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WWE Elimination Chamber 2012 Results & Review Coverage Live

2012-02-12T22:57:00.000-05:00

The Roadblock to WrestleMania presents a challenge for CM Punk and Daniel Bryan. Will either of them walk out of the Elimination Chamber as the world champion?

You can check out my predictions here.

Check out my show "Smack Talk" on YouTube!

KEEP REFRESHING FOR UPDATES!

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Wrestling Smack Talk: 2/11/2012

2012-02-11T08:00:00.000-05:00

What's gone on this past week in wrestling?

Did WWE rip off Colt Cabana with their "Are You Serious" show on their YouTube channel? Hm...
Some of these WWE YouTube shows are apparently so bad they'll never air. And yet, the Usos cooking one did...
Drew McIntyre is being referred to as "The Arrogant Playboy" and might receive a new gimmick - or it's possibly just one of many new nicknames apparently being thrown out there by BOK Center such as Ted "Man of the People" DiBiase, "Gusty" Daniel Bryan, "Simply Grand" Natalya, "Vindictive Leader" Hunico, "Twisted and Tormented" Cody Rhodes, and "Malevolent" Wade Barrett. For the record, the only one of those I like is the DiBiase one.
CM Punk tossed his shirt to a kid in the crowd at a Wichita, Kansas live event, but a man grabbed the shirt instead. Punk then went out of his way to get a shirt for the kid. Very nice. I like to hear that stuff. Phil Brooks wins a lot of brownie points in my book for doing that.
Eve Torres breaks her nose, R-Truth has that injury spot, there seemed to be some audio screw ups...what was wrong with Raw this week?
There's heat on Miz for the Truth spot and he apparently was chewed out in front of the other wrestlers backstage. This is a shame, as Miz is someone who should be a main eventer the way he was this time last year, but I'm assuming the grand total of this whole thing will be that he gets shortchanged for a few months with WrestleMania, possibly gets drafted to Smackdown, and then he's back on top again soon enough.
Wade Barrett is getting a lot of people that agree with me that his new theme song is a terrible fit for him. He tweeted "If people keep telling me how much they hate my new music, I'll change it. I REALLY respect the opinion of other people. I'd rather stick a fork in my eye than hear End of Days again." Personally, I thought that worked really well for him AND I like the song myself, but I just don't think this new one fits him in the slightest bit. If he were a babyface...MAYBE...maybe...
Chris Jericho says on Twitter "Funny how some of u never stop complaining and think u know it all. Just sit back and enjoy the ride…you’ll have a lot more fun!" - I hate that phrase so much. If you could sit back and enjoy it, you would, but the problem is that you aren't enjoying it. You can't argue that if you don't like what food you have on your plate for dinner to just eat it and like it.

WWE ELIMINATION CHAMBER 2012 SPOILERS / PREDICTIONS OF RESULTS COVERAGE

TNA Against All Odds 2012 Results & Review PPV Coverage Live

2012-02-05T20:14:00.000-05:00

The card for this looks like crap in my opinion. It's missing a lot of big names and seems like it just screams "filler pay-per-view". Sometimes, those events can shock us and be pure awesome, but more often than not, those become oversights and just a total mess, so I'm not looking forward to this at all. Only one match, the X-Division title defense, is one I'd be interested in watching outright. Other than that, I expect the rest to be mediocre at best but generally unsatisfactory. Let's hope I'm wrong.

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PREDICTIONS: Blind shots in the dark as always, I'm going with Bobby Roode, Jesse Sorensen, Tara, Austin Aries, Garett Bischoff, AJ Styles, and Crimson/Morgan.

No Taz tonight, Jeremy Borash is with Mike Tenay. What's up with that? Apparently, there was a death in his family. Sorry to hear that. My condolences, Taz. No ripping on you tonight.

#1 Contender's Match (for X-Division Championship): Zema Ion vs. Jesse Sorensen
Sorensen gives his football to a kid in the crowd. Zema Ion offers the same kid his hairspray. After a minute of wrestling, Ion takes the football away from the kid. Tenay's play-by-play commentary is quite good tonight. Zema Ion moonsaults onto Sorensen on the outside. He takes a while down, and the ref isn't really counting. If this is a storyline, it's awkward, and if it's an injury, it's even more awkward. Now the ref is holding up the X and Zema Ion wins.

WINNER: Zema Ion via count out.
Not much of a match to review. This was short.

Trainers and such are checking up on Sorensen.

Backstage, Christy Hemme talks to Bobby Roode, who touts himself as the dominant champion and says he keeps walking out the champ - he gets the job done.

Television champion Robbie E comes down to the ring and gets the mic. He says there's the Robbie E Invitational and challenges anyone. Shannon Moore accepts the challenge.

TV Championship: Robbie E (c) vs. Shannon Moore
Right off the bat, Robbie E decides to leave and walk up the ramp. Moore brings him back down to the ring. Back and forth action, nothing too impressive or weird. T takes a shot against Moore, E follows it up and wins.

WINNER: Robbie E via pinfall.
Would have preferred the pay-per-view to just end earlier than to have this match on it.

Knockouts Championship: Gail Kim (c) vs. Tara
My apologies for not reporting much but this is just not special at all. It's not keeping my attention. Nothing of note happens and then Gail Kim gets her finishing move on Tara to win.

WINNER: Gail Kim
Didn't care for it.

Tag Team Championship: Crimson & Matt Morgan vs. Samoa Joe & Magnus
This whole pay-per-view is just very bland to me. This match is following the same pattern. It's very generic and feels like I'm watching an episode of Impact as opposed to a ppv. Blah blah blah. Crimson accidentally hits a spear on Matt Morgan. Joe and Magnus capitalize and pin Morgan to win the tag titles.

WINNERS (and new tag team champions): Samoa Joe and Magnus via pinfall.
Continues to be a boring pay-per-view.

Bully Ray cuts a great promo backstage. This guy's one of the best in the company now, which is so weird.

They say they'll update everyone on Sorensen's condition as soon as they can.

X-Division Championship: Austin Aries (c) vs. Alex Shelley
50/50 Aries vs Shelley chant in the crowd. Some innovative moves here and there. Shelley jumps awkwardly over the top rope from the turnbuckle to land on Aries, but nobody gets injured or anything (it just looked weird to me). Aries takes too long preparing the pendulum elbow drop and misses it. Shelley picks up the pace and gets back in the swing of things. There's a second where I thought Alex Shelley was the champion as Aries quite literally grabbed the rope at a fraction of a second away from being pinned - very good. There's another 2-3/4 pinfall, this time on Shelley, after Aries hits the Brainbuster. Shelley blasts Aries with a kick to the head and gets a two count. "This is awesome" chant in the crowd. Aries locks in his submission move (Last Chancery? Is that how you spell it?) and Shelley taps out.

WINNER: Austin Aries via submission.
Match of the night. Very entertaining.

Backstage, Hardy, dressed like an idiot, says he's feeling lucky.

AJ Styles vs. Kazarian
"Daniels sucks" chant from the crowd. Kazarian isn't necessarily wrestling as a heel, which I like. Unfortunately, this match is suffering a bit in my mind from a bad atmosphere. It feels, again, like it's not important and a pay-per-view match. It's not bad, however, it's just not feeling to me as if it's something you should be paying to watch. Say what you want about how I rip on TNA but there's just something about WWE's production values and everything that makes every pay-per-view feel like a pay-per-view even if the match quality sucks as well. Nice Russian leg sweep from Kazarian. Time for the finishing maneuver reversals. Styles gets up on the ropes for a springboard to Kazarian but moonsaults backwards onto Daniels. Kazarian is able to take that opportunity to hit his finisher on Styles afterward and win the match.

WINNER: Kazarian via pinfall.
Second best match of the night, but not as good as the X-Division title match.

Backstage, Bischoff says Gunner is going to destroy Garett and he wants Hogan to throw in the towel.

Gunner vs. Garett Bischoff
Garett Bischoff, the future of the business. Hm. Methinks there's a bit of favoritism going on. Boring match again. This pay-per-view...man...what a shame. It didn't have a ton of potential in my mind to start with but they just seem so off today. It isn't even "TNA is booking this like they're insane and the wrestlers are botching like crazy" on normal scales, it's just flat out bland. It's like the wrestling equivalent of overcooked spaghetti - sure, you know what it is and it has a vaguely similar taste but you just don't enjoy it because of how much of that taste has been drained from it. Bischoff lands a punch on Garett. Hogan walks over and punches Eric to coincide. Garett goes for an inside cradle and gets a two-count. Hogan considers throwing in the towel but Garett tells him not to. Gunner then hits a DDT and pins Garett to win.

WINNER: Gunner via pinfall.
Pass.

Sting wants to make sure everyone is on their best behavior.

TNA Championship: Bobby Roode (c) vs. Jeff Hardy vs. James Storm vs. Bully Ray
During the introductions, Bully Ray grabs the mic from Hemme and says "shut up skank" and introduces himself. Roode tries to convince Ray to work together with him but Ray isn't up for the idea. Storm and Hardy work together against Roode, however. That eventually stops as it always does with some quick pin attempts. Ray eventually enters the match and now we're at standard 4-way methodology where there's basically two people sitting off to the side. Hardy hits Whisper in the Wind on Roode but it's a two-count. Nice spot where Storm and Hardy give Roode a Superplex while Ray powerbombs them both. They land a little weird, but it doesn't appear as though anybody is injured. And here we go with the referee down. Bubba Bomb on Jeff Hardy and Ray really should have won. Jeff then hits a Twist of Fate on Ray and the ref is still out. Roode spears Hardy but gets a Codebreaker from Storm afterward.Storm hits the Last Call on Roode but before the ref can count to 3, Bully Ray pulls him out. Storm then jumps to the outside and lands on the ref, taking him out again. Roode hits a spinebuster on Ray. Hardy hits a Twist of Fate on Roode, then misses the Swanton. Roode gets the title belt and goes to use it against Hardy, but Sting grabs it away from him. Roode taunts him to hit him. Sting goes for it but hits Hardy in the head instead. Sting has to count the pinfall.

WINNER: Bobby Roode via pinfall.
Not bad, not great. The last 2 minutes were the highlight of it.

HIGH SPOTS

1. Austin Aries vs. Alex Shelley

2. Bully Ray's mic work

3. AJ vs Kazarian

LOW BLOWS

1. Boring feel to the pay-per-view

2. No sense of importance

3. Whatever the hell Hardy was wearing

CRITIQUE RATING SCALE:

1-COUNT KICK OUT (Bad)

Reasoning: As I kept saying over and over, this was just uninteresting. It felt as though I was watching a less hectic version of Impact Wrestling as opposed to something to spend money on and enjoy. This was like an afterthought more than something they built up to.

WHAT WERE YOUR THOUGHTS ON THE PPV?

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Wrestling Smack Talk: 2/4/2012

2012-02-04T08:00:00.000-05:00

What's gone on this past week in wrestling?

Bret Hart will represent Calgary, Albert, Canada in The Genographic project, having his DNA stored. Congrats to Bret.
Mike Tyson will be inducted into the celebrity wing of the WWE Hall of Fame this year. Makes sense to me.
Natalya farting still? This gimmick is supposed to get her over??? Ridiculous
I do not want to see HHH vs Undertaker again.
Hulk Hogan's talking about his electrical stimulation for his back and how it works better than viagra.....yeah...
Chyna says HBK shouldn't be praying for her. I disagree.

WWE ELIMINATION CHAMBER 2012 SPOILERS / PREDICTIONS OF RESULTS COVERAGE

WWE Elimination Chamber 2012 Predictions of Results, PPV Spoilers

2012-01-29T22:52:00.000-05:00

Elimination Chamber, or as I like to call it, the Roadblock to WrestleMania! Six men enter, one man leaves. Actually, 12 men enter, 2 men leave as champion, then the other 10 leave as losers, but that's not as epic sounding so we'll gloss over that. This is the pay-per-view that determines whether or not WWE has long term plans they want to stick to or if they're panicking at the last minute and switching up their titles for the WrestleMania card. What's in store?

Click here for Elimination Chamber 2012 Results/Review

Check out my show "Smack Talk" on YouTube!

WWE Championship [Elimination Chamber]: CM Punk (c) vs. Dolph Ziggler vs. R-Truth vs. The Miz vs. Chris Jericho vs. Kofi Kingston
Very surprised that Kofi Kingston is in here instead of Alberto Del Rio, but I assume that's because Del Rio's still too injured to participate. Maybe they're rewarding Kofi for Evan Bourne's mistakes and the handstand he did at the Royal Rumble? Either way, Kofi Kingston is probably the first eliminated here and has no shot at winning. The same goes for R-Truth. We all know now that Jericho is the final participant and I think that's going to play into this quite a bit. Punk, however, I don't expect to be the first. I can see this starting off with Miz and Kofi - that way Dolph can come in, maybe eliminate Kofi, Punk can come in, eliminate Miz, Truth can flounder around, get eliminated by Jericho eventually, then Punk busies himself with Dolph and eliminates him, Jericho beats Punk afterward.

PREDICTION: Chris Jericho wins the title.

World Heavyweight Championship [Elimination Chamber]: Daniel Bryan (c) vs. Wade Barrett vs. Cody Rhodes vs. Big Show vs. Randy Orton vs. Khali
I'm a little surprised that Khali is in this instead of Christian, who was supposedly able to return at the Royal Rumble but was held off. I'm also a tiny bit surprised that Cody is in it as well, as I didn't think they'd do his IC title match with Goldust at WrestleMania, but rather, at Elimination Chamber. Now, the question is solely about which one of these three names walks away with the title - Bryan, Barrett, or Orton. One of those is winning this match, without a doubt, and I'm starting to really think that Barrett has no shot the way that he was booked at the Royal Rumble, nor Orton the way that we keep hearing about Money in the Bank possibly being former world title holders and that's it. Barrett doesn't fit in that category, but Daniel Bryan would, so it would make sense if they had Bryan drop the title and have Sheamus vs Barrett with Bryan in MITB. However, I'm not expecting that. The way they've continually booked Bryan, I'm definitely expecting him to retain by the skin of his teeth and gloat, then get his ass whooped by Sheamus basically in a squash match at WrestleMania where he drops the title to The Great White. Match I'd prefer, though? Barrett vs Sheamus. Match I expect to happen, Bryan vs Sheamus. As for entrances and eliminations, I'll have to ponder about that.

PREDICTION: Daniel Bryan retains the title.

Ambulance Match: Kane vs. John Cena
What's an ambulance match? Is that just a stretcher match? Oh well, at least it's something newer than just doing a standard no-DQ match or something. Either way, I'm not too excited about it, as Cena clearly wins going into WrestleMania and their brawl at the Royal Rumble outside sucked, so this most likely won't be much better.

PREDICTION: John Cena wins.

UNCONFIRMED BUT PREDICTED MATCHES:

If Ryder comes back in time, they could have him face Jack Swagger for the US title. Sheamus needs something to do, but who is around for him to face? Otunga again in a quick squash match? Possibly.

WHAT ARE YOUR ELIMINATION CHAMBER PPV PREDICTIONS?

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WWE Royal Rumble 2012 Results & Review Coverage Live

2012-01-29T16:38:00.000-05:00

It's time for my favorite pay-per-view of the year (generally speaking)! Royal Rumbles are always a lot of fun, so I'm looking forward to it. For those interested, you can check out my Royal Rumble stats and records page to see how much time I've wasted figuring these things out for your benefit (ok, for mine as well).

You can check out my predictions here.

Check out my show "Smack Talk" on YouTube!

Dark Match: Yoshi Tatsu vs. Heath Slater
According to Chris Dace, a co-host of Smack Talk, who is currently at the Royal Rumble (go and see him, he'll interview you), this is a dark match going on right now. Slater apparently botched two moves and the match was so-so, kind of average, or so I've been told.

WINNER: Yoshi Tatsu via pinfall.

World Heavyweight Championship [Steel Cage Match]: Daniel Bryan (c) vs. Big Show vs. Mark Henry
Big Show scares a little kid when he comes out for his entrance. I see Sign Guy in the crowd possibly right next to Sign Guy #2, opposite side of the hard camera. Big Show is taking it to Mark Henry while Bryan tries to escape the cage. For the record, that's how I'm expecting this to end, with Bryan escaping the cage. We'll see. I'm surprised Henry's doing as much as he is, considering his injuries. Big Show hits a superkick on Mark Henry, nice. Do you hear that Sexual Chocolate chant? Chris Dace just got that started. Bryan's hanging on the outside of the cage but Big Show is pulling him upward. Nevermind, he falls.

WINNER: Daniel Bryan via escaping the cage, I was right.
Not a big fan of the match, but I can't blame Henry as he was very limited. The rest of the match was just kind of a bore.

Very long commercial promoting John Cena, as if he doesn't get enough promotion. This is taking forever.

Beth Phoenix, Natalya, & Bella Twins vs. Kelly Kelly, Eve Torres, Alicia Fox, & Tamina
Both teams match their outfits (except for Tamina basically, poor Tamina). This is such a filler match. Lawler just tried about 6 times to say "double trouble" and botched it on Booker T levels. We're at the obligatory "all the divas fight" portion with Kelly Kelly going to the top rope, splashing on all of them. Nice move for the divas division (even though it doesn't make much sense as she splashed on her teammates as well) but Kelly pulled off the move itself fine, so congrats to her. Beth hits Kelly with the Glam Slam and pins her to win.

WINNERS: Beth Phoenix, Natalya, and the Bella twins via pinfall.
Generic divas match. Nice move from Kelly, but other than that, the usual shit.

Backstage, Zack Ryder is in a wheelchair and John Laurinaitis comes up to him. He says he's got him his own room, if he needs anything to let him know, and gives him a Woo Woo Woo. Eve lashes out at Johnny Ace and hopes he gets fired. "That's gratitude for you" he says. Eve calls him an ass and wheels him into his room.

John Cena vs. Kane
Cena comes out to a round of boos. They lagged on Kane's music. Cena's dominating (ugh). Let's go Cena/Cena sucks chant. How come nobody chants Isaac Yankem? C'mon guys. Even when Kane is getting the upper hand, it's not being sold by Cena as Kane being a true force of nature, but just a generic move kind of thing. This is clearly a case of WWE worried about Cena here more than Kane (no surprises, right?). Kane puts his hand over Cena's face and Cena reverses it into an STF kind of, but Kane breaks out of it. Kane his hits clothesline from the top rope spot, then calls for a chokeslam. Cena dodges and starts shoulder-blocking. You Can't See Me leads to a choke, but not a choke slam. Big boot to the face, 2-count. Cena hits a YCSM from the top rope. Kane escapes an AA attempt. They fight to the outside and both get counted out.

WINNER: Draw, double count out.
They couldn't have even had Kane win by DQ? Meh.

They're very lazily fighting backstage, basically just slowly throwing each other into trash cans. Now Kane has a chair and they're starting to use some other things. Kane COMPLETELY misses Cena with the chair, and it's so obvious that he hits the floor. This is pretty bad. Now Kane broke down the door to Ryder's room and attacks him some more, putting his hand over his face until he passes out. He's wheeling Ryder out to the stage. He dumps him out around the ring. Eve runs out to beg Kane to stop. Kane looks at Eve while he gives Ryder a tombstone. Out comes Cena. Kane chokeslams him. Now we've got the referees checking on Cena and Ryder, calling in the medics and whatnot. A way to waste more time (as opposed to running another commercial...but they'll probably do that too).

Now we've got a commercial for the Rock. Great. This should be another 5 minute time waster. Let's promote his movie! Yaaay Rocky!

Drew McIntyre vs. Brodus Clay
Well, if McIntyre isn't in the Royal Rumble, I've got one prediction wrong. I expected him to be the fastest eliminated. For some reason, Booker is talking about Bill Cosby. Normal Brodus squash match.

WINNER: Brodus Clay via pinfall.
Not much to review, but that song is so damn catchy.

WWE Championship: CM Punk (c) vs. Dolph Ziggler with John Laurinaitis as special guest ref
Laurinaitis is wearing a sleeveless ref shirt....lol. He says he'll be the ref for the outside the ring, while the inside will have another. Vickie Guerrero is banned from ringside. Little botch with Punk throwing Ziggler into the ropes, but a little too far, so he landed odd (but not injured or anything, just slightly off, figured I'd point it out). Ziggler hits his repetitive elbow drops. Punk is able to escape a sleeper hold, attempting an Anaconda Vice but not being able to lock it in. Punk hits a nice power bomb, but only gets a 2-count. Kick to the head is another 2-count for Punk on Ziggler. Punk hesitates to climb to the top rope, looking at Laurinaitis. He then hits an elbow drop, gets another 2-count. The real ref gets knocked out of commission. Punk locks in the Anaconda Vice and Ziggler taps, but Laurinaitis is busy checking on the ref. Ziggler rolls up Punk, Punk reverses it, but Laurinaitis is still not paying attention. John puts the ref in the ring. Punk picks up Ziggler for the GTS and spins him around, hitting Laurinaitis in the process (who falls outside the ring, badly). he hits the GTS and goes for a pin, but the ref is still out of it and Laurinaitis is pissed. Ziggler reverses another GTS attempt with a leg drop - very well done. The ref counts, but it's only a two. Punk slingshots Ziggler into the turnbuckle, then hits the GTS again. Both the normal ref and Laurinaitis count the pinfall and Punk wins.

WINNER: CM Punk via pinfall.
Not the best match these two have had, but it was still the best match so far on the card. I hope they can have more matches together.

Royal Rumble Match
Wooo! Are you guys as excited as I am? Entrant #1 is naturally The Miz. He gets on the mic and says everyone's doubting him and he's proven everyone wrong in the past, he'll do it tonight. Entrant #2 is Alex Riley. Holy shit, I was right! Check at youtube.com/smarkoutmoment, I totally called that! Riley is eliminated by the Miz. Entrant #3 is R-Truth. Truth is taking it to Miz and almost eliminates him, early. Entrant #4 is Cody Rhodes. I didn't expect him this soon. Justin Gabriel is number 5. Number 6 is Primo. I'm definitely expecting Sheamus to clear the ring soon. The Miz eliminates R-Truth. Truth comes in again and drags Miz out, but Miz isn't eliminated. Entrant #7 is Mick Foley. He comes out as Foley, by the way, not the other faces. Primo is eliminated by Foley. Entry #8 is Alberto Del Rio - wait a minute, it's Ricardo Rodriguez! Totally didn't expect him in the match at all! He comes out dressed as Del Rio in a shitty car. (The action stops as they're looking at him - there's another Royal Rumble staple down). Justin Gabriel gets eliminated. Entry #9 is Santino Marella. Santino goes right to Ricardo and has some fun with him. Ricardo is eliminated by Santino. WE'RE HAVING A SOCKO VS COBRA FIGHT! This is epic. Entry #10 is Epico.He's definitely going to be eliminated fast. Right when Epico comes in, he gets a Cobra, then a Mandible Claw and Foley eliminates Epico. Miz and Rhodes get back into things. Santino is eliminated by Cody Rhodes. Foley is eliminated by Rhodes as well. Entry #11 is Kofi Kingston. Booker is doing a horrible Jamaican accent, which Kofi doesn't even have anymore. Boom Drop on Miz and Cody. Entry #12 is Jerry Lawler! He leaves commentary and gets into the ring. Lawler pulls the strap down and hits his fist on Miz, but Cody comes up and eliminates Lawler. Entry #13 is Ezekiel Jackson. Is that an Ahmed Johnson chant I hear? Entry #14 is Jinder Mahal. Mahal takes a long time to get into the ring. Entry #15 is the Great Khali. He goes after everyone, but eliminates Jinder Mahal and Ezekiel Jackson. Entry #16 is Hunico. Entry #17 Booker T! He does what Lawler does, takes his coat off and leaves the commentary table. He runs into a problem with Khali though. HOLY SHIT - Kofi Kingston avoids elimination by doing a handstand and moving to the ring steps to get back in. That was crazy! Entry #18 is Dolph Ziggler. Entry #19 is Hacksaw Jim Duggan! Wow I didn't expect all these non-roster members to be in here. Duggan then gets eliminated by Cody Rhodes who mocks his "hoooo!!" chant. Cody them eliminates both Booker and Khali. Entry #20 is Michael Cole! Wow. Entry #21 is KHARMA! DEFINITELY the biggest shock so far in my mind. Cole gets eliminated by Booker, Lawler, and Kharma. Kharma gives her finishing move to Dolph Ziggler. Kharma then eliminates Hunico. Kharma is eliminated by Dolph Ziggler. Entry #22 is Sheamus. Kofi Kingston is eliminated by Sheamus. Sheamus hits his 10 chest smacks to Cody, then does it to Miz as well. Entry #23 is Road Dogg Jesse James! "You still got it" chant. Entry #24 is Jey Uso. Entry #25 is Jack Swagger. Entry #26 is Wade Barrett. This was my pick for the winner (number 26) and Barrett is my second choice for winner. Wade eliminates Road Dogg. Entry #27 is David Otunga. Entry #28 Randy Orton. Expect a lot of eliminations now. Orton hits a double rope-DDT on Rhodes and Ziggler. Jey Uso is eliminated by Randy Orton. RKO to Barrett. Randy eliminates Wade Barrett. Entry #29 is Chris Jericho. David Otunga is eliminated. Entry #30 is Big Show. This means no Kane, the first Royal Rumble he hasn't been in. That sucks. Jack Swagger is eliminated by Big Show. Big Show then eliminates Cody Rhodes and the Miz, and Dolph Ziggler. The final four are Sheamus, Jericho, Orton, and Big Show. Big Show is eliminated by Orton. Randy Orton is eliminated by Chris Jericho. Lots of false finishes here. Jericho hits a Codebreaker and goes for a pinfall. Sheamus puts Jericho on the outside apron and Brogue Kicks him. Chris Jericho is eliminated! SHEAMUS WINS THE ROYAL RUMBLE!

WINNER: Sheamus
Very entertaining! I loved it!

HIGH SPOTS

1. All of the surprises at the Royal Rumble match

2. Cobra vs Socko

3. Kofi Kingston's handstand

LOW BLOWS

1. Kane vs Cena

2. Divas match

3. Cage match

CRITIQUE RATING SCALE:

2-COUNT NEAR-FALL (Meh)

Reasoning: The Royal Rumble match and the WWE title match were good, but the rest was a let down, and the WWE title match wasn't good enough to counteract it. Basically, the last hour was awesome, and the rest was at it's very best ok and at its worst, annoying.

WHAT WERE YOUR THOUGHTS ON THE ROYAL RUMBLE PPV?

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Wrestling Smack Talk: 1/28/2012

2012-01-28T08:00:00.000-05:00

What's gone on this past week in wrestling?

R-Truth wins the US title at a house show, but it's ruled a retcon of a non-title match. Curious, what's the point?
Cena's angry face on Raw = unintentionally hilarious.
Tommy Dreamer is saying that he twice saved CM Punk's job. I can see that happening to an extent. Punk has said he had problems in the past with people, Dreamer had more clout than him in the past, so on and so forth.
Chyna was at the Adult Video Awards and was supposedly just a mess, appearing to be high on something with glazed over eyes and whatnot. Shame.
Finlay defended the divas division, talking about how they're hard workers and such. I agree. Then again, I disagree with him saying we should all stop criticizing them unless we can go in and do the same. Just because you can't necessarily do something doesn't mean you can't criticize someone else for not being able to do it - particularly when that's their JOB. I'm not a golfer but that doesn't mean if I see someone miss a shot I can't say that that shot sucked, it did.

WWE ROYAL RUMBLE 2012 WINNER SPOILERS / PREDICTIONS OF RESULTS COVERAGE

Wrestling Smack Talk: 1/21/2012

2012-01-21T06:54:00.000-05:00

What's gone on this past week in wrestling?

Epico and Primo won the tag team titles at a house show. While I'm not a fan of them winning it, I'm a fan of them winning it at a house show. It's something different.
Evan Bourne was suspended again, which makes it clear why they dropped the tag titles. There's speculation that he might be TRYING to get himself fired - and that he might succeed in that.
Bragging Rights could be switching to the TLC placement and then Fatal 4-Way going in the Capital Punishment location instead of Bragging Rights. I don't like that idea. Bragging Rights needs to stay away from Survivor Series and as much as I'd rather have TLC get replaced with something better, Fatal 4-Way isn't one I want to see back on the card again.
DX to induct the Four Horsemen? What about FLAIR?
A drunk Marty Jannetty decided to talk trash about Shawn Michaels and promote his book, saying it would be more interesting if he keeps all the stuff about Shawn's "religious fake ass" in it. Jeez.
Chyna one-upped him by going on a Twitter tirade about Vince McMahon, saying everything from rape accusations to calling Vince a coward, talked about death threats, "freaky Chinese sex tapes"...
Make sure to double check the sexiest diva/knockout tournament and let me know if I'm forgetting anybody on the list before I start breaking down the bracket!

WWE ROYAL RUMBLE 2012 WINNER SPOILERS / PREDICTIONS OF RESULTS COVERAGE

Hottest WWE Divas vs Sexiest TNA Knockouts Tournament

2012-01-16T10:18:00.000-05:00

Who are the hottest, sexiest, most attractive wrestling women in WWE and TNA history? That's up to you to decide!

Smark Out Moment needs your help in compiling a massive list of EVERY woman wrestler, valet, manager, on-screen character, and so forth that has been involved in these two companies over their tenure. Once the list is finished, they will all be placed in a bracket tournament where you will get to decide in polls and comments who you think should win each match to determine who is the hottest.

Here is the breakdown of the bracket...

SIDE 1: WWE Divas
Group A - Entertainment Era Divas
Group B - Federation Era Divas
Group C - ECW Divas
Group D - WCW Divas

SIDE 2: TNA Knockouts
Group A - 100% Knockouts
Group B - Have Been Both Knockouts and Divas [this is due to WWE having so many more women under their employment in the past]

Note: Since many of the women have worked for multiple promotions, to balance out the groups, some that might not have participated for long in one compared to another may be placed in that category above the one they're more well known for. Example, Stacy Keibler may be put in the WCW group for her brief stay there just to beef up the WCW side, or Kelly Kelly could end up in ECW. If for some reason the groups can't be properly balanced, then it may revert to 4 groups (Entertainment, Federation/ECW/WCW, Divas/Knockouts, and Knockouts). If that can't work, then it'll stay the standard WWE vs TNA, with TNA getting some divas to help them out. We'll figure that out in due time. I'm also not including people solely from organizations like Shimmer. This is list huge as it is.

How you can help:

1. I need to know if I'm missing any names. Keep in mind I'm not counting guest hosts, musical performers, or anyone that made a one-time appearance for the most part. No Cyndi Lauper, for instance.
2. If the scales are off, let me know if I'm forgetting that someone worked for another company. For instance, I had forgotten that Lita worked for ECW as Miss Congeniality originally.
3. Do you want this to be a double-elimination bracket or single-elimination? Let me know.

This is going to be a huge feat, but it should be fun! Stay tuned for the finalized list and the beginning matches, and until then, take a look at the alphabetically sorted list and let me know if I'm forgetting any names!

ENTERTAINMENT DIVAS (59)
AJ Lee
Aksana
Alicia Fox [*potential ECW*]
Amy Weber
Amy Zidian
Anastacia Rose
Ariane Andrew
Ashley Massaro
Ashley Valence
Bella Twin Brie
Bella Twin Nikki
Beth Phoenix
Brooke Gilbertsen
Cameron Haven
Camille Anderson
Candice Michelle
Carmella DeCesare
Chandra Costello
Cherry
Eden Stiles
Elisabeth Rouffaer
Erica Chevillar
Eve Torres
J. Kim
J.T. Tinney
Jaime Koeppe
Jamie Keyes [*potential ECW*]
Jen England
Jessica Hatch
Jillian Hall
Joy Giovanni
Julia Costello
Kaitlyn
Kelly Kelly [*potential ECW*]
Kristall Marshall
Lauren Mayhew
Layla El [*potential ECW*]
Leilene "Alexis" Ondrade
Lena Yada [*potential ECW*]
Leyla Milani
Lyndy Frieson
Maria Kanellis
Maryse Ouellet
Maxine
Melina
Michelle McCool
Naomi
Naomi Kirk
Natalya Neidhart
Rebecca DiPietro
Rochelle Loewen
Rosa Mendes [*potential ECW*]
Savannah [*potential ECW*]
Simona Fusco
Summer DeLin
Tamina Snuka
Tiffany (Taryn Terrell) [*potential ECW*]
Tracie Wright
Vickie Guerrero

FEDERATION DIVAS (42)
Aja Kong
Bertha Faye
Bull Nakano
Chaparrita Asari
Debbie Combs
Desiree Petersen
Diana Hart
Donna Christanello
Evelyn Stevens
Fabulous Moolah
Ivory
Judy Grable
Judy Martin
Jumping Bomb Angel Itsuki Yamazaki
Jumping Bomb Angel Noriyo Tateno
Krissy Vaine
Leilani Kai
Lilian Garcia
Linda McMahon
Linda Miles / Shaniqua
Luna Vachon
Mae Young
Marlena (Terri Runnels)
Miss Elizabeth
Miss Kitty
Mrs. Cleavage (Marianna Komlos)
Mrs. Yamaguchi-San
Muffy (Caryn Mower)
Nidia
Peggy Lee Leather
Princess Victoria (Vickie Otis)
Rockin Robin
Ryan Shamrock (Alicia Webb)
Sable (Rena Mero)
Sapphire
Sara Calloway
Sensational Sherri
Stephanie McMahon
Tori
Trish Stratus
Velvet McIntyre
Wendi Richter

ECW DIVAS (13)
Beulah McGillicutty
Chastity (Denise Riffle)
Dawn Marie
Electra (Donna Adamo)
Francine Fournier
Gorgeous George (Stephanie Bellars)
Jasmine St. Claire
Jazz
Kimona Wanaleya
Lita / Miss Congeniality
Missy Hyatt
Nicole Bass
Sunny (Tammy Sytch)

WCW DIVAS (29)
AC Jazz (Amy Crawford)
Alundra Blayze / Madusa
Asya
Baby (Shannon McNeill)
Beef (Rhonda Sing)
Chae (Chae An)
Chameleon (Carmel Macklin)
Chiquita (Chiquita Anderson)
Debra
Fyre (Teri Byrne)
Gold (Diane Klimaszewski)
Kimberly Page
Little Jeannie
Major Gunns / Tylene Buck
Midajah / Melinda O’Hearn (nWo girl)
Molly Holly / Miss Madness / Mona
Nancy Benoit / Woman
Naughty-A (Jamie Cragwell)
Pamela Paulshock (nWo girl)
Shakira / Kim Kanner (nWo girl)
Silver (Elaine Klimaszewski)
Spice (Melissa Bellin)
Stacy Keibler (Skye)
Starr (Jennifer Bancalum)
Syren (Allison Pfau)
Tayo (Tayo Reed)
Torrie Wilson
Tygress (Vanessa Sanchez)
Whisper (Rebecca Hickenbottom)

------------------------

STRICTLY KNOCKOUTS (37)
Alexa Thatcher
Amber O'Neal
Angelina Love
April Pennington
Cheerleader Melissa Anderson / Raisha Saeed
Chelsea
Cookie
Crystal Louthan
Daffney / Governor
Daizee Haze
Dixie Carter
Hamada
Jenna Morasca
Karen Angle
Lacey Von Erich
Lauren Thompson/Brooks
Leticia Cline
Leva Bates
Madison Rayne
Melissa Wolfram
Mercedes Steele
Moose
ODB
Payton Banks
Rhaka Khan
Rosie Lottalove
Rosita
Roxxi Laveaux
Sarita
Serena Deeb
Sirelda / Jaime Dauncey
SoCal Val
Sojourner Bolt
Taylor Wilde
Toxxin
Traci Brooks
Velvet Sky [*could potentially be under the divas/knockouts*]

BOTH DIVAS AND KNOCKOUTS (17)
April Hunter (nWo girl; wrestled for TNA as well)
Barbara Bush / BB / Cathy Dingman / Taylor Vaughn
Brooke Adams Tessmacher
Christy Hemme
Chyna
Cynthia Lynch (Godfather ho that won the Hardcore title; valet for David Young in TNA)
Gail Kim
Jackie Gayda
Jacquelyn
Katie Lea / Winter
Kharma / Awesome Kong
Lauren Jones
Mickie James
Sharmell Huffman
Shelly Martinez
Stephanie Finochio / Trinity
Victoria / Tara

------------------------

OTHER (?) *These people are not being added into the tournament, but for future reference, if I was to have more, here are some potential other candidates:

1. Bess Katramados (Big Show's wife, was a Godfather ho once)
2. Paulina Thomas (Tough Enough 1)
3. Victoria Tabor (Tough Enough 1)
4. Taylor Matheny (Tough Enough 1)
5. Bobbie Jo Anderson (Tough Enough 1)
6. Alicia (Tough Enough 2)
7. Anni (Tough Enough 2)
8. Jamie (Tough Enough 3)
9. Jill (Tough Enough 3)
10. Kelly (Tough Enough 3)
11. Lisa (Tough Enough 3)
12. Rebekah (Tough Enough 3)
13. Michelle Deighton (Tough Enough 4)
14. Rima Fakih (Tough Enough 4)
15. Christina Crawford / Caylee Turner (Tough Enough 4, FCW)
16. Ivelisse Velez / Sofia Cortez (Tough Enough 4, FCW)
17. Summer Rae (FCW)
18. Raquel Diaz / Shaul Guerrero (FCW)
19. Audrey Marie (FCW)
20. Tomoko Watanabe
21. Kyoko Inoue
22. Chigusa Nagayo
23. Lioness Asuka
24. Akira Hokuto
25. Cutie Suzuki
26. Mayumi Ozaki
27. Funkette Nadine
28. Funkette Tracey
29. Hervina
30. Santina

------------------------

If you have any names that you can think of that aren't on the list above, or you can think of people to move around to help out the smaller groups (primarily TNA), leave a comment!

The sooner the list is complete, the sooner the tournament can begin.

Tammy Sytch aka Sunny - Possible Winner?

WWE ELIMINATION CHAMBER 2012 SPOILERS / PREDICTIONS OF RESULTS COVERAGE

Wrestling Smack Talk: 1/14/2012

2012-01-14T08:49:00.000-05:00

What's gone on this past week in wrestling?

Brodus Clay made his return....he shouldn't have considering the gimmick they put him in.
This whole episode of Raw was just atrocious this week, and Clay wasn't all of the reason for it. Zack Ryder gets slammed on blatantly obvious padding after the stupid tire segment, Ricardo's used as comedic fodder (as if they didn't have enough stupid comedy on the show this week already), Swagger's kick out, Jericho continuing the time wasting, WWE not realizing that Kane and Truth have the same exact storyline going on right now...
Alundra Blayze aka Madusa wants to wrestle Beth Phoenix in a kind of women's title versus women's title match. Might as well - but I doubt WWE wants her back.
Edge and the Four Horsemen will be inducted in this year's Hall of Fame. Nice.
Four confirmed Royal Rumble names (and by confirmed, I mean they said they'll be in it but they've changed their mind on stuff like that in the past) - Jinder Mahal, Sheamus, Santino Marella, and Wade Barrett. No real surprises there.
David Otunga is using the Death Valley Driver. FINALLY someone uses that finisher.
No more Vengeance? Time to update the WWE 2012 PPV Schedule...again...

WWE ROYAL RUMBLE SPOILERS / PREDICTIONS OF RESULTS COVERAGE

TNA Genesis 2012 Results & Review PPV Coverage Live

2012-01-07T12:30:00.000-05:00

I don't like to start my year off with TNA, but here we are and the first pay-per-view of the year is TNA Genesis. The lineup looks halfway decent, even if some big names are missing (Anderson, Sting, Jarrett, Styles, etc). Let's hope Dixie Carter had a New Year's resolution to improve the product.

PREDICTIONS: Blind shots in the dark as always, I'm going with Roode, Morgan/Crimson, Austin Aries (though I wouldn't be shocked if Sorensen won), Gail Kim, Abyss, Angle, Gunner, and Pope.

Story of the night is naturally Jeff Hardy with the intro. Makes sense, seeing as that's the world championship match. I'll give them credit, TNA does tend to put more focus on the world title than WWE does at times (cough *Rock* cough)

X-Division Championship: Austin Aries (c) vs. Kid Kash vs. Zema Ion vs. Jesse Sorensen
I'm definitely starting to re-think my pick of Austin Aries and lean towards Sorensen winning...but since the match hasn't started yet and there's no eliminations, that might just be me second-guessing myself. Aries starts the match off by leaving the ring (smart, especially since he's a heel). Nice spot in the corner with a suplex/power bomb combination between Sorensen, Ion, and Kash. Ion corkscrews from the top rope to the outside onto Aries and Kash. Sorensen follows it up with a splash of his own to that trio. Good match so far. Ion hits a 450 on Kash. Kid Kash is eliminated. Aries follows it up with a 450 of his own on Sorensen, but Jesse kicks out. Expecting Ion to be the next eliminated, probably by Aries. Sorensen almost eliminates Aries with a crossbody from the top rope. Zema Ion is eliminated after Sorensen catches him with an inside cradle. Guess I was wrong about Aries eliminating Ion. Aries puts Sorensen in a small package of his own, but the ref is distracted by Ion. Sorensen then gets a pin on Aries but the ref is still distracted, leading to Aries being able to eventually kick out. Ion isn't leaving, he's hanging out ringside. Sorensen climbs to the top rope and is taken down by Ion. As he's dangling, Aries dropkicks him, then gives him a brainbuster from the middle rope! Aries pins and eliminates Sorensen.

WINNER: Austin Aries via pinfall.
Good match to start the pay-per-view off with. 1-0 predictions so far.

Backstage with Borash and Devon's Kids
Devon's kids and Pope stumble over all their words while Borash fails at interviewing them because of it.

Devon vs. The Pope D'angelo Dinero
Devon's in full control at the start of the match. Devon climbs to the top rope but Pope pushes the ref into it, knocking Devon down. Oddly, the match slows down when Pope is in control. I would think the opposite considering how much more athletic Burke is than Devon. Pope invites Devon's kids into the ring. Ref is doing nothing but watching Pope tell them to attack Devon. The kids aren't doing anything, so Pope goes after them and beats them down. Now Devon is hulking up. This would have been a disqualification naturally, but you know how wrestling goes - if the storyline calls for it not to be, they ignore the rules. Pope misses the DDE, Devon capitalizes and wins.

WINNER: Devon via pinfall.
Meh. Not awful, not great. If I were booking things, I'd have had Devon lay out Pope, then go check up on his kids and Pope win by taking advantage of that, then they could have a gimmick match at the next ppv to end the feud. 1-1 predictions.

Backstage with Borash, Sting, and Velvet Sky
Velvet wants Karen Angle's position. I've got a position for her. What, a wrestler? You think I meant something else? That goes without being said. She suggests to Sting that she can keep Madison away from the Knockouts title match and calls it "the Velvet Touch". *Ahem* insert another joke.

Gunner vs. RVD
They must really be fond of Gunner, with all the attention they've given him over the past year and putting him with Flair and everything. Stale match so far. Exposed concrete comes into play again, particularly a DDT from Gunner while Flair distracts the referee. Gunner puts him in the ring and pins him.

WINNER: Gunner via pinfall.
Didn't like it. It felt kind of pointless for a pay-per-view match. 2-1 predictions.

After the match, they take RVD out on a stretcher.

Backstage with Borash and Hardy
Jeff Hardy starts quoting his music.

Knockouts Championship: Gail Kim (c) vs. Mickie James
Okay, so the "Velvet Touch" thing is a cage for Madison Rayne to be locked inside. I just noticed a sign in the crowd that says "even I could beat Scott Steiner", haha. Gail Kim's music sounds so familiar but I can't place it. Anyone want to help me out with that? As I said before, Gail works so much better in TNA than in WWE. Mickie on the other hand I think was much better in WWE. Madison tosses brass knuckles down for Gail to use, but the ref sees this. When he tosses them away, Madison throws another pair down, but Mickie uses them and gets disqualified.

WINNER: Gail Kim via disqualification.
Better women's wrestling match than you'll see in WWE this month. 3-1 predictions.

Backstage with Borash and Bully Ray
Ray really is one of the best on the mic in TNA right now. Shame he has one of the worst haircuts.

Monster's Ball: Abyss vs. Bully Ray
Ray comes out and randomly almost hits SoCal Val with a kendo stick. What's the purpose in Val? Does she do anything? I haven't seen her be worth a pay check in God knows how long. Ray plays some mind games with Abyss. Dueling chairs starts us off. Ray wins. Seems like Abyss got his finger caught in the chair. Ray tries to whip him with his chain but Abyss blocks it with a chair. Ray smacks Abyss in the head with a trash can but he doesn't sell it at all. Abyss finds Janice under the ring (the block of wood with nails in it for those that don't know). Ray leaves and says he's not continuing the match. Abyss goes after him and they start fighting on the stage...but they basically do nothing but a few punches and go back to the ring. That was lame. Abyss gets thrown into the barbwire board. Ray then takes it and hits Abyss in the head with it (and it falls onto a kid in the audience, that's a lawsuit waiting to happen). Abyss hits Ray's crotch with the cheese grater. (What other thing than wrestling is that not a weird sentence to say?) Out come the tacks. Ray low blows Abyss and then says "oh, my balls" and "mother fucker, my balls!" [hahaha]. Ray gets choke slammed through a table, but it's just a two-count. Ray gives a uranage to Abyss on the barbed wire board, then tosses the other board on top of him and splashes on top of it from the rope. Abyss kicks out. Abyss choke slams Ray onto the tacks, two-count. Ray just beats Abyss down with a kendo stick repeatedly. Out of nowhere, Abyss hits a Black Hole Slam on top of the barbed wire and wins the match.

WINNER: Abyss via pinfall.
Hardcore spots are always entertaining, generally speaking. There's been much better in the past, but oh well. 4-1 predictions.

Backstage with Borash (surprised?) and the Tag Team Champs
Destroying lives is what Crimson does apparently, and Matt Morgan temporarily goes back to his stuttering gimmick when he calls Samoa Joe Crimson instead.

Tag Team Championship: Crimson & Matt Morgan (c) vs. Samoa Joe & Magnus
Who did Joe piss off to make him go from one of the top guys in the company to not having a solid push in such a long time? In the middle of this match, they do a split screen to show that Abyss is being beaten down backstage by Bully Ray. I guess that shows the importance of the tag title match, right? There's a 50/50 split chant going on of "We want Morgan" and "no we don't!" Crimson and Morgan aren't dominating the match as much as I thought they would. They double-team Magnus, though, and with what looked like a double chokeslam, they win the match and retain the titles.

WINNERS: Crimson and Matt Morgan via pinfall.
Generic kind of 5 out of 10 match. 5-1 predictions.

Backstage with Borash and Storm
Storm believes in himself. He says during the match, Angle might be sucking, but after, he'll be swallowing...his foot down his throat.

James Storm vs. Kurt Angle
Gail Kim's husband is shown on camera when Storm is coming to the ring. Why now instead of during the Knockouts match? Odd. Story of the match is that Angle wants to wrestle, Storm wants to make it a fight, as those are the two elements they're more used to. I don't see how a top rope moonsault works in the "mat wrestling" style, though. Kurt Angle is able to hit a low blow on Storm and win the match that way.

WINNER: Kurt Angle via pinfall.
6-1 predictions. I actually kind of like the end to this match as it shows a hypocritical side to Angle, seeing as he's the heel and just not only cheated to win but also went against his whole strict wrestling concept.

Backstage with Bully Ray (no Borash)
Ray is cleaning up his wounds and they ask where Abyss is. He says he doesn't know, "maybe he took the rest of the night off".

TNA Championship: Bobby Roode (c) vs. Jeff Hardy
Hardy's got the opposite position in the company from Samoa Joe. If they're smart, they won't have Hardy win the title here. Roode's starting to look like a legit main eventer to me, so that's another reason why to keep the title on him (the other being Hardy's problems in the past). There's not much pure action to talk about here, sorry. Crossfaces, Whisper in the Wind, you know how it goes. Twist of Fate reversals. Twice in the match, Roode goes to grab his belt and leave with an attempted count out that Hardy has to stop. Roode kicks the ref in the crotch to get himself disqualified.

WINNER: Jeff Hardy via disqualification.
Why is it that TNA tends to take one idea and run with it multiple times on a ppv? There are lots of events where nearly every match has an interference, or nearly every match someone blades, and now this one was all low blows. It's not creative at all to have Angle win with a low blow, then Roode low blow the ref, and like 10 low blows in the other matches.

HIGH SPOTS

1. X-Division title match

2. Some of the hardcore stuff in the Monster's Ball match

3. Knockouts match, I guess

LOW BLOWS

1. The low blows. Too many of them.

2. Tag title match

3. Pope vs Devon

WHAT DID YOU THINK OF THE PPV?

LEAVE YOUR COMMENTS BELOW!

Wrestling Smack Talk: 1/7/2012

2012-01-07T09:00:00.000-05:00

What's gone on this past week in wrestling?

Y2J made his return in a really pointless segment. People are arguing that it was all meant to annoy us, but to me, that's a SMARK heel tactic and if smarks are supposed to be so evil and ignored as they tell us, they shouldn't do things like that.
Jim Ross is sporting a goatee. Thumbs up, JR.
Kevin Nash and Ultimate Warrior seem to have beef with each other and have talked the whole "let's fight" type of game on Twitter.
Major heat on Evan Bourne for venting his frustrations with the company and for R-Truth getting suspended for the same reason he did. Ok, I could understand getting pissed at Bourne when he was suspended, and then badmouthing the company while suspended, but to blame him for the information of Truth being suspended being released? Come on.
The names according to PWTorch that WWE is or was interested in bringing over from TNA are Bully Ray, RVD, Beer Money, Pope, Morgan, and Ink Inc - but none of them are serious prospects, it seems.

WWE ROYAL RUMBLE SPOILERS / PREDICTIONS OF RESULTS COVERAGE

WWE ItBegins2012 - Chris Jericho Returns 1-2-2012

2012-01-02T23:16:00.000-05:00

UPDATE: You can check out the ride below, but here's the confirmation: yes, CHRIS JERICHO has returned to WWE on January 2, 2012. (By the way, you can check out my interview with him earlier this year). Within the next hour or so, I'll be posting a special edition of Smack Talk below as well.

----BELOW IS THE COVERAGE OF THE BUILD UP TO CHRIS JERICHO'S RETURN----

On tonight's WWE Monday Night Raw, the Twitter updates flashed a cryptic message pointing us to a YouTube account, itbegins2012. So what exactly does this mean?

Well, the last time we saw something like this, it was the Undertaker's return. Before that, Chris Jericho returned. We had a one-shot promo for Hade Vansen that went nowhere (and no I don't think it's him), but essentially it seems like every time they do these things, it's a return or a debut. Brodus Clay was supposed to make his redebut on Raw tonight, but AGAIN was pushed back, and I doubt that January 2nd will be his debut as that's too far along.

UPDATE: Now there is a new video on the channel "second2012". Still pretty cryptic with nothing solid being given to us.

UPDATE: LookWithin2012. Basically the same things. This has become boring and much less interesting since it began. As with the past two weeks, check out the YouTube channel to see my analysis.

UPDATE: 2012Control. Now, they're focusing more on the girl being very important. I'm considering this a red herring and I still believe it's Chris Jericho that will be returning on January 2nd, but now, if I were to say what my second choice would be, I'd lean towards Shane and Stephanie both returning.

UPDATE: Prophetless2012. We've really gone from this starting as a little boy in a classroom seeming like he's special in some way to the girl being completely in charge and the boy being a complete pushover, it seems. The resident creepy little girl even goes so far as to throw down the book he was writing in. Ouch, what a bitch. Even though if you put a gun to my head, I'd still say Chris Jericho is who they planned on having the videos be for, I'm completely on board with the possibility of it being Shane McMahon who would start a feud with Triple H over the company.

UPDATE: The End Begins. This is, I suppose, the last of the videos. Thinking Jericho all the way here, still. I have to say, though, unless this is something I completely didn't see coming, this was definitely my least favorite of the build-up promos they've done for Jericho. Save_Us was so much better.

WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT "IT BEGINS 2012"?
LEAVE YOUR COMMENTS BELOW!

Wrestling Smack Talk: 12/31/2011

2011-12-30T08:00:00.000-05:00

What's gone on this past week in wrestling?

No YouTube show this week. Instead, there's the video edition of the BEST AND WORST OF 2011 AWARDS. Check out part 1 below (once it's up).
Elijah Burke is going to be in the new Batman film, The Dark Knight Rises. Damn it, Nolan, I was already worried about the film and now you're involving TNA guys in it???
Randy Orton appears to have been injured and may miss WrestleMania. That really sucks for WWE as they've had a bunch of hits taken for WrestleMania so far. Orton, Christian, Mark Henry, both Rey Mysterio and Sin Cara...man...
Seems like Iron Sheik isn't going to be in the Legends House. That's a shame. I'm sure he could have made it completely fucked up.
Drew McIntyre has been switched over to Smackdown. Yeah, pointless move.
The latest and seemingly last of the 2012 videos was, again, basically a repeat of what we've seen before. They didn't try too hard on doing something different in these videos, did they? Might as well have just run the same one over and over.
Getting rid of Capitol Punishment (not a shock at all, I had "whatever replaces Capitol Punishment" on the WWE 2012 PPV Schedule list page immediately after Capitol Punishment ended) - but with Bragging Rights? ALL for it!

WWE ROYAL RUMBLE SPOILERS / PREDICTIONS OF RESULTS COVERAGE

Ask Him #2

2011-12-28T00:36:00.000-05:00

The following are some questions I've been asked via the Ask Him! contact on the site. Feel free to send some more!

Future installments of this may be included in the Smack Talk audio show on YouTube. Stay tuned!

Q: Do you prefer Cena or Orton? And what's your view on Sheamus, is he growing on you yet?

A: If I'm given a choice of who I'd like to see in a match, I'd go with Orton. I like his character more and I think he's better in the ring (particularly this year). Still, if I were running WWE, there's no doubt in my mind that John Cena would be my top guy. It's just good business. I think Cena gets unfair criticism both positive and negative. Too many people give him a free pass on the wrestling just because "he doesn't need to do flips to get over", but too many people criticize him too hard thinking that his matches are always on par with the worst of all time. / When it comes to Sheamus, I've warmed up to him for the most part by now. I still think he doesn't deserve to be a 2x world champ and he was rushed, but he's at the level right now that I buy into him being a main eventer and I enjoy him. If you'd replace those 2 world titles with 2 midcard titles, then I'd think that he'd be at the level right now that I'd be ok with him winning his first world title. He's still not one of my favorites, but I do like him more, I do see his value, and I hope he continues to improve.

Q: Who do you think will win the rumble at this point and who do you think will go into mania as the champions?

A: Assuming Chris Jericho is the person who returns on January 2nd, I'd have to go with him. The only possibilities I can see other than him are Miz, Dolph Ziggler, and maybe Wade Barrett. I didn't see Daniel Bryan winning the title before, so that threw me for a loop, and now I have to readjust what I think WrestleMania might be. However, I'd expect CM Punk and someone else, NOT Daniel Bryan, to go into Mania as the champions. Who that other person is, I don't know.

Q: What match is that sound clip you used for Smack Talk's pinfall?

A: That's the final pin of the Iron Man match from WrestleMania XII between Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels. I used that not only for the clear sound of it and because it's McMahon counting (on commentary, not in the ring of course) but also because it's one of my favorite matches of all time between two of my top five favorites.

Q: When are you going to put Smack Talk on iTunes?

A: As soon as I can, trust me. I don't use iTunes so I'm not the slightest bit familiar with any of their policies or the program itself, and I need to look into that and figure out the best possible means of doing this before I botch it. I'm hoping to have it up there very, very soon.

Q: Why don't you cover ROH or anything else but WWE and TNA?

A: Two reasons. First, I simply don't have the time. Between what I already do here and my duties elsewhere with my other projects, I don't even have enough time to sleep properly let alone watch other promotions. Second, the bits and pieces I've seen from them haven't been interesting enough to force me to find that time. That's not me knocking them as being awful or anything, as I haven't watched enough of them to give that generalized of a statement, but I just haven't been witness to anything good enough to make me consider it a necessity. I'm looking to expand Smark Out Moment, though, and if you're someone who might want to cover this stuff for me, use that contact form and let me know.

For this second edition, I'm going to add a new little thing here and ask YOU a few questions that I'd like to get your responses back from. You can send me your answers in the comments below or through the contact form if you'd like to keep it between us:

1. What new segments and features would you like to see on the site?
2. What are some things you'd like to see out of Smack Talk that aren't currently being done (outside of iTunes, which I'm working on)?
3. Do you use the search bars on the page, and if so, which one do you use more - the Google one on the very top or the one above the email feed submission?

GOT A QUESTION FOR ME? ASK AWAY AND I'LL ANSWER IT ON THE NEXT MAIL BAG POST.

Wrestling Smack Talk: 12/24/2011

2011-12-24T09:00:00.000-05:00

What's gone on this past week in wrestling?

The fan interviews from TLC are up here on YouTube. Check them out!
Alberto Del Rio suffered a groin injury during the six man tag team match on Raw. It doesn't appear to be as serious as Mark Henry's.
TNA's new promotion in India, called Ring Ka King (which apparently means King of the Ring...wonder where they thought of that one) has crowned their world champion, Matt Morgan, and their tag team champions, Chavo Guerrero and David Hart Smith.
Eden Stiles has left WWE, apparently on her own volition. This explains why Lilian Garcia came back so randomly, as Eden requested her release 3 weeks ago. She also confirmed that she's dating Cody Rhodes.
Goldust is blocking people on Twitter if they disagree with his religious views. Wow. He's since apologized, but I'd imagine that was from WWE telling him to. There goes your WrestleMania match against Cody Rhodes.
Possible heel turn for Big Show and/or Daniel Bryan? Makes more sense to turn Big Show heel, particularly if he does in fact have a match against Shaquille O'Neal at WrestleMania.
WWE's running a "bring it back" campaign for King of the Ring to have its own PPV again. While I think it potentially works better as a 3-hour Raw episode, unless they were to have the pay-per-view follow the same format where it's not just the main eventers in the tournament, I'd still like to see it happen. I just don't want a PPV KOTR where the 8 participants are John Cena, Randy Orton, Rey Mysterio, The Miz, Alberto Del Rio, Kane, CM Punk, and Big Show. I want them to continue to use the people that could actually benefit from it.
Sean Waltman, aka X-Pac, has been arrested on drug possession charges. Disappointed.

WWE ROYAL RUMBLE SPOILERS / PREDICTIONS OF RESULTS COVERAGE

WWE Royal Rumble 2012 Predictions of Results, PPV Spoilers

2011-12-18T23:01:00.000-05:00

Royal Rumble 2012 PPV? I'm as game as I could be! The Royal Rumble is my favorite pay-per-view of the year and I usually go really in-depth with my predictions for it, as I have a ton of fun breaking down all the details. For those interested, you can check out my Royal Rumble stats and records page to see how much time I've wasted figuring these things out for your benefit (ok, for mine as well).

Check out my show "Smack Talk" on YouTube!

WWE Championship: CM Punk (c) vs. Dolph Ziggler [special guest ref John Laurinaitis]
Second year in a row, Ziggler gets a world title shot. Though I was hoping that Punk vs Ziggler would be a potential WrestleMania match, I'm glad they're giving him this. The match should be awesome (but definitely not match of the night, we all know which one that will be) and I expect to see Ziggler have a strong showing but ultimately come out the loser here. If for some reason he wins the title, I'll be very shocked and very intrigued. My guess is CM Punk does something to Laurinaitis and some other ref comes in to count the winning pinfall for Punk.

PREDICTION: CM Punk retains the title.

World Heavyweight Championship [Steel Cage Triple Threat Match]: Daniel Bryan (c) vs. Mark Henry vs. Big Show
So does Daniel Bryan retain the title through escaping the cage from the top or by exiting the door? It's not a matter of if he retains, it's how in my opinion. I fully expect Bryan to leave here with the title in his hands but to drop it at the Elimination Chamber to Randy Orton, Wade Barrett, or Sheamus - unless they're planning on having him in a multi-man match at WrestleMania, then he might go in as the champ. I don't see him being in a singles match for the title at WrestleMania, though. With Mark Henry's injury, I can't expect Mark to do much in this match (if he competes at all), so this could be very tough to sit through. I also wouldn't be too shocked to see Big Show's inevitable heel turn (if the Shaq match is a go) still not happen and be stalled until Elimination Chamber time.

PREDICTION: Daniel Bryan wins by escaping the cage.

John Cena vs. Kane
It doesn't hurt Cena any to lose here and it doesn't help Kane any to lose, so I'm hoping they understand that and let Kane win this match. Needless to say, with John Cena, you can never bet against him safely, so if Cena wins, I wouldn't be shocked, just disappointed. As Braeden brought up on Smack Talk, and I agree with, there's a good chance that John Cena loses this match by disqualification after he goes apeshit on Kane, "embracing the hate" and giving us that stupid angry face he did on Monday Night Raw again. I'm hoping Kane wins this match, Cena eliminates him from the Royal Rumble, Cena pins him at Elimination Chamber (and then naturally gets pinned by someone else, I don't want him as the champ going into WrestleMania), and their feud ends with Cena-2, Kane-1. That's logical...so it means they probably won't do it and Cena will probably just win here after being beaten down.

PREDICTION: Kane wins, possibly by disqualification.

THE ROYAL RUMBLE MATCH
Since WWE is going back to the 30-man format, it's a little easier to figure out who might be involved in this year's Royal Rumble. They have over 30 people to choose from, and legends can always make appearances, but usually there's only one of those if any. Here's a breakdown of what I'm expecting to happen during the Royal Rumble...

ENTRANCES AND PARTICIPANTS
Seeing as how Daniel Bryan, Big Show, Mark Henry, CM Punk, and Dolph Ziggler have title matches, it's safe to say they won't be in this. Also, I'm not expecting some of the injured superstars to return, namely Sin Cara, Rey Mysterio, or Alberto Del Rio. Undertaker and Triple H will most likely sit out. Evan Bourne is suspended, so count him out. Since this is a 30-man format and not the 40-man from last year, I don't expect anybody that wrestles predominantly on NXT to be in this either, so I'd rule out Bateman, Curtis, O'Neil, Percy Watson, and Darren Young. I'm expecting Goldust to be in it, but not Regal or Booker as far as the older crew. The entrances themselves, one by one, my prediction was the following:

1. The Miz
2. Alex Riley
3. Justin Gabriel
4. Hunico
5. Jinder Mahal
6. R-Truth
7. David Otunga
8. Tyson Kidd
9. Heath Slater
10. Sheamus
11. Ted DiBiase
12. Santino Marella
13. Cody Rhodes
14. William Regal
15. Mason Ryan
16. Epico
17. Goldust
18. Primo
19. Brodus Clay
20. Yoshi Tatsu / Trent Barreta
21. Drew McIntyre
22. Kane
23. Ezekiel Jackson
24. John Cena
25. Wade Barrett
26. Kofi Kingston
27. Chris Jericho
28. Jack Swagger
29. Randy Orton
30. Mick Foley

But don't put a ton of faith in those, they could all be dead wrong other than the Miz.

WINNERS
Only three people have a shot at winning this in my opinion...
1. Chris Jericho - The only question is whether they want him to win and give a big speech on Raw, setting up the Punk feud, or if they want to keep the Ziggler thing going and have Jericho and Punk build up their feud on their own after Elimination Chamber. Odds of winning, 50%.
2. Wade Barrett - If they do Orton against Barrett, the more likely option between the two is that Barrett will win the Royal Rumble, not Orton. More importantly, this depends on what they want to do with Jericho. Odd of winning, 40%.
3. Randy Orton - Third most likely option, home town, big name, but he's already won it before. Odds of winning, 10%

OTHER DETAILS

Iron Man = Sheamus

Most Eliminations = Sheamus or Orton at 6 or 7

Quickest Elimination = Drew McIntyre

Comic Relief Segment = Brodus Clay or Santino

Action Stops = Brodus Clay

Post-Elimination Elimination = Barrett and Orton if Jericho wins, if not, then Kane and Cena or Miz and Truth, tough to call.

Attacked Before Entrance = I don't think it will happen this year.

Shock Entrance = Goldust, rare chance of Christian.

Nostalgia Competitor = Mick Foley and Goldust.

Tag Team Succession = Primo and Epico, if anybody

Spawned Feud = I don't think we'll see that happen this year, unfortunately.

Big Man Team-Up = Kane

House Cleaner = Randy Orton

Shockingly Quick = I'll update this once I figure out my entrance predictions.

Final Four = Chris Jericho, Randy Orton, Wade Barrett, and John Cena

PREDICTION: Chris Jericho wins the Royal Rumble.

UNCONFIRMED BUT PREDICTED MATCHES:

They'll definitely have a divas match, and I'd naturally assume it would consist of Beth Phoenix facing one of the trio of Kelly, Eve, or Alicia. R-Truth versus the Miz will probably be added as well.

WHAT ARE YOUR ROYAL RUMBLE PPV PREDICTIONS?

LEAVE YOUR COMMENTS BELOW!

Daniel Bryan Cashes in Money in the Bank

2011-12-18T22:24:00.000-05:00

I may not be the biggest Daniel Bryan supporter in the world, but I had the privilege of witnessing him SUCCESSFULLY cash in his Money in the Bank briefcase during the TLC pay-per-view. Daniel Bryan cashed it in on the newly crowned champion Big Show after his chairs match with Mark Henry, supposedly because of Mark Henry's injury being more serious than originally thought. This is unfortunate, as I liked what Henry was doing a lot (and you might be able to hear me yelling for Bryan to give the title back to Henry, haha) but they still have some interesting possibilities to come out of this cash in. Also, this means I have to admit that I was dead wrong about my prediction that not only would he not cash in at TLC, but that Daniel Bryan would lose the MITB cash in whenever he would do it. Fair's fair, I gloat sometimes when I'm right, I have to eat it when I'm wrong - and you guys let me know how wrong you thought I was with the results of the poll that's been on the sidebar for all this time.

Final poll results, for "Will Daniel Bryan lose his MITB cash-in?" =

Yes - 74 votes / 27.11%
No - 143 votes / 52.38%
He'll drop the briefcase to someone else - 56 votes / 20.51%

My vote was for the last option and clearly, not correct. I'll be talking about this on the upcoming episode of SMACK TALK, so check that out for some analysis.

The first time Bryan cashed in and won, on Smackdown

WWE TLC 2011 Results & Review Coverage Live

2011-12-18T01:16:00.000-05:00

A tables, ladders, and chairs pay-per-view. There's really no further explanation needed, is there? Well, we might need an explanation from WWE Creative as to why Kevin Nash and Triple H are booked in a ladder match trying to grab a sledgehammer, but nonetheless, I'm excited about this pay-per-view. The card has a lot of potential.

You can check out my predictions here.

Be sure to check out my new audio show on YouTube, Smack Talk!
I'm looking for more fans to join in on the discussion week to week.

Yours truly will be sitting in the arena for TLC, so look out for a Smark Out Moment sign, and if you know anyone going, tell them to meet up with me! I'm always up for chatting with fellow fans. I'm going to try my very best to update the results via my phone, but if for some reason the AT&T gods don't let me, then I apologize in advance for not being able to provide you guys a live review and results - but I promise I'll have a REALLY detailed review afterward, complete with video footage, interviews with fans, and so forth. I'll make it up to you. Plus, when you see how much stuff I'll be having for the Royal Rumble, you'll have Smark Out Moment overload.

Ok, my apologies, I wasn't able to upload during the pay-per-view, but I'm going to update you right now on what happened (and edit it again later to add even more information).

Dark Match: Alex Riley vs. Drew McIntyre
Unfortunately, I wasn't able to see this, as they let us in and almost immediately started the bonus match. I was still hunting down hot dogs, as the arena is small, but they were putting concession stands upstairs instead of right next to one another. Odd, but oh well, they were good hot dogs.

WINNER: Drew McIntyre
The people standing in the concession line were confused that McIntyre actually won a match.

United States Championship: Dolph Ziggler (c) vs. Zack Ryder
The whole crowd was basically pro-Ryder, but the people in my section (great guys, you'll see them on the videos later) were also pro-Ziggler. We all enjoyed this match a lot. When Ryder hit the Rough Ryder, we all went nuts.

WINNER (and new United States champion): Zack Ryder via pinfall.
Woo Woo Woo. You know it.

Booker T then was jumped by Cody Rhodes. (Again, I'll update this with much more detail later on, trust me).

Tag Team Championship: Air Boom (c) vs. Epico & Primo
Everyone was pissed that we were getting this match, as we thought it was a replacement for Booker. We spent the majority of the match talking about how hot Rosa Mendes is, and I tried to start a "you're not cool" and "Carlito" chant. Did it work? Can't tell yet. The match was a downer, outside of a few moves.

WINNERS: Air Boom via pinfall.
If I were watching this on television, I probably would have enjoyed it a little more than while at the arena, but I still think that it would have been a let down without prior knowledge of the future events of the night.

Teddy Long backstage is in a promo with Hornswoggle. Long is dressed like Santa Claus and Hornswoggle says that Santa was never black. Teddy retorts saying where he comes from, no jolly fat white man would come give him gifts.

Tables Match: Randy Orton vs. Wade Barrett
Wade and Orton were a split from my section of the crowd, but we were primarily rooting for both. We were disappointed with the lack of the spot where it looked like Wade was going to slam Orton through the table near the stage, but the RKO to finish the match more than made up for it.

WINNER: Randy Orton, via...you know, putting Barrett through a table. That's the rule.
Good match with a good ending to it.

Bella twins backstage talk to Santa Long (wow that sounds awful). He gives him his number in case they want to play any reindeer games. Jack Swagger shows up to complain to Teddy about how ridiculous he looks. Teddy suggests he sits on his lap, so Swagger reassures him if he did, he'd break his hip. Sheamus shows up and soon enough, we have Sheamus against Swagger booked for later on. Our first reaction, again, was "well, it looks like Booker's not getting his match".

Divas Championship: Beth Phoenix (c) vs. Kelly Kelly
You could immediately see people walking away after this for a bathroom break. It's true...it's damn true. Apparently there was a little girl next to us chanting that Kelly Kelly sucks. Target audience, denied. This was a standard divas match for the most part. You know how those go.

WINNER: Beth Phoenix via pinfall.
Didn't really want to see it on the card, but considering how much else we got, I'll let it slide.

Backstage, Del Rio and Miz talk about their alliance being broken and/or never existing in the first place. Miz shoves food in Ricardo's face. Del Rio pushes Ricardo down. (Booooo!)

Booker T comes out for his match against Cody Rhodes - but Cody attacks him yet again, so he heads to the back. (Boooo!)

Sledgehammer Ladder Match: Kevin Nash vs. Triple H
Triple H got one of the biggest pops, it seemed, but Nash had some great chants going as well. When the match started, everyone was up for it, but the mood died down a lot after we saw how slow and lumbering they were. Then, it turned into a contest of jokes we could all make (my favorite being the guy near us chanting "let's go grandpa", and when we asked who he was chanting for, he replied "both"). I didn't expect Nash to do any kind of bumps, so even when he was tossed over the announcers table, I figured that would be it for him. Look out for some of this match being on the next Botchamania - there were several times that they completely set each other up and had to cover for someone's mistake. The worst of that, by far, was the botched first pedigree attempt. We were chanting for him to try it one more time, but he used the sledgehammer instead.

WINNER: Triple H via pinfall.
Slightly above the tag title and divas match. Definitely not as good as I was hoping - though pretty much how I expected it to go.

Matt Striker interview CM Punk backstage. Highlights: Miz's tough guy attitude, Del Rio's butchering of the English language, and superstar Johnny Ace.

Sheamus vs. Jack Swagger
Generic, but generic isn't always a bad thing. This would have been better on Smackdown, but it was still fun to watch during the pay-per-view (at least live). Not a lot happened during the match to report on in terms of highlights or interesting/obscure things, but the Brogue Kick to end it looked pretty great from my angle. That's definitely a finisher that you can believe would knock a guy out for a three-count.

WINNER: Sheamus via pinfall.
Like I said, fun to watch, nothing to really go nuts about or remember with the fondest of memories. Considering how much they added to this card, it will be overlooked by a lot, but that's justifiable, and it was still a welcome addition.

Josh Mathews backstage with Big Show, who says he's going to win the title tonight.

World Heavyweight Championship [Chairs Match]: Mark Henry (c) vs. Big Show
The match starts off with Big Show throwing pretty much every chair into the ring. Naturally, this resulted in us chanting "E-C-DUB", which I believe caught on from what I could hear. Quite a lot of hard hits from the chairs with this match, making up for the repetitive and potentially bland gimmick style presented. The dueling chairs spot is a standard, but still fun. If you hear a bunch of people singing Mark Henry's theme in the second level...I apologize for my horrible singing voice (as you can tell from the latest Smack Talk episode's outro). We were all rooting for Henry, so when he won, the boos started.

WINNER (and new World Heavyweight champion): Big Show via pinfall.
Interesting match that we were into, and it surprised me a bit, if not just because I didn't expect Big Show to win. In retrospect, I should have, considering Henry's injury, but I didn't buy into it as much as it turned out to be serious.

But wait a second...DANIEL BRYAN CASHES IN.

World Heavyweight Championship: Big Show (c) vs. Daniel Bryan
Three seconds later, we have yet another new WHC holder, even though Big Show kicks out, as it's half a second too late.

WINNER (and new World Heavyweight champion): Daniel Bryan via pinfall.
I'm not the giant Daniel Bryan supporter out there, so I don't really want to see him as the champ, especially since I loved what Mark Henry was doing. However, it was awesome witnessing this live, I'll give them that, and for all I know, they could have something good in the future with this.

Josh Mathews is backstage with Booker, who says he's hurting, but he doesn't want to go out as a sucker. [suckaaaaaa]

Intercontinental Championship: Cody Rhodes (c) vs. Booker T
Big pop for Booker, since we didn't think it would happen. Third time's the charm for the night. Lots of fans for both, though Booker was the winner from the crowd. Pleasantly surprised by Booker's lack of ring rust. Spinarooni was a big hit, and despite Chris Dace's efforts to convince Booker from the audience that a second Spinarooni would defeat Cody, we didn't get to witness a sequel - at least for that. Cody Rhodes after he hits the Beautiful Disaster kick for the second time.

WINNER: Cody Rhodes via pinfall.
I would have replaced that second BD kick with the Cross Rhodes, but I enjoyed this match a lot, and I'm glad that Cody Rhodes retained in it as well.

WWE Championship [TLC Match]: CM Punk (c) vs. The Miz vs. Alberto Del Rio
The crowd completely ate up Punk the whole match. It's amazing how much he and Ryder have the crowds in their hands. There was some interesting stuff with Ricardo handcuffing CM Punk to the ladder (and later on, to the ring turnbuckle). Big spot of the night goes to Ricardo, falling off the top of the ladder onto the outside and through one of the tables. It looked like he missed the second table he was supposed to go through (by overshooting), so the spill was nasty, but he seems ok. CM Punk wins the match after hitting a GTS on Miz and blasting Del Rio in the head with a kick.

WINNER: CM Punk via...grabbing the belt.
Very good match, entertaining from bell to bell.

Awesome night. I'll be uploading the interviews I was able to record later on this week for the next episode of Smack Talk, so stay tuned for that, and as soon as I get a chance, I'll rewatch this pay-per-view and add some more detail above.

HIGH SPOTS

1. Ryder winning the title

2. Daniel Bryan cashing in Money in the Bank

3. Booker T...or Ricardo's spot

LOW BLOWS

1. Divas match

2. Tag team championship match

3. Botched pedigree

WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON THE TLC 2011 PPV?

LEAVE YOUR COMMENTS BELOW!

Wrestling Smack Talk: 12/17/2011

2011-12-17T09:00:00.000-05:00

What's gone on this past week in wrestling?

Slammy Awards were this week. You can check my coverage and thoughts here or on this week's Smack Talk podcast (where I'll naturally be covering all of these topics below as well, in much greater detail).
Kane returned to WWE on the same episode of Raw. Pretty cool, am I right?
Another return at the Slammy Awards was Road Dogg. Again, pretty cool.
Another return was Lita, but more importantly, Lita was arrested this past week. There are conflicting reports about why. Speeding, driving with a suspended license, etc...either way, she was arrested for something automobile related.
Control2012 (or rather, 2012control) seems to be focusing more on the girl in it than the boy. Hm...

WWE TLC SPOILERS / PREDICTIONS OF RESULTS COVERAGE

WWE 2011 Slammy Awards Winners, Results & Review

2011-12-12T22:02:00.000-05:00

I've always been a fan of the Slammy Awards, even though I tend to disagree with the nominees and winners on a regular basis (but hey...same applies to the Academy Awards). To counteract this, I decided to create my own awards section, which you can find here. But still, the Slammy Awards are here, so it's time to list, predict, and then review.

Tell Me I Did Not See That Moment

NOMINEES: Jim Ross dancing, Santino almost winning the Royal Rumble, R-Truth getting "okey doked" by Little Jimmy, and the Miz impersonating the Rock

WINNER: Jim Ross dancing

REVIEW: Horrible, horrible way to start off the show. Anyone that isn't a common fan would see how ridiculous this is and shut it off. This award was pointless as well. I wish I didn't see it.

Holy &#@! Moment

NOMINEES: Sheamus power bombs Sin Cara at MITB, Orton RKOs Christian on the steel steps, Big Show & Mark Henry collapse the ring, Air Bourne off the ladder

WINNER: Henry and Show wreck the ring

REVIEW: Makes sense. No problem here.

Pipe Bomb of the Year

NOMINEES: Too many to name here, most of them being R-Truth's promos

WINNER: CM Punk

REVIEW: I hate how they don't even try to clarify these awards. What was this supposed to mean?

Divalicious Award

NOMINEES: Natalya's double Sharpshooter, Kelly Kelly wins the Divas title, Kharma attacks Michelle McCool, Beth Glam Slams Eve from the top rope

WINNER: Kelly Kelly

REVIEW: Lita's involvement was pointless in presenting this award and Kelly coming out to accept it was pointless as well, as she didn't even speak.

OMG Moment of the Year

NOMINEES: HHH tombstones Undertaker, Rock Bottom on John Cena, WWE walkout, CM Punk leaves Money in the Bank with the WWE title

WINNER: HHH

REVIEW: What annoyed me the most about this was how HHH then doesn't bother with the Slammy at all (acting like he's above it) and then talks about how he ended the streak. No, you didn't. Such an egomaniac...

Trending Star of the Year

NOMINEES: Zack Ryder, Dolph Ziggler, Cody Rhodes, Daniel Bryan

WINNER: Zack Ryder

REVIEW: Naturally, Ryder should have won it, so I've got nothing to complain about there. I'm curious, though, where does Cody Rhodes come in here? Bryan trends a lot, Ziggler and Ryder have big presences on Twitter, but am I wrong or does Cody not?

Game Changer of the Year

NOMINEES: HHH fires Vince McMahon, Edge retires, Kevin Nash attacks CM Punk, Rock and Cena agree to their WrestleMania match

WINNER: Rock and Cena

REVIEW: Honestly, meh. They just randomize these awards with no explanation and you can really just replace all the names of the awards with "something we want to talk about at the moment award" and then have each person currently involved in a storyline come out to cut a promo. Shame.

A-Lister of the Year

NOMINEES: Snooki, Cee Lo Green, Hugh Jackman, The Muppets

WINNER: Snooki

REVIEW: Why did Vickie present this award while Otunga presented the Trending Star? Wasn't he "A-List" David Otunga? Oh WWE Creative, you're fucking retarded tonight - or Vince and those above you are forcing these horrible decisions upon you. As far as the winner of this award, anything that makes me see Snooki, I hate.

Superstar of the Year

NOMINEES: The Miz, John Cena, CM Punk, Alberto Del Rio, Mark Henry, Randy Orton

WINNER: CM Punk

REVIEW: I had predicted that they'd give it to Del Rio as I thought they would try to build him up for the pay-per-view, but this isn't a shocking result.

No Diva of the Year award? No Match of the Year? No Reaction of the Year like they were teasing? Breakout Star? Jesus Christ, WWE.

Here's a list of supplemental awards they added on WWE.com, which I won't be reviewing, as my comment for all of them is "fucking ridiculous".

Outstanding Achievement in Muppet Resemblance
WINNER: Sheamus

The Pee-Wee Herman Bowtie Award
WINNER: David Otunga

Most Predictable Outcome of the Year
WINNER: Kevin Nash powerbombs Santino

Guess Who's Back Return of the Year
WINNER: The Rock

Double Vision Moment of the Year
WINNER: Sin Cara and Sin Cara

T-Shirt of the Year
WINNER: CM Punk's "Best in the World"

WWE.com Exclusive of the Year
WINNER: John Laurinaitis congratulates CM Punk

Most Regrettable Ring Attire of the Year
WINNER: Michael Cole dressed as Triple H

Critter Moment of the Year
WINNER: The mouse that ran by Del Rio on Raw

Superstar Transformation of the Year
WINNER: Zack Ryder

*I'll be giving more in-depth analysis of the Slammy Awards on this week's Smack Talk, so stay tuned for that episode!

WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON THE SLAMMY AWARDS?
LEAVE YOUR COMMENTS BELOW!

TNA Final Resolution 2011 Results & Review PPV Coverage Live

2011-12-10T13:00:00.000-05:00

Final Resolution: an indicator that they have finally figured out who they want to be the world champ and who that world champ will feud with, perhaps? Probably not, but at least they've got the continuation from the last pay-per-view with AJ Styles challenging for the title.

PREDICTIONS: I'm going with Roode, Gail Kim, Crimson & Matt Morgan, Austin Aries, and Robbie E all retaining their titles, and Jeff Hardy retaining his career naturally. Also, Angle to beat Storm and RVD to beat Daniels. I expect Roode vs Styles to be match of the night and to be something I can enjoy.

The ppv starts off with the bad promo about how selfish Roode has been. Oh boy, I hope this isn't a sign of things to come.

RVD vs. Christopher Daniels
Wrestling matters to TNA. We know. Booking doesn't, apparently. Rather slow pace at first, with nothing to talk about. Rolling thunder, blah blah blah, couple of kicks. You know how this stuff goes. As I've stated before, if you've seen one RVD match, you've seen them all - except this one doesn't even have the benefit of being no disqualification, so you need to cut half of those matches out. RVD wins with his frog splash.

WINNER: RVD via pinfall.
TV match quality. I certainly hope that wasn't how "the whole f'in show" is going to be. You see what I did there.

Tenay updates us on the Jeff vs Jeff match, saying if Jeff (Hardy) wins, then either Jeff (Jarrett) or Karen will leave TNA as well as Hardy winning the title shot at Genesis. Would you all hate me if I wrote my results and review of the Hardy/Jarrett match as just "Jeff" for both of them? I promise I won't do that to you all.

Borash interviews Mickie James (who looks hot tonight, albeit a bit trashy). She says there's no hiding behind politics and Jezebels (reference that's over my head from not watching Impact?).

TV Championship: Robbie E (c) vs. Eric Young
Young comes out sans title. Haha, the use of the security rope at the entrance that Robbie T unhooks to let Robbie E through is a good little gimmick idea. I like that. Thumbs up for whoever thought of that idea. Young takes his pants off to start the match. Taz mixes up the words "glazed" with "gazed" and then when he's called out on it, he blames it on Thanksgiving. WTF? We need Taz and Booker to call a match together sometime and let the universe explode in confusion. Young hits a real nice elbow from the top rope which was particularly clean looking. I found that interesting enough to report to you guys. Both of the Robbies argue with the ref until Young can take down Robbie E. Ref then gets distracted by Robbie E (who is basically doing nothing), allowing Robbie T to come into the ring and...well, basically do nothing to Young. He picks him up but never slams him down. What's the point of this stuff? Robbie E capitalizes on the distraction, planting his knees into Young's face and retaining his title.

WINNER: Robbie E via pinfall.
Better match than the previous one. The ending was odd.

Borash talks to Devon and Pope, asking about the trust issues between them. Devon says the time to talk about Pope's influence over his family isn't tonight. Tonight's about the tag titles. Pope agrees.

Tag Team Championship: Crimson & Matt Morgan (c) vs. Devon & D'angelo Dinero
Taz tries to make the argument that most tag teams don't get along. Kayfabe, no way. Shoot, maybe. It seems odd to me to see Crimson and Morgan taking shots and being taken down by people like Devon and Pope considering how both of them are supposed to be big, dominant guys. Crimson and Morgan double chokeslam Devon to retain the titles.

WINNERS: Crimson & Matt Morgan via pinfall.
I didn't really enjoy it, but it wasn't terrible.

Backstage, JB talks to AJ Styles who is getting his knee wrapped up. "I'm gonna beat the piss outta you [Roode] for 30 minutes".

X-Division Championship: Austin Aries (c) vs. Kid Kash
Aries starts running and flipping around the ring on his own to showboat and taunt Kid Kash, easily becoming a highlight of the show so far for how ridiculous it was. Series of pinning reversals was pretty nice. Kash misses a chop and hits the ring post instead of Aries. Kash tries to roll up Aries and use the ropes for leverage, but is caught by the ref. Aries then rolls Kash up and is caught by the ref using the ropes for leverage as well. Kash picks Aries up and instead of giving him a suplex, just slams him on his face, which looked vicious. I liked that a lot. WOW, Kash goes to power bomb Aries off the top rope but Aries reverses it to a hurricanrana midway through! That's crazy. Aries tries to use some brass knuckles or something, but the ref catches him ahead of time. Meanwhile, Kash tries to do the same, but the ref catches him as well. Aries then grabs the championship belt and tosses it to Kash, making the ref take it away from him. He uses that as a distraction to hit his brainbuster on Kash and retain the title.

WINNER: Austin Aries via pinfall.
Match of the night so far. I enjoyed that quite a lot.

Technical difficulties as they cut to the Knockouts tale of the tape with no audio, then they cut back to the ring. They then go to a promo instead. After the promo, they re-run the promo with no audio. I guess it would have helped if Hogan and Bischoff were backstage tonight, right? Nobody cuts it, though. They just run the whole thing again. Jesus...

Knockouts Championship: Gail Kim (c) vs. Mickie James
Now that Mickie's out, she doesn't look as good as she did earlier. Gail Kim on the other hand looks great. Gail's pulling out some different leg submissions and within the few minutes of the match I've seen so far, she's done more than she did the entire time she was in WWE on her second run. It's an understatement to say that TNA is such a better fit for Gail than WWE. Gail dominates a lot of the match, but when Mickie gets the upper hand, Gail attempts to leave with her title. Mickie puts a stop to that and throws her into the ring post instead. Madison comes out to cause a distraction. Gail capitalizes, hits her finisher, and retains.

WINNER: Gail Kim via pinfall.
Not bad.

Backstage Borash calls James Storm a beer drinker and Storm asks him to repeat that about 4 times, trying to get that to catch on instead of the Beer Money chant. The promo ends with him saying "beer", hoping to hear "drinker"...but everyone says "money" instead. #fail.

James Storm vs. Kurt Angle
The guy with drinking problems against, wait a second, who was that first one talking about? Okay, okay, cheap shot at Angle there, but I can't resist a mean spirited joke. Plus, we all know his car was hacked. Alright, I'll stop. I'm not really thrilled about this match so far as nothing's been really interesting to me. Sure, Angle's got an ankle lock on Storm, but it doesn't feel like it matters at all or is the end of the match. Three German suplexes, but again, they don't seem like they're that big of a deal to me. This match is not a train wreck, but it might be a bit of a car crash. Damn it, I said I'd stop with the Angle jokes, didn't I? Storm hits the Last Call and wins.

WINNER: James Storm via pinfall.
Step down from the previous two matches in my opinion. I was happy when it ended as I was tired of it even early on.

"Steel cage is being erected" - there's a Karen Jarrett joke here somewhere.

Karen and Jeff talk to Borash. Jeff says he's been working for the company the past few days and gets a text about the new stipulation. Sting comes over with the handcuffs, as he's going to handcuff himself to Karen.

Steel Cage Match: Jeff Jarrett vs. Jeff Hardy
Jarrett goes for some pinfalls, Hardy goes to escape the cage. Shame that the match isn't as quick as their first two from the previous pay-per-view, as I'm tired. Hardy hits two Twists of Fate but then misses an attempt at a Swanton off the top of the cage. Sting gets hit with the cage door and Karen is able to get out of the handcuffs and slam the door in Hardy's face. Jarrett goes for a pinfall, but Hardy kicks out. Sting pulls Karen away, distracting Jarrett, and Hardy hits him with another Twist of Fate and wins the match.

WINNER: Jeff Hardy via pinfall.
Alright. Not great, but adequate.

After the match, Sting says on Impact, one of them will be fired, as per the stipulation.

TNA Championship [Iron Man Match]: Robert Roode (c) vs. AJ Styles
The first pinfall goes to Robert Roode after he knocks AJ off the ropes at the 19:55 mark. The first ten minutes of the match were pretty generic outside of a series of quick pinning attempts that all had failed between the two of them. Roode gets his second point when he makes AJ submit after a single leg Boston Crab followed by a Figure Four leglock. Styles is able to gain a point by making Roode submit to a crossface at about the 12:30 mark. At 9:50, AJ rolls Roode up and gets another point, tying it up 2-2. AJ hits a springboard 450 at the 7 minute mark to get another point, making it 3-2 with him in the lead. Too many numbers in that last sentence. Roode makes it even again after pinning AJ while holding onto the ropes at the 5 minute mark. Roode stalls for the final minutes, making this a 3-3 draw.

WINNER: Draw, so Robert Roode retains the title.
Not bad, but I kind of thought it would be better than it was, honestly.

HIGH SPOTS

1. The first third of the X-Division title match

2. The second third of the X-Division title match

3. The last third of the X-Division title match

LOW BLOWS

1. RVD vs Daniels

2. Technical difficulties re-running the same promo

3. The ending of a lot of matches

WHAT DID YOU THINK OF THE PPV?

LEAVE YOUR COMMENTS BELOW!

Wrestling Smack Talk: 12/10/2011

2011-12-10T09:30:00.000-05:00

What's gone on this past week in wrestling?

Is WWE finally ready to redesign the WWE championship belt (yes, I said belt)? Rumor has it, they might be, particularly with John Cena speaking out about it being a good idea, but they're hesitant to do it due to high merchandise sales. Question, wouldn't the new belt get a lot of merchandise sales as well, and all WWE title belts get the most sales out of the championship replicas by default?
Rima Fakih, Tough Enough contestant, was arrested on a DUI charge recently. She tried to claim - and this might go down as one of the stupidest "I'll claim I'm not punished on Twitter when I clearly am" moments in wrestling-related history - that it wasn't her that was arrested...it was someone else with the same last name. Then, you know, her attorney confirmed that she was arrested, haha. Ridiculous. That same attorney spoke on her behalf, saying she's "very saddened and very apologetic for the situation that she is in right now". Bullshit, no she isn't. Can't people just be honest? Admit it, say "I thought I wouldn't get caught doing something illegal or at least if I got caught, that I'd be able to get out of it, and when it happened, I panicked and lied, but you caught me on that too. I promise to try harder not to get caught next time."
Lilian Garcia is back in WWE, this time announcing for Smackdown. I wonder what that means for Tony Chimel and Eden Stiles?
Jack Korpela has left WWE.
Kharma is getting married. Congrats to her.
Alex Riley in the dog house? For what?

WWE TLC SPOILERS / PREDICTIONS OF RESULTS COVERAGE

UFC, MMA, Pro Wrestling and Smark Out Moment

2011-12-06T20:26:00.000-05:00

One of the issues that seems to be brought up quite often is the debate between wrestling and MMA. There’s a group of people that feel like you can’t be a fan of one if you’re a fan of the other. Another group of people disagrees, thinking if you like one, it makes perfect sense why you’d be a fan of the other. I figured I would address three aspects of this here in this editorial.

ON THE ISSUE OF COVERING MMA ON THE SITE:
I’m frequently asked why I don’t cover UFC here on Smark Out Moment as this is a sports related website. There are two main reasons why: knowledge and time.

When it comes to professional wrestling, I’ve been a fan long enough that I feel like I can present to you viewers/listeners/readers a credible opinion on the subject. I certainly wouldn’t call myself an expert, but I’m certainly a knowledgeable fan. I may not know every bit of trivia, but you could certainly come here and learn something new each time you read a post. MMA on the other hand, I don’t know much about. Sure, I know the general basis of it, I’ve watched some matches, and I know some of the popular names (Cain Velasquez, Kimbo Slice, Anderson Silva, Georges St. Pierre, Chuck Lidell, Randy Couture, etc), but it takes more than that. That brings us to the time issue. In order to become well versed enough in MMA to really report on UFC the right way, I’d have to find the time to not only learn the history, the moves, the names of all the gorgeous women that parade around (can you blame me), so on and so forth – plus the time to watch it all and read the news.

If you’re interested in some UFC coverage, there’s a lot of resources out there you can check out, for instance UFC Magazine - they’ll know much more about MMA than I could inform you about.

MY THOUGHTS ON MMA:
I can completely see why it’s so popular. It’s a step up in intensity to something like boxing (to a greater extent than kickboxing is) while still maintaining that similar competitive structure. Naturally, it’s a guy’s thing (generally speaking) but it seems to have achieved recognition to women as well, so that’s interesting. Personally, I find the action to be a 50/50 split. The fun and exciting parts are quite fun and exciting. Some hits look BRUTAL. The lagging parts I find to be on par with waiting for a pitcher at a baseball game. UFC’s got a lot of potential and I don’t see it going anywhere for the time being. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if it gets even more popular than the level it’s currently at.

PRO WRESTLING VS MMA:
Finally, the issue of making a choice. I don’t see why there needs to be a divide. The argument is that UFC is ‘real’, WWE is ‘fake’, and anyone that is a true MMA fan wouldn’t be interested in something scripted. Why is that the case? Real cops watch cop television shows, real boxers watch the film Rocky, people that have sex watch porn. Just because something’s scripted doesn’t mean it’s not still entertaining. While I’m a big fan of the storyline aspect of professional wrestling, which doesn’t translate to MMA, there are crossovers that make perfect sense why people could enjoy both. There’s a shift of MMA over to wrestling with the more frequent use of moves that are inspired by or taken directly from fighters in UFC. Taker’s “Hell’s Gate” submission also known as the gogoplata, Daniel Bryan’s LeBell Lock, and Alberto Del Rio’s cross armbreaker come to mind. There’s also been crossovers from wrestling over to MMA. Ever heard of Brock Lesnar?

So what are your thoughts on UFC and MMA in regards to professional wrestling. Are you a fan of both? Why or why not? Leave your comments below.

Wrestling Smack Talk: 12/3/2011

2011-12-03T09:30:00.000-05:00

What's gone on this past week in wrestling?

The Best and Worst of 2011 Awards have begun. Make sure to tell me your choices and follow the daily results!
Mark Henry to possibly turn face soon? NOOOOOOO!
John Morrison seems to have been written off TV with the Miz attack. He was rumored to be jobbing to Brodus Clay, but that obviously didn't happen. While I'm a fan of people that are leaving the company to lose on the way out, and I'm a fan of both Miz and Brodus Clay, I'm still annoyed that both WWE and Morrison missed out on the opportunities they had together. They're both to blame - WWE at first for ignoring all of his talent and then Morrison for putting himself in bad positions backstage. When you're on shaky foundation, you don't rock the boat...but he never should have been in that spot in the first place.
Speaking of Raw, what the fuck was up with Beth and Natalya just jogging around the ring and then the faces (Alicia and Kelly) STILL winning? This whole Beth & Natalya push has gone wrong from the very start and it almost seems like they purposely think of a good idea and then go the opposite route. Just...fucking...awful.
Rock vs Austin feud DVD in the works. I guess Rock will do his interviews pre-taped.
Goldust has now started an online petition for his suggested "career versus IC title" match against Cody Rhodes that he wants at WrestleMania. I'm all for it. If you want to sign it, here's the link.
The latest Sin Cara shirt's been pulled, it seems, because people are thinking that it has a phallic look to it. I completely didn't see it at first, but after being told where to look, now I can't "unsee" it.
Second2012 - I'm still thinking Jericho.
Hornswoggle talks now. If only he could grow a few more feet...

WWE TLC SPOILERS / PREDICTIONS OF RESULTS COVERAGE