / dvd. You need to be prepared mentally, physically and have some idea what will be expected of you.
Here at the Funking Conservatory we are offering a WWE Tryout Preparatory course. We will make your wrestling Video / DVD (Showing your performance at it’s best) and shoot proper photos to submit with your application.
Funking Conservatory
352-895-4658
fuanku@dory-funk.com
www.dory-funk.com
