G'day everyone, I'm the Aussie Mouthpiece and it's time again to take a look at the week that was in wrestling. This week I will as usual focus on Monday Night Raw, but as an extra added bonus, I've got some things I want to write about regarding TNA and the Lockdown PPV, which I haven't watched in detail, but some of the results got me thinking, and made me realise there's some aspects of TNA's product that have been bugging me for a while.
So sit back, relax, put your reading glasses and your learning eyes on, and let's get down to business.
Raw this week was coming to us from merry old England. I always enjoy when we get an episode of Raw or Smackdown from overseas, the crowds always seem hotter. I guess it's because the WWE comes to their country maybe once a year, and in that one time, people from the entire country flock to see them. At least, that's the way it works here in Australia. But it gives the show a bigger, slightly more epic feel about it, and I think overall, this week's episode did not disappoint, although I'm sure the live audience would have liked to have seen Lesnar in person rather than just on videotape.
Speaking of the crowd, they were right behind CM Punk this week. Don't get me wrong, the crowd is always behind Punk, but this week the cheers seemed louder, and more pronounced. Again it's probably something to do with not seeing the product live as much, but it feels like Punk's character has become.. not watered down, but not quite as edgy as it was a few months ago. So it was good to hear Punk getting the massive cheers. The "yes" chants during Punk's kicking sequences were awesome as well.
What a great match Henry and Punk had. There was one part where Mark Henry caught Punk, and flung him, quite violently, into the guardrail. It looked amazingly brutal.Henry has improved his consistency so much in the last year. He always had this potential, and his size and strength got him over immediately.. but now that he's added in the character development, the "hall of pain" angle, and the consistency of having great matches, he's finally stepped into that spot that the WWE have had set out for him for so many years. And I for one am really happy for him.
Last week I talked about there being a theme to the show. This week's theme seemed to be Extreme. No DQ matches, Extreme Rules matches.. Jericho going to extremes trying to prove CM Punk is an alcoholic.
One thing that I found funny, is that at Extreme Rules, we have CM Punk vs Jericho in a Street Fight, Brock Lesnar vs Cena in an Extreme Rules match, and Randy Orton vs Kane in a Falls Count Anywhere match. .. Now.. maybe it's just me, but aren't those three matches essentially the same thing? I remember a few years ago there was a Ladder match, a Stretcher match.. some kind of street fight match.. It just seems a little weird to have three matches all called different things, yet basically meaning the same thing.
Punk and Jericho's back and forth promo was decent, but it was just more of the same stuff from Jericho especially, and to me, it just seems like they've lost a little momentum in the feud because of that. It's not even in the realm of possibility that CM Punk would become a drunk from one drink, and honestly, this is supposed to be the "reality" era, storylines based more in reality, and in reality, I don't buy that Chris Jericho would believe the things he is saying about Cm Punk. It just feels like some steam has been let out or something.
Hopefully the match at Extreme Rules either changes things up again, the way it did when Jericho first attacked Punk with the Whiskey bottle, or it becomes the end of their rivalry.
So let's talk about the best part of the night. Funnily enough not even a live in-ring segment. The Brock Lesnar interview is of course the segment I'm referring to.
The way they've brought him back, the fact that two weeks in a row he's taken out Cena, he doesn't feel like a WWE superstar. As he said, he feels like an ass kicker. It's made him feel bigger than the WWE, and by referencing his UFC career, instantly making him legitimate.
I get the feeling that they got the idea for this interview from the UFC preview shows that are on before the pay per views where they interview each fighter. Again, making it feel .. "real". It's working really well so far, but the big test comes at Extreme Rules. It's one thing to take a guy down and have a bit of a melee with him, but it's certainly a whole different thing to have a match, especially with the top guy in the company.
Making it a "hardcore" (lets face it, that's what this is) match, I think will actually help, because it relies less on the wrestling and more on the big spots. I'm still hoping for a great match though.
So Cena comes out to "answer" Lesnar's interview essentially, but instead it seems he's focused on John Laurinitis. It's an interesting change, but I don't know if it's the right move. This match really needs to be about Lesnar and Cena. Nothing more. To me it should be about how they started around the same time, and the differences in their characters. I know they did that with The Rock and Cena, but this is a different animal. Lesnar isn't some actor who has a bunch of cool catchphrases. He's a legitimate fighter.
I thought it was good that Tensai got put into the main event, and even though it was a dirty win, he still won. I think his character isn't exactly a long term thing, but it works for now, and it's something different which is always a good thing. Variety can bring in more diverse crowds.
Ok so very quickly let's talk about TNA.
Now I haven't been paying a hell of a lot of attention to TNA lately, but I did see recently on impact that Velvet Sky won a battle royal or some kind of 6 woman match to become the number one contender for the knockouts title. And it's not the first time they've done something like that.
My problem with this is it felt like Velvet accomplished this big thing, like it was a big deal that she overcame all the challenges to become the No.1 Contender, yet at Lockdown, she lost.
My problem isn't exactly that she lost, it's just the way the match was set up, with how much emphasis was put on the fact that she won this huge thing to get the title shot.
And the way that she lost. Gail Kim was half knocked out from the powerbomb from the turnbuckle, yet won with a reversed roll up.. how did she have the strength to do that? It's just bad booking or whatever it's called these days. To me it would have made more sense if she hit her finisher and fell into a cover.
It felt the same with the Motor City Machine Guns. Now I am a huge fan of these guys. I was so happy to see them back together, and that Sabin has recovered from his injury. Yet in their first Pay Per view match back as a team, they lost.
Why not book them in a tag team match, but not for the titles? That way they could win and build momentum and make it feel like their return was a success. Maybe I just think in a weird way though.
Overall it just feels like they book things in advance, or tape things in advance and then change their minds about the results at the pay per views, and then the previous events don't make as much sense.
I also thought it was a little strange that Jeff Hardy won the match with a massive Swanton Bomb. Those spots used to be somewhere in the middle of a match, not the finish. I mean of course it works, but then within a minute, Jeff was up, walking around and congratulating fans, which again, doesn't seem realistic. I know it's a worked sport, but isn't the point to try to get us, as fans, to suspend disbelief? If something generally wouldn't happen if it was real, why would you do it as part of the show?
Overall I didn't mind Lockdown however, some of it was terrible, some of it was great. Kind of like TNA in general. But they need less emphasis on the older guys, and way more on the younger guys and the Tag team division.
Ok that's about it. So as usual, you can follow me on twitter @TheOZMouthpiece , and also leave me a comment on here to let me know what you think.
Oh and one last thing, thanks to @TherealWB and @VOWLive for making me their guest blogger, which was awesome!
I'm the Aussie Mouthpiece, and my business here is concluded, for now...
Showing posts with label Twitter. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Twitter. Show all posts
Friday, 20 April 2012
Sunday, 26 February 2012
Tis the season for picking a fight.
Yes. Yes I said I was back about a month ago, and then poof! I was gone again. The short version is I had some personal stuff to deal with and writing of any kind was just about the furthest thing from my mind.
But, that doesn't change the fact that I am indeed back.
And what a time to get back into this. Really, is there any better time for a wrestling fan that Wrestlemania "season"? Let's face it, the storylines (generally) get better, the quality of matches goes up, and then in turn, other companies try to lift their game/s to keep people interested in their product. It's a win/win.
I thought I might just pick a couple of the bigger news items of late and give my insightful opinions and thoughts on them, as well as where Wrestlemania is headed as of right now.. and probably some other small things that have caught my attention lately.
So where to begin? Let's go with... the CM Punk/Chris Brown twitter thing.
As far as I could tell this whole thing just kinda came out of nowhere, and was started by Punk. Now, I don't mean that in a bad way.. from what I've read, he was answering a question about who he'd like to see fight, or who he'd like to fight at wrestlemania or something, and gave a joking response saying that he'd "love to curb stomp that turd at 'mania".
The "turd" being Chris Brown.
Now I'm about the furthest thing from a "popular" music fan, so it's fair to say I have no idea what Chris Brown has done in the last few years. But he won a grammy.. so I guess that shows where the current music scene is, and how bad it's gotten. Seriously, don't get me started on music, or we'll be here until Wrestlemania. I could start an entirely new blog about the decline of skill, talent, creativity, and originality in music.
Some might say the music industry and Pro-Wrestling have a lot in common.
But, let's get back on topic.
So Brown replies with some remark about Punk being on steroids (I can't remember it, and one of Chris Brown's "staff" has deleted all the tweets). Way to come up with something original in response Chris Brown.. Oh.. wait.. the music thing.. I get it, there isn't any originality anywhere inside Chris Brown.
I'm right in thinking he's one of those guys who dances EXACTLY like Michael Jackson and calls it his own style aren't I? ... Nuff said.
Anyway, he takes the most general, first thought response to a wrestler.. "you're on steroids". Anyone who knows anything about CM Punk, would know he's straight-edge. Also..umm.. take a look at the guy? If it was Triple H or John Cena that had opened this up, you could almost forgive the guy for jumping on the steroid bandwagon. But Punk kinda just looks like a regular (albeit solid and much bigger) guy.
So after the steroid thing, he starts on the whole "I don't even know who CM Punk is" stuff. You may not know who he is Chris Brown, but I am damn sure he's much more respected by the general public that DO know who he is, because he stands for something, and doesn't abuse people. I'm not going to go into my own version of Punk's video, but it's safe to say that I agree with CM Punk's side of things.
You never hit women. It's cowardly. It's weak. It's a lack of respect, and it's disgusting that someone would need to make himself feel powerful at the expense of someone who at that time, would have trusted and loved (I assume) him. And giving celebrities special treatment and relaxed punishment because they are in the public eye is also disgusting.
Anyway, I digress again. Punk posted a video response, and it was amazing. Not a "promo" as such, and definitely not a work. Just a clear message. And amazingly well delivered. Oh, and Chris Brown?.. It wasn't defensive. It's not defensive to say "I am straight edge. I don't do drugs, I don't smoke, I don't drink, and I don't hit women"..
In the end nothing is going to come from this really, it's just CM Punk standing up for what he believes in, and it just proves even more that Chris Brown is exactly what Punk said he was.
I definitely do NOT want to see a match in WWE with these two. Chris Brown deserves no publicity for these kinds of actions, and WWE would, I'm sure, not want to do business with someone who conducts themselves in the way Chris Brown does. So, I think it should be left to settle.
I'll get to the other big thing I wanted to talk about soon, but I thought i'd just stop and lighten things up for a minute with some short opinions or reviews on some stuff i've watched lately.
Elimination Chamber: Decent PPV, found it really strange that the namesake match of this Pay Per View wasn't the main event. Marked out for Santino's near fall. Ziggler took so many crazy falls on the steel.. that guy is the man. Thought the Cena win over Kane was too clean, but I understand it as a definitive end to that feud. 6/10
Undertaker/HHH at Mania
I could write an entire post on this. Undertaker wearing a wig... HHH kind of being put in the same position as Punk put him in (as in pushing his buttons until he makes a rash decision), the Shawn Michaels factor.. the Hell in a Cell, but for now I'll just say... 20-0 ! Also I can't wait to see bald 'Taker! Who's with me?
The Punk/Jericho Feud
Ok this has been added in after I first posted, so i'll make it really short and elaborate in my next post after RAW this week. I really like how this started, the It Begins videos were interesting, Jericho not talking was great, and now that he's started talking he's stepped it up again. Punk is just being Punk. Which is awesome. Going to be great.
Eve turning heel/Cena on RAW this past week
FINALLY! I'm talking about Cena with attitude, not Eve turning heel. It was too quick, and felt forced. But Cena's Skank juice/Skankapottamus lines.. and then that promo at the end of RAW .. simply amazing. I agree with a few others that i've heard/read lately.. Cena is the babyface in this.
Which leads me into the second big news item I wanted to talk about.
The Rock is not all that popular backstage apparently, and people are talking about how he's just taking up a main event spot, yet he's not a full-time guy.
Now, there's an argument to be made about the 3rd highest match on the card.. which involves two part-time guys (Taker/HHH) and how it's hypocritical not to have the same feelings towards these guys, but I think the difference is that Triple H has been around this year, not to mention it's gotta be safe to assume he's backstage most of the time, and Undertaker is Undertaker. 21.. going on 22 years in the WWE... he can show up once a year and no-one would have anything to say about it.
The other difference, is that Rock has been booked in the main event since the day after Wrestlemania last year. Yet he's been seen on what.. two different occasions, actually live in the ring? He came back on his birthday or something, and then he was back around Survivor Series. That's it.. right? Correct me if i'm wrong, please.
But we have 5 episodes of RAW left before mania. Only five.
John Cena has been at oh.. 44 or so more episodes of RAW than Rock.
But the biggest thing to me, as a fan now more than trying to look at the wrestler's opinions, is Rock saying "I'm back.. and I am never leaving again" .. and as John Cena said.. "and then you left.. again!" ..
It's a joke.
Rock should have been around more. He did some "live via satellite" things during the year, why not do a few more of those last month? Surely one night out of a month wouldn't have been too hard to make it to a RAW and come out and just cut a promo about Mania. I know Cena was in a feud with Kane and they probably didn't want to blur the two feuds, but the problem with building and booking this match for a year in advance, is that we knew that the Kane feud would end. It had to.
Here's an idea for what WWE could have done.. at Survivor Series.. Rock takes Cena out. And I mean (kayfabe) injures Cena. Cena is now focused on recovering and rehabbing himself to get to mania. Keep him off of TV (Punk's merchandise would cover the costs, seeing as how that would be a major concern over quality tv) but have him do interviews from home.. in a cast, in a wheelchair.. something. Have vignettes like they have had with the two training, but without Cena being focused on someone else.
Just a thought..
But i think that the other WWE wrestlers have every right to feel the way they do. Sure, Rock will draw money, and it does make sense to put him in a marquee match, but Rock hasn't made the effort, and I hope, I wish, I plead with WWE... make Rock the heel. It won't happen, he's going to come out on RAW this week, run down John Cena, the We hate Cena crowd will love it.. and we'll have this weird "both guys are faces and heels" situation.
Imagine how shocked some people will be if The Rock comes out and says something like (read this part in the Rock's voice for added effect) No no no no no no NO! The Rock would have come back earlier, but The Rock has had so many movie premieres, so many interviews, so many media appearances, that quite frankly, The Rock just could not bring himself to come here. In Hollywood, The Rock can hang with (Insert b grade celebrity here), be seen by the millions... no no, the real millions. But here.. all the Rock has is a bunch of fruity pebble yabba dabbas chanting You can't see me at The Rock! How could the Rock not see you? You all look like Rainbows!" Or something. Just imagine that. (Of course Rock would be better than my small attempt at writing a Rock promo)
But you see where I'm going.. Rock the hollywood type heel... vs Cena.. the company guy. Picture it.
Ok, this is quite long now, so i'm going to finish up. But as always, leave me a comment, or let me know what you think on Twitter @TheOZMouthpiece and follow me on there so you can get spammed whenever I write a new post.
So until next time, I am the Aussie Mouthpiece, and I come from a land Down Under.
But, that doesn't change the fact that I am indeed back.
And what a time to get back into this. Really, is there any better time for a wrestling fan that Wrestlemania "season"? Let's face it, the storylines (generally) get better, the quality of matches goes up, and then in turn, other companies try to lift their game/s to keep people interested in their product. It's a win/win.
I thought I might just pick a couple of the bigger news items of late and give my insightful opinions and thoughts on them, as well as where Wrestlemania is headed as of right now.. and probably some other small things that have caught my attention lately.
So where to begin? Let's go with... the CM Punk/Chris Brown twitter thing.
As far as I could tell this whole thing just kinda came out of nowhere, and was started by Punk. Now, I don't mean that in a bad way.. from what I've read, he was answering a question about who he'd like to see fight, or who he'd like to fight at wrestlemania or something, and gave a joking response saying that he'd "love to curb stomp that turd at 'mania".
The "turd" being Chris Brown.
Now I'm about the furthest thing from a "popular" music fan, so it's fair to say I have no idea what Chris Brown has done in the last few years. But he won a grammy.. so I guess that shows where the current music scene is, and how bad it's gotten. Seriously, don't get me started on music, or we'll be here until Wrestlemania. I could start an entirely new blog about the decline of skill, talent, creativity, and originality in music.
Some might say the music industry and Pro-Wrestling have a lot in common.
But, let's get back on topic.
So Brown replies with some remark about Punk being on steroids (I can't remember it, and one of Chris Brown's "staff" has deleted all the tweets). Way to come up with something original in response Chris Brown.. Oh.. wait.. the music thing.. I get it, there isn't any originality anywhere inside Chris Brown.
I'm right in thinking he's one of those guys who dances EXACTLY like Michael Jackson and calls it his own style aren't I? ... Nuff said.
Anyway, he takes the most general, first thought response to a wrestler.. "you're on steroids". Anyone who knows anything about CM Punk, would know he's straight-edge. Also..umm.. take a look at the guy? If it was Triple H or John Cena that had opened this up, you could almost forgive the guy for jumping on the steroid bandwagon. But Punk kinda just looks like a regular (albeit solid and much bigger) guy.
So after the steroid thing, he starts on the whole "I don't even know who CM Punk is" stuff. You may not know who he is Chris Brown, but I am damn sure he's much more respected by the general public that DO know who he is, because he stands for something, and doesn't abuse people. I'm not going to go into my own version of Punk's video, but it's safe to say that I agree with CM Punk's side of things.
You never hit women. It's cowardly. It's weak. It's a lack of respect, and it's disgusting that someone would need to make himself feel powerful at the expense of someone who at that time, would have trusted and loved (I assume) him. And giving celebrities special treatment and relaxed punishment because they are in the public eye is also disgusting.
Anyway, I digress again. Punk posted a video response, and it was amazing. Not a "promo" as such, and definitely not a work. Just a clear message. And amazingly well delivered. Oh, and Chris Brown?.. It wasn't defensive. It's not defensive to say "I am straight edge. I don't do drugs, I don't smoke, I don't drink, and I don't hit women"..
In the end nothing is going to come from this really, it's just CM Punk standing up for what he believes in, and it just proves even more that Chris Brown is exactly what Punk said he was.
I definitely do NOT want to see a match in WWE with these two. Chris Brown deserves no publicity for these kinds of actions, and WWE would, I'm sure, not want to do business with someone who conducts themselves in the way Chris Brown does. So, I think it should be left to settle.
I'll get to the other big thing I wanted to talk about soon, but I thought i'd just stop and lighten things up for a minute with some short opinions or reviews on some stuff i've watched lately.
Elimination Chamber: Decent PPV, found it really strange that the namesake match of this Pay Per View wasn't the main event. Marked out for Santino's near fall. Ziggler took so many crazy falls on the steel.. that guy is the man. Thought the Cena win over Kane was too clean, but I understand it as a definitive end to that feud. 6/10
Undertaker/HHH at Mania
I could write an entire post on this. Undertaker wearing a wig... HHH kind of being put in the same position as Punk put him in (as in pushing his buttons until he makes a rash decision), the Shawn Michaels factor.. the Hell in a Cell, but for now I'll just say... 20-0 ! Also I can't wait to see bald 'Taker! Who's with me?
The Punk/Jericho Feud
Ok this has been added in after I first posted, so i'll make it really short and elaborate in my next post after RAW this week. I really like how this started, the It Begins videos were interesting, Jericho not talking was great, and now that he's started talking he's stepped it up again. Punk is just being Punk. Which is awesome. Going to be great.
Eve turning heel/Cena on RAW this past week
FINALLY! I'm talking about Cena with attitude, not Eve turning heel. It was too quick, and felt forced. But Cena's Skank juice/Skankapottamus lines.. and then that promo at the end of RAW .. simply amazing. I agree with a few others that i've heard/read lately.. Cena is the babyface in this.
Which leads me into the second big news item I wanted to talk about.
The Rock is not all that popular backstage apparently, and people are talking about how he's just taking up a main event spot, yet he's not a full-time guy.
Now, there's an argument to be made about the 3rd highest match on the card.. which involves two part-time guys (Taker/HHH) and how it's hypocritical not to have the same feelings towards these guys, but I think the difference is that Triple H has been around this year, not to mention it's gotta be safe to assume he's backstage most of the time, and Undertaker is Undertaker. 21.. going on 22 years in the WWE... he can show up once a year and no-one would have anything to say about it.
The other difference, is that Rock has been booked in the main event since the day after Wrestlemania last year. Yet he's been seen on what.. two different occasions, actually live in the ring? He came back on his birthday or something, and then he was back around Survivor Series. That's it.. right? Correct me if i'm wrong, please.
But we have 5 episodes of RAW left before mania. Only five.
John Cena has been at oh.. 44 or so more episodes of RAW than Rock.
But the biggest thing to me, as a fan now more than trying to look at the wrestler's opinions, is Rock saying "I'm back.. and I am never leaving again" .. and as John Cena said.. "and then you left.. again!" ..
It's a joke.
Rock should have been around more. He did some "live via satellite" things during the year, why not do a few more of those last month? Surely one night out of a month wouldn't have been too hard to make it to a RAW and come out and just cut a promo about Mania. I know Cena was in a feud with Kane and they probably didn't want to blur the two feuds, but the problem with building and booking this match for a year in advance, is that we knew that the Kane feud would end. It had to.
Here's an idea for what WWE could have done.. at Survivor Series.. Rock takes Cena out. And I mean (kayfabe) injures Cena. Cena is now focused on recovering and rehabbing himself to get to mania. Keep him off of TV (Punk's merchandise would cover the costs, seeing as how that would be a major concern over quality tv) but have him do interviews from home.. in a cast, in a wheelchair.. something. Have vignettes like they have had with the two training, but without Cena being focused on someone else.
Just a thought..
But i think that the other WWE wrestlers have every right to feel the way they do. Sure, Rock will draw money, and it does make sense to put him in a marquee match, but Rock hasn't made the effort, and I hope, I wish, I plead with WWE... make Rock the heel. It won't happen, he's going to come out on RAW this week, run down John Cena, the We hate Cena crowd will love it.. and we'll have this weird "both guys are faces and heels" situation.
Imagine how shocked some people will be if The Rock comes out and says something like (read this part in the Rock's voice for added effect) No no no no no no NO! The Rock would have come back earlier, but The Rock has had so many movie premieres, so many interviews, so many media appearances, that quite frankly, The Rock just could not bring himself to come here. In Hollywood, The Rock can hang with (Insert b grade celebrity here), be seen by the millions... no no, the real millions. But here.. all the Rock has is a bunch of fruity pebble yabba dabbas chanting You can't see me at The Rock! How could the Rock not see you? You all look like Rainbows!" Or something. Just imagine that. (Of course Rock would be better than my small attempt at writing a Rock promo)
But you see where I'm going.. Rock the hollywood type heel... vs Cena.. the company guy. Picture it.
Ok, this is quite long now, so i'm going to finish up. But as always, leave me a comment, or let me know what you think on Twitter @TheOZMouthpiece and follow me on there so you can get spammed whenever I write a new post.
So until next time, I am the Aussie Mouthpiece, and I come from a land Down Under.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)