2013 Pro Wrestling Thread

The WWE did something we haven't seen done since 2011 it made John Cena the New York Yankees and Randy Orton the Boston Red Sox. To those who may not know what I'm referring to I'm referring to the shoot promo CM Punk gave before MITB in 2011 when he told John Cena that he was always portrayed as the underdog like his Boston red sox but in reality he's the New York Yankees.

Well prior to this years TLC match the WWE made Orton look like the under dog Red Sox and portrayed Cena as the favorite to win. Orton secured a surprising clean win over Cena last night. In a move that had fans complaining about a lack of a big finish. Well the fans got what they were begging for, for years and for months the defeat of Super Cena and a finish that didn't involve interference. To me a non big finish was the biggest swerve the WWE has done all year and it was pure genius.

 

I would agree, except for this: Orton winning clean might not have been expected, but Orton winning just perpetrates this tired "The Authority loves Orton/The Authority doubts Orton" cycle they've been in almost from the end of Summerslam. Now they have to stop dickteasing an Authority/Orton breakup and just go with it for a while.

Presumably, Vince starts breaking away from The Authority or gets beaten down at their behest tonight to set the stage for him casting his lot with Cena in some sort of match that determines the future of WWE at Wrestlemania (Cena-HHH, winner's choice gets full control of the company?)

That would leave Bryan or Punk to win the Royal Rumble and challenge Orton, who will cheat to beat Cena at that show, then do something sneaky to win the Elimination Chamber. Reigns goes on a Kane/Diesel run, eliminating anywhere from 7-12 guys, before Ambrose dumps him, giving us that match at EC or WM.

Brock comes back for Undertaker? Heyman really wants to end the Streak and Punk couldn't do it, so on to the monster?

Favorite fantasy booking I've seen is Bryan joining the Wyatts -- as faces. Bray wants to bring down the machine, right? Kane is the sleeper cell agent after he was brainwashed by the Wyatts earlier. And Erick Rowan did give Michael Strahan a sheep mask ...

 

is it weird that they actually unified the titles at a second-rate pay-per-view (instead of doing a belt switch or something)? not only does it seem like the kind of match that could carry an upper tier pay-per-view (summerslam, if not wrestlemania), but i also feel like doing this on a lower-tier ppv is another step in undercutting the value of the belts.

 

Agree. The shock to me from last night was that there weren't any shocks, and they went through with the unification in a clean finish. I don't mind THAT much, since I'm kind of glad that there wasn't yet another Dusty Finish at a non-major PPV, but it almost feels like a bit of too little, too late. I also don't know where they go from here - Cena vs. Orton yet again for the title at the Rumble? The rumble match kind of sells the PPV, I'd almost argue that they should just give Orton the night off.

 

They painted themselves in a corner with their booking of late. A string of screwy and non-finishes to end their past few PPVs has helped damage their business there. Promoting a match that on the surface appears to unify the two top titles, then doing something swervy like have the champions switch belts or Triple H take them for himself would have really hurt them.

In a perfect world, they would have done the unification match at WM with two months of build to give it the gravitas it lacked by doing it now with precious little buildup window (though to their credit, they pushed hard toward the end). But they felt as though they needed a make-good, and having two top champions hasn't made sense in three years, or however long it's been since they really started ignoring the brand split.

 

IIRC, the prior unification was during a December PPV as well. Granted, those were different circumstances after the aborted Invasion, but...

 

Shawn Michaels and CM Punk cut a promo together. You'd think it would have been amazing, and yet, it was just awkward. Disappointing.

 

HBK looked like the crowd chants kinda threw him off, and Punk looked like he was trying to save the promo, but it ended pretty weakly.

On the other hand, we just got one of the greatest verbal insults in Raw history, courtesy of JBL for Cole:

"Why do you keep defending John Cena? Do you get a cut of his merchandise sales?"

 

Helluva match between Bryan and Orton. I smell a Triple Threat at the Rumble.

 

Tough night for faces, and I don't mean the popular wrestlers. One of the Bellas (whichever one took the pin) looked like she might have broken her nose when Tamina kicked her, and if Orton didn't at least chip a tooth he was doing a damn good job of selling it. He kept checking his mouth and feeling his upper teeth throughout the second half of his match.
Ambrose also got busted open a little when he tried to dive through the ropes on Punk.

 

That Tamina kick looked brutal.

I think they decided to end the match as soon as they could after that. You could see the ref talking to the twin a little bit.

 

Orton-Bryan was terrific. I'm going to be at the Rumble. Give me that, please.

If we are building to a Cena-Orton-Bryan triple threat at the Rumble, going to be interesting to see who wins the Rumble.

CM Punk?
Triple H?
Roman Reigns?

Discuss.