2011 Pro Wrestling Thread

I'm in attendance at Raw tonight.

Loudest cheer of the battle royal intro went to, no kidding, Alex Riley.

Then the crowd went dead during the actual match because it turns out 10 man battle royals that only last 7 minutes kind of suck.

 

That was a sick ass submission move from Natalya.....she is yummy.

 

That Natalya move was awesome. Nice to see.

And it was funny hearing the announcers making a veiled reference to the Dudleys.

 

If you can't laugh at anal bleeding, I don't know you at all.

 

Yep, down comes the cell. Some nice stiff chair shots by Del Rio. Show ends. Nothing special.

 

And there's no way Del Rio wins Sunday.

 

Sooo I'm watching on my DVR, and apparently some of the guys got lighter? Roberts announced Christian at 199 and Punk at 208. Is this some rib from Trips?

 

Yeah, I caught the Christian 199 lbs one. To steal a phrase from the Hurricane, what's up with dat?

 

A ho-hum Raw. And remember kids: If John Cena is fired, he can just show up the next week. If the Miz and R-Truth are fired, they can't even buy a ticket to the show. They done got got by the c-o-n-spiracy, and all you Little Jimmys.

Nice to see Ryder get a bit of a push, and actually get some pins against Ziggler. Give Ryder 15 minutes against him at the PPV, let's see what he can actually do.

p.s. Natayla is hot. It seemed like the WWE is finally deciding to play this as more face vs. tweener, which is probably the right decision.

 

The thought occurred to me, with them doing the same frigging finish every Raw with a Cell, or an Elimination Chamber hanging over the ring. Why not put on, I don't know, an actual match on Raw?

I'm not talking about a main-event match. But put the IC or the U.S. championship match in the Cell for Raw. It would elevate the importance of the belt, and the participants, and maybe entice some people to buy the PPV to see the main eventers. Right now, they do the same cheesy thing every fucking year. Some mysterious guy lowers the cage (and they never say who does it), and guys have a little brawl, and that's it. Same stupid ending.

 

They actually used the cell quite a bit on Raw in '98, did they not? No reason why they can't do it again.

 

A few thoughts from the show, which happened to be my first ever live WWE event:

- Based on initial reaction, there was way more love than hate for Cena in the audience. But the hatred held out longer and broke through. But love or hate, he was the only wrestler everyone stood up for every time his music hit.

- The coolest part about a 10 man over the top battle royal is the announcement. Otherwise, the action is way too hard to follow and you see guys standing around waiting to choreograph a spot.

- Some of the hits seem more viscous in person than they do on TV.

- Still trying to figure out why Alex Riley got such a great response when he came out.

- Came away thinking Dolph Ziggler is somewhat underrated. Good in the ring, good on the mic, and his "I was punched by an actor...no offense..." to HHH cracked me up. Not sure why he needs Vickie Guerruro.

- John Morrison, however, would benefit greatly from someone like Vickie doing the mic work for him.

- Zack Ryder seemed to get more popular with the crowd during the show. The audience's initial response to him when he was announced was good, not great, but he got some mic time during a commercial and is very engaging/entertaining, even in a brief snippet. The place went nuts when he got the pin on Ziggler.

- One guy around me asked if Ryder actually knew any wrestling moves or if all he could do was punch and kick.

- There was more confusion than excitement in the crowd when Mason Ryan turned face. And a few scattered, "Who is that guy?"

- My first ever live event and it happens to be the one week Miz isn't in the house. I felt cheated.

- It's also the first week in as long as I can remember that CM Punk didn't get some promo mic time (no commentary for us). Double cheated.

- Not sure what was said on TV about the ending of Punk/Del Rio match, but it was a bit sudden and kind of anti-climactic in the crowd. A few kicks from Punk and the No. 1 contender gets pinned clean?

- After the show ended, we got a five man "threat" match in the Cell for the WWE Championship. Cena, Punk, Del Rio, Swagger, and (I think) Ziggler. Cena AA's Swagger for the win.