Home Schooling No. 13

G'day everyone, I'm the Aussie Mouthpiece and it's time again to take a look at the week that was in wrestling. This week I will as usual focus on Monday Night Raw, but as an extra added bonus, I've got some things I want to write about regarding TNA and the Lockdown PPV, which I haven't watched in detail, but some of the results got me thinking, and made me realise there's some aspects of TNA's product that have been bugging me for a while.

So sit back, relax, put your reading glasses and your learning eyes on, and let's get down to business.

Raw this week was coming to us from merry old England. I always enjoy when we get an episode of Raw or Smackdown from overseas, the crowds always seem hotter. I guess it's because the WWE comes to their country maybe once a year, and in that one time, people from the entire country flock to see them. At least, that's the way it works here in Australia. But it gives the show a bigger, slightly more epic feel about it, and I think overall, this week's episode did not disappoint, although I'm sure the live audience would have liked to have seen Lesnar in person rather than just on videotape.

Speaking of the crowd, they were right behind CM Punk this week. Don't get me wrong, the crowd is always behind Punk, but this week the cheers seemed louder, and more pronounced. Again it's probably something to do with not seeing the product live as much, but it feels like Punk's character has become.. not watered down, but not quite as edgy as it was a few months ago. So it was good to hear Punk getting the massive cheers. The "yes" chants during Punk's kicking sequences were awesome as well.

What a great match Henry and Punk had. There was one part where Mark Henry caught Punk, and flung him, quite violently, into the guardrail. It looked amazingly brutal.Henry has improved his consistency so much in the last year. He always had this potential, and his size and strength got him over immediately.. but now that he's added in the character development, the "hall of pain" angle, and the consistency of having great matches, he's finally stepped into that spot that the WWE have had set out for him for so many years. And I for one am really happy for him.

Last week I talked about there being a theme to the show. This week's theme seemed to be Extreme. No DQ matches, Extreme Rules matches.. Jericho going to extremes trying to prove CM Punk is an alcoholic.

One thing that I found funny, is that at Extreme Rules, we have CM Punk vs Jericho in a Street Fight, Brock Lesnar vs Cena in an Extreme Rules match, and Randy Orton vs Kane in a Falls Count Anywhere match. .. Now.. maybe it's just me, but aren't those three matches essentially the same thing? I remember a few years ago there was a Ladder match, a Stretcher match.. some kind of street fight match.. It just seems a little weird to have three matches all called different things, yet basically meaning the same thing.

Punk and Jericho's back and forth promo was decent, but it was just more of the same stuff from Jericho especially, and to me, it just seems like they've lost a little momentum in the feud because of that. It's not even in the realm of possibility that CM Punk would become a drunk from one drink, and honestly, this is supposed to be the "reality" era, storylines based more in reality, and in reality, I don't buy that Chris Jericho would believe the things he is saying about Cm Punk. It just feels like some steam has been let out or something.
Hopefully the match at Extreme Rules either changes things up again, the way it did when Jericho first attacked Punk with the Whiskey bottle, or it becomes the end of their rivalry.

So let's talk about the best part of the night. Funnily enough not even a live in-ring segment. The Brock Lesnar interview is of course the segment I'm referring to.
The way they've brought him back, the fact that two weeks in a row he's taken out Cena, he doesn't feel like a WWE superstar. As he said, he feels like an ass kicker. It's made him feel bigger than the WWE, and by referencing his UFC career, instantly making him legitimate.
I get the feeling that they got the idea for this interview from the UFC preview shows that are on before the pay per views where they interview each fighter. Again, making it feel .. "real". It's working really well so far, but the big test comes at Extreme Rules. It's one thing to take a guy down and have a bit of a melee with him, but it's certainly a whole different thing to have a match, especially with the top guy in the company.

Making it a "hardcore" (lets face it, that's what this is) match, I think will actually help, because it relies less on the wrestling and more on the big spots. I'm still hoping for a great match though.

So Cena comes out to "answer" Lesnar's interview essentially, but instead it seems he's focused on John Laurinitis. It's an interesting change, but I don't know if it's the right move. This match really needs to be about Lesnar and Cena. Nothing more. To me it should be about how they started around the same time, and the differences in their characters. I know they did that with The Rock and Cena, but this is a different animal. Lesnar isn't some actor who has a bunch of cool catchphrases. He's a legitimate fighter.

I thought it was good that Tensai got put into the main event, and even though it was a dirty win, he still won. I think his character isn't exactly a long term thing, but it works for now, and it's something different which is always a good thing. Variety can bring in more diverse crowds.


Ok so very quickly let's talk about TNA.

Now I haven't been paying a hell of a lot of attention to TNA lately, but I did see recently on impact that Velvet Sky won a battle royal or some kind of 6 woman match to become the number one contender for the knockouts title. And it's not the first time they've done something like that.
My problem with this is it felt like Velvet accomplished this big thing, like it was a big deal that she overcame all the challenges to become the No.1 Contender, yet at Lockdown, she lost.

My problem isn't exactly that she lost, it's just the way the match was set up, with how much emphasis was put on the fact that she won this huge thing to get the title shot.
And the way that she lost. Gail Kim was half knocked out from the powerbomb from the turnbuckle, yet won with a reversed roll up.. how did she have the strength to do that? It's just bad booking or whatever it's called these days. To me it would have made more sense if she hit her finisher and fell into a cover.

It felt the same with the Motor City Machine Guns. Now I am a huge fan of these guys. I was so happy to see them back together, and that Sabin has recovered from his injury. Yet in their first Pay Per view match back as a team, they lost.

Why not book them in a tag team match, but not for the titles? That way they could win and build momentum and make it feel like their return was a success. Maybe I just think in a weird way though.

Overall it just feels like they book things in advance, or tape things in advance and then change their minds about the results at the pay per views, and then the previous events don't make as much sense.

I also thought it was a little strange that Jeff Hardy won the match with a massive Swanton Bomb. Those spots used to be somewhere in the middle of a match, not the finish. I mean of course it works, but then within a minute, Jeff was up, walking around and congratulating fans, which again, doesn't seem realistic. I know it's a worked sport, but isn't the point to try to get us, as fans, to suspend disbelief? If something generally wouldn't happen if it was real, why would you do it as part of the show?

Overall I didn't mind Lockdown however, some of it was terrible, some of it was great. Kind of like TNA in general. But they need less emphasis on the older guys, and way more on the younger guys and the Tag team division.

Ok that's about it. So as usual, you can follow me on twitter @TheOZMouthpiece , and also leave  me a comment on here to let me know what you think.

Oh and one last thing, thanks to @TherealWB and @VOWLive for making me their guest blogger, which was awesome!

I'm the Aussie Mouthpiece, and my business here is concluded, for now...

The case of the Hardy boys and the poor management.

Welcome to another edition of the Aussie Mouthpiece. I am said mouthpiece.

I want to talk about the news that broke today (in australia at least), that being the firing of Matt Hardy from TNA wrestling.

I'm not going to talk about what happened with Matt, I don't know the circumstances, I'm not in any position to judge him, however, as we say in this country, if you drink then drive, you're a bloody idiot. so Matt, you're a bloody idiot.

What i want to talk about is TNA.

More specifically, how the hell can they justify firing Matt Hardy, yet keeping Jeff Hardy on the roster? Matt, who was already suspended from TNA, was caught driving over the alcohol limit. Not at a TNA event, not presently associated with TNA from the suspension. Jeff Hardy showed up to main event a pay-per-view either off of his head, or he became off his head on drugs during the broadcast! How is that not as bad as what happened with Matt Hardy?

How can you keep Jeff Hardy on your roster after that? He made the company look bad. Well, worse than it already looked with Hogan running the show. But showing up and trying to wrestle like that.. I just feel really bad for Sting especially, having to go out there and try to work a match with that guy.

I remember watching Jeff Hardy break out in WWE in 2007 or so I think. He had a match with Triple H, on RAW, and it was great. He was clean, he wasn't botching, he was connecting majorly with the fans, and if i remember correctly, he may have gone over that night. And then he got suspended and missed Wrestlemania 24.

But I remember him coming back, working his way back up and then finally winning the world title at the end of 2008. It was great, I was in, i was a fan.

And then what happened? 6 or so months later, he left. and 2 weeks later was busted with drugs. That was almost it for me with Jeff Hardy.

Let me just stop there, i was a big fan of the Hardys for years, those TLC matches were amazing, and I always liked Jeff because he was different.

So when he left and then straight away was back into drugs.. it was a let down. I'm sure for his more rabid fans it was a big let down. Like "he left just so he could get high again".

So this brings me to TNA again.
First of all they bring Jeff Hardy in, and then turn him heel? Jeff Hardy .. the guy with some of the most loyal fans i've ever seen? Heel? that ain't gonna work. It didn't. he just got high instead.
Then they bring in Matt Hardy, who had claimed on his youtube videos to be in great shape, but it appeared that wasn't the case when he made his first TNA appearance.
Now i don't think Matt looked bad at all, he looked in decent shape, but still, he had enough time after his WWE release (by the way.. the grapes thing.. yeah that was just weird. Trying to explain it as a gimmick.. i didn't buy it. It seemed like drugs.) He still had time to get in shape even better. But that's neither here nor there.

What did he have.. 3 matches in TNA? I didn't really notice when he got suspended to be honest.

Now we all know what happened at Victory Road. Hardy was off his face, and Sting had to wrestle a short match, and basically hold him down for the 3 count, after which Jeff completely no-selled Sting's finisher. Terrible. Made the company look bad as i said earlier.

But what happened? They just gave him time off to "get himself right". No suspension.. no firing.. Why the hell was he allowed to go to the ring in the first place? Who's foolish idea was that? Oh.. i forgot who runs TNA for a minute there....

So Matt Hardy got suspended for "showing up late".. that tends to happen with hangovers.
But the only thing i can think of is that TNA were planning on releasing him before the DWI or whatever you Americans call it happened.

But my point here is, how in the blue hell does Jeff Hardy, who is on trial for drug possession, still have a paid position at TNA, whereas his brother, WHO CAN WRESTLE and isn't potentially going to jail.. well until today.. how do they fire him first? Something is very wrong in TNA. Are they going to have James Storm stop coming out with a beer now? Probably not. Will they make Ric Flair stop talking about his reservations and crap at nightclubs? No.

WWE would.

Matt Hardy, probably shouldn't have a job. But not because of a drink driving incident. Especially when his drug addled brother (have you see those videos Jeff has put on youtube... Jeff.. don't give the guys trying to put you in jail more evidence.. jeez).. has a job in said company.

So as you can probably tell, I've given up on Jeff Hardy. I remember CM Punk cutting a promo about him just after the news of his drug possession came out. I hated CM Punk for that, I thought it was low, and whoever gave that the green light was a scumbag.

But now, after Victory Road.. i couldn't care less.


Anyway, I've written enough about these 2. I really hope they can both sort their lives out, if only for themselves. I don't think we'll see either of them in a (well known) ring for a long time, if ever. But the fact that Jeff Hardy is still employed by TNA shows you what kind of company they really are. And if i was one of the employees of that company, i'd be exteremely pissed off.

That's it, if you liked it, comment it, if you hated it, comment, and then go suck a lemon.

Signing out now.