General Pro Wrestling News and Discussion Thread Part Deux!

[Satyrquaze]

Ah, right. Yeah, I'd gladly kick him in the head all day long.

Yes, but you're a heel. That makes it okay.

All kidding aside, I'd also gladly kick Lawler's mysogynist head in all day as well. You can set your watch by the frequecy in which he fills the air with blatantly sexist comments. And he's the face color commentator- which by some stretch of the imagination means he should be held accountable for what he says in the PG Era.

If WWE is future endeavoring guys for making analogies to Kobe Bryant being unstoppable when attempting rape, shouldn't Vince or Trips or someone tell Lawler to sell the impression that mysognyny is A-OK when it comes to the WWE's target audience?

True, I miss the days when Lawler would blurt out "Puppies!" every third word during Divas matches, but if we're going to be PG, lets not make fat jokes about Vickie unless we're also going to make them about Big Show, Brodus Clay, or Mark Henry.

Huh, I wonder why Lawler wouldn't want to do that...

 

[Admiral_Young]

Lawler is ridiculous on commentary now. He's a shadow of his former self. I've been watching old clips from the Attitude era and that Lawler is hilarious. I miss that Lawler.

I think they're failing to turn Punk heel...because it is clear that the fans (I know I include myself in this) don't want a heel turn from Punk right now. They've done and abandoned so many things with Punk since the is he leaving story line now that it's sort of ridiculous. Are they attempting to do the authority story line with AJ now? It's all confusing because again...there's been a lack of consistency in any story line or program they're doing right now. They're starting to create apathy IMHO.


Micheal Cole is ridiculous as well, the continued flipping from heel to neutral. He does this all the time now.

I guess Jericho is now written off television. As we've discussed before I believe he did state that he is not contracted beyond Summer Slam.

 

[scnj]

Jericho's tour with Fozzy starts Friday. As for Michael Cole, I think he's good, but only when he has someone who works as hard as he does. There's an interview with Lawler where he says that JR would insist on him showing up early to run through the program, but he doesn't bother any more, he just tuns up for show time and wings it. He doesn't care any more and it shows in everything from his stupid comments to his tired delivery.

Cole is much better opposite someone like Josh Matthews, but Matthews doesn't have the personality to carry the 'A-show'. Personally, I'd like to see JBL or Paul Heyman make a return to commentary, or William Regal to be promoted from NXT or wherever they have him. Someone who still cares about the industry and can weigh in on the match with some actual insight.

The other thing they should do is blur the lines. A heel/face commentary team doesn't work when there are faces acting like heels (Sheamus) and heels who are over as faces (Daniel Bryan, CM Punk). I'm not suggesting they go back to play by play/colour, but maybe letting the commentators call things as they see it, and maybe root for the superstars they want to root for regardless of allegiance so we get a more balanced commentary.

 

[Mr Silver]

Instead of people chanting "Kobe Bryant", I'd rather they chanted "Vote for Linda" clap-clap-clap- clap clap. We might finally see the end of the crap caused by her senate campaign as she further distances herself from the company.

 

[Ghost Bones]

More self-promotion I'm afraid:
http://bleacherreport.com/articles/...getting-the-cm-punk-of-last-years-shoot-promo

It's something I wanted to write for a while, and now's the perfect time. About Punk's character and that. Something I never really saw anyone else saying.

 

[Sheep]

I wonder if the real plan is to turn Punk into a "John Cena" type character who polarises the audience? WWE is certainly failing to turn the guy heel.

I'm convinced the WWE had Punk kick Lawler in the head to turn him into a full heel, dropping any pretense that we were going to see him turn in a slow burn or that he might be a tweener. The WWE WILL make Punk the mustache-twirling heel in this feud because anything else would threaten Cena and his merchandise selling, make a wish giving persona. We certainly can't have any ambiguity about who the face is when someone's facing Cena--Cena must always be the biggest face on the roster. Look at all the ways the WWE tried to weaken the Rock leading up to Wrestlemania--thankfully the fans weren't buying into that crap.

Related...

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/...ent-draws-major-heat-but-does-he-have-a-point

No idea how accurate this report is but that segment did seem a bit off in that Punk didn't get a chance to reply to Cena's comments before turning his attention back to Lawler. If it's true, I actually feel bad for Cena who apparently doesn't want to play the mega babyface anymore--can't really blame him as he's had this same boring persona for years now. I don't think he needs a full heel turn but even having him show some edge and not always being the chuckling superhero against his opponents would be an improvement.

 

[scnj]

At this point, I'd be happy to see a return to the doctor of thuganomics. Yeah, it's really dumb and kind of lame, but at least it's a character. Right now he's just so vanilla.

 

[Mr Silver]

Sometimes I question myself why I continue to watch WWE, I usually arrive at the conclusion that when it's good, it's VERY good.

I was saying to Ghost Bones the other day that WWE creative seems to have a heavy presence of those religious nutters who spend all week talking about god and "being saved" and that kind of stuff and then go and watch simulated violence at the weekends. I say this because of very "black and white", "good and evil", booking practises - it's very rare that you come across a character in the middle ground.

All heels much cheat or play dirty nowadays, there is no "I'm actually out to prove that I'm the better wrestler and I'll do it fair and square, no matter how much the audience hates me" type characters kicking around.

 

[Admiral_Young]

The frustrating part is that it hasn't been "very good" in a long time. It's had some great moments, but for the most part it has been mediocre. It most certainly has not been must see.

The middle ground character is what CM Punk has been all about for the past year. Even right now in the midst of this supposed heel turn, he's neutral (until the Lawler kick in the head) only demanding respect. I thought the segment with Cena hit it on the nail. He's been seeking respect since last July and aside from the fans still hasn't got yet (at least if you wanna look at it from character perspective). Also this is his second WWE Title reign. The first didn't go so well after WWE pushed Del Rio to the moon and it back fired on them. I'd say out of the opponents that Punk have faced only Jericho and Bryan have been any good. Now we're suddenly back to Cena. WWE's lack of depth in their WWE Title picture is sorely lacking, if we're already back to Cena.

I have a feeling that Admiral M is going to be proven right and Cena will take the title from Punk by year's end. We will have Rock Vs Cena 2.0 at Royal Rumble (even though I'd be much more interested in Punk Vs Rock).

 

[Ghost Bones]

This one's about Ziggler and why he should wait a bit to cash in.
http://bleacherreport.com/articles/...iggler-must-wait-to-cash-in-money-in-the-bank

 

[Mr Silver]

^ Good article.

I definitely think that some time needs to pass before Ziggler cashes in. It feels like there is something quite big missing for his character and unless he finds that missing part, it's quite possible that his MITB cash-in title reign will be "Jack Swagger" rather than "Edge".

 

[Admiral_Young]

I predict Survivor Series for Ziggy to cash in finally. That should be enough of a margin to build up...as long as they don't keep doing the will he or won't he gimmick. That will get boring after a time.

 

[Ghost Bones]

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1308965-wwe-has-chris-jerichos-latest-run-been-a-failure
Last one for a couple of days now. It's about Chris Jericho. It'd be a waste not to write about him.

 

[Admiral_Young]

Yep. I agree with that...and a couple of us Jericho fans have already spoken about it here in the thread. It was a waste and he put guys over that didn't really need it. CM Punk was already over as WWE Champion. Let's see...the Brazilian flag suspension wrecked what was obviously going to be a program against Randy Orton (arguably one of the most over superstars in WWE history right now), so no he didn't need to be put over. Then finally the losing (maybe this was the office's way of "punishing" Jericho for the suspension incident. That made a lick of sense. Then finally the last program against Ziggler...who I personally don't think needed to be put over.

I really don't know what Jericho was thinking at all during this entire run. JeriTroll was the most fascinating and possibly unique thing to come out of it but that was quickly dropped and he became typical heel Jericho again. I'm still baffled by the whole run. There was nothing that came from this run at all.

 

[Mr Silver]

There was nothing that came from this run at all.

Maybe not, but no one can deny that Jericho helped raise the profile of CM Punk in their spring series.

 

[Admiral_Young]

I just disagreed with that and have several times lol. No doubt we got an awesome match from the two of them but Punk did not need Jericho to get over. He was already over, and has been since last July's story line.

 

[Mr Silver]

Of course Punk was over, but the feud with Jericho was what solidified him as a main eventer. Punk and Cena didn't really have a feud, it was more one match and then another match which was more about making Alberto Del Rio champion and trying to further a storyline arc featuring Punk, Triple H, Big Johnny and Nash than it was about Punk/Cena.

Punk's opponents from his second reign as WWE Champion until he met with Jericho consisted of the likes of Alberto Del Rio, The Miz and Dolph Ziggler, etc, who are respectably big names, but not on the same level as Chris Jericho. Punk's feud with Jericho was his first real "championship series" as the WWE Champion and it lended him credibility, especially since he's gone all that time without actually main eventing PPV's.

 

[Admiral_Young]

Indeed. I just disagree that Jericho "elevated" Punk. He was already there IMO. We can agree to disagree, and looks like we do. I also agree that Punk's programs as WWE Champion (both times) haven't exactly been must see either. I think the Daniel Bryan feud was spectacular, moreso than Jericho to be honest. It is going to be interesting to see how creative handles this Cena/Punk feud. I believe we've all agreed that their match at Money in the Bank was borderline Five Star and that Punk seems to bring the best out of Cena. I just merely disagree about the Jericho take, that's all.

 

[Mr Silver]

Yeah, I see where you're coming from. I was also pretty disappointed in Jericho's return, but I wasn't expecting much (so not a major disappointment) - not like many people out there who were acting as if Jericho's return would shake the foundations of the WWE.

The match at MITB was easily one of the best (if not the best) matches of Cena's career and Punk's best WWE match.

 

[Admiral_Young]

I know we've touched on this before...and I did mention it is possible the new belt isn't completed, but I'm starting to get anxious about seeing it. I really hope you're not right Admiral M with your prediction (I think?) that Rock will win his match at Royal Rumble and be presented with it?


That does make sense, but I'll be disappointed if that happens. I'm a little surprised we haven't seen further "leaked" pics of the belt.