Every week I pray that someone in Stamford will grow a brain; I pray that someone will finally realize that for the Heat introduction, they just have orange lines circling the screen. How hard is to ask for some wrestling clips in a wrestling show opener? It may seem petty, it may seem trivial, it may seem downright childish of me to keep on, but what kind of tone does it send to new viewers of the show if you don't even show any wrestling clips?
The Ladies' Men Vs. Brad Bradley & Jaymin Oliveris
This was easily the best Ladies' Men match I have seen yet which may not be much considering they have just had squashes on Heat, but they have had some fun matches with other teams on Raw. This one blows all their past tag team work out of the water though and it's mostly because of the skill of the other team. The heel work done by Bradley and Oliveris (who is actually J-Man from ESW in New York who I interviewed last year which you can read by clicking here) was spectacular for such an infinitesimal match. You could tell each man really wanted to impress the audience and backstage gang and I think they did just that. They were using great heel tendencies like the thumb to the eye, going for the ropes, yelling obscenities, using the ref's four-count for choking, and so much more. From there, the face-in-peril spot was great with Venis selling amazingly and Bradley/Oliveris cutting the ring in half and zooming in on choking Venis. The hot tag that followed was one of the better Viscera hot spots I've seen in a while, but I think it might be due largely to the fact that there was no Vis-agra which may just be the worst move today. To follow that up, Venis and Viscera did a nice splash spot that I enjoyed where they lined up both heels in the corner, shot Venis into them, and then Venis held them in the corner by standing in front of them until Viscera came crashing down in all his glory. Some definite good work in this match. In the end, Venis hit the Money Drop as Viscera followed it up by giving Bradley a dose of VD and not the disease.
Winners: Val Venis & Viscera
Star Wrestler: Jayman Oliveris
The heel team was amazing tonight and it was mostly because of this guy. I think I would give the guy the award for simply stopping the Vis-agra, but as it fell, he had a lot of other great traits as well. He was getting the crowd riled up, using the coward gimmick well which is just characteristic of a good heel, and he followed it up with some great offense and cheating. Don't get me wrong; Venis is a phenomenal worker, but in these type of matches, all he does is sell to set up for Viscera. Good stuff, but not enough to warrant the star wrestler unless the opposition sucks (which they normally do). This week though, Oliveris didn't suck, not even close. He was on fire and definitely someone who should be in WWE soon.
Afterwards, the advertisement for the Shawn Michaels' book comes on again. I got a chance to read a chapter of the book at the mall the other day and it pissed me off insurmountably. I love Shawn Michaels in the ring more than anyone, but the guy takes credit for practically every big idea WWF had in 1997. Where do you draw the line?
Lance Cade Vs. Tajiri
This was horrid. Man, I was bored out of my mind the whole time during it and as much as I hate to admit it, it's solely because of Lance Cade. Lance Cade is someone I think is a very solid worker normally as are all the graduates of Shawn Michaels's school (even Bio-Hazard), but here, he was just strictly dreadful. The offense was lacking, the heel mannerisms were way off-base, and the overall package and pace he tried to dictate were sleep-inducing. Now that Cade is out of the tag team with Murdoch, he's got to be on WWE's list for the next cuts and if he keeps having matches like these, I think it will make that decision come that much quicker and easier. The only good thing about the match was really Tajiri's first comeback which just had some quick offense, placing, and timing. In a ten minute match, that's all that was good. How sad is that? In the end, which was as drawn out as could be, Tajiri hit the Buzzsaw Kick to Cade to knock him out for the win.
Winner: Tajiri
Star Wrestler: Tajiri
Like I said, Cade was absolutely horrible. It was almost like he was trying to make it a comedy match, but was failing like Orton's reign as champ last year. It was just a completely revolting effort by the normally solid worker. Tajiri was the one who picked up the match, even if for a minute. His offense was a breath of fresh air to break the slow/failed comedic pace that Cade was trying to get across and I just feel bad that one Tajiri's last matches in WWE was literally that bad.
The Bret Hart DVD commercial is shown next. I swear, on every episode of Heat and Velocity, they plug this and the HBK book. Can't you find something else to plug? An upcoming PPV, DVD release, game, or even a freakin' toy? Anything besides the same old commercial which I probably know by heart now.
Rob Conway Vs. Chavo Guerrero
This was a pretty good match with only the lackluster middle to bitch about. It just seemed to drag and drag and drag during the middle with the rest-holds and repeated run-arounds on the outside. What's good is that the crowd never seemed to really lose interest. Yes, they became dead during the middle, but when a big spot came, the crowd was right there to respond with a groan or pop. That tells me they didn't lose the crowd at all which is something a lot of people need to be educated on. The beginning and end were really good in the match I thought, especially the beginning. Chavo said on Byte This! that he was going to be adapting some of Eddie's style into his own and it's really shown with the mat-work Chavo did as well as the European Uppercuts. By adding the Eddie style into his own, Chavo to me is looking better than ever. Rob Conway wasn't really noteworthy tonight though he did try and get the crowd back during the middle with some heel work; it didn't work, but at least he tried. Conway lately has become hit-or-miss to me, but when he's hit, he definitely drives the stake home. Unfortunately, when he misses, it's by a least a couple of miles. Back onto the match, had they cut about two to three minutes from the middle, I think the match would have been miles better; but as it was, the middle dragged and brought down the match significantly. In the end, Chavo tries to get Conway up for the Gory Special, but it doesn't completely connect which results in a huge variation of the Gory Bomb to which Grisham says he doesn't think he's ever seen it. Todd, I like you, but seriously, how much have you seen?
Winner: Chavo Guerrero
Star Wrestler: Chavo Guerrero
Like I said, Rob Conway wasn't really "on" tonight like he is other nights, but Chavo Guerrero definitely was. Even without the Eddie references, Chavo was able to get the crowd visibly pumped and was utilizing some good mat-work and takedown offense to bridge the spots. With Chavo's new "Eddie assimilation" style, I'm definitely looking forward to watching him work more and more. The only thing I think Chavo needs to do now is revive the Lie, Cheat, & Steal gimmick. If he does that, I think we could be seeing a lot from the last active wrestler in the Guerrero family.
After the match, Chavo points to the sky in a heart-warming tribute to Eddie. Why is that not tasteless and the SD Special was? Well, was the focus on Eddie Guerrero in this match? Nope, not a chance. It was in other one though, and that was the problem. As Chavo celebrates, Heat goes off the air again for another week.
This week's Heat was all right, but definitely not as good as past episodes have been. I did enjoy that there wasn't any major squashes on the show since there were three actual matches. It's just a shame that the second one sucked so badly and the main event had a horrible mid-section. Still, I think it's worth going out of your way to see simply because it's about twenty minutes to watch, and really, we can all spare twenty minutes here and there.
Well, that's going to wrap it up, guys. Of course, I'm still behind, but I am catching up slowly and will be no more than five days behind by the time I go to bed tonight. Up next, there is SmackDown! from the 2nd, followed by Velocity, Impact!, Raw, Impact again, Heat, SmackDown! again, Velocity again, Action Zone, and finally, Turning Point (but that one probably won't be up until Wednesday). Thanks for sticking with me guys and I promise that once I get caught up, I will make it a habit to get no more than five days behind. 'Till next time fans, this is "Squared Circle Reviews" signing off and hoping you enjoy what you watch.
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