2012 Pro Wrestling Thread

I haven't seen the doc yet, so I don't know how much of it was Punk being a pain behind the scenes and how much of it was the WWE culture, in which guys feel disrespected if you forget to shake their hands before a show.

Missed most of Raw because I was watching MNF and the baseball playoffs. Just took a little break from it. Did see another very good Sheamus/Barrett match. Otherwise, I watched other stuff.

I did see this cool story on WWE.com about Daivari subduing an unruly passenger on a train in Minneapolis. Reminded me of a story told in one of the WWE travel books about Rico having to subdue a crazy nut on an plane. He later asked the flight attendants why he was chosen to help, and they said, we saw how big you were, we figured you were a wrestler.

http://www.wwe.com/inside/overtheropes/shawn-daivari-interview-26056629

 

I remember when Hulk Hogan saved some people from unruly folks at a movie theater: http://youtu.be/esR019e-uMQ

 

Um ... time stamp says first post was just a few minutes after the show went off the air ...

 

Did it go really over tonight? I've got the first post as 22 minutes after 11, but my clock on here is a bit messed up at times. However, I think my point still stands, since usually we have a couple posts during Raw.

 

I thought it went over to 11:10. Maybe not.

 

Finishing up with the show now. Ridiculously slow start with Big Show and more filler than normal. If Vince hadn't stepped into the ring last week in an effort to bump ratings (and he has a nice yellow ring around his left eye to show for his efforts), I would have guessed they were conceding the ratings to MNF and the NLCS. Feels like they can't build on the momentum from one week to the next.

 

Interesting take. This incident, while unfortunate, could help get Punk over as a truly bad heel.

 

It's weird when the best part of Raw is a Kofi vs. Miz verbal showdown, but I thought that was good and intense, and I don't mean it as a slight to the rest of the show... well, okay, maybe I do a bit.

It still feels a bit "too soon" for Ryback to be challenging Punk, so I expect a screwy finish, or maybe even him being eliminated from the title picture somehow before the match. I did enjoy that he didn't break character at all, and having the crowd do "Goldberg" chants probably isn't the worst thing in the world, given that Goldberg did dominate the business for about 18 months.

Was the crowd chanting "this is awesome" when Eve had Layla in a move that can only be described as a throat crotch lock? I was kind of with them, I must say. However, that Rosa Mendes has to go - she looks like a tranny hooker. Definitely a SportsJournalists.com 6.

 

Speaking of Layla . . . why in the world did creative have her drop her previous schtick when she returned form injury? I really don't care for them trying to make the divas division legit with hardcore wrestling and straight characters. Layla was actually entertaining before. Now, it's cringe-worthy when she sits down for commentary.

 

So is it a given that Brock Lesnar comes to Punk's aid at HIAC, and potentially set something up with Ryback?

Punk did reference "the next big thing" in his promo tonight.

 

I think there was some sort of wardrobe malfunction with Layla, but I didn't see anything on TV.

 

It's one thing to make the division legit, but you need some characters with the straight wrestling personalities.

Right now, it seems A.J. is the only one with a personality of any kind, not counting Vicki.