Daily Royal Ramble #5 (28th March 2014)

Welcome loyal reader to the fifth installment of the Daily Royal Ramble! Today's Ramble is going to continue yesterday's theme of looking at where I am with a number of wrestling companies. Yesterday I wrote about TNA, today I'm going to take a quick look at Ring of Honor and New Japan.

However, before that I'd like a look at last night's NXT that aired on the WWE Network. The main draw for this episode was an NXT Championship bout with Adrian Neville defending against Bo Dallas. I really enjoyed this bout, some really lovely wrestling, some awfully stiff strikes for WWE and some of the best false finishes I've seen in a while. I honestly thought Dallas had the match won after he got the knees up on Neville's Red Arrow, with Neville kicking out at the last minute I was on the edge of my seat from then on. The finish saw Neville hit a crazy 450 splash to retain his title, it was fast paced and left us with no doubt that Neville's first win wasn't just a fluke. Everything in this one worked for, there were a few sloppy moments and a few moments when it was clear the action had to be cut in post-production, but this still was a splendid NXT main event. I would expect we'll see Bo Dallas turning up on the main roster soon, as it appear like he's done all he can do in NXT, he's more ready than he was fourteen months ago when WWE first tried to bring up to the main roster and with the right storyline I can see Bo flourishing on Raw and Smackdown.

Elsewhere, there really wasn't much else of note for me, Natalya defeating Charlotte by disqualification was a decent storyline continuer, but I'm not completely sold on the Flair vs. Hart story, as it seems like Charlotte is attempting to do a David Flair and piggy back off her father's legacy, whilst Bret Hart looked extremely bored at ringside, at times even a bit lost and confused. (4/10 Bret) It would seem Corey Graves is being primed for a run opposite Neville for the strap, as he squashed Yoshi Tatsu, and will face Sami Zayn next week, in what should be another excellent contest. I'm still not sold on Mojo Rawley, I don't think the gimmick fits the in-ring work, and if Chris Hero was told to get in shape, so should Rawley, he looks pretty flabby out there, he picked up the victory over CJ Parker non-the-less. Xavier Woods continues to go nowhere since turning up on the main roster, the decision to simply give him Brodus Clay's music and gimmick has killed any momentum he had and is possibly the laziest booking decision I've ever seen. He lost to Tyler Breeze this week to close their feud in a decent outing.

Overall a decent edition of NXT, the main event was an entertaining and enjoyable watch, but most of the show didn't match up to it and it's clear there's still a lot of work to do on some of these guys both as wrestlers and characters.

Now, onto where I am with Ring of Honor and New Japan. If you read yesterday's Ramble, you'll remember I started by talking about how I feel I've become to WWE-Centric over the last few months and talked about how I would rectify this (Check it out yourself for the full explanation), so I'm continuing that today by re-considering my stance with both Ring of Honor and New Japan.

Let's kick-off with Ring of Honor. I was, at one point, a subscriber to their website and brought a handful of DVD's. I was rarely disapointed with the match quality, but due to the taping schedule, I never felt an urgent need to watch the TV product, and eventually I fell behind. I also noticed that a lot of the guys at the top in ROH had been there for some time and there was very little upward mobility in the company, with the exception of Michael Elgin and Adam Cole, ROH's main event scene had been pretty stagnant for some time, coupled with a tiring ROH vs. SCUM storyline that ended in a clusterfuck, I really wasn't feeling ROH anymore. Whilst I was always guaranteed some quality in ring action, it would likely be the same few guys, with a weak storyline, I've probably not watched ROH in about eight months or so, and when I look at the cards they put on, they're pretty much the same as when I was last watching, with what seems like the same storylines running. Don't get me wrong, I love a good long storyline, but it needs to be a good idea in the first place!

Now, recently ROH have announced they will be running two iPPV's with New Japan Pro Wrestling, in May. This has piqued my interest for sure, for the simple reason that I've been meaning to watch New Japan for an extremely long time, and this seems to me like a great way to get into the product. This month alone saw three New Japan matches make the top six of our Match of the Month, with a similar result looking possible for February. So, yes, I will be watching on May 10th and 17th and hopefully this will be the start of me following ROH again and beginning to follow New Japan, which can only be good news for the blog.

That's it for today, boys and girls, I hope you've enjoyed my rambling on this fine Friday evening. I'll be back tomorrow with some news of how Kamikaze Pro fans can win a 2 disc DVD at Sunday's Over the Top show. Keep tuned.

Daily Royal Ramble #4 (27th March 2014)

Wowzers Trousers! It's yet another Daily Royal Ramble.More thoughts cascading out my mind spaces and entering your eyes like some kind of crazy wrestling thought dragon.

I've notice that I've been very WWE central recently, not only in these early Royal Ramble's but also in general. There are a few reasons behind this, as far as I can work out anyway. The obvious one being Wrestlemania XXX is very close, just over 10 days away, so almost the entire wrestling world is beginning to turn towards New Orleans and that's going to continue until at least the dust settles on the post-Mania Raw. Then there's the WWE Network, which means access to wrestling is a lot easier, I can simply put on the 24/7 stream and leave it on in the background, rather than having to actual search through DVDs or Youtube videos to find something to watch and essentially I am a very very lazy person.

It also doesn't help that WWE's main competition, TNA already has the next few weeks of television taped and ready to go. From a business stand point, it does make perfect sense for TNA to tape a number of shows in one go, but for me as a viewer it makes me far less likely to tune in and check out what's going on, as by the time the show airs, I'll probably know what's going on.

Whilst TNA did seem to be building some steam heading into Lockdown, which in all fairness was a much better offering than their previous pay-per-view Bound For Glory, but after that show I really wasn't that all interested in what Dixie Carter and co had to offer any more. Whilst Gunner and James Storm impressed on the show, as did the six man tag opener, a lot of the booking was almost laughable. After months and months of run-ins and dodgy finishes on television to write out the likes of AJ Styles and Sting, and build the new faction focussed around Dixie Carter and Magnus, the World Title contest needed a crispness to it. With only four PPV's a year, it needed to be made clear that these shows were the ones worth paying for, as you got to see the final chapter of the various rivalries, however this was not to be the case and the majority of stories heading into Lockdown are still running two weeks later.

I did stick around for the next episode of Impact Wrestling, as it went out live and I thought TNA might try and right the wrongs of the previous night. However, I found myself almost completely shut off from the show within half an hour, with very little entertainment value in what I was watching. The decision to announce a World Title match on a live show for a taped show was mind boggling and the return of Angelina Love was one of the most painful segments I've ever sat through. The two people that stood out on the entire broadcast to me were Rockstar Spud and Ethan Carter III, who put together a superb segment that had me both in stitches and wanting to see Spud get his arse handed to him, although not by Willow as later happened.

Two weeks removed from that episode and I have no intention of watching this tonight's edition of Impact, and if I am awake at the time of broadcast, I'll most likely opt to watch NXT on the WWE Network instead. It's a shame because TNA does have a fantastic roster of talent, but just doesn't seem to be able to put all those talent together into a coherent and entertaining two hours of wrestling television, that is consistent enough to keep me coming back each week.

I think that's more than enough Ramble for one day, tomorrow I plan to take a similar look at where I stand with Ring of Honor, as well as New Japan, as well as quick look at this week's NXT (and maybe Impact) depending on what I watch. In the mean time, we'll have the second edition of Adam Ross' fantastic All Star Search going up at 7PM (GMT) tonight, so make sure you catch that. Don't forget to follow us on Twitter also, as soon as we hit 1000 followers, we'll be launching a special competition for a shed load of prizes. www.twitter.com/ATPWrestling is the place to be!

Daily Royal Ramble #3 (26th March 2014)

Hello, and welcome to another Daily Royal Ramble! Number 3 no less! 

Now, I should probably talk about last night's Main Event on the WWE Network, however due to an issue with my bank card I was unable to gain access to the Network (It works fine now!) and therefore have yet to view last night's Main Event (I'll probably catch it on a replay somewhere down the line) 

So instead let's chat about something that I missed yesterday...the WWE Hall of Fame induction of Razor Ramon. Coincidentally you can now vote for ATPW's 4th Hall of Famer at this link: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/VMM9M6H, with the options being Ric Flair, Vince McMahon, Jr, The Undertaker, Shawn Michaels and Davey Boy Smith. Now, check out Ramon's induction video below...

When this video went out on Raw this Monday, there was a lot of discussion about the decision not to include any footage of Scott Hall in WCW or his short WWE return, with the package focusing only on Ramon footage from WWF. Many seemed almost upset about this, "How dare WWE not include any nWo footage!" It was really quite bizarre. 

There are a number of reason that I wasn't at all bothered by there being no WCW footage. Firstly, the best work of Scott Hall was arguably as Razor Ramon. Yes, the nWo was the most revolutionary ideas ever to be stolen from Japan, and for a while it did massive ratings for WCW, but how many memorable singles contests did Hall have in WCW? And didn't the nWo eventually strangle WCW to death? Wasn't it Scott Hall who tasered Goldberg to end his undefeated streak? Yeah, let's just honour Razor Ramon, eh chico? 

Alongside this, it was made very clear that it was the Razor Ramon character entering the Hall of Fame, not Scott Hall...yes, Scott Hall played Razor Ramon on WWF television and then went on to play another character called Scott Hall for WCW and later WWE, but the character and the performer are two different things. It's like getting upset that a video package dedicated to David Arquette's Dewey Riley character in Scream, doesn't feature any footage of Gordie Boggs! 

Finally, I'd also expect that WWE are planning a big induction for the nWo, somewhere down the line, with Scott Hall being a big part of that induction. So the performer Scott Hall would be honoured twice, but not the character of Scott Hall, if you get my drift. Whether, WWE will see fit to induct the entire nWo, or just the original three (Hall, Hollywood Hogan and Kevin Nash) is yet to be seen, but I can't quite imagine them putting the likes of Konnan, Horace Hogan and Buff Bagwell into the Hall!

Rightio, I think that's enough Ramble for today, make sure to check back tomorrow for more musings, as well as the second edition of Adam Ross' All-Star Search! Oh, I'm also writing up another What A Difference A Year Makes this time focussing on The Shield, so watch out for that! 

Daily Royal Ramble #2 (25th March 2014)

Okay, there's a slight name change, but like when Antonio Cesaro became just Cesaro or Prince Iaukea became The Artist Formely Known As Prince Iaukee, it's one for the better (The second one might not be strictly true) 

Before, I get into a quick review of Raw, I'd like to go over the results of our January Match of the Month poll (You can still vote for February here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/5G8ZJ87). There were a fair few matches up for this one and this is how it ended up.

1st Bray Wyatt vs. Daniel Bryan from WWE Royal Rumble - 50%

2nd Kota Ibushi vs. Prince Devitt from NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 8 - 15%

3rd Chris Hero vs. Ricochet from EVOLVE 25 - 10%
= Hirooki Goto vs. Katsuyori Shibata from NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 8 - 10%
= John Cena vs. Randy Orton from WWE Royal Rumble - 10%

6th Kazuchika Okada vs. Tetsuya Naito from NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 8 - 5%

It would appear that I'm missing out by not watching New Japan with them occupying three of the six top spots here, but it's clear that the majority are also sticking with WWE as Daniel Bryan and Bray Wyatt's clash at WWE's Royal Rumble takes the top spot with 50%. It was a great match up that the rest of the show couldn't live up to, although it's interesting to see John Cena and Randy Orton's much maligned contest taking a place in the top six as well. 

So, I better give some kind of opinion on last night's Raw, eh? 

For me this was an episode that felt very much like WWE treading water, not much actually happened, did it? I mean beyond the final segment with Undertaker popping out of the coffin (Yeah I marked a bit for that) and battling Brock Lesnar, did anything actually go on? Everything was pretty much where it was three hours before the show started. I imagine we'll see WWE make one last push on next week's episode, which is of course the go home show for Wrestlemania XXX. 

On the whole I think I enjoyed Raw this week, I say I think because my computer ended up crashing a few times so I missed the majority of Triple H's in ring promo (Yes, it crashed for quite a while). I thoroughly enjoyed the Fatal Fourway bout between Christian, Sheamus, Dolph Ziggler and Alberto Del Rio for a shot at Big E's Intercontinental Championship on this week's Main Event (even if it was revealed earlier that the winner Christian won't be appearing on the show) There were a lot of fun spots, as well as some good psychology addd with Sheamus' injured shoulder, with a clever finish playing on Christian's new heel character. I'm interested to see what the situation with Christian is, as I thought he could have potentially done a lot to help Big E in their singles contest.

There was also the celebrity appearances, kicked with Sin Cara jumping out of The Mystery Machine with a fella dressed as Scooby Doo. Really quite bizarre and surreal, and I'm sure there's many who got all upset about the use of Damien Sandow, but I honestly couldn't care less, this appearances could have been a lot lot worse. Hulk Hogan, Arnold Schwarznegger and some other fella also turned up on Raw to do something. There was a lot of back patting, which didn't really do anything for anyone, before Arnie and that other fella (even Hogan didn't know who he was) asked to enter the Andre Battle Royal, only to be interrupted by The Miz who got his ass handed to him, before Hogan chucked him out of the ring. I have no idea what the point of this was, or what it did for anyone, or whether The Miz is currently a heel or a face.

I'm still trying to get my head around the idea of having the two tag team title number one contenders lose and both get destroyed by The Shield. I understand they needed to keep The Shield looking strong, but there were plenty of other ways to do this. The tag champions weren't even on the show, which could have been used to build a quick programme between them, The Real Americans and Rybaxel. Talking of The Shield, their rumoured contest with Kane and The New Age Outlaws was confirmed, which seems nothing more than a throwaway contest to me, it won't be awful, but I can't imagine many people talking about it afterwards either. We also got the obligatory Diva's bout added to Mania, with AJ Lee set to defend against EVERY diva on the main roster, including Rosa Mendes, who is apparently still employed. Who knew? 

That's probably all I've got to say on last night's Raw....not a lot happened did it? I still dislike JBL (him calling Fandango a "heel" was just mind blowingly idiotic.) but that's a given. I expect next week's Raw to be a lot better, it's going to need to be to get that last push going with Wrestlemania just six days away.

In closing, I'd like to push you towards Marc Pearson's review of Futureshock 74 which featured Jay Lethal taking on Cyanide and Sonjay Dutt against Jack Gallagher, it's fantastic read and can be found here: http://www.acrossthepondwrestling.co.uk/2014/03/futureshock-74-review-marc-pearson.html

There is also just five days left to vote on which PPV's get watched for #ATPSunday in April at this link: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/7TSC7WL. Also there is just six days left to vote on February's Match of the Month at this link: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/5G8ZJ87

Daily Royal Ramble #1 (24th March 2014)

I wanted to bring back more content to ATPW, without having to review EVERY wrestling TV show, which let's be honest was a bit crazy! Go check out some of those reviews of random episodes of Main Event, if you wish!

So, I present to you THE DAILY ROYAL RAMBLE! I have to be entirely honest and say I have as much clue about what this will entail as you do, which probably isn't the most reassuring thing to hear in the second paragraph of a blog post. But you've stuck with me this far, so why stop now, eh? I'm like that girl you think you might like, and accidentally marry. What am I saying? You're reading a wrestling blog, you don't know what girls are. Before you come storming out of your Mother's basement, that was a joke!

As today, is Monday, that means we've got Raw just around the corner, and it's the penultimate Raw before Wrestlemania XXX, no less! So it's gonna be a good one right? We've got Arnold Schwarzenegger and some other bloke, which is all well and good, Schwarzenegger is a genuine star, whether he will pull a rating for WWE is yet to be seen, but if he's involved in the action in someway then it'll almost certainly get some outside eyes on the show. However, we'll also be seeing Scooby Doo tonight. Yeah, Scooby Doo, as in the cartoon dog. I have no idea what they are going to do or how they are going to do it, but I'm sure all wrestling fans are currently filled with a sense of dread. Personally, I hope WWE pull a WCW and cross promote a film by giving it's top star the WWE Championship. #ScoobyArquette

Outside of the celebrity appearances, I'm excited to see where the Triple H and Daniel Bryan feud will go next, with two more weeks of content, I'm not quite sure where they can go after the ass whooping Trips handed out to Bryan last week on Raw. We also have Undertaker and Brock Lesnar going "Face to Face", which with each other. I'm not a fan of the "Face to Face" things WWE has had a habit of advertising lately, seemingly they are put there when WWE can't be arsed coming up with an actual storyline and instead just chuck two guys together to cut promos and possibly brawl.

Randy Orton and Batista will no doubt do something. Hopefully we'll see Bray Wyatt in action on Raw, after seeing his Wrestlemania opponent John Cena take on Luke Harper on Smackdown. The storyline is continuing to hold my attention, especially after Cena's interview with Michael Cole on wwe.com, but it needs that last push over the next two weeks to get me completely hyped for this one. Throw in some more competitors to the Andre the Giant Battle Royal (Better known as "We can't book mid-carder rivalries anymore, so have this instead. YAY BATTLE ROYALS!") and maybe also telling us when The Real Americans and Rybaxel will get their Tag Title shots against The Usos (I wouldn't be against that happening tonight) and this has potential to be another good Raw. (Oh yeah, the divas will do something as well) 

Elsewhere in the wrestling world today, it was announced that Marty Jannetty, synomous with being the least popular member of tag teams, and last seen knocking around WWE with John Morrison and The Miz arguing over which one of them was Jannetty (who knew it was The Miz) is coming to Britain, to wrestle for Southside Wrestling Entertainment in August. Now, I may be completely out of touch as it seemed to get a pretty positive response on Facebook (at least ten people saying "YAY" or the like) but I just don't get the decision to bring him over here. I know imports can be a fairly sore subject in British Wrestling and I need to make it clear that I am not against imports at all, but they need to have a big draw factor and/or be able to wrestle a decent match (the booking is also vital as well). I'm not sure if Jannetty has either of those things. Maybe I'm wrong, and if you think the show will get a higher attendance because of Jannetty's appearance please feel free to tweet me and tell me I'm wrong (and why I'm wrong and with a solid argument), you can find us on Twitter @ATPWrestling or on Facebook.com/acrossthepondwrestling

I think that'll be all for today, I need to save stuff for the rest of the week, I suppose. So drop by tomorrow, and I'll chuck out a quick Raw review and hopefully some more random thoughts on the wrestling world for you guys.

Don't forget to get involved with all the polls we got going on at the moment as well!

4th Hall of Famer Vote: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/VMM9M6H

#ATPSunday April Vote: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/7TSC7WL

January 2014 Match of the Month: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/5FF2KBL

February 2014 Match of the Month: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/5G8ZJ87