http://www.ewrestlingnews.com/community/blog.php?13917-DanHero Wrestling News and Discussion - eWrestlingNews.com Community en Tue, 21 May 2013 23:07:51 GMT vBulletin 10 http://www.ewrestlingnews.com/community/images/misc/rss.jpg http://www.ewrestlingnews.com/community/blog.php?13917-DanHero http://www.ewrestlingnews.com/community/entry.php?45009-DanHero-s-Elimination-Chamber-Review Mon, 18 Feb 2013 11:14:24 GMT *Elimination Chamber:* *The Build Up:* For the most part, I’ve enjoyed the build up to the Elimination Chamber, CM Punk’s promos have been... Elimination Chamber:

The Build Up:

For the most part, I’ve enjoyed the build up to the Elimination Chamber, CM Punk’s promos have been top notch, he’s taken the “whining heel” to a different area where he’s not backing down from a fight, and actually protesting the thing rather than just trying to come up with excuses as to why he got pinned. The introduction of the stipulation actually leads me to think there might be a way that CM Punk could walk out with the WWE Championship. The World Heavyweight Championship isn’t a feud I’m too interested in, admittedly I’ve never been a fan of the Big Show and Del Rio bores me as a face (he’s replaced a car with a bucket... why?). The S.H.I.E.L.D match seems like it thrown together as a way to keep three of the bigger names out of an elimination chamber and no ones really sure if this thing will be inside the cage or not. I’m guessing if they do, it’ll be an unsanctioned thing where the cage is there for decoration and has no addition to the match rules, just a straight up tornado tag of insanity. Either way this match will be interesting. The United States title has had a cool little feud going on, even though The Miz keeps getting distracted by various other plot holes, Antonio had a great showing on Raw slamming Miz into the barricade like the scene in Avengers where Hulk slams Loki. (Two marvel references to far, wonder how many I can make in this.) The match itself has been bumped from pre-show Royal Rumble to legit card holder now so we’ll see what they bring to the table. The Elimination Chamber is gonna be a good match, with Bryan, Kane and Henry and Jericho in there there’ll be some cool spots, I’m not sure what Swagger will do in this match but it’s almost too obvious that Randy Orton will come away from this match pointing at the ‘Mania sign. My main problem with the match is that there’s not been a lot of time to showcase Kane or Daniel Bryan, they’ve sort of been pushed aside for other promos when an interesting dynamic here is the dysfunctional Tag Team Champions going into one of the most barbaric matches in WWE history.

Overall: 3/5

Interesting note: Shield had better odds of winning according to betting agencies than “Team Sell? No!”

World Heavyweight Championship: Alberto Del Rio vs. The Big Show:
After a terrible pre-show, I needed perking up, but the concept of this match was definitely not what I was looking forward too. Big Show uses up all his variations of “I have a giant hand” chop in the first 60 seconds and that’s pretty much most of his moves done with, it leads straight into big moves straight away with close two counts happening within the first few minutes, for a minute I thought I’d fallen asleep and missed the five minutes before this part of the match but nope, somehow both men got worn down by a couple chops and kicks. As I was complaining about Big Show’s spear, seriously it just looks like he’s falling over, he lets out the worst looking super kick I’ve ever seen and continues to baffle me why he’s in the main event. The only time Show’s matches can be slightly entertaining is when there’s a no disqualification stipulation in there so the use of weapons can hide his weaker areas. I noticed this on Raw, why does everyone jump off of Big Show when he kicks out? Even for a normal one shoulder up kick out superstars send themselves flying around the ring like he’s catapulting them anyway, just doesn’t make sense, we get that he’s big but lifting on shoulder up would send you left or right, not a foot into the air. By this logic Mark Henry should have embedded Jack Swagger into the roof of the Elimination Chamber when he kicked out. The ending got me annoyed as well, why was Del Rio blatantly allowed to kick a bucket into Big Show’s head and not be disqualified? I mean, he attempted it TWICE right in front of the referee and he said nothing about it. Is there something in the Pro-Wrestling Rule Book that says “No foreign objects may used except a bucket and anything found on the announcers table.) So even without the botch that would have been a pretty poor finish, they tried to recover by having Del Rio kick show in the head a few more times, but that still wouldn’t explain why he would tap out to an Arm Bar. If you’re going to have a submission hold as a finishing move, you need to focus at least a little on that area during the match, amigo.
Rating: 2/5

Not even the actors in G.I Joe really care about their movie.

United States Championship: Antonio Cesaro vs. The Miz:
I could watch the clip of Cesaro slamming Miz against the barricade on a constant loop forever. Has anyone noticed that Cesaro is already doing Jack Swaggers gimmick just without the insane racism? The match itself is really good, well worked, the focus almost 100% on Miz’s shoulder, a lot of times in matches with an injury angle it’s worked on for the first minute and then it’s just sort of forgotten and it turns back into a normal match, only to be used at the very end of the match for the final decision, but this match just stayed right on it throughout the entire thing, you could see Cesaro only had one focus. I liked how they added in a knee injury to Cesaro and had Miz endlessly aim at the leg like Cesaro had been doing to him, like two wounded dogs just going at it until one fell. It actually added a sense of realism to the match that if you really see an opponent injured, you’re not going to aim at anything else. The ending was interesting with Cesaro sacrificing his private area to retain the title, it was a clever way for Cesaro to keep the belt, which I’m assuming will lead to a third match at WrestleMania, which I’m glad Antonio is walking in to as champion.
Rating: 4/5

They finally give Kane a story going into the chamber.
Rating: 5/5

Elimination Chamber:
I don’t remember this many video packages for the Elimination Chamber since the very first one at Survivor Series. But it gives a good look back at some awesome moments. The match already lost points for taking away Jack Swaggers theme song, one of the most interesting things about him, I honestly thought it was just a production glitch and the Chamber’s theme was still playing. The match starts off with the internet exploding as Jericho and Bryan begin as the contestants, Bryan’s reversal to the Walls Of Jericho is so interesting and shows that he really does know excellent counters to submission holds, I wish they’d let him show that off a lot more but I’m guessing other superstars are more concerned about their finisher looking inescapable. The commentators bug me during this match because they keep saying that Shawn Michaels returned at Survivor Series to win the championship, when really there was a whole summer of Michaels vs. Triple H that led to this match, and even after it. Swaggers new demeanour is very interesting, it’s a lot more aggressive and instead of just being mat based he’s going further into the brawler territory but still using his wrestling abilities when he needs to, it shows Swaggers versatility that he hasn’t been able to get across for a long time now. We’re lucky that the clock was the only thing to botch in such a dangerous match. I liked the idea of Kane and Bryan going at it, and it was well done that as soon as the first punch was landed, they just laid into each other for a good few minutes completely ignoring the fact there was two other superstars in the ring, it shows that this team is probably nearing its end, but in a good way that hopefully leaves us with a good storyline. Bryan eliminated first was my call of the night, which I’m afraid to say was right, it’s still confusing how they make Bryan look so damn strong at some points but then at other times he seems to just be filler. Like they’re on the verge of him being in the main event but keep changing their mind, a lot like Wade Barrett. It felt like after Kane was eliminated afterwards the crowd was sort of dead for a while, WWE really underestimates how much the crowd loves these guys. The double suplex on Mark Henry was brutal and definitely the match highlight, you won’t see many big guys taking a huge bump like that. Henry looked so strong throughout the match with an excellent showing but then gets eliminated in like 10 seconds, seemed a bit weird, it was cool that it took three finishers but I think if they were going to eliminate Henry they should have done it after the suplex of doom. Henry gets a standing ovation after he walks out of the cage which was actually awesome, when Henry won the championship everyone forgot about characters and cheered for him cause long time fans were happy that he finally got a championship, the same respect was shown tonight and it’s actually good to show that most of the WWE fans still respect wrestlers that deserve it. Swags winning really came out of nowhere, I honestly didn’t expect him to come out of this a winner, he was actually my bottom pick for the match. I guess it goes to show that Vince McMahon really loves racism.
Rating: 4/5

Shield vs. Team Sell? No!
Seriously, I love the name the internet gave these guys, good job Internet. It’s a shame this match isn’t inside the chamber but the match itself still delivered and it showed that The Shield don’t have to be in a special attraction match to be an unstoppable force. The stalling suplex spot was a weird spot considering how Miz dropped Punk on his head earlier in the week. The Shield work so well as a tag team they actually manage to outshine every other team in the industry, to get such ring unity in two people is normally something that comes along every few years but to get it in a group of three is damn near impossible, the way they’ve come up with three person moves and routines to go through, how there’s always a plan and they know how to stay on top of opponents as long as they work together, it’s just an awesome thing to witness and not just because of the internet hero’s this team has, but because they work so damn well together that if 3MB worked they same they’d be getting the same love as well. Sheild go through the match showing that they’re a group by keeping one person a target at a time, they know the good guys won’t break many rules and they bend as many as they can, Seth Rollins diving in and out of the ring was awesome because it utilised his flying abilities without making Sell? No! Look like chumps for constantly getting taken down by a cross body. They whole match keeps everyone looking strong as it clearly points out that one on one the shield would be losing, but because of the group dynamic Shield comes out on top every time. If other tag teams worked together as much as I can see these Shield does, the tag team division would be something special. These guys were just thrown together with no background of ever working together and they make it work, most tag teams that are thrown together spend more time on Twitter trying to figure out their team name then actually working on becoming a team. A strange moment happens when Ryback takes Cena’s spot of the one who clears house and gets the hot tag, maybe they’re really gearing up for Ryback to take to Cena’s place? But then I see how unsafe his powerbomb to Rollins was and how he pretty much slams Ambrose on his head and I pray to God I’m wrong because he’s as unlucky as The Miz. The slam into the barricade was awesome, whatever that smashing noise was and how far Sheamus went just made it look sick. Shield coming up on top again just shows how much faith they have in the group.
Rating: 5/5

Ziggler vs. Kingston
Random match, considering Kingstons massive losing streak I’m not too sure why this is happening. Kingstons losing streak saddens me, but at least Ziggler continues to look strong. Fast paced match. Obvious filler but at least they bothered to put Ziggler on the card.
Rating: 3/5

How many times does Cole install and uninstall the WWE app for this stuff? And then repeat the same jokes about is background. (It’s not a screensaver King. And we get that you have a girlfriend.)

Pointless segment with Brodus Clay looking like Skrillex will in 20 years.

Pointless Diva’s match. Not gonna rate it cause honestly I didn’t watch it. I made a chicken sandwich, went to the bathroom, and read Uncanny X-Men #1
Rating for Uncanny X-Men #1 and my Chicken Sandwich: 4/5

WWE Championship: CM Punk vs. The Rock:
The Rock comes down to the ring with a longer entrance than The Undertaker and a slow start sets the tone, maybe it’s to allow The Rock time to breathe cause he looked really out of breath within the first few minutes while Punk wasn’t even sweating. The spitting was a good spot because Punk has probably wanted to do that for three years, good for him. The match itself stays too slow for too long, obviously fitting Rock’s pace, but the crowd isn’t as behind the Rock as they hoped tonight so the crowd seems dead for a lot of it. I’m still confused why the announcer table never means a disqualification but whatever. If the match hadn’t have started slow the middle part would have been a lot more effective but because of the slow start it sort just seemed like the match was dragging. There’s a lot of 2001 style match telling going on that kind of shows how dated The Rock is, the referee’s going down, announce table, going for the belt is all something that would go down all back in the day, while it’d be cool if there was just one part as a sort of throwback, because it’s all there it just sort of shows that The Rock can’t compete in a 2012 style match with a lot more story telling actually inside the wrestling, something that Punk is a master in. The ending was pretty crappy, I would have thought there’d be some interference, or some kind of twist, rather than Punk just losing. After two PPVs losing I wonder what’s going to be on for Punk going in to WrestleMania. The match itself was a little bit better than the Rumble match but without the drama at the end so it ended up being a level field on entertainment value. The amount of times that Rock vs. Cena are mentioned at the end, they never once mentioned it’s a rematch, like they’re desperately trying to cover up the whole “once in a life time” thing.
Rating: 4/5

While I’m sure Rock vs. Cena will draw quite a few PPV buys again, I’m not interested in the match, something that bugs me is that for the last six years the “big match” has always had a rematch. Taker vs. Michaels was twice, and then again with Triple H, and now there’s two Rock vs. Cena’s. It just seems like creative isn’t really trying and as soon as there’s a good match going down with some of the veterans they just think “okay great, same again next year!” Someexcellent matches in the show but a lot of down points and strange moments, asthe final PPV before Wrestlemania I expected something big that everyone wouldbe talking about but there wasn’t really a shocking moment outside of Swaggerwinning the Chamber, so it just seemed like by the end of the night somethingwas missing. An excellent showing from Cesaro, Shield, CM Punk and Mark Henry,but coming out of Elimination Chamber I’m more worried about what will happenon the road to WrestleMania rather than excited.Overall Rating: 3.5/5

That’s my review, you can follow me on Twitter @DanHarrington91 so see some ramblings during the Pay-Per-View and other wrestling related stuff during the week. ]]> DanHero http://www.ewrestlingnews.com/community/entry.php?45009-DanHero-s-Elimination-Chamber-Review http://www.ewrestlingnews.com/community/entry.php?44973-DanHero-s-5-Things-WWE-Will-Do-In-2013 Wed, 13 Feb 2013 14:17:52 GMT My last blog focused around what WWE SHOULD do this year, I know that none of it will actually happen, so here’s my predictions of what WWE will... My last blog focused around what WWE SHOULD do this year, I know that none of it will actually happen, so here’s my predictions of what WWE will actually spend their time doing in 2013.

1) John Cena Will Headline More Non-Title Pay-Per-Views
Here’s a fairly obvious one, although CM Punk spent the entire of 2012 as WWE Champion, he was rarely the main event, sometimes being eclipsed by “special attraction” matches like Triple H vs. Brock Lesnar or The Rock vs. John Cena, but other times he was looked over for John Cena vs. Kane at Elimination Chamber, the epic CM Punk vs. Daniel Bryan match was overlooked for John Cena vs. John Laurinaitis, at Over The Limit John Cena vs. The Big Show was the main event, there wasn’t a time when CM Punk’s historic title reign was given a headline slot without John Cena. So in 2013 what can we expect? The exact same thing. When the WWE Championship falls to Punk again, or whoever wins Money In The Bank this year, most of the summer will be spent with John Cena feuding with someone outside the title picture but still as the main event. While this is done because WWE think that John Cena draws money, there’s proof that it really isn’t true. Hell In A Cell was a pay-per-view with no mention of John Cena at all, and the buy rate was more than 10% more than Hell In A Cell 2011 (which had John Cena in the headline match). And then Tables Ladders and Chairs, a PPV with no WWE Championship match but headlined by John Cena vs. Dolph Ziggler (again replacing the much more hyped Shield vs. Ryback & Daniel Bryan) had buy rates 30% lower than the previous year which featured CM Punk capturing the championship. It’s just proof that respect has to be given to the championship as it’s not just enough to throw John Cena in any main event and assume that it will be for the best.

2) Release A Superstar With Great Potential
The locker room is literally bursting at the seams with new superstars at the moment, I even wrote in my last blog about how they shouldn’t debut anyone else until after SummerSlam. The only problem here is that with everyone trying to grab the spotlight, someone’s going to be left out, and it’s going to be a shame. Because they received a push so quickly in their careers they won’t be allowed the time on Superstars / Main Event / NXT to continue their skillset expansion, rather than be viewed on as a failure and released. While it’s a shame I’ll predict that one member of The Shield will be released this year after they break up and I think this years wild card entry may be Kofi Kingston. They continually drop the ball with something with such potential as Kofi, as he’s recently returned to his jobber role, only getting TV time for a few spot monkey moments and then quickly pinned. It’s a shame, as at one point during his feud with Randy Orton years ago it looked like he was going to be huge. Hopefully I’m wrong about this prediction, but by the time we hit 2014, we’ll be checking in on TNA to see how a certain someone is doing.

3) Continue To Keep JTG employed
This isn’t just a focus on JTG, but he seems to be the figurehead of confusing keeps in the WWE. So much so there’s even a website based around it (http://lolwrestling.com/howlonghasjtgbeenemployed/) , what I’m trying to get across here is that while there will be several releases this year that will leave us scratching our heads and shouting that we’re boycotting the WWE until they’re back, there will be several superstars that just seems to stay in the background for no reason. While I’m not wishing anyone to lose their jobs, no one can deny their reaction of “holy crap, Yoshi Tatsu and Alex Riley still work there?” reaction to their segment on Raw this week.

4) Drop The Ball With Undercard Championships
2012 was a great year for the undercard championships. The Tag Team division seems to boom, Cody Rhodes, Kofi Kingston, Big Show and Wade Barrett added some real meaning to the Intercontinental Championship, and even though there was a dark spot with Santino and Jack Swagger holding the US Title, there was some real excitement around the belt when Zack Ryder won the belt from Ziggler, and Antonio is starting to wipe the dust of this championship and quickly proving that great wrestlers can hold the championship for a long time. However in the first part of 2013, something terrible has happened. While Daniel Bryan and Kane have been feuding mostly with themselves of Rhode Scholars, there’s been no advancement with other teams, Prime Time Players have disappeared again, the Uso’s are gone, the only tag team getting any TV time at the moment are 3MB squash matches. And Tensai and Brodus Clay... woo. I predict that when Bryan & Kane drop the belts, it’ll be a long time before the belts have any real meaning again. The Intercontinental Champion Wade Barrett went on a five match losing streak, losing to Bo Dallas and Randy Orton three times, only just breaking that by squashing Kofi Kingston, it looks like they’re looking to make Bo Dallas seem like a big deal right away by possibly giving him the IC Title soon, but when they do there’s a chance that people might not care as much about the belt, people haven’t had time to care about Dallas enough to focus on him as a champion. Although I’m a fan of his, the majority of the crowd may just wonder what Wade Barrett has done to deserve it. As for the US Championship, Cesaro will eventually fall to an American title holder, who that will be I have no idea, but I think when they win the belt it’ll be someone who’s just taking the belt so Cesaro can move on to greater things and will be left holding the belt with no one to defend it against.

5) Triple H Will Continue To Pretend Like He’s A Hall Of Famer
Much like Bret Hart, I am not a huge fan of Triple H. Yes he had a period of being one of the biggest stars, but that was a time when The Rock and Undertaker was gone, Austin was injured and Kurt Angle and Chris Jericho were only just breaking through as superstars. Since then, the only time I’ve ever been excited for a match that had a huge focus on Triple H was because of Shawn Michaels and their rivalry in 2002. However, Triple H continues to get the push like he’s done a lot for “this business” as much as other people around him. Now that Undertaker is on his way out, Shawn Michaels has retired and The Rock probably won’t be here for long past Wrestlemania 30, Triple H will now be presented as the next Undertaker. Returning for a month out of the year to have a big match at Wrestlemania. Although he MAY put some superstars over by winning the match, which is highly unlikely considering he lost the last two years, most of his time will be spent taking someone away from possibly having a great Wrestlemania match, and putting them into a program where Triple H ultimately looks strong either way, never losing cleanly, and having a very limiting match considering Triple H’s old injuries will start haunting him soon. This one is inevitable. The only way of stopping this is getting everyone to pretend that Triple H really is as big as he thinks he is and definitely NOT chanting “you tapped out” the next time he loses. He’ll just keep coming back until he gets the ovation his “amazing career” deserves.

That’s it folks. You can follow me on twitter @DanHarrington91 and tell me I’m wrong. Or just yell in the comments. ]]> DanHero http://www.ewrestlingnews.com/community/entry.php?44973-DanHero-s-5-Things-WWE-Will-Do-In-2013 http://www.ewrestlingnews.com/community/entry.php?44888-DanHero-s-5-Things-the-WWE-Should-Do-In-2013 Thu, 31 Jan 2013 13:26:00 GMT Whilst thinking of what the WWE should do with Punk and The Rock, I gave up with that, realising that no amount of internet hate will change a thing... Whilst thinking of what the WWE should do with Punk and The Rock, I gave up with that, realising that no amount of internet hate will change a thing and focused on other areas in the WWE and what can be done. While most of these will be a long shot, I’ve included ways that they could work, as well as being written in by WWE Creative.

1: Bring Back The Cruiserweight Division:

WWE repeatedly hires more Cruiserweight talent with no real way to showcase them (apart from occasionally forming a tag team.) then leaving them to be released after a few months / years on Superstars and NXT. So what can the E do? Bring back the Cruiserweight Championship. There’s any easy way to bring this Championship back into existence, unfortunately it’ll have to involve a storyline with Hornswoggle first. Hornswoggle was the last Cruiserweight Champion, so theoretically he still possesses the gold. So for a few weeks he needs to have a rivalry with a heel Cruiserweight, since he technically passes as a Cruiserweight, we’ll choose Cody Rhodes. After Cody Rhodes loses a match to a random jobber (perhaps losing to a 3MB member) he’s complaining backstage to Teddy Long, and Hornswoggle laughs at him, Rhodes insults Hornswoggle which then leads to ‘Swogs costing him a few matches the next few weeks, finally Rhodes has enough and chases him under the ring, grabbing Hornswoggle he pulls him back out who’s clutching the Cruiserweight Championship. Rhodes beats up Hornswoggle and takes the championship. Next week Rhodes says that he declares himself the new Cruiserweight Champion. “Now hold on a minute playa!” Teddy Long comes out and announces a tournament to decide who rightfully is the next Cruiserweight Champion. Now since it’s clearly not gonna draw any money at first unless it’s given a huge name, give it to Rey Mysterio. He’s a veteran champion, the average viewer loves him, and he can add some credibility to the belt. Then after two or three months with Mysterio as champion, he can drop it to any of the long list of cruiserweights in the company (Sin Cara heel turn?) and the belt now has a life of his own.

2: Break Up The Shield

I know, I love the Shield too. But a time will come when it’s time for all three of them to go their separate ways. The most important part of this is that The Shield needs to win at WrestleMania, they need to keep staying strong. And then after WrestleMania they’ll be some internal issues within the group, this will be showed when as The Shield attack a superstar, Rollins leaves the ring and leaves Ambrose and Reigns to get attacked by three members. The week after the lights go out during a match and it’s presumed that Randy Orton is being attacked, when the lights go back up, Ambrose and Reigns are standing above a beaten down Rollins. They then leave the ring, obvious that they just set a trap up for Rollins. This will set up an easy transition into a face character for Rollins. Who knows how the Shield works, and although he can’t be trusted as far as he could throw him, Sheamus teams up with Rollins in an attack on Ambrose and Reigns. The week after as Reigns and Ambrose run to the ring to attack Rollins, Sheamus and Orton come out and Ambrose disappears, this time leaving Reigns to get the beat down but keeps Reigns as a heel character. This leads up to a triple threat match between all Shield members at a pay-per-view. (A cool option here would be for them all to enter the arena at the same time anyway, from different corners, yelling at each other as they make their way down the steps.) Dean Ambrose comes out the victor, since he has also been assigned the leader role, it makes sense for him to come out on top.

3: Give John Cena One Last WWE Championship Run and End It With a “Passing Of The Torch”

It’s going to happen, probably at WrestleMania, but there needs to be a reason for it. Cena’s getting older and his injuries will start catching up with him soon, that’s just a fact. So while I would like to see someone else with the gold, eventually this will be for the greater good. Cena’s championship run this time should be like the Superman storyline in which Luthor blocks out the sun, causing Superman to lose his powers. Cena will still win matches, but barely, normally when he makes his comeback, he celebrates and walks to the back, but this time, after a huge pay per view match, Cena lays motionless still covering his opponent, he’s helped to his feet but doesn’t know where he is. The next month the same thing happens, he hits the AA, but crawls slowly to his opponent and gets a two count, you see the look on his face that he can’t do it again, he manages to however but then collapses again. Cena is a champion, but a damaged champion. And someone see’s this. Not a Money In The Bank cash in, cause that would cheapen Cena’s last run. (And no, I can’t believe I just said that either.) The person who should notice is maybe a younger heel in the company? Cody Rhodes, Dolph Ziggler, maybe even a heel Daniel Bryan. The point is that they know that Cena is falling and they’re gonna be the one to finish it. So at the next pay-per-view, we’ll go with Daniel Bryan for this, Bryan has Cena in the No/Yes Lock, it looks all set to be done but Cena gets to the ropes, Cena hits the AA and wins. But he’s taken to the back by doctors and he looks injured. Over the next four weeks, Bryan continues to attack Cena getting him to agree to a rematch, this time Cena loses the belt after Bryan uses a chair while the referee is down, Cena doesn’t lose clean, but it doesn’t take as much to take him down as it use to, a chair shot to the arm followed by the No/Yes Lock and Daniel Bryan has dethroned the champion. The next week Cena doesn’t show up because he’s injured. But the week after Cena comes out in a sling, saying he’s too injured to cash in his rematch, but he’s got some “pull” with the General Manager (because he’s John Cena) and he’s found a replacement for him. And out comes (____________) Honestly, I’m not going to name anyone here, it would just cause a riot in the comments about whether or not this guy is worthy. But this superstar then goes on to take the championship from Bryan at the pay-per-view when the referee is knocked down the same way from Cena’s match, Cena runs to the ring and hits the AA on Bryan and pulls (_______________) on top of him for the three count. Cena can then come back but not in the championship title picture, perhaps even keeping the Bryan feud going, but now that the torch has been passed, Cena can continue to wrestle at ‘Mania’s and in high profile matches outside of the title, like how Shawn Michaels, Triple H and Undertaker have been doing for the last few years. (And no, I’m not comparing them to him.)

4: Get rid of themed Pay-Per-Views

I know this technically doesn’t fall under a storyline, but there would need to be a reason for it to be changed. So this one will resolve around the retirement of Triple H. The problem with the current pay-per-views is you always know whats going to be on that event, maybe Money In The Bank can stay cause that’s a yearly thing, but things like TLC, Hell In A Cell, Elimination Chamber and such could really just go back to being called Backlash and Unforgiven, stuff like that. The way to get to this is have a pay-per-view renamed, and there’s only one person with the ego big enough to get a pay-per-viewed changed to suit his match, The Game. His final match would need something special, and even though no one else probably agrees, he would think he deserves something more than a Wrestlemania finale. So he goes and gets in a little rivalry that builds and builds and builds, and then an event is renamed to something Triple H related, “Fall Of The King Of Kings” or something ridiculous like that knowing how HHH would like it. But then the branding of PPV’s is over, they could introduce a new way of naming Pay-Per-Views similar to the In Your House days. Each WWE Pay-Per-View gets a caption rather than a Stipulation as their titles, bringing back things like Bad Blood, Vengeance, etc. That way there’s always the surprise of when a stipulation is added, and not every pay-per-view needs to have one because that takes away what was special about the Hell In A Cell or the Ladder match. It wasn’t everywhere.

5: Don’t Bring In Any New Talent Until After Summerslam

So this one isn’t really a storyline either, but it needs to be said. There are so many great talents on the roster right now that could fall into oblivion just because there isn’t enough time to give them the spotlight with the speed at which new talents are entering the picture. At the moment in the last year or so we’ve had Antonio Cesaro, Brodus Clay, Damien Sandow, Dean Ambrose, Seth Rollins, Roman Reigns, AJ Lee, Big E Langston, The Prime Time Players, Ryback and probably a few others, while some have done well for themselves like Cesaro, Ryback Aj Lee and Sandow, others haven’t had their true moments yet, and while The Shield need time to disband and showcase their individual talents, Prime Time Players still need to capture tag gold and show what they can really do. Giving all these talents a few months to breath makes sense in the long run because it actually cements these guys as Superstars, rather than easily replaceable gimmicks that could be taken out at any time and replaced with a Great Khali segment. There’s also a slew of returning superstars coming on, with Mysterio, Sin Cara, Evan Bourne, Tyson Kidd, Ted DiBiase, Jack Swagger, Christian, Curt Hawkins, Mark Henry and others gearing up for returns, there’s so much to do with these guys before someone else comes in and possibly harms a double-your-money possibility. I’m not saying that every single superstar I’ve listed is a guaranteed cash-cow but at least giving them the proper time to shine will be a lot better than getting rid of them too quickly and letting them go make huge money for another company. At the end of the day, would you rather think it over for a long time and end up with a lean, mean, fat reducing, grilling machine? Or are you going to rush into something you think is better and walk away with Pastamaina?

That’s been my blog, I can’t wait to for you to tell me I’m wrong in the comments.

For wrestling ramblings during the week before my Pay-Per-View blogs follow me on twitter at @DanHarrington91.

Thanks. ]]> DanHero http://www.ewrestlingnews.com/community/entry.php?44888-DanHero-s-5-Things-the-WWE-Should-Do-In-2013 http://www.ewrestlingnews.com/community/entry.php?44853-DanHero-s-Royal-Rumble-Review Mon, 28 Jan 2013 11:48:22 GMT I always watch the pay-per-view with the same group of people, my girlfriend and two of my friends. Last night was the first time we all just sat in... I always watch the pay-per-view with the same group of people, my girlfriend and two of my friends. Last night was the first time we all just sat in silence when the pay-per-view ended, and not in the good kind. Let’s just go straight into this.

Last Man Standing Match for the World Heavyweight Championship:

Okay so the biggest problem I have here is that this match happened two weeks ago on Smackdown, for free, and it didn’t do a thing to boost ratings even after WWE spoiled it. So creative’s genius idea? The same match, but on pay-per-view. The match seemed to move to quickly like they had a good plan for it but then was told they want to run the Royal Rumble “numbers” promo seven times so their match is being cut short. Some good little back and forth bits with an awesome table spot that was no sold by Del Rio, he pretty laid their up until the count of six and then spun onto his feet. So the match ends with Batista at home screaming at the tv and Del Rio winning again. The reason I’m so down on this match is that if they wanted this at the Rumble why have the title change earlier in the month on Smackdown? It didn’t make any sense. If anything it made it less special. Hopefully now this is the end of it and they can start giving Del Rio a rivalry with someone else.

Rating 2/5 Stars.

Big E. Langston does a weird commentator impression and I’m suddenly a fan of Big E.

Darren Young’s started to steal things from internet memes? Can’t wait until he busts out an Epic Rap Battle Of History.

Tag Team Championship Match, Team Hell No vs. Rhode Scholars:

This was actually a good match, I was happy with either team winning this as I’m a fan of both. If anything I would have preferred Rhode Scholars because I’d like to see Daniel Bryan fighting back into the Main Event and I have a feeling this is Kane’s last year so I’d want him to have a real two month Wrestlemania build up until his swan song, this would also leave Rhode Scholars to defend against some of the other tag teams that need to have a light shone on them, the division is ready to go, Prime Time Players still need their chance to shine.

Rating: 3/5 Stars.

Recently I noticed that WWE has the best mail service in the world, they’re on the road 5 days a week but yet Punk got a letter delivered to him overnight from Raw to Smackdown, and this year all 30 contestants got their entry number via mail? I want this guy to deliver my stuff.

30 Man Royal Rumble Match:

At first I’m shocked this isn’t the last match, then I realise the Rock is still ahead so I’m not surprised anymore. Dolph Ziggler comes out and cuts a promo and out comes Chris Jericho. This got the biggest pop of the night from our sofa and it’s awesome to see him back again, even with new weird looking tattoos. The thing with this rumble (apart from the ending) is that it was missing a lot, there was only two guest entrants in Goldust and The Godfather, while I’m happy that Wade Barrett can finally smile that Papa Shango was in the Rumble, it just seemed like there could have been so much more. We got the return of Chris Jericho as the nights top surprise but that came right at the start of the match with not much to follow it, instead we get the returns of Santino Marella, Rey Mysterio and Sin Cara. All of whom pretty much everyone over the age of ten just goes “yeah… alright.” This match really could have been with 40 contestants. With the Shield, Justin Gabriel, Usos, Epico and Primo, there’s 8 more entrants off the top of my head, they could have easily roped in two other surprise entrants or… just anything. The first half of the rumble was quite good but then it all went downhill when Cena joined. I don’t mean that as a typical “hate on Cena” thing, but he immediately comes in and makes everyone else look weak taking them all down in a few seconds. So then we get to my biggest problem with this years rumble, the final three. Cena, Ryback and Sheamus. It was too obvious. There was no “anything could happen here” sort of thing, this was exactly the three that anyone would pick as their “I think this guy is going to win but I really want [insert name of mid card wrestler here] to win instead.” While it’s there to make Cena look good again it also made so many talents look wasted, Kofi Kingston was just there to do the chair spot and then go eliminated straight afterwards, several superstars like Cody Rhodes, Damien Sandow, Antonio Cesaro and Dolph Ziggler we’re fed to the main eventers in easy eliminations, and it all ended in a way that pretty much guarantee’s what I’ve been saying for a while now. It’s only “once in a lifetime” if you died in 2012. This rumble could have been so much more, this was one of the years it was hard to pick a favourite to win it because it was just too obvious Cena was going to win, they could have come out of nowhere with a new talent to win the match and just go for the World Heavyweight Championship. Cena didn’t need another Rumble win. Cena doesn’t need another anything, he’s a well decorated superstar who should be focusing on building the future now. Instead we’ve got another 3 months of The Rock and Cena bickering like two seven year olds arguing over which Pokemon is the coolest.

Overall: 2/5

Rock cuts a promo. Does his usual Rock thing. Is no different to normal.

WWE Title match: CM Punk vs. The Rock.

I hated this match, I hated everything about this match, from the way CM Punk is sent out first, to the way they’ve given the Rock this match for no reason. The build up was excellent only because CM Punk owned the Rock at every corner, he called out the Rock and said what he was going to do every week with the Rock concert and his catch phrases, and the Rock came out and did exactly that with his fat jokes and normal bullying routine that made WWE donate another million to B.A.Star. Then we get to the match, and even after it looks like they’ve given Punk a way to win with the injury to Rock from the Shield, there’s no way around it, it’s going to happen. While it was cool to see a genuine, attitude era disregard for disqualifications with the announce table (seriously, how is putting something through that table not a disqualification?) it just continues to get ridiculous as the Rock mounts his come back and… the lights go out? Is that Dean Ambrose breathing like he’s got a chainsaw instead of tonsils? DID PUNK JUST PIN THE ROCK? Oh no… wait, here comes Vince McMahon. And there we have it. 434 days of the best championship run, every single pay per view match a career highlight for everyone involved, some of the best promos and storylines in the new era, all flushed down the toilet, to the peoples elbow. My huge problem with this is that Rock / Cena 2 doesn’t need a belt. It doesn’t need to happen at all. And now Punk’s left with nothing because WWE wants the Rock to be happy. Which will just lead to Cena winning the belt at Mania and all of Punk’s change being for nothing as it goes back to 2009. There’s no interesting way this can turn out for the championship, Rock hasn’t been around for so long and he can instantly get a championship? He’s been in movies for so long this is basically the equivalent of when WCW put the championship on David Arquette. I could rant for even longer but I won’t. It was just a bad call by the WWE and it’s going to really come back and bite them in the ass when everyone realises that Cena just doesn’t have the crowd like he used to and it’s time for someone new to be there.

Rating: 1.5/5

Overall:
With only two matches before the Rumble that both left more to be desired, and a Rumble that didn’t have the “anything can happen” feel to it and a main event that flushed away everything that made 2012 a good year for wrestling. If TNA was ready, this would be the moment that people jumped ship. WWE is lucky that the rival company isn’t there yet. But if this was 2014 or 15, it could be a whole different story.

2/5.

That's been my review, follow me on twitter @DanHarrington91 for more wrestling ramblings during the build up to Elimination Chamber. ]]> DanHero http://www.ewrestlingnews.com/community/entry.php?44853-DanHero-s-Royal-Rumble-Review http://www.ewrestlingnews.com/community/entry.php?44376-DanHero-s-Booking-Wrestlemania-29 Tue, 01 Jan 2013 14:57:14 GMT *WRESTLEMANIA 29 – * This is all based on some things that are going on in the WWE Universe and a tiny bit of hope. I tried to be realistic as... WRESTLEMANIA 29 –

This is all based on some things that are going on in the WWE Universe and a tiny bit of hope. I tried to be realistic as possible in some parts, but in others I just really don’t wanna see The Rock with the championship. Enjoy!

Beard vs. Moustache Match: Cody Rhodes vs. Damien Sandow
After losing another chance at the tag team championship, the team combusts and over the weeks, tension begins to build which leads to Sandow turning on Rhodes, with Sandow as the heel and Rhodes as the face, the loser will leave Wrestlemania clean shaven.

Intercontinental Championship: Wade Barrett vs. Sheamus
These two have had some huge battles in 2012, and keeping Sheamus out of the top tier championships will be a challenge, so the best way is to have a full on war with Barrett. Unfinished business finally gets closed in a battle too big for the United Kingdom.

Tag Team Championship: Prime Time Players vs. Usos vs. Epico & Primo vs. New Age Outlaws
A New Age Outlaws return would be awesome but they probably wouldn’t still have the calibre to keep up a full match, throwing them into a four way match will cover that up nicely, as well as giving the rest of the tag division a shining light.

The Shield vs. Randy Orton, The Miz & Santino Marella
The Shields terror continues all the way up to Wrestlemania, costing Orton the Royal Rumble match, Orton assembled two partners in an attempt to take down the Shield and banish them from the WWE forever. The Miz for their numerous attacks over previous months. Santino Marella is written in by him bringing up how he was attacked on Main Event when the Shield first debuted.

Diva’s Championship Battle Royal:
Pee break time!

Kane vs. Ryback
After Hell No breaks up, Kane realises he’s not THE monster in the WWE anymore, Ryback is, Kane will not stop until everyone see’s that he is the one true monster of the WWE.

John Cena vs. Undertaker
John Cena’s 2013 doesn’t get off to a better start than 2012 did, and he realises that it’s all or nothing time, to end his losing streak, he’s going to have to end the biggest streak in sports.

World Heavyweight Championship: Dolph Ziggler vs. Daniel Bryan
When Dolph Ziggler cashed in the Money In The Bank contract at the Royal Rumble, the show off was going to have the biggest party in the history of the WWE. That was until the Royal Rumble winner came out and dropped a bomb shell. AJ Lee has cost everyone she’s ever been with the match during the biggest opportunity of their career. Bryan lost the championship, Kane lost his chance, Punk was thrown from the top rope to a table outside the ring, Cena lost his ladder match, and now a year to the day Bryan lost his championship because of AJ, Bryan will get his revenge. At Wrestlemania, Bryan will be on the opposite side of the story when AJ Lee costs someone the title at Wrestlemania.

The Rock vs. Brock Lesnar. Special Referee: Triple H.
When Brock Lesnar cost The Rock the WWE Championship at the Royal Rumble, revenge wasn’t too far away, at Elimination Chamber is was Brock Lesnar’s chance to win the belt and the Rock got him intentionally disqualified. Now at Wrestlemania, two of the biggest names in wrestling go one on one, with a man that neither of them can stand wearing the black and white stripes.

WWE Championship, Extreme Rules: CM Punk vs. Mick Foley
Hell In A Cell, Survivor Series, TLC, Royal Rumble, Elimination Chamber, CM Punk has got out of all these pay-per-views out of pure luck and the actions of everyone else in the WWE Universe, and Mick Foley returns to point out that this is exactly what Foley was talking about back in November. Now Punk doesn’t have a choice, it’s extreme rules, anything Punk can use to win the match Foley can too, and Foley’s got much more experience in using everything outlawed by the WWE rulebook to pick up a victory. Can CM Punk’s reign last over 500 days? Or will Mick Foley’s swan song be one of a champion ]]> DanHero http://www.ewrestlingnews.com/community/entry.php?44376-DanHero-s-Booking-Wrestlemania-29 http://www.ewrestlingnews.com/community/entry.php?44365-A-Hero-s-Review-CM-Punk-s-Title-Reign Sun, 30 Dec 2012 14:03:16 GMT Mr original plan was to review this week in WWE, so here's that: it sucked. So after I went over that, I thought of something much better for a review. The over 400 day championship reign of CM Punk.

In the last year, CM Punk has defeated almost every top level superstar, and that's not just a figure-of-pro-wrestling-speech, he really has. Alberto Del Rio, The Miz, Dolph Ziggler, Chris Jericho, Kofi Kingston, R-Truth, Mark Henry, Kane, Daniel Bryan, Big Show, John Cena and Ryback have all been defeated by CM Punk in championship matches since Punk picked up the gold at Survivor Series 2011. 95% of these competitors he's even beaten on multiple times. So even between his switch from the "Voice Of The Voiceless" face character, to the cowardly, loud mouthed heel character, CM Punk has still looked strong and an exciting champion. How did this happen? Lets have a deeper look;

Capturing The Gold:
When CM Punk won the championship from Alberto Del Rio, he was the most exciting prospect in all of professional wrestling. He was finally getting his chance to shine and over the previous few months had already held the WWE Championship, walked out and returned to the WWE and cut the best promos the WWE had seen in years. With the internet and the WWE Universe behind him, no one would object to straight edge superstar being top of the company and his reign began.

How It Stayed Fresh:
Admittedly, I never realized how long Punk's championship reign had actually lasted until a few months back when he began pointing out how long he had held the gold. How did that happen? I was more than aware than Santino held the United States Title for months too long but yet Punk had it for 9 months before I noticed anything? The mix of rivalries, match types and even what character Punk was playing helped keep it fresh, the exact opposite to Sheamus' title reign, who faced Alberto Del Rio countless times in the same match. From Survivor Series CM Punk has had 20 Pay Per View opponents and in a variety of stipulations, Extreme Rules, Elimination Chamber, TLC, Triple Threat, Hell In A Cell, Falls Count Anywhere and many more. Fit into this reign has been full rivalries with Del Rio, Ziggler, Punk, Cena and Ryback. And on top of that, half way through the year the unthinkable happened, completely out of nowhere, CM Punk turned heel. Even managing to get a 50-50 cheer in a match versus John Cena had Punk on the way to being one of the golden boys, how could he change that? By attacking The Rock. A new character, as well as Paul Heyman has kept the second half of his championship so fresh, that I could gladly watch all 400 days again.

Best Moments:
For me, most Punk's best moments didn't come from promos, or comedy sketches or anything that didn't come from the squared circle. The matches of 2012 have all been excellent boughts. From the Wrestlemania dream match with Chris Jericho, and their following Chicago Street Fight, to the technical internets wet-dream Over The Limit match with Daniel Bryan. Then there was all the times he got in the ring (psychically and verbally) with Hall Of Famers like Mick Foley, Bret Hart and even Vince McMahon himself. Everything has been an excellent watch, but here's Booker T style fav 5. A close sixth is Punk ending Ryback's winning streak at Hell In A Cell.
5) Punk defeats John Cena on Raw 1000, then attacks the Rock.
4) Punk vs. Vince McMahon
3) Punk and Foley on Raw.
2) Punk vs. Daniel Bryan
1) Punk makes Jericho tap at Wrestlemania

Where To Go From Here:
Well, at the Royal Rumble, CM Punk will face the Rock. And it's pretty much set in stone that The Rock will win to bring on a terrible Rock vs. John Cena 2. (It was only once in a lifetime if you died in 2012). Is that how it should go down? No. The Rock and John Cena should stick to a one time thing, not just because I'm not interested in the match, but because a second encounter would just cheapen the year long build up to the match. We don't need a Rocky II (Oh yes, there will be a rematch Apollo.) So where should the Champion go from here? To Wrestlemania. CM Punk should walk in to Wrestlemania 29 as champion. But leave without it. Imagine a Wrestlemania moment when the close to 500 day reign as WWE Champion is closed on the biggest stage of them all? Who should take the belt? A new, fresh face. I'm not going to see Dean Ambrose, or Daniel Bryan, or anyone like that. Just a first time WWE Champion, possibly the winner of the Royal Rumble. Nothing would be able make the next champion look like a major threat by cleanly winning over the longest reigning champion of the modern era at Wrestlemania. If Punk is going to need a send off, he's going to need one with the glory and energy you'll only get from Wrestlemania, and to be taken down by someone who will be around to make the belt worth something.

Well that's my review on the championship reign. I'll attempt to be back next week with a Week In Review as long as Santa Claus doesn't make a comeback and heel turn. ]]> DanHero http://www.ewrestlingnews.com/community/entry.php?44365-A-Hero-s-Review-CM-Punk-s-Title-Reign http://www.ewrestlingnews.com/community/entry.php?44288-Dan-s-Week-In-WWE-Review Wed, 19 Dec 2012 11:13:46 GMT Week In WWE. BE WARNED THAT THIS IS A LONG READ. You can blame “WWE Week” for that. Normally this post would be coming on the weekend. So in... Week In WWE.
BE WARNED THAT THIS IS A LONG READ. You can blame “WWE Week” for that. Normally this post would be coming on the weekend.

So in three days we’ve had TLC, Raw and Smackdown. I feel sorry for the script writers for this. Was this week wrestling overkill? Or has it stayed fresh?

Raw –
I’m still not a fan of the opening recap things considering they get played again later in the show anyway. But whatever gets us away from that new terrible theme song is good to me. Straight after an excellent TLC (Which I already reviewed) we’re stuck with The Slammys. Roll out the crimson carpet and awkward punchlines, and someone tell the midcard they’re not needed tonight cause they’ve been replaced by The Boogeyman.

Mysterio seems so stagnant now, this whole thing could have been replaced by a segment between Team Rhodes Scholars and Team Injury resulting in Sin Cara vs. Rhodes later and Mysterio hitting a move on Sandow or something.

The first of ten million “download our app” segments. Not sure if this is a Slammy Awards or just a three hour app demonstration. Then the Boogeyman comes out, starts walking to the ring, and then disappears during commercial? The hell was that about? He could have at least, I don’t know… done something? It’s like someone just rebooted that segment in the break and hoped no one would notice he was gone. Anyway, Kofi wins a slammy for his awesome handstand at the Rumble. Surprised most of the viewers remembered all the way back to January to vote that back into relevancy.

Why wasn’t Kaitlyn vs. Eve Torres at TLC? Clean win over the pointless champion. Kaitlyn goes for the most awkward looking pose ever and then leaves. At least that’s over.

New Age Outlaws come out looking in good shape, they’ve been wrestling on the indies lately so I’m hoping they at least have one more match just for nostalgia. Jerry Lawler wins Best Heart Attack award. Well done for not dying?

Tensai came in huge, when I saw Raw in London he won CLEAN over John Cena. Six months later and he’s in a worse state than Great Khali. Ouch. Barrett coming out after the match and hitting the ring post Bullhammer / Souvenir elbow was a nice touch.

AJ Lee wins Whore Of The Year. Then makes an early campaign for next years award but trying to crawl down Zigglers throat… I guess this is un-PG?

I’m not even gonna pretend I watched Otunga vs. Khali, I boosted my sky+ box into 30x and just sighed that Natayla still isn’t being used.

Ric Flair’s random voice over beforehand kind of ruined the surprise didn’t it? Why was it even there?

Cena wins Superstar Of The Year for losing to Punk, Rock, Lesnar, Ziggler and my grandmother but still being able to cut that promo where he starts to yell the final five words to add some emotion and then throwing up some cool gangster signs.

Flair vs. Punk. Yes I’m counting this as a match. It was epic. Good to see Flair back, even if it was just for last night it was awesome, he comes in, obviously ignoring Donald Glover in Lethal Weapon’s motto. The brawl was cool and it shows that he can show up in the WWE years after his last match and still be insanely relevant. Someone should tell this to the Rock.

The Shield entrance music hits, I assume when Flair turned up backstage he just saw too many people he’s never chopped before and almost gave Jerry Lawler a run for his Heart Attack award, instantly deciding that he’ll take everyone on. Including that guy in catering cause he looks like he has “it”. Back from commercial and mass brawls are happening, Ryback comes in and makes the save and everyone lifts Flair up to end this segment. I hope we see more of Flair vs. Punk. I also hope we eventually see Foley vs. Punk too. And McMahon vs. Punk. Maybe I have a thing for Punk beating up old men but god damn does it make good TV.

Ron Simmons. That’s all this part needs.

Everytime I see JTG on TV, I just feel the need to check the “how long has JTG been employed” website. Pointless match, no review needed. Does this count as a review?

God damn Tensai, was you supposed to fall? It didn’t seem like it. I wonder if he went back to Japan, would he get “Tensai” chants?

I got so excited seeing Ziggler run out and ready to cash in that when Cena came in and ruined it I had to pause the show, go get something eat, listen to some music, and then skip the rest of the segment so I don’t end up smashing my girlfriends TV.

3MB vs. Alberto Del Tweener, The Miz and….. Tommy Dreamer? How? How did this happen? Team should be heels vs. team should be faces with a guest cameo from someone WWE spent the last three years of his career dumping over his dreams? Then only to bring him back and make him look stronger than they ever made him look in the WWECW. I bet he’ll pay for wearing the House Of Hardcore T-Shirt though.

Newcomer of the Year (Or new gimmick of the year.) awkwardly mentions Owen Hart and a threat of another lawsuit is in the wind. Then Cesaro decided that the he shall just walk out of the way of the squash machine tonight.

Triple H makes a joke about losing his hair (somewhere Shawn Michaels is laughing at the justice.) and then says that The Undertaker is still around. Somewhere. Just not here tonight.

Tommy Dreamer gets his punishment for wearing the HOH T-shirt with a beat down from The Shield. Ricardo tries to make the save but just flies into the wall Shawn Stasiak style.

Big E Langston? I’m all for new talent. But there’s a huge question here I don’t understand. For those that don’t know, Seth Rollins was the NXT Champion, when he debuted in The Shield he actually still had that championship, and in the tapings held a few weeks ago for the next months worth of programs, they gave the championship to Mr. E. Why would you give the championship to someone you’re thinking of debuting in two weeks? Apart from that, his finisher looks kind of silly. Looks like he’s doing for a Rikishi Driver and then someone reverses it into a Reverse DDT.

Overall, it’s as good as a show can be with the Slammy’s involved. Ziggler and Cena’s feud seems to be continuing which… on one side it keeps Cena away from any title matches, which is a huge plus. But at the same time it means it does the same for Ziggler. How much longer can we sacrifice the next internet darling to keep Mr. Every Tuesday Off away from a belt?

Smackdown:

The Miz starts off being one of the worst faces in the company, he seems to not understand how a face character works, his delivery is off and he still has that stupid smug smile on his face. The crowd always seems confused on whether to boo or cheer for him. Langston pops him in the face and that’s it.

Sandow vs. Sin Cara, again. No real build up for their tag title match on Main Event apart from things said on commentary. As much as I like what Hell No is doing with Shield. They should incorporate it into the Tag Division as well and show that they’re stretched too thin. This would still keep the team looking strong as they pass the belts off to a new team. Both Mysterio and Sin Cara get written out of TV, I thought it was funny how Cara never let go of the mask.

Tensai, dear God man, what did you do? You must have tea bagged Linda McMahon or something to get this level of treatment.

If The Slammy’s were decided by wrestling forums Daniel Bryan would have won almost everything.

The Six Man match did well in keeping the Kingston / Barrett rivalry going but didn’t do anything for Team Hell No or PTP. Kind of a shame how PTP have gone into the background a little bit lately as they have real potential.

Sheamus continues to reference Father Ted. If he does it one more time I might actually become a fan of his. Also his facial expressions were kind of awesome there.

Punk comes out and Ryback vs. Punk is announce. Just when you thought we was safe from it.

Cesaro gets beaten again by a hulked-up Ryback.

Kaitlyn and AJ Lee continue their six month long backstage-segment rivalry and then Eve takes advantage of that VICIOUS water bottle to the back of the head to retain her Tramp Stamp Championship.

Brad Maddox does his best Dolph Ziggler in 2008 impression and then gets flattened by Brodus Clay. I like Maddox’s character but… where are they going with this? If he wins his contract he’s already been beaten by half the locker room. Maybe they should have given him Big E as a body guard. The Shield turn up and impressively powerbomb Clay. They really get to show everything off lately, they’re being built up right and if they stay out the way of Cena, they won’t have a reason to lose for a while.

Main event tag match pretty much ends both rivalries as it did yesterday on Raw. Big Show and Sheamus still wanna punch each other a lot and Ziggler is building up the most ridiculous stable in WWE. Which is saying a lot considering we also have Team Hell No, 3MB and Team Cobro.

The show didn’t really offer anything shocking or a “major” match to warrant a commercial free live Smackdown.

​Overall:
A kind of disappointing week following up from TLC. And with Christmas next week, I doubt the shows then will offer much either. We’ll just have to wait until January to start getting our dreams smashed by The Rock and whoever wins the Royal Rumble (Probably Cena. Because “once in a lifetime” is only true if you died in the last year). I still like how The Shield are taking on everyone, the cameos from the Slammys were good but in a year with so many cameo chances, they’re kind of getting lost in the mix for the most part. I never thought a day when I see the New Age Outlaws wouldn’t get an awesome reaction from me and more of a “… I wish they’d wrestle instead.”

3.5/5 ]]> DanHero http://www.ewrestlingnews.com/community/entry.php?44288-Dan-s-Week-In-WWE-Review http://www.ewrestlingnews.com/community/entry.php?44262-Dan-s-TLC-Review Mon, 17 Dec 2012 09:16:37 GMT Cody Rhodes & Damien Sandow vs. Sin Cara & Rey Mysterio
I only had one problem with this match and it was the build up to it, Rey Mysterio & Sin Cara are just thrown into a number one contenders match while Rhode Scholars had to beat 3 other teams? It'd make sense if they were on a winning streak but their TV presence lately has been virtually zero. The match itself was a good one, I cringed every time Mysterio jumped for fear of his knee, I tend to do that in every match now. The last spot for Rhodes to pick up the win was very cool, and Rhodes & Sandow picking up the win was a good choice. On a side note I'll say that Kane and Daniel Bryan are excellent tag champs at the moment, they're good guys who act like bad guys so they can face any tag team and fit into the role, which is desperately needed during the revamp of the division.
Overall: 4/5

Antonio Cesaro vs. R-Truth
I’m loving Antonio as the US Champ, he’s doing the obvious “I’m a foreigner so you should be me” heel routine but he also throws in his intelligence and multi-lingual skills to heighten the hatred for him, if there’s one thing an American audience hates it’s a smart European guy. The rivalry leading up to this has been kind of confusing, it seems like they didn’t really know what to do with Truth after his tag team broke up so they’d throw him at Cesaro. The match itself was alright, nothing special. I’m hoping this is the end of the rivalry so Antonio can go back to challenging someone different every week, it showed he was a threat, it gave some mid-card guys some screen time and we didn’t have to put up with any R-Truth promos.
Overall: 3/5

The 3MB segment was rather strange. Why is Del Rio a face now? Why is The Miz a face now? Why did 3MB (a group including two people from outside of the United States) suddenly become a racist faction? Too many silly questions for a filler match to be set up.

Kofi Kingston vs. Wade Barrett
The build up to this match was good, although I kept thinking that Barrett should be in the main events now. He had an excellent run against Sheamus a few weeks back but then after that “set his sights” on a championship he claimed two years ago. Confusing but it’s given us some good moments. The match was good, and the finisher reversal into a finisher was awesome, again I’m hoping this feud is now over but for different reasons, Barrett needs to be wrestling people of his size, he’s one of the only “big guys” that can make the other larger wrestlers seem like they can have excellent matches. And that’s definitely a saving grace when the World Heavyweight Champion is the slowest, most boring one of them all.
Overall: 4/5

The Shield vs. Daniel Bryan, Kane and Ryback.
Wow. Everything about this match was good, the story telling in a match hasn’t been this spot on in a WWE bout for a while, the way The Shield could work as a unit the entire time and use it to keep the other three apart was excellent, no one stayed out of the spot light, everyone getting and receiving a big spot. Even Roman Reigns, who I wasn’t a fan of on NXT, did extremely well. It’s insane to think this match wouldn’t have happened if it wasn’t for Punk’s knee surgery. It had a classic attitude era feel too it, not only because of the amount of weapon spots, but because you genuinely had no idea who was going to win, the bad guys were cool, two of the good guys were bad guys, there were bodies everywhere. All I could think of during this match was the old Don’t Try This At Home video that was in front of DVD’s in the early 2000’s. Any one of those commentary lines could have been from this match. Shield winning was the obvious way to go about it, they looked strong and they worked as a unit. Nothing taken away from the other team either, Kane had to be completely buried underneath the set to be taken out, Ryback was left at the top of the stage to not make it back in time, and Daniel Bryan went down swinging. I also couldn’t help noticing how Daniel Bryan and Dean Ambrose kept getting drawn to each other, I hope there’s something there in the future. Side note: I loved how when Ryback hit a spear, Michael Cole went to shout SPEAR! Released that it’d just draw more comparisons to Goldberg and just stopped going “SSS.... WHAT A TACKLE!”
Overall: 5/5 (if it was possible I’d give it a 10.)

Eve vs. Naomi
Admittedly, I didn’t watch the pre-show. When I heard it was a Diva’s battle royal, I laughed, set my alarm back another half hour, and enjoyed some more sleep before the show started. So when Naomi came out, I couldn’t stop laughing. The good female wrestlers are leaving the company because they never get a chance to shine, we’re only really left with Natalya now, and I hope to God she leaves soon because whatever they’re doing with her right now will eventually cause Stu Hart to cause a hurricane in his grave. Anyway, the match was as terrible as expected. A pay per view should never be used for a pointless match to continue a feud that got no mention on the entire show other than in a replay of what happened earlier.
Overall: 0/5

Big Show vs. Sheamus
I’ll say this right away. I can’t stand the Big Show. He’s slow, boring, his promos are terrible and he went from a good looking chokeslam to a punch. Not a fancy elbow like Barrett or Ohno, or even a something with some flash to it. Just a punch. That was ruined when that stupid segment on Smackdown said he had twice the punching power of the Russian robot from Rocky IV. The match itself wasn’t as good as the last match. And the giant novelty chair was just silly. We get it. You’re a giant. The feud needs to be over, I would have preferred Sheamus to be champion because at least someone could have a good match with him. However while Big Show is champion all his matches will have the story “how can you beat someone who’s that big? The other guy is definitely an underdog.”
Overall 3/5

3MB vs. Alberto Del Rio, The Miz and... *Sigh* The Brooklyn Brawler
At another time, this would have been epic, the ultimate jobber of the 90’s vs. The jobber extraordinaire of the new age Heath Slater? I’d be up for that rivalry. Comedy gold. But when they’re Zack Ryder told by email he’s not needed in his home state, Swagger, Henry, Kidd, Gabriel and so many others sitting backstage. All this match did for me was point out that Drew McIntyre still isn’t in any position to be champion in the next few months.
Overall 2/5 (1 point for McIntyre and 1 point for the commentary during this match.)

Dolph Ziggler vs. Cena
Breathe easy, internet. It’s over. I legitimately jumped up and down, kicked my legs, punched the air, anything you see in the victory montage of a sports movie from the 80s, I did it. The match itself was alright, it was a TLC match, not a ladder match. But anyway... Ziggler was at his best in this match, the crowd was behind him and his potential just keeps getting bigger. He’s ready for the championship now. He was ready a year ago. The spots in this match were cool and it would probably be seen as an even better match if it didn’t have to be on the same show as the six-man earlier. I’ll probably rewatch this match later separately to see if it gets better. Any time Cena was more than half way up the ladder, I panicked. That’s good in a wrestling match though, it’s what you need. The fact that Cena’s “sixth move” that he randomly does every couple of months annoys me. In his head he probably thinks “yeah... that’ll show them.” But all it does show that he can actually do more moves, but he limits his moveset out of sheer laziness. The kids love him so why bother trying to earn the cheers of the adults? They’ll but his merch for the little ones anyway. The thing about Cena that no one really notices is that he’s only as good as his opponent. His best matches have been because of Edge or Punk. But that’s beside the point of this match. The crowd was behind Ziggler, and despite Cole and Lawlers attempts at getting the viewing audience to believe that the crowd was cheering for Cena, it was obvious that Ziggler is the smarks boy at the moment. We made Punk, we made Bryan. Now hurry the **** up and give this guy a title so we can start getting full-time smarky about Ambrose. The ending was obvious, I knew it would be by interference and as soon as AJ started skipping it was set in stone. The less said about the back suplex to Vickie, the better. The thing they need to do with AJ’s character as have her doing some real insane stuff now, pretend it never happened, fall in love with Vickie, start wearing shoes on her ears, I don’t know. But they need to really sell that she’s mental and not just love-sick.
Overall: 5/5

Overall, this pay per view was one of the better ones of the year. It’s a shame Punk couldn’t be on it but we got his promo and one of the craziest matches of the year out of it. So there’s a silver lining there. Cena vs. Ziggler being the main event was annoying but predictable, the booking for WWE at the moment is terrible, the championship should always be last. Hell at Wrestlemania 18 you had Rock vs. Hogan BEFORE the title match. That’s a huge match. Entire generations loved both of those guys. But Rock vs. Cena wasn’t the same, Rock has annoyed us all for a year with his “i’m home... not really” speech and the WWE Universe will forever be 50/50 about Cena. I’ll give this whole pay per view top marks, there was the usual bad diva’s match and pointless filler match but you come to expect them, I needed time to read my emails, you needed time to go out for a smoke, everyone needed to have a break in the three hours. If anything, I will thank WWE for giving me the time to win something on ebay during the Diva’s match. All the bad points are completely out shined by the main events. Unpredictable, edge of your seat and giving me hope the WWE is finally getting back on track.
Overall 5/5


Hope you enjoyed this review. First time doing this. ]]> DanHero http://www.ewrestlingnews.com/community/entry.php?44262-Dan-s-TLC-Review