2011 Pro Wrestling Thread

So Jerry Lawler says it's not HHH's fault and "someone is pulling the strings" behind him, then Lawler proceeds to give him a no confidence vote and walks out.

And WTF does no confidence mean? If I have no confidence in my bosses, it doesn't mean shit. Yeah, sorry, this is a pretty stupid storyline.

CM Punk has become Nexus Invasion 2011.

 

Del Rio is basically an afterthought in the Triple H show. At the very least, if they're going to have a spokesperson for the group, why wouldn't it be the WWE champion?

When I was a freshman or sophomore in college, the school's student government held a "vote of no confidence" in the university's president and administration. I'm almost entirely sure it accomplished absolutely nothing.That's what I kept thinking about when I was watching last night. I'd be more concerned about the vote of no confidence they'll get from fans/viewers, who have all sorts of new fall tv options on Monday night, if this storyline drags out too long.

Also, to combine the last two posts, I couldn't understand why Lawler was directing his anger at HHH and not Mark Henry, who was standing 10 feet away.

 

The angle itself isn't bad. The idea of the normal chaos of RAW becoming so bad that the talent actually walks out is potentially interesting. A bunch of heels banding together and threatening legal action is a great way to get heat. So there's plenty of good stuff to work with.

Here's the problem.

WWE just "fired" Vince because he had lost control. I guess we could see this as a variation on a theme since HHH was the one who had to break the vote of no confidence news to Vince, but that seems far too literary for a wrestling storyline. Just like the VKM firing, though, the chaotic buildup hasn't been all that chaotic. If you wanted to have an interesting story about the boss losing control of the company, why not let Vince play it out for a few more weeks?

The face, at the moment, is management. The bad guy is basically the "union." I doubt fans will look too closely at this, but it's odd to promote unsafe working conditions as no big deal when a large portion of your fanbase are union members. The main reason Austin was so successful was the idea of a worker standing up to his boss. Now we have to root for the boss?

What happened to Punk? After creating a great character in the voice of the voiceless, WWE quickly put Punk in a feud with HHH. Why? I have no doubt that HHH is capable of turning the crowd against him, but he apparently does not want to and instead we got this confusing feud where the fans want to cheer for Punk but don't have a heel to cheer against. Then, after Punk loses, the whole voice of the voiceless character seems to disappear and Punk ends up teaming with Cena every single week. Opponents team up all the time, of course, but in none of these tag matches is there any tension between Punk and Cena. Now, it appears, Punk and Cena find themselves on the same side in support of HHH? Punk can't be the voice of the voiceless without a heel to work against. And the heel has to be a representative of management or the PG version of WWE, not your typical cowardly heel.

What's the payoff? Forget about whether or not HHH buried anyone. The fact is he is currently the sympathetic figure. This angle might help Truth and Miz, and I guess if somehow a major face like Cena is part of the conspiracy then that could be a great moment, but ultimately putting HHH at the center of the angle doesn't help build a new Austin/Rock/Cena for the company to build around. Can you think of a way that this helps Punk continue his trajectory upward?

 

I agree completely with this. It's just a sort of muddled mess at this point, and after last night, I don't see an easy way to untangle things.

 

Apparently this angle isn't going to last very long. You've got Rocky coming back in a few weeks (or however long), and nothing is going to overshadow that.

Then, Punk is supposedly in line for another big push because the brass is impressed by how much merch he's moved lately. Not sure what they've got planned, but it'll be interesting to see what they do.

 

What he said.

You knew, eventually, it would once again be all about Trips and the Family.

Thank God for MNF.

 

Punk should pray to move to SmackDown. Only way he'll get TV time between SuperCena, Triple H and the likely-to-return VKM.

Also, when I get back from vacation, I'm going to give my boss a vote of "no confidence" then walk out, just see how that works in the real world. Ha.

 

This is spot-on.

There's a reason why the vast majority of the time, the in-charge figures in wrestling are heels (except for Teddy Long). It's like the old saying about the Yankees. You're rooting for U.S. Steel.

WWE hasn't shown really why Trips is any different than Vince or anyone else. He's tried the Bill Watts-like "Enough talking, let's get it on!" stuff, and it's not that great.

What they should have done with Punk is kept Vince in charge, and then have Trips be his emissary. Nope. Or, they should have had Punk, Miz, and Truth form their own disgruntled faction. They could have put Henry in it as the guy who was around for 15 years and never got his shot (until recently and is pissed off about it, so he's going to destroy everyone, rather than this random dominance.

And it makes no sense for Punk to suddenly want to team with corporate's shining star in Cena. I could see one or two pairings where they win despite not getting along, but there's been no tension at all between them.

 

On the other hand, Punk *did* say he liked Cena more than most people in the locker room in that promo, and he was more angry about how he was portrayed than who he was. So it's not completely unworkable that they're on the same side of some battles.

What's funny is that Punk railed against McMahon, Cena (as corporate poster boy), HHH and the WWE machine in general, yet here he was after Raw rattling off a string of Twitter posts explaining why he WASN'T walking out with everyone else against HHH, the same guy he tried to get removed from the COO spot three weeks ago in a no-holds-barred match. The tried-and-true method of getting Punk to lay out his allegiance is to have the malcontents (either Miz/Truth or the Otunga stars) appeal to him, only to have him turn them down with a series of GTSs.

A possible out: Reveal McMahon (Vince and/or Stephanie) and Nash and perhaps Cole were working the superstars off-camera, promising them money or title shots in exchange for turning on HHH. At least it would tie up the "why is everyone upset now when they've had it so much worse" angle.

 

CM Punk ran the Chicago Marathon on Sunday.

Or ran-walked it.

Or walked it.

In about 6 hours, 48 minutes.

That is, if his Twitter account, @CMPunk, and a photo from the finish line are any proof.



The only hitch is this: There is no record of "CM Punk" in the race results. Neither is there a record of "Phil Brooks" or "Phillip Brooks" or "Jack Brooks" or any other pseudonym he might take for the day. In fact, his bib number, 21645, matches up to Britney Kendzora, a 24-year-old former college soccer player who lives in suburban Chicago. Did he register under her name?

As a runner with five marathons under my belt and a sixth scheduled at the end of the month, this whole situation is interesting (the registration name, running it a day before a Raw taping in Oklahoma, apparently running with a hoodie [see his Twitter account] and on and on). I want to think he did run it, albeit really, really slow, and if he did, I think it's awesome. And come on, who else has tattoos that look like that?

 

Without his big wrestling boots on you really see how skinny his legs are—not for an average human, necessarily, but for someone who is supposed to be able beat up anyone in the WWE.

 

Well, if Mr. Fuji can run a 5K, I guess anything is possible.