Pro Wrestling Chronicle

Brian Streleckis comes back with something more substantial than the current state of the National Wrestling Alliance: new tag champs for PWG, a new title for Mike Quackenbush, and even some… okay, a lot of thoughts on what’s been going down in McMahonLand.

On May 11th, Fight Sports Midwest ran their second ever show, once again in Portage, IN, and with a card even more stacked than their previous card. Matches included Arik Cannon defeating former WWE star Joey Mercury (who appeared for IWA-MS the next night), Marty Jannetty(!) defeating Tyler Black, Josh Abercrombie defeating Human Tornado, and in a surprise in my eyes, Alex Shelley scoring a win over Low Ki. The main event saw Mike Quackenbush defeat New Japan star (and recent disappointing guest star to TNA) Tiger Mask IV to win the NWA World Junior Heavyweight Championship. Word is this was done to get the title out of the problematic New Japan, but who knows where this goes from here. Good for Quackenbush, though, as I hope it leads to an increased spotlight.

Moving away from NWA (thank God), the International Wrestling Cartel (IWC) – a solid promotion in the Pittsburgh area that Chris Vetter covers very well in his series of DVD reviews – used May 11th for their sixth annual Super Indy Tournament, an eight-man tourney featuring a blend of IWC regulars and other indy names where the winner gets awarded the Super Indy Title, to be defended between now and the next tournament. Past winners include Chris Sabin, Colt Cabana, and Delirious. This year’s winner? “Sweet & Sour” Larry Sweeney! He outlasted other names such as Jay Lethal (who he beat in the first round), Sonjay Dutt, and Brother Runt. I haven’t seen that much of the IWC promotion, but according to Vetter, they do a very good job of keeping track of storylines, which is great to hear. Find out more about them at their web site.

This past weekend in Burbank, CA, the first of this month’s big tag team title tournaments – the DDT4 of Pro Wrestling Guerrilla – ended with a bang as the makeshift duo of Roderick Strong & PAC won the PWG World Tag Team Titles, defeating Jay & Mark Briscoe in the finals. Strong & PAC may be the unlikeliest championship team since Eddie Guerrero & Tajiri, but PAC seems a more-than-suitable replacement for Strong’s original partner in the tournament, Jack Evans, and the more PAC is in the States is totally cool by me. Other highlights of the weekend: Bryan Danielson and CIMA wrestled to a 30-minute draw in what was said to be the best match of the weekend; El Generico successfully defended the PWG World Title, first agianst Kevin Steen and then against CIMA; Joey Ryan defeated Ronin to keep his hair and end Ronin’s Battle of Los Angeles dreams; Ryan lost to Danielson the next night in another well-received match; Dragon Gate’s Stalker Ichikawa Z got his ass kicked all weekend by all of the other Dragon Gate stars; and Super Dragon & Davey Richards (who lost in the first round of the tournament to Strong & PAC) showed some strong signs of dissension.

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And now for something completely different from me… some WWE talk. I’ve still been watching, enjoying some content and half-cringing at the rest. You may have heard about the big Money in the Bank/Smackdown World Title brouhaha from earlier this month. It ended as best it could, with Edge capturing the belt in similar fashion to his first WWE title win, and making it past Batista in his first defense this past weekend at Judgment Day. I really do think he’s the best all-around heel they have right now, and him getting a chance to carry a show on his own – not overshadowed by DX or McMahon tomfoolery – has been a long time coming. Montel Vontavious Porter has really won me over since finishing his Kane feud and moving on to better opportunities, John Cena and the Hardys seem to be in good shape as the flag bearers of babyface-dom, and Bobby Lashley – despite abhorrent mic skills that make Roderick Strong look like Ric Flair – seems to be actually getting over with live crowds as his feud with Vince looks to come to close. He’s no Brock Lesnar, but at least he’s flexible. Plus Triple H and Rey Mysterio are looking to return from injury later this summer.

The good news for WWE kind of ends there, as the slate of new injuries as put a damper on things. Shawn Michaels, arguably the MVP (not Porter) of Raw, is down with a knee injury after wrestling through it for a year or so, and he’s expected to be out for rest of ’07. Likewise Undertaker, who suffered a bicep injury last month, putting the kibosh on what was expected to be a long run with the World Title. Mr. Kennedy is down with a tricep injury, though it wasn’t nearly as bad as reported and he won’t miss as much time. And though he’s not as big a name as the others, Gregory Helms is out for a year to heal his surgically repaired neck. There be some very rough goings, especially Michaels; without him and Edge, Raw just doesn’t seem the same. They’re keeping Cena occupied with the Great Khali (who I’ll admit is being used to the best of his limited abilities), but they’d be smarter – and I’m not the first to say this – to build up some of their forgotten talent lower on the card. Johnny Nitro and Kenny Dykstra used to be two guys with real promise, but now they just come across like jobbers. Whether or not they have backstage problems close to the level of Randy Orton (who incidentally is getting a bit of a push now, taking credit for taking out Michaels through a concussion storyline), they’re two talented guys who are worth some investment. The same could be said for Charlie Haas and Shelton Benjamin, a far cry from their original World’s Greatest Tag Team days (at least Shelton’s mama is gone). If Lance Cade & Trevor Murdoch’s characters could be resuscitated, then why not they try it with the rest? Guys like CM Punk and Elijah Burke seem to be finally getting the spotlight on ECW, but really, this is the C-Brand show. Chances are WWE is more likely to concentrate on fresh new names instead of working with what they already have, akin to getting a radiator when all they need are some new cables (damn those auto repair commercials on Raw!). While some candidates – Colt Cabana, Cody Runnels, Bradley Jay, former Spirit Squader Johnny Jeter – could work out very well, we’re more likely to be stuck with big muscle-bound loads that may have worked in 1985, but may not hold much water with most of today’s fans. Or white meat baby faces like Santino Marella, whose ultimate underdog story hasn’t done much for me since his first appearance. Mama Mia!

The string of recent firings may tie into this need to build around other people. The first two names canned, as announced last weekend, were Rob Conway (last seen getting publicly fired in a storyline sense by Vince on Raw) and 2 Cold Scorpio (who was hired last year to work with younger guys on house shows, but has spent most of the time sitting at home). Now, I haven’t seen Conway in his OVW glory days, nor have I seen a recent Scorpio match, but both guys seem like the kind of seasoned hands that could have been used to fill voids and run the ropes with younger stars. Kind of the same way Flair is being used with Carlito, or how Finlay was used with Lashley. You could have said the same thing for the Bashams last year. You could find a program with a younger name to plug them into, pair them up on house shows and build up some small issues as simple as “I’m a better wrestler than you are,” and the results could have been pleasantly surprising. It’s not like they needed to be main eventers; just guys to make the real main eventers look good.

Looking at the other releases, there’s got to be more to the departure of Ariel (AKA Shelly Martinez) than meets the eye. She was good in her role, had a good act going with Kevin Thorn, and looked different from all of the other women. She deserved better. Angel Williams, a woman out of the defunct Deep South promotion given her walking papers, doesn’t look different from the other women, but was one of many women (along with Nattie Neidhart, Shantelle Taylor, and Krissy Vaine) out of Deep South who had potential to flourish in the second coming of the Women’s Division. Scotty 2 Hotty (who I was surprised to still see around in ’05, much less ‘07) and Nick “Mitch” Mitchell (the weakest link in the Spirit Squad) were two other guys who could have been used as fodder for brighter stars, but there’s only so much you could do with an Attitude-era fossil who does The Worm and a goofy-looking jock guy who does a weird butt-skidding dance (and wasn’t that good to begin with; the guy barely wrestled!). Vito, who wants you to know is a former WCW tag champ, could be filed under dead weight nothingness following his terrible dress-wearing gimmick. Then there’s Sabu. Shame to see him go, but he lasted about a year, looked impressive early on, got a chance to appear on the Big Four PPVs, and seems fine to move on after word of him being quite miserable for a while. Chances are Rob Van Dam might be joining him soon, though not yet. I would shed a tear for the spirit of ECW if it weren’t already killed last June.

May all do well in their future endeavors, and may all not resort to throwing bitch-fits in TNA. As for me, I wish Bobby D (MetalBob) and anyone else in the Chicago area attending the Candido Cup this weekend to have a good time. I might be attending another Chikara show this Sunday, work and weather permitting.