Night of Champions....Really??!!

The Night of Champions 2011!!! Really??!! This PPV literally means that every match is supposed to be a championship match, yet the main event was a match satisfying one man's appetite for glory. We'll get to that later. Before that, a roundup of, the rest of the card for the night.

Tag Team Titles
AWESOME TRUTH vs AIRBOOM(c)
This match kicked off the PPV and to say the truth was a good bout. I'm particularly partial to The Miz and Truth because I feel the Miz IS the Tag Division. Not to say he didn't make a great WWE Champion but lets face it the tag division made the Miz and now it needs him to get back its glory days. Truth's transition into a crazy heel has been one of the best turn's in the last few months. He never really lived up to his potential as a face, but now finally he has the attention he needed. Together they make an awesome tag team. AirBoom is a decent pair-up. Though both Bourne and Kofi are high flyers they manage to throw in a bunch of variations in their moves which makes them watchable. This match up was an awaited one and it proved to be a good one. The angle about the ref being involved in the so called "Conspiracy" was interesting as was the fact that AirBoom cheated to get the victory. It has been a long time since the days of the late and great Eddie Guerrero that I've seen a face cheat his way out of a match. So overall an entertaining start.
Winner: AirBoom via disqualification
Match Rating: 3.5/5


Intercontinental Championship
CODY RHODES(c) vs TED DIBIASE
This was a new match in the card, and frankly, I didn't expect much from it. Though we all know how Cody has evolved as a wrestler, the same cannot be said about DiBiase. we can clearly see who came off better after Legacy disbanded.  The audience were not at all behind the newly turned "face" DiBiase, which did have an effect on the quality of the match. Rohdes was as good as ever, and Dibiase showed spots of improvement and the finish was unexpected but good, but with the crowd being least interested in the match, it was an average bout.
Winner: Cody Rhodes via Pinfall
Match Rating:2.5/5


United States Championship
DOLPH ZIGGLER(c) vs JACK SWAGGER vs JOHN MORRISON vs ALEX RILEY
This was a fatal four way between Ziggler, Swagger, Morrison and Riley, with Riley being the only contender who has never held a title. This was another good bout with a lot of fast paced action and momentum shifts that is generally expected in such a type of match. All four had their moments to shine with Riley having some of the best of them. It is clear that Riley features in WWE's long term plans and they are pushing him enough to become one of their fututre stars. Morrison came back from injury and has not been able to gain his lost momentum. Swagger and Ziggler continued their ongoing rivalry coming into the event over Vicky's managerial services and had a few spots between them. The finishing was a good one with Ziggler stealing a victory from Swagger and continuing their feud. Overall a good mid-card event.
Winner: Dolph Ziggler via Pinfall
Match Rating:3.5/5


World Heavyweight Championship
RANDY ORTON(c) vs MARK HENRY
WWE are really high on Henry and are pushing him over like crazy. To give the man his due this has been long awaited and its good to see him being used to his full potential. Orton I feel is a waste as a face, his tweener/heel persona is far more convincing. A good championship bout between the two, with Henry dominating a major portion of the match. Finish came with Henry hitting the World's Strongest Slam on Orton.
Winner: Mark Henry via Pinfall
Match Rating:4/5


Divas Championship
KELLY KELLY(c) vs BETH PHOENIX
Kelly Kelly is the most over-rated Diva ever!! And this was another example of how she was given a push  by getting the victory over a far better competitor and that even at Beth's home town. A below average match which should have been held much earlier, and would have been slightly more credible if Phoenix had won.
Winner: Kelly Kelly via Pinfall
Match Rating:1.5/5


WWE Championship
ALBERTO DEL RIO(c) vs JOHN CENA
The other main event title match was also a great match. Good gimmick before the match with Cena stealing Del Rio's car. The match itself was the usual "Cena match" with Del Rio mounting as much offence as he could but could not break Cena. What made this match interesting was the skill between the two wrestlers. We all know Del Rio has a vast variety of moves at his disposal and they were on display during this match. Cena has bought some variation in his moves set over the last few months and was watchable. Overall a great match which went to and fro until Cena hit Del Rio with both his finishers to become a 10 time WWE Champion!!!
Winner: John Cena via Submission
match Rating:4/5


Non-Title Main Event??!
TRIPLE H vs CM PUNK
How can you not have one of your top stars main eventing your PPVx. And I am not talking about Triple H. CM Punk's rise to the top has been short but eventful to say the least. However his latest feud with Triple H has been more confusing than interesting. With Kevin Nash and John Laurinaitis being involved things became way more complicated. This has really lost Punk the momentum he had gained against Cena. Moreover Triple H cannot and most probably will not get over his glory days and keeps on coming back for one last fight. Agreed that he's still in good shape, however instead of pushing new talent into becoming the future stars of his company, he still wants to have one last stand of glory and victory. And so this match which started off really well ended up being a confusing brawl with The Miz, Truth, Laurinaitis and Nash all ending up getting involved. It ended in the obvious fashion, with Triple H delivering a pedegree to Punk and getting his so called "revenge" in a feud which I so hope is over after this PPV.
Winner: Really?!!!
Match Rating:3.8/5

A decent PPV with good matches apart from the odd few which dissapointed.
Overall Rating: 3.7/5

The New Face of SD!

Last week's most notable event at SD! was Sheamus' face/tweener turn. It was a rather unexpected turn but a welcome one. Mark Henry's rampage was getting slightly monotonous, and after defeating two behmoths in the Big Show and Kane, taking them out of action (kayfabe), the story arc was going slightly over the top. However turning Sheamus and adding him to the equation only makes things interesting. Sheamus is a great brawler and has very entertaining matches. Turning him leads to more options in the number of feuds he could now have. Moreover Orton was so far the only notable face in SD!, after Christian's rather silly heel turn.

Coming to the main event I feel the story arc is really past its prime and getting on everybody's nerves. Christian's heel gimmick is rather weak, and I'd prefer him as a face vs Orton's tweener persona. Or, rather turn him into a devious heel that he played as "The Instant Classic" in TNA. This retake on Y2J's "whinning heel" gimmick is really not earning him any brownie points. And lets face it Orton's heel/tweener persona is far more entertaining than the current one. The thing about SD! is that it is WWE's "wrestling" show whereas Raw is the "entertainment" show. SD! does have a number of good wrestlers such as Bryan,Barrett,Rhodes so does it make sense to get guys from Raw to fight bouts when you could push people on the SD! roster itself?! 

Coming to the feud between Bryan and Barrett, I just can't wait for it. With Bryan already stating that he's not cashing in his Mitb shot at the world title anytime before Wrestlemania, we're going to see WWE push him alot until he is ready for the main event scene. And what better way than to feud with Barrett?! Now Wade's lost alot of heat since coming in from Raw, The Corre didn't really work out as expected and people were anticipating him to win Mitb, however that didnt happen as well. Now, we all are aware of both these wrestlers true ability in the ring, they just need to work on a few things before they're in the main event scenario. Hoping this feud turns into a memoriable one.

Thats all for this week will be back again next week. Please do leave your comments on any thoughts you'd like to share with me.

A.Q

Homesick

I've lived in Calcutta all my life, living there unaware of how much I would miss this city later on in life. For all of those who haven't been to Calcutta, believe me you have missed out on a lot. Let me write about a few things about the city that make me feel homesick and make Calcutta 'The City of Joy'. Since there are a large number of things that are there, I will dedicate a seperate post for each of these aspects of my favourite city in the whole world. This post I will dedicate to food.
Food - The thing I miss the most about Cal is the food. It however, is another fact that I will always miss my mum's food (for I feel she is the best cook in the whole world, and I could write a whole post on that). Here, I mean the multi-cusined fare available throughout the city. Now I know that by my looks I look like someone who woould hardly appreciate a culinary delicacy, but living in Cal with people who really appreciate and enjoy food, you tend to become that way. I will also not take anything away from my mother for cooking true delicacies and delights which has played a huge part in turning me into the fooodie I am. Coming back to food in Calcutta. You name the dish and you will find it there. Everything from the obvious Bengali cusine to Anglo-Indian, from Muslim to Continental, you will find them all. And what will most definitely leave you salivating are the rates and prices at which you find these. The best thing about Cal, after all these years under communist rule, it is the cheapest metropolitan in India. Food can be really cheap if you know the right places to go to.From the roadside vendors serving puchkkas and jhaal muri to Nizam's serving kati rolls. You'll get it all. And don't get me started about the dalpuris served with nihari, the sirka pyaaz served with the scrumptous parathas and the kebabs, muslim food at its best. And as we all know Bengal is known for its sweets, and believe me even if you're not a sweet-tooth, you'll turn into one after you've tasted the wonderful sandesh, roshgulla and the mishti doi found in various sweet shops all over the city. Lastly, every bengali's favourite....the fish! Now though I'm not a great fan of fishes, I do love the way it is prepared with bread crumbs and fried, known as the fish cutlet or even simply as a fish fry.
All these were a part of my daily life, and never did I ever realise that I would actually miss this aspect of Calcutta so very much.

Eulogy on Friends

Today was not a great day. When I first stepped into this place (where I am currently studying now) I never thought that I'd find friends here. Acquaintances yes but not friends whom I would miss when they would depart to further their careers and lives. But that is exactly what happened today. Most of my friends left today. No more rock stars and film critics. Life will become boring again. I pity the fact that I just got a few months to spend with these great guys. No more Hitchcock, no more Bryan Adams. I most definitely know that the next few months will take some getting used to. But these few months were some that were most definitely not anticipated by me, but thoroughly enjoyed. I write this for them. If anyone of you read this know that I did not consider you my seniors but my friends. Adios Amigos. Good luck and God bless. You will be missed.

What If...

At some point or the other, everyone makes mistakes....and then you learn from them and move on. That is the nature of things, but what if making that mistake was something you couldn't afford, because the consequences were things you couldn't bear. What then?? What if making those mistakes were necessary for you to learn a very important lesson in life, would it then be alright for us to commit such errors? And what about those people who get affected by these mistakes that we make, what do we tell them?? Usually we commit an error unknowingly, yet we have to suffer the consequences, can't we be forgiven as we were unaware of what the mistake would lead us to? But life is a bitch, and people love to remind you how true this statement is. Unfortunately people have reminded me this way too often. Yet I go on trying to forget what happened and to look forward to the future, yet somehow i can't stop wondering.....what if I didn't commit certain errors. Would my life be any different, but I can only ponder.......what if...

All Guns Blazin'.....Really?!!

Time in time out we've heard Arsene Wenger sayin' our squad is young,we need time to grow....Its been 4 years and that young squad is not so young any more.Fabregas has grown from Arsenal's "Boy Wonder" into a Barca prospect, and that in itself is enough to prove that the young squad is not so young any more.The rest of the "Young Guns" are also at the peak of their career,what then is it that causes the top spot to elude them???This season Wenger's roped in Chamakh, Koscielny and Squillaci but he's lost the vet Gallas as well as the non-performing Eduardo. However with vanPersie coming off a good World Cup performance, Rosicky coming out of injury and Arshavin,Nasri and Walcott within their ranks they surely are the dark horses for this year's trophy. However do not count out them Spurs and City who have spent a fortune in attaining two line-ups worth world-class players.With 6 teams in contention for this years cup, its gona be an interesting season.

Comon' U Gunners!!!