The Bell To Bell News Report 07.21.11

Greetings fellow fanatics of the squared circle and welcome to this week’s Bell to Bell! So, did anything interesting happen while I was gone? Who am I kidding, this week is a huge column full of my thoughts on Money in the Bank, CM Punk’s departure, Sin Cara failing a drug test, TNA crowning a new champion and Ring of Honor solidifying their ties to Japan. There’s lots to get to so we’re going to skip the usual sports talk this week (no, it’s not just because the Bombers lost, though that did suck) and get back to it next week. For now though, it’s time to dive right in!

You know the drill…

Ding Ding….

— In news that likely brought on thousands of cases of carpal tunnel syndrome from fans flooding the internet with comments and opinions, CM Punk became the WWE Champion in the main event of the Money in the Bank PPV by pinning John Cena after a classic encounter that went well over thirty minutes. Not only did Punk pick up the biggest win of his wrestling career in front of an absolutely molten hometown crowd in Chicago, but he actually made good on his promise to leave the WWE with the title and hasn’t been seen anywhere near WWE TV since Sunday night. The finish saw Punk take the belt through the crowd and into the night while Vince McMahon was standing in the ring looking as shocked as…..well…..

Suffice it to say that there were quite a few shocked expressions among the friends that I watched the show with as well as none of us thought they would actually have the balls to go with that finish. They did and in doing so gave us one of the first truly great moments in wrestling that there has been in a long, long time.

Many (including myself) were worried that with how tremendous the build to the match had been, there would be no way for it to live up to the expectations. Not only did the match beat everyone’s expectations, it shattered them and that’s a compliment not only to Punk, but to John Cena as well. Everyone seems to love to get on Cena’s case for not knowing how to wrestle and being a boring talent at the head of a boring company, but he was the only guy that could stand in there with Punk and not be swallowed up by the entire situation. It worked to have Cena in there with him because here was the guy that was spitting in the face of the WWE and threatening to steal their title facing the guy that has been the face of the company for the past six years, for better or worse. Had it been anyone other than Cena involved, it would have been almost anti-climactic as the symbolism of Punk beating the WWE’s golden boy for the WWE’s golden belt would have been lost.

That’s not even getting into the fact that Cena has proven time and again that he can more than hold his own in the big match environment. From his WrestleMania classic with Shawn Michaels to the nearly hour-long rematch those two had on Raw shortly after to numerous other matches, Cena has been capable of being involved in some great matches in the past few years. While some of that can surely be attributed to the men he was working with, Cena deserves his share of the credit as well as he’s been involved in nearly every big WWE match of the past few years outside of the Shawn Michaels/Ric Flair/Undertaker/Triple H type matches from the past few WrestleMania shows.

Getting back to Punk though, he has been playing this entire angle brilliantly, from his facial expressions after he won the belt to the postings he made on his Twitter account the next day. Hell, he even went so far as to rip the John Cena nameplate off of the bottom of the belt in what I think is a tremendous little touch that likely went unnoticed by most of the people who saw him posing for pictures with it while attending a Cubs game at Wrigley Field on Monday night. Punk has almost single-handedly lit a fire under the business that has resulted in numerous huge shifts including the one that we saw to finish out this past Monday’s episode of Raw where Triple H relieved Vince McMahon of his duties as Chairman and took over the day-to-day operations of the company before Vince could go through with firing John Cena. This is huge in terms of storylines as it’s a symbolic passing of the torch from the old guard to the new and it likely wouldn’t have happened without the Punk storyline to set it off.

Where they go from here is anyone’s guess, but my only hope is that it doesn’t end up turning into another form of McMahon vs. McMahon with Punk siding with either McMahon or Triple H against whichever flunky the other guy puts out there (probably Cena again). It’s been done to death a hundred times and has been less and less successful every time it’s been trotted out for the fans to swallow. The company has a chance to really shake some life into the business with this whole CM Punk angle and hopefully they’ve got a solid long-term booking plan in place for how all of this is going to work out because it would be a shame to throw away some of the best work of Punk’s career on something that ends up turning into the same old, same old.

— Also coming out of the Money in the Bank show was the biggest win of Daniel Bryan’s career as he ripped the blue briefcase down from the rafters in the opening match to become the proud owner of a shot at the World Heavyweight Championship. To be honest, I haven’t seen much of Bryan since his move to Smackdown, but I have felt like he has been lost in the shuffle since his hot return last year. Whether it was Bryan still having some trouble adapting to the WWE style of wrestling or whether it was creative having trouble figuring out the best way to use him, he’s been languishing for some time, which made his win at the PPV rather surprising. Given that Smackdown has been considered the brand for wrestling for the past seven or eight years of the brand extension, it makes sense that Bryan will get his shot at the top of the card, but it’s not a lock that he will become a main event talent by any means.

Jack Swagger was thought to be on the fast track to success after his Money in the Bank win at WrestleMania XXVI in 2010, but his run with the World Heavyweight Championship was considered a bit of a disappointment and he’s had trouble making his way back into the main event scene since. There is a ton of hope for a lot of fans that this is Bryan’s chance to bring wrestling back into the WWE and while I agree with them that he is probably one of the best-suited athletes for that task, it’s a fool’s errand to think that he will be able to put on the same kind of clinics he put on during his time in Ring of Honor. Bryan will be forced to adapt his style yet again to fit in with the main event talent in the WWE and if he’s able to do so, he could be in line for a long and successful career as part of the foundation of the new WWE for the next decade. There’s going to be a lot of pressure on Bryan in the weeks and months ahead and it will be interesting to see how he handles it and how the fans respond to it as this looks to be a make or break point for the future of the “American Dragon” as a top-level talent. Congratulations once again to Bryan on a job well done and I wish him the best of luck in the future as he has been one of my favorite wrestlers for years now and I would love to see him hit it even bigger than he already has.

— Tying into the ending of this past Monday’s edition of Raw and the finish of the Money in the Bank pay-per-view, the WWE is promoting a main event for next Monday’s Raw that will see The Miz battling Rey Mysterio for the WWE Championship, formerly held by Cena and currently held hostage by Punk. The match was set to finish off the eight-man tournament that was held in the wake of the CM Punk incident, but that segment ended up being the McMahon bon voyage so the title bout was moved to next Monday’s show. While fans seemed a little upset at the bait and switch of not getting the new champion they were promised at the beginning of the show, I would much rather have Miz and Mysterio get twenty or twenty-five minutes to have a proper WWE Title bout rather than getting eight or nine rushed minutes at the end of a one-night tournament. As to who wins, I am hoping that it will be The Miz as Rey Mysterio has been rather lackluster in his title reigns in the past, while Miz made the most of his shot with the belt and was an entertaining heel champ. Unfortunately, with Alberto Del Rio holding the Money in the Bank briefcase on the Raw side of things, that seems tailor-made for a Mysterio title win. Either that or we get Miz as a heel claiming to be the true champion for a few months only to have Punk return and yank the rug out from under him. I know which one I’m pulling for.

— More big news stemming from the Money in the Bank pay-per-view as one of the WWE’s big signings of the past year, Sin Cara, was effectively written out of the company after being powerbombed through a ladder by Sheamus during the Smackdown Money in the Bank match that opened the show. In reality, Sin Cara was suspended by the WWE as part of their Wellness Policy for his first offense. According to reports, the positive test actually took place in June with the announcement delayed until after the PPV. With all of the problems that he has been having in assimilating into the WWE’s in-ring style, this is just another strike against Sin Cara and there is a ton of heat on him as he was the first major hire made by Triple H in his expanded backstage role. For his part, Sin Cara spoke to a Mexican newspaper and speculated that he may have been injected by his doctor for pain management with the injection potentially containing some type of steroid. Whether there is any truth to that or not remains to be seen, but he stated in the interview that he will be meeting with Vince McMahon to discuss the situation soon.

As if there wasn’t enough controversy and trouble surrounding the embattled lucha star, word also came this week that there are significant legal issues regarding the name Sin Cara as the WWE has been unable to secure the trademark for the name due to some legal wranglings with the USPTO (United States Patent and Trademark Office). There’s plenty of legalese in the reports, but the long and short of it is that the request by the WWE is in the “final refusal” stage, meaning that they have six months to appeal the refusal or provide the office with a response that meets their qualifications. If they do not do so, the application will be abandoned. There are even rumors that Sin Cara may be released by the company if he’s not able to turn things around, which may have more truth than many realize. Averno, who was signed by the WWE to be a major opponent for Sin Cara, won a title belt in Mexico recently and may not even jump to the WWE despite losing his mask in preparation for the move. Look for Cara to get a few weeks after his suspension is up to prove himself to the locker room and to management. If he’s unable to adjust and turn the negative tide of the locker room against him, I would expect that he could be released, even with all of the hype surrounding his debut. Hell, it would even save the WWE from the hassles over the trademark issue. There’s surely going to be more to this in the next few weeks, so keep an eye on the Bell to Bell for further updates.

— Apparently, the WWE Universe doesn’t include the Biggest Little City in the World, Reno, NV. A house show scheduled for the city on August 7th has been cancelled with refunds for those who bought tickets available at the initial points of purchase. This is interesting because it’s the third time since the fall of 2010 that a WWE event in the city has been cancelled. No indication as to why the event was cancelled this time out, but with two previous cancellations, it seems entirely likely that there may not be enough interest in tickets to warrant a house show. Unfortunately, the writing looks like it might be on the wall for the fans of the WWE in Reno and they may have to hit the road to see their favorite superstars live and in person.

— In an update on Jeff Hardy’s current situation with TNA, the former TNA World Heavyweight Champion tweeted that he recently finished up with shooting for a new DVD that will be released in October. While this doesn’t completely confirm anything, if it is a TNA Home Video release, it does seem to indicate that a Hardy return will happen before the end of the Summer. Hardy has been gone from the company since his embarassing performance at Victory Road in a loss to Sting in the main event that saw Hardy performing while under some type of chemical influence and Sting visibly angry. During that span, Hardy’s court case stemming from his September 2009 arrest was settled and it looks as though he’ll be avoiding jail time, which also plays well into a possible TNA return. Of course, this could be Hardy putting out a DVD of his own with footage of him doing whatever weird shit he and his brother get up to, in which case, it will likely sell tens and tens of copies. Then again, that’s about what it would sell as a TNA release, so maybe he’d come out ahead without TNA as the middle man.

— In further TNA news, the company has a new top dog as Sting scored a pinfall win over Mr. Anderson in the main event of the company’s huge July 14th episode of Impact to become the new TNA World Heavyweight Champion. The reign is the fourth for Sting and his fifth overall in TNA if you include his stint with the NWA Title during the time that it was under TNA’s umbrella. While there are certainly congratulations in order for such an accomplishment, there seems to be a bit of a problem with the title’s stability as this is the fifth time that the belt has changed hands in the past seven months. In fact, outside of Sting’s run of roughly three and a half months with the belt from February through June, there has yet to be a TNA World Heavyweight Champion to hold the belt for longer than 35 days. While I get that there have been some issues with the title and the main event scene in TNA (Jeff Hardy’s legal issues for one), the superball nature in which the belt is bouncing around from holder to holder is starting to cheapen it a little bit.

What am I getting at with all of this? Sure, Anderson wasn’t exactly going to be setting the world on fire as part of Immortal and would probably end up having to play a backseat to Hogan’s antics. However, he can also put on solid twenty-minute matches with virtually anyone on TNA’s roster and in a time where they claim that “Wrestling Matters” that would seem to be a pretty good requirement for a champion. I love Sting to death and am happy to see the little resurgence he’s getting by tweaking his gimmick to rip off The Joker instead of The Crow, but he’s the wrong choice as champion because he can’t carry the company’s main event scene with his in-ring work. Coming off of one of their best received pay-per-view efforts in quite some time with Destination X, TNA should see that the road to their future success doesn’t rely on gimmicks and Crash TV-style shocks, but rather on the in-ring work of their talented performers. Sting goes against that grain as he is forced to rely more on his gimmick than his wrestling just by virtue of his age, let alone the battering his body has taken in the past twenty-five years.

TNA had the chance to really establish themselves as a mainstream alternative to the wrestling product that is available right now by having Anderson hold the title for the summer until dropping it to a hot babyface at Bound For Glory. There could have been some quality matches in that timespan that would have gone a long way towards putting the wrestling back into TNA’s main event that has seemingly been lacking for the past few months. In fact, it could have been a real boost to TNA and the credibility of their biggest title. Instead it feels like all of that has been sacrificed in yet another attempt by the promotion to pop a rating that never materialized.

— The rumblings of a WWE cable channel refuse to go away as this week brought more signs that the company will move forward with the long-rumored project sometime this year. A listing on a cable industry job search website listed that the WWE is currently looking for a recruiter, who would be tasked with hiring the staff that would be needed to launch the network. Given the vast size of the WWE’s tape library and the lack of penetration that they’ve been able to get in the satellite industry with their WWE Classics on Demand service, I would love to see a full-on WWE Network sometime in the next year or two. In the times that I’ve been able to catch some of the WWE’s COD original programming, it has been well-produced and very entertaining and the list of events that I would love to see on the channel is too long to even count. Here’s to hoping that the position is filled relatively quickly and that sometime soon I can hop around the dial from the NFL Network to the NHL Network to the WWE Network.

— Ring of Honor added three more names to their list of talent under contract this past week as they re-signed the team of Rhett Titus and Kenny King, The All Night Express, and added a new face to the roster in “The Project” Tommaso Ciampa. Ciampa debuted in ROH earlier in the year as part of The Embassy and has yet to be pinned or submitted in the promotion, a good sign that they are expecting big things out of the 26-year old former WWE developmental talent. In locking up the ANX for the long-term, Ring of Honor has not only solidified another team in the already stacked tag team division, but has also made sure that two of the company’s brightest rising stars will remain for some time to come. Titus and King have emerged from a division stacked with names like the Kings of Wrestling, The Briscoes and the American Wolves to become top contenders for the ROH World Tag Team Titles and appear to be poised to make the leap to the gold in the near future. Though they first debuted as a bit of a comedy act, the ANX have proven themselves to be a legitimate threat in the division and this is a great signing for ROH as they head into their August 13th TV taping for their debut shows on Sinclair Broadcasting.

— Continuing on with more good news for Ring of Honor, it looks as though their current working relationship with Pro Wrestling NOAH in Japan is about to get even stronger. ROH booker Delirious is currently on tour with NOAH in Japan and is scheduled to meet with NOAH officials regarding a regular working relationship for 2012 before the tour is out. Ring of Honor has a long history of bringing in some of NOAH’s top stars like Takeshi Morishima, Naomichi Marufuji, Kenta Kobashi and the late, great Mitsuharu Misawa and if they are able to bring more of that type of talent across once their new TV deal kicks in, it could prove extremely beneficial to both sides. Not only would the strengthening of the relationship allow for NOAH stars to get their chance to crack into fame in the United States, but it would also let some of ROH’s stars pick up valuable experience while touring in the Land of the Rising Sun. Numerous ROH stars have had tours with NOAH including former ROH World Champion Roderick Strong and nearly every one of them has come back a better wrestler. It would be great if ROH was able to have a solid tour schedule and taping schedule that will allow them to book some of the top NOAH guys for dates soon. I know that I have my fingers crossed and you all should too as it’s rare to get to see top international stars in the US in this day and age.

— Finally, from the “I couldn’t make this up if I tried” Dept., a research group is holding invited focus groups in New York City, asking current and former WWE fans to talk about the current product including what they like and don’t like in an effort to win fans back to the company. The groups, which include men and women aged 18-54, are also being tasked with identifying problems in the way that the company markets and promotes its product. Really? Why aren’t people into wrestling anymore? I don’t even know where to begin with all of this, so I’ll just keep it simple and say that this is smart business by the WWE as they have been losing customers in a steady stream since the death of Attitude and have seemingly forgotten how to win them back. During the Attitude Era, it wasn’t the swearing or the tits or the blood that was bringing people in, it was compelling storylines and exciting action in the ring, two things that have been lacking from the WWE for quite some time. I don’t know if the findings of the groups played any part in how things went down with the Money in the Bank PPV this past Sunday, but that show went a long way towards igniting a lot of former fans’ passion for wrestling and if they can capitalize on it, it could be the beginning of a comeback of sorts for the company.

The thing I don’t understand is why the WWE feels they need to set up focus groups when they have focus groups with 10,000 + people in them every Monday and Tuesday and once a month on Sundays. If the product is good, people will pay to see it, even in a down economy and one would have to hope that the WWE would be smart enough to know if their product is drawing or not. One of the biggest things that Vince did right during the mid-to-late 90’s was listening to what the fans wanted. The fans wanted Stone Cold to be a babyface and he became the biggest babyface the company ever had. The fans wanted Rock to be a heel and he took the ball and ran with it on the way to becoming one of the biggest mainstream stars that wrestling has ever produced. Somewhere along the way, the company has decided that they know what’s best for the fans and that has surely contributed to the lack of ratings and pay-per-view buys in the past few years. If the WWE is smart, they’ll not only listen to what these groups have to say, but listen to what the fans in the buildings have to say as they’ve more often than not steered the business in the right direction.

Alright rasslin’ fans, that’s it for me for this week. Be sure to take a gander at DeMarco’s Wrestling 5 & 1 this weekend as he continues to pit babes against babes in the Versus Summer Tag League and be sure to come on back next week for all the news that’s fit to comment on in the world of professional wrestling. In the mean time 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.