Lucha Va Voom, which has over the last year become the top drawing indy promotion
in SoCal, and among the top in the United States, has now become even bigger,
accomplishing something that TNA has yet to do, and that ECW and WCW were unable
to do to save themselves.
Lucha Va Voom now has a national television deal.
Lucha Va Voom, which has over the last year become the top drawing indy promotion
in SoCal, and among the top in the United States, has now become even bigger,
accomplishing something that TNA has yet to do, and that ECW and WCW were unable
to do to save themselves.
Lucha Va Voom now has a national television deal.
In what should easily make it the United States' and Canada's number two promotion,
at least in terms of exposure, Lucha Va Voom has inked a deal to begin production
on a show for Comedy Central. Right now everything is still in pre-production,
and there is no word on the shoot date, let alone an airdate.
The current plans for the show are that it will be a mini-series of five episodes,
then obviously if it's popular enough it would more than likely be picked up
for more.
In other Lucha Va Voom news, they will be running their next show on February
12th at the Mayan Theatre in Los Angeles, with Solar, Super Astro, and Ultraman
all booked for the show, then they will be running two shows in Toronto, Canada
in March. There is also an article on the promotion in the January issue of
The Face magazine.
--
There was a time when I would rarely miss a WWE show, but lately I've watched
less and less of the product. With WWE running it's TV tapings in SoCal this
week, I decided to make an extra effort to watch and do reviews of both shows.
One of the reasons I stopped watching WWE on a regular basis, is because how
boring the in-ring product had become. Watching this week it was more apparent
than ever.
I think the thing that hurt WWE the most is the death of it's main competition
WCW, and to a lesser extent the death of ECW. I don't mean that I think they
got lazy with storylines, or they had no reason to try as hard or what have
you. What I'm talking about is the in-ring product has become so stale.
In the current WWE their farm system consists of Ohio Valley Wrestling. Everyone
who gets signed to developmental goes to Ohio Valley, and they all get trained
the same. So when they all come up to the WWE they all wrestle basically the
same, creating a show where it's like watching the same match repeatedly.
When WCW and ECW were around, there were a lot of opportunities to develop
wrestlers for the "big time", making for lots of different styles
in the top promotions. Plus there was constant switching between promotions,
which brought about fresh matches with already established stars into the mix.
With no real number two currently (TNA doesn't have nearly enough viewers to
develop any new stars that would make any immediate impact on WWE television)
and pretty much every name they could have brought in from WCW or ECW having
already been brought in, that only leaves the developmental system left.
When a new wrestler is brought up they are already at the disadvantage that
no one outside of the most diehard fans know them. Working the same style as
last ten wrestlers that have been brought up does nothing to separate them while
their characters are developing. That's one of the reasons Rob Van Dam has continued
to stay over despite having his legs cut out from under him time and time again,
his unique style.
The easiest solution for this would be for WWE to have two or more developmental
territories. At least that way there will be some differences between the new
wrestlers in the style of their work. It would cost them more money, but I'm
sure the long-term benefits would outweigh the operating costs. The old saying
goes that wrestling is like a three ring circus. With the same thing in every
ring the circus gets awfully boring.
WWE Raw at the Arrowhead Pond in Anaheim, CA.
The show started off with a video montage of Mick Foley's return to Raw last
week, including showing him firing some people. Those people who were fired
appeared on the show later but that wasn't explained.
Chris Jericho and Christian come to the ring to apologize to Trish Stratus
and Lita for making a bet on who can sleep with them first. Trish and Lita don't
accept the apology and attack the two, which brings the Dudleys to the ring
for the first match.
Dudley Boys over Chris Jericho & Christian
This was a pretty good match that seemed to do what it needed to continue the
storylines with these two teams and Trish and Lita. There weren't any real lulls
in the match at all, as it was pretty action packed. There was nothing exceptional
about the match either though. It was just your basic solid match
Next up is a couple backstage segments, first Batista and Randy Orton are seen
bragging to Ric Flair about what they are going to do to Shawn Michaels and
Rob Van Dam. In the next segment Eric Bischoff asks Christian and Jericho if
they really did make a $1 bet to see who could sleep with Trish or Lita first.
Christian admitted they did, while Jericho seemed reluctant to admit it. Bischoff
says they will be facing Trish and Lita at Armageddon in a battle of the sexes.
Batista over Rob Van Dam in a non-title match
This match wasn't very good, and got pretty sloppy at times. Batista is one
of those Ohio Valley guys I was talking about earlier, who wrestles almost the
same as the other guys who came up from there, but he seems awfully green in
the ring. Rob Van Dam has a unique style for the WWE and I don't imagine that
makes things very easy for Batista to work with. If Batista can get his in-ring
work down he's probably going to be huge provided he doesn't hit the glass ceiling.
This match featured one of the worst ref bumps in some time, as RVD flipped
into the ring using the ropes, and had to roll half way across the ring to hit
the ref. It came across pretty silly. Batista went for a powerbomb, but RVD
slipped out and landed on his head in a botched moved. RVD was able to get up
and go to the top rope where he almost landed on his head again taking a bump
from one of Ric Flair's (who was at ringside) punches. Batista then hits the
Batista bomb to get the pin.
Garrison Cade & Mark Jindrak over Lance Storm & Val Venis
This was a pretty short match with not a whole lot to it. Jindrak got the pin
on Val Venis by rolling him up and grabbing his tights.
Kane cuts a promo in the back about killing a dog and how the fans are worms
and maggots. Terrible acting all around. Wasn't Kane severely burned? And how
did he get that messed up eye? He never had it before.
Mick Foley came out to the ring with a clipboard and announced himself as the
special referee for Rob Van Dam versus Randy Orton at Armageddon. Foley was
then interrupted by La Resistance, who came to the ring talking about Iraq and
how if the French had participated in the war the weapons of mass destruction
would have been found. They told Foley to salute the French flag and he refused.
They were about to attack Foley when the Rock's music hit.
The Rock makes his way to the ring and the crowd is going crazy. The Rock did
all of his trademark catchphrases and the crowd was totally eating up. Rock
and La Resistance then did some back and forth, with Rock making a lot of French
jokes. Eventually La Resistance attack Rock and Foley. Rock and Foley battle
back and Rock hits the Rock Bottom, Foley pulls out Mr. Socko, and then both
Foley and Rock hit the People's Elbow. This was easily the best segment on the
whole. The Rock still has it.
Backstage Eric Bischoff says he kicked the Rock out of the building and the
main event tonight is now a lumberjack match.
Mark Henry, Scott Steiner & Test over Booker T, Rosey & the Hurricane
There were some slow spots in this match, but it was definitely the best match
on the show. Mark Henry does a pretty good job in the unstoppable dominating
monster roll. Huricane also looked really good in the match showing a lot of
intensity. I feel bad for Rosey. Once this Super Hero In Training deal is over,
I doubt WWE will have anything for him. While this was the best match on the
show, it was nothing special, just slightly above average.
Bischoff announced that Orton, Batista, and Henry are the lumberjacks for the
main. Only three lumberjacks?
Molly Holly & Victoria over Trish Stratus & Lita
This match was joined in progress after coming back from a commercial break.
Victoria and Molly won because of Matt Hardy distracting Lita. Not a good match
at all, but at least it was short.
Goldberg over Kane via DQ to retain the World Heavyweight Title
This was your basic big man match. The heel lumberjacks didn't attack Kane when
he was thrown out, and the ref called a DQ on Kane when Orton jumped into the
ring. All the heels started attacking Goldberg, then Rob Van Dam and Booker
T ran out to help Goldberg. The heels still had the upper hand until Shawn Michaels
came out for the save. Michaels gave Kane the Sweet Chin Music then Goldberg
hit the Spear on Kane.
The show then went off the air. Throughout the entire show it was brought up
that Triple H was in the building, possibly watching from a luxury press box,
but he never once appeared at the show, which is odd since he'll be facing Goldberg
for the title this weekend at Armageddon.
Overall an OK show totally saved by the appearance of the Rock. His surprise
appearance gave the show some much needed excitement and he showed he still
has it with the crowd eating out of the palm of his hand.
WWE Smackdown at the San Diego Sports Arena in San Diego, CA.
The show opens with Paul Heyman saying Chris Benoit will never get another
title shot as long as he is the general manager. Heyman talked about how he
was going to build Smackdown around Brock Lesnar, which brought out Lesnar.
Brock cut a promo, at first talking as if he was in Mexico till Paul Heyman
corrected him and reminded him they were in San Diego. Rey Misterio Jr. came
out and challenged Lesnar to a match. Heyman OK'd the match on the condition
it was a non-title match, and if Rey won he'd get a title shot next week.
Rhyno over Bradshaw
Bradshaw will never look right with this blonde hair and clean-shaven. Pretty
boring and bland match. Bradshaw controlled the whole thing then Rhyno rolled
him up for a quick pin.
Next was a backstage segment with Paul Heyman and Matt Morgan getting after
A-Train for betting on Chris Benoit to beat Lesnar last week. Apparently this
week Morgan and Heyman bet on A-Train.
Nunzio is running a gambling ring backstage. What are the odds on Spanky getting
released before the end of 2004? Probably pretty good. That would be good news
for PWG I'd imagine. Spanky was dressed in drag in this segment by the way.
Anyway, Matt Morgan comes in and puts "it all" on A-Train. Who knows
how much "it all" is.
Shannon Moore over A-Train
Moore beats A-Train in a pretty bland match, which leads to Matt Morgan and
Big Show (wearing the most god-awful purple thing ever) coming down and jumping
A-Train. I guess A-Train will be going face again.
Some nonsense with the Cat came on. A total waste of time. Well, the show is
half over and not a whole lot going for it yet.
Los Guerreros (Eddie Guerrero & Chavo Guerrero) over Haas & Benjamin
Finally some good stuff. The way the Chavo and Eddie split is building is being
done perfectly. I'm glad they are not rushing it and actually telling a story
with the split and letting it build over time. This was a really good match.
Before the match Eddie said he would steal the spotlight and win the match.
Eddie had the match won and was setting up for the frog splash Chavo tagged
in and did the frog splash instead to try and steal the win himself, but alas
he couldn't get the pin. Eddie ended up getting a filter out of the engine and
hitting Benjamin for the win.
Next up Cena and Big Show have a battle rap. Big Show is no longer wearing
the hilarious purple outfit. Big Show actually got the crowd behind him at one
point, but then Cena pretty much destroyed him. Afterward Cena kicked Big Show
in the nuts and left the ring.
Brock Lesnar over Rey Misterio Jr. in a non-title match
This match was the best on the show, and while still early in the month it's
easily a match of the month contender (that's right, I might rank a WWE match!).
Both guys were bumping like crazy and going all out. Rey Jr. at one point did
a 619 from the outside of the ring around a ringpost. Brock Lesnar won the match
with his crazy new submission move. I like the direction Smackdown is taking
emphasizing submissions. I don't quite understand why they felt the need for
this to be a non-title match if Rey was just going to lose, especially since
it was in San Diego. One of the reasons WWE is in the shape it is because fans
don't believe a Rey Misterio will ever beat a Brock Lesnar. Great match though.
After the match a fan jumps in the ring and it turns out to be Hardcore Holly.
Hardcore Holly was wearing a Quentin Jammer of the San Diego Chargers jersey.
Must have been in the bargain bin, Jammer has been pretty much a bust up to
this point (save for last weeks game).
Overall a above average show. It didn't deliver the excitement Raw did with
the Rock's return, but in terms of wrestling quality is outdid Raw. The first
hour wasn't very good, but the second hour's two good matches made up for that.
--
Jeff Walton, who used to be the publicity director and TV announcer for Championship
Wrestling from the Olympic Auditorium in the 1970s and 1980s has written a book
called "RICHMOND 9-5171 - A WRESTLING STORY" about the "Golden
Years" of wrestling on the West Coast and his 35 years of experience in
the business. The book contains chapters on Andre The Giant, inside the "Hollywood
Wrestling Office," the 1971 L.A. Coliseum show (which is still the largest
wrestling crowd in SoCal history), among other things. Anyone interested can
get complete details on how to order the book which will be available on December
16th, by e-mailing scottwalton@prodigy.net.
This book will not be sold in stores and can only be ordered through Scott.
Each copy will be personally autographed.
--
Be back next week with my thoughts on PWG's "Pimpin' In High Places".
-Steve
Note: If you use any news from this column please credit Steven Bryant and SoCalUNCENSORED.com.
