A mouthpiece opinion No.1 - The Jeri-troll

Hey guys, that's right, I'm back. It's been a while yes, but I've been fairly busy with some "offline life stuff", and haven't had a lot of free time or energy to write to the level I would like.

But, I'm back. It may or may not be back to regular posts, I'm hoping that is the case, but if not, I will try to write some stuff every now and then.

I have however, been keeping up with the wrestling. I've really been enjoying the Punk/Bryan/AJ storyline, and I feel like the quality of RAW has been stepped up a little, probably to help the 1000th episode of RAW.

But let's get down to business shall we?

Chris Jericho. I see all these comments and posts and what not about "Jericho hasn't won a match since his return" or "Why are the WWE burying Jericho?" .. And this week on Raw it was even brought into a promo, with Ziggler asking Jericho if he'd "lost his touch".

Now, I am, and have been of the opinion since before Mania that the WWE are not burying Jericho. Wrestling isn't about wins and losses people.. remember? It's a pre-determined contest... it's about the performance. And if you look purely at performance, Jericho has been performing at the same level, if not a little better than before he left.

Let's look at the way Jericho came back. The video packages.. the creepy children talking about the end of the world as we know it.. the build up. The hype. And then back comes Jericho, making his return in an LED-festooned jacket. He grabs the mic, stands in the middle of the ring and says.. nothing.

This happened for a few weeks if my memory serves me correctly, and then he gave us just that one line promo.

This was Jericho's way of manipulating the crowd into booing him. When anyone of note returns, the crowd will always cheer for them. The only guy who would still get booed today if he returned, would be mohammad hassan. Anyone else, cheers. JBL would get cheered, and he was the biggest heel in the company for a number of years.

Jericho took that, and turned it against the crowd, showing us how easy it was to manipulate us, and control us, just by throwing his hands up and shouting.

He said he would win the royal rumble. But he didn't.

He said he would beat CM Punk at Wrestlemania. But he didn't.

He said he would win the Money In The Bank Ladder match. But he didn't.

So I've had this theory running around my head for a little while now, but then I read an article on a Wrestling news website, talking about the original plans for the Money in The Bank. Apparently there was an idea floating about that Jericho would win, but then be the first guy to try to cash it in, and lose the match.

That's when it hit me, and I totally got it. Chris Jericho is still trolling us.

All the losses, it's all a big rib. Not on him, on the fans. Jericho is losing every match he's a part of essentially, and yet, he's arguably the most entertaining guy on Raw each week. Think about this. Jericho has been a top star for what.. 11 years nearly? It was December 2001 when he became the first Undisputed champion. The man has been wrestling at least 10 years more than that. So that's a 20+ year career.

It seems to me, that just the same as back in 2008 or so, when he dropped the Y2J gimmick, donned the suit, spoke softly and slowly, and coined the phrase "I am the best in the world, at what I do", Jericho is trying something new. He's managed to lose all the big matches, and yet never diminish in the eyes of the public. If he did have the MITB briefcase and ran down to cash it in, every single person would be sure that he would win the title. And THAT is why Jericho would want to lose.

He said it best on his "Breaking the code" DVD, when he talked about the way he left in 2005.. carried out by "security" screaming and whining and crying for his job. He talked about that being the best way for a heel to leave, and let's face it, Jericho is such a great heel, deep down he always wants us to boo him.

So before you start talking about how much Jericho has been buried, or used incorrectly, or "why isn't he champion?".. Think about it in these terms. This is all Jericho's master plan. He isn't champion because he doesn't want, or need it.

He is losing because he's working everyone on a whole different level to anyone else. We all expect he'll pick up a victory eventually right? We say..  "this time he'll win". It's keeping us tuned in, it's keeping us invested, and more importantly, it's keeping us entertained.

Jericho won't be around for much longer (as far as this run in the WWE goes), and for me, what he's doing with this run is some of the most original stuff, as far as character, and giving us little peeks behind the curtain. I especially enjoyed the little promo he cut about having a lot of catchphrases, and then rattling them off one at a time to get reactions from the crowd.. once again showing how easy it is to manipulate the WWE Universe.

So enjoy it while he's around, because when he leaves (apparently after Summerslam), we will miss it a lot.

Ok that's about it for now. What do you all think about what I've written? Do you agree? Disagree? Let me know by leaving a comment on here, or on my twitter (@TheOzMouthpiece), and while you're at it, follow me on there as well.

Until next time, I'm the Aussie Mouthpiece, and my business is concluded. For now...

Home Schooling No. 15

Hello there readers, it's me, the Aussie Mouthpiece, and it's time for another weekly dose of home schooling. This week I'll cover Monday Night Raw, iMPACT, and I'll even go back and talk a little about the repercussions from Extreme Rules. 

So let's get down to business.

Having had a few days to digest the events of Extreme Rules, I've come to realise how important the match between Brock Lesnar and John Cena was. 

Think about it.

How long have the fans been crying out for a return to the attitude era? How long have there been fans saying "PG wrestling is terrible"? How long have they been saying "bring back blood", or "we want blood"

Most people would say too long. The match between Cena and Lesnar changed all that. In the space of just 20 minutes, Vince, the writers, and the entire WWE showed us what we've been waiting for for the longest time: a return to a more bloody, violent product. 

Yes, there has been blood in recent memory, Lesnar's attack on Cena a couple of weeks ago, and Triple H vs Undertaker. But, the difference here is that they were accidental. Clearly, the elbows Lesnar rained down on Cena were planned beforehand. This match looked, and felt so different to anything I've seen in the last few years. Brock Lesnar's reputation obviously had a lot to do with that, but I'm not sure that people are giving the WWE enough credit.

This match was (for the most part) a masterpiece in psychology. Lesnar completely dominated Cena. It wasn't a wrestling match. It wasn't even an extreme rules match. The way that Lesnar, and his MMA skills were used in this match made it feel like the beginning of a new era.

I do think however, that they faltered in one area, which showed that the WWE aren't entirely ready to shift into a new era. I'm talking about having Cena win. 

This is the one time I kind of agree with the Cena haters. It really looked like Super-cena. Brock dominated the match for near 20 minutes, and yet Cena can keep him down for a 3 count with a punch to the head and an Attitude Adjustment onto stairs? and more to the point, Brock can't keep Cena down with the 20 minutes of violence he laid on him?

It felt like the wrong decision is all I'm saying. 

I'm going to disagree with some people here though, and say that it didn't really hurt Lesnar at all. It seems that people consider a loss to be a guy getting "buried". Jericho is a popular topic for that. He's lost at every pay per view since his return, so therefore he must be getting buried. 

No. He's not.

He's basically headlined Wrestlemania this year, in the sense that he was in the WWE title match. He's had another title match at the last pay per view. He was in the final part of the Royal Rumble. And he's featured every week on RAW heavily, and usually getting the better of CM Punk, or delivering really strong promos.

That is not burying. Not seeing someone for ages, and then seeing them only losing and being used badly, is burying. Some might say Zack Ryder is being buried at the moment.

But back to what I was saying, Lesnar losing, didn't hurt him. Anyone who's seen the match, or highlights of the match, saw that Lesnar dominated, cut open, and basically tore Cena's arm off. I just think that if he had won it really would have signified the beginning of a new era, rather than a timid step over the line.

Ok let's move on to Raw.

Like I was saying in my Extreme Rules review, something that deviates from the norm is usually good. And this is the case with the Beat the Clock challenge. It gives the matches a different feel, and connects all the matches together in a unique way. So I'm glad they decided to bring that back. And I'm also glad we have a different challenger for the WWE title. CM Punk vs Daniel Bryan is a dream PPV match. I just don't understand why it's happening on Over the Limit...and not a bigger stage like Summerslam or Survivor Series. Maybe it's a case of the WWE not having a lot of faith that this match can draw big numbers. 

The other match that was announced this week, really befuddles me. John Cena's next opponent is.. John Laurinitis? Didn't CM Punk want to fight Ace last time I checked? And, moreso, why would anyone think that Cena would even have the slightest problem kicking Ace's ass, if he can overcome the crazy beating Lesnar dished out, and beat Lesnar!

I just don't understand this match. I get that they can play up the injured arm and that gives Laurinitis an easy target to work on, but the man hasn't wrestled in something like 10 years, and he's spent a good part of that last 10 years in a suit, as a corporate man. Lesnar was a UFC heavyweight champion, and Cena beat him. 

It's like a story Jim Cornette told on one of his Kayfabe Commentaries dvds. He was talking about Marc Mero and Sable (History time kiddies). Mero was either just having a match with, or was supposed to be starting a feud with the then up and coming Stone Cold Steve Austin. So the story goes that Marc Mero let Sable powerbomb him on TV.

 Then soon after, Steve was talking to Vince and the writing team saying "Well who am I wrestling next week then? Because he just let his wife powerbomb him, so why would anyone think I would have the slightest problem beating him?" Granted this is a different circumstance, but the argument is still sound. If Cena can overcome Lesnar, why would Laurinitis pose any threat? And, more to the point, why would anyone pay to see it?

Speaking of Lesnar, we had this opening segment with Triple H coming out and tearing up Lesnar's list of demands, and then Lesnar "breaking" Triple H's arm. I was a bit ambivalent about this segment honestly. I just don't understand why they did it. I hear it could be because Lesnar has a set number of TV appearances in his contract, and they didn't want to use them up before the year is up or something. I guess as well that it puts him over even more as a ruthless animal. But it's all a bit confusing. I'm still not sure whether the WWE want the crowd to cheer for him, or to boo him. He acts like a heel, but then does really awesome stuff that we love seeing. Maybe they're not trying to sway the crowds one way or the other. Maybe they're letting Lesnar be Lesnar.

I also saw that it's come out this week that Rey Mysterio got suspended for violating the wellness policy, and that he was not/is not going to be getting a push when he returns. Now to me that's gotta be blown a little out of proportion (the second thing I mean). There will have to be some kind of announcement and big return. My theory is that they meant he won't be moving straight into the title picture or anything, but maybe will feud around the mid card level with someone. I think he and Ziggler could put on a good match.

Impact Wrestling.. I mean I'm trying to get into it.. I really am. But what with the crazy music going on during the "Gut check contract" segment, and Flair flipping and flopping around from a No to a yes after the dude delivered a crappy promo, and the heavy editing that's really badly done, I'm finding it really hard to keep watching. I did like the Bully Ray/Austin Aries segment though. Bully/Bubba has come so far lately I think. 

I just can't get past his name though. Imagine that.. "And the new TNA World Heavyweight champion.. Bully.. Ray!".. It sounds like a children's cartoon character. I understand they wanted to keep the similarity to Bubba Ray and Brother Ray, but surely they could have just used Ray, or his real name or something. We can figure out that it's still the same guy.

What about this? He comes out and says "Brother Ray was the name keeping me down for so many years, but now that I've rid myself of my "brother", you people, can call me ____________" Or something.

That's about all I have to say this week, so until next time, you can follow me on twitter @TheOZMouthpiece if you're not already, and also check out my writing at the following sites:

http://sltdwrestling.blogspot.com

http://pwjournal.wordpress.com

www.wrestlingheads.com

I'm the Aussie Mouthpiece, and my business is concluded, for now.

Home Schooling No.14

What's up everyone, I'm the Aussie Mouthpiece and once again it's time for another dose of home schooling, my weekly discussion about all things wrestling. This week as usual, will be about Monday night Raw, and there is a lot to cover, because of the extra hour. Also this week, I will be taking a look at some recent news items, and also Impact wrestling. This week's episode was the apparent 'beginning of the new era' with the first Open fight night, so I thought it would be worth checking out. Was I right? Only way to find out is to read on.

So let's get down to business.

As I said, this week was a special 3 hour edition of Monday Night Raw. I'm assuming originally that this week was supposed to be the annual draft, but, to quote Magnum TA, as plans will be, plans will go awry, and I guess what with John Laurinitis now being the GM of both shows, and with Raw already featuring Smackdown talent weekly, the draft is a little redundant.

Having said that, I've always enjoyed the draft episodes. Anything that deviates from the norm is interesting, and especially something that's unpredictable. I'm sure a lot of you read the same sites as I read, and I can distinctly remember reading that, at least a few years ago, the draftees did not know that they were being drafted until their name was called, like the whole situation with Jim Ross being moved to Smackdown.

The idea of something "real" happening is always exciting in wrestling.

But this year, at least for now, it seems that there won't be a draft. There are apparently going to be a number of talent releases coming in the near future. We've seen the first of these already with Tough Enough winner Andy Leavine being released this week, apparently because of a lack of improvement.  Now... maybe it's just me, but it just seems like if the guy was the winner of your "find a wrestler" competition, part of the idea was that he was ready to wrestle right? It's been over a year since the guy won, and he's not improving?

I know that it's impossible for Stone Cold and the WWE in general to have predicted this, but surely they could have seen that (as much of an Ass as he is) Luke seemed to be more ready. Not to mention AJ, and the guy who injured his ankle, Martin I think his name was. It's a shame that big Andy didn't get a chance to have even one match on the main stage, but really, in the end he has no-one to blame but himself it seems. Silent Rage will really be silent, at least until the dude shows up in TNA or something.


Let's move on to Raw.

I actually really enjoyed Raw this week. From the opening segment with Edge making a complete surprise appearance (I'm not even sure that the dirt sheets caught wind of it, though I could be wrong). It's definitely still a weird thing to see Edge with short hair though. Other than that, it's great to see him. One of my favourite things about Edge is how much he loves the business. I mean, most people who are involved in wrestling are there because they love it, but there's a few guys who you can just tell, there's nothing more special to them than wrestling. Edge is one of those guys.

So Edge is back, blurring the lines of reality and storyline talking about his contract expiring, and also with a message for Cena. The segment reminded me of when Edge was preparing for his Hell in a Cell match with Undertaker, where he asked Mick Foley for advice, and Mick talked about their hardcore match at Wrestlemania 22, and that Edge needed to "find that Edge, because this version of Edge has no chance to beat Undertaker". Edge basically said the same thing to Cena, in that he needed to find the John Cena that was feuding with Edge in 2006.

In a weird way that again blurs fact and fiction, he is completely right. 2006 was a big year for the John Cena character. That was the year he had the title match with Rob Van Dam at ECW One Night Stand, and really, the first time I can remember him being booed out of the arena. There was a little of it at Wrestlemania 22, some fans cheered for the (then) heel Triple H, and I remember wanting Triple H to win as well. But that night in the Manhattan Center was like nothing I'd ever seen before. It's almost iconic, especially that sign.. "If Cena wins, we riot".

And at the same time as all that was happening, he had an intense feud going with Edge. He was still edgy, he hadn't morphed into the kid-friendly pg Cena that we know today. The problem today is that he's had this reaction from fans for so long, that I think it would take a major re-invention of his character for any of those fans to even think twice about changing their opinion.

Maybe that's what they are finally going for though. I mean let's face it, the underlying theme surrounding Cena for the last 6 months or so has been about his character, and the fan reaction to him. What if this sunday, Lesnar destroys Cena, and takes him out for say.. the next 3 months? Cena comes back about a month before Summerslam with a new look or something, a new edge to his character, and gets a return match with Brock at Summerslam. That could be good, but let's face it, the WWE will never do something like that will they? What do you guys think? Does Cena need a re-invention?


I did like Cena's silent reaction to Edge though after all that. It worked well, and continued at the end of the show, when the contract signing took place. But I'll get to that in a little bit.

Another part of Raw I really liked this week was the Kane segments. Once again we got another surprise appearance, this time by Paul Bearer. Kane's promo skills are severely underrated in my opinion, he delivers so well, and has his character's nuances completely nailed. Just quietly too, Paul Bearer got a really decent pop from the crowd as well. I'm not so sure about Kane eventually putting Paul back into the freezer, once again it's something that's been done before, in the sense of "killing" Paul Bearer. Undertaker did it back in 2004 in that Concrete Crypt match.

That seems to be the theme this week. Repetition. I got the same feeling with the Brock Lesnar list of demands. Lesnar's live promo work is nowhere near the same standard as his pre-taped promo from last week, but it was still entertaining at least. But the list of demands was eerily reminiscent of a certain segment from last year. CM Punk had been suspended and re-instated, and Vince McMahon was trying to get him to sign a contract. I'm sure you all remember it. Punk got Vince to apologise, Punk called himself the "voice of the voiceless". But he also demanded things. Cups, plates, knives, forks, spoons, Ice cream bars.. CM Punk the movie even. He demanded to use McMahon's jet. And then, this week on Raw, Lesnar demanded to use Vince's jet.

I don't think it was done intentionally, but it's still repetitive, and especially in the Lesnar case, way too recent to be re-hashing the same idea. Also the other difference is that CM Punk was being cheered for his list of demands, and yet Lesnar, even though he had been cheered the previous two weeks, he was getting nothing but boos this week, and even some chants like "Lesnar is a bitch". Sure, he'll get cheered sunday, because he's wrestling Cena. But if they were trying to bring him in as a badass who the Anti-Cena fans cheer for, they're going about it the wrong way.

Very quickly I want to mention the Diva's title situation. Well done to Beth Phoenix, because I think she worked everybody, including some people in the back apparently. It's a shame that it had to be a Bella that won, but the news is that their contracts are up at the end of this month, so hopefully it is a transitional thing. I've read that the idea is to have Kharma come back and destroy the Bella/s, and then eventually that will lead into a Kharma/Phoenix feud. Which would be amazing. Especially compared to anything else that's happened diva's wise for a long time.

Let's move on to CM Punk and Chris Jericho though, because for me, that was the best part of the episode.
It starts with Jericho telling us that he gave CM Punk a gift. Then, in a backstage segment, Punk show's us a basket of alcohol, which he gave to Josh Matthews, with the exception of that one bottle of Jack Daniels. I really liked how they did that, Punk didn't make a big deal of holding on to it, but it was still clear enough that if you were paying attention, you knew he kept it. To me it was like "why didn't he put that back?" Which immediately made things interesting. Initially I thought he was going to find Jericho and smash it on his head or something. I was wrong though, as I'd find out a bit later on.

So the public field sobriety test is announced, and then Teddy Long finds Punk, who seems to be acting a little different. Now straight away I'm thinking "oh he's acting drunk for some reason". And I continued to think that way for a while. Now admittedly in terms of reality I knew that they wouldn't actually have made him drink anything, regardless of what the outcome of this segment was, but in terms of storyline and working, they got me. I'll admit it. When Punk failed the alphabet thing the first time, I was convinced they were going to go with a storyline of him becoming a drinker. Which would have annoyed me, and probably a lot of other people as well. I'm really glad they didn't go that direction.

But the segment as a whole was amazing. Punk was believable as a drunk, his quick witty one liners were great, and something that's been missing from his promos for some time now. It's a shame he had to be pretend drunk to be able to get that funny stuff in, but in the end it was entertaining, and that's the most important thing. And he's right, it's insanely hard to recite the alphabet backwards.

It also worked in the sense that Jericho had kind of been getting one over on CM Punk for a few weeks, and then finally this week Punk got at least back on level terms. I'm not going to do any predictions right now, but I'll probably post something the day before Extreme Rules.

So overall, I think they did really well this week. The wrestling was good, I enjoyed the Brodus Clay match, although I think Ziggler needs to get away from Vickie and Swagger, otherwise he's not going to jump from that mid card status. But overall it was a decent show, and a good way to lead into the Pay per view.


So very quickly about Impact this week, I was curious about the open fight night concept and how it would work. Also it was Eric Bischoff's last night on Impact.

I didn't mind the concept, I think the best thing it could be used for is to give people match-ups that they hadn't seen before, especially if it's only a once a month show, which is what Hogan said it would be. I did sort of skip through the show, honestly I'm just not that big of a fan of TNA at the moment, it just seems like it keeps trying to compete too much with the WWE. TNA made it's own mark, but now most of that originality is gone, and the biggest part of that was the very first night Hogan was there, they got rid of the 6 sided ring.

But, TNA is now (hopefully) one step closer to getting some originality back, with Bischoff being gone. Again though, repetition. Remember when he was fired from WWE? Vince threw him into a garbage truck. A dirty stinky place. On Impact he was thrown into a portable toilet. Yes, it's not the same thing, but it's still sending him off in a humiliating way. Which I'm ok with.

So that's about it for this week, I hope you enjoyed reading this. Remember if you're not already, you can follow me on twitter @TheOZMouthpiece and also, recently I've started writing articles for some other websites. So far it's just the one article on these sites, but I'm really proud of it. The article is called "it's the best thing going", and it's all about why we, as wrestling fans, truly love wrestling, and what makes wrestling so great to us. You can find it on either http://sltdwrestling.blogspot.com.au/ , http://www.wrestlingheads.com/ , or http://pwjournal.wordpress.com/ 
and while you're there, check out all the other fine articles and posts on these sites, because they're all awesome.

Until next time, I'm the Aussie Mouthpiece and now, my business is concluded.

Home Schooling No.12

Hello again faithful readers, it's time again for another class of home schooling, my weekly recap of the best in wrestling action, in my opinion at least.

This week as usual I will be talking about Monday Night Raw, but as an extra added bonus I will also talk about the live Smackdown special episode, as there were some interesting segments that warrant talking about.


It amazes me how fast things can change in wrestling. It's only been two episodes of Raw since Wrestlemania, and in fact only one episode since The Rock left again, but already it feels like a new beginning. I think we have Brock Lesnar's return to thank for that. It was literally in two hours, from the beginning of Raw with Rock thanking everyone, to the end of Raw last week, with Lesnar's return. That's how quick things can happen. And already it feels like a completely different show, even though the bulk of the feuds have been carried on from Wrestlemania.

Before I get into specifics, I want to talk about one other thing. I really like what they've done with Mark Henry in the last couple of weeks. I feel like he's been floundering a bit since he lost the World Heavyweight title. He was still a badass and really impressive, but it felt like he'd moved down a couple of steps. In a way that's a good thing, because it opens the door for new people to step up.
But in the last couple of weeks, with him in title matches against CM Punk, and especially with him getting victories over him, albeit dirty wins, it's really pushed him back into that top spot. I think it's highly possible that Jericho and Henry might form some kind of alliance in the coming weeks, especially if Punk and Jericho's feud is to continue after Extreme Rules.

Ok so let's talk about Raw to start off with.

And we'll start with the beginning. Lesnar and Cena. It just feels.. big. Like the Rock/Cena feud did. But in a way, bigger, because even though Lesnar left, he left for different reasons. And, with his career in the UFC .. he immediately has more legitimacy than just about anyone in wrestling, save maybe Kurt Angle. Broken freakin' necks give you tons of legitimacy.

So Lesnar is in the ring with Johnny Ace. Now it's pretty much solidified that they are trying to bring him in as a heel. Or at least, a heel in the eyes of Cena's fans. To everyone else it seems, Lesnar is definitely a babyface. How could he not be? This massive beast of a dude who has legitimately beaten up people is now back in the WWE? Of course he's going to get massive cheers. And then add into the mix that he's beating up Cena, who a decent portion of the fans love to hate, and there you have it: instant good guy. But a good guy in the same sense that Austin was a good guy. And, for the past 6 months or so, in the same way that Rock was a good guy.

One of my favourite things on Raw this week was that slap. Cena says with no microphone "I never got to thank you for last week" and then slaps Lesnar? Worked or not, the dude has some balls. I don't know if Lesnar was handing Cena a reciept with that shot that busted up Cena's lip, or if it was just an accident or an old habit, but because of the blood, everything was more intense.

I thought having just about the entire locker room come out to hold both guys back was a great touch too. Legitimacy seems to be the theme for my blog this week, but it really added credibility and realism to this situation. I know that wrestling isn't as guarded as it used to be and we see the heels and babyfaces interacting with each other sometimes, but even so, you've got Sheamus and Mark Henry next to each other, trying to hold Lesnar back. And what's more, Goldust was out there as well, but out of character, and in a suit. Realism. That's what's going on right now.

Really quickly, I see good things for Santino and Brodus in the future. Santino needs a storyline that is a bit more serious, to make him (I swear it's the theme this week) more legitimate. And Brodus is that guy. He's not so serious that it would be stupid for him to team with Santino, but he's also a badass. As long as the team isn't just used for a couple of weeks and then disbanded, things could really develop there. And Santino's backstage antics (until he met up with the stooges.. but i'll get to them later) were great. His interaction with Kane... brilliant.

Getting back to Cena for a minute, his backstage segment/promo/whatever we're calling those things these days.. was really good. As much as the WWE seem to be against it, this week was a perfect example of blood enhancing things, and making them bigger, and better. I'm not sure what Cena's promo would have been like, had he not been able to use the fat lip as a part of it. Hopefully the powers that be realise this, and figure out that blood, if used correctly, won't just look like excessive violence.
And.. as much as I don't want to admit it.. Laurinitis' work has gotten a lot better too.  Hopefully it's a consistent improvement. Because bad Johnny Ace can be good tv, but really bad Johnny Ace is almost unwatchable.


Once again this week.. Lord Tensai proves that even if you have a really silly name, you can still be a badass. I mean even if they took the "Lord" part of the name away, and just called him Tensai.. that would be better. I don't really get what the point of ending the match without a pinfall is, other than giving Albert a chance to put that mist into his mouth.
Overall though, he's a different character type that we haven't really seen for a while in WWE.. he reminds me a bit of Hakushi, but I get the feeling he'll have more success than Hakushi did. I think we need to give him a few more weeks to grow and get comfortable in the character. Then we'll see some unique qualities come out, other than the moves and words he yells, that have already been figured out.


I've talked about Mark Henry, but let's talk about CM Punk. We all know that his character has become slightly less volatile, less of a cheered heel and more of a straight up babyface with an attitude, but this week CM Punk delivered a promo that was, to me, probably the best he's done this year. I don't know if the storyline stuff about his father is true in real life as well (my feeling is that it is), but when he talks about his father, and especially when he talked about the smell of the alcohol on him reminded him of his dad, it became real, worked or not. That kind of true emotion, that kind of real feeling.. that's what makes a good promo great. That's what pushes a wrestler to a top spot.

I actually kind of liked what Jericho did with his promo this week. It's a bit silly, saying Punk needed to start the 12 step program.. but he's a heel. Heels can get away with saying things that are completely stupid, but because they believe them, they seem credible. I liked his line about unleashing the "demon alcohol genes".
CM "drunk" is a little hokey though. It fits sure, but it's just feels a little.. off.

What I do like about this feud, is they're not having Punk and Jericho in matches involving each other every week. It makes the times that they do actually get in the ring together for a match special. It's the way it used to be done.

Now.. once again after the match with Mark Henry, Jericho attacks a hurt CM Punk and pours alcohol all over him. This is the second week in a row we've seen this, and to me, we don't need to see it any more. I did like Jericho's one line "Drink it in ya stupid idiot".. I love how he uses really childish insults like that, and still makes them seem really .. well really insulting.

What I did not like is that they used real beer to pour on CM Punk. I know that Punk would have been told about it before hand, and I know that they wouldn't have done it without Punk saying he was ok with it, but still, the guy is legitimately straight edge, and yet he's had beer poured into his mouth this week. I'm also sure that Jericho would have done his best to not be excessive with the beer around Punk's face, which is why most of it went on his shoulder and back/stomach as well. But really, in a more general sense, it's the WWE not caring about CM Punk's lifestyle choice.

Yes, this is the realism era, it's all about legitimacy, but surely they could have used non-alcoholic beer. Or just used the whiskey again. In the end though, it seems fairly obvious that CM Punk will get his revenge, and I'm starting to get the feeling that it might be some kind of I quit match that it happens in, where if Jericho loses, he has to leave WWE. Could be a good way to end things.

Just quickly before I finish up the Raw section, I said I'd mention the Three Stooges. Will Sasso delivered an amazing impersonation of Hogan. The crowd seemed a bit shocked more than anything.. and I was with them the first time I watched it. Hogan is working for TNA, so why would they want to do anything that promotes him? The only thing I can think of is that Will Sasso is a massive wrestling, and more specifically Hogan fan, so they let him do that bit. And let's face it, he nailed Hogan. Not just the voice, the body movements. And, even better, he took Kane's chokeslam amazingly well. I love that guy's work.


Ok let's talk about the main event. I'm impressed with Otunga more and more every week. He's finally gotten a decent character happening with some signature kind of movments and mannerisms, and his work in the ring has improved immensely since he was in NXT and the nexus.

And once again this week's episode ends with Lesnar getting the better of Cena. This time with a Low blow before the F-5. I've noticed though that Lesnar is executing his finisher differently these days. He's not doing the rotation part of the move that he used to. If you go back and watch an F-5 from 2003, it looks quite different to the 2012 version. In the 2012 version, he lifts his opponent over his head to get him in position for the "ddt" part, whereas back in 2003 he would turn him at the same time. Check it out. I prefer the 2003 version.


So overall a decent episode of RAW. I think the pattern needs to change for next week though, mainly with Punk and Jericho. No more alcohol baths. I do think that Lesnar is going to keep being booked as an unstoppable machine though. Which as long as it's done right, will work well.


Now let's talk quickly about smackdown before this turns into a short novel.

Daniel Bryan delivered a great promo last week, breaking up with his "girlfriend" AJ. And this week we were going to be treated to a very special Piper's Pit. Now, normally when I write my blog, I've watched everything I'm going to write about. I haven't watched Piper's pit yet, so I'm going to write the following part of this post as I watch for the first time. And then I'll get into a couple of other parts of Smackdown.

It's always great to see a Piper's pit. Rowdy is one of my favourite talkers out of anyone. His Piper's Pit from Wrestlemania 5 is one of my favourite non-wrestling wrestling segments ever.

I really hope this Yes chant catches on heaps more. It's such a simple thing, but works so well with just about everything.

I don't really like that they're portraying AJ as someone who seems to be completely clueless. I mean yeah, they can portray her as in love with him, but I don't really understand why she wouldn't have figured out that Bryan is using her. The rest of her character doesn't seem that dumb.

Piper got really intense talking about the "no's". I love Roddy. All in all it was a pretty good segment. Probably not right up there as one of the best Piper's pit episodes ever, but it was good. And we learned that it's going to be a 2 out of 3 falls match between Daniel Bryan and Sheamus, which should be a really good match. Hopefully they don't just squash Bryan again .. only this time in 36 seconds.

The last thing I'm going to talk about, and it's just a quick one, is Ryback. This character is so much better than the Skip Sheffield character. It's more believable, yet still larger than life. From what I've read about the way Ryback was originally, it's a slightly different version in 2012, but it's still impressive, and again something slightly different. Like a combination of Goldberg and Rhyno or something. I'm definitely interested to see where it goes.

Ok that's about all for this week. Until next time, you can follow me on twitter at @TheOZMouthpiece , leave me a comment on here to let me know what you think, and also, check out my articles on http://pwjournal.wordpress.com There's only two on there for now, but check it out nonetheless.

I'm the Aussie Mouthpiece, and now, my business is concluded.

The calm before the (grandest) Storm

Hi folks, your friendly neighbourhood Aussie Mouthpiece here, back with a special pre-Wrestlemania post.

What's that you say? I already did a Wrestlemania prediction? Well yes, but I've been thinking about it for the past couple of days, and with Wrestlemania less than a day away now, I thought it would be worth re-thinking, and making a new post with my thoughts and predictions, and that way I could elaborate, in the way I normally do without the post becoming 15 pages long.

Also, it gives me a chance to comment on a couple of the newest rumours and news bites that have come out in the last couple of days.

So let's start with the sightings of ex-WWE stars in Miami. Batista, Lita, and also Brock Lesnar. Well, let's get the easiest (no pun intended) one out of the way, Lita is there for Axxess, and also probably to see Edge get inducted into the Hall of fame. I highly doubt that we'll see her doing any kind of in-ring stuff, maybe something backstage, but I really don't think so.

Batista is a little interesting, but again I have a feeling he might just be there to support Ric Flair and the Horsemen and see them be inducted. Again, I don't really think that we'll see him interfere in any matches or anything, but we may see him in some kind of backstage segment, maybe in reference to Triple H and 'Taker's match, because he's been in a Hell in A Cell against both guys. I doubt he's coming back though, and also on a personal note I'm kind of hoping he doesn't. I was never a big fan of his work, it always looked like he wasn't putting all the effort he could in, and looked quite lazy. But that's just me.

Brock Lesnar.. now this is interesting. There's reports he's been seen in Miami, and even reports that he's signed a new deal with WWE. Now.. it is april 1st remember.. but really, it makes sense for Brock to come back. Enough time has passed that most people will have forgotten the way he left in the first place, and even more people have seen him now because of his MMA career.

The UFC has been kicking WWE's ass in pay per views as we all know, people have been gravitating towards the MMA stuff for a long time now, so if one of the bigger MMA stars now starts wrestling again, surely there will be some Brock Lesnar fans tuning into WWE who wouldn't have before right? Makes sense from a business standpoint, and it's also good for Brock because he can still perform in an athletic way.

So if this is true, and Brock Lesnar is back in the WWE, will we see him tomorrow? I think we shouldn't, but I think we might. My opinion is that it would be better for Brock to re-debut on RAW with no prior announcements, and (depending on how they want him to come back) destroy either Cena, or Rock.
And if the rumour of a Rock/Brock feud is true, then that would make the most sense. But, knowing WWE, they'll announce it or Michael Cole will talk about it and try to get it trending on twitter or something.

What do you think? Will we see Brock at mania? Or RAW? Or not at all because it's a prank?

Ok so with that done, let's talk about the matches.

As I said in my last post, I think that the World Heavyweight Championship match will open the show. I can't really think of anything else that would work. There's no Money in the Bank this year, and even though there is  the Intercontinental title match, it doesn't feel like an opening match. Maybe the Team Johnny/Team Teddy match could open it up, but again, it doesn't feel right.

So let's talk about the World Heavyweight Title match.

Daniel Bryan Vs Sheamus
It's been a few years since the Royal Rumble winner actually won the title at Wrestlemania, so I think even for that reason alone it's gotta be Sheamus winning. But there's more to it than that. To me Wrestlemania is about the culmination of storylines, and for the most part, the bad guys to get their just desserts, and for the good guy to finally triumph. Now, the Bryan/Sheamus match isn't the most personal rivalry, but in a general sense Daniel Bryan needs to get what's coming to him. Expect AJ to be involved in the finish somehow, and maybe even finally "realise" that she is being treated badly.

My prediction: Sheamus wins.

Randy Orton vs Kane
This match is basically the result of two big name guys not having a storyline coming into Wrestlemani. I have a feeling they would have both been in the Money in the Bank match, had Wade Barrett not been injured. I'm sure it will be a decent match, but there's just a lack of any real reason to care about the match. I'd like to see Kane win, mainly because since his return, we really haven't seen him win a lot of matches. He's been dominant yes, destructive yes, but when it came to the actual matches, Cena came out on top.
So my prediction, is that Kane wins.

Beth Phoenix & Eve vs Kelly Kelly & Maria Menounos
It's sad that you have the two best female wrestlers in the WWE in such bad spots. Well, I mean one in this match, and the other not even being used, and has been given a gimmick where she .. farts a lot? It's just another sign that WWE really doesn't care enough about the Diva's division. Beth vs Natalya would have been a great match for Wrestlemania. But instead we get this tag match where there will be cartwheels and stinkfaces and i'm guessing at least 3 botches.
Having a celebrity in the match basically leaves the result in no doubt. So really no need for a prediction. I will be shocked if the result is different, but as far as I'm concerned, Kelly Kelly and Maria Menounos will win this match.

Cody Rhodes vs Big Show (Intercontinental Title)
I've really enjoyed the last few weeks of this feud. Cody has delivered some really great promos, the best of which being last week, talking about Big Show, and how he will be the Biggest fool of all (referencing April Fool's Day). The Big Show vignettes have been a little silly, but helped make the feud what it is. Show is going to come out strong trying to knock Cody's head off, with Cody backing off and slipping away. It should be a really good match, but I really don't see Cody losing his title. I also don't see Cody winning. It's the kind of situation where if Cody does lose his title, it might, and probably will kill a lot of his momentum.

So here's what I see happening. It's simple really. The Big Show wins by either countout or disqualification. OR, on the flipside, Cody incites Big Show so much, that he gets himself disqualified by using a chair/the belt/the ring bell. But I think that second idea would hurt the Big Show rather than keep him at that same level.
So my prediction is that Big Show wins, but Cody retains the Intercontinental Title.

Team Johnny vs Team Teddy
This is a match that I'm a little ambivalent about. I think a 6 man tag match doesn't really give any of the guys in the match any decent amount of time to do anything all that memorable (with the exception of Dolph Ziggler who will be the star of this match).

I'm glad that Booker T is getting a chance to perform at Wrestlemania again though. I don't see it as being a full-time return to the ring, but it's nice that he gets a chance to get back into the ring. Especially on the biggest stage of them all.

So my prediction? Unfortunately, Team Johnny wins and we have to put up with Laurinitis even longer.

CM Punk vs Chris Jericho (WWE Title)

The best in the world, versus the best in the world at what he does. Up until a few weeks ago, this rivalry was just so-so to me. But then Jericho brought up CM Punk's family. And this feud got that injection of intensity it needed. It became personal, and much more than just another "who's the best?" kind of deal. Now we know that Punk is invested emotionally, and it's more than just about proving he's the man. It's also shown that Punk can be "gotten to", based on his reactions and promos over the last couple of weeks.

There's no doubt that this match is going to be the best technical wrestling match on the card, and possibly the best match on the card overall. But I think that CM Punk needs to win. It will cement him as one of the top guys, coming into Wrestlemania as champion, and leaving Wrestlemania as champion. If he loses, it will deflate things a little, and at least to me, make the promos he cut over the summer, and that whole storyline that happened during june/july/august mean less. Jericho doesn't need to win, and with the way it's gone over the last couple of weeks with Jericho seemingly getting the upper hand, it's only fitting that Punk wins.

So, not surprisingly, my prediction is that CM Punk retains the title, and therefore wins the match.

Undertaker vs Triple H w/Shawn Michaels as Guest Referee (Hell in A Cell)
The end of an era. 20 - 0. 19-1. So much hype surrounding this match, even though the build has been somewhat lackluster. I think that was just because there's not much left to say between these three guys. We've heard it all already, we know they respect each other, and we know that they want to win. Hell in A Cell is a fitting way to finish this series of matches involving Undertaker, Michaels and Triple H. All three are heavily associated with the Hell in a Cell match, so it makes a lot of sense.

So here's my first predictions. One: There will be no falls off the top of the cell. That really is a bit obvious but I'm sure there are people around who think each Cell match should have big moves off of the top. But come on.. Undertaker's not going to do that, and neither is Triple H.

Two: There WILL be blood. Triple H and Undertaker have shown last year that they have some extra lee-way when it comes to their matches, with the chair shot to the head. I don't think we'll see another one of those this year, but something is going to happen that causes one, or both guys to bleed. Barbed wire maybe, or even just using the walls of the cell. But there will be some kind of blood. If you were paying close attention to the video package shown on RAW, there were shots of both Undertaker and Triple H bloody inside the Cell. ... Just saying..

I'm positive Shawn will involve himself phyiscally in the match, and will be part of the finish. There have been reports saying that the WWE are talking about having Shawn and Triple H wrestle next year at Wrestlemania 29, and that they want to announce the main event for next year, on RAW this week. Shawn and Triple H won't be the main event, but who says that the WWE can't announce 2 matches a year in advance?

So here's how I see the finish, as concise as possible.Throughout the match, there's going to be tension between Shawn and Triple H, because of Taker's comments last week on RAW. So towards the end Shawn goes for a superkick on Undertaker, but Taker moves and he hits Triple H. While Shawn looks on .. "shocked".. Taker hits a tombstone, and covers Triple H. Shawn hesitates, but counts the pin. So obviously my prediction is that Undertaker wins, and the streak goes to 20 and 0.

John Cena vs The Rock.
Once in a lifetime. This match will surely close out the show. It's the main event. The final 3 matches will be Undertaker/Triple H, then the divas tag match so that people can relax after the Cell match, and then Rock/Cena.

This match is a hard one to call. To me it's quite similar to ten years ago, when it was The Rock vs Hulk Hogan. The crowd was divided that night, some cheering Rock, some cheering Hogan. In the end, Hogan put over the current star, The Rock. And that's how I think this should play out as well. John Cena should win this match. He's the full time wrestler. He's the guy who's there every week. However, Cena has also been getting the better of The Rock in the verbal battles they've been having.

I don't see anyone interfering in the match. I really hope that is the case as well. This match is too big to be interefered with. It needs to be a clean finish. So the only way I would even want to see it happen is if whoever it was that ran in, let's say it's Miz for example, Miz runs in, but gets cut off and thrown out of the ring by both Rock and Cena. Something like that where the run-in is unsuccessful.

The way I see it though, this will be a great match. It might not live up to the year long hype, but it will still be a great way to end Wrestlemania.
My prediction is that Cena wins, but then he and Rock earn each other's respect and the show ends with them both posing.

So there you go. That's my revised and updated Wrestlemania predictions. Follow me on twitter if you're not already, i'm @TheOZMouthpiece and leave me a comment to let me know what you think.

I'll be on twitter tomorrow for Wrestlemania like a lot of you, and I'm looking forward to the discussions and reactions to whatever it is that happens tomorrow.

I have a feeling that Wrestlemania 28 is going to be quite special.
But that's just me, and that's just my opinion.

Home Schooling No.9

It's that time again, another week has come and gone, another episode of RAW, and that means it's time for another installment of Home Schooling. This week is going to be a little different. The first half of this post will be about Raw, and the second will be my regular "pre pay-per-view" blog, The Calm Before the Storm, which will be my rundown and predictions for the Wrestlemania card. I'll try to keep everything nice and concise so this doesn't turn into a short novel.

So let's get down to business.

I thought this week's RAW was a decent episode, but I was a bit disappointed with it, seeing as though it was the "go home" show for Wrestlemania. To me, this show is meant to be the one that "talks people into the building". I know that with Wrestlemania it's obviously different, because you have people who will be buying it no matter what, and also that most people will have already made up their minds about buying it or not, but still, it lacked that extra something for me.

Maybe it was that Chris Jericho wasn't "live" in the arena. Maybe because we just got a video package for one of the top 3 matches for Wrestlemania. Maybe it was because the last 25 minutes of the show were set aside for Rock and Cena. Probably not that last one. I really enjoyed that whole segment. Especially once Cena came out. But I'll get to that later.


The other thing that bothered me, is that we seem to have lost a lot of that "Pay per view" feel. Take the opening match. Sheamus and Orton vs Daniel Bryan and Kane. I would have thought the way to have this match work, would be to tease Orton and Kane (and Bryan and Sheamus) being in the ring together, not have the two sets of opponents spend a good majority of the match wrestling each other. To me it's now kind of like (especially with Orton and Kane) I've seen a lot of the match I'm going to see at Wrestlemania already, and I didn't have to pay for it. So why do I care about this match now?

One quick thing about Team Johnny/Team Teddy.. Laurinitis can't even deliver a one line promo correctly. That says just about everything that needs to be said about this match.

Part of me thinks that there's a little too much emphasis on the Rock and Cena. Yes, it's a huge match. Yes, it's "once in a lifetime". But the WWE Title should be just as important I think. So why wasn't Chris Jericho wrestling a singles match this week? All we've seen is Jericho talk for the last few weeks. Why is that? Do we not need to see that Jericho is a great wrestler? Something doesn't quite feel right in that sense, and I can't really figure out why they wouldn't have him wrestling, or at least interfering in a match or something.

Unless Jericho is slightly injured. Hopefully that's not the case.

Jericho's promos have been entertaining, and edgy. They have made the feud personal. Now I don't really see that the whole "bastard" thing is a big deal, or why that's a bigger deal than saying things about CM Punk's family. But that's neither here nor there.

Punk taking his anger out on Christian was the right move. It shows us that Punk IS angry about this, and also that Jericho has gotten to him, which in turn adds a little bit of doubt into whether Punk will retain the title. And also, apparently Christian isn't 100%, so it was a good way to write him out of the Tag match.

Incidentally, I really like the way Punk delivers those kicks to the head.

Did anyone else notice that this week's Jericho promo looked exactly the same as last weeks? As in, it was recorded the same time as last weeks? Lazy bit of TV right there.

Now, about this "End of an Era" video package. I understand that Triple H and Undertaker have basically said everything they could possibly say, but I think we, the viewers, and more importantly the people who paid to be at the show deserved to see these guys. Originally I was thinking the way it should have been done, would have been to show the video package last week, and then have the in ring segment from last week, on this week's show. But I've come up with a second theory.

What if this week, Triple H came down to the ring, and called out Shawn? They have some kind of heated words about Shawn's ego, about what Undertaker said, and maybe it gets a little phyiscal, maybe they push each other, get in each other's face? And then, the lights go out. When they come back on, Undertaker is at the top of the stage, looking at the ring, and all he does is smile. I don't know, it just felt like only having a video package detracted from how big this match is.

Cody Rhodes delivered probably the second best moment of the episode for me this week. His promo was great. And the best part, it actually got me interested in the Intercontinental title match. Well done to Cody. Hopefully this continues after Wrestlemania, and we see him getting a shot at the World title/WWE Title soon.

Ok onto The Rock, and John Cena. Rock spends way too much time standing there with a cheesy grin on his face. So let's just get that out of the way right now. Rock talks about all the young starlets throwing themselves at him. That's only a little bit creepy Rocky. But let's move on.
Yes. Rock delivered a great promo. It was the same stuff though. My biggest problem with all this though, is yes, The Rock will be on RAW next week. But after that, he's gone again right? So really, regardless of the result, John Cena will be proven right (at least temporarily if Rock is going to be part of WM 29).

So let's talk about Cena for a minute here. His promo was the best part of the night. He talked about how the fans boo him. He talked about it not bothering him. That was expected. But after a few minutes it got real good, real quick. It got into that weird area of "is this a shoot?" for a little bit there as well. But once again, as has happened in the last few weeks, John Cena basically owned The Rock on the microphone.

He talked about how he's been the only guy who's gotten booed and never turned heel. And then antagonised the booing crowd, saying that he always wins. That part to me was the most interesting, because if you think about it from a non-kayfabe perspective, he's saying "The office knows that I'm the man, and that's why I always win". Very interesting. Of course, kayfabe wise, it was just saying "you can hate me all you want, but i'll still find a way". I think that may have been my favourite part of Cena's promo.

He talked about how The Rock was there when it was "cool" to be a WWE Superstar, but Cena has been the face of the company when it's been going through harder times. This is why Cena has been better than The Rock in these promos. Rock has insulted everything Cena wears, cares about, says, his family, and basically been a schoolyard bully.
Cena, has been saying things that are fact, yet things that show the Rock in a poor light, like the notes on the wrist, like Rock being there when it was "cool". Not insulting what makes the Rock, The Rock.

Ok scratch what I said about my favourite part. Cena calling the Rock a visitor, and then Rock's response. That is my favourite part of the night, and this entire feud. Because Rock delivered his response with passion. Not trying to get things trending, not trying to say new cool catchphrases, just speaking from the heart. Also, Cena's response to Rock's response was just as good. All in all a brilliant final segment, and thinking about it, definitely worth giving them the 20 minutes at the end of RAW.

One last thing about Rock/Cena, I think they should have made a slightly bigger deal about Rock wanting to be the greatest of all time by being the first guy to beat Hogan, Austin and Cena, instead of the ladyparts/transvestite wonder woman/barney's turd crap that we had to put up with. I would have been much more interested, and, now that I think about it, probably have been wanting The Rock to win if it had gone that way. Oh what could have been....



Ok so that's all for this week, I'll be on twitter during Wrestlemania so I'll be joining in with the crazy tweet barrage that happens. Until next week's blog, follow me on twitter if you're not already @TheOZMouthpiece and leave me a comment on here if you like, or dislike, or have something interesting to say.

Business.. is concluded.

Home Schooling no.8

It's that time again, another week has come and gone, we're one step closer to Wrestlemania, and I am back to talk about the goings on in the last week, in the world of Spor.. I mean Professional Wrestling.

It's been an interesting week. The main focus for me this week has been RAW, and the WWE in general, so that's what I'll be focusing on, and I may just touch on TNA's Victory Road pay per view as well. And possibly on this discussion about Sting, and if he is an "icon" or not.

So let's get down to business.

Last week the CM Punk/Chris Jericho feud finally got a little bit of personal tension about it. I've always thought the best feuds were the ones that had "real" pieces alongside the dramatic storylines, like Austin/McMahon, Shawn/Bret, Edge/Matt Hardy, and even Austin/Bischoff's GM feud in 2003. They stand out because they feel different. They feel well, real.

Punk/Jericho has been good at times, a bit off at times, but last week we finally got the injection of realism that has been lacking. Also, why have the "it begins" videos not been explained? But, let's get back on track.

So this week was CM Punk's response to Jericho's promo about his alcoholic father. From what i've read, this is apparently similar to a feud Punk had with Raven in 2005 (correct me if i'm wrong on the year). It makes sense for Raven to use mind games, psychological games etc to get inside his opponent's head, but it doesn't seem like a Jericho thing as much.

Having said that, Chris is making it work really well. Punk is great, as always. I really liked the line "if there's a devil in my DNA, it's now your problem". The only thing that bothers me about this, is while CM Punk is still being edgy, and being himself, a couple of the other lines, such as the "there isn't a person on this planet who should let a past nightmare dictate or cloud their future dreams", while it's an awesome line, and I agree with it, it's very... babyface. CM Punk to me is at his best when he's still saying things he would say if he was a heel. The switch to babyface took a little of the edge off. But having said that, he still delivered a brilliant promo.

Jericho's "via satellite" response was even better. I was going back and forth as to whether or not going down the "sister" road was too much, but I'm of the mindset that it isn't. It works. It makes it even more personal. I did find it quite funny that in one sentence Jericho said "I'll never talk about your father again" and within 1 minute, he mentioned Punk's father. I guess that's all part of being a heel, being completely disingenuous with everything you say.

People seem to be making a big deal about whatever it was that CM Punk said that got censored. Apparently he repeated himself, saying "you're bullsh*t" both times, the second one you can clearly see. To me this is really good. Think about it. If someone was digging up your family's personal issues in a public forum, how would you react? You'd lose it, you'd say things you wouldn't normally say in a public setting. It does nothing but help this feud. Bit annoying that it was censored, especially considering all the things that The Rock is allowed to say and get away with. But I'll get to him later.

I'm not sure why Big Show was made to look so weak this week. Yes I know he was handcuffed, but that match was so quick as well. The only reason I can think of is to give the fans the impression that Cody has a chance to beat him. Which if you think about it, makes Show a great guy.  I get the feeling that it's going to end up with Show getting the big payoff at Wrestlemania, while making Cody look good at the same time.

Kane... so much for the dominant monster returning. Maybe it's a case of all the big matches already being set in stone. I think Kane vs Orton will be good, but I could be wrong. Randy Orton's promo this week was just ok, and really didn't make a lot of sense. Yes. Your name is Randy Orton. Well done. Why do I care about your match?

I have to say, I was probably the opposite of a fan of David Otunga, but that's changed a bit in the last few weeks. He's come into his own lately, probably just because he's had time to develop more of a character, he's not getting ridiculed every week by the good guys, or the cool guys. He's still not great in the ring, and that finishing move is pretty bad, but give it time. Johnny/Teddy however, I'm not sure. I said last week I was hoping Dolph Ziggler wouldn't get put into this match, because he deserved a bigger spot on the card. But it seems to be happening now, so hopefully he'll get a chance to do something memorable at least. Unless the match is really short. Which is likely.

Something that seems to never get cut short is the amount of time given to The Rock, and to a lesser extent, John Cena. And this week we got yet another pre-recorded promo from The Rock, talking about the city he's in, looking all intense, and flashing that hollywood smile.

Funnily enough however, this week Rock started by saying that Cena is on the same level as Austin and Hogan. That was interesting to me. He then talked about how beating Cena would make Rock the greatest of all time. What he did not do this week, is pick on Cena's clothes, or hair, or friends, or family, or his fans. I get the feeling that there might have been some kind of heat for all the constant bullying tactics in Rock's promos of late, and really, since april last year.

I really liked The Rock's promo this week. THAT is the kind of thing that Rock can do. That's why he's so good, why he's one of the best ever. He doesn't need to be a bully. And it was really awesome to hear Randy Savage mentioned. The only thing that I didn't like is it seemed a little like The Rock was playing to the crowd with the whole Philadelphia and Rocky Balboa thing. But overall it was a great promo, and a lot better than the last few weeks.

Which brings me to one other point about the Rock/Cena feud. It seems that this week was meant to be Rock's week. Cena didn't have any promo time or anything, he had the match with Mark Henry, which he did win, but the win was kinda negated by The Rock coming out and hitting the Rock Bottom on Henry afterwards, kind of sending the message of "I can do anything you can do". The difference is though (if we suspend disbelief for a minute here), The Rock did hit a Rock Bottom on Mark Henry. Impressive. But he hit the Rock Bottom on a Mark Henry who'd just been in a match with Cena, and in that match Cena hit his own finisher in that match. So Rock's finisher, not so impressive.

Also, I think having Cena come out this week as the smiling, camo-short wearing, rise above hate Cena has kind of hurt him, after last week's RAW. I think it would have been better for him to keep that "character" going, at least until the Raw after Wrestlemania. Rock has basically said he's fake, and that is also part of the problem people who boo Cena has. And by having that "rapper" Cena only around for one week, it felt like it was just something he did for the show, and not something he believes in.


Now, with that done, that really only leaves one thing to talk about from RAW this week, that being the "end of an era" match.

Now i'm a massive Undertaker fan, as I'm sure I've said before. But that doesn't mean I'm going to say everything that happens with him is great. Undertaker vs Kahli? Not great. Undertaker vs Undertaker? Interesting, not great. And this week's promo segment on Raw? Not great.

The problem is that there's nothing left to say. Where can it go? We already had the promos last year about how much Undertaker and HHH respect each other. We've already had the promos about Shawn and Undertaker and how much they respect each other. And we know that Triple H and HBK are best friends.

So what's left to say?

The focus is still not where it should be. What would have been better this week, is to show video packages of Triple H's Hell in a Cell matches, Undertaker's Hell In A Cell matches (with special attention paid to the Undertaker/HBK cell match), and maybe even a package of Shawn Michaels' appearances as Special referee. Save the 3 person in ring promo for the RAW before Mania, not two weeks before.  Who knows though, they're probably going to show a Cell package (unless they already have and I missed it) next week.

But what happens with this feud next week?

My guess is it's going to be Shawn and HHH talking about the last thing that Undertaker said, which i'll get to in a minute. But basically it was that Shawn is better. So HHH and HBK will argue about that, Undertaker will interrupt, and then we might get Shawn hitting a Sweet Chin Music on one of them. Or at least feigning one. But which guy? Maybe he goes to hit it on Undertaker but Taker moves, and it hits HHH. Or the reverse of that.


But that ending.. Undertaker's last words this week. "You remember when I said Shawn is better? .... He is!"
Umm.. Sorry did I miss something? Were you not serious the first time you said it Undertaker? That really, was an awful way to end it. With how long of a pause he took between the two lines, I was sure he was going to say something like "Remember when I said Shawn is better? Well I'm better than Shawn". I get that the idea would be to cause tension between HHH and HBK, but really, there must be some other way to have said that. Maybe Taker forgot what he wanted to say and improvised. Maybe he didn't deliver it the way he wanted to. But it was really sub-par. Even an extra line.. "He is. And he couldn't beat me. What chance do you have?" ANYTHING would have been better. Not saying "he is" would have been better.



Just quickly, why has there been no mention of Taker's videos that were shown a bunch of weeks ago, especially when he cut his hair? That to me was a big deal. Why would Taker cut his hair off? But, once again, like Chris Jericho's "it begins" videos, it's been forgotten about apparently.

So next week, to build to Wrestlemania, I would have Shawn kick Undertaker after HHH moves out of the way, which knocks him down and also knocks the hood off so his baldness is revealed. Which would then (feasibly) make Undertaker even more angry, give the impression that Shawn will screw over Taker (not going to happen), and then if Shawn and HHH share a smile, it wouldn't do anything to Triple H either.

But that's just me. I highly doubt the WWE thinks the same way I do. But if they did, it wouldn't be the worst way to head into Wrestlemania would it?


So that's all I've got to say about Raw this week, I think it was a fairly good episode, but it could have been better. Hopefully next week changes that.

Onto other business now, TNA's Victory Road, which I only saw a little of, had quite an interesting main event, or at least finish to the main event. I guess they're really trying hard to push Bobby Roode as the biggest heel in wrestling, duct-taping Sting to the ropes and threatening Dixie Carter. It was a little unsettling, which is good, makes people question how "worked" things are when that happens. But honestly, I haven't been paying a whole lot of attention to TNA lately, but I do think their product is a lot better than it was say, 6 months ago.

Speaking of Sting, there's a big debate about whether Sting is an icon going on right now. One argument is that without going to the WWE, he can't be an Icon. But what does the term icon mean? He's a legend, he's one of the best ever, but does that make him an icon? An Icon to me is someone like Hogan. Like Flair. Someone that everyone, even if they're not a fan, would know as a wrestler. For example, I'm not a fan of Baseball let's say, but I know exactly who Babe Ruth is, because he's an Icon. If I asked my non-wrestling fan friends who Sting was, I would say all of them would talk about the guy who plays bass guitar.

But, within the wrestling business, I think Sting IS an icon. He is WCW's icon. He was the only guy who never left WCW. And he's never left TNA either. I think that makes him iconic for those companies.

So that's about all I have to say for this week, next week I'll give my Wrestlemania predictions, and give a rundown of the full card. Until then, if you're not already, follow me @TheOZMouthpiece on twitter, and leave me a comment to let me know what you think.

Business is concluded.

Home Schooling No.7

It's time for another dose of home schooling from me, the Aussie Mouthpiece. So get set for my weekly round-up of what's interested me, both the good, and the bad.

It's been another big week for wrestling, with the "Road to Wrestlemania" taking more twists and turns as we get closer to the big day. So this week I will be talking once again about the main storylines on RAW and Smackdown, but as an extra added bonus, I want to talk about one small part of TNA this week as well. And, if there's time and I don't forget, a slight ROH mention too.

So let's get down to business.

This week's episode of Raw was billed as the Cena Rap/Rock Concert (or something), therefore I'll start off this week talking about them.

Now this might not be popular opinion, but John Cena "won" again. I don't know if it's scripted that way, or if (at least to me) what Cena is saying, or his side makes more sense to me than The Rock's, but as far as I'm concerned, John Cena is winning the verbal battle.

You can hear it even just from the crowd reactions. Sure, The Rock will always get cheered by most of the people. But in the last couple of weeks, Cena has been getting a solid cheer for his efforts. And that's more than has been happening in about 4 or 5 years.

So let's talk about Cena first. And this isn't fruity pebble Cena, or Rise Above Cena, this was old school Cena, the Cena that used to get cheered by just about everyone. Seriously, go back and watch Smackdown in 2004 after he won the US title, or even just watch Wrestlemania 20's opening match. No dog tags and camo shorts this week, we get basketball jersey and chain and padlock Cena. And I for one, was really happy and excited for that.

I've seen comments like "now he's just trying to be a rapper again"... isn't the Rock still using the same gimmick from oh.. what 15 years ago? You use what works. John Cena was (and probably still is) into rap and hip hop in "real life", he got over with his rapper gimmick, and then slowly toned it down when the WWE was changing eras. But there's no doubt that even though this is a different side of Cena, it's not anything that he's pretending to be.

Best of all, he did what the Rock couldn't do, and he didn't take 20 minutes and other people's music to do it. Cena was in the ring for about 3 and a half minutes. Listen to the crowd after each of his "rhymes". Listen especially to when he walked out of the ring. Everyone who has ever said "we want cena to turn heel" or something like it, well.. you just got it.

I'm not saying he's "heel" now, but what I am saying is that, at least on screen, John Cena's attitude has changed. This week there was no pandering to the children, no talking to the cameraman on the stage, no salute, and we got swearing and innuendo. But it probably won't be enough for those people either.

I have a feeling though, that it may not be a permanent change, that this may have been a once off. But, even if it is, it was worth it just for the "boobies" lines.

So on the other side of things, we have The Rock.

Now, I could write an entire blog about why I think The Rock isn't all he's cracked up to be, and I probably will eventually get around to it as well, but for now, let's talk about this week specifically.

First of all, this is the 2nd time in what.. 3 weeks that we've had a 20 minute plus Rock segment to end Raw.Yes, i know that the first one (which was 2 weeks ago) was interrupted by Cena, but still, at least this week I thought the two segments (Cena's Rap and the "Rock" concert) should have been put closer together.
Also, the way it was advertised seemed like the rapping and singing would be happening in the same segment, like a battle. Maybe WWE was afraid Cena would get cheered louder than the Rock.

Rock took longer to say one word, than Cena's entire promo ran for. Yeah, he's The Great One, but still.
And then one of the first things he talked about was how Cena had been "running around here for 8 years, looking like vanilla ice banged a tellytubby"... So somebody forgot to mention to the Rock, that, even before he left the first time, Cena was doing the rapper gimmick, wearing basically what he wore this week on RAW? Wasn't Rock on smackdown at the start of 2003?

Something else that really gets to me, is the Rock's flashy hollywood grin. It worked when he was a heel, but now it looks condescending or something. Ok that's not really a big deal, but I have a lot of problems with the way the Rock is going about attacking Cena.

See, the way I see it, The Rock is essentially a schoolyard bully. I think i said this last week, but he's attacking what somebody else wears, has interest in, and basically just picking on someone because he's different to the Rock.
We get constant references to Cena being a bitch, or having no balls, having "ladyparts".. oh and this week some kind of inference about being gay. Be a star huh WWE? So don't bully people unless you're The Rock. That's the message apparently.

Ok now we're at the part that has really pissed me off.  So... Rock. You're not a "real man" if you are a fan of John Cena, or Star Wars, or Lord of the Rings? And anyone who is, must be a virgin? You sir, are an asshole. You're a bully, you're just some jock who tries to be cool by making fun of people who have different interests to you.

Ok i'm done ranting, that part just really pissed me off. But on the flipside, before I get to the complete trashing of a classic Queen song, the verse about Eve and Cena was really good. See if that kinda stuff was the main part of Rock's promos I would probably be leaning towards him for who i'd want to win at mania. It was on a different level to the "kung pow bitch" crap.

Ok and just quickly about the We Will Rock You .. um.. "cover".. Awful. That's it. Just plain bad. And full of the same kind of repetition that Rock talks about Cena using.

Right, time to move on!

Let's quickly talk about Dolph Ziggler. The fact that this guy doesn't have a match at Mania yet is a damn shame. I hope he doesn't just get put into the Laurinitis/Long tag match, because he deserves a much bigger spot than that. Unfortunatlely, with Santino being in said tag match, and Cody Rhodes wrestling the Big Show for the IC title (why?) There's not really a lot they can do with him, other than maybe a Tag Title match, with he and Swagger teaming up. But that probably won't happen because Swagger is who Santino beat for the US title, so Swagger will want on the Laurinitis team.

But more likely than not, he (Ziggler) will do something memorable during the match, and I get the feeling that this time next year we might be seeing him in a title match.

I'm not really going to talk about the Laurinitis/Long tag match, because I really don't care right now. They've got two more weeks to make me care.

Funkasaurus was back on Raw! .. Different finisher though. Maybe a splash is safer than a cross-body.

Jericho and Punk got a lot more interesting this week. Now there's that personal .. thing, that is going to make CM Punk care more about this match than any other match he's had in a while. It was so well done, and a lot of that credit I think must go to Punk. I remember seeing an interview about the Austin/McMahon rivalry, and whoever it was, was talking about how without McMahon's visual reactions to Austin's actions, that rivalry wouldn't have gotten as hot as it did.

Punk's reaction was exactly what it needed to be. We haven't seen Punk look that way before. Something finally got to him. He's not the carefree guy who will drop a pipebomb now and then. Suddenly he's dealing with something he's (storyline wise at least) tried to forget about.

But let's not forget Chris Jericho.

That was one of the better promos I've seen in a long time. At first, I thought the "i'm going to make you drink" was a bit off, a little odd, but thinking about it a bit more, because of CM Punk's beliefs, saying that would be like saying "i'm going to destroy everything you believe in" to him. So it makes sense.

All in all, this promo has me excited for this match again, after a couple of weeks of just coasting.

Ok lastly let's talk about Undertaker, Shawn Michaels, and Triple H.

I didn't love the whole segment this week. So far, it feels like Triple H is the third wheel. Shawn and 'Taker's battle seems like the focus right now, and it really shouldn't be like that. It gives the impression that it doesn't matter what Triple H does in the match, because Shawn is basically the more important factor. And it really shouldn't be like that.

The promos were really good this week. However, Undertaker sometimes is a bit of a mystery. He looks all demonic and kind of "ministry-esque" with the hood, yet he's talking more like Big Evil. Also Undertaker's eyes tell a lot of the story I think, and it's hard to see them with that hood covering up his baldness.

So what's going to happen? Well, if you take what you saw at the end of the segment at face value, Shawn and Triple H are back on the same page, and Shawn is going to "screw" Undertaker. Of course, this is WWE, so the more likely option would appear to be that Shawn will swerve Triple H. Why? Who knows. But what I think will happen, is Shawn will call it down the middle. Which kind of begs the question.. why do we need him there at all?

I'm not complaining that we get to see Shawn Michaels in the ring again, don't get me wrong. I just don't think this match NEEDS him to be a part of it. You've already got 20-0 on the horizon, which should be a really big deal. You've got the rematch aspect, the fact that last year they did the "Taker on a stretcher" bit after the match, and the Hell in a Cell. Adding Shawn seems like overkill. I just hope it doesn't take away from the match.

Oh and you also have this whole "end of an era" thing. Which intrigues me. Does this mean that it will be an attitude era style match? I still think we're going to see blood in this match. Obviously we're not going to see anyone fall off of the cell, not unless Mick Foley does a run in of course..

And yes, Taker said the wrong date. People make mistakes. CM Punk fumbled his words during his promo with Jericho a couple of weeks ago. Rock fumbled his words this week, last week, the week before. Nobody is perfect.

I really like Shawn's angle in this though, even though it could be overkill. I like his line about it being ironic that he could still "be the guy to possibly end the streak". He's not saying he's going to screw Undertaker. He said possibly. Undertaker's reply was just as strong. "If you don't do the right thing, I will officially end.. you". Awesome. 22 years on, and the guy can still garner as strong a reaction as ever. Maybe not the best ever, but definitely the best character ever.

I would have liked to see Triple H go down to the ring to confront Undertaker, but as I was watching it, I just thought to myself.. What are they going to say to each other? There's really not much more to be said. Maybe that's why Shawn was brought in. I have a feeling next week, we might get a solo Undertaker promo. I hope so. I really liked the couple he's done in the past few years.

This match will obviously be good, probably great. Just hopefully all of the different aspects of the match don't weaken the match as a whole.

Another long one this week folks, but I'm done for now. So until next time, leave me a comment to let me know what you think, follow me on twitter @TheOZMouthpiece and until then, business is done.

PS. I know i didn't get around to the TNA or ROH stuff, so really REALLY quickly. TNA: Joseph Parks =  awesome. ROH: Kevin Steen = awesome. there you go.

Home Schooling No. 6

Right, it's been a long time between drinks (or diet sodas), but it's finally time for another dose of home schooling, from me, The Aussie Mouthpiece.

So we're getting into the meat of the Road to Wrestlemania, so this installment will be focused purely on what's happening on Raw, and to a lesser extent, Smackdown as well. Also, I haven't really been watching TNA so .. there's not a lot I can say about it.

So let's talk about the major storylines going on at the moment.

This year's Wrestlemania, for me at least, seems bigger than the last few years. In fact, I'm struggling to remember what the title matches were for Wrestlemania 25 and 26. 27 was only one year ago so I do remember those. But for Mania 25 and 26, the first, and really only thing that comes into my head is Undertaker and Michaels.

This year seems bigger though as I said. There's the year long build of Rock/Cena (which I will get to in great length I'm sure), Undertaker/HHH (and HBK now I guess) and Punk/Jericho. It's almost a shame that the World Heavyweight Title doesn't seem that important, but I guess maybe it can open the show like it did last year.

So before I get to the big 3, let's talk about the other parts of RAW, and what else is happening this year.

Santino Marella. That guy put on one hell of a performance at the Elimination Chamber last month. I, like a lot of people I'm sure, was nearly convinced he was going to win the title. I'll admit, I marked out when he hit the Cobra, as ridiculous a move as it is.

But it seems that somebody took notice, because this week he won the US championship.

Now don't get me wrong, that's probably the title with the least amount of prestige at the moment. Ziggler and Ryder made it interesting, but once Swagger got it I pretty much lost interest. On a side note, check out Back to the Future, and tell me Swagger isn't Biff's identical twin. Seriously.

But it's still a pat on the back for Santino. Hopefully he gets to hold it until after Wrestlemania at least.
I have a feeling though, that this is actually leading to a match between Swagger and Ziggler for Wrestlemania. I'm not sure how they'll get there, one of them would have to switch, but Ziggler calls himself the #Heel, and Swagger I don't think is over enough. And plus, people don't want to hear him talk.

Santino is going to be a part of the Laurinitis/Long thing, with Otunga. So who knows. Maybe Swagger and Ziggler won't feud, but instead go for the Tag Title belts. Maybe this was a way to get the singles title away from Swagger, and focus he and Ziggler as a tag team more.

The GM story is kind of interesting as well, but I'm worried that we're going to get Mr Excitement shoved down our throats way too much. Sure it's fun to boo him, but unless he's tripping on his words and fumbling sentences on purpose (which would be an amazing work if he was), it's going to get to the point, if it hasn't already, where people don't boo because he's a bad guy, they boo because they don't want to see him.

I have a feeling that this might end up with Triple H as the GM, because let's face it, he's really the only person suited for it, unless good guy Vince wants to make a comeback, or Stephanie McMahon returns to Tv. But I don't see either of those things happening. Triple H makes sense.

Zack Ryder.
Really? Eve kisses him and he's suddenly love struck again like he's in a crappy teen movie? Only thing I can think of is he starts defending her to other people and becomes a heel? but, why would they do that? I am assuming here that the merch the WWE makes of Heel wrestlers doesn't sell as well as the babyfaces. That makes sense right?

Hopefully this gets back onto a decent track, even if it's just Eve and _________ vs Zack and Kelly Kelly or something. Or hell, even Zack and Beth Phoenix, seeing as how it's what, 4 weeks away from Mania and there's been nothing done with the women's title?

Miz.
Wow. How far one man can fall in one year. If it's because they lump Survivor Series on his shoulders, that's completely ridiculous. Blame the guy who's the biggest name if you're going to blame anyone. Oh you can't, he doesn't really work for you. Say what you will about some of the other part time guys, but at least they re-invent themselves, or at least refresh themselves a little. Rock is the same Rock, spouting the same old crap. But I'll get to that soon. I hope Miz gets some kind of spot at Wrestlemania. He's not my favourite guy, but considering where he was last year, he deserves a spot.

Big Show/Cody Rhodes.
Huh? Why is Show getting a shot at the IC title, at this stage in his career? That title is about giving a younger guy the opportunity to show he can be a top guy. I don't get this at all. That's really all i'm going to say about it. Not a fan at all.

Ok, so that's the undercard stuff I guess, so let's move on to the main events. And also from this point i'm going to be talking about last week's RAW as well, seeing as how I didn't post anything last week.

Let's start with Punk/Jericho.

"Screw your stupid, Light-brite jacket". Brilliant.

Ok to elaborate, these two guys can obviously talk. Punk hasn't really been given as good of a foil lately, as opposed to 4 or 5 months ago, but now with Chris Jericho, he's got someone who he can really go toe-to-toe verbally with. I really liked that they got to talk for as long as they did, and you could clearly tell it wasn't a script, maybe just some notes (but not written on their bodies anywhere..but i'll get to that) but for the most part, it was on the fly. The way it SHOULD be done.

It looks as if Jericho is getting ahead on the one-upsmanship for now, but that's ok. Punk doesn't look worse for it at all, because we all know what he can do. I'm hoping they go for the sort of "Punk is the champion but still the underdog" kind of thing, because I always enjoyed the matches where the guy chasing the title wins at Mania, and really, Punk will win at Mania because he's, as he said "the man right now".

Undertaker/HHH/HBK
OK, I've said it before, Undertaker is my favourite wrestler, so I'm probably biased here, because HBK is 2nd on my favourites list.
But I really like where this is going. The special referee thing is a little odd, because Shawn isn't going to come out of retirement for a 'payback' match, so I don't see him really turning on either guy. In fact, the only way I could see that, is if he caused 'Taker to lose the match, therefore ending the streak, and also therefore 'Taker would be retired I guess, so there wouldn't be any payback.

But that won't happen. 20-0 looks and sounds too good.

It's strange, but even now, Triple H looks kind of like the third wheel in this whole thing. Maybe that's intentional, a part of the "Shawn is better than you" thing. Maybe it's just because of how things have gone for the last couple of weeks, with Shawn's "phone interview" on the WWE website, and with next week the advertisement being "Undertaker returns, and HBK will be there to see what he says".. but it's odd that the opponent for 'Taker isn't the focus right now.

I really like the idea of the Hell In a Cell, and honestly, I couldn't care less about all of this "how will they set it up" stuff. It doesn't matter, it's about the match. And plus, it's the WWE. They'll find a way.

I would expect to see a really brutal match, and I wouldn't be surprised if there was even some blood. Because of the history of these 3, and also because of who they are within the company. It's not some young guy trying to make a name for himself. It's not outlandish to imagine that inside this cage, with the weapons available etc, that someone would get cut open. If this is the "reality era", then blood is a possiblity in this match, because it would be realistic.

Obviously Undertaker will win though. Unless he's announced as going into the hall of fame, which won't happen. Also, I hope he takes his damn hood off at least once before 'Mania, and they bring the cutting of the hair into the storyline.

Ok onto the main event. John Cena and The Rock.

Well. There's certainly a lot to cover. I hope your eyes aren't too tired to read all of this. Cena's promo 2 weeks ago (best of his career indeed), the Rock's return last week (complete with cheat sheet on his wrist) and then this week with the Rock's history lessons... yawn.

Honestly, is anyone else getting bored with the Rock? He comes out every week (well.. not every week because he's not there every week) but whenever he comes out, it's the same old stuff. Making fun of the way Cena dresses. Saying he has no balls/ladyparts/pink parts. Calling him a bitch. I mean, to me that just sounds like a schoolyard bully picking on someone because they're different to themselves. Which is a jerk move.

And it's stale and boring. And also seems like a lot of PR crap. Trying to get things trending on twitter. Like twitter is what the entire world is actually talking about. Isn't it only a small percentage of WWE fans that are on twitter?

I know that Rock's biggest catchphrases are obviously something he would say every time he's around, but for over a year not, he's been spouting on about Cena being less than a man, because he wears coloured shirts or something. So much for the anti-bullying campaign right?

Anyway,  so last week we get a twenty minute Rock promo/twitter advertisement, and the Rock has notes on his arm? Now I for one don't believe that was done intentionally, nor do I believe that Rock knew Cena would bring it up. But I'm really glad he did, because, if you paid close attention to this week's Cena/Rock stuff (live in the ring i mean) there were smatterings, and sometimes halfway decent Rocky Sucks chants going on. And more to the point, Cena was absolutely spot on. Rock got shaken up.

After Cena left the ring last week, Rock repeated himself, stumbled over words (which I can never remember him doing) and then reverted to the catchphrases he made so famous 14 years ago. Wait, didn't he accuse Cena of saying the same old .. "hot garbage".. last year? Talk about your hypocrites.

Anyway, Cena is, on purpose or not (and my vote is for not) looking so much better than Rock right now. As far as I'm concerned, Rock is the heel in this situation. He's a bully, he's overbearing, and Cena is standing up for himself.

But regardless of whatever people think of either guy, this feud is heating up in a big way, and has the makings of being one of the biggest matches ever, and really, that can only be good for everyone. Even if you don't like Cena, or don't like the Rock, or don't like the match, it's going to bring more people in to watch the shows. And, probably more importantly, it's going to get the other guys to lift their game to try and get into those kinds of spots down the line.

I could go on and on about Rock, and Undertaker, and HBK, but my fingers are about to fall off from typing so much, so until next time, remember to leave me a comment, cut a promo on me if you don't like what i've said, and if you're not doing so already, follow me on twitter @TheOZMouthpiece and remember, I come from a land down where? Down UNDER!

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.