Taso the Greek’s “Bumpin’ Heads 2008″

The Bussey Bunch is a reality show based upon a family that owns and operates a small pro wrestling company. I’m zoning in on all the wrestling stuff. I miss alot of the personal crap that reality shows are always creeping around about. Can’t say I am drawn in, but I’m not a fan of reality shows anyway. I like Dog the Bounty Hunter and Cops, even Top Chef. I don’t go out of my way to watch them because they are not that interesting.

In this show, however, I am more interested in the wrestling business aspect and less so in the people. I don’t know every brother and sisters name. I don’t get that ionvested in the show early on. The two sons that are helping to run the promotion come off as a couple of college fraternity douchebags, but that’s just me. The family seems very dysfunctional. But they also run a company and a gym. One of the daughters is training to be a boxer. She wants her father to give her his blessing to fight professionally, or something. Really interesting stuff.

The lead wrestler in this whole deal is Angel of Sin, who impressed the father and sons in a tryout practice held at the family’s gym. The sons were really hyped that this wrestler, their creation, would become the next big star in PCW. TNA’s Lance Hoyt, also known as Shadow in PCW, is also in the series. He is working in PCW as a wrestler.

OK, so whatever. I’ll watch some more of it. It didn’t piss me off or make me groan.

January 27, 2008 - New York City, New York;

ROYAL RUMBLE LINE-UP:
o Ric Flair defeated Montel Vontavious Porter; **3/4
o John Bradshaw Layfield beat Chris Jericho by DQ; **3/4
o Edge beat Rey Mysterio -World Heavyweight Title-; ***
o Randy Orton beat Jeff Hardy -WWE Championship-; ***

* Royal Rumble Entrants (RAW): Triple H, Shawn Michaels, Mr. Kennedy, Umaga, Hornswoggle, Hardcore Holly, Cody Rhodes, Carlito Cool, Santino Marella, Gene Snitsky……. and surprise entrant John Cena (WINNER)!..
* Royal Rumble Entrants (SD!): Batista, The Undertaker, Kane, Fit Finlay, Mark Henry, The Great Khali, Chavo Guerrero, Chuck Palumbo, Jamie Noble ..
* Royal Rumble Entrants (ECW): C.M. Punk, Big Daddy V., John Morrison, Mike Mizanin, Shelton Benjamin, Elijah Burke, Tommy Dreamer ..
* Royal Rumble Entrants (Other): Mick Foley, Jimmy Snuka, Roddy Piper

–thanks to http://www.onlineworldofwrestling.com for results

I liked the Rumble. I liked Undertaker and Shawn’s seedings. The big surprise is Cena coming back. But the next night the whole idea of the Royal Rumble was sorta thrown out the window when Orton agreed to put the title on the line at No Way Out.

NOAH, 1/20/08
Tokyo Korakuen Hall
2,100 Fans - Super No Vacancy

1. Mohammed Yone & Ippei Ota vs. Taiji Ishimori & Akihiko Ito **1/2
2. Kishin Kawabata & Kentaro Shiga vs. Junji Izumida & Mitsuo Momota *3/4
3. Takuma Sano & Yoshinobu Kanemaru vs. Tamon Honda & Tsuyoshi Kikuchi ***1/4
4. Yoshinari Ogawa, Doug Williams & Masao Inoue vs. Bison Smith, Rocky Romero & Davey Richards ***
5. Akitoshi Saito & KENTA vs. Yoshihiro Takayama & Atsushi Aoki ***3/4
6. Shuhei Taniguchi Ten Match Trial Series - Match One: Shuhei Taniguchi vs. Kensuke Sasaki **
7. ROH World Title: Nigel McGuinnes (c) vs. Go Shiosaki ***3/4
8. Akira Taue 20th Anniversary Match: Akira Taue, Jun Akiyama & Takeshi Morishima vs. Mitsuharu Misawa, Naomichi Marufuji & Kotaro Suzuki ***

Feeding my head more NOAH with this show, I have the same bone to pick with the booking. The random trios and tag team matches bore me and take away any story or reasoning to the match. If NOAH used a point system of something that determined rank I wouldn’t care about angles and feuds, but they just seem to float along and have matches for no rhyme or reason. I am enjoying the KENTA even more as he’s on this kick to disprespect every veteran to get in his way. So far I have seen him against Ogawa twice and this time with Takayama and their exchanges were all fantastic.

Nigel McGuinness vs Go Shiozaki was my match of the night. NOAH singles matches tend to always be very good. Rocky Romero looks tiny next to everyone. Davey Richards did a great job in the six man tag. For me, Yone, Marufuji, KENTA, Morishima, Kanemura, and Suzuki are my favorites to watch.

NOAH, 06.01.2008
Tokyo Differ Ariake
1,800 Fans - Super No Vacancy

1. Kishin Kawabata & Kentaro Shiga vs. Junji Izumida & Genba Hirayanagi **
2. Takuma Sano & Akihiko Ito vs. Tamon Honda & Tsuyoshi Kikuchi ***
3. Akira Taue & Masao Inoue vs. Doug Williams & Nigel McGuinness **3/4
4. Yoshinari Ogawa & Kotaro Suzuki vs. KENTA & Taiji Ishimori ***3/4
5. Jun Akiyama & Shuhei Taniguchi vs. Akitoshi Saito & Bison Smith ***
6. Atsushi Aoki Shining Magic 10 Match Series 2nd:
Atsushi Aoki vs. Davey Richards ***
7. GHC Jr. Heavyweight Title:
Yoshinobu Kanemaru (c) vs. Rocky Romero ***1/4
8. Mitsuharu Misawa, Go Shiosaki & Ippei Ota vs. Takeshi Morishima, Naomichi Marufuji & Mohammed Yone ***1/2

I like NOAH, but their booking and their style in the ring can be a little stifling at times. They make up for it with good the great matches on a consistent basis. On this card, although there was nothing above a three star and a half star match, there was some great wrestling and a very small important ingriedient. A storyline. KENTA continues to have great matches at the strt of the new year and I like his little feud with Ogawa over respect. Doug & Nigel did really well. Bison Smith is hit and miss with his over the top histrionics, but he’s mostly hit in a fun sort of way. Aoki vs. Richards was good but Richards looks sometimes like he is just going throught the motions and not really stringing along any logic. Still a very athletic & fast paced match, as was Kanemura vs. Romero. The best was saved for last in my eyes, as the spectatcle of Morishima, Marufuji, and Yone took on Misawa, Ippei, and Go, and they had a wonderful match.

IWA Deep South DVD December 1, 2007 “2007 Carnage Cup” - Pulaski, TN

1. Fans Bring The Weapons - Prophet vs. Corey Shaddix
2. Lightube Board, Lightube Table, Barbed Wire Board, Barbed Wire Table - UltraMantis Black vs. SeXXXy Eddy vs. Scotty Vortekz
3. Unlucky 13 Lightubes - Tank vs. Deranged vs. Danny Havoc
4. Loose Lightubes, Lightube Bundles & Lightube Corners - WHACKS vs. Drake Younger vs. Viking
5 . Home Run Derby Death Match - Ian Rotten vs. Insane Lane vs. FreakShow
6. Chrisjen Hayme vs. Hydra vs. Shawn Reed vs. Chris Styles vs. Tim Donst vs. Amasis
7. Pits Of Hell - FreakShow vs. Deranged
8. Log Cabin Lightubes - Scotty Vortekz vs. Viking
9. Razor Board Match - Insane Lane vs. Danny Havoc
10. Unlimited Lightubes - FreakShow vs. Scotty Vortekz vs. SeXXXy Eddy vs. Danny Havoc

I’m a blood mark. I’m a proponent of the hardcore style of wrestling. It has its’ place in the sports entertainment world, where it was almost perfected by ECW’s Paul Heyman. Now you can lead a horse to water but you can’t make him drink. But you sure as fuck can beat a dead horse all day long because that’s what I’m getting here. With a cast of some of the most bizarre and insane combatants, IWA-DS’s “Carnage Cup” 2007 had no chance to be anything more then a bad train wreck, the kind that makes one think twice about death match wretling and where it’s going.

Pros: SeXXXy Eddy on any show is a plus, regardless of his wrestling skill or lack thereof. Funnier however is that at times it seemed Eddy was the one who pulled his own matches together. I would have liked to see Eddy vs. Drake Younger but that wasn’t to be. The Danny Havok vs. Insane Lane match was the best thing on the show, as they used a bit of psychology, THANK YOU, to make the match more then just a blood quest. I enjoyed watching Viking lay down those nasty slap chops to Scotty Vortekz beet-red chest. Ian Rotten cut a promo about “hardcore for life” and “us-against-them” and it’s hard to get behind the guy cuz I think he’s the carniest mother-fucker around. Ian announced his retirement match for early in 2008 as well.

Cons: Drake Younger had half his ear ripped off. They were able to attach most of it back at the hospital. Deranged botched a simple leg drop off the apron and broke his leg. Scotty Vortekz ripped open his fingers and submitted within 30 seconds of the beginning of the final match. And after all those light tubes, and the razor blades, pizza cutters, barbwire, thumbtacks, and much much more, I left the show feeling I had seen the death of hardcore ultraviolent extreme wrestling. If that sounds too dramatic, then let us just say the signs don’t look very good at the moment.

MOTY contenders:

Kurt Angle (c) vs. Yuji Nagata **** 1/4/08
Kurt Angle vs. Christian Cage ***
Triple HHH vs. Jeff Hardy *** - Armageddon 12/16/07
Shinsuke Nakamura Vs. Togi Makabe, IWGP #1 Contendership - NJPW 12/9/07 ***3/4
Mitsuharu Misawa & Jun Akiyama vs. Kenta Kobashi & Yoshihiro Takayama - NOAH 12/2/07 ***
Kota Ibushi (c) vs. KAGETORA (El Dorado***3/4) 12/29/07
Yoshinari Ogawa & Kotaro Suzuki vs. KENTA & Taiji Ishimori ***3/4 - NOAH 1/20/08
ROH World Title: Nigel McGuinnes (c) vs. Go Shiosaki ***3/4 -NOAH 1/20/08
Yoshinari Ogawa & Kotaro Suzuki vs. KENTA & Taiji Ishimori ***3/4 -NOAH 1/6/08

Worst Event:

Inoki Genome 2
CZW Cage of Death 9
IWA-DS 12/1/2007 Carnage Cup

Best Promotion:
So far I have watched a little bit of a lot of different things. Most of it is puro but of course you can throw in the WWE and TNA. So frar my top pick for the promotion of 2008:

NOAH

NJPW “WRESTLE KINGDOM IN TOKYO DOME II”, 04.01.2008 º
º Tokyo Dome º
º 27,000 Fans - No Vacancy º

1. THIS IS WAR! ~NONSTOP RISING~:
Milano Collection A.T., Minoru & Prince Devitt vs. Christian Cage, A.J. Styles & Petey Williams

I’m going in thinking this match is going to kick things off to one hell of a start and they end up working some crappy comedy style routine straight out of one of Russo’s scripts. Styles and Minoru start off hot for about one minute and then the primping and posturing begins. Yes, Petty Williams and his Joe Weider gimmick are funny but I expected so much more from this match and got so little in return. The obligatory dive-fest over the top rope was more a gallimaufry then a smorgasbord, and that means it was more of a clusterfuck then anything else. Even Dragon Gate guys do serious matches when they come to Ring of Honor. *3/4

2. IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Title:
Wataru Inoue (c) vs. Christopher Daniels
Holy Christ! Daniels needs a new gimmick! I can’t stand the guy anymore! Daniels works heel, and he and Wataru put together a decent match. I couldn’t see them botching this up badly even if a spot or two are executed slowly and clumsy. I hate to see Wataru, and Daniels as well, bring their game down a notch and work a match at a slower, plodding pace. I want to say that international cross-promotion won’t work well due to the language issues, plus guys not being accustomed to each other but that isn’t kosher when you look back over the years at the classic matches so many foreigners had with Japanese stars. Looking to be astounded by the first two matches on this card I was left impassive. **

3. Rustic awakening ~ Japanese Muscle Monster vs. The American Monster:
Manabu Nakanishi vs. Abyss

I had my heart set on this match for some odd reason. Maybe it was the thought that these two monsters could become a spiritual flume, brawling like the bygone days when Bruiser Brody and Stan Hansen would brawl with Baba or The Shiek. It starts off with a bang but when it goes quickly to the outside the immobile Nakanishi brings it down. Abyss, highly underated in so many ways, busts out some thumb tacks and I have no issue with that. he takes the bump into the gimmicks and bloodies up his hand and when they hit the ring again it starts to resemble a decent brawl. Abyss gets Germaned by Nakanishi in a great spot but the finish was botched and the match was too short to leave any sort of impression other then it was a complete stinker. *

4. NEW JAPAN vs. The Alliance GROUND ZERO:
Takashi Iizuka, Koji Kanemoto, Tiger Mask & Ryusuke Taguchi vs.
Masato Tanaka, Tatsuhito Takaiwa, Yutaka Yoshie & Katsushi Takemura

I watched the end of this, which was a Masato Tanaka lariat followed by Yutaka Yoshie off the top rope with a big splash for the win.

5. GET THE TABLE! GET THE HIGHEST! - Hardcore Match:
Togi Makabe & Toru Yano vs. Brother Ray & Brother Devon

These two teams meshed very well together.I thought 3D was put over too much and Makabe and Yano deserved better, but the matxh was very good right up until they unearthed the plunder. then it went to crap, with the trademark big moves and 3D not giving any heat to the Makabe and Yano, who were supposed to be the heels. **3/4

6. ONE NIGHT STAND ~LEGEND vs. VBH~:
Tatsumi Fujinami , Riki Choshu, Masahiro Chono, Jushin Thunder Liger & AKIRA vs.
Jado, Gedo, TARU, Shuji Kondo & “brother” YASSHI

There was some good double teaming in this with guys like Chono and Choshu hitting their trademarks, and it ends with a Liger palm strike, an Akira splash and a Choshu lariat on brother “YASSHI” for the win. **

7. Generation of Chaos: Great Muta vs. Hirooki Goto

I really liked this match. Muta was really on his game. He hit the green mist twice on Goto and once followed by two shining wizards, but Goto kicked out. I thought Goto should have gotten more offense in to make the match better. **1/2

8. IWGP Tag Team Title:
Giant Bernard & Travis Tomko (c) vs. Rick Steiner & Scott Steiner

A good match considering the participants. Giant Bernard is quite impressive. Tomko’s push in TNA and his Japan run as tag champ have been a breath of fresh air for the wrestler, and I like his promos. But he seems to dissapear alot in matches as he does here as well.*1/2

9. Final Resolution ~Justice vs. REAL~ IWGP 3rd Belt:
Kurt Angle (c) vs. Yuji Nagata

Nagata has some great facials. there’s some good back and forth mat wrestling with some submission thrown in at the begining. Nagata used kicks to good effect and to which Kurt reacted to defensively very well, almost as if they were trying to make the impression that he was vulnerable to it. Anggle slaps on a figure four, and after a long stretch Nagata slaps on the Nagata lock. Then he proceeds to use the crippler crossface over and over, much to the delight of the crowd, but it seemed just a bit creepy to me. Nonethless they were doing a great job and building up alot of heat as the crowd kept getting louder as the match progressed. Angle reversing the crossface into an ankle lock worked really well. They worked well together to put on a great match. ****

10. IWGP Heavyweight Title:
Hiroshi Tanahashi (c) vs. Shinsuke Nakamura

Tanahashi does a good job in the role of a cockey heel. They did a nice collection of german suplexes and reverses. Tanahashi still makes some things look odd. All the near falls and big spots were crisp and the fans were into it every step of the way. Tanahashi worked on Nakamura’s arm and shoulder, which was taped up. The finish seemed out of left field with the double “landslide” piledrivers for the win, the first off the top rope! ***

CZW December 8, 2007 “Cage Of Death 9″ - Philadelphia, PA
1. Nicky Benz, Joe Gacy & Alex Colon vs. Greg Excellent, LJ Cruz & Beef Wellington 1/2*
2. Cheech, Cloudy & Brodie Lee vs. Nate Hatred & Team AnDrew *1/2
3. LuFisto vs. Sabian *
4. Jon Dahmer vs. Danny Demanto vs. Niles Young & Derek Frazier *3/4
5. Lumberjack Strap Match - Maven vs. LOBO 1/2*
6. Ruckus vs. Messiah vs. Nick Gage *3/4
7. Ultraviolent Tables Match - WHACKS vs. Viking vs. SeXXXy Eddy *1/2
8. Fans Bring The Weapons - Chuey Martinez vs. Mitch Ryder *
9. Cage Of Death Team CZW (Necro Butcher, Danny Havoc, Toby Klein & Drake Younger) vs. Team MBA (Brain Damage, Scotty Vortekz, Diehard Dustin Lee & DJ Hyde) **1/2

I have watched about 3-4 CZW events for the past4-5 years now, and progressively over that time the promotion has gone down the drain. All to my chagrin because I am a proud member of the CZW fanclub. I had almost zero hopes for almost every one of these guys in the Cage of Death when I first saw each one of them make their debut. I hated DJ Hyde from day one, but to the promotions credit I grew to really HATE DJ Hyde. Danny havok got destroyed for two years by everyone in CZW , and even with his runs in other indies and his popularity I didn’t buy him as a main eventer. CZW can’t produce the same level of show with the same level of talent they were able to a few years ago.

The opening match was embarasingly equal amounts of bad wrestling and bad comedy. Cheech, Cloudy & Brodie Lee vs. Nate Hatred & Team AnDrew was a decent match with some good, innovative stuff. For the first time I almost enjoyed Team AnDrew. I enjoyed Sabian and LuFisto’s match even though it was pretty bad overall. It still told a cool story and a surprise run-in in the end builds some new storylines for the future. How come Niles and Derek can’t buy a shred of charisma or personality between them? Even their valet needs to be put over by the opponents taunts. Jon Dahmer vs. Danny Demanto vs. Niles Young & Derek Frazier (c) for the tag titles was better then I would have expected. Please keep Lobo and Maven bentley off my tv screen. The Ruckus vs. Messiah vs. Gauge match was dissapointing. Messiah looked very small and skinny and out of shape, Nunzio-sizesque would be one way to describe Messiah that night. Gauge looked pretty pumped and Ruckus is Ruckus. I don’t think he has improved much in the past 4 years that I have watched him, but I hope his ROH run is going well. WHACKS vs. Viking vs. SeXXXy Eddy was better then you would expect but that is because I am a huge SeXXXy Eddy fan. And why is WHACKS the photographer in a match? Viking was awful. Chuey Martinez vs. Mitch Ryder seemed just thrown in there for no apparent reason.

The Cage of Death: Team CZW vs. Team MBAhad an opportunity in some small way to pave the way for some of the new, young, loyal, hard-working guys to get over. But personally I don’t think any of them are going to go anywhere anytime soon. Brain Damage is the biggest with the best look but he’s a terrible wrestler from what I have seen. I only see him do hardcore and brawling style but from what you see he doesn’t have good athletic abilities. Necro and Toby Klein are my favorite guys out of this whole group. And on one of the biggest shows of the year for CZW, when theyare lucky they can still book guys like Necro and Toby Klein, both guys get eliminated early, and poorly. On the bright side there are some cool spots in the match and lots of blood but that’s about it and it ends with a crappy finish as well. Cage of Death 9 and CZW were a big dissapointment. maybe the biggest dissapointment, for me this Christmas season.

El Dorado “I WAS BORN TO LOVE TREASURE”, 29.12.2007 º
º Tokyo Korakuen Hall º
º º
º 1. Kinya Oyanagei & Yuki Sato vs. Ken45 & Go **1/4 º
º º
º 2. Spark Aoki & Masahito Inaba vs. NOSAWA Rongai & MAZADA *1/2 º
º º
º 3. Milanito Collection a.t. Character Deprivation Match: º
º Milanito Collection a.t. vs. Milano Collection A.T. **1/4 º
º º
º 4. SUKIYAKI vs. Animal Planets Elimination Match: º
º Shuji Kondo, Naoki Tanisaki, Antonio Honda & Mototsugu Shimizu vs. º
º Toru Owashi, Bear Fukuda, Hercules Oosenga & CHANGO **1/4 º
º º
º 5. Independent Jr. Heavyweight Title: º
º Kota Ibushi (c) vs. KAGETORA ***3/4 º
º º
º 6. UWA Trios Title, Ladder Match: º
º Takuya Sugawara, Brahman Shu & Brahman Kei (c) vs. º
º “brother” YASSHI, Jumping Kid Okimoto & Dick Togo **1/2

I love Toryumon and it’s spawn. So when I got this copy of El Dorado from 12/29/07, I had to pop it in the hardware and watch what was going to come jumping out at me. The Milanito vs. Milano match sticks out as does the Jr. Heavyweight Title match between Ibushi and KAGETORA.

Off the top of my head I remember it as a very solid card, up and down. Kinya Oyanagei & Yuki Sato vs. Ken45 & Go had some cool new moves that included a chain that were really simple but brilliant. This flash finish and crisp tight match was a good opener. Spark Aoki & Masahito Inaba vs. NOSAWA Rongai & MAZADA was a notch below the rest of the show. NOSAWA and MAZADA make great heels and I think the young guys were jus in there to get beat up by them. This big bearded dude with red hair who looks a little like Suwama ran in and they powerbombed Inaba off the top rope for the win.

Now as for really good matches, Milanito Collection a.t. vs. Milano Collection A.T. was decent, but Kota Ibushi (c) vs. KAGETORA was the show stealer. I thought Milanito should have gotten in more offense, but otherwise it was really great to watch them work together. The Jr. Heavyweight Match told a good stiry, had some great high spots and some innovative moves. I don’t think it was MOTYC level but it was right up there with the top singles matches of the first two months of this year for me at the moment.

This show was so thumbs in the middle it’s hard to describe how torn I am about tonight’s show. I’ve been watching ECW sparingly, mostly catching the main events, which sucks because I really like The Miz and John Morrison as SD! Tag Team Champions. On the other hand, Shelton Benjamin was a dissapointment (except right at the end where he yelled out “Ain’t no stoppin’ me NOOOOW!”), because he always starts to pick up the pave and get interesting, mainly when he’s pushed, but then he jumps the shark really soon afterwards.

Edge continues to impress, as his presence was a big upgrade to the show when he was out there. The Edge and CM Punk stand-off was great. Joey Styles was also very good tonight. I also like that Chavo is being pushed. So there were alot of positives to the show.

CM Punk vs. Chavo Guerrero -#1 contender at stake for Chavo.
The Miz and John Morrison vs. The Highlanders
Shelton Benjamin vs. Nunzio
Kane vs. Colin Delaney