Category The Geek Registry on Wrestling

Roman Reigns

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The WWE has been in the bad habit of late of leaning too heavily on long established talent such as John Cena and Randy Orton. While both are great talents and legends it gets a little old seeing the same handful of guys at the top week after week. The last half of 2014 the WWE has been making a point of featuring more of the younger and less featured talent. Because of this the future is truly bright for the WWE.  Once a month I am going to discuss one of these exciting new talents.

The first on my list is Roman Reigns who debuted with the WWE in 2012.

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At the age of 29 he has a ton of upside and has been brought up in the WWE quickly, but not too quickly in my opinion. For the most part his rise to the top tier has been done well. He was built up slowly and not thrown into main events right after his debut.

He started becoming a name with The Shield (along with Seth Rollins and Dean Ambrose). During the 2014 Royal Rumble WWE had Reigns eliminate 12 men which broke the long standing elimination record held by Kane for several years. The fans responded quite well.

When they split The Shield last summer there was concern that one or two of them could have suffered. Amazingly enough all three of them have excelled and really found their niche in the WWE. Roman Reigns was immediately over with the WWE audience.

Recently they have paired him in a feud with The Big Show which has not been well received by WWE fans and his promos (which are heavily scripted by WWE’s writers) have been ridiculed of late because of the silliness of them. Despite this fact he still gets great reactions from the crowds since he has a natural charisma similar to his real life cousins The Rock and The Usos. As he gets more experienced on the mic he will get to the point where he can go off script more comfortably and not be stuck saying things like “sufferin’ succotash” (yes, he really said those words).

There are heavy rumors that he will win this year’s Royal Rumble and main event Wrestlemania for the world title. I would be thrilled at this point to have almost anyone with the title besides Brock Lesnar who has gone 5 months or so without defending the belt since he apparently has a non work clause in his contract. Roman would be a great pick as champion since he has a great look, solid in ring talent, natural charisma, and is over with the crowd.

No matter who winds up winning the Rumble, Roman Reigns is proof that the WWE has a bright future ahead of them and there is no doubt he will be a champion sooner rather than later.

NXT

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If you are a fan of pro-wrestling, the type that watches at least a few PPV’s a year and views the weekly programs as well, then you are doing yourself a disservice if you have not yet subscribed to the WWE Network.

One of the big reasons to subscribe is NXT. Even if you used to watch the WWE regularly, but have lost interest of late, NXT will make you fall in love with wrestling all over again.

Basically, NXT is sort of a farm league for the main WWE roster. A place where men and women can develop gimmicks and overall wrestling skills before being sent to the WWE. The way things have gone though is that NXT is most often putting on better weekly shows and special events than the main roster is.

The overall talent is amazing. With guys like Adrian Neville, Sami Zayn, Finn Balor, Kevin Owens, and Hideo Itami (to name just a few) putting on great match after great match it is impossible to get bored.

The female talent is equally incredible with Charlotte, Sasha Banks, and others leading the charge in proving that women can put on great, athletic wrestling matches as well as the men and not just be reality show participants or regulated to escorting the male wrestlers to the ring.

I highly recommend searching for NXT on YouTube and getting yourself a sampling of some of the matches. There is rarely a stinker and you will start realizing that if Raw and Smackdown were booked this way wrestling would be the most popular form of entertainment out there today.

The Best in the World: At What I Have No Idea

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I am a big reader and have been consuming novel after novel lately and decided I would start giving my opinions of what I have read from time to time. Just a few paragraphs to give you my opinion of what I have just read and to hopefully convince you to pick up a copy for yourself.

I have been reading about a book a week and mostly biography/autobiographies. Today’s book is wrestling themed so I figured it would be appropriate for Wrestling Wednesdays.

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The Best in the World: At What I Have No Idea by Chris Jericho came out recently and it is his third book about his life, wrestling, and music career. It may seem strange to have written three books about oneself, but Jericho has done so much in the entertainment world that he has endless stories that I am thrilled he is willing to share with all of his fans.

This book covers his recent WWE run (not the one he just completed) and gives insights as to his experiences with the WWE, Vince McMahon, and his fellow wrestlers.

He talks about not only the positive goings on in his life, but the negative ones as well. I appreciated his in depth look into the incident where he supposedly hit a female fan and the Brazilian flag incident which got him nearly arrested. He does not sugar coat things and tells what really happened. He does not act like he has no flaws, but explains what truly happened and what his mindset was during these incidents.

He also talks in depth about his experience competing on Dancing With The Stars which gave a very interesting look as to what it is like to compete on that show and the hard work that goes in to it.

Along with various wrestling stories and Fozzy events there is not one aspect of the past handful of years that he does not cover.

If you are a fan of Jericho’s or are just looking for an interesting read, this is a great way to go.

 

Survivor Series 2014

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Survivor Series 2014 was awesome! Mostly for one big reason which I will get to shortly.

With the exception of a few matches it was a relatively un-exciting show, but those matches, along with the big ending, made it one of the most memorable Survivor Series of all time.

On to the matches:

The pre-show featured 2…Fandango vs. Justin Gabriel and Cesaro vs. Jack Swagger. Fandango actually looked good in his match and shows some serious promise. Cesaro vs. Swagger was a throw-away match and really did nothing to further either performer’s career. Whereas Fandango’s match did a good job of re-introducing him to the WWE Universe, Cesaro/Swagger was solely to give them something to do.

The tag title match with The Usos/Star-Goldust/Los Matadores/The Miz-Mizdow was a great match that the crowd was into from the get-go. All four teams did a great job and Mizdow is so over with the fans right now it was great to see him and The Miz win the titles. It ended perfectly and the tag division in the WWE keeps getting better.

Dean Ambrose vs. Bray Wyatt was a great start to their feud. The two of them work very well together and they nicely set up their next PPV match in a couple of weeks which will be a TLC match.  I cannot wait!

In between all this was three pointless matches. An elimination style Divas tag match between 8 women with only a few actually able to carry a match, the Divas title match between Nikki Bella and AJ Lee was pointless since it ended in less than a minute, and Adam Rose/Bunny vs. Slator Gator should not have been on the card.

What really made the night was the 5-on-5 match between Team Cena (John Cena, Big Show, Dolph Ziggler, Erik Rowan, Ryback) vs. Team Authority (Seth Rollins, Mark Henry, Kane, Rusev, Luke Harper). What a great match filled with surprises. All 10 men, plus Triple H and his security, did an excellent job. There were plenty of surprises with Big Show turning on Team Cena, and Ziggler getting his much deserved big night in the spotlight. At the end of the match he was alone against Kane, Harper, and Rollins and eliminated them all to be the last man standing. The final pin on Rollins came with a a little help from none other than Sting! Triple H interfered at the end but was thwarted by the surprise appearance from the final WCW star to show up in the WWE. The pop from the crowd was huge, the moment was electric, and when he took out Triple H it was an awesome moment that made the whole show very memorable. I cannot wait to see what’s next from him and the WWE!

Overall, this was a solid show and more than worth the $9.99 I pay a month for the WWE Network.

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The Network

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WWE-Network-Logo

Okay, I know I have covered this before, but it must be re-visited. If you are a wrestling fan and buy even a couple of PPV’s a year you must subscribe to the WWE Network. It only costs $9.99 a month with a 6 month commitment and you get all the new PPV’s live and hundreds of hours of past WWE shows.

Nearly everything from WWE and WCW is available and if it is not currently there it will be soon. Saturday Night’s Main Event, documentaries from the various WWE DVD’s that have been released over the years, every WWE PPV ever, all the WCW PPV’s, and shows from various promotions like ECW, WCCW, and many more to come.

There is original programming as well like The Legend’s House, The Monday Night War documentary series, and many others.

If it is not currently on the Network it will be soon like my favorite Rock ‘N Wrestling cartoon from the ’80’s that may be cheesy as hell, but I still enjoy it.

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I am saying no more because I hope you are subscribing right now and already enjoying a Royal Rumble marathon!

 

CM Punk

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The saga of CM Punk is one that has overwhelmed the internet wrestling community for the majority of the year. The IWC has been consumed with the drama that led to Punk’s sudden departure from the company that made him famous earlier this year.

For the rare wrestling fan that is not aware, CM Punk suddenly left the WWE in January of this year and does not look to be returning any time soon. Apparently he was burned out, not happy with his schedule and the wear and tear on his body, and did not feel he would be pushed as the top guy in the company. For the most part I understand where he is coming from. It is difficult when you work your ass off for a company and never get the credit you deserve. Wrestling is a very difficult business where you can find yourself working over 300 days a year and putting your body through an incredible physical strain which winds up hurting you emotionally as well. The fame and money can be unbelievable, but the physical and emotional strain can be overwhelming at times and make one question whether the financial success is worth it.

There are two basic opinions out there regarding his departure…those who understand and fault the WWE and those who think Punk is just a drama queen and needs to get over himself.  I only have one opinion of the entire situation:

STOP CHANTING HIS NAME AT WWE EVENTS

I understand during the first couple of months of his departure with fans wanting to show their support for a performer that was involved is some memorable matches. Now it is October and the world has moved on. Sometimes the fans will chant his name for no good reason or they will chant his name during his wife AJ Lee’s matches which is now just getting annoying. He is gone and we all know at some point he will be back, but for now just shut the hell up. It is disrespectful to the other performers and annoying to the people watching at home.

The chants are getting less and less, but they are still noticeable. We all know he will return at some point so just save the chants for that day and move on with your live’s. There is a lot of good stuff going on in the WWE so just enjoy it and chant for people that are still in that ring today busting their butts for all the fans and not going to hockey games and appearing on the Talking Dead.

Thank you and good night!

The Montreal Screw Job

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The Montreal Screw Job is one of the most infamous moments in pro-wrestling history. For that rare wrestling fan who is not familiar with the story (or too young) the basic premise is Bret ‘The Hitman” Hart was getting ready to leave the then-WWF for WCW in November of 1997 and was ‘screwed’ out of his WWE Title and did not know how the match would end.

Hart was the WWF champion at the time and the original plan was for him to lose the title at Survivor Series on November 9th in his home country of Canada. Bret had a certain degree of creative control and felt it did not make sense for him to lose in Canada so he would simply vacate the title the following night on the WWF’s flagship show Monday Night Raw. The owner of the WWF, Vince McMahon, did not like that idea and was concerned he would show up on WCW’s show Monday Nitro with the WWF title.

Long story short, at the Survivor Series they had Shawn Michaels win the title with what was supposedly a surprise to Bret hence the “screw job” moniker. For greater detail please visit this site, Pro Wrestling Wiki.

My main goal in this blog post is to give my opinion on this well known event in professional wrestling, which is…this is the greatest and longest running work/storyline in the history of pro-wrestling. What has captured people’s attention over the years is the fact that this finish was decided at the last moment without Hart’s knowledge therefore, ‘screwing’ him over and causing a huge and supposedly very real reaction from Bret. He was angry, spit on McMahon, punched Vince backstage, and then went to WCW for an unfortunately uneventful run, therefore this was supposed to be a very real moment in wrestling where one of its icons got screwed over and did not know the ending of the match ahead of time.

I have one big reason for why this entire match was pre-planned and Bret Hart was fully aware of the ending before hand:

To this day we hear from Bret how Vince McMahon was a father figure to him, how Vince realized he could not afford to pay Bret any longer, and how he told Bret to go make your money in WCW and come back. Bret had creative control and a great relationship with his boss. Getting ‘screwed’ over did two things for both men. In regards to Bret it allowed him to leave for the rival promotion without looking like a turncoat to the fans. Second, it launched the evil Mr. McMahon character which helped to draw an incredible amount of money for the WWE during the Attitude Era. Sometimes things just happen organically in wrestling, like The Rock coming in as a blue-chip baby face with the fans hating him instantly and him using that to become the most successful wrestler in history. Most of the time in pro-wrestling things are well scripted out in advance and the way this incident worked out could not have been better for the WWE and Bret has always seemed like a class act to me and I feel would be the type to do whatever needed to be done to help his soon to be former employer be successful.

The other thing is the fact that at the time it was figured Bret would return to the WWE at some point and they had a built in storyline which could have been the biggest draw in the history of professional wrestling. It did not happen due to injuries, the unfortunate death of Bret’s brother Owen, and The Hitman’s stroke/bike accident. It would have been amazing to have that kind of built in heat if he returned to the WWE and started immediately in a feud with his boss. It would have been reminiscent of the Stone Cold/McMahon feud, but could have went in a lot of different directions that would have made the rivalry stand out and make a ton of money for all parties involved.

Everyone involved in The Montreal Screw Job treats it as a real and unscripted incident, but I have a feeling that at some point one of the parties involved will finally admit it was all a work. A great one, but a work none-the-less.

 

NWO

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The NWO was a phenomenon. The angle/wrestling stable started in 1996 when Scott Hall made a surprise appearance on WCW Monday Nitro. This was before the internet was a huge part of our everyday lives and most fans did not know that the artist formerly known as Razor Ramon had left the WWF and signed with WCW. Many fans, myself included, thought it was the long dreamt of cross promotion between WWF and WCW. World Championship Wrestling even played it that way. Scott Hall sold this ‘invasion’ angle very well and a couple of weeks later he was joined by the second ‘invader’ Kevin Nash, formerly known as Big Daddy Cool Diesel. Due to a lawsuit from the then WWF for false advertising, WCW made it clear both men were not a part of the rival wrestling organization and were working ‘independently’. Nash and Hall became known as The Outsiders and began dismantling the WCW roster. Even though the NWO was the key to launching the Monday Night Wars into the stratosphere and helping to make wrestling the biggest form of entertainment at the time, the cracks in the storyline could already be seen. Two men who made their careers in the WWF were beating the hell out of WCW staples which made the promotion look bad, but it did not seem like the higher ups in WCW realized this or perhaps did not care.

Overall, the angle was entertaining and got over with the fans big time. They started branding some of the PPV’s as NWO run and their t-shirts and other merchandise were big sellers. The NWO angle gave WCW the edge in the Monday Night Wars which they had for a little over a year and a half. Then things started getting convoluted. By late 1998 the NWO split into 2 rival factions (NWO and NWO Wolpac) with the majority of the WCW roster being allocated to either group. It seemed as though they forgot that the big draw was NWO trying to take over WCW, not actually succeeding and having approximately 30 members. The angle became too big for its britches and overwhelmed the creative team with all of the individual egos they had to appease. Slowly but surely the NWO fizzled out as did WCW as a whole. Without the NWO storyline it seemed as though WCW’s creative team had nothing left. In 2001 WCW went under and was sold to Vince McMahon and the WWF seceding the Monday Night War to the most well known wrestling promotion in the world.

In 2002 the WWF/E brought back the original three members of the NWO (Hall, Nash, and Hogan) mostly to show they were no match for the WWF/E roster. Besides Hogan having a very memorable match at WrestleMania that year against The Rock, the NWO was gone shortly after and despite a forgettable quasi-reunion in TNA (Total Nonstop Action Wrestling) in 2010 they became another memorable past wrestling angle.

The NWO storyline was initially highly entertaining and kept me interested, but over time it became very predictable which can, and will, doom any angle. If handled correctly, this group could have lasted a good 5 years, but instead lost its momentum in just 2-3. During all of this the WWF kept plugging away and introducing the world to now legends and household names like The Rock, Stone Cold Steve Austin, Mick Foley, Degeneration X, etc… Individuals and storylines that kept things fresh and interesting while WCW put all of it’s eggs in one basket called the NWO.

The New World Order was a great idea that was initially executed fairly well, but egos and weak creative teams could not maintain it.

Brock Lesnar

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Brock Lesnar is an interesting individual. It is hard to deny his place in pro wrestling and the impact he had in the UFC. Going back to his college wrestling days, he is a fighting legend.

I really enjoyed his early career in the WWE and thought he deserved his quick rise to the top. He could put on solid matches, attempted high flying moves like a top rope moonsault, and really seemed to have the desire to put on a great show for the audience. He was even occasionally nice to fans! Now he lives off of his name recognition, works only when he feels like it, and is generally rude to fans.

I always have an issue with performers in every walk of life who do not treat the audience with respect and treat their job, which they are extremely lucky to have, with respect and enthusiasm. I have no issue with Lesnar working a limited schedule. I fact, he is wise to do so since it can extend his career and better his life by not putting himself through the typical athletic grind. What I have an issue with is that his matches are not the best on the card anymore even though he is usually the main event. Without Paul Heyman as his mouthpiece I would probably change the channel whenever he came on.

At this past Summerslam he won the WWE title with a one sided beat down of John Cena. Even though his 16 suplexes in the match are treated as if they were impressive, watching them live was boring. The booking of this match was bizarre to say the least. I did not necessarily mind him winning since I am sure his title run won’t last a full year, but just destroying Cena was a boring and non-creative way of giving him the belt. I am assuming the re-match at Night of Champions will be much better, but I am not holding my breath.

With such a limited schedule I just wish Lesnar would put forth the effort to give us his best performances possible, but he does not seem motivated to do so. Once you no longer have the passion for your job in entertainment you need to retire and move on to something else. The world will be fine without seeing you every once in a while.

Jakks Pacific WWF/E

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The action figures I have a very large collection of is the Jakks Pacific’s line of WWF/E toys which lasted from 1996-2009. This was the ‘Attitude Era’ line and had some great figures. No matter the wrestler it seemed they all had at least one figure with the top stars receiving many variations. They also featured past stars as well.

They also came out with the Titantron series with microchips in the figures that when attached to a special playset would play their theme songs. Pretty nifty technology for the time.

There were all kinds of wrestling rings, cages to attach to those rings, and various accessories for your own hardcore matches.

Plain and simple, this is a great line and lasted as long as it did because of that.

Currently, Mattel produces WWE figures and has some great looking collector’s lines of current and former stars that I would love to add to my collection. I stopped collecting wrestling toys a few years back and I think now is a great time to get started again.

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