Welcome to another edition of Around The Ring. It's been a little while so I thought I would drop another article on ya!!

Well geez...I give you all an easy Brainbuster and you complain it's too easy. I give you a hard one and about a dozen people reply and only one of those got it right.

Anthony Scipio.

Congrats to Anthony!! Keep on trying everyone!!

There is a lot to discuss, so lets go to the meat and potatoes!!

Married life has been decent, although a little tough on my wrestling hobby. I have to DVR all the wrestling programs and just recently found I was about 2 weeks behind. Well, I just had to lay the law down and watch about 14 hours of non stop wrestling...Raw, ECW, TNA, and Smackdown. So here are my findings with what's going on lately, starting with TNA.

From the video clip I saw, it appears that Abyss is getting close to returning. The big man had disappeared for quite some time, although it was said that he was helping out back stage and stuff. I was beginning to wonder though if he is still even with TNA as he is not listed in the roster. Can't wait to see the new and improved Abyss!!

I was really thinking about it while watching TNA how great the match quality is. I find that the outcomes are pretty much unpredictable and they have made it seem like anyone can win at any time. And they do! I really like the direction they are going and I like that there is a lot more action and a lot less yapping. They have interviews and a lot less back stage drama.

I am getting more and more impressed with Samoa Joe each and every week. The guy, for a man of his girth, is incredible agile! He has impressive moves and even better submission holds. I like the fact that he is getting more interview time on the mic. He is slowly getting better and he is just plain impressive!!

I watched a Knockout match on TNA and then a Divas match on Raw/Smackdown. You can't even compare the two. Apples and oranges! The TNA Knockouts are beautiful for the most part, but they can also put on one hell of a match! This is evident in the match with Gail Kim and Awesome Kong last Thursday. That was a spectacular match! I mean the ladies of TNA do their little sexy schtick but then when the match starts, it isn't all these stupid little moves that look more like sex acts. I do feel bad for Roxxi though. Poor girl had to get her head shaved. Although now she looks like she belongs with Mosh and Thrasher of the old Headbangers!!

Props to LAX for their big Tag Team title win!! They are an awesome team and they can only get better with Hector Guerrero's guidance. It is amazing to me how much Hector looks like an older version of Eddie Guerrero. And he is even starting to sound and act like Eddie as well. Is this a good thing??

How much bigger can D'Von Dudley get?? Good lord that man has just gotten massive in the last few years!!

Just a quick note before I get on to the WWE side of things...for all you old school 'rasslin fans...don't forget to check out AWA on ESPN Classics Monday thru Friday at 1am EST. Check your local listings. TiVo It, DVR it...set up the old VHS or Beta if you got it. And if you don't have ESPN Classics, call your cable company and demand it. And as Christian Cage says..."If you don't know, now you know".

Ok...so where do I begin with WWE?? Like I said, I am a little behind so bare with me.

Kane...the guy is incredible and has done everything the WWE has wanted of him. He is a fairly decent athlete and this is what surprised me. In his match with John Morrison, Morrison spent most of his attack going at the left leg of Kane. Now Kane sold it for some of the match, and then towards the end, just gave up the sell. Even when he did the flying clothesline off the top rope, he didn't sell any kind of leg injury after hitting the mat. That to me is a bad thing. I enjoy the illusion of realism. Make it look good.

CM Punk...Mr Money in the Bank. And they have him do the job to none other than...The Miz?!! I mean isn't Punk supposed to be getting a push here? Yes Punk beat Palumbo on SD later in the week...but still?!! Although I will say the match with Palumbo was a good match. I am surprised that Palumbo is still with WWE. To me he really doesn't fit there. He'd be better for TNA. But back to CM Punk... does this Money In The Bank mean anything? I just hope the pay off at the end is Punk getting jobbed and not getting a title after all...or settling for the IC or US belt. That would be a total crock.

Ok...where do I begin with Mike Adamle?? Is this all him or is someone feeding him bogus lines? Yes I said BOGUS!! It worked for Bill and Ted! Anyways...so you have Adamle trying to get his catch phrase to work with "Have Mercy". Ummm...is anyone else finding that COMPLETELY lame?? I mean it didn't work for Jesse on Full House...what makes them think this will work? You can NEVER replace "OH MY GAWD!!!" That IS ECW!! And then to make matters worse...calling the match with Kane, Adamle refers to Kane as the "One Legged Man from the Fugitive". Ok...did I miss something here? Did they re-write The Fugitive and I wasn't sent a memo? Did new information come to light? As long and as far as I know, it has always been the ONE ARMED MAN from the Fugitive. It is just truly embarrassing. Will Adamle get any better? Doubtful. Is Michael Cole still a chump? Absolutely. Those two deserve each other.

Beth Phoenix...Chyna's sister? Ok, maybe not. But she truly beat the hell out of Melina two weeks ago and I was impressed. They made it look good. I almost though Melina really was hurting after that one. I am wondering if they are trying to make Melina a face now?? These changes for heel to face are so subtle to me lately. What's going on??

So there I am and Randy Orton is on wrestling...and lo and behold, what do I hear?? A Randy Orton chant!! What is this world coming to?!! Ok...Randy is a decent wrestler and a decent athlete...but...his mic skills are lacking.
And to top it all off...what the heck is up with his new theme song?!! It's awful.

Ok...I was about to lavish William Regal with all kinds of compliments and what not, and what do I hear?? Regal suspended for 60 days for violating the Wellness Program!! What is wrong with you Regal?!! Here you are getting this incredible push...probably your best push to date, and getting a HUGE amount of heat...and positioning yourself to be one of the top heels. And now this. He is a great wrestler...awesome heel...funny face(good guy), but I just hope he can overcome his addictions make it back in time to reignite his heat!!

Will Cena ever be completely over one way or the other? He was off Raw for 2 weeks, comes back and he is still getting a mixed reaction from the fans. I am not sure what Cena can do to get fully back to a face or a heel.
Maybe going heel for a while will be good. Hogan did it why can't Cena? Can't always be a face ALL the time.

Ok...this Russian wrestler...Vladimir Kozlov needs to go. He is being forced to us week in and week out and I still am not impressed in anyway. Change this guys gimmick or let him go. I just fast forward his matches now. And WHEN will he get any REALLY competition??

The one good thing I can say about the Divas matches is I liked Michelle McCools submission Heel Hook. That was pretty cool. If you haven't seen it, here is the match on YouTube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wk8lCd4A9OI check it out.

I am going to try to wrap this article up and contain a few different things in this last paragraph. Firstly I would like to address the realism aspect. I am watching Y2J vs Batista. As Batista is sending Y2J into the ropes, I can clearly see him talking to Batista for the moves coming up. That's not cool. I know they are human, and they have off nights, but they are also the top stars and that is a big no no for sure. The second thing is the tag match with HHH and Cena vs JBL and Orton. Cena has JBL in the STFU and Orton goes to kick HHH's head clean off his body. However HHH moves out of the way and Orton hits Cena. Orton BARELY even touched Cena's head and Cena completely sold it like it was the worst shot he has ever received. It just looks bad. I have seen Orton make it look really bad which surprised me when I saw this lame kick. The last thing is the number of PPV's. They just had Judgement Day...and in 2 weeks it's already time for One Night Stand. They really need to trim down the number of PPV's before it all becomes too boring to even bother.

Has anyone tried JR's BBQ sauce???

And now its time for...

***The Last Brainbuster***

Q: This woman was known as the “Apache Indian Beauty” in the 1960’s. Who was she better known as?

A: Princess Little Cloud

***This Weeks Brainbuster***

This week is not going to be a trivia question. A friend of mine asked me to set up a Super Card aka PPV featuring TNA stars vs WWE Stars. So I set up a page on my site which has 17 matches between TNA and WWE. Your job is to vote the winners and I will post the results in the next column. So please go to the following link:

http://supercard.aroundthering.com/

and click on the graphics to bring up each voting page. Email me if you want and let me know what you think of the matches I created.

Well thats it for me. Thank you for joining me for this edition of Around The Ring. I am Eric, that’s my opinion and I am standing by it!!

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