2013 Pro Wrestling Thread

Thoughts on a fairly strong Raw:
1. I still want one champion, doesn't matter if it's a unified title in which one is retired (take one wild guess which one it would be) or if the guy holds both belts. Technically, this has never happened. Yes, Jericho unified the titles a decade ago, but they were different titles. It was the WWE title and the WCW title. The WHC uses the same belt but carries its own lineage. With the brand extension over, it'll be sad to see Goldie go, but the WHC has become so devalued over the years with poor booking.

2. Now the rush to get MitB away from Sandow (who I don't believe will ever be main event material with such a corny gimmick) makes a lot of sense.

3. Is it me, or does Punk look like he's actually enjoying himself and putting effort into his program with Bryan and the Wyatts? I know that Punk/Heyman was supposed to be a high-emotion feud, but sometimes it felt so flat on Punk's end. Something lit a fire under his ass.

3a. So will the feud come to a swift conclusion and see Punk move on to a feud with one or all members of The Shield? Otherwise, that's a completely random way to end the segment. Yeah, I get that Reigns is getting set up for a big push, so is Punk/Reigns a future feud if Reigns sheds himself of his teammates?

4. Titus is so undervalued as a talent. Millions of dollars! Millions of dollars!

5. Since when do we call them hardcore matches? It's Extreme Rules, right? I kid, I kid.

 

SmackDown was kinda fun for what could have been a throwaway show, I guess.

First, we get Titus puking into JBL's cowboy hat. The set-up: he won a Thanksgiving eating contest, then competed against Cesaro, who spun him around. Gross.

Dean Ambrose on commentary, discussing brothers who held the tag team titles: "... the Hardys, Edge and Christian ... were Edge and Christian real brothers? How 'bout the Dudley Boys, were they brothers?"

One more interesting thing to come out this week: title unification is supposedly the plan for the near future. In this week's Cole/Triple H "interview," Triple H stated that the brand extension is over (no shit), so the WWE will soon have one world championship. That makes sense. Always has since the brand extension ended probably two years ago. But, of all the PPV events to make it happen, why pick TLC and give it a mere three-week build? Shouldn't this be something for the Rumble at least? Seems to me that would be fantastic booking. Schedule the title match for the pre-Rumble main event, then do the Rumble, winner is confronted by whomever just unified the belts because there is no longer speculation on which belt will be challenged by the Rumble winner. That'd be a hell of a show.

 

I really enjoyed SmackDown as well. While most of the show was throwaway nonsense, the Titus O'Neill spot was fantastic and you have to give the man credit for being able to make himself puke like that (or whatever he was doing). The final hour was a tag team match, then a six-man tag, then a 12-man tag, and every moment of it was awesome from Ambrose on commentary all the way on down to the finish.

Excited to see what comes of all of this stuff for Punk and Bryan.

 

Do you guys actually care about The Undertaker' winning steak at Wrestlemania anymore?

 

Sure. It's one of the few things to have been excited about WM the last five years.

 

Oh, and somewhere, Darren Drozdov is smiling and Gerry Briscoe is running to the bathroom.

 

He's never losing. And it's on the verge of being a greatest hits collection of his move set as he gets older and can do less. Even as a special attraction, there has to be a compelling story. The four-year story with HBK and Triple H was great. Last year would have come off a lot weaker had Paul Bearer not died. Taker versus heel Punk was a good premise already, but the stuff with Punk disrespecting Bearer gave it another layer, made it a grudge match, gave it a quality that just wasn't there.

This year? I think Brock versus Taker can be good, but they've got to re-ignite that grudge match feeling from a decade ago. Hopefully, Dana White will let them use that footage of their run in at a UFC show from a few years ago.

 

The WWE is asking fans to sound off on which of the two world titles is more prestigious.

Of course, my inner smark is raging at the fact that people don't get that the World Heavyweight Championship lineage is only 11 years old. The fact that it's represented by the Big Gold Belt doesn't mean it carries the lineage of the NWA or WCW titles. WWE acknowledges this on its website: the WHC started in 2002.

Rant over.

 

I know I'm the board's big Roman Reigns fan, but I could really see him wrestling Taker at WM. Even if he doesn't win (and he shouldn't yet, no matter how much the McMahons love him), a good match with a legend gives him the final boost to his Batista-esque slow-boil face turn.

 

Now that would be one helluva match. The guy is a beast and is going to be shot over the moon at some point in the next few months. Maybe he can become the next big face of the company. I realize that's an incredibly long shot, but one can dream.

 

Got a little bummed out today. Just for the hell of it, I decided to price Wrestlemania tickets and found some that were right on the edge of being good enough seats for a relatively reasonable price ($175 each for two on the back edge of the lower bowl) to pull the trigger. I was trying to talk myself into it, started doing the math in my head ... and then looked at hotel prices. $250 a night at a hotel that's usually my cheap option in New Orleans.
We're within driving distance, but it'd be a bitch to drive in for the show and drive back the same night. So, the cost of a weekend in New Orleans, including tickets, meals, two tanks of gas, etc. quickly escalated to well over $1,000.
My dream of attending Wrestlemania died on the vine. I'll drop the $65, grill up some steaks and watch it at home.

 

I know you'd like to experience the whole weekend, but is there any way you could get a room for just one of the nights?