I have been pondering on this decision all week, as a bastion of the truth. Don’t worry, this blog is staying where it is and we’re going nowhere, but looking at the number of people that read the pay-per view previews and the subsequent pay-per view reviews, then the number which read the latter is noticeably less. I don’t know why, maybe it’s because they’ve just watched the event and they can tell for themselves whether what went on was right or not, or maybe they’re now just waiting for the DVD and Blu-Ray reviews on the pay-per view events as I don’t tend to comment on the matches the day after the events take place.
Whatever the reason, I’ve decided that as the pay-per view previews are much more popular then the reviews twenty four hours after the event have to go. For the time being at least. A lot has contributed to this decision. The above reason for starters. The second is that I feel like I’m going around in circles and repeating myself. I’m sure you’ve noticed it as well. Sometimes I repeat what I’ve said in the previews and it leaves very little else to add to the DVD and Blu-ray reviews. In the hope it will add a fresh dimension to the media releases we look at in Review Corner, this is the next reason. The third and last reason is the time we all have. You see, I have a work load to do and on top of all of that, I am now writing a book on wrestling – the details I cannot divulge at this moment as it has yet to be taken by a publisher. But I have received numerous interest and should I get the green light there’s no way I can continue with the book, the scripts and the pay-per view reviews the day after the event. Some people will see this as a cop out, some will see this as a relief. But those are the facts.
Instead of the two (preview and review) we will just have a preview of the event on the Friday before it takes places. I believe those blogs are much more popular than the reviews which I have to rush to write considering the small amount of time between me having to get it written and get it up. In place of the reviews every month we’re instead going to have a ‘This Week in WWE’ article during the week or towards the end which will encapsulate a brief look at the pay-per view which has just been and everything else which may have slipped the net of truth. This will not affect Review Corner which will still appear at regular intervals or the odd blogs, as I call them. That’s the blogs which appear randomly commenting on little things which have happened during the week. I hope that is all clear.
So lets kick off the first of these new blogs. This week in WWE:
A Champion Falls
And it wasn’t even on pay-per view. For those people who doubted that Vince McMahon and WWE had all but done with the WWE United States Championship, then Kofi Kingston defeating Antonio Cesaro on Monday Night Raw should have confirmed what the rest of us knew for quite some time. After eight months as Champion, Antonio Cesaro suddenly becomes nothing in the WWE shuffle.
Granted, Cesaro’s Championship reign failed to set the world alight as it should have done and get him over as the next big thing in wrestling. That is mainly due to WWE’s lack of interest in the belt and even though they seemed interested in the man himself, it ultimately went nowhere fast. Again. This shouldn’t have come as a shock though as we’ve been conditioned to expect this time and time again. First WWE seems like they’re pushing someone and then suddenly that person drops off of the face of the company, sometimes never to be seen again – unless you watch the dire broadcasts of Superstars, that is.
Even though there are no plans for the United States Championship inside WWE and its been given to Kofi Kingston just to give the poor sod something to do, that doesn’t take away the fact that a Championship reign which lasted that long should have transpired on pay-per view. WWE wouldn’t have though of transferring the WWE Championship from Punk to the Rock on Raw, so why the hell do they insist on doing it with other Championships. What baffles me more is that WWE know the harm they are doing to the United States Championship by having it change hands on Raw, which doesn’t get a third of the audience the pay-per view events do. You need people to see it so they can invest in it. That would be like me creating a television show and then locking it away so no producers or commissioners could get to it. Pointless.
I would like to think that WWE have done this in order to elevate the United States Championship when they turn Kingston heel, which by all accounts is on its way and move Cesaro up a level to the Intercontinental Championship division to see if he can make any difference there. However, considering his treatment and calibre of opponents in the U.S Title division and looking at almost the same crop of superstars on the next level, I fail to see how moving him up will help him move forward. It is a possibility that WWE would be better served if they took the risk of moving Cesaro straight to the main event. This could be done easily and with a few weeks of having him defeat main event talent and then win Money in the Bank in July could all but seal his position in the headline scene.
As for Kingston, what awaits him with a heel turn? As United States Champion, nothing. The Championship is defunct in the eyes of the audience and as long as it’s around his waist Kingston will never make the leap to the top of the card. It really is a shame because Kingston could have been there already had WWE grown a pair and pulled the trigger on his victory over Randy Orton in 2008. Still, that wasn’t to be my minions and now Kingston had trod water so much that he needs a pair of wellington boots to wrestle in.
The odds are, that WWE don’t have any plans for Kingston or Cesaro, which begs the question Vince, why did a Champion fall so readily when you didn’t have a landing pad to catch him?
Fandango Marches On
It has surprised me so far, that WWE are pushing Fandango the way they have been. Victory over Chris Jericho at WrestleMania 29 seems to have been a launch pad for a man who previous had no prospects in the company whatsoever. Those who saw Fandango wrestle in WWE’s developmental territories would have cast his aspirations aside the moment he stepped into the ring. The guy showed no acumen for the grappling business and seemed to exist in a ring just to help his reality television show career. Think the Miz in reverse.
Since his major win at Mania, Fandango has been on a roll. Defeating stars on Smackdown seems have made his stock rise and it really does seem like WWE are hundred percent behind their new man, although one has to wonder how long it will last. Will Fandango be WWE Champion? No. He doesn’t have the skills or knowledge of the business right now. In a few years, with a little more training and constantly working with wrestlers who can teach him how to carry himself in the ring, then Fandango may be able to take that step up. After all, when Triple H stepped into the WWE in 1995 no one really looked at him as a serious contender. It was only when he defended the WWE European Championship against Owen Hart at WrestleMania 14 that he was taken seriously.
Right now, WWE have to focus on pushing Fandango as a serious wrestler and not a cartoon character that dances his way around the company and walks out on a match when people can’t pronounce his name, which he has refrained from since WrestleMania, thankfully. If Fandango can get some more major victories under his belt, including another over Chris Jericho at Extreme Rules, then maybe we can move forward with this. Considering WWE’s penance though for pushing a star and then losing interest in then weeks later, we all need to approach this with caution. I’m not going to buy into Fandango just yet and I advise you against do so as well. When WWE can prove to us that they are serious about talent development and are willing to push them until they can’t possibly wring anymore mileage out of them, then we can start believing.
I would like to raise an issue or a question here, depending on how you look at this part of the blog. Fandango is getting a huge push when its clear that he doesn’t have that much talent when the Miz and Wade Barrett are being demoted to the re-show spot on the grandest stage of them all and trading the Intercontinental Championship like its mere pin falls. So, why Fandango and not the Miz?
The Deadman Stayeth
Against everything I thought, the Undertaker has stayed around in WWE after WrestleMania 29. Usually, as has become tradition with Undertaker, he’d leave after Mania to heal his wounds and injuries and then come back at the beginning of 2014 to hype his next match at WrestleMania 30. Refreshingly, Undertaker has stayed with us and looks like going into his second match in as many months at Extreme Rules along with Kane and Daniel Bryan against The Shield. This can be looked upon as nothing but good news for WWE. In the post WrestleMania hangover, WWE needs as many stars as it can get to stick around and promote the company. Those who only tune into WWE once a year for WrestleMania may be looking for a reason to stick with the company and should they have only brought the event for Undertaker, then its mere logic they will stay with the corporation to see Undertaker after the event.
We can also look at this turn of events two ways. That the Undertaker is sticking around to help business and that his injuries aren’t as bad as we though they were, in which case he may here for the rest of the year – not that that’s likely, or this is Undertaker’s final year in the business and he wants to spend as much time in it as humanly possible. Either is feasible. Considering Undertaker’s age and physical condition though, the latter is more probable and in that case we could see Undertaker make regular appearances in WWE as he comes towards his swansong.
SummerSlam and Survivor Series should see Undertaker matches as should Royal Rumble and Elimination Chamber. If and it’s a big if, Undertaker has signed on to appear regularly as he reaches the end then its possible that he will be WWE or World Heavyweight Champion again before he bows out. Right now though, his final year in the wrestling business should be taken with a pinch of salt, as in wrestling, nothing is ever final until it’s happened.
Undertaker’s appearance at Extreme Rules though could be huge for the Shield. At some point in time the trio have to lose a match, that’s a given. But if they could defeat Undertaker, Kane and Daniel Bryan at Extreme Rules whilst getting the pinfall on Undertaker that would be their biggest victory ever and would almost certainly push them into the main event scene. A victory over WWE’s biggest legend will have that effect on ones career. Should this be Undertaker’s final year in the business, then he could no better than giving back to the company which he took so much from than putting over and making three new stars in one foul swoop. What a note that would be to go out on.
Onwards and upwards...
