Pro Wrestling Thread

[Dipper9]

My thoughts:

1. I thought for sure the way they kept showing his locker room, that Brodus was going to get the Goldberg treatment, complete with escort to the ring, fireworks, and a dominating performance. He got the escorts all right, but holy wow, stealing the Cat Ernest Miller's music? "Somebody call my momma." Love the song, but GD NOT for Brodus friggin Clay. This guy should have come out as an absolute beast. Instead, he has become a WWE failed gimmick already. I still have faith in him though. The Ringmaster was a far cry from Stone Cold Steve Austin. Not that Clay is Austin, but talent can overcome bad gimmicks. Just ask Dolph!

2. Jericho, oh Jericho. Where art thou my Jericho? I know this is heading somewhere good, but even "I" am bored to death with the past two segments. You take one of the greatest talkers of all time, redebut him after 18 months, and make him a mute? WTF? Strike two on WWE Creative.

3. I like the slow heal turn for Daniel Bryan, but I cannot suspend my disbelief long enough to believe he can defeat Big Show, or Mark Henry. Booo.

4. What was up with the finish to the Punk match? Did the ref botch it? Was that the planned finish? Punk looked pissed, but everyone else acted like this was the plan. Weird.

5. Hall of Fame class of 2012 is off to a GREAT start. Edge is a good one, but the Four Friggin Horsemen? Awesome. I know Flair is already in, but I thought he is still in TNA? Will he be freed up to attend the Ceremony? Otherwise, how can you induct the Horsemen without Flair?

6. Kane vs Cena. I wish Kane would drag Cena to Hell and not return him until WrestleMania. So so so sick of John Cena.

7. Why didn't Zack call AAA? He and Eve could have went and hid instead of setting themselves up for Jason, um, I mean Michael Meyers, um, I mean Kane to attack them.

8. Back to Jericho. If you are gonna go through with this stupid debut, then why the videos? I can see one or the other, but not both. The videos are a cool way to redebut him IF they explain what the **** they mean. Having the videos only for him to come back as a Mime is dumb! Strike 3 WWE Creative.

[adamwolff11]

Yeah, they're really butchering some awesome opportunities. Jericho is golden on the mic, why have him do this? Like you guys have said, even if there is a decent payoff in the end, this is a lame way to redebut a guy.

Brodus was a monster in the ring, which I'm sure is what they were going for. So naturally, monster in the ring..funkasaurus? Hopefully he can establish some in ring credibility and then drop that gimmick.

Flair is definitely still a pretty big part of TNA, currently serving as Gunner's manager. I would imagine WWE already has the issue settled, I'm sure they wouldn't risk him not wanting to or being able to show up. Edge and The Four Horsemen is awesome, but I think it will be almost criminal if Macho Man isn't inducted. Should have been in 10 years ago, let's get this right and put him in. Have Lanny except the award for him.

Between Santino, Ricardo singing, Brodus Clay's gimmick, and the horror movie-esque stuff with Ryder/Eve, WWE is catering to their younger audience more than ever. I get that they don't want girls stripping down in the ring and excessive cursing, but isn't there a way to keep the product PG, but not corny as hell? Come on WWE.

I still have faith the Raw will be great. I love the Rumble match itself and Dolph/Punk should be an epic main event. Those two alone should be enough to make it a decent card, hopefully we can get one or two more above average matches to round things out.

[ShaneDawg85]

Are they so devoid of doing anything good on Smackdown that they have to put Bryan against Big Show, again? You know the ending is going to be stupid, and/or that Mark Henry will get involved and knock one, or both of them out. Just last week I watched a little bit of Smackdown for the first time in a long time and thought it was better than what I'd seen on Raw. But, one step forward, two steps back. Why not just do the simple thing and have Bryan defend it against Show at the Rumble? You don't need to build it any further, there's already enough there. Unless the end game is to have Show drop the nice guy routine and get mad, and even then you don't have to draw it up like this. If it isn't Show then have him and Henry fight, again, to determine the match against Bryan at Rumble. It really doesn't have to be this convoluted and stupid.

[adamwolff11]

Smackdown seems to have the better wrestling and actual in ring action, but typically IMO they aren't driving storylines well, if at all. There are often good matches between guys who had no prior interaction and will have no further interaction. I'm already very sick of the Daniel Bryan/Show angle. It seems like Bryan is in for a slow heel turn, so maybe once they do that, it can be interesting again, but I'm not sure. Maybe it's just me, but I'm very rarely ever able to get into the storylines for the Heavyweight Championship. It's just boring to me, a poor man's WWE championship really.

[MikeAD]

I'm not even going to comment on Raw last night...weird all around. They have a lot of crap to tie up if the Rumble and WM are going to be all that they can be. The sad thing is that RR already is headlined by Ziggler and Punk and Cena and Kane witch will be two great matches, so they essentially can't "mess" this up. However they aren't going to make it as great as it could be...unless they really turn it around. Plus Jericho...my god.

http://www.wrestlezone.com/news/2478...s-worth-to-wwe

This report came out from ESPN saying that Cena is worth 106 Million to the WWE...my god.

[MikeAD]

Just watched the Swagger Punk match from last night. I hope that at some point this year there is a legit feud between Ziggler and Swagger over the WWE title. It would have to be over Mania most likely but they are both so great in the ring. It could be a great 3 month feud.

[Sports Guy]

Brodus Clay was backstage at Monday's RAW Supershow from Memphis and was scheduled to debut on TV, squashing a local wrestler. As plans changed through the day, once again Clay was bumped from the script.

WWE will be going with the storyline of Brodus being pissed at being pushed back so many times that he's even angrier than before. Officials do want to get Clay on TV as soon as possible to establish him as a monster. They wanted him to go into the Royal Rumble as one of the top big guys but it remains to be seen if he will debut before then.

This was from last week...They kind of went the other way with that, didn't they?

[Dipper9]

This was from last week...They kind of went the other way with that, didn't they?

Somebody call his Momma!

[adamwolff11]

I guess I'll wait before passing complete judgement on Brodus Clay's character. Maybe he can make it work, and it certainly is different. I will say I'm about 90% sure I won't like it, but if he's good on the mic, maybe it can be entertaining. I would expect him to play the roll that they have every year in the Rumble of, 'guy who is a monster, eliminates a lot of people, ultimately has no shot of winning'. Usually enters as the 7-12th man in. Cleans house, looks unstoppable, King and Cole go googoo for him, then he get eliminated. Then the fact that he eliminated x number of wrestlers at the Rumble becomes his calling card. Put in on the board, fellas!

[ShaneDawg85]

Are they inducting just the original horsemen, or the collective body that is the horsemen? Based on the promo's and WWE's homepage, it appears to be just the originals, which on some level is odd since Flair is already in the hall. I'm too young to comprehend the horseman of the 80's, so growing up the horsemen would break up and get back together every couple of months with somebody new, although I'll always appreciate Dean Malenko and Chris Benoit in the group. Their cold and steely personalities fit the group so well at the time, and they were excellent wrestlers.

[Skeletor]

Paul Roma is waiting for the call.

[Sports Guy]

Are they inducting just the original horsemen, or the collective body that is the horsemen? Based on the promo's and WWE's homepage, it appears to be just the originals, which on some level is odd since Flair is already in the hall. I'm too young to comprehend the horseman of the 80's, so growing up the horsemen would break up and get back together every couple of months with somebody new, although I'll always appreciate Dean Malenko and Chris Benoit in the group. Their cold and steely personalities fit the group so well at the time, and they were excellent wrestlers.

Windham, Blanchard, Flair and Anderson are being inducted.

Benoit will not come near the HOF.

[adamwolff11]

It was before my time, but I guess they can't say they're inducting the "original" 4, as Ole Anderson was one of the originals. Everything I've read about him has basically been that he's a mean old SOB (and was a mean, young SOB too), so it's likely he wouldn't have had interest. I guess they're just inducting the most well known incarnation of the 4 Horsemen.

[Dipper9]

Windham, Blanchard, Flair and Anderson are being inducted.

Benoit will not come near the HOF.

Manager JJ Dillon is also included.

[allstar1579]

Paul Roma is waiting for the call.

It'll be a travesty if Barry Horrowitz doesn't get in this year.