The Wrestling Thread

[Luke]

He's the weak link in this whole thing and has really dragged it down.

Yup. Nash is just washed up and no good.

Now I take almost all wrestling as bullshit (don't throw stones yet) but there are some great story lines. This Nash/HHH/Punk/etc. isn't one of them. Punk breaking the 4th wall was pretty damned near excellent, but it is starting to fizzle at an astonishing rate. Two weeks ago I was excited to watch the WWE again; after last night, I'm looking forward to MNF (which I already was, but now more so).

I think what Punk did was break up the monotony and tired schedule of the run of the mill RAW. Not every promo was done at the beginning of the show, not every great match was at the end, and people started to genuinely ask "Um. WTF is going on here?". Now it's a gimmick. A darned good one, but the charm has been tarnished. I mean, I'll keep watching for a while, but this storyline has seem to have ran its course unless the writers can come up with a spin.

[Bikeage]

Okay, little rant here for any of you who are into wrestling podcasts

I gotta stop listening to the PW Torch podcast. All they do day in and day out is bitch about the WWE or bitch about TNA. Granted, I rant about some stuff, but the WWE has been doing a lot of good stuff lately and I'm kind of tired of the PWTorch constantly tearing them down. It's hard to enjoy wrestling at all if you listen to those guys on a regular basis. Other podcasts I listen to complain about certain things the WWE does, but none of them are as depressingly negative as the PW Torch. They're like a bunch of cynical, jaded, old men. Like the old guys in the balcony on the Muppet Show

I only read the Torch website and never listened to their podcast's or checked out any VIP stuff, but agree with being sick of the negativity. Many a segment on Raw i've enjoyed that would later be overly criticized or shat upon by Keller and Caldwell. When they are on their soapbox I let it go... it's just pro wrestling. PWTorch has changed for better and worse over the years, but it's still my favorite for live results and taped spoilers.

Highly recommend http://www.inyourheadonline.com for those who may not have heard of it. Sometimes they go off on some gross stuff but for the most part stick to wrestling. A deep roster of wrestling legends and future stars have been past guests, and while some of their community seems batshit insane, they have lively interviews and discussions and come across as genuine fans who want to enjoy wrestling and not crap all over it.

I'm still scratch my head wondering why Kevin Nash has been so prominent lately. I think they are gonna have him introduce a couple of new heels that will feud with Punk on his behalf. Probably some guys in developmental (former ROH guys) or been MIA (Skip Sheffield, Mason Ryan?) for a long time. What else can they use Nash for besides getting the next generation over, unless there really is a conspiracy...

[retrosportsgamer]

I don't know if they knew what the long term plan with Nash was at first - only that Punk would transition to a feud with Nash and eventually segway into a HHH feud that could culminate at a big PPV.

Nash not being able to take a bump was horrible negligence by the WWE which has shotgunned this whole HHH/Punk disaster. Those two should be fighting in a No DQ match at MSG and Survivor Series - not some throwaway show in Buffalo, NY.

As Luke and others noted - to make things worse, HHH has become a sympathetic babyface who has siphoned most of Punk's heat, while Punk comes off as a whiner whose shtick is getting tired. The pops have died down too although he still gets two entrances a show and generally looks good against anyone not named Kevin Nash (jack knifed twice!).

[Gamerforlife]

It's kind of a shame, they've had some really hot angles this year and kind of fumbled them. The Karma thing for example, but that wasn't really their fault. The Punk thing kind of is

[Xeogred]

I'm keeping up with this stuff off and on myself, it was pretty cool at first but I agree with you guys this is kind of turning into a mess. I like Kevin Nash but there's no denying the guy has done his time and even when I liked him back in the WCW days, he was never that impressive to watch in the ring (but if you check out some old mid 90's stuff with him as Diesel in the WWF, it's pretty damn good actually. Very weird to see him flying around and being that mobile).

Punk is alright, but as some people have argued (elsewhere) there's just no way he can become the Austin kind of guy here. He's different, but he doesn't have the Austin edge at all.

Now I'm almost seeing HHH's power seep through all of this. As you guys are all older fans as well, we all know this is all scripted stuff for the most part, but I've always heard HHH has had an ego and it seems like that is really starting to show with this storyline. As retrosportsgamer put it, he's become a "sympathetic babyface" ... I can see HHH being a great asshole boss like Vince was, but the way they're handling it now is just awkward. Still getting a lot of pops for HHH when he really should be taking the backseat now.

I was happy to see the roster split might be ending here soon though, I can only hope, and then hopefully they abolish one of the heavyweight belts. There is no reason why there needs to be two. Completely ruins the merit of the title.

[Gamerforlife]

I'm keeping up with this stuff off and on myself, it was pretty cool at first but I agree with you guys this is kind of turning into a mess. I like Kevin Nash but there's no denying the guy has done his time and even when I liked him back in the WCW days, he was never that impressive to watch in the ring (but if you check out some old mid 90's stuff with him as Diesel in the WWF, it's pretty damn good actually. Very weird to see him flying around and being that mobile).

Punk is alright, but as some people have argued (elsewhere) there's just no way he can become the Austin kind of guy here. He's different, but he doesn't have the Austin edge at all.

Now I'm almost seeing HHH's power seep through all of this. As you guys are all older fans as well, we all know this is all scripted stuff for the most part, but I've always heard HHH has had an ego and it seems like that is really starting to show with this storyline. As retrosportsgamer put it, he's become a "sympathetic babyface" ... I can see HHH being a great asshole boss like Vince was, but the way they're handling it now is just awkward. Still getting a lot of pops for HHH when he really should be taking the backseat now.

I was happy to see the roster split might be ending here soon though, I can only hope, and then hopefully they abolish one of the heavyweight belts. There is no reason why there needs to be two. Completely ruins the merit of the title.

I think Punk's character is similar to austin with the the anti-authority, but his approach was so different from Austin's and they've kind of dropped the ball on it. Austin is against the boss, Punk is against the system. That's the key difference I think

I like having two belts only because it gives more guys opportunities, just like money in the bank. That's why Jericho created the Money in the Bank concept. One belt would mean Christian never becoming champ. He'd never make it high enough in the pecking order

I said this before, but they should have turned Triple H heel and brought in Steph to back him a.k.a. McMahon Helmsley era because at least that would have made sense and it's a proven formula. Punk would have stayed over. Triple H is better as a heel because he is so hateable. As a face, he kind of overshadows whoever he is feuding with

[Xeogred]

Pretty good point about Punk there compared to Austin.

And yeah, HHH is good at burying people. And it really sounded like he was getting a louder pop than Punk from this weeks Raw. Nobody wants a good guy boss I'm sure.

[retrosportsgamer]

I think Punk's character is similar to austin with the the anti-authority, but his approach was so different from Austin's and they've kind of dropped the ball on it. Austin is against the boss, Punk is against the system. That's the key difference I think

And Punk against the system was pretty fresh. We've seen Wrestler X vs. authority figure ad nausem since Austin's run in '98. They just didn't match Punk up against a heel. I don't mind shades of gray at all (or the "reality" era as Punk puts it) but the booking has to work.

[Evildeadmanwalking77]

So they're not going the NWO route again? I thought I read something somewhere on wwe.com about that. I don't watch as much as I used to, probably 2004 is when I last watched RAW, SD, and PPVs religiously. I still keep an eye on things and tune in from time to time though. It just seems like wrestling is a funk currently.

[Rurouni_Fencer]

Says on the WWE website that Nash's contract has been terminated. The hopeful wrestling fan in me is sighing relief; but the realistic, scorned wrestling fan in me is rolling my eyes because it's most likely just playing into Hunter's actions on Raw this week..