General Pro Wrestling News and Discussion Thread Part Deux!

[Mr Silver]

Alberto Del Rio has been officially traded to Smackdown, which is about time given that he can fill the top heel spot on Smackdown when DB turns face (due to the YES! mania) or gets drafted to Raw.

Edge's contract is expiring at the end of the month and WWE is apparently frantically trying to get him to re-sign. This is interesting, considering that Edge cannot wrestle anymore (and has probably been advised not to engage in bump taking either). It seems that WWE would much rather keep him handcuffed than sign him to a Legend's deal and allow him to work elsewhere without permission from them.

[Admiral_Young]

I expected Del Rio to be drafted to Smackdown. They need him more than Raw does at this point. I'd love if Miz got drafted as well...that might be what he needs, but I doubt it.

Not surprising that they'd want to retain Edge to some kind of contracts to keep his likeness rights or merchandising rights or whatever.

I know we've touched a bit upon WWE's social media promotion and it's continued pushing of it, another thing that has really irritated me is that they continuously update each Superstars facebook page with the same pointless recap. It is very annoying lol.

[Mr Silver]

I think WWE wants to re-sign to a Steve Austin style contract, although Austin's contract is very flexible because of his success in outside endeavours and WWE relishes the prospect of gaining mainstream attention through Austin's pursuits.

This is one of these things that nearly destroyed WWE's relationship with The Rock in 03/04 - they wanted to keep him under contract but he declined to re-sign in order to go it alone in Hollywood. I suppose the last year's worth of big money Rock appearances, angles and matches has provided WWE with adequate compensation.

See, I think Edge could do really well in TV and movies, because he's got natural charisma and comes across as a likeable person. He's not stranger to acting, having made appearances in various TV shows and movies in the last few years.

[Admiral_Young]

Instead of signing Edge to a Legends contract, they could give him a "special" contract like Shawn Michaels has. Shawn himself used the term to describe the type of contract he is under and confirmed it isn't a superstars or legends contract. I suspect that the Rock signed a similar type deal when he came back last year.

[Admiral_Young]

Chris Jericho reveals that his current run will conclude sometime prior to Summer Slam (which I believe some of us have speculated about in the thread) as he will be touring with Fozzy afterwards. I guess this means that Punk will retain at Extreme Rules LOL.

http://pwtorch.com/artman2/publish/q...le_60559.shtml

[Satyrquaze]

I wouldn't count out a Jericho Championship win just yet. We have four PPVs between now and SummerSlam (8/19), anything's possible.

[Admiral_Young]

WWF Universe!!!! Punk is awesome.

[Satyrquaze]

Well, that ending was anti-climactic.

[Admiral_Young]

I just noticed that Brock has been wearing black and white Also the ending might have been anti-climatic but that was on purpose to build up the tension and evoke emotion from the crowd (which it did). This is already ten times better than Rock/Cena IMHO.

Apparently the Bella Twins are leaving the WWE after their contracts expire April 30. This is a little ironic since it was reported just a few months ago that the pair were Vince's favourite Divas and would get a fairly large push. I don't know the status since Niki of course just won the DIVAS Title. Also update on Beth's injury...

http://pwtorch.com/artman2/publish/q...le_60698.shtml

It was also cool to see Edge confront John. I marked out to Edge's appearance.

[Mr Silver]

It's been said that the only reason Nikki Bella won the Diva's Championship was because WWE doesn't want Kharma to defeat Beth Phoenix for it and presumably ruin the payoff that will come from having a feud between the two with Kharma as the dominant champion and Phoenix as the face looking to pull off an upset, or something like that. In any case, it's pretty insulting to Nikki to blatantly portray her as a transitional champion if these rumours are true.

I'm very happy with how Brock Lesnar's character is coming across. I did say when news first broke of his return that I thought it would be wrong to portray him as a face from the onset and this opinion still stands. Lesnar is one of those perfomers that people loathe, but love at the same time because his skill as an athlete is phenomenal and he has a wide understanding of in-ring psychology. Sure, he's no CM Punk on the mic, but this doesn't necessarily factor into his character and he provokes an intense reaction by just being arrogant.

Lesnar's a guy that has been very successful at nearly everything that he's done. He may not have made it into the NFL, but he still made it to the trials and although I'm no expert on American Football, I'm sure that's a pretty big achievement in itself. His character's arrogance is justified, because he's actually every bit as good as he says.

[Admiral_Young]

Apparently there were rumours that Paul was writing his promos for him, but Heyman has denied this.

[barnaclelapse]

Admiral_Young wrote:

---

Raw has been actually decent since post 28. I expect it will be over the next month, although i'm not looking forward to the 3 Hour Raw next week. They're always over hyped and nothing happens. The draft is set for this month as well as I mentioned earlier. Smackdown needs a big time shake up again, Orton has done nothing for the show since being drafted last year.

As for the bottle...I remember reading somewhere questioning if the bottle looked cracked already, but wouldn't be surprised if it was real alcohol.

Smackdown needs a fucking miracle, lightning in a bottle. The legends show was fun, but they can't pull that card trick every week.

[Sheep]

Admiral M wrote:

---

In any case, it's pretty insulting to Nikki to blatantly portray her as a transitional champion if these rumours are true.

With the Bellas rumored to be leaving the company in about 5 days, I highly doubt anyone in WWE cares.

[Admiral_Young]

After thinking about it a bit, it's very possible that Niki's reign is looked at as being some kind of reward. Otherwise I can't see a logical reason for making either Bella Divas Champion when they're about to leave.

[Mr Silver]

It could very well be that they have agreed to re-sign with the company and Nikki has been awarded a title push as a result and (Brie has already been Diva's Champion) perhaps the intention that both of them will be heavily involved in storylines in the near future.

Either that, or WWE would rather that someone on their way out of the company takes the monstrous squash from Kharma. I find this hard to envision though, because WWE has never been hesistant to bury their Diva talent before, regardless of their contract status.