Well here another week gone by but with this one being a holiday one here in the States hopefully you all ate plenty and watched lots of football and passed out in front of the TV. So without further ado, we shal get this show on the road: (more…)
It’s about that time of the year when we look at what we are thankful for. Yes, I know it’s cheesy, but I think it needs to be said. These are not in order of importance, just in an order of some kind.
1. CM Punk-He’s cut two of the greatest promos of the year. He cut a promo so good it made us think that wrestling had become real for a night. Plus, the night he shocked the wrestling world when the WWE champion appeared on an AAW show to put over competitor Gregory Iron (see #2). And how about the time period after Money in the Bank and before Summerslam? Has wrestling been that exciting in years? CM Punk was showing up at Wrigley Field, tweeting pictures of the title belt in the refrigerator, showing up at Comic conventions. It bled over into John Cena’s promos and Raw was exciting to watch again. Money in the Bank was still the top match the WWE has put together this year. He is the one sane person in the world of the insane. And he’s one of the few things that gives me hope for the future of the WWE.
2. Gregory Iron-The guy has cerebral palsy. Let me say that again. The guy has cerebral palsy. And he wrestles. This isn’t Eugene playing a retarded character. He is an actual handicapped wrestler. There is a documentary that will be coming out. Fox News did a feature on him. Now there is a petition to get him into the Royal Rumble! The guy has a legitimate shot at being in the WWE as a great story to be told. If you have never seen one of his matches, go to Youtube and search. You will be blown away.
3. Sheamus-I am a fan of Sheamus because he is pasty white. I’m pasty white. My body does not tan. I go out into the sun, my skin burns (“fries” is a better word), it peels off a day later and whiter than I was before. So having somebody like Sheamus in the public life makes me happy, rather than Hulk Hogan or George Hamilton. I am on Team Pasty White.
4. Air Boom-These are two of the best in-ring workers in the business. Evan Bourne has one of the happiest smiles in wrestling (and of course, after the wellness violation, we know why). Not only that, he’s one of the best at selling. And how do you not love Kofi Kingston? And as a tag team, these guys have great chemistry.
5. Mark Henry as champ-How many years did we sit through “Sexual Chocolate,” humping Mae Young, going on a date with Chyna? And now here is, a truly dominant, well-booked champ (for the WWE). I look forward to seeing him, and I had a genuinely emotional moment when he walked away the champ.
6. Ricardo Rodriguez-I’ve decided that if Ricardo Rodriguez would announce my arrival at work, I would be CEO. I haven’t decided whether it’s the perfect hair, the tuxedo or the majestic voice. But not only that, he makes a great manager/lackey.
7. MPX-This is my local wrestling promotion. At first they started out as nothing, but it has been awesome to watch them mature into a hotbed. There’s Kenny Steele, a heel who could be on the cusp of greatness. Cash & Carry, one of the top upcoming tag teams in the Texas scene. Seph Annunaki, who could be a match or two away from being a huge name in Texas. $Payday$ who is our version of Kofi Kingston. Ben Wylde, fellow member of Team Pasty White. Headbanger who is already cementing himself as a mainstay in promotions all over Texas. Great veterans like Kristopher Haiden, Carrion Arcane, Matt Palmer (!). Plus, I love the family atmosphere and saying hi to everybody.
8. Lance Hoyt-I say that name, but it stands for all the guys (and girls) who like to give back. For a company that started pretty lowly, guys (and girls) like Lance Hoyt, Mike Foxx, SHIMMER’S Athena have helped build it up. Lance Hoyt came in, loved it AND returned. Now there’s talks of him bringing other big names.
9. Ring of Honor-How do I BEGIN to describe what I love about Ring of Honor? Shelton Benjamin doesn’t have a low-rent comedienne playing his mother. Charlie Haas gets to be Charlie Haas. Homicide, Jay Lethal, Davey Richards, El Generico, Tommaso Ciampa, Grizzly Redwood. It gives me something to look forward to every few months or so. And now there’s a weekly tv show!
10. Chikara-So the WWE’s problem is that they make a TV-PG product. Right? Chikara has a G-rated product. And their product is infinitely more watchable than the WWE’s product. You have names like Eddie Kingston, Mike Quackenbush, The Colony, BDK. You have great action, long matches, a devoted crowd and a lot of passion.
11. SHIMMER-Have you ever watched a Bella Twins match and prayed that God would take you now? You know, the “I-Don’t-Want-to-Live-in-a-World-Where-The-Bellas-Are-Considered-Entertainment” feeling. About a month ago, I discovered SHIMMER. I watched SHIMMER VOL. 1 and was completely blown away by the matches I saw. I know I’m only on Vol. 2, but I’m excited to see where women’s wrestling goes from here.
12. Sara Del Rey-This is for all the women’s wrestlers. Del Rey is one of my favorite workers, male or female. And there are a lot of great women’s wrestlers out there who are not WWE Divas. These are the Del Reys and Cherry Bombs and Jessicka Havocs and Mickie Knuckleses and Athenas and Portia Perezes that give daddies of little girls somebody they can watch with their daughters.
13. AIW-I remember asking what promotion I should try on Twitter. AIW (who follows me) recommended I buy Absolution VI or Girl’s Night Out IV. I bought Absolution and was so blown away by this wrestling, whether it was the atmosphere, the devotion of the fans, the Rickey Shane Page/Vincent Nothing match, Josh Prohibition/Greg Iron match (my first time to see an Iron match), Tim F’ing Donst. I was hooked and a fan for life.
14. All the wrestlers-All the boys who go out and give everything for the fans in the crowd. You can always tell those who have the passion and those who give everything for the fans every time. I know it’s been done, but… “It’s still real to me, damnit.”
15. AJ Lee & Alicia Fox-Just for existing. I know I said something about how much I love SHIMMER because of the hard-working women who aren’t sex objects. But I gotta admit. Those two are just breath-takingly beautiful and it makes me happy whenever I get to see them.
16. Sites I get to write for. I love writing and I love wrestling. So it’s a given that one of my favorite things on Earth would be writing about wrestling. I am very proud to be part of very awesome teams no matter where I write. I also want to thank my fellow co-writers, who I feel very lucky to even consider some my friends.
http://bigbadsportsdaddy.com/
http://boredwrestlingfan.com/
http://wonderpodonline.com/
http://www.pwponderings.com/
17. Wings in Euless-Somehow I was discovered by www.bigbadsportsdaddy.com. I started doing a Saturday MMA column for them. Then after their Raw blogger was future endeavored, I was given the role. Ever since February, they have let me join them in a live broadcast. It’s now one of the favorite parts of my month. I love getting to hang out with the guys like Larry, John & Eric and getting to see all the variety of people: Drew and Chelsea, Zero, Carlos and their crew, the MPX guys. It makes me happy knowing that we will all get to experience the new PPV together.
What are yours? What are you thankful for in wrestling?
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I’m trying to find a place to start with this and it’s just not happening. So forgive me for being a little disjointed in starting here. I have my favorite promos. Anything that comes out of Mick Foley’s or Ric Flair’s mouth. I remember Al Snow cutting a promo in the ECW days before a big match that was so quiet and to the point and great. There was Roddy Piper at Halloween Havoc in 1996. And of course there was CM Punk’s “The Promo” where I couldn’t sleep that night because I couldn’t decide if it was a work or not. Guys could make you hate them with a short 5-minute promo like Owen Hart, Jerry Lawler or Bubba Ray Dudley. Or the guys who could have you eating out of their hand like Jake “The Snake”, The Rock or Dusty Rhodes.
This week, a great promo joined the ranks of the best ever. Eddie Kingston cut a promo that is probably the best of the year. And that’s on a year where you had CM Punk’s “The Promo,” CM Punk honoring Gregory Iron at AAW and HHH-Taker stare-down when both made their returns at the same time building up Wrestlemania. (I wrote a Facebook status after that where I said “Cut the promo. And if necessary, use words.”)
After Punk’s “The Promo,” a lot of the Internet Wrestling Community (IWC) used the phrase “talking people into the building. ” This Eddie Kingston promo does exactly that. Around Money in the Bank, there were so many great promos on Raw, not just from Punk. John Cena also cut some good promos during that time. He didn’t sound like the 10-year-old trying to get the other 10-year-olds on his side at the playground. He sounded legitimate and that he believed what he was saying. But some nights he just sounds like he’s reciting lines.
When I hear that Eddie Kingston promo, I hear something I don’t hear very often on WWE television… passion. And I’m not saying that John Cena doesn’t have any passion. I see that passion when he walks out to the ring every time. But I just don’t hear his passion through his promos. You can only believe somebody’s else’s thoughts so much. Even the great actors-Kevin Spacey, Robert DeNiro, Meryl Streep, Susan Sarandon-you can tell when they are playing a role and when they are not in character. The problem is that too many times, John Cena sounds like the guy you see on The Marine and not the athlete you go for on your local sports team, which is who he should be.
What I would love is for WWE to bring back the passion. Stop scripting stuff for the boys to say. I’m ok with rehearsing, but let them say what they want. After you watch this Eddie Kingston promo, you can’t live without seeing High Noon. When was the last time we wanted to see a WWE pay-per-view that much?
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Hot off the heels of a Muppet invasion on RAW, comes Smackdown. And as per usual, I am expected lots of great action, so let’s just skip this intro stuff and hop to it, shall we?
Well, maybe not literally…
Well I’m back from vacation and like everyone else, it wasn’t long enough but life must go on and while things don’t seem to be slowing down here in BWFland, I must continue to give you what i do!
Didn’t I just do SmackDown on Friday? That’s right, fellow Bored Wrestling Fans, this is ThinkSoJoE covering for the one and only Aly Kat (who just turned 20 this past week, BTW) as she’s probably stuck at work. Come to think of it, I’m stuck at work too! Difference is, I can watch RAW while I’m here (though I’m not really supposed to). Anyways, I’m excited at the prospect of covering tonight’s RAW as many experts are saying that this could be a very important night in one of the biggest storylines in recent memory. A few folks have said WWE could screw the whole CM Punk thing up tonight, but every one of them, and myself, are hoping that they don’t. Let’s see what happens!
Last week, we saw one of the weirdest, most bizarre changes in wrestling history. Tonight, there seems to be a new era, the real-life McMahon-Helmsley era, if you will. Questions abound. Who will become champion? Will Alberto del Rio cash in Money in the Bank? Will we see Zack Ryder? Who will Mark Henry sideline? Will we ever see Sin Cara again? Will my wife bring me home my drink from Sonic? (She did, btw.)
The signature opens up. How do they have time for Ultimate Warrior? Are they proud of him? Really? (<—— Miz voice) No wonder CM Punk wants to quit.
Whyyyyy in the blue hellllllllll (<——– Rock voice) is the championship match kicking off a Raw? I liked the wrestlers watching in the back. These two had a really good match. Rey and Miz had really nice chemistry together. And then, in a move that surprised absolutely no one, Alberto del Rio came in to cash in his Money in the Bank. Rey let ADR know that he was ready when he did a plancha onto ADR. ADR changed his mind and took his briefcase and went to the back. We all saw ADR cashing it in, but not cowering out.
Vince McMahon on commentary used to drive “Anything can happen in the WWF” down our throats worse than Rocky Maivia. I feel like we’re getting to that place again.
Then we get a nice recap featuring a champagne bath featuring Zack Ryder. And then they cut to John Cena who shook his hand. Don’t worry, John. You’ll get it back in no time.
Then we have Dolph Ziggler versus Evan Bourne. (My wife likes Evan Bourne, so she stayed awake during this match.) Commentary was strong during this match. Lawler made Bourne seem important. This was a really strong match. It got over Ziggler and the sleeper hold. And I don’t think Bourne lost anything by losing here.
Keith Stone is once again on my tv. This is not acceptable. Maryse & Melina vs. Kelly Kelly & Eve Torres. I am liking Eve more and more. And Maryse is sexy. This is quite possibly the worst match on Raw I have seen in some time. I’m just happier that this match got longer than the Keith Stone segment.
R-Truth is talking to Triple-H. Back from the commercial break, Triple-H is in the ring. This feels important. This monologue gives me what I need to browse some Ring of Honor and WWE and MPX (Buy a $Payday$ t-shirt. Just because I said so.) t-shirts. I loved the swerve of us thinking CM Punk was coming out and getting Jim Ross instead. Though I gotta admit. The moment I hear the snare drums, I think of Roddy Piper. Then Cole cut a promo. HHH gave him the rest of the night off as an announcer. But not as a wrestler. Cole had a match next. Then R-Truth got the hottest segment of the night. HHH got to channel his old DX self. “Are you talking to me or are you talking to these other guys?” R-Truth does the psycho eyes better than anybody else. HHH watches R-Truth walk away and lets him know HHH re-signed somebody else-John Morrison.
Then Michael Cole came out to the ring in Triple-H’s music. And his opponent… Zack Ryder. In the span of a minute, my Twitter timeline had 16 comments about Zack Ryder. It was worse than the diva match, but in Cole’s defense, he’s not a wrestler. The crowd went nuts. It was nice. Please tell me they are going to use him.
We had a Kofi-Alberto del Rio match. Kofi is such an incredible athlete. Aside from Rey, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a luchador adjust to the WWE in-ring style as well as del Rio. The finish was really strong. Kofi almost had del Rio down for the pin. Kofi had an injured arm and tapped out because of the injury and looked pretty strong even after a loss.
HHH will be on Smackdown! The exclamation point is there because it’s on the name, not because I’m enthused.
My tv does not need to be adjusted. Jim Ross is supposed to be there. Who has an “Add Jim Ross” on their settings? Maybe he can do commentary on General Hospital. “Stone Cold! Stone Cold!” regarding Jason. (I’m married. Don’t judge me.)
Miz is not happy. A champion needs a face. And, in a cheap plug worthy of DX, Miz will be on The George Lopez Show on Wednesday. Something tells me Miz may NOT be the focal point of that show, as it most likely will be crashed. Then Rey comes out to face the Confederate Warrior. The crowd really is in to John Cena. Maybe they’re in Charleston, SC. I heard the Confederacy was big there. While I can mock them all I want, this was a hot crowd. Cena and Rey fought a really good match. I really had no idea who was going to win this one. Watching Cena win made me a little sick, but then Punk’s music hit and he has new music. They had a nice stare-down with their belts.
All in all, this was such a good Raw. There are things I didn’t like. I didn’t like Cena winning the belt. I didn’t like the divas segment/match. But all the rest of the matches were great. (I’m not counting Ryder-Cole as a match.) It was undpredictable, fun, and it sounds like they are listening to us.
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Well with most of the U.S. experiencing what it’s like to live in Drowville (it hit 100 degrees here in JTland for the first time in 9 years) it doesn’t meat the world doesn’t stop turning and everything comes to a halt, well if you don’t have air conditioning then maybe. So here’s what I think of what has happened in the last week: (more…)
What’s up folks, it’s good to be back, well at least for a couple weeks anyway (my vacation is July 29-August 7). So lets see what’s been happening in the world recently. 92 degrees in JTland here today so if anything sounds like it doesn’t make any sense, that’s why. (more…)
[King Leonidas voice/] This – is – “Smackdown!”