2011 Pro Wrestling Thread

The Undertaker/HBK/Trips segment was some excellent showmanship. Didn't really understand what HBK was going to do/say at the end, but I guess we'll find out Sunday.

Rock/Cena/Miz -- Loved seeing Cena outside the ring laughing while Miz was running his trap to Rock. Hate Cena, but that was pretty funny. And, as always, Rock is always -- ALWAYS -- better when he's "bringing it" live than via satellite.

 

That just means something is going to happen Sunday. Something, hopefully, good.

 

I think the ending to that bout depends on its placement.

If Cena-Miz goes on last, ain't no way it ends in any way except with Cena holding the strap in the air. If Taker-HHH goes on last, then I wouldn't be surprised to see Rock cost Cena and Miz retain.

The only real question, though, is whether they give the two face characters the belts or, as they should, give them to Miz and Del Rio. Miz needs a Mania win to prove himself as a legit main eventer and Del Rio needs the strap to even be considered in the same stratosphere as the main guys on the program.

Still, that was a fantastic RAW. The HHH-Taker segment was one of the best promos for a match I've seen in some time and that Cena-Rock thing was just unreal. Made Miz look like shit, which I thought you never wanted to do to your champ before the big show, but it was still amazing.

 

Del Rio's not ready yet. His character is pretty awesome, but he's nowhere near good enough in the ring, and despite the disdain for the word "wrestling" shown by representatives of World (redacted) Entertainment, he's still pretty raw. Plus we've seen what happened to the last two guys (Sheamus, Swagger) that got world titles early in their careers. Let him lose a competitive match to Edge, have him deal with someone like, say, Kofi Kingston in a secondary feud for a couple of months, then prime him for another run near the top later in the year or next year. He should be around a while; no need to rush it.

They've painted themselves in a corner with Miz/Rock/Cena. If Rock costs Miz the title, it'll be both predictable and fly in the face of all logic (thanks to Vince Russo, the two are no longer mutually exclusive concepts). If Rock costs Cena the title, you end up with a heel Rock that nobody wants to boo against a face Cena that only some people want to cheer.

If you have Rock cost Cena the title but have Cena turn heel in the process, it's going to require some really ornate machinations to pull it off, and wrestling doesn't generally lend itself to complicated character changes. Plus it leaves you with heel Cena vs. who exactly? If Rock is around for a while and is committed to wrestling just enough to maintain a feud until Summerslam, then fine. But if Rock fades back into Hollywood, you're looking at Cena, Miz, Sheamus and Punk on the heel side and unlikable Orton, HHH and niche Bryan on the other, with Sin Cara an eventual possibility (unless he goes to Smackdown to play with Mysterio and Del Rio) and Jericho a wild card. Even if Rock does hang around long enough to get a decent feud with Cena, they have to develop a top face really quickly to fill the void. And none of the top heels are in position to turn face in the near or mid-term future, unless they do something wonky to hotshot it (I've seen proposals for a Cena/Miz double turn, which would be awful, because Miz is not a face and double turns almost never work -- even Austin/Hart at WM wasn't a double turn itself, it was merely a defining moment in their characters' evolutions.

Want a major turn? Have HBK help HHH cheat his way to breaking Undertaker's streak. HBK then manages HHH as heels. Triple H is best as a self-absorbed bad guy anyway. Then maybe a Summerslam match between HHH (with HBK in his corner) vs. Taker (with Tom Brady in his corner as an 18-1 empathizer). Or maybe not.

Or you could go really wonky (and knowing that old vs. new feuds never work, no matter how appealing they sound) and have Austin, Rock, HHH, Undertaker, Trish and perhaps Booker T and Kevin Nash bemoan the state of WWE, how they all retired or took on reduced workloads to usher in the next generation of superstars and divas, only to have them be huge disappointments. This would set the stage for a Survivor Series match. Problem is, who would you be more likely to cheer for: Austin/Rock/Undertaker/HHH or Cena/Orton/Miz/Del Rio? Because you need the old-timers to be the bad guys in that confrontation and the young guys to ultimately win, since they're the ones that will be around consistently going forward.

 

I think what we'll see is Rock come out during or before Cena/Miz and just watch things. At some point, Riley will interfere, and Rock will beat on him. Miz will take exception, and Rock beats on him. Cena takes advantage and wins.

Then, as Cena is celebrating, Rock comes into the ring and Rockbottoms him and leaves him lying as fans cheer. They continue with it as a babyface/babyface feud, although Cena ends up getting mostly booed, until Summerslam. Cena wins the match by cheating, then on Raw the next night, tells the fans that he's tired of getting booed while trying to be the nice guy. He'll tell them that they aren't giving him loyalty and respect, so now he's going to hustle them.

 

The crowd would be eating it up if the Rock did nothing more than take a dump in the middle of the ring while holding a mic. Cena was easily the biggest winner out of all of that last night, and the miz was the big loser, which is fine, because he's had the best of it for the better part of a month.

On a side note, I laugh every time I see Riley jumping around behind Miz after they make their entrance. He's like a toy monkey, but it somehow works.

 

The other thing I've noticed is that a couple of times, Cole has thrown a drink in Lawler's face. There's some ironic symbolism there.

I'm wondering if they continue Cole/Lawler after WM. I can see Lawler piledriving Cole (if they allow him), then they both come out the next week. Cole's in a neckbrace and starts whining to Lawler. King gets tired, and throws hot coffee in his face.

Michael Cole: The Andy Kauffman of 2011.

 

I hope they don't continue that "feud." Cole is insufferable because he switches back and forth between heel and full-on schill for the company. If he's going to be the heel in this feud, he needs to stay in that role all the time.

 

My guess with Cole is that he continues as Swagger's manager. Which will be good only in that I think they need to start again with Swagger, who has become a squandered talent.

 

I'm guessing the Cole throwing the drink in Lawler's face bit is a holdover from the Lawler-Andy Kaufman angle from years back.

I'm also thinking HHH-Taker goes on last. After all, it's Trips.

I'm also guessing Cena and Del Rio with the straps when it's over, but I hope Miz retains.

 

So what's going down with HHH-Taker? Is it HHH's retirement party, or Taker's?
Neither have fought since returning.

 

Triple H has wrestled some dark matches at house shows (presumably to get back in shape), but not on TV. As for whose retirement party it is, who knows? Undertaker should win, but there are some valid reasons why HHH could go over -- because he's HHH and he has a HHH-sized ego; Taker might be on the way out and this would certainly ease that transition; both guys are pretty much special attractions at this point, making it a toss-up; HHH is one of the few guys Taker would job to on that stage, both in terms of willingness and believability.