2011 Pro Wrestling Thread

Two King Hippo posts in a week.

 

Nicely done, both of them.

 

Just noticed that the Intercontinental Champion isn't scheduled to be on the card at 'Mania in any capacity, and they just threw Sheamus v. Daniel Bryan on the bottom of the card.

 

Who is the IC champ? I honestly don't know.

Kofi?

 

Yup.

I feel like the US title has far surpassed the IC belt in prestige at this point, but maybe that's because the IC belt is the No. 2 belt on the No. 2 show. This makes me sad because I love that title...something about "Intercontinental Champion" just sounds awesome. That's why I make myself the IC champ each year on SvR.

 

Also, rumor has it that WWE is dropping Fatal 4-Way from the PPV rotation, and this year's event will be titled "Capitol Punishment." The show will be hosted in Washington, DC.

 

Smackdown spoiler below ...

Wade Barrett beat Kofi for the IC title ... so I'm sure the IC champ will be in a match now at WM.

 

Ugh. Sounds like a TNA episode title.
They should call it "Capitol Combat". Then, at least, they could re-enact this classic bit of wrestling history

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1wefe_robocop-in-wcw-capital-combat-1990_sport

 

Wow. That makes the Shockmaster look like the Austin beer truck segment.

 

If true, it gives me hope that they tone things down with the Concept PPVs a bit. I don't like that they are taking away MITB from Wrestlemania. It's been rumored for a few years now that they are going to get rid of the Survivor Series, which has probably run it's course as a concept. The one "concept" PPV I'd like to see them keep, outside of the Royal Rumble, is the Elimination Chamber.

When I stop and think about it, I think the litany of "concept" PPVs could be a major factor in why so many recent feuds are seemingly thrown together and underdeveloped. So many of the PPV concepts feature either singles matches with more than two competitors, or tag team matches with more than two members on each team.

In the past several months, we've had: Fatal 4-Way, Money in the Bank, SummerSlam (7 on 7 elimination match), Night of Champions (Six Pack Elimination Challenge), Bragging Rights (7 on 7 elimination match), Survivor Series, TLC (featured a triple threat ladders match and a 4-way TLC match), Royal Rumble, and Elimination Chamber.

When you've got so many guys participating in main event level matches, it's impossible to build any intriguing storyline to the feuds. You end up with these shit qualifying matches on Raw and Smackdown where, a large portion of the time, the winner is totally obvious.

When I stop and think about it, the only thing that has shocked me in the past year is Jerry Lawler winning the "Raw Rumble" to earn the WWE title match at Elimination Chamber. Then, I realized, in kayfabe, a month before 'Mania, it was possible to end up with R-Truth vs. Jerry Lawler for the WWE title at WM27.

 

If done right, the concept PPVs can work.
Royal Rumble, Elimination Chamber and MITB are all great ideas that can support a PPV. Even Fatal 4-Way can be built around the same idea of giving multiple people a championship shot.
Summerslam and Survivor Series should be given a distinct identity as two of the "big four." Much like Wrestlemania, use them as a PPV where major feuds are settled and things come to a head. Play off their tradition instead of looking at them as relics.

As for the others, some of them need to change. TLC and Extreme Rules are too similar. Same with Bragging Rights and Survivor Series (as currently executed, with the multiple-man tag matches).

 

The problem with concept PPVs is that they undercut the use of those gimmicks to blow off major feuds because they're pegged to a show, and the top-card matches have to conform to them. Hell in a Cell, for example, should come out at MOST one match in a year, and maybe once every other year. But with a HitC PPV, you had three matches on the same night during the 2009 show and two in last year's. And instead of one guy challenging the other guy to this career-threatening final showdown, you've got the title matches in there because that's the PPV on the schedule. TLC has similar issues. As does Extreme Rules. And that all-submission PPV that got mercy killed. Plus it leads to stipulation overload, since obviously there's still going to be specialty matches on the non-themed PPVs and TV (how much can you get up for a no-DQ match when you've had recent and upcoming PPVs devoted to more extreme matches?)

Fatal 4-Way forces four-way matches instead of having them come as a result of screwiness that requires four guys in the match. Bragging Rights would mean something if they didn't just take the three week lead-in period to go into the alternate universe where the brand split was upheld and made a big deal of. Survivor Series has gotten away from the 8 and 10-man tag team matches.

My vote would be to shitcan most of the themed PPVs, at least the ones pegged to match types.