Week In Wrestling Review (Jan 22nd - Jan 28th)

Welcome to the Week In Wrestling Review, once again I review the four WWE shows plus four non-WWE shows including TNA Impact, ROH, NWA Anarchy and the much liked Dragon Gate USA. Spoiler though: I might not be one of the masses.

WWE Friday Night Smackdown (January 22nd)
Once again another great show, the highlight being ... you guessed it ... the Straight Edge Society of CM Punk, Luke Gallows, and Serena Deeb (AKA Mia Mancini). I hope Serena continues to appear on TV because she performed really well. Elsewhere Chris Jericho and Drew McIntyre vs R-Truth and Jon Morrison was a GREAT match, and Drew looked fantastic; Jericho and McIntyre need to team more, they work well as a duo. I think they made a mistake with Beth; I'd have rather they kept her neutral rather than side her with the heels. This segments though saw the crowd pop for Mickie and Maria, showing they are indeed on the side of the face, which rarely seems to happen in these days of smarkism. Everything else was average or better, including Batista's squash of Finlay. I still do not care even slightly about Undertaker/Mysterio at the Rumble.

DGUSA Freedom Fight (January 22nd)
Well, you can tell it was booked by Gabe Sapolsky. It dragged terribly and the lack is psychology was blatantly obvious. They did put out some good booking. I got that BxB Hulk was a graduate of the Dragon Gate Dojo, was a fan favourite, and had tried and failed many times to get a title, and to capture the Open the Freedom Gate (what is with the lame title names anyway?) was a big deal. So, well done DGUSA for making me care, though I had a vested interest in Gran Akuma, who I have liked for a while now. When there was good though, there was bad. Jon Moxley, for example, was awful. The entire tournament layout was bad. And absolutely every match lacked psychology to the point where it seemed to drudge along with only spots holding it together.

NWA Anarchy TV (January 24th)
It doesn't feel right to review this. It is only shown on a small local station, so very few people watch it, but it is available every Sunday on the NWA Anarchy website (http://www.nwaanarchy.net). The wrestlers that are on it, and the entire programme itself is not good, per say, but has potential to be good. Some of the workers I am fans of, such as Phill Shatter, Truitt Fields, Mikal Judas and others. Of course, there are so many average or worse wrestlers, and some terrible writing, as such the quality proves volatile on a week by week basis, and this was a week in which it was pretty bad. I'm sticking with it though.

ROH on HDNet (January 25th)
I can imagine that if I were to stop watching one of my wrestling weeklies, ROH would be the first one, because I really don't care about any of it. Tyler Black is horrendous on the microphone and has the charisma of the average turtle, Austin Aries is someone I never got into, and Jim Cornette is, well, Jim Cornette. Pretty much the only guys I do like are The Briscoes, Kenny King and Rhett Titus, and one of them wasn't on the show. Absolutely hilarious stuff when they showed a tiny graphic announcing Jushin Liger versus Austin Aries at some point in ROH's event schedule ... yeah, Jushin F'N LIGER!? Doesn't that deserve some form of hype?

WWE Monday Night RAW (January 25th)
This was an absolutely awesome RAW. Dule Hill was fantastic, John Cena proved exactly why he is where he is, and the Bret Hart/Vince McMahon storyline was advanced beautifully. I have two criticisms, first being Gail Kim, as she didn't get an entrance yet she won and went to the final, WWE should be making it less obvious that Maryse will take the Divas Title, not more obvious. Going back to John Cena, man, was he on fire this week. Not only did he do so well with Dule Hill and perform an absolute masterclass in how to cut a promo but he also put on a fantastic match with Sheamus, which was probably Sheamus' best match yet (and I was really holding out to say this). My other criticism is MVP losing so fast, I don't think WWE have did a good job booking him, but MVP and Miz are certainly doing a great job at putting their feud over. I am so excited for the Royal Rumble after this too.

ECW on ScyFy (January 26th)
Good show this week, despite only having two matches. Two good and long matches, but that can still be a hinerance. Kane and Christian versus Jackson and Regal was fine, but probably should have closed the show, and the six-man tag was great but came across very get-all-these-guys-on-TV. This all worked out well though, there is not many guys on the roster and the only ones not involved in-ring-wise were Vance Archer and Shelton Benjamin, but they can only have singles matches so many times, and 4 on 4 would be a bit too much. At least Yoshi Tatsu went over. The rest of the show was mainly flogging Royal Rumble, and rightly so, because as I say WWE are doing a really good job getting me excited for the PPV.

WWE Superstars (January 28th)
What the hell? A good match featuring the Bella Twins? Yes, that is what this show brags. Chris Masters vs Chavo Guerrero vs Primo Colon was another good match with Masters winning to get his spot in the Royal Rumble. It is amazing how simply turning face could make him more interesting enough to actually get pops. I absolutely hate Truth on the microphone, but luckily Jericho saved the segment with his facial reactions. The main event was David Hart Smith vs Matt Hardy and that was also a good match. None of the matches would blow you away, but that isn't the intention of Superstars.

TNA iMPACT! (January 28th)
Impact was good this week, which is weird because it was okay last week. This week also saw another ratings increase, which means TNA are actually getting an increasing amount of viewers (based on two weeks). When I say good though I am referring to one thing, really, and that is the in-ring product. I thought all the matches on this show were okay or better, and this show did seem mostly wrestling in contrast to other Impacts recently. TNA still fails big time in how they present their product. For example, the sound guy needs to be fired, because he played both Hogan's and Anderson's music prematurely (before they had finished their promos). The commentary is still awful. Everyone seems to be a tweener, as if TNA was a shit eFed. The booking still remains confusing and the storylines border between stupid and retarded (what was even the purpose of the "Earl Hebner Screwjob"?). So, sorry TNA, I think you are improving at a snail's pace, but you I still find myself getting up to do other stuff with you on in the background.

And now, this week's honours go to:

Show of the Week: WWE Monday Night RAW
Wrestler of the Week: John Cena
Non-Wrestler of the Week: Dule Hill
Match of the Week: McIntyre & Jericho / Truth & Morrison (22/01 WWE Smackdown)
*new* Promo Of The Week: John Cena "Vince's 90th Birthday"