The Dresden Dose: Honor's Big Debut
First and foremost, it's going to be a bit unusual reviewing my own show, but you guys told me you couldn't wait for me to, "review WAR and Honor" so I will be pulling double duty from now on when it comes to these reviews.
OPENING
WAR has a banner featuring several of the superstars, Honor simply has the name of it's brand. WAR has Nonpoint, Honor has Atreyu. Pretty good balance I'd say. I'd like to say what we lack in graphics, we make up for in quality. The logo might be simple but it works.
The opening segment is the grand unveiling. The commentary team will see your teacher Matt Striker uniting with Good Ol' J.R., who's jumping ship from WAR. Before the general manager is revealed we get a look at Honor's premiere title, the CWF Championship, which is what the eight men in the tournament will be competing for. The tournament was Andrew's idea btw, just giving credit where credit's due.
The general manager is revealed to be none other than Joey Styles, who vows to make Honor the best show it can possibly be. Tapout did a good job with this opening segment. How cool is it that CWF's general managers are both ECW alum?
THE ROCK'S PROMO
After Joey makes his way to the back, J.R. and Matt Striker exchange pleasantries when Matt alludes to the fact that one of the superstars has requested time to address the crowd. Who is it? Why none other than the "People's Champion" The Rock, now played by Purple PuNk, which makes it only right he be on the brand with the purple logo. Had to, sorry.
He makes his presence felt very strongly, fed up with former management and refusing to be wasted on what he deems lower echelon talent. This was a good promo, very well done. Shout out to Slim for his comment on the show alluding to his legendary tenure as the Great One. Rock will certainly be a great addition to Thursday nights. PuNk wrote the promo when I had it advertised as Tuesday. Little bit of miscommunication between Tapout and I, no big deal.
ALBERTO DEL RIO VS. ROAD DOGG
The Don Cesar of CWA has returned to writing ladies and gentlemen to join Tapout, myself, and Ellis on Honor and I'm glad to have him. I wish awesome miz would've been able to trash talk, especially since his reaction to the match in the preview was so enthusiastic. I'd hate for this to become a trend, I don't want to cut anybody.
Due to the trash talking situation, this contest was a short one, but it was still a good one. A fast pace and a good amount of energy. Lewb advances in the tournament and will face either Soccerboy or Sam himself.
COMMERCIAL ONE
This is where yours truly begins to take control of the show. For the first commercial, I decided to plug Monday Night WAR. Not only because it was here first and its success led to the possibility and existence of Honor, but because one show shouldn't be viewed over the other, we work together to make the fed must-see. Also, Kane's still on the banner, so in a way he's still on both shows.
AIR BOOM PROMO
The way Andrew structured the promo made it an ideal segue from commercial, so my thanks go out to him for the set-up. Initially they were to be called Sonic Boom, which I personally like better, but he opted to go with their actual team name. It's not like it's a huge difference, I'm just saying, Sonic Boom sounds better to me than Air Boom. Maybe because it reminds me of Guile and Sonic the Hedgehog. By the way, R-Truth's comments on Raw about, "Air Boom being a sneaky fart" had me shaking my head. I know you're gearing the product towards children, WWE, but for crying out loud you're on USA Network not Nickelodeon.
Their entrance theme is "Sandstorm" by Darude, an interesting choice. I think it's catchy. Now hopefully I can think of this tag team when I hear it instead of the dreadful play my classmates did several years ago using the song. You've done a good job capturing the personalities of Bourne and Kingston, Andrew, I feel their excitement as if I was watching them on television. As Striker points out on commentary, you can see them debut on this week's WAR.
KEVIN THORN PROMO
Whether I've said it before or not, I love Sam's portrayal of Kevin Thorn. One of my favorite characters in e-fedding, and that covers every brand I've been a part of. The Coven vs. R.E.M.E.D.Y. or Thorn vs. Kane would be feuds I'd love to play out. The style of speaking and the dark tones is present in all of their TT's, plus it's been a little while since I've gone head-to-head with Sam. Anyway, a nice promo to lead in to the match.
THE MIZ VS. KEVIN THORN
Apparently Soccerboy is LOA, which explains his absence from this week. Anyway, I wrote this match, so I'm not going to comment much on it. I'll just say I hope you guys read it and point out that I enjoyed writing it. Bronzy was initially given the match, but he let me have it because of what I had planned for the finish. I usually play off of the fact that Thorn's a vampire, but the raining blood was Sam's idea, so props to him for that. I wrote the brief speaking portion btw. Sam advances and it's him and lewb next week in the semi-finals.
COMMERCIAL TWO
I made the second commercial the pay-per-view because it's important that you not only check it out, but that you TT for it and make it as awesome as it can possibly be. The poster is significant to me because, if you didn't know, UCW Vengeance will go up the same day. So after you're done watching me take control of Smackdown for a month, head on back here to check out the great show we've put together, or vice versa. Either way, September 25th Dresden's gonna raise hellfire and whoopass, and also cure this diseased federation. Assuming R.E.M.E.D.Y. makes the card of course.
KANE PROMO
Back from commercial, Striker makes note of the fact that we're about to be joined by Kane. Boy, he knows about all the promos, doesn't he? I'm obviously not going to put over my own promo huge, but I do feel like a did a good job. Longest thing I've written as Kane thus far, and if not, it's close. This was a fun segment to write. Kane versus Riley anyone?
CHRISTIAN VS. CODY RHODES
Alright, this was Tapout's match but in his absence I took it upon myself. Now because of the, well quite frankly, B.S. that erupted in the TT'ing thread and in Staff over the TT'ing thread, there was absolutely no way I was going to make a call on this one. On one hand, the count is 4-3, so Christian wins because of that. Ellis said they agreed to go 3-3, so going 4-3 is a dick move, so Rhodes wins because of violation of that right? Or do I not count Christian's fourth and judge the three each man put out? Point is it would've been controversial regardless.
Initially I was going to go with Rock costing Rhodes the match, setting up a feud between the two and Christian advancing. Why? Because I feel Ellis would've taken the loss better, to be perfectly honest. But Andrew was a professional and spared me having to be responsible for the "WrestlingSmarks Screwjob", hence the finish I went with. I just hope no B.S. erupts this go-around.
Again, not going to comment on my own match, but I did work hard on it so I hope you read it.
COMMERCIAL THREE
I don't have a graphic for this column so I used a picture of me in my wrestling gear to promote it. Chris Dresden, in case you didn't know, is my ring name. I use it mostly for backyard wrestling with my friends, everywhere else I use it is obviously forums. Now you know.
BROCK LESNAR VS. JAMES STORM
Unfortunately, Rock was in a serious accident this week. Like a trooper he TT'd for his match anyway, so luckily I was able to make a judgment call instead of do what I had to do with Miz/Thorn and what Sam had to do with Dogg/Rio, write a match with an obvious outcome. Put a lot of work into this match as well, so please check it out.
CLOSING THOUGHTS
If I do say so myself, Honor debuted in a big and explosive way, and really delivered on the hype. For a show that lacked on TT'ing, the matches weren't what you'd expect, and the only real flaw was the references to Honor being on a Tuesday night even though it's a Thursday night program, but that was addressed. Hope everyone enjoyed the show as well as this review. Be sure to check out next week's edition of Honor. I'll be back on Monday night with my review of WAR Roulette. Take care until then guys.