G'day everyone, I'm the Aussie Mouthpiece and it's time again to take a look at the week that was in wrestling. This week I will as usual focus on Monday Night Raw, but as an extra added bonus, I've got some things I want to write about regarding TNA and the Lockdown PPV, which I haven't watched in detail, but some of the results got me thinking, and made me realise there's some aspects of TNA's product that have been bugging me for a while.
So sit back, relax, put your reading glasses and your learning eyes on, and let's get down to business.
Raw this week was coming to us from merry old England. I always enjoy when we get an episode of Raw or Smackdown from overseas, the crowds always seem hotter. I guess it's because the WWE comes to their country maybe once a year, and in that one time, people from the entire country flock to see them. At least, that's the way it works here in Australia. But it gives the show a bigger, slightly more epic feel about it, and I think overall, this week's episode did not disappoint, although I'm sure the live audience would have liked to have seen Lesnar in person rather than just on videotape.
Speaking of the crowd, they were right behind CM Punk this week. Don't get me wrong, the crowd is always behind Punk, but this week the cheers seemed louder, and more pronounced. Again it's probably something to do with not seeing the product live as much, but it feels like Punk's character has become.. not watered down, but not quite as edgy as it was a few months ago. So it was good to hear Punk getting the massive cheers. The "yes" chants during Punk's kicking sequences were awesome as well.
What a great match Henry and Punk had. There was one part where Mark Henry caught Punk, and flung him, quite violently, into the guardrail. It looked amazingly brutal.Henry has improved his consistency so much in the last year. He always had this potential, and his size and strength got him over immediately.. but now that he's added in the character development, the "hall of pain" angle, and the consistency of having great matches, he's finally stepped into that spot that the WWE have had set out for him for so many years. And I for one am really happy for him.
Last week I talked about there being a theme to the show. This week's theme seemed to be Extreme. No DQ matches, Extreme Rules matches.. Jericho going to extremes trying to prove CM Punk is an alcoholic.
One thing that I found funny, is that at Extreme Rules, we have CM Punk vs Jericho in a Street Fight, Brock Lesnar vs Cena in an Extreme Rules match, and Randy Orton vs Kane in a Falls Count Anywhere match. .. Now.. maybe it's just me, but aren't those three matches essentially the same thing? I remember a few years ago there was a Ladder match, a Stretcher match.. some kind of street fight match.. It just seems a little weird to have three matches all called different things, yet basically meaning the same thing.
Punk and Jericho's back and forth promo was decent, but it was just more of the same stuff from Jericho especially, and to me, it just seems like they've lost a little momentum in the feud because of that. It's not even in the realm of possibility that CM Punk would become a drunk from one drink, and honestly, this is supposed to be the "reality" era, storylines based more in reality, and in reality, I don't buy that Chris Jericho would believe the things he is saying about Cm Punk. It just feels like some steam has been let out or something.
Hopefully the match at Extreme Rules either changes things up again, the way it did when Jericho first attacked Punk with the Whiskey bottle, or it becomes the end of their rivalry.
So let's talk about the best part of the night. Funnily enough not even a live in-ring segment. The Brock Lesnar interview is of course the segment I'm referring to.
The way they've brought him back, the fact that two weeks in a row he's taken out Cena, he doesn't feel like a WWE superstar. As he said, he feels like an ass kicker. It's made him feel bigger than the WWE, and by referencing his UFC career, instantly making him legitimate.
I get the feeling that they got the idea for this interview from the UFC preview shows that are on before the pay per views where they interview each fighter. Again, making it feel .. "real". It's working really well so far, but the big test comes at Extreme Rules. It's one thing to take a guy down and have a bit of a melee with him, but it's certainly a whole different thing to have a match, especially with the top guy in the company.
Making it a "hardcore" (lets face it, that's what this is) match, I think will actually help, because it relies less on the wrestling and more on the big spots. I'm still hoping for a great match though.
So Cena comes out to "answer" Lesnar's interview essentially, but instead it seems he's focused on John Laurinitis. It's an interesting change, but I don't know if it's the right move. This match really needs to be about Lesnar and Cena. Nothing more. To me it should be about how they started around the same time, and the differences in their characters. I know they did that with The Rock and Cena, but this is a different animal. Lesnar isn't some actor who has a bunch of cool catchphrases. He's a legitimate fighter.
I thought it was good that Tensai got put into the main event, and even though it was a dirty win, he still won. I think his character isn't exactly a long term thing, but it works for now, and it's something different which is always a good thing. Variety can bring in more diverse crowds.
Ok so very quickly let's talk about TNA.
Now I haven't been paying a hell of a lot of attention to TNA lately, but I did see recently on impact that Velvet Sky won a battle royal or some kind of 6 woman match to become the number one contender for the knockouts title. And it's not the first time they've done something like that.
My problem with this is it felt like Velvet accomplished this big thing, like it was a big deal that she overcame all the challenges to become the No.1 Contender, yet at Lockdown, she lost.
My problem isn't exactly that she lost, it's just the way the match was set up, with how much emphasis was put on the fact that she won this huge thing to get the title shot.
And the way that she lost. Gail Kim was half knocked out from the powerbomb from the turnbuckle, yet won with a reversed roll up.. how did she have the strength to do that? It's just bad booking or whatever it's called these days. To me it would have made more sense if she hit her finisher and fell into a cover.
It felt the same with the Motor City Machine Guns. Now I am a huge fan of these guys. I was so happy to see them back together, and that Sabin has recovered from his injury. Yet in their first Pay Per view match back as a team, they lost.
Why not book them in a tag team match, but not for the titles? That way they could win and build momentum and make it feel like their return was a success. Maybe I just think in a weird way though.
Overall it just feels like they book things in advance, or tape things in advance and then change their minds about the results at the pay per views, and then the previous events don't make as much sense.
I also thought it was a little strange that Jeff Hardy won the match with a massive Swanton Bomb. Those spots used to be somewhere in the middle of a match, not the finish. I mean of course it works, but then within a minute, Jeff was up, walking around and congratulating fans, which again, doesn't seem realistic. I know it's a worked sport, but isn't the point to try to get us, as fans, to suspend disbelief? If something generally wouldn't happen if it was real, why would you do it as part of the show?
Overall I didn't mind Lockdown however, some of it was terrible, some of it was great. Kind of like TNA in general. But they need less emphasis on the older guys, and way more on the younger guys and the Tag team division.
Ok that's about it. So as usual, you can follow me on twitter @TheOZMouthpiece , and also leave me a comment on here to let me know what you think.
Oh and one last thing, thanks to @TherealWB and @VOWLive for making me their guest blogger, which was awesome!
I'm the Aussie Mouthpiece, and my business here is concluded, for now...
No comments:
Post a Comment