December 15th Smackdown!

I'm glad the Boogeyman match only took up the first few minutes of the show. I agree with Rick Scaia that the character concept is destined for a future Wrestlecrap feature. Seriously: who initially came up with this crap? The worms bit, the constant drooling, the entire look... it's just disgusting.

I'm glad Kid Kash is finally getting airtime (I know he was on Velocity - but now it's on a show people actually watch.). I'm also glad they finally let a talented worker actually perform, instead of just punching and kicking.

Bobby Lashley I actually liked - at least before he was locked into a fixed moveset. His first match against Simon Dean months ago was actually entertaining when he bounced him around in pushups.

In the tag title match, I almost thought I was imagining... Rey Mysterio actually allowed to do something original and exciting, the reverse arial hurricanrana? Shocking, but cool!

Tags: Boogeyman, Wrestlecrap, Kid Kash, Bobby Lashley, Simon Dean, Rey Mysterio.

Why now? And bad break...

Among the latest people cut from WWE is "Spaz" Christie Hemme. The sad thing is the fact she was learning to wrestle well, and had gone to OVW for seasoning.

This would have made sense when she was stinking up our screen challenging Trish Stratus last season, but I guess she was still under her Diva Search contract. Now, coming after she posed nude for Playboy for the company, it seems pretty crass... especially when we get the painful crap of "Boobies McTitsalot" Candice Michelle on our screens on RAW.

In the category of a Real Shame, Yoshihiro Tajiri has now left the company. He wasn't used well for a long time, but here I think Eddie Guerrero's tragic death weighed into his decision to be back with his family.

Tags: Tajiri, Christie Hemme, Candice Michelle, WWE, OVW.

RAW for December 12: hey Christopher Nowinski is still with the company! Looks a bit funny when the Tough Enough winner (Maven) from his season was let go... let the snarky comments commence!

Chris F. Masters main eventing a PPV though, his 2^nd one in a row... Vince just doesn't "get it": he's a lousy green athlete better served with a longer stint in OVW. Even Bob Holly would be more interesting in the Chamber; that's just how bad he is.

One majorly good thing on this show: Triple H is not in the title picture yet! About time they stopped putting him there!

Overall, this show was better. I hope it continues.

Tags: WWE, RAW.

Another catch-up: TNA

Now that Impact has a regular timeslot on Spike TV, I can catch up on the federation.

(I see the old stuff thanks to ESPN Classics Canada. The reruns just got up to the introduction of Johnny Fairplay. I haven't seen him wrestle yet - something many criticize - but he at least has an interesting look... overall, I do get the feeling the fed threw everything they could at a wall to see what stuck. As a result, the roster was in a constant state of flux.)

I've seen many things in the fed I want to comment on:

Konnan still sucks

In another federation, through several angles, and after years he still says the exact same crap! It's as if he has no skill whatsoever on a mic.

Ring-wise, he also does the exact same things. Outside of his tumbling clothesline (Rob Van Dam does the REAL 'rolling thunder' Tenay) he does little more than punch and kick. Ron Killings is the only member of 4 Live Kru with talent....

Rhino is no longer my most loathed!

He's here as well now, and longtime readers will remember how underwhelmed I've been with him... but a) he has improved and b) I've found someone WORSE: Monty Brown.

Brown looks spastic in the ring, and is worse on the mic... but he's being pushed as a potential star. No thank you!

X-Division: needs work, but great spot-fest

Some of the guys are improving their characters, but still have desperate need to learn how to tell a story in their matches. Currently the division has too much of an indy feel: spots everywhere to pop the crowd, but with no rhyme or reason.

A few of them are more skilled at this mix: Petey Williams finisher (the Canadian Destroyer) is amazing to see, and he works logic into his matches.

WWE should learn something here: these guys do exciting stuff and don't get hurt. This should illustrate how the whole "take it slow" philosophy is a bust.

TNA still needs work, but it's improving

In the past 2 months, the fed has been working on building characters and storylines for their workers, and with WWE releasing talented people at the rate of one out of 3, they could become real competition. Christian (Cage) is a big loss for WWE (morons) as were The Dudleys (Team 3-D). They may also soon have Charlie Haas, and if McMahon doesn't have Chris Benoit win the next 3 "Best of 7" matches against Booker T, his contract is done and he may soon come here. Already they have some fantastic tag teams (the Naturals and America's Most Wanted), some potential breakout stars in the X Division (the above-mentioned Petey Williams, Samoa Joe and Chris Sabin)... the fed is on the cusp of great things.

Tags: WWE, TNA

This is something I've wanted to speak of for some time now:

Rest in peace, Eddie.

His death was an incredible shock. He'd just turned the age I am currently, 38. That strikes me even more.

We can only speculate, but his hard living years ago likely caught up with him, even though he'd been clean for nearly 5 years.

I saved the week of tributes to Eddie on videotape, and I'll soon have them transfered to DVD so that I never lose them.

It has been nearly 2 months since I was able to post here!

Sorry about that. This blog was removed from The Bob Freeman Show when it went to a new provider. I realized a lot has been happening since then, so I decided to move it all to Blog*Spot so that I didn't miss anymore. Some of you may be glad for that, some not. Either way, I'm back and ready to comment on everything again.

Tags: WWE, Jeff Boman