So, here it is at last, your belated look back at WWE Over the Limit 2012. As I said before this would have been with you sooner had it not been for an internet that didn’t work. You pay for these things and they don’t work for you. Don’t know why we bother sometimes.
Instead of the customary look back with pictures and photos which you’ve probably all seen by now, I thought instead we’d look at the results and happenings and see if WWE could have done any better with them.
John Laurinaitis Defeated John Cena
John Cena and John Laurinaitis was never going to be a classic match. It’s not going to be a match that we look back on in twenty years an remember fondly. For me, it was a clumsy, poorly booked excuse for a main event. John Cena needed an opponent who could carry him and Johnny L will never reach his eighties peak ever again, as long as he lives. In the ring, Johnny L looked like a tired old man who had been mugged by a thug.
The outcome of the match was never in doubt. If Johnny L lost then he’d be fired and since this feud is booked to run and run, most probably until we’re all bored with it, then Cena had to lose. The problem was that WWE had to find a way to make Cena lose without making him look weak. To be pinned cleanly in the middle of ring by a far inferior opponent (yes, I can’t believe I just said that), would have damaged Cena beyond repair. I think by now that we all know the outcome.
I couldn’t think of a worse way than to re-introduce the Big Show than that. He hadn’t been gone long enough to miss him or for his heel turn (under duress) to be a surprise. In fact when he was fired on Raw and cried like a little bitch, then you could almost tell how the match at Over the Limit would end. The angle did nothing but make Big Show look weak and at this stage in his career, as he begins to wind down, that’s the last thing he needed.
The feud is going well into SummerSlam and Johnny L has life or death over Big Show’s job. Inevitably the Big Show will turn face again and turn on Johnny L. If that is where the story is going, then it’s a waste of talent and story on someone as useless as Show. There are far more eligible talent on the roster who could have done with the push this story brings than an aged Show. This just goes to prove my point, that WWE are reluctant to push any young talent and trust them with any huge angle. They think it much better to put a man in the role that can’t do shit.
It would have been more beneficial for Lord Tensai and some of Johnny L’s other cronies to decimate Cena in the closing moments. Just think how much better that would have looked for the superstar formerly known as Albert.
Still, now we’re stuck with John Cena vs the Big Show which, if you remember their soul draining feud of 2009, you’ll know that this will not be a match or feud worth watching. Cena can’t wrestle, Show can’t move, no one is interested in seeing this tat again. I can confidently predict that this main event at No Way Out 2012, will not draw huge numbers, even though the match will take inside a steel cage. This is going to be 20 minutes of a life we’re not getting back.
WWE Championship Match
C.M. Punk (Champion) Defeated Daniel Bryan
The problem with these matches are that you have two great wrestlers, each with an equal amount of great talent. Matches of these nature are usually fought on the mat. A real technical battle. And in these times, times in which the current WWE audience (half of which are children and haven’t seen the great technical battles of the times) don’t want technical. They want exciting, they want chairs and running around the ring. These fans are everything that’s wrong with wrestling today, they’re ruining the business.
C.M Punk left Over the Limit still Champion, correct choice for the character and story. I just worry what WWE will now do with Bryan. In two months Bryan has lost three main event type matches to two different champions. That isn’t great for a man of which huge things are predicted. If WWE don’t want Bryan to fall into the undercard shuffle, then they need to do something drastic and quickly. The character is too good to make just another lost opportunity.
I fear that this is another WWE ruse, to make talent sit up and take notice. They’re trying to say to the locker room, that this is the treatment you get, if you dare to step out of line and make something of yourself without WWE’S permission. Zack Ryder did it and look where he’s ended up. The who ‘Yes’ thing was totally Bryan. He came up with it on the spot without WWE’S permission and now that it’s caught on WWE realize that they cannot take credit for it. So it’s another WWE tantrum, and each one of them seems to keep a talent back for so long, people lose interest.
Of course this wouldn’t matter if WWE’S creative actually had some good ideas of its own. If they had brilliant ideas for Bryan and other talent, and weren’t so determined to make the new talent suffer on NXT and Superstars while they pushed wrestlers no one wants to see anymore (Big Show), then talent wouldn’t have to go into business for itself and get themselves over! They don’t ask the superstars what they want to do, they just release them when they can’t think of anything else for them do. If they just took the time to ask the wrestlers opinions, then maybe we’d have more stars and less cannon fodder.
That will never happen. Because if a wrestler comes up with their own material then WWE cannot take credit for it! And as we know, WWE likes to be in control at all time. It threw a tantrum when The Rock left for Hollywood instead of sticking with WWE associated films, even going as far as to not renew his contract and not bother to tell him. All because they could no longer take credit for the Rock’s success. If you think about it, it’s pathetic.
The champion is now running out of challengers. C.M Punks star has dipped in the weeks after Over the Limit and it seems he and WWE are running out of steam and ideas. I smell a title change coming and coming soon. Whoever Punk is pitted against at No Way Out, then I wouldn’t bank against a title change. The Straight Edge Superstar has been WWE Champion going on half a year now, depending on when you’re reading this then longer. WWE doesn’t usually stick with champions that long. I predict that as soon as the C.M. Punk’s DVD hits the shelf (which Punk was allowed to have input in), then he’ll no longer be WWE Champion. They’re only allowing him the success to sell the DVD (which should be awesome). On the flip side, WWE 13, this years offering of WWE gaming features C.M Punk as the cover star. So maybe WWE are planning to run with Punk until the tank is well and truly empty. Just bare in mind, that if this is the plan, then what can they do with him afterwards? If we’ve seen everything he has to offer in one title reign, then what else will he have to offer in the future?
On the other side, WWE could be planning to have Punk, a really likable face and a really hateful heel to be the epicentre of this revolution. Either way, Punk needs an injection of ideas and quickly.
Fatal Four Way Match
World Heavyweight Championship Match
Sheamus (Champion) Defeated Randy Orton, Chris Jericho & Alberto Del Rio
WWE face a major flaw with the Sheamus Champion avenue they seem to be currently strolling down. While ‘The Celtic Warrior’ is a skilful enough athlete to carry a main event, the problem lies when he’s pitted against a wrestler who is twice the talent he is. The Fatal Four Way was decent, WWE have not booked a match of this ruling in some years which hasn’t turned out to be at least watchable. Was it earth shattering? Not for me. Was it something I had to watch otherwise I’d have felt I missed something? Not really. It was a by the numbers fatal four way match, in which the outcome was never in doubt.
Back to the Sheamus point. The Irishman is a good wrestler. Yet he hasn’t had the baptism of fire that someone like Kurt Angle had or Randy Orton or any WWE Superstar pre 2004. The majority of the WWE Universe knows that Sheamus was selected to be the Royal Rumble winner and the Wrestlemania 28 Winner because of his association with Triple H. His other two Heavyweight Title reigns didn’t set the world alight and thus far this one hasn’t either. I can happily watch Sheamus, just not as a good guy. His grin is slightly scary and his in ring manner has heel written all over it.
Now, when put against someone from the undercard, the Celtic Warrior looks great. When put against a multi time World Champion, he looks slightly out of his depth. This is something WWE needs to strive to put right and quickly. Against Randy Orton and Chris Jericho in this match, Sheamus always looked like the least able. Alberto Del Rio is another of these wrestlers who when he made his debut was full of promise, until the WWE machine ground him down and made him just another face in a crowd.
It looks like WWE are booking a Sheamus vs Del Rio feud, going into No Way Out. Does this have legs? No. One match might be ok, but do WWE seriously think that a Sheamus vs Del Rio feud is going to sell SummerSlam? They might, but it won’t. SummerSlam is one of the big four pay per view events of the year, it needs a solid main event. If we hark back to the nineties, then SummerSlam always had a legendary main event. Bret Hart vs Undertaker (SummerSlam 1997) was a classic match, with some really good wrestling. Bret Hart vs British Bulldog (SummerSlam 1992) still stands out today as one of the greatest wrestling matches ever to have taken place. The Rock vs Triple H vs Kurt Angle (SummerSlam 2000) was a lesson in how to get through a match professionally and safely, when one member of the trio is injured and the other two legitimately didn’t like each other. Sheamus vs Alberto Del Rio will not be amongst these if WWE deem to book it on the big stage.
As for Randy Orton and Chris Jericho? Well, it seem Jericho is now stranded in the mid card and Randy Orton needs a decent opponent and quickly, if his star isn’t be put out a little. Maybe a Jericho / Orton feud is on the cards. Maybe WWE are planning an Orton heel turn and run in at Now Way Out to book Orton vs Sheamus for the next few months. Or maybe WWE have just run out ideas for the pair of them. Let’s be honest, it wouldn’t be the first time.
WWE Tag Team Championship Match
Kofi Kingston and R-Truth (Champions) Defeated Dolph Ziggler and Jack Swagger
If WWE bothered to listen to its audience, the people that put money into their pockets, then problems like the tag team division could have been sorted out a long time ago. There would have been no need to make the titles as irrelevant as they are now. It’s a simple fix.
WWE took one step forward and two steps back with the Kingston and Truth Tag Team Championship win. The step forward was taking the titles off of Primo and Epico and giving them to two wrestlers who needed the association with championship gold. The two steps back are because WWE booked this on the free Raw after Extreme Rules 2012 and not on the event itself.
A Tag Team Championship victory, or a championship victory of any calibre should be done on pay per view to emphasise the importance of the titles in contention. Still, what’s done is done and now WWE must move this forward. Should WWE put the importance on the titles and not on the match then with the likes of Kingston and Truth, Epico and Primo, the Usos, Ziggler and Swagger, WWE could build a really strong and credible tag team division once more. In the past few years the division has been worthless. Yet with champions and challengers that lend credibility to the belts will do it a lot of good. Build more tag teams from the stragglers of the WWE roster, such as Tyson Kidd, Evan Bourne (when he returns), some of the guys from NXT, Justin Gabriel, put Ryback and Brodus Clay in a tag team, not necessarily with each other but with others. Build a must see tag team division and make it mean something again. Do not spilt teams up months after they have formed because you prefer singles wrestlers. WWE once had a shining tag team division with the likes of Legion of Doom, Money Inc, Natural Disasters, Beverley Brothers, Nasty Boys, Hart Foundation, High Energy, Smoking Guns, The Godwins, Body Donnas, Dudley Boys, Hardy Boys, British Bulldogs, Edge and Christian. Those were the days.
WWE has already proven it can build a decent tag team with Jericho and Big Show, two misfits who were going nowhere, suddenly gelled together. It can do it again and again. If WWE want to stress how important the tag team division is, it could dedicate a Raw to it, holding what WCW used to call a lethal lottery. Put twenty names of wrestlers who aren’t going anywhere into a hat and draw them out at random. Those drawn together would form a tag team. Regular tag matches on Raw and Smackdown, not Superstars which no one watches, would gradually convey to the watching masses how important the tag teams are.
I wonder why the creative department cannot see this simple fact that would add both interest and panache to their ailing tag division.
Still the match wasn’t half bad at all. Kingston and Ziggler proved they belong on the main event stage and Swagger got his point across about being better than just a Superstars curtain jerker. I’m still though, not sure about R-Truth. I can’t see what he has to offer the WWE. At this point in time I’m beginning to think WWE just shoved the tag title on him to give him some relevance. There were plenty more mid carders who could have done with the exposure, who also have more talent. I don’t want to get into the race issue, but it feels like they made Kingston and Truth the tag champions because they want to show the world they don’t mind giving two black men (one of which is very talented and deserves the gold) championship gold.
If this is the case, then we should be worried that WWE think it needs to make the effort to show its not racist, in a time when John Cena’s T-Shirts read ‘Rise Above Hate’.
WWE Divas Championship Match
Layla (Champion) Defeated Beth Phoenix
Like the tag team division, the Divas division has become just filler. It didn’t have to be this way, had WWE given it more time and effort. It’s still saveable over the course of a few months, if WWE were to invest more in women who can wrestle instead of women with massive tits, then the division can mean something again.
When Kharma returns to WWE, she needs women who can go. At the moment, all she has are opponents that can knock her out with their plastic tits and smother her with their awful tan jobs. That isn’t good enough. If WWE are insistent on hiring models who are pretty over wrestlers who can go in the ring then they might as well dump the division and give the little time they spend on it to undercard male talent or allocate more time to the tag team division.
However, once again, this is easily remedied. Sack the plastic sluts that litter the WWE Division and with that money hire women who have more brawn than looks. I’d rather see seven ugly bitches who can really mix it up in the ring, than seven pretty sluts who flash their tits at have a cute, if annoying giggle and can’t do shit. This is wrestling people, if you want a pretty face and good pair of hooters then buy a magazine. Where have the days of Alundra Blaze and Bull Nakano gone?
So, Layla and Beth Phoenix have to be given credit. The match didn’t light up the show, yet it was acceptable. The crowd didn’t give a damn, then again I didn’t expect it to. Both women are competent in the ring and can wrestle. Which begs the question, why did WWE give it so little time? Ask Ryback and Brodus Clay for the answer to that one.
Pre-Show Match
Kane Defeated Zack Ryder
If you haven’t started already then you may want to get your ‘Goodbye Zack Ryder’ banners made now. The outlook is bleak.
Ryder is suffering from the same diagnosis as Daniel Bryan, only Ryder did it first and is now being made an example of. What I’m talking about of course, is the ‘get yourself over without WWE’s help’ illness.
It looked promising for Ryder at the end of 2011, of course that was only build him up so WWE could knock him down and show the locker room what happens if you dare to try and stand on your own two feet. It’s pathetic and sad and a waste of a great young talent that could have been something someday. Yet, even being John Cena’s best friend (in reality) couldn’t save him. Losing to Kane, on the pre-show of a pay per view, was, I’m pretty confident to say a sign of things to come. To save himself anymore embarrassment, he’s had enough over the last five months, Ryder should ask for his contract release.
Maybe TNA will be interested in him, he’d make a good partner for Robbie E. But the fact remains that Ryder doesn’t have a future in WWE, if he did, then his rehabilitation would have come at Over the Limit, beating his tormentor and reclaiming some self pride. It did not.
Zack Ryder has to go into the top twenty list of ‘wasted opportunities’ that WWE have thrown away. And why? All because they can’t stand credit not being given to them.
Pathetic.
WWE Intercontinental Championship Match
Christian Defeated Cody Rhodes (Champion)
It should tell you something, that WWE promoted the pre-show match a good deal of time before Over the Limit, yet the Intercontinental Championship match was an afterthought. The title that has been given great relevance in previous months by Cody Rhodes, in turn making him a bona fide star. What are you doing WWE?
Still, once Christian had won the battle royal (which also wasn’t promoted) then the stage was set for a very good match. And a good match it was. The result though, I’m in two minds about. Christian needed a lift after his injury and being kept out of Wrestlemania. The title win will do him and his character wonders, no doubt. He’ll also be a great champion. His other I.C title reigns have been entertaining and worthwhile, producing some really cracking matches. Then there’s Cody Rhodes, who came on leaps and bounds as champion and actually sis what others failed to do. Make the championship belt look important.
Rhodes defended against all comers, and for a heel, that’s saying something. He changed the title’s appearance from the modern day look back to the 1980’s / 1990’s look, which stated that he held the history of the championship in great stead. His matches, his promos made the I.C title seem and look vital to him and the WWE. The fact he retained the title by any means necessary made the gold look like a just have and must watch. Even his loss to the Big Show at Wrestlemania 28 and his dogged fight to get it back looked superb. The kid has talent, in spades. So was it the right thing to do taking the title off of him one month after he’d regained it? If WWE are planning to push Rhodes into the main event to take the World Heavyweight Championship from Sheamus, then yes. If they’re just planning to bury him, then what bunch of fuck wits they really are.
I’m hoping it won’t come to that. I’m hoping that even WWE know a great thing when they see one. And if that’s the case then Rhodes couldn’t have lost the title to a better wrestler than Christian. So let’s hope Christian can make the title even more important and continue the good work that Rhodes has done.
Brodus Clay Defeated The Miz
If you’re like me then you’ll be wondering around about now, why The Miz stays around WWE. He’s being jobbed out to the worst kind of wrestlers and for what? The guy is a great talent, he is genuinely awesome, gives his time more than any other superstar (except John Cena) to charities and public events to promote WWE, has been given the starring role in ‘The Marine 3’ instead of Randy Orton. Instead if promoting the guy within an inch of his life to sell the film, WWE job him out to an overweight talent who let’s be honest doesn’t have any.
‘The Funkasaurus’! Please someone wake me up from this nightmare. Look at him. He’s crap! And wouldn’t it be a good idea, if WWE want to get this guy and Ryback over, to stop putting the matches on last minute and actually promote them as part of the Pay Per View weeks in advance? At the moment, they look like an after thought.
Although saying that, to promote them weeks in advance, WWE would have to have faith in Ryback and Clay, it doesn’t. This is a company has no faith in two stars it is desperate to get over with the audience. Tells you all you need to know really.
Ryback Defeated Camacho
‘Of all the superstars who have made their debuts on both Raw and Smackdown over the last several months, none have made a thunderous impact like the authoritative Ryback. As soon as the WWE Universe hears his music, they know pure destruction is imminent.’
Or at least that’s what it says on WWE.Com. It’s not true, really, it’s not true. When the WWE Universe hears his music, all they think is ‘Oh god, here comes another waste of time’
WWE have become so insistent on booking Ryback and Brodus Clay, despite the fact that there is zero interest in either of them, that they’ve begun making up lies about the pair of them and then to top it all off stealing away valuable pay per view time from actual stars to promote them.
The latest on Ryback is that WWE are trying, get this, to compare the artists formerly known as Skip Sheffield, to...Goldberg! Yes, it has come to this. Goldberg was a powerhouse (even if he couldn’t actually wrestle), he will be remembered as one of WCW’s finest characters for his short matches and his awe inspiring presence. People packed the arenas to see Bill Goldberg, he is huge in Japan and respected by wrestlers all over the world (except anyone in WWE). Ryback, will never be any of these things, even if he stays around for the next twenty years. The best I can do here, is compare him with the Boogeyman. The disaster WWE booked us to sit through, presumably as a practical joke.
If WWE want to get Ryback over, then it might be a good idea to start having him attack people that matter, like Cena, Orton, Sheamus and leave alone the jobbers and curtain jerker’s. Until Over the Limit I forget that Camacho existed. One day WWE will get the message, that no one cares and you cannot build a star if all you’re going to book him to do is take out wrestlers who aren’t worth shit anyway.
Saying that though, if you want to make this guy huge, then keep him away from John ‘Career killer’ Cena.
So, that was WWE Over the Limit 2012. It wasn’t earth shattering, it wasn’t totally brilliant, if anything it was another by the numbers pay per view which was preparing for No Way Out. I’d go as far to add that WWE didn’t go Over the Limit to bring us anything of great consequence. I seriously doubt that No Way Out 2012 will bring any great shocks, maybe it will bring one or two new stars. With the exception of Ryback and Clay, then everyone on the Over the Limit 2012 card, could do a whole lot with the hand they’ve been played.
Onwards and Upwards...
