2011 Pro Wrestling Thread

Bischoff pretty much gave it away that it was going to be Matt when RVD was begging for Jeff Hardy, and Bischoff replied, "You want Hardy? You got him! Right now!"

 

So HBK makes his triumphant return, doesn't say a word, but does superkick Alberto del Rio.
Surely he's not coming back other than for the HOF ceremony, right?

Also, I'd love to see Arn Anderson inducted this year. If they're going for a WCW theme, especially, it'd be very fitting. I just wonder if he'd ask -- or if they'd let -- Ric Flair present him.

 

But his farewell seemed so legit! They never come back after that!

 

His is one I still think is legit, other than maybe an occasional appearance like tonight. I don't think he'll get in the ring for another match. Which is why I'm curious to see what they do with this, if anything.

 

Shawn may not get back in the ring, but after Big Al exacts his revenge, I'm pretty sure one of Shawn's best friends will be looking for a reason to come back.

 

They wouldn't waste that on a feud with del Rio though, would they? Figured he'd be gunning for Sheamus.

 

I could see this HBK bit being a one-off thing.

 

Yeah, agreed. He sounded pretty "done" on the Bill Simmons podcast. Granted, that was a couple months ago, but HBK has been pretty solid and true to his word ever since he recovered from surgery and kicked drugs and what not.

 

I think that the HBK thing is going to be just an occasional thing, like Austin would come back once a year to stun someone, like Santino. Every once in a while, HBK will come back and superkick some mouthy heel.

As far as the Hall goes, I'm thinking Jake Roberts would be a natural with the Georgia setting, and I could see Arn and the Road Warriors get inducted as well. The Big Bossman could also get the call, since he was from Georgia.

The rest of the show was OK. I'm wondering what Slater and Gabriel are going to do now. Maybe join Barrett as a separate Nexus faction?

I felt a little uncomfortable with the Punk atop the Titantron segment, even though naturally, I knew he wasn't jumping. Thinking of Owen Hart's death, I was worried that something would go wrong and he'd fall.

And eventually, they've got to get Riley some wins, just to give him a bit of credibility.

 

Arn seems a shoe-in for the Hall, even though he never had much of an in-ring career with the then-WWF. But he's the most prominent player you associate with that era that's in good standing with the organization. Road Warriors seem logical as well. Most of the other older-school Southeast stars (Flair, Rhodes, Briscoes) are already in. No way Jake gets in until they're confident he's clean, because he's the last guy they want to be associated with given all the recent scrutiny.

Rock 'n Roll Express? Midnight Express? They could really do up the tag teams with this round if they were so inclined.

I suspect, though I can't prove, that they're trying to get Sting in. It gives the Hall credibility, in that Sting's never come close to setting foot in a WWE/F ring, and he's one of the only people that could come in and create a buzz, even if in the short term. Not sure I want to see him actually compete (especially since the logical opponent -- Undertaker -- is at best probably working a limited match), but it'd be a cool moment all the same to honor the guy that WAS WCW for the balance of the 90's.

As for Raw:

I suspect Punk will make Slater and Gabriel do something particularly humiliating and/or painful to be initiated. Not sure why they didn't have a problem beating the crap out of Otunga, Husky and McGuillicutty, but suddenly stopped short against each other. On the other hand, that dawning moment of realization got a pretty good pop, so Punk's at least helping in that regard by being a galvanizing leader, perhaps more so than Bennett.

Did Sheamus say that Steph's daughters looked like retarded pit bulls or something? Because he's not been looking very strong since winning King of the Ring.

I might be the only person who thought that GM segment where he was kissing Cole's butt wasn't bad. I thought perhaps they were trying to give away the secret that Cole was making all this stuff up and was actually the GM. But if they're going to keep this up, they need to be realistic -- when someone slams the laptop shut and it goes into hibernation mode, Cole should have to wait a few seconds to have it come back when he reopens it. Maybe make him type in a password or something.

 

Actually, when they were whipping Harris, Slater was selling a little bit of hesitation. Or at least a look of "WTF are we doing here?"
I wonder if, during their match next week, Punk will let Cena beat the ever-living crap out of him as his "initiation" into Nexus?

 

That, and Gabriel was subtly shaking his head when he climbed to the top rope and took a very long time, longer than normal, before 450ing McGillicutty.