Women's wrestling 7: English muffin in da house!

Wow... I am absolutely exhausted tonight. I did some really big squats tonight, with my new weights, hitting 3 top sets of 2 with 445, after warming up with 225, 295, 345, 365, 395 and 415. This was followed with a front squat progression, using cross grip because my wrists aren't loose enough to use a clean grip, finishing up at 315. My legs, as you can imagine, are completely blasted and my back feels compressed like a well squeezed accordion.... I mean, honestly, right now you could probably play "I Been Working on the Railroad" on my spine. On the other hand, tonight is my night to watch WWE Smackdown! with my sister, and in spite of Magical Mexican Midgets, CM Punk pitching fits (the M is for Man-whore) and the fairly incoherent ramblings of Kane, PI, Smackdown allows me to see Captain Charisma, Christian Cage, do his thing (which he did big time against Drew McIntyre and his lisp AND in diabetes, tonight) and, of course, and most wonderfully, the most amazing person in WWE, my darling little English muffin... LAYLA!

Tonight my utterly precious (and slightly annoying) dearest is supposed to be facing Tiffany. Tiffany has a pretty smile and (I've seen em in person twice and, yeah, no kidding) a pair of the best legs in history, so this match oughta be pretty. But wait! But hark! According to Vickie Guerrero, the Women's Championship belt will be defended, tonight, by my Layla's BFF, Michelle McCool! What a tragedy! This is not to be countenanced! Eh, oh well, whatever... it's not a bad match, and Michelle is a really good wrestler, and Layla is still hopping around and fussing adorably, so it's not like we're missing the really good parts of a Layla match (minus her selling) or anything, right? Tiffany has impressed me so much with her development in the past few months, too, since the end of the ECW brand. She started as an absolutely terrible wrestler, and now she's actually developed into something of a powerhouse. I like her very strong, physical style and look forward to seeing more of her (and her legs) in the future!

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.

PPV Night 1: Money in the Bank with Sister

I am watching WWE's Money in the Bank PPV with my sister, tonight. Although I absolutely hate to give Vince McMahon any more of our hard earned money, especially when his company seems to be specifically dedicated to booking decisions that, oh, I don't know, piss me the hell off, watching Sister get excited for the people she likes has been fun. During Cody Rhodes' few little hope spots during the first match of the evening, the WWE Smackdown! Money in the Bank Ladder Match, I thought that her squealing was going to make my eardrums pop. I'm not entirely a fan of Cody Rhodes', although as a fellow former high school wrestler from the same state who competed in the same tournaments and probably against some of the same people I do have to give him some love,, but I just don't think that I'm in his target demographic, especially in his new gimmick as the "Dashing" Cody Rhodes. I did feel myself getting excited a little bit during the hope spot at the end for Christian and Matt Hardy, the two people still in WWE that I find myself marking for hardest (along with, I don't know, the rest of everybody else in every live crowd I've been in where the two wrestled), but it was pretty much a foregone conclusion that Vince and company weren't going to allow anybody who is his own man to go over company golden boys like Drew McIntyre (and his lisp and his diabetes) so I felt kind of silly after they both fell off the ladder. It was nice to see Kane win, though. Kane has been involved in so many freaking stupid angles--and I've been watching him for so long, that I can't feel bad for that at all, so in that I count the first MitB ladder match a success. The RAW Divas match wasn't awful, and so far Mysterio vs. Swagger has been good (especially the throw off the top rope by Swagger). The Wholesome, Adorable Canadian Children vs. the Wholesome, Adorable Samoan Children was also good, even if thought that David Hart Smith had suffered a concussion or broken his neck or something at one sort of scary moment.

More to come, probably, about the RAW Money in the Bank match, later.

RAW Money in the Bank ladder match wasn't bad, either. I went in terrified that Randy Orton would win and... really... do we really need Randy Orton as champion? Again? Really? Really? This constant quoting of the Miz's catch phrase is my way of honoring, I guess, our Money in the Bank winner... John Morrison! No, no, I'm kidding... our winner was... Little Spike Dudley? What the hell? He wasn't even in the match! No, no, no, our winner was the Miz. After an exciting math, with a hope spot by Evan Bourne that caused my sister to shriek so loudly that dogs a mile down the road started barking and a seven man team up against Mark Henry that make look like a beast, and a clever spot on the ladder with Maryse and Ted DiBiase, the Miz took the briefcase and was so happy that he actually cried. This was a beautiful moment, to me, and I was able to appreciate it almost as much as Layla, my little English Muffin, retaining her belt against Kelly Kelly.