Like always, we open up with the cool WWE video and horribly lackluster Heat video that looks like it belongs on the Indy scene. From there, Todd Grisham welcomes us to Heat and this week there is no Coach, but Tommy Dreamer! What an odd-ball and what a treat for me! No Coach commentating for a whole week. Huzzah!
Trevor Murdoch Vs. Scotty Saber
God, we are getting a lot of fun squashes in WWE lately. The match was like three minutes long, but god damn if I didn’t enjoy those three minutes. Tommy Dreamer called Murdoch relentless and that’s exactly what he was in this match. The highlight had to be Murdoch wailing on Saber on the outside by slamming him into the ring and barrier over and over again. If you watched this match, I bet about a minute into it you realize just how much the commentary picked up with Dreamer on it. Why can’t he do it every week? Coach is best suited for a manager role anyway; why not just let him do that with Bischoff? Back on the match, another fine point was when Saber got a punch in on Murdoch, but Murdoch just responded by getting more pissed off and hitting a stiff shot. From there, Saber made a typical comeback that you expect from squashes, but Murdoch overcame it, nasty look and all. To finish off this wrecking ball of a match, Murdoch hits a top-rope bulldog for the win in a fun squash. I hope that’s his finishing move because the way he does is perfect in the tone of the match.
Winner: Trevor Murdoch
Star Wrestler: Trevor Murdoch
T-Murdoch (keeping the Coach memory alive) was definitely great here tonight and strictly old school with the unremitting beat-down on Saber. In the first two minutes, I don’t think there was a breath that wasn’t put towards beating down the jobber. This is exactly the kind of star that WWE needs to be grooming for the future. He’s over, got the workrate, got the look and marketability, and overall, fun to watch. What more can you ask for?
Surprise, surprise; we get a Shawn Michaels book advertisement again! This time, though, it’s a little different as it doesn’t have the quotes and mentions DX and the Kliq. Got to mix it up, huh WWE?
Gregory Helms Vs. Brad Allen
Another fun little squash here. This one lasted a little bit longer than the earlier one and was just as good. Helms was good at manhandling Allen, but more in an embarrassing and disrespectful way. I loved Helms chain wrestling into the unique takedown that he followed up with just a face push to the mat. Simple disrespect, but complex heel mannerism; how couldn’t I like that? Helms right now has really come out of his shell, but you got to ask at what price? With the super-hero gimmick, the guy had a guaranteed spot on the roster because of his appeal to kids, marketability, and pops he got every night. Now? He looks like every other guy on the roster and it really doesn’t matter if he’s got the workrate to back it up. Helms will be gone by summer 2006, I guarantee it. Besides all that, the match was still just fun and exactly how squashed should be. If TNA had built Monty Brown up like this or WWE with Chris Masters, I guarantee you there wouldn’t be as much backlash against them, but I doubt they would have been as fun as these. In the end after doing some nice manhandling of Allen, Helms hit a reverse Unprettier followed by the shining enziguri. No, I didn’t get it wrong; it’s a shining enziguri. A shining wizard is when you nail your knee into the face of your opponent at full speed. A shining enziguri (or glimmering warlock like Arik Cannon out of IWA:MS calls it [who I interviewed last year which you can read by clicking here]) is when you nail the back of their neck at full speed. Get it right, Helms. It’s the little things that piss me off in wrestling today.
Winner: Gregory Helms
Star Wrestler: Gregory Helms
Despite him calling his finisher by the wrong name, the guy has solid talent and can work like some of the best of them today. He needs to get off of Raw because as long as he’s on the show, he’s just begging to be cut. If you put him on SmackDown!, he will at least have some cruisers to work with for Pete’s sake. With workrate like this and great, subtle heel mannerisms, Helms deserves to be a lot more than Heat boy, but we know that’s pretty much as far as he will get.
