January 3, 2012

I'm back babydolls!

Wow, I haven't written anything since Survivor Series. I'll admit, I kind of stopped caring about the wrestling stuff for a while there. Maybe it had something to do with Skyrim. Maybe it was because the product (with the exception of a few I'll mention in due course) sucked. Maybe a little of both.

Either way, I'm back! I find the new year so exciting, the "Road To Wrestlemania" is beginning, it feels like the WWE always lifts it's programming up a notch or two in these months. Wouldn't it be great if it held to that standard for a whole year... 

And then there's the returns. Wow.. so much to talk about. Where do I even begin... 

I guess like any good return, it begins (see what i did there) with an intro. For those of you reading my page for the first time, I am the Aussie Mouthpiece. There you go, intro done. 

Returns seem like a good place to start. Well, technically one return, and one re-imagining. I'm talking about Kane and *spoiler alert.. oh just go watch RAW already* Jericho.

So Kane first of all. I am a huge fan of "new Kane". I saw some people get all upset because he started talking and cut a long promo. Here's what I think about that. Kane is a great talker. Why would you want him not to use that to further storylines, and entertain you? What, just because he puts the mask on suddenly he's a mute again? He talked before he took his mask off in the first place. He also had facial hair. My point is, having him suddenly become silent again, would be a step backwards for his character.

The one thing that I think maybe needs to change (and this is just a purely aesthetic thing) is the design on his tights.. the bright yellow part of the flames and then everything else is red... it just looks a bit silly. A bit cartoony. Make it more subtle I think, because his character is coming across as a little unstable, and very dangerous and kind of psychotic. bright yellow does not reflect this image.

However the way Kane has been used since making his return has been great. The end of this week's RAW especially. I've always loved that slightly hokey, yet really "supernatural" style stuff that they've done with both he and Undertaker in the past. I hope they keep it up, and Kane gets a really good spot on the Wrestlemania card, and not just as part of a ladder match again.

And the other return. The one everyone's been talking about since that first It Begins video. The one everyone has speculated on.. is it Shane and Stephanie.. is it Y2J... is it Undertaker.. I think i saw that "is it Skip Sheffield"... Seriously? Skip Sheffield? I mean I've read this thing about this Ryback character.. but man.. I never really got it with that guy. Looked like a meathead, sounded like a meathead... but then Batista had a fairly good run with WWE so I guess that kind of person works for them.

But back to the It Begins clips. Amazing stuff. I was hooked from the first one. Trying to play them back in slow motion to get any kind of hint about who it might be. Part of me really didn't want it to be Jericho. Because it seemed so obvious. And that if it was him, the surprise would be lessened with the live crowd chanting his name and bringing signs. 

I wanted it to be Undertaker. I think he is due for a change in character, especially to wind down his career. But in the end, I'm really glad it was Jericho. 

Here's the rub though. How many people watched his return and felt like something was a little off, or hated it? Here comes the babyface Jericho and all he does for near 10 mins or something is pander to the crowd? 

I'll admit it, I was of that mindset until about 5 minutes into it. Then I (like a few other people I've noticed) figured it out. He's not pandering, he's showing how easy it is to lead the crowd, to have them follow him. To make them sheep essentially. He had that entire place eating out of the palm of his hand for 10 mins. Brilliant. 

And there were just a couple of subtle signs that he wasn't sincere. Don't get me wrong, the initial couple of minutes was all real as far as I can tell. Jericho has got to be happy to be back and get that kind of reaction. Who wouldn't want 15000 people cheering for them? But there were a couple of times where the smile faded, and you could see the "Best in the world at what he does" Jericho face. 

I had thought that it would have been amazing if the first thing he actually said was something like "And that's how easy it is to control you people... you sheep.. you "insert big long jericho style word here".. you really think I'm here to please you??" Etc. 
But I love the way this played out. The lack of talking makes people go .. "what...?" And more importantly, will make them tune in next week to see if he says anything. 

As with most other people, I think that this is leading into a Punk/Jericho feud. Which I am more than happy with.

So those were the returns. But we've got some more returns happening in the near future I dare say. The biggest one being Undertaker of course. Which will probably happen after the Rumble, maybe at the Rumble depending on who he will be facing at mania. I really hope they don't go with HHH again. It's a totally different situation to Taker and HBK. There's really nothing more they can add to what Taker and HHH did last year. I would love to see Taker and Kane, I think with Kane's resurrection, it could make for a really interesting story, and really, a good way for Taker to go out (if that's what he's planning to do). 20-0 seems an appropriate number to retire on I think. 
But really, it's still 3 months until Wrestlemania, and they have a ton of options.

Taker vs Sheamus (they would have to turn sheamus heel though)
Taker vs Cody Rhodes (doesn't make a lot of sense though, if Cody is still IC champ)
Taker vs Ziggler (I would like to see this as Ziggler rules, but I can't figure out the story behind it other than Ziggler saying "i can beat the streak".. and we've seen that a lot)
Taker vs CM Punk .. if they decide to go down a different road with Punk of course
And then by that logic, Taker vs Jericho. That would be an amazing match.

I'll even throw out there Taker vs HBK III ... So unlikely that it would happen, but it would still be amazing.

Ok I think i'll leave it there for now, I'm going to try to get back into this writing thing a lot more regularly. So I'll be back in a few days or a week or so to write about some of the other stuff that's been happening in the last few weeks. Like Cena still not turning heel. That's going to be a long blog.

Until then, follow me @TheOZMouthpiece on twitter and if you like what you've read, leave me a comment and check out my older posts. 

Done.