New Column Thread for Writers with < 5 posts [Archive]

Wrestler In Training

12-11-2012, 09:04 AM

Hello Columns Forum. I am Wrestler In Training, and that holds true. I start my training with “Cowboy” Jeremy Young and High Roller Haze this Saturday and couldn’t be more excited. I really have no desire to post in the forums and wanted to share my experiences with people who I feel would appreciate it (besides my girlfriend, of course). Think of this as my diary that is free for the world to read and comment on.

First things first, let me introduce myself and give you some background. I am 22 years old, a Junior History Major at Georgia Southern University in Statesboro, Georgia, and a Middle School football and soccer coach. I’ve been watching wrestling since August 26, 1999. I remember that date specifically because that was the night of the very first Smackdown airing. And the only reason I happened to catch it was because I grew up poor and didn’t have money for cable, but UPN was on the basic networks.

I found out about the opportunity of training a couple weeks ago at the American Premier Wrestling’s Brawl-for-All V. My girlfriend and a co-worker heard about the show (they were performing inside of Ryan’s Buffet) and it was only $15 for dinner and a show. The show was very fun and fan interactive. During the show, however, they announced that have a website and that we should check it out. I did later that night and discovered that they do train. So I called and got a tryout for this past Saturday in Metter, GA where I met Jeremy Young and High Roller Haze. Haze was very straightforward that training would not be easy and that he and Cowboy were assholes, because they are old school who teach the fundamentals instead of just top rope diving all match.

My tryout then began and we stretched, and he showed me how to properly get into the ring. He told me rule one for wrestling for them is: Always wipe your feet before getting in the ring. It’s showing respect and you are “wiping the crap” off of your feet. Similar to fighters in MMA bowing before getting inside the octagon. Then I had some basic sidesteps, high knees, backwards high knees, and tumbling around the ring. Which killed me, because: One, I’m out of shape and two, I didn’t eat all day before going, because I’m an idiot. I then learned how to run the ropes, which is awkward trying to spin the correct way, step exactly one foot away before turning, always grabbing the ropes with your right hand, getting your right foot square and lifting your left leg (not your right, as I was told several times). Then I learned how to bump. And let me tell you, ladies and gentlemen, that is not a soft mat. My respect for all wrestlers went up immensely after taking one bump. And that was just falling straight down, not jumping off the top rope, getting slammed, or, god forbid, falling off of a ladder. I then had to run the ropes and fall, get back up, and fall again ten times. They then got down on all four, Poetry In Motion style, and had me handstand off of their backs and fall to the mat ten times. And finally my tryout was over. Jeremy Young talked to me for a few minutes afterwards. He mentioned how it’s not just some easy thing that people do. He told me how people who have no knowledge of the wrestling business say it’s fake, but it is scripted, not fake. And that if those people would take one bump, they’d change their tune. He said that they would train me, but I have to have the heart. It’s not going to be easy, but it is the greatest job in the world.

That concludes my first entry here, but definitely not my last. i know that the length wasn't too long, but I wrote everything that I had so far. My newer posts should be much longer when I talk about my actual training, matches, and whatnot. I look forward to sharing my experiences with you and would love feedback. Thanks for reading.

zzzorf

12-11-2012, 03:02 PM

First off welcome to the CF, it is always great to see a new face. Secondly this was a pretty good debut, it is always good to here someone who actually has first hand knowledge of wrestling. As you touched on the length was a bit short but this can be easily worked on in your future columns. My advice would be to add a bit more of you into the column, how you really felt getting into the ring for your first time, stuff like that. Again welcome and I hope you stick around and enjoy your time in the CF.

The Crusader

01-13-2013, 03:55 AM

The Brink - We almost had a monster on our hands

Throughout the history of the WWE there have been a numerous amount of big men who on the outset looked almost good enough to become major cogs in the wrestling machine we all love (or hate). But for one reason or another, they couldn't hold onto a spot and were released although the wrestling skills were with them to begin with. There is one in particular who I honestly felt could have made a difference to the company, becoming the monsterous heel that could have helped Kane to an early retirement.

Gene Snitsky(2004-2008)

This man debuted on the Septemeber 13, 2004 edition of Monday Night RAW of which his first opponent was none other than Kane, in a no disqualification match no less. He was being used a 'jobber' in order to display how dominant and controlling Kane was while he was in his kayfabe relationship with (a heavily pregnant) Lita. Lita jumped into the match in order to distract Kane to stop the beatdown when Snitsky capitalised, hitting Kane in the back with a chair. This cause Kane to fall on top of Lita, causing a miscarriage. At a future interview, Snitsky was asked about the incident. "It wasn't my fault..." was his answer, a catchphrase that followed him for the rest of his years in the company.

Apart from having a horrible storyline for his debut, the introduction of Snitsky 'the character' was somewhat worse with numerous interviews and promos with heavy breathing and little much of anything else (and a case of baby punting really didn't do anything for me either). This was the reason I could never get myself invested into his character. He came across as creepy, but awkwardly so as if he was trying to force it. Allying himself with Heidenreich didn't help things especially with the promo just before the 'Heidenreich vs Undertaker Casket Match' at Royal Rumble 2005. More heavy breathing, 'liking' each other, too much sweat, and too much ickiness. I couldn't get that picture out of my head quickly enough and as a result I couldn't enjoy his mannerisms, or his matches until he got a much needed repackage in 2007.

When vignettes came around for a bald headed man, familiar beard, yellow stained teeth, no eyebrow hair who was named 'Snitsky' I figured I should give this character another chance. And it was a good thing I did too. Coming back in the 'Land of Extreme' better known as WWECW, he became the monster he should have been in the first place. Running in on matches and breaking Hardcore Holly's arm (kayfabe) made me start to take notice that this guy wasn't to be taken lightly. He was back on RAW once more through the WWE Draft on June 11 where he enjoyed a little bit of success, going through the '07 Summer undefeated.

It wasn't until his main event match with John Cena in late August that he suffered his first defeat albeit by disqualification from Randy Orton. It seemed like he was an unstoppable force, but I began to worry when he began making more than a few appearances on HEAT, and winning most of his matches. I was sensing that the writing team didn't know what to do with him.

He was released from his contract on December 11, 2008.

If there was a guy who could have 'replaced' Kane as the monsterous heel, I surely would have picked this man to do it. For the years he spent with the WWE, I would have been certain he could have made more of an impact, or at least ONE title reign of any kind. Granted, he wasn't the god's gift to wrestling in terms of wrestling ability, or the mic. But the way he conducted himself in the ring on his second coming made me a fan of his, and it's a shame that all that came from his time in the WWE for me, is a few nightmares of him heavy breathing.

This is my first ever column so I apologise if it isn't up to standard, but I do want to get better. If you have any feedback, or would like to discuss anything, please reply to the post or contact me by e-mail robwescombe@yahoo.com

You've been on the Brink
T.A.C. - The Aussie Crusader

Mizfan

01-13-2013, 05:51 AM

Hey man, interesting first column. I actually liked Snitsky, but for all the wrong reasons. I thought his original storyline and his weird antics were so over the top that they were hilarious (the baby punting remains one of my favorite Raw segments ever). And even on top of that I remember thinking, at the time, that WWE might be able to make him into a long term prospect. Still, looking back I just don't see that he was all that good. His ring work was ordinary at best, he was crippled by terrible stories that he would have never been able to get away from, and his '07 resurgence was barely a blip on the radar. Maybe he could have been something if everything had gone just right... but even then, I'm not sure.

While this was interesting, it still suffered from some classic debut issues. I liked how you used your opinion to accentuate the facts of the man's career, but I think some more analysis could have helped make it feel more complete. What made you think Snitsky could be a character as long lived and as popular as Kane? What did he do that gave you a hint he might be more than just another WWE big man with a lousy gimmick? You had a little bit of that, but there could have been more. In fact, there could have been more period. There's no hard and fast rule about how long a column should be, but I would say most points worth making need at least 1200 words or so to really fully explore the issue, and some use quite a bit more.

Still, I see a lot of promising things here and I hope you stick around. You may not get much feedback here, but trust me, if you get past the 5 post mark and post in your own thread you'll get a lot more. See you around man, welcome to the CF.

bando3186

01-13-2013, 10:43 AM

DROPPING THE BALL?

In my first attempt at a column I decided to try and go back in time to some of wrestlings biggest blunders especially when it came to story telling, pushing a superstar, or just general things that made no sense to me. Now granted alot of this may sound like me bitching but in certain instances we've been given plenty of reasons to want to turn our tv's off due to our intelligence being insulted by strorylines so stupid they boggle the mind. So the first screw up I want to take you back to occurred on Sunday December 13, 2009 the first annual WWE TLC: Tables, Ladders & Chairs PPV.

Why that particular date and show you may ask? Well as far as an inaugural TLC PPV goes it only had two major flaws and neither had to do with the PPV itself. It was overall a good PPV in my opinion with like I said two exceptions, but only one that I will discuss in this particular column. Kofi Kingston, in his pre Wildcat but post Jamaican accent days, was doing very well throughout the year up to that point. He had a bit of a rough start granted losing his spot in the Elimination Chamber the way he did was from a creative point of view only good for Edge. Considering Kofi got nothing out of it except a win over Kane to qualify for the Chamber only to get beat down on his way to the ring allowing "The Ultimate Oppurtunist" to take his spot. Hell they could have at least had Kofi come back and challenge Edge to match after that, but nope they chose to just have Kofi completely forget he got taken out of EC by Edge cause selective memory works in wrestling when its convenient (which would explain why so much time passed between Punk getting his first WHC punted away by RKO and him retaliating years later in the weeks leading up to WM27, hell no one is that patient).

From there he went on to defeat Y2J to qualify for the MITB ladder match @ WM25 that year. Kofi went into that match and did what Kofi does best, amazed the crowd with his controlled frenzy. He didn't win but gave people plenty to talk about from that match (Kofi's vertical leaping ability when he jumped over the ladder lariat was just amazing). The only other person in that match that was pulling off moves like that and/or better was Shelton Benjamin respectively. Punk may have won that match but "The Wildcat" and "The Gold Standard" made it worth watching.

Kofi was on a roll after that defeating MVP for his first United States championship. He held that title for a little over four months successfully defending it at PPV's such as Extreme Rules in a fatal four way match against MVP, Matt Hardy, and William Regal. The following month at Night of Champions he got another successful defense this time in a six pack challenge defeating Miz, MVP, Carlito, Swagger, and Primo. Keeping up his winning ways he pins Miz at Breaking Point the next month, and again the month after in a triple threat match that had Swagger joining Miz and Kingston at Hell in a Cell. So over the course of the those four months he was wracking up PPV mid card title wins having to take on multiple adversaries in three out of four of those matches. Granted none were matches of the night but thats not Kofi's fault considering how many guys he had to consistently keep working with. The only one on one match he had was with the Miz who at that point was getting better but still very limited in the ring. Miz ended up being the one to take the belt off him in the end but Kofi didn't exactly need it as he was moving on to better things, or so we were led to believe.

Now if having the guy run laps around most of the mid card scene as US champ on Raw at the time wasn't enough to build Kofi up and have people taking him as a credible contender for major titles down the line, what followed should have. First they allowed Kofi to drop that stupid accent that was taking him no where and hurting his character the longer he kept it up. Also the way they got rid of it was just awesome. Kofi in his regular accent: "Guys guys guys we gotta stop fighting this is what Team Smackdown wants, lets come together and be a team." HHH: "I got one question, didn't you used to be Jamaican?". I laughed my ass off. Now although his match at Bragging Rights wasn't really about him it's result did start a feud that had the potential to put Kofi in the main event scene sooner rather than later.

Kofi at this point is super over. The consistent face pops he was getting (and still gets to this day) were reason enough for WWE to get behind the guy, and thats what they did. Sort of. Now Kofi lost at Bragging Rights after getting chokeslammed by Big Show who was just screwing over Team Raw, but Legacy's Cody Rhodes didn't see it that way, only that the team's loss was to be blamed on Kofi. Well this lead to Kofi running Rhodes and Dibiase off from ringside during the WWE Championship match later on that night and according to Randy Orton it cost him his victory and the title. In the coming weeks we were treated to a good feud between Orton and Kofi which was very back and forth. You had Orton attacking Kofi from behind and tossing him off the stage, only to have Kofi come back later on in the night to destroy Ortons racecar in a very entertaining backstage segment. If you missed the Boom Drop from the stands through the table at Madison Sqare Garden then I suggest you look it up on youtube, because thats a definitly a highlight of Kofi's career. That whole brawl from start to finish was reminiscent of the brawls that stars like Austin, Rock, HHH, Taker, and Mankind used to have back in the day. Everything about it from the intensity coming out of the two, Kofi's not backing down attitude, the fact that Randy was selling how bad Kofi had become since he was trying to get away from him through most of the fight, and a just plain awesome aerial feat not to mention the inclusion of the Hall of Famer "Hot Rod" made Kofi look like he belonged with the top superstars on that night.

Kofi then went on to lead Team Kingston to victory against Team Orton in a traditional Survivor Series match at that PPV. Now I enjoyed this match and especially the backstage vignette between Kofi and his team mates but then again every time "Captain Charisma" blesses the peeps with a freestyle it simply reeks of awesomeness. Now not only did Kofi win this match, he was the sole survivor for his team, and he pinned CM Punk and Randy Orton (2 former WHC) within 10 secs of each other. Wow it seems that Kofi is just unstoppable at this point and can go no where but up, right?

Well over the course of the next few weeks Kofi and Orton swapped controversial victories over each other. First legacy attacks Kofi giving Randy an easy win. A week later Mark Cuban (Owner of the Dallas Mavericks and Raw special guest host of the night, back when they thought that was a good idea) screwed Orton over by giving Kofi a fast count as payback for something that happened six years prior. This set up the rubber match which would be a one on one PPV match with a former WHC and at the time top heel in the company. Now this is where they "Dropped the Ball". That match was pretty good not top match on the card but considering it didn't have a stipulation (i.e. Table, Ladder, Chair, or TLC) it was still pretty solid. I was really into it from the moment Kofi side stepped Cody & Ted's attempt at intimidation and gets in Orton's face to call him a coward, all the way to the end of the match. Then in a decision that completely killed Kofi's push Orton wins the match and cleanly i might add. How does that make any sense at all?

From any normal persons thought process you'd think that they were getting ready for Kofi to do something big in the coming months especially since we were coming up on the "Road to WM". Kofi should have won that match cleanly simply because a loss there wasn't gonna hurt Orton. He wasn't going to do anything spectacular in the coming months. I mean except job to Sheamus for the WWE title at the Rumble, get eliminated by one of his own Legacy partners at Elimination Chamber, which lead up to the Legacy triple threat match at WM26. So maybe Orton just didn't want to go from jobbing to an up and comer only to do it again at the next two PPVs. Where as a win for Kofi would have kept his momentum going strong and made him a legitimate threat for a major championship not necessarily at WM or during mania season but in the coming up year would have not been out of the question. Instead they had him spend the next few weeks afterwards getting screwed out of a US title by Orton and then getting pinned by Orton two more times for good measure. Granted you could argue that one of those matches was a triple threat match for the No.1 contendership for the WWE title, but truth be told I think they only threw him into the match so Cena didn't have to lose to Orton.

Once his rivalry with Orton was finally over he was sent right back to the mid card. I mean he was in the Rumble but that year belonged to Edge for obvious reasons. He gets a DQ victory over Big Show to get him into the Elimination Chamber, eliminates Ted Dibiase only to get eliminated by Sheamus. Then he went on to WM26 to add highlights to the very last WM MITB ladder match which had an idiotic ending as well. I mean you really wanna tell me Kofi winning the MITB ladder match that year wouldn't have made an infinite amount more sense than Jack Swagger. What would that have done to the landscape of the WWE at that point to have Kofi cash in the briefcase on Jericho and being that he was a face they could have had him do it legitimately being only the 2nd person in WWE history to do this at that point. I mean they were gonna take the belt off Jericho anyway and Kofi was a thousand times more over than Swagger. It would have also saved us from an awful Jack Swagger title reign. Then they could have done Edge's heel turn that year sooner than they did or added a new factor to the Jericho/Edge feud say maybe with a triple threat match for said title (after Kofi's initial title win) before Jericho went on sabbatical. They could have even had Kofi's selective memory act up again and now he remembers Edge took him out of EC earlier in the year and its payback time with the option of making Kofi a heel. Point is there were possibilities, and yes that would have erased Rey Mysterio's hopes for a 2nd WHC reign, but was that run really all that neccasary? I mean it's about as memorable as Swagger's run that year and even without it he's still guaranteed a spot in the Hall of Fame. Kofi could have kept the belt had a pretty lengthy run and dropped it to Kane at MITB that year starting a new feud.

With a good run as WHC of Smackdown on his resume he could go back to Raw and have some good matches with the upper Raw stars again and eventually if the WWE could stand to let it happen have gone on to be the first fully black WWE champion in the history of the company. He has all the potential in the world I think it's mostly just bad booking choices for him. When he was feuding with Randy it was working, maybe he got squashed because it wasn't supposed to (ala "The Hollywood Blondes"). Maybe it was Randy's ego or Sheamus playing backdoor politics with HHH to get pushed into the main event after less than two months on the Raw Roster. Or maybe just maybe the WWE is actually against having a fully African American superstar as the face of their company. Kofi could easily replace Rey as the top high flying face of the company. He has proven he can throw down with the best in the business today so really why after having him come so close 3 years ago has he not made it back up to that level. Shad Gaspard said in an interview recently that Kofi deserves to be champ more than anyone else on the current roster being pushed ahead of him including the unstoppable Ryback and I couldn't agree more. So if anyone has any sense in the company they would capitalize on the star Kofi should be before he goes and shines elsewhere.

Benjamin Button

01-13-2013, 06:44 PM

Button Up

The untold stories of wrestling fanatics.

He’d like to spend time with his family, but Arn Anderson had just returned, promising revenge on former partner Bobby Eaton. Eaton had not called “the Enforcer” one time while "double A" was hospitalized, suffering with an injury. The wife and kids had to go eat ice cream alone while he watched the WCW Main Event program to see Arn’s revenge on the neglectful former partner.

“I slept with another man.” His wife told him.” He put his glasses on to see her face. "It’s your fault!” she said, frowning. I’ve told you to lose weight and all you ever want to do is watch that wrestling nonsense!”

"I’ll change!” he said.

She stayed with him, relying on the money he earned. That’s why he neglected to tell her he’d lost his job. He’d screwed up too many hearing aids at the factory, thinking of what she’d done to him.

He reached his arm out to touch her. “No,” she said with her nose high. “Go watch wrestling. You do your thing; I’ll do mine.”

Over the years he masturbated half his eyesight out, he was sure of it. He’d been warned that masturbation causes loss of eyesight, and his eyes worsened every year since marrying mrs. same thing every night. However, it’d been since the fight that he’d been mustering up the seed for the day his wife would sleep with him again. She pulled away from his touch. "And besides," she had said, "this is the first time I've worn this blouse. I didn't put it on, just to take it back off."

He turned the lamp toward his corduroy pants and the leather couch seat underneath. He lifted his big belly and pointed down at his dick. “You thought you could hide forever, didn’t you?” Tonight would be a no disqualification, falls count anywhere, knock down drag out between him and his meat. He preceded confidence, for he knew he’d win. He’d beat his meat many times before.

First he milked it like a cow’s tit to increase blood flow, and then he pulled it like Arn Anderson working over a single part of the body. He remembered the nervous child he’d been at a science fair; when he poured bacon soda and vinegar into a clay volcano…the eruption it caused…He pulled his manhood with the strength of, his favorite wrestler, Arn Anderson ripping Bobby Eaton's leg out of socket.

She walked in and dropped her glass. Through the blur, he could see the folding of her arms and then the putting hands on her hips. He didn’t need the ability of making her face out; in his mind he saw her angry stare. “What are you doing?” she said

"Oh honey, I’m just doing my thing, like you said” he retorted, squirting semen onto her new blouse.

Mizfan

01-13-2013, 11:39 PM

I'm probably a bad person for laughing at this, but you just have a way with disgusting words.

Welcome back, Benjy.

SDougan1990

01-14-2013, 02:21 PM

The Problem With The WWE
Hi everyone, the newest kid in town has decided to make the leap of faith and put something out there for all of you to, hopefully, enjoy reading but before I do i'd like to take the opportunity to introduce myself to you but I promise to keep it short and sweet.
My name is Steven, i'm 22 from Ayr, Scotland, and no I don't personally know Drew McIntyre. You'll be amazed how often I get asked that. I'm a waiter in a local restuarent and a part time football, sorry, soccer coach, coaching kids aged 8-16. So, that, in a nutshell, is me. *Waves* . . . *Realizes i'm waving to a blank computer screen and sheepishly lowers hand*. Well . . erm . . . . my introduction didn't go as smoothly as I had planned so let's see how the column itself goes.

The problem with the WWE, ahh that old chestnut where we see almost everything, on an almost daily basis, getting the blame for whatever shortcomings the WWE Universe percives that it has. So in turn I deciced we will look at a few popular reasons and opinions that people like to say to prove that the WWE 'sucks'.

Almost certain to be the first to recieve any such critism is the much maligned Creative Team. Whenever we see a popular wrestler not getting pushed it's the creative teams fault. When a storyline, for whatever reason, falls flat it's the creative teams fault. When a PPV flatters to deceive it's the creative teams fault. Yes, they make mistakes, some things hit and some things miss but do you know why? Because they're human. Thats right, no matter how good you are or the salary you earn, like it or not, human beings make mistakes, which is why we will all one day be replaced by robots but that's another story and an entirely different column. Now some of the critism is indeed fair, it would take an idiot to suggest that it's not as we have seen some truly appaling TV at certain points over the years. We have seem some mind boggingly dumb decisions, the proverbial rug being pulled from under the feet of the hottest wrestler at the time, storylines that have no place being anywhere near television but do you know what else we are about to see? The 20th anniversary of Raw. You go and find me any other TV show that runs every single week of the year, survive 20 years with piss poor writing. TV shows that are badly written get cancelled it's really as simple as that, so are we the only ones that believe Monday Night Raw is a poorly written show? So, for now, the fabled creative team is safe. The search for the problem continues.

So maybe the buck stops with good ol' Vinny Mac, after all he's the tyrant that rules with an iron fist, the old man that's out of touch with the modern product, the man that passes off on everything the, now excused, creative team want to put on TV, the man that's running his own company into the ground, Right? I'm not so sure. Do you honestly think the man wants his own business, his entire legacy to fail? That he would simply 'give up' and 'phone it in' before passing the torch to someone younger and hungrier will make him more money, especially after the amount of money his dearest wife has cost him in recent years? Vince may well be all the things listed above but he's also one of the most driven, hard working, businessmen i've seen in my entire life. Without his hard work, dedication and some serious wealth, the WWE wouldn't exist right now. That's not exaggeration that's my honest opinion. I highly doubt the brainchild of Wrestlemania would've gotten that aforementioned TV deal in '93 and much less not only survived but won the Monday Night Wars if he wasn't up to the task. So, again, for now Vince you've earned earned exemption from this discussion.

Maybe the problem is the wrestlers themselves. They're taking less risks, playing it safe, wrestling within themselves, mic skills being nuteured by the PG era? Let me set this one out real short and simple, WWE has had the most talented and deepest roster over the last 5-10 years than, in my opinion, they've ever had, from all corners of the world. Yes, at most points in history, the WWE have had better, more etablished main event players that drew larger amounts of money but seriously when did WWE ever have a more diverse and talented mid card? The 80's where everything revolved round a select band of Hogan, Savage, Warrior, Piper and at various times select others? It certainly wasn't the beloved attitute era either where some midcard fueds and matches were at best a comedic joke. Gabriel, Regal, Kidd, Ryder, McIntyre, Swagger, Bourne (Yes i know he's injured) are all wrestlers who aren't exactly high on the proverbial totem pole right now, but put any combination in that ring and you have, at worst, a watchable match and i could name more names too. Also this idea wrestlers are taking 'less risks' is ridiculous. As CM Punk alluded to on Raw this past week these guys are working more dates each year than any other era. Do you honestly blame them for not taking 100 table bumps each year? Do you actually want these guys to go flat out 5 nights per week and get injured?

And then it dawned on me. Hit me harder than the WMD. Finally I had found the problem with the WWE.

You.

The problem is that the WWE started listening to what we wanted. They heard our many cries and calls. Make CM Punk WWE Champion, Make Daniel Bryan a World Champion, Don't let Cena near the Championship, Push Dolph Ziggler, Call up Cesaro, Call up Ambrose, Don't put the title on Ryback, Make The Shield dominant, Bring back Lesnar, Bring back Jericho, Fire Big Johnny, Stop pushing Orton. Suddenly, for the first time ever WWE started catering to our every want and need, finally the IWC had a voice. It was an exciting time to be a wrestling fan wasn't it? And how did you respond to your every prayer being answered? I'll tell you what you did. You never attended house shows, you illegally streamed PPV's, you never bought WWE merchandise, you turned off Raw whenever Monday Night Football was on, you never even bothered with Smackdown. In short when the WWE gave you power, you lowered revenues and TV Ratings.

You and I are a minority. The Marks massivly outweigh the Smarks, if you will. People all over the world watch the WWE, whereas by comparison, the number that come to places like this to discuss wrestling in depth, is relatively small. Let's take John Cena for example. When he wins a world championship, the IWC throw up their arms in collective disgust, vowing not to watch until he drops the title again and what happens? Ratings actually go up, hence why when the WWE is struggling with ratings, we worry he'll end back up with the title again, if only for that sought after ratings spike. However, if were not watching why does ratings go up? It's simple really, casual fans all over the world love Cena, and as i said we are a minority.

At the other end of the spectrum lets take our WWE Champion, CM Punk. I'm a self confessed massive fan of his since he showed up on ECW. I'm not going to pretend I knew of him before that because, honsetly, I didn't but was mightily impressed when I did see him. We, as a community, all cried out for him to be champion and the WWE listened. Problem is, as I said, we either watched Monday Night Football, recorded Raw, streamed it, or just plain didn't bother with it. Punk doesn't represent the same icon across the world as Cena does, so if the casual fans aren't watching and we aren't watching, who is? Obviously ratings will and have sufferred in that scenario but the sad thing is, the people in high positions in the WWE will blame Punk for that, when in actual fact it's us that's letting our hand picked favourites down.

In short if we make our voices heard, to the point the WWE hears our cries, don't turn round and say, It's good that Punk is champion but i'm still not watching because they're pushing Brodus Clay or some other nonsense. That's the probrem with us, we get what we want and instead of apprecaiting it and enjoying it, we move on and find something else we want to complain about. Why don't we say, Great, we have Punk as champion, let's purchase the next PPV and make a point of watching Raw to show that we support this move but we don't and then, on top of all that, we have the audacity to compain to the WWE when they try to resolve their problems by removing the title from our favourites.

As I say ladies and gents, it's up to us to make the difference, not the creative team, not Vince, not the wrestlers, us. If the WWE gives us what we ask for we have to support it as much as we can in the only avenues that matter to the WWE, ratings and cash.

Well after much searcing, we reached a destination, i'm just truly lucky to be able to bring you guys along for the ride. Thanks for reading and feedback will be even greater appreciated, as that's the only way I can improve and bring you better columns to read in the future. I'll be sure to see all you guys again soon.

Mizfan

01-14-2013, 07:57 PM

Welcome to the CF! This was an interesting piece. I like how much of your own voice you put into your writing, and while the writing itself could do with some tightening up I think with some polish you could make a great addition to these parts.

Where I really run into problems with this is when I examine your logic... it's pretty much universally fatally flawed, from start to finish.

First of all you give the creative team a complete pass because they are human and because Raw has been on for a long time. We're all human there buddy, but that doesn't mean we get to screw up our jobs without consequence. And as for Raw being on a long time, all that really speaks to is that people enjoy wrestling. You could make a case that it also means that the writing used to be good, but as Raw hits record low numbers you can't just waive it off and say the writing must still be good because it hasn't been canceled yet. If there was another wrestling show around with decent promotion and better writing then I'd say Raw actually might be in trouble, but as is it's the only game in town and many people don't want to stop watching wrestling entirely, so Raw continues to scrape along. That doesn't excuse the very serious errors the WWE Creative Team has.

Next up you're giving ol' Vince a pass because he used to work really hard and he probably would just give up his spot to the next guy if he wasn't in touch with the times any more. What? Just because a guy worked hard in his prime doesn't mean he's still going to be able to do everything he used to when he's in his 60s. What's more, have you ever known an old person? Have you noticed sometimes they can be stubborn and don't want to admit they might be losing their touch due to their age? Now think about everything we know about the ego of Vince McMahon, and you can go ahead and multiply those traits by about a thousand. Ever heard of the AWA? They went under largely due to the stubborn refusal of their owner to get with the modern times. He was also a guy who had worked his ass off the build the company, but sometimes people just think they know better when they really don't. So yeah, I can't say you've at all convinced me that Vince is off the hook for the problems the company has been having.

As for the wrestlers... well, I generally agree that they aren't the problem, but not at all with your reasoning. In the Attitude Era people were taking table bumps and chairshots to the head on a weekly basis, sometimes even more. I'm sorry, I know that the current roster might be working a few more dates than they did (though honestly I'm not even sure that's accurate), but the physical demands of their matches are not nearly so high. There are certain issues you could address with the roster, but I thought the one you picked was very weak.

And finally, you're assertion that it's actually the smarks that are the problem... I honestly don't see how you can defend that one. You're trying to make it sound like the first time WWE had problems with their ratings and buyrates was within the last year, but there has been a marked and steady decline going on for almost a decade now. How do you account for that if the problem is just WWE suddenly trying to play to the smarks in very recent memory? And why would they try to change tactics at all unless what they were doing before wasn't working and was causing a slow death of the business? I feel like you were trying harder to make a shocking point than actually think about the real reason for the problems WWE has been having. And even if that was the case, you look back at the past year and see that your golden boy Cena was STILL leading the way on almost every tv show and PPV, so if he was really was the solution to the problem then the problem would already be fixed, wouldn't it?

Phew...

I hope I'm not coming off too harsh man, I just think you were insanely off base on this and didn't really think your arguments through very well at all. Like I said I like the tone of your writing and I think you can do a lot better at this if you sit down beforehand and really give some thought to what you want to say and how you're going to support it and defend yourself against critics. Then put that support and that defense into the column itself, and you'll be well on your way to a great piece of writing.

Best of luck dude, in spite of my lengthy ranting I will definitely read you next time.

NewChallenger

01-15-2013, 01:30 AM

Firstly, thanks to zzzorf for setting this up. I didn't mean to be a "zero-post" columnist, but I had a fun wrestling experience that I felt I had to share. This is a truncated column that I also posted on my personal blog (which nobody reads), so my apologies if that's not allowed. Also, I hope this doesn't come off as an advertisement. I will contribute more to the community in the future.

-----

My First (North American) Wrestling Show

My friend Jess is always keen to e-mail me about deals on various sporting events, usually relating to the Blue Jays or the Raptors and the timing of her latest promotional offer was fortuitous, to say the least. The offer was for a new Etobicoke based wrestling company called “Smash Wrestling (http://smash-wrestling.com/)”. I’d only ever been to one wrestling event in my life and that was in Japan and it was absolutely incredible. My buddy Paolo and I are always criticizing the wrestling we see on TV and saying how we should go to more independent shows. Add in the fact that the show was billed to include a dream match-up between current “Ring of Honor” World Champion Kevin Steen and (deep breath) current “Dragon Gate USA” Open The Freedom Gate Champion Johnny Gargano and the outing looked to have some serious potential. Jess’ boyfriend William came along, but Jess herself declined; surprisingly not interested in spending four hours in a tiny venue watching sweaty dudes pretend to beat each other up.

The event was held at the eZone (http://www.theezone.ca/), a multi-purpose complex used to host anything from kids’ birthday parties to laser tag to, yes, professional wrestling matches. Paolo, William and I couldn’t have been more thrilled by the quaint, intimate environment and even though we were late we got ourselves the perfect spot: right next to the bar and right next to where the wrestlers would be emerging from. This was my first wrestling show in North America and you best believe I was going to get in the performer’s faces!

Suffice to say, there were a few smarks at the show. These fans sat in their seats with their arms crossed, throwing out “insider” terms and generally trying to get themselves over rather than just enjoying the show. A few times, people who obviously knew the wrestlers outside of the ring taunted them by calling them by their real names or with other non-sequitur personal comments. Look, I’m more than aware of the nature of the business, but there is no way I’m going to disrespect the wrestlers and the crew who put the whole thing together by trying to show how smart I think I am. If that makes me a mark, then I’m a proud mark.

I got right into the act at the end of the first match, as hometown hero Brent Banks lost via roll-up, with his opponent getting a handful of his shorts. I yelled at the winner, Mathieu St. Jacques (who you know was evil because he was from Quebec) and then lamented to my friends that the crooked act had tainted the show for me, even though it was a finish I’d seen hundreds of times on television. But like I said, I got into it.

The second match featured the team Myles of Action (Preston Myles & Action Jackson) facing off against Jack Rushton & Weapon X. Jackson was sporting a nice afro, much like Banks from the first match, making Smash Wrestling two-for-two on matches featuring wrestlers with afros. Money well spent already. Rushton looked to be working some kind of MMA gimmick and he was the only one in the ring wearing a shirt, which we joked made him look like that freshman in college basketball who puts something on under his jersey because he’s ashamed of his physique. The good guys won and when I went to give Myles some daps on the way out, I got his blood on my hand. Neat!

Out next were John Greed and Gregory Iron. Iron is well known for being a wrestler who suffers from cerebral palsy. It’s an incredible story and it made him a sympathetic character from the get-go, especially against Greed who looked like your stereotypical bearded bad dude. Iron took a major beating during the match to the point where Paolo and William got uncomfortable. For the record, I’d have no problem watching either of them get the crap kicked out of them and they’re both functionally retarded. Though I was somewhat mortified when one of Iron’s signature moves was loading up his afflicted hand to swing at Greed. Yowza!

I should note that the quality of the wrestling had been great so far and you could really see and hear the impact of the moves. The myth of the wrestling ring being like a trampoline is not as prevalent as it once was, but I’m not sure you can comprehend just how hard the mat is until you go to one of these small shows.

Paolo thought the next fight was a classic mismatch as “Cyborg” Tyson Dux faced “Hacker” Scotty O’Shea. He reasoned that O’Shea could just take control of him from the start or give him a virus or something. I can’t find fault in that logic. Dux managed to navigate through O’Shea’s arsenal of malware and porno pop-ups to make it to a draw. Steen ran in to attack O’Shea, only to have Gargano come out and interfere with his nefarious plans. Apparently Steen suffered a back injury, so this storyline was concocted to change the main event to a tag team match. Most of the crowd was behind Steen (a Canadian), but as I’d taken a firm stance to boo bad guys and cheer good guys, I gleefully gave him hell.

After a short intermission, Alex Vega and Psycho Mike were given the task of warming the crowd up again and I thought both guys were good. Vega has a lot of flash and Mike really impressed me with how he moved in the ring. He looked comfortable and natural in there. Even though William kept reminding me this was a scripted contest, I insisted on laying $40 down on Vega with a local bookie (read: homeless person). It looked hairy at times, but Vega pulled it out with a cool springboard move and I breathed a huge sigh of relief. I’d have enough gas money to make it home AND my child would get to eat tonight.

The second tag team match was maybe my favourite match of the night, featuring The Overdogs (Josh Alexander & Sebastian Suave, accompanied by the lovely Seleziya Sparx) vs. 3.0 (Shane Matthews & Scott Parker). It was just an old-school tag match with Sparx playing the role of the evil seductress to a tee. At one point, Matthews tried to get her number and shouted “I love you!” to the delight of everyone. A high heel shoe to the head eventually gave the Overdogs the win and as Suave passed by I said “Boooo!” to which he replied with a sarcastic “Yaaaay!” I think we had a real moment there.

The final match was everything I could have asked for in a main event. As soon as Steen popped through the curtain, I started to jeer and he pushed the railing threatening to come at us. Being a total coward, I dove behind Paolo who was promptly shoved by the massive wrestler. The whole time William was sitting in his seat laughing his ass off. I relished playing the role of the “chicken sh*t fan”.

The heels got a taste of their own medicine when Gargano and O’Shea came out to attack them before they could even get to the ring. They brawled around the room, beating each other up with chairs, a keyboard and a fan’s crutch. A thrown garbage can sent trash flying all over the people in the front row. If Steen was legitimately injured, I couldn’t tell because all four men worked their asses off to put on an entertaining brawl. The highlight for us was O’Shea and Dux fighting in our area, forcing us to move chairs and evacuate so O’Shea could set up a high flying move. He hopped on to the bar (“Watch out for my tips!” the bartender shrieked) and then performed a moonsault on Dux. We couldn’t have been more than two or three feet away.

I love any situation where the social contract is amended in favour of everyone having a good time. Even if you’d never been to a wrestling show before (and again, this was only my second one), you know when two big dudes come tumbling in your direction, you best get out the way! You don’t ask any questions, you don’t get mad if you spill your beer and you don’t get offended when the wrestlers bark at you to “Move!” One kid fell out of his chair and I swear the parents were more concerned with not messing up the match than making sure he didn’t get trampled. Now that is what wrestling is all about!

Just like going to see an up and coming band at an out-of-the way venue, you never what to expect when you attend a show like this. We even got an impromptu match between Gargano and a malfunctioning microphone at the end of the night (it turned out it just needed new batteries). I look forward to seeing how the Smash Wrestling promotion develops from here. For anyone reading this, please go out and support your local independent and minor league companies. Whether it’s wrestling, mixed martial arts or co-ed lacrosse, take some time to get out of the house, pick up some cheap tickets for you and your friends and have a go at it. It’s cheaper than going to a Raptors game and, frankly, way more fun.

RamG

01-15-2013, 08:21 AM

Ok so I really wanted to compete in Nxt but the powers that be declined me the authority. Sucks to be me. But I will not take this sitting down. Did not a wise man once say, "you can't change the world sitting down in your couch." Which is why I'm in my chair. I will post my column as I intended to post it in the Nxt forum. Pasting commence ....

My Virtue

I’m afraid of losing my mind. It’s something I’ve been thinking about but I believe it’s happening. You hear about it everywhere now in days. And I’m sorry, but I’m afraid I’m losing my mind. It doesn’t matter how hard I try I always end up at the bottom. I push up, I scream and shove but I’m taken down. This force, this immovable force is overwhelming. Borderline sick. Yet, the hero never loses.

I can remember waking up one day and feeling as if life was just a dream. I have a job, I’m in good enough health that my body is still pushing forward. Needs and wants I possess, but that day of all days felt strangely unfamiliar. You see, I have set up my life to become ordinary. I thrive on ordinary. My life was damn near unliveable. I couldn’t spend one second without regretting what I did the night before. My hands, my hands were tools of destruction. Everything I touched became rubble. It was as if my life was cursed. I was at the point of no return. The worst part is as I looked back it was all coming back to get me. No sin is left unpunished.

Therefore a decision needed to be made. Continue in this life of tragedy or triumph over all my losses, over all my hatred! Chest high and neck up I marched into offices. Demanded something to be done, politely. Finally, the opportunity came knocking. My prayers were answered, and I exuberated results. Gave (them) what they wanted. It was in your face, it was all (they) would talk about. But (they) are as much of the problem as they are my refuge. As they are all I have. After I lost it all I gained so much more, more than life. In the sky the stars aligned and my soul knew the right decision was made.

After all my struggles, after all my pain, after all my tears, my blood. My passion for life made me proud of who I was once more. A thought that my mind never believed it would cross ever again. After all that my shame still haunts me. My past still wrecks the very foundations of my being. It knocks on my triumphs, pulls me down when I’m reaching for that brass. No matter how hard I kick down the walls that talk to me I can’t seem to break out! I’m tired of it. I lie awake at night wondering if insanity is a virtue, but is it? No, no, no, no. Yes, yes, yes, yes. Perhaps! Maybe someday I can live up to my potential. And become the best I can be but until then I will relish in the midcard and make others envy me! Fuck Super Cena.

Writer’s note : That was fun. A lot of fun. Woooooooo! Makes Miz figure-four the next best thing. Yep. I’ve lost it. This was in response to the Ziggler/Cena cage match from earlier. I understand some feel that the cage match’s mystique is gone and I whole-heartedly agree. It was gone a long time ago. But for what it was it was a hell of a match. Even Mark Henry looked impressive. And kudos to him for that massive weight loss. 1800-Get-Slim baby! But after interference from Henry, a zig-zag, one of the sickest DDT’s since Jake the Snake first did it, Cena still won. Why? An awesome match. Thank you Dolph Ziggler, thank you John Cena. Great match. 4 three musketeer bars. In all honesty though I hope I get in this tournament. I’ve been waiting for this opportunity.

Oliver

01-15-2013, 09:39 AM

Hey guys, welcome to the CF!

NewChallenger - I liked this, a pretty true account of a trip to pretty much an indy show, based on what I've experienced in the UK and what I've seen of US shows. It certainly flowed nicely, and the writing was pretty strong throughout. Definitely some good potential there - what I'd suggest is that you tried to maybe tell me a bit more about each match, rather just how it ended. Some information about moves hit or similar could really beef up the column and build on the review side of it. That said, I think it's quite a minor thing, and for the most part there's no complaint I can have with what you've done.

RamG - Unfortunately, the first thing that struck me here was the length of the column. It was really too short to make any point. Equally, I have no idea what point you're trying to make here, as it really seems like you've written down a load of nonsense. The first three paragraphs could be the introduction to an interesting first person creative column, but there's nothing then to follow it, and it hardly seems to be about wrestling at all until the final couple of sentences. And what on Earth the 'writers note' bit is doing at the end, I have no idea. Try and build something out of this, though - if you want to write a series of creative columns, take those first couple of paragraphs and write from there to develop and tell a story. The actual spelling/grammar stuff isn't too bad, but the overriding issue is what you're trying to do - at the moment, it's just babble, but you could grow out from this into some kind of story. The best place to look for something along that line is JoeyShibobi's columns - they're really top notch, and tell a compelling, creative story.

RamG

01-15-2013, 09:53 AM

I got the idea after watching AJ screaming on top of the cage. She's obviously dealing with issues so I went for it. I also thought I could relate it to Dolph Ziggler. The reason I kept it short is because I didn't want to take too much space from the other writers. But it was fun writing and I'm grateful you took time to read it. But I will keep at it and hopefully write like you & Shibobi. Dude is epic I know. Been reading LOP for a couple years now. Next time I will try something more subtle.

SDougan1990

01-15-2013, 08:03 PM

Thanks Mizfan, it wasn't harsh at all, if I don't see the problems and nobody tells me about them I can't improve. It's a steep learning curve here and i'll need to learn quickly or i'll sink to the bottom of an ocean of talented writers. I seem to struggle with getting depth into my writing and I didn't want my column to become too statistical and technical so I thought I could just put my own thoughts onto paper but i see that's not going to work here so the challenge gets greater. Only sissies cry and throw in the towel though, i'll be back and thanks for the advice :)

NewChallenger

01-15-2013, 11:28 PM

NewChallenger - I liked this, a pretty true account of a trip to pretty much an indy show, based on what I've experienced in the UK and what I've seen of US shows. It certainly flowed nicely, and the writing was pretty strong throughout. Definitely some good potential there - what I'd suggest is that you tried to maybe tell me a bit more about each match, rather just how it ended. Some information about moves hit or similar could really beef up the column and build on the review side of it. That said, I think it's quite a minor thing, and for the most part there's no complaint I can have with what you've done.

Oliver, thanks a lot for reading and replying so quickly! You are absolutely right about the match write-ups and I will definitely work on adding more detail in the future. It was originally written for a blog that's read mostly by friends and family of mine who couldn't care less about pro wrestling so I wanted to keep things simple. I appreciate the feedback and will continue to develop my writing.

SDougan1990

01-16-2013, 06:27 PM

One thing I do want to get straight Mizfan and didn't manage to do so because of the double post rule was the 'Your golden boy Cena' line. I'm not even a fan of Cena. Sure his wrestling ability is ,at times, understated but that doesn't mean I actually enjoy the guy. I felt this was unecessary when reviewing a column, it seemed to annoy you that I may or may not be a fan more than dealing with the task at hand. The point I merely stated, which you can't deny is Cena appeals more to a worldwide audience. That's not dissing Punk, Bryan or anyone else on that roster and pointing out as such does not qualify me in any way of being a 'fanboy'. Other than that i found your review helpful and i thank you for your words of wisdom.

Mizfan

01-17-2013, 08:51 AM

^People, even those who aren't fans of Cena, often push him up as a prime example of successful WWE marketing. While there's no doubt Cena can move the merch, it irks me when people make that generalization because first of all the WWE has suffered their worst financial decline in years under Cena and furthermore there's no telling what someone else could have done with a sustained push like his... anyway, didn't mean to imply you were a Super Cena super fan. ;)

Challenger - Hey man, welcome to the CF! Really enjoyed this. I always like to hear about firsthand experiences, and yours was certainly a fair bit different than the usual WWE nosebleeds report! I'd definitely like to see what else you can do... if you've got a blog nobody reads, you should close that shit up and move over here full time. You're always guaranteed some readers and some feedback around these parts.

Ram - I really liked what you were trying to do here, but due to the short length, poor organization, and the bits tacked on to the beginning and the end, I don't think it quite worked out the way you envisioned. Sorry bro, that's how it goes sometimes. But like I said, I like that you're thinking creatively. I appreciate that in a columnist, I really do! Now that you've got your 5 posts, be sure to post your next one in the CF proper. You'll get a lot more attention that way, and the response will be larger as well. Catch you next time!

Ernball

01-19-2013, 06:07 PM

A little background on myself:

I was first attracted to the world of Professional Wrestling when I was 12 years old. I remember flipping the channels and seeing Hulk Hogan, dressed in black and white. I was puzzled. Why isn't he dressed up in his traditional red and yellow? Is this really Hulk Hogan? After watching I notice the letters "nWo" on his shirt along with the 5 or 6 people in the ring with him. To my amazement, Hulk Hogan was a bad guy!

I was really taken back by this. Even though I was not a hardcore wrestling fan at this point, i'm sure we all knew who Hulk Hogan was. His name was a household name. Not knowing who Hulk Hogan was would be the equivilant of not knowing who the President of the United States was(assuming you live in the United States). I knew he was a good guy, he wore the red and yellow, was a subpar actor, and that he preached taking vitamins and saying prayers. But who was this Hollywood?

I watched him and the rest of the nWo beat up on a fellow WCW wrestler. All of a sudden....a man drops down from the ceiling, baseball bat in hand, and clears the ring of the "bad guys". My favorite movie at the time, and to this day, is "The Crow" and seeing Sting drop down from the rafters, reminissant of Brandon Lee, is what really got me hooked. After Nitro went off the air, I ran upstairs and grabbed the TV Guide. From this point on, I knew that every Monday Night, on TNT, WCW Nitro would be on, and I had already planned to make sure my homework was done so I could tune in next week, in hopes of seeing Sting take down the bad guys every Monday night.

Now, at the age of 27 years old, I continue to watch Professional Wrestling. As I write this, I am watching the CM Punk DVD. The Shoot interview from Las Vegas in 2011 re-kindled what was a dying interest in wrestling for myself. Everytime my interest wanes, something amazing comes up that grabs my attention. I am, what you would call, your typical wrestling fan. I don't follow NXT so much, or the smaller promotions such as ROH. Basically my knowledge is limited to LoP, Youtube, and Monday Night Raw(Smackdown has never really capture my attention).

We, the Internet Wrestling Community, always like to point out when Professional Wrestling is loosing its appeal. Everytime it seems to go downhill, the WWE pulls out all the stops to get us talking again. For Example(and in no particular order)

ECW
The Birth of the nWo/Attitude Era
The Purchase of WCW by the, then known as, WWF
The big talent migration between the big 3 during 1998 - 2001 when WCW closed its doors

Then there are those moments that get us talking, and unfortunatley, not in a positive way. Most of these examples come in the form of deaths in the wrestling family, and one that hit me the hardest...

Chris Benoit

As a young wrestling fan, and first becomming a regular fan in the mid - late 90's, Chris Benoit was my absolute favorite. He wasn't the biggest, he wasn't the strongest, and their wasn't anything out of the normal special about him, but he was aggressive. Watching him jump from the top rope and hitting his diving head-butt was an impressive feet, especially to a 12 year old kid. Besides me being utterly infatuated with the nWo/Sting storyline, I made sure never to miss a match feauting the rabid wolverine.

Fast forward 2 years(or so). My dad scored tickets to WCW Thunder. I got to see, and which still stands to this day, one of my favorite matches live. Chris Benoit vs. Booker T in their best of 7 series.

Sitting in the nosebleeds made me a little pessimistic about viewing the event...but then Chris Benoit hit some of the loudest chops ever. Sitting up high, I could hear every single skin blistering chop. My dad couldn't believe it either. What I was told was "fake" was clearly not. Sure they know the outcomes, sure the winners are more or less, pre-determined. But those chest chops at that particular event are, to this day, something that made me appreciate the sport even more. This was indeed a rough sport.

To this day, my favorite professional Wrestlers consist of just 2 people. 2 People whom I think if they were in the ring together, both in their primes, would steal the show. Chris Benoit Vs. CM Punk. Forget the controversey around his death. We are talking about the man in the ring, and not the man at home.

My Columns are going to mainly focus around fantasy booking and my own "show re-writes". It's always been a dream of mine to become apart of the wrestling business. Anywhere from a manager, a referee, a wrestler, or even a booker or writer. Now that we have a little background on myself, tune in tomorrow. The match I have always wanted to see, Chris Benoit Vs. CM Punk will be the innagural post in Ernballs "Main event".

Ernball

01-19-2013, 08:39 PM

How to successfully Merge the World Heavyweight Title and the WWE Title and make a new mega-star

Lets start off by trying to agree on 1 thing. The brand split is, more or less, dead.

Gone are the days where we had specific superstars on Raw and Smackdown. Sure, more of them may compete on Raw more than they would on Smackdown, or vice versa. An example of this would be CM Punk. He mainly competes on Raw, but occasionally you will see him on Smackdown. Is this a regular week to week thing? Not entirely, but it is common for a number of todays talent in the WWE.

Although the roster today isn't the thinnest it has ever been, it is not the largest either. Alot of talent seems to be stuck in the upper-mid card while only a handful can be seen as real main event contenders. People like The Rock, Brock Lesnar, and Undertaker are at the level in their respective careers where they either do not need the title to be taken seriously, are only competing on a "special attraction" basis, or are at the final few months/year of their careers. This also applies to a few other main event level superstars. Kane and Big Show are getting older, Cena is wearing down and getting older. It's to the point where the WWE needs to find their next face of the company.

Then we have people like Sheamus, Del rio, Ziggler, Bryan, etc. Now, while some of these guys can win the World Heavyweight/WWE Championships and have it being beneficial to their careers, something still seems missing with these guys. What we are missing is something in the middle. Somewhere between the current day legends of the WWE and the ones I just listed, is where todays face of the company would sit. Someone that isn't yet the "special attraction" but someone above the status of a Ziggler or a Sheamus. An arguement could be made the CM Punk is becomming or currently is that guy. But where is his real competition?

We need another big name on the roster. And it's time for that person to step forth.

Although I have never been the biggest fan of this person, he stands as the front runner to be given a shot at becomming the next big thing in the WWE. He currently holds the Money in the Bank Briefcase and is currently in a program with todays WWE Mega star, John Cena.

Of course I am talking about the show-off himself, Dolph Ziggler.

2012 was good to Dolph. He started off the year in a WWE title match with Punk at the Rumble and was featured in the Elimination Chamber match, being eliminated by Chris Jericho. After that, the way he was booked in storylines and matches was a little awkward, to say the least. It wasn't until Money in the Bank is when things would start to look up. Afrter winning the briefcase, he took on some bigger names in the WWE, one in particular being Chris Jericho. Loosing to Jericho at Summerslam should have been the start of being pushed to the moon, but instead of winning in the "2nd grandest stage of them all" that win was reserved for Raw when he sent Jericho packing in a Briefcase vs. contract match.

So lets stop right here. How do we book Ziggler as a megastar starting from Summerslam and culminating at this years Wrestlemania?

Keep him away from Cena. You heard me right. Lets keep his feud with Cena for after Wrestlemania. Now be patient, you'll see where i'm going with this soon enough.

We need Ziggler to feud with a more established star. Someone with multiple WWE and World title reigns, and someone with alot of credentials in the WWE. And we need a heated feud. Not a feud like we had with Sheamus and Big Show. We need something that will carry Ziggler for the next 4 months and give him a series of high caliber matches that can get people talking. Dolph Ziggler Vs. Randy Orton. Now, some of what I am going to suggest may have happened, but hear me out on this.

Now they did have a bit of a program going in 2012, but something was missing. The fire was never really lit. After Ziggler tries cashing in on Sheamus, and Orton gets in the way, thats where it starts. Maybe a few locker room brawls and interfearing in each others matches, we have the 2 of them face off at Night of Champions. During the match, Vickie gets involved, Ziggler whacks him with the Briefcase, and Ziggler wins

Now this is where we change things up a bit.

With Zigglers tained victory, The Viper wants retribution. Ziggler stands in the middle of the ring with vickie, cutting a promo on his victory over Orton and his plans to cash in the briefcase. Cue Randy Orton, who storms down to the ring, and brawls with Ziggler. This sets up the ground work for Hell in a Cell.

Orton and Ziggler battle at Hell in a Cell. Here we give Orton the victory, making it 1-1

Enter Survivor Series. We have, just like we did in real life, Team Ziggler(err team Punk) Vs. Team Foley. The last 2 men in the ring come down to Orton and Ziggler, who break out into a fight that causes the match to end in a no contest when both men get busted open and it takes everyone from both teams to seperate them.

TLC time comes around. Ziggler demands a rematch with orton stemming from his victory at Hell in a Cell. Orton agrees only if he puts his briefcase on the line. So at TLC we have Ziggler Vs. Orton in a TLC match for the Money in the Bank Briefcase.

Giving these guys a solid 30 minute match, and with Zigglers way of selling moves and high risk spots, throw in a busted open ziggler and a Zig Zag off the top of the ladder, Ziggler goes over cleanly, winning a solid feud against Orton to send him into 2013 on a roll.

Now remember, we are still merging both titles while making Ziggler into a mega star. In the 2nd half of 2012 he has retired Jericho and had a memorable feud with Orton.

Royal Rumble. All eyes are on CM Punk Vs. The Rock for the WWE title. But we still have, litterally, the biggest match of the year with the Royal Rumble. Dolph Ziggler announces himself as one of the participants in the Rumble. Vince McMahon comes out to tell Ziggler its not possible for him to enter the Rumble while he has ownership of the WHT briefcase. After a heated exchange of words, Vince McMahon allows him into the Rumble, but only if he enters in at #1. Now the stage is set

Royal Rumble. CM Punk Vs. The Rock has yet to take place, and the Rumble is kicking off the show. Dolph Ziggler comes out as the #1 entry into the Rumble, vowing that at Wrestlemania, he will hold both championship belts. The #2 entrant into the Rumble...John Cena. After a brief stare down, cena and Ziggler brawl in the ring. Both Cena and Ziggler outlast the other 28 participants. Just as Cena goes to eliminate Ziggler and win the rumble, AJ Lee comes down for the distraction, and Ziggler finally eliminates cena, being the first ever #1 contender to the WWE title and holder of the WHT briefcase.

At this point, fans are more onboard with the Dolph Ziggler movement. Fans are seeing him as a legitiment player for either major championship. But he is missing one more big time matchup.His WWE title match at Wrestlemania. Now here is where things get tricky. Ziggler, although becomming a big name in the WWE, is just not at the point in his career to main event Wrestlemania against one of the 3 who seem a lock for the WWE title match. Those 3 being between CM Punk, The Rock, and John Cena.

Punk retains at the Rumble. His opponent as of this time for Mania, Dolph Ziggler.

The Elimination Chamber match for the WWE Title
CM Punk(c) Vs. The Rock Vs. John Cena Vs. The Miz Vs. Kane Vs. Daniel Bryan

Just as the Elimination Chamber PPV is getting underway, Daniel Bryan is found beaten and unconscious in the locker room. As Kane checks on his fallen friend, Ziggler just happens to be their to help. Vince McMahon comes to Bryans aide, and is frantic about what to do for what is going to be one of the biggest eliminaton chamber matches in history. With bryan out, Dolph Ziggler replaces Daniel Bryan as the 6th entrant

After Miz and kane are eliminated, we are down to Rock, Punk, Cena, Ziggler. 4 of the biggest names in the WWE in the elimination chamber. Ziggler is eliminated. Cena is next to be eliminated. We are down to CM Punk and The Rock. With The Rock and Punk both down, struggling to get to their feet, Cena runs down with the Bolt cutters, breaks into the chamber and hits the AA on Rock, giving Punk the victory. We now have Punk retaining, and Ziggler Vs. Punk is set for mania as well as cena and rock part 2.

Later on, after the chamber match for the WHT, Ziggler finally cashes in, unseating del Rio for the title, and heading to wrestlemania to capture both championships

Wrestlemania.
CM Punk(c) Vs. Dolph Ziggler

During these last couple months, the fans have really gotten behind Ziggler after his string of big wins and finally capturing the World title and winning the Rumble. Now this match wouldnt be bigger than the Cena/Rock rematch, so it wouldnt be the match closing the show, it would go on right before it. This is the moment to make Ziggler the next big star. Give Ziggler the clean victory over Punk. Ziggler wins the WWE title at mania, while holding the world Heavyweight title. The show goes off the air with Ziggle celebrating with AJ Lee in the middle of the ring.

This may all seem a little far fetched. Just imagine if this really did happen. Imagine the roll Ziggler would be on if this all came to be. Ziggler has the ability to be a big star, and this would be the perfect way to put him over as such.

Seeing as how the initial Raw after Wrestlemania is usually a big show, we need to make it even bigger. Dolph Ziggler comes out, and announces that he is unifying the titles. We now have both titles unified, and a new star is born with Dolph Ziggler ready to carry the company through 2013 as the next face of the company.

Thoughts? comments? feel free to post them here or email me at:

ernball26@hotmail.com

Ernball

Mizfan

01-20-2013, 01:00 AM

Hey bro, welcome to the CF! I was a bit confused here. You've sort of got two half columns here, but the columns don't exactly seem connected you know? Bit strange. I enjoyed hearing about the genesis of your fandom, and I too was a huge Chris Benoit fan back in the day. I wasn't quite sure what to think when you made it sound like you were going to start fantasy booking a match between the departed Wolverine and current champion CM Punk. I'm not a huge fan of fantasy booking in the first place, and honestly involving Benoit in something like that would make me a bit uncomfortable. I don't want to get into a whole Benoit debate here, but you've got to be aware it's a touchy subject for many still. Then you launched into a completely unrelated fantasy booking scenario, mixing Ziggler's push around. It was sort of interesting for what it was, but I think you'd be better served to steer away from the fantasy booking altogether. It's often more fun to write than it is to read, you know? But in any event, I'd stick to one whole column that flows together.

Interesting if somewhat confusing debut, I'd be willing to see what else you can do. Hope you stick around man.

AustinTheWolfe

02-06-2013, 04:17 PM

*To be clear, I am a fan of the product trying to poke fun at the overly cynical crowd that exists within the IWC.

The Shield scurries off through the crowd, licking their wounds as RAW goes off the air. We are left with the image of the super men standing tall in the ring, finally being able to get the better of The Shield.
Well that's just great, the geniuses over at WWE creative found yet another way to bury three promising young stars. Right? I mean not only does that beat-down completely derail all momentum The Shield once had, it simultaneously gives Cena another unnecessary achievement under his belt. I'd love for them to explain to me how it makes any sense for The Shield to lose the fight just because Cena and friends came out together, through the crowd, and singled out each member of The Shield, taking away the unity that has lead to their success. Dumb-asses. Oh and Lawler completely ruined the whole angle with that ridiculous "come at me bro" comment, god I wish he would have stayed dead. I'm officially not looking forward to their six man tag match, as I already know The Shield will lose. Shoot me.

Now if you think was the only thing wrong with RAW's latest showing you're off by a long-shot.

After numerous counters and false finishes, CM Punk puts away Y2J with a GTS. Both men are left down on the mat, exhausted from the back and forth contest they just participated in.
Can somebody please explain why this wasn't the main event? Oh that's right WWE needs their Golden Boy to close out every single show. How am I suppose to enjoy a match with two of the best wrestlers on the planet, on free TV, if there are segments booked afterwards? Even if they did put it in the main event they would have ruined it with commercials and endless social media plugs. Plus, everyone knew CM Punk was going to win anyway. Sometimes I wonder why I even bother watching.
If you think that is bad, wait till you hear about the garbage that filled the rest of the unnecessary three hour time-slot.

Miz pushes Brock too far, both mid-card champs in action, and a Monster returns.
Any credibility Cesaro and Barret have brought back to the mid-card titles is offically gone. Why should we care in the slightest about these two titles if their champions can be defeated by the likes of Ryback and Randy Orton? Shit, even if they had won, we already saw both matches a million times. Whats the point WWE? Oh wait, there is none. It's obvious there was no thought put into these two matches. How do Barret and Cesaro benefit from looking equally competitive to Ryback and Orton? Beats me. What other trash did they throw together in the match department? ADR vs Rhodes sucked, but to be fair anything involving Alberto is horrible. Do they Really expect us to like him just because he throws in some lucha libre, and dropped the snobby aristocrat thing? I think not. Lets see what else, Santino Vs Swagger, another job match serving no purpose with had no back-story. Sure Santino started Swaggers downward spiral, and sure Swagger destroying him this time around drives home the point that Jack is back with a new found intensity, but who cares really? He's just damaged goods now. Next we have Mysterio and Bryan. The match itself was ok, but did anyone really think Mysterio had a chance to beat Bryan when he's one half of the tag-team champions? It would be nice if WWE threw a swerve in every now and then. Which brings me to my next point, WTF were they thinking by bringing Mark Henry back like that? What's the use of having him just show up out of nowhere and clean house? Not only did they blow an opportunity to gain some ratings by hyping his return in advance with vignettes and the likes, they made the tag division look like shit by having him destroy three of its top stars. Give me a break. Break, like Brock Lesnar should have done to the Miz's arm instead of just F-5ing him. It really left Lesnar looking sympathetic and vulnerable, way to go WWE, you dropped the ball on Lesnar once again.SMH.

I would keep going but if i think too much about the fact that they left Dolph off RAW so they could make room for the Big Show and app tutorials, I might just have an aneurysm.
So until next time, SHUT UP MARKS!

Mizfan

02-06-2013, 08:46 PM

Woah... u mad bro?

I sympathize with being frustrated with the project, I really, honestly do, but I feel like you asked the best question of all in here: Why do you bother watching if you hate it this much? Even by your own admission there were some good things on Raw, but apparently you weren't able to enjoy them because you were so upset about everything else. It sounds like you didn't have one second of fun watching. So... why did you watch?

As a column, this was pretty short and read more like an angry forum post than an actual well thought out column to give opinion and analysis. If you don't quit watching wrestling immediately and do want to keep reading, I would say tone down the high emotion and analyize more closesly what is frustrating you about the product, and maybe even what could improve it. If not that, then maybe you could explore why you started to like wrestling in the first place, and what has changed so much now that you basically hate it? There are a lot more interesting ways to vent your frustration than 3 paragraphs of bitchy review.

Catch you next time if you stick around, man.

AustinTheWolfe

02-06-2013, 09:43 PM

Mizfan

02-07-2013, 01:15 AM

Ah, now I see... I thought it seemed over the top, but the thing is you see so many people online who will say all the things you said with a straight face that it's hard to pick out the sarcasm without more of a clue! This would have worked better if it weren't your very first column, I think. If we knew you a little better it probably would have been more of a hit with me. Nice to know you don't really hate wrestling though! That's always a plus!

AustinTheWolfe

02-07-2013, 12:39 PM

Yeah wouldn't make much sense to try and write wrestling columns if i didn't like wrestling, but thanks for the feed back I see I have alot of work to do.

Romeo

02-08-2013, 10:30 PM

Hello there, gents (and ladies, if there are still any of you here). This is just something I whipped up because I'm going through some tough times personally. It's not a comeback, and it's not like my usual work in the past. Just putting this out here to see what y'all think of it.

***

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qp7-wiAD1eQ&feature=player_embedded

In all my childlike (and childish) dreams of becoming a professional wrestler, there has never been any other move that I’ve wanted to perform more than the Shooting Star Press. I first saw it performed by Billy Kidman and liked it, but truly loved it even more when Evan Bourne here gave us the utmost perfection in execution.

On some days, especially the boring and/or sad ones, I fantasize that I can do this. The move is the very idea of “fuck it,” rushing headlong and taking the leap, not being sure of landing properly at all.

Because look: you’re facing forward, and you jump. And this is going to take all your strength, not just what you draw from your legs for support and the force of the leap, but also from your core, your innermost part which controls your fortitude; basically, that which allows you to move with all your being. Your entire being, because you’re going to need it for the next part.

To complicate things a little bit, you bend over backwards in a flip, willing your entire center to fall back, dropping headfirst and not looking where you’re going until you come back around – the ultimate acquiesence to destiny, most especially because you only hope, in the middle of all this, that whoever – or whatever – that has to be there when you land is actually there to cushion your fall. Otherwise, you just slam the mat. Hard. Very, very hard.

But the hardest part of all is doing it with extreme physical grace, which Mr. Bourne exhibits on a nightly basis. You can do everything else just fine, but what you really want is to do it with grace, to make it seem effortless, because leaving it all up to the hands of the universe should be the easiest thing to do if you just believe you could land where you want to when you jump and fall, right?

Because nobody ever does it with grace. People are too scared, and understandably so, of hitting nothing but the canvas and breaking everything that’s inside their chest, even when they’re sure that they’ll hit the right target if they just fly out there. They do it tentatively, half-heartedly, and sometimes it’s exactly because of that fear that they end up doing it wrong and crashing and burning anyway.

Maybe that’s also why they call it a “shooting star” press, perhaps? Because not only do you probably physically resemble a star that may be falling from the sky, but also because you do it on the premise of a wish, as one might do upon a shooting star – that the universe will let you land wherever it is you wish to land, with great success.

Highwayman

02-11-2013, 07:03 PM

C.M. Punk is a Nazi
I am the Highwayman. I’ve been around quietly reading posts and wrestling news on LoP for many years and not until recently have I been really compelled to contribute. But C.M. Punk’s latest comments regarding Pope Benedict have really tipped me over the edge and encouraged me to contribute.

I get that wrestling is ‘edgy’ and it’s hip to be edgy. C.M. Punk is quite the master of being edgy. He’s also a master of hypocrisy. He is also a Nazi. As reported by LoP this evening, Punk responded to a tweet from a follower by calling Pope Benedict ‘a Nazi’. I understand it’s ‘cool’ in this day and age to beat down anything you disagree with and denigrate an opinion by calling names and essentially flaming things. But sadly, for WWE, this will not end well.

The problem lies with Punk’s glaring hypocrisy. Punk seems to view himself as an individual yet shows very little himself. Punk believes he is tolerant. I think Punk needs to look very closely at himself before declaring such things. During the 2012 Presidential race, Punk sunk to new lows by not actually discussing issues, but attacking those who thought differently. Sadly, these are the same attacks, nearly word for word and thought for thought that others had slung about so recklessly. Does anyone remember that picture from a few years ago with ‘straight edge’ C.M. Punk and a visibly intoxicated Maria? I’m sure that he was trying to ‘convert’ her…right? What do you mean no one else believes that? I find it increasingly hypocritical of someone who preaches a certain lifestyle to actively pursue a relationship with someone who doesn’t adhere to that lifestyle.

And it’s not really an issue for me personally, yet it is going to be an issue for WWE.

The problem lies with Punk being so ‘frank’, if you wish to call it that. Especially with this latest tweet, Punk has proven to be a liability and I believe the WWE is going to take notice rather shortly. The WWE is a business above all else, and as such have a responsibility to minimize liabilities. One has to consider that there are many people within the WWE universe who are not only lapsed though respectful Catholics like me, but rather devout Catholics and others who hold religion close as part of their personal experience. But if the WWE allows Punk to continue to ‘speak his mind’ if you will they run a distinct risk of not only alienating, but losing those viewers/paying customers altogether. And I seriously doubt they will run that risk.

What Punk fails to realize, as many do, is that freedoms such as freedom of speech, come with not only a price (which, ironically many people of faith pay day in and day out) but just as importantly, they come with responsibility. What will be interesting is to see what the fallout is if there is, indeed, any fallout. What will be more interesting is to see if Punk can actually be honest with himself and see that in his very intolerance of a religion, he is the very hypocrite he claims to despise.

In short, by his very obvious and outspoken intolerance of others who don’t think or feel or believe as he does, C.M. Punk has shown himself to have more in common with the Nazis than he claims Pope Benedict does.

Highwayman

02-11-2013, 07:04 PM

@ Ro

Man, I wish it was a 'come back'. I always did enjoy Ro Is War, back in the day.

Ernball

02-14-2013, 12:04 PM

Building Wrestlemania 30 at Wrestlemania 29

Alot of talk is already going on about the possibilities of Wrestlemania 30 and about how big it can be. The Roster at this time is, more or less, as loaded as it has been since Smackdown dominated in the early 2000's. We have Lesnar, Cena, Rock, Punk, Ziggler, Bryan, Orton, Mark Henry, Ryback, The Shield, and Jericho. Those names alone are enough to put on a solid card. We also can't forget about the rarely seen superstars such as Triple H, Undertaker, and even Stone Cold Steve Austin. All these names together have a big opportunity to put on a great show. But how do we start building for WM30 already?

The seeds for a triple threat match for WM29 have already been planted. Why else would a stipulation like the one added to the CM Punk/Rock match would have been added to their title match? If Rock loses by DQ or countout he loses the title to Punk? To me this screams setup for a triple threat match at Wrestlemania between Rock/Punk/Cena. If The Rock were to lose by some sort of interfearence, that puts the main event of Mania as Cm Punk Vs. John Cena. But of course, with The Rock being involved, one could only imagine that it will, by some sort of shananigans by one of the above mentioned parties, be made into a 3 way. Why is this perfect to set up 'Mania 30?

At the end of their WWE Title bout, just as John Cena goes over cleanly to win the WWE title...*GONG*...The Undertaker finally makes his return. We do what was done on the night after Wrestlemania 27, and we set up a 1 year hype fest between The Undertaker Vs. John Cena. If rumors are true, and The Undertaker does wish to retire at Wrestlemania 30, then the logical answer would be for him to go out with a bang. John Cena may not be the most technically sound wrestler alive, but taking on The Deadman at Wrestlemania XXX would be a great way to see the Undertaker go out with a bang. But lets discuss the possibilities of The Undertaker taking on one of the 3 participants from Wrstlemania 29's main event

The Undertaker Vs. The Rock
-The Undertaker is well beyond needing anything to do with the WWE Title, and i'm assuming he doesn't even care to win it at this point in his career. He really has nothing left to prove. He has done everything there is to do in this business and has an undefeated streak at Wrestlemania extending to 20-0. But what about The Rock? He is in the same boat. Nothing left to prove or accomplish, he really is beyond needing a title run. These 2 facing off would be more of a "Special Attraction" match. Would the Undertaker benefit from going over The Rock? Not at all. Would The Rock benefit from ending the streak? Why would he need to? The IWC would go ape-shit if The Rock were the man to end the streak. To me, this match would be more of a waste then it would to benefit anybody, so lets cross this off as a possibility

The Undertaker Vs. CM Punk
-The match everyone is calling for at Wrestlemania 29. To me, this match would give CM Punk the ultimate rub. Not only does he have a past with The Undertaker, but he also holds victories over him as well. But, and sticking with storylines, at Wrestlemania something comes over The Undertaker and makes him an unstoppable machine. But lets consider the following: If CM Punk were to end the streak, where does that leave him? He has won every title, he has the longest WWE title reign over the last quarter of a century, multiple time Money in the Bank winner, he has really done it all. Ending the Streak would put him in the league of John Cena, HBK, The Rock, and the all time greats. To me, thats all that he is missing. But the problem is...does ending the streak for Punk make him "too big"? If he were to end the streak at Wrestlemania 30, then who else on the roster would be a likely foe for CM Punk? Nobody would be seen as a reasonable challenge for Punk and it would propell him into a league of very few. The only people that could unseat Punk from greatness after ending the streak would be former legends(Stone Cold, Rock, Triple H, Lesnar?) We need Punk around to elevate new stars, so for me, and as much as I would love to see him end the streak, it just isn't the right time.

The Undertaker Vs. John cena
-The Undertaker is at the end of the road for his career. John Cena is getting to that point. With Cena being the biggest name in the business at this point, he seems the most logical choice. Should he end the streak? Not a chance. But should he lose? Again, not a chance. Here is a possibility I haven't seen come up much. At Wrestlemania 30, we end the show with The Undertaker at 20-0-1. That's right, make it a draw. John Cena could take a long hiatus from wrestling after putting on the match of a lifetime in being the only man to ever come that close to ending the streak. He doesn't win, he doesn't lose, nor does The Undertaker. This would be a good farewell for The Undertaker and a good send off for Cena as well. This could also put Cena in the spot of the new special attraction at Wrestlemania. With the Undertaker going into retirement, every year the IWC would explode with discussions on "Will cena be at Wrestlemania this year?" or "Who will beat cena at Wrestlemania this year" instead of taker. We usher in a new legend while another one steps out of the spotlight and back into the shadows.

To me, Cena Vs. Undertaker wouldn't be about ending a streak or who is better. It would be about drawing a crowd and audience that simply does not know who to root for or who would win. This match, to me, is one of the last remaining dream matches and Wrestlemania 30 seems to make it an appropriate place for it to take place. Neither man wins, neither man loses. Just think even FURTHER into the future. John Cena, showing up at Royal Rumble 2015...entering and winning to take on WWE Champion Dolph Ziggler in the Main event after being absent from the ring for a good 9 months...tell me you wouldn't mark out for that. Especially if it was kept as good a secret as chris Jericho returning at the Royal Rumble. But where o where does the WWE Championship stand for Wrestlemania 30....

Mizfan

02-15-2013, 01:28 AM

Ro - Bourne is awesome. I miss him. And also you. Good luck with your personal shit, dude.

Highway - Welcome to the CF. Regarding your topic, I have to say I think you're overreacting. If Punk didn't see any consequences after the gay bash a few years ago or hitting a fan a few months ago, this won't come to anything. The dude is a heel, he says heelish things. He's a million miles away from a JBL sieg heil situation. And, feel free to correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't Benedict a member of the Hitler Youth when he was young? I'm not saying that makes him a war criminal, but still. As for your presentation, there's no set limit for the length of a column but if you have been hanging around the CF or the MP then you probably can see how short your piece is compared to most. I would say add more detail and try to explore your topic in more depth next time. Read you next time.

Ern - Hey again Ern! Congrats on making it to 5 posts, you'll be able to post a real column now! I'm not sure I like all this talk about people being "beyond" championships. Aren't championships supposed to represent the top of the business? That's like a football team being too big for the Superbowl (or the world cup, if you prefer...). It just doesn't make any sense to me. As for Taker/Cena at XXX, that's something I could potentially get behind, but I really, really HATE to use one PPV to try to sell another PPV. I don't want to have to pay all that money just to see a show that spends time trying to get me to pay money for another show. I'm also not really keen on seeing another year long feud, I thought the Rock/Cena one was a total bust and left me feeling cold long before the match actually kicked off. I like that you're thinking at least though! Like Highway above you, I still think you could have explored the topic more. One thing that particularly baffled me is your bizarre offhand assertion that John Cena is nearing the end of his career. The guy is 35 and in incredible shape, he's got a full 5 more years at least and possibly up to 10. If you think he's going to disappear within a year, you're crazy man! I'll read you next time man.

Highwayman

02-16-2013, 11:30 AM

@ Mizfan

As far as the length goes, yeah. It is a bit short but it was a spur of the moment topic. And actually doing a bit more research, the idea that Punk would even equate Benedict with Nazism and it's tenets is even more astounding since Benedict really didn't have that much of an option as a child. It was Nazi Youth or Concentration Camp. However, he DID resist the ideology of Nazism and even many Jewish organizations have come to his defense when his childhood is brought up. If nothing else, this makes Punk, the human being, even more ridiculous and misinformed. That being said, I do enjoy Punk the wrestler and my next topic will cover that in more detail.

Highwayman

02-19-2013, 12:31 PM

It’s no secret that I’m simply not a fan of Phil Brooks, the person. However, I am a massive fan of C.M. Punk, the wrestler. Twice now, C.M. Punk has undeniably carried the Rock in two matches where Rock only brought ‘star power’ to the Pay-Per-Views. He has also undeniably carried the Rock in promos with the Rock cutting some pretty stale promos with rather juvenile material while C.M. Punk has always show an immense amount of passion and pride for what he does. By contrast, the Rock for all he talks about passion for ‘the business’ has really brought nothing new to the table. On that note, I have the impression that Rock is really just kind of coasting in this regard, but that is beside the point.

What IS the point, you ask? It’s pretty simple, actually. See, there are basically four tiers of wresters.
First, we have the jobber. The jobber is the guy that simply loses (and usually pretty badly in most cases) to anyone he/she dares challenges. They’re basically ‘stepping stones’ for other wrestlers with more charisma and physical ability. Make no mistake, though. Sometimes, a very talented wrestler gets pegged as a jobber for one reason or another, but by and large, most jobbers belong right where they are. Is this a bad thing? Of course it’s not! Without jobbers, better talent can’t ascend. They have their place and frankly, it’s the second most important position one can have despite popular opinion. And, in many cases, it’s not a ‘death sentence’ to one’s career. We’ve seen MANY cases throughout the years of jobbers ascending beyond their status to become top notch talent. Conversely, we’ve seen many top tier talent become jobbers as well. Going back to the point I made about being the second most important part of a card (I hear the laughing as well), think: without jobbers, wrestling simply wouldn’t be wrestling.

Next up, we have the mid-carders. These are men and women who have a generally solid set of skills both in ring and on the mic yet, for one reason or another, simply cannot ascend beyond the mid-card. They do fill a vital role as well. These are the wrestlers who try to keep a crowd interested from start to finish in a card. In short, they are ‘mid-card’ hence the name. Without these wrestlers, we’d simply have one or two matches: the curtain jerker and the main event. The level of success a mid-card wrestler is, sadly, largely based on the card itself. Why would we care about a mid-card match if there’s no interest in the main event? And if a mid-card wrestler or match is booked poorly, we lose interest in THEM, as well. It’s a very tenuous position to be in, but presents opportunities to advance beyond that status.

And we also have the ‘main eventers’. It’s pretty obvious who these guys are (in most cases). These are the guys who have vast amounts of talent and/or charisma and can most reliably put asses in the seats and sell merchandise. Now, most people might be inclined to stop right there and say, there you have it. That’s the structure of a wrestling card and an admittedly pretty simplified one since there are all sorts of shades of gray as wrestlers, for one reason or another, float up and down the card within a company. And I would have to say, “You’re wrong; dead wrong!”

There is a fourth tier of wrestler. There is, for lack of a better phrase, the “Marquee Wrestler”. These are men and women for whom the simple act of putting their name pretty much anywhere on the card is guaranteed to garner interest in the card. They don’t always have to headline a card, though they generally do and more importantly they are wrestlers for whom chasing a title is relatively meaningless. These are men and women who have made such an insanely massive contribution to wrestling both in and outside of the ring and are proven draws that they can basically call their own shots. They generally work a few appearances a year, they have a rich history of wrestling accomplishments and their name ALWAYS draws interest from not only the ‘hardcore fan’ but the ‘casual fan’ as well.

There are only a few wrestlers who can still wrestle, or have in recent years, that I would dare label as a Marquee Wrestler: Rock, Shawn Michaels, Sting, HHH, John Cena and Undertaker. There may be others you feel I’ve left off, and that’s all well and good but these are simply the most notable. I will NOT include Brock Lesnar simply because I feel his current (and in my opinion, waning) popularity is due to his rather short lived MMA career rather than his wrestling legacy. I also questioned putting Trish Stratus on this list, however she would be the ONLY woman on this list and would really have no competition and isn’t that what wrestling is all about?

So there we have it: From jobber to Marquee Wrestler, there are your tiers. What does this have to do with C.M. Punk and the Undertaker, you ask? It’s pretty simple, actually.

Right now, WWE has only ONE active Marquee level wrestler and that’s John Cena. Love him or hate him, his very NAME transcends the WWE. And at Wrestlemania XXX, he’s going to fight another Marquee Wrestler in the Rock for the WHT which is, again, in my opinion exceedingly meaningless and can, quite possibly, devalue the title itself. And once Rock is gone (presumably after WM), that leaves WWE with Cena.

However, once you put Punk v. Undertaker on the card this makes for some VERY interesting scenarios and creates (in very particular circumstances) yet another Marquee Wrestler moving forward for WWE. This, however, carries one very important caveat: C.M. Punk MUST go over the Undertaker and end The Streak. More importantly, it would be far more impactful for Punk to submit the UT in a clean win. Yeah, I know. It sounds like heresy but hear me out. UT, by all accounts, is a nanometer away from retiring for good and losing his last match will do no harm to his legacy. But what it WILL do is build another Marquee Wrestler in C.M. Punk. And it’s this last part that’s more important.

One has to consider what the WWE has if Cena is, unfortunately, injured to the point he can no longer wrestle. Who will draw for them and create reaction? The ONLY wrestler near that level is C.M. Punk. However, the likelihood of that happening (I hope) is slim to none.

So if Cena doesn’t get injured and C.M. Punk taps out the UT you have two very reliable wrestlers who can and have already transcended the need for any titles. WWE also has, on its current active roster, a heel and a face Marquee Wrestler whose only goal (for the most part) will be to elevate both lower tier faces and heels and help build WWE in the future.

But it also adds a new dynamic to the Cena/C.M. Punk feud which is what this is all really about. Rock aside, all of this has been to build Cena/C.M. Punk as the top face and heel within the WWE. So let’s assume for a second that Cena does win the title at WM and C.M. Punk does tap out the UT. Cena comes out the next night to celebrate only to be interrupted by Punk. Whereas Cena can only brag about the title, C.M. Punk holds the ONE distinction no wrestler EVER will again: tapping out the UT and ending The Streak. Sure, the title is important but C.M. Punk ended UT. This could set up the ultimate turn for Cena going heel which would have ramifications FAR above what Hogan accomplished by joining the NWO as Cena realizes that for all his talk of 'hustle, loyalty and respect', the title in his hands has little credibility over what C.M. Punk did by tapping out UT. And by pandering to 'the fans', he's lost the ONLY chance he'll ever have of accomplishing, in the wrestling world, what only one other man could.

More importantly, it builds redundancy within the card itself. Should Cena get injured or Punk get injured, either man has the status and power with which to carry the company forward and build a new generation of superstars. Just as importantly, these will be two Marquee level wrestlers who wrestle on a regular basis and don’t just ‘spike’ ratings based on occasional appearances. It creates a consistency within the WWE card that, at the moment, doesn’t quite exist and is desperately needed.

So yes, Cena v Rock will happen at WM and we know that Cena will win. But God willing, I pray UT steps up (health willing) and elevates C.M. Punk to where he needs and frankly, as a wrestler, deserves to be. It would be good for us, as fans, and good for WWE as a company.

Mizfan

02-23-2013, 03:16 AM

Very nicely put together here, High. Your tier breakdown was pretty good and your argument for Punk to go over Taker is pretty compelling. I very much doubt he'll get that tapout victory, but I do hold onto the hope that WWE will at least give him the chance to join the list of legends to challenge the Streak. And hey, if he actually does win, I'll be all the happier.

You're pretty close to 5 posts there buddy... I would strongly encourage you to comment on a few other columns to get over that hump, then post your next piece in the CF proper. You'll get a lot more attention that way, I promise!

Hilite Real

03-14-2013, 03:25 PM

Right, I don't know where to post this, so I am doing it here.

I want to write my first column but I want to check whether the idea has been done before.

I am from India and I almost never get to watch Wrestling Live. I wanted to post a Column about how it is different watching Taped Shows, the impact it has on you as a viewer, and how all this varies depending on whether you have read the spoilers and how differently say I'd view Smackdown over someone else who watched RAW Live.

Can someone let me know if something like this has been done and also if this would interest a few people (considering it comes from a very local perspective possibly alien to most people).

maverick

03-14-2013, 03:53 PM

Sounds good to me my man. Go for it!

Mizfan

03-14-2013, 07:28 PM

Yeah man, go right ahead and jump in. Nobody expects your debut column to be amazing, so do as well as you can and then take on the feedback you're sure to get to improve each time you post.

adamy784

03-24-2013, 10:41 PM

Finally, I've been wondering why!!

SubhoRocks

04-06-2013, 09:36 AM

Hello.. I am new in here.. Just want to ask a rather pedestrian question.. Where do I write a new column?

kingzak13

04-06-2013, 09:49 AM

Hello.. I am new in here.. Just want to ask a rather pedestrian question.. Where do I write a new column?

Just put it in a post in this thread until you have 5 posts and then you can make a thread for them.

SubhoRocks

04-06-2013, 10:03 AM

Just put it in a post in this thread until you have 5 posts and then you can make a thread for them.

thanks, man!

SubhoRocks

04-06-2013, 12:17 PM

A Fan's Perspective on Whether John Cena should Turn Heel

Its my first column, so don't expect anything extra-ordinary.. I'm still taking baby-steps when it comes to column writing and I hope you all support this endeavor and provide your comments and feedback, critical or otherwise..

John Cena, the face of the WWE. His WWE career is 10 years long and since 2005, he has been a constant presence in the main event scene. He is WWE's largest merch seller, biggest wish maker and most over star, anywhere he goes. While some may argue about the last point, the dueling chants and the signs are proof of that fact. Many have tried over the years to throw him off that position but all have failed; some due to their own faults and some due to failure on the part of Creative.

Recently, whenever it comes to any discussion on John Cena, a prospective heel turn is always discussed. John Cena has been a babyface ever since late 2003 (not sure, back me up if I'm wrong).. While he continued to be the Dr. of Thuganomics in his initial days as a face, he has since taken a 'Marine' role, ever since his movie of the same name came out. The latter character has faced a lot of flak and is one of the most hated characters in today's professional wrestling realm.

So, the question begs an answer, does John Cena really need to turn heel? I've seen many people answer this question (most with 'yes!'); but 95% of them have been non-fans or haters, you can say. Being a John Cena fan since 2004, I want to answer this question.

Certainly there's no single answer to this question. Cena sells a hell lot of merch and is a great role model for children and WWE have been blowing that horn for many years now. As Cena has himself admitted, giving it all up for a short-term storyline doesn't seem worth it. WWE would risk facing huge losses and giving up on huge positive publicity which comes as a result of Cena fulfilling wishes and meeting troops etc. Is such a risk really worth it just to satisfy a handful of fans?

Then again, one has to admit, even after being a fan, that the character has run its course. It's been many many years and Cena hasn't changed one thing. WWE sometimes tries to shake up a few things; trying to add a more aggressive side etc. but have always gone back to Square One. When Cena was involved in the storyline with The Rock circa post WrestleMania 27 to post WrestleMania 28, I had wanted to see some changes. During the storyline, I had hoped Cena would introduce some heelish tactics. When the two teamed up at Survivor Series 2011, I had thought that it would be Cena with the post match attack, that would have surely turned him heel. But, alas that was not to be. After 'Mania 28 went by and he had lost, I thought Cena would finally turn on the fans for still cheering The Rock, even after he was leaving again; and booing him, when he was still there and still fighting. But, alas again!

This year though, WWE has been hinting more than ever that Cena would turn heel. He has been showing agitation with the fans' response and The Rock's success. Is it just another swerve or a real swerve is about to happen? I hope the latter happens. Being a fan, I always hope for the best for Cena, and at this point, the best for him would be to turn heel. A heel turn doesn't always equal low merch sales. It can hamper his relationship with the Make-a-Wish Foundation and other charities but its worth taking a shot. WWE can always turn around on the turn, but with a new momentum, who knows it might lead to new fans and much better ad-hoc sales.

WWE also needs to bank on future stars. Ryback has been wanting to breakthrough to the next level. While I am not a fan of his, WWE seem to be considering him as the next big thing! So, why not try it! And rumors of a feud between the two have already been making rounds..

Take the shot WWE! Let the face of the company go through some changes and see if you can build a future star!

Shane

04-06-2013, 01:15 PM

All the way from India, welcome Subhorocks.

This first column was very much that: a first column. Every one of us has started where you are. And I will do my best to let you know what I think.

Paragraph one: Its my first column, so don't expect anything extra-ordinary.. I'm still taking baby-steps when it comes to column writing and I hope you all support this endeavor and provide your comments and feedback, critical or otherwise..

Nothing wrong with saying who you are and where you are. Example: This is my first column. But, after this one, I would suggest never again saying things like, "don't expect anything extra-ordinary". The CF is very much a community and chances are the majority of us will know if you are new or not, not only by the fact that we know the forums and who is in it, but your number under your name reveals your posts. As I stated, nothing wrong with saying you are new, but let the reader be the judge of the column. It might turn some people off to read up-front how lackluster your column will be. You never know what somebody might get out of reading your piece, so don't shortchange yourself at the top.

As for writing personal stuff, that is your option. Some stick strictly to the product and are very matter-of-fact. Some are more personal. Some are a mix. Some do numbers; some do narratives; some do critiques. It's a big and broad field and the only way to find yourself as a writer and your voice and your niche is to try any and all things that interest you and don't worry so much about how it will read.

I view the next 3 paragraphs as something of your intro/wiki-set up: John Cena, the face of the WWE. His WWE career is 10 years long and since 2005, he has been a constant presence in the main event scene. He is WWE's largest merch seller, biggest wish maker and most over star, anywhere he goes. While some may argue about the last point, the dueling chants and the signs are proof of that fact. Many have tried over the years to throw him off that position but all have failed; some due to their own faults and some due to failure on the part of Creative.

Recently, whenever it comes to any discussion on John Cena, a prospective heel turn is always discussed. John Cena has been a babyface ever since late 2003 (not sure, back me up if I'm wrong).. While he continued to be the Dr. of Thuganomics in his initial days as a face, he has since taken a 'Marine' role, ever since his movie of the same name came out. The latter character has faced a lot of flak and is one of the most hated characters in today's professional wrestling realm.

So, the question begs an answer, does John Cena really need to turn heel? I've seen many people answer this question (most with 'yes!'); but 95% of them have been non-fans or haters, you can say. Being a John Cena fan since 2004, I want to answer this question.

First, I think the choice to write about John Cena and the heel turn was both a good and bad choice. It was a good choice because this is WrestleMania season (hell, we are at the door of WM). Everybody is talking about what will happen and, of course, as always, that leads to the talk of a potential John Cena turn. Seems WWE wants people discussing that, too. So, it is wise to pick a topic that both interests you and that everyone is talking about.

BUT.

If you are going to pick a topic that everyone has talked about (and has been talked to death) you need to have fresh and new insights or a strong and provocative opinion to bring to the table. In other words, you have to ADD something to the conversation. Which, on the topic of the Cena heel turn, is not always easy to do.

So, with these three paragraphs, it's not so much that there is anything wrong with them. It's sort of a history of John Cena/history of the talk of the heel turn. Just be mindful that most everybody that reads your pieces will have an equal amount of knowledge. Nothing wrong with going back (sometimes it's absolutely necessary) but you will learn how much or how little to provide backstory and how to do it in a way that matches the voice of the piece and keeps the reader engaged.

All that comes with practice and experience.

For now, I get through these paragraphs and I see the words, "So, the question begs an answer, does John Cena really need to turn heel?"

And I think

OKAY

here we are: he is about to bring to me the very words that made him want to write this piece. Here I expect you, the author, to step onto the groundwork you have laid and begin to pontificate your burning opinons on this matter that is at our door. Will he? Won't he? Should he? Shouldn't he? What is this thing that has brought you to the keyboard the day before WrestleMania?

What is it you must say?

And then...

you say...

Certainly there's no single answer to this question.

AHHHHHHHHH

WAIT, WHAT?

Now, true, there isn't one answer. But, too, FALSE!

As it pertains to YOUR column, there is only one answer: YOURS.

You, sir, are the expert. Or, at least, you play one in your column. Here is your chance. You have laid the groundwork. You have an audience. The ball is tee'd up. Take your swing and drive all the way through!

Whereas I was expecting you to get into your thoughts, you fall back into the arguments we've all read a million times (Cena sells merch, Make-A-Wish, etc). Right here you are writing more like a reader than a writer. You are simply relaying old news.

Which is okay, because you are beginning. But be mindful if I can read these opinions in comments on the MP section of the news articles, they probably don't make a column.

See, you are going to ultimately argue that Cena SHOULD turn. But here, in paragraph five (OVER HALF WAY THROUGH) you are saying, "WWE would risk facing huge losses and giving up on huge positive publicity which comes as a result of Cena fulfilling wishes and meeting troops etc. Is such a risk really worth it just to satisfy a handful of fans?

If the argument truly is, "Is such a risk really worth it to satsify a handful of fans?" then the answer is NO.

There is nothing wrong with admitting what the argument is, but you have to be careful when you are over halfway through the piece and all you have done is laid groundwork and argued AGAINST the opinion you will ultimately decide on.

Again, none of it is 'wrong' to use, but I'm still looking for YOU and YOUR OPINION.

Now, I do believe, we are going to transition into your opinion.

This paragraph: Then again, one has to admit, even after being a fan, that the character has run its course. It's been many many years and Cena hasn't changed one thing. WWE sometimes tries to shake up a few things; trying to add a more aggressive side etc. but have always gone back to Square One. When Cena was involved in the storyline with The Rock circa post WrestleMania 27 to post WrestleMania 28, I had wanted to see some changes. During the storyline, I had hoped Cena would introduce some heelish tactics. When the two teamed up at Survivor Series 2011, I had thought that it would be Cena with the post match attack, that would have surely turned him heel. But, alas that was not to be. After 'Mania 28 went by and he had lost, I thought Cena would finally turn on the fans for still cheering The Rock, even after he was leaving again; and booing him, when he was still there and still fighting. But, alas again!

Something positive: There is a smooth reading to those first couple sentences. I feel like I'm starting to get your voice and a narrative about where YOU are going on YOUR opinion about where Cena is and where he needs to go.

One way your columns will get longer and better (with practice) is when you start to notice 'things' like 'things'. What do I mean? You say, It's been many many years and Cena hasn't changed one thing. WWE sometimes tries to shake up a few things; trying to add a more aggressive side etc. but have always gone back to Square One.

Again, nothing wrong with the word choice exactly, but how much potential are hidden behind those words? WWE hasn't changed a thing? But you go on to say they have at least flirted with it. So, what are these things? What did they try? How did it go? etc. You will see, as you progress as a writer, that when you re-read and edit and give a column time, there will be 'things' you laid out in a first draft that you can add to in a re-read, or you can take out altogether, or you can change.

For the rest of the paragraph, do you see, content-wise, the difference between just telling us the history of WWE VERSUS WHAT YOU DO NOW. Now you tell us the history by way of what you wanted to see. That has more weight. Because now we are seeing the want and, in the want, the why you wrote this column.

You wanted to see heelish acts BEFORE.

So, of course, you want to see them now.

It has been building inside of you.

Now I know this. Now I know where you are coming from.

Add a second reason for why you are writing this. Not only do you want to see a heel turn but, as you say,
This year though, WWE has been hinting more than ever that Cena would turn heel. He has been showing agitation with the fans' response and The Rock's success. Is it just another swerve or a real swerve is about to happen?

You are saying that WWE is hinting at it.

Thus the end of the your column could almost be the starting point. Such as: For years fans have been talking about a John Cena heel turn and for years WWE has been dismissive. For years, I have been waiting and wanting a John Cena heel turn. But now, at the door of WrestleMania 29, WWE seems to be hinting at a John Cena heel turn.

^^ See, from that, you have a thesis statement. I know at the start: this guy wants a turn and may even think one is coming. Then you can hit me with what WWE is doing to hint at it and why you think it would be a good idea. You can also say what you think will or won't happen.

The Ryback argument is also a good one and NOW, AT THE VERY END, you are starting to hit points that have not been driven into the ground. Everybody says, if Cena turns, Punk has to turn face.

Maybe.

Who knows?

But you bring up a far more interesting subject. How big will the lane be that John Cena leaves behind?

It would be the chance of a lifetime for guys like Ryback.

I've rarely or never heard that argument for a Cena turn. Kudos, sir.

I like the line, "Take the shot, WWE!"

That's such a strong line. It's enthusiastic, but it also hits at something worth conversating about. WWE never takes a chance. Or, I should say, rarely. They are in a safe place and they play it so. Nice to see somebody call them out.

I like the ending and the final few paragraphs.

You certainly have potential. It takes time. It will take time. It should take time. It's the only way to really get to know yourself as a writer.

If you continue, you will one day surprise yourself with the things you learn about yourself as you continue to write. It has been a hell of an experience for me to write here, and I hope you will stick with it.

Welcome to the CF, my friend, one of the better places in the wrestling community.

swed324

04-06-2013, 06:39 PM

REKINDLING AN OLD FLAME

Hello everyone my names SWED and I’m here to discuss the wild world of professional wrestling. This is my first column and as such I’m still searching for my voice. All comments and criticisms welcome as my goal is to become a better writer and hopefully add something to the CF. With that minor intro out of the way let’s get into this.

Daniel Bryan and AJ Lee were outstanding together. They played off each other so well. AJ was the wholesome girl next door Bryan the developing pyscho path and verbally/almost physically abusive boyfriend. They were a believable couple and seemed to fit well together. I’m going to tell you why AJ Lee and Daniel Bryan should reunite as an onscreen couple.

First a brief history so people can see where I’m coming from.

The 18 second loss at WrestleMania was the best thing to happen to both of them. No one could have planned where it took them. The setup was beautiful Daniel was getting cheered fans were ready for a great match and a match that most wanted to see at WrestleMania the year before. Sheamus and Daniel were great performers and a lot of fans wanted to see them clash for the United States title but it was bumped to a dark match before the PPV started. Flash to a year later Bryan coming in to Mania with a very impressive run as World Heavyweight Champion. Beating Mark Henry and Big Show is no easy task and beating both in a steel cage and surviving a grueling chamber match made Bryans’ run memorable. Sheamus on the other hand was cruising before the rumble and a victory looked imminent. Well it was and Sheamus looked great doing it. Most people assumed he would go after Daniel Bryan and again they were right. It was predictable but that was ok. It made sense and the fact they were robbed of the spotlight a year before made it better.

The match started with a kiss from AJ to Daniel Bryan. Simple as they have done it before other matches but so significant in the grand scheme of things. A brogue kick and 18 seconds after that kiss there was a new World Heavyweight Champion.
Many people were outraged not by the crowning of a new champion but how it was done. An 18 second match at WrestleMania felt like a slap to the face to Daniel, the fans, hell even Sheamus. No one could believe that two wrestlers with the skills and fan support of the American Dragon and the Celtic Warrior weren’t deemed important enough for a big time match at Mania. I understand that sentiment completely as Daniel Bryan was doing excellent work as champion and even though everyone knew he was going to lose they felt he deserved to go out fighting.

The fallout was fans chanting Bryans’ catchphrase “Yes!” throughout the night. No one could have guessed that the next night on Raw the swell of fan support Bryan would receive. It turned Daniel into arguably the most “over” guy in the entire company. The natural progression of the storyline was the breakup of Daniel and AJ. Simply Bryan blamed AJ for the loss due to her being a distraction. He verbally abused her and dumped her. AJ would beg and plead with Bryan for a few weeks with Daniel ultimately turning her down. Extreme Rules was where the rematch between Sheamus and Bryan would take place. These two proved in their 2 out of 3 falls match that given the opportunity they could have tare the house down.

After being defeated at extreme rules Bryan had to move on and move on he did. Bryan won a Beat the Clock Challenge for the right to face cm punk. AJ still feeling scorned by Bryan turned her affections to Punk and Kane. Daniels jealousy led to him punk and Kane having a series of great matches the common bond between them being AJ. For months this storyline was the most interesting thing on WWE television. While the main events were reserved for Cena and John Laurinaitus’ revolving door of superstars, the WWE title picture was far more intriguing. AJ was at the center manipulating both Kane and cm punk to get her revenge on Bryan. This made for extremely fun television as you never knew who AJ would side with or make out with for that matter. While Bryan failed to win the title on multiple occasions he was determined to do so at Money in the Bank. Since AJ was in the middle of the Bryan / punk feud she was appointed as the special guest referee. To ensure a victory Daniel Bryan proposed to AJ on Raw before the match was scheduled. It seemed it was all for naught as Bryan was ultimately defeated by the champ but the next night on Raw AJ actually accepted Bryan’s proposal! On Raw 1000 the next week the wedding was scheduled. As with most wrestling weddings the participants never got married as Vince McMahon came out and offered AJ a job as the new general manager of Raw. She accepted and in doing so got the ultimate revenge on Daniel Bryan. Leaving him embarrassed and heartbroken at the altar screaming “No!”

So now with AJ in charge Daniel Bryan could not get a title match because of his scorned lover. She did however give him an unwanted consolation prize…a match with “The Big Red Machine” Kane at Summer Slam. With their feud unsettled after a Bryan win at Summer Slam AJ enrolled them both in anger management classes. The rest as they say is history. Kane and Bryan went to the classes met Dr. Shelby hilarity ensued and a tag team was formed. Even while bickering they racked up some wins and eventually won the right to become the #1 contenders to the tag team titles. Winning the tag titles from Kofi Kingston and R-Truth at Night of Champions. Team Hell No has had a tremendous title reign that continues today.

Now with that out of the way let’s get to what this is all about. The reuniting of AJ Lee and Daniel Bryan. While some people would see this as a step back I see it as a huge step forward for all involved. It just makes sense in the world of kayfabe. AJ has loved Daniel Bryan since they got together he mistreated her and she stayed, he berated her she stayed, he blamed her for his shortcomings and publicly humiliated and dumped her, and she begged him for forgiveness. When they were to be married the only thing that stopped them was a job offer AJ just couldn’t refuse. She saw her chance to stick it to Bryan for all the things he had done to her in the past; while she still cared for him that opportunity was just too good to pass up. For the most part after AJ became GM they were kept apart as Daniel was partnering with Kane and AJ moved from punk to Cena and eventually Ziggler. That all changed a couple weeks before WrestleMania 29 when a feud started between Team Hell NO and Dolph Ziggler and Big E who are managed by AJ. During a backstage skit Kane Bryan and Kaitlyn (AJ’s former friend in storylines) were talking about AJ and her craziness and AJ over heard and attacked Kaitlyn.

It just seems like fate that 2 years later these two would be involved in the same match. My idea would be to have Hell No lose the titles to Ziggy and Big E at Mania so the breakup of Hell No can commence. After their breakup and feud move Bryan onto the World title scene where (in a perfect world) Dolph Ziggler would be the champ. This sets up the perfect scenario for AJ to leave Dolph and her and Bryan can continue their relationship where it left off only with both of them being faces. That is of course if fans still cheer Bryan and boo Ziggler if not than it could still work as heels. Just let these two work their magic together again. Their chemistry is undeniable and the fragile nature of their relationship makes for some entertaining television. Wether they’re getting along or breaking up people take notice. AJ and Bryan have a rich storyline history that screams for more chapters to be written. They could easily be this generations Macho Man and Miss Elizabeth with AJ’s innocence and Bryans unstableness the comparisons are obvious. I think something this is perfect for today’s landscape. It adds more layers to the characters and ultimately could lead to people being more emotionally invested in these two characters. Not to mention Dolph Kane and Big E who could all be affected and injected into this storyline. So we could have a storyline that took two and a half years to come together, could elevate up to 4 superstars (I don’t see Kane moving up the ladder any further), and it would make sense. Let me know what you guys think. That sounds like a win-win to me but that’s just one man’s opinion.

SubhoRocks

04-07-2013, 02:39 AM

Thank you so much, Shane! I've never seen anyone giving a better feedback to a column ever.. thank you so much for taking up so much time to review this and point out the flaws and positives.. Can't thank you enough! :)

Mizfan

04-07-2013, 04:25 AM

Subho - What Shane said. I can't top that shit. Good start, hope to see more of you.

Swed - I LOVE the idea of Bryan and AJ as the new Savage & Elizabeth. I had much the same thought when their relationship was first blossoming, and I really hope that they go back to it in some form or another. AJ doesn't seem to pack much punch as a heel anyway. I love the idea of Bryan tempting AJ back to the side of good... We can only hope, right? I liked this a lot, especially for a debut. There's plenty of room for improvment but you've made a really strong beginning. Watch out for little things like capitalization though, too many errors gets distracting and can detract from the piece. Catch you 'round, dude.

MadChuck

04-07-2013, 07:59 AM

Sorry but the new rules for being able to post new threads, 20 minimum, absolutely sucks.

swed324

04-07-2013, 08:49 AM

Thanks Mizfan the little errors are the ones that always get me but that's why I'm here to get better. I'm glad you enjoyed the topic as them being in the same match at Mania and interacting again made me hopeful for a reunion someday.

Salabim

04-28-2013, 05:10 PM

In My Humble Opinion - Episode 1

IT NEEDS FIXING - FAST!!!!

What is happening? We are watching wrestling in a world where the biggest draw is so stale he gets booed out of the building, we are relying on stars from ten years ago or more to keep making returns to sell the biggest event of the year, and we just can't seem to get anyone over to the point where anybody is seen as a threat to the most stale main-event we have ever seen.

Looking back at wrestlings last 'Lean Period', in the mid 90's before anybody talked about there psalms and john 3:16, before anybody made a chopping motion towards their nuts, before anyone seen a man fly off the top of a cell, there was a problem in WWE, a similar problem to what it has now. The problem can be fixed. It was fixed before.

Allow Salabim to explain. In the mid 1990's after the absolute turd-fest that was Wrestlemanias 9, 10, and 11, WWE had a problem. The problem was a massive main event superstar had run his course in the role of 'face of the company'. Hulk Hogan's WWF title victory at Wrestlemania 9 was panned over and over. The reason was simple. People had become bored with seeing the same outcome. Monster heel smashes WWF mid-carders to pieces, then along comes the Sensei of Hulkamania to save the day. King Kong Bundy, Andre, Sgt. Slaughter, Randy Savage, Sid Justice had all been taken down by the force of the Hulkster. Bret Hart takes the title into Wrestlemania 9, Yokozuna gains the title, and Mr. Red and Yellow saunters to the ring, among cheers and the sound of Bret saying 'Go get him, Hulk', and wins the title. Smart fans pan the outcome. Hogan leaves shortly after. Granted the Hogan giantkilling act had gone out of fashion. But why did WWF begin to lose its dominance? Was it just the departure of Hulk?

Not even slightly. But Hulk had 'It' Same as Stone Cold had 'It', Rock has 'It' and believe it or not, John Cena actually does have 'It'.

Now lets look at why WCW and WWF, whilst competing with each other, set each other off into a wrestling boom that us die-hards wish to see again to this day. The answer is simple. Change.

Hall and Nash (Or Razor Ramon and Diesel), left WWF for WCW, and began an 'invasion' on WCW programming. Were Diesel and Razor main-eventers? Well, no. Diesel had Main-Evented Wrestlemania, but was a clear 4th at least in WWF at the time as far as starpower goes (Stay with me here, i am going somewhere with this). He was behind Bret Hart, Shawn Michaels, and of course The Undertaker. Razor was never a Bona-Fide WWF main eventer.

This peaked WCW in the long run, because as we know, there was no more Razor and Diesel. They entered WCW using their real names as The Outsiders. Hulk Hogan had been in WCW for a while at this point, parading 'The Red and Yeller o' Hulkamania, Brother', but what happened next changed everything. Yes, we know, the formation of the NWO. No longer were we spoon fed Hulk Hogan the american hero. This guy was a turncoat, joining his accomplices and giving us the biggest Heel Turn ever.

Straight away, the monotony of watching Hogan chop down the latest Giant or faction was no longer there. Fans wanted to see Sting, Lex Luger, Ric Flair, ANYBODY, give Hogan and the NWO their come-uppance. The product became exciting to watch, bringing in old fans, and fans from WWF over, first out of curiosity, then out of the fact that Bona-Fide Stars such as Sting, Luger, Flair, Savage etc. were taking on a stable of Bona-Fide stars. People wanted to see the NWO lose, at least at first. People wanted to see what they were going to do next. Why? Massive change brings unpredictability.

Let me provide another example. WWF was losing. Being trounced every week. Bret had been a face for so long, and people still liked him. They liked him, but were they REALLY into him? Or did they like him out of default? Out of status quo? Or because there was nobody else to get behind? Shawn Michaels has never been everyone's cup of tea, due to the 'sexy boy' character, and later due to revellations of his 'Kliq' antics. So what were we left to follow? It was one or the other, but neither was really at Hogan, Austin, Rock level. A change was needed, and Wrestlemania 13 DEFINITELY provided us with that in spades. There is of course, the obvious face turn of 'Stone Cold' Steve Austin, but also there was the imminent formation of the Hart Foundation stable. How dare Bret turn on the fans? Fans wanted to see 'Come-uppance' and as well as getting behind Austin, people tuned in to see Ken Shamrock, Vader, Ahmed Johnson, The Road Warriors and various others try (and usually fail) to deliver justice to Bret and his cronies. They wanted SOMEONE (Though maybe not The Patriot), to make him pay for turning on the fans.

I'll give a third example, and this one will get the IWC bitching, but i believe it to be true.

WWF had a Sure-Fire money maker other than Stone Cold Steve Austin. His name was The Rock. He was turned back into a heel after Survivor Series in a great swerve in 1998 when he won his 1st WWF title. WWF also had another maker of big money and merch sales, D-Generation X. But something had to give. The Rock had been the perfect foil for the anti-establishment HHH during his time with The Nation. But they had both outgrown that feud, and that spot on the card. Rock was the big heel, Austin was in his pomp, Foley and Undertaker were both faces, which left a Corporation headed by Rock (who the fans were still dying to cheer for), Kane has lost all his heel heat, which left nobody really other than Rock as a real BIG-TIME main event heel. (Big Show had been there 5 mins, and The Corporation was full of mid carders). WWF needed to turn Rock face, they needed an evil-doer at main event level. Enter Triple H's heel turn at Wrestlemania 15. All of a sudden, people are cheering thunderously for Austin, Rock, And Mankind, still loving the other members of DX, and got into Kane, The corporation was still a credible threat, HHH became the most dominant heel in the business, and people would tune in week in, week out, to hope to see him lose.

All of a sudden we had 2 great wrestling shows (albeit at different times essentially), because either it was booking genius, or somebody had the balls to take a risk, gamble, and actually CHANGE SOMETHING!!!

Here we are, 2013. 2 Years after WWE actually had the balls to give us an alternative to the John Cena schtick. CM Punk was turned face overnight by his 'shoot' promo on RAW before Money in the Bank. All of a sudden, we have an alternative. Something big has changed. Cena stays as he is, but Punk is there to keep the Cena hate brigade happy. WWE has 2 Faces, and sells probably more merch than they have since. You were either Cena or Punk. They had the balls to give Cena an 'equal'

Fast forward a bit. Cena is once again being fed upper-midcard behemoths at the next end-of-month PPV (Which is being propped up for buys by fans of Triple H and Brock Lesnar), Punk is once again a heel, and the status quo resumes.

You SO nearly had it WWE, and the answer is plain to see. The one big change that is needed is so simple.

John Cena becomes a Heel. He turns on Team Face (Probably Randy Orton, Sheamus, Kane and Daniel Bryan), in a match against The Shield and a few other bad guys.

'WHY, CENA, WHY?'

John Cena and his new cronies run roughshod over WWE, destroying the above, on a weekly basis, Ryback isnt ready for the number 1 face role. There is one person that can do it, and had sold the Merch to prove it. Just as WWE has no hope, and Cena and Shield and other selected baddies wreak havoc, we all wonder how they are gonna sell T-Shirts to parents for their kids.

Out comes the new Babyface. Cena's equal all along... CM Punk.

I honestly believe with fans wanting Punk to give Cena that 'Come-uppance', Punk will get the ratings going, and the Merch sold. 1v1 matches, some good team matches, there's a lot of mileage there. Cena v Punk, Cena + Shield vs Punk + 3 selected good guys, the possibilities are ENDLESS.

Fans will pay to see Cena get his much-warranted comeuppance, and those who never liked him anyway will be sat at their screens, willing for him to get his arse kicked.

Will my proposal start a new era? Who knows, but one thing is for certain, it opens a lot of doors. Between Punk, a face Ryback, a resurgent Randy Orton and the mid card, i'm sure there are enough T-Shirts to sell. Making Wade Barrett a tweener for the benefit of the British viewers and Merch buyers would definitely help (He's strong on the mic, and us Brits (in general) do get behind him these days (And so we should)., and bring a couple of others, maybe Cody Rhodes and Dolph Ziggler into tweener roles at different levels on the card, maybe simultaneously feuding with faces AND heels, will freshen things up.

Thanks for reading, any feedback would be nice, been meaning to do this for a while now. Hopefully you guys will enjoy reading and criticising (it's welcome, if it makes me better), as much as i have enjoyed writing it.

Till Next Time,
TheGreatSalabim

Mizfan

04-28-2013, 09:55 PM

Sup dude? Welcome to the CF. The Cena heel turn idea is nothing new of course, but it will remain a hot topic of discussion so it's a pretty good choice for a first column topic. Personally I would be very interested in a Cena heel turn of course, but I have to disagree with your line of thought that it will actually fix anything in the company except in the short term. The real issue the company has is the writing, and it's the same problem both the WWF and WCW had in the mid 90s (btw, Wrestlemania X isn't at all a bad show in my opinion!). Like those companies in that time period, WWE is currently failing to put any thought or logic into their storylines and the result is flat and uncompelling characters. A Cena heel turn will create big short term interest, but if the writing continues in the same pattern then after a few months we will be stuck with the same cycle of bland babyfaces without any real motivation taking on a dominant John Cena, which is exactly what we have now except with a switch of the face/heel dynamic. It's a change of attitude for the whole company that's needed, and I don't mean "Attitude Era" attitude, just any real change with the way WWE builds their stories. It can be PG or X rated, it can be face dominated or heel-centric, as long as the story is actually told logically then I would be much happier to sit through it.

Funny you should talk about how a well booked stable can actually catapult a company to new heights of quality though... I don't know if you've seen much of TNA, but they are on a hell of a hot streak recently when it comes to storytelling and good booking. If you ever get tired of waiting through bland and repetitive storylines for that Cena heel turn which may never happen, you might want to check them out. You might just get some flashbacks to the old days.

Once again welcome to the CF, and if I may offer a word of advice I would say you would be well served to give your next column a strong proofread. There are quite a few spelling and grammar issues in here, and while nobody cares if you are perfect I think you will get a better reaction from your readers if you put the time and effort in to make your piece look professional. Just a word of advice!

Looking forward to the next one mate... I would highly recommend looking around the CF and leaving some comments on other articles, it'll help you get more readers yourself and plus with the higher post count you can post your next one in the actual CF, where the response will be much bigger. Catch you next time!

Salabim

04-30-2013, 05:05 PM

To be honest, dude, I used to love TNA, but kind of went away from it when they started to bring in a lot of ex-WWE guys I just wasn't interested in. Used to watch it when the X division was big, and Jeff Jarrett and AMW were around as a kind-of stable. Used to really enjoy TNA, but i guess i just got out of the habit of watching it. Fair points about the proof reading, and i have been over it and cleared up a lot of parts. (Man, i was tired when I got to the end of writing my first entry), but definitely glad you seem to encourage me to do more work. Will put up another when i get time, and glad you seemed to enjoy my points, and provided your true opinions on them. Hey, if we all agreed on everything, there would be no point in these things, right?

I do agree with the Cena turn being a short-term fix, and it's just one of the things that need to be done to swell the popularity of WWE. I agree there definitely needs to be more attention paid to long-term booking, and more people with 'Wrestling minds' need to be involved with creative (I may save these points for my second attempt).

But again i appreciate you took the time to give me a well thought-out response, you write a good column yourself, and hopefully you will enjoy my next entry. Thanks for the help and support.

iamdelboy

05-17-2013, 01:51 PM

Fantasy Wrestling #1

*Ding Ding*
"This match is for the World Heavyweight Championship. From Detroit City, weighing in at 285lbs, it's the policeman with a bad attitude, Rrrrrrrr-Robocop!"

Robocop saunters down to the ring, climbs over the ropes and waits in the centre.

"And from Los Angeles, weighing in a over a tonne, Your heavyweight champion, its the ultimate predator, The Terrrrmmmmminnnnaaaator!"

Terminator walks very slowly and purposefully down to the ring, edges through the middle rope and stares intently at Robocop.

Both wrestlers circle each other slowly. Robocop looks agitated and jittery. The Terminator utterly emotionless. The crowd don't look too entertained at the moment. The camera pans around the arena. A child holding a sign saying "Robocop Sucks!". Another saying "Terminate Him!".

Back to the ring and The Terminator is standing completely motionless. Robocop is a bit more animated in the corner. Suddenly he starts to run at The Terminator. He crashes into The Terminator and lands on his backside. The Terminator barely moved, but now starts to close in on Robocop. With his superior strength he lifts Robocop and slams him into the mat. He lifts Robocop again and does an Irish Whip, following up with knees to the midsection.

The Terminator breaks and circles around the ring. He's enjoying this. Robocop already looking dazed and in trouble. We go to commercial.

After the commercials we come back to the action where we see a replay of Robocop waiting for The Terminator to run at him, dodging at the last minute. The Terminator falls through the ropes and onto the floor. Robocop follows and grabs a steel chair, mercilessly beating on The Termintor's back. The Terminator grabs Robocop's hand and punches him in the stomach. Robocop is down. The Terminator grabs Robocop, gets him in a chokeslam hold and slams Robocop through the Spanish announcers' table. The referee gets to a 5 count. Robocop isn't moving. The Terminator gets into the ring. 7...8...still no movement. Is Robocop about to get counted out?

Robocop gets up, dazed, and runs for the ring, sliding under the bottom rope. The Terminator swings a punch but Robocop ducks, bounces off the rope and straight into a german suplex from Terminator. Robocop lands on his face and appears to be out for the count. The Terminator rolls him up, and goes for the quick count. But Robocop kicks out at 2. The Terminator argues with the referee and while this causes a distraction Robocop slides out of the ring, grabs a steel chair and goes to town on The Terminator.

Taking enormous shots, The Terminator shuts down. Robocop rolls him up and then the count. 1....2.....3! That's it! He's done it! Robocop is the new Heavyweight World Champ! The crowd goes nuts. Robocop celebrates and walks up the ramp with the title belt. The Terminator wakes up, and can't believe what just happened! That win came out of nowhere.