The Wrestling Thread

[dave from knoxville]

I always (or at least since I was 13)  felt like watching wrestling was like watching the worst Broadway production imaginable. But it's OK with me that people feel otherwise.

[Racan]

That totally makes sense, Dave. For me that's always been part of the appeal. Wrestling's such a bizarre carnival.

Anybody got Elimination Chamber predictions? I'm going to go out on a limb and predict Wade Barrett wins the Smackdown match. I think he'd make a good fit to face Sheamus at Wrestlemania, where he'd almost certainly lose the strap.

On the Raw side, I'll take Chris Jericho, who will briefly hold the title until CM Punk regains the belt at Wrestlemania. This would set up an epic night of babyface triumphs, which is what Wrestlemania is all about!

[davidgoeschatting]

Anybody got Elimination Chamber predictions? I'm going to go out on a limb and predict Wade Barrett wins the Smackdown match. I think he'd make a good fit to face Sheamus at Wrestlemania, where he'd almost certainly lose the strap.

On the Raw side, I'll take Chris Jericho, who will briefly hold the title until CM Punk regains the belt at Wrestlemania. This would set up an epic night of babyface triumphs, which is what Wrestlemania is all about!

On RAW, Kingston, Truth and Miz are pretty much guaranteed not to win. Ziggler has done some high-profile jobs recently, and usually before a champion wins a huge title, they often see a small losing streak. Ziggler could win this. I really hope either Jericho or Punk gain/retain the strap, though, because they're obviously headed toward a main event at WM, and having the title on the line would make it that much better. I mean, "best in the world" feud deserves the supposed "best in the world" title.

Unfortunately, for Smackdown, I think Bryan's reign comes to an end. Seamus probably would've picked the WWE title to challenge for if Bryan were to be the champion at WM, but they're holding off for something bigger. The only thing that seems to scream BIG at WM would be Orton vs. Seamus. I don't care too much for that main event, but it's 2 of the biggest stars at the biggest show. Makes sense.

That said, I don't think I'll enjoy Chamber too much. I totally hear what y'all are saying at Ziggler--everybody seems to say it these days--but I just can't get on board. Something's blocking me. He looks reckless a lot to me; like, do you guys ever notice when he goes to hit his finisher and his opponent holds onto the ropes? It looks dangerous. Ziggler is a male cheerleader. Ziggler is perfection. Ziggler is #heel. Ziggler is a show-off. Nothing sticks. There's gotta be a reason why.

[Racan]

Did anyone else notice Wade Barrett taking a whiff of the rose in the breast pocket of his long coat on Smackdown this week? I thought it was a nice touch.

[NoNeck622]

It's hard to like "The Sports Guy" Bill Simmons, especially after some of the points Tom made about him on the air, but it's hard not to agree with Simmons on this:

From http://www.wrestlezone.com/news/249785-bill-simmons-blasts-triple-h-update-on-ortons-condition,

"In a new mailbag piece published over at the ESPN affiliate site Grantland.com, Bill Simmons had the following to say when asked if the recent surge of Jeremy Lin in the NBA is the equivalent of CM Punk last year as opposed to the self-proclaimed 'King of Kings:'

'Does this mean Carmelo is going to be Triple H — the egotistical, overrated star who couldn't handle that something good was happening without him, so he interjected himself into the storyline and ended up throwing a wet blanket on all the momentum?' Simmons writes. 'I sure hope not.'"

I would love to hear The Greggulator's take on this, or anyone else who follows wrestling and basketball.

[Racan]

I noticed the piece you mentioned on Bleacher Report a few days ago. I'm obviously no expert on backstage politics in WWE, but it seemed like a pretty compelling statement on the part of Simmons, at least based on what bits and peices I've gathered on Triple H over the years. CM Punk definitely lost a lot of moment after Triple H entered the picture, though thankfully he's been back on top since Survivor Series. I've also been kind of disgusted that Triple H is clearly positioning himself to face Undertaker again at Wrestlemania.

On another note, my girlfriend and I were at a concert last weekend where Edmonton group Born Gold opened for recent Pitchfork sensation Grimes. The singer of Born Gold was wearing a custom jacket, rigged up to an Xbox Kinect, that instantly reminded me of Chris Jericho. Weird!

[badgrammer]

My good friend Dustin has been doing a radio show called "The Five Count" in Minnesota for 6 or 7 years now. The majority of his guests are wrestlers, hiphop acts from the late 80's and early 90's and people from old Nickelodeon TV shows (The Adventures of Pete and Pete, etc). I figured I'd post a link to his site archives here since it might be of interest to the FOT. I was a guest host off and on a few years ago and it was always pretty fun to work on. I believe it's finally going to be available in podcast form pretty soon.

He's interviewing Diamond Dallas Page this week: http://www.thefivecount.com/

PS. I just realized I might be the only gal posting in this thread...

[hardweek]

CM Punk // Chris Brown

http://youtu.be/eBlNnJlgu8w

[Greggulator]

I read Simmons' thing, too. (I think he's pretty worthless at this point but he has some good takes here and there.)

The Summer of Punk angle fizzled because it blew up so quickly. I don't think they were expecting Punk to get all of the mainstream exposure he did so quickly -- he was on Simmons, Kimmel and was interviewed by GQ Magazine. They were REALLY getting there with awesome stuff with his retirement, with him taking pics of the title in his fridge and showing up at Comic Con to harass HHH.

But the WWE has shareholders and quarterly earnings to report and it makes them hard to take a long-term view to storytelling. Punk was hot and they thought his advertised return in a match against Cena would pops big rating. But, after the rematch, it went nowhere.

HHH is definitely interesting. I hate HHH when they're doing their occasional DX reunion. But I don't hate him outside of that -- he always gets a reaction. But the problem with HHH/Punk is that it didn't go anywhere. On paper, the ground was laid out perfectly and has some epic storytelling behind it. HHH becomes his father-in-law, trading in the denim jacket for a business suit and has to try and manage the new man-of-the-people who, in true punk rock fashion, hates any authority figure. HHH has to capitulate to Punk's demands to return and is humiliated and tries to get revenge.

The problem is that HHH wouldn't "show ass" as they say. And then the other problem is that they involved a terrible Kevin Nash for some reason and tried to make it this "Where do all the pieces fall" soap opera thing that ended up going nowhere.

If they kept it simple:

1) HHH recruits Del Rio to be the new corporate champion.

2) Punk upends Del Rio (after trading the title a bunch). Vicki Guerrero convinces HHH that Dolph is the next superstar and is cut from his image (after trading the title a few times).

3) Punk wins this feud, only to have to deal with HHH bringing in his old friend Jericho -- the old-guard defends its own.

As far as the Melo analogy goes -- it's not too far off the mark, especially if you equate JR Smith to Kevin Nash.

[Racan]

All good ideas. Overcomplicating wrestling storylines just seems silly, but it's a pitfall the WWE keeps falling into lately, from the anonymous RAW GM to John Laurinaitis texting whoever's out there in the ether. I'm reminded of reading a great article on the late Chris Kreski, one of the writers present in the WWE during the Attitude Era, and his insistent use of storyboards. Apparently he always made a point of tracking where stories were headed, tried to interweave them where possible, and usually had an end result in mind. WWE creative could seriously use somebody with his direction right now.

Also, I love him to pieces, but what is up with the Rock? He can't seem to speak for even a few minutes without mentioning Twitter. He still has a potent dig every now and then, but he's definitely lost his ability to cut a truly memorable promo.

[wood and iron]

Undertaker in flowchart form: http://4thletter.net/2012/02/the-flowcharts-of-destruction-undertaker-and-kane-explained/

[davidgoeschatting]

Also, I love him to pieces, but what is up with the Rock? He can't seem to speak for even a few minutes without mentioning Twitter. He still has a potent dig every now and then, but he's definitely lost his ability to cut a truly memorable promo.

Agreed. I'm hoping all he needed was 1 love fest promo to get him going for the homestretch. Whether they planned it or not, it's still insane how hard Cena owned him this past Monday.

[Racan]

My only guess is that WWE is trying to give Cena an edge heading towards Wrestlemania in the hopes that the crowd will come back to him.

[Kormod]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UjQGvvRhgr0&feature=player_embedded#!

[Mr. Spacely]

Will Sasso is now thinner than Brock Lesnar.