A Kind of Magic

A couple of weeks ago I was driven down to Bournemouth for a day trip (yeah, driven: I travel in style). During the journey Steff (the girl doing the driving) insisted on listening to a Best of Queen collection. I’m not really one for music (although I did go through a phase of buying WWE’s entrance theme compilations) but the dulcet tones of Freddie Mercury (no relation to Joey) gave me an idea for a wrestling gimmick.

Well, it sort of gave me an idea. Truth be told most things have already been done in wrestling, especially gimmick-wise. The idea I had is more of a conglomeration of previously established gimmicks and ideas.

The first step for the idea is to find an unknown indy wrestler (or a debuting wrestler in a big organisation that’s willing to pay for use of music rights). Said wrestler should have a good grasp of showmanship and be willing to dance and interact with the crowd. The actual amount of wrestling skill required is minimal, at least at first.

Once selected the grappler should be kitted out in a distinctive outfit, preferably with a cape. It would need to make the grappler stand out but not become the focal point of their act. From there a list of low- and mid-card grapplers who could be used to beat a newcomer decisively should be drawn up (which shouldn’t be too taxing).

 

How has this never inspired a wrestling gimmick?

 

The gimmick would see The Newcomer enter to a different Queen track every week, singing and dancing their way to the ring and attempting to get the crowd excited. Sounds like a heel gimmick, yes? I think if the right man were found, with enough infectious charisma to perform the gimmick in a genuinely fun and playful manner, it could actually create a huge babyface star. Why Queen? Because they have a wide selection of well-known, uplifting songs that would put audiences in a good mood and encourage them to cheer the wrestler in question.

The music wouldn’t stop when they got to the ring, it would continue in its entirety. Think of the Sandman’s entrances in ECW but more camp. Perhaps more in line with Bryan Danielson’s use of The Final Countdown when he wrestled in Ring of Honor. This hypothetical act’s popularity (if it got any) would stem from the entrance.

Once the music stopped playing both competitors would receive their ring introductions.  The Newcomer would milk this too, leaping up onto the turnbuckle and giving the tried and tested Babyface Raises Their Arms into the Air™ pose.

The match would start and the newcomer would lose to the very first move their opponent gave them. It wouldn’t matter what it was: it could be a chop, a suplex, a punch, or a small package. They would lose every single one of their matches on the first move.

I think this would encourage audiences to root for The Newcomer as an underdog. After six months or so it could lead to the grappler surviving or dodging a move and maybe lasting a minute long squash match (though obviously still losing). A month or so after that they could maybe get a fluke victory.

As I said above this idea borrows from various sources. There are elements of Mikey Whipwreck, the Sandman, Brodus Clay and the Fabulous Freebirds mixed in, but it’s not a direct copy of any one of them. With the right wrestler I think this idea could prove successful. Any company that wants to use it is welcome to. Just license the rights to the Queen songs first, eh?

Ωmega Man

Broomsticks. Every so often these items, designed primarily for cleaning purposes, are mentioned in a wrestling promo by a man who claims to be so good he could wrestle an exciting match against such an item. The most recent example was Triple H’s claim on the October 10^th RAW. That was another fine case of WWE not doing rising talent any favours... but that’s not what I’m here to talk about today.

What I’m here to talk about today is the broomstick phrase. Ric Flair has mentioned being able to have a good match with a broomstick numerous times throughout his career and various others have followed his lead (such as ‘The Game’) and made the claim too. It’s a tactic predominantly used by heels to belittle their opponents: the man making the claim is not only indirectly comparing all challengers to broomsticks but also saying they will carry challengers during any future matches. As far as I know ‘The Nature Boy’ has never wrestled against a broomstick or any other inanimate object you could name, so his claim cannot be verified.

But there may be one man out there who can pull off such a match. That man is Kenny Omega.

If that’s not impressed you (his opponent is a conscious human after all, not the inanimate object we’ve been discussing) then take a look at this:

There may be hope for broomstick fans yet.  

The Accidental Call-Up

WWE had some pretty high hopes when they signed Sin Cara to a contract. He was going to be built up to take over from Rey Mysterio as the promotion’s lead luchaor. That’s no small task. Since debuting in 2002 Mysterio has become one of WWE’s go-to-guys as far as short notice storylines are concerned, which requires an ability to work with talent on any level and a connection with the audience not just in matches but in promos too. He’s also the company’s second biggest merchandise shifter (behind John Cena), mainly thanks to mask sales.

Sin Cara was never going to live up to the hype within his first few months in the company and it was unfair of WWE to expect him to. It took Mysterio several years to rise to the position he’s in now, and he did so at a time when the company’s roster wasn’t as thin on name talent as it is now. That allowed him to gain acceptance from the fans by interacting with a cast of characters that were already established as headliners.

What’s hampered Sin Cara’s rise is his inability to speak English. This stops him from reading the audience as well as he might and prevents him from communicating effectively with his opponents during matches.

Unless they happen to speak Spanish that is.

When Sin Cara was benched for a month because of a violation of the Wellness Policy™ developmental wrestler Hunico was called up to portray ‘The International Sensation’. Rumours at the time suggested that Sin Cara would be released from his contract or sent down to FCW to learn the WWE style and Hunico would inherit the blue mask.

As we all know, that didn’t happen.

Hunico instead stayed on the main roster as a character in his own right, first becoming an imposter Sin Cara, then Sin Cara Black, before finally losing his mask (in a mask versus mask match that happened far too quickly) and reverting to the Hunico name. Why did this happen? Because not only does Hunico speak Spanish and wrestle the lucha libre style Sin Cara is familiar with, making him an ideal opponent for the former Mistico, but he also showed he could work enjoyable matches against the rest of the roster during his time under as “the imposter”.

In recent weeks he has been joined by fellow FCW trainee Epico and RAW star Primo. That’s good for both of those men. Epico was unlikely to get called up to either main roster on his own merit while Primo was simply killing time on the RAW brand. Neither man’s prospects were great and this gives them the chance to rise through the ranks.

I’d have liked to see Hunico debut a new mask after losing his Sin Cara Black gimmick, or see Epico debut with a mask of some sort. Sadly it doesn’t look like that’s going to happen. I imagine the reason is that WWE are wary of putting a mask on a heel because it makes them mysterious and indicates to kids that they’re a successor to Rey Mysterio (because children watching WWE are only used to seeing Mysterio, a lifelong babyface, under a mask and would naturally assume any new masked men possess a similar disposition). It’s a shame, but I can understand this decision.

Hunico should have debuted a new masked look following his mask versus mask loss to Sin Cara

To say Hunico has better long term prospects than Sin Cara would be foolish. WWE are clearly still behind Cara and want him to succeed as Mysterio’s replacement. But Hunico isn’t likely to disappear any time soon: he’s gotten over as a heel and can work a WWE style match with anybody on the roster (which is more that can be said for Sin Cara). He may not be a future world champion, but I think he could be on the main roster for several years.

Sin Cara’s inability to work the WWE style and communicate effectively with his colleagues may have halted his progression but it’s given two other men a chance to make a name for themselves on the main WWE roster and a third a revitalised push that would not have come his way otherwise.

Sometimes in wrestling things don’t go to plan. But that’s not always a bad thing.

Glory By Honor X preview

Remember last year’s Glory Honor IX? Broadcast on internet pay-per-view it was headlined by the memorable confrontation between Roderick Strong and departing champion Tyler Black, a match which saw Strong (the heel) roundly cheered for his loyalty to the promotion and Black (the face) get literally booed out of the building thanks to his recently inked WWE contract (and some inflammatory Cena-esque hand gestures). If that weren’t enough it boasted a superb undercard, the highlight of which was most definitely the contest between ROH tag team champions the Kings of Wrestling and the debuting Shelton Benjamin and Charlie Haas. It was a stacked card and was easily one of the best wrestling shows of the year.

It looks unlikely that Ring of Honor will repeat that success with this year’s Glory By Honor X. There are no big debuts and it seems unlikely that the world title will changes hands. That’s not to say it won’t be good. It just stands less chance of being a classic.

The headline attraction is Davey Richards’ defence of the ROH world championship against El Generico. It’s not the freshest match ROH has to offer but that makes sense: GBHX is going to be a DVD release and fresh or highly anticipated matches need to be saved for pay-per-view or television so that the company can benefit from them financially. The two men will have an excellent bout and provide a fitting end to what is sure to be a solid night of action and that’s what the show will need from them.

Can ‘The Generic Luchador’ score a huge, not to mention surprising, upset and topple ‘The American Wolf’ for the gold? No. Richards winning is as close to a guarantee as you can get with Ring of Honor.

The man who will challenge the winner of Richards v Generico, ‘Die Hard’ Eddie Edwards, will be in action against Kyle O’Reilly. I’m predicting that O’Reilly will win the Survival of the Fittest tournament on Friday and I have a feeling he could score the upset over Edwards too. That will allow ROH to point back to this weekend in a year or two as the time he “broke out from the pack” (and they’ll probably use that phrasing).

The match that most interests me is the All Night Express v Wrestling’s Greatest Tag Team for the ROH world tag team titles. ANX have been floating around at the top of ROH’s tag division all year and I’m sure it’s just a matter of time until they win the gold. I have a feeling that this match will see the champions resort to underhanded tactics to keep hold of their belts, setting up a rematch sometime in the New Year. ANX winning the gold wouldn’t be a massive surprise and I’d love to see it but I think the beginning of a WGTT heel turn is more likely. ANX will likely get the titles on their next challenge, whenever that turns out to be.

Speaking of tag teams the Young Bucks will wrestle the Briscoe Brothers. There’s heavy potential for a style clash in this match. Hopefully the four men will work around that and put in a solid showing. It will be interesting to see who gets cheered. Ironically the Briscoes were turned heel because of fan apathy during their last face run and they are now far more popular than they have been in years. The Bucks have been working as heels since their return to ROH a few months ago and I suspect fans will side with ‘Dem Boys’ over the former Generation Me. I imagine Mark and Jay will get the win in this match.

The Jimmy Jacobs v Tommaso Ciampa match has one of the most predictable outcomes of the show. As I said in my Survival of the Fittest preview it seems very unlikely that ROH have spent months establishing a winning streak for ‘The Dominant Male’ only to end it at an untelevised show. Jacobs being a mid-card guy right now just makes it clearer. It will be a fun match (matches are always fun with the Embassy at ringside) but instantly forgettable.

Finally there’s the non-title match between TV champion Jay Lethal and the House of Truth’s Roderick Strong. This is being billed as a “proving ground” match. That’s not a term I care for. It’s something ROH are trying with their non-title matches: if the man without a title can last through the time limit or score the victory over the champion they’ll earn themselves a match for the title in the future. The thing is that’s how wrestling has always worked. It’s just that the matches have never been referred to by any special name. This strikes me as ROH being different just for the sake of being different. I also question why Strong, a former world champion, would be considered for a TV title shot at any point. It’s a personal thing, I dislike seeing former world champions in any promotion go back to holding mid-card titles. I feel those belts are better used building up future stars.

Anyway.

Strong v Lethal should be a fine match but I have a feeling it will go to a time limit draw. I’m not sure why but most of Lethal’s matches seem to be going the distance lately. It’s an odd creative direction for Ring of Honor to take with him as it makes Lethal look like he can’t win matches. Not the best thing to do with a champion (or anybody you’re considering as a future star for that matter). I’ll officially predict a time limit draw for this match (what does that say about ROH?) but should that not happen I imagine Strong will pick up the victory.

Glory By Honor X is not going to be the best ROH show of the year but it’s not going to be the worst either. When you get right down to it you can’t say fairer than that, can you?

A King Versus a Dragon

Did the world really need to see Bryan Danielson take on Mark Henry for a second week in a row? Probably not, but we got it anyway. Danielson’s one of the best wrestlers at WWE’s disposal and one of the few men capable of dragging a bearable showing out of ‘The World’s Strongest Man’, but two weeks in a row is not doing Danielson, or the audience, any favours.

Having watched this week’s Superstars I think Danielson’s bout with William Regal would have been a better addition to SmackDown. Thanks to Danielson’s popularity and the match taking place in Liverpool (close to Regal’s hometown of Blackpool) the contest between the two got a tremendous reaction from the crowd. The relationship between the two men (Danielson has credited Regal as his mentor and a strong influence on his career many times over the years) allowed for a natural story to be told throughout the match, both in the ring and on commentary.

Had the student versus teacher match taken place on SmackDown it would have reached a wider audience and would have possibly improved the blue brand’s ratings. Contrary to the promotion’s beliefs there are still people out there who want to see a solid wrestling match on WWE television, and Regal v Danielson is one of the best examples of such a match WWE is capable of promoting.

Had Regal and Danielson been granted a show-long build that including a backstage interview for each man and an emphasis by the commentary team on the influence Regal’s had on Danielson’s career (perhaps even mentioning the maroon trunks the former ‘American Dragon’ wears as a tribute to his mentor) the match could have made for one of the liveliest and memorable SmackDown main events in a long time.

It certainly would have been more enjoyable than another Mark Henry match, as well as being a more logical use of both Danielson and Regal.

A few months ago I wrote about how Regal deserved to wrestle the World Heavyweight champion on the Liverpool show. I still think that would have been nice, but Regal v Henry would have been nowhere near as good as the Danielson v Regal match that Superstars hosted. Once again WWE has thrown away a great opportunity to do something different, meaningful and memorable.

And they wonder why their ratings are decreasing and they can’t get new talent over.

End Game

On the October 24^th RAW Triple H was written out of WWE storylines when he was battered with a sledgehammer by Kevin Nash. Viewers were informed that ‘The King of Kings’ had been taken to a local hospital and that he would miss at least six weeks of action. At that point Survivor Series was five weeks away, which made me assume Triple H, the valiant babyface, would make his heroic comeback just in time to exact revenge at the big show.

As I write this Triple H hasn’t returned to television and with next Monday’s RAW being built around The Rock’s first appearance in months it seems unlikely ‘The Game’ will appear. Tuesday’s SmackDown taping is out of the question as the episode won’t air until Friday, which would give WWE only two days to hype the bout. And besides, nothing important ever happens on SmackDown!

It now looks as though the Triple H return may occur at Survivor Series or in the following weeks of TV. The likely reason for this is that Survivor Series doesn’t need Triple H v Nash on the card to do good business. Whether people like it or not this year’s show will succeed or fail primarily on the strength of The Rock’s involvement. Every other match will just be an afterthought as far as casual fans (who are the ones WWE need to attract) are concerned.

WWE seem to have realised this and postponed the Nash v Helmsley match in the hope that it can help attract buys for a show that’s less likely to succeed. That show is December’s TLC pay-per-view. It hasn’t yet been confirmed that the Battle of the Clique will take place on that show but it seems the most likely time to me.

But what will come after that match? Triple H is now 42 and has not worked a full time schedule since the spring of 2010. Since his full-time return to television on July 18^th it’s become clear that he is going to wrestle only occasionally and be used as a special attraction. It’s an approach that should work well for both him and WWE. At this stage in his career he’s of more use in his on-screen authority role than wrestling each week.

I imagine the immediate future holds the aforementioned bout with ‘Big Sexy’ and a possible appearance in the Royal Rumble. Beyond that nothing seems certain. Rumours have circulated for months that Triple H will once again challenge the Undertaker’s Streak at next year’s WrestleMania XVIII, and at the moment I’d say he has to be one of the frontrunners for that position.

Should that rematch take place I’d say there’s a decent chance that it could be Triple H’s final match. Shawn Michaels could only get ‘Taker to agree to a second ‘Mania match by putting his career on the line, which ultimately led to the end of his career. It would be apt to recreate that drama with HBK’s best buddy.

WWE need to make use of Triple H’s in-ring skills while they still can. A match with Kevin Nash is not going to do this. ‘The Cerebral Assassin’ ought to be wrestling his occasional matches against young guys who will be elevated by working with a main eventer with his (ahem) pedigree. Men like Cody Rhodes, Wade Barrett, Dolph Ziggler and Jack Swagger could all benefit from feuds with Triple H.

When all’s said and done it doesn’t matter when or where Triple H wrestles his final match, or who his opponent is. His retirement from active duty is on the horizon and a backstage role, to which he seems very well suited, awaits.

The Return of Mr Wrestling

He's wrestled no matches and made only three in-ring appearances for Ring of Honor in 2011 yet 'Mr Wrestling' Kevin Steen is one of biggest names associated with the promotion. At Final Battle on December 23^rd ROH will finally capitalise on this popularity by putting Steen in a match. His opponent will be his former mentor Steve Corino.
 
The story of how this match came about spans two years so I'll try for the truncated explanation...
 
At Final Battle 2009 a babyface Kevin Steen shockingly turned on his long time tag team partner El Generico following a loss to the Young Bucks. Steen would eventually reveal that he believed 'The Generic Luchador' was holding him back and wanted to break out on his own. The man credited for helping Steen realise he felt this way was Steve Corino.
 
After several months of resistance Generico eventually fought back against the two evildoers. Colt Cabana joined the party to keep the feud balanced and the four men had some exceptionally bloody, passionate and well received gimmick matches in the latter half of 2010.
 
Fittingly Steen and Generico had their feud ending Fight Without Honor at Final Battle 2010, one year after Steen’s initial treachery. Corino and Cabana weren't at ringside for that one: Cabana said it was something Generico needed to do alone while 'The King of Old School' had begun to express doubts at the path he'd set Steen on after witnessing his intense hatred for Generico.
 
The masked man won that battle, retaining his mask and banishing Steen from ROH forever (supposedly). Their feud was over but Steen's story was far from done.
 
As 2011 started Corino told fans he was a changed man. He sought retribution and wished to atone for the mistakes he'd made with 'Mr Wrestling'. For several months Corino worked hard to gain acceptance from the locker room and the fans (who actually accepted the new character direction very early on) and it made for an interestingly different, if sometimes odd, storyline.
 
The occurrences of Best in the World and Death Before Dishonor IX (which you can read about here and here) made it very clear what Steen thought of Corino's attempts to redeem himself in the eyes of the fans. He wanted no part of Corino’s peaceful ways and had no intention of seeking forgiveness for anything he’d done in the previous eighteen months. Fans embraced Steen's wild, unpredictable persona and he became one of the biggest names connected to ROH... despite not ever actually appearing for the promotion.
 
At the ROH TV taping on Saturday November 5^th Steen made his third appearance for the promotion this year. With a lawyer by his side Steen agreed to wrestle a specially stipulated match at Final Battle: he will face his former mentor Steve Corino, with a win gaining him a Ring of Honor contract and a loss meaning he leaves forever (and ROH, like, totally mean it this time!). Cornette assigned Jimmy Jacobs as the special referee (to stack the odds in ROH’s favour) and acquiesced to Steen’s request that he be at ringside to watch the bout. Steen wants Cornette to see him get his job back, you see.
 
Yep, it's all come back to Final Battle again.

My immediate reaction is that there will be a heel turn by someone during this match. The fact that the storyline has revolved more around promos and twists more than quality matches is a good indication of this, as is the presence of Jacobs and Cornette at ringside.

A heel turn by Cornette himself would probably make the least sense right now, but that’s not to say a reason couldn’t be conjured up. A little more likely is a turn by Jimmy Jacobs: he’s been “recovering” from his heelish past for several months now and it would make storyline sense for Steen to have gotten into his ear before the match to convince him to give up on his quest and embrace his heel tendencies. The prospect of a Corino v Jacobs (which a Jacobs turn would lead to) match holds such little appeal that I can’t imagine Jacobs being turned unless substantial developments are made or there are big creative plans in place for early 2012.

The possibility of a Corino heel turn shouldn’t be discounted completely. The man does his best work as a heel and once he’s wrestled Steen in December there will be little need for a rematch. Corino is best used in a ringside role in the Steen storyline, and he can contribute just as much by being allied with him again as he can facing him.

 The final thought I’ll submit is a heel turn by Colby Corino, Steve’s son. This storyline has been going for a long time and has helped several men become bigger stars. It reminds me, as I think I’ve said before, of the Sandman versus Raven feud in ECW. One of the most shocking moments of that rivalry was when Sandman’s son sided with Raven against his own father. With Colby being a wrestler his career could benefit greatly from getting more involved in ROH’s lead feud and it would be the perfect way to introduce him as a permanent member of the roster.

Whether someone goes to the dark side or not I’m convinced that ‘Mr Wrestling’ will leave Final Battle victorious. He’s too talented and over for ROH not to have him under contract. I’m expecting this feud to run for a good chunk of 2012 before Steen turns his attention to Ring of Honor world champion Davey Richards. Don’t be surprised if we see a title match between those two next year. Probably at Final Battle considering Steen’s growing connection with the event.

Barrett Barrage

Wade Barrett may not have done anything especially memorable for a while now but he has still quietly become one of the most reliable men on the WWE roster. The man from Manchester is on television every week, often alongside men getting a far more pronounced push than him (Sheamus, Cody Rhodes and Christian immediately spring to mind), and has racked up an impressive win-loss record over the last few months. Victories don’t really mean anything in today’s WWE but it’s still making Barrett look like a star on the rise.

Something else setting Barrett apart is his surprisingly large collection of gimmicks. He’s been wearing a long coat over his shoulders during his entrances for several months now. Sometimes it has a rose in it, sometimes not. Every week we hear of his exploits in the bare knuckle boxing scene of northern England (which is almost entirely nonsense). He’s recently started referring to the ‘Barrett Barrage’, an in-character euphemism for a renewed focus and fresh outlook on his career. Most bizarrely he has taken to wearing trunks that feature an emblem inspired by the 1944 Polish uprising in Warsaw. Not since the heyday of ECW has one wrestler had such disparate bunch of gimmicks to their name.

Barrett is one of the guys WWE should be relying on for the future. At 31 years-old he has plenty of time to make it to the top of the promotion. He’s already one of the best talkers in the company and knows how to work an audience as a bad guy. If and when the time comes for Barrett to turn face he’ll need to change his approach to promos, but that’s a challenge I think he’ll cope with better than people would expect.

With pay-per-view matches against Randy Orton and John Cena under his belt, including a disqualification victory over ‘The Viper’ and two pinfall victories over Super Cena, it’s clear WWE sees potential in Barrett. He may have been unsuccessful in his various challenges for the WWE championship last year and his push may have fallen to the mid-card level but that’s a good thing: Barrett had done everything he could at the top of the card so early in his televised career so it was perfectly logical to drop him down to the middle of the card for a while. The goal was clearly to give Barrett a strong start and establish him as a formidable heel before letting him grow naturally and at his own pace without being placed under such a strong spotlight.

Anyone who can share screen time with Cena, Orton and Vince McMahon without looking inferior clearly has star potential. Barrett has done that and shown that he can thrive in the mid-card even when given little to do. He can hold his own with internet darlings such as Bryan Danielson and drag bearable matches from lumps such as Ezekiel Jackson. That’s one of the skills WWE main event talents need. If he keeps performing like this I won’t be surprised if 2012 sees him take home a world championship.

Moving with the Times

In every match he wrestles Randy Orton performs the draping DDT. It’s a good move: it looks convincing, gets a good reaction and can be performed on pretty much anybody. That’s pretty much all its required to do.

The trouble is that it doesn’t feel special. Being used in every match has removed a lot of the shine the move once had. Orton has been performing it in his matches for several years now, but for a long time it was a sparingly used weapon in his arsenal used only when the opportunity presented itself or when ‘The Viper’ felt he was running out of options in a particularly gruelling match. That meant that the move got a louder response when it was used because people so rarely got to see it. It was unexpected, almost a treat for audiences lucky enough to see it performed.

A WWE referee makes no attempt to hide his disgust at Orton's overuse of the draping DDT

As you’ve probably gathered I feel strongly about the move’s frequent use. It looks good and would

make a very convincing finisher. As Orton uses it in all of his bouts it means that people routinely kick out of it (thanks to WWE’s edict that wrestlers must win matches with their finishing moves), which harms its credibility and aura as much as its frequent usage. I’d like to see ‘The Apex Predator’ return to using the move sporadically, preferably only on pay-per-views and big television matches (not that WWE promotes such things anymore).

You’re probably wondering what the problem is with Orton using the same non-finishing move on a weekly basis. After all, Triple H used the spinebuster in every match. Sheamus uses a brogue kick every week. Miz routinely performs a flying clothesline into the corner. CM Punk has taken to doing a Randy Savage flying elbow. The list goes on and on: moves that are used every week by the same people that never finish the match. They’re signature manoeuvres. Once they reach a certain level every WWE wrestler has a set list of such moves that they employ in every match, interspersed with punches, kicks and suplexes.

It’s the WWE style. There’s nothing wrong with this approach, but the draping DDT is a move that deserves more. It should revert to being a desperation move for Orton. There are precedents for this in the current WWE product. Punk’s Anaconda Vice is the perfect example: it’s a hold that’s been established as being an effective finisher that Punk uses only when desperate. Edge used to have the lifting DDT. The same goes for the Undertaker’s Hell’s Gate submission and John Morrison’s Moonlight Drive (or whatever they call it now).

It’s an approach that works well for wrestlers outside of WWE. Most has a set list of signature moves and holds associated with them that they’ll use in each match, as well as some more impressive spots saved for occasional use. The reason for this approach is simple: the moves feel more special when used less often, entice a louder response and enable both the wrestler and their opponent to tell a more effective story in their match. This is clearly not an approach WWE are going to start taking any time soon. It’s a booking method that is alien to the promotion and its audience and would not get the desired reaction, if it was even noticed at all. But if given time this approach, or a modified version of it, could work very successfully in WWE.

The draping DDT strikes me as a move that could mean so much more if it were booked differently. But the truth is that could be said of any move of a WWE star. It would simply rely on a change in attitude that nobody in WWE’s management structure is prepared to consider. So for the foreseeable future we’re stuck with a weekly appearance of Orton’s rope-aided head-planter.

The Muppet Show

When WWE says The Rock will answer John Cena's partnership request tonight on RAW what they mean is he'll appear on the Titantron, likely in a pre-taped video. There's a fairly good chance the announce team will be instructed to claim Rock's appearing "live via satellite". It will definitely feature some anti-Cena sentiments and put downs that fall flat, mainly because Rock is at his best when playing off a live audience. Miz and R-Truth will probably be ripped by 'The Great One' too.
 
Will Rock agree to team with Cena to face The Awesome Truth at Survivor Series? Of course he will. Not only has it already been announced by WWE but it's a great opportunity to escalate their feud by having one man blast the other with their finishing move. With WrestleMania season just a couple of months away WWE will want to start working seriously on the show's lead feud.
 
Let's not forget it would be massively anti-climactic for WWE to suggest the pairing only to state one week later that it won't happen.
 
If 'The Most Electrifying Man in All of Entertainment' were appearing on RAW it would have been announced and hyped heavily in advance. At a time when ratings are slipping and RAW is going up against the NFL every week WWE can't afford not to capitalise on an appearance by The Rock.
 
But RAW tonight doesn't need 'The Brahma Bull'. It has Jim Henson's muppets and the theme of Halloween to play with! What these two things will combine to create is anyone's guess. Presumably Gonzo and co. will appear behind a specially constructed wall on the entrance stage to crack gags at the expense of heels and make a few matches. A gag about Kermit not being as green as Mason Ryan would be nice but probably isn't going to happen.
 
With WWE's current approach to booking the way it is predicting matches for RAW has become practically impossible. By modern standards tonight's show should be a good one: guest hosts that will provoke a warm (and genuine) response and what should be the establishment proper of the Rock v Cena feud.

John Cena finally learns how to sell

As long as Oscar the Grouch appears I'll be happy.

The Wrestling Channel

As you’ll likely have gathered from Michael Cole’s obnoxious bleating during the last few weeks of RAW and SmackDown there are plans for WWE to launch its own television channel. It will likely be called The WWE Network. This is far from a good investment for the company.

Setting up and running a television station costs far more than WWE can realistically afford. Worryingly Vince McMahon has stated he feels comfortable taking out loans using WWE as collateral in order to fund the scheme. That means if the channel fails Vince could lose control of the promotion he made famous. Whatever your thoughts are on the current sports entertainment product that would be a very bad thing: Vince is still very much the driving force behind the company. There is nobody yet ready to take on all of his many duties.

Instead of taking out a loan WWE should try to purchase an existing channel and rebrand it. They have reportedly looked into this and been unable to strike a satisfactory deal. The best course of action would be to wait, but instead the decision has been made to spend vast sums of money creating a channel from scratch.

Even overlooking the cost of the project it’s a bad idea. WWE intends to fill the broadcasting hours with a mixture of its current television shows (RAW, SmackDown, Superstars, etc.), the extensive wrestling backlist that’s been acquired over the years (WCW, ECW, the AWA, etc.), and new “non-wrestling wrestling-themed” programming. The backlist availability may sound appealing but how likely do you think it is WWE will actually utilise it properly? It’s had the rights to ECW and WCW footage for over ten years now and has only released a handful of DVDs. That’s not the action of a company keen to make use of its video tape library.

RAW and SmackDown being aired on the channel isn’t a bad idea either, but as both shows are available on other US channels it’s not a particularly great one either. There are plans to offer select pay-per-views too. Originally the plan was that subscribers would get to watch The Big Four shows free on the WWE Network, but this plan quickly changed when WWE realised giving away the Royal Rumble and WrestleMania for free would be a catastrophic hit on their profits.

The plan as it currently stands is that subscribers will get all or some of the promotion’s B-level pay-per-views (such as Extreme Rules and Vengeance) as part of the package. If WWE runs the same number of pay-per-views next year as this year that will be nine free supershows for subscribers. Buy rates for these shows are low as it is, giving them away free to anyone who has WWE’s own channel will only cause them to shrink further. That will have a knock-on detrimental effect with the pay-per-view providers WWE relies on for its more successful pay-per-view events.

Easily the least appealing thing about the channel is the new “non-wrestling wrestling-themed programming”. Already announced are two reality shows, one following WWE’s Divas as they tour around the current in a bus and the other focusing on “WWE Legends” living in a Big Brother style house. Watching Sergeant Slaughter make a cup of tea while Hillbilly Jim does the hovering may have a novelty appeal at first but it won’t last long.

The channel is going to appeal almost exclusively to diehard fans. That’s not a negative, but it means WWE are going to need to be prepared to offer a lot of wrestling, something they’ve tried to disassociate themselves form in recent years. The most hardcore of fans will happily watch a Santino Marella sitcom (believe me, that will happen if the channel comes to fruition – they’ll have dozens of hours to fill a week), but only if there’s some wrestling on offer as well.

Vince has tried several times to prove he can succeed away from wrestling. He can’t. The World Bodybuilding Federation proved that in the early 90s. The XFL proved it again a decade later. More recently the lamentable offerings from WWE Studios (which Vince hopes will prove his wrestler employees can act as well as sports entertain) have shown that Vince is best suited to the role of wrestling promoter.

Let's just hope they avoid dipping into the XFL and WBF video libraries...

The WWE Network, being heavily linked to wrestling, has a better chance of succeeding than any of Vince’s previous projects: he knows wrestling and how to succeed promoting it while he was essentially just a fan with a lot of money when it came to the WBF and XFL. It’s still a poor idea though. WWE risking going into severe debt just so it can air shows about Divas riding around in a bus and some old AWA matches that could just as easily be released on DVD is not the direction the company should be heading in. They should be putting their money back into their one successful product instead.

The Invisible Man

Think back to the SmackDown ladder match at Money in the Bank. There were several men fans felt were potential winners: Wade Barrett, Sheamus, Cody Rhodes, and even Sin Cara. But none of them left victorious. That honour instead went to Bryan ‘Daniel Bryan’ Danielson.
 
It was a move that surprised everyone, mainly because WWE had done nothing with the former ‘American Dragon’ for months. His last appearance on a WWE pay-per-view had been a disappointingly brief showing in the Royal Rumble six months earlier. Since then he’d been limited to TV appearances and pay-per-view dark matches against the likes of Drew McIntyre and Ted DiBiase. There was also the infamous decision to bump his US title match with Sheamus from WrestleMania and turn it into a pre-show battle royal.
 
Many assumed, perfectly reasonably, that Bryan winning Money in the Bank would be the start of a renewed push. That wasn't the case. Bryan cut a promo on the July 22nd SmackDown in which he announced his intention to cash-in his shiny blue briefcase at WrestleMania XXVIII in Miami. Following that he... well, he didn't do much frankly.
 
Bryan's sole pay-per-view appearance since becoming 'Mr Money in the Bank' was at SummerSlam, where he lost a very enjoyable bout to Wade Barrett. Losing to Barrett, a man who has been pushed consistently as a future world champion and is an established upper mid-carder in WWE, didn’t hurt Bryan at all. But it also did nothing to establish him as someone who would be wrestling for a world championship any time soon. At SummerSlam it was Barrett who left looking like the bigger star with the brighter future, and as it is Bryan who is currently ‘Mr Money in the Bank’ that should not have been the case.
 
WWE should have changed its attitude towards the former ROH champion when it booked him to win the blue brand’s ladder stunt-fest. If Bryan is to be accepted as a serious contender to a world championship (and that is what WWE wants otherwise they wouldn’t have booked him to win) then the weekly burials by ‘The Voice of WWE’ Michael Cole and the nonsensical losses to men that should be beneath him have to end.

Whether WWE intends for him to win his cash-in match or not it would be better for business if Bryan is perceived as a genuine threat to the champion, whoever it is, when he challenges for the gold. If he’s built up with convincing wins and is treated like a star on the rise by the commentary team (the guys who are paid to put the talent over, remember) then Bryan could become a star even if he loses to the world champion.

Perhaps WWE don’t want him to succeed. It’s no secret that Vince McMahon is not a fan of any wrestler who has been embraced by “the internet wrestling community.” The nastiness that Cole directs at Bryan each week is fed to him by none other than Vince himself. In Vince’s world (which, sadly, WWE is) Bryan becoming the first man to unsuccessfully cash-in a Money in the Bank briefcase will “prove” that he doesn’t have what it takes to be a WWE Superstar™.

Hopefully that’s not the case. Hopefully there’s a long term plan in place that necessitates Bryan being lumbered with the dreaded losing streak gimmick recently. Perhaps he will cash-in on an unsuspecting champion early in 2012, win the title and then brag about how he fooled everyone into thinking he’d wait until WrestleMania. A heel Daniel Bryan would be a tremendous addition to the current WWE product and would make a great opponent for a babyface CM Punk.

Or perhaps WWE really will manage to hold off and save Bryan’s championship match for WrestleMania. It’s pretty much guaranteed Bryan would have a great match with whoever the champion is (and I’m including Mark Henry in that statement!). The best choices for his opponent at ‘Mania would be Randy Orton or Christian: both are accepted by fans and would wrestle a great bout with the challenger.

The happy-go-lucky smiley babyface we get right now isn't doing Bryan Danielson, the fans or WWE justice. Neither is the claim that he "won't shave his beard" until WrestleMania. WWE should be doing everything it can to get the guy ready for a top spot. The fact that “internet fans” like him is irrelevant and should be forgotten: simply put, Daniel Bryan at the top in WWE would be good for business.

Sooner or later WWE are going to have to promote 'The American Dragon'. He’s too talented for them to overlook for much longer.

Roode Awakening

TNA rushed it again at their latest TV tapings. Let’s backtrack a bit before we get to that...

The company spent a considerable amount of time preparing Bobby Roode for his title match with Kurt Angle at Bound For Glory. He had been pushed so strongly as the promotion’s next breakout star slash saviour that most fans felt it was a certainty that he would defeat Angle for the championship. Anyone who saw the match will know that didn’t happen.

I wrote two blogs on Roode’s main event chances and the decision to have Angle retain shortly before and after the pay-per-view. They’re available here and here. In short I thought Roode had the potential to make a difference to TNA’s stale main event scene and that the decision to have him lose made him look weak, as well as making the time and effort that had gone into his push ultimately pointless.

Since Bound For Glory TNA has continued the baffling booking with regards to their world championship. At the October 18^th IMPACT taping James Storm defeated Kurt Angle in a nippy little match to become the new TNA world champ. The result and the match itself had come out of nowhere: there was no build-up for ‘The Cowboy’s’ title victory. Shocking the audience is all well and good but in this instance it had come at the expense of another potential main eventer who should have been protected (Roode).

At last night’s IMPACT taping (which will air on November 3^rd in the United States) Storm lost the TNA world championship to Bobby Roode. That match should have been built to gradually over a course of months and been put on pay-per-view. Instead it was rushed through in three weeks of television.

James Storm would have made a fine TNA world champion had he been given the chance to establish himself in the role. As it is he only held the championship for six days and clearly only received it in the first place to facilitate a heel turn by his Beer Money tag team partner. A three or four month title reign for ‘The Cowboy’ would have allowed him to get over as a true main event star and restored some much needed credibility to the currently fairly worthless TNA strap.

Had Bobby Roode turned heel gradually by exhibiting signs of resentment and jealousy at his friend’s success the eventual heel turn would have been more impactful. A longer approach would have given fans the chance to anticipate the betrayal and resulting feud. The approach TNA has gone with feels like something that’s been thrown together in a very short period of time with no thought being given to the future.

Following Roode’s title victory it was announced that he would defend the gold against AJ Styles at Turning Point. AJ could have played a key role in the slower approach and it would have been nice to see him face Roode in a singles match on pay-per-view in which Roode used heelish tactics to gain a tainted victory, foreshadowing his heel turn. The match we’ll see in a few weeks should be fine but it won’t have as much meaning as it could have done.

The decision to put the title on either man is fine: both have qualities that will help them establish themselves as main event performers if they are given the company’s support. The decision to split them as a team is also a good one as the two men have achieved everything they can as Beer Money Inc. Fans like both men and can believe in them as world title competitors. The problem is simply that TNA did not devote anywhere near enough time to what should have been, from beginning to end, six months of programming. The writing team has made its job much harder by doing things this quickly.

The feud should be good. But it could have been so much better.

Avenged

It's been a while since we had a pay-per-view as jumbled as Vengeance. The best matches went on first, the matches with the most hype and the biggest names filled out the middle, and the disappointments went out last. Perhaps WWE was trialling a new approach to wrestling booking, starting with a bang and building up to a whimper.
 
The WWE tag team championship opener was an exhilarating back and forth affair that saw Air Boom retain the gold against challengers Jack Swagger and Dolph Ziggler. Kofi and Evan work well as an opening match act, providing lively, fast-paced bouts that pump the crowd up and get them in the mood for the rest of the show.
 
Following his unsuccessful tag match Ziggler had to immediately defend his United States title in contest number two. His opponent was 'The Woo Woo Woo Kid' Zack Ryder.
 
I was expecting this match to be good and it didn't disappoint. In fact it surprised me by being the match of the night. Ziggler looked suitably fatigued and pensive as Ryder made his entrance which really helped to get the challenger over as a genuine threat to the gold. It was exactly how a heel champion should look in that situation.
 
Sadly it wasn't 'Long Island Iced Z's' night. 'The Heel' retained the belt after a beautifully executed finishing sequence: 'Long Island Iced Z' blocked a Zig Zag before booting an interfering Swagger in the face, only to turn around into a surprise superkick from a recovering Ziggler.
 
While it felt like this would be Ryder's night the fact that Ziggler needed help to keep hold of his belt could indicate we'll see a rematch at Survivor Series. That's not a bad thing if Ryder wins the belt there: it allows him to be booked as the hungry underdog chasing the champion for the next month and gives Ryder his first singles strap at one of the Big Four pay-per-views.
 
WWE Divas' champion Beth Phoenix defended her title against Eve Torres (who debuted some fairly dodgy new entrance music) in match number three. By the standards of the challenger and WWE women's bouts in general it was a good contest. 'The Glamazon' surprised no one by retaining via the Glam Slam.
 
The heel turn by one of the faces that I've been expecting for months failed to materialise. I'll mention it again in my Survivor Series blog.
 
Sheamus v Christian was an entertaining encounter that, as expected, featured a lot of the Irishman's Clubbing Blows™. A highlight of the match was Booker T claiming he called the punches Irish hand grenades. It trended on Twitter moments later. Booker's ability to create a meme is alive and well.
 
While the match was good the wrong man won. 'Great White' had pinned Christian at Hell in a Cell which meant Vengeance should have been 'Captain Charisma's' turn to go over, evening the feud up and keeping it alive for another month. This didn't feel like a feud ending bout, but with Christian having lost two straight supercard clashes and multiple TV encounters why should anyone care if the two meet again? Sheamus has proven the Canadian is no match for him.
 
I expect these two will have one more match (pun very much intended) between now and Survivor Series before aligning with the respective face and heel teams for the ten man tag team main event. Should that happen expect 'Captain Charisma' to be the first man eliminated.
 
The match that should have gone on last got shoved down to the middle of the card due to a spot in the World Heavyweight title match that would have made a non-gimmick bout impossible. Awesome Truth made the best entrance of the night with their "You Suck" routine and proceeded to have a perfectly competent match with CM Punk and Triple H (who appears to be on the Stan Hansen diet right now). Had these guys gone on last (with a functional ring) I think they would have gone longer and included more memorable spots. As it was this match did everything required of it without doing anything fancy.
 
A run-in was inevitable and was provided by 'Big Sexy' Kevin Nash. Sporting a svelte physique and lashings of Just For Men Nash appeared out of nowhere as 'The Game' brawled with R-Truth at ringside, blasting his former best mate with a punch before taking him into the ring for a Jackknife powerbomb behind the referee's back.
 
Just because outside interference was predictable doesn't mean it was a bad booking decision. It kept the Laurinaitis/conspiracy storyline ticking over and helped to set up the Survivor Series main event. This match needed interference to achieve all its goals.
 
Orton versus Rhodes was predictably enjoyable. Both men got good crowd reactions and entered crisp performances. Cody was particularly impressive, busting out two moonsaults, amusing facial expressions and finally encouraging his bag men to get involved in the bout, something that an underhanded heel should've been doing for months now.
 
As good as this match was it didn't quite equal the US title match in my eyes. I'm sure most people will disagree with that but the title match featured fewer regular (perhaps even overused) spots and a man who is nowhere near as overexposed as 'The Viper' and Rhodes are and so it felt fresher as a result.
 
I predicted Mark Henry versus Big Show was going to be a train wreck. While it was better than I expected it still wasn't an enjoyable affair. I suppose if big man matches are your thing you may well have a different view.
 
The finish borrowed from a Big Show v Brock Lesnar match in 2003 in which a superplex caused the ring to collapse. The spot provoked just as loud a response as it did eight years ago, and both Henry and Show deserve credit for agreeing to take such a risky bump (at their size it could have killed them had something gone wrong). Both men sold the collapse for several minutes and the match just halted in a disappointing no contest. I expect we'll see a gimmick rematch of some description between the two on November 20th in New York City.
 
Teddy Long and John Laurinaitis came out to oversee the medical staff tending to the two mounds of blubber. After several minutes of concerned facial expressions it was Laurinaitis (the heel) who was chosen to make the announcement that the show would continue as planned while Long (the face) ambled off to the back. If WWE want to get Laurinaitis over as a heel they cannot give fans any reason to cheer him, which is precisely what they did with this announcement. While there's no chance of him turning accidental babyface giving fans reason to cheer during his promos is only going to confuse matters. Limit him to contemptuous smirks and pro-heel decisions and let Teddy take care of babyface announcements from now on.
 
With the worst match on the card out of the way we were treated to the second worst in the main event position. Although Alberto Del Rio is one of WWE's best all-rounders and Cena does his best work in gimmick situations the two still haven't clicked and found their chemistry yet. As such this WWE championship match was decent but nothing more.
 
Cena, who entered wearing a new T-shirt far less garish than his old red one, made a large number of ridiculous comebacks, usually climbing briskly to his feet at around the count of seven. That undermined his opponent and made it difficult for viewers to suspend their disbelief and buy into the near falls. But that's nothing new: Super Cena pulls stunts like this on a weekly basis. It's part of the reason WWE is finding it hard to create new main event stars.
 
After what must have been around twenty minutes Truth and Miz returned to the ring to beat down the challenger. Despite being left laying from a vicious beating from two of the promotion's top heels Cena clambered back to his feet before the ten count looking only mildly phased. He was immediately put back down, for good this time, by ADR, who had spent over a minute selling an AA through a table. The chasm between how the two men were booked was never more glaring.
 
'The Essence of Excellence' posed with his WWE championship belt as Vengeance went off the air, with Cena pouting and doing his puppy dog expression in the ring. I expect these two will meet in the Survivor Series main event next month before moving on to new feuds in December. I hope that happens anyway, because I'm not interested in seeing another pay-per-view singles contest between these two.
 
Vengeance was far from disappointing. There were several matches and storyline developments worth tuning in for. It's just that the running order seemed a little questionable. That's a problem unlikely to affect WWE's next PPV extravaganza. Survivor Series has clearly been planned months in advance with the aim of blowing off multiple feuds and storylines while kickstarting new ones to begin the build up for the Royal Rumble and WrestleMania XXVIII. Vengeance played it's part in setting the stage for the show and as such can be considered a success for WWE.

Vengeance preview

Mark Henry versus Big Show. John Cena versus Alberto Del Rio. These are matches the average wrestling fan will be physically incapable of getting excited about. They are also two of the bouts headlining WWE's Vengeance pay-per-view on Sunday. But wait, it's not as bad as it seems...
 
Big Show v Mark Henry isn't going to be the best match on the show. We all know that. In fact it will probably be the worst. What it has in its favour is freshness. After months of Christian v Orton and then two straight Orton v Henry confrontations on consecutive pay-pay-views it's nice to be offered something different, no matter how bad it may be. It's not a match I want to see again and again but as a one off Show works as a challenger. If WWE were tried harder to have a different challenger for every show, giving champions more varied title reigns, I’d be all for it. I think that approach would benefit Henry and the World Heavyweight championship greatly.
 
I’m picking Henry to retain. With the push he received over the summer I think it’s unlikely he’ll lose the title so soon.
 
Of course the other thing this match has going for it is this video:



You're not getting that anywhere else in wrestling.
 
Alberto Del Rio and John Cena will face one another for the third pay-per-view in a row. Their match at Night of Champions was forgettable but their Hell in a Cell battle a month later was an improvement (though some of the credit for that has to go to the third man in the match, CM Punk) and I'm expecting another decent entry in their feud at Vengeance. Why? Because ADR is one of WWE’s best wrestlers and Cena tends to perform better when he has shortcuts at his disposal. A Last Man Standing match will allow to use all the shortcuts he likes.
 
The gimmick match rules also allow WWE to have Cena lose to ADR without being pinned. It may seem counterproductive to avoid having your lead star put over an up and comer but that's WWE all over: Cena must be protected at all costs.
 
It's not impossible that the inevitable whacky finish to this match will involve interim RAW General Manager and Executive Vice President of Talent Relations John Laurinaitis. As you’ll read below I think WWE are setting up a clash between top babyfaces and heels for Survivor Series, with Triple H wrestling for the faces and Laurinaitis organising and or managing the heels.

Christian and Sheamus will continue what’s been a fairly underwhelming feud so far. Their matches are enjoyable thanks to the charisma of both men and the reactions they get from crowds, but they tend to consist of little more than ‘Great White’ pounding Christian on the back over and over again. Since Sheamus won at Hell in a Cell three weeks ago I’m expecting ‘Captain Charisma’ to pick up the win this time around.

Beth Phoenix will finally have a pay-per-view match against someone that isn’t Kelly Kelly. Yes, we’re finally getting Beth Phoenix v Eve Torres on pay-per-view! Natalya and Kelly Kelly are likely to be at ringside and I’m still half expecting one of the faces to turn heel on the other. Until a week or two ago I was expecting Eve to go to the dark side but Double K looked perturbed after Eve’s loss to Natalya on RAW so it’s not impossible she’ll do the turn. Would a Kelly Kelly heel turn work? It could. It would certainly be different and would provide a fresh dynamic for a number of matchups in WWE’s women’s division.

The heel turn could happen no matter who wins. Should Eve win the title Kelly could attack her in a jealous rage whereas if Beth retains Kelly could attack her pal for letting the side down. I can’t see the title being switched from ‘The Glamazon’ so quickly, I’m expecting her to retain.

One of the matches I’m most looking forward to is Randy Orton v Cody Rhodes. WWE has been trying hard to elevate Cody throughout the year while ‘The Viper’ has had one of the best years of his career in the ring. Capitalising on the errant blow Orton gave Rhodes a few weeks ago SmackDown by giving the two a full blown feud is a smart move by WWE: the two will have solid matches and Rhodes will rise up the card by rubbing shoulders with a star of ‘The Apex Predator’s’ standing.

As this is the first pay-per-view match of what I assume will be a long feud I’m expecting Orton to get the win and Cody to attack him after the match to keep the rivalry alive. Rhodes scoring the upset would be nice to see but I don’t think it will happen. They’ll save that for the higher profile Survivor Series.

On the subject of upsets: expect a big pop after Zack Ryder beats Dolph Ziggler for the United States championship. I’m assuming ‘The Heel’ will team with his tag team partner Jack Swagger to challenge Air Boom for the duos gold and lose before tangling with ‘Long Island Ice Z’. If the tag bout happens first Ryder can be booked as taking advantage of a fatigued Ziggler.

Both matches should be good. It’s a shame I have to predict two losses for Ziggler but I can’t see a way around it: being booked in two matches almost guarantees he’ll lose one and makes losing both fairly likely. Ryder deserves a chance to show what he can do though, and Ziggler will definitely put him over the right way.
 
The match I expect to headline the show is the tag team contest pitting Triple H and CM Punk against The Miz and R-Truth. This one is bound to give us a ton of storyline advancements, which I don’t think is a huge problem, and I think the action will be good. I like Miz and Truth as a team and I’m more interested in Triple H than I have been for about eight years thanks to his recent COO elevation (though that’s not necessarily a good thing: WWE should be building new stars rather than re-establishing old ones).

In fact the guy I’m least interested in is CM Punk, because the push that started in June and had so much potential has been massively fumbled. He’s still a good wrestler and an entertaining character but he’s not on the level he could have been by now, and I find that frustrating.

As far as winners goes I think this match could go either way. Because I’m expecting some John Laurinatis-related ringside shenanigans (probably from Kevin Nash but David Otunga isn’t that unlikely a possibility) I’m going to predict a heel win. Having Laurinaitis and his cronies involved in Triple H’s match sets up a Survivor Series clash between the companies top faces (Triple H, CM Punk, and Cena, alongside The Rock) and the GM’s inner circle (Miz, Truth, ‘Big Sexy’, and Alberto Del Rio). Should WWE want to try elevating some younger guys (which isn’t guaranteed, sadly) the Survivors bout could go from an eight to a ten man match and each team could get a mid-card wrestler added to the team.

Vengeance looks far superior to Hell in a Cell on paper and is clearly being used as a setup show for Survivor Series. If it’s entertaining and leaves us with a clear picture of what’s in store at Survivor Series then Vengeance will have done what it’s supposed to.

Monster Push

WWE has spent six months preparing Mark Henry for a run at the top of the card. He was credited with seriously injuring Kane and Big Show, he pummelled Sheamus at SummerSlam, and he pinned Randy Orton clean to win the WWE World Heavyweight championship. That’s an impressive run by anyone’s standards.

At 40-years-old and with fifteen years of experience Henry was finally given the chance to show he could wrestle at a main event level. He can’t. His various pushes over the years, and there have been many, have made that very clear. He is a slow, uncoordinated, injury-prone lump. I’ll admit that he’s more over now than at any other point in his wrestling career, but that’s not saying a great deal.

Even if everything worked out perfectly and Henry was embraced overnight as an acceptable addition to the main event crew the fact still remains that he’s closer to the end of his career than the beginning. Mark Henry has weighed in excess of 400 pounds for around two decades. That will have resulted in incredible stress being places on his knees and back.

Even Henry’s current low standards will decrease within a few years as his joints fall apart. Essentially WWE have promoted a man with a fairly short shelf life who the majority of fans find boring to watch and can’t relate to. It’s not the best call ever made is it?

A better candidate for Henry’s recent push would have been Brodus Clay.

Look back at any episode of NXT season four and you’ll see a man with a clearly defined character who possesses verbal skills superior to the majority of the current WWE roster, a unique look and an understanding of how to carry himself as a monster heel. Brodus Clay did everything he could during that series to set himself apart from his peers and managed to do so so successfully that he took the runner up spot. That show left a lot of people, myself included, wanting to see more of Snoop Dogg’s former bodyguard.

The one thing ‘The World’s Strongest Man’ has brought to his recent push is an air of believability: you can accept he really is that aggressive and dangerous a man. Clay would have been just as convincing and would have provided superior verbal skills and a feeling of freshness to the role. Henry has faced pretty much everyone on the roster during his fifteen years with the promotion would have provided entirely fresh matches. 

It’s too late for anything to be done about the situation now. Henry is entrenched at the top of the card and is unlikely to leave for some time to come. WWE should consider giving Brodus something more meaningful to do than beating jobbers every week on Superstars. He deserves television exposure because he is one of the most promising wrestlers to have appeared for the company in several years. At the very least he could be paired with another young talent to bulk out the promotion’s tag ranks.

At 31-years-old there’s not a rush to elevate Brodus. WWE can afford to take its time. But he needs to be put on TV now so that fans can watch him develop and cultivate a bond with him. He has far more long term potential than Mark Henry. Personally I can see him being a surprise hit as a babyface if he’s allowed to establish himself as a heel first.

Sooner or later Mark Henry will be gone and WWE will once again begin the search for a new monster heel. Brodus Clay will be waiting.

Fave Five

ROH needs to work on expanding its roster. Since debuting on the Sinclair stations TJ Perkins, Caprice Coleman and Cedric Alexander have been signed to contracts by the promotion, but things are still light at the top of the card. There are currently only a handful of men who could be seen as legitimate threats to Davey Richards’ ROH world championship, and all of them are former champions.

The quality of match between Perkins and Richards would be perfectly fine, but nobody would believe for a moment that TJP could topple ‘The American Wolf’. If ROH is to grow and continue to be seen as a company which promotes competitive action more people need to be signed from the early days of ROH or who have existing star power from previous employment (i.e. WWE).

This isn’t a popular view with many Ring of Honor fans, but to think the company can prosper without an immediate injection of star power is naive. Main event talent in ROH is thin on the ground and Richards needs a healthy number of challengers to plough through before his inevitable program with Kevin Steen begins sometime next year.  

The success of Shelton Benjamin and Charlie Haas demonstrates how well former WWE stars can do in the promotion if they’re capable of working the style and are used correctly.

I’ve come up with a list of five men currently under contract to WWE that I feel would improve the Ring of Honor product by providing new characters and feuds for fans and wrestlers alike. I’ve avoided picking guys like CM Punk, Seth Rollins and Bryan Danielson because listing former ROH wrestlers would make the exercise a little pointless: they’re already a proven success in the organisation. It’s not intended as a list of guys could sign now, more as ideas for how former WWE stars could slot into the company and improve things in both the short and long term.

So, without further ado...

Windham Rotunda – Husky Harris

Rotunda looks like a Ring of Honor champion to me. He has a physique not unlike Takeshi Morishima and Samoa Joe that would allow him to convincingly take a beating from kick specialists such as Davey Richards, and he’s big enough to be credible as a powerhouse in ROH. His status as a third generation star would help to set him apart in a company that has never been heavy on such competitors.

Give the guy a lariat or superkick as a signature move, an impressive power move as his finisher and book him consistently and I think he could get over pretty quickly. I think he would work very well in a powerful babyface role and could have very enjoyable matches against smaller men such as Andy Ridge, Kyle O’Reilly, Grizzly Redwood and, of course, Davey Richards.

Naofumi Yamamoto – Yoshi Tatsu

A mid-card division is clearly something ROH is trying to build to stand alongside its main event and tag divisions and I think Yoshi Tatsu would be a great addition. He would bring an international flavour to the company (which it has been keen on in the past) and could produce some exciting matches against stars on the rise Adam Cole, TJ Perkins and Andy Ridge as well as TV champion Jay Lethal.

Even little things such as the design of his tights indicate that Tatsu would fit in well in Ring of Honor. The federation needs all the naturally charismatic babyfaces it can get so if this guy ever gets released (not an impossibility) they should seriously consider bringing him in. He’s wasted on Superstars (but then isn’t everyone?).

Kofi Sarkodie Mensah – Kofi Kingston

I think it’s safe to say we’re wandering into fantasy booking territory with this suggestion. Kofi Kingston is a current WWE tag champion (alongside former ROH tag champion Matt Sydal/Evan Bourne funnily enough), a key part of WWE’s mid-card scene (such as it is), and one of the few genuine babyfaces the company has, Kofi would have to do something very silly to wind up in a position where ROH could hire him.

That said he’d make a strong addition to the Ring of Honor roster. He wrestles a quick style that would serve him well against the faster guys on the roster and would work perfectly in an underdog babyface role against larger guys such as Rhino, Michael Elgin and Tommaso Ciampa. I’d personally love to see him face Roderick Strong and Eddie Edwards too: those are two matches that I think could be highly enjoyable.

Nic Nemeth – Dolph Ziggler

As with Yoshi Tatsu this is firmly fantasy booking territory because Ziggler has a very safe spot on the WWE roster. His matches against Bryan Danielson and Low Ki (as Daniel Bryan and Kaval respectively) late last year show that he can work enjoyable matches against Ring of Honor guys, but it would be his charisma and verbal skills that would be of most benefit to ROH.

Ziggler has improved drastically over the last few years when it comes to promos, to the point where he would likely be considered the number one talker if he were to join ROH tomorrow (his only real competition would be Corino). While it’s a company that’s never placed microphone skills over in-ring ability it’s undeniable that the ability to cut a passionate, logical promo is an advantage to any modern wrestler. Ziggler would be capable of carrying a feud with anyone in the promotion as far as non-wrestling segments are concerned, and is talented enough to produce great matches with ROH’s existing main event crew. He also knows how to carry himself as a top talent and would be able to elevate guys lower down the card.

Also he’d have to drop the Dolph Ziggler name and could use his superior real life name of Nic Nemeth. That’s a plus point in anyone’s book!

John Hennigan – John Morrison

Fantasy booking or searing insight? We’ll see in a few months when it’s revealed whether or not Morrison is re-signing with WWE.

‘The Monday Night Delight’ has something in common with Shelton Benjamin: both are ultra-athletic workers who have failed to rise above the mid-card scene in WWE due to the feeling that WWE champions should work a more ground-based, punch-kick style. Shawn Michaels, Rey Mysterio and Jeff Hardy may have made it to the top with styles comparable to Morrison’s but they made it based on their charisma as much as their wrestling skills.

In Ring of Honor Morrison would be not be hindered by his lack of verbal skills and would be permitted to get on with what he’s good at: working exciting matches with men of all experience levels. If he reverted to being a narcissistic heel, complete with elaborate robes and sparkly tights, he would have a gimmick different to anyone else on the roster and be effective as a top heel. JoMo would be more than capable of carrying his weight in top line feuds against the Strongs, Edwards and Richards of the company, aand perhaps the world would finally get the Shelton Benjamin v John Morrison match that does both men justice.

Is it likely we’ll see these five men in Ring of Honor in the near future? No. Even seeing one of them there would seem unlikely at this point. But it’s not impossible to imagine we’ll see Tatsu and Rotunda there at some point in the future. It’s even possible Morrison will elect to leave WWE when his contract expires and turn down the inevitable TNA offer.

Whether it’s one of these men or someone else, Ring of Honor should give a little thought to bringing in one or two former WWE guys to see if they can get a ratings boost and entice more people to buy their next internet-pay-per-view. Signing someone to a six month contract as an experiment seems like a good idea to me.