TNA Bound For Glory 2010 PPV Review

Bound to Please

By Phil Allely

TNA’s flagship pay-per-view Bound For Glory had to pull off an awful lot to please its loyal fans, the event promised a new world champion, RVD’s revenge bout with Abyss, Mickie James first PPV appearance, the EV 2 and Fortune feud was to culminate in Lethal Lockdown and after some teases Abyss would finally reveal who ‘They’ were, so did 10/10/10 ultimately fulfil its obligations?

Opening things with a bang were Generation Me who took on the Motor City Machineguns for the Guns World Tag Team Belts. Shelley and Sabin proved once again just how slick a unit they are, systematically picking apart their younger rivals. The bucks did get in some great looking double teams and near falls against their more experienced and confident opponents, but a final flurry of tight ring work by the Detroit natives put their dreams of gold to rest.

A sexy looking Mickie James featured in the TNA Knockouts Title match, holding the action together well in her role as special referee.

The four-way battle saw Knockouts champion Angelina Love defend against, her Beautiful People partner Velvet Sky, returnee Tara and Madison Rayne. The match itself saw some decent action, the finish saw Tara sneak the pin and belt for herself much to Rayne’s dismay. Post-match James lamped a mouthy Rayne to ignite a possible feud.

Oddball team Orlando Jordan and Eric Young were up next battling the colourful duo Ink Inc. Jesse Neal and Shannon Moore were on form throughout. Their bizarre opponents were fun, but a tad too off kilter for many in attendance. Young’s comic turns however were spot on, Moore pinned Jordan to end proceedings. EY’s increasingly erratic behaviour causing his own teams loss.

The UK’s own Douglas Williams represented Fortune in his quest to recapture the X Division Title, current champion Jay Lethal of course had other ideas. Both men used their particular talents to their own ends, Williams utilising his mat based style, whilst Lethal tried his best to fly and use his speed. Lethal was lucky to steal a three count as he rolled through on a William hurricarana. Lethal received a post victory beat down by newcomer Robbie G after his win.

Rob Van Dam then finally got his hands on Abyss, seeking revenge for the brutal and bloody beat down that saw him lose his beloved heavyweight championship. The best place to do this was of course a Monster’s Ball match, where weapons are welcome and rules don’t exist. Van dam started fast on the offensive, taking the action in and out of the ring. Incorporating everything from chairs, barbed wire boards, tables and trashcans, the brawl lacked blood, but had some very good, back and forth action, featured some risky moves, career shortening manoeuvres and nasty falls. RVD pulled off the win with a nice frog splash.

Handicap rules were to the fore as Samoa Joe and Jeff Jarrett faced off against the trio of Kevin Nash, Sting and The Pope. With some bitter attitudes on hand, the teams recent war of words became a stiff reality. The numbers game proved to be the deciding factor though, the end coming when Jarrett turned on his partner Joe, leaving him to take the a three man beating and Nash powerbomb for the loss.

Team 3D made a special appearance to announce their retirement, the 23 time former tag team champs asked for one more match with the Motor City Machineguns before hanging up their boots.

Lethal Lockdown was everything it should be, a full throttle cage match where all hell breaks loose and the opposing teams finally get the chance to work through their differences with the cage and weapons as added extras. Mick Foley and Ric Flair had a brief ringside brawl before the EV 2/Fortune team stepped inside, Fortune having the man advantage throughout the first portion of the ten man event.

Flair’s foot soldiers took control from the outset, having a fired up Foley, Flair and the remaining team members at ringside helped keep the crowd pumped up as well. EV 2 however quickly clawed back some leverage of their own with each fresh man who entered, the extreme team proving to be better at handling the brutal setting.

The blood flowed freely from the onset, the teams brawled and when the cage top lowered the adreniline in and out of the ring began to pump big time. Kazarian and Stevie Richards took to the cage roof, the weapons were used by all and sundry and the teams took the war to the ringside area as well as above and in the ring. Brian Kendrick’s timely surprise appearance on the cage top gave EV 2 and nice assist. Dreamer ended the war by pinning recent nemesis AJ Styles whilst his weary team mates battered Fortune about the arena.

The main event promised a new TNA World Heavyweight Champion and the trio participating all seemed equally likely candidates. Kurt Angle said he’d quit if he was beat, Mr Anderson is a star on the rise out to prove a point and Jeff Hardy sits atop a short list of men who deserve a long world title run, if they can keep their noses clean.

After trading moves and match advantages, Angle made his move, nailing some brutal looking two man suplexes, a cool double ankle lock and more ludicrously insane moves, before Anderson and Hardy took their turn in the spotlight.

The finish was a shock for many reasons, after the many near falls, moonsaults, Angle Slams, swanton’s, mic check’s and obligatory ref bump, the title went to the unpredictable Hardy, but he had a bit of help.

Prior to his win Eric Bischoff and an on-crutches Hulk Hogan appeared and in a major swerve turn Jeff turned heel to join them, blasting both opponents with the walking aids, to gain an easy pin.

The crowd were obviously stunned, as we saw a newly heel Hardy deck an enquiring RVD, he joined a smiling Hogan, Bischoff, Abyss and Jarrett, subsequently revealing them to be the mysterious ‘They’ as the PPV went off the air.

Bound for Glory was perhaps TNA’s best offering of 2010, a new champion was crowned, we finally saw EV 2’s veterans beat Ric Flair’s young guns Fortune, the under card held its own amongst the bigger tales unfolding, RVD got his vengeance on Abyss, plus we finally saw who the much hyped ‘They’ were.

So where new champ Jeff Hardy and his new associates the immortal Hulkster, Bischoff, Jarrett and Abyss go from here is anyone’s guess. It has just opened up another dimension to the TNA product, with Fortune, EV 2 and now ‘the immortals’ on the scene it’s going to be essential to tune into Impact! To see what will now happen to Dixie Carter’s company, as the power seemingly shifts once again.

Fozzy Gig Review - Belfast October 2010

Fozzy: Let The Madness Begin Tour - Belfast Gig Review

By Phil Allely

He may be better known to a great many people as one of professional wrestling’s greatest superstars and in-ring characters, but that’s not where Chris Jericho’s heart really lies these days. Jericho (real name Christopher Irvine) has been involved in music for a lot longer than he has wrestling and has a real passion for making music and performing. He fronts fast-rising rock band Fozzy and after a five year break their 2010 UK tour brought them to Belfast once again. So just what did Belfast get from the band who began their life as a covers act named Fozzy Osbourne?

The Spring and Airbrake venue in Belfast’s city centre is a far cry from the large stadiums Chris regularly performed in as part of the WWE’s live shows and pay-per-views, but as he said himself during our lengthy pre-show interview he ‘loves playing live’ and ‘to be able to see the fans in the front rows sing-along to Fozzy’s songs is a bonus in playing more intimate venues‘.

The show itself was well paced and Jericho was hardly out of sight for long. From his entrance where he came in like the star he is all smile and sunglasses, to his rousing finale, this man proved he was one of those rare and annoying things, someone who can easily excel at more than one thing and overshadow all who’ve tried before, carving two different and interchangeable careers for himself. Plus he has a very decent rock voice, which he not only knows how to use, but can adapt to cover the softer tracks on Fozzy’s set list too. The band are a sum of their gathered talents though and each does play their part to the hilt, even if Jericho quite rightly is the main focus for many who watch them.

Fozzy’s music style is a mix of classic rock heavyweights of the 1970s and 1980s melodically styles mixed with more harder modern edge. Letting their music open itself to more than one distinct fan base.

The set comprised mainly of Fozzy’s latest album release Chasing The Grail and a few other tracks from the bands back catalogue, plus a cover or two. The large crowd in attendance thoroughly enjoyed each riff, joined in the lyrics and had a blast rocking along with a fully charged Jericho bounding about the stage. He never let up during the entire set, seemingly soaking up the energy and enthusiasm he was generating amongst the baying masses. The wrestling based chants, in-jokes by fellow band mates and other grappling related things went down well with the feisty front man, taking them on the chin, smiling and getting on with his performance.

During our conversation prior to the show Chris informed me that whilst previous gigs had been packed solid the fans were a bit quiet at times, he had even higher expectations for the Northern Irish fans, who were all eagerly awaiting the ‘Fozzy experience‘. He was to disappointed as we Belfast natives once again proved that this really is the place to play live rock music in, we welcome it with open arms, we adore it, buy it in shed loads and know a good band when we see one. Fozzy said they would leave us a ‘sweaty mess who had just experienced a real life hard working rock band’ and you know what they did just that.

Support acts Symphony Cult and Death Valley Driver were in the unenviable roles of warming up a crowd who just wanted to see Fozzy, however they did do their job and win over some new fans along the way. Symphony Cult’s Charlotte especially was on the receiving end of some adoring Irish eyes as her angsty voice and alluring style entranced the Belfast boys and girls.

Fozzy’s album Chasing The Grail is available now.

Chris Jericho Live In Belfast 14 October 2010

Chris and I on his tour bus prior to the Belfast Fozzy show,gig review and 30 minute interview to follow soon.

Nash retires!

TNA's Kevin Nash has finally decided to hang up his boots. The 51 year old giant who made his name in both the WWE and WCW before reappaearing in TNA has called it a day once and for all and now wants to spend time with his family it seems.
Nash found fame firstly as Shawn Michaels bodyguard Diesel in the 1990s and went on to win the world title during an uninspiring run. He later became one of the first big names to jump ship to WCW (alongside Scott Hall), there the pair formed the NWO and went on to have a great run as the wolf Pack leaders. In TNa nash has jumped between tag team action, has mentored the X Division and had a high proifle run as a member of the Main Event Mafia. Over the eyars Hall has rejoined his old tag team partner for short times, but the pairign have never succeeded in recaliming their former glory. nash himself has been in steady decline, his knees giving him serious grief and in-ring wise performances have not met with crowd approval on many occasions. His mic sklills however have not depleted and they will be missed by TNA.

Some new TNA pics

Iron Will - WWE DVD Review

WWE DVD Review: Iron Will - The history of the Elimination Chamber

By Phil Allely

In 2002 the WWE unveiled the next step in the history of the cage match The Elimination Chamber, a concept that took the old idea of putting men in a cage to end a feud to a whole new level. The cage match gimmick had already proved to be a great move for the WWE as the already proven Hell in a Cell match was a great ratings winner for the company. This addition to the genre was initially a good move for the WWE.

This three disc set looks at the 11 Elimination Chamber matches to date and gives a nice overview of the ominous structure and the damage it can do to a man’s career. The idea of the match was a simple one, six men, one he cage and four plexi-glass pods, two men start off and every few minutes another is released form his pod to join the fray. The idea being that pin falls and submissions would end someone quest until only one remained and he was the winner.

The disc are in chronological order and one trend you can see is that through the years the match itself has become a shadow of its former self, the brutality and bloodshed of earlier ones are now replaced by stunts, high risks and endurance. The blood and violence are of course what we all come to expect from a cage match and one like this where six men are thrust into one with a chance of a title shot or headline match, the reality is that there will be some claret flowing at some point.

So what can you expect from this box set? Well fans of the gimmick match will lap it up for a start, the chamber itself is an unyielding weapon and its used very well and wisely by most who enter it here. The blood flows and you really do sense that many careers are shortened greatly for our viewing pleasure.

The Elimination Chamber matches debut coincided with the return to the ring by wrestling legend Shawn Michaels, after four years in retirement, following serious back surgery the ‘Heartbreak Kid’ returned to the ring after only one previous match to enter the first chamber bout and boy was it a cracker. Michaels showed no signs of ring rust and put forth a show-stopping performance that saw him return to the ring full time until his 2010 permanent retirement.

The other ten matches on offer in this set struggle to match the energy, enthusiasm and violence that the initial one did, but they do try and many of them succeed too. Yes top level guys like Michaels and Triple H are prominent in the bouts here, but that’s not to say they dominate proceedings, there are some nice in-ring moment with Rob Van Dam, Undertaker, Chris Jericho, Batista and Randy Orton in there as well.

Of course amongst the good and the great there are some appearances by such guys as Big daddy V, Great Khali and others who really don’t deserve to be in a match of this magnitude, but you know what it doesn’t matter as they don’t last too long or don’t stand out and mess things up too much anyway.

Along the way we also seem some surprise title changes, a few unexpected moments, Money in the Bank cash-ins and since my fellow countryman Finlay is in there we also get an impromptu Hornswoggle run-in.

One shock is that the previously deleted o events and forgotten Chris Benoit is included in this set, he of course was very prominent in the 2005 Elimination Chamber match for the World Heavyweight title and I’m guessing no matter how we all feel about what Chris did, it really did need to be here in this DVD compilation.

Also featured are the much better than expected Extreme Elimination Chamber match from the December to Dismember PPV (that saw ECW draw one of its final breaths before Paul Heyman left for pastures new), the addition of weapons did spice things up a bit and although Sabu was missing form it the other participants did work hard, Bobby Lashley’s push did shock many, but it kind of worked at the time.

Iron Will is a very worthwhile addition to any DVD collection, many of us will own a few of the events on offer here, only a real diehard may possess them all so collecting the eleven chamber bouts to date like this does make sense and will appeal to many. The presentaion is well done, Todd Grisham makes for a decent host and each match has a nice introduction that helps build the story and make you understand what’s going on, there are also some great little segments with participants such as John Cena and Batista, who talk about the match we’ve just seen or are about to see.

Iron Will is released by Silver Vision on October 18th and is available from www.silvervision.co.uk

Exclusive Chris Jericho Interview

EXCLUSIVE: Chris Jericho Interview -- Irish fans rock!!!

By Phil Allely

Former WWE superstar Chris Jericho has always been involved in music, long before he embarked on a career in spandex that saw him travel the globe and win countless titles across the biggest promotions in the wrestling industry Chris was longing to be a rock star.

Here Phil Allely talks to him about his band Fozzy, their new album release Chasing the Grail and why Ireland has become a favourite place to stop off at during their tours.

‘You know we’ve been going 11 years so we‘ve been plugging away to get what do right for a long time, we’ve just released our 5th studio album Chasing the Grail and it‘s our best yet. We love coming to the UK (and I include Ireland in that statement) in fact this is our 9th UK tour. We love playing live there, be it England, Scotland, or Wales, it‘s always a great atmosphere and each gig rocks’.

It’s been four years since Fozzy last set foot in Ireland for a live show (Chris himself has of course wrestled here as part of WWE tours). Those missing years have seen the band release a new chart topping album and Chris return to the band fulltime since he left the WWE earlier this year.

‘Yeah I guess it was 2006 when we had out last Irish shows, we absolutely love Ireland and the fans are amazing, quite possibly they are the best there are anywhere in the world. The UK fans as a whole are wonderful, they all seem to love the music and have no problem with the fact that I am a household name in wrestling , they see beyond that and view us as a reliable rock band and on stage performers/musicians.
We are all really excited about returning to the UK and of course Ireland, it’s got a great reputation as a place where live acts are appreciated, it will be a fun series of shows and everyone knows what to expect from Fozzy by now’.

Fozzy themselves are renowned for bringing a high level of energy and enthusiasm to each and every live show, their brand of rock is one that needs that and as a man who is well used to performing in front of tens of thousands of paying customers, Jericho is a very good front man to have in a band that has created its own niche in the music scene.

‘I would describe our sound as a high energy one, we are a bit like Van Halen circa 1978, think that with more power, heavier than them certainly, mix in some Metallica, blend a bit of Ozzy, throw in Pantera, then cross with the likes of Journey and that’s our sort of vibe. No one ‘ever’ doesn’t enjoy themselves at one of our gigs, its gonna be rocking and we are all gonna get sweaty, the fans get exactly what we do and we feed off that’.

Fozzy seem to spend more time touring the UK, Europe and further afield than the United States. Chris explained the reasoning behind the choice of countries to visit this year in support of ‘Chasing the Grail‘.

‘We love playing the states, but for whatever reason we seem to end up more in the UK and the fans there really get what we do, so it makes sense to visit them as often as we can. Since 2005 and our very first UK tour its been like that they all got us straight away and understood what we were trying to do, especially Ireland, we have been welcomed with open arms there.’.

‘We never got to Ireland earlier this year (Fozzy did a brief Scotland, Wales, England tour in early 2010) so this is our reason for coming back. Next week we are going to readdress that and make Ireland rock like only Fozzy can.’

New release Chasing the Grail has been gaining favourable reviews since its release and netted Fozzy some great publicity, the album itself is made up of totally new songs which have taken a long time to get released in this format.

‘Well Chasing the Grail has done really well so far, we’ve been featured high on the Billboard charts. The album is our best to date, we’ve got better writing and it all really fell into pace for us. We’ve created a different genre with Fozzy, it’s a melodic and heavy one that fits us into our own niche, we combine great harmonies, cool vocals and superb guitars into our own sound’.

Starting life as a band (Fozzy Osbourne in tribute to the legendary Black Sabbath front man) who specialised in covers, Fozzy quickly dropped the covers from their albums and began to find their own feet in the music industry.

‘What we’ve done is carved out a little niche like 1970s rock band used to be in, the sort we don’t see today, we have a style of our own. It’s a Fozzy sound, which is what we want, we stand ot for our own music and songs and that’s where we want to be.

‘We still do a few covers at live shows, but mainly its our own songs we play and that’s what people want, we were always fortunate you know some of the covers we did years back, when we played them many of the kids in the audience thought they were ours anyway, so we missed out being called a covers band often due to our performances of them, the new album is all us.’

Fozzy have had a few musical collaborations in the past, but do have hopes that a few bands they are friendly with may one day hit the road alongside them or record a track or two with them.

‘Avenged Sevenfold would be great with us, their sound and ours work so well together, Anthrax I’d tour with them no problem at all. To be honest we don’t have a wish list, we have so many guys we know in the industry and are friends with, any would work well if we tried’.

Fozzy really just want to perform, there’s nothing cooler than seeing those people in the front row singing along with you. You don’t see that in the studio when you record or when they play your songs at home. Live shows are the best experiences and we love them. They are the most rewarding part of being in a band’.

You can see Fozzy at Belfast’s Spring and Airbrake venue on Thursday October 14th and Dublin’s Button factory on Friday October 15th. Tickets are available now from Ticketmaster and other outlets.