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!

LETDOWNS 2009: RANDY ORTON/TRIPLE H FEUD FIZZLES

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LETDOWNS 2009: UNDERTAKER - PUNK FEUD NEVER REALLY HAPPENS

I'm going to write this one up as I watch RAW, since it just had the flattest opening I've seen since LAST WEEK. Moving on.

So... if THIS is the beginning of your feud...

How do you never manage to have a match?!

Yes, they had matches. But they never had THE match. They did have some amazing build up to that first match though. I mean, check this shit out.

So naturally, I was more than psyched for Breaking Point, where I expected a pretty damn sweet match.

WWE BREAKING POINT

CM PUNK VS. THE UNDERTAKER - SUBMISSION MATCH

I get that the idea was to piss people off. But we did not get the main event Punk/Taker match we all wanted to see. But, after a week or so, I could let it slide. The feud was still going on.

SMACKDOWN!

CM PUNK VS. THE UNDERTAKER

This was the middle of the feud. It was okay, but we're looking for the big PPV quality match here. And by this time, the feud took a bizarre turn and was more about Vince, Teddy and Scott Armstrong the nameless referee with a name, then it was about Punk and Taker. Taker was starting to give his ever so bland "im gon take ur soul" promos that didn't help either. And this was that one weird week where he randomly got self conscious and died his beard and sideburns jet black.

But I could let it all slide. Because it was meant to lead to the perfect blowoff...

WWE HELL IN A CELL

CM PUNK VS. THE UNDERTAKER - HELL IN A CELL

Somehow the match opens the show and goes maybe 8 minutes, ending with 'Taker decisively beating Punk. END FEUD.

WTF GUYS.

We can blame it on Undertaker's health. We can blame it on flimsy rumours that Punk mouthed off about what he wears. But the blame game does not give me the epic Undertaker/CM Punk encounter that I was promised when 'Taker used his voodoo evil powers to swap bodies with Jeff Hardy.

I would even tolerate this move if it meant putting either one of the guys in a new, better feud. But it didn't at all. Punk feuded with Scott Armstrong and R-Truth, and the Undertaker just cut vague promos on nobody about how he's taken souls for a few weeks.

This feud just had so much potential, and it evaporated like a fart on a windy day.

I got depressed just writing about this. But, the upside is, RAW has started to redeem itself with a pretty great six-man tag, thanks to Evan Bourne owning souls like Undertaker.

LETDOWNS 2009: THE MIZ AND MARYSE

I don't mean them individually were a letdown... I mean the idea of them being an on-screen pair not being done, a letdown.

Miz chasing Maryse was going so good, and this entire segment was gold:

I don't know how they didn't end up together. Maybe it would've made The Miz seem too cool. Either way, they worked so well together for the few times they did. But I do wish they could've been paired up when Maryse returned from injury... I guess there's still time. She would still obviously wrestle, but they would always accompany each other to ringside.

Anyway, here's hoping for 2010.