Ask-Ardeth

I usually keep my Ask-Ardeth column for my main blog, but I thought I'd post it here this time because it's, once again wrestling related that someone was asking me about.


Time to dig into the fang mail for another batch of emails from beyond the grave.
Welcome to an overdue issue of "Ask Ardeth" Where anything that can be thought of to ask will be answered by my horror film Heavy Metal Goddess alter ego Ardeth Blood.

Dear Ardeth:
Reading your blog this past week and wanted to know why you failed to say anything about the Rock, Undertaker and Triple-H returning?  You also made a comment about doing TNA reviews again, when?
Signed
Jessica P.

Dear Jessica P.
Why have I failed to talk about Rock, Undertaker and Triple-H... cause I'm not fans of theirs and under no obligation to do so. Besides, everyone and their dog's grandmother have been talking about them.
 As for getting back to doing TNA reviews, yes I did blog about that on my personal blog -read that here- as to when I get back to it, it's coming down the line. But, I mentioned way back in the late summer and fall of 2010, so many others have started to do what I was doing, and they're doing it now full time. 
When I started doing this, I was in a minority, now you can find hundreds of recaps shows and wrestling blogs. This remember, is not my first blogging adventure, I've been at this for a long while on different sites, for the last few years.

That's all the time we have for this one, come back around and see what other gobs of wisdom Ardeth Blood will dish out and serve to her fiends.

You can email Ask Ardeth at hardcorevampsprods@yahoo.ca   
 

NXT for the week of Feb 24th 2011

We opened with the three remaining Rookies all being told by their Pros that they were on their own this week.   Not one single Pro was in the area.

This moved nicely into the first Challenge, the Grace Under Pressure.  
Each Rookie had to run around the ring, doing a selection of odd motor skill related tasks from picking up dice with chop sticks to stacking wooden blocks.

• Johnny Curtis  clocked in at 1minute 19 seconds
• Brodus Clay clocked in at 1m 46s
• Derrick Bateman clocked in at 1m 43 s

This gave Curtis the win and the 3 points. 

The only match this week was a triple threat between all the Rookies.   Johnny Curtis got the win

The second Challenge was the Talk the Talk.   The Rookies had 30 seconds or so on the mic to tell the crowd why they should be the next break out star.
Brodus Clay got the win on this one.  That earned him 3 points.   I think the fact it was his home town gave an advantage to him.

This was an Elimination week.  Derrick Bateman was eliminated. 

Next week is the final episode for this season of NXT, for the two remaining Rookies,  Johnny Curtis and Brodus Clay

I've been saying since the beginning that my money is on Johnny Curtis, let's see if I'm right.
Remember, in Canada it airs on the Score on Thursday nights.

What's WWE's Plan?

Every year at some point they put together two wrestlers who are going to battle each other for the belt, as a tag team to have them wrestle for the tag belts.
And usually, they win much to both wrestler's shock. That leaves them having to defend the tag belts and wondering if they can trust their partner.

So it was no shock to see them do it once again this past Monday on Raw.  This time Miz and Cena won the tag belts after defeating Gabriel and Slater who had just won them the night before at the ppv.  Cena seemed happy, Miz seemed smug. 
Wade Barrett of the Corre then slapped down the old faithful rematch clause and we were all treated to another twelve minutes of what was actually a really interesting match. 

Then, instead of sticking to the usual game plan WWE has with this foes for partner storyplot where they would be tag champs for the next month or so until Wrestlemaina,  the Miz screwed Cena out of the belts.

Well, even I was sitting there watching the show yesterday (it was the replay as I never get to see anything when it originally airs) wondering what they did that for? 
Was it just to shake up the same old same old, or does WWE have something else in store down the road?

I understand that they are really making a point to have the Miz be the most hated champ. {I also happened to notice they really made it a point earlier in the show to drive home the idea that Alberto Del Rio is a Heel even though he's really getting a lot of fan backing as of late. And for one reason, Del Rio is one of the best wrestlers going.} And this move would cement that.  Was this just a chance to add a bit of spotlight to the still on-the-respirator-tag division? Or is there something even more diabolical up the sleeves of creative?

Having the belts on Gabriel and Slater in the end... only one step above where they were the night before. 
Having Cena and Miz hold the belts for a few weeks... would have been an interesting way to roll into Wrestlemaina.

Smackdown for Feb 18th 2011- Highlights

I thought it was time for a new icon.


This was the 600th episode of Smackdown.  It's been on air now for 12 years.

Match #1 was a 12man tag with members from both Raw and Smackdown.

• Edge
• Randy Orton
• John Morrison
• R-Truth
• Rey Mysterio
• John Cena

they went against

• CM Punk
• Sheamus
• Wade Barrett
• Drew McIntyre
• Kane
• Dolph Ziggler

Edge got the win for his team over Ziggler. This was after Mysterio had 619ed both Ziggler and Barrett. Wow. Not even the 619 could knock loose the hair gel from Barrett's Jughead Jones hair style.

Then Vickie came out to the ring, with her footage from few weeks ago telling Edge that he's been sort of stripped of the belt, saying Dolph Ziggler was the real champ and then fired Edge.

Match #2 Was a Diva's tag match.  Layla/Maryse vs Eve/Beth.   Layla got the win

Match#3 Kofi Kingston vs Miz.    The Miz got the win with a distraction from... Alberto Del Rio of all people.  I'm sort of shocked that the Bore-Spore Alex Riley behaved himself. But he was looking spiffy in a white tie.   Riley I mean.

Match #4 was Gabriel/Slater vs Santino/Kozlov.  This got a large DQ when the rest of the Corre interrupted.  Then the Big Show came out and cleaned house.

We ended the show with what was suppose to be the handing over of the belt to Ziggler, but what happened was that Teddy Long came to the ring and told Vickie he knew it had been her all this time who attacked him. He then re-hired Edge

Match #5- Edge vs Ziggler for the title.  Edge got the win and was once again named the champ.
Teddy Long then fired Ziggler.

I have to wonder what that storyline is setting up for?

I know the ppv is tonight, and I know the promos for the Undertaker have been saying 2/21/11  which would be tomorrow.  So I am guessing that means the Undertaker will be switching over to Raw.

NXT for the week of Feb 17th 2011

I missed the show last week because of a scheduling issue.   But I see that Byron Saxton was eliminated.
This leaves, Johnny Curtis, Brodus Clay and Derrick Bateman.

We opened with more crap from Derrick Bateman. Seriously, I do not understand why this guy is the resident comedy routine?

This week's first challenge was the Smash and Grab.  The three Rookies had to hit a pinata and scoop up the cash then run it up the ramp to their Pro.  Blindfolded. 

• Johnny Curtis = 0
• Brodus Clay = $4800
• Derrick Bateman = was DQed for removing the blindfold.

This round was worth 2 points. Brodus Clay won

And the part of the big evil this week was played by Josh Mattews. As he proceded to tell Todd Grisham that he was not funny.

Match #1- Brodus Clay vs R-Truth  with Clay getting the win

Challenge #2 this week was something straight off of the old hit Canadian show "You can't do that on Television"   it was called Save Yourself Triva.   Each Rookie had to answer as many questions as he could right, in order to keep himself from getting slimed.  Which, would have worked better if Matt Striker had learned to speed up his questions, as they barely got through one category.  Which, by the by, whoever was running the categories screwed up by putting the wrong question in the wrong grouping.

• Johnny Curtis= 0
• Brodus Clay= 2
• Derrick Bateman= 1

Clay won this round getting 3 points.  This left both Curtis and Bateman getting green slime poured on them.

Match #2- Bateman vs Daniel Bryan.  Bryan got the win on this.
The Pros were playing their own round of open mic night during this match, which was more interesting then the match for the first few minutes.  Actually, whenever the Prods play open mic night it's more interesting.

Next week is another Elimination. And there are only two episodes left of the season.

NXT for the week of Feb 3rd 2011

First off, I have to say we had a bit of a weather issue here so there were tech issues for me.

Brodus Clay came out with Ricardo Rodriguez to the ring as his stand in Pro this week. I guess Albert Del Rio was busy taping this week's Smackdown or something.

Right off, the first Challenge was  arm wrestling worth 3 points

• Johnny Curtis went up against Bryon Saxton - Curtis won this round
• Derrick Bateman went up against Brodus Clay - Clay won this round
• Brodus Clay then went up against Johnny Curtis for round two - Brodus Clay headbutted Johnny Curtis getting himself disqualified.  

Johnny Curtis won the 3 points

Match #1 was Chris Masters vs Byron Saxton.  Masters won with his trademark MastersLock
I swear that Josh Mathews does not look at his production notes ever. He spent the entire match asking if this was an Elimination week or not.  And Todd Grisham was not paying much more attention, as he called out "there's a pin"  when it was a Standing MastersLock.

Match #2 was Brodus Clay vs DiBiase.  Brodus Clay got the win on this one. 
Both Mathews and Grisham were doing a good amount of comedy and at one point even admitted that it was "an attempt at bad comedy"
While, the whole match I think it was Dolph Ziggler doing random commentary from the ramp.  If you're going to give him a live mic, then just add him to the seating up with Josh Mathews and Todd Grisham.

The 2nd Challenge of the night was the Talk the Talk and worth 2 points

• Byron Saxton had to talk about R-Truth
• Derrick Bateman had to talk about Dolph Ziggler - He ended up having the rest of the Pros and the crowd repeating him for a few minutes
• Johnny Curtis had to talk about Chris Masters - BUT decided to taunt Brodus Clay instead and then run out of the ring to stand beside the announce team
• Brodus Clay had to talk about Daniel Bryan

Bateman won this round and gained the 2 points.

Match #3 was a tag match between Daniel Bryan/Derrick Bateman vs R-Truth/Johnny Curtis.   Daniel Bryan managed to get the win over Curtis

Next week is Eliminations 

Don't forget, Canada now gets NXT on Thursdays at 9pm on the Score. 
Which is something that the announce team hinted at on this episode, that even though the U.S. gets the show online on the website, outside of the U.S. the rest of the world still gets it on our selected sports networks, so yes there are ratings.