Articles by Scott Keith — page 1056

http://bluray.ign.com/articles/121/1213541p1.html I didn’t even know this was coming out, but I guess it makes sense.  Was there one last year?  I have the 2009 one but I don’t recall a best of 2010.  Punk v. Cena is a no-brainer, as is HHH v. Undertaker.  What else was really good this year?  Orton v. Christian (pick one), maybe an Elimination Chamber match, I dunno. 

Dunno if anyone’s watching this show, but if you are and want a place to discuss it, have at it.  Last minute prediction from yours truly:  Mark Henry retains the title over Daniel Bryan, but Bryan hurts the leg so badly that Henry is unable to get up after the win.  Bryan cashes in the briefcase for an immediate rematch, but Michael Cole slams the cage door in his face to cost him the title and make him the first person to lose his MITB cash-in match. 

Dunno if anyone’s watching this show, but if you are and want a place to discuss it, have at it.  Last minute prediction from yours truly:  Mark Henry retains the title over Daniel Bryan, but Bryan hurts the leg so badly that Henry is unable to get up after the win.  Bryan cashes in the briefcase for an immediate rematch, but Michael Cole slams the cage door in his face to cost him the title and make him the first person to lose his MITB cash-in match. 

Dunno if anyone’s watching this show, but if you are and want a place to discuss it, have at it.  Last minute prediction from yours truly:  Mark Henry retains the title over Daniel Bryan, but Bryan hurts the leg so badly that Henry is unable to get up after the win.  Bryan cashes in the briefcase for an immediate rematch, but Michael Cole slams the cage door in his face to cost him the title and make him the first person to lose his MITB cash-in match. 

Do you think the WWE Network has a chance to succeed? Because I really don’t, unless they move SmackDown and PPVs to the channel — and even then I’m not sure. We’ve seen sports leagues & college conferences eventually make networks profits (Big Ten, NFL, MLB, etc.) but it took a lot of time & most lost money the first year or two, as well as not being a publicly-traded companies that would have investors ticked off at early losses. They even had the advantage of having a surplus of live games to show. WWE can’t move Raw. It could move SmackDown, but do they risk effectively killing that audience off? I know they suggested moving the big PPVs to the WWE Network, but there’s no way the Royal Rumble or SummerSlam is going to be as profitable on a network as it is on PPV. The lesser PPVs, like Money in the Bank or Night of Champions, maybe. It just seems to me that the WWE is rushing into creating a network because it thinks it could solve their problems. But I see it as just the opposite. I don’t see too many folks willing to pay the WWE a HBO-like subscription fee each month and I don’t see too many cable operators lining up to push the WWE onto everyone’s cable bills. If the NFL Network took several years to get clearance with easily the #1 rated TV property out there, how is the WWE going to justify that when its top show gets a fraction of the Monday Night Football rating??

I think it has zero chance to succeed, unless they manage to piggyback off the NFL network in a package deal where cable companies are basically forced to carry it.  But here’s the thing with WWE:  3 hours a week of WWE programming is basically my absolute limit at this point.  I can take 2 hours of RAW and the hour of Vintage Collection, but anything more than that would have me clawing my own eyes out.  Can you imagine hours of the day filled with crap like the Divas going on a road trip or old wrestlers in a house together? 

Do you think the WWE Network has a chance to succeed? Because I really don’t, unless they move SmackDown and PPVs to the channel — and even then I’m not sure. We’ve seen sports leagues & college conferences eventually make networks profits (Big Ten, NFL, MLB, etc.) but it took a lot of time & most lost money the first year or two, as well as not being a publicly-traded companies that would have investors ticked off at early losses. They even had the advantage of having a surplus of live games to show. WWE can’t move Raw. It could move SmackDown, but do they risk effectively killing that audience off? I know they suggested moving the big PPVs to the WWE Network, but there’s no way the Royal Rumble or SummerSlam is going to be as profitable on a network as it is on PPV. The lesser PPVs, like Money in the Bank or Night of Champions, maybe. It just seems to me that the WWE is rushing into creating a network because it thinks it could solve their problems. But I see it as just the opposite. I don’t see too many folks willing to pay the WWE a HBO-like subscription fee each month and I don’t see too many cable operators lining up to push the WWE onto everyone’s cable bills. If the NFL Network took several years to get clearance with easily the #1 rated TV property out there, how is the WWE going to justify that when its top show gets a fraction of the Monday Night Football rating??

I think it has zero chance to succeed, unless they manage to piggyback off the NFL network in a package deal where cable companies are basically forced to carry it.  But here’s the thing with WWE:  3 hours a week of WWE programming is basically my absolute limit at this point.  I can take 2 hours of RAW and the hour of Vintage Collection, but anything more than that would have me clawing my own eyes out.  Can you imagine hours of the day filled with crap like the Divas going on a road trip or old wrestlers in a house together? 

Do you think the WWE Network has a chance to succeed? Because I really don’t, unless they move SmackDown and PPVs to the channel — and even then I’m not sure. We’ve seen sports leagues & college conferences eventually make networks profits (Big Ten, NFL, MLB, etc.) but it took a lot of time & most lost money the first year or two, as well as not being a publicly-traded companies that would have investors ticked off at early losses. They even had the advantage of having a surplus of live games to show. WWE can’t move Raw. It could move SmackDown, but do they risk effectively killing that audience off? I know they suggested moving the big PPVs to the WWE Network, but there’s no way the Royal Rumble or SummerSlam is going to be as profitable on a network as it is on PPV. The lesser PPVs, like Money in the Bank or Night of Champions, maybe. It just seems to me that the WWE is rushing into creating a network because it thinks it could solve their problems. But I see it as just the opposite. I don’t see too many folks willing to pay the WWE a HBO-like subscription fee each month and I don’t see too many cable operators lining up to push the WWE onto everyone’s cable bills. If the NFL Network took several years to get clearance with easily the #1 rated TV property out there, how is the WWE going to justify that when its top show gets a fraction of the Monday Night Football rating??

I think it has zero chance to succeed, unless they manage to piggyback off the NFL network in a package deal where cable companies are basically forced to carry it.  But here’s the thing with WWE:  3 hours a week of WWE programming is basically my absolute limit at this point.  I can take 2 hours of RAW and the hour of Vintage Collection, but anything more than that would have me clawing my own eyes out.  Can you imagine hours of the day filled with crap like the Divas going on a road trip or old wrestlers in a house together? 

Hey Scott, Long time reader way back from Wrestleline etc. Question – what was the real story behind WM VIII, ie why didn’t Vince book Hogan vs Flair and build it up as the biggest match of all time? I would guess that no one wanted to do the job, but Flair clearly had no problem jobbing to Hogan 2 years later in WCW, so what gives? To my mind there were three epic Hogan Wrestlemanias, WM III vs andre, WM VI vs warrior, and WM XVIII vs Rock, (all btw in a dome which I think was necessary for all three) so why did this one (also in a dome) not happen? And if Vince was trying to save it for a later time, when was that going to be?

He wasn’t trying to save anything, he just didn’t have confidence in Flair-Hogan as a main event and never actually intended to go with it.  And to be fair, the house show run in 1991 was a success the first time around, but by the second swing business was way down and Flair was pretty much just another Hogan challenger.  There was no evidence that the Hogan-Flair dream match was going to do any kind of business, so they went with the more storyline heavy double main event instead. 

Hey Scott, Long time reader way back from Wrestleline etc. Question – what was the real story behind WM VIII, ie why didn’t Vince book Hogan vs Flair and build it up as the biggest match of all time? I would guess that no one wanted to do the job, but Flair clearly had no problem jobbing to Hogan 2 years later in WCW, so what gives? To my mind there were three epic Hogan Wrestlemanias, WM III vs andre, WM VI vs warrior, and WM XVIII vs Rock, (all btw in a dome which I think was necessary for all three) so why did this one (also in a dome) not happen? And if Vince was trying to save it for a later time, when was that going to be?

He wasn’t trying to save anything, he just didn’t have confidence in Flair-Hogan as a main event and never actually intended to go with it.  And to be fair, the house show run in 1991 was a success the first time around, but by the second swing business was way down and Flair was pretty much just another Hogan challenger.  There was no evidence that the Hogan-Flair dream match was going to do any kind of business, so they went with the more storyline heavy double main event instead. 

Hey Scott, Long time reader way back from Wrestleline etc. Question – what was the real story behind WM VIII, ie why didn’t Vince book Hogan vs Flair and build it up as the biggest match of all time? I would guess that no one wanted to do the job, but Flair clearly had no problem jobbing to Hogan 2 years later in WCW, so what gives? To my mind there were three epic Hogan Wrestlemanias, WM III vs andre, WM VI vs warrior, and WM XVIII vs Rock, (all btw in a dome which I think was necessary for all three) so why did this one (also in a dome) not happen? And if Vince was trying to save it for a later time, when was that going to be?

He wasn’t trying to save anything, he just didn’t have confidence in Flair-Hogan as a main event and never actually intended to go with it.  And to be fair, the house show run in 1991 was a success the first time around, but by the second swing business was way down and Flair was pretty much just another Hogan challenger.  There was no evidence that the Hogan-Flair dream match was going to do any kind of business, so they went with the more storyline heavy double main event instead. 

“The WWF, fearing Kerry’s suicide (and a HUGE public relations nightmare) decided to take the title off him and then that way, if he killed himself, they wouldn’t look bad.  What great guys, huh?  ” I’m sorry, but what else would you have wanted them to do, exactly? Keep the belt on him and risk him killing himself while still the champion in the middle of a house show/TV taping run where he’d have been second from the top of the card (or close to it)? It’s not as if there wasn’t anyone else to put the belt on who was just as over as he was (if not more so), so what would their incentive have been to keep the second most important title in the company on someone they knew was troubled?

Sure; it would’ve been great if they told him “Okay; you can take time off to go deal with your problems and come back when you’re mentally and physically stable” but let’s be real- that wasn’t going to happen. He had dates to fulfill where I’m sure he was already advertised on house show cards. When guys are expected to work through physical problems; they expected him to work through his problems too just like anyone else. They essentially made the best decision they could for themselves at the time- take the belt off him but still keep him on the road doing mid card matches to get the most out of him for the money they were paying him. In retrospect, they probably should have just released him in 1990 and let him become someone else’s liability, but hindsight is 20/20. I’m not sure how he lasted two more years in the company before they decided that enough was enough.

They should have done more than 4 seconds of due diligence and never hired him in the first place.  Bringing in someone who was already known to be a drug-addled headcase (with a foot missing from a related motorcycle accident to boot, pardon the pun) and then putting him into the #2 position in the company was reckless at best and gross negligence at worst.  It’s not like his history was any secret to anyone in the industry, and it’s not like he had any serious name value left by that point.  Signing him and then basically throwing him to the coked-up locker room to fend for himself was stupid and arrogant on their part and probably accelerated Kerry’s downfall.  It was one thing if they were gonna get him help, but to bring him in with a giant push and then suddenly realize, holy shit, this might have been a bad move, better get the title off him before he kills himself and we look bad?  C’mon.  He never should have been signed, let alone made into a champion. 

“The WWF, fearing Kerry’s suicide (and a HUGE public relations nightmare) decided to take the title off him and then that way, if he killed himself, they wouldn’t look bad.  What great guys, huh?  ” I’m sorry, but what else would you have wanted them to do, exactly? Keep the belt on him and risk him killing himself while still the champion in the middle of a house show/TV taping run where he’d have been second from the top of the card (or close to it)? It’s not as if there wasn’t anyone else to put the belt on who was just as over as he was (if not more so), so what would their incentive have been to keep the second most important title in the company on someone they knew was troubled?

Sure; it would’ve been great if they told him “Okay; you can take time off to go deal with your problems and come back when you’re mentally and physically stable” but let’s be real- that wasn’t going to happen. He had dates to fulfill where I’m sure he was already advertised on house show cards. When guys are expected to work through physical problems; they expected him to work through his problems too just like anyone else. They essentially made the best decision they could for themselves at the time- take the belt off him but still keep him on the road doing mid card matches to get the most out of him for the money they were paying him. In retrospect, they probably should have just released him in 1990 and let him become someone else’s liability, but hindsight is 20/20. I’m not sure how he lasted two more years in the company before they decided that enough was enough.

They should have done more than 4 seconds of due diligence and never hired him in the first place.  Bringing in someone who was already known to be a drug-addled headcase (with a foot missing from a related motorcycle accident to boot, pardon the pun) and then putting him into the #2 position in the company was reckless at best and gross negligence at worst.  It’s not like his history was any secret to anyone in the industry, and it’s not like he had any serious name value left by that point.  Signing him and then basically throwing him to the coked-up locker room to fend for himself was stupid and arrogant on their part and probably accelerated Kerry’s downfall.  It was one thing if they were gonna get him help, but to bring him in with a giant push and then suddenly realize, holy shit, this might have been a bad move, better get the title off him before he kills himself and we look bad?  C’mon.  He never should have been signed, let alone made into a champion. 

“The WWF, fearing Kerry’s suicide (and a HUGE public relations nightmare) decided to take the title off him and then that way, if he killed himself, they wouldn’t look bad.  What great guys, huh?  ” I’m sorry, but what else would you have wanted them to do, exactly? Keep the belt on him and risk him killing himself while still the champion in the middle of a house show/TV taping run where he’d have been second from the top of the card (or close to it)? It’s not as if there wasn’t anyone else to put the belt on who was just as over as he was (if not more so), so what would their incentive have been to keep the second most important title in the company on someone they knew was troubled?

Sure; it would’ve been great if they told him “Okay; you can take time off to go deal with your problems and come back when you’re mentally and physically stable” but let’s be real- that wasn’t going to happen. He had dates to fulfill where I’m sure he was already advertised on house show cards. When guys are expected to work through physical problems; they expected him to work through his problems too just like anyone else. They essentially made the best decision they could for themselves at the time- take the belt off him but still keep him on the road doing mid card matches to get the most out of him for the money they were paying him. In retrospect, they probably should have just released him in 1990 and let him become someone else’s liability, but hindsight is 20/20. I’m not sure how he lasted two more years in the company before they decided that enough was enough.

They should have done more than 4 seconds of due diligence and never hired him in the first place.  Bringing in someone who was already known to be a drug-addled headcase (with a foot missing from a related motorcycle accident to boot, pardon the pun) and then putting him into the #2 position in the company was reckless at best and gross negligence at worst.  It’s not like his history was any secret to anyone in the industry, and it’s not like he had any serious name value left by that point.  Signing him and then basically throwing him to the coked-up locker room to fend for himself was stupid and arrogant on their part and probably accelerated Kerry’s downfall.  It was one thing if they were gonna get him help, but to bring him in with a giant push and then suddenly realize, holy shit, this might have been a bad move, better get the title off him before he kills himself and we look bad?  C’mon.  He never should have been signed, let alone made into a champion. 

The SmarK RAW Supershow Rant – 11.28.11

Live from the University of South Carolina

Your hosts are Michael Cole & Jerry Lawler.

Rowdy Rowdy Piper starts us off with a Piper’s Pit, unfortunately a week too late to sell Survivor Series.  He talks about his relationship with the fans and how their energy influenced his decisions in the ring.  I thought it was the coke, but I guess that works too.  He brings out John Cena, as it’s apparently Piper’s turn to try and make people stop booing Cena.  Piper reads off a list of Hall of Famers to gauge reaction to them, and then compares against Cena’s negative reaction.  Cena once again gives his canned response about the people being able to buy their tickets and boo him if they want, but Piper accuses him of beginning to crack under the pressure of holding in his hostility towards the fans.  Cena reels off the list of times fans have turned on him in big matches, and notes the Survivor Series was just New York fans being themselves, and it won’t affect his upcoming match with the Rock.  Piper gives one last bit of advice (and his Hall of Fame ring – is that a real thing?), but tells Cena he really needs to deal with his repressed anger.  Even a slap from Piper can’t make Cena break, however, and he gives the ring back and leaves.  Bit of a trainwreck, but they pulled it together at the end and got to the point.  I don’t think this was a really effective crowd for making that point, though, since a lot of the fans in attendance were apparently Cena fans and they didn’t know how to go off-script and deal with that. 

 Falls Count Anywhere:  Miz v. John Morrison

Miz goes all Tonya Harding on Morrison before he can even get into the ring, attacking his knee with a lead pipe.  Morrison decides to fight on anyway, so Miz attacks the knee again and wrapping it around the post.  Cole notes that Truth will be out for a “number of weeks” due to last week’s attack.  Probably 30 days, to be exact.  Miz finds a kendo stick and takes some shots with it, but Morrison gets it away from him and beats him to the floor with it for two.  They fight up the ramp, where Miz sends Morrison into the big W and finishes with the Skull Crushing Finale.  The ref won’t even let Miz make the cover, calling for the bell instead.  *1/2  Morrison rides a stretcher right into TNA.  I dunno, if Morrison could survive an exploding limo and come back for this show, he should have been able to come back from that.  Miz goes to the ring and strikes the Overly Dramatic Squirrel pose to show how SERIOUS he is now.

The Bella Twins v. Kelly Kelly & Alicia Fox

The Divas of Doom job around ringside for some reason, but Kelly hits a Bella with the spinning headscissors anyway.  Fox takes the other one down and pins her with a somersault legdrop at 1:29.  Boy, that was some effective distraction on the heels’ part.  DUD

Sheamus video package.  That song is crazy, you can never have too many limes!  Really though, if they’re gonna call him Great White, they should use “Mista Bone” as his entrance theme.  But then they should probably avoid pyro for him…

Meanwhile, Johnny Ace confers with David Bowtunga and Alberto Del Rio about tonight’s title match, but CM Punk interrupts and makes wacky Google references about how lame they all are.  So Ace notes that the title can change hands on a DQ tonight.  OK then.

Randy Orton v. Dolph Ziggler

Wade Barrett comes out for commentary, and Justin Roberts introduces him by saying “Please acknowledge the presence of Wade Barrett,” which for some reason I find hilarious.  Sadly, they have changed Ziggler’s music to yet another generic post-grunge borefest.  Can’t they find a music director who’s influenced by something other than Saliva and Finger Eleven?  I like Nickelback as much as the next guy who lived in Alberta for 15 years, but there’s other genres of music out there.  Orton overpowers him to start and gets a clothesline out of the corner, sending Ziggler to the floor to recover.  Back in, Orton with the Garvin Stomp for two.  Ziggler stomps him down in retaliation and drops an elbow for two, then reverses a neckbreaker attempt into a rollup for two.  He sends Orton to the apron and dropkicks him to the floor, as Wade shoots Orton a look that’s supposed to be evil, I think, but comes across as “Man, I’d like to get a piece of that ass.”  Whatever gets him over, I guess.  Back in the ring, Ziggler stomps a mudhole in the corner, but misses a blind charge before recovering with a neckbreaker for two.  He goes up and they fight on top, so Orton gets the superplex for two and we take a break.  Back with a slugfest and Orton’s powerslam, which sets up the draping DDT.  Orton does the interpretive dance, but Ziggler rolls out of the ring to avoid the RKO, which allows Barrett the chance to provide distraction and Ziggler to hit the Zig Zag at 10:47 for the win.  Kind of dragged a bit, but Ziggler continues to have solid matches and look like someone who can hang with the main eventers.  ***

Daniel Bryan is interviewed by Michael Cole about tomorrow night’s cage match against Mark Henry, and Cole still won’t give him any respect.  Cole calls him a hypocrite for trying to cash in before Wrestlemania and thus breaking his word, which sets up the video package from Smackdown.  Bryan notes that Mark Henry started the war, and made him realize that the briefcase doesn’t guarantee him anything, so he decided that being champion was more important than main eventing Wrestlemania.  This brings out Mark Henry, who can’t believe that Bryan would take advantage of an injured man.  Bryan kicks him in the leg on the way by to good measure.

Jack Swagger v. Zack Ryder

Swagger beats on Ryder in the corner, but Ryder slugs back until Swagger hits a belly to belly suplex for two.  Swagger uses the CLUBBING FOREARMS to put Ryder down, and a legdrop gets two.  Swagger with a top wristlock, but Ryder gets a neckbreaker for two.  Ryder goes up for the blockbuster, but Swagger catches him and hits a backbreaker.  He goes for the pump splash and trips on the run-up, so he repeats the spot, and Ryder moves and hits the Rough Rider for the pin at 3:20.  Why repeat the spot if it was going to miss anyway?  They turned the Michael Cole obnoxious rooting against Ryder up to 11 here, I guess because he wasn’t big enough of a babyface already.  *1/2  Actually, I’m pretty sure Vince’s thinking was that Ryder couldn’t possibly get over without their help (perish the thought), so he’s gonna get a traditional babyface push because for all their blathering about Twitter and Youtube they have no idea how to actually use them.  I have no faith in their ability to maintain his heat when they’re actually trying to push him instead of backing into something, so this has me somewhat worried about Ryder’s future prospects now.  I’m pretty sure this is still leading to a ladder match at TLC where Ryder wins the US title and they’ll likely have an awesome match on their own anyway.

WWE title:  CM Punk v. Alberto Del Rio

Del Rio works the headlock and overpowers him for two, then goes to an armbar.  Punk dumps him and gets a dive, and we take a break.  Back with Del Rio working the arm again after Punk misses a charge, and Punk misses a sunset flip, allowing ADR to go up with a flying forearm for two.  Back to the arm, but Punk fights him off and goes up, only to miss a springboard bodyblock.  Del Rio gets two off that.  Back to the arm, and Del Rio puts him down with a high kick for two.  The crowd actually starts an odd “Del Rio / Sucks” chant, which is more crowd reaction than he generally gets.  ADR goes up and gets kicked coming down, and they slug it out until Punk gets the leg lariat to make the comeback.  Neckbreaker gets two.  There was actually a nice touch from the announcers here, as they point out that this is a title match and say “Your champion, Punk, on the right, your challenger, Del Rio, on the left.”  That’s a nice little introduction for people watching as new fans, something they don’t do very often in their insulated navel-gazing world normally.  Punk with a backslide for two, and he reverses the armbreaker into a GTS attempt, but then has to settle for a DDT for two instead.  ADR goes back to the arm again and exposes a turnbuckle, which allows Ricardo to throw a chair in. That backfires, and Punk gets two off a rollup.  Del Rio tries to run him into the turnbuckle, but Punk hits the GTS onto it, to retain at 14:34 instead.  Good TV main event to cap off a really solid show.  ***

The SmarK RAW Supershow Rant – 11.28.11

Live from the University of South Carolina

Your hosts are Michael Cole & Jerry Lawler.

Rowdy Rowdy Piper starts us off with a Piper’s Pit, unfortunately a week too late to sell Survivor Series.  He talks about his relationship with the fans and how their energy influenced his decisions in the ring.  I thought it was the coke, but I guess that works too.  He brings out John Cena, as it’s apparently Piper’s turn to try and make people stop booing Cena.  Piper reads off a list of Hall of Famers to gauge reaction to them, and then compares against Cena’s negative reaction.  Cena once again gives his canned response about the people being able to buy their tickets and boo him if they want, but Piper accuses him of beginning to crack under the pressure of holding in his hostility towards the fans.  Cena reels off the list of times fans have turned on him in big matches, and notes the Survivor Series was just New York fans being themselves, and it won’t affect his upcoming match with the Rock.  Piper gives one last bit of advice (and his Hall of Fame ring – is that a real thing?), but tells Cena he really needs to deal with his repressed anger.  Even a slap from Piper can’t make Cena break, however, and he gives the ring back and leaves.  Bit of a trainwreck, but they pulled it together at the end and got to the point.  I don’t think this was a really effective crowd for making that point, though, since a lot of the fans in attendance were apparently Cena fans and they didn’t know how to go off-script and deal with that. 

 Falls Count Anywhere:  Miz v. John Morrison

Miz goes all Tonya Harding on Morrison before he can even get into the ring, attacking his knee with a lead pipe.  Morrison decides to fight on anyway, so Miz attacks the knee again and wrapping it around the post.  Cole notes that Truth will be out for a “number of weeks” due to last week’s attack.  Probably 30 days, to be exact.  Miz finds a kendo stick and takes some shots with it, but Morrison gets it away from him and beats him to the floor with it for two.  They fight up the ramp, where Miz sends Morrison into the big W and finishes with the Skull Crushing Finale.  The ref won’t even let Miz make the cover, calling for the bell instead.  *1/2  Morrison rides a stretcher right into TNA.  I dunno, if Morrison could survive an exploding limo and come back for this show, he should have been able to come back from that.  Miz goes to the ring and strikes the Overly Dramatic Squirrel pose to show how SERIOUS he is now.

The Bella Twins v. Kelly Kelly & Alicia Fox

The Divas of Doom job around ringside for some reason, but Kelly hits a Bella with the spinning headscissors anyway.  Fox takes the other one down and pins her with a somersault legdrop at 1:29.  Boy, that was some effective distraction on the heels’ part.  DUD

Sheamus video package.  That song is crazy, you can never have too many limes!  Really though, if they’re gonna call him Great White, they should use “Mista Bone” as his entrance theme.  But then they should probably avoid pyro for him…

Meanwhile, Johnny Ace confers with David Bowtunga and Alberto Del Rio about tonight’s title match, but CM Punk interrupts and makes wacky Google references about how lame they all are.  So Ace notes that the title can change hands on a DQ tonight.  OK then.

Randy Orton v. Dolph Ziggler

Wade Barrett comes out for commentary, and Justin Roberts introduces him by saying “Please acknowledge the presence of Wade Barrett,” which for some reason I find hilarious.  Sadly, they have changed Ziggler’s music to yet another generic post-grunge borefest.  Can’t they find a music director who’s influenced by something other than Saliva and Finger Eleven?  I like Nickelback as much as the next guy who lived in Alberta for 15 years, but there’s other genres of music out there.  Orton overpowers him to start and gets a clothesline out of the corner, sending Ziggler to the floor to recover.  Back in, Orton with the Garvin Stomp for two.  Ziggler stomps him down in retaliation and drops an elbow for two, then reverses a neckbreaker attempt into a rollup for two.  He sends Orton to the apron and dropkicks him to the floor, as Wade shoots Orton a look that’s supposed to be evil, I think, but comes across as “Man, I’d like to get a piece of that ass.”  Whatever gets him over, I guess.  Back in the ring, Ziggler stomps a mudhole in the corner, but misses a blind charge before recovering with a neckbreaker for two.  He goes up and they fight on top, so Orton gets the superplex for two and we take a break.  Back with a slugfest and Orton’s powerslam, which sets up the draping DDT.  Orton does the interpretive dance, but Ziggler rolls out of the ring to avoid the RKO, which allows Barrett the chance to provide distraction and Ziggler to hit the Zig Zag at 10:47 for the win.  Kind of dragged a bit, but Ziggler continues to have solid matches and look like someone who can hang with the main eventers.  ***

Daniel Bryan is interviewed by Michael Cole about tomorrow night’s cage match against Mark Henry, and Cole still won’t give him any respect.  Cole calls him a hypocrite for trying to cash in before Wrestlemania and thus breaking his word, which sets up the video package from Smackdown.  Bryan notes that Mark Henry started the war, and made him realize that the briefcase doesn’t guarantee him anything, so he decided that being champion was more important than main eventing Wrestlemania.  This brings out Mark Henry, who can’t believe that Bryan would take advantage of an injured man.  Bryan kicks him in the leg on the way by to good measure.

Jack Swagger v. Zack Ryder

Swagger beats on Ryder in the corner, but Ryder slugs back until Swagger hits a belly to belly suplex for two.  Swagger uses the CLUBBING FOREARMS to put Ryder down, and a legdrop gets two.  Swagger with a top wristlock, but Ryder gets a neckbreaker for two.  Ryder goes up for the blockbuster, but Swagger catches him and hits a backbreaker.  He goes for the pump splash and trips on the run-up, so he repeats the spot, and Ryder moves and hits the Rough Rider for the pin at 3:20.  Why repeat the spot if it was going to miss anyway?  They turned the Michael Cole obnoxious rooting against Ryder up to 11 here, I guess because he wasn’t big enough of a babyface already.  *1/2  Actually, I’m pretty sure Vince’s thinking was that Ryder couldn’t possibly get over without their help (perish the thought), so he’s gonna get a traditional babyface push because for all their blathering about Twitter and Youtube they have no idea how to actually use them.  I have no faith in their ability to maintain his heat when they’re actually trying to push him instead of backing into something, so this has me somewhat worried about Ryder’s future prospects now.  I’m pretty sure this is still leading to a ladder match at TLC where Ryder wins the US title and they’ll likely have an awesome match on their own anyway.

WWE title:  CM Punk v. Alberto Del Rio

Del Rio works the headlock and overpowers him for two, then goes to an armbar.  Punk dumps him and gets a dive, and we take a break.  Back with Del Rio working the arm again after Punk misses a charge, and Punk misses a sunset flip, allowing ADR to go up with a flying forearm for two.  Back to the arm, but Punk fights him off and goes up, only to miss a springboard bodyblock.  Del Rio gets two off that.  Back to the arm, and Del Rio puts him down with a high kick for two.  The crowd actually starts an odd “Del Rio / Sucks” chant, which is more crowd reaction than he generally gets.  ADR goes up and gets kicked coming down, and they slug it out until Punk gets the leg lariat to make the comeback.  Neckbreaker gets two.  There was actually a nice touch from the announcers here, as they point out that this is a title match and say “Your champion, Punk, on the right, your challenger, Del Rio, on the left.”  That’s a nice little introduction for people watching as new fans, something they don’t do very often in their insulated navel-gazing world normally.  Punk with a backslide for two, and he reverses the armbreaker into a GTS attempt, but then has to settle for a DDT for two instead.  ADR goes back to the arm again and exposes a turnbuckle, which allows Ricardo to throw a chair in. That backfires, and Punk gets two off a rollup.  Del Rio tries to run him into the turnbuckle, but Punk hits the GTS onto it, to retain at 14:34 instead.  Good TV main event to cap off a really solid show.  ***

The SmarK RAW Supershow Rant – 11.28.11

Live from the University of South Carolina

Your hosts are Michael Cole & Jerry Lawler.

Rowdy Rowdy Piper starts us off with a Piper’s Pit, unfortunately a week too late to sell Survivor Series.  He talks about his relationship with the fans and how their energy influenced his decisions in the ring.  I thought it was the coke, but I guess that works too.  He brings out John Cena, as it’s apparently Piper’s turn to try and make people stop booing Cena.  Piper reads off a list of Hall of Famers to gauge reaction to them, and then compares against Cena’s negative reaction.  Cena once again gives his canned response about the people being able to buy their tickets and boo him if they want, but Piper accuses him of beginning to crack under the pressure of holding in his hostility towards the fans.  Cena reels off the list of times fans have turned on him in big matches, and notes the Survivor Series was just New York fans being themselves, and it won’t affect his upcoming match with the Rock.  Piper gives one last bit of advice (and his Hall of Fame ring – is that a real thing?), but tells Cena he really needs to deal with his repressed anger.  Even a slap from Piper can’t make Cena break, however, and he gives the ring back and leaves.  Bit of a trainwreck, but they pulled it together at the end and got to the point.  I don’t think this was a really effective crowd for making that point, though, since a lot of the fans in attendance were apparently Cena fans and they didn’t know how to go off-script and deal with that. 

 Falls Count Anywhere:  Miz v. John Morrison

Miz goes all Tonya Harding on Morrison before he can even get into the ring, attacking his knee with a lead pipe.  Morrison decides to fight on anyway, so Miz attacks the knee again and wrapping it around the post.  Cole notes that Truth will be out for a “number of weeks” due to last week’s attack.  Probably 30 days, to be exact.  Miz finds a kendo stick and takes some shots with it, but Morrison gets it away from him and beats him to the floor with it for two.  They fight up the ramp, where Miz sends Morrison into the big W and finishes with the Skull Crushing Finale.  The ref won’t even let Miz make the cover, calling for the bell instead.  *1/2  Morrison rides a stretcher right into TNA.  I dunno, if Morrison could survive an exploding limo and come back for this show, he should have been able to come back from that.  Miz goes to the ring and strikes the Overly Dramatic Squirrel pose to show how SERIOUS he is now.

The Bella Twins v. Kelly Kelly & Alicia Fox

The Divas of Doom job around ringside for some reason, but Kelly hits a Bella with the spinning headscissors anyway.  Fox takes the other one down and pins her with a somersault legdrop at 1:29.  Boy, that was some effective distraction on the heels’ part.  DUD

Sheamus video package.  That song is crazy, you can never have too many limes!  Really though, if they’re gonna call him Great White, they should use “Mista Bone” as his entrance theme.  But then they should probably avoid pyro for him…

Meanwhile, Johnny Ace confers with David Bowtunga and Alberto Del Rio about tonight’s title match, but CM Punk interrupts and makes wacky Google references about how lame they all are.  So Ace notes that the title can change hands on a DQ tonight.  OK then.

Randy Orton v. Dolph Ziggler

Wade Barrett comes out for commentary, and Justin Roberts introduces him by saying “Please acknowledge the presence of Wade Barrett,” which for some reason I find hilarious.  Sadly, they have changed Ziggler’s music to yet another generic post-grunge borefest.  Can’t they find a music director who’s influenced by something other than Saliva and Finger Eleven?  I like Nickelback as much as the next guy who lived in Alberta for 15 years, but there’s other genres of music out there.  Orton overpowers him to start and gets a clothesline out of the corner, sending Ziggler to the floor to recover.  Back in, Orton with the Garvin Stomp for two.  Ziggler stomps him down in retaliation and drops an elbow for two, then reverses a neckbreaker attempt into a rollup for two.  He sends Orton to the apron and dropkicks him to the floor, as Wade shoots Orton a look that’s supposed to be evil, I think, but comes across as “Man, I’d like to get a piece of that ass.”  Whatever gets him over, I guess.  Back in the ring, Ziggler stomps a mudhole in the corner, but misses a blind charge before recovering with a neckbreaker for two.  He goes up and they fight on top, so Orton gets the superplex for two and we take a break.  Back with a slugfest and Orton’s powerslam, which sets up the draping DDT.  Orton does the interpretive dance, but Ziggler rolls out of the ring to avoid the RKO, which allows Barrett the chance to provide distraction and Ziggler to hit the Zig Zag at 10:47 for the win.  Kind of dragged a bit, but Ziggler continues to have solid matches and look like someone who can hang with the main eventers.  ***

Daniel Bryan is interviewed by Michael Cole about tomorrow night’s cage match against Mark Henry, and Cole still won’t give him any respect.  Cole calls him a hypocrite for trying to cash in before Wrestlemania and thus breaking his word, which sets up the video package from Smackdown.  Bryan notes that Mark Henry started the war, and made him realize that the briefcase doesn’t guarantee him anything, so he decided that being champion was more important than main eventing Wrestlemania.  This brings out Mark Henry, who can’t believe that Bryan would take advantage of an injured man.  Bryan kicks him in the leg on the way by to good measure.

Jack Swagger v. Zack Ryder

Swagger beats on Ryder in the corner, but Ryder slugs back until Swagger hits a belly to belly suplex for two.  Swagger uses the CLUBBING FOREARMS to put Ryder down, and a legdrop gets two.  Swagger with a top wristlock, but Ryder gets a neckbreaker for two.  Ryder goes up for the blockbuster, but Swagger catches him and hits a backbreaker.  He goes for the pump splash and trips on the run-up, so he repeats the spot, and Ryder moves and hits the Rough Rider for the pin at 3:20.  Why repeat the spot if it was going to miss anyway?  They turned the Michael Cole obnoxious rooting against Ryder up to 11 here, I guess because he wasn’t big enough of a babyface already.  *1/2  Actually, I’m pretty sure Vince’s thinking was that Ryder couldn’t possibly get over without their help (perish the thought), so he’s gonna get a traditional babyface push because for all their blathering about Twitter and Youtube they have no idea how to actually use them.  I have no faith in their ability to maintain his heat when they’re actually trying to push him instead of backing into something, so this has me somewhat worried about Ryder’s future prospects now.  I’m pretty sure this is still leading to a ladder match at TLC where Ryder wins the US title and they’ll likely have an awesome match on their own anyway.

WWE title:  CM Punk v. Alberto Del Rio

Del Rio works the headlock and overpowers him for two, then goes to an armbar.  Punk dumps him and gets a dive, and we take a break.  Back with Del Rio working the arm again after Punk misses a charge, and Punk misses a sunset flip, allowing ADR to go up with a flying forearm for two.  Back to the arm, but Punk fights him off and goes up, only to miss a springboard bodyblock.  Del Rio gets two off that.  Back to the arm, and Del Rio puts him down with a high kick for two.  The crowd actually starts an odd “Del Rio / Sucks” chant, which is more crowd reaction than he generally gets.  ADR goes up and gets kicked coming down, and they slug it out until Punk gets the leg lariat to make the comeback.  Neckbreaker gets two.  There was actually a nice touch from the announcers here, as they point out that this is a title match and say “Your champion, Punk, on the right, your challenger, Del Rio, on the left.”  That’s a nice little introduction for people watching as new fans, something they don’t do very often in their insulated navel-gazing world normally.  Punk with a backslide for two, and he reverses the armbreaker into a GTS attempt, but then has to settle for a DDT for two instead.  ADR goes back to the arm again and exposes a turnbuckle, which allows Ricardo to throw a chair in. That backfires, and Punk gets two off a rollup.  Del Rio tries to run him into the turnbuckle, but Punk hits the GTS onto it, to retain at 14:34 instead.  Good TV main event to cap off a really solid show.  ***

Hey Scott,

I know Vince McMahon is discussed at length on this blog roll, usually with incredulity, but I was wondering if you wouldn’t mind sharing my look at where he’s headed as a promoter (though he’d sure hate to be called that today), and my examination of just how his mojo ran out. There’s been a lot of talk of Vince losing his mind over the past several years, but I think this puts it in perspective.

http://www.wrestlingnewssource.com/news/21968/Column-THE-DEATH-OF-VINCE-MCMAHON/

Thanks in advance for giving it a look-see.

Hey Scott,

I know Vince McMahon is discussed at length on this blog roll, usually with incredulity, but I was wondering if you wouldn’t mind sharing my look at where he’s headed as a promoter (though he’d sure hate to be called that today), and my examination of just how his mojo ran out. There’s been a lot of talk of Vince losing his mind over the past several years, but I think this puts it in perspective.

http://www.wrestlingnewssource.com/news/21968/Column-THE-DEATH-OF-VINCE-MCMAHON/

Thanks in advance for giving it a look-see.

Hey Scott,

I know Vince McMahon is discussed at length on this blog roll, usually with incredulity, but I was wondering if you wouldn’t mind sharing my look at where he’s headed as a promoter (though he’d sure hate to be called that today), and my examination of just how his mojo ran out. There’s been a lot of talk of Vince losing his mind over the past several years, but I think this puts it in perspective.

http://www.wrestlingnewssource.com/news/21968/Column-THE-DEATH-OF-VINCE-MCMAHON/

Thanks in advance for giving it a look-see.

If you want a scoop to blog about, they are still available on WWE Japan Shop:
http://wwejapanshop.jp/t-shirt/TSS207Q.html

I ordered three XLs.  If I get them, can I trade you one in return for
access to the password for your Rant archive, and a signed picture of
you wearing the shirt?

Not that anyone actually prints photos anymore, but sure, deal.

Are we sure those aren’t Hunico’s genitals?  Either way, it does certainly confirm the stories I’ve heard about Sin Cara being a big dick backstage and overly cocky for his position.