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.