What Might Have Been
4 Comments“For all sad words of tongue and pen, the saddest are these, ‘It might have been.'”
—John Greenleaf Whittier
“For all sad words of tongue and pen, the saddest are these, ‘It might have been.'”
—John Greenleaf Whittier
“Some of you aren’t going to be thrilled about who is at the top of the rankings this week (at least as much as you might be emotionally involved in the results of the Power Poll). “ – Jason Mann, WrestlePerspective
1. John Cena (2)
By comparison, I ranked Cena 6th on my Power Poll ballot, and oddly enough he was still the top WWE guy on there. But, apparently, The Nexus is a bigger threat to the WWE than I thought, and Cena defeating them at SummerSlam and then defeating Darren Young and having him exiled from the group is enough to put him at the top of this week’s rankings.
2. Kane (6)
By virtue of his win over Rey Mysterio at SummerSlam, I ranked Kane number 10 on my ballot. He makes number two overall this week, however, after a surprisingly clean win at SummerSlam and easy dominance over his brother following the match.
3. Randy Orton (5)
The Viper earned a win in his WWE Championship match at SummerSlam, but since it was by disqualification, he didn’t earn the title. An impressive showing against Justin Gabriel of The Nexus on RAW before being distracted into a countout loss by Sheamus helps Orton climb the ranks. (My vote: N/A)
4. The Miz (1)
The United States Champion was snubbed by Team WWE at SummerSlam in favor of his former NXT rookie Daniel Bryan, but that doesn’t take the Miz down too far this week, since he caused Bryan to be eliminated, then cost him a match against Michael Tarver of The Nexus the following night along with current NXT rookie Alex Riley. (My vote: N/A)
5. Daniel Bryan (NR)
In his surprise return at SummerSlam, Daniel Bryan single handedly eliminated at least two members of The Nexus before being taken out by his former mentor The Miz and his Money In The Bank briefcase. The following night, he impressed against Michael Tarver, but once again the United States Champion stopped him from attaining victory. (My vote: 7)
6. Sheamus (4)
The WWE Champion drops in the rankings again after failing to earn a victory over Randy Orton at SummerSlam. Eating an RKO on RAW doesn’t help stop him from falling either. (My vote: N/A)
7. Alex Shelley (NR)
Despite the entire top 5 of my ballot being TNA wrestlers, Alex Shelley is the first representative of that company to appear on the official Power Poll for this week. If you’re going to pick a top guy for TNA, this is one of the four men that deserve that honor after the impressive match in which the Motor City Machine Guns retained the TNA Tag Team Championships on the Whole F’N Show. (My vote: 3)
8. Chris Sabin (NR)
See Shelley, Alex. (My vote: 2)
9. Wade Barrett (NR)
The Leader of The Nexus was the last member of team to be eliminated at SummerSlam, and he redeemed himself enough to gain a spot in this week’s Power Poll by defeating Chris Jericho cleanly on RAW. (My vote: N/A)
10. Rob Van Dam (3)
The TNA World Champion, what’s left of him anyway, earns the last spot on this week’s Power Poll after an impressive showing against Abyss in a Stairway to Janice match on The Whole F’N Show. (My vote: 5)
I also voted for: James Storm (1), Robert Roode (4), Abyss (8), and The Undertaker (9).
The Power Poll is a weekly top 10 ranking of wrestlers as voted by members of these sites: BoredWrestlingFan.com, Hit the Ropes,NoVaWPodcast, Oh My WrestleBlog. Online World of Wrestling, PIZZABODYSLAM, Pro Wrestling Ponderings, Project Wonderboy,Ringside Rants, The Superplex, The Wrestling Blog, WrestlingAdikt.com, WrestleRage.com and Wrestlespective. If you have a wrestling site and are interested in becoming a voter, e-mail wrestlespective (at) gmail.com.
No intro for me this week – let’s go!
Last week: David Otunga and R-Truth had a bit of a falling out.
The theme song plays, the pyro goes off, and the broadcast team of Michael Cole and Josh Matthews welcome us to WWE NXT!
R-Truth and David Otunga make their way to the ring, Truth rapping the whole way. Otunga can care less about Truth’s performance, he walks right past his mentor and into the ring.
Matt Striker is standing by backstage, and he explains the rules of the show once more. The pros will vote on the rookies – but they can’t vote for or against their own rookies.
AWESOME!
The Miz leads his rookie, Daniel Bryan, to the ring. This is a tag team match, which will probably wind up coming down to which team can put aside their differences better. Miz has a pep talk for Bryan. Right now, Bryan is 0-2. He hasn’t proven anything to anybody yet. Last night on RAW, Miz was jumped. This match is very important to him. If Bryan is pinned tonight, Miz will make sure he never achieves his goal of becoming a WWE Superstar. And he’ll have him thrown off of NXT.
R-Truth & David Otunga def. The Miz & Daniel Bryan
Bryan starts off with R-Truth, with Truth having the upper hand early on. Otunga gets the tag in and the team of Truth and Otunga start utilizing classic tag team strategy, keeping Bryan away from The Miz. Things get a bit crazy – Bryan and Miz get dumped to the outside by Truth, who dives on them, sending us to a…
<COMMERCIAL BREAK>
When we come back, Michael Cole screws up David Otunga’s name, calling him Daniel Otunga. Miz and Bryan are also in control by this point. Bryan tags in The Miz, who admonishes him for showboating. Miz is nearly pinned by Truth off of a rollup, but manages to take control right back from him. Truth causes some separation, and finally manages to get the tag in to Jennifer Hudson’s fiancee. He gets Miz in a pinning predicament, but Bryan makes the save. Bryan tags himself in and turns the tide back into his team’s favor. He locks a heel hook in on Otunga. Will Otunga snap or tap? Miz tags himself back in, and then the two start battling – meanwhile, Truth sneaks in and nails the Lie Detector on The Miz, allowing Otunga to pin the WWE United States Champion.
After the match, Miz threatens Bryan’s career again, telling him to go away. Bryan feigns punching The Miz, who flinches, before leaving.
Video: Carlito Surprised Heath Slater by spitting in his face. That wasn’t cool to Slater. Slater says if he had an apple and Carlito was standing in front of him, he wouldn’t spit in his face, he’d chuck it like a fastball at Carlito’s head. He’ll have the opportunity, as he takes on Carlito, NEXT!
<COMMERCIAL BREAK>
Matt Striker wants to know how Miz feels about the fact that it was he who lost the match for his team, and not Daniel Bryan. Miz reminds Striker of all the gold he has. Bryan comes in, he doesn’t care about Miz’s accolades. He says that everybody he’s ever been partners with have carried him. Miz reminds him he’s the pro. Bryan asks if Miz is so talented, why is he the one who lost tonight?
Video: Justin Gabriel grew up in the wrestling industry and he’s a martial arts expert.
Matt Hardy is giving Gabriel a pep talk backstage, telling him to do exactly what he did last week. Chris Jericho and Wade Barrett come in. Jericho says he did good last week, but not good enough for this week, because Wade Barrett is Jericho’s protege, and look at the size of him. Barrett reminds Gabriel that last week, he destroyed Daniel Bryan in less than 3 minutes. Hardy tells Jericho that his protege will defeat Jericho’s tonight.
Heath Slater makes his way to the ring along with his pro, Christian. Carlito heads to the ring with his rookie, Michael Tarver. Carlito heard what Slater had to say about him, but he should be honored that Carlito spit in his face. You know how many WWE Superstars faces Carlito’s spit into? Slater should be begging to get spit at again. Carlito gets in the ring, takes a bite of his apple, but Slater ducks the spit.
Heath Slater def. Carlito
Slater decked Carlito to start the match and then we went to a…
<COMMERCIAL BREAK>
Carlito is in control when we come back, but that doesn’t last very long. Slater holds his own with Carlito, and when Carlito kicks Slater in the face, Tarver cheers from ringside, saying “that boy’s gonna need to go to the dentist!” Carlito takes control for a few minutes, but he takes some time to talk to Tarver on the outside, and Slater takes advantage. Carlito hits a spinebuster on Slater, and he goes to grab his apple, but Christian took it away. Christian tosses it to Tarver, who doesn’t think it’s funny. Carlito tells Christian to watch what he does to Slater – he goes for a Backstabber, but Slater escapes. Carlito tries to roll up Slater, but Slater rolls through and pins Carlito.
Video: Darren Young says this is his destiny. He thinks the WWE Universe will find him entertaining. There’s no better feeling than being in the spotlight, and he looks up to guys like Shawn Michaels and Ricky Steamboat.
CM Punk is discussing Young with the Straight Edge Society. Young comes in and says he respects Punk’s lifestyle, but wants to know why he can’t live his own. Punk says he can lead a horse to water, but he can’t make him drink. Straight Edge can make him a winner, but Young can live his own lifestyle and see where that gets him.
Up next, Justin Gabriel takes on Wade Barrett in our main event.
<COMMERCIAL BREAK>
It’s confirmed that “Be Yourself” by Audioslave is an official theme song of WrestleMania.
RAW REBOUND: Mr. McMahon defeated John Cena in the main event. Nevermind the fact that it was a handicap gauntlet match and that the WWE Champion Batista was Mr. McMahon’s last partner, Mr. McMahon pinned John Cena.
We get a rundown of the WrestleMania XXVI card – Batista vs. John Cena, Chris Jericho vs. Edge, Shawn Michaels vs. Undertaker in a no DQ match, Triple H vs. Sheamus, Bret Hart vs. Mr. McMahon, John Morrison & R-Truth vs. ShoMiz – what a hell of a card we’ve got for the show of shows!
Chris Jericho leads Wade Barrett to the ring and we’re informed that for the first time in two years, this Friday on SmackDown it’s the return of Chris Jericho’s Hi-Lite Reel with special guest Edge!
<COMMERCIAL BREAK>
Matt Hardy leads Justin Gabriel into battle, and last week, Gabriel became the first rookie to have pinned a WWE pro, that pro being William Regal.
Justin Gabriel def. Wade Barrett
Power vs. speed – that’s what this match is. Barrett is a big guy who can really hurt you, and Gabriel is a smaller guy – well, compared to Barrett anyway – who can use his speed to avoid being hurt by a bigger guy like Barrett and to strike before his opponent can counter. The crowd actually starts chanting USA in this one, despite the fact that the only American in this match is Gabriel’s pro, Matt Hardy. Gabriel manages to squeak out the win, knocking Barrett down and hitting the 450 splash from the top for the victory.
Jericho attacks Hardy after the match, knocking him out of the ring, then hitting a codebreaker on Gabriel before locking him into the old school Lion Tamer style Walls of Jericho. Barrett and Jericho are the ones standing tall as NXT goes off the air.
My Thoughts: WWE did a great job this week and getting me interested in some of the rookies who I didn’t care about at all. Darren Young showed a bit of personality, Heath Slater showed that he could be a great commodity for World Wrestling Entertainment, and Michael Tarver seemed to open up a bit more this week than he had a couple of weeks ago. Still the star of this show is Daniel Bryan, and that’s not by accident. WWE is trying to make that happen, and they’re doing a good job of it – though Justin Gabriel seems to be developing quite a fan base, even if they don’t realize he’s from South Africa and not the United States. Some people I’ve talked to don’t like the show – I, on the other hand, have really enjoyed it the last few weeks and I’m looking forward to seeing what happens next. See you Friday for SmackDown!