TAKE PWTORCH
WITH YOU! Get our iPhone App (FREE!): Click Here Or enter "PWTorch.com" on your Blackberry or other Smart Phone browser for mobile-version of PWTorch.
CALDWELL'S TAKE
CALDWELL'S BLOG: Back from the honeymoon with thoughts on WWE's product and an embarrassing wedding dance video Oct 9, 2009 - 3:30:54 PM
-- In accordance with the Torch's mandatory time off for wellness and reflection, I have returned from my honeymoon with some thoughts on the wrestling business from a casual fan's perspective. Okay, we don't have a mandatory time off policy for wellness and reflection, but I feel well-rested and I had time to reflect after my beautiful wedding with Leslie last Saturday. Keep reading, as I have a potentially embarrassing wedding dancing video to share. And who doesn't want to see a potentially embarrassing video of me dancing at my wedding?
-- I'll be getting back into the regular routine of covering all of the wrestling news with analysis of the top stories this weekend and then back to a regular full-time schedule on Monday for TNA Bound for Glory week. Content should start to pick up on Sunday before we're back to the regular schedule of Eric Bischoff Torch Talk snippets, all the news, the Daily Digest, and columns & analysis.
-- Thanks to Wade Keller for covering the news during my time off. It was very nice reading his notes on the site about the most important day of my life last Saturday. All messages received from those of you reading this blog have been highly valued and appreciated. Also, thanks to Greg Parks for covering TV the past week. Greg does an awesome job covering Smackdown every Friday night, so check back tonight for his report on this week's show.
-- First Raw thought: John Cena vs. Randy Orton, again...why? Even if WWE is playing the "last time only; it will never happen again; we promise this is it" card, no one trusts WWE in this department. And WWE missed this progression to finality about two months ago when the audience was ready for the "last time only" match-up.
-- I only caught a few segments of Raw on Monday night while Leslie and I were relaxing and channel-flipping in San Antonio. I took the opportunity to view Raw as a casual fan would, looking to see what would keep me hooked on Raw without flipping to Law & Order or the Brett Favre show on ESPN.
The segment with DX, Jericho & Big Show, and Ben Roethlisberger was good TV that kept me tuned in. However, it didn't progress a feud or build toward a PPV match unless WWE is booking Jericho & Show vs. DX at Bragging Rights. It was also disturbing watching so many grown men throwing crotch chops on a TV PG show like it was 1999 all over again. The DX routine has run its course like Orton-Cena and it seems like Shawn Michaels is just going through the motions while trying to put on an act. Sell the DX book and move on.
I was hooked on the second-half of The Miz vs. Kofi Kingston for the U.S. Title. It was one of the better singles matches on Raw in some time. Leslie also predicted The Miz winning the title and she's never been wrong on a mid-match prediction, so I had extra incentive to keep tuned for a potential title change.
We came back for the main event of Jericho & Show vs. DX, but Michael Cole was scripted to remind viewers that WWE had a Pro Bowl QB hosting the show. Immediately, I forgot we had missed about 30 minutes of the Brett Favre show thanks to Cole's reference, so I flipped it over to ESPN to see what the score was. I stayed there for a while until the top of the hour to catch the over-run of the main event tag match. Predictably, DX stood tall with more crotch chops to close a "feel good show without a PPV to promote in six days."
From what I saw, the show was fine, but still feels like the same old routine. It carried over to Superstars that I covered last night. The show felt like the same old thing too, especially another round of Cryme Tyme vs. Hart Dynasty. Ted DiBiase's slow progression to the main event was the one redeeming quality of the show. Leslie called it The Rise of Ted DiBiase. At the end of the day, though, I left wrestling for six days, including a PPV, and I don't feel like I missed much of anything.
-- And now for the potentially embarrassing video from my wedding. I'm in the middle, my brother Jordan is on the left, and our long-time buddy from California, Blake, is on the right. I have one good dance move in the middle of the video. The rest is a little rough. It's a work in progress.
Wedding dance video.
Send feedback on this article to pwtorch@gmail.com and we'll regularly publish reader feedback in the "Torch Feedback" category on the Main Listing.
INCREDIBLE BENEFITS! Over 50 full-length audio updates per month (iPod compatible)... New weekly award-winning Pro Wrestling Torch Newsletter (text and printable pdf versions) with latest exclusive insider news, new Torch Talks, great columns, Keller's cover story, much more... Hundreds of full-length back issues of PWTorch Newsletter from late-'80s to today... Ad-free access to PWTorch.com's Main Listing... VIP Forum with interaction with other subscribers and Torch staff... Torch Talk Library with text and audio of hundreds of interview installments from last 20 years... Great layout... Deepest archives on pro wrestling history anywhere... Keller's PWTorch Today PDF Bulletins with email alerts... VIP Email reports on major PPVs and TV shows... Staff Roundtable Reviews (text and audio) followiing major events... The best staff of writers and world class reporting since 1987... We'd love for you to join us and experience the most entertaining, authoritative, experienced staff of professional reporters and commentators in the business...
Compare the value of four or five months of PWTorch VIP content to the price of just one PPV. Can you cut 25 cents a day from your budget to make room for PWTorch VIP?
AND NEW FOR 2009! Monthly "Vintage Audio Torch Talks." We are releasing for the first time ever audio versions of our text Torch Talk updates, the historical first series of insider interviews ever. Wade Keller's newsmaking in-depth interviews with wrestling's biggest names are now being made available exclusively to VIP members. But you must be a member each month, as these are not archived, so they are replaced with a new one each month! This debuted in January 2009 with a 68 minute interview with the late "British Bulldog" Davey Boy Smith. Who's next? Hulk Hogan? Eric Bischoff? The Rock? Goldberg? Jeff Hardy?