2011 Pro Wrestling Thread

I enjoyed the hell out of that Ziggler-Orton match. I love when veterans either expand their moveset or put new twists on it, and Orton broke out at least three new things in that match:
1) The gutwrench side powerbomb. Never seen that one at all before. Seemed especially appropriate in that match, with the connection to Swagger and his finisher. The move looked nasty, too. I like it.
2) The spin on the suspension DDT, where he set it up by throwing Ziggler through the ropes and then hanging on to him. Instead of the tired old "catch him as he tries to re-enter the ring" set-up, that's a great way to transition into that move that's a million times more plausible. Rey Mysterio should take notes.
3) The RKO combo he used for the finish. I know he's been doing a lot of different things with the RKO over the past year or so, but that was well done. Almost looked like he snapped Ziggler's neck. Also a little unexpected, since I figured he'd go into it the first time he lifted Ziggler up.

Great match, great way to show some new wrinkles. If Cena varied up his moves as much as Orton does, Cena's character wouldn't be as tired as it is.

 

Speaking of John Cena, why is Del Rio suddenly a "cowardly" champion? Because he's had the belt all of two weeks and hasn't faced Johnny Boy yet?
And why is Cena the only one in the entire WWE -- hell, in WWE history -- who has a problem with Del Rio winning the title via MITB? It not only makes Del Rio look like a second-rate opponent, it makes the whole MITB concept (which has created, arguably, one of the company's top three PPVs of the year each of the last two years) look second-rate.

 

They're calling this a Raw "Supershow" and tomorrow will be a Smackdown "Supershow" (which will be live).

It's really just another one of those shows where WWE says, "Brand-split? What brand-split?" and then tries to sell us on how important the draft is.

 

Punk is trying his hardest to keep all this interesting. Had some hilarious bits in both of his segments -- in the ring with Trips and Nash, and at the end of the show with Trips.

"Are you resigning?"

 

At least HHH is somewhat capable in the ring still. Not what he once was, obviously, but Punk will make him look good. Nash would be a trainwreck of epic proportions.
And is it just me, or does Nash seem to really be struggling on the mic, too? He's flubbing lines and seems generally disinterested.

 

Strangely enough, I think it's Cena.

Hart was already well-established as one of the WWF's Big Three (along with HBK and Undertaker) when Austin started on his run. They were guys who had been on top for a few years already.

Right now, there's really only two guys that have been established longtime main-eventers that people would care about who would play a good foil for Punk. Cena and Orton. And Orton's a little too much of a tweener to really be a good foil, plus his face turn only was last year.

For Cena, he's been a longtime face, who I could see get frustrated that Punk is getting cheered in spite of not being a squeaky-clean face. Similar to Hart, who got upset that the fans were cheering heel Austin.

 

I'm really tired, but a few notes from the show:

Tulsa, OK is still firmly John Cena country. The crowd wasn't feeling CM Punk at all.
R-Truth got the best heel reaction of the night, EASILY.
The reason Christian is never gonna be a long running champ in the WWE: my mom, who hasn't watched wrestling with me since I was 8 or 9 (I'm 27 now), instantly said "OMG, he's so scrawny! Look at those skinny arms! There's no way he could really beat those guys." When Xtian first came out.
The crowd was generally dead all night. Were there any technical difficulties during the broadcast? Some of the commercial breaks seemed to last for an insanely long time.

 

This stunk tonight. I had floor seats 10 rows back, if you're looking at the screen, at a 45 degree angle from the upper right corner of the ring. Those damn kids held up the signs the whole night. Some girl next to us was dying to get a Cena photo with her iphone but some ditz in front of her stood up the whole night shooting photos herself until someone threatened to throw a beer at her. We had eight guys in their late 50s behind us, apparently copping the tickets from a sales convention buddy, and all they were doing was mocking the events of the night and noting how these guys would get their asses handed to them by any MMA guy worth his salt.

Very disappointed Del Rio wasn't in attendance. Very disappointed. Best line of the night was Cena's smell dig at Mark Henry. Orton's match with Dolph was the best of the night. Miz is the most entertaining character. I didn't know if the crowd was lame or not...more or less it was a crowd that was too damn interested in getting their poster shown.

As far as the delays....that did seem weird. They kept pushing WWE merchandise and movies and seemed to run out of even those to fill the dead time.

 

A little bit off topic, perhaps, but is Triple H ever going to be in another movie where he's not just getting out of jail?

 

My smark-guess would be that they're grooming Cena to go heel at Wrestlemania, by continuing to feed guys to him, despite Punk really going over him twice clean. Unless they have some other plan for him, I don't see how he doesn't get booed out of the building vs. Rock, so you might as well have him go heel.

In the meantime, they're doing their best to have Punk turn into an Austin-like face by having him fight against the people that screwed him out of the title. However, I don't think the WWE realizes that most of the smarter fans see Cena as part of all that; they know he's not "innocent" since he's been profiting off the Evil Management's actions. Punk isn't ever going to get fully over and more popular than Cena unless he's feuding with him and decisively beats him to end the program, and the longer they wait to do it, the more momentum they lose from the summer.

 

I just watched this match on my DVR, and holy fuck what a performance from Orton. Everything he did in the match tonight was crisp and quick, and it really gave an appearance of everything having just that much more impact. He made Ziggler look pretty damn good, too. I don't know what was so different about tonight, but Randy Orton brought it in a big way with *wrestling.* [/admittedOrtonmark]

 

It's not just you. I was about to post the same thing. Maybe my memory was failing me, but I always thought Nash was pretty capable on the mike. He looks really green, awkward at times, now. Just nmot interesting in the least.