John Cena's Sweet Sixteen

Over the last year much has been made of the fact that John Cena's next world title win will tie him with Ric Flair's record of sixteen. Ever since he lost his fifteenth world championship at SummerSlam 2014 we've been hearing rumour through The Dirt Sheets™ that WWE wants to have Cena's next win and the reign it kicks off be big deals. We heard it mentioned on-screen leading up to SummerSlam this year, Cena's first title shot since January's Royal Rumble, with him specifically name-dropping Flair and announcing that he wants to reach that milestone.

This makes sense. With only one man having been as prolific as Cena when it comes to winning world titles it's entirely understandable that WWE would want to focus on that journey as a story. Cena equalling a record tally is a logical, understandable plot for wrestling because it focuses on wins and losses and the importance of titles. It's also something that has never really been done before in wrestling, at least not in the exact circumstance of someone tying Flair.

The thing is that Cena's world title win won't see him equal Flair's actual record. It will see him equal the WWE approved record, the one that discounts a number of 'Naitch's' early NWA world championship victories. For what it's worth Flair is said to privately consider himself something like a twenty-one time world champ. Not that Flair's private feelings or the legitimate number of title reigns he's had actually matters. What matters is that Flair is known as a sixteen time world champion and Cena's next win will see tie this.

The once and future champ.

When it comes (and it will come) Cena's next WWE championship reign needs to be something memorable¹. Running through standard issue title defences against Rollins, Kane and Orton won't cut it if WWE wants to do the story they're going for justice. What is the story they're going (or will be going) for? That in winning sixteen world championships Cena, who is frequently lambasted as a poor wrestler with little understanding of selling and ring psychology, is every bit as good as Ric Flair, who is frequently held up as the greatest professional wrestler ever.

A long title reign will be needed to do this story justice and for a long title reign WWE will need plenty of challengers. Right now there are very few people who could believably defeat Cena on pay-per-view. The number who could defeat him for a world title is even smaller, especially such an importantly numbered title. And if a long Cena title reign is to work in 2015 or beyond then the audience should be able to feel that Cena could lose in any defence, adding to the drama of each match, therefore heightening reactions and making the achievement of each successful retention seem greater.

Had one of Cena's allegedly star-making feuds against Bray Wyatt, Rusev or Kevin Owens gone differently over the last eighteen months things could be different. Had Cena left any one of those feuds without getting a victory then the opponent in question would be perfectly positioned as a title challenger for 'Big Match John' come his next world title reign. They could have been presented as the only man of the last decade Cena had failed to defeat and a favourite in a title match against him. Basically, Cena losing more in these programmes would have made a victory for him at a later point a bigger deal.

Rusev in particular could have been great in this role. Had WWE thought enough about it 'The Bulgarian Brute' could have been built up as Cena's gateway to a sixteenth world title. Had Rusev dropped Cena on three or four straight pay-per-views he would have been established as a juggernaut and a natural contender to the WWE world title. He could have won that from Rollins, either in a singles match (in the right city Rollins could have played the face) or a three-way including someone like Ambrose, Lesnar or Reigns to give people a face to get behind, and gone on to have a few months as a dominant world champion. Cena could have gone on his undercard quest to find himself (the Open Challenge thing could have worked as Cena testing himself instead of as a US title reign) before challenging Rusev to a world title match and beating him. This would have seen Cena finally getting the victory that had eluded him, ending Rusev's undefeated streak, and equalling the sixteen title reigns record in one match.

But, sadly, nobody in WWE seems to think that far ahead.

The good news is that Cena's next world title win is unlikely to roll around until next year.  Roman Reigns seems like the natural choice to take the belt from current champ Seth Rollins, likely at WrestleMania 32 Star in Texas next April. It's unlikely Reigns' inaugural world title run would last less than four months, which would take him through to SummerSlam, a fitting stage for Cena's big win. Next August gives WWE plenty of time to rebuild Rusev, Owens and Wyatt, along with preparing other acts like Cesaro, Stardust and Ryback, giving Cena the stacked roster he needs to make his sixteenth world title reign the success it deserves to be.

***

¹ The irony here is that Flair's final WCW world title reigns were massively underwhelming. The fifteenth world title reign of Ric Flair began on an episode of Nitro and lasted seven days, ending when he was stripped of the belt by Vince Russo. Jeff Jarrett then won the title later on the same show and lost it the following evening to Kevin Nash at a Thunder taping. 'Big Sexy' then handed the title back to Flair on the following Nitro², with Flair going on to lose the title back to Jarrett later on in the show.

Yes, that means Flair's famed sixteenth world title reign began with Kevin Nash handing him the belt and lasted less than two hours. Woooooo!

The Man Called Sting

Last Sunday was a significant day in pro wrestling history. After 29 years in the business Steve ‘Sting’ Borden stepped foot in a WWE ring for the first time. Okay, so he’s not worked for a bona fide major league company since 2001 and hasn’t been in anything that resembles a career prime since the 90s. And yes, the camera crew managed to miss Sting actually stepping foot into the ring. But it was a memorable moment nonetheless.

I’m not a big fan of Sting. When I first got into wrestling WCW was dying. It was shunted around very late night slots and as a result was hard to find. That didn’t really make me want to bother watching that often, but I’d record it when I could because I wanted to see as much wrestling as possible. I’m pretty sure the first time I saw Sting was when he was feuding with Vampiro. I’m sure that didn’t represent the man at his best, but it gave a terrible first impression. And that’s stuck with me.

I know I’m in the minority with this. The reaction he got at Survivor Series demonstrates that there are people out there who still care about ‘The Stinger’. That (disappointed) kid dressed as him the night after WrestleMania XXX proves the same thing. Although he’s not been relevant for years and will struggle to put on a worthwhile match it’s clear there are people willing to pay to see him. So it’s silly to argue that bringing him in wasn’t a good idea on WWE’s part.

This is exciting television, apparently.

Setting him up for a future clash with Triple H was a good decision too. ‘The Game’ can still get a passable match out of most guys and they’re big enough names that their meeting can be legitimately billed as a “dream match”. Not that lack of legitimacy would stop WWE, but it helps to have it.

Triple H versus Sting could happen either at Royal Rumble or WrestleMania 31. I imagine it will depend on how many matches Sting’s agreed to wrestle. If it’s one then they’ll clearly hold off until WrestleMania. If it’s more than one then it could happen at the Rumble, leaving Sting free to have that match with The Undertaker so many people want to see for some reason.

Personally I think he’ll wrestle at the Rumble and ‘Mania. It seems just a bit too much to expect the company to draw out his in-ring debut until March. Although that’s what I’d prefer, because I’m not really interested in seeing him wrestle anyone and I’m happy to wait as long as they want or not see it at all.

As good an idea as bringing in Sting is, two things puzzle me about Sting’s debut. The first is why he wasn’t used on the November 24 RAW the night after Survivor Series. He wasn’t announced for the show but considering he’d made his much anticipated first appearance the night before it seemed reasonable to expect him to show up, even if it was just to stand around looking confused. It’s extra strange when you look at how bad the post-Survivor Series RAW turned out: they didn’t even omit him in favour of doing something good.

The other thing is Sting’s storyline reasoning for moving to WWE. Why now, after all this time? Why at all, considering it was the nWo, originally presented as WWF invaders, that tipped happy, smiley, bleach blonde babyface Sting over the edge and sent him up into the rafters to become the brooding Crow rip-off he remains to this day? He was, more than anyone else, the embodiment of WCW. What is it that’s made him think now is the right time to turn up in WWE? Shouldn’t he hate WWE for destroying WCW all those years ago?

Hey, perhaps he does. Sting didn’t actually say anything during his brief appearance. And he did attack a WWE executive. Maybe he’s moved to WWE to try and bring the company down. That he’s waited over a decade to do this, killing most of that time in TNA, is puzzling but maybe he’ll say he was “biding his time.” That would be suitably naff and anticlimactic.

In all honesty this is something WWE is unlikely to touch on, even though they really should. For the sake of their own plot logic if nothing else.

Missed Opportunity: The WWF Light Heavyweight Division

Anyone watching WWF programming during the Attitude Era may have a few hazy memories of the light heavyweight championship. Christian winning it in his debut match, perhaps. Or Gillberg’s 453 day reign. Maybe even a particularly enjoyable match between Dean Malenko and Scotty 2 Hotty at Backlash 2000.

The chances are that anyone who does remember the light heavyweight championship won’t remember much more than that because it wasn’t a title that was really featured too often. It was seen very rarely after 1998. Pay-per-view appearances for the championship were practically non-existent once 1999 hit. For that matter they weren’t all that common before then.

Some may wonder why the company had a light heavyweight championship in the first place. It’s a well-known fact that the Fed was the home of the big men, with Vince McMahon having little time for smaller guys. The answer’s obvious though. The light heavyweight title was introduced to combat the cruiserweights on the other channel.

World Championship Wrestling had had a great deal of success with its cruiserweight division. They’d discovered that the smaller guys put on great matches that excited viewers, the ideal thing for an opening match, and that they didn’t need an abundance of storyline. Two guys could just be put into the ring, leaving the booking team more time to focus on writing for the more important (read “higher paid”)guys like the nWo and Goldberg.

The WWF put on a light heavyweight tournament, crowned a champion, and booked a few defences on RAW and pay-per-view. When they didn’t see ratings spike in these light heavyweight segments they took it as a sign that their fans weren’t interested in smaller guys having high quality matches and demoted the championship. Within a year of its official debut as a title (it had been floating around Japan and Mexico for sixteen years prior to the crowning of the first in-house champ) it was practically meaningless. It would enjoy a brief resurgence in the first half of 2000 when Malenko joined the promotion but it wouldn’t last. The WWF light heavyweight championship was ultimately always destined for oblivion.

This needn’t have been the case. Had a greater effort been put into the light heavyweight division in the summer of 1998 it could have been established as a highlight of the period along with Austin, DX, Mick Foley, The Rock, and a heavy-on-storylines mid-card.

There are six combinations for singles matches amongst these four guys alone.
And that's discounting Yamaguchi-San.

The company had the talent, it was just a matter of utilising it. In June of 1998, around the time the company seemed to decide the light heavyweight division was a waste of time, Kaientai were at full strength. That’s Taka Michinoku, Sho Funaki, Men's Teioh and Dick Togo, four guys who could have had great singles matches with one another had they just been split up. A number of Mexican wrestlers were being used on an infrequent basis. Aguila, who would later be signed and win the championship as Essa Rios, had challenged for the gold at WrestleMania XIV. Pantera had done the same the month before, at the amusingly named No Way Out of Texas pay-per-view. Super Crazy, as Super Loco, had wrestled a single tournament match the previous November and would appear again later in 1998.

Also affiliated with the company at this point were the Hardy brothers. In the summer of ’98 the Hardys were still a year away from becoming TV regulars with full contracts but they’d been working as enhancement talent for years. Both were good enough to work in low-card matches where the focus was on match quality as opposed to promos and storylines. They’d have been an ideal fit for the light heavyweight division. Well, Jeff would have been. Matt wouldn’t have been ideal, but he’d have been a solid addition.

Under contract at this point were Scott Taylor and Brian Christopher. They’d been put together as a team earlier in the year (peculiarly, they had debuted as a pairing at WrestleMania XIV) but they were still a while off of becoming Too Cool. They were well placed to work as the lead heels of a light heavyweight division. Christopher, being thicker than most of the men mentioned here, would have been a good fit as the bruiser of the division.

They had Sean ‘X Pac’ Waltman too, of course. He would go on to hold the light heavyweight championship in 2001 but was nowhere near it in 1998. I suspect that was because he was presented as a high profile signing and was associated with the ultra-hip, super-cool D-Generation X. It’s likely that the feeling was that the light heavyweight championship was beneath the gang. Plus X Pac was injured for a significant portion of the year and when he was healthy he was competing for the European strap.

Dean Malenko, perhaps  thinking about what could have been.

Splitting Kaientai and signing the guys they were already sporadically using would have provided a solid roster. Granting the guys one match a week on RAW would have been enough exposure for the division to be taken seriously and would have provided ideal opening match material. Carrying the approach over into 1999 and signing one or two new names would have kept things fresh and the division alive for the signing of Dean Malenko and Eddie Guerrero in January 2000.

The division would not have lasted long term, of course. The average size of WWE wrestlers has significantly reduced since the Attitude Era came to a close. The light heavyweight scene would have been faded out as this become more apparent. WWE wouldn’t have wanted guys going from the light heavyweight championship to the WWE championship because it would have highlighted the shift away from larger guys.

But they could have gotten far more mileage out of the concept than they did. It’s depressing to think how close the WWF came to having a really good light heavyweight division. Just a bit of effort would have allowed them to play WCW at their own game. But it wasn’t to be. It’s just one of many things on the long list of WWF and WWE missed opportunities.

Expanding NXT

On Friday the official WWE Twitter account sent out a message saying that people had waited long enough and that ‘The Next Generation’ should be prepared for. That was followed by the (Americanised) abbreviated date for Monday. While this could be a deliberately misleading way of saying that there’s a video game announcement coming (something they’ve done before with a Sting video) it seems more likely that it will have something to do with NXT stars appearing on RAW again. Adrian Neville and Sami Zayn versus Tyson Kidd and Tyler Breeze took place on the September 1 RAW and The Ascension debuted in the main event of… erm… Main Event , while Triple H has announced a desire to grow the NXT brand into something akin to WCW. Assuming Neville and the gang have a presence on Monday’s RAW it looks like NXT’s expansion is something WWE are serious about.

What seems likeliest to me is that Neville, Breeze, Zayn and Kidd, or a combination from that group, will be put out in front of the RAW crowd in the usually uneventful second hour. That’s generally where the lengthier, more enjoyable matches with no particular storyline motive for happening get put. The audience have been sitting around for a while by that point and need to be perked up to stop them from dying a death before the final, action-packed hour of John Cena, Authority and-or Paul Heyman plus hatever the main event is.

Is this guy coming to a RAW near you?

Any combo from amongst that four can have a great match and would fit snugly into the hour two approach. The Ascension could have a good showing too, either against a pairing of Neville and Zayn or an established jobber tandem from the big boy roster. The NXT guys actually have storylines to develop, carried over from NXT, which gives them an edge on the likes of Kofi Kingston, Fandango and Slater Gator. Given a backstage interview segment and-or a brief in-ring promo and they could actually make people care about their match and encourage interest in their brand.

The decision to give a batch of guys a call-up, instead of bringing them up individually over a course of months, is a nice change of pace from WWE. Four of the six guys come in with a readymade feud while The Ascension have an easy to understand gimmick and a rough ‘n’ ready style that isn’t especially common in WWE and will help them stand out. The influx of new talent will highlight to people unaware of NXT that it’s worth watching for quality wrestling and engaging, uncomplicated plots. That in turn may convince a few people to sign up to the Network to check the show out, which I’m sure is one of WWE’s reasons for taking this approach.

But the talk of making NXT the next WCW feels a step too far. It implies a level of expansion that could remove what makes NXT so enjoyable: specifically touring and an extended running time. Right now NXT runs live events in small venues around the state of Florida and returns to Full Sail University to tape television every four weeks or so, with a pattern of two hour live supershows every three months having emerged since the launch of the WWE Network. It’s a pace that works very well for the smaller, more wrestling-focused league and one WWE should be wary of tampering with too much.

An expanded touring schedule would be nice to see (especially an overseas one taking in small venues in southern England – just saying) but tapings outside of Full Sail would run the risk of robbing the televised product of a crowd familiar with and passionate about the entire roster. That’s a problem that could be overcome by finding another town that consistently attracts a similarly enthusiastic and positive crowd. But that shouldn’t be rushed into, especially with the regular NXT audience being so good.

The prospect of NXT gaining more TV time is more of a concern. A large part of why it’s as enjoyable as it is is its one hour running time, perfected over the last two years to the point where the writing team understand how to best use the minutes they have to expose the key members of their roster on a mostly weekly basis while integrating lesser acts at suitable intervals. Going to two hours would require an alternate approach, immediately ruining part of the existing appeal and risking the show feeling bloated. With the NXT TV show less is certainly more.

This said it is positive that Triple H is so passionate about the developmental show. And the talk of it becoming its own brand is nice to hear. It’s just the idea of expanding it beyond its means that concerns me. Had he stopped at drawing a parallel with ECW I’d feel far more confident, because ECW operated on a scale more in line with NXT than did WCW. Also, ECW primarily went out of business because of one man’s inability to manage finances whilst WCW went out of business because it became a toxic brand nobody with money wanted to associate with.

Back to NXT. Breeze, Neville, and Zayn (and maybe The Ascension) getting regular exposure on RAW while still being officially assigned to NXT is interesting and something I think will work well. Viewers can get used to the new guys gradually, rather than being expected to take them as they’re thrust into a feud with a longstanding mid-card no-hoper nobody has any reason to care about. But expanding NXT as a whole is something WWE shouldn’t rush into. And the WCW comparisons should definitely be avoided in future.

Sean O'Haire: A Retrospective

On Tuesday 9 September Sean O'Haire was reported dead. The following day the cause of his death was given as suicide. O'Haire had hanged himself in his home in Spartanburg, South Carolina. He was 43.

Back in 2000 I would do something pretty unfashionable for the time and watch WCW. Worldwide had a pretty enviable late afternoon spot on Channel 5 at the time and Nitro was shunted around very late night slots on Bravo. I'd tape that when I could. Overall the shows were unengaging and confusing, being heavy on nonsense storylines and past their prime names. But I watched it because I was desperate for as much wrestling as possible.

In amongst the paternity tests, pole matches and reformations of groups I was given no reason to care about were a handful of guys being presented as rising stars. Amongst them was Sean O'Haire. When I first saw him he was teaming with Mark Jindrak. By the time Worldwide was scrubbed from 5's afternoon line-up and Nitro became even harder to locate with a TV remote he was teaming with Chuck Palumbo.

Neither of these teams was amazing. The latter clearly had more promise because Palumbo was a more capable guy than Jindrak, which was the point of the shift. A constant across both pairs was the impressiveness of O'Haire. He was a six foot six inch dude who could do spin kicks and planchas and he used the Swanton bomb (dubbed the Sean-ton bomb because wrestler's are obliged to cram their name into move names whenever possible) as a finisher. Mixed with the more expectable power offence and a fair amount of energetic dashing about it was clear that O'Haire was a very athletic man who would go far in wrestling.

Sadly, he never did.

When the WWF purchase of WCW happened in the spring of 2001 O'Haire was one of the performers who made the move for the invasion storyline. It seemed a promising move. O'Haire had the size and look that the Fed traditionally liked in their featured stars. It was fair to assume that he would be a key player in the invasion storyline, especially with an increasing number of recognisable WCW names opting to sit it out in favour of continuing to get paid by AOL Time Warner.

Along with Palumbo he appeared on WWF television, wrestled at the InVasion pay-per-view, and entered a lopsided feud with The Brothers of Destruction. Palumbo and O'Haire lost the WCW tag team titles to Kane and 'Taker in a poor cage match on the August 9 2001 SmackDown. They never regained them. Worse still, they were dropped down the card with O’Haire ultimately plummeting to the developmental level, deemed not polished enough for the bright lights and heady highs of Monday Night RAW.

It's true that O'Haire (and Palumbo for that matter) were not as good as many of their peers but they were better than they had been a year before. They were also in an established team, which was helping to disguise their lack of polish. But that didn't matter. They were demoted.

O'Haire made his return in January 2003. He'd grown out his hair, gotten some more tattoos, adopted a spider motif for his tights, and taken to wearing a long leather jacket. He was also doing a devil's advocate type gimmick with the catchphrase 'Hey, I'm not telling you anything you don't already know.' It was a character that had potential to go somewhere and set O’Haire apart.

Unfortunately, through no fault of O’Haire’s, the character bombed. WWE clearly had no plans for it beyond the introductory vignettes and O'Haire found himself paired up with the washed up Roddy Piper. He worked in an enforcer role for a while, with the devil’s advocate aspect entirely forgotten beyond token remarks from the commentary desk, before Piper left the company and he found himself a regular on weekend show Velocity. Later in the year he was injured in a bike crash. He would return to action in OVW in February 2004. In April he asked for and was granted his release from the company.

I never saw O'Haire wrestle after he left WWE. He appeared for a few indies and apparently worked some New Japan shows, but he achieved nothing of note. He dabbled in MMA too, but didn't make much of an impression there either. He won't go down as one of the all-time greats, but he was never really given the chance to do so. He peaked early in WCW and WWE never did anything much with him after seemingly tiring of him during the invasion. I'll always think of O'Haire as a guy that showed promise and deserved more of an opportunity than he was ever given. But hey, I’m not telling you anything you don’t already know.

Needs More Nash

You know what wrestling needs? Another Kevin Nash.

'Big Sexy' may not have been the greatest wrestler ever but he didn't need to be. He was a Big Man, and rules for Big Men are different to the rules for average guys or small guys. It is, for better or worse, how wrestling works. In fairness he wasn't the best Big Man to ever step into the ring either. But he had other desirable attributes that made up (and still do) for that.

They didn't call him 'Big Daddy Cool' for nothing.

The best thing about Nash is his sense of humour. It got out of control in WCW (even before he was put in charge of the creative team and could book himself to participate in all the nonsense segments he wanted) but during his initial run in the WWF it was pitched perfectly. Nash knew when and how to crack a joke to get crowds on side, and when and how to incorporate the funnies into a match. For a guy who spent his (short) prime years in the main event that was a useful tool. It’s one very few current guys have.

Nash is also a riot on pretty much any shoot interview you care to pick. Although that's at least partly down to a healthy supply of wine and the fact that the basic concept plays to his strengths. The shoot interview premise could actually have been created specifically for 'Big Daddy Cool' it's such a good fit.

The other significant thing that often gets overlooked about Nash is that he knew how a larger guy should act in wrestling. The closest names we have to Nash today are The Great Khali and Big Show. Part of the problem with Khali is that his body has been near enough destroyed but even if he were healthy it's clear from even his "best" (I use that term loosely) performances that he doesn't possess that aptitude for wrestling that Nash does and did in his prime.

Show’s better. He can be far more sympathetic than Big Kev ever was (mostly attributable to his ability to cry on cue) and is a funny and witty fella in his own right. But he can’t compare to Nash Prime’s athletic credentials.

Nash’s psychology and selling were solid and, most importantly, he knew how to make a match opposite a smaller man convincing. There’s nobody of his size who can put on as enjoyable a performance these days. Even with talented rosters in various promotions there's nobody who has the height and skill of Nash in his prime.

Wrestling needs someone like that. As great as it is to watch technical, fast-paced matches between smaller, athletic guys the wrestling business needs big dudes. The genre thrives on variety and spectacle, and nothing provides that better than a big lad. And the best big lads can draw people in and move at a lick that bely their size. WWE should start scouring the basketball courts.

Rey Mysterio's Last Stand

For the past several years Rey Mysterio's injury-inspired comings and goings have seen the star greeted with increasing indifference by the WWE faithful. At Royal Rumble it progressed into outright hostility. WWE are being sent a sign. Fans are not as keen on Rey Mysterio as they used to be.

In one sense this is saddening. As Rey Misterio Jr he was at one time numbered among the greatest high-flying wrestlers in the world. A look at pretty much any of his work in AAA and WCW bears that out. He entered dynamic performances notable for their dazzling aerial moves and breakneck speed. Before even turning up in WWE Rey had a string of classics to his name with the likes of Eddie Guerrero, Ultimo Dragon, Psicosis, Blitzkrieg, and Dean Malenko.

Rey's move to WWE gave his career a shot in the arm after it had lagged in WCW’s final years. After sitting out the poorly received invasion angle (Rey was paid by Time Warner after WCW shut down, as were various other personalities) Rey moved to WWE just as they launched their separate rosters initiative. It was perfect timing for him: with SmackDown only having access to half of the promotion's top stars the twenty eight year old Rey (now going by the name Rey Mysterio) was immediately presented as a rising star.

Although he altered his style to be more compatible with WWE’s it was still unlike anything that had been presented by the company in years. Coupled with his natural charisma and marketable look Rey was a success almost instantly. His first few years with the company were characterised by memorable interactions with the likes of Edge, Kurt Angle, Chris Benoit, and old foe Eddie Guerrero.

Mysterio had a good run in WWE. He was consistently presented as a top act for many years and worked opposite practically every major name in the company in meaningful programmes. He took the smart approach of altering his style as his went, phasing out things such as his springboard hurricanrana and replacing them with moves like his springboard leg drop in order to preserve his body. His merchandise continued to sell well too. Even now he's amongst the top sellers in WWE, thanks mainly to his masks.

"Come in number 619, your time is up."

But nothing lasts forever, as alluded to in the opening paragraph. Despite taking the necessary precautions Mysterio's style started to catch up to him and he became synonymous not with being an incredible high-flying attraction and top tier all-rounder but with being massively unreliable and permanently injured. When he wasn’t taking a lengthy break for surgery, "personal situations" or a general rest Rey was entering performances that would have embarrassed him a decade earlier.

The boos Rey heard at Royal Rumble, and again in his battle royal appearance at WrestleMania XXX and the April 7 RAW, was the audience's way of saying that they're tired of Rey Mysterio. I agree with them, as I've written before. Mysterio should retire while he's still capable of getting close to the high standard he set for himself throughout much of his career. The perfect time for that would be at next year's WrestleMania XXXI. It will be held in Santa Clara, California, Mysterio's home state. A man of his standing deserves to go out with a retirement match at WrestleMania, especially if it's in an area particularly meaningful to them or their career. There's no better place for Rey to retire, and enter the Hall of Fame, than California.

But right now that's still a year away. WWE could simply keep Rey off TV until early next year, bringing him back to work a two or three month story culminating in his last outing at 'Mania opposite a rising star who'd benefit from defeating him. But I'd like to see them do something different, something I first suggested years ago when I started writing this blog (read that here).

Turn Rey Mysterio heel.

As I wrote when I first suggested this it's a move that would allow Rey to wrestle a slower, less demanding style. It would also give him something different to do and a fresh batch of opponents to work against. Obviously a heel turn would have to be negated before his retirement angle in order for him to get the send-off he deserves, but that could be achieved easily enough by having him lose a feud in autumn and disappear for a few months, ensuring he could return healthy in 2015 for a face switch and a final farewell run.

One thing's for sure: if Mysterio keeps up his current comings and goings much longer he's going to risk eroding the good memories many have of the bulk of his career, which would mean being remembered as another guy who outlived his welcome and use. Retiring in the next year preserves Rey's health and legacy. Frankly, it's the only sensible option.

Global Boom

You’ve probably noticed that Jeff Jarrett has a new wrestling promotion under construction. It will be called Global Force Wrestling and it’s being created for a number of reasons. First and foremost it’s because Jeff no longer holds a position with TNA, the company he founded with his father (Jerry) in 2002. Despite selling control of the company to the Carter family’s Panda Energy Jeff kept a position with the group for a number of years, including the years after he stopped being a TV presence. That changed a few months ago when he announced he was leaving. It seems fair to assume, given his new venture, that Jarrett was tired of being a bit part player in a company he’d intended to be North America’s number two wrestling league. Jeff Jarrett wanted to be the boss again.

Secondly, he feels that another wrestling boom period is imminent. While promoting his new league he’s said that now is the best time to start up a wrestling company because it’s due to shift back into the mainstream. He seems tuned in enough to realise that WWE is going to be the focal point of such a boom (should it materialise) but understands that being a new group while people are just getting interested in wrestling again (or for the first time) will help him build a fan base. A new promotion will feel fresh and new and be more capable of providing jump-in, introductory points than even WWE. There will be a certain dynamism that companies that have existed for more than a few years (basically the entire crop of meaningful indy feds) won’t be able to create.

It’s actually timing that may have doomed TNA from the very start. Wrestling’s last major period of significance started in the mid-nineties and ran through to 2001. It was characterised by the innovative ECW, the Monday Night Wars between the WWF and WCW, and the WWF’s Attitude Era. It was never going to last forever and in hindsight it was always going to wind down after either WCW or the WWF folded. The natural conclusion, basically, was always going to be an invasion of the WWF by WCW talent (or, in some alternate universe somewhere, an invasion of WCW by WWF talent).

Even if that storyline had been expertly handled and booked with no expense spared it was never going to stretch much beyond the early months of 2002. That it was so badly presented only helped to drive less enthusiastic viewers away sooner than would otherwise have been the case. By March 2002, a year after the closure of WCW, the WWF was the only game in town and it was not providing storylines anywhere near as compelling as it had two years before.

Setting up a wrestling company just a year after a hot streak had finished and while the market leader (which dictates how wrestling is perceived in general) was being particularly uninspiring was not the greatest move. But it’s the one the Jarretts made. And in fairness although it was ill-fated it did make sense. They couldn’t sit around waiting for the WWF (soon to become WWE) to get hot again. If they wanted to start a promotion they needed to do it then because there were still significant names floating around from the boom period that had only just ended, plus newcomers wanting a break that McMahon Corp weren’t going to provide.

This time it appears that Jarrett’s timing is better. While I’m not as confident as he is that wrestling’s about to explode into mainstream pop culture again, it is at least a positive sign that WWE’s doing better than when he started TNA. It creates an environment in which wrestling is taken as more acceptable. There’s also the fact that the viewing habits of fans have changed over the years. The internet has made it easier to watch wrestling from all over the world, and old footage too. People’s tastes have become more sophisticated and they understand the business better (whether the people in the business want to admit that or not). It’s easier to present a product that’s less storyline driven and more about athletic ability than it would have been ten years ago because fans at large have become more accepting of the variety of styles that make up professional wrestling.

And it seems as though that’s the approach ‘Double J’ is planning to take. We’ve heard that he’s “created a database” (a pretentious way of saying he’s got a list of names and numbers) with over five hundred entries on it. Obviously you’re not going to have five hundred main event calibre performers on any list. But equally you’re going to have a list that long and have no main event calibre names. Looking beyond the specifics of who Jarrett has and hasn’t signed we can say confidently that he will have some worthwhile talent available to him.

He’s also linked himself to a production company in California. That’s a good move in itself for the obvious reason that he’ll need to produce some sort of show to air and sell. Going with a company in California is a particularly good move. That’s the US’s entertainment mecca, making hobnobbing with other companies that could cross promote far easier than it would be if they were based in, oh, I don’t know, Baltimore, Maryland (cough, ROH, cough!). It also means that they’ll be promoting in an area that has all the technical equipment and venues (of all sizes) they could need. It also sets them up nicely to promote shows at next year’s WrestleMania weekend without going outside of what will I imagine will still be their comfort zone, although that’s more a happy coincidence than planning.

At first glance the idea of Global Force Wrestling has a lot of potential. That Jarrett appears to have worked out deals with talent from around the globe (presumably the name is intended as a literal reflection of his promotion’s scope as opposed to being an all too common bit of hollow wrestling wording) will allow him to present a variety of styles that will provide something for everyone watching. Theoretically it will help viewers discover new styles they enjoy too. As WWE only promotes the sports entertainment style (although in fairness it should be pointed out that this is far more flexible than many make out and does change with the times), DG USA and ROH don’t venture much outside their own comfort zones, and TNA are a complete shambles with no definitive style to speak of, that gives him something unique to offer anyone watching.

I think it’s safe to assume he’ll get some working arrangements sorted out with other promotions too. Jarrett was the man credited with getting TNA deals with AAA and Wrestle-1. As soon as whatever contracts are in place with TNA expire it’s entirely possible Jarrett will be able to swoop in and negotiate something for GFW in their place. In fact TNA itself is on shaky legs: should they go under Jarrett would have access to a wide selection of reasonably well-known names to feature on his shows.

Not everything about GFW inspires confidence. While Jarrett has been involved in wrestling for his entire adult life he’s not exactly got a string of successes to his name. I’ve already mentioned TNA, which is the closest thing we’ve got to a track record for Jarrett as an owner-operator-booker, is not in a good way. While the absence of former WWE, WCW and TNA stars will be a blessing for the most part it also means Jarrett will have to work that bit harder to get people interested. Modern fans may see quality wrestling as a reason to watch in and of itself but a significant name doesn’t hurt. And it may sound like nitpicking but the name Global Force Wrestling doesn’t roll off the tongue no matter how well it may reflect Jarrett’s international desires.

But the biggest problem I can see is that there’s not a particularly compelling advertising campaign attached to the group. Look back and see how it started: pictures of Karen Jarrett and the question of whether you missed her. She, at first glance, was the star of the group. While that no longer appears to be the case it’s still strange that they went with her in the first place. Yes, she’s an attractive woman who’d been an on-screen presence in TNA but if you’re trying to build interest in a wrestling company wouldn’t it be a good idea to start out by announcing you’ve got a significant wrestler on board? Perhaps the trouble there is that they didn’t and don’t have such a name interested and Karen Jarrett was their second best option (in such a scenario Jeff would be the top choice, although he doesn’t look as good lying around a beach) for presenting a big name from the business that could draw people in.

Social media (Twitter, basically) is likely to play an important part of GFW. If Jarrett’s going to be using a fraction of his purportedly five hundred strong roster (database, call it what you will) my assumption is that he’s going to be looking at social media response just as much, if not more than, the reactions of live crowds. So far I’ve seen nothing that makes me think he has anybody particularly ‘net savvy working for him in this department. The entire campaign has been based around posting pictures of the Jarrett and sometimes Karen posing with various wrestlers, everyone from Carlito to Jay Lethal to Gregory Helms to Bad Influence. Nobody interesting that they’ve shown pictures of (Nash and Bret Hart are about the only proven draws) is going to sign a contract, and the Lethals and Bad Influences of the world, as good as they may be, are not the stuff from which a dynamic new wrestling product can be fashioned.

That Wrestling Podcast Episode 50

That Wrestling Podcast Episode 50 by Dave Hatton on Mixcloud

Thought the first episode of That Wrestling Podcast after WrestleMania XXX would be all about the big show and the following night’s RAW? Think again.

For this episode we take a trip down memory lane. No, not WrestleMania XXIX. Or XXVIII. No WrestleMania at all. In fact the topic isn’t even WWE related. No, in this episode we discuss World Championship Wrestling.

This didn't help.

Specifically we talk about what caused WCW to spiral out of control and ultimately go out of business. Everything from the booking to the huge guaranteed contracts to the overreliance on the New World Order angle is discussed. And, naturally, the fact that it ended up being owned by a company that didn’t want anything to do with the wrestling business.

This is a topic I’ve wanted to write about before. It’s one I’m sure I’ll cover one day but not anytime soon. There’s so much to cover that it needs to be done right. This podcast episode will have to suffice for now.

Sting: The Final Holdout?

It’s the time of year when Sting moving his career over to WWE becomes a thing. I’m not going to write about how close the two parties are to reaching a deal because we don’t know, and we won’t know until an announcement is made. Or perhaps even until Sting shows up one night on RAW.

What can be talked about is whether Sting has anything significant to offer WWE. Looking passed the in-ring possibilities for a second there are various uses he could be put to. A DVD looking back on his career would be the obvious first project. His TNA stint would have to be omitted but, really, that’s not much of a loss. It’s his days in WCW, and earlier stints in the UWF and Memphis, that would be of most interest. Those are periods of his career that have not been satisfactorily documented.

In a similar vein ‘The Stinger’ could contribute to future projects centred round defunct promotions and wrestlers he worked with. In truth many of the DVDs Sting could make interesting contributions to have already been released. There are various releases out there covering the likes of Hulk Hogan, Ric Flair and World Championship Wrestling, but WWE aren’t known for their restraint. It’s not impossible they’ll produce more documentaries on these wrestlers and companies in the future.

There are a handful of wrestlers WWE haven’t ever given the DVD treatment whom Sting could speak on at length. Vader, Diamond Dallas Page, Lex Luger and the Steiner brothers for example. None of these would be amongst the biggest money releases ever, but there would be a market for them. They could add something (I’ll diplomatically say content) to the WWE Network too.

Speaking of which, appearances on whatever shows are coming our way on the Network would be a certainty too. Which is fine. Whatever Sting has to say on any subject to do with wrestling it will at least be something we’ve not heard a dozen times before. His is a perspective that won’t necessarily be overly familiar to WWE viewers.

What most people will be excited about regarding a potential WWE-Sting deal are the matches. I can understand this in theory: he’s a big name in wrestling that has never worked for the company or faced many members of the roster. There’s a feeling of freshness to Sting joining the promotion.

Sting does not look like this anymore

In practice it’s a different story. Sting will be presented as something akin to the final holdout from WCW. That league last promoted a show thirteen years ago. It’s arguable that it wasn’t relevant or worth watching for a significant amount of time before that. WCW is not a company people care about in a meaningful sense anymore. And a lag time of thirteen years will make Sting look old, something that won’t be helped by the fact that he is old for an active wrestler at fifty-four. Without TNA footage to span the gap WWE will be forced to remind people of Sting via footage of him in which he looks significantly younger, even under the face paint.

On top of that you have the fact that, well, Sting’s just not very good. He was never the greatest wrestler around but he had a certain charisma to him that many responded to. I didn’t see any trace of that during his decade in TNA. Yes he was cheered and yes people reacted to him, but not in the same way as in his heyday.

Part of that may simply be attributable to the fact that he was working for what is essentially a glorified indy promotion. It’s possible that WWE will be able to work their magic and make ‘The Icon’ appear significant again. Using him in a reduced role, which WWE surely would, would help too. Being a TV regular, essentially making him just another name (as was the case in TNA), is not something that helps ‘The Stinger’s’ aura or standing.

But whether he’s good or not there are enough fresh matches on the roster to keep him busy for a year or two (assuming he worked a schedule that didn’t see him on every pay-per-view). Sting versus Triple H, Sting versus Brock Lesnar and Sting versus Batista would probably be among the first we’d be offered. I suspect Sting and ‘The Game’ would turn out something best described as proficient. I certainly can’t imagine it feeling special. The same goes for Sting and ‘The Animal’, although that would be less proficient and more a train wreck. for Sting v Lesnar would probably be a train wreck too, although it would be a compelling one, in the style of all Lesnar matches since his 2012 return: less a wrestling match, more a wild fight where part of the appeal lies in seeing what ‘The Pain’ will do to get himself over as a wild man.

Matches with The Rock and The Undertaker could be presented as the loyalist WWE performer against the loyalist WCW performer (it would only work with whichever bout went first, although that wouldn’t necessarily stop WWE from using the approach twice). The loyalist thing is something that’s so obvious that I think WWE would have to acknowledge it but it would have had far more impact and meaning had Sting moved to WWE within a few years of WCW’s closure, rather than waiting thirteen years. Both matches would be reliant on the limited schedules of the WWE boys though, natch.

Sting versus ‘The Great One’ would probably be fine. Neither man’s strength is actually wrestling, but they’re both good enough to put on something decent. It would be a spectacle.

Sting versus ‘Taker would also be a spectacle, and probably the better match. The trouble here is that Undertaker making an appearance at a pay-per-view not named WrestleMania seems unlikely and Sting doesn’t feel special enough to challenge The Streak. Had Sting signed on for WrestleMania XXVIII, held in WCW stronghold Atlanta, the match could have worked and the show, and Hall of Fame, could have been given a WCW flavour. But now, with Undertaker winding down and likely only having a few Streak defences left in him, I think younger guys like Daniel Bryan and Bray Wyatt deserve a ‘Mania match with ‘The Dead Man’ more than Sting.

The Bryans and Wyatts of the roster, along with potential pushees Dolph Ziggler, Damien Sandow and Cody Rhodes, would be the opponents I’d most like to see Sting face. CM Punk too, if he were to return. They’re all good enough to have great matches with Sting and are, or could be with a bit of work, meaningful enough to fans that the matches would feel like big deals.

If Sting shows up in WWE any time soon I think it’s going to be on April 7, the RAW after WrestleMania XXX. Whether I’m right or not if he does move to WWE I hope they don’t overuse him and select his opponents with care. And keep him away from The Streak.

That Wrestling Podcast Episode 36

That Wrestling Podcast Episode 36 by Dave Hatton on Mixcloud

I’ve already posted my thoughts on the WWE Network. They can be found here. In this episode we discuss the Network again but talk a bit more about what could come from it in the future.

To get a bit specific before you press play I think if the Network’s around in five years (and it almost certainly will be) I think WWE will be making original dramas for the Network, unrelated to wrestling. Netflix and other internet-based television services (are they television services if you’re not watching on a television?) are already doing this. WWE will want to do it in order to compete and, perhaps more importantly, to show that they can. It’s the WWE way to show that the company is incredibly versatile even though it isn’t.



You'll be able to watch this happen on the Network, should you want to

Something about the Network that isn’t discussed in this episode is Chris Benoit. WWE has stated that footage of him will be shown unedited but will be preceded by warnings. I think this is the best way for them to approach the issue. With the reputation they have and the market they target they can’t just show footage of a murderer without some form of disclaimer.

At the same time he was such an important part of WCW and WWE for so long that it would make editing him out of storylines a lengthy process, and one that would ruin large chunks of shows he wasn’t directly featured on due to the nature of how wrestling programmes are put together. What they’ve chosen to do allows people to opt out of watching Benoit if they wish while not depriving people of the complete viewing experience they’ll be paying for.

For the record I’m most looking forward to watching ECW footage when the Network gets launched. It is, for me, the most interesting part of WWE’s extensive library. I mention this mainly so that this post can end on a positive note. Now press play!

The WWE Network

It was September 2011 when WWE first announced their plan to create the imaginatively named WWE Network. To put things in perspective that was the year that The Rock wrestled his first match since 2002, Michael Cole was wrestling’s most over heel, Miz went into WrestleMania as WWE champion to beat John Cena, and RAW was still only two hours long. Beyond the name nothing was known about the Network.

That changed the following month when WWE aired a trailer stating that the Network would launch on April 1^st 2012, just in time for WrestleMania XXVIII. But that launch was quietly dropped, never to be acknowledged again by WWE. It can be explained either as WWE not appreciating how much work was involved in launching a television channel when they announced the date or as one of the most outlandish April Fools’ Day pranks in history. Probably the former.

Yes, television channel. That was WWE’s original plan. They looked at starting one from scratch to begin with but when they realised it would be too expensive and complex they started looking at buying existing stations to be rebranded. That didn’t come to anything either.

WWE didn’t seem to know quite how to go about following up on their bravado-laden announcement. They knew they wanted their own channel but they didn’t know how to get it. It was a logical goal for the company to have. In addition to owning nearly five decades’ of their own footage they’d also bought up the archive rights of the American Wrestling Association, Smoky Mountain Wrestling, a variety of National Wrestling Alliance territories, World Championship Wrestling, and Extreme Championship Wrestling. Having so much at their disposal and doing nothing with it was not, ahem, best for business. Releasing even the highlights from these promotions in a physical format would have been impractical. Creating their own broadcasting service was the most sensible approach WWE could take if it wanted to make use of the footage it had spent a lot of money acquiring.

By summer 2012 things had quietened down on the Network front. The rumour and news sites kept us posted on enquiries WWE made, the people appointed to various roles, and Vince McMahon’s wavering passion and mental stability regarding the endeavour but no news on what form the Network would actually take was released.

Took them long enough to organise a new logo

Obviously at some point between then and now WWE gave up on the idea of having it as a TV channel because it was announced on January 8^th 2014 that the WWE Network would launch as a streaming service on WWE’s website. My personal opinion (and bear in mind that I am a wrestling fan with opinions, not an expert analyst on the television industry or video on demand services) is that a streaming service is a far better choice than a TV channel for WWE. Even if they owned the TV channel outright WWE would have had only twenty-four hours a day in which to broadcast. With thousands of hours of footage available to them how would they have concocted a schedule that appealed to everyone likely to buy a subscription as well as casual viewers who needed winning over? The streaming service allows people to watch what they want when they want at the same time as giving WWE the option of broadcasting live.

The live broadcasts are apparently something they want to do, which should come as a surprise to nobody. Vince’s product has always had a place for overblown interview segments. More significantly there are things like The Bobby Heenan Show and the recent pay-per-view pre-show series to look at. While TBHS was only ever fifteen minutes in length and slipped into an existing wrestling programme it indicates that Vince McMahon and WWE see value in studio-based talk segments and have done for decades.

A daily WWE show from a studio (likely in Greenwich, Connecticut or somewhere close by) could take one of several forms. It could be of the late night variety popular in the States or something more akin to The One Show that we get here. Either approach would provide a platform for presenting wrestlers as normal members of society (you know that’s WWE’s priority with this show, whenever and however it airs) and allow WWE to get a foot in the door of the talk show market. That’s something that could raise awareness of the company and its profile so it’s something that they’ll obviously want to pursue.

The service will launch in the USA on February 24^th with over 1,500 hours of programming available. That will include replays of new WWE programming, all current pay-per-views as they air, a smattering of the classic footage  from the promotion’s library, and specially recorded documentary and reality series. The initial price is ten dollars for six months, which strikes me as a very good price. If the offer is similarly low when the Network launches here (which will apparently happen in late 2014 or early 2015, along with a number of other non-US territories) I’ll be signing up to it.

Launching in February is a move obviously designed to encourage people to sign up in order to access WrestleMania XXX essentially for ten dollars. While that will cause the show’s buys to take a dip it will give the Network as strong a start as possible. As it’s something WWE considers a huge part of their future success you can’t really fault them for doing it.

That Wrestling Podcast Episode 23

That Wrestling Podcast Episode 23 by Dave Hatton on Mixcloud

Greatest tag team ever?

If you had to list your top five tag teams ever who would you select? That’s the question we pose in this episode of That Wrestling Podcast. Will the Prime Time Players make either of our lists? How about the Real Americans? The Big Boss Man and Ken Shamrock? The Rockers? The Midnight Express? The Fabulous Freebirds? Mark Henry and D’Lo Brown? Kai En Tai? Los Conquistadores? Steven or William Regal and Dave Taylor? Los Guerreros? There are so many options, and only five slots!

Also discussed are the names of WWE’s secondary pay-per-views. The likes of Fully Loaded and Armageddon. Basically it’s a focus on how ridiculous wrestling names can get even in the world’s most mainstream company.

That Wrestling Podcast Episode 19

That Wrestling Podcast Episode 19 by Dave Hatton on Mixcloud



There's so much magic in this picture

We all know what Mount Rushmore is. We’ve all heard reference, at various points and from various sources, to a hypothetical wrestling Mount Rushmore. That’s not the topic of today’s episode. Instead we go a little more specific and talk about our hypothetical WCW Mount Rushmore. Talk of WCW naturally brings up the nWo, an entity that arguably has a more celebrated legacy than the promotion that spawned it, and we discuss a New World Order Rushmore too.

Along the way there’s a strong focus on Scott Steiner. Because, really, does anyone ever really need much of an excuse to discuss ‘The Big Bad Booty Daddy’? I’d strongly that no, they don’t.
 

Changing Trends

This is going to be a short one so enjoy it while it lasts.

When I first started watching wrestling long hair and ponytails were the fashion. Look back at late 90s WWF and WCW shows and you’ll see what I mean. The rosters were packed with guys in love with their hair. Purely by coincidence Kevin Nash was on top then.

I could write extensive lists to prove my point. I won’t. I’ll name a few guys to highlight how prominent the long hair look was and I’ll let you continue from there if you want. Triple H is an obvious guy to mention, as is his DX stablemate Shawn Michaels. Edge, Christian, Billy Gunn, Val Venis, Al Snow and Test are all also on the list.

Over in WCW there was, as has already been mentioned, ‘Big Sexy’ leading the way for the follicly gifted. Chris Kanyon, DDP, Lex Luger are a handful of the others that sported the look there.

Over the years long hair has seen its popularity dwindle. Over the course of the last decade shorter hair has become the norm as guys like John Cena, Randy Orton and Batista have risen to prominence with shaved or short hair.

Over the last year or so the short hair look has been slowly replaced by another. Nowadays beards are the in thing. And I don’t mean trim little goatees. No, these days huge, thick, long beards are fashionable. Daniel Bryan’s rise to the top of WWE has helped there, and he remains the most obvious bearded wrestler to highlight, because he draws attention to it with promos and merchandise.

 

I'm writing about beards now, apparently

 

There are plenty of other beards on offer. The Wyatt Family have some astonishingly lengthy facial hair. Curtis Axel has, if you pay attention, a surprisingly scruffy beard, as does Jack Swagger. Mark Henry, Randy Orton, Kassius Ohno, Antonio Cesaro, Damien Sandow, and Sylvester LeFort are among the many men on the roster who can boast of powerful and-or manly facial hair.

 

It's not just WWE where we're seeing this. Jay Briscoe, Mike 'Knuxx' Knox, Bully Ray, Gunner and James Storm are prominent names rocking the look elsewhere. I'm sure there are others I've not heard of.

There is no point to this post beyond me noting the observation that ponytails will be back in. Or maybe some bold new trend will have emerged. Mohawks or mankini ring gear or tattooed faces perhaps. Who knows?

That Wrestling Podcast Episode 1

That Wrestling Podcast by Dave Hatton on Mixcloud

I’ve wanted to do a wrestling podcast for a while. The usual excuses are what’s stopped me: a lack of time, insufficient understanding of technology, and an absence of people knowledgeable and willing enough to record the thing with me. As evidenced by this blog I’ve not got a shortage of opinions on the wrestling business, it’s just everything else I’ve missed.

This situation changed when Michael, a guy I worked with in a bookshop, moved back to London. My technological ineptitude remains but I now have someone to record a podcast with. So we’ve recorded one, very kindly hosted by the Voices of Wrestling website (where odds and ends of my writing can also be found).
 

I wanted to post something here on the blog for two reasons. One is to plug the podcast, which I think we can all agree is a fairly natural thing to do. The second is that, due to a general unease when getting the thing onto the internet, I didn’t really manage to provide a decent summary of the episode. Where better to do that than here?

The idea was that Michael and I would start out discussing his time in Japan and then catch up on what’s been going on in wrestling over the last year or so (because he’s not managed to keep up with anything except the major developments). Aside from a couple of seconds to check that the sound quality was decent (it is) I’ve not listened to the thing back but I’d be surprised if we spend more than five minutes talking about Japan. So if you’re hoping this is going to be puro-heavy (why you’d think that when I never write about wrestling in Japan I don’t know) you’re going to be disappointed.

Things got better once we moved onto American wrestling. We discussed WWE a fair bit, although I can’t remember anything specific (which entirely contradicts what I said above but so be it), as well as TNA and Ring of Honor. The main TNA subjects were Bully Ray and Chris Sabin’s respective world titles reigns and the Aces and Eights storyline. We touched on the fact that the company’s future is pretty bleak, but that should surprise no one.

We picked our winners for the ROH world title tournament and discussed the merits of Kevin Steen and Davey Richards. Steve Corino came up too, if you still want to classify him as an ROH performer. In between all of this we discussed gimmicks in modern wrestling (including an idea for a mid-card WWE guy), WCW and Vince Russo.

It comes in at almost exactly two hours, which is a pleasingly round number that we reached completely at random. Future episodes, which will appear as and when we’ve time, will hopefully be shorter than that. Give it a listen (you can download it through the Voices of Wrestling iTunes account) and let us know what you think.

I now return you to your regularly scheduled complaints and suggestions.