Paige: Will She, Won't She?

If you were to ask most WWE fans who the future of the WWE Divas division was, the general consensus would tell you it was Paige. I think I've written a lot about her on this blog but that doesn't change the fact that she's probably the best thing WWE have going for them in terms of female talent and budding young stars, the main problem is that WWE doesn't seem to recognise this and Paige remains stuck down in Orlando on NXT. But in my opinion that may not be a bad thing, the thing is is that everyone seems to be satisfied with what Paige is doing, her character and the basically the way she generally presents herself on television. However if she was to be promoted to the main roster there is absolutely no guarantee that she would come up the way she is now, she may come in as a member of a faction like The Wyatt Family or The Shield, she could come in billed as a local jobber who manages to get one over on a top Diva. The problem seems to be is that most people (myself included) are happy with Paige the way she is and don't see a need to change her character, but WWE are obviously too dumb to even realize how well she is doing and how much she is appreciated, never mind how great her character is. 

I personally think the anti-diva gimmick (not really sure you could call it a gimmick) is a brilliant fit for her, she pulls it off well and it's a grand change to the crap that WWE shove down our throats every week with the whole Total Divas malarkey. I think now would be as good a time as any to bring her up to the main roster, with Total Divas returning next week and the likes of Eva Marie and JoJo bound to get more airtime than they should be, Paige is the only Diva I can see really shaking things up and making the Divas division interesting again. While AJ has been in a nice little program with them I don't see that feud going anywhere. AJ is great, I really do love watching her, but she still carries that ugly Divas championship around, and refers to herself as, pretty much, the most important Diva on the roster. I think Paige would be someone who could come in and really beat the living crap out of the Total Divas crew and probably be the only one of the whole female roster who wouldn't be referred to as a Diva and I think that would be really important in her growth as the future of the women's division.

Which brings me to my next point; I'll admit it, I love watching the Divas, not because they're hot and provide good eye candy, but because most of them genuinely want to be there and try hard to put on a good show and succeed at this level. Women like AJ Lee, Natalya, Naomi, Layla Tamina and of course Paige, have worked for years and years (some longer than most superstars) to get to the big time, especially AJ and Layla, who before becoming WWE Divas, they were huge fans of WWE. But then you get ones like The Bella Twins, Cameron and Eva Marie who really had no intention of getting into the business but still get pushed and promoted ahead of the likes of Paige, Kaitlyn and even JoJo. I'm not going to make a huge deal like most people do out of the Bella Twins, while Nikki seems content with her position as one of the top Divas through no work whatsoever, Brie seems to be genuinely working hard to get ahead of her competition, especially in recent weeks Brie seems to be working much harder, putting on better matches and genuinely looking like she belongs there, it seems that a few things may have rubbed off Daniel Bryan and onto her (giggity). Eva Marie is possibly the most baffling as to why she gets promoted, she really has no in ring talent and is notorious for her awful ability to sell falls, it's disgraceful that she's on Raw nearly every week while the likes of Paige, Kaitlyn and other sit on the sidelines doing nothing, 

I will definitely be looking to continue this post as Paige continues to develop, I just hope if/when she does get up to the main roster, WWE doesn't muck her character up and shove her on Main Event or jobbing to Eva Marie nearly every week on SmackDown. 

Cheers for reading.

It's Been A While.

I don't know if too long even describes how long it's been since I posted, I absolutely promised myself that I'd post on here as often as I can and it's been since like April since I posted. It's not like my priorities or anything have changed, I haven't stopped watching WWE, I still tweet about it all of the time and comment on Facebook and talk about it as much as I feel the need to. 

In fact in the summer I watched a bit of TNA (BOOO!!)...to be fair they did have some half decent shows and did seem to care a lot more about the women's division than WWE does (of course, we've touched upon that in a previous post Diva Destruction) but what I learned is that they are basically setting themselves up to be another WCW...without the success. I also recently bought the Best of WCW Monday Nitro DVD's from WWE Home Video UK and was actually disappointed that, back in the day, I paid too much attention to WWF and didn't bother to watch WCW at all. There were some really interesting segments and some matches that I really enjoyed on the 2 DVD sets, it makes me wonder that if TNA ever got the financial backing and audiences that WCW got would they ever be serious competition for WWE? Taking in to account the fact that WWE is now a globally recognized media brand with virtually endless funds and connections. Anyway, I stopped watching TNA after about a month, I think I might be a curse, because I'd heard from a friend that TNA was getting really good and had better programming than WWE most weeks, then as soon as I started watching it, it just turned into absolute shit. What bothered me most is Aces and Eights, I really don't understand what was going on there at all, Bubba Ray Dudley as World Heavyweight Champion? Bitch please. 

Also, The Wyatt's arrived on the main roster! I was impressed with the Wyatt's in NXT and really enjoyed watching them, I think they definitely give off a Manson family vibe which could definitely be both controversial and successful at the same time. While everyone on Twitter seems to be raving about Bray Wyatt, I've always been more impressed with Luke Harper, he just has a look of a real scary dude, and that works in his current gimmick but it worries me what they'll do with him when the Wyatt family finishes. He's a very solid worker for a big man and can go with the best of them, I also really like the "YEAH! YEAH! YEAH! YEAH!" thing he does during matches, it won't be long before that's printed on t-shirts.

The whole "Authority" angle is really boring me now, the IWC have begged for so long for a heel Orton and now they have him and they're still bitching, I, personally, preferred him when he was a face, I think his character had developed so well he was more in touch with the wider, younger audience than any other superstar (except maybe Sheamus, and of course Cena). The decision to turn him heel came at a good time when Daniel Bryan was making his claim to be the top face in the company while Cena was out for "six months". But that all ended when Cena came back and now I'm worried that Bryan will be dropped like a bad habit, it seems that Bryan's world title pursuit is over and now they're pushing him to the secondary main event in a feud with the Wyatt Family. It's certainly not a good idea, a worker as solid as Bryan should be in the main event and holding the title (for longer than 3 minutes, or 23 hours) but now that Cena is back they have the two top stars that HHH wants (Cena and Orton) as well as HHH himself and Steph taking the spotlight away from every other wrestler, and belittling as many of them as they can. It's really pissing me off and I just hope that somewhere down the line Bryan steps up again and can hold the title for a decent amount of time, he can be the new Bret Hart and carry the business into a new era, but to do that he needs the torch passed to him, he was given the opportunity to make a name for himself and Vince/HHH/Steph (whoever) mustn't have thought he worked as a top star, resulting in HHH burying him every single week. I really hope he gets another big push soon (maybe a Royal Rumble win) because he really does deserve it.

Anyway, I have Uni work to do, which I should really get back to, 
So until next time, 
Holla, Holla!

Why I Love Wrestling (Part I)

Being 20 years old and still watching wrestling, usually when I talk about it I get a funny look or (ironically) a raised eyebrow but the fact is it's never really bothered me in the slightest. I don't know what the cultural views on wrestling is like in America or anywhere else but over here in England it's very taboo and even during the Attitude Era when the target audience was men aged between 18 and 40 it was still seen as a "kids show". Obviously now it's totally different because the target audience is much younger, but when you see guys like CM Punk and The Rock and Chris Jericho cutting the promos they do, using phrases like "stick it straight up your candy ass" and "your father's an alcoholic and your sister is a drug addict" (Jericho to CM Punk) it's clear that, while it's not as edgy as it used to be, it's still not a "kids show". But wrestling when I started watching it was probably at the lowest point of it's popularity, the high point of the 80's had past and the whole Rock N' Wrestling connection had faded when Hulk Hogan jumped ship to WCW in 1995. 

1995 was around the time I started watching WWF, as a matter of fact the first angle I ever remember was Bret Hart vs Diesel for the WWF Championship going into Royal Rumble '95. The Hitman was the first wrestler I ever really loved, he was like the John Cena of those days, he was the face of the company, wrestled every main event...difference was people actually cheered for him and liked him. But I remember this feud mostly because of how attracted I was to the Diesel character, he was so cool and cocky, and in the ring he wasn't bad either, but I was a Hitman fan and remained so up until the same point as everyone else; during the Stone Cold feud. Stone Cold was, and still is, one of the greatest heels of all time (during his original heel run), that went on to become the greatest babyface and most popular WWF/E superstar of all time. At the time of the feud I was around 2-3 years old and it was very strange not only for me but for most people then when you stopped liking the Hitman, goodest good guy there is, and started liking Steve Austin, the most vile human being in the WWF. 

Austin remains my all-time favourite, ever since that run with the Hitman that shoved him right up to the main event in a matter of months. Of course most people remember Austin for his best moments during the Attitude Era, that may be so but there's no denying that Austin's best matches came during his feud with Bret. Obviously the one that speaks volumes is the match at WrestleMania 13 which many consider to be one of the best matches of all time, where Bret walked in the biggest good guy, Steve walked in the biggest bad guy, and in some amazing way during the match they managed to switch roles and in the end Hart was booed out of the arena, and Austin was applauded for his valiant effort. While it took him a whole extra year to get has hands on his first WWF title Austin remained to be on of the top billed stars in the company, and by this time the Monday Night Wars were in full flow. Clearly Steve Austin was the catalyst in the Attitude Era (I guess some would say) no matter how much people want it to be The Rock, or how many people believe that he was the major draw between '97-'01...there's just no way. But the one's that don't get the credit they deserve in the starting of WWF's Attitude Era was D-Generation X, in my eyes and most peoples eyes they were the real catalysts behind the Attitude Era, they started everything with all the dick jokes, booby references, "suck it"s and basically putting the 'Attitude' in Attitude Era, and it was HBK's feud again with Bret Hart that turned the volume up on WWF's edge-o-meter. 

While I do love a good dick joke and booby reference nowadays, at the age of 4 it wasn't that fun. Not because it was vulgar and crude but for the simple reason I just didn't understand it, which is why I'll always prefer the '06 incarnation of DX, of course people will argue that there acts were majorly toned down and the crude humour didn't even come close to what it was in '97 but the simple fact was that I understood the humour in '06, so then it was funny to me...at 4 year old watching men dress up as women in thongs and telling their bosses to "suck it" and such was just disgusting, now I find it funny. Of course regardless of which incarnation of DX is better, I still prefer Triple H and Shawn Michaels on their own. I loved The Game around 2002 during the McMahon/Helmsley era, I thought he was a badass then, but I still much prefer him between his Evolution tenure and his King of Kings championship pursuit against John Cena. I loved how sadistic he was, I loved how he would get jealous of Batista and Randy Orton when they took "his" title...believe me, the WHC was "his" title! The sledgehammer just made it that much cooler. 

Of course I could on for days about how I love wrestling...but not today. I plan to continue this post soon but there are a few other things I need to talk about first, tomorrow I'll be bringing you a part II on the Divas Destruction post, and soon a bigger look at the Face, Heel or "Tweener" argument.

As for now, don't forget to follow me on Twitter and Glipho,

Thanks again,
Andrew.

The Next Generation (Part II: NXT Invasion)

You all should be able to tell by now that I'm a huge NXT fan, in fact before I started writing this today I just finished watching last nights episode, and I have to say the new Bray Wyatt/Adrian Neville, Oliver Grey, Bo Dallas angle is coming along nicely. I'm not big on Bray Wyatt at all, I think he seems like he can cut a good promo, but that's about it, I've only seen him in the ring one of two times, and what I seen of him was rather underwhelming. Luckily his brother Bo Dallas (both are the sons of the original WWE taxman I.R.S) has some very good ring talent, he's one of the budding young stars fighting to get out of NXT. Right about now NXT doesn't seem like a place for young stars to hone their craft, but rather a place to stick hyped up talent, and mid-carders who they can't fit on the show and creative are too afraid that these young kids could get way over, just like they are down in NXT, and eclipse the boring older talent on the main shows. 

We got a glimpse of Bo Dallas on Raw and SmackDown and in the Royal Rumble match a few weeks/months back, and he caused quite a stir among the fans and some Internet bloggers like myself. He wasn't well known to most people in the audience who never watched NXT but people like myself who watch NXT every week had watched him grow and start to become the main focus of the show on NXT, then what do you know, he shows up in the Royal Rumble match after winning the NXT tournament and then the next night on Raw. It didn't come as a shock to some people that Bo was the one to come up rather than other top NXT stars like Bray Wyatt and Leo Kruger. He was literally the main focus on NXT for a good couple of months or so, he was doing very well, then they called him up to the main roster for two/three matches and BAM! He's back down to NXT...but this time he wasn't the main focus. It seems like the call-up killed a bit of his momentum, despite him beating Intercontinental champion Wade Barrett, cleanly as well might I add. I was hoping for a feud and maybe an IC title match between Bo and Barrett but the storyline kind of just washed up after the one or two matches and he was back in NXT doing basically nothing until recently. The feud with his brother is interesting but I would much rather see him getting up on the main roster, if not challenging for the NXT title (which doesn't seem to be getting any airtime lately). It would p**s me off a little bit but the guy they built up instead of him was really engaging.

Adrian Neville is the guy I'm talking about, Neville is a young lad from Newcastle, England (just like myself) and is definitely the most popular wrestler they have in NXT. He's now one half of the NXT tag team champions and is killing it every week in the ring, he really is that damn good (sorry Triple H). I think finally with Neville, WWE are realising that they have a huge talent on their hands, and even though he's still in NXT, he is a tag champion, he'd only been in the company for a few weeks when they handed him the belts which shows WWE's commitment to him by naming him the inaugural NXT Tag Team champion. I think it might be a good long while before Neville shows up on Raw or SmackDown because I know you American fans aren't too hot on us English being top drawers on WWE, William Regal never got there, you all flipped out at the possibility of Wade Barrett potentially becoming WWE champion, but I think if you watch Neville he may be the one to swerve your opinion on us English. The only problem you might have with him is understanding his promos, being a Geordie most of you will probably think he's Irish or Scottish, but I'm just hoping that one day I get to hear "Wey Aye Man!" on Raw or Smackdown...please, one day.

As far as the NXT Divas go though, there is no one else you can discuss other than Paige. Some people will make arguments for Sasha Banks or Summer Rae or Charlotte Flair (yes, that's Naitch's daughter) but Paige is the main draw on NXT, possibly out of everyone! Not just the Divas, even the Superstars, she gets the loudest pops out of everyone, every time she appears. And giving the current state of the WWE Divas division (see my post on Diva Destruction) WWE need Paige and could really use her on the main show right about now, I really do hope they realise what they have in her, but as I said in my Divas post that's less likely. She really is that good, she has a really unique look and is definitely one of the best female wrestlers I've ever seen, she could give an in-form in-prime Trish Stratus a run for her money. With reports coming in over the past number of weeks that WWE are looking to bring back former Divas, we've already seen the return of The Bella Twins which is great (I love Team Rhodes Scholars and The Bellas make it just that little bit more interesting) and reports of potential returns from Maryse, Kharma, Beth Phoenix and Kelly Kelly could be around the corner just makes her main show debut look increasingly unlikely (follow Beautiful Wrestling Divas on Facebook for news updates on Divas, some great pics on there too). But personally I think the sooner the better for Paige's debut, WWE really need her and she's definitely NXT's very top drawer at the moment, WWE really need to realise that.

Don't forget to follow my twitter on @SLWrestling and also on Glipho on @amjobling,
Thanks for reading, see you next time,
Andrew.

Catch Up

21 Days? WOW! Has it really been that long? That's like three whole episodes of Raw, three episodes of SmackDown, and 3 episodes of NXT...you see where I'm going with this. It's been a long time, ok, I'm sorry, but I've been a little bit busy, but I'm going to get started with two words; he's back!

So the Deadman showed up on Old School Raw, the show was a bit of drag but the return of the Phenom made up for a pretty weak show, and HEY! Guess What? Taker has now showed up on Raw more in the last three weeks than the WWE CHAMPION The Rock has, a semi-retired, 47 year-old man who can only wrestle once a year is now more likely to show up than a 40 year old, able to wrestle every week, in his prime WWE champion...what's wrong with that picture? Bottom line is, as WWE champion Rocky (that new belt is fugly by the way) should be on almost every show, it's fine he misses one of two but since he's won the title I can only recall him being on about four shows, that is not acceptable, that's disgraceful. When CM Punk was champion he wrestled EVERY SINGLE WEEK on Raw and EVERY SINGLE HOUSE SHOW, and I dare say that John Cena will do exactly the same. You can't have a WWE Champion who wrestles one or two shows A YEAR, it's just no acceptable, I personally hope Cena potatoes the Rock senseless and Rocky never gets anywhere near the title picture again unless he's willing to commit 100% of his time to the company. There are people lower down who've worked their arses off for years to get to WWE and get to the top who deserve the title more than someone who never shows up, and has been away from "the company he loves" for 7 years, people like Randy Orton (I'm aware he's on two wellness strikes but he is a top player), CM Punk (should have held the title til 'Mania and defended it against 'Taker), Sheamus (deserves a lot more than jobbing to the Shield, even though I like The Shield) and yes, even John Cena (he bleeds wrestling, he loves the business more than anyone). 

Speaking of part-timers; what the hell is up with Triple H vs Brock II...ain't nobody got time fo' dat! Let's face it the match everyone is going to be looking forward to the most is 'Taker vs Punk, no matter how much WWE try to shove Rock vs Cena II and Triple H vs Brock II, we don't care about these big selling re-hashes, we want a damn good match. Believe me, that's what we'll get with Punk and 'Taker, if anyone remembers the Punk/Taker matches from 2009 you'll remember that those matches were EPIC! Let's just say that this 'Mania is shaping up very nicely, from that match alone.

I know this has been a short post but this is all I have time for, I will be back tomorrow when I think of something to write about, 

Holla,
Andrew.

Diva Destruction

It's no secret that WWE's Diva division has taken some massive blows over the last 12 months, big hitters have either packed their bags and quit, or been released. Around 6-7 years ago the Divas division was huge and in full flow, the likes of Trish Stratus, Lita, Mickie James, Torrie Wilson, Candice Michelle, Victoria, Maria and Ashley were all (at times) main eventing Raw or SmackDown and were having tremendous feuds and even better matches. The whole Trish/Mickie feud in 2006 was at times taking the main spots on Raw sometimes over John Cena and Triple H, but nowadays the Divas division has whithered and is almost dead, lying in the dirt just begging to be put out of it's memory by the ruthless Lord McMahon. Sometimes none of the Divas are even featured on Raw and Smackdown in one week, and when they are featured they get very little airtime, I think the longest Divas match I've seen in the past year is about 7 minutes. With Wrestlemania just around the corner I'm actually worried about what WWE are going to do for the Divas match, I imagine they'll throw together a Kaitlyn vs Tamina or Layla match with no build up whatsoever and no doubt Kaitlyn will come out on top, and 70% of the crowd will use it as a bathroom break. 

The problem is not with the current crop of Divas, some of them are really great wrestlers, and some of them can be good draws, but we all know what WWE are like in recognizing top Diva talent. With the major exception of their golden generation in the mid-2000's WWE's creative team has always blew it when it came to recognizing top Diva talent, remember Gail Kim? Or Jazz? Or even Mickie James and Victoria. Of course they were all pushed at one point but no Diva has ever been given the chance to excel to the levels of the likes of Trish and Lita, arguably the two greatest female wrestlers of all time. The funny thing is they obviously had a huge amount of wrestling talent by the time they both reached their peak, but what takes you by surprise about them both is that they were both brought in to be managers, and were never intended to be the top female stars in the company, to the point where they both main-evented Raw in an epic match. In my opinion WWE has let many of it's top female stars walk out or mishandled them majorly in recent times, the current treatment of Natalya is beyond a joke. 

Natalya is one of the few Divas that are part of the huge wrestling families around the WWE, Natalya of course is part of the Hart family and in my estimate should be the top heel Diva and the current Divas champion, instead she's stuck being a valet with the f***ing Great Khali and Hornswoggle, two people who shouldn't even be in the company. I have nothing whatsoever against Kailtyn, in fact I'm a big fan of hers, but Natalya should be the top Diva and pushing to achieve the greatness of Trish and Lita. But recently the departures of the likes of Eve Torres, Beth Phoenix, Maryse and even Kelly Kelly has left the Divas division so thin that it might as well not even be there, put it this way; if the Divas division was scrapped and the Divas were released, many of you wouldn't even notice. We're now stuck with the likes of Kaitlyn, AJ, Tamina, Layla, Natalya, Alicia Fox, Rosa Mendes, and Aksana...that's it! Out of those 8, only 4 wrestle regularly, and only those 4 are contenders for the Divas title...it's sickening! 

The problem is that none of the current Divas are ever going to ascend to the ranks of Trish Stratus and Lita, none of them, not because they can't, because there are a few that I think could headline the company in the way Trish and Lita did, definitely the likes of Natalya, Kailtyn and AJ could be top Divas, but AJ doesn't even wrestle anymore. The thing is is that (just like the male roster) there is tons of talent down in Florida in NXT, the likes of Paige, Summer Rae and Charlotte (Ric Flair's daughter) are all tremendous talents who, given the size of the current pool of top Divas, should really be knocking on the doors of Raw and Smackdown...wait, scratch that, smashing the doors down with an axe. Paige in particular is the one that strikes everyone who knows her as the most likely to be a success in WWE, but given the handling of other hyped up female wrestlers, the likes of Gail Kim, Mickie James and Jazz, WWE are more likely to mess up her chances of being the top Diva, rather than believe her hype and push her. But for people who don't know Paige, she's a young British wrestler, born into a wrestling family who worked in the British indies, and believe the hype, she IS that good. 

WWE just need to realise what the have in Paige, Natalya, Tamina, Aksana, and others, but in my estimate, it's likely the won't, and they'll blow it like they have with the rest of them. One can only wait, hope and find out happens when it happens, unfortunately...but who knows? Maybe the Divas division will make a huge comeback this year much like the tag-team division did last year, we can hope,

Time for me to leave you,
Thanks,
Andrew.

Face, Heel, or "Tweener"...does it matter?

There's no doubt that the whole face/heel persona of a wrestler is one of the age old traditions of the business, it doesn't matter what the crowd reaction is your character will always uphold to the traits and standards of the face or heel. In recent years however the usually very thick line drawn between that of a face and that of a heel has become very, very blurred, you could go back as far as the legendary surge in popularity of one of the greatest WWE superstars of all time, Stone Cold Steve Austin, and his rise as the so-called "anti-hero". Austin was undoubtedly one of the meanest, nastiest, sadistic people ever to step inside of a WWE ring, yet after the infamous "Austin 3:16 says I just whipped your ass" promo, Steve went on to become the single most popular superstar of all time. While still maintaining his heel characteristics Austin always got the loudest cheers, and beat up the guy who got the loudest boos, obviously these are the main practices behind a successful face superstar. Nowadays however that "Austin formula" has started to come back into play, mainly because of one man; John Cena.

All the way back in 2005-2006 John Cena was the most popular and biggest superstar the company had to offer, the crowd loved him, the other superstars would jump at the chance to step into the ring with the champ, but somewhere between Wrestlemania 22 and 23 Cena's fan base started to get smaller and smaller. Myself included, at Wrestlemania 22 when Cena faced Triple H, the majority of the viewers and crowd were behind The Game, and would have loved to see him pin Cena and take the title home, but that never happened, thus begins the "Super-Cena" persona, the unbeatable, unmatched, indestructible machine that we know and hate today. The next year he went and put on possibly the match of the year with Shawn Michaels at Wrestlemania 23, and came out on top...fair I suppose, a believable result looking at the match, but in the next year (even though he lost at WM XXIV) Cena became the face of the company. Most of the IWC really bitch and get on Cena's back about him being the face of the company, but really (besides CM Punk) who would you have replace Cena as the face of the company? No really, I'm asking you...see, there's no one, and I swear to God if I see one person say Dolph Ziggler I will smack them in the face.

I am a fan of Dolph Ziggler, no doubt, he's a great wrestler and has everything in his locker to be a future major player in the business, and right now he is the real definition of a "tweener"...he's a real asshole heel, somewhere between Rowdy Roddy Piper and Shawn Michaels back in the day. But there is absolutely no way he could just walk in as the face of the company, a superstar has to be built, molded and shaped into the top guy, you can't just have any Tom, Dick or Harry walk in as the face of the company. A lot of people say Cena doesn't deserve his spot...really? Really?....REALLY?! I like Cena, not very much, but I like him, he's a decent guy, and has at least some wrestling talent (a lot more than Hulk Hogan, The Ultimate Warrior, and Sting put together), sure his "5 moves of doom" are shit but he still going to be the top guy. The bottom line is the guy worked his butt off in developmental, lower card, mid card and even Triple H put him over at Wrestlemania, no one deserves to be in that position more than John Cena...FACT!

So that's my rant for the day, I may write a part II to the this post because there's so many things I have to say about this topic...maybe another day.

Before I leave, if you have twitter, there's a brand new Shoots and Ladders twitter page I've just opened, follow it at @SLWrestling, it'll probably take me a while to start tweeting regularly but it'll be worth a follow if you're interested,

Thanks again,
Andrew.

Where is The Undertaker?

For the past number of weeks I've been very eager to watch Raw, much more eager than usual. The main reason being that, of course, we're on the road to WrestleMania, and I'm going to be honest, the card so far is looking pretty weak. So far we have a couple of rematches; Cena vs Rock II and Triple H vs Brock II (according to reports, and after last Raw), and a match no one wants to see; Alberto Del Rio vs Jack Swagger. So 'Mania is already starting to look a little dry...however, according to the same reports that have stated HHH will face Lesnar at the biggest show of the year, they're also saying Undertaker will make his return and face none other than CM Punk. Again, it's another rematch, we've seen it before...but never on this scale, and back when Punk last faced 'Taker he was no where near the level he is at now. It would make very entertaining, and a good wrestling match. The problem being, is that we're around 5-6 weeks from WrestleMania and Undertaker has yet to show his face on TV (he did work a live show in Waco, TX, however)..and WWE pulled the usual stunt, built us up and let us way down then rubbed their hands together at the high ratings...those dicks!

See with Undertaker making his return at an non-televised live event everyone was expecting him to show up at Raw and confront Punk this week, but as some expected, that didn't happen. In fact, Taker didn't show up at all, which left many of us severely, bitterly disappointed and angry. But since the Undertaker has made his in-ring return at the live show and WWE even went as far to show the amateur video clip of his return on Raw I do expect him to show up sooner rather than later. It's just a case of when and how, now when Punk cut that pretty cool promo this week about him being "the greatest of all time" and "a god" I was expecting to hear the gong and 'Taker to walk out, and lecture him about respect. But that promo ended with Punk proclaiming himself a God and leaving...with absolutely nothing happening other than his own music playing and the crowd voicing their depreciation...looks like most of them were expecting the Phenom as well, it seemed like such a perfect way...no doubt the absolute idiots at WWE Creative will come up with some bullshit way to bring him in where the crowd will be shocked but at the same time underwhelmed. 

I have no doubt that the Punk v Taker match will still go ahead, Taker has returned to WWE just not on TV as of yet, they really need to bring him in sooner rather than later in order to put together a really decent build-up for their match at 'Mania...also if reports are to believed this is possibly Taker's last match, he wants Punk to end the streak so he can go ahead and retire, however creative want to keep the streak alive and have him headline next year as well...who knows? I hope it's the former if I'm honest, Taker is getting too old almost to the point where he can't (almost didn't) work one show a year, he needs to put it behind him and end the legacy. I honestly can't think of anyone better in the business right now than CM Punk to end the streak...whatever happens, it's going to be interesting,

Thank you, and goodnight,
Andrew.

Elimination Chamber, NXT, and updates.

It's been far too long since I've posted on here, over a week, I promised myself when I started this blog that I'd try and post every day, hasn't happened, so I need to wake up and start posting, don't I?

I'm going to start off and say a little bit about Elimination Chamber, and the following Raw episode, I'm going to be brutally honest here, they both blew. My main reason for saying Raw was garbage is almost solely down to the fact I was hoping to see the Undertaker, but as regular viewers would know, I was let down. Elimination Chamber on the other hand, the chamber match was cool, don't get me wrong, but I was really, really, royally, undeniably, extremely pissed off that Jack Swagger won, my guess would have been Mark Henry (as I've read this is his final run, and he's retiring after 'Mania) or maybe Chris Jericho or Randy Orton to give either of them a decent angle walking into WrestleMania. But Jack Swagger? He's been gone, what? Six months? And he just walks into the chamber match and wins and gets to go and headline (I say headline, really should say 'open') WrestleMania, the biggest show of the year? If someone had told me that six months ago I would have slapped them in the face. As you can probably tell I'm not a huge Swagger fan (he really has nothing to offer as a World Champion, we've seen that before) but I swear to God, what is WWE's deal with pushing wrestlers who could never be a top superstar? The likes of Swagger, Big Show, Mark Henry, Alberto Del Rio and Christian have all had major championships, two of those names (Swagger and Del Rio, coincidentally 'Mania's title match) haven't even peaked in their career and they've had at least one reign. That was what pissed me off most on the PPV, The Shield match on the other I was very impressed with, we finally get to see these three superstars who everyone is raving about (including myself) in a match, and they totally stole the show. What annoyed me about it was that the match was about 15 minutes long, and 10 minutes was John Cena getting his butt kicked, it was like "Hey, this is a six-man tag match but let's put all the focus on Cena AGAIN!". I'm not a Cena hater, in fact I like the guy (not very much but I like him) but that match was way too focused on him. Rock vs Punk was a thrill as you'd expect with a very good ending, but the follow up the next night was awful, the new title is an eyesore might I add.

Now let's move to something more interesting; NXT (WWE's developmental territory) has really picked up recently, more and more of the matches are becoming more and more interesting. If anyone hasn't checked it out you really should, if you're an English fan it's on SkySports on a Thursday night at 12am, if you're a North American fan I believe it's hulu.com that show it. You really should check it out as it is a WWE product but without all the massive production values (it's filmed in a University film studio) and the big promos and storylines, it's all about the wrestling, the match quality and the ability to get a crowd going. It's no longer the Rookie/Pro crap, it's a brand new, fresh product that has really caught my attention recently and I've really started to love the likes of Adrian Neville, Corey Graves, Big E Langston, Kassius Ohno, Leo Kruger, Bo Dallas, Paige and Oliver Grey, in fact I usually find myself looking forward to NXT more than Raw or Smackdown. You do get the occasional star popping up, 3MB are on every now and then, Kane, Big Show, Shawn Michaels, Triple H, Wade Barrett have all appeared recently on NXT and just bring more quality to the product...not even mentioning William Regal's top class commentary, and the occasional use of 'Good Ol' J.R' Jim Ross.

Ok, so time to sign off, as far as regular updates go I'm thinking of starting up a YouTube Vlog account to basically correspond with this blog, and a twitter handle to post more regular updates (I use twitter very regularly, follow me @AMJ93NUFC) and that way I can stay in touch with anyone who wants to,

Until next time, cheerio,
Andrew.

The Next Generation...

Anyone who's read my last blog (On The Ropes, I think it's deleted now) knows I'm a huge fan of the current pool of young stars the WWE are offering, particularly Cody Rhodes, Dolph Ziggler, Seth Rollins and Wade Barrett. I know a lot of people have recently started taking notice of Dolph Ziggler since he started pushing around the main event picture and picked up the Money In The Bank briefcase, and I have to admit, until he aligned himself with AJ Lee and Big E Langston and started to branch out on his own rather than hanging around Vickie Guerrero, I wasn't completely sold on him. I wasn't one of those fans that hated him just cause he was a heel, but I just thought his character was a little dry and we'd seen it all before in a certain Mr Perfect, however recently I've began to see more of a Shawn Michaels kind of character in him than a Mr Perfect kind of character, however the youngster I'm most sold on and have been for a while is Cody Rhodes.

Cody strikes me as a forerunner for the new generation of up and coming stars, he really looks like the one who can be the main guy, I think his character would work on many levels as a face or heel, he has a lot of in ring talent (clearly it runs in the blood) and he seems to have a real passion for everything he does in the ring. Most people who know me and my feelings on wrestling know I'm a huge Cody Rhodes fan, he's definitely up there with CM Punk and Randy Orton as my favorites. His promo work is totally solid, we seen that displayed very well during his feud with Rey Mysterio leading up to WrestleMania XXVII when he wore his face mask, he can be a really solid heel in that kind of character, a borderline heel/face type of character or a really solid face which in my opinion I think he's bordering on turning into. Right now I think the WWE is undergoing a change much like it did in the mid-90's, people are turning against the top faces and are beginning to cheer for the bad guys. Even though I guarantee that we won't see another 'attitude era' as far as crowd reaction (well, what qualifies as a crowd reaction these days) we're seeing a lot more of the heels cheered (Ziggler, Sandow, Rhodes, Prime Time Players) and the faces booed (Cena, Sheamus, Mysterio) simply because the older audience are sick of these 'Fantastic Face Friends' being shoved down our throats. 

As far as the direction of the current stars ago, I think Cena and Punk may actually becoming toward the end of their careers, Punk has said numerous times that he won't wrestle past 40, he's 34 now. As far as Cena, it's only a matter of time before he goes bone dry, it's obvious now that people are sick of him, WWE creative seem to be giving in and (with the exception of MITB, Royal Rumble and WrestleMania) are having him wrestle less main event matches. He seems to be fading away, and even sometimes when he does wrestle main event matches, he loses. It's just a matter of time until he fades down the card, and I think when he does, Sheamus will be the guy to take over. Right now everyone is a fan of Sheamus, he's a cool guy, a real decent person, with a good character and decent ring work, but it seems to me like he'll be on top for a long time to come then his fans will go the same direction as Cena's fans did and start to hate on him. It's a vicious cycle in this era, many fans just get too sick too quickly and the top stars are no longer top stars because the crowd hate them no matter what. 

Seth Rollins meanwhile has been impressing me a lot over the past year or so, he's very good in the ring and has decent promo skills, and to me he looks like the only guy in The Shield who can actually be a main event wrestler one day. His work is solid as you'd expect, his promos could maybe use a little work but he's definitely leaps and bounds ahead of anyone on NXT at the moment, there is a small handful of NXT wrestlers that seem like they will make it into the main roster (Adrian Neville [PAC], Kassius Ohno [Chris Hero], Corey Graves, Bo Dallas are just a few) and if WWE really is looking for their next top star, they shouldn't have to look much further than NXT. In fact, some weeks I find myself looking forward more to watching NXT than Raw or SmackDown, it's definitely more focused on sheer quality of the matches and the wrestlers ring work, rather than entertainment and promos, and stupid WWE App, and Twitter and Tout advertisements. 

So in conclusion, I think in the next few years we'll start to see a big change in the WWE landscape, the emergence of Ziggler, Rhodes, Barrett, and others, Cena and Punk dropping down the card, while Sheamus becomes the face of the company (interesting that I never really spoke about Orton, see my next blog post), and I honestly think that some of these "NXT rookies" could become major players in the wrestling business...unless WWE do what they managed to do with John Morrison, Shelton Benjamin, Carlito, Chris Masters...you know where I'm going with this,

Until next time,
Andrew.

Is CM Punk really the Best in the World?

image courtesy of bleacherreport

Obviously, before I answer my own question, everyone's opinion on CM Punk is going to be different and the everyone's answer is going to be different simply because of their opinion. But first, for sh*ts and giggles, let's look at some statistics;

• CM Punk is only a 5 time world champion (3 times World Heavyweight Champion, 2 times WWE Champion)
• CM Punk has never won a Royal Rumble match
• CM Punk is the only person to win a Money In The Bank match twice in a row, and cash it in successfully both times
• CM Punk is only a 1 time Tag Team champion (with Kofi Kingston) and a 1 time Intercontinental champion
• CM Punk holds the record for the longest WWE championship reign of the modern era (434 days)

Now statistically CM Punk clearly is not the best in the world...

But that's all statistics are these days, statistics mean Jack Sh*t! Like Mick Foley said to Punk a few weeks ago, "do you want to be a legend, or do you want to be a statistic"...the fact is every body is a statistic in wrestling until they take that step into becoming a legend. 

These days in WWE there aren't many legends in the making, sure you have the likes of John Cena who will no doubt go into the HOF and be called one of the greatest of all time, then there's the Big Show, he's been in the company for about 15 years, and despite doing almost absolutely nothing, accomplishing only average, and is only really around for his size as he has no wrestling ability whatsoever, he will go in the Hall of Fame, then there's Kane, who's been there about 2 years longer than the Big Show and is without a doubt the most deserving of the term legend when it comes to the current active roster, he hasn't accomplished much as far as titles and honors go but that's because he's always been kind enough to put younger talent ahead of himself (he was one of the reasons Batista got over with Vince), I think Rey Mysterio would more than likely find himself in the hall of fame one day, despite barely have completed a full competitive year in his career as he's injured more times than Michael Owen and Jonathan Woodgate combined. 

CM Punk, in my opinion, is part of the new up and coming generation and part of a group of upcoming future legends. But it seems like Punk is the only member of that group. Punk started his WWE career in 2006 with ECW, but all of the wrestlers from that era who looked like they could go on and be top stars for the company, the likes of Carlito, Shelton Benjamin, Chris Masters, Mr Kennedy, MVP, Gregory Helms (The Hurricane), they all split and left, Punk is the only one of that generation who looked to be a star in the making who stuck around long enough for us to see it come true. Now I'm not one of those whiner babies who blame everything on John Cena or Triple H or PG or Linda McMahon, bottom line is: CM Punk had the making of a star back then, he still has that, back then he had the drive to become a star, and he did. The other guys may have had that drive, but they lost their fight, I know this may sound like a monologue from Rocky or something but it's true, these guys pissed and moaned that they weren't getting pushed and weren't up to Vince's standards, well guess what? If you are going to complain, maybe you should be working harder, if you're not up to his standards, maybe you should entertain the crowd a bit more instead of turning down the WWE title because you were satisfied with your position in the company for the time being, the asking for you release cause you weren't satisfied with your position in the company anymore (yes Shelton, I mean you). 

CM Punk is as close to an actual workhorse you'll get in WWE right now, he clawed his up from the top, Vince hated him for the start, and if it wasn't for the constant pushing from guys like Michael Hayes, Jim Ross, William Regal and especially, more than anyone, Paul Heyman, Vince would have scrapped Punk a long time ago, just like he did with all the other "future stars". CM Punk is a prime example of a wrestler working his fingers to the bone, feeding off scraps, and becoming a star out of nothing. As far as his wrestling and promo ability goes, he is unmatched, and for that he is truly deserving of the title; 

BEST. IN. THE. WORLD.

Holla, holla, holla,

Andrew.

First post.

So I used to run a wrestling blog a long while ago, I always need a way to either vent my frustrations about the current product or express my satisfaction with the programming, so I decided to start up again under this new domain.

I tried taking a look at tumblr as more people would probably take more notice but I honestly couldn't get the hang of it, I couldn't find anyone I knew (I have friends who use tumblr), and I just had no idea what the hell I was doing, so I deleted it after literally about 20 minutes, if that. 

SO! If you know me you know I'm very opinionated, as far as wrestling goes I, like everyone else, have my favourites, and then I have the ones I hate too, if you're going to follow the blog you should first get used to reading opinions and my views...this isn't a news page, I rarely look at facts, this is just my opinions on what is going on in WWE at the moment, and probably some opinions on the past. 

It annoys me so much that the IWC is so small here in the UK, at least where I live, I know (literally) about 5 people who actually watch wrestling as much as I do (3-4 shows, every week, a few PPV's a year), therefore it's hard for me to get my opinions across as I really have no one to talk about it with. My Dad got me into wrestling when I was very little, but he really doesn't have much of an idea of what's happening with the business, and he's really one of those plastic fans who only cheer the good guys and boos the bad guys. It kind of annoys me a little bit cause he really doesn't like to listen to reason, but again it just means I have no one to really talk about it with. There used to be a girl at Uni who watched it every week and has watched it almost as long as I have so we would talk about it every now and then, but we moved groups in second year and I hardly ever see her anymore so, again, no one to talk about wrestling with. 

It's a lot more frustrating than it sounds, really, I'm a very talkative person, and I probably have far more opinions than what's healthy. I need somewhere to put them all so I can kind of get them off my mind, so I've restarted a blog, even if no one reads it it still gets the opinions off my mind a little bit, kind of like writing a diary. 

I also realise that people probably don't care about wrestling, but I do...so I got two words for ya..

..you know the rest,

thanks and stay tuned,

Andrew.