WWE Network Hidden Gems Review #1

WWE Network Hidden Gems Review #1
Samoa Joe vs. William Regal - UPW @ Santa Ana

Welcome to the first Hidden Gems review from the network. Today I'll be looking at a dream match of sorts. If you couldn't tell from the title, we've got Samoa Joe vs. William Regal from Ultimate Pro Wrestling. Now, this isn't going to be the Samoa Joe we all know and love, from as far as I can tell at least. This match is from late 2000, meaning that this is pre ROH Joe. But could he still give us a classic match? Let's find out.

The match started off with a wrist lock and didn't break away from it until the late minute and a half of the match. I'm not exaggerating either, it was a poorly paced technical match with Regal attempting to carry an inexperienced Joe about halfway through the match, and then seemingly giving up. The effort seemed lost, and the match was a great disappointment. It also doesn't help that the crowd was completely silent except for 2 girls who would scream whenever Regal showed some offense. In the end, Joe botched getting tripped, and tapped out to the Regal Stretch. I can give the match one star, but nothing more than that. *  

Smackdown #392 Review

Smackdown #392 Review
PayOne Center, San Diego, California

The night starts off with a video package showing the past 3 weeks of build up to Batista vs. Undertaker at Wrestlemania. This is looking like a pretty great feud.

After the video, Batista walks out and defends his actions at No Way Out against The Undertaker. He seems confident that he will be walking into Wrestlemania as champ, and out still champion.

Matt Hardy, Brian Kendrick, and Paul London vs. Joey Mercury, Deuce and Domino
The match started out with fast tags between Kendrick and London, and some strong offense, until Domino attacked Kendrick behind the ref's back. Deuce was then tagged in, and him along with Domino played excellent heels, keeping Kendrick isolated from his corner just like any good tag match. Kendrick started some offense and got an incredibly hot tag to Matt Hardy. He continued to clean house and with the help of London and Kendrick taking out Deuce and Domino with double suicide dives, he pinned Mercury for the win.

Winners: Matt Hardy, Brian Kendrick, and Paul London in 11:22
This was your average 6 man tag match, and it was a great way to start off this show. Deuce and Domino looked strong as a tag team, and Matt Hardy had some great momentum. **½

We had a weird backstage segment with Krystal and Vickie Guerrero, the latter saying everything was taken care of. Just odd.

The Money in the Bank qualifying match between Edge and Rob Van Dam from Raw was shown to hype up the upcoming qualifying match between Kane and Booker T.

Chavo Guerrero vs. Scotty 2 Hotty
Chavo started off the match fast by attacking Scotty 2 Hotty while he was taking off his shirt, but Scotty didn't back down fighting right back. Chavo took control however, and started beating down on Scotty. He used cheap tactics such as choking him with the ropes to stay in control, and screamed at Scotty repeatedly saying how he wasn't worthy of the Cruiserweight Championship. Scotty fought out of a submission, but was met with a huge big boot, and again was unable to gain control. Chavo went for the triple verticals, but Scotty countered and hit the Worm. Chavo rolled out of the ring, but was caught with a senton from Scotty. Back into the ring, Chavo rolled up Scotty and got his feet on the ropes for the 3.

Winner: Chavo Guerrero in 7:39
This match didn't click well unfortunately. Scotty got a bit of momentum, but it took a bit too long to get it going I think. That really took away for the excitement. *½

Falls Count Anywhere Match: King Booker vs. Kane
King Booker, despite seeming scared, goes right into brawling with the big red machine. The two go back and forth for quite sometime, spilling outside of the ring even. After a while King Booker gets the advantage, and is taking Kane all over the ringside and throwing him up against everything. Booker makes a mistake when trying to use the ring bell, and Kane gains control, taking him up the entrance ramp. King Booker shifts the momentum with a DDT on the solid steel, and he continues to beat up Kane on the stage. However this doesn't last long as Kane hits a huge uppercut, and takes King Booker to ringside, and throwing him into the steps. Booker finally gets to use the bell, and we come back from commercial to see him in control. They continue to go back and forth for a while longer, and just as Kane is about to hit the Chokeslam, The Great Khali comes out and attacks Kane. After the attack, King Booker pins a knocked out Kane for the win.

Winner: King Booker in 17:56
This was a better match than their No Way Out encounter, the only problem was it went on a bit too long yet again. This planted the seed for Kane vs. Khali at mania. It was still kind of random, but doesn't really take away from the match itself. **½

Backstage after the match, King Booker is celebrating, and he shakes hands with Khali. Is this a formed alliance?

There is also a flashback to last week to where Ashley reveals the cover of Playboy and the crowd goes crazy.

Finlay and Hornswoggle vs. Boogeyman and Little Boogeyman
Apparently the match started while a commercial was going on, so I'm not sure how it started. Finlay takes the bag of worms and dumps them out, and stomps on them. Little Boogeyman hit Finlay with a low blow, and begins beating him up, but Hornswoggle comes into the ring and starts to fight with Little Boogeyman. Finlay stops it though, and he turns around into a big boot from Boogeyman, who then turns his attention to Hornswoggle. Finlay hits Boogeyman with his shelaylay and Hornswoggle gets the pin.

Winners: Finlay and Hornswoggle in 4:00
This was a comedic skit, not a wrestling match. DUD

Mr. Perfect gets announced as a part of the Hall of Fame.

Rey Mysterio comes out to the ring, hyping up his upcoming return from his knee injury. As he is talking, Vince McMahon interrupts him. He comes out with multiple security guards and blocks the ring. He doesn't really even acknowledge Rey, he just talks about how is going to beat Donald Trump at Wrestlemania, and shave his head. He then asks Rey who he thinks will win, and Rey tells Vince he's a loser. This makes Vince angry of course, and he decides to bring out Umaga, who is representing him for the mania match. He tries to bully Rey into saying Vince will win. Then he low blows Rey, and gives him to Umaga for a giant Samoan drop. Then he hits a hip attack. Vince decides this still is not enough, and he commands Umaga to jump on the injured knee. This was a heat magnet.

Overall: 4.5/10. Not a terrible show, but not that good either. There was a solid opener, and a solid Kane/Booker match, but 2 bad matches as well along with an ending I don't entirely agree with. I feel as if the segment was ok, I just don't think it should've ended Smackdown.

Smackdown 2007 Statistics:

Pay-Per-View Match of the Year: Royal Rumble Match - Royal Rumble - ****
Smackdown TV Match of the Year: United States Championship Match: Chris Benoit (c) vs. Finlay - ***
Worst Pay-Per-View Match of the Year: ECW Championship Match: Bobby Lashley (c) vs. Mr. Kennedy - DUD
Worst Smackdown TV Match of the Year: Finlay and Hornswoggle vs. Boogeyman and Little Boogeyman - DUD 

Announcement

So, as most of you know the blog has been very inactive/inconsistent when posting reviews and such. Well I plan on changing that, due to people seeming to want more content. Now I have a schedule planned out for the future of this blog, and I hope you all like it. You can expect 1 2007 Smackdown show a week, and a match review from the Hidden Gems Vault off of the WWE network. Once in a while there may be a 3rd post per week, whether that be an extra post of one of the former mentioned series, or something covering an event in the wrestling world, or even something I just feel like reviewing. I look forward to providing you all with content, and the new Smackdown review should be up in just a bit. Thank you.

No Way Out 2007 Ratings

No Way Out 2007 Ratings
Staples Center, Los Angeles, California

MVP, Johnny Nitro, and Joey Mercury vs. Matt Hardy, Jeff Hardy, and Chris Benoit - ***¼

Cruiserweight Championship Open Match: Gregory Helms (c) vs. Scotty 2 Hotty vs. Davari vs. Funaki vs. Shannon Moore vs. Jimmy Wang Yang vs. Jamie Noble vs. Chavo Guerrero - *¼

Finlay and Hornswoggle vs. Boogeyman and Little Boogeyman - ¼*

King Booker vs. Kane - *¾

Paul London and Brian Kendrick (c) vs. Deuce and Domino - *

ECW Championship Match: Bobby Lashley (c) vs. Mr. Kennedy - DUD

Shawn Michaels and John Cena vs. Batista and Undertaker - ***¾

Overall Rating: 3/10. This was a pretty bad show overall. The opener was a good choice, and the main event delivered, but in between was a hot mess. King Booker vs. Kane could've been a lot better if it wasn't so long. They didn't have nearly enough story for a 12 minute match. Same with Bobby Lashley vs. Mr Kennedy. They went a full 15 minutes, and a very bad finish, and nothing good in between.

Smackdown 2007 Statistics:

Pay-Per-View Match of the Year: Royal Rumble Match - Royal Rumble - ****
Smackdown TV Match of the Year: United States Championship Match: Chris Benoit (c) vs. Finlay - ***
Worst Pay-Per-View Match of the Year: ECW Championship Match: Bobby Lashley (c) vs. Mr. Kennedy - DUD
Worst Smackdown TV Match of the Year: Davari vs. Gregory Helms - ¾*

ECW Review 7/18/2006

ECW Review
American Bank Center, Corpus Christi, Texas

The show starts this week, showing a replay from Saturday's Main Event, which at first didn't seem relevant, but then... the main event is shown and it is Big Show and Khali vs. Undertaker. They beat him down, bad. And that leads to the announcement of the main event, Big Show vs. Undertaker for the ECW Championship. Sounds pretty good. Then the intro for the show plays.

And yet again, Kelly's Expose. Mike Knox grabs her, same old stuff. Instead of going backstage however, Knox takes her to the ring. Kelly tries to show off to the fans and Knox shows her a video of Sandman from last week. He tells her to go to his corner, and Knox calls out The Sandman.

Extreme Rules Match: Mike Knox vs. The Sandman
Once Sandman finishes his entrance, Knox goes right after him. He takes him right outside the ring, and beats on him. Multiple surroundings are used by Mike Knox, including the crowd barrier, the announce table, and the camera cord. After the bashing outside, Knox throws Sandman into the ring, but Sandman comes at him with a large amount of offense, including punches, bulldogs, kicks, etc. They spill back outside of the ring, and Sandman goes to hit Knox with the Singapore Cane but he pulls Kelly in front of him and she takes the blow. They go back inside and Knox hits Sandman with a couple low blows and pins him.

Winner: Mike Knox in 2:38
Sad to say, but this is one of the better matches that has been on ECW. It had a bit of a story, and the action somewhat played to it, I guess? I'm stretching it here. *

A short video showing Shannon Moore is shown, now repackaged with the gimmick of  "The Reject." Sigh. They also show Kelly being stretchered out from the cane shot to the head.

Paul Heyman comes out and continues the rant from last week on how the fans cost RVD the title, not him. Tommy Dreamer interrupts him. He says how he has gone through everything with Heyman, since the beginning of ECW. He goes on to say that Paul proved a lot of people wrong, but on this time, he is way out of line. Tommy also demands an explanation. And Paul Heyman drops the mic and kisses Tommy on the lips. I officially have no idea what is happening. And then Test comes out of no where and hits Tommy with a Big Boot, and then a Fireman's Carry Swinging Neckbreaker. No idea what happened.

Back from commercial, and Balls Mahoney talks about what makes him extreme.

Sabu vs. Stevie Richards
Stevie Richards starts off the match with his game plan, sticking to grappling. Surprisingly, Sabu fires right back with some technical holds. This takes back Richards and he has some strong strikes, and then goes right back to the technical holds. Sabu gets back up and starts hitting a combination of things, trying to start a comeback. We see two nice springboard attacks from Sabu, and then a Camel Clutch to end the match.

Winner: Sabu in 3:13
Another boring match for no reason, but what else is there to expect anymore. ¼*

CM Punk is backstage, and just talks about his training, but still no match from him. What is the point? Kevin Thorn is also backstage and has yet another weird segment with Ariel.

The commentators go on about how Big Show is a monster, and a highlights package is shown.

ECW Championship Match: Big Show (c) vs. Undertaker
The match starts out with Big Show dominating, as expected. A commercial break goes by, and we come back to Taker having the advantage, but that momentum is soon halted. The match continues on in a semi-ok pace, but no big moves to note are hit. Taker is selling as an underdog, and does quite a good job at it. It looks like Show is about to win after hitting an 800+ pound superplex, but Taker not only kicks out, but also sits up. The comeback has started. He starts hitting Show with stiff shots, and they both go for a chokeslam on each other, to no avail. Taker does hit a big boot though which knocks Big Show out of the ring. Taker continues hitting Show, but then Khali comes out and hits Taker to promote their upcoming match at Great American Bash.

Result: No Contest in 13:54
Not a bad match at all. It really does go to show how good of a worker Undertaker is. The crowd stayed entertained, and so did I. Too bad it had a crap ending. **

A brawl continues with Big Show and Khali double teaming Taker. They end up chokeslamming him through the announce table. After this, Khali does some posing and the show ends.

Overall: 2/10. While the overall show was pretty terrible, and was on track to be another 0/10 rank, the main event really showed off. Too bad we probably won't get Taker every week. Speaking of that though, I know Rob Van Dam is suspended, but where is Kurt Angle? Surely he could've been doing something useful at this point. Who knows.

ECW 07/11/2006 Review

ECW Review
Target Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota

We open up the show with a video package showing different segments from last week between Rob Van Dam and Big Show, all leading to the big main event. We see highlights of the match, and the screw job finish by Paul, and the backlash by fans. Then the show intro starts.
After the intro ends, we get an announcement from Joey Styles and Tazz that Big Show will be taking on Ric Flair in the main event of the show.


Paul Heyman comes out to explain his actions last week. He claims that the people are the reason Rob Van Dam is no longer the ECW champion, and that they are also the reason that he had to suspend him for 30 days. I assume this is a semi-clever way to cover up the wellness policy violation. Paul begins talking as if he is a God, using religious vocabulary to try to put over himself. The crowd seems confused on whether or not to cheer or boo him. Paul goes backstage, and walks through a crowd of visually frustrated superstars, and at the end is Tommy Dreamer. Dreamer claims he doesn't know what Paul is thinking, and Paul responds that he would love to explain, but Tommy is in action next.

Tommy Dreamer vs. Test
Test is revealed as the mystery opponent of Dreamer. The bell rings and the two go face to face, and Dreamer is met with a huge slap, two to be exact. This lights a fire in Dreamer as he begins pounding away on Test, and clotheslines Test over the ropes. Test hits a big shot though and the match's momentum immediately goes to Test. He beats Dreamer around the ring, and mocks him, degrades him. Dreamer starts to get a bit of a comeback going, but fails as Test rolls him up and puts his feet on the rope to win.

Winner: Test in 3:54
Why have a monster like Test in a match, but have him almost lose and only have him win by cheating with a roll up? I don't get it. Bad match. ¼*

We see a backstage segment with Kelly and Candice where they say things will get extreme. And as we come back from commercial, Ariel is shown saying the future holds blood, and Kevin Thorn spits blood at the camera. Literally wtf. Kelly and Candice begin dancing and yet again, Mike Knox comes out to cover up Kelly. Sandman comes out however, and beats up Knox with a Singapore Cane. This was a better twist to a useless segment.

Back from commercial, and CM Punk gives a convincing promo about his tattoos.

Sabu vs. Justin Credible
The match starts out with fast paced action, and the two go back and forth. Sabu starts to get the upperhand, so Justin slides out of the ring. Sabu goes right after him with a huge dive to the outside, and follows up with a leg drop to the inside of the ring. Sabu goes back outside again and sets up a table, and sets Justin Credible on top of it and hits a leg drop through it, ending the match.

Winner: Justin Credible in 1:50
Again... what's the point? The entrances were longer (and a little more entertaining) than the match itself. DUD

Balls Mahoney gives an odd promo, saying just because his name may seem all fun and games, he certainly, is not.

Ric Flair is shown backstage, and he is fired up. He dirty mouths Mick Foley, and says his 17th world title will come tonight when he beats down the Big Show.

ECW Championship Extreme Rules Match: Big Show (c) vs. Ric Flair
The match starts out dull, with an inexperienced ref, it seems anyway. I did laugh however, when Ric Flair rolls out of the ring, you can hear a guy in the crowd yell out, "This is very ECW." We come back from commercial and see Big Show dominating, and Flair is already busted open. Despite Flair's best efforts, his chops have no effect on Show. Show then clotheslines Flair over the rope, and the ref says something to Show, which pisses him off. Flair brings out a couple weapons, but Show stops him in his tracks. Ric starts a comeback, but again gets stopped by a few big strikes from Show. So far, the match is extremely slow. Flair begins hitting multiple low blows on the giant, and after he takes him off his feet, he grabs a trash can filled with weapons, and brings it in the ring. The first weapon we see is the classic barbed wire baseball bat. Flair starts to go to town with the weapon, and busts open Big Show. A bunch of other weapons are used on Show, but he still kicks out, with power, at 2. But then! Flair grabs a sack, this can only mean one thing. Thumbtacks! The most ECW thing since the revival. Flair smacks Show with a chair and he lands in the tacks. But this, this only angers the giant. Show hits Flair with a cobra clutch backbreaker, and then proceeds to choke him out.

Winner: Big Show in 13:22
A very, very boring match. Relying on the use of weapons to get any sort of crowd reaction, a little one at that. One of the worst title matches I have ever seen. DUD

After the match, Show picks up Flair and dumps him into the thumbtacks. After the "highlights" of the match are shown, Flair is helped up and out of the ring, and he receives an ovation from the crowd.

Overall: 0/10. This is perhaps the worst show I have ever watched. There was no upside to this show at all (the Punk promo was too short). Two 0 star matches on the same show, and one barely above that. This revival has reached an all time low.

NXT TakeOver: San Antonio Ratings

NXT TakeOver: San Antonio Ratings
Freeman Coliseum, San Antonio, Texas

Tye Dillinger vs. Eric Young - ***½

Andrade “Cien” Almas vs. Roderick Strong - ***¾

NXT Tag Team Championships: #DIY (c) vs. The Authors of Pain - ****

NXT Women’s Championship: Asuka (c) vs. Nikki Cross vs. Billie Kay vs. Peyton Royce - *½

NXT Championship: Shinsuke Nakamura (c) vs. Bobby Roode - ***