2012 Pro Wrestling Thread

As long as Cena is making the company loads of money and doing the Make-A-Wish stuff, Vince will not turn him heel. There really is no one else who can elevate to that top face level right now -- not Punk, not Bryan, not Jericho. Just using those three as examples, but all three of them are better as the tweener roles they've played during their careers. And I believe all three would be boring as full-on faces.

They aren't going to turn Big Show back, and Ziggler is much too good as a heel.

Until the day comes when Cena's fans grow tired of him and stop buying his merchandise and shit, he's going to be the face of the company and never turn heel.

 

I think Jericho could work as a full-fledged face, but obviously, he's going to be more of a smarmy jackass vs. the superhero that Cena plays. You could also re-fashion Punk or Daniel Bryan as more of a Bret Hart face - the most excellent in-ring guy in the company - as opposed to having storylines about psycho chicks, but I think Daniel Bryan vs. Punk is working now anyway. From the pop he got at the PPV, The Miz might also eventually be a candidate for turning face, although I do agree with your point, that they don't have a good Cena replacement. (Sheamus is the closest, but he's anchoring Smackdown anyway.)

 

I don't think Sheamus is anywhere close at all. He's another guy that's much better as a heel, but with all the injuries and stuff, I understand why they switched him. And Alberto Del Rio is wearing off on me. They've tried to make him into a bad-ass in the last few weeks, and it would have paid off had they given him the strap last night, but his character has gotten stale.

 

Mentioned before but worth resetting:

The one scenario I'd like to see the WWE in is one in which Cena is out for an extended period of time (four months-plus). Certainly don't want to see him injured, yet if that happened, it sure as hell would wake WWE out of their "just plug Cena into the main event" lull and force them to be more creative than they've been.

The time will come when WWE will find themselves scrambling for main eventers and ruing how they've half-assed the middle card.

 

I'd like to see them go two ways with this:
Playing up the whole "Punk overshadowed by Cena even though he is the champ" angle that Eve started last week and just driving Punk nuts with it.
Might make for another strong pipe bomb tonight or at the 1000th Raw.
Or Cena could just stand around with the briefcase at all times and make Punk paranoid that it's getting cashed in at any point.
Either option probably would have worked better with someone like Jericho or Miz, but throwing something else out there.

 

Didn't that happen a few years ago when he was a surprise Rumble entrant?

 

Certainly better than the year Jack Swagger couldn't figure out how to work the clasp and took five minutes to get the briefcase.

 

That was a pleasant surprise to come out of this PPV. I was afraid he'd come back to indifference.

 

So was I. But I'm glad he got a pop like that.

Some folks on Twitter were complaining that he was holding the mic upside down. Who the hell doesn't know he's done that for months now?

 

The crowd seemed dead at times (a lot of times) last night, but the ones who made themselves heard were pretty fun. "We want Ziggler!" was awesome, as well as the first fecal chant in a little while. Miz was odd in that it took work to notice he was gone, but it was clear he's back. Now let's hope to God he doesn't get buried yet again.

 

"We want tables" was pretty good.

 

The look on Punk's face during that chant was great, too.