2014 Pro Wrestling Thread

Yeah, I think they'll do something really nice for her.

 

Hot damn, what a great way to end Raw. I really didn't see it coming. Seems like it was a bit soon for him to turn, and I didn't even think much of the few shots were you could see his regular boots under the coveralls. Just thought, huh guess he doesn't have a plain, black pair of boots. I can still enjoy surprises on Raw because I don't read spoilers and I'm a dumbass at times. Works for me.

Two schools of thought on why the quick turn (three for the cynic in me):
1. Element of surprise. Most smarks would expect this to go at least one PPV cycle.
2. Creative saw early that it just wasn't going to work. I think the failed Austin turn has scared people from turning those who are too over. Punk was able to turn because fans had cooled on him as he was booked poorly at times. A year as champ and hardly headlined a PPV. Bryan wasn't even champ and headlined four in a row. Ouch.
3. The cynical side: Bryan got his concussion and went severely off script, Bray was smart enough to run with it, and what's done is done.

Really, I have no clue why the turn happened so fast.

Also didn't see the Outlaws turning on Punk, even though it should slap me right in the face: prolonged and storied history with Triple H. Too caught up in nostalgia. I was a big mark for the Outlaws in high school.

Didn't see what happened with any Divas storyline, as Hulu usually cuts them out. AJ had the potential to be a strong heel champion, but not being booked worth shit because she's not on a reality show isn't helping. And I'll miss Kaitlyn. By far one of my favorite Divas when there had been such a drought before she and AJ came along. Booked just a tad better (and with any regularity so the fans could keep interest), Kaitlyn/AJ could have been the best Divas feud since Trish/Mickie. The Bellas are nice to look at, Natalya is the best worker, but I'm not interested in seeing them in story lines.

Now, about Roman Reigns. Without doing an online search, I can only think of two guys who debuted and were propelled to a world title picture before ever holding a lower singles title: Brock Lesnar and Batista (although he did hold a tag title). I'm wondering if Reigns should be pushed hard soon to see what would happen instead of the usual build-him-up-then-cool-him-off-then-rebuild-him run. And I think if he turned on the Shield, he could be hot. Maybe not Daniel Bryan level, but definitely popular. Hard to say. I would support this theory more strongly if there were two world title belts again, but with one world title ... oh my, this is like the late '90s/early 2000s again. Then again, having five or six legit world title contenders gave us the six-man Hell in a Cell at Armageddon 2000 (a personal favorite as I attended it in Birmingham, but probably not going down as a classic).

 

Well then it's a good thing he downloaded the WWE App and can watch the recap any time he wants!

 

Great tribute video WWE's put together for Mae.

#action=share

 

They really are great at those tribute videos. I can only imagine what's going to happen when Vince kicks the bucket (for real this time).

 

Mae Young dry-humps Conan O'Brien and gives him one of her boobs.

I can't say it any better than that.

http://youtu.be/WylBAf2vBRM

 

There's several reports out there that the Bryan face turn wasn't supposed to happen until either the Elimination Chamber, which would have set him up to face Wyatt at WM, or at WM, where the two of them would have teamed up, then Bryan would have turned then.

The reports are the Michigan State crowd chant, plus some other instances, have made the WWE people feel like idiots, and they turned Bryan last Monday.

That must have been a couple of fun meetings to have been at:

"What can we do? Those idiot fans are ruining our plans! They keep chanting that stupid chant for him! This B+ guy is getting a bigger reaction than our champion and our face of the company!"

"Oh well, let's turn him back, we'll put Wyatt over on him at the Rumble and Elimination Chamber and he'll do an eight-man tag with Ryder, Khali and Santino with Hornswoggle in their corner on the WM pre-show."

 

They got Stone Cold feet. Ha, see what I did there? I don't blame them for the fast turnaround. A misstep derailed Austin and he was never quite as hot again when he turned back. Bryan's too popular, why screw with something that works?

I've seen a report that The E is offer refunds at house shows because Bryan is out with the concussion and people are pissed. The only guy in recent years they've offered refunds for was Cena. I remember the last house show I attended had to heavily advertise that it was SmackDown and Cena would not appear. People who didn't comprehend that little fact still booed and chanted at the end of the show when they realized he really wasn't there.

 

Reminds me of something Bret said on Jericho's podcast about how anyone who got over in WCW would be punished or buried. Sometimes you just have to go with the crowd and I'd think Vince is smart enough to know that. Maybe the general creative people are Bishoff dumb, to use Bret's phrase.

 

I don't know what was more annoying about Batista's return on Raw. Either his horrific mic work or his new hipster outfits are god-awful.

 

Batista returns, Daniel Bryan still gets the biggest pop of the night. And since The Animal is only back to promote his Marvel movie later this year, I'd have him job to Bryan's running knee, too. And, yes, someone needs to tell Dave to dress like a grown up. I mean, I know he's a pro rasslin' persona, but that outfit called for a Ron Simmons appearance cuz DAMN.

And not a knock on Bryan, but more on creative: he'd have been better off with this as a promo: "I knew I had to seize an opportunity to have Bray one-on-one, but athletes and fans at other sports venues are doing the Yes! chant, and we don't want to lose the momentum." However, let's hope that the Yes! chant doesn't become watered down to lame insurance commercials, like the title belt gesture.

It's fun to see two big men like show and Lesnar go at it, but I just know that Show is being set up to have the shit beaten out of him to make Lesnar look even better for WrestleMania season. In a legit fight, I'd still take Brock even if Show could manage to hold on and throw him a round. Show is big, but I don't know how he'd do in a real fight. Thoughts?

Can we just get the Punk/Triple H WrestleMania match announced? Jeez, it's painfully obvious, and I don't know if anyone is really clamoring for it. Not like they set the world on fire when they fought at Night of Champions in 2011.

 

I will be at the Rumble Sunday. Excited. This is always my favorite Pay Per View, no matter how badly creative screws it up.

Some thoughts on Monday:

1. The Cena-Orton stuff was just stupid. Come on, man. Cena isn't going to show up to work at 10:50 p.m. Not sure why you would use the whole arena to publicize a match with no stipulations.

2. Contrary to a lot of people on this board, I like Batista, mainly because he's one of the few guys on the roster I could picture running down somebody who pissed him off and then beating the hell out of him. Having said that, the crowd didn't pop huge for him, and I thought him kissing the center of the ring was disingenuous. If he really loved the ring, then why did he leave to begin with?

3. This Daniel Bryan-Wyatts angle has been fantastic.

4. Corporate Kane amuses me. A lot, actually. The idea of this monster from hell trying to run a company and going crazy on people who anger him draws a lot of laughs from me. Yeah, it's wacky and dumb. But it's a good wacky and dumb.

5. I think Lesnar is going to win the Rumble if Batista doesn't, even though he has that Big Show match. And that's a shame because I would have loved to be in the arena for Daniel Bryan winning. I was there for his Money in the Bank cash-in at TLC in 2012, where the "YES!" chant sort of started. He made a huge deal about winning near the announce table. Crowd popped HUGE for him even way back then. Don't see WWE giving him that chance.

6. Why not align Ricardo Rodriguez with Alberto Del Rio again? Ricardo was fun. I miss him screaming Del Rio's name.