2011 Pro Wrestling Thread

My feed kept locking up. How did Cena/Rock win?

 

Clean. Cena/Truth brawled on the outside, then Rock hit the elbow on Miz.

 

Agreed.

Not exactly a memorable title reign for Del Rio. He's just not captivating.

 

That ending was absolutely lame. There was so much they could have done to put the storyline into overdrive. Instead, they tiptoed around it.

They could have had one walk away from another, leading to a Miz/Truth win by double-team. Or, they could have botched a move together accidentally and gotten one of them pinned, leading to more tension. Or, Miz/Truth could have cheated, pinned Cena, then have Rock get all pissed off at Cena for losing the match. Or, they could have done what they did, have Cena get booed, then have him tell Rock to get cheers and then kick his ass when he turns his back. And I'm sure there are other alternatives that I can't think of right now.

Very well. Rock embarrasses Cena, then Rock-bottoms him. At some point, Cena's going to have to get pissed off enough about looking like an idiot and getting beaten up and just go ballistic on Rock. I mean, how much can a guy keep smiling while getting booed out of the building and beaten up?

 

When I look at Del Rio, for some reason (such as the slicked back hair,the short trunks ,his body type and his wresting style, to name four), I keep thinking he looks like Rick (the Model) Martel. He just doesn't strike me as a constant main eventer.

 

I'm OK with the ending tonight if, and only if, they set up the Mania match as a battle of two legends and the hype going into it revolves around the fact that no matter what Cena does, no matter how many titles he wins, how many Manias he headlines, he'll never be one of the true greats.

I'd book this entire program around the idea of the Rock completely disrespecting Cena, saying he might be the voice of this generation but he'll never be one of the greatest, play into the fact that the crowd will never respect Cena because all he is is a cartoon character with funny catch-phrases and then, after Cena wins what should be an epic match, have the Rock extend him a handshake as if to say "You've proven yourself" and have Cena turn mega heel and just destroy him, destroy McMahon, have him just go crazy.

It would be the biggest and greatest heel turn of all time.

Too bad it'll never happen ...

 

Punk wins? Punk wins! PUNK WINS!

Enough reason for me to find a way to watch this one. Don't care about anything else for the moment.

 

My thoughts...

- I love the Garden crowd. From them cheering Cody Rhodes and chanting constantly for Ryder and Bryan Daniel, it was just quality all around. I wish they could only host PPVs in Chicago, Boston, NYC and Philly. I would adore that.

- Speaking of the woman's match, if you fast forwarded through it, you missed a pretty good bump at the end. Beth did the tit masher / glam slam from the middle rope on Eve. It actually got a pop from the crowd. It's weird that they're having Beth play a heel right now, since I think she and Natayla will eventually get over as faces with the "we actually wrestle" schtick. At least they get a reaction, whereas all the solely pretty faces get nothing.

- Cole mentioned on the broadcast several times that Daniel Bryan wasn't in the building because of his injury, which was a pretty shitty thing for him to do. If he's definitely not going to be there, then Cole shouldn't have said that. If he was going to shop up, then yeah, you have him say that Bryan isn't in the building. It's like the WWE forgets the Bizarro Rules of wrestling sometimes; if you say someone isn't there, it means they're showing up.

- Did not like the main event. I realize that you want to give the rub to The Rock, but he made The Miz and R-Truth look like schmucks by dominating them for the opening five minutes and then at the end as well. I don't care what happened so much with Cena at the end; Cena is essentially bulletproof at this point. Half the fan base loves him, half hates him, and it won't change until you turn him heel. Truth and Miz could have benefited greatly from a clean win, although I realize that would never happen with how the WWE is currently booking. And heck, I think Truth is another guy that eventually goes from heel to tweener or face. His current gimmick is just too entertaining.

- Thank goodness for CM Punk. While it does seem quick to move the belt off Del Rio, he only got it because they were going to Mexico, and Punk is so white hot right now that I think you need the belt on him. I'm curious to see what they do for the Rumble; I imagine they'll have the Del Rio vs. Punk rematch, but I'd prefer if they did Punk vs. Cena and let Punk go over clean to really solidify himself as the top guy.

Also, everything Punk touches turns to gold at this point. Having the Fink come out, that alone was smarter than anything the writing staff has come up with in months. Then you just had the little touches, like patting Michelle Beadle on the head on the way out.

 

The Rock and John Cena vs Awesome Truth - In a lot of ways, I'd say this just made the WWE look bad. The guy who hadn't wrestled in seven years easily outperformed the three regular WWE stars, got the biggest reaction and when he wasn't in the ring, the match was a hell of a lot less exciting. Miz and Truth were fine in the match, but I imagine they knew they could only be so good. That entire face-in-peril sequence didn't mean much since everyone knew that the Rock would get back in the ring before the match was over. The crowd reaction really ruined whatever chance they'd be for a great story. Especially in the middle, the only one who wasn't being cheered on was John Cena. Not only did it mess up his getting heat sequence, but it didn't make me care about Awesome Truth. Rock was way better than I imagined he'd be though. Really quick in his moves and minus the Dragon Screw Leg Whip, all of his moves were crisp. On the other hand, there was Cena. On his first move, he did a sloppy snapmare followed by yet another sloppily performed one. Cena certainly is no Ricky Morton. Yeah, the crowd reaction hurt his face-in-peril, but Cena didn't help anything by rarely selling much. Even if the crowd didn't hate Cena, they weren't given a reason to feel any emotion from Cena.

Without trying to sound like a total Rock mark, everything he did was great and everything not involving him was boring.

 

I think we saw the start of this last night. Cena looked a little upset/miffed before he turned his back on Rock, but I didn't like the way he just rolled out of the ring and sulked his way to the entrance. Man up, dude, and stop showing your lady parts.

 

The question's going to be how they keep the Cena/Rock issue going until Wrestlemania. Other than a cameo tonight and the occasional bringing it via satellite, Rock will almost certainly not be on Raw much until the Royal Rumble at the earliest. Cena's going to have to do something in between, and with another Punk-Del Rio match at TLC, he's kind of twiddling his thumbs. Miz and R-Truth are compromised and unless he interjects himself into the HHH-Nash drama, that's out.

If Cena makes true the wet dreams of the smarks and turns heel, it probably won't be against Rock. Cena giving Rock his finisher only makes him a heel against the Rock at best, and it probably doesn't move the needle much at all -- the people who boo or cheer Cena will do so anyway. Rock actually cost Cena the title at Wrestlemania, and it didn't matter.

The only way Cena can turn full-heel against Rock is if he's linked to someone devious. Enter the returning Mr. McMahon, who interjects himself into the battle for control of WWE while lashing out against Rock for leaving at the height of his popularity. Cena then plays Corporate Champion 2.0, being so smarmily sanitized that everyone gets diabeetus while adding a layer of hypocricy and deceit to it. Think current Cena + early Kurt Angle + crazy Bob Backlund.

The more likely scenario would be Cena slow-boiling after the loss to Rock at WM, culminating in him snapping and turning on another PPV (King of the Ring?).

As for the PPV: It was OK, no great shakes. Most everything involving Punk was gold, but it helped he was in a smark-friendly town (a smark-friendly town that has a soft spot in its heart for Sid, for some reason). The reactions he gets in Chicago, New York and Philly don't translate as well to other towns. But clearly he's a top-level face and can potentially be the No. 1 face if they pull the trigger on the Cena turn (I think Sheamus is a bit more accessable, but both are better faces than Orton and have a broader appeal than Mysterio).

I suspect Cody Rhodes will be a world champion within the next year, and will win one before Dolph Ziggler (I don't count that 90-minute reign when Vickie gave him the title). His workrate and personality have improved by leaps and bounds. I could easily see him winning one of the MitB briefcases and cashing in quickly. I do miss his previous Titantron with the old-school comic book-style newspaper headlines declaring him GROTESQUE and DISFIGURED. Not a big fan of the theme either. But they got rid of the mask, at least.

WWE certainly seems to have a strong young heel contingent; Rhodes, Ziggler and Wade Barrett are all looking good, and if they can salvage Jack Swagger, he still has superstar potential to me. But where are the next faces? After Sheamus and Punk, there's little out there. Morrison and Kingston are mid-card stagnant, Sin Cara is a lost cause, Zach Ryder walks a fine line between breakout star and Santino Morella 2011, and nobody's buying Mason Ryan. Eventually they'll probably turn Miz, but they'll have to rehabilitiate his character to get to that point.

Speaking of Sin Botcha, he blew out his patella tendon last night and could miss up to nine months. Deseamos Sin Cara, así en sus futuros proyectos. Since nobody cares about Hunicio (and why would they, since he looks like a Mexican America reject), do they put him under the mask again?

 

Hey! I marked out for Hunico last night!

(Yeah, it was because I was in a packed bar watching the show and NO ONE reacted whatsoever to the guy).