Edge retirement - thank you Edge!

Edge has been involved in some of my favourite matchs of all time. I'm not going to give a description, just watch and remember why Edge is one of the greatest...















And for some other memorable moments:

Edge - A tribute

Monday, April 11th 2011 was a very sad day for the WWE - Adam "Edge" Copeland has announced his retirement at the tender age of 37 due to a serious bone disease which basically means that his spine is growing narrower.

After an brief and unremarkable tenure in WCW, Edge made his WWE debut in 1998 as a singles star before becoming one half of one of the finest tag teams along with his friend Christian, they held the tag titles on numerous occasions and were pioneers in the now legendary TLC (Tables, Ladders and Chairs) matches where they won the titles twice.



As a singles competitor he won the singles titles on numerous occasions and is one of few grand slam winners. He also won the TLC match on his own several times.

One of the best matches I saw was versus Mick Foley in a hardcore match - brutal!


His wrestling accomplishments are vast, too many to list here so take a look at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adam_Copeland#Championships_and_accomplishments

Great rivalries include legends like Ric Flair, Chris Benoit and Kurt Angle.

I hope he continues with the WWE as the guy is a legend on the mic.

I have left out significant details of his career so that anyone who reads this might want to add their own memories of the Rated R Superstar.

Edge, I salute you.

The network

The Network is the worst angle TNA has done in a long time.

TNA spent a year building a storyline (don't laugh) where Hulk Hogan gets 100% control of the company.

Within a few episodes of Impact, there are shadowy figures in the background calling the shots.

We are led to believe that the network is Spike (not Dudley, but the network), it must be, who else could it be? The plot thickens, the network seem to have a say in the booking of events which are not to be aired on their channel (i.e. Lockdown).

Let's put aside the fact that the network are interfering with booking matches and signing talent.

The network angle can be summed up like this:
TNA are so shit that the network do not trust its writers and bookers to cobble together a show. They have stepped in to try and improve ratings. This is the angle.

If I was an executive at Spike, I would call up TNA and tell them to stop writing shitty angles like this... but then, the network would be calling the shots and the angle would be true... I can't win :(

That Clown from Outta Town - RAW, April 4th

RAW time :)

LET'S DO THIS

1:24 - JR IS COMMENTATING AGAIN FUCK YES
2:06 - Starting with a HHH promo...and people say the Attitude era is dead.
3:27 - Fuck Rock v Cena...I wanna see Rock v HHH
13:49 - Cole v Lawler 2...
19:36 - Not so much a rematch as 'the feud will not die'...
25:12 - Cole is now starting on JR
26:22 - JR & King replaced by Matt Striker, Cole, and Booker T. What.
26:50 - Orton & Rey v Punk & Cody Rhodes...all 4 had great matches at Mania, this should be good
29:26 - Cody Rhodes' gimmick is awesome...he's all emo because his face is disfigured, but it's exactly the same as it was when he was 'dashing'...
40:49 - Pretty decent match...would have preferred Punk & Rhodes to win though. Punk always seems to lose.
43:11 - AUSTIN, MOTHERFUCKERS
50:56 - Miz starting shit with Austin? This should be great
55:32 - Miz v Austin? What
55:52 - Nope, Austin v Alex Riley :/
58:20 - That was a long-ass advert for their new reality show
60:38 - Del Rio...dressed to wrestle
61:39 - Evan Bourne :) Jobbing again, sadly :(
64:52 - Del Rio did that top rope kick again...awesome move. Then he put on the arm breaker, but it was too close to the ropes...Bourne actually touched them with his foot, so he had to move away from the ropes with his lower body to tap
69:05 - The sound cut out for a sec, so it sounded like Vickie was trying to say "Dolph is full of perfucktion" instead of perfection
71:07 - Ziggler & Vickie v Morrison & Trish...I wish they'd just have Morrison v Ziggler.
74:53 - Pretty short match...Morrison and Ziggler look great when they're in the ring together, but there's always a screwjob, or a mixed tag stipulation, or something. Can't wait till they get a proper PPV match
75:59 - Sheamus v Bryan...they postponed it to RAW...I hope this is fucking awesome, and I hope Bryan gets his belt back
81:10 - :/
81:24 - Ah well, there's always the Intercontinental Championship
82:06 - Sin Cara has arrived...
82:38 - Fucking hell...INSANE crossbody from the top turnbuckle to the floor
84:34 - Cena/Rock faceoff, again
87:32 - Oh for fucks sake, being reasonable about a screwjob is not interesting...
97:43 - Cena v Rock at Wrestlemania 28 :)
99:36 - The Corre come out to attack Cena and Rock...they are going to get eviscerated.

That was pretty good...not great by RAW standards, just a 'what happened after Mania' episode really. But iMPACT is still in my rotation, so overall it was pretty good.

That Clown from Outta Town - WRESTLEMANIA, MOTHERFUCKER

Mania time - can't wait :)

I've noticed that some people have uploaded just the Taker v HHH match to the download sites - I'm guessing that means it's either fucking brilliant, or someone dies.

LET'S DO THIS

0:37 - The arena is huge
0:56 - Singing, fast forwarding
6:17 - I really need to go to a Wrestlemania before I die
17:33 - Finally, a match :) Kinda weird they're starting with the world championship
23:43 - Almost 25 minutes until first bell...
34:59 - Not a bad match...started kinda slowly, but picked up toward the end. Del Rio pulled a fucking amazing move...Edge was on the top turnbuckle, Del Rio jumped up to the top rope and from there did a spin kick right to Edge's head...looked brutal. Never seen anyone do that before.
37:24 - Edge elbow dropping a car...
43:22 - Cody Rhodes' gimmick is pretty fucking weird...
43:55 - Rey dressed as Captain America...his Mania outfits are always pretty cool, his Joker one was ace
57:27 - Great match, they should have opened with that...Cody Rhodes is a lot better than I remember him, I used to think he was pretty generic but he was very solid here
60:10 - Regal is a better rapper than Cena
60:37 - RODDY FUCKING PIPER
67:54 - The 8-man tag was pretty ridiculous...it was about 3 or 4 minutes long...not quite sure what happened there
72:15 - Rock and Stone Cold face to face :D
73:19 - Punk v Orton time :D
85:08 - Punk just kicked Orton in the head, when the other foot was on the ground, and Orton was behind him...how in the fuck is that even possible
87:10 - Top rope superplex from Orton...perfect execution
94:34 - Holy shit, Punk went for a cross body from the top rope, Orton caught him in midair and pulled off an RKO...perfect execution again
95:17 - Really good match, Orton selling his 'injured' leg and Punk capitalising it...almost old school ring psychology

Part 2 (AKA I reset the counter :/ )

6:49 - Cole v Lawler time :)
7:49 - JR's coming to commentate :D Fuck yeah...good to have him back
30:09 - Pretty entertaining match.
36:26 - Cole & JR on commentary together again...fucking awesome
39:41 - Taker v HHH :)
43:49 - Taker coming out to For Whom the Bell Tolls :) Fucking awesome
44:55 - My bad, it's HHH :) Kinda Taker-ish with the lights going out and the lightning and all though
56:26 - The commentary is fucking sublime...it's so good to hear great commentary again, both TNA and WWE are garbage at the moment...TNA more so
82:47 - Fucking hell...that was amazing. They couldn't have done it with anyone but JR calling it, but still...what a fucking match.
92:23 - Vickie Guererro...what an awful way to follow that match

PART 3 (AKA fucking counter >:( )

1:14 - Fucking hell, Starship Pain to the outside...
1:50 - Snooki was actually pretty impressive...celeb appearances are usually just embarrassing
8:05 - Miz v Cena already? What happened to Danielson v Sheamus? I was really looking forward to that match :(
9:47 - Since when did the champion come out before the challenger?
15:00 - Cena's in his new red shirt...the way he always does that reminds me of Wall-E
17:47 - Cena's intro made even Taker's look fast
27:35 - The main event is the least interesting match so far
29:22 - Ref bump :(
32:36 - Double count-out...what a horrible end to an otherwise great Wrestlemania
33:36 - The Rock :) Let's see if he can salvage the last 10 minutes
36:54 - Rock restarted the match
37:12 - Rock Bottom on Cena :D
37:37 - Miz wins thanks to Rock...kinda dumb, why bother restarting the match when Cena wasn't gonna end up with the belt anyway? Still, sweet Rock Bottom so not complaining too much
40:00 - And People's Elbowing Miz after the match

Great show, the ending was miserable though. I could have stopped watching after the Taker v HHH match and I wouldn't have missed anything.

Wrestlemania predictions revisited

This year's Wrestlemania was certainly a mixed bag - excellent matches, throwaway matches, non-existent matches, bad booking... somewhat disappointing, but made worth it by some quality wresting. Let's have a look at my predictions:

"1 Edge (with Christian) (c) vs. Alberto Del Rio (with Brodus Clay) Singles match for the World Heavyweight Championship.
This has a lot of potential, I predict Del Rio will win, and I’m hoping it will be a clean win. At worst, this will be a decent match, though I worry that with the inclusion of Brodus Clay at ring-side, there will be some bullshit booking... or maybe not, I forget that this is WWE and not TNA, so I’m optimistic."

Man, DelRio was buried in this one. It was a great match, especially the last couple of minutes. Good opener, shame DelRio didn't win though. For a world title match on PPV a though, there was nothing out of the ordiary. I was very suprised that this was the opener.

Match rating: ***


"2 The Miz (c) vs. John Cena Singles match for the WWE Championship
Does anyone really give a shit about this match? I’ve written on this blog before that Miz is not a convincing champion. On last weeks Raw he said something along the lines of “I’m more imposing than Andre the Giant, I’m a better technical wrestler that Bret Hart, I’m a better athlete that Shawn Michaels...” etc. I’m pretty sure that the reaction they wanted from this promo wasn’t a universal “are you fuck”. If I were to book Miz as a champion, I would have have him say the opposite, that he’s not as good as any of these guys, but that he will keep hold of the title because he’s smart and will bend the rules to keep it. He could win by count-outs, getting himself DQed, etc. Granted he would lose the matches, but he would keep the title, which to him would be the most important thing. Over time, this will lead to fans really wanting to see a top babyface like Cena kick his ass and win the title. It’s an old school way of booking, but it would create a heel who is lamentable, and not just an after –thought. Should be a decent match though. Cena will win, and I am sure the Rock will raise his hand and Rock Bottom the Miz."

The booking of this match was terrible, it felt like a bad TNA PPV ending. Replace the Rock with Bischoff and picture what happened again - it's bullshit booking and you know it. This was a bad match, Cena was booed out of the house and the crowd hated the ending. Miz won because of a screwjob courtesy of the Rock. They then had the Rock bear the shit out of the Miz, just to make him look like the biggest pussy ever - exactly what you want in your champion.

"3 Triple H vs. The Undertaker No Holds Barred match
I can’t wait for this match, not because it will be a brilliant match (I’m sure it will be very good), but because it will hopefully mean the end of long boring promos from Triple H. Undertaker to win."

This was an awesome match, and was by far the best match of the evening. Taker won, but my God he earned it. This match was intense, the selling and ring psychology alone made this absolutely compelling to watch - the younger guys on the roster could learn a lot from watching this. The story of this match was fantastic, and the ending was brilliant, I even thought for a split second that Triple H was going going to win. When Undertaker kicked out of the Tombstone, I couldn't believe it. This was the only match on the card that felt like an awesome Wrestlemania match. Going into this, I wasn't sure how good it would be, but I'm glad it supassed my expectations. A classic.

Match rating: *****

"4 Jerry Lawler vs. Michael Cole (with Jack Swagger) Singles match with special guest referee Stone Cold Steve Austin.
This is a classic Wrestlemania style match, and I can’t wait to see it. It’s not going to be the best wrestling match, but it’s going to be entertaining. There’s no way this can be as bad as the clusterfuck of a Bret Hart match last year, and the build up has been spectacular. Lawler to win, Cole to get a Stunner."

This match was far too long. Cole clearly couldn't wrestle, the match was funny and Michael Cole look ridiculous, but it wasn't promoted as a comedy match. This should have been a five minute squash match with Stone Cold stunnering Cole. Then there was a screwjob and Cole won. This will no doubt lead to a second match... I think this match has killed the feud for me. It was better than the Bret Hart match of last year, but it was still pretty bad... Booker T got stunnered at the end, so that was good.

Matchrating: *

"5 Randy Orton vs. CM Punk Singles match
This feud reminds me of TNA style feud, and I’m pretty sure that this match was meant to be CM Punk versus Cena. In basic terms, a heel wants to get revenge on a babyface who kicked him and his friends in the head, and had cost Punk his title. Unless this match ends with a double turn, I’m not sure who the fans are meant to cheer for. I will, of course, be cheering for Punk, though I predict a win for Orton... boo!"

Again, this was a good match, but it felt a bit like a rerun of the spots they did on Raw. Again, this didn't feel like a Wrestlemania match, but it was solid.

Match rating: ***

"6 Rey Mysterio vs. Cody Rhodes Singles match
The build-up to this match has been the highlight of Smackdown. Though much of the feud has been lifted from the El Generico/Kevin Steen feud, it has still be great and Rhodes’ new persona is great. Let’s hope they keep it going and never go back to him being “dashing”... because that sells PPVs, right? Mysterio to win, and I’m pretty sure it will be a very good match."

This was a really well-worked match, but again, there was nothing out of the ordinary. It was a very good match, but still it didn't have that Wrestlemania feel to it... it was almost as if they had been told not to steal the show... I really liked the finish to this one, but it wasn't a blowaway match.

Match rating: ***

"7 Trish Stratus, Nicole "Snooki" Polizzi and John Morrison vs. Dolph Ziggler and LayCool (Layla and Michelle McCool) (with Vickie Guerrero) 6-person mixed tag team match
Another classic Wrestlemania style match. I can’t wait to go and get a drink while this is on. I hope that most of the match will be Morrison and Ziggler going at it. I’m sure the match will end with Snooki getting Vicky G to tap out."

Short but sweet, Snooki did some crazy-ass flips and got the pin on Michelle pretty quickly. Throwaway match, but entertaining.

Match rating: **

"8 Sheamus (c) vs. Daniel Bryan Singles match for the United States Championship
This is the match I want to see. I can see Sheamus winning, but it will be an excellent match. I can’t wait!"

FUCKING HELL - I was really pumped for this match, they were even advertising it on the pre-show, and then, erm, nothing. They'd apparently had it as a dark match, a fucking dark match! I'm furious about this. This was the tipping point for me actually buying this PPV. If they were injured, fair enough - but they weren't. If they ran short of time, cut the skits with Hornswaggle, and the video packages, and John Cena's choir entrance, or the throwaway Kame match... grrr...

9 Kane, Big Show, Santino Marella and Vladimir Kozlov vs. The Corre (Wade Barrett, Ezekiel Jackson, Justin Gabriel and Heath Slater) 8-man Tag Team match
Who gives a shit? This will be awful. I’m pretty sure that Kane et al will win... and no one will care.

Short but shit - waste of time.

Match rating: *

That Clown from Outta Town - RAW, March 28th

RAW time, last one before Mania, this should be good :)

LET'S DO THIS

00:38 - Starting with Punk - nice :)
10:31 - Even a standard promo --> brawl is better in WWE
11:31 - Rock, Miz and Cena tonight :D
11:43 - EDGE AND MOTHERFUCKING CHRISTIAN
13:15 - That WWE All Stars game looks alright...kinda silly and over the top rather than deadly serious 'simulation' style
13:49 - Just to reiterate...EDGE AND MOTHERFUCKING CHRISTIAN
16:13 - Del Rio's entrance is genius...just trolling the fuck out of every single person in the arena
20:25 - What a DDT from Christian...fucking hell
22:12 - That was pretty good...awesome to see Edge & Christian again
23:32 - That plastic box is still fucking hilarious
27:25 - Lawler v Swagger...sounds...interesting
35:33 - Just saw Santino's finisher for the first time...ridiculous
38:57 - Taker v HHH faceoff time
42:18 - Shawn Michaels is here :)
50:41 - Holy shit, HHH's promo is fucking intense
58:33 - That was awesome...A FUCKING PROMO WAS AWESOME THAT'S MENTAL
59:33 - And they follow it up with Swagger v Lawler
01:06:10 - Vickie Guererro is terrible...I like how the crowd hates her more than any of the heels
01:06:57 - Ziggler v Sheamus
01:07:31 - Nope, Ziggler & Sheamus vs Daniel Bryan & I guess John Morrison
1:10:38 - Damn, Bryan just reversed a roll-up into a crossface...he's brilliant
01:11:47 - Decent match
01:19:38 - How pissed is Snooki
01:21:39 - ROCK TIME MOTHERFUCKERS
01:25:27 - How awesome would a Rock v Punk feud be
1:36:37 - Cena is on fucking fire tonight
1:38:24 - That was fucking awesome...Miz is coming out now, but the Cena/Rock faceoff was brilliant...Cena's pretty good when he's not trying to be funny

That was awesome, can't wait till Mania :)