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Christian Cage has had a significant role in the past decade. At the start of the decade Christian, along with his tag team partner Edge, help to innovate and make popular the Tables, Ladders, and Chairs (TLC) match. For the benefit of those with flash photography Christian and Edge provided many entertaining promos and television segments, especially when the duo interacted with Commissioner Mick Foley.
Eventually Christian and Edge went their separate ways. After growing frustrated with his position in the WWE Christian made history and became the first wrestler to voluntarily sign with TNA Wrestling. Every other “acquisition” TNA acquired was wrestlers the WWE had released, forcing them to either sign with TNA or find work outside the United States.
Some of Christian’s career highlights came during his three years in TNA Wrestling. Christian won his first heavyweight title, gave many entertaining promos, had some high quality matches (especially with Samoa Joe) and helped to build up wrestlers like Tomko, AJ Styles, and Kaz. TNA management didn’t always capitalize off of all of Christian’s efforts but that is definitely not the fault of the Instant Classic. In 2008 when Christian’s TNA contract was up he decided to return to the WWE. Christian has been the center of ECW since his return and has been in some very competitive matches. Christian still has a lot to offer in the ring and hopefully in the next decade we will see Christian moved from ECW to Raw or Smackdown!
So far in my “Best of the Decade” posts I have highlighted WWE matches, wrestlers, and events. Today I would like to turn my attention from the WWE to TNA Wrestling. Considering the main event of TNA’s next PPV, the Unbreakable three-way seem like the perfect TNA match to highlight for a “Best of the Decade” post. Some call this bout the greatest match in TNA history. Others say the Unbreakable three-way is one of the most overrated matches in professional wrestling history. Overrated or not there is no denying the Unbreakable three-way was something special.
AJ Styles, Samoa Joe, and Christopher Daniels were a part of history as the participants in the first and so far only X-Division Title Match that has main evented a three hour PPV. The build for the bout was put together well too. The previous month Samoa Joe defeated AJ Styles in the Finals of the X-Cup, earning Joe a title shot against X-Division Champion Christopher Daniels at Unbreakable. However, Daniels had interfered in the Joe/Styles match. Some can even say Daniels cost AJ the match. Considering this TNA management made the Unbreakable title match a three-way by adding AJ to the bout.
The match itself was representative of the best wrestling action previously only seen on the independent wrestling circuit. The match was full of high flying and hard hitting action. Nobody in the arena was sitting down and chants of “This is awesome” broke out a number of times during the bout. If you have not seen the Unbreakable three-way I suggest you try to find the match on youtube. The bout is also available on the “Unbeaten: the Best of Samoa Joe” DVD.
Tragedy struck the wrestling industry in November 2005 when Eddie Guerrero passed away at the age of 38. Unlike some wrestler deaths that are self-inflicted or are caused by a drug overdose, the loss of Eddie Guerrero was a true tragedy. The story of Eddie Guerrero is one of inspiration. Guerrero was one of those wrestlers who were told they were too small to succeed in the American professional wrestling industry. In 2000 Guerrero left WCW for the WWE. In the WWE Eddie Guerrero reached tremendous new heights.
Eddie Guerrero started off the decade as part of the faction, The Radicals. The natural charisma Guerrero possessed started to show when Guerrero hooked up with Chyna and gave birth to “Latino Heat”. Guerrero continued to entertain on the microphone and deliver in the ring. Guerrero’s “Lying, Cheating, and Stealing” gimmick was especially entertaining. At No Way Out 2004 Eddie Guerrero achieved a lifelong dream when he defeated Brock Lesnar to become WWE Champion. Throughout the 2000s Eddie Guerrero had great matches with the likes of Rey Mysterio, JBL, and Kurt Angle, amongst others.
What is most inspiring about Eddie Guerrero is his battle with drug addiction. Guerrero’s drug addiction even cost him his job in the WWE. However, Guerrero found a way to defeat his addiction and earned his place back on the WWE roster. I have no doubt Eddie Guerrero would still be main eventing PPVs today if it wasn’t for his untimely death. For a further look into Eddie Guerrero from yours truly click here.
Considering the two participants this match is likely to get lost in the annals of time. Vince McMahon seems like he wants to erase Chris Benoit from the history of professional wrestling and Kurt Angle’s controversial release from the WWE in 2006 didn’t due Angle any favors either. Sure, Kurt Angle went to TNA and proved he still can take care of business in the ring but his out of the ring personal problems leave many wrestling fans wondering about Angle’s well being.
However, if you look at the Chris Benoit/Kurt Angle WWE Title match from the 2003 Royal Rumble in context with the time there is no denying the greatness of both men’s abilities and how well of a match they put together. Any fan who enjoys technical wrestling will love Chris Benoit/Kurt Angle. In the bout the two beautifully execute suplex after suplex, submission after submission, and reversal after reversal
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This past weekend I went to go see “Nine” with a few friends. My one friend was really excited to go see the Tim Burton film and I thought “Nine” seemed kind of intriguing. When we left the movie theatre we were all disappointed. “Nine” was a movie lacking a lot of the basic elements. The characters didn’t have names, just numbers. There was very little character growth. The plot was simply to “kill the machine”. The runtime for the movie was only a little over an hour.
With that said “Nine” did have a few rare highlights with one of them being the opening scene. At the beginning there is no dialogue which makes the sounds, such as the wind blowing, that much more important. “Nine” also had the start to what could have been a deep philosophical movie. Conflict exists between Nine and One because Nine questions while One doesn’t. Sadly, this really doesn’t develop much more during the film
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The 2000s saw the death, resurrection, and face lift of ECW- Extreme Championship Wrestling. In early 2001 ECW owner Paul Heyman declared bankruptcy and went to work for Vince McMahon and the WWE. Despite the death of ECW, fans kept the promotion’s spirit alive. Every time something jaw-dropping happened chants of “E-C-DUB” would break out. After the WWE released “The Rise & Fall of ECW” DVD the dead company continued to gain momentum. Finally in June 2005 WWE chairman Vince McMahon decided to bring back Extreme Championship Wrestling for a one night stand.
Describing ECW One Night Stand as magical may be cheesy but lay on the cheese because ECW One Night Stand was truly magical. There were many fears about how the WWE would screw up the PPV but to the surprise of many the night came off as a rather genuine ECW event. Sure, the night wasn’t perfect but the event could have been a lot worse. There are just so many great moments from the night including the fans chanting “Chris Candido” during the Lance Storm/Chris Jericho match, the “super crazy” moonsault from the balcony onto the Full Blooded Italians, and the brutal bout between Mike Awesome and Masato Tanaka. Even Kurt Angle and JBL’s promos were entertaining
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On Halloween night while kids were out trick-or-treating and adults were dressing up to go to Halloween parties I parked myself right on my couch and watched Batman Forever. Batman Forever was released in the summer of 1995 but if you didn’t know that you would have thought Batman Forever was a more recent release. The graphics for the film have done well with standing the test of time.
Batman Forever has a star studded cast including Tommy Lee Jones as Harvey Dent/Two-Face, Jim Carrey as the Riddler, Van Kilmer as Batman, Nicole Kidman as Dr. Chase Meridian, and Chris O’Donnell as Robin. Out of the five stars I just mentioned Jim Carey shines the most as the Riddler. Jim Carey has always seemed sort of eccentric to me and that quality makes him the perfect person to portray the Riddler. Jim Carey’s performance as the Riddler is reason enough to see Batman Forever
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Before I start I would like to say in no way is this match from Wrestlemania XIX anywhere close to being amongst the best of the decade in regards to ring quality. Part of the reason I chose this match for my next installment of "Best of the Decade" is because I wanted a Hulk Hogan related post to correspond with TNA's signing of Hulk Hogan (which I do think was a mistake, as you would know if you read my column, "The Hardcore Truth", over at www.tnawrestlingnews.com).
Moving on, the build for the Hogan/Mr. McMahon match was done very well. The bout was truly 20 years in the making. This is a kind of storyline you can't script which is why it was so good. There was legitimate beef between Hogan and McMahon. McMahon claims he could have made the Hulkamania gimmick work for any wrestler but Hogan insists Hulkamania worked because he was the right man to carry the torch. To this day it can still be debated who should get credit for the success of Hulkamania- Hulk Hogan or Vince McMahon
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With John Cena’s match with Randy Orton at Bragging Rights this Sunday, John Cena/Edge from Unforgiven 2006 seems to be an appropriate match to analyze for my first “Best of the Decade” posts. Just like this Sunday, at Unforgiven 2006 John Cena’s career on Raw was in jeopardy. If John Cena didn’t win the WWE Title from Edge John Cena would have to leave the Raw brand.
The build for this match is what makes the bout standout. John Cena wanted one last shot at the WWE Championship but the champion Edge was only willing to give him a title match on Edge’s terms. Edge said the match would a TLC match, a match John Cena never wrestled in and a match Edge had never lost. To make matters worse for John Cena the match would take place in Edge’s hometown. To top everything off if John Cena lost he would have to leave Raw. The stipulations worked well in building anticipation towards the match
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We are in the final months of the ‘00s decade. For professional wrestling the past decade has been an unforgettable one. World Championship Wrestling (WCW) and Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) went out of business giving Vince McMahon a monopoly on mainstream wrestling. Vince McMahon also lost a lawsuit to the World Wildlife Foundation which forced Vince to change his promotion’s name from World Wrestling Federation (WWF) to World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE). In 2002 McMahon’s mainstream wrestling monopoly broke when the upstart Total Non-stop Action (TNA) Wrestling promotion started holding weekly PPVs. TNA eventually signed a television deal and went to a monthly PPV schedule.
The 2000s also proved to be a decade of tragedy. The wrestling world lost Chris Candido, Eddie Guerrero, Bam Bam Bigelow, Mike Awesome, Curt Henning, and Chris Benoit amongst others. Some of these losses have been true tragedies while others will forever be surrounded by controversy. Either way wrestling fans will always remember what these wrestlers contributed inside the ring
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