Professional Wrestling (WWE, TNA, ROH, etc)

[Andrew]

Not sure how long before WWE has these taken down, but definitely worth watching while they're up.

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Taker's salute was great too, very well done without completely breaking character.

[Lean]

EDIT:

The very first frame of the first video you posted 'drew, contains a disturbing image.



[cenahater] But Cena seems to enjoy it. [/cenahater]

[JaoSming]

actually when HBK was crawling up Taker he face got right in his crotch and they did a close up on Taker's face that didnt really fit the moment either

[Lean]

That salute by Undertaker gave me the chills. Amazing.

[Andrew]

In more unfortunate news, JR hints that his announcing career is likely over in his latest blog. Summary here on WNW.

Broadcasting wrestling in WWE is likely history for me but there are many other areas to which I can contribute in WWE and those options, among others, will be weighed over the next month.

Damn...I'm still not a fan of the current announcers and pairings, not even IWC darling Matt Striker.

[JaoSming]

Not good news at all

For a cheerier article, Bill Simmons wrote a live blog esk thing for Wrestlemania. I laughed more than a few times and he ripped Striker a lot in it. Well worth the read if you have time.

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/st ... ons/100330

[J@3]

That was the best Simmons article I've read in years

[Andrew]

More bad news (at least in terms of there being a competitive Monday Night War, Part 2) in the form of the ratings.

RAW: 3.7
Impact: 0.6 (the lowest in years)

Dixie Carter is blaming it on HBK's retirement and that's a fair point as it can't have helped Impact, but RAW has done a 3.7 head to head against an Impact that scored better than this. Obviously both companies have to contend with the NCAA tournament and other programming in general but 3.7 isn't too uncommon for an episode of RAW with a big draw lined up (HBK's farewell in this instance) so it's questionable as to how much of the audience went to RAW instead of Impact and how much of the audience Impact has lost due to its own issues. TNA has a lot of potential and tools at their disposal, but the Hogan/Bischoff era isn't living up to their trash talk. They should focus less on bashing/commenting on WWE and lift their own game.

Bill Simmons' article was great, I haven't always been his biggest fan but really enjoyed his book as I mentioned in NBA Talk.

Perhaps Striker should stop talking.

Striker follows a promo for the April 25 "Extreme Rules" pay-per-view by explaining, "Every match is extreme rules -- certainly a night to be seeing, extreme rules." Maybe you oughta stop talking for a while, Champ.

Glad to know I'm not the only one.

[JaoSming]

yea I saw that and was shocked, friggin ECW did better than that.

It'll be interesting to see what the 8-10 time slot does for them. I wouldnt be surprised if this is the beginning of the end for TNA though. They've lost all momentum (ratings wise) and Spike evidently isn't happy (obviously).

I bet they now have a time limit of I guess May to get ratings up before they get moved back to Thursdays. If they stay at the 0.5 range I wouldnt be surprised if Spike just dropped their asses.


but for those that didnt see it, it was a pretty awesome end to impact

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Weed & Meth Connection FTW
Loved the literal drop part of that elbow drop, lol

Also, TNA's webmatch was pretty good, despite having an awkward ending

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I mean this is what sucks for me. In-ring, TNA's product is 10000000x better than what WWE gives me. It's the wrestling I want to see. Nevermind when someone gets fucked up by weapons. I just think their production and storylines are holding them back right now.

[Andrew]

I still reckon the WWE puts on good and watchable matches (though there's always going to be some complete duds) but no question TNA's got great workers that can put on great matches that get lost amongst the bad booking and second-rate production values. Bischoff's basically doing what he did in WCW; it worked in the beginning there because he was breaking rules and taboos, but now it's neither new nor shocking and just badly put together, as it was in WCW's downfall.

If I were a TNA wrestler right now, I'd be very careful about trash talking WWE. Otherwise in the not too distant future Vince could have them jobbing in a skimpy pink dress...and something even more humiliating for the female workers.

[Lean]

A quick Michaels story: When WrestleMania XIV took place at the Boston Garden, I got press passes and brought my buddy Birdman with me. Michaels wrestled Steve Austin in the main event with Mike Tyson as the referee, but his back was profoundly messed up thanks to two herniated discs. There were rumors that the Heartbreak Kid might bow out. He didn't. During the match, you could see Michaels gritting and wincing through every bump. Austin pinned him for the title, then Tyson decked him with a right cross as the crowd went ballistic. They drank beers, toasted the crowd and left the ring. The event ended. Even the lights dimmed to signify things were done. Time to go home.

Not yet. Birdman wanted to stick around to see how injured Michaels really was. He had been lying in the ring during the entire Tyson/Austin celebration, unable and unwilling to move. Once the event ended, Triple H (his best friend) and Chyna (their "valet") scurried over to help him backstage. With the cameras off and nobody watching, Michaels scraped himself off the canvas, then stood in place for a couple of minutes. Finally, the three of them started moving toward the exit -- slowly, painstakingly -- with HBK's arms draped around his two friends. Only then did we realize how much pain Michaels had endured.

Shawn Michaels didn't wrestle again for four years. That's how long it took his body to recover. Was that night worth it? Only he knows. Twelve years later, he wrestled a monster farewell match and announced his official retirement one night later. We've seen a handful of phenomenal wrestlers and phenomenal performers over the years; only Ric Flair and Michaels can say they were both at once.

More importantly, I have no favorite wrestlers left. Snuka, Savage, Hogan, Austin, Michaels … they're all gone. You know what that means? It's time to stop ordering WrestleMania after 26 years. As with Michaels, it was a long and memorable run. As with Michaels, you have to know when it's time to walk away. And I will. Twenty-six was enough.

Great read and great bash on Striker I must say.

EDIT: Orton is doing that RKO-days pose again.

[JaoSming]

If I were a TNA wrestler right now, I'd be very careful about trash talking WWE. Otherwise in the not too distant future Vince could have them jobbing in a skimpy pink dress...and something even more humiliating for the female workers.

I dont think many wrestlers are calling out WWE, other than Eric/Hulk/Dixie and iirc there were reports that a lot of the people in WWE were/are cheering TNA on backstage.


And HUGE Spoiler for Friday's Smackdown

Seriously this is huge, you may not want to read this.

We'll have more on this in our full spoiler report later, but Jack Swagger just cashed in his Money In The Bank briefcase during the SmackDown! taping and won the World Heavyweight Championship.

I'm kinda disappointed because I wanted to see him and Cena go at it again, but man, talk about a huge push shortly after being king jobber for the past few months. This is worse/bigger than Sheamus' push

[Lean]

I clicked it.

[JaoSming]

Lean....you get tempted way too easily

[JaoSming]

So it has been 1 year since I started watching wrestling again. Last year Mazz got me into a chatroom to watch WM25 and Taker/HBK reignited my interest in wrasslin. So I started watching Raw again and eventually got interested in Botchamanias and video games (LoW, SvR 2010). TNA made their changes and have woo'd me with their potential, so here is a little review of the last year for me.

WWE
High Point
The high point for me was, well, not much really. I mean I really started watching again in the PG era and I really can't say I had a "moment" with WWE other than Taker HBK 1. I guess the reformation of DX and them finally winning gold as a team worked for me since it played on the old attitude days a bit for me.

Low Point
2 main low points for me this year. #1 being the guest hosts....terrible idea and execution as it is just used to market something...the comedy bits with Hornswallow and Santino are facepalm moments for me as well. The DX merchandising can be tied in with that as well.
#2 was the "summer slump" Jesus, that was terrible, I think if it weren't for botchamania I wouldn't have been able to get through the summer of watching wrestling. The 5 minutes of wrestling in a 2 hour show got old, quick. Taking out the violence and keeping the storylines make wrestling no better than soap operas, remember that Southpark episode? That is how I would describe last summer's Raw shows.

Best Match
Aside from HBK/Taker my favorite match of the past year was Christian/Benjamin in that Ladder match. There was a lot of potential with all of gimmick matches that occurred this year but all of the HITC matches disappointed me and the others were ruined by Super Cena.

Best Feud
I think this goes to Kofi/Orton for sure. I loved that 3 week feud. Kofi actually getting mean and getting that push was great, I really wished they ran with it longer.

Overrated/Underrated
The most overrated wrestler of the year for me goes to Edge....I dont get the draw to him and to me he is still nothing without Christian.
The underrated wrestler of the year for me is Sheamus. I really wish they would just let him beat a superstar without a botched table ending...


TNA
High Point
RVD to TNA. Loved RVD and he's shown he can still provide entertainment. Also really digging the "Weed & Meth Connection" with Hardy too.

Low Point
IWC reception and the Ratings post Hogan/Bichoff. I love the shows, I enjoy watching them, then I go online and see WZ ripping them, see the terrible ratings, and noticing no one seems to be enjoying TNA like I am.

Best Match
Best match I've seen from TNA this year was the 2nd AJ/Samoa Joe/Daniels match. Those 3 have amazing chemistry.

Best Feud
Angle v Mr Anderson almost by default. There are almost no good feuds yet in TNA but Angle/Anderson has been great since their first match during that tournament.

Overrated/Underrated
Hogan/Flair are easy choices for this, but the most overrated stars TNA had this year were the Nasty's, but they are gone now so good. I couldn't understand how they could actually fight the Dudleyz and have a chance.
Diengelo Dinero & Desmond Wolfe are my underrated wrestlers for TNA. Dinero has a lot of charisma and needs a belt right now, Wolfe is the most innovative wrester in the ring right now and if you want to see some great matches watch some of his vs Angle.



As I said with my TNA low point the IWC is just a huge disapointment to me. Someone has to bitch about something else and the way they word it makes me feel personal about it. No wonder WWE/TNA never listens to any of their ideas. However the dirt sheet websites have been a plus to me. Knowing the backstage issues has made both companies more appealing to me.

Botchamania has been a huge motivation for me to continue watching. Mainly I love noticing botches in the shows that later show up in the next video. It has gotten to the point where I have been watching specifically to find botches....and if that continues I think I just need to stop watching.

SvR 2010 was a huge breath of fresh air for me. The reason I started talking to Mazz again was because I had started playing No Mercy again and he got me into a mod site for it. Playing the PS2 version of 2010 and enjoying myself with it opened my eyes a bit but after getting the PS3 version and having the ability to download all the TNA CAWs I could want just made me giddy.

No real conclusion, I've been writing (well ranting) about this for a few days now so enjoy my collaborated mess.

[Andrew]

Saw the spoiler on WNW, couldn't help myself either. I guess they're really trying to establish new faces with the older guys retiring/taking time off or about to do so in the near future, but like Sheamus' push it's too much too soon. Swagger's been around and won the ECW Championship but still, he's been given that leap from midcard-at-best to world championship level. Stone Cold himself said it best when he was asked about Swagger winning on Twitter: he's got a bright future, but it's just too soon.

Good write-up on the last year Jon, thanks for sharing your thoughts. I think the guest host gimmick is a low point for pretty much all of us at this point, a couple were entertaining and the appearances by former wrestling personalities at least made sense but it's a very tired angle now. As for the TNA hatred, I think some of it is in response to TNA marks whose opinion of the company doesn't quite gel with reality, frustration or dislike of Hogan and Bischoff or simple disappointment that they're dropping the ball with their angles and that their ratings are nowhere near what they need to be to challenge WWE (and make them lift their game). Some of it I grant stems from WWE marks or a simple dislike of TNA for whatever reason, but some of the criticism is justified.

[Lean]

Seen the whole WrestleMania XXVI PPV, and I feel the same way as you guys felt when you saw it. Good thing that the women's match and Cena's match were just next to each other and I considered that a good break.

As for HBK-Taker II, last year's was definitely better -- and longer too. The fact that I've never seen Undertaker this "human" since his return in his Deadman persona, is awe-inspiring. HBK brought all, and we were like "OH SHIT" when HBK moonsaulted for the last time.



Nobody can ever come close to the performance level Shawn has brought in the wrestling industry. No chair shots, no tables, no barbed-wired flaming baseball bats in those two matches with Undertaker, but those are definitely classics.

HBK

[JaoSming]

and we were like "OH SHIT" when HBK moonsaulted for the last time.

No chair shots, no tables, no barbed-wired flaming baseball bats in those two matches with Undertaker, but those are definitely classics.

just messin with you. I totally agree with you though, it's rare to get that good of a match with no gimmicks.

[Andrew]

Nobody can ever come close to the performance level Shawn has brought in the wrestling industry.

As great as he is and as much as he deserves our adulations on a spectacular career, I wouldn't go that far because of what Bret Hart did in his career. His last match won't go down as a classic - even if you count his last WCW match before his Wrestlemania 26 beatdown of Vince - but the stuff he did in his prime stacks up against anyone in my opinion, even HBK. Hart's "The best there is, the best there was and the best there ever will be" may have been a gimmick and a catchphrase but in reality he made a pretty good case for it.

That said, HBK really did steal the show so many times and quite often at Wrestlemania. I don't think he and Taker have ever had a bad match looking back, but you've got to give Taker some credit there too. Taker's amongst the best if not the best big men in the history of the business - you can put guys like Andre the Giant and Big Show in a category of their own really - and when he gets to work with someone like a HBK or Bret Hart or Kurt Angle that he doesn't have to carry, you see he's a much better worker than you'd think watching his feuds with The Great Khali, Giant Gonzalez, King Kong Bundy (a legend in his day but aging, overweight and way past his prime when he feuded with Taker in 1995) and the like.

[Lean]

I will say the same thing once Undertaker wrestles his last match.

...watching his feuds with The Great Khali, Giant Gonzalez, King Kong Bundy...

That with Khali is the worst I've seen in all of Undertaker's fights. Well I don't want to see the one against Gian Gonzalez anyways.

I sense a Triple H-Undertaker feud come WrestleMania XXVII.

[Andrew]

Speaking of HHH and The Great Khali, that match they had a couple of years ago was hilarious. They basically put him with HHH as a last ditch effort to get him over as a serious heel and of course, it failed. The ending was great, HHH set up him for a Pedigree and he basically fell awkwardly to the match. HHH's expression was priceless, clearly breaking character for a moment with a "You've got to be kidding, why am I working with this untalented piece of shit?" look before going for the pin. Khali's probably a cool guy out of the ring but if he wasn't over seven feet tall, he'd have been wished well in his future endeavours by now.

[Andrew]

Chris Kanyon has been found dead, apparently having committed suicide through an overdose.

[JaoSming]

sad stuff, weird since I read recently he was one of the few gay wrestlers evidently. though his sexuality was never confirmed or something

Chris Daniels is back with ROH and done with TNA. And it looks like TNA may move from the Impact zone to the old WWE NY place.

[Andrew]

I thought he was openly gay, at least after leaving WWE. He cut a promo in an indy fed where he came out, both as a character and supposedly in real life as well. He later claimed he was fired from WWE for his sexuality and showed up at a couple of house shows to make a scene.

[JaoSming]

This is what I HATE about Raw....

Hey, we could unify the belts, naw, hey, four way with show/orton/cena/swags? nope, non-title against Orton?....ok, no change going to happen win or lose, yay

and cena/batista v showmiz for belts? yea.......like that has any chance of changing hands


And anyway, this is why I like TNA. We got girls with tits actually wrestling halfway decent, RVD still having gusto in the tank, a reincarnation of Goldberg (legit bleed spot with a chair too, which was awesome), and a decent ladder match.

I mean, early start for Impact, Raw competing with the NCAA, I'm going tos top watching wrestling now for basketball, but this is just more of the S.O.S. Raw with no chance of change...just feud building, and TNA with a nostalgic, and better in-ring product (IMO)

And I take that back, just fipped over and I see Ted Dibiase Jr with the million dollar championship?! fuck yea! bout time