Home schooling no. 1

Welcome back to the Aussie Mouthpiece blog. Another week, another installment of RAW, and another chance to talk about the goings on in wrestling.

You may notice this post is entitled "home schooling no.1". I'm changing things up a little to see how it feels. But this week, i'm not just going to talk about RAW. Sure, none of the other shows have happened yet, but I did get a chance to see Ring of Honor's first episode over the weekend, and i've also got a couple of other things to talk about.

So this new idea I have is basically to make these "go home" posts less about RAW specifically, and talk about a wider range of topics. If RAW has an amazing week, like the builds to Summerslam or the night Vince was "fired", then i'll do a specific post about it. I just have to come up with a catchy name.

Anyway... for now, it's installment one of "Go Home time" (which will probably have a name change eventually, that's how these things go.)

Let's start with RAW, because I just finished watching it.

I didn't like this week's episode. This is your "go home" show right? The last RAW before the pay per view. Don't get me started on how ridiculous it is to have a 2 pay per views two weeks apart (i'll get to that later). Regardless though, isn't this the RAW that is supposed to make people want to buy the pay per view? I'm no closer to buying it than before I watched this week's episode.

So Triple H comes out and does his "i'm going to make a joke out of everyone" schtik... yeah great, you're just making a joke out of two guys who have massive potential as main event wrestlers. That's the problem.

Ok i'm deviating from RAW, but I watched something today that has altered my perception a little. I'm not claiming to be smart to the business or anything though.
Today I watched the "Guest booker with Al Snow" dvd from Kayfabe Commentaries. It was amazingly good. But the one thing that stuck with me is when he talked about heels. And what they're supposed to do.

My idea (now) of a heel, is a guy who you want to see the babyfaces beat up and give him what's coming to him basically. His job is to draw people in, to sell tickets, all that stuff. But to get heat first and foremost. And to get fans to come back/watch again so they can see him get beaten up.

Most of the heels today in WWE.. and I think maybe in TNA (haven't watched it for a long time now) don't do that. I just plain do not want to see them on tv, in matches, in anything. Laurinitis is a perfect example. I really want to see someone kick his ass (because of stories i've read/seen) .. but as an on screen character, it's boring, it makes me want to skip to the next scene.

Del Rio is good, but I'm not that interested in seeing him wrestle.
I don't want to see Jack Swagger at all.
Hogan.. well.. y'know. Sick of it ten years ago.
Christian. He doesn't look like he could beat anyone. And he's orange. I don't buy him as champion. I never have.

BUT, there are some great heels at the moment too. I don't understand why they don't use them more. Dolph being the first guy that comes to mind. Mark Henry (now) has taken that next step. Cody Rhodes is pretty entertaining.

It just seems that a lot of the "bad guys" .. at least to me, get booed because people don't want to see them. As opposed to they get booed because they're actually bad guys. Something needs to change there.

Remember 5, 6.. even 8 years ago? Who were the main heels? Jericho, HHH, Big Show, Kane (when he took his mask off for the first time), Vince, Flair. How could things have gotten so far off track in such a short amount of time?
My point is that people should still want to see the bad guys on tv. At the moment it doesn't feel like there's a lot of those guys around.

Anyway, i digress. Back to RAW.

So as I said, I really wasn't into Triple H making jokes of Dolph and Cody. Christian.. well .. ok that wasn't cool either. There's no point to it. It's not like it builds up your heel guys .. all it does is make the COO look like a bully. As in "Just because you pissed me off, i'm putting you in this match".

The intercontinental title match however, made Cody look somewhat good. It's just a shame that the match for his title belt was overshadowed by the Christian/Sheamus storyline. Why not have a triple threat, Cody, Christian and Sheamus? Or a tag match.. or one on one? Cody and Sheamus for the belt.. and Christian tries to interfere, fails, and Cody picks up the win slightly cleaner... Seems better? Didn't Cody not get involved in the battle royal straight away?

Ok I either really don't understand fashion, or David Otunga dressed in the dark. A bowtie? and an army green shirt? I don't get it. And of course we have to have our obligatory "I'm the executive vice president of dull monotonous sounding promos" bit from Johnny Ace. Really didn't like it. Maybe they're trying to change things up, but .. change isn't always the way to go. If it ain't broke.. dont' fix it right?

FINALLY... something good to say about the divas match. As in, the dominant looking women beat the scrawny model looking girl. Because that seems like it's what would happen if all this was real.. and isn't that the point? To get people to believe it's real? even for just a split second?

Mark Henry is a badass. Slamming Khali just re-asserts that. And that is the only reason that man should be on any kind of WWE TV. To make other guys look awesome. Khali that is, not Mark Henry. Khali needs to be gone.

The WWE title match .. who knows what's going to happen...? They make Del Rio look like he can take both guys.. so clearly he's not going to win the title. My hope is that Cena holds on to it. Not because I don't want Punk to win, but because then Cena will just win it back in a couple of weeks, and he'll be a 13 time world champion.
 Triple H is a 13 time world champion. Cena's been wrestling in the wwe for 9 years, and already has more than 1 title run for every year he's been with that company.
Triple H has been wrestling for ... 20 years? Been with the WWE for roughly.. what... 17 of those years? Something like that anyways. Something's wrong there...

Anyway, Cena's promo was a Cena promo.. "I know you all don't like me, but i'm going to do this and i'm going to win, because i'm a man of my word and i stand for hustle etc etc etc". I know he didn't say that, but it was the equivalent. Step backwards for me.

Awesome to see Zack Ryder getting a (real) title shot! The guys deserves it. I don't see the point of after Dolph won, to then have a second match.. I guess they needed something for the Tag champs to do.. surely they couldn't just wrestle against a tag team ..could they?

Raw was missing something this week. Do you know what that something was?
Realism.
CM Punk, talking, on a microphone.
It's the last RAW before a pay per view.. John Cena cut a promo. Alberto Del Rio cut a promo. Why not Punk?
Surely out of the 3, he's the guy you want talking the most right? Yes he was on commentary, but that's not the same thing.
Also they tried to re-do the "My diet soda" spot from a while back... or at least it seems that was the idea.. I don't understand that at all.
Punk and Cena are so good, especially when they work together, that you don't need to rehash things, no matter how funny they are.

So that's about it, I thought RAW was really disappointing, most of it felt like a step backwards. This whole 2 weeks between a pay per view just feels weird. I mean, surely the Titles aren't going to change hands. What a way to destroy a talent.. make them look awful. "Mark henry was a world champion from the middle of september to the end of september".. doesn't really work for me.

Here's what i liked:

• Beth and Natalya finally getting a win after a long time
• Mark Henry destroying Great Khali
• Zack Ryder getting two matches in one night

Here's what i didn't like

• Messy title picture, very confusing
• Triple H being "funny"
• Christian being on RAW (where was orton... isn't he going to be in a title match?)
• Battle Royal
• David Otunga's bow-tie (seriously, it was bad)
• CM Punk being the only guy out of the three who didn't get any promo time

So.. RAW was kinda bad this week. Maybe all the good stuff is being saved for smackdown? 

Ok.. quick little thing on Ring of Honor

I don't really know a lot about ROH, it's really hard to watch it over here in australia, but I saw the first episode. Liked the wrestling, thought it was cool to see Haas and Benjamin, But it felt like there were way too many ads. And the vignettes, interviews, whatever, were too long. It's an hour show, surely you could get three decent matches into an hour right?

But it was good, as i said I liked the matches. I'll be tuning in next time for sure. 

So what else is there to say.. Well.. i have a few points.. one is.. how much longer are Kane and Big Show going to be off of tv? They've been gone since a couple of weeks (or a few in Show's case) before Summerslam... which was the middle-ish of August.. that's about 6 weeks ago. Hopefully they come back soon. Feels like we just keep seeing the same matches all the time. We're getting Randy vs Christian yet again on Smackdown this week.. why not Christian vs the Returning Big Show!.. I'd tune in for that.

Matt Hardy went to rehab. Not got much to say about it, except that I hope it works for him. At least he had the balls to admit he has a problem, and is doing something about it.

The other thing, and again this something that stuck with me from watching the Guest Booker with Al Snow thing.. he talked about how the idea of wrestling is to get people to suspend disbelief, to buy in to it being real,  even though we know it isn't. To buy into the idea of both guys wanting to win, to be specific.
His thoughts about why wrestling isn't as popular as it once was is because people don't believe it anymore. The one example that really stuck out, was when he said something like "One guy knocks his opponent down, and then reaches down and picks him back up".

This happens a lot in wrestling, we've all seen it probably countless times. I've never really even thought about it until I watched this.. but it doesn't make sense at all. Why pick a guy up when you've knocked him to the mat and could possibly get a 3 count? Sure, probably the guy would kick out most of the time, but the point is that people should feel like you're always trying to win, as a wrestler.
And that's what's missing.

It's a really interesting dvd, i would recommend people trying to watch it if they haven't already.

Anyway, that's about it from me, as always leave me a comment (seriously, no-one ever leaves one.. please do!), follow me on twitter @TheOZMouthpiece and that's about all i have to say.
That's it, and that's all.

To gimmick, or not to gimmick?

And here we go again, with a belated edition of my weekly Raw blog.
I am the Aussie Mouthpiece, and if this is your first time reading this page, you're in for a treat! No recapping here, no move for move retelling of this week's episode of RAW, just what I considered the best parts, and my take on what it all means and what happens next.

So onto the show.

I think it was a pretty obvious point to everyone that Nash would be returning at Night of Champions, and would be doing Laurinitis' bidding. (to check out my NOC review, go to this link http://aussiemouthpiece.blogspot.com/2011/09/champions-or-chumps.html)

And also I, like a few other people who's opinions i've read/heard, thought Nash would not be on RAW this week. And it was the right decision not to have him there. Here's an idea.. have him show up at Hell in a Cell. Maybe distract Punk, costing him the title. (it's a HIAC match, he's not going to be able to interfere.. is he?)
That sets up Punk/Nash at the appropriately titled Vengeance.. right?

It's too bad Michael Cole's voice came back. Just saying...

It's been said a lot before, but the best wrestlers, the wrestlers that have the most success, they're just themselves turned up to 10. That's what has happened with Punk since july.
He's not playing a character that says things people find shocking. He's not pretending to be pissed off with the way things are.

This week's opening segment, with Punk talking about how he's beat up, but his pride hurts the most, was more of the same. It's believable, I mean, clearly whoever saw that main event.. those 2 guys were hitting some brutal stuff on each other.
But it was good to see he's not relying on dropping "pipebombs" every week just to stay over.

It was good that Triple H showed a bit of respect towards Punk as well. I like the slight change in direction.. the "somebody is playing both of us" angle.
It's just too bad that we have to listen to John Laurinitis' poor mic skills, annoying voice, and stilted delivery of lines he clearly can't fully remember.

It kinda seems obvious to me where this is going.. and that it's all heading to survivor series, with some kind of "control of the wwe" match maybe, like we had in 2001. Vince's team vs HHH's team maybe. And apparently because Del Rio mentioned Vince's name, Vince lost his mind this week.
He doesn't want anyone to know he's going to be coming back.. but, Laurinitis was Vince's lackey on TV.. now he's opposing HHH.. it's not the biggest leap to think that Laurinitis is working for Vince.

I'm not going to talk about each match specifically, BUT... way to bury Morrison RAW writers.. 45 seconds? We already know that Del Rio's submission move is really effective. So unless the show was running amazingly behind schedule.. why were the entrances for the del rio/morrison match longer than the match itself? Ridiculous.

Hugh Jackman! Awesome! Aussie Aussie Aussie.
Vickie Guerrero is the best heel in the WWE right now. She has the most heat in the WWE right now. Awesome.

I think this was my favourite part of the show this week. I've been saying it for a month.. but Ziggler is the next big thing. The way he and Jackman interacted was really natural, really funny. It helps having a really good actor to play off of. But it was great.

"Are you staring me down?" "Are you hypnotised? A little confused?" Brilliant.

Hugh Jackman gets a sign from the crowd that says Ryder is greater than Wolverine.. that was awesome.
Oh one other thing about Dolph, I really hope he starts (or continues) to use "No offense" as a catchphrase.

 Here's an idea: If you're going to have Sin Cara come out to attack Sin Cara, and you want people to cheer for one Sin Cara and boo one Sin Cara... give the audience the ability to differentiate between the two! Black tights! Dark Blue tights! anything!

Mark Henry. He's suddenly become really good at delivering a promo. I don't know how the change happened, maybe he watched some tapes of great talkers and picked something up, but it's really great to see. The guy deserves this run. I especially liked him making JR apologise and then telling him "i hate ass-kissers".
I read that the table was supposed to be gimmicked, but it wasn't. And because of that King is really injured. That's not good. But, in a weird kind of way it helps put Henry over even more. Hopefully it's not a serious injury and King will be back soon.
Or it's just a story to help get Henry over even more. We are in the "reality" era...

Ok so I had one thought about Henry and where this is heading. He said "ain't no man gonna take this from me".
Well.. what about Undertaker? Survivor series... 20 years since he won his first world title... could be interesting. Who knows.. i'm kind of leaning towards Undertaker not coming back until it's time for the Mania build.

I'm saying only this about the divas. If the "Divas of Doom" are supposed to be really strong and shaking up the divas division, why are they being beaten all the time? Unless it's some weird idea about trying to turn them face or something. But I can't see how that would work. Kelly is starting to piss me off though.

Great to see Ryder on Raw again, even greater that he got a win over the US champion. And wow... that punch from Hugh Jackman looked really stiff. Dolph is the man.

I thought the ending to this week's show was great. It felt really real, which is always a good thing. I mean aside from the firings, which is a work. Clearly.

So where's it all going? Well here's how i see it. It all leads to survivor series right? That's the big payoff. It's gotta be a traditional elimination match. We already know that Cena and Rock are supposed to be teaming up (at least at the moment that's the plan). So then on one team you could have Cena, Rock, HHH and Punk. Facing Nash, Miz, Truth and ??? (vince.. shane o mac, johnny ace, X-Pac even) Probably not vince, he might be in the corner or make a run in though.

But it's set up for Miz and Truth to be re-hired by Laurinitis, like Nash was, undermining HHH's authority, leading to arguments etc.. It's a big storyline... the biggest they've tried for a while. Probably since the "who killed Vince" one that got cut off in the middle.

Anyway, I've written enough for now. Let me know what you think by leaving a comment, or if you're not already, follow me on twitter @TheOZMouthpiece
I'm trying to set up a google+ account too, but i'm still learning how the hell it works. Once that's done though i'll add it to my page somehow.

That's it, and that's all.

Champions or Chumps?

It's that time again... another pay per view has come and gone, and I'm going to give my thoughts. This will be more of a recap than my blogs about RAW, so if for some reason you don't want spoilers, look away, or wait until you've watched Night of Champions to read this.

So my first overall thoughts, some 3 hours and a bit after the PPV has finished? I thought it was a good show, was surprised by how good some of the matches were, shocked at some of the finishes.. but overall, a little confused. Hopefully watching the replays (of which we get 3 in australia) will help.

I'll get to the rundown of the matches in a minute, but first of all, some initial opinions

No Jim Ross? Are you serious? Especially bad considering the "lead" announcer lost his voice and didn't do anything during the main event.

Just because Kofi and Bourne both wore green, it doesn't make them a "team". To me it still feels like two singles wrestlers put together. I'm not a fan of their name, and i've never been a fan of just using both guy's music as their entrance. At least do what they did for Miz/Show, or Jeri-Show, or RatedRKO and make one song out of their two entrance themes.
And Miz and Truth look even less like a "team". For all the reports that the tag team division is supposed to be being built back up, we're not seeing it yet. What about pushing the Uso's? The one "TEAM" you have WWE...

After the way the Women's (not using the word diva) match went down, I think it would have made more sense to put it earlier in the card. Just in case the crowd kinda died because their hometown girl didn't win. And also, who the hell believes that Kelly kelly could hold Beth Phoenix down in that kind of pin combination for a 3 count, especially when she didn't even get her legs over Beth's arms??

Cena winning is the right idea. Del Rio wasn't doing well as champ. I wasn't taking him seriously. He can be a world champ, but it wasn't the right timing I don't think.

Mark Henry cut a great promo after he (finally) won the title. He surprised me with how good that was. I hope he can keep it up, because he deserves a run with the belt.

Why was there an in ring promo segment?.. This isn't RAW or Smackdown.. i didn't pay to see guys talking to each other. Why not instead of that, have Christian and Sheamus in a match? Sure, it's "night of champions", but what was the main event?

And I'll get to that main event later, because I have a feeling it's going to be a long post.

Ok, so now that's out of the way. Let's get on to the matches.

So the show opened with the Tag Team titles.. well what are you going to do? They are, at this point, the belts with the least amount of importance. Which is a shame, because tag team wrestling can be a great part of a wrestling show. Look at the motor city machine guns and beer money. when they're not injured. But, having said that, the first match on a card is fairly important. It sets the tone.

As I said before, Miz and Truth don't look like a team. Miz could have worn black tights so he matched Truth's pants...
The match was solid, but nothing special to me. I still think that Miz needs to be in the main event picture, maybe move to smackdown, and have a Miz/Orton feud after Orton and Henry are done.
No real highlights to speak of, at leats nothing that I remember, aside from Miz's Cutter/DDT move which is .. pun intended.. awesome.

Oh actually, I remember watching Raven's video blog, and he talked about the fake tag spot that people do sometimes, they did that spot, but it was reversed, where the good guys faked the tag, and the bad guys got caught. That was interesting.

The finish makes sense, the whole conspiracy angle that's been going on, but just because it makes sense, doesn't make it good.
Why not have the finish be that Miz or Truth went for a cover but the ref was knocked down or distracted, and then bourne or kofi got the quick roll up, instead of a DQ. It would serve the same purpose, and they could still knock the ref down afterwards. The DQ wasn't satisfying at all, and didn't help make AirBoom look strong at all.
 5.5/10

It is quite funny that Miz and Truth beat down a ref and try to bully him.. and then there's an Anti-bullying ad shown.

Cody and Ted Dibiase was also a solid match. I'd even say it was quite good. The problem is that the crowd were pretty much dead for the whole thing.
I haven't watched a lot of Smackdown, so I'm not exactly up to speed on this storyline, but I would assume these guys would work well together because of their past.

Ted still moves too much like Randy Orton to me though. I know that they had that big run as Legacy, but Cody doesn't move like Orton anymore.
A decent match, not many highlights.. Funny moment when Booker T called a Spinebuster a Sidewalk Slam... Booker used to use a spinebuster when he wrestled right?
6/10

Christian and Sheamus talk.. only thing worth mentioning is Uncle Fergus/Fargas's green testicle.


US TITLE MATCH
I was completely surprised by this match. I'm a big fan of Ziggler, but the other 3 guys, i'm not so much into. Especially Swagger. He's annoying, he's not that good in the ring, and he's got no personality. Morrison was a little impressive, but he's still not as good as he thinks he is. And Riley.. just looks like a carbon copy of the Miz with less hair on the sides of his head.

But it was a good match. Some good spots, using 3 of the guys doing combination moves, and variation of a tower of doom, (with a near botch however), and as usual the interaction between Vickie and Ziggler is great tv.

Really good finish too, Ziggler picking up Swagger's scraps after knocking Swagger out of the way.
7/10.
And i'll say it again. Dolph is going to be the world champion before the end of 2012.


Mark Henry's pre match promo was fairly solid. He's really improved this year. Like i said earlier I haven't watched a lot of Smackdown, but I've been noticing Mark Henry. And today/tonight's match was no exception. He's doing a great job.

This match was really good too. Orton is great, and works well with Mark. They told a really good story with Orton having to really pull out all the stops as it were, to even do a little bit of damage to the much bigger Henry.

The spot where Henry was stretching Orton around the ring post looked absolutely brutal, and really highlighted the whole "Mark Henry could break you in half if he wanted" thing. And then standing on Orton without putting his weight on the ropes was just as brutal.

Henry dominated, as he should for most of the match. That's the thing with the big man/smaller man match.. the story is already written essentially.
Great finish, if a little surprising.. I was not expecting Henry to win. Glad he did though. And that promo he delivered after he won...really great.
7.5/10

Beth vs Kelly. Ok so we all already know that most of the divas are not what you'd call "good" workers.. But, having said that, Kelly at least y'know.. could take a lot of moves from Beth.
On the other hand, that match had the worst finish of the night. And Kelly clearly didn't know how to react when the crowd booed her.

The match was decent, the Superplex looked awesome. Beth was great. And deserved to win. I don't understand why they decided not to have her win in her hometown.. it doesn't make Kelly look like a strong champion when she gets a quick roll up and messes up the pinning move, it doesn't really help Beth and Natalya's crusade look legitimate when Beth can't beat Kelly on 2 occasions..
4.5/10 (low score for the stupid finish)

Here's an original idea though.. what about at Hell in a Cell in 2 weeks (don't get me started on how stupid that idea is... 14 days between pay per views? I'm not buying it)... lets have Beth vs Kelly inside the cell! You want to put the divas back on the map, do something that's never been done before. Cage matches have been done yes, but as far as i can remember, not in the WWE.

But that won't happen.. will it...?

John Cena vs Alberto Del Rio
Great match. I know right? I said a Cena match was a great match. Cena has been on a different level lately. Sure, he's still "the man" and still marketed to kids, but he's added some new moves to his arsenal, and especially tonight, there was no 5 moves of doom. Not all in the same order anyway.
I said this on twitter, but i'll say it again. Alberto needs a non-submission finisher. Having a submission finisher is fine, but when it's an armbar, it makes it harder to tell different stories. He has to target the arm at least part of the match, so it's limiting.
The match was good, honestly I was suprised when Cena won, but I think it was the right move.
7.5/10
One other thing.. if Cena is marketed to kids, and an all around good guy.. how is it ok that he stole a car, and admitted it?


Onto the main event. CM Punk vs Triple H.. well before jumping too far ahead, lets see.. it was fairly obvious that Nash would be involved somehow. Laurinitis texting earlier in the ppv, and even before that, the Limo ride that Laurinitis took with Nash. That was a no brainer I think.

I'm not going to talk about everything that happened in the match.. this thing is already really long. I do want to mention a couple of things though, and then i'll get to the finish.

Lets start with Triple H. He looked damn good. It just goes to show, the best guys can (until they get to ric flair's age) can always god, even with a bit of a layoff. And really, I'm pretty sure just because he's not working in the ring as a wrestler full time anymore, that wouldn't mean he has stopped training, or getting in a ring and working out somewhat. So really, it's no surprise that he didn't miss a step. Was the same with Undertaker at 'Mania this year.

And then there is the Macho Man Elbow through the announce table. Moment of the night, spot of the night, move of the night. Brilliant. Looked really brutal too. Looked like it hurt both guys a lot. And it was good to hear Lawler slip in "That was Savage... " too.

Speaking of commentary.. it was such a refreshing change to have no Michael Cole. It was like this annoying buzzing little insect that i'd finally killed. Seriously, that match was so much better just because his voice wasn't constantly nattering on.

The way Punk took the "chair in the turnbuckle" spot was really cool. The way he got stuck in the turnbuckle.. great stuff.

Ok the finish. I'll try to remember it all.
So.. Miz and Truth come out.. and beat up both guys.. for some reason.. Ok i know that they attacked HHH because he's the COO and they think there's a conspiracy, but why Punk? Other than they both had matches with him recently..
Anyway, they knock both guys down, then drag Punk onto Triple H and demand the ref counts the pin.
Then when the Ref hesitated and Triple H kicked out, Miz and Truth attacked him.
Johnny Ace comes out to check on said ref, and while that happens, Punk and HHH start beating up Miz and Truth, knocking them both out of the ring, and then HHH hits a pedigree on Punk.
At the same time, a second ref runs down, and HHH goes for the cover, but Laurinitis stops the 2nd ref and gets him to check the 1st ref.
Triple H gets to his feet, goes to the ropes and asks what the hell is going on?... Punk hits the GTS, goes for the pin  near the ropes, and Laurinitis sees this and gets the ref into the ring to count the pin. He then turned away to "text" someone.
And then, in the most confusing moment of the night, R-Truth pulls CM Punk off of Triple H. 5 minutes after dragging him onto Triple H when they were both out of it.
What? Who booked that crap?
Anyway. after that, HHH hit a pedigree, Punk kicked out at 2, and then Nash came out from the crowd.
Nash took out Punk and HHH, went for a Jacknife on HHH, but Punk attacked him. Punk then got hit with a Jacknife.
Nash went to the announcers table,and took the monitors out, and then as he turned around, HHH nailed him with a sledgehammer.
He then got back in the ring, and hit the Pedigree again and won the match.

I swear that is the finish. I may have even missed a couple of details.

The truth dragging punk of the pin spot was ridiculous. And what happened to Laurinitis? did he just leave after he "texted" Nash?

So what does all that mean? Well.. Punk was only pinned after taking 2 pedigrees and a Jacknife.. so Punk looks tough as all hell. Triple H eked out a win, and got a measure of revenge for all the crap Punk has talked about Stephanie.
Match gets 8.5/10

I saw a bunch of tweets about how "everything's back to normal" and "way to ruin it WWE".. really? You think it would be better for them to go with HHH not being in charge? Who would replace him? Johnny Ace, or.. Vince McMahon. Talk about going back to the way things were.. And they talk about how Cena winning makes it terrible product again.
NO. it doesn't. Del Rio wasn't a good champion. The only reason that match had the spot it did was because of John Cena, and because it was the RAW title. Berto will be champion again, but the timing wasn't right.

So overall, I think the pay per view was decent. I think it's a slight step down from Summerslam. And in a pay per view when every title is defended, you would think they would try to keep the quality going. You know.. to make their champions look good..

So overall.. Night of Champions was a 7/10 for me.

If you made it all the way through this, you get a 10/10 from me. It was long. let's be honest.
But thanks for reading, don't forget to follow me on twitter at @TheOZMouthpiece and leave me a comment on here too.

That's it, and That's all.

Lay it on me.

Hello again, it's time for another weekly Raw roundup and opinionisations. I am the Aussie Mouthpiece, and I'm going to give my thoughts.

So the final Raw before night of champions. Night.. of Champions. And the main event spot on this final Raw before the pay per view goes to a promo. A promo of a match, that doesn't involve a champion.
Why is this pay per view still called night of champions, if clearly what's most important, is not either championship? Change it to unforgiven, or backlash or any of the better names that they've since canned for brilliant strokes like Bragging Rights, or Over the Limit....

The CM Punk/HHH segment was great. Don't get me wrong. My problem is that this pay per view, since it's inception, was about every title being defended. Now i'm assuming that's still going to happen, but (and especially because we're talking about RAW) the WWE title has, it appears, less significance than the intercontinental title, and the World's title.

Why was the tag match featuring Del Rio, Cena and Bret Hart put on in the middle of the show? Why has Randy Orton had the 2nd to last match on Raw's card for 2 weeks in a row now?.. Change it up! Cena and Bret should have been on then. After all, the WWE title is the "RAW" title. At least he was wrestling an actual big name, and not Heath "worst hair i've ever seen" Slater.

Ah the divas. To be honest, as soon as I saw that it would be Kelly Kelly vs Vickie, well.. needless to say I was ready to fast forward. I saw one move. A bulldog. Botched of course. The timing was off more than anything. I don't know who's fault that was, it's not my place to judge that. But it looked terrible.

Vickie I think is best suited to a manager-type role. Managers do get in the ring from time to time, but it's usually in a tag match, or as a post match beatdown situation. Thing is, the managers I remember doing that, could work in the ring. Bobby Heenan springs to mind of course. Jim Cornette took a good bump too. Keep Vickie as a manager, forget about her as an in-ring competitor. She's great outside the ring.

It's the old ECW mentality. Accentuate the positive, hide the negative.

I'm trying to work out what the point of the Otunga/Hennig (the other name is too long and annoying) vs Lawler feud is about. Is there any point to it? I can't see one. If it's a Raw Supershow, then why are we only seeing (correct me if i'm wrong) 2 smackdown guys on the card this week? Why not, instead of Sheamus teaming with Lawler to fight those two, have Daniel Bryan around, or Wade Barrett?

Am I the only one who thinks Wade Barrett and William Regal would work well together?

Ricardo Rodriguez was really funny this week. I guess it was because he wasn't announcing Alberto to the ring. His antics as Cena was insulting Del Rio, or even as Del Rio himself talked, saying Ricardo wanted to fight Cena were great. Really entertaining. I liked how he played the match too. Like, he didn't really want to be in there, but at the same time, he tried his best to fight Cena. At least during the part when Cena treated him like a bull?... Huh?

Speaking of Cena.. way to cut back on the edginess of his character. There were hints for a few weeks, especially when he was working with Punk.. but now it's "this is a special crowd"... "jalapenos" in reference to the mexican guy's balls.. instead of balls... Oh well. Oh wait, my mistake, he did make fun of John Laurinitis. I really hope Laurinitis isn't "mr future endeavour"... he's so boring.. talk about charisma vacuums. Nash has more charisma in his goatee than laurinitis has in his whole body.

I think it was smart (unless he's really fired.. that little seed of doubt though right? suspending disbelief, that's how you know wrestling is good), yes i think it was a smart decision not to have Nash on Raw at all. If it's a worked firing, have him do another run-in at night of champions. But.. people might be expecting that. So maybe they'll wait until the fallout on next week's Raw.

Triple H and CM Punk. Wow. Those two guys were given about 15 minutes to talk. Does anyone remember who, before Punk's "shoot".. was given this much time to talk? It's great.
Triple H was good, but then, he's Triple H. He's a big, agressive guy who has a mean looking face. It's not a big stretch to believe that he'd try to intimidate Punk. He was right about a few things in what he said though.

Punk has been given a lot of opportunities. He worked a title program with Undertaker. And beat him for the title if i remember correctly. Sure, it was a "screwjob", but he still beat 'Taker.  He's a 2 time money in the bank winner, cashing in both times to become world champion. He's led factions, feuded with big names.. and won.
What i didn't like, was Triple H referencing a year ago, and how the people weren't chanting for Punk. Um, wasn't Punk a heel a year ago? The crowd aren't supposed to be cheering him.. right?

So what's different now? Well for one thing, Punk isn't being a warped version of himself. No more "I'm straight edge, which means I'm better than you". He's got no faction behind him, he's not acting like he's the messiah, or the saviour. Well, maybe the last one, but this is something he can actually help save. Professional Wrestling.
He's being himself. Saying what he thinks. We've probably all seen the articles saying that Punk has been given a lot of leeway on what he can say in a promo, and ad-libs a lot.
I know this is obvious and it's been said before. But, think of most of the top names from the last 15 or so years. They've all been blown up versions of themselves. Austin, Rock, Michaels, Cena, McMahon (one of the top heels ever.) And now, add CM Punk in that same category.

The only exception is Undertaker. But even he's 'himself', it's just that he focuses on certain aspects of himself, to fit his character.

I'm not sure how i feel about the muted mic spot again. To me it feels like a "Vince McMahon" move. Maybe it's supposed to feel like that. Maybe Johnny Ace is pulling the strings. It's gotta be. Unless it's Stephanie. and she orchestrated all of this, to get control of the company from her Daddy. But, it seems like that storyline maybe has been done already? McMahon-Helmsley era anyone?

But, I do know this. I want to know what Phil Brooks wants to say to Paul Levesque. It's interesting.. today, I watched Kayfabe Commentaries Timeline of the WWE: 1997, with Jim Cornette. There was one part where he talked about how he'd put the idea forth about reality based programming. I wonder if this is the kind of thing he was talking about. It doesn't really pull the curtain back and expose the business (already been done), but it feels real.

Really good ending segment though. It's a shame we couldn't have a longer build to Survivior Series, but as i've been saying.. this is all part of a much bigger story.
Maybe we're going to see Triple H vs Vince McMahon at wrestlemania 28... for control and ownership of the WWE. Just putting it out there...

It's funny, there was a lot of rumor about this proposed incident of Triple H leaving CM Punk lying in a bloody heap the week before their match (originally at Survivor Series) would take place. I get the feeling the Mic shot by Punk was a way of saying "yeah.. we know what you read. That's why we're going this way".

The only criticism I would have is that Triple H repeated himself a lot. Talking about how "it's not about my opinion, it's about the fan's opinion". As Punk said though, was he even listening? He talked about Cena, they booed. He said Cena was one of the greatest ever, they booed. He talked about how Punk needed to impress them. Punk didn't even have to start anything, and they were chanting his name really loud. CM Punk HAS got over with the fans.

Then, towards the end, HHH started saying that HE was the only one that mattered. That Punk should be thinking about. Kinda contradicted himself and it got a little confusing, but the last few lines he delivered about being a man were pretty awesome. Topped only by Punk's reaction.

So what happens now?
Well here's how i see it.

Cena probably won't win the title. Del Rio should keep it a while longer. And should be given a more prominent role on RAW. After all, he is the WWE CHAMPION!

The Four Way for the US Title should be interesting. 2 ways you can go. Further the storyline between Swagger, Ziggler and Vickie and have Swagger win, or keep building Dolph and have him retain. I don't think Morrison will win, and Riley isn't ready.
Dolph should retain. Until possibly Survivor series. Then, Dolph wins the Rumble, and faces Orton at Mania. Bold prediction I know, but still.

Please, have Beth beat Kelly Kelly. That's all I need to say.

I'd like to see Mark Henry have the belt. Even for a short time. I think he's doing great work, especially as of late, and it might mean a different opponent for him too.. maybe Sheamus gets a title shot this way. Maybe Kane/Big Show return and we see either of them with the belt. Big Show should get one more title run.

And the big one.. Punk.. or Triple H. Well.. I don't know how to call it. So i'm not going to. I, like most everyone else, will wait and see what happens. Whatever happens, it will be a great match, it will not disappoint. Punk is the best he's ever been right now, and Triple H is still The Game. Will we see Nash? My instincts say yes. But let's hope for something outside the box.

Ok i'm done, don't forget, leave me a comment and tell me what you think, and follow me on twitter if you don't already @TheOZMouthpiece.

That's it, and that's all.

Mr Future Endeavours

It's that time again. Time for another dose of mouthpiece-ing. With me, The Aussie Mouthpiece.
let's talk about the wwe this week. Specifically RAW. As Smackdown hasn't been on TV yet and I'm not the kind who spoils things.

So let's talk about RAW.

My first thoughts after my first viewing? Let down.
For the first week since "that" promo, this week hasn't quite lived up to the previous week's episodes.

CM Punk was still right on the ball, he was great. Triple H was still good. But the story wasn't as satisfying, at least to me.

Then I saw that little news item that was posted recently.. about Kevin Nash.. anyone else seen it? "Kevin Nash has been released".
That was when I got it. I understood.

I'll get to that later.

So Punk opens RAW, says some stuff about being different, and then we get Kevin Nash.
By the way Punk, I got the Super Shredder reference. Awesome. I like bearded giraffe too.

I mean, CM Punk never fails to deliver, he's constantly trying to better himself, and better the company. Plus, this whole thing is staying within that foggy area of "is it real".. The little jabs Punk takes, maybe they aren't planned (i don't think they are), because the other guys reactions are really "real". That word has a bit of a different meaning in wrestling. "real". \

Like when HHH's music hit, and Punk kept talking. saying "i'm not done..." That never used to happen. I don't remember anyone talking over someone else's entrance music.

So now the big mystery is solved. And wow.. that was a big let down. Like someone just let the air out of a big bearded balloon.
Why would Kevin Nash send a text to himself? Money? .. no.. he wanted to make the WWE cool? But.. this is Kevin Nash. He's the guy that openly says he's about money.. I suppose the only thing that is still unanswered is if somebody else tipped him off to send the text? But that's starting to sound a bit far-fetched to me.

Nash still doesn't sound completely comfortable on the microphone either. "I'm your FRIEND!"... I don't know what it is, but something's not quite right.
I just noticed something too, while Nash was getting in Triple H. Hopefully there's some kind of footage of that, because i bet it's gold.

So Nash is fired... what? Didn't make any sense.. they've built up a Nash/Punk match for 3 or 4 weeks now, and then they "fire" him? ... Punk's last little jab was awesome. "haa haaaa.. best of luck in your future endeavours". Also, that was another of those little things they keep putting in that don't seem important, but really is.
Then Laurinitis joins him in a limo? Why was there a limo for Nash if he was fired? ... think about it.

And then today, he's "released"? I guess they thought Nash needed yet another nickname. I'm fairly sure we'll see him back as some kind of pivotal element in a bigger power struggle. The really annoying thing is they keep making it almost impossible not to order Night of Champions.

Kofi Kingston and Evan Bourne, are NOT going to revamp the tag team division. You put two singles wrestlers together, occasionally it works and they form a great team. Los guerreros, Big Show and Kane.. Undertaker and Kane.. But most of the time it just seems like two guys thrown together for some other reason. like to eventually turn one against the other.

If the WWE really wants to re-ignite the tag teams and make it a relevant part of their TV, they need actual teams. There is one actual tag team in the WWE right now. But they're not the ones having a match on RAW, Khali and his.. whatever Jinder Mahal is get the match. Why not showcase a Tag team instead of use the tag team champions to further a boring storyline for khali and mahal?

Speaking of Tag Team matches, Miz and Truth are going to be going for the tag team titles? ... If the tag titles meant anything now that would be great, it would keep Miz in the big spotlight, and help continue R-Truth's push.
But they don't mean much of anything.
It's a step back for Miz. Headlining wrestlemania, to a last minute match on Summerslam. Not good.

Divas. Who cares. Kelly Kelly is not good in the ring, i don't really want to hear what she has to say, I just want to see her without the belt. Also I want to see that belt go back to the Women's championship. Diva's title is a joke. Women's title means something.

Punk and Truth had a good match, Miz out there keeps him around, even though he should have a bigger role I think.
So Triple H comes out, tells Punk the match is now No DQ. Because HE changed it. Triple H used his power to make the match the way he wants. He's essentially a heel boss, but no one is booing him. It's interesting. And then he says "If i don't get it all out of my system, I might just fire you too".

Here's my take. The big payoff, the bigger picture, is HHH will be said to be "unfit to be the COO" by someone. Either Laurinitis, or Vince. Maybe we'll see Nash/HHH, with Nash being the guy wrestling on behalf of whoever the other guy is.
At Survivor series.
And, at Night of Champions, the Punk/HHH match won't end cleanly.


King and Zack Ryder? That's interesting.
And it seems that they're FINALLY giving Zack a little push, showing a promo package of his TLIS show, and in ring work.
Otunga is going to go nowhere, and if they don't give Hennig his actual name.. .. well they need to change his name.

I thought it was kind of interesting they put all the little jabs Ryder takes on his show into that promo package.. "i'm trying to get over/i can draw money/no-one pushes Zack Ryder" etc.

Why is Heath Slater on tv? Why not Randy vs Cody Rhodes/Dolph Ziggler/ANYONE ELSE!

Hey.. John Cena took a shot at The Rock. Bout damn time.

The main event was what it was. A way to show off a bunch of talent. And it's good that they do that.
Also I think i figured out the reason for the Raw Supershow concept. Smackdown is going to be live, and they're A: trying to promote Smackdown, and B: getting the Smackdown guys used to live tv.


So it wasn't a bad show by any stretch of the imagination. It just didn't have that same awesome feeling. Maybe it's because of the Supershow thing. Who knows.

Anyway, I'm about done for this installment. Remember, leave me a comment and tell me what you think, and follow me on twitter if you're not already @TheOZMouthpiece

That's it, and that's all.

It's a bird.. it's a plane.. it's a supershow!

Welcome back to the blog, I am once again the Aussie mouthpiece. Today i'm going to do something a little different. I don't usually write about the weekly Smackdown shows, because, well.. I haven't really been watching them. But with this week being a "super" week, on both Raw and Smackdown, and both being live, I thought what i would do is write a SUPERblog. As in, my thoughts on both shows.

So, no particular order to it, i'm not going to run through the entirety of both shows, if you want recaps, there are plenty of places to find them on the internets.

The very first thing i want to mention, is the start of Smackdown. Not the Cena promo, the match. It was billed as one of the two main events of the night.

It lasted 3 minutes and 16 seconds.

It made Wade Barrett, who has been building a lot recently, look bad. The only thing that I can think of is that maybe the opening segment ran long, and they needed to shorten the match. Other than that, there's no reason to build a "huge main event match" and have it be a 3 minute snore.

Ok, enough of Smackdown for the moment. I wanted to start with that because it was the worst part of either show. Let's talk about Raw, and then we'll go back to Smackdown.

I guess the focus this week, as it has been for the last 2 months is going to be Punk/HHH/Nash. It even feels like John Cena has taken a back seat to this angle, which really tells you something.

So onto Raw.

Starting with Triple H was a good move. The big swerve at the end of last week needed to be in the spotlight, and needed to open the show.

I am not a fan of the "supershow" idea. Sure, we'll get to see the main stars on both shows, and I would aslo assume the storylines will be advanced along on each show, but what happens to the mid-card talent? i see a lot of 6-man tag matches in our future...

I hope i'm proven wrong.

I keep waiting for CM Punk to lose his edge.. sometimes it can happen when someone has as big of a moent as he had all those weeks ago. But he's still just as cutting, just as brutal as ever.

I'm also not a fan of Nash coming out to the nWo theme. But, I understand it. They're building Nash as a heel to us now. Nash admitting that he was the one that orchestrated the car crash also puts him over as a heel.  I really like where this is going. You've got Nash, the "heel", Punk, the Anti-hero, and Triple H stuck in the middle getting cheered.

You can see him being torn, half of him wanting to be the Game, half wanting to be businessman HHH.
And it appears that HHH has reached the end of his rope, based at least on the end of RAW ...

And Nash is signed now. But not by Triple H.. by Laurninitis. Remember a few weeks ago when i said that the little things are what's important in this angle? That is one of the important things.

I loved Nash's speech about how he could just sit home and get paid. That's the heel Nash character to a T.

Get it?.. Get it? I'm acting! .. CM Punk is, as i said, still topping himself every week. The laugh in his voice seemed really real too.
Click. brilliant.

One thing i do want to mention is that Nash seems a lot more comfortable in the ring and on the microphone now too. I'm not sure if it's just that he's in the ring with HHH, or he just needed a bit of time to adjust, and get used to things. But he seems a lot more at ease, and his mic work reflects that.

Side note:.. Nash is wearing a shirt similar to some of the first appearances he made on monday nitro. Just think about it.

The only thing i'm getting a little tired of, and it's only because it's happened a few times, is the references to Stephanie wearing the pants in her and HHH's relationship. Don't get me wrong, it's still funny, and Punk keeps changing what he's saying so it doesn't get stale.. but something different would be good soon.

Dolph Ziggler (and his new theme) are awesome. The change in style for his theme song fits him so much better. I've been saying it for a while now, but he's going to be champion soon.

Really good match between these two. Maybe Dolph will get a WHC title shot soon. He should.
Also, how great was the finish? Flapjack to RKO?! Awesome.

While i think of it, it looks like the WWE have started changing some of their presentation up a little bit. The little package they showed of Ziggler before the match was great, put him over as a big star.

Now i said earlier that Cena has taken a back seat to the Punk angle, but that doesn't mean that the angle is any less important. Or any worse. I guess Del Rio didn't make it back to the states in time, so they had Mark Henry come out to say he would destroy Cena.. but then not do it. All of it seemed to be just a big lot of talk to get to the part where Laurinitis made the Tag match, and then HHH had the spot telling him "I'm your boss.. get it?".. Mark Henry delivered a decent promo though. Hall of Pain has something about it.

I've been saying Christian looks like an oompa loompa for years. He's way too orange. And I don't see him as underrated. But everyone is different i guess. I'm just not a fan. Mark Henry looks like he could eat Christian. Not because Henry is fat. Because Christian is skinny.

Really good match between Punk and Miz. Looked really stiff for a lot of it. Awesome Macho Man elbow by Punk as well.
Nash coming out and picking up the scraps so to speak was good too.

The rest of raw was not really of interest to me. Divas, meh. Swagger.. bigger meh. Tag match, i'll probably watch it back sometime later.

But the final little backstage segment was definitely of interest. I didn't see it coming at all. It feels a little rushed, but maybe with having both show's stars on both Raw and Smackdown, that will give us twice as much time for this story to develop even further.


So I thought Raw went really well this week. Solid continuation of all the big angles. Looking like it might be Swagger vs Ziggler at some point, possibly for US title? Nash, Punk and HHH were great as usual. Cena did well not having Del Rio there to keep the angle relevant. Seemed strange not having the WWE Champion on a RAW supershow however, it was not his fault, if what i've read is right.

So onto Smackdown.


Once again I'm not going to talk about everything, in fact I may just talk about Cm Punk and Triple H.

This segment is right up there with the best since this whole thing started back in July. Triple H was however, in my opinion out-done on the mic by Punk. Nobody can touch him right now. The best talkers in the business would have trouble staying with Punk. Maybe Rowdy Roddy Piper could do it. or Bobby Heenan. Other than that, Punk is seemingly untouchable.

At first i thought it was a bit odd to have a contract signing, anyone remember the last one? CM Punk talked about how contract signings are just a cover for throwing the table out of the way and brawling.

Part of the reason Triple H didn't sound as good on the mic as Punk, is I think it felt like Triple H was reciting a promo he'd worked on, whereas Punk was improvising a lot. Maybe this wasn't the case, but that's how it felt to me.

Another thing, and this really bugs me. Why do these "veterans", like HHH and The Rock resort to insulting their adversaries, solely based on how they dress or their appearance. "I thought you made up in intelligence what you lacked in hygiene"... Really? Terrible. Get some better material Trips.

It got a little heated when Punk interrupted Triple H though, I kinda liked that. It felt real. Felt like wrestling should feel like. That blur between reality and story. Where you're not sure if it's "meant to happen". Needs to be a lot more of that.

What really got me into this segment, what i love about this whole thing, is CM Punk's passion. When he says "I love the WWE.." and "I want to make it better", you feel it. It's real. It's been said that the best characters in wrestling are those who are the real person's personality, just turned up to 11. Punk is that right now.

"At my core, i'm still a fan". That was the part where I was 'in'. Punk may be doing this for himself, but in so doing, he is doing it for everyone who hasn't been heard in a long time. And that has, and will continue to elevate him to that very top echelon of stars, like Austin, like Rock, HHH, Taker and HBK.

Triple H did something really interesting. He talked about how Vince would have taken a beating because it was good for business. Ie: Vince would have put Punk over. Bringing a little of the 'real' part of wrestling into the ring. Very interesting indeed. My theory: Punk gets majorly screwed at night of champions. heading into the next pay per view... Vengeance. Appropriate no?

Nash looked really dominant when he came out and knocked Punk down, and then put Triple H on his arse. That was an awesome moment. Very cool. Kinda reminiscent of their (Nash/HHH) feud back in 2003. Except that the roles were reversed at that time.

One last thing.. Skinny Fat Ass? come on.. it didn't work the first time. It won't become a thing. It's more of this bully mentality.. "you don't look a certain way so we're going to pick on you".  I'd rather look like Punk than Triple H any day.

I will just say the rest of Smackdown was a good show. Matches were decent, Mark Henry looked like a beast, Sheamus is over like crazy too. I think Khali was trying to give him some kind of colour with those chest chops though.

That's about it, hope you enjoyed reading. Please leave me a comment or send me a tweet @TheOZMouthpiece and let me know what you think.