For this post, I would like to analyze the short form, as I’ve seen it so far.

There are 24 movements so far in this short form. On my first night of class, I was handed a packet detailing each of the moves. I use the term detailed loosely, and that’s where I would like to make my point.

In the Okinawan Shuri-ryu karate I’ve grown up with, our forms – or kata – are pre-determined. The Attacker performs a certain attack, and the Defender reacts a certain way. At each stripe test, students are asked specifics about where the Attacker’s punch goes to what part on the Defender’s body. In a way, they’re rigid. The higher the rank of the student, the more extensions can be applied by using principles from other, shorter self-defense forms called waza.

For the longest time, my training consisted of knowing specific movements to specific targets. It still does, but as a black belt and an instructor, my instructors have loosened the holds on their secrets and started working extensions to these kata. We use the same movements of the form, but we adapt them to make them optimal.

Conversely, I haven’t noticed a rigid set of rules in tai chi. In fact, certain elements of tai chi been incredibly vague. For instance, moves are defined as, “grasp sparrow’s tail.” Unless I know the move, I don’t have any idea what I’m doing as the Defender, nor do I know what my Attacker is doing.

I had to go through that to get to my point: Is it better to have a set of directions to follow, or none at all?

At this point, I am mixed.

I love that I can look back through my copy of the Pinnacle of Okinawan Karate and verify I’m performing the kata as it was designed. But in coming up with logical extensions that use the same moves adapted for optimal performance, I can’t help but wonder if that hinders my creativity. I’m so used to knowing what’s “supposed” to happen that I worry my brain and body aren’t going to be able to change for a different scenario if the need arises.

This tai chi short form I’ve been learning has no description at all. There is no Attacker, and those who do tai chi for holistic purposes do not envision themselves as Defenders. But it allows me to really think about what’s happening. And, at this point, I’ll even say that I think the tai chi applications I’ve been shown work better for me than many karate extensions I’ve learned. I’ve done a lot of them, and some of them seem convoluted to the point I’d be afraid to try them without many more years of practice.

The applications I’ve been shown for the tai chi form are very direct, very simple. In the martial aspect, they don’t even need to look good. Mr. Aldus doesn’t distinguish between a technique, and the kwaza – subtle nastiness – to add to the effectiveness of the technique. It’s one in the same for him. I think in that respect, it’s easier for me to learn.

The techniques also seem to set others up in a way that is easier for me to understand right now than karate. Tai chi is done closer to an opponent than karate, which could probably be its own post right there. But it is closer, which means more opportunities to land blows (and have them be landed on you).

I really can’t definitively answer my question. I love my karate forms, but there are times when I have a hard time envisioning real-world applications that only seem fit for an action movie. On the other hand, it’s really nice to get the description and tease different interpretations out of it.

In the future, I’d like to do more analytical posts like this. I’m not stating that one martial art is better than the other, nor am I stating that one instructor is better than another. While they have more in common than they don’t, there are certain aspects about tai chi I’m really excited to learn and share when I am comfortable.

If last week’s RAW wasn’t getting people to tune in, this show didn’t do it either. I’d say tonight’s show was a mediocre effort at best. The show opened strong with Nexus and their accomplishments, and the Daniel Bryan and Miz segment was good. We also found out that it will be Randy Orton vs. John Cena next week on RAW.

Other than that, most of the show at least focused on Night of Champions and driving interest toward buying the pay-per-view.

WWE RAW: Shot by shot

It’s Labor Day and RAW kicks off with the Nexus in the ring gloating about their attack on the Undertaker and their defeating Team WWE in a Summerslam rematch. All five members got a chance to gloat until the microphone returned to Wade Barrett to put himself over for Night of Champions. He said he was bringing the WWE title “back home to the Nexus.” That would imply they’ve had it before. I would have had Barrett say something about hijacking the WWE title.

LOL at the guy in Washington DC with the sign that says, “And I Quote.”

Randy Orton shows up and talks about taking out 2 Nexus members last week before he says he will take the title at Night of Champions. Michael Cole, acting as a conduit for the RAW general manager, makes a match of Wade Barrett vs. Randy Orton, as well as John Cena vs. Justin Gabriel. Nexus is banned from ringside tonight.

I don’t get why the GM would threaten to take Chris Jericho and Edge out of the Six Pack Challenge at Night of Champions if they lost tonight. Why wouldn’t you punish them by taking them out anyway?

Jericho made a big fuss throughout the match yelling at Cole about who the general manager was. The match itself was given more time than a usual Raw match, and Morrison pulled off the upset victory given Jericho’s statement last week saying he’d end his career if he didn’t win the title at Night of Champions. After the match, Michael Cole and Jerry Lawler harped on the fact that this loss and ousting from the PPV will have a significant impact on Jericho’s career. I’m interested to see if Chris Jericho exposes the general manager as a means of revenge.

In case you missed it, yes, Morrison won the match with a really cool Starship Pain from the outside of the turnbuckle. Unfortunately it looks like the story coming out of this one will not focus on John Morrison.

In a WWE Divas title match, Melina defeats Alicia Fox. I already knew Melina would win given her impending title match at WWE Night of Champions, but Alicia deserved to lose after telling Melina she would win the Divas title tonight, then go on to beat Laycool at the PPV to become the “undefined” champion. Cole and King were quick to correct her.

Zack Ryder and Edge (yeah, seriously) were in the back. Ryder offered himself up to Edge for his match tonight. I wish they would’ve mentioned that Ryder broke into the WWE by being one of the Edgeheads (with Curt Hawkins).

As if one backstage segment wasn’t enough, Maryse and Ted DiBiase got into an argument where it sounds like Ted is cheating on Maryse.

RAW Roulette returns to RAW next week. Nice.

To nobody’s surprise, John Cena beat Justin Gabriel. To everyone’s surprise, Cena delivered an Attitude Adjustment on Gabriel from the second rope in what was a cool visual. Gabriel got in some decent offense during this match. Considering who he went against, I think it was a really good outing for him.

The Miz cut a great promo about how nobody thought he could make it in the WWE, and interspersed that with various moments and pictures from his career. And it all led up to him revealing himself on the cover of WWE Magazine. I would’ve saved this promo for when the Miz won the WWE title, but that’s me.

Then Daniel Bryan came out to challenge the Miz for the United States title at Night of Champions. I thought he cut a really good promo that was just a straight-shootin’ wrestling promo. Real fun exchange.

Edge comes out to see that his opponent is not Zack Ryder, but the Great Khali instead. Edge almost broke the computer. I wish he would have so we could get an actual general manager, but that idea may have failed since apparently Cole gets e-mails on his Blackberry. Anyway, Edge craftily wins by forcing Khali to be counted out. The GM restarts the match as a No DQ, over-the-top-rope challenge.

Good, Michael Cole isn’t the only one who was confused at the Great Khali’s seeming elimination of himself by doing his usual ring entrance/exit over the top rope.

Edge wins and is still in the Six (Five?) Pack Challenge.

Backstage, Jericho has no word for Josh Matthews, then gets patronized by John Morrison.

Anybody else notice how Orton is much leaner than he was in say, 2005? What’s up with that?

As Orton and Barrett were in the ring, there was a five-person announce booth with the regular commentators, as well as Sheamus, Edge, and Cena. Too many voices. Did anybody see that punch by Barrett that missed by a mile? Wow. And how many times has Cole said “turning point of the match-up” tonight? Geez.

Orton gets the win after Wade Barrett was distracted by Darren Young, who was kicked out of Nexus several weeks ago. Young gets nailed with an RKO, as does Sheamus and Edge. It’s Randy Orton vs. John Cena next week.

This week, we focused more on the form than we have in the three times I’ve been to tai chi class before.

I’m still working on memorizing the movements. Once I get the moves down, I can work toward body unity. I think my body unity is pretty good after seven years of karate, but I’m still a little choppy in parts.

We also went ahead with the next part of the whole long form.

I hope we can work more application of these moves in the future. At this point, it’s hard to visualize martial movements when going at a slower pace than I’m used to. Mr. Aldus has shown us some practical applications, but he doesn’t have us work them. I like working a move to know how it feels when I do it correctly or incorrectly. Maybe if I did the form at a faster pace, I could come up with my own interpretations.

The whole idea behind working the form tonight was balance, so we worked a few drills to achieve it.

The Alduses love a drill called push hands, in which partners put the backs of their hands together and rotate the whole body. The desired effect is feeling another person’s energy. Keep in mind, tai chi is Chinese and since a lot of this program’s practitioners are older, they are there for the holistic reasons. Me, I’m there to find more ways to bash somebody to bits should I ever need to defend myself. Hopefully it won’t, but it’s nice to have a reservoir to go to.

We also modified the push hands drill to touch the inside of our wrists, which gave off a slightly different vibe. After that, we literally pushed our hands against our partner’s in a drill similar to what I’ve done with Metamora Martial Arts before. Though with this tai chi class, I wasn’t trying to knock my partner off-balance like we usually do at MMA.

This idea of energy is something my regular instructors usually stay away from. I can’t speak for them, but I get the feeling they think it’s not as important as physical application of martial arts moves, which I understand. I could see young martial artists in grade school or high school being turned off by this. It’s kind of a hard concept to understand. I still think it’s odd that by doing the push hands drill, there exists an energy between my partner and I. But it’s another way that is helping me to understand feeling the movement of my attacker when he or she is touching me and figuring out where and when to strike.

I know that energy – and especially the duality of everything – is a major component of Chinese martial arts, which influenced Okinawan martial arts, which influenced Japanese martial arts. It’s nice to start to hear about this aspect of the martial arts as it has been mostly downplayed in my training thus far.

RAW celebrated its 900th episode tonight, focusing on Night of Champions and its current crop of superstars while paying homage to the past.

With regard to the next pay-per-view, Night of Champions, Wade Barrett gained lots of steam by taking out the Undertaker and winning the big 5-on-5 tag team half-rematch from Summerslam. WWE also set up a title unification bout between the two female championships.

Tonight’s show was peppered with RAW Recall moments, such as Triple H’s return in 2002, the Stone Cold zamboni run-in, and more recent moments such as the Nexus beatdown.

WWE RAW’s 900th episode: shot by shot

Bret Hart comes out to talk about how long RAW has been around, and says the only other wrestler – yes, he said wrestler, not Superstar – that is still around from that night New York City in 1993 is the Undertaker. The fans pop until Kane comes out and cuts down both the Undertaker and Bret Hart. Kane decides he needs to take out Bret Hart, and when he tries to choke him, the Hart Dynasty comes in to try to save Bret. As they fail, the Undertaker shows up.

The anonymous general manager makes a match between Bret Hart and the Undertaker to cap off the segment.

In a triple threat tag team NXT rookie showcase, The Miz and Alex Riley defeated Kaval and Daniel Bryan, and Kofi Kingston and Michael McGuillicutty when Kaval hit the Warrior’s Way on McGuillicutty, only for Miz to hit a Skull Crushing Finale on Kaval for the pin. This match was very fast-paced, but too short to really tell a good story, in my opinion.

A quick Divas tag team match saw Melina get a quick roll-up on Layla for her and Eve. Layla, of course, was teaming with Michelle McCool, who I still can’t believe is married to the Undertaker.

Laycool challenges Melina to a Divas and Womens title unification match at WWE Night of Champions. Melina accepts, given it’s a lumberjack match. Doesn’t she mean lumberjill? All the Divas stare down Laycool in the ring.

In the back, Wade Barrett comes up with a plan to make the Nexus still feared in the locker room despite kicking out Darren Young and losing Skip Sheffield to a broken ankle. My guess is they interrupt the Bret Hart vs. Undertaker match.

Josh Mathews interviews Chris Jericho, who says he’s going to leave the WWE if he doesn’t win the WWE title at November. There have been rumors his contract is coming up, so my guess is he’ll be taking a break again – unless he’s trying to throw off the Internet marks. Mathews got in a funny line saying that Jericho has threatened to leave RAW and WWE “at least a dozen times.” Ha.

So Drew McIntyre had a hot feud with Matt Hardy, floated around, and now is with teaming with Dashing Cody Rhodes against R-Truth and John Morrison to determine #1 contenders for the WWE Tag Team titles? Goodbye, Drew. You were awesome while you lasted.

Luckily the match only lasts about a minute before it ends in a no-contest when all four keep brawling. But, what’s unfortunate is that this match has a likelihood to continue into a feud.

Sure enough, Wade Barrett interrupts Bret Hart vs. The Undertaker. Through a series of signature Undertaker gongs and interference from Kane, The Nexus lays waste to the Undertaker as Kane watches from the ramp. I have no clue what happened to Bret Hart, as when the lights came back after the first time they went out, he was nowhere to be found.

In a match that got zero attention due to the arrival of Alberto del Rio on RAW, Jack Swagger made Evan Bourne tap out to the ankle lock. Del Rio attacks Evan Bourne when Mark Henry makes the save and runs del Rio off. I like what I’ve seen of del Rio since I haven’t seen him on SmackDown yet, but I’m confused why the Bourne push stopped and why Mark Henry, of all people, makes the save for him.

CM Punk comes out with the Straight Edge Society and cuts a brilliant promo. In it, he references Katie Vick. Then he shows deplorable RAW moments: property damage when Triple H invaded Randy Orton’s home, reckless endangerment when John Cena threw Edge into a body of water, D-Generation X trespassing on WCW’s turf, and dumb, excessive use of beer from Stone Cold Steve Austin’s beer bath. He cuts a promo on Austin, whose music hits and the crowd goes wild. Punk said the let-down the crowd felt after that is how empty he feels when he sees the WWE Universe.

Punk then shows a video of The Big Show and Brock Lesnar breaking the ring on SmackDown in 2003. Punk makes fun of Big Show’s weight. Show comes out and says Punk should’ve picked other embarrassing moments, such as the tainted Eddie Guerrero burrito, wrestling a sumo match, or kissing Vickie Guerrero. Big Show runs all of them off. At least this feud isn’t over.

Sheamus cuts a promo after the Triple H 2002 return recall moment, so apparently they’re still going to feud when he comes back. Edge comes out and says his accolades are more impressive than Sheamus’.

Finally, it’s Team WWE of Chris Jericho, Edge, John Cena, Randy Orton and WWE Champion Sheamus vs. The Nexus in a 5-on-5 elimination tag team match. Jericho and Edge eliminate themselves early by countout and disqualification, respectively. Nexus were up 5-3, until Cena came in to dominate. The story became John Cena dissecting Nexus, until Justin Gabriel hit the 450 and got the clean pin (!) on John Cena. Yes, somebody got a clean pin on John Cena. Orton hit the RKO on Gabriel and Michael Tarver, only for Wade Barrett to eliminate Orton with the Wastleland for the victory.

Paying for a service might not sound like much. But I think this is pretty substantial, as it’s been a long time since I wrote out a check for a martial arts class. It’s been so long I don’t even remember. I must be committed.

Last night’s class focused on a few areas. The first was a seminar The Alduses attended over the weekend in Wisconsin. According to them, their tai chi was well-received in a space filled with jiu-jitsu, Isshin-ryu karate, and championship kickboxers. They said most of the seminar-goers were able to relate tai chi to their particular art, mostly because of the balancing act during the first form.

From there, we practiced just that. Mr. Aldus demonstrated body movement and balance during the form. He didn’t use the words “body unity,” but it was exactly what he was talking about – positioning yourself to maximize the effectiveness of the technique against an attacker. He joked that the three older ladies in the room may have had more difficulty than a guy like me, having become used to doing forms by now.

After form practice, we split up. Mrs. Aldus took the three ladies aside and they worked beginner handwork against hand targets. Mr. Aldus pulled me aside, confident in my ability to do a jab-cross, and had me working more advanced techniques. I didn’t expect to work up a sweat, but it was rolling next to my sideburns and into my beard after about 10 minutes.

The target work was all about being close to an attacker, and getting the most momentum to do damage to that attacker. We used combos that utilized our body movement, which connected to the form work we had been doing earlier. He had me work different series of punches, elbows, and kicks. This is the type of work that I love – damaging techniques that completely obliterate an opponent.

If last week’s class was more set on physical action, this week’s class was more philosophy. It was essentially a class I would normally get when I went to Mr. Hawkey’s this summer.

The highlight of the night was probably a visit from Mr. Ed Catchings himself, who owns the Catchingdo school on Farmington Road that Mr. Aldus is able to use from 6:30-8 on Tuesday nights. I’ll be the first to admit that Mr. Catchings doesn’t look like what I would envision as a premium physical model of a martial artist. But after awhile, I could tell he was incredibly bright and his stature didn’t mean much anymore.

As Mr. Aldus introduced him, he said Catchings’s style is more or less about being off-balance and out of the way of the attacker in order to hit our follow-up technique. Mr. Catchings, a former security guard in Washington, D.C., had us move in the directions of 12 o’clock, 3 o’clock, 6 and 9. The closest I could relate this to in karate or tae kwon do terms is cutting the angle to get out of the way. As kata experts Lawrence Kane or Kris Wilder might put it, this is a principle in self-defense where if you are not there, you cannot get hit. Mr. Catchings talked of almost the exact same thing but in a brand new way. I definitely want to keep this for when I teach again.

Interestingly enough, in all his focus on movement, he said Dancing With the Stars could teach us a lot about it. Dancing and skating are two ways people move together.

Mr. Catchings turned his focus to human nature and being able to predict what people are going to do. He said as a security guard, he would watch people walk into work the same way, using one hand for the turnstyle, another to hold coffee or a briefcase, and knowing exactly where they intended to go in the building.

Coming back to the philosophy, we did a drill earlier in class called “push hands,” in which we faced a partner and put the back of our wrist against theirs. We pushed our hands against each other to feel energy, and each person had a different energy about them. I received lots of help from seasoned class veterans on how to do this drill better. Apparently I started really stiff, but I think I eventually loosened up a little bit. When I did this drill with Mr. Aldus, he showed me lots of ways to offset an opponent with it.

During our short form exercise, Mr. Aldus focused a lot on balance, yielding, and 50-50. He said 50-50 with an opponent is a bad way to be. In his opinion, it isn’t about how much weight you have in each leg on your stances. It’s about your energy against your opponent’s – you don’t want to be 50-50. Instead, he suggested yielding, moving your body away from your opponent’s energy to take control. It’s yin and yang.

For example, the attacker throws a punch toward your chest. If that punch looks like it’s going to land in the middle, you can turn either way and the attacker loses all of that power. This is what Ed Catchings would demonstrate further later on.

It may take me awhile to get used to, but I think tai chi chuan is going to be to my benefit. There is a holistic side with the philosophy and energy, but there is also a martial side, which is mainly why I’m there. Though, learning the holistic side is something neither of my instructors talk about to any great extent. As far as I’m concerned, it’s an aspect that I’m aware has been missing from my training, even though I haven’t actively sought it out.

With school starting next week, I think this concludes my summer tour. I didn’t make it to as many schools as I would have liked, but I’m glad I found something that is going to allow me to grow as a martial artist and will allow me to stand out from our other black belts.

I want to blog about my experience in tai chi chuan as I venture down that path. This series of tour posts is no more, instead turning into my thoughts on tai chi and how they relate to my seven previous years of karate training.

A few more people were in this class. There was John, who had been benching and was thus the reason we didn’t do pushups or pullups. There was Derek, who I’m guessing is one of Mr. Nimmo’s assistants since he warmed up the class. And there was Jack, a grandfatherly individual who was more active than I think my own grandfather probably could be at his age. Finally, there were a few kids, including the one who got his start two weeks ago.

This class was a higher pace than the last one, utilizing a lot of combo drills. After doing some really cool stretches that I hope to remember and eventually pass on to classes I may teach, we went into combos. It was a jab-cross-kick combo, except when we set it down, we did it again with the other side…and when we finished those, we did the whole thing back the other way.

After front kicks, roundhouses, and sidekicks, I was sweating. I talked to him about how different (and tiring) that warm-up was, and he said it was to replicate training for a fight since the fighter wouldn’t just land some blows and back off.

When combos were over, we moved to the punching bags that line the back of the room. I immediately liked seeing bags on my first trip since I don’t usually work on them. We utilized an eight-strike combo of jab, cross, head hook, body hook left, body hook right, overhead strike, uppercut left, uppercut right. We could use them in any sequence, but Mr. Nimmo at least wanted to see more than one movement. We did four or five rounds with just hands, then added kicks in.

We ended class with some leg dips and then some crunches.

Mr. Nimmo was very genuine in telling me his approach to his class. He takes into account who his students are that show up (he can do things with adults he can’t always do with kids), how they are feeling that night (such as how we skipped pushups since John had been benching before class), and what he wants them to learn overall. After class, he took a lot of time to detail these to me.

I told him due to financial and schedule concerns, I would probably be training with Mr. Aldus over the next couple of months. He said there were no hard feelings as he said, in his opinion, Mr. Aldus is the best martial artist in the area. Mr. Nimmo then told me how he missed dinner with Mr. Aldus, his wife, “Superfoot” Bill Wallace (who was in town for a seminar) and several other area martial artists.

The night ended with Mr. Nimmo offering an open invitation back to his class.

I really liked the physicality of Mr. Nimmo’s class. Mr. Chianakas had told me it was probably going to be a boot camp style situation, and I haven’t had enough of those types of classes over the past several years.

Even though it doesn’t make a huge difference to me at this point, it was interesting to see that nobody wore uniforms or belts. They all wore athletic gear. Clearly this school was not “old school.”

Overall, I really enjoyed the two classes I spent with Mr. Al Nimmo. In fact, I have nothing negative to say about him as a person or his classes at all. They were exactly what I was looking for at one point in time.

But I’ve decided for this fall that my best option is to train with Mr. Steve Aldus.

I’m really glad to see that Daniel Bryan (Bryan Danielson) is back in WWE. I wonder if WWE Creative had planned it all along, or at least since the 7-on-7 tag team match was thought up. Certainly, Bryan was a better surprise and I’m sure made for a more enticing story when he was brought back for the surprise.

I have to say I’m a little disappointed I didn’t call this in my Summerslam predictions. However, even after I posted those, I saw this report which said Danielson canceled an independent booking. It was likely to get his act together and get to Los Angeles as soon as possible.

On the one hand, I’m really excited WWE listened to “the Universe” and hired him back. Or, hell, maybe the whole thing was a work from the get-go to let the saga of Daniel Bryan play out to get even more intrigue.

On the other hand, why would Daniel Bryan side with Team WWE? I’m still confused by that logic. Bryan was the most active in the original NXT beatdown of John Cena, spitting on him and choking out Justin Roberts with his own tie. If they didn’t address it at Summerslam, I really hope they would address it tonight on RAW.

For those of you who watched the show (and even those who didn’t), what did you think of Daniel Bryan’s return to WWE?

Plus, toward the end, I wonder about talents that didn’t make this show that I have the feeling should’ve been at least in the running to make it.

Here is my rundown on WWE Summerslam as I see it…

Team WWE vs. The Nexus
John Cena, Chris Jericho, Edge, Bret Hart, R-Truth, John Morrison and ??? vs. Wade Barrett, Michael Tarver, David Otunga, Heath Slater, Justin Gabriel, Skip Sheffield and Darren Young

How hot has this angle been?

I remember being completely puzzled when the then-NXT season 1 rookies attacked John Cena at the end of RAW and just destroyed the scene. Seeing them dominate week after week until Cena formed his army has been great. Finally some new guys get tons of TV time. The argument can be made that none of them have ever proved themselves (unlike Daniel Bryan/Bryan Danielson), but I’m willing to give them a shot here. I hope they can hang in the main event.

The crowd was red-hot when I was at the live event in Peoria, Ill., and Cena had the RAW babyface army dominate Nexus. I don’t remember the last time I heard a reaction that hot. And when you saw and heard the reaction this past Monday on RAW…WWE loves this angle. I love it too.

I’m unsure about how this is going to play out. Several sites have already hinted at a HUGE spoiler for this show. I won’t post it here, but this could rival a certain incident that went down in 1996.

WWE is also pushing the fact that there is no seventh man. I’m having thoughts of, “Who’s the third man?” in my head.

My guess is that the Nexus takes this one. I don’t think WWE can bury them just yet. They have too much momentum.

WWE Championship
Sheamus (c) vs. Randy Orton

Has anybody had a year lately like Randy Orton? Sheamus works really hard, and I like that this is another fresh feud – at least, one is a babyface and one is a heel in this one, unlike their Royal Rumble match.

I think if WWE wants to keep Sheamus strong, he needs to take out Randy Orton here. Or, if Triple H returns like has been the rumor, I don’t think dropping the title would hurt so they can blow their feud off.

One would think Mr. Money in the Bank, The Miz, has to be a factor in this match. I don’t think we’ll see a cash-in, but we might get a tease.

World Championship
Kane (c) vs. Rey Mysterio

Does anybody really think the Undertaker isn’t going to return during this match?

Mysterio takes the win and the title, only because of the Undertaker. We’ll get our final Kane vs. Undertaker feud, and Mysterio will probably defend against Swagger or Kofi.

WWE Intercontinental Championship
Dolph Ziggler (c) vs. Kofi Kingston

I see Dolph getting the win here to keep his push going. I think Kofi is gaining momentum for a brief chase at the World title, maybe feuding with Jack Swagger beforehand.

3-on-1 Handicap Match
The Straight-Edge Society vs. The Big Show

I really hope Big Show doesn’t destroy the SES and that they either keep this feud going, or have Big Show recruit two members of the SmackDown roster that aren’t doing anything. Maybe he could get a hold of the WWE Unified Tag Team Champions, the Hart Dynasty, to ignite a tag feud with Luke Gallows and Joey Mercury.

WWE Divas Championship
Alicia Fox (c) vs. Melina

If anybody thinks Melina won’t have the “storybook comeback,” I’d be surprised. With that said, I really hope Alicia retains so we can build some credible Divas. After Eve lost the belt, she’s floundered.

Where are they?

The Hart Dynasty – Surely the WWE Unified Tag Team Champions should have a match with their on-again, off-again push. I’d love to see a match between them and the Usos…maybe it will be a dark match.

Drew McIntyre – Why doesn’t the “future World Champion” have a spot on this card?

The Miz – Yeah, he’s not in a match, but WWE has given us the impression that the Miz will have an important role in either the WWE title match or the 7-on-7 elimination match.

Evan Bourne – Here’s a guy who had been getting a solid push into the early summer, and he really hasn’t been doing much lately. I wish he could make it into the elimination match.

I thought this was a great outing on free TV for TNA. I don’t ever get to see the pay-per-views live, so I can’t compare the two. However, given the storylines lately, I think this would’ve made for a solid Hard Justice card if that hadn’t been bumped to do Hardcore Justice with the EV2 contingent.

I really have no gripes about last night’s show. All of the matches were solid, came about from stories built over the past couple weeks or months, and relied on no filler.

TNA ReAction, on the other hand, wasn’t my favorite. For an in-character hour-long show, I’m not sure if it has a place in 2010 professional wrestling. On its plus-side, it does delve deeper into the characters. That fact still doesn’t mean it’s must-see television. If you watch Impact, you’ll be fine.

Leave me comments about your thoughts on the show!

TNA’s “The Whole F’n Show” Shot by Shot

This blog is a bit different than normal, written the morning after the events of TNA’s “The Whole F*n Show” last night. Usually my thoughts are given on the show as it happens.

The show kicked off with Kurt Angle’s undefeated streaking continuing over TNA TV Champion AJ Styles. I thought for sure we were going to see Styles hit the Spiral tap until Angle got up and hit that moonsault press. This match a great way to start the show, but I don’t think it was as fun as one of their previous Impact encounters. I think it was either the Jan. 4 or March 8 edition where they had a ton of nearfalls.

Barely even a match into the show, and I decided that if I drank, I would’ve want to take a shot every time anybody said “F’n.”

Angelina Love captured the TNA Knockouts title from Madison Rayne. I figured this one was coming with the Love storyline lately and the implosion of the Beautiful People. I genuinely believe Rayne continues to improve in the ring, and that second-rope slam onto Angelina by Rayne was really cool. Velvet Sky almost unmasked the mystery biker woman. As Angelina held up the Knockouts title, Velvet was smiling as she held the biker’s helmet. Looks like they’re getting back together over their mutual building hatred of Madison Rayne.

Isn’t Angelina Love’s finisher the same as Mr. Anderson’s Mic Check?

Speaking of Mr. Anderson, I thought the three-way match was a lot of fun. The Pope D’Angelo Dinero and Anderson teamed up on Matt Morgan, which was logical. They also had dissension and started fighting themselves, also logical. Anderson hit the Mic Check on The Pope, but Matt Morgan broke it up and got the victory. Very smart by Morgan, and this one isn’t done.

Shannon Moore answered Jeff Hardy’s open challenge. I don’t think the crowd wanted to boo either man, and they didn’t really need to. This match featured a lot of offense by Jeff Hardy and was probably done was a way to lift Shannon’s stock in TNA. By far, it was his best outing on national television even though Jeff won.

The Beer Money vs. Motor City Machine Guns should have been a seven-match feud! How awesome was that match? I’m sold on buying Fandimonium after that one, and I hope they release a DVD featuring this series on another “Best of Tag Teams” DVD if they do one. This match was 20 minutes of nonstop action and had some very fun, brutal, high-flying maneuvers. It was a definite Match of the Year candidate.

At this point in the show, I wondered why TNA hadn’t tried to show highlights from Hardcore Justice. I know, up to that point, they said it was a “one and done” type of deal with the EV2/ECW guys, but I thought they might showcase what fans missed who didn’t buy the pay-per-view.

Finally, Rob Van Dam defeated Abyss in the Stairway to Janice match where he retained the TNA World title. Abyss actually retrieved the crookedly nailed board, but missed RVD. RVD had some sweet spots in this involving a barbed wire board, notably the Rolling Thunder and the Van Terminator coast-to-coast dropkick.

Hulk Hogan came out finally for his special surprise, which was putting over the EV2 guys for the show on Sunday. He gave the microphone to Tommy Dreamer, dressed in a suit, who gushed his heart out. The lights went out, and “they” FINALLY showed up.

Fortune, Douglas Williams, and Matt Morgan started destroying the EV2 guys. The announcers might say “buckets of blood” were pouring. Abyss had taken RVD to the back while this brawl was going on, and when the cameras cut back to them, Abyss was holding Janice over a bloodied and tattered Rob Van Dam. I looked at my friends who came to watch the show and said, “And apparently, folks, Abyss was just MURDERED RVD!”

As The Whole F’n Show ended and ReAction began, it was almost a seamless blend.

I won’t detail my thoughts on ReAction as it happened. It was a kayfabed show showing the insights of the characters. Yes, for the longest time, I privately championed for the development of character in TNA, especially when the X-Division was heaping with guys who had no real gimmick outside of Black Machismo.

The highlight of ReAction was getting the thoughts of TNA stars about Fortune’s beatdown of EV2, and AJ Styles and Kaz had a decent exchange about why they did it.

The show also featured Angelina Love’s and Velvet Sky’s thoughts on Madison Rayne, which further hinted at a reunion between the two. The Impact Players of the Week were – surprise – the TNA Tag Team Champions, the Motor City Machine Guns.

Honestly, I’m not sure ReAction has a place in 2010 professional wrestling. I think WWE would have a better shot of pulling this off since they cater to a much more casual, younger audience. TNA’s audience is smaller and smarter to the business, e.g. chanting “Tara” when the biker chick showed up to interfere in the TNA Knockouts match.

I don’t think I’ll be watching this unless I have a really compelling reason to. But the presentation of The Whole F’n Show was cool before it, so I’d say this was a very successful night for TNA.