Raw Meat For June 25th, 2012

I actually thought Raw was pretty fantastic this week. Lots of entertaining segments and good matches. It wasn't perfect but when is it? Hopefully, since we've sorta washed away the whole Big Johnny era, the show will trend up. Im no mark, Im not anti-Ace, but the story was a dead end angle that was absorbing the whole show. It was nice to see the focus on Punk, Bryan, Jericho, and Cena.

Lets kick off the blog were WWE did, with a strong triple threat match. That match was a PPV Main Event quality match and really set the tone for the show. With all the criticism on WWE for not putting Punk in the Main Event, I understand their strategy. If you kick off the show with a Cena promo, people (myself included) tune out. You kick it off with a quality match, it gives critics like myself hope and sets a good tone for the 2 hours.  Rather than go on and on about Punk and Bryan's ability though, lets focus on something less obvious...the staying power of Kane.

So, Sunday night, I watched a Raw from 1998. Guess who was in the WWE title picture on that show, on the show last night, just under 14 years later. BY GAWD ITS KANE! Yup, 14 years ago Kane and Undertaker were feuding with Austin for the WWF title, and last night on Monday Night Raw, there Kane was in the main WWE title storyline. I do a lot of dissing on the Kane character, but there is no denying that it has taken talent, charisma, and at times patients on the part of Glen Jacobs to stay at the top of his game for over a decade. He must be one of the most underrated, safest, smartest workers of all time to stay healthy and good for this long.

I have hope for Brodus Clay (I dont do transitions anymore, fuck'em). The match was handled well, and Show won without burrying Brodus which I feared. The question is, were do they go from here? With Show in the MITB I hope they dont just forget about this.

So its time for my weekly dissection of this AJ buisness. They had some entertaining stuff last night. The segment with Kane was nice. It seems for once, I know were I personally want it to go. I would personally like for all of them to just get fed up with her. Just be like, "Yeah youre smokin hot, but this isnt worth it." Just have AJ lose it and be a psycho for awhile. Its the only logical end point anymore, nobody would put up with this mess.

Lets all just pause and applaud Santino shall we? A couple of times, the character has seemed dead in the water, but the guy is so charismatic that he just keeps bringing him back. This latest run, dating back to December or January has been the modt remarkable. Im constantly saying, okay this is the night Santino gets the axe, and they keep putting him over. As they should. If you ask me, Santino is what wrestling is all about. He's fun to watch in and out if the ring. He's the perfect underdog. What do you have bad to say about him? The only legitimate criticism Ive heard is his finisher is silly, and I can even defend that. At the end of the day, its a punch right in the damn nose. A punch in the face should be a damn finisher! It hurts, a lot! They shouldn't be thrown around all willy nilly. Play on Santino, I'll defend you to the end.

Sid looked like fucking George W Bush. I popped, dont get me wrong, but not as hard as Vader. I think every week, with these old timers performances, the "Give Vader all the belts" party's argument is getting stronger. He's gotten the biggest pop and gave the best performance. Vote Vader In 2012!

Speaking of Vader (Hey, a transition!), lastly lets tackle the meat of Raw: the coming together of the Money In The Bank match for Raw. The Cena promo actually made me giggle. We all know that Jericho and Cena can create magic on the mic and on the mat, and they showed flashes of why. Other than his haircut, I liked Jericho's return. I like Show's new attitude, he's turned a predictable, silly angle into a positive. What I really want to dig into though, is the pros and cons of this Money In The Bank setup.

First, the positives. Jericho, Kane, Cena, and Big Show are all vets capable of putting together a PPV quality match, which is the most important thing I suppose. If these indeed are the only four, its unpredictable, I could see a reason for all of them to win it. For once, a Cena win would actually be compelling. How would the great white hope Cena handle holding the case? Seems like it would be out of character for him to cash it in when somebody is down.

The negatives....I can already tell Kane is an after thought. He's gonna be inbetween the two storylines. Of course, apparently he'll bounce back and continue to wrestle forever. Only four people certainly changes the giant ladder match element. The biggest thing that bothers me is career wise, none of these guys need this. Look what the MITB did for Daniel Bryan. Look how far he's come in just one year, all because of that one win. Hopefully atleast Smackdown will be setup differently, or nobody will get that rub.

Raw Meat For 6-18-12

I'll drop some quick thoughts even though I mistakenly didn't really analyze Raw with the intent to write on it. I'll throw out some quick bullet points that rush at me...

First of all, I thought it was interesting that Brodus Clay seems to be the next feud for Big Show, judging from No Way Out, Raw, and Smackdown spoilers. Clay may finally be getting set to show us if he can really hang. Love him or hate him, he's over. He needs to prove to us now that he can tell a story. This is a nice jumping point, with Show being the first one to beat him down, and The Funkasaurus looking for revenge. The story has potential, and it is on Brodus to knock it out of the part in the roll of the protagonist. Its his first test.

Paul Heyman was gone for like a decade, and he's already the best part of Raw again. That's why he is my hero, above even Cornette and Hennan. Heyman has built himself an aurora of importance, and when he appears people hush up and listen. I like his interaction with Triple H and I love this story, but Triple H has to back down and lose this match for me to not go completely insane. I was fine with the Cena loss, because Cena needed a huge win after the loss to The Rock, but if we get an even bigger build up and Lesnar losses to a semi-retired Triple H, then the whole Brock Lesnar deal was a fucking waste. We're all wanting this big Lesnar title hunt, and I think it'd be good for buisness. Especially is somebody came along and knocked him off the podium at Wrestlemania. That man by the way, shouldn't be The Rock. Lesnar should win the title, claim he will reign forever since he's a "legit" tough guy, and he should be knocked off by a "wrestler's wrestler", a great defender of the product. My picks would be CM Punk or Undertaker. Punk would make sense, as he would likely lose the title in some controversial fashion, and they could have the big rematch at Mania. Of course, this may have been a waste of time, as it is expected that The Rock will get a title run at some point, and my plan clearly doesn't involve that so...back to the drawing board....

The AJ storyline has officially fallen to the too weird side for me. I'm still into this, but it's becoming a bit silly, and honestly a little sad to watch AJ make out with Kane every God damn Monday.

Laurinitis got a good send off. The whole storyline has made no sense for months, since Big Johnny was a hell of a lot more unfit that Triple H or Vince who both got fired for doing a lot less than using guys like Lesnar and Show for personal vendettas. I have two concerns. The first, where do we go with the GM title from here on? If the shows continue to share wrestlers, the title should just fade away in my opinion. The GM role is useless unless they have a specific roster to manage afterall. If that is the intention, then let's just give the rains back to Vince or Hunter on screen, and have them fade off. The whole idea of somebody running the show on screen has gotten stale anyway and it would be a much bigger deal when the boss made an appearance if they weren't there every damn week. Look at Vince's character right now, that's proof enough.

My other concern is what happens now to the much more compelling characters of David Otunga and Eve. While I didn't care much for Big Johnny, I loved the way Otunga and Eve were used. They fit there roles perfectly as the assistants with Otunga always getting the physical punishment, Eve reinventing herself, and both of them fucking with Teddy Long. It seems that these guys can't survive on their own, they only work as lackey's. I'd like to see Otunga go on to manage somebody who needs him as their "legal consultant". Or possibly even join team Lesnar and assume Heyman's role of Lesnar's mouth piece once Paul fades off again.

Vader should've showed up and killed Cindy Lopper.

...that's about all I got. See y'all next week.

Wrestling 2012 Update

Well, updating after every show didn't quiet go so well, now did it? Let me catch you up to speed...

Dynamo Pro Wrestling has had two shows since my last writing. In April, in front of a packed house, I led the First Church of Karrington to a ultra successful night. Not only did K.C. defend his NWA Missouri State  championship against The Cancun Kid, but we also captured the Tag Team Titles. While, we may not technically be champions, we certainly did capture them. After the Bum Rush Brothers won the farce of a tag tournament, we swooped in and took what was ours. Unfortunately, I was on business during the last card, but I will return to lead my warriors to glory in August.

St. Louis Anarchy has saw similar success for me. In May, at The Mill Skatepark, I stuck it to ol' Mat Fitchett again. I acquired the services of The Submission Squad by helping them defeat Chuck Taylor and Johnny Gargano. They repaid the debt by helping me take out Fitchett, a situation that quickly led to a locker room brawl. Then, on June 16th we traveled to Cleveland to do a joint card with Beyond Wrestling. I once again partnered with The Submission Squad as we defeated Arik Cannon, Darrin Corbin, and Christian Rose in a trio contest. I return to the St. Louis area July 13 in Alton IL, and I plan to make waves once again, and I do best.

***

On a personal note, I stated in my last update my desire to branch out. While I still hope to do that, I want to do it the right way. I think instead of focusing so much on trying to branch out right now, I want to focus and hone my craft. I want to be the best I possibly can be, I want to grow with my two main promotions right now and most importantly build a library of video to showcase my work. I plan to have somebody video tape every appearance for me, so that I can have something to analyze and show off to potential bookers.

Raw Meat For June 6-11-12

Well, Im back after quite the hiatus. Lots of stuff going on, barely even watched Raw half the time.

Before saying my piece about this weeks Raw, I do have to go back to a segment from a couple weeks ago. I preface this by saying, Im barely kidding, if at all. I take you back to the iced coffee segment. Let me jog your memory, Eve asks Teddy to get her some coffee. Otunga, hilariously says he's good, Teddy walks off, and the segment goes on. Teddy returns, and Eve spits the coffee back at him and yells its cold. The camera then zooms in on Teddy's beady, angry eyes and like he's auditioning for the Shinning remake reads, "Its supposed to be cold! ITS ICED COFFEE!".

An opportunity for comedy gold was missed. Teddy read that line like it was the last fucking straw. Insult me. Fire me. Dress me in women's clothing. But God damnit, when you disrespect my ability to bring you coffee (even though she didn't ask for a fucking iced coffee, I'd be pissed too) that's were shit goes crazy! I totally wanted to come back from break, with Teddy holding a steak knife to Eve's throat, Otunga panicing, Teddy has his maid costume half off, yelling in tongues. Atleast it would shake the show up a bit. This is coming from the person who pitched the only logical way to end the Jeff Jarrett vs Kurt Angle feud was for Angle to murder the Jarrett's, so maybe we should move on before I get thrown into therapy...

So, this week's Raw. Right off the bat, maybe I've not been paying attention, but when did Vince reclaim any power. Was it ever explained? One minute he's deemed too old and feeble, next he's back to firing people. I hate to be this guy, but there was clearly too much Vince.  All you need is the opening segment and the closing one. Even though some of the stuff in between was okay (the Hart bit was funny), it was unnecessary and stupid. Clearly a time waster on a too long Raw, better get used to it.

Vader was the fucking man, end of story. It might be a bad sign when he gets the biggest pop of the night though.

So, what the fuck are they doing with AJ here? So she's a love scorned, crazy, kinda slutty person now? There is a fine line between compelling an down right weird, and I can't decide which side this story falls on. Im giving it time, but I im kind of losing interest. The moment attractive women make out with Kane is usually when I start to fade.

Finally, I really hope we get more Punk vs Bryan on a large scale. Kane is talented, but he would be better served replacing Del Rio. This story between Punk and Bryan was compelling enough, especially with the insertion of AJ (giddy) that we didn't need Kane in here. He just looks so silly next to these normal people. I'll never get it. You can make Kane trouble and deranged without making him a borderline super villain.