2009 IN REVIEW: COMPLETE!

And not a month and too soon!

Here's all the tags you need to browse through the entire recap in sections:

2009 IN REVIEW

2010 IN PREVIEW

MOMENTS 2009

STARS 2009

NEWS 2009

FEUDS 2009

TRANSFORMED 2009

FML 2009

LETDOWNS 2009

LIVE 2009

MATCHES 2009

So long, 2009.

2009 IN REVIEW: HOME STRETCH

As I mentioned in my last post, it's taking a coon's age (a COON'S!) to finish this 2009 review. I didn't have too much left to cover, but I didn't want to just leave these things behind.

So here is what remains of my 2009 review:

MOMENTS

2009

CM PUNK CASHES IN - AGAIN

I got nervous nerd sweats when Punk came out and cashed in his MITB contract on Jeff Hardy, in fear of him being the first guy to fail. But he didn't. And I nerd-rejoiced. Unlike this guy. Holy fuck is that hilarious to listen to.

SEEING KENTA AND NAKAJIMA LIVE IN THE SAME YEAR

I was super lucky this past year as I got to see both KENTA and Katsuhiko Nakajima wrestle live in front of my face, both for ROH events. The atmosphere was incredible for both of them.

ROH WORLD TITLE CHANGES

After 545 days of Nigel McGuinness holding the ROH World Title, two title changes in the same year was massive. The crowd reactions are always goose-pimply to watch.

SANTINO MARELLA

Santino is, full-stop, the funniest man to come through the WWE since Chris Jericho. No matter how bad RAW would get, if Santino showed up, I could laugh through the tears.

STARS

2009

Photo courtesy of Scott Finkelstein's Get Lost Photography

NIGEL MCGUINNESS

Even with the two title changes this year, some people forget that Nigel still held the ROH belt for the first four months of this year, and knocked out some great matches before becoming Desmond Wolfe - where he was elevated to the main event (for a sec) with matches against Kurt Angle.

HONOURABLE MENTION: MIZ AND MORRISON

Both of these guys managed to succeed without their bro by winning the US and Intercontinental titles, respectively. Once it's time for them to step up to the main event, it'll feel special, as they've been making that climb nice and slow.

HONOURABLE MENTION: KOFI KINGSTON

Hey, apparently Kofi has charisma! All it took was for him to speak like he normally does, instead of with an accent they made him speak with! It's GENIUS! His feud with Randy Orton had it's ups and downs, and we'll have to wait for 2010 to see where it took him for keeps.

FEUDS

2009

Photo courtesy of Scott Finkelstein's Get Lost Photography

AMERICAN WOLVES VS. KEVIN STEEN & EL GENERICO

The blood feud of the year managed to spark what should be the blood feud of this year. With Steen and Generico losing to the Wolves, then ultimately, the Bucks at Final Battle, Kevin Steen turned on his best bud in a brutal way. But before that, Steenerico fought tooth and nail with the Wolves throughout 2009 and put forward some incredible matches.

HONOURABLE MENTION: CHRISTIAN VS. JACK SWAGGER

Remember when ECW was great? Well, I actually don't know how it is now, since it's been AWOL in Canada, but there was a time at the start of this year when ECW was awesome. Christian and Jack Swagger put on some fantastic TV matches the built to PPV matches, and had a great feud that pitted Christian, a super believable babyface that's easy to get behind, against Jack Swagger, the easier to hate, lisp carrying heel.

FML

2009

GUEST HOST CIRCUS

Kofi Johnson. Evan Braun. SummerFest. "The Show" Triple H. "The Man" Mark Henry. There's gotta be more. Bottom line: RAW was a dice roll every week since Donald Trump came round. Sometimes you rolled a 6 and scored Bob Barker. Other (most) times you rolled a 1 and got Joey Kyle and Jeff Joey or whoever the fuck those Nascar dorks were. Sometimes the show was a trainwreck. Other times it was a hit because of how much of a hilarious trainwreck it was. The worst part is that RAW is being sold to us as a show that asks you to tune in for, not wrestling (sometimes not even storylines!), but to buy whatever some Z-list celebrity is selling.

I can't wait to look back on this in a couple years and be reminded of how this gimmick cheapened any potentially good storyline (ex: Hey, remember that sweet feud DX had? It all started when Verne Troyer got mad because last week Cedric the Entertainer made a match that... ah gad).

HORNSWOGGLE/DXCAPADES

I don't understand the kind of person that is old enough to remember DX but laughs at Hornswoggle. Makes me want to barf.

KID ROCK'S WRESTLEMANIA AIRTIME

Dude spent like twenty minutes rocking out, and got more airtime than JBL/Mysterio from this year (probably countless other guys from other years - like Lance Storm who's got a grand total of 0 WM minutes!). And using his performance to introduce the divas for the battle royale was completely retarded, considering that no one even knew the ones that were returning. God DAMN.

LETDOWNS

2009

JACK SWAGGER MOVED TO RAW

Seriously. Swagger was getting deadly heat on ECW as the top heel. His move to RAW seemed like it was going to be a big deal. It wasn't. He's getting played like the "goofy" heel who loses every week. I fear for his career sometimes. Godspeed, Jack Swagger.

MATT HARDY

Another ECW-to-main-roster letdown. Matt Hardy still gets a pretty big pop for a guy that's done nothing for the past who knows how long. Teaming with The Great Khali has to be a bummer.

TRANSFORMED

2009

Photo courtesy of Scott Finkelstein's Get Lost Photography

CHRIS HERO - TO - THAT YOUNG KNOCKOUT KID

Hero went from being a guy that wasn't featured on every ROH event, to a guy who his at the top of the main event scene. From Sweet 'N' Sour to concussing with his kicks and givin' KO's with his elbows. Hero is the real deal.

BIG SHOW - TO - ENTERTAINING?

Big Show started 2009 as a love interest for Vickie Guerrero. He then actually became entertaining when he found himself paired with Chris Jericho (can that man do ANY wrong?!), spending four months as an integral part of both RAW and Smackdown! But now he's back to being just same old angry Big Show. Eh.

"HEH HEH" BATISTA - TO - "UR SPOSEDA BE MY FRENNNN!!!" BATISTA

I, as much as anybody, was totally sick of that "I shrug off anything because wrestling is fake" Batista. Batista makes so much more sense as a heel to me. And he's killing it on Smackdown! right now.

LIVE

2009

ROH IN NOVI - "ARIES VS. RICHARDS"

Austin Aries vs. Davey Richards was the best match I've ever seen live. The rest of the show, wasn't as great, because that would be impossible, but it was still totally awesome. Steenerico vs. The Young Bucks ruled, as did Hero/Strong. The other highlight would have to be Omega facing Nakajima, which, if I remember correctly, had kind of a fucked up finish, but only because Omega was dropped on his head earlier in the match with a super high angle German Suplex.

ROH IN MISSISSAUGA - "THE OMEGA EFFECT"

Omega vs. Aries was a fantastic match, but maybe not quite as good as Aries' match the night before with Davey. The show was, again, awesome, with Generico/Nakajima maybe topping Omega/Nakajima. I got to see some sweet live wrestling this year.

And that's all. Stay tuned for my final wrap-up that will separate all categories for easy navigation. NEAT!

MATCHES, STARS 2009: FEATURING DAVEY RICHARDS

Okay, this 2009 recap is just spiralling out of control (and into February), so I think it's about time to wrap things up.

I was hoping to hold off on mentioning matches until I finished watching the Final Countdown tour, but that's not going to happen for a few days, and I want to put a stamp on this thing by the weekend.

So that brings me to this alternate-style of recapping the matches of 2009...

2009 IN MATCHES

AKA A YEAR OF DAVEY RICHARDS

Nobody else put on as many great matches this past year as Davey Richards. In fact, let's see what that looks like (Davey vs. everybody else):

MOTY'S WITH DAVEY RICHARDS

Davey Richards vs. KENTA (ROH: Supercard of Honor IV)

Davey Richards vs. Shingo (DGUSA: Open The Untouchable Gate)

Davey Richards vs. Kevin Steen (ROH: Never Say Die)

Davey Richards vs. Austin Aries (ROH: Aries vs. Richards)

American Wolves vs. Tyler Black and Bryan Danielson (ROH: World Tag Title Classic)

American Wolves vs. Roderick Strong & KENTA (ROH: Violent Tendencies)

American Wolves vs. Young Bucks (ROH: ROH On HDNet)

American Wolves vs. Kevin Steen & El Generico (ROH: Glory By Honor VIII) (Okay, still haven't seen it, but if it doesn't end up in this list after I see it, I assume it was because my eyes fell out of my head or something)

MOTY'S WITHOUT DAVEY RICHARDS

Shawn Michaels vs. The Undertaker (WWE: WrestleMania XXV)

Chris Jericho vs. Rey Mysterio (WWE: The Bash)

Chris Hero vs. Eddie Kingston (ROH: Final Battle 2009)

Bryan Danielson vs. Tyler Black (ROH: ROH On HDNet)

Nigel McGuinness vs. KENTA (ROH: 7th Anniversary Show)

CM Punk vs. Jeff Hardy (WWE: SummerSlam)

Austin Aries vs. Tyler Black vs. Jerry Lynn (ROH: Manhattan Mayhem III)

I'm obviously missing tons of stuff here (TNA, PWG, CHIKARA, NOAH, etc.), but I can only go by what I've seen this year, and I really don't see much of the above, although I will be getting around to it this year (minus TNAlol).

And I'm even probably missing some stuff that I have seen and just plum forgot about, but I'm just rifling these off of the top of my head and taking it a little more casually.

And maybe I'm being a little (a lot) biased because of the title of this post. So while this post seems to be all high and mighty on Davey, despite me not seeing every wrestling match to happen in 2009, I'm sticking by my word!

ENOUGH EXCUSES!

The point is Davey was in a shocking amount of stellar matches this year. And he is well on his way to becoming a world champion outside of FIP.

Photo courtesy of Scott Finkelstein's Get Lost Photography.

FML 2009: JENNA MORASCA, SHARMELL, VICTORY ROAD

No. Words.

TRANSFORMED 2009: EDDIE EDWARDS

EDDIE EDWARDS

2008

Just over a year ago, Eddie Edwards teamed with Davey Richards for the very first time, losing to the Briscoes and the team of Claudio Castagnoli and Nigel McGuinness. The next night, the American Wolves injured Mark Briscoe. This was the first step to transform Eddie Edwards into Eddie Edwards -

AMERICAN WOLF

2009

Eddie Edwards proved his complete badassery in 2009 by aligning himself with Davey and holding the ROH World Tag Team Championship for over eight months. He also showed off just how much he's learned in the Pro Wrestling NOAH Dojo by wrestling like a man HELLBENT ON VIOLENCE.

But Eddie's crowning moment came (er, unfortunately to him) when he broke his elbow (broken elbow jesus lord) in an anything goes match with Kevin Steen, and still finished the ANYTHING GOES MATCH, including taking a Package Piledriver. Through FOUR CHAIRS.

After word got out that his elbow was broken, everyone was just flat-out assuming that Eddie wouldn't be able to compete (or at least praying he wouldn't be crazy enough to compete) in the biggest match to be hyped by ROH in a long while - the second-ever Ladder War at Glory By Honor VIII.

Not only did he wrestle (bandaged up like he'd been shot)... but he put himself crazy over in the eyes of the fans. People were shocked that he was willing to put his body at such a high risk in such an insane match, but Eddie Edwards proved he was a goddamn psycho, and maybe one of the toughest dudes in the ROH locker room.

What a crazy bastard.

2009: Eddie Edwards to American Wolf

Photos courtesy of Scott Finkelstein's Get Lost Photography (totally ripped this from TH).

LIVE 2009: SMACKDOWN! IN HAMILTON - 09/15/09

The third show I went to this past year was my first WWE one since the year before (which was my first one since 1997 (the best of the three (maybe I should review it as a growned up))).

When we got our tickets to the show, we were, for lack of a better phrase, giddy as pigs in poo. Smackdown! had been on a tear of brilliance for a little while when we picked up the tickets in June with Punk, Edge and Jeff Hardy owning in the main event, and Evan Bourne, Jack Swagger and Christian killing it on ECW, which also would be taped that night.

We were so PSYCHED, and I don't say psyched because that's lame. BUT WE WERE PSYCHED.

Then shit started to go down.

Edge went out with an injury.

Hardy took a break from wrestling to make up lost time with his drugs.

Bourne, Swagger and Mark Henry were moved to RAW to capitalize on their incredible success on ECW (a.k.a. job to Sheamus and Santino).

Kane and Khali began feuding.

Rey Mysterio got suspended for druggin'.

But these are all not the worst of it.

Oh no.

Because a few weeks or so before our taping, it was announced that Batista would be making a career-changing statement on RAW - the day before our taping.

We thought two things:

1) Batista was hanging up his boots after too many torn-steroids. I mean steroids. I mean after doing too many steroids. I MEAN GETTING INJURED TOO MUCH.

Or.

2) He was going to Smackdown.

And by god, what had to happen? What had to happen on the day we were going to see Smackdown? What had to happen that was the final nail in the coffin of what was once a red hot wrestling show?

I think you know where I'm going with this.

BATISTA

RETURNS TO SMACKDOWN!

Right back atcha, Dave!

We weren't pleased. Neither was the guy in the front row giving Big Dave the bird the whole night (Batista's response can be seen above).

The show itself wasn't very good. The saving grace was we got to see a promo by World Heavyweight Champion CM Punk, as well as a dark match between him and Undertaker.

Other than that, pretty average. And we were second row. :(

HIGHLIGHTS

- The kid next to us had this sign:

- Hart Dynasty are great to see live, even if it's against Cryme Tyme.

- Chris Jericho is a god or deity of some kind.

- The fireworks blowing your asshole out when you're on the floor like twenty feet away from them. Jesus. It made me cheer Batista I was so excited.

- ECW Battle Royal was fun.

- Seeing Christian live was really cool. He's always been one of my favourites and he got a really good reaction, being from Orangeville and all. I literally forget who he wrestled though.

- John Morrison doing a bonkers crazy dive onto Mike Knox.

LOWLIGHTS

- EVERYTHING ELSE

- Kane/Khali segment!

- Khali ushered out on a stretcher gets a Khali chant.

- Dolph vs. Finlay getting "boring" chants, despite putting on the best mat wrestling all night.

- This:

- The whole screwjob angle between Taker and Punk had just happened, so that took up some time. And was stupid. Just. Stupid.

- I could go on for a while.

So here's some photos!

And the matches:

SMACKDOWN!

MAIN EVENT

Batista vs. Chris Jericho

NON-TITLE MATCH

John Morrison vs. Mike Knox

NON-TITLE MATCH

Melina vs. Michelle McCool

SINGLES MATCH

The Great Khali vs. Kane

TAG TEAM MATCH

The Hart Dynasty vs. Cryme Tyme

ECW

TEN MAN BATTLE ROYAL

Zack Ryder becomes #1 Contender

SINGLES MATCH

William Regal vs. The Hurricane

SINGLES MATCH

Yoshi Tatsu vs. Zack Ryder

SUPERSTARS

SINGLES MATCH

Christian vs. Paul Burchill

SINGLES MATCH

Dolph Ziggler vs. Finlay

FEUDS 2009: CM PUNK VS. THE FANS

Despite going from what could've been a scorching hot feud with The Undertaker to feuding with K-Kwik and Dixie Dy-no-mite, CM Punk still managed to be hated by virtually everybody when he opened his mouth.

Punk already had the feud of the year with Jeff Hardy. So I guess it makes sense that to close 2009, he had the second best feud of the year, WITH THE FANS.

CM PUNK

HATED BY ALL

VS.

THE FANS

I MEAN WWE UNIVERSE

Seriously, you could pick pretty much any promo of Punk's at random and it's guaranteed to be gold.

After his feud with the Undertaker never really happened, and he was dinking around with R-Truth, Scott Armstrong and Teddy Long, and generally nobody, Punk would just cut promos on the crowd. And it got serious heat. It's pretty amazing that a guy can be so good on the mic that he doesn't even need a face to oppose him to get the shit booed out of him.

And now in 2010, Punk has taken this feud a step further by bringing "actual" fan members out of the crowd to save them from the evils of drugs, alcohol and cigarettes. And the heat is hotter than ever.

I tip my hat to you, CM Punk. I tip my hat (it's a lumberjack style toque).

LETDOWNS 2009: RANDY ORTON/TRIPLE H FEUD FIZZLES

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

MOMENTS 2009: ORTON PUNTS VINCE, RKO'S AND KISSES STEPHANIE

These three moments set this feud ablaze.

(Click the images for the videos)

THE

PUNT

THE

RKO

I was SO over Triple H by this point, but when he came running out to save Stephanie, I lost it.

I mean seriously, look at this fucking psycho:

Wouldn't you be excited for the blowoff match? Or at least a home invasion of some sort?! I KNOW I WAS! ... not so much the home invasion because that was retarded.

THE

KISS

After these three moments, I was praying for Triple H to destroy Orton at WrestleMania. That's a pretty good sign of a feud on the right tracks.

Until... (see above).

FML 2009: MELINA VS. JILLIAN VS. WHATEVER INTEGRITY THE DIVAS TITLE HAD LEFT

Oh the humanity.

I think what made it worse was that I actually thought that Jillian would make a hilarious Divas Champion. Then Melina showed up and proved that she is much more hilarious.

LIVE 2009: ROH: DBDH VII - 07/24/09, 07/25/09

After seeing Violent Tendencies in Detroit, one month later I had tickets to both nights of the Death Before Dishonor VII Weekend in Toronto. And holy nuts was I excited.

Then a problem struck.

Toronto had been going through a near six-week garbage strike that was stanking up the streets in the middle of a nasty summer. And what was worse? Ted Reeve Arena, home of DBDH VII, was a collection site.

Leading up to the show, we were all just praying that the strike would end, and we wouldn't have to sit and watch a night of wrestling with gas masks strapped to our faces.

Welp, the strike wasn't resolved... but somehow, someway... there was no smell. And I mean no smell. It's as if everybody had been throwing out unused paper towels or something, because it didn't even stink a little (er... in comparison to a normal wrestling show).

Lucky us! Not only that, but I got my belt signed by Bret Hart and Ric Flair. It was an awesome weekend, to say the least.

MATCH OF THE WEEKEND

CHRIS HERO VS. LANCE STORM

There was some amazing wrestling over those two days, but this one without a doubt had the most emotion. Hero going over clean with a devastating elbow was perfect, and everyone was so pissed that they started throwing garbage in the ring. (er, like beer cups, not garbage strike garbage (although that garbage did get involved in the Cabana/Ryan match)). That kind of heat is rare these days, especially for a guy like Hero who is pretty over with the ROH fans. This is also a testament to how popular Lance Storm is with the Canadian fans, and how well he performed.

Then, after the match, Storm made us all cry with a farewell speech.

A fantastic ending to an exhaustingly exciting weekend of shows.

HIGHLIGHTS

NIGHT ONE

- The dueling "OLE!" and "SONJAY!" chants for Generico/Dutt, which went to a crisp, very exciting 15-minute draw.

- How surprisingly over D-Lo was, and how absolutely hated Frankie the Mobster was.

- Grizzly Redwood getting beat to all hell and bloodied by Bison Smith (not to mention the rest of a sprawling 8-Man Eliminaton Brawl).

- Storm/Steen vs. Hero/Davey had us in the palm of their hands at times.

- Nigel with a Tower of London to Jerry Lynn, to the outside, through a table.

- Tyler has us all believing he's closing in on the title, with moments like this.

- Nigel is knocked silly with a Cradle Piledriver, and then Aries slips on the turnbuckle and turns his 450 into about a 370 or so (my math ain't so good, h'yuk)

NIGHT TWO

- Smash Bros going over Steenerico in a fun upset.

- Bison Smith doing his superman-crowd-barrier dive, crushing Frankie the Mobster.

- Toronto Gauntlet was really well done, thought the booking was perfect (such a dink thing to say, but it was really great).

- Necro Butcher absolutely CLOBBERING time keeper Giuseppe di Lorento with a sick chairshot, bending it over his effing head.

- People hating the fuck out of the European Rules match (felt bad for those guys, but... the match was silly).

- Bobby Cruise making fun of these guys.

- Joey Ryan vs. Colt Cabana in the best comedy match I've seen live, which included the first-ever Todd Sinclair chant, as far as I can remember.

- Omega pinning Aries in a great six man.

- Storm/Hero closing the weekend right.

And lastly, the full card:

NIGHT ONE

OPENING MATCH

El Generico vs. Sonjay Dutt

TAG TEAM MATCH

The Briscoes vs. The Super Smash Brothers

SINGLES MATCH

D-Lo Brown vs. Frankie The Mobster

8-MAN ELIMINATION MATCH

Necro Butcher, Brent Albright, Colt Cabana & Grizzly Redwoow vs. Jimmy Rave, Joey Ryan, Claudio Castagnoli & Bison Smith

GRUDGE MATCH

Kenny King vs. Kenny Omega

TAG TEAM MATCH

Lance Storm & Kevin Steen vs. Chris Hero & Davey Richards

MAIN EVENT ROH TITLE FOUR CORNER SURVIVAL

Austin Aries vs. Tyler Black vs. Jerry Lynn vs. Nigel McGuinness

NIGHT TWO

OPENING MATCH

Kevin Steen & El Generico vs. The Super Smash Brothers

SINGLES MATCH

Bison Smith vs. Frankie The Mobster

TORONTO GAUNTLET

D-Lo Brown vs. Jerry Lynn vs. Sonjay Dutt vs. Jimmy Rave vs. Necro Butcher vs. Davey Richards

EUROPEAN RULES MATCH

Claudio Castagnoli vs. Brent Albright

SINGLES MATCH

Tyler Black vs. Tyson Dux (Replacing the injured Nigel McGuinness)

NO DISQUALIFICATION MATCH

Joey Ryan vs. Colt Cabana

SIX MAN TAG TEAM MATCH

Kenny Omega & The Briscoes vs. Austin Aries, Rhett Titus & Kenny King

MAIN EVENT

Chris Hero vs. Lance Storm