General Pro Wrestling News and Discussion Thread Part Deux!

[Admiral_Young]

Actually, I've been wondering if Linda's campaign has been the reason why things have been so tame for the last several months? Safe booking. Erratic story telling and inconsistent programs? Maybe this will change after the election is over with?

[Mr Silver]

Admiral_Young wrote:

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Actually, I've been wondering if Linda's campaign has been the reason why things have been so tame for the last several months? Safe booking. Erratic story telling and inconsistent programs? Maybe this will change after the election is over with?

Nope, Jack shit changed following Linda's last campaign. If anything I think the big WWE cleaning job that coincided with Linda announcing that she was running for senate was done at that point to add brownie points to Linda's campaign. The clean up had been coming for a long time.

Vince and Linda spent tens of millions of dollars on the last campaign which very likely had some financial ramifications for WWE. This time WWE are safer because the PG era has provided a decent amount of revenue, which makes you wonder if the plan was always for Linda to have at least two cracks at the world of politics.

[barnaclelapse]

One run was more than enough for my stomach.

[Admiral_Young]

I didn't even know such a thing was going on right now.

http://pwtorch.com/artman2/publish/q...le_62387.shtml

[Mr Silver]

Can't say I'm really THAT interested in No Way Out, but nonetheless:

Brodus Clay to defeat David Otunga
Layla to defeat Beth Phoenix
Santino to defeat Ricardo Rodriguez
Sheamus to defeat Dolph Ziggler
Ryback to defeat 2 Jobbers
Christian to defeat Cody Rhodes
CM Punk to defeat Kane and Daniel Bryan
John Cena to defeat Big Show

[StarTrek1701]

Sheep wrote:

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The chances of a return to Attitude era style writing/antics or anything similar are non-existent with Linda running for Senate again. They're not going to do anything to show the WWE in a controversial light that would give her opponents soundbyte fodder. Even Vince seemed oddly subdued last night.

And that's what's killing the WWE in the first place. They should realize their product is what the fans want, not political bullshit. Maybe in the near future Levesque and his wife might return the WWE to the late 90's glory. One can still hope.

[Admiral_Young]

No Way Out sounds like it's going to be one of the most disappointing PPV's of the year with the card they have. My picks echo Admiral M's except I think Ortunga/Clay will end in a DQ. They'll play up Clay's leg there after the attack on Smackdown. I wouldn't be totally surprised to see Big Show beat John Cena...Big Johnny could interfere in the match somehow. I can see them dragging out this program. Punk will retain. So will Christian. I wonder if Brock will make an appearance? Probably not.

[Sheep]

Admiral M wrote:

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Can't say I'm really THAT interested in No Way Out, but nonetheless:

Brodus Clay to defeat David Otunga
Layla to defeat Beth Phoenix
Santino to defeat Ricardo Rodriguez
Sheamus to defeat Dolph Ziggler
Ryback to defeat 2 Jobbers
Christian to defeat Cody Rhodes
CM Punk to defeat Kane and Daniel Bryan
John Cena to defeat Big Show

I agree with all of these except for the last two.

I'm fully convinced the WWE is going to do something completely unexpected to finish the Punk/Bryan/Kane match. I have no clue what that is but I'll be very surprised if the match ends cleanly with Punk or Bryan pinning Kane which, let's face it, are the only ways this match ends cleanly.

For Cena/Show, I have Big Show defeating Cena with interference from Ace. Cena will do his usual routine of being "fired" for half an episode before he comes back at the very end of Monday's Raw. I haven't been keeping up too closely with spoilers so I have no idea if Vince will appear at No Way Out but I'm venturing that he'll appear on Raw to deal with the aftermath instead.

[Admiral_Young]

Punk seems like a no brainer. With the WWE Title redesign on the horizon, and WWE showing no confidence in anyone else right now, I think we're going to have a nice long run with Punk as champion, which is just fine by me. I think he's the most over face champion we've had in a very long time.

[Sheep]

Admiral_Young wrote:

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With the WWE Tittle redesign on the horizon, and WWE showing no confidence in anyone else right now

Let's not forget Sheamus who continues to be over-pushed down our throats for some reason. I instinctively reach to change the channel every time that pasty, no-selling idiot appears on my screen.

And we all know Vince has a gigantic boner for Ryback, who's somehow already managed to become stale with the endless stream of 150 lb. jobbers he's squashed two-at-a-time.

[Admiral_Young]

I shouldn't say they have no confidence. Bryan and Sheamus are on the radar, and I wouldn't really mind if Daniel Bryan took the strap off Punk, I just don't think that is going to happen for a while. I don't see Punk dropping the title until later this year, if at all. He's surpassed Mike's streak for longest current title reign now...so as long as fans are still invested in him, I think creative will keep the strap on him. I suspect Triple H is behind Sheamus' recent push.

[Mr Silver]

I find it hard not to mentally apply Hornswoggle's music whenever Sheamus wins a match. The guy went from being an ass kicker who made WWECW exciting during his brief tenure on the brand to becoming one of the fastest WWE Champions of all time (defeating Cena nonetheless) and after a prolonged stale period WWE repackages him as this happy go lucky face who finishes his opponents by doing a dancing kick into them. It's hard to take his serious promos seriously when he goofs around so much.

As for Ryback, I'm convinced things went down like this:

Vince: I'm concerned about the big guy/normal guy ratio, get me the biggest possible guy you can find that we have under contract.
Smithers: That would be Ryan Braddock sir, one of your FCW/NXT farm talents and cannon fodder for John Cena during the Nexus storyline.
Vince: Right, we're going to go with Ryback which was something he used to be known by as it's a mononym and it makes it easier for us to apply prefixes. I want the seamstresses to find him a spandex one piece that is a couple of sizes too small so we can stress how awesome this guy's physique is. We're going to put him on a undefeated streak where he will utterly dominate and seldom speak
Creative Goon: Vince, WCW already did that with Goldberg and you kn... (cut off)
Vince: Shuuuuuttuuup! This guy is bigger, stronger and unknown, we can do whatever we like with him and the fans will have to buy into it, we'll have him squash two of the smallest local guys we can find each week and we'll have him do a Samoan drop with a bit of theatrics as a finish - simple and something we can perhaps call the "Muscle Buster" to capitalise on his physique
Creative Goon 2: But Vince, the muscle buster isn't how you describe, it's actually a.. (cut off)
Vince: Yooooouuuu'rrrrreee Firrrrrreeeeeed!
Creative Goon: Damn and he was only two days away from retirement...

[Admiral_Young]

Stephanie should be involved in that conversation since she's head of creative, but otherwise that probably was close I saw somewhere that Goldberg was asked about Crimson calling him out on Impact last week. He replied "Crimson who?" He was also asked about Rybeck...I don't think he cares one iota.

I'm amazed that fans accepted and embraced face Sheamus so much. He was such a dominate and hated heel, then boom after he was in the dog house in 2010 and some of 2011, they repackage him as a face and he's well embraced by the fandom. I've even marked out a bit for him here and there. The attempted record thing notwithstanding. But then of course they did the same thing with Orton and others.

[CaptainWacky]

Anyone else think No Way Out will end with Vince screwing Cena and helping Big Show win? Even though that would make no fucking sense?

[Admiral_Young]

The way things have been going lately...that would not be surprising.