The Wrestling Thread

[Keith Whitener]

Anyone wanna be editor in chief of WWE.com? (Greggulator, if you weren't already employed, would you shoot for this?)

http://newyork.craigslist.org/fct/wri/2950535596.html

[Greggulator]

I would be all over that since it's more-or-less my line of work. However, I despise Connecticut and my wife hates it even more. And I also have a good friend who has told me some completely insane stories about working behind-the-scenes for the WWE. That place sounds like my worst nightmare.

[Dan of Orange]

I follow Hacksaw Jim Duggan on Twitter and I wouldn't recommend it to anyone else. Anyone heard how Cowboy Bob Orton is doing?

[hardweek]

"C'mon CM Drunk, hand it over!"

[Racan]

Josh Matthews looked ecstatic when CM Punk handed him that liquor basket.

[Bryan]

Absolutely no Words

[Greggulator]

A strange look at Bray Wyatt: Raw, May 27, 2013

THE WYATT FAMILY IS COMING!

This is the first promo from Bray Wyatt and his followers. For those not familiar, Bray has been tearing it up in NXT (the WWE's farm system and current home to Aiden English, aka periodic Best Show caller Matt Marquee). His character is the best gimmick in years. He's from the bayou and is a charismatic preacher with messiah delusions. His promos and interviews are completely nuts and spine tingling. Even though the character hasn't hit the bigtime yet, I would place it up there with anything in years. It's as good as a lot of the stuff from Raven (a clear influence on the character) and Mick Foley (the best ever at being delusional) and CM Punk (circa the sXe Society when he was essentially a cult leader).

What adds to it -- his theme music is "Breaking Out In Love" by Mark Crozer, who was formerly in The Jesus & Mary Chain. He cuts a lot of his promos with the music in the background.

If he looks familiar, Wyatt was previously known as Husky Harris and was in the Nexus for a few minutes. His real life name is Windham Rotunda. His father is Mike "IRS" Rotunda and he's named after his godfather, Barry Windham.

The two dudes with him are Luke Harper and Erick Rowan. They're just big monster dudes who carry out his bidding. Luke was in Chikara and a bunch of other indies as Brodie Lee and can work. The other dude Erick Rowan is really good at playing a mental patient exploited by a charismatic leader.

The WWE has been really solid lately, if you haven't watched. The Shield (Dean Ambrose, Seth Rollins and Roman Reigns) have been tearing up with crazy matches and promos.

[Racan]

That Wyatt Family promo totally blew me away this week. Went back and watched some of his NXT appearances and was equally impressed. I usually try and watch at least Raw every week with a few friends and they were all pretty much in awe of Monday's promo. The Wyatt Family should have loads of potential. I could see it quickly delving into Manson Family or Ministry territory and becoming extremely dark, but that would be a nice change from the PG era.

The Shield continue to impress me, as does most of the midcard. The only downside for me with WWE lately is the constant limelight afforded to completely static and dreadfully boring characters like John Cena and Randy Orton. Ryback is a total snooze as well. How many times did he say LED during that exchange with Cena? Wake up, indeed.

[TrapNeuterReturn]

Ryback was better when he was limited to 3 catch phrases and 4 maneuvers. All the smart guy CM Punk stuff needed to be offset by something dumb. Ryback's first few months were monumentally DUMB.

Ryback jumped the shark when he repeatedly botched his finisher with Tensai and had to resort to a clothesline to end the match. Whattamaneuver!!!

[Greggulator]

Another amazing Wyatt Family promo. These guys are epic. I think their first two promo videos are the best introductory video packages the WWE has ever done. And think about how many great packages they've done over the years. I think their debut will be off-the-charts.

I think they're saving Ryback. I agree they needed someone really dumb after the CM Punk smark stuff. But the smarks can't just let that happen so he had to overcome the dumb Goldberg chants. He still got over by just terrorizing fools but he didn't get as over as they thought he would. I actually love his meathook clothesline as a finisher more than the Shellshock.

I think they've saved Ryback by turning him into a total bonehead steroid goon heel. They used him in that role when he was in The Nexus before he went down with a broken leg. He was great as the psychopath giant who could take anyone out at anytime. That's the best way to use him. If they brought him in as a psychopath heel he would have gotten over with the smarks as a face and he could have turned then.

My only fear w/ Bray is he gets stuck with some HUSKY HARRIS chant or even a WAYLON MERCY thing from some stupid smarks. But I also think his stuff is so great that the smarter audience is already behind him.

Also: Daniel Bryan. WOW.

[Eric Fishlegs]

Daniel Bryan has been on fire recently with last night's Ryback match possibly being a WWE career highlight. I assumed it'd be a squash to get over the "weak link" storyline, but it was a great performance and probably Ryback's best match. I'm wary of an impending heel turn for Bryan just because the crowd loves him too much. A Team Hell No split would be fine, but we don't need a heel turn.

I also read recently that WWE was thinking of going with Cena-Bryan for MitB and SummerSlam because they think he has the best shot of getting a "Match of the Year" type match out of Cena. But it's true- the midcard is far more interesting than the Cena and Ortons of the world.

The Wyatts are great. Genuinely creepy promos.

I'm also digging Big E Langston. He's kind of a musclehead, but he has charisma.

Greggulator- what do you think of the big Chikara angle? I admit that I've only read about it, but it sounds a little too much like one of those crappy shoot-work angles WCW would try to pull. I'm also not sure whether or not this incarnation of Chikara really is dead or not. Then again I'm talking about the angle, as are a lot of people, so they're doing something right.

[Greggulator]

Happy Bray Wyatt debut day, rasslin' fans!

I haven't been this excited for the debut of a wrestler in I don't know how long. They haven't built up a debuting character this well since... Golddust maybe? The Y2J debut was one of the all-time great segments but that was also an "anticipated surprise" as opposed to a "we know who this dude is" promo.

I think Bray has "next Undertaker" level potential. The Undertaker's character could have very easily been a Botchamania gimmick but Mark Calloway or whatever his name is plays the role to perfect. His commitment (and Kane) made the gimmick work. Bray's cut of the same cloth. He's a terrific actor (as far as wrestlers go) and ridiculously compelling.

The WWE's New Class has some terrific character actors. I think AJ is the most talented out-of-ring performer they've had in ages. The only other diva (ugh, hate using that word) who was as natural in front of the camera was Trish and maybe Lita. They also haven't even begun to use Dean Ambrose yet, either. Titus O'Neil is also really natural as the jock douche.

[NoNeck622]

Very excited for Bray Wyatt, or Husky Harris as the arrogant Baltimore crowd felt necessary to call him. It's like some crowds want all the focus to be on them and how smarky they are, whether they're chanting "Albert" at Tensai or "Goldberg" at Ryback.

Nonetheless, Bray has an awesome gimmick, good wrestling ability and amazing promo skills. He even knows his Danzig:

http://youtu.be/xgjJKkpjXaY

Also, here are some videos I made a few months ago. First, a Brock Lesnar tribute video set to Duquesne Whistle by Bob Dylan:

https://vimeo.com/60422731

And a Triple H and Stephanie video set to Ty Segall's "Girlfriend":

https://vimeo.com/61766087

[fonpr]

smarky

Wonderful portmanteau.

[Eric Fishlegs]

Very excited for Bray Wyatt, or Husky Harris as the arrogant Baltimore crowd felt necessary to call him. It's like some crowds want all the focus to be on them and how smarky they are, whether they're chanting "Albert" at Tensai or "Goldberg" at Ryback.

Nonetheless, Bray has an awesome gimmick, good wrestling ability and amazing promo skills. He even knows his Danzig:

http://youtu.be/xgjJKkpjXaY

The joy a certain kind of wrestling fan gets in revealing that they know a wrestler had another identity before his current one will never cease to amaze me.