Believe
it or not, these odd blogs are getting harder and harder to write as nothing
much tends to happen in the wrestling world as we approach Christmas and New
Year. I usually find myself scraping about the rumour mill and fact city to see
what I can dig up for you and this week we have three subjects which vary from
infuriating to baffling. With TLC soon to be upon us you will find one of our
points discussed in more detail in our regular pay-per view preview, but I
think it’s worth mentioning here that there are points that have arisen in past
few days which couldn’t be included in the preview – because I have already
begun writing that.
Also,
there is a point I need to make now, because I won’t have time to do so after
January has begun. Many of you, who keep watch on WWE’s DVD and Blu-ray release
will have noticed that the company are releasing a twentieth anniversary
collection on Monday Night Raw. The release is out in America on December 3rd
but I have yet to receive word on when it will be released in the United
Kingdom and Europe. It’s not the release itself which is going to cause a
headache, it’s the contents. Anyone who read the synopsis will know that the
release contains twenty whole episodes of Raw from across the years spanning
thirty one plus hours and twelve discs. It will take me a considerable amount
of time to review this so when you see the release date, please don’t be
disappointed if blogs are few and far between whilst I review it.
Ranking Disaster
This
week I came across my least favourite wrestling magazine on the shelf at W.H.
Smith. FSM Magazine was a publication I one brought regularly but then they got
slipshod with their view, opinions and grammar, regularly leaving out words in
articles wherever they felt like thus making said pieces of work look amateur.
It’s something I’m informed they still do, which doesn’t surprise me. I also
found their opinions to be regularly infuriating when the whole world could see
the truth about some wrestlers, namely John Cena, said magazine would openly
support him as a decent wrestler who had earned his place at the top of the
card through his wrestling ability alone.
Eventually,
I had to stop buying the magazine for my own sanity – especially when they
could state that matches on wrestling releases were good and the release was
great and then I purchased the media release to find it was a whole lot worse
than they have said it was. To this day I am convinced that the magazine review
almost all of their WWE DVD and Blur-ray’s with a great mark just to stay in
WWE and Fremantle Media’s good books – and instead continued to purchase the much
better and much more reliable Power Slam Magazine, of which I have been a
collector for twenty years. How FSM can label itself as ‘The UK’s Number One’
in wrestling and fighting I have no idea.
Anyway,
I’m digressing. Even though I can’t stand to buy the magazine, I do still pick
it up when I have a moment to have a laugh at their DVD and Blu-ray reviews. In
the past year they have stated several dull and excruciatingly boring matches
were thrilling and well worth the watch. I wish they would employ writers who
know what they are talking about. It wasn’t their DVD and Blu-ray reviews which
stuck a raw nerve with your Wrestling God this month my minions, it was an
article at the front of the magazine. One covering their opinion on the 100
best wrestlers from 2006 to 2013, which is a totally biased and false look at
wrestlers who have stepped into the ring in these seven years.
I
will give the magazine credit for giving me the biggest laugh I’ve had for
quite some time, because when I browsed their rankings, Randy Orton was ranked
at 35, Triple H very close to that and John Cena was number three. Yes, third,
in a ranking of the very best wrestlers of the past seven years. He beat all of
the Japanese wrestlers who are ten times better than he will ever be such as
Kazuchika Okada and Hiroshi Tanahashi, as well as WWE talent such as C.M Punk,
The Undertaker and every other name apart from Daniel Bryan (who came first)
you can imagine.
Has
it really come to a point in which a professional wrestling magazine, a
magazine who say they know everything about wrestling rank John Cena as the
third best wrestler – not entertainer or sports entertainer – of the past seven
years? The guy has had some good matches undoubtedly but if this were a real
ranking which focused on the participants skills in the rings and number of
unforgettable matches they’d had in that time span, then surely John Cena would
be at the reverse end of the ranking, if he made it at all. For FSM magazine to
say that John Cena has been a better wrestler than everyone he beat to third
place is a slap in the face for wrestling, a slap in the face for everyone who
buys the magazines (apart from the ‘I love John Cena’ morons) as well as Cena
himself.
You
may think that it’s a compliment for the magazine to rank John Cena where they
finally put him, but if anything they’re giving him false hope that he actually
can produce in the ring over and over again, instead of once in a blue moon.
One of their main reasons was that his February 2013 Raw match with C.M Punk
would take some beating to match of the year. It was a hell of a match no
doubt, but C.M Punk vs The Undertaker at WrestleMania XXX trumps that as does
C.M Punk vs Brock Lesnar at SummerSlam 2013. It’s madness. How about the
magazine start telling us the truth and not trying to butter up wrestlers who
they would like an affiliation with.
Then
there are all those wrestlers the magazine left off of the list. I didn’t get a
good look at the rest of the rankings but as I flitted through them I don’t
remember seeing Chris Benoit’s name on there even though he didn’t die until
2007. I can safely say that every wrestler on the list are better than John Cena.
People can smell and arse kisser a mile away. Truth sells copies, boot licking
will only give you cherry blossom poisoning.
Big Vince is Watching
We
all laughed when WWE announced a few years ago that they were launching their
own network. Forgetting the fact that it will cost them millions to do so and
then the fact that no network ever makes money in their first few years of
business, after WWE Films, do the company really believe they can provide and
then sustain their very own network? One they would have to provide constant
programming for?
The
idea has it advantages. The company are aiming to make the network subscription
only in the United States and the incentive for fans to buy will be that WWE
are aiming to pool all their weekly programming and major pay-per view events onto
the channel in order to cut out costs of buying television time from other
networks in the USA. That way, WWE can control what they put out and don’t have
to stick to network regulations. Plus there is great potential if the company
were to bring back Tough Enough – exclusive to the network – as well as air
some old WWE movies which could get people’s interests in what else the company
have made on the big screen.
Another
idea would be to make a weekly show documenting the best development talent in
their new development centre. A one hour documentary per week, highlighting the
best the company have to offer finished off by a match featuring two of the
best hopefuls. That could be a winner. Certainly, the company will be looking
to air NXT and Total Divas on the channel when it finally gets on its legs. But
there is one idea which was thrown around years ago and then dropped, only to
recently resurface again as the channel nears our screens.
Fans
of shows like Big Brother will rejoice at this idea and news. WWE are planning
and apparently putting into action a Big Brother type show featuring WWE
legends. Called ‘WWE Legends House’, the show will see thirteen legends of the
ring move into a house for god knows how long and their every action watched by
the paying public. Then presumably like Big Brother, the audience would vote
out their least favourite until one had won the show. The idea could be
appealing, but then every WWE legend are old men now. Do we really want to see
old men walking around a house with their shirts off, arguing about who was the
best and talking about wrestling like it’s not a work?
Then
there’s the question of whether the company would allow the old timers to have
freedom of speech, or would they indeed do what they have done with Total Divas
and script the series for the participants? We know how WWE don’t like its
talent to think for itself, god forbid those legends actually have a
conversation about how bad wrestling was and how it ruined some of their lives
on live television.
I
can’t see the idea being a hit in the long run. After all there are only so
many legends the company would want to participate and only so many who would
also want to do so. If the company have put a lot of thought into the idea then
it could be a short term winner. If they drag it out past three seasons then it
could be a full blown disaster. Most wrestlers like their privacy when they
leave the spotlight, the last thing we need to see is ‘Wrestling Rehab With
Reverend Slick’ – scrap that, I don’t want to put ideas in their head.
United We Stand
Whether
you’ve read magazines, blogs, wrestling websites or watched Raw and Smackdown
this week, then you won’t have failed to notice somewhere along the line that
WWE have announced a major match for TLC and the talk has all been about a
Championship unification between the WWF and World Heavyweight Championships.
Now I won’t go into too much detail because I have done so in my TLC preview,
but recently the internet forums and wrestling sites have been abuzz with
theories with why WWE will and won’t combine both Championships before
Christmas.
The
first is that the company released the 2014 Royal Rumble poster which features
John Cena as the most prominent figure with Randy Orton miniaturised at the
back. Many believe this is WWE telling us that John Cena will be the unified
Champion at Royal Rumble, but as I have pointed out in my TLC preview, a John
Cena victory would all but end The Authority and any interest from the
storyline at all. Cena is much more effective chasing the Championship rather
than holding it. There is no interest in a heel chasing a Championship at all.
The cable provider for the event has put in their synopsis that the winner will
vie for the WWF or World Heavyweight Championship, casting aspersions on a
unification at TLC – but then they are given to the provider months in advance
and WWE don’t like to give away their booking plans.
I
won’t spend much longer on this point because it will be covered elsewhere at a
later date. Despite Triple H coming out on WWE television and stating this will
be a Championship unification match, there are other plans afoot to change this
and possibly delay the unification match until WrestleMania XXX – which would
be an ideal time to do so. The idea WWE have come up with, and the one I
strongly suggest they employ on the night, is that Randy Orton and John Cena
climb the ladder and at the conclusion of the match, pull down each others
Championships in unison. This would delay the unification and allow WWE to
build more of a story.
I
just wonder, that should that ending be implemented would WWE be doing it
because they believe John Cena is too good to carry the World Heavyweight
Championship, or would they be doing it truly because it’s what’s best for
business?
Onwards
and upwards...
