The Wrestling Thread

[retrosportsgamer]

I have a theory regarding Ziggler vs. Jericho:

Next week on Raw Cena and CM Punk will have their match. Whoever the winner is, Ziggler cashes in his Money in the Bank on and wins the title.

This feud between Ziggler and Jericho then becomes a WWE Championship match. Jericho then ends up winning the title, and legitimizes himself again as a main-event player (since Ziggler has pointed out his recent losing streak).

Ziggler can only cash in on the World Heavyweight Champion (aka: Sheamus.) Also, it seems that Jericho is not being advertised for any events after Summerslam. That may not mean anything, but I'd guess that Jericho is going to put over one last guy before he leaves again.

This was pointed out to me by someone else. Seems kind of stupid to limit Money in the Bank to me. The whole point of it has always been any title at any time. It's supposed to make things unpredictable.

I guess this changed with the MitB becoming its own PPV. It was awesome when Swagger won because he was trying to cash on BOTH champs.

[BurningDoom]

So to expand on my thoughts about last-night's Raw, since I was about to head to work on my first post:

The only thing I thought was bad about last night's Raw was that A.J. was named Raw GM...WTF?! On what basis? Does she have any experience being in charge of anything? Has she even won a single title yet?

Other than that, though, I thought the whole thing was great from beginning to end. I loved the nostalgia of all the old superstars coming out. And who didn't mark-out when they saw the entire D-Generation-X in the ring together again? The only one missing was Chyna, who was probably busy at work on her back. Bret Hart introducing the IC title match was pretty cool; a title he helped make prestigious. I LOVED seeing the A.P.A. together again. They were one of my all-time favorite tag-teams. And I know this is blasphemy for many and I'll probably get flamed for it, but I always preferred A.P.A. JBL to Texan JBL.

Seeing that The Rock is going for the WWE Championship is great. I can see other wrestlers who are there every night getting pissed about it, but I'm not one of them. And it gives me hope that if The Rock manages to capture the belt, that it would mean we would actually see him on WWE T.V. on a somewhat regular basis.

The Paul Heyman, HHH, Stephanie McMahon, and Brock Lesnar moment was fantastic. It had a very dramatic and tense feel to it like an Attitude Era storyline.

The 3-on-3 match, while it may not have been all that significant, it was a good star-studded match-up.

Finally, the match between Cena and Punk had a great ending. Just another mark-out moment for me. He's freaking CM Punk, he's does a great a-hole routine, he SHOULD be a heel. It's been too long since we've had a heel champ.

[retrosportsgamer]

And I know this is blasphemy for many and I'll probably get flamed for it, but I always preferred A.P.A. JBL to Texan JBL.

Texan JBL was one of the worst times in WWE history - in both ratings and quality. I think you're on point.

[retrosportsgamer]

Here are my musings about last night:

Lesnar/HHH: I would have loved another pull-apart brawl and not Lesnar taking a nice bump out of the ring leaving HHH standing tall. The goal is PPV sales - did HHH really need to get the upperhand before the PPV because Brock hurt him before? I liked Steph's involvement but Heyman should have emphasized more that her goading is going to end up with her husband broken (for their kids) at the hands Brock.

I loved the pay-off to the "Hand" angle. Wish Mark Henry was there too.

Liked the Miz winning clean but it still comes off crappy when a former WWE champ (for months!) has to lower himself to the IC level.

Punk's heel turn is refreshing because Face Punk vs Face Cena SUCKS. He can now hold the belt until the Rumble thanks to borderline or full-on nefarious ways. He did a good job last night being very heelish in letting Cena get beat down and then coming back for the Rock. I loved that the 1000th RAW ended with him giving The Rock a GTS. That is a made man right there.

[Gamerforlife]

The Triple H/Brock segment was horrible. It was just the McMahons and Triple H inflating their own egos again with Steph pointing out Heyman's failures when compared to Vince, and with an aging Triple H beating a former UFC champion. Awful. Not ONCE since they've brought Brock in have they made him like the badass he's SUPPOSED to be. He's just another guy, just another heel, every bit as weak as all the other heels on the WWE roster. It's typical WWE booking and the reason why they don't have higher ratings

AJ as GM is brilliant. She's entertaining, that's all that matters. How often are GMs really ever qualified for the job anyway? Nobody gives a crap. They need AJ for the ratings, which HAVE gone up (particularly in the teen demo) since they started focusing on her more, and they can't waste her away in a stupid women's division that no one cares about. Seeing her show Layla why she is no crazier than anyone else in the WWE was one of my favorite moments, and yeah, I did chuckle at Mae Young and the hand.

Seeing Lita and Trish really drove home how shitty the women's division has become. You see how she landed her moves on Slater, and how AJ drop kicked Miz a week ago? We need MORE of that. That's how you make people take your divas seriously

Having all of DX again was great, but like I said earlier, it's too little, too late. All those times when Triple H and HBK were having storylines as DX in the past couple of years I always hated that it wasn't the FULL faction. Now that it's finally possible, it was just a one off thing. It was very cool too see, but disappointing at the same time. I'm just glad though that we got Hunter and HBK finally acknowledging on TV though that DX was more than just the two of them because honestly, the best DX moments were when Pac and the New Age Outlaws were in the group, and HBK wasn't even around at all. Honestly, DX was really Hunter's group. He did far more with them than HBK and I hated how in the past couple years they made it seem like HBK and Hunter were the key members of the group. I like HBK, but he did little for DX. Their best days, including the WCW invasion, were when Hunter ran the show without HBK

Did you guys see the fans vote for a CM Punk/Rock match over a Cena/Rock match. Yeah, just want to make sure that everyone caught that.

I think Punk is brilliant as a heel, but the turn seems premature. I still feel that Punk should be built up as their top guy, instead of that stupid, fruity pebble John Cena, but whatever. If I ran the WWE I'd be giving Punk a MONSTER push and the first order of business would be to have him beat Cena again, clean AND decisively. I'd make sure there would be NO doubt in the fans minds who is top dog in the WWE now. Also, why does Punk have to be a heel to let Show beat up Cena? Stuff like that annoys me. It's not like they were friends. I see no reason that a face couldn't just let that slide

[Gamerforlife]

To give you guys a sense of how shitty the WWE's handling of Brock Lesnar has been, think of Mark Henry's major heel push last year and realize that BROCK FREAKING LESNAR hasn't been given a push that is anywhere even close to that.

[Gamerforlife]

Freaking Big Show looks more badass than Brock Lesnar right now

God, those idiots in the WWE

[Mendoza]

Freaking Big Show looks more badass than Brock Lesnar right now

God, those idiots in the WWE

I dont know if Lesnar should be too thrilled with his UFC carrear. His losses were pretty humiliating and he didnt have many quality wins.

Hes back in the WWE for money so i doubt he really cares how they use him as long as the checks clear.

Can't blame him really, if there going to pay and not expect him to do much why not?

[BurningDoom]

AJ as GM is brilliant. She's entertaining, that's all that matters. How often are GMs really ever qualified for the job anyway? Nobody gives a crap. They need AJ for the ratings, which HAVE gone up (particularly in the teen demo) since they started focusing on her more, and they can't waste her away in a stupid women's division that no one cares about. Seeing her show Layla why she is no crazier than anyone else in the WWE was one of my favorite moments, and yeah, I did chuckle at Mae Young and the hand.

I see in no way, shape, or form that this is brilliant. Who in the hell gives a flying crap about A.J.? We weren't excited for the heavyweight title match because of her, we were excited because C.M. Punk vs. Daniel Bryan always gives us a fan-freaking-tastic match. She's a little girl. She has absolutely no business being in that position. And how often are Raw GMs qualified? Well while they may have not been legitimately running the show, the people they put in that position at least gave us the illusion that they could if it were true. What about Paul Heyman, Eric Bischoff, Ric Flair, Mr. McMahon himself, or good ole Jack Tunney? They were all qualified GMs. A.J. is just so freaking young, and I don't see her any differently than I see any other high school girl which means I don't find her entertaining or interesting, either. And storyline-wise, if Daniel Bryan has already been shown manipulating her, what's gonna stop every other heel in the company from doing the same?

[Gamerforlife]

AJ as GM is brilliant. She's entertaining, that's all that matters. How often are GMs really ever qualified for the job anyway? Nobody gives a crap. They need AJ for the ratings, which HAVE gone up (particularly in the teen demo) since they started focusing on her more, and they can't waste her away in a stupid women's division that no one cares about. Seeing her show Layla why she is no crazier than anyone else in the WWE was one of my favorite moments, and yeah, I did chuckle at Mae Young and the hand.

I see in no way, shape, or form that this is brilliant. Who in the hell gives a flying crap about A.J.? We weren't excited for the heavyweight title match because of her, we were excited because C.M. Punk vs. Daniel Bryan always gives us a fan-freaking-tastic match. She's a little girl. She has absolutely no business being in that position. And how often are Raw GMs qualified? Well while they may have not been legitimately running the show, the people they put in that position at least gave us the illusion that they could if it were true. What about Paul Heyman, Eric Bischoff, Ric Flair, Mr. McMahon himself, or good ole Jack Tunney? They were all qualified GMs. A.J. is just so freaking young, and I don't see her any differently than I see any other high school girl which means I don't find her entertaining or interesting, either. And storyline-wise, if Daniel Bryan has already been shown manipulating her, what's gonna stop every other heel in the company from doing the same?

Well, there's the fact that she totally screwed over Daniel Bryan, a heel.

Did Mick Foley really seem like he was qualified to be a GM? Or Vickie? Or the random guest hosts who ran the show? And how the hell was Flair qualified? He was just some wrestler. How the hell is Triple H qualified to be COO of the company? Were we ever given any reason on TV to see him as anything more than a wrestler when he got the position? No. Only insider wrestling fans actually know that Triple H helps run the business behind the scenes. Was Zak Ryder qualified to run Smackdown a weak ago? It doesn't matter who the GM is. Nobody cares about their qualifications. The crowd only cares about if the person is a heel or a face and if they are entertaining.

Who the hell gives a crap about AJ? Um, have you actually watched WWE programming at all in the past month or so? Apparently, you are completely oblivious to the audience. If you think nobody cares about AJ, you've been watching Raw and Smackdown with the mute button on. The girl is over with the crowds in a big way