The Wednesday Wrestling Week That Was 09.26.12: Issue #4

Welcome again, one and all, to the best Wednesday wrestling news recap column on the internet – The Wednesday Wrestling Week That Was! I’m Sam Smith, and as always, remember to follow me on Twitter and read my blog!

Not a lot of news this week, so let’s get through it. Take it away, Hogans!

– Following a few smarky fans chanting “We want Nexus” during the Wade Barrett/Justin Gabriel match from Raw last week, WWE officials have apparently discussed the possibility of doing just that, and bringing back the Nexus.

……….

Seriously? Man, this one better just be internet bullshit. I understand striking whilst the iron is hot in regards to what the crowd wants (see: Daniel Bryan, Kane) but….. seriously? Apparently officials were “shocked” when they heard fans doing the Nexus chants. Come on guys, it wasn’t that long ago. Put two former members in a match and of course people are going to remember.

Bringing back the Nexus would achieve nothing at this point. Most of it’s old members have carved out decent singles niches for themselves, and rejoining the stable would only be a setback to Barrett, Otunga, hell, even Heath Slater has his own little gimmick now. Of course, you could remake it with different members, but then it might as well not be the Nexus. Remember all the different nWo’s? Nah, neither do most people.

This one does smell like an unfounded internet rumor to me, and I’m hoping that’s the case. WWE are capable of making awful decisions, sure, but this would be something else.

– The best news of the week is Mick Foley saying that if his new children’s book sells well, he is considering writing a Halloween-themed one starring Daniel Bryan. Everyone needs to buy like, ten copies of this new book. I want to live in a world where a Daniel Bryan children’s book is a thing that exists.

– News broke throughout the week that Beth Phoenix is finishing up with WWE and preparing to leave the company. Phoenix had recently taken time off due to a death on the family and was said to be “going through the motions” by sources in the company.

But of course, multiple reports from people who spoke to Phoenix after Raw on Monday say she told them she isn’t planning on leaving “any time soon,” So, is Beth leaving? Who knows. Watch this space!

– WWE are happy with how the new three-hour Raws have been doing so far. The company apparently knows it needs to find a way to perk up the third hour rating, but overall, things are going well. Raw is unlikely to go back to two hours, at least any time soon, as USA pays a lot more for the show with its increased run-time. Vince McMahon loves money, who knew.

– WWE have announced a fancy distribution deal with Hulu Plus. As someone who lives outside the US and therefore can’t watch anything on Hulu, this matters little to me. NEXT

– Alex Riley (remember him?) posted on Twitter last week about undergoing surgery –

Thought I would let u guys know that i had to have knee and elbow surgery earlier this week, thank u for all your support.

I will be back as soon as humanely possible #MakeItHappen

A-Ry’s 12 Twitter followers wish him a speedy recovery.

– The Aces and Eights angle in TNA is said to be coming to a climax in the next few weeks, with a strong chance that Jeff Jarrett will be revealed as the group’s leader. I….. really? Jeff Jarrett? Again? That’s the best they can come up with? According to the story, Jarrett is a logical choice, due to the fact he was removed from power by Dixie Carter and fired by Sting, who was later announced for the TNA Hall of Fame before Jarrett, the founder of the company. You know who else is a logical choice? Someone who isn’t Jeff bloody Jarrett. Sigh. Anyway, enough of my ranting, what does CM Punk think?

Exactly.

– The November 20th release of WWE’s Attitude Era DVD set may be delayed or cancelled thanks to Linda’s ongoing senate campaign. This is really starting to tick me off now. Just as church and state should be separate, so should politics and pro wrestling. I’m sure there are plenty of other ways for a person to satiate their ego without negatively affecting a business that millions around the world enjoy.

Meanwhile, Linda has changed her campaign tactics, focusing on her life as a grandmother to connect personally with voters. What does this have to do with actual politics? Fuck all!

– Randy Orton is going to be doing his own stunts on whatever film he is in. Remember Randy, when the film crew offer you little bags of strange powder, just say no!

– Several reasons have been reported for Jeff Hardy winning the Bound for Glory series this year. Hardy is nearing the end of his contract and TNA want to keep him happy so he re-signs. Also, Hardy is one of the company’s biggest names, and they expect him to drive PPV and movie theater ticket sales for the show. I get the business logic, but eh, it’s not for me. Although I did see a rumor that TNA are thinking about putting Bully Ray in the BFG main event too. Now that would bring my interest back up.

– In other stable-related news, the new alliance of Heath Slater, Jinder Mahal and Drew MacIntyre will apparently be called “Encore.” Cool. Still don’t care. When the star of the group is Heath Slater, you might be in trouble. J.O.B. Squad 2.0?

– Kofi Kingston and Dolph Ziggler were praised backstage for their match on this weeks Raw. Rightly so, it was bloody good. With Kofi and Truth no longer Tag champs and a number of new teams arising, there has been talk of Kofi getting a strong singles push. As long as this actually means a strong push, I’m all for it! If it means Kofi getting a couple of high-profile matches and then creative changing their minds on the fly, not so much.

– Nike have released a new pair of shoes that pay tribute to the Macho Man, Randy Savage. I appreciate a good pair of trainers (sorry, sneakers), so I was interested to see what these look like. Turns out they are hideous! Take a look.

– Ted DiBiase has been working as a heel on the last couple of house shows, to see if he fits that role better. I dunno, I thought he was getting somewhere with his DiBiase Posse thing, rather than just being a naff copy of his dad. Plus, the last thing Smackdown needs right now is more heels. But hey, what do I know. If Ted finds his calling as an awesome heel, go for it.

– TMZ reports that Cameron, she of Funkadactyl fame, has pleaded not guilty for her DUI case. Hmmm. Tempted to ask what CM Punk thinks again.

– And lastly, two morons rushed the ring on this weeks Raw, during the Ryback/Miz match. Ring announcer and part-time badass hero Justin Roberts was the first on the scene and took down one guy himself. More security kept both men pinned down in front of the announcers’ table until the cops took over.

Why the hell do stupid drunk “fans” do this every now and then? It spoils the show for everyone and all they get out of it is a trip to a police station. And, guys, if you are gonna rush the ring, don’t do it during a Ryback match. Have you seen that guy? That guy will fucking kill you. Dead. And trust me, he’s just looking for an excuse to kill someone. Then we can stop doing this –

Not yet. Lucky fans.

Raw is a television program that I watch and then write about here.

CM Punk, Paul Heyman, Brian Maddox and AJ Lee all propose to each other

Good segment here. Punk is finally getting some heel heat. It is interesting though that he has had to turn on the crowd to do so, considering he was so caught up in not having done so a few weeks back. Still, I don’t mind. Punk yelling at wrestling crowds has been entertaining for years.

Crowd boos CM Punk. CM Punk talks about his sexual prowess. Crowd chants for CM Punk. Nice.

I was half-expecting AJ to accept Heyman’s proposal. Doesn’t get much more crazy than that!

Dolphy Zigglestrom vs. Kofi Kingston

Great, great match. These two have wrestled each other so much now that the chemistry is abundant. JR referring to it as a main event tells you all you need to know. Push these men. Push them to the moooooooooon

Daniel Bryan orders some food from a waiter called Gerald who reminds me quite a lot of Kane

This skits are still hilarious. If you disagree, you are wrong.

Zack Ryder and Santino Marella vs. THE PRIME TIME PLAYAAAAAS

Wow, squash city.

People wanted a tag division, and it seems that might actually be happening. For the first time in a long time, there are more teams than simply the champs and their current challengers. Good stuff.

Mick Foley and CM Punk have a chat

Mick Foley insulting Paul Heyman? You’d be nothing without Paul. E Dangerously, you dirty hippy!

Fantastic promo. Foley raises a good point about his title runs – no-one thinks of him and thinks “29 days.” They tend to think “insane son of a bitch” or “beard.”

Ryback vs. The Miz

Welp, there goes your Intercontinental Champion! If this leads to a title match, I don’t see Miz retaining clean.

When Daniel Bryan met Kane

Obligatory Mae Young appearance!

Wade Barrett vs. Tyson Kidd

Hey, remember that time Tyson Kidd won on Raw?

It seems that Wade is on a bit of holding pattern for now. The near future of the WWE Title is definitely planned, and Dolph Ziggler seems like the next guy to occupy the World Title scene.

Jerry Lawler!

He clearly isn’t 100%, and his voice is shot, but for a man who had an extremely severe heart attack two weeks ago, The King is in incredibly good health. Awesome to see.

Sheamus, Rey Mysterio and Sin Cara vs. Alberto Del Rio, David Otunga and Ricardo Rodriguez

This was a match that ended in Sheamus brogue kicking someone. You may have seen it before.

Pick D-Bry and Kane’s team name!

Team Friendship is the only good choice here. The other two are awful.

And Team Hell No wins? What? I don’t even….. who on earth voted for that?

some Divas stuff I skipped through

Tensai vs. Brodus Clay featuring The Big Show

Oh yay, Big Show is back. Does sarcasm come across in writing? Because I was being sarcastic.

Cena and Punk discuss Hell, also Cells

I can say it til I’m blue in the face, these two bring out the best in each other every time. Every time they have a promo together, it’s guaranteed to be compelling.

I like Cena, but man does it annoy me when he does his fake PG “swearing.” It’s not funny, and it completely takes the seriousness out of the situation.

Punk has a good point about all Cena’s title shots. Let someone else have a go, greedy! Except, yknow, before Summerslam, Cena hadn’t had a title shot this year. Amazing, isn’t it.

Punk’s “passive aggressive weenie” line was pretty awesome. You tell that crowd, Punk!

Punk crossing over into major heel territory here, threatening to destroy a one-armed dude. He has some great facial expressions, growing every more angry and exasperated with Cena.

Lead pipe! The quintessential problem solver!

Punk takes out his frustrations on Mick Foley, only to run into…….. Ryback?!?!??!?

A legitimate surprise. I will admit I had a little mark-out moment.

I was enjoying the slow build for Ryback, but I do very much like the idea of him stepping up to take on Punk. If you’ve been reading the column since I started, you might have been able to glean that I’m quite the fan of the Ryback. The man is a brick shithouse (do you say that in the States? “Built like a brick shithouse” just means being super huge), and when he isn’t botching, he pulls off the style well. Dat clothesline! The guy has been built up steadily now for quite some time, but this is still quite a jump. My only concern is that, if this is a move up to the main event, it may be too soon. Moving him slowly up the card was working pretty well, in my eyes.

Looking ahead, if Ryback were to replace Cena at Hell in a Cell, there is no way that he is winning the title. At the same time, I don’t think WWE want to end Ryback’s undefeated streak yet. Hmmm. Also, what about Miz? I figured Mr. Back would be challenging for the Intercontinental Title next.

Ah well, this is all conjecture. Alls I know is, it’s a good time to be The Ryback.

Last week I asked you all your opinions on the three hour Raw. Ask and ye shall receive – let’s start with Jason King –

I’m all about matches getting more time and it’s definitely benefitted, but 3 hours a week is just way too long. Especially coming off of a PPV – not only do we have a 3 hour PPV on a Sunday, but then the next night we have another 3 hours of RAW? It’s just too much. TNA has been doing a great job lately of balancing great matches with filler — so it’s possible to be done. 2 hours and the 10 min overrun for RAW was plenty before.

Indeed. Plenty of people just do not have enough time in their lives to watch a three hour show. It’s a big time commitment.

Dr Wiki –

The only major problem with the 3 hour Raw is that instead of using the extra time for either backstage skits with midcarders or pushing guys into a strong midcard role they waste it on recaps, BA* and reminding us what happened every ten minutes.

I had hoped that with the extra time they would have AJ interacting with more midcarders or making Ted DiBiase and Zack Ryder into Midcard title contenders. Ted could easily be the rich good guy which is something that is very rare in wrestling.

Another good point. Do we really need recaps of stuff that happened earlier in the same show? I appreciate some people may be coming into the programme late, but even so, its unnecessary. I don’t mind backstage or other skits as long as they are entertaining (see: Daniel Bryan, Kane) but just using them to fill time isn’t ideal.

G-Walla –

Watching RAW is becoming more like a chore, every week. Sure, I still enjoy it, but even though I DVR it and fast forward through commercials and recaps, it feels like forever.

Watching it back the next day on DVR is definitely a blessing. I can’t imagine I’d have the patience to sit through it live.

Anyway, this week. I’ve already given you my opinions on him above, so now it’s your turn – what do you think of Ryback, and, more importantly, the way he has been built so far? Have you enjoyed the slow build like myself, or do you find it dull? Is it way too soon for him to be pushed into the main event? Is his wrestling style entertaining, or one-dimensional? Is he ever full? Let me know, people.

I’ll leave you with something completely unrelated. Who remembers this?

I still randomly blurt out “Pancakes, Rock! Pancakes!” to this day.

And of course, the sequel.

That’s all for this week, people. Remember once again to follow me on Twitter and read my blog! I’m Sam Smith, thanks for reading.