12/31 RAW REAX

Terrie Neilson of Las Vegas, Nev. (9.0): Best: Kennedy vs. Shawn; Triple H vs. Flair (on the mic and in the ring). Worst: Not a lot, really Very nice show tonight. I was handicapped by crappy taping (think my VCR has had enough of me being a wrestling fan), but what I saw and heard was some really good stuff. Randy Orton got quite a bit of heat back tonight on the mic at the beginning and attacking Matt Hardy in the back. His Legend Killer punt needs a better camera angle to camouflage it not being truly stiff. I expected Shawn to get the win at Armageddon; seeing Kennedy get a win off-PPV - in a PPV-quality match - was a nice surprise. Kennedy can finally brag getting a win over yet another champion, but why wasn't he, or even Shawn for that matter, on a mic? This feud has been given physical respect, but nowhere near the verbal respect it deserves to keep it moving. I just don't get it. Your penalty right there, WWE. I'm hoping WWE went back to its recent history as Triple H-Regal looks to be getting under way. Two weeks ago, I said this would a good feud when the circumstances at the time were Regal getting tired of Triple H's embarrassments of Vince and Vince losing it (after Jeff moments before told him flat out why people don't like him). Regal was doing his part to protect the boss then, and went further tonight by costing Triple the match with Flair AND his Rumble spot. Regal is well capable of going toe-to-toe with Triple H in the ring. Granted at the same time, he could have ruined it for Flair instead; but this is where the match Hornswoggle ties in. Back in October, Regal was put in charge of Horny, and at the point where Regal was about to be outed for not keeping tabs on the little guy, he shows up right where Regal said he'd be, in a trunk taking a nap. Like Eugene in the past, Regal's got a soft spot for the disadvantaged despite his gruff exterior. Good news for Santino fans: looks like they're finding the ways to give him some credibility in the ring to go with the visage and attitude. When he began, he was paired with all the wrong people (Umaga, Masters). Back in July, while he was still a face, he had a decent match with Kennedy, but no attempt was made to make that public. Hopefully the MVP Effect happens and Santino becomes a complete package. Bravo tonight.

Dan Dragonetti (9.5): Best match: WWE and storyline continuity. Worst match: Umaga-Jim Duggan Holy cow... what a show. I don't know who was head writing this week, but they need a raise. This week's show had it all.  In-ring brutality, in-ring psychology, and just enough (but not too many) behind-the-scenes vignettes to give us old time fans what we have always craved... logical storylines, progressions, and the in-ring action to cap it off. I love William Regal's mic work and facials, so I looked forward to see where Vince and Co. were going with this. The Jericho-JBL pullapart actually had me wondering if these two were purposely being overly stiff with each other. The three-way women's match, although sloppy at times, was one of the best women's matches I have seen for one simple reason. Based on the lightning pace of the match that had literally no rest holds,  I had NO idea who was going to come out on top. As far as Triple H-Flair, it was phenomenal to see two workers who respect wrestling's past actually go back to the basics... intelligent promos to hook the viewer, then putting on a psychological clinic in the ring for 14 minutes ! Although I knew the crowd would be let down by the way-too-probable DQ finish, they used the best one they had... and it advanced three storylines at once! Kudos to the WWE for having their working shoes on tonight. Give us more, please!

IMPACT REAX

Matt Guerra of Bayonne N.J. (6.5): Best match of the night: Motor City Machine Guns vs. A.J. & Tomko. I know the end result of the storyline with A.J./Angle/Christian will result with A.J. breaking away from both of them, but can we get there already? Enough of the booking A.J. as an idiot. Sometimes it's funny, but most of the time it falls flat. Time for him to become a serious player again. This show was too much filler for me; waiting for next week to actually give me some results. On a positive note, Samoa Joe's storyline is very intriguing and TNA's mid-card feuds were once again given enough TV time to make them matter.

ECW REAX

Terrie Neilson of Las Vegas, Nev. (6.0): Best: the new MNM/Layla vs. Moore/Wang/Kelly Worst: Chavo's reason for return The first episode back was kinda blah, helped somewhat by the crowd and noticeable sweetening. This Collin guy I like. His expression and body carriage were great for what he is doing. At first he was probably looking forward to maybe a rematch with Shelton to show he'd learned a few things, but the goes stiff in horror when Big Daddy V is sicced on him. Tazz bailing out knowing that Colling had been duped was done well also. With a recurrent jobber in Curtis, maybe a new J.O.B. Squad could be in the works. ECW may be the place to do reconstructs and debuts, so long as SciFi has the patience and understanding for it. Yang's counter to Layla's slapping on him with a dip-and-kiss added some fun to their match. The "15 Minutes Of Fame" match stipulation is a good old-school concept to really ramp up singles matches. Don't know how well it would fare as a tag-team Iron Team match. It may be too tempting to shove in as many falls as possible when for that time limit one would suffice. Estrada is finally seen after how many weeks - with no explanation why he's been invisible. He came across almost face by booking a match everyone both at home and in the arena would look forward to see, Chavo vs. Punk. The match they delivered was pretty decent. It was a little wild and sloppy looking but effective for a right-now match. And Punk gave a clear early opening to Chavo's eventual work on Punk's knee that took a little long for Chavo to capitalize on, so some ring rust was there. The biggest problem was Chavo's reason for attacking. He mentioned Rey injuring him, as he should to explain his absence. Rey for now is busy with MVP in a feud sense, so all they could come up with was apparent jealousy over Punk's raves and reputation. Chavo's delivery was fine, but the topic was lousy.

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