General Pro Wrestling News and Discussion Thread Part Deux!

Summerfest!

Brock Lesnar to defeat Triple H
CM Punk to retain the WWE Championship against John Cena and The Big Show
Dolph Ziggler to cash in and defeat Sheamus for the World Heavyweight Championship
Sheamus to retain the World Heavyweight Championship against Alberto Del Rio
Chris Jericho to defeat Dolph Ziggler
The Miz to retain the Intercontinental Championship against Rey Mysterio
Titus O'Neil and Darren Young to defeat R Truth and Kofi Kingston for the Tag Team titles
Daniel Bryan to defeat Kane
Santino Marella to retain the United States Championship against Antonio Cesaro


- CM Punk will probably complete the heel transition at Summerslam or in the next couple of Raw's following the PPV.
- John Cena will probably remain in the WWE Championship picture.
- Dolph Ziggler, Sheamus and Alberto Del Rio will feud over the WHC, if Ziggler cashes in.
- I could see Brock Lesnar turning face at the PPV.
- Santino Marella will probably lose the US title to Antonio Cesaro at one of the Raw's following Summerslam.
- Chris Jericho is leaving and not returning until sometime around the new year.
- I don't expect the Prime Time Players' tag title reign to last long.
- Ryback will probably make an appearance at the PPV, possibly against Jinder Mahal.
- Miz and Rey will probably continue their feud for at least one more PPV.
- I could see Brock Lesnar starting a program with Randy Orton (if the Viper turns heel) or Undertaker (if he feels that he can do an additional PPV appearance along with WM). It's likely that such a program would be held off until Wrestlemania though.

Thoughts?

 

^Indeed, The Summerfest!

I agree with many of your points...

• CM Punk to retain, probably through heelish/tweener means.
• Brock to defeat Triple H. Because, he can't be the scary monster heel if he keeps losing (see: Kane).
• Chris Jericho to defeat Dolph Ziggler. Because too much has been made of Jericho's losing streak.
• Sheamus to retain cleanly.
• Dolph Ziggler to cash in the MitB contract and win the WHC.
• Miz to retain the IC Championship.
• Kofi and Truth to retain.
• Kane to defeat Daniel Bryan. I make this prediction being very high on Bryan, and not giving two shits about Kane.
• Antonio Cesaro (who?) to defeat Santino Marella for the US Championship.

 

Claudio Castagnoli pre-WWE. He actually looked pretty impressive against Christian in last week's Smackdown:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=znn5rCW6Xn0

 

^yeah, I have to admit, he's got skills.

 

I pretty much concur with your guys picks for once. LOL.

 

I'm still waiting for the new WWE Championship belt to be unveiled. IMO, the best time to do so was at the 1000th Raw, along with all the other changes they made. Honestly, I could see them holding the unveiling off until The Rock inevitably (well, extremely likely anyway) captures the WWE Championship at Royal Rumble and "puts an end" to the belt being associated with John Cena - thus ushering in a new era and the feud between Cena and Rock being resumed.

 

I'm not sure I like the persumed new WWE Championship belt any moreso than I like the current one.

I'd seriously like them to bring back the "Winged Eagle" Title.

 

It's very possible the belt is not complete. The image we saw was supposedly only a side plate and not the centre plate as everyone originally assumed. I agree that Raw 1000 was the best time to present the title to Punk. I want them to bring back the Winged Eagle as well. It's my favourite belt. I'm still very seriously considering getting a replica.

 

WWE "Are you Serious" takes a shot at the IWC, and it's pretty damn funny, actually.

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZTxieh990E&feature=g-vrec[/yt]

 

"Oh sweet Terra Rising!!!" LOL

 

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/...s-been-better-this-week-august-12th-18th-2012

Part 2 of my spiffy series. My suggestion that Impact was the better show last week received a mixed reaction in the comments of the previous article, so I don't know how this one'll go down. Still, defender of my own opinions and no one else's or whatever.

I would post some Summerslam predictions like I used to, but too often my thoughts of who would win didn't take account of swerves or unclean finishes or whatever, so I'll leave it be and chat about the results instead. I'm really looking forward to it though, if only for the Ziggler vs Jericho match (which I'd often say in the months before I'd have made the main event at Wrestlemania I thought their styles would match so well).

 

Angle-madness has made a return early this morning!

It seems that Angle's TNA contract is coming up for renewal, and perhaps he's trying a not-so-subtle way of bargaining a better deal. Of course, one has to imagine that Angle signed a long-term lucrative contract with TNA in the last couple of years and something has soured recently that is making Angle look at the possibility of returning to WWE.

He isn't the best person when it comes to "appropriate social networking as a public figure", but this could always be part of some storyline related to Aces & 8's.

I don't actually know how Angle would manage if he returned to WWE. It's unlikely they'd offer him a "Brock Lesnar" style contract, nor a reduced schedule contract of any significance. I don't see how a 43 year old man with an accumulative history of neck injuries could last very long on a 200 shows per year schedule. I honestly feel that the only reason Kurt Angle is still managing to wrestle at this stage of his career is because of the reduced schedule that he receives in TNA.

 

Angle's contract as reported by one of us in the previous thread was supposed to expire early next year, so perhaps what we're hearing are early talks. Kurt has tweeted and just flat out said that he would like to end his career back in the WWE, and as recent as Wrestlemania time tweeted to Jim Ross that he would love Ross to call his final match. So who knows. Never say never...

Well...bit of a surprise...discovered the new roommate is a big wrestling fan like myself, and we're going halfers on Summer Slam tonight. I wasn't intending to watch it this evening but since he's interested...why not?

 

^ This has been the first PPV I've had very high hopes for about since Wrestlemania. I really hope WWE doesn't screw this up with safe booking and predictable main events (eg, Triple H pins Lesnar clean).

Even if Kurt Angle does want to finish his career up in WWE, the only way I see him returning is if WWE offers him a contract with a decent downside (at least what he's getting in TNA), a reduced schedule (100 shows per year as opposed to 200) and the guarantee that he'll be pushed as one of the top guys from the onset. Someone like Brock Lesnar can bargain for things like this because he's a proven box office draw who is still hot in the media world, whereas Angle has been wrestling for a company that draws a fraction of what WWE does for the last 6 years.

If Angle really wants to finish up his career in WWE, then for the sake of his health and wellbeing (as I brought up earlier about a 43 year old man with a history of neck injuries working the WWE schedule), he should negotiate a "Legends Contract" that gives him 2 or 3 high profile matches and a non-wrestling role following his retirement.

 

I agree about the Legends Contract. It makes the most sense for him to sign in the current condition he is working in. I do believe that there is a slight chance he could actually re-sign with the WWE next year if he has at all become tired of TNA. Although this seems to be the speculation every time Kurt's contract has expired or is close to expiring there lol. Kind of the same thing that happens with Sting.

As for the PPV...there are some interesting matches on paper aren't there? If he didn't agree to go halfers with it with me, I would be ignoring it lol. I don't expect there to be any change booking wise to be honest, Wrestlemania was the time to start altering their policy and they chose not to...so yeah, I really don't see this changing.

 

Well, Summerslam was much better than last year's event...

This year however, the main event stank. I have absolutely no idea why A) Brock Lesnar's in-ring abilities have declined so much since Extreme Rules and B) Triple H's in-ring abilities have declined so much since Wrestlemania.

The finish was spot-on though, by having Lesnar no-sell Triple H's (2nd) Pedigree and then lock him in the Kimura for the submission victory, WWE is restoring that "monster" credibility that they somewhat dented when they had Lesnar lose to Cena (albeit in almost fluke fashion) in his first match back.

The match should have been much more aggressive and personal - a'la the Taker/Trips match at Wrestlemania. The match could have done with some "colour" (that's blood for those of you unfamiliar with the term), a concept that I was expecting would be reserved for Lesnar's matches (anybody who says that the blood at ER was hardway is deluding themselves, had Cena really hit Lesnar with a chain assisted punch, he would have cracked his fucking skull! Not to mention the fact that had Lesnar struck Cena with elbows for real, the result, in all likelihood, would be that Cena would have been KO'd).

This match somewhat reminded me of the disaster that was Randy Orton vs. Triple H at Wrestlemania 25, in that it was slow paced and despite having a massive build, was so lacking in any psychology or emotion that it could have passed for a Raw match.

 

Story telling was missing from the Brock/Lesnar match IMO. I'm talking about in-ring psychology, like the Undertaker/Triple H match from WM. That had oodles of compelling story telling going on which made it one of the most compelling matches of the last several years. This one had none of that. I agree it should have been aggressive and personal given the built up between Brock and Triple H. I'm not surprised that Lesnar was rusty in the ring, Triple H hadn't wrestled either in a few months, putting two guys who were both rusty together wasn't very smart.

I might have more thoughts on the PPV tomorrow...and I guess I might actually be watching Raw.

 

So you may notice that I tend to like WWE's stuff less than most, but I'm always an optimist after a PPV when we don't know what direction things will be going in next. So I've combined that though with a little analysis of SummerSlam and written this:

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/...ime-following-a-ppv-is-most-exciting-for-fans

 

A fairly humdrum PPV last night. I will be sending off an angry letter to the WWE about including obvious commercials in something I am already paying to see but thats another subject.
The Punk win was a surprise but his turning into the ultimate opportunist rankles the Edgehead in me no end. Really was pulling for a Big Show win though I know management and the writers would have no idea what to do with that.
As for Lesner/HHH well the video package was better than the match itself. Which is quite sad really. There was just no intensity there. It would have easily been upped a bit had Shawn or Stephanie been ringside.
I would much rather have had a Ryback or Funkasaurus or Diva match than have Rudolph the cant sing reindeer, warble out a song. No matter how hard you try WWE Summerslam will never be Mania, so stop wasting our time with all the junk.

 

and now wwe.com is reporting that Lesnar "broke" HHH's arm again.