It feels like WWE has been having a lot of Pay Per Views lately. Smackdown is the last stop before Bragging Rights so let’s see what they can do to push one of their less popular shows. We open with the 7 members of both teams (minus R-Truth who still can’t get into Canada) in the ring and Teddy Long letting them book their own matches. Miz put himself, Jackson and Sheamus on one side which Show counters with himself Kofi and Rey. Edge challenges CM Punk, Morrison wants Alberto Del Rio and Jack Swagger goes after Santino. Tyler Recks keeps his mouth shut. Oh and Kane takes on Randy Orton as we already heard.

The six-man tag starts right away. Matt Stryker shows he is, or at least was, a comic book fan by referring to this as Secret Wars. Despite putting more powerhouses on the RAW side it’s Smackdown who picks up the win when Mysterio hits a Splash off Big Show’s shoulders. So Smackdown looks strong again, pointing to RAW winning on Sunday. Swagger takes on Santino but, for some reason, Hornswoggle takes issue with Swagger’s Soaring Eagle. Most of this is a joke and Swagger picks up yet another win for Smackdown. Stryker: “Santino is going to need Cobra and Destroy to get out of this one.”

Now that Cody Rhodes is one half of the tag team champions maybe he should stop having solo vignettes. Del Rio and Morrison put on an okay match, but Del Rio wins for Smackdown, again. We’re also only at the halfway point when the Edge/Punk match gets underway. It is a bit odd to have two guys who were just traded for each other defending their new brands. Did Cole just say Evan Bourne is injured and out for four months? My cable goes out just as Miz and Alex Reilly attack Edge, causing a DQ, one-by-one the rest of the team come out to hit a move or two then get taken out and wait for the next guy. The cycle ends with Punk coming back to GTS Mysterio then eat a Spear from Edge. I know Smackdown is on a new network but do we have to push them this hard?

We get more annoying Diva crap as LayCool dresses as The Hart Foundation. They face Natalya and Kelly Kelly in a tag match. We learn that Layla will be the one to wrestle on Sunday which is annoying when Natalya makes Layla submit because it pretty much ensures that LayCool is retaining Sunday.

Kane and Rady Orton put on a better match than I was expecting out of them. Both look strong but Kane loses the match when the lights go out and Taker’s music plays. The show ends with the return of a classic bit as Undertaker comes up through the ring and drags a screaming Kane down and out of sight.

Over on TNA the heels are running the show. No Hogan and no more Dixie Carter means Bischoff is running the show. He puts Ken Anderson, who has one arm in a sling, against Kazarian in an Ultimate X match. If he can survive he’s the number one contender. Bischoff plants seeds of doubt in RVD’s mind that more of his friends will turn on him before putting him in a tag match with Sabu against Beer Money.

The Pope is a face now and he gets AJ Styles in Street Fight. Bischoff plays fair and bans Fortune from ringside. It’s a title match and a fine, roughhouse match; until Abyss, not technically a member of Fortune, runs in and destroys The Pope. Did this elevate The Pope? Maybe a little, but not much. Later, Pope is mad Samoa Joe didn’t come to his aid. Still later, Jeff Jarrett and the two “security guards who are actually rookie wrestlers” take Joe out.

In diva crap, Miss Tessbacher needs to become a wrestler now and WWE’s Katie Lea Burchill is here, but they’re calling her Winter and I get a weird “mad Ophelia from Hamlet” vibe off her. Mickie James beats Sarital then Tara attacks her post-match. Oh and that Jersey Shore rip off I want to see gone gets to beat Amazing Red. Team 3D wants one last title match, after which they will retire. I hope they manage to put on a good final match. I hope they put over the Guns then I hope they stay retired.

The RDV/Sabu v. Beer Money match doesn’t last long before Sabu brings a chair in the ring and accidentally throws it in RVD’s face. 1) He hit RVD 2) Had he hit his target they would have been disqualified anyway. RVD goes after Sabu and EV 2.0 has to pull them apart. Anderson gets a Fortune beat down before the match. They drag him to the ring, not technically interfering because the match has not started yet. Kazarian almost wins before Anderson recovers. Anderson wrestles the match one-handed and still manages to keep it entertaining. Then they make a big mistake. Anderson brings out a ladder. Now I watched the very first Ultimate X match, which Kazarian won 7 years ago, and there was one rule: No ladders. Now they forget all about that? There is no point whatsoever in an Ultimate X match if ladders can be used. Real fans care about the details. Now, perhaps he would have been disqualified had he succeeded, we’ll never know. Fortune runs in and destroys Anderson before he can get the X and Matt Morgan just puts Kazarian on his shoulders and he claims the win that way. Anderson gets a steel pipe and chases off Fortune, only to be ambushed by Jeff Hardy with a steel chair. If you like a little blood in your wrestling then TNA trumps WWE hands down.

The finish is Flair and Bischoff heading off to go clubbing together, but Kurt Angle, pipe in one hand, the other in a sling, trashes their limo. This was actually a pretty good show. Yes, there was a lot of crap I’d prefer not to see, but unlike last week it seemed to all come together. Could the common denominator in TNA booking good shows be leaving Hogan off camera?

Bragging Rights is sponsored by Smackdown vs RAW 2011. Would it be cynical to think this is the only reason they have this particular event? I happen to think WWE simply has too many Pay Per Views, with 3 in a six week span build up is going to suffer. Did we need Hell in the Cell? Wouldn’t it have been better to have two more weeks to build to Bragging Rights? I won’t be seeing the show so I don’t know how much it matters to me. I’m not agonizing over the fact that I’ll miss it.

I like Green Day so Smackdown’s new opening makes me happy. We have an Undertaker stunt double standing on the outside of the Rose Garden in Portland. Smackdown has stolen RAW’s idea of having qualifiers for the Bragging Rights team and the first match is Rey Mysterio versus one half of the tag team champions, Cody Rhodes. You figure the tag champs will want to defend at Bragging Rights and Mysterio should go over anyway. It’s a better match than most of the qualifiers on RAW, despite the predictable ending.

Kaval talks his way into a match with Big Show where, if he lasts five minutes, he can earn a spot on the Bragging Rights team. Apparently we get yet another Kane/Undertake match at Bragging Rights, but they’re actually going to do a Buried Alive match in the PG era. Jack Swagger versus MVP for the third spot is at least hard to predict. More comic antics from the Soaring Eagle, but Swagger gets the anklelock on and MVP taps almost immediately.

Next Alberto Del Rio gets his shot and with Chris Masters as his opponent you know he’s going to qualify easily. It doesn’t help that the announce team, which has Cole again and Big Show sitting in as well, barely mention Masters. The match at Bragging Rights is not elimination, it’s one fall to the finish. Edge also gets a shot at the team and, again, you know he’s going to win even before Dolph Ziggler is announced as his opponent. Kaval actually does last five minutes against Big Show so the team is coming together as well as RAW.  Tyler Reks, a new guy I don’t even remember, comes to challenge Kaval for his spot. Kaval is game, but in rough shape after facing Show and Reks quickly beats him.

Drew McIntyre finally shows up for the last qualifying match and Kofi Kingston is his opponent. Smackdown has had to squeeze in all the same qualifiers RAW had to, but because it’s not padded out with Nexus storyline even this very short match seems better than RAW’s matches. Kingtson gets a clean win. It’s just a pity all these matches have gone the predictable way.

The blowoff of the show is more Kane versus Undertaker promos.  Kane is cutting some nice promos lately, but if you don’t look forward to the match they are going to have to blow it off, what does it matter? Taker doesn’t speak but comes out on top of the fisticuffs for a change then creates magic explosions and the urn gets dropped. There’s no rhyme nor reason to who comes out of these exchanges.

Okay, so over at TNA “They” turned out to be Bischoff, Hogan, and the Jeffs, Hardy and Jarrett. So Bischoff has already trotted out his second good idea ever, turning Hogan heel. I’m so glad I didn’t pay to see that.  Eric also swapped contracts last week and Dixie turned control of the company over to Hogan and Bischoff. They are out to yak at first. He’s Hollywood Hogan again, just in case you weren’t already blindly aware of the derivativeness. And, now that TNA is totally dominated by heels, it’s Fortune who interrupts them… But they end up hugging. The claim is being made Kurt Angle is gone from TNA. Sting and Kevin Nash turn face for a bit of balance, but here’s the problem, this is the culmination of months of story building. It should be a huge deal, but I’m already bored. It doesn’t help that we’re a third of the way into the show and we haven’t had a match!

The knockouts get the first action of the night as Madison Rain demands a rematch with new champion Tara. Madison expects Tara to just lay down and she does. So it wasn’t a match after all. This ticks off Mickie James. There’s someone from Jersey Shore here tonight, but that’s best ignored.

Kurt is supposed to retire, but he’s not sure he should after getting screwed. That draws Jeff Jarrett. Their back and forth is pretty good, but it’s still not a match. With security’s help Jarrett gets Kurt handcuffed then slams his head into the stage. This actually draws the ire of Tazz who backs them off. Kurt’s neck is supposed to have been injured yet again so they’re playing up how Kurt could be really hurt. Samoa Joe’s mad at Jarrett too. Now more than halfway through we get a real match as Abyss takes on Joe. Even this match is ridiculously short as Abyss hits Joe with the ring bell for a disqualification. RVD has to chase Abyss off after the match. RVD wants Jeff Hardy, but Bishoff decides he has to face Mr. Anderson tonight for the shot.

The Pope has to face Fortune since he’s been friendly with Nash and Sting. Another joke of a match which leaves the main event as the only real match of the night. Those of you with DVRs had better have learned by now you need to record Reaction to see the end of this show, but even this match ends in a Jeff Hardy run in and inconclusively. TNA is trying so hard to be something special and it’s not working.

An odd week. Lots of matches, but only a few of them are actually good. RAW has the more compelling storylines, but worse wrestling, while Smackdown has action but the Kane/Taker feud is interminable.  NXT is just annoying and TNA can’t do anything right. There never seems to be a week where everybody is firing on all cylinders. It would be nice if it ever happened.

Smackdown is still on Syfy. Tonight Rey Mysterio Jr returns to the ring for revenge against Albert Del Rio. Edge is already in the new opening. I didn’t see CM Punk though so maybe he was the one traded to RAW. Teddy Long is here to officially introduce Edge. Edge is friendly with Long so I guess the face turn is in full effect. Oh lord, Michael Cole is here. Cue Jack Swagger to interrupt, accompanied by the Swagger Soaring Eagle! Funny bit. We go straight into a match. The eagle gets Speared off the apron which is always entertaining. This is a good match with Edge picking up the win in a solid piece of booking.

Cody Rhodes is teaching us to brush our teeth now? Yep, this is making me hate him. Layla wrestles Kelly Kelly. Natalya is with Kelly at ringside. Whatever happened to Tiffany? Oh… wait… I don’t care. Layla needs help to win which is a problem since she’s never going to get over on her own until this group splits up. And it’s still too soon for that.

The Big Show just jogged to the ring. His conditioning sure has improved. I wonder if he quit smoking. Show has a movie to plug. Show is team captain for Smackdown at Bragging Rights. And he names Hornswoggle as team mascot. Glee. And, because this is going so well, here come the Dudebusters to audition. Show, like the WWE Universe, doesn’t know who they are. It sucks. Show Chokeslams both of them.

Can’t we have the tag champs enter together? And why are the champs coming out first again? Do I harp on that too much? Drew McIntyre and Cody Rhodes face Kaval and Kofi Kingston. On a bad day I outweigh Kaval. The champs get the win, which make sense, but leaves Kaval still without a win since debuting on Smackdown.

Paul Bearer is as good on the microphone as he has always been. Pity Kane and Taker aren’t as good in the ring as they always were. Kane cuts another serviceable promo, but what’s with the weird organ music stings? I am not pleased we have to endure more Kane/Undertaker matches. Especially since this will probably go all the way to Survivor Series.

Time for Dolph Ziggler versus MVP for the Intercontinental Championship. WWE brass seem to take this show a lot more seriously now that it is on SyFy compared to when it was on MyNetwork TV. Or are we just in the honeymoon phase? There seems to be trouble between Vickie Guererro and Dolph over NXT storylines. Vickie walks away so we actually see if Dolph can win on his own. Except Katlyn from NXT shows up and interferes to give Dolph the win. Ziggle is getting better, except the Zig Zag seems to look worse every time he hits it. Maybe it needs to be replaced.

The three men announce team of Striker, Grisham and Cole is actually less annoying than Striker, Cole and Lawler. And Josh Matthews is here too, interviewing Alberto Del Rio. The Essence of Excellence is not a bad moniker. Mysterio dominates early on. It’s actually a bit much. Rey may be passed his prime, but the pair put on a fine match here. When Del Rio’s ring announcer tries to interfere he and Del Rio collide which sets up the 619, then a Flying Splash for the victory. I’m a little surprised he got the win here, but it wasn’t entirely conclusive so the feud will probably continue.

TNA was live this week. Abyss abducts Dixie Carter and only Eric Bischoff comes to her aid. This actually looks like it’s enough to get Abyss fired. It certainly seems like Abyss was trying to get fired. Like, Office Space trying. RVD threatens to walk if he doesn’t get his match to settle things with Abyss. So win, lose or draw Abyss is fired on the 11th.

The Hogan bad idea has been abandoned. He is not going to be able to wrestle at Bound for Glory. Oh look, Mickie James is here. She’ll be guest referee for the fourway at Bound for Glory. Oh crap, Team 3D is coming back.

Ric Flair faces Mick Foley in a Falls Count Anywhere Match. Less than a minute in and Foley is opened up. About another minute and there goes Flair. TNA wrestling with blood because we’re not aiming for 12 year olds. That said they are blanking out the profanity from the crowd. Flair can still deliver a garbage match and these two give it their all so I’m quite pleased with the results. In the end they both go through a table but Foley pulls himself up with the ropes while Flair almost gets up, then does a patented Flair Flop into thumbtacks. That means Flair has to kiss Foley’s ass. We get a Fortune attack to prevent that. I think I’m glad. EV 2.0 make the save and we see no brawl. Smart to tease a bit rather than give too much away before Sunday.

We finish with what essentially amounts to a Royal Rumble with forty-five second entrance intervals. We’re up to 19 guys in before there is an elimination, but #19 is Abyss. He throws about seven guys out before everyone piles on him. They break his momentum, but for no good reason, don’t eliminate him and go back to fighting amongst themselves. It comes down to Abyss, Anderson and Angle until, long after the last competitor entered, RVD decides to show up. RVD takes out Abyss and himself at the same time. That leaves Angle to eliminate Anderson and win $100,000. So is Angle winning the championship Sunday or is he going to surprise us all and return to WWE? I won’t be watching to find out.

A good week in wrestling, as far as I’m concerned, with Smackdown having the best in-ring action. I hope those of you buying Bound for Glory enjoy it. I look forward to reading someone else’s recap. Happy Columbus Day/Canadian Thanksgiving to those in North America. It’s my birthday as I type this so I’m off to visit family. But I should be caught up by NXT next week and you’ll see the next column as usual.

Smackdown arrives on SyFy with a brand new opening theme and sequence. It’s actually a big improvement. The big show kicks off with Dolph Ziggler defending his title against MVP. Not exactly big name superstars to open with. Let’s hope the match is solid… It’s not. It is all a set-up for Nexus, minus Wade Barrett, to attack. Ziggler takes the initial attack leaving MVP alone in the ring. They do the surround and attack move, then beat MVP down for Gabriel’s 450 Splash. Big Show finally shows up. I know he was slow, but he was no help to MVP. And even a giant falls to a four on one assault. You know what that means, it’s time for John Cena. Maybe if people stopped coming out one at a time they’d have a better chance. Nexus is busy beating down Cena when Big Show returns with a steel chair and drives them off. Barrett is on TitanTron. He’s just here to recap the stipulations of the match on Sunday. Apparently, he’s a friend of the network head so he gets to pick matches. Nexus vs. Big Show five-on-one and John Cena versus Kane. And here I thought they might be putting the early focus on actual wrestling.

Oh great, Michael Cole is here. We have an Undertaker/CM Punk match tonight. We get an 8-Diva tag match. There’s a few decent moves, but Hornswoggle shows up to mess with LayCool so it’s hard to take the match seriously. WWE is actually plugging Mick Foley’s new book despite Foley being with TNA now. We’re in Oklahoma so Jack Swagger gets to celebrate homecoming. He’s got a guy in an Eagle mascot costume with him. I wonder if that is an enemy in disguise. He’s upset he didn’t get a parade. So, he’s moved to Texas. Instead of the eagle betraying Swagger, Edge shows up. Edge is on a campaign against stupidity in wrestling. He’s Don Quixote now? Edge decks the eagle and Swagger runs off. That leaves Edge to Spear the eagle. Is he supposed to be a face here or what?

Sick of Nexus? Tough. They are lumberjacks for Cena’s match later tonight. Their match with Show is quick. Since four of them beat down Show earlier why would he have a chance against five? As is, once they get Show off his feet, each Nexus member locks a hold on one limb, except Barrett who puts a choke hold on Show’s neck. Show passes out quickly and gets two post match 450 splashes.

Undertaker is looking more Old School in costuming as Paul Bearer and the urn join him for his match with CM Punk. It’s the best match of the night so far, but that’s not saying much. Undertaker wins, of course, with a Tombstone Piledriver. Next up is Alberto Del Rio, still as awesome as ever. He promises Rey Mysterio and his personal ring announcer brings out a Chihuahua in a mask. Cute dog. It even has a brace on one paw. Then it’s time for the real Rey to return. Rey tries to 619 Del Rio, but the ring announcer gets involved again. That let’s Del Rio escape. Rey takes his frustrations out on poor Ricardo. That’s twice now that non-wrestlers have taken beatings. Remember, don’t try this at home.

Randy Orton is here tonight too. He faces his old pupil, Cody Rhodes. The match has barely started when Orton lands his RKO finisher, only to be attacked by Sheamus. The beating lasts longer than the match and we have yet to have one good match all night. Even the main event isn’t given much time and it also ends inconclusively when the lumberjacks attack and Undertaker appears to attack Kane. The final focus is on the brawl through the stands between the two “brothers”. Taker comes out on top, with the urn motivating him. Will that give him the title Sunday? I think so.

TNA again has a problem with split focus. Sure, they’re pushing Bound for Glory, but now they have a big live show three days before it and they’re trying to push that just as hard. So, at that show, we’re going to see Ric Flair versus Mick Foley in a Last Man Standing Match. It’s WCW all over again. Giving away money matches for free. Their promo is awesome, but it’s nothing new. These two already had their long running feud out in WWE. Just like ECW had a revival already in WWE. TNA always striving for new things to copy.

Tonight Kurt Angle faces Abyss in a Steel Cage. The Pope, Kevin Nash and Sting continue to complain about WCW. So, at Bound for Glory, Jeff Jarrett, Samoa Joe and Hulk Hogan will face Sting, Nash and Dinero. Hulk Hogan, who is recovering from back surgery, which they have admitted on camera, is supposed to step in the ring in ten days?! Do they really think anyone is going to pay to see that? Tommy Dreamer actually scores a pinfall as he and Rhino beat Beer Money. Jay Lethal and Amazing Red traded the X Division title back and forth at some house shows; but other than mentioning it and a few still shots neither one is actually on the show. Has the X title been reduced to Xplosion fodder?

Generation Me beat Ink Inc, but the Tag champs get Chris Sabin’s stolen title back from the #1 contenders. We tease more troubles in the top ranks, as an off-screen, unheard phone call from Hogan shows he’s behind Angle while Eric Bischoff likes Ken Anderson. Where the heck is Jeff Hardy tonight? Is he selling the Abyss beating? Kurt bleeds a bucket in the main event and carries Abyss to a decent match for a change. We carry on to Reaction yet again as Kurt teases a Moonsault off the top of the cage, but doesn’t deliver. That’s probably for the best. Abyss takes Angle out but the ref goes down in the process. Ken Anderson comes to Kurt’s rescue. Abyss takes him down too, rips the cage door clean off and goes for Janice. Kurt recovers and manages to take it (her?) from him. The ref never recovers, we don’t get a winner and we just go off the air with Kurt standing there holding Janice. Lousy ending people. You have to watch a lot of Reaction to see that Kurt refuses to shake Ken Anderson’s hand after the show.

Also on for next week is a Battle Royal including every man on the Bound For Glory card. That’s twenty-five men. And the prize? $100,000. Nice to see inflation hasn’t driven wrestling prizes up too high in the face of the global economic downturn. By now, next week’s show looks almost as interesting as the PPV and I don’t have to pay for it. So what inspires me to spend money on the second show when I’ve already had my weekly fill with the free one?

So what’s the verdict for the week? Nothing terrible happened, but I feel like nothing great happened either. TNA had the better wrestling while WWE did a better job building to their PPV. So a mixed bag of a week. Will Hell in a Cell be worth paying for? I haven’t decided yet.

Smackdown is the go home show before Night of Champions. Will it convince anyone to buy the show? We open with the Peep Show, one of at least two talk show segments on Smackdown. The guest is Albert Del Rio who arrives in an expensive car, introduced by his personal ring announcer. This guy’s mannerisms are brilliant. It’s hard to believe he spent most of his career as a babyface and wearing a mask. Christian thinks Del Rio is a flash in the pan. Christian challenges Del Rios to a match or a fight or anything else at Night of Champions. Del Rio will think about it. So Christian slaps him. That changes his answer to no.

The Hart Dynasty face Cody Rhodes and Drew McIntyre. Tyson Kidd is looking like a million bucks lately. The heels get an upset win that’s basically clean. We learn that the tag belts will be defended at Night of Champions, we just don’t know against who. There’s a really good (and long for TV) Jack Swagger versus Kofi Kingston match. It’s nice to see Swagger looking strong, but Kingston picks up the win via Trouble in Paradise as he’s the one with a match this Sunday.

Rosa Mendes and Kelly Kelly lose to LaCool. Then there’s a funny segment with them and Kaval. Michelle pulls the old pull names out of a hat bit so she can face Melina. Of course, all the names are Michelle. Kaval is so amusing with these two.

Christian faces CM Punk in the main event match and Del Rio joins commentary. Christian is game and puts up a long fight. Del Rios distracts Christian by claiming he’s reconsidering allowing Punk to hit Go To Sleep. Then Del Rio says his answer is still no. Big Show hits the ring and Punk tries to hold him off, but falls to the knock out punch. CM Punk will win Sunday.

Kane and Taker talk for the go home. It seems redundant to say Kane is over the top, but he’s really going all out tonight. Taker tries to appear when the lights go down, but Kane ends up behind him with the title belt. A beatdown ensues. I do sincerely hope these guys put on a great show Sunday, but I’m not optimistic and I’m not going to see it. I have something more important to do at 8:00 Sunday night than watch Night of Champions. If I were motivated to watch the show I could stay up late and watch the 11:30 pm replay, but I’d prefer a good night’s sleep. This simply isn’t a PPV worth losing sleep over. Kane even steals Taker’s moves to beat him down with.

This week’s TNA was actually pretty decent. At the PPV, Jeff Hardy and Kurt Angle drew while Ken Anderson beat The Pope. So Eric Bischoff announces a Three-way Dance at Bound For Glory. Dixie Carter overrules him and books a Hardy/Angel rematch with no time limit tonight. It was one hell of a match, but it ended in a double pin. So Bischoff went back to a three-way. Hey, I’m glad I saw that match, but it’s booking in circles again.

Tommy Dreamer tried to call a truce with Fortune, singing the praises of each and every one of them, often with shoot comments, but they beat him down. The other EV 2.0 guys were gone, but Brian Kendrick tried to make the save. Emphasize tried. After Fortune gets tired of the beat down Brian Kendrick issues an open challenge to any member of Fortune. Matt Morgan accepted, in street clothes. He dominates the match, but actually gets rolled up at the end. So Kendrick is getting a push.

Also getting a push: Jay Lethal, who won the X Division Championship. It’s not much of a title anymore, but it’s something at least. That’s the highpoints. Maybe extra time off helped them deliver a better show, I don’t know. I do know this is one of their best shows in a long time. All done with no Hogan. Coincidence?

Summerslam is in the books. Where do we go from here?

RAW opens with the Nexus trying to make themselves seem impressive again. Barrett is trying his best when Cena comes out to verbally destroy the entire group. Way to rebuild them. The E-GM weighs in and we finally get Nexus guys in singles matches with no outside interference from the rest of Nexus allowed. Barrett tells them win or you’re out. E-GM tells them they can pick their own opponents from last night’s WWE team, except Wade Barrett who must face Chris Jericho after the commercial.

Barrett wrestles ok, hits a Big Boot then reverses a Code Breaker into his own finisher to pick up the first win of the night. Can we just let the guest host concept die yet? The Unified Tag Team Championships get officially unified into the WWE Tag Team Championships. The dual belts are replaced by spiffy new ones. Bret presents the titles, then learns Justin Gabriel is his opponent tonight.

But that match isn’t next. Next, Tarver takes on Daniel Bryan. Nexus could lose Tarver and not be finished. Bryan is looking good until The Miz and his NXT rookie distract Bryan and cost him the match. Bryan goes after The Miz but Tarver and Reilly ally to stop him. That lets Miz hit a Skull Crushing Finale on the Money in the Bank briefcase. Miz really is upset about this.

So how can Justin Gabriel beat Bret Hart without risking killing him? Simple, the E-GM doesn’t like Bret Hart and doesn’t want to see him compete again. So Gabriel gets really screwed and has to face Randy Orton. Orton utterly dominates until Sheamus shows up and Orton leaves the ring to battle him and gets counted out. Orton saves an RKO for Gabriel. So we’re making Nexus look bad despite winning? Orton takes a chair to Sheamus to inch him closer and closer to Austin clone level.

If these are supposed to be individual matches why are Sheffield and Otunga teaming against John “Marty Jannetty” Morrison and R “Get a new song” Truth? Slater and Gabriel seem like a more natural tag team out of Nexus. Sheffield looks like the best guy in this short match as he gets the pin over Morrison with a simple Clothesline.

I guess they had to combine two Nexus matches to make room for a six-diva tag. But, then again, did I want to see David Otunga win a singles match? Tonight they have Jon Lovitz in the crowd who is at least somewhat of a celebrity. His reactions are more interesting than the match itself. You would expect the new champion’s team to pick up the win but Jillian Hall actually pins Eve and the bad girls take home the win.

Heath Slater sucks up to Edge to see if Edge will give the match a miss. But Edge is feeling his oats and won’t forfeit to the Wendy’s girl. Some guy from True Blood is here tonight too. Slater just isn’t intimidating in the ring. Justin Gabriel makes a better heel and I wouldn’t have expected that. It’s another count out victory and again Nexus looks bad in winning.

It’s not that Legendary looks bad. I’m just sick of having the trailers shoved down my throat. And The Great Khali should be a comedy foil for the guest hosts. He can pull that off.

Darren Young is the last Nexus member to risk being eliminated. He’s facing John Cena. He is the worst guy in Nexus. What do you think is going to happen? Nexus decides to come out and watch this match. Why just this one? The tease yet another countout but Cena makes it back and it’s five knuckle shuffle and STF in short order. Young lasts all of five seconds before tapping out. Nexus closes in but let Cena leave so they can beat down Young.

Look, I’m not going to miss Darren Young but this show was supposed to rebuild Nexus and it failed miserably. Kicking out and beating down Young is just treading water not advancing. Gabriel sells the damage his 450 Splash does to himself very well. WWE worked really hard on Nexus and now they seem to be in dire danger of becoming irrelevant. Oh well, Daniel Bryan is back!

Oddly, this episode broke the record for viewers on Canadian network The Score. I once again managed to avoid spoilers for NXT until it aired in Canada. There’s one elimination early, and it’s “Showtime” Percy Watson, the one guy left who really deserves to go. Michael McGuillicuddy comes up short against Zack Ryder while Kaval beats Husky Harris. Even at elimination two they don’t show rankings; they just show who is eliminated. To me, this is the ideal top 4. At this point I don’t want anybody to go but someone has to and it turns out to be Husky Harris. Cody Rhodes, his pro, flips out and he and Husky start a donnybrook. But Kaval again takes down Husky so they are finally letting him win.

Normally I would say nothing else about this episode. But some odd things happen. They gave each rookie a minute to speak. Kaval did a rap. It wasn’t very good. But he ended the rap by saying he was the guy for Total Non-stop Action. Later, Cole and Josh Matthews went on at length about rookies making, or not making, an Impact. Why is WWE all of the sudden making sly references to the competition? The policy, up until now, has been to ignore that TNA even exists. Something strange was certainly going on that night. And aren’t these terms trademarked? Is this payback for them trying to use ECW?

Speaking of TNA here’s some real life news. Rob Van Dam had limited appearances on his TNA contract. They ran out. While he was champion. For unclear reasons no new dates were negotiated. So, in storyline, Abyss beat RVD within an inch of his life and now the title is vacant and they are holding an eight-man tournament to crown a replacement. And, as if this didn’t make them look like amateurs, there’s a long segment early in the show where the announcer’s monitors are not on and all we can hear is them talking to the backstage crew. The eight-men in the tournament are the top 8 contenders.

Rob Terry is, sadly, one of the top 8. Look, Terry is improving and he’s probably at least as skilled as Skip Sheffield now. But aside from muscles I have no reason to care for him. He’s out in short order as he loses to Jeff Hardy. Next up is Mr. Anderson…Anderson versus Jay Lethal. Face versus face matches are nice once in a while but this is two in a row. Anderson wins and also advances to round 2. Doug Williams is the top 8 but AJ Styles isn’t? Williams faces Kurt Angle in a forgone conclusions match. The last match in round one is Matt Morgan versus The Pope. You would think Morgan would win to advance at least one heel into round 2 but it’s Dinero who picks up the win. He’ll face Anderson next while Angle faces Hardy. But that won’t be until September 5th and the next Pay Per View. The finals won’t be until the Pay Per View after that!

Hulk Hogan teases that he will quit while Eric Bishoff promises Abyss and Ric Flair will pay. Remember when people thought these guys would take TNA to a true #2 spot in wrestling. Fortune has swelled to Flair plus six as Doug Williams and Matt Morgan. Flair calls out EV 2.0 for being garbage wrestlers and points out he’s so hard core he survived a plane crash. Dixie Carter brings out the members of the EV 2.0 guys who just got contracts (Dreamer, Foley, Richards, Nunzio, Rhyno and Sabu). There’s a confrontation but it’s not physical and is mired in personal crap between Foley and Flair. We see Raven later, being the wild card in EV 2.0.

Kevin Nash and Sting, which might be starting a TNA seniors division, trot out the same old lines about fighting to keep their spot. So Jeff Jarrett and Hulk Hogan interrupt to argue this show is about the young guys. The epitome of chutzpah is killing your parents then begging for mercy because you are an orphan. But the lights go out and Fortune is back to beat up all four of them. I instantly like them more.

Your main event? Tommy Dreamer vs. AJ Styles. The heart and soul of ECW (both versions) versus the one true homegrown TNA star. If Tommy is going to wrestle then I demand he face Samoa Joe once his suspension is up. The match isn’t awful, but when Tommy hits a big move out comes Fortune. The EC EV 2.0 ambush them. Abyss emerges from under the ring and hits a Black Hole Slam on Tommy so AJ can pick up the win. Abyss takes off leaving the rest to brawl. Man The Sandman looks old.

You need to be a diehard fan to find Reaction interesting beyond the first few minutes where they basically continue Impact. Impact is also running over lately so if you have a DVR it’s safer to record Reactions just in case. But it spoils any illusions we had that Impact itself was live. This is clearly a pre-recorded show yet “live” footage is being shown.

On to Smackdown. Kane’s explanation could be a laugh. But it’s little Rey Rey who opens the show. Kane is guilty; Rey is vindicated. Look, it’s Alberto Del Rio, only live! Well, live without a mask. Del Rio is descended from Ferdinand and Isabella, Rey Mysterio is street trash. Rey think Del Rio’s cufflinks came from a swap meet. Rey offers him a match in his debut and Del Rio can’t wait to squash Rey like a bug. But Rey kicks him around a bit then bails. Del Rio’s accent is worse live.

Remember how Kofi Kingston and Dolph Ziggler’s match was interrupted by Nexus? Well they try again tonight. The match is pretty typical for the pairing and ends early when Vickie Guererro shoves Kofi off the top turnbuckle right in front of the ref. Champion’s advantage means Ziggler keeps the title. Ziggler bails leaving Kofi to face down Vickie. She realizes he won’t hit a girl and laughs long enough for Ziggler to sneak back, attack Kofi and eventually Zig Zag him in the ring. He follows up with a Sleeper on an already out man. And the feud refuses to die. They’re just trying to make Ziggler look just as aggressive as they’ve built Kofi up to be.

Can it be true? Serena is going to wrestle? Awesome! She tags with Gallows to face Kelly Kelly and the Big Show. Punk tells them: lose and you’re out. But, when Show is distracted beating Gallows on the outside, Serena wins her first match with a Gutbuster.

Kane promo time. Weird sound effects are not helping. Pride is the Undertaker’s weakness. And they want us to believe Kane has been planning this for 15 years. And now the phenom is no more and Kane is the devil’s favorite demon. Kane isn’t even phased to learn Taker is back next week.

Alberto Del Rio has a personal ring announcer. He also enters in a car. A Rolls Royce, not a Lowrider. His announcer speaks Spanish, For a guy’s debut neither Del Rio nor Mysterio seem to be cutting loose or going all out. Del Rio gets an interesting flip into a seated Armbar and Rey taps out almost immediately! This is quite a surprise for them to put the new guy over Rey, by submission no less, in his TV debut. Where will he go from here?

Bad news on the RAW front, Skip Sheffield suffered a broken ankle at a house show and will need surgery. So will Nexus shrink even more? That’s it for this week. The week after PPVs tend to be loaded with filler and recaps and ads and that’s exactly what we had from WWE this week. Nexus and Alberto Del Rio continue to be fresh but it’s Del Rio who looks strong.

It’s another week in WWE (and maybe TNA) as we move closer to Summerslam. Cena has his team. How will Nexus react? RAW begins with Cena making lame Super Friends jokes until Jericho comes out to make it clear he’s not a good guy despite joining Cena’s team. Cue the anonymous e-GM to force Jericho and Cena to tag together tonight. Nexus will face 7 WWE Superstars in an elimination match as well.

The Uso start being used as singles jobbers as Jay provides Randy Orton with little competition. Orton takes down Jimmy Uso, Sheamus and even The Miz when he tries to cash in Money in the Bank. The GM decides to make Miz and Cena the ones to face Cena and Jericho. Edge isn’t a fan of The Great Khali, which leads to a match where, if Edge wins, Khali is off Team Cena. But Nexus doesn’t let them finish the match so Edge bails on Khali. Weirdly, Nexus lets Khali leave without attacking him. The 7 WWE “stars” are Goldust, Mark Henry, The Hart Foundation, Yoshitatsu, Evan Bourne and… Jerry Lawler? Nexus is being so heavily protected they win this without losing a single member. And after looking so good lately Evan Bourne is left to be Nexus’s whipping boy.

The tag match is the main event. Neither side get along. They can’t even agree who will start, a classic way of demonstrating tension between partners. There have been “Y2J” chants on and off all night. People seem willing to get behind him as a face; but he makes such a great heel I’d rather he stay that way. In the end it’s Jericho who betrays Cena and allows The Miz to get the win. Yes, The Miz just pinned Cena. I’m sure some fans heads exploded upon seeing that. Then again, K-Fed owns a win over Cena, with the footnote that it was due to an attack by the late Umaga. Cena attacks Jericho and locks on the STF. That draws Khali to break it up, then get Speared by Edge. Morrison and R-Truth join the party and the message is hammer to the skull obvious. The Nexus are a untied force acting as a perfect unit. Cena’s team is falling apart. But, since I can’t see any way Bret Hart is actually going to take a bump big enough to remove him from the match, I’m still sure Cena’s team will win.

On NXT the focus is back on the rookies, not storylines going on elsewhere. There’s an elimination tonight, but not before some half-decent matches. They treat Eli Cottonwood like a bit of a joke this week so it’s no surprise he’s the one going home. Michael McGuilicuddy, who improved to 5-0 tonight, moves up to first place. Kaval, who is still doing a good job without having a winning streak handed to him, holds on to second.

Smackdown starts with Kane telling us his brother regained consciousness long enough to speak the words “Rey Mysterio” which Kane assumes means Rey was responsible for the attack on The Undertaker. There’s a good Christian/Drew McIntyre match with a weak finish that sees Christian win on a roll-up. “Dashing” Cody Rhodes’ grooming tip vignettes are actually pretty effective at making me dislike him. And I’m just sick of Alberto Del Rios.

CM Punk’s feud with Big Show continues as Show faces Luke Gallows. It’s a DQ when the SES jump Show and try to break his arm. The good news though is that Punk pulls off the sling so presumably he’s either ready to go again or close to it. So expect Punk/Show or a handicap match at Summerslam. Dolph Ziggler and Kofi Kingston have yet another non-title match. This time, if Dolph wins, he gets a title shot. Kingston goes a little nuts and pounds on Ziggler until he’s disqualified then continues until he is pulled off. It makes Kofi look more aggressive than he usually has but it’s pretty foolish to hand a guy a title shot with a DQ. The problem with Kofi/Dolph and Christian/McIntyre getting long matches is there isn’t enough talent in them to be really good. So a lot of this show is acceptable, but not great, wrestling.

Tiffany has a title shot, but Vickie Guerrero officially recognizes LayCool as co-Women’s Champions and allows McCool to defend the title. Tiffany’s ring gear is not conducive to taking her seriously as a competitor. Tiffany never had a chance here, but Teddy Long intervenes and says only one of them can be champion. They have to decide who that is or Long will make a ruling next week.

Our main event is Jack Swagger facing Rey Mysterio yet again, but this time it’s no disqualifications. Since they are in Corpus Christie Swager vows to throw Mysterio into the Gulf of Mexico. It’s the most exciting match of the night, but since when does no-DQ also mean falls count anywhere? Swagger does, indeed, take Mysterio out of the building before the match is through. They fight outside for quite a while, but it’s Swagger who goes in the ocean and apparently the All-American American can’t swim. Mysterio opts to leave him to drown. Kind of cold there Rey, but it’s Kane who has the last laugh as he shows up and puts Rey in the drink as well.

An okay show but nothing outside the main event was special. Still, Summerslam is shaping up nicely and Nexus continues to seem new and fresh. So they’re doing something right.

As for TNA this week… look I realize ECW rarely announced many PPV matches in advance, but I have no clue what is going to take place at Hardcore Justice outside the leaks from the dirt sheets. Word is the main event will be RVD versus Jerry Lynn. Who is clamoring to see that?

Eric Young is back to being a goofy comedy wrestler but they are still keeping him a heel, for now. It’s not working well. Ric Flair invites Beer Money to fill out Fortune. So after dragging this out for this long and constantly teasing they would have somebody new to join it’s the same four people we expected from the beginning? AJ at least renames the Global Championship the Television Title. It’s not original, but it is an improvement. AJ is next in line for Kurt Angle (who is rumored to be trying to crawl back to WWE on a limited schedule) in his climb up the rankings.

Match three in the Beer Money / Motor City Machineguns best of five is a cage match. With Beer Money already up by two the Guns win, of course, since they plan to drag this all the way out to two Pay Per Views from now. At least it’s a really good match and Roode bleeds a bucket.

Word is nobody likes Eric Bischoff at TNA. He’s said to be totally out of touch, but he’s back on TV plugging something big for the August 12 Impact. Because TNA doesn’t actually want to succeed, Abyss interrupts before Eric can finish. Abyss wants to book the main event for the August 12th show. He wants a Janice on a Pole match with RVD, and yes, Janice is a board with nails in it. Useful for driving off Kang and Kodos. We finally see the champ on the show as he saves Bischoff from the wrath of Janice, but Abyss turns the tables and Al Snow has to show up to steal Janice and keep Abyss from using her on RVD. That draws Tommy Dreamer for his main event Hardcore Match against Abyss. Both these guys know how to put on a Hardcore Match, but neither are at their peak of performance. It’s a nice brawl, but the tag Cage Match was better.

I put more effort into TNA this week to give people a better sense of where it’s at right now. It is not in great shape. Sure there are some good matches, but they are throwing away time on an ECW (sorry make that EV 2.0) reunion that won’t build their brand at all. At least, outside the reunion storyline, the focus is shifting to current and rising talent rather than wasting airtime on The Nasty Boys and Scott Hall, but what matters is people being willing to spend money on your brand, and this brand is as weak as the global economy.

Until next week, when the PPV build should be in high gear on both shows, remember, wrestling is more real than most reality shows.