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2012 Pro Wrestling Thread

Discussion in 'Anything goes' started by Rockbottom, Dec 26, 2011.

  1. Petrie

    Petrie Guest

    I think they used ADR because it was the most "believable" way to create the angle. Santa's passing out gifts, he gets hit with a car. Who drives a car into the arena? Del Rio...unless JBL wanted to make a one-night return.
     
  2. schiezainc

    schiezainc Well-Known Member

    So, two things.
    First, for those of you SJers heading to Mania this year, tickets for the Hall of Fame go on sale tonight at 10 p.m. in an internet presale and on sale in general in mid-January.
    Second, I just watched the CM Punk DVD and, man, what a great look at a great talent. I felt the DVD was a little overhyped but it was a great watch.
    Everything about Punk's upbringing was fantastic and seeing some of his early footage was really awesome but I was a bit disappointed with the coverage of his time in WWE thus far. I wonder how much of that was to appease the politics of today's lockerroom and bet that five or 10 years from now we get a lot more on how slighted he felt by the way his character has been handled up to this point.
    Loved watching the Straight Edge Society stuff, probably the best WWE-content developed for/by Punk thus far.
    I love these WWE features and in-depth interviews. It's a shame they really haven't gotten anywhere with the proposed network yet.
     
  3. schiezainc

    schiezainc Well-Known Member

    Oh and one more thing. Just got done watching the WrestleMania 24 Money in the Bank ladder match and I'm now convinced that the dumbest thing the WWE has done in its recent history (Apart from blowing Punk's momentum following the pipebomb) is taking that match off the year's biggest PPV.
    Money in the Bank used to be the match I looked forward to ALL YEAR. It was THE reason to order Mania, regardless of the rest of the card and in the years where it kicked off the show, man, it was the best way to start the show possible.
    Now? Now it's just another gimmick.
    Don't get me wrong, the MITB pay per views the past couple years have been among the best shows the WWE has produced but there was something special about having just one MITB match and having it just once a year and having it on the Mania stage.
    Branching it out has really been a downgrade if you ask me.
     
  4. Bradley Guire

    Bradley Guire Well-Known Member

    It depends on how it's booked.

    I love what it did for Daniel Bryan's career. Without it, we don't get the 18-second Wrestlemania match, which is what really kickstarted his momentum. Then again, Del Rio also won that year. His brief reign didn't amount to shit. At least having two briefcases means The E can salvage one if they screw the pooch one the other.

    The John Cena cash-in took some balls. I really thought he was walking away with the title at Raw 1000. Instead, it lead to Punk getting a major push as the longest reigning champ of the modern era. Nothing can take that away, and it may be a very long time before someone is booked to eclipse it. It also set up Punk vs. The Dwayne, which should be a hot match at Royal Rumble.

    As for Dolph, I would love if he holds it and we get our first Wrestlemania cash-in. Haven't seen it yet, and smarks like us would love it. Plus, it would further elevate Dolph, and he's the best bet for a qaulity, long-term talent. Not Cena-level, but he could be up there in by the end of 2013.
     
  5. spikechiquet

    spikechiquet Well-Known Member

    Does anyone know any wrestling memorabilia collectors that would like to buy a signed chair from the 2005 Hardcore Homecoming Reunion show at ECW Arena?
    I've been lugging this thing around for almost 8 years and I don't know what to do with it. It's got a ton of autographs on it (see below) and some I have no clue who signed them (could provide pics if needed)

    I also have my chair from the ECW One Night Stand show in NYC a few days later (Section 3, Row E) and a piece of the table with Terry Funk's blood on it from the main event of the reunion show (and I got CM Punk to sign a ticket that I have some of his blood on from his minor league match (CZW I think) vs. Homicide...he called me nuts when I asked him to sign it, but he did LOL).

    I'm not actually 100 percent sure I would sell the chair...but if it seems to be worth something, I might consider it.
    Here are the sigs:

    Top
    Jason
    Fonz (Bill Alphonso)
    Joey Styles
    Ian Rotten
    Sabu
    Jerry Lynn
    2 Cold Scorpio
    JT Smith (FBI)

    Bottom
    Axl Rotten
    Jazz
    Muskateer
    Kid Kash
    Sunny
    Pitbull
    Tracy Smothers
     
  6. Bradley Guire

    Bradley Guire Well-Known Member

    I'd need about tree fiddy.
     
  7. sgreenwell

    sgreenwell Well-Known Member

    Spike, you'd probably have to bring it to a dealer, or go the eBay route. I honestly have no idea how much something like that would go for - My suspicion would be around a hundred to $300, just because it's so niche, and ultimately, it's from a secondary sort of event as opposed to like, Wrestlemania 3. Also, if you're going to sell it, you should probably hold on to it until before a big event, like Mania or before Christmas. (IIRC, I think there is a big sort of wrestling convention before Mania each year, right?)

    Schiezainc, I bet after he retires, Punk will be a great shoot subject. Ric Flair did a three-part, eight hour one that was really good, and I imagine Punk would get a similar offer from RF. (Allegedly, Flair got six figures for his, by far the biggest amount ever.) Punk's Nerdist interview hints that he has other interests, so it wouldn't surprise me if once he's done with wrestling, he's completely done.
     
  8. spikechiquet

    spikechiquet Well-Known Member

    Sound advice...thanks!
     
  9. Batman

    Batman Well-Known Member

    Since we're winding down the 2012 thread, any thoughts on some year-end awards? We can call them the Commies and give out a statue of Nikolai Volkoff that sings the Soviet national anthem.
    The ballot, with my winners. Since I don't regularly watch TNA or the indies, my list is WWE-centric. Feel free to add your own categories, too:

    Best angle/feud: Going with CM Punk vs. Chris Jericho. Some great moments in the lead-up to a very satisfying (and overshadowed) Wrestlemania match. Also two of my favorite performers doing some great work, so it gets the nod.

    Worst angle/feud: There's a bunch of worthy candidates, but I'm going with the Laurinaitis saga. So many things ultimately spun out of this -- the endless GM battles, the Cena-Laurinaitis matches, the revelation of the anonymous GM as Hornswoggle, even the current AJ-Cena stupidity (which is itself a variation of a horrible angle TNA ran) that it's the Patient Zero, the Head Vampire of bad WWE ideas in 2012.

    Match of the year: Triple H-Undertaker, Wrestlemania 28. One of three outstanding matches on the card, this was the best. Absolutely brutal match that left both guys battered and bruised, it had great action and capped a five-year-long slow-motion story arc. Hopefully it lives up to its billing as the end of an era, because it was old school in a lot of ways -- the slow build; two legends bringing the best out of each other; believable motives for the characters; a tremendous match; and a memorable send-off at the end with Triple H, Taker and HBK hugging on the ramp.

    Worst match: Any Divas match on Raw or Smackdown.

    Nicest surprise: Daniel Bryan. Guy's momentum was idling heading into Wrestlemania, and then he gets squashed in record time ... and parlays that into a breakout performance over the next two months that turned him into a legitimate main eventer. A lot of guys have walked that path. Few have succeeded.

    Wrestler of the Year: Daniel Bryan. See above for why. CM Punk gets an honorable mention for his outstanding performance during the heel portion of his lengthy title reign, but the neutered face portion was meh. Knocks him just a notch below Bryan.

    Biggest disappointment: Brock Lesnar. The guy came back to huge fanfare, beat the shit out of John Cena ... and then went on hiatus until Wrestlemania season. Nice work if you can get it.

    WTF!? moment of the year: The Funkasaurus debuts. Totally came out of left field and literally made me say "What the fuck is this!?" As brilliant as it was stupid.
     
  10. Gutter

    Gutter Well-Known Member

    I walked into my local gym tonight, oblivious to my surroundings, thinking it would be a typical workout night ... that is until you see a lumbering 7-foot-1 Indian headed in your direction, and then you turn to your right and see a suave-looking Mexican on his smartphone, and then you go into the locker room only to see a Rastafarian-looking young man grooming himself in the mirror.

    Always fun to see the WWE in town and the guys looking like regular guys.
     
  11. schiezainc

    schiezainc Well-Known Member

    Well, I suppose I’ll play around as well.

    Best angle/feud: CM Punk vs. Daniel Bryan. These two have been loved by the smarky internet wrestling community for a while now but it wasn’t until this year that I understood why.
    Their feud in the middle of the year had all the makings of a great technical wrestling storyline and they didn’t disappoint. Even when AJ got thrown into the mix, it was still a blast to watch and it did wonders to bring her along for the ride. Hell, even when Kane got in the mix it was still the best thing going.
    I hope somewhere down the line we see these two work together in another program but even if we don’t, the matches we got in 2012 from these guys were great and fun to watch.

    Worst angle/feud: The “evolution” of Ryback.
    I know from time to time we all get nostalgic for the late 90s but I feel like someone should have called Vince McMahon and let him know that the reason Goldberg got so incredibly hot so quickly is because the way he was booked was refreshing and unique and, you know, he didn’t spend four months wrestling THE EXACT SAME MATCH against one, two, three and four random scrubs everytime he was on TV.
    Ryback spent months having squash matches with guys who didn’t even look capable of competing in backyard wrestling federations and all of a sudden we’re suppose to believe he can compete with the company-branded Best in the World superstar?
    Really?
    Really?
    Ryback has been an absolute joke and has shown ZERO progress and yet has gotten PPV title match after title match without ever, once, showing any potential in the ring or on the mic.
    Could the guy be good? Maybe. But there’s a reason you develop superstars and don’t just hotshot them to the moon for the hell of it. Longterm, this is going to kill his chance to be a legit threat to the main event talent.

    Match of the year: End of an era Hell in the Cell at WrestleMania 28. It’s hard to top a bout this big in scope and storytelling. I mean, we’re talking about a four-year buildup, one of the top in-ring stories ever told and three surefire first-ballot HOF icons (One of which is already in).
    The match had a lot to live up to but, by god, it did and it was amazing.
    Props to the Cena-Rock bout at Mania, the Cena-Lesnar match at Extreme Rules, the CM Punk-Daniel Bryan title match and the Sheamus-Daniel Bryan 2-out-of-3 contest as well.
    Not a bad year for wrestling matches themselves, even if it was a pretty poor year for longterm storytelling.

    Worst match: Brock Lesnar vs. HHH.
    Now, there were worst matches in the technical aspect of the sport of pro wrestling but, to me, you can’t achieve “WMOTY” status unless there are somewhat high expectations for your bout and you utterly fail miserably, preferably at a high-stakes level.
    To me, this match was the worst of the year, by far, because it was built so well and on what the WWE tries to make its second biggest stage of the year at SS.
    The two had zero chemistry together, no doubt because both work a limited schedule in the ring and this bout tried to exist in a PG universe when nothing less than TV-14 would do.
    And the finish? Blah. I don’t mind Lesnar going over but this was just so poorly executed that it made it seem unbelievable.
    And what’s happened since then for either character? Zilch.
    And they were in the MAIN EVENT of Summerslam.
    What a waste.

    Nicest surprise: The emergence of young superstars and a youth-filled undercard.
    For the first time in a long time, it really looks like the WWE is trying to build their roster around the main event guys.
    You’ve got folks like Miz, Barrett, Cesaro, Rhodes, Sandow, Del Rio, Kofi and the like who have all been given chances to shine this year and while it hasn’t always been great (Brodus Clay), it’s nice to see some chances being taken on young talent and, hopefully, the WWE will remember this when it comes time to book WM29 and not just rely on a bunch of part-timers and celebs to fill the card.

    Wrestler of the Year: Daniel Bryan. Simply put, D-Bry brought it this year. The man finally got his chance with his WHC push and delivered two superior matches at Rumble and EC and then had a career-launching moment at Mania … by losing in 18 seconds.
    I thought at the time that it was a death sentence for a character who showed such promise but, man, was I wrong.
    That loss finally got Bryan over with the crowd and for the past 12 months, he’s proven time and time again that he can take any angle, any match and turn it into the highlight of the show.
    When he was put with Kane as a tag team, I thought it was another death sentence and he managed to do something few other superstars have done the past few years (Miz-Morrison and Big Show-Jericho being the only exceptions I can think about) and that’s have a legit tag team that’s actually interesting to watch.
    D-Bry had a great romance angle with AJ, a great singles run with some match of the year-worthy contests against Sheamus and Punk and is killing it in Team Hell No.
    Punk might be the best in the world but Daniel Bryan had the best 2012 run of anyone in WWE. Period.

    Biggest disappointment: CM Punk’s year-long title reign.
    If you had told me in the Summer of 2011 that Punk was going to get a 400 day+ title reign, I would have creamed my pants out of excitement but, over the course of the past 12 months, WWE has done absolutely, positively nothing, to bring Punk along as a true main eventer.
    He was overshadowed at the beginning of the year (and rightfully so) by the great booking of Daniel Bryan as WHC at Rumble and Elimination Chamber, he was overshadowed (and rightfully so) at WrestleMania by the Rock-Cena feud and the End of an Era match.
    At Extreme Rules, he was overshadowed by Cena-Lesnar, which I could tolerate had it actually been developed properly and led to anything but a one-off PPV match.
    Then, for the next two months, he gets lost in the fold as Cena and John Laurinaitis (WTF?) have a pointless feud for a meaningless position that goes nowhere.
    As if that’s not bad enough, he’s the WWE champion and he doesn’t even get a main event PPV match unless it either features Cena or leads to his absolutely dreadful “feud” with Ryback where the powers that be do their best to destroy any legitimacy he has by booking him as needing refs and a stable of new guys to beat a Goldberg ripoff who hasn’t even shown he’s ready for the midcard yet.
    And don’t get me started on the way they’ve turned the character from face to heel to tweener to face to heel to tweener to heel. Terrible booking.
    Punk’s been champion for each and every day of 2012 and where’s it gotten him? He’s seemingly on the verge of dropping the belt to Duane at Rumble and, more likely than not, he’ll be lost in the shuffle of a Rock-Cena rematch at WrestleMania.
    Just a shame. Just an absolute shame. He’s no better off now than he was a year ago.

    WTF!? moment of the year: Everything related to how John Cena was booked in 2012 but especially his losing to the Rock at Mania.
    I’m not sure what the WWE was trying to do here, building a WrestleMania main event for an entire year around the concept of Cena needing to beat Rock because Rock is everything that’s wrong with wrestling—the part timer coming back and not caring about the business—and closing what was a legitimately exciting build by … having Cena lose?
    The worst part about it is Cena looked absolutely devastated at the end of Mania in what could have been an iconic turn and evolution of his character … and the next night he’s totally fine.
    Just the first of many examples of idiotic character development for the company’s top superstar.
    Tell me again why he fought Lesnar? Why, exactly, did he care about Lauinaitis? What, exactly, did he accomplish by getting rid of Laurinaitis? Why was he in the MITB match, a spot usually reserved for superstars who need the rub? Why did he win the MITB match? What was the purpose of him cashing said briefcase in at Raw 1000? Why did he lose that match? Why didn’t he care about being the first MITB loser? For what reason did he care, at all, about AJ? Why was he feuding with Ziggler? Why did he get ANOTHER crack at a MITB briefcase?
    The list goes on and on and on.
     
  12. Baron Scicluna

    Baron Scicluna Well-Known Member

    My picks:

    Best Angle: Team Hell No. The whole tag team partners hating each other thing was played out in 1999. Yet, Bryan and Kane not only managed to make it perhaps the most entertaining part of Raw, but they've managed to make the tag team scene look relevant again. Runner up: A.J./Bryan/Punk love triangle.

    Worst angle: The GM saga's been overplayed already. It's 2012. Nobody cares who's in charge. Lauranitis would have been pretty good just for the realism aspect, but instead, they stuck him battling Teddy Long. Zzzzz. But I would also have to go with Trips' potential retirement. I just can't feel sorry for him.

    Best match: HITC at WM. Nuff said. A solid runner up would be the TLC match with Bryan/Kane/Ryback against The Shield. Considering that only intense smarks knew who The Shield guys were, those guys got over with the crowd and looked like stars pretty quickly.

    Wrestler of the Year: Bryan. The guy has managed to get the loudest reaction at the show by getting them to chant one of the most common three-letter words in the English language. And he's put on some great in-ring matches as well. Runner-up: Ziggler. Constantly put on great matches in spite of constantly losing. Hon. Mention: Sheamus (has really expanded his repetoire) and Big Show (he's had a strong WHC reign).

    Biggest disappointment: The booking of the Rock. It's one thing for him to beat Cena, although, as it's been mentioned, Cena really needed to look more devastated. But they shouldn't have had him mention anything about the Rumble, because now everyone knows he's winning the belt from Punk. Had he just gotten beaten up by Punk, left the company, then make a surprise return to Raw at the Punk/Ryback match and challenge the winner, that would have been more effective, especially with Punk's constant boasting over the length of his title reign. Instead, it's way too predictable.

    WTF Moment of the Year: It wasn't planned of course, but Lawler's heart attack on Raw. We nearly saw a man die on live TV, folks.
     
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