Today's RAW brought to you with the message to not join a gang. It's just not cool kids.

I wonder what they're doing with Gabriel and Slater now that...they didn't join the gang. Maybe a tag team getting set up? A move to Smackdown just like with Barrett (maybe even to join Barrett?)

And a big yes to HBK getting inducted to the HOF. Knew it was going to happen eventually, just not this soon.

At 1/10/11 11:02 PM, Tetris wrote: What's your Twitter, I'll follow you.

@rher08
but just letting you know, you'll probably see me on here more than on twitter

Matt Hardy is the best wrestler of all time.

no lie.

Goodness that was an akward RAW, hope they start giving more time to Heath and Gabriel now that they left Nexus. I'm predicting a move to SD and a "New" vs "Old" fued. Delrio had another wasted match. HBK successfully said and did nothing. Debiase is still a joke. CM Punk started off on the wrong foot.

Raw was ripe for parody last night. The segment where Slater and Gabriel weren't hitting each other was the worse I've seen in a long time. It was obvious the space was too small to swing in from the start, and yet they let them just stare at each other and breath heavily. Maybe someone forgot a line? It was just so awkward.

Sheamus versus John Morrison was pretty entertaining though, it is good to see they are letting Morrison keep some momentum. This match was the only decent thing in my opinion.

At 1/11/11 05:19 PM, boloneyman wrote: Raw was ripe for parody last night. The segment where Slater and Gabriel weren't hitting each other was the worse I've seen in a long time. It was obvious the space was too small to swing in from the start, and yet they let them just stare at each other and breath heavily. Maybe someone forgot a line? It was just so awkward.

Actually that was one of the best parts. Gabriel and Slater's bro love shined through.

I like the fact that Punk seems to have more control than Wade did in terms of respect and fear. It kind of makes him like a scary cult leader in the way that he is willing to have his own team ge the crap beaten out of them just to prove themselves. Which caused two of them to leave. I wonder if they will follow Wade and switch brands as well?

I'm glad they are keeping Morrison looking strong. I think this could be his year to win MITB.

I really liked the initiation aspects of RAW. I know a lot of people didn't, but I think it works well for the Punk character as he is at his best I think when he is portrayed as that crazy cult leader. It gets him crazy heat, gets the guys he's with heat, and (hopefully) makes them stronger babyfaces when they finally break the spell.

Don't cry for Slater and Gabriel...I've heard there's plans for them and I think it's the best way to go (hint: They're staying heel).

Watched SD, Zeke finally appeared on the show.
While I like where he's headed, WWE's doin that thing again where were supposed to forget shit that happened like a month ago..

At 1/14/11 09:08 AM, Random-Her03 wrote: Watched SD, Zeke finally appeared on the show.
While I like where he's headed, WWE's doin that thing again where were supposed to forget shit that happened like a month ago..

A few people have said that, I disagree though. Will post more after everyone has watched SD as to avoid spoiling.

So I decided I'd do something a little different tonight and bring back "The Report Card" as this club has kind of been missing those "features" lately.

What is The Report Card, it's simply me watching a wrestling show and putting letter grades with short explanations. Used to do it for the early ECW on Sci-Fi shows. Remember these are just opinions (but if you disagree, that means that you are wrong :p). So, on to Smackdown:

Opening video for Show/Barrett, A: This was a great way to address the issue I had with the segment last week. Barrett should be treated as a major pick up and this video reminded us that he's wrestled all the top guys on RAW and we should see him as a player. It gave the forthcoming match a "big fight" feel and that is certainly what WWE should be looking at here since Barrett is going to be one of those guys they seem to be relying on going forward.

Opening segment/tag match, A: Good promos to start the show leading into a nice long tag match that was well worked. Note to RAW Creative: THIS is how you get guys over. Also there's no need for long talking segments when guys can just get the message across and then settle matters in the ring. Great show so far.

Wade Barrett promo, A: Nice, short promo, Barrett is a great talker in my mind at this point, he knows how to get his point across very succinctly and he's a great dick heel. Continued that nice build to the Big Show match.

Ezekiel Jackson video, A: The advantage of these videos over say, the Alberto Del Rio promos (which I hated) is that you have match footage to use to help enhance the character and create anticipation. Say what you want about Kevin Dunn, but he and the production guys know their job.

Drew McIntyre vs. Trent Baretta, B+: This is a weird one to me. Here we have what was basically a squash of Baretta and then McIntyre gets fluke beat by Baretta. I'm not sure where we're going with this idea but it feels like one of those "you can't really piss on it until you see what the next chapter is" kind of deals.

Drew/Kelly segment, F: So Drew beats up Baretta...Kelly sees it....Kelly says she doesn't want to be around people that take pleasure in beating up others (why the FUCK are you in Wrestling then honey?) Drew grovels, gets nowhere. Here's a story about this segment: No. Hopefully Barrett/Big Show will rebound us a bit.

Wade Barrett vs. Big Show, A-: I don't like Barrett's new music. Seems to generic. Show and Barrett had a nice little match going and then Slater and Gabriel show up to show we have a bit of an "old" Nexus reunion working here on SD. I also like that Jackson has been added to this group and I'd love to see them find a way to bring this group in against Nexus as both continue to get established. The only points off for me here is that this was more of an angle then a match, and this is pretty much a repetitive situation that we've seen so many times with just one new face added...also, can Justin Gabriel please stop with the damn hesitation on the 450? Please?

*missed the next couple segments, ordered CM Punk merch in penance...and cause it's CM Punk merch*

Jack Swagger vs. Kofi Kingston, A: I was tempted to just grade this an A the minute it was announced. This has just been so so good and I'm loving that they've brought the IC Belt back to the level that I first knew it where it was basically the "worker's championship", where the best workers were competing for the belt. Your typical fantastic bout between the two and I hope we continue this kind of action deep into 2011.

Cutting Edge, B-: This was a fun segment. Edge and Vicki were married a "long long time ago", really? Two years ago is a long long time? Oh right...WWE, of course it is. While the segment was fun I have to grade it so low because this seems like once again an Edge feud going in the wrong direction. Instead of this being about Edge and Dolph Ziggler it seems to be more about Edge and Vicki and they're ancient history and what not...In some ways I'm thinking Dolph is "outgrowing" Vicki and now she's starting to hold him back and do him some real damage. I mean, the damn segment ended with Edge attempting to spearVicki...Edge, attempting spearing, Vicki, and Dolph the guy he's actually going to fight being laid out and an after thought until the very end. I don't give a flying fuck that the World Title match will do basically zero to sell Rumble buys, but this to me is just not doing all that much to help me get interest in the match. Let Ziggler start getting his own damn heat. This was a weak ending to a good show to me.

Overall grade for this week: Great matches, good segments except for our closing and the Drew stuff. I'd call this an A- effort by SD! this week. Not perfect, but still well worth your time to go watch if you missed it.

I found the opening segment quite good.. but I know ADR will definately not win the rumble, he might last for a long time.. hell, he might be in the final 4, but he wont win.. The Rumble is not known for pushing young stars.. it's for building storylines for the main eventers.

The tag match was pretty solid.. i've noticed that Cody has given up on the whole "check a mirror everytime my face is punched in" thing.. I actually liked that as it got over his gimmick and gained some heat from the crowd..

Trent Baretta beats Drew McIntyre.. gotta be honest I was not paying much attention to this match.. saw the ending, I liked Baretta's sunset flip counter while being held up in the air.. but this was mostly to get Drew over in his storyline with Kelly Kelly... After the match Drew beat the shit out of Baretta backstage but Kelly caught him.. I read this line today and I thought it was so good it had to be carried on... "Kelly Kelly's acting skills are as good as her name"... very true.. she's pretty bad.

I actually like Barrett's new theme.. does it suit him? hell no.. but I like it, none the less.
This seemed like more of an angle than a match... but it didn't bother me. I like that Big Zeke is involved with the former Nexus members but like I wrote before.. WWE's doing that thing where they expect us to forget stuff that happened a month ago.. I can turn a blind eye on this one but it pisses me off.

The Divas match was actually not bad for a Divas match.. We got 2 women who know how to get it done in the ring so I'm all for it! I wonder if Awesome Kong (whose recently been signed to WWE) will be involved in this feud? I say Kong comes in as Lay-Cool's bodyguard of some sorts to handle Beth and Natalya.. then over time, Lay-Cool get drunk from their power and start pushing Kong around which Kong eventually turns on Lay-Cool.. That's what I think should happen.

I'm tired of Kofi being in the IC title picture.. but I want him to stay on SD.. he's a better fit on the blue brand. He beat Swagger with a slopping looking flip pinning combo he's normally known for doing. Man, remember when Swagger was world heavyweight champion? if you do then SSSHHH! cause I think WWE wants us to forget about it!

The Cutting Edge segment was entertaing.. not only did they actually bring up Edge and Vickie's relationship, but they actually brought up the fact that Edge cheated on her for Alicia Fox! funny how they never brought it up while Edge and Fox were on the same brand... Dolph and Vickie ended up having the last laugh by the end of the segment and now the WH Title match is on for the Royal Rumble.. I don't think Dolph will win, but I hope he's still considered a potential main eventer after the match is over.. the guy is starting to remind me of guys like Angle, Jericho and even HBK.. meaning that whoever he's in the ring with, whether it be Edge, Kofi, Rosa Mendes or even a mannequin.. he can make a great match out of it..

I like what they are doing with Wade, Slater, and Gabriel. Having them as a stable with the addition of Jackson, while a bit repetitive helps out with keeping things going for them. It gives Slater and Gabriel more time to improve while still being on TV and being part of a group and it also allows Wade a bit more time to keep what he was known for going. Jackson as the muscle works well and can show what he can do.

Edge rules. Though it did seem like Ziggler got lost in the mix there for a bit huh?

I enjoyed the opening tag match. Rey and Truth work well together. I'm looking forward to seeing how well ADR does in the RR.

Wolfpac Nexus. Called it. And Wade got the best members out of it too.

At 1/16/11 12:04 AM, MudkipsPiano wrote:

At 1/15/11 07:25 AM, Random-Her03 wrote:

The Divas match was actually not bad

Oh no...

All divas suck in the ring, their story lines are horrid and they make me realize how I'm forever alone, thus I begin destroying various objects in my house.

Way to bury Natalya, Gail Kim and Beth Pheonix.

Women's wrestling is not a joke, look at Japan, that is all.

At 1/16/11 01:51 PM, MattTheParanoidKat wrote:

At 1/16/11 12:04 AM, MudkipsPiano wrote:

At 1/15/11 07:25 AM, Random-Her03 wrote:

The Divas match was actually not bad

Oh no...

All divas suck in the ring, their story lines are horrid and they make me realize how I'm forever alone, thus I begin destroying various objects in my house.

Way to bury Natalya, Gail Kim and Beth Pheonix.

Women's wrestling is not a joke, look at Japan, that is all.

My issue with the Divas is that there are only afew gems amongst them, the ones you mentioned are good examples. I hate the bad acting and botched matches which seems to be abundent. I want to see wrestling, not slapping and hair pulling.

At 1/17/11 09:51 PM, Tetris wrote: Because an angle about which of the Bella twins can relieve Daniel Bryan of his virginity is totally PG.

Poor Daniel, stay away from those succubuses. Yesterday's RAW was interesting. Lets look at it:

Three good matches: Bryan vs Morrisson, Randy vs Ziggler, Cena vs Punk. The rest were just time wasters. My favourite was Bryan vs Morrisson because I believe they are two solid wrestlers with good chemisrty in the ring.

The tag match was un-eventful, I think the Usos need a good push. How can they be related to a wrestling legend and continue to fail every week.....to Santino....

Natalya continues to be one of the few good Divas, good for her. The outside commentary sounded really dead though.

Poor DeBiase is still a joke, it's really depressing seeing how large a push they gave him in the beginning with Legacy. I really miss the Ted/Cody days. Bring some life back to this man.

"My god who is this mystery man?". It's Tyson Kidds old body guard, I guess that shtick didn't work out so they are giving him a much better push. I was half hoping though that he would simply have beat up both Punk and Cena and debuted as a lone power house.

At 1/18/11 09:26 AM, WooldoorSockbat wrote: "My god who is this mystery man?". It's Tyson Kidds old body guard

That's not Jackson Andrews. (He got sent back down to developmental.)

No, that's Mason Ryan, aka the FCW champion aka "Welshtista" because if you look at him, he seriously has a resemblance to Batista...and he's Welsh. Picture below.

This is starting to remind me of the Evolution storyline, though the members of NexSES probably won't get all the championships.

Otunga gets the Women's Belt if that happens though.

Woops, he looked rather similar.

On another random note, is William Regal only semi-retired? seems to be making the ocassional appearance still.

I made the same mistake with a friend of mine as well...thought Mason was Andrews...guess he's just got one of those familiar looks to him.

At 1/19/11 12:38 AM, Tetris wrote: Wade Barrett's new group's name.

(Barney Gumble voice) I hate it...

At 1/19/11 12:38 AM, Tetris wrote: ******************SPOILERS**************
****

The SD! Nexus is called The Core.

Ok, guess that makes sense. Most of the Old and New Nexus are excellent so a fued should be quite exciting.

I don't think anyone has commented on this yet, but the Rumble will now have 40 wrestlers instead of 30. Here is the story to go along with it:
The Wrestling Observer is reporting that WWE made the decision to expand the Royal Rumble Match to 40 participants because the company felt the show had little momentum heading into it.

It's also being said that the 40 man format will allow creative to hide the fact that many talents on the roster are green, and eliminations can and most likely will happen a lot quicker with 40 men involved in the bout. As far as big name talent in the match, a 40 man Royal Rumble Match will allow them to eliminate more wrestlers and come off as stronger.

To me the idea of having ten more guys in there is acceptable. Their roster is so damn big to begin with that at least now they can add a few more into the match. I don't kinow how the rest of you feel but I'm ok with this.

The picture of that big dude is scary....

I like the idea that more guys will get ring time and get a PPV payday. I also think this is a good move by WWE in terms of "we're charging you more for the show, so here's us giving you something extra as value for money" (whether that's the intent or not).

I'm good with the idea, but it makes me believe we probably won't see a lot of "iron men" this time around and I think with the size of it they're going to have to be very careful about how the placement of the good workers who can hang is going to be.

Somehow, I think they could possibly use the extra 10 people as a way to extend some of the current Royal Rumble records. What are the chances that Cena comes in at number 1 and then goes the entire thing/wins it not only to complete the plan of him going to Wrestlemania, but to also give him the record for the most time in the ring? This is something I feel WWE would do to complete his superhero angle.

And just think of the T-shirt sales!

Raw was good this week. The Nexus' new enforcer doesnt look like anything special though.

NXT was better. I love that show. It is hilarious every week.

I have heard the book is quite good as a document of his struggles and his life. But if one only reads wrestling books for detailed backstage explanations of feuds and such, this one would disappoint.

Not trying to scare anyone off of the book, just saying if you're into the latter more then the former, you should know that before you purchase.

Just wanted to quick comment on the idea that Ryan Mason isn't "impressive"

Um...how is a guy that size not "impressive"? Do you mean his in-ring work? Well unless you've seen lots of FCW TV I don't know how you could feel qualified to make that assessment.

The only qualms I have here is the reviews on the guy I've heard tend to be he's green, and now after dropping the group to a very manageable 4, you ramped it back up to a more iffy 5. Pretty easy to fix in this case though. If Ryan is basically portrayed in the "Diesel" role it'll be ok.

For those of you too young to remember, Kevin Nash used to work for WWE as Diesel, and he was billed as Shawn Michaels's bodyguard, and for about a year or so that's all he did. Work Shawn Michaels corner and occassionally interfere so Shawn wouldn't lose his IC Title. Then he eventually started wrestling himself and the rest is history. Ryan can easily be in this role for Nexus. Just have him in the corner of his Nexus brothers and have him working in FCW and house shows here and there when he isn't on RAW. That way he's on TV but also still improving. Graduate him to to Superstars and have him work with the more established mid-level guys there (like Regal), and eventually he can be working on RAW when he's viewed as ready. He could honestly wind up being the first break away "star" from the new iteration of Nexus if done properly. But this is WWE...so of course they'll probably rush him.

At 1/21/11 12:42 AM, aviewaskewed wrote: Just wanted to quick comment on the idea that Ryan Mason isn't "impressive"

He really doesn't look big. He looks alot like Johnny Curtis.
He doesnt look as intimidating as someone like zeke, lashley, lesner or even diesel.

Wade Barrett has a new new theme
it's the same song as last week, but it's now performed by another band

also something i found strange was that michael tarver was involved in a backstage segment on smackdown.. is he on smackdown now?.. i dunno, time will tell.