Professional Wrestling (WWE, TNA, ROH, etc)

[Andrew]

A little. Part of the Stone Cold vs McMahon feud in 1998 saw Austin get fired and pretty much come back straight away with Shane re-signing him. It worked out so much better though, probably because few people (if any) were tired of the character and it made sense for the McMahon family to have that kind of power.

[buzzy]

While I'm starting to enjoy the WWE's product again as of late, at least matches wise, two things upset me while watching RAW and SD.

Why do they keep showing replays of Wade Barrett getting burried under those chairs and keep telling us that he's supposed to be severley hurt and 'out' because of this?
Apart from being uncomfortably loud I can't imagine how it would do any damage to you. They should rather show the FU on the chairs to make us believe he's seriously hurt.

Second is how Kaval was jobbing to McIntyre worst case possible. Shit took like two moves to pin him.

[[Q]]

You gotta love how pointless the Cena getting fired storyline now looks/looked.

they just like to toy with kids' emotions like the miz girl.

and jao, the divas table match was pretty good, but it's hard not to compare it to the cage match and i was hoping for natalya to suplex both laycool members into a table or for one of them to get powerbombed through a table but the ending with a big splash with both on a table wasn't bad. just not better than jumping off a cage.

shaemus morrison wasn't THAT great. it was pretty average. the tlc match for the belt was better. and i liked spot where Waede gets FU'ed into the open chairs, but cena attacking him after and pulling the chairs onto the pallet was a pretty heelish move. cena does not pull that off well. only a randy orton type could truly pull off something like that

[Andrew]

That's the kind of thing Cena's character needs though, a bit of an edge.

[Lean]

I enjoyed the PPV. Especially the Sheamus-Morrisson match. Probably the show stealer lacking pops from the crowd. The two worked well together even with selling moves.

The TLC WHC match is good too. I thought having Del Rio and Rey get into the match would just ruin everything but the way the Edge-Kane feud went on, and how bad their match was on Survivor Series, this made up for it.

Was the ending to the Diva's Tables match an improvised one? I think the table should have been broken when Michelle and Layla were pushed to it. And Beth falling on her head is disturbing to watch.

[dare]

The only good match for me is the Sheamus-Morrison. It's nice to see Morrison having a push but I doubt he will have the belt soon.

[[Q]]

no they planned for the table not to break. i think they got lucky that they didnt break it completely when they fell on it.

i do find it annoying that all the table and ladder spots were obviously set up for later. i mean, the wrestlers could try something else besides "oh i'm gonna set up the table then you come and i hit you and we walk away like i never even set it up"
i did like how kane set up the broken table though.

[Andrew]

Morrison's over and he's a really good worker, but I have a feeling that as a face he might fall victim to the same problems Cena currently does. With heels, there's always going to be a few places you can go even in the PG era that will succeed in getting massive heat. Faces tend to be much cornier with the current approach to PG, with some of the promos being downright embarrassing (a good example being Morrison calling one of the Divas, Maryse if I recall correctly, "hippopotamus breath" a couple of months back).

[[Q]]

yeah seems like the "edge" that you say Cena needs... well, that role is currently filled by Orton who is pulling a PG Stone Cold act by stunning/RKOing all the heels. personally, I thought Orton made a WAY better heel than a face and it was funny when he was still a super heel i told my roommate at the time there is NO WAY he could ever turn face. so Cena doing that to everybody would be kind of redundant. btw, Orton's powerbomb on Riley at the PPV it was pretty awesome. it was like a VINTAGE powerbomb. i guess the only way you can pull off super babyface in the PG era is more like what Bret Hart did pre-attitude and pre-austin days.

[Lean]

i did like how kane set up the broken table though.

Great improvisation on his part. When he broke the table leg I thought he could have said "Oh shit, what should I do now?" *hits Mysterio* *kicks Del Rio* "Oh alright, I'd just lay it right here on the announce table."

[[Q]]

yeah the easy way wouldve been to toss it aside and go for another table but i definitely did not see that coming.

[Andrew]

When they did Orton vs Sheamus, it kind of forced a turn to begin. With the crowd reactions he was getting, it was a good move to tweak his character a little and make him a face. I'd call Orton a natural heel, but his current face run is doing better than his previous one since he's still got some heelish qualities.

The spinner belt aside, Cena's gimmick circa 2004/2005 wasn't too bad. They wasted some really good opportunities to freshen up his character with a heel turn this year though; understandable because of the merchandise he moves but considering how well the NXT merchandise has sold and how well nWo stuff sold for WCW before they ran the angle into the ground, those sales might not have necessarily been hurt. A popular/interesting heel still moves merchandise, they should've taken the chance.

[Christian.]

Probably no one cares about this. Kaval has been released from his WWE contract.

[[Q]]

damn. i liked him. it was probably because he got sick of jobbing for shitty people that won't even get pushed.

[JaoSming]

i thought he was pretty good in the ring too.....damn

[Andrew]

So much for them doing anything worthwhile with him. He was pretty much buried after winning Season 2 of NXT...did he even win a single match after that?

[buzzy]

Are you fucking serious? Dude was awesome.
I hope he quit because of how he had to job all the time.

Hopefully they pull a Danielson, really doubtful though

[Andrew]

I doubt he quit. Jobbing in WWE still pays better and offers more opportunity down the road than winning in the independents.

[buzzy]

Well MVP says hi. Heard him and Kaval are good friends.

[[Q]]

yeah in the ring he is already better than 75% of the smackdown roster. i don't get it. doesn't that ruin the credibility of the NXT show somewhat?

i guess it's possible they can bring him back like bryan if more wrestlers get injured from working with injuries like they have been. otherwise, they could include him in post-wrestlemania storylines

[Andrew]

Pretty hard to devalue NXT at this point, the concept has been self-destructing since the beginning in my opinion.

[koberulz]

So much for them doing anything worthwhile with him. He was pretty much buried after winning Season 2 of NXT...did he even win a single match after that?

Don't think he did. He lasted the five minutes with Big Show to get on the BR team, but was immediately squashed by Reks.

[[Q]]

im pretty sure his only win was on Superstars.

[Lean]

What? They haven't even given Kaval at least a Tag Team push?

So much for them doing anything worthwhile with him. He was pretty much buried after winning Season 2 of NXT...did he even win a single match after that?

He won a match against Ziggler on Smackdown to become #1 Contender for the IC on Survivor Series.

[Andrew]

That's right. It ultimately didn't amount to much, though.

I also stand corrected, seems buzzy was right:

According to sources close to Kaval he requested his release from WWE, he was not fired as some have interpreted. I'm told he was "miserable" working the WWE schedule and wanted out. Company officials tried to talk him out of leaving but ended up letting him walk.

As we reported was the case with MVP and Matt Hardy, Vince McMahon has told Executive Vice President of Talent Relations John Laurinaitis he isn't worried about guys going to TNA because if talent like Ric Flair and Hulk Hogan do not make a difference, a mid-card name won't either.

They still wasted a good opportunity given that they went to the effort of having him win Season 2 of NXT and position him for a chance at bigger things, but Vince does have a point. With all the talent on TNA's roster and two of the biggest names in the history of the business, they're still not a threat and supposedly still bleeding money. Matt Hardy, MVP and Kaval are unlikely to change that.