Pre-Vacation Brain Dump

I'm about to head off to South Africa for a month, so what better time than now to cover my last few weeks in grapple-watching?

First off, though I didn't bother writing a preview or post-mortem for New Year's Revolution, I will say that it wasn't the absolutely despicably awful show I was expecting. I'll even go as far as to say that I enjoyed a match with Triple H in it; his battle with The Big Show had some nice elements of old-school psychology that you don't see very often these days, and it kept me at least interested if not fully entertained.

I can say the same for the Elimination Chamber main event. The participants were a mixed bag (veterans who don't need the title again thrown in with mid-card greenhorns who've got a few years yet to prove themselves) but they made the most of it. Getting rid of the bigger stars first was a smart booking move, and again there was some old-school psychology in play with the 'pact' between Carlito and Chris Masters (who's looking decidedly less inflated these days, don't you think?). The ending was cheap, but it helped to get Edge over as a heel and make him look like championship material. Then again, that could have been a face pop, judging by the crowd's hostile reaction to John Cena. It's been building for a while now, but I'd never heard so many obvious boos for the man. It made my heart sing, so it did.

Over on the other side, the biggest news was Batista's torn tricep, which forced him to relinquish the World title. But who did they give it to? No, not to any of SmackDown!'s top guys; they roped in a ringer in Raw's Kurt Angle to carry the belt instead. And it seems he's a face again for some reason. Didn't this guy just leave SmackDown! about six months ago after a disgusting pseudo-rapist angle? Boy, memories really are getting shorter.

And while all that was going on, it appears that the boss of all bosses Vince McMahon isn't very happy with Joey Styles' commentary on Monday Night Raw. Considering, personally, that Joey's work on the show has been a breath of fresh air and is one of the only things that keeps me tuned in every week, I find this difficult to fathom. But McMahon has had a screw loose for quite a while now; he would have replaced JR with a pig in a stetson if he thought it would get good ratings, quality be damned.

But enough about the WWE for now, and onto TNA, for yes, I have seen my first full episode of Impact!, thanks to the wonders of YouTube. (See my previous TNA-related post for more.) And my verdict? It's not bad. The six-sided ring looks a little weird at first, but it works fine. It's very fast-paced, story driven but not at the expense of the in-ring action. But it may be a little too fast, and there seems to be too many guys just there to make up the numbers. Too many run-ins, too, also seemingly to just give their main guys something to do when they're not booked in matches.

As for the much-vaunted X Division? I've mentioned here before that I've enjoyed AJ Styles and Christopher Daniels' work in the live setting, but after seeing them on Impact! I'm not so sure. They're great athletes with a fantastic repertoire, there's no denying that. But they can't sell. WWE workers might be bland by comparison, but at least you can be sure that when they take a dropkick they'll stay down and sell it, and not get up two seconds later as if nothing happened. Maybe I was watching too closely, but this kind of lack of attention to detail really did spoil my enjoyment of the wrestling. I'll be happy to see more, of course, since one show isn't enough to judge a whole company on. But even so, there are weaknesses in their product that need to be addressed, in my opinion.

Anywho, I shall leave you with these thoughts to mull over until I return, after a month likely to be free of wrestling. Somehow I don't think anything drastic will occur in my absense. But then again, I could have said that last November, and look what happened then. Keep an eye on Hyatte for the gossip...