Professional Wrestling (WWE, TNA, ROH, etc)

[J@3]

You hit the nail on the head about Cena. If Austin was as corny as him people would complain about his superman booking, but Cena is just lame in the way he acts so it stands out way more.

[Andrew]

Exactly. Hogan was booked to long strong in the 80s and it worked because that's what people liked. Austin was booked to look strong in the 90s and it worked because that's what people liked; The Rock, too. Undertaker is still booked to look strong and it works because the character is such an established fan favourite. Cena's current gimmick has limited appeal, if only they'd give him a bit of an edge which may require a heel turn. He moves a lot of merchandise though, so they're not going to kill the golden goose as it were.

Meanwhile, Christian is set to miss several months with a torn pec. I'd like to see him get a push upon his return.

[Lean]

Have Christian and Edge as tag partners again!

Probably that's the reason why I liked Cena pre-2005.

[Andrew]

His character did have more of an edge back then. I'd say that more than most, he's hampered by the PG initiative. If WWE were willing to push the limits of PG a bit more then it wouldn't be so bad, PG doesn't necessarily have to ruin things, but their approach is too "kiddie" especially when it comes to Cena.

[koberulz]

That's the whole point of PG, though, is appealing to kids. They're not trying to appeal to adults as best they can within some arbitrary limit.

[Christian.]

-Give Mr. Cena the thug/heel character just like before and people will like him.

-End Taker's superhuman gimmick and bring back the American Badass persona.

-bring Rey to RAW

[koberulz]

What's with Kaval? The only guy to lose to Chavo in how long now? Exactly what are they trying to achieve here? It might also help to not talk up the fact that he's been in the business for years, wrestling all over the world, and then in the next breath talk about the experience edge Chavo has because Kaval is a 'rookie'.

Also, dump the Divas belt and bring back the Women's belt.

[Lean]

The Divas belt looks awful.

[Andrew]

That's the whole point of PG, though, is appealing to kids. They're not trying to appeal to adults as best they can within some arbitrary limit.

Well, yeah. Since it alienates older fans like us though, my feeling is that it's the wrong approach to PG programming.

-End Taker's superhuman gimmick and bring back the American Badass persona.

Not happening, nor should it.

[buzzy]

-Give Mr. Cena the thug/heel character just like before and people will like him.

Heh.

[Andrew]

It's true, though. Stone Cold was intended to be a heel but fans liked the character which led to the face turn. Orton's character is still very heelish yet he gets face reactions. Sometimes the best way to turn a wrestler face is to turn him heel, as it allows them some creativity with the character that ultimately people come to enjoy and it doesn't force them down the fans' throats by desperately trying to designate them as a face.

[Christian.]

Currently watching RAW. Just heard R Truths new theme. It's as lame as his elbow finisher.

[Lean]

phpBB [video]

But Eve did the distracting.

[koberulz]

Given that his old song was what got him over, I don't really understand that move.

[JaoSming]

Foley did an interview and evidently his match against Flair on the Live Impact on the 7th will be his last match....or at least he hopes so.

http://forums.wrestlezone.com/showthrea ... ost2464591

[Andrew]

Taking that with a grain of salt. Foley's been wrestling his last match since WWF No Way Out 2000.

[Murat]

Taking that with a grain of salt. Foley's been wrestling his last match since WWF No Way Out 2000.

He was a participant at Royal Rumble 2008, as I remember.

[Andrew]

He's wrestled in a lot of matches since the retirement match at No Way Out 2000. That's often the way, Ric Flair's retirement is another good example. It remains to be seen whether HBK will have one more match, and whether that will turn into a short series of matches. Even Bret Hart's been involved in a few matches (as much as he can following his stroke) which we never thought we'd see again after everything that went down. That's just how professional wrestling goes.

[[Q]]

i gotta say AJ Lee is the hottest diva in a looooong time going back to the days when they had trish, stacy, torrie, victoria, etc.

[Lean]

So Y2J has been given the "vacation punt"

[Andrew]

Seems so. With a 90 day no-compete clause, hopefully they work something out.

[Lean]

Read over at WrestleZone that a "well-placed source" from the WWE said that WrestleMania 27 will be the host of Undertaker's last match, and putting Paul Bearer in the Kane/'Taker feud will lead to the closure of Bearer's character as Undertaker retires. And the "well-placed source" also said that it's either Kane or Sheamus that'll be Undertaker's last opponent.

Not that I believe everything that's written on the dirt sheets, but it's kinda interesting to pit in who'd be Undertaker's next opponent in WrestleMania, given the back-to-back high-profile matches with HBK in 'Mania XXV and XXVI -- the only guy I can think of fitting to be the next 'Mania opponent is Triple H. You can also fit an angle to that, Triple H "avenging" Shawn for the latter's retirement match.

[Andrew]

I believe it when WNW picks up the story. Seems a rumour along those lines gets floated every year as Wrestlemania looms.

Seems RAW did a terrible rating this week. The return of Monday Night Football is a contributing factor of course but that's still a very ordinary rating, more than TNA's doing but they still can't be happy with that.

[[Q]]

what could be worse than Cole reading "emails" from an anonymous GM? (which has to be the worst idea ever. seriously, ANYBODY would be better... bret, JR, hornswaggle)

^and that would be the anonymous GM no longer sending emails, but actually talking out of a computer. yes the computer is the GM now. and the voice is obviously Michael Cole on autotune/iphone autotune app. so there you have it, instead of michael cole, we get cole on autotune. someone shoot me now.

[Andrew]

The whole Mystery GM angle has been very poorly done. The speed at which announcements come in reaction to something that's just happened is particularly insulting to our intelligence and on the whole, it's not played out nearly as well as it could've. I think the only way you can salvage the angle is to reveal Cole as the GM which in turn could get him off the announce desk. He's already getting the heel reactions and it would actually make the sloppiness of the angle work.