Is WWE blowing the proverbial wad by having the Cena-Lesnar match already? Having the confrontation makes sense: Brock returning by interrupting and calling out the 'top guy' in the company. Honestly, I think they should have Brock put Cena on the shelf for a few months, so Lesnar can dominate in his absence and ol' John can return as 'last man standing'. Character-wise, it seems sensible to have Brock tear through everyone until Cena was the last guy to represent WWE. Brock can win both world titles and claim complete dominance. Then, when Cena returns, but fails too, The Rock can come back and be The Guy who redeems the WWE lockeroom. If they are slow-burning toward a Cena-Rock rematch, and/or a Cena heel-turn, that could be a pretty sweet catalyst: not only did he lose clean to Rocky at this year's Wrestlemania, but the part-time Rocky had to return to pick up John's slack.
I understand that Brock is only signed for a certain number of shows and they want to keep the momentum/money going (in this case, but not in Daniel Bryan's? That is another topic), but where do you go from here? Cena can't win at 'Extreme Rulez' because why would you have Brock lose his first PPV match back? That leaves only a Lesnar win or some kind of schmozz ending. Cena doing a very high-profile job a month after his highest profile loss to a part-timer makes sense if the losing streak is building toward Cena's heel turn I guess, but as a one-off job, John is on quite a losing trend to part-time guys. Also, shouldn't Cena be the LAST guy Brock destroys, not the first? (Basically, what Austin said back in 2002). I only say this because, once Lesnar has beaten Super-Cena in his first match, what makes it as appealing to see him beat Sheamus, Punk, Orton, et al? In storyline terms, it seems like Cena should be the last hurdle for Lesnar and the 'last hope' for the WWE roster.
The ONLY way I can see them going is if The Rock returns at 'Extreme Rulez' to lay out Lesnar and allow a cheap Cena win. That could lead to Brock going recruiting (Batista?) and setting up a Lesnar/??? vs. Rock/Cena tag match at the next PPV. It just seems curious that Brock-Cena would make the most sense right now, unless it is for John to get obliterated clean again and have him go on the shelf to do 'soul-searching' and come back as a more edgy bad-ass babyface.
That being said, I think they do the shmozziest shmozz that ever shmozzed there, big double DQ, both guys give the ref their finisher, they brawl into the crowd and into a city bus and end up in the baseball stadium or something hitting each other with bats, whatever. The worst thing they can do is have Brock just be another guy doing worked pro wrestling matches with a pro wrestler, because they'll kill him off faster than you can say "Lord Tensai". The buildup to Brock-Cena has been enjoyable thus far, but every week Brock is on the show is another week where he just becomes another guy, like what happened with the Rock before Wrestlemania.
" The buildup to Brock-Cena has been enjoyable thus far, but every week
ReplyDeleteBrock is on the show is another week where he just becomes another guy,
like what happened with the Rock before Wrestlemania. "
I don't get or agree with this philosophy at all. Rock and Brock will never be "just another guy" like Miz or Ryder or whoever, because they are transcendent talents. I don't see any downside to having Brock f'n Lesnar appear on your show every week and beat people up. No more than it was a negative when he was doing it in 2002 and 2003.
It's going to be very interesting to see if Brock moves the needle at all anyway. Sure he was a "big deal" in the UFC but were any of his main events any higher rated (or buy-rated...I guess...?) than any other PPV?
ReplyDeleteIt seems like that crowd will buy every PPV regardless of who is fighting. But that could just be my totally wrong perception of that audience.
Yes, Brock was one of the biggest PPV draws in history when he was with UFC. A Brock appearance was worth at least 800,000 buys by himself.
ReplyDeleteBrock brought me to UFC, I haven't watched any PPV he wasn't involved in.
ReplyDeleteFrom the fan standpoint? No downside at all.
ReplyDeleteBut presumably WWE brought Brock back to spur business, and the more Brock appears as a regular, the less "special" he becomes to the audience. After all, if we can watch him kicking ass for free every week, what's the incentive to pay for his PPV bouts? Especially if the rest of said PPV is more of the same old, same old that we weren't interested in before his arrival?
To be fair, Brock beating Cena makes Lesnar look unstoppable almost immediately. And let's not forget, Rock was first in line for Goldberg.
ReplyDeleteIf Rock beats Brock then fuck the WWE. I don't mind Brock beating Cena but Rock beating brim after a run of dominance is the kind of shit that destroyed WCW. Now Brock destroying Dwayne? That I can get behind.
ReplyDeleteThe problem is that Brock/Cena is the only match the audience will have any interest in seeing, because Cena's the only guy they really built up to that level. It's the same problem they had with the Rock: while we internet folks would have been excited about Rock/Punk or Rock/Bryan or whatever, those matches aren't going to drive business because Punk and Bryan aren't on that level yet (case in point, Survivor Series 2011). Now, we can debate why they aren't or if they can ever be, but right now Cena's the only guy who can be pitted against someone like Brock or Rock and actually make a difference at the box office. I actually think Extreme Rules will do a higher number than usual, provided that the creative team just gets out of the way and doesn't book the feud into oblivion.
ReplyDeleteI was discussing something with my buddies: before Brock came back, who was the legit badass on the WWE roster?
ReplyDeleteI'd say Jack Swagger was probably a pretty tough guy based on his amateur background. Also, Dolph Ziggler was rated pretty high as an amateur, Santino has a martial arts background and Yoshi Tatsu was an amateur boxer who beat up Sheamus.
Anyone else? No saying Haku! 8 )
I think they are scared that he will leave before the contract ends so they are starting bug that way the long term plans can be rewritten.
ReplyDelete"Is WWE blowing the proverbial wad by having the Cena-Lesnar match already?"
ReplyDeleteYES! YES! YES! YES!
Seriously though - they shouldve kept Brock off TV for about a month after last week to build up momentum. Or keep him off after the follow-up last night.
Seriously? He was worth twice what the 'E usually generates for a Rumble PPV?
ReplyDeleteHoly fuck. I had no idea he was that big a draw. Every MMA fan I know thought he was completely overrated.
You don't mind a part-timer burying the whole roster...but if a part-timer beat a part-timer THEN you'd be mad?
ReplyDeletelolwut
The difference is the UFC PPVs were already doing great numbers & Brock added like 100,000 or 200,000 pro wrestling fans to the show.
ReplyDeleteI don't see him having the same effect with WWE PPVs. I highly doubt any MMA fans are going to buy Extreme Rules to watch Brock.
Frankly, Brock didn't really move the needle for WWE PPVs, except for the Rock/Brock SummerSlam match. And WrestleMania XIX did the worst WrestleMania buyrate in the past 15 years, back to WM 13. Not that it was all Brock's fault but....it doesn't speak well to his drawing power.
Speaking of Tensai, I think he has potential, but I agree that he'd be better off on Smackdown. What he really needs is an over babyface who call bump around for him and make him look like a killer (much like Jeff Hardy did with Umaga) before you move him into the main events. Unfortunately, with the way WWE books now, such a babyface might be hard to come by. There's always Rey, I guess, but his style tends to make his much larger opponents look goofy because they have to maneuver themselves into awkward and unlikely positions so he can pull off his spots.
ReplyDeleteIt might've been the Howard Stern Effect where people tune in despite their personal feelings towards him.
ReplyDeleteSo what's the point in bringing him back if he's not going to move the needle, even if it is a 'C-level PPV'?
ReplyDeleteWhat I don't get is that there's an expectation that Brock/Rock will draw a huge buyrate for Mania next year (if we get that far with it), but in the meantime what are they paying Lesnar all that money for? Unless he's there to sell PPVs, why is he around?
For argument's sake, if WM 28 fails to get a 1million+ buyrate, who do they blame? The Rock? Because it's pretty obvious that just his being on a PPV isn't enough to improve the buys, even on one of the 'big four'.
Isn't it time to stop referring to Punk as someone 'internet' likes? He's the no.2 face in the company.
ReplyDeleteYoshi Tatsu beat up Sheamus?
ReplyDeleteThat actually makes a ton of sense. My MMA friends HATED him, so maybe that did translate into dollars.
ReplyDelete"[...] Brock isn't moving the needle on a C-level PPV. It's insanity to think he will."
ReplyDeletewhy do you figure that?
They need to do Brock/Cena now so that they can use the loss to revitalize Cena; with Rock gone after making Cena his bitch, they need to have Cena lose and lose big so that they can have Cena chase Brock while Brock destroys everyone else around him.
ReplyDeleteCena is someone who needs drastic retooling and putting him on a losing streak with big matches AND with regards to the fact that he's not in Brock's league, would do wonders to make people wanting to see him beat Brock eventually as far as the WWE getting us fans to desperately wanting to see Cena kick Brock's ass.
if your mma friends are really "into" it they were not the ones buying. the so-called "casuals" were.
ReplyDeleteMore and more it seems to me the WWE thinks they know best and trust their system over years and years of conventional wrestling logic. I'm beginning to suspect they don't think Hogan, Austin, Rock, and Brock were lightening in a jar but instead were products of their awesome system. And if that's so, then it makes sense they'll book Brock just like any other heel and we'll get some long, drawn-out fued between Brock and Cena with 50/50 booking and Brock will be just another guy.
ReplyDeleteI think their belief in their system also explains why they have no idea what to do with guys like Ryder, Ziggler, or Bryan. I think they look at those guys with complete bafflement not understanding how they could possibly get over without their system and then not being able to plug those guys into that system because they don't fit predetermined variables.
I get that, I just don't understand why a wrestling fan would care. In fact, if you're a fan of the guy, wouldn't you want to see him more often?
ReplyDeleteHell, I love the Rock and don't begrudge him his movie career at all, but I'd give away anyone on the roster to have him back full-time instead of doing movies.
Based on whose numbers did Mania fail to break a million?
ReplyDeleteSometimes less is more. When they signed Goldberg for a year, they tried to pack in as many "dream feuds" as possible. As a result, we ended up with Goldberg feuding with Rock, Jericho, HHH, Kane, Brock Lesnar and Stone Cold Steve Austin (he didn't fight Austin obviously but they built up tension between the pair in the run up to WM20).
ReplyDeleteAs a result of trying to do too much, none of those feuds or matches were particularly memorable. With Brock, two or three rivalries over the next 12 months will be plenty. We don't need to see him on Raw every week or fighting a different guy at every PPV. A feud with Cena, followed by a feud with Punk then a feud with HHH would be sufficient.
He was the John Cena of MMA (except, you know, he actually sold PPVs and drew mainstream attention): he was a gigantic babyface to casual MMA fans who flocked over from wrestling, and an ENORMOUS heel (think Chael Sonnen) to "hardcore MMA purists."
ReplyDeleteRock made Goldberg look like a million bucks ... and then the HHH feud happened.
ReplyDeleteTypical Shough.
ReplyDeleteYep. They were roommates and (the story goes), ironically, Sheamus was bullying the other two FCW guys he roomed with, one of which was Yoshi. Yoshi finally had enough and (again, allegedly) pummeled Sheamus until he apologized.
ReplyDeleteStatistics. WWE has trained fans so that Wrestlemania is the only legitimate draw left in PPV. Wrestling isn't UFC -- the shows aren't being bought on an ala carte basis where a big fight can pop a big number. History and numbers have shown that wrestling PPVs are dictated by pretty strict buying habits and even when there's a hot angle (Summer of Punk!) the numbers don't go significantly upwards on a show where people weren't already predisposed to buy it.
ReplyDeleteIt also depends on the definition of success they have, I guess. Last year's show did a pretty abysmal buyrate, something like 100K domestic, so if Brock can boost that to 120-130, then it's totally a success and worth the money, but I feel like they have UFC Brock Lesnar numbers in their head given the money he's making. We'll see I guess.
Rey-Taker was fantastic, the best big-little match WWE has done in years.
ReplyDeleteI think the problem with Tensai is A) I disagree that the gimmick has potential and B) His offense simply isn't explosive. Hoenstly, the Funkasaurus' squashes have looked much better, primarily because he's doing moves that look impactful.
Wasn't Rock transitioning to part-time at that time though?
ReplyDeleteYep. Ted Dibiase Jr. was the other roommate and I think he was the one who spread the story, too.
ReplyDeleteGoldberg-Rock and Goldberg-Jericho were good feuds, I thought. Among the best of Goldie's career, in my estimation.
ReplyDeleteI get the impression the Rock will get the credit if they do, anyone but the Rock gets the blame if they don't. It's the only way they can justify spending the money on his contract.
ReplyDeleteIf, as Scott suggests, Cena/Brock fails to bump the buyrate, then what's the reason for bringing Lesnar back? Surely the only reason to pay so much money for him is so he'll get more lapsed fans to part with their cash.
Brock's last fight drew almost double the buyrate of the previous month's fight. That's more than 100,000 or 200,000 pro wrestling fans. Just saying.
ReplyDeleteI do agree the effect won't nearly be the same in WWE. MMA fans are not going to flock to WWE like happens the other way around.
I think there a lot of truth to this, which is why they're always caught off-guard when someone actually gets an organic reaction from the crowd. "What? So-and-so got a babyface reaction last night? We didn't book that!"
ReplyDeleteI tend to stick to the Big 4 PPVs, but the whole Punk thing convinced me to get Money in the Bank. I really want to see Lesnar/Cena but not at that point where I can justify paying 55 bucks or whatever. I will definitely try to seek out a feed online so I can see the match.
ReplyDeleteMight explain why they haven't done more with Tatsu...
ReplyDeleteShould have finished my thought. It's the WWE shooting itself in the foot. If you have Beock massacre the entire WWE roster and the part-time Dwayne returns to mail in anothe performance and then leaves you've destroyed the credibility of your roster to prop up a part time guy. BUT if you have Brock mow down the roster, including Cena and Dwayne, then you can have Punk, Sheamus, Bryan, Hell, even Orton beat Brock and get a MASSIVE rub from it.
ReplyDeleteAlso, if Brock is going to massacre Cena (and he should) I want him to massacre the other stale, pandering catchphrase spewing baby face: Dwayne.
I did realize I don't like Dwayne (Rock as a face), I like the Rock (the Rock as a heel).
I'm probably a bigger DBD mark than Punk at this point but I think Pubk could have gotten to the level with the Rock, or could. At Wrestlemania it wouldn't have made as much sense just because Punk ascended after WM 27 but if he had started calling the Rock out I think he has the mic chops to hang. I love DBD, but I don't think he could at this point.
ReplyDeleteHe is wrestling 11 more months, the investment won't be made or broken on one PPV, it will be made or broken on one year and whether he affects business or not.
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't mind seeing Ziggler bump for Tensai, but I think Ziggler does the best selling in wrestling. I agree with you about the gimmick being stupid. Did Tensai wrestle in Feudal Japan? Because that seems to be what they think Japan still is.
ReplyDeleteOn the other side is everybody complaining, that The Rock has only 4-5 appearances per year. So what do you want?
ReplyDeleteI want to have The Rock AND Lesnar AND Triple H AND Undertaker every week in every show!
With the WWE stock as low as it is right now, I'm not surprised they pulled the trigger on this already.
ReplyDeleteHahaha, well said. Also I wasn't keen on Lawler's implication that the Japanese are inferior as wrestlers to American competition.
ReplyDeleteYour offense comment is EXACTLY what I was thinking when I've watched Tensai's matches. If he's going to use those moves, he's gotta have quicker squashes.
ReplyDeleteThe gimmick doesn't bother me, because at least they're not pretending Albert is actually Japanese or something equally embarrassing. They're acknowledging that he went to Japan after leaving the company, became a star and then fell in love with the history and culture of the country. Given what we've seen from WWE in the past, that's fairly enlightened and pretty tame for a gimmick.
ReplyDeleteAs for his offense, I suspect he's taking it easy because if he started throwing guys around like he did in Japan, he'd likely get the dreaded "doesn't know how to work" rep and his push would be killed before it even starts. Better to work light and get a PPV main event than work heavy and get relegated to Superstars.
Rock didn't mail in anything. He entertained the fans at every event, and entertained me most every week, then delivered a great match at Mania.
ReplyDeleteThat's where the divide is coming, here.
But to each his own.
My problem is the name.
ReplyDelete"Tensai" sounds too much like "Hentai". I keep expecting tentacle rape in every match.
I could do without HHH. Don't really want to see anymore Nash matches for the rest of my life.
ReplyDeleteI actually think there's more value using Brock on a PPV like Extreme Rulez than there is on using him at Wrestlemania or Royal Rumble. Let's face it, most fans are going to order the biggest events of the year regardless of what the card is. By putting on dream matches at the lesser PPVs, you're at least giving those events a chance of an improved buyrate. I also think if they're going to go down the route of bringing in part-time and semi-retired wrestlers, it's better to spread them out rather than sticking them all into Wrestlemania matches to the detriment of guys on the full-time roster.
ReplyDeleteTrue, but Cena is the No.1 guy in the company, if Brock can't draw with him, then why assume he can with anyone else?
ReplyDeleteI know. I've been seriously thinking all day about buying some because it's *really* low and they're still paying a dividend.
ReplyDelete100% agreed. Those non-Wrestlemania PPVs need all the help they can get, and as much as we may love Punk and Jericho and Bryan, they ain't moving the needle. Maybe Brock won't either, but he's more likely to than any of the other options they have right now. That is WWE's own fault, mind you, but the situation is what it is.
ReplyDeleteSome people would argue that pulling the hottest name in pro wrestling off tv for a month is the opposite of 'building momentum'.
ReplyDeleteI get that you think keeping him away would build anticipation, and maybe it would. But it also might cause people to lose interest. And what would Cena do for the next month?
It's always bugged me that so many people's fanatsy booking fdor the Summer of Punk involved Punk taking *months* off (that's not an exaggeration) to further build the heat. I think sometimes fans aren't being fair with Vince. You have a hot angle that's getting legitimate mainstream publicity (SoP, Brock's return) and you're expected to put it on the back burner and just use video packages for the next 4 weeks? Strike while the iron is hot! Make your money now! Cause if they waited weeks for a follow up and it wasn't as hot as expected they'd (rightly) get ripped for not capitalizing on a good thing when they had the chance.
Ironic when someone gets their ass beat for being a douche, they get a push. As long as you're not getting beat up by a woman (Drew McIntyre).
ReplyDeleteConsidering how the SoP ultimately turned out (from a financial standpoint), maybe they should have waited a bit. There's a bit of wiggle room between dragging a story out for endless months and blowing your wad in a week.
ReplyDeleteTotally! I'm just stating my opinion, I don't want it to detract from your enjoyment of the show. If you enjoyed the Rock, cool. I found him to be just as stale, pandering, and catchphrase-spewing as Cena. I thought he mailed it in. You like chocolate ice cream, I like vanilla. But I'd like to see Brock make a new star.
ReplyDeleteIf I were booking I'd book Brock as a monster all year thru to Wrestlemania. I'd book Daniel Bruan to steadily gain credibility and have him win the Rumble. I'd have Brock refuse to fight Daniel Bryan challenge Brock to a non-title match and win by small package. Then give Brock and Bryan 45 minutes to an hour at Wrestlemania and have DBD submit Brock, instant star.
I think the SoP could have been better, but the problem wasn't him coming back so soon. And I would call it a success considering it turned Punk into a star.
ReplyDeletePeople are down on that angle cause they think it should have done big business. For that you needed casual fans tuning in, and casual fans aren't going to give a fuck 6 weeks later if you don't advance the story (with Punk showing up, not Punk tweeting pictures around town or posting Youtube clips of ComicCon).
Yep. Especially funny that Vince apparently hated Morrison because he never stood up to Batista, yet if he *had* stood up to Batista and hurt him, he'd have been fired on the spot.
ReplyDeleteScott, just one week ago you said about Brock/Cena, "You sure do run it that early," in response to a question about doing that match at Extreme Rules.
ReplyDeleteSo why do you now think they're doing it way too early? As you said last week, Cena/Brock isn't the endgame. And since it isn't, they can build to a rematch at, say, Summerslam. Maybe even Survivor Series. There are still so many directions that they can go from here that I'm inclined to agree with April 3rd Scott rather than April 10th Scott.
Who really does draw with Cena, though, other than Rock?
ReplyDeleteThat's what I don't get when people bitch about the SoP storyline. He was another fairly popular star not really standing out from any other of a dozen or so guys at a similar level a year ago.
ReplyDeleteNow he's a massive superstar, a long-running WWE champion, the most over guy in the company and even if he's not at the level of Cena/Rock, he's treated like a huge deal and had Chris Jericho come back specifically to put him over.
Even if there were some missteps along the way, I don't see how the Punk storyline wasn't a major success. And I also agree that leaving him off TV for months would have been crazy. Now, if he was looking for some time off or was healing from an injury, then yeah, the months-off-TV-advance-it-through-social-media grassroots thing is fine. But Punk himself wanted to strike while he was the healtihiest he'd been in years and was involved in the biggest storyline of his life.
So for those that think they shot their wad too quick with Punk- and I'm saying this as a massive Punk mark- make sure you give Punk some of the blame because he didn't want to go away. Nor should he have.
Yep, people blame Vince/HHH/Steph, but if you listen to Punk himself he says it was unrealistic to expect him to stay off tv for an extended amount of time.
ReplyDeleteI dunno if he would have been fired (unless he broke his arm or leg or something). Didn't Booker T step up to Batista and beat his ass?
ReplyDeleteOf course, Booker was already a main-eventer/upper-carder and Morrison was still young up-and-comer...
heh, maybe they shouldn't of put him in a Goldust wig so early on...lol.
ReplyDeleteVanilla ice cream is gross. Who likes vanilla? It's plain! Like eating air!
ReplyDeleteI have a joke! 8 )
ReplyDeleteQ: What is Lesnar's favourite vegetable?
A: BROCKolli!
Man, that ppv buy chart is so damn interesting.
ReplyDelete1. The Rock was worth every penny. Both PPV's he appeared in 2011 did better business than the year before with 2011 doing almost 200k more.
2. Punk moved the needle for MITB, but his return for Summerslam, in hindsight (creatively and financially) was a mistake for the company.
I guess where we differ is that I don't see Punk as a "massive superstar" as of yet and I think he could have been with proper handling. Is he in a much better position now than he was last year? Absolutely. But how can he be the most over guy in company if he isn't (by your own admission) at the level of Cena or Rock? At best he's slightly above the likes of Sheamus and Del Rio, which isn't a bad position to be in these days and I'm sure Punk likes the boost in profile and the extra dough in his paycheck. But he's not the focal point or anywhere close to it, and he certainly isn't a mainstream name.
ReplyDeleteThere was interest in the SoP because it was different from what WWE usually serves up, plus the timing was such that there wasn't much else going on in the sports world at the time, so there was some media buzz as well. But when he came back after eight days to stand in the ring and stare at Cena, it became just another WWE storyline, and whatever outside interest there was evaporated. Who knows, maybe it would have fizzled out anyhow even if he had stayed out a month or so with the belt, but why not take the risk (especially since MiTB didn't do that huge of a number anyhow)? Once again the WWE's apparent fear of doing anything remotely different for too long rears its' ugly head. As far as Punk goes, you think he's going to jeopardize his new position by going against the company line outside of a scripted promo? He tried that once before, and look what happened.
The key would have been to keep Punk in the spotlight while he was away. Get him booked on Conan or Kimmel, let him defend the belt overseas, etc. Obviously, you wouldn't have been able to plug those appearances on WWE television since he "quit", but maybe the media exposure with him carrying around the belt he "stole" would have drawn a few extra eyes to his eventual return.
ReplyDeleteSeriously, I fucking hate you, because I laughed at that.
ReplyDeletePunk is a better seller than Ziggler.
ReplyDeleteZiggler does the best bumps in wrestling.
Oh god, I hurt now.
ReplyDeleteI'm a fickle guy. My feeling last week was to run the match, but now I'm thinking they should have had Cena booked against a Mark Henry or ADR instead so he could beat a top guy to get some momentum back before Brock destroys him at the next show.
ReplyDeleteReally, what I wish is that they hadn't just announced the match at the beginning of the show and that Johnny Ace hadn't been the one to just book it. I swear the writers would be totally lost without an authority figure character to use a crutch for their lazy booking.
I didn't want to say he liked vanilla intimating that Rock was vanilla... I put too much thought into it.
ReplyDeleteI have another one!
ReplyDeleteQ: What do you get when you cross a cow with a Japanese wrestler?
A: The Great Moo-ta!
Your post is why I support internet censorship.
ReplyDeleteQ: Who were the psychiatrist's favourite tag team?
ReplyDeleteA: The Headshrinkers!
While everyone loves a pull apart brawl, it was certainly unique they did it in the beginning of the show, rather than the very end.
ReplyDeleteFrom an execution standpoint, I can't get past (yes, its kind of sad) how the they started brawling and immediately the locker room emptied - before the extra refs and agents even hit the ring! You would have thought the show was running out of time and they had to rush the whole thing. They should have let that baby breathe.
Extreme Rules PPV needs to be a carbon copy of Ground Zero from '97. No contest, bell doesn't even have a chance to ring before the match is scrapped. And Brock does a tope to the outside also.
Oh fucking Christ...
ReplyDeleteI would have rather had Brock be the special enforcer for Extreme Rules, gives him some extra time to get in ring shape. And I don't mind Brock being aligned with Big Johnny, just seems too soon.
ReplyDeleteCan't stop the magic now, ChinWins!
ReplyDeleteQ: What did Khali name his dog?
A: The Great Collie!
Googling "hentai" now makes local indie wrestler Super Hentai a completely different gimmick in my mind.
ReplyDeleteThe only thing besides Brock that ever got me into UFC was a Liddell/Rampage Jackson fight from 2007, that I only ordered because I was home on break from school (I wanna say between end of spring and the start of summer classes) and had a ton of people over at my parent's house, and just decided to order it.
ReplyDeleteSo, yeah. Put me firmly in the came of people who were more or less only drawn to UFC by Brock.
How over he is and what his position within the company is are two different things.
ReplyDeleteAs far as whether or not he's a major star, I guess that's a difference of opinion. If you're judging that on whether or not he's at Rock/Cena/Brock's level, well, I guess not.
I really don't know what you expected the Summer of Punk storyline to turn into. It was always a WWE storyline, and even if it was edgy and different, things can't stay edgy and different forever. The establishment co-opts cutting edge. That's life.
When's the last time they brought in someone like Brock, who has the combination of a known, established entity to wrestling fans but also has huge mainstream crossover fame?
ReplyDeleteYour reasoning is sound, but they didn't give him $5M (if that figure is accurate, and I wouldn't doubt it) if they didn't think this was a unique situation and that Brock is an outlier.
I guess we'll see.
I'm the same way, unless I can convince, like, four people to join me to watch Brock's return.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, you could argue it's foolish to hotshot a double turn for Bryan/Sheamus because one crowd was crazy hot for DBry. Judging by the boos Bryan just got when Piper said his name on Smackdown, I'd say it was the right decision. They hotshotted a face turn for Randy Orton because of one smarky crowd in 2004, and it was a huge failure.
ReplyDeleteIf they can get their money's worth out of two or three big feuds, great. You're making the argument for what they should do creatively, but considering the money they spent, they're obviously looking to get the most out of a huge investment.
ReplyDeleteThen again, you could argue that blowing through a bunch of supposed dream matches without really building any of them properly wouldn't be the best financial decision either, but I guess we'll see.
Also, are we 100 percent sure Brock will really only be around a year? Is that just an assumption that's out there? I grant that it's a pretty sound assumption because it's hard to imagine Brock staying long-term before he gets bored or pisses everyone off or offends the entire world or something, but has there been any real solid report that it will only be a year, and that's it?
"I think they do the shmozziest shmozz that ever shmozzed there, big
ReplyDeletedouble DQ, both guys give the ref their finisher, they brawl into the
crowd and into a city bus and end up in the baseball stadium or
something hitting each other with bats."
Aren't you being a little far fetched, Scott?
There are no DQs at Extreme Rules.
This is obviously just my opinion, but I think doing Brock/Cena - especially this early - is absolutely the right way to go.
ReplyDeleteIf Brock's return is supposed to seem like a huge deal, then he has to make a huge impact right out of the gate - no climbing the ladder, no drawing out the feud for months, just target and destroy the biggest dog ASAP. Will it significantly increase the buys for a B- or C-level PPV? Probably not, but it WILL lay the ground-work for Brock being more than "just another guy"; Brock fighting for the championship at, say, "Summerslam", will mean more if he has already run through the Cenas and Ortons beforehand than if he had run through, say, the Kofis and Truths.
I mean, I get what the e-mailer is saying about Cena being the last in line, not the first, but the comparison to the planned Brock/Austin match ten years ago really doesn't work - ten years ago, Brock was just another green hoss with poor mic skills, an unproven commodity. Now, he's a legit main-eventer in pro-wrestling and legit sports celebrity outside of it. That's just what you do with returning main-eventers, you put them in main-events - Rock didn't "work his way up" to Cena, he was booked against him from get-go.
As an aside, I *still* don't get why everybody is hoping for Rock/Brock at WM next year - the novelty of having Rock back is gone, and a year from now, the novelty of having Brock back will be gone, too. Plus, it doesn't do anything positive for the rest of the roster. Rock and Brock should both be having separate matches, against your Punks, Bryans, Sheamuses, etc. You still draw the buys for having Rock and Brock on the card, but you also help build the next generation, as well. Rock/Brock would be better for "Summerslam" (ten-year anniversary...) or "Survivor Series".
I wouldn't completely throw out the plans, but I would test the waters to see if the reaction to Bryan was a one-city phenomenon. Especially since it's rare for ANYONE on the roster to get that type of spontaneous reaction these days. WWE should be looking for new potential superstars in their midst (especially considering how much they're depending on Cena now), not squashing any unplanned reactions or movements out of short-sightedness and pettiness.
ReplyDeleteThe guy who I use as my barometer from who casuals like now loves Punk, when in August he didn't buy him at all.
ReplyDeleteI think they were wise not to put too much into the Miami reaction. That's a bunch of people who are willing to spend big bucks to make a vacation out of Wrestlemania and stay the next night for Raw and they aren't necessarily indicative of a normal crowd. I think they're wisely playing up the "yes!" stuff without doing a nonsensical instant turn. Hopefully they realize they have something here with Bryan.
ReplyDeleteI don't think Lawler was going for that -- I remember in Tensai's first week, Lawler said something along the lines of "He dominated in Japan, which has some great wrestlers". I think Yoshi didn't stand a chance because he's a C-lister, not because he's Japanese.
ReplyDeleteFWIW, I think the Tensai is pretty cool -- the music, the face tattoos, the ring garb, etc.
I felt uncomfortable "liking" this comment, yet I still "liked" it. Also, the hentai/tensai thing crossed my mind once or twice, too.
ReplyDeleteNo way, Cena doesn't have to beat anybody to regain his heat or momentum - losing to the Rock doesn't change the fact that he's the #1 guy in the company and has more credibility than pretty much the entire rest of the roster combined.
ReplyDeleteCall me crazy, but I actually think the company will do right by Bryan - no, they didn't hot-shot a face-turn, but I get the feeling (and I may be completely wrong) that they are setting-up a redemption arc for him, where he will go on a bit of a losing streak, reevaluate his priorities, and then reunite with AJ and turn face down the line.
ReplyDeleteI could be completely wrong, but that's the way I'm interpreting it.
It's obvious that none of their C-shows will become another "WrestleMania" (or even "Summerslam"), but Punk did give a relatively decent boost to "Money In The Bank" last year - I agree with those that say that WM is WM, and that it'd be nice to have more than one night a year where big things occur.
ReplyDeleteSee, I don't think they had to necessarily keep Punk OFF of television, they just had to find a different way to make him part of the show - personally, I was hoping that he'd wrestle a few indy shows (WWE and ROH are on somewhat friendly terms, right?), and then those matches would be broadcast on "Raw". You do that one week, maybe have him send a video interview to broadcast the next week, show some highlights of him on talk-shows the next, etc. You also make sure that he's still a focal point for the rest of the company - have Cena and Trips rip him for being too chicken to come back and defend the title, maybe have Punk sitting in the crowd or spotted out in the parking lot talking to fans about how he's the best wrestler in the world, etc.
ReplyDeleteThey easily could have kayfabed a reason for him to not be an employee of WWE, while still appearing on their shows on a regular basis.
I think they had the right idea of having a big championship tournament after he left, but it should have built towards "Summerslam" - you do something like Cena/Rey in the finals as the main-event of "Summerslam", Cena wins, and Punk makes his grand return after the match to close the show.
And really, if they can have a face who is essentially "over as a heel," why can't they do it in reverse?
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