Pro Wrestling Booking

The Wyatt Family: Bought and Paid for by the Authority

2016-04-14T07:42:00.005-04:00

I've had myself convinced of this for the longest time now and I figured I'd share it with you guys to get it off my chest.

The general idea is simple: The Wyatt Family, from the moment they debuted on the main roster, were sleeper agents for The Authority.

The Wyatt Family debuted on July 8th, 2013. Why is that significant? Why would they attack Kane on their debut? Well because the week before, on July 1st, 2013, Kane beat Randy Orton. Orton was the Authority's golden child, they saw him as "THE man", the face of the company. They couldn't have Kane thinking he was better than Orton, but at the same time they couldn't let Orton know that they were taking Kane out of the picture either - they'd done a fabulous job building up Orton as their golden boy, and knew that if they told him they were taking Kane out, he'd disagree with the decision. So to avoid that headache, they just debut their new sleeper agents...The Wyatt Family. The Wyatts had been getting vignettes for a few weeks at that point, so they were already going to be showing up eventually...why not kill two birds with one stone? The Authority sicked the Wyatts on Kane and eventually Kane challenged them to a Circle of Fire at Summerslam. The Family helped Bray to win, and then the three of them abducted Kane - they carried him up the ramp, through the curtain, and that was the last we saw of him.

Or at least, it was the last we saw of him, until his return at the Hell in a Cell PPV. Kane returned to chokeslam The Miz. That's really all he was there for. I mean sure he booted Rowan and tossed Harper out of the ring, but he was pissed at those guys for being so damn rough on him back in August, and did no real damage to them. His purpose with this return was to shut Miz the hell up. Why? Because leading up to this, Miz was feuding with...you guessed it, Randy Orton. This was back when The Authority wanted Orton to be more sadistic and to prove his worth, he assaulted Miz in front of his parents. Orton ended up kayfabe injuring Miz, and when Miz came back a month or so later, he had a match against Orton. He was about to lock Orton into the figure 4 leglock when who's jump scare would play to distract him? The fucking Wyatt Family. So they distract Miz and Orton gets the pin, then they cut a gibberish promo on Miz. The following week we had the Wyatt Family vs. Miz and Kofi Kingston. This was the Hell in a Cell go-home show. The Family won, but they did so by pinning Kofi, so obviously The Authority felt the need to really finish the job on Miz at HiaC by having their new recruit (thanks to the Wyatts), Kane, chokeslam the fuck out of him.

The following night on Raw, Kane gave his mask to Stephanie and would from that point on be known as Corporate Kane. The Wyatts abducted him, and the next two appearances he made were to chokeslam a guy the Authority had a problem with, and then joining the Authority.

So after Kane was recruited to the Authority, they decided to use the power of the Wyatts to not only take out, but also distract (as in, keep away from Orton and his world title) their most formidable opponent...Daniel Bryan. Survivor Series we had Bryan teaming with CM Punk to take on Rowan and Harper, but Bryan and Punk won. So rather than trying to take both those guys out with the Wyatts, the Authority attempted to divide and conquer. They removed Punk from the Wyatt/Bryan situation and fed him to the Shield. Bryan would face the Wyatts. Both 3-on-1 handicap matches that happened at TLC. Punk won his match against the Shield due to a miscommunication within the Shield, but Bryan was defeated by the Wyatts.

That didn't stop Bryan's momentum though, so the Authority kept sending the Wyatts after him. Again and again, night after night, until eventually Bryan gave in and voluntarily joined the Family. That is, until he turned on them in that cage match. Even then though, the Authority absolutely refused to even give him the opportunity to challenge Orton for the WWE title, so they put him in a singles match against Bray Wyatt at the Royal Rumble PPV, and used that as an excuse to keep him out of the Rumble match itself.

That's not all the Authority had the Wyatts do at the Royal Rumble PPV though. They also had them distract John Cena in the WWE World Heavyweight Championship match. The Authority's biggest priority at this point is keeping that title on Randy Orton, and they used the Wyatts to do it.

So, after Wyatt takes care of business at the Rumble, the following night on Raw we have Bryan calling the Authority out on their decision to not let him compete in the Rumble match. This led to Triple H sending the Shield out to attack Bryan to shut him up, but John Cena and Sheamus hit the ring for the save. Triple H set up a 3 on 3 match to qualify for spots in the Chamber match. Who interfered? The fucking Wyatt Family. They do exactly what Triple H told them to do - attack the Cena/Bryan/Sheamus team. This pissed the Shield off though, and those guys started getting a bit confrontational with the Wyatt Family.

This leads me to what's probably my biggest piece of evidence to support this theory. On the January 31st episode of Smackdown, the Shield were pissed the fuck off at the Wyatts for costing them spots in the Elimination Chamber match. They were talking about how they were going to "deal with" the Wyatts and such. Vickie Guerrero, who was still the de facto Smackdown GM at the time, came out and said she was going to "make history", probably implying she was about to make a Shield vs Wyatts match on Smackdown. But...she got cut off by Triple H.

H came out and tried to calm the Shield down. Here's exactly what he said to them:

Here's the thing guys, it's water under the bridge, alright? Let it go. Let it go. Trust me on this. There's no profit in it. There is nothing to benefit, there's nothing to gain. Okay? Wrong place, wrong time, bad situation, but all there is in this, is loss. All there is in this is more problems. Just let it go, alright?

Now if that doesn't sound like a man desperate to keep his ducks in a row, I don't know what is. He doesn't want the Shield having beef with the Wyatts because they're both employed by him and he can't have them fighting each other when he still has jobs for them to do, for him. He's basically panicking at this point, trying to brute force the Shield into backing off the Wyatts and not wanting to get revenge for the title opportunity they lost.

The unfortunate thing here (for the Authority, at least) is that this led to the Shield growing unhappy with the Authority telling them what to do, who to be mad at, who to attack, etc. So by Triple H trying to prevent his two best fighting dogs from wanting to kill each other, he lost the trust of one of them. He realized what was going to happen so rather than trying to fight against the current, he sets up a match between the Shield and the Wyatts at Elimination Chamber PPV. This does a few things that benefit Triple H. First of all, it keeps the three young, hungry members of the Shield focused on something that isn't the WWE World Title, which Triple H desperately wants to keep around Randy Orton's waste at all costs. Second of all, it allows the Wyatt Family to prepare for the match, and Triple H knows in his heart that the Wyatts are the more powerful trio of the two, so he's confident they can get the job done. By setting up this match, Triple H thinks he's taking the Shield out behind the barn and letting the Wyatt Family pull the trigger for him. Finally, it gives Triple H a big match to promote to make some extra dime off of, so losing one of his two most loyal dogs has a silver lining.

The Wyatt/Shield match went exactly how Triple H hoped - the Wyatts won fairly convincingly. This wasn't the last we'd see of them this night though. Triple H knew Orton would need help retaining his title, so he gave him the #6 spot in the chamber. When Orton finally got in the match, it wasn't long before he re-entered his pod and held the door shut in an attempt to last just long enough for Triple H's plan to come to fruition. Eventually Christian would eliminate Sheamus, Daniel Bryan would eliminate Christian, and Cena would eliminate Cesaro. This left Orton, Cena, Bryan, and Triple H's two backup plans: The Wyatt Family and Kane. The Wyatts are first, they help Orton to eliminate Cena. Then it's Kane to help Orton with Bryan. The plan succeeds and Orton keeps the title.

So now we're on the road to Wrestlemania and the Wyatts are now targeting John Cena. Triple H has decided to take the Daniel Bryan problem into his own hands (literally) by making himself the ultimate obstacle for Bryan to overcome at Wrestlemania if he wants a shot at the world title, but Cena is still a problem, so Wyatts. You can't beat Superman though, so Cena wins this feud. After Wrestlemania the Shield are really starting to piss Triple H off too, but the Wyatts are already busy with Cena, so he reforms Evolution to try and humble the Shield boys. He fails miserably, but he does have a bit of an epiphany around this time. Randy Orton just isn't cutting it anymore as the face of the company. So he cuts a deal with Seth Rollins to make him the new golden boy, and benefits doubly because this also gets the Shield out of his hair by effectively abolishing it.

That said though, the Wyatts did an excellent job of holding Cena off, keeping him out of the world title picture for a few months while Triple H threw Kane at Bryan and then Bryan got injured, making Triple H's job quite a bit easier. What this meant though was that Triple H had a new job...get the WWE World Title on Seth Rollins. The next PPV was Money in the Bank. Seems easy enough, right? He uses his resources (namely, Kane) to ensure that Rollins wins the title. Triple H is fairly confident that Rollins can beat pretty much anyone for the WWE title with the MitB cash-in, but he still hedged his bets by putting Wyatt in there in an attempt to prevent Cena or Roman Reigns from winning, and of course he asked Kane to try and help Randy. But Kane's a smart guy, he knows where his bread is buttered, and he knew that Rollins was a priority over Orton. So we get a little lazy here and allow John Cena to win the title, but Rollins gets his briefcase so we're off to the races with that.

It's at this point that the Wyatts are essentially laid off. Triple H knows that as long as Rollins holds the Money in the Bank briefcase, he doesn't have anything to worry about. So he lets John Cena hold the title, then puts him up against Brock knowing that Brock is back in fighting shape and will most likely win the title. The Wyatts get to beat up old man Jericho in the meantime, which makes sense since Jericho pretty much stands for everything Bray hates about the world. Rock stars, attention seeking, glitz, glamor, the light-up jacket, Bray just plain hates everything Jericho stands for. At one point Jericho does insult Randy Orton, and gets fucked up by Orton for it. Bray also let Rowan and Harper do their own thing for a while, and Rowan got a little carried away, but Bray gained more respect from them by doing this.

So then we have Hell in a Cell. Dean Ambrose has become a pain in the fucking ass for the Authority at this point, constantly trying to beat up their new golden boy, Seth Rollins. Ambrose and Rollins main event this show in a Cell, and Ambrose is just ripping Rollins apart. Just as Ambrose is about to beat Rollins, who shows the fuck up? The god damn, mother fucking, Wyatt Family. Well really it's just Bray this time, but still. There's no fucking way this shit is a coincidence. Why the hell would Bray give a shit about Dean Ambrose unless it was a hit put out specifically by the Authority for Ambrose fucking with Rollins so much leading up to this event?

The following 3 months were all just Bray Wyatt relentlessly going after Dean Ambrose. This kept Ambrose out of Rollins' hair for the most part, so it accomplished what it was meant to. The Authority had the perfect plan for the Rumble too - Big Show and Kane are on our payroll, so those guys can just eliminate everyone and then fight between each other to see who'll be the man to beat down the WWE World Heavyweight Champion down at Wrestlemania so Seth can cash in and become champ. The plan was foiled by Roman Reigns, but it still ended up working out in the end because of how brutal Roman and Brock were with each other at Wrestlemania. The goal this entire time has been getting the world title on Seth Rollins, and even if there were a few hitches along the way, in the end it worked. And the Wyatt Family helped to get it there.

As a reward for Bray helping to keep Ambrose at bay, Triple H let him choose his Wrestlemania opponent. Bray wanted an opportunity to defeat the greatest legend in Wrestlemania history, the Undertaker. So Bray knew about this program, and cut promos on the Undertaker for weeks, even MONTHS leading up to Wrestlemania. Undertaker was nowhere to be found. He was probably sitting at home confused, wondering why the hell this kid was talking about him. He eventually found out that he had a match with Bray at 'mania, but couldn't be bothered to show up since Bray was doing such a fine job of carrying the program on his back. Eventually at WM31 Taker would show up and beat Bray. Bray actually disappeared for a short time after this match.

When Bray came back, his first target was Ryback. Ryback had been a thorn in the Authority's side for quite a while, including being a member of Team Cena back at Survivor Series. It was Ryback, Dolph Ziggler, and Erick Rowan, oddly enough, that helped Cena to overcome the Authority back in November. Those three guys also teamed up to take on the team of Rollins, Kane and Show at Fastlane that year. Ziggler was being handled by the returning heel Sheamus, Rowan was sort of irrelevant, and now Ryback would be taken care of by Wyatt.

The two biggest threats to the Authority and Seth Rollins' title reign at this point were Roman Reigns and Dean Ambrose. Ambrose was kept at bay with the help of Kane, Big Show, and J&J security, leaving Wyatt to handle Reigns. Not only that, but eventually the Wyatt Family was keeping both Roman AND Ambrose away from Seth Rollins and the world title - a truly masterful job. Wyatt cost Roman the Money in the Bank briefcase, which was huge. Let's face it, if Roman got that briefcase, the Authority would have felt powerless to stop him from taking Seth's title. Bray handled that business flawlessly. Bray feuded with either Roman or a combination of Roman and Dean for literally 5 months, until Seth Rollins injured his knee.

And so ends our story...the Authority not having a horse in the race meant they didn't really know who to sick the Wyatt Family on, so they just stopped paying them all together. The Authority continued to use their power to pit Roman and Dean against both great odds and even each other. They realized that Sheamus had the MitB briefcase so they slipped him a little extra cash on the side to ensure that he'd cash in on whoever won the World Title at Survivor Series. That worked for a whole day. Roman won the title, lost it to Sheamus, and then won it back the following night on Raw. This led to Triple H being fed up, annoyed at not having a horse in the race, and just completely done with the whole situation. So what does he do? Makes Roman defend the title against everyone. The Royal Rumble. And inserts himself into the match, and wins it. So Triple H's new horse in the race is...Triple H. He holds the title until Wrestlemania, where he does (yet again) everything in his power to keep it, but ROAMIN IS JUST TOO DAMN STRONK. We haven't seen Triple H since, and Shane McMahon has been controlling Raw for the last two weeks. We don't know what Triple H will do next, but if I had to guess, he'll either try to win back the title himself, or find a new horse to back.

Either way, the coolest thing about his is that the Wyatts were in on it the whole fucking time. Right up until Rollins got hurt and Triple H stopped needing them. This also explains the Royal Rumble interaction between Bray and H. H wanted them to work together since they were aligned for so long, and even let his guard down. Bray wasn't having it though, as now that he was a free man and no longer working for Triple H, he had all the intention in the world to actually try to win the world title for himself.

So...over sixteen thousand characters later, here we are. Triple H nowhere to be found. Bray Wyatt has become what seems to be a babyface. Roman is champion. Shane is running Raw. What's next?

NJPW + WWE working together? My fantasy booking nonsense.

2015-07-17T01:30:00.001-04:00

Obvious headliner: John Cena vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi
Also fairly obvious: Dean Ambrose vs. Shinsuke Nakamura

Just going to keep going until I get bored.

Randy Orton vs. Kazuchika Okada
Brock Lesnar vs. AJ Styles
Cesaro vs. Tomohiro Ishii
Seth Rollins vs. Kota Ibushi
Kevin Owens vs. Toru Yano
Curtis Axel vs. Tomoaki Honma
Bray Wyatt vs. Togi Makabe
Rusev vs. Bad Luck Fale
Rowan & Harper vs. Anderson & Gallows
Roman Reigns vs. Tetsuya Naito
Bad News Barrett vs. Kenny Omega
The Usos vs. The Young Bucks
Neville vs. KUSHIDA
Sheamus vs. Hiroyoshi Tenzan

And I'm done. Mind boggling.

The 10 Relevant Babyfaces in WWE RIGHT NOW

2015-06-26T12:49:00.001-04:00

I was just looking over this block and immediately noticed that the most recent post - my revision from the "4 relevant babyface rule" to the "2 relevant babyface rule (per hour)" stands true even 2 years after I made the post. Check this out:

PRIMARY

John Cena

Roman Reigns

Dean Ambrose

Randy Orton

Secondary

Dolph Ziggler

Ryback

Tertiary

Neville

R-Truth

Quaternary

Darren Young

Titus O'Neil

Kind of odd how consistent WWE is, isn't it? There are very few other babyfaces on the roster and the list of names consists of jobbers (Zack Ryder) and comedy acts (Macho Mandow/Axelmania) with no truly "relevant" names remaining. You look at the heel side though and the deck is absolutely stacked (or, as Orton would say, the dack is absolutely stecked) with names from top to bottom. Seth Rollins, Kane and Big Show are all in the same, main event level, "PRIMARY" faction. Kevin Owens is another one I'd call a "PRIMARY" heel. You've also got the New Day, three heels whose relevance bounces anywhere from quaternary to secondary. Speaking of New Day, they recently teamed up with Bo Dallas, so toss him in there as well. We can't forget Bray Wyatt either. He's in the PRIMARY section for sure given his recent history. Top that off with names like Luke Harper, Erick Rowan, Bad News Barrett, Mark Henry, The Miz, Rusev, and of course everybody's favorite guy to hate right now, Sheamus. That's 15 heels - 3 for every 2 relevant babyfaces on the roster.

WWE's consistency is almost as impressive as my ability to observe and over-analyze everything. If you just can't get enough of my overly analytical mind, be sure to stay tuned to TWitWoW where John (formerly known on YouTube as pacifist299 and VocalAggression) and I discuss Raw, Lucha Underground and NXT every single week, and record our live reactions to PPVs and just about every other major wrestling show we can get our hands on.

Relevant Face Revision: From 4 to 10

2013-07-20T07:46:00.002-04:00

Before the introduction of the "Super Show", I came up with a rule that I briefly mentioned in my second ever post on this blog. I called said rule the "Four Relevant Face Rule" (FRFR), which is self-explanatory. But, if you're unsure, let me clear it up. The rule states that the WWE prefers to focus on four babyfaces on Raw, as well as four on Smackdown. The purpose that this concept provided at the time was to create an "us against the world" mentality amongst the casual fanbase. The limit placed on the number of relevant babyfaces presented by each show allowed the WWE to highlight each individual babyface more efficiently and with more depth. The idea is that if four babyfaces lose to a dozen heels, nobody loses credibility. The numbers being as uneven as they are allows for more shallow, gimmicky heels and more well rounded, in-depth and most importantly, relatable, babyfaces.

The introduction of the "Super Show" concept, as well as the addition of the 3rd hour to Monday Night Raw, has made the "Four Relevant Face" rule seem overly simple and quite frankly, archaic. The amount of relevant babyfaces has been increased and broadened. No longer does the WWE favor a certain amount of babyfaces on a per-show basis. Due to the Super Show, it'd be more safe to call it an EIGHT Relevant Face rule. That'd be great, but it's also ignoring the addition of the third hour to Raw. In my opinion, the math works out brilliantly; rather than calling it an "X Number of Babyfaces Per Show" or "Y Number of Relevant Babyfaces" rule, it seems to be a tad bit more complicated. Let's call it the "Two Relevant Face Rule".

Hang on. How did we add time, but subtract amount of relevant babyfaces? Simply put, we didn't. I just didn't want to dilute the name of the rule. I know, I know, I'm being stubborn and contentious, but it's basically a marketing decision. This isn't a rule that reduces the number of relevant babyfaces from four to two. If you think about the big picture, there was never a mere four relevant babyfaces in the original rule in the first place. It was CALLED the Four Relevant Face Rule, sure, but it was four per show - four on Raw, four on Smackdown. I'm changing the amount because I'm changing the reference. Rather than four per show, I've come to realize that the true estimation is closer to two per HOUR. Back when both Raw and Smackdown were both two hour shows, there were four relevant babyfaces per show, over the course of two shows - or rather, two relevant babyfaces per hour, over the course of four hours. Now, however, there are TEN relevant babyfaces in the WWE.

Back when I originally came up with the FRFR, there was a bit of a pattern that I somewhat recognized, but never really mentioned for the sake of fluidity. The pattern in question was that out of the four relevant babyfaces on each show, there was a tendency for there to be two primary main event types, one secondary upper-midcard type, and one tertiary midcard-to-lower-midcard type. Now, this isn't to say that the tertiary babyface isn't allowed to have ever held a main event title, or even that one (or both) of the primary main eventers can never return to the midcard. This is merely an observation of where the babyfaces in question are booked to be; how they are presented to the viewer by the WWE.

That being said, obviously with the new version of the rule involving ten total relevant babyfaces rather than eight, the simple 2/1/1 split is a bit out of whack. Luckily, the WWE's extra hour on Raw has allowed them to give more time to the lower and midcard, making more babyfaces who never would've gotten TV time on a two hour Raw more and more relevant. So now, rather than a simple 2/1/1 split, or 4/2/2 taking both shows into account, we are working with a slightly more complicated 4/2/2/2 split, allowing for the inclusion of lower-midcard types to be separated from the true midcarders.

At the end of the day, when you come up with a rule, or a revision to a rule, it helps to test it. So, who would fill the 10 slots allotted by the revised version of the rule?

- PRIMARY -

John Cena

Daniel Bryan

Randy Orton

CM Punk

- SECONDARY -

Dolph Ziggler

Sheamus

- TERTIARY -

Christian

Chris Jericho (Rob Van Dam)

- QUATERNARY -

Cody Rhodes

Mark Henry

Now, let's really examine this. Where are the cracks in the ranking?

The first two sections are, at least in my opinion, rock solid. Cena/Bryan/Orton/Punk are the core of the WWE's programming these days. Cena/Bryan are now hooked into a main event WWE Title storyline leading into Summerslam. Randy Orton draws massive reactions from crowds and is booked like a true main eventer, in addition to being Mr. Money in the Bank. CM Punk is the king of the world at this point, having gone from working with The Rock, to the Undertaker, to Brock Lesnar. That is your main event scene right now. Ziggler and Sheamus are secondary because neither of them draw consistent reactions from the crowd, but both are being booked like stars. Ziggler is in contention for the World Heavyweight Championship, and has been booked as the clear cut better man than Del Rio. Ziggler draws massive pops from the more in-the-know crowds, like Philly and Brooklyn, but struggles to draw reactions from the more casual southern crowds. Sheamus is the polar opposite; he hasn't been anywhere near a major title in nearly nine months, but he never freaking loses. Sheamus' crowd reactions are also a vague opposite to Ziggler's, where the more casual crowds cheer for him and the more in-the-know crowds tend to boo him for being portrayed as unbeatable and tendency to act heelish despite being a technical babyface.

So, then you get to the Tertiary section. Christian is a lock here. He wins against guys like Dean Ambrose, Damien Sandow and Cody Rhodes, but any time he steps into the ring with anybody from the first two tiers, he gets beaten, and sometimes quite quickly. But what about Chris Jericho? This is where the fluidity of the theory comes into play. Chris Jericho is leaving. What's really amazing is that, almost as if the WWE knew Jericho would be leaving after Money in the Bank, they brought in a babyface that they knew could get over to the same level that Jericho was: RVD. Technically, this tier ranking is in flux for now, but only because I don't want to base it off of rumors, no matter how solid they are. Common sense says that Chris Jericho is gone, and RVD is going to take his place as midcard veteran who puts on great matches and puts over young talent. That's what's so great about this rule; it isn't as rigid as it seems. There are periods of flux in the WWE when somebody turns, returns, retires, gets suspended or just takes a break, when the ranking might be incomplete, or too full. That's fine by me, but I believe that it always comes back to the core 10 guys. Jericho leaves, RVD shows up. Kane gets recruited by the Wyatts, Cody Rhodes turns face. It's a fragile balance that the WWE seems to be maintaining even to this day, and it can be applied even to my last blog post that incorporates the FRFR.

Now finally, that Quaternary set. Cody Rhodes turned face during the Money in the Bank Ladder match. This is about as set in stone as it gets. He isn't what I'd consider to be a solid midcarder yet, though, because he has yet to prove himself as a babyface. However, you know he's going to continue getting TV time on every Raw, and on every Smackdown, which automatically makes him relevant. His combination of relevance and being unproven as a babyface makes him the perfect candidate for the Quaternary ranking of this list.

But what about Mark Henry? I'm jumping to a bit of a conclusion here, yes. Am I really, though? Mark Henry cut a humble, honest promo on Raw after Money in the Bank. He proceeded to get beaten down by the Shield. This, in my opinion, is the seed planted for Mark Henry to turn face. It could probably be interpreted some other way, like the Shield was beating him down to prevent him from getting an unfair rematch for the WWE title, but the way I see it, whether that is true or not, Mark Henry's actions during that beatdown - his attempts to fight off the Shield only to struggle and ultimately eat the Triple Powerbomb in the end - tells me that the WWE is trying the best they can to garner sympathy for the big man.

So, there you have it. The new "Two Relevant Face Rule", referring to two relevant faces per hour, and the current state of the rankings regarding said rule. It's been a while since I've touched this blog, but I came up with this at work last night and figured I'd get it out there so people can get a peek into my odd mind. Enjoy!

My 9-Month Prior Wrestlemania XXIX Dream Card

2012-07-26T00:27:00.002-04:00

I said I'd continue this series every month, but I ended up taking a few month hiatus due to the combination of life sucking up all my muse, and YouTube and TWitWoW being sufficient vents for what muse was left. It's time for a throwback, though: The Return of the Wrestlemania Dream Card series. With CM Punk's recent heel turn, my mind has gotten a solid shot of adrenaline in the muse department and I'm going over multiple scenarios in my head regarding what WM29 can be. We're talking about a card that would live up to its 10-year anniversary show: WM19, arguably the greatest Wrestlemania in history. Make note that this card is only taking into account what we KNOW can happen, and not assuming anybody debuting that we don't know about for sure. Unfortunately...that translates into no Dean Ambrose. I hope the WWE changes this card by debuting him, but they haven't yet, so obviously no promises can be made.
So, here's what the card looks like.

Match 1: The Rock (c) vs John Cena
The epic rematch is a result of The Rock winning the WWE Title at the Royal Rumble and Cena finding a way to get a WWE title match at Wrestlemania. Don't be surprised if this ends up being Cena winning the Royal Rumble itself, although that isn't the only way to pull it off.

Match 2: CM Punk vs "Stone Cold" Steve Austin
This is the match that the WWE turned CM Punk heel for. Austin has said in interviews before that if he would have a program with Punk, Punk would need to be heel for it to work. Raw 1000 was a beautifully wrapped present sitting on Steve Austin's lap regarding that "one more match" thing. Punk turned heel to do with him what the WWE accidentally did WITH Austin in 2001: turn him heel so he can become such an incredible overall performer that the crowd forces him to turn into an entity that can do no wrong. This is the WWE's way of injecting CM Punk into the "top guy" atmosphere alongside the likes of Cena, Triple H, Austin and even The Rock himself.

Match 3: Brock Lesnar vs The Undertaker
Yes, I'm calling it. Lesnar was brought back as a special attraction, and what role could he play at Wrestlemania that could POSSIBLY be bigger than this? By this time, he will have already faced the likes of John Cena, Triple H, and most likely even Randy Orton and possibly Sheamus. Lesnar is so great for business because he can lose every match and STILL be the favorite going into his next one. Everybody knows that whoever faces The Undertaker is going to lose, so the WWE focuses less on making young stars look great and more on creating a suspension of disbelief. They want you to be scared for 'Taker's streak. If Brock hits an F5 during this match, people will gasp. If Brock hits multiple F5s during this match, people will freak out. If Brock does the same spot to The Undertaker that he did to Triple H (the breaking of the arm), people will freaking CRY. This match has so much potential, it would almost be criminal for it to not happen.

Match 4: Dolph Ziggler (c) vs Randy Orton
That little (c) represents the World Heavyweight Championship. I'm predicting Ziggler having a relatively long reign, similar to his most recent US Title reign. In this case, though, the role of Zack Ryder is being played by the likes of Randy freaking Orton. This REIGN will be phenomenal, this FEUD will be phenomenal, this MATCH will be phenomenal, and regardless of the result, I'll be happy about the state of the World Title by the end of the night.

Match 5: Damien Sandow (c) vs Ryback
Sandow is a truly incredible heel. He has successfully garnered himself more heat than the supposed "top heel" in the WWE, The Big Show, and he didn't need 7' and 500 pounds of body to do so. Sandow has gotten himself over as a despised heel over the course of less than four months with one tool: psychology. He hasn't had any true obstacles, as every time you thought somebody might be able to get the best of him, he flips the switch and physically decimates them in the ring. I forsee him winning the United States Championship from Santino Marella relatively soon, and when he does, I don't see him losing it until AT LEAST Wrestlemania, if not later. Sandow and Ziggler will be the heel champions going into Wrestlemania while The Rock and the man I forsee winning the Intercontinental Championship from The Miz will represent the babyfaces going into the big one. Ryback's tear has gotten to a point where I can comfortably say that he will be on the Wrestlemania 29 Card, and in all honesty, my question isn't so much whether or not he'll be in the title picture, it's whether or not he'll have already won the title by this point. Whether it be the man that unseats Santino (my prediction being Sandow) or The Miz, Ryback is on course for a midcard title, and whether he goes into Wrestlemania holding it or chasing it, watch out for him to make a huge impact at WM29.

Match 6: Mark Henry (c) vs Sheamus
Yes, I'm expecting a Mark Henry face turn either as soon as he gets back, or reasonably soon afterwords. No, however, I am not expecting a huge character change like what usually happens to him when he turns face. I'm expecting him to bring back the Hall of Pain, but on a slimmer, trimmer, healthier 370 pound frame some time around September, just in time for a surprise Night of Champions return and an Intercontinental Championship win over The Miz. Sheamus will eventually drop the World Title, and I'm guessing it'll be to either Randy Orton or Dolph Ziggler. If it's Orton, Ziggler cashes in right away, stealing Orton's moment and catapulting the two of them into a feud while Sheamus gets relegated to the midcard and feuds over the Intercontinental Title. Henry as IC Champion continues the trend of former World/WWE champions holding the title, and if Sheamus wins the title from him, that trend would STILL remain unbroken.

Match 7: Money in the Bank Ladder Match
Wade Barrett, R-Truth, Kofi Kingston, Tyson Kidd, Antonio Cesaro, Christian, Sin Cara, Cody Rhodes
In its return to Wrestlemania, this is the MitB that the WWE wanted to be at WM28 before Wade Barrett went down with an injury. Featured in this match will be a lot of the big names that aren't on the card elsewhere. The gimmick stipulation for this match is that because the most recent MitB match was for ONLY former WWE champions, this match is for ONLY people that have never won a MitB briefcase before. The obvious choice here is Wade Barrett, to put him back on pace for where he was headed last year, but if Cesaro, Sin Cara or Cody Rhodes get really hot going into Wrestlemania, they're all perfectly valid options as well. Kidd is also a dark horse option.

Match 8: Daniel Bryan vs Rey Mysterio
Say hello to my show-stealer. Two guys that are similar in size, can work a 5-star match with anyone, and are some of the best overall performers in the business today. Bryan is arguably the best technical wrestler in the world today. Rey Mysterio is the greatest luchador in the history of the WWE. Rey Mysterio is an eternal babyface. Daniel Bryan just went from "cool, badass heel that the crowd still cheers" to full-on, American Dragon, fire-breathing heel. This match...even if it ONLY got 15 minutes, although I would love to see it get 25+...would most likely be an early Match of the Year candidate.

Match 9: Heath Slater vs Triple H
Yes, this is a comedy match. Yes, this is a payoff to the "Heath Slater jobs to all legends" match. Most importantly, yes, this is my way of fitting Triple H onto a card that I don't know where the hell else he could possibly fit. Problem?

My 3-Month Prior Wrestlemania XXVIII Card

2012-01-02T18:03:00.003-05:00

As I said, I'm going to continue doing these monthly. Granted, this one's a day late, but better late than never.

1. The Rock vs John Cena - This is a given, obviously.
2. The Undertaker vs Triple H - As great as this match could be, I feel like Undertaker vs Kane would be better. Nonetheless, this is the most likely match to happen at Mania this year, and these guys are going to leave everything they have out in that ring - possibly in a literal sense.

3. CM Punk vs Chris Jericho (c) - Yes, I think Jericho is going to win the WWE title going into Wrestlemania. There is always more money in the babyface CHASING the title than the other way around. I'm thinking Jericho wins the title at the Elimination Chamber PPV, which still gives Punk a very commendable 4 month title reign. As a heel, Jericho will have Punk to work with, then after the draft, which I'm assuming will switch Punk for Orton, Jericho can work with Orton, eventually dropping the title to either Orton himself or a young up-and-comer recently drafted to Raw, I'm thinking Sheamus. This'll allow Punk to repackage on Smackdown and become the top dog there while Jericho provides a legitimate obstacle for the babyfaces on Raw to overcome.
4. Randy Orton (c) vs Daniel Bryan vs Dolph Ziggler - A triple threat match for the World Heavyweight Championship involving the fresh champion in Orton, having freshly won the title at Elimination Chamber, the #1 contender in Daniel Bryan, having a rematch clause, and the Royal Rumble winner in Dolph Ziggler. This could be a 25-30 minute wrestling clinic with really any of the three guys winning. If Ziggler wins he holds the title until AT LEAST Survivor Series, culminating in a reign only rivaled by his most recent US Title reign. If Bryan wins he holds it until he gets cashed in on by the eventual Money in the Bank winner, completing a vicious circle that he started. If Orton wins, he loses it at the next PPV, most likely to Punk who will be coming to Smackdown via the draft.
5. Sheamus (c) vs Wade Barrett - Sheamus wins the Intercontinental Championship from Cody Rhodes at either the Royal Rumble or Elimination Chamber. Rhodes spends his rematch clause before Wrestlemania, and Barrett sees an opening, which he capitalizes on. This might even become a triple threat match involving Drew McIntyre if recent house shows are at all telling.
6. Cody Rhodes vs Dustin Rhodes - I like the idea of Dustin shedding the Goldust gimmick for a one-off family feud. Maybe after 'Mania he can put the makeup and wig back on and start breathing like a freak again, but for the time being, while he's feuding with his acknowledged brother, it's best he ditches the gimmick and just stays himself. This will work as long as Dustin stops acting like a douche on twitter. He needs to remember that Cody is the heel in this feud.
7. Alberto Del Rio & The Miz vs R-Truth & John Morrison - This is purely fantasy, but it could work. Del Rio & Miz teamed up on CM Punk a few times already so they have some history. Truth & Morrison could set aside their differences and reunite Black Magic & The White Shadow for one night only. I've heard rumors that Morrison will be back for a Wrestlemania pay day, so here's to hoping.
8. The Big Show vs Shaquille O'Neal - It's in the works, so it's all but a done deal at this point. Hopefully it's just a quick, 3-5 minute match that sees Big Show selling his ass off, Shaq reversing a chokeslam, and then Shaq picking up the win.
9. Zack Ryder vs Mike "The Situation" Sorrentino - Nobody wants to see this but Zack is building up for it on his YouTube show and it would draw TONS of eyes to the Wrestlemania product where they would see not only this Jersey Shore jackass, but also all of the great young talents and personalities that the WWE has to offer. Hopefully this is the end of the Jersey Shore celebrities at Wrestlemania trend.
10. Beth Phoenix (c) vs Natalya Neidhart - I've been calling this one for months now and my stance has not been moved. I discuss how I would build this up and execute it in my last fantasy card post, so be sure to check that out if you haven't already. This would be one of two things: Falls Count Anywhere match (Street Fight) or a lumberjill match, just to fit all the Diva's on the card. Ideally it'd be a Street Fight, but either match could work as long as the girls are given time to work.

Now that is a card. You've got the perfect blend of young, upcoming talent and older, recognizable big-name veterans as well as a couple of celebrity appearances, especially if you include The Rock as a celebrity - I do. I don't know for sure who I would have winning these matches, but this is just a fantasy CARD, not necessarily fantasy BOOKING. Put it this way...in my opinion, unless a heel champion has just recently won their title, babyfaces should always win at Wrestlemania. So Jericho, Orton, Sheamus, Dustin, Truth/Morrison, Shaq, Zack, and Nattie all to win. The first two matches are so painfully obvious I don't even feel like I need to go into it, but for the sake of completion, Cena and Taker.

1.2.12 is Chris Jericho - and here's why.

2011-12-28T06:21:00.000-05:00

Chris Jericho's WWF debut saw a countdown clock leading up to his debut. There was no code to break or anything to figure out - it just forced you to sit and wait for the clock to hit zero in order to find out what it was for.

When he returned in 2007, we had a code that was meant for viewers to break. It wasn't extremely difficult but if you weren't computer savvy or smart enough to realize that letters can be given number associations, you didn't know what it was and again, you just waited for it to happen.

In 2011, we have been given new promos and if they are for Chris Jericho, they certainly aren't going to be a countdown or some alphanumeric code for you to try breaking. Jericho is an evolving character that hates being repetitive. In 2011, the itbegins series is a series of symbolic representations of Chris Jericho and his first target when he returns on January Second. In this post, I explain everything.

To start things out, I'm going to discuss the six promos and take them as literally as possible. I'm going to describe everything that is going on inside the classroom without trying to read into what the potential symbolism could mean, and then after I've typographically observed the six promos, I will go into each one, breaking down the symbolism and what the story being told translates to. So, let's get this started at the beginning - literally.

The first promo was relatively cryptic and just watching that one you wouldn't know what these were for. There was a mention of a familiar force taking back what is his, so immediately everybody who follows Jericho on twitter knew it was him. Jericho has been calling out superstars such as CM Punk and The Miz for what he essentially chalks up to gimmick infringement. Punk calling himself Best in the World, Miz wearing suits and using big words...Jericho took advantage and worked the internet by griping about something that he knows full well he is just as guilty of as any of the guys working for the company now. He even said in interviews that his most recent Chris Jericho character was inspired by Anton from No Country for Old Men. Anybody who thinks that Jericho has legitimate gripes about WWE guys using bits and pieces from his character is mistaken - it's all a work.

The second promo didn't tell a whole hell of a lot much more than the first, but at the end of the promo a little girl appeared on the table. It's at this point that it goes from trying to crack codes like how "itbegins" can be shuffled around to make out "i be sting" to trying to pay attention to the story being told. Is the girl a wrestler? Is the girl management, maybe Stephanie McMahon? Is the girl even a girl? It's all symbolism, and it's all a story being told.

The third promo sees the little girl running around with a ball, almost taunting the boy, who is hard at work writing in his notebook. The little girl likes to take little peeks at the boy's notebook, almost as if she's trying to learn from him as he writes. Towards the end of the promo the little boy is standing in the corner with his hands behind his back. The girl seems concerned, as if she wants him to come back to the desk and continue writing. The promo ends with the boy back at the desk and writing while the girl is standing there, seemingly waiting for something.

The fourth promo sees the little boy actually acknowledging the girl for the first time. Not only that, but he plants the seeds that the little girl holds the key to his arrival and rebirth. The boy is writing but the girl is no longer peeking at his notebook - she is patiently waiting on the table, swaying her legs as the boy writes what is seemingly the final chapter in whatever he is writing in that notebook. There is a hallway scene of the girl chasing the boy - following him, in a sense. And then the boy disappears and all that is left is the girl.

The fifth promo shows the desk and classroom empty. The boy is nowhere in sight. Next thing you know we see the boy standing in the corner again. The girl shoves the notebook off the desk and this is where we see the word Chris crossed out on the notebook. This is key, but not for the same reasons you probably think. This promo sees the least amount of speaking of all of them, and the boy simply says "I cannot help you anymore. Do you understand?" - he was teaching the girl the whole time. The girl shoves the notebook off the desk and as the boy asks "Do you understand?" the word Prophetless comes up on the screen.

In the sixth promo, everything really does reveal itself - people just didn't realize it. This whole thing is like a good psychological thriller where you watch the movie, see the end, process everything, then watch the movie again to try and piece the puzzle together. The girl just knocked the notebook off the desk - is she going to rewrite the story that the boy had been writing this whole time? Is she going to try and write an entirely new story? Perhaps a new era? The boy is back at the desk and as he reads over what is in the notebook he looks disgusted - the girl looks happy and proud of herself while the boy is busy facepalming his ass off. The girl starts to look like she sees the mistakes she made and is starting to feel bad for them as the promo goes on, and the boy just looks angry with her. The boy says "the powers that be will be shaken," leaving us to figure out who, exactly, the powers that be really are.

It's all a story. It isn't even a "Monday Night Raw, what happens over the course of two hours" story. It is the story of Chris Jericho's timeline, starting with his run leading up to Night of Champions 2010 and ending with his return to Raw on 1/2/12.

The familiar force, The prophet, The coming power...it's all symbolism for Jericho. Taking back what belongs to him is not him trying to reclaim his gimmick...it's the WWE title. Jericho was chasing the WWE title until Randy Orton punted him out of the WWE, and since Orton is on Smackdown and the WWE title is on Raw, Jericho's priority is with the title; he might go after Orton for revenge at a later date, but for right now, he wants the WWE title.

It was at this time that CM Punk was breaking away from the Straightedge Society and coming into his own. He got traded to Raw soon after Jericho got punted. He was a midcarder until he got injured and the WWE decided to put a microphone in front of him on commentary. It was at that point that everybody who was watching WWE programming realized how damn good CM Punk is at talking, and what with him being a former ROH guy and all, he's got to know how to wrestle in the ring. This also allowed Punk to take a break, and whenever somebody takes a break, their return is always a big deal.

The second promo introduces the girl - the girl is a symbol for CM Punk. She barely exists in the second promo, which is around when Punk was lost in the shuffle on Smackdown - sure, he was around, and a clear presence in the eyes of anyone willing to look hard enough, but he was irrelevant to the common viewer.

The third promo puts a lot into perspective, in hindsight. I personally think that the third promo is a symbolic representation with Chris Jericho's exit from the company. Those of you who were on the internet during this time know that Jericho's contract expired and then he worked out a deal with the WWE to stick around for another month or so before taking his leave that is still going on today. That could be the image of the boy in the corner, and then showing up again at the desk to continue writing for a short period; Jericho was out of the company and then came in just long enough to finish up and tie any loose ends. The little girl is CM Punk waiting in the wings for Jericho to leave so he can take over as the top heel on Raw.

As soon as the injury was healed, Punk started going after John Cena and immediately became the #1 heel in the company. This is around the time that the fourth promo comes into play. Before I go any further, let me take you back a little while. A wrestler sits in the middle of the ring demanding an opportunity at the WWE title because he is the best in the world. The anonymous Raw GM chimes in, and as Cole is about to say "May I have your attention please," the wrestler interrupts him and asks him to read the email and make it official that said wrestler has his title shot at the upcoming PPV. Cole announces, and I'm paraphrasing of course, "You can have your title shot as long as you defeat these two men tonight". Who is the wrestler?

If you said CM Punk, you are correct. If you said Chris Jericho, you are also correct. This segment happened with Jericho in September of 2010 where he had to beat the Hart Dynasty in order to get put back into the Six Pack Challenge at Night of Champions. It also happened with CM Punk in June of 2011 where he had to beat Alberto Del Rio and Rey Mysterio in a triple threat match to determine the #1 contender for the WWE title at the Money in the Bank PPV. Same segment. Same build. Same title. Same stipulations. Jericho did it first, though, and that is important.

The fourth promo is Jericho planting the seeds that CM Punk claiming to be the Best in the World is what will be the key to Jericho's revival. Remember, Jericho is the little boy. CM Punk is the little girl. Punk spent this whole time observing and learning how to be a top heel from Jericho - maybe not for real, but in kayfabe Chris Jericho's eyes, this is how it all went down. Jericho, in his own eyes, of course, taught CM Punk how to be the top heel of a company. And now it's Punk's turn to take over.

The fifth promo is amazing because it just fits together perfectly. The boy standing in the corner is Jericho not being anywhere near the WWE. The little girl is still CM Punk, but she decides to do away with all that she learned from the boy. CM Punk doesn't want to be the top heel of the company, he wants to be the face of the company. She tosses the notebook where she has already crossed out the "Chris" from and paves her own way, much like what CM Punk has been doing. He was a heel going into Money in the Bank - then he started getting face reactions and everybody, including himself, felt obligated to turn CM Punk, the top heel in the company, face. Chris Jericho always knew his role as the top heel...it was simply to make the fans hate him as much as possible. When CM Punk started shooting on the WWE and spouting off a lot of truths about the company, he went from angry heel to rebellious babyface. This was an injustice in Jericho's eyes because he thought that he taught Punk better.

The sixth promo was cut to while CM Punk was holding his WWE title above his head toward the beginning of Raw. It showed the scene where the little girl throws the notebook off the table to start. Throughout this promo we see the little boy disgusted at what the little girl has done in his notebook. The notebook is a symbol that represents the WWE as an entity. Chris Jericho is pissed off at CM Punk for forgetting his role and being a babyface instead of accepting his role as the top heel of the company. Chris Jericho is disgusted that the man who he thought was his protege started pulling some Triple H shit and cutting babyface promos as a heel leading up to the Money in the Bank PPV. Jericho is coming back to claim what is his - this could be either the WWE title, the role of top heel of the company, or even both. The Powers that Be refers to the WWE Champion, CM Punk.

Every one of these promos ends with either "It will be the end of the world as you know it" or "Do you understand?" - on top of that, in the fourth promo, the boy says, and I quote, "things shall never be the same again". This is all very Chris Jericho sounding language to and it is all just the icing on the cake at this point.

On the second day of 2012, Chris Jericho will arrive to reclaim the top heel spot in the WWE and CM Punk and the WWE title will be shaken. It will be the end of WWE Raw as you know it.

Wrestling Podcast: TWitWoW

2011-12-03T04:23:00.000-05:00

In what might be my greatest wrestling-related internet endeavor yet, a great friend of mine (if you're familiar with my YouTube account, you know him from BeerMoney2K) named John and I shot an hour and a half intro to a podcast that we're planning on doing weekly. Every saturday, be sure to watch for another episode of TWitWoW, better known as This Week in the World of Wrestling. This is a Wrestling podcast made by fans, for fans.

My 4-Month Prior Wrestlemania XXVIII Dream Card

2011-12-01T03:19:00.002-05:00

It's been one month since my last Dream Wrestlemania XXVIII Card and most of my matches have changed. Have I mentioned before that my thoughts are very flexible - very little is 100% rigid. I've been doing a lot of YouTube work lately, so if you haven't yet, be sure to check out my channel and my videos by clicking the link just below the main banner at the top of the page. I'm going to continue this Wrestlemania Series every single month forever - on Wrestlemania Sunday, it'll go from "Dream Card" to "Predictions", but even in May I'll throw out an 11-month Prior Wrestlemania XXIX Dream Card post.

1. The Rock vs John Cena (obviously) - most likely a 13-18 minute match with Cena going over & finally earning The Rock's respect.
2. The Undertaker vs Kane - Honestly, I would've loved to see D-Bry get the rub from 'Taker, but in all reality, not only is The Dead Man holding the World Title going into Wrestlemania most likely not going to happen, but the WWE likes to build Undertaker's 'Mania matches around the idea that the guy attempting to break the streak has all the leverage in the world and could legitimately beat 'Taker. Daniel Bryan probably wouldn't incite that thought regardless of how well he's booked. Kane would. People don't like the idea of Taker/Kane III, but those same people didn't like the idea of Mark Henry in the main event...see how that turned out? Mark Henry has rebuilt the World Title's prestige and rejuvenated the Smackdown product. Kane can return as an unstoppable monster, completely emotionless, completely without inhibition or mercy. He targets Taker and sets out to prove that The Great Undertaker is able to be beaten, even on that big stage where only the opposite was previously thought.
3. CM Punk (c) vs Dolph Ziggler - One of the two constants from my last Dream Card and something that I'm legitimately starting to believe will actually happen more and more as time goes on. Ziggler is on a hot streak and these two men proved on November 21st in Hershey that they can steal a show. I do ultimately see Dolph Ziggler winning the Royal Rumble, and it'd be even better if he'd enter the Rumble at #1. Ziggler says "I don't care if I'm booked twice, I don't care if I'm booked three times, I can go all night long," so why not let him prove it with a marathon-esque Royal Rumble performance? He proves why he is the NEW 60 minute man by winning the Rumble and maybe even doing a little showing off after he does.
4. Chris Jericho vs The Miz - One major change from my last Dream Card and it's all because of those damned itbegins promos. I'm not 100% sure that it's Jericho returning on the 2nd, but the fact that the boy (in the second promo) is talking about somebody taking back what is his...knowing that Jericho has called out multiple WWE guys for gimmick infringement...I do think it could be Jericho. And I do think that the ideal match for Jericho to have at 'Mania is Miz, because Miz is more guilty of gimmick infringement than anybody. Not only that, but Jericho would be a guy who is willing to put over a young guy like The Miz. To put the icing on the cake, you know the WWE wants to feature Miz in a somewhat big match at Wrestlemania, you know he can't work a great match by himself, and you know that if anybody can carry him to a great match, Jericho is that guy.
5. Randy Orton (c) vs Cody Rhodes - Why is that (c) next to Randy Orton's name? Simple. I think Randy Orton should get the Intercontinental Title from Cody Rhodes at one of the next two PPVs (TLC or RR) for the SOLE PURPOSE of giving Cody Rhodes THAT moment. That monumental Wrestlemania, main event making, career defining moment like Edge spearing Foley through a table or Orton getting slammed into thumbtacks and still coming out on top. Cody Rhodes winning what used to be his IC title from a guy of Randy Orton's caliber would put Rhodes on that next level.
6. Mark Henry (c) vs Daniel Bryan - Yes, I think Mark should keep the title until Wrestlemania. Yes, I think Daniel Bryan is going to continue being built as somebody that can actually beat Mark Henry. And yes, I think Daniel Bryan will walk out of Wrestlemania with the World Heavyweight Championship. I loved the tease on Smackdown this Tuesday and I legitimately was freaking out when Daniel had Mark in the ankle lock in the middle of the ring. I think they should've played with that moment and let it drag out a few more seconds just to really grab viewers by their heartstrings and start tugging instead of just throwing a tiny little tease out there.
7. Wade Barrett vs Sheamus - The second of the two constants from my last Dream Card post. The one condition I'm going to add here is that if the WWE would rather continue Barrett vs Orton and not work on developing an Orton/Rhodes feud, I could see this changing to Rhodes/Sheamus for the IC title and Orton/Barrett in a street fight or something of that variety. Another option is Rhodes/DiBiase for the IC title and then Sheamus facing off with Christian to settle their differences in...you guessed it...one more match.
8. Zack Ryder (c) vs Alberto Del Rio - Hyper babyface Zack Ryder defends his United States Championship against somebody who I legitimately feel needs to be pushed down the card a bit: Alberto Del Rio. He had the WWE title and proved that he is not ready for it. He had a monster push and a featured Wrestlemania match and again, proved that he just is not ready for it. Zack Ryder is going to beat Del Rio for the first time ever here, so the buildup is going to revolve around Del Rio being the dominant heel and Ryder being a resilient babyface who doesn't give up, much like the biggest supporter of Ryder himself, John Cena.
9. Natalya Neidhart vs Beth Phoenix (c) - and the Diva's match of the card is, ironically enough, the only gimmick match on the entire card. This will be a Falls Count Anywhere match and a legitimate brawl between the two most talented female wrestlers on the WWE roster. At the Royal Rumble, have Beth attack Nattie. At Elimination Chamber, have Beth cheat to retain after a solid 8-10 minute match. Finally, Wrestlemania, you have a 15 minute no DQ falls count anywhere DIVA'S MATCH where Natalya FINALLY earns the Diva's title from the evil Beth Phoenix. Kharma returns shortly after 'Mania as well, so she gets to work with Beth for the #1 contender spot and Nattie for the title before becoming the top heel in the division. In the meantime, I like the idea of establishing Nattie as the top babyface in the division.

So there you have it, folks. My 4-month prior Wrestlemania card and a card that I would actually not regret buying at $65 including taxes and fees. Be sure to comment with your thoughts, what you would change, and of course poking loopholes in my otherwise flawless logic.

Coming Sunday, Dec 11...Final Resolution predictions. WHAAAAAAAAAT? Yep.

Why do they call it a Series if there's only one a year and no continuity?

2011-11-19T02:09:00.003-05:00

After almost two hours of staring at a blank screen, I'm beginning to type this post at 12:31 am. I think I'm beginning to realize just how inconsequential Survivor Series looks on paper, and how much better it could have been with a few tweaks here and there. The biggest match (again, on paper) is Rock/Cena vs Awesome Truth, but how big is that match going to be, really? If Rock/Cena win, nobody will be surprised, Awesome Truth won't stop terrorizing babyfaces (and referees) on Raw, and nothing will have mattered, just like Cena's firing last year. If Awesome Truth win cleanly, it'd elevate them, sure, but nobody would buy it and it would make the main event at Wrestlemania look subpar. If Awesome Truth win by cheating (or due to their opponents imploding), nobody will care because it doesn't make anybody look any better and Awesome Truth will just have one more thing to brag about for no reason at all. At the end of the day, there are very few ways to make this match interesting, but believe it or not, I do believe I have found the best way.

Predicted Card

Match 1: Dolph Ziggler (c) v John Morrison - United States Championship

Match 2: Team Barrett v Team Orton - Traditional Survivor Series 5-on-5 Match

Match 3: Beth Phoenix (c) v Eve Torres - Diva's Championship

Match 4: Mark Henry (c) v Big Show - World Championship

Match 5: Alberto Del Rio (c) v CM Punk - WWE Championship

Match 6: John Cena & The Rock v Awesome Truth

I'm fully expecting those first two matches to combine for the entire first (at the very least) 45 minutes of the show, if not the first hour. Ziggler/Morrison could be a 20 minute instant classic, but I'm expecting an 8-13 minute match, while the 5-on-5 match will easily go on for a half hour or more.

As far as Ziggler/Morrison goes, I know how I want to see it go down. Zack Ryder screws Ziggler out of the US Title and then John Morrison turns heel by attacking Ryder and cutting a promo saying "I never needed your help Ryder, go back to your internet show," or at least something to that effect. I think Ziggler needs to go immediately into a feud with John Cena to determine the #1 contender for the WWE Championship. Ziggler is on a hot streak lately. Not in the same sense as Wade Barrett - no, Barrett is on a winning streak, but he's still pretty average in my opinion. Ziggler hasn't been winning, but there is not a single superstar in the WWE who makes losing look better than Ziggler. He sells better than anybody in the company. He bumps better than anybody in the company. He even talks better than anybody in the company not named Punk or Cena. Dolph Ziggler is athletic, charismatic, articulate, and has a unique sense of humor that has never been showcased on WWE TV before. And now that I'm done gushing, I do think that Ziggler's time as US Champion has run its course, and the only person I can think of who would make that belt look better than it already does is John Morrison. That's my fantasy booking, though. My prediction is simple...Ziggler retains.

Speaking of Barrett, I do believe that his team will end up victorious when the dust settles on Sunday. Barrett has been on a legitimate tear for the last month or so, and there is no better way to capitalize on that than for a team with his name on it to go over a team with Randy Orton's name on it. I don't think Barrett and Orton will be the last men standing, though. I think Cody Rhodes and Barrett will be left with Orton being the only one remaining on the other side, then Orton will eliminate Barrett only to get Cross Rhodes'd for a Team Barrett win, thus furthering the Orton/Rhodes feud that we haven't gotten nearly enough of since Vengeance. In order, I think the eliminations will look something like this:

-Hunico (eliminated by Sin Cara)

-Jack Swagger (eliminated by Mason Ryan)

-Mason Ryan (eliminated by Dolph Ziggler)

-Dolph Ziggler (eliminated by Kofi Kingston)

-Sin Cara (eliminated by Wade Barrett)

-Kofi Kingston (eliminated by Wade Barrett)

-Sheamus (eliminated by Wade Barrett)

-Wade Barrett (eliminated by Randy Orton)

-Randy Orton (eliminated by Cody Rhodes)

I fully expect them to play up Barrett's intellect, leadership abilities, and strategic thinking. He's going to send Hunico out first because he's the least experienced, and as soon as Hunico steps out, Sin Cara takes notice and wants a piece (which he gets) to continue their feud. Swagger jumps in and Mason Ryan feels opportunistic (and he is) so he takes care of business. As soon as that big monkey Mason Ryan starts celebrating his elimination, Ziggler hits him with the Zig Zag for a quick elimination. This is where I expect the match to get interesting - there might be a solid 10-15 minutes after this point before anybody else is eliminated, but I do think Ziggler will be the next guy to go, simply because of how much more of a prominent role Barrett and Rhodes play, as far as storylines go, in comparison. It's pretty obvious that Kofi & Sin Cara will both be eliminated before Orton & Sheamus, but I can't say for sure which of the two (referring to Kofi & Cara) will get eliminated in what order. I think Cara is less important to the match (Kofi can do just as many high spots, but works better otherwise) so I'm predicting Kofi will last longer. I already predicted my ending: Rhodes pins Orton to win the match for Team Barrett.

Diva's match? Beth Phoenix vs Eve for the Diva's Championship? Sounds all too familiar. I think Beth Phoenix will retain. Maybe Eve wins and we finally get that Kelly heel turn that I've been calling for, but I highly doubt it. Honestly, I think the best angle the WWE can do with the Diva's Division is to push tension between Nattie and Beth, leading up to a full-on Natalya face turn at the Royal Rumble. Hype leading up to Chamber is Beth vs Nattie, where Beth cheats to retain. Wrestlemania match would be Beth Phoenix v Natalya in a Falls Count Anywhere match for the title, where Natalya (depending on what kind of a reception she'd have been getting at arenas leading up to that point) would go over and become the new face of the Diva's division. Kharma returns in May, and Natalya vs Kharma would be the first legitimate, HUGE angle that the Diva's division has seen in YEARS after Nattie retains her title against Beth in their rematch at Extreme Rules. THAT, my friends, is how you save a division in wrestling.

Mark Henry v Big Show for the World Title could be very interesting depending on how it is set up. I would LOVE to see Kane return and beat the living hell out of Big Show backstage, essentially stealing his World Title shot, turning heel, and putting on a World Title match that isn't a repeat of Vengeance. All fantasies aside, if Wrestlemania 28 is the event that the Undertaker will wrestle his last match at, his opponent NEEDS to be Kane. Not just any Kane, though. A ruthless, emotionless killing machine that wants nothing more than to bring his big brother down to earth by putting an end to the one thing that defines The Undertaker: his winning streak at Wrestlemania. Kane needs to come back with no emotion, no remorse, no nothing. Hell, even bring Paul Bearer back just for Kane to bury him alive or put him in a casket and light it on fire, just to PROVE that Kane has evolved as a monster, and devolved as human being. Kane needs to show that he has no emotional attachments to this world that the Undertaker could potentially use as a weak spot. Kane needs to look like the only man alive that The Undertaker might actually fear. Regardless of whether it's Kane or Big Show, Mark Henry is walking out World Champion.

By the way, guys, there is a WWE championship match on this card, too. Hard to believe, since there's been so much effort put into promoting the fact, but there is, indeed, a WWE championship match. CM Punk said it in his June 27th promo: I'm hardly promoted. Talk about the proof being in the pudding. I do think Del Rio will retain this match, but not cleanly; Punk will not tap out to Alberto Del Rio. Not again. Del Rio will either get himself disqualified or counted out, or Ricardo will be a distraction, or worst yet: Michael Cole will cost CM Punk the match while Ricardo has the ref's attention. Cole got a WWE exclusive and he wants to sue Punk, so much like what he did to help Miz retain the title against Jerry Lawler, I wouldn't be surprised if Cole costs CM Punk and MAYBE EVEN goes on to become Alberto Del Rio's new manager. It all adds up...both Punk and Cole himself hinted at him leaving the booth. JR is a fan favorite and actually tells stories about what's going on in the ring, not irrelevant stories about himself. Michael Cole is the ultimate heat magnet, and that is what Del Rio is lacking: heat. If Del Rio picks up Cole as a manager, he might get that heat back, even if by association. Either way, I do think Del Rio will retain, but in a way that ensures a Punk/Del Rio match at TLC, where (unless Cole has garnered Del Rio so much heat that taking the belt off of him at TLC would be too early) CM Punk would become a TWO TIME WWE Champion.

And finally, the match everybody is talking about: The Rock makes his epic return to team with John Cena in order to take out a team that is so phenomenally average that they had to get themselves disqualified against Cena due to him beating them in a handicap match by himself. Cena could be teaming with Zack Ryder and everybody would still think that their team would win over Awesome Truth. If anything, Rock is a worse partner for Cena because they have tension that could cause them to implode. So, what do I expect to come out of this match? A Rock heel turn. Yes, I said it, I think The Rock is going to turn heel. The WWE's writers are far too naive to learn from the mistakes that they made in the past, and The Rock is far too gracious to pull what Hogan did in 2002 and turn the crowd to his side. The Rock will play his heel role full well knowing that when his shoulders are down for the three count, he has just given the business the only thing that he had left to give: John Cena being accepted by everybody. This entire match is built around the basis that Rock had "it" - and by "it", I mean mass appeal - he was loved by the entire crowd, and the only time he was ever booed is when he was a heel. The WWE wants The Rock to put Cena over at Wrestlemania in hopes that more of the crowd will accept Cena like they did Rock. Cena gets a 3 count, stands up, helps Rock up, they shake hands, Rock cuts an inspirational promo putting over Cena when it's all said and done, and people go soft for Cena. I'm cool with it, as long as it actually works. The Rock will turn on John Cena at Survivor Series and The Miz and R-Truth's double team will just be too much for Cena alone. It's that simple. It's that unoriginal. It's that corny. It's the WWE writing team, and they know that they've booked themselves into a corner, so this is the most believable way out without Cena/Rock squashing Miz/Truth and making them look bad.

Be sure to post a comment if I touched on anything in this post that you'd like me to elaborate on. I feel like I've thoroughly explained everything that has substance to it, but I might have missed something under the assumption that you know what I'm thinking whether I type it out or not. "Comment now, or forever hold your peace".

I'm going to Raw the day after Survivor Series - I'll be front row center, wearing a shirt with a vertical orange-to-blue gradient, and I'll be the one holding up the #HEEL sign, as well as a few other choice signs that I've made. If you see me, say something! Or better yet, if you watch the show on youtube and see me, make a clip of it and send it to me!

12.4.11 - The World - And the WWE's Developmental System - Gets turned upside down.

My 5-Month Prior Wrestlemania XXVIII Dream Card

2011-11-02T03:47:00.001-04:00

The Rock vs John Cena is already a given, but what other matches do I see happening at Wrestlemania? This is not a prediction, or even a fantasy booking to the fullest degree. This is just me telling you how huge Wrestlemania 28 has the potential to be. This is in no particular order.

1. The Rock vs John Cena (obviously) - most likely a 13-18 minute match with Cena going over & finally earning The Rock's respect.
2. The Undertaker (c) vs Daniel Bryan - not a guarantee to happen, but after reading my last post, how could you possibly deny the potential to create a new star here?
3. CM Punk (c) vs Dolph Ziggler - name another heel not named Alberto Del Rio who could possibly give Punk a bigger run for his money on Raw right now. I can't.
4. Chris Jericho vs Randy Orton - Jericho is coming back. I see him returning at the Royal Rumble and eliminating Orton to spark a feud between the two dating back to the punt heard 'round the world.
5. Sheamus vs Wade Barrett - Two European superstars that the WWE has finally chosen which of the two they want to be a babyface, on the same brand. This is, as Del Rio would say, DESTINY.
6. D-Generation X vs Awesome Truth - This is a Dream Card, not a "most likely to happen" card. Miz and Truth somehow cheat their way into a victory over Cena/Rock at SS and Triple H needs to call a buddy to help him take out the trash.
7. Mark Henry and Alberto Del Rio vs Big Show and Kane - Think about it. Del Rio runs over Show. Henry inducts Kane and Show into the Hall of Pain. This is the only way I can think of to fit Del Rio onto the card without putting him in a title match that makes sense.
8. John Morrison and Kofi Kingston vs Cody Rhodes and Christian - kind of a showcase match that fits the last relevant guys (in my mind) onto the card, and fits them well. If Morrison isn't still around at this point, give Christian a turn (Edge showing up and giving him a pep talk in the middle of the ring could achieve that in a matter of 5 minutes) and make this Christian vs Cody one on one.
9. Zack Ryder vs Mike "The Situation" - It's being built up on ZTLIS and I needed to find some kind of stupid celebrity match to fit into the card just because it's STILL Wrestlemania. Throw Big O in Zack's corner and some other random Jersey Shore guy in there in Mike's corner and you've got a fitting freak show.

Obviously this is way too far ahead of time to even remotely resemble what Wrestlemania will actually look like, but hey, if this was the card, I'd buy the show, even for the extra $10.

The Undertaker vs Daniel Bryan at Wrestlemania: Making it Happen

2011-11-01T02:38:00.000-04:00

There are two sides to this story. First of all, The Undertaker needs to return and win both the Royal Rumble and the World Heavyweight Championship before Wrestlemania. This would cause the Royal Rumble win to become null and Daniel Bryan would be able to go one on one with him for the title by cashing in the Money in the Bank briefcase. The second side to the story is simply making it believable. Can this vegan nerd with no TV in his house end the streak? If you'd ask anybody in their right minds today, the answer is absolutely not. That's where the creativity comes into play: we need to build a ruthless, aggressive, submission machine with what we have in Daniel Bryan. This post will be my fantasy booking that will lead to The Undertaker's last ever Wrestlemania match, and Daniel Bryan's FIRST ever World Heavyweight Championship.

Let me make this perfectly clear before I even get into this post: The Undertaker is winning the match at Wrestlemania. I would not put The Undertaker's streak in jeopardy despite the fact that a single win of that magnitude would immediately catapult Daniel Bryan into the title picture, main event, and possibly even Hall of Fame. I want to make that clear: The Streak is not actually in jeopardy. We just need to create the illusion that it is. You always have to tell some of the truth so that they'll believe all of the lie.

To get started, as I said in my first paragraph, one element to this that would take competent booking (read: never in TNA) to make it work is that, in his current state, Daniel Bryan doesn't look like a believable champion, much less the guy that might end The Streak. The one thing that I think is key here is that The Undertaker will never be a heel against anybody of Bryan's status. You can't take a young up-and-comer, put him against a legend like 'Taker, and expect him to come out of the feud as a babyface. That being said, and using that foresight to solve issues before they arise, we need to turn Bryan heel, and we need to initiate that process as soon as possible. The plan is for Daniel Bryan to ride a winning streak that started on October 28th all the way to Wrestlemania. It's going to be Streak vs Streak in the sense that Bryan will be undefeated for 5 months AND Streak vs Streak in the sense that Bryan will be cashing in MitB and nobody has ever lost a MitB cash-in before. That is the premise of this match, that is why I want to see it happen so badly, and that is a story that could potentially write itself - assuming it had proper setup. That proper setup is exactly what I'm going to attempt to create in this fantasy booking post.

Step one to this feud is building Daniel Bryan up as a legitimate threat to The Undertaker's streak at Wrestlemania. Once we accomplish that, the rest of the story essentially writes itself. Step one to building Daniel Bryan up a a legitimate threat to The Undertaker's streak at Wrestlemania is, in my opinion, turning Bryan heel. This is for multiple reasons - Bryan works better as a heel. Being a heel would allow Bryan to be more aggressive and ruthless. Being a heel would allow Bryan to invoke The Undertaker into giving him a rematch for the title at the May PPV so that Bryan could still win the title without ending the streak. Being a heel would just be best for the situation. So, how do we turn Daniel Bryan heel?

To answer that question, we need to look at and analyze why Daniel Bryan is a babyface in the first place. Is it because he's exciting? That can't be exclusively true, otherwise Dolph Ziggler, Cody Rhodes, Alberto Del Rio and Tyson Kidd would all be babyfaces. Is it because he cuts babyface promos? He doesn't cut promos, so that can't be it. And even on the WWE.com interviews, his promos feel more angry and heelish than babyface, so we can't chalk it up to that. What IS IT that makes Daniel Bryan a babyface? I'll tell you exactly what it is. Commentary. More specifically, Michael Cole. Michael Cole is the true definition of heel in the WWE - he is the one man in the WWE who is not polarizing in the least bit for the simple reason that literally everybody hates him. If he endorses you, you are a heel. If he buries you or just simply talks you down, you are a babyface. Cole has never buried anybody more than Daniel Bryan. That automatically makes him an underdog babyface. How do we turn him heel? We take what makes him a babyface, and turn it on itself. That's right - we get Michael Cole to endorse Daniel Bryan.

That isn't difficult to accomplish. A single conversation with Cole at a creative meeting. Vince McMahon is in Cole's ear, he can fill him in on this plan as he goes. If Michael Cole starts acting for Daniel Bryan like he always has for The Miz, Bryan doesn't even need to change anything about his character, he's an instant heel. Michael Cole begins endorsing him, announces on commentary that he's had an epiphany (maybe a conversation backstage with Daniel himself) that has opened his eyes to Daniel Bryan's true talent. Milk it for all its worth. Even if it takes Cole standing on the announcer's table and clapping like he does for Miz, we need Daniel Bryan to enter the arena to a sea of boos. If we can get the fans to turn on him, we can allow him to cut a heel promo turning on the fans. "I've given everything to this sport, and what do I get? A bunch of sheep fans who would rather cheer for 6'5" body builders like John Cena and Randy Orton than a TRUE TALENT like me!" - not really a shoot, but not really something that you need to work too hard on, either. Bryan cuts a heel promo.

The whole time that we're going through the process up to and including the heel promo, have Bryan start acting a little more aggressive in the ring. Start having him use the ropes (and his feet) to choke his opponent a few times. Have him hold his submissions on a little bit too long after the opponent submits. Let him go back to his indy roots and use the "I HAVE UNTIL 5" line a few times. Get him angry. Get him ruthless. Get him aggressive. Get him over as a heel. He cuts a heel promo and it's just icing on the cake. Maybe Daniel Bryan could be Michael Cole's first ever client - that's right, throw Cole in there as his manager. How can you possibly garner more heat than that? It isn't necessary, but it is an idea, and you can bet your ass that it would work.

Once we establish that Daniel Bryan is a heel, he needs to continue winning - working his way up the card, but winning nonetheless. This past Friday, he defeated Tyson Kidd. This coming Friday, have him beat JTG. The week after, Heath Slater. Then, when there are no more heel jobbers left to feed to the Dragon, give him Trent Baretta and Yoshi Tatsu. Baretta first, just because he isn't as over, but then with Yoshi, get Bryan to really thump him good. People are expecting "oh good, Yoshi Tatsu is getting TV time," only to see him get COMPLETELY DESTROYED by an in-the-process-of-turning-heel Daniel Bryan. That would help get him heat - completely dominating and possibly even humiliating a reasonably well over babyface jobber like Yoshi gets you pity heat, and even that is better than no heat at all. The following week, maybe somebody like Justin Gabriel. Everybody is on this list. Royal Rumble main event...since Daniel Bryan clearly doesn't need to compete in the Royal Rumble, he will face Wade Barrett in a streak vs streak match, since Barrett's Uprising has recently begun as well. Bryan wins this match as well, but it isn't necessary for Barrett to turn babyface - just let him get out-heeled by Bryan.

Rumble is when The Undertaker makes his return, as well. He comes in at #40 and cleans house - maybe while he's making his wonderful, elaborate entrance, a few superstars get caught up in the moment and the more headstrong guys throw them over, only for Taker to come in and take care of the rest. Give Taker his moment at Rumble and set up what looks like a collision course - The Undertaker vs Mark Henry at Wrestlemania for the World Heavyweight Championship. Then, at Elimination Chamber, put Daniel Bryan, Mark Henry, AND The Undertaker in as the final three. Orton, Sheamus and Christian would make great fillers for the rest of the match, and I guarantee you there would be at least some people picking any of these six guys to win the match. That is what makes a great multiple man match - nobody knows who is going to win. Have the first two guys in the match be Mark Henry and Randy Orton, and get Orton out of there as quickly as possible so that he doesn't look too weak against the other, less dominant competitors.

This is where we play the multitasking game. Mark Henry and Daniel Bryan need to be going at it, one on one, in the Elimination Chamber match, and Bryan needs to take control. He needs to kick the living shit out of Mark Henry, take him down to one knee, then two, then his back. He needs to look like he can actually compete with the likes of the truly dominant Mark Henry. Then, Undertaker (as the last entrant into the match) needs to come in and eliminate Bryan with a quick finisher, whether that be a Chokeslam, Tombstone, or even Last Ride - just not the Gogoplata. We don't need Bryan tapping out. He still needs to look legit against Mark Henry, and Taker needs to be picking at the bones - he can't eliminate a fresh Bryan. I'd say make Bryan the 4th guy into the ring. Orton and Henry start, then introduce Sheamus, then Bryan. Christian comes in 5th and can get away with lasting the shortest amount of time in the match, then Taker comes in and, like I said earlier, essentially picks the bones clean and wins the World Heavyweight Championship. This nullifies his Rumble win and allows Bryan to go one on one with him at 'Mania.

The last obstacle that we need to clear here is that Mark Henry would have a rematch clause. This is simple enough to handle: Smackdown. Raw hypes up a HUGE Smackdown Main event for the Friday after Elimination Chamber - The Undertaker is being forced to defend his freshly won World Heavyweight Title against Mark Henry, who thinks he can catch 'Taker off guard and at less than 100% from the brutal Chamber match. Of course we have a successful title defense, and that leaves only one man: Daniel Bryan.

The buildup to Wrestlemania is usually even better than the event itself. WWE still has contact with Shawn Michaels, and I think he'd be perfect for this occasion. Michaels could shoot an interview with, say, Jim Ross (or even Michael Cole himself) where he says something to the effect of "Yeah, when I was training him, he was a really nice guy...and I always kind of said to myself 'man, if he can find a mean streak in him, he could go down as the greatest ever'...and I think he might have found that mean streak". When you have a guy like Shawn FREAKING Michaels putting Bryan over as somebody who now essentially has all of the ingredients that it would take to be the greatest ever, it's hard not to believe that he could break the streak. When you have a WWE landscape that is desperate to create new stars and even more desperate to get The Undertaker out of the World Title picture, you get that little bit of disbelief. You start thinking to yourself, if you're a mark, "holy crap, Shawn Michaels just endorsed Daniel Bryan...he almost looked scared of him! He might actually be able to beat Undertaker. And 'Taker is no spring chicken, either...if they go for 20+ minutes the stamina and conditioning has got to have an effect". And if you're a smart fan, you're thinking to yourself "Holy crap, are they seriously going to give Bryan this rub? I know they've been pushing him like crazy for the last few months but this would be phenomenal". All it takes is that little bit of doubt to seep into every fan's mind in order to create enough tension to sell tickets. And that, my friends, is a Wrestlemania Main Event worth talking about.

Of course, Undertaker would win. He would retain his title, streak in tact. But who would walk away by their own power, and who would need help getting back to the locker room? If I had control (and so far, obviously, in my mind at least, I have) I would have the match end with Undertaker hitting Bryan with 2-3 Tombstones for the 3-count. Then, Taker would reach his hand out to Bryan, who would shake hands with him, turn around, and then go full 360 for the slap in the face and kick to the skull. The Undertaker gets knocked out and this creates the tension needed for 'Taker to have the motive to give Bryan a second chance. This leads us to Extreme Rules, where this entire angle comes to an end: with Daniel Bryan defeating The Undertaker in a Last Man Standing match for the World Heavyweight Championship, thus ending The Undertaker's illustrious career and giving Bryan the rub of his life. Daniel Bryan's first challenger for the title could be anyone from Sheamus, to Randy Orton, to a newly drafted, formerly Raw Superstar (CM Punk anyone?), even to somebody who is currently a heel but has the potential to make a solid babyface champion - Wade Barrett, anyone? Either way, you've got a new star. Either way, you've given The Dead Man the run of his life, the match(es) of his career, and you've finally allowed him to pass the torch to somebody who truly deserves it.

Vengeance will be...few and far between.

2011-10-23T05:22:00.000-04:00

I'm pretty much going to come right out and say it: it was difficult for me to get inspired to make this Vengeance post. Not because I'm losing my passion; no, that's something that will never die. But because Vengeance just seems like such an irrelevant PPV in my eyes. It has a touch of irony to it, too, because I honestly don't see many of the people going into this PPV screaming "VENGEANCE WILL BE MINE" actually winning. Mark Henry is saying Vengeance will be his, but as far as the storyline goes, Big Show is seeking vengeance WAY more than Henry. That being said, I find it unfortunate that the WWE has 8 matches scheduled for this PPV. It makes it feel even more insignificant and not worth buying than it already did, and that says a lot. I've loved that the WWE has recently adopted the mindset that PPVs are better with fewer matches - for a long time there people were saying that WWE PPVs felt like nothing more than expensive episodes of Raw. For the last couple of PPVs, there have been fewer matches on the card, the matches get more time, and longer matches feel more important than any match Raw can offer. This PPV might not feel the same, but I still feel like with good time distribution, the matches that mean the most will still feel at least somewhat important.

Here's what the card has shaped up to be for Vengeance, in the order that I'm predicting it'll be in.

U.S. Title Match: Dolph Ziggler (c) vs. Zack Ryder
Sheamus vs. Christian
WWE Divas Title Match: Beth Phoenix (c) vs. Eve Torres
WWE Tag Team Title Match: Air Boom (c) vs. Swiggler
Randy Orton vs. Cody Rhodes
WWE World Title Match: Mark Henry (c) vs. Big Show
Last Man Standing Match for the WWE Title: Alberto Del Rio (c) vs. John Cena

CM Punk and Triple H vs. The Miz and R-Truth

So, let's get started.

"I'M READY FOR THE MAIN EVENT!"

If I were behind the pen for this company, Dolph Ziggler would walk out with two titles to his name. He has been the most consistent performer in the WWE behind Cena, Punk and Orton both in the ring and on the mic. Next time you watch a Dolph Ziggler match, count how many bumps he takes. The man is an absolute bumping machine, the likes of which hasn't been seen since Shawn Michaels retired. Ziggler's mic work lately has also been borderline exceptional, and the fact that he has so much going for him says (to me, at least) that one of two things are going to happen on Sunday. Either he's going to win the Tag Team titles and go on a Miz-esque run with multiple titles, OR he's going to drop his United States title and get immediately propelled into the Main Event picture, possibly even getting his first WWE Title shot against Alberto Del Rio at Survivor Series. So, for me, with Ziggler at Survivor Series it's literally all or nothing.

Sheamus is facing Christian. Again. Hell in a Cell saw this match jerking the curtain, but after the performance that they delivered in that opening spot, they might be able to move up a bit on the card. On the other hand, the WWE might see how GREAT of a curtain jerker this match was at Hell in a Cell and try to recapture that spark by doing the exact same thing in this show. I think that, since Dolph Ziggler is working two matches, he's got to be the one jerking the curtain so that he can get his kayfabe rest in between matches. Another possibility is that the Ziggler will be made to work both matches back to back, using psychology in the tag match to sell Ziggler's exhaustion by having Swagger work the majority of the match and hesitating to tag Ziggler in. For now, though, we'll go with Ziggler jerking the curtain to, again, get his kayfabe rest between his matches. Can you tell I'm trying to fill space? Simply put, if Christian wins this match, I'll be astonished. Christian is being used as enhancement talent, and that's exactly what he should be getting used as. Sheamus is being groomed to be the next contender for the World Title once Mark Henry runs through Big Show and possibly a returning Kane.

Can we call this card a quadruple main event? There are two main event title matches, a match involving Randy Orton, and the TRUE main event, the tag team match between Awesome Truth and CM Punk and Triple H. As odd as it may sound because of the irrelevance that seems to surround this PPV, the WWE has successfully created a perfect halfway divide between the Main Event(s) and the lower card with literally NO Midcard whatsoever. The Divas match comes earlier than usual in this PPV so that the Tag Titles can do their damnedest to act like a midcard before the four massive matches involving the WWE's real main eventers. The Diva's match doesn't matter because the whole thing revolves around Kelly Kelly; if Beth wins, Kelly is next in line. If Eve wins, Kelly turns heel and is still next in line. It's a zero sum, and Kelly Kelly is still the center of attention in the Diva's division. I've already addressed the tag match when I addressed Dolph Ziggler, so I'll specify my stipulation here: if Dolph Ziggler retains his US Title, Swiggler is finally going to win the tag titles. If Ziggler loses his US title, Air Boom will retain.

Orton is willing to make Rhodes look good
at his own expense - who else can say that?

Now, onto the interesting stuff: the quadruple main event. Randy Orton vs Cody Rhodes is the least important match of the four, so that'll probably go first. I do not expect this match to be a defining match in Cody Rhodes' career, simply because I think the WWE will save that event for Survivor Series when Cody Rhodes will (this is a prediction) successfully defend his Intercontinental title against The Viper. I see Orton winning this match in an extremely competitive, possibly 20+ minute show-stealing match. I think that the WWE should be able to milk this rivalry out for a while with a blowoff match at TLC in December, possibly even with Randy Orton winning the Intercontinental Title. Would anybody complain as long as Rhodes successfully defended his title against Orton at Survivor Series? I wouldn't. I understand that the WWE is trying to put Mark Henry out there as their monster heel and I've been saying for weeks (months?) now that Sheamus is going to be the man to take Henry's title from him. What does that mean? It means that the WWE needs to find something productive for Randy Orton to do while the World Heavyweight Championship actually lives up to its name: a Championship contended for by Heavyweights. I would love to see Randy Orton as the Intercontinental Champion again, if for no other reason because it was Orton's first title and that alone gives me reason to believe that he would have a desire to hold it. Cody Rhodes is a shining light on Smackdown and, even lately, on Raw. He has a future as a Main Eventer, but it just isn't his time yet. He'll be enjoying his feud with the most relevant superstar on Smackdown up to and possibly even well into 2012.

A preview of Sunday's World Heavyweight Title match

Up next, we have the World Heavyweight Championship match. And I mean that in every sense of the word. A one on one match with almost 900 lbs and 80 years worth of human in the same ring, at the same time. Anybody who thinks this match is going to be horrible is a mark, and I'm not joking. The Big Show might be the best athlete in the WWE, given his immense size. The man weighs almost 500 lbs and he runs the ropes faster than most 115 lb Divas. I understand that this match might be slow paced, but slow paced does not equal bad. I'm expecting one hell of a big man match between these two, and really, if you wanted to define "clash of the titans", this is the match that I would point to, at least until The Undertaker comes back. Mark Henry is going to retain but this match had to happen, not because it's going to be a five star classic (star rating systems are for marks) but because it makes the most sense: Mark Henry's entire character today is based off of him being attacked by an angry Big Show who had just been run over by a car. That attack gave Mark Henry the ambition (and anger) that he's been literally running off of ever since, and while Big Show was Henry's first inductee into the Hall of Pain, now that Henry is the World Champion, Big Show feels responsible for Henry's actions while he was away. This match is all about the story telling, not about how many maneuvers the competitors are performing in the middle of the match.

It's strange that the WWE Championship match most likely won't go on last, but I can't imagine any match other than the big tag team match going last. It's Triple H, right? He is the main event - just ask him. John Cena is facing Alberto Del Rio in what has consistently been the worst hyped one on one WWE Championship Match of the year. This is the second time this exact same match has happened and the second time it has gone COMPLETELY unhyped. Does that mean it's going to have the exact same result? Absolutely not. This is going to be the match to break John Cena away from the WWE Title picture to propel him into the Main Event picture. Seems contradictory, doesn't it? John Cena needs to be out of the WWE Title Picture so he can get back into promoting his match with The Rock at Wrestlemania, and, what is more relevant right now, the match that will see him teaming with the rock at Survivor Series. Alberto Del Rio wins this match and something big happens on Raw that causes Cena and The Rock to join forces and initiate a line of promos talking about how they don't like each other, but they'll team up for the good of the WWE.

What this whole pay-per-view is really all about

And now for your main event of the evening: the token Triple H match! Triple H is teaming with the man who insulted him and his family to take on a couple of guys who Triple H fired but then the guy who replaced him in a position of authority re-hired! Sounds like a crazy match, but it makes no sense to me, simply because when Laurinaitis announced the match, he announced it as if it was going to be some kind of punishment for Punk and Triple H immediately after the two of them destroyed Miz and Truth and chased them out of the ring. I love WWE for the fact that they, unlike TNA, do what makes sense before they do what might be "cooler" or more exciting. In this case, the match neither makes sense nor is it exciting. If I didn't feel a major swerve coming, I would say Triple H and CM Punk would win the match in five minutes, if that. What I do think is going to happen, though, is that Laurinaitis will announce that it is now a No DQ match, and Kevin Nash will make his resurgence to help Miz and Truth win the match. This all leads up to Raw where Nash, Miz, Truth, and two other ambiguous heel superstars run amok and create a situation that requires John Cena and The Rock to join forces.

Next week, I solve world hunger.

The WWE's Developmental System is the Root of ALL of its problems

2011-10-11T18:16:00.000-04:00

As much as I love the CM Punk character and his mission for change in the WWE, there is no change that will fix the true issue, at the core of the WWE: The Developmental System. Look back to the years from (I'd say) 1996 to 2005-ish. This time period saw the popularity of Pro Wrestling at an all-time high. Why? Because until WWE bought WCW, there was competition, and after WWE bought WCW, the WWE had a massively deep roster. Everybody felt like they were, could be, or had at one point been a Main Eventer, and it kept them relevant and made even mid-card storylines matter.

Michaels
Undertaker
Kane
Austin
Rock
Foley
Triple H
Big Show
Jericho
Guerrero
Benoit
Angle
Goldberg
Lesnar
Edge

That list is massive, and every single one of those men relevant at one time or another between 1999 and 2005. I'm using 1999 as my starting point because it's a good six year comparison. Since 2005, what main eventers have we had?

Cena
Orton
Batista
Mysterio
Jericho
Triple H
JBL
Jeff Hardy
Edge
CM Punk

...and that's it. It seems like a decent sized list. Obviously not as bulky as the first one, but still decent. Now think about this: LITERALLY NONE of the names on EITHER LIST was a product of the FCW system. Not a single one. Mysterio, Triple H, Jericho, JBL, Hardy and Edge are all carry-overs from the Attitude Era and aren't relevant today. You could say Triple H is, and Jericho will be when he comes back, but Mysterio is done AT LEAST for another 6 months, JBL isn't coming back, and neither are Hardy or Edge. Cena, Orton and Batista are products of the Jim Cornette-run OVW and got put over by the stars in that first list. CM Punk stands out because he's the only one who established a name for himself outside of the WWE over the last 6 years who is now relevant in the main event picture. On the other hand, look at THIS list:

Benoit
Mysterio
Guerrero
Austin
Foley
Angle
Jericho
CM Punk

All eight of those men worked around the world before they got into the WWE. They built up a reputation and honed their skills before signing. If you want to know what is wrong with the WWE today and why they aren't creating any more superstars, it's because of their developmental system. The problem with only using ONE federation (FCW) as your developmental "system" (how can you call it a system? It's a goddamned farm team, for christ's sake) is that there is no room for growth. There's never going to be anyone in that system who ever grows because you can only ever get as good as the best guy who's already there. And if the WWE keeps on calling up the best guys there, the talent level just keeps getting lower and lower, slowly but surely.

That's exactly why there was such a boom in the late 90s and early 2000s. Talented guys who were working to get into wrestling in the 90s were found, but not necessarily ONLY by WWE; some were found and developed by WWE (Kane, Taker, Edge, Hardy, Rock, Austin) but some were found and established by WCW (Mysterio, Jericho, Benoit, Guerrero, Goldberg) and it created a boom of huge wrestling stars when WWE bought WCW because now they had a stacked card. WWE can't create a ton of new stars NOW because they never did in the first place. That's exactly why it's so vital that WWE has competition. With no competition, the WWE has monopolized the wrestling industry and now has its own pipeline that all of its stars run through. Sin Cara was out-popping Orton, so the WWE slapped a 30 day suspension on him to put a stop to that. That's what happens when the WWE brings in somebody who built up their prestige somewhere else - they out-pop WWE's already established so-called "stars". Pro Wrestling can not be monopolized - it will die. And it isn't immune just because it will always have fans. Fans will stop watching if a product gets bad. What would happen if John Cena would die in a tragic accident tomorrow? There IS NO back-up plan for that. Cena, and to a MUCH lesser degree, Orton, is the only lifeline the WWE has left. That's why it's so important to have competition, because competition creates controversy, and controversy creates interest. Interest creates cash. Bischoff leaves the interest part out, but fuck him.

The way I see it, one of two things needs to happen in order to literally SAVE the wrestling business from a slow, but inevitable death. Option one is that the WWE needs to re-work its developmental system so that it has multiple territories COMPETING with EACH OTHER, while sharing talent and allowing everybody to grow within the system. Option two is that somehow, some way, a legitimate threat to the WWE needs to rise up and create some goddamned competition for the first time in over ten years. Without one of those two things happening, the WRESTLING BUSINESS AS A WHOLE WILL DIE. I'm not saying that because I like being dramatic, I don't - you guys should know that by now. I'm saying that because it's true. The WWE's so-called "stars" have been getting less and less relevant as time goes on, and when Cena and Orton retire, the audience will cut in half. Just like it did when Rock and Austin left. When Vince McMahon said "I can create another John Cena", he was talking out his ass. You probably thought you could create another Rock, too, didn't you, Vince? And another Austin? How's that going for you? Not so well.

What I, personally, would like to see, is a multiple promotion developmental system. Keep FCW and keep Keirn and Smiley there, but at the same time give Jim Ross a promotion to run in Oklahoma, give Lawler a promotion in Tennesee, give Booker T a promotion in Texas, and for God's sake get in touch with the guys at OVW and re-attach them to your pipeline, keeping Cornette as the head guy there. If you can agree to terms, give Paul Heyman a promotion in Philadelphia - Heyman would love to have an opportunity to re-do ECW his way without needing to be the guy handling the money, I'm sure. There needs to be at least 4-5 promotions that all work together, competing to see who can make the most money and the most stars. If the WWE funds these promotions AND picks up all of the proceeds, I see no downfall. In the simplest way I can put it, re-create the territory system where the WWE still owns every territory, but they're at least creating the illusion of competition, AND allowing its talents to work with a broader range of talents, styles and audiences.

Until something like that gets legs, I'm going to be here, in my corner, wildly cheering for ROH to put TNA out of business on its way to becoming a legitimate threat to the WWE.

John Morrison's Future Endeavors

2011-10-09T16:40:00.000-04:00

If you haven't heard, John Morrison has a contract that is soon going to run out. If the WWE re-signs him, that's wonderful, both for him and for the big 'E. Morrison is a very talented athlete, and could undoubtedly be groomed into a top draw if given the opportunity. There's something very Shawn Michaels-esque about his character. If the WWE would put some effort into emphasizing his strengths - his athletic talent and his willingness to use his body as a weapon - he could turn into the next Jeff Hardy (without the drugs), or better yet, the next Shawn Michaels. Michaels was never a great promo cutter. He was articulate most of the time, but Mick Foley he was not. Michaels is (and always was) a gifted athlete who worked his ass off to make sure the audience got what they paid for. And that's what Morrison is - or, at the very least, can turn out to be.

John Morrison is an asset. He has mass appeal - the same kind of mass appeal that Jeff Hardy, Shawn Michaels, and even Bret Hart always had. He's over with the internet marks because of his moveset, he's over with the females because of his look, and he's over with the marks because he connects with them. That's all it takes. John Cena isn't over with the internet marks because he doesn't have a huge moveset. Daniel Bryan isn't over with the females because he isn't a model. Drew McIntyre isn't over with the marks because he hasn't connected with the crowd yet. It's a three ring venn diagram and the middle of the diagram consists of legends. There are multiple ways to connect to a crowd - through the mic (Punk), through a character (Cena), even through a match (Austin) - but it takes a special performer to make it happen.

That leads me to my question...what happens if Morrison doesn't get re-signed? Does he even stay in the wrestling business? I'd like to hope that he would, if for no other reason because he's the one who wanted to be a wrestler in the first place. He was a Tough Enough contestant, after all. So, if he's staying in the business, where does he go? He'd make it in Mexico, that's a given. He might even make it in Japan, assuming he can assimilate to the stronger style over there. You know what I think would be perfect? Ring of Honor. Do you even realize how badly ROH would want John Hennigan in their company if the WWE let him get away? ROH is the perfect fed for him, too, because he'd be in the upper echelon of mic workers over there, and he can keep up with them in the ring.

Just imagine the matches: Hennigan (John Morrison is likely a WWE Trademark, so he'd have to change it, and ROH likes using real names) scheduled to have a match with the likes of a Davey Richards, Roderick Strong, Eddie Edwards, El Generico, hell, put him in the Embassy and have him tag with Tomasso Ciampa to take on the likes of WGTT, ANX and the Briscoes. That'd be insane - John Hennigan sharing a ring with Kenny King would create fireworks. I think that solves it. If John Morrison's WWE contract runs out, ROH needs to be on the phone THAT DAY with John Hennigan, working out a deal that allows him to work at non-televised ROH shows for 3 months and then show up on ROH TV after his 90 day no-compete clause runs out. WWE's loss is ROH's gain.

Favorite Wrestler?

2011-10-02T04:05:00.000-04:00

For those of you who don't follow me on twitter or subscribe to my channel on youtube, first of all, go do that now. The links are at the top of the site right below the title. Done? Great. Now, for those of you who haven't kept up with me until now, I haven't always been the "favorite wrestler" kind of guy. I just appreciate great storylines and enjoy using my creative side to see what different kinds of paths can be constructed out of everything going on in the world of wrestling. As of late, though, I've been finding myself cheering for one guy more than anybody else: Dolph Ziggler.

I haven't had a true blue favorite wrestler since Eddie Guerrero died. That is a fact. I've been a fan of everyone from Daniel Bryan to John Morrison even to Randy Orton and Sheamus, but I can't say I've actually had any one standout guy who I just cheered for above the rest. Ziggler is quickly becoming that guy. CM Punk was damn close but all of his momentum is pretty much out the window and he went from a guy who stood out above the rest to just another cog in the machine.

Something else that not a lot of you know about me is that I am a digital artist. I went to an art school (started in 2008) and graduated with an Associate's Degree in Specialized Technology. My passion for digital art has been going strong since 2003 or so when I started making banners for websites and other banners for my own personal use on internet forums. I don't make banners often, but when I do, I spend hours perfecting them and try to make the image in my brain appear on the computer. My latest work is a Ziggler sig. Here it is.

PPV Autumn: How I would Book It

2011-10-01T01:05:00.000-04:00

As far as PPV Autumn, that's just the cool name that I came up with in reference to the 9 week period from September to November in which the WWE holds 4 PPVs. That's right: 4 PPVs in 9 weeks. Fairly ridiculous in my opinion, but at the same time I don't think I'll end up having bought more than one, if even that. This post is a compilation of interweaving storylines that are going on now, how I would book them, and what I think should happen with the overall landscape of the WWE up to and including Survivor Series. This is obviously all bound to change as WWE programming goes on, as unless they do literally everything I say they SHOULD do, I'm going to have a different landscape to start with.

In addition, I got tickets to the November 21st Raw at the Giant Center in Hershey. It's the show after Survivor Series so hopefully it'll have some great fallout and maybe even start a Wrestlemania Storyline! If you're going to be there, definitely leave a comment saying so - I love meeting other wrestling fans.

To start things out, let's have a look at the title picture.

WWE Champion: John Cena
#1 Contenders: Alberto Del Rio, CM Punk
World Heavyweight Champion: Mark Henry
#1 Contender: Randy Orton
Intercontinental Champion: Cody Rhodes
#1 Contender: Unknown
United States Champion: Dolph Ziggler
#1 Contender: Zack Ryder
Tag Team Champions: Air Boom
#1 Contender: Unknown
Diva's Champion: Kelly Kelly
#1 Contender: Beth Phoenix

Are you confused? If you are, it's okay, but honestly, you shouldn't be. Does anybody know who the #1 contender to Cody Rhodes' Intercontinental is? I certainly don't. It could be Randy Orton, but if we're playing that game, then Randy Orton and John Cena are the #1 contenders to every title - that's just not how it works. On the same note, who are the #1 contenders to the tag team championships? The former #1 contenders aren't even (kayfabe) employed by the WWE anymore much less contending for titles. Zack Ryder pinned Dolph Ziggler in a singles match, making him the only clear-cut #1 contender to the US title in the picture right now. The other situations are reasonably self-explanatory. Moving on to the Hell in a Cell Card

WWE Hell in a Cell
Kelly Kelly (c) v Beth Phoenix - Divas Championship Match
Christian v Sheamus - Triple H lets power go to his head match
Mistico Sin Cara v Hunico Sin Cara - Right to the Sin Cara Name match
Mark Henry (c) v Randy Orton - World Heavyweight Championship
John Cena (c) v Alberto Del Rio v CM Punk - WWE Championship

Seems like a very small card, doesn't it? I'm thinking the WWE is going to sneak another match into the card, and if they do, it's almost 100% guaranteed to include Dolph Ziggler. There are two options that I see as being wide open. Option one, Ziggler defends his US Title against Zack Ryder, who has now pinned him clean for two weeks straight. Option two, Dolph and Jack Swagger challenge Air Boom for the tag titles. Either way, I'm just going to call this extra match the Mr. Ziggles Exhibition. Here is my one and only prediction: the card order. Last PPV I was pretty close with my card order, but let's be honest: my last PPV post was less predictions, more fantasy booking, so I'll just stop acting like I'm actually going to try and guess what the WWE is going to do and go with what I think they SHOULD do. Let's be honest with ourselves here: if they HAD done what I "predicted" in my Night of Chairmen (and Punks) post, they wouldn't have been able to do this great Truth/Miz fired angle, Beth Phoenix wouldn't still be hungry, Randy Orton and Del Rio would both still be champions, and Mark Henry would be basically left in the dust. I'm glad the WWE decided to pull the trigger with Henry and I'll be even more glad if they keep the belt on him for more than a month.

WWE Hell in a Cell
Mistico Sin Cara v Hunico Sin Cara - Right to the Sin Cara Name matchKelly Kelly (c) v Beth Phoenix - Divas Championship Match
Mr. Ziggles Exhibition Match
Christian v Sheamus - Triple H lets power go to his head match
Mark Henry (c) v Randy Orton - World Heavyweight Championship - Hell in a Cell
John Cena (c) v Alberto Del Rio v CM Punk - WWE Championship - Hell in a Cell

Let's start with the Sin Cara v Sin Cara match. If the WWE had done what I came up with in my Dual Booking: Sin Cara vs Sin Cara, Daniel Bryan Heel Turn post, we wouldn't be having this match yet. I feel like the WWE is hotshotting everything now that they've turned Raw into the Raw Supershow and can book Smackdowns twice as fast. What's even more unfortunate is that while here I am, trying to come up with storylines that can last more than one PPV-to-PPV period with a bigger blowoff that'll sell more tickets, and the WWE is perfectly content with booking a storyline for a month, blowing it off at a PPV and then ending it. Regardless, I do think it's pretty clear what SHOULD happen here - Mistico Sin Cara goes over in a hell of a good back and forth match where Hunico Sin Cara looks strong and is able to continue performing with the red ring attire under a different name. Another option is Hunico wins and Mistico puts his mask on the line for the Vengeance PPV - again, that's something that makes sense to me, but the WWE seems to be perfectly content with just ending storylines this quickly. In either case, the finish of this storyline (whenever that may come) is to have Mistico come out with the Sin Cara gimmick/name and give Hunico a push with his own identity. It's really a great way to debut a fresh talent like Hunico and the fact that he can work heel helps.

Up next is the Divas Match. I, along with most of the rest of the world, have thought that Beth Phoenix would be Diva's Champion right now. In that same breath, I, along with the rest of the world, have been wrong. I'm at the point now that I don't know where the WWE is going with this storyline so I almost don't even want to predict anything - if I say "Beth Phoenix is finally going to win it," and Kelly wins it, the WWE dooped me three times in a row. If I say "Kelly is going to retain, WWE is just fucking with us by giving Beth all these title shots," Beth will win it and I'll look dumb for even suggesting that Kelly might retain a third time in a row. In the end, it all comes down to what the WWE wants their finish to be. If Beth Phoenix triumphantly and soundly beating Kelly 1-2-3 and proving that she is the most dominant diva in the division is their finish, they might end up having Nattie turn on her and everybody would love to see those matches. If Kelly Kelly turning into the John Cena of the Diva's division and being a real "face" of the division with a 6+ month title reign is their plan, I'm prepared to wait that long just to see Kharma come back in May and destroy her in 30 seconds. Either way, WWE, please make up your mind. Since I'll feel like I'm leaving ends loose by not making a prediction, my official prediction is Kelly Kelly to retain for a third time, and Natalya gets a shot at Vengeance.

Now that the crowd is nice and calm, we can amp them up with an exciting match: The Mr. Ziggles Exhibition. I'm not sure which match this will be, but I'm thinking it'll be Swagger/Ziggler vs Air Boom. Not only that, but I think that if that match DOES happen, we will see an Awesome Truth run-in, possibly costing Air Boom their titles. Let me put it this way...I predict the Mr. Ziggles Exhibition will end in a title change. Whether that is Air Boom getting screwed by Awesome Truth and dropping their titles to Swagger and Ziggler, or Zack Ryder winning the US Title, I'm predicting a title change. How's that for broad?

Up next is the Christian v Sheamus match. There's really no point to this match. It's probably just to put Sheamus over as the next legitimate threat to Mark Henry's world title. Christian is amazing enhancement talent and Sheamus is a young stud with a huge frame who is the only guy on the Smackdown roster who actually looks like he might stand a chance against Mark Henry right now. This leads me to...

The World Heavyweight Championship match. I'm going to come right out with it: if Randy Orton wins, I will be devastated, surprised, enraged, and most of all, disappointed. Mark Henry needs to win this match regardless of how he does it. I don't care if Cody Rhodes costs Orton the match, Mark Henry absolutely needs to retain here. It isn't a matter of "if", it's a matter of how. I see two different options to have Henry go over without Orton losing too much in this match. Option #1: Henry kicks out of an RKO, causing Randy Orton to lose his temper and get DQ'd. Option #2: Cody Rhodes costs Orton the match. I would prefer the latter, because that would spark a feud between Orton and Rhodes that is bound to create some phenomenal matches. On top of that, since Mark Henry successfully defended his title, we'll get a new #1 contender: Sheamus. Sheamus vs Mark Henry has happened already, but every match ended in some controversy whether it was countout or DQ. This could lead to some very interesting big man matches that would probably piss off most of the IWC, but the WWE already panders to the IWC enough with CM Punk, The Miz, R-Truth, Beth Phoenix and Natalya.

Finally, THE ROCK, HAS CO-whoops, wrong line. Finally, we have the first ever Triple Threat Hell in a Cell match, for the WWE Championship, between Champion John Cena and challengers Alberto Del Rio and CM Punk. This is possibly the least hyped WWE championship match of any PPV so far this year. This PPV really feels Smackdown-heavy, doesn't it? I'm making small talk because the result of this match is barely even worth touching on. If John Cena doesn't retain I will be astounded, both at the fact that the WWE is letting him lose in a match with no DQs, and at the phenomenal incompetence on the WWE creative staff. The WWE Championship, as of late, has been booked like the TNA Knockouts Championship: being passed around from person to person and losing prestige every step of the way. If you ask me, CM Punk should still be the champion. He should've beat Cena CLEAN at Summerslam and Del Rio should be working with somebody like John Morrison or Alex Riley trying to get his heat back. The fact that Alberto Del Rio beat John Morrison in less than a minute on the Monday after Night of Champions should be considered a travesty. Morrison is one of the best talents on your roster and whether he can cut a promo or not is irrelevant because he is already very over with the crowd. That's a different subject for a different day, though. Cena retains and we all happily move on to Vengeance where hopefully we can get a little less dispute surrounding this so-called Undisputed Championship.

That's it - all six matches, one of which wasn't even announced yet. As far as this blog, I hate it when the WWE does this "we're going to shove as many PPVs into football season so that even though less people are buying each PPV, we're still making the same (or similar) amount of money as we do the rest of the year" bullshit. It makes it more difficult for them to hype anything not named Dwayne and even more difficult for guys like me to get a grasp of what the hell they're trying to do as far as creative goes. The WWE Championship is at an all time low in terms of prestige and as for my closing statement?

Dolph Ziggler is the most prestigious title holder in the WWE right now.

Night of Chairmen (and Punks)

2011-09-16T20:13:00.000-04:00

Wait just a second, that's not the name of the pay per view! It's Night of Champions! Oh please, you and I both know that the selling point of this PPV is the Punk/HHH match. That's the match that's gotten the most attention over the past month and that's the match that has sold the most tickets and will sell the most PPV buys. The sad part is that, even if I wanted to name the highest drawing match next to the Punk/HHH match...I don't think I'd be able to do it. It's a pretty clear cut two way tie, but Orton/Henry has been built up far better than Cena/Del Rio, and people actually see Mark Henry as a legitimate obstacle for Orton, where Del Rio is just another notch in John Cena's ring post...but at the same time, Cena sells tickets by being on the card more than Orton, and it isn't even close. So which one is a better match? I'll let you judge that, but it's my job to predict how the storylines are going to play out tonight.

The Card Structure
Match 1. Dolph Ziggler (c) v John Morrison v Alex Riley v Jack Swagger for the US Championship
Match 2. Cody Rhodes (c) v Ted DiBiase for the Intercontinental Championship
Match 3. Air Boom (c) v Awesome Truth for the Tag Team Championships
Match 4. Kelly Kelly (c) v Beth Phoenix for the Diva's Championship
Match 5. Randy Orton (c) v Mark Henry for the World Heavyweight Championship
Match 6. Alberto Del Rio (c) v John Cena for the WWE Championship
Match 7. Triple H v CM Punk in a No DQ match where if CM Punk wins Triple H must resign as COO

Pretty simple, basic card structure - you've got to have a curtain jerker to get the crowd involved, and that's what the US Title match is. Then the Rhodes/DiBiase match should be great, but not exactly a match full of highspots, so the crowd has a chance to come down from the high that the US Title match brought them up to. Air Boom is another high spot match so again we need the Divas match to even out the tone, and then the (if you can really call it that) triple main event with the World + WWE titles being defended and the ACTUAL Main Event, the Punk/HHH match.

Dolph Ziggler (c) v John Morrison v Alex Riley v Jack Swagger for the US Championship
This should come to no surprise, but I'm predicting John Morrison to come out of this match with the United States Championship. The key in this match is that Dolph Ziggler does not have to be pinned in order to lose the championship. I think that John Morrison will pin Jack Swagger for the three count causing Ziggler to absolutely lose his lid and beat the living tar out of Swagger. Vickie goes to defend Swagger, Ziggler throws her off him to continue the beatdown. This leads to Vickie slapping Dolph and "breaking up" with him. Dolph Ziggler, a newly freed man, can chase after his US Title claiming that he was never pinned and is the rightful US champ; basically, keep up his heel persona but have HIM talking on the mic instead of Vickie. Let Vickie be Jack Thwagger's mouthpiece so we never have to hear that lithp ever again. That leaves out Alex Riley, who is a babyface, so naturally, he'll continue poking fun at Vickie Guerrero and feud with Jack Swagger because of it. This match establishes a new champion and the result establishes two new fresh feuds that at least one of could culminate in a great match at Hell in a Cell and/or Vengeance.
Winner, and NEW United States Champion: John Morrison

Cody Rhodes (c) v Ted DiBiase Jr for the Intercontinental Championship
I wish I could say that DiBiase could win the title tonight, but the fact of the matter is that as soon as DiBiase wins the title it ends any semblance of a feud that he and Rhodes had - same as what happened when Alex Riley beat The Miz in their first PPV match against each other. Rhodes retains, but DiBiase finds a way to get another title shot and wins it within a month. I absolutely love that this match was made and frankly I think it deserves way more buildup than it got, just because of the history between these two. Rhodes retains, ideally via disqualification to make DiBiase look strong in defeat, and this feuds continues on to Hell in a Cell, hopefully with DiBiase winning the title there.
Winner, and STILL Intercontinental Champion: Cody Rhodes

Air Boom (c) v Awesome Truth for the Tag Team Championships
This match is interesting because nobody really seems to know who is going to win. You can't help but ignore how massively over Air Boom is with the live crowd, but Miz and Truth are getting booed more than the heel WWE Champion. So who walks out with the titles? The best part about this match is the fact that there are four talented guys getting time. How do you prolong a feud? By giving the heels a win over the babyface champions. I think Awesome Truth wins the titles and this feud continues with Air Boom dropping the belts and needing to regain them back at the next PPV. Awesome Truth wins by sneaky, heel tag team tactics that are so desperately missed in the WWE today. It'd be great to see a Kings of Wrestling debut here, but I highly, HIGHLY doubt that'll happen - if KoW does debut, though, expect Air Boom to retain to drop the belts to the heel KoW.
Winner, and NEW Tag Team Champions: Awesome Truth

Kelly Kelly (c) v Beth Phoenix for the Diva's Championship
Let's be honest with ourselves here: there is no way Beth Phoenix is losing this match. Kelly Kelly has held the Divas title longer than anybody since Maryse held it for 6 months in the beginning of 2009. Kelly Kelly already beat Beth Phoenix in a title match at the last PPV. This could be Beth Phoenix's last shot at Kelly's title, and her being one half of the Divas of Doom, the WWE would have made the DoD look completely weak and pointless if Kelly goes over here. Beth Phoenix in dominating fashion to continue the feud between the DoD and basically the rest of the Divas roster, hopefully this DoD faction can last until Kharma comes back to make a three woman wrecking crew unrivaled by any Divas faction in the history of professional wrestling.
Winner, and NEW Diva's Champion: Beth Phoenix

Randy Orton (c) v Mark Henry for the World Heavyweight Championship
Randy Orton can't lose the belt in this match. At the same time, Mark Henry can't look weak in this match or lose his #1 contender spot. How do we achieve the desired results without overbooking too much? Have Orton win by disqualification. Mark Henry is an absolute monster who obliterates opponents and can't be stopped. Randy Orton stopping him in one try makes Henry look like a joke and makes Sheamus look even worse since he was the guy who Henry beat so bad that he couldn't even answer a 10 count at the last PPV. If Orton beats Mark Henry clean, how does that make Sheamus look? Not very good. So, simply put, Orton needs to retain the title, but not cleanly. I think the final result will be a double disqualification, with Orton and Henry battling each other outside of the ring and Henry running towards the ring but not entering the ring in time to answer the 10 count, then possibly attacking the referee.
Winner, and STILL World Heavyweight Champion: Randy Orton

Alberto Del Rio (c) v John Cena for the WWE Championship
Alberto Del Rio is having trouble garnering the heat that he had pre-Wrestlemania. I think he's having that trouble because he looks weak and didn't have enough build up as champion. How can you give Del Rio the push of a lifetime? He needs to make John Cena tap out. John Cena has tapped out before, to Kurt Angle and Chris Benoit, so even though the commentators build it up like he never has, it wouldn't be the first time. Del Rio makes Cena tap in the upset of the night to retain the WWE championship and give Del Rio the rub of a lifetime. The following night on Raw Cena gives the "I'm sorry, I underestimated Del Rio" speech to the WWE universe. This way we don't end both main event championship matches in DQ and the right guy goes over. The best part about this is that if Del Rio can't capitalize on the rub, there are two PPVs over the next 5 weeks that the WWE can have him drop the title at out of desperation.
Winner, and STILL WWE Champion: Alberto Del Rio

Triple H v CM Punk in a No DQ match where if Punk wins Triple H must resign as COO
This is the big match of the night. This match could go one of two ways. If these guys legitimately dislike each other, this could be the biggest disappointment of a match since that Bret Hart/Shawn Michaels match in Montreal in 1997, or the Lesnar/Goldberg match from Wrestlemania XX. If it's just a work, and I'm fairly sure it is, this could take Match of the Year from Punk/Cena at MitB. You've got two of the best storytellers in the business right now in a match whose only form of buildup was spoken word. THAT is exciting on its own, then you add the fact that it's a No Holds Barred match, a match that somehow has become Triple H's forte, and you've got a recipe for sheer brilliance. Don't expect wristlocks and suplexes in this match, though: that would be a delusional mistake. This is a fight. Don't mistake it for a technical exhibition.

As far as the result of the match, goes, I think Kevin Nash is going to help Triple H to beat Punk. This makes Punk look strong because it took two guys to beat him, and keeps Triple H on TV at the same time as revealing the truth behind the text sent from Trips' cell phone. It's a massive payoff that still leaves room for the story to continue and opens up an entire new chapter in said story. I do believe that our Survivor Series match this year will revolve around this feud culminating in a Triple H led faction vs a CM Punk led faction. This could pick up Match of the Year, Feud of the Year, and has the potential to earn Survivor Series that PPV of the Year spot that Money in the Bank currently holds. Either way, I do think that Nash costing Punk the match is the way to go in this one.
Winner, and STILL WWE COO: Triple H

There you have it. To sum things up, 6 of our 7 matches involved titles, and 3 of them had title changes. The overall dynamic of the WWE landscape hasn't been changed much, but Triple H and Kevin Nash have revealed their shenanigans to the world and CM Punk, which should help Raw ratings. Alberto Del Rio now looks like a legitimate, credible champion and John Cena may or may not still be the #1 contender, not that it matters - as long as he's on the card, it draws money. Cena is above championships. Randy Orton is still World Champion but Mark Henry is also still #1 contender and looks as angry and dangerous as ever, with their next match MOST LIKELY being No DQ match. The Divas and Tag Team Titles changed hands and are now held by heels, so the matches you saw involving those titles will likely be the same matches at the next PPV with the title on the other side. Cody Rhodes is still Intercontinental Champion but Ted DiBiase is most likely next in line. And, of course, the United States Championship is now firmly in the waste of John Morrison with Dolph Ziggler owed a rematch, most likely at the Hell in a Cell PPV.

Final Card + Predicted Results
United States Champion: John Morrison
Intercontinental Champion: Cody Rhodes
Tag Team Champions: Awesome Truth
Diva's Champion: Beth Phoenix
World Heavyweight Champion: Randy Orton
WWE Champion: Alberto Del Rio
HHH v CM Punk: Triple H

"He's Pulling a Triple H"

2011-09-13T20:25:00.000-04:00

The title of this topic is a direct quote from my twitter from last night. I really enjoy tweeting during Monday Night Raw and PPVs (basically any live televised wrestling show) because it feels a lot more engaging than just watching and talking about what happened after it's all over. If you have a twitter, follow me, tell me who you are, and I'll gladly follow you back so we can live tweet during Raw in the coming weeks!

My Twitter: @aPond404

That being said, something has really been urking me that I feel like I need to get off my chest, and it is regarding Triple H. It isn't EXCLUSIVELY about Triple H, but it's got to do with a really just plain unprofessional act that he seems to have originated that has been picked up and abused since he started doing it, almost to the point that it is now not seen as terribly unprofessional as it really is. What am I talking about? Well, to put it quite simply, I call it "pulling a Triple H".

So what is the exact act that I'm referring to when I say "pulling a Triple H"? Well, here's a hint. Hulk Hogan did it in his match with The Rock in 2001. Triple H and Kevin Nash are both infamous for doing it, and Triple H did it to a truly infuriating level last night in his cross promo with CM Punk. It involves getting yourself over at the opponent's expense, and it can be done in the ring or on the mic; usually, though, it's on the mic. What could I possibly be referring to? Simply the act of trying to get yourself over as a babyface when you are the heel in a feud. Triple H is the boss; that is the heel in any feud regardless of whether his intentions are noble or not. Triple H is feuding with CM Punk, somebody who is fresh off of one of the most wonderfully successful babyface turns in the past few years. Triple H is a heel in this feud, but he just insists on doing exactly what I've said: pulling a Triple H.

In the cross promo last night, Triple H was playing the stuck up boss who thinks he knows better than anyone while CM Punk was playing the passionate wrestler/wrestling fan who wants to help the boss improve the product by helping open the boss's eyes to bigger and greater options. CM Punk made a brilliant point about Vince McMahon and Triple H having a bodybuilder fetish and only pushing big beefed up 6'4" guys as top babyfaces. Punk didn't SAY babyfaces, but we all knew what he meant. So, what does Triple H do? He goes on to name possibly the ONLY four non-body builder type top guys in WWE history in HBK, Mick Foley, Bret Hart and Rey Mysterio. Let's analyze those four guys. Foley got to the top on talent and his willingness to put his body through what normal wrestlers wouldn't. Rey Mysterio got to the top because he has a superhero gimmick and the WWE used him to capitalize on Eddie Guerrero's death. HBK and Bret Hart got to the top in a short era (what was it, three years?) where the WWE was trying to improve its image as a company that doesn't encourage their employees to use steroids.

What I wish CM Punk would have done when Triple H would've dropped those names is say something like "Congratulations Hunter, you can name four guys in this company's history who weren't body builders who got to the top, but for every one of those guys you name I can name five more who fit exactly what I'm talking about," and go on to name guys like Hogan, Nash, Hall, Batista, Orton, Cena, TRIPLE H HIMSELF, The Rock, and maybe even throw Brock Lesnar's name in the mix. Regardless of that, though, what was inexcusable on Triple H's part is that he cut a babyface promo on the babyface punk while Triple H is supposed to be the heel.

On top of that, Triple H goes on to say that Punk should stop worrying about what HE thinks, and do his best to win the fans over. Are we not even going to acknowledge the fact that for 4-5 of the 6 years that Punk has been in the WWE, he has been a heel? So, let me get this straight. Triple H, while pulling a Triple H, is telling Punk that he has been wrong because he hasn't won over the crowd WHILE HE HAS BEEN A HEEL. Wanna know what that would've required Punk to do? PULL A FUCKING TRIPLE H. It's infuriating, sitting there watching Triple H get himself over as a babyface, all the while thinking "PUNK IS A PROFESSIONAL AND WOULDN'T DO SOMETHING AS UNPROFESSIONAL AS GET HIMSELF OVER AS A BABYFACE WHILE HE'S A HEEL!"

"Pulling a Triple H" is bad for the business. Don't get me wrong, it works to get the guy over who's doing it. But if he's supposed to be the heel? That's bad for the business. The Wrestling Business relies on BOTH PEOPLE in a feud putting over the babyface. The babyface's job is to connect with the audience, get people to like him, convince people that he can overcome any obstacle thrown his way, and make the heel look like the biggest obstacle he's ever faced. At the same time, though, you've got to have the heel making people hate him, and convincing people that the babyface is right when he says that he's never faced this big of an obstacle before. It's that simple. Triple H, though, puts himself over on the mic by cutting promos to make people like him and connect with his character AS A HEEL! It's selfish and terrible for the Professional Wrestling business as a whole, and to be completely honest, I'm disappointed that he still does it to this day.

CM Punk is not running out of material. CM Punk is overrated, but not in the sense that he isn't the best on the mic in the WWE today; he is. CM Punk is only overrated because people are saying he's as good as Steve Austin, and while he is GREAT in every phase of the business, he has never proven that he can be a top draw, and Austin was, and still is to this day. I love CM Punk, he is my favorite superstar still living today, and nothing pisses me off more than when Triple H comes along and...well, you know what I'm about to say.

Night of Champions Predictions are coming, in which I'll piece the puzzle that is the WWE Landscape together to the best of my abilities. Who will walk out with the US Title? Will Triple H still be in charge come next Monday Night Raw? Is Kevin Nash REALLY done with the WWE? Find out Saturday, as I'll most likely post my predictions Friday Night immediately after Smackdown. Until then, keep cheering the babyfaces, keep booing the heels, and if you're entertained by a product, buy the product!

Dual Booking: Sin Cara vs Sin Cara, Daniel Bryan Heel Turn

2011-09-11T04:04:00.000-04:00

In my last State of the WWE post, I addressed the signs of Daniel Bryan turning heel over the next few months. If you didn't catch that post, check it out [ here ]. To sum things up, I feel like there are a lot of signs that Daniel Bryan is going to be turning heel over the next few months. My original list of reasons were: the beard, losing streak, heelish tendencies, MitB briefcase, four relevant face rule, and in-ring talent. At the same time, I said that Sin Cara might be turning heel, but at the same time, addressed that it is more likely that this is more likely an angle to setup a Sin Cara vs Impostor Sin Cara feud. The Sin Cara vs Impostor Sin Cara feud is going to be my catalyst to turn Daniel Bryan heel.

Let's start at square one. Daniel Bryan is starting to feud with Sin Cara. But as far as Sin Cara goes, is he a heel or a babyface? He draws like a babyface, gets huge pops on his entrance and in the ring, but at the same time he gets booed because he acts like a heel outside of the ring, and now, on the mic. Sin Cara's promo/interview with Josh Matthews tonight reminded me a lot of Del Rio's first in-ring promo. To be honest, I'm half expecting a "damas y caballeros" introduction for him next time he shows up, courtesy of RicRod. But ignoring that fact, before we can establish Daniel Bryan as a heel, we need to establish Sin Cara as a babyface. And before we can do that, we need to go through with a Sin Cara vs Impostor Sin Cara feud just like I was talking about in my State of the WWE post last week.

So, how would you book a Sin Cara vs Imposter Sin Cara feud? It's really quite simple, since the Impostor angle has been done so many times before. Undertaker had an impostor in the 90s. Kane in the 2000s. Even La Parka had an impostor feud and because of it, we now know him as L.A. Park, or "La Autentica Parka" (authentic parka) instead of La Parka. Impostor feuds aren't difficult to book, they're just difficult to make look unique. Sin Cara's feud is unique because there have been no signs that Sin Cara is an impostor other than an unpredictable heel turn. Or at least, there were no signs...until Smackdown last night. Did anybody else find it strange that impostor Sin Cara said "I am the REAL Sin Cara"? I did. Let's run with that.

Next week on Smackdown, Sin Cara has a match with a jobber, but instead of the heel jobbers he's faced up until now, it's a babyface jobber: my favorite jobber, Trent Baretta. Baretta can put a great match on with Sin Cara and he can sell a convincing beat down, so he's my guy. The match is normal, but to win the match Sin Cara uses a LeBell Lock, mocking Daniel Bryan. Then, Bryan comes out with a mic telling Sin Cara to come up with his own submission finisher. Sin Cara grabs a mic and says something to the effect of "everything in this industry is a copy of something else, my new submission finisher is as unique as yours, the only difference is that we're both on the same show at the same time". Bryan would retort, arguing the cardinal rule of move stealing: you don't do it when the guy you're stealing the move from is still an active wrestler. Sin Cara is getting pissed at arguing semantics and tells Bryan to put the rights to the LeBell lock on the line in a match on the following Smackdown. Bryan agrees, realizing it would be the only way for him to stop Sin Cara from using his finisher.

The following week on Smackdown, Daniel Bryan retains the rights to use the LeBell Lock as his submission finisher. Sin Cara is extremely angry, and attacks Bryan from behind, leading to a beatdown and a La Mistica (tornado armbar) on Bryan, which Bryan can't escape from. Then, Mistico Sin Cara (referred to from here on out as MSC) runs out and kicks Impostor Sin Cara (ISC) in the head, breaking up the submission that MSC made famous in Mexico. This leads to a face-to-face staredown between Sin Caras, with Bryan fleeing the scene, rights to the LeBell Lock retained.

The following week, MSC comes to the ring with a translator, and cuts a promo (in spanish, with help from his translator) saying that for the last month or so, the WWE Universe has been cheering for an impostor. He says that he is the Sin Cara that got driven through a ladder by Sheamus at Money in the Bank and he has only now finished healing from that brutal power bomb. He says that whoever has been posing as him for the last month must have a problem coming up with unique ideas, because first he stole his gimmick, then he tried to steal the LeBell Lock, and now he's trying to steal his finisher, La Mistica - obviously it would need a new name, since he isn't Mistico anymore, but you get the idea. He says that this thief needs to be stopped, and since he is posing as him, he is stepping up as the man to take the impostor down.

MSC is interrupted by his own music and ISC coming out. ISC cuts a promo basically desperately trying to convince the crowd that he is the real Sin Cara, and that he isn't a wussy who takes two months to heal from a powerbomb onto a ladder. He is the real Sin Cara, he deserves respect, he was a top star in Mexico, and he is sick of people not appreciating him as the international sensation that he is. Basically, you have Hunico cutting a heel promo, claiming all of Mistico's achievements as his own. This promo would get the IWC's blood to boil and is guaranteed to confuse the general WWE audience: who is the real Sin Cara?

The following week on Smackdown (we're at October 7th here, for those of you keeping track), Sin Cara wrestles a match against Yoshi Tatsu. He acts like Sin Cara throughout the match, wins with that springboard senton lionsault combination, and then proceeds to beat the living crap out of Tatsu. We know now that the Sin Cara that just wrestled a match was ISC. MSC makes the save and while ISC is fleeing the ring, MSC gets on the mic and says, in english, "You, Me, Vengeance". I'm sure Luis Alverde can memorize and verbalize three words of English to hype up a big PPV match that will sell tickets. ISC accepts, but only under the condition that the loser must unmask. We end this segment without MSC answering whether he accepts the condition or not.

October 14th is an odd show because both MSC and ISC wrestle in matches, just not against each other. MSC wrestles Daniel Bryan in a great match where Daniel Bryan is taking liberties and using his body language, facial expressions, basically just overall psychology to show that he is skeptical as to whether this is ISC or MSC. Bryan wins by tapping Sin Cara out to one of his submission finishers, most likely the LeBell Lock. Bryan holds the submission for a little longer than usual after the bell rings, and when he lets go he looks irritated. The ref goes to hold his hand up and he pulls back. When MSC gets up, he goes to shake Bryan's hand for a truce. Bryan grabs his hand, and when MSC goes to walk away, Bryan pulls him back and does some crazy move, maybe just a kick to the head, on MSC. This is trigger #1 to turning Bryan Heel. Then, ISC comes down to the ring and starts beating on MSC. Bryan looks confused, not sure who is who, but he starts beating down the guy who is already on the ground, along with ISC. This whole time, there is still a smidgen of doubt in the audience's mind: the chance that ISC is the one getting beat down, and Bryan and MSC are teaming up to injure the man who tried to steal something from both of them. When Daniel Bryan leaves the ring, ISC gets on the mic and, right in MSC's face, says, again, LAUGHING so that the audience KNOWS that he is the impostor, "what do you say? Mask vs Mask, Sin Cara...what do you say?" - the key here is that ISC refers to MSC as Sin Cara, ensuring everybody who had ANY doubt who was the impostor and who is the real Sin Cara. Also key here is that MSC does not answer because he is either unconscious, or just out of breath. Either way, ISC drops the mic and leaves. MSC has to be helped out of the arena, but not on a stretcher.

Unmasked Impostor Sin Cara

On October 21st, the go home show to Vengeance, MSC, in a backstage interview, with his translator, says that he didn't deserve the beatdown last week because he never did anything to Daniel Bryan. The impostor is the one who tried to steal the LeBell Lock and beat down Bryan after their match. He says that all he wanted was a truce with Bryan; he didn't want trouble, but the next thing he knew, Bryan and the thief/impostor were beating him down for no reason. He needs to put an end to this impostor, and he knows how to do it: unmasking him. He accepts ISC's mask vs mask condition at Vengeance and plans to show the whole world who the true Sin Cara is. Daniel Bryan interrupts him while he's saying "true Sin Cara is" and cuts a heel promo on him. "Oh, you have GOT to be kidding me. You really expect anyone to believe that you're the real Sin Cara? You're pathet-" commence beatdown, Bryan on MSC. This is trigger #2 to turning Bryan heel. End segment, and we don't see Sin Cara until Vengeance, in his match with his impostor, where he wins and impostor Sin Cara removes his mask to reveal...another mask.

So, what have we accomplished here? First and foremost, we made money: Sin Cara overcoming the odds to defeat the evil impostor despite getting beat down by Daniel Bryan merely two days before is a money match. It isn't a main event match, but in any smaller promotion it could be. This is a main event match in TNA, for sure. If the WWE makes one of their amazing video packages, it only adds to the story. The second task that we've accomplished is debuting a heel Hunico as another spanish american superstar that will help draw in Mexico. And the third and final task that we've accomplished is turning Daniel Bryan heel. Bryan is inevitably going to turn heel in the WWE simply because he's too talented in the ring to stay babyface. He is great at making the guy on the other side of the ring look like a million bucks, so he can be used to make top babyfaces left and right. And top babyfaces draw the big bucks. Just ask Sin Cara.

ALTERNATIVE: Imposter Sin Cara is unmasked to reveal Averno, another mexican superstar that the WWE signed, who could continue working with Sin Cara while Sin Cara works to learn english. Averno is a great heel in Mexico not only because he isn't a typical superhero-esque luchador, not even only because his name means "Hell" in spanish. Averno is a great heel in Mexico because he has a great anti-lucha psychology that also incorporates some lucha to keep people entertained. He works well as a comic book villain in the same way that a lot of luchadors work well as comic book superheroes. On top of that, Averno recently unmasked (in June), so showing his real face would not be an issue. He could have a cutesy WWE name too, like "Sin Mascara" or something like that. Sin Mascara would actually be a very good name, playing off of his unmasking (Sin Mascara literally means "without mask" in spanish) and it sounds like a play off of Sin Cara (Mascara/Cara) to continue the whole "thief/impostor" gimmick going with him. You know, this idea is pretty damn good. WWE Writers, if you're reading this...you know what to do.

The State of the WWE as of 8/31/11

2011-08-31T20:23:00.000-04:00

This is going to be a long post, but I'm going to be using a font size hierarchy so that if you don't want to read the really specific stuff, just don't read the small text. The WWE right now technically has four brands: Raw, Smackdown, Superstars and NXT. In this post I'm going to be addressing Raw and Smackdown in separate sections, and then Superstars and NXT will both be in one section towards the end. So if you don't care about the C and D shows, they're at the end and easily ignored. Convenient, right? My Power Rankings at the beginning of each brand are top 9, simply for the sake of aesthetics. That damn 10 looks so chunky below all those single digit numbers.

State of Raw

Relevant Babyfaces
John Cena
CM Punk
John Morrison
Alex Riley

Yep, that's it. You could count Kofi Kingston and Evan Bourne, but as tag champs, they aren't really relevant, and on top of that they aren't exclusively Raw superstars since the Tag Champs are dual-branded. The WWE only having four relevant babyfaces on a brand is nothing new; they've been doing it for a very long time and a lot of people don't notice. It makes a lot of sense to me because the less babyfaces you have, the stronger they look individually compared to the heels, individually. If you've got a 4-on-10 fight, and the 4 guys win, obviously they look stronger. Babyfaces usually win big matches; it makes them look better that there are so many heels scheming and conspiring against them. That being said, we probably won't see another Punk/Cena match for a very long time. Summerslam was a Babyface vs Babyface match, which, in WWE's eyes, is a money match. See Austin/Rock, Rock/Hogan, and coming soon, Rock/Cena.

Power Rankings
1. CM Punk
2. John Cena
3. Triple H
4. Kevin Nash
5. The Miz
6. R-Truth
7. Alberto Del Rio
8. Dolph Ziggler
9. John Morrison

State of the Brand
Punk at number one is simple: he is the best draw in the WWE right now. He is the only guy that ascends wrestling into mainstream right now. Cena is second by a long shot with Triple H closing in on Cena as the top draw behind Punk. Kevin Nash is at number four because he's just that over as a heel right now. Every single person boos him. Kids see a guy who's trying to bully everybody, and adults see a guy who has way less talent than he'd ever let on and doesn't deserve the spot he's in. Nobody likes him in the same way that everybody likes Punk. The fact that Punk so subtly got Nash over as a heel using nothing but a "pipe bomb" really says a lot about Punk's talking talents. Miz gets relentlessly booed in most crowds and even when he isn't getting relentlessly booed he's getting a Cena-esque reaction with a split crowd booing and cheering him equally. Truth is another guy who is so evil that it's entertaining and crowds either hate him or love him.

Seems strange that the WWE Champion is so low in the rankings, doesn't it? I agree, but that's what Money in the Bank seems to do when it isn't built properly. The WWE did a brilliant job building guys like Edge, CM Punk, and The Miz as Mr. Money in the Bank before the cash in. Not so much with Swagger last year or Del Rio. Right now, Del Rio looks weak, but that isn't a good thing for a guy his size. When a 6'5" 250 lb guy who can wrestle with the best of them looks weak, you're doing something wrong. Del Rio is, ON PAPER, the best heel that the WWE could possibly offer. Then you see the reaction that he gets (or lack thereof) and you realize that something HAS to be missing. The question is, what? In my opinion, the missing link is that Del Rio never had a money feud to get him over. The Edge feud could have been that, but Del Rio ended up coming out of that feud looking just as weak as he did going into it. Then Del Rio lost a match to Christian (who looks pretty weak himself, nowadays) for the World Title. Then Del Rio got drafted to Raw where a roster shakeup had him a bit lost in the shuffle. The he had a very short feud with The Big Show and Kane which ended up somehow turning into Mark Henry's feud.

Next thing you know Del Rio is cashing in on a massively over babyface CM Punk at Summerslam, which would have added to his heat if Punk would have been the guy feuding with Del Rio after the match, but Punk went after Nash. So now we have a momentum-less, heat-less, basically faceless WWE Champion that doesn't draw a dime. How do you get him heat, though? The obvious choice is to have him feud with John Cena, but Cena is so polarizing that he might kill some of Del Rio's heel heat and give him some babyface reactions that he does not want. Unfortunately, the WWE looks like they are going to do exactly this and I honestly think that, whether Cena puts Del Rio over or not, Del Rio will look stronger but won't be this ultimate heel that he has the potential to be.

How would I book it? I would give Cena something better to do, like putting over Dolph Ziggler who has potential as both a heel AND babyface. Cena puts over Ziggler while Del Rio feuds with another upper-mid carder in John Morrison. Del Rio vs Morrison would be this year's version of Morrison vs Miz from last year, but with less history. Morrison is pure babyface; he never gets booed, he has mass appeal, and he is on that brink where a WWE title shot wouldn't be too hard to believe that it'd kill the prestige of the title. What does this setup do? First of all, it gives you two guys in Morrison and Ziggler that can step up into the main event scene at any given moment if one of your already established top guys goes down with an injury. Second of all, it makes the United States title look much better because if Cena wants it, it's gotta mean something. And finally, it gives your WWE Champion some credibility and makes him easier to hate because it's one more heel WWE Champion that kept John Morrison away from the big one. At the same time, since Alex Riley has been in a mini-feud with Dolph Ziggler (but more so, Vickie Guerrero) he turns his attention to Jack Swagger, Vickie's new "client". Since The Miz and R-Truth have recently seemed to join forces, what better target for them than the Tag Belts that were recently won by two pure-babyfaces in Kofi Kingston and Evan Bourne?

Fantasy Feuds
John Morrison vs. Alberto Del Rio (c)
Dolph Ziggler (c) vs. John Cena
CM Punk vs Triple H (or Kevin Nash)
Air Boom vs Awesome Truth
Alex Riley vs Jack Swagger

So how does this all happen? Starting with Morrison/Del Rio, Del Rio needs to beat John Cena cleanly at Night of Champions. I highly doubt this will happen, but it would instantly give Del Rio credibility as an in-ring competitor, ESPECIALLY if he gets Cena to TAP OUT to his arm bar. Cena never taps out. Maybe Cena doesn't tap out, but passes out, a la Steve Austin in 1997 to Bret Hart? Either way, Cena doesn't get another WWE title shot, so he decides to put his focus on the next best thing on the brand: the US Title. Around that same time, the WWE doesn't have a #1 contender for the WWE title, so they hold a Battle Royal to find that contender. John Morrison wins the match and is immediately attacked by Del Rio, but he doesn't get stuck in the Arm Bar because of his flexibility and parkour style; he finds a way to flip and maneuver his way into avoiding Del Rio's finishing maneuver. This leads us into a Del Rio vs Morrison feud AND the Cena vs Ziggler feud that both would be so great for business.

On the other side of the main event, CM Punk NEEDS to fight Kevin Nash at Night of Champions. Not because I really want to see the match, or because I think it'll become a classic that will be revered as one of the greatest technical exhibitions in pro wrestling history. Just because it makes sense. CM Punk got screwed by Kevin Nash, not Triple H. Whether Triple H sent the text or not, Nash needs to stay Punk's target. As long as Kevin Nash is in the picture, Punk won't win another big match. On top of that, Punk NEEDS to win. CM Punk vs Kevin Nash should be a four to five minute squash match with Punk looking like a young, 34 year old MMA master and Nash looking like a 52 year old with bad knees. It's that simple. Punk should beat Nash with the Anaconda Vise to prove that he doesn't need the GTS to win and that he can take out giants just as well as fellow average sized superstars. I'm not saying Punk should never face Triple H; quite the contrary. I think Punk vs Triple H NEEDS to happen, but at the same time I think it needs WAYYYYYYYY more build up than it has right now. Punk vs Triple H needs to be at a big venue, like the Royal Rumble or even Wrestlemania. As soon as Triple H announced on Monday Night that he was going to be Punk's opponent at NoC, I said, and I quote "DAMNED HOTSHOTTERS". You can check my twitter for proof: http://twitter.com/aPond404

The WWE putting Triple H and CM Punk across the ring from each other literally a month after issues sprouted is just way too soon. Punk needs to go through the big man before he can get to the COO. He needs to go through The Big Bossman before he can get to Vince McMahon. Just like Austin did. Punk vs Triple H needs to be the Austin/McMahon of this era; the rulebreaking rebel against the conservative, although pompous, boss. Triple H needs to put his ego aside and do the job; Punk needs to come out of this entire angle looking like the #1 guy in the entire industry. If they allow him to look like that figure, he WILL BE that exact figure. He'll be the best figure for the industry since the Attitude Era, and at the same time, he'll be a much better role model than Austin or Rock ever were because of his straight edge lifestyle.

The final two feuds feel natural. With Cena going after Ziggler, and Dolph starting more and more to show signs of kicking Vickie Guerrero to the curb, we can have a natural transition from Dolph to Jack Swagger. Vickie becomes Swagger's manager and Riley continues to target Vickie's client. We get a GREAT feud between Swagger and Riley where Riley gets an opportunity to hone his in-ring skills with one of the most technically gifted guys in the WWE who can shoot on Riley if he botches too much. That feud, and the new Tag Team feud between Air Boom and Awesome Truth, will become the new midcard (and lower card) on Raw.

State of Smackdown

Relevant Babyfaces
Randy Orton
Sheamus
Daniel Bryan
Sin Cara
Justin Gabriel

The first thing I'm going to say here is this: don't count on this current stable of relevant babyfaces to stay like this for very long. Daniel Bryan and Sin Cara are both looking like they are going to be turning heel within the next month or two. At the same time, Cody Rhodes is turning on Ted DiBiase, which will likely see DiBiase turning babyface in that month or two. So, here's a revised list.

Relevant Babyfaces (in a month or two)
Randy Orton
Sheamus
Ted DiBiase Jr
Justin Gabriel

That's more like it. Orton and Sheamus are entrenched into the top 2 babyface slots for the long run; I don't see either of them turning heel by Wrestlemania. At the same time, Justin Gabriel, the international sensation that the WWE WISHED they had in Sin Cara, is a true blue babyface who fans have been wanting to cheer even since he was an evil conspirator in the original Nexus. DiBiase has everything you could ask for in a babyface: heritage, the look, in-ring ability, and a southern accent. Right? Right. At the same time, Cody Rhodes is one of the top two or three heels on the brand right now, so a feud with Rhodes would put DiBiase into a top babyface slot pretty quickly, especially considering how few of them there will be after Bryan and Cara turn.

Power Rankings
1. Randy Orton
2. Mark Henry
3. Sheamus
4. Christian
5. Cody Rhodes
6. Wade Barrett
7. Daniel Bryan
8. Sin Cara
9. Ezekiel Jackson

State of the Brand
Orton at the top should come to no surprise. He's the biggest name on Smackdown by a mile. Mark Henry at #2 shouldn't come as much of a surprise either, although he and Sheamus are more like a 2a and 2b than a clear cut 2 and 3. Sheamus will most likely be the next guy to feud with Christian, and as with all Christian feuds, he'll most likely look great coming out of it. Will Randy Orton actually put MARK HENRY over and let him be champion for a month or two? I doubt it, but with the heat Henry has been getting it's hard to believe that the WWE won't at least give him a shot with the title. They gave Christian a shot with the title and it lasted a whole 2 days...or 5 if you live in WWE fantasy land. Who's to say they don't do something similar with Mark? He's never held a major title in the WWE before, and he's been there since the mid-90s. He's paid his dues, I wouldn't mind seeing him as the World Champion. If he does become World Champ, though, don't be surprised to see a lot of the same crap: Henry vs Orton and Henry vs Sheamus. Nobody else can really look credible against Mark in the ring unless you throw Ezekiel Jackson in there as a one-off just for something new, but at the same time, why is Ezekiel Jackson still a babyface? Is it because the only way the WWE knows how to book a big, muscle-bound black guy is already being used on Mark Henry? Who knows, but it's probably a good thing that Zeke isn't on TV much anymore. He was getting dangerous in the ring, and every time he picked somebody up for that scoop slam I cringed a bit.

Cody Rhodes is the #3 heel behind Mark Henry and Christian right now. He will probably eclipse Christian for the #2 spot within the next few months, though, since Christian just lost his title and there is no sign of him getting it back any time soon. I'm guessing Orton will beat Mark Henry at Night of Champions. At the same time, I'm guessing Ted DiBiase completes his transformation as a babyface by then and challenges Cody for his IC Title. DiBiase won't win it at NoC but I would not be even the least bit surprised to see DiBiase winning the Intercontinental Title at Hell in a Cell in October. HiaC is a match usually designed for the babyface to come out on top. At the same time Orton will most likely hold the World Title and retain it at HiaC. That sets up for an Intercontinental Champion Ted DiBiase to go into a feud with a guy like Christian who can elevate him and make him look good. Not only that, but it sets up for a Cody Rhodes vs Randy Orton feud for the world title, leaving Mark Henry and Sheamus in their dust.

While this is all going on, we've got an ongoing feud between Daniel Bryan and Wade Barrett. This leads me to something that I want to talk about: Daniel Bryan's potential to turn heel. I've been calling it now for a few days that Daniel Bryan is going to turn heel within a few months because of a few reasons that seem kind of obvious to me.

Reason #1: The Beard. When Daniel Bryan was on the independent circuit, his heel persona was infamous for his bald head and lumberjack beard. Bryan has vowed to not shave his beard until Wrestlemania. It adds up.
Reason #2: The Losing Streak. Daniel Bryan has been losing a lot lately. A lot of people see this as a bad thing; I see it as opportunity. When somebody starts losing a lot, it usually means they're getting repackaged. If Daniel Bryan starts cheating to win matches out of sheer desperation, it could be the catalyst that sparks his heel turn.
Reason #3: The Heelish Tendencies. Daniel Bryan is a modest, docile guy who usually doesn't do much trash talking and loves putting on a flashy show for the fans. In his match with Sin Cara last night on Smackdown, he was shouting "TAP! TAP!" while he had Cara in a surfboard/dragon sleeper combo. That is, psychologically, a heel tendency.
Reason #4: The Briefcase. It's easy to hate somebody that has, basically, a one-way ticket to the heavyweight title that they choose when to use. Daniel Bryan has announced that he's using his MitB title shot at Wrestlemania, but if he turns heel, who's to say he doesn't use it ahead of time? Say, he uses it after the Smackdown Elimination Chamber match, which is sure to be brutal, especially if guys like Kane and Undertaker are back in the mix by then. That would allow him to ensure that he is the main event at wrestlemania because he'd be going into wrestlemania WITH the title, not chasing it. At the same time, he'd look like a real heel for doing it because he cashed it in on somebody who just went through a grueling, usually 30 minute plus match. And he didn't break a sweat doing it.
Reason #5: The Four Relevant Face Rule. I made this rule up a while ago, but I stand by it. At any given time, the WWE generally has four relevant babyfaces on either brand's roster. I demonstrated that with my Raw Roster and my PROJECTED Smackdown Roster which should shape up nicely over the next month or two. If Bryan stays babyface and Sin Cara turns, Ted DiBiase becoming a babyface would crowd the picture.
Reason #6: In-Ring Ability. The ideal heel is somebody that can make whoever he is in the ring with look like a million bucks. That's why Christian is such a great heel. That's why Dolph Ziggler and CM Punk are such great heels. That's why Daniel Bryan would make such a great heel. End of story.

At the same time, you have Sin Cara who supposedly just turned heel when he kicked Daniel Bryan in the head on Super Smackdown last night. I don't think that's exactlly what happened. I think that since the WWE has had 2 guys under the Sin Cara mask, they're going to turn that into a storyline. New Sin Cara, or "Imposter" Sin Cara, is the one who kicked Daniel Bryan in the head. REAL Sin Cara is slowly getting back to health from the Sheamus Power Bomb through a ladder at MitB a month and a half ago. The WWE has allowed the wrong guy to wrestle for them.

Over the next few weeks slowly have Imposter Sin Cara continue his heelish ways; grabbing the trunks here, feet on the ropes for a pin there. Small stuff. And have him continue his trend of disrespecting opposing competitors after matches. Soon after NoC, have the original Sin Cara come down to the ring while Imposter Sin Cara is having a match. Have them face off. Initiate Hunico vs Mistico storyline. It isn't rocket science, people. The real Sin Cara is too much of a cash grab for the WWE. Do you realize how many masks this guy sells? Him turning heel would do nothing but hurt the WWE's stock.

Fantasy Feuds
Randy Orton vs Mark Henry (now)
Randy Orton vs Cody Rhodes (next)
Mark Henry vs Sheamus (next)
Cody Rhodes vs Ted DiBiase (soon)
Sin Cara vs Sin Cara
Daniel Bryan vs Justin Gabriel
Wade Barrett vs Sheamus

That's all I've got for Smackdown. Orton beats Henry at NoC and moves on to Cody Rhodes afterwords. Henry probably only loses to Orton thanks to Sheamus interfering so Henry goes back after Sheamus who is becoming "I'm Not Dead Yet" guy. DiBiase stands up for himself and feuds with Rhodes leading up to him taking Rhodes' title and allowing Rhodes to move on to Orton's WHC. Sin Cara feuds with his imposter. Daniel Bryan turns heel and feuds with Justin Gabriel (I CAN'T WAIT TO SEE THE MATCHES THAT THESE GUYS PUT ON) while Wade Barrett interjects himself into the Sheamus/Henry feud to take on Sheamus, a guy worthwhile; clearly not a jobber. One thing that I would LOVE to see is Skip Sheffield return to take on Mark Henry in another great Super Heavyweight feud that would elevate Skip in every way possible. That being said, where has Skip Sheffield been? Is he ready to re-debut soon? I hope so.

Regardless of that, I don't have much more to say about Smackdown. Moving on...

Superstars and NXT
Does anybody watch Superstars or NXT anymore? It sure doesn't feel like it. To be completely honest, the best part of Superstars, for me at least, is finally getting to hear Scott Stanford and Matt Striker on commentary. It's unfortunate that they don't work TOGETHER on commentary for the whole show. Frankly I think Korpela needs to go and Matthews is above this. At the same time you get some solid wrestling matches every thursday (something Impact hasn't delivered on in years) and you get to see some guys that aren't on Raw or Smackdown from week to week. Perfect examples are Drew McIntyre, Tyson Kidd, Yoshi Tatsu, and...well, Divas not named Kelly Bella Beth or Nattie. I'll watch a shortened version of Superstars with no commercials or rebounds on YouTube on occasion, but I've never watched a full episode of it on the night that it was aired.

NXT, on the other hand, while probably a lower quality show overall, intrigues me much more. I try to catch it every week at 10pm on a Tuesday...and it seems like every week I am disappointed. When is season 5 ending? Can somebody please tell me it's soon? I'm so ready to see the FCW talents get showcased...and new ones, not redone formerly eliminated contestants from seasons past. I want to see Seth Rollins, Richie Steamboat, Bo Rotundo, Leakee, Rick Victor and even guys like Orlov and Jon Moxley aka "Dean Ambrose". Derrick Bateman needs to win this season, stay a heel, and keep Daniel Bryan (who will turn heel as well) as his heel Pro in NXT Season 6. Sounds almost too good to be true, doesn't it?

Of course it does...so does most of the other fantasy feuds that I discussed in this post, though. The most we can do is hope, right?

Welcome to PWB

2011-08-31T17:47:00.000-04:00

I'm not here to give people any big stories or find the next big exclusive. I'm not even here to rate matches with stars; that's for marks. I am here to offer my opinion on the state of Professional Wrestling. I'm not even limiting it to just what's going on today; I might occasionally get the urge to post something about Pro Wrestling's past. I have been watching Pro Wrestling since 1996, when I was a mere six years old, and I've been intensely passionate about the business ever since. I learned some of the inner workings of the business around the time that "Beyond the Mat" came out. You know, the movie that goes inside the lives of Jake Roberts, Mick Foley and Terry Funk. When I saw Foley and Rock discussing spots before their big I Quit match that I marked out so passionately for when it happened, it all clicked.

That being said, I never stopped watching. I still absolutely love Pro Wrestling today despite less people liking it now than since before Hogan came around. I watched as WCW overcame WWE for a year and a half in the ratings war. I watched as all of WCW's best talents (Jericho, Guerrero, Malenko, Saturn and Benoit) made their jumps to WWE. I watched as Austin 3:16 and Do You Smell what The Rock is Cooking? became international phenomenons. Hell, in 5th grade, I even wore a Stone Cold Steve Austin T-Shirt to my school and was made to turn it inside out because it was "inappropriate". I then watched as the raw, violent attitude era faded away and we were given some of the best pure wrestling of all time. With names like Angle, Lesnar, Guerrero, Mysterio, Jericho, Austin, Rock, Benoit, Edge, the Hardys, and plenty more names that were all around in the early to mid 2000s, that particular era of Pro Wrestling, while it might not technically have a name, like "Attitude Era" or "PG Era", might be my favorite era of all time. I even witnessed purchase of WCW and one of the most ridiculously botched storylines in Pro Wrestling history thanks to the ego of the McMahon family.

In my opinion, the best era of wrestling in history was born at the same time as Austin 3:16 and died at the same time as Eddie Guerrero. Eddie Guerrero, still is to this day, is my favorite performer of all time, with a close second being Chris Jericho. The difference between Guerrero and Jericho, in my opinion at least, was always passion. Eddie Guerrero was a pro wrestler; he never wanted to be anything else, he never even realized that there was an option to be something else. The business coursed through his veins from birth, and he loved it. Jericho, on the other hand, is a Pro Wrestler, a musician, a writer, and now, a dancer. Eddie had the passion for the business like no other, including Jericho.

Now that you know about me and what I think about the business so far (it's not easy to sum up my 15 years of viewing into a post that isn't tl;dr material) I'm going to end this post and move on to a new one. I want to keep this one an intro to me and this blog, and nothing else. The upcoming post, though, will be my analysis on the current State of the WWE, something that Triple H kind of failed to actually talk about in what was called the "State of the WWE Address". Shocking, Trips couldn't stay on subject in a promo.