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Post by Curtis D. Kanyon on Jul 3, 2012 12:29:44 GMT -6
It was said last year, CM Punk had made wrestling good again. And it was...until Triple H squashed that. That's the last time there was hope, but if you think back to last year, that's probably the only good thing going in wrestling at the time.
Getting back to now, there's nothing explosive happening, but there's a lot of little good things going on in wrestling that may just actually culminate into awesomeness, which is what we need.
WWE: Reasons to believe: With WWE, last night's Raw saw a woman standing tall to end the show. Totally different than anything seen on Raw maybe ever, but I liked it. The AJ storyline was getting a little convoluted with the addition of Kane, but now that it's back to a triangle, I think it's gotten better. Mid-carders are getting storylines. The Prime Time Players are two not good wrestlers, but they're entertaining and I'm liking the storyline. Tyson Kidd is getting a bit of a shine, and if it continues, it could be good. He won't win Money in the Bank, but if he steals the show, that could open the door for him and the other NXT cast members. Damien Sandow is just plain awesome. Big Show needs to stay a monster, he has no reason to be anything else. Paul Heyman saved the Lesnar/Triple H feud by changing it from two dudes fighting over lawsuits to Triple H wanting a warriors death in the ring, which if he acknowledges it, is a much better reason to fight. If they keep letting Heyman throw his spin on it, this feud could turn out good.
Reasons to worry: The WWE Title Money in the Bank will suck if they don't add at least two more guys. And if it is in fact Cena who wins that match and he's not the first guy to fail at cashing in, then he's back in the title picture. It's not that I hate Cena, he's a good guy, he tries hard, he wants others to main event, but he does whatever he's told. He's bigger than the title now and he's still over saturated. Putting him back in the title hunt isn't needed. But if ratings start turning around, Vince will put him their to make people think it was Cena that made the ratings, and then they'll fall again. Sheamus as champ still isn't working, if he doesn't lose the belt and start chasing someone, it's just going to get worse. He's had some good matches, people just aren't enthusiastic about cheering him. Also, people want more Zack Ryder, and they're still not getting it. I don't need him fighting for the world title or anything, just put him on TV for the pop.
TNA Reasons to believe: They made the X-Division title and the World title worth more at one time. The deal to cash in the X title for a world title shot makes it important to hold, and makes people see the World title is still THE belt to have. Joseph Park is awesome, and if done right, could be the best storyline TNA has ever done, which I know isn't saying much. Joey Ryan needs to fight Taz. Bobby Roode being a Flair style champion has made the belt look good and was something missing for the past few years, so it's refreshing to see. James Storm not winning at first was lame, but now the build makes me want to see him take it more. TNA turned last years confusing and stupid BFG series into an actual good series with the change of rules. We all know who's going to win, and there's nothing wrong with that. TNA has been following through with storylines, even when we see where it's going, instead of throwing a lame swerve in, and it works! AJ/Daniels was looking to be ****, but Daniels made it interesting again with calling out AJ to be the daddy. Plus, having Kaz acknowledge that Daniels tricked him, even if he ended up going along with it later, was something TNA wouldn't have done in the old days.
Reasons to worry: However, that "pregnant" actress is the ****s. She alone could ruin TNA. The reveal of AJ and Dixie hiding the secret they were helping a pregnant druggie that we don't even know was just terrible. I was hoping they'd reveal she was an actress and they hired her to cover up they were having an affair, but now with the AJ daddy story, I know it won't go that way. So if AJ happens to find an easy and just as lame way out of this accusation, the storyline will go down the tubes for good. A major problem with the old TNA is not following their storylines to the natural progression. If James doesn't win the BFG, lame. If Joseph Park just goes away when Abyss is back full time, lame. If Sting's attackers are never revealed, lame. While they've mostly mostly been good about it, they're still letting some things through the cracks. The TV title hasn't been on the last two episodes, so they've already dropped the defending every week storyline. Brooke Hogan alone could ruin TNA.
What do you think? Agree, disagree? Sex?
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Post by Amy Marshall on Jul 3, 2012 13:49:17 GMT -6
Another reason to worry...
Matt Morgan, Angelina Love, Shannon Moore, Alex Shelley, Ric Flair, Anthony Nese - all leaving.
I know not big time people to worry about but who else could leave?
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Post by Xavier Williams on Jul 3, 2012 16:15:05 GMT -6
For the WWE, everything looks to culminate at the 1000th episode. If anything, we'll have a good picture of what the rest of the year holds then.
The AJ/Punk/Bryan thing, as I said on Twitter, the best story going in the WWE. It has gone past the title and revolved around AJ. And you have to give AJ some love. She has taken the ball and ran with it. Bryan did his work too, I consider one of the more consistent acts in 2011 and he has done his fair share of work. Punk has been hit or miss, but I think he is playing their part, but again AJ is the star of this show. But, I don't see this whole story going past Summerslam. But at that point, she'll probably just be used for th Divas title stuff and see if she can carry that heat in that division wich is looking kinda weak with just Layla being there.
Sheamus. He just needs something to shake up the scene around him. Maybe a big match with Show or Henry (depending on if he comes back from injury) Become the big time babyface destroying the monster. Sheamus got eaten up in the whole Daniel Bryan, 'YES!' thing and they just needed to get him away from it. But in doing so, he's fallen to what, the 5th, 6th? biggest story on the entire show. They need to put some heat on him again and make Sheamus seem like the big deal he is.
MitB. I dunno. Cena with a case intrigues me. Who has been bitten more times in the ass by the MitB than Cena? Him winning the belt, is kinda secondary if you take a step back, Punk has had 8-9 months as champion? So it's not like he hasn't had a lengthy run behind him. But I think the drama of Cena MAYBE taking advantage of a fallen champion, compared to him giving the champion an honest shot, dunno. Sounds better than Kane and Jericho. Show... I'm still kinda warm on.
Everything else, I have no clue.
TNA... I don't care.
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Post by Spike Kane on Jul 6, 2012 9:56:30 GMT -6
I have to agree that I'm actually intrigued as to how Cena will go forward if he wins the mitb. However, if he wins and is totally up front right from the beginning "I want a match at blah blah" and just wins casually, then I'll go back to despising him.
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Post by Jennifer Williams on Jul 6, 2012 13:19:26 GMT -6
cena wins... cashes in at september night of champions before hand... since that ppv is in boston
nothing special....
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Post by Steve Awesome on Jul 6, 2012 23:31:42 GMT -6
say cena wins and cashes in on a beaten opponent. but the opponent is heel and just cheated to win his match.....does it have the same effect?
I dont think turning cena heel is the best solution. if you turn cena heel hogan style like he did back in 96, your just gonna have the same fan reaction, only flip flopped. we're all gonna cheer for cena, and the little kids will hate him.
best move for cena is some time away for a little bit. get his divorce stuff taken care of and let us forget about him for awhile, at least three months. Then when he's ready to come back boom we will be ready to see him again. Remember the pop he got when he came back for the rumble.
punk vs bryan has been pretty good imo. aj has been doing her thing and making it work. they have done a pretty good job of stretching there feud out without making it feel too repetitive. im interested to see how the wwe title match plays out. everyone is looking for aj to make a choice....maybe that happens at mitb.
sheamus and the wht has been lacking bad. and thats because del rio sucks bad. dude is boring...im sorry to any del rio fans but i just dont get his appeal. plus the guy in injury prone. sheamus's title match against ziggler was pretty good but it didnt have much build because del rio sucks at life.
ziggler is coming along nicely. i wonder if they ever plan on pulling the trigger and turning him face. i thought vickie having swagger screw ziggs out of the wht match would have been the moment especially after the way ziggler eliminated swagger from the match to get the spot in the first place.
if the put flair with ziggler like the rumors say, that will be all he needs. flair will fine tune the guy like he did orton and batista and ziggler. i know it probably wont happen, but imagine if flair started calling dolph the new nature boy and ziggler started wearing the robes and stuff.
idk.....i dont completely hate the product...i thing there are strides in the right directions but i think they just want to make safe choices and not take many risks because well...they dont really have too anymore. they have a core audience and they will always have one as long as there are kids around.
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Post by Nikki Michaels on Jul 7, 2012 5:47:04 GMT -6
TNA is trying hard. Austin Aries being the focus going into Destination X and Bobby Roode being a great heel champ is awesome. The X-Division tournament is great and the BFG series matches are all great quality (see the Hardy vs Storm match this week). The Joseph Park vs Bully Ray storyline keeps getting better the one bad part is the Aj styles dixie druggie pregnant thing but let me put it thisway....the storyline is **** but it involves Styles vs Daniels and in the ring those two can go and sell ice cream to ****ing eskimos.
TNA is not the complete **** it was, they are going in a much better direction and I'm enjoying the show and that is all I've ever wanted to enjoy it and be entertained....
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Post by Xavier Williams on Jul 9, 2012 0:05:54 GMT -6
Honestly, I think they balked on getting Cena off TV, the match with Brock was the PERFECT chance to take Cena off, give it some times. You have your slow days in the Summer anyway, and it's not like him being around changed anything.
He is an important of the machine, but toward the end of the Ace feud, dude was just on fumes.
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Post by Spike Kane on Jul 10, 2012 7:45:41 GMT -6
Honestly, I think they balked on getting Cena off TV, the match with Brock was the PERFECT chance to take Cena off, give it some times. You have your slow days in the Summer anyway, and it's not like him being around changed anything. He is an important of the machine, but toward the end of the Ace feud, dude was just on fumes. Perfectly put, especially when he did his "I'm going away" speech, then just shows up on RAW the next day. I don't like the guy, but it doesn't mean I don't respect what he does for the company. I do think he deserves some time off, not to go make a movie, not to do loads of signing sessions, some legit time off. It will only help the show. Personally, I think they've been watering down how much Cena is on the TV, maybe in a like fade him out kind of way. See how much the ratings are effected etc, because it's all the freakin' care about. However, there is a lot less of the "force cena down their throats" method we've had for so long, which to me is refreshing. It means when he does come out, he doesn't get on my tits half as much as he usually does. However, I'm still adamant that the fued with Johnny should have been Punks, not Cena's.
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Post by Curtis D. Kanyon on Jul 10, 2012 15:40:47 GMT -6
TNA just got more interesting! I did not see (spoiler alert) Aries winning the belt coming. I'm sure Roode will get it back before Bound For Glory, but interesting indeed. I thought they wanted Storm to be the one to dethrone him, but I don't think this necessarily takes anything away from a Storm/Roode match, since it's about more than the title. Plus, Rock and Mankind were trading the belt back and forth leading up to days away from Wrestlemania XV, so I don't think Roode losing and regaining the title a month or two away from BFG will lower the importance of the match. The Kenny King situation is interesting, but I'm hoping they keep Mason "whatever his last name was" around, because I've seen him on TV here in LA as Scorpio Sky and he is damn good. Also, good point AJ classic, no matter how bad the pregger druggie storyline gets, at least were getting AJ vs. Daniels out of it.
Raw had good bookends, but the middle was just all over the place. AJ is definitely stealing the show, and I think it was interesting that they actually acknowledged that with Eve telling Punk. I hope that pep talk from her gets something going where Punk is out to be the star of the show or something, I hope he confronts the Rock on 1000, because I think they could go back and forth verbally pretty damn well. Cena is as Cena does. He's guaranteed he'll win, so if he wins, it's more of the same, and if he losses, it shows him as a loser...again. I agree with Steve, they need to give him some time off, get his life in order, give guys time to step up and take his place so he has new challengers when he comes back. It won't happen, but it should. Raw is getting ridiculous and clumsy, which sometimes is fun sometimes is not (Hornswaggle was the anonymous GM!? WTF?), while Smackdown feels like the tighter more thought out show, more than Raw at least, and has matches longer than two minutes. Unless your Ryback. Who I like, but only if they let him climb the ladder the old school way. Now that he's done with jobbers, he fights the curtain jerkers and after he mows through all them, he should go to the mid card and demolish, then the upper mid card and trash all them, before finally facing main eventers. They shouldn't rush him, but he was facing the jobbers for a little too long, so I'm glad they're done with that phase.
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Post by Philip Burns on Jul 10, 2012 16:11:40 GMT -6
I honestly hope they are making Cena stale on purpose so that his eventual turn is Hogan-like in scale.
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Post by Xavier Williams on Jul 10, 2012 22:20:31 GMT -6
...Cena is not turning.
Who even comes close in filling his role? In terms of money, ratings, PR... who?
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Post by Philip Burns on Jul 10, 2012 22:23:05 GMT -6
...Cena is not turning. Who even comes close in filling his role? In terms of money, ratings, PR... who? So by that logic I guess heel Hogan or the nWo never sold any tickets or T-shirts. It will happen, maybe 5 more years but it will.
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Post by Xavier Williams on Jul 13, 2012 19:46:21 GMT -6
The nWo ran out of steam QUICKLY, they rolled the entire roster and basically had to wait until Goldberg got hot enough to make a dent, and even then it devolved into WTFery.
Down the line... yeah why not.
Also Hogan wasn't the top guy in WCW, he drew his money in the WWF, and made some in WCW, but he wasn't the center of the show, like he was in the WWF or Cena is now. That is a very important difference you have to malke
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Post by Philip Burns on Jul 13, 2012 20:03:22 GMT -6
The nWo is the sole reason nitro ever sustained decent ratings.
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Post by Charlie Velez on Jul 16, 2012 7:33:14 GMT -6
The only reason why the nWo ran out of steam was because of the botched Starrcade ending.
If Sting beats Hogan cleanly without the stupid "crooked ref counted too fast, but didn't really count that fast" spot and the whole Hart restarting the match, WCW just completed a successful storyline. Instead, Sting wins that way...only for them to strip him of the title the next day. It was stupid, and a lot of fans groaned.
As for Cena? As you can see he won the MITB, he's gonna announce tonight he's gonna use it to face CM Punk at Summerslam claiming to be the "first" to announce when to use it. Because well, he's Cena, Superman.
And then what happens? If Cena wins...so what, he's bigger than the title, the WWE has established that every PPV minus the Royal Rumble. And he if loses? Well, maybe Punk gets a rub? Except you know Cena's not gonna lose cleanly because...he never does. So however Cena loses will be the focus of the next month, not Punk's huge win.
It's a sick, vicious cycle we're in with John Cena. Think Hogan of the early 90's...with no change in sight, because there's no competition.
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Post by Cabeza del Queso on Jul 16, 2012 13:47:16 GMT -6
RVD announced his ahead of time, because he's a bad ass. Cena may use the reason that his feet were on the ropes at the last Summerslam and he got screwed. That would at least be a nice thing to mention.
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Post by Xavier Williams on Jul 16, 2012 13:54:31 GMT -6
Punk with the exception of whatever madness they were trying to pull with Del Rio last year, has been champ for pretty much a year. And has moved into the #2 spot behind Cena (he's moving the merch), so it's not like Punk has much to lose in terms of footing in the company.
It's a double edge sword when it comes to Cena, for a dominate character has pretty much had his ass handed to him the first half of the year. By Rock, by Brock, hell even Show got some licks in. So what do you do with hi. The guy is the show, hell he is the company. With HHH/Brock as one of the headliners, why NOT do Punk/Cena as the #2? Punk has come very far in the last year, and there is something for them to play off of. Punk is the only other guy, outside of the Rock, to pin Cena clean.
After that, is it gonna be Cena/Rock II at Mania with the title on the line? You have Cena getting back on track. It's one of those things, where you have to step back and look at the bigger picture and go, 'what makes sense story wise, to get from Point A to point B.', that Cena/Rock II is the payoff the WWE is looking for.
And I'm not sure if they do Cena/Punk, Cena wins, who's to say The Rock doesn't want to get him a piece early? I doubt we'll get anything major tonight, b/c they are loading the chamber for RAW 1000. But right now, breathe and let it play out, for now.
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Post by Spike Kane on Jul 16, 2012 14:09:49 GMT -6
Maybe it's The Rock who will win the title and Cena cashes in on? I mean he's been pretty vocal that he wants another title run.
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Post by Xavier Williams on Jul 16, 2012 14:18:51 GMT -6
Punk/Rock is another good match up, if they go that way,
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Post by Philip Burns on Jul 16, 2012 15:58:04 GMT -6
I would love to see Punk vs The Rock
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Post by Xavier Williams on Jul 20, 2012 14:36:42 GMT -6
Let me lay this one on the table.
Say... Punk wins, but whoever runs in. We get a 3-way at Summerslam, Cena wins. We have Punk chasing Cena for the fall. Somewhere Punk retains, step in Rock, Rock/Punk at Mania. So where does that leave Cena.
John Cena vs The Undertaker.
It sounds crazy, but to me, this is the last big match the WWE has yet to have, Cena is the only guy with the credentials to even warrant this match and (wait for it) end the streak. I think it's time to take the Streak off the WrestleMania table and move onto Manias without Taker b/c I dont know how many matches you are gonna get out of him.
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Post by Spike Kane on Jul 20, 2012 17:05:17 GMT -6
I should punch you in the dick for even suggesting that
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Post by Curtis D. Kanyon on Jul 20, 2012 18:41:44 GMT -6
Beat the streak, it'll be a moment no matter who does it. Beat the streak with Cena, it'll be a moment, then everyone will groan. Let Undertaker keep the streak and retire with it, he's a super legend no one will ever be able to surpass.
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Post by Philip Burns on Jul 24, 2012 10:57:04 GMT -6
bunch of people wrong about how money in the bank was gonna play out, eh?
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Post by Spike Kane on Jul 24, 2012 15:21:08 GMT -6
It was fairly predictable as in....I can safely say it was easy to predict if Punk retained it would not be clean. I expected Big Show OR The Rock to cost Cena the match, but I can also safely say i did NOT expect The Rock to come to Cena's aid. I'm thinking that Summerslam may have either a four way title match or a Cena/Rock Vs Show/Punk match.
I did not see Punk's heel turn coming, but I'm very glad it happened on a pure fanboy basis. However, who is there to take Punk's spot as the second biggest face? Unless The Rock is going to be showing up more, which I doubt. I can;t see it being Mysterio, they won't change Bryan, and the rest are mid-card at best. Unless you count Ziggler, but he's busy with Smackdown **** now. Maybe The Miz?
I'm very intrigued to see where this is going to go, and WWE did a good job with that hook and bait, because I can't wait for next week for Punk to "explain his actions" and the fallout of those actions. Some people are complaining that they wanted Cena vs Rock again at the Rumble, my point is simply this: the rumble is a long way away.
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Post by Will Washington on Jul 24, 2012 17:10:44 GMT -6
I've been hoping for a Miz turn since Survivor Series. He's one of the best media guys they have and he's got a lot of charisma. Plus he has a catchphrase that the fans can get involved with and he's small enough to play the underdog role believably when needed.
And he got a face pop when he beat Christian for the Intercontinental Title last night. I think with his look changed and his movie coming out, he could be a pretty solid face for them.
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Post by Curtis D. Kanyon on Jul 25, 2012 13:59:55 GMT -6
I think they are going to turn Bryan face. Everyone loves chanting "Yes!" and now with AJ as the boss, she can make his life a living hell and give him that face sympathy. Also so he can face CM Punk at some point between now and Rumble.
Heel Punk I am excited for. I wish he got a pin on Cena though, that way the first unsuccessful MitB cashing in would be a total loss, instead Cena still technically won. I'm guessing Punk keeps the belt all the way to the Rumble until he loses to the Rock. Cena wins the Rumble and picks Rocky, they get their rematch and now it's for the belt, so it's even bigger. Though in a perfect world, it would be a triple threat with Rock, Cena, and Punk at WM 29.
The 1000 was awesome as a whole for the nostalgia and all that, but looking back at it, I wish there was more of the current roster on the show. Even if it was just in backgrounds, or as groomsmen and bridesmaids. They didn't do a whole lot to build up any new stars, but I think they did boost the star power of Punk and Bryan. Maybe also Sandow, but only if they follow up on that with him attacking Triple H between now and Summerslam and maybe having a one off match.
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