Read on for my thoughts on last night's Raw.
Not a bad Cena promo. At this point I've heard so many promos from him that they don't mean much anymore.
Thanks for coming, 3MB. It made sense to build the people who are on the card for Sunday.
Good Shield promo. I hope they look good at Mania.
I really liked Colter's promo. We need more heels who rustle jimmies.
Good stuff from Del Rio. Glad we're not getting too far into goofy territory like early in the feud.
Nice match as always between Bryan and Ziggler. Sunday should be good.
Great post-match to add heat to the challengers. I think we just might see a title switch on Sunday.
VERY good segment involving HHH and Lesnar. Heyman's just perfect. I'll be curious to see how HBK factors into Mania.
Ryder got in more offense than I expected. Glad Barrett won. Not so glad that he's been pushed to the pre-show. I guess they need time for comedy segments and the concert. Ugh.
Weak April Fool's segment. WWE's comedy is really wearing thin.
And that's how you deal with bad comedy. At least the April Fool's segment had a purpose, so I'm ok with it from that perspective.
Good post-match. Sunday might be a barn-burner.
Good Punk promo as always. I hope they keep him looking strong in the months to come.
NICE "match" between Del Rio and Colter. Purely "dirty" from the heels. I like it.
Not really crazy about Rock's promo. Massive difference between his promos with Cena and his promos with Punk.
Other than Cesaro tapping out clean, that was good. Cesaro looked good in a loss.
GREAT heat-building for Fandango. Looking forward to Mania.
What the...? Why isn't Lita inducting her? She won the fan poll. Whatever.
Not a bad Divas' match at all. Just kind of an odd place for it on the card.
Over 9000 heel points for Punk. That was pretty awesome. Great segment overall.
More wrestling coming up, and a Blue Echo podcast will be recorded.
Chuck, with virtually having said everything that can be said about WrestleMania's matches and happenings, are there any match results that you absolutely would be against if one person won?
ReplyDeleteI would like to see Rock retain, but all of the hype and tension surrounding him losing the title make it somewhat of a reach for it to happen. I like Rock and think he still has "it" at almost 41 years old, but unfortunately with him being so in-demand and charismatic, he has other endeavors and interests.
I like how WWE has built to support Swagger. I guess my only "beef" if he indeed does win against Alberto is if he can continue to built heat with the same gimmick and most importantly be able to do good promos on his own eventually. Colter has been great for him, but if he wants to be one of the FEW to sustainably stay at the upper card level, he will need to cut consistent promos. I liked the one he did on Monday, which was more independent for him. If he can keep up that promo level to the caliber of Monday's promo, I won't argue against it if he won the title.
The only real match result I would take above 50 percent issue with is Jericho vs. Fandango. I understand WWE may be hesitant to keep someone who is 42 and has been a part-time employee at the upper card level; however, I think Jericho exemplifies what the WWE is about. He's dedicated, charismatic, technically gifted (especially at 42), and he's one of the FEW who can do well as a heel OR face.
Not too much against Fandango (though he still has a lot to prove), but I want to see Jericho pull this one out.
All in all, one thing I do like about this year's event is how there aren't any celebrity appearances in matches. I don't like it, because 1) There isn't any potential for a logical storyline if the celebrity is just in one match, 2) It may just be for publicity, and 3) It's basically just pandering to the audience.
I don't have any issues with celebrity involvement if the person has good re-pore with the company. However, if it's a Snooki or Kevin Federline-type situation (which I was completely against), I'm not behind it at all and it just seems like a waste of hard working people's money.
I feel like I give a lot of "non-answers" and take things literally, but it all depends on how it's booked and the follow-up. There's a difference, for instance, between Cena getting a lucky win over Rock after Rock dominates and Cena losing a really close match due to some kind of shenanigans. So, no, I don't think any one match result would sour me too much since it's all a small piece of a larger puzzle.
ReplyDeleteThey'd have to be very careful with the booking if Rock retained. This could very well be the biggest match of Cena's life. I don't like the idea of the guy who's been the face of the company looking inferior to the part-timer. I see this as very similar to Rock vs. Hogan at WMX8 (has it really been 11 years since that match? Wow.). Hogan's a legend and a huge star (and still got great reactions), but it was right to pass the torch. Plus, Rock's looked strong in every match he's been in. A loss "done right" won't hurt him. He'll still be a big deal. Cena's not as protected as Rock is (Rock hasn't lost since 2004). I look at it pretty much from the perspective of Cena being the guy who's going to be around longer and more regularly. I'm not even a big Cena fan and think he should walk out with the title.
I'd be surprised if Swagger won. I wouldn't be upset (though I like Del Rio and think he should have a longer reign), because the act with Colter is great and he's a great athlete.
I think I've said this before, but Jericho's one of my all-time favorites because of all of those factors. He doesn't just phone things in because he's a big deal and can get away with it.
At first I was really taken aback by Fandango's character but I think he might be able to deliver. If anyone can bring something great out of him, it's Jericho.
I think they can do something logical with celebrities involved, even if it's just one match. I'm not really sure what you're saying there. And they ABSOLUTELY use celebrities mainly for publicity and to get a certain segment of the audience tuning in. I see why they do it. They want to expand their audience and turn casual fans into more regular viewers. Sometimes it works out.
I'm not crazy about some of it as a fan, either. It takes spots (and money) away from some of the people who work full-time. I can't even imagine doing all that work all year just to see someone waltz in and get a big payday to (generally) wrestle relatively poorly. But celebrities have been a part of wrestling for longer than I can remember. The Lawler/Kaufman feud was way back in 1981!
With my opinions on which matches I wouldn't want a specific person to win in, I'm thinking more in terms of how I personally would like them to play out moreso than how beneficial it would be in the WWE's mind. I definitely understand why Cena SHOULD win, but me wanting Rock to stick around with all that he brings to the table, it's tough to see him walk away. I know Cena will be around and has been around for 10 years, so I'd understand why the WWE would go with Cena Sunday.
ReplyDeleteI know celebrities bring a lot of star power and hype to the events along with all of the history of them being in promotions, so I understand it from the WWE's perspective. I just wish it was more about the celebrities being "true" WWE constituents and not just celebrities thrown in for the publicity only.
I'm going to sound like Sandow here (lol), but as a fan, having celebrities like Snooki or Kevin Federline be part of the promotions is a nightmare. Snooki, in my opinion, who is the epitome of what is wrong with this world in that she gets paid millions to go to clubs, drink, smoke, and be the reciprocal of society, really irked me when she was part of WrestleMania.
I understand how some fans would tune in just to see her and it's an added fan base possibly, but true wrestling fans may devalue the event and lose a little bit of respect in choosing someone like her to be part of the event with her only doing it for the publicity and not because she's a fan of the company.
I don't mind someone like a Trump, Shaq, or Ashton Kutcher being part of the event, because they've admitted (genuinely) that they have good re-pore and respect for the WWE. That makes sense from a business end and from a logical standpoint. Do you get what I mean there?
Switching gears a bit...My current predictions for the current card: Cena over Rock (very sure), Undertaker over Punk (very sure), Triple H over Lesnar (semi-sure), Del Rio over Swagger (hopefully the incidents with the law didn't modify the result), Orton, Sheamus, and Big Show over The Shield (pretty sure), Miz over Barrett (semi-sure), Henry over Ryback (though the way Ryback's been pummeled lately makes my prediction below semi-sure), Hell No over Ziggler and Big E (I know you disagree, but it's more of my skepticism of Big E being a champion in his first match and with Ziggler's tag team reign taking time away from his MITB briefcase).
Honestly at this point my opinions of who I want to win and who I think should win because of business reasons are getting closer together since I follow the behind-the-scenes stuff so much. Like, I wouldn't mind Jericho beating Fandango because I'm a big fan of his. I just think it would be short-sighted.
ReplyDeleteI absolutely see where you're coming from. I dread seeing some celebrity acts being a part of the show (some people you can tell are just kind of there to plug something and half-ass their appearance). Especially when they had weekly guest hosts that ate up a lot of time. If celebrities were more reciprocal with plugging WWE, I'd be more ok with it.
And I just posted my own Mania predictions. I don't think Ziggler and Big E will win just because I like them, but because they've done about everything they can do with Hell No and were just teasing a feud between Kane and Bryan. WWE's fickle with booking, so they could change their minds at the last minute. A former Creative team member had an interview about his frustrations with just that the other day. It was an hour long, but definitely worth listening to.
My predictions mirror yours except for two or three. The match results are so subjective and connotative that anything could happen, but let me explain why I think they will go a certain way.
ReplyDeleteI personally think Jericho will squeak one out against Fandango. It's tough for me to fathom Jericho going from being in the WWE Championship match in last year's event to 1) failing to win even the Intercontinental Title, 2) losing to a newcomer in Fandango, and 3) Fandango laying him out three times prior to the event on top of winning. I understand Jericho may not be around too much longer, but I feel that he's still got way too much talent left in the tank to lose and fall so far down the ladder again.
I believe Hell No will win. I agree with you that WWE has really done all they can do with the team, but it's more about it making less sense if Ziggler and Big E win the titles. Specifically, with Ziggler dominating Hell No lately, the typical "whoever loses at the event gets the better of his/their opponent(s) beforehand" happenstance could come into the fray here. I don't think with Hell No looking pretty inferior to Ziggler and Big E leading up to the big event and losing during it would make much sense since Hell No has been booked well since last year. Ziggler's time is ticking to cash in that briefcase. A tag title run will only deter the chances of him cashing it in, which really will confuse the fans a bit. I'm also not a big fan of guys winning a title in their first match. I'm not saying Big E is a dud or anything, but I don't think it's wise for him to be champion right away like that.
I'm fairly sure The Shield will finally lose. I don't see a powerhouse like Sheamus and the way he's been booked the past two years to result in losing to The Shield yet again. This would be like three or four straight losses to them. I see a big event like WrestleMania being the first loss for The Shield. I think everyone has to lose some time, and it being at WrestleMania makes the most sense. I think, in the near future, they will continue to thrive and maybe attack their opponents and get the last laugh possibly at WrestleMania, but I don't think they will win.
Those are my predictions on those matches. Yours make sense as well and could very well happen, so we'll see what happens.
Here's the thing, though: he doesn't have to fall down the ladder after a loss. He's so good and so over that he can easily rebound. He's lost to Evan Bourne, Heath Slater, and JTG. Look how far that got them vs. where he still is. I think a loss elevates Fandango more than brings Jericho down.
ReplyDeleteThey could easily do a fairly quick title reign for Ziggler and Big E. Obviously that rule generally applies, but I don't think it's 100% foolproof. I'd normally be against someone winning a title in their first TV match, but I think it'd be ok with them rolling the dice and keeping Big E's momentum going. They've mishandles so many young guys that it would be a good change of pace.
As always, wins and losses aren't as consequential as who stands tall, so it's definitely possible that that happens in the 6-man.