The Midnight Mystery Starring Widro

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Well it’s the aftermath of WWE Survivor Series 2005, my name is Widro, I’m the owner and party host of this site. I’m giving it a go once a month in the Monday Mystery spot, and what better Monday to start than after a big four PPV.

Too bad this Big Four felt anything but big.

I did a quick live thoughts as the PPV progressed:

Survivor Series – LIVE THOUGHTS

The three announce tables to open the show was a nice touch. I wonder how many will last through the night?

Sharmell comes out first, for match 1 in the best of 7 series. This wasn’t even that big a deal in WCW, it sure has raised its profile since then. Long decent match, Booker wins with his feet on the rope and Sharmell holding them down. Can’t get excited for these guys, and especially in match 1.

Backstage McMahon and Bischoff have another great exchange, with Bischoff promising to screw Cena like McMahon screwed Bret Hart in 1997. Cena is standing there, says Bischoff is gay, and Bischoff walks away. McMahon calls Cena ‘my nigga’ which prompts curiously nearby Booker T to say “tell me he did not just say that” and looking upset.

Styles and Tazz are doing the interpromotional matches. That is a helluva team.

Melina vs Trish is next. Mickie James is with Trish, MNM with Melina. Trish wins after Mickie James assists a bit. Nitro and Mercury were banned from ringside during the match. Yawn.

Next up is Hunter vs Flair. This should be bloody and slow. I MEAN CLASSIC. Coach: I’m going to sit back and relax and watch the passing of the torch. My cousin: Maybe this IS like a passing of the torch… the old joke of a former world champion bleeding disgustingly.

Edge comes out with Lita, and says while he wont call out his title match now, he will be announcing his new talk show – the CUTTING EDGE. There’s a push for you, Adam. He calls out Dmitri Young in the crowd and bafflingly calls him out for steroids.

Cena vs Angle was a ref bump fiesta but it was very well done. Daivari was knocked out early, and three other refs got involved. Cena won with Little Natch making the count, with some minor controversy about him being a SMackdown ref.

Bischoff vs Long was brutal, and the crowd turned on it viciously. Cole and Coach doing this match and they have some good bickering going on. With them doing the worst series of submissions and grapples I’ve ever seen, things turned much worse when the Boogie Man’s music hits. The refs leave the ring and the Boogie Man appears behind Bischoff with a clock. Boogie Man with a PUMP HANDLE SLAM. OH MY GODDDDDDDDDDDDD.

The ten man tag is last. It’s pretty good, I don’t need to go into much detail. Lashley out first! Wow! HBK ended up pinning nearly everyone on the team. Orton is your sole survivor.

Overall thoughts
I wasn’t too impressed. This is one of the top four PPVs of the year, and Eddie Guerrero notwithstanding, the PPV just had nothing of major importance go down. There was little or no teasing of angles that will build to Wrestlemania 22, like there have been at the last few Survivor Series. There were only 6 matches – and 1 was the GMs and 1 was the women.

I expect more from WWE PPVs than glorified Taboo Tuesday redux on a Big Four PPV and came away underwhelmed. There was also an inordinate amount of sports entertainment on this show, with the GM match/Boogieman fiasco and the Edge/Dmitri Young segment (which was admittedly well done).

Talk about Survivor Series now in the Survivor Series Forum Discussion

McMahon Criticism From Mushnik
Phil Mushnik has written a scathing commentary about the death of Eddie Guerrero and its place in a long line of wrestling deaths:

http://www.nypost.com/sports/57926.htm

Putting aside your feelings for Eddie and Mushnik’s history of attacking Vince McMahon, how far off is he really? with the possible exception of a firing after 2 missed shows (maybe a de-push), isn’t that a good representation of the cycle in WWE?

There is a thread on this very subject up on the Fan Forum

TNA Impact
I thought TNA Impact this week was one of the stronger shows so far. The handicap of a one hour show means that a lot has to be crammed into one show, but TNA did a good job this week of balancing good in ring work, hardcore, and some main event storylines.

Christian Cage vs. Monty Brown
This feud is curious, but Christian cut a good promo in rebuttal of being pounced last week. It’s odd to put Cage in with Brown, because Christian needs to win his first match and Brown has been unstoppable. It’s also a little annoying that AMW needed to get some facetime in with Cage.

Raven vs. Larry Zybsyco
I like the storyline of bringing in guys from Raven’s past for one-shots. The list is pretty good – off the top of my head I can think of Sandman, Terry Funk, Saturn, Kanyon, Kidman… I think it will wind up with Raven getting a shot at Jarrett at the January PPV.

4 Live Krew
With the odd love-y micwork of BG James overwith, now the wheels are in motion for some kind of major falling out. With the way BG overdid the trust thing, it seems to indicate he’ll be turning on Konan. But the reverse could also happen and I’d be fine with it. The Outlaws in the tag division add a star power that BG and Kip don’t have apart.

Rhino character development
A video package about Rhino did more to establish his character than anything in TNA so far. He was on the streets, he fought for everything. It was a good character building piece.

Styles/Sabin Code
AJ Styles and Chris Sabin had a very good X Division match while maintaining good sportsmanship. It seems like TNA is adding the Ring of Honor “Code of Honor” to the X Division, blurring the lines further between the division and ROH itself. Joe was again shown with the bloody towel.

I’m not sure what TNA bashers want out of TNA. They had a good X match, a decent hardcore match and some star power. They developed a bunch of storylines and kept the focus on the ring and interviews about matches. TNA would benefit greatly from having 2 hours to spread everything out, but that’s not how it is.

Talk about this week’s Impact and more over on the NEW Impact Thread on the Forum

Drug Testing
A lot has been debated about the new WWE drug tests, and while it’s easy to be skeptical that they will actually take hold, I think this time it is for real. With that in mind, I think there are several wrestlers that could stand to benefit huge from the phasing down of gigantic physiques and a return to smaller or more well rounded workers.

Matt Hardy
Everyone doubted Matt’s decision to return to WWE, and even to this day his push seems moderate at best. However, he is among the most over babyfaces in the company, doesn’t need a large physique to get over, and has avoided major neck or back injuries. Hardy could be in line for a big push over the next few months and years.

Shelton Benjamin
Shelton never struck me as someone who used a ton of supplements to jack up his physique – it seemed more natural. Of course I don’t really know what I’m talking about. That said, he was an amateur wrestler and has the background to get over with his work and in the ring. Without other guys in front of him on Raw, he could find a groove at the top of the card.

Chris Jericho
Despite his inactive status, his stock has risen greatly because of the new drug rules. Jericho never relied on a great body (and many times didn’t have it) to get over, and is still in great shape. He rarely misses time and is getting some rest on his body. Should be interesting to see where Jericho winds up in 2006 or beyond.

Christian
I’m not sure how many years Christian is signed with TNA for, but if it’s a year or 2, there could be a major bidding war for him at that time. He, like Jericho, does not rely on physique to get over, and is young enough to continue for another decade.

The Hot Seat


The Hot Seat returns late in 2005 with a focus on some of the newer writers here on Inside Pulse. The first one back is with Mark Neeley, most well known for the Neeldown Impact Zone and NeelDown Smackdown Report. Will he kneel down to honor the hot seat? Let’s get to it.

1) We always start with geometry – an equilateral triangle, a special case of an isosceles triangle, means what?

Neeley: Simple — a triangle that has 3 equal sides.

Judges: That is correct. A softball question if you ask us. 1 for 1

2) Out of these three candidates, which do you feel is the best choice to ultimately dethrone Jeff Jarrett as the NWA champion to lead TNA into 2006, and why – a) Monty Brown b) Samoa Joe c) Raven

Neeley: A, Monty Brown. Joe isn’t a bad choice either though. Just not Rhyno. Hell, i’d even take Raven over Rhyno.

Judges: Convincing answer. We’ll take it 2 for 2

3) Kit Kat has recently begun to branch out its offerings to a wide variety of new variations of flavors. Put these Kit Kats in order of deliciousness, starting with most delicious (guess where you’d rank any varieties you have yet to try) – a) Regular Kit Kat b) White Chocolate Kit Kat c) Dark Chocolate Kit Kat d) Inside Out Kit Kat e) Oranges and Crème Kit Kat f) Coffee Kit Kat

Neeley: B, A, D, E, F, C. Although, I would really like them to can the Oranges and Créme Kit Kat and throw in a milk chocolate kit-kat. Carmello bars are where it’s at.

Judges: Not a bad listing. Correct answers needed to have either Coffee or Oranges as the worst, though, as they are both horrible and disgusting. 2 for 3

4) In a recent NeelDown Impact Report, you noted “While I do miss the Wednesday Night PPVs, I would never be able to afford them” Having seen quite a few of them, the Hot Seat is inclined to ask which of the following was true when you agreed the Wednesday PPVs were better than Impact – a) Smoking Crack b) Sniffing Glue c) Post-Concussion Syndrome d) Other (must specify)

Neeley: D, the fact that TNA didn’t have to work with the hour time limit with the Wednesday PPVs as they did with the Impact, usually resulting in 2 minute matches that could have been great. Gotta love those short matches. Not to mention, on FSN, the Friday afternoon timeslot from hell.

Judges: Sorry that is not correct. The 2 hour PPVs were largely horrible and offensive. We saw Vader years before that Raw debacle! 2 for 4

5) In 40 words or less, book the top four matches you’d like WWE to put on for Wrestlemania 22:

Neeley: Austin versus Hogan, JBL versus anyone since I love JBL (by the way at the November 29 SmackDown I will have my Just Bow to Layfield sign), John Cena versus Kurt Angle, Batista versus Mr. Kennedy for the title

Judges: Creative! We like it. 3 for 5

Not a bad showing with a 3 out of 5 for Neeley. You can check him out each week here on the Pulse doing Impact and Velocity and other assorted TV reports.

Around The Pulse
Gotta hit some plugs before we check out tonight:

Hatton moved quickly to post the Survivor Series Rabble and you can also check out Rob Welchor’s Live Survivor Series Coverage Report.

I rarely get to plug Eric S (well partially because I rarely write anymore) and it’s worth a few minutes to read the Double Team Short form

The aforementioned and hot-seated Mr. Neeley checks in with the NeelDown Impact Zone

Iain checked in with a great edition of the Anti Pulse Although i’m not sure that’s really a news post by Ashish on that Google link.

And for those wondering, Hyatte is writing over at DeclarationOfIndependents.net. I never heard of it before either but apparently he’s there many Mondays.

The End
Yup that’s all folks. I’ll be back in a few weeks. Enjoy the rotation of Flea, Grut and Haley in the meantime!

Jonathan Widro is the owner and founder of Inside Pulse. Over a decade ago he burst onto the scene with a pro-WCW reporting style that earned him the nickname WCWidro. Check him out on Twitter for mostly inane non sequiturs