2011 Pro Wrestling Thread

Triple H said "now and for the forseeable future" and WWE.com said it was effective "going forward". I think people got confused by the term Supershow, since that's been the term they use for three-hour cross-brand specials like the Draft and the Slammys. But it's not a one-shot deal.

I guess this is what you do when you see a sub-3.0 rating and the NFL about to start.

I don't know that it'll do very much to move the needle, though. Smackdown has produced decent, if somewhat homogenized, shows in the last few months. But Orton, and to a lesser degree Christian and Sheamus, are the only people from Smackdown that will make fans more likely to pay attention to Raw. Sure, it's nice if Mark Henry or Cody Rhodes make an appearance, but they're not going to draw you into the show.

I wonder if this isn't a move to convince Syfy (christ what a stupid name) to give Smackdown a live Tuesday slot. That would benefit both shows, especially if they're sharing rosters. Issues that crop up on Raw can be settled or advanced on Smackdown the next night, while it's still fresh. Tonight will be a test of that theory, though it would have been nice to promise a cliffhanger be tied up tonight (texter or Raw GM identity).

The downside is if Raw and Smackdown are using one roster, that almost certainly means a round of future endeavoring is in the works, because you're not having two shows' worth of storylines. If they can get Superstars back on U.S. television, that might be a lifeline for some of the targets.

 

In fairness, it's been a really long time since Nash has worked live or in front of a large crowd. He seemed to do better last night. Interesting that they had him come out to the nWo theme, though I don't know what else they could have done. Diesel music is too corny, and there's no reason to blow another generic rock intro on him. WWE.com is trying to fuel speculation (seriously) that this might be the harbinger of an nWo revival, but I don't see it. Nobody reacted to the music and I don't think the brand means anything in 2011. Hell, it didn't mean anything in 2002 when they last tried it.

 

No Del Rio last night (or tonight) because he is apparently having visa issues.

 

Some thoughts

1. Punk is about to be squashed by the Cliq, all at the expense of a red-hot feud with Cena. Punk wasn't able to save last night's show for me. They gave him nothing to do.

2. Punk-Miz would fe a fantastic feud in the future. What a match, but a predictable finish.

3. I pray to God that Nash's recycled nWo music really isn't the start of another nWo. It's just not going to work. Why bring back a 15-plus-year-old angle when they just squashed two stables in the last six months (Nexus, Corrrrrre, anyone remember them)?

4. Orton is working his ass off. Unfortunately, his face character is sooo boring that I don't believe he can carry SmackDown.

5. Supershows? Really? Really? Really? Really? Just end the brand extension and have Night of Champions a night where the last two titles are unified. Let's take it back to 1999, when SmackDown was just an extension of Raw. It doesn't have to be WCW Thunder bad, either.

6. Why make ADR look weak by having Cena verbally plow through him and then the guy's not even on the show? Shouldn't he at least cut a promo about how he wrecked Cena at the end of last week's Raw? Transitional champ, visa issues or not.

7. How can people claim that creative isn't working off the old mindset of traditional faces and heels? How else could you explain Sheamus and Cena working together with zero animosity? Because Sheamus is a face now, which means we all forget 2009-10 so he can work with Superface.

 

Well one opinion has already been made that Tulsa is Cenation, but I thought Orton's cheers were louder. And now that I've watched a clip of last night, I stand by that.

 

So McMahon can't go to the immigration authorities, buy them off, and get a taunt video? It's like that story line was dropped, soap opera style, without explanation.

 

Visa issues are pretty tough to work around. They didn't have Wade Barrett for a week during the hottest part of the Nexus angle because he and Drew McIntyre had visa problems. They covered pretty well for him, explaining that he had been called to Connecticut to explain his group's actions.

 

What I don't understand is ....at the live shows, they show the commercials promoting products during the breaks, but they don't plug in the announcer's mikes for the live audience. Yet they introduce each of the announcers. If they're worth announcing to the live audience, then why not make them part of the show as they are on the broadcast?

Only reasoning I can come up with is by connecting them to the speaker system in the arena, then having one of the wrestlers decimate the announcer's area, it somehow could cause damage to the facility.

 

That would be pretty disrupting to the wrestlers, hearing the announcers commentate on their matches. Especially if Cole and Lawler are having a lover's quarrel in the middle of the Alex Riley-Dolph Ziggler match. Maybe have them mic'd up for the non-match talking, especially when they do recaps.

 

Yeah, that's kind of what I was thinking of because there's way too much downtime.

 

I think they do it because they know fans know who the announcers are, and it would just be weird for them to sneak down to ringside.

I attended a Raw a while back, and it actually fit into the context of the show. This was when the anonymous GM was still in power, rather than just a computer that everyone's forgotten about. Fans cheered Lawler, booed Cole, and then we saw them at ringside doing their thing. Then the GM chimed in, Cole did his announcement, fans booed, and it was all a part of the show.

It almost felt like watching a play, in a way. You had characters introduced, they were in the background as the main actors took center stage, then they had their little bit parts.

Oh, and the Kliq better not be burying Punk here. Trips can't be making the same mistake as Hogan did in TNA and try to revive the 1990s. It just should not happen. Fans don't care, or are too young to give a shit.

 

My DVR cut off. What the hell? It was Nash-Punk and now it's HHH-Punk?

What happened?