General Pro Wrestling News and Discussion Thread Part Deux!

[Mr Silver]

So, I've never seen this Sin Cara guy before, but the commentators definitely seemed to be overselling him on Smackdown. They kept saying stuff like "you're in for a huge treat" etc, and he just struck me as a poor man's Rey Mysterio. Is there something more to him than was shown in his return match?

Sin Cara was formerly known as Mistico, he was a huge star in the CMLL promotion in Mexico (a Mexican John Cena if you like) and was also a big draw when he competed in Japan. WWE jumped at the chance to sign him because they finally woke up and realised that Rey Mysterio's career as an active performer is nearing an end (he's had 6 knee surgeries...). Furthermore, Mysterio has had some conflict in the last couple of years with WWE, to the point where he has actually asked for his release.

WWE panicked because Mysterio is a huge draw for them and if Rey were to retire or quit, then they could lose a lot of business they built up in the Mexican market as a result of Mysterio's success. WWE decided that they were going to find a successor, so they looked for a huge drawing international star that wore a mask and wrestled a fast paced, action-packed style - they found that in Mistico...

...the trouble was that Mistico/Sin Cara was brought straight up onto the roster and wasn't given a spell in FCW to learn how to adapt his style to the American style of wrestling (Mexican wrestlers work the right side of the body, whilst American wrestlers work the left). Following Sin Cara's debut and realising that they had royally screwed up, WWE quickly put Cara into a programme with Chavo Guerrero (who is an experienced luchadore) so Cara could work his native style - but - the botches continued and Cara was then suspended for his wellness policy violation. It seemed that WWE was going to end it there and then and ship Cara to FCW - or perhaps even release him... but, this was Triple H's first signing as talent exec and therefore it had to be a success. So WWE called up Hunico (a long time rival of Mistico's in CMLL) from FCW and put them in a programme together that quickly ended at a Raw taping in Mexico (so they could salvage at least one big draw out of it).

Sin Cara suffered a knee injury last year when he landed badly after a dive outside the ring and along with the mask, that's about all he and Rey Mysterio have in common. The only reason Cara has been given so much space is because giving up on him would make Triple H look bad. I think he will eventually come into his own, but only if WWE handles things correctly.

 

[Admiral_Young]

Not to mention that Trips personally vouched for Mistico and he's been considered a pet project of his since he first was promoted to his current executive position. Sin Cara was featured in Botchamania a lot before his injury...somewhat unfairly by Maffew in my opinion for the reasons Admiral M stated above...but yeah essentially he's been pushed and overselling him because he's Paul's guy.

 

[tomalak301]

I don't think this is much of a surprise and I think Admiral M might have mentioned this when Brock returned...but looks like the plans are indeed for Undertaker to face Brock at 29 next spring. Here's a link with the clip of 'Taker asking Brock "You wanna do this?".

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/...s-undertaker-at-wrestlemania-initial-thoughts

There's also word that Tensei has failed to impress officials (not to mention fans) and maybe repackaged yet again.

I'm still hoping Undertaker retires. He's done his time, he's already a hall of famer, and he's getting up there in Age. I thought the whole thing with HHH was a nice bookend to his career and for him to have another match at Wrestlmania might take away that meaning from this last match. He really has nothing more to prove.

 

[Admiral_Young]

I agree. I felt that 28 might very well be his last match...but maybe he wants to do this thing with Brock. They do have issues...so I guess we'll have to wait and see.

 

[Admiral_Young]

Vince is back next week! Never thought I'd mark out to see Vinny...but it's been a long time since he's been on camera.

 

[tomalak301]

Vince is back next week! Never thought I'd mark out to see Vinny...but it's been a long time since he's been on camera.

Maybe he can fire Laurenitis, cancel this Big Show/Cena Match and bring Raw back to respectability. I doubt it though.

 

[Admiral_Young]

I doubt that too...and why does it have to be three hours? Sigh. More testing I guess.

 

[Satyrquaze]

Huh, I completely forgot to tune into RAW last night. If that's not telling, I don't know what is.

 

[Admiral_Young]

^ I know exactly what you mean.

Hogan says he knows how to "change the face of wrestling"

http://pwtorch.com/artman2/publish/quicknews/article_62136.shtml

I guess TNA is changing their format again or something?

 

[Mr Silver]

If you haven't seen the new WWE Championship belt design yet, you should check it out

To be fair, it's obviously unfinished and will probably look pretty decent (anything is better than the spinner!). I guess I'm not particularly keen on the belt being completely gold with just the WWE logo as the central design. We're looking at it being too similar to the big gold belt design that the WHC uses - although one has to wonder whether WWE are planning on doing away with the WHC, or perhaps even debuting a new design for that championship also.

 

[Admiral_Young]

Very interesting...is Reggie Parks working on it? I'm not sure that I like the main plate being all gold either. It needs some more color in my opinion.

 

[Sheep]

If you haven't seen the new WWE Championship belt design yet, you should check it out

Apparently that's one of the side plates, not the center part of the belt. Makes sense if you look at the current belt which has side plates similar in shape. But yeah, anything's better than the spinner. I'm surprised that's lasted so long--I thought they'd use Punk's winning the championship last summer as an opportunity to ditch it.

Overheard in the WWE writers' room before this week's Raw:

• Writer #1: "Crap, both Orton and Jericho are suspended so we're going to have a hard time filling up this week's Raw."
  
• Writer #2: "Hmmm. Can we can bring over some Smackdown guys like Christian, Cody Rhodes and Alberto Del Rio and develop their angles?"
  
• Writer #1: "Good idea. Good thing we re-branded Raw as the Super Show so we can showcase anyone without worry why Smackdown guys are on Raw. We also have these new Smackdown guys we can develop--Damian Sandow and Antonio Cesaro have already been on TV a few times and it might be a good time to have Dean Ambrose's feud with Mick Foley start in primetime."
  
• Vince: "Too risky. Too many new faces at once. No one will relate to them. People want familiarity. I love big guys so let's have Ryback squash two 125 pound jobbers...er, local talents instead. And the jobbers can be obnoxious and rap first. The crowd will love it when Ryback kills them."
  
• Writer #1: "Um, okay."
  
• Vince: "Then let's have John Cena break Tensai's win streak and squash Michael Cole. People will LOVE that!"
  
• Writers: "Tensai hasn't been getting over anyway so we can sacrifice him to Cena...but what's Cole got to do with anything?"
  
• Vince: "And BBQ sauce. We need to have Cena douse Cole in J.R.'s BBQ sauce because it's summer and people love BBQ!"
  
• Writers: *facepalm*
  
• Vince: "And I'll make an appearance on next week's Raw because my return will instantly boost ratings! I won't actually do anything major but we don't need to tell that to the audience. Just my presence should pop a 6.0 rating. Make sure the production team airs lots of commercials every five minutes advertising my return. And one extra bit at the end too, just to make sure people are aware that I'm coming back."
  
• Writers: "..."

Aside from the A.J./Punk/Bryan/Kane angle, that entire episode of Raw was garbage.

 

[Mr Silver]

I'm glad I didn't bother watching Raw, the Cena/Cole thing sounded absolutely atrocious. Is this going to be Cena's thing now, where he'll humiliate non-wrestlers in slapstick style encounters and then continue to defeat every credible performer decisively?

This current character is comparable to Doink cleanly defeating the likes of Bret Hart or Yokozuna on a regular basis. In fact, let's examine Cena's character over the years...

2002: Hotshot rookie era
2003-2004: White rapper era
2004-2005: The most "controversial" superstar era
2006-2007: The "marine" era
2008: The "backseat to Triple H" era
2009-2011: The king of the PG era
2012-: The ridiculously booked era

As you can see, it's all over the fucking place! The ridiculous booking is SUPPOSED to occur near the beginning or in the middle of a performers career not at the peak. A gimmick for gimmick sake is supposed to happen at the beginning of a performer's career, whilst they are still trying to establish themselves. The "marine" gimmick came about during Cena's second WWE Championship reign.

I think many fans, even casual fans who aren't really bothered with Cena's shoddy booking and performances would be offended if he were to be the sole focus of Raw again with his current gimmick trend (thankfully we have CM Punk, Daniel Bryan, Triple H, John Laurinaitis and Brock Lesnar all part of the main event picture).

 

[Admiral_Young]

^ The trouble is they don't know what to do with John based on the fans divisive reactions...so they brought back some of his comedic elements to push him full face again (my theory).

 

[barnaclelapse]

I have much less of a problem with Cena's performances, which I think are generally solid, than I do with the way he's booked, but that's just me.

 

[Admiral_Young]

WWE seems to be floundering again after the momentum gained after Brock's debut. This reminds me of them dropping the ball after the Punk situation. I really was finally enjoying Raw there for a few weeks, in April and early May but man...it's become boring again. For some reason they shifted the authority story line to Cena instead of Punk with no resolution. It's like they just abandon stuff and think we're not paying attention or something. It just seems like a big mess right now...again.

 

[tomalak301]

Right now, I'm just reading the highlights and opinions from a website instead of actually watching. It sounds like WWE is floundering and making Raw 3 hours just seems like a disaster in the making.

 

[Admiral_Young]

Yeah. I really believe a three hour Raw is going to be a mistake. They have trouble filling segments for a TWO hour Raw, I'm not sure how they're going to fill another hour.

WWE's MASH Unit problems continue as a rumor is going around that R-Truth might have a broken foot, and that Del Rio has suffered a concussion.


Randy Orton when asked by a fan on twitter if he would return as a heel when he comes back from his suspension next month replied "we can only pray" which indicates to me he's grown tired again of his "face" character. Maybe we will see yet another repackaged Orton! Unless we don't.

Also it was reported last week that Christian will be appearing on Slammiversary tomorrow. It's speculated that it was part of the deal reached between TNA and WWE regarding Flair's HOF appearance. This is what Dixie typed on her facebook page:

"On a plane headed to Dallas for the big PPV this weekend. Very excited Christian Cage is joining us there for the night. He's one of my favorites."

 

[Admiral_Young]

Sting was announced last night as the first inductee into the newly created TNA Hall of Fame. He also lost to Bobby Roode last night. This makes me think he'll never sign with WWE.

 

[Mr Silver]

Sting was announced last night as the first inductee into the newly created TNA Hall of Fame.

Which is a ridiculous concept in itself, given that it's one of the most blatant WWE rip offs in professional wrestling history. Sure, companies like WCW and NWA had or have their own HOF, but in TNA's case it's just taking a popular concept from another company and trying to make it work, just like Monday night Impact! Just like the authority figures being called General Managers and just like former WWE talent being signed and occasionly pushed to the moon, regardless of whether they are any good or whether they have even worked as a main eventer prior to TNA.

Don't get me wrong, Sting is deserving of induction into any pro wrestling HOF, but he's just one name. Who else can they induct at this stage? Well...

Jeff and Jerry Jarrett: (founders of TNA, Jerry is one of the most renowned wrestling promoters of the 20th century, whilst Jeff is a household name having worked and been a star in every major American wrestling promotion in the past 20 years.

Iron Mike Tenay: Long time wrestling announcer, been with TNA since it's inception.

Jeremy Borash: A personality that's been with TNA since the beginning, works in several roles most notably as a ring announcer, creative team member and a backstage interviewer.