Somebody Gon' Get They Ass Trolled

u mad?

Via South Atlanta Wrestling Via Dot Net

At the latest Smackdown tapings, Mark Henry moseyed on out from the back for a post-taping dark match against... well no one. Yep, apparently, the Smackdown bookers decided to troll the shit out Henry, and by extension, the live crowd, by having him wait out there for 20 minutes without sending an opponent out for him.

I'm a fan of a good troll as anyone, but there are a couple of things here to consider. One, Smackdown's head of creative is still Michael PS Hayes, I think. That's important to remember, as Hayes was suspended from his job at one point in 2008 (or was it 2009?) for making a racial slur directed at Henry. So there's heat there, and I'm not sure if this was a troll or something a little more mean-spirited. Two, and this is the important thing that Dave noted in his blog entry, that royally pissed off the live crowd. No matter whether wrestling is huge or whether it's maybe on a downturn, there's really no excuse for trolling the crowd. They're revenue generators. Whether they've sold out the building or whether it's half-capacity, they're the people you need to be satisfying. It's one thing to book a controversial main event. It's a whole other thing to falsely advertise a dark match main event and then not deliver in the name of trolling a guy who really probably didn't deserve it.

If you want to rib Henry, do it in a way that will rib just him and not the crowd. Otherwise, just give the crowd what they want, and that's a wrestling match to cap the show.

Remember you can contact TH and ask him questions about wrestling, life or anything else. Please refer to this post for contact information. He always takes questions!

This Week in DVR, Part 2: The Internet!

Match of the week? Maybe match of the month!
Screen Grab Credit: WWE.com

I watched what I missed on vacation on the Internet. This is what stood out:

Matches

Rico Dynamite, Ray Rosas and Peter Avalon vs. Aaron Bolo, Famous B and Ryan Taylor on NWA Hollywood - Nice trios action to open up NWA Hollywood. The tecnicos did some good work giving Dynamite and then Avalon the what-for early on. I was a bit wary of Famous B's face-in-peril work and his selling though, and bad production cut out for commercial before the hot tag was made. That being said, it was still a really good opener match. I thought the finish, Dynamite getting the pin by dubious means, worked well because this didn't feel like a blowoff match to their feud.

Colt Cabana (c) vs. Joey Ryan, NWA World Heavyweight Championship Match, on NWA Hollywood - This match was the centerpiece for the show, and it delivered despite not having quite as long a build as the prior title match. This felt like a perfect "Backlash" title defense after the "WrestleMania" moment win against Adam Pearce for Cabana. For having been a NWA Hollywood heel for only a couple of weeks himself, he did a great job turning the crowd against him during the match. Cabana's pin and submission game is tight, and I liked Ryan working the rib. The finish with Cabana countering the superkick into the Billy Goat's Curse was pretty slick. It's clear this issue probably isn't over, but yeah, it was a fitting TV main event.

Yoshi Tatsu vs. Tyson Kidd on Superstars - Screwy booking post-match and in the finish aside, this was what you'd expect from these two. Solid affair, hard kicks, good pacing, good counters. Nice little sprint.

Drew McIntyre vs. Evan Bourne on Superstars - Wow. What a match. I loved every moment of this one. It was a well-paced pace-clash that worked really well because of the two guys involved. The beginning was an expertly played game of cat and mouse that led into the spot on the apron where McIntyre just LEVELED Bourne with the clothesline. Between that and the big boot, Bourne's willingness to take the big bump shone through here. I also loved the whole delayed superplex spot as well. I mean, they took what was usually a mundane spot and turned into a nice struggle spot and a high spot worthy of a PPV. I thought that Bourne would eat another big bump, but with the running on the apron spot, McIntyre ate one. The finish was well done too, with McIntyre countering a rana into a corner bomb and then segueing into the Future Shock. This was definitely PPV quality.

Shows

NWA Hollywood - This was an episode that was billed around three grudge matches, although the only one that superficially resolved was the one with the seeming least build. I did like that the whole show was built around the NWA World Championship, and the match delivered, as did the trios match to kick off. However, that women's match was awful. Candice LaRae tried, God bless her soul, but Buggy is way too green to be on TV right now. They need to get Portia Perez up to speed to the Hollywood crowd so she can step in, or maybe they can get Christina von Eerie or import some other SHIMMERites to come West, because Buggy as the top female face ain't cutting it.

NXT - Worthless episode. Then again, I'm not sad to see Jacob Novak go.

Superstars - Honestly, it was a tale of two shows. The good show that took place involved the wrestling action in the ring. It was on point as usual, and the main event was worthy of being a PPV main event, y'know, excepting the fact that the heel won clean. The bad show was the symptomatically annoying trend of quick-set rushed angles. ON one hand, we have Michael Hayes abandoning Tyson Kidd after one week of faltering, after he didn't even try to bail him out in the finish? In character, Hayes is the laziest manager ever. On the other hand, Vladimir Kozlov and Santino Marella got their comeuppance over the Broski Bros. one week after the initial interference? Bad booking is the theme of the week for the WWE, and sadly, it affects the show that's usually good.

Remember you can contact TH and ask him questions about wrestling, life or anything else. Please refer to this post for contact information. He always takes questions!