WWE Summerslam

Heck of a Pay per view tonight! I'm normally not a huge fan of WWE, especially since the release of Mickie James and the necktie debacle which lead to the (temporary) release of Bryan Danielson, but the show as a whole was pretty good tonight. Melina looked like an absolute dream of an Aztec sun goddess, and her absolutely wonderful shriek (I adore lady wrestlers that scream) echoed throughout the arena. I was afraid that her knee had buckled during the match, and she may end up needing to work a slower, more methodical style, but she in general looked great and dominated Alicia Fox totally.

The night's big story, however, was the American Dragon's return. Here is your proof, naysayers, that a small man without an obvious gimmick (like a luchador) can 1) get pops in a big arena and 2) absolutely, totally and completely dominate the ring with his pure intensity. Okay, I'll admit it... I kind of giggled when Danielson stomped to the ring looking like this very, very angry Hobbit, but then he got in there and absolutely kicked the crap out of Darren Young and tangled him up in a seriously vicious looking submission hold. The whole match looked good (even grandpa Marvin Marsh, aka Bret Hart) but the highlights were Danielson's total mastery of the ring and Skip's total domination of Morrison and Truth. I may write more later when I am not so 'wow!' but, well, this is just proof that WWE can still surprise me and make me excited, and I'm glad about that.

WWE RAW 1: NXT Rodeo

Watching WWE RAW, tonight, with my sister. WWE isn't my favorite wrestling organization--God help me I love TNA, just like I used to love WCW--and doesn't even make the best wrestling video games (Fire Pro Wrestling Returns and gratuitous Engrish for the win!) but some of their workers are pretty entertaining and their production values cannot be denied. Jericho promos are always exciting, and tonight we got a really good one against John Cena (complete, really awesomely, with a classic "Y2J!" chant), it's good to see Mark Henry doing big, strong guy things (like hoisting the 278 pound Skip Sheffield above his head like he didn't weigh anything more than a loaf of bread) and I'll never complain about seeing either of the Bella girls on my tv. Yeah, they're models--instead of wrestlers, proper--and I'm not sure either of them speaks a recognized human language (they seem to mostly coo at each other and the former RAW guest hosts), but Brie and Nikki are absolutely lovely, dusky Latinas, and I will always and forever go melty for long, dark hair in which I could tangle my fingers and big, shimmering ink drop eyes. And to have that in duplicate? It's like dying and going to heaven!

Anyway, the big story, I guess, was the Summer Slam preview match, seven on seven, Nexus vs Raw superstars. It wasn't any surprise seeing Dustin Runnels and Yoshi Tatsu getting manhandled--they're pretty much low card guys, right now, although I had thought Yoshi might be getting a nifty push right there at the end of ECW on SyFy--and Jerry Lawler is north of sixty years old, making him not particularly an impressive bring down. I was impressed, however, at seeing Mark Henry, Evan Bourne and the Hart Dynasty going down in front of Nexus, and especially at Skip Sheffield (aka the Silverback, or as I like to call him the NXTape) powering over Mark Henry like a steam roller. I'm glad that WWE is dedicated enough to this storyline to show NXT members actually working guys over in proper matches, not just in random attacks. Hopefully they can keep it fresh even after Summer Slam and maybe get a bi more mileage out of it.