The Bell To Bell News Report 04.28.11

Yes, it’s Thursday, yes, this is the Bell to Bell News Report and yes, I’m Randy Harrison. After a bit of a delay last week, we’re back on our regularly scheduled day and ready to hit it hard. This week was a HUGE week in news with the WWE Draft shaking up the rosters of Raw and Smackdown, a big star in Mexico getting arrested and one of the top stars of the WWE considering making his way out of the company, so the less jabbering I’m doing at the beginning of this thing means the more time you have to check out all of the happenings in the past week in the world of professional wrestling (wrestling will NEVER be a dirty word in the Bell to Bell!). With all of that in mind, you know how we start off this little tea party every single week….

You know the drill…

Ding Ding….

— This year’s edition of the WWE Draft is in the books and after the two hours of Raw and what felt like thirty hours of the supplemental draft the next day, there’s been some significant movement for both rosters with the biggest being the moves of Randy Orton and Sin Cara to Smackdown, while Raw picked up Alberto Del Rio, Rey Mysterio and retained John Cena. The supplemental draft also saw some action with some surprising names as Alex Riley, US Champ Sheamus and Daniel Bryan moved over the blue brand with Kofi Kingston, Drew McIntyre and Jack Swagger being brought over to freshen up Raw’s mid-card.

While most of these moves were solid, there are a couple of surprises in there. Starting with the big names going to Smackdown, the Orton move felt like a bit of a given considering that he’s the only face on Raw that could be moved over to fill the gap left by Edge’s sudden retirement. His presence will solidify the top of the main event babyface roster that was sorely lacking in presence and he will likely jump right into the World Heavyweight Championship mix after Extreme Rules. Moving Sheamus over is a pretty smart move as well as he’s been floundering a bit since falling out of the title picture despite being King of the Ring and US Champ. Giving him some time on Smackdown to regain his footing will let him work off this “sophomore slump” deal and give him the chance to show the WWE higher ups that he can get back to the top.

As for the Sin Cara/Mysterio swap, it actually makes a lot of sense to me. In an earlier edition of the Bell to Bell, I had spoken about how Sin Cara being part of the Raw brand was a smart move for the WWE to try to help that brand gain more exposure in Mexico. Unfortunately, he’s had a couple of slip-ups in his first couple of live appearances and that could be a killer before he even gets out of the gate. Bringing Mysterio to Raw lets him be the guy that tries to break the brand out huge in Mexico while Sin Cara is able to ride the popularity that Mysterio has built on Smackdown as he adjusts to the WWE style and finds his way in the company. If the company is grooming Sin Cara to be a replacement for Mysterio, who is rumored to be nearing the end of his career, having him in the taped environment without the pressure of live TV as he adapts to wrestling in the United States should be an immense help.

The move of Del Rio to Raw was a bit of a head scratcher for me as it not only telegraphs the finish of the upcoming World Heavyweight Championship match at Extreme Rules against Christian, but it may be a case of too much, too soon in my opinion. Del Rio has been doing a great job as a heel on Smackdown and he’s proven to be main event material, but I don’t think that he’s had enough time to be seasoned to work a main event program with a guy like Cena and have it be a believable feud. His feuds with Mysterio and Edge ended up mostly as stalemates or with Del Rio losing out and usually the guys that end up being brought over to Raw as main event guys are ones that have had more experience at the top of the card over on Smackdown. I have faith that Del Rio will be able to make it work as Raw doesn’t really have any top-flight heels outside of The Miz (as hard as that is for me to say with CM Punk being as awesome as he has been), but it’s going to be tough sledding for him.

The deal of having Cena drafted to Smackdown and then moved back to Raw at the end of the show was a perfect micrcosm of what’s been wrong with the WWE’s treatment of Cena in the past few years. Rather than possibly having him spend a few weeks on Smackdown doing something different and interacting with different stars, the WWE balked at it and decided to go with the stale norm of Cena heading Raw. They did it with the Nexus/firing angle, they’re doing it with the deal that they have running with The Rock and Cena and they did it again here. It’s the same thing that they’ve done seemingly every time they’ve had the chance to do something to shake Cena’s character up a bit and it’s starting to get a little old.

I get that the guy is the face of the company and sells a ton of merch and all that, but his character feels like it’s veering into the territory of Hulk Hogan in the early-90’s. It still works to a certain extent with a segment of the audience and is making the WWE a lot of money, but there is a large segment of the audience that doesn’t want it anymore and are rapidly tiring of it. While moving Cena to another show may not have been the heel turn that most of the IWC is clamoring for, it would have at least been a change of pace from the usual. Cook has much the same opinion and said it way better than I could in his Wednesday edition of News From Cook’s Corner, so head on over to check that out because I don’t want to spend pages going on about it when there’s so much other stuff to get to. If I did, I’m pretty sure that I would just rant until my brain exploded.

The whole mid-card shuffle is a bit of a wash as most of those parts are pretty well interchangeable. Seeing Bryan move to Smackdown, where there seems to be a bit more of a focus on the action in the ring could be interesting if he’s given the chance to show what he can do. He’s gotten as far as he has so far on his name recognition alone without a ton of chances to have long matches on Raw, so a few of those on Smackdown and he could be right back into being one of the top prospects in the company when it comes to breaking into the main event. The same could be said for Kingston on Raw, the brand where he’s had his most success. Hopefully for his sake, a return is just the thing to give his career a shot in the arm as he’s been a bit of a forgotten man in the past few months in my opinion. Swagger heading to Raw is not much of a surprise as it allows his deal with Cole to run its course and he wasn’t doing much on Smackdown anyhow. It will also be interesting to see if Drew McIntyre can regain his momentum on Raw after going from golden child on Smackdown to afterthought in record time.

All in all, the draft was pretty much what was expected, even if it seemed to all be being done on the fly in terms of who was going where. As usual, Smackdown is set to groom a new generation of top stars, while Raw took the top talent from Smackdown in a scene reminiscent of a soccer team being promoted to Serie A or the Premier League.

— While the draft may have gone as many expected, there was still some shocking roster news coming out of the WWE this past week as a source within the WWE has suggested that former World Heavyweight Champion CM Punk may be on his way out of Connecticut when his contract expires in a few months. Punk has reportedly been offered a new long-term contract, but is not keen on signing it at this time, citing that he is burnt out from being on the road and unhappy with his current position in the company. Here’s what the source had to say about the situation, which has apparently heated up during the WWE’s latest tour of Europe in the past couple of weeks;

When you look at how the company brands it’s characters, Punk is never among the top 5-8 names that are promoted or pushed. It’s Cena, Orton, Miz, Undertaker, Rey, now Alberto, etc. these days and Punk is sort of floating right under there. He didn’t fit into the youth drive a few months back but he’s not treated like a top veteran either. He’s just there, doing his job and while everyone knows he delivers, he’s never really treated like someone who does. He’s never dropped the ball but we don’t give it to him really, either. He’s treated like a guy, but not THE guy. For a driven guy like him who’s made wrestling his entire world, it’s got to drive him crazy. Now, the excuse will be don’t push Punk because he might be leaving, but the reality is the environment and situation is what is probably making him want to leave to begin with. Either it gets fixed or it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy, just like it did when Batista walked out.”

There’s a lot of truth in that statement in that while Punk is one of the best talkers in the company and is more than capable of carrying a main event feud inside and outside of the ring, he has been used in that regard very little. It’s not very often that a guy can say that he has had multiple title reigns in a company and be forgotten about, but that’s the case with Punk here. While the source mentions Batista’s situation, Punk saying that he is burnt out and unhappy with his lot in the company at the moment and that reminds me a lot more of what Chris Jericho wrote in his book Undisputed. During the time span that he decided to walk away from the business, he talked a lot about feeling burnt out and unhappy with how he was being used, which is a lot like what we’re hearing about Punk now.

There have been numerous times where Punk could have been pushed to the moon, even in the past year with his role as leader of both the Straight Edge Society and the new Nexus. In both of those situations, Punk was charismatic, entertaining and not only cut great promos but put on great matches. Throw in a feud with Rey Mysterio that many felt was one of the better feuds in the past little while and Punk should be a lot further ahead than he is. None of that takes into consideration that he was involved in one of the best matches at this year’s WrestleMania against Randy Orton in a feud that could have easily had title implcations and been completely believable.

Much like when Jericho left the company to take time away, I will be incredibly disappointed if Punk decides to leave the company as he has always been one of my personal favorites and probably my second favorite wrestler behind Jericho. I don’t see TNA being an option for him based on the fact that Punk is smart enough to see that they’ve squandered nearly every big name that has signed with them and a step back to ROH is just as unlikely as he would be right back where he started which would be huge for ROH but a disaster for Punk. If it is true that he is burning himself out, it would probably be the best for Punk if he were to just take a year or two off from the business to see if he can re-ignite the passion he’s felt for wrestling since he started in the sport.

I hate to keep harping on it, but when Jericho returned, he took the first couple of months to get back into the swing of things before going on what is arguably the most successful and lucrative period in his career where he was involved a tremendous feud with Shawn Michaels while holding the World Heavyweight Championship on numerous occasions. If he did that off of how stale the Jericho character had become in the middle of the last decade, imagine what a rejuvenated Punk could do with a year or two away from the ring to completely heal any nagging injuries and to come up with even more awesome promo material. Here’s to hoping that Punk re-signs and the WWE starts to bring him up into the title picture on a full time basis, but if they don’t I’ll still hold out hope that we’ll see the Chick Magnet back in a WWE ring someday.

— Big news out of Mexico as current AAA and former Lucha Libre USA star Charly Manson has been arrested on multiple counts of aggravated assault and attacking authority figures after a wild brawl on the weekend with police who were attempting to arrest Manson for being intoxicated in public. Manson, whose real name is Jesus Luna Pozos, was drinking with a friend who was underage when they attempted to have police officers help them locate their missing car. During the encounter, a fight broke out between Manson and the two officers, which left one of them with a broken nose and the other with a fractured skull and possible brain trauma. Manson’s friend was also shot in the foot by a third officer during the fracas and both men ended up arrested.

While Manson is a celebrity in Mexico thanks to his work with CMLL, AAA, Perros del Mal and other promotions, it appears that he will be getting no special treatment in this situation as the prosecutor in the case, Miguel Angel Mancera has said that they plan on prosecuting Manson to the fullest extent of the law. In fact, Mancera went one step further and stated that he is planning on requesting that the judge deny Manson bail because of the serious nature of the case. According to the report that has been released by the police, he could be looking at 5 years in prison or anywhere up to 8-10 years if convicted. It’s been a rough couple of years for lucha in Mexico with bad news seemingly coming every few weeks and this incident appears to be the latest in that string of unfortunate circumstances. Stick with the Bell to Bell for more on this situation as it develops in the coming weeks.

— With three less than stellar editions of the show under their belt, the WWE has decided to drop the Night of Champions pay-per-view concept, which was set to return on September 18th in Buffalo, NY. The slot where the pay-per-view was set to take place is still being held, but the show is officially TBA. Given that the shows have dropped in buys year after year and the concept has taken a significant hit with the WWE reducing the number of championships they have on their roster in the past twelve months, the move is a smart one. While I’ve always felt that every pay-per-view should have its focus on the titles to make them mean something, I get that it’s a different time in the business and nothing drives that point home more than the failure of a pay-per-view built specifically around the titles. Now let’s just hope that the new idea that the WWE comes up with isn’t any worse.

— After two previously lengthy reigns cornered the market on the NWA World Heavyweight Championship for the better part of the past three years, the belt has now changed hands twice in the span of six weeks as The Sheik upended Colt “Boom Boom” Cabana to win the title at NWA Pro Wrestling Fusion’s Subtle Hustle event in Florida over the weekend. There has been plenty of controversy surrounding Sheik’s name in NWA circles for quite some time, but there’s no denying that the man has had success in the NWA, holding numerous regional titles before this reign with the big belt. Naturally, there was even more controversy surrounding the title change as the NWA Hollywood promotion that has featured the title heavily in its programming since its debut last September stated that they would not be bringing Sheik into the promotion, while booker Joey Ryan took to Twitter and disagreed with the decision, saying that it was definitely not a decision that NWA Hollywood had a hand in.

There were also some random Twitter postings and rumors that Sheik or people behind Sheik may have…..uh…..greased the wheels a little bit…..when it came to his being awarded the title by the NWA Board of Directors, but as of now anyone involved with the NWA is rather tight-lipped on the decision and the fallout. My take on it is that the highest profile that the title has had has been in the Pearce/Cabana feud for the past eight months and for the blowoff to be essentially treated as an afterthought is kind of a shitty move. I’m sure Sheik will be a great champion and will probably bring attention to the belt with his wild antics, but he has had little national exposure and that is something that Colt could have brought and something that the NWA brand desperately needs in this day and age. I wish I had more to add to that, but like I said before there isn’t a lot of information to add to this burgeoning controversy and we’ll all apparently have to wait and see how it plays out in the next weeks and months.

— EVOLVE has announced six of the eight participants who will be taking part in the first-ever style tournament at EVOLVE 8: Style Battle on May 20th in Union City, NJ. The show will air live on iPPV and the tournament is set to focus on finding the best “style” of wrestling in a gimmick that is eerily reminiscent of how the early UFC events were promoted as a way to find the best style of martial arts fighting. Here are the six participants that have been named and their styles from the promotion’s official press release earlier this week;

-AR Fox (High-Flying): This upcomer has really gained a strong following lately. He is a fearless and athletic high-flyer.

-Austin Aries (Hybrid): He is a true veteran who combines flying skills with striking and submission wrestling. His credentials speak for themselves.

-Bobby Fish (Puroresu Jr. Heavyweight): Fish has competed against the best junior heavyweights in Japan. He has perfected the kicking, striking, submission Puroresu style.

-Brodie Lee (Super Heavyweight): Lee towers over his opponents and is an imposing force, but don’t overlook his agility. Lee will return from suspension to try to prove that size does matter.

-Jon Davis (Power): He impressed with a dynamic display of power and strength at EVOLVE 7. Now Davis enters the tournament as the strongest competitor.

-Sami Callihan (Hard-Hitting): He has had a lot of success in tournaments in the past year. Everything Callihan does has force and impact.

While I’m not the biggest fan of EVOLVE’s practice of basically treating their shows as real sport with the records and what not, I have to give them credit for branching out and trying something different here. There’s no word on when the final two spots will be filled, but judging from the six names that are already here, it looks like it will be one heck of a tournament.

— Exciting news for TNA fans in Canada as the promotion is set to return to the John Labatt Centre in London, ON on June 16th and the Ricoh Coliseum in Toronto, ON on June 17th with tickets for both events going on sale on May 6th. In addition to the live events, both shows will feature meet and greet sessions with TNA superstars, which are usually one of the best parts of TNA house shows. Kurt Angle, Mr. Anderson, AJ Styles, Beer Money, Mickie James, Abyss, Jeff Jarrett and more are being advertised for the shows, which seems like a pretty heavy line-up of TNA’s top stars. While I haven’t had the pleasure of getting out to a TNA house show yet, there are numerous people who have e-mailed me in the past with their experiences and they are all resoundingly positive. Give TNA all the flack in the world for what they’ve been doing in terms of their booking and their programming, but they seem to be spot on when it comes to taking care of the fans with their house shows so the folks in Ontario should be in for a real treat this Summer.

— As if there wasn’t enough for the smark fans to get angry at John Cena about, this past week saw Cena film scenes for his role in the Nickelodeon movie “Fred The Movie 2” following the Smackdown TV tapings. According to reports, Cena, who played a role as Fred’s “father” in the first movie, will team with Fred to battle bullies with Cena and Fred making an entrance with full music and Titantron video while the bullies came out to the old theme used by Gangrel. Fred is honestly one of the worst and most unfunny things that has ever been unleashed on the internet and while I commend Cena for being able to get more mainstream exposure by doing something a little more kid-friendly, I can guarantee that I won’t be watching it so if someone with kids who actually likes the whole Fred thing can let me know how it looks when the movie comes out, I’d greatly appreciate it.

— After being bought out by the UFC, the Strikeforce promotion has decided against signing former WWE star Batista to a contract with “The Animal” himself telling TMZ that the deal that was rumored for the past couple of months is officially dead. Batista was understandably disappointed with the news as he stated that he had had his heart set on Strikeforce, but in my opinion it’s probably for the best. There’s no telling what kind of training that he’s been undergoing since he quit the WWE, but he’s over 40 and has had a myriad of injuries in his wrestling career. I feel fairly safe in stating that the MMA guys would have sent him out of the cage with his ball-bag in a sling had he ever gotten into a real bout, so this is a good thing for Big Dave. I don’t think he’ll be beating down the door to come back to the WWE right away, but if he finds that his opportunities outside of wrestling start drying up and he can’t make the kind of money elsewhere that he could in the ring, I wouldn’t be surprised to see some sort of comeback someday.

— Good ol’ JR took a little damage while handing out his ass-beating of Michael Cole this past Monday on Raw as he announced on his Twitter account that he had to go for X-rays after one of Cole’s teeth went through to the bone on his fist. After all he’s been through with the WWE in the past twelve years or so, I can’t say that I blame JR for turning it into a potato factory. That’s a lot of aggression to get out and when someone isn’t a trained performer, it makes it even harder for them, no matter how much experience they may have in the business. Of course, part of me feels like this might just be a kayfabe situation where they’re trying to sell how badly JR beat up Cole and how much he hates him, but I’m following the Mythbusters lead and calling this one “plausible” as there were a couple of shots that could definitely have left JR nursing some busted knuckles.

— Finally, one of my favorite shows from the past couple of years has been Web Soup on G4 and they usually end their show off with The Greatest Web Video Ever (This Week). Well, in this week’s Bell to Bell, we finish things off with what I consider to be one of the greatest wrestling related videos I’ve ever seen. Yeah, the meme is a bit old and tired, but if there’s anyone that can breathe new life into the thing, it’s Stone Cold…..

Austin posted the following on his Twitter account under the title of Tough Enough bonus footage and proceeded to get one over on a lot of folks in a way that shows just how entertaining and funny the man can be to fans that either weren’t around during Austin’s prime or have just missed it for too long. That spin at the end was pretty bad-ass too….

Well, that’s it for me for this week folks. Thanks for joining me and I hope you enjoyed my take on the past seven days in this wonderful thing we know and love called wrestling. DeMarco will be bringing the titties at the end of the week with the 5 & 1 and Randle will have all of the weekend news wrapped up on Monday with his Wrestling News Experience. I’m off to check out more Stanley Cup goodness so I will bid you all farewell for now. In the meantime and in between time, I’ll see you all back here next time for another brand-new edition of the Bell to Bell!

If you’re a fan of MMA, be sure to check out Nokaut.com for more of my work.