By Rick Morris
JBL cuts a promo up in his luxury box getting cheap heat on the economic woes of Texas and the American people .... then Y2J cuts a lengthy promo in ring about how he is defying the people BLAH BLAH BLAH.
Finally, Kofi Kingston makes the surprise appearance to challenge Jericho. A very good match ensues, with plenty of good offense on both sides. Kingston got some very believable near-falls on Jericho before Jericho got the Walls of Jericho locked on. Shawn Michaels comes out of the crowd, Lance Cade is waiting for him, but eats Sweet Chin Music. Michaels jumps up on the apron, only to be knocked off by Jericho, only to have Kingston give Jericho his Jumping Kick to the Grill once he turns around. 1-2-3, new I-C champion, and now maybe the move of Kingston to Raw makes a bit more sense. Afterwards, Jericho punches Michaels in the eye, leading to much rolling around and writhing by HBK on the floor.
Edge then gives a pep talk to his crew backstage about how he is going to dominate Batista ... this should be called the Night of Endless Droning Promos.
Sunday, June 29, 2008
BELFI - Night of Champions - Jericho vs. ???
By Paul Belfi
AWESOME AWESOME AWESOME JBL promo prior to this match - JBL is a great heel. VIVA MAMAJUANA!!!!
AWESOME AWESOME AWESOME JBL promo prior to this match - JBL is a great heel. VIVA MAMAJUANA!!!!
Jericho steps into the ring and starts to cut a promo - we all wait to hear who the 'surprise opponent' is going to be. I love Jericho as a heel. His promos are special - and are textbook.
KOFI KINGSTON is the mystery opponent - I like it!
So far... this is an excellent match and Jericho is making Kofi look good - as he should.
KOFI WINS THE STRAP!!!!
MATCH OF THE NIGHT so far!!!!!
Night of Champions Liveblogging Part III
By Rick Morris
Kane defends the ECW Title in a three-way "Monster Match" against Big Show and Mark Henry. For a superheavyweight slugfest, it was not a horrible match. Decent offense back and forth -- and it ended with Kane suplexing Big Show off the top rope only to end up getting splashed by Henry for the three-count and the title.
In the next match, Cody Rhodes and Hardcore Holly came out for their World Tag Team Title match against Ted Dibiase and his mystery partner. The mystery partner did not show and Dibiase started the match alone against Rhodes -- before Dibiase demanded that Holly tag in ... are you seeing where this was going? Good, because so was Helen Keller by this point. Rhodes ambushes his partner, Dibiase comes in and puts Holly in the Million Dollar Dream into a Russian legsweep (pretty cool sequence, actually) and gets the win. Rhodes and Dibiase are the new champions.
Kane defends the ECW Title in a three-way "Monster Match" against Big Show and Mark Henry. For a superheavyweight slugfest, it was not a horrible match. Decent offense back and forth -- and it ended with Kane suplexing Big Show off the top rope only to end up getting splashed by Henry for the three-count and the title.
In the next match, Cody Rhodes and Hardcore Holly came out for their World Tag Team Title match against Ted Dibiase and his mystery partner. The mystery partner did not show and Dibiase started the match alone against Rhodes -- before Dibiase demanded that Holly tag in ... are you seeing where this was going? Good, because so was Helen Keller by this point. Rhodes ambushes his partner, Dibiase comes in and puts Holly in the Million Dollar Dream into a Russian legsweep (pretty cool sequence, actually) and gets the win. Rhodes and Dibiase are the new champions.
BELFI - Night of Champions - Holly/Rhodes vs. DiBiase/???
By Paul Belfi
DiBiase is selling that his partner is running late, so the match starts out as a 2-on-1 with an immediate swerve as Cody Rhodes turns heel and nails a sweet looking DDT on Hardcore Holly.
DiBiase is selling that his partner is running late, so the match starts out as a 2-on-1 with an immediate swerve as Cody Rhodes turns heel and nails a sweet looking DDT on Hardcore Holly.
DiBiase drops two moves on Holly and he (along with Cody Rhodes) are your new world tag team champs.
This was fast, but effective. Stevie Wonder saw it coming a mile away but who cares? I liked it.
BTW - I hit the throne during the ECW championship match - Nessie has arrived.
AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
BELFI - Night of Champions - Mark Henry vs. Big Show vs. Kane
By Paul Belfi
So far I am having a splendid time at Harpo's 'reporting' on the PPV. *cough*
So far I am having a splendid time at Harpo's 'reporting' on the PPV. *cough*
This live blogging thing is aiight. Now then, on to our next match...
This match hugs the root so far... but man, Big Show is in tremendous shape. Good for him. You can tell he's working at it.
BTW... is it bad that I am too lazy to get up during this match and take a dump? I am about to leave Nessie in some poor toilet.
Mark Henry (aka the 'self-proclaimed' Silver Back -- 'monkey want a nana?') is an ugly human being. Seriously. I am shocked Mae Young opened her legs for him all those years ago.
And... he just won the ECW heavyweight championship of the world. What a step up the ladder of success.
*cough*
Night of Champions Liveblogging Part II
By Rick Morris
Matt Hardy and Chavo Guerrero had a pretty good technical match for the U.S. Title. As he did during the first match when he was invoking old-time stuff just to show off, Jim Ross spit out a bunch of pablum about how Hardy's U.S. Title had the lineage of Bobo Brazil, Roddy Piper, etc.
It was a pretty good technical match, nothing too special. Chavo looked to be going for the Three Amigos suplexes when Hardy hit the Twist of Fate out of nowhere for the three-count.
Now they're running a video package highlighting the McMahon Money giveaway and it ends, of course, with the footage of "Mr. McMahon's accident." Now we get to see the announcers do the "Owen voice" when we come back for the next match. Isn't that lovely. And Belfi thinks my "Chavo text messages" blast was out of line!
Matt Hardy and Chavo Guerrero had a pretty good technical match for the U.S. Title. As he did during the first match when he was invoking old-time stuff just to show off, Jim Ross spit out a bunch of pablum about how Hardy's U.S. Title had the lineage of Bobo Brazil, Roddy Piper, etc.
It was a pretty good technical match, nothing too special. Chavo looked to be going for the Three Amigos suplexes when Hardy hit the Twist of Fate out of nowhere for the three-count.
Now they're running a video package highlighting the McMahon Money giveaway and it ends, of course, with the footage of "Mr. McMahon's accident." Now we get to see the announcers do the "Owen voice" when we come back for the next match. Isn't that lovely. And Belfi thinks my "Chavo text messages" blast was out of line!
BELFI - Night of Champions - Chavo vs. Matt Hardy
By Paul Belfi
Now THIS match could be f&%$&king excellent IF they get the time to deliver what they do best - wrestle.
Now THIS match could be f&%$&king excellent IF they get the time to deliver what they do best - wrestle.
Matt Hardy in ECW is a big fish in a little pond but frankly, I don't care. More Matt Hardy is a good thing - I never thought I'd see the day that I would push for Matt getting a world title run BEFORE his brother Jeff, but that is exactly what I want to see. Nobody deserves it more. Besides, his ring entrance music is awesome.
:-)
As Mike Ptak says to me repeatedly, 'I love, and will always love, Matt Hardy.' [Insert Price Is Right tuba here].
Just bumped into an old 'friend' - Sonny the DJ. Sonny has a speech impediment due to being partially deaf. Yes, I said he was a DJ. For the sake of comparison - picture BIG SHOW cutting a promo with a mouth of marbles - that's how Sonny talks. AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA - worst f&%&king DJ walking the planet Earth, but a nice guy.
A short match - but enjoyable. My main man MATT HARDY gets the clean victory!
Night of Champions Liveblogging Part I
By Rick Morris
I guess this is a measure of how few PPVs I watch these days -- I didn't know Martin Short hosted their pregame show!
The show opened with a video package focusing on Chavo Guerrero receiving some ominous text messages. Just kidding -- but you have to admit, they would stoop to that. Actually, it was a video package about what it means to be a champion and how elite being a champion is. I'm not quite sure how it could be so elite to be a champion when there's an entire show with title matches, but there you go.
As will be the case quite often tonight, Paul Belfi is writing at the same time I am, so our thoughts will be posted up there fairly intermittently.
The opening match had Miz and Morrison defending the WWE Tag Team Titles against Finlay and Hornswaggle in your standard exposing-the-business comedy match. Hornswaggle ended up playing the Ricky Morton role after getting in some fluke offense. After doing the obligatory dive-through-the-legs spot, Horney got the tag to Finlay, who then kicked major arse (as the Irish might say). The Tadpole Splash attempt ended with him getting pitched off the top rope and pinned. Miz and Morrison win and all is right with the world.
I guess this is a measure of how few PPVs I watch these days -- I didn't know Martin Short hosted their pregame show!
The show opened with a video package focusing on Chavo Guerrero receiving some ominous text messages. Just kidding -- but you have to admit, they would stoop to that. Actually, it was a video package about what it means to be a champion and how elite being a champion is. I'm not quite sure how it could be so elite to be a champion when there's an entire show with title matches, but there you go.
As will be the case quite often tonight, Paul Belfi is writing at the same time I am, so our thoughts will be posted up there fairly intermittently.
The opening match had Miz and Morrison defending the WWE Tag Team Titles against Finlay and Hornswaggle in your standard exposing-the-business comedy match. Hornswaggle ended up playing the Ricky Morton role after getting in some fluke offense. After doing the obligatory dive-through-the-legs spot, Horney got the tag to Finlay, who then kicked major arse (as the Irish might say). The Tadpole Splash attempt ended with him getting pitched off the top rope and pinned. Miz and Morrison win and all is right with the world.
BELFI - Night Of Champions - Miz/Morrison vs. Finley & Hornswaggle
By Paul Belfi
Always good to hear ANY WWE PPV start off with the voice of wrestling - Jim Ross. I am looking forward to seeing how he and Mick Foley gel as an announce team - I have a hunch it will be great, given time.
Always good to hear ANY WWE PPV start off with the voice of wrestling - Jim Ross. I am looking forward to seeing how he and Mick Foley gel as an announce team - I have a hunch it will be great, given time.
I forget the name of the ring announcer, but I don't like him.
Now onto one of the matches that - believe it or not - I was actually looking forward to.
I can't believe at how over and improved Miz is - Morrison as well. A great tag team. Working with Finley in the ring and behind the scenes is only going to make them better. I am on the lookout for Miz' mom here at Harpo's. She is the definition of the acronym MILF.
Hornswaggle doing 'Stone Cold Stunners' is fantastic - AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. Horny takes a bump like no other - that little bastard... I love him!
Morrison bitch-slapping Horny reminds me of what I do to Ptak during commercials on Pro Wrestling Insider (heard exclusively on sportstalkNETWORK.com every Tuesday night at 7p Eastern).
And after seeing Horny get his arse kicked, Miz and Morrison retain their championship.
WWE Night Of Champions - Pre PPV Report
by Paul Belfi
Rick Morris, Mike Ptak and I are live at Harpo's Sports Cafe in Brook Park, OH preparing for the WWE PPV. Personally I am looking forward to this show because (logically speaking, of course) there has to be at least one title change tonight based on the outcome of last Monday night's 'draft'.
The food is tasty, the beverages are cold, but watching Ptak eat a plate of wings is somewhat repulsive - but for the loyal readers of THE FDH LOUNGE Blog, I will suck it up for you.
Enjoy the PPV everyone.
Remember when Olbermann faked modesty?
By Rick Morris
Keith Olbermann has shown himself to be enough of an out-of-his-depth political lightweight that even those who share his fever-swamp hatreds like Glenn Greenwald are taking him apart on a regular basis. As he degenerates further and further into his irrelevant world of obsessive grudge-furthering and political lie-circulating, it occurred to me that KO had previously tried to rehabilitate his reputation with an allegedly heartfelt mea culpa for being an idiot. Given my mad Google-fu skills, I uncovered his sniveling Uriah Heep routine in no time. Compare and contrast the words you see here and here with the remorseless, deranged rantings chronicled on a daily basis at OlbermannWatch.
Here's some of the better passages:
"This isn't even about specific events or people, although nearly everybody at ESPN merits an apology from me, and I give it willingly and with great sadness, but with some hope that it will explain if not erase my actions, and might even be of some inspiration to any who might be afflicted in the same curious way I've come to learn I am.
"The oddest thing about all this, is that even when I left -- and in six weeks I will have been gone longer than I was there -- executives like Walsh and Howard Katz underscored that I was welcome to return at some distant future date, despite all the Sturm und Drang. And, man, I was usually producing both the Sturm and the Drang." Keith, do you forget what you've written previously, or do you just have no capacity for self-awareness?
"Referring to ESPN's executives, I told Freeman that 'other than Steve Anderson, I don't think any of them are any good.' Well, that was ridiculous then and it is ridiculous now. Without even judging how good they were, just to keep a monolith like ESPN on the air every day requires as many good executives as they have at NORAD." OK, who are you going to admit you were lying about a few years from now? Are O'Reilly and Murdoch really good guys who you're just perpetrating show-biz feuds with for the sake of ratings and dollars?
"I now read with horror of my ESPN2 co-host, Ms. Kolber, sequestering herself in the women's bathroom and weeping over how I treated her. She told Freeman that as things deteriorated, I wouldn't talk to her. She's wrong: I couldn't talk to her. I pumped up some small-scale complaints into a scenario in which she was at fault for everything ESPN2 hadn't become. I wasn't completely obtuse back then, and if anything would have cut through my neuroses, it would've been a colleague's tears. If I had known, I think I could've jumped over the fence I'd built around myself and said what the inner guy always knew: No TV show is worth crying over. Suzy: I'm sorry." And how many MSNBC employees cry in restrooms right now as a result of your bullying personality, Keith?
"So, I'm sorry. It should have been done differently. It wasn't. Then again, I'm only finding out now about that extra vertebra and the extra steps I have to take to learn how to be, well, flexible." If any MSNBC employee wants to leave any of Keith's old words for him on a note left on his desktop, there's a crisp shiny fin in it for you!
Keith Olbermann has shown himself to be enough of an out-of-his-depth political lightweight that even those who share his fever-swamp hatreds like Glenn Greenwald are taking him apart on a regular basis. As he degenerates further and further into his irrelevant world of obsessive grudge-furthering and political lie-circulating, it occurred to me that KO had previously tried to rehabilitate his reputation with an allegedly heartfelt mea culpa for being an idiot. Given my mad Google-fu skills, I uncovered his sniveling Uriah Heep routine in no time. Compare and contrast the words you see here and here with the remorseless, deranged rantings chronicled on a daily basis at OlbermannWatch.
Here's some of the better passages:
"This isn't even about specific events or people, although nearly everybody at ESPN merits an apology from me, and I give it willingly and with great sadness, but with some hope that it will explain if not erase my actions, and might even be of some inspiration to any who might be afflicted in the same curious way I've come to learn I am.
This is about not knowing why you do things -- literally, not knowing for years and years -- and then suddenly beginning to scratch the surface of understanding. That earlier imagery about the gauzy haze is almost factually precise: It feels as if I've been coming out of a huge fog bank." QUESTION: When did you get re-immersed?
"But whatever any of them said about 'insecurity' or 'perfectionism,' I know I just took it as an attack and stiffened my extra-long spine." Wow, Keith, you seem so much better-adjusted these days. Of course, my sarcasm at the expense of "The Great One" probably just got me nominated for "Worst Person in the World.""The oddest thing about all this, is that even when I left -- and in six weeks I will have been gone longer than I was there -- executives like Walsh and Howard Katz underscored that I was welcome to return at some distant future date, despite all the Sturm und Drang. And, man, I was usually producing both the Sturm and the Drang." Keith, do you forget what you've written previously, or do you just have no capacity for self-awareness?
"Referring to ESPN's executives, I told Freeman that 'other than Steve Anderson, I don't think any of them are any good.' Well, that was ridiculous then and it is ridiculous now. Without even judging how good they were, just to keep a monolith like ESPN on the air every day requires as many good executives as they have at NORAD." OK, who are you going to admit you were lying about a few years from now? Are O'Reilly and Murdoch really good guys who you're just perpetrating show-biz feuds with for the sake of ratings and dollars?
"I now read with horror of my ESPN2 co-host, Ms. Kolber, sequestering herself in the women's bathroom and weeping over how I treated her. She told Freeman that as things deteriorated, I wouldn't talk to her. She's wrong: I couldn't talk to her. I pumped up some small-scale complaints into a scenario in which she was at fault for everything ESPN2 hadn't become. I wasn't completely obtuse back then, and if anything would have cut through my neuroses, it would've been a colleague's tears. If I had known, I think I could've jumped over the fence I'd built around myself and said what the inner guy always knew: No TV show is worth crying over. Suzy: I'm sorry." And how many MSNBC employees cry in restrooms right now as a result of your bullying personality, Keith?
"So, I'm sorry. It should have been done differently. It wasn't. Then again, I'm only finding out now about that extra vertebra and the extra steps I have to take to learn how to be, well, flexible." If any MSNBC employee wants to leave any of Keith's old words for him on a note left on his desktop, there's a crisp shiny fin in it for you!
Get well soon Brian Windhorst
By Rick Morris
One of America's best basketball writers, Brian Windhorst (who writes for the Akron Beacon-Journal and ESPN.com) has been hospitalized and is recuperating from an illness at the present time. This matter kept him from reporting on the NBA Draft, which tells you everything you need to know about the serious nature of the illness given his tireless reporting. He is a great reporter and a classy gentleman who has always been good to the SportsTalkNetwork.com organization. From everyone associated with FDH, our thoughts and prayers are with Brian and his family and we hope for a speedy and full recovery as soon as possible.
One of America's best basketball writers, Brian Windhorst (who writes for the Akron Beacon-Journal and ESPN.com) has been hospitalized and is recuperating from an illness at the present time. This matter kept him from reporting on the NBA Draft, which tells you everything you need to know about the serious nature of the illness given his tireless reporting. He is a great reporter and a classy gentleman who has always been good to the SportsTalkNetwork.com organization. From everyone associated with FDH, our thoughts and prayers are with Brian and his family and we hope for a speedy and full recovery as soon as possible.
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