Heart Punch

AGAINST: The MNM breakup. FOR: Whatever changed that allowed Rey to retain. AGAINST: 3 for 8. FOR: JBL, in the ring, pissed. FOR: Rey rubbing it in. AGAINST: Rey's green gloves. FOR: Rey turning the tables on JBL's "taking on all comers" line. FOR: Cole referencing JBL ending Lashley's unbeaten streak. FOR: Lashley wins! That was quick. FOR: Long telling JBL to put his money where his mouth is. FOR: Cole: "You don't touch the headdress." AGAINST: Tatanka dragged The "One and Only" out of mothballs? Weak. WOW: "Academy Award-Winning artists Three 6 Mafia!" That still doesn't sound right. AGAINST: Henry's shiny knee pads. FOR: Benoit's running dropkick. FOR: Benoit's difficulty getting the Crossface on. It should be difficult with someone of Henry's strength and build. AGAINST: I know what they're going for here but this just kind of fell flat. FOR: Regal's original music. FOR: Th...

Ow! My Eyes! I should be back later tonight or more probably tomorrow with a recap of the first TNA Super X Tournament. Sorry it's been a bit since I've done something, but I've been working more weekends and the little free time I do have is going toward Kingdom Hearts II. Anyway, wrestling...it's awesome. I'm keeping a list of stuff I've found to post here and we should be good for another year or so. Especially since my only criteria is that *I* enjoy whatever matches I choose (or think I will, for the few matches I post that I haven't seen) and I'm generally a pretty easy guy to please. But enough of my rambling. Alex Shelley v. Christopher Daniels v. Sonjay Dutt (Zero-1 MAX - 11.23.05) This match is for Shelley's Z1 MAX US Title. Really, I don't have to say much about this. You can look at the guys involved and tell that it'll be tons of fun. I like Alex Shelley more and more as time goes on. He's come a long way since the big feud w...

FOR: Kane as Rey's opponent. Check the date. FOR: JBL's turn on the Pulp Fiction "Fuck pride" speech. FOR: Melina's outfit. FOR: Is that Fink doing the ring announcing tonight? FOR: Tazz: "I know you're a big fan of knee pads." FOR: Cole recalling Jillian getting her start with MNM. AGAINST: Oh, you're back to that, Melina? FOR: Cole: "I cannot believe you just said 'broad'." FOR: MNM's tag off the leg bar. FOR: The buildup to this match has been the best out of everything on the Judgment Day card. FOR: This match. FOR: The slow-motion Dropsault in the replay. FOR: I wasn't expecting that finish. AGAINST: We're running the See No Evil premiere footage again? FOR: Is that a "Lashley" chant? AGAINST: That's a little strange, to bring Booker out at this point without a mic or anything. FOR: Oh, he's got a match next. OK then. AGAINST: Why is Finlay sitting on the top turnbuckle? FOR:...

BANG! BANG! Jerry Lawler & Al Snow (w/Head) v. Chris Candido & D'Lo Brown (w/Tammy Sytch) - North East Wrestling: Renegade's Rampage (10.2.04) Mick Foley is your special guest referee. Fun stuff, as you might imagine with all of these guys in one match. I would have loved to see this live. Guess it just goes to show that when the workers are having a ton of fun, it'll certainly show through in the match. It also makes me miss Candido, who was just so great at what he did. People are quick to pigeonhole guys as either being "serious" wrestlers or a "comedy" act, as if the two can never meet. Candido straddled that line as well as anyone ever has. (9:59) AJ Styles v. Matt Hardy (IWC: No Excuses - 7.29.05) This is the first time these two wrestled during Matt's, err...summer vacation. Or when he went flat out insane, I guess. He could have had an interesting run through the indies, but I can't blame him for going back to WWE. Who doesn't...

FOR: JBL knows his Spanish. FOR: The "619" chant. AGAINST: What took Rey so long? FOR: Helms's music. FOR: Helms's honesty. "I gotta tell you, I am enjoying watching these guys beat each other to death." FOR: Nice finish. FOR: Angle. Wait, Angle? FOR: Tazz: "I kind of like people getting the crap beat out of 'em." AGAINST: Wait, didn't Angle leave already? FOR: Oh, thanks, Cole. FOR: "What's he doing?" "Counting." AGAINST: What, no Lashley/Finlay retrospective? FOR: Finlay going back to his ring apron trick. FOR: This match. FOR: Booker doing the royal wave~~~~~~~ AGAINST: But why didn't they just stay out there? AGAINST: How did Nick Patrick not hear the chairshot? FOR: Lashley shaking off the chairshot and winning anyway. Probably his best match to date. FOR: Lashley's postmatch interview. "You're sitting in my seat." Nice. FOR: Melina's boots. FOR: Some rare mic ti...

Bah! Bah! Bah! Yeah...I have no clue if this is number five or not, but this is officially entering Heart Punch canon and will be numbered consistently from here on. Unless I retcon it six months from now! Uh, anyway, I search the Tube so you don't have to. Lots of niftiness to be found this week, so enjoy. Eddy Guerrero v. Rey Misterio Jr v. CM Punk (IWA:MS Spring Heat - 3.1.02) I mentioned this match in the ROH recap I posted a few weeks back. Not mind blowing or anything, but definitely a fun watch. I've found myself, entirely by coincidence, watching a bunch of random Eddy matches recently. Still tough knowing that he's not around. At any rate, it's interesting to see Punk, who was just becoming a "name" at this point, work two legends. (19:16) Matt Capotelli v. Johnny Jeter (2/3 falls; OVW: 11.9.05) Awesome match that shows the quality of programming that OVW is capable of. One of Capotelli's last matches before being diagnosed with a brain tumor. Joh...

AGAINST: JBL's jacket. FOR: JBL's so easy to hate it's almost criminal. AGAINST: I'm not seeing where the immigrant thing fits in here. FOR: Rey trying to not look scared. FOR: Booker/Gunnar II. FOR: Tazz walking into the "court jester" joke. FOR: Cole (and, by extension, against Tazz) in the "Booker's momentum" argument. AGAINST: Did Booker not mention Lashley for a reason? AGAINST: Running the Backlash encore ad on a Friday. FOR: As much as I can appreciate a Melina solo entrance... AGAINST: ...didn't that just scream "setup" from the word go? FOR: The quick assembly of the Judgment Day card. FOR: Finlay's shellaigh/scepter comparison. FOR: The matwork. FOR: Cole: "These are two bad-ass men." FOR: Finlay dodging Benoit's chop. AGAINST: Finlay snapping. He's turning into Russell Crowe. FOR: Benoit getting the arm up on the second drop instead of the usual third. FOR: Benoit selling the chai...

Necro says hi! Figured that I'd bring this back, because NO ONE DEMANDED IT! Heh. It's become just a 'lil bit harder to find decent stuff on the Tube, but I try. This is just some stuff I liked. Perhaps you will too! Necro Butcher vs. Samoa Joe (IWA-MS: Necro vs. Joe II - 1.12.06) What more can I say? It's the sequel to my favorite match from 2005. The first one is better, certainly (not to mention that they had the novelty of a first meeting with no one knowing what to expect), but I think people are too hard on this one. The first match played to the Philly crowd. This one plays to the Midwest crowd. Different crowds entirely. ROH has booked Part Three, so this feud still has some legs. Mike Quackenbush vs. Claudio Castagnoli (CHIKARA: Negative Balance - 8.13.06) Claudio is just so entertaining. That he's an excellent worker on top ois just icing on the cake. The series with Quack showed off how versatile both guys are. You have a Swedish guy working a European st...

So yeah...I guess the next logical step after recapping the newest edition of SNME is to go back to the original and work forward. Make sense? As I said in that recap, I absolutely loved this show back in the day. Of course, when this show aired, I was all of eight years old. I'm sure I was easily impressed in my less bitter days. So will this hold up 21 years later, almost to the day? Let's watch! -We open with a Cyndi Lauper/Wendi Richter promo that is all but cut off on my copy. I'm sure we didn't miss much there. Though Lauper is vaguely nailable. Still is, kinda. -Promo with Hulk Hogan and Mr. T. Wow. Remember when Mr T was like a celebrity and shit? The 80s...gotta love 'em. And I now have the A-Team theme song stuck in my head. Gah. At any rate, Hogan hypes his match with Bob Orton later tonight and lets us know that T (I can call him that 'cause we're tight) will be in his corner. And T lets us know that if Piper sticks his nose into things, well dam...

FOR: Shane recapping SNME so I don't have to do it (and because I think I taped over it) AGAINST: The lighting. FOR: The Wimbledon reference. FOR: Oh, they're chanting "England." Thanks, Cole. AGAINST: JBL, International Goodwill Ambassador. FOR: Regal wearing JBL's hat. FOR: Tazz, M.D. FOR: Regal's counter to the Clothesline From Hell. AGAINST: That the Clothesline From Hell is still called that. FOR: The Gunner Scott self-callback. FOR: The six-man tag this feud needed. FOR: How DID Super Crazy get a John Deere over to London? FOR: Cole: "I got an idea. Maybe Melina shouldn't scream until MNM wins a match again." I'm for that. FOR: The boys are all "They didn't pin US." FOR: Did Jillian just turn face? AGAINST: It's a real shame that's baby powder . FOR: Tazz: "I think those girls need a spot of tea." FOR: Lashley's promo. That's a good style for him. FOR: Cole: "I talked ...

I was suitably geeked when WWE announced that Saturday Night's Main Event was returning. Loved the show as a kid. It was, in many ways, the precursor to the type of televised wrestling we consider the norm today. Instead of the weekly squash match, you suddenly had all the big names facing off. Fun, fun times. We weren't even able to get PPVs in my area until the mid 90s, so this show was *it* when it came to seeing the best WWF matches of the time. Which, I guess, is why I was always more of an NWA/WCW fan. They easily had the better shows back in the day. You still had the squashes, but then you'd get something like an entire episode built around a Flair/Windham match that you just knew WWF would never do. Anyway, back to the present. WWF is now WWE. Gone from a relatively small, family owned business to a publicly owned, multimedia...franchise, I guess. Can they instill the same goofy charm in these shows as they did previously? Let's watch! -From the Cobo Arena in D...

So yeah...the rest of the show. Michael Shane & Oz v. Spanky & Ikaika Loa - The winner of the fall will get an ROH contract and be flown in to future shows. Which would make you think that guys would be backstabbing their own partners to ensure that they didn't win, but that would only happen in a logical world, I guess, because it sure doesn't happen here. Spanky and Oz open with a few quick reversal sequences. After a particularly nifty backflip off of the ropes to reverse an armbar, Spanky feels the need to DANCE! He turns and eats a spin kick, though, so that was probably ill advised. Loa makes a blind tag and comes in. Oz immediately plants him with an Exploder and tags Shane in. Again...why would he willingly leave the ring? Gah. Loa reverses a whip attempt, but Shane takes him over with a headscissors takedown. He follows with a suplex and gets two. Loa makes the tag to Spanky. He and Shane get into a shoving match. I guess the other story here is that the TWA gu...

FOR: Content! By people OTHER THAN ME!!! dances FOR: The SNME-like opening promos. AGAINST: I hope the throne doesn't catch fire. FOR: Sharmell low-bridging Matt and acting like nothing happened. FOR: This match. They're not doing anything spectacular, but it's solid and all the little things are working. FOR: Matt's Scorpion Death Drop counter. FOR: The crowd getting behind Matt after the Side Effect. FOR: Good match. FOR: Regal's choice. Teddy bear or... FOR: Tazz: "I do like the pink." FOR: London catching Mercury's knee to start off. FOR: Mercury shoving London off the top turnbuckle. FOR: Did you see the kid in the front row cover his ears when Melina started to scream? Priceless. FOR: NORTHERN LIGHTS, COLE! FOR: London jumping on to Mercury's back. AGAINST: The blown landing. FOR: This match. FOR: Mercury turning Kendrick into collateral damage. FOR: Great finish, with Mercury's cockiness (which Cole was pushing thr...

So, while my PC was acting up, I watched a shitload of the wrestling. I even wrote about some of it, crazily enough! Let's see if I can save Matt from having to carry things around here. This is just the first half of the recap, as it's all I've had time to type up thus far and I need to hit the sack. Besides, cutting it in half will keep it from being 100 pages long. Hooray for false brevity! I'll open with the inaugural Ring of Honor show, The Era of Honor Begins. Because it was the first tape I picked up, basically. I don't particularly enjoy the ROH product because I generally find it quite bland. Wrestling without HATE has never done anything for me. Don't get me wrong, they put on some great matches and have a ton of guys I like to watch, but there's seemingly no emotion to the shows and they take themselves way too seriously. And yeah, the hardcore fanbase scares me. Err...I think I lost my train of thought here. Going off on tangents rules! The begin...

FOR: Benoit/JBL rematch! AGAINST: Though I was hoping for Benoit to crash JBL's celebration. FOR: Booker hilariously getting ahead of himself. FOR: Bobby Lashley, stealth fighter. AGAINST: Why are Booker's legs still in the air? Is that rigor mortis? AGAINST: What's up with Chimel's voice? He should be thankful Kennedy's still hurt. FOR: Stroke into the ropes. FOR: Nice little match. AGAINST: "Selection box?" FOR: Regal struggling with the rope. FOR: Dee Snider! That's what I'm looking for. Thanks, Cole. FOR: Until Burchill loses? Wow. AGAINST: Rasheed Brown's tights. FOR: The name "Walking The Plank." AGAINST: That was awful easy. FOR: Jillian's outfit. FOR: The crowd sign taking a shot at Brett Favre: "JBL WOULD HAVE TOLD US BY NOW" FOR: I thought I saw a cage up there during JBL's intro. FOR: JBL: "Did you know about this?" "ARE YOU RESPONSIBLE FOR THIS?" KENNEDY. AGAI...

SIGN OF THE WEEK: The Melina Scream-O-Meter FOR: London and Kendrick's ambush. FOR: The double front-back kick. FOR: Tazz: "Even when she's angry, she's hot." AGAINST: She's still doing that? FOR: Cole theorizing that maybe Kendrick and London shouldn't have done what they did. FOR: Did Melina just smack her own ass? AGAINST: Korderas is unusually easily distracted tonight. FOR: Dropsault! FOR: This match. FOR: The false finish on the sunset flip. I thought London had him. FOR: The replay showing London appear to fake selling the knee injury. AGAINST: What are Booker and Sharmell so happy about? FOR: Oh. A restraining order? FOR: This may be the most a jobber du jour's name has been mentioned during a match. FOR: Wait... so is Teddy just messing with Booker now? AGAINST: Dean trying to run Benoit over. He's gonna need a little more speed. FOR: The looping "J B L" at the end. AGAINST: The title match is now? FOR: Orto...