2011 Pro Wrestling Thread

DANIEL BRYAN!!!!!!!

Holy cow.

 

Great link, Gutter. Thanks for passing it along. Hope it works for a few PPVs, at least. Thanks to you, Mrs. Bobcat (who is slowly turning into a Punk mark and who just doesn't want anyone to get hurt) and I managed to catch the last 15 minutes of the main event. Leave it to Punk to break down a turnbuckle and loosen a rope to escape from a pair of handcuffs.

And we now have Punk, Bryan and Ryder (and Rhodes) as champions. The Internets, I think, are going crazy.

 

The Internets may not be able to withstand this.

Guys who actually give a shit about the product holding all four major titles?

 

Gotta say, not a bad PPV. I'm disappointed with Daniel Bryan winning but only because they've really beaten this "Cash in on a weakened opponent and win a title" MITB thing to death.

LOVED that Ryder won. LOVED IT.

The rest of the card was pretty boring, though I did enjoy the hell out of the TLC match and am glad Punk kept the belt. Guess we'll have to see if 1-2-12 really does bring about Jericho. If so, the internet may not be able to hide it's massive boner.

 

I miss my buddy Mike. We spent many weekends working together. I was a DJ he bounced at in Marquette, Mich. Before that he and I worked at the same radio station (WMVN-970AM). Mike Shaw was a great guy and I miss him..and his stories about Kid Dynamite!

 

Just got back from TLC. Some thoughts:

1. The dark match? Drew McIntyre (remember him?) won clean over Alex Riley. No pop at all for Riley. Disappointing because A-Ri is from the general area.

2. I have no idea when the Pay Per View cut off, but during his post-match celebration, C.M. Punk went after a Miz fan verbally in the first row. Hilarious stuff. Then he handcuffed himself to Lilian, proclaimed they were getting married and walked off.

3. Main event was excellent. Loved Ricardo Rodriguez's spot where he tried to claim the title then got dropped onto a table. Crowd was disappointed when Del Rio didn't come out with a fancy car. Made the boos worse.

4. Orton's RKO onto the table was sick. You could tell as soon as he hit that he was pleased with the result. Wade Barrett's knees really took the brunt of it.

5. Sure feels like a Big Show heel turn is coming.

6. Zach Ryder got such a huge pop.

7. Kind of disappointed I didn't get to see Cena live. But, honestly, it was a great Pay-Per-View with more than enough star power to make up for it. Much, much better than the Cyber Sunday I attended several years ago.

 

I would guess a Daniel Bryan heel turn is coming. He made a big deal of saying he would use the briefcase for a straight-up match at wrestlemania rather than do the quick cash-in. I think they will start transitioning his character to more of a guy who will do anything to win.

 

Not a fan of the cash-ins anymore. It's been done to death, and now it's at the point where the champion doesn't even need to be standing in order for the match to start.

 

Which is why I suspect they might do a reversal tonight or at Tuesday's Smackdown taping. Ref didn't give Big Show time to get to his feet to start the match, decision either reversed or title is held up to be decided in a Show/Henry/Bryan 3-way match at Royal Rumble.

 

Anyone else see the smile and wink Big Show gave a few minutes after he loss the title?

 

Henry apparently has a lingering groin pull that's going to shut him down for a bit, which explains why they hotshotted Bryan's cash-in. They can go a bunch of different ways with it, all of which can result in a great elimination chamber match (Bryan, Orton, Sheamus, Henry, Show, Barrett and maybe even Cody Rhodes are all in the picture).

 

I'd love to see a Bryan-Rhodes feud for the belt. This does set the stage for either Rhodes or Barrett to get a title run in the near future, although holding it on Bryan for a bit would give the belt some credibility. Orton probably gets back in the chase, but I do wish they'd turn him back into a heel. Yeah, I understand SD lacks a solid #2 face behind Orton (if you don't count 'Taker and Sheamus isn't quite there yet), yet Orton needs to revert to the heel he was a couple of years ago when he right on the edge of becoming a serious monster heel.

This was one of the better PPVs in some time. It lacked the predictable outcome throughout much of it while also setting up some of the younger talent to get pushed to another level. Most of all, it showed just how good the talent can be without having a ho-hum Cena match that a blind monkey could predict. If Raw wasn't so reliant on him for ratings, one route toward making Cena heel would be to let him disappear for a spell and let him come back that much closer (and more refreshed because of reduced load) to making the turn.