2012 Pro Wrestling Thread

The "actual wrestling fans" are in the middle of an eight-month reign from one of their favorites, which just saw a feud between him and another one of their favorites. They'll never be happy.

 

Not as long as the real matches are buried under yet another Cena-lovefest. Not as long as those guys and their achievements are publicly buried on TV by a mediocre Diva.

At this point, I'm so sick of seeing Cena on top that I wish him a career-ending injury. But, nope, instead it happened to Edge.

 

That's what I was thinking, Rick. I doubt it was a botch.

And honestly, I don't mind Cena winning. What I do mind, though, is that the "most coveted title in sports entertainment" hasn't been defended in a PPV main event in a long time.

 

At least Ziggler won.

 

Yep, the "most coveted prize in the business" has not seen main-event status at all this year. Last time: TLC, December 2011. Let's take a look at 2011 events, by the way.

Royal Rumble (Jan.): not main event (not counting RR match)
Elimination Chamber (Feb.): not main event (Miz is champ)
Wrestlemania (April): main event w/ Cena
Extreme Rules (April): main event w/ Cena
Over the Limit (May): main event w/ Cena
Capitol Punishment (June): main event w/ Cena
Money in the Bank (July): main event w/ Cena
SummerSlam (Aug.): main event w/ Cena
Night of Champions (Sept.): not main event w/ Cena
Hell in a Cell (Oct.): main event w/ Cena
Vengeance (Oct.): main event w/ Cena
Survivor Series (Nov.): not main event

So, no, the WWE Championship doesn't mean dogshit without Cena in the picture.

 

I think Cena cashing in is probably a sign the WWE doesn't really have anybody below Punk-Cena-Bryan that they want to push that could actually use the brief case.

The Miz, perhaps. But he already did that.

Briefcase worked out OK for Daniel Bryan last year. Here's hoping it's also helpful for Dolph.

 

I kinda liked how it ended, even if it wasn't a botch. It was Cena concentrating so much on knocking off Big Show that he ended up winning the match. It was different than having ... that ... big ... dramatic ... moment of pulling down the briefcase.

 

I'm convinced Cena winning is the WWE's way of acknowledging that the cash-in scenerios have gotten played out.

While I have no doubt Ziggler will inevitably cash in his opportunity on a weakened opponent, it's outside of Cena's character as currently developed to do so. I imagine they have him announce a couple weeks early that he wants his match, giving them time to build it, and I honestly wouldn't be surprised if he lost as he's probably one of maybe five guys that could be the first cash-in to lose and not have it damage him in the long-term.

I personally loved the ending last night, even the show itself seemed a little ... off. I don't know if it's just because last year's MITB was one of the best PPVs I've ever seen or what but last night's show seemed more like an episode of RAW or Smackdown than one of the signature shows of the year. Having a boring tag match, a worse Divas match and another Ryback snoozefest didn't help either.

Oh well. At least the 1,000th Raw seems like it's going to be fun to watch next week.

 

The good thing about Cena winning MITB? I think he's going to be the first to have the briefcase ... and lose. He can lose that type of match and not take a hit.

 

Here's what I'd like to see if they're going to have Cena lose: he announces he's cashing in at SummerSlam, but he loses there. He then gets another shot at some point and loses again. The new GM, whoever it is, tells him he's not getting another shot until he works his way up the ladder. He spends the rest of the year in smaller feuds and wins some and loses some, never getting back to the top. His frustration grows as other guys beat him by cheating and they get title shots, but he's left on the outside.

Then, at the start of next year, have him win the Rumble by nefarious means. Next Raw, he comes out and goes full heel, saying he tried to do things right and he didn't get anywhere, and even when he was good, half the fans hated him. He even wasted his MITB chance because he was being the nice guy. So screw it, everyone can hate him now, he's done being the nice guy and he's getting what he deserves. He calls out the face champ at the time and sets up the match for WM.

Will never happen, but would be cool.

 

I can buy him cashing it in with a more fair approach than the run-in idea, but he's not going to lose.

 

Seemed odd that non of the WWE brass were there last night.