This Week in DVR: Cobra Legs? Cobra Legs.

CROSSFACE CHICKEN WING!
Photo Credit: WWE.com

I watched what I couldn't live on my DVR and on the Internet. Here's what stood out:

Matches

SoCal Crazy vs. Freddy Bravo, Be a Star Television Tournament Qualifier, on NWA Hollywood - Fast-paced opener with a lot of really crisp moves. I really liked Crazy's running roll-up towards the beginning of the match. Bravo throwing a temper tantrum only getting a 2 count off his signature swinging cutter. Nice finish with La Mistica by Crazy.

Lucky Cannon and Tyson Kidd vs. Byron Saxton and Yoshi Tatsu on NXT - I thought this was a great morality play-cum-unintentional handicap match. Tatsu played the face in peril so well, and I liked the limb work from both heels. The chaos at the end was good from a storyline perspective. Entertaining faire.

Santino Marella vs. Zack Ryder on Superstars - This is what professional wrestling is all about. Okay, it's part of what wrestling should be all about, but man, what a fucking awesome match. The oneupsmanship at the beginning was more than amusing. Both guys worked the crowd like pros. I also loved the whole Cobra-to-the-legs spot, which was MADE by Ryder selling it like he pulled up lame. I kinda wished they had gotten a few more minutes, as the Cobra to end the match seemed a bit abrupt, but yeah, fantastic stuff.

Tyson Kidd vs. Trent Barretta on Superstars - Nice installment in their series of matches. I liked Armando Estrada's involvement too. Classic managerial interference. Anyway, a solid overall match, well-worth the Superstars main event slot.

Mickie James vs. Winter on Impact - A shining nugget in the sea of poop that was this week's Impact. I really don't like the whole Winter/Angelina zombie lesbian hypnosis angle, but hey, this match was good, a little stiff but well laid-out.

Cody Rhodes vs. Daniel Bryan on Smackdown - You knew this match was going to be here. Search your feelings, you know it to be true. Be that as it may, as unsurprising as it was that this was a standout match, it still should be expounded upon. This was a mostly strike-and-struggle based match, the kind of affair that Bryan excels at. I liked the surfboard attempt that Rhodes kept blocking. Rhodes landing his Beautiful Disaster kick right out of Bryan's Matrix-corner flip was really slick too. People might rag that Rhodes started tapping to the LeBell Lock way too soon, but I think it shows smart strategy by Rhodes. It allowed him to escape too much punishment so he could attack Bryan afterwards. Really good match.

Ezekiel Jackson vs. Heath Slater on Smackdown - A surprisingly solid match between two guys who are hit or miss for me. Slater bumped well, and what can I say, I like Zeke's bodyslam-palooza.

Sheamus vs. Mark Henry vs. Christian, Number One Contenders Match, on Smackdown - I thought this was a well-laid-out triple threat match by WWE standards. All three guys brought their working shoes, and the story developed nicely. I wonder if the finish of the match is going to play more into Christian's (unwanted) heel turn though, seeing as Orton RKOing Henry caused Lil' Naitch to hesitate just enough to allow Sheamus to kick out. Good stuff though.

Shows

NWA Hollywood - Solid week of television. Again, their recap of the Kaos/Willie Mack feud was top notch. Buggy wasn't even that offensive this week. Good stuff.

NXT - I'm this close from giving up on NXT again. Just dreadful, outside of seeing how the Maryse/Yoshi/Lucky/Saxton angle plays out. The only other thing that was worth watching, the Novak/Regal feud, died when Novak got eliminated. Maybe Season 6 will be better, but this right now feels reheated boring. Also, why was Chavo worried about waiting until the ref turned his back in the main event before he hit Titus O'Neil? It was a no-DQ match! Ugh.

Superstars - Three strong matches, and apparently, Tyson Kidd's managerial search will be an angle on this show for a few weeks. I guess we could do worse. The only way that might have improved the show is if Ryder and Santino got the main event slot with main event time. That being said, it's a minor quibble.

Impact - Impact opened with a match, an albeit boring one but a match, but on the surface it was different. Yeah, the next three segments undermined that. Wrestling matters, guys! I mean, I can't hate on the Disco Inferno/Ken Anderson segment enough. Seriously, let's have a segment with a guy who wasn't involved with Sting at all other than place of employment, use business exposing terms and have fake tension, ending with Disco blading... yep. The EY/Gunner and then ODB and Sky "let's call each other promiscuous bitches" segments afterwards were just as bad. But no, wrestling matters. Just a dreadful show.

Smackdown - Another solid episode. The opening segment followed a tired formula, but the participants, especially Sheamus here, made it work on an alright level. Although, if I were Christian, I'd be pretty pissed off at Teddy Long. He does the crowd applause thing to outright give Orton a title shot at him, but when he gets the same crowd response in the same test for a shot at Orton? Oops, #1 contenders match instead of outright title shot. Seriously, if anyone boos Christian for attacking Teddy Long if it finally happens, they should be kicked in the shins. Regardless of that nitpicky detail, I thought it was a good show. The wrestling was on point, and they got me interested in a full angle surrounding The Great Khali. That should deserve a Nobel Prize in some field... what would it be, literature? Peace? I say go with physics, since I thought it'd be physically impossible for me to care about a tall cripple with chest herpes.

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!