Wrestling (WWE, etc.)

[Peanutbutter]

Got the Network, so I'm looking forward to Elimination Chamber tonight. Booking has still been all around better the past month than the slowness it had before, and tonight's good card is a by-product. I'm open to being wrong, but I have a very weird feeling tonight it is going to be really great.

[talonmalon333]

I can't say I'm looking forward to Rollins fighting Ambrose a whole lot. Maybe because it's not an especially interesting conflict, or maybe it's because I'm not all that invested in Ambrose. I'll just say that, as usual, I hope Seth wins and keeps the belt for a while longer.

I'm probably more interested in the chamber matches. I'd be happy with anyone winning the IC belt other than Sheamus, who I'm not a fan of, and Barrett. I like Barrett but I don't think he needs to be both the IC champ and the King of the Ring. Plus, I love Ziggler, Rusev, R-Truth, and Ryback.

Then there's the Tag Team match for New Day's Belt. I'd say I'd like to see Kidd and Cesaro win this. Their in-ring ability together makes them a lot of fun to see. The Lucha Dragons are also very good, but the type of wrestling they do can be seen done a lot better from most of the wrestlers on Lucha Underground. New Day is fun, and the Prime Time Players are very funny, but I'm sticking to Kidd and Cesaro as I get the most enjoyment from them overall.

Cena versus Kevin Owens could turn out to be a great match. They are both great to watch in matches.

I just can't bring myself to care all that much about the diva match. I'm a Nikki fan, and to a lesser extent, I'm also a fan of Paige. But we've seen this stuff over and over. My friends and I made a wishful thinking comment that Sasha Banks, Bayley, Charlotte, and Becky Lynch, all from NXT, should join together as "The Four Horsewomen", take over and dismantle the Diva Division, and rebuilt it as the WWE Women Division. The leader of the group could either be Charlotte (as a throwback to when her father, Ric Flair, headed the Four Horsemen) or Sasha since being "the boss" is part of her character. Do it, WWE.

... Also Neville should beat Bo Dallas.

[talonmalon333]

Thoughts on the matches.

Stardust vs. Zack Ryder
Not a particularly spectacular match, although I was happy to see Ryder. I'm a bit indifferent toward Stardust, though.

New Day vs. Lucha Dragons vs. Kidd and Cesaro vs. Prime Time Players vs. The Ascension vs. Los Matadores
Solid match. I wanted Kidd and Cesaro to win, but New Day has been fun as the champs, so I'm fine with them retaining.

Nikki Bella vs. Paige vs. Naomi
Nikki was my favorite of the three, so I'd say this was the result I would've wanted the most.

John Cena vs. Kevin Owens
Great match, and I was very pleased with the results. I did not expect Cena to lose.

Neville vs. Bo Dallas
I honestly have no recollection of this match. I love Neville and Bo Dallas is kind of entertaining as a character. But I just had no investment in it.

Ryback vs. Sheamus vs. R-Truth vs. King Barrett vs. Dolph Ziggler vs. Mark Henry
(NOTE: Rusev suffered an injury at the last Smackdown so Mark Henry took his spot)
As I said before, I was fine with anyone but Sheamus and Barrett winning. However, even though he wasn't my favorite in the match, I kind of wanted Ryback to win if only to give him a push. And because it seemed like he was fighting for Daniel Bryan, so in terms of story it is fitting that he won. But overall, another great match.

Dean Ambrose vs. Seth Rollins
So, Seth lost this match. But it was by disqualification. So he retained the title... even though Ambrose stole the belt with the help of Reigns. So Seth is the champ but Ambrose has the belt. We'll see where this goes. Other than that, it was another great match. That makes three matches that I was very pleased with.

[talonmalon333]

Last night was Money in the Bank. I'm not going to go in-depth on it, as that takes too long to type up. The actual contract match was a huge disappointment with little going on in it, and it ended with the worst wrestler in the match who has the least story potential winning, Sheamus. However, John Cena's match with Kevin Owens was great (I really wish Owens won but his actions after the match made up for it), as was Seth's with Dean Ambrose. The end of the women match was very distasteful, though.

Tonight, Lesnar made his return! I've been waiting for this moment. First of all, I'm so glad they are done with the Seth and Dean conflict (I like Dean, but his in-ring ability is average and he's kind of a poor man's Roddy Piper, not to mention this feud had just grown stale). I had expected Lesnar to make his return for SummerSlam, so this is early, but I'm not complaining. It really makes me wonder how on earth Seth is going to pull a win out of this one, if it's even possible. He's already lost the support of the entire Authority, and Lesnar is, of course, nearly unstoppable. He also showed some great acting when Lesnar made his return and entered the ring. Lesnar stared him down, but Seth couldn't even look at the guy. It looked like real, genuine fear.

[talonmalon333]

Two things. First, the Seth and Lesnar feud has been awesome. I can tell this is the storyline that WWE has been waiting for since last WrestleMania. And being that they are basically my two favorite wrestlers currently, it's awesome seeing them being at conflict with each other.

But anyway, I'd like to address an issue I have with a certain wrestler. A certain John Cena. I've never been particularly a fan. I mean, he does seem like a genuinely nice guy outside the ring. But as a character, he may have a lot of charisma, and he may be great at talking. But every time he does talk, I just can't help but hear the WWE money making machine at work. 90% of what he says is just cheap pop. But that's not what I wanted to mainly address here. Last Monday, I was reminded of another big problem I have with Cena, and it's that he's simply not that great in the ring. For his United States Championship open challenge, Cesaro took the challenge (it was actually a rematch, being that they fought last week and their match was interrupted by Kevin Owens).

Now, proof wasn't needed, but this match reinforced the fact that Cesaro is an outstanding wrestler. He's incredibly versatile and is one of the strongest currently in WWE. There's no disputing that. This was a very long match that lasted maybe half an hour. And let me tell you, if Cesaro reused a single move in that whole match, I didn't notice. The whole match he kept pulling move after move, blowing the audience away every single time. And then you have Cena. He's not as limited as, say, Roman Reigns and his, like, total of five moves. But Cena is just so predictable. And this doesn't just apply to his move set, but also his selling. There's a reason he's been labeled "no sell Cena". Whenever Cesaro tried to pin him, it was so obvious whenever Cena would break out.

Honestly, considering how long Cena has been wrestling, he should have made some improvement in this area by now. But apparently, he hasn't. And that selling hurt the match even more because the whole thing was basically just another "super Cena" show. It started off fine but eventually became just Cena being invincible, unable to be pinned, and selling poorly in the process. Cesaro was so good, but Cena just ruined the match for me. Sometimes, in the US open challenges, I want to believe. And considering how well Cesaro did, there was a part of me that did begin to believe that Cesaro would come out on top. But then, Cena gets the pin, 1-2-3, and I'm reminded that WWE hates having super Cena lose.

[talonmalon333]

So this is my fourth post in a row, but I don't care. At yesterday's Raw (I saw it a bit late, which is why I'm only commenting on it now), the absolute greatest WWE moment since Seth cashed in at last WrestleMania happened. What was it related to? The women's division!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Iopdbhjq6g

The whole scene can be viewed in that link, but I want to talk about it, anyway.

First, Team Bella was giving a promo. Nikki, Brie, and Alicia Fox were talking about how they are the best, and all that. Then, Stephanie McMahon comes out and, as usual, just starts being awesome. She talks about how a new era in the women's division is going to start now, a revolution. And then, she brings out Paige. No big deal. I'm sick of Paige, but Steph still had me pumped. I've been waiting such a long time for the women's division to be taken as seriously as the men's. And then, she introduced another woman to ally with Paige against the Bellas. Then, making her official debut in the WWE main roster is Becky Lynch from NXT! Words can't describe the excitement that went through me in this moment. One of my three golden girls from NXT is at last in the main roster.

But then, Steph mentioned how Paige and Becky were still outnumbered, and then the suspense kicked in all over again. Making her debut in the main roster, Charlotte from NXT! Now, it's real. My friends and I jumped out of our seats and went nuts. This is what we were waiting for. This was the revolution in the women's division that I long hoped for.

Then, Naomi's music kicked in, and out came main roster regulars Naomi and Tamina. At this point, it became clear that they were really going to go all out. Naomi told Stephanie that they, more than anyone else, deserved their chance... But, they themselves were outnumbered. They needed a third member. And then, it all sunk in. The final piece needed to fall into place. And then... Stephanie called out the boss, the NXT women's champion, the absolute star of NXT, Sasha Banks! In one fell swoop, this Raw became something legendary, a moment that could forever change WWE.

Nikki Bella, Brie Bella, and Alicia Fox. Paige, Becky Lynch, and Charlotte. Naomi, Tamina, and Sasha Banks. Everything felt right. Then, the teams brawled each other. I was practically wanting for this to be the entire rest of the episode. Just look at the scene from 13:00 to 13:30. Becky, Sasha, and Charlotte having each member of Team Bella in a hold. I waited so long for this. And suddenly, Nikki wasn't so invincible. There was major competition. The three most talented girls in WWE were now going up against her. Team Bella was destroyed, leaving the NXT girl teams to stare each other down in the ring. Something big is coming, and I'm looking forward to it so much.

And just look at Stephanie at 13:51. She's so great.

But yeah, as you can probably tell from my writing, I am overwhelmingly thrilled by this. But it means a lot to me and is really what I've been waiting so long for. The women's division has been treated so poorly for so long, and I truly believe it's finally going to get what it deserves. This all happened about an hour into the episode of Raw, meaning that the episode peaked pretty early. I barely remember what happened for the next half hour of the show because I couldn't bring myself to care about New Day facing Prime Time Players, or Neville fighting Stardust. That confrontation between the girls could have easily been the main event and I would have been very satisfied. The actual main event of the show was excellent (the conflict between Seth and Lesnar has been great), but frankly it paled in comparison to what had happened two hours prior, when the revolution of the women's division began.

[talonmalon333]

On July 23, 2015, WWE terminated their contract with Hogan, stating that they are "committed to embracing and celebrating individuals from all backgrounds". removing all references to Hogan from their website, including his listing as a judge for Tough Enough and his merchandise from WWE Shop, and rescinding his entry from the WWE Hall of Fame. The termination coincided with the release on an investigation by the National Enquirer and Radar Online into racist comments made by Hogan on a leaked sex tape.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/early-lead/wp/2015/07/24/wwe-erases-hulk-hogan-mentions-from-web-site/?tid=sm_fb

http://radaronline.com/celebrity-news/hulk-hogan-racist-scandal-n-word-caught-on-tape-wrestling/

[gunswordfist]

I'm glad he got the extra embarrassment by having his career sacked by a sex tape.

[talonmalon333]

Hogan has long been one of those wrestlers who it's just hard to be a fan of. Kind of like CM Punk. No matter how good his wrestling (which really is nothing in Hogan's case) or character is, just listening to what he's like outside the ring just makes him unbearable.

But this is just intolerable. And I'm not talking about the fact that it's a sex tape.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Hogan has always been a known douche-bag. Whenever you see an unofficial interview with any wrestler or professional of any sort who knew him personally, they always take the chance to point out what a dick he was and still is. It's even a well-known fact that he personally sabotaged and destroyed the careers of various up and coming wrestling stars over the years since he didn't want anyone threatening to overtake him in popularity.

This is unlike, say, The Rock, who others have said has a massively big ego behind the scenes, but they also have plenty of nice things to say about him, including the fact that regardless of some of his downsides, he's really nice to people and isn't notoriously hard to work with like Hogan or some other wrestlers.

[talonmalon333]

Hogan has always been a known douche-bag. Whenever you see an unofficial interview with any wrestler or professional of any sort who knew him personally, they always take the chance to point out what a dick he was and still is. It's even a well-known fact that he personally sabotaged and destroyed the careers of various up and coming wrestling stars over the years since he didn't want anyone threatening to overtake him in popularity.

This is unlike, say, The Rock, who others have said has a massively big ego behind the scenes, but they also have plenty of nice things to say about him, including the fact that regardless of some of his downsides, he's really nice to people and isn't notoriously hard to work with like Hogan or some other wrestlers.

Absolutely. Like I said, trying to be a fan of him was tough. Can't say I'll miss him. Not like he was relevant before this happened, though.

I've heard a lot of good things about Cena behind the scenes. While I'm not a fan of his wrestling or his on-screen character in general, I've always gotten the impression that he's actually a really good guy.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I don't care for Cena as a wrestler, but he has done an insanely huge amount of charity work, has been to nearly every single one of those wrestling for the troops events, has helped in raising Breast Cancer awareness, and is by far the number one record holder for the highest amount of appearances for the Make A Wish Foundation. I've heard some mixed things about his behind-the-scenes personality, but most people seem to say that he's a pretty nice guy.

So yeah, I can at least respect what he's done outside of wrestling, even though he's usually pretty boring in the ring, unless you pair him up with an opponent that he has good chemistry with (like Shawn Michaels or CM Punk, both of whom are unfortunately retired).

[talonmalon333]

I've heard a lot of wrestlers are held back from their full capabilities when they are signed onto the WWE main roster. Basically, even if they have a wide set of moves they are capable of, they will basically be restricted to only a select number of them. I haven't seen any sources to confirm this, but have you ever heard this rumor?

Because I have actually heard a few people say that, apparently, Cena is better than he's given credit for, and that we just don't know it because his WWE move set only includes, like, hardly any moves at all. There's also a wrestler who used to be on NXT, named Neville, who was fantastic and incredibly entertaining to watch for his acrobatic skills, but once he was bumped up to the WWE main roster, he stopped using a good chunk of his moves and as a result became really stale in ring until I just got bored of him.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Well, I didn't hear those exact words, but I have heard that several wrestlers incorporate multiple other moves into their in-ring performances during non-televised shows, including Cena.

I believe the rationale for that is because the WWE wants to keep each wrestler feeling unique and easy to distinguish from other talent on their roster for the much broader WWE audience, and limiting which moves a wrestler can perform on TV prevents too much overlap from occurring between different wrestlers. For instance, there are probably multiple wrestlers who could perform a moonsault off of the ropes, but since that move became associated with Chris Jericho as the lionsault, you didn't really see any other performers using it while his character was still active. And some moves will get adopted by another wrestler once the old one who used it retires, especially submission holds. A few good examples include: The Rock taking the Sharpshooter from Bret Hart, Shawn Michaels inheriting the Figure-Four from Ric Flair, John Cena adopting the STF after William Regal became less prominent and was eventually fired from the WWE, and most notably Daniel Bryan adapting Chris Benoit's Crippler-Cross-Face into the Yes Lock.

I suppose that the idea of limiting the moves for each wrestler on TV makes some sense in the grand scheme of things, as this promotes diverse characters and abilities. Yet, on the other hand, it makes certain matches far less interesting, if that's truly what's going on.

[talonmalon333]

I must say, WWE is better now than it was a few months ago. Obviously, the women's revolution is the main reason now, and two weeks later I remained just as convinced on it (seriously, not only have three great talents been bumped up to main roster, but the women now get more than one match per Raw, and their matches are given more running time). Lately, they have been putting a lot of emphasis on their best wrestlers. Kevin Owens is branching out and is feuding with Cesaro who is, arguably, the greatest technical wrestler currently in WWE. Rusev is back after his injury and has been very involved as well. Seth Rollins' feud with Brock Lesnar was his best yet since becoming champ. The Wyatt family is also reuniting, which is nice. And we're seeing less of the weaker talents, like Roman Reigns, who is still involved but isn't getting pushed as much as before.

Also, I have to mention the return of the Undertaker. Just as Lesnar annihilated Seth at Battleground and was about to pin him, the bells tolled, the ring went dark, and then the lights returned and the Undertaker was standing right there. And the look of fear from Lesnar, of all people, was fantastic. I love that the Undertaker is the only one who can challenge and scare Lesnar, the one who's supposed to be scaring everyone else. It's vengeance time! Now we have a rematch between the two scheduled for Summerslam. I am so happy this feud is happening. Lesnar and the Undertaker also had a brawl at last Raw and Triple H brought out literally half of the main roster to swarm the ring and split them up, a process that went backstage and was a lot of fun.