2012 Pro Wrestling Thread

So what if the people who want to give the young guys a chance also loved the Undertaker match? It's pretty clear that Rock-Cena and Trips-Taker were the top matches on the card but that doesn't mean there is no opportunity there to help build some younger guys. The problem is that in the matches where that could still be done, the WWE chose not to do it. They didn't give Bryan or Sheamus much of a chance to build. They had Rhodes lose to an upper mid card giant face. They didn't even let someone go over clean in the 12 man tag match. Punk is the only guy on the roster who is going to be around for a while that they did right by.

It's OK if Taker, Rock, etc would've got most of the pub off it but it certainly wouldn't have hurt anything to give guys like Rhodes, Bryan, Sheamus, Ziggler, etc. a little meat off the bone as well. Hell, even Orton is getting buried and he's a guy I'd think they'd need moving forward.

 

For the all the Effin hype Cena-Rock received over the last year, WWE needed that match to hit a mammoth homer. Instead, it got a solid double in the gap. Not bad, mind you, yet there was a sense of a letdown, especially with the shitty intros. Diddy/Puffy/Biggie's Real Killer is so 1998. MGK or whatever the hell his name was looked like a real-life victim of the Hunger Games.

They need a big show (no pun intended) tonight, especially for building up the younger guys who got stiffed last night. Having a 10-man tag along with much of the show being a WM recap tells me that's unlikely.

 

One of the issues with this year's WM is that a lot of the younger guys were injured and unavailable -- Christian, Alberto Del Rio, Wade Barrett, Sin Cara. Throw in Mysterio and you've lost a good chunk of upper mid-card. Team Johnny vs. Team Teddy was allegedly thrown together after it became obvious there weren't enough guys to make a respectable Money in the Bank (especially since the winner likely would have been Wade Barrett or Cody Rhodes). Orton-Kane and Big Show-Rhodes was more a case of "shit, we have to find something for these guys to do", with MiTB and a potential Shaq-Big Show match off the books.

I don't think losing hurts Rhodes. He defined the feud and was the dominant voice the entire way. Had he won, it would have been a months-long humiliation for Big Show with no comeback. Big Show doesn't need the IC belt, but neither does Rhodes. In fact, he's better off without it. Now he can be positioned for top-card feuds and a shot at Sheamus's belt.

I was surprised that they did nothing with Rock and Cena after the bell. Outside of a couple of shots of him in the aisle, Cena didn't figure in the postmatch at all. No handshake, no blow off of a handshake, nothing. Maybe they're waiting to center Raw around that tonight, but the match ended kinda abruptly.

So were the big signings an April Fools Day gag, or could that still happen tonight? Speaking of tonight, this would have been one of the rare times a 3-hour Raw would have been advisable. Rock-Cena aftermath, Taker-HHH aftermath, Laurinaitis taking over, whatever happens to Teddy, Punk-Jericho aftermath, Eve is a bitch aftermath, possible debuts and returns. And the Funkasaurus.

 

The 10-man match was announced at the Hall of Fame ceremony on Saturday. I can't imagine they'd set the TV main event for Raw before Wrestlemania is in the books. I have a feeling that's the dark main event.

 

The more I think of it, it would have made more sense for Cody to lose in 18 seconds instead of Bryan.

Especially since Cody was using past Wrestlemania lowlights of Show. Show could have squashed him, then used Monday night to say, "Hey look Cody, now YOU have a Wrestlemania lowlight!"

 

Stop using your brain.

 

They were up against the clock. The show signed off at 10:57, and unlike Raw they can't run overtime on a PPV. If anything had been planned post-match, it would've ended up either off camera or cut short.

 

The WWE didn't know if Orton would be fit to wrestle due to his concussion. That's why he was just "thrown" in to a feud last minute with Kane.

 

Even that feels stupid to me though. Have him do a run-in instead, and actually let him heal and rest for a couple months - You don't need him to sell tickets at Mania. If they're not buying for HHH-Taker and Cena-Rock, then they're probably not buying for anything else you put on the card.

 

Except that Trips and Sheamus are friends off-screen.

 

It's hardly the clique-style of change.