As the road to WrestleMania continues, tonight John Laurinaitis is taking over control of Smackdown. And with that, we can only expect madness, chaos, and certainly not Drew McIntyre… because he was fired. Or was he? Only time will tell, so let’s hop to it… shall we? (more…)
One, Two.. Is This On? Yo Jimmy, hit me with that Triple H..
That’s not right. It’s Joe, not Jimmy. Anyways, I haven’t written a piece in awhile, and I had an idea about doing one based on how to get a job in the big two companies. But would mean some sort of seriousness on my part, and besides, how can I put random YouTube links in random words when I’m being serious?
Uh-Oh! It’s not the Big O, Broskis, it is in fact I, the ringleader of this little group of smarks we call BoredWrestlingFan.com, ThinkSoJoE! Justin Ruff is not feeling well this evening and we wish him a speedy recovery as I dive head first into Monday Night RAW! The best part about this is, I don’t know ANYTHING about tonight’s show other than Shawn Michaels is on it, so I can review this and give my thoughts as I initially watch. And here you thought I only did the podcasts!
Time for the dog show! Oh wait, they don’t preempt RAW for that anymore. You can watch it on CNBC, if you’re so inclined. Except this aired 3 hours ago, so you can’t.
The fun doesn’t stop because RAW is over, no sir! WWE.com awarded even more Slammys – let’s roll!
Note: I’m not sure at this point whether these actually count or not. We’re going to pretend they do.
Outstanding Achievement in Muppet Resemblance: Sheamus and Beaker.
If these count, this is Sheamus’s third Slammy. His previous wins in 2009 for “Breakout Star of the year” and in 2010 for “Superstar/Diva most in need of makeup.”
The Pee-Wee Herman Bow Tie Award: David Otunga.
This is David Otunga’s first solo Slammy. He won as part of Nexus for the 2010 Shocker of the Year for the group’s debut.
Most Predictable Outcome of the Year: Kevin Nash jackknifing Santino
This is Kevin Nash’s first Slammy.
Guess Who’s Back? Or: Return of the Year: The Rock
This would be The Rock’s third, winning the Slammy in 1997 for New Sensation, and earlier tonight for “Game Changer of the Year” with John Cena.
Double Vision Moment of the Year: The Two Sin Caras
This is the first Slammy for both Sin Cara and Hunico.
T-Shirt of the Year: CM Punk’s “Best in the World” t-shirt, of course. Half the BWF crew owns one!
Punk’s 6th Slammy. He won the 2008 OMG Moment for cashing in Money In The Bank, 2009 Shocker of the Year for beating Jeff Hardy and sending him packing, the 2010 Despicable Me award for singing Happy Birthday to Rey Mysterio’s daughter, and earlier tonight the 2011 Pipe Bomb of the Year and Superstar of the Year awards.
WWE.com Exclusive of the Year: John Laurinaitis congratulating CM Punk.
This is Laurinaitis first actual award.
Most Regrettable Ring Attire of the Year: Michael Cole in Triple H’s clothing.
This is Michael Cole’s third Slammy. His previous wins are the 2009 “Oh My” Moment of the Year for throwing up on Chris Jericho, and the 2010 “And I Quote” line of the year.
Critter Moment of the Year: The mouse that ran by Alberto Del Rio on RAW. Seriously.
It wasn’t that long ago. Just a few weeks, actually. I jumped right on this very website right after WWE RAW SuperShow to rant about how they ruined a perfectly entertaining show with the introduction of John Laurinaitis as the interim RAW General Manager. Now, I’m right back here after what many are saying was a terrible episode of RAW, and finding myself in a less than familiar situation – one where I’m not a cynical asshole.
Personally, I went on Twitter immediately after I watched last night’s show and mentioned that I felt like last night’s show was solid from top to bottom, and after re-watching it today with my wife I’m standing by that tweet. The fact is, the internet wrestling community (IWC) doesn’t know what they want. The same people who tune in to TNA and time the matches so they can jump on the internet and point out that there was only 10 minutes of wrestling in a two hour program are the same ones that I see right now saying that this episode of RAW, where the talking was kept to a minimum, was terrible.
Every performer on last night’s show put on a solid performance. The IWC doesn’t seem to think so, and I’d like to think that it’s because they’re so jaded about everything that the WWE does nowadays. John Cena has proven time and time again – despite the fact that I boo the hell out of his character – that he’s a solid performer and can have a good match with most of the guys on the roster, yet no matter how good of a match he has, you’ll still hear about the “five moves of doom.” The Divas have all been working very hard on their in-ring work, but as soon as they’re on television, the IWC collectively says “piss break!”
The biggest criticism I’ve seen of last night’s show was the ending. Oh no, “Super Cena” just beat Awesome Truth all by himself, why does he even need to bother with The Rock at Survivor Series? What show are you watching? Cena beat The Miz, then while Miz was incapacitated, R-Truth tried to attack him, but got caught and ate an AA for his trouble. That’s not Cena beating up two guys at once, that’s Cena beating two guys back to back. If it were Awesome Truth against Cena by himself, Cena gets beat down. See last week’s RAW for proof.
What bugs me is that if ROH did the exact same finish – let’s say with Davey Richards in the John Cena role, and members of The House of Truth in Awesome Truth’s place – these same people who are criticizing Cena would be praising Richards for outsmarting the opposition. You know I’m right.
This is what I want. I want all of my fellow members of the IWC to get off of their little cloud, and watch RAW back as a FAN and not as a cynical asshole desensitized to the business by the internet, and tell me what the hell was so wrong with last night’s show.
Well I’m back after a brief hiatus in which my surgery went well but then I ended up experiencing the worst pain ever to getting better to be here with you all today. I was thinking about doing a “week in the life of” article on it but I figured you wouldn’t want to hear about my bodily functions anyway. So since some things have been happening since I’ve ladt been here, lets talk about some of them: (more…)
I’m almost at a complete loss of words over last night’s WWE RAW. The beginning was great. WWE proved that they could do a show with just four guys, and it would be a great show. Then Vince McMahon came out, and from that point forward, WWE proved that they could do a terrible show with 60 guys.
I don’t know why, but I absolutely loathe John Laurinaitis. I feel that it’s more than just the character, I think I actually despise John Laurinaitis the person. Over the past couple of months I didn’t mind him so much, but as soon as he was appointed “Interim RAW GM,” I started to hate his very being. And the strange thing is, I don’t think it’s his fault that I hate him at all. What I really hate, is heel authority figures in wrestling.
The first couple of times, ok cool. Now, it’s just stale. It’s old. I can’t stand it. This is wrestling. I’m supposed to be rooting for the good guy and booing the bad guy, not rooting for the good guy and booing the good guy’s boss. If I wanted to boo a good guy’s boss, I’d march into my boss’s office with my thumb down.
Look, I get the idea that we’re all supposed to hate our boss, and that when the good guy’s boss finally gets his comeuppance, we’re all supposed to cheer because we’re living vicariously through our favorite Superstar. I actually like my boss. Sure, sometimes I think I’d like to hit him with a Stone Cold Stunner, but most of the time I think I’d rather share a couple of Steveweisers with him (WHAT?).
The fact is, we’ve been doing this same angle for 15 years now. For everything the WWE is doing right – pushing the tag team division, bringing back managers and stables – this is one of the wrongs. There was a time when I’d tune in to WWE programming because I liked the wrestling. A promo here or there and a very rare post-match beatdown went a long way back in those days. Now, we have an hour of promos on a two hour program and a beatdown after every match – almost literally in the case of last night’s RAW – and they’ve lost their effectiveness.
I think what we need in mainstream wrestling – WWE, specifically – is a face authority figure (Teddy Long doesn’t count) who will restore order. Post-match beatdown? $250,000 fine. The effectiveness will eventually be rebuilt because the only time we’d see a post-match beatdown is when somebody dislikes a guy so much that they’ll gladly pay a quarter of a million bucks to get in a few extra shots at them. Is it a perfect suggestion? Maybe not, but at least I’m trying to come up with something different.
For now, I think I’ll vote with my remote control – I’m considering not watching wrestling until they replace Laurinaitis as RAW GM. That’s how strongly I feel about this crap.