2011 Pro Wrestling Thread

Here's the second half of the Saturday Night's Main Event you were talking about, Baron. The superplex is right at the beginning:

What's funny is watching the house shows from the same feud. You can tell they were working on things as they went along. Here's the second half of their cage match at the Boston Garden, a couple months before the SNME:

The finishing sequence and most of the beats in the match -- minus the superplex -- are identical to the SNME match. Makes sense that they'd add that in for the bigger MSG show if they were planning to include it in a more high profile match.
I remember seeing this same thing in other feuds, too. MSG would show a match, then about a week later they'd hit Philadelphia and the card would be televised on the PRISM network. The matches would play out almost the exact same way. It was jarring, as a kid, to see that. Might have been my first indication that wrestling was totally fake.

 

Can't totally blame them for doing the exact same match. At that time, they were doing 300+ shows a year, and flying to a lot of them. They could only change them so much.

For me, the "fake" indication came with the squash matches on TV. After a month or so, I started wondering why these wimpy guys were getting destroyed in two minutes with no offense. That, and reading the ring results in the Apter magazines, which would be the same results from each night in a different city.

 

Oh, no doubt. I don't care who you are, when you're wrestling that many matches it's hard to come up with original ideas every time out. Looking at it now, as a more knowledgeable fan, it's actually kind of interesting to see them working on these sequences and finishes before "the big one" at a PPV or Saturday Night's Main Event. Kind of like watching a dress rehearsal, or even a band perform several nights in a row and seeing how they change up the set list.

 

Considering that this was going to be a throwaway Raw until the Rock's appearance next week, it wasn't half-bad. Ryder actually appeared in the main event and didn't job, good promo by Nash on Trips, Punk was his usual amusing self and Morrison and Ziggler had a good match.

 

Just watched the video again and counted. Both Hogan and Bossman were down for 1:38 until Hogan sat up. Different era, obviously, with fewer big bumps. When they did have the big bumps, they had to sell them a lot more.

 

Finally had a chance to watch Raw:

Thoughts on only the matches:

John Morrison vs Dolph Ziggler - Good way to open the show. Despite some slowness, this was a smartly booked match with Morrison being able to sell the neck to tell a story before finally winning a match again. I imagine this could open the door for a three-way at Survivor Series between Ziggler, Morrison and Ryder. 3 star match-up.

Mason Ryan vs JTG - Ryan is terrible miscast as a babyface. Even with him being a babyface since his return and being an UK native, he still couldn't get much of a reaction in England. Everything from his mannerisms, size, and moves shouts "Monster heel". Sadly, unlike the likes of Brock Lesnar or Umaga, Ryan can't produce that ultra fun squash.

Alberto Del Rio vs Kofi Kingston - I really dug the booking of this. Due to how short of a match this was, it wasn't anything special in terms of workrate, but the WWE actually booked one of their champions as a dominant star. Del Rio went into this hungry and came out with a clean and decisive win over a midcard babyface. GREAT. Two years after his debut, I'm still loving Del Rio's intro.

Jack Swagger vs Santino - Ugh. Even if you have a twenty minute classic between Daniel Bryan and William Regal, I'd probably still dislike it when Michael Cole goes into one of his unfunny rants. What's the point of even running a match if you're going to ignore it in favor of talking about Cole and Jim Ross? Swagger's right punch early on looked good. I can't decide if I love the twitching eye or find it embarrassingly lame. Still, you had the heel come off with a dominant and clean win over the lesser star. GREAT.

John Cena and Zack Ryder vs The Miz and R-Truth - It's surreal seeing how far Ryder has come. Out of everyone in the WWE, I probably respect him the most at this very moment due to taking a career that could have seen the pink slip any day to getting himself over until he's teaming with the #1 face in the WWE in the main event of Raw. Truth's bump on the outside was pretty sick. My DVR decided to stop recording it before the end (Gah, damn you DVR!), but it looked like a solid enough match. Gotta love it when some comedic lowcarder is receiving more positive reactions than Cena. Woo woo woo.

Best Match of the night: Dolph Ziggler vs John Morrison (Possibly tag match depending on how I like the ending)
Worst match of the night: Mason Ryan vs JTG

 

Raw rating: 2.88. Granted, it was a taped showed that ran against Bears-Eagles and the other Monday night trappings, but a dip under 3.00 is under the McMahon comfort line. Rock's return and a three-hour Raw in a couple of weeks won't help them.

Way to piss away the momentum established from the summer, WWE.

 

The Rock is coming back next week, not in a few weeks.

But it won't matter much. The needle will barely move at this rate.

 

The problem is, they've gotten so predictable, it's not even funny.

Next week, Rock comes out, does his usual (excellent) promo (hopefully not for 30 minutes), Cena comes out, confronts him. Miz/Truth come out, confronts both of them. Rock/Cena beat them up, then they bump into each other. Give each other the evil eye, as Cole/Ross yell out "Will they be able to trust each other at Survivor Series?"

It's like, with the exception of Punk and Ryder, they don't even know how to have fun anymore. Ryder, as Gehrig noted, could have been future endeavored at any time, and, with nothing to lose and totally against what the hierarchy wants, has gotten himself over. Punk has always been a bit of an outsider, and seems to enjoy tweaking the establishment even through subtle ways.

But otherwise, the product on Raw has been mostly mediocre, with a couple good moments each week. It's pretty sad that the two heels that generate the most amount of heat are a 40-something woman manager and a broadcaster.

 

How to tweak Raw before the ratings dip below 2.5 and the presence of Big Monday (without the NBA to take ratings) on ESPN continues to move viewers away?

 

RIP to Killer Karl Kox, a legendary heel in the '60s and '70s (and note the initials)

One great story about Kox was told in his book by Bobby Heenan. While getting ready for his match one night, Kox put a chocolate bar on the heater to soften it, then put it in the back of his white trunks.

During the match, he told his opponent to give him an atomic drop. After the opponent did so, a brown stain appeared on Kox's trunks. The crowd started laughing, Kox starts playing it up, then pulls the "poop" out of his trunks, smells it, and tastes it. The crowd totally lost it in disgust, and the promoter fired Kox when he got back to the locker room.

 

Well, we know what's going to happen to Jim Ross next time WWE hits Oklahoma.